《Is that a Wisp?》 Chapter 1 - Fated encounter For the cultivators of the planet of Makui, one of the best ways to improve ones own''s cultivation faster is by absorbing the energy of wisps, as beings of pure energy, their energy is very pure and easy to assimilate, although its not recommended to do so. Doesn''t matter how pure its energy might be, as an intelligent form of life, wisps are also bound to have a different kind of energy from heaven and earth which still has its defects if used for cultivation, of course, for the other life forms on this planet, be they people or demon beasts, its still a common practice to use wisps. Sure the constant use of wisps might leave behind a shaky foundation, but for a planet where the strongest cultivators have barely passed the Divine Soul stage, such defects are not considered as important, as long as you reach the Core Formation stage, you can already be seen as a godlike existence by its people. Since that''s the case, why bother with the detrimental side effects of using wisps? As for how the wisps feel about that, who cares? With such a convenient way of improve one''s cultivation faster, almost no one in this planet even see them as a life form anymore. Because of the discriminated hunt of wisps, their number has plummet to less than a thousandth of its original number from a millennia ago, because of that, the price in the market has skyrocketed which brought even more wisp hunters to their living places, and the forest of Katiu just so happens to be one of those. In the forest of Katiu, at the northern corner of the Yule continent, a wisp is running for its life, well, that''s if you consider floating at high speed a form of running to start with, this is not the first nor the second time that Krune has passed through this situation, the higher the price of wisp on the market, the more hunters Katiu forest had around, by luck or by experience, Krune has extricated himself from them quite a few times. But today seems like Krune''s luck has come to an end, after using his many times sure fire strategy of hiding within the river and letting it''s current carry him away, he didn''t notice that he was already being tracked, in fact, it couldn''t even be called bad luck anymore, due the small number of wisps remaining, the hunters have developed several new ways and tools for wisp hunting, with so few of them available, the hunters can''t afford to let wisps escape anymore, they are worth way too much now, it has already become a market where the demand is too high and even if you have the money you could still end up with nothing. Krune didn''t know how the hunters kept finding him time and time again, after a full day of pursuit he was already starting felling tired, even if wisps are beings of energy, they still need to absorb spiritual energy from the heaven and earth which can be considered as their food, but he had no time to do that at all. Finally, the hunters had led him to a dead end, he could already hear their approach, during the hunt he heard they cursing at him several times every time he escaped, but what really made him hate them was the ways how they addressed him. "Fuc*, this bag of money is too slippery..." "The floating gold bar is here, after him!" "Ahhh! My promotion ticket escaped again!" Unwillingness! Just because I was born as a wisp? Why everyone only sees me as nothing more than cultivation resource or money? What did I do to deserve it? Why?! I have always fled, I always thought that as long as I kept fleeing I would survive, but in the end all that matters is power! A bulk hunter around his thirties walked from behind a tree, a smile on his face. "Hehe! Little guy, you gave us a lot of trouble, you know?" After saying that, several more figures appeared around him, he truly had no where to go anymore. he couldn''t help but think. ''Seems like this is really the end now, I might as well dissipate my core, it will be better than become someones cultivation tool. If reincarnation really exists, I''ll make sure that I won''t flee anymore, I will become strong and definitely show to everyone that you can''t just disregard me just because I''m a wisp!'' The hunter noticed that the wisp''s energy started to fade away and gave a devil smile. "Trying to suicide in front of us? How could we let you go just like that? Your value is way too big for us to allow you to do that." "Throw the spiritual net!" This spiritual net was made specially for the wisp hunting, it definitely wasn''t the first time that a wisp had decided to dissipate their core instead of being captured, so the the hunter clans have long since developed this spiritual tool capable of completely seal the wisp''s ability of control energy, stopping them from being able to dissipate themselves. Krune''s mind went blank for a second, he tried to avoid the net, he definitely wouldn''t allow to himself to become someone else cultivation bead! But the hunters were prepared, they were expecting that he was going to dodge and trowed even more nets, completely sealing off all escape routes. Just as the one of the nets was about to fall over him, Krune heard a childish voice coming from behind. "You baddies! How could you do that with such a little cute guy?!" Instantly, Krune felt a wave of energy pass trough him to strike the spiritual net, the net immediately turned into powder, soon being blow away by the wind. The hunters face paled, its not like them themselves cant destroy the spiritual net, but let alone being able to do it without being close to it, even if they were, there is absolutely no way they could crush it to powder, to do something like that they would need to be at the very least at the Core Formation stage and that still might not be sufficient. Soon they saw a little girl, no more than 9 or 10 years old coming flying from behind the wisp, her face truly showing how angry she was, but in Krune''s eyes, he couldn''t help be think how cute she looked, Krune is a wisp, not even a human to start with, for him to think the she looks cute one could already imagine that although very young, this little lady was sure to become a real beauty in the future. She had long hairs, a white and very smooth skin, with a little of a child fat that every child has around that age that didn''t diminish her cuteness. The hunter leader soon came back to himself and immediately bowed. "This little Lady, is there something this Shu can help you with?" The little lady was fuming. "Why are you bulling him? Cant see that he''s afraid?" The hunters and the leader were taken aback! ''We are wisp hunters, of course we didn''t come here to invite it for a cup of tea, right?'' Obviously, the leader only kept this thoughts for himself, that girl in front of him can totally crush them to a pulp with just a finger! "We didn''t know that this little guy was this lady''s friend, we deeply apologize!" "All of you, quickly apologize to this lady and her little friend" The other hunters immediately understood the situation, their leader is a 7th stage Qi Condensation cultivator, for his attitude to change 180 degrees like that one can already imagine how much stronger that 9 to 10 years old little lady is in comparation with their leader, not to mention, for a girl as young as her to be this strong, they don''t need to think much to know that she definitely has a very fearsome background. All the hunters quickly apologized, they wouldn''t dare not do so! The hunter leader looked back at the girl with a smile. "Little lady, we wont bully him anymore, I hope you can let us go." "Hmph!" "Since it looks like you all regretted your actions I will let you go, don''t do that anymore!" The Hunter leader didn''t dare to rebuke "Of course, of course! Everyone we are going back!" The hunter immediately left, one of the leader''s subordinate couldn''t help but whisper. "Lord Shu, who is that girl?" "I don''t know, but she isn''t someone we can afford to provoke, not her, not her background, listen up, we didn''t see anything today, do you all understand?" "Yes!" Back there at the wisp and girl place, she looked back at Krune with a smile. "Alright, they wont do bad things with you anymore. My name is Wang Feifei, what''s your name?" Krune was still spacing out with all that happened, a second ago he was about to become a cultivation resource but out of no where he got saved by a child, what are the chances of such thing happen? Krune wanted to answer the little girl''s question but just as he was about to do so he heard an old man''s voice from his side. "Feifei, the space ship repairs are over, time to go" Krune almost had a hard attack! Where the hell did this guy come from? On the other side, Feifei looked sad. "Already? We just landed a few hours ago, I haven''t had time to move around at all!" The old man quickly scolded her. "Feifei, that''s not how a lady of the Wang clan should behave, when we get back you can play as much as you want, but for now, we should keep going, we are still far away. Don''t make me get in contact with your father." As soon as she heard about her father she stopped and just nodded, she''s very afraid of her father and didn''t dare make him angry, she was about to just leave when she remembered the wisp beside them. "Uncle, if I go just like that those baddies will bully him again, he can''t defend himself, can we bring him with us?" Krune''s mind felt like he was struck by lighting! ''Me? For real?'' Chapter 2 - I promise! Krune couldn''t believe what he heard, have you at least asked my opinion? Although he thought that, he didn''t say anything, he knows very well that this is a once in a life time chance, the girl and the man seemed to be from a very powerful background, maybe they are from ''that'' Wang clan, if he goes with them he will not have to fear being hunted anymore! But at the same time, thinking back at his 3 years of life were he just fled, he couldn''t help but think. ''Is it really okay to just flee again? Didn''t I just decide that if I had the opportunity I would definitely become stronger? Show everyone that a wisp can also achieve great things? Sure, I thought that it would be in my next reincarnation, but if he used this reason to flee again, that would be just an excuse!'' The old man looked at him and didn''t say anything, he could more or less tell what the wisp was thinking due to his higher realm. But then again, he decided that he wouldn''t care, it''s just a wisp, if he brings it with them at least the little girl will stop throwing a tantrum now and then, so he simply nodded. The girl immediately became joyful, and looked back at the wisp. "Little guy, come with us, I won''t let any baddies bully you anymore." Although Krune was conflicted, he started to move in the direction of the spaceship with them, it was close by so it would only take a few minutes to arrive. But deep down, his mind was still in fighting with his real desires. ''Is this really what I want? I''ve been pursued for life, everyday I just wanted to stay out of trouble, if I go with them, will it prove anything? Am I not simply running away again?'' The closer they got to the ship, the bigger the conflict in his mind. At distance, Krune could see the Wang clan space ship, on it''s side, the Wang Clan insignia. Even for Krune, who lived in this forest, the name of the Wang Clan was something that he also knew about, this is one of the biggest clans of the western protectorate, but that didn''t diminish his stormy mind. The ship was enormous, the crew could be seen running everywhere finalizing the last steps before take off. Finally, just when they were about to board the ship, Krune stopped, the girl and the old man looked back at him confused. Krune gathered all the courage he could find to feeble say his next words. "I can''t go." The Old man and girl duo looked at him surprised, specially the old man, does this wisp even know what kind of opportunity is him throwing away? The Wang clan is one of the biggest clans of the western protectorate with hundreds of sectors under it''s banner! Even if he comes from an ''even dogs don''t wanna piss at'' planet, he''s bound to know about the Wang clan, right? The planet of Makui just so happens to be one of its properties. If Krune could smile at moment he would definitely be showing a bitter one, but finally, that feeling that was crushing him the moment he started moving in the direction of ship seemed to simply disappear. He looked back at the little lady "Miss Feifei, I haven''t told you my name yet, I''m called Krune, we wisps are born from the energy of heaven and earth, so we don''t have parents to speak of, and because of this we also don''t have a family name, even the name Krune is something I thought myself." "I will be eternally grateful for what you did for me, but I can''t go with you, I know about the Wang clan, I know what kind of opportunity I''m leaving behind but I can''t go, I''m unwilling! During all my short life I''ve been pursued by wisp hunters, wisp are great cultivation resources and I learned about that the worst way possible, by seeing the already few existent wisp being taken away, being regarded as money, resources and so on." The little lady was indeed too young, all those words made her puzzled, but she could at least feel the little guys heart, a wounded heart. But the one really surprised was the old man, he is an expert, as someone assigned to protect the little lady of the Wang clan he definitely was one of the big shots out there, because of his extremely high realm he could tell that that wisp wasn''t lying, he couldn''t help but change his impression about this wisp a little. "I''m unwilling! I don''t want to flee like this, I finally decided to get back at them, to show those hunters and everyone else that I''m not just some cultivation resource, I want to prove that I can be just as strong, that we also have dreams and feelings. If I go with you an easy life will probably be waiting for me, but I''m unwilling, an easy life is not what I want anymore." "Miss Feifei, senior, I''m sorry but I can''t go with you. Krune will remember this favor for the rest of his life and if there comes a day where this weak wisp is able to pay it back, this little one will definitely do so." Feifei looked dejected and was about to argue when the old man whispered to her. "Feifei, I know that you want to argue but he probably wont change his mind if you talk, so let me give it a try first." He looked back at Krune with a stern face, his impression of the wisp got a little better but that was all, someone as old as him has seen such changes way too many times. "Krune, you said that you want to become strong, to prove yourself, but as a wisp you should know how limited your life span is, usually a person with an average talent would take up to 20 years to breakthrough the Qi Condensation stage and advance to the Foundation Establishment and that''s considering they have help and the resources necessary for it. But for wisps 10 years is already the max their life span can go, their only advantage is that with their intelligence they can achieve an adult mind at the age of 3, but that''s all, if you don''t breakthrough into the next realm you will simply die." "And I might tell you this since you probably don''t know this part. The amount of life span gained is proportional to the individual initial total life span. Take a human for example, the life span of a human is something around 100 years, there is very few cases where people can pass this limit without breaking into the next realm, when they breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment their life span will be doubled, which mean that they gain another 100 years to try to reach the Core Formation Realm which is obviously much harder than Foundation Establishment." "But you are a wisp, your life span is only 10 years, even after reaching Foundation Establishment you will gain just another 10 years and you will need to become a Core Formation in just 10 years otherwise you will still die, this is why no one takes wisps seriously, this is why no sect would accept wisps under normal conditions, they don''t have a future! Think about it one more time, do you really don''t want to come with Feifei? At least you will live in peace during the few years you still have." Krune was struck by lighting, he knew that wisps had very limited life spans but he probed from the nearby villages and found out that Foundation Establishment cultivators gain a 100 years of extra life span after the breakthrough, but really didn''t know this was something proportional to one''s initial life span, immediately his mind went in turmoil. ''Should I give up? Foundation Establishment already seemed a far fetched dream and now it looks like even if I reach there it will not have much of a meaning.'' Krune kept silent for a few minutes but neither Feifei or the old man rushed him, even Feifei as young as she looked understood that he got a harsh setback after those words. After thinking and thinking more that feeling from before, that unwillingness he felt when he was about to be captured started to grow again, until it finally reached the same point as before, there is only one way, only one thing to be said. ''I''M UNWILLING!'' "Thank you senior for the words of advice, but Krune still wishes to try. I probably, no, I most definitely won''t succeeded but as I said before, I simply can''t let go, because of this I''m sorry but I can''t go." The old man looked deeply at the wisp in front oh him and after a while he just sighed, Feifei beside him was already tearing up. Krune also noticed her tears and was taken aback, no one has ever cried because of him, he had no idea about what to do, he was lost and didn''t know what to do, but then he remember that as a wisp, a being of energy, he could control the energy around his body and change his own form to look like something else, of course, he would still have the energy like appearance so no one would ever be fooled by that. He started to play like a sparrow, jump like a frog, he created a mini pool of energy, took the form of a whale and splash the energy around, more and more he kept changing and doing dumb things. When Feifei saw all of that she burst in laugh, she almost rolled on the ground from laughing so hard, the old man by the side was quite pleased with the wisp''s performance, he indeed looked like a strict elder, but for him who had been protecting Feifei ever since she was born he obviously saw her as his own granddaughter and loved her very much. Krune left a sigh of relief "Is miss Feifei happy now?" Feifei looked very happy at moment when suddenly an idea came in mind. "I am, so I will let you go, but you have to promise me one thing first." Krune looked a little lost but agreed with it nonetheless. "As long as I am able to accomplish it miss Feifei can count on me." Feifei Smile and said. "When you get strong enough you must come and marry me, only me, I wont accept any other woman, and I do not allow you to die, you have to come or I won''t forgive you." Both Krune and the old man were taken aback, did she hear anything that was said just a while ago? The chances of such a thing to happen is as difficult as ascend to the heavens. And what is this talking about marrying? Both him and the old man thought the same, he''s just a wisp, the Wang Clan would never accept such bullshit. The old man quickly scolded "Feifei, cut the crap, whats this marrying thing you talking about, you are just a child, do you even know what a marriage means? Besides, he''s just a wisp, let''s forget about the fact the he will probably not even get to such realm in the future, even if he does do you think your father would permit that?" The old man could also have said that you can''t marry a wisp since it wasn''t man or woman, but then he remembered that all non human like life forms can achieve the human form once their cultivation is higher enough, simply put, the weaker the type of life form, the earlier they can change into human form, for divine beast for example, they can change into their human form at the void breaking realm. But what about wisps? Foundation Establishment! They are so weak that they can immediately change into their human form as soon as they do their first realm breakthrough is done, their gender will be decided according to their way of thinking, and this wisp is bound to be a man 100% sure! It''s not like there has never been Foundation Establishment wisps before, and with Feifei status, it would be way to easy for her to find about it. Feifei did not give up and started a tantrum "I don''t care! Krune at least is much funnier than all those annoying guys father keeps forcing me to meet, I don''t like any of them, Krune is much better!" Krune was lost at words, then he suddenly started to laugh, his heart, or better, his core felt warm like never before, he couldn''t help but think ''this little lady probably doesn''t even know the importance of those words.'' Feifei and the old man looked strangely at him, Krune looked back at Feifei and said. "Haha! Sure, I''ll make sure to become so strong enough that even your father will have nothing to complain about, In this Krune''s life he will only love Wang Feifei and no one else!" "I promise!" Chapter 3 - Myriad Energies Cultivation Technique Let alone the old man, even the crew behind looked at Krune strangely, some started to laugh, other just snorted or looked at him with blatant disdain. This wisp is definitely looking for a beating. But contrary to what they expected, the old man just shook his head and didn''t say anything. Why should he care, it''s just a wisp, no need to pay attention to what he says, not to mention, Feifei is just a child, she will probably just forget about that in a few days time and even if she doesn''t, she will definitely see it as a joke when she grow up. On the other side, Feifei was as happy as ever "You said it, you can''t go back on your word" "Of course!" In fact even Krune himself didn''t believe at moment that he would get there, but he now has a reason to try hard, a reason to stop fleeing. The more he looked at the smiley Feifei the better he felt. But then, Feifei asked something that he didn''t expect "To get strong you need a good cultivation technique, which one you are using at moment?" The old man just gave him a side glance, with his realm he could totally tell that this wisp doesn''t cultivate any technique what so ever, he could see that he was still at the 2nd stage of the Qi Condensation and that was totally done through the normal accumulation of energy that all wisps are used to do. Krune was taken aback by the question, it''s not that he doesn''t know what are those techniques, by following then one''s cultivation can just go faster and higher, but he is a wisp, what technique is there to talk about? From all the wisps he meet in his 3 years of life so far not a single one of them had ever cultivated using a technique, they basically just accumulated energy like any other wisp, that was all. Feeling a bit embarrassed Krune answered "Well, we wisps are really too weak with very limited life spans, so I''ve never heard of a technique that a wisp could use, so I don''t cultivate any" The girl didn''t expect for that "But without one there is no way you can ever get strong, if you rely on the accumulation of energy alone even I can tell you won''t get anywhere." Krune could just reply "There is no other way, I will just have to think about something else." Feife looked back at the old man "Uncle Feng, is there a cultivation technique that we could let him try?" The old man already expected such a question and didn''t think much of it, now that it got to this point and he knew that Krune wasn''t coming he just want to get over with it as soon as possible, with a flip of his hand a scroll appeared on it, which he simply tossed at Krune "This is the only technique that I know that could be used by a wisp, the problem of wisps is the fact that different from most of other life forms they don''t have meridians, because of that the big majority of cultivation techniques are useless for them, and that is still true even after acquiring the human form." Krune was ecstatic, he never had any hope to ever find a cultivation technique that work for wisps too, as a wisp, he knew way too well the difference between him the the others, the fact that there is even one that works for them is already a miracle in his eyes. Uncle Feng noticed that and wasn''t going to say anything else when Feifei intervened "But uncle Feng, isn''t that one of the most ordinary cultivation techniques out there? Father said that there is nothing worth praising on it and that only poor cultivators would use it at the start. Isn''t there anything better?" "There isn''t, it''s not that I don''t want to help but that there is no way to help, without meridians how can a cultivation technique even be used? Be happy that this Myriad Energies technique even works." Uncle Feng just said that and turned to enter the ship. "Say your goodbyes because we are leaving in a few minutes, by the way, my full name is Su Feng." In fact there was two things he didn''t say, first because this is a very ordinary technique mostly used at the start of the cultivation path for poor cultivators, if Krune could leave this forest without being hunted it wouldn''t be long before he found about it. The second one is that although everyone considered it ordinary and easy to get, there was one thing that no one was ever able to find about it. How exactly did the creator of this technique make it work without meridians, it follows a totally different path than any other one. Krune didn''t mind, he already got much more than he could ever expect today, his life was saved, he got acquainted with someone from the Wang clan, got a cultivation technique that although ordinary it still works for wisps and finally, it seems like he got a fiance? Of course, just like Su Feng, Krune knows that it will be almost impossible for that to really happen, but at least he has an objective which is enough for now, he might not succeed but he will definitely try. By the time he came back from his thoughts Su Feng had already disappeared, so Krune simply expressed his gratitude mentally to him. Feifei knew it was time to go, in her childish mind she really believed they would met again "Krune, you must definitely come, after you get there I won''t need to get to know all those pampered young masters that father wants me to see, they are all too boring, Krune is much cuter and funnier" Krune couldn''t help but chuckle, she really has no idea what marriage really is about, but that''s okay, even if she forget about it or just treat is as a childish thought later on, that won''t matter, it''s good as long as I remember. "Alright, I will definitely do my best to get there, It will probably take a long time but I won''t give up, you can count on me." With that, they gave their farewells and Feifei was heading to the ship, Su Feng had already embarked the ship and there was only a few last member of the crew outside finalizing the last step to take off, but just at that moment no one noticed something flying out of Feifei''s glabella and entering Krune''s core, the cultivation difference between Krune and Feifei is like the difference between heaven and earth, it wasn''t even worth to mention, because of this even Krune himself haven''t noticed anything. Inside uncle Feng was just hearing his subordinate commenting. "Master Feng, is it really okay to let that wisp go after what he said, Master Wang won''t be happy if he finds about it." Su Feng replyed as if it was nothing "Why would he, it''s just a wisp, if Krune was one of those boys from the big clans then sure, he might have said something, but he definitely won''t give even a second thought about the matter, considering who said that he will just take it as another one of his daughter crazy child talks, as for me, it would be beneath me to make a move on such a weakling." The subordinate didn''t say anything more. Outside, Krune was looking at the Airship taking off, he doesn''t know when he himself will be able to leave the planet nor if he would ever be, but since things have got to this point, there is only one way to go now and that is forward. -------- A few days latter Krune was hiding behind a waterfall while scrolling through the Myriad Energies technique, after fully memorizing the contents he came to understand why it worked for wisps, turns out that it wasn''t that the technique could be used without meridians but that it simply has no use for meridians to start with. In fact although all races could practice this one it seemed like it was tailor made for wisps, instead of using the meridians, the cultivator had to manipulate the energy in his body to create a thing called pseudo energy meridians which are made of energy themselves and will disappear when you stop cultivating, that''s why the meridians that one was born with had no use since this technique only worked through the energy meridians, your own true meridians would not be able to absorb the spiritual energy while this one was activated. The reason for that is because when a cultivator absorb the energy from heaven and earth, he changes the energy properties to be in accordance with his own and only then it is deposited into the dantian or demon core, but the Myriad Energies technique follows a different path, it absorbs the energy as it is and deposit it inside without making any conversion, the conversion itself only happens inside the dantian or demon core, this is why this technique can''t be used with any other technique since they will conflict with each other and probably cause a cultivation deviation. Krune felt that this technique was made for wisp exactly because of that, since he doesn''t have real meridians to start with the pseudo energy meridians are the only ones that he would be able to use to start with. That was also why almost no one used this technique for long, in the end by using real meridians you will have faster results in your path of cultivation since most of life forms are born with over a hundred of them while the Myriad Energies technique can only allow you to create up to 9 pseudo energy meridians. The reason why the other races even used this technique at all was because they need to first open their real meridians for use, and for that they need spiritual energy and that''s were this technique comes in hand, after a few months of cultivation a cultivator with average talent would still be able to open more than 9 real meridians for use and they would cast this technique aside since it loses its use. Of course there was several other ways to open the channels of the real meridians, for big clans for example they would have their elders inject spiritual energy into the body of their off springs helping them opening those channels which is a much faster and reliable way to do it. Krune put his thoughts aside and started with the pseudo meridians creation, as a being of energy he obviously had it easy, by the end of the day he had already created a full working meridian, life forms of blood and flesh could do that too but would definitely take several times longer. Once a meridian is successful created it will dissipate after the cultivator stops cultivating, but the next time he starts cultivating again it will only take a few minutes to reform that energy meridian, its just like riding a bicycle, once you learn it you will never forget. Just like that a week went by. Chapter 4 - Need More Spiritual Energy The hard work paid off, after a week of cultivation Krune is already able to use five pseudo energy meridians, which also helped him achieving the 3rd stage of the Qi Condensation, in part, it was due to the fact that he had been in the 2nd stage for a long time already so he was already more or less close to this small breakthrough, but then again, without the Myriad Energies technique he would still take another month to get there. But instead of feeling happy Krune is now facing a huge problem, there is not enough spirit energy! As a wisp, he obviously need more energy than the other races not to mention that part of the energy absorbed is used for his living, wisps can be said to eat energy for food which will inevitably take a tool on his own cultivation, that''s one more advantage of the blood and flesh races, all the energy absorbed can be used for cultivation alone while wisp have to spare some of it to keep living. It''s not like Krune doesn''t know where get it, but that implies in going further into the Katiu forest, wisp hunters are not the only ones Krune need to pay attention to, demon beasts also know that wisps can help them get stronger, if there is an advantage then that would be the fact that due to the beasts low cultivation realm they still have a rather low intelligence. But the further you get into the forest the higher their cultivation and so the higher their intelligence, but their higher cultivation is also due to the higher spiritual energy concentration, quite a few more wisp are born there instead of the outer sides for the same reason, of course, a lot of them are eaten before they can leave that dangerous place. Another problem is that wisps are quite a catchy, so hiding is an issue for them too. Krune started to ponder about this issue, if he stayed here it still shouldn''t be too hard to get to the 4th stage of Qi Condensation, with five pseudo energy meridians his cultivation speed has increased multiple times and he have another four meridians to create, in at most a month he should get to the next stage, but then again as a wisp his time is limited, the earlier he gets to a higher font of spiritual energy the more time he can save. After think a little more Krune made up his mind, if he wants to get strong then he can''t keep avoiding this kind of issues, otherwise his life span which is already small to start with will end and he won''t be able to even regret his decision, but before that he has to think of a way to get rid of enemies and the best way is to learn spiritual arts. Krune of course doesn''t have any art techniques, if he wants to use his energy for attack purposes he will have to use the simplest methods at moment, but if there is something good about his three years of fleeing from wisp hunters, that is the fact that he has seen them using all types of arts, and one of them just happen to be wind blades, before he didn''t have enough spirit energy to spare when he was at the 2nd stage but now that he had a breakthrough his energy is more abundant, it should be enough to cast a few of them. For the next five days, other than creating new meridians, every time he was back to his peak of energy he would practice throwing winds blades, at first it was very clumsy, it could barely reach ten meters and didn''t leave behind any marks on the targets, he had never tried it before so to manipulate the energy of his body to gather the wind, compress it several times and release it in a form of a blade took quite a tool on him, but if there is one thing that will never betray you that thing is definitely hard work, Krune wind blades now could already reach a distance of fifty meters and if shoot at ten meters of distance or less he was even able to cut a small tree with two or three blades. During the time he was recovering his energy for wind blade practice he didn''t simply wait, he took that time to create another two pseudo energy meridians and now he is just two short from the nine pseudo energy meridians possible to achieve with the Myriad Energies technique, Krune didn''t feel anything strange about it, he thinks that since he himself is an energy being it goes without saying that he should be able to do this much, but if anyone were to know that he was able to create a total of seven energy meridians in just thirteen days their eyes would pop out from their heads. One must know that for any other race they would take an entire month to create two or at most three meridians, the impressive thing here is the fact that even if it was another wisp they would at most create five or six in the same month period, Krune has no idea how shocking of a feat he has done, be it luck, talent or his huge experience in life and death situations, the fact is that no one has ever achieved this much proficiency in the Myriad Energies technique before. Feeling that it was about the time for him to go Krune left the waterfall behind and started his journey into the inner parts of the Katiu forest taking care to not alarm any wisp hunter that might be around, once he gets into the inner parts he won''t need to be afraid of them anymore, the inner parts have Foundation Establishment beasts and the big majority of hunters are usually around the 5th to the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation, rarely there is a Foundation Establishment hunter around and even if there is they would not risk a battle with the beast of the inner parts. Even though Krune made a bee line to the inner parts of the forest, in the last three days he still got pursued by two hunter groups, fortunately there is very few hunter groups with a member capable of putting tracking markers, those two groups obviously didn''t have anyone of this type and with his rich experience it was quite easy for him to leave them behind, Krune now could already feel the concentration of spiritual energy growing the further he went and from here onward it will be very hard to find any hunting group, in exchange he could few the auras of beast more often. One of the good things about being a wisp is that as an energy being he could feel other energies that are not part of the environment around him even without developing his spiritual sense yet, which helped him to pass far away from those beast, another thing is that wisps that are not in their human forms don''t have a smell to start with so the beast can track him. But that is only for now, the higher the enemies cultivation the harder it is to feel their energy, this is basically the disparity of cultivation levels working its wonders, so Krune had to be even more cautious the further he went. ------- Another five days later the Krune finally arrived at the division between the outer and inner parts of the forest, his ability to feel the beast energies is almost gone already, from here he will definitely not find any beast under the 5th stage of Qi Condensation and those are just the weak ones. First he needs to find a place to hide, the spiritual energy around him at moment is already enough to speed up his cultivation by at least four times, he is planning to first create the two last meridians and reach the 5th stage himself before set off to look for a spirit vein, those veins are usually occupied by 7th stage QI condensation beasts or higher but even though their intelligence is better than those of lower grades they are still a far cry from an adult wisp mind, Krune is not underestimating them but now he is quite confident that as long as he plan well he will be able to get a spirit vein for himself. There is one thing that Krune must do doesn''t matter what before leaving the Katiu forest, and that is to reach the Foundation Establishment so that he can turn into his human form, if a wisp like him dares to step out in his wisp form it will be a wonder if he can get near to the closest city without being caught. But things are different when you achieve your human form, unless the other side has a cultivation much higher than oneself they will not be able to tell that Krune is a wisp, the most they will be able to see is that Krune isn''t really a human but probably a demon beast in it''s human form, and a demon beast with a human form is bound to be at a high level of cultivation so no one will try to find trouble with it. In fact demon beasts in human form walking in the streets ins''t anything uncommon, as long as they don''t cause any ruckus in the city the guards won''t do anything to them, not to mention those beast usually come with a lot of spirit stones from their lairs and those spirit stone are basically the universes currency, different from gold, silver or cooper, spirit stones are accepted everywhere. If the city guards start to capture or kill those demon beasts no more demon beasts will come out of their lairs and the spirit stone available on the markets will definitely fall, no lord of any city wish to see that happen. Krune advanced very carefully, trying to keep aware of the surroundings, at first everything was going okay, he was trying to find a river, if anything went wrong he could still try to dive into it again to escape, there wasn''t much trees around him at moment so he had to take extra care to not be seen, sure thing by feeling the beasts energy he avoided quite a few battles, but he never thought that danger would be coming from above. "Crowww!" Krune froze for a moment, when he looked above he could see a dark feathered bird diving straight at him, he immediately recognized it, the four winged demon crow, a demon beast with a cultivation that varies between 5th and 6th stage of Qi Condensation. Chapter 5 - First Kill Knowing that he had no time to waste Krune immediately took action, his cultivation is lower but he has his intelligence backing him up, when the demon crow was around 50 meters of distance Krune let out two wind blades, at the same time he started to retreat, he knows that wind blades shot at such distance can at most leave very small wounds that are hardly able to change anything, but that was his plan, to be able to defeat the crow he will need to first make it lower its guard. Also he needs to save his spirit energy since he can''t shoot to many blades due to the low amount of available for him at his level, so he need to finish it fast and to guarantee his victory the blades will need to be used at ten meters or less, ideally under five meters, also if he does too much of a ruckus he might attract even more demon beasts. The problem was, if he used his blades at five meters or less he won''t have time to dodge the attack even if he hits the beast, so Krune was trying to buy as much time as possible while thinking about a plan, once he uses his real killing move he must succeed, if not the demon crow will put up it''s guard and he will probably be finished. Sure enough the crow felt the wind blades hitting its body but completely disregarded it, the closer it got the more nervous Krune was, but he kept up to his plan, he shoots another three blades but this time purposely lowering its attack power so that the beast won''t few any difference, when the blades hit this time the same thing happened, but that was exact when Krune noticed something, although the blades didn''t threat the demon crow it still slightly made it change its route which was immediately corrected by the later. ''I never thought about using the wind power this way and I don''t know if it will work, but it will have to make do'' Although it took a lot of time to explain in fact all happened in just a few seconds. Krune finally stopped and readied five wind blades, that is the biggest number he can shoot at once while keeping enough spirit energy for one last maneuver, at the same time by his side the power of wind started to compress, if one didn''t pay attention they would think that Krune was preparing a sixth wind blade to attack, the demon bird didn''t think anything about it, due to its higher level of cultivation it indeed had a higher intelligence compared with normal beasts but it really was not a match for an adult wisp, after feeling the amount of damage inflicted by the first five blades of wind it totally threw caution to the back of its mind. 20 meters... 15 meters... 10 meters... ''Keep calm, keep calm, I only have one chance, if I screw this up I''m finished, keep waiting, five meters, it must be five meters otherwise I can''t guarantee success'' Krune kept reminding himself, one can''t blame him for his nervousness, until today he would flee at the first sight of danger, but today he had to fight and he must win! In fact Krune had no other choice, his opponent has a higher cultivation and is a demon bird, obviously capable of flying, not to mention there is very few trees or other objects around which he could use at his favor, also, Krune wanted to prove to himself that all that he had said that day in front of Su Feng and Wang Feifei wasn''t just talk. The demon crow quickly approached, in its eyes the wisp is already in its belly having its energy being absorbed and raising its own strength. 5 meters! "Now!" Immediately five wind blades made with 90% of all his remaining spirit energy shoot forward, at the same time the sixth ball of compressed air by his side exploded, its wasn''t a wind blade but the principle was the same as one, it generated a strong shock wave that blasted Krune out of the way of the demon crow, that was the only way he could think to get away of an almost point blank attack while using his killing move under five meters, doesn''t matter how fast he could be, the difference of cultivation levels was too big for his speed to up to pair with the necessary time frame. The four winged demon crow was alarmed, a sensation of immense danger passed through its body, it wanted to dodge the wind blades but it was impossible, the blades were already right in front of it, immediately its eyes went red and a savage look appeared on its face, since it can''t dodge it might as well take the brunt and bring the wisp down with it, but it never expected that that wind blade beside that wisp wasn''t a wind blade at all, as soon as it made its mind that air compressed ball explode right after the wind blades had been shot blasting the wisp away. Blood splattered on the air, feathers flew up in the sky, three blades hit the right wings while another one hit the left ones, together with the shock wave that blasted Krune to the right made it possible to completely avoid being hit by the demon crow, the last wind blade was shot a little after the first four blades but before the shock wave, Krune had made up his mind to hit a sure kill blow and for that he had to guarantee that the last wind blade hit the right place at the right time, the last blade successfully hit the neck and a head was separated from its body, the head and the body of the four winged demon crow stumbled ahead for twenty some meters before finally stop. Krune saw this sight and felt relief that it worked out, he used everything he had, he was feeling dizzy, his energy core was in absolute turmoil and almost empty, even his energy form was a lot smaller and fable, it would take some time until it stabilized again. But he cant wait here, the smell of blood is sure to attract the nearby demon beasts, he must leave straight away otherwise he won''t have the chance later. Krune gave one last glance at the corpse of the four winged demon crow and was just about to leave when he noticed something, the demon crow is dead but different from before, he now can feel a high concentration of spiritual energy coming from it, the problem is, with the four winged demon crow''s higher level of cultivation it should be very hard for Krune to feel this energy, but he just had to think for a second to understand, the demon crow is now dead so it can''t control the energy in its body anymore, which means that now he can easily feel it. Krune looked back again and noticed that close to the place where the neck was severed there was a small bead, turns out that when he used his last wind blade to cut the crow''s neck it partially cut its head too revealing that small bead, the amount of spiritual energy that Krune could feel from that bead was several times his own, Krune quick made up his mind, every second counts, he used his control over energy to grab the demon core and swiftly left, not long after he could hear several roars, it was obviously that the demon beasts nearby started to fight over the free food, but Krune couldn''t care less, he isn''t in shape to battle anymore and he pressed forward quickly leaving this place. ------ Krune was quite luck, with that demon bird corpse attracting the other beasts it was easier for him to leave the place without alarming any of them, a few hours later Krune found a small crevice by the side of a mountain wall, he swiftly entered and noticed that this was the entrance of a cave, he took his time to check around and made sure everything was safe, because the crevice was too small there was only a few insects and some small animals that presented no threat to Krune, because the entrance size and usually the higher the beasts cultivation the bigger they were, there was no demon beast inside this cave. After ascertain that there was no danger Krune started to look around more carefully, the spider webs on the roof and the small sound of water dropping from the stalactites proved that no one had come in here in a very long time, salve for the very small animals on the ground of course. Krune went to the bottom of the cave and rested there, he activated his Myriad Energies technique and in just a minute all his seven pseudo energy meridians were formed and started to greedily absorb the spirit energy around, he was finally in the inner parts of the Katiu Forest and the concentration of spiritual energy was much higher than his hiding place back there behind the waterfall, after restoring himself to his peak, he decided to take the next days to form the last two energy pseudo meridians, it was already the night of the fourth day when he finally formed the last meridian, now he had all nine meridians which the Myriad Energies technique allowed to be created. Krune finally decided spend his time to check the crow''s demon core, the amount of spiritual energy inside was really amazing, even at his peak his own core paled compared to this demon core, since that''s the case he might as well try to absorb it. Krune has never been a hasty wisp, he could feel that the energy in this core sure was great but its properties were far from compared with his own, if he tried to absorb it the way it is his own core energy will go in disarray and it might even explode if he didn''t control it properly, he took out a sliver of the demon core''s spiritual energy and started to convert it to be compatible with his own and only then absorb it. ''If I want to absorb it I will need to convert the energy into one that is compatible with mine first and I can only do it a little each time, considering the speed of the conversion there isn''t much of a difference between absorb the spiritual energy around me and the converted energy from the demon core'' Krune started to ponder how to hasten the conversion when an idea came in mind. ''The Myriad Energies technique absorbs the spiritual energy as it is and the conversion is only made inside the dantian or core, but the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is gentle and causes no harm to them during the conversion, because of this I cant use it to absorb the demon core energy which can be considered anything but gentle, but why is that? Doesn''t matter how I see it the pseudo energy meridians should be capable to do the conversion while the energy is passing through them just like any other meridian, it was obviously created with the intention to imitate the other races meridians for the use of cultivation, so why is it that I have to wait for the energy to reach my core for only then be able to convert it into my own?'' Once this idea sprouted in his mind it started to take root, it quickly grew until it occupied all his thoughts. ''Wrong, wrong! It shouldn''t be like this, its definitely wrong!'' Krune kept thinking about the matter and tried a few things like using only one meridian to very slowly absorb a sliver of spiritual energy or make all nine meridians to work like a single tube but nothing seemed to work, it still gave him the same result, no conversion had been made. Suddenly Krune''s mind lit up! ''Right! Its not that the way to cultivate with this technique is wrong, its just incomplete! What if the nine meridians are not the final results but only the initial state? First of all it doesn''t make any sense for it to have only nine spiritual energy pseudo meridians, doesn''t matter how proficient I get with it in the future it will reach a limit, it simply cant compete with the blood and flesh body meridians, the disparity in numbers is way too great, it shouldn''t be like this at all!'' Krune''s mind was working like it had been injected with chicken blood, after getting to this point is his thoughts it only took a moment for him to reach a conclusion. ''If my conjecture is right, since the nine meridians are not their final form and it doesn''t make sense for there to be only nine in the first place, then it means that creating the nine meridians is just the first stage, what probably comes now can only be... Fusion!'' Chapter 6 - The Myriad Energies True Form The nine spiritual energy pseudo meridians are ready and fusing them would be the last part, that was Krune''s idea but how exactly will he processed with that? That is another matter entirely, he is pretty sure that his Myriad Energies Technique is incomplete so he is still lacking the part that shows how the fusion is done, but from what he heard from old man Su Feng, everyone considered this technique a very ordinary one, in that case it''s obvious that he won''t be able to simply find it. ''If I want to fuse all nine meridians I will have to rely on myself, since someone was able to create it before, I should be able to repeat it, there is nothing else to do, I can only try it out and see what happens'' Krune tried to put the nine meridians together but nothing happened, he put spiritual energy in between and tried to attract them but nothing happened either, he tried to enlarge some and put one inside the other but as soon as he tried to do that the meridian broke and he had to reform it again, he tried to fuse three at a time for later fuse the results of that but it haven''t worked again, after a full day of trial and fail Krune was already running out of ideas. ''Could it be that I''m wrong? There is no such thing as fusion and this technique was really made to be used with only nine meridians? No, that''s definitely not it, I''m missing something!'' Krune spaced out a little and looked up trying to get more ideas when suddenly he noticed one of the spiders building up a web on the roof, the spider was connecting its points one after another, what initially was just a star shaped thing slowly started to take the form of a web, every time the spider circled around the web, it got bigger, at that moment Krune''s mind felt like it was struck by lighting! ''Right! Its not that I cannot fuse them, nor is it because I cultivated it wrongly, the first stage is really so that I can form the nine spiritual energy pseudo meridians, that part is right, but that was not for the purpose of fusing them, it was for the purpose of practicing!'' Krune felt like a divine enlightenment fell upon him, at first when he created every single meridian he would take an entire day or more, but once he knew how to make then, reform then for later use was so easy that he could make them appear in less than a minute! ''Since that''s the case then now I already have all the experience that I need, my meridians are already formed and they can''t be fused too, so now what I need to do is...'' In an instant, all nine spiritual energy pseudo meridians broke into countless specs of spiritual light, it wasn''t the same as dissipating them for later use, they are totally gone this time, if Krune wanted to reform them he would need to create them all from zero, of course, with Krune''s experience although he wouldn''t reform all nine meridians in one minute, he definitely would be able to remake them is less than a day, but that was not what he was going to do, the practice time is now done, time to take the next step! ''What I need to do now is to create all nine meridians at the same time from scratch, but instead of forming them separately, I will need to form and attach them together, using all nine of them to create a single sturdy one, if I''m not wrong, each one of the nine spiritual energy pseudo meridians have their own properties and purpose. If not, why is it that after I formed the first one I still took more than a day to form the second? If they were exactly the same it should have been extremely easy to make the second one, right? As long as my conjecture is right, when I put all nine together into a single meridian, they should be able to do the conversion of spiritual energy just like any other natural meridian!'' Krune didn''t waste any time, he started working straight away, at the start, as soon as Krune tried to create create all nine together they immediately broke again, let alone form the initial shape, they didn''t even gather together to start with. But Krune wasn''t dispirited, it was just his first try and he could tell where it went wrong, turns out that when he was forming the nine meridians his own poor control over the process made so that some meridians were forming faster than the others creating a conflict between their spiritual energies, that''s the first thing he needs to address for his plans to work. ---- Time went by and soon two weeks have passed. Inside the cave nine meridians were taking form together, their energy pretty much the same while at the same time they were attaching themselves with each other and fusing, Krune had already spent an entire hour in this try and so far this was the furthest he got, by now even if he fails again it won''t mater, Krune is absolutely sure that his conjectures are right, this is how the real form of the Myriad Energies technique should be, all depends on himself now. The meridians formation were practically done, their energies were harmonizing with each of their properties, slowly they came to be a single one, working together, by this point it seemed like there wasn''t even a need for Krune to keep the process, they looked like to be attracting each other to the point where one couldn''t even say that they were nine different meridians but a single one to start with. But Krune didn''t dare to slack off now, even if everything seemed to going okay he will keep giving his assistance for the final step, even though he can try again later if he fails, there is no reason for him to not strive forward for success! ''Click'' An hour later Krune heard something that seemed like it had been attached, it was quite weird, Krune never felt that energy meridians would create such a sound, but he didn''t even have time to think about it because right after that, the spiritual energy of the surroundings started to tremble! ''brummmm'' Krune was alarmed! ''Wasn''t going on?!'' As a wisp, a being of energy, Krune could feel that the spiritual energy around him seems like to be... Excited! Yes, the spiritual energy around him was really excited as if it had found a long lost friend! Immediately all the energy of the surroundings started to flow in the meridian that had just been created, that''s right, it wasn''t coming for Krune but for the meridian itself! ''So much spiritual energy! And it seems like the shape of the spiritual energy pseudo meridians is getting smaller.'' Krune wasn''t seeing things wrong, the big meridian was really getting smaller, although it was still much bigger than a single spiritual energy pseudo meridian from before, it wasn''t like the size of the nine meridians put together, and it kept shrinking, but suddenly at some point the meridian seemed like to start to break apart again which made Krune''s heart sink! ''No, no, no! Why is it breaking?'' But he only had to give it two seconds of thought to immediately understand the reason. ''There isn''t enough spiritual energy!'' Krune was alarmed, the energy meridian absorbed all the spiritual energy around and more spiritual energy from the further away came to fill the void but it wasn''t enough! Krune''s only chance now was to use the Demon Core that he got from the four winged demon crow, he really didn''t want to use it, he was planning to use it for his own cultivation if he succeeded with the new meridian creation. But there was no more time to hesitate, Krune made up his mind and grabbed the demon core hoping that it''s energy would be enough, at the same time he was afraid, the demon core''s spiritual energy is different from the energy of heaven and earth, so it could very well break his new energy meridian apart, but he really was without more choices now. For Krune''s surprise, not only could the meridians absorb the energy from the demon core, they immediately converted all the spiritual energy coming out of it, the conversion could be said to be almost instantaneous! Krune didn''t know but even natural meridians couldn''t possibly convert spiritual energy this fast! Ten minutes later the cracks on the meridian disappeared and it looked normal again, slowly the spiritual energy of the surroundings started to calm down and the rate of absorption from the demon core got lower and lower the more time it passed, Krune finally let out a sigh of relief, seems like the process of the meridian formation is finally coming to an end. ''Crack'' Krune heard this sound but he didn''t even need to look to know what happened, all the spiritual energy from the demon core was gone, so it broke into powder and scattered on the floor, the demon core that almost cost his own life to obtain disappeared just like that. Krune''s felt gloomy but it was just for a second, the spiritual energy from heaven and earth also stopped completely and the final process of the meridian formation came to an end. Just as krune was about to test its new meridian, it suddenly started to shine! ''What is up now? Is it not over yet?'' --- At the same time, who know how many galaxies away, in a dilapidated cave in the middle of a mountain from an unknown planet, a statue like old man was sit in a meditative position. He was totally covered in thick dust, who knows how many years, centuries or maybe even millenniums hasn''t he moved? If people don''t know better they would definitely think he was dead. But just now, that statue like old man suddenly opened his eyes, they looked like the could see through anything and anywhere, like nothing in this universe could ever be able to hide away from them. He looked at a certain direction, his gaze penetrating into the space-time, the direction he was looking at was of course, Krune''s planet, the Planet of Makui. The old man was a little surprised and let out a gentle smile, he could see Krune inside the cave looking at the energy meridian, obviously alarmed for not knowing why it is shining at all. "Haha, so this little friend is a wisp, no wonder, no wonder, the Myriad Energies technique does indeed fit wisps very well, and this one specially seems very talented at it. I guess there is still hope after all!" He looked a little longer, expectation could be seen on his face, it looked like he had been waiting for Krune during countless years. "Little friend, do not disappoint this old man." He then stopped looking and closed his eyes, who knows how long it will be when they are opened again. --- Back at Krune''s cave, the meridians finally stopped shining and settled again, he couldn''t make heads or tails from what happened, he didn''t feel anything different after all the brilliance, he waited a while longer to make sure nothing else was going to happen, but it seems like it was really over this time. ''Phew... Now then, I hope you don''t disappoint me, my future accomplishments depend on your performance!'' The meridian final form was pretty much the same as any of the previous nine meridians but with almost three times the size of a single one, as he thought, the nine meridians are now one single sturdy meridian, he could feel the energy of all nine meridians together coming from this single one. Krune calmed himself first and then started to cultivate using his new meridian, he first only absorbed a little bit of spiritual energy in case something went wrong. To his surprise, that bit of energy was instantly converted and fell into his core straight away, let alone need to wait to harmonize with the spiritual energy inside his core, it felt like this has always been part of his core spiritual energy to start with, it was added up to his cultivation straight away. ''Great!'' Krune was ecstatic! slowly he started to increase the amount of spiritual energy gathered from the ambient, an hour later he had already reached the same rate of absorption that his nine meridians could do at the fastest speed, but there was still space for more, Krune kept at it, slowly but surely gathering more and more spiritual energy, it wasn''t before two hours later that he finally could feel that the rate of which the meridian could convert the energy had finally reached a limit. ''Amazing, this is already almost three times the speed of my previous nine meridians working together! And this is just the very first one, once I build more spiritual energy pseudo meridians it will only get faster! No wait, this meridian now works as the same way as the natural meridians from the other races, they can''t be called pseudo meridians anymore, from now on, I''ll will simply call them spiritual energy meridians or energy meridians for short.'' Krune enjoyed the feeling of success a little more but it didn''t take long for him to calm down. ''This is just the first step, I still have a long way to go, if not for that four winged demon crow''s core, my meridian would have shattered and it would end up in failure, I can''t start the the creation of another one now, there is simply not enough spiritual energy, I still have to stick to my initial plan, I have to breakthrough to the 5th stage of Qi Condensation, no, with this speed of cultivation and the higher concentration that exists in the inner part of the forest, it shouldn''t be a problem to breakthrough to the 6th stage. After that I will look for a low level spirit vein that doesn''t have too strong beasts guarding it and take it for myself, in the process I should also gather more demon cores, I have the feeling that the more meridians I make the more spiritual energy will be necessary.'' Krune steadied his mind and put his all into cultivating, his luck is finally turning for the better. Chapter 7 - The Second Energy Meridian Just like that, two months went by. On a small crevice on a mountain wall, one could see something coming out, it shines quite a bit but because it''s day time it doesn''t appear too catchy, there is only one race in this forest that looks like that and they are wisps. That wisp, of course, was Krune, after this last time in seclusion he had finally obtained to the 6th stage of the Qi Condensation Realm! This speed would be inconceivable for almost all ordinary cultivators, the only ones capable to match it would be the cultivators of big clans or sects, one could see how formidable the true form of the Myriad Energies technique is. Cultivation wasn''t the only thing Krune practiced during the last two months, he also improved his control over the wind element so that it could be used for more things than just wind blades, Krune could now manipulate the wind around him to move twice as faster and with the improvement of his cultivation, his speed is now at least four to five times of what it was when he first entered seclusion, if he had this speed alone back then in the battle against the four winged demon crow, Krune definitely wouldn''t need to blast himself away to dodge the demon bird''s attack. Another thing worth to mention is that with his new Energy Meridian, his control over the spiritual energy has reached a total new level, not only he can absorb spiritual energy much faster, he can also release and gain control over the task applied to it just as fast too, this type of control over the spiritual energy should be something that only those at the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation should be able to! Krune also developed new skills for defense and attack, they are earth element wall and spike! Well, in fact there is nothing new about it, any cultivator wouldn''t have too much of a problem to get their hands on an earth element defense skill like the earth wall or spike, the incredible thing about it is that Krune had absolutely no manual or even a shadow of a teacher to help him during the learning time, he learnt all by himself! It''s not like other cultivators can''t learn this kind of skill by themselves too, but to do that in just two months without any reference while still having time to breakthrough three small realms, this is just unthinkable! Krune, of course, had no idea about any of that, he just cared about survival and improvement, he didn''t think he did anything amazing. ''With this, I should be able to get one of the low level spirit veins around the borders of the inner region of the forest, the reason the inner regions have more spiritual energy is exactly because of the greater number of spiritual veins in the place, there is no way that those spirit veins owner beasts could stop the spiritual energy from flowing out so the concentration here is bigger than outside, even if I acquire just a low level one, the spirit energy available for me should still be much higher than simply staying in the inner regions.'' Krune started moving around the borders of the inner region, and thanks to his higher level of cultivation, he could now feel the beasts around him much easier, as long as they are not at the 9th stage of Qi Condensation or higher he would have no problem in perceiving them ahead of time. Of course, Krune''s idea wasn''t to simply avoid battle, he was also looking for lonely beasts of the 6th or 7th stage to battle, he needed their cores after all. It didn''t take long for him to find one, around 200 meters ahead he could see a Three Tails Demon Leopard drinking water from a pond on the ground, this is an agility focused demon beast that usually varies between the 5th to 8th stage of Qi Condensation, in compensation their attacks are not that strong, a perfect target for him to test his defenses, this leopard for example is at the 7th stage, just one stage higher than himself. ''Since that was the case I might as well grab it''s attention straight away'' Krune got closer and when he was at 100 meters of distance he shoot a wind blade, with his higher level of cultivation, the strength and distance that he can cast his blades are much higher now. As expected the demon leopard noticed the incoming attack while it was drinking water and immediately dodged, it was clearly mad at the wisp for attacking it, his eyes focused on Krune a 100 some meters away and it quickly went after him. Krune already expected that, but he didn''t do anything, his aim is to test if he can contend against the leopard with his earth wall and wind movement alone, using both together should give him the advantage even against the demon leopard. Unfortunately for Krune, he really lacked experience, he knew that the leopard was fast but he forgot to think about it''s reaction speed too, when the leopard was just 10 meters away, it launched it''s claw at the wisp, Krune immediately created an earth wall in front of himself while using wind movement to retreat. But the impact sound against the wall that he was waiting for did not come, on the side Krune noticed the leopard figure, it had dodged the wall in the last moment and immediately threw itself at him. Krune was alarmed, he quickly release the wind compressed ball that was at his side blasting him and the leopard away from each other in the last second, Krune wasn''t an idiot, he had long thought about the possibility that his plans might not work and left that card ready to be used at any time, turns out that he really needed it. But it wasn''t over, Krune understood why his plans failed, in the end the difference in experience between him and the leopard was the main factor, as a beast that lived in the inner regions of the Katiu Forest, it had gone through several battles in its life, even though its intelligence is not that high it still had sharpened its instincts through life and death struggles along the way. On the other side, for Krune who only knew how to flee a while ago, its not unexpected that he would lose in the first exchange, he had used his earth wall too early and accumulated to much energy trying to create a sturdy one, against a demon beast with such a fast speed and reaction time like the demon leopard, such a mistake could have been fatal. The leopard got even angrier, the blast was simply a shock wave that separated it from Krune, it had no attack power to speak of, it immediately pounded at the wisp, Krune wasn''t slow either, he learned his lesson, this time he waited be the leopard to be right in front of him, of course, just in case he readied another wind compressed ball, the leopard didn''t care about any of that though, just as it was about to reach Krune, an earth wall appeared right in front of it again, this time Krune''s move was much faster, that''s because he didn''t try to create a super strong wall but focused on the speed of the skill, the formation of the wall was too abruptly that the leopard claws hit it right in the middle, the wall trembled, the leopard''s attack might be on the lower end of the beasts around, but it couldn''t be trifled with, the earth wall only resisted for about one second and started to crumble, but that was exactly what Krune wanted to test, due to the fact that he erected that earth wall much faster, its defensive power decreased in compensation, now he had an idea of how to use it. Krune didn''t dare to delay, from above one could see that several wind blades had finished casting and shot straight at the demon leopards neck, the leopard wasn''t any slower than Krune and dodged to the side, but unfortunately for it, as soon as it dodged an earth spike shot from the ground, the leopard was alarmed! It tried to dodge again but was too late, although it didn''t hit it''s heart as planned the spike still left a gruesome hole on the demon leopard''s body. The leopard noticed the crisis and immediately fled, but how could Krune allow that? The moment it started to move away another earth wall appeared right in front of it, the leopard tried to dodge but with his severe injuries it was much slower, as soon it hit the wall, several earth spikes shot from every direction at it, the leopard could only jump to dodge the spikes but it was well within Krune''s strategy, while in midair the leopard could not dodge, ten wind blades came straight at it, cutting the leopard to pieces, it''s severed parts fell to the ground and the light in its eyes disappeared. ''Sigh... I really don''t like the sensation of killing, but if I wait for the others to attack me first just so that I could have a reason to strike back, there will be a time when I will not be able to react fast enough, in the end, offence is the best defense.'' Now that Krune is at the 6th stage of the Qi Condensation, he wasn''t as tired as when he killed the four winged demon crow, if necessary he could battle one or two more times, but with the blood smell coming from the leopard corpse, what is waiting for Krune isn''t just one or two beasts, but several of them. Krune immediately cut the leopard''s head, controlled his spiritual energy to grab the demon core and swiftly left, different from before, he now could move much faster with his control over the wind on top of his higher cultivation, before the other beast even started to approach the leopard''s corpse, Krune was long gone from the area. ''Although I still have enough spirit energy to hunt one or two more beasts, its best that I recover to my peak, caution first, caution first.'' Thought the wisp who just attacked a demon beast with a higher cultivation level than himself and let it get close to test his never tested before defense skills, indeed, Krune is a very ''cautious'' wisp. ---- A week later on the top of a big tree with thick foliage, Krune was resting from another battle he had around an hour ago against a demon python. Wisps are considered the weakest race of the universe, but it wasn''t like they didn''t have any good trait as a race, one of them is their immunity to any bodily poisons, unless the poison is also able to also affect the spiritual energy, wisps will find it no different than air or water, that demon python tried to use a poisonous fog against Krune, but in the end it turned out to be the easiest battle he had so far. ''I already have five demon cores, it should be more or less enough to create the second spiritual energy meridian, even if I need more spiritual energy for the second it shouldn''t be that much'' Krune pondered a little more and decided that it was indeed the case, he is also at the peak of the 6th stage, the battles he had had stimulated his potential and understanding of the use of the Energy Meridian, he just need to find a secluded place where he wouldn''t be disrupted during the second Spiritual Energy Meridian formation, Krune finished to restore his spiritual energy and immediately set off to find it. It didn''t take long to find one, this forest is the lair of several beasts and the majority have their own lairs where they could rest, with Krune''s intelligence it didn''t take long for him to find one of those. The owner of this one was a 6th stage Qi Condensation Blood Eyed Rabbit, although this type of rabbit is quite fast, it couldn''t compare with the Three Tails Demon Leopard from back then, Krune got rid of it without alarming anyone and used his earth wall to seal the entrance. As a wisp, Krune has absolutely no need for air, also, spiritual energy is all encompassing, as long as special formations aren''t in place to prevent the flow of spiritual energy, anywhere you go in this world will have the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, things like walls of caves are the same as empty air to it. ''With this Blood Eyed Rabbit demon core, now I have two 7th stage demon cores and four 6th stage ones, it should suffice, there is a bottleneck between the 6th and 7th stages of the Qi Condensation, although I''m confident to achieve a breakthrough, I will take quite some time with just a single Spiritual Energy Meridian, I better create my second Spiritual Energy Meridian first'' With everything in place, Krune started with the creation of his second one, he already had the experience from creating the first one, but even though he hasn''t failed the creation of the second one yet, it was still taking a lot more time to finish than the first Energy Meridian. ''As I thought, just like when I was creating the pseudo meridians, every time I start a new one it will take longer form, seems like the fused Energy Meridians follow the same principle as the Pseudo ones.'' "Click" This was the second time that Krune has heard this sound, the demon cores were already with him and just as expected, the second Spiritual Energy Meridian immediately started to absorb the spiritual energy from the surroundings, this thing looked like a bottomless hole, Krune could feel that in a shorter time than the first Energy Meridian creation, the spiritual energy around him had already vanished after the creation of the second. ''Impressive, I wonder how this technique was created at all, its just the second Energy Meridian but the consumption of spiritual energy is definitely much higher than before! But I''m prepared this time.'' Krune brought the demon cores close and the second Spiritual Energy Meridian absorbed their spiritual energy like there was no tomorrow. "Crack..." "Crack..." "Crack..." "Crack..." Soon, all four 6th stage cores were gone but the absorption didn''t seem like to stop at all. Krune started to get nervous, he put a lot of effort to gather those six demon cores after all, if he used all of then and the meridian still break after that, he would want to cry but would have no tears... literally. "Crack..." The first 7th stage demon core was gone, and just when the energy of the second 7th stage core was half consumed, the flow of energy finally started to slow down, but in the end it was still not enough in the finish the formation. "Crack..." The last demon core became powder and the Energy Meridian still needed some more energy otherwise it would break apart, fortunately Krune was at his peak at moment and he immediately used his own spiritual energy to finish the job. Finally, after consuming almost all of Krune''s reserve of spiritual energy, the second Spiritual Energy Meridian was complete, and just like before, it shone for some time before settling down, he could finally let out a sigh of relief. ''Alright, that was more dangerous than I expected, even six demon cores were not enough to finish its formation completely, in the future I better get enough cores so that even if it goes above my predictions, I will still have enough to spare. Let''s try out the results'' Chapter 8 - Planning for the Spiritual Vein Krune started cultivating and soon he could feel the difference, his cultivation speed has improved a lot as expected, with another Spiritual Energy Meridian to share the burden of spiritual energy conversion, his cultivation is now improving at least 50% faster, Krune decided to take this chance to breakthrough to the 7th stage of the Qi Condensation. The 7th stage of the Qi Condensation is known for it''s bottleneck, but it''s not without reason, its only at the 7th stage that a cultivator can finally form their Divine Sense, until now Krune has been using his affinity with spiritual energy to feel his surroundings and prevent dangerous situations, but this kind of scanning ability is very limited since he can''t really see what is happening ahead nor can it reach too far, it can only help him to feel if there is something alive ahead or not. But Divine Sense is different, you truly ''see'' everything around you, it''s a very weird feeling once a cultivator open their Divine Sense, they are used to only see what is ahead of them and then suddenly they now can see everything around. But there are other races that don''t think anything strange about it, wisps are one of them, they don''t have eyes to start with, ever since wisps are born they have a complete vision of 360 degrees, so, for them, the Divine Sense will basically improve this ability a lot but other than the distance and the way that they ''see'' with the Divine Sense, there isn''t too much of a difference to start with. Another thing worth remember when achieving the 7th stage, is that the boost of power is much higher than when you breakthrough previous or next stages of the Qi Condensation, Divine Sense is the reason behind it, it''s not only limited to what you can see but also improves the cultivator''s own ability to control spiritual energy like the ability to use skills at a much greater distance than it was before. --- A week later in a hidden burrow sealed by an earth wall, spirit energy started to convene at great speed, inside one could see Krune absorbing all of it like a bottomless hole, a few minutes later he felt like a boom came out of his core and the spiritual energies around finally started to stabilize. ''7th stage of Qi Condensation, it''s only been three months since I met Feifei and old man Feng, in three months I went from 3rd stage to where I''m now, this progress is faster than anything I ever thought be able to do. Let''s try out the Divine Sense.'' Krune concentrated and slowly his divine sense started to spread out. 10 meters... 50 meters... 100 meters... 300 meters... 500 meters! Krune was dumbfounded! ''500 meters, I can see everything in 500 meters! Incredible, I can''t believe Divine Sense is so useful like this, with it I won''t need to fear anything as long as my opponent cultivation isn''t much higher than mine so that it can be concealed from it!'' Krune was ecstatic! One must know that when other cultivators achieve the 7th stage of Qi Condensation, it can already be considered a miracle if they reach as far as 300 meters, and that''s usually the case for races specialized in maters of the soul, other races would usually have a range of 150 to 200 meters, fortunately for Krune, wisps can be considered one of the soul races too, its just that they are far from the top rated ones, of course Krune didn''t know such things, the reason he was so happy was simply because now he will be able to avoid danger and prepare attacks much easier than before. Krune didn''t know, the reason his Divine Sense could reach so far as 500 meters is also because of his Energy Meridians, other than the soul, Divine Senses are boosted by the owners own spiritual energy and its purity too. Wisps are already known to have very clean spiritual energy, so much that they are hunted for use in cultivation, on top of that, his Energy Meridians conversion ability far outmatches normal meridians, not only in speed but in purity as well, all of that put together turned into this unbelievable range coverage. But Krune happiness didn''t last long... ''F*ck! This thing spends spiritual energy like there is no tomorrow!'' That was to be expected, such a good thing like Divine Sense couldn''t come that easy, there is no free lunch in this world, after calculating the rate of consumption of spiritual energy, Krune found out that he could maintain his Divine Sense spread out at full range for at most 10 minutes before his energy is over, but, if he reduces the coverage range the consumption also is greatly reduced. There is another thing that one must pay attention too, once someone uses Divine Sense to scan an area, if someone around the same level of cultivation or higher has a Divine Sense, they will be able to feel the scan and will be put on alert, simply put, Divine Sense is not omnipotent. --- One day later after stabilizing his cultivation, Krune left his seclusion sight and set out to get the spiritual vein, Krune already know where it is, he found it during his travel and hunting, the problem was that this one''s owner is a 8th stage Qi Condensention Lizard Dragon. Lizard Dragons aren''t real dragons, but they do indeed have a very feint dragon bloodline which make then stronger than ordinary beast at the same cultivation level. Krune didn''t have confidence of beating this Lizard Dragon before, not because he thought he couldn''t win in a one vs one, but because it isn''t the only beast guarding the location. Every spiritual vein owner would usually have a few more members of the same race, and this Lizard Dragon wasn''t different, together with him there was another ten some Lizard Dragons of lower cultivation level. But now that he made his breakthrough and got his Divine Sense that can see everything 500 meters around him, Krune was confident that he could deal with this group and at the same time gather quite a few Demon Cores. Few hours later Krune arrived at a mountain range, it wasn''t a big one but still covered a 20 some kilometer radius, he approached the lizards nest carefully to not alert anyone, after getting close enough he started to spread his Divine Sense. ''If I''m not wrong, that 8th stage Lizard Dragon should be at the bottom of the nest, as long as I don''t spread my Divine Sense too far it shouldn''t notice me, as for the 7th ranked ones, if there is any, they probably won''t be able to feel my divine sense since it is much stronger than any other 7th stage beast'' After spreading his divine sense for 400 meters, Krune could already see almost all the lizards. ''Two 7th stage and nine 6th ones, I will need a to get rid of them little by little first, the stronger ones are deep inside while the weaker ones are close to the entrance or outside. I know what to do.'' Lizard Dragons are predators and this mountain range is their territory, other beast would not get close easily. Krune left to find a bait, with his Divine Sense it wouldn''t be too hard, although spreading it 500 meters of distance spend a lot of spiritual energy, it doesn''t mean that he has to keep it active 100% of the time, Krune circled around the border of the Lizards territory and spread his Divine sense every now and then for a few seconds, it didn''t take long for him to find a 6th stage Demon Bear. It was quite easy to deal with, Krune''s cultivation is higher and together with his wisp energy body, as soon as the bear saw that it was a wisp, it disregarded any possibility of danger, wisps are hard to catch but are very good cultivation resources for all the other races, this Demon Bear wasn''t afraid at all that Krune could present any danger to it, the bear rushed straight at him and when it got closer, an earth spikes shot from the ground under the bear, it pierced the bear which growled and tried to get rid of the spike when ten wind blades came from above and cut off it''s head. ''As expected of a defense type beast, the earth spike didn''t have enough power to pierce all the way to it''s heart, with the amount of spiritual energy I used to cast it, any ordinary type 7th would have died if they didn''t dodge in time. Even the wind blades, the bear''s head only dropped after the 8th one hit, but with this big guy, it should be easy to slowly attract those lizards.'' Krune Grabbed the bear corpse, took out the Demon Core and brought it somewhere close to the but far enough so that he wouldn''t catch the attention of the entire lair when killing the first ones to come. He also prepared some pit traps with some earth spikes, he made sure to use a lot of spiritual energy in those spike so that they could be much sturdier and would likely be able to pierce the scales of the lizards. Although Lizard Dragons aren''t as heavy and the demon bear they are still on the bigger side of the beasts around and this kind of trap would be very effective on them. It didn''t take long for a few Lizard dragons to get the scent of blood from the bear corpse and come close, there was four of them and they are used to the safety of their territory, so after seeing the bear corpse, those lizards didn''t think much before rushing to get the meat, just when they where about the reach the bear corpse, several earth spikes came from bellow direct impaling three of them, the last one was luck that there was no earth spike ready where he passed, after noticing the danger it immediately tried to flee, but just when it turned back, several wind blades struck it from the side. The Lizard Dragons have a high defense due to their scales, one or two wind blades wouldn''t be able to straightly kill it, but the amount of blades obviously wasn''t so little, just like with the Demon Bear, Krune used ten wind blades against this last Lizard precisely hitting it''s neck, it could said to be an overkill already, Krune swiftly took out their Demon Cores and cleaned the battlefield. ''Good, there is another five 6th stage lizards, they should be coming soon.'' Sure enough, noticing that those four Lizards didn''t come back after some time, the rest of the 6th stage Lizards came to take a look, there was even one of the two 7th stage Lizard Dragons leading the group, this one was smarter than the lower levels one, after taking a look it found the situation somewhat fishy, Krune noticed that and decided that to best way to bring them under his trap was to appear himself in front of them, no beast would ever let a wisp go away like that, they are too precious for the other races. Sure enough, when a wisp suddenly appeared beside the Bear corpse all the lizards eyes lit up, the 7th stage one was no exception, he gave a big roar and all the lizards rushed over, wisps are hard to find nowadays, they couldn''t let this one escape. Krune snorted at this sight, he didn''t move and patiently waited for them to enter the range of his earth spikes, they have long since be readied with enough spiritual energy and he just need a thought for them to activate. As soon as they got inside of his trap, Krune controlled his spiritual energy to activate the traps, one lizard after another was immediately impaled, the only survival this time was the 7th stage one, it was alarmed, it never expected that a wisp could be this strong, although its body was able to fend of the attacks of the earth spikes aimed at it, it still suffered severe injuries, it immediately turned tail to run, but how could Krune let him go? As soon as is it started to move, four earth walls appeared around it, Krune had been prepared for something like this a long time ago, once the walls were erected, from above, one could see over ten wind blades coming down, the Lizard Dragon noticed the crisis, it used all it''s strength to blow away the earth wall in front of it, although the earth wall was sturdy, it couldn''t hold a 7th stage Lizard Dragon with a feint dragon bloodline for long, on the second hit it finally crumbled, but it was too late, wind blade after wind blade hit it''s body finishing the job. ''Phew... that was dangerous, it almost escaped, those guys are really something else, as expected of a dragon bloodline, even with such a feint one.'' After getting the Demon Cores Krune decided to retreat, he used over 80% of all his spiritual energy in those two traps, he definitely wouldn''t be able to deal with the leader and the last 7th stage the way he is at moment. ''I don''t need to go far, I just need more or less two hours to to recover my spiritual energy and I can start the last phase of my plan.'' Some time after Krune left, the Lizard Dragon Leader and the other 7th stage one found out that almost all their nest was wiped out, the leader was enraged, but it couldn''t do anything, Krune had left already, all it could do was to go rampage around it''s territory until it finally got tired and decided to go back to their nest to prevent more casualties. ----- Around two hours passed and Krune was back to his peak, he immediately set off, he wanted to finish all today. ''As long as I get that low level spiritual vein, I should have no more issues with spiritual energy for the creation of the next Spiritual Energy Meridians'' Krune looked at the entrance of their nest, it was a cave entrance on the base of the mountain, this time Krune wouldn''t be able to rely on his earth spikes or wind blades, that 8th stage Qi Condensation Lizard Dragon leader defense is bound to be higher than the other 7th stage remaining lizard, it will be very difficult to cause any serious injury on a 8th stage beast with a feint dragon bloodline, but he wasn''t intending to do that anyway. Krune spread his Divine Sense a little, just enough to see the things around 50 meters ahead of him and moved carefully inside the Lizard Dragons nest, being a wisp here really is good, as long as he wasn''t in their sight line they would not be able to detect him, first, wisps don''t walk, they float, and second, they don''t have a body, so they don''t have a scent to start with. Well, at least not until they gain their human form. It didn''t take long for Krune to find what he was looking for. ''Found it!'' Around 10 minutes later, the Lizard Dragon leader sensed a Divine Sense scanning his nest, the leader was already enraged to start with and now someone dared to barge into his nest, it gave a profound roar and immediately set out, it was going to eat the intruder alive! Chapter 9 - Krune wants to be forgiven Around 400 meters from where the Lizard Dragon Leader and his last subordinate were, Krune was at a very spacious part of the cave, this cave was enormous to start with, he had just finished his preparations and he couldn''t help but to give a self compliment for his ingenuity. ''I might not have enough attack power to breakthrough your defense, but it doesn''t mean that mother nature can''t.'' It didn''t take long for him to see his enemy incoming, Lizard Dragons might not be that fast, but as an 8th and 7th stage Lizard Dragons, they were still much faster than any normal beast, in the blink of an eye they were already a 100 meters away from Krune, if Krune could smile he would be doing so now. ''Here they come, the 7th stage lizard isn''t important, a direct confrontation with it would be problematic but I''m confident I can still win, the problem is the leader, if I don''t break its scales then I can only turn tail and run.'' When the Lizard Dragon leader saw Krune, it was taken a little aback, it might still not have developed a high level of intelligence, but it was sure that when it felt that Divine Sense earlier, the one that had come was definitely the one who had killed all of his subordinates, the leader was coming with the intention of get revenge. But turns out that all it can see is nothing more than a wisp? Where is the perpetrator? It stopped for a second and scanned his surroundings with his own Divine Sense, usually, beasts are not very specialized in the maters of soul, in fact the majority is at a lower level than ordinary human cultivators, let alone races like the Spirit Race, because of that their Divine Sense doesn''t have too much of a coverage, this Lizard Dragon Leader Divine Sense could at most reach 100 meters. But even so all it could see is the wisp in front of it, in the end being the weakest race had its own good traits, to be underestimated is a very good one of them, the Lizard Dragon clearly dropped it''s guard quite a lot, the same could be said for it''s companion, since this wisp had come to deliver itself on the lizard doorsteps, it wouldn''t be polite. The beast''s low intelligence played it''s part here, if the Lizard Dragon leader had thought a little more, it wouldn''t have forgotten that what caught it''s attention at first was a... Divine Sense! Only those who have achieved the 7th of Qi Condensation would have a Divine Sense, since Krune was the only one here, it was obvious that he had to be the one who used the Divine Sense earlier, but such train of thought had not even appeared it the leaders mind, in fact, even if it had, the Lizard Dragon probably wouldn''t care, at most it would be a little more alert. The leader and it''s companion rushed forward, not paying attention to anything else, when they were just fifty some meters of distance, Krune activated his trap, immediately the cave started to tremble, the lizards got alarmed with the sudden development, but they didn''t know was was happening, nor did they have the time to think because above of them, enormous stalactites were falling down, who knows how many years it took for those stalactites to form, their attack power wasn''t something that Krune''s earth spikes could match at moment. In an instant, hundreds of stalactites fell and the two lizard dragons immediately tried to dodge, but too bad, if they escaped this calamity so easily Krune''s plan would have been worth nothing, he already expected for it, the moment they tried to dodge, earth walls erected around the two, the Lizard Dragon leader was enraged, at any other moment this puny wall would only need one blow of its tail or claws to crumble apart, but it had no time for that now. "Boom, boom, boom" It wasn''t before a minute later that everything calmed down, even Krune was a little afraid of what he saw, he didn''t expect for this plan to create such a tumult, he just prepared a limited space of those stalactites above to fall inside of his earth wall trap, but those stalactites created a chain reaction that made a lot more to come down from the surroundings, even as much as 10 meters ahead Krune could see a few of them, he could have buried himself here. ''Scary, mother nature can''t be trifled with after all, even if that Lizard Dragon leader survived this assault it has definitely suffered grievous injuries, it worked much better than I thought though, let''s take a look first.'' Krune first got rid of the earth walls around the crumbled down place so that he could see better, to his surprise, although the 7th stage Lizard Dragon died, the 8th stage Lizard Dragon was still on it''s last breaths, there was a stalactite impaled on the back, it definitely couldn''t move anymore, it looked at the wisp in front of it with hatred, but soon the light on it''s eyes dimmed, the mountain range tyrant was finally dead. Seeing the hatred on the Lizard Dragon''s eyes only made Krune sigh. ''It looked at me like that, but how many wisps did it eat until today? The inner parts of the forest have higher concentration of spiritual energy, the number of wisps born here are definitely much higher than those outside, but they usually wouldn''t even have time to form their conscience before being eaten and have their energy absorbed by demon beasts like you.'' Wisps are really a pitiful lot, be it humans, beasts or even common animals, the majority would always have parents that would take care of them until they could fend for themselves, but what about wisps? They are born from the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, what parent is that to talk about? Krune didn''t feel the list bit of guilty, although he didn''t like killing, he wasn''t idiot to the point that he thought he would achieve greatness by being a pacifist, even if he doesn''t make the first move, the other will definitely do so. Krune took quite some time to open the Lizard Leader''s head, if not for this cave stalactites, he probably would have to wait until he at least got to the 8th stage of the Qi Condensation to have a chance at getting rid of the resistance on this spiritual vein, Krune spent most of his life running from both wisp hunters and demon beasts alike, caves were definitely inside the scope of his hiding places, he had witnessed how dangerous those stalactites could be before. ''As expected of a race with a feint dragon bloodline, their demon cores have much more spiritual energy than those ordinary beasts at the same level.'' After collecting everything Krune went further into the cave, it was time to see the spiritual vein by himself, a few minutes later, Krune entered a cave room that was even bigger than the place where he had set up his trap, the cave walls had an azure hue and at the center one could see an small lake of a few tens of meters long, it was a very beautiful scene. On the side of the lake one could see the crude nests that the Lizards had made for them to rest, the biggest one was obviously the Lizard Dragon leader''s. Krune was just about to approach when he suddenly heard some yearning sounds coming from behind the nests, he carefully approached, his air compressed ball place right in front of him, if something launched an attack at him he would be able to quickly escape, ever since Krune used the this strategy against the Four Winged Demon Crow he never entered a battle without one. At the same time, several wind blades above his head were ready to be shot. But when he finally saw what it was all his tension deflated like a balloon, turns out that those yearning sounds were the off springs of the Lizard Dragons, the biggest one didn''t even reach a third of the size of the 6th stage Lizard Dragons that he first killed outside, but Krune was also quite impressed, of the five little ones the weakest one was already at the 3rd stage of the Qi Condensation! And it was obviously that this one was born not long ago. ''To be born directly at the 3rd stage of the Qi Condensation, what an envious thing, I wonder how many other races have the same capability, wisps are really a weak bunch.'' The big brother of the group was at the peak of the 4th stage, it looked with hostility at Krune, it put itself in front of the smaller ones and let out several small roars, it was clearly going to put it''s life on the line to protect his little brothers and sisters, Krune looked at it and couldn''t help find it intriguing, four months ago Krune would only be able to flee at the sight of a peak 4th stage Qi Condensation demon beast, but now he found it''s stance quite cute. ''I wonder how good it is to have a family, this lizard still hasn''t developed it''s intelligence to be able to think straight, but it still knows how to put the safety of the family above it''s own interest.'' Thinking about it made him remember Wang Feifei, that day when she made him promise that he would marry her and only her, soon after Krune started to laugh. Even though he will try to keep that promise, he knows very well that this is quite a helpless wish, first of all Feifei was only a Kid, by the time he gets strong enough to go where she is, she will probably have married someone else already, even if she hasn''t, she would just think about that day as a Kid''s selfishness. But doesn''t mater, for Krune, that was still a very good memory that he cherishes very much. Krune pondered a bit about what to do with those Lizard Dragons, if he let them go there might come a day when they mature and eat other wisps, on the other side, Krune isn''t a blood thirsty fellow, he didn''t even like killing to start with. In the end he couldn''t bring himself to do anything, now that the adults are all dead their chances of survival is pretty small, and Krune had never killed just for the sake of killing, every single battle he had until today was against opponents of similar level to himself, situations where if he had lost it would have been his death instead, those little ones pose absolutely no threat to him what so ever. ---- After ignoring the little Lizard Draons, Krune went to the small lake to take a look, inside he could see a crystalline white spiritual vein rooted in the earth, the water had the same limpid azure color, the concentration of spirit energy around was the highest he has ever felt, and this is just a very low level spiritual vein, it made Krune wonder how good the high level ones are. Krune was planing to stay here until he breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment, only after doing that would he be able to attain his human form, but first he had to recover his spiritual energy, the amount used to set up those traps back then used more than half of his reservoir, it''s always good to stay at peak state in case the train went out of the rails, those who are prepared live longer. After recovering he will immediately start his cultivation, he needs to create the third meridian, with that his cultivation speed will go a step further again. ---- One week later, Krune had reached half way through the 7th stage of Qi Condensation, he thought it was about time to create the third Spiritual Energy Meridian, when when he was about to start the process, he heard cries coming from the little Lizard Dragons, it was different from before, he wondered what was it about, he got closer to take a look just to see that the small guys seemed a little weak. ''Why is it happening? I don''t remember to have done anything for them to turn out like this.'' It didn''t take long for Krune to understand. ''Of course! How could I have forgotten? They aren''t wisps like me, they need to eat in order to grow up.'' Krune felt like a headache was coming, the lizards looked at him as if they were waiting for him to do something, he was dumbfounded, he wasn''t their parents, they should be grateful that he didn''t kill them to end all the trouble. Krune decided to ignore them and went back to the lake to prepare for the third meridian creation, the cries didn''t stop though, he kept ignoring it at first, but with time it started to really bother him, he couldn''t concentrate at all! ''Ahhhhhh! Fine! I will get some food for you, fuc*ing sake, why am I even bothering with it?!'' An hour later Krune came back with a demon deer corpse, he couldn''t use that demon bear corpse anymore, it had already rotted quite a bit and he didn''t know it it would affect the lizards. The demon deer was an ordinary beast of the 6th stage, usually demon deers walk in groups, although it was a little dangerous to provoke a big group, with Krune''s intelligence, it didn''t take long for him to get one of them to separate from their group, after that it wasn''t anything hard for him to kill a 6th stage ordinary beast anymore as long as it was only one. The pack noticed that they lost one of their group, but since their where close to the Lizard Dragons nest, they didn''t dare to enter the lizards territory to look for it, it will still take a very long time until other beasts notice that the Lizard Dragons are gone, their aura could still be felt around the mountain range. When the little ones saw the deer corpse their eyes lit up, Krune simply threw it close to them and let nature play it''s course, their cries finally stopped, even the big bother of the group looked a little more intimate now, Krune didn''t care though, he went back to the lake to restart his third meridian creation, but he couldn''t help but think. ''Is it me or they all grew up quite a bit?'' Krune threw this thought to the back of his mind, so what if the grow even more? It has nothing to do with him. An hour later Krune was ready to start again, the demon cores were ready as well... The demon cores were ready... The demon cores... Demon cores... Cores... "WHERE ARE THE DEMON CORES?!" He was sure that he left the demon cores beside the lake before, he immediately spread his Divine Sense to its max range coverage, everything in a 500 meters radius could be seen, but other than the Lizard Dragons there wasn''t anything else. ''Could it be that some beast came in earlier while I was out and took the cores away? Impossible! With the Lizard Dragons aura still in place only a 9th stage of the Qi Condensation beast or above would dare to come, and usually they have their own spiritual veins, they wouldn''t look for a fight without reason, furthermore, if they saw that this spiritual vein was empty, they definitely wouldn''t have left.'' Suddenly, Krune remembered that the little ones seemed to have grown quite a bit while he was out, not only that but their auras are stronger than before too, when he checked their cultivation he felt like crying but had no tears... Well, wisps have no tears to start with. All five of them have had a cultivation breakthrough while he was out, their big bother was even at the peak of the 5th stage of the Qi Condensation! A minute later all of them had already finished eating and sprinted in Krune''s direction, he was already fuming and they even dare to attack him? Courting Death! Just as Krune was about to shoot wind blades and get rid of them, he noticed something weird, different from all those who had attacked him until today, those little ones had no hostility on their faces, let alone hostility, they looked very... Happy? Once they got close they started jumping around him and crying in his direction as if trying to court his favor, Krune looked at them and his angriness deflated like a balloon, in the end he could only sigh. "Feifei, my love, please forgive your fianc¨¦, seems like he has got some kids of his own..." Chapter 10 - Limit Reached Krune was feeling helpless. ''My cores, my precious demon cores, gone, just like that.'' The more he looked at the Lizard Dragons the more gloomy he felt, he simply didn''t have the heart to get rid of them, specially now that they seemed to like him so much, as a wisp, Krune had spent must of his time alone, sure he did know quite a few other wisps, he wasn''t the only one trying to survive all the hunting after all, with time he bumped in quite a few of them who also had their on tricks to slip away from the pursues, but he never interacted much with them to start with. In the end Krune could only go out to catch more demon cores, even if he does have a spiritual vein now, he won''t risk damaging it because of the lack of spiritual energy, the next meridian is bound to be even more tyrannical than the last one when it comes to spiritual energy needed for creation. --- Time passed and soon another month went by, Krune had left the spiritual vein to hunt more demon beasts so that he could acquire more demon cores, the problem is that he found out that 6th stage demon cores are not of much help for him anymore, in this last month, he had tried to create his third meridian once more just for it to break apart, in the end, the majority of cores he got last month were 6th stage ones with only two being at the 7th stage, the third meridian absorbed those 6th cores like they were candies, when he noticed that he would be far from being able to form the third meridian, he immediately stopped the process so that he wouldn''t damage the spirit vein. Now he finally got a total of twenty 7th stage demon cores, if his calculation isn''t wrong, he would need less than half of them to finish the process of the third meridian creation, maybe even have enough to form the fourth energy meridian. As for the little Lizard Dragons, well, they can''t be said to be little anymore, the biggest one was obviously the one who ate his 8th stage demon core, with all that energy it had finally achieved the 6th stage of the Qi Condensation, as for the others, three are at the 5th stage and while the youngest is at the peak of the 4th stage, they also had no need to care about food this last month, since every time Krune went hunting he would bring back the demon corpses which was more than enough to fill their bellies. Krune started to worry how exactly will he leave this place, will it be okay to just leave them behind? But that worry didn''t take long to disappear, the big brother of the group quickly became strong enough to fend for himself thanks to the help of the 8th stage demon core and would be able to protect the others until they mature too. ''It''s finally time, I have more than enough demon cores to get the third meridian formed and might even be able to form the forth, I should get ready.'' He gave the big Lizard Dragon an order for them to stay away from him now, after achieving the 6th stage of the Qi Condensation, the intelligence of the Big Brother of the group had gone a step further, now it could understand simply commands and help take care of the younger ones. Acknowledging the orders, it brought back the younger lizards and gave Krune enough space for him to work. Gradually, the formation of the third meridian took form, Krune was getting familiar with the process and the formation was taking less time than before, after some time the third meridian was complete again. As expected, it immediately started to absorb the spiritual energy of the surroundings and thanks to the spirit vein in the lake, it took quite some time to finally clean up all the spiritual energy, when Krune noticed that the light of the spiritual vein started to dim out, he took out his demon cores and started to feed the meridian one by one, fortunately, everything went just like Krune predicted, he used less than half of his twenty demon cores to finish the process, by the time he was going to use the 6th core, the formation of the third meridian was complete, the third meridian shone again just like the previous ones and the process was complete. Krune let out s sigh of relief. ''Everything is back on track, if it wasn''t because those guys...'' He gave the Lizard Dragons a glance but just sighed again. ''Whatever, what is gone is gone, what will be there if I keep thinking about it all the time, it''s not like the demon core of that 8th stage Lizard Dragon will come out of no where, lets try and see if I can form my fourth meridian, after the spiritual energy of the cave comes back to normal I will see if it will be possible to make the fourth meridian sooner, I might as well go out and take a few more demon cores just in case.'' Two days later, the spiritual vein was bright as ever, the spiritual energy in the cave was also back to normal, Krune also took this last two days to cultivate and was able to reach the peak of the the 7th stage of Qi Condensation, his cultivation speed had increased yet again. But there was one thing that Krune noticed, when he created his second meridian, his cultivation speed indeed became much faster, but it wasn''t the double of the speed, now that he created the third one, although his cultivation speed got even faster, it was far from being three times the speed of a single meridian, the weird part if that if he used any of the three meridians alone, the cultivation speed would be the same for all of them, but when used all three together, their individual efficiency lowered. After thinking about it, Krune came up with two hypotheses: First: Because his cultivation is too low his energy core can''t keep up with the high speed of spiritual energy absorption, so the higher his cultivation, the more energy he could take at once. At moment his energy core was still at the Qi Condensation level, when he breakthrough to the Foundation Establishment his energy core will be upgraded, that will allow it to absorb spiritual energy at a faster pace. Second: The spiritual energy isn''t enough, when all three worked together the spiritual energy around wasn''t big enough for all three to work at max capability. Thankfully the second hypotheses was quickly discarded out, when he thought about that, he simply took out his demon cores and tried to use them to speed up his cultivation, but the absorption rate was still the same. This conclusion also made Krune understand one thing, every time he finished creating a new Spiritual Energy Meridian, his own core would be strengthened, that''s because if according to the first idea, the stronger his cultivation realm, the more energy he can absorbs, but he hasn''t achieved the Foundation Establishment stage yet, so his absorption rate speed could only have increase every time he created a new meridian was created, it could only mean that the meridians also helped in strengthen his core. --- A few days later Krune had stocked twenty 7th stage demon cores, although he thought he already had enough cores to create the fourth Spiritual Energy Meridian, he wanted to be safe. There was also another issue, he noticed that once a demon beast dies and it''s core is taken away, the spiritual energy inside of those cores will start to slowly but surely dissipate. Well, that was to be expected, demon cores have no life, so there is not one to control the energy inside to start with, Krune could feel that his oldest demon core had already lost almost half of the spiritual energy and it keeps dropping down, because of this, in the future Krune won''t be able to simply take a lot of low level cores to make up for the quality, the initial idea was to get a lot of the easy to get demon cores even if it took longer so that he could keep himself safe. But now it''s obvious that such idea won''t be usable anymore, he will have hunt higher level beasts if he wants to get enough spiritual energy to help with his Meridian Creation. ''There is no helping in that, let''s just start making the forth meridian before their energy is gone'' But for Krunes surprise, as soon as he started the creation of the forth meridian, his soul was struck by an unbearable pain, Krune almost fainted right there, he immediately stopped the process and the forth meridian creation obviously failed as soon as it started, Krune was alarmed! ''What was that, I felt like my energy core was about to explode, if I had not stopped in time, my own energy core would have broken apart, I almost died right here and now!'' Krune calmed himself, he started to think what could have gone wrong. ''The Energy Meridians are directly linked to my own energy core, when I cultivate they convert the energy of the heaven and earth at extremely high speeds and deliver it into my core straight away, I''m already almost sure that the reason that their individual efficiency goes down when used together is because my energy core can''t take so much spiritual energy at the same time.'' ''Could it be that my energy core can''t sustain more than three Spiritual Energy Meridians? Three Energy Meridian is my limit with a core at the Qi Condensation stage, if I want to create more meridians, I will have to achieve the Foundation Establishment realm or find a way to strengthen it before that.'' Krune immediately threw the second idea away, strengthen the core so that it can hold more Spiritual Energy Meridians? How the hell will he do that? Maybe after he leaves the forest and ventures the outer world he might find some art or technique that allows one to do it, but at moment such thing is impossible. Since that''s the case he only has one path ahead. ''Time to aim for the Foundation Establishment, but before that I will need to consolidate my cultivation at the 8th and 9th stage of Qi Condensation first.'' Krune had long since noticed that after he breakthrough a stage, his cultivation becomes unbalanced for quite some time, in the first stages of the Qi Condensation it wasn''t so obvious, but after reaching the 7th stage it started to affect his progression speed. Simply put, his foundations were getting shaky, but it wasn''t a problem, he also found out the best way to stabilize it, there was no better way than through battle, that''s why he is already at the peak of the 7th stage and can directly try to enter the 8th stage. But now Krune is facing another issue. ''Since I won''t be able to create the forth meridian any time soon, all these 7th stage demon cores don''t have much use for me, they would be very good if I didn''t have the spirit vein since their energy is much higher than what I can get outside, but because of the spiritual vein and the limitation of how much energy I can absorb at the same time, the spiritual vein is already more than enough for me to absorb spiritual energy at the max rate possible, but if I don''t use them, their energy will simply disappear sooner or later.'' While holding the demon cores in front of him with his spiritual energy, Krune noticed the Lizard Dragons at distance, their were all looking straight at him, their eyes shining with yearning, Krune had ordered them that they must not eat his demon cores, there was once when the oldest Lizard Dragon tried to sneakily get one of his cores, but how could Krune not notice him? As a wisp, even without his Divine Sense he can still feel the energy around him, it was way too easy to noticed this fella trying to pull one on him. After getting a through beating from Krune for his naughtiness, let alone this guy, even the younger ones didn''t dare to approach his demon cores anymore, the sorry state of their Big Brother was a more than good enough example of the outcome of such foolish act. Krune pondered for a bit but still gave up in the end, what is he going to do with empty demon cores? They are nothing more than decoration after all the spiritual energy is gone. He has a total of twenty core and five Lizard Dragons, so he might as well give 4 for each one of them. ''Come here, I will give you this ones.'' The Lizards immediately rushed over, each getting 4 cores, the happiness on all their faces made he feel a little better. Well, all of them except for one big guy, when Krune looked at the oldest lizard, he could see it''s gloomy face while he looked back at Krune. Turns out that Krune had given him the demon cores with the lowest amount of spiritual energy inside, with it''s 6th stage cultivation level, it could totally feel that his brother and sisters cores had much more spiritual energy than his ones. Krune smirked at him. "Haha, ''THAT'' is what you get for trying to steal my demon cores before. Do you think I forgot about that? No way! Furthermore, ''YOU'' were the one who ate my 8th stage demon core, do you think I don''t know? How could your cultivation be so much higher than your siblings if you hadn''t got the greatest reward? Be happy that I didn''t give your cores to them, otherwise I don''t mind not giving you anything anymore. Hmph!'' The oldest Lizard Dragon didn''t quite understand what Krune said but it still could understand that it wouldn''t get anything more out of him, it looked like it was going to cry while taking its four demon cores away. Here, in the inner parts of the Katiu Forest, there is an adult wisp feeling great for being able to verbally bully a 6th stage Lizard Dragon who couldn''t understand a single word that he said. Krune felt very proud of himself. Yeap! He isn''t petty, he isn''t petty at all! Chapter 11 - At least you know how to be grateful A week later after making the oldest Lizard Dragon cry, Krune finally achieved the 8th stage of the Qi Condensation realm, he could now opt for slowly stabilize his cultivation in the spiritual vein lake or go out to do battle, of course, if he do like the last weeks and chose weak opponents, nothing will change at all and he might as well stay in the spiritual vein. ''But first, I need to improve my own abilities, wind blades and earth spikes or walls have reached a limit of what they can do. If I get to find a higher defense demon beast like the Lizard Dragon leader, then even though my cultivation has gotten higher and the power of my skills increased, it will still be quite hard to breakthrough their scales or hides, I think I should have enough control over spiritual energy to try that.'' The thing that Krune is thinking about is skill merging, by combining two skills to achieve higher attack power, he had quite a feel ideas, Krune had seen way too many types of low level skills from wisp hunters in his life, simply put he saw every type of common element. There was once when he bumped on a group of wisp hunters, fortunately they couldn''t waste their time with Krune at that time, that''s because that group was fighting a 7th stage Qi Condensation Fanged Bull, it was during that battle that he saw two hunters casting wind blade together with a fireball, the result was an amazing blazing wind blade which was much more powerful than any of the two skills alone. At that time it was obvious that neither of the two hunters could have used that merging skills alone, to cast two skills at the same time and make sure they merge isn''t something one can do with without enough control over spiritual energy, that group of hunters was definitely an old one that had gone through a lot together. For now he was going to try the blazing wind blade, he had already used two different skills at the same time before like the earth spikes and wind blades, but they were doing their own things, earth spikes are earth spikes, wind blades are wind blades, they didn''t have anything to do with each other at all, each one had their own place and objective when he used them. First, he needs to understand how to cast a fireball, or better, he needs to know how to create fire to start with, one must remember that Krune had learnt how to used his skills alone, he had no manuals or teachers to speak of. Since he didn''t know how to do that he used his own idea, by elevating the temperature in a single point to a ridiculous degree while using spiritual energy as fuel, he finally was able to understand the principle behind it, of course, it took him two entire days to figure out how to convert spiritual energy into something that could be used as fuel for the fireball, it was the fire element spiritual energy. After learning how to create a fireball he started to practice with it, there would be no point in trying to merge his wind blades with the fireball while he barely knows how to control it to start with, he went outside to hunt a few 7th or 8th stage Qi Condensation beasts and made sure to try to use it in battle, he kept at it for an entire week, every time he killed a demon beast he would return to the spiritual vein and ponder over his experiences, as for the demon corpses and demon cores, he simply threw them at the Lizard Dragons, he had already grown used to feed them anyway. After a week of practice, he had finally got an initial control over the fire element, it was time to apply it to his other skills. ''I have two ideas in mind, the first one is the blazing wind blade, the attack power of this thing is bound to be several times higher than any normal wind blade. The second one would be...'' Krune mind lit up, he might just have found a way to immobilize strength or defense type beasts completely, he would need to try it out first though. ''Let''s start with the blazing wind blades first.'' And just like that, Krune started to practice merging one fireball with the compressed air that the winds blades were made, sure enough the ability to merge two skills together turned out to be terrifyingly difficult, more often than not Krune would lose control over the fire spiritual energy and it would eat away the wind spiritual energy, the air compressed of the wind blade would then be released all around throwing fire everywhere, after a few tries Krune gave up practicing beside the spirit vein, he is turning the cave room into a mess, it might even affect his spiritual vein like that. After another two weeks of trials and failures he finally found the trick behind the issue. Turns out that to put both the fire spiritual energy and the wind spiritual energy together was a fools idea to start with, at least he definitely doesn''t have the ability to do so at moment, the correct path was to first convert the spiritual energy into fire element and use the wind spiritual energy to compress the air around the fire spiritual energy, after taking the shape of the wind blade he would release it and at the same time that ignite the fire spiritual energy, they would merge together the moment it was released create a terrifying blazing wind blade that cut everything on its path like a hot knife cutting through butter, even Krune was a little scared with the results. ''Holy sh*t! It was good that I was practicing it from some distance away, if I had missed the release direction and it came to me, I would find out if a wisp can be burnt to a crisp or not, not only the power has increased several folds, even the speed of the blade is at least three times higher than before.'' ''I guess it is because because the high temperate burns the air around eliminating the resistance and adding to the power of the blade itself, at my level I refuse to believe I couldn''t have cut through the Lizard Dragon leader back then.'' In fact, Krune didn''t know but grand part of the attack power of the blazing wind blade was because of his Spiritual Energy Meridians, there is no way someone else at his level would be able to control those two types of spiritual energies without losing control during the compression phase, perhaps, only member of big clans or sects would have the necessary knowledge to pass down such abilities, Krune is still underestimating the usefulness of his Myriad Energies technique, maybe even it''s name came out to be because of it''s unbelievable support at the control over the elements. --- Krune was in the middle of his practice outside the Lizard Dragons cave, suddenly he noticed that the oldest Lizard Dragon came out of no where with a demon deer in it''s moth, soon he could see that its brother and sisters were behind it with some lower level demon deers too. Krune was a little taken aback, he had never taken those guys for hunting before, but turn out that they can already take care of themselves, Krune hadn''t paid any attention to the lizards in the past weeks, he simply brought back the demon corpses to feed them and threw the demon cores for them to eat. Turns out that without him knowing their big brother was already at the peak of the 6th stage while the youngest Lizard Dragon was in the middle of the 5th stage, as you know Lizard Dragons have a feint Dragon bloodline, even though its very little, just this much is enough for then to be able to battle ordinary demon beasts of a higher level than themselves, and the prove is right in front of Krune since he could feel that the demon deer in the moth of the oldest Lizard Dragon was at the beginning of the 7th stage, the big guy had quite a few injuries on his body, same could be said for his brother and sisters, but those were nothing serious. Krune was happy for them, it seems like they already have the power to fend for themselves, when he leaves this place later on he wouldn''t need to worry about them not being able to eat or defend against enemies. But Krune couldn''t expect to see what happened next, all of them bit their demon deer heads and took away the demon cores, after that they came in front of Krune and used their tongs to offer Krune their demon cores, Krune was really astonished seeing that, those gluttons are offering their demon cores to himself. "For me?" The big brother nodded his head and his siblings followed suit, Krune couldn''t help but feel a little emotional in his heart. "Haha! At least you guys know how to be grateful after all. Very well, I accept your gifts." Krune grabbed the cores and put them away, although he had no need for those cores anymore it was his first time receiving a gift out of gratitude, it felt really good, he would made sure to use those cores when he cultivates next time instead of using the spiritual vein. Krune changed the form of the spiritual energy of his body into hands of spiritual energy and patted the head of the five little big ones. The Lizard Dragons seemed very satisfied with this. "You guys go back to the spiritual vein and rest, you need to heal your injuries and the spiritual vein should help with that." Their Big Brother brought them away into the cave and everything came back to normal around Krune. ''To think that they would gift me with their own demon cores, this oath to be the first time that a demon beast presented a wisp with demon cores. Hahaha!'' --- Just like that day after day went by, Krune didn''t have to go out hunting to feed the Lizard Dragons anymore either, so he basically spent his time on his merging skills, he got quite skilled at it now, the formation of the blazing wind blade only takes a second and he didn''t fail their compressing time anymore. What Krune didn''t expect was that with all this time spent between training and hunting, his cultivation had already stabilized at the 8th stage of the Qi Condensation, this came as a surprise for him, he can now finally attack the 9th stage barrier, with the help of the spiritual vein, it shouldn''t take him more than a month to reach the peak of the 8th stage. Krune went back to the cave, just when he was about to enter the cave room where the spiritual vein was located, he noticed from outside that all five Lizard Dragon were apprehensively staring at the direction of the spiritual vein lake, Krune was puzzled about what was happening, there is no way someone would have entered the cave without him notice, he spent a few weeks in front of the cave entrance practicing his new skills after all, since it couldn''t be an intruder then it was definitely something else. When Krune entered the cave room the Lizard Dragons noticed him and quickly rushed to his side, above the lake one could see the spiritual energy rotating at high speeds, it was quite a sight to behold. "How beautiful, what could cause such thing to happen?" The waves of spiritual energy had all colors of the rainbow, they went up and down like they were dancing, it felt like the descent of a deity, it was truly amazing, after an hour the dancing energies started to congregate into a single point in the middle, that mass of spiritual energy that was the size of a spec of sand started to grow up, Krune could only thing about one thing at this point. ''It couldn''t be that it will explode, right? If this amount of energy explodes it will definitely ruin the spiritual vein in the lake!'' Fortunately for Krune, that wasn''t going to happen, time slowly passed and more energy was gathered at the center, at some point that mass of energy started to take form, it looked just like a sphere, at first it was as big as the head of a bull, but slowly it started to shrink again. Another hour passed and the sphere of energy took the size of an ordinary energy core, at this point Krune started to feel somewhat familiar with this type of spiritual energy, but he couldn''t remember exactly where he had felt it before. Suddenly, Krune''s mind lit up! "Wait! Could it be?!" Spiritual energy started to revolve around that small energy core, slowly it started floating over the lake, the progress was almost done, by now Krune was almost sure. "Is that a wisp?" Sure enough, everything calmed down the spiritual form of a wisp took place, the just born little guy was now floating there. "So that''s how I was born, right?" Krune might have found a quite a few wisps during his life, but this is the very first time he saw how a wisp was born. ''No wonder wisps can''t live past a day, with all the tumult that their birth generates coupled with the amount of time necessary for everything be settled, any demon beasts or wisp hunters in the surroundings would definitely notice what''s going on, by the time that the wisp takes it''s form, the beasts and hunters wouldn''t let it go, a just born wisp has no memory to speak of so they simply don''t know how big is the danger when they first see the world around then.'' The little guy looked around, everything is new for him, he couldn''t understand what''s going on, just that he somehow appeared here, that was all. Krune looked at him and just sighed while approaching the other wisp. "You can''t understand me just yet, but I know way too well how your are feeling at moment, don''t worry, I will take care of you for a while until you can at least understand what danger means." Krune''s birth place was just like most of the still alive wisps, it was in a secluded place where rarely had any beast passing by, that was all he could remember, he can''t even say where that place is anymore since he left after a few days, but at least, those few days were enough for him to understand if he was in danger or not so that he could flee if necessary. Inside Katiu Forest, what determines if a wisp will live past a day or not is... Luck! That was all. The little guy still didn''t know, but this recent born wisp could be said to be one the luckiest wisps of all times. Chapter 12 - You have just sent them to their deaths The Lizard Dragons looked at the two wisps strangely, in their eyes there isn''t too much of a difference in the way that they look, except that Krune energy body seemed a little bigger than the new guy. Krune spent some time teaching the new wisp the basics, it would still take a while before he could speak, also he wanted to show him how to cultivate but it was too early, he couldn''t understand Krune just yet, thinking about himself when he was a young wisp, he could remember that it took him around two months until he could finally understand words, wisps might have extremely low life spans, but their intelligence is definitely ranked at the top, that''s also why a wisp could achieve an adult intelligence at the age of three, Krune expects that he will be able to talk in one month more or less, after all different from him, the new guy has a teacher. Since Krune could only teach him slowly he didn''t force the matters, he spent some time with him everyday between his practices, hunting and cultivation, by now, Krune had already finished his breakthrough into the 9th stage of Qi Condensation, he was planning to go out to find some opponents to help him stabilize his cultivation, but he didn''t expect that those opponents would knock his door instead. --- 200 kilometers away, a group of cultivators were making their way to the inner parts of the Katiu Forest, their cultivation was quite high with their leader being at the begging of the Foundation Establishment realm, behind then an old man at the 8th stage of the Qi Condensation followed closely, all the cultivators in this group, even their leader, showed utmost respect to him, that''s because he is party of the Alchemist Guild, the reason for them to come here was exactly to help him to acquire dragon blood for his concoctions. Alchemists are extremely respected in the whole universe, even someone as low ranked as this man was no exception, alchemists have a total of nine ranks and even at his age he is still at the first one, one could see it by taking a look at his badge on his robe, it had the symbol of a curled dragon and one star at the top showing what his rank really is. No one would dare to fake an Alchemist Badge, it was one of the greatest taboos, alchemists that can create pills to help with one''s cultivation path are rare and doesn''t matter how low ranked they might be, there are very few who would try something at them, once you buy a fight with an alchemist, you buy a fight with the entire guild, the alchemists most terrifying part isn''t their cultivation, nor are the pills that they concoct, but their connections, they usually have several strong and influential people on their backs who are willing to get their hands dirt for them. The cultivator leader looked back at the old alchemist "Sir Casfer, we are almost there, according to out knowledge, the mountain range 200 kilometers ahead is the lair of a group of Lizard Dragons, although they obviously aren''t real dragons they do have a feint dragon bloodline, it should be enough for the task you need." Casfer was the name of the low ranked alchemist, he was the one who contracted those group of cultivators to help him acquire some dragon blood, there isn''t much demon beasts out there who have dragon bloodlines, but the Lizard Dragons just happen to be one of them. "Hm, very well. As per the deal, once I get my hands on dragon blood I''ll will concoct a one star pill of your choice for each one of you, don''t forget that you must provide the materials for the pill though." The groups eyes lit up, even for their leader, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, one star pills are very enticing, let alone for those other three at the 9th stage of Qi Condensation, they will obviously ask for the Foundation Establishment pill, as for the leader, he is more interested in the cultivation stabilizing pill, he had just broken through the next realm and he will take a long time to stabilize it, unless he has something else to help him with that, that''s where the cultivation stabilizing pills comes into play. "Alchemist Casfer has no need to worry, according to our information the strongest Lizard Dragon in that mountain range is at the peak of the 8th stage of Qi Condensation, although its feint dragon bloodline allows it to fight those with higher ranking, it won''t be a problem for me, as for the rest they won''t be able to cause any trouble for Sir with my brothers around." Casfer didn''t care much about any of that, he simply replied. "Then I''m counting on you." --- They kept on their journey and a few hours later they finally found their target, it was one of the Lizard Dragons sisters, she had finally broken through into the 6th stage thanks to all the demon cores that Krune got for her and her siblings, with that she now had the power to defend herself outside, except for the youngest Lizard Dragon, all the others had received Krunes permission to venture outside as long as they don''t go too far away. The cultivator leader looked at the Lizard Dragon far away and turned back to his companions. "Here''s the plan, don''t kill that Lizard Dragon, all we know is that they occupy this mountain range but we don''t know where their lair is, we need this one to show us the path, so when you attack make sure to not make any lethal injure, I will keep an eye out in case some other beast comes to bother you, now go." The three 9th stage cultivator immediately rushed at the Lizard Dragon, it felt the danger and tried to fight back, but when she got severe injured in the first exchange, she understood that she wasn''t their match and tried to flee, to it''s surprise, her pursues didn''t try to stop it. The female Lizard Dragon is only at the 6th stage of Qi Condensation, it''s intelligence is still very low, it didn''t think about something like that it might be bringing back home their foe, it just ran for her life. The cultivators group followed from a distance away, making sure that the female Lizard Dragon would not notice them, sure enough half an hour later they noticed that it entered a cave on the base of the mountain range, the cultivator leader eyes immediately lit up. "Seems like it''s here, Sir Casfer, please be carefull, although I don''t think anything can go wrong it is still better to stay safe, try to keep some distance behind of us." Casfer simply nodded. "Let''s go." Inside the cave at the spiritual vein lake, Krune was finishing teaching the new wisp how to talk, after a month of practice it could already understand most of words and communicate fluently. "Very well, it took me more than two months to be able to speak but it only took you slightly more than a month, you should be grateful that you have someone to teach you, I didn''t have such fortune. By now the new wisp had already acknowledged Krune as it''s master, after hearing about the situation of the wisps outside, he couldn''t help but feel how extremely fortunate for him to have been born at the right time and the right place. "Thank you, master. I think I should be able to finish the lectures by myself now." Krune gave a mental thumbs up for him. "Have you decided what your name will be? We wisps are used to give ourselves our own names, Krune is the name I came up by myself." The wisp looked with respect at Krune and replied. "To be fair, master, I would like you to give me a name, you said that names are usually given by their parents on the other races, although we wisps have no parents to speak of, I really consider you as if you are my father." Krune was a taken aback, sure it was common for the other races to give their off springs a name, but he didn''t expected that this guy liked him that much. "A name..." "In fact I''m not too good at giving names either, now that I think about it, my own name has no reason behind it, I just thought that it was good, that''s all, are you sure you want me to do it for you?" The wisp immediately agreed. "Hum... you were born above the spiritual vein lake, from what I could see so far from your personality you are most likely to become a man instead of a woman once you take your human form at the Foundation Establishment. Alright, from now on you are called Lakin. Lakin was very pleased with his name, although he knows that his master only used very simply thoughts to come up with it, it was still a name chosen by him, that was what he wanted. "Now I will impart you my Myriad Energies cultivation, this technique is considered extremely common outside but make no mistake, the one that I''m impart-" Suddenly, Krune heard the Lizard Dragons cry, he looked surprised at the entrance of the cave room and noticed the other four Lizard Dragons rushing out. "Lakin, you stay here, you haven''t cultivated yet so it''s too dangerous for you outside, I will take a look. Lakin accepted the order. --- In the middle of the way he noticed the female Lizard Dragon on the ground, she couldn''t move anymore due to her injuries, Krune''s mood immediately went dark, who dares to touch his protegees? He poured spiritual energy into the female Lizard Dragon to stabilize her condition, then he ordered the other four the drag her back to the spirit lake, right after he spread his Divine Sense outwards, now that Krune was at the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation realm, his Divine Sense could cover a total of 700 meters radius, it didn''t take long for him to see the group of cultivators making their way into the cave. His mood went gloomy, between them there was three cultivators at the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation while the man at the front had a cultivation that he couldn''t read, it could only mean one thing. ''Foundation Establishment!'' As for the Alchemist Casfer, because he stayed far behind he haven''t entered Krune''s Divine Sense Range, so Krune couldn''t see him. At the same time that Krune spread his Divine Sense, the cultivator group noticed when it probed them, they immediately spread their own Divine Sense back to see who was checking on them but to their surprise, they couldn''t see who it was, the only exception was the Foundation Establishment leader, thanks to his higher cultivation his Divine Sense could cover almost 700 meters too, and his face was showing awkwardness when he saw what laid ahead. His companions noticed the change in his expression, one of them couldn''t help but ask. "What is it? Could it be that that Divine Sense just now was from the Lizard Dragon leader?" The other cultivator immediately rebuked. "How could that be, the information says that it has a cultivation at the peak of the 8th stage, even if it had made a breakthrough it would still be at the 9th, just like our own, beasts usually have a smaller coverage when we talk about Divine Sense but we couldn''t see anything, for it to have such a long range Divine Sense it would need to at least be at the Foundation Establishment, and if that''s the case we might turn around and leave immediately." The cultivator who made the question could only nod, his companion''s analysis is very plausible, if there is a Foundation Establishment Lizard Dragon ahead they would be only courting death to press forward. Their leader instead only made a simply question that they couldn''t expect. "Is that a Wisp?" His companions looked strangely at him. A wisp? How could that be, that Divine Sense from Earlier was very strong, their own Divine Sense couldn''t even compare to the later, they wondered if their leader was hallucinating or something. "Are you sure you are seeing things correctly? There is no way that that Divine Sense could be coming from a wisp, right? I''ve never heard about a wisp with a Divine Sense so strong before, first of all, can wisps even reach the cultivation level necessary to obtain a Divine Sense?" That wasn''t just the leader''s companions doubt, the leader himself was just as puzzled, that''s because according to his Divine Sense, the wisp in front of them had reached the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation, not only that but the Lizard Dragons around him were following it''s orders, he knows very well that both beasts and cultivators only see wisps as cultivation resources, so he wondered if he is getting crazy. A while later he started to laugh. "Seems like we hit the jackpot! That wisp is really at the 9th stage of Qi Condensation, do you have any idea how much a wisp at the 9th stage would be worth in the city? Let alone one pill, we will have enough money to buy tens of pills, even two or three star pills should not be a problem." His companions got excited too, it was really a wind fall for them, they could already see the moment that they also broke through the Foundation Establishment realm, how could they not be happy? The leader looked at them and spoke through his Divine Sense, one of the uses of Divine Sense was that one could communicate without being afraid of being heard, at most the others would only be able to tell that they are speaking with each other but there is no way they could hear what was being said. "Alright, wisps are extremely fast beings, this one should be even more so, to guarantee that it will not escape I will guard the rear, you guys will take your time to capture it, even if it had reached the 9th stage, it couldn''t possibly be your match when you work together, good thing we brought our wisp net too. As for the Lizard Dragons, I still haven''t found that 8th stage one, so I will keep my Divine Sense spread and if it appears, I will give you cover, remember, that wisp is our main priority, after we capture it we can spend our time getting those Lizard Dragons for Sir Casfer behind us." Everyone nodded their heads and started moving forward. Back into the cave, Krune saw everything that happened ahead, although he couldn''t hear what they were saying it was way to easy to understand what they planned to do, the Foundation Establishment cultivator was following the group quite some distance behind, to figure out their plan was way too easy, Krune mentally smirked at that sight, he retreated his Divine Sense and prepared himself. ''So you think your friends are more than enough to deal with me, right? Haha, you have just sent them to their deaths.'' Krune''s new merged skills are finally about to be shown to the world. Chapter 13 - Dominating! The cultivator group pressed forward, ahead of them they could see that the space inside the cave started to get bigger, it just so happens that they got to the place where Krune had battled the Lizard Dragon leader, they noticed the mess on the ground, it was obvious that the stalactites from the roof had fallen down not too long ago, but that also meant that they wont see that happen any time soon, it take hundreds if not thousands of years for those stalactites to form, it''s simply impossible for them to form on the roof without any outside help. Further ahead, Krune could already sense the approaching bunch, he was feeling very calm, he had gone through quite a few battles recently and couldn''t feel nervous anymore, this is the gift of experience. ''Guess that the old trick should work with those three, indeed, there is nothing better than being a wisp in a situation like this one, they are totally underestimating me.'' ''But that in that also pisses me off, your grandfather here will show you what a real wisp is capable of.'' Sure enough, Krune was right, they didn''t put him in their eyes at all, they simply communicated through their Divine Senses. "Alright, lets finish it quickly, for this wisp to have reached the 9th of Qi Condensation it might have some tricks under his belt, but there is nothing to be afraid, I will use my earth protection and march forward, when it attacks me you two rush to the sides and throw the net, wait for me to block it first, as soon as that happens and will rush forward and keep it occupied so that it won''t run away, got it?" The other two cultivators agreed, the one who spoke is specialized in earth element, so he is the best to be the vanguard, at the same time, the Foundation Establishment leader behind kept his Divine Sense spread out, although it consumes a lot of spiritual energy he thinks that this battle will not take more than a few seconds, at most a minute. Krune kept the play, he floated left and right as if trying to find a way to pass through them and escape, good thing that wisps had no face or bodily expressions to start with, it was too easy to fool those guys ahead. "Haha, look at that, it still thinks it can escape, let''s go" The earth element cultivator rushed forward, his two companion were right at his back waiting for the signal, they quickly closed the distance, for them it was too easy to deal with this wisp, in their eyes Krune was as good as a captured wisp already. Krune pretended to reach a dead end by mistake, when the cultivators noticed this, their confidence got even higher, but their guard against Krune dropped down even more, Krune started to form his wind blades above his head, when the earth element cultivator saw what Krune was about to use he almost burst in laughter. ''Does this wisp think he can really break my defense with some puny wind blades, he must be dreaming.'' The earth element cultivator sprinted forward, the two behind had their wisp nets ready for use, everything was going according to the plan, just when they were about to rush to the sides to trap the wisp, something unbelievable happened, right in front of them their earth element cultivator companion was split in three, two blazing wind blades passed through his body and went flying straight at them, despair appeared on their faces! ''Skill merge! Wind element and Fire element, Blazing Wind Blades! Fast, those blades are too fast! The Foundation Establishment cultivator behind noticed it before them and cried out. "DODGE!" But it was too late, the two blazing wind blades cut through the last two cultivators behind like knife cutting butter, their eyes showing their astonishment, they could only think one thing, in fact, their earth element cultivator companion ahead of them had the same thought before dying a second ago. ''How''s that possible? Since when wisps are this strong?'' There was only black now, the three of them died just like that. But that wasn''t the end, those blazing wind blades didn''t slow down at all and flew straight at the Foundation Establishment leader, he was alarmed, but his cultivator was higher than Krune and he was in the next realm after all, he immediately dodged jumping to the side, the blazing wind blades passed by him, he could feel the scourging heat coming from them, the blades hit the wall behind the leader and went through it, no one knows how far they have gone before losing their power. But it wasn''t over yet, as soon as he touched the ground he noticed something wrong, the ground wasn''t solid anymore! He immediately plummeted down. ''Skill merge! Earth element and Fire element, Lava Lake!'' The cultivator immediately used his spiritual energy to created a barrier to protect himself from the heat, as soon as his feet touched the ground under the small lava pond he used all his strength to jump, but just as his head appeared outside the lava pond he stopped, not because he wanted to, but because he couldn''t move anymore, that''s because the lava around him had suddenly solidified! He noticed that the temperature all around him had plummeted! ''Skill merge! Earth, Fire and Water element, Stone Prison!'' This was Krune''s idea to stop strong enemies from moving, as long as he could catch them of guard and make them fall into the lava lake, he would used an water element attack to solidify the lava and imprisoning his target. Their leader couldn''t believe it, he saw everything that happened with his Divine Sense but he didn''t pay attention to what happened bellow him, that wisp had prepared to throw two wind blades at the cultivator on the forefront, but suddenly those wind blades that shouldn''t present any danger for the earth element cultivator became fiery red, their speed was inconceivable, it seemed like it could slash and burn everything in it''s path, truly a fearsome attack that even he wouldn''t dare to block, that would be suicide! Right after that the two cultivators behind the earth element one only noticed the blazing winds blades when they had cut through their companion, it was too late to dodge. The most amazing thing was that those blades didn''t lose any power and directly flew at him, because of his surprise he was late to react and could only jump to the side. But who could have thought that everything that happened was for the sole purpose of baiting him to fall in the trap? The end result was a Foundation Establishment being captured by a wisp instead of the other way around, he was bound to never forget what happened today. A moment later he came back to himself, he knows what that blazing wind blade and lava lake are. ''Skill merge! Impossible, he is just a wisp, how can he use skill merge, this is not something you should be able to see in a place like this, much less being used by a wisp! No, first of all, that was something that needs two cultivators to perfectly work together to achieve the desired result, if you want to use skill merge alone, you will need to at least be in the late stages of the Foundation Establishment realm, and even so this is something very hard to achieve, but this wisp is obviously at the Qi Condensation realm, such thing should be impossible!'' All of this took some time to explain but in fact happened in just a few seconds, the leader calmed himself down and looked at the wisp as he would against a great foe, all his disdain completely disappeared, it was obviously that he was taking Krune extremely serious now, that blazing wind blade had an attack power that wasn''t the list bit weaker than his own attacks and both the Lava Lake and Blazing Wind Blade were skills that he would never be able to use at his level. Krune looked at him and spoke "Well, well, that''s a first!" "During my entire life everyone who looked at me only showed disdain or greed, mainly greed though, after all wisps are supposed to be worth a lot in the cities, am I right? But this is the first time in my life that I see a cultivator looking at me seriously, I have to say that it feels very good to finally be regarded as something else than a cultivation resource in someones eyes." The cultivator leader was taken aback, he knows that adult wisps can talk and he had heard a few of them do so before, but this is the first time he heard such a self confident wisp, it only made him put his guard even higher, he stared at Krune who was moving close to him. "I''m surprised myself, but first of all, let me introduce myself, my name is Gony. I admit, when I first saw you with my Divine Sense I had thought that I hit the jackpot, a wisp like you is bound to be worth tens if not hundreds of times more than any other wisp out in the market." "But for me to be able to get that money, I would need to capture you alive, and I''m 100% sure that even if I win a fight against you there would be no way I could capture you, and that is considering that I''m the on the victorious side which I''m obviously not, your attack power is by no means any weaker than mine." "So what about we do it like this? I will simply leave and you will go back to your life, you already killed three of my companions so it should be enough for you, right?" Krune was a little surprised, he was expecting that this cultivator would feel humiliated at the fact that his companions died and he himself got captured by a wisp. He was sure that he would attack straight away if he had the ability to do so, but it seemed like this person can think things more thoroughly. "Interesting, although I can''t let you leave that easily, are you not angry at the fact that I killed your companions or the fact that I captured you?" The leader looked at Krune with caution before saying "There is nothing wrong with it, first of all my skills were lower than yours, so I lost. Second, we all underestimated you from the very begging, just because you are a wisp we thought that you simply couldn''t do anything against us, at most you would find a way to escape, but it has never occurred to us that we could possibly die here." "So I can''t blame anyone else other than myself at moment, you might not know this but we have a certain law in this country, anyone who decides to enter danger zones like this Katiu Forest must sign an agreement of responsibility, they will agree that anything that might happen here has nothing to do the the state, even if they die." "The government is clear about the risks of adventuring the danger zones and only if you aren''t afraid of the consequences should you enter them." "So, my answer to your question is ''no'', be it me or my companions we only formed this group for the sake profit a few days ago so we don''t know each other that much to start with." Krune was truly surprised this time, he didn''t expected that the world outside was so ''organized'', his curiosity was immediately picked, he is planning to leave this place when he achieves the Foundation Establishment and knowledge from the outside will be very useful, most of the things he knows came from what he heard from other wisps and from what he could prob from the nearby villages outside the forest. But before he could starting making his questions the cultivator stopped him "Before you ask more you should know that we didn''t come alone, don''t worry, I''m not threatening you, our task this time was to collect dragon blood from those Lizard Dragons for the alchemist who is waiting at the entrance, he is a member of the alchemist guild and you probably would get much more information from him than me, all I ask you is to let us go after you finish answering your questions." Krune wasn''t surprised by this, those who venture in the inner parts of Katiu Forest would usually have some backup plans, suddenly Krune had an idea, he went outside and quickly captured Casfer, he first brought him to where Gony was and explained the rules. "I will separate the two of you and I will make the same questions, if the answer of one of the two of you diverge from the other then you can''t blade me for what happens next, your friends ahead are a good example of the outcome of pissing me off." He put Casfer under the eyes of the Lizard Dragons and ordered them that if he tried to run, they could eat him, but they better not try to eat him for no reason or they will suffer even more than their big brother did back then when it tried to steal Krune''s demon cores. To be sure he left Lakin overseeing the situation just in case. Casfer is an alchemist, he has no battle power what so ever, he was already almost pissing himself from this situation, even if his cultivation was higher than the Lizard Dragons he would have very little chance of escaping, and even if he did, he has no idea how he would pass through Krune who is ahead, so he obediently waited. ''This is the best opportunity I''ve had so far to understand the outside world, Feifei and old Feng are not from this planet and were just passing by to fix their spaceship, they wouldn''t know much about my planet anyway, so I better use this chance well.'' And just like that, the round of questions and answers started. Chapter 14 - Understanding the world Krune started with the questions like how demon beasts with the human forms are treated in the country? Turns out that as long as you don''t cause trouble in the cities, you are pretty much free to walk, live and do business however you like, when a demon beast reaches the city they are obligated to sign a term of non aggression, apply for an ID, provide the necessary information and etc. The reason why the country accepts demon beasts is basically to do with with spirit stones, most of the incoming stones come from danger zones where beasts are majority, but it would be way to hard to place the danger zones on watch, so those places are simply regarded as ''whatever happens in there is your problem, the government has nothing to do with it'' type. The spirit stone brought by demon beast who have achieved the human form help to make the economy flows, weird thing is, Krune has never seen a spirit stone before so he couldn''t help but ask how it looked like. Both Casfer and Gony felt like they were being played with, they basically made the same question after hearing that. "Doesn''t this mountain range have a spiritual vein? With the amount of spiritual energy here it has to have one." Krune simply agreed and waited for them to continue "If it does then it''s easy for you to identify them, beside of the spiritual vein is bound to have several stone rich in spiritual energy, they are definitely different in color too, most likely the same color as the spiritual vein itself." Krune had only to think for a second to remember that indeed, there is quit a few of those stones there, but because of the spiritual energy in the cave he never payed attention to those stones before. "How do you know how much they are worth?" Casfer and Gony replied back "It depends on the concentration of energy in them, it mostly has to do with the spiritual vein itself, if I''m not wrong the spiritual vein in this mountain range is probably a low quality spiritual vein, so the spirit stones produced by it are bound to be low quality spiritual stones too." Krune understood this principle, he knows about the different qualities of spiritual veins thanks to what he heard from the other wisps, but because no wisp would ever dare to approach the spiritual veins due to the demon beasts that protected them, he had never known that they produced spirit stones. Suddenly Krune got curious, he knows that wisp hunters capture his race to sell them on the cities, but exactly how much are they worth? "It depends on the cultivation level of the wisps, as you probably know, wisps are used as cultivation resources mainly because of their easy to absorb and clean energy, although the energy provided by the wisps isn''t as pure as the energy of spirit stones, the energy of wisps can be absorbed several times faster, also, the higher the cultivation of the wisp, the higher and cleaner the spiritual energy is." "I will make a comparative with spirit stones." "A wisp with a cultivation of 1st stage of Qi Condensation has enough spiritual energy equivalent to 500 Rank One low quality spirit stones, remember that wisps energy can be absorbed much faster than spirit stones." "2nd stage, 750 Rank One middle quality spirit stones, same rule applied, the time necessary to absorb their energy is less than one tenth." "3rd stage is 1000 Rank One high quality spirit stones." "From 4th stage to 6th stage Qi Condensation wisps, the amount of spiritual energy and its cleanness also improves, so they are considered the same as Rank two spirit stones, which are a grade higher than the lowest quality." "So, in this case, 4th stage wisps have the same spiritual energy as 500 Rank Two low quality spirit stones." "5th stage have the same as 750 Rank Two middle quality spirit stones." "And finally 6th stage has the same as 1000 Rank Two high quality spirit stones." "Of course, wisps of this level are rarely seen, wisps live way too little, any average cultivator would take at least 15 to 20 years to reach the 6th stage of the Qi Condensation, so wisps who can live only 10 years in general are most likely to be dead already before that happens." "Now, for 7th stage or higher wisps, those are basically legends, unless someone is willing to pay the price to help a wisp to breakthrough the 7th stage barrier, it is almost impossible for you to find such a rare wisp in the wild, and no one is willing to pay the price since the amount necessary for that is way higher than the return." Krune looked back at them "So, what quality of spirit stones am I worth, would it be Rank Three high quality?" They looked back at Krune with weird faces "We don''t know, like I said, 7th stage wisps are as rare as phoenix feathers, I would say that a 7th stage wisp is definitely no less than 500 Rank Three low quality spirit stones, but we all know that once the 7th stage is achieved, Divine Sense follows, so changes are that they might already have surpassed the middle quality or maybe even high quality of Rank Three spirit stones." Krune pondered a little, his Myriad Energies technique allowed him to cultivate at breakneck speed, and he also knows that the quality of the converted spiritual energy provided by his energy meridians is definitely at the top, chances are that his energy might be equivalent to Rank Four spirit stone or maybe even Rank Five, but he''s not certain about that nor did he wish to find out. "No wonder there is so much wisp hunters, if I''m not wrong even a 1st stage Qi Condensation wisp price is already enticing enough." It was then that Krune thought about another thing. "You guys said that a wisp has a certain amount of energy depending on their cultivation, for example, that a 1st Stage Qi Condensation wisp has more or less the same amount of spiritual energy as 500 Rank One low quality spirit stones, but their spiritual energy can be even 10 times easier to absorb. If I''m not wrong, this 1st stage wisp is bound to be worth much more than just 500 spirit stone of the same level, right?" Casfer and Gony couldn''t help but admire the wisp intelligence "Exactly, wisps nowadays are becoming rare to find, so they are usually worth three to four times more their amount of spiritual energy in spirit stones." Krune was happy enough with their answer, he them went into the next topic He also asked how do the country check on the demon beasts, after all who can guarantee that demon beast with follow the laws of the country? Turns out that other than the things mentioned before, there are special blood contracts which are bind to the soul, once a demon beasts sign the contract it will burn and place a restriction on it''s soul, if a demon beast go overboard, the contract activates and restrict the beast until the authorities come to check what is happening. Of course, the country doesn''t want people to use the contracts to hunt down the demon beasts, so it is set that a demon beast can''t break the law, but if someone tries to harm it, it has the authority defend itself as long as the opponent doesn''t die, that is to guarantee the demon beasts safety and the continuous flow of spirit stone in the market. Of course, it''s not every demon beast who can enter, doesn''t matter what, a demon beast will only be treated as a citizen if it has at the very least achieved the human form, any beast that hasn''t got an human form will not be able to sign the agreement or the blood contract or do any of the other procedures, this is not only applied for the country but for the entire world, the reason for that is because any beast without an human form, hasn''t developed it''s mind to the point that it can control it''s instincts entirely, because of that, any beast, wisps included, that haven''t achieved the human form are not protected in any way. That''s also why you can find things like Demon Beasts meat in restaurants, demon cores for sale and of course, wisps for absorption or for use in alchemy, simply put, if you don''t look like human, you are not treated as a human to start with. Also, if you leave the city and is not careful enough so that you are killed outside, so long as there is no evidence left behind, the country won''t do anything for you. Krune looked at them and asked "Will they ask what type of demon beast you are or ask for you to turn back into your real form before forming the contract?" That was something very important for Krune, if people were to know that a Foundation Establishment wisp appeared, he might even get Divine Soul cultivator after him, he thinks that such a wisp would be so tempting that the entire world will ignore the laws out of greediness. Casfer and Gony gave the same answer "They won''t, and that''s for the same reason that you are probably thinking, if for example, a demon beast has an amazing bloodline, alchemists might disregard anything to put their hands on such a high quality material, to protect the beasts that achieved human form interests, their race or real form are kept outside of the registers." "Of course, if they reveal their real forms or race by mistake, then they an only blame themselves for that." Krune sighed in relief ''It seems I will be able to go to the city after all'' After that, Krune brought both of them to the spiritual vein separately to check the quality of spirit stone the lake had. "As I thought, this is just a low level spiritual vein, the spiritual stones close to the center of the lake are Rank One middle quality, those more at the borders are Rank One low quality ones." Both Casfer and Gony didn''t feel anything at the sight of the spirit stones, the reason is simple, there is very little of them, the total amount of spirit stones putting all the low and middle quality together wasn''t even 200, for a One Star alchemist and a Foundation Establishment cultivator, although it wasn''t little, it wasn''t much either. Krune finally put them back together, there was no need to do separated questions anymore. "Alright, I might as well tell you this, I don''t like killing, never liked before and will probably never like in the future, but if I let you guys go and you spread outside that a 9th stage Qi Condensation wisp had appeared, calamity would befall me, so how should we deal with this issue?" Casfer and Gony understood that this was the moment that would decide whether they lived or died, fortunately, the wisp was willing to let them go as long as they could guarantee Krune''s secret, so Gony went forward first since he already had an idea in mind. Gony touched his ring and three red papers appeared on his hand, Krune wasn''t surprised by this, he knows about spatial rings, in fact spatial rings are extremely common goods between cultivators, its just that he doesn''t have one, also, he already had an idea of what those red papers were. Gony looked at Krune and spoke. "As I had commented before, these papers are blood contracts, as you can already imagine we don''t use them only to prevent demon beast from creating problem in the cities, we also use them as a way to guarantee the safety of deals between cultivators, the principle is the same, after the tern are written down and all parts sign it, it will put a bind on the soul preventing the people involved to break the agreement." Krune was very satisfied with this arrangement, he wasn''t afraid that those contracts are fake, first of all there would be no need for the Foundation Establishment cultivator to walk around with meaningless papers, also, Casfer took out the same type of papers, second, it was way too easy for Krune to test them out, he just needed to capture a low level beast and force it sign the contract, then he would make the beast break the contract against its will to see the results. It was then that Krune had an idea, he will have to go to the city after he achieves the Foundation Establishment, so he might as well use Casfer and Gony as helpers. Under the eyes of Casfer and Gony, Krune stated in the contract that they are forbidden to ever talk or use any other type of communication to tell what happened here, nor are they to ever try anything against him in the future be it through their own hands or through the hands of another, otherwise the punishment stated in the contract was death, he then gave it for the two of them to sign, the blood contracts immediately burnt and a seal appear on their foreheads for a few seconds, quickly disappearing after. He then took another two blood contracts and stated that Gony and Casfer should give him all the help possible in case they met again in the future as long as it didn''t go against their own well being, Casfer and Gony looked at each other and then nodded, this isn''t a slave statement, so it should be fine. "Very well, in the future I will pay a visit to the city after I breakthrough the Foundation Establishment and get my human form, so I will see you there when the time comes." Casfer and Gony were taken aback. Foundation Establishment wisp? Casfer looked at Krune and asked. "If I may ask, how old are you?" Krune looked back at them and didn''t think much about it, with the blood contract they will never be able to betray him. "I''m three years old." The souls of the two almost went out of their bodies. Three years old 9th stage Qi Condensation realm wisp! How is that even possible?! Gony and Casfer were about to leave when Krune remembered one thing "Oh right! From which city are you guys from?" Casfer answered. "There is only one city around that has an alchemist guild, that is the city of Kaley." Krune noted that mentally. "Also, leave me one of your spatial rings, I don''t have one." This time, it was Casfer who went forward, as an alchemist he had to carry a lot of materials around, so he had quite a few spare spatial rings with him. After sending the two of them out, Krune went back to the spiritual vein lake. "Well, Kaley city it is then." Chapter 15 - Preparations for Breakthrough Krune took a look on the female Lizard Dragon injuries, after infusing some more spiritual energy the lizard could be said to be out of danger, in the next few days it was already able to walk again. ''As expected of a dragon bloodline, their regeneration abilities are not something ordinary beasts can match.'' After the last incident, Krune didn''t go out often, that was his first time using his merged skills in battle and he had a lot to think about, he also spent his time imparting his Myriad Energies technique to Lakin, but for some reason, Lakin didn''t seem to be as proficient at it as Krune is. In fact, Lakin was having a hard time to even form the first pseudo meridians which are a prerequisite to understand how the creation of the real Spiritual Energy Meridians are made. Krune pondered about that but he couldn''t find an answer for this issue, in the end he could only tell Lakin to work hard, even if he takes several times longer to create an Energy Meridian, it will still be hundreds of times better than cultivate without it. A few weeks later, Krune had finished the preparation for the Foundation Establishment breakthrough, this time, instead of demon cores, Krune had taken all the spirit stones in the spiritual vein lake, he didn''t know about the spirit stones before, but now that he does, he wouldn''t let such a good thing slip by. His cultivation had also stabilized at the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation realm, all he needed now was time to accumulate spiritual energy until he reaches the peak of the 9th stage, after that only the breakthrough remains. During the time that Krune was patiently cultivating, he would give Lakin pointers and help the Lizard Dragons now and then, after a month the oldest Lizard Dragon had already reached the late 7th stage of the Qi Condensation realm and the youngest one had just broken through the 6th stage, this is all thanks to the numerous demon cores that Krune got while practicing outside, he already had no need to worry about the Lizard Dragons anymore. Lakin had also achieved the 2nd stage of Qi Condensation during this time, and with the Lizard Dragons here, he would have no need to be afraid of danger anytime soon, Lakin also got to create his 4th pseudo energy meridian, although he is far from Krune''s speed, it is still a very good progress. --- After everything was ready Krune noticed an issue, and a very important one at that, how does one breakthrough the Foundation Establishment realm exactly? This realm is where you set the base where your core will reside when you achieve the Core Formation realm, but how does that base work to start with? What is it''s form? How do you create it? Krune had no idea, nor did he ask the last cultivator who came in here, he had no knowledge about the issue, in the end his mind went blank, without knowing how to do that, everything would be useless. After hearing about Krune''s issue, Lakin was a lot calmer than him, he simply said. "Master, this problem is easy to solve, you are already as strong, if not stronger, than an ordinary early stages Foundation Establishment cultivator or demon beast. Isn''t it easy to simply go deeper into the forest and find a Foundation Establishment beast to ask?" Krune''s mind lit up, that''s right, a Foundation Establishment beast is bound to have an intelligence high enough to at least be able to answer my questions, it should be easy to get an answer from any of those. "That''s indeed a great idea, I''m leaving now, I should be back soon, the Lizard Dragons should have no problem in protecting you and the spiritual vein while I''m out." Lakin laughed out "Exactly, and if they refuse to answer, master just need to give them a good beating, haha!" Krune was also laughing, when have you ever seen a wisp beating other beasts just to get them to answer some questions? "Haha, that will be a very good experience, see you all later!" At the same time, around two thousand kilometers deeper into the Katiu Forest, there is a spiritual vein which is being overseen by a Two Headed Demon Snake, different from the majority of beasts, this snake didn''t have any subordinates helping it guard the spiritual vein, that''s because this demon snake is a 1st stage Foundation Establishment beast, even other early stages Foundation Establishment beasts wouldn''t dare to find trouble with this Two Headed Demon Snake due to it''s poison. It was sleeping peacefully when suddenly it''s body trembled, it woke up alarmed and looked around, but there was nothing, it''s Divine Sense couldn''t find anything either. ''Am I imagining things? I could swear I felt some terrifying presence looking directly at me.'' After looking around a bit more and probe with its Divine sense for some time, it gave up and went back to sleep. The poor snake didn''t know that calamity was about to befall on it, otherwise it would have left the spiritual vein straight away. --- Now that Krune is at the 9th stage of Qi Condensation, his speed has improved by leaps and bounds, that coupled with a much finer control over the wind element made him faster than even some 3rd stage Foundation Establishment beasts, it only took him one day to reach a swamp where the concentration of spiritual energy was very high, it obviously had a spiritual vein somewhere. It''s not like Krune hadn''t found other spiritual veins on his way here, it''s just that the beasts guarding it were at most at the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation stage, every time he checked those spiritual veins, the beasts guarding it would attack him, it had nothing to do with defending their spiritual vein, it was simply because Krune was a wisp, how could they let such a succulent wisp slip away just like that. One could only say that all of them were courting death, if there is one thing that Krune hates, it is when someone look at him with greed as if he is already food on the table ready to be eaten, after beating the beasts black and blue to the point that they couldn''t even stand up anymore, he took all the spirit stones available in their lairs and put them into his spatial ring which he got from Casfer. They were all Rank One spirit stones but there was quite a few high quality ones, each spiritual vein didn''t have too much spirit stones, but after sweeping three spiritual veins, Krune had already gathered almost 500 of them. Krune also left those demon beasts alive for two reasons, first, it was because he wanted them to remember that wisps aren''t easily bullied, he beat them so much that in the future they will probably run at the first sight of a wisp, with some luck the number of wisps killed might go down this way, and second, it was because he had taken away their spirit stones, he considered those spirit stones as the payment for the trouble that those beasts caused. After reaching the swamp, Krune pressed forward carefully, he did the same with all previous spiritual veins and only when he was certain that there was no danger did he reveal himself to those beast. Moving a few kilometers further, the concentration of spiritual energy was getting higher, the spiritual vein is bound to be close, it didn''t take long for him to find a clean lake in the middle of all that mud, it was obviously the point where the spiritual vein was located, close to it he could also see a nest where the Two Headed Demon Snake was sleeping inside. ''Seems like I''m quite luck, if I compare this Demon Snake with Gony back then, their spiritual energy are pretty much similar, it should be a 1st or 2nd stage Foundation Establishment demon beast.'' Krune was feeling very fortunate, in general, snakes would rely on their poisons to fight, normal beasts of the same level would try to avoid battling a Two Headed Demon Snake, but wisps are different, they don''t have a body for the poison to circulate to start with, so poison type demon beast have long since become the easiest target for Krune. Krune made a few preparations and spread his Divine Sense to wake up the demon snake. The demon snake immediately opened its eyes and checked the surroundings, the Divine Sense earlier was a very strong one, even stronger than it''s own, but after looking around the only thing it could see was Krune, it couldn''t help but think. ''Is that a wisp?'' That Divine Sense earlier put it on guard, but all it could see is the wisp right in front of it, could it be that it was dreaming? Krune didn''t know what the demon snake was thinking, nor did he cares, he just came to make a few questions, as long as that snake knows its place there will be no need for violence. "Hello there, my name is Krune, I came here looking for a Foundation Establishment beast who could answer a few question. You see, I''m at the peak of the 9th stage of Qi Condensation and would like to vie for the Foundation Establishment too, but I don''t know what I should do to make the Breakthrough, would you mind to give me some pointers?" The snake looked at Krune with a weird face, it could have expected for anything else, but definitely not a wisp barging into its territory to make question, is this wisp even thinking straight? It ignored it''s internal struggle and jumped at Krune. 9th stage Qi Condensation wisp! Such a wisp is bound to give the demon snake a huge boost in its cultivation, probably helping it to even breakthrough into the 2nd stage of the Foundation Establishment, the demon snake was ecstatic! Just as the demon sneak was about to eat the wisp, Krune suddenly disappeared, or to be more specific, he moved so fast that the demon snake almost couldn''t see its movement. "Sigh, and here I was thinking that Foundation Establishment beasts were smarter than the Qi Condensation ones, seems like I was hopping for too much after all." The demon snake war alarmed, a foreboding sentiment washed over it, but it quickly calmed down. ''So what if the wisp is fast? It can''t do anything to me to start with, I just need a good chance and I can take him down.'' It decided to let out its poison fog, it would first poison the wisp so that it would lose it''s speed and then it would be done for... Or so it thought, unfortunately, just as it was about to attack Krune again, its Divine Sense noticed something coming from above. Fast! All it could think is that it was too fast! When Krune dodged earlier, he had also prepared one blazing wind blade to be shot, he could have killed the demon snake straight away, but he hold himself back on purpose to show the difference in strength. The demon snake was a Foundation Establishment snake after all, using all the power of its body, it dodged the blazing wind blade in the last instant, it looked back to where the fiery blade hit and it could see that it went through the ground, it''s Divine Sense lost track of the blade a moment later. Powerful! That was what the demon snake thought at that instant, it looked back at Krune and it''s disdain and greediness were gone this time, it''s enemy is definitely not weak at all. ''Although that attack was really strong it should take a lot of time to prepare and as long as I pay attention I should be able to dodge, not to mention that it should consume an astonishing amount of spiritual energy, let''s see just how many times you can still shoot that fire blade.'' That was what it thought... for a second, right after that when it looked above Krune, it''s heart went cold, sweat started to appear all over it''s body, Krune was very pleased with the look on it''s face. "As expected of a Foundation Establishment beast, even though I hold myself back just now, you still avoided my Skill Merge Blazing Wind Blade. Well, let''s see if you can avoid thirty blazing wind blades at the same time, try to not disappoint me." The demon snake wanted to cry, it thought that death was close, there is no way it can dodge all thirty blades at once, but for it''s surprise, Krune didn''t really shoot all thirty blazing wind blades at one, he released one by one, he was totally playing with the Two Headed Demon Snake, he wanted to show this snake that every time he shot a blade, a new one would be formed in the place of the one that had released. At first the Demon Snake still had some hope, it was waiting for it''s poison fog to make effect, but as the time went by, the gloomier it felt, that wisp didn''t seem like to be weakening at all! Just when it was about to run out of spiritual energy, it screamed back through it''s Divine Sense. This Two Headed Demon Snake is quite a rare demon beast, so it could only take the human form at the late stages of the Foundation Establishment or maybe only after the breaking through the Core Formation realm, so it couldn''t use it''s mouth to speak. "Stop! I surrender, I will answer all your questions." Kune was very happy with that answer, but the demon snake couldn''t help but ask first. "Why is it that my poison doesn''t work on you?" Krune heard that question and thought that this demon snake isn''t very smart after all. "Isn''t that obvious? I''m a wisp, I don''t have a flesh and blood body, unless your poison works on the soul, it''s no different than air for me. What Krune couldn''t expect was the snake answer for that, the snake looked pitifully at him. "But... my poison works on the soul too." Krune was taken aback this time, it''s poison works on the soul too? Krune immediately examined himself but didn''t find anything strange. Could it be that the snake is lying? He couldn''t sense anything at all! "Are you sure it works on the soul too?" The sneak nodded it''s head, the Two Headed Demon Snake is quite a rare demon beast after all, it''s poison is much more complicated than normal ones. Krune pondered a bit and could only think about one thing ''My Spiritual Energy Meridians! It can only be it, they have the power to almost instantly convert the spiritual energy of all types into the same type of spiritual energy as mine, so it means that they can even filter away poison too!'' Suddenly, Krune had an idea. ''Wait! What will happen if I try to absorb other types of elements infused with spiritual energy?'' Krune immediately absorbed a little bit of the poisonous fog, that fog has the ability to affect the soul so it''s bound to have some spiritual energy infused in it. Sure enough, his Spiritual Energy Meridians purified the poison and added the spiritual energy in his core. But Krune wasn''t that happy with it. ''It does indeed helps with my cultivation, but the speed of conversion is several times slower than the energy of Demon Cores, Spirit Stones or the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth, it seems like I can only use it in case I have no other font of spiritual energy available.'' Even so it was great news for Krune, but anyway, he can make further tests another time, he had to finish his business with the demon snake first. "Alright, let''s forget about it, tell me what you know about the Foundation Establishment breakthrough." Chapter 16 - Either I Succeed or I Die, Wisps are Really Pitiful Krune waited for the Two Headed Demon Snake to calm down and start to talk, but before that, he took out one of the blood contracts which he got from Gony, he stated that if the snake lied, it would die, without any other choice, the snake used its blood to leave its mark on it, the contract immediately burnt and attached the restriction on the snake''s soul. "So, I''m going to simply tell the general concept which I believe to work for everyone, big clans and sects probably have better methods, but the end result will be the same. Krune agreed with that point of view, Feifei, as part of the Wang Clan, most likely had the best methods available for her. "To breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment realm is to lay a foundation which will sustain your core once you breakthrough into the Core Formation realm, that''s the general knowledge, as to how to lay such foundation, we have to break down the interior of our Demon Core or Dantian in the humans case and leave only the shell, the better its broken, the easier it is to reform it in the form of a foundation, think about the foundation as a bird''s nest in the middle of an island surrounded by the lake''s water." "The lake''s water is your spiritual energy, the higher your Foundation Establishment level, the more water that lake has, the island in the center is the foundation, you need to provide it with rich amounts or spiritual energy so that the flora, fauna and earth get richer and richer, only when the island gets sturdy enough can you breakthrough from the previous stage to the next, and finally at the center of that island, you will build the nest that will nurture your future Core for the Core Formation stage, that nest is the core of the foundation." "So, you can take it simply as, break the interior of the core, reform it in a foundation like way, that''s all." The snake stopped talking there, in fact there was more things about the foundation to be said but it was still upset with it''s loss, it didn''t lie though, it simply didn''t say anything. Unfortunately for this Two Headed Demon Snake, wisps are extremely intelligent, so Krune started a round of questions and answers. "I understand the principle, let me ask, is there no standard form for the foundation, anything within those two criteria can be considered a foundation? For example, if I build my foundation like an egg instead, white and yolk, does it also works?" The snake looked strangely at him, white and yolk? Such a weird example, but it answered Krune''s question nonetheless "In theory, it should work, every being has their own way of thinking how to build their foundations, as long as it is acknowledged by the heavens, the formation of the foundation will be a success." "But there is one thing you must pay attention, the foundation that you are laying down ''MUST'' be something that you understand entirely, if you try to create something that you simply think as powerful but has no idea how it works, then it will definitely fails!" Krune didn''t understand one thing. "I understand the part of being able to understand what you built. But what about this acknowledged by the heavens thing? What do you mean by that?" The Demon Snake answered dutifully "It means exactly that, once your foundation is built it has to receive the acknowledgment of the heavens, I will give you my own example of how it worked for me. When I finished building my foundation, I felt like the world came in contact with it, like they were one with each other, that is a very magical feeling, after the acknowledgment ends, that feeling of being one with the world disappears too, from what I heard from the other beasts of the Foundation Establishment stage, it was the same with them too." Krune agreed with that, being one with the world isn''t something someone at their level should be able to do, it was only because the heavens itself was present to check their foundations that that magical state could be achieved for a few moments, Krune looked back to the snake and asked again. "So, what happens if you are not acknowledged?" The snake smiled at Krune "Your core or dantian will be destroyed, you will lose all your cultivation and you will have to start again from zero." Krune was given a fright! That''s because his own life is attached with his core! If his core is destroyed, there will be no such thing as start from zero, he will simply die there and then! ''Now things got tricky! I will have to think through how exactly I want to build my own foundation, I will have to fully understand it to rise the chances of success too'' Krune couldn''t help but sigh ''Wisps are really a pitiful race.'' Suddenly Krune thought about another thing "Tell me, is there a chance of failure if you build something that you understand? Also, is there a way to increase the chances of success?" The snake replied back "Yes, you could still fail even if you understand how it works, no one knows why that happens, maybe it is because you think you understand your foundation but in fact you don''t, or maybe is because the foundation you built is not compatible with yourself, who knows?" "As for if there is a way to increase the chances of success, there is indeed a few tricks for it. The first is to build a standard foundation, something simple to understand, the example I gave you before of the island on the lake is one of those standard foundations, anyone knows how to build such thing" "The second would be through the use of alchemist pills like the Foundation Establishment pills, from what I know, those pills will help you with the modeling of your foundation, they make the broken interior of the core or dantian easier to be modeled." Krune understood, no wonder alchemists are so respected, the pills that they are able to concoct have real heaven deifying effects. "Is there anything else I should take note when trying to breakthrough the Foundation Establishment realm?" The snake nodded "Yes, but the rest are just complementary, make sure to have a lot of spiritual energy resources available, spirit stones and a spiritual vein are good examples, there is also alchemist pills that provide certain amounts of spiritual energy." "Also, since I''m bound by the contract, I have to tell you this, one of the best sources of spiritual energy for breakthrough is your own race, whether you mind it or not, wisps spiritual energy can really give a huge burst in the process since their energy is extremely easy to be absorbed." Krune sighed again but declined to comment, he already expected this when he heard that you need to have a lot of spiritual energy resources ready, the demon snake continued. "There is also the time needed, it changes from being to being, not only are differences between each ones talent, there is also the fact of what kind of foundation you intend to build, if it is something simple, then it''s fast, if it is something hard, then its longer." Krune asked the demon snake "Considering that I decide to lay down a simple foundation like the island in the lake, how long would it takes?" The snake pondered a bit "I can''t be sure since I don''t have too much examples, but I can tell you that I took a whole week to finish my own, and I used this exact island and lake foundation." "So, make sure to seclude yourself somewhere well hidden if possible, if the process is stopped in the middle, you will fail and your core will be destroyed as well." Krune understood it, but he wasn''t very concerned, his spiritual vein can be considered very safe already, with the lizards taking care of the place and Lakin to take care of the lizards, he should find no problems in the long term. A situation like that cultivator group that came to take Dragon Blood is something very rare to start with, he would need to be truly unlucky to get bothered twice in a roll, he also had one more idea of how to guarantee his safety. "Anything else?" The snake just shook it''s head, it couldn''t thing about anything else to say, that wisp asked all the important questions, even though it didn''t want to answer, it had to. "Very well, time to get my payment for the trouble you caused me then." Sweat started to fall down from it''s back again, it suddenly saw Krune taking out another blood contract, it thought about one thing and it''s expression became nasty. "Even if I have to die, I will not become your slave, if you think you can force me to sign a slave blood contract, you might as well kill me first." Krune looked back at the snake and was a little surprised, it''s pride runs trough it''s blood, but that''s okay, Krune didn''t want to have a slave to start with, nor could he force the issue, for the blood contract to work, the one signing it must really agree with it in body and soul, threats are useless in this case. "You are overthinking it, I don''t want you to sign a slave contract, I want you to be my protector until I finish my Foundation Establishment breakthrough, you will have your own free will and our contract will be finished once I succeed or fail. you will come with me to the borders of the inner part or the Forest and stay guard until the process is done." "Don''t think I''m forcing the issue, I might as well tell you this, wisps don''t have a body, their life is attached with their core from the moment they are born, so if I fail, I will die since my core will be destroyed, you could think about it as a way of getting revenge against me too." The Two Headed Demon Snake was very conflicted, then it thought about something "Then what if you decide to never breakthrough? Doesn''t it mean that I will have to protect you forever?" Krune just laughed out laud, it puzzled the snake. "Did you forget from which race I''m from? I''m a wisp! Or could it be that you don''t know that wisps can live at most ten years if they don''t breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment realm?" The demon snake was stunned, that''s right, wisps have an extremely low life span! It''s just that this wisp was so strong that the snake forgot about this issue. "Very well, I accept those conditions." Krune was very pleased, beasts are really a straight forward bunch, once they decide one thing they are very direct about that. Krune started to write on the contract under the inspection of the demon snake, it is stated that the demon snake shall protect Krune and it''s underlings until he succeed or failed in his breakthrough, doesn''t matter the result, once he is done with that, the demon snake is free to go. It also stated that if he fails, the demon snake can not harm his underlings, it is to prevent the demon snake from taking revenge on his disciple or the Lizard Dragons, the demon snake also agreed with that. After signing with its blood, the blood contract burnt and a new restriction was put on the demon snake''s soul. "Good, the we should go back now, there is rarely any Foundation Establishment beasts or cultivators around there and even if some appear, they will not try to find problem with a poison type Foundation Establishment beast like yourself, so you will basically spend your time in leisure until the end of our contract." But before they left, Krune turned to the spiritual vein and took all the spiritual stones in it, the demon snake didn''t think much about it, once they are gone, some other beast is bound to take this spiritual vein for itself, so those spirit stone would change owner anyway, the wisp might as well bring it with him. Krune was a little surprised to find that this spiritual vein wasn''t too bad, the spirit stones close to the center of the spiritual vein lake are Rank Two low quality ones, those are the best spirit stones he found so far. On their way back the demon snake used it''s Divine Sense to ask how Krune became so strong even though he is a wisp. "Hard work and luck, that was pretty much it" Even though the snake didn''t like the answer, Krune wasn''t lying, It was luck that brought him together with Feifei and old Feng from which he got the Myriad Energies technique, and it was through hard work and even more luck that he found about how the real Myriad Energies technique really worked. Of course, Krune wouldn''t tell the snake about his improved version of the Myriad Energies technique, that is his secret, something that might bring calamity upon oneself, the lesser the number of people who knows about it, the safer he would be. He was only imparting his cultivation technique to Lakin because he trusted him and he was his disciple too. --- Krune was gone for two days only, when he came back the Lizard Dragons and Lakin were given a fright, Lakin even thought that Krune might have been made as hostage and forced to show the way back to their lair. "Alright everyone, there is no need to be afraid, I made a deal with our friend here and he won''t attack anyone, let me introduce him." "His name is, his name is... Err..." Krune looked back at the Two Headed Demon Snake, if he had his human form already, his face would definitely be as red as a tomato. "Cough, cough, now that I think about it, I haven''t asked your name yet." The demon snake was feeling gloomy, it looks like this wisp had never put much thought about it. The demon snake used it''s Divine Sense to convene it''s thoughts. "I''m called Ruik, for the time being I''ll be in charge of protecting you all until my contract with Krune is over, do not call me over unless it''s something important." After that it simply found a corner to lay down and went to sleep, other than Krune, it didn''t care about any of the others. Krune didn''t mind it either, he knows how prideful Ruik is. "Alright everyone, you can go back to whatever you were doing, Lakin, you come with me, there is a few things I need to explain to you too." Chapter 17 - The Universe Krune decided that it would be better to let Lakin know about the process for breaking through into Foundation Establishment as soon as possible, he will be entering seclusion soon after he figures out what foundation he will build, after entering the next realm he will leave, Lakin will not be going with him since the outside world was too dangerous for wisps, not to mention, with the Lizard Dragons around, it would be easier for him to cultivate in peace here. The Lizard Dragons had long since accepted Krune and Lakin as one of their own group, for them, those wisps are family already, they most likely won''t even try to hunt wisps in the future anymore. Although Lakin was sad, as a wisp, he had high intelligence, he understood that unless he himself breaks through the Foundation Establishment, his master will have to protect him all times, and the further his level in the Qi Condensation stage, the harder it would be for his master to protect him. Of course, he only came to accept this reality after complaining for an entire day, Krune was helpless about this little guy tantrum, but he kept reminding himself that Lakin is still in his childhood, no more than a few months old, so he let it pass. In fact, Lakin could be said to be leagues ahead other wisps in terms of maturity and intelligence at his age, after all he didn''t have to learn everything by himself, for a wisp, to have a teacher is of paramount importance, with this condition applied, any wisp is bound to mature several times faster. ---- A week later, Krune hasn''t entered seclusion yet, turns out that thinking about what to biuld is really hard. ''It''s really difficult, if I go for the standard foundation, I will have high chances of succeed in my breakthrough, but that also means that my foundation will be very ordinary and will have no advantages.'' A few days earlier, Krune had asked Ruik if there is any difference in power after one decides what kind of foundation they will build. "There is, simply put, the more complicated the foundation the more acknowledgement it will receive from the heavens upon breakthrough, it will provide you more spiritual energy, a better foundation and consequently a better place for nurturing your future core for the Core Formation realm." After hearing that, Krune discarded any ideas of using an ordinary foundation, he wanted to make something that could match the geniuses of the world, with an outstanding foundation and his Myriad Energies technique meridians, he would have a big advantage over his opponents, it also would pave his way to the top, he had promised Feifei to find her in the Wang Clan after all, without real strength, there would be no way that the Wang Clan would spare even a single glance at him. After another month, Krune was still in deep thought, he was beside the spiritual vein lake when he heard Lakin and the lizards entering the cave room. Lakin had come back with the Lizard Dragons from hunting, Lakin was already at the 4th stage of Qi Condensation, compared to Krune, he definitely was slow, but compared with any other wisp, he could be considered a genius among geniuses. Lakin still couldn''t deal with the beasts of the inner parts of the Katiu Forest on his own, but by partnering with the Lizard Dragons, they became matchless around the mountain range, Lizard Dragons could fight those of higher level because of their Dragon Bloodline, coupled with Lakin''s intelligence, they are having an easy time outside. Lakin looked at Krune and asked "Master, is there really a need to build such a difficult foundation? If you fail, you will die, I really think you should go for safety first, considering the time that you had already spent thinking about it, I''m afraid that whatever ideas that come in mind would lead you to your death during the breakthrough." Krune looked a little surprised at Lakin, he knows that he was only saying that out of concern, the Lizard Dragons beside him also looked worried, although they aren''t at the 9th stage of Qi Condensation, they already have a good intelligence, they could feel that Lakin was very worried about Krune, and they felt like something bad was happening with him. Krune suddenly laughed out loud. "Look at you guys, I''m not dead yet, okay?" Krune''s mind went back to when he first found them, those Lizard Dragons had eaten his demon cores, he felt like someone had eaten himself instead, but today he couldn''t help but think how funny his reactions were at that time were. As for Lakin, it was because of him that Krune found out how exactly he was born in this world, that scene was really a sight to behold, it felt like a universe was being created. Suddenly, Krunes mind was struck by lightning! ''That''s it! How could I have forgotten? The universe, the planet and the planet''s core! Wait, let me think about it more carefully.'' Lakin and the dragons looked puzzled at him, but it seems like his master thought about something, so he asked the Lizard Dragons to not disturb him and went to the side to cultivate. Krune''s mind was working as if it had been injected with chicken''s blood. ''It should work, I can use the universe itself to hold the spiritual energy, the planet as the foundation and the core of the planet to nurture my future core, but I will need to think about everything carefully first.'' Surprisingly, the Universe part was the easiest one, there is no need to think about the laws because if there was, even the island in a lake foundation would have it''s own laws, but Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment cultivators are not at the level where they can touch the laws of nature. So, in the end, the outside universe is basically void, of course, Krune couldn''t think about making an infinite universe, it would not be able to hold the spiritual energy, also, it is something that should be modeled in his core to start with, so after pondering about his inner core, he came up with the approximately range that his ''universe'' would have. Also, his Universe would have no other stars, only his planet, the purpose of his little universe is to nurture his planet after all, there is no need to nurture anything else. Next, he thought about what format his spiritual energy that would occupy that universe would take, that''s where Lakin came into play, that day when the rainbow like spiritual energy was dancing while spinning around Lakin''s core, the feeling that the spiritual energy gave him that day was as if there was nothing more proper in this world, he couldn''t tell exactly why, he could just say that it was ''right'', maybe that was the heavens itself. Finishing the second part, Krune started to ponder about his own planet, in the end that was the most complicated part, if he wants to create a planet it has to be one that really works like one, but then there was an issue. ''There is no sun.'' But it didn''t take long for him to come up with an idea. ''The purpose of the spiritual energy of the universe is to nurture the planet, at first I''m using the void to store the spiritual energy, so why not use the spiritual energy itself to warm up and illuminate the planet, not only will it cover up for the lack of a sun, it should be even more effective.'' With this problem resolved, Krune started the creation of the planet''s atmosphere and the surface itself, forests, seas, continents, life forms, it had to have everything, that was the part which took the longest, to make sure that everything had been thought of, he spent an entire month thinking about every single detail, the purpose of the foundation is to be acknowledged by the heavens, it doesn''t have to be perfect, you just need to be sure to really understand how it works, if perfection was a must, no race in the entire universe would ever breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment realm, first of all, even heavens itself is full of flaws to start with. After that he went into the climate, seasons, the poles, so on and so forth, by now, Krune had already spent two entire months pondering about his foundation, he went to Ruik to discuss about his ideas now and then, the first time Ruik heard about his ideas he thought that this wisp was courting death, but as the time passed, Krune ideas seemed to make more and more sense, by now, Ruik is even yearning for Krune to come to it to make more question and share more of his ideas about the universe foundation, it really looked like it could work. ''This wisp is frightening, he is already this strong even before reaching the Foundation Establishment, I wonder what will happen if his universe foundation become acknowledged by the heavens.'' Finally, after thinking and revising the same steps hundreds of times, half a year had passed. Krune now had started to ponder the most crucial part of his train of thought, the core of the planet, although it wasn''t the most complicated like the planet foundation, it was definitely the most important for him as a wisp. But to Ruik''s surprise, Krune was quite relaxed about this point. "This should be the most difficult part of your foundation, where does your confidence comes from? Don''t be hasty, you already spent half a year, take it easy to be sure that no mishaps will happen." Krune looked at Ruik a little surprised, it seemed like Ruik was concerned that he might die, he couldn''t help but think that by now he already considered this Two Headed Demon Snake as a friend, they were first bounded by a contract, but he felt like Ruik wouldn''t try anything even if the contract wasn''t there. Ruik also noticed it and felt weird, the demon snake didn''t know how to deal with this feeling and shooed Krune away to hide it''s embarrassment, Krune left while laughing out loud. His mood and confidence improved even more now. Six months of coexistence can change one''s heart. But then Krune remembered what Ruik asked and quickly came back to explain, even though the snake was trying hide it''s face it still paid attention. "So, it''s basically because I''m a wisp, you might not know but different from you guys, because I don''t have a blood and flesh body, my soul is one with my core, for example, if you had failed your Foundation Establishment breakthrough, your core would break and you would be able to cultivate again, but If I fail, I will die, it does indeed seems like much worse." "But it''s exactly because of that that we wisps understand out cores hundreds of times better than you guys do, it''s not a misconception to say that wisps live inside their cores, and the planet in my universe foundation just so happen to need a core too. I intend to build the core of my planet the way I understand my own core." "First, it will ensure compatibility and stability, it will be easy to manipulate." "Second, not only that is the place where I will nurture my future core for the Core Formation realm, it is also the place where my soul will reside after the breakthrough, so, the more familiar I am with the place, the better it will be." This time, Ruik couldn''t help but show it''s face again, it''s just that this time it didn''t look embarrassed, but astonished. "You wisps really have a hard time, don''t you?" It couldn''t be helped, that''s the fate of a race which doesn''t have a corporeal body. Krune simply laughed it out "Don''t worry, I''m confident I will succeed. If I don''t believe myself, why should anyone else do so?" Suddenly, Ruik thought about one thing and decided to warn him "Now that I think about it, since you said that your soul is one with your core, the process of breaking the interior of your core is bound to be a very dangerous process, at the very least it is probably going to be extremely painful, you better keep that in mind." Krune simply agreed with the snake "I know, I have long since understood this fact, so you could say that I''ve been preparing myself from the moment you told me about breaking the interior of the core to create the foundation." Ruik simply nodded it''s head and didn''t say anything more, this is, after all, a hurdle that Krune will have to surpass on his own, no one will be able to help him with that. As expected, it didn''t take long for Krune to finish the last part of his preparations, with the core of the planet having the same shape as his inner core, everything else was easy to think and finish theorizing. ---- A month later, Ruik, Lakin and the Lizard Dragons were in front of the cave room with the spiritual vein lake, Krune was looking at them tenderly, those are his friends and in a certain way, his family. In the last month, Krune went out to gather spirit stones for his breakthrough, demon cores would not do because they lose spiritual energy with time, so he assaulted quite a few 8th and 9th stage Qi Condensation beast lairs which had spiritual veins, he didn''t kill any of the beasts, only gave them a beating and took away their spirit stones, he also avoided attacking any Foundation Establishment beast lairs, it was to prevent those beasts to come back for revenge while he was in the process of breaking through. For his surprise, Ruik had also gone out to help him gather spirit stones for him, Ruik tried to hide his real feelings though. "My contract says that I need to protect you, so by going out and gathering spirit stones will reduce the number of spiritual veins that you need to attack, that''s all." Krune simply laughed and didn''t point it out. In the last seven months, Lakin had finally created all his nine pseudo energy meridians, and with Krune''s help and pointers, he now had his first Spiritual Energy meridian. Krune still couldn''t understand why Lakin, as a wisp too, took so long to reach this step. Lakin was very dedicated in his cultivation to the point that he was already at the 7th stage of Qi Condensation even though he has only one Spiritual Energy meridian, so he could only tell him to keep the hard work, even if he is much slower than Krune, he is still a far cry from any other wisps in this world. As for the Lizard Dragons, the oldest one has already reached the 8th stage of the Qi Condensation, once it breaks through the 9th stage, it will finally finish forming it''s conscience and be able to think straightly. The other ones were all at the 7th stage with the youngest having just breakthrough it. This group already had the power to protect the spiritual vein lake on its own. "Alright everyone, the time has come, I will ask for you stay outside and don''t come in the spiritual vein lake room, I will need to focus and the process can''t be interrupted, also, I have no idea how long it will take to finish the process so there is no need to keep waiting for me outside, just go out and do your own things." Lakin shouted out loud "Master, you will definitely succeed!" The Lizard Dragons only roared at him. Krune looked at Ruik and transmitted his thoughts to him using Divine Sense. "Ruik, if I fail in my Foundation Establishment brea-" Before he could even finish saying what he wanted, Ruik cut him off. "Shut up! I''m feeling sleepy, tell me what you want later." It then turned around and left. Krune was taken aback, he then just laughed once more. ''Seems like I will have to succeed no matter what.'' Krune used his earth element to close up the entrance to the spiritual vein lake and started the process of breaking through. Chapter 18 - How Could That Be? Krune was looking at the spirit stones beside the spiritual vein lake, he had almost two thousand of them now and among them almost 300 were Rank Two ones. ''This should be more than enough to breakthrough, according to Ruik, usually, the part that spends the most spiritual energy is the breaking of the core interior, the more thoroughly the core is broken, the easier it is to model it after, but after pondering about it with him for a while, we got to the conclusion that other than the braking part, the final part which is to fulfill the ''universe'' with spiritual energy will spend as much as the breaking.'' Krune first calmed down and made sure he was at his peak, when he starts breaking down the interior of his core, he, as a wisp, doesn''t know what he will feel, since his own soul is one with the core after all, but it''s certain to be really painful. Krune started the process, the spiritual energy of the surroundings started to gather around him, there is plenty of spiritual energy in the air because of the spiritual vein beside him, it will help save quite a lot of spirit stones, once enough spiritual energy was gathered at the center of his core, Krune forced it into rampage, barely keeping the control. "Crack" As soon as Krune heard the first sound of the core cracking, he almost fainted. Painful! Extremely painful! Wisps really have it hard, it felt as if what was breaking wasn''t his core but his soul instead, fortunately, he was prepared for it and managed to keep control over the spiritual energy in his core. But Krune noticed one thing. ''Ruik was right, you can only feel it after you start the process, I can tell that my core is barely holding up from splinting apart, you must have a peak 9th stage Qi Condensation to be able to go through it, otherwise the core or dantian simply won''t be resilient enough to resist.'' Turns out that if someone tried to start the breaking down process before reaching the peak of the Qi Condensation stage, the core would immediately break completely, if not, there would be some who would try to enter the Foundation Establishment much earlier, of course, if such thing was possible, this cultivator would have a very unstable foundation, so very few would try it anyway. Crack by crack, Krune kept breaking the core''s interior, every time he used spiritual energy to further smash it, he would feel like he wanted to die, a normal cultivator would be much faster in this process since even though it would hurt, it was just the core or datian pain, but Krune is hurting his own soul in the process, he must wait some time to stabilize his state of mind before continue the process. ''Ruik said that his breaking down process only took him three days, but the way things are going I definitely will take much longer than that.'' There is no helping in it, not only he needs to stop every time he breaks it, Krune''s plan was to keep smashing it''s interior until he felt that it couldn''t be broken any further, his universe foundation is bound to be very difficult to model, so he can''t take any chances even if it kills him. --- Slowly, an entire month went by. Inside the spiritual vein lake room, one could hear a grunt coming from a wisp every now and then, Krune had kept at it until now and he got great harvests. First, his core interior was truly smashed to powder now, even though he hasn''t finished, the process is going much more smoothly now. Second, all the pain had tempered his soul to an unbelievable degree, if he tried to use his Divine Sense now, it definitely would be further than a kilometer radius, and that is considering that he is still in the Qi Condensation stage! He couldn''t help but think of the old saying. ''With great risks, come great rewards, I already don''t need to stop anymore between every break, it still hurts but it''s not unbearable anymore. Also, I feel like I understand now.'' What Krune found out is that he can measure how well broken his core interior is according to the pain that his soul feels. ''If my conjecture isn''t wrong, my core''s interior will only be perfectly broken when I feel no pain in my soul anymore, that is when I will know that I achieved perfection in the first part of my breakthrough.'' Krune was right, that was an unexpected gain for him, this use of the soul pain to measure the breaking down process is something that only wisps would ever be able to achieve, but how many wisps out there have tried to enter the Foundation Establishment before? It''s bound to be very few and far between. This fact would help Krune achieve something that only great clans and sects are able to do, which is a perfect foundation. Those great clans and sects would never divulge their secrets of how to do that, each one of them had their own ways to ascertain if the core''s or datian''s interior was perfectly broken, but for someone to use the pain of their souls to find out about that? Only wisps are able to! The impressive thing is that wisps don''t know about the perfect breaking down process, so the very few wisps who had tried to breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment would not go as far as keep breaking their cores until there is no more pain, they just wanted to get over with this painful process as fast as possible, because of this, Krune could be said to be one of the firsts, if not the first himself, to ever achieve a perfect breaking down process among the wisps! And just like that, Krune kept at it, smashing until he couldn''t feel even an itchy, after 45 days, Krune suddenly stopped. ''Hum? I felt nothing? Other than the rumble of spiritual energy I couldn''t feel anything else after this last smashing with spiritual energy, lets try it a few more times.'' Krune gathered spiritual energy and tried to use it to break the interiors, but he couldn''t feel anything at all, it was as if the spiritual energy flowed around his core without any obstacle, his core interior couldn''t even be said to be powder anymore, it looked like clay instead. ''Seems like this is it, I can''t wait longer anyway, according to Ruik, once you have decided that the core''s interior can''t be broken any further, you must start the modeling straight away, otherwise it will lose it''s balance and the process will fail.'' Krune started the modeling process, he had thought about it hundreds of times, he would first open the space that was supposed to be his small universe, by removing the clay like interior out of they way, it didn''t take long for him to create a void in between his core shell and what will come to be his planet foundation later on, one must understand that once the breaking down process is concluded, the core or dantian shell will increase in size, this is a matter of course, otherwise, the cultivators would not be able to model anything since there would be no space to do so. To form the void was the easy part, there was nothing to be modeled there after all, after that came the hard one, to use his spiritual energy to model a world, a complete world with everything it had, of course, at a much smaller scale and with less things on it, but even so, it''s bound to take a lot of time anyway. krune wasn''t sad though, after all the pain of the breaking down and the tempering of his soul as reward, Krune was very ecstatic, he could feel that he was a step closer to the Foundation Establishment, Krune started the modeling process, first the planet itself, leaving just an area big enough to store his soul and nurture his future core for the Core Formation realm in the interior. After that, he started to model the surface, first he created the atmosphere since it is necessary to hold the air, regulate the seasons and stop things like the ocean to evaporate to the universe, after that came the seas, almost all life came from water, so the seas and oceans came second, terrestrial life forms need land to walk, so the continents came after, to give birth to life, energy is necessary, usually it would be provided by the sun, but Krune didn''t have one, so he used his rainbow like spiritual energy that he had thought before to nurture the seas and lands, and for that rainbow like spiritual energy alone, he spent almost 1000 spirit stones, after all, his enclosed universe was much bigger than something like the island in the lake foundation. Then came the life forms, forests, animals, so on and so forth, this planet modeling would take a very long time, but Krune didn''t care, he paid attention to every detail, and revised them several times, time isn''t a problem, Krune had just recently become 4 years old, he is still a young wisp. --- It had already been three months since the start of the planet modeling process, by now Krune had already finished his little planet, he spent the last two weeks revising it though, making corrections here and there, time seemed to have no meaning for Krune anymore, all that matters is his foundation, and today, Krune finally arrived to the conclusion that he can''t do anything further to his little planet. ''I revised it hundreds of times, I can''t find anything else to fix, at most I would just change somethings places, but that wouldn''t be because they are wrong, but just because they would look better in the eyes, but I wont do that, a planet isn''t something born to look good, it is a balance, as long as the key points are there, the planet itself wouldn''t care about how it looks like. If I do that, my planet might even be rejected by the heavens, one must remember that even heavens isn''t perfect, let alone a planet, my chances will be better if I keep it as close as possible of the real thing.'' ''Now then, its time to created a home for my soul and my future golden core.'' Krune had heard from Ruik that when you breakthrough the Core Formation stage, your core will be golden like, but Ruik only heard about that himself too, so he isn''t privy about the details. ''Also, my soul feels like it had been vagrant all around inside my core, this feeling of not being attached really makes me feel uncomfortable, I hope everything goes as planned, I planned to build the planet core to be compatible to what my soul had before my breaking through process, but I will only know if it was a good idea after I finish it.'' In fact, the core of the planet would be quite easy to finish since it was going to more or less be a copy of what his core was before, the only difference is that at the very center is the place where his future golden core will be nurtured, his soul will live together with his future golden core, Krune doesn''t know if this is a good idea or not, but he decided that it is worth a try. ''From what I heard from Ruik, I must leave the place where my future golden core will be nurtured completely empty, it must have no obstacles and enough space.'' Another ten days later, Krune had finally finished everything, before finishing his foundation creation, he decided that he better attach his soul back to the core first, that''s because he is afraid that he might be thrown out when he finishes his breakthrough, his foundation might consider as if he wasn''t supposed to be there, different from other races, his soul must be part of the foundation itself, he has no other choice. ''Alright, everything is done, now I just need to complete the process and wait for the heavens to check my foundation, I''ve been here for three and a half months, Ruik said that the time spent to finish the foundation creation doesn''t matter, but he also have never heard about anyone taking more than a month to finish it, let alone more than tree.'' What determines whether the foundation modeling is over or not is the flow of spiritual energy, that''s also why Krune gathered so much spirit stones, if the flow of spiritual energy is interrupted before finalizing the modeling, the process will be considered a failure, so he had to be sure to have enough spirit stones available, it was the same for everyone as well. At the same time, you need to stop the flow of spiritual energy by yourself after finishing the modeling, by doing so, the new foundation will try to gather spiritual energy by itself from heaven and earth and the process will be finished. The moment that the new foundation tried to gather the spiritual energy from the outside world, is the moment that the heavens feel it''s existence, it will then check if it''s in according to it''s rules. By now, during those three months of creation, Krune had already used almost all of his spirit stones, no more than a hundred were left, fortunately, he didn''t damage his spiritual vein lake, after staying so long in this place he couldn''t help but feel a little attachment, it might be a low grade spiritual vein, but it had helped him and his companions plenty. Krune calmed his thoughts and made up his mind. ''Alright, this is the moment, it all depends on whether the heavens like it or not.'' Krune cut the flow of spiritual energy and waited, not long after, his foundation seemed to come to life, is started to absorb the spiritual energy from heaven and earth through his Spiritual Energy Meridians, Krune was also able to confirm one of his guesses from the past, before, he couldn''t use all his three Spiritual Energy Meridians at full power, he always thought that it was because his core was too weak, turns out that he was right, as soon as the foundation started to absorb the spiritual energy, his Spiritual Energy Meridians started to work at full power, all three of them, Krune was relived with that. But he didn''t have time to check, that''s because soon, he felt as if the world around him disappeared, it was like there was only him left in the entire world, and then a comfortable sensation assaulted his soul, it was like all the laws of the world were at his grasp, he understood what was happening, the heavens had descended to check on his foundation, he could feel that every part of his core was being run by some kind of energy, it was a very magical feeling. It didn''t last long though, no more than a minute, in fact, Krune''s check up by the heavens already lasted much longer than it would for someone else, it''s the prove that his foundation is much more complicated compared to any other ordinary one, of course, Krune didn''t know that. After that, the energy simply disappeared as if it had never been there, Krune checked his core foundation and it didn''t feel like it was going to break apart anytime soon, not only that, it was fortifying as the seconds passed by. ''Does it mean that I succeed?'' Krune was just about to celebrate when suddenly, he noticed something wrong. ''Wait! Where is the my future golden core?'' Once you enter the Foundation Establishment, your foundation will create a core which will be nurtured until you are ready to enter the Core Formation realm, it isn''t a real core though, it''s more like a pseudo core, but in his case, the core was no where to be seen. He didn''t have time to think for long though, that''s because he could feel a lot of spiritual energy congregating above him, Krune is inside of the cave room, he couldn''t see what was happening outside, but it felt like the entire world itself was angry at him. --- In the middle of the cave, but outside the spiritual vein lake room, Ruik was sleeping when suddenly, he felt the spiritual energy of the world starting to gather above the mountain range, he immediately rushed outside to see what was happening, when he looked up to the sky, his heart almost stopped, he knows what it is because he had seen it happening before from distance. "How could that be?" The more he looked at it, the more frightened he felt. "Heavenly... Tribulation!" Chapter 19 - A Very Cute Name Moments later, Krune rushed out as well, the moment Ruik saw him, he was surprised. "You succeed in your breakthrough!" Krune heard him but he couldn''t pay attention to him at moment, he keeps feeling that something is wrong with those clouds in the sky, his instincts are screaming danger all over, only after a few seconds he looked at Ruik. "Do you know what is happening? As soon as I succeed in my breakthrough, those clouds came, I can even feel that they are targeting me." Krune''s words left Ruik alarmed! "What? They came for you? That shouldn''t be possible, Heavenly Tribulation is something that should only happen when you are entering the Core Formation realm or higher realms, there is no way it is here for you!" Krune didn''t expect that, something that only Core Formation cultivators and above should see, he couldn''t help but think if this is also because he is a wisp, but he immediately rejected the idea, if anything, the heavens would rather look down on wisps, most likely it has something to do with his Universe Foundation or his Myriad Energies Technique. Krune quickly got back on track, this isn''t time to ponder why it''s happening but to find a way to deal with it. "Ruik, I can''t say why it came for me since I have no idea, but it''s definitely targeting me, most likely it has something to do with my universe foundation, but let''s talk about it later, if you know what it is then tell me fast." Although Ruik still couldn''t believe it, he knows that Krune wasn''t joking either, he quickly calmed himself and started to explain. "I don''t know much myself either, but simply put, to cultivate is the same as going against the will of the heavens, so, once you enter the Core Formation realm, the heavens will send down a tribulation lightning to wipe out that anomaly, you can also consider it as a test, I have seen a tribulation from distance before, of course I dared not get close to it, I heard that no one can help the target with his tribulation either, seems like if they do, the power of the tribulation will only increase and they will also become targets. Also, keep in mind the area around you will be affected as well, so you better don''t let anyone get close to you." Krune was alarmed, tribulation lightning? He is a wisp, how the hell will he even be able to resist such thing? If there is one thing that Krune had always done, that was to always keep his distance from his opponents, a wisp energy body is very weak, any serious hit will not simply tear it apart, it will hit his core directly too, and now he needs to go through such a calamity? Fu*k you, Heavens! Although he wanted to complain more, Krune quickly calmed his mind instead, no point in get angry now, there is a lightning coming at him and he need to find a way to block it. Unfortunately for Krune, Ruik''s next words made him almost fall in despair. "Oh right, tribulation lightning always comes in batches of nine strikes, so you will need to hold on all nine hits or you are done for." Krune wanted to cry but had no tears (Literally), what the hell is it? One lightning strike is probably enough to turn his core to crisp already, but there is in fact nine strikes coming down. Krune howled to the heavens. "Are you kidding me?!" No one answered though. "Ruik, how long do I have until it comes down?" Ruik pondered a bit before answering "I''m not sure myself, but last time when I saw the Heavenly Tribulation, it took around ten minutes from the time I sensed it to the time when the first lightning came down." Krune understood, the lightning needs time to charge first, from the time he completed his breakthrough until now, only two minutes had passed, he have at least more eight minutes if Ruik isn''t wrong. Just as Krune was about to leave, Lakin came out too, as for the Lizard Dragons, they are so frightened that they didn''t dare coming outside, the power of a tribulation lightning is specially effective on demon beasts. "Master, what is happening?" Krune just looked at him "I can''t explain now, just go back into the cave, this isn''t something you can help with." Lakin was taken aback with such a blunt answer from his master, Lakin didn''t understand what''s happening but he wasn''t happy with Krune''s answer either, he wanted to help even though he didn''t know what the situation is, he had always felt like he was a burden and wanted to change it. "But master, I have already broken through the 8th stage and I finally created my second Spiritual Energy Meridian, I can definitely help!" Krune felt like giving him a beating now, the situation is already as bad as it is and his disciple decided to throw a tantrum at such moment, Krune was about to shout back at him when suddenly his mind felt like it was the first to be struck by lightning instead. He then looked back at Lakin surprised. "Repeat what you said." Repeat? Perhaps his master hasn''t heard him well. "I said that I''m at the 8th stage already." "No, not that, after that." Lakin thought that his master acting weird, he was puzzled, but answered anyway. "Is it the part where I said I opened my second Spiritual Energy Meridian?" Krune was ecstatic, he finally saw a sliver of hope and laughed out loud. "That''s it! Well done, Lakin! You have just given me an idea. You two, stay far away to not get in the range of the tribulation. Ruik, explain things to him, I need to hurry." Ruik sent a Divine Sense message to Lakin and the later finally understood the situation, just as he was about to say something, Krune had already used his wind movement and rushed out to find an open space. Ruik was astonished when he saw that. ''What kind of speed is that? He just broke through the Foundation Establishment, but he is as fast as an ordinary 5th stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, maybe even 6th stage! Is that REALLY a wisp?'' Krune didn''t have time to pay attention to Ruik''s two faces at moment, he quickly calmed his mind and concentrated, he looked up and thought. ''You want to wipe me out? Then see how I shall eat you!'' Krune have already decided, he absolutely doesn''t have anything able to block a lightning strike, much less nine of them, since he can''t block it, then he won''t. ''My Spiritual Energy Meridians can absorb all types of energies as long as there is spiritual energy involved, this heavenly tribulation definitely isn''t just normal lightning, I''m absolutely sure that it is made purely of spiritual energy, since that''s the case, today I will have a feast.'' But there is a problem, there is no way that Krune can absorb so much energy at once, in fact, his Spiritual Energy Meridians would not be able to convert anything above their max capacity, and those lightning strikes definitely have much more energy than his meridians can absorb and convert. ''And that''s why I only have one alternative.'' Krune didn''t focus on his three Spiritual Energy Meridians, instead, he put all his thoughts into create more of them, and not creating just one, but three Spiritual Energy Meridians at the same time! ''There is only one moment where my Spiritual Energy Meridians absorb spiritual energy like black holes to the point that I always have problem feeding it, and it is at the moment that they are created, every time I create a new meridian, it absorbs several times more spiritual energy than the previous one, since that''s the case, If I can create three at the same time, maybe the energy of the Heavenly Tribulation will just suffice this criteria.'' Although that was the plan, Krune had never created more than one meridian at once, not to mention that it usually would take a lot of time to do it, but it''s not that Krune couldn''t do it fast, it''s just that the process is really complicated, he needs to keep the balance between all nine pseudo energy meridians until they fuse together, this is a very delicate job, but Krune has no time for that now. ''It''s do or die! But it''s not like I don''t have an advantage now.'' Krune was right, the biggest improvement with his Foundation Establishment isn''t his cultivation, he hasn''t even stabilized his cultivation to start with, as for taking the human form, he can''t use it yet, that''s because his process of breaking through isn''t over, his future golden core hasn''t appeared in his foundation yet, which means that it probably will only be over when the Heavenly Tribulation is done with. What Krune was think about was Divine Sense! Krune already tried it out, his Divine Sense now has a total of three kilometers of radius! But that''s not the part that will help him at moment, what will help him is the boost over the control of spiritual energy, as it was said before, when a cultivator opens his Divine Sense, his control over spiritual energy improves several folds, and Krune''s Divine Sense is already as good as someone at the late stages of the Foundation Establishment! Krune didn''t spare any spiritual energy while keeping his Divine Sense at max power, he only has seven minutes to finish all three of them, if he can''t do that, then what''s the use for the remaining spiritual energy after he''s dead? Krune wasn''t having a nice time though, create a Spiritual Energy Meridian is a tough process that puts a lot of burden on the mind, let alone create three at the same time and have to finish it in just a few minutes, after two minutes, Krune''s soul was already hurting, if not for the tempering of the breaking down process, he might have fainted right there and then. Krune didn''t dare to slack off though, that''s because he isn''t planing to finish it within the last five minutes, the reason is simply, that''s a time based on what Ruik saw in the past, and that was a Core Formation realm tribulation. Who said that his Foundation Establishment tribulation will take the same time to come down? Krune wasn''t going to take chances, if everything went well with his Meridians creation just to be shot dead moments before completing them, it would really be an unsatisfying death. ''Two more minutes, I will finish them in only two more minutes, when the time comes to give the final push in the meridians fusion, I will stop there and wait. Although I don''t know if the lightning could come earlier, I also don''t know if it could come later. If that happens and I don''t have any spiritual energy to feed my new meridians, they will simply break apart and I will definitely not be in condition to recreate them again, not to mention that I might not even have the time to do so anyway.'' Second by second went by, Krune''s soul was screaming in pain, but he ignored all of it, in his mind, there was only the three Spiritual Energy Meridians in front of him. Pain? What''s that? During this time there was no such thing as pain, no such thing as tribulation, no distractions at all, his spiritual energy was running down fast, after all, not only is he keeping his Divine Sense at full power, the creation of the meridians themselves also consumes spiritual energy. Fortunately, he had just broken through, so he was at his peak condition when he started. Crackling sounds could now be heard from above, the world in a hundred kilometer radius was dark, it felt like the sun would never appear again, the oppressive energy from the Heavenly Tribulation made all beasts to lie down trembling, the only ones doing fine at moment were Ruik, who is the only Foundation Establishment other than Krune in this place at moment, and surprisingly Lakin, but no one knows if it had something to do with the fact that Lakin is a wisp or if it''s because he also cultivates the Myriad Energies Technique. Ruik was looking attentively to the sky, suddenly he noticed something. "Not good, I think its coming down faster than that time when I watched the tribulation happening." But after thinking for a moment, he quickly calmed down, he knows very well how intelligent Krune is, there is no way that Krune hadn''t thought about such possibility, even if he hasn''t, there is nothing they can do anyway, Heavenly Tribulation is something that must be conquered alone. Krune was almost fainting when he finally finished creating the three meridians, but he couldn''t relax at all, he finished the process but it still needs it''s final push, he will need to keep that balance until the lightning comes down, he can''t finish it earlier or he will be done for, the problem is, to keep this balance is just a strenuous as the creation process itself, he won''t be able to hold it for much longer. Fortunately for Krune, he was right about the time that the tribulation would be coming down before ten minutes, Krune looked up to the sky, although the tribulation hasn''t come down yet, he could now feel when it was going to happen, Krune gave the final push and then the three Spiritual Energy Meridians were finished. "Click, click, click" Krune heard the familiar sound and just a few moments later, the three meridians started to absorb the spiritual energy of the heaven and earth as if it was air, in a second, all the spiritual energy from the surroundings disappeared without a trace, the spiritual energy absorption was so terrifying that even Krune''s own spiritual energy started to flow into the meridians, Krune couldn''t stop it at all, if it continued like that, he would be sucked to death in the next second, fortunately for him, his prediction was right, the first bolt came crashing down like a divine beast of lightning, it was determined to end all life. Too bad though, Krune''s three new Spiritual Energy Meridians seemed like they had smelled the tastiest food of all times, they immediately moved above Krune and surprisingly, they enlarged? Krune wasn''t sure if it was hallucination or reality, but he didn''t have time to think anyway, his meridians ate up the lightning down in a second, Krune even wondered if that thing was really a Heavenly Tribulation Lightning at all. ''Holly crap! All that energy wasn''t enough to even fill the hole in the teeth of those guys! How do you all expect me to create more meridians in the future when your appetite only grows with more of you around?'' Krune thought that but he wasn''t the least bit sad, it just shows how powerful his Spiritual Energy Meridians are, as for the spiritual energy necessary for the future meridians, he can think about that later. The second lightning came down, just like the first one, it was eaten up entirely, then the third, the forth, the fifth, all the spiritual energy of the lightnings disappeared inside of his Spiritual Energy Meridians as if they were drops of water falling in the ocean, you couldn''t even see a trace of them anymore. This process continue all the way up to the 8th tribulation lightning, only after this last one did his Spiritual Energy Meridians finally set down, they returned to their original size and after that, all three of them shined for a little while and then they were finished. It was supposed to be a joyous moment, but Krune wasn''t the least bit happy after seeing it. "Fu*k you! There is still one more lightning to come down, can''t you three eat a little more?" Krune receive no answer though, Krune felt gloomy but quickly regained his composure, he looked up to the sky, most of the clouds in the distance had been cleared already, it was obviously that the next bolt will be the last one, crackling sounds could be heard from above, Krune then made up his mind and shouted to the heavens. "I said that I''m going to eat you, didn''t I? Until now the only ones feeding were my meridians, after all this shit my core is almost completely empty anyway, you should provide a good enough meal for the time being!" Krune pointed all his six Spiritual Energy Meridians to the sky. As if hearing Krune''s provocation, the last bolt came down! Just before it hit, Krune noticed something strange, if he had his human form, he would definitely be giving a bitter smile. ''Is it me or this last tribulation lightning seems a lot stronger than the previous ones?'' Krune was right, in fact, the last tribulation lightning is very famous outside, the cultivators even gave it a very cute name too. Life Ending Strike. Chapter 20 - Krune Gets a Lightning Rainbow Candy Krune, of course, still doesn''t know about this awesome nickname. The lightning struck Krune''s six Spiritual Energy Meridians, immediately they started to work at full power, but there was too much energy to be absorbed and converted, if this continued like that, he wouldn''t be able to hold back anymore. ''I have to redirect the energy somewhere, but the problem is, the Heavenly Tribulation is targeting me, it definitely won''t go anywhere else.'' Sparks flew everywhere, Krune energy body was almost disappearing and his core would soon to be affected, suddenly, Krune had an idea. ''I need to send the energy somewhere but it can only target me, then, what if I send it direct into my universe without waiting for conversion? Other than the planet itself, my universe is basically void, there should be no problem in releasing all the tribulation power there, after all, the void is considered to be myself.'' Krune didn''t have time to ponder about the pros and cons, he had to act now, Krune immediately stopped the converting of energy process and opened his meridians fully to let all the energy pass through, all the lightning seemed to have found a path which it could follow and rushed inside, as soon as the tribulation lightning appeared inside his universe core, it started to rampage around, fortunately, it was all void, there was nothing to be destroyed to start with. Krune kept absorbing more lightning and a few moments later, all the energy of the tribulation was now flashing right and left, up and down, all around his universe foundation, Krune knows that this is just the start, he can''t simply leave the tribulation lightning moving around freely in his universe, this is a Heavenly Tribulation, made purely of spiritual energy, it won''t simply disappear, it will keep running around until it finds a target. Krune focused inside his universe foundation, here, he is god, when the lightning first struck, Krune had initially used his energy meridians to convert it into spiritual energy, although he opened his channels and let the lightning go through later, he had already restored almost all his spiritual energy before that. Krune pondered for a bit, unless the tribulation lightning finds a target, it won''t go away, and there is only one thing that can be used as target in his universe foundation, his planet! ''But this shouldn''t be a problem, I don''t need to guide the entire tribulation at once to strike my planet, I can do that slowly.'' And so he did, with the spiritual energy available to him in his core, he started to bait the tribulation lightning everywhere until it got separated in various small tribulations, slowly, he guided one of them to his planet. ''This is the moment of the truth'' The lightning tribulation seemed to have smelled something and rushed straight to planet, the planet wasn''t big to start with, even though the interior of the core space is warped so it is much bigger than the appearance from outside, it had it''s limit, so Krune''s planet wasn''t much bigger than a few kilometers, the tribulation lightning struck it directly, immediately, the entire planet seemed to have lightning sparks running all around it''s body. Krune''s soul wasn''t having a good time either, lightning element, specially one made of pure spiritual energy, is very effective against soul forms, with this one single strike, the pain that Krune felt wasn''t the least bit inferior to when he first started breaking his core down, fortunately, it was still bearable. After a few minutes, the lightning finally lost it''s power and disappeared, Krune was feeling bitter, this was only the first one, he had over a hundred strands of lightning that he left running around in his universe, but he quickly made his mind, he needs to get over with it soon, otherwise, the tribulation might find it''s way to his planet and strike all at once, there won''t be even a trace of Krune''s soul after that. Lightning after lightning struck the surface of Krune''s little planet, but this situation wasn''t without rewards, Krune''s soul is being tempered even further, every time a lightning struck, he would go through an unimaginable amount of pain, but he could feel the power of his soul strengthening bit by bit, he was familiar with this feeling from when he was breaking down his core. Five lightnings, ten Lightnings, twenty lightnings, fifth, eighty, a hundred, Krune was already on the verge of fainting when finally, the final strand of tribulation lightning was guided to his planet, Krune put a strong front and faced the last lightning head on, that''s right, Krune knows that the lightning also helped his soul tempering, so he decided that the last one would fall directly in his soul. "I said I was going to eat you, and I will keep my word." This time, Krune really felt he was going to die, but it wasn''t long bfore the lightning power finally ran out, Krune left a sigh of relief. ''It''s finally over.'' Just as he was about to start meditating to recover himself, that feeling of being one with the world returned. ''This... That''s right, the golden core formation.'' Krune was right, he could feel the energy of the world again, something different from any other energy, even spiritual energy. It started to congregate in the place that he had prepared for his future golden core, but suddenly, something unexpected happened. "The hell?! This thing isn''t golden at all!" Krune had heard from Ruik that his own future golden core was also golden from the start, its just that the golden color it had was very weak, from what Ruik heard from other demon beasts, this is the normal process, the higher your stage in the Foundation Establishment, the the stronger the golden color in the golden core becomes, it seems that when you arrive at the 9th stage, the golden core will be completely golden, showing that you are ready to enter the Core Formation realm. The problem is, Krune''s future core wasn''t golden, in fact, it didn''t have just one color, his future golden core, which isn''t golden at all, looked more like a rainbow. "Maybe the heavens felt pity of me brought some candy for me to eat." Of course, that was just some bullshit Krune thought in the pass, there was no way such thing could happen, but still, why is his core so... colorful? But it wasn''t over yet, just as the core was about to be completely formed, Krune felt the power of the tribulation lightning again. Turns out that his planet was struck by lightning so many times that it had kept some of it in it''s interior, just a moment before his future ''rainbow'' core was finished, that strand of lightning hit it. Krune was alarmed, as soon as it was struck, it started tremble and jump all over like it was popcorn, Krune started to pray in his heart. ''Please don''t break, please don''t break, please don''t break...'' If his future rainbow core broke, his Foundation Establishment breakthrough would most likely be considered a failure, and his core destroyed. Only death awaits for him if that happens. Fortunately, after a few minutes, it stopped jumping around, it regained it''s rainbow like color and the world energy finished it''s formation, it was now lying quietly in the center of his planet core, but there was something different about it now, one could see some lightning sparks running around it. "What kind of situation is this? First I get a child''s candy as my future golden core, well, not golden anymore though, and now this candy has lightning running around it, I might as well pretend to be a clown and give it to the first kids I find beside the streets, even if the lightning don''t let them eat it, it will still look like a funny toy." Of course, such thought was basically done because of Krune''s gloominess, he couldn''t really give his future core away like that, it''s just that he had to go through so much shit to complete his Foundation Establishment breakthrough that wanted to vent somewhere. ''It might have something to do with my foundation, the spiritual energy in my little universe is also rainbow like, so this is probably the reason.'' Krune put those thoughts behind his mind, he looked at the rainbow core and it seems that it won''t do anything for the time being, so he decided to go back to the spiritual vein lake for the time being. On the way, he met with Ruik and Lakin. "Master, you survived! That''s great!" Ruik also comented. "Now then, you have finished your breakthrough, so our contract is over, I think a wisp''s foundation is pretty good for cultivation too, so why don''t you give yourself to me?" Krune just laughed it out. "Give myself to you? Does it mean you fell in love with my awesomeness? I''m sorry but I have a fiance already." Ruik went red from anger. "Scram!" He turned back and entered the cave again. Both Lakin and Krune laughed even harder, Lakin looked back at Krune and asked. "Master, is everything over? Is there something you need help with?" Krune was happy with his concern. "I''m okay, except for the fact that I feel like a pile of shit, I''m pretty much fine, let''s go back to the spiritual vein lake, I need some time to recover." After returning to the spiritual vein lake, Krune went to find Ruik straight away, Lakin followed out of curiosity too, he then explained about his situation and how his future core looked like some rainbow candy with lightning around it. Lakin didn''t know much about it to start with so he just listened, as for Ruik, his eyes looked like he was seeing an anomaly. "I know quite a few Foundation Establishment beasts, but all of us have the same type of golden core, the only difference is how much golden they are depending on our cultivation stages." Ruik pondered for a bit and then continued "But you must remember that Katiu Forest isn''t a big place to start with, there is way too many things out there that we don''t know, there might be some other Foundation Establishment cultivators with a situation like yours. It was the first time I''ve heard about a Heavenly Tribulation falling before the Core Formation realm, but due to the lack of information we have here, it is very possible that it could have happened outside." Krune agreed with his train of thought, there is now one more reason for him to leave, he then went ahead with another question. "So, how this ''nurturing the golden core'' works? Do I need to simply cultivate normally or is there some secret to it?" Lakin also paid attention to this question, thanks to his master, he really has a chance at the Foundation Establishment too, Ruik looked at him and answered. "There is, in fact, this isn''t a secret, you would find out about that sooner or later, the core in the center of the foundation can be nourished by sending spiritual energy directly into it, once it feels the presence of spiritual energy, it will absorb the energy by itself, you just need to keep applying more spiritual energy until it stops absorbing, that is when your future core is ready to breakthrough to the next stage of the Foundation Establishment. Of course, you can''t neglect your foundation either, try to remember what I said about my island in the lake foundation." Krune pondered a little and found this memory, Ruik had said before that the lake holds the spiritual energy, it then is used to strengthen the island foundation, when the island gets sturdy enough, you can breakthrough to the next stage, he then waited for Ruik to continue. "You can think about it as preparing the foundation for a natural calamity, the breakthrough of each stage will come followed by a huge explosion of spiritual energy, if you future core or your foundation can''t resist it, it will break apart. Your planet foundation is definitely a top ranked foundation, so it should take even longer to improve it due to it''s size." After hearing that, Krune asked again. "So, which one should I nurture first, the foundation or the core?" Ruik answered straight away "The core should be first, the reason is because it is very fast, the planet will take a long time, but as far as I know, the future cores only absorb the necessary spiritual energy and they don''t need you to stop to stabilize it, different from your foundation, which needs to be stabilized together with your cultivation. My future golden core for example, it kept absorbing spiritual energy for an entire week without stop, but after that, it never accepted spiritual energy again, if you want, you can do it even faster, you just need to gather more spirit stones and suck then dry, as long as the future core have enough space for spiritual energy, it will accept everything." "If I calculate the total spiritual energy that I used to fill up my golden core, I guess 200 to 300 Rank One spirit stones of middle or high quality should be enough." Krune mentally noted down all this information, it wasn''t that complicated in the end, basically, nurture the core, then nurture the foundation, then breakthrough to the next stage. After conversing for a little while more, Krune went to the side of the spiritual vein lake and started to recover himself, he decided to take a few days break to relax a little and think about his next steps. --- After a week, Krune was at peak condition again, he decided that he will first gather some spirit stones from the nearby spiritual veins and get over with the first stage of his rainbow core, Krune had completely given up the idea of using only the natural spiritual energy to feed his rainbow core or his planet foundation, he is a wisp, even thought he is at the Foundation Establishment now, he only got another ten years of life span. He is four years old at moment, which means that he only has another sixteen years to breakthrough the Core Formation realm bottleneck. He also wanted to try out the differences of being in the next realm, exactly how stronger have he got? How better can he control his spiritual energy after the last tempering of his soul? His Divine Sense is out of the charts, no one at his level has a Divine Sense as powerful as his, so he wanted to test if beasts at the same cultivation level as himself can detect it. Finally, he has to stabilize his cultivation too, he can feel that the rainbow like spiritual energy in his ''universe'' isn''t flowing smoothly yet. What else is better to achieve all of that other than battle? Chapter 30 - This is not fair! Somewhere three days away from the village, a group of ten people were stationed waiting for something, they were using clothes that made them look like bandits, they all had cultivation that varies between the 3rd and 6st stage of Foundation Establishment, their leader was holding a picture of Krune, they had received an order from the clan to capture this demon beast in human form, they should also eliminate all witnesses while at it, the Mercenary guild can''t be trifled with. They received this order three days ago and set out from Kaley City, the leader also received information of how to recognize Krune''s aura, he isn''t putting much thought on it, the target is only at the 1st stage of Foundation Establishment, it will be very easy to capture. So what if he beat three 2nd stage puppets at once? With his 6th stage cultivation he could do that too even if there was more of them! "Alright, we rested enough, let''s set out, considering the time span we should be able to find him tomorrow at most, we should hurry." --- Krune was traveling with the group, in the last three days they fought two bandit groups, to bad for them though, they underestimated him, it wasn''t long when they were wiped out, the other three Foundation Establishment cultivators were amazed with Krune, to think that a 1st stage Foundation Establishment guy could be this strong. The bandits were really unlucky, Krunes divine sense can be extended to over five kilometers, although it spends a lot of spiritual energy to keep it on, it doesn''t mean that Krune need to do so without stop, he simply used it every 15 minutes or so for a second or two, with that he could find out about the bandits ambushes long before they did something. Yusa wasn''t much different either, she might not have Krune strength, but she still got a Two Stars Mercenary Badge, she is quite strong herself. Krune saw her using a water prison, the enemy couldn''t leave doesn''t matter what he did, inside that prison he could see water blades running around and attacking the bandit from all sides, it didn''t take long before he was dead. She also had something that looked like water dragons dancing around her body, they didn''t do anything, in the end she told him that they were for defense, they would be used to block any attacks coming in her direction. Seeing that, Krune tried to make a water prison himself, it looked a very good imprisonment skill after all, but he failed in the first tries, Yusa was laughing at first, did Krune even know how long did it take to learn that by herself? But the smile on her face didn''t last long, an hour later, Krune had already formed a water prison, just that his one wasn''t as good as her, but to learn how to use the water prison by simply looking and only take an hour to get the basic understand of it, she could only think about Krune as a monster! Krune also tried the water dragons, this one was easier to learn, after understand how to form the water prison, his understand of the water element improved several times, so it wasn''t difficult to grasp it. Yusa didn''t even want to look at it anymore, otherwise her self confidence, which has already been hurt, will crumble completely. Practice makes perfect, in those three days Krune''s water prison and water dragons were already as good as Yusa''s, maybe even better, in fact, Krune was holding himself back, he was only practicing, there was no need to go all out with it, he couldn''t help but think. ''The Myriad Energies Technique is really marvelous, now I''m even more sure that this technique has this name because of its ability to improve ones control over the elements, I have been feeling that my connection with the elements is getting stronger and stronger the higher my cultivation gets.'' It was night of the third day when the group stopped to rest, they didn''t set up a concealing formation because there is too many people, their concealing runes would not be able to cover them all, there is also no need for that anyway, very few bandit groups would pose a threat to them to start with. Almost everyone was sleeping, with just three Qi Condensation cultivators awake to watch for them. Krune was nearby cultivating, he finally reinforced his planet foundation enough to breakthrough. ''It really takes a lot of time, and every stage higher I get, the longer it will take, I will need higher level spirit stones in the future or better cultivation resources too.'' He put those thought behind his mind and went forward to breakthrough the next stage, the people who were sleeping suddenly woke up, the spiritual energy of the surroundings started to move crazily in Krune''s direction. Yusa and the other looked at him. "He is breaking through, so he will get to the 2nd stage now, he is already this strong with a 1st stage cultivation, now that he is becoming a 2nd stage one, he will be even stronger. I already wasn''t his match before, now I''m even less. The universe Foundation is really marvelous!" She couldn''t help but sigh. It didn''t take long for an explosion of spiritual energy comes from Krunes universe foundation, it sent dust and everywhere, everyone knew that he had succeed. The leader of the group came forward to congratulate him. "Very good, brother. Now we are going to be even safer during our travel." His name was Ao Sulian, Krune smiled and accepted the compliment, this guy was quite an easy going cultivator, he didn''t have that aura of pride around him when he talked with the Qi Condensation cultivators of the group, Krune had quite a good impression of him. "It was just luck, I''ve have been accumulating spiritual energy for a long time already, so now I simply took the chance that my foundation just got sturdy enough to go through it." Yusa came forward to ask him "How long has it been since you broke through the Foundation Establishment Realm? Krune showed an embarrassed face while scratching the back of his head. "It has already been almost an entire month, I''ve been really busy lately with my leaving of the Katiu forest, Mercenary Exam and all, nothing worth to mention." Yusa and Ao almost vomited blood. Nothing worth to mention? Nothing worth to mention your head! Then what about us? Can you stop stepping on our pride, please? We beg you! "Cough, cough. There is no need for you to hurry so much anyway, in fact, you are progressing very fast already, be careful or your foundation might get unstable, a strong foundation can get you much further even if takes longer." Krune then nodded, he then thought to himself. ''Seems like that my cultivation speed is much higher than people at my level, I better not mention about it in the future.'' They didn''t know that Krune foundation was already as sturdy as it could be, it was exactly because that he was afraid that he hadn''t reinforced his planet foundation enough that he didn''t breakthrough earlier, he is making sure that everything is perfect before advancing any extra level. Finishing talking with them, Krune went back to cultivate again, there is still a few hours before they set of next morning, his future ''rainbow'' core can now absorb more spiritual energy again, Krune took even more spiritual stones from his spatial ring and started send spiritual energy to it. ''As expected, now that I have broken through the rate of absorption of spiritual energy from the rainbow core has increased too, it will probably need more energy as well.'' Before Krune had used around 200 Rank One middle and high quality spirit stones to fulfill his rainbow core, now he needs to see how many his 2nd stage rainbow core will use. Krune kept at it until the next day, he noticed that his spiritual stone are disappearing at very fast pace, if this continued like this he would only have enough for another two days, his rainbow core looked like a bottomless hole too, that made him feel quite depressed. Not at his rainbow core or his universe foundation, but at his own wealth. "Alright everyone, lets go, we are just three days away from Kaley City, from here onward the number of bandits should decrease too." They set forth, everyone was in quite good mood, this travel had been quite easygoing so far thanks to Krune and Yusa who joined the group later. --- It was already getting dark again when Krune suddenly felt a Divine Sense pass over him, he then used his own Divine Sense which was now capable of reaching over six kilometers, sure enough, he found a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators moving in their direction at full speed, it was obviously not a friendly encounter. "Ao, prepared everyone for battle, ten Foundation Establishment cultivators are moving at full speed in our direction, they look like bandits!" Ao Sulian was alarmed, but he came to know during their travel that Krune''s Divine Sense was out of the charts, it was much stronger than his one. "Everyone, battle formation, there is ten Foundation Establishments coming, but we have quite a lot Qi Condensation ones, use three or four of you to form a small formation to deal with one of them, hurry, they are almost here." Krune was already using his Divine Sense to track them, he used it to inform the group from where and when they would appear, and as expected, those guys came just like he said. Those ten Foundation Establishment bandits didn''t say anything and attacked the group straight away, their orders were for them to eliminate all witnesses and bring Krune back. Immediately, chaos descended in the group, their opponents were much stronger than them, Ao Sulian and Yusa Shen have the strongest cultivations at the 3rd stage of the Foundation Establishment each, but the weakest member of the other group had the same strength. Yusa was dealing with two at the same time, at first there was only one at her, but that bandit noticed that he wasn''t her match on a one vs one and immediately called for reinforcements to help deal with her, Ao Sulian was fighting one of the 4st stage, as a mercenary himself, he also could fight those at higher levels, his two Foundation Establishment friends were fighting one each, but they were clearly in disadvantage, their cultivation is lower and they are ordinary cultivators after all. The Qi Condensation groups were fighting three enemies using their advantage in numbers, but they also seemed at the losing side. Krune himself was fighting only one, it''s just that the guy he was against had a cultivation at the 5th stage, much stronger than the others. Krune didn''t mind though, with his last breakthrough to the 2nd stage he could defeat this enemy very easy, the problem was that there was one Foundation Establishment cultivator that hadn''t joined the fray, he just kept looking at how things were going. Krune thought that he was there to prevent anyone from escaping. ''I can''t show my powers yet, I have to ensure that I can get rid of at least three or more of them so that I won''t need to take care of the others while dealing with that guy, he is clearly strong than any of the others.'' Krune pondered for a bit and suddenly, his eyes lit up! He then send a Divine Sense message to Yusa and Ao. ''Let''s get together, try to guide your enemies to me, I will do the same, trust me.'' Ao and Yusa were taken aback, but their situation is dire and don''t have any other options to start with, so they slowly moved in Krune''s direction, the enemy noticed it but didn''t care, they didn''t think that they would be able to do anything in this situation. As soon as the enemy got close enough, Krune smiled. ''Let''s see if the water prison and I got from Yusa is really as good as I think.'' He then jumped in the air, focused all his spiritual energy in the water element, and attacked! "Water Prison!" Yusa was alarmed! Why is him using water prison? This skill takes two to three seconds to be fully formed, with their enemies cultivation, they will be long gone before the prison can be formed. But what she saw after that made she think whether she had ever really used water prison in her life before, that''s because Krune''s water prison was huge! Not only was it enormous, he only took one second to create that gigantic water prison! She immediately thought. "This is nor FAIR!" But before she could even think further, she noticed that both her and Ao Sulian were also inside the water prison, she had used water prison thousands of times, she knows that the next part would be to use water blades to crush the enemies, the problem is, she had never been able to control the direction of the water blades! Doesn''t it mean that both her and Ao will also be crushed by it? But her worries only lasted for another second, there was water blades everywhere, but not a single one hit her or Ao beside her, what kind of monstrous control is that? One must remember that Krune''s main attack skill has always been his wind and blazing wind blades, his control with this type of skill had long since surpassed common knowledge. All the enemies got alarmed, even the leader outside immediately rushed forward, they know that the situation turned around, if they don''t stop break the water prison straight away, their four companions inside will die and they will lose their Foundation Establishment numbers advantage, but how could the ones outside let they do as they please? They understood that this was the turning point, they must stop the enemy from interfering at all costs! In the end the only one who made it to the water prison was the leader, but he was a water element expert too, he was confident that with his cultivation he could totally break that water prison apart, he used his strongest skill at the prison straight away! "Myriad Water Dragons!" Tens of water dragons formed around him, each with the size of a grown man, they all hit the water prison at the same time! Too bad though, who is Krune? He is the first wisp to ever create an universe as foundation and the proud user of the real Myriad Energies technique! Not to mention that with the breakthrough from last night, he prowess just got higher! His water prison couldn''t be broken so easily! But he still had a hard time controlling the prison and making sure that the water blades weren''t hitting Ao and Yusa. The enemy leader''s face got cold, his strongest attack made the water prison tremble all over, it was on the verge of breaking apart, but it still resisted, he was just about to use the same attack again when he suddenly heard four cries coming from the water prison, he looked inside and his face got gloomy. Ao and Yusa noticed that Krune had to ability to control the water blades inside the water prison, the enemies inside were having a hard time defending against them, since that''s the case, why should Yusa and Ao stay put doing nothing? They immediately attacked when they noticed that, the water blades were already taking their entire attention, they didn''t have time to pay attention to Yusa or Ao, the result was a fatal attack directed at them from those two, the four of them died just like that. The leader outside didn''t even have the time to finish forming his second Myriad Water Dragons before it was already over. The water prison collapsed right after, since there is no enemies inside anymore, there is no reason for keep it running. Water spread everywhere, but Krune''s Divine Sense didn''t leave the enemy''s leader for even a second, the battle reached a stalemate and both sides separated, they were waiting to see who would make the first move. Chapter 29 - Journey to Kaley City. After spending a long time trying to convince Krune to never do that again, Yusa went back to her room. Although she was successful in stopping Krune right when he was about to take his underpants completely, for a second, she still got a glimpse of that rainbow colored hidden dragon inside, that image would follow her for life. Back at Krune''s room, he was considering his next step, the Mercenary Rank Team seemed very good, it would bring him combat experience and resources, another thing he was thinking was if he should join a sect, a clan or some other organization. The Mercenary Guild is very broad in this aspect, it isn''t a sect or clan, much less a government attached organization, the mercenaries are together for one sole purpose, mutual benefits! Because of this, the guild doesn''t care if you join any other organization, sect or clan, as long as you don''t forget that you are a mercenary, of course. But then he decided that there was no point in thinking about it now, he is still at the village beside Katiu forest, before leaving the danger zone he won''t be able to acquire much information, even if he asks for it at the mercenary guild, it would be better to see it by himself when he arrives at Kaley City, not to mention that his two ''good friends'' are there too. He decided to simply spend the rest of the day cultivating, he has to reinforce his planet foundation for the breakthrough, time is limited, the faster, the better. Next day, Krune left his room with his hood up, he tried to hide from others while waiting Yusa to come, too bad though, everyone had already taken notice of his robe with a hood and it''s color, not to mention that the hood can''t completely hide his hair, so it didn''t take long for a bunch of people to come at him, Krune then used his wind movement to get away as fast as possible, he went straight to the mercenary guild, although people there also know him, it''s forbidden to cause ruckus inside. Some time later, Yusa also arrived, she spotted Krune easily, she just had to look in the direction that the majority was looking too, she couldn''t help but laugh, Krune had an ugly face while looked around, it was obvious that he wanted people to look somewhere else. She then approached him. "Well, well, seems like you are really famous, I''m sorry to stop your joyous time in the limelight, but we need to go." Krune heard that and felt even more helpless, he can see already that this Yusa girl loves to put salt on ones injuries, so he simply decided that he will ignore those comments from now on. "So, should we join a group here in the mercenary guild and leave? I don''t think it will be very difficult considering our fighting power." Yusa then shook her head. "On the opposite, it will be hard to find a group to join here, you are too famous, you will definitely become a target as soon as you leave the village, I was thinking and I believe it will be better for us to go alone, that way we can leave the city without anyone notice and then join a group on the way, as long as people don''t know that we left we shouldn''t have a problem." Krune looked around and couldn''t help but ask "How exactly do you expect me to leave without anyone noticing? Look around..." Yusa just giggled a little and brought him to the sales room, the building has quite a few of those rooms, this way people and demon beasts could buy and sell things without anyone noticing, she then accessed the list of items and pointed at one of the items in the list, the item she pointed at cost 150 Rank Two low quality spirit stones. "Buy this one, its a Runestone inscribed with a very simple teleportation formation, it''s quality is very bad but it''s just what we need at moment, make sure to don''t let people see that you bought it." Krune was impressed, to think that things that allow one to teleport are sold this easily, isn''t this minor teleportation formation as good as a second life? Yusa knew what he was thinking and crushed his fantasies straight away. "Don''t think to use it as a way to escape from others, this runestone needs a long time to charge, it has nothing to do with your cultivation level, it''s just that the amount of spiritual energy that it can receive at once is very small, if you try to infuse more than what it can takes at once, it will break apart, also, you need at least thirty minutes to completely charge it for use, during that time you can''t move either, that''s because the formation needs a starting point from where to initiate the teleportation from, if you keep moving around, it won''t be able to fix a place." "Simply put, if you think about using it to flee, then you might as well run faster." Krune''s dreams were crushed just like that, he then asked if there wasn''t any better one that would allow one to teleport away earlier or maybe even instantly. Yusa nodded. "There is, but it will need a higher level runestone, the problem is that the higher the level of the rune, the harder it is to inscribe a formation inside, which means the price sky rockets with each level, this teleportation rune is nothing but the lowest grade, a One Star teleportation formation rune, you can already guess how expensive the higher levels are, just this one already costs 150 Rank Two spirit stone of low quality, it''s very expensive already." She then moved the list of items for sale and pointed at the Rank Two teleportation formation rune, this rune could be charged 10 minutes earlier than the previous one and could teleport a little further away, still not very suitable for fleeing though. 1150 Rank Three High Quality spirit stones. Krune saw that and his jaw dropped! "This is day light robbery!" Yusa laughed but disagreed. "That''s because you have no idea how hard it is to inscribe those runes, the quality of the formation inside is also higher, I would show you the higher rank ones, unfortunately, this outer branch doesn''t have them, people and demon beasts that stay here wouldn''t have the necessary spirit stones to buy those anyway." Krune nodded, maybe in the future he could try to make those runes for sell, who knows? After getting a 25% discount from the guild, Krune acquired the teleportation runestone, he couldn''t help but think that being famous really wasn''t good at all, low key is the way to go. "Wouldn''t it work if I had put on a mask or painted my hair black or something?" Yusa shook hear head "Everyone has already marked your presence, you should know already that every person or demon beast have a very distinctive auras that belongs only to them, they just need to pay attention to that." Krune only sighed after that. Yusa then said. "When we go out of the room just pretend that you helped me buying something, otherwise people might guess that we are together." Krune just nodded. Laving the room, Yusa grabbed Krune''s arm and looked at him as if he was her lover. "Borther Krune, thank you very much for helping me buying it, my rank wasn''t big enough to have access to it." Krune wasn''t expecting her to act like ''that'', he immediately turned as red as potato and kept nodding his head, fortunately, it made the act even more realistic, some people around even commented. "Seems like he has already fallen for the old trick." "No helping it, did you forget that this is his first time leaving the forest, he still doesn''t know how big the world is, that Four Stars Badge... sigh" Yusa heard the comments around and was very satisfied, after acting a little more she parted ways with him. Krune then had went to take breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then went back to his room, Yusa was the one who asked him to go take breakfast in the hotel restaurant first for people to see that he was back, Krune, of course, was very happy to do that, he didn''t even need to act when food was involved. Back on his room, Krune waited one hour, they had decide to leave during the day instead of the night because no one would think that they would do that, they already had agreed to a meeting point, the runestone can at most teleport one to a 20 kilometers distance, but the further one teleported, the less accurate it would be, so they decided to meet 10 kilometers away from the village to be safe. Sure enough, one hour later he teleported very close to the meeting point, a minute later, Yusa also appeared nearby. Their teleportation runestones broke after that. "Let not follow the road for now, let''s get far away from the village first, Katiu Forest danger zone is enormous, it will take us a long time to arrive at Kaley City. When night time comes we go back to the main road, if everything goes okay we should arrive in Kaley City in a weeks time." Krune nodded, he had already got a map of the region so he knew that it wouldn''t be a simple one or two days travel. Night time came and Yusa was getting a little tired, although all cultivators can use all five elements, they usually specialize in one, Durin was a wind type, and Yusa was a water type, not very suited for speed, so she is having a hard time to keep up with Krune. As for Krune? He didn''t think he had any specialty, he simple used what he thought that was convenient, it could be said that he is good at all elements. Krune stopped and offered for them to rest, not that he is a gentleman, hell no, he is a very realistic wisp, he simply thought that if they continued like that and got into a fight in the middle of the way, Yusa would drag him down if she wasn''t in her best condition. Yusa accepted the offer, she was really tired. They found an inconspicuous place and decided to stay there for the night, Yusa then took out a runestone and activated it. "This is a simple concealing runestone formation, it will hide us for the time being, different from the teleportation formation, low level concealing formation are very easy to scribe, I believe even I would be able to make some on the lowest quality, so they are quite cheap and convenient." She put it down and then it looked like they disappeared from the surroundings, this low level formation would only work for five to six hours, but it was enough sleeping time for her. She then took a few blankets and put on the ground, just when she was about to go sleep she noticed that Krune was as awake as ever. "Aren''t you going to sleep too? You don''t need to worry, this formation might be low level but unless it is someone at the late stages of the Foundation Establishment or higher, they will not be able to see through it." She then laughed a little "Or could it be that you think I would do something to you during the night?" Krune heard that but just shook his head, although they have met for a very little time he doesn''t think that Yusa is this type of person. "That''s not it, I simply can''t sleep, I have never slept in my life." That was to be expected, Krune is after all a wisp, even though he has got a human body, the body itself was created through his spiritual energy, he can now feel the feelings of a human body but somethings never change, the fact the he doesn''t need to sleep is one of them. Yusa looked surprised at him, how many races are out there that never sleep, not many for sure, but she didn''t pry into the issue, to ask a demon beast which race they are from is a taboo, no demon beast would show their real appearance in case some people have some ideas about their bloodlines or the materials that can be made from their bodies. She then turned around and went to sleep, but before she could even close her eyes Krune asked her. "Aren''t you afraid that I could make something to you during the night instead?" She then laughed. "Nope! I have seen you battle at the Mercenary Exam, I have an intuition that that wasn''t your real power. Simply put, I think I would have no chance against you in a one vs one battle, so if you really wanted, you could have done anything to me on our way out." Krune was amazed with her answer, he then just laughed but declined to comment if her intuition was right or wrong. As for Yusa, although she didn''t lie, she wasn''t 100% sure either, so without Krune noticing, she also used a perception technique that would alarm her if he got close while she was sleeping. It was useless though, Krune isn''t this type of wisp to start with, for him, all types of relationships are to be cherished, except enmity ones of course. Night passed, Krune used this time to cultivate, he took out quite a few Rank One and Two spirit stone and put then around him, he made sure to keep his spiritual energy absorption inside the area that the spirit stones covered to not disrupt the outside or the concealing formation. The night passed without any mishaps, when Yusa woke up and saw Krune sit on the other side cultivating, she let out a sigh of relief, at least it doesn''t seems like she was wrong about Krune. Krune noticed that she woke up and then put the spirit stone that could still be used away. "Ready?" Yusa nodded, she didn''t take the concealing formation back, every time a formation runestone is used, it will break apart after, there was no use to bring it back with her since she had quite a few more anyway, they are quite cheap. "We should go back to the road, even if people notice now that we left it is already too late." She the took a hat from her spatial ring. "Here, instead of using the hood use his hat, just put your hair back and cover with it, it should completely conceal the hair." Krune nodded and did as he was told, sure enough, his hair wasn''t appearing anymore. "We should go and join a group, we moved really fast yesterday so we definitely have caught up with the groups that don''t know about what happened in the Mercenary Guild, as long as we show our mercenary badges they would gladly take us in." Krune agreed with this point of view and then they set off. One hour later they finally found a group with three Foundation Establishment and quite a few Qi Condensation cultivators, after showing their badges the leader of the group also took his own Mercenary badge out, he was happy to bring those two together, there is safety is numbers after all. --- Back at the village beside Katiu Forest, two man were discussing in the hotel restaurant that Krune was before. One of them asked "Have you checked already?" The other one nodded. "Yes, I went there and knocked several times, but he simply didn''t answer, I couldn''t use my Divine Sense to pry inside because of the formations blocking it, but I found a way in and there was no one inside the room, no one saw him either, he probably used a teleportation rune to leave the village." His partner then nodded. "Send the signal, this Four Stars guy with a Universe Foundation is a mine of gold, we have to bring him back to the clan, as long as we force him to sign a blood contract everything will be fine, it has to be before they arrive at Kaley City." The other man accepted the order and went out. Chapter 28 - Look, This is Very Effective! Back at the outer branch beside Katiu Forest, Krune was waiting for his ID to be processed, he was left alone after the attendant finished telling him the benefits of being a Three Stars Mercenary. The problem is, he was told that the process would only take at most one hour, but it has already passed more than two, Krune has a good temper so he didn''t really mind have to wait more, but they could at least have told him that something happened. Krune was pondering if he should go out to ask what is happening when the door of the office opened again, he was relived, seems like they finally finished. He looked at the person who entered, but to his surprise, it wasn''t the middle aged woman from before, but someone he had never seen. It was Marcin, the outer branch supervisor. "Hello, Krune. I''m Marcin, this branch''s supervisor, I came to personally congratulate you." Krune didn''t think much, but since the guy came just to congratulate him, he will accept those words, he heard the middle aged woman tell before that it had been a very long time since a Three Stars Mercenary appeared in this branch, so he could understand the reason why the supervisor came. "It wasn''t much, I should be apologizing instead for the training room, it was me who broke it down after all." Marcin was all smiles, it seemed like he didn''t care the least bit. "That''s of course not a problem, we had told before that everyone could go all out during the test, the fact that the formation couldn''t hold was our fault in the end." Marcin the put a serious face and spoke. "Krune, usually the process to register a Three Stars Mercenary would take at most one hour, but the Head Quarters have made an exception due to your amazing performance during the test, so they decided to reward you with a Four Stars Mercenary Badge and ID, that''s why it took so long for the process to be finished." Krune felt puzzled for a bit, but then his eyes lit up! He had thought about something and asked. "Does it mean that I will receive a better discount when buying something from the guild?" After hearing that comment, Marcin almost fainted! It was obviously that this guy had no idea what it meant to receive a Four Stars Badge at his cultivation level at all! "Cough, Cough. Well, you see, you are not wrong to think that, there is indeed a better discount for Four Stars Mercenaries." He felt like crying while saying those words, but then he continue. "But that''s not what is important about it, the thing is, only cultivators at the Core Formation Realm can apply for a test to acquire a Four Star badge and ID, but the Head Quarters made an special exception for you. You must understand that by becoming a Four Stars Mercenary, you also became a symbol of the mercenary guild, you will have the rights to represent the guild when necessary too, Four Stars Badges are hard to get even for Core Formation Cultivators, this is to show how highly the guild thinks about you." Krune was quite surprised. "It''s a little exaggerated, isn''t it?" Marcin replied. "Not at all, you will receive special treatment at all cities with mercenary guilds in it, you must understand that this level of membership represents ones status in our continent, countless sects and clans will be willing to pay high prices for you to join then! Be happy, young man! You will be famous now! Krune''s mouth twitched when he hear the word ''famous'', he then asked. "Err... What do you mean with famous?" He doesn''t want to be famous, he doesn''t want anyone to pay attention to him at all! On the other hand, Marcin heard him asking about being famous and thought that Krune was more interested in prestige instead of benefits. Poor Krune would be crying if he could read Marcin''s thoughts. Thinking like that, Marcin then continued. "That''s right, your picture has already been sent to all mercenary guild branches in our continent, the guild has already announced the fact that a Foundation Establishment cultivator performed amazingly during the mercenary guild test! The news being spread now stated that that Katiu Forest outer branch had given birth to a 1st stage Foundation Establishment cultivator capable of using two or more elements at once and even Skill Merge! It also says that you was successful in building an ''Universe Foundation''! And it''s exactly because of your universe foundation which is extremely rare in our Yule Continent that you are able to use more elements at once while being at your level." Marcin got more excited the more he spoke. "You can already jump in joy, young man! In at most a few weeks time, there won''t be a single cultivator in our continent that doesn''t know about you, specially because of your eccentric hair, it will be your trade mark! Impressive, right? Right?! As for our outer branch guild of the Katiu Forest, we will be able to bask in the limelight too." Marcin then laughed out loud, really loud! As for Krune? He had already fallen on his knees, this time he is in his human form, so he does have tears, and it is precisely that that is running down from his eyes now, Marcin looked at that and thought that Krune was so happy that he was crying. "Haha! No need to cry, Krune. This is what you deserve, you can take your time to enjoy this moment." Krune looked at him as if Marcin was a demon, but then again, who asked him to act so overpowered during the Mercenary Exam? He could only blame himself for that! Krune received his Four Stars Mercenary Badge and ID, after that, he left the office with a gloomy face, the world seemed to be crumbling down around him, it was not time for him to show his prowess yet, he isn''t strong enough to protect himself from prying eyes. As soon as he entered the entrance hall, everyone immediately spotted him, as the place that gave birth to the Four Stars Mercenary at the Foundation Establish, it was the very first to spread the news to everyone. The entire village already knows about him now. After feeling sad for a little while, Krune finally came back to terms with himself, since it was already already like this, no meaning in keeping cursing his luck. ''So be it! Even if I''m famous now, as long as I keep myself in check, the news will get old and people will eventually forget about me, I just need to stay low for a while and everything should be okay.'' Thinking like that, his mood improved a little, he then remembered that Yusa is waiting for him in the hotel restaurant and proceeded there. After arriving at the restaurant, he soon noticed Yusa in a table at the corner, he was just about to go there when a crowd of people barred his way, they all wanted to see this new rising star, Krune had to squeeze quite a lot to finally arrive at the table. Yusa was laughing at that scene, when he finally arrived she welcomed him in a friendly way. "Yo! Mister Rising Star! One of the extremely rare special early stages Foundation Establishment with a Four Stars Mercenary Badge and ID, the one with a universe foundation. I''m happy that you could take a little of your time to talk with someone as unimportant as me." She said all that while laughing, she could totally see that Krune wasn''t happy with this situation at all. Krune smiled bitterly, every word was a knife going through his heart, the total damage was almost an overkill. "Please, miss Yusa, let me go, okay? I didn''t want anything like this to happen, not at all, I''m suffering here at moment." Yusa was smiling from ear to ear, she already knew back then, before the mercenary test started, that Krune is a first timer ''leaving the forest demon beast''. It felt really good to tease him, after laughing a little more she finally entered the topic at hand. "Alright, the thing I wanted to talk with you is related to the ranked mercenary teams, are you interested in forming one?" Krune was puzzled. Ranked mercenary teams? What is that? "Could you explain what is this ranked mercenary teams is about?" Yusa was already expecting that he didn''t know, so she was already prepared to explain. "It goes like this, the mercenary guilds of the entire world have a team rank for accomplished teams, There is three ranks according to the cultivation level of the teams. The Earth Rank is for Qi Condensation mercenary teams, although not many people pay attention to this Rank, it still exists as a form of making the new recruits who joined the guild as Qi Condensation to put more effort." "The second is the Sky Rank, as you can probably imagine already, this is the rank for those teams with members at the Foundation Establishment Realm, In this rank your team can also have Qi Condensation cultivators, but because there is Foundation Establishment cultivators in the team, it is part of the Sky Rank. Of course, teams of the sky rank would usually only accept Qi Condensation cultivators that have peculiar or amazing abilities." "The last is the Heaven Rank, this is a rank where the group has to have at least one Core Formation Realm cultivator. Of course, this rank means little for us at moment, doesn''t matter how famous you or I am, a Core Formation Realm cultivator wouldn''t join us anyway, the missions available for the Sky Rank aren''t things that Core Formation cultivators are interested about, specially early stages like the both of us." Krune understood how the rank system worked, he then asked. "Why you want to enter the rank system? Is there anything that makes it worth?" Yusa nodded. "Yes, for those on the path of cultivation, cultivation resources are of paramount importance, it''s not simply spirit stone, it is alchemist pills, rare materials, spirit pastes, etc. But they are hard to get, even if you have the money there are things that you can''t simply buy, you need connections! And that''s where the team rank system comes about." "If you go to the mercenary guild now and check the list of items for sale, you will find out that the best quality ones are only available for those in the rank system, it''s a way of ensure that everyone will put the necessary effort to uphold the mercenary guild''s name." Krune understood, it''s indeed a very good strategy to use cultivation resources to force the mercenaries to put their best efforts in the tasks, it''s a no wonder that the mercenary guild is regarded so well in the field of missions. "It looks good and all, but why me?" Yusa then gave a bright smile, she pointed at his Four Stars Mercenary Badge. "What else could be? 25% Discount! Your Four Stars Mercenary allows you to have a 25% discount on all products available for sell, with that we can also enter any country free of charge, not to mention the ability of using teleport formations by paying only the cost to activate it. Tell me, is there anything better in this world than save money?" Yusa showed her true face! She is a money grubber through and through, and she has no intention of hiding that! Krune was taken aback, he thought she would say something to do with his strength or because of his universe foundation or because he could use two elements at the same time, but in the end it was money! And it didn''t seem like she was lying at all. Krune started to ponder if it would be a good idea to create a rank team or not, on one side, if he goes up in the rank, he will catch more attention, but on the other side, there is bound to have a lot of cultivation resources that will help him greatly in the future. Noticing Krune''s dilemma, Yusa smiled and struck while the iron was hot, she knows very well what he is concerned about. "Oh, I also forgot to tell that the teams can opt for having their members names hidden, only the team name appears, any other information can be kept a secret by the guild until they decide the opposite, or when you enter the Heaven Rank, only the Heaven Rank can not hide their information." Krune''s eyes immediately lit up! ''Low key! There is finally a low key event happening in my life!'' He looked at Yusa. "Alright, I accept, I also remember that they said that there is a very small number of contestants that can pass the mercenary guild test even with the lowest grade, but you were able to pass it directly with a Two Stars Badge and ID, so I believe you are quite strong too, it would do no good if only I put effort after all." Yusa was amazed by his answer. Could it be that he thought she would slack of if she had passed the exam with the lowest grade? But in the end it didn''t matter, what matters is that she got Krune, the one who could get several benefits and mainly, 25% of discount on everything! "Great, then we need to find at least one more team member, the rank system doesn''t allow teams with less than three members." Krune nodded, then he asked. "Should we go back to the guild to register first?" Yusa shook her head. "The outer branches can''t register team, only main branches or the head quarters, we will need to go to Kaley City main branch to have our team registered. let''s do like this, I don''t have anything else to do here anymore, so if you are free too, we can depart tomorrow." Krune agreed, the main reason he wanted to apply for the mercenary guild was to get a badge which would help him in finding a mercenary group going to Kaley City. "Very well, let''s do like you said." They conversed a little more about other details and decided to leave, just as Krune started moving, another crowd that have been waiting for him appeared again, this time, Krune snapped, and then, he started changing his clothes... Yusa was almost frightened to death, her face as red as a tomato! Just as Krune was about to removed his underpants, she stopped him. "What the hell are you doing?" Krune was puzzled, he then explained. "I heard that you humans find it disrespectful to change clothes in front of others, I''m doing it to show how angry I am. Look, a lot of people immediately left, as expected, this is very effective after all." Yusa wanted to die! Chapter 27 - They Wont Steal Him! Darius almost vomited blood, your head is broken! Krune came out stressed, it''s a fact that he destroyed the training room, but it''s also true that Darius said that they could go all out. This is also the reason that although fuming, Darius can''t do anything to Krune, he was the one who told to not hold anything back after all. When Krune left the room, everyone opened space for him, those who had criticized him before pretended that they couldn''t even see him at all. As for Durin Vola, he had long disappeared, who knows where he went. One of the contestants came forward, he had a quite high level cultivation, at the 6th stage of the Foundation Establishment, he was extremely curios. "Brother, you are amazing! I''m Reiner, please tell me, is that what you used a skill merge?" As soon as he asked that, everyone eyes almost popped out of their eyes. Skill Merge? That was supposed to only be possible at the late stages of the Foundation Establishment, and usually very few could do that, But Krune was obviously at the 1st stage, really far from that. Krune felt puzzled with that question, he had seen even Qi Condensation cultivators using it before, why does he look so impressed by that? He thought that he didn''t do anything amazing, so he just nodded his head. Now everyone felt like they are seeing a ghost, the guy who asked him that question couldn''t help but exclaim. "Unbelievable! Brother, how did you do that? Only those who reach the late stages of the Foundation Establishment would be able to use Skill Merge, but you are obviously at the 1st stage still, if it''s not a secret, can you tell how did you do that?" Everyone eyes lit up, even Darius couldn''t help but pay attention, he is also at the 6th stage of the Foundation Establishment, but he is far from being able to use Skill Merge. Krune now felt even more puzzled, then what was that when he saw two Qi Condensation Cultivators merging their skills? Krune looked back at him and asked. "Isn''t it a little exaggerated? I remember when I was back at Katiu Forest that a few Qi Condensation Cultivators also used Skill Merge, it''s just that they needed two people to work together to achieve the merge effect, I''m already at the Foundation Establishment, shouldn''t it be obvious that I can use it?" After hearing that, everyone looked at him strangely, Reiner could only explain the situation to him. "Well, brother, you see, when two people use skill merge, they need to only concentrate in their own part of the skill, which means that even Qi Concentration cultivators are able to do so as long as they are in sync. The thing is, those Qi Condensation and above only have to control a single element. The ones that you saw before, one was focusing at the wind element, while the other at the fire element, correct?" Krune nodded, that was indeed the case, Reiner then continued. "That is the key of the issue, before our control over the spiritual energy is high enough, we can''t merge two skills together, at most we can cast two skills of different elements one after another, let me show you what happen when I try to use two different elements at the same time." Reiner then used one hand to converge some wind element while he started to focus on the other hand, he was trying to converge fire element while keeping the wind element going out, soon, his face started to sweat and then one could hear a small ''boom'' coming from the hand with wind element, the wind element on his hand dissipated right after. Reiner looked very tired after that, he thn looked back at Krune. "You see it, brother? When we try to use both fire and wind element at the same time for example, our spiritual energy goes berserk and we lose the control over both elements, but you can obviously use them, and not only can you use it, you can even use several at the same time, before, you used ten wind blades of fire, and you didn''t even sweat to do that." Krune was surprised with this finding, that''s because back then, although he couldn''t use skill merge straight away, he could still use two elements at the same time, now only he could do that, he didn''t feel the least bit uncomfortable, only when he tried to merge the skills that he had a hard time practicing, Krune pondered a bit, it could only be because of his Myriad Energies Technique, he couldn''t think about anything else. But the problem now was how to explain this fact to everyone. "Even if you tell me that, I can''t explain it myself, today was the very first time that I heard about the fact that only late stages Foundation Establishment should be able to do that, as far as I remember, I was already able to do so when I broke through and got my human form back then." He couldn''t mention that he was able to do that even before being at the Foundation Establishment, much less tell everyone about his Myriad Energies Technique true form. Reiner shook his head, he didn''t believe that Krune was telling the truth, nor did anyone else, they have never heard about someone able to use two elements at the same time at Krune''s level, at most, some race with a high level of soul power like the spiritas, should be able to do it a little bit earlier, but even so it would be at the 6th or 5th stages of the Foundation Establishment, and those are even rarer. Of course, this is also because they don''t know much about the geniuses of the world, otherwise they would think like that. Suddenly, another cultivator pointed at Krune and exclaimed. "Ah! I know who you are, you are the guy who built an universe as foundation!" Immediately, all eyes gathered around Krune again. An universe as foundation? Is that even possible? The cultivator then explained what happened two days ago at the hotel. Reiner showed a look of understanding. "I see, if you really built an universe foundation, then it''s a no wonder that you can do what you do. Brother, I admire you!" Krune''s eyes suddenly lit up, he couldn''t help but think. ''That''s right! I have my universe foundation! I can just use it as an excuse again. Why did I even forget about at that?'' He then looked at the people. "Indeed, I have built an universe as foundation, now that I think about it, It was after I completed my foundation that I found out that I could use two elements at the same time without problem, I always thought that to be able to use two elements was something that any Foundation Establishment could do, but now it seems that the reason has something to do with the level of my foundation." He then opened his foundation for view again, even if he has to attract more attention, he has to bring their attention away from his Myriad Energies Technique, and at moment, this is the best choice. When the people used their Divine Sense to see his foundation, they were amazed. It was true! Someone really built a little universe as foundation! Everyone started to get close to Krune to befriend him, since his ability to control more than one element at the same time came from his foundation, then there is no way they will be able to steal it from him, it''s better to form some ties instead, as long as he doesn''t die in the middle of the way, he is bound to become famous in the future. Seeing that things were getting out of control already, Darius stepped forward and said. "Alright, leave the rookie alone, he is not your Zoo attraction, you guys can look for him another time, we have procedures to go through now too." Darius anger had dissipated like smoke after finding out that Krune can in fact use two or maybe even more elements at the same time, not to mention his universe foundation and his ability to Skill Merge. He already consider Krune as a treasure of the mercenary guild, when the head quarters receive their call about what happened here today, he might even get a promotion. "From now one you are a Three Stars mercenary, go to guild office to take your badge and make your ID." Krune was relived. ''Fortunately, I won''t need to pay for the formation and the training room.'' On the side, Yusa''s eyes were shining! It seems like she was thinking about something. Darius came forward to continue with the mercenary exam. "Alright, for those who still have to go through the examination, follow me, we are going to the other training room to continue the test." Krune decided that there would be no reason to stick around, not only his ''low profile'' plan failed miserably, every single person or demon beast inside the mercenary guild was looking at him, not to mention that he didn''t notice that his hood feel down, so everyone could see his rainbow hair. Krune went inside the office to register as mercenary, only when the door closed behind him did he feel better, at least everyone can''t see him inside the office. He wasn''t the first inside though, Durin Vola there as well, when he looked back at Krune, the disdain in eyes had totally disappeared, but his pride is too high, he simply snorted and looked away. Yusa was there too, she looked at him as if he was some jewel, it made him feel uncomfortable, people looked at him like that while he was back at the Katiu Forest as a wisp, but it felt somewhat different, she came forward to compliment him. "Hello, fellow daoist. I''m called Yusa Shen, nice to meet you." She then shacked hands with him, since she was being polite Krune would also be the same. "Nice to meet you too, I''m Krune, call me Krune only, things like fellow it or fellow that makes me feel uncomfortable." She smiled back. "Very well, Krune. I have witnessed your prowess in the testing room, to think that you can Skill Merge and even have an universe as foundation, impressive." Krune just pretended that it wasn''t anything to pay attention about, Yusa then continued. "Krune I have something to ask you, can you make me company for a bit after the registering process is over?" Krune felt a little puzzled but agreed anyway, it won''t hurt to just hear what she has to say. Durin went forward first, he was the first to arrive at the office so it was only right that he went to register ahead, after that was Yusa''s time, the process was quite fast, before she left she told him that she would wait at the hotel restaurant where Krune is staying, Krune accepted that. After Krune entered the next room, he was greeted by the attendant, It was a middle aged woman with a Two Stars Mercenary Badge pinned on her clothes. "Hello there, so you the famous elements user everyone outside is commenting, right?" Krune just scratched the back of his head while looking away, he didn''t want to comment about it anymore, noticing that Krune didn''t want to talk the attendant continued. "Alright, let''s get done with it, your registering process will take some time, it has been a long time since someone passed the the test with the highest level of accomplishment, to give you your Three Stars badge and ID, we will first have to call the Head Quarters of our Yule Continent and apply for your ID, those who get a Three Stars badge have much more advantages after all, so we can''t simply give those that easily. We already sent the information over, so it shouldn''t take too long though, at most an hour." She caught Krune''s attention. "What other benefits are there?" She then explained the extra benefits that only comes to mercenaries who are at least Three Stars. "To start, you are able to get a 20% discount in all techniques, arts and items provided by the mercenary guild, when you go outside, just pass at the balcony and they will show you everything that can be bought." "Another thing is that you can apply for higher level missions, although they are more dangerous, the rewards are also much better." "There is also the fact the people can come and look for you directly, in that case the payment offered to you will be higher than those with lower level badges." "To enter new countries or continents, you will probably have to use teleportation formations, Mercenaries with Three Stars badges and above get priority to use them and have only to pay the amount of spirit stones necessary to activate the formation." She kept explaining all the benefits, Krune was very happy, it looked like that failing in his low profile plan wasn''t a complete disaster after all. --- At the same time, in the Head Quarters of the Mercenary Guild at the application review office, the employee received the request for a Three Stars Mercenary Badge and ID, he was a little surprised, even considering the entire Yule Continent, they only receive Three Star badges application for first time testers a few times every week, and that''s because the Yule Continent is huge! Because of that, they had to verify the information first. Together with the request there was also the recording of the examination process that Krune went through, at first, he was expecting that Krune would just barely be able to pass the exam and be injured all over after that, but when he saw Krune destroying the three puppets in a single attack, he was amazed. ''Isn''t that a skill merge? How is that possible? They said that the contestant was only at the 1st stage of Foundation Establishment!" But strangely enough, as soon he saw Krune cut the puppets to pieces, the video was cut too. He felt puzzled, he then immediately called that branch. Back at the Mercenary Guild branch, Marcin, the supervisor of this branch, was pacing back and forward, he knows that they found a treasure and the Head Quarters will definitely contact them back, sure enough, he received the call. "Hello. Can I talk with Marcin the supervisor?" Marcin took a deep breath, he can''t even remember the last time they received a call from the Head Quarters, they usually received orders from the Main Branch at Kaley City. "It''s him, I suppose you are calling regarding the new Three Stars Mercenary that we found." The person on the other side of the line then spoke. "Oh, it''s good that you know. My name is Fulie, I''m part of the review office in the Head Quarters, while looking at the video of the contestant Krune, right after he destroyed the three puppets, the video was cut, we can''t give the permission for a Three Stars badge and ID before confirming why was that." Marcin knew that it was coming, he then started explain what happened after Krune cut down the puppets. "You are telling me that not only was he able to use two elements at the same time while still the 1st stage of the Foundation Establishment, his Skill Merge destroyed the puppets, and it even had the power to cut down the protection formation of the room? That formation was supposed to be able to hold back attacks with power two stages higher than the contestant, you know?" Marcin then explained that it was really what happened, because the entire training room was reduced to rubble, the video recording was cut middle way too, he also explained that they found out that Krune had built a little universe as foundation, which is probably the reason why he can use two elements at the same time so early. "I understand, I will have to report it to the higher ups first, I call you back in a few minutes." Back at the Head Quarters, Fulie rushed into his supervisor office. The man behind the desk was around his forties, black short hair and no beard, he was Kassius Ruli, the supervisor of the applications review office. Kassius looked at the Fulie with a cold face, this guy dared to enter his office without even knocking, but before he could complain, Fulie was already telling him about his findings at the outer branch beside Katiu Forest. After hearing the whole story, Kassius immediately got up! "Are you 100% sure about that? Is there really someone who built an universe as foundation? And it can even allow him to already control more than one element at once?" Fulie nodded, he also find it unbelievable! Kassius took a deep breath and immediately made his decision. "Pass ahead my order, Krune is now a Four Stars Mercenary, register him as a special member of the Yule Continent Head Quarters and allow the ID to be processed immediately. Also, spread the news, otherwise the Head Quarters of the other continents might try to steal him from us. I will definitely not allow that to happen, we have to proclaim that he is our member as soon as possible!" Fulie was astonished, this is because to apply for a Four Stars ID and Badge, one has to at least be at the Core Formation Realm! --- Back at the office that Krune was staying at, he was thinking to himself. ''If I keep going on like this, someone might find out about my real identity. I will try to keep myself out of sight for a while. Low key, low key...'' Poor Krune, little did he know about the consequences of his actions. Chapter 26 - I Think the Formation Was Broken! The Mercenary Exam. Krune laughed out loud. "I guess this foundation of mine caught your eyes after all, or could it be this is not enough? Well, if that''s that case, then I''m leaving." Darten was alarmed! "Senior, wait! This little one had eyes but couldn''t see the Mountain Tai, please excuse my previous words, I really didn''t mean to offend you." Krune wasn''t the least bit angry to start with, in his eyes, to aim for a better foundation is to fight for a better future, he liked Darten''s thoughts very much. "Don''t worry, I''m just joking, why the serious face and all, just treat me as you would a friend, I own your father a favor and I intend to pay it." Darten was relived, Krune was a lot more friendly than he expected, in general, higher level cultivators act more arrogantly in front of those with a lower realm. "Then I thank you in advance, senior." Krune nodded, they went back to the living room, after Darten closed the windows, Krune reopened his universe foundation for view again and started explain how he reached that conclusion. Of course, he left outside the fact that he gained inspiration from a wisp''s birth and the fact that he went through a heavenly tribulation, those were too much chocking and might bring trouble if others find out in the future. The sky was turning dark by the time Krune finished explaining, when he was about to leave he just left a piece of advice. "Although I told you me experiences, you shouldn''t try something like the ''universe'' foundation, without enlightenment, you won''t be able to understand the process how a world works, this is not something that can be explained through words." Darten took Krune''s words to heart, he knows this point very well, to build something that you can''t fully understand will only spell failure, but he definitely wasn''t sad, thanks to Krune''s experiences, he can now see what his foundation path is. "Thank you, senior! I will make sure to remember those words, if I have a chance in the future, I will definitely pay back this favor." Krune shook his head. "There is no need for payment, what your father gave me is hundreds of times more valuable, it might not be in the eyes of other cultivators, but it definitely is on mine." With those last words, he left, behind him, Darten had a look of reverence. He hoped to become someone as magnanimous as Krune. --- After getting back to the Hotel, Krune was stopped by a bunch of people, they were all in front of his room waiting, when they saw Krune arrive they were ecstatic! They were afraid that he might have left already. One of those cultivators took the initiative to step forward. "Hello, senior. My name is Arlin, we have been waiting for you." Krune was puzzled at first, but after checking those people cultivation levels, he understood what was happening, they were all at the 8th or 9th stage of the Qi Condensation realm, they must have come to ask for pointers about breaking through the Foundation Establishment realm. "I don''t have too much time, I have to take the mercenary guild examination tomorrow, so I won''t be able to entertain you." The Qi Condensation cultivators were already expecting for a refusal, they know how valuable the knowledge of those with extremely complicated foundations are, but they came prepared. "We know senior won''t teach us easily, that''s why we are all willing to pay for your services." Krune was taken aback, pay for pointers? Now that he thinks about it, it really makes sense, since that''s the case he might as well make some money. "How much are you willing to pay?" The cultivators were happy to hear that question, as long as Krune is interested in selling his experiences, then they can find a way, they were afraid that Krune would have no demands instead. "Senior, we gathered all our spirit stones and exchanged everything for Rank two low quality spirit stones, we have a total of 537 Rank two low quality spirit stones here. We know that Senior''s knowledge is worth much more than that, but we hope you can make an exception for us today." Krune was surprised, over 500 rank two spirit stones, but that makes sense, there is over thirty people gathered in front of his room, by amassing all their savings they gathered quite a good amount. Krune pondered a bit and decided to accept, it''s just that he will be a lot more vague than when he was with Darten, but he isn''t being unfair, he can already predict that his experiences creating the ''Universe Foundation'' are probably worth much more, the reason he even decided to accept their offer is because they gave him the idea to sell his experiences, so he will teach them a little of what he knows in exchange. "Very well, but each one of you will have to sign a blood contract stating that if you try to spread this information you will die, if you can''t bring yourselves to accept my terms, then you can leave." All the Qi Condensation cultivators jumped in joy! Blood contract to not spread the information? As long as they don''t say a word about it outside they will be totally fine, compared to obtaining Krunes knowledge, a blood contract is nothing. Krune pushed out a blood contract and wrote on it, the cultivators paid attention to see if anything other than the agreed terms were written down. The contract simply stated that anything related with Krunes experiences about the universe foundation should not be leaked using any types possible of communication, by stating the contract like this it would cover all possible ways of finding a loophole. Krune also stated that no one who signs this contract shall ever hurt, capture or sell a wisp on purpose during their lives, the cultivators didn''t understand this part but they didn''t mind anyway, wisps are very rare nowadays, ordinary cultivators like them can''t afford it anyway. The last term was that they should not divulge the terms of the contract, Krune was afraid that people might use those terms to suspect that he is a wisp himself. As for the penalty, Krune stated that death would be the only outcome, some of the people around sucked in cold air, but they gritted their teeth and accepted anyway. Krune then brought those cultivator to a bigger place in the hotel and started his lecture, he again opened his universe foundation for view and spent the next three hours talking and answering questions. When they were finished everyone had shining eyes, no one would probably try the universe foundation, but they all had new ideas to ponder about, the future seemed bright for them. Krune went back to his room and could finally get some rest, tomorrow would be the mercenary guild test, he need to be in peak condition for that. ----- It was almost 10 o''clock in the morning when Krune arrived at the mercenary guild branch, he went to the balcony to ask where he should go, Rany was there attending the people, she noticed Krune coming and just smiled while pointing in another direction. Krune looked at the direction she was pointing at and sure enough, he could see a few people with their tokens attached to their robes waiting in a line in front a big window. When Krune got close, he noticed that inside that window there was a training ground, there were three man working on some puppets inside, those were the battle puppets, the mercenary guild acquired them exclusively for the mercenary guild test. When the time arrived at 10 o''clock, an old man with a big beard came out of the room, he looked at the contestants for a while before start talking. "For those who don''t know, my name is Darius Dule." "The mercenary guild test is starting now, although I think all of you know the rules already, I will have to repeat just in case. The mercenary guild only accept strong cultivators, so everyone here will have to battle three metal puppets at once, they will be one stage higher than your realms so don''t take it lightly. The conditions are as follow." "Lowest grade conclusion: Battle the puppets until their energy runs out, those who accomplish the test this way will become One Star Mercenaries." "Middle grade conclusion: Defeat one or two puppets before their energy runs out, those who accomplish the test this way will become Two Stars Mercenaries." "Highest grade conclusion: Defeat all three puppets before their energy runs out, finishing the test this way will turn you into a Three Stars mercenary. This is the highest mercenary certification that can be obtained when trying to join the guild for the first time, of course, forget about defeating all three puppets, there is rarely anyone capable of defeat a single one of them, let alone three, so don''t try to be greed, the puppets will show no mercy, the mercenary guild will not take responsibility for any injuries you might suffer during the test, so make sure you really wish to go through this test before entering the room." "Those who are defeated will fail and will not receive their spirit stones back, I advise you that if you notice that you can''t hold anymore, make sure to shout ''I surrender'', the puppets will immediately stop attacking, of course, you will also fail like that. I will repeat once more, don''t be greed, there have been cases in the past where the contestants died because they didn''t surrender in time." "Another thing, don''t worry about the damage, the room is equipped with formations that will adjust according to your cultivation levels, so you can go all out, no need to worry about involving other people." "Alright, that''s all." Darius then looked at one of the cultivators in front and said. "Token number one, Durin Vola, you can enter." A 3rd stage Foundation Establishment entered the room, he was quite small and slim, probably an agility type cultivator. The old man Darius looked inside and said. "Start!" The puppets immediately came to live and shot straight to Durin, sure enough, Durin is an agility type cultivator, he totally gave up the idea of defeating any of the puppets, he put all his focus on dodging and running. Krune could hear some people commenting by his side. "It''s the third time Durin is trying the test, I heard that he had a breakthrough in his wind movement technique, he has a big chance of passing this time." "I see, I was here last time he tried the test, he was very close to pass but then his spiritual energy ran out, he could only surrender, now that he has got better with his wind movement he should be able to finish." Krune then looked back at Durin that was running away from the three 4th stage equivalent Foundation Establishment puppets, he could feel the wind element around him, he couldn''t help but shook his head and comment. "Such a poor way to control the wind element." Everyone looked at him strangely, poor way? No one in the room could control the wind element technique as good as Durin Vola, is he looking for a beating? "A puny 1st stage Foundation Establishment want to pose in front of us, know your place rookie." "Nowadays every type of clown thinks that they are great, now we even have one here." Krune heard they commenting but paid no attention, this level of provocation is far from making him spare even a glance. Noting that Krune totally ignored them, the cultivators snorted, when it comes the time for him to enter the test he will understand how hard it really is. 10 minutes later, the puppets finally run out of spiritual energy, sure enough, Durin Vola managed to pass the test, it wasn''t without a price though, he was covered in cuts and bruises all over, but such injuries aren''t much for a cultivator, Durin Vola came out the test room clearly overjoyed, he had finally done it! Darius came forward after that. "Congratulations, you are now a One Star mercenary, you can wait here or go directing into the guild office to prepare your badge and guild ID." Durin nodded, but he decided to wait, he wants to see how the other will do in the test. While the second contestant was preparing to enter the test room, one of his friends came forward and told him what Krune said while he was in the middle of his test. Durin then looked at Krune, Krune looked very ordinary, not strong but not weak, very common, except that the little bit of hair that he can see above Krune''s face is quite colorful. "Is it you that said that my control over the wind element technique is poor? Why don''t you show me how good yours is?" He didn''t even wait for Krune to answer and dashed straight at him, Krune looked at that and could only think while sighing. ''So slow...'' He was about to make a move to dodge when suddenly, Darius appeared in front of him and blocked Durin''s attack. "Those who start fights in the mercenary guild will be stripped of their IDs as guild members, you better think twice before being the one to make the first move." Durin looked at Krune and just snorted, he then went back to look at those who are in middle of their tests. Krune also didn''t pay attention to Durin, he just paid attention to the contestants in the test room. --- One by one the contestants entered and left, so far eleven had tried but only two passed, one was Durin Vola while the other was a woman called Yusa Shey, Durin had an ugly face when the woman completed the test, not only she passed, she was even able to defeat one of the puppets before their energy ran out, being at the same 3rd stage of Foundation Establishment made Durin feel humiliated, Yusa didn''t pay any attention to him though. Darius stepped forward and called the next one. "Number Twelve, Krune... err... where is the last name?" Krune stepped forward. "There is no last name, I''m only Krune, nothing more." He then moved inside the test room and waited for the staff to finish preparing the puppets. Outside, Durin was laughing. "This punk will understand now how hard it is to deal with those puppets." Yusa also stayed behind to check on everyone out of curiosity, there was only one mercenary test every week, it is quite entertaining. After Darius received the confirmation from the staff, he went forward and proclaimed. "Start!" The three puppets were one stage above Krunes cultivation level, 2nd stage equivalent Foundation Establishment. They went straight for Krune, unfortunately for them, Krune felt like they might as well not move at all, by using his own wind element movement that he learnt by himself, Krune disappeared just as the puppets were about to reach him. Everyone outside was alarmed. Fast! Too Fast! Even faster than Durin! Durin smiling face immediately became dark. Krune suddenly appeared above the three puppets, because of the high speed that he moved, his hood went down, showing his completely rainbow like hair to everyone, but no one had time to pay attention to that, before the puppets could even react, Krune extended his arms with his hands open, immediately, ten red fiery blades appeared around him. "Skill Merge! Blazing Wind Blades!" Krune could in fact cast over thirty Blazing Winds Blades when he was still at the 9th stage Qi Condensation Realm, now that he had advanced to the Foundation Establishment Realm, not only are his Blazing Wind Blades stronger, he can even cast over 50 at once, of course, the amount of spiritual energy necessary to cast so many is huge! Obviously, Krune had no intention of showing his real power, he didn''t want people to pay attention to him, or at least, that was the plan, he even thought to himself. ''Low key is the way to go, 10 blades should be enough just to pass the test.'' He moved his arms forward as if commanding the Blazing Wind Blade to go, the blades moved even faster than he did, the puppets had no chance to even react, the three of them were cut to pieces! But that was not all, the blades didn''t stop, they penetrated to floor and hit the array formation, the formation only resisted for a second before being cut to pieces too, the training room was directly connected to the array formation, after destroying the formation, the entire training room collapsed! As mentioned before by Darius Dule, the formation in the room is adjusted according to the contestant cultivation, it was built to hold the strikes of two small realm stages above the contestant cultivation, which means that the formation automatically adjusted to hold attacks of the 3rd stage of Foundation Establishment since Krune is still at the 1st stage, for Krune, ordinary 3rd stage Foundation Establishment cultivator are as weak as cabbages, a formation that can only hold up to the third stage even more so. There was rubble everywhere, one could barely see anything, fortunately, the testing room was separated from the main building, otherwise, the entire mercenary guild branch would have been destroyed. After the dust settle down, the people outside looked at the apocalyptic scene that was the testing room, and not long after, one could see some of the rubble moving, from under it, Krune appeared, everyone looked at him as if he was an aberration. Krune took a look around, and then he looked at Darius Dule outside looking at him with his mouth twitching. Krune''s face started to get redder and redder, this is the second time he felt so embarrassed, it''s just that this time is much worse than the first. He wanted to say ''I held myself back, please trust me!'' But the words couldn''t leave his mouth, in the end he blurted out. "Cough, cough, I think the formation was broken!" Chapter 25 - This is Heaven! The hotel owner was taken aback "Dinner time? What do you mean?" It couldn''t be that he plans to eat us now that we found about his amazing ability, right? Krune was puzzled. "The attendant at the entrance said that she would send someone to tell me when dinner is ready, aren''t you here to inform me about that?" The hotel owner mouth twitched a little. ''Come to inform you about dinner? Where have you ever seen a hotel sending an entire group of Foundation Establishment cultivators to inform someone about dinner?'' But he quickly composed himself, this guy in front of him is obviously a demon beast in human form, this is probably his first time moving around humans. "Cough, cough. You are mistaken, brother. The reason we came here is because while you were cultivating, you absorbed all the spiritual energy in a 100 meters radius around you, because of that no one else around here can cultivate anymore, so those customers here asked me to come ask you to leave some spiritual energy for everyone else too." Krune finally understood. ''Seems like my Spiritual Energies Meridians are quite strong, it even affects the surrounding cultivators.'' Krune then looked back at them "I apologize, I didn''t notice that I was disturbing the flow of spiritual energy for everyone, I will take care in the future." Krune didn''t think much about that, his absorption power is just a little too strong, as long as he pay attention, he should be able to control his Spiritual Energy Meridians to use only the spirit stones. After apologizing, he wanted to send everyone out to continue his cultivation, but no one wanted to leave. "Is there something else?" The hotel owner looked at everyone around him, there is no way that he doesn''t know what they were thinking, he himself was extremely curious too. "Well, you see, your absorption capability is several times more powerful than anyone at the 1ts stage of Foundation Establishment, even I with my 8th stage cultivation can''t compare with you. Would this brother mind tell us how to do that?" Krune looked at everyone beside the owner, he recognized that look, it was greed! But he didn''t care, at least it is not because he is a wisp. He then just came up with an excuse. "Too powerful?" Krune made a puzzled look "Isn''t that obvious? My foundation is extremely complicated, it''s not something foundations like the ''Island in the Lake'' for example can ever compare to." Everyone were taken aback. An extremely complicated foundation? Can just the foundation alone allow one to cultivate at such break neck speed? The hotel owner wasn''t totally convinced so he asked. "Actually, my foundation too isn''t as simple as the standard ''Island in the Lake'', in my case I used a mountain range as base, I consider it quite good already, but it''s not the least bit close to what you can do. If this brother doesn''t mind, could you tell us and if possible, show us what type of foundation you have?" Krune smiled inside, that''s because he doesn''t plan in concealing his ''universe'' foundation to start with, later on, if he wants to join a sect or a great clan, he will definitely need to show what he got, there is another simple reason too, this is not something that can be copied, it is also impossible to be totally explained with words, he was only able to succeed because of Lakin, he had tried to explain everything that could be explained through words to his disciple before, but in the end it only consisted in less than 50% of the total, the rest could only be achieved through Lakins own comprehension ability. Also, he definitely wasn''t the first one to think about building an universe as foundation, it''s just that the number of people who succeed is probably pitifully low. "No problem." There was no danger either, someones foundation is theirs and theirs alone, even if you show it to the others, there is absolutely nothing they can do about that, but that''s all what Krune knows. What he doesn''t know is that there were people or beasts in the past who tried to develop ways to steal someones foundation. But how could something that had been acknowledged by heavens itself be stolen that easy? All tries of stealing someones foundation turned out in failure, the mild consequences were those people being crippled, the worst was dying because of the backlash, with time, people gave up the idea. For one to be able to see someone else foundation, they can''t simply use their eyes, first of all, there is no way someone will remove their cores or dantians out of their bodies just to show it around, that would be suicide! To take a look, the foundation owner simply has to will it and the others can use their Divine Senses to see inside. Of course, Krune concealed what should be concealed, otherwise, people might be able to guess that he is a wisp when they saw his souls inside the interior of the foundation. There is almost no other race that keeps their souls inside their cores after all. In the end, what everyone could see was just the outline, enough to understand what it is but not enough to find any secret. That''s what people do when they want to exchange experience for the sake of their off springs too, although a foundation can''t be copied, it can still provide inspiration to the other part. "This is my ''universe foundation'', ever since I built it, my ability to absorb spiritual energy improved tremendously, in the end, own''s foundation dictates their future achievements." It wasn''t a lie, without the universe foundation, his core wouldn''t be able to sustain the extreme high rate of spiritual energy absorption provided by his Spiritual Energy Meridians, it''s just that he haven''t mentioned his meridians at all, nor would he ever do it. Everyone probed Krunes foundation and were amazed, there is really someone capable of building an universe as a foundation, how difficult is that? No one in this room have the confidence to do the same, first of all, they are all Foundation Establishment cultivators, they have their own foundations already, if they want to try, they will need to break their cores and start cultivating from zero, they definitely wouldn''t do such idiot thing. The hotel owner was really surprised. "To think I would be able to see such beautiful foundation in my life, no wonder this brother''s ability to cultivate is so incredible, this Voule admits defeat." After feeling amazed, everyone faces showed several types of emotions, gloominess, disappointment, envy, jealousy, but in the end, there is noting they can do, no one here will destroy their cultivation to try build something like that, the chances of success is close to zero. On the other hand, Krune was ecstatic! He couldn''t help but think. ''This is great! I didn''t think about this before but now I have an excellent excuse to hide my Spiritual Energy Meridians abilities, as long as I use this reason, everyone can only accept. I refuse to believe I can find someone else with an universe foundation so easily.'' Krune kept smiling "Well, I hope I have helped every one with some inspirations, the universe foundation I built is very good, if you all break your foundations and build an universe foundation in the future, you can definitely achieve the same cultivation speed as myself. Who knows? You might even build an even better universe foundation than mine." Voule, the hotel owner, smiled bitterly. "This brother must be joking, everyone foundations was built through much effort, some of us are even over a 100 years old, there is no hope for us to accomplish something like that. I thank you on behalf of everyone else, since you were magnanimous enough to show your foundation to us, I will not charge anything for the time you stay in our hotel, just be sure to leave some spiritual energy for your fellow customers." Krune nodded, although he found the perfect excuse, it''s better to not keep showing his Spiritual Energy Meridians capabilities so easily in the future. After everyone left, Krune went back to his cultivation, when the sky turned dark, he heard someone knocking his door again, this time was really someone telling him that the dinner in served downstairs. Krune thanked the employee and went down, this is the first time he will try the human world food, he wants to know how good it is. After arriving downstairs, a waiter came to bring him to his table, usually such treatment wasn''t given in the hotel, but Voule made sure to give Krune some face, he was sure that this demon beast in human form is bound to achieve greatness in the future, as long as he doesn''t die in the middle of the way of course. Krune noticed that all the Foundation Establishment cultivators were looking at him, he felt awkward, the looks of greed had disappeared, doesn''t matter how much they wished to have his universe foundation, there is simply no way to steal it, so now everyone only looked at him with jealousy. Why wasn''t they themselves who had built the universe foundation, if just they had the inspiration to accomplish such thing. Quite a few just sighed after thinking about that. On the other hand, the Qi Condensation cultivators looked at him like he was a god! They still haven''t built their foundation yet, although they can''t copy it, as long as Krune explained his process, they might get the inspiration to do the same, even if not, they would still have a better chance of thinking of something good to use as foundation. Krune ignored everyone though, his mind, or better, his nose, was totally attracted to the food on the table, he didn''t even notice that he was drooling, when he put the first piece of seasoned beef in his moth, he felt like his life wasn''t in vain after all! Tears running down from his eyes, everyone looked at him strangely when they saw that, they couldn''t help but think. ''How did someone like him build an universe as foundation?'' Krune didn''t know what they were thinking, even if he did he wouldn''t care anyway, he ate everything on the table, not even a grain of rice was left behind, he screamed in his heart. ''This is heaven!'' He called the waiter and asked him if they could teach him how to cook those delicious things. The water wasn''t expecting such request, he went ask the manager and soon received the agreement, the hotel owner had already said to treat Krune to the best of their abilities. Arriving in the kitchen, Krune saw several chefs busily at work, the waiter talked to the head chef and came back. "This brother, the head chef said that you can come later after the dinner time is over if it''s not a problem." Krune nodded, he isn''t an unreasonable wisp, he could see that everyone is busy. "Then I come later, tell the hotel owner that I owe him one." The waiter was surprised, they are just showing him how to cook, is there a need be so serious about that? Later at night, after the restaurant was closed for customers, the head chef started teaching Krune how to cook, at first, he felt that Krune was just some eccentric guy trying something new, especially because Krune isn''t using his hood at moment, so his rainbow hair was at full view. But as the time passed, he noticed that Krune was really enjoying the feeling of being able to cook delicacies. "Boy, you really have talent for cooking, if you wasn''t a cultivator, I would totally take you in, there isn''t much people out there who understand the joy of cooking." Krune smiled, he had never eaten such delicious things before, he wants to be able to do such things by himself from now on. "Thanks, since you aren''t a cultivator, you can''t see that I''m in fact a demon beast in human form, ever since I can remember myself, I''ve never tried something so good, so I intend to learn to the best of my ability so that I can eat well from now on." The head chef wasn''t expecting that Krune was in fact a demon beast, it''s already hard to find humans who like to cook, let alone other races, but he doesn''t care, as long as Krune keep showing interest for cooking, he will teach him to the best of his abilities. Just like that, they spent all night in the kitchen, after teaching Krune all the basics, he gave him a recipe book. "Alright, with what you learned you shouldn''t have a problem cooking anymore, this is a recipe book I made, you can take it with you, just make sure to keep your love for cooking." Krune was surprised. "Is it okay? those are things that you created yourself." The head chef just laughed "Compared with cultivators arts, what can it be be accounted for? Just take it, it''s just a copy, I have my own with me anyway." Krune accepted the book, it might not be worth much in the eyes of the cultivators, but in his eyes, it''s worth thousand of times more than all his possessions together! Krune is quite a sentimental wisp, the head chef had obviously put a lot of effort and passion on this recipe book, for him, that''s what matter most! "Thank you, if there is something I can help with, you can tell me now." The head chef nodded satisfied, there was indeed something he wanted to ask Krune. "In that case I won''t be polite, I''m not a cultivator, but my son is, he is already at the 9th stage of Qi Condensation, but he is having trouble thinking about his foundation, I heard others commenting that you built an amazing foundation. I''m not asking to make him build something as good as yours, I just want you to help him have some inspiration." Krune accepted the request, basically he just need to tell the head chefs son about his experiences, a foundation is a personal thing, even if you decide to build the ''Island in the Lake'' foundation, it is bound to be different from everyone else. After receiving the head chefs directions, he arrived at a house at the borders of the village, he knocked the door and soon a young man came to open it. He looked at Krune puzzled, he had never seen him before, that bit of rainbow hair appearing at the front was definitely a first too. He didn''t dare act impolite though, with the spiritual energy coming from Krune he could totally tell that Krune is a demon beast in human form, which means that he is at the Foundation Establishment at the very least. "Can I help you?" Krune checked if he looked like the outline described by the head chef and sure enough, this oath to be the person. "Hello! I''m a friend of your father, you are Darten, right?" The man nodded absently mind. Krune then explained the situation to him, he will spend this day to give him some pointers before going back to the hotel to rest. Darten was a little taken aback by the situation, a Foundation Establishment beast learned how to cook from his father and decided to pay the favor by giving pointers to his child about the Foundation Establishment breakthrough? It''s way too hard to believe, but since Krune is much stronger than him, he still invited him in. In the living room. "Senior, I know you have good intentions, but I don''t plan on building a standard foundation, I want something of better quality, if you have built one, then I will be grateful with your feelings only." He thought that even if his father found someone to give him pointers, it would be someone with a common foundation, that''s not what he wants. His father is just a head chef after all, not a cultivator, he couldn''t possibly find someone great. He was happy though, it showed how much his father cared for him to be able to invite a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Krune was expecting for it already, he then just laughed. "Use your Divine Sense to check my foundation then, after that you can decide whether you want me to share my experiences or not." After Krune opened his foundation for view, Darten checked it with his Divine Sense, he couldn''t help but exclaim. "Holy Fu*king shit!" Chapter 24 - Dinner Time Already? Krune was in a good mood, he even saved a group of cultivator that was being chased by a demon python, he didn''t kill the python though, after receiving their thanks, he just said if they want to thank him, just be sure to let the wisps go in the future, although he is almost 100% sure that they would still try to capture a wisp if they saw one in the future, if at least one of them decides to keep their word, that would have been worth already. Three days later, Krune finally left Katiu Forest, he already got a map from the cultivators he saved earlier and asked them to teach him how to ready it, wisps are indeed intelligent after all, Krune had to only hear once to understand how to do it, he is bound to never forget again. His first task was to find the road to Kaley City, with the help of the map it didn''t take long for that, there was a village beside the road to the Kaley City, after arriving there he found out that he didn''t necessarily need to go by foot, there were carriages that could be rented and groups of cultivator that formed groups to go together, although the order in the country is relatively high, that was only after one leaves the danger zones, before passing through immigration checkpoint, anything that happens inside the danger zones is not of the concern of the country, otherwise, no one would need to sign the agreement when entering it. To Krune''s surprise, there was quite a few Foundation Establishment cultivator here, but after pondering a bit, he thought that it was to be expected, the reason that he rarely saw a Foundation Establishment cultivator inside the Katiu Forest is because the forest itself is huge! One could see that by the fact that Krune, who had a speed comparable with 5th stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, took over a week to leave the borders of the inner forest to the outside. Simply put, the foundation establishment cultivators inside Katiu Forest are spread through it''s range. As a wisp, Krune knows that information is of vital importance, so he asked around where he could find information easily, turns out that the mercenary guild branch was the best option, a lot of cultivators gather there to hire or to be hired as a mercenary, after walking a little, Krune spotted a five stores building on distance, one could see the enormous board above the entrance with a crossed bow and sword mark, the mercenary guild emblem. Krune entered and went to the balcony, there was a small queue there so he had to wait quite a few minutes, while waiting he paid attention to the people around, by paying attention to their spiritual energies, Krune could see that between every ten Foundation Establishment cultivators, at least one or two were demon beasts in their human forms. ''Seems like Gony ans Casfer weren''t lying after all, it''s very normal to see human form demon beasts around, as long as you can achieve your human form, you can walk between the humans.'' It didn''t take long for his time to come, the receptionist was surprisingly a female demon best in her human form, he looked at her for a bit to see if he wasn''t seeing things wrong, the girl noticed his absent mind while looking at her, she had received this kind of look before, although she is beautiful, she had seen quite a lot, Krune wasn''t looking at her because of her appearance, but because she was a demon beast just like him, she gave him a smile and spoke "Little guy, it is still to early to flirt at moment, you have a long queue behind you, leave it for night time." She simply blinked at him after that. Krune almost jumped, he noticed that he was paying way too much attention to the female in front at him, the people behind him heard that and laughed hard. "Hey brother, sister Rany already has an owner, you better stopping having ideas about her." "Aren''t you cocky? To make we wait longer while you admire the beaut, can''t you see we want to take a look too?" Several other people also joked with him. Today, Krune learned a feeling he had never felt before, he learned how to feel embarrassed, although he knows what it is to be embarrassed, this is his first time feeling it himself, the more aware he got about his situation, the redder his face got. ''Holy shit, let me die, please!'' The sister Rany behind the balcony just kept smiling, she could totally tell, this is the first time this guy left the Katiu Forest, she loved to prank those guys, today was no different, and Krune just got to be the target. Quite a few of those who were laughing knew about this too, some of them even feel for that prank themselves, it feel really good to see others suffering what you suffered. "Alright everyone, you will scary the rookie, sorry little guy, consider this your first leave baptism, I got a lot of first timers like you before, that demon beast in human form five position behind you was just like you before, am I right, Douly?" She turned to a burly guy a few meters behind Krune, he was quite big and full of muscles, judging by the spiritual energy around him he is definitely a demon beast too, she gave him a blink of an eye. "Sister Rany, can we forget about that? It was years ago, it''s time for you to leave me of the hook, don''t you think?" He felt quite helpless, why did he have to be the closest old victim from the past, he has now been dragged into the situation together. Rany just laughed a little more and turned back to Krune. "Okay, what are you looking for here?" Krune was feeling even more hopeless than the Douly guy, but he composed himself quickly, he is a wisp, he will not lose his temper because of that, he will simply follow the flow, although he was still feeling quite awkward. "Cough, cough. I would like to know the best way to go to Kaley City, the conditions on the way and if I should go with a group of people or alone." Rany just nodded, she receive quite a feel people and demon beasts in human form requiring the same information every week. "The safest way to leave the danger zones is indeed to go together with a group, but you better pay attention to the groups that form at the exit of the village, some of them are not really going to Kaley City, they just want to rob those who join them on the way." Krune wasn''t surprised, when he found the groups that were forming beside the road to Kaley City, he had already thought about this possibility, he even spotted two or three who looked quite suspicious. "In that case how should I chose?" She replied straight away "That''s quite simple, can you see that not much people here are wearing a badge with the same emblem as the one outside above the entrance? Those are the mercenary guild badges, although I can''t say it''s fool prof at least those wearing it would usually be going to Kaley City seriously, you just need to ask around that corner." She pointed to one of the corners of the building "Those there are all real mercenary guild members, see if you can find a group who is going to Kaley City, join them and you should be pretty much safe on your way. Of course, robbers don''t mind about others status, but in general, mercenaries that have received their badges are stronger than those at the same cultivation level, so the bandits on the way usually wouldn''t target them unless they are very confident." Krune nodded, it made sense, if anyone could join the mercenary guild then it would lose its prestige. "Of course, whether they will let you join their group or not will depend on your ability, but I advise you to not go alone, even if you don''t find a group of mercenaries, try to at least go with a normal group, there is strength in numbers after all. As for the conditions on the way, well, basically it depends if there is a lot of bandits acting in that area or not, but anyone going alone would most likely be targeted." Krune agreed, although he can fight those at the 4th stage of Foundation Establishment in his human form, nothing can guarantee that he won''t find even stronger ones, and if he doesn''t, it''s unlikely that the bandits will act alone against him, chances are that they will attack in groups. "Thank you, can you let me know how do I join the mercenary guild? I believe that''s the best way to prove my abilities when joining a group." Rany wasn''t surprised with that question, but Krune in front of her seems pretty common, it''s just that the little bit of hair that is appearing outside of his hood is colored, but she has seen a lot of eccentric people and beasts before. She believes that Krune probably won''t pass the mercenary test. "You can apply for the test here, we have a mercenary test once a week, the last one was five days ago so the next one is after tomorrow, the admission fee in 30 Rank One low quality spirit stones for Qi Condensation contestants and 50 Rank One middle quality for Foundation Establishment ones. But let me give you a piece of advice, the test it is very hard and you might get seriously injured, also, if you fail, you won''t receive your spirit stones back, so think well." Although she thinks he doesn''t have the power to pass the test, she can''t stop him from taking the test either, the mercenary guild needs to keep running after all. Krune didn''t even think for a second, 50 middle quality rank one spirit stones are nothing for him who ''paid a visit out of courtesy'' to several spiritual vein lakes. He passed the spirit stone and received a token in return, after that, Rany explained to him. "This is your token with your trier number, after tomorrow, 10 o''clock in the morning, the test will start, we have a feel puppets that can adjust to one''s cultivation level, you will have to fight three at the same time and defeat them, there is no need to destroy them, as long as you can resist until their energy runs out it will be considered your win, make sure you are at your peak condition, if you see you can''t resist anymore you just need to say that you surrender, the puppets will stop attacking immediately." Krune nodded and then left the mercenary guild, he asked around where he could pass the night and found out that people usually stay in places called hotel. After arriving there he asked how much it is to rent a room for two days to the attendant. "It is 50 silver coins per day, 100 total, meals not included, if you want your meals included, it''s 70 silver coins per day." Krune felt a little helpless, he only has spirit stones, he doesn''t have any other currency, but he won''t pay with spirit stones, he understands very well that spirit stones are worth much more. He then asked where he could exchange spirit stones for copper, silver and gold. "Do you know the mercenary guild? Right in front of the mercenary guild there is another build managed by the country, you can exchange spirit stones there." Krune thanked the attendant and went back to change his spirit stones, around 20 minutes later he came back, the exchange rate is one low quality Rank One spirit stone for 10 gold coins, 1 gold coin is worth 10 silver coins and just like that, 1 silver coin is worth 10 copper coins. Krune exchanged 10 spirit stones, the amount of money he has now should be enough to keep his daily necessities for quite a while. After renting a room he went upstairs and locked himself inside, it has been a over a week since the last time he stopped to cultivate, he will take his time to cultivate during the next two days, he took out 100 Rank two low quality spirit stones and simply started. --- Krune is really not fated with the words ''low profile'', he had no idea that his six Spiritual Energy Meridians are simply too powerful! There is a limit to how much spiritual energy you can take out of the spirit stones at once, because of that the rest of the spiritual energy was being absorbed from the air, in an instant, all the spiritual energy in a hundred meters radius disappeared, such thing alarmed the hotel''s owner and all the cultivators that where cultivating in the rooms, no one could cultivate anymore. Everyone started to gather in the lounge, after discussing they found out that all the spiritual energy from a hundred meters radius was converging in the hostel, they complained with the hotel owner, someone is absorbing everything, the reason that they didn''t go find the person themselves is because anyone who can cultivates absorbing spiritual energy at this speed is probably a late stage Foundation Establishment cultivator at the very least. The reason they asked the owner to help is because he is a late foundation stage himself himself, to convince this greed guy to leave some spiritual energy for everyone, he brought the people together with him, when they arrived at Krune''s room the owner knocked the door. "Sir, please open the door, we need to talk." He kept knocking the door, but there was no answer, it''s not that Krune was ignoring him, it''s because every time Krune cultivates he immerse himself in his own world, unless he feels the sense of danger he won''t move at all. The owner kept knocking but no one answered, he finally lost his patience and used his own key to open the door. When everyone entered and noticed Krune in the middle of the room, they were alarmed! They noticed that Krune is obviously only a 1st stage Foundation Establishment, but not only is he absorbing all the energy in a hundred meters radius, he is also absorbing the spirit energy of those rank two spirit stone at max rate! How is he doing that? This kind of absorption power is unprecedented! Krune finally noticed something strange, when he opened his eyes he almost jumped back. But then he remember that the attendant of the hotel said they would come to inform him about that. ''Is there a need to use so much people just to tell me that?'' But then again, he remembered the weird customs of the humans and decided to simply ignore it, he looked outside, it was still bright, then he looked back at those people and asked. "Isn''t it a little too early for dinner time?" Chapter 23 - Dont Curse, Change Your Clothes! Krune made his way out of the inner parts of the Katiu Forest, with his cultivation, what had taken him weeks before to arrive, now only took three days to go back. First, because there wasn''t any demon beast on the way that could possibly be his match, and second, he knew the way back so he could simply go directly without any detours. After arriving at the outer parts, Krune started to find demon beast and wisp hunter groups now and then, he pondered if he should get rid of them on his way out, but after thinking for a while, he gave up the idea. He is just one wisp, doesn''t matter how strong he has got he can''t possibly wipe out every single group, his life span will be long finished by the time eliminated half of them, there is way too many people, not to mention, the majority of the cultivators aren''t here to look for wisps, but to train or hunt other beasts, it''s just that if they find a wisp, they wouldn''t let it go, but they won''t go out of their way just to capture them. Of course, there was two instances where Krune found groups of cultivators with captured wisps, this time he didn''t let go, he can''t simply ignore his race when it is suffering right before his eyes. Krune wiped out the two groups, they didn''t have a single Foundation Establishment cultivator, so it was quite easy, he might not like killing, but since they dared to touch his race, he won''t show mercy. The further out Krune went, the more groups he found on the way, Krune hasn''t noticed yet, but every single group was looking at him with weird eyes, there is no helping in that, one guy with a rainbow hair running almost naked, if this is not a pervert, then what is it? After another day, there was finally someone that stopped Krune in his journey, it was a couple who came here just to procure some demon beetles carapaces, demon beetles aren''t that strong to start with, so they had got quite a few already, just when the man had called out Krune, the woman by his side tried to stop him, this rainbow hair guy is obviously a pervert, why is her husband calling him out? Krune looked at him puzzled, but stopped anyway, it''s extremely rare for someone to call him out, so he was on guard at the same time, the man looked at Krune and couldn''t help but ask. "Sorry for stopping you, brother. If I''m not wrong, you aren''t human, right?" Krune simply nodded, he knows very well that although people can''t tell which race he is from, it''s very easy to tell that he isn''t really a human, their spiritual energy is very different after all. "Would you mind to tell me if you have just acquired your human form?" Krune pondered a bit, but after checking the couple''s cultivation, he thought there was no danger. "Indeed, I have just broken through a few days prior, so I got my human form at the same time." The man nodded, it was as he thought, his wife by his side didn''t understand why he was even talking with this demon beast, but after learning that Krune isn''t a real human, she kept quiet, no demon beast bellow the Foundation Establishment can possibly turn into their human form, so Krune''s cultivation is bound to be much higher than theirs, he can squish them with a finger. "As I thought, brother, you might not know about this but the way you look at moment is too bad, anyone out there will simply think about you as a pervert, you should put in some clothes, and if you are going to the city, the guards absolutely won''t let you enter wearing just that." It finally downed to Krune that he forgot this important point, all humans he has seen so far used clothes, there was no exception, but what about him? Now that he noticed, he also thought that he wasn''t supposed to look like that, at first, he thought that as long as he had his human form it would be okay, but it seems like humans put a lot of importance in their clothes, Krune looked at the man and asked. "I didn''t know that, I''m very grateful for you advice, if this cultivator here doesn''t mind, would you tell me why exactly humans put so much importance in clothes? We demon bests have never put them on while in our true form, it just gets in the way." The man and woman were taken aback "Well, brother, we don''t have fur or scales or carapaces, if we don''t use clothes we will feel cold in the winter for example, clothes could also be use as a means of defense." Krune noticed that he had expressed himself wrongly, he already know about what the guy said, but that wasn''t what he was talking about. "Oh sorry, I should have elaborated my question better, I know that clothes help to protect and can guard one against the cold for example. But what I wanted to ask is why someone without clothes is not accepted, in the city for example, if it''s not winter you won''t feel cold, and with the protection in the city, there is no need to think too much about defense either, so why is it that humans use clothes regardless?" This time the man was tong tied, is it because people will think that they are perverts if they don''t use it? But such knowledge has no use for demon beasts to start with. "Well, I guess that we will feel embarrassed if we do that, it has always been like that since we can remember." Krune felt even more puzzled, he is part of the wisp race, an innately intelligent race to the boot, the word ''curiosity'' can almost be considered their second name. "Embarrassed? It''s really a weird way to put it, the p*nis and the vag*na are part of the organs that ensure the continuation of your specie, in my point of view, this is something you should be proud to show to the others, or at least not hide them on purpose, just like us demon beasts. Why is it that your race feels embarrassed to show them? Could it be that your race doesn''t wish to continue existing?" The man couldn''t find an answer, the woman by his side was as red as tomato hearing this type of conversation, but she too couldn''t find an answer either. Are the humans proud of their reproductive organs? Well, if they were to chose an option, they would surely say Yes. So why is it that they feel it is wrong to show them around? After ponder a bit they just gave up thinking, if it continued like that, they might develop some weird habit of walking naked in the future. "Well, brother, I can''t give you a satisfactory answer, it simply has been like that ever since, so I don''t know how it turned out like that, you just need to keep in mind that if you don''t wear clothes, let alone someone putting importance to anything you say, you won''t even be able to approach people to start with." Although Krune was still puzzled, he could only accept the answer, since this couple didn''t know the reason, then there was no meaning in keeping asking, he was just curious, that''s all. Krune looked back at the man to ask. "In that case, does this friend cultivator have a set of clothes he could part with? I''m willing to pay for it." The man just laughed "No problem, no problem! There is no one who will venture in the danger zones without a few sets of clothes in their spatial rings, it''s common sense, there is no need for this brother to pay for it." He then took out a set of clothes, if not because of his rainbow hair with colors changing all over, Krune would be considered to have a very ordinary appearance, not handsome nor ugly, simply common, that is also true for his height. Krune accepted the set of clothes, there was even an underpants with it, what Krune was using so far was something he made with leaves, it wasn''t even attached to him, he was simply using a little bit of spiritual energy to hold it together. The couple was surprised to see that Krune started to change right there and then, he didn''t try to hide anything, the woman immediately turned around with a scream and the man gave a bitter smile, Krune thought that since he isn''t inside the city, then there was no need to care about such things, the couple even noticed that not only the hair on Krune''s head is rainbow colored, even the hair down there around his little friend in rainbow too, the man just pretended he didn''t see anything and advised Krune. "Cough, cough. Brother, when you change clothes in the future, make sure to not do that in front of others unless you are with your wife, this is considered disrespectful between humans." Krune felt puzzled. "You humans have very weird costumes, as long as your wife is with you, there is no problem in changing clothes in front of others, in my point of view it makes no sense." The man noticed that Krune misunderstood him, he even sweated a little. "Oh! When I say that you can change clothes when your are with your wife, I don''t mean that you can do it everywhere, what I mean is that it is not wrong for you wife to see you doing that, but it will still be considered disrespectful if you do it in front of others even if your wife is beside you." Krune finally understood. "I see, thanks for the advise." Krune then took out 100 Rank one spirit stones of low quality and gave it to the man, both the man and the woman were stunned, let alone one set of clothes, they would be able to buy thousands with this amount, although spirit stones are considered the main currency in the universe, people would usually use gold, silver and copper to do transactions that had nothing to do with cultivation, ordinary clothes just so happen to be part of it, and as you can imagine, spirit stones are worth several folds more than gold even. "Bother, this is too much, my set of clothes aren''t worth even a thousandth of this amount." The man was afraid that Krune will find out about the real value of his clothes and think that they tricked him, it would do no good to have a Foundation Establishment beast who has acquired his human form as an enemy. Krune simply brushed it back "This is not the payment for the clothes, this is the payment for the information, you even went out of your way just to advise me about that, this price is totally fair, I won''t be taking it back." The more they talked with this demon beast, the more stunned they got, since when are demon beasts so generous and polite like this? They aren''t wrong, if it was any other demon beast, they wouldn''t care the least bit about this couple, let alone pay them in spirit stones. The man was just trying to build a small relationship that might help him in the future, there is nothing wrong in having some ties with a Foundation Establishment after all. "In that case, I''m going to accept it. By the way, brother. Why is your hair rainbow? It catches a lot of attention, you know?" Krune felt gloomy at the comment "It''s not that I want it to be like that, I had some troubles with my cultivation in the past and it turned out like that, I''m also suffering here." Seeing the helpless face that Krune was showing together with the reason he said, the woman couldn''t help but laugh a little, but she felt alarmed right after, she was laughing in the face of a Foundation Establishment beast, it''s not that she didn''t know about that, it''s just that after knowing that Krune wasn''t really a pervert and with the friendly air around him, she let down her guard. She immediately bowed and apologized. "So- sorry, senior, I didn''t mean to be disrespectful." Krune didn''t mind though, after being laughed at by Lakin and Ruik for several days, he already got numb to it, he simply laughed. "Don''t worry, I know very well how weird it looks like." At first the man just wanted to get some ties with the Foundation Establishment beast, but after knowing Krune better, he really felt that they could be friends. "Brother, if that''s the case, take this robe with you instead." He took another robe from his spatial ring, the difference about this one is that it has a hood attached. "Just put the hood up and it should conceal your hair quite well, although it will still be possible to see a little through the front, at least it won''t catch much attention." Krune got ecstatic, to think that there is such humans out there too, seems like it''s not only Feifei after all. This time Krune remembered to not change clothes in front of them, he moved behind a tree and changed straight away, he put his hood up and sure enough, you would have to pay attention to notice the rainbow hair at the front, he couldn''t help but nod in satisfaction, the man looked back at him and commented "Now it''s much better, brother. Oh, right! Let me introduce myself and my wife, my name is Jolk, and this is Kala." Krune was happy at moment, so he complimented them enthusiastically, as someone who had seen the dark side of humans so many times, Krune already had the ability to more or less tell if someone is trying to bring him harm, this couple obviously wasn''t trying to do him any ill. "My name is Krune, alright you two, if you get in trouble in the future, come look for me, I''m going to Kaley City, I have to make an ID when I get there, so it shouldn''t be hard for you to find about a rainbow colored hair guy who registered there." The couple told a few more things for Krune to pay attention and said their goodbyes. While Krune was moving away, he commented from the distance. "You humans are really strange, to think that you change clothes in front of others when you want to be disrespectful on purpose, it''s really weird." The couple was alarmed! The hell? When did we say that? That wasn''t what we meant at all! "Brother, wait! That wasn''t wh-" Too late, Krune was gone already. Poor Krune, it seems like he isn''t fated with the words ''low profile'' like he wished. Chapter 22 - Time to leave. Krune came back a week later, during his time battling outside against the Foundation Establishment beasts, he got a lot of experience, he can finally control his human body to an acceptable degree, although it isn''t as good as using his wisp body for battle, it is not without advantages, later on he might use weapons with his hands without the need to control the spiritual energy to grab things, his spatial ring is already on his finger for example. His human body can also be considered as a defense for his wisp core, his wisp spiritual energy body definitely isn''t as strong as his blood and flesh human body, so in a situation where he can''t avoid an attack, it would be good to have this body. Of course, the disadvantages are also very obvious, his mind now also needs to pay attention to where his body is moving and how it is moving. His control over the spiritual energy isn''t as smooth either, he has to circulate the spiritual energy through his human body before being able to release it outside to use his skills. Lakin noticed that his master was back and went out to receive him. "Master, how was it? How much stronger did you become?" Krune laughed out, Lakin is still much younger than him, he has barely surpassed his first year of life, so he is very enthusiastic. "It''s not bad I say, any ordinary demon beast at the 3rd stage of Foundation Establishment or lower is not my match, I can even fight 4th stage ones head on. If I go back to my wisp form I should be able to more or less fight even 5th stage ones I think, I haven''t tried it though." Lakin was amazed, his master is so powerful! He totally wanted to follow his steps, but he had long noticed that his talent with the Myriad Energies Technique is a far cry from his master, Krune took around half a year to get to the peak of the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation, but Lakin is already practicing it for a year and is only at the middle of the 8th stage. If others heard what Lakin was thinking, they would smash their heads against the wall! Bro, it takes us over a decade to reach the 9th stage, maybe even two decades, what the hell are you complaining about? "Master, do you think I should go for the universe foundation when I try to breakthrough the Foundation Establishment bottleneck?" After hearing the question, Krune looked at him with concern, his universe foundation almost killed himself, he doesn''t want his disciple to pass through the Heavenly Tribulation too, but then again, it was directly linked to his disciple future achievements, he couldn''t reach a decision, so he decided to leave it for Lakin to decide, whatever foundation he decided to build, he would support him. "I don''t know, this is a very personal question, remember that Ruik said that everyone can build a foundation the way they like, but you must remember that I was able to build the universe foundation because I witnessed your birth. I told you before, my way of operating the spiritual energy in my universe foundation follows the same path as the spiritual energies that gave birth to you. The problem is that you yourself didn''t see it, so you don''t have a base of how it works, I also don''t know any wisp who could remember how they were born." Lakin looked a bit sad after hearing it, his master is right, he has no idea how he was born, all he knows is what his master told him about the process, but the feeling of that time isn''t something that can be explained with words, he will need to see it by himself. But where will he find a place where a wisp is about to be born? Not to mention that his master had already commented that the number of wisp has been declining constantly, so his chances of witnessing such event is really low. Krune noticed what he was thinking "Don''t think too much about it, when you reach the peak of the Qi Condensation realm, together with your Myriad Energies Technique, you should be able to put a fight against ordinary 1st stage Foundation Establishment demon beasts, you will probably be even stronger than them, you won''t have any issues defending yourself." "Also, just because you got to the 9th stage it doesn''t mean that you must go through you breakthrough straight away, you can take your time to think over it, who knows, a wisp can be born anywhere, you might have the chance to see it too." "I only ask you to keep thinking about an alternative, if by the time that your are three years old, you haven''t found a wisp being born, you should consider and use your second alternative, we wisps have very limited life spans, we can''t afford to wait much longer, try to think about something better than the island in the lake foundation, remember that the more complicated the foundation is, the stronger will you get when you reach the Foundation Establishment. Its not because my universe foundation is powerful that other types of foundation aren''t too." Lakin agreed with his master, that is definitely the best course, it''s not that he can''t try to build the universe foundation without having witnessed the birth of a wisp like himself, but the chances of success will be too low, it''s not worth the risk. Krune started moving into the cave "Let''s go, I have some things to talk to you, Ruik and those little guys." When Krune came back inside, Ruik was sleeping as always, Krune woke him up and brought the lizard Dragons close too, although the Lizard Dragons are only at the Qi Condensation stage, their big brother has finally broken through the 9th stage of Qi Condensation and now has sentience, with Lakin''s help it could already understand words and convene his thoughts through his Divine Sense. With the big brother Lizard Dragon as an intermediary, the other Lizard Dragons could understand the situation too. "Alright guys, I have always told you that so I will be short, I''ll be leaving here tomorrow to go to the city." Lakin and Ruik already expected that, the Lizard Dragons were the only ones who didn''t know, not that Krune didn''t want to tell them, but because before there wasn''t a Lizard Dragon capable of understanding Krune. As expected, as soon as the Lizard Dragons found out about it they roared in protest, they don''t want Krune to go at all, he should stay with them, their big brother even said that he is strong now and will protect him. Krune felt warm inside, to think that not only Lakin, even the Lizard Dragons treated him as family, it even made he feel a little regret about the time he killed their parents, but what is done is done, the Lizard Dragons didn''t mind it, they are demon beasts, they worship the strong, it''s not like they themselves haven''t killed other beasts too, they are carnivores, they have to eat after all. "I know you guys don''t want it, but I need to go, I have made a promise over a year ago, I have to keep my word or die trying. The Katiu forest can only bring me so far, sure, I can still cultivate here for a while longer, maybe even reach the Core Formation realm here, but I can''t find any information here, the world outside is modern, several times more developed than our forest, although it will be more dangerous for a wisp like me to go outside by himself, I already have my human form, unless I''m willing to show my true appearance, I will be safe." The Lizard Dragons still didn''t like it, but Krune was their leader, they had to obey, Lakin looked at his master, he was determined. "Master, I will definitely reach the Foundation Establishment in the future, after that I will definitely find you again." Krune just laughed "Sure, I will be awaiting for you, by the way, it''s not like I will not come back to visit you guys, I do intend to leave the planet one day, but before that I will still look out for you guys." Ruik on the other hand was pretending to be as nonchalant as ever, even though he also didn''t want to part with such a good friend "So much bullshit, a male has to adventure! Its better die trying than regret never trying in the first place. All Foundation Establishment beasts and above who achieved the human form have paid a visit to the human cities at least once, although the majority comes back after a time, there is still a good amount who decided to live with the humans, there is nothing strange about that. I myself haven''t gone yet because I can''t transform, otherwise I would go with you too." Krune was happy to see Ruiks instance "Ruik is right, I hope that before I get strong enough to one day leave the planet, all of you have already grown strong enough to take your humans form. Who knows? I might even bring you with me when the time comes!" After hearing that, a look of determination appeared on Ruik''s eyes. Leave the planet! He never thought about such a possibility, but with this heaven defying wisp, maybe, just maybe, he might be able to. Lakin was also shining brilliantly, he was obvious hyped out, he will absolutely breakthrough the Foundation Establishment, no mater what! As for the Lizard Dragons, even their big brother didn''t understand the ''leaving the planet'' thing, but by looking at the situation, it seems like something very good, so he told his siblings that they should try very hard too, he will ask Lakin about what living the planet means later. Krune decided that he would give Lakin the authority to pass the Myriad Energies technique forward, but before doing that the other part must sign a blood contract stating that if he or she tried to spread this technique, they would die, and he must trust them first before doing that. Lakin is also a wisp, wisps are very intelligent by nature, and with Krune''s guidance, there isn''t much people or beasts out there who can fool him. Fortunately, Krune had quite a few blood contracts with him, he came to understand that blood contracts are very common outside. "Ruik, I will pass you my Myriad Energies Technique too, but I will be honest, I don''t know how effective it is for demon beasts, but if you are able to create my Spiritual Energy Meridians, it should boost both your cultivation speed and you battle prowess tremendously, make sure to not spread it outside, it might bring you a calamity." "Also, although I know that any race is able to cultivate my technique, they can''t learn it as easy as a wisp, the wisps sensitivity for spiritual energy is at a level that very few races might compare, so do not rush it, you are different from us, you have a very long life span ahead, you can take your time understanding it. If you have any doubts, you can ask Lakin, I passed all my experiences to him, he will be able to answer your questions as long as it is something that me or him have gone through before." Ruik looked puzzled at Krune, he knows that cultivation technique, he had heard before that this is the most ordinary cultivation technique outside, he even knows a few beasts that have a copy of it right here in the Katiu forest, what is good about it? Krune explained to him that he found out that the cultivation technique was not complete, it''s real use wasn''t supposed to be able to form just nine Pseudo Energy Meridians, but to form real Spiritual Energy Meridians instead, he explained to him how marvelous the Spiritual Energy Meridians are, by the end, Ruik was astonished, is there such a heaven defying cultivation technique? Ruik looked ecstatic, Krune wasn''t going to make him sign the blood contract, he trusted Ruik, but to his surprise, Ruik demanded a blood contract, not that he will slip his tongue, but that the blood contract would also prevent other forms of forcefully taking the information from him. Krune then passed Ruik a blood contract for him to write the terms himself, Ruik was indeed a demon beast, he was very ruthless in the terms of the contract about spreading the cultivation technique without permission. "Wasn''t it a little bit exaggerated? I trust you, you know?" Ruik simply snorted "A male has indeed to keep his words, this is just a security measure." He then took a copy of the Myriad Energies Technique and went back to his nest to start comprehend it. Krune turned to Lakin and asked him to follow, when they reached outside, looked back at him tenderly. "Lakin, you are young but you can already defend yourself, you are also a wisp, we are looked down all the time, but this is not bad, it is because I have always been looked down upon that I achieved what I did, this is not your defect, this is yours, no, this is our, the wisps, strength! Never forget that." Lakin answered dutifully. "Yes, master!" Krune continued "As a wisp you have a high intelligence, so you will help the Lizard Dragons to protect themselves, as for Ruik, he will help you if there is a need for it, behind that prideful look of him there is a soft heart, just don''t let him know that I told you that, he will never admit it." Krune and Lakin laughed at the comment. "Be at easy, master, I won''t let him find out about that." Krune nodded, he then turned back to his wisp form, he then approached Lakin until their cores touched each other, it was quite a beautiful scene, when the energies of those spiritual energy bodies touched each other, they gave of a very warm feeling, Lakin felt puzzled though. "Master?" Krune simply said "You are my disciple, also, I don''t have parents, just like you, but I do consider you as my son as well, as long as I''m alive, master will always support you." Lakin felt like he wanted to cry, but since he is a wisp, he doesn''t have eyes or tears to speak of, he only felt extremely touched. He could only thought the he will absolutely not disappoint his master, no, his father! Krune looked back at him and went back to his human form, he is trying to stay as long as possible in this form to get used to it. "Let''s go back, I will use this night to tell you everything I understand about my Myriad Energies Technique and my experiences with it, later, if Ruik ask, try to help him too." Lakin agreed and they came back to the Spiritual Vein Lake, this will be the last night with his master for a very long time, he has to cherish it. The next morning, Krune left. Destination: Kaley City! Chapter 21 - Now Im a Real Clown ''But before that...'' Krune remember the main reason why he needed to reach Foundation Establishment first, that was because he needed his human form to be able to leave this forest without being hunted all the time. "Ruik, do you know how the human form thing works?" Ruik, who was sleeping soundly, suddenly opened his eyes. "Human form? Oh that''s right, the weaker the species, the earlier they can turn into their human form, since you are a wisp, then you probably can already transform straight away after Foundation Establishment." "Although I will only be able to do that after I get to the late stages or maybe even Core Formation, I still know a little about it, it seems like it''s something that comes from your desire, as long as you will it, it should come as a matter of course, just try it out." Krune didn''t expect to be that easy, but since that was the case he might as well try it out now, Krune willed it and sure enough, his body started to transform, his energy body suddenly started to get corporeal, the form of a head and four limbs quickly appeared, nothing special, Krune body seems to be of a very ordinary human, then the other parts came forward, as expected, due to Krune''s personality, he turned out to be a man, easily seen by his little friend in between his legs, the last part to take form was the hair, it was a short hair, which was good for him, if he had got long hair he would definitely cut it off for it to not get in the way. Krune was now standing up in front of Ruik, Lakin and the rest, Krune then opened his eyes, he couldn''t help but feel surprised. "It''s so different! My vision as a wisp allows me to see everything in a 360 degree, but my vision as a human can only see what is in front of my face." Ruik didn''t feel that it was strange. "That is how almost all races see the world, there is very few races capable to see more than what is in from of their eyes, basically, they would not feel anything strange about that after taking the human form." Krune agreed with that statement, but it was really inconvenient for him to be able to see so ''little'', but he soon got an idea, Krune concentrated for a bit and let his wisp core release some of its energy body form around it, sure enough, as soon as it took form, Krune''s vision got back to what it was, he even pondered if he should walk with his eyes closed from now on, but he quickly discarded this idea, he would only look like a weird that way, it is good enough that he can keep the human form but still retain his full range of vision, he should avoid being paid attention. Unfortunately for him, it will be impossible. "It worked, as long as I release some of my energy body out of my core I can see everything around me again and still keep the human form." Ruik was a little surprised, he is a double headed snake, but still, he can only see what is in front of his eyes, but now that Krune took the human form he can still see everything in the surroundings. "That''s quite useful, you don''t need to keep your Divine Sense active all the time to be able to see around you, I envy this ability of yours." "By the way, why are you just standing there? Try to use your body more and see the differences while moving." Krune agreed with the idea, but as soon as he tried to take one step, he tripped and fell with his face on the ground, it hurt quite a little. "Fuc*, how do I move this thing?" Ruik and Lakin burst in laugh, that was very comical, Krune tried to get up be he simply didn''t know how to control his body, his arms and legs looked like worms, moving everywhere without any logic. It only made Ruik and Lakin laugh even harder, Krune was feeling gloomy, but this is to be expected, Krune is basically an spiritual energy ball, and now he suddenly got a body with limbs, it would be a miracle if he could use it straight away. Around ten minutes later, Krune finally got up, he was trembling while trying to keep his balance though, Ruik and Lakin were still laughing at the side, Krune pondered if he should give them a beating later. With great effort and after several hours, Krune could finally at least walk normally, but he couldn''t do any hard movements yet, it was then that he heard Ruik commenting. "By the way, why is your hair so... colorful?" Krune was stunned for a bit, colorful? He went beside the spiritual vein lake and took a look at his reflection, sure enough, his hair was very colorful, just like a... rainbow! The most weird thing is how the colors moved around in his hair, it even shined a bit. Krune felt despair, before he decided to keep his eyes open while walking to not catch much attention, but now it turned out that no one can get more attention than himself. "Oh great! I already have the rainbow candy core, now I look like a real clown too, I just need a few Kids to entertain and I might make a living in the city doing birthday parties." Ruik and Lakin heard that and burst in laugh again, unfortunately for them, they didn''t laugh for long, that''s because Krune finally snapped out, he turned back to his wisp form and gave a through beating on both of them, Ruik was left with lot of bruises all around his body and Lakin energy body became very dim, they didn''t dare to laugh anymore, they found out for the first time that Krune is very scary when he is angry. Krune turned back to his human form and kept practicing, practice makes perfect, it had only been eight hours since he first took the human form, but he can finally run a little, he is still tripping here and there but it''s already a lot better than not being able to even stand up properly. There was one thing that no one here took note though, during all this time Krune has been... naked! If someone from outside could see it, they would wonder whether Krune is some pervert, a grow man with rainbow hair kept running around with his third leg dancing with the winds all the time, truly a sight to behold... maybe not. It was not that no one noticed, be it Ruik, Lakin or Krune, they know very well that he is naked, but two of them are wisps while the former is a demon snake, they have never used cloths to start with, for then it was simply natural to not have cloths on. Suddenly, Krune heard a weird sound coming from his belly, not only that but he felt like he needs more energy, but even after absorbing spiritual energy to feed his wisp core, he still felt like he was getting weak, he asked Ruik if he had any idea, Ruik didn''t know if he should laugh or cry. "Are you an idiot? Haven''t you fed those Lizard Dragons for a long time? Let me ask you, why do they need to be fed?" Krune immediately understood, he is... hungry! Such a weird feeling, wisps only need spiritual energy to survive, he didn''t know that his human form would require food. Unfortunately for Krune, there is only some carcasses outside the cave room, when he looked at the Lizard Dragons eating he felt it was horrible to even look at. Krune remembered the time that he looked around the villages close to the forest, the people there would burn the meat and eat fruits, he tried to do the same, after taking a few slices of the prey, he put some fire and... turned that meat into crisp in a second. Of course it was a failure, Krune had never cooked before, he doesn''t even know the world ''cook'' to start with, but then again, practice makes perfect, several tries later he finally cooked some meat, the taste wasn''t good though, but it looked much better to the eyes than the raw meat, and tastier than raw too, he also went out and collected some fruits, this time he finally understood what the word tasty means, the fruits were really good, he felt like he could get addicted to eating if he doesn''t control himself. "The feeling of eating something is great! Ruik, you should have told me how good it is before!" Ruik looked at him as someone looking at an idiot, he have always eaten ever since he can remember himself, it was just normal for him, sure, eating when you are hungry felt good, but is it necessary to be this hyped out? He just ignored Krune and went back sleep. It had been two days since he started to practice with his human body, by now he wasn''t entirely naked anymore, but the reason for that has nothing to do with being embarrassed, its just that every time he moved his third leg would be jumping around and that really bothered him, so he made something to hold it, that was all. ''I should be able to do battle now, I have to be able to do that with my human body, although it is inconvenient with my fighting style, it shouldn''t be a problem as long as I can get used to use my wind movement.'' Krune told Lakin that he would go out to practice for a while and then left, he decided that there is no point in looking for Qi Condensation demon beasts anymore so he went further into the forest. He spread his Divise Sense to the max range, he was curious too know how far it would reach after his soul had been tempered even further by the tribulation lightning, turns out that now he can see everything in a 5300 meters radius, this is just inconceivable! Such range could only be done by late stages Foundation Establishment cultivators. Krune decided to use it every few minutes, he can''t keep it activated all the time because it spends a lot of spiritual energy, some time later he finally found a Foundation Establishment demon beast, a Three Horned Buffalo at the 2nd stage. "This is perfect, let''s see if he can feel my Divine Sense." Krune kept using it, passing through the buffalo several times, but the buffalo had no reaction, it couldn''t feel Krune''s Divine Sense at all! "As I thought, my Divine Sense is several times stronger than any other beast at my level, so they really can''t feel it, I guess only a demon beast of the 4th or maybe 5th stage of the Foundation Establishment would be able to feel my Divine Sense, but even if they do, they will not be able to tell where I am, the range of my Divine Sense is much bigger than them, this will help me to keep my safety, let''s try to challenge this Demon Buffalo." Although Krune''s divine sense is as powerful as late stage cultivators, his battle prowess is definitely not that great, but with his universe foundation, he is definitely stronger than ordinary 3rd stage Foundation Establishment cultivators and should have no problem in put a head on fight against 4th stage ones. The reason he decided to challenge this demon buffalo is because he is in his human form, he needs practice to get used to it, so, to be safe, he won''t try to be cocky. Krune got close to the spiritual vein that the buffalo was overseeing, he then purposely lessened the power of his Divine Sense so that the buffalo could perceive him, sure enough, when the buffalo noticed that Divine Sense, it spread out his own and soon found Krune outside his lair, it went outside to check what he wanted. "What do you want? This is my Spiritual Vein, if you want to take it you won''t have a good time." The buffalo looked at Krune, although Krune was using his human form, the buffalo could tell that he isn''t a human because of Krune''s spiritual energy, real humans have a different type of spiritual energy once they converted it to be used. Krune just looked at him and smiled. "I don''t need your spiritual vein, but I want all the spirit stones in it." The buffalo got angry, a puny 1st stage Foundation Establishment demon beast want to take his spirit stones away, if he let that guy do as he wish he might as well leave this place forever. "I will only say this once, get the fu*k out right now before I lose my patience." Krune just kept smiling "Then I think I have no other choice, I will have to take your spirit stones by force." The demon buffalo didn''t say anything anymore, it immediately charge at krune at full speed. Krune was already expecting it, he activated his wind element movement and got out of the way, at the same time he was about to use ten wind blades, but then he tripped again and rolled a few times, the buffalo was surprised at first when he saw Krune dodging his charge, his charge isn''t something like simply running ahead, with the use of his Divine Sense he could lock into Krune and make adjustments if Krune tried to move away, but in the end Krune still dodged. But it never thought that after such an amazing speed it tripped and rolled away, when he saw krune getting up he could see quite a few bruises on him. Krune gave a bitter smile, when he prepared to use his wind blades he didn''t pay attention where he was walking on anymore, that was to be expected, he is a wisp, he was supposed to be floating, so there wasn''t supposed to be anything that could make him trip. But now he has legs, he doesn''t float either, so it went without saying that he would definitely hit something on the ground. ''Good thing I challenged a low level demon beast, if it was someone at my combat power level, I might have got into trouble.'' The buffalo was only surprised a little, he then charge again, this time, while it was charging, it used an earth element skill to try to bind Krune''s legs, Krune wasn''t slow though, even if he is in his human body now, he still has his 360 degree vision and his Divine Sense, he noticed the changes on the ground and jumped away again, this time he paid attention where he was stepping and readied ten wind blades, as soon as the buffalo came at him, he threw them out, Krunes spiritual energy is much stronger now, even if he doesn''t use his blazing wind blades, the normal wind blades are very strong already. The wind blades hit the buffalo, leaving behind quite a few cuts, but the buffalo is a strength type beast, it has high defense levels, it ignored the pain and kept charging at Krune, now and then it would use its earth element attacks to try to bind, block or attack Krune, It is a Foundation Establishment beast after all, it has a lot more spiritual energy Qi Condensation ones. But Krune was too fast, the buffalo couldn''t understand how a 1st stage Foundation Establishment could be so much faster than him. Not to mention, those wind blades are really annoying, some times that guy would also use earth element attacks just like him, now and then an earth wall would block his way, or some earth spike would shot from his side, fortunately, the buffalo is an earth element user too, so it was very sensitive to the changes of earth around allowing it to defend or dodge the attacks. Time passed by, after twenty minutes of fight, the buffalo was finally out of spiritual energy, not to mention the hundreds of cuts, big and small all over his body. It finally gave up and shouted back through his Divine Sense. "Alright! Alright! You can take the spirit stones, I can''t beat you, it''s your win." Krune smiled at him again "That''s very sensitive of you, then I won''t be polite." Krune took all the spirit stones in the spiritual vein and then left, he didn''t come here to kill anyone. Although he doesn''t mind to kill when necessary, the fact is that he doesn''t like it, so as long as there isn''t a need for that, he won''t be taking lives, things like provocation and benefits are far from being enough to force his hand. After Krune got far way from the buffalo lair, he sat down and cultivated in order to recover, through the use of his spiritual energy, the injuries on his body started to heal at fast pace, he might have a corporeal body now, but it had taken form using his spiritual energy as base after all. While he was recovering, Krune started to ponder about his battle with the Three Horned Buffalo. ''As expected, an human body is too inconvenient, although it has a higher level of defense compared with my wisp body, I can''t move freely at all, I tripped quite a few times too, I also have to pay attention to my own limbs movements while using my skills, but I have no choice, unless I get in a life or death situation, I can not show my real form as a wisp to anyone outside, so I need to get used to it.'' Time passed by, Krune had been out for a week already. Chapter 31 - End of the Crisis But before Krune or the enemy leader could attack, Yusa came forward to talk. "Shouldn''t you give up by now? I don''t know who you are but you are definitely not bandits, bandits can''t possibly have such refined skills, which means that you were sent here by someone. You should know that with my, Ao and Krune''s power it is impossible for you to kill everyone now, and that is considering that you will end in the winning side. Are you sure you want the Mercenary Guild to investigate this incident where there is survivals?" The leader felt helpless, he knows that Yusa is telling the truth, not to mention that he can''t see through this Krune fella, he received information that he could use wind and fire element to summon some king of fire type wind blades which as really powerful, the reason that he was assigned as the group leader is exactly because he is a water element user, he was supposed to be Krune''s nemesis, but after seeing the he can also use water element attacks that are by no means any weaker than his own, his confidence is now gone, and it would be bad if he could use lightning based abilities too. "Very well, but I want their corpses" He then pointed at the corpse pieces of his companions, Yusa agreed with that, if they can leave without any losses that would be for the best. Krunes group retreated while those men stayed behind to recover the corpses of their companions, they still had one chance, if they are capable of reaching Kaley City fast enough and inform their clan to send reinforcements before Krune''s group reach the city, they might be able to salvage the situation. After walking for over two hours the group finally stopped to rest, everyone had used everything they had in the last battle, Krune wasn''t much better either, to create such a gigantic water prison, control the water blades and still keep his Divine Sense active all the time, it took a great tool on him. He took a few spirit stones from his spatial ring and started to recover, while everyone was meditating, Yusa, Krune and Ao went to the side to discuss about what happened. Ao Sulian was first one to talk. "You said that they were not bandits, that they were sent by someone, mind to explain?" Yusa nodded "In fact I''m not sure either, but a bandit group shouldn''t have such coordination, it was good that my guess was right and their leader agreed to give up. You don''t know it but Krune has a Four Stars Mercenary Badge, I think it might have been because of this that we were attacked by them." Ao was surprised! "Four Stars? You are joking, right? Only those at the Core Formation Realm can apply for those, why would he have a Four Stars Badge?" Krune looked a little embarrassed. "I think I used a little bit too much strength during the test, for some reason they decided to give me this badge." Yusa''s mouth twitched. "A little bit your head! Then what if you had used your full power? Would you bring the entire guild down?" Krune looked away and pretended that he didn''t hear anything. Yusa then explained what happened during the mercenary exam. Ao looked at Krune strangely, he was very surprised with his battle strength since he was even able to imprison four Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators, but in the end he was using water element alone, he didn''t use two elements at the same time. But now he knows that Krune can do that and even use Skill Merge! "I understand now, they were probably after him! But who would dare to buy a fight with the mercenary guild? To kill a genius like him under the guild''s nose is almost the same as bring destruction to ones clan or sect." Krune was the one to talk this time. "I don''t think they wanted to kill me, that 5th stage Foundation Establishment cultivator that was fighting me at first wasn''t using any lethal damage attacks, it was as if he didn''t want me to die." Yusa eyes then lit up. "Blood contract! They probably wanted to capture and force you to sign a blood contract, with your talent you are definitely becoming a great figure in the future, they wanted to have you for themselves." She then laughed a little "Look! The mister famous had done it again!" Another blade passed through Krune''s heart, it''s very effective! He couldn''t help but think again while crying inside. ''Low key is really the sages path...'' Ao felt awkward at their weird relationship, but then he came back to the main topic. "Which means that they will probably try again, we are running against time here, after we arrive at Kaley City they won''t be able to do anything anymore, even if we leave the city later, the mercenary guild will be on guard waiting for someone to eat the bait that is Krune, not to mention that I don''t think they will escape the mercenary''s guild intelligence network to start with, the guild will probably root them out even before they need to use a bait plan." Krune didn''t understand much but Yusa did, the mercenary guild is a behemoth around the world, very few would oppose it, she then said. "It won''t be a problem, it has only been two hours since we left, not to mention that their companions also have to stop to rest, we already left the most dangerous area on the way here, if I and Krune press forward just the two of us, there is no way they will have time to get there and assemble another team." Ao then said "They could simply communicate with their clan or sect, no wait, they can''t, the signal won''t be able to arrive here." Yusa nodded "Exactly, danger zones don''t have signal towers since bandits would most likely take the equipment down to sell, it''s a wasted effort, we all know that danger zones are left like that not only because it would be too troublesome to keep watch over them, but also because they are good places to refine ones skills, so they will have to get closer to Kaley City to be able to communicate with their superiors, then to summon the necessary personal and leave the city again will take time too. Of course, if we want to prevent that, we need to leave immediately." Krune nodded, he had already restored his spiritual energy and could go at any moment. "Then we should be going, Yusa. If I''m not wrong, their leader, that 6th stage Foundation Establishment will probably separate from their group and rush forward alone, we can''t wait anymore." Ao Sulian then said. "In that case let me tell the others that I''m leaving too, I''m a wind element specialized cultivator, I won''t drag you back, with the three of us it will be easier to deal with any bandits on the way, like this it will be safer to the others too." Krune and Yusa agreed with his proposal. Ao talked a little with his two friends and with the Qi Condensation cultivators, after that the three of them left, they rushed all the way until the night of the next day, Ao and Krune were fine, they both can use wind element easily, specially Krune, but Yusa is a water element specialized cultivator, she couldn''t keep going anymore. Ao then came forward to carry her. She was about to refuse when Krune remembered her. "You won''t be able to do anything if you don''t rest, the both of us can use wind element so we can continue without stop but you can''t, remember that we are running against time." She then left a helpless sigh, Ao then carried her on her back, Krune isn''t very strong when you consider his physical strength, so Ao was a much better option for the job. Two days later they finally could see the city walls in the distance, fortunately for them, they just arrived when the enemy was about to send reinforcements to stop them on the way. Krune was right in the end, the enemy leader had rushed forward alone to pass over the information, unfortunately for him, he was a water element user just like Yusa, even with his higher cultivation level he couldn''t compare in endurance against wind element cultivators, they could use the wind to make their bodies lighter helping them to press forward much easier. --- Krune, Yusa and Ao went straight to the mercenary main branch to report what happened, when the branch supervisor heard what they said, he exploded in rage, their Yule Continent hasn''t given birth to such a talent for a long time already, and now some piece of shit clan or sect wanted to force him into a blood contract, that is ridiculous! The entire branch intelligence network moved that day, they looked for information regarding ten Foundation Establishment cultivators leaving the city in the past week, and paired with their cultivation level with what was reported by Krune, sure enough, there was a match! At the same time, on the southwest side of Kaley City, the clan head of the Solie Clan was passing right and left inside the meeting room, his name is Zu Solie, a 2nd stage Core Formation Realm cultivator, the elders in the room were all quiet, around a week ago they had received the information from one of their clan members that a human form demon beast passed the mercenary examination and got a Four Stars Badge and ID, they knew that they were one of the very first ones to receive the information, as long as they could bring Krune to their turf, force him sign a blood contract and let him go as if not had happened, their clan was sure to grow in the future while being carried by Krune. Unfortunately the plan failed, they lost four Foundation Establishment cultivators and the mercenary guild is already investigating the issue, it would be fine if there was no witnesses, but the target itself proved to be much stronger than they had predicted, he was already back at the mercenary guild so there was nothing they could do with him from now on, the question now is if they can avoid disaster. A subordinate knocked the door and then came in. "Clan head, we received a call from the mercenary guild, they are inviting you to come to the guild to have a conversation." The clan head started to sweat all over, it was finally here! "Very well, call them back and tell that I''m heading over as soon as possible." The subordinate then left and closed the door behind. "Clan head, this can not continue, by following the leaving registers of the city, it will be way to easy for them to find out that it was us who sent the attackers, not to mention that we still have five of our Foundation Establishment members making their way back to the clan, they will definitely be captured before they arrive here." The clan head got upset. "Shut up! Do you think I don''t know that? I don''t want to hear what will happen, I want to hear a solution, did you get any other information from that Krune that we can use?" The elders shook their heads, but then one of them remembered one thing. "In the report from our members back at the village, when this Krune cultivates, he absorbs the spiritual energy of over a hundred meters radius, and that''s already considering that he had spirit stones all around him, would it be possible to pay him to let it go?" The clan head eyes lit up, finally there was an idea, in fact, it was a very simple one, it''s just that since they heard that Krune was a Four Stars Mercenary, they thought that he wouldn''t care about spirit stones at all! But if his universe foundation needs so much spiritual energy like it''s said in the report, then maybe, just maybe, it might be enough to save their clan that way. "Alright, let''s go with what you said, prepare my car, I''m heading over there." Core Formation Cultivator could use their spiritual energy to fly, but flying is restricted in Kaley City, only Divine Soul cultivators are allowed to fly in the city, it''s just that there isn''t many of them to start with. The Solie clan obviously wasn''t one of the powers with a Divine Soul Realm ancestor. --- Back at the mercenary guild, Krune, Ao and Yusa were waiting for the results of the search in one of the rooms provided by the mercenary guild for them to rest. They heard the sound of a door opening when the guild supervisor of the branch came in. "We got the five Foundation Establishment you had talked about, they are all part of the Solie Clan, their clan head is coming to the guild to give an explanation, do you want to make part of the meeting?" All three of them nodded their heads. In the meeting room, Zu Solie was waiting when Krune, Ao and Yusa came in together with the supervisor of the branch. Zu Solie came forward to great them first. "Supervisor Lu, and those three should be Krune, Ao and Yusa, right?" The three of them didn''t look the least bit happy with his greetings, two were supposed to die while one was supposed to become a slave, how could they? "Clan head Zu Solie, let''s cut the bullshit, we already got those five members of your clan, although I haven''t done anything to them yet and they haven''t said anything, they are registered as part of your clan and we both know that there is no way that they would have moved without your permission." Zu Solie smiled bitter, it was here. "Yes, I was the one who asked to to bring Krune over, and even if I said that it wouldn''t be to force him to sign a blood contract, no one would believe me anyway, so I came to make amends." Supervisor Lu then said "I wonder what kind of amends you are willing to make for us to let it go? Is there something you can offers Krune that we can''t?" Zu Solie shook his head "We obviously can''t offer anything that the mercenary guild can''t, but we are willing to pay any price as long as our clan can be left out of the hook, this Clan head''s life is also on the table." They were surprised, Zu Solie was even willing to give his life away to save his clan, he might have tried to kill and slave them, but at least he knows how to protect his own. Zu Solie continued "We heard the little friend Krune needs a lot of spirit stones for his cultivation, so if the matter can be resolved with this, we are willing to offer ten thousand Rank Three low quality spirit stones." Don''t look down on this number, even after Krune ''paid a visit'' to several spiritual vein lakes back in Katiu Forest, he wasn''t able to find a single Rank Three spirit stone, the best ones he found were only Rank Two middle grade and they weren''t much. Not only Krune and Ao were surprised with this amount, Yusa eyes were on fire! She grabbed Krunes arms and started shaking it without stop, this money grubber has already lost her sanity! Krune also needs spirit stones urgently, not only for his cultivation, but also for his Spiritual Energy Meridians, they then looked at supervisor Lu. Lu Ganan is his full name, and he understood the meaning of their looks. "I won''t lie, this is a very big fortune in a place like Kaley City, we might be a city but we are a small one, this price can indeed help you a lot while you are here, the question is, do you want to spare the Solie Clan?" Krune then got an idea, they will need support while they are here, the Solie Clan might have tried to do what they did, but they still have some influence in the city. "If the Solie clan head is willing to sign a blood contract promising that the clan won''t try to do anything to me or my friends and also give it''s full support during the time we are in Kaley City, then I think we can let this matter go. What you two think about it?" Ao Sulian and Yusa Shen understood what Krune wanted to do, support would indeed make things much easier in the city and open several doors for them, so they nodded. Zu Solie also was ecstatic, the Solie clan might have lost almost all of its treasure, but they adverted disaster, money will come in again sooner or later anyway, but if they use this chance to build a good relationship with Krune, this disaster might turn out to be their fortune instead. He gladly signed the contract which put a restriction to his soul. Chapter 32 - Relationship Related Items With the situation dealt with, they shared the spirit stones, even though Yusa looked like crying, Krune still got the most of it, a total of Five Thousand Rank Three low quality spirit stones, without him they would probably be dead after all, the fact that the Solie Clan came for him isn''t his fault too, Ao got the the second, Three thousand and finally Yusa got Two thousand. The reason that Ao got more was so that he could share his spirit stones with his group, they also helped so they deserve it, in the end Ao would be the one with less because of this. Right after the share was done, Yusa disappeared like smoke, as to where she went, no one knows, Ao went back in the direction of Katiu Forest, he wanted to meet with his group on the way and help then arrive safely at Kaley City. As for Krune, he was invited by supervisor Lu to go through the procedures to make an ID, after taking his name and a bunch of other information, his ID was made in the place, he couldn''t help but feel depressed when he look at his picture in the monitor, he can''t use anything to cover his face or head during that time, so his rainbow hair was appearing for all to see. He then went out to take a look at the city, this is the first time he enters one after all, the more he knows, the better it is. The City of Kaley could be said to be small compared with other cities in the continent, but as the last stop before the Katiu Forest, it received cultivators of the Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment all year long, it wasn''t very modern, but it still had technology, Krune had paid attention to the various gadgets when he first entered, but because they were in a hurry, he didn''t have time to pay attention to them. Yusa told him that he should buy a communicator, that will make things easier for them later when they need to talk, Krune had seen wisp hunters using them before but it was his first time acquiring one, he found a shop that seemed to be specialized in those things and entered. An hour later, he left with the communicator... and a bunch of other products. ''Why do I feel like I bought a lot of things I don''t need?'' He couldn''t be blamed, it was as if his forehead had the worlds ''country bumpkin'' written on it, the attendants looked at him like wolves looking at a prey. In the end, poor Krune was forced to buy a lot of stuff he didn''t have use for. Fortunately, those were non cultivator items, so he only used gold and silver to pay for them. The more Krune walked into shops, the big the amount of useless things he got, poor Krune was even dragged into a sex shop, he found a lot of ''tools'' with weird names, the attendant kept using ''key words'' while describing their utilities for him, Krune wasn''t dumb, he could understand the real use of several of those items, but he didn''t care much about that, he has long decided that humans have weird habits, perhaps this was one of them. He then left the shop with another bunch of items in his spatial ring, the attendant told him that those items can help with the ''relationship'' between ''partners'', so Krune bought a few that he thinks Yusa and Ao would like. ''I''m really a very considerate wisp with my friends'' He also received several ''advice'' from the attendant that said they could stimulate the relationship, Krune is a wisp who puts a lot of importance to those close to him, so he mentally noted down all those ''advice''. It was past midday when he started to feel hungry, he entered a random restaurant and ate to his heart content, the waiters waere very happy with such customer. --- Finally, after killing his curiosity for the time being, he decided to look at the guilds, sects and clans information, there was lot of them, even for a small city like Kaley. He thought a little and got a conclusion. ''In a certain way, I could be said to be part of the Solei Clan now, so there is no need to look for other clans or sects, so I better look for a side profession that could help me make money.'' Krune looked through the list, there was guilds for alchemists, blacksmiths, formations, rune inscribers, puppets, so on and so forth. Krune pondered a bit and decided to check the alchemist guild first, from what he had read in the information, alchemists must have a high control over the elements, specially fire and wood, Krune hadn''t tried to use wood element before, but he is pretty confident in his Myriad Energies Technique, not to mention that his ''friend'', Casfer, is there too. The alchemist guild was one of the biggest guilds, just like the mercenary guild, it expanded through the entire world, but that is to be expected, alchemist pills have great use during the cultivation path, they are able to open ports for those who would not be able to pass through, the alchemist are also harder to find than mercenaries, although members of the mercenary guild must have a combat power higher than their realm, it is still possible to find quite a few of them, but alchemists are different, it doesn''t only need high control over elements, talent and intelligence for the profession are also a big factor, so their members are much smaller. Arriving at the Alchemist guild, Krune noticed that there was crowds entering and leaving all the time, with just that he understood how procured the alchemists are, it might be exactly what he needs when talking about making spirit stones. Inside there was several small rooms used to receive the orders request and the necessary items, each room had an attendant, of course, they aren''t alchemists, just employees of the guild, they are responsible for taking down the orders of the customers according to which pill they want to be made and their grade, although there is a lot of people putting down orders, very few of them will get their pills in the end, an alchemist must accept their order and the price they are willing to pay before hand, but there is very few alchemists and way too much customers, so usually alchemists wouldn''t accept orders that aren''t worth their time, it is also because of that that alchemists are usually filth rich. Krune didn''t go to one of the request rooms though, he went to the information balcony instead. There he asked the attendant. "Hello, I''m looking for a friend of mine, he is a one Star Alchemist here in the guild, his name is Casfer, can you tell him that Krune has arrived." The attendant looked at him, Krune was using his hat to cover his hair, so he looked pretty common, he is now famous because of the mercenary guild, but his trade mark, the rainbow hair, is being covered now, so not only the attendant, but no else had recognized Krune so far, the attendant then shook his head, he had seen a lot of people pretending to know the alchemists to get to talk with them just to beg for a pill to be made, part of his job was to stop such people. "Brother, this is not the place to joke around, if you want a pill made, go to one of the request rooms and leave your order." Krune felt puzzled with that answer. "But I don''t need any pill, I''m only here to see him, if you don''t believe me, just pass the message that Krune has come and I''m sure he will come out." The attendant was annoyed but decided to simply call over just to check, if it was just to ask Casfer if he knows someone called Krune, then it should be okay, after making the call he just waited. Not even a minute later, Casfer came rushing from the inside the guild. "Krune, my friend! You had come!" The attendant was surprise with such scene, even though Casfer is only a One Star alchemist, any alchemist of the guild has a high status in the city, for him to treat Krune like that, just who the hell is this Krune guy? But then he remembered about the news about a new rising star of the Mercenary Guild who had the same name, at the foundation establishment he was specially accepted as a Four Stars Mercenary, he then looked into the information and sure enough, there was a picture there, he compared the picture with Krune who was using a hat at the moment. ''They are the same!'' He was amazed! "You are th-" Before he could even continue, Casfer shouted. "Shut up! Don''t you see he doesn''t want to attract attention, pretend that you didn''t see anything, am I clear?" The attendant swallowed what he was going to say and just nodded, he almost made a fatal mistake, he could have totally lost his job. Casfer then looked smiling at Krune. "Come inside, there is too much people here at moment, we can have a talk there." He obviously know about Krune, ever since that event with the Lizard Dragons, he has been paying attention to any news regarding any cultivator capable of using several elements, he is one of the very few out there that knows that Krune could use skill merge even before he became a Foundation Establishment, but because of the blood contract he can''t tell anyone about that. Krune was surprised with such reaction. Since when have they been that close? Inside of Casfer''s alchemist room, Krune was looking around while Casfer was sweating all over. ''He really broke through the foundation establishment! A Foundation Establishment wisp at that! And even created the legendary universe foundation, how is that even possible?'' Krune looked at Casfer who looked nervous. "I''m not that scary, right? I don''t intend to do or force you to do anything, I just need your help, I read that to become an alchemist you need a very high control over elements, so I was thinking about trying to become one, I thought it would be better to look for you first." Casfer left a sigh of relief after hearing that, so he only wanted to try to become an alchemist, Casfer didn''t think that Krune was wrong about his decision, he could already control elements to such an extent before breaking through the foundation establishment, at least in that point he definitely had the necessary talent. "If it''s just that, then it''s easy, actually you didn''t even need to come at me for that, outside there is another room for recruiters, alchemists are rare, so the guild is always looking for talents, as long as you apply and pay the fee, you would be able to try the comprehension exam." Krune was puzzled. "What is this comprehension exam about?" Casfer then explained "The guild is willing to take anyone as long as they have the aptitude for alchemy, but how many people out there can even afford the necessary material to start learning? That''s where the comprehension exam takes place, it will not test your alchemy skills but your control over the various elements, specially wood and fire, as long as your results satisfy the criteria, you will be able to start learning alchemy in the guild, they will give the necessary material for study, you will then have one month to memorize the content in the files. Of course, if you think you don''t need an entire month to do that, you can come back earlier for the practical exam, it happens once a week." "At the practical exam, there will be a few alchemists helping the new recruiters, they will teach how to concoct some simple pills, but even if those pills are the easiest ones, they are still very difficult to make for those who are trying it for the first time. Here is where we separated those who can become alchemists from those who can''t." Krune nodded, it''s seemed very practical. "How many people pass the exam every time?" Casfer just laughed at that question "To find people with good talent for element control isn''t very hard, although there is only a few, the number is quite high when they are put together, but talent for alchemy is something totally different, usually we would only find two or three people worth teaching every month." Krune was surprised that there was so little, no wonder alchemist are so procured. "Then I will apply for it, do you have anything else to help with it?" Casfer is under the blood contract, so he has to help if he can. "Not really, not that I don''t want to help but because any information I can give you will provided by the guild from the start. If it was a few millennia ago, where alchemists tried to keep all their techniques secret and only passing it to their descendants or disciples, then it would be complicated. But as the time passed, the number of alchemist talents started to decline. The alchemists noticed that it couldn''t keep going like that, so that was when the alchemist guild was created. The alchemists who were willing to share they knowledge passed down everything they knew to those who could become alchemists, since then all the information about pill making is available in the alchemist guild for study." Krune then asked. "What if I try to concoct pills to train before the practical exam?" Casfer shook his head. "I wouldn''t recommend that. Sure, you will get more proficient at the basic alchemist skills when the exam comes, you might even pass because of that, but in the end it''s all a smoke screen, sooner or later your real talent will appear, so it''s better to follow the procedures, people without talent for alchemy not only will not make anything out of it, they will instead lose money since they will keep failing the concoct process." Krune agreed to that point of view, the exam was made like this so that they could find real alchemists, not medicinal herb wasters, the words ''you will lose money instead'' was specially effective for Krune. Krune left Casfer''s private alchemy room and went to apply for the exam, the process was very easy and the fee wasn''t high, just enough to pay for the material used during the practical exam, it goes to show how much effort the alchemist guild is putting into finding talents, other than time, the entire process of intellectual and practical exam are almost free, the guild provides everything. After that, Krune went back to the mercenary guild, it was quite late so he decided to go through the comprehension exam the next day morning, he stayed in one of the rooms provided by the guild temporarily until he finds a place to stay. --- After a night of cultivation, Krune had finished feeding his rainbow core, this time it took him almost 300 Rank Two middle grade spirit stone until it finally stopped absorbing spiritual energy, now come the hard part, reinforce his foundation so that it can resist the breakthrough into the 3rd stage. Krune left his room the next morning, he was using some one the clothes he had bought the day prior, although Krune was ''forced'' to buy those clothes from the cloth shops, the attendants still had experience in the area after all, Krune didn''t look too bad in them, as long as he covers his rainbow hair, everything seems fine. At the meeting room, Yusa was talking with Ao who had just come back, supervisor Lu was also there with a few assistants, they were discussing about the Team Ranking System, due to Ao Sulian friendship with them, Yusa thought that it would be good if he joined the team as the third member. It was then that they noticed Krune coming into the room, Yusa was the first to talk. "So, what you think? Ao Sulian isn''t a Two Stars mercenary but he is someone we can trust, we still need one more member, not to mention that we three got closer during the time we spent together." Krune nodded. "Indeed, in fact, I was also thinking the same, it all depends on him now." Krune and Yusa looked at him. Ao the laughed. "No problem for me, we did got close together, I also think this is a good opportunity for a One Star Mercenary like me." They the discussed with supervisor Lu about the procedures to enter the ranking system, an hour later they were finished. Supervisor Lu and the others then just waited to see if Krune''s group needed something else, Yusa then looked at Krune and asked. "So how was it, how was your time in the city, is there anything you need?" Yusa knows that this is Krune''s first time in a city, he certainly had checked it out. "It was pretty good, this technology thing is very convenient, I even bought that communicator you asked me to." He then remembered something. "Right, I bought you a few gifts, the attendant said that they can boost our relationship." He then took out some very nice ''relationship related'' items and gave her, there was quite a few different ones, the most eye catching were the hardcore items like the whip and the cuffs. Yusa almost fainted, her face as red as a tomato! Ao Sulian, Lu Ganan and his assistants opened their mouths wide, Lu Ganan couldn''t help but comment. "Cough, cough. Well, those quite some interesting plays you two like to have." Before Yusa could even reply, Krune took out a few more and gave them to Ao Sulian. "They said that if you use them right, our ties will get stronger, so you can use them when you have time." Ao Sulian almost vomited blood. Supervisor Lu and his assistants eyes almost popped out of their sockets, Lu Ganan looked at Krune and Ao Sulian first, and then at Yusa last, he then asked. "Is this the legendary threesome?" Krune was as indifferent as ever, if anything he looked a little exited to be able to give some gifts for his friends. "No need to thank me, it''s all in order to improve our relationship." Yusa fainted right there and then, Ao finally vomited blood, they passed away just like that. Chapter 33 - You Will Love the Name! Next day morning, Krune''s body was aching all over, he received a through and through beating from Yusa yesterday, at first he dodged her attacks, he couldn''t understand why she attacked him out of no where, but then she looked at Supervisor Lu hatefully, Lu Ganan felt a shill on his back, he understood what she wanted, he could only think. ''Krune, don''t blame me, it was all your fault.'' He then released his spiritual energy and locked Krune in place, Lu Ganan is a 5th stage Core Formation Realm cultivator, Krune had no way to fight against him, he then became the target of Yusa''s fury. Krune was feeling wronged, he had bought them gifts and in return he got a beating instead, he was pretty sure that humans like to give gifts to each other. Could it be that he was wrong? It was only after Yusa vented her anger and left that Lu Ganan released Krune, Ao Sulian could see that Krune was lost in a daze, he came forward and started to explain why she got angry like that, it was only after an entire hour of discussion that Krune finally understood a little more about the humans habits, he couldn''t help but sigh. "You humans are too complicated." Ao Sulian sighed helplessly, those are all common knowledge, it''s just that this guy have never been out of the Katiu Forest before. But he couldn''t get angry at Krune after all, he understood that Krune really had the best intentions, it''s just that his common sense need a little more polishing. In fact, if it was a normal demon beast who had a gender before acquiring a human form, they would more or less understand those delicate topics, but wisps have no gender before acquiring human form, so they have no knowledge what so ever about such situations, as mentioned before, a wisp''s gender is decided by their personality, so Krune only got to become a man after he broke through the Foundation Establishment and got his human form. Don''t misunderstand Krune''s knowledge, even before he got his human form, he knew about the reproductive acts of the other races and their genders differentiation, he lived in the Katiu Forest during four years after all, the forest doesn''t have only demon beasts, it also has common animals that haven''t cultivated yet, he had seen quite a few during their ''offspring creation'' acts, it''s just that he had never given a damn to them. ''I will have to just apologize next time I see Yusa.'' Krune started to think about the time he promised that he would marry Feifei, he always thought that marriage was basically about getting permission to have children, but it seemed like to have more to that. Krune then shook his head and put those thoughts on the back of his mind, he then decided to leave. Krune went to the alchemist guild to take the Comprehension Test, arriving there, he could see Casfer waiting for him. "Is there something?" Casfer then said through Divine Sense. "Not really, I just wanted to see how you will perform, you were able to control more than one element at the same time before you even became a Foundation Establishment, I''m just curious about the results now that you had become one." Krune then nodded, he was also curious about how good it would be. Inside the test room, there was quite a few people, they were waiting for the tests to start, it''s not that if you failed once that you can''t try again, the higher your realm, the better your control, of course, each persons realm had a specified level of control for that realm, if not, later on some foundation establishment cultivators would try out and easily pass because of their cultivation realm, that''s not considered talent at all. The exam started, the people entered one by one, the test itself was very fast, there was a sensor machine that was capable of measure the control exerted over the elements by the cultivators, they just need to put their hand in the sensor and use their spiritual energy to manipulate the elements, as to how they should manipulate the elements? That depends on each one, every person had their own way of how to manipulate the elements the way they felt it to be better, the machine only calculated how good it was. On a big monitor at the front, the test results appeared one after another, the highest number possible was 3000, the clearance mark was 1250, so far over twenty cultivators had tried the test, but only two passed the element control test. Krune''s time arrived, when he was in front of the machine, he pondered how he should manipulate the elements, it was a hard question for him, that''s because he simply used his spiritual energy to manipulate the elements however he wished, he never thought about a better way to do that, he just willed and that was it, as long as he practiced, he could pretty much do anything with the elements in his control. The examiner that was overseeing the test looked at Krune puzzled. "Why are you taking so long to start? Just go ahead and try it however you like it, the sensor will be able to analyze it doesn''t matter what you do." Krune sighed, since he doesn''t know, then he won''t think about it. ''The machine was going to calculate how good I am at manipulating elements, does it mean that I need I will be tested on every single one? No, that''s not possible, if we go deep into this thought, there is some elements that people aren''t good at, they wouldn''t use it during the test, since that''s the case, I will go with fire, wind and water, these are the ones that I''m most familiar with after all.'' He put his hands in the sensor and manipulated the elements to form different figures with each element, he then kept changing their formats, it made him remember the time he did something similar in front of Feifei, but he forgot one thing, he is manipulating all three elements at the same time! When the examiner saw that he almost fainted. ''Three elements! Three elements at once! This guy is clearly a 2nd stage Foundation Establishment, how is he doing that?'' Of course, even if Krune is manipulating three elements at the same time, the sensor only calculates how good he is at controlling them, it doesn''t care whether he can control one or ten thousand at once, so it worked as it should, it''s just that the test results... People were looking at the results at display when suddenly, someone called Krune jumped to the top of the list, not only did he jump straight into the first place, his results were outrageous, 2796 points! The max result possible is 3000, and Krune almost got it! They can''t even compare with the results of the two who passed before, they only had 1317 and 1479 points each, it''s even more than the double of the passing mark! Casfer was looking at it from distance, he couldn''t help but feel sad, how good would it be if it was him who had such control over the elements? He then sighed and just left. Krune looked at his results and left a sigh of relief, he then looked at the examiner and asked. "It means that I passed the first test, isn''t it?" The examiner nodded his head absently minded, Krune then went out to take his studies materials, they were transferred into his communicator so that he can access them any time he wants, Krune couldn''t help but praise this thing, this communicator is really convenient, as someone who lived in the middle of the forest for so long, this technological world is a sight to behold. While Krune was going back to his room in the Mercenary Guild to study, the Alchemist guild was in the middle of chaos, someone achieved 2796 points during the element control test, and not only that, he did it while controlling three elements at the same time! But when the guild administrators came out to check this new recruit, they found out that he had left already. The guild supervisor, Go Gao, and the Four Stars alchemist, Julies Rof, were discussing about this issue in the main hall, Julies looked at Go Gao "How could he have left? This result is unprecedented bellow the Core Formation Realm, he should have waited!" Go Gao replied indignantly. "I don''t know, but we have the ID details the was used to apply for the exam, go take a look and lets pay him a visit." Julies nodded. "That''s the best we can do at moment." Julies then left to retrieve the information, a few minutes later, she was back. She had a weird look on her face, Go Gao noticed that something was wrong and asked. "Is his Identity sensitive?" Julies nodded. "I found out who he is, do you remember than new rising star that appeared a week ago in the mercenary guild?" Supervisor Go pondered a bit before answering. "You mean that guy with a rainbow hair who got a Fours Stars Badge while still at the Foundation Establishment? Wait, you couldn''t be saying-" Julies then let out a sigh "Correct, this is him, it''s just that when he came to make the exam he was using a hat to cover his hair, seems like he didn''t want to attract attention." Supervisor Go then felt gloomy, the mercenary guild isn''t the least bit weaker than the alchemist guild, not to mention that they made an exception and gave Krune a Four Stars Mercenary badge, it goes to show how much importance they put on him. But then he said "Let''s wait a month, since he came for the comprehension exam it means that he intends to become an alchemist as well. Did he retrieve the studies material?" Julies nodded, then Go Gao continued. "It means that he should be back in at most a month for the practical exam, make sure to pay attention to when he comes, it''s not because he has a month to study that it will take him that long to come back, after he undergoes the practical examination we can make a decision about this issue, if it turns out that all he has is a good control of the elements but no talent for alchemy, then we will simply ignore those results, the alchemist guild needs alchemists, not element manipulators." Julies agreed with Go Gao, they had seen people with great control over the elements before, in the end most of them didn''t have the talent necessary for alchemy itself. It is better for them to wait and see what happens. Julies then commented. "It seems that a One Star alchemist of our guild is his friend, should we call him over?" Supervisor Go shook his head. "No, let it go, since he left straight away then it means that he doesn''t want to be bothered, it''s better for us to not scary him away." Julies didn''t say anything else and just left. --- Krune was back at the mercenary guild where he bumped at Yusa, she was clearly holding a grudge at him still. "Ao Sulian already explained me that those are not good gifts to give to the others, so I would like to apologize, I won''t buy them again." Yusa was still looking cold at him though. Krune then pondered a bit and remembered something, he took out 50 Rank Three low quality spirit stones. "These are yours if you let it go." Yusa''s eyes moved a little, but she still didn''t relent, Krune then took out an extra 50 spirit stones. Yusa looked happier, but at the same time she didn''t say anything. Krune then gritted his teeth and took another 100 spirit stones, he now had 200 Rank Three low quality spirit stone in front of him. "200 hundred! That''s my limit, if you don''t let it go, then forget it!" Yusa finally showed a bright smile. "Oh brother, look at you, there was no need for that, I know you had the best intentions when you bought those gifts for me! Your sister here will accept them as a token of your sincerity then, let''s look after each one in the future." She then put the spirit stones in her spatial ring and left, Krune was left behind feeling like crying again. ''Forget it, it was my fault for not having made a better research, I will just consider it another unlucky day, fortunately, I didn''t use the sex shop guy advices.'' Krune then went back to his room, there were things thrown everywhere, he had spend quite sometime over the equipment of the human world, trying to understand how they work, all for the sake of knowledge, although he obviously can''t make the electronics himself, he at least now understands how and why they worked, but he wasn''t planing to delve further in this things, he just wanted to be able to use them efficiently. He sat down on his bed and opened the studies file from the alchemist guild, he had to memorize all the files, they basically showed all the medicinal herbs available for new alchemists and their properties, although these are only the herbs for One Star alchemists, the list was enormous! Fortunately, Krune is a wisp! Wisps are innately intelligent, not to mention him who had his soul tempered several times and is already at the Foundation Establishment Realm, it was way to easy. Krune only had to read it once and if he willed, he wouldn''t forget them anymore! Night came and Krune stopped his studies, he had already memorized over half of the herbs, but night time was for cultivation, he won''t forget who he is, time is what he needs most, so he can''t stop cultivating no matter what. The day came and Krune finished his cultivation, at least he doesn''t have the need to sleep, it saves a lot of time for him. ''The way it is going it will take me around three months to reinforce my planet foundation enough for me to attack the 3rd stage, I will need to find a way to make it faster.'' He then remembered that the mercenary guild has a lot of items available for sale, he arrived at the sales room and opened the list of items available. Not long after he found what he was looking for. ''Five Elements paste, capable of help with the foundation progress, by consuming it the speed that one''s foundation is reinforced is accelerated by 20% to 30% for a period of more or less 8 days.'' ''Price: 900 Rank Two middle quality spirit stones.'' Krune was ecstatic, that was exactly the type of item he needed, he then took his Mercenary Badge out and tried to buy it, but then a message appeared on the screen. ''User doesn''t have the necessary ranking points for the purchase, please put more effort during your missions and come back to try again.'' Krune was taken aback, then he looked at the bottom and sure enough, there was a specific number of ranking points necessary to unlock the item for sale. Earth Rank Points Necessary: Not available Sky Rank Points Necessary: 1200 Heaven Rank Points Necessary: 190 Krune was sad. ''Seems like that just lazily cultivating won''t work.'' He then video called Yusa and Ao through the communicator. "I want to buy an item from the mercenary store, but I don''t have the necessary ranking points, are you interested in start a mission to make some points?" Ao was the first to reply. "It''s good that you mentioned it, I''m at the peak of the 3rd stage, I want to buy a Three Stars Spiritual Explosion pill from the mercenary guild to help in my breakthrough, I went to the alchemist guild but the price they are asking is too high, it''s cheaper to get it from the mercenary guild since they also have alchemists that are part of the guild too. I will need 650 Ranking points." Yusa then commented. "I don''t have anything I need at moment but those points will definitely come in hand in the future, it will also put us on the ranking system which might bring good jobs for us later, if we don''t complete at least one mission, our team name won''t appear on the list." Krune nodded, he doesn''t want to catch more attention, fortunately, the rank system allows for the team members names to be hidden, he then thought about something and asked. "By the way, what is our team name on the ranking system?" He then saw Yusa giving a bright smile on the other side of the video call, he immediately had a foreboding feeling. Yusa then commented. "You will love it, since you are the strongest member of our group I decided the register it as..." "The Rainbow Team." Chapter 34 - The Truth Behind the Danger Zones Krune, for an instant, seriously considered if he should just leave this team and look for another one himself, it couldn''t be that hard to find one with his Four Stars Badge, right? "You did that on purpose, right?" Yusa replied "Of course, this is the best name we could have, it will help us to be recognized after all." Krune looked even more depressed "But you know I hate to attract attention!" Yusa kept smiling. "Yeap, this is my revenge for the sex shop event." She then laughed hard. Krune, on the other hand, got angry on the other side. "You said that you would let it go!" Yusa didn''t care though. "And I did, but I didn''t say that there would be no return, anyway, this is not a bad thing to start with, if people can recognize that you are in this team, maybe we can get better opportunities even if our position isn''t that high, we all will need more ranking points in the future, right? This is the way to go if you want that." Krune begrudgingly accepted that reason, since that''s already done then let it be, no point in keep thinking about that. Ao Sulian then tried to smooth the mood. "Alright then, since it''s already decided, let''s go with it, let''s meet at the mission hall in an hour, we can chose a mission there or more than one to get the points we need." Krune and Yusa nodded, but before Krune finished the call he asked Yusa. "If we are entering the ranking system only now, wouldn''t it be too late? Those who have been there for a long time should already have an outrageous amount of points, what can we do against that?" Yusa replied straight away. "There is no need to worry, the ranking system is reset every six months, the last reset just so happen to have been three weeks ago, so everyone in the rank now don''t have that much points, besides, what we need are the points, not the position in the rank itself, so even if we were in the end of the six months cycle, we could still make the points to buy what we need." Krune understood, humans really have very practical systems. Krune, Yusa and Ao met in the mission hall an hour later, Yusa opened the channel with the missions available for them. "There is quite a few, Ao needs 650 points, how many points you need, Krune?" Krune replied "I need 1200 points." Yusa nodded. "That''s quite a lot, fortunately, the points received are the same for everyone, so as long as we get 1200 points it will be enough. As I can see here the missions capable of giving us that amount and are safe at the same time will take too long to complete, but if we go for something more challenging, then we should be able to get the enough points in three to five days." They looked at each other, the answer was obvious, since they entered the ranking system, they might as well put the effort. "The challenging ones it is then, the point system rewards according to the mission level and the difference in cultivation between the recommended cultivation realm and the cultivation of the highest realm member in the group, our highest cultivation level is 3rd stage of Foundation Establishment, so if we get a mission for one realm stage higher cultivators and complete it, we will get a 15% bonus, 30% for two stages and 50% for three stages, this is the limit, the guild won''t allow mercenaries to take missions that are too out of the their scope." They then went through the list. "The majority of missions are inside danger zones, that is to be expected, outside danger zones is pretty safe, so there isn''t much that needs mercenaries. Oh! I found one here, it''s in the Kaliu Zone, the employer is an alchemist of the alchemist guild of Rore City, which is the closest one to Kaliu, he needs the blood of a 5th stage or higher Foundation Establishment blazing alligator, the guild is offering 900 ranking points for the mission." Ao found something wrong. "That doesn''t make sense, this mission shouldn''t be able to give this many points, try to see if there is something wrong about blazing alligators." Yusa then made a quick research in the guild system. "Found it, the reason they are offering this much is because blazing alligators live very deep into the zone, but because they live close to the lava and have big groups, other higher level beasts don''t bother them, the problem is to enter and leave the place in one piece. If we accept this one we will need to reach the alligators without catching the attention of the other higher level beasts in the area." Krune doesn''t have experience about those issues, so he asked. "All foundation establishment demon beast already have conscience, isn''t it possible to talk through in case we stumble on some?" Yusa shook her head. "You are mistaken here, it''s true that a demon beasts that can take their human form can leave the danger zones and even live a normal life in the cities too, but they are, after all, demon beasts, the danger zones are their habitat, even if some race is at odds with another, when it comes to hunting of demon beasts materials, all demon beast of the foundation establishment and higher are pretty much of the same mind, kill all those who try." Yusa continued. "Think about it, if you could just talk to them to let you pass, soon thousands of cultivators, even those who are demon beasts too, will find all kinds of excuse to achieve their objectives, like this, they demon beasts in the danger zones will be wiped out sooner or later." Yusa then concluded. "Not to mention, the government also doesn''t want it to happen, although it''s not written on paper, danger zones are considered the places where talents can be tempered, if the danger zones disappear, soon there will be no more places to train the rookies in life and death situations, the country will then lose power and suffer the risk of being attacked by other countries, that''s not what they want." Krune understood, but then he thought about something "But what happens if for example, a team made of only demon beasts is made to go after the other demon beasts necessary for a mission?" Yusa then laughed out loud. "If a team like that really tries, then they would be courting death, do you really think that the areas where demon beasts can be hunted have no one overseeing? Too naive! The high level demon beasts like the Divine Soul ones will always keep an eye open for this kind of team trying to take advantage of the fact that they are not humans, they will not intervene if normal groups are to try to attack even if those groups have demon beasts in the middle, that''s because the can''t conceal the fact that they are together. But let''s say if a group of demon beast never seen before appears in their zones and suddenly attacks another group of demon beasts taking away their blood or other materials, only an idiot wouldn''t understand what is happening, such group is fated to be wiped out unless they are extremely luck." Krune then asked. "In that case couldn''t those high level demon beasts wipe out any group that enter deep into the danger zones straight away, preventing them from cause any damage to the beasts who live there?" This time it was Ao who shook his head. "No, if they really do that then they will have problems in nurturing their own races, it''s not only human who seek demon beasts materials, the demon beasts also can kill the humans instead and take away their dantians or the items in their spatial rings for example. Do you think that only demon cores can be used for cultivation? The only difference between a demon core and a dantian is the properties of their spiritual energy, as for the rest they are pretty much the same, they are full of spiritual energy, since humans can use demon cores for cultivation, why wouldn''t demon beasts use dantians for the same purpose?" Krune nodded, it indeed made a lot of sense. Ao continued. "So in the eyes of the high level cultivators, be it humans or demon beasts, danger zones are the best place to train their forces and nurture their talents, I''ve heard that the Divine Soul Realm humans and demon beasts even have some dealings regarding this issue." Krune had been a wisp at the Qi Condensation realm for most of his life, so he had never been told about those agreements, but after thinking a little, it indeed was the best solution for both sides. Today his eyes have been opened, the relationship between humans and demon beasts aren''t as simple as he always thought. Yusa then said "Alright, let''s go back to the main issue, how should we approach the blazing alligators without alarming the other demon beasts?" Krune then raised his hand. "Although my cultivation realm is still at the 2nd stage, my Divine Sense is different, I can spread it over 6 kilometers, unless a demon beast with a Divine Sense as powerful as mine appears, we should be fine, because of the power of my Divine Sense, I don''t believe any demon beast of the 7th stage or bellow can even notice it, and those above 7th stage might notice my Divine Sense, but the range of their own Divine Sense shouldn''t be as big as mine, so they won''t be able to tell from where it came, demon beasts have smaller Divine Sense coverage in general after all." Yusa and Ao were surprised. Ao then commented. "I knew that your Divine Sense was strong, but I didn''t think it was this outrageous! How did you do that? My own Divine Sense can barely surpass 1700 meters." Yusa also nodded. "I''m a little better, I put some effort in the soul while cultivating so my Divine Sense can reach 2000 meters, but it is still a far cry from yours." Krune smiled and let out his sure kill excuse. "It became like this after I built my universe foundation." That answer made Ao and Yusa depressed, this fuc*ing universe foundation again, they even cogitated the idea of cripple their cultivation and start again so that they could try to build one themselves, but they soon gave up the idea. Let alone have to cultivate from zero again, can they even succeed in building an universe foundation? Yusa and Ao stopped thinking about that. "Then it''s decided, blazing alligator blood it is!" The three nodded and applied for the job, time limit was two weeks, although the mission itself would only take a few days, the travel from Rore City to the danger zone inner parts and it''s way back would take a lot longer. Yusa the came forward. "Usually we would need to use the teleportation formation of the mercenary guild, but since we now have to Solie clan, we might as well use theirs, best of all, it will be free!" Krune and Ao looked at each other, even Ao came to understand what type of woman Yusa is, they simply shook their heads and didn''t say anything else, they could only pit Zu Solie. Back at the Solie clan, Zu Solie sniffed. "Is someone thinking about me?" --- After teleport to Rore City, they went to the Alchemist guild to talk with their employer. His name was Zuve Lie, a Two Stars Alchemist, when he saw Krune and his group, he couldn''t help but shook his head, he thought that their cultivation level is too low, but since they accepted the mission, he gave them the necessary information regardless. The Mercenary Guild doesn''t stop several teams from taking the same job, it will only give a notice to the next team that a group is already in the middle of the task, if they don''t mind, they can take the job too, but the reward will only be given to those who finish the task first. Zuve will simply wait for the next one to come, he doesn''t care if they are courting death or not, besides, if they can get what he wants, then it will be even better. After signing the agreement at the city gate, the three of them pressed forward, they have two weeks to finish the job or they will get their reward points reduced. It would take a time before Krune''s group arrived at the deep parts of the danger zone, so Krune doesn''t need to use his Divine Sense at moment, he spent his days training a new water skill, it was none other than the Solie Clan''s Myriad Water Dragons, Yusa, who also practiced water element as main, couldn''t help but envy Krune''s talent, on the third day Krune could already perform that attack at the same level as the Solie Clan guy from before, and his proficiency is only increasing, by the time they arrive at the blazing alligators nest, Krune will have a very strong card against fire type demon beasts like them. Ao was also impressed with Krune, but that wasn''t because of his Myriad Water Dragon, but because of his Wind Movement, Ao is a wind element user after all, although Ao could keep up with Krune, that was because Krune was holding himself back so that Yusa and Ao can keep up the pace. Ao isn''t a prideful person, so in the very first day he started to discuss with Krune how to use the wind element better, he was impressed with Krune''s view of the wind element, it helped his own control over the wind element to improve by leaps and bounds, he is confident that when they come back to Kaley City, he will definitely able to become a Two Stars Mercenary. Yusa was even more straight forward, she is quite a shameless woman to start with, she directly asked Krune how she could improve her water element, Krune, of course, did his best to help both parties, the stronger they are, the safer his group will be. He then noticed something. ''Their control over the water and wind element got a lot better after I gave them pointers, it seems like the Myriad Energies Technique isn''t good only to help me control elements, it''s just as good to help me comprehend their properties, it makes it quite easy for me to see the flaws in their element control, it seems I can use my own comprehension to teach others about their short comes in element manipulation.'' Krune was right, his technique helped him to understand the elements much better than others, as long as he wants, he can teach them to improve their skills much faster. Just like that, four days passed, with their cultivation level and speed, they were already inside the inner parts Kaliu Zone, noticing that, Yusa turned to Krune and Ao and said. "Alright, we now are counting on you to guide the way, I will check the map while we move, Ao will scout around more or less 500 meters ahead, Krune can''t keep his Divine Sense active 100% of the time, he will need to use it once every few minutes so that he can keep his spiritual energy at peak state in case of emergencies, so you keep an eye in case some demon beast comes close during the times he isn''t using it." Krune and Ao nodded, the danger zones might not have signal for long distance communication, but if it is close by, then they can reach each other. "Let''s go!" Chapter 35 - Am, I, Clear? They moved forward quite fast, with Krune''s gigantic Divine Sense, it was quite easy to avoid meaningless battles, it wasn''t perfect though, two demon beasts had slipped in during the few minutes that Krune wasn''t using it, but with his group strength, unless a 7th stage appears, they will pretty much be able to deal with it. Another reason to avoid battles was so that they wouldn''t alarm the stronger beasts, this deep into the danger zone will not have Core Formation Realm beasts, but there is a chance of a 8th or even a 9th stage Foundation Establishment beast appearing if they make too much noise. By the time they were getting close to their target, the strength of the beasts entering Krune''s Divine Sense got higher too, he even found two 7th stage ones, but just as he expected, unless it''s a demon beast specialized in the soul, they couldn''t notice his Divine Sense, they obviously ignored such beasts. Yusa looked on the map and then commented. "We are more or less 500 kilometers away from the blazing alligators lair, it should only take one hour before we arrive." Ao replied through the communicator. "That''s good, thanks to Krune''s pointers, my wind element manipulation got much better during this trip, I''m very confident that I can hold my own against a 5th stage ordinary beast if all I need to do it buy time, I should even be able to defeat a 4th beast if I put some effort too." Yusa agreed, Krune''s views about element manipulation had opened her eyes too. "Out target is the blazing alligators, as an water element user and Krune''s previous help I think I should be able to defeat a 5th stage one, of course, that''s because I counter them." Krune looked a little embarrassed, he wasn''t used to people praising him. "You can stop already, this is making me uncomfortable, all I did is point out where you were doing wrong, the rest was all up to you two to figure out, I had nothing to do with that, each person view of the elements isn''t exactly the same after all." Yusa and Ao laughed at that, he then noticed something. "You were doing it on purpose too!" They confessed, Krune is very easy to tease, and it feels very good too. Krune sighed helplessly, but he quite liked this atmosphere of friendship, until a few months ago it wasn''t something common for him. Suddenly, Krunes face changed. "Not good, Ao, come back now!" Ao Sulian noticed that something was wrong, he didn''t delay even for a split of a second and rushed back at full speed. Just a second later after leaving his standing place, the ground caved in, inside one could see two red eyes coming out, Krunes Divine Sense can reach over six kilometers above the ground, but it couldn''t do the same under it, it was only when that demon beast was a hundred meters away from Ao that Krune finally saw it, fortunately, Divine Sense communication is faster than any gadget, one can send their thoughts into their companions minds straight away. The three of them looked at the demon beast in front of them, it was an Earth Dragon, although it has a dragon on its name, it isn''t a real dragon, he is just like the Lizard Dragons, the difference is that the concentration of Dragon Blood in his body is much higher than the Lizard Dragons, making him much stronger than ordinary 7th stage beasts, of course, because of that, it wouldn''t be able to take the human form before it achieves the late Core Formation Realm, Divine beasts bloodline have their own disadvantages too. "You are quite fast to be able to dodge that, I was pretty sure no one had noticed me coming, but that''s that, to think that two 3rd stage and one 2nd stage Foundation Establishment cultivators would come this far into the Kaliu Danger Zone, it would have been faster if you had simply suicided, don''t you think?" Yusa then smiled. "Since we are going to die anyway, why don''t you let us go? It won''t make difference to you anyway, right?" The Earth Dragon shook his head. "Even a mosquito''s meat is still meat, why should I let it go?" The Earth Dragon didn''t even wait for them to answer and attacked straight away, he targeted Krune because he had the smallest cultivation. The three of them spread their Divine Sense out to be able to communicate, they immediately dodged, but just because this Earth Dragon is a defense type demon beast, it didn''t mean that it was slow, one has to pay attention to the difference in their cultivation levels too. To the Earth Dragons surprise, Krune was able to avoid his attack, he was faster than Ao Sulian earlier, but this earth dragon had a vast experience in battle, it immediately used his earth element attacks to bind Krune in place, just as it hit the target, Krune''s figure turned into water, it wasn''t Krune who did that, but Yusa instead! Water Frame! During the days they were moving into the deeper parts of the danger zone, the group discussed about their own abilities as to better coordinate during times of peril. The Earth Dragon Divine Sense caught Krune''s silhouette appearing close to Yusa, that type of water skill was very hard to see through, even for it. Ao wasn''t doing nothing either, he was using his own wind piercing and wind blade attacks to target the Earth Dragons eyes. Ao is in fact a sword user, but he knows he doesn''t have the attack power to breach the defense of the Earth Dragon, so can only use such methods to distract the Earth Dragon while Krune prepared an attack strong enough to kill or at least force it into retreating. Sure enough, the Earth Dragon got annoyed with Ao''s barrage of attacks, although it could use it''s divine sense to see the battlefield, it felt really uncomfortable to not being able to keep it''s eyes open, but it didn''t fall for Ao''s provocation because it was angry, it just thought that Krune and Yusa had no way of doing anything to it, Krune was faster than Ao, but the Earth Draon thought that because of it, Krune''s attack power wasn''t anything worth looking at, as for Yusa, she is obviously an water element user, her attacks have very limited effect on him. Krune''s eyes lit up, he immediately focused his power to create 62 blazing wind blades, he can''t use his stone or water prison on that Earth Dragon, the first doesn''t have the power to hold a demon beast with a cultivation much higher than his own, and the second didn''t have enough power to breach the dragon''s defense. With Ao''s Wind Movement and Yusa''s Water Frame skills, they were able to hold the dragon for a few seconds, enough to bring it''s attention away from Krune, but there is one thing puzzling Ao and Yusa, demon beasts are usually stronger in their real forms, but Krune is still using his human form even in a dangerous moment like this. Could it be that he doesn''t trust the two of them enough to show his real form? But then they discarded such idea, if it was really the case, they could have simply signed a blood contract stating that they shouldn''t reveal Krune''s real form to anyone, the problem would be resolved as easy as that. Krune was in a dilemma, it''s not that he doesn''t trust the both of them either, it''s just that after he heard that even Divine Soul Demon Beast Cultivators keep an eye open for the situation in the danger zones, he is afraid of catching the attention of one of them if he shows that he is a wisp at the foundation establishment, for now he could only try to do what he can in his human form. The chance finally appeared. "Skill merge! Blazing Wind Blades!" All 62 Blazing Wind Blades were aimed at the same point, the Earth Dragon who wasn''t paying any attention to Krune a second ago felt danger approaching, when it used it''s Divine Sense to check, it could see a sea of fiery red blades coming at it. Fast! Really Fast! It was already to late to dodge, the Earth Dragon Focused all of it''s spiritual energy on his scale, using earth element to strengthen them! Blod spurted out and was burnt away as soon as it left its body, the Earth Dragon roared in pain, Krune had left a gruesome injury close to his neck, if the Earth Dragon hadn''t noticed the Blazing Wind Baldes in time, it wouldn''t have reinforced it''s scales with earth element and death would be the only outcome. Krune started to sweat a little, to use so many Blazing Wind Blades at the same time is quite hard, even for himself, not to mention that because he is in his human body, he has to circulate spiritual energy through his body before he can use any skill, that''s the main reason for him to be weaker in human form. The Earth Dragon got up, it looked at Krune in hatred, it almost died just now and then, it has decided to get rid of Krune before dealing with his companions first. The Earth Dragon immediately pounced at Krune while using its Earth Element to stop him from dodge, but Krune still had his friends with him, now that the Earth Dragon is focusing Krune, they had the space to act as they liked, Ao kept doing his best to disturb the Earth Draon while Yusa kept using her Water Frame to save Krune every time he didn''t have the capability to dodge. The Earth Dragon noticed a problem, the injury in its body was too deep, its blood kept flowing out, if it continued like this, it would have to flee, but how many battles had it gone through before? It used Krune to get close to his companions without them noticing, just when it was about to pounce at Krune another time, a water frame appeared in front of Krune again, but the Earth Dragon was waiting for it, it didn''t know if Yusa could use two water frames at the same time to deceive it''s sense, but it felt it was worth a try, at worst it would just flee, these cultivators won''t be able to follow it underground. The moment the water frame appeared, the Earth Dragon changed direction and pounced at Yusa instead, Krune''s group wasn''t expecting for that at all, sure enough, Yusa couldn''t use two water frames at the same time, she had just used one in front of Krune, she can''t use it again straight away, Krune was too far away, he wouldn''t get there in time, Yusa also doesn''t have the necessary speed to dodge, just as the Earth Dragon was about to kill Yusa, Ao appeared between them. He had a formation runestone in his hand, it was a protection formation, as long as it is charged with enough spiritual energy, it can be activated at any time, Ao had kept charging it ever since the Earth Dragon appeared, it is another one time use runestone andnow was the time to use it! A barrier appeared in front of Yusa and Ao, the Earth Dragon attack that should have killed Yusa hit the barrier, but how could a barrier created with the spiritual energy of a 3rd stage Foundation Establishment cultivator resist the attack? It only lasted a split of a second before breaking apart, Yusa and Ao were sent flying! Fortunately, the barrier had enough power to reduce the damage, so they didn''t die even though they received serious injuries. The Earth Dragon didn''t waste time, those two wouldn''t be able to dodge the next attack with those injuries, it also knows that Krune couldn''t ready that many fiery blades so fast either, so he wouldn''t be able to save them, the dragon immediately pounced at Yusa and Ao. It was at this moment that it felt extreme danger coming from behind, but that didn''t make sense, that 2nd stage Foundation Establishment guy shouldn''t be able to use that many fiery blades to attack again so soon, when the Earth Dragon used its Divine Sense to check, the human form beast cultivator was no where to be seen, but right above his own dragon head there was something that shouldn''t have been there, it had an spiritual energy body, but the strange part is that that spiritual energy body was completely red! Crimson red! The dragon couldn''t help but think. ''Is that a wisp?'' It was the Earth Dragon''s last thought. Krune was enraged! His body crimson because of his madness, when he saw that his friends were about to die, he completely threw caution to the wind! He reverted into his true form and used wind movement, now that his human body wasn''t in the way his control over the spiritual energy soared, the weight of his body wasn''t a hindrance anymore, he immediately appeared above the Earth Dragon, and all around Krune one could see over a hundred Blazing Wind Blades had taken form, not only there was more blades, they were even more powerful than any other he had ever used! Krune used all the spiritual energy available to him till the last bit. The blades showered down, the Earth Dragon didn''t even have the time to focus on its defense, it''s body cut into hundreds of pieces, even its demon core was split in half, releasing all the spiritual energy inside like an explosion, the Earth Dragon was no more! Ao and Yusa looked at that amazed! They saw the entire process, they saw the moment Krune reverted to his wisp form till the moment he killed the Earth Dragon, they thought they would die but Krune reverted the situation in the last second, but they simply couldn''t believe that Krune was a wisp, where have they ever seen a Foundation Establishment wisp before? Krune''s crimson spiritual energy body reverted back to the wisps natural white blue one, his energy body was very dim at moment, even his core could totally be seen, as for Krune himself, he had never used so much spiritual energy at once before, in the end he lost his consciousness, he floated there without moving, just like that. Yusa was the first to come back to herself, she struggled to get up while looking at Krune, she then told Ao. "Hurry, we need to leave, there will be demon beasts flocking this area very soon, we need to leave and hide, we are in no condition to battle anymore." Ao nodded, he got up and rushed at Krune, he grabbed Krune''s core and left with Yusa, he also helped her on their way out, he was a little better than Yusa after the attack thanks to his faster reactions, as expected of a wind element user. Not long after, they could hear roars coming from where the Earth Dragon died, the body of an Earth Dragon is extremely precious, specially it''s blood which has some Dragon Blood in it, it will certainly create chaos among the beast around. Around 1700 kilometers away, an old man was sit inside of a sealed cave, he wasn''t human, but a best in human form, an early stage Divine Soul Demon Thunder Lion! He was doing his recognition in the area as he always do with his Divine Sense when he noticed the battle between Krune''s group and the Earth Dragon, he didn''t pay attention at first, such scenes happen way too often after all, he was sure that the Earth Dragon was going to win when suddenly, Krune became a wisp, at that moment he was really amazed! It was a Foundation Establishment wisp, and a very strong one at that! If he were to put his hands on Krune, he might be able to use his spiritual energy to breakthrough to the middle Divine Soul Realm! The Thunder Lion was ecstatic! It was just about to move when suddenly, he felt a pressure coming from above at him, it was extremely strong, whoever was doing it to him could totally smash him to a pulp with just a finger, he used all his strength just to say a few words. "Senior, did I do something wrong?" He was afraid! He never felt so terrified before. After a few seconds, the pressure disappeared, only a powerful presence remained, the Thunder Lion then heard a voice that it couldn''t tell from where it was coming. "About that wisp, you didn''t see anything, you didn''t hear anything either." "Am, I, Clear?" The Thunder Lion nodded its head so strongly that it felt his neck was going to break, the voice then just said one more word. "Good." And then that presence that could destroy a planet was finally gone, just like that. The Thunder Lion was sweating all over, it decided that it won''t touch another wisp for the rest of it''s life! --- Countless galaxies away, the old man who had noticed Krune''s success during his first Spiritual Energy Meridians creation closed his eyes, one could just hear him murmuring. "Little friend, you better get strong fast, I won''t be able to protect you for long." The cave then turned silent once more. Chapter 36 - Worth it! Unbeknownst that their life had just been saved, Yusa and Ao proceeded ahead, before they say anything they have to think about staying alive first, fortunately, it seemed like there wasn''t a single beast around, it might be because of the fight over the Earth Dragon pieces, but they wouldn''t go back to check, that''s for sure. After finding a place to hide, Yusa took out one of her concealing runestone formations, it was the same cheap one as always, not very effective if a 7th stage demon beast or higher scan with their Divine Sense, but she didn''t like to spend, this was one of the rare times where she regretted not having bought a better one. Ao saw that but there was nothing he could do either, he usually never carry concealing runestone formations, it has always been ''if things go south, run!'' for him. As an wind element user, he was pretty confident in his speed, but now he could barely move. Yusa came back and sit down, she looked at Krune, or better, that white blue core with some spiritual energy coming from it floating beside Ao. Yusa then looked at Ao. "Do you think he is okay?" She didn''t understand much about wisps, just that they are good cultivation resources. Ao simply shook his head. "I don''t know, he doesn''t have a body to speak of, so I can''t even say if he is unconscious or just can''t talk at moment." They have a lot to ask but no one to answer, they will have to wait for Krune to come back by himself. An hour later, Krune''s energy body flickered a little, Yusa and Ao, who were meditating to recover, noticed the change, Yusa looked at Krune and asked. "Are you back?" This was the first time that Krune lost conscience, he was feeling very dizzy and couldn''t make sense of what was happening around him, his body floated right and left as if he was drunk, when he heard Yusa''s voice, he simply asked. "Did you use the the whip or the cuffs?" Yusa''s face immediately got dark, Ao, who was paying attention too, couldn''t help but burst in laugh, Although Yusa wanted to beat him again, both she and Ao understood that Krune wasn''t thinking straight at moment, seems like that the first thing he remembered after hearing Yusa''s voice was the event about the sex shop. A little while later, Krunes mind cleared a little, at least now he could remember what happened, he noticed that he was in his wisp form and got alarmed, he immediately turned back into his human form. It''s just that... his clothes stayed back there at the Earth Dragon''s place, so... this came to be the second time that Yusa saw Krune''s ''little friend'', although his ''little friend'' had normal skin color like the rest of his body, the hair around was also rainbow, just like his hair on his head, Yusa turned red as a tomato for the third time, she immediately looked away while screaming. But Yusa''s scream alarmed Krune instead! "Enemy! Where? Where?!" Ao couldn''t resist anymore, he was rolling on the ground, his injuries that had healed a little opened again, but he simply couldn''t stop laughing, Krune was jumping all around looking for an enemy that doesn''t exist, Ao understood that Krune got the wrong idea when Yusa screamed and was searching for the supposed ''enemy'' while naked. Yusa then shouted at him. "Put some fuc*ing clothes!" Only now Krune noticed that he was naked, he looked around and found his spatial ring, although Ao didn''t waste time at the Earth Dragon''s place, he at least took Krune''s spatial ring with him, he took a set of clothes out and put them on. Yusa noticed that Krune had put his clothes again, she then looked at Ao rolling in the ground and kicked him flying! Ao injures got worse again and he vomited blood, but he didn''t care, he only thought about one thing. ''Worth it!'' He passed away after that. --- Night time came, Ao had already recovered his consciousnesses and was using his spiritual energy to slowly recover from his injuries, Yusa was doing the same on the side, it''s just that her face was its somewhat red, Krune had apologized to her, this time she didn''t complain, he had really saved their lives after all. Krune, on the other hand, wasn''t injured, it''s just that he is totally dry of spiritual energy, he started to recover the memories before he fainted, he then understood why he lost conscience, that''s because he almost killed himself, as a wisp, he needs spiritual energy to survive, but he used more than 99% of it in that last attack, only a very small sliver was left. ''So dangerous, I need to learn how to control myself better in the future, a little bit more and I would be done for, and here was I thinking about myself as someone intelligent.'' Krune had already recovered around 70% of his spiritual energy, with his six Spiritual Energy Meridians plus the high amount of Rank Three spirit stones, it goes without saying that he was the first one back into combat state. He looked at Ao and Yusa and was impressed, after almost dying, he could few that their control over spiritual energy had soared, looking at Ao, Krune was sure that he could totally breakthrough to the 4th stage without any pills help at moment, he is probably only waiting to finish heal his injuries. Although Yusa can''t breakthrough yet, her spirit energy control is obviously much better, she also will have no problems to breakthrough into the 4th stage once enough energy is accumulated. ''Life and death situations can really temper oneself, even I can feel that my planet foundation got sturdier after what happened.'' With Krune back at combat form, Yusa and Ao were more relaxed, with his Divine Sense helping to check around, they didn''t have much to worry about for the time being. Next day, Yusa and Ao were already back on their feet, they were looking at Krune as if he was going to be eaten alive, it couldn''t be helped, Krune is a wisp, wisps at the foundation establishment are legends, but that isn''t the main issue, how come he was so strong like that? Is it really because of the Universe Foundation? Krune felt uncomfortable with their eyes, in the end he only sighed. "There is indeed a reason why I can cultivate so fast and have such fine control over elements, that''s basically because of my cultivation technique." Yusa''s eyes were shining, she looked at Krune as if he was made out of gold. "Is it some technique that you got in the inheritance of some supreme cultivator?" Krune looked weirdy at Yusa. "Where did you get those ideas? Even if I had found an inheritance, do you think a wisp could even get close to that? Have you ever heard about an inheritance from high level cultivators without any traps or tests for those who enter?" Krune poured cold water on Yusa''s wishful thoughts, her happiness disappeared as fast as it came, but then again, how did he get such technique? Ao was to one to ask this time. "So, if it isn''t some kind of inheritance, then what is it? Could it be that instead of some supreme being inheritance, a supreme being came at you out of their own accord to give you this cultivation technique? To be honest, even if you agree with this theory, I won''t believe it, don''t misunderstand me, I''m not looking down on you, but I doubt such cultivator would select a wisp to pass his legacy." Krune nodded and looked at Yusa. "See? That''s how you use your head to think, Ao is much better at it than you, try to forget money a little bit when talking in the future." Yusa''s curious face turned dark. "Said the wisp who doesn''t want to attract attention but have the eyes of the entire world on him." Yusa used a special move... A sword went through Krune''s heart... It''s very effective! Ao interfered after seeing that those two are going back into their siblings like bickering. "So, what is it then?" Krune took out the Myriad Energies Technique and showed to them. Ao was surprised "This? Isn''t it the Myriad Energies Technique?" Yusa thought that Krune was joking with them. "Are you making fun of us? Who in the world doesn''t know about this technique, I even know it well because I also used this technique to start my path as cultivator, after I got enough meridians from my body opened I discarded it though. But I still remember the technique, if I want I can even form the four pseudo energy meridians right now, of course, I won''t be able to use them with my own meridians while doing that." Krune shook his head. "Tell me, why is it that you can''t use the Myriad Energies Technique?" Ao pondered a bit and answered. "That''s because the pseudo energy meridians deliver the spiritual energy without any conversion directly inside the dantian, while normal meridians do the conversion before the delivery, because of that both can''t be used at the same time. Since the Myriad Energies Technique can only form nine pseudo energy meridians at most, and a normal body, be it demon beast or human, have much more normal meridians to open, the Myriad Energies technique is only good at the start to help accumulate spiritual energy to open the normal meridians, after the cultivator opens enough meridians, it becomes much faster to cultivate using them instead of using the pseudo energy meridians." Krune nodded his had in praise, that was a very short but through and through explanation. "Ao is correct, that is the main issue about the Myriad Energies Technique, I will have to ask the two of you to sign a blood contract before I proceed from here, do not misunderstand me, it''s not that I don''t trust you, it''s just that with the contract in place, higher level cultivators won''t be able to pray into the information even if they use some soul search techniques." The both of them understood, it made sense, if the Myriad Energies Technique is really as good as that, then it makes sense that the secret must be kept. After signing the blood contract, Krune started to explain how it works, after hearing the whole story, both Yusa and Ao were amazed! Yusa then asked straight away. "Doesn''t that mean that we can also use this technique?" Krune then answered "I don''t know, I left a copy with Ruik, my friend, for him to try it out, I reckon that this technique is mostly suited for races who have outstanding control over spiritual energy, we wisps have a very limited life span and can only try to build our foundation once, but I''m sure that we are one of the bests at spiritual energy control, we are beings of energy after all." He then said. "I have a disciple who is also a wisp, although he is much slower than me while using the real technique, you can say that he is already extremely fast if compared with normal Qi Condensation beasts and humans, he is just a few months over a year old, but he is already at the 8th stage of Qi Condensation, maybe even 9th stage since it has been a while since I left Katiu Forest. This technique is just way too much well suited for wisps." Krune continued. "The main issue for you is that you must complete all nine pseudo energy meridians first, from the information I could acquire back at Kaley City, any other race that isn''t a wisp have to spend a long time to finish forming all nine meridians, but I don''t think it''s a coincidence, it probably has something to do with your life span, you might take much longer to achieve the nine pseudo meridians or the Spiritual Energy Meridians themselves, but you have the necessary life time to do that, we wisps, don''t." Yusa and Ao pondered about this issue, indeed, they probably can cultivate the Spiritual Energy Meridians, but it has the risk to not work with other races that aren''t wisps, they would need to test it themselves since no one tried before, but they won''t cultivate as fast as Krune, that''s for sure, Yusa can testify for that since she started her cultivation path by using the pseudo energy meridians. Krune then got up and looked at Ao. "Ao, as I can see you probably have no need for any pill to breakthrough into the 4th stage anymore, me and Yusa will keep guard and you go finish your breakthrough, it will help in case anything else happens." Ao agreed with the idea, he immediately sat down and took a few Rank Three spirit stones out, Krune and Yusa kept an eye around while they waited. Not long after, an explosion of spiritual energy spread around with Ao as the center, it''s obviously that he succeed, he then spent another hour to put the raging spiritual energy in his body under control and the process was finally over. Krune then said. "Alright, whether you decide to give the Myriad Energies Technique a try or not you can think about it later, I don''t want to be found by another Earth, Water or any other annoying element Dragon, we should finish our mission first." The two of them agreed with Krune, since they are already back to normal, it''s best to finish it and leave this place first. By following the map it didn''t take long for them to arrive at the Blazing Alligators lair, now that Ao was at the forth stage coupled with Krunes teaching about Wind Element, he had the confidence of defeating a Blazing Alligator on his on, but they decided to instead lure an alligator out of the group, there was too many of them for they to simply charge in, the first three alligators that came out were too weak, they wouldn''t be able to complete the mission with their blood, finally, on the 4th try, Ao lured out a 5th stage Blazing Alligator, Krune left Yusa and Ao to deal with it while he kept an eye out for any issues. Yusa was the nemesis of this demon beast, they soon beat the alligator down, as per Krune''s request, the only demon beast they killed since they entered the Kaliu Danger Zone was the Earth Dragon itself, Krune personality won''t change, he doesn''t like to kill, so if possible, he won''t. The first three Blazing alligator were also lying unconscious by the side, after the forth one fainted, they took away a lot of blood from it but didn''t kill it either. After finishing their job, they immediately departed, they have a long way back. After leaving the area where late Stage Foundation Establishment demon beasts could appear, they fastened their pace, on their way back, Krune kept helping Yusa and Ao to improve their control over the wind and water element, both of them would them buy a fight with a demon beast on purpose to try their new findings, they were both happy, after that Life and Death battle coupled with Krune''s help, they are both confident to even try for a Three Stars Badge when they get back at the Mercenary Guild. --- Back at Rore City, Zuve Lie, the two stars alchemist, was talking with another mercenary group, this group had just arrived to take over the mission about the Blazing Alligator''s blood, when they applied for the mission, they found out that another group of mercenaries had also taken the mission, but although their names were hidden, their cultivation levels could be verified, this mercenary group thought that Krune''s group was courting death, so they came to do the mission themselves since it wouldn''t be possible for Krune and the others. This group was led by Shiar Chronus, it has four members with Shiar being the strongest among them, he is at the 5th Stage of Foundation Establishment while his companions are all at the 4th stage. "Don''t worry, Alchemist Zuve, we will complete this job as fast as possible, as for the group that came earlier, you can forget about them, they are probably dead our had given up already, they were courting death to try to finish this mission with their strength." Zuve jut smiled, for him, as long as the blood is brought back, he doesn''t care which group does it. "I''m counting on you then." After discussing and taking the necessary information from Zuve, they were just about to leave when an employee of the Alchemist Guild came in to pass a message. "Alchemist Zuve, those mercenaries from over a week ago are back, they are asking to talk to you." Shiar gave a laugh after hearing that. "So they didn''t die, they just gave up instead. Well, let them come in then, I will lecture those guys while I''m at it." Krune and his group came in when they noticed the other group, but when Krune and Yusa saw who was there, their expressions became weird, beside Shiar, there was someone they knew quite well, it was none other than Durin Vola! He had brokenthrough as well and is now a 4th stage Foundation Establishment. Durin also noticed them, his expression immediately turned gloomy, he was just about to stop his team leader but it was already too late. Shiar came forward "Now look at you three, do you understand how dangerous it was now? You shouldn''t try to bite more than you can eat, go back to the Mercenary Guild and reflect on your actions, from now on, my group is taking this mission so that this task can be finished." Durin felt like he wanted to cry but had no tears, his leader probably didn''t recognize Krune because he was using his hat to cover his rainbow like hair, he could only look away and pretend he didn''t know anything while thinking. ''Leader, you brought it upon yourself.'' Chapter 37 - The World Trembles Hearing His Name! As expected, Yusa didn''t save the guy any face. "Where did this fly come from? Shoo shoo, the intelligent living beings need to talk." Shiar faces immediately warped. "You dare to talk to be like that? A puny 3rd stage Foundation Establishment? Don''t blame me for reporting your team for failing the mission only because of your arrogance, people like you put our mercenary guilds name in shame." He turned around and said. "Let''s go, we have a mission to finish." Krune completely ignored the guy, he went in front Zuve Lie and took out the Blazing Alligator''s blood. "Alchemist Zuve, here is the Blazing Alligator blood you required, please confirm this is the blood you need." Shiar, who was just about to leave, froze in place. ''Did they just say Blazing Alligator blood?'' Durin, who was by his side, kept his poker face, if he tell the truth now, his leader will blame him for not having told him earlier. Zuve Lie was ecstatic, he took the Blazing Dragon Blood and used a few tools to check the validity of the blood, he then turned back to Krune, his expression even happier now. "This is exactly the blood I was looking for, I will make sure to give a call to the Mercenary Guild today, you will receive every single point agreed." Krune nodded, Ao and Yusa expressions didn''t even change, that''s to be expected. On the other hand, Shiar was angry to the point of exploding, he didn''t believe that this group was really able to procure the Blazing Alligators Blood. "Who do you think you are deceiving here? There is no way you guys could succeed in this mission, you obviously got this blood from somewhere else, the guild has strict rules for this kind of activity, I was being nice at first, but now you can wait for the results later." Yusa was as non nonchalant as ever. "Someone who can''t even defeat me is boasting on the side, Durin, you should keep you friends under control." Shiar got puzzled, he looked at Durin, does it mean that he knows about this mercenary group. Durin felt like he wanted to cry, he totally believes that they got the blood the normal way, it would have been good if they had not called him out. Durin then sent a Divine Sense message to his leader, Shiar faces immediately turned gloomy, he looked at Krune, now that he thinks about it Krune''s face really looks like the one in the news. "So you are that so called Four Stars Foundation Establishment Mercenary who thinks to be big sh*t?" Krune just nodded, with Durin Vola staying there, there is no way he can deny it, they participated in the same Mercenary Exam after all. "I don''t care about the so called universe foundation, with your cultivation realm you are nothing in front of me, if you are really that great, do you dare accept a challenge from me?" Krune looked at this person as if he was an idiot, people of that level can''t pose any threat to him anymore, if it wasn''t for the fact the he doesn''t want to attract attention, he wouldn''t mind open this persons eyes, not because he is angry, Krune simply can''t get angry easy, it''s part of his nature, he simply doesn''t like when people look down on him, it makes him remember the time when he was a weak wisp, everyone disdained him. Shiar noticed that Krune wasn''t saying anything, he thought that Krune was afraid. "See, in the end that''s all that your group amounts for." Yusa and Ao know Krune quite well already, they could tell that Krune simply wanted to keep his low key life, well, even if it doesn''t have anything low key to it. Yusa then came forward, just as she was about to accept, Ao stopped her and sent a Divine Sense message. "I know you can fight but you won''t be able to defeat him, don''t forget that he is also a Mercenary, which means that he can at least fight those one stage above his realm, your fight would most likely end in a draw, let me go, with my last breakthrough I''m confident to beat him down." Yusa pondered a bit and simply nodded, Ao then spoke. "There is no need for Krune to come forward, that would be not fair, how about me? Do you dare?" Krune sighed, the only one is his team that would have a problem in defeating this guy is Yusa, and she probably wouldn''t lose, most likely no winner would appear, but Ao broke through to the 4th stage and Krune personally guided him with his Wind Element Manipulation, unless this Shiar guy is a genius, he simply doesn''t stand a chance against Ao. Shiar thought that the ''fair'' that Ao said was about his realm being much higher than Krune, so he decided to accept the challenge. There is rules in the city so people can''t simply fight anywhere, but there is places where challenges can be taken, the arena! In a cultivators world its very common for fights to happen, so to prevent damage from happening to the cities, every single one has an arena, if the cities are big, there might be even more than one, when fighting someone one''s secret might be exposed, so when you decide to fight you can select whether you want to let people see it or not, Krune had no idea about such thing so he simply let Ao do as he wished. Ao didn''t care either, so he didn''t apply for their fight to be hidden, people soon gathered to take a look, when Shiar and Ao came on the stage, there was already over ten thousand people to watch, Rore City has a lot more people than Kaley City, so it was easier to gather the people in a shorter amount of time. Krune looked around and curled himself in a corner, trying to stay out of sight as much as possible, Yusa saw that and didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. Shiar looked at Ao and snorted. "This is your last chance, apologize in front of me and I can let you go." Ao didn''t even pay attention to what he said, he simply activated the arena''s protection formation and stood in front of Shiar. The referee came forward and stayed beside the arena, the law of the country prohibits killing inside the cities, in case the fight goes out of hand it would be his job to put a stop to it. Every cities referee must be at least at the Core Formation Realm so there was no chance that they would be able to kill the other. He raised his hand and said. "Ready?" Both parties nodded. "Start!" Poor Shiar, Ao''s fighting prowess has already surpassed himself by quite a lot, the moment that Ao took his sword he disappeared, Shiar could barely keep up with his movement, Krune looked at that and nodded, all the time spent teaching Ao about the Wind Element was not wasted after all. Shiar noticed that the situation was dire, he is a Fire Element user, to prevent Ao from getting close he immediately created a fire tornado around himself, the temperature in the arena soared, but Ao was as nonchalant as ever, he simply used his sword to throw a wind blade, the blade cut through the fire tornado as if it was paper, in an instant, Shiar''s protection was gone, just like that. Ao sighed seeing that, if he knew that Shiar was a fire element user he wouldn''t have stopped Yusa, with the element advantage she would definitely have won this fight. Shiar, on the other hand, was frightened, how could Ao be this strong? He did his best trying to defend himself and attacking Ao with fireballs, Fire Dragons, Fire Rings, so on and so forth, but Ao''s speed was just too high, nothing hit him. A flaw soon appeared in Shiar''s defense and Ao didn''t let it go, the sword moved like a ghost, just as Shiar''s head was about to fly out of his body, both Shiar and Ao were locked in place, the referee took action when he saw that Shiar was going to die. He then came forward and announced. "Ao Sulian Wins!" Shiar''s face was as white as paper, if the referee hadn''t stopped that attack in the last second, he would be dead now. The crowd roared, they love this kind of fight where those with lower cultivation realm beat those who are stronger. Ao left the arena and then his group went back to Kaley City, they didn''t even pay attention to Shiar back then. --- After appearing in the teleportation formation inside the Solie Clan, the group left and went back to the mercenary guild, but before that, Yusa left a message. "We put the fees of the teleportation on your Solie Clans account, thanks for the patronage." When Zu Solie read that message, he felt gloomy, long distance teleportation costs a lot of spiritual stones, and their treasure is quite empty at moment, this kind of situation makes his heart hurt quite a bit. Back at the Kaley City Mercenary Guild, they just checked in and found out that the ranking points have been added to their ID''s, the mission rewarded 900 points, and because the highest cultivation level at the time they applied for the mission was 3rd stage Foundation Establishment, they got a 30% bonus over that, they all had 1170 ranking points now. They then decided to gather again another time, for now they would part ways to do their own things. Ao told Krune to inform him when he is out, he wants to apply for a Mercenary Test again and would like to have Krune looking at it to see how his Wind Element control is doing. Yusa took the chance and decided to do the same, she is also quite confident in being able to acquire a Three Stars badge. Krune nodded and after exchanging a few more words, they left. Krune went back to his room after passing by the sales room, by using his Four Stars Badge he got a 25% of discount when he selected the ''Five Elements Paste'', he now has 270 points remaining. ''With this Five Elements Paste, the reinforcement speed of my foundation should increase by 20% to 30% for the next few days, the information said that it will work for more or less 8 days, but my universe foundation isn''t something common, so I believe the effect will be over faster than it should.'' Krune then started to absorb the paste, just as the description said, the speed that his planet reinforcement increased quite a lot, Krune didn''t waste time, he took out several hundred Rank Three spirit stones and started to cultivate. --- Time went by and just like that six days have passed, inside Krune''s room there was a lot spirit stone dust, every time a spirit stone has it''s spiritual energy absorbed, it will turn into that, Krune had used over 500 in this period of time, after this six days, Krune finally opened his eyes. ''I''m just a bit off from finishing reinforcing my planet, the paste effect is over but if I keep cultivating at this pace, I should be able to breakthrough in a weeks time." Krune then got up and stretched a bit, he hasn''t left his room in the last few days, he was starting to feel bored in here. He video called Ao and Yusa to tell that he finished his cultivation and decided to meet at the mercenary testing room, Ao and Yusa accepted and ended the call. But Krune found something strange with the twos behavior. ''Is it me or it looked like they were hiding something?'' Krune left his room and went to the testing room, on the way he noticed that everyone was looking at him, that made him feel very uncomfortable. When he arrived at the testing room, Yusa and Ao were there already, they looked at Krune with pity, Krune felt even more puzzled. Just when he was about to ask what is happening, supervisor Gao came into the room to congratulate Krune. Krune felt like something isn''t right, it''s just a mission being completed, their position in the ranking system didn''t even get close to the first thousand on the list, why would he come to congratulate them just because that? The supervisor got the wrong idea and thought that Krune was being modest instead, he then laughed out loud and said. "There is no need to hide, everyone knows already, it''s all over the news, your friend Ao, who is part of your group, has easily defeated the Two Stars Mercenary Shiar, who has a cultivation higher than him by one stage, there is even a video online, someone got your face recorded together with Ao and Yusa when you came into the arena, everyone is saying that you want to build the strongest group of the Sky Rank and trash all the other groups." Supervisor Gao kept laughing, on the other side, tears were running down on Krune''s face. "Boy, you are really good, as part of the Kaley City main branch, you brought a lot of face for our guild, keep up the good work." Supervisor Gao looked at Krune who was crying at moment, he thought that Krune was happy to the point of tears, he then said a few more encouraging words and left. Yusa and Ao were doing their best to hold back their laugh, but after seeing Krune white face they couldn''t hold anymore, Yusa couldn''t help but give him the last killing blow. "The rising star of the mercenary guild acts again! Behold Krune! The world trembles when hearing his name!" Ten thousand needles hit his heart, Its very effective! Krune couldn''t help but think. ''Is it still too late to change teams?'' Chapter 38 - The Alchemist Practical Exam. Ao was the first one to come back to himself, he put his hands on Krune''s shoulders. "Come on, it''s not like it didn''t happen before, I''m going to take my Mercenary test now, check it out and forget about the news for the moment." Krune could only do that, Ao went to take the test, as always, there was three puppets with a cultivation level one stage higher than his one, after the the battle started, it didn''t take long for Ao to cut down the first one, with his Wind Movement he was much faster than the puppets, the puppets attacked at the same time but couldn''t do anything to him, in the end, Ao was able to defeat all the puppets, and just like that he became a Three Stars Mercenary. Yusa was the next one, she took longer to defeat the three puppets, after all she isn''t exactly an attacker type, but nonetheless she completed the test with the highest grade too. When the Head Quarters got the news that two mercenaries defeated all three puppets during the test at the same place, they thought something was wrong with the report, but after checking the test video they couldn''t deny that they did not cheat on the test. But how could two mercenaries at the same time beat the test with the highest grade, the chances of something like that happen is extremely slim. When the Mercenary Head Quarters checked, they found out that those two were part of Krune''s team, even though Krune''s team member names are hidden for the public, as the Head Quarters, they obviously had access to the information. Kassius Ruli was looking at the report given by one of his employees, two mercenaries called Yusa Shen and Ao Sulian passed the test with the highest grade one after another, and they are part of Krune''s team, after investigating Yusa and Ao''s past, he didn''t find anything wrong, they were pretty common cultivators, nothing to pay much attention at, but after they got together with Krune, their combat power soared to the point that they could easily pass the test to get a Three Stars badge. ''This is weird, I have no doubt that Krune is the reason for their explosive improvement, but how did he do that? From what I found these two didn''t use any forbidden pill or cheated in the test in anyway, which means that that is really their combat power at moment, if more people from our side could have accomplishments like the two of them, the position of our Head Quarters of the Yule Continent would definitely get higher.'' He pondered a bit more, the issue behind this is that it is probably some secret that Krune has, but he is a member of their guild, Kassius can''t simply go there and ask Krune to tell everything, there is no cultivator in this world without their own secrets after all, but he can''t simply let it go either, Krune might be the key to the martial arts gathering two years from now. There are five continents in the world, every single one has a mercenary head quarters responsible for that continent, the mercenary guild as a whole has five slots for the gathering, if their continent has the chance to send at least one or more for the gathering, it will prove that their continent''s mercenary guilds can also breed talents just like the others, it would boost the Yule continent guilds morale as well, in the last ten or so gathering, their Yule Continent wasn''t able to send even a single cultivator. The mercenary guild will start a competition of their own between the mercenaries of each continent to decide which five will be sent to the martial gathering, and he wanted to send Krune in that qualifiers, the problem is because Krune''s cultivation is too low, the martial arts gathering accepts anyone at the foundation establishment level, which means that the majority of the powers will send their 8th and 9th stage Foundation Establishment members, doesn''t matter how much of a genius Krune is, he can''t jump so many realms to compete. That''s where he thought about using Krune''s methods to raise the level of their own late stages Foundation Establishment cultivators, Kassius pondered if he should talk to the Head of the Mercenary guilds in the Yule Continent, Bary Kasfiu, but he decided to not do so for now the time being, it''s still to early and they can''t scary Krune away, if they force the issue and Krune leaves the mercenary guild, they will only be able to cry. Kassius called one of his assistants. "Keep one eye on that Krune, I want to know if anything happens with him from now on." The person on the other side agreed with the request. Kassius then looked a bit more to the files in front of him and put them back in the drawer. "Let''s see what will happen first, maybe he will be able to catch with the others cultivation, if that happens I won''t need to ask him about how his group members combat power increased so fast." --- Back at the Mercenary Guild, Krune was preparing to leave, he already finished memorizing all the content of the Alchemist Exam, only the practical test is left now, the practical test was 10 o''clock in the morning, just like the mercenary test back then, Krune, as always, arrived just a few minutes before the starting time. He went to the testing room, there he could see another twenty some candidates. ''It''s just like Casfer said, people with good control over the elements are few but become quite a lot when put together, the problem is to find talents regarding alchemy itself.'' Krune went to his table, when it became 10 o''clock, three alchemists entered in the room, one of them just so happened to be Julies Rof, the contestants were taken aback when they saw her. "Isn''t that Four Stars Alchemist, Julies Rof? Why is she helping with the practical exam?" Another alchemist by his side then said. "A few weeks ago that guy over there got 2796 points during the comprehension test, she is probably here because of him." "2796 points? That''s too crazy! No wonder that she came to preside over the alchemist test by herself." Krune noticed that people were looking at him while commenting about his element control, he couldn''t help but sigh. ''Why it''s so hard to keep a low profile? I just want to be forgotten by everyone.'' Julies Rof, who was above the stage, started to speak. "The practical exam to enter the alchemist guild is starting now, we will show you how concoct some simple pills, do not look down on those pills, whether you pass or not will depend on your performance with those pills." "I believe that the majority already know this, but I will explain just in case." "Pills are separated by their quality, the alchemist guild has formulated nine levels in total, this is the so called Star Pills, what you will need to concoct here is the most basic level, a One Star Pill." She then took out three different pills out of her spatial ring. "You can chose one of these three pills to go through the exam, the Fasting pill, the Qi Gathering pill or the Stabilizing pill, those are the most common pills sold in our Guild and also the easiest ones to make." "You will pass as long as you can make a low or middle quality One Star pill, from that moment on you will be a One Star Alchemist and can join the guild for further studies." "For those who make a high quality One Star pill, they will be rewarded one time with 500 Rank Three low quality spiritual stones other than get their One Star Alchemist Badge." "If you are able to concoct a Two Stars pill, you will immediately become a Two Stars alchemist and will receive a one time reward of 1000 middle quality Rank Three spirit stones." "But you better forget about that, let alone be able to concoct a Two Stars pill, I doubt there will be even more than one two people who can barely qualify as a One Star alchemist after this practical test is over, so focus on passing first, once you are recognized as a real alchemist, you can start thinking about raising your rank." "Now pay attention, we will show you how to make each pill once, after that you are on your own, the material for studies that we gave you after the comprehension exam also explained how to make those pills, the three of us will follow exactly the same process as described in there." Krune then paid attention to the alchemists on the stage, he had already memorized all the content of the studies material, but it''s always better to see the thing in person. He decided to go with the Qi Gathering pill, which was the one being made by Julies, the reason was very simple, it looked much easier to make when it was done by her. Thirty minutes later, Julies and the other two alchemists finished the process, they all succeed, but as expected, even with very simple material, Julies was still able to make a Two Stars pill, it goes to show how good her talent for alchemy is. "Alright, you all saw how it works, the test will start now, we finished our pill in thirty minutes, but you will have two hours to try, each one of you have three batches of medicinal herbs for each pill of your choice, so even if you fail once, you can try again. You can start... now!" Everyone in the room moved to action, they only have two hours and they aren''t as good as real alchemists, so they will take longer for each try, they have to make their time be worth it. Well, everyone except for one, Krune didn''t move a single muscle, he simply closed his eyes. Outside of the testing room, Go Gao was looking at the practical exam through a monitor, he noticed that Krune didn''t do anything after the start of the test, it puzzled him as much as Julies who was there on the stage, in the end he could only call her. "Do you know what is happening to him? Why is he not moving?" Julies could only give a guess. "There is two possibilities, first, he didn''t understand anything at all, because of that he doesn''t know what to do, but I think this option to be quite improbable. The second one is that he is revising what he saw during the time the three of us were concocting the pills and making sure he understand each step, this seems to be more likely the case." Julies was right, Krune can remember everything he sees as long as he wills it, so he is looking at the process which Julies concocted the pill in his mind, some of the alchemists around Krune noticed that he wasn''t doing anything, some thought that he had given up, others thought that he was being conceited and was waiting for the last thirty minutes before start concocting his pill, whatever is the case, they didn''t have time to pay attention to him, so they put their attention back to their pills again. Twenty minutes later, the first caldron exploded, the burnt smell could be felt by all the contestants, it had distracted another two of them and because that they also failed their first try, as for Krune, he still had his eyes closed. It wasn''t after thirty five minutes after the start of the exam that he moved. ''During the process, she heated the cauldron first, she heated it very slowly before putting any medicinal herbs inside, with her realm she should totally be able to heat the cauldron several times faster than that, seems like the gradual rise of the temperature helps in the control of the medicinal effects inside the cauldron.'' Krune then converted his spiritual energy into a fire, he did the same and slowly increased the temperature. ''The temperature showing in the digital thermometer on the side was around 275 degrees, it changed a little now and then but it never went more than five degrees up or down, so if I''m not wrong, a constant temperature is an important key of the process.'' Five minutes later, the cauldron reached the same temperature as it did for Julies. Krune was totally immersed in his pill concocting, whatever happened around him didn''t matter anymore, alchemists needs a high control over elements, and it made Krune feel very good while the process, he could feel that the elements of the medicinal herbs where fusing together, of course, it wasn''t perfect, this was the first time Krune ever tried to concoct a pill, so there was several mistakes here and there, but if one compare him with the other contestants, he can already be considered the best of the best. Julies watched Krune and was amazed, that''s exactly what the alchemist guild is looking for, alchemy talents! She called Go Gao while paying attention to Krune, she left the task of checking the other contestants to the two alchemists beside her. They didn''t complaint, to be able to work with this Four Stars Alchemist is something that wouldn''t be possible for them in normal situations, not to mention that she is a beaut herself. Go Gao answer the call straight away, he hasn''t stopped looking at the monitor even for a second. "Can you see his control over the temperature? Believe it or not he is doing that without adding wood element in the mix, usually those without the capability to use two elements at the same time would stop using fire element to add some wood element, like that when they use fire element to create fire again it will be easier to rise the temperature and to control it, but he doesn''t need wood element at all!" "I believe you are also using your Divine Sense to check the concoction inside too, his control over the elements of the medicinal herbs can''t be considered perfect, but if this is really his first time trying to concoct a Qi Gathering pill, then he can only be considered a genius!" Go Gao agreed with Julies view, he himself is a Four Stars Alchemist too, with his Divine Sense, he could see what is happening inside Krune''s Cauldron. "Seems like we will have to have a talk with the mercenary guild, a talent like him can''t waste his time doing meaningless missions, he definitely has the talent to because a Four Stars alchemist in no time!" While they were discussing, Krune was getting to the end of his concoction, just as he was about to gather the medicinal properties and turn them into a pill, he noticed the elements of the medicinal liquid inside were not in sync, it puzzled him, just a second ago he could feel that the medicinal liquid was good to go, fusing without problems, he is sure that he can definitely make a pill the way the things are at moment, but that out of sync elements inside the medicinal liquid looked odd. In fact, only Krune could see that at the level of cultivation he is at moment, the Myriad Energies Technique control over the elements isn''t only for show after all! Other than him, only those at the Core Formation Realm would be able to notice that issue, that''s why only when you become a Core Formation Realm, can you become a Four Stars Alchemist. First, because you need to be able to feel the elements inside of the medicinal liquid formed with the herbs to a much higher degree than a Foundation Establishment or a Qi Condensation cultivator can do. Second, it''s because only when you are at the Core Formation Realm that you can freely control more than a single element at once freely. Krune pondered a bit if he should try to bring the elements in the medicinal liquid back in order or if he should just get over with it, but he quickly decided to try it once, he still has another two batches of medicinal herbs to make the Qi Gathering pill, if this one fails, he will just try again. When Krune started to control the elements inside the medicinal liquid, Julies and Go Gao noticed that straight away, Supervisor Go immediately stood up from his chair. "Impossible!" He wasn''t the only one thinking that, Julies eyes almost popped out of their sockets. "This is not a genius, this is a monster!" Chapter 39 - The Second Special Exception Julies and Go Gao were amazed with such sight, Julies then said. "So, the rumors were true, his control over the elements is out of the charts, I can''t imagine how he will become once he steps into the Core Formation Realm now that he already has the same ability of one, at least for alchemy." Go Gao agreed with her. "Indeed, this is not something we can ignore anymore, as long as our alchemist guild gets him any price will be worth it, even if he fails, make sure that he is accepted as an alchemist, with that talent it will only be a question of time before he surpasses both of us." Julies then asked "How are you going to deal with the mercenary guild?" Go Gao shook his head. "I don''t know, they aren''t weaker than our alchemist guild, I will have to talk directly with supervisor Lu Ganan of the main branch here in Kaley City to see if we can reach an agreement." Julies didn''t say anything anymore, she is an Alchemist after all, things related to management are not her problem. --- At Krune''s side, he was having some difficulties to manipulate the elements inside the medicinal liquid made from the herbs. ''It''s harder than I thought, if I take too long, the medicinal properties will burn away, guess I will just try to put them in sync as much as possible until I can''t wait anymore.'' It couldn''t be said to be Krune''s fault, this was his first time concocting a pill, he wasn''t even sure if what he is doing is something good for the pill creation or not, without him knowing, he already spent more than one hour over this problem. When it finally came the time to form the pill, less than 20% of the medicinal element properties were in sync, he could only sigh and go ahead with the pill formation. The pill formation part was quite easy, there was only a need to bring the medicinal liquid together and solidify it like a pill, depending on the quantity of herb that were used, you can make one or more pills at once, but to make things simple for the candidates, they were asked to make just a single one. The pill took form and the process was finally finished, but now the practical exam was almost over, the majority had already finished their pills although they weren''t sure if they succeed or not. When the two hour was finally over, Krune had made only a single pill, there was three lines around it but he had no idea what it meant. The alchemists on the stage came down and started evaluate the contestants result. "Haven''t reached the level of a One Star pill, failed." "Haven''t reached the level of a One Star pill, failed." "Haven''t reached the level of a One Star pill, failed." ... As one of the last ones to arrive, Krune''s table was at the very end of the queue, so he was one of the last to get his pill evaluated. "Oh, middle quality One Star pill, your name?" A girl in a white robe close to Krune was very happy to hear that. "My name is Shue Kalan." The Alchemist then nodded. "Congratulations, you are now a One Star Alchemist, you can go to the guilds office later to take your badge and register your guild ID." Shue Kalan was almost jumping in joy, all the other contestants looked at her with jealousy, everyone except for one, Krune of course, he didn''t think much about it, for him alchemy was just a way to gather spirit stones, if he fails, he will try something else, that''s all. Since her pill wasn''t a Qi Gathering pill, the one who evaluated her was one of the two alchemists that came together with Julies, Julies only examined those who had concocted Qi Gathering pills, other than Shue Kalan, there wasn''t any other contestant that passed the practical exam so far. Julies approached Krune''s table, she was sure he was able to make the pill, but she didn''t use her Divine Sense to check, she anted to look at it with her own eyes. She then took Krune''s pill and it was just as she expected. ''Although he can perceive the elements well enough to put them in sync, it still wasn''t perfect, only 20% more or less of the elemental properties are in sync at moment, it shows how inexperienced he is, but to do this while still in the foundation establishment could be said to be a miracle already, only those other monsters from the Head Quarters can do it without being at the Core Formation Realm, but even so the smallest realm person able to do it is already at the 7th stage of Foundation Establishment, but Krune is still at the 2nd stage, he is definitely the monster among the monsters.'' She then looked at Krune and smiled. "Congratulations, Three Stars middle quality Qi Gathering pill, from now on you are a Three Stars alchemist." Every single eye in the room moved at Krune at moment, even Shue Kalan jaw almost dropped. Not only the contestants, the two other alchemists that were helping with the exam felt it to be unbelievable, they themselves are still Two Stars Alchemists! Krune noticed everyone looking at him and felt gloomy. ''I''ve done it again, why can''t I control my curiosity? I should have left those elements out of sync the way they were.'' Julies didn''t know what he was thinking and simply said. "Go to the guild office to take your ID and Badge, then you can request access to the materials available for Three Stars Alchemists." Krune just nodded and left, Shue Kalan, who was just behind him also followed, she might not have made a Three Stars pill but she also passed the exam nonetheless. She approached Krune and complimented him. "Hello, I''m Shue Kalan, seems like we are fellow Alchemists from now on." Krune looked at her, he could see that she wanted to befriend him because of his status as Three Stars Alchemist. She tried to act cute in front of him but Krune didn''t notice that part though, as a wisp, he doesn''t think much about the humans appearance, with exception of Feifei, of course. Since that''s the case he thought there wasn''t a need to care about this Shue something, he simply nodded and kept walking. Shue was taken aback for his reaction, she is pretty confident with her looks, but to be disregarded like that was a first, it was then that she noticed the spiritual energy coming from Krune. ''I see, he isn''t human but a demon beast in human form, no wonder he had no reaction when I acted a second ago, in his eyes humans are probably just weird shaped.'' Soon they arrived at the application office, an attendant came forward to receive them. "Miss Shue, you can enter that room to finish the process of getting your badge and ID, as for mister Krune, I will have to ask you to follow me, the process to apply for a Three Stars Badge is much more complicated so it will take some time." Krune nodded and followed the man, he was asked to wait in an office while they applied for his Badge and ID. He couldn''t help but feel it to be quite a familiar experience. ''Last time it happened I got a Four Stars Mercenary badge and my low key life was destroyed, it couldn''t be the same again, right?'' --- At the same time, Go Gao was talking with the Head Quarters of the Alchemist Guild of the Yule Continent. On the other side of the line was an old man with big white beard and short hair, he seemed to be around his seventies, of course, with the mans cultivation, chances are that he is already 500 years old or more. He was Ediu Qixer, the supervisor of the applications office, just like the mercenary guild, the alchemist guild also has a reviews office for those who applied for Three Stars badges or higher, it''s just that the number of applications made to this office was several times lower than the Mercenary one, alchemists are rare after all. Ediu Qixer felt like Go Gao was joking with him. "Are you telling me that a 2nd stage Foundation Establishment can already sync the elements in pill making, and that it was his first time? Even here at the head quarters we don''t have such a genius, are you sure you are not dreaming?" Go Gao couldn''t blame Ediu for that, he himself thought that it was impossible when he saw Krune doing that. "As hard as it is for believe, that''s the truth, I can put my position as the supervisor of Kaley City on the line for it." Ediu understood that it wasn''t a joke. "In that case what are you waiting for? Go ahead and bring him in, I''m giving you the permission to bestow him the Three Stars Badge and ID, make sure that he stays with the Alchemist guild, such a talent can''t be left wandering outside." After saying that, Ediu noticed that Go Gao had a bitter smile on his face. "What is it?" Go Gao couldn''t hide the truth after all. "Did you perhaps hear about the new Mercenary Guild Rising Star, the one that got the Four Stars Badge before being a Core Formation Realm cultivator?" Ediu nodded, the mercenary guild spread the news everywhere to ensure that no one would try to take him away. "I know, if I''m not wrong, his name was Kru-" Just as he was about to finish saying the name he noticed the problem out there, the application for that Three Stars badge was for someone called Krune as well. "I see, so that''s the problem, and a very annoying one at that." Go Gao nodded. "Exactly, the mercenary guild bestowed him the Four Star Mercenary Badge, this goes to show how highly they thing about him, I don''t think it will be easy to convince them that Krune should be left with the Alchemist Guild alone, they don''t stop any of their members from being part of another guild, so they definitely won''t stop Krune from joining the Alchemist Guild, but it goes without saying that they hope to have Krune taking part of the martial gathering two years from now, of course, as long as his cultivation is good enough for that, at least that''s what I think." Ediu Qixer face changed. "Unacceptable!" The reason that Ediu got angry is because to ensure that only the strong will emerge victorious, the martial gathering happens inside of an earlier selected danger zone, that way every participant will have to sign the contract that no one will be responsible in case they die, also, all participants can go all out during the gathering, and if someone dies, no one will care. How could they let Krune, such a genius alchemist, take part of this dangerous competition? Go Gao then said "What about we give him a Four Stars Badge, just like the Mercenary Guild? If we give him a Three Stars Badge he will obviously think that the Mercenary Guild thoughts about his future are better than ours." Ediu pondered a bit. "I will talk to the Head of the guild, a Four Stars Badge can''t be given this easy, but I agree that this would be the first step in bringing him over, wait for my call." Ediu then went to talk to the Head of the Alchemist Guild Head Quarters, Calier Medgin, after an hour of discussion they agreed that it would be better if they can bring Krune to their side, so he accepted the request for the Four Stars Badge. --- Back at the Alchemist Guild, Krune was sit while waiting for his Three Stars badge to come, he wants to check the alchemist list of requests and learn how to make the necessary pills for selling, his Rank Three spirit stones wont last much longer after all. The door of the room opened and Supervisor Go Gao came in, he had a bright smile on his face. "Hello, my name is Go Gao, the supervisor of the Kaley City Alchemist branch. Congratulations, Alchemist Krune, the guild decided to make an special exception and bestow you a Four Stars Badge, this is how much we value your talents as an alchemist, please accept it." Go Gao then passed the Four Stars badge with Krune''s name to him. Krune had a foreboding feeling after seeing that. "Supervisor Go, you perhaps haven''t told anyone about it yet, right?" Last time he received a ''special exception'' and received a Four Stars badge, everyone in the continent came to know about him, and now he is receiving the same thing again, he doesn''t want it, he doesn''t want it at all! Supervisor Go then said "Don''t worry, we don''t like to make things big, the alchemist guilds name itself is more than enough." Krune then let out a sigh of relief, in that case he doesn''t mind receiving the Four Stars Alchemist Badge, that way he will have access to more resources and can accept better requests, all in all, he can make more money. Supervisor Go then asked. "Krune, wouldn''t you leave the mercenary guild and stay with our Alchemist guild only? You have great talent, as for resources or whatever the mercenary guild has promised you, we can do the same or even better." Krune was taken aback with such question. "This..." Supervisor Go then said. "You can think it over and give me an answer later." Supervisor Go had already decided to pay a visit to Lu Ganan of the Kaley City mercenary guild, he wants them to know that the alchemist guild wants Krune. Poor Krune didn''t know the storm that was coming his way. Chapter 40 - He Couldnt be Wrong About Men Too, Right? Krune went to take the necessary information for study first, since he got a Four Stars Badge then he doesn''t need to make One Star pills to sell anymore, he wants to start with Three Stars Pills, they definitely are worth much more, he also took his 1000 Rank Three middle quality spirit stones reward, every spirit stone is precious after all. He decided to spend the next few days to memorize all the content available up to Three Stars Alchemy before coming back to start learning pill concoction, although he got the Four Stars Badge, he isn''t a Core Formation Realm cultivator after all, he closed himself in his room after that, he will spend the day for study and the night for cultivation, his breakthrough is close so he can''t relax just now. In the same day, supervisor Go Gao came to the mercenary guild to pay a visit to Lu Ganan, the supervisor of the mercenary guild. "Go Gao, it has been a while, why did you come here?" Go Gao had a serious expression. "Can we talk in private? I have something important to discuss." Lu Ganan felt puzzled with Go Gao''s behavior, usually this guy would smile all the time, to see his serious face is something rare. Inside of Lu Ganan''s office, the both of them were staring each other, supervisor Go took a deep breath and started to talk. "Did supervisor Lu know that your member, Krune, came to our alchemist guild to take part of the alchemist test?" Lu Ganan was taken aback with this question, the Mercenary Head Quarters asked to keep an eye out for Krune, so he did know that Krune went to the alchemist guild, but why would Go Gao come to pay a visit to him just to talk about that? The mercenary guild doesn''t forbidden any of it''s members to join other guilds after all. "I do know, as you probably heard, the Mercenary Guild puts a lot of importance on him, we received orders from the Head Quarters to keep an eye on him, but we don''t stop our members from joining other guilds, so what is the problem? Could it be that Krune created some problem for your guild?" Supervison Go was surprised, the mercenary head quarters is putting a lot more importance into Krune than he thought they would, this isn''t good news for him. "Lu Ganan, Krune has passed the alchemist guild exam, not only that, but he was able to create a Three Stars Qi Gathering pill on his very first try, he is able to feel the sync of the elements inside the cauldron which is something that only Core Formation Realms should be able to, the only exceptions are the direct disciples at the Alchemist Head Quarters, but even so, the earliest someone was able to do that was at the 7th Stage Foundation Establishment, Krune, on the other hand, is capable of doing that while still at the 2nd Stage, his future as an alchemist is limitless." Go Gao looked directly at Lu Ganan''s eyes. "I will be direct, we want Krune to leave your Mercenary Guild and be part of the Alchemist Guild alone, any price is negotiable." To his surprise, Lu Ganan answered him straight away. "Out of question." He then said. "Our Mercenary Guild has great hopes for him, our Yule Continent hasn''t had such a Genius for a long time, you might not know this but it has been over ten martial gatherings since our Yule Continent was able to send someone as representative of the mercenary guild, the Head Quarters has great hopes for him to be able to do that two years from now. So I can''t accept your request." Supervisor Go didn''t give up though. "He is also a part of our Alchemist guild now, and the guild has made an exception too, so we bestowed him a Four Stars Alchemist badge, we will not allow such a Genius to throw his live away for some barbaric gathering." Lu Ganan didn''t relent. "Martial prowess is vital for ones safety, impeding him from doing battle is the same as cut his martial path in the middle, since he is a battle genius, the best way to temper him is through life and death battles, only like that can he achieve greatness." Go Gao got angry. "Bullsh*t! Are you saying that Krune can''t achieve greatness as an alchemist? Alchemy is one of the most respected professions in our entire world, no, in the entire universe! He can achieve much more by following the alchemist path alone!" Lu Ganan didn''t want to hear anymore. "That''s enough! Anyway, we won''t let Krune go, our Mercenary Guild found him first! If you want him to be an alchemist, fine! But we won''t agree to him stopping his martial path." Go Gao then stood up and left, but not before leaving a few words behind. "Our Alchemist Guild will not give up, I will show to everyone that Krune''s correct path is alchemy, he has no need to risk his life meaninglessly!" Just like that, a fight started between both guilds of Kaley City, as for the culprit, he was peacefully cultivating during the night, he had no idea about what was happening outside, Yusa and Ao tried to contact him, but Krune didn''t want to be disturbed, so he turned off his communicator, just like that, a week passed. --- It was almost 5 o''clock in the morning when suddenly, people close to Krune''s room could feel the spiritual energy of the surroundings rushing in his room direction. "Someone is breaking through" Was the thought of the majority. They were right, after going through a life and death battle against the Earth Dragon and using the Five Elements Paste, he got very close to finish reinforcing his planet to resist the breakthrough into the 3rd Stage, now that a week of cultivation had passed, he had finally finished his preparations and achieved the next realm, after spending some time to stabilize his spiritual energy, Krune took a deep breath and opened his eyes. ''3rd Stage Foundation Establishment, it''s already been over three months since I achieved the 1st stage back in Katiu Forest, I had spent less than a month to get to the 2nd stage, but I used over two months to get to the third stage, I will have a better idea about the time I need to reach the Core Formation Realm after I break through into the 4th stage of Foundation Establishment.'' Krune stood up and went to take a shower, he then took a few more looks into the Three Stars Alchemy information to make sure he remembered everything necessary and decided to go to the Alchemist Guild to start his Three Stars pill making, his universe foundation needs way too much spiritual energy, so he was left with less than a thousand Spirit Stones of the Rank Three, the majority were middle quality from the time he passed the Alchemist Exam. But then he remembered supervisor Go''s request. ''Joining the alchemist Guild and leaving the Mercenary guild would be a good thing in most situations, but alchemists take their time to cultivate, their improvement is guaranteed but at the same time slow, as a wisp, my life span is too small to patiently wait for my realm to improve, in the end, I need combat experience if I want to improve faster, so I guess I will need to refuse supervisor Go After all, but I will still stay as a member of the alchemist guild to make some money, I hope that''s enough.'' He then grabbed his communicator and turned it on, when he checked it he could see hundreds of messages from Yusa and Ao, it puzzled him, could it be that something happened? He sent a message to the two of them that he is going to the entrance, they can meet him there if they need something, Krune then grabbed his things and left. On the way out of his room, he had the same feeling from before, everyone was staring at him, but he is sure that he hasn''t done anything this time. ''Could it be that they are still thinking about that news from a week ago? First of all, who was the one who said that I wanted to build the strongest team of the ranking system? Because of that I suffered a lot.'' When he got to the entrance of the Mercenary Guild, Yusa and Ao were already there, Yusa came forward and put her hands on Krunes shoulder. "I say, this isn''t even funny anymore, I wonder if you are really serious about living a low key life." Krune felt puzzled about that, what is she talking about? Ao was the one to talk this time. "Anyway, I think you should ponder more about whether you want to leave the Mercenary Guild to join the Alchemist Guild, the Mercenary Guild was the first one to recognize you after all." Krune looked at them and couldn''t help but say. "But I didn''t say that I was leaving the mercenary guild, supervisor Go said that I could think over it first, but in the end I decide that I will stay in the mercenary guild as well after all, without battle experience, my cultivation will lag behind, you two, better than anyone in this city, know very well that I can''t simply cultivate slowly like everyone else." "First of all, how do you even know that the alchemist guild offered me to be only a member of them?" Yusa and Ao looked at each other, then back at Krune. "Do you really don''t know what is happening?" Krune shook his head, but he could feel that something bad happened, something that he will not like at all. Yusa then looked at him "You are really a star, even when you aren''t doing anything you still can make the world tremble, the mercenary guild and the alchemist guild of Kaley City re almost starting a fight with each other, and the reason is no one else but you." Krune was taken aback, fight because of him, why? Yusa then continued. "The supervisor of the alchemist guild came a week ago to demand that you should be released of you status as a mercenary and that you should be a member of the alchemist guild only, Lu Ganan, of course, rejected straight away, you are the Rising Star of the Mercenary Guild whether you like it or not after all, and then they got into a discussion and finally things went out of control." Krune felt like crying, even when he isn''t doing anything, people will still go out of their way to destroy his peaceful life. Just when he was about to move out to talk with the alchemist guild, Go Gao appeared in the distance, but it wasn''t only him, Lu Ganan was also coming from inside of the Mercenary Guild. Go Gao reached Krune and said. "You are finally out of your seclusion, I can see that you even broke through the 3rd stage of Foundation Establishment, congratulations. Why don''t you come with me now? As long as you decided to leave the mercenary guild I can guarantee that no one will stop you." Lu Ganan on the side then said. "Why would he leave my mercenary guild? It is you who is forcing him into such decision, can''t you see that he doesn''t want it at all?" The both of them started to bicker with each other, Krune, on the other hand, was feeling gloomier and gloomier, everyone is paying attention to him, the one who made the two guilds to fight over him. He could see that both parties tension was very high, he pondered how he should alleviate the situation, it was then that he remembered a few words said by that s*x shop attendant back then, he had said that men like to go to a place called brothel to get rid of their tension, even though Krune would not listen to that guy''s advice about women anymore, it couldn''t be that he is also wrong about men, right? The attendant that day was a human man too after all. He then went in between the two supervisors and said. "There is no need to continue this discussion, I have already made my decision that I will stay in the Mercenary Guild, but I will also be part of the Alchemist Guild. As for the part of losing my life during the missions, supervisor Go has no need to worry, if there is something that I''m confident about, that is to keep myself safe." Lu Ganan was ecstatic, on the other hand, Go Gao didn''t like that answer, they didn''t lose Krune, but they didn''t acquire him for themselves alone either, just as he was about to talk, Krune put his arms around Lu Ganan and Go Gao''s shoulders. "Let''s go, I will bring you guys to have some fun." Lu Ganan and Go Gao asked almost by instinct. "Go where?" Krune then smiled and said. "To the brothel, of course! I heard that you human men like to go there to alleviate your tension, that''s the best place for us to be at moment, this fight between both guilds is now over." The people around that were watching the show looked strangely to Go Gao and Lu Ganan, that''s because they all know that the both of them are... married! Go Gao and Lu Ganan almost vomited blood after that. Who the hell will go there with you? Do you want our wives to make us infertile?! Yusa and Ao put their hands on their faces, they are 100% sure! Krune has absolutely no idea about what a brothel really is at all! And just like that, the old news about the guilds fight was somehow changed to the news about the guild supervisors being good customers of the Red Lantern, the most famous brothel in the city! Both Go Gao and Lu Ganan had a hard time at home explaining what really happened, they were also left in the dry by their wives for the next few months, they wanted to cry but had no tears. Chapter 41 - Is there any worth in that? After Ao took his time to explaining to Krune what a brothel was, Krune could only apologize to Go Gao and Lu Ganan, he then remembered the man from the s*x shop. ''Humans from s*x shops can''t be trusted, I will remember this!'' Go Gao and Lu Ganan could only cry after that, they decided to not make problems for Krune again, who knows what will come from this low EQ human form demon beast. That same day, Krune went to the Alchemist Guild to practice pill making, he spent his entire day there, he also failed quite a few times, after all, between making basic pills and more complicated ones, it''s obviously harder to achieve success with the later. There was one thing that made Krune gloomy for a time, a pill called Wisp''s Will, this pill didn''t use wisps as components, simply put, when you directly absorb a wisp spiritual energy, there will be side effects, after all they aren''t 100% pure, but this pills corrected that problem, the only issue is that you would lose around 30% of the wisps spiritual energy in the process, after taking the pill, the energy that you received from wisps will be filtered and the impurities removed, but the process loses a lot of spiritual energy as well, so, for the people of Makui Planet, it wasn''t a very famous pill, wisps are very expensive, they usually couldn''t afford to lose that much spiritual energy even if there is impurities in that. When night came, he returned to the mercenary guild to cultivate, but not before eating his fill in the restaurant on the way. This cycle continued for the next three days, Krune could now be successful in over 80% of his tries, of course, the sync of the elements inside of the medicinal liquid made from the herbs is still something hard for him to accomplish, even more now that he is making harder pills, in the end, he could only sync the same 20% to 30%, this isn''t a lack of talent, but a gap in cultivation, the higher one''s cultivation, the easier it is to control elements, it is already a miracle that Krune can sync the elements at his level. ''I guess I can finally take orders, the rules of the alchemist guild state that one must be at least 50% successful in their pill making at the level of the pill that they are trying to make, I tried quite a few different ones at the Three Stars level so I''m pretty confident on it.'' Krune then went to a monitor in his alchemist room and opened the list of orders available to be selected, he scrolled down and after pondering a bit, he took out three orders for Three Stars pills. One of the pills was the spiritual explosion pill used for breakthroughs, that was the pill the Ao Sulian wanted to buy in the past to use during his breakthrough into the 4th stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm, as any other pill, it also had several levels, and the one asked was for the pill to be at least three stars. The second was foundation reinforcement pill, this pill worked different from the ''Five Elements Paste'', it reinforced your foundation straight away to a certain percentage, but the more you took it, the lesser the effect, the body would start rejecting the pill, so it was only good for the first three or four pills, after that it would become almost useless, so it was usually used after one got in the late stages of Foundation Establishment. The third one wasn''t a cultivation related pill, but a healing pill, Three Stars Healing Nectar Pill, the recipe of this one is quite complicated, even among the complicated ones, but Krune wanted to practice this pill so that he could make a few ones to bring with himself in the future. ''If I concoct those three pills without failing, I will receive a total of 1327 Rank Three low and middle quality spirit stones, and I can finish it all today, no wonder almost everyone wants to be an alchemist, as long as they are good at making the pills, they can make a lot of money in such a short time'' But that''s what Krune wants after all, he decided that he will now gather twenty thousand Rank Three spirit stone and try to create his seventh Spiritual Energy Meridian. --- Time passed by and just like that, one month was gone, during this time Yusa, Ao and Krune took one more mission to get some minerals in another Danger Zone, this one was simpler to complete since it had the same cultivation level recommendation as their own, so there was no bonus, nonetheless it still rewarded them with 550 ranking points, the main reason of taking this mission was for them to train in real combat, Yusa had already broken through the 4th stage and Ao is steadily moving to the 5th, Krune also took this opportunity to test his strength at the 3rd stage, he challenged an ordinary 7th stage Demon Beast and was able to defeat it quite easily. When they came back Yusa and Ao left again to continue their cultivation, Krunes cultivation speed is too fast, they can''t relax or they will be left behind by him in no time, not to mention that Krune''s battle prowess is already higher than theirs, they can''t lose in cultivation realm too. After going back to the Alchemist guild, he spent his time accepting orders and cultivating at night until he gathered the twenty thousand Rank Three Spirit Stones he wanted, in fact, even Krune thinks that he is exaggerating, it shouldn''t cost him this much sprit stones to open the seventh Spiritual Energy Meridian, but it''s always good to be prepared. --- Back at the Mercenary Guild, Krune sent a to Ao and Yusa telling them that he was going to create another meridians, so that they could keep an eye out for him and check how it is made themselves, they gathered at the entrance after that. Yusa then asked. "Where you want to go to do that?" Krune then answered "Katiu Forest is too far, it will take over a week to go and come back, is there a good place where I can focus on absorbing energy without people bothering me?" This time it was Ao who answered. "If all that you want is to be out of sight, you can rent a house in the city for yourself." Ao then explained that by paying a certain amount per month, you would be able to get a place that is only yours for a certain time period. Krune agreed to the idea, with Yusa and Ao''s help, he rented a small house in the borders of the city, it has a lot of space around and a small house in the center. Ao then said. "You just need to set up a concealing formation and it will be done, I can call a formation master over if you want, a common formation shouldn''t cost much anyway." Krune accepted the idea, after the formation master came and got paid, he set up the concealing formation, Krune then asked him to put a barrier to impede other from enter or leave and the process was done. Krune then entered his house with Yusa and Ao, they would see for the first time how the Spiritual Energy Meridian is created, they had heard the explanation from Krune, but hearing about and seeing with their eyes are two completely different things. "So, like I said everything comes down to creating all nine pseudo energy meridians together, every single one of them is part of the whole, their different properties will fuse together creating the brand new Spiritual Energy Meridian, if you are successful, the Spiritual Energy Meridian will start absorbing the spiritual energy of the surroundings or whatever has spiritual energy, in this case, it will be the spirit stones." "If it fails, it will break apart and you will have to start again, when you try it for the first time, be aware that it will be difficult, even I failed several times before I was able to create the first one." "Alright, I will start, pay attention." Yusa and Ao focused their eyes and Divine Sense on Krune, other than cultivating, they have also been forming the Pseudo Spiritual Energy Meridians so that they could build the real one later, when they started over a month ago, Yusa was in a better state since she had created four in the past, she only had to learn the other five, Ao was different though, he didn''t use the Myriad Energies Technique before, so he had to start from zero. At moment Yusa had successfully created the sixth pseudo meridian while Ao had made three, it could already be considered very fast, of course, that''s because they had Krune as their teacher, otherwise, it would have taken them much longer. Krune went back to his wisp form, he needs the best control possible to avoid any mistakes on process, Yusa and Ao are still not used to Krune''s wisp form though, but they accepted him nonetheless, little by little, nine pseudo meridians started to appear and fuse together, Krune purposely delayed the formation of the seventh Spiritual Energy Meridian so that Ao and Yusa could see more clearly. An hour later, Yusa and Ao hears a ''click'' sound, as if some puzzle pieces got together, Krune immediately took out thousands of Rank Three spirit stones, sure enough, the Spiritual Energy Meridian started to absorb the spiritual energy from the surroundings and the spirit stones at the same time, Krune looked like a black hole, there was so much spiritual energy flowing into him that it even became tangible, spiritual energy of heaven and earth is just like the air, you know it is there but you can''t see it, only when you compress it to a certain point that seeing it becomes possible. One thousand spirit stones, Two thousand, Three Thousand, The spiritual energy meridian kept absorbing spiritual energy from the Rank Three spirit stones all the way to eleven thousand and some spirit stones, after that the Spiritual Energy Meridian shined for a while like all others before settling down, and just like that, the process was finally over. Yusa and Ao were amazed, they still had some doubts about Krunes explanation regarding Spiritual Energy Meridians, but after seeing this, all their doubts disappeared like smoke, what impressed them the most is how expensive this thing is, they saw how eleven thousand Rank Three spirit stones disappeared like nothing, this thing can totally bankrupt a small cultivation clan alone! Yusa and Ao now understood why Krune valorized spirit stones so highly, Yusa was simply a money grubber, she just love to have money, in the cultivators case, spirit stones, but although Krune remembered her, it wasn''t because he loved them, just that he needs as much as possible for those crazy meridians. Yusa seriously pondered if she should give up the Spiritual Energy Meridians, they are too fuc*ing expensive! As for Ao, his eyes were shining, he doesn''t care about money that much, but the marvelousness of the Spiritual Energy Meridians had totally caught his attention, even if he has to spend all his savings, so be it, for him it is totally worth it! Krune then tried to cultivate with his seven Spiritual Energy Meridians at the same time and just as he expected, they can still work at max capacity even if he uses all of them. Krune then went back to his human form and looked at Yusa and Ao. "Well, that''s pretty much it, to find about the spiritual energy meridians is hard, but after knowing that they exist the path ahead becomes much simpler, of course, this is as long as you can afford them. That''s why I spent so much time at the Alchemist Guild, I need money, simple as that." Krune then felt a chill passing through his core, sure enough, Yusa was looking at him with fervent eyes. She had a very big smile or her face. Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Errr¡­ Is something wrong?" Yusa then replied. "Oh my good brother, what about I exchange my body purity for the spirit stones necessary for the Spiritual Energy Meridians?" Ao Sulian eyes almost popped out of their sockets, can she be any more shameless? First of all, is such a shameless woman ''pure'' to start with? But then he heard Krune say something that made him feel pity for him. "Is there any worth in that?" Yusa''s face immediately became scary. Ao could only make a mental note to himself. ''Don''t worry, brother. I will pay a visit to your grave during this day next year.'' Chapter 42 - Goodbye! After coming back from the gates of hell where he met the demon god called Yusa, Ao explained to him what being a virgin means to a woman, Krune then sighed and decided to forget about what happened, he thought that humans put way too much importance over such trivialities. Krune kept his cultivation and pill concoction daily routine, sometimes he would leave for a mission with Ao and Yusa, thanks to that, their position in the mercenary team rank has finally got into the top 1000, but neither of them cared for it, as long as they had the points to exchange for the necessary items in the mercenary guild, that was enough. After spending a few months, together with his new Spiritual Energy Meridian, Krune was finally able to breakthrough into the 4th stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm, at the same time, both Ao and Yusa reached the 5th stage, Krune helped them by concocting the pills they needed, not to mention his teaching about their own element controls which was the main reason behind their improvement. They were in the mission hall of the mercenary guild scrolling through the list of mission when suddenly, Lu Ganan called them. "You three, please come to my office, the mercenary guild has a special request for you." They looked puzzled, but since it was a request direct from the supervisor, they went there to take a look anyway. --- One week earlier, Yule Continent Mercenary Head Quarters, there was a meeting happening in the main hall, only those with status of elders or those that had important positions in the Head Quarters management could participate, the Head of the guild in the Yule Continent, Bary Kasfiu, was also there waiting for everyone to arrive. When they gathered together, the meeting finally started, Bary Kasfiu came forward to give the news. "The Furiu Realm is opening again, we just received the message from our scouts, we believe that it will be completely open in ten days if fast, and fourteen days if slow." The people in the room were surprised, the Furiu realm was a place built by a supreme expert long before technology was developed, cultivators have a long story, but technology only appeared around three thousand years ago, with that, one can already imagine how old the place is, the only thing that the big powers of the Yule Continent know is that no one in their Makui Planet could possibly have built such place, they are way too weak for that. The Furiu realm opens randomly, no one knows what is the reason, they only know where the entrance is, that place was also used to give the realm its name, it stays at the Furiu Danger Zone, a gigantic swamp like place at west of the Yule Continent. The ninth elder couldn''t help but comment. "Last time it opened was over five hundred years ago, as expected of the random opening realm, its opening times really follows no pattern, before that it had opened a hundred years prior, and even before that it was two hundred and seventy years, to think that it would take over five hundred years to open again since the last time." Bary nodded. "Exactly, we need to grab this change to temper our members, as all of you know, only those at the Foundation Establishment Realm and bellow can enter, if we are luck we might give birth to a few members capable enough to participate in the martial gathering, but don''t forget, we aren''t the only ones who know about that, we might have closed all entrances to prevent other continent powers from entering, but that was because we joined hands with every clan and sect with strength in our own continent, so they will also been sending their own members." One of the supervisors then asked. "How many slots are available for each of the powers?" Bary answered straight away. "Each power has access to 20 slots, we are expecting to have over 500 participants this time, which means that we can send at most four teams of five people each, the reason of this meeting is to decide who we are sending this time." Everyone started discussing and soon the room fired up, there was quite a good amount of promising teams in the guild at moment, although neither was at the martial gathering level, they might have a breakthrough if they use this chance well. Someone then said "The carnage team is a must then, they have been in the top of the rank last time and are still in the top since the last reset. No one showed discordance with him, they kept on going. "I also think that the thunder lion team is a good choice, they are not in the top 10 teams, but they definitely have one of the greatest potential between all teams available." Some were against, others not so much, in the end the thunder lion team was also selected. After some more discussion another two teams were selected, the Enlightenment team and the Flood Dragon team. By now there was only four slots available, although Bary said that they could send four teams of five members, it''s not like every team had five members, there were some with more and others with less after all. When they were about to discuss which other team to send, the supervisor of the reviews application, Kassius Ruli, raised his hand. "I didn''t say anything during the selection of the previous teams, but I want three of the last four slots to be given to the rainbow team." The room immediately got silent. Rainbow Team? What is that? No one had ever heard about this team before, Kassius looked at Bary who nodded, Kassius had already informed Bary about Krune and the others before the meeting, Bary could barely believe that their Yule Continent had given birth to such a talent, he wished that Kassius told him about Krune sooner, but he could understand Kassius thoughts, so he let it pass, he and Kassius had been friends for a long time after all, as the Head of the Head Quarters, Bary had too many things to deal every day, Kassius, as his friend, had never given him any extra work that he considered unnecessary, so Bary couldn''t get angry at him no matter how much he wanted to. Bary looked at everyone and then said "The rainbow team is not very well known, but I''m sure you guys heard about that the mercenary guild had given an exception to promote a new mercenary directly to the four stars, right?" People nodded, the news had been spread everywhere after all, one of the elders then commented. "But if I''m not wrong, it hasn''t been even half a year since he became a member of the guild, and when he joined he was just at the 1st stage of Foundation Establishment." Bary nodded. "Exactly, his name is Krune, he is one of the five cultivators of the young generation of our Yule Continent to make an Universe Foundation, but that''s not everything, he is the leader of the Rainbow Team." This time it was one of the supervisors that couldn''t hold himself. "But he was at the 1st stage just a few months ago, the martial gathering is happening in a year and a half from now, I agree he is a great talent that is worth to be nurtured by our guild, but there isn''t enough time for him to catch up, the martial gathering barely has anyone at the 8th of Foundation Establishment, the majority are all at the 9th stage, and usually at the peak of that stage, there isn''t enough time for his cultivation to get there." Everyone nodded, maybe in the gathering ten years after the next one it will be his time to shine, but now isn''t the time, they should send a team that has a real chance to fight for the five slots of the mercenary guild world wide selection. Bary then looked at everyone and said. "And what if I tell you that in this few months he went from the 1st stage all the way to the 4th? Not only that, both his team member had their stages improved by two, Ao Sulian and Yusa Shen joined him when they were only at the 3rd Stage of the Foundation Establishment, but they are at the 5th stage now. Not only that, we checked Ao and Yusa''s past, they were pretty common cultivators, Ao had barely passed the test to acquire his One Star Mercenary Badge, and Yusa had participated in the same exam as Krune, in that Exam she acquired a Two Stars Badge, but not only had their realms improved by two stages, the both of them reapplied for the mercenary test and are now Three Stars mercenaries, each one of them passed their test with easy, their level during the test was very close to Krune himself." This time everyone was shocked, Yusa and Ao improvement had been way too fast, they couldn''t help but ask. "But if they improved their realm this fast, their foundations should be totally unstable, it might look great now but it will only leave horrible side effects in the future." Kassius heard that and a smile appeared in his face. "I ask everyone to take a look at the monitor behind Guild Head Bary, remember that what you will see have been recorded in the past week." Kassius then pressed a button on his communicator which made the monitor show three graphs, those graphs had names beside them, Krune, Ao and Yusa. This time quite a few got up from their chairs. "Impossible!" "There is no way you can keep such a stable foundation after jumping so many realms in such a short amount of time." Bary then struck the iron while it was hot. "But this is the truth, I had the Kaley Citys supervisor, Lu Ganan, check it three times, their foundations are exactly as shown in the graphs, we believe that the reason for Yusa and Ao''s improvement to be Krune himself, during the time that we were keeping a look on them we noticed that both Yusa and Ao kept receiving pointers from Krune from time to time, of course, the majority of the time Krune was teaching them we had no way to see it, but it''s pretty much confirmed that Krune is the reason behind his own and his team members amazing improvement." One of the elder then said. "In that case why don''t we call Krune over and have him pass his teachings to the high level members of our guild? It would be several times more effective than pass such knowledge to people like those Yusa and Ao." Kassius shook his head. "Not gonna work, every cultivator in the world, we included, have their own secrets, to do that is to pry into Krunes secret, from what we found Krune puts a lot of importance in relationship, family and friends first, as for being the number one in the world? Screw that! If we force the issue he might as well just leave the mercenary guild and join some other power, if that happened we can only cry." Bary then said "That''s why I think we should send his team as well, have you forgotten? He and his team members are all at the Three and Four Star Mercenary level now, they got to the 4th and 5th stage of Foundation Establishment in less than half a year, if Krune and his group keep like that, they might just be able to take part in the Mercenary Guild qualifiers for the Martial Gathering." The supervisor of resources intervened. "But to send then inside the Furiu Realm with their actual strength is too risk, as the rule says, as long as it is inside the Danger Zones, no one will care if someone is killed, if he dies there, then we will really lose am extremely important future member." Kassius and Bary then smiled. "There is two reasons for why we should send them this time. First, with Krune''s cultivation speed, he probably will be at the Core Formation Realm by the time the next Martial Gathering eleven and a half years from now starts, because of that he won''t be able to participate anymore. Second, as for the danger problem we have a solution, we are going to use the last slot to send Shinja Avril with them with the objective of protecting Krune''s life at all costs." The forth elder was surprised. "Did she agree with that? Shinja Avril had never joined a team before, she had always been alone as far as I know, as another special Four Stars Mercenary at the Foundation Establishment Real, we tried to make her join or create a team of her own before, but she always refused. She also has the Universe Foundation, so it''s really a pity that she never joined the rank." Bary just said "There is no need to worry about that, I have reached an agreement with her and we signed a blood contract already, unless she is in a deadly situation, she will protect Krune''s life." After hearing that no one said anything anymore. Shinja Avril is a human woman with a Pure Yin Body, she came from an ordinary family but got where she is with her own power, as for her universe foundation, just like Krune had commented in the past, even when you chose the same foundation as someone else, they are bound to be different, there is no identical foundation in the universe. Because she has an Yin Body, she is very beautiful, but at the same time extremely cold, due to her constitution her hair is blue like the ocean, as said before, she had never joined or created a rank team before, even though she was considered one of the strongest Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Yule Continent, Guild Head Bary had to pay a wealthy price to convince her to protect Krune. Another reason for why she accepted this job is because she wanted to meet this demon beast in human form that also has a universe foundation like hers. And with that, the twenty slots were shared and the meeting was over. --- Back at Kaley City Mercenary Guild, Lu Ganan was explaining to them everything that was decided about the Furiu Realm, unfortunately for him, he didn''t get the answer he was expecting. Yusa, Ao and Krune looked at each other, and then back at Lu Ganan before showing a bright slime on their faces. "We refuse, goodbye!" And then they left just like that. Chapter 43 - When the gods forget about you. The three of them were walking on the street while Yusa commented. "What are they even thinking about? Sending us to such a dangerous place, they might as well ask us to suicide." Ao also complemented "There is also this thing about sending someone to protect us, I would say it''s more likely that this person was sent to spy on us, we have been improving way too fast after all, and it has probably raised some alarms." Krune agreed with their point of view. "They say that this is a great opportunity, I believe they are not lying about it, from what we heard from this ''Furiu'' realm, there is great fortunes waiting for us. But, did they think we need that at moment? Our cultivation speed is already good enough, any items we need we can make some missions and buy it directly! Combat experience? We are going through our own fights every time we enter the Danger Zones to complete missions, we have plenty already." Krune might be in a hurry to improve his cultivation, but he isn''t desperate to the point of throwing his life away just yet, not to mention, if the one who is in danger isn''t him but his friends, does it mean that that ''protector'' won''t lift a single finger to help? Fuc* it! Yusa nodded. "But I''m still curious, who exactly would they send to join our team in the end? Since they said this person would be able to protect Krune from most of dangerous situations, it''s bound to be someone very strong. But usually, someone like that already has a team, so why would they leave it to come to us? Other than spying, I can`t think about any other reason." They kept talking until they got to the restaurant. --- Back at the mercenary guild, Lu Ganan still had a blank face, his brain stopped working completely, and it wasn''t until five minutes later that he came back to himself. ''They must be kidding! Do they even know how much effort the Head Quarters put to bring them together to the Furiu realm? How am I going to report this in the first place?'' The mercenary guild never forces its member in taking any mission, there is several other great powers in the Yule Continent after all, this measure is to prevent their own members from running to the other sides, but no mercenary team would ever think about refusing such opportunity, this is unbelievable! Lu Ganan then called the Head Quarters and told them the news. At the Guild Head''s office, Bary and Kassius were looking at the roof, how could they ever expect Krune''s team to refuse? That''s illogical. Kassius looked at Bary and sighed "So what now? We can''t force them since it would just scary them away, the Alchemist Guild would love to hear that Krune left the guild and would definitely extend an olive branch for him." Bary smiled bitterly. "What exactly can we do, did you see the reason they gave? They said that they are already improving fast enough and have no need for extra risks, as for combat experience, they are getting it from missions, but that isn''t the main point, Shinja Avril is." Kassius looked at Bary puzzled. Why would Shinja Avril be a problem? Since there is no more Furiu Realm for Krune''s team, then she is basically free to do whatever she wants, but he knew that Bary would explain, so he just waited. Bary then sighed as well and said "Her blood contract is the main issue, it stated that she would have to stay by Krune''s side and protect him until the Furiu Realm closed again, but there is nothing in that specifying what we would do if he refused. I believe you can understand already." Kassius jaw dropped. "Doesn''t that mean that she will have to protect him until the realm closes whether he enters it or not? I see, she will probably think that this was a trap we made to force her to join a team, usually we also don''t know how long it takes for the Furiu Realm to close, but at least we know that it won''t be more than six months, or at least, that was the longest time it stayed open according to the records." Bary then said "That''s not all, she herself wanted to enter that place as well, she wanted to find an opportunity to breakthrough into the Core Formation Realm, but if Krune doesn''t enter, she won''t be able to enter either, so I''m afraid that she will find problems for Krune''s team which would also lead to scaring Krune away." Kassius then thought. "Why don''t you tell Krune''s team about that then, they would at least understand it wasn''t on purpose." Bary shook his head. "I can''t, one of the conditions on the contract was that we couldn''t tell Krune''s team about that, Shinja wanted to prevent a situation where Krune would court death by himself just because she is bound by the contract." Kassius heard that and smiled bitterly, in the end they can just pray for everything to end well. --- Krune''s group was having their lunch back at the restaurant, after Krune learnt how to cook they got pretty used to have good food even when they are out on missions, when they are in the city, they would go to a restaurant now and then, and when they are out, Krune is responsible for their meals, of course, Yusa and Ao always helped with whatever they could. It was then that someone appeared in the restaurant''s entrance, she was a woman with blue hair and white skin, her face showing no emotion what so ever, who else could it be other than Shinja Avril? The people in there, specially the men, couldn''t look away from her, it raised quite a few fights between the couples who were lunching there, Shinja cared little for all of that, she was already used to such scene anyway. It had only been a little bit more than one hour since Krune''s group refused the offer to enter the Furiu realm, Kassius and Bary had just had their conversation back at the Head Quarters too, so Shinja still had no idea that Krune wasn''t going to the Furiu realm, she just came here earlier to find her protection target. Krune''s group was lunching at the second floor, when Shinja appeared in front of them, Krune''s group was puzzled, did they know her? She was very beautiful, but to her surprise, neither Krune nor Ao seemed to care much about her looks. It couldn''t be helped, Krune is a wisp to start with, as for Ao, ever since he joined Krune, he lost interest for anything else, everyday his cultivation and abilities soared, he has high standards now, a simple cute face isn''t enough to move him anymore. Only Yusa showed some interest, not in that way, of course. Krune just gave her a single glance and focused back on his meal, he is a wisp, other than Feifei, he doesn''t care about the appearance of any other man or woman, it''s just that his affection for Feifei has a lot to do with the fact she saved his life that day. Shinja went straight at Krune, from the picture she got, this was definitely the right person, or better, human form demon beast, it was easy to notice due to Krune''s spiritual energy that he isn''t human. "You are Krune, right? I received the request to act as your body guard during the Furiu realm exploration, if possible I would like for us to move straight away to prevent any accidents to happen before we get there." Yusa, Ao and Krune looked at her puzzled, they refused taking part in the Furiu realm exploration, didn''t they? What is she talking about? Yusa thought that the mercenary guild used this beautiful woman to convince Krune to enter the Furiu realm, but then she discarded this idea straight away, the mercenary guild knows very well the Krune isn''t human, human beauty has little to no effect on him to start with. Finally, Krune''s puzzled face was gone and he showed a look of understanding. "Supervisor Lu Ganan had told us about the Furiu Realm opening and offered us the chance to enter, but we refused, I don''t know why they haven''t told you that yet, but simply put, you are free to go, no need to protect me anymore, goodbye." Krune then went back to his lunch, this probably was the first time in years that Shinja had a blank expression on her face. Refused? Who would refuse to enter the Furiu realm? It was a place where everyone at the Foundation Establishment wanted to enter but had no way to go. Did he just say that his team refused? She took some time to come back to herself but when she did, her face went from cold to dark. "Are you making fun of me? Who would refuse such opportunity? Do you think I''m playing here? I couldn''t care less if you entered or not, but if you don''t go I can''t go either, stop wasting my time and let''s go already." This time it was Yusa who answered. "If you want to go, just go! What does that have to do with us anyway? We have decided that our cultivation progress is good enough already, we don''t need extra risks for the moment. First of all, what is that about if he doesn''t go, you can''t go either? We are not imprisoning you here as far as I know, I can see that your realm is much higher than ours, you probably are close to the Core Formation Realm, right? Then take this opportunity and go by yourself, if you want we can even give you our three slots, you can make a team of your own and look for fortunes together with them." Ao also complemented. "We are pretty confident in our cultivation speed, whether we enter the Furiu realm or not will have little difference on our path, so I thank you for your concern about us losing this opportunity, but you don''t need to worry, we are good the way we are at moment." Krune just nodded his head while eating, they are doing pretty well for themselves already. Shinja was almost losing her wits, but she couldn''t say that she is bound by a blood contract to protect Krune until the Furiu realm closed, not that she couldn''t say it, the blood contract only specified that the mercenary guild couldn''t tell Krune about that, if she wanted, she could say it herself, but she can''t, it would be too humiliating for her, not to mention the risks behind revealing such information, in her eyes, Krune might as well throw himself inside some really dangerous mission just because he has her to protect him. But then again, there is another issue, if she stick around even after being chased away, it will be obvious that something is fishy, they would figure out sooner or later. She calmed herself and left, the Furiu realm hasn''t opened yet, so her protection mission haven''t started as well, she first need to contact the mercenary guild and ask them what is going on. Back at the lunch table, Krune group was discussing about what just happened, Yusa looked in the way that Shinja left and breathed heavily. "I know who she is, that''s Shinja Avril, a peak 9th stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, she is quite famous, I heard that she has a pure Yin Body, because of that her control over the water element is unbelievably high, maybe even above Krune''s, but as a late stage Foundation Establishment and a genius at that, she also can use other elements at the same time, I heard that she specialized in using water and thunder element together." Ao was surprised. "So that was her? I also heard about this genius woman, it seems like that she only acts alone, she has never joined a ranking team before, nor did she ever tried to build one of her own, because of that people can''t say for sure just how strong she is." Ao then looked at Krune and said "This is just a rumour, but I heard that she also has a universe foundation just like yours, Krune." Krune put his spoon down and said. "It''s not a rumour, I''m certain that she has a universe foundation too, I don''t know why but I could feel it, and I''m sure she could too." Krune was in fact just as surprised as Ao and Yusa, he didn''t expect to find another universe foundation so soon, he used his universe foundation as an excuse for a lot of things, Shinja appearance might cause him some problems because of that, it''s good that she left already. "Forget it, since she understood that we won''t be going to the Furiu realm, she will just leave, we should pay attention in our next mission in the Raskie Danger Zone, I''m planning for us to have some bigger challenges other than completing the mission, this time we have to beat down at least one 8th stage Foundation Establishment beast, it''s going to be hard and death is also an option, but at least it''s not as crazy as this Furiu realm thing, so, the two of you better get ready for that." Ao and Yusa nodded, they know that although the Furiu realm would probably bring some dangerous situations as well, but in the end the most dangerous thing would be the other groups or maybe even their own protector, Shinja Avril, greed. They prefer to have their own way of acquiring combat experience. --- Back at the mercenary guild branch, Lu Ganan had a gloomy expression, in front of him was a beautiful blue haired girl, but he couldn''t feel the least bit happy about. "Cough, cough. How can I help you today, Miss Shinja?" A cold aura started to spread from her, her face was getting darker an darker while looking at Lu Ganan. "Help me, you say?" Lu Ganan was almost crying, the Head Quarters left Shinja for him to deal with, or to be more specific, he was the sacrifice for the day. ''Oh gods! Why must you forget about me?'' Chapter 44 - Go and Die! Recently, Krune has been feeling downcast, he felt like he got a new shadow, it''s just that this shadow had a face, a very cold one on top of that, not to mention the blue hair, this shadow followed him everywhere, what made Krune even gloomier was the fact that when they were walking in the streets, this shadow like person attracted the attention of everyone around him, worst of all, he could see hatred in the eyes of the human males specially. ''My low key life¡­ after a few months without causing any problems, people had finally started to pay attention somewhere else and left me alone, but then, out of nowhere, an attention magnet attaches itself on me! What have I done to deserve it? It''s a curse! It must be! A curse directed to the wisp race!'' Krune wasn''t the only one annoyed, Yusa was fuming! She wants to try out her skills in the Raskie Danger Zone, but in the end they had to give up the mission, fortunately, they haven''t applied for it at that moment. Krune noticed that Yusa was angrier than she usually is, although Ao was also annoyed, he could feel that she was a little different than normal. ''I''m still lacking in human knowledge, I will do some research later.'' After that he went back to his activities. --- It was night time and Krune was back at his small house, through his communicator, he, Yusa and Ao were discussing the actual situation. Yusa seemed to be upset still, but she talked anyway, she went back to the mercenary guild to question Lu Ganan. "So, supervisor Lu said that her mission is to protect you until the end of the Furiu Realm exploration, but since we didn''t enter, she has to protect you while on the outside, her end term is the end of the Furiu Realm exploration, although Lu Ganan didn''t say it, I believe that she is bound by a blood contract to keep protecting you until then." Ao agreed with Yusa "That can be the only explanation possible, since we didn''t enter the Furiu realm, she had no reason to stay here, as far as I can see, we have two choices, one, we wait for the Furiu Realm to close and then she will leave on her on accord, or two, we offer her a blood contract for her to keep silent about our activities and not harm any of us while at that." Yusa then said "I don''t think that she is the type to accept a blood contract that easily, it has more to do with her pride, like not coming down to our level or something like that." Krune then said. "Then let''s wait, we are not going to die just because we stayed in here for one or two months, we can cultivate slowly and use the arena to practice our skills with the concealing formation on, it won''t be as good as real combat, but it can help us polish our techniques before we leave next time." Yusa and Ao nodded, they know that Krune is a wisp, he doesn''t have so much time to wait like they do, so, if he himself decided to stay, then they would accompany him, Krune''s eyes then shined. "Besides, I can spend more time concocting pills, I will be able to make a lot of spirit stones this time, who knows, I might be able to get enough to create my eighth Spiritual Energy Meridian!" He then laughed out loud. Yusa, who wasn''t very happy to start with, cursed him to the point where he got numb, she was like a cat whose tail was stepped on. Ao had finished the call at some point so Krune was the only one to surfer in the end. When everything was over, Krune couldn''t help but sigh. ''Something is definitely wrong with her, I better look into this now.'' Days passed and Yusa was back to normal, much for Krune''s relief, he had found out in the network that human women have certain days in the month where they often get more sentimental, it had to do with their body functions and reproductive system, even female cultivators were no exception for that. He was planning to console her a bit but in the end she calmed again, so he had no need to point it out. On the other hand, Shinja Avril was getting angrier by the day, of course, it had nothing to do with what Yusa went through, it was just that now and then she received news from the people in the Furiu realm finding great fortunes, some of them were even able to breakthrough into the Core Formation Realm, she might act cold all the time, but she also had feelings, and at moment she was feeling like killing a certain wisp who imprisoned here in this city. Krune didn''t notice though, for him she looked as cold as the first time they saw each other, so he kept his daily activities, today he was going to have some combat training in the arena with Yusa and Ao to see if there was anything wrong with their element control and at the same time test his own skills. Of course, they would select the concealing option of the arena, fortunately, Shinja had no interest in their combat training, and so she simply stayed outside waiting. Krune went forward and said. "Alright, you two come at me together, with your control over the elements, now you are already strong enough to be my match while I''m in my human form as long as you work together, it will also help me finding where to improve you and myself, I''m going to be serious here, so you better be prepared." Yusa and Ao nodded, Yusa then said with a bright smile. "My cute brother Krune doesn''t need to worry, I have mastered the Myriad Water Dragons, and you are the best target I could ever hope for." For a second, Krune felt that it might not have been a good idea to have two against one, Ao was also fired up as well. "Yusa might have her Myriad Water Dragons, but I have a new skill as well, it''s just that I don''t have a good control over this at moment, so you better be careful, you probably saw this one in the Mercenary Sales Room, it was quite expensive to buy the manual, it''s the vacuum blade, by slashing the wind around with Sword Qi, I can create a vacuum which greatly improves my speed." Krune then took a deep breath. "Very well, let do it." Ao and Yusa coordination in the last few months had really soared, Yusa was capable of use the Myriad Water Dragons to cover Ao''s attack even though Ao didn''t have a full grasp of the vacuum blade yet, his vacuum blade also increased the speed of the water dragons, Krune had a hard time avoiding the attacks, and he attacked, Neither Yusa or Ao had too muc difficult to deal with it, Yusa''s water frame made his Blazing Wind Blades miss her while Ao''s Vacuum Blade eliminated the air around, so when the Blazing Wind Blades entered its range, they lost a lot of their attack power due to not have oxygen to be burnt, of course, those Blazing Winds Blades are created from spiritual energy, so it only lost the power from normal flames, the spiritual fire still burned nonetheless. Shinja Avril could hear the explosions coming from the arena, although she couldn''t see it, she could more or less determine the power. "The 6th stage of the Foundation Establishment, to think that I need to stay here looking at this level of cultivator, what was the guild head even thinking when he thought in sending them inside the Furiu Realm? At this point I could have already found a fortune for myself to breakthrough into the Core Formation Stage." She decided to stop thinking about that before she loses her rationality. Too bad though, although Krune''s group was taking the training seriously, they are far from using their real power, they don''t want to cause serious injures, things like all out combat can wait for when they leave to the Danger Zones, what they are doing is to practice their coordination and checking what is wrong in their element manipulation. The day passed and when it was mid-day, they stopped for lunch, Yusa and Ao had been led into the bad path, now they also can''t do without a good meal at specific times, just like Krune. This time he brought them to his house where he cooked himself, he had got quite proficient with his cooking skills, it might not have much use for cultivation, but it was one of the few things that made him happy, not to mention that his food tasted really good. Shinja, of course, would never accept a single grain of rice, so she just stayed outside, the simple fact that they would stop training just to eat made she even angrier instead. ''What they think training is meant for?'' Inside the house, Krune had activated the concealing formation so that their voices couldn''t be heard. "Yusas Myriad Water dragon is really good, as long as her control over the water element reaches mine, she will be able to bring the full power of the technique, the same can be said for her other skills. From what I could see you just need to change the spiritual energy flux, when your water dragon are moving, the spiritual energy inside them doesn''t change according to the direction they are moving, you simply filled them with it and controlled the direction, forcing the spiritual energy to follow, if you can make the spiritual energy change its course together with the skill, your technique will get faster and won''t lose much power." Yusa looked puzzled "But how do I do that?" Krune then gave her his ideas, he couldn''t dictate every single step, it would make things more difficult instead, everyone has their own way to do things, and he is just showing the door. "As for Ao, your vacuum blade is very good, but I believe that the reason you haven''t mastered it yet is due to the way you control your Sword Qi." Ao was even more puzzled than Yusa was before, but he waited for Krune to continue. "The vacuum blade is a wind type skill, it uses the control over the wind element to get rid of the air around you, but air is also part of the wind after all, by eliminating everything you are also limiting your control over the wind element, at least that''s what I feel when I look at you, today was the first time I saw the vacuum blade skill, but I still believe that as a wind element user, your power resides in the wind element itself, by eliminating the air around you, you are cutting your own flesh." Ao seemed like to understand. "Does it mean that this skill isn''t suitable for me?" Krune shook his head. "Not necessarily, if I''m not wrong, the vacuum around you is formed due to the Wind Element Sword Qi which can be shoot from anywhere around your body, correct?" Ao nodded, that was the pre requisite for the vacuum blade, the user had to be able to use Sword Qi with focus on wind element, there are several types of Sword Qi, elemental ones are a few of them, and Ao Sulian is obviously using Wind Element Sword Qi, Elemental Sword Qi takes in consideration the users understand of the specific element plus his understand of the sword, it''s not something easy to create, thankfully, Ao was a sword manic, his understand of the sword was already very high even before he came to know Krune, as for the wind element, with Krune by his side, it would be a joke if he didn''t get to master it. "This is just a guess, but when you use sword Qi around your body to create the vacuum area, you eliminate any contact with the real wind, but what if you only start eliminating the wind, let''s say, 10 centimeters away from your body? The wind that stays inside will be trapped by the vacuum blade, you can use it to boost the power of all your abilities while using the vacuum to accelerate them. Of course, the air that stayed inside will still somehow hinder your speed a little, but the gains should overcome the losses." Ao''s eyes were shining, he had never thought about using the vacuum blade like that, but he also knows that it is bound to be very difficult. Krune then gave him a few ideas of how to practice to achieve that effect, but he remembered Ao that in the end, it was all just a guess, only by seeing the final product could the both of them know if it was worth the try or not. --- Days passed and finally a month went by, the Furiu Realm was still open, much for Shinja''s displeasure, yes, she was jealous of the people inside, the danger didn''t scary her. Krune''s group was still giving her the cold shoulder, of course, that''s mainly because of how she acted every time she was with them, it made her even more upset, everywhere she goes people would idolize her, but Krune''s group seemed to think about her as air now, they simply ignored the fact that she even exists. It started to even affect her emotional state. One day, she finally couldn''t take it anymore! Krune, Yusa and Ao were outside the city gates making a¡­ barbecue! The group easy going attitude was making her crazy. She knows very well that Krune has a universe foundation, just like hers, but instead of training hard they would spend their time with things like a barbecue. But that wasn''t the worst of all, the worst of was that Krune''s barbecue smelled too good! Even she was salivating, for the first time she had the thought of asking if she could get a piece, Shinja thought she was getting crazy already to think something like that. Unfortunately for her, after an apocalyptic battle between her pride and her desires, her pride lost in the end, don''t look down on Krune''s culinary skills, he uses the same spiritual fire that he concocts his pills as an alchemist, not to mention the he himself loves to cook good food, it was capable to even crush the ''ice block'' guard. She gathered all the courage she had to say those words. "Can I get a piece too?" But to her surprise, Krune''s group completely ignored her, she finally couldn''t take it anymore and then¡­ she fell on her knees and cried. When Krune, Yusa and Ao saw that, their eyes almost popped out of their sockets! Is that really the worldly famous ice block Shinja Avril? What they didn''t know was that the world had a misconception about Shinja, she is, in the end, a girl! But because everyone had only seen her talents, beaut or Pure Yin Body and Universe Foundation, she had never got along with anyone, nor did she ever join a team afraid that she would only be used. She too doesn''t like to keep her distance from the others, but in end no one wanted to know the real her, this led her true self to create a shield that kept everyone away, a shield to protect herself against other people''s greediness. But ever since she started following Krune''s group, they didn''t give a damn to her, Krune is one thing, he isn''t human after all, Yusa could also be understandable since she too is a woman, but even Ao, a human male through and through, had never spared even a glance at her. Krune asked through his Divine Sense, he was the one with the least understanding about humans after all, he didn''t want to risk a guess. "Why is she crying?" Ao then answered through Divine Sense too. "For a moment a few seconds ago, I thought I heard she asking for a piece of the barbecue, but then I remembered who she was, so I thought I had heard wrong." Yusa was surprised. "You two are as dumb as mules, can''t you see that she is still crying? Is it time to think about it? We won''t die if we give her a piece anyway so give her some." Of course, as a woman, Yusa could see that there is much more behind those tears than simple desire to eat barbecue, she couldn''t imagine what could have happened to make Shinja break down like that, she even felt some pity. Krune, on the other hand, just nodded and cut a piece of their barbecue, but he was still puzzled, is it really necessary to cry over a piece of meat, sure, he is very confident in his culinary skill, but he doesn''t think that people would cry over it. It was then that he felt like he was enlightened! It immediately got him exited! Krune crouched in front of her and presented the plate with a piece of his barbecue, he then put one of his hands on her shoulder and said "Don''t worry! I know what you are passing through." Shinja looked at him and was puzzled, how could he know what she is feeling? Could it be because of their connection through the universe foundation? Ao Sulian turned away, he didn''t know what Krune was going to say, but he is absolutely sure that it would be catastrophic! "I read about it in the country''s network, you are on your period, right?" For some reason, he found himself flying away in the next instant, it felt like he had been kicked out of nowhere! He could only her Yusa''s shout in the distance. "Go and die!" Chapter 45 - Come on, repeat with me! Krunes face was hurting, when he came back he found Yusa consoling Shinja, he couldn''t understand, he was sure that he was right this time, he went beside Ao to ask. "I was sure I wasn''t wrong this time, I even researched about that, why did I get beat again?" Ao could only sigh "Brother, you must understand that when it is related to women, knowledge is far from enough." Krune wasn''t satisfied this time, he waited until Yusa was back and asked her directly. "What''s wrong with you, I was doing my best there to show that I understand her feelings and you kick me out of nowhere, are we really friends?" Yusa was even colder. "Understand your head! You can''t even see what you did wrong." Krune didn''t fall back. "Then tell me! If no one talks, how do you expect me to understand anything?" "This is not something that women talk about with men, you can forget about it!" "What? First you say I did wrong, then you say you can''t say what''s wrong, it doesn''t make sense!" "You are the only thing here that doesn''t have sense, shoo, shoo, get away from us." "What does shoo even mean?" Ao just pretended that he didn''t know those idiots, he had long understood that he shouldn''t intervene in the siblings bickering. On the other hand, Shinja, the ice block, was doing her best to hold back her laugh, but when Krune asked what shoo even means, she lost it, she laughed so hard the she was holding her stomach, she couldn''t even remember last time she laughed so much. Krune looked at that gloomily, in the end, Shinja was even laughing at him and he didn''t know why. ''The world is against the wisps, that must be it.'' Yusa`s face got warmer after seeing that though, she thought that she might had had the wrong idea about Shinja. "Forget about it, just don''t talk about a woman''s period anymore, look, your barbecue is about to burn." Krune''s attention immediately shifted away, in his eyes, his barbecue is much more important than women issues. Yusa grabbed Shinja''s hand and brought her over to eat some too, she also sent her a Divine Sense message. "Remember, Krune''s EQ is as good as a mule''s, if you don''t give him a beating, he won''t learn. Look, I just said that his barbecue was going to burn and he completely forgot about everything that just happened." Shinja smiled bitterly, since when did she care about someone''s EQ? First of all, what did even happen to her? Ao also sat back down and started eating again, Krune''s EQ might be inexistent, but his culinary skills are the real deal! Krune is really different, by the time they finished eating, he had already stopped caring anymore about who was right or who was wrong, he was happy as long as his friends were happy, they started to move back into the city to resume their own activities, Ao was going back to the mercenary guild to use their training room, Yusa was going to check the market to buy a few things she needed and Krune had his pills to be concocted at the Alchemist Guild, on their way back they talked about trivial things as they always did after lunch. Shinja, on the other hand, was feeling a bit out of place, Yusa wasn''t letting go of her hand so she was more or less forced to stay with them, sometimes the conversation was directed at her but she couldn''t say more than a few simple words, but Krune''s group didn''t seem to care though, Krune''s weirdness had already started to affect Yusa and Ao. Yusa was the first to part ways with them. "Shinja, remember, if Krune says something idiot again, just give him a beating, it''s that simple." Krune was taken aback, why give him a beating? He tried to look in Ao''s direction looking for a friend''s hand, but by the time he turned his head, Ao was nowhere to be seen. "Traitor!" --- After that he went back to the Alchemist Guild, he had to make money after all, Shinja stayed quiet all the time, she just looked absent minded while he worked, in fact, her mind was in Chaos, there was shame, sadness, joy, denial, etc. ''What was wrong with me? How could I fall crying just like that? It''s all Krune, Yusa and Ao''s fault, if not for them, I would not have reached that state, yes, that must be it!'' She then remembered the little time after that. ''But¡­'' She didn''t want it to be over, the feeling of being part of the group without anyone expecting anything from her, the fact that if she said something, the other part would simply answer whatever way they liked, not caring for her status or talents, how long had she dreamed with for such day to come? In the end it became a battle between her desires and her pride once more, while her internal struggle kept going, Krune had just finished another batch of pills. "Great! I was able to concoct three healing pills of three stars quality at once, the order only asked for two to be done and any extra would be part of the alchemist''s payment." Krune had been gathering some pills like healing pills, cultivation stabilizing pills or anti poison pills, he wanted to be prepared in case there was a need for them, so he always gave his best during the concoction to create more than the amount ordered by the customers, that way he could take the extra pills for himself without paying a single spirit stone, not to mention that his proficiency in pill concoction got much higher, he is already able to sync more than 30% of the medicinal liquid elements inside the pills. Because of his high rate of success, he started to receive even more orders, of course, he only accepted the ones that were worth in his opinion, and it was then that he saw an order for a pill that shouldn''t be there. "Appearance changing pill? Isn''t this thing a Four Stars Pill? Why would someone send me a Four Stars pill order?" In fact, as a specially accepted Four Stars Alchemist, Krune could accept Four Stars pill orders too, but he didn''t want to catch much attention, so he had never took an order of Four Stars, he thought it wouldn''t be too late if he started concocting Four Stars Pills when he got to the late stages of the Foundation Establishment, but since this order appeared in between the Three Stars Orders that usually came for him, his hand got itchy, in the end he decided to try this one, he then received the recipe and the materials. But when he looked at the recipe, he got alarmed. "This thing needs Star Coral!" Although the appearance changing pill isn''t that difficult to make, the Star Coral used in the recipe was extremely rare, Krune went back to the check the order and noticed that it had a very high payment, two thousand Rank Three high quality spirit stones! "Holy sh*t, high quality! I will definitely succeed in this concoction!" The order specified that he should deliver only a single pill, any extra material or pill that remains can be part of the alchemist''s payment. Since that was the case, Krune would definitely give his best. Krune first practiced the pill concoction mentally, he revised every step, the cauldron temperature, the elements of the elemental herbs, the pill formation, etc. An hour later, he started to work, every step went as expected, the Star Coral was very good too, no wonder it was considered a high quality material, it was one of the easiest to include in the formula, he had been very cautious, there was only one Star Coral after all, when the time came for him to form the pills, he calculated how many pills could be made with the medicinal liquid inside. "Three pills, if I''m careful I can make three pills!" The pill formation, which should be one of the fast parts of the concoction, end up taking him almost an hour to complete, but Krune wasn''t dejected, because he had done it! Three appearance changing pills of the Four Stars quality, don''t think about lower quality appearance changing pills, any quality bellow four stars would only have a temporary effect, but as long as it reaches four star, it will be permanent! "I''ve done it!" He immediately sent the order back with one of the pills for exchange, and as expected, it only took a few minutes for the person who ordered the pill to receive the product. "That''s to be expected, Star Coral is very valuable, I''m impressed that he even tried to concoct it here, the fact that he stayed inside the guild waiting for an alchemist to accept and finish the order show its value." Krune took his 2000 Rank Three high quality spirit stone and put it into his ring, as for the mysterious person who ordered the pill, who cares? Krune received the payment, anything else has nothing to do with him. He then submitted the extra two pills to be sold by the guild, although appearance changing pill is extremely rare due to the Star Coral, the pill itself has no use for him, if it at least changed the hairs colour, then he would have taken one himself, but it only changed the body''s appearance, the hair, unfortunately for Krune, would still be the same, so he might as well sell it for spirit stones. What he didn''t expect was to receive a call from supervisor Go Gao straight away after this. "Are you sure you want to sell the appearance changing pill? It''s very hard to find Star Coral after all." Krune just replied. "Yes, I have no use for that anyway, just sell both, how much you think it would go for?" Supervisor Go then said. "Probably something between three thousand and four thousand Rank Three high quality spirit stones." Even though Star Coral is very rare, it''s only use was basically for appearance changing pill after all, it didn''t help with cultivation or combat prowess anyway, it is also useless to hide the identity since cultivators can recognize each other through their auras, it was mostly used to restore scars or changing the face when the people didn''t like the one they had, that''s all. "That''s great, please go ahead with it." Later on, some news appeared in Kaley City, Appearance Changing pills were being sold and there were even two of them! Man didn''t pay much attention on that, but women went crazy, of course, those who could afford three to four thousand Rank Three high quality spirit stones are very few. Later on, Krune''s group gathered together again, Yusa and Ao could see that Krune was in a very good mood. "Seems like you did a lot of money today." Krune nodded quite a few times. "Yes! There was a customer who ordered for an appearance changing pill to be made, in the end I was able to concoct three of those pill, other than the payment for the for the job, I also got two of the pills, after selling them, I end up with almost ten thousand Rank Three high quality spirit stones!" He then laughed out loud. On the other hand, Yusa and even Shinja, who had her mind over the moon the entire day, immediately showed shocked faces! Yusa was the first to talk. "Those pills from the news earlier were yours? Why didn''t you give me one?!" Even Shinja agreed, she also wanted one, in fact, she had the money to buy one of them, but because her mind had been occupied with the thoughts about Krune''s group, she didn''t notice it that such rare pills appeared for selling, she was even blaming herself for not noticing Krune making those pills. There was one thing that Krune didn''t know but any woman who cared about their appearance definitely would, the appearance changing pill changes one appearance permanently, but in case you decided to not change your body, the effect of keeping the appearance permanently would still apply, simply put, this pill could be used by women to look young until their deaths. Krune, of course, paid no attention for this fact, he was trying to understand why both girls would want to change their appearance. But it was then that he remembered that might it be Yusa or Shinja, they seemed to never attract the opposite gender to them, he doesn''t remember to have ever seen a man courting any of them. ''I see, so they are considered ugly between the human women, no wonder, no wonder.'' Poor Krune, even gods wouldn''t understand how he thought like that. The reason that Yusa wasn''t bothered by men was because she is quite famous, in their few months in Kaley City, everyone came to know that she is very shameless and only loved money, it scared all the men away even though she is a beauty. As for Shinja, it was quite obvious, she might be a super beauty, but her cold face and the frigid air that surrounded her body made the men around only dare to look from distance, they wouldn''t risk offending this ice goddess. Krune decided to help them understand that learning to love oneself is the first step to happiness! "Sigh, what are you even thinking? Let me tell you this." After spending so much time together, Ao Sulian had become more or less capable of detecting when Krune was about to say something ''marvellous'', and while no one was paying attention to him, he turned around and disappeared with the wind before Krune continued speaking. "Doesn''t matter how ugly the two of you are, both me and Ao will always be your friends, you have no need to change your appearance, so what if no men prefer beauties? Look at me, I can still show a smile when I''m looking at you, the first step of happiness is to understand how to love oneself." He then stood up from his chair and said. "Come on, repeat with me!" "I might be as ugly as a dragon, but there is definitely people who cares about me!" This was bound to be a day that Krune would never forget. Chapter 46 - Paper, Stone, Scissors! The gates of hell this time had two demons, and one of them was even stronger than him, Krune''s fate was very miserable, but he still survived, MC''s don''t die that easily after all. After that tragic day, he noticed that Yusa and Shinja got very close with each other, for some reason it felt like it was because of his suffering that such thing happened, but when he thought that bringing suffering to a friend shouldn''t make people get better along with each other, he decided that it was just a coincidence. Poor Krune had no idea how right he was! The next day, Yusa video called both Krune and Ao Sulian, she wanted to discuss about Shinja''s situation once more. "I don''t think she would give us problem anymore, so what about we go to Raskie Danger Zone as we planned before? I believe that if necessary, she would sign a blood contract to keep things secret, she probably has got bored of staying in the city all the time too, what you think?" Krune simply followed logic, he didn''t know Shinja as well as Yusa, so he just said. "Well, if she does sign the blood contract, I have no problems with that, finding out that I''m a wisp in my main concern after all, if you can convince her, then be my guest." Ao also gave his piece. "It''s also good, since if things really go south, she could help us out too, or at the very least, she would help Krune." Yusa nodded and accepted the task, she was the one who would talk to Shinja. --- On the same day, Krune and the others gathered together again, Yusa had convinced Shinja to sign the blood contract after saying that she and Ao had also done it, with some misgivings, she read the terms once and she concluded that it would not put herself in risk, then she signed it. Yusa believes that Shinja wouldn''t do anything wrong, but they had to be careful, after that Krune looked at everyone and said. "Alright, it''s still morning and I''m getting tired of not exercising, let''s go the mission hall and take a mission, our objective this time is to beat down an 8th stage Foundation Establishment beast without me using my real form, I believe that we have more than enough power and coordination to do that, as for Shinja, she will stay away and only intervene if something wrong happens." Shinja eyes almost popped out of their sockets, 8th stage Foundation Establishment? As far as she can see, Krune is at the 4th stage while Yusa and Ao are at the 5th, it should be impossible for them to threaten an 8th stage demon beast. ''Could it be that they really just wanted to use me?'' She couldn''t be blamed, she had never joined and team before, after hearing that they would confront such a much higher level demon beast, she thought that they were only doing that to force her hand, unfortunately, it was already too late, she had already signed the blood contract and can''t change it, at least it was only valid until the Furiu Realm closed, except for the secrecy part. "Does anyone have questions?" Ao and Yusa didn''t say anything. "Okay, we leave tomorrow morning, take the rest of the day to prepare whatever you need." --- The next day, Krune''s group was again at the Solie Clan to use their teleportation formation, Zu Solie had already got numb to this, since he is bound by contract, then forget it, he will just wait for the day that they leave once for all, with their cultivation progress, it won''t take that long anyway. The City of Harta was the closest one to the Raskie Danger Zone, it was just a week alway with Krune''s group cultivation, Raskie Danger Zone was a foggy forest, there was fog all year round, such environment gave birth to quite a few weird beast that had stronger Divine Senses, of course, it''s only normal that the local life evolved like that due to the circumstances. Krune''s group was walking in the city until they arrived at the Formations Guild, this was where their employer was, after talking to the receptionist, they were guided inside until they arrived in an enormous room, from the outside the room didn''t look like that at all, they understood that a space expanding formation was in place here, after entering, their employer, Jorei Klier, was already waiting for them, he is a Three Stars formation master, quite famous in the city. "Hello, I''m Jorei, I believe you are the mercenary group that accepted the mission request, thanks for your help." Yusa came forward to make the talk, since they all know that Krune might just say some absurd things out of nowhere. "That''s correct, according to the mission information, you need us to capture an 8th stage fog leopard, is that right? Could you give us more information about that?" Jorei nodded. "That''s correct, although the description is short, the mission will probably be quite hard, fog leopards have evolved into their forms after living in the Raskie Danger Zone for a very long time, their bodies can fuse together with the fog making them very hard to detect, I need one of those to help with my research of a new concealing formation." Yusa understood. "Do you have the location so that we know where to go?" Jorei then transferred the information to everyone communicators, they opened it and sure enough, it was very deep into the Danger Zone. "This is everything you need to know about them, as to how to deal with it, it''s up to you." Ao then asked. "Do they have human form at that level? We need to know to be ready in case they transform in order to escape." Jorei shook his head. "No need to worry, fog leopard are quite a strong race, they shouldn''t be able to change into human form at the 8th stage, but be careful of the other leopards, their groups usually have a core formation overseeing it." Ao nodded, he looked at Krune who agreed that everything should be okay, and then he said. "Okay, me and Ao are going to buy some supplies, Yusa and Shinja go buy some better concealing runestones, the ones sold in this city should work better in that fog forest, this time don''t buy only cheap ones, remember that even Core Formation Beasts might scan the area we are in." Yusa said back. "Of course I will buy good ones, I''m not crazy." This time, Krune, Ao and even Shinja, who already understood Yusa a bit, looked at her with doubtful eyes. Yusa immediately got upset. "Why are you even looking at me? At least I always had concealing runestones, what about Ao? He doesn''t even have one!" In fact, the price didn''t matter, all the expenses while they were in the mission would always be shared between the three, but Yusa still believed that the less she spent, the better. Ao just replied. "I didn''t need one before, as a wind element user, if I got in a dangerous situation, I just ran. Don''t compare me today to my old self." Yusa smiled and struck back. "Oh yea? Then where is it, mister ''I am always prepared now''? Where is your runestone concealing formation?" Ao back started to sweat. "This is your job, so I didn''t bring any." Yusa''s smile got even bigger. "So that''s to say, that in case I forgot to buy the runestone, you wouldn''t have any either while I at least would still have the cheap ones, right?" Ao was starting to feel helpless, why are they even talking about this? The problem was Yusa''s love for money, wasn''t it? But unfortunately for him, he had Krune as a friend. "Yusa is right in this point, being unprepared is not good, I myself have a few common concealing runestone formations with me just in case, it''s just like when you said that when dealing with women, sometimes you need to be prepared to force your way in, the key is preparation." Ao was dumbstruck, this was about a conversation that they had a few weeks ago when Krune asked Ao to help him understand women better, after several left and right turns, the conversation went all the way to that phrase, the problem is, what he said was to force their way in¡­side their hearts! Brother, where is the rest of what I said? Yusa and Shinja looked strangely at him, he sweated even more. "Heart! I said force our way inside their heart!" Krune looked puzzled. "But in that case she won''t get pregnant." Ao vomited blood, Krune is cutting down the important parts of their conversation and bringing out the unnecessary ones, it''s obvious that Krune misunderstood the meaning of ''inside'' for a certain reproductive situation, and now he was talking about when he had mentioned having children of their own. Yusa and Shinja strange face became dark now, Yusa then said. "So this is how you think about women? That has opened my eyes." In fact, Yusa knows very well that Ao definitely haven''t said those worlds in that way, it was probably Krune turning everything that Ao said upside down, but now Krune, Shinja and even Jorei, who was only listening on the side, finally forgot about her, she was feeling very happy to see Ao in that situation, usually he would disappear anytime Krune did some weird. But the best thing is that Shinja and Jorei don''t know about that, how funny! She wanted to lie down and laugh, but she had to keep her act. Krune then put one of his hands on Ao''s sholder, he looked completely serious, in fact, he really was, there is no way that the zero EQ Krune would be able to joke like that. "Brother, don''t worry, I will be on your side, just be sure to buy protection next time." Ao finally got desperate, little did he know that the protection Krune mentioned was about the runestone concealing formation, but by putting it that way it felt like Ao had already forced his way on some woman. Shinja finally couldn''t take it, she also took protection in the same way that Ao did, she had to free the women from the world from this guy, she started to think that Krune weird ideas were in fact coming from him. Jorei watched all of that with his jaw completely open. ''Just what kind of team is this? Is it really okay to send then?'' Ao, who had been wronged, finally got a change to explain the whole story, but not before a few purple bruises appeared around his body, Yusa, just as expected, was laughing by the side while Krune still had his puzzled face. Shinja was feeling embarrassed, she had unjustly beaten Ao, and at the same time, she was helpless, the group''s leader, Krune, was simply a lost case for common sense. While Yusa, who should have told her about what was really happening, just kept laughing on the ground. ''How can they even accept someone like him as the leader?'' Ao was feeling helpless, he then made a decision, next time he will make sure that Krune understood his intentions through and through, otherwise he wouldn''t say anything to start with. Finally, the group decided to leave for the Raskie Danger Zone, after signing the agreement at the gate, they rushed forward in the direction of the deeper zones. --- During the last two days, Shinja started to become scared of this group of three, doesn''t matter which one of them, their control over the elements that they used were at the same level as her own, she has a Pure Yin Body, so her affinity with the water element is not something that can be achieved that easily, much less by unnamed cultivators like Yusa and Ao, Yusa water element control even had some different aspects that she had never thought about before, she couldn''t understand how she got to that point. She doesn''t know much about wind element, but she is experienced enough to tell that Ao''s wind element control isn''t the least bit weaker than Yusa, to find one genius was already hard, but for two to appear in the same group and no one knows about them, that''s almost impossible! But that wasn''t the worst of all, the extreme case was obviously Krune, she head heard that he could control more than one element while still a low level Foundation Establishment, but the problem is that every single one of the elements he showed so far are at a higher level than her own, she even felt depressed when she saw Krune using water element to train against a beast he found on the way. She lost! She didn''t say it out loud but she knows, Krune''s water element control is definitely above hers. At first she just decided to protect them while they are in their mission, but now she was again struggling against her pride to ask Krune if he could also give her pointers on water element control. The only comfort she had was the fact that she still had the highest combat prowess. But it didn''t last long, on the fourth day, they encountered a 7th stage Foundation Establishment Demon Beast, she though that she would have to already come forward to control the situation, she was even feeling good to herself, it was finally her time to show her good side to them, but to her surprise, Krune just asked. "Alright, who between the three of us will fight?" Yusa and Ao immediately raised their voices, the weird thing was that Krune, who had lower cultivation, also wanted to battle it to test a few things, none of the three thought much of the 7th stage beast at all, they just considered it a good target for training, Yusa finally lost her patience and said. "Then we will resolve with paper, stone, scissors!" Both Shinja and the beast that was waiting were taken aback, did they even notice the difference in cultivation between the beast and themselves? And they want to battle alone? Have they gone mad? The reason the demon beast haven''t acted yet was because he couldn''t see through Shinja, so he was afraid of her being stronger than it, but it was almost losing it''s patience after seeing Krune''s group. Turns out that Yusa won with stone, Ao and Krune looked gloomily at their hands, luck wasn''t on their side today. Yusa went forward and said. "You are very lucky, this lady will be your opponent." Just like that, the battle started! Chapter 47 - There is One Right Below Us. Shinja was ready to move at any moment, but she found out that there was no need for it, Although Yusa can''t defeat the demon beast straight away, she totally had the upper hand, she couldn''t help but remember when she was at the 5th stage of the Foundation Establishment, she definitely wasn''t as strong as Yusa, and they the same element focused, she finally admitted that she was worse than any of them. What Pure Yin Body? It can''t even beat effort. While Yusa battled, Krune took notes and sent a Divine Sense message now and then telling his opinion and what might help improving her water element control, but Shinja didn''t know that, she only saw that Yusa was getting better and better as the battle continued, what kind of improving ability is that? It couldn''t be helped, they stayed in the city for more than a month doing nothing but practice, Krune''s group had a lot to test out but no opponents which they could go all out. In the end, Yusa defeated the demon beast, she didn''t kill it though, this is another thing that Shinja didn''t understand, Krune''s group never killed anything unless necessary, as for the reason, she heard from Yusa that Krune asked for that. The demon beast fled, the group was just about to leave when Shinja approached Yusa. Yusa looked at her puzzled, for some reason Shinja looked somewhat embarrassed. "Is there something?" In the end Shinja gritted her teeths and asked. "Errr¡­ Well, you know, I noticed that your control during the battle was getting higher and higher. How did you do that?" Yusa was surprised the Shinja asked that out of her own accord, she then laughed out loud, she didn''t expect that Shinja could act this cute. ''It looks like she changed quite a bit.'' Yusa smiled and pointed at Krune. "That you ask to the block head over there, he kept sending me Divine Sense messages every time he saw something he thought was wrong, of course, he wasn''t always right, all he does is give his opinions, but usually they are right." Shinja looked surprised after that comment, so it was really Krune, but she felt somewhat awkward to ask a cultivator a lot weaker than her for pointers, and a man on top of that, well, a demon beast in human man form, but since she already stepped forward, she might as well go to the very end. Krune didn''t mind that, he just told her to show her skills when some strong demon beast appear, he will check it and give his opinion, but he remembered her that those are just ideas, there might be some that are not really suited to her, but before he started, he made a question she didn''t expect. "Are you virgin?" One must remember that Krune isn''t a real teacher, he didn''t go through any apprenticeship to get where he is, he is basically saying whatever he thinks, although his zero EQ gives people headaches now and then, it also has its advantages, he will never stop to think about how sensitive a topic is, for example, like how the virginity of both men and women could affect their yin and yang. Yusa probably still remembers when Krune started to give his opinions about water element to her, he often touched over the virginity topic and even demanded to know beforehand if she was virgin or not, just like with Shinja now, although she was angry back then, time proved that talking freely about this accelerated her progress. Now that Shinja asked for it, she would come to know that Krune didn''t give a damn to any of that, Yusa tried to comfort her though. "You will get used to it." Shinja wanted to cry, she didn''t want to get used to it at all! Time passed and it has already been six days since they left the city, if Shinja had some doubts about Krune proficiency regarding elements before, they are now completely gone, the deeper they went into the Raskie Danger Zone, the more often they found strong demon beasts, by holding herself back, she was able to show her skills in front of Krune, the most surprising thing was that not only Krune was helping her, even Yusa gave her opinions now and then, as a water element user, she also understood things more clearly when women were related, Shinja''s prowess was getting better with each day she spent with Krune and the others. There was only one thing she found strange, during their journey, Krune asked them to not kill any of the demon beasts, but there was one exception, beasts that were harming wisps, be it Yusa, Ao or Krune, they didn''t show any mercy to those demon beasts at all, it puzzled her quite a bit, but since it wasn''t putting them in any risk, she simply ignored it, she even helped them with this kind of task when she was the one to notice a wisp in danger, it took very little effort from her anyway, Krune saw that and his opinion about this ice block improved quite a bit. Shinja didn''t notice, but by now she was already talking to them normally as if she was really part of their group, they never tried to take advantage of her even once, if advantage is to be mentioned, she was the one taking advantage of Krune''s group abilities to improve herself, that feeling of siting with the others while Krune made food for everyone, talking naturally, laughing, getting angry, beating Krune now and then, she came to love this atmosphere, she has completely forgotten her status as the ice block. When she finally noticed her carefreeness, she was surprised and conflicted at the same time, it was then that she remembered something, this is all going to be over when the Furiu Realm closes, she will be free from both blood contracts and won''t need to stay anymore, that had affected her greatly, but she didn''t show it in front of the others, deep down, she started to wish for the Furiu Realm to stay open for all eternity so she would have an excuse to stay. --- On the seventh day, they had finally reached the fog leopards territory, during the past week, every single member of the group had improved a lot, Shinja had also excluded the idea that they accepted such mission because of her, they totally have the skills to deal with it by themselves. Krune then came forward started talking first. "So, those leopards are one of the few demon beasts that changed because of fog forest, to make sure that we won''t be ambushed, I will have to keep my Divine Sense going on all times, also, you all probably already noticed but, this fog is very weird, it restrain the use of Divine Sense, usually I would be able to extend my Divine Sense over seven kilometers, but I can barely reach two kilometers here, so you all better be careful." Yusa and Ao nodded. "Shinja will stay far away, unless absolutely necessary, she won''t intervene, so don''t count with her, let''s go." Krune spread his Divine Sense to the max and they quickly moved into the fog leopard''s territory, everything was going with the plan, after Krune found one of the leopards with the right cultivation, they pretended to be lost in front of it, and when the leopard saw then, they ran away, the leopard immediately ate the bait. It wasn''t that the leopard haven''t thought that it could be a trap, it was just that with Krune''s group cultivation, it was very confident to be able to deal with them even if they had prepared one. Of course, Krune''s team didn''t prepare any trap, their objective is to be able to beat this 8th stage Fog Leopard head on. Ao took the vanguard as always, as a wind element user, he had superb dodging abilities, especially when using the vacuum blade, his attack power wasn''t the least bit weak either. Yusa stayed behind, her task was support, before being able to use powers like space, time, light, etc, water element was the best one for the job, there was water frames, water prison, water wall, water dragons, so on and so forth. Yusa really played the support role as if it was part of her very being. Krune stayed in the middle, he is a wisp, not suited for head on combat, so he focused on long range attacks, Blazing Wind Blades weren''t the only skills he used anymore, during their travel to this place, Shinja showed her skills for Krune''s group to analyse and help her improve, she got a lot from that, but Krune was even more so. "Let''s try lightning and water." He had thought about trying it before but he understood that this combination was as strong as his Blazing Wind Blades, which meant that the previous demon beasts that he battled wouldn''t be able to resist the attack, in the end it wouldn''t help him comprehend anything at all, so this was the first time he was going to try it. Krune focused on both water and lightning element, he then summoned the Myriad Water Dragon and the lightning skill Thunder Line, just like that, the Myriad Water Thunder Dragons were born! Shinja was alarmed, that was HER skill! She had used it before and Yusa and Krune had given quite a big help improving it, Krune was even able to say a few things about the Lightning Element involved in it, but it has only been a few days, how can he use her best attacking skill that easily? Krune was just about to send the dragons forward when suddenly, he felt a ripple coming from inside his foundation, that ripple grew stronger and in the next instant, the water dragons crumbled. Krune was taken aback, what just happened? All he could tell was that that ripple came from his future rainbow core, but this wasn''t the time to check things out, since he can''t use the thunder dragons, he will use his blazing wind blades and if the chance appears, his lava lake and stone prison. The battle continued and the fog leopard finally couldn''t hold anymore, even with his fog merging skill, it couldn''t keep itself hidden from Krune''s Divine Sense, his Divine Sense was too powerful, the Fog Leopard finally decided to flee, but how could Krune and the others let it go? They have long prepared for it. Ao switched his stance and went from evasion to attack, Yusa went from defence to restraint, her water skills sealed all paths of retreat, like that, Krune finally found a chance to trap the leopard into his stone prison. Shinja was really impressed, this was a superb coordination, her respect for krune''s group abilities became even stronger. It was now time to bring it back to the city, as to how to do that, of course, was by making it sign a blood contract. Krune came forward and took a blood contract out of his spatial ring. The Fog Leopard, as a Late Stage Foundation Establishment demon beast, of course already had sentience, when it saw the blood contract, it knew what it was straight away, it then sent a Divine Message to this group. "If you are thinking to enslave me through the contract, then forget it, I won''t accepted being anyone''s slave, you might as well kill me now." It was furious with the fact that it lost in a head on battle against cultivators that were three of more stages below it, there was no way it could become a slave. Krune just laughed, he had never forced anyone to sign a slave contract, first of all, the other part must be willing in both mind and heart or the contract won''t work to start with. "Don''t worry, our mission is to capture an 8th stage fog leopard to help with a concealing formation research, simply put you have two choices, one is to die, the other is to help with the formation master''s research and then be freed after that, which one do you want?" The Fog Leopard was quite surprised with that. "How long will it take?" Yusa answered this time. "I can''t say the exact time, but at least a year, at most five years, I don''t think it would take longer than that, but of course, I can''t guarantee it either." Yusa had the best knowledge about formations in the group, so she knew a little more about the time a research would usually take. The Fog Leopard pondered for a while but accepted in the end, other than that was death after all. Yusa wrote the contract terms and the leopard signed it, after that she told the leopard to go back to the city by itself, according to the agreement with Jorei, there would be someone waiting for the leopard''s arrival to go through the process of entering the city. The Fog Leopard accepted the orders and moved out straight away, before the blood contract was over, it couldn''t harm Krune''s group in any way, so they weren''t afraid that it would call stronger members of its group to deal with them. Ao then asked. "Should we go back or stay a little more? The mission will be considered completed even if we don''t come back anymore, so there is no need to worry about the time limit." Krune shook his head. "Let''s stay a little longer, this is a good opportunity for training, we better use I well." Yusa and Ao nodded, and Shinja will just follow as always since she doesn''t have a choice to start with, but she couldn''t help comment. "I wonder how the Furiu Realm is going at moment." Krune looked at her and asked. "What does this Furiu Realm looks like?" Shinja was simply said. "What you know is the same as what I know, that this was the house of a supreme expert from a long time ago, it has been closed for over 500 years, the entrance is closed through the use of the power of the five elements and when it opens, some kind invisible gate takes place while surrounded by the five elements. I heard it''s quite hard to find, if not for the fact that the powers of the continent know the exact place of the entrance, it would be difficult to notice it, the gate connects to another independent space, just like Jorei''s room, but absurdly bigger." Krune was a little surprised with those words. "Does the five elements at the entrance spin around it?" Shinja was surprised that Krune knew this simple detail, although it wasn''t any secret, unless you have gone there by yourself, you wouldn''t know about it, very few paid attention to this fact. "How did you know that?" Krune smiled bitterly and pointed down. "Well, there is one right below us." Chapter 48 - Then I Shall Trust Them Everyone looked at Krune as if they had seen a ghost! A secret realm entrance? Below us? What? How? Who am I? Yusa was the first one to recover and immediately asked. "Are you sure? How is it possible that there is a secret realm here and no one noticed?" Krune looked at Yusa as if he was looking at an idiot. "How do you expect me to know? It was by coincidence that I was using my Divine Sense during our fight, because of that I was able to see that there is really a thing like what Shinja described around two kilometers under the ground!" Everyone breathed deeply, if there is really a secret realm just below then, they might have struck gold! It was then that Krune threw a bucket of ice cold water over their heads. "Before we even think about entering, let''s think about the risks." "First, is the master of this realm dead?" "Second, even if he is dead, would he simply leave it open like that for us? As far as I know he might be a remnant soul waiting for a vessel to eat the bait." "Third, if this is really a gate to another closed space, why would it be open now? Coincidentally, there is a certain realm that is also open at moment, chances are that this is just another entrance that no one found yet. Didn''t we just refuse to enter around a month and some days ago?" "Forth, let''s pretend that it isn''t any of the previous options, as far as I know, secret realms usually are full of demon beasts, what is the level of the demon beasts inside? As far as I can see it could very well be infested with Divine Soul or higher realm beasts." "Fifth, if this gate has been opened for a very long time, why haven''t any of the living beings inside used it to leave? I can see with my divine sense that the arena around the gate is completely sealed and no one stepped out in years. Chances are that it will trap us as soon as we enter." Krune put an even more serious expression on his face and said. "I could keep on talking for an entire day about it, do any of you want to enter this gate now?" Shinja finally came to understand why Krune was the leader, even with this finding, he hasn''t lost his cool mind for even a second, they would eventually reach the same conclusion as Krune, but Krune was the only one to not be affected by the fortunes that might exist inside, if this isn''t a leader''s quality, then she doesn''t know what it is. Or at least, that was what she thought for a second before Krune continued. "That''s why we are going to sell this information to the guild first, we are going to be rich, RICH! HAHAHAHAHA!" Krune''s leader image in Shinja''s head crumbled as fast as it was formed. ''I better not expect anything in the future.'' Yusa hugged Krune straight away. "Money, Money!!!" Both of them jumped around celebrating. Seeing that, Shinja started to consider if she should leave as soon as possible before she gets affected by the same virus. Ao ignored the two idiot''s happiness and brought them back to reality. "Are you sure you want to sell this information? Let me tell you something that you probably don''t know yet then. If we sell this place location to the guild, the only ones with authority enough to deal with it are the elders or the guild head himself, and of course, they are all the way back at the Headquarters, but that''s not the main issue, the problem is that blood contracts are useless." Krune was taken aback. "What do you mean with blood contracts being useless?" Ao explained. "Blood contracts put a restraint on the soul, but Divine Soul experts can ignore and wipe out such restraints, so, unless you have someone between the high members of the guild that you trust, I think it will be easier for us be killed after giving the information instead of getting any payment what so ever." Yusa immediately intervened. "Would they really kill Krune or Shinja? The both us is one thing, but Krune and Shinja are super geniuses of the guild, you know?" Shinja was the one to talk this time. "I agree with Ao, if the gains overcome the losses by a great margin, they probably would prefer to play it safe, doesn''t matter how much of a genius we are, we are, after all, just foundation establishment cultivators, nothing hard to replace, a dead genius isn''t a genius anymore." Ao nodded. "Correct, the thing is, this could very well become a personal secret realm for the guild to send only it''s most trusted members, in front of such opportunity, the life of two geniuses is nothing much." Yusa asked again. "Then what if we auction it? That way several powers would know about it, it would give us safety." Shinja shook her head "Won''t work, to protect the Furiu realm from being invaded by the powers of other continents, all the top clans, guilds and sects gathered together their experts to protect it, even if we put it for auction no one will buy, that''s because it wouldn''t be a secret anymore, in the end they know that the information will leak one way or another and all powers will have to defend the place again, the buyer will lost any rights over it." Krune was feeling gloomy. "I didn''t expect that blood contracts are useless against Divine Soul cultivators, that''s totally unexpected. In that case, I want to hear everyone opinions about this, but remember that what a said earlier is still valid, entering without preparations is absolutely out of question." Shinja then gave an idea. "We can use a puppet to test if it can at least come back from the gate, if it can, we can check the video to see what it saw on the other side, after that we can make our decision." Krune and the others immediately accepted the idea, and Yusa just so happened to have a puppet herself, it was a very weak one though, its power was between the 2nd and 3rd stage of Qi Condensation. Krune couldn''t help but ask why she had a puppet. "Isn''t that obvious? With this thing I don''t need to do any shores like wash clothes or prepare my meals, it''s really convenient, it can also record and share videos, it''s a must have item for every lady cultivator who travels a lot." Shinja nodded, she too has one of those in her spatial ring. Ao and Krune just looked at each other, they had never thought about buying one before, but they might next time they go back, just the ''no need to care about shores'' was enough to pick their attention. Yusa went forward and set up a concealing formation so that no one would find them in this place, this time it was a good one, early stage core formation demon beasts and cultivators would have a hard time to see through without paying attention to that place specific. "Well, let''s dig." Even though they are cultivators, to dig two kilometers underground wasn''t simple, they had to share the job between each other and even so it took them almost four hours to reach the sealed cave, fortunately, even though cultivators would specialize in one element, it didn''t mean that they couldn''t use the others, so they all used earth element until they got all the way down. They were all surprised when they saw the gate for the first time, the elements were really spinning around the gate, it was quite beautiful, they looked around and just like Krune said, it didn''t seem like someone stepped inside this sealed cave in a very long time, Krune tried to probe inside the gate but his Divine Sense couldn''t pass through, so he could only look at Yusa. "Alright, it''s up to your maid puppet now." Yusa nodded and imputed the orders in the puppet, after injecting enough spiritual energy, the puppet came to life and started moving in the direction of the gate, after it entered, Yusa lost her link with the puppet, but it was okay, Yusa ordered the puppet to record its surroundings while waiting for ten minutes before coming back, that was to test if she puppet would be trapped inside or not. "What if it doesn''t come back?" Krune shook his head. "I don''t know, let''s hope it will, if not, we better not enter it before we reach core formation at the very least." Time passed and when it was finally ten minutes, a ripple appeared on the gate and the puppet walked out of it, everyone looked at it as if it was made of gold! "Quick! Transfer the recordings to our communicators." Yusa nodded and sent the recording of everything it saw to everyone devices. Turns out that the place the domestic robot appeared was also a sealed cave, although it looked different from the one they are in, it doesn''t change the fact that it also had no exit, with that, one of their first question had been answered. Why haven''t the living beings of the secret realm used this exit to leave? Because they probably didn''t even know it existed at all! But it was also good, at least they would be safe after entering, of course, that is considering the entrance would not close before they came back, the bad thing is that they can''t say if the the ambient outside of that cave is hostile or not. The group pondered a bit until Krune decided to talk first. "Alright, the good thing is that there is no danger after entering, as far as we could see there were no formations or traps either, if I''m not wrong, the gates had been prepared like that on purpose for its owner to use it when the time comes, and that time would probably be when it had to escape straight away, so the expert who built it might even be alive still." "The problem is, without entering we won''t be able to find anything else, sending puppets inside to excavate their way up is out of question, if that cave is as deep as this one, there is no way a puppet that we can afford pay for can finish going up in a short amount of time, it will keep running out of spiritual energy too. So we can only enter if we really wish to understand this place more, what you think?" Yusa raised her hand. "I say we enter, we decided to not go into the Furiu Realm mainly because of the risks of get in a fight with other cultivators, but now there is no cultivators from other powers entering with us, if even in this condition we can''t take the risk, then we might as well stop cultivating, to cultivate is to go against the heavens in the first place, we should take this opportunity." Ao Sulian agreed with her statement, their group had already given up the Furiu Realm after all. "Good, now we just need to decide who will enter, because in case the entrance closes, the one who stayed can simply spread the news to all powers at the same time, no guild will try to kill that person anymore since it will not be a secret that can be hold in the end." Ao was the one to talk this time. "I say we should enter together." Krune looked surprised at him, could it be he didn''t hear what he just said? But he waited for Ao to continue anyway. "I might not know if it''s too dangerous or not, but I know that I wouldn''t be able to sit still while waiting for you two to come back, if the portal closes and the group that entered doesn''t come back, those who stay will only feel guilty about that, at least, I would think that if I was there, I might have helped more than if I was here guarding a portal that closed, fortunes and risks walk hand in hand, since we believe each other, we should confront head on everything that come at us together, besides, even if the portal closes, it doesn''t mean that there is no other exits, not to mention that whatever we find there will be ours. In my opinion, the gains overcome the risks." Yusa also agreed with Ao, she is a money grubber, but she still puts the block head and mister cool guy as the most important for her. Krune sighed and didn''t say anything more, if Yusa and Ao entered, he obviously would stay behind waiting to see what will happen with them. At that moment, Krune, Yusa and Ao looked at Shinja. "That being said, the decision lies on Shinja''s shoulders, if she says we go, then we go, if she says we stay, the we stay, we trust your decision." Shinja was taken aback, why would they leave the final decision for her? She was feeling a little sad at first, she heard those three talking but felt like she wasnt supposed to be there, that they might not even care her opinion in the first place. But turns out that they decided to trust her as the decision maker, it might not be appearing on her face, but she felt really moved at moment, this goes to show how much they consider her own will. She looked at the gate and determination appeared on her face. ''If they can trust me completely like that, then I shall trust them completely as well!'' She looked back at her new friends and smiled, something that she wasn''t used to do normally. "I say we confront risks together, share the fortunes together, and if fate dictates so, we die together, we shall enter!" Yusa immediately jumped over and hugged her, she was really happy. Krune and Ao just smiled after seeing that, Ao then sent a message through Divine Sense to Krune. "It seems like our group got a new member." Krune nodded. Chapter 49 - I Just Used a Little Bit Too Much Strength. Krune looked at them and siad. "Then we are going to enter, but not now, I need some time to check one thing." They looked at Krune and nodded, Yusa then remembered one thing. "Right, during that battle against the fog leopard, your Thunder Water Dragons suddenly dispersed, why was that?" Krune nodded. "Exactly, that''s what I want to check, at that moment I felt something in my foundation that reacted to the lightning power that I used in the Myriad Water Thunder Dragons, I want some time to check why that happened." He then looked at Shinja and asked. "You probably know more about the situation of the Danger Zones than us, do you think that those Divine Soul demon beasts would probe this location?" Shinja shook her head. "Extremely unlikely, we are too deep under the ground, to probe an enormous region with Divine Sense is already somewhat difficult, to include two kilometers deep in the ground on top of that is out of question, otherwise this gate would have been found a long time ago, not to mention that the Raskie Danger Zone fog affects the Divine Sense to start with." Krune understood the situation, then in the next second, he transformed back to his wisp form. Shinja eyes almost popped out of her sockets, she rubbed her eyes to see if she wasn''t hallucinating, but Krune was still there in the same way. "Is that a wisp?" Yusa put a hand on her shoulder and nodded. "Now you know why he shows no mercy when he sees someone harming other wisps, he is basically protecting his race." "How is that possible, shouldn''t wisps be extremely weak? His combat prowess is out of the charts too, he far surpasses the strength of those with the same cultivation." Yusa turned to Krune and asked. "I will explain to her about your past, do you think it is okay to talk about that?" Krune agreed. "Go ahead, I will have to concentrate for a while, so leave some space for me here, explain to her about everything, the Myriad Energies Technique is okay too." Yusa nodded and left with Shinja, she was going to explain about Krune''s power, she then took a blood contract and started writing on it. "Shinja, this is not because we don''t trust you, in fact, I might tell you this straight away, Krune is a wisp that will never force anyone he trust into a blood contract, this is something that me and Ao insisted, the reason being because not only will you not be able to talk about it without Krune''s agreement, but also because it won''t allow those memories to be forcefully read like with Soul Searches that high level cultivators can do." Shinja then looked at Ao Sulian, who nodded, she then took a deep breath and signed it, Krune has already shown his wisp form before she signed anything, if she wanted she could simply refuse and no one here would be able to do a thing, they are still not her match, but even so, Krune still trusted her and showed his true form, that''s enough. "Can you tell me now how a wisp was able to get to this point?" Yusa and Ao nodded and started talking about everything. --- On the other side of the cave, Krune was paying attention in his rainbow core, he started to summon a little of lightning elemental energy outside, at first, nothing happened, what made him a little puzzled, but then he decided to straightly use the Thunder Line skill, as expected, his rainbow core rippled again and his control over the skill went out of control, some sparks flew around and the skill disappeared. ''As I thought, it''s the lightning elemental energy that causes it, the moment I use lightning power, the lightning element inside my rainbow core reacts to it, if I''m not wrong, it is because the rainbow cores lightning came from the Heavenly Tribulation, could it be that it has some conscience of its own?'' But that was not the issue, the issue was that he couldn''t use lightning power because of that, he tried several times but had no use, as long as a large amount of lightning elemental energy was used, his rainbow core lightning would mess up with it. It was then that Krune had an idea. ''Could it be that my rainbow core wants to eat the lightning that I''m using?'' He thought it to be very likely, otherwise, why would it intervene only when a lot of elemental power was used? That''s probably because it only cares if there is a lot. Krune then directly summoned lightning energy around of the rainbow core, and sure enough, it started absorbing the power of lightning, but that wasn''t all, he could feel that the power of lightning that he fed to his rainbow core was being converted into the power of tribulation lightning as well. It was then that a crazy idea came into mind. ''If there is a lot of tribulation lightning elemental power, can I use it by myself?'' He didn''t know if it was feasible, first of all, he had never heard about someone having the tribulation lightning as part of their cores, let alone using it. ''But if it works, the power of my lightning skills will multiply several times, it will definitely become my best trump card!'' Krune kept feeding lightning power to his core, the process was quite slow, not to mention that it used a lot of spiritual energy, the problem was that only 5% more or less of the lightning element power that he sent in was converted into tribulation lighting, the rest was simply discarded by his rainbow core, but he understood the reason. ''The tribulation lightning of my rainbow core is basically filtering all the impurities in my own lightning power, in the end, only 5% is usable, but this is good, it shows how powerful this lightning is really is.'' Time passed, Krune had to stop to recover his spiritual energy three times, and only after 10 hours did his rainbow core finally stop absorbing lightning element. ''First, instead of trying to use the tribulation lightning, let''s try to use a normal Thunder Line, I want to see if my rainbow core tribulation lightning will intervene now.'' Krune summoned lightning power and used the skill, the Thunder Line pierced the cave wall and disappeared deep inside. ''As expected, if my rainbow core tribulation lightning is satisfied, it won''t mess around with my normal control over the lighting element, even if I can''t use the power of the tribulation lightning, I still found a way to stop it from affecting my own lightning element. The problem is, how should I try to use it?'' Krune pondered a bit and tried to guide the tribulation lightning just like he guides his spiritual energy, but it didn''t even move, he tried to bait the lightning out using his own lightning power as a bridge but no success either, in fact, there wasn''t much Krune do anyway, it was then that he thought about something. ''My Spiritual Energy Meridians when they were being formed were capable of absorbing and let the tribulation lightning pass through to get inside my universe foundation, can I do the opposite?'' Krune had never thought about doing the reverse option, but he thought it was worth a try, instead of connecting all his seven meridians with his universe foundation, he took one out and connected directly with his rainbow core, but nothing happened at first. ''I see, that''s because I used my meridians to absorb, I have to reverse the flux, instead of absorbing things from outside, I will absorb things from the inside.'' As expected, when the flux of the spiritual energy meridians was changed, it started to absorb the tribulation energy from the rainbow core, he only absorbed a little bit to the outside and the fused it''s power with his own lightning element before using another Thunder Line. Krune was impressed, the size of this Thunder Line increased by three times, it was obviously much more powerful. He then threw it against the cave wall, as expected, it also pierced through the wall and went deep inside, the hole left behind was much bigger than the previous one too. Krune used his Divine Sense to probe the distance it that it traveled before dissipating, it wasn''t before it got a hundred meters away that it lost of the power. ''Impressive! The normal Thunder Line was only able to pierce twenty some meters inside, but with just this little bit of tribulation lightning its power increased several times!'' Don''t look down on the distance that the lightning went through the wall, lightning energy is weak against the earth in the very first place, for it to go all the way to a hundred meters is already a very scaring power. Krune got excited, he wanted to try more, he returned to his human form and went to talk with Yusa and the others, he explained what he found and that he wanted to use it outside. ''It is also a test to see how much tribulation lightning I can summon at once, my rainbow core definitely won''t allow me to use everything, so I need to know my limit.'' Yusa and the others nodded, if they are venturing together inside the secret realm, they must know their group members full capabilities, only like that their coordination can reach its peak. Krune''s group left the cave and covered its entrance, after that they moved far away from there, if Krune''s tribulation lightning is really that powerful, then he might attract a lot of attention after using it. Krune asked Shinjas to help with a 9th stage Foundation Establishment demon beast, after looking for one during an hour, Krune''s Divine Sense finally spotted one, It was a Crimson Tiger, and it was at the peak of the 9th stage at that. Krune told Shinja to be ready to help in case things go south and went forward to confront the beast, Tigers are lonely by nature, this one was no different, thanks to that Krune didn''t have to bait one out of a group and went directly to attack. When the Crimson Tiger saw Krune is was surprised. "To think that a 4th stage weakling would come this far inside the Danger Zone, I guess this is my luck day." Krune smiled after hearing that. "Is that so?" The tiger was taken aback with that answer, its instincts told it that something was fishy, it used its Divine Sense but only Krune appeared in it. Shinja stayed far behind exactly to prevent the tiger to notice her presence, Krune told her that if it doesn''t work, he has the confidence to hold long enough for her to arrive. After the tiger found nothing it didn''t wait anymore, the feeling that something bad was going to happen was still bothering it, so it attacked straight away to not give a chance for anything to happen. Krune saw it moving straight at him, it would be in front of him in a second, but he was calm. ''An attack that can use the total power of the lightning tribulation available to me, there is only one thing that powerful in my book.'' Krune concentrated his entire mind in the attack, his spiritual energy meridian absorbed tribulation lightning like crazy until its connection with the rainbow core was cut off by the core itself, Krune then concentrated the entire power of the lightning high above him. "Heavens Fall!" That''s was that only thing he could think of, the attack that had given the greatest impression ever since he was born, the lightning strikes of the Heavenly Tribulation! Only that would be able to display the full might of the tribulation lightning. The Crimson Tiger was alarmed! That strike came too fast, it had absolutely no time to even think about a counter measure when it hit its back. Boom! An enormous explosion blasted the everything away, even Krune who was the owner of the attack was blasted in the distance, only able to stop himself after two hundred meters! The fog around was cleared up to five kilometers away, it even revealed Shinja and the others in the distance, they looked at that apocalyptic scene in front of them, seeing that made Shinja and the others sweat rivers. "That''s not the power a Foundation Establishment should have, even an early stage Core Formation cultivator would probably die if hit head on with such attack." When Krune looked at where the Crimson Tiger was, there was only a crater left behind with lightning sparks appearing everywhere, the tiger was nowhere to be seen, it had been completely pulverized, not even its demon core was left behind, Krune looked at that scene with apprehension, the power of the tribulation lightning was too absurd! But he quickly came back to himself, this explosion will definitely attract the attention of the nearby demon beasts, they need to leave! --- Back in the gate cave, Yusa and the others were looking at Krune as if he was a monster, all that attention made him feel quite uncomfortable. Shinja then asked him. "How did you keep the tribulation lightning with you? I also underwent the tribulation when I reached the foundation stage with my Universe Foundation, but I had to give my all just to fend it off, let alone keep it, not to mention that I had the help of the guild back then, otherwise I would have definitely died." Krune then explained that he used his spiritual energy meridians to guide it inside and then divided it in several parts before guiding it to hit his planet, then he told what happened after the tribulation was over and how the remnant power of the tribulation lightning struck his rainbow core while it was being formed by the power of the world. Shinja and the others were amazed, in the end it was just a coincidence that something like that happened, but Shinja understood better, there is no way someone would purposely strike their future core after being successful in building a Universe Foundation, it would be just seen as suicide. Ao couldn''t help but comment. "Anyway, that strike was too powerful, that peak 9th stage Foundation Establishment Crimson Tiger was turned into dust, this is incredible!" The other looked at him with jealously, if by drinking his blood they could gain that power, they would definitely suck him dry! Krune looked away and pretended it wasn''t much. "I just used a little bit too much strength, that''s all." The others mouth twitched. Just a little bit? Is he making fun of us? If that is just a little bit then what about us? Can you first think about our sentiments? Yusa smiled and gave them an idea. "What if we cut him into pieces, then we fry and eat a little? Perhaps some of that power can be used." Shinja and Ao eyes lit up, they immediately nodded. "Seems like an amazing idea!" And just like that, Krune received a three sides beating, he wanted to cry but had no tears. Chapter 50 - It Was Just a Joke. After escaping from the tiger and tigresses mouths, Krune was sit on a corner of the cave recovering his Tribulation Lightning, just like before, it was absorbing all the lightning energy that he sent in and after filtering, more or less 95% was thrown away, but Krune noticed one thing. ''The amount of tribulation lightning that it had after I used the Heavens Fall is bigger than before I started feeding it for the first time, it''s still early to say but, maybe the rainbow core is keeping extra lightning every time, if that is the case, what is it accumulating Tribulation Lightning for?'' Unfortunately, Krune had no answer for that question, but since that is his own future core, it''s not going to harm him, right? But then again, that''s the power of the Tribulation Lightning, the same power that tried to obliterate him! In the end, Krune just sighed and decided to put those thoughts behind to focus on another idea. ''I was able to temper my soul through the power of the tribulation lightning during the Heavenly Tribulation, since I can take some of the tribulation lightning out, I should be able to use it to temper my soul too, right?'' After recovering the tribulation lightning power, Krune used his Spiritual Energy meridian to take some of the lightning power to strike his soul, the pain was enormous, but it was already expected, when the power of the lightning finally ran out, Krune was in fact feeling ecstatic! ''It works! My soul can really be tempered with the power of the tribulation lightning! With that my Divine Sense will get even stronger. But I can''t use much of it every time, I have to give my soul enough time to recover or I might permanently damage it, steadiness will be the key.'' He then kept using the power of tribulation lightning to temper his soul until he felt that he was approaching his limits, only then did he stop, if others were to know that Krune was attacking his own soul with tribulation lightning, they would all think that Krune is a lunatic! --- It had been three days since everyone came back to the gate''s cave, they didn''t immediately enter after Krune recovered, they waited some time to see if someone would appear, Krunes Heavens Fall was too catchy after all, they might have been followed without noticing, after no one appeared they decided that it was time to enter. Krune came forward and then said "I will enter first, wait ten minutes before entering too, if this gate has some trap that only detects cultivators inside then it should activate after I pass through, in that case I will try to send a signal back through the gate before any of you come as well." Everyone nodded and got prepared. Krune didn''t say anything else and passed through, the world around him warped and got black for a second, when the light returned he was already on the other side, he immediately spread his Divine Sense and checked around waiting to see if someone or something would attack him, but after waiting for an entire minute everything was still silent and no movement could be felt, the gate behind him was still opened and didn''t seem like it was going to close anytime soon, Krune let out a sigh of relief and then waited for the ten minutes to be up. Ten minutes later, Yusa and the others appeared inside, Krune was still there looking around carefully to see if now that they were all inside, it would activate some counter measure, but much to his relief, nothing happened still. Shinja looked around and spoke. "Seems like it really doesn''t have anyone, so, should we go up?" Krune and the others nodded. "I expanded my Divine Sense to the limit, but this secret realm is just like the Fog Forest, it hinders the power of my Divine Sense and to a much greater extent, outside I could penetrate all the way to the gate''s cave which was two kilometers underground, but here I can''t spread my Divine Sense for even 400 meters, how is yours, Shinja?" Shinja checked out and felt the same as Krune. "You''re right, I can spread my Divine Sense to a little bit more than 300 meters, seems like we can only go out and see the outside world with our eyes." Krune and the others agreed and immediately started to work, the soil in this place was several times harder than outside, it took them three days to finally be able to feel see the end of it. When they finally stepped outside they were amazed. They looked around and it seemed like they were in the middle of a city, but it was completely desert, some of the buildings were on the verge of falling down, others have already crumbled, it was obviously that no one entered this place in hundreds, no, probably thousands of years. They were expecting a nature related realm, but definitely not a city, after checking around they confirmed that not a single souls could be found around. Demon beasts? Forget it! They couldn''t even find common animals like spiders, rats or ants, it was a city completely dead. "What do we do now? Let alone fortunes, I can''t even find a piece of metal without being rusted by time." Yusa was a little sad, this secret realm was totally different than what she expected, Krune looked around and then sighed. "From what I know about secret realms, as long as we find in which direction there is more spiritual energy, we should find the were the fortunes of the realm are, and don''t forget that secret realms are supposed to be enormous, when I went up to a building and looked in the distance, I simply couldn''t find the end of it." Ao then commented. "In that case, let''s choose a direction and move out, If the spiritual energy increases, we keep going, if it reduces, we go back, just remember to mark this place in your communicator, that way we can find our way back here." The group nodded and after marking the location, they moved out, the buildings around seemed to never change, they found quite some shops, one of them was obviously a weapons shop before, but after entering, the weapons that were left behind didn''t have even a strand of spiritual energy on them, Ao took out a rusted sword from a weapons rack and examined it, after that he let out a sigh and said. "The weapons inside this shop don''t have spiritual energy, but it is not because a lot of time passed and it run out, it is simply because they were made to be just ordinary weapons to start with, seems like we are inside a city of commoners." Shinja agreed with that statement. "I believe you are right, all the other houses and buildings we check had no trace of being a place that cultivators spent time, none of the still intact tools that we found was something that cultivators would use, they are common and very old too, I don''t believe that cultivators even passed often through this place." Krune then said "It''s impossible for cultivators to no have been involved, secret realms are things that only all might cultivators can make, as to why this expert moved a lot of common people to leave in this city, I don''t know, maybe it was some experiment or something similar." "In that case let''s keep moving, have any of you notice any difference in the spirit energy in the air so far?" Everyone shook their heads, even after walking an entire hour they didn''t feel any difference what so ever, there is spiritual energy, that''s true, but it looked like that this secret realm was built exclusively for common people to live in, nothing more, Krune then asked the others something. "For those experts, is it possible to move the secret realms with them when they want to leave?" Everyone shook their heads, they had no idea, this information was far from what low level cultivators like them could have access to. "What is your idea?" Krune looked around and then said. "I just feel like this is some kind of display, a place that that expert or maybe several experts built to watch the common people live." Yusa and the others were taken aback. "Why would he spend his time in something nonsensical like that, it doesn''t make sense." Krune shook his head, this was just a feeling, nothing more. "In that case, let''s keep moving, if what you say is correct, then there is bound to have a place where those experts stayed while they looked at everyone, if there is any fortune, it''s there." They moved out and walked for an entire day, but still found nothing different, the spiritual energy haven''t changed even a bit, their group was already starting to feel depressed. Yusa felt the surrounding spiritual energy and said. "So, it seems like we are going nowhere, this feeling of wandering without destiny is already making me feel numb." Krune''s eyes suddenly widened after hearing that. "We screwed up!" The rest looked at him with puzzled expressions. "Can''t you see it? Doesn''t matter if there was cultivators inside this city before back then or not, there is no way that the spiritual energy could have not changed even a bit after walking for so long, let alone a secret realm that needs spiritual energy from the outside world to be constantly absorbed for it to exists, there is only one way for that to happen, and that is if we haven''t left the same place at all!" Ao and the others expressions finally changed. "We are walking in circles!" Yusa then asked "But how is that possible? If we really were walking in the same place all this time, we should have been able to recognize some of the places that we passed before." Shinja shook her head. "This is only the case if the place we are trapped is a small one, but what if this formation that is trapping us inside is enormous? It simply happens that we haven''t walked into a place that we recognize yet." Krune nodded. "In that case we will need to find the core of this illusion formation and destroy it, otherwise there is no way we can ever move forward." Ao didn''t have too big of an expectative. "We are talking about a supreme expert here, someone with a cultivation that you won''t be able to find in the Makui planet, what are the chances of being able to find it with our strength? And even if we find, can we destroy it?" They looked at each other and felt helpless, it was then that Krunes eyes suddenly lit up, he looked at Yusa and Shinja and then asked. "What if we just cut off the spiritual energy that is feeding the illusion formation, would we be able to find it easier due to the lack of spiritual energy?" Yusa and Shinja looked at each other and then nodded. "It should be possible, if the main source of spiritual energy is barred, the core will try to gather spiritual energy from the surroundings, a formation this big will definitely cause some ripples on the spiritual energy inside it since the spiritual energy will charge to the core, we should be able to pin point the location of the core with that." They continued "But if we knew where it is, it would be better to use the spiritual energy from it to find the core of the formation first, it''s better than wait for the energy outside to move to it, in fact, it should be much easier." Krune nodded "That''s even better, so we just need the source first." They looked at Krune, it seems like he had an idea. "But how are you going to find the main source of spiritual energy that feeds the formation?" Krune suddenly laughed out loud and said. "Find it? Why should I? We all know very well where it is!" Only then did the three of them understand the crux of the situation. "Right! The gate to the outside world! Now I understand why there was no trap and why it was hidden deep underground, it was the source of the core, not only that, since the gate is the source, the core is bound to be close!" But then Yusa asked "But how are we going to find our way back? As far as I know even our communicator''s markers won''t work inside of this formation. Even if we follow the place showed in screen we won''t ever arrive there, formations have evolved to cover such flaws a long time ago." Krune laughed out loud once again. "That''s where you are wrong! Does this city look like a place where technology was developed before?" "Ah!" Everyone eyes suddenly lit up! "Correct, this is a formation from far too long ago, obviously before technology took its place in our world, there is no way that the expert who created it would have counted for the fact that our technological devices exist, chances are he died even before technology itself was invented." That being said, they immediately moved out, they moved in the direct showed on their map screens and were even more surprised with this illusion formation, they were sure that they hadn''t passed through some of those buildings before, they even felt like they were in fact walking in circles when they were in fact moving straight forward, but the technological world did not disappoint them, ten hours later they were back to the entrance of the cave, since they knew the way, they moved at full speed back, it took much less than the day they took to move back then. They descended into the gate cave and sure enough, the gate was still open, or better, it would always be open, the core of the formation can''t do without it! It didn''t take long for them to find the core of the formation after following the flow of spiritual energy coming from the gate. Yusa looked at it and sighed. "There is a barrier around the core, if we want to destroy it we will need to stop the flow of spiritual energy first anyway." Shinja nodded "There is no other way, it''s not something we can breakthrough with only our strength, let''s go back to the gate first." Back at the gate, Ao asked. "How are we going to stop the spiritual energy from passing through?" While everyone were thinking about a way, Krune looked at the gate and his eyes lit up. "Should we destroy it?" The other three hearts almost stopped, they looked at Krune like they were looking at someone beyond salvation. Krune noticed their eyes and felt a little embarrassed. "Cough, cough, it was just a joke." Ao and the others felt a chill behind their backs, they are absolutely sure, Krune was being 100% serious just now. Chapter 51 - Your Leaders Feelings. They kept thinking but no idea came out, other than destroying it they didn''t have other options at hand. Yusa looked at it and said. "The best way would be if we had a formation to stop the flow, it would not damage the gate while stopping any spiritual energy from entering." Ao couldn''t help but comment "But we don''t have any here at moment, the only way would be to go back to the city and see if we can acquire one, should we go back first?" Krune and the other pondered a bit about it. "It seems like our only option at moment, we shouldn''t waste too much time just in case, we can also take this chance to buy a few things that might be necessary, we can even set up a cover, when we go back, we go to the guild and accept another mission for this Danger Zone, this way no one in the Headquarters or in Kaley City branch were we are registered will grow suspicious with our long time spent in here, Shinja is bound to a blood contract to protect me, so she following us is just obvious." They nodded, that was indeed a good idea. After concealing the entrance to the gate, they immediately moved back, this time they didn''t stop for anything and moved at full speed, what had taken one week before, this time only took four days to arrive back at the city. After arriving, they immediately parted ways, Shinja and Yusa went to buy a formation runestone to stop the flow of spiritual energy, Krune and Ao went to the guild to apply for a new mission inside the Raskie Danger Zone, they specially chose one that didn''t look too easy but took a lot of time to complete. They also bought two puppets each in case they have a need to send it to try some dangerous or suspicious place or situation. The group also bought a few items that might be helpful and then gathered back at the city gate, this time they are really ready for what is coming. "Shall we go?" Everyone nodded and signed their departure at the entrance, after that they immediately moved straight away back to secret realm gate. Another four days passed on the way back, as expected, no one found the gate entrance, which is obvious, it had been hidden down there for millenniums without anyone notice, let alone in just a little more than a week. Once back inside, Yusa started to set up the formation runstone to stop the spiritual energy flow from the gate from passing through. "It''s ready, spiritual energy has stopped, I bought a Four Stars spiritual energy lock formation runestone this time, it was very expensive, this secret realm is better give me a good return." Krune asked something "How long will the runestone formation last?" "Five days, this should be more than enough for us to deal with the illusion core I believe." They nodded and moved back to the core of the illusion formation. Yusa and Shinja took a look and said "It is still working fine, but that is to be expected, we have just cut of the flow of spiritual energy, it will take some time for the spiritual energy inside to be used as well." Krune then said. "Let''s attack the barrier, it won''t break but will still accelerate the spiritual energy consumption, the fast we finish it the better." Everyone accepted the idea and started attacking it while managing their spiritual energy, they would use at most 30% to 40% of their spiritual energy before sitting down and recover it to their peak, in case something happen they will still be in shape to battle. Time passed and it had already been a day since they started to attack the barrier, by now it was already very dim, it wouldn''t be long before it broke and they got access to the core formation, finally, after a lot of effort, the barrier disappeared. Only then could they destroy the core of the formation, but before that Krune asked. "Do we need to destroy it? Can''t we simply take it away and put in our spatial rings?" Shinja shook her head. "The core of a formation is one with the formation itself, you would need to be able to keep the entire formation in you spatial ring to be able to take it away, unless you knew how to deactivate it of course." Krune shook his head, he has absolutely no idea how to do that, he was hopping to take it back to sell in the city later, it probably is worth quite some spirit stones even if it is a relic from thousands of years ago. ''Maybe I should try to join the formations guild too, it could come in hand in a situation like this is the future.'' Since that was the case, they immediately attacked together, it showed some resistance but still broke apart in the end, it wasn''t made for fending off attacks in the first place anyway. As soon as the formation core was broken they felt like the part of the city where they were started to tremble, they immediately went up to check what was happening, when they got outside they noticed that the landscape changed, not only that, but an enormous amount of spiritual energy rushed at them, it was several times higher than what they had outside, it would be worth even if they simply stopped to cultivate here. The city that looked the same before now seemed completely different, Krune jumped over a build and looked in the distance. "I can see the end of the city now, on the opposite side should be the city center, where you wanna go first?" Yusa immediately said "To the center of course, we already spent so much time and we are still in the same place, if there is something good, it''s definitely there." The other also agreed with that, but then Krune asked. "What if this is not the only illusion formation covering this city? We were lucky that we entered that formation through its spiritual energy source, so it was easy to find the core, but it won''t happen next time." This time it was Shinja that answered. "No need to worry, we can use our communicators map function to escape the next ones, before, we couldn''t do that because we could only put markers inside of the formation, so it was useless to use it to escape outside, but if the marker is outside, then it''s easier, we just need to follow it to leave the formation, even though it will look like that we are walking in circles, in fact we will be moving straight forward outside the formation." Krune and the other agreed with that, if they could use the markers to find the way back to the gate, then they can use it to escape the next ones. "Alright, let''s go then." They put down the markers in the map function of their communicators and immediately moved in the direction of the city center, with no illusion formation to hinder their path they finally could see differences in the city the further they moved in. After moving during two days, they could see a gigantic wall ahead, they could have got here much faster, but to be safe they moved slowly until they got to this place, even so they still fell inside another two formations, but thanks to the markers that they were leaving on the way, it was very easy to leave them, illusion formations are not barriers, they don''t stop people from moving out as long as they are moving in the right direction. That wall seemed to separate the commoner''s city from the center, it was very well conserved, it didn''t look like it had suffered with all the time that had passed at all, for normal people it would be impossible to simply climb to the top, but not for foundation establishment cultivators like them, it was way too easy, but when they finally got close to the wall, they finally found the first living being, or better, not exactly a living one, but a puppet, and there was several of them at that, they seemed to be patrolling the wall on its top. "What should we do, try to barge in without they noticing?" Krune shook his head. "Those puppets don''t seem to be weak, although we probably can deal with a few of them it would be troublesome if we are found and we were attacked by all of them together, I don''t think that their order are to attack anyone they see, it seems like they are just there to stop people for entering without permission, since that''s the case, there should be a gate somewhere in this wall, we better go there and check things first." Yusa and the others nodded and started to follow the wall, on the way, Krune showed himself in front of those puppets to check his theory, the puppets looked at him from the top of the wall but didn''t do anything, after Krune left they went back to their patrolling. "As expected, it seems like that the orders that they received a long time ago is still valid, protect the wall, don''t let anyone without a permission pass, that should be basically it." Yusa looked at that and couldn''t help but be surprised. "There is so many of them, how come they are still working after so much time have passed." Ao answered that. "That''s not hard to imagine, since they have so many puppets, they might have other puppets specialized in repairs of other puppets like themselves, as long as a source of spiritual energy is available for them to recharge, they are practically immortals." Krune and the other agreed with that idea, unless the cultivators inside are still alive and repairing the puppets themselves, this could be the only explanation. It only took then a little more than an hour to arrive at the gate, just like the wall, the gate was also enormous, but it didn''t matter, what mattered is that it was also guarded by puppets, there was no signal of life anywhere. They approached the gate and the puppets that were covered in dust due to the long time without moving came back to life, they formed a line in front of the gate and looked straight away at Krune''s group. It was obviously that they wouldn''t let their group pass, but they weren''t moving to the gate anyway, but to a building beside it, this building was different from the others in the city behind them, it was very well maintained and a few puppets could also be seen inside. They entered the building and were all extremely alert, if something happened they would flee straight away and think about another way after. "If we are not wrong this should be the place where we can get a register to go inside, just like any other city outside, so we shouldn''t be attacked, but keep your guard up just in case." They moved slowly and reached a balcony where a puppet was sit, the puppet looked at them and spoke with a robotic like voice. But Yusa and the others face immediately changed. "I don''t understand a single word at all!" Ao commented. "That is to be expected, this is a place from several thousand years ago, it would be weird if they spoke the same language as ours." "What should we do?" But before they could even thinking about a way, Krune went forward and spoke with the puppet in the same language, Shinja and the others looked at him as if they had seen a ghost. Krune looked at them and said. "He is asking our names, local of origin and how long we intend to stay inside." Ao and the others jaw dropped. "How can you understand their language? Have you seen these things before?" Krune shook his head. "That''s why you should study more, back in the guild I had to cultivate during the night, but doing that alone was a waste of time, so while I cultivated I also studied the contents available on the network, I intend to one day leave this planet, so I downloaded a lot of different languages available in the system for me to study, this puppet just so happen to be talking one of those hundreds of languages that I memorized." Hundreds of languages¡­ While cultivating on top of that! Yusa couldn''t help but comment. "No wonder your EQ is so bad, the majority of your brain was used in your IQ alone, there was no space for anything else, don''t you guys think that Krune looks more like a puppet than a cultivator?" Ao and Shinja nodded vigorously, they simply couldn''t come with a better way to describe Krune than a puppet. Krune, on the other hand, had a gloomy face, that comment really made him sad. "Did you even think about your leader''s feelings before saying that?" Yusa, Ao and Shinja answered at the same time, they didn''t even need to think for a second. "Nope." Yusa and the others looked at each other and just laughed out loud. Krune''s mouth twitched a little on the other side. "It''s not too late to find a new team, right?" Chapter 52 - Mohie Sect Ignoring their laugh, Krune went back to talk with the puppet, this secret realm is very old, so things like digital ID and communicators don''t exist, what the puppet gave them was a jade token which carried their information the old fashion way, Krune then took this opportunity to make a few more questions. "So, the puppet said that it has been a total of 3789 years since the last cultivator registered to enter the city, I asked if it knew what happen for the city to get empty, but it seems like it doesn''t have the capability to think too much so it just kept silent, or maybe we simply don''t have the authority to make it talk. I also asked why are we allowed to enter this easily, it said that as long as a cultivator appears, they should be given a token to enter the inner city, that''s the rules. Then I asked why there were no cultivators living outside, only common people lived there before, but it kept silent again, in the end there is almost nothing it could tell us." Shinja then said. "Ask it if there is a place to acquire information inside the inner city, it might be easier if we go to such a place first, it doesn''t seem to be that dangerous." Krune nodded, he turned around and asked the puppet. "It says that all the information can be get in the inner city Order Hall, we can find it close to the center of the inner city itself." They nodded and then left, when they arrived at the gate, Krune took out his token and showed to the puppets in front, immediately, all the puppets gave way and the gate behind them opened, they could finally enter the inner city. When they traversed to the other side they were surprised, it looked completely different from the outside city, although there was no living beings still, there was a lot of puppets taking care of the houses, shops, stores and etc. The inner city was definitely a city made for cultivators, magical equipment, formations, alchemist pills and potions, everything could be found inside. Yusa looked around and thought about something. "Why do I feel like those illusion formations outside weren''t there to trap us, but to test whether we could reach this place or not?" Krune and the others looked at her and had surprised expressions. "Indeed, doesn''t matter how powerful the illusion formations outside were, they didn''t harm us in any way, just stopped us from advancing, it would also make sense since the puppets outside let us enter without asking for much, just some information." Ao then reminded them of something "But what about the people who lived there before? They were just common people, those formations would keep them there forever." It was at this moment that Krune''s eyes lit up. "We have always thinking about the fact that only common people could have lived there, but tell me, if this is really a trial, could it be that there has never been anyone living in the outside city to start with? It goes against what I thought at first that the outside city was made for the expert in the past to look at them living, but now that I think that those formation were a test, it might be that the city outside was indeed made so that the cultivators inside could observe it, but not observe the common people, it was made to observe the trial takers!" Everyone felt like that what Krune said made a lot of sense. Moving forward, they entered a few shops, but in the end, they left disappointed, any pills for sale had lost its effects a long time ago, puppets can''t concoct more after all, the equipment wasn''t so bad, but compared to the ones they can buy nowadays, it was still lacking, the formation runestone were even worse, although they still worked normally, the price asked for them was several times higher than a formation with the same effect outside, but it was to be expected, it was much harder to make them in the past, the puppets selling them just kept the old price and never changed it. "Could it be that we came here for nothing?" Krune shook his head. "That''s not true, it could be said that this secret realm is only ours now, we can do pretty much anything we want here and after our cultivation is high enough, we can deal with the puppets and take out what they have, this is a treasure trove, we just don''t have the capability to take what is inside yet." The others mood finally improved, indeed, there was only puppets around, they are all strong but nothing ridiculous, as long as they get strong enough everything inside the inner city can be taken outside to be sold for spirit stones, they are not losing in this trade for sure. "Besides, this is just what we can see now, I refuse to believe that the center of the inner city doesn''t have better things." They kept moving forward, although the inner city is much smaller than the outside, it is still much bigger than Kaley City for example, a few hours later, they finally reached the Order Hall, this is the place where they supposedly can get information. The group entered inside and to their surprise, there wasn''t any puppets taking care, there was only a big formation on the ground and several other rooms with exactly the same formation, in the end they decided to have of them step inside to check what it is. Krune was the one to do that since he was the only one who could understand their language without using a translator, after stepping inside, the formation activated and it showed an illusory form of a middle aged man wearing a white robe, he had long hair which was common between cultivators thousands of years ago, he looked at Krune and smiled. "It has been 3789 years since the last cultivator appeared in this city, I thought that the city was doomed to not have a single soul stepping on it ever since the main gate to the outside world was destroyed back then, but it seems like the heavens have eyes in the end, someone has finally come." Krune and the others outside could hear the old man, earlier, after Krune helped them to register to enter the inner city, Krune had passed to their communicator the language that the puppets were talking, and through the use of the auto translator in their own devices, they could understand what the man was saying, of course, Krune had a much easier time since he didn''t need to look at the translated words and understood the language''s rules, but it was still enough for his companions to at least understand what was being said. Krune looked at the man and asked. "Can you tell me what is this place?" That was definitely the most important question now, everything else could start after that, the illusory man in the formation wasn''t really alive, it only had a sliver of a will attached in the formation so that it could have a conversation with those who came, he nodded and started explaining. "Of course, this is the Mohie Sect Branch Dimension, it was a city built to test new cultivators that wish to join the Mohie Sect of the past, the city outside is only the first test, although it has no real danger, one could totally be trapped inside those illusion formations for all eternity, in the past, if the contestants didn''t pass the test in the time stipulated, they would be teleported outside after the test was over, but because there is no one to control the formations anymore, those who entered after that had no way of leaving and died there." Krune''s group had felt a chill behind their back, if they didn''t have their communicators to help them with the test, they could very well stayed there forever. "Why there isn''t anyone living here anymore?" The man continued "From the information that was passed to me before the last member of the Mohie sect left, the sect was in a war against their main foe, the Rasie Clan, in the past, both forces occupied several planets in the south west side of the western protectorate, but because the amount of resources was limited, conflict started to appear which led to an all-out war between both powers, due to the Sect''s orders, all cultivators should leave the Mohie Sect Branch Dimension to fight in the war, from what I know, the Mohie Sect was on the losing side, but that was when the Dimension Main Gate was destroyed, there was no one left behind to start with, so the Dimension kept empty ever since then." Krune and the others took a deep breath, they know very well what the Rasie Clan is, this is one of the biggest clans of their western protectorate, a big whale no smaller than the Wang Clan, one of the so called big four. To think that they would find a remnant of the archenemy of the Rasie Clan, this situation had just become even more complicated. "Why was the gate destroyed?" The man shook his head "I don''t know, my guess is that it was destroyed to conceal it''s entrance, as far as I know this dimension branch was moved somewhere else before that, but as to what happened after, I don''t know." Krune continued asking "You said earlier that someone has finally come, does it mean that you have an objective to be completed? Something that needs the involvement of someone from the outside?" The man nodded "Exactly, the orders we received when the last cultivator left was to wait for the next inheritor of the Mohie Sect Legacy, which has been probably disappeared outside." The interest of Krune and the others were picked after hearing that. "What is this Legacy about?" "The Mohie Sect is a Divine Sense focused sect, the sect legacy focus on attacking others soul through their own Divine Sense, you could say that this is a sect for those with powerful souls like the Spiritas Race, but even if you don''t have a strong soul, the sect has it''s ways of helping you improve it, we have cultivation techniques specially focused on the soul as well." Everyone was taken aback, it''s not like they haven''t heard about Divine Sense used for attack before, but those are things far from what they could find in the Makui Planet, from what they know, only the Spiritas Empire from the Spiritas Race has cultivation techniques focused on the soul in their protectorate, not to mention that the Spiritas Empire is also one of the big four. Krune was ecstatic, his soul is already very strong for someone of his level, because of that he got a powerful Divine Sense that only some late stage Foundation Establishment cultivators have, if he could use the Mohie Sect Divine Sense techniques, his combat power would increase tremendously! But first he has to finish this conversation. "If we can receive the inheritance successfully, does it mean that we can gain control over this Secret Realm?" The man in the illusory projection looked at Krune puzzled. "Secret Realm? Oh! You are talking about this dimension, so the people outside call this a Secret Realm, I see. Well, it''s not completely wrong, it has been hidden for a long time after all, it could be considered somewhat secret." The man then put this thought behind his mind and continued. "You are correct, the control over this ''Secret Realm'' can be transferred to the inheritor of the legacy, but before anyone of you accept the next part of the tests, remember that once you decide to continue you will from now on be considered a part of the Mohie Sect, I don''t know what happened in the war between Mohie and Rasie, but it''s most likely that we lost, otherwise, the sect higher ups would have come back by now to reopen it." "In that case, you might become an enemy of the Rasie Clan, although there shouldn''t be a lot of people who still remember the Divine Sense techniques of the Mohie Clan anymore, the Rasie Clan old fogies, especially those who have lived for over four thousand years, will definitely recognize our techniques if you use them in front of their clan members." Krune looked back at everyone and only saw that nodding, this is an excellent opportunity to improve one''s soul, even if they never use the Divine Sense techniques, just the difference that it will make on their Divine Sense is already considered a great fortune! "Another thing, we never said that we aren''t part of the Rasie Clan, why would you trust us so easily like that? I don''t think the Mohie Clan inheritance is this easy to get." The man shook his head. "Any member or subordinate of the Rasie Clan has the White Tiger mark on their bodies, that mark is made using a special technique of the Rasie Clan, the Rasie Clan would never allow someone untrustworthy to enter a ''Secret Realm'' of the Mohie Sect, when you first arrived in the city outside, the main Dimension Formation had already checked your bodies and haven''t found anything, otherwise you would be dead already." Krune nodded, it did make sense, the Rasie Clan was their mortal foe, there is no way that the Secret Realms created by them wouldn''t have counter measures against members of the Rasie Clan infiltrating. "Very well, then please tell us more about the tests." Chapter 53 - Thats a Real Brother! The man in the illusory formation nodded. The illusory formation then showed a space room with several paintings turned against their views, those paints were positioned in different places, some were close, others were really far away, it was obviously that the room had a space manipulation formation controlling its size, just like a pocket dimension. "Very well, as a Divine Sense focused sect, our focus is on the soul of the participant, first we are going to test your perception through the Divine Sense and it''s range according to your cultivation, as you all know, Divine Sense permits the user to see everything around them, the sect wants to know how perceptive to the details you are and from how far you can see those details, as you all know, the closer you are to something the easier it is to see the object, we are going to use a few paints especially prepared for this test, your objective is to find on the paintings the things we are asking you to." After finishing explaining the first test, the illusory formation changed again, it''s showing a common room now, the only thing inside was a shining sphere in the center, but something was odd about that sphere, it showed some ripples every few seconds, they couldn''t see through its effects. "On the second test, that sphere will test the endurance of the of the soul, your souls will receive a Divine Sense attack according to the level of your cultivation, the first attacks won''t do much damage so you don''t need to be afraid of suddenly dying or having you soul injured, but please be careful, there is several levels for this test, after you resist ten attacks, the level of the test will increase, this test has a total of ten levels, so if you notice that you can''t resist anymore, immediately take you hand out of the sphere, do not try to insist, injuries to the soul are very hard to heal, it''s not worth losing your future potential for short term results." The illusory formation came back to normal and only the man was appearing again, he looked at Krune and the others outside and said "For now you only need to know about those two tests, if you pass them, you will be recognized as part of the Mohie Sect and will gain the rights to participate in the further tests to receive the legacy of our sect, those tests have to do with Divine Sense attack, Defence and some other special uses like being able to see through formations that try to keep the Divine Sense out and some other uses, so you don''t need to care about those for now, so what will you decide?" Krune pondered a bit and asked him first. "In general, how long those tests take? If we fail, can we try again?" "The tests itself shouldn''t take long, there is also no limit for the number of times you want to try either, in fact, you are quite lucky, in the past every cultivator could only take the test once a year, that''s because we had too much contestants and it used a lot of resources, but now there is only the four of you here, and I doubt you have told anyone else to come to this place either, even if you had, they would have to pass the first test outside, otherwise, they won''t even be able to come here to start with." Krunes curiosity was picked here "That''s right, why is the illusion formations test outside made in a city of commoners, also, has there been any commoners living there at all in the past?" The man in the illusory formation heard that and gave a quick laugh. "Smart! Indeed, that was a city made for normal people to live in, not cultivators, but just as you have guessed, there has never been common people living there, I will give you four a hint, what do you think about common people, or in the case of this guy inside the illusory formation, what do you think about common beasts?" Krune and the others were taken aback, what do they think about common people and beasts? They pondered a bit and it was Ao who thought about an answer first. "Both common people and common beast, without them, there is no cultivators, except for a very few exceptions, no one is born a cultivator, we were all common people or beast in the past, so the common people city outside is just for us to remember from where we all came from¡­ I guess." Krune translated Ao words to the man, that answer made the man in the illusory formation very happy. "Exactly, it''s a pity we can''t make a proper first test anymore, otherwise our friend here in human form would have been sent to a different place to understand that he was once a common beast, probably a forest I think." Krune, on the other hand, didn''t care, most of his time in Katiu Forest was spent fleeing from both humans and demon beasts cultivators, and he doesn''t feel like he wants to remember that to start with. "Very well, I will talk to my friends first and start preparing, when we are ready we will come back here." Krune was just about to leave the illusory formation when he remembered one thing. "Oh right, why is it called Mohie Sect?" The man just laughed a little and said. "Nothing much, it''s just that the founder of the sect was called Mohie, his full name was Mohie Zarks, he was the one who gave the sect its name in the start, according to what I know he founded the sect alone, so he just made things simple and put his name there, that''s all. Pretty boring, right? Even the higher ups thought it to be like that back then." The man just laughed after that. "Are you or were you a descendant of this Mohie Zarks guys?" The man shook his head "As far as I know, he didn''t leave behind any descendant, of course, my position in the sect was very low, so I might not have been told about possible descendants, my name before I left a sliver of my will in this formation was Hase Hasik, a pretty common name from where I came from." Krune nodded and then stepped out of the formation, as soon as he left, the formation deactivated and the man disappeared, Krune looked at everyone and then said. "I shouldn''t have too much of a problem to pass the first two tests with the power of my Divine Sense and soul, but I don''t think it will be that much more difficult for you guys either." Shinja and the others nodded, they know very well how ridiculous Krune''s Divine Sense is, and it''s not something one should have at his level of cultivation. "How did you train your soul to this extent? Perhaps we can do the same before taking the test." Krune shook his head. "Remember that I''m a wisp, a wisps soul is connected to their core, when I was breaking through the foundation establishment, I wasn''t simply breaking my inner core, my soul which is attached to it was also suffering greatly, all that time I spent to slowly grind my cores interior had in the end tempered my soul, but that was a process of excruciating pain, the problem is that you human don''t have a soul inside your datians, so you didn''t pass through the same process as me." "After that my soul was tempered by the tribulation lightning at the end of my breakthrough, that was again, because my soul can only exist in my core at that moment, perhaps in the future when my cultivation is high enough, I will be able to separate it from my core, but that is something for later, now I''m using the tribulation lightning that is inside my core to keep this painful process of tempering, but you guys don''t have something like that to start with." Ao looked at Krune and then asked. "Can''t we use your tribulation lightning?" Krune pondered a bit but before he could talk, Shinja intervened. "I don''t think it''s a good idea, I also passed through the tribulation lightning when I completed my universe foundation, the lightning of the heavenly tribulation is something directed at the person, if Krune''s tribulation lightning is still the same one, then it is probably something that only he can use to temper his soul. Changes are that if we try to temper our souls with that, the tribulation lightning will see us as someone who is trying to stop it from fulfilling its job and will increase its power several times to eliminate the thing that is in its way, although I can''t be sure about that I believe I''m not wrong." Yusa and Ao looked at them and asked. "So, except for Shinja who already has a Soul Power and Divine Sense stronger than those at her level, we can only try it out with our ordinary ones, right? If it''s not possible, we might as well enter straight away since it will make no difference for than me and Ao, the things that Krune went through were basically coincidences pilled together, and we can''t do the same as him." Krune smiled and then said. "You don''t need to worry too much, let me ask you, why do you think your control over your own elements increased so much?" Shinja heard that question and her eyes lit up, she even smiled a bit, she knows what Krune is trying to say, so she left it for Ao and Yusa to answer. "It''s because of the pointers you gave us, thanks to that we could find the flaws in our own skills and improve their usages, that''s how our control got much better." Krune shook his head. "This is only half right, remember that to increase the control over the elements, the higher the soul power and Divine Sense, the better you control will be, so how come your control over your own specialized elements can possibility you to jump cultivation levels to fight those at higher level than you without your soul power and Divine Sense being on par with that?" Ah! Ao and Yusa were surprised, indeed, thanks to Krune they have improved their control over their elements a lot, they can even fight those two stages above in the same realm, but just Krunes pointers shouldn''t be enough for Yusa and Ao to have such achievement, without a powerful enough soul power and Divine Sense, it shouldn''t be possible. "Are you telling us that our soul power and Divine Sense got stronger because we learnt how to better control our elements?" Krune nodded. "I believe so, the reason you didn''t notice it before is because ever since the three of us joined in a team, you have always left long range Divine Sense detection for me to take care of, first, because you were afraid that your own Divine Sense would be detected by the enemy, second, because you felt that with me here there was no use in spreading your own Divine Senses to the max distance possible." Krune looked at Yusa and Ao "That is especially so for the two of you, we have been together for much longer than what Shinja had, so the effects should be much more obvious with the two of you, also, because Shinja had got a much better training, her control over the elements was already good to start with, so her soul benefited from that, try to expand your Divine Sense to the max and see how far it can goes, the inner city doesn''t have blockage for Divine Sense like outside, so you shouldn''t be hindered here." Yusa and Ao looked at each other and nodded, they are both at the 5th stage of the Foundation Establishment, although they can''t reach Krune or Shinja''s level due to their universe foundation, it shouldn''t be that bad, an ordinary Foundation Establishment at the 5th stage should be able to spread their Divine Sense for over 3 kilometers. But to their surprise, they were able to reach a little more than four kilometres, it was obvious that their Divine Sense were on par with ordinary cultivators at the peak of 6th stage or even 7th stage cultivators. Shinja looked at that and nodded. "It does make sense, my own Divine Sense has always been stronger than normal cultivators at my level, considering that their control over the elements is on par with mine, it goes without saying that they should have stronger Divine Sense and soul power than the others." Yusa and Ao were ecstatic, they haven''t paid attention to it before, although they obviously can''t compare with someone like Krune, they are definitely much stronger normal cultivators. "With this we should be able to see the details in those paints in the first test much easier!" Krune then thought about something. "I told you before that I have been using tribulation lightning to temper my soul, but in the end, I''m basically attacking it, I have an idea that you might be able to use too." The other three looked at Krune with expectation "Isn''t the second test an endurance test? The guy in the illusory formation said that you soul will be tested through Divine Sense attacks to test how resilient it is, you might as well repeat the process instead of passing the test, keep doing it until you feel you have improved enough, although it shouldn''t be as good as a heavenly tribulation, it should be possible." Everyone eyes lit up, indeed, since Krune could temper his soul through constant attacks, they should be able to do the same, and the method seems much safer than his one. Ao couldn''t help but comment happily. "Doesn''t matter what cultivators at our levels have on themselves, with this improvement in Divine Sense and Soul Power, they won''t be able to hide anything for us anymore!" Shinja and Yusa nodded. It was then that Krune suddenly thought about something. Ao Sulian noticed that look in his eyes and had a chill on his back, just as he was about to leave straight away, Krune grabbed his arm. "Wait a little before you go, I have a question for you guys." Ao wanted to cry, he doesn''t want to stay at all, he knows what is coming, Krune definitely had some weird thought again. "It isn''t anything complicated, it''s just that I have never paid attention to it before." He continued "You humans always told me that you feel embarrassed to walk without clothes, but Divine Sense can see through everything unless some formation or something else is in place to stop it, what is the point in using clothes when Divine Senses can see through everything anyway? Not to mention that with Divine Sense you have a full 360 degrees view, which should be even more detailed." Shinja''s face immediately turned into a tomato, Yusa just let out a helpless sigh, she looked at Shinja and then said. "Don''t worry, Krune is a wisp, you should have understood by now that he has no interest in the female humans bodies." Krune nodded and then looked at Ao, Ao noticed Krune''s eyes on him and knew that a storm was coming. "I indeed don''t, but Ao is a male human, so you do have interest in the bodies of other female humans, don''t you? Ao almost fainted right there and then, he looked at Yusa and Shinja and could see that they were looking at him with disgust. "Cough, cough, I do have interest in the other females bodies, I''m a man after all, but I don''t use my Divine Sense to look inside." Krune got puzzled. "But if you don''t do that, how can you find the best partner to carry out your seed?" Ao was sweating rivers. "Well, I guess the shape doesn''t matter much, only if you like each other it should be okay to look." Ao gave a thumbs up for himself mentally, he had answered it beautifully! He should have avoided the catastrophe now. Too bad though, his friend was Krune. "I see, just like how we like Yusa and Shinja, right?" Ao''s jaw dropped. Bother, please shup up! "I understand, from now on, I will make sure to look through and pay attention to those who I like." Krune spread his Divine Sense immediately after that, Shinja and Yusa could feel his coloured eyes on them, Krune was in line for another wave of pain, worst of all¡­ Poor Ao was dragged with him, what a friend! To pass through joy and pain together, that''s a real brother! Chapter 54 - Hasik Was Right, the Heavens Have Eyes! After ''painfully'' thinking that he still has a lot to understand about human''s habits, Krune and the other were preparing to start the testing, Krune, of course, didn''t have much to get ready, so he was the first to come back to the Order Hall. "I will start the sect entrance test now, can you tell me where I should go?" The illusory man, Hase Hasik, appeared again and gave a satisfied nod. "Just stay where you are, I will teleport you over there." Before being teleported, Krune asked if his companions could watch the test, Hasik didn''t have anything against it so he simply showed the testing room for them through the illusionary formation in the Order Hall. After appearing inside, Krune looked around and sure enough, it was indeed the place that was showed to everyone before, this dimensional room extended so far away that Krune couldn''t see the end of it. ''It should be this big because the ones who did the test in the past weren''t just Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment cultivators, Core Formation and probably even Divine Soul cultivators also participated in this test before.'' Krune then saw those paint moving closer to him, that was understandable, the test was always adjusted according to the level of the cultivator, after the painting stopped at certain places, the a somewhat robotic voice appeared in the room. "The test will start now, please stand on the area marked by the turtle symbol." After krune moved over, the robotic voice continued. "Each painting have a certain number of marks hidden behind the image painted, those paintings have their back turned to you and each one of them has a formation on their backs preventing you from being able to see what is in the painting through the back." "You can just tell which kind of painting it is without telling how many hidden marks is there, in this case you can move to the next painting obtaining a low accomplishment level. If you can tell how many hidden marks is hidden inside the painting, you can move to the next painting with a high level accomplishment." "Once you have surpassed three paintings, regardless if you got only low accomplishment or high accomplishment, it will be considered as successful and you can try the next test." "For those who pass three paintings with high accomplishment levels, it will also be considered successful and the participant will get one thousand Rank Four low quality spirit stones as reward." Krune was a little puzzled, that is because there is a total of five paintings in the test, not three. "What about those two furthest ones." The voice answered "Those are for the participants who have a high level of soul power and Divine Sense, you can give it a try if you guess the first three correctly, the last two have only one level of accomplishment, you must see which kind of painting it is and the hidden marks hidden inside." "If you guess the forth one correctly, you will gain five thousand Rank For middle quality spirit stones, and ten thousand Rank Four high quality spirit stones if you guess the fifth one." Krune took a deep breath. ''Ten thousand Rank Four high quality spirit stones! I might be able to create my eighth Spiritual Energy Meridians with those.'' "Lastly, the marks that you are searching inside are the same as the turtle symbol you are stepping at moment, your test starts now!" Krune didn''t waste time, he spread his Divine Sense to cover the first painting, just as robotic voice said, the back of the painting that was turned to him had a formation impeding his Divine Sense to see through it, he could only see what was hidden inside through the front which was turned away from him, Krune gave a quick check and he soon saw the number of marks hidden inside the image. "First paint, mountains with a river passing in between, seven hidden marks." "Correct" Hase Hasik gave a satisfied nod back in the room where Krune''s companions were watching the test. ''That was very fast, maybe he can at least see what the image on the forth painting is, that will be already very good.'' But then he heard a comment from Yusa who was watching the test. "Don''t you think that all five paintings are way too close? I might not be able to see what is inside of the fifth one, but I would definitely be able to see the forth without a problem." Ao nodded. "Maybe it is because Krune''s test was adjusted to the 4th stage of the Foundation Establishment, when it comes our time, it should be a little further since our cultivation is higher, but this is a good thing for Krune, after all only Shinja who is at the peak of the 9th stage have a Divine Sense a little better than his." Hasik was alarmed! ''Divine Sense almost comparable to a peak 9th stage Foundation Establishment cultivator? Is that even possible?'' But he decided to keep paying attention to the test, if it was true, then he will be able to see that through this test. Back at the testing room, Krune was checking the second image, 30 seconds later¡­ "Second Image, A house, 12 marks." "Correct." Another thirty seconds "Third image, a sea of fishes, 5 marks." "Correct." Thirty seconds again "Forth image, clouded sky, 9 marks. "Correct." And then "Fifth image, a black tortoise, 10 marks." "Correct, test is over." The teleportation formation from where Krune appeared started to shine, Krune also noticed that his spirit stones reward was beside the teleportation formation, Krune put the spirit stones inside his spatial ring and stepped on the formation, he soon appeared back in the room where Hasik and his companions were watching the test. Yusa went forward and said. "That seemed quite simple, the furthest painting was around 5500 meters away, and your Divine Sense can already touch the Eight Kilometers range, no?" Krune nodded. Hasik appeared, his face showing incredulity, eight kilometres, 4th stage Foundation Establishment, that''s a heaven defying Divine Sense for someone at that level. "How did you even train your soul? This level of Divine Sense is out of the charts, I have never seen such a powerful Divine Sense at your level before!" Krune and the others just smiled. "If I happen to obtain the Mohie Sect legacy and gain full control over this Secret Realm, then I will tell you, until there, this is our little secret." Hasik didn''t get angry at that answer, to be able to achieve this level of Soul Power and Divine Sense, it was obviously something that can''t be spread to outsiders that easily, if anything, he was pleased with Krune''s answer. Krune was also happy with this tests, he doesn''t need to try to keep a low profile in this place, there is no one to see him after all, Krune was feeling like he was in a paradise! Yusa went forward and stepped on the formation. "Let me try now, those spirit stones are mine!" Hase Hasik didn''t mind, he teleported her over and the test started, as expected, the paintings were placed further than when it was Krunes time, but she was still able to see the marks inside the forth painting image, when Yusa was back to the room, she looked sad, in the end she could see the fifth image but couldn''t see the hidden marks inside, it was too far away for her. "My beloved ten thousand spirit stones, gone just like that." She still grabbed the five thousand Rank Four middle quality spirit stones as if it was her life though. "It''s my time." Ao entered the formation and was teleported to the test room, his results were the same as Yusa, it just took a little longer for him to be able to see what the image of the fifth painting was. But that was to be expected, Yusa had a better control over elements than him when they first met, so it''s normal for her to have a little bit more advantage over him, he didn''t mind though, he will catch up soon or later. After receiving his five thousand spirit stones, Ao left. Shinja was the last one, her control over the water element was already much better than Yusa and Ao due to her Pure Yin Body, so even with the little time she spend with Krune and the others, she still benefited quite a little, after the paintings were positioned according to her cultivation level, she was still able to see the fifth painting image, it was also possible to barely see the marks hidden inside it, but in the end she missed the right number by one, so she also received five thousand spirit stones as reward. Back at the Order Hall, Hasik was smiling from ear to ear, he would be happy if at least one of them could see the image from the forth painting, but not only were all of them able to see the images and hidden marks of the forth image, they were also able to see the images of the fifth paintings and Krune could even see the hidden marks with easy, how could he not be happy? He was almost tearing up already! "The heavens have eyes, the heavens have eyes." Krune''s mouth twitched a little hearing that, the heavens almost turned him into crispy wisp, he doesn''t have a good impression of the heavens at all! Hasik expression turned serious again and said. "Congratulations for successfully pass the first test of the Mohie Sect! To be honest, I don''t think any of you will have any problem in passing the second test either, so if you want, I can start straight away." Krune then asked "In the second test we are going to test endurance, can we purposely fail so as to further temper our souls?" Hase Hasik was surprised that they thought about this point. "You can, but once you pass the test you will receive soul cultivation techniques anyway, are you sure you want to spend time tempering your soul through the Divine Sense attacks?" Yusas eyes shined at that moment. "But if we pass after resisting all ten levels of Divine Sense attacks our rewards will be much better, no?" Hasik had a weird expression on his face after hearing that, in the past no one cared for the spirit stones, it was their honour to simply be able to join the sec, but look at that now. Hasik couldn''t help but sigh. "There is, resist five levels of attacks to receive 1000 Rank Four spirit stones of low quality. Seven levels to receive 5000 of middle quality, and all ten levels to receive 10000 of high quality." Krune''s eyes lit up as well, he already has 10000 at moment, and if he gets another 10000 he will definitely have enough to complete his eighth Spiritual Energy Meridian! "I''m going first since I should be able to pass all ten levels already, you guys can decide whether to train through the Divine Sense attacks to temper your soul first or pass straight away to get a soul cultivation technique, but I would recommend you to temper the soul first." Ao and the other were puzzled and looked at Krune, it should be better to get the cultivation technique and start straight away, no? Hase Hasik, on the other hand, got excited with Krune''s words, but he didn''t show it on his face. "Is it because we might be able to get the 10000 high quality spirit stones?" Kruno nodded but then shook his head. "That''s also true but there is another reason for that." Krune then turned around and asked Hase Hasik. "Hase, this cultivation technique for the soul is not the same as tempering the soul, am I right?" Hase hasik heard that and was dazed for a moment, then he started to laugh out loud. "Great! You are right, this is not the same as tempering the soul. Well then, let me hear, can you guess why?" Krune smiled and the told the others. "If I''m not wrong, to temper the soul is the same as build a foundation for the soul cultivation technique, so the more tempered the soul is before start cultivating it, the better and faster the results will be." Then he turned back to Hasik "How was it?" Hase hasik eyes were shinning, he couldn''t help but think. ''The Mohie sect has finally found someone worthy! Well, maybe it won''t be called Mohie for much longer. Master, I didn''t let you down.'' He looked at everyone and then nodded. "Krune is right, the better tempered your soul is before start cultivating, the better will be the results of the cultivation, the best result would be for all of you to be able to at least resist the ten levels of attacks of the second test, of course, if you think you can''t do it no matter what, you can simply give up after you have resisted at least five levels, you will still be considered a member of the Mohie Sect after that." No one in that room wanted to stop at five levels, they have already decided, for the sake of their future, they have to temper their souls until they are able to resist all ten levels. ''And for the sake of the 10000 Rank Four high quality spirit stones too!'' Thought Yusa and Krune. "Are you all ready?" Everyone nodded, a painful soul tempering session is about to start, while Yusa, Ao and Shinja were excited to start, Krune was laughing inside, it was true that his objective was to help his companion to get stronger, but there was also another reason extremely important behind it. ''You guys will finally have a taste of my suffering! While you are crying during the tempering because of the pain, I will be outside enjoying your tears! Hahaha!'' Krune thought that perhaps Hase Hasik was right, the Heavens really have eyes! Chapter 55 - I Would Take the Idiot Though. But to enjoy that view, Krune has to first pass the test himself, but then again, if him who had his soul tempered with tribulation lightning doesn''t pass, then the others better give up there and then. He was teleported to the room with the sphere in the center, it shined goldenly and left some ripples now and then, Krune moved forward to take a close look at it. It was then that the robotic voice talked again. "Second test, soul endurance, you will receive ten attacks, if you resist all of them, the level of the attacks will increase and you will receive ten attacks again, as long as you resist five levels of ten attacks each, you will pass the test, contestant has one minute to put his hands over the Divine Sense sphere at the center of the room, if contestant wants to give up, just release your hands from the Divine Sense sphere and the test will be over, test starts now!" Krune took a deep breath and put his hands over the sphere, outside, Shinja and the other were observing Krune''s performance, if Krune doesn''t pass, then they will have even less of a chance of doing so. Krune put his hands over the Divine Sense sphere and made up his mind. ''I don''t know how to resist the attacks to start with, so I will simply counter attack by sending my Divine sense against the one coming at me, it can''t be considered a real Divine Sense attack but it''s better than nothing.'' Outside, Yusa asked Hasik if it would be too hard for Krune to pass the test. Yusa and the other two understand very well that if Krune doesn''t pass all ten levels, they definitely won''t do any better. "I think he has a good chance of reaching the eighth level, but to resist all ten will be somewhat difficult, but as long as he temper his soul enough to do that it will be very beneficial to his future, of course, if he pass all ten levels, then that''s even better." It was then that they heard a weird sound. "Crack!" Hasik''s eyes glued on the illusory image showing the Divine Sense sphere, he could swear that the sound came from it, just as he was about to check what happened. "Puff" The Divine Sense sphere became dust, it was gone, just like that¡­ Yusa and the other looked at Hasik, the look on their faces told more than a thousand words. ''Wasn''t it supposed to be a somewhat difficult test? How come it broke the moment Krune started?'' Hasik wanted to cry, he also doesn''t know what happened just now. Krune passed through the teleportation formation and was back to the Order Hall, his face looked awkward, he went all out to be sure to resist all ten levels, but the sphere broke just like that, Hasik looked at Krune and simply asked. "When the test started, what did you do?" Krune sighed and recounted what happened, it was then that Hasik understood the situation, he couldn''t help but look at Krune as if he was some anomaly. "Well, I think that because the Divine Sense Sphere adjusts itself according to the contestant level, its defence also does the same, when you counter attacked with all your power, it couldn''t resist a Divine Sense that was at the late stages of the Foundation Establishment and then turned into dust." Krune heard that and felt a little helpless. "The Mohie Sect products are quite low quality, aren''t they?" Hasik''s mouth twitched a little. ''Low quality your head! You were supposed to resist the attacks, not attack back. Do you know how valuable and difficult to make those Divine Sense spheres are?'' "Cough, cough, I will send you to another test room, this time, don''t try to attack back, just resist the attack, this is an endurance test, not an offensive one." Krune nodded and was teleported to another room with another Divine Sense sphere. The robotic voice explained all the rules again and initiated the test. Back at where Krune''s friend were, Hasik and they were watching the test when suddenly. "Crack!" Hasik was just a sliver of will left behind in the illusory formation, but the will almost dissipated in that instant, he looked at the Divine Sense sphere and then¡­ "Puff." It turned into dust again, Hasik wanted to cry but had no tears, Yusa and the other looked at that and then looked at Hasik, and they couldn''t help but say. "Isn''t this Divine Sense sphere a little too fragile?" Hasik pretended that he didn''t hear anything. Krune came back, his face contorting, it was obvious that he also didn''t expect that it would turn to dust the second it started, Hasik looked at Krune and calmed himself. "What exactly did you do now?" Krune shook his head. "I really didn''t do anything, I only protected myself, I didn''t know how to defend against a real Divine Sense attack, so I simply converged my Divine Sense entirely around my soul, but who could have guessed that the attack was so weak that it receive a backlash from my Divine Sense and made the sphere turn into dust again. That thing is too weak, it can''t be used at all!" Hasik started to consider if it was really a good thing to have this guy to receive the Mohie Sect Legacy. ''Whatever, it just means that his Divine Sense power and control are excellent, I should be happy instead.'' He looked at Krune and said, "There is no point in you doing this test anymore, it''s obvious that the Divine Sense sphere isn''t a match to your Divine Sense in the same cultivation level, I will just consider it as you having passed the test with the highest score, just take the spirit stones reward with me when the test for your friends is over." ''Besides, this branch doesn''t have many others, if you break everything, this test will be doomed.'' Krune nodded and stepped aside, Ao went forward first to try his luck against the Divine Sense sphere. This time things went as they should have, Ao resisted the attacks level by level, all the way to the sixth level when he couldn''t hold back anymore, but just as they had discussed earlier, he opted for failing the test, they will use the Divine Sense sphere to temper their souls from now on and only pass after they can resist all ten levels. Yusa did pretty much the same as Ao, deciding to fail at instead of passing, Shinja did a little better, she passed the sixth level but fell short on the seventh, also choosing to fail instead of passing. Outside, Krune looked at their terrible faces with a bright smile on his face, he doesn''t remember when he had been in such a good mood before, Yusa looked at him and for some reason his smile made she feel like giving him another beating. "What is so funny?" Krune came back to himself and turned his face away. "Cough, cough. Nothing! Nothing at all! Haha!" The other looked at Krune, they didn''t believe a single word that he just said. Krune then left, Hase Hasik had told him to go to another building, the Books Hall, that was the place where he could get a cultivation technique for the soul, when he entered the place he was surprised with the amount of books there, a few puppets walked around cleaning or making new copies of old books, it made Krune remember that this is a Secret Realm from back when technology still didn''t exist, so they kept everything in books. Hasik voice appeared in the Books Hall but not his illusory form, his form could only be seen in the Order Hall. "There is five floors available in this Book Hall, the first three floors have techniques that can be accessed by ordinary disciples, that is your case at moment, the last two can only be accessed by Legacy Disciples, before there was outer, inner and core disciples as well, their access variated too, but now there is no point in having such thing, so now there is only ordinary and legacy, nothing else." "You can chose any technique that you think is compatible for yourself in the first three halls, there is also Divine Sense attack and Defence techniques plus miscellaneous ones too, just take your time and ready through them, the best technique is the one most suited for you, not the strongest, remember that." After that, Hasik''s voice disappeared, Krune then looked at the shelves, there was way too many books, but then again, he has a lot of time as well, so he started to read the introductions of each cultivation technique. --- It had been three days since Krune entered the Book Hall, back at the Divine Sense sphere test rooms, Ao, Yusa and Shinja were still in the middle of using the Divine Sense attacks to slowly temper their souls, their progress was much slower than Krune of course, but they still had got some benefits already. Yusa had just finished another round of attacks, he face was pale due to the constant attacks, but she would be okay after recovering for a while. ''This thing hurts as hell, if it was a tribulation lightning, I might have been dead already, how did that idiot survive that in the end?'' She then remembered that smile Krune was giving when they first tried the test, she finally understood why he was so happy at that moment. ''Just you wait!'' She could only sigh and concentrate on recovering, it will take some time before she can complete all ten levels. At Ao and Shinja sides, the situation wasn''t much different, although the last three days had helped them improve their souls, the time that they need to wait for it to recover still took the most of their time, but cultivation has always been a slow process, there was no point in caring about that now, at least they can still cultivate while they wait for their souls to go back to its peak state. At Krune''s side, he had already read the introduction of the techniques of the first and second floor, but he still haven''t found one to his taste, he noticed a point that all Divine Sense cultivation techniques had in common, they were usually centered in a certain element, simply put, through the use of the best element that the cultivator can control, the Divine Sense technique will have better results, the problem is, Krune doesn''t specialize in any element, although there is a few elements the he uses more than others like fire and wind, the fact is that if one thinks about control only, he is pretty much good at all of them. One mustn''t look down on the Myriad Energies Technique! Krune couldn''t see any cultivation for all elements so far, so he went back to the Order Hall to ask Hasik about it. "A Divine Sense cultivation technique for someone specialized in all elements?" Krune nodded "I don''t have any preference over elements, I can pretty much use anything, so if I get a cultivation technique that uses only a single element to cultivate, I feel like it will be a waste over the others. The most that I found in the three floors was a few techniques that could be used through the control of two or at most three elements at same time, but not a single one for all five main elements together." Hasik pondered a bit, but in the end he shook his head. "It''s not like there isn''t, but those techniques are extremely rare, because of this they are only available in the fifth floor, and there is only three of them on top of that, you will need to become a legacy disciple first before being able to see them. I might as well tell you that they are very difficult to cultivate." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Isn''t it weird, if there is a disciple capable of cultivate a five elements Divine Sense technique but he can''t access them, would it be a waste of a talent?" Hasik nodded his head. "You are right about that point, in those cases there was an option for such disciples, it was to get enough contribution points from the Sect and exchange with the required cultivation technique, but now such thing as contribution points don''t exist anymore, so the option is useless now." Hasik looked at Krune and felt helpless. "Alright, let''s do it like this, it you can tell me how your Divine Sense got this strong while still at the 4th Stage of the Foundation Establishment, I can trade the information for the cultivation technique in the fifth floor. Don''t think that I''m taking advantage of you, the Divine Sense cultivation techniques in the fifth floor might not be many, but they are still extremely precious, I refuse to believe that they are any less valuable than your information." Krune pondered a bit, the problem is because Hasik is only a sliver of a will, so he can''t sign a blood contract to keep the secret, not to mention that if the real Hasik was here, his cultivation would probably be more than sufficient to ignore the existence of the blood contract anyway. Hase hasik understood what Krune was thinking. "A blood contract would be useless even if I was the real Hasik, but I guarantee that I won''t spread it around without your permission, first of all, I would need someone to come here first before being able to say anything, you should know very well that to reach this place isn''t anything easy at all." Krune finally gave up and decided to go ahead with the trade. ''What is the point if I don''t get the most suited technique? It''s not like this is something that can be copied by someone anyway.'' Krune then explained to Hasik how was the process of creating his foundation, the Heavenly Tribulation, and how he now has tribulation lightning in his rainbow core that he can use to further temper his soul. When Hase hasik heard it, he first thought that Krune was making fun of him, who would believe that you can use tribulation lightning? But then Krune summoned a little of the tribulation lightning power for Hasik to see, if even after looking at it he doesn''t believe, then there is nothing more Krune could do. "To think that someone was crazy enough to use tribulation lightning for soul tempering, I don''t know if I should call you brave or idiot. I would take the idiot though." Krune''s mouth twitched, but since the trade was completed, he didn''t biker with Hasik over that comment. He then went back to the Books Hall and as soon as he entered, the three cultivation techniques that used all elements were already in the table in front of the first shelves, seems like he still can''t enter the fourth and fifth floor anyway, Hasik just sent down the cultivation techniques that he required. ''Let''s take a look.'' Chapter 56 - Let Me Take Care of You. There was three techniques in front of him. The first one was the Elemental Sense technique, it was quite good, the only problem is that it was more focused on the human''s soul, Krune could still cultivate it, but it wouldn''t be as effective as if a human did so. The second one was the Soul Protection technique, it wasn''t focused in any race in specific, but it was used mainly on defence against all type of elements Divine Sense attacks, other than that it was quite weak in other areas. The last one was called All Encompassing Soul Technique, it wasn''t an attack or defence focused technique, but a miscellaneous one, its attack and defence weren''t bad but couldn''t compare with a real attack or defence technique, it''s main focus was in the other uses of the Divine Sense like Formation Penetration or Elements Changing, simply put, it was an excellent technique for those who had side occupations, Krune didn''t need to think much to choose this one, his soul is already extremely powerful due to his tribulation lightning tempering, it should make up for the techniques deficiency in attack and defence, not to mention that he had a side occupation which is alchemy. ''I wonder if I will be able to sync the elements in the pills I make over 30% if I master this technique.'' Soul cultivation techniques don''t have realms like spiritual energy cultivation, their focus is in the possibility of a much better use of the Soul and Divine Sense other than just observe things, the limit of the technique lies in the user himself, how much he can learn and adapt to it is the key of the Soul and Divine Sense cultivation. Krune didn''t waste time, although he already got a cultivation technique that he should only be able to get after becoming a Legacy Disciple, there is still another things to be gain by formally becoming one, like the control over the Secret Realm and the resources available after it. --- Time passed and Krune''s group had stayed inside the Mohie Sect Secret realm for over ten months already, just as Krune expected, Yusa and the others still haven''t passed the ten levels of the soul endurance test, but Shinja was very close, she could already endure all the way to the last five Divine Sense attacks in the tenth level, it wouldn''t take more than one or at most two months for her to finish the test. Yusa and Ao had just reached the tenth level, but they haven''t tried to endure any attack yet, it was already their limit to simply resist the ninth level entirely, Krune recognized that it should still take over four to five months before they get to finish the endurance test, but that is already an amazing progress. It also shows how much higher graded the tempering power of the tribulation lightning is, even though their souls have been tempered through the Divine Sense attacks from the endurance test every single day, they are still a far cry from Krune''s speed. Everyone cultivation had also improved, with all the spirit stone that they got from the previous test, it would be surprising if they hadn''t, not to mention that most of the time that Yusa and the others spent was meditating to recover their soul for another round of endurance test, so they could use that time for cultivating instead. Yusa and Ao had already broken through the 6th level of the Foundation Establishment and had already stabilized their cultivations at the peak of the 6th stage, they should be able to breakthrough into the 7th stage in no time, Shinja didn''t break through the Core Formation Stage, but her soul had become much stronger, which would be crucial for the Core Formation, she was confident that once she finished her soul tempering, she would be able to enter the Core Formation Stage even if she didn''t have any special item to help with it. That was also her main reason for wanting to enter the Furiu Realm, but now there was no reason anymore, not to mention that being able to achieve the Core Formation Realm without the help of any items would be much better for the cultivator''s future. Krune had also achieved a breakthrough into the 5th stage of the Foundation Establishment, and he could have forced his way into the 6th Stage already if he wanted, but he opted for not doing so, he had been breaking through the stages way too fast, he could already feel some instability in his planet inside his foundation, so he opted for giving some time for his foundation to adapt to his current level naturally, although he doesn''t have a long life span, he still have over 14 years before his time is over, there is no need to rush it to the point of prejudicing his future. He had also opened his eighth Spiritual Energy Meridian, when he was opening the eighth one, he called the others over to take a look, especially Shinja who hadn''t seen it before, she had also started to cultivate the Myriad Energies Technique, but just like Ao, she hadn''t cultivated it in the past when her cultivation path started, so she had to start from zero as well. Krune was in a training room trying out the Formation Penetration Divine Sense skill when he suddenly received a call from Yusa, not only him, but Ao and Shinja as well. When they gathered, Yusa gave the news. "I finally finished creating my last Pseudo Energy Meridian." Krune and the others were surprised, it had taken a long time, but finally someone other than a wisp had achieved it, Krune and the others have been wondering if other races could create Spiritual Energy Meridians, but without anyone with all nine pseudo meridians created, it was impossible to test it out. It was normal for Yusa to be the first to finish creating all nine pseudo energy meridians, after all, when she started cultivating, she had used the Myriad Energy Techniques to gather spiritual energy to open her normal meridians, so she already had the experience to form four meridians straight away. "That''s great, can you start straight away?" Yusa nodded, she waited to recover to her peak before calling everyone. "That''s good, remember what I said before, even I took a long time and failed who knows how many times before being able to finally create the very first one, my disciple took even longer, so don''t get dispirited just because you aren''t able to get things done at first." Yusa nodded again. "Also, I still think that wisps have an easier time during the creation of the Spiritual Energy Meridian, you can see that when you think that you took longer than me or even my disciple who started from zero, but it might be because of the much higher life spans that you all have, unfortunately, we don''t have enough information to prove this theory yet." Krune looked at everyone and said. "I will stay nearby just in case, this is an individual process and at most I can give you some pointers, this is bound to take a lot of time, so the rest of us will continue to do our own things, I doubt you will finish creating your first one in a months'' time anyway, even for me it took over two weeks to get over with it, so take your time and don''t rush things, if anything happens, just give me a call." Everyone exited the room and gave space for Yusa to work, it was something that depended on her own comprehension ability after all. --- While everyone was doing their best to train in the Mohie Secret Realm, the mercenary and alchemist guild of Kaley City were in chaos, Krune had disappeared ever since he got the last mission for the Raskie Danger Zone, no one saw him or his companions as well, the mercenary guild was in an even worse state since Shinja was gone with him, both Krune and Shinja are extremely important for them. Go Gao, the Kaley City Alchemist Guild supervisor and Lu Ganan, the Kaley City Mercenary Guild supervisor were talking in a private room about this issue, on one side, Go Gao seemed furious. "I told you to give Krune to us, didn''t I? Look at it now, he might as well be dead at moment!" Lu Ganan retorted. "Who the hell would give him to you? Besides, I told you a million times, he isn''t dead, we still have a sliver of his spiritual energy in the mercenary guild, if he was dead it would have disappeared already." "It doesn''t change the fact that if you hadn''t let him take that stupid mission, he wouldn''t have disappeared!" Go Gao simply didn''t care anymore. Lu Ganan, of course, wouldn''t give a damn for what the alchemist said. "I have sent people to look for him, but no trace was found, Raskie Danger zone is a fog forest with the power to hinder the spiritual sense, so there is little we can do about that, but the mission that Krune and the others had taken wasn''t a dangerous one to start with, it would at most take some time to finish, but we went to the area where they could hunt the fog beasts necessary for that mission, but no one saw them at all." Go Gao gave a helpless sigh. "Could it be that the guilds from the other continents came to take him away? They might have convinced him that they have better resources to make him join them." Lu Ganan went silent for a second. "Although I consider it improbable, I can''t guarantee that that isn''t the case, but Krune doesn''t strike me as someone who would give his back to those who extended a helping hand without at least giving a reason." This time it was Go Gao who went silent. "All we know is that he is still alive and so does Shinja and the others, if calamity really had struck them, at least one or two would have died, right? But they are all alive and kicking, I don''t think anything bad happened to them, who knows, they might be training inside Raskie Danger Zone and lost the sense of time." Lu Ganan was partially right, he was right that Krune and the other were training, but he was wrong in thinking that they lost the sense of time, they knew very well how long they were inside of the Mohie Sect Secret Realm, it''s just that they didn''t care about what both guilds thought about their disappearance. Why would they care anyway? Krune''s group never thought of themselves as some big shoot, Krune might have very big talents, but that was that, geniuses appeared and disappeared all the time, it was normal, in their minds, the guild wouldn''t care much if he came back or not. The problem is that they didn''t know that the Mercenary Guild put a lot of importance on Krune because of the Martial Gathering, they hadn''t commented about that with Krune even once until now, so Krune''s group can''t be blamed. As for Shinja, she had always been alone, those at the Foundation Establishment knew that she didn''t care about what the others said, in her eyes, even if she disappears, at most they will think that se secluded herself somewhere and would eventually appear, some would even wish that she was dead, what she forgot is that by this time the Furiu Realm had already closed, so she doesn''t have any reason to stay with Krune anymore, but since she disappeared together with Krune and kept at that even after the Furiu Realm closed, people started to think that perhaps she joined Krunes group, two super genius of the foundation establishment, how could the other teams in the sky rank not be preoccupied after hearing about it? --- Unaware of the ruckus outside, another month passed since Yusa started to create her own Spiritual Energy Meridian, just as Krune had explained to her before, it really took a lot of time, it seemed like wisps really had much easier time doing its creation, but then again, she couldn''t complain, when she thought about how wisps lived and even their life spans, she understood that she had absolute no rights to say anything. Everyone were gathered in the room where Yusa was resting after another few days of failures, they were having a chat to help her alleviate some of the stress, Krune knows better than anyone else how hard it on owns mind the process is. After some time, Krune looked at everyone and then said. "Alright everyone, let''s go, Yusa is very close to succeed from what I saw last time, she just need a final push now." Shinja and Ao nodded and were just about to leave with Krune when Yusa remembered something, she showed an evil smile and looked at Krune. Krune felt a chill on his back when he saw that, Yusa licked her lips and said. "If I''m successful, let me have a good time with you, I promise it won''t hurt¡­ much." Krune immediately covered his crotch, his face showing fear! "Wha- whatt will you try to do with me? I''m Feifei''s only, I can''t give my first time to anyone else, and I''m a loyal wisp!" Yusa''s face immediately darkened. Who the hell wants to do ''that'' with you? That wasn''t what she meant at all! Ao and Shinja looked at Yusa with their jaws dropped. "Yusa, we didn''t know that you had those kind of feelings for Krune." Shinja and Ao put a hand on one of her shoulders each. "But we will help you if this is really what you want." Yusa almost fainted right there and then, this was the first time she felt like beating Shinja as well. "Feelings your head! Don''t you remember how many times he laughed when he saw our pale faces because of the soul tempering? I want to get my revenge for that!" Shinja and Ao finally understood what she meant, so that''s what she was talking about. Krune also let out a sigh of relief and shook his head. "Why must you say such easy to misunderstand thing? For a second I thought that I would be forced to give you a child. Do you know how terrifying would it be for me to raise a child of yours? Stop frightening others." Yusa heard that and smiled brightly at Krune. Ao and Shinja backs started to sweat, without Krune noticing, they left the room and closed the door without any sound. Ao turned to Shinja and said. "I''ll go outside find some incense to burn for Krune, would you like to come?" Shinja nodded. "We better get some extras in case he survives and we burn those ones by mistake, we can use them in the future." Ao agreed with her, that it was a very good idea. Chapter 57 - Do I Look Like Some Villain? Leaving Krune''s non sense aside, Yusa focused on the Spiritual Energy Meridian for the next days, in the end, it was as Krune expected, other races can also create them, as it was her first meridian, it didn''t use too much spiritual energy, but the real test would come after it, is it possible to use the Spiritual Energy Meridians together with the normal meridians of a blood and flesh body? The answer was no, it can''t. Yusa tried to use both, but once the Spiritual Energy Meridian started to work, it would occupy all connections to the dantian, in the end, her normal meridians would become just decorations. "I think it is because the Spiritual Energy Meridians are much stronger than any meridian of your body, you can see that since a single meridian alone already does the job of several normal ones, but for that to happens, it needs all connections, for now try to form the next Spiritual Energy Meridians, you are already at the Foundation Establishment after all and have enough spirit stones, once you create four or five meridians, see if it is better than using all your normal opened meridians together." Yusa nodded. "After you finish that, we can check how good your control over the energies is, the Myriad Energies Technique should improve your control over the elements even more than before too, you should be able to see through flaws and be more perceptive to the elemental energies." Yusa accepted that and started creating her next spiritual energies meridians, although it would take some time, it should be very beneficial for her, not to mention that now that she completed one of them, the next ones would be easier to create. --- Krune returned to his room and resumed his Divine Sense training, he was planning to try the last two tests to become a legacy disciple soon, with his control over the Divine Sense and his constant tempering of the soul with tribulation lightning, Krune''s prowess could already be said to be at the top between the soul races. He was looking at an anti-Divine Sense formation in front of him, one of the skills of the All Encompassing Soul Technique was the Formation Penetration skill, the ability to be able to see through formations that block the Divine Sense. ''If I get successful his time, I will try the legacy disciple tests.'' The skill worked by focusing in a single point of the formation and then pierce through it, just like a needle, after going through the Divine Sense would spread again, the point where it pierced through would be the connection between Krune and what was inside. Krune concentrated on his Divine Sense and gathered all in a corner of the formation, before, all he could do was to expand and contract his divine sense, but after months of training, he can know change the format of his Divine Sense just like his spiritual energy. After enough was gathered, Krune shot his Divine Sense forward and it instantly passed through the formation, his Divine Sense soon expanded on the other side while keeping the link with him, Krune could now see what was behind the formation. ''Success! Although Hasik said that the formation isn''t very high level, it is still not something that can be broken through without alarming others that easily, and the more proficiency I have, the more powerful this ability will become!'' The main use of this ability wasn''t simply seeing what is behind the formation, but being able to see without causing damage to the formation to not alert the people inside, that''s the real use of the Formation penetration skill. Krune took a deep breath and left his room, he sent a message to Ao and Shinja that he was going to try the legacy disciple test now, but asked to not bother Yusa for now while she is creating the next Spiritual Energy Meridians. In the Order Hall, Hase Hasik was looking at Krune, he looked very pleased with Krunes progress over the past 10-11 months, his improvement was going much smoother than Hasik expected. "So, you wish to try the legacy disciple test now, are you sure about that?" Krune nodded, he wouldn''t come here without being confident enough. "Very well, as you probably expected already, the next test is Divine Sense miscellaneous uses and the last one is Divine Sense combat, in the first test you will be asked to complete a few task of the side uses of Divine Sense like the Formation Penetration and Elements Changing View, you don''t need to pay too much attention to this test, because there was very few people who specialized in side uses of the Divine Sense in the past, you only need an accomplishment rate of 30% or more to pass, otherwise the biggest majority of the contestants in the past wouldn''t even be able to reach the last test." Krune understood that logic, it''s just like the other side occupations like alchemist, formations or blacksmith, in the end there isn''t a lot of people who work on them, the majority has always walked the combat path only after all. "Alright, I''m going to teleport you over, good luck." The surroundings around Krune changed for an instant, and when he noticed, he was already in another room, surprisingly, it was the paintings room from the first test to become an ordinary disciple, before he could ask what is happening, the robotic like voice of the test spoke again. "Legacy Disciple first Miscellaneous Divine Sense test, Formation Penetration test, all paintings are completely covered by anti-Divine Sense formations, in the test the contestant will need to pierce through the formation and find which image the painting is about and how many marks are hidden inside. The pass condition is to be able to accurately tell three paintings, damaging the formations will give you a low accomplishment rate, not damaging the formations will give you a high accomplishment rate." Krune understood now. ''I see, this time there is no side without formations, the painting is completely locked.'' Krune also noticed that there was only three paintings this time and no reward was mentioned, but that was to be expected, this is the legacy disciple tests, to become a legacy disciple and gain access to all the resources is the best reward that could be there. ''No wonder Hasik said to not pay much attention to the miscellaneous tests, if I don''t care for the accomplishment rate, I can simply pierce through the formations without caring for any damage, maybe even destroying them completely and then check what is inside, this would be several times easier than seeing what is inside without damaging the formation.'' Krune wasn''t planning to go for a low rate though, not to mention that he was very confident, he could see that this test had again adjusted to his cultivation level, after he broke through the 5th stage, his Divine Sense became even stronger! Krune gathered his Divine Sense in a single point and pierced through the first painting, as soon as he touched the formation, he noticed one thing. ''So easy! The level of the formation in this painting is much lower than the ones I was practicing back in the training room. How come there wasn''t any formation of this level back there?'' Although Krune was curious, he didn''t waste time thinking about it, he swiftly called the number of hidden marks and which image it was. "Correct." And then, Krune moved to the next one, back in the Order Hall, Hasik was looking at that with a smile on his face. ''Seems like I did the right thing in changing the formation of the training room, at first I was afraid that he would give up because of the difficult of piercing through the formations there, I told him that those formations are of low level but that was a lie, they can''t be considered top notch but they are definitely not weak either, but in the end he was still successful in piercing through in just a little less than a year, compared with the formations in the legacy disciple test, those formations in the training rooms are several times harder to see through, this test will be a walk in the park for him.'' ''Cough, cough, not to mention that if I had left the weaker tools and formations in the training rooms, he would have probably destroyed everything.'' Krune, of course, had no idea about that, he just felt awkward with how easy the test was going on, he pierced without damaging the last formation of the of the test and called out its contents. "Correct." "Evaluation rate is high." "Contestant can now move into the second test." The teleportation formation behind Krune shined again and he stepped inside, when he appeared on the other side, he could see a lake, the water inside had several colours, just like his hair and eyes, Krune immediately understood that this is the Elements Changing View test, sure enough, the voice robotic like voice spoke again. "Legacy Disciple second Miscellaneous Divine Sense test, Elements Changing View." "Contestant will have to accurately separate the same elements from the others through the help of his Divine Sense, to pass the test, the contestant will have to put in a single place at least 20% of each element to get a low rate accomplishment, for high rate accomplishment contestant will need to get at least 50% of each element in the lake together with the same element, time given is one hour, test starts now." Krune was very excited in this test, it remembered him the alchemy element synching of the pills before completion. ''I already have an idea about how it works, and the sect made a small lake so that the contestants would be able to see the elements easier on top of that, this way even those with not much talent in side uses of Divine Sense would still be able to pass this test, but for me who can already see the elements in a medicinal liquid inside an alchemy cauldron, this is too easy to get 50%, let alone 20%, let''s see how much I can get together.'' After using all the time available for him, Krune ended up with 73% of all elements in the lake separated, this was already much more than 50%. But Krune also understood that it wouldn''t be this easy while concocting pills. ''At most I will be able to sync 50% of the elements in the medicinal liquid, but this is already much more than what I was able in the past, this All Encompassing Soul technique is really an excellent Divine Sense technique for side occupations.'' While Krune was thinking, the robotic voice appeared again. "Test complete." "High rate accomplishment." "Contestant can move to the next test." Once again, the teleportation formation shined and Krune disappeared. Just like that, Krune kept doing other side tests for miscellaneous Divine Sense uses, their low rate accomplishment were all easy to acquire but Krune still got high rate in everything, the problem was that he ended up destroying quite a few of the testing tools, much for Hasik''s grief, Shinja and Ao could see the sadness on Hasik''s face. After finishing the last test of Divine Sense Touch Perception, Krune was sent back to the Order Hall. Ao and Shinja were looking at the tests and were happy to see that even though they won''t get all tests with high rate of accomplishment, they should still be able to pass with low rates, that was enough for them who didn''t have a side occupation to start with, they also pretended that they didn''t see Krune breaking anything or Hasik might start crying right there and then. Krune looked at Hasik and couldn''t help but ask. "Why some of the tests were much easier than what I used in the training room? Some couldn''t even be mentioned in the same line like the Formation Penetration test." Hase hasik laughed out loud "So you noticed, uh? That''s right, the training rooms that I provided to you had much harder training tools and formations than what you find in the tests, it''s not that I''m pulling your leg, it''s just that your Divine Sense and Soul Power are so powerful, that normal items would be of no use for your improvement." Krune pondered a bit and agreed that it made sense, what he didn''t know was that Hasik had other reasons for that as well, Hasik looked at Krune and couldn''t help but think. ''Besides, if I had used the easier to train tools, you would probably destroy all of them, if I saw that happening, my sliver of will might have just disappeared, I can''t allow this walking disaster to break everything here.'' Unaware to Hase Hasik''s thoughts, Krune asked him when the last test will start. "Up to you, as you already know, the last test is Divine Sense combat, you can use your spiritual energy for movement only, but any attack or defence has to be done through Divine Sense, your opponents will be puppets at the same cultivation level as yours, they all have the Divine Sense spheres inside which had been modified for combat, you can start anytime you think you are ready." He then looked at Krune one last time and asked with an almost crying face. "Just¡­ try to now break them, okay? They are really, really hard to make." Krune''s mouth twitched. "Do I look like some villain?" Not only Hasik, Shinja and Ao on his side also nodded and said. "A very mean one at that." "No consideration for the others work at all." Krune''s ears got a little red but he still pretended that he didn''t hear or see anything and entered the last test. £¬ Chapter 58 - A Certain Wisp Passed Out. Krune entered the combat room, in front of him there was five puppets, all of them with a combat power equivalent to a 5th Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, if Krune could use spiritual energy skills, he could finish all of them in a second, but this is a Divine Sense combat, he has to win with Divine Sense alone. "The attacks available for me to practice were simple elemental Divine Sense attacks, if I use fire element based Divine Sense I can burn the opponents soul, if I use ice which is a branch of the water element I can slow down the opponents thinking speed, Hasik asked me to not break them so I guess I will simply aim at the puppets cores, this way I will not damage the Divine Sense spheres inside them." The battle started and the puppets moved forward, different from Krune, the puppets used both Divine Sense attacks and Spiritual energy attacks together, Krune now understood why this test was considered difficult, a cultivator not being able to use spiritual energy skills, while his opponents could, made a huge difference in the combat power between them, but Krune didn''t mind much, his wind element movement was almost perfect, nothing that the puppets throw at him could hit his body. The only attacks that reached Krune were Divine Sense attacks, this isn''t something that can be avoided since Divine Sense covers everything, you can only defend or resist, thanks to his tribulation lightning soul training, the pain inflicted by those puppets was laughable in his eyes, Krune kept dodging the spiritual energy skills while attacking the puppets cores with his Divine Sense, he purposely selected water so as to not damage the puppets core, he was making them use all the spiritual energy available in their cores, that was how Krune was planning to finish this battle. Back at the Order Hall, Hasik let out a sigh of relief. ''Seems like the puppets will be okay, this test was something extremely hard for the people in the past, but with his tribulation lightning soul tempering, it''s no wonder that the puppets Divine Sense attacks have little to no effect on him. I reckon that his friends will have a harder time passing this test than what Krune had.'' The battle continued and the puppets finally ran out of spiritual energy, Krune let out a sigh of relief, he really didn''t damage anything this time, Hase Hasik was also happy, at least the puppets which can use Divine Sense weren''t broken this time. Just as Krune was about to step on the teleportation formation, he heard a sound. "Crack." Everyone felt a chill on their backs, it couldn''t be, right? But before they could check they saw the Divine Sense sphere on the head of one of the puppets break apart, the puppet soon followed, if one looked close, all the connections that kept the puppet parts together had been fried. Krune couldn''t believe what happened in front of his eyes. "What the hell? It''s not my fault, I swear!" Hasik quickly summoned a few more puppets to check what happened there, his face was a mix of grief and rage, he even asked for him to not break the puppets, but in the end, one of them simply crumbled like a pile of rusted metal. When he got the result, his rage turned into incredulity. "You! Why did you use the power of tribulation lightning on them? This isn''t something they can resist! First of all, how can you even use the tribulation lightning with your Divine Sense?" Krune heard that and was as surprised as Hasik. "Tribulation Lightning? That''s not possible! I used water, I didn''t put even an ounce of any other element in my Divine Sense attacks, it had been water all along!" Hasik looked at Krune''s face, it didn''t look like he was lying, but then again, who other than Krune would have tribulation lightning here? ''Could it be¡­?'' Hasik then summoned a weak puppet forward, if something happened to it, it wouldn''t matter. "Attack this puppet, don''t worry about breaking it, it''s very cheap and easy to make, use only your Divine Sense without any element." Krune understood where Hasik was coming from, he is the only source of tribulation lightning in this place after all. After using some Divine Sense attacks on the puppet, it crumbled down just like the last one, when Hasik sent the other puppets forward to check, the result was the same, even though Krune hadn''t used any element, his Divine Sense attacks still had the tribulation lightning power on them. Hasik and the others looked at Krune through the illusory formation, it was then that Shinja spoke. "Krune had been tempering his Soul through the use of the Tribulation Lightning, that one that had entered his future golde- errr¡­ rainbow core, could it be that his soul got some of this properties?" Hasik and Krune pondered a bit but couldn''t find any other answer, what Shinja said made a lot of sense as well. "But how come I''ve never noticed it before?" "Because you are an idiot." This time it was Ao, Hasik and Shinja who answered together. Krune almost fainted right there and then, where his leader pride went to? He doesn''t know, maybe it hasn''t been with him from the very start. Hasik the thought about something. "Try to check your soul, the tribulation lightning is something made for annihilation, since it''s part of your soul now, it might be causing serious damage to it and you haven''t even noticed it yet." Krune was alarmed, he immediately concentrated on his soul and after searching for a while, sure enough, he could faintly feel the power of the tribulation lightning lingering around it, but the weird thing is that although it was present in his soul, it didn''t try to harm him, if anything, it felt somewhat gentle, as if this was the place it was supposed to be. Krune told what he found to Hasik and the others. "That''s weird, It''s not causing any harm, seems like you didn''t notice not because you are an idiot with high IQ, but because it wasn''t hurting you in the first place." Krune mouths twitched, he finally lost his patience. "Those Divine Sense puppets the remained are very important, right? It would be a pity if someone accidently released some tribulation lightning over them, don''t you think?" Hasik''s face immediately change. "Cough, cough, it was a joke, a joke, don''t you know how to take a light joke?" Krune didn''t believe a single word, he took out some tribulation lightning and played with it on his fingers while looking at the remaining four puppets in distance, Krune''s face looked like we was doing an important decision in his life. Hasik kept apologizing, he only didn''t cry because he didn''t have tears to start with. On the other side, Shinja and Ao were holding their laughs, they looked at each other and smiled, maybe it''s because Krune is like this that he can hold everyone tightly together without noticing, you will never get bored with him around. Krune finally put the tribulation lightning back in his rainbow core and came back to the Order Hall, Hasik looked at him with some fear but spoke anyway. "Well, this is a good thing on the short term, if you haven''t noticed yet, when you were doing your previous tests, your Divine Sense didn''t manifest the power of the tribulation lightning, which means that it only appears when you have the intention of attacking something, I reckon if you keep tempering your soul with tribulation lightning, this power will get even stronger with time." "The problem is, I don''t know if this is a good or bad thing on the long term, it might have huge repercussions during the Core Formation Realm breakthrough as well since the soul plays a big part in it, not to mention that all core formation cultivators need to go through the Heavenly Tribulation as well, it might have some effects on the tribulation lightning inside your soul too." Krune nodded, it''s still too soon to know what will happen with this new power of his, but at first it looks like it doesn''t matter what element he infuses in his Divine Sense attacks, it will always have the destruction power of the tribulation lightning as part of it, what he needs to decide is if he will keep using the tribulation lightning to temper his soul or not. Hasik noticed that to keep thinking about it wouldn''t bring them anywhere, so he changed the topic. "Leave the matter of the tribulation lightning aside for now, you have just finished the last test, so from on, you are a legacy disciple of the Mohie Sect, and with that, you have also acquired the power to control this dimension to a certain extent together with the resources available for legacy disciples. Krune''s eyes lit up. "Does it mean that I can take anything I want out now?" Hasik shook his head. "You can use anything inside the dimension, but you can''t take them out except for things like Spirit Stones, pills or runestone formations." Krune and the other were puzzled, but they waited for Hasik to continue. "The reason is because to prevent other legacy disciples in the past to rob the sect, all important items had been branded by the sect, as long as they are removed from the Mohie Sect dimension, they will be destroyed by the brand left behind." Krune understood it, but the fact that they can take the spirit stones, pills and others is already very good. "How many spirit stones is available for us now?" Hasik just laughed at that question. "None!" Krune and the others jaws dropped. "What?!" "Then what was all those spirit stones that we got from the tests?" Ao and Shinja were nodding, they also want to know! "Those are spirit stone prepared to be the reward of future disciples, even I can''t take them away unless someone pass the test to receive the reward. Think about it, if you are to die outside or simply decide to give up on the Mohie Sect and never come back, what will be there for those that come after? You should have noticed by now that what the Mohie Sect wants is to revive the sect." "Then what is the use of gaining this ''partial control'' over this dimension?" Hasik then said. "Of course there is use for it, first, you can enter and leave as you wish, you don''t need to be afraid of the illusion formations outside at all! Second, you have access to the herb garden, for an alchemist like you, this should be a great thing. Third, all equipment are available for you to use as you wish¡­ as long as you don''t break it. Fourth, you can bring anyone here without them needing to pass through the illusion formations test, of course, if they want cultivation techniques, they will have to pass the first two tests as well. Fifth, this dimension or ''Secret Realm'' as you say, has to power to protect you, as long as the opponent cultivation isn''t above the Divine Soul Realm, you won''t have to be afraid or being killed while inside here. There is a lot more but I believe you understood what I mean." Krune let out a sigh of relief, for a second he thought that all his hard work was for nothing, at least the medicinal herb garden had caught his attention. He was about to ask about that when Yusa suddenly entered the Order hall. "So this is where you all are, I went to you rooms but didn''t find anyone." Krune and the others were surprised. "Did you finish creating you Spiritual Energy Meridians already?" Yusa shook her head. "I have created four, I still need one more according to what you told me, but I can already feel the an enormous difference in my control over the elements just like you said, it has improved a lot, of course, I''m still a far cry from you." She looked around and asked. "So, what are you here for?" Shinja then explained what happened during the time she was out. "I see, so no spirit stones in the end. Seems like we were right in deciding to pass the endurance test ten levels, the reward will be very welcomed." Shinja noticed that Yusa was looking sad somehow. "What happened?" Yusa eyes started to tearing up, she jumped and hugged Shinja while saying. "It''s over." That scene took then aback. Over? What''s over? "What else could it be, my spirit stones of course! They are over, the four Spiritual Energy Meridians used a lot and when I was creating the fifth, my spirit stones ran out in the middle and it crumbled." So that''s what it was about, with how much Yusa loved spirit stones, it''s no wonder that she would weep over it. She then turned to Krune with shining eyes. "Which means, I need more spirit stones, you have passed all tests with the highest rate, so lend me some." Krune''s face immediately contorted. "Scram! I, your grandfather, put a lot of effort to get those, if you want more, go find it yourself." Yusa then turned to Ao and Shinja, but they immediately turned their heads away. ''She would never pay it back.'' They thought. Yusa looked at that and was disappointed, seems like she will need to work harder. Krune ignored her and turned to Hasik. "Can you bring me to the herb garden?" Hasik nodded. "I can, but let me tell you that the garden has different levels of access, it has nothing to do with your status as legacy disciple, but with your cultivation realm, this is made this way to encourage the legacy disciples to put effort in their cultivation as well." Krune nodded, it is particularly enticing for an alchemist like him, Krune stepped over the formation and was teleported over, when he got there he was surprised, the variety and amount of herbs available was amazing, of course, rare and older herbs were in much less quantities than normal ones, puppets walked everywhere taking care of the garden, for an alchemist like him this was really a paradise! It was then that he noticed several formations covering different parts of the enormous garden. ''Those should be the formations preventing those who don''t have the right cultivation realm from entering.'' Krune then started to gather the herbs he would need in the future, of course, as an alchemist, he knows very well to not kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. If there was three, he took one, if there was five, he took two, Hasik was observing Krune without him noticing and gave an approval nod. Shinja and the other were about to leave the Order Hall when Hasik suddenly remembered one thing. "Oh right, I forgot to ask him what name the sect should be changed to." Yusa and the others looked at him, sect name changing? "You know that our Mohie Sect is mortal enemies with the Rasie Clan, I can''t allow you to go outside saying that you are part of the Mohie Sect, right? So it was agreed long ago that the next legacy disciple would be able to select a different name for this branch. If you remember what I commented before, the sect name was decided in a whim by the sect founder, so we don''t really have any huge attachment to it to start with, we loved the sect, not the name." Ao and the others nodded, it made sense after all, not to mention it would make things safer. Yusa eyes suddenly lit up, she just thought about something very interesting, she couldn''t help but feel excited thinking about Krune''s face when he finds out. "In that case, there is no need to ask him, we all know what name he would be using anyway." Ao and Shinja eyes suddenly lit up as well, Shinja was already told how their team name came to be, she laughed for quite a while when she heard that, especially when she noticed Krune''s face while Yusa explained the reason. Ao didn''t lose the opportunity and then commented. "That''s true, I doubt he would ever use another name other than that." Shinja helped strike the iron while it was hot. "It has a lot to do with his personality after all, it''s very catchy." Hase Hasik was a little puzzled but didn''t doubt anything. "That''s understandable, you are very close with him after all, here, take it." He then took a token and gave it to Yusa. "Just write the name over it and it will be over, when the process is done the dimension formation will automatically send a message for those inside the dimension telling about its new name." Yusa and the others felt like they were of fire! Yusa immediately wrote down the new name while Ao and Shinja looked excited at that. Right after, everyone, Krune included, heard a robotic voice coming from the dimension itself. "Congratulations to legacy disciple Krune for choosing the Mohie Sect''s next name, the sect shall from now on be called¡­" "Rainbow Sect." In a certain garden outside the city, a certain wisp passed out. Chapter 59 - That’s Unexpected. After waking up again, Krune went back to the Order Hall and threw a tantrum in front of Hase Hasik, but unfortunately for him, the name couldn''t be changed anymore, it was a onetime opportunity, Krune looked around but the culprits had long since disappeared, they obviously fled somewhere, Krune felt liking crying but had no tears. Time passed and just like that another month went by, today Shinja had finally passed the ten levels of the endurance test and became an ordinary disciple of the Mohi- cough, cough, Rainbow Sect. She went to the Books Hall to search for a soul cultivation technique suited for her, Krune still had an annoyed face but still helped her to select a good one, he had already committed to memory all the introductions of techniques when he came here before, so he took all the water related techniques. "So, those are all the ones that have water element as base, some are focused in attack, others in defence, there is quite a lot for support as well, a few of them are suited for water and lightning like the skills you like to use so you might want to give them a little more attention, I also know the techniques of the fourth and fifth floors, so I left out the techniques that wouldn''t be compatible with higher techniques for when you reach a legacy disciple level." Shinja nodded and took a look, all techniques were good ones, probably because they could be changed after becoming a legacy disciple, Shinja started to read through the descriptions while Krune left, she will definitely take a lot more time to select one the he did, after all there was almost no techniques for all five elements but there is a lot if only water is considered. Back to the Order hall, Yusa and Ao were still going through the endurance test, Ao is much further ahead since Yusa had to stop for her Spiritual Energy Meridians creation, he already got to the sixth Divine Sense attack of the last level. Yusa didn''t have any more spirit stones for the Spiritual Energy Meridians creation, so she started to take the endurance test again and was at the second attack. During this last month Ao achieved the 7th stage of the Foundation Establishment, so his combat prowess went a step further too, he should have no problem in fighting ordinary 9th stage cultivators, he also successfully created his eighth pseudo energy meridian and was one step away from being able to create the ninth. Although Yusa seemed like to have fallen behind, the truth is that she was far ahead, the four Spiritual Energy Meridians had helped her improve her elements control by a lot so she could fight Ao head on even being one cultivation stage behind, and it won''t take long for her to breakthrough into the 7th stage as well. ''They don''t need anything other than time at moment, I guess it won''t take long until we move back to the city, our improvement had been enormous but we are now lacking combat experience, I also have to return to the Alchemist Guild to make some money, it should be okay for me to start focusing on Four Stars Pills from now on as well.'' Krune then went back to his own training, he still had a long way to go before he becomes an expert with his soul cultivation technique. A few days later, Krune received a message from Shinja to gather in the Order Hall, he thought it had something to do with her choice of cultivation technique, but arriving there, he could also see Yusa and Ao. "Did something happen?" Yusa and Ao just shook their heads, they also received a message from Shinja and just came out of the soul endurance test. Shinja looked at them and smiled. "I can now breakthrough into the Core Formation Realm." Krune and the others were surprised, but that was to be expected, she had been accumulating experience and energy for a long time, with the improvement of her soul it goes without saying that she could take the next step. Krune decided that this was a good chance to ask about the Core Formation Realm breakthrough, he was far away from that realm before so he didn''t care much, but his cultivation is improving every day, the only reason he stopped at the 5th stage was simply to stabilize his foundation that was showing some problems due to the speed of his breakthroughs. "So, exactly how that Core Formation breakthrough works?" Yusa and Ao were also interested, if not for their encounter with Krune, they would be far from considering something like Core Formation, so they haven''t looked into the requisites for the breakthrough. Shinja, of course, was different, she had already been at the peak of the 9th stage when she joined the group, her reason to go to the Furiu Realm was exactly to find an opportunity to make the breakthrough. "You could say that the Core Formation breakthrough is a lot easier than the Foundation Establishment, of course, I don''t mean easier in difficult, but easier in understanding the process, you heard before that this breakthrough had a lot to do with the soul, right?" Krune and the others nodded, they remember that someone commented that before. "So, simply put, your future golden core is being nurtured, but for what is it being nurtured for? The answer is, to become a ''home'' that will ''gestate'' your Divine Soul." Krune and the others were puzzled. "Aren''t we talking about the Core Formation Realm? Where did the Divine Soul come from?" Shinja was already expecting that question. "It isn''t that hard to understand, a Divine Soul can''t appear out of nowhere, it has to be created at some point, and the ''gestation'' of the Divine Soul is done by none other than the nurtured Core of the Foundation Establishment realm." They had to admit that it made sense, it''s just that the concept of Divine Soul realm was something really far away from them. "Basically, you are saying that the entire Core Formation Realm is nothing more than a gestation period of the Divine Soul, is that right?" Shinja nodded. "Correct." Yusa then asked. "So, how exactly you make your core nurture a soul, does the soul appear out of nowhere?" Shinja shook her head. "Like I said, the Core Formation Realm is just easy to understand, but hard to achieve, that''s because you will need to literally use a part of your own soul and fuse it together with your core." Krune and the others were alarmed! "Use a part of our own soul? Is it even possible? No, first of all, doing something like that might get you killed instead." Shinja didn''t deny that. "The old saying can be applied here, to cultivate is to go against the will of the heavens, there is no lack of cultivators who died during their Core Formation Breakthrough, but if you desire to move further in the path of cultivation, this is a stepped that you must take." Krune and the others took a deep breath, Core Formation was a lot more dangerous than they thought it would be, but a look of determination appeared in their eyes. "So what if it is dangerous? I refuse to believe that we won''t encounter even more dangerous situations in the future, this is just another one, nothing more." Shinja smiled after hearing that, that''s how a cultivator should be. "So, how exactly do you take a part of your soul?" "You don''t, you let your core absorb it on his own, just like how you let it absorb spiritual energy before, when it is satisfied, it will stop on its own." Krune understood the crux of the issue. "I see, no wonder that you wanted to enter the Furiu Realm before, you wanted to find something that would help your main soul resist the absorption without killing yourself, the reason you don''t need that anymore is because thanks to the soul tempering plus the soul cultivation technique, your soul now is strong enough to resist the process." Shinja nodded. "Exactly, in fact, this way is even better, if you use external help to get past this barrier, you will be leaving behind impurities that came together with whatever you used to help you enter the Core Formation, so you must understand this, although we didn''t get any big amount of resources or whatever here, the Mohi- errr, Rainbow Sect was a fortune several times more valuable than the Furiu Realm could have ever been, let''s not even mention the lack of any danger, so you must make use of this opportunity as much as you can." Although Krune wanted to kill someone every time he heard the sect''s name, Krune and the others still nodded vigorously, they already considered this a great fortune, now even more than ever! Krune then remembered something. "What about the tribulation, you will probably be in a weakened state after succeeding in entering the Core Formation Realm due to the injury of your soul, how do you plan to surpass it?" Shinja just laughed at that. "What else can I do? I can only take it head on! If I survive, I will get great rewards, if I don''t, I''m dead, that''s just it." It was at this moment that Hase Hasik, who had been hearing their conversation without saying anything so far, intervened. "That''s not necessarily true, our Rainbow Sect does have a way to help you with that." Immediately, all eyes focused on Hasik. "You mean?" "There is no way to stop the tribulation, nor can we help with it since it would only become stronger if someone intervenes, but our sect does have a way to reduce the effects of the soul injury after part of it is absorbed by the core." Shinja took a deep breath. "Is that true?" Hasik nodded. "In fact, it''s quite easy, exactly because of the problem of the soul injury, our sect created a technique that will stabilize the soul temporarily, it won''t leave any side effects either. That way, you will have a greater chance to overcome the tribulation since you won''t feel the pain on your soul for some time." A book called ''Stabilizing Soul Technique'' then appeared on the teleport formation. "Of course, it is just a short term help, it won''t heal your soul in the end, sometime after the tribulation is done the stabilization provided by the technique will fade away, you will then feel all the pain that you were supposed to have felt before, but by then the tribulation will already be over, so you can take your time to heal your soul." Shinja and the others were ecstatic, as expected of a sect that fought head on with one of the big four in the past! Shinja immediately took the book and started to read it, she was ready to start her breakthrough anytime, she just needed to practice this technique. Hasik then asked another thing. "Are you pretending to go through the Heavenly Tribulation here in the Rainbow Sect?" Shinja heard that and pondered a bit, in the end she decided to ask first. "Is there any risk of someone finding this Secret Realm if I go through my Heavenly Tribulation here?" It was Hasik''s time to think now. "If it was in the past, I would be confident to say no, but it has been a very long time since anyone underwent a Heavenly Tribulation here, so I''m not sure if the dimension formation will be able to conceal your breakthrough or not." Krune looked at that and said. "In that case let''s go outside when you are ready, even if the chances are small, we shouldn''t risk let someone find this place, it will become a calamity if that happens." Everyone, Hasik included, nodded. Shinja looked at the book in front of her and then said. "I will study this technique first, when I master it I will send a message to your communicators." Krune and the others agreed with that idea and then left, Shinja will probably need a few more days to master the technique before trying the Core Formation Breakthrough. On their way out, Krune couldn''t help but comment. "To think that we need to impregnate a core, that was unexpected." Ao and Yusa tumbled forward, only this guy would think like that. "Impregnate your head! Can''t you think about a better way to say that?" Krune, as expected, took that question very seriously, one could see on his face how much focus he put on it. "To think that we need to fecundate a core, that''s unexpected." Once again, Ao and Yusa tumbled forward, they didn''t feel like getting up anymore. Chapter 60 - Im Happy With Your Feelings. While Shinja was studding the technique, Yusa called Krune over to take a look on her improvement over the control of the elements, she now had the capability to control even three elements at the same time, it showed that Krune''s thoughts in the past were right, the Spiritual Energy Meridians can increase your ability with the elements tremendously, but there was one thing that he couldn''t understand. ''Her control is still below mine when I had Four Spiritual Energy Meridians, but as far as I can see there is no flaws on her meridians, could it be because I''m a wisp or the universe foundation?'' Krune decided that when he go back to the Katiu Forest, he will take a look on his disciple meridians as well to see if his control is the same as Yusa or the same as his one. Yusa, on the other hand, didn''t mind it much, the improvement is already far above from what she expected. "Now I understand how you feel when practice or go into battle, my sense for the elements are several times higher now, it''s really a magical feeling, I don''t mind the fact that you were better with it at the same stage as me, it might be because you are a wisp like you said or simply because you have the Universe Foundation. But in my opinion, it is talent, don''t forget that everyone have different levels of talent, especially if cultivation is considered in the mix." Krune was a little surprised with that word, talent wasn''t something that he thought that wisps had, he always thought that all he did was thanks to the Spiritual Energy Meridians, but if it is really talent, then it can explain why his disciple, who is a wisp just like him, took so much more time to create his first Spiritual Energy Meridian, even though he had Krune to guide him while that. "Talent, yea?" Krune then let out a sigh. "If it is talent or not, it doesn''t matter, I believed that I wasn''t anything special, but even if I am, I will still be a wisp, in the end, that''s all that is." Yusa heard that but refused to comment, she isn''t a wisp and has no idea how a wisp really felt while living in a universe that no one cares for them. --- After Shinja finished mastering the technique, everyone gathered at the Elemental Gate that connects them to the outside, but before they left, Hasik sent Krune a Divine Sense message through the dimension formation. "Now that you have a partial control over this ''Secret Realm'', you can lock the entrance for a limited amount of time, if you take too long to come back, the gate will open again, so be sure to hide the entrance well, even I don''t know exactly where the entrance was put, so you take care of that." Krune then said. "No problem, the entrance was buried two kilometres underground, there is no way someone would find it, even for me it was just a coincidence that I found it, so I don''t think that there is any risk anyway, you don''t need to worry about that." Krune looked at Shinja and the others. "So, this breakthrough of yours, where do you want to go for that?" Shinja already had an idea in mind. "It wouldn''t be a good idea to do it so deep into the Raskie Danger Zone, the breakthrough process isn''t something that can be stopped middle way, but doing it in the borders will attract the attention of other cultivators as well, so we better go back to the city and ask if the mercenary guild have a good place that I could use, I don''t think anyone will try to bother us with the guild behind us." Shinja then looked at everyone. "But are you sure you want to come with me? It''s not like I can''t do it alone, you all have your own training to care about as well, I will just come back after everything is over with." Krune shook his head. "No can do, if you go back alone but we aren''t with you it will definitely make people suspicious, we better go back together and after you finish your breakthrough we should stay there for a while, do some other missions and only then come back, it''s been a while since I last saw my disciple too, so I wish to go back and take a look at him." Yusa and Ao also agreed with that, they too have their own reasons to go back, Ao wants to check the mercenary guild sales room to see if he can get anything good, he is already at the 7th stage of the Foundation Establishment, he wanted to try to gain control over two elements at the same time but Krune asked him to wait for when he gets his Spiritual Energy Meridians first, that is because the process of learning how to do it is much easier with the meridians than it would be now, Yusa is a good example of that, in the end, Ao might waste time instead. A for Yusa, her reason was much simpler, she just wanted to go to the market to buy some things for women, over one year out had spent all her stock, in fact, Shinja was of the same thought as her. "Well then, let''s go back." --- With Krune and the others cultivation, they took just a few days to rush back to the city, instead of stopping in the local Mercenary Guild, they went straight to the teleport formation and went back to Kaley City straight away, when the teleport formation of the Solie Clan started to shine, the guards around it felt puzzled, they didn''t receive any report of someone coming that day, but when Krune and the others appeared, they were alarmed. "Fast, tell the Clan Leader, Krune has reappeared." Krune and the others didn''t pay attention to the guards, they simply left the bill of the teleportation for the Solie Clan to pay and returned to the Mercenary Guild, when they arrived there, they could see that everyone was looking at them as if they were some kind of attraction, much for Krune''s discomfort. "Isn''t that the super genius Krune and the Ice block Shinja? Didn''t they disappear around a year ago?" "That is definitely them, I heard that the guild was looking for them like crazy, but no one found even a single hair of them." "Look, the Furiu Realm was over a long time ago, but the Ice block Shinja is still with Krune''s team, seems like the rumors were true, she really joined Krune''s group." Krune and the others didn''t know what was going on, just when they were about to enter the guild, Lu Ganan rushed over, he had looked for Krune and Shinja everywhere, he even started to think they had really been kidnapped by the outside guilds, but seeing the same four members now, it seems like it wasn''t the case. "The four of you, where the hell did you go? Do you have any idea how many trouble we went through because of your disappearance?" "Trouble?" Krune and the others looked puzzled at Lu Ganan, what kind of trouble? "Supervisor Lu sure is exaggerating, It''s true that the system counted the mission that we took back then as failed since they didn''t come back, but a simply failed mission shouldn''t be that big of a problem, no?" Yusa and the others nodded, they also think the same. Lu Ganan looked at their puzzled face and felt helpless. "Of course a simple failed mission won''t count for much, but that isn''t the problem here!" Krune and the others felt even more puzzled, other than the mission, they really didn''t leave anything undone before they left, so what could give such a big problem to him? Suddenly, Lu Ganan remembered one thing. ''Right! We have never told any of them about the Martial Gathering that is happening in less than a year, much less that we wanted to send Krune and Shinja with the group if Krune was strong enough, obviously they have no idea that their absence caused a big ruckus.'' "Cough, cough, anyway, come to my office for now, there is a few things I need to tell Krune and Shinja." Krune and the others simply nodded and were about to follow him when a shadow appeared in the distance, in just a few seconds, that shadow had already stopped in front of Krune, it was none other than Go Gao, the Alchemist Guild supervisor. Krune looked at Go Gao surprised and was just about to compliment him when Go Gao put a hand on his shoulder. "Let''s leave this place, I will take care of you from now on." Krune was alarmed, what does he means with that? Could it be that supervisor Go is playing in the other team? Before Krune could say anything, Lu Ganan already grabbed his other shoulder. "Leave your head, who the hell would let you take Krune away? Are you dreaming? He is mine!" Just felt like crying, since when did he make so much success between men? He immediately took distance from the two and apologized. "Supervisor Go and supervisor Lu, I''m happy with your feelings, but I already have a fianc¨¦, besides, I don''t really like men, I''m sorry." Yusa and Ao immediately burst in laugh, they were definitely waiting for Krune to say something like that, and he didn''t disappoint them, Shinja was the only one to keep her cool, although with some (a lot) difficult. Everyone looked at Lu Ganan and Go Gao weirdly, this time Krune couldn''t be blamed, the two of them could only blame themselves. Lu Ganan immediately retorted. "Feelings your head! I''m a married and very straight man." Go Gao did just the same. "Same for me, what I wanted to say is that there is no need for you to risk your life in the Mercenary Guild anymore, so I would take you away to prevent more dangers like this time to happen." "Dangers like this time?" Krune''s group calmed again and looked at each other. "We were just training outside, what danger is supervisor Gao talking about?" Both Lu Ganan and Go Gao were taken aback. "Training?" Krune and the others nodded. "For over a year?" They once again nodded. "You guys stayed outside for over a year without giving any notice just for training? Didn''t you get dragged in some danger or got kidnapped by some other guild?" Krune''s group found this conversation to be awkward. Shinja couldn''t take it anymore, she usually has a cold personality, just recently she started to open herself with Krune and the others, but as for anyone else, she couldn''t care less. "Supervisor Go and supervisor Lu, whether we stayed outside to train for a day or for a year, it has nothing to do with any of you! What the hell is all this interrogatory? Could it be that the rules of your guilds changed and now the cultivators have become your prisoners?" Go Gao and Lu Ganan were taken aback once again. "Of course not! Well, it is true that you can go anywhere or stay away for as long as you want, the problem on our Mercenary Guild side had to do with an event that is happening in less than a year from now." "Anyway, come to my office and I will explain the situation." Go Gao in the end followed the group too, he knows what is the event that Lu Ganan is talking about and is determined to stop Krune from participating, as for the rest, they aren''t alchemist so he doesn''t care, Lu Ganan looked at that but didn''t say anything, the two guilds of Kaley City had been fighting over Krune for a long time already. Inside Lu Ganan''s office Krune and the other were waiting for him to talk. "Well, let me see where I start¡­ Oh, right! First is the of issue of the Furiu Realm, as you know, we wanted to send you three together with Shinja to gain experience and improve your cultivation, the reason for that is the Martial Gathering that will be happening in less than a year from now." Although Krune was puzzled, Shinja and the others had at least heard about it, Yusa looked at Lu Ganan and asked. "You mean the gathering that happens for the geniuses of the world that are in the Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment? Lu Ganan nodded, but Krune had no idea what they were talking about. Yusa noticed that and explained to Krune what the Martial Gathering was about, Krune heard that and was taken aback. "You want me to participate? You must be crazy! I will be courting death if I enter this gathering with my cultivation." Not only Go Gao, but Shinja and the others also thought the same, Krune might be able to fight those several cultivation stages above him, but those are just ordinary cultivators and demon beasts, this gathering is bound to be full of cultivators that can also fight those with cultivation higher than theirs, Krune''s advantage would be highly reduced there. Lu ganan wasn''t surprised with that answer. "Like I said, it would be in the case that you catch up with the other geniuses of the world, if that wasn''t possible, we were hoping for you help us with something else." Krune let out a sigh of relief, at least the guild higher ups didn''t lose their heads. It was the first time that Go Gao heard that as well, if they aren''t sending Krune to participate in the Martial Gathering, then all is good as long as he is safe, but then again, what is it that they wish him to do? "Well, if it isn''t something hard and the payment is good, I don''t mind helping, what is it?" Lu Ganan took a deep breath and said. "We wish you to be teach the participants that are going to take part in the selection for the Martial Gathering, also, a few of our own people will check the process so that we can reproduce it in the future without your help, of course, it will be only until the selection." Everyone in the room felt that they had heard wrong. "Teach them? Who? Me?" Chapter 61 - Secret but not Secret Weapon. Krune felt that something is wrong, why would they ask him to teach the contestants? He found this situation to be a little surreal. "I think supervisor Lu is asking the wrong person, the people participating in the selections that you said are all at the late Foundation Establishment Realm, I don''t think they would want to learn anything from a lower stage cultivator, right?" Lu Ganan shook his head. "The Mercenary Guild had been looking at your progress ever since you joined the Guild as a Four Stars Mercenary, but what really caught our attention was Yusa Shen and Ao Sulian, they were just two normal Mercenaries before but look at them now, in a short period of time they are at the 6th and 7th stage of the Foundation Establishment, we investigated their past, they have no background, but not only had their cultivation soared, their combat prowess was even more so, we don''t know how much stronger they became after this last year you were out in training, but before you even left, the two of them could already complete the Three Stars Mercenary test with easy, I refuse to believe that their progress don''t have anything to do with you." Krune was surprised that they kept so much attention on himself and even his team members. "So, you want me to help the other contestants to achieve the same effect and at the same time teach the Mercenary Guild how to do that for it to be used in the future by you, that way you wouldn''t have problems training future loyal members by yourselves, right?" Lu Ganan nodded, that is what the Guild Head and Kassius from the reviews office are really looking for. "I know very well that such thing is bound to be a huge secret, and the mercenary guild has no intention what so ever in getting it for free, so if you decide to teach our participants how to increase their combat prowess in this short amount of time and at the same time show how it is done to the guild, the guild is willing to pay you handsomely. Once the guild learns how to do that, you will be free again to do whatever you want, but the method of training that you have is something that our Yule Continent Mercenary Guild is in dire need for." Not only Krune, even Shinja and the others shook their heads, it isn''t that they don''t want to tell the way how, it''s just that there is no way he can pass this knowledge to the others, no one in their group other than Krune can do what he does, at least not to his extent. "Supervisor Lu Ganan got a wrong idea here, if it is just to help your selected contestants to improve their combat ability, then that won''t be a problem, but I can''t teach how it is done to the guild." Lu Ganan wasn''t surprised, he thought that Krune would try to keep the secret anyway, so he was prepared to start giving him a lot of benefits, just as he was about to talk, Krune continued first. "Do not misunderstand me, it''s not that I want to keep it a secret, it is because it is not something that can be learned to start with, this is basically me giving pointers to Yusa and the rest, I have to see they using their abilities first, and only then can I give them some ideas on how to improve that. I have an extremely high sensitivity for elements control and manipulation, so I can see what is wrong in their cultivation, skills and elements usage, it was through a long time together that I came to understand them." There was also the Myriad Energies Technique as well, but that is something he wouldn''t talk about even if god descended in front of him, Yusa and the others knew as well so they didn''t say anything. Lu Ganan was taken aback. "So you can only help the people beside you, but can''t help them understand how to teach it to others." Krune nodded. "If it is only helping them improve their abilities, I can spend a few months with them as long as the payment is good, the mercenary guild can in the meantime send some people to take part of the training and observe how it goes, you will come to understand that this is not something that can simply be copied." Go Gao, who had been listening so far, decided to leave now. "Since you have no intention of put Krune in the Martial Gathering anymore, then I won''t stick around, as for if he decides to train your contestants or not, that is his decision to start with, I will be taking my leave. But your Mercenary Guild is better not have any funny ideas about him." And before anyone could answer, he left, he knew that from now on they would enter in the details of the selection itself, it was already a good thing that they let him listen so much until now, Go Gao isn''t shameless enough to stick around any longer listening about another guild''s problems. Lu Ganan saw that but didn''t say anything, he turned back to Krune and the others and said. "In that case I will have to talk with the Head Quarters, they might not believe it though." Krune shook his head. "Whether they believe or not, it isn''t my problem, right?" As long as the Myriad Energies Technique real form isn''t found out, Krune has nothing to fear. "I guess you are right about that, anyway, let me enter the next topic." Lu Ganan then turned to Shinja. "The Furiu Realm has closed already, so there is no need for you to protect Krune anymore, you can leave anytime you want, the guild will still pay what was combined for this protection time." Shinja shook her head. "No need for payment, I decided to Join Krune''s team, since I found something I wanted in the end, I won''t take anything from it." Lu Ganan was really surprised this time, he had also heard the people commenting that she might have joined Krune''s group, but he didn''t believe that, he knows Shinja reputation much better than the others, she would never join a group doesn''t matter what, so what is happening here now? "Are you speaking the truth? You have never joined any team before doesn''t matter what we did, why did you change your mind all of sudden?" Shinja smiled brightly and answered truthfully. "I found a few friends." Lu Ganan was taken aback, is that Shinja Avril? The famous Ice Block Shinja? No one has ever seen she smiling since she entered the cultivation world, but that smile was really touching, supervisor Lu couldn''t help but take a better look at Krune and his friends. But anyway, it was very good news, the guild has always tried to make her join a team, now that she has joined one it is one thing less for the guild to care about. "That''s great! As for the payment, you will receive it whether you want it or not, this is the Mercenary Guild reputation on the line, you protected Krune until the end the Furiu Realm as stated in the blood contract, the guild has no intention in going back on our word, please understand." Since he put it that way, she didn''t say anything anymore. "I will arrange for the ice shard to be delivered to you by tomorrow, now I have another thing to talk to you. Lu Ganan took a deep breath and said "Shinja Avril, the guild expects that you take part in the selection and then in the Martial Gathering later, since the Furiu Realm couldn''t help you enter the Core Formation Realm, the guild is willing to gift you an instant soul recovery pill once the gathering is over, you have a Pure Yin Body and a Universe Foundation as well, you are definitely one of our best candidates this time in the Foundation Establishment." Shinja shook her head. "No need, thanks to Krune, I have no need for any external help like pills anymore, I can breakthrough anytime, the reason we finished our training earlier was basically so that we could come back here and check with you if there is anywhere safe that the guild can provide while I''m going through the process." Lu Ganan heart almost stopped now. ''Did she say that she has no need for external help?'' One must know that the Makui Planet is a low level planet in the universe, their techniques and manuals aren''t that good either if compared to the other planets out there, let''s not even mention the big four, because of that, almost everyone in the planet needs external help like pills or other things to be able to pass the Core Formation Breakthrough, it''s extremely rare for someone to try it with their own effort and nothing more, that can also be said to be one of the reasons why there is so little Divine Soul and even less Soul Forging cultivators in the planet, their foundations had been shaken by the pills and everything else they constantly use. "Are you sure that you can get past this barrier with your own power?" Shinja nodded. Lu Ganan once more took a look at Krune, could it be because of his gift as well? "Very well, let me contact the headquarters, they were expecting you to not be able to break through the Core Formation any time soon, this is going against the initial plans." This time there was no need to contact the headquarters privately, Lu Ganan simply linked everyone communicators together and got in contact with them, he had already reported to the guild that Krune was back, so they were already expecting for his call. Except for Shinja, it was the first time that Krune and the others saw the Head of the Mercenary Guild in the Yule Continent, Bary, so they politely complimented him. Bary just nodded his head and waited for Lu Ganan to report everything first, after supervisor Lu explained what happened he waited for Barys answer. "So Krune can''t teach how to train others since this is just an ability of his, he can only train the contestants himself, as for Shinja, she can enter the Core Formation straight away, she just need a safe place provided by the guild for that." Bary sighed, although he doesn''t know if Krune is speaking the truth or not, that doesn''t matter, if he doesn''t want to say, then the Mercenary Guild can''t do anything about that, so he just accepted Krune''s idea of having some of the teachers of the guild to watch while he trains the contestants to see if it really is impossible to learn. He moved to the next topic after settling it. "Shinja, could you delay your breakthrough until the end of the Martial Gathering? We have very few people who are capable of fighting at the high level, and you are the only one with a Universe Foundation at the right cultivation level at moment." Shinja shook her head. "I can''t, I have already accumulated enough spiritual energy in my body to do the breakthrough, if I delay this long it might damage my foundation. If you had told me that you wanted me to take part in the selection and the Martial Gathering, I would have slowed down and taken part in it, but now I can''t anymore." Bary looked disappointed but he knew it was the truth, if you prepare everything for the breakthrough and decides to stop at the best moment, it might really affect your future, but Bary can''t be blamed, he thought that she wouldn''t be able to enter the Core Formation anymore after she left the Furiu Realm behind. "Very well, I will send a few Core Formation Experts just to keep a look during the process, just find somewhere empty so that your tribulation won''t hurt anyone and that will be okay, it should take two or three weeks to gather the personal." Shinja nodded and thanked him. "Then it is settled, Krune will be leaving for the Headquarters in one month, as for the others, you can do whatever you want while he is out." Shinja and the others looked at each other and answered. "We are going with Krune too." Bary just accepted, whether Krune went alone or not it didn''t matter for him, as long as he keeps his part of the accord, everything is fine. "Lu Ganan, I will leave the preparations for you to take care, as for Krune''s payment, that will depend on the results of the selection in six months'' time from now between the mercenary guilds of all continents." Supervisor Lu accepted the order and finished the video call. Krune looked at Lu Ganan and said. "Supervisor Lu, try to keep the fact that I''m training the contestants a secret, please." Lu Ganan nodded, unfortunately for Krune, he understood him wrongly. --- A few days later, Krune was in a restaurant with everyone discussing about his travel to see his disciple when suddenly, news that the super genius Krune was going to teach the contestants for the Martial Gathering Selection started to spread like wildfire, when Krune saw that in a TV, he almost fainted, he immediately called supervisor Lu to ask what happened, for his surprise, Lu Ganan smiled and said. "Don''t worry, I made sure that no one other than the selected mercenary guild members will be able to see the training process, it will be kept a secret just like you want. As for the fact that you will be the one teaching them, we made sure to let everyone know, credit has to be given after all, you don''t need to worry about people not recognizing your efforts." Krune''s eyes started tearing up, that wasn''t it! That wasn''t what he meant at all! On the other hand, Lu Ganan thought that Krune was shedding tears of joy instead. "Haha! No need to cry just because of that, this is our duty." He terminated the call and left Krune alone with his friends, Krune looked around and saw that Yusa and the others were trying their best to not laugh, but it was futile, seeing Krune''s tears destroyed their last barrier, Yusa couldn''t help but comment. "Hey look, it''s Krune, the mercenary guild''s secret but not secret super weapon!" Krune took a critical hit, it was very effective! Chapter 62 - What Did You Say to Him? Thanks to the Spiritual Energy Meridians, Yusa can now control three elements at the same time, but the Group decided that it would be better if she didn''t show that for the time being, they decided to have her wait until she got to the 9th stage before showing her capabilities, that way it would look less suspicious. Today, Krune''s group was gathered in front of the Kaley City gate that goes to the Katiu Forest, they were just signing the agreement as always. "The Mercenary Guild will take two to three weeks to send those Core Formation Experts to oversee Shinja''s breakthrough, this is more than enough time for me to go and check my disciple, if you want, you can stay, It shouldn''t take more than a few days. Ao and the other shook their heads. "We are very curious to see this disciple of yours, he is a wisp too, right? We want to see if the rainbow is following him as well." Krune ignored the last part of the comment and finished signing his name, after that the group left for Katiu Forest, this time they told Lu Ganan in advance that they would only take at most two weeks out and would be back before the guild sent the experts, every new core formation expert is an important asset in a weak place like Makui Planet, they had to make sure that it went without any troubles. Krune''s group moved at high speed, the Lizard Dragons lair was much closer than the other places they had to go in other danger zones, it''s just that Krune''s cultivation and element control in the past were still low, so he took a long time to leave it. Well, low if you consider himself now, compared to other cultivators or demon beasts, he was already very strong when he first left the Katiu Forest. Four days later, Krune could already see the Lizard Dragons cave entrance, but something was strange, he could see with his Divine Sense that a few Foundation Establishment demon beasts were guarding the entrance, they were from different races too, Krune ignored that and quickly approached, when those beasts saw Krune''s group getting close, they immediately entered in battle instance and were prepared to fight at any time. Krune saw that but didn''t do anything, Yusa and the others didn''t know this place so they simply waited for Krune''s words. "Who are you? Where is the Lizards Dragons, Lakin and Ruik?" The leader on the front, a demon fox in human form, seemed to be surprised, he then noticed the rainbow hair of Krune and immediately came forward. "Relax everyone, its big master, he is back." Krune thought he heard it wrong. ''Big master? Who? Me?'' He didn''t know what was happening and was about to ask when a youth appeared at the entrance of the Lizard Dragons cave, he looked quite ordinary, no one would pay much attention to him if he was put in the middle of a crowd, simply put, he was just like Krune, ordinary to the extreme, except for the fact that he didn''t have Rainbow Hair or eyes. Krune didn''t have to ask, so what if he was in human form? There is no way he wouldn''t recognize his disciple aura, before he could say anything, his disciple had already rushed forward and hugged him. "Master!" Krune just caressed his head and laughed out loud. "Now look at this, seems like you were successful in your Foundation Establishment, master is happy for you." Krune then looked around and noticed all the beasts looking at him. "Well, let''s go inside first, you know I hate to attract attention." Lakin nodded and was about to bring Krune inside when he noticed the humans behind him. "Master, those are?" "I tell you inside, let''s go" Lakin agreed and they moved into the Spiritual Vein Lake room, as soon as Krune got there he was surprised, the amount of spiritual energy in the cave was several times higher than what it was in his time, but that wasn''t all, what really surprised him was the other beings inside. Wisps! Wisps everywhere! Let alone Krune, even Shinja and the others had never seen so much wisps together before. "This¡­" Lakin laughed "I brought them here, I often went out to train myself, in the end because the inner parts of the Katiu Forest have more spiritual energy than the outer parts, I found a lot of wisps during the time master was out, the majority of them were new wisps just like me who lucked out and didn''t get eaten." Krune nodded "I see, but what are you going to do with all of them, it''s not like you can take care of them forever, also, what are those beasts outside guarding the cave?" Lakin then explained what was happening. Turns out that Lakin simply didn''t have the heart to leave the wisps behind, so he brought them with him, his plan is to train a few of them until they can defend the rest and then he will leave, some of the wisps were already at the 8th stage of Qi Condensation and there were even two at the 9th, they were coincidently cultivating at that moment, so Krune could feel the Spiritual Energy Meridians on them, it seemed like Lakin had taught a few of them how to cultivate the Spiritual Energy Meridians. As for the demon beasts guarding outside, Lakin had challenged every single one of them and won, as the victor, he simply demanded them to protect the spiritual vein lake cave and keep the secret, to make sure that they wouldn''t go back on their words, Lakin used the blood contracts, the thing about Big Master was something that Lakin made out. "I see, what about the Lizard Dragons and Ruik?" Lakin just smiled and said. "The Lizard Dragons had all become Foundation Establishment Demon Beasts, their dragon blood was really impressive, even without the Spiritual Energy Meridians, they can still fight those one stage above simply by relying on their blood line, they should be out hunting for food at moment, their Big brother is even at the second stage now, they are all cultivating the pseudo meridians and it shouldn''t take long for their big brother to finish creating the ninth pseudo meridian, after that he can start creating his first Spiritual Energy Meridian." Krune nodded, the brothers and sisters Lizard Dragons had pretty much turned out the way he predicted. Lakin then continued. "As for Ruik." He then turned to look at a certain corner where one could see a big nest, now that Krune paid attention to that, he could hear some snores coming from it, there was no need for Lakin to say anything more, Krune just laughed and moved close, arriving there he could see a Two Headed demon snake sleeping like a rock, Krune gathered some energy in one of his legs and they gave a kick. The poor snake flew quite a few meters away. "Who dares to touch the great Ruik? Are you looking to die?" Krune laughed even more "Great Ruik your head! I, your grandfather, can kick you anytime I feel like! Don''t like it? Then come at me!" Ruik heard that and was enraged, only when he turned to look at who said that that his expression changed. "It was you! The worm wisp." Yusa and the others heard that and looked at Krune. "Worm wisp?" Krune''s mouth twitched. "Are you looking for a fight?" "You were the one who kicked me!" "You snore too loud!" "It shows that I''m living and kicking!" Lakin got close to Krune''s friends and said. "Just ignore them, they will stop eventually, it doesn''t seem like it but they like each other a lot." Krune and Ruik retorted in unison. "Who said I like this guy?" Yusa and the others burst in laugh, they are close indeed, Yusa took the opportunity to ask. "By the way, what is this worm wisp about?" Ruik''s eyes immediately lit up, he completely ignored Krune''s existence or the fact that the one who asked was a human who appeared while he was sleeping. "Oh, let me talk about the day that this guy first acquired his human form." Krune was just about to stop him when suddenly, Shinja and Ao covered his mouth, they very much wish to hear that story, Krune couldn''t help but think. "Traitors!" --- Sometime later, Yusa and the others were still laughing about the story from when Krune first got his human form and tried to walk, it definitely could be used again in the future. On the other side, Krune had a helpless face, he was thinking where his dignity as the leader had gone, maybe it wasn''t even there to start with, Ruik looked at that and just said. "That''s what you get for kicking me." Krune then sighed and changed the topic. "So, how is the Myriad Energies Technique going on for you?" Ruik heard that and got more serious. "It is as you said before, the wisps that cultivated it had a much easier time to get all nine pseudo energy meridians than me, I only have more Spiritual Energy Meridians than them because I started to cultivate this technique much earlier than them, but I reckon that they will pass me sooner or later, those two cultivating there already have one Spiritual Energy Meridian each." Ruik then pointed at the two wisps that Lakin mentioned before. "I have three complete Spiritual Energy Meridians, but now I lack the spirit stone to open the next ones, after you open the third, the amount of spiritual energy necessary is enormous." Krune nodded, he already expected for that, Yusa was able to open four basically because she received Rank Four spirit stones from the Rainbow Sect, but she was still unable to open the fifth, her spirit stones ran short. Suddenly, Krune remembered something. "Right! Lakin, how many Spiritual Energy Meridians did you open?" Lakin heard that and was surprised, not because his master asked him about his Spiritual Energy Meridians, but because he didn''t ask about his foundation. "Master, aren''t you curious about what I used as foundation?" Krune smiled and shook his head. "You successfully created your foundation, doesn''t matter which one it is, the important is that you survived, don''t forget that we wisps have only one chance at Foundation Establishment." Krune got close to Lakin and caressed his head again. "Master is happy as long as you are happy." Lakin felt like he was going to cry again, but resisted the urge, he took a big breath and said. "I opened Four Spiritual Energy Meridians, I could have opened more but the lack of spiritual energy is too big, the meridians are extremely good, but they need way too much spiritual energy to create." Krune nodded after hearing that, it was as he expected, if Lakin wants to get higher levels spirit stones, he will need to go further into the Katiu Forest and probably fight middle and late stages Foundation Establishment beasts, Krune could see that he was at the 3rd stage at moment, it would be quite complicated to do something against 6th stage or higher demon beasts. "Show me a few skills, I want to take a look at your level of control over the spiritual elements. Lakin nodded and showed a few skills and he learned by himself, after he was over, Krune had a pensive look on his face. "Your element control is pretty much the same as Yusa." Yusa heard that and then said. "So it seems like it had nothing to do with the fact that you are a wisp, it is easier for wisps to create the Spiritual Energy Meridians, but it seems like the control that you get might really be related to your talent." Krune heard that and nodded. "It seems like it, anyway, it''s not like it is a big thing, the Spiritual Energy Meridians can greatly improve your control over the elements, and this is already extremely good." Lakin then thought about something. "Right! Master, every time I create a Spiritual Energy Meridian they don''t shine like yours in the end, Ruik''s Meridians were the same thing." Krune''s was surprised with that comment, Yusa heard that and confirmed. "Mine too, they didn''t shine even once." Krune pondered a bit but didn''t know why only his shined every time he finished one. "So I have three options here as to why my control over the elements is better with the same amount of meridians." "First, maybe it has something to do with the fact that mine shines when it''s done." "Second, it might be talent." "Or third, it is the universe Foundation, but the third one we will find about when Shinja creates her own." Krune had decided to put the matter to the back of his mind for the time being and changed the topic. "lakin, you didn''t show your true form outside, right?" Lakin shook his head, by now he already understood how valuable a Foundation Establishment wisp really is, he didn''t dare walk out of the cave in his wisp form anymore. Krune then explained what he learned about the high cultivation level demon beasts of the danger zones, after hearing that, Lakin was even surer that his decision was right. "Well then, why don''t you introduce me to the new guys that are using the Myriad Energies Technique?" Lakin eyes lit up and immediately brought the two 9th stage wisps that were cultivating before, only after Lakin called them over did they have the courage to approach Krune, they can see how marvellous the Myriad Energies Technique really is, and Krune was just the wisp who found out about its true form all by himself, in their eyes, Krune was the same as a god! Wisps in their wisp forms look pretty much the same, only their size changes a little bit depending on their cultivation, fortunately, they could still identify themselves true their auras, Lakin pointed at the one on the right. "This guys here is called Dier, he is probably becoming a man once he enters the Foundation Establishment, so we decided for this manly name at least until we are sure, he was one of the first wisps I found out there during my training, he had been born for a very little time so it took quite a while until he could finally speak and understand how to cultivate." Although Krune couldn''t see any difference in Dier''s wisp form, he knew that he was complimenting him. "It''s good to have you around, if this disciple of mine cause you any trouble just let me know, he isn''t much older than you after all." Lakin felt a little embarrassed but didn''t say anything, he then moved to the next one. "And this one is probably becoming a girl once reaching the Foundation Establishment, so we decided for a girly name for her until we see it for sure, so her temporary name is Cassy. I found her hidden close to a river, it seems like she learnt to use the same method as master in the past, stay close to the river and if a demon beast or wisp hunter appears, she just dives inside and flee with the current." Cassy was a bit embarrassed when she heard that but was also happy when Lakin had told her that Krune used to do the same thing when he was a low level wisp, she is a great fan of Krune after all, of course, it is all because of how grandiose Lakin talked about him. "So you are probably becoming a little girl, I''m looking forward to see it." Yusa and the others heard about the probability thing and their temporary names, so they asked. "What you mean by temporary name?" Krune didn''t think about it in the past but he had to admit it made a lot of sense, so he decided to explain it himself. "Wisps don''t have a gender before getting their human form, only after entering Foundation Establishment and transforming for the first time will they know which gender they are, but as far as I can see by taking me and Lakin as an example, our gender is decided probably because of our personality, of course, we will need to get more examples of wisps to confirm this theory of mine." Lakin nodded and looked at Cassy. "We are probably right, Cassy is most likely going to become an amazing girl." Krune and his zero EQ didn''t notice anything, but how could Yusa and Shinja not? Yusa got close to Lakin without him noticing, the impressive thing is that even Shinja followed suit and did the same, it was obviously that they had combined something, the two girls approached each one of Lakin''s ears while he was looking at Cassy and whispered in his ears. "So, little Lakin is interested in the little Cassy, right?" Lakin''s heart almost stopped, in an instant, he fled several meters away with his own wind movement technique, his face was as red as a tomato. Krune saw that and looked confused. "What did you say to him?" Yusa and Shinja smiled and said while looking at Lakin. "It''s our little secret, right, Lakin?" Lakin looked away and pretended he didn''t hear anything. Chapter 63 - Krunes Plan. In the next few days, Krune helped Lakin to teach the wisps in the Spiritual Vein Lake, he wanted to make sure that everything was going well, but there was one thing bothering him, and that is the number of wisps in this place, late at night, Krune called over everyone to discuss this issue. "The problem here is that you have too many wisps, I know that you have some beast patrolling outside to keep it safe from prying eyes, but if for some coincidence a late-stage Foundation Establishment or higher pass by and decides to check it with their Divine Sense, I doubt they will resist the urge to capture all the wisps at once, they would be worth a lot of spirit stones, especially when they see the cultivation that they have." Lakin and Ruik already knew that, but in the end, they didn''t have another solution other than keeping hiding here. Yusa understood Krune''s meaning. "You can''t be possibly thinking to bring all of them to the Rainbow Sect Secret Realm, right?" Krune nodded. "Other than there, I can''t think about a safer place, as a legacy disciple, I can keep it closed temporarily as well." Lakin and Ruik were puzzled, what is this Rainbow Sect? Krune then explained what happened in the Raskie Danger Zone, how they found a secret realm and came to get a partial control over it. Ruik and Lakin understood everything, but there was one thing that they didn''t understand. "Why did you choose Rainbow Sect?" "Cough, cough, it is not important at the moment." Ao and the others laughed at that, they then sent a Divine Sense message telling them that they will explain it later. "The problem here is, how do you expect us to pass by the cities without people noticing the wisps? The low-level wisps might be possible, but any other over the 4th Stage of Qi Condensation will attract a lot of attention, and you have a lot of them here." Krune''s face was serious, he had indeed thought about a way, but it will take some time. "The way we use to go to the Raskie Danger Zone is through the teleportation formations, my idea was to build a teleportation formation here and use it." Shinja immediately shook her head. "That''s not going to work, the distance is too big, to build such a large distance teleportation formation you will need to be a Six Stars Formations Master at the very least unless you are intending to employ a formation master especially for this." Krune shook his head. "That would be too dangerous, out of nowhere a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators want to create a teleportation formation from inside one of the Danger Zones to another Danger Zone, it will attract too much attention, chances are that even the Rainbow Sect Secret Realm will be found." Lakin couldn''t help but ask. "Then how exactly you are planning to do that?" Krune smiled and told his plan "A very long teleportation formation would be impossible, but a short distance one shouldn''t be a problem." This time it was Ao who shook his head. "If you are thinking about building several teleportation formations linking every single one to teleport them over, then you better forget about this idea, the materials necessary to build all those formations is too huge for any of us to pay, and at the same time making sure that not a single of them is found is even harder." It was at this moment that Lakin''s eyes lit up. "Master isn''t planning to build hundreds or thousands of them, he is planning to build only two!" Yusa and the other got puzzled, but Krune smiled. "As expected of my disciple, you didn''t let me down." Yusa immediately retorted. "Exactly, it is the master who usually let everyone down, the disciple is very good indeed." Shinja and Ao nodded vigorously. Krune completely ignored Yusa and the others and continued. "I will only need two short-distance teleportation formations, one to teleport to the Kaley City and one to teleport away from Harta City, we just need to make sure no one will notice us during this small amount of time." Krune then continued "We already have the Solie Clan teleportation Formation to teleport us over to the Harta City, all I need to do is build a short distance teleportation formation and set the Solie Clan coordinates, as long as we the set the coordinates of this teleportation formation inside the Solie Clans formation, we can immediately teleport over, and then we use the same formation to go to the Harta City, from there we use the same teleportation formation to go to the formation that we will set up beside the Rainbow Sect entrance." Everyone understood, if it is a short distance teleportation formation, it shouldn''t be too much of an issue to set up one. "We can understand how we are going to do the Kaley City part, but how are you going to keep it hidden in the Harta City?" Shinja was the one to answer this question. "This part is easy, we aren''t the only people who want to pass by other cities teleportation formations in secret, several clans, sects and organizations have their own secrets as well, so of course, the continent had long since prepared teleportation formations that can be rented while keeping everything completely hidden, we just need to rent one of those formations and set up the right coordinates to the Rainbow Sect." They understood now, it was indeed a very feasible plan, but there was still one last problem. "Who is going to build the short distance teleportation formations?" Krune just laughed and said. "Who else other than me? I was already planning to take the Formations Master exam anyway, and as you know, the soul cultivation technique that I use is focused on side occupations, I very much want to check how good it is." "What if you can''t succeed?" "That won''t be a problem, a short distance teleportation formation only needs a Two Stars or at most a Three Stars formation master, to employ a formation master of this level and keep things secret at the same time shouldn''t be that hard, a formation master of those levels would at most be a Foundation Establishment cultivator, a blood contract will be more than enough to keep his mouth shut." Everyone got excited, this is indeed an almost fail-proof plan. "Very well, since it is decided, then I will be leaving tomorrow morning, there is still sometime before Shinja''s breakthrough, so I plan to take study materials from the Formations Guild and start taking a look in the meantime, I will need some time to study the contents of Formation Masters anyway." Everyone nodded and went back to do their own things. Lakin gathered all the wisps in the cave and told them about what they are planning to do, no one complained, they all know that their life is already good enough the way it is, and that was thanks to Lakin, so they will simply follow him. Next morning, Krune and his friends immediately left, Lakin wanted to go together but he knew that he must pay attention to the things here, he doesn''t know how long it will for his master to finish setting everything up, so he can''t just leave the wisps behind, not to mention that the wisps trust him the most, if he simply leaves, they might get restless and try to do something idiot, especially the very young ones. --- A few days later, Krune''s group was already back to Kaley City, much for supervisor Lu relief, he asked them to not leave for a while since the Core Formation Experts will arrive in a few days, it would be better from Shinja to receive them properly. Krune was about to go pay a visit to the Formations Guild when Yusa suddenly asked him one thing. "With my Spiritual Energy Meridians, I should be able to take some other side occupation as well, don''t you think?" Krune didn''t even have to think to agree with that idea. "Indeed, your control might not be as good as mine and you don''t have a soul technique yet, but you are several times better than the big majority of cultivators at your level, it shouldn''t be a problem for you to get a side occupation of your choice, just remember to keep the fact that you can already control more than one element at the same time secret for now." Yusa nodded. "No problem, I wasn''t going to do that anyway, so I''m leaving." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "What are you planning to do?" Yusa just laughed and left, she didn''t say anything, but Krune had the impression that it had something to do with money, that girl wouldn''t lift a finger if there were no profits. Krune just shook his head and put those thoughts behind his mind. "Well, the Formations Guild it is." --- Krune arrived at the guild using the same hat as always, he still isn''t comfortable walking around with his rainbow hair, too bad that his eyes irises are changing as well and taking a colorful state. Fortunately for him, it doesn''t look weird like his rainbow hair, in fact, it could be said to be a little cool instead, it had some charm behind. Unaware of the changes in his eyes, Krune went to the counter to ask how he can apply to become a Formations Maters. "The formation master guild test has a hundred and ten Rank Two middle-quality spirit stones fee, but before you apply to that you will receive the material for study through your communicator and can come back to do some practical training later, as long as you can afford your own expenses you can keep training to make some low-level formations, you should only pay the test fee when you feel like you can pass it." Krune couldn''t help but comment "It is a lot laxer than the alchemist guild test." The attendant nodded. "It is indeed, although there are geniuses in formations too, our guild believes that with enough effort even common cultivators can have good accomplishments in formations, besides, having some knowledge in formations can save your life while you are adventuring around the world, so the government also encourage the cultivators to get familiar with it." Krune was very happy with the way that the Formations Guild worked, they didn''t discard those with poor talents, of course, they will have to afford their training if they want to go further in the formations path. Krune then received the material for study in his communicator and went back to his house in the city, there are loads of different kinds of formations, and even those that are the same can be built using different elements to get different results, but there was one formation that had caught Krunes attention on top of that. ''Spirit Gathering Formation, there is one of those in the mercenary guild and the alchemist guild as well, the cultivation there is much better than outside, if I can learn how to build a Spirit Gathering Formation and use my spirit stones as the main source, it should increase the rate that the spiritual energy is retrieved from the stones, I will take a look on this later.'' Krune then started his study during the day, and during night time he started cultivating again, after several months without increasing his cultivation, he could feel that the instability of his planet in his foundation had finally stabilized, he can start to improve his cultivation again without being afraid of affecting his future. Time passed and another week went by, today, Lu Ganan, Shinja and the others were all in front of the teleportation formation of the Mercenary Guild, they received the report that the Core Formation Stage cultivators were coming today to oversee Shinja''s breakthrough. Not long after, the Teleportation Formation started to shine and soon after, three people appeared on it. There was one woman and two men, Krune, who was watching it, could even tell that the woman is, in fact, a demon beast in human form, but their cultivation is too high, so he can only tell that their cultivation is at the Core Formation, but he can''t tell which stage exactly. Lu Ganan came forward and complimented them, as a Core Formation expert himself, he didn''t need to be overly cautious, but basic politeness is still necessary. "Hello my friends, welcome to the Kaley City, I thank you all for making this trip over here to oversee a new member of our guild entering the Core Formation Realm." Surprisingly, the female demon beast was the leader of this group, she came forward and exchanged a few words with Lu Ganan. "Supervisor Lu is too polite, my name is Mile, when I heard that the one trying to breakthrough was a woman, I offered to oversee the process myself, women cultivators are rarer than men, so I want to make sure everything goes as planned." Shinja came forward to talk with them. "Seniors, thank you for your time, I''m the one going through the process this time, and I''m counting on you." Mile looked at Shinja and her eyes lit up, she got close and touched Shinja''s face. "Such a beautiful girl, if I wasn''t a female demon beast I probably would get jealous of your appearance." She then laughed out loud. "Leave the problems outside to this big sister, you just need to make sure to pass through it safely." Mile looked at Lu Ganan and asked. "Have you decided where she is going to do it?" Supervisor Lu nodded. "We already cleaned a space a few hundred kilometers south of the city, there shouldn''t be any problem." Mile nodded and then said. "Alright, let''s move out then, the earlier it is over, the better." They were just about to leave when Mile noticed Krune who was behind. ''Such a peculiar pair of eyes.'' She then remembered something but kept silent, after that they set off. Chapter 64 - Heavens Fall! The group didn''t take long to arrive at the right place, there wasn''t anyone around since the Mercenary Guild took care of this issue already, usually, no one would try to make things difficult for those breaking through another realm, but there are still situations where grudges or disputes would force the hands of people, so that''s why the Guild would send some cultivators of higher level to take care of the process. Shinja went to the center of the empty place and sat there, she was calming her mind before starting, while they waited, Mile turned to Krune and took a look on his eyes again. ''It really is the rainbow eyes, but how did he get that? I saw his picture before when he got a Four Starts Badge, but at that time his eyes had a common color, so I didn''t care much about his rainbow hair, could it be that he was hiding his eyes true color before? No, that wouldn''t make sense, otherwise, he would still be hiding it now, but he seems to not care about it at all.'' In fact, the colors of Krune''s irises aren''t very apparent, it just started to change recently, so the people around him who are used to his rainbow hair didn''t care much about that, so Krune himself isn''t aware of the changes it had gone. ''Anyway, when this is over I will call him for a chat, if this is what I think, then our Mercenary Guild really got a treasure on our hands, Shinja''s Pure Yin Body can''t even be mentioned in the same line.'' Mile turned away and paid attention to Shinja again, there is a lot of time for her to discuss things over with Krune. --- Shinja focused on her soul and allowed it to slowly approach her dantian, the dantian will only start absorbing the soul if the cultivator wishes for it, so it isn''t anything dangerous until the cultivator decides to step into the Core Formation Realm, as soon as it got close, her golden core let out an enormous absorption power, Shinja felt like her soul was being grinded away, her face went pale and she started to sweat rivers, but once the process starts, it can''t be stopped, the golden core will only stop absorbing the soul when it feels satisfied. Krune and the others saw that and could tell how much pain Shinja was going through, Yusa wanted to go help her but there was nothing she could do to start with, she could only mentally cheer up for her at moment. During the process, the cultivator must keep a clear mind all time, if they faint, the golden core will go out of control and won''t stop until the entire soul is gone, this will mark the end of the cultivators life, fortunately for Shinja, her soul is very strong, all thanks to the training she underwent at Rainbow Sect Secret Realm. If there was a good thing about this, is the fact that the process doesn''t take too long, Shinjas golden core absorbed everything it wanted and started to change, Shinja took out a lot of spirit stones and put them around her, the golden core changing process needs a lot of spiritual energy and Shinja was ready for that, one by one spirit stones turned into dust, but there was always another spirit stone to take its place, the golden core inside Shinja''s foundation got quite bigger, it also shined, even more, its sturdiness increased at a fast pace. On Shinja''s side, she could feel the connection between her soul and the soul inside the golden core, that is how Core Formation experts used their powers, thanks to the connection between the two souls, the cultivator could bring out the true power of the golden core, something that was impossible before. The breakthrough process only took one hour, the spiritual energy around Shinja started to calm down and her golden core slowly stopped to absorb spiritual energy, but it wasn''t over yet, if one looked at the sky above Shinja, one could see the gathering of dark clouds, it was obvious, the Heavenly Tribulation was coming down soon. Shinja didn''t waste time, as soon as the process was over, she activated the ''Stabilizing Soul Technique'', the pain on her soul immediately disappeared and the injure on it stopped to affect her control over the elements, but she knows that it is only temporary, after some time the technique will lose its effects and she will have to spend a few days to properly heal her soul. She looked above and could see that the first lightning was about to come down, she took out a hairpin that looked like it had been frozen, it was a water type weapon that she had acquired especially for this moment, the Heavenly Tribulation doesn''t allow anyone to interfere in the judgment, but it had nothing against using weapons, a weapon is part of a cultivators strength after all. The first tribulation lightning finally came down, but just when it was about to hit Shinja, something unbelievable happened, it suddenly¡­ turned! Everyone jaws dropped, and the target was none other than Krune! In the last second before the tribulation lightning made the turn, Krune felt a ripple inside his rainbow core, that ripple definitely came from the power of the tribulation lightning inside it, thanks to that, Krune was put on high alert, so before the lightning hit him, he was prepared and used all the spiritual energy possible at that moment to attack and defend against that lightning bolt. Blazing Wind Blades, Earth Walls, Water Walls, Myriad Water Dragons, Thunder Line, he used his entire arsenal to stop the bolt from hitting him, unfortunately, that was the power of a Core Formation Realm Heaven Tribulation, it broke through all the defenses and struck Krune head-on, of course, after passing through all those attacks and defenses, it had lost more than 50% of its power, but it was still terrifying anyway. But before they could even process what happened, a certain wisp human form was burnt to the point that it looked like charcoal. "What the hell?!" Krune felt like crying, he looked to the tribulation clouds in the sky and couldn''t help but think. ''This is bullying!'' The heavens couldn''t care less about Krunes thoughts, the second lightning bolt in the skies started to charge up again, but Mile didn''t wait for it at all, she disappeared from her position and immediately appeared in front of Krune, she grabbed him and used her best movement technique to bring Krune away from the tribulation zone, in just a few seconds, she had already disappeared from everyone sights, before that, she sent a Divine Sense message to the other two Core Formation experts for them to take care of Shinja and stop anyone from following them, thanks to that, Krune now had a chance at life, but when Mile used her Divine Sense to check things behind, her face sunk. ''I won''t be able to bring him away in time before the second bolt comes down.'' She then sent him a Divine Sense message "If the second bolt comes at you, you will have to defend against that as well, no one can intervene when the tribulation lightning selects a target, otherwise its power will only increase, as long as you can survive the second lightning bolt, I have the confidence to bring you away from the tribulation zone." Krune knew that it wasn''t the time to make questions and prepared himself, but there was a problem, he used almost everything he had in the last attack, he only had a little spiritual energy left in his body. ''Since that''s the case, I only have one option!'' Krune once again felt that ripple coming from his rainbow core lightning, he knew that the second one was definitely coming for him, he used the some of his remaining spiritual energy to summon his own tribulation lightning from his core, the power of the tribulation lightning immediately gathered above him, Mile looked at that and was amazed. ''That''s the power of tribulation lightning as well!'' But she left this thought for later, she focused on Krune and was ready to charge away with him as soon as he resisted the second lightning, of course, if he survived that. Back at Shinja''s place, Krune''s group was alarmed and wanted to follow, but the Core Formation experts immediately stopped them. "Don''t follow them, you will only turn things worse, pray that Mile will be able to bring him away from the tribulation zone in time, if you follow them now, you might be considered as someone trying to stop the Heavenly Tribulation from reaching its target, not only will you increase the power of the lightning that he will have to face, but you will also die as well." Yusa and Ao''s steps immediately glued in place, if that''s true, then they really can''t do anything to help Krune now. Shinja looked at that and was extremely worried, but she knew that there is nothing she can do now, that best action at moment is to focus on the tribulation lightning so that she can overcome it as soon as possible, she looked up to the sky and a look of determination appeared in her eyes, she will definitely resist the tribulation no matter what. Everything took some time to explain but in fact, it had only taken a few seconds to happen, the second tribulation lightning finished charging up and immediately came down! Back at Krune''s side, he again felt that ripple in his core intensify, sure enough, the second lightning bolt was just about to hit Shinja when it turned again and charged in the direction that Krune and Mile had disappeared, in an instant, Krune could already see it coming at him. ''Since the power of tribulation lightning of the Core Formation Realm is coming, then I will use the same power to send you back, let''s see who is stronger!'' Krune didn''t know if it was going to work or not, first of all, he is using the tribulation lightning to counter-attack another tribulation lightning, chances are that they will join hands and wipe him out of the map, but he really had no other choice, so he could only bet for the best. The tribulation lightning came and Krune sent down his own as well. "Heavens Fall!" As soon as he gave the order for the Heavens Fall to attack the heavenly tribulation, his face changed, he could feel the power of his own Heavens Fall losing control to the incoming lightning, it felt like the tribulation lightning was stealing his control of the tribulation lightning that came from him. Krune''s face showed a hint of madness, there was no point in hiding anything at this point anymore, Krune reverted back to his wisp form, immediately, his control over the lightning element soared! But that was still not enough, the tribulation coming over was still robbing him the control over his Heavens Fall, Krune finally started to succumb to despair when suddenly, his soul jolted! That tribulation lightning lingering around his soul came back to life and connected his soul with the tribulation lightning inside his rainbow core, as soon as that happened, he regained the control over his Heavens Fall, Krune didn''t understand what was happening, but he could feel that the connection between him and the Heavens Fall was back to normal, in fact, it was even stronger than before! Krune immediately corrected its trajectory to hit the incoming tribulation lightning. The heavens seemed to understand what happened and got enraged at the fact that someone took control over its power once again, after that, the lightning coming at Krune sped up even more! Krune screamed and adjusted his Heavens Fall in the last instant, the real Tribulation Lightning and his own Tribulation Lightning hit each other head-on! BOOM! Chaotic spiritual energy roared everywhere, lightning sparks flew in all directions, Krune''s wisp body was swept away, just as he was about to lose his conscience he used the last bit of spiritual energy in his universe foundation to return to his human form, in the place where the two tribulation lightning hit each other, an enormous crater was formed, the power of the heavens isn''t something people can joke around, Krune finally passed out after that, from now on, it was up to fate! Mile saw everything and couldn''t believe her eyes! ''Is that a wisp?'' But she had no time to think about it any further, she immediately grabbed Krune''s body and charged out, this time, she was out of the tribulation lightning zone, she looked behind her and let out a sigh of relief. She stopped a few kilometers away and put Krune down, she gathered spiritual energy and started to heal his body that had been hit by the first tribulation lightning, Mile looked at Krune''s face and complicated emotions could be seen on her own. "Why does he have to be a wisp?" Chapter 65 - Five Elements Nascent Soul Back at Shinjas place, the Heavenly Tribulation finished without any big issues, Krune had eaten two of the nine lightning bolts, so her job became a lot easier in the end, of course, she was injured all over and will need some time to recover. Yusa and Ao looked up in the sky and could see the clouds dissipating, that was the signal that everything was really over, they sent Shinja a Divine Sense message and rushed out in the direction that Mile and Krune disappeared, sometime later, they could see Mile and Krune in the distance, Mile was healing Krune''s injuries, when they saw that Krune was still in his human form they let out a sigh of relief when Mile saw them approaching she stopped sending spiritual energy into Krunes body and sent them a Divine Sense message. "You take care of him from now on, I need to go back to check on Shinja, he has a lot to explain later so don''t you try to play any tricks, he owns me a favor." Yusa and Ao didn''t say anything and just nodded, they took Krune''s body and went back to Kaley City, Yusa looked at Krune and couldn''t help but sigh. "It is probably because of the tribulation lightning he has inside his core, no, it''s definitely because of that." Ao nodded. "There would be no other reason, the tribulation must have noticed its own power and moved in its direction, but that''s okay, Krune is still alive and his human form is still here, we just need to think about something to say later." Yusa nodded as well and they kept on their way to the city. --- The next day, Krune finally woke up, when he looked around he could see that he was back to his house in the city, around him one could see his friends but other than that, Mile was there too. He remembered what happened and knew that things got complicated, he put on a smile and looked at Mile. "Thank you for your help yesterday, senior Mile, I would be dead if not for your help." Mile shook her head and extended her hand forward, immediately, a barrier appeared around Krunes house, no one would be able to see or hear anything that would happen there, she then looked at Krune. "Let''s cut to the chase, you are a wisp, right?" Yusa and the others heart stopped for a second, ever since Mile arrived in the house she hasn''t said anything, so they didn''t know that she found out about Krunes real form. Krune wasn''t surprised at all, he had used his real form to resist the second Heavenly Tribulation, after all, he put a serious face and said. "That''s right." Mile looked at that and shook her head. "You should know already that if I had told anyone about it, you would probably be some Divine Soul expert prisoner already, you would basically be their hope for a breakthrough, especially those that have been stuck in the same stage for a very long time." Krune nodded and waited for her to continue. "But wisps can also be considered part of the demon beasts, so I won''t do that, I won''t lie when I say that I also am very interested in using your wisp energy myself, you could probably be my free pass into the Divine Soul realm as well, so, let me ask you, what can you offer me to keep me quiet?" Yusa and the others would have killed Mile already if she wasn''t much stronger than them, so they could only wait to see what happens, worse comes to worst, they will do everything they can to bring Krune away. Krune shook his head, he doesn''t have anything of great value except for his cultivation technique and the Rainbow Sect Secret realm, but he can''t divulge any of those, he can''t force the Core Formation Mile to sign a blood contract either. "I don''t have anything that I am able to give you, I of course have some things but they can''t be given, so I would like to know if senior Mile has any idea in mind." Mile heard that and smiled, that was what she was waiting for. "I will make some questions then if your answer is to my liking, I will let this matter go." Krune nodded. "First, you have a rainbow core inside your universe foundation, am I right?" Everyone''s eyes showed immense surprise, no one should know about Krunes rainbow core. "You don''t need to lie to me, only a rainbow core owner would have rainbow-like irises, although it is very faint, I can see it." Krune and the other were taken aback, rainbow irises? Yusa and the others looked closely and sure enough, Krunes irises where rainbow-like now, but you had to pay attention to notice that, Krune also got a mirror and couldn''t help but be surprised himself. "When did it turn out like this?" Looking at everyone''s reactions, Mile understood that none of them had noticed it before, no wonder he didn''t try to conceal it. "Seems like you haven''t noticed it before, anyway, the fact that you have a rainbow core is true, right?" Krune knew that there is some story behind his rainbow eyes irises, and since she already found out that he is a wisp, what''s the point of denying this part? "Senior Mile is right, I do have a rainbow core." He looked at her and couldn''t help but ask. "You seem like to know something about this core of mine, until now even I don''t know why it turned out like this." Mile nodded. "First, stop with this senior thing, I hate that, second, you are right, I do know some things about rainbow cores." Krune and the other looked at her and waited for Mile to continue "But what I know is very limited, it''s said that only when someone perfectly harmonize with the five basic elements before the Foundation Establishment, will they give birth to a rainbow core, this is one of the most powerful cores that we know about, of course, the universe is enormous, there are probably other types that we don''t know out there, thanks to this core, the owner will be able to give birth to a five elements nascent soul and will have limitless future." Krune was puzzled "Five elements nascent soul?" Mile nodded. "I don''t know much about it myself, but those who get a rainbow core can get this type of nascent soul, it''s said that their control will be matchless within the five basic elements, as to how much this control can help with their combat prowess, that I don''t know, there is way too little information about it in our mercenary guild, or better, in our world, Makui Planet is too weak, that''s an undeniable truth, because of that we know too little about the outside worlds." Krune wasn''t disappointed, at least it shows that he isn''t the first one to get a rainbow core, if one day he is successful in leaving the planet, he will be able to look for more information about that. Mile then continued. "Now, the rainbow core is one thing, but even if you have control over the lightning element, it doesn''t explain why you are able to use the power of the Tribulation Lightning, that is the power of the heavens, it should be impossible for you to control it even if you have your rainbow core." Krune understood that as well, so he explained what happened during his Foundation Establishment breakthrough, of course, he left the part about his Spiritual Energy Meridians outside. "So you let the tribulation lightning enter your little universe and guided it into your planet bit by bit, in the end, some of its energy lingered inside of the planet and struck your rainbow core during its formation." Krune nodded. Mile took a deep breath, she never heard about something this crazy before. "Your luck is out of the charts, just a single misstep and you would be fried wisp, but this is also good, with the power of the tribulation lightning I''m looking even more forward to see your future." "Now then, I will have to report it to the guild, but I will keep the fact that you are a wisp secret, you stay in your house for a few days, a rainbow core user is something that can''t be taken lightly, the other guilds in and out of the Yule continent will do anything to take you away with them, fortunately, your rainbow irises weren''t very apparent, so people didn''t notice it before, as long as I bring a technique that conceals eye powers, you should be fine to walk around again." Everyone was puzzled. "Eye powers?" Mile remembered that she didn''t explain it. "Oh right, why do you think you can see through the others skills flaws and give them pointers on how to improve their own abilities? That''s the power of the rainbow irises, a side effect of your rainbow core." Not only Krune, but Yusa too felt enlightened. ''I see, so that''s why Yusa can feel the elements a lot better but can''t get close to what I can do, she can more or less notice the flaws and give a few pointers as well, but when things get too profound, she is clueless about what to do when it is related to others, I always thought that it was because I had more Spiritual Energy Meridians than her or Lakin and Ruik, I thought that as long as they got more Spiritual Energy Meridians they would eventually match my perception, but it seems like it won''t happen.'' Mile was about to leave when Ao made a question. "Mile, why are you helping us? I understand that a rainbow core cultivator would be an amazing asset for the Mercenary Guild, but I still believe you would get a lot more benefits if you were to disclose Krunes identity as a wisp, even if you say that it really is for the guild''s future, Krune is a wisp, his life span is very limited, there is only so much he would be able to make for the guild in the future anyway, so why is that?" The air became heavy after that, everyone looked at her waiting for an answer. Mile smiled and said. "I won''t lie that I''m not disappointed with the fact that he is a wisp, there is the life span thing and all. Let''s just say that I''m trying to do a bet, a bet that he will go further than anyone expects, when that day comes, I hope he remembers this favor of today." Krune took a deep breath and said "You have no need to worry, if I really get that far, I will definitely remember this favor." Mile then blinked at Ao and left. Krune looked at everyone and said. "Well, at least I know a little bit more about this core of mine, I also know that although the Spiritual Energy Meridians are marvelous, they aren''t omnipotent, I always wondered why my control is so much better than Yusa or Lakin and Ruik, it probably has something to do with this perfect harmony that gave birth to the rainbow core like that she told us." Yusa and the others didn''t care though. "That''s good, the Spiritual Energy Meridians gave us a great boost of power anyway, so even if we didn''t get this perfect harmony, there is nothing to complain about." They weren''t lying, their achievements have far surpassed what they could have ever hoped for, they are totally satisfied with the results, there is nothing to complain about. Krune just laughed at that and then started to control his spiritual energy to heal his human form injuries, he would have to wait a few days to receive the technique to conceal his rainbow irises anyway, so he will only bind his time, it had nothing to do with believing Mile or not, but that he had no other choice but doing so. At least, it didn''t seem like she was lying, otherwise, she could have used the time he was unconscious to sell the information about him, in that case, he would have really be doomed, he let out a sigh and said. "Let''s wait and see what happens." He then focused on his injuries but at the same time on his tribulation lightning power in both his soul and rainbow core. ''What was that connection that I felt between the two powers of Tribulation Lightning?'' He tried to check the lightning in his soul first when he suddenly heard a voice. "Don''t bother me, I''m sleepy, come back later." Krune''s expression became weird, did that lightning power just talk to him? "I see, I''m still too much injured, I''m even hearing things now, I better go sleep a bit." It was then that he remembered one thing... He is a wisp, wisps don''t sleep. Chapter 66 - The Last of the Big Four Krune calmed himself and checked it up again, this time, he didn''t hear anything. ''Could it be I''m really imagining things?'' But there was one thing that he could feel, there was really a link between the lightning power in his soul and the lightning power in the rainbow core, he tried to use this link to control the power of the tribulation lightning, but nothing happened, if he wanted to use its power, he would need to use his Spiritual Energy Meridians as always, there was also another point, the power of the tribulation lightning is his core had increased again. ''I noticed that it is keeping more and more lightning power, but does it have anything to do with the lightning in my soul?'' He decided to give it some time, first, he needs to finish healing himself, after that he will try to temper his soul with tribulation lightning once more, maybe at that time, he will find something. --- Back at the Mercenary Guild headquarters, Bary Kasfiu was discussing the issue of Krune''s rainbow core with Kassius Ruli. "A rainbow core, to think that our planet would give birth to a rainbow core cultivator, not only that, he can even use some tribulation lightning power, this isn''t someone that a small planet like Makui should have, could it be that the planet''s next ten thousand years of fortune was used in a single breath?" Kassius was a lot more realistic though. "Stop with that crap, the important thing now is to decide how we are going to deal with him, I already sent a copy of the ''Eye Seal Technique'' for him to practice, with that, his rainbow eyes irises will be concealed, but sooner or later, people will start to notice his abnormal control over the elements." Bary shook his head. "I don''t think this is a big issue, one thing is they noticing his element control, another thing is they guessing that it is because of a rainbow core, at most the other powers would think that he is very talented, we are talking about a rainbow core here, let alone that very few people know about it, even if there was a lot who knew, no one would imagine that someone like that would appear in our planet, even if someone suspects, we can just give some excuse." Kassius pondered a bit and had to agree that that was really the case. "If that''s the case, can''t we have him participating in the Mercenary Selection and Martial Gathering?" Bary nodded "That''s exactly what I was thinking, even if he isn''t at that level yet there is still 8 months ahead for the Mercenary Selection and 10 months for the Martial Gathering, I think he will definitely be at the right power for that moment, it will be a great eye-opener and challenging the geniuses of the world will also help him further increase his rainbow core, not to mention, we might be able to send him ''there''." Kassius was surprised "I see, you are right, with his talent there is a very big chance of him getting into ''there''." Kassius suddenly had an idea "In that case, If we try to not get attention, it will eventually backfire on us, so we should do the opposite, we should announce it to the others that we found out that Krune was even greater of a genius and that he will be participating in the Mercenary Selection, that way not only will people not get suspicious, it will help conceal the truth as well." Bary nodded and accepted the idea. "But before that, we need to get his opinion, it''s best if we discuss things over with him before taking this next step." Kassius nodded, that was for the best. --- Back at Kaley City, Krune was studding the Eye Seal Technique, he had tried to communicate with the Tribulation Lightning in his soul a few more times in the past few days and even tempered his soul with the Tribulation Lightning of his core again, but not a single word came out of it, Krune was starting to feel that it was really his imagination that it talked to him. He already has some understanding of the Eye Seal Technique and was practicing it when he suddenly got a call from Lu Ganan, the Kaley City Mercenary Guild supervisor. "Krune, we need you to come to the guild as soon as possible, have you finished practicing the Eye Seal Technique?" Lu Ganan was also told about Krune''s situation, so he is aware of the importance that the guild puts on him now. Krune nodded. "I have already grasped part of it, my rainbow eyes aren''t that apparent so it is enough to totally conceal them already, I''m going right now since I''m not doing much at moment anyway." After arriving in the mercenary guild, Yusa and the others were there as well, they also had received the same call, it seems like it had something to do with Krune''s rainbow core, so they came straight away. After entering Lu Ganan''s private office, they could see another man other than supervisor Lu, they immediately recognized him, it was none other than the Head of Mercenary Guild in the Yule Continent, Bary Kasfiu, Mile too was there standing up in a corner. "So you have come, take a sit as well, I have some things to talk about." "My visit to Kaley City is a secret, so only the people in this office know about that, I will be leaving as soon as I finish dealing with this situation here." He then looked at everyone and said. "First of all, Krune''s rainbow core information can''t be found out, at least not until he reaches the Nascent Soul Realm, so I ask you all to keep this a secret." Everyone''s nodded, they know the importance of a Rainbow Core and a Five Elements Nascent Soul, the less the number of people that know about it, the better. "Second, I would like that Krune to give up the teaching position and directly participate in the Mercenary Selection and then the Martial Gathering." Krune and the others got puzzled, wasn''t it decided that he would only be teaching the participants? "I know what you are thinking, but with a Rainbow Core, Krune''s combat power is far above his own stage, there is also 10 months to the Martial Gathering, I have confidence that he will get to the 6th or maybe even 7th stage of Foundation Establishment by that, I don''t believe he can''t protect himself at that point at least." He then looked at Krune "I also want to announce this news to everyone, simply put, I want you to be known as much as possible." Krune immediately shook his head. "No way, I hate attention, I don''t want to have a lot of people following my tail everywhere I go." Bary shook his head. "That''s why I came here, I''m not doing it to give you more attention, on the opposite, I want to do it to bring everyone''s attention away from your Rainbow Core." Krune might have low EQ, but his IQ is definitely different, he immediately understood the crux of the issue. "I see, you want to use me as a genius so that everyone will pay attention to me, that way people will think that my combat prowess is probably because of the full support of the mercenary guild behind me, no one would suspect that I could possibly have a Rainbow Core." Bary was happy that he understood so fast. "It''s good that you understand, I will be honest, with your talent, the Makui planet can only do so much for you, the same goes for our mercenary guild, if you try to keep yourself hidden all the time, it will start to make things difficult on our side to help you, but you can still stay away from the holophotes, you don''t need to go and give interviews or anything like that, our guild will take care of all those things, people just need to know that we have a genius called Krune that we are putting a lot of effort on, as for everything else, you can keep doing whatever you have been doing so far." Krune gave a sigh of relief, at least this time they came to ask his opinion and gave him a proper explanation, he especially liked the part where he doesn''t really need to appear himself and can keep his own plans without being bothered. Shinja heard all of that and couldn''t help but comment. "I think the guild head is correct, Krune." "The further you go, the more you will have to show your power, if you don''t, people will sit on your head, this is a very good deal in my opinion." Yusa and Ao also nodded, they know little about the intricacies between the powers of the world, but if Shinja says that this is a good thing, they will trust her, besides, what guild head Bary said so far made a lot of sense. Noticing that his friends also agreed to the idea, Krune decided to accept that, he looked at Bary and asked. "I don''t like the idea of gathering attention but I have to admit that everyone''s words make sense, so, guild head Bary, what do you want in exchange for all that help?" Krune knows that there is no free lunch in this world, there is definitely something more behind it, Bary looked at him and gave an approving nod. "There is indeed a thing I would like you to do for us, or to be more specific, for our Makui Planet cultivators." Krune was surprised, something for the cultivators of the entire planet? "You know the Martial Gathering that will happen after the Mercenary Selection, but do you know who organizes it?" Krune pondered a bit, he had read about the Martial Gathering after he came to know that he was going to teach the Yule Continent top contestants for the Mercenary Selection. "From what I know, this is done by the biggest powers in the world, several sects, clans, and organizations take part in it." Bary Kasfiu shook his head. "That is what we tell to the public, the truth is much deeper than that." This time even Mile and Lu Ganan attention was picked, even they didn''t know about it. "To be honest, this isn''t any super-secret, anyone with the right amount of power would find out sooner or later, it''s just an unspoken rule to not comment about that, the power behind it isn''t something that anyone in the Makui Planet can afford to offend after all." Krune suddenly remembered which power controlled the North East side of the western protectorate where the Makui Planet is localized. "Could it have something to do with the Divine Path Sect?" The Divine Path Sect was the last of the Big Four, and also the one who controlled the North East side of the Western Protectorate, the Makui Planet just so happens to be part of the North East side, so they are under the jurisdiction of the Divine Path Sect. "Correct, to protect their territory, the Divine Path Sect needs a constant flow of new cultivators to join their ranks, but only the real geniuses can enter, that''s the use of the Martial Gathering, to filter Makui Planet''s good seeds and send them over to try the Divine Path Sect''s entrance exam, unfortunately, there are thousands if not tens of thousands of planets in the North East side alone, maybe even more, because of that our Makui Planet haven''t had one of our cultivators joining the Divine Path Sect in over a millennia." Krune then said. "And you think that thanks to my Rainbow Core and also my ability to control some of the Tribulation Lightning power I will have a bigger chance than the others to pass the Divine Path Sect entrance exam." Bary nodded his head, Krune already had an idea but he decided to ask anyway. "And how sending your geniuses away can help the Makui Planet?" Bary understood Krune''s meaning. "That is very simple, the Divine Path Sect only accept geniuses, but those geniuses that can stand up to the sect standard requirement are few and far between, so any planet that gives birth to such geniuses will receive great help from the Divine Path Sect, it will be both in the form of rare cultivation resources as well as cultivation techniques and skills, for a planet like ours, such help will improve the cultivation world several times, and as the guild that discovered that genius, our mercenary guild will receive even more resources." "But that isn''t all, it''s not only us who will benefit from it, you too will get a lot from the Divine Path Sect, recourses, techniques, pills and other things that our Makui Planet would never be able to provide to you." Krune pondered a bit, it was exactly what he thought. ''I was already expecting that sooner or later I would have to stop hiding my powers, I just didn''t think that it would be so soon, I wanted to at least be a Divine Soul cultivator before that, but it seems like I can''t delay it anymore. Why is it so hard to keep a low profile?'' ''Oh well, forget it, I will need to make a name for myself if I want to keep that married promise anyway, but that is considering that she still remembers it, which I find hard to believe, but it also doesn''t matter, simply keeping that promise isn''t my only objective anymore, maybe, just maybe, I can get enough power to help the wisps situation, after seeing how serious Lakin was about keeping them safe, how can I, his master, stay put and only watch?'' Krune took a deep breath and a look of determination appeared in his eyes. "Very well, I accept your idea, tell me more about this Divine Sect entrance exam." Chapter 67 - As Expected of the Formations Guild! Bary heard that and was ecstatic, as long as Krune himself is willing to try, then the rest can be taken care of. "As you probably can guess, only the best ranked cultivators of the Martial Gathering will be sent to the Divine Path Sect entrance exam, which in this case is the first ten places, don''t think this is too much, there is a lot of big powers in our world, each one of them have between three and five slots for the Martial Gathering, in the end, the martial gathering will have at least a few hundred competing for those ten slots, it is very hard to get there." Krune nodded, that''s to be expected, if it was that easy to enter the Divine Path Sect, there would be no need for sending the best ten, just send everyone and get over with it. "The Martial Gathering happens every ten years and the Divine Path Sect entrance exam is the same, so not only we, but in general, all planets have their competitions around three to six months before the entrance exam, that is because only those below the age of forty can participate, so to prevent having people becoming above the age necessary after joining the trip, we all make the gatherings around the same time." Krune then thought about one thing. "What about Shinja, then? She is already at the Core Formation Realm, does it mean that she can''t participate in the Divine Path Sect entrance anymore?" Shinja was happy that Krune asked that, she also wished to know the answer for that question, but Bary simply smiled. "You saw with your own eyes how hard it is for a cultivators to enter the Core Formation Realm here in our Makui Planet, simply put, a lot of people die during the process, but the real reason is that they simply wait until they are close to the end of their life span as Foundation Establishment cultivators to try the breakthrough, because of that, cultivators like Shinja, who are below the age of forty and are already in the Core Formation Realm are extremely rare, so there is no need for her to participate in a martial gathering, if she wants, she can try the Divine Path Sect entrance exam when the time comes." Krune understood the situation, indeed, Core Formation is really dangerous, it''s no wonder that the majority are over forty, with over a hundred years of life ahead of then, why should they try something this dangerous? Krune, of course, didn''t have this option. "Our planet indeed has quite a lot Core Formation Stage cultivators, but believe it or not, not even a hundred are below the age of forty, but we have thousands above it, and between those below forty years old, not a lot wish to try the Divine Path Sect test due to its difficult, I will be impressed if we get even twenty of those below forty to come try the entrance exam." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Then why there is so much people who wish to try it in the Foundation Establishment?" As soon as Krune made this question, he understood the reason, in fact, it could be said that it was a very idiotic question, so he immediately corrected himself. "Forget it, no need to answer, if I''m not wrong, those who join the Divine Path Sect will have a much easier time to enter the Core Formation Realm, simply put, it will be much safer." Bary smiled and nodded, that was right, with the techniques and skills available for the Divine Path Sect, breaking through the Core Formation Stage can be considered very safe, totally different from the situation in Makui Planet. Bary then explained a few more things and was just about to leave when Ao soddenly asked. "Would there be a problem if I took part in the selection as well?" Krune looked at him surprised, but he didn''t say anything, Bary heard the question and answered straight away. "Any Three Stars Mercenary can try their luck in the selection, so yes, you can." After Bary left, Krune talked a little with everyone and went back to his house to finish practicing the Eye Seal Technique while Shinja went back to her own to finish stabilizing her cultivation and get used to the Core Formation Realm power. Yusa and Ao were walking together when she decided to ask. "Are you sure you want to go? It''s not like we have Krune''s Rainbow Core or Shinja''s Pure Yin Body, you know?" Ao nodded. "We don''t, but we do have the Spiritual Energy Meridians." Ao looked up to the sky and then said. "Have you noticed? So far we have basically relied on Krune when things go south, I don''t want to keep it like that, I want to forge my own path as well, and the Divine Path Sect entrance exam is a good opportunity to prove that everything I got from Krune was not in vain, I refuse to keep being a burden." Yusa was taken aback with that statement, she has always been very easy going, so she had never thought about it, only now that Ao brought this issue up that she noticed that he was right. "Besides, I believe that Krune will definitely pass the Divine Path Sect Exam, so he will eventually leave, what are you planning to do after that? Watch him and Shinja flying far away while you stay behind to be a big tycoon in a small planet?" Ao took a deep breath and continued. "Don''t underestimate the Spiritual Energy Meridians, with this alone I''m sure I can do much more than I could have ever hoped for, I refuse to believe that once I open my own, I won''t have the capability to fight against the geniuses of our world, I might not reach Krune or Shinja''s power, but I will definitely try to do so, think about it carefully, is staying behind really what you want?" After saying that, Ao parted ways with Yusa, he is very close to finish his last pseudo energy meridians, there is no doubt that he will have them opened by the time that the selection starts. Yusa, on the other hand, was lost, she always thought that it would be fine as long as she got her own place in the Makui Planet, but everyone else seems to have much bigger aspirations, a sense of alarm started to grow in her heart, she looked in the direction that Ao left and went back to do her own things. --- Back at Krune''s place, he was again training his Eye Seal Technique, although it had ''seal'' in the name, in fact it only ''sealed'' the color of his eyes, the power stayed there still, much for Krune''s delight, it only took him a few more days to finish grasping the technique entirely. ''With this I can now focus back on my plans, I already finished looking into all the studding materials of the Formations Guild, so I should go back there and try some practical training.'' Krune didn''t waste time and went back to the Formations Guild straight away, he then got a few items used to construct low level formations, he is pretty confident in being able to build higher level ones without mistake, but it''s always better to be safe, so he got to try low level ones first. The guild had a few rooms reserved specially for new recruits to try out their low level formations, it had enough space to build almost any low level formation and give the recruit enough privacy to work out. After spreading his Divine Sense far enough to cover the room that he was using, he started to set up a simple cloud formation, this one is basically used for making it rain, it interacts with the water element by condensing them it into clouds, it''s a very simple one and used by a lot of alchemists to water their herb gardens. Thanks to the All Encompassing Soul Technique, it was really easy to ascertain the points where the water element would converge, that together with his high sensitivity to the elements due to the Spiritual Energy Meridians, he was able to pinpoint the best locations in the room where the water element would flow the best, Krune was really immersed in the feeling of creating the formation, he found it to be very amusing, and because of this he didn''t notice, but this simple cloud formation of his had already achieved the Three Stars level, it only wasn''t a Four Stars because the materials used were of low quality, one must remember that every single Star is a great change in the prowess of the formation, after finishing the setting it up, Krune activated it. --- Karen is one of the employees of the Formations Guild and a One Star Formation Master herself, she was responsible for keeping the low level test rooms in good conditions for the new recruits to try out their formations, she didn''t like danger so the payment of the guild was enough for her cultivation and there was still enough buy some materials for herself to practice her formations. Today she was doing the same as always, she got the information that one of the rooms that one of the new recruits was using got vacant, which means that she has to go there and check if the formations of the room itself are still in good shape, failed formations might cause damage to the environment, or even explode due to the wrong set up of spiritual energy, so the formations of the rooms themselves had to always be ready for anything, she was just passing by the door of one of the rooms that was being used at moment when suddenly, she noticed that there was water coming from the gaps of the door, which puzzled her greatly. ''Weird, the formation of the room should have sealed the room completely, how come there is water coming from the gaps?'' It was then that she thought about something. ''I see, the formation of this room probably was damaged by someone else before the new guy entered the room.'' She couldn''t help but sigh. ''Unfortunately, I will have to ask him to stop for now and change rooms, I hate stopping people who are working hard in the middle of their work, but those are the rules.'' She then decided to open the formation that sealed the room. --- Little did Karen know, but the formation that protected the room was working perfectly fine, it''s just that inside the room that she was going to open, Krune was fighting¡­ Fighting against a raging sea and a storm above his head the thundered nonstop, it looked like the room had welcomed the apocalypse, his body was being tossed everywhere, he could barely keep his head out of the water, Krune was already crying inside. "WhY Did iT tURn ouT LIKE THiiiiIIIiIiIIs?!" At first everything was okay, his formation made a lot of rain fall down but that was it, it was then that Krune noticed that that wasn''t the limit of his new Cloud Formation, he decided to test how good the formation the he built with the help of the Soul Technique and his Meridians was, so¡­ he fed it a ''few'' of his Rank Four High Quality Spirit Stones, terrible idea though. Outside, Karen was in front of the door and as soon as she had undone the formation protecting the room, the door exploded and a tsunami of water swept her and everyone close to it, poor Karen was even worse, the door hit her face head-on, in just a few seconds, the entire hall was under water, finally, the low level formation couldn''t hold the flow of spiritual energy anymore and broke apart, the storm in the training room disappeared and the water started to go down. When everyone finally got a hold of themselves, they looked in the direction of the room from where the water came, in the place where once there was a door, Krune came out completely soaked, he looked at the disaster that had become the hall and felt like dying right there and then. "Cough, Cough, as expected of a formation provided by the Formations Guild, this cloud formation prowess is quite good." This was a very good start for someone who gave up the low key life. Chapter 68 - I Don’t Like This Pattern. Cloud Formation? Everyone looked at each other and they couldn''t help but think. ''Since when our guild has such a heaven defying cloud formation?'' Karen mood was terrible, her nose was purple and one could see blood coming out of it. Of course, she noticed that and took a low level healing pill, even though the pill was a little expensive for her, as a woman, she couldn''t possibly walk around like that. Not long after, a middle aged woman appeared in the hall, when she looked at the flood, her face contorted quite a bit, she looked at Karen who was responsible for the training rooms and only saw her pointing at a certain guy. The middle aged woman then sent a Divine Sense message to Karen and left, Karen took a deep breath and approached Krune who was still spacing out. "Would you mind to follow me, sir?" Krune came back to himself and just nodded, he couldn''t possibly simply leave after what he had done. After arriving at a private room, the middle aged woman was already there, she was none other than the supervisor of the Formations Guild, Lola Javes, different from the Alchemist Guild and Mercenary Guild of Kaley City who had supervisors at the Four Stars Level, Lola herself was a Five Stars Formations Masters, she could have applied to another bigger guild branch if she wanted, but she liked Kaley City, so she remained. She looked at Krune, because of the flood, Krune''s hat that he liked to use to hide his rainbow hair was long gone to who knows where, and so Lola was able to recognize him straight away. "Does your Mercenary Guild have something against my Formations Guild?" She couldn''t care less if Krune was a genius or not, she loves very much the guild that she is in charge of, anyone who tries to purposely cause havoc here will be dealt without mercy! Krune immediately shook his head vigorously, even he didn''t expect for something like that to happen. "Speak, how did it turn out like that? Also, don''t think that you can scape without paying for the damage, otherwise I will bring a war to your Mercenary Guild door steps." Those were the worlds that Krune was most afraid of, paying for the damage! "Well, it went like this¡­" Krune explained the situation and Lola was amazed after he finished talking. "Are you telling me that with a simple cloud formation you created that flood? Do you take me for a fool? You would need to reach a Three Stars levels, maybe even Four to get that power of this formation, not to mention that you would need at least some Rank Four Spirit Stones on top of that." Krune looked at her surprised "I don''t know if my formation was at the Three Stars level, but I did use Rank Four High Quality Spirit Stones." Lola''s mouth twitched, who the hell would waste Rank Four Spirit Stones on a cloud formation? And it was High Quality at that, but she reminded herself that Krune is a genius of element control, so she decided to test his words first. "I will bring you to another training room where you will set up the same formation again, if your formation doesn''t reach the Three Stars level, your guild will have to answer for your acts." Krune nodded and followed her, after taking out a few more materials, he started to build the cloud formation again, he used his soul technique and meridians to pin point the locations for the water element, after thirty some minutes, he was done, Lola looked at the formation and had to admit, it really reached the Three Stars level, she was impressed that Krune was able to create this formation with such low level materials. "Hmph! At least you were not lying, I will keep my word and won''t bother your Mercenary Guild, but you will still have to pay for the damage, you have no problem with that, right?" Krune felt like crying but didn''t refuse, even if he didn''t want to damage the guild, it doesn''t change the fact he was the one who did it, he isn''t shameless enough like Yusa to renege his doing. Lola called Karen and some other employees of the guild and asked them to do a check out of how much it would cost to repair everything, not long after, they came back with the numbers. "After calculating all the electronic and spiritual equipment destroyed by the flood, the total price was 337 Rank Three Middle Quality spirit stones, considering the time to replace everything and the work of the formations masters to rebuild the hall formations, it went up to 125 Rank Four Low Quality Spirit stones." Krune let out a sigh of relief, only now he remembered that Rank Four Spirit Stones are very valuable, so with the amount he has at moment it became a small issue to pay it over. Lola checked every spirit stone and then nodded, after that she entered the next topic. "Alright, although I still don''t like you, the damage issue is over with, I checked the system and found out that you aren''t a formation master yet, are you here to become one?" Krune immediately nodded, he needs access to the information of Teleport Formations after all. "Very well, go to the register office and give them the necessary information, your badge will be delivered soon after." Krune was taken aback, that simple? "Errrr, what about the test?" Lola looked at Krune as if she was looking at an idiot. "You already can use low level materials to set up a Three Stars Formation, and it is even a simple Cloud Formation on top of that, the test is there for those who don''t know if they have reached the level of One Star Formations Master yet, do you really think you can''t build a One Star Formation?" Krune had to admit that he made an extremely idiotic question, not to mention that this guild branch supervisor wants him to leave her guild as soon as possible, she obviously couldn''t stand his face. Krune wasn''t sad though, he can get the information for the Short Distance teleportation formation and leave straight away before anything else happens, although he lost some spirit stones the end result was exactly what he wanted. --- Krune was once again waiting for his badge and once again it started to take forever for them to give it to him, he felt like he was seeing a d¨¦j¨¤ vu. ''I don''t like this pattern.'' Back at Lola''s office, she was discussing with the Formations Guild Headquarters about Krune situation. "He broke my guild hall, there is no way I''m giving him a Four Stars Badge, if you want, come here and give it yourselves, I was about to give him a One Star and you can consider it as me being very considerate already. No wait, first of all, how did you even find about it?" The person on the other side of the line was the supervisor of the reviews office of the Formations Headquarters, Gimble Luos. "The Mercenary Guild had just informed the other guilds that they changed their decision of having Krune teaching elements control to their contestants, he is now directly participating in the Mercenary Selection and then the Martial Gathering, from what we could find, the Mercenary Guild is putting a lot of effort to raise him, so the other powers are keeping a close look." "When his name appeared in the Formations Guild system, we immediately recovered the training room video and saw he building up that almost Four Stars Cloud Formation with simple and ordinary materials, he is definitely at the level of a Four Stars Formations Master, doesn''t matter how much you dislike him, you can''t deny his talent!" Lola''s face was dark, it''s not that she doesn''t like Krune, she simply doesn''t like geniuses in general, she herself was considered a genius in formation already, but only her knows the truth, her talent could only be considered average, it was through a gigantic amount of effort that she got where she is today, that coupled with the fact that he destroyed her guild hall made her first impression of him be a very bad one. Gimble knows her, they studied under the same master in the past, that''s why he was the one who was calling about this issue, otherwise, the higher ups would have intervened already. "Okay, I will help you apply for the extra founding you had been hopping for since the start of the year, with this we are even, how about that?" Lola''s face immediately improved. "Are you serious?" "I am, but I can only help put some good words for you, the rest will still depend on yourself, consider this as your senior brother favor." Lola pondered a bit, that founding would help she increase the Formation Guild size, Kaley City, as one of the cities that separate the country from one of the danger zones, received a lot of cultivators year round, her guild was already having some problems to cope with the flow of cultivators requesting for services at her guild. "Very well, I will take your offer, but don''t expect me treating him like some gem or anything like that, you know me." "Great! Then I will pass the orders to accept Krune''s ability review, this might help us to build some good relationship with the mercenary guild too." Gimble finished the call and not long after, the approval for passing over a Four Stars Formations Master badge arrived, Lola stood up and went to the room where Krune was waiting, after arriving there, she simply tossed the badge over to him. "The guild decided to make you a Four Stars Formations Master, I was against it but they have already made their mind, so you can use it from now on." Krune smiled bitter, it was just as he thought. "Errr, you aren''t planning of doing any propaganda over this or anything like that, right?" Lola''s mouth twitched. "Propaganda your head! If it depended on me, you would receive a single start badge and nothing more, the Formations Guild Headquarters only want to build some relationship with your Mercenary Guild, seems like it has something to do with the fact you are taking part of the Mercenary Selection and Martial Gathering, but I couldn''t care less, as long as you don''t destroy my guild again, we are good with each other." Lola looked at Krune''s face and surprisingly, he didn''t look sad at all, in fact, it looked like he was about to cry out of happiness. And she was right, she instantly became the guild branch supervisor that Krune loved the most! It was the second time in his life that Krune felt that a human female looked beautiful. "Thank you, supervisor Lola, I will make sure to not break anything here anymore, I will conduct all my own practicing at my own place from now on." Lola didn''t understand why he looked so happy but she didn''t care either, she simply nodded and left. Krune immediately accessed the information available for Four Stars Formations Masters and found out the two Formations he wanted the most, the Spirit Gathering Formation and the Short Distance Teleport Formation. ''The Spirit Gathering Formation is quite simple, but the Short Distance Teleport Formation is totally different, it needs a lot of materials as well, not to mention that I need to practice it, it will cost me quite a few Spirit Stones.'' But Krune didn''t mind, he can now request some help in resources from the Mercenary Guild, since they have announced that they will support him fully, it would be idiotic from his part if he didn''t use this opportunity properly. Krune isn''t afraid that they will try to find out where he is building those formations, they are partners now and the Mercenary Guild put a lot of importance on his Rainbow Core, the last thing they want is to scare Krune away, any secret that he might have can''t compare with the resources that they will receive if Krune joins the Divine Path Sect. Krune was just about to leave the Formations Guild when he remembered one thing, he went to the guild hall again and soon found Karen repairing a Formation. "Hi there." Karen noticed who came and her mood turned solemn again. "Errr, sorry for what happened with the door." Krune then took two healing pills that he made and passed over to her. "These are Three Stars Healing Pills that I made, it should heal the injury in your nose completely, in fact, it could even save your life as long as the injury isn''t too serious, and I hope you can accept it." Krune might have low EQ, but he has at least learned that human females put a lot of importance on their appearance, especially their faces, thus, the healing pills. Karen was taken aback with that, before she could even answer, Krune had already put the pills on her hand and left straight away, he has a lot to do after all and couldn''t wait forever. Karen looked at those pills and was at loss of what to do, three star pills are worth a fortune for someone like her, she didn''t dare using one of them to heal an injury as simple as the one in her nose, she decided to keep one with herself for an emergency and sell the another one later, she looked at the direction that Krune left and couldn''t help but think that Krune''s face wasn''t so bad to look at anymore. Krune immediately went to the Mercenary Guild in Kaley City and requested the materials he needed, Lu Ganan didn''t say or ask anything and just provided the materials, those materials might be a lot for Krune to bank alone, but for the Mercenary Guild it wasn''t much at all. Krune then returned to his house and started to practice setting up the short distance teleportation formation, he will need some time to understand it completely, teleportation formations are dangerous, if they go wrong, the space power might turn you to pieces, there could be no mistaking in its set up. --- At the same time in another side of the city, Yusa was leaving the Runestone Formations guild, in her hands she had a Two Stars Runestone Formations Master, as mentioned before, Runestone Formations are very popular for being able to be brought around, they could more or less be said to be a branch of the Formations Guild, the difference is that Runestone Formations have limited time of use while normal formations can stay in place for years. Yusa could have got a Three Stars Badge, but their group had decided that she should hide the fact that she can use more than one element at the same time for the time being, so she was only able to make one element Two Stars Runestone Formations, Yusa looked at the badge on her hand, but her face showed that her mind was somewhere else. ''Leave or not leave, the old saying says that it''s better to be a head of a chicken than the tail of a dragon, but will I really become just the tail if I leave? At the same time, will I really become the head if I stay?'' She then remembered her conversation with Ao. ''I will try my luck at the Mercenary Selection first, depending of the results I will decide what to do.'' Chapter 69 - Activate! Time passed and two months went by and everyone spent their time improving their skills, during this time, Ao and Yusa took two missions in the name of the team, Krune and Shinja were a lot more busy so they went alone, with their strength they could complete missions at their level with easy and lift some of the teams overall burden. Krune kept practicing the Short Distance Teleport Formation as well as going to the Alchemist Guild to concoct some pills to make some money, supervisor Go Gao buzzed on his ears when he found out that Krune decided to take part on the mercenary selection, but Krune didn''t mind, he simply said that if the alchemist really has a problem with it, then he will leave the guild, that was enough to shut his mouth, worse than have Krune taking dangers would be losing his talent completely, he still believes that Krune should focus on alchemy only though. Krune had also advanced to the 6th stage of Foundation Establishment, because of the over half a year without cultivating at all, his planet in his foundation stabilized and even after this breakthrough he didn''t feel like he needed to wait again, Krune is expecting to be at the 7th or maybe even the 8th stage by the time the mercenary selection starts. On Ao Sulian''s side, he had finally completed his last pseudo meridian and is already trying to build his first Spiritual Energy Meridian, according to what Krune could see, Ao would probably need one or at most two more weeks to get it done, his cultivation is already at the middle 7th stage, Ao could have pushed his cultivation further, but just like Krune, his breakthroughs got too fast and he had to stop there for a while to stabilize his foundation as well, it gave him time to practice his swords skills and pay more attention to the Myriad Energies Technique. As for Yusa, she had also entered the 7th stage, just like Ao, and she started to make spirit stones with the Runestones Formations, to open more Spiritual Energy Meridians she needs more spirit stones, something she doesn''t have much at moment, she is trying to get as much as possible before returning to the Rainbow Sect Secret Realm, by putting together what she earns here and the prize for passing the last level of the soul endurance test, she might be able to open even two. Shinja haven''t changed much cultivation related, it is necessary quite some time to adapt to the Core Formation Realm, so she is still at the first stage and will probably stay there for quite some time, but now that she entered this realm, the natural control over the elements that comes when one breaks through this realm is now available for her, that coupled with the soul technique and Krunes help, she definitely wouldn''t have problem fighting those at the 3rd stage, maybe even 4th. --- A few weeks later, Krune was inside his house and one could see another teleport formation taking form, Krune had become very proficient in making this formation and even added the spirit gathering formation on top of it to help save spirit stones, he built two formation in two sides of his house and was about to test their functions. ''Let''s see, last time it was almost perfect, it just went wrong because of the wrong flow of energy in the outer right corner, this time it should work without problem.'' Krune then put a box with some spirit stones inside on the formation, the spirit stones inside the box were not for the sake of charging the formation, but for testing if they can appear on the other side intact, he then put other spirit stones to charge the formation outside, because the distance was extremely small, there was no need for spirit stones of high level, so he simply used some Rank One stones and that was enough, the teleport formation activated and the formation shined for a second, after that the box disappeared, in the next instant the box appeared on the other side of the house, Krune went there to check, at first the box looked okay, but what really mattered was the spirit stones inside. ''Wisps without a human form are basically a big amount of spiritual energy, if the spirit stones teleported correctly without any damage, it should be able to do the same with wisps.'' Krune opened the box and let out a sigh of relief, the spirit stones this time were teleported over without any cracks or loss of spiritual energy, that''s exactly the effect he wanted to see, he then tried a few more times to guarantee that his set up wasn''t wrong. ''Great! This should suffice, to think that it would take me this long to learn how to set up a teleport formation, no wonder the price to set one is out of the charts, this thing is difficult as hell.'' It''s good that no one heard what Krune said, to use just two months to become able to set up a teleport formation is already a heaven defying progress, normal Four Stars Formations Master would take no less than a year to get to the point where he is, which also explain why it is so expensive to employ one to do the service. He then sent a message to everyone saying that he finished his preparations for teleport formation, after talking with everyone a little, they decided that Shinja would go to Harta City to rent the teleportation formation first, after she was done, Krune would go to the Rainbow Sect Entrance Gate and set up the formation there. Krune agreed with that and left in the same day to the Katiu Forest, there is nothing stopping him from setting up a formation there already, as for Ao, he went to the Solie Clan to talk with Zu Solie, this would be a secret operation of their group, so they had to make sure that everything was going to work okay, Yusa then prepared a few concealing runestones to be used on both cities teleport formations, this way it would guarantee their safety during the time the teleportation is being used. With nothing holding him back, Krune took very little time to arrive back where the wisps and his disciple are staying, as soon as he arrived, he entered the spiritual vein lake cave room and started to set up the formation using the spiritual vein as the main source of energy, this spiritual vein might only generate low level spirit stones, but the vein itself still has a lot of spiritual energy inside itself, it was a very good source of energy even at the low level, Lakin saw that and couldn''t help but ask. "Master, won''t the spiritual vein get damaged if we use its source energy?" Krune nodded. "Probably, but it''s okay since we are leaving, and with time, it will recover itself, so there is no need to worry." Lakin sighed, after staying here for so long he didn''t want to see anything happening with the spiritual vein, but then again, it was for the safety of the wisps, and since his master said that it would recover eventually, he decided to not say anything else, he also wanted to talk about another problem, but decided to wait for his master to finish the formation first, it seemed a very complicated process after all. Krune looked around while he was setting up the formation and couldn''t help but ask. "Is it me or the number of wisps increased?" Lakin didn''t deny that. "It did, since we were going away with them, I extended the range of my search and end up finding a few more, this is just a drop of water in the ocean, but I still wanted to bring as much wisps as possible." Krune understood that, but there was one thing puzzling him. "But how exactly did you find so many? Even during the time I went everywhere as wisps I rarely get to see other wisps, usually we keep hiding ourselves after all." Lakin''s face turned serious but he still answered. "Master, do you remember that you said that you didn''t mind what kind of foundation I used?" Krune nodded, as long as Lakin was successful in building his foundation, Krune would be happy, so he had never asked what type of foundation he used in the end. "Well, master said that you looked at the how I was born to think over about the Universe Foundation, but I didn''t have the luck of seeing it even once until now, but since you could use the moment that a wisp was born as a base for a foundation, why couldn''t I use myself, a wisp, as foundation?" Krune was taken aback, use the form of a wisp as foundation? He had never thought about that. "So, your foundation basically has the form of a wisp?" Lakin nodded. "But something weird happened after I succeed in building this foundation, I started to get sensitive to wisps energy, even without using Divine Sense, as long as they aren''t too far away from me, I can feel their presence, that''s how I appeared in the cave entrance when master first came back, I felt that a wisp was approaching our spiritual vein cave at that time." Krune was very surprised with that, a foundation using a wisp''s form, this kind of foundation might not be as powerful as a universe foundation, but it is probably, no, it definitely is much rarer. "I see, no wonder¡­" "Oh right, after you completed your wisp foundation, did you get a heavenly tribulation?" Lakin shook his head "I was also afraid that it might summon a heavenly tribulation, so I practiced the formation of Spiritual Energy Meridians for a time before trying it out, in case a tribulation came down, I could use the same method as master did to save myself, but in the end, it never appeared." Krune nodded and didn''t say anything else, he had to focus on the formation, a few hours later, Krune finished setting up the Short Distance Teleport Formation. "Alright, with this we are set up in this side, I need to go to the Raskie Danger Zone now, the entrance to the Rainbow Sect is there, after finishing setting everything up, I will come back for us to move out." Krune was about to leave when Lakin brought another issue up. "What is it?" Lakin took a deep breath and said what was bothering him. "A few days ago a group of Foundation Establishment cultivator passed by, I couldn''t feel any Divine Sense coming into our lair, but in the middle of their group seems like there was a guy who definitely had a high level of cultivation, so if he checked things or not I can''t tell, the difference in cultivation level was too big, they stayed close by but didn''t do anything, after a few hours, they left." It was then that Krune remembered one thing, on his way here, he did indeed find a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators moved at high speeds in the opposite direction, they were obviously going back to Kaley City, at that time he didn''t pay attention since groups of cultivators walking together in the Katiu Forest wasn''t anything strange. "They probably took a look at the demon beasts defending the entrance and concluded that it would cause too many casualties if they attacked with the force they had at that moment, so they went back to get reinforcements, this complicates things." Staying here to defend the lair would be a fools action, if they failed in the attack, they would flee and call even more people, the number of wisps staying in the spiritual vein lake can make even some Core Formation Experts take action, which means that Krune has to move back and set up the Raskie Danger Zone Short Distance Teleport Formation straight away, so he can''t stay to start with. ''What I''m lacking is time, I could send them over to the Solie Clan first and keep them there until I finish the Raskie Danger Zone teleport formation, but that would be even more dangerous, if anything goes wrong and people find out that such an enormous amount of wisps with high level cultivations are staying in the Solie Clan, maybe even the law won''t stop their greed, at that moment we are going to be helpless.'' Krune pondered a bit and looked in the Direction of the Teleport Formation he built. ''I was planning to have someone checking the other side first to see if whatever I sent would arrive safely, but I guess I can only try it straight away.'' Krune got close to the teleport formation and double checked it again, there is no doubt that it was exactly the same as the one he made back at his home, he put some spirit stones to help with the spiritual energy of the spiritual vein and stepped on it, he took a deep breath and set up the coordinates of the Solie Clan Teleport Formation. "Activate!" Chapter 70 - I Agree! Back at the Solie Clan, everything was calm, Ao already left a few days ago, he had told Zu Solie about the use of the teleportation formation to move a few important secret things, the Clan Head didn''t mind, he had to give Krune his full support at all times after all, so he was waiting for the day it was going to happen, but then he received a message that their Teleport Formation was receiving someone coming from a coordinate never used before, Zu Solie was puzzled, according to Ao Sulian, it would still take some time before they used the teleport formation. "Let''s take a look." When he arrived there, Krune was already in front of the formation, he looked quite frightened, it was no wonder, if the teleport formation that he built had any mistake, he would have been torn to pieces by the space warping power, noticing who it was, Zu Solie went forward to compliment him when suddenly, Krune rushed out like a flash of light. "Seems like he doesn''t want to talk." Seeing that, he simply shook his head and went back to do his own things. --- Krune was moving in the Mercenary Guilds direction, on the way, he contacted Yusa and Ao who were still in the city and explained the situation to them, hearing that they immediately came out to receive Krune. "What do you need?" Krune was in a hurry, so he was direct. "I have to take the materials for another teleport formation in the guild and then move out immediately, I don''t know if I will be able to set up the last formation in time, so I need you to stay there and buy me time, you can use the teleport formation in the Solie Clan to move directly inside the spiritual vein lake, I left the coordinates written in your communicators, after I teleport to Harta City, I will send Shinja back to help you too." Ao and Yusa nodded, they were confident that if a Core Formation Realm cultivator didn''t come, they would be able to hold the fort even without Shinja, but she will be joining then shortly after anyway, so they shouldn''t have any issue at first, they immediately went back to the Solie Clan and used the teleportation to go back where Lakin and Ruik were waiting, since Krune was able to use the teleport formation without problem, it means that his teleport formation is working perfectly fine. After getting the materials he needed in the Mercenary Guild, Krune also went back to the Solie Clan, but teleported to the Harta City instead, after arriving there, he got in contact with Shinja to find where the Long Distance Teleport Formation was located at. As he already expected, the long Distance teleport formations where all in the Formations Guild of Harta City, Shinja had already paid for the use and gave Krune the authority over it. "I''m fine alone, I can go to the Rainbow Sect on my own, I need you to go there as well, I hope to finish it fast enough but the Rainbow Sect is further away from Harta City than Lakin is from Kaley City, but since I''m alone, I won''t need to hold back, with some luck, I can finish everything before there is a need for any fight." Shinja shook her head. "Even if there is a fight, it won''t be a problem, I wanted to test my skills anyway, and this is a very good opportunity." Krune nodded and recorded the coordinates of the teleport formation that they had rented, after that, he left straight away, he can only count with Shinja and the others now, since they already had a Long Distance teleport formation, Shinja used it to move back to the Solie Clan, from there she teleported again to where Yusa and the others were waiting. --- Krune wasn''t wrong, with no one following him he is definitely faster than any ordinary Late Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, the problem is the distance to arrive which is much bigger, it still took him five days at full speed to arrive at the entrance of the Rainbow Sect. ''Well then, let''s start.'' --- Back at Katiu Forest, a group of cultivators were moving straight away to the Spiritual Vein Lake Cave, on the front, one could see a long haired man who acted as the guide, his name was Huse Cout, just beside him there was an older man with white hair, because of the spiritual energy around him, one could easily tell that he is a Core Formation Expert, his name was Hary Cout, Huse just so happens to be his son, behind them one could see another ten some cultivators, all of them at the middle stage of the Foundation Establishment, and judging by the insignia on their robes, they are obviously from the same clan as the white haired old man. "Father, we are almost there, what do you plan on doing?" Hary looked at his son and said. "Of course it''s going to be a frontal attack, we need to use the wisp nets to prevent those wisps from dissipating their cores, so we can''t lose time." "You are sure that you saw several wisps with cultivation over the 7th stage of Qi Condensation, right?" Huse nodded. "I''m sure, there was even two at the 9th stage, also, in the middle of the demon beasts there, there was a white robed youth as well, he definitely isn''t human, and all the wisp seemed to respect him very much, I believe that he might really be a Foundation Establishment Wisp in Human Form." Hary got excited every time he heard about it, if he can get that youth wisp and use his energy, he can definitely breakthrough the bottleneck that had been bothering him for years, Hary is a perfect example of someone who used several wisps and pills to reach the stage he is at moment, and because of that, his foundation is as poor as one could be, unless he gets even better pills, he practically has no hope of advancing his cultivation anymore, buying low level wisps to help with his cultivation makes no difference in his state anymore either, but that youth who might be a Foundation Establishment wisp is a completely different story. "Very well, if you are right and we get to capture all those wisps, I will let you be the next leader of our clan, this will be an accomplishment that your brothers will never be able to surpass." Huse heard that and was ecstatic, at first he wanted to charge with his group and take everything for himself, but after seeing the amount of demon beasts defending the place, he understood that it would be too dangerous, even if he succeed he would probably lose the majority of wisps, his group didn''t go into the Katiu Forest because of wisps after all, fortunately, he was the only one with a Divine Sense big enough to be able to see what was inside that cave lair, so he returned to the city and gave an excuse to the other cultivators, after that he went to see his father straight away and told him everything. "Let''s hurry up." One hour later, they finally arrived at the mountain range where the cave was located, Hary immediately used his Divine Sense and covered the entire mountain, he wouldn''t let any wisp flee under his eyes, but it was at that moment that he stopped. "Everyone, wait!" Huse and the other cultivators looked at Hary puzzled, there should be no need for them to wait against that level of resistance, but it was then that they saw a woman dressed in blue coming out of the cave entrance, behind her one could see another woman and a man, by checking the spiritual energy around of those people, Hary could tell that the woman was also at the Core Formation Realm while the two behind her were at the 7th stage of the Foundation Establishment. Hary was surprised, because there was no doubt that those three were humans, just like him, but all the beasts and the youth he wanted to capture seemed to treat them with a lot of respect. "May I ask who this fellow cultivator is?" Shinja looked cold as ice, but she answered anyway. "Shinja Avril, Four Stars Mercenary." Hary mouth twitched, he can see that Shinja is at the 1st stage of the Core Formation Realm, but the fact that she is a Four Stars Mercenary showed that she could fight those with cultivation level higher than herself, and it wasn''t just one or two stages higher, he himself is at the 5th Stage, but his aptitude is very ordinary, unless he uses a few tricks, he can''t fight anyone with a cultivation higher than himself. "May I know if this fellow cultivator is planning to monopolize all the wisps? We don''t need to fight over it, there is enough for both parts to be satisfied, we can reach an agreement here." Shinja and the others heard that and their faces became dark. "I agree." Hary felt relived for a second, but then he heard Shinjas next words. "This is the agreement, you and your bunch will leave straight away and I will pretend that you didn''t talk about my friends like they were some kind of commodity that you can buy and sell anywhere." Hary and everyone were taken aback. Friends? Wisp friends? Could they have heard it wrong? "Do you take me for a fool? Who would believe those words?" Shinja didn''t give a damn if he believe her or not, but for the sake of not engaging in battle and having her side suffering casualties, she still played along. "If you don''t believe me, then take out a blood contract and right down exactly what I said, I will sign it right in front of you, if even with a blood contract you don''t believe me, then there is nothing I can do other than fight." This time, Hary couldn''t answer, if she really signs the contract, then it will prove that she is speaking the truth, Hary has lived for a long time already, he can more or less tell that she will definitely sign it just to prove her words, his face then turned vicious, he needs that youth who is probably a Foundation Establishment wisp no matter what, otherwise he will have no hope of advancing anymore. "I don''t care if you are telling the truth or not, I want my wisps, if you don''t retreat or make an agreement to share them with us, we can only fight then." Shinja then took out her frozen hairpin, it was a weapon made for Core Formation cultivators, this one in particular improved the flow of water element of her skills, she was intending to use it during the Core Formation Realm Tribulation, but thanks to Krune ''eating'' two of the lightnings, she was able to hold without damaged the hairpin. Ao behind her already took his sword out, he might not be able to do anything to the Core Formation cultivator, but he is absolutely confident against the others, he specially wants to test his combat prowess now that he opened his Spiritual Energy Meridians, and Huse, who was at the 9th stage of Foundation Establishment, was a good starter. Yusa doesn''t have a weapon for use, but she brought a lot of runestone formations, she knows that she bests at support, so she will help everyone from behind, not to mention that she also can fight those above her level, so she should not have any issue on holding back a few of those middle stage Foundation Establishment guys. Both Sides were tense, it was obviously that none would retreat, the demon beast signed a contract with Lakin that they would help defend the cave, so they couldn''t leave either, Lakin and Ruik also have Spiritual Energy Meridians, so they too can fight cultivators above their levels, they selected one of the middle stage guys each and were ready to advance. Shinja looked behind her and sent a Divine Sense message to everyone. "It has already been a few days since Krune left for the Rainbow Sect Secret Realm, as long as we can defend against this attack, it won''t matter if they flee and bring reinforcements later, Krune will definitely have finished everything by then, so focus on keeping yourselves alive, no need for desperate attempts." Everyone nodded and got ready, on the other side, seeing that Shinja''s group was not going to give up made Hary''s face darken, he raised his hand and then pointed forward. "Attack!" Shinja stepped forward to receive Hary, she was the only one that could fight Hary Head on, Hary was a flying swords user, but Shinja''s water tight defence had no flaws the he could exploit, Shinja had already opened her Spiritual Energy Meridians as well, although she started to cultivate the Myriad Energies Technique after Ao, her soul power and talent had been higher than his to start with, so she finished creating all nine pseudo energy meridians almost at the same time as him, not to mention her Pure Yin Body, Soul Technique and the help of her Spiritual Weapon, putting all those together, she was able to jump four stages and hold Hary Back. As for Ao, he disappeared from where he was, Huse, who was very confident a second ago due to his 9th stage Foundation Establishment cultivation, was taken by surprise! Ao, who was moving in his direction, is by no means any slower than himself, in fact, he is definitely faster! The two of them engaged in battle straight away, Huse immediately understood that he is weaker than this 7th stage Foundation Establishment guy, so he immediately took out a Spiritual Energy Burning pill and swallowed it without thinking twice! This is one of the alchemist''s pills that can only be used in emergencies, it will increase Spiritual Energy usage rate by several times, it will then provide a great boost in the cultivators combat prowess for some time, but it also had its side effects, after the effect is over, the cultivator would be in a weakened state for several days and if the side effects aren''t treated in time, the foundation might be forever damaged, eliminating any hope of further breakthroughs, the only chance will be to destroy their own dantians or cores and start again from zero. With the help of the pill, Huse was finally able to cope with Ao. Lakin and Ruik were fight one 6th Stage Foundation Establishment cultivators each, thanks to the Spiritual Energy Meridians, they were having no problem in holding their ground. On Yusa''s side, she was holding back three of the Middle Stage Foundation Establishment cultivators at the same time, she was also providing support to the demon beasts who were in disadvantage, she too can trash someone like Huse at her level if he didn''t use that pill, so it wasn''t any big deal to be able to hold three middle stage guys while providing support. As for the rest of the demon beasts, they were using their higher numbers to hold back the rest of the enemies, with Yusa providing support every time things went south, they were in fact the ones taking the least of the burdens. Yusa looked around and kept everything inside her Divine Sense, although she could be said to be the key behind their defence, she knew that her and the others battle didn''t matter much anymore, there were only one battle that really mattered at moment, surprisingly, it was Shinja''s Core Formation Level Battle, but Ao vs Huse battle. Huse had consumed a pill that further increased his battle prowess, but she knew that such pill had time limit and huge side effects, so as long as Ao defeat Huse or the pill''s effect ends, the Core Formation guy fighting Shinja in the skies will be forced to retreat, otherwise, his entire force will be wiped out, the problem is, there is no way he hasn''t noticed that problem, so, what does he plan to do about this situation? Yusa didn''t need to have Krune''s IQ to understand Hary''s next step, at that moment, a runestone formation appeared in her hands and was constantly being charged with her spiritual energy, no one noticed the Runestone and¡­ the smile on her face. Chapter 71 - Krunes Team Members Determination! Yusa was right, Hary was concerned with Ao and Huse''s fight, once Huse loses or the effect of the pill worn out, Ao will be free to slaughter the other members of his group that are on a stalemate against their enemies, it was obvious that even after eating that pill, Huse was still on the losing side, barely holding himself. As for his battle with Shinja, he has somewhat the advantage, the difference in cultivation is very high after all, if Shinja hasn''t opened her Spiritual Energy Meridians as well as used the power of her Pure Yin Body and the Soul Technique, she wouldn''t be able to hold Hary, this made Hary even more determined to kill, someone with a talent like that must have a very profound background, something that his Cout Clan probably can''t mess with. He used his Divine Sense to look around and find an opportunity to attack those bellow, he had two options at moment, kill Ao so that his son will be freed and can help finish the Battle or attack Yusa whose is keeping the balance of the balance, the key of the battle was in the victory of the battle between Ao and Huse, if he kills Yusa, the others will be able to support Huse to finish Ao in that case. Shinja knew that and was doing her best to keep Hary at bay, but it then that she received a Divine Sense message from Yusa, she was extremely surprised with what she heard, but it didn''t show on her face, her battle with Hary continued as if nothing had happened. Below, Ao also received a Divine Sense message from Yusa and a faint smile appeared on his face, he also was taken aback with what he heard, he immediately intensified his assault after that, it would use more spiritual energy but that was the time to go all out. On the skies, Hary noticed the change in the battle between Ao and Huse and got alarmed, he also intensified his attacks on Shinja and was finally able to open a flaw to send an attack below, Shinja looked alarmed and tried to stop him. "Too late!" Hary used a flying sword which passed by the flaw in Shinja''s attack and it flew straight at Ao''s back, the speed of the sword wasn''t something that a Foundation Establishment like Ao could dodge, Hary was sure that it was going to hit him, after that, this battle victory would be theirs, but it was at this moment that he noticed a cold smile appearing on Shinja''s face, a sense of foreboding immediately assaulted his senses, but it was too late to stop the attack. Down below, the sword was already right behind Ao, it didn''t show any mercy and passed right through him, a scream could be heard and a body fell to the ground, but when Hary noticed who had been hit, his face warped into rage, the one who was pierced wasn''t Ao, but his son, Huse! He finally understood everything, that flaw that appeared on Shinja''s defense was intentional, they were planning to use his own attack to finish Huse off from the very start, but how did they do that? The reason was the Runestone Formation that Yusa was charging since the start of the battle, that was an illusion formation, its grade was Four Stars, it was something quite expensive, not to mention that Yusa still doesn''t have the skills to craft one of those, what surprised Ao and Shinja wasn''t the fact that she had the Runestone, but the fact that it was something very expensive, a Runestone that could trick the senses of a Core Formation Realm cultivator wasn''t something that could be bought without using Rank Four Spirit Stones at the very least! And they were right, there is no way that Yusa would ever pay for something like that, it was her shamelessness that helped her obtain it from the Runestone Formations Guild, during the exam for new recruits of the guild, Yusa had enraged the examiner, in the end, they made a bet, and the end result was Yusa''s victory in that bet, this Runestone was the payment, one must first kill Yusa before asking her to pay for something this expensive, of course, she was not going to tell them that. Surprisingly, Huse didn''t die, this was the key point of this scheme, everyone already noticed that their enemies are all from the same clan, it was even more obvious if one looked at the Father and Son faces which were quite similar, if he wanted to save his son, he would need to retreat, Ao was now free as well, so he immediately charged at the other enemies, immediately, the battle became one-sided, Hary might have the advantage in his battle with Shinja, but there is no way he can finish her off anytime soon, by that time all his forces will be wiped out, not to mention that his son was still alive, if he is fast, he might be able to save him. "Retreat!" Hary gathered a lot of spiritual energy and attacked Shinja, she knew what he wanted to do and didn''t try to stop him, she just dodged and appeared beside her companions, Hary took Huse''s body and charged out, everyone else also retreated from the place, Shinja gave the order to not pursue anyone, finally, the battle was over. When the enemies left Shinja''s Divine Sense range, her face immediately got pale and she vomited some blood, she was definitely the one who got the greatest burden, to battle a cultivator four states higher than herself for so long was a great burden on her body, she kept her using her Pure Yin Body''s power all the time to enhance her control over the water element, that was no easy feat, if Hary had stayed some time longer she would definitely fall in the end. Yusa and the others looked at her concerned. "Are you okay?" Shinja nodded. "I''m fine, I just need some days to recover, how were the things on your side?" Lakin came forward and shook his head, he had quite a few injuries on his body but overall, he was fine. "Although Ao was able to kill three of those middle-stage Foundation Establishment guys, our side lost quite a few demon beasts as well, they were just ordinary demon beasts to start with, they couldn''t jump stages to fight those of higher level, it was due to the higher numbers that we fended their attacks for so long." Lakin sighed in the end, he had spent quite some time with those demon beasts so he got somewhat attached to them, Ruik saw that and simply commented. "We are demon beasts, the battle is part of our lives, most of us aren''t afraid of dying to start with, a few might have been gone, but those who survived will experience a great boost on their cultivation, life and death struggles is what make us stronger." Yusa then took out one of Krune''s Three Stars Healing pills that he had prepared a long time ago and given it to Shinja. She didn''t say anything and swallowed it, after that, her injuries and chaotic energy started to stabilize straight away, Shinja was surprised with that, she knew that Krune was a Four Stars Alchemist, but she didn''t expect that his pills would so effective like that. "Forget what I said, with this, I should be able to recover in a day at most." Ao looked in the direction that their enemies retreated and asked. "You think they will be back soon or will they go back to gather more reinforcements?" Yusa wasn''t preoccupied with that, but with another thing. "They won''t come back alone, but that Core Formation Guy is a big problem, the problem is because he doesn''t need to go back to the city to ask for reinforcements, he can just go deeper into the Katiu Forest and ask the help of another Core Formation Demon Beast, that would definitely be much faster, not to mention that whoever decided to help him would definitely be around his own power, that is to guarantee the fairness of their agreement." Shinja and Ao were taken aback, they haven''t thought about this possibility before. "We can only hope that Krune finishes the formation as soon as possible, if things really get out of hand, we will need to abandon the wisps and flee, we can''t simply die here either." Lakin heard that but said nothing, Krune''s team members had already helped a lot, he couldn''t possibly ask them to give up their lives here, if anything, he was already very grateful with their help, they can''t move the wisps away too, there is too many of them to hope that no one will notice, it would make things more difficult instead since they won''t be able to protect them when the battle starts. Exactly as Yusa thought, Hary healed his son until his condition became stable and told the others to protect him, as soon as he finished, he charged deeper into the Katiu Forest, he knows that if he waits to go back to the city and only then come back, his target will probably find a way to escape, he has to prevent that at all costs, since he was alone, he didn''t have to wait for long, in just a few hours he arrived at a hill, there was no cave, nest or anything like that in sight, but he knows that this place is the lair of an Infernal Beetle, a third stage Core Formation Realm Demon Insect. Hary spread his Divine Sense and soon found his target, he then sent a message over. "Gory, it''s me, Hary Cout, I need your help with something." Immediately after, the ground started to move and a hole appeared, from inside one could see a red-colored beetle coming out, the beetle was quite big, no smaller than Hary himself, the beetle looked at Hary and a moment later, it transformed into a middle-aged man. "You know this isn''t a place you should trespass lightly, what is it?" Hary didn''t mind the beetle''s temper. "I know that well, but something came up, don''t worry, it will be very beneficial for both of us, it will probably help you in your cultivation as well." Gory''s attention was picked, although his foundation isn''t as poor as Harys, he also used his own sheer amount wisps and other cultivation resources in the past, so normal resources had little effect on him now. Hary didn''t waste time and except for Lakin''s presence, he explained everything that happened and what he was fighting for. "Did you say you saw two 9th stage Qi Condensation wisps? Are you sure?" Hary nodded. "There is no doubt about that, not to mention that there is a lot more with lower-level cultivations." Gory found it hard to believe, but when Hary got a blood contract out to prove his words, Gory could only accept the truth, after that, the two of them discussed how they should share the spoils, it didn''t take long for them to reach an agreement and sign another blood contract. After that, they immediately moved out, time was of essence, the previous battle definitely had caught the attention of the other beasts around, it wouldn''t be long before another Core Formation Beast noticed that something was wrong, when that happens, they can say goodbye to their wisps. Noticing how effective the healing pill was on Shinja, Ao took out his own and gave it to her as well, if Yusa''s conjecture was right, Shinja can''t be in a weakened state for long, Shinja also understood that and didn''t say anything, she just took the pill and moved back into the Spiritual Vein Lake to recover, by now, she already got back 80 to 90% of her power, she should be able to hold off for a while. Outside, Yusa wasn''t just waiting for the enemies to come, Runestone Formations use normal formations as a base, so she built a few common defensive formations, it wouldn''t be able to do anything against Core Formation Experts, but it should be able to hold back the Foundation Establishment ones for a while. Ao had gathered the demon beasts and was explaining for them how to use a battle formation, he had tried to do that when he first arrived, but in the end, he didn''t have enough time to finish the preparations, so he could only put that aside during the last battle, but this time, with fewer beasts to take part in the formation, he finally got it to barely work, he then spent the next hours practicing with the demon beasts, using himself and the core of the battle formation, his combat prowess was boosted through the spiritual energy of the demon beasts. Yusa wasn''t the only one that tried to learn something new, Ao knows that he doesn''t like side occupations like alchemy or formations, so he used some of his time to learn how to use battle formations, but he didn''t expect that a situation where he needed it came sooner than he had thought. Yusa and Ao were in the middle of their actions when they noticed Shinja coming out of the cave, she looked in the distance and her face got cold again. "They are coming, there are two Core Formation Realm cultivators this time, the second one is at the Third Stage." Hearing that, Ao came forward, a look of determination could be seen on his face. "Leave the 3rd stage one with me, I should be able to hold him for some time as long as the battle formation doesn''t crumble." Yusa also came forward to say her piece. "I finished setting up some simple protection formations, as long as the enemy isn''t a Core Formation I should be able to hold the rest of them with Lakin and Ruik''s help." Lakin and Ruik didn''t complain about the setup, it was already impressive that they had a countermeasure against two Core Formation Realm cultivators. Shinja looked at Lakin and said. "If things go south, we will leave, and I will bring you out even if you don''t want too, I can''t let Krune''s disciple die on my watch, I feel sorry for the wisps, but dying won''t change anything, do you understand?" Yusa and Ao also looked at him, their opinion was the same as Shinja, Krune had done a lot for the two of them, and they won''t let him down here. Lakin took a deep breath and nodded, he can only hope for the best. Hary and Gory arrived shortly after, Hary looked at Shinja and said. "Last chance, if you leave now, we won''t pursue, although I''m angry, I can at least tell that my son only survived my attack because you planned to do so, on account of that, I can let bygones be bygones." Shinja didn''t say anything and took out her spiritual weapon, her actions were her answer. "Very well, Gory, I''m counting on you to finish things fast." Gory didn''t say anything and charged ahead, immediately, the battle started. No one noticed, but inside of the Spiritual Vein Lake Cave Room, a certain Teleport Formation started to shine. Chapter 72 - Missed? Ha! Shinja once more got locked in a battle against Hary, even though she hasn''t fully recovered from the last encounter, thanks to Krune''s pills, she got quite close to it, so she wouldn''t have a problem to hold Hary for a while. On Ao''s side, thanks to the boost of the battle formation provided by the demon beasts spiritual energy, he was able to fend off the Infernal Beetle for now, but he too couldn''t cause any big damage to it, fortunately, the same could be said for the beetle, the battle formation defense was airtight and Ao made sure to cover any flaws that appeared due to the short time of practice that this group had. Yusa''s side was a little bit better, with no late-stage foundation establishment cultivators on the enemy side, she was able to heavily injure two of the enemies already and was slowly gaining ground, grand part of this was because of the formations that she built earlier and the help provided by Lakin and Ruik, but she knew that things were in fact very dire, although Shinja looked fine on the surface, she knows that the battle against Hary was extremely difficult, and as far as she could see, Shinja hasn''t been able to cause any damage to him so far. Hary was ecstatic, that''s because he noticed that Shinja was starting to lose efficiency, although she was still holding him back, he could feel that her battle strength was decreasing rapidly, Gory''s side was also doing well, in the end, the Infernal Beetle cultivation is much higher than his enemies, it wouldn''t take long before Gory achieved victory, the only downside was Yusa''s side, but he is confident that his clan members would be able to hold them long enough for him and Gory to finish their sides. Shinja finally showed a flaw and Hary''s Flying sword left a deep cut on her waist, that cut forced her to show another opening which Hary used to kick her, Shinja was sent flying and hit the ground below, Hary used this chance to send his Flying sword over, but he was impressed to see that Ao was able to send an attack over in the last second, although it did almost nothing to his flying sword, it still bought enough time for Shinja to react and avoid a fatal injury, unfortunately, she was still hit by the sword and more blood flowed out, she was approaching her limit. Ao''s attack had bought Shinja some time, but it wasn''t without any cost, Gory used that chance to hit a flaw in his Battle formation, he killed two demon beasts at once, although the formation didn''t crumble, it lost a lot of its power, Ao also suffered a backlash from that attack and vomited some blood. Yusa was seeing that and knew that they couldn''t hold on any longer, just as she was about to send a Divine Sense message for them to retreat, she heard another Divine Sense message coming from the Spiritual Vein Lake Cave, Krune had finally arrived and thanks to the wisps inside the cave, he understood the situation straight away, unfortunately, he can''t send the wisps over yet, there is no one of their team at the Solie Clan or the Harta City to help conceal them, if he wants to save the-wisps, he must win this battle first. There was only one chance of doing that, and it was through his Tribulation Lightning, but he can''t show his card that easily, he can only use it once and after that, he will need a lot of time to recover its power, he decided to use it to deal with the strongest enemy, which is Hary, Krune then sent a Divine Sense message to the others as well telling then to not alarm the enemies of his presence, Shinja, Ao and the others heard that and were ecstatic, but they complied to his request and pretended that nothing happened, Krune then silently joined the battle with Yusa, but he was only showing the battle power of an ordinary 6th Stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. Hary and Gory noticed him but didn''t pay any attention, with the combat power that Krune showed, he wouldn''t be able to change the flow of the battle. The reason Krune appeared was because he wouldn''t be able to accumulate the power of the Tribulation Lightning above in the sky without being noticed, fortunately, he really is at the 6th stage of the Foundation Establishment, all he had to do was to pretend that his combat power was really that of an ordinary cultivator at this level, after noticing that Hary and Gory ignored him, he finally was able to silently accumulate the power of the Tribulation Lightning high in the sky. Krune might not be using a lot of strength, but he was still sweating all over, he only has one chance, if that fails, they will only be able to flee, and it isn''t guaranteed that everyone would survive the retreat. Finally, he charged used all the Tribulation Power he had available for him and waited for the right opportunity, he sent a Divine Sense to Shinja asking her to find a way to make Hary pay attention to her, she knew that it was the crucial moment of this battle, so she again waited for an opportunity and showed another flaw, Hary immediately took this chance and charged forward. Krune saw that and his eyes lit up, he then commanded on his mind. "Heavens Fall!" But it was at this moment that Hary felt that something was not right, he had already fallen for a flaw trick before, and he felt like this one was very similar to the last time. Hary focused on his Divine Sense when suddenly, he saw a scene that made his heart almost stop, right above him an enormous Tribulation Lightning was falling down straight at him! He immediately ceased his attack and focused all the power of his body to dodge the attack, the lightning brushed past him like a flash of light, he could even feel his skin burning a little due to the proximity of the attack, Hary felt a chill on his back, just an instant later and he would be done for. Krune saw that and sighed, he has lost any hope of achieving victory in this battle anymore. ''It''s over, I missed.'' Just as he was about to send a Divine Sense message to have everyone retreat, suddenly, he heard a voice coming from his mind. "Missed? Ha! I refuse to believe that anyone in this world can dodge my power!" Right after hearing that, something unbelievable happened that made everyone''s eyes almost pop out of their sockets, that Tribulation Lightning which had just passed by Hary''s side¡­ made turn back! It once again charged straight at Hary. Hary saw that and was alarmed! Since when can Tribulation Lightning make curves? Of course, if he was present on the day that Shinja broke through into the Core Formation Realm, he wouldn''t think like that, unfortunately for him, what happened that day was kept as a secret inside the Mercenary Guild. Hary once again tried to dodge, but this time, Krune used a Divine Sense attack to assault Hary''s soul, due to the difference of cultivation between him and Hary, this attack couldn''t do much more than stopping Hary for an instant, but that was all that Krune needed, Hary didn''t have time to put up any kind of defense, and the Tribulation Lightning struck him head-on! BOOM! The Tribulation Lightning exploded with power inside Hary''s body, worse than that because Hary was in the sky, the power of the lightning had nowhere to go, it then created havoc inside his body destroying the majority of his meridians and crippling his dantian, by the time that the power of the lightning finally dissipated, Hary had already been burnt to the point that he looked charcoal. Hary''s body plummeted from the skies and hit the ground, the battle that was so intense just a second ago had totally stopped, it was so silent that one could hear their own breaths. Everyone focused their Divine Senses on Hary''s body and surprisingly, they noticed that he was still alive! Of course, he was in no condition of causing any problems anymore. Krune saw that and let out a sigh of relief, but then he remembered that voice that appeared in his mind, now he is absolutely sure, he wasn''t hallucinating during the first time he heard it, the tribulation lightning in lingering in his soul really had a sentience of its own! But now wasn''t the time to care about that, Krune sent a message to Shinja and asked her to talk things over, the enemy still had one Core Formation Expert and his group was in no shape to continue battling, understanding what Krune meant, Shinja came forward to deal with the aftermath. "Your friend there can''t fight anymore, but we also don''t wish to have a battle to death in this place, if we really do that, although I''m confident of our victory, we would lose a lot of our friends if you decided to throw caution to the wind, we aren''t giving you any wisp, the question is if you want to die here or leave with just some injuries, it is up to you." Gory heard that and reverted to his human form, as a Demon Insect who preferred to live in the Danger Zone, he cared little about people knowing about his human face or not, he then looked at Hary and sighed, he could be said to be an acquaintance of Hary, they have known each other for over a hundred years, after all, not to mention that Shinja''s words weren''t wrong, with Hary out of the picture, he had very little hope of achieving anything in this place, he decided that he would first retreat with Hary and then gather more forces to come and take the wisps away, he still haven''t given up on those 9th stage wisps that could possibly allow him to breakthrough into the next stage. "Very well, you lot of the Cout clan, we are leaving." Gory took Hary''s body and together with the remaining members of the Cout Clan, he left straight away. How could Shinja and the others not notice what he was planning? But that was fine, they just need a few minutes and everything will be over, Krune looked at everyone and said. "Alright, we are teleporting all the wisps straight away, I already tested the teleport formations on the way here, so everything is fine." Krune then looked at the demon beasts that were bound by the contract to protect the cave and then at Lakin, his disciple noticed what he meant and came forward to talk. "We are leaving the Katiu Forest for a very long time, maybe even forever, so according to our contract, the wisps that you should protect aren''t going to be here anymore, so you are now free to do whatever you want, I believe that with the experiences you had today your cultivations will soar in the future, our relationship is over here." Hearing that, the majority of the beasts left straight away, to be free of the blood contract bindings was the best news they heard today, they got a lot to digest from today''s battle as well, not to mention that those guys would definitely come back later with even more forces, staying here would be suicide. Lakin looked as demon beast after demon beast left one after another, but in the end, there were three demon beasts that stayed, Lakin looked puzzled at them. Krune saw that too but didn''t say anything, Lakin was the one who gathered those guys, and whether he decides to take them in or kick them away, it is his problem. Krune went back to the Spiritual Vein lake, before activating the teleport formation, he took out a few Healing Pills that he had been keeping for situations like this, he looked at the state that Shinja and the others looked like but didn''t say anything, between real friends, no words were necessary, he just carved today''s events in his heart. While Yusa and the others were recovering, Lakin appeared inside the Spiritual Vein Lake Room and behind him, one could see those three demon beasts from before. Krune laughed at that sight. "Are those your new friends?" Lakin and those demons seemed a little at loss with that question. "I guess you could say that." There wasn''t even a need to mention the Lizard Dragons, they obviously were there as well. Slowly, Yusa and the others stood up, they didn''t have time to waste here, after all, Krune then explained how he set up the formation at the Raskie Danger Zone, there is also a Concealing formation to hide their presence once they get there. "Alright, we need one person in each formation, Yusa has the Concealing Runestone Formations, one for the Solie Clan Formation and one for the Harta City Formation, the one in the Raskie Danger Zone already has one like I said, Ao will stay in the Solie Clan, Yusa will check the Harta City''s, Shinja has the highest cultivation, so she takes care of the Raskie Danger Zone, she can simply scare away any beast that approaches the formation, I will stay behind to send everyone, any question?" Everyone shook their heads. "Very well, time is of essence, let''s go!" Chapter 73 - The Ten Major Cores Krune''s team members were the first to leave, they would need a few minutes to get read on the other sides, after all, the teleport formation couldn''t send too much at once, Krune had discussed with them and they agreed that everything should be ready in at most fifteen minutes, after the time was gone, Krune sent the first batch of wisps over. "There they go, we are sending one batch every two minutes, it should take at most one hour for all of us to leave, that Infernal Beetle will definitely need much more than one hour to gather enough cultivators or demon beasts to come over, so no need to hurry." One by one, batch by batch, the wisps were being teleported over since Krune didn''t receive anything back from the teleport formation, It means that everything was going as planned, around one hour later, the last batch of wisps was gone, Lakin took special attention to this one since Cassy and Dier were on them. "Master, it''s our time then." Krune nodded, he stepped on the teleport formation with Lakin, Ruik and the demon beasts, the Lizard Dragons were in this last batch too, before activating the teleport formation, Krune summoned a fireball, he then made its internal spiritual energy to run chaotic, it would definitely explode in the next few seconds, he then left right above the formation and activated it, in a flash of silver light, Krune, and the others were gone, right after that, the fireball exploded and the Short Distance Teleport Formation was gone. Around four hours later, Gory had gathered enough forces to trash Krune''s group, he arrived back at the Spiritual Vein Lake Cave and asked the demon beasts that he left around about what happened during the time he was out. "Our group had kept a look at the mountain range, no one left it in the last few hours, that''s for sure." Gory found it weird, how could they not try to escape? He had left some scouts behind exactly, for this reason, there would be no way for them to get far away with that many wisps unless they escaped alone and left the wisps behind, but after defending those wisps with so much intensity, it would be strange if they simply decided to give up on them, at least, they should have let those wisps scatter in all directions so that they would have some chance at living. Gory didn''t waste time, he had gathered another two Core Formation Realm Demon beasts, so he was sure about his victory this time, they immediately charged in the cave direction, but when their Divine Senses finally got close enough to see what was happening inside, their faces darkened. "How come there is no one?" Gory didn''t believe it and charged inside, after arriving at the spiritual vein lake, he finally understood what happened, he couldn''t help but kick a nearby boulder which immediately crumbled. "Those guys had a teleport formation prepared!" The other two demon beasts looked at Gory coldly. "What? Can''t you see the remnants of the teleport formation? If you were in my place, would you have considered that they would have a Four Stars Formations Master in their group capable of building teleport formations?" The Core Formation Realm beasts ignored him and left, now that that group used a teleport formation, there is no way they can find where they have gone, they can only go back and order their subordinates to look around to see if they had teleported somewhere close, but they also know that it is very hard to be the case. Gory was also feeling gloomy, he could spread the information, but it would ultimately bring him no results and raise a lot of problems, so he only sighed and left as well. --- Back at the Raskie Danger Zone, Krune''s group had arrived at the entrance of the Rainbow Sect, they had to move slowly to keep the concealment, thanks to Shinja flying around and scaring the demon beasts with her aura, Krune, and the others didn''t get in any trouble on their way here, it was not like Krune built this Short Distance Teleport formation too far away from the elemental gate anyway. Krune used his authority as Legacy Disciple to open the gate, after that everyone got in, Hasik, who was taking care of everything as always, was surprised when he saw the number of wisps passing through the gate, shortly after, a few demon beasts together with Krune and the others entered as well, Hasik then waited for Krune to come to see him and explain what was happening. After arriving at the inner city, Krune left the wisps for Lakin to take care and went to the Order Hall, arriving there, he could see that Hasik was already waiting for him. "Well, that''s a lot of wisps, but I should advise you, using wisps for cultivation have many side effects and will make your foundation poorer, so you should think twice before using them for cultivation." Krune''s mood got gloomy straight away, in the end, it''s not easy to change the people''s opinion about wisps, he then explained that his group would never use a wisp for cultivation, they brought them here to protect their lives. "Hum? What will you get from saving a few wisps lives? They have a very limited life span, so there isn''t much they will be able to do for you, you know?" Krune thought that better than explaining, the best would be to show him straight away, Krune then reverted back to his wisp form, which was bigger than the wisps outside, Hasik saw that and was alarmed. "Yo-You! You are a wisp too!" Krune then went back to his human form again. "Exactly, so you don''t need to be afraid that I or anyone here will use the wisps as cultivation resources, I will slaughter anyone who dares to try so." Hasik was taken aback, he hadn''t expected that at all, the best disciple that his Sect had found in a few millennia turned out to be a wisp, doesn''t that mean that Krune doesn''t have much to live to start with? Hasik looked at Krune and let out a sigh, his hope for the Sect got crushed just like that, but then he remembered that Shinja, Ao and Yusa were all normal humans, although they aren''t as talented as Krune, they are still top geniuses, his mood improved a bit after thinking like that. How Krune could not understand what Hasik was thinking, but he didn''t care, after becoming a Legacy Disciple, Krune had read all the Sect''s rule, the sect doesn''t stop any race from joining, as long as one has passed the tests and became an ordinary disciple, the sect won''t do anything to harm that disciple, let alone a legacy disciple like him, that''s also why he didn''t mind showing his true form. "Alright, you shouldn''t feel that sad anyway, I still have around 14 years of life ahead of me, my cultivation speed is more than fast enough to reach the Core Formation Realm, and don''t forget, I''m a ''Rainbow Core'' cultivator, remember?" The words ''Rainbow Core'' didn''t ring any bell in Hasik''s mind. "I know you have a rainbow core, you told me about that before, is there something special about it"? It was as Krune expected, Hasik really didn''t know about the rarity of the Rainbow Core, otherwise, he would have said something that day when Krune told him about that, but he didn''t enter in details last time, he only commented about the Tribulation Lightning but left the properties of the Rainbow Core basicaly out, it was then that he thought about another possibility. ''Maybe the name that they give to my Core Inst ''Rainbow Core'' like the Mercenary Guild Head put.'' Krune then explained what his ''Rainbow Core'' is, only after hearing the details did Hasik''s face finally change, he seemed to be in a rage. "To hell with Rainbow Core! That''s obviously an Elemental Core, who the heck came up with this name?" Hasik felt like he was blind. "I''m also an idiot, how come I didn''t notice it before? The clues were all out there for me to see, maybe it''s because it is so rare that I didn''t consider the possibility of an Elemental core appearing here." Krune was ecstatic, it seems like Hasik knows more about his Rainbow Core. "To think that a wisp would give birth to an Elemental core, what a waste." Krune didn''t mind that comment, he had long since got used to the little expectations that everyone has for wisps, Hasik shook his head and then continued. "The elemental core is one of the ten major cores, it''s extremely rare, it can give birth to the Elemental Nascent Soul, you called it Five Elements Nascent Soul, it''s not incorrect to think like that, they were right at this point, you will really have an easier time comprehending the elemental laws in the future." Krune got curious. "Ten major cores?" Hasik nodded "They are the Elemental core, Black Hole core, Yin core, Yang core, Destiny core, Death core, Life core, Space core, Time core, and the most mysterious of all, the Heavenly Core, and they all can nurture their respective nascent souls." Hasik seemed to be lost in thought while talking about it. "As for the conditions that give birth to those cores, no one knows, several powers tried to find a way to raise cultivators with those cores, but they all failed, in the end, they got to the conclusion that it doesn''t matter where or when those cores only appear for the fated ones." He then continued. "The Back Hole core is the one with the fastest cultivation of all cores, there is no such thing as bottleneck for those who give birth to this core." "Yin core can control the Yin elements to the best capability, in places where Yin energy is abundant, their cultivation speed and combat prowess are at the top." "Yang core obviously can control Yang Elements, so it''s basically the opposite of the Yin Core." "Destiny core is the best for divination, as long as you have the necessary materials for study, everyone can do divination, but no one can match those who give birth to this core, not to mention that they have fewer chances of getting a backlash when prying into the secrets of the heavens." "Death core can control the death power, they are especially strong in huge battlefields where death reigns supreme, you can even say that they are the gods of war, of course, they are still very strong even if there are no people dying around." "Life core has the power to obviously control life, they are the best for healing techniques, and those with this core are usually called saints." "Space core has the best control over space, their spatial skills are unmatched at the same level." "Time core is quite a weird one, it might be a blessing or a disaster, it makes it easier for the cultivator to understand the time laws, but before reaching the Void Breaking Realm, the owner of this core can''t control the power of time of their core, so they might age so fast that they have no chance to reach that realm." "As for your elemental core, it should be very obvious to you, you have a control over the elements that almost no one can match, you would only lose for those with a core like the Yin or Yang core, but they can only surpass you in their respective elements, you could say that you have an all-rounded core in this case." "As for the Heavenly core, that one has appeared the least number of times, few have witnessed the power of a cultivator who gave birth to this core, some say that all the other nine cores can ultimately become a Heavenly core, but no one knows for sure, it is said that those with a Heavenly core can control the power of the heavens." Krune and the others were amazed, to think that there are so many powerful cores out there, it was then that he thought about one thing. "Shinja has a Pure Yin Body, does it mean that she has a Yin core?" Hasik wasn''t surprised with that question, he already knows about Shinja''s body, but he just shook his head. "You are greatly underestimating the rarity of the ten major cores, compared to the Yin core, Pure Yin Bodies could only be called ordinaries, it''s even easier to find a man with a Pure Yin Body than a cultivator with a Yin core, she can find if she has a Yin core in a second, just ask her to check if her core is azure-colored or golden." Shinja wasn''t sad by hearing that, she knew that her core was as golden as it could be, it didn''t seem like it had anything special about it either, Krune finally came to understand how incredible his core was. It was then that Krune remembered his Tribulation Lightning in his core. "Hasik, you remember that I can control the Tribulation Lightning and that it is mainly inside of my Rainbow Core, does it mean that I have a Heavenly Core?" Hasik shook his head. "There is no doubt that the Tribulation Lightning is part of the power of the heavens, but the heavens isn''t just the Tribulation Lightning alone, so it can''t be called a Heavenly Core, but-" Hasik took a deep look at Krune before he continued. "If what they say about all nine major cores being able to become a Heavenly core, then the Tribulation Lightning inside your core might give you the chance to achieve that, alas¡­" Krune finished Hasik''s words. "Alas, I''m a wisp, is that what you want to say?" Hasik just sighed and didn''t say anything else. "Hmph! You just wait and see." Chapter 74 - Heavens? Me? You Must Be Joking After a few days, all the wisps and demon beasts had been allocated around the inner city, with Krune''s authority as Legacy Disciple, he was able to open a few training rooms and fields for everyone to use after everything was set, he decided that he would once again immerse himself in cultivation and soul technique training, he doesn''t have enough Spirit Stones to open the ninth meridian, so that was the best he could do at moment. But before that, there was another matter he had to take care of, Krune closed the door of his room and sit on his bed, he concentrated on his mind and looked for that speaking Tribulation Lightning. "Come out, I know you are there, don''t pretend that you don''t exist after what you did." After some moments of silence, Krune finally heard an answer. "Who is pretending to not exist? It was because I used all my power that I had to sleep for a while, in fact, I should be sleeping at moment too, because of your mistake, I was forced to intervene and send the lightning back at that ant." Krune took a deep breath. "So, what exactly are you? Are you the heavens?" The voice heard that and burst in laugh. "Heavens? Me? You must be joking, the thing that you call heavens can go to hell for all that I care." Krune was alarmed with that information. "Heavens go to hell? Does it mean that the Tribulation Lightning isn''t the power of the Heavens?" "Half right and half wrong, the power that triggers the Tribulation Lightning does indeed come from the thing you call heavens, but its concept was learned because of me." Krune thought that it was too much information for him to take. "In that case, what exactly are you?" The voice was about to answer when suddenly, Krune''s eight Spiritual Energy Meridians appeared and started to shine again, Krune was taken aback, it had never happened before, they only shined once he created a new one, after a few moments, the shining stopped and Krune regained the control over them. "The hell? What happened?" The entity controlling the voice in his head was silent, Krune didn''t know what happened, but it did, it was a warning, a warning directed at himself, it was telling him that he already spoke too much, the voice remembered the aura that came out of the meridians, an aura no weaker than his own. Krune examined his Spiritual Energy Meridians a little more but didn''t find anything strange, he really couldn''t understand what happened, after some time, Krune finally gave up and asked the Tribulation Lightning inside his soul. "Was it you?" The voice answered back. "No, I have nothing to do with what happened." Krune found it fishy, but there was nothing he could do if the Tribulation Lightning didn''t want to answer, so he went back to the previous topic. "Anyway, you haven''t told me what you are yet." The voice simply said. "That''s not important for you at the moment, there is a lot of things that you better not know if you don''t have the power to change anything." Krune was taken aback with that answer, he still has loads of questions, and he kept asking them but the voice refused to answer even a single one. "I''m not doing it because I don''t like you, but because it really is no good for your future development to know about them now." Krune was still unconvinced but since the voice didn''t want to answer, there was nothing he could do. "In that case, why are you in my soul?" The voice answered. "I''m not exactly in your soul, I''m still inside your Elemental Core, I''m simply using the link between the Tribulation Lightning in your soul and me to talk to you." Krune was feeling gloomy, he only understood that he understands nothing. "Then why me?" The voice once again burst in laugh. "Coincidence! I have been trying to get free for who knows how many years, it just so happens that you were there in the right place at the right time." Krune was speechless, was it that simple? "Errr¡­ then, when are you leaving? You can''t possibly live inside my Elemental Core forever, right?" "I can''t leave for now since I will be found out, that time when you got hit by another person''s Tribulation Lightning was basically because that thing you call havens had instinctively noticed my presence, so it attacked, if I leave now, I will be struck to death." Krune was starting to feel like kicking this guy out by force, but then he remembered that he had no idea how to do that. "Anyway, do you have a name?" The voice answered straight away. "You can simply call me The Most Supreme Tribulation Lightning." Krune''s mouth twitched when he heard that. "Alright, from now on you are little light." ''Little light'' was taken aback. "Who the hell is little light?" Krune ignored him and made the next question. "There is no such thing as free lunch in this world, in that case, what can you do for me?" Little light was still angry with that name but then it reminded itself of its status, it was beneath itself to discuss such things with a weakling like Krune. "I won''t bicker with you about that name, as for what I can do for you, I already did plenty, who do you think that saved the life of your friends just a few days ago?" Krune went silent at that moment, little light wasn''t wrong, it was really thanks to him that Krune was able to avoid disaster back in the Katiu Forest, little light noticed that Krune went silent and then continued. "Besides, don''t expect me to give you techniques, show you places with treasures or anything like that, I simply don''t have it, such things had long since lost any meaning for me, so I don''t even know where to start anymore, what I can do is what I''ve been doing so far, help you temper your soul and give timely help when an emergency appears, that''s all." Krune sighed then decided to leave it at that, it doesn''t change the fact that little light had truly helped him a lot already, he decided that he will simply treat little light the same way as before, like air. "Very well, but when the time comes, I want you to tell me what I want to know." Little light agreed with that request. "For now, you just need to do the same thing as always, feed your Elemental Core with the lightning element so that I can recover, once I get strong enough, I will leave on my own, besides, it''s not like you are on the losing end here." Krune agreed with that statement, he had got a lot from the power of the Tribulation Lightning, especially his soul and Divine Sense. "Another thing, don''t comment about me to anyone, although I don''t think someone would be able to recognize me, if by any chance I''m found out, your future won''t be any good, but you can still use the Power of the Tribulation Lightning, you definitely aren''t the first to be able to store it." After that, little light''s voice disappeared, Krune understood that it went to sleep again, who knows when it would wake up. --- Back at the cave in that desolate planet, the old man who had been watching Krune so far couldn''t help but sigh. "To think that he would get that thing, I wonder if it was just a coincidence or destiny." He then just shook his head. "Anyway, that thing should have understood my message, it will also provide quite some help to him in the future, and I hope it''s the right decision to not eliminate it." He once again closed his eyes and the cave returned to silence. --- After the conversation with little light, Krune went back to do his own things, Soul Technique training during the day and cultivation at night, he also didn''t neglect is skills training, he decided to focus less on his side occupations for now since he wants to breakthrough into the 7th stage before the Mercenary Selection. Yusa and Ao went back to the soul endurance test, they were close to finishing it before, so they decided that they will only stop when they finish the last level, of course, they can''t simply throw themselves at it, they will need to rest their souls before they get injured, so they used that time to cultivate instead. Shinja had already finished the soul endurance test and got her spirit stones, she had also opened her Spiritual Energy meridians, it has been a little time since she entered the Core Formation Realm, so she decided to focus on her Soul Technique, for now, she also wants to pass the Legacy Disciple test later on. Lakin and Ruik were also Cultivating, they were in the same situation as everyone else, they didn''t have enough spirit stones to open more Spiritual Energy Meridians, so they also started to take the Soul Endurance test, Krune had already explained to them that the best thing they can do at moment is to be sure to not agree with the test ending before they are able to resist all ten levels. As for all the demon beasts that joined their group, they were all doing their own things, Krune asked them if they wanted to cultivate on their own or get the techniques from his side, for those who choose his side, they would need to sign a blood contract to not spread the technique without permission, in the end, all of them decided to sign the contract, after all, Ruik is also a demon beast, and with his combat power and cultivation speed right in front of them, how could they not want to try that? Finally, for the wisps that came, they ended up all choosing to cultivate the Myriad Energies Technique as well, their case wasn''t like the demon beasts, they simply had no other choice other than doing that, wisps don''t have natural meridians, so any other technique is useless for them. --- Time passed and another few months went by, the Mercenary Selection was just two months away now, Krune already broke through the 7th stage of the Foundation Establishment and was steadily approaching the 8th Stage, to make sure that his foundation wouldn''t go unstable anymore, he made sure to cultivate slower than before, otherwise, he definitely would have reached the 8th Stage by now, he was just about to start another night of cultivation when he received a message from Lakin. "Master, Cassy is going to try to breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment today, can you come to check it up?" Krune was surprised by that, Cassy and Dier had been at the peak of the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm for a while now, but they were taking their time to choose a Foundation, so they haven''t made a breakthrough yet. "Very well, I''m going now." Krune left his room and disappeared in a flash of lightning, Krune haven''t been just cultivating all this time, he also tried many different uses with his skills, and he came to understand that lightning was a lot faster for instantaneous movement, while wind was better for long distances, since Cassy is close by, there was no need to use wind. After arriving on a big empty place, Cassy was already there with Lakin, Ruik, and Dier, there was also quite a few wisps and Demon Beasts around who they were friends with, Krune came to know quite a few of them during the past months as well. Krune looked around and found out that Yusa, Shinja, and Ao were there too, for some reason, Cassy got quite well along with Shinja I the past months, he often noticed the two of them talking, Cassy was very curious, so it usually was Cassy making questions and Shinja answering them, Krune then looked around and couldn''t help but feel a little moved, when had wisps ever been this friendly with humans and demon beasts? The fact was that at first, the demon beasts and wisps weren''t interacting too much, with exception for Ruik, of course, but through Ruik''s effort, they slowly came to change a few words with each other, when you live together with the other for so long, you will come to know them better whether you want it or not. Cassy noticed that Krune arrived and came to compliment him. "Ancestor, you are here." Krune heard that and felt helpless, the one who came up with this idea of ancestor was none other than his disciple, he wanted to refuse it, but Shinja and the others thought it to be a good idea, Krune was the progenitor of the Myriad Energies Technique real form, or at least, it was true in the Makui Planet, so it wasn''t totally wrong to address him like that since it wouldn''t change anything in his life and the wisps and demon beasts looked to like this way, he simply accepted in the end. They also have already decided who would be the leader and take care of the things other than Hasik, Hasik can only appear in illusory form in the Order Hall, they needed someone alive to appear when necessary, turns out that Ruik was pushed over the position, at that time, Ruik felt like crying, he loves sleep, doesn''t that mean that he will have less time to sleep now? He wanted to refuse, but Krune, as an excellent friend, painfully convinced him to accept the position, as for why Krune simply thought. ''If I let this guy be, he will sleep until the end of times.'' And so, Ruik got the undesired Rainbow Sect Leader position. "Cassy, have you decided which foundation to build?" Cassy answered straight away. "Yes, in the end, what I understand the most is myself, Lakin had successfully built a wisp foundation, so I decided to follow his steps, in the future, I will be able to accompany him out and find even more wisps who need help." Lakin heard that and got a little red, but it was obvious that he was happy hearing that. "Very well, remember that for us wisps, the process of breaking our inner core is extremely painful, so don''t think about finishing things fast, both for me and Lakin it took us over a month to finish this process, but this is not all bad, your soul will be tempered quite a lot time, just make sure to only finish the breakthrough when you are 100% sure that your wisp foundation is perfect, we wisps only have one chance at Foundation Establishment, there is no other opportunity after that." Cassy got serious, she already knows that but it is still somewhat scary, succeed and gain another ten years of life span, fail and die, who wouldn''t be scared? Cassy moved to the center of the place, underneath it there was a Spirit Gathering Formation, a big one at that, the Rainbow Sect already has a lot more spiritual energy than outside, with the help of the Spirit Gathering Formation, there was no need for spirit stones or demon cores, of course, to make sure that nothing would go wrong, Lakin still left a lot of spirit stones with Cassy for her to use if necessary. Cassy focused her spiritual energy and attacked her core interior. "Crack" Immediately after that, Cassy screamed out of pain, Shinja was alarmed and was going to move and check her, but Krune stopped her before she could do that and shook his head. "No one can help with this process, this is something she needs to overcome herself, both I and Lakin know very well how painful it is, remember, this first scream of pain is definitely not the last one." Lakin was also glued in place, his hands closed into fists, he too wanted to charge over and help her, but as someone who underwent the same process before, he knows as well as his master that any external help will confuse Cassy instead, she needs to feel this pain and understand from where to go after this on her own. Cassy finally got a hold of herself, she had almost fainted just now, but she kept reminding herself that if she faints, she will be dead for sure, after waiting for a little to get used to the pain, she once again attacked the interior of her core. "Crack" Another scream, this time even louder than before, Shinja was looking at that and gritted her teethes, tears were flowing from her eyes, but she hold herself back, she was determined to watch the process until the very end, Krune looked at that and just sighed, he then found a place to sit and started cultivating again, he knows that Cassy''s screams will continue for a very long time. Chapter 75 - Since When Krune is so Thoughtful? Crack by crack, time passed, it took over two days for Cassy to adapt to the pain, Shinja didn''t do anything in the meantime, she just stayed there looking, she didn''t cultivate or practice any skill, Krune wondered when those two had got that close, but that was a good thing, Lakin looked a lot more relaxed at this moment though, Krune took a look at Cassy in the center and nodded his head. "The worst part is over, the highest risk for us wisps is when we start, the first times we attack the core center is the most painful ones, but once you go further the pain will diminish, of course, it''s only the second day, the is no doubt that there is still a lot of pain on the soul, but now that she overcame the first two days, she should have no problem in finishing the process, you only need to wait for whether she succeeds in forming a foundation that can be accepted by the heavens or not." Shinja heard that and just sighed relived, as long as there was no more danger of fainting, then that was good already. Day by day went by, Krune and the others kept looking at Cassy once a while and went back to cultivate, train or cultivate their soul techniques, Shinja had also calmed down and took her time to cultivate again, but she kept her Divine Sense locked at Cassy all the time, Divine Sense only uses a lot of spiritual energy if you keep it spread to its max range, but Cassy was just a few meters away from her, so she could keep it as long as she wished to. --- Little light had awoken again a long time ago, it couldn''t help Krune with cultivation techniques or anything like that, but he still knew the power of the Tribulation Lightning better than anyone else, Krune finally found a good use for little light knowledge, which is how to best use the Tribulation Lightning in his skills or Divine Sense. "So, what do you think, is it better if I use my instantaneous lightning movement fused with some Tribulation Lightning or should I just use Tribulation Lightning directly?" Little light pondered a bit and shook his head. "It isn''t a good idea to use only Tribulation Lightning for the movement, my power might not attack you anymore, but it is still extremely tyrannical, if it is just once or twice, then that''s okay, but if you overuse it in your movement technique, your body definitely won''t be able to hold for long, you should first find the best balance between the normal Lightning Element and Tribulation Lightning, search for the exact point where your body can sustain the added power of my Tribulation lightning without sustaining any damage first, if you do that, it should also help to fortify your human form." Krune nodded but then noticed one thing. "You said that my body should still be able to hold the burden once or twice if I use Tribulation Lightning only during it, which means that it can still be used that way, is it okay if I try it once?" "If it''s only once, then there should be no problem, but remember that it will be quite painful after that make sure to take your time to recover as well." Krune nodded at tried it out, he absorbed the Tribulation Lightning, circulated it around his body and activated his instantaneous movement technique, and with a flash of purple lightning, Krune disappeared from his spot, when he appeared again, he was more than 300 meters away. Shinja had been keeping her Divine Sense spread all the time to keep a look at Cassy and to guarantee that nothing would happen on the surroundings, because of that she saw the moment that he used his Lightning Movement, for a second she thought that she was hallucinating, but when she noticed that it wasn''t an illusion, her jaw dropped! Fast! Really fast! ''How is that possible? Even if I use all my power as a Core Formation Realm cultivator, I still wouldn''t be even half as fast as he was just now.'' She was about to ask Krune how he did that when she heard another scream, she immediately ignored Krune and looked at Cassy, but she noticed something wrong. "Wait, since when Cassy has a man''s voice?" Wisps without a human body have a voice that can''t be considered manly or womanly, if anything, it''s quite neutral, Shinja had already noticed that while talking with other wisps, since that''s the case, who screamed just now? Only then she noticed that the one who screamed was none other than Krune, she looked at that and didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. Krune was rolling on the ground, his body had some sparks of lightning coming out of his body, there was a burnt smell coming from it too, quite a few spots of his body seemed to have been fried all of sudden, it seemed like he came out of a barbecue and the meat was none other than himself. "This thing is painful as hell!" Little light heard that and just laughed. "What do you think my power is? Were you expecting something as gentle as the water element? My power is the Tribulation Lightning, I wasn''t lying when I said that it is extremely tyrannical, if not for the fact that my power doesn''t wish to really hurt your body, you would have become a fried wisp already." Krune smiled bitterly, but he wasn''t sad, the speed that he moved just a moment ago was something that could definitely become a trump card in the future, of course, as long as he doesn''t lie down on the ground to scream out of pain right after using it. When he finally stabilized his condition, he noticed everyone looking at him, or at least, that was the case for those who had faces, but Krune could feel that the wisps were looking at him too. "Ancestor has quite a few weird ways of training." "Shh, Ancestor fetishes aren''t something for us to comment about." Krune wanted to cry, who the hell would have such fetishes! "Cough, cough, this was the backlash of my movement technique, it''s very fast but it causes a lot of damage on the body, don''t mind me." Krune could see their doubtful eyes but decided to leave at that, he focused on healing his body instead, although he is used to pain, it doesn''t mean that he likes it. Shinja then sent him a Divine Sense message. "How did you do that? Even I can''t be that fast, and I can control lightning element too." Krune just answered "That''s because I used Tribulation Lightning instead of a common lightning element, but you can also see the side effects, it''s not something I can use all the time." Shinja was already expecting that. "So it was really Tribulation Lightning, don''t you think that you are risking too much by circulating it in your body? This is totally different than summon its power outside to use your Heavens Fall after all." Krune laughed after hearing that, with little light in control, the Tribulation Lightning will not kill him unless he overdoes it, of course, he couldn''t tell her about little light existence. "Don''t worry, my control over its power is already very good, I was already expecting for this result, it looks like I got badly hurt, but these are all simple injuries, one day is more than enough to recover from it." Shinja had no reason to doubt him since Krune is confident that he can use it, then she will just trust his words. --- Time kept flowing, Lakin told Krune that his wisp foundation took around one month and a half, so he believes that Cassy will take around the same time, this would give Krune''s group more than fifteen days before the Mercenary Selection, it was more than enough time to rush back to Harta City. Finally, after 42 days, Krune and the other foundation establishment and higher cultivators felt the power of the heavens descending and entering Cassy''s wisp body, the acknowledgment of the heavens started, it was a very fast process, not long after, that power disappeared, Cassy was still there and her core was shining like any other wisp core, it just increased a bit in size, wisps also grow up when they advance a realm, it''s just that it isn''t much of a difference if compared with demon beasts. Lakin and Shinja approached her after that to check if everything was okay, Krune did the same. "Shinja, Lakin, Ancestor, I succeed!" Lakin and Krune just laughed, they knew it was a success the moment that the power of the heavens disappeared, Shinja simply embraced Cassy''s core while crying out of happiness. "Very good, it''s great to see another Foundation Establishment wisp, we will show everyone that our race isn''t as weak as they think." Hearing Krune''s words made Cassy very happy, it was then that she remembered, her name was something temporary, although they all think that her gender will be set as female, there is no way to be certain that she would definitely be one, it was just a theory that gender would be decided according to their personalities after all. Cassy asked Shinja and the others to give her some space, she had already inquired before as to how to change into a human body, so she wanted to give it a try. Shinja didn''t know why Cassy asked that but she agreed anyway, Krune and Lakin already had an idea so they were also curious to see what the results of the transformation would be, although it won''t give a 100% certain conclusion, it will pretty much set it in stone. Slowly, a body started to form, just like Lakin and Krune, the first time she transforms will take a lot longer than the next transformations, body, limbs, head, hands, feet, in just a little while her body finally finished taking form, turns out that they were right, Cassy really became a female wisp as they had expected. Cassy is very young even for a wisp, so her body looked like a 16 to 17 years old little girl, and turns out that she was quite lovely, totally on the cute side, of course, compared with Shinja who had a Pure Yin Body, she was still quite off, it''s just that there was a little problem, once again, just like Lakin and Krune, after the first transformation, she ended up naked! Shinja was just about to rush over to cover Cassy''s body when she noticed that someone had a fast reaction than herself, it was none other than Krune, he took a robe out of his spatial ring and covered Cassy with it. Not only Shinja, but even Ao and Yusa who had been observing until now were also surprised, since when Krune is so thoughtful? But they soon noticed that it was just their imagination. "When you are in your human form, make sure to use clothes, humans are extremely annoying about those things, I know it is a burden, but you will get used to it, otherwise, Yusa and the others will start buzzing on your ears all the time." Turns out that the reason he gave Cassy clothes wasn''t that she was naked, but because he thinks that humans are annoying when they see another human form without clothes, they just sighed, it was already good progress anyway before he would simply let her walking naked without saying anything at all. "Thank you Ancestor, they are quite uncomfortable indeed, I have never used anything on my wisp body before, so it''s quite a strange feeling." Lakin had already come back to take a look, in fact, his reaction before was as fast as Krune, but there was no way that he could be faster than his master. "Well then, let me give you a hand, you will definitely need it." Except for Ruik and Krune, everyone was puzzled about what Lakin meant, it was then that Cassy tried to give her first step when suddenly, she fell on the ground, she only avoided hitting her head because Lakin hold her in time, she tried to move her limbs to stand again but they just moved around like headless snakes. Ruik saw that burst in laugh. "So she is the first female worm wisp, she is not the least bit better than the two of you back then." Krune and Lakin heard that and their faces got gloomy, Ruik just so happens to have been present during the time that the two of them first got their human forms, he will totally remind them of those shameful moments of their lives until the day of their deaths. "I wonder if I beat Ruik''s two heads hard enough, will he forget about that?" Lakin heard that and couldn''t help but nod his head. "Master, that''s a splendid idea!" And just like that, the Rainbow Sect Leader slept that night with his body hurting all over. Chapter 76 - Defensive Artifact? Krune left Cassy for Lakin to take care and called his team members over. "Cassy''s issue is over, as you already know, the Mercenary Selection is just two weeks and some days away, so we should return, otherwise, Guild Head Bary might go crazy, we told him that we would stay out for some time though, but just in case." Yusa and the others nodded, Ao then thought about something. "Shinja, you already have a free pass to the Divine Path Sect entrance exam, you could stay here if you want, no?" Shinja heard that and nodded. "I also thought about it, but in the end, there isn''t much of a difference whether I stay or not, I already have my soul cultivation technique and I can use it anywhere, I can also cultivate in any place I wish, so I will go to take a look." They nodded and went back to prepare for their leaving next day, Krune went to the Order Hall to tell Hasik that he would stay some time out. "I understand, so the place you are going is full of top experts watching over, right?" Krune nodded, the Heads of the other Mercenary Guilds of the other continents would be there too, not to mention that they are going to the Martial gathering right after they finish selecting the people who are getting the Five Slots given to the Mercenary Guild, so it''s bound to have even more experts there. "Then take this technique with you and make sure to master it before that Selection starts." Krune then saw a book appearing on the teleport formation in the Order Hall, after reading its name, he got surprised! "Race Cover Technique" "Is this technique something that helps conceal my true form?" Hasik nodded. "Although you are a wisp, you are still a Legacy Disciple of my old Mohie Sect, the sect will always protect its members, doesn''t matter which race they are from, it was thanks to rules like that that our sect was able to become a superpower in the past, the people who joined our sect had a sense of belonging, and that is a very powerful weapon for any sect." Krune didn''t mind the-wisp comment and thanked Hasik anyway. "This technique can stop anyone bellow the Void Breaking Realm from being able to see which race you are from, for a planet like this one that you described to me, there shouldn''t have anyone at this level, and in the future when you venture outside this planet, you won''t need to be afraid of showing your true form anymore, only those with poor foundations and bleak futures would dare to use wisps for cultivation, any other high-level cultivator wouldn''t risk damaging their foundations for a short term increase in power." "Of course, it is still best if you keep it hidden as a trump card, after all, you said that your combat power is a lot higher in that form." Krune nodded, it was true, his control over the elements is a lot higher when he doesn''t need to circulate spiritual energy through his human body first, he might lose some defense, but he gains a lot of firepower. Krune was just about to leave when suddenly, Hasik made an unexpected question. "By the way, what kind of weapon you are using at the moment?" Krune looked back at Hasik. "Weapon? I''ve never used a weapon, to be honest, I''m a lot better at long-range attacks and movement skills, so I never thought about acquiring one." Hasik was taken aback with that answer. "Even if you are good at staying far away, there are weapons good for that style of battles too, have you never considered Flying Swords, Chakrams, or anything like that?" It''s not like that Krune hasn''t thought about them before, it''s just that he felt that they aren''t exactly to his liking, and so he told Hasik. "I see, but what is it that you don''t like about them?" Krune pondered a bit, if there was a reason, then it could only be¡­ "Well, to be honest, I have never liked killing, unless it''s absolutely necessary, I won''t take any lives, I can count the number of living beings that died because of me on my hands, and you better know that I have battled a lot already, be it alone or together with my team members, so I guess it''s because those are killing weapons that I feel uncomfortable about using them." Hasik found this wisp to be more and more strange, of course, it''s not like all the other cultivators are bloodthirst and love killing each other, but usually, they wouldn''t care about killing their enemies so that they could get rid of the problem as soon as possible, everyone knows that it is a lot easier to kill than it is to disable someone. "I''m not in the position to judge whether you are right or wrong, maybe you are able to do what you do exactly because of that, but I still think that you should choose something for emergencies." It was then that Hasik thought about something. "You said that you don''t like weapons since they are made for killing, then what about defensive spiritual artifacts?" Krune was puzzled, so far he only saw people using spiritual artifact weapons for killing, and he has never seen anyone using something for defense. "What kind of defensive spiritual artifact?" "That is up to you, it must be something you like, they say that the best weapon is the one that suits you the best, defensive artifacts are just the same, what kind of artifact would be the one you like the most? Think about it." Krune left the Order hall with that thought on his mind, just what kind of artifact would be the best for himself. ''It has to be something I can use both in human and wisp form, in that case, something like a big flying shield maybe?'' Krune shook his head. ''Too big, hard to manipulate and can only defend one side, maybe some kind of armor that can adapt to my wisp form?'' Krune shook his head again. ''Out of question, I don''t even know if an armor can transform to start with, even if it''s possible, it''s not something I can acquire at my level, otherwise, I would have seen someone using it already.'' It was then that Krune thought about something. ''My soul power and Divine Sense are stronger than anyone at my level, at least between the people I have seen so far it definitely is so, in that case, why am I focusing in a single piece of equipment to start with?'' An idea started to form in Krune''s mind. ''Maybe¡­'' Krunes eyes lit up immediately. ''I need to go to the Blacksmith Guild first to check if it is possible.'' It was then the Krune noticed that he already arrived in his room. "Oh right, the Race Cover Technique, I need to practice it straight away, I hope it isn''t too hard to comprehend." Krune then forgot about the artifact issue for the moment, he decided that he would check about it when he was back in the city and went to the Blacksmiths Guild. He then opened the book and started reading its contents, surprisingly, there wasn''t much there, it only took a few minutes to memorize it completely. "So, it''s basically a type of Divine Sense shield that stops other Divine Senses from checking into my body to find out which race I am, it''s quite simple too, I should be able to learn it by tomorrow before we leave." --- The next morning, Yusa, Ao and Shinja were already waiting for Krune at the Secret Realm entrance, but they noticed that he was quite late already. "Did something happen?" They looked at each other, it was obvious that none of them heard about anything. "Let''s go to his room to take a look." Just as they were about to leave, Krune appeared in the distance, not long after he arrived as well. "Sorry for making you waiting, I was just talking with Lakin about something else." Krune had left behind a copy of the Race Cover Technique for Lakin and Cassy, and probably even Dier, after all, Dier is also at the peak of the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation, he just needs to decide on his foundation and he can start his breakthrough. Krune then looked at everyone. "Should we go?" Since there was no problem, they nodded and departed, after traversing the gate, Krune used his privilege as Legacy Disciple to close it temporarily. "Well, it will be at least three months for us to be back, are you sure you don''t want to stay, Shinja? I believe that Cassy will be very happy if you keep her company." Shinja shook her head. "I do like Cassy very much, but I feel like I will just get in Lakin''s way if I stay behind." Yusa and Ao heard that and laughed. "Indeed, that would be a big problem." Krune just sighed. "So you also think that Lakin is interested in Cassy?" Ao, Yusa, and Shinja looked at Krune as if they had seen a ghost, with Krune''s EQ, there should be no way he noticed it. "Who are you? Where is Krune? What did you do to him?" Krune looked at their reactions and had the urge to kick them away, are they still his friends? "Hmph! How could I not notice that? He looks at her the same way I looked at Feifei back then, I can at least see this much." It was impressive how Krune could say those words without the least bit of embarrassment, but the best part is the fact that he could at least understand what it is to be interested in someone else. Ao put one of his hands on Krune''s shoulder. "Brother, I''m happy to see you growing up." Shinja and Yusa nodded their heads vigorously. Krune felt that something was wrong. ''Why is that even when they are praising me, I feel like I''m being mocked instead?'' Krune just sighed and put those thoughts back on his mind, after that, all four of them swiftly left, of course, they made sure to not leave any traces behind where the Rainbow Sect Secret Realm Entrance is located, anyone who passes through there won''t notice anything different. Five days later, they arrived at the Harta City, instead of going back to the Kaley City Mercenary Guild Branch, they went to the Harta City''s Branch instead, the contacted the Lu Ganan in the Kaley City to ask where they should teleport from here, after getting the teleport coordinates from Supervisor Lu, they went to the closest Long Distance Teleport Formation, paid the fee, and in a flash of silver light, they disappeared. --- Somewhere inside the Mercenary Guild Headquarters of the Yule Continent, a teleport formation started to shine, instants later, four figures appeared on it, they were obvious Krune and his friend, as soon as they arrived, someone was there to receive them. "Hello, my friends, my name is Linder, an employee of the Mercenary Guild, I''m here to guide you into your rooms." Shinja was the most familiar with the Mercenary Guild Headquarters, so she came forward to compliment Linder. "Very well, do you know if everyone is here already?" Linder understood that she was talking about those who are going to participate in the Mercenary Selection. "Yes, there is a total of twenty-seven Foundation Establishment cultivators under the age of Forty years old that are also Three Stars Mercenaries in the Headquarters at moment, that is already counting with you, everyone will be departing in one week for the Mercenary Selection." Shinja and the other understood, after that, Linder showed the way to the rooms prepared for them beforehand. Linder took a few cards from his pocket and passed one to each member, he then explained. "Those are the access cards that you can use here in the Headquarters if you want to enter some room, just use this card, if the room opens, it means that you are allowed to enter, if not, then you aren''t, it makes everything easier around here, our Headquarters have everything you need, Formations, Blacksmiths, Runestones Formation, Alchemists, Puppets, so on and so forth, make sure to check the terminal in your room, there you can find all the information that you need while staying here." Expect for Shinja who had been here before, Krune and the others were quite amazed at the efficiency that the headquarters was managed. After Linder left, their group decided that since they still have to wait for a week, they might as well go and do whatever they like in the meantime, Yusa was the first one to leave. "The information says that the Headquarters have employed Six Stars cultivators for all the other occupations, so I''m going to the Runestone Formations room, see you later." She immediately left after that, she had also caught up with Ao when he stopped to open his Spiritual Energy Meridians, now she is at the 8th Stage of the Foundation Establishment, thanks to the Spiritual Energy Meridians, she can control three elements at the same time, in the end, she decided to basically use Water, Ice, and Lightning, she choose ice because it was a branch of the water element, and lightning because Shinja also used that, it complemented water type attacks very well too. Ao decided to do something else. "Their training facilities are great for sword users like me, so I''m going to take a look as well." With a swift breeze, Ao disappeared from where he was, he already reached the 8th Stage of the Foundation Establishment, and with the rewards of completing the last level of the Soul Endurance Test, he was able to open more Spiritual Energy Meridians, so his control over the wind element improved even more, not to mention that now he can also use three different elements just like Yusa, in the end, he decided to specialize in Wind, Fire and Metal, Wind and Fire complemented each other, while Metal, a branch of the earth element, can help him with his sword path. Shinja didn''t need to look at the information to know where to go. "The Headquarters had paid for an Eight Stars Formations Master to set up an Eight Star Spirit Gathering Formation in the past, so I''m going there now, you should try it later if you have time." In the end, Krune was the only one left, after finding out that the guild had a Six Stars Blacksmiths, his next stop was pretty obvious. "Time to check if my idea is feasible or not." Using his lightning movement, Krune also disappeared in a flash of light. Chapter 77 - Divine Imprints It didn''t take long for Krune to arrive at the Blacksmiths Hall, he went to the counter and asked if it was possible to talk with a blacksmith at the moment. "According to your ID you are contestant Krune, right? All participants of the Mercenary Selection this time have high priority in the requests here in the Blacksmiths Hall, I will request one of them to see you in a moment, please wait in that room." The attendant pointed at a door not too far, Krune went there and waited for the blacksmith to come, a few minutes later, a man who looked to be in his middle age appeared, but Krune could feel that his cultivation had definitely reached the Core Formation Stage, so he was certainly much older than he appeared. "Hello there, I''m the Five Stars Blacksmith Marcus, you are the one who needs some advice, right?" Krune nodded, he then took out some paper drawings that he had made and passed it over to Marcus, after taking a look on then, Marcus was impressed, it wasn''t that it looked like it was hard to make or had any impressive design, the thing that surprised him was the quantity, he looked at Krune and asked. "Hexagonal Flying Shields, right?" "It''s not hard to make, but are you sure you want this many? You definitely won''t be able to control all of them at the same time, are the rest of them just spare shields?" Krune then took out of his spatial ring Thirty-Eight spirit stones, they were just low-level ones, he threw them in the air and they start to float, he was using the spiritual energy inside and his own Divine Sense to control them, after that he started to make several different movements, sometimes they separated, sometimes converged in line, other times they formed a barrier, Marcus saw that and was really taken aback. "What a frightening Soul Power and Divine Sense!" Krune recovered his spirit stones back after that, the reason why he used spirit stones to practice was that they already had spiritual energy inside them, so he didn''t need to charge the spirit stones beforehand. "The control isn''t a problem, so how much you think it would cost to do this work?" Marcus pondered a bit, Krune had asked for Thirty-Eight pieces, although they aren''t hard to make, there is the problem of the materials, but most important of all, it was the Divine Imprints. "For me to attend your specs, I will need at least Spiritual Azure Steel, different from other equipment, they will need to hold Spiritual Energy, fly and attach to each other, but those can be dealt with, the main issue here is the Divine Imprint that each one of them will need." Krune was puzzled. "What is a Divine Imprint?" Marcus then explained. "For weapons like swords, for example, the user will only need to hold them, the weapon won''t be leaving their hands, so a Divine Imprint isn''t necessary, but for weapons like flying swords, the user will need to control them with their Divine Sense which is greatly affected by their Soul Power, if you don''t use a Divine Imprint, someone with a stronger Divine sense and Soul power can simply take control over your flying sword and then you will have no more weapon." Krune understood the logic. "Then we do a Divine Imprint." Marcus shook his head. "If it was just one or at most three Divine Imprints, I would ask you to simply make them straight away and put the imprint in the piece of equipment that you want me to forge, in fact, with your Soul Power and Divine Sense, you probably could use even seven or eight, but there is Thirty-Eight Hexagonal Shields, once you put your Divine Imprint Inside, it will change a little during the time of the forging, so all your Thirty-Eight Shields are bound to have different Divine Imprints inside in the end." Krune was still puzzled. "And is it a problem?" Marcus then continued. "A big problem, the compatibility of Divine Sense and the Divine Imprint have to be the same, but since there would be only one or at most eight pieces, you shouldn''t have any issues matching the compatibility necessary and control them, but to have Thirty-Eight different types of Divine Imprints and change your Divine Sense in Thirty-Eight compatible types will put a gigantic burden on the soul, even with a Divine Sense and Soul Power like yours, like I said, I reckon that you would be able to control at most seven or eight shields at once, and that is already very difficult." Marcus then gave him an idea. "But you could, for example, make seven bigger shields, it would be easier to control." Krune shook his head. "In that case, I won''t be able to change them in several forms like I''m planning, they will also be much heavier, which will make them harder to control due to the G Force, is there no other way to keep the Divine Imprints identical?" Marcus nodded. "There is, you have two options here, the second option is out of question, so let me tell you the first." "Divine Imprints are things that we blacksmiths specialize with, if you can create a Divine Imprints on par with the level of the equipment, they will not change after the forging is done, but in that case, they must be done by yourself." Krune finally understood. "Does it mean that Divine Imprints are pieces of equipment themselves, is it not just some Divine Sense ability?" Marcus laughed after hearing that. "Of course not, doesn''t matter how strong your Divine Sense is, if you use it alone without anything else, it will disappear sooner or later, Divine Imprints are like talismans, something you make by fusing your Blood and Divine Sense into a seal that is then attached to the equipment during the forging, once the equipment is done, only the Divine Imprint owner can control it." "Because usually, cultivators use weapons and armors that are held by their hands and bodies, Divine Imprints aren''t that necessary, even if they do use something like a flying sword, they would have one, two, or at most three of them, so even the most basic Divine Imprint is already more than enough for them." "Simply put, to use this option, you will need to become a blacksmith yourself." Krune then asked what the second option is. Marcus once again laughed. "The second option is out of your reach when a cultivator reaches the Divine Soul Realm or higher, they are able to use their Divine Sense and Blood to imprint an ownerless piece of equipment, in that case, the blacksmith would make identical Divine Imprint Seals and the Divine Soul Cultivator can simply bound it to himself later, otherwise, any high-level cultivator would need to become a blacksmith themselves, that is too unrealistic." Krune just shook his head, there is a long way until he reaches the Divine Soul Realm. ''So I will need to go to a Blacksmith Guild and apply to become one.'' He then asked Marcus "What level of Blacksmith I need to be to make Divine Imprints good enough for those shield materials?" Marcus pondered a bit. "The shields you want me to make have to be able to resist even early stages Core Formation Realm cultivators for some time before running out of Spiritual Energy, I reckon that a Three Stars Blacksmith should suffice, of course, it will take a long time for you to become one, but it is still much faster than wait for the Divine Soul Realm." Krune nodded. "Do you know the closest city with a Blacksmith Guild Branch where I can apply to take the test?" Marcus answered straight away. "You don''t need to leave the Mercenary Headquarters for that, it has employed Six Stars cultivator of the various occupations, so our Blacksmith Hall can also provide the tests for Blacksmiths, if you go to the other Guilds Headquarters you will find that they also do the same, it''s very convenient to have the necessary personal at all times after all." Krune was surprised with that since he doesn''t need to go anywhere, he might as well try it out now. "Then I will take the test." Marcus heard that and laughed. "No problem, although you won''t be able to become a Three Stars Blacksmith any time soon, it is still necessary to start at some point, as long as you persist you will reach the level that you need." He simply thought that Krune was choosing the fastest way to get his hexagonal flying shields, not for even a second he believed that Krune could become a Three Stars Blacksmith before the Martial Gathering. Krune once again received the necessary material for study and shut himself in his room. ''I won''t be able to get the shields ready for the Mercenary Selection, but I reckon that I have a chance for the Martial Gathering.'' Thinking like that, Krune started to focus on his study of the materials first, he would leave his room and go to the Blacksmith Hall now and then to inquire about furnaces, materials, techniques and the like, he soon became quite a common figure in the Blacksmith Hall during that small time. --- Ao was in the Mercenary Headquarters training room practicing his sword movements, the training room was enormous and you could see quite a few people there at moment, he had activated a protection formation in the platform he was staying to prevent his attacks from going outside, some people looked at him but didn''t see anything strange, that is because Ao wasn''t using any skills at all, he just moved his sword around, so no one noticed anything out of the normal. But if a realm Swords Master was present, he definitely would have his jaws dropped, that''s because there was something else coming from Ao''s sword movements, it wasn''t the Wind Element Sword Qi that Ao usually used with his swords skills like the Vacuum Blade, it was something different, much shaper and threatening, something that only masters of the sword should be able to do. Sword Intent! It was just recently that Ao started to perceive this difference in the movements of his sword, at first he didn''t understand what it was, just that it was much more powerful than his Wind Element Sword Qi, it was only after the Sword Intent started taking form that he understood what was happening, Ao had heard about Sword Intent before, but that was something way out of his reach, so when he found out that he was able to generate Sword Intent, he was both ecstatic and puzzled, since when did his understand of the sword get so good? But after thinking for a while the answer was obvious, Krune had been guiding him in elements control all this while, with a better control over his wind element, his sword skills also improved by leaps and bounds to the point where he could even become a Three Stars mercenary with easy, he has no doubt that if he was at the Core Formation Stage, becoming a Four Stars Mercenary would be just as simple, and after he opened his own Spiritual Energy Meridians, his control over the elements got even better, so for the Sword Intent to form was just a question of time. It is just that in the Makui Planet, cultivators with Sword Intent usually are at least in the Core Formation Realm and have lived for at least a hundred years or more, those that have Sword Intent and are still in the Foundation Establishment are just a few, but to be in Foundation Establishment Realm, have Sword Intent, and at the same time be under 40 years old? That already can be counted using the fingers of their hands! Ao didn''t see the time passing and soon it was already afternoon of the second day since his group arrived at the Mercenary Headquarters, he was just practicing as always when suddenly, someone called his attention outside of the protection formation, Ao was immediately pushed back of that state, he thought it to be sad but he could only blame himself for that, he deactivated the protection formation and looked at who was calling him. The person was quite tall, short red hair and no beard, his name was Turi Belane, a Three Stars Mercenary at the peak of the 9th Stage of the Foundation Establishment who came for the Mercenary Selection as well. He looked at Ao with some disdain on his face, the reason he came to bother Ao was because he inquired about the competitors for this Mercenary Selection who were already in the Headquarters, he then found out that the ''super genius'', Krune, that had been on the news of the Mercenary Guild had already arrived for the Mercenary Selection too, but doesn''t matter how much Turi looked, he couldn''t find him at all, he couldn''t be blamed, in the past two days, if Krune wasn''t in his room, he definitely was in the Blacksmith Hall, so it is no wonder that no one found him yet. In the end, Turi found out that this Krune had come with another three people, and two of them were here to take part of the Mercenary Selection too, it didn''t take long for him to discover Ao who had been in the Training Room all this time. "I heard that you are friends, probably even a team member of that Krune whose the Mercenary Guild claims to be their trump card this time around for the Mercenary Selection, tell me where he is." Turi couldn''t accept it, he was the leader of the Carnage Team that monopolized the first position of the Sky Rank System the last two times, but instead of promoting him, the Mercenary Headquarters announced Krune as their strongest member for the Mercenary Selection, the worst of all is that Krune wasn''t anywhere close to the top of the Sky Rank System, Turi looked through all the first 100 teams, but not a single one had Krune in it, he didn''t know what the Mercenary Headquarters was thinking, so he decided to test the guy himself. Ao had a nonchalant expression on his face, he looked at Turi from head to toe and then just shook his head, there was nothing worth paying attention to, he just turned around to go back to his sword training when Turi appeared in front of him. "Are you deaf? If you don''t want to get into trouble, then tell me where he is now!" Turi extended his hand and was about to grab Ao when suddenly, his hand passed through Ao''s body like he was a ghost, Turi''s eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw that, he then spread his Divine Sense and found out that Ao was already back on the platform that he was training before, everyone around looked at that scene and started to discuss about what happened, Turi felt like he was humiliated, he took out his sword and pointed at Ao. "A puny 8th stage Foundation Establishment thinks that he can take part in the Mercenary Selection, but in the end, he can only flee, are your friends as cowards as you just now?" Ao stopped in his steps and looked back, his eyes cold, he took a deep breath and asked. "What do you want?" Turi showed an evil smile and said. "Let''s have a duel, if I win, you will tell me where Krune is, if I lose, you can ask me anything." It was then than Ao''s eyes lit up, the Spiritual Energy Meridians are good, but they are also bottomless black holes, every new one uses a lot more Spiritual Stones than the last, not to mention that he needed to leave out some for his own cultivation as well. Ao looked at Turi, but he didn''t see a person anymore, just a treasure trove. "I accept!" Chapter 78 - Decapitation in Flames! Sometime before Ao accepted the challenge, Yusa was inside the Runestone Formations Hall, now that she is already at the 8th Stage of the Foundation Establishment, she didn''t need to hide the fact that she can control three elements at once, so she immediately took the test to become a Three Stars Runestone Formations Master. "Alright, with this last Runestone I should have no issues in passing the exam, after that I guess I will make some runestones to sell later, I''m my short in spirit stones after all." The problem is that she forgot that an 8th Stage Foundation Establishment being able to control three elements was something very rare in the Makui Planet, so when she passed over the Runestones Formations that she made using three elements, the examiner was taken aback, it would be okay if she was a Core Formation Realm cultivator, but she definitely isn''t. "This lady here, would you mind wait for a little, I have to pass those Runestone Formations that you made to someone else for evaluation, the ones you made are above what I can judge." Yusa was taken aback, she didn''t expect that the Runestones she made would turn out that good, she didn''t put much focus on then, after all, Yusa had once again underestimated the usefulness of the Spiritual Energy Meridians, not to mention that her Soul Power and Divine Sense are also much stronger than cultivators at her level. Sometime later, an old man came into the testing room, he looked around and soon found Yusa there, he put a smile on his face and then asked. "Was it you who made those Runestone Formations?" Yusa just nodded. "Would you mind making one of them again for me to see? Don''t worry, this is not related to the test anymore, you have already been accepted as a Three Stars Runestone Formations Master." "Will you pay for the materials?" The man was taken aback but nodded nonetheless. "Can I take this Runestone for myself after I finish then?" "Well, sure, you can take it." Only then Yusa started to work, if there was a thing that she definitely wouldn''t do, that is to work for free, but since they are paying for the materials and she can take the Runestone away, then she has nothing against it. After some time using her Divine Sense and spiritual energy to fuse the materials inside the Runestone to inscribe the formation, the Runestones was finally done, this time Yusa made a Three Starts Teleport Runestone Formation. The man looked at the whole process and was impressed with how easily she controlled the elements, the fusion technique, the inscription, everything was made with high proficiency, it was hard to believe that a Foundation Establishment cultivator could reach this level, it was just a little bit away from a Four Stars Runestone Formation. "Impressive." The old man took his eyes away from the Runestone and then looked at Yusa. "I''m this Runestone Formations Hall Supervisor, Halie Bens, and a Six Stars Runestone Formations Master, can I ask your name?" Yusa was surprised, so this was the Six Stars Runestone Formations Mater that the Mercenary Guild employed to work in their Headquarters. "I''m Yusa Shen, it''s nice to meet you, Hall Supervisor." Halie nodded his head. "I will be direct, would you like to be my disciple?" Yusa thought she heard something wrong, a Six Stars Runestone Formations Master was asking if she wanted to be his disciple, it shouldn''t be right. "Supervisor Halie, could it be that you are wrong? I''m just a newly acknowledged Three Stars Runestone Formations Master, I''m far from your league." Halie didn''t mind and just laughed "There is nothing wrong at all, I just checked your Runestones crafting ability, it is definitely top-notch, you are more than worthy of my tutelage, I can guarantee you that, it only depends on you whether you want it or not." Yusa was surprised, it was too sudden, there is no doubt that this is a great opportunity, but she had her misgivings as well. "Would you mind if I think about it for a while, I came to the Mercenary Headquarters as one of the Three Stars Mercenaries that will participate in the Mercenary Selection, so I need to focus on that first." Halie wasn''t surprised with that answer before he came to check Yusa, he had already checked who she is and what she was doing here. "No problem at all, just make sure to not get seriously injured during the Selection, after it is over, you can look for me, I will be staying here for some time anyway." Halie then laughed and left. Yusa took a deep breath and looked and the direction the Halie left, if it was before when she didn''t know Krune, she would have jumped inside Halie''s boat straight away, but she knows that her abilities at moment are also because that encounter, not to mention that she hasn''t decided if she will be going to the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam or not, it would all depend on her results during the Mercenary Selection and in the Martial Gathering. "I will discuss this with everyone when we gather again." --- Yusa spent some time in the office waiting for her Three Stars badge, when everything was done she remembered that Ao was close by, so she went to the training room, she wanted to talk with Ao first too, but after arriving there, she could see a tumult around one of the arenas in the training room, she got curious and went to check what was happening, it was then that she saw Ao on the arena as well. "What is he doing?" Ao also noticed Yusa appearing, so before the dual started he went there to see what she wanted. "Do you need anything?" Yusa shook her head and then asked. "I just want to talk with you a little, but it''s nothing important, what is happening here?" Ao sighed and then told what happened with Turi before, after hearing that, Yusa shook her head, she knew Ao''s strength very well, after taking a look at that Turi, she knew that that guy was basically giving his spirit stones away for free. "Well, he was the one who asked for it, just don''t take too long to finish it, I want to talk about something with you." Ao nodded his head. "It should take just a few seconds, we are just waiting for a referee to come, as you know, outside danger zones killing is prohibited, so we need someone with high cultivation to stop the battle in case things go wrong." Turi was on the arena and heard the entire conversation, not only him but everyone who was watching too, it was obvious that Ao didn''t consider him as his match at all, although Turi was furious, he didn''t lose his calm, if he was someone that left his rage take the better from him, he definitely wouldn''t be the leader of the first sky ranked team. "I might not be able to kill you, but crippling you shouldn''t be an issue at all." Not long after, a 6th stage Core Formation Realm referee entered the arena, different from the Mercenary Selection and the Martial Gathering, duels outside of the danger zone wouldn''t be too risky, so the Mercenary Headquarter didn''t stop them from acting like that. --- At the same time that everyone was looking at the arena, there was also another two people watching it through the security camera, they were none other than Bary and Kassius, the Guild Head and the Reviews Office Supervisor. "What do you think? Turi had been the leader of the Carnage Team for some time already, do you think that Ao''s involvement with Krune had improved his abilities enough to take Turi head-on?" Bary heard that question but didn''t have an answer, they have very little information about Yusa and Ao, so they don''t know how much stronger they got since the last time when they took the Three Stars Mercenary Test. "If I had to bet, I would bet in a draw, I think that he probably is strong enough to take Turi but not defeat him." Kassius heard that and then commented "This Ao Sulian seems extremely confident though?" Bary frowned, that''s exactly what had been bothering him, and there is no way that Ao Sulian doesn''t know who Turi Belane is, but he still has that confidence on his face. "Let''s wait and see, Ao''s strength will give us an idea of how much stronger Krune is." Kassius nodded and then waited for the duel to start. --- Back on the arena, the referee confirmed that both of them were ready, he asked for them to stay away from each other and then raised his hand, after taking a final look, he dropped it. "Start!" Turi didn''t waste time, he wanted to show to everyone the difference between the team leader of the strongest team in the Yule Continent and some unknown cultivator that thinks big about himself, so he immediately used his strongest attack. "Sword of the Fire Emperor!" This was a merging skill that used both wind and fire, the same as Ao himself, flames rushed from everywhere and spiraled around Turi''s sword, he then executed his movement technique and charged forward, he wanted to finish it in one strike. Ao saw that and became disappointed, thanks to the power of his Soul, Divine Sense and the Spiritual Energy Meridians, he could see flaws everywhere, but this was also a good opportunity, he wanted to check how good his newly acquired Sword Intent was, so instead of taking advantage of the flaws in the attack, Ao met the Sword of the Fire Emperor head-on! Ao fused his Metal Element in his swords, after that the wind element gathered around it, finally, fire element came forward and his sword started to burn, compared to the ''Sword of the Fire Emperor'', Ao''s skill seemed quite simple and unremarkable, except for Yusa, Bary and Kassius, everyone else thought that he would lose in the next second and the referee would need to save his life, Ao then activated his on movement technique and stepped forward, his eyes looked cold at his opponent, Sword Intent started to come out of his sword while he murmured the name of his own skill. "Decapitation in Flames!" The moment that Ao''s skill came out, the referee''s heart almost stopped! "Sword Intent!" The referee immediately disappeared from his spot and was just barely able kick Turi out of the way in the last instant, it was so close that both the ''Sword of the Fire Emperor'' and the ''Decapitation in Flames'' hit each other before Turi was sent flying by the referee, the Sword of the Fire Emperor was slashed through as if there wasn''t anything there to start with, Turi''s sword was cut through like it was made of tofu, the ''Decapitation in Flames'' slash didn''t stop there and hit the barrier protecting the arena, fortunately, that barrier was made to resist even attacks from Late Stages Core Formation Realm Cultivators, so it was able to hold it off, and just like that, the duel was really over in a single strike, Ao''s single strike though. Turi had his Divine Sense spread out all the time, so even after being kicked away, he saw what happened with his ''Sword of the Fire Emperor'' skill and the sword itself, if the referee hadn''t moved in time, he would have no head anymore! Ao turned his vision to Turi, that look made him almost piss in his pants, Ao then smiled and said. "Spirit stones, I want all the spirit stone on you, don''t forget that you said I could ask anything, so you won''t go back on your word, right?" Turi was sweating all over, he didn''t dare to go back on his words at all, he immediately transferred all the spirit stones he had in his spatial ring and passed them over, Ao looked at the number and was really surprised. "As expected of the first place in the Sky Rank, you are really rich! Thank you for your patronage." Ao was just about to leave the arena when he suddenly stopped on his steps and turned back. "Oh, I forgot to mention, I''m no match for Krune, if you still want to challenge him or not, that is up to you." Everyone heard that and felt a chill on their back, Ao is already strong to the point where he can trash the Leader of the team in the first place of the Sky Rank, if he isn''t a match for Krune, then just how much stronger Krune is? Yusa was the only one who looked bored, she already expected for this result from the start, she knew that Ao wasn''t lying either, he really isn''t Krune''s match, only when she and Ao fought together could they put some resistance against Krune, and that is when he isn''t in his wisp form. Ao descended from the arena and Yusa immediately kicked him in the but. "Look how rich you are now, give me some!" Ao''s face immediately went dark "Scram! This grandfather was ready to start begging on the streets before that guy came in, go find a fool for yourself." Between jokes and curses, both of them left the training room. --- Bary and Kassius were looking at the screen as if they had seen a ghost, their eyes were almost popping out of their sockets! "Th-That¡­ That was Sword Intent, wasn''t it?!" Bary nodded his head, but he couldn''t believe that either. "To think that not only we have Krune, we also have someone like Ao Sulian, but I''m also getting afraid that our Yule Continent might have used the next ten thousand years of luck to give birth to those two." Kassius heard that and shook his head. "Don''t forget, it was only after meeting Krune that his ability increased to that point, and did you hear what he said before leaving? He said that he isn''t Krune''s match!" Bary took a deep breath. "Our Yule Continent finally have a chance at the Martial Gathering, maybe even the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam, and not only one, but four chances, don''t forget that Yusa and Shinja are also part of his team, If Shinja hadn''t reached the Core Formation Realm changing their team into a Heaven Rank one, they could totally dominate the Sky Rank for as long as they wished." Kassius nodded and suddenly, his eyes lit up. "And as the guild that found them, hehe." Bary burst in laugh after hearing that. --- Back at the Blacksmith Guild, a certain wisp was practicing his forging skills, he didn''t know about anything that happened outside and the fact that all the competitors in the Yule Continent Headquarters are now seeing him as a monster that can''t be offended at any cost. ''Atchoo!'' "Is someone talking about me?" Chapter 79 - Three Stars Blacksmith. Yusa was explaining to Ao the offer she received from Halie, hearing that made him start to ponder. "Well, there is no doubt that this is a good chance, but you saw just now as well, that was the leader of the Carnage Team, the one ranked first in the Sky Rank System, even so, I couldn''t help but think how weak he was, of course, Yule Continent is seen as the weakest continent, so the competitors in the Mercenary Selection and the Martial Gathering after it are bound to be much stronger, but even so, for you who have a strength similar to mine, I still think you should aim for the Divine Path Sect first." Yusa nodded, that''s what she was thinking too, Ao then commented. "Besides, if that Six Stars Runestones Formations Master really wants you as a disciple, I doubt he will change his mind in just the three months that both competitions take place." "You think so?" Ao nodded. "I refuse to believe he will find someone as good as you anytime soon, who out there can match the power of the Spiritual Energy Meridians? They are the main reason why he got so impressed." Yusa took a deep breath and nodded. Later that night, she gathered with Shinja and Krune too and told them her plans, Krune heard that and simply said. "Isn''t that good? To have a backup plan when things don''t go the way you planned to, that''s the right way to go." Shinja also nodded. "I concur, you don''t know if you have enough strength to enter the top 10 of the Mercenary Gathering, same goes for Ao and even Krune, and let''s say that only me and Krune go to the Divine Path Sect entrance exam, and then we both fail, we would come back anyway after that anyway." She said that but she doesn''t believe that the Divine Path Sect would give up on Krune once they find that he has an Elemental Core, even if he fails the exam, they would still take him in, but she didn''t say those words to not make things difficult for Yusa. "Then I will do that, besides, who knows, I might really enter the sect." She then just laughed. Everyone went back to their own things after that. There was only one day remaining before they depart for the Mercenary Selection, this day, Krune went back to the Blacksmith Hall to take the exam, he wanted to know if he could become at least a One Star Blacksmith, already. Marcus was the examiner this time around, he was the one who had told Krune that he could do the Blacksmith Exam in the Hall, so he wanted to see how much he improved in just six days. "Very well, your job is to forger a simple Divine Imprint, the materials are all on the table, although it will take some time until you can forge a Divine Imprint good enough to resist the forging process without changing, a simple one should be easy to accomplish." Krune nodded, if it was just a basic Divine Imprint, he was confident that he could forger one. Divine Imprints could be forged through the use of blood and Divine Sense, as for the materials, in fact, as long as it was good enough to resist the battle of the cultivator specific level, that was good enough, so Krune used one of the common materials available, Spiritual Iron, a type of metal that could be found almost in any Blacksmith store. ''To forge the Divine Imprint I will have to fuse some of my own blood inside of the ore without losing the blood or the metal characteristics, my blood will be the container which will keep my Divine Sense inside while the Iron will be the protection of the container.'' Krune started straight away, with the help of the equipment in the exam room, he could check the temperature of the iron during all times, using his own spiritual energy to manipulate the fire element, the iron temperature slowly increased, the trick was to protect the blood with their spiritual energy so that the hot iron wouldn''t destroy it, for Krune who has the All-Encompassing Soul Technique and the Spiritual Energy Meridians, it was way too easy. After the right temperature was achieved, he started hammering it while applying a few drops of blood his blood, Divine Imprints aren''t anything big, in fact, they are very small, even the hammer used to mold it was a lot smaller than normal hammers, all to precisely control the Divine Imprint creation. Marcus was looking at the process and was really impressed, Krune''s control over the fire element far exceeded his expectations, he was even using wind element at the same time to increase the effectiveness of the fire element without damaging the blood properties. ''This is far above what a One Star Blacksmith can do, if he finishes this Divine Imprint like this, it won''t be a problem to give him a Two Stars Blacksmith Badge straight away.'' Time passed and slowly the spiritual iron took the form of a circle, it''s color also changed, one could see that it was somewhat blood red now, but Krune noticed one thing when he used his Divine Sense to check the fusion of the blood and the iron, he could see that although they are fused together now, their properties aren''t exactly the same, if he wanted, he could use his powerful Divine Sense and Spiritual Energy Meridians element control to forcefully match each other. ''I see, it is because blood also has iron in its composition, no wonder they use blood to keep the owners'' Divine Sense, let''s give it a try.'' Krune stopped hammering at this point, the Divine Imprint had already taken the desired form, so he started the process of infusing his Divine Sense into his blood, and at the same time, match the two metal properties together, fortunately, both metals are iron, so it was a lot easier than he thought. As soon as Krune started to match the properties of the blood iron and the spiritual iron, Marcus''s jaw almost dropped on the floor. ''I see, I spent all night forging and haven''t take a break yet, so I''m hallucinating now, yes, that must be it'' He then took a deep breath, used his spiritual energy to clear his mind and only then took a look inside the Divine Imprint with his Divine Sense again, but nothing changed, Krune was still matching the two irons properties, and it won''t be long before he finishes. ''Impossible! This isn''t something you can do with elements alone, he would need to have a Divine Sense that matches an early stage Core Formation Realm, but he is obviously in the 7th stage of the Foundation Establishment!'' Krune had no idea about what Marcus was thinking, he just wanted the One Star blacksmith badge for now, after the Mercenary Selection, he will focus even more on his blacksmithing and will try to get to the level of a Three Stars before the Martial Gathering, with some luck, he might be able to finish his Hexagonal Flying Shields before it starts. A few minutes later, Krune finally finished the process, he then cooled down the Divine Imprint and passed it over to Marcus to check how it was, he was pretty confident that he will get his One Star badge today. Marcus looked at the Divine Imprint on his hands and took a deep breath, he knows that Krune wasn''t a blacksmith, he really started to practice it six days ago, he turned to Krune and asked. "How did you know that the spiritual iron and the iron in the blood properties could be matched?" Krune answered straight away. "I didn''t, but when I was getting close to the end, I noticed that I could forcefully match them during the fusion process using my control over the fire element and my Divine Sense to check the process, I didn''t know if it was a good idea, but it seemed the right thing to do at that time, so I did it." Marcus heard that but couldn''t believe it, the study materials that are given for new contestants don''t include the properties of blood and metal matching process, that is because it should be something you can only do after you Divine Sense is strong enough to perceive those properties inside the metals, usually, it would only happen once you enter the Core Formation Realm, to have a Divine Sense as strong as a Core Formation Realm cultivator while still in the Foundation Establishment, just what kind of monster did he find? "Your exam is over, you did a great job with the Divine Imprint, in fact, the properties matching process should be something that only Four Stars Blacksmiths at the Core Formation Realm can do, but although you really did that, it was while using one of the easiest metals, you also haven''t forged any weapon or armor yet, so I can''t be sure that you really achieved that level, so, for now, I will give you a Three Stars Badge." Krune didn''t mind at all, in fact, he was ecstatic, it means that he at least has the ability to make a Divine Imprint good enough to resist the forging process of his shields without suffering any changes. "I will be leaving for the Mercenary Selection tomorrow, do you think my Hexagonal Flying Shields could be completed before that?" Marcus shook his head. "Although they aren''t hard to make at my level, it would still take some time, 38 shields would need at least one week for me to finish, so you might as well ask someone else later, it will be good if you have all 38 forged for the same person as well." Marcus pondered a bit and then said. "The Mercenary Selection will take place inside a danger zone, so there won''t be any blacksmiths there, but after it is over, the contestants of the Yule Continent will come back here first before leaving to do their own things, you could come back at that time and we could work on it together." Krune heard that and nodded his head. "This is good for me too, I will pass by when I''m back." Marcus nodded and brought Krune to the office where he could get his badge since the examination had a Five Stars Blacksmith overseeing, there was no need to contact the Blacksmith Headquarters in the Yule continent, in just thirty minutes, Krune''s badge was done, after getting it, he went back to his room, he wanted to take some rest before their departure tomorrow. After seeing Krune off, Marcus was back into the Blacksmith Hall and went directly inside the office of the Six Stars Blacksmith who is the place''s supervisor, Jorge Lanil. Noticing Marcus entering his office, Jorge stopped what he was doing and asked. "Is he gone now?" Marcus nodded. "I just saw him off, I gave him a Three Stars Badge just like you said." Jorge nodded. "That is good enough, according to what I know he is also a Four Stars Alchemist and a Formations Master too, and now he showed enough talent for us to give a Four Stars badge as well, but I can''t do that." Marcus couldn''t help but ask why. "Because I believe that he can become one as long as he wants to, he can come back and practice some time more and apply for a Four Stars test, but if he doesn''t do that, it means that he doesn''t want to be a Blacksmith to start with, you told him that it was because he hasn''t forger a weapon or armor to that level yet right?" Marcus nodded "But in the end, he didn''t ask you to give him a chance to forge them, so he only wants to be able to make a Divine Imprint at the right level and have someone forge the equipment for him, in that case, there is no need to give him a Four Stars Badge." Marcus then asked. "But isn''t it bad to let such talent go like that?" Jorge heard that and laughed. "No problem at all, he probably will want to make something himself in the future, at that time, he will come back to forging, I''m looking forward to what he will do when he really puts his mind on that." Chapter 80 - One Day Remaining Krune and the others took their time to rest during the last day, in the next morning, all the contestants gathered in the teleportation room, Krune was one of the last to arrive, as soon as he entered the room, everyone looked at him, he thought something was weird, as far as he knows he didn''t make anything that could have caught their attention. Poor Krune didn''t know that everyone considered him the strongest contestant of the Yule Continent, that''s because of what Ao said after that Duel, he easily beat Turi Belane and told him that he isn''t Krune''s match, the contestants already know that they can''t beat Ao, and if Ao can''t beat Krune, they have even less of a chance, so it was obvious that everyone paid especial attention to Krune. "Do you know what is happening here? Why are they looking at me?" Ao shook his head and told Krune what happened that day with Turi, Krune heard that and could only give a helpless sigh. "Even when I''m not doing anything the world conspires against my wishes." But since he is already famous thanks to the Mercenary Guild''s plan, some extra attention won''t change anything in the end Sometime later, the Yule Continent Mercenary Guild Head, Bary Casfiu, came into the room, together with him there were a few elders of the guild as well, they are there to make sure that nothing will happen with the contestants, but there was one person in the middle of those elders that gave Krune a sense of danger, he couldn''t see through any of those people''s cultivation, but he was sure that that elder was definitely much stronger than the rest. Shinja was also looking at that and she was surprised when she saw that elder as well, she knew who he was, the Makui Planet is a weak planet and has very few cultivators above the Divine Soul Realm, but that elder just so happen to be one of them, his name is Lian Casfiu, Bary''s father and the protector of the Mercenary Guild in the Yule Continent, also a Soul Forging Realm cultivator, he wasn''t tall and he didn''t like to use bear either, he gave a sense of carefreeness that put people at ease, but no one would underestimate this man. While passing, Lian gave a side glance at Krune, as the person with the highest cultivation in the Mercenary Guild Headquarters, he was obviously privy to some secrets, including Krunes ''Rainbow Core'', the only reason he is coming together for this Mercenary Selection is to make sure that Krune will be safe. Bary then went up on a platform and started talking with the contestants. "The Mercenary Selection will start in a day''s time, so we are teleporting over there now to get ready, although the selection will happen inside a Danger Zone so that no one needs to hold back, it will still be done close to the exit, so we don''t really need a lot of time to arrive there, there is also no need to be afraid of anyone taking the chances to attack you, several elders of all Mercenary Guilds in the whole world will be there watching over it." Bary then put a serious expression and continued. "But remember that even if you are close to the exit of the Danger Zone, you will still be considered inside it, which means that no one will show any mercy during the selection, you might really die there, if you aren''t confident in your skills, you might leave right now." Bary waited a minute but no one moved, he then gave a satisfied nod and proceeded. "Come over the long-distance teleport formation, the selection this time will happen in the Ice Continent, Ice Hell Danger Zone, we are teleporting over to the Snow City, which is the closest city to where the selection will take place." Everyone then went up to the teleport formation, Krune was surprised to find out that this formation was using Rank Five Spirit Stones to be charged up, it goes to show how far away the Ice Continent is from the Yule Continent, after a few more seconds, the Formation gathered enough Spiritual Energy, and with a flash of silver light, everyone disappeared. --- The Snow City had a very simple name but it was really fit, because of its location close to the Ice Hell Danger Zone, it snowed all year long, the local cultivators used a gigantic formation that covered the entire city to keep the snow from accumulating. Although the Danger Zone was called Ice Hell, it wasn''t one of the most dangerous of the Ice Continent, the Mercenary Guild World Alliance just wanted a place to test their contestants, and it would be one vs one fights, so there was no need to care about the difficulty of the Danger Zone, the place had already been prepared and was just waiting for the Mercenaries of the other continents to arrive. A teleport formation close to the center of the city started to shine and just a second later, several people appeared over it, they were the Yule Continent Mercenary Guild contestants and their elders, Bary took a look around and soon a person came to receive them. "Hello, I''m your guide this time around, I''m here to show you the way to the arenas where the contestants will fight." Bary nodded and looked at the people behind him. "If you have anything you need, say that now, otherwise, we will depart straight away." No one said anything, they all knew the days that they would be leaving, so everyone had long since prepared for it, whatever they needed is already inside their spatial rings, noticing that no one said anything, Bary asked for the guide to show them the way. Everyone stopped by the city gate that connects them to the Danger Zone and signed the death agreement, this is something that everyone was used already, but even so, this time it felt a little heavier, it would be a lot more dangerous after all. After traversing the gate, they immediately moved forward, as mentioned before, the arenas for the Mercenary Selection had already been prepared and were close to the city itself, so it only took them one hour to arrive there. Bary noticed that his guild was the last one to arrive, all the contestants from the other four continents and their higher-ups were waiting, he told his group to get prepared for the next day battles and left with his father and a few elders to compliment the other continents Headquarter Guild Heads. Krune looked around and thought that something was weird, he then sent a Divine Sense message to his group. "Isn''t there way too little people here?" Shinja then explained. "Those aren''t all the participants, the important ones are not here, they probably are gathered together with their elders, those that you see are only the ones who don''t have any deep relationship with their guilds higher-ups, of course, it doesn''t mean that there are weak, just that they don''t have the support of the elders" It was then that Bary called Krune and some of the other people of his continent to come with him, but to Bary''s surprise, Krune rejected, he told Bary that he didn''t want to get involved in the higher-ups conversation, Bary found it strange since usually, no one would decline the chance to get acquainted with the strong cultivators of the other continents, but knowing how weird Krune''s behavior usually is, he simply left it at that, he then called some other people to make up the appearances and left. Krune''s group didn''t have much to do anyway, so Krune decided to make some food, Yusa and the others didn''t think anything strange about it and went there to help, they had long since got used to eating Krune''s food, not to mention that he is really good at it, but that was only them, the contestants of the other four continents looked at that and didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. "Do they know that they might die tomorrow?" "Who knows, maybe they think they will die and are having their last meal" "They are from the Yule Continent, so it''s normal that those countrysides like people to have weird ways of acting" Soon everyone started talking about that scene and laughed at Krune''s arrangement, of course, everyone except for the people of the Yule Continent, they wouldn''t dare offend him. They didn''t mind though, to eat well is to be happy, Krune couldn''t care less about what they think, he loves eating, so he will eat, that''s all. Slowly, the fragrance of Krune''s food started to spread, one must remember that Krune likes to use his own fire element to do the cook, he also uses spiritual energy in the food itself, it makes his food extremely delicious, that together with the right seasoning and cooking steps, made his food no worse than any famous restaurant, Ao and the others had long since got used to Krune''s food taste, so even when they aren''t together, they would usually go to expensive restaurants anyway, of course, they still preferred Krune''s delicacies. The cultivators and demon beasts that were mocking them before started to salivate, as mercenaries, they got used to staying outside, so fasting pills came to be their main source of aliment, now that such a fragrant food is right beside them, they could help but want to taste a little, the problem is, they just talked bad about Krune''s group arrangements, so they couldn''t simply go back on their words. Krune wasn''t paying attention to them, but Ao, Yusa, and Shinja were, they could see that the bad-mouthing had stopped and several eyes fixed on Krune''s food, they couldn''t help but smile a bit, that was what they deserved if there is one thing that they know, it is to not look down on Krune''s cooking skills. The food was finally ready, he put all on the table and the four of them started to enjoy their lunch, finally, there was one guy shameless enough to throw away his pride and ask for some. "Err¡­ This brothers and sisters, sorry for the comments earlier, would you mind sharing a little?" Shinja and the others didn''t say anything, the chef here was Krune, it was up to him whether he wanted to share or not, Krune just gave him a side glance and then pointed at one of the plates on the table, he usually makes a lot of food anyway, and since he got an apology, he had no reason to hold and grudges anymore, Krune''s group was already expecting for that, they know very well that Krune isn''t the type to care about what people say, to him, an apology could resolve almost anything. The guy was ecstatic, he immediately sat on one side of the table and started to serve himself. "By the way, my name is Karl Rabier, I''m from the Borle Continent." Krune nodded. "I''m Krune, those are Shinja, Ao and Yusa." The group then started to talk about the Mercenary Selection while eating happily, soon, a few more cultivators from the other continents came to apologize as well, Krune didn''t mind and simply told them to serve themselves, but then the situation got a little out of hand, that''s because the food disappeared too fast, there were simply too many people. The later come people noticed that it was almost over and regretted not coming to offer an apology earlier, if just their pride hadn''t got the best of them, now it was too late, but then Krune stood up and simply said. "The food was over faster than I thought, I will make some more, wait a little bit." Although there was a lot of food, the ingredients used were all common ones that could be bought with copper and silver, so it made no difference on Krune''s pocket, not to mention that he likes when people eat his food happily, that was one more reason other than being friends that he never complained about Shinja, Ao and Yusa always eating his food. Not too long after, the fragrant smell appeared again, it wasn''t long before a lot more food appeared on the table, this time the latecomers didn''t care anymore and apologized as well, and just like that, all Mercenaries from All Continents were eating Krune''s food while chatting happily, no one noticed, but the heavy air around the participants of the Selection disappeared without trace. Unfortunately, there would always be those who are too pride to admit their mistakes, one of them went out to call an elder of his guild Headquarters saying that Krune might have poisoned all the food of the contestants and that it wouldn''t be fair to fight like that tomorrow, hearing that, all the higher-ups of the various guilds became alarmed and immediately came to check. "Sky Fall Continent Mercenaries, what the hell are you doing?" The Mercenaries of the Sky Fall Continent immediately stopped eating and looked over, the one calling them out was none other than the Guild Head of the Sky Fall Continent Mercenary Headquarters, Yulie Forgon. He wasn''t the only one, the other guild heads also came forward to rebuke their contestants, saying the same thing, what if the food was poisoned? Krune heard that and felt like beating all of them, he hates when people talk bad about his food, but he knew that it wasn''t his place to talk back to those guys, they are all several times stronger than him, not to mention that he knows that his food is perfectly fine, and that''s what mattered. Of course, saying that the food was poisoned was just an excuse to stop their members from embarrassing them, there is no way someone would try to poison the other contestants right under their nose, not to mention that only those without support were eating Krune''s food, they simply didn''t care whether they got poisoned or not after they left, Krune just sighed, there was quite some food still, he, his team members, and the cultivators of his continent went back to eat again, Krune couldn''t bear to waste food after all. There was a group of cultivators at the Foundation Establishment between the various elders, they saw everything that happened and just laughed, they were none other than those who are seen as the favorites to get the five slots available for the martial Gathering, between them a woman said. "That''s quite an interesting guy, did you notice that before the elders intervened everyone was happily chatting and eating? It seems like he does have some charisma." Her name was Lina Jue, a peak 9th stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator from Makui Continent, the continent where cultivators first colonized when they arrived at the Makui Planet, in the end, the Planet got the same name as the continent. "What use is there in being able to cook, it has no use in the Selection anyway, he is doing nothing more than wasting his time, I can''t understand how he convinced the Ice Block Shinja to join his group though." The one who talked this time was Rog Werer, peak 9th stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator from Sky Fall Continent, it was a tropical place where rained a lot, thus the Sky Fall name. "To think that even a 7th Stage Foundation Cultivator like him came for the Mercenary Selection this time, the Yule Continent is really weak as the rumors say." Said Tasier, peak 9th stage Foundation Establishment Thunder Hawk Demon Beast from the Borle continent, the stronger and rarer the race, the higher their cultivation needs to be able to change into human form, but the Mercenary Guild or any other power couldn''t simply ignore a talent just because they haven''t got a human form yet, so there were special rules in place where the powers would take responsibility for the demon beasts actions until they got their human forms, of course, they would also offer the necessary protection against some idiots trying to kill them for their body materials, like that, they could also participate in the competitions, this Thunder Hawk just so happens to be one of those who needs to go beyond the Foundation Establishment to get his human form, and he wasn''t the only one in this Selection. A few other people and demon beasts also commented about what happened but paid little attention to Krune or his friends, except for one person, Arlan Rosier, another peak 9th stage Foundation Establishment cultivator also from Makui Continent, all Guild Heads believe that he will definitely get one of the five slots. "Interesting." His friend by his side heard that and was surprised, he has almost never heard Arlan complimenting another cultivator, and a demon beast one at that. "Did you see anything good about that Krune guy?" Arlan didn''t answer and went back to his seat between the elders of his continent, no one noticed, but a faint smile appeared on his face while he thought. ''This Mercenary Selection won''t be as boring as I thought it seems.'' Chapter 81 - Star Mercenary Selection Starts The night before the competition, Bary Casfiu came to talk with Krune''s group, some people saw that but no one paid much attention, he the left a few minutes after, only the Yule Continent Contestant were a little puzzled, but they couldn''t simply go ask what it was about, not to mention that Krune''s group probably wouldn''t tell them anyway. The next day came fast, soon the contestants were already close to the arenas prepared just for it, each continent formed a group of their own and waited by the sides, all the Guild Heads came forward with their elders and took their position, it was then that a man came forward to announce the rules, surprisingly, it was Bary Casfiu, the Yule Continent Guild Head. "There is a total of 229 contestants for the five available slots, we will separate you into eight groups of thirty two, obviously, there isn''t enough people for each group to have thirty two participants, so a few of you will receive a free pass to the next round, luck is also part of one''s strength, so we will draw lots to decide which Mercenaries who won''t be battling in the first round, to make sure that the contestants with the highest chance of getting the five slots won''t battle each other before the finals, we have decided on eight seeded Mercenaries, each one of them will be put in a different bracket." He looked at everyone and then continue. "To make sure that things like cultivators or demon beasts of the same continent going easy or losing on purpose won''t happen, we separated the five continents contestants as bests as possible so that they will hardly fight people of their own continents, of course, sooner or later they will end fighting each other, but at least you won''t need to be afraid of that happening in the first stages of the competition." So far it was pretty much as everyone thought. "Additionally, after the victors of the eight brackets come out, they will battle every single winner of the other brackets, the five with the highest number of victories will be the representatives of the Mercenary Guild Alliance this time." He then looked at some of the Mercenaries and said. "The eight seeded mercenaries are:" "Lina Jue, Makui Continent, First Arena." "Rog Werer, Sky Fall Continent, Second Arena." "Tasier, Borle Continent, Third Arena." "Lofa Harcken, Ice Continent, Forth Arena." "Arlan Rosier, Makui Continent, Fifth Arena." "Shad Forgon, Sky Fall Continent, Sixth Arena." "Jack Biurer, Ice Continent, Seventh Arena." Bary then paused for a while and looked at a woman''s direction. "Yusa Shen, Yule Continent, Eighth Arena." "Those are all the seeded players who are going to be put one in each of the eight groups, that''s all for the seeded players, now I will draw the names of those who are not fighting in the first round." Everyone found it strange that Yusa, an 8th Stage Foundation Establishment got the Yule Continent Seed Slot, there is quite a few people in the Yule Continent side with cultivations at the peak of the 9th stage, but those who were the most confused were obviously the Yule Continent Contestants themselves, they know that Krune is probably the strongest between them, even if not him, it should have been Ao Sulian at least, after all, they saw his strength first hand back in the Headquarters, so the decision of putting Yusa Shen as a seeded player puzzled them greatly. Going back to the last night, Bary Casfiu had visited Krune''s group to talk about this issue exactly, in the end, Krune and the others decided for Yusa to take the Seeded slot, Bary was taken aback with that decision, but then Ao explained. "Between the three of us, Yusa has the lowest attack power, her skills are more focused in support, of course, she is very strong too, but for the three of us to get a better change to enter the Martial Gathering together, it will be better to have her as seeded player, I''m a lot more focused in attack, while Krune could be said to be all rounded." Yusa heard the last part and couldn''t help but laugh. "Can Krune even be considered a normal all rounded? He is overpowered in both attack, defense and movement, I''m only a little better than him in support and that''s because I mostly focus on it." Shinja and Ao heard that and laughed as well, after so many spars between them they had to admit that it was true, Shinja only had the advantage at moment basically because of her much higher cultivation, and even so it wasn''t easy to beat Krune. Krune heard that and got a little embarrassed, he thought that maybe he should take it easier on Yusa and Ao next time they spar. Bary Casfiu was taken aback, it was obviously that their confidence on Krune was as high as it could be, but since they decided that it would be better to have him take a normal role, then he will follow their requests, besides, if Krune can''t even beat the seeded players of the Mercenary Selection, then let''s not even mention the Martial Gathering contestants. After a few draws, the name of the people or demon beasts who got to not fight the first round was decided, Ao got lucky and was exempt from battling the first round, Krune and Yusa were not so luck so they would need to go forward with it, Bary could be said to have made a great job with the position of the contestants of the Yule Continent in the brackets, the three of them wouldn''t get any seeded players, until they get close to the end, while Yusa avoided fighting the strongest one other than her in her bracket. There was eight arenas, after everyone found out their groups, they gathered beside their own fighting stages and waited for the referees to come, to make sure that no one would need to hold back, each referee was at least in the Divine Soul Realm Early Stages, only when a fatal move was about to connect would they move to stop it, the reason why the competition is made in a Danger Zone is because sometimes, even a Divine Soul realm cultivator wouldn''t be able to stop the fight in time and someone would die, they are all the best Mercenaries of the five continents, their skills are obviously much higher than ordinary cultivators. In case someone died, the Danger Zone rule would apply, the killer wouldn''t be blamed and no one would try to take revenge, it would instead be considered as idiotic, if you are participating in this competition and don''t even have the confidence to keep yourself alive, then what did you come here for? The eight referees from various continents took on the stages and called the name of the first Mercenaries, Krune''s fight was the second one of his group and he was part of the sixth arena, while Yusa was the fifth one to fight in the eighth arena, Ao wasn''t going to fighting in this round, and he was part of the second arena. Everyone''s eyes was focused in the battle of the Fifth and First Arenas, that''s because the seeded players of both were fighting in the first round. In the first arena, Lina Jue was fighting a man from Borle Continent, both of them were peak 9th stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, Lina was a Fire and Lightning Elements user, as mentioned before, all cultivators and demon beasts can use any elements they want, but they would usually specialize in one or two while they are on lower realms, her opponent was an Earth and Water user called Hao Foese. Right from the start Hao used Metal Element, a branch of the Earth Element, to strength his armor and spear tip, only then he charged forward, he knows that Lina is a seeded player so he went all out from the very start, unfortunately for him, Lina wasn''t taking him serious at all, Lina disappeared from his sight with a Lightning movement and appeared right above him, on both her hands, a fire ball had appeared, the strange thing is that they had some sparks coming out, she was obviously able to merge fire and lightning together, most impressive was the fact that she summoned those fire-thunder balls in the time she took to move above Hao. Without any other choice, Hao could only switch his Water Element to Earth Element and use both Earth and Metal to try to resist the attack, after all, there was no time to dodge anymore, the two fire-thunder balls hit his body and an enormous explosion could be heard, Hao couldn''t take the attack and was sent flying outside the arena, Lina had hold herself back so Hao was only badly injured, as long as he receives the right treatment he will be fine. On the Fifth arena, the battle was over even faster, Arlan is a Fire, Wind and Lightning user, it''s already impressive that he can control three elements at the same time while still in the Foundation Establishment, one must remember that he doesn''t have Spiritual Energy Meridians like Ao and Yusa, this is the Prof of how talented he is. He didn''t even leave his spot, with a single Fire-Wind slash of his sword, his opponent was done for, the Divine Soul Referee had to block the attack, otherwise, Arlan''s attack would have killed him, in the end, Arlan didn''t even use his lightning element in that fight, one move and everything was done. Krune saw that and couldn''t help but get surprised, if he doesn''t consider the wind element, Arlan''s Fire Element control is at the same level as his one, it was really impressive. It was then that he received a Divine Sense message from Guild Head Bary. "Did you see that? Arlan Rosier has a Pure Yang Body, his fire element control is far above any of the other contestants, he is the cultivator that everyone thinks to definitely get one of the five slots." Krune heard that and finally understood the reason, with Shinja''s Pure Yin Body, she too has a Water Element control as good as his and it was even before she got her Spiritual Energy Meridians, so now he can understand why Arlan can do the same with fire, not to mention that he could feel it, Arlan''s Divine Sense is very strong too, he definitely doesn''t lose to Yusa or Ao, he probably has some way of training his soul as well, although Soul Techniques are very rare in Makui Planet, it doesn''t mean that they don''t exist. But soon, Krune put this matter to the back of his mind, Arlan hasn''t showed his real abilities yet, so there was no point in paying attention to that now. The other six arenas battle took a lot more time to finish, the competitors were fairly even considering combat power, one of the battles on the seventh arena even took over ten minutes to finish, although there was a victor, the guy wasn''t the least bit happy, he used a lot of his strength in the battle and received quite a few injuries, if his next opponent doesn''t go through the same problem, his chances of winning it are very low, nonetheless, he immediately took some healing pills and started to recover. The next round came and it was finally Krune''s time to fight, but other than the Yule Continent Mercenaries, no one was paying attention to him, that''s because in the third arena there was another seeded contestant, it was the Thunder Hawk Tasier, his opponent was one of the Yule Continent Mercenaries, his name was Kaile Ford, a 9th Stage Foundation Establishment who was also part of the Carnage Team that Turi Belane is Leader. Tasier was both Lightning and Wind element user, a pretty obvious combination for a Lightning Aerial Demon Beast like him, as soon as the battle started, Tasier took the skies and started to bombard Kaile from above with Lightning Element Attacks, although the arena was closed by a protection formation, it was still very big and had a lot of aerial space, more than enough for him to show his abilities, Kaile immediately flew after him but it wasn''t long before he was utterly defeated, although Foundation Establishment Cultivators can also fly, Kaile obviously couldn''t match the Thunder Hawk, Tasier showed no mercy in his attacks and the Divine Soul Realm Referee had to intervene to save Kalie''s life. On Krune''s arena, he was looking at Tasier Battle, the problem was, he was doing that while battling his opponent, which made his adversary burst in rage, Krune wasn''t paying attention to him at all, unfortunately for him, Krune was too fast, doesn''t matter what kind of attack he used, not a single hit, let alone hit, the moment that he made an attack, Krune wouldn''t be in the place where the attack was aimed anymore. Krune wasn''t doing that on purpose, he was simply interested in the Thunder Hawk lightning element control, he wanted to check the difference between the both of them, and for that, he couldn''t pay too much attention to his opponent, in the end, a scene where it looked like Krune was playing with his opponent started. Only when the third arena battle was over did Krune finally pay attention to the guy in front of him, but he kept dodging the attacks anyway, it was only when most of the battles were over that he finally made his move, he saw another attack coming his way and just sighed, using the flaws in the attack itself, Krune launched some Blazing Wind Blades that sliced his opponent''s attack as if they were made of paper, the blades didn''t stop and just as they were about to hit his opponents, they suddenly exploded. His opponent was ready to resist the slashing effect of the blazing wind blades, but he really didn''t expect them to explode on his face, the blast shook wave sent him flying outside the arena, just as he was about to hit the ground outside, he focused on his spiritual energy to stop mid-air, the shook wave of the explosions didn''t do much damage in the end, he was just about to fly back on the arena when suddenly, several roots appeared on the ground and caught him, before he could even react, he was pulled to the ground, the referee saw that he touched the ground outside the arena and announced Krune''s victory. Shad Forgon, the seeded Mercenary of the sixth arena, looked at that and his face went dark, Krune showed an ability far above than he had expected, and it was obvious that he didn''t take his fight serious at all, he started to think that he might have found a dark horse, worst of all, this dark horse just had to be in his group. Krune came down from the arena and noticed that the people on his group and even those outside were all looking at him, this battle had made everyone acknowledge that Krune was extremely strong, but Krune got puzzled instead. ''That doesn''t make sense, I made sure to wait for the other battles to be over before finishing mine, I was planning to lay low until the end and then strike it hard, but how come I became the focus all of sudden?'' He just forgot to account for the fact that not only had it looked like he was purposely playing around with his opponent, he also controlled three different elements in the end of the battle while his cultivation is obviously at the 7th Stage of Foundation Establishment, it would be weird if no one paid attention to him instead. Chapter 82 - The Fights Continue After Krune''s battle was over, not only the contestants started to pay attention to him, the guilds higher-ups of the other continents also noticed his presence, specially Yulie Forgon, the Guild Head of the Sky Fall Continent Mercenary Guild, as one can already guess, Shad Forgon is his relative, a grandnephew to be more exactly, noticing Krune''s strength made him apprehensive, he was pretty sure that his nephew would get a slot for the Martial Gathering, but now with Krune there, even if he wins his bracket, Shad will be in poor condition to fight the last seven battles. He then took a look at Guild Head Bary, he could see that he was very calm as if this was totally inside of his expectations, he had received the reports that the Yule Continent had spread the news about finding a genius, but he totally disregarded such information, Yule Continent geniuses usually wouldn''t make much of a difference when compared to theirs, but it seems like this time they really hit the jackpot. The battles of the first round continued, seed player after seed player entered the stage and soon it was Shad Forgon''s time in the Sixth arena. As a place where it rains a lot, more than half of the cultivators of the Sky Fall Continent specialized in water element, and Shad Forgon wasn''t different, he could control two elements at the same time at moment, Water and Lightning, a pretty common combination in that place, but since he was put as a seeded Mercenary, he was obviously not a common user that you could find anywhere. His opponent was an Armored Bull Demon Beast called Houl from the Borle Continent, just like the Thunder Hawk. The Borler Continent was basically a gigantic forest, at least half of its cultivators were demon beasts, so it''s Mercenary Headquarters had a lot of them every time a Mercenary Selection happened. Houl charged at Shad as soon as the battle started, through his control of earth and wood element, he usually tried to stop his opponent from getting away, his forte was close combat, after all, Shad noticed what he wanted to try but didn''t try to flee, he took out his saber and engaged the bull head-on, at first it looked like an even battle, but those with good perception could see that Shad was only playing around with the bull, he released some water and lightning every time their attacks encountered each other, it didn''t seem like much, but that lightning slowly entered the bull''s body and was destroying him from inside out. The bull noticed that the situation wasn''t good and tried to increase the power of his defense with earth element, but it was of no use, because of the water element that was merged with the lightning, it found its way through the flaws on the defense of the bull, after some time, the bulls combat power started to deteriorate, in fact, if things continued like this, Houl would damage his foundation, so he decided to admit defeat in the end. Shad didn''t do anything else after that, although his battle could be said to be the longest between the seeded players so far, the fact was that he used the smallest amount of spiritual energy between them, one could see that he was totally fine on the arena, it only proved that a seeded contestant has a reason to be that. --- It was finally time for the fifth round where Yusa would take part, she was the one that made a lot of people puzzled, after all, the Yule Continent could only select one-seeded Mercenary, it was basically due to the lesser number of Mercenaries participating in this Selection in comparison to the other Continents. Her opponent was another woman from the Ice Continent called Mia Gessa, peak 9th stage of Foundation Establishment, also a dual elements user, she specialized in Ice and Wind, quite an uncommon combination of elements. Yusa, of course, didn''t know that, only after the battle started did she find out how unusual such combination was, Mia used the wind element on her movements to keep her distance while shooting several ice icicles and spears from all sides, it was a very annoying combination that trapped the opponent movements while doing a considerable amount of damage, her tactic was guerrilla warfare, it is a very strong combination at the end of the day. Unfortunately for her, she encountered Yusa, none of her attacks could get even close, the water dragons defense that Yusa kept around her worked as an impregnable fortress, the impressive thing was that the exterior of the water dragons was made of segments of ice, the ice made their armors while the water controlled their segments and heads movements, Yusa''s ice element control was much higher than Mia, so while Mia''s attacks shattered against the water ice dragons, the dragons themselves suffered almost no damage what so ever. Mia saw that her tactics wouldn''t work and that she was only wasting her energy, so she switched from several small random attacks to more powerful ice attacks, she saw that Yusa basically wasn''t moving away from her place, so she wanted to break through the dragon''s defense using brute force, but in the end, it was useless, the difference between the control of their ice elements was just too big, Yusa''s water ice dragons sturdiness were simply much better than any of Mia''s attacks, after a few minutes of tries, Mia finally gave up and waited to see what Yusa would do. Yusa looked at Mia and smiled. "That was a very interesting use of wind and ice, I''ve never seen that before if it wasn''t me, I believe you would have a very good chance of getting a good position in this Selection." Mia heard that and frowned. "You can''t beat me if you don''t attack either, can you even hit me at all?" Yusa just kept smiling, she felt a little sad that she had to eliminate one of the few women in this Selection, but there was no other choice, so she sighed and pointed her hand forward. Immediately, an enormous water prison that covered almost one-fourth of the arena appeared, the area that it covered was so big that even with her wind element movement, Mia didn''t have time to escape before being trapped inside, but if she was fast enough, it would be useless, that''s because Yusa can now move the water prison around as she likes, Mia then tried to use her Ice element to create a barrier around her body, but didn''t expect to receive an electric shook even before she could concentrate, Yusa might best at support, but it doesn''t mean that her attacks were weak at all! It took only a few seconds for Mia finally lose consciousness inside the gigantic water prison, all of that happened while she still controlled the Water Ice Dragons around her, it finally downed to everyone that the Yule Continent Seeded contestant isn''t weak at all, Yusa can also control three elements at the same time, and she was obviously extremely proficient at that. The referee had no need to take action, he could see that Yusa wasn''t planning to really hurt the other girl after Mia passed out, the water prison was released and the personal taking care of the cultivators injuries entered the arena, they soon noticed that Mia was totally fine and just needed some rest, they then took her out and the referee announced Yusa''s victory. Yusa was the only seeded mercenary fighting in this round, so the other seed mercenaries paid a lot of attention to her, some of them were relieved that she was selected as a seed contestant, they definitely wouldn''t want to battle someone like that before the eight winners are decided, Krune and Ao watched everything and just smiled, no one knows Yusa''s power better than them, her victory was assured the moment they noticed Mia''s combat power. Yusa came down from the arena sighing. ''If it was Krune, he would simply use my water prison to take a bath, because of his practice with the Tribulation Lightning, normal lightning attacks can barely do anything to him now, and that is considering that I can catch him inside my prison at all, that dammed lightning movement fused with some tribulation lightning is just too fast!'' ''As for Ao, I reckon that he would slice my prison in half with brute force, well, at least he can''t break my defense easily, so it''s always hard to say which of the two of us would win in the end.'' She found Mia''s attacks interesting, that combination of ice and wind wasn''t something you saw every day, but that was all, she hadn''t felt the least bit of danger from the start to finish. --- The battle continued, no seeded players had lost in the end, but Krune wasn''t the only dark horse so far, there were another two who stood out, a cultivator called Deno Baril from the Sky Fall continent who was in the Third Arena, much for Tasier''s dissatisfaction, and the other one was a Water Dragon called Drorne from the Ice Continent who was in the First Arena, making Lina quite sad, just like the Earth Dragon that Krune fought in the past, this Water Dragon also wasn''t a real dragon, but had a good concentration of dragon blood in its body. After the first round was over, the Mercenaries got two hours to rest, the second round would continue after that, Krune noticed that he has quite some time free, so he called the others over. "It''s almost lunchtime anyway, so I''m going to make some food, you guys want some?" They immediately nodded, except for watching the seed mercenaries'' battles, they were pretty much bored, so eating and drinking something would help improve their moods. Another wave of fragrant food appeared somewhere close to the arenas, the Yule Continent people didn''t even think twice and asked if they could join as well, they were even willing to pay for the ingredients used, Krune just shook his head and told them to help organize the tables instead, surprisingly, Bary Casfiu came over to join the fun, he simply didn''t care about his status anymore, making sure to have a good relationship with Krune and the others was his number one priority after what he saw in the first round. And just like that, while a lot of cultivators spent their time concentrating for the next round, the Yule Continents contestants and even those who lost already chatted and ate happily, it could also be said to be a way of releasing their stress as well, or maybe an attack to their opponents, because they could feel quite a few jealous eyes fixed on them, but those outside didn''t dare to ask for food anymore, otherwise, their guild higher-ups would rebuke them once again. Almost two hours had passed, Krune and everyone else were back to the side of their arenas, except for Krune''s group that haven''t felt any tension so far, the rest of them felt a lot more relaxed, and it was also shown during their own battles, surprisingly, even Turi Belane had joined the feast before, and after noticing that neither Krune or Ao seemed to takes his previous actions to heart, his worries disappeared and he performed much better, he was even able to defeat his opponent which people thought to be stronger than him, and like that, advancing to the third round. The battle on the second arena finally started again and this time, Ao would be fighting, he even got the first battle of the second arena on top of that, his opponent was a cultivator from the Makui Continent, his name was Pesque Kaen, specialized in Fire and Earth elements. Pesque was feeling very lucky, Yule Continent is known for most of the times to have the weakest cultivators in the Mercenary Selection since two dark horses already appeared in the sixth and eighth arenas, how could there be another one here in the second? He thought that Ao was only present in the second round due to his luck to be exempt from the first round battles. Unfortunately for him, he just had to encounter Ao Sulian this time. Chapter 83 - Thunder Hawk Tasier The referee confirmed that both of them were ready and the battle started, Pesque was very confident in himself, so he didn''t charge at Ao straight away, he focused on his Earth and Fire element to create some kind of lava chains, it was quite ingenious, he used his spiritual energy to keep the connection between the segments, it was also the spiritual energy and his Divine Sense that controlled them, impressively, he could control several of them like tentacles, some were used for defense while others for attack, only after he finished setting them up did he started to slowly walk in Ao''s direction. "You can give up now, you know? There is no need to get hurt for a hopeless battle." But he then noticed that Ao didn''t seem the least bit impressed with that skill, which ruined his mood quite a bit, it didn''t seem like Ao was going to give up anytime soon, in fact, Ao wasn''t even paying attention to him. "Since that''s the case, don''t blame me for not being polite." This time, he charged forward without care, he didn''t believe Ao would be able to do anything to him after all, suddenly, Ao''s face turned serious. "He! You finally noticed the danger, too late though." On the other side, Ao was having an extremely important Divine Sense conversation with Yusa and Krune, this conversation had started after they finished their lunch. "It''s like I said, you should put a little more salt in my meat, I like it saltier." Krune shook his head. "That would ruin the seasoning that I made, you can''t do that with my food." Yusa then intervened. "That''s the part where you are wrong, it might taste worse for you, but for Ao, it might, in fact, taste better, you need to understand that not everyone has the same tastes." Ao, who was dodging the attack as if they didn''t exist, continued his argument with Krune, Krune was very stubborn about the food he prepared. Finally, Krune let it go, he will make the next meals the same as always, it''s just that he won''t care anymore if Ao put anything else on it after it''s done, but on the condition that he wouldn''t waste anything if it turned out to not be good. After over ten minutes of ''battle'', Ao finally got a happy face, he then turned to Pesque who was panting and sweating all over. "Oh right, I was supposed to battle you, sorry for the delay, I will finish it in a second." Pesque thought that Ao was making fun of the fact that he couldn''t catch him with his attacks, just as he was about to retort and say that Ao couldn''t do anything to him either, Ao raised his swords and made a slashing movement, right at that moment, someone appeared in front of Pesque. Pesque was alarmed because he didn''t know from where these guys came from, only after he jumped back in a fright did he take a good look at who it was, turns out that it none other than the referee, which puzzled Pesque greatly, why did the Divine Soul Referee appear out of nowhere in front of him? But what really made his head spin was the referee''s next words. "Ao Sulian wins." Pesque thought that it was some kind of joke. "He won? What you talking about, he didn''t make anything at all, why did I lose?" The referee just gave him a side glance and commented. "Ask that again after you take a look at your lava chains." Only then did Pesque stop to pay attention to his surroundings, his lava chains¡­ disappeared, or to be more exact, they were all over the ground, hundreds of small puddles of lava could be seen around Pesque. He was taken aback when did his lava chains become like that? The answer was in the slash that Ao made a moment ago, it was a fusion of the Metal Element Sharpness and the Wind Element Swiftness, even the seeded mercenaries got quite impressed with that attack, it was really fast and deadly, but that was all that they thought, with exception for Arlan and a few of the Divine Soul cultivators. ''Was that sword intent?'' In fact, the few who perceived it weren''t sure either, it was very subtle, in the end, they made a mental note to pay attention to Ao''s next fight to check whether they were right or wrong. Arlan smiled again, he couldn''t help but think how strange it was for three dark horses to appear in the Yule Continent at the same time, the Mercenary Selection that looked so obvious before had suddenly become impossible to predict, and he was very happy with that. Ao came down from the arena and seemed to be in a very good mood, everyone who looked at that thought that it was because he got his first victory in the Mercenary Selection, little did they know that he was happy simply because Krune agreed to let him use more salt in his food, compared to that, what a simple victory against Pesque could amount for? The battle continued, seed players came and went, none had lost so far, Krune and Yusa passed through their opponents with ease as well, it was only in the third round that an exciting battle took place, it was Tasier against the dark horse from the Sky Fall Continent, Deno Baril. Tasier used his same strategy as before, he immediately took off and bombarded Deno from high above, but Deno was an earth and wood element cultivator, the best elements to use against a lightning specialized demon beast like the Thunder Hawk, he didn''t pursue the thunder hawk, just used his techniques to defend against all the Hawk''s attacks, after around a minute of battle, Tasier noticed that things weren''t good on his side, Deno could defend against anything he sent down while using a lot less spiritual energy. "Hmph! You asked for it." Tasier wings started to shine, if people looked closely, they would be able to see that an enormous amount of lightning element and spiritual energy started to accumulate inside Tasier feathers, not only that, but they also looked like to have turned in metal, after enough energy was accumulated, Tasier charged down. "Don''t think that I''m like any normal Thunder Hawk, I too can control three elements." It was true, Lightning and Wind were a must-have element for Thunder Hawks, and very easy to specialize too in their case, but Tasier could also control metal element, using the lightning element in his feathers for speed, wind element for swiftness and maneuvers, and metal element for sharpness, in an instant, Tasier turned from a ranged attacker into a close combat meat slicer. Deno noticed the change and that his plans of worn-out Tasier wouldn''t work anymore, initially he would wait for Tasier to run out of steam and only then start his assault, but the Thunder Hawk noticed that and changed its tactics, Deno then switched from defense to attack as well, the Thunder Hawk might be confident in its attack power, but so is himself, he immediately took out his spear and met the Hawk head-on. And just like that, the two started to exchange blow after blow, the Hawk had the advantage in speed while Deno exceeded in attack power, it was hard to say which one of them would end up as the victor, but as one of the seeded players, the Hawk wasn''t to be trifled with, the lightning element that was being used for speed a second ago started to discharge tremendously amount of lightning attacks every time the two of them exchanged blows. The balance was finally broken and Deno started to receive several injuries, but his face didn''t show any fear, it seemed like he was waiting for something, the Hawk and Deno were about to exchange another blow when suddenly, hundreds of roots came from the ground and tried to bind Tasier, noticing that he wouldn''t be able to dodge, Tasier decided to slash through all the roots, he refused to believe that they could resist the power of his wings. Deno saw that and smiled, this was his chance, he immediately focused all the power of his spiritual energy on the tip of his spear and aimed the attack at the belly of the hawk, as long as it connected, there would be no way for the Hawk to leave unscratched. "He-he! Aren''t you a sly one?" Deno eyes widened, his spear was just about to hit the hawks belly when suddenly, it passed through it, instead of the blood and flesh, the Hawks body transformed into a sea of lightning that attacked Deno from all sides, with nowhere to run, Deno could only do his best to defend against the lightning attack, but unfortunately for him, the Hawk''s real body had appeared right behind, as long as the wings connected, Deno would be cut in half, but the hawk didn''t have the chance to do that, that''s because the referee intervened just in the nick of time. The thunder hawk seemed displeased that the referee stopped his attack, but there was nothing more for it to do, it retracted the metal power from its wings and the lightning element around its body disappeared, it then flew back to his waiting place and closed its eyes, that battle just now had really forced it to use a lot of its spiritual energy and it had to even show its trump cards prematurely, it really pissed off the Thunder Hawk Tasier. As for Deno, he came down from the arena with a gloomy face, although the injuries on his body hurt quite a bit, it wasn''t as annoying as having his chance of entering the Martial Gathering disappearing here, Yulie Forgon came forward and gave him some encouraging words, he didn''t expect for this dark horse to appear in his Sky Fall Continent, although his chance to participate in the Martial Gathering was gone, he still would become one of the pillars of the Sky Fall Mercenary Guild in the future. But Deno haven''t given up yet, he wanted to go further, to leave the Makui Planet, and the Divine Path Sect was the opportunity he was waiting for since he can''t participate in it through the Foundation Establishment selection, he will then attempt to enter the Core Formation Realm, he is under forty years old after all, he just thought that with the Divine Path Sect heritage, it would be a lot safer to do that in the sect, since that''s not possible anymore, then there is nothing to hold back, Deno had made his mind, even if what waited for him was death through the Heavenly Tribulation, he will not regret it. The seeded mercenaries who watched the previous battle understood the Tasier wasn''t just some headless demon beast that only knew how to attack, most of them hadn''t even noticed when his real body separated from the lightning copy, but that is to be expected, anyone who had come this far would definitely have one or two trump cards in their pockets, and they still had their own confidence of getting one of the five slots. Krune''s group saw the battle too and Ao commented. "That Hawk is very strong, even with my Sword Intent I''m not completely sure that I can defeat it without paying some price." Yusa nodded her head. "My lightning element would be useless against it too, although I''m confident that I wouldn''t lose, I can''t say that I would win for sure either, I guess only Krune would be able to beat it with certainty." Krune then shook his head. "It''s true that I believe I''m stronger than it, but it might still have some skills that it hasn''t shown yet if I''m not careful, I might be caught off guard, but in the end, the most dangerous person in this selection is definitely that Arlan guy, but we don''t need to care about that for the moment, after all, we just need to get one of the five slots, as for which position we finish at, that doesn''t matter." Ao and Yusa nodded, they also had the same thought, a battle against Arlan isn''t totally necessary in the end. Chapter 84 - Assassination Attempt After the third round was over, the first day of the Mercenary Selection came to an end, that is because quite a few people had used a lot of spiritual energy while others not so much, also, from the next day onwards, people from the same continent will start fighting each other, there were continents like Makui which had the most of the participants while there was other like Yule Continent had less, so it was unavoidable to get this conclusion, although the guilds didn''t want to see guild members of the same continent giving up or going easy on their opponents, there was nothing else to be done anymore. Not to mention that it could, in fact, be a good thing now, the ones with real chance of advancing would get further while those who know that they aren''t capable enough would stay, Yule Continent was the only one which didn''t have that luxury, from the twenty-seven participants that came this time around, only six remained in the end, and none of them are in the same group, Turi Belane who had challenged Ao back then was in this group too. It was late at night and Yulie Forgon was just back inside his residence, someone of his level could easily buy a spatial ring big enough to fit a house inside, and that is the one he was using here at moment, if someone came in at this moment, he would be able to see a cold light in his eyes, Krune''s prowess had thrown his plans in disarray, if things continued like that, it would be very difficult for his nephew to get one of the five slots for the top five contestants. "You can''t blame me for it, blame your luck to end into the same group as my nephew." Yulie changed in some black clothes and silently left his house, he had to get rid of Krune as soon as possible, otherwise, his nephew wouldn''t be able to pass through the last phase of the selection, and maybe he will even lose to Krune before getting the chance to try that phase. Krune''s group was gathered close to the place where the elders of the Yule Continent were staying, it was very rare to have someone trying something against the top contestants, so no one was paying too much attention, the elders and guild head Bary were all cultivating or doing their own things, Krune was discussing with his friend how they should proceed after winning their own brackets. "I think we don''t need to show much of our capabilities just yet, from what I''ve seen so far, other than Arlan, I don''t think we would have problems with any of the other mercenaries." Said Yusa while thinking about the general situation, but then Ao shook his head. "The mercenary guild is one of the big powers of the world, so the members of the guild are between the top of those who are going to fight for the ten slots of the Divine Path Sect entrance exam, we could fight him instead so that we can have a better idea of what to expect during the Martial Gathering." Krune nodded after hearing that. "It indeed makes sense, there is no doubt that he is one of the bests at the moment, even between all the powers, it is better to do that to understand our futures opponents." He then looked at Yusa and Ao. "But we don''t need the three of us to do this, in that case, who will fight him? I don''t believe that any of us would be in any great danger, at most we can just admit defeat if we see that the victory''s price is too great." Ao immediately raised his hand. "I want to try, he is a Sword user just like me, it will be very convenient for my training, between the three of us, the only one who uses sword is myself, so I have the confidence of keeping myself safe." Krune and Yusa nodded, they have confidence not only on themselves but in their team members too, Ao is not the type to take unnecessary risks either if he said he can deal with it, then he definitely has that confidence. --- Outside Krune''s place, a shadow approached without anyone noticing, it was none other than Yulie Forgon, after checking where the participants of the Yule Continent were, he spread his Divine Sense just enough to cover the place if he alerted any of the Yule Continent elders, he would need to retreat immediately, he had to kill Krune before anything else, the best case would be to kill him without alerting anyone. Inside Krune''s room, little light suddenly woke up. "Krune, someone is using Divine Sense to look for you, from what I can sense, it seems like this person doesn''t have any good intentions." Krune was still talking with Ao and Yusa when he heard that message, he immediately got up after that. "How strong?" "Definitely in the Divine Soul Realm, probably late stages, I can feel its killing intent, he is here for an assassination attempt and has already locked his Divine Sense on you." Yusa and Ao didn''t understand what was going on, but looking at Krune''s face it was obvious that something happened, Krune immediately reached his chest and smashed the jewel that was attached to a collar on it. Inside the place where the elders of the Mercenary Guild were staying, Bary was cultivating beside his father when suddenly, the jewel on a bracelet that he was using cracked, both him and Lian Casfiu noticed that and immediately understood what was happening. Lian was close by, the main reason of him being here is especially to protect Krune, he spread his Divine Sense and disappeared in the next instant, he easily found the assassin, but he couldn''t determine who he or she was because the clothes that the person was using had formations protecting against Divine Sense from passing through. Lian Casfiu is one of the very few cultivators in the Makui Planet in the Soul Forging Realm, so Yulie obvious couldn''t feel the moment that Lian''s Divine Sense scanned him, but he still found out that someone had discovered his location, he had his robe to thanks for that, it was a spiritual equipment that blocked Divine Sense, but it was exactly this ability that allowed Yulie to find out that someone tried to check him, the fact that he himself couldn''t detect who scanned his body proved that this person was several times stronger than him. "It''s that dammed Lian Casfiu, only him have a realm higher enough for me to not notice his Divine Sense." Noticing that it was impossible to Kill Krune anymore, Yulie immediately decided to retreat, but it was then that he heard a voice coming from his side. "Leaving already? You have just arrived, why don''t you come in for us to drink some tea and have a little chat?" Yulie was alarmed, he didn''t expect that Lian would appear here so fast, he immediately activated his movement technique and tried to flee, but he noticed that the space around him suddenly became like a sea of water, but at the same time it wasn''t, this definitely wasn''t a spiritual energy skill, the Sky Fall Continent Mercenary Headquarters also had Soul Forging Realm cultivators, and two of them to be more exact, so he knew very well what was it that was slowing him down so much. "Domain!" Domain was an ability that only those in the Soul Forging Realm and above could use, it was due to their understanding of the space that they could bring forth this ability, and one of the main reasons why Divine Soul Cultivators were no match for Soul Forging Cultivator as well, not to mention the difference in their realms alone. "Now then, you just arrived, if I let you come and go as you please, where would my face go? There is no need to worry, I will take very good care of you." Noticing that the situation wasn''t good, Yulie bit his tongue and activated a blood escaping technique, he also took a Runestone Formation from his spatial ring which he already left charged and activated it, the escape technique allowed him to achieve the speed of an early-stage Soul Forging realm while the Runestone formation diminished the power of the domain blocking him. "Hmph! You aren''t going anywhere." Just as Lian was about to catch him, Yulie used another secret technique, his cultivation suddenly started to fall, from the 9th stage to the 8th, and then to the 7th, but his speed that was already very high due to the blood escaping technique increased even more, and soon, he left area where Lian''s Domain was in effect, Lian looked at that and couldn''t help but sigh. "He was willing to sacrifice this much just so that I couldn''t find his real identity, not that it is too hard to guess who it was anyway, but without capturing him, I won''t be able to prove anything." Back in the Krune''s room, Bary had appeared just instants ago, the instant he showed his presence little light told Krune that the assassin had fled, Krune finally let out a sigh of relief. Bary was with his Divine Sense fully spread and ready to take Krune away in a moment''s notice, the other elders of the guild and even the elders of the other continents nearby noticed his Divine Sense and came out to check what was happening, not long after, Lian Casfiu came back to check on Krune, noticing that everything was okay he left the aftermath for Bary to take care off. "Don''t worry, father, leave it to me." Lian nodded and then disappeared in the next second, he had already told Bary through Divine Sense about everything that happened, Bary then looked at Krune and told him. "The assassin escaped, but he had to pay an enormous price to do so, whoever it was he or she definitely won''t try anything against you anytime soon." Krune nodded. "Does Guild Head Bary knows if any of the contestants received an attempt of assassination?" Guild Head Bary heard that and immediately understood where Krune was coming from. "Give me a second, I will check." Bary then spread his Divine Sense once more and talked with the elders of the other guilds, realizing that someone tried to assassinate a member of the Yule Continent during the Mercenary Selection immediately alerted everyone, the elder of all guilds made a quick check on their members and told Bary that their members were fine, Bary then told the same to Krune. "I see, then it''s not hard to guess the culprit, the mercenary selection has five slots for the Martial Gathering, it would make no sense to attack me, the best was to kill some of the other seeded mercenaries since they still don''t know how strong I am, but this assassin didn''t do that, which proves that the threat that he is felling is related to the group bracket that I''m in if we look into the combat power of the contestants remaining inside my bracket, there are only two possible contestants able to make it to the final phase, me and Shad Forgon, at moment, everyone still thinks that Shad Forgon is most likely to be the final winner in my group, but this person still chose to come after me, which means that he wants to help Shad instead." Krune''s face then darkened. "It can only be one of the Divine Soul Realms of the Sky Fall Continent, or at the very least, someone related to them, they wanted to guarantee that Shad would be the winner of my group and that he wouldn''t be too worn out on top of that, my presence in Shad''s group had destroyed their plans, thus, this assassination attempt." Bary nodded, he and his father had already got to the same conclusion. "In that case, let''s have Shad Forgon to sign a blood contract and confess what he knows." Krune shook his head. "It will turn out to be useless, whoever did it definitely hasn''t told Shad about the operation, exactly because he can''t get rid of a blood contract like a Divine Soul Realm cultivator can, at most, he would have some assumptions, but that would not be considered as proof of anything, it was also because of this that the one who came was a Divine Soul Cultivator, after all, blood contracts can''t bind them." Bary couldn''t help but agree with Krune, it would have been a very idiotic action to tell Shad about what was going to happen and then have him spill out the truth through a blood contract. "Then let it be, in the end, this was their only chance, tomorrow we will have the last three battles of the group brackets, whether you lose or win to Shad doesn''t matter anymore, they won''t be able to stop you from competing." Bary let out a sigh and then said. "My father will keep a look for the time being, so you can rest until tomorrow, I''ll come back around nine o''clock to take you there." Krune nodded and saw Bary off, but before leaving, he left another of those jewels that Krune used to alert them, Bary also wanted to ask how Krune found out about the assassin but decided to not ask in the end, it probably had to do with some of Krune''s secrets after all, when Krune returned, he could see the Yusa and Ao were full of questions, Krune had used Divine Sense to talk with Bary during the entire time, so they didn''t know what was happening. "It goes like this¡­" Yusa and Ao faces'' darkened, the worst of all was that the side who tried to do that was extremely obvious, but they couldn''t do anything about that. "Let it be, it''s just as guild head Bary said, this was their only chance, from tomorrow onwards any new attempt would be just a fool''s action." Yusa and Ao nodded and then left a little later to go back to their room. Krune sat on the bed and just sighed. "That''s what happens when you give up your low profile life." He shook his head and went back to cultivate, he is almost at the 8th stage now. Chapter 85 - I Hate That Elemental Core of Yours! Later that night, Yulie Forgon finally sneaked back into his house, his face was pale and he coughed several mouths full of blood, he was obviously in great pain, but he seemed like to not notice anything at all, one could only see helplessness in his eyes, hundreds of years of his cultivation disappeared just like that, the secret art ate it away in exchange for a boost in speed, not to mention that the blood escape technique severely damaged his foundation as well, if he got unlucky, he might fall one or two more stages before finally stabilizing again. But as the Guild Head, he soon calmed himself and focused on his recovery, the Selection will continue in a few hours'' time, everyone probably is guessing that he had something to do with this assassination attempt, but if he suddenly disappear right after, it would only get worse, at this point, the Yule Continent Guild Head had probably told all the other guilds that the culprit paid a very high price to escape, so he can''t disappear now even if he wanted. The thing that made he feel angry was the fact that Bary Casfiu was right, that was his only chance to get rid of Krune after the selection starts again, it won''t stop until the eight victors are decided, and there is no way that Lian Casfiu will lower his guard now, his Sky Fall Continent haven''t brought any Soul Forging cultivators this time around, and even if they had, he couldn''t possibly ask for then to kill a junior of another continent guild at this point. In the end, Yulie only sighed, his nephew is already 37 years old, so he won''t be able to fight another Martial Gathering anymore, he can only rely on himself to pass this Hurdle. The sun came up and the cultivators started to emerge from their rooms when it was finally nine o''clock, Bary came to fetch Krune, as expected, nothing else happened after that, people started to gather around their own arenas and those who had already lost were also there to see the outcome of the battles, the elder took their sits and chatted while waiting for the battles to start, but there was something different today, quite a few people were looking in the direction of the Sky Fall Continent seats, although no proof could be found, it was pretty obvious which continent was behind what happened last night. Yulie Forgon also appeared around this time and sat on his place, his place didn''t look too well, but he did his best to pretend that nothing was wrong, Bary saw that and chuckled. "Guild Head Yulie doesn''t look fine, could it be that something happened last night?" Yulie heard that and felt like he ate a fly, but nothing could be seen on his face, he just smiled and looked back at Bary. "I had some problems cultivating last night, nothing too serious." Bary heard that and laughed. "That is normal, we all run into unexpected problems now and then, I wish for Guild Head Yulie recover to be smooth." As unwilling as Yulie could be, he still politely replied. "Then I thank Guild Head Bary for your concern." The other elder and guild heads saw that and just snorted, they could feel how bad Yulie''s injuries were, but that had nothing to do with them, they were just curious as to what will the battle between Krune and Shad Forgon turn out to be today. On the stages, the cultivator from Sky Fall Continent had ugly faces, although they had nothing to do with what happened last night, it still doesn''t change the fact that they are part of the same people, they wanted to retort, but because no one was saying anything and were just looking at them, there was nothing to retort for, so they simply decided to focus on the battles for now. One of the referees came forward and announced the start of the battles. "Everyone who hasn''t fallen yet, stay ready, those who had lost already, stay further away from the arenas, the selection will continue now, the first stage Drorne vs Lina Jue, second stage¡­" Immediately, all the attention was grabbed by the first arena, Drorne was the other Dark Horse of this competition and he was finally challenging the seeded mercenary of that stage, Lina Jue, the battle between Deno and Tasier was very interesting, everyone is expecting to see the same type of battle this time as well, Yusa just so happens to be fighting the first battle of the eighth arena as well, but her opponent isn''t someone that people think she can lose against, so no one was paying too much attention to that. Drorne, as a water dragon, as obviously specialized in water first, as for the second element, he had opted for earth to help cover the water dragon weakness for lightning, he could have chosen lightning, but as his race weakness, he would have a hard time to specialize on it, it would be a huge time consumer, so he didn''t do so. Lina, as mentioned before, is a Fire and Lightning element user, but she had watched the water dragon battles and knew that thanks to its earth element, lightning alone wasn''t that dangerous for it as she hoped for, and her fire element just so happens to be weaker against his water element, but as one of the seeded contestants, Lina had the confidence to fight even in odd conditions, so she wasn''t the least bit afraid. The battle started and the water dragon immediately used the earth element to fortify his body against lightning element, after that, he rushed forward, as a dragon, close combat was obviously his best style while moving forward, he shot forward hundreds of water balls the side of a candy, but the sheer amount it was enough to cover any retreat path, although each one aren''t that strong, when so much hit you at the same time, you would still feel suffocated. Lina was already expecting for that and created a fire armor around herself, this was the first time people saw her using that, but she didn''t give them time to pay attention, using lightning movement, she dashed forward as well and took out two chakrams, this was also her first time using her weapons, those chakrams were made of material compatible with both fire and lightning, so she could use her specialized elements while attacking with them, the chakrams were charged with her lightning and fire and were shot forward in two different directions. Drorne saw that and knew he couldn''t underestimate those weapons, he immediately used his claws and tail to fend off their attacks, but those are two flying-type weapons, right after being deflected, they charged back again, of course, the amount of fire and lightning inside them would diminish after every hit, it was enough for three or four attacks before they would need to go back to Lina to be charged again. But Lina wasn''t just looking while the weapons that she controlled attacked the water dragon, she immediately used the thunder line skill, the same that Krune had used back in the Rainbow Sect Gate, the difference was that it also had the fire element on it, the fire element might be weaker against the water dragon, but it didn''t mean that it was useless, not to mention when used by a top tier cultivator like Lina. The water dragon wasn''t to be trifled with either, noticing that he was going to get hit by Lina''s attack while defending against the chakrams, he stomped its legs on the ground, right after, a thick earth wall appeared right in front of the thunder line attack, the attack hit the earth wall and was reduced to rubble, but that was enough to stop it, the water dragon used the fact that it was behind the earth wall at first to create a water prison, Drorne was expecting that since Lina couldn''t see him, she wouldn''t notice he using the prison. But Lina wasn''t a seeded player for nothing, although she couldn''t see for a moment what the dragon would do, she knew that that earth wall was probably used for concealing something, as soon as it appeared, she used her lightning movement again and charged to the sides, as expected, a second after she left, an enormous water prison appeared just where she was a moment ago, although it wasn''t as big as Yusa''s one, it still was big enough to be a threat in case you don''t leave the place in time. The chakrams came back to Lina once more, their Fire and Lightning element was totally used, so she had to charge them again, flying weapons also need spiritual energy to stay in the air, and each time that they exchanged blows with the dragon, a huge amount of it was used, but that wasn''t a problem for Lina, it only took her two seconds with recharge and send them out once more, it goes to show how much familiar she is with her weapons, not to mention its high compatibility with her chosen elements. The water dragon was very calm, Lina''s attacks were full of power and could cause high damage even with his earth element protection, but they also used huge amounts of spiritual energy, Drorne was very confident in his endurance, if things continued like this, he would be the final victor. Lina also noticed this problem, but she just chuckled while thinking. ''If you think that my reservoir of spiritual energy is the same as the other mercenaries in this selection, you will come to know that I''m quite different from the norm.'' It was true, the main reason why she focused in powerful attacks was that her cultivation technique was focused in her amount of spiritual energy and the spiritual energy recovery over the battle, in this selection, probably only Krune had a rate of spiritual energy recovery during battle higher than Lina. The battle continued and blow after blow was exchanged, sometimes the water dragon was hit, other times Lina was the one to receive some kind of injury, the water dragon''s confidence started to disappear, doesn''t matter how many attacks Lina used, her spiritual energy seemed to stay at the peak all the time, it was as if she had unlimited supply of it. Knowing that he had hit a metal wall, Drorne changed his tactics, he could only focus more on pursuing Lina while ignoring some of her attacks, otherwise, the one who would run out of spiritual energy, in the end, would be him. Lina saw that and started to laugh, she was waiting for the dragon to do that, she waited for a moment when it''s guard would be low and mounted a sneak attack, she concentrated her spiritual energy on her hands and prepared to use one of her trump cards, it didn''t take long for the moment to come, as soon as the opening appeared, she attacked straight away. "Thunder-Fire Explosion!" Her hands touched the side of the water dragon''s body and an enormous explosion could be heard, the water dragon''s body was sent flying, she saw that and thought it was finally over, but it was at that moment that she heard a voice behind her. "Gotcha!" Lina was alarmed! She immediately tried to use her lightning movement to flee but it was too late. Drorne had somehow appeared right behind her, he opened his mouth and shot a water attack straight at her back. "Dragon Water Cannon!" Lina could only close her eyes and do her best to reinforce her fire armor, but water was the weakness of fire abilities, although it reduced some of the damage at first, she was still sent flying while coughing some blood, Drorne didn''t let the chance go and pounced at Lina the moment the attack hit her back, just as its claws were about to pierce her chest, his body suddenly stopped mid-air, doesn''t matter how much Drorne wanted to move, he couldn''t advance even a centimeter forward, but he soon realized why is that, Lina was a foundation establishment cultivator just like himself, there is no way she could have such power, which means that the one who stopped him could only be the referee! Lina didn''t move, she had lost consciousness in that last attack, that was the reason why the referee stopped Drorne, the water dragon noticed that as well and finally calmed down, the power that bound it also disappeared after that, the referee came forward and proclaimed. "Water Dragon Drorne Wins!" Everyone was taken aback with that fight, they looked at the body of the dragon that had been hit by Lina''s Thunder Fire Explosion and noticed that it had turned into a pool of water, Tasier looked at that and narrowed his eyes, it was the same technique as his lightning replacement, just that it used water, the incredible thing was that Drorne was able to trick Lina with his enormous body, but the trick behind it was a skill that Yusa knew very well, water frame! Drorne used this skill only once during the battle, and that was right before Lina charged over to attack, in the end, the dragon that showed that opening wasn''t the real Drorne to start with. The people of Makui Continent were disappointed, while the Ice Continent people were cheering, Drorne is a water dragon from their continent after all, and no one expected that he would win in the end, this means that they would have one more contestant to fight for the five slots in the final phase. On Yusa''s arena, the battle was over a long time ago, her opponent had received quite a few injuries during the last day battles and they hadn''t fully recovered yet, even if they had, he wasn''t Yusa''s match to start with, so Yusa was able to finish it quite fast, and she took that chance to watch the battle between Lina and Drorne after the battle was over, she sent a Divine Sense message to Krune. "I think I understand the principle of that water replacement, I will try to master it before the Martial Gathering." Krune heard that and nodded. "It''s not that hard, it is simply using the water element to make a water copy, as for why the body looks like a real dragon, that is just a mirage caused by controlling the light with the spiritual energy left behind in the copy, also, the other element replacements might not be exactly like that, but they follow the same principle." Yusa heard that and got curious. "Does it mean you can use it?" Krune nodded. "I can use any type of elemental replacement now, or should I call it an elemental clone, maybe?" Yusa got furious. "Then why didn''t you tell us about that before? You could have shown that to Ao, Shinja, and myself!" Krune looked back at Yusa with a puzzled face. "But I just learned it after Tasier''s battle yesterday, and only today before the battles started did I finally finish getting used to the five elements, there wasn''t enough time for me to teach you at all!" Yusa almost fainted, he understood all five elements replacement in a single day! "I hate this elemental core of yours!" Krune was amazed, it wasn''t like he choose to get an elemental core himself, you know? Chapter 86 - Ao Sulian vs Rog Werer Lina turned out to be the first seeded contestant to fall in the Mercenary Selection, as the saying goes, you never know where a talent might appear, no one expected much from the Water Dragon at first, but it turned out that he was the one to get the final laugh. The battles continued and soon, the fourth round was over, Krune and Ao had no problems in their fights either, much for Rog Werer and Shad Forgon sadness, after another pause of two hours, the fifth round finally started, this time, Ao would be fighting Rog Werer in the second fight of the fifth round, Krune, on the other hand, would not encounter Shad in the fifth round, only in the last round, the sixth, would he fight the seeded player of his group bracket, it would also be the final duel that decided who advanced to the final phase. Ao went up on the arena, Rod Werer was also there already, the referee was just waiting for the confirmation to start, after taking a last look at Ao and Rog, he signalized the start of the battle. Rog was a cultivator of the Sky Fall Continent, but he had not specialized in water element, his elements specialization were earth and fire, a good combination for a big man like him, not to mention that his weapon of choice being the dual maces, he used brute force to smash through his enemies and earth element to protect himself. Surprisingly, it wasn''t Rog Werer who made the first move as everyone was expecting, but Ao instead, Ao knew that this might be a tough opponent, so he took the initiative, wind element for movement and swiftness, fire element for power, and metal for sharpness, he had no need to wait for the other part to move, he appeared behind Rog in a second and slashed forward. But Rog was indeed a seeded player, even though his speed isn''t as good as Ao, he had fought plenty of speed-focused cultivators before, by rotating his mace, he deflected the attacks that were aimed at him while the other mace came smashing down at Ao, one could see the flames of his Fire Element around it, Ao retreat to the side and the place that he had been just a second ago become a crater, Rog took his mace back and smiled at him. "Quite fast, but that''s useless if you don''t have the power to even break through my defense." Ao heard that but didn''t mind the least bit, this was far from what he could do, he only used Sword Intent in his very first battle, after that, he defeated his opponents relying on his control over the elements and swordplay alone, some people even thought that they had imagined things and that Ao didn''t know how to use Sword Intent at all. Rog saw that Ao''s expression didn''t change even a bit after his mace attack and chuckled, he wasn''t the type to keep waiting for his opponent so he also moved forward, he had absolute confidence in his power and defense, Ao kept dodging and send a few attacks now and then, but neither could breach Rog''s defense, of course, Rog couldn''t do anything to Ao either, so the battle reached that stalemate. Krune and Yusa were looking at that and sighed, the others might not know, but they understand Ao better than anyone else. "He is obviously testing his sword skills, this is the first time he found a top tier cultivator at the same level as him with high defense, he is trying to understand how much power he should use against someone like that." Said Krune while looking at the battle, Yusa heard that and was a little puzzled. "But why is it that he only increases the power of each attack by a bit every time?" Krune pondered a bit and then said. "Maybe is because he is trying to find the balance between soft and hard, between us, he is the only close combat cultivator, Shinja and you are support or range based cultivators, and I''m also specialized at ranged attacks, so he hadn''t fought anyone at the same level who could resist his attacks and still keep fighting, of course, that is only my opinion, we will need to ask him later." Krune was right, spar with Krune, Yusa, or Shinja was very good for Ao, but the lack of a close combat cultivator in their group at the same level made several doubts appear in his mind, it could also be said that Rog is already very lucky, if he was a long-range focused cultivator, he would have lost already, few could match Ao''s understanding against ranged cultivators, and he had Krune, Yusa, and Shinja to thank for that. The people outside didn''t notice anything, the battle seemed very even in their eyes, but that was just for those without discerning eyes, the referee and most of the Divine Soul elders and Guild Heads had already noticed that something was strange about the way that Ao battled, Arlan was also looking at it when suddenly, his eyes lit up, he then started to laugh out loud. "I see, I see! So that''s how it is, no wonder, no wonder." A member of the Makui Continent team heard that and couldn''t help but ask why he was laughing at Ao and Rog''s battle. "That Ao Sulian guy is a sword user just like me, so I can see what he is trying to do, simply put, he doesn''t have a lot of experience against close combat cultivators at the same level as him, so he is using Rog to refine his understanding of the sword at melee range." A few of the contestants heard that and their faces showed incredibility. "Is he crazy? It''s Rog who he is fighting against, one good hit and he will be done for, he''s being too brazen!" "There are crazy people everywhere, and those usually don''t live long, just let him be." "He had almost been hit several times already, not to mention that he still hasn''t done any damage to Rog so far, I don''t think he will last long like this." Arlan heard those commentaries but didn''t say anything, there was no point in discussing such things with lower-level cultivators, this battle is his eyes were completely different, the others might not have noticed, but he was sure that rog had no chance at winning, not to mention that he still remembers to have felt a hint of Sword Intent coming from Ao''s sword in the first battle Ao had last day, and he doesn''t think that it was only his imagination. Rog was starting to get upset, there have been many opportunities where he could have struck Ao down and ended this battle, but Ao would always dodge in some inconceivable way in the last instant, that made him furious, but he didn''t lose his cool, Ao couldn''t do anything against his defense either since he can''t receive any damage, the victory will be his sooner or later. Ao, on the other hand, was very relaxed, this battle against Rog had cleared many doubt against melee range fights that he had before, but it was starting to get less and less useful, the reason is simple, Rog, in the end, wasn''t a speed-focused melee range cultivator, so it was way too easy to dodge his attacks, fortunately, his extremely high defense helped Ao in understanding the concept between hard and soft. Ao once again dodged and decided that it was enough, suddenly, it seemed that his sword came to life, the power of the elements around it increased and he started to get faster, he attacked Rog by the side, Rog defended as always, but for some reason, his mace passed through the sword as if it didn''t exist, turned out that it was only an afterimage, the sword hit his earth defense but couldn''t stop its power, it was the first time in this battle that someone got injured. Rog saw that and couldn''t believe it, even with his Divine Sense he couldn''t follow the speed of the sword, Ao kept sending a barrage of attacks from all sides, small cuts started to appear all over Rog''s body, they weren''t anything serious if there was only one or two, but the sheer amount was making him lose too much blood, Rog Finally lost his patience and activate one of his trump cards. "Fire Body!" Fire started to revolve around Rog and the temperature of the arena immediately soared, Rog looked like a ball of flames himself, he then focused on his own movement technique and charged forward, Ao suddenly had to put a lot more effort to dodge Rog''s attacks, and the effectiveness of his own attacks diminished a lot too, it wasn''t that Rog had become faster, but that the area covered by his attacks was a lot bigger, Ao didn''t have to dodge only the maces anymore but the fire attacks that came with each swing. Ao saw that and a smile appeared in his face, he thought that there wasn''t anything else to learn from this fight but it seems like he was mistaken, he increased his speed and the power of his own attacks, he also started to use his skills, Rog''s wasn''t receiving only attacks from Ao''s sword anymore, there were several blazing wind blades, a merge skill that he learned from Krune, coming from everywhere, his vacuum blade skill was also active this time, so the speed of his attacks and his skills in the area of effect increased another fold too. Rog was indeed a seeded mercenary, even while defending against Ao''s attacks and the blazing wind blades, he still found apertures where he could launch attacks at Ao, unfortunately for him, Ao was too fast! In fact, as long as Ao wished, he could take the attacks head-on, but it would use a lot of spiritual energy and also show to the others that this state wasn''t his best, it''s always good to keep some trump cards in the pocket. Krune''s group, Arlan and the Divine Soul Realm elders and Guild Heads could already see the outcome of this battle, although the two of them seemed to be evenly matched again, the fact was that Ao had absolute advantage in their exchanges, even more, injuries started to accumulate on Rog''s body, and he was already starting to feel dizzy due to the blood loss, but he gritted his teeth and performed another one of his trump cards, he suddenly gave up his earth element defense and switched to wind element, he might be able to only control two elements at the same time, but it doesn''t mean that he doesn''t know how to use others. The power of Rog''s fire attacks got complemented by his wind element while his speed increase by a lot, the people outside saw that and noticed that they had been underestimating Rog all along, it was a good thing that Ao forced Rog to show his cards before the final phase, doesn''t matter if Ao or Rog won, they are grateful to both for showing so much today. Ao was quite impressed with that, Rog moved this fast and swift with that big body of his while still increased the power and the area of effect of his attacks, if it was anyone else in his group, they would have lost already, and since that is the case, Ao made a decision. "Since you decided to show everything you got, out of respect, I will take you seriously too." Aos sword suddenly seemed different, but at the same time it didn''t, it was as if some kind of power was coming from it, but the majority of the mercenaries taking part in this selection couldn''t tell exactly what it was, with exception for Krune''s group, Arlan Rosier and some of the other seeded contestants. "Sword Intent!" Arlan saw that and laughed even more now. "I knew I wasn''t wrong, it really was Sword Intent!" The other seeded mercenaries also noticed that, but their reactions were the total opposite of Arlan''s, their faces were gloomy, a Foundation Establishment cultivator who can use Sword Intent and is also under 40 years of age, how rare is that in the Makui Planet? On the arena, Rog also noticed that and finally, some fear appeared on his face, but he wouldn''t give up now, he still believes that he only needs one good hit and he the victory is his, he charged forward even madder than before, he was stacking everything in his next attacks. Surprisingly, Ao didn''t try to dodge this time, he also activated his movement technique and stepped forward, Rog saw that Ao was planning to fight him head-on and got delighted, he refused to believe that even with sword intent, Ao could take an attack of his at full power. The referee narrowed his eyes, this was the deciding moment and the time he would have to save the loser in such an outcome would be very small, so without getting in the way of both Rog and Ao, he approached the place where the exchange would be made, he was ready to intervene the moment the victor of the clash appeared. Rog roared and smashed down his two maces with his most powerful mace skill. "Titan''s Fury!" Ao also showed one of his cards at this moment, it was the same attack that he used against Turi Belane back in the Mercenary Headquarters, it''s just that this time the Sword Intent behind it, the power of the elements fused in the attack, and the speed were a lot more powerful. "Decapitation in Flames" Arlan saw that and knew who the victor was even before the attacks hit each other. The moment that the maces and sword clashed with each other, the maces immediately snapped in two, not only that, but even the air, the skill, the elements, everything was slashed in half, it was as if a void had appeared where the two maces where before, the referee was alarmed at that sight, Ao''s attack was way faster than what he had predicted, he wanted to intervene but it was already too late, he immediately thought that the first dead person of this selection would appear during his watch. But surprisingly, Rog was fine, the people saw that and their jaws dropped, just how did Rog survive that attack? Even the Divine Soul referee was powerless at that moment, after that exchange, Rog fell on his knees, he then looked at Ao and sighed. "You changed the trajectory of your attack in the last instant, the sword slash passed above my head, wasn''t it?" Ao smiled and then nodded. It was then that the crowd finally understood the situation, everyone looked at Ao as if he was a monster, Guild Head Yulie had an ugly face, his mercenary guild only had two mercenaries with real chances of getting one of the five slots, one of them was Shad Forgon, his nephew, while the other was none other than Rog Werer, who just lost, and both of them were fighting members of the Yule Continent on top of that. Other than Arlan, the other seeded mercenaries started to consider if they should admit defeat when they encounter Ao in the final phase, Ao turned out to be too strong, it was obvious that Rog and Ao weren''t in the same league, and since their strength isn''t much different from Rog, it would do no good to fight him head-on. Ao came down from the arena and sat to recover his spiritual energy, although the outcome of his group is pretty much decided due to Rog''s loss, he would never underestimate his opponents. His fight was the last to be over between the second fights of the fifth round, another two hours pause came by and the third fight of each group started. £¬ Chapter 87 - Deal! This was the last fight that interested everyone before the final phase, Krune and Shad''s fight, first because Krune was one of the dark horses, and second because of what happened last night, not to mention the fact that if Shad loses, the Sky Fall continent mercenary guild will be basically out of the Martial Gathering completely. Yusa and Ao, as expected, passed their last opponents in their brackets without big troubles in the fifth round, and are now in the sixth and last round as well, between the three of them, it could be said that Ao''s fight was the hardest so far, and considering their combat power, they don''t think it will take long for them to finish it anyway. But there was another thing, the participants might have not noticed, but Yusa, Ao, and Shinja have, Krune was in an extremely bad mood since last night, it''s just that you need to know him well to perceive it, they looked at Shad''s direction and couldn''t help but feel pity for him. Shad and Krune went up on the arena, Yulie Forgon watched them and was almost praying for Shad''s fight to not be too hard, Shad was also a little unsettled, he is confident in his own ability, but with the prowess that Krune showed so far, he might need to pay some price to pass this last obstacle, so he decided to go all out from the very start, he noticed that Krune is a long-range focused cultivator, he plans on getting close to him and finish the fight as fast as possible. The referee looked and both of them and raised his hand, then he dropped it down. "Start!" Shad immediately used his lightning movement to enclose Krune, his weapon was already out and the power of water and lightning could be seen on it, he enclosed on Krune and used one of his strongest skills. "Saber Thunderstorm!" Sparks flew everywhere from his saber, water fell without stop helping to carry the power of the lightning element, it was a very strong skill, but just as the attacked was about to hit Krune, the lightning element disappeared without trace, it was as if it had received a command to do that, Shad looked at that and couldn''t believe in what just happened, he then focused on Krune once more but¡­ Krune had disappeared! "Tribulation Lightning Instant Movement!" This wasn''t the real Tribulation Lightning Movement, it was the one that Krune used both Normal Lightning element and Tribulation Lightning at the same time, after several tests, Krune found out that the best balance without damaging his body was 30% Tribulation Lightning and 70% normal Lightning Element, of course, his speed was already far above what Shad could do with his own Lightning Movement. Shad focused on his Divine Sense to find where Krune had gone, but as soon as he did that, a hand touched his back, at the same time, a Divine Sense message reached him. "Playing with lightning in front of me? What a joke!" Krune''s hand was filled with some Tribulation Lightning, as soon as it touched Shad''s back. KaBoom! Shad''s body seemed like to have been hit by a real lightning bolt, his body shined blue and purple for a second, Krune hadn''t used tribulation lightning alone, but 70% normal Lightning Element and only 30% Tribulation lightning just like his movement technique, but that was more than enough to completely fry Shad''s body to the point where he looked like charcoal, Shad''s body feel forward and the and hit the ground, the battle was over in a single move. Arlan immediately looked over from his arena, it was the first time he felt amazed in this Selection, with the power that Krune just showed, he wasn''t sure if even him could win against Krune or not. The referee was taken aback, he saw Krune''s move, but because of the distance, even as a Divine Soul cultivator, he wouldn''t be able to stop Krune in time, he examined Shad''s body and let out a sigh of relief, Krune only disabled him, although his appearance looked gruesome, he wasn''t dead or crippled, of course, that degree of injuries will definitely take a few months to recover. He then looked back at Krune and proclaimed. "Krune Wins!" Krune heard that and came down from the arena, he felt refreshed, everyone looked at him the same way they looked at Arlan every time he fought, the seeded contestants immediately made up their minds, in the final phase, they are absolutely giving up a fight against him, not only he beat Shad easily, it was obvious that it was far from his real power, he probably can even fight some new Core Formation Cultivators head-on! Yulie Forgon was feeling terrible, none of his participants reached the final phase, he looked at Bary and noticed that he was looking at him too, the worst part was the smile on his face, it shined like the sun, Yulie had the urge to punch his face right there and then, but he controlled himself, he had already checked Shad''s condition and knew that he wasn''t in any danger, if Krune wanted Shad dead, he would be dead. The sixth and last round continued, the seeded contestants and their adversaries, who had stopped for a second to see what happened in Shad''s arena, resumed their battle, even Arlan didn''t defeat anyone as fast as Krune did in this selection, one by one the victors appeared, except for Krune''s sixth arena, the other arenas ended as predicted, and just like that, the final eight have been decided. After the higher-ups announced the results, the day was over for the selection, the final part would only happen next day, so everyone was free to do whatever they wanted, the Sky Fall people wanted to go home already, but as part of the Mercenary Alliance, they couldn''t simply leave midway, they had to watch it to the end, the Yule continent, on the other hand, was cheerful, usually, it would be themselves the ones who wanted to go home earlier, but not this time, they had three contestants going to the final, so no one wanted to leave at all. After everyone went back to their residences, the elders, guild heads and mercenaries who passed the brackets fights gathered and started to discuss how to proceed tomorrow, surprisingly, everyone was discussing how to deal with the Yule Continent, so far, all their contestants in the final phase are extremely strong, the only one which they aren''t sure about is Yusa, but that is because she didn''t fight anyone strong enough to make she use her real abilities, chances are that she isn''t any weaker than Ao. On the Yule Continent side, the mercenaries that lost, the elders and Guild Head Bary were¡­ Eating Krune''s food¡­ If the other participants of the other continents saw that, would they think that the Yule Continent was looking down on them? In fact, be it Krune, Yusa, or Ao, they weren''t too much afraid of the outcome of tomorrow''s battles, other than Arlan, there wasn''t anyone on the other sides that could pose too much of a threat to them, of course, they wouldn''t lower their guards because of that, who knows what kind of trump card they have in their pockets? Later that night, the Bary Casfiu received a visit from the Guild Heads of the Ice and Borle Continent, which puzzled him very much, but he called them in any way. "What can I do for you?" The two Guild Head looked at each other and seemed a little embarrassed, but they asked anyway. "We would like to ask if Guild Head Bary can make one of your three contestants to give up the fights tomorrow." Bary heard that and his face darkened, during all the previous Selections, they had never gone to the other guilds to ask for something like that even though they are weakest one, Bary calmed down and looked at the Guild Head of the Ice Continent. "Even if I agreed with this request, I can''t understand why the Ice Continent would be asking for something like this, don''t your guild have three contestants in the final phase just like us?" The guild head heard that and felt even more embarrassed, the fact is that he noticed the power of the Three Yule Continent participants, and he thinks that none of his contestants is a match for any of them. "Your kids this time are too strong, doesn''t matter if I have three or if the Borle Continent have one, it would be hard for us to get a slot each with Arlan from the Makui Continent and your people, in the end, there would be only a single slot remaining, and we want to have at least one of our contestants to appear in the Martial Gathering." Guild Head Bary took a deep breath and said. "How many times has our Yule Continent appeared in the Martial Gathering in the past thousand years? Can the two of you guess it?" The guild heads looked at each other but shook their heads, they didn''t care about the Yule Continent to start with, so how could they know that? "I tell you then, it has been seven times, a total of one hundred selections have been done so far, but only seven times did we get someone to take place in the Martial Gathering, but even so, we never made such request before, and now you are asking us to give one of our chances to finally show our heads proud out there, does it look a good thing for you?" The Borle Continent Guild Head immediately replied. "We aren''t asking it without anything in exchange, we are willing to compensate the one who gives up properly, she or he would have enough resources to cultivate all the way to the Divine Soul Realm without any problems, we can also properly compensate the Yule Continent Mercenary Guild accordingly." Bary Casfiu shook his head. "That''s not gonna happen, let alone if I agree to it or not, I can guarantee you, not a single one of three of them will give this up, and I can tell you the reason, it''s is because as long as they don''t die for the Heavenly Tribulations, there is no doubt that all three of them will definitely reach the Nascent Soul one day, their talents is just that big, specially Krune." The guild heads looked at Bary and then asked. "Can we try to talk to them? If what you said is really true, then they will refuse straight away, that shouldn''t be a problem, right?" Bary was taken aback. "This¡­" He pondered a bit and then nodded his head, doing it this way would avoid friction between the guilds in the future, he then called Krune, Ao and Yusa and explained the situation to them. Yusa heard that and her eyes lit up. "How much spirit stones are we talking about here, which rank?" Bary heard that and almost fainted! Where is your dignity? Do you have any pride at all? The Ice and Borle Continent eyes lit up after hearing that, it seems that there was room for negotiation, but before they continued, Yusa made another question. "Now that I think about it, is there any reward for those who are selected to participate in the Martial Gathering?" Bary Casfiu shook his head. "There isn''t, the slots to participate are already the biggest reward that the participants would want, so we never gave any reward to those who get the slots." That answer made Yusa''s conviction even stronger. "Alright, then let''s hear how much you can pay for me to give up, I don''t care about future resources, I want to know what you can pay to me now." Her cultivation speed wasn''t a problem anymore, what she lacked was spirit stones to create more Spiritual Energy Meridians, as for the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam Slot? With her Spiritual Energy Meridians and the Rainbow Sect Soul Technique, she is very confident in breaking through the Core Formation Realm in the next nine months'' time, in nine months would be when the Makui Planet would send their selected cultivators and demon beasts. The guild heads pondered and after a breath discussion through Divine Sense and they came up with a number. "Ten Thousand Rank Five high-quality spirit stones, how does that sound for you?" Yusa was taken aback, that much? Even Bary Casfiu was surprised with that number, although his Yule Continent Headquarters could be able to pay such number, it would still leave a hole in the guilds pocket, he didn''t think that the thought of not having a single participant in the Martial Gathering would weight so heavily in those two guild heads mind. Yusa greeted her teeth and said. "Fifteen thousand! Fifteen thousand and it''s a deal." The guild heads were taken aback too, but they replied right after. "Twelve Thousand! That is the most we can do, don''t be too greedy, this is something that hurts even our pockets." Yusa immediately nodded. "Deal!" Krune and Ao saw all that happen and just shook their heads, they know exactly what Yusa was planning, not only would she be participating in the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam, she even got Twelve Thousand Rank Five high-quality spirit stones, they even felt a little jealous. In Ao''s case, he didn''t say anything because he really wants to fight in the Martial Gathering, not to mention that he gathered quite some wealth from Turi Belane back them. As for Krune, the Yule Continent guild is already backing him up, so he doesn''t really need it at moment, he thought a little and decided to ask for some resources to use in his ninth meridian creation after the Selection is over. In Bary''s case, he could only comfort himself. ''At least, my Yule Continent guild can keep on good terms with their continents.'' His dream of having three participants at the same time in the Martial Gathering was over just like that. Chapter 88 - The End of the Mercenary Selection. On the next day, the participants received the news that Yusa had given up the chance to fight in the final phase, it was said that she wasn''t confident in winning against the other competitors so she decided to avoid unnecessary injuries by giving up earlier. Everyone thought that something was fishy, but that was also good, it would be one less strong opponent for them to deal with, after deciding the order of the battles through drawing lots, the final day of fights finally started, every single cultivator or demon beast would have to fight each of the other contestants at least once, there would be one fight every time, the five mercenaries with most victories would then get a slot for the Martial Gathering each. The referee came up in the arena and called the name of the first two. "First fight, Tasier from Borle Continent against Lofa Harcken from Ice Continent." Tasier and Lofa went up in the stage, the battle started moments after, Lofa and Tasier exchanged quite a few blows, but in the end, Lofa gave up the fight, she was a water and wind element user, while Tasier main element was lightning, he had the advantage from the very start, he didn''t even need to show any of his trump cards this time before the battle was over. The referee then announced the next fight "Second Fight, Krune from Yule Continent against Drorne from Ice Continent." As soon as the two came upon the stage, Drorne admitted defeat, there is no way he would risk heavy injuries in a fight where there were no chances of victory, Krune saw that and just smiled, seems like the prowess he showed last day prevented quite some time-wasting now, that battle against Shad wasn''t something that Krune would do usually, his skills are much better at long range, but he just wanted to vent some steam, so he did what he did, and that''s only because he had absolute confidence in his victory. Since there was no battle, the referee called the next competitors. "Third Fight, Arlan Rosier from Makui Continent against Jack Biurer from Ice continent." Jack followed Drorne steps and gave up straight away, Arlan didn''t mind, he had no interest in fighting weaker opponents. "The Forth Fight, Ao Sulian from Yule Continent against Tasier from Borle Continent." Ao and Tasiear came up in the arena, the fight started and Tasier used the same strategy as always, but even though he was a lightning element user, Ao''s speed wasn''t the least bit slower than his, Since Ao had already shown his Sword Intent in the battle against Rog Werer, there was no need to conceal it anymore, Tasier did his best to shake Ao from his tail but nothing worked, he needed space so that he could use his abilities, even his charged needed space to gather speed, but unfortunately for him, Ao was a master against long-ranged cultivators, who knows how much Ao suffered in his teammates hands, so the battle didn''t take long before Tasier gave up. The battles continued, no one tried to fight Krune or Arlan, Ao was the only one who exchanged a few blows against his opponents, but in the end, they all gave up, his Sword Intent was just too fearsome. Once more the referee came forward and announced another fight. "Krune from Yule Continent against Ao Sulian from Yule Continent." Everyone immediately paid attention to that, but unfortunately, a fight didn''t take place as they wanted, Ao gave up the fight as soon as he came upon the arena, Krune''s group spared a lot, so they know very well the difference between each other, there was no point in that battle. After a few more battles, it was finally the time for Arlan and Krune to go up in the stage, each one of them already had five victories each, and they were victories won all through their opponents giving up before the fight even started, Arlan was ready to give it a try, he wasn''t planning to stake it all in this fight, he only wanted to check Krune''s combat power for a little, unfortunately for him, Krune admitted defeat as well, he already got his slot for the Martial Gathering, not to mention that his group had already decided that Ao would be the one testing Arlan. Although Arlan was disappointed, he didn''t say anything, there will be plenty of strong opponents when the Martial Gathering started anyway. So far, the ones who guaranteed their slots were Krune, Arlan, Ao, and Tasier, turns out that the last slot would be decided between the Ice Continent three mercenaries, Tasier''s lightning, and highly skilled flying ability put all the Ice Continent people in a bad spot, of course, they still did their best during their fights against Tasier, and the Thunder Hawk had to use almost all of his trump cards to triumph over them, but all efforts paid off in the end. When everyone thought that nothing more would happen, the referee called Ao and Arlan to the stage, surprisingly, Ao was planning to take Arlan Head-On! Ao looked at Arlan and said. "As a Sword Intent user, I can feel that you also have it, would you mind comparing sword skills with me?" Arlan heard that Divine Sense message and his eyes lit up, he was thinking that Ao would also give up because he had already guaranteed his slot, but to think that he would ask for a fight, Arlan couldn''t ask for more. "Great! I accept your challenge, but it will be ridiculous to have both of us severely injured here even before the Martial Gathering started, so what about this? We will decide it in one move, our aim will be our sword attacks, not the other''s body, what do you think?" Ao heard that and agreed, it would indeed be very idiotic to become dead weigh at this point. The referee noticed that they had some kind of Divine Sense conversation but didn''t say anything, both of them have already succeeded in entering the Martial Gathering after all. "Start!" Arlan was a Fire, Wind and Lightning elements cultivator, he raised his sword above his head and started to concentrate his spiritual energy and elements, his sword seemed like to become alive and roared with fire and lightning, the wind element around only helped to increase the power of its roar, it was obvious that Arlan was planning to use a very strong attack, not to mention that the rest of the participants started to feel the same power as the one they felt from Ao. "Sword Intent, Arlan is finally using his Sword Intent!" "He didn''t use it even once during the entire selection, I thought we wouldn''t have the chance anymore, but seems like we are lucky!" Ao noticed how serious Arlan was and decided to not hold back as well, he held his sword on the side and started to accumulate spiritual energy too, the power of fire and wind gathered around his sword while the metal element increased its sharpness several times over, he decided to show one of his strongest attacks in this exchange. The Makui and Yule Continent guild heads started to sweat all over, both of them have already passed this phase, why are they taking it this serious now, what if they get hurt or maybe even die? Both Ao and Arlan received Divine Sense message to stop it and give up this battle, but they ignored those messages completely. Finally, the two of them were done with their preparations and charged forward, in fact, in a real battle, they wouldn''t have the time to do what they did unless they could bind their enemies for some time, but they came to have a tacit understanding, so neither stopped the other. The referee was going crazy, why they have to do something like this just when everything was about to be over? He felt like crying but had no tears! In an instant, both attacks met each other. "Inferno Sword!" "Searing Slash!" Surprisingly, there was no explosion, in fact, there was almost no sound at all, their skills were very even and ended up canceling the enemy skill after the skills disappeared, all the elements dissipated too, and only their swords and sword intents encountered each other, there was a metallic sound of something being snapped in half and then silence. Ao and Arlan retreated their attack forms and looked at their swords, both of the swords couldn''t resist the other''s sword intent and broke in half, they will need to buy a new one now, they looked at each other with weird faces and then started to laugh. "Amazing attack, really an amazing attack!" Ao nodded. "I agree, to think that our swords would break together, what''s the chance of something like this happening?" But then Ao looked at his sword and sighed. "I admit defeat." Arlan was taken aback. "Why? It is more like a draw in my eyes." Ao just laughed after hearing that. "We both know that it''s not true, I used everything I knew about Sword Intent, but it was obvious to me that it wasn''t your limit, if I''m not wrong, you could have gone one step further, am I right?" Arlan looked at Ao in surprise and became a little embarrassed. "Sorry." Ao shook his head. "There is no need for that, although you haven''t gone all out, I reckon that you were very close to that, let me guess, 90%?" Arlan shook his head. "80%." This time it was Ao who was surprised, he didn''t think Arlan was lying, just like himself, Arlan was the type who put everything in his sword, it was beneath himself to lie about it. "I see, seems like I have a lot to improve still." "I don''t see it like that, even if it isn''t directly related, remember that your cultivation is lower than mine, our spiritual energy has a very big impact in our Sword Intent when you reach the peak of the 9th stage, you will probably be no weaker than me." Arlan said that not to comfort Ao, but because he really thought that it was the case, and he believed that to be increadible, after all, he has a Pure Yang Body, but Ao''s control over the fire element is just as strong as his, it was then that he remembered something and sent another Divine Sense message to Ao. "Between us, if I and Krune fought seriously, who you reckon that would be the winner?" Ao was surprised by that question, but out of respect, he decided to answer anyway. "If Krune stays in his human form, he should have an 80% to 90% chance of winning against you, if he goes back to his real form, I doubt you would have any chance at all." Arlan was taken aback, no chances at all? Is this some joke? But after looking at the serious face that Ao was showing, something told him that Ao wasn''t trying to scare him or lying, he then took a deep breath and asked. "Then what kind of demon beast is him? I haven''t seen him using his true form even once during this selection." Ao shook his head. "I can''t tell you that, sorry." There was another reason why Ao said this much, that''s is because Arlan definitely wasn''t the only one curious about Krune''s real form, since he was this strong, people even thought that Krune could be a demon beast with a Divine Beast bloodline, but they immediately discarded such idea, the rare and stronger the demon beast, the higher their cultivation needs to be for them to change into their human form, any demon beast with a divine beast bloodline definitely wouldn''t be able to change into their human form before the Divine Soul Realm at the very least, since that is the case, just what kind of demon beast could Krune be? All they know is that Krune is definitely more common than the Thunder Hawn Tasier or the Water Dragon Drorne, several of the Divine Soul Realm cultivators tried to force their way in with their Divine Senses to find out what kind of demon beast Krune is, but not a single one of them was successful, all thanks to the Race Cover Technique. Ao couldn''t help but think what kind of faces everyone would show if they found out that Krune is just a wisp, that would be a real sight to behold. In the end, the referee came forward and announced the five slots winners. "Seven Victories, Arlan Rosier." "Six Victories, Krune." "Five Victories, Ao Sulian." "Four Victories, Thunder Hawk Tasier." "Three Victories, Lofa Harcken." "The five mentioned cultivators and demon beasts will be able to join the Martial Gathering two months from now, go back and talk with your Guild Heads for more information." Krune heard that and felt very happy, he won a slot without lifting a single finger, he wished his life could be this low key more often. Fortunately, no one heard his thoughts, otherwise, the other contestants might have already pounced at him together. Chapter 89 - Elemental Source Energy The mercenary selection was finally over, this time only two mercenaries that participated died or got crippled, a very small number considering the strength of the contestants this time, after arranging their members, all guilds returned to their own residences to prepare to leave, on Yule continent side, everyone was cheerful, this was an unprecedented event. All the mercenaries departed next day, Bary was smiling from ear to ear, even though Yusa sold her chance to get into the Martial Gathering, Krune and Ao guaranteed their slot, not to mention that only their guild got two participants into it while the other guild got one or none at all, in the past millennia, the small Yule Continent had never had two participants at the same time, much less more than the other guilds, how could he not be happy? After getting back, the guild immediately spread the new about having got two slots this time around, soon, all the branches of the guild in the continent received the news, in a single night, the standing of the Mercenary Guild in the continent increased quite a bit, as for the two winners, Krune and Ao, they stayed back at the headquarters, they had everything they needed there anyway, it would also help not attracting too much attention outside. --- After getting back, Yusa immediately went back to her room to start creating her sixth Spiritual Energy Meridian, with the number of spirit stones she had, she definitely could open two or three more, but surprisingly, she created the sixth one only and then called everyone over. "I tried to start creating the seventh one, but the moment I started, I felt like my dantian was going to break apart." Krune and the others were surprised, but Krune had an idea of what was happening. "It can only be your foundation, I got the same problem as you when I was in the Qi Condensation Realm, after creating three meridians, I wasn''t able to create a single one more, only after breaking through into the Foundation Establishment and getting my core upgraded that I was able to continue." Yusa understood what that means, it''s probably the universe foundation, and it''s a foundation much stronger than her own, which means that six meridians were the limit of what she could get at the Foundation Establishment. Ao already had six Spiritual Energy Meridians, but he still hasn''t tried to build the seventh. "Let me give a try, I also haven''t tried to create a seventh one yet." Everyone nodded and gave him some space, Ao took out the spirit stones that he got from Turi back then and tried to create the next one, but just like Yusa, as soon as he tried, he felt like his dantian was being smashed by something, he immediately stopped after that and shook his head. "Same thing here, I can''t create the seventh one." Krune pondered a bit and then looked at Shinja. "You have only five open so far, right?" Shinja nodded. "I had to use a lot of spirit stones for my Core Formation Breakthrough, so I didn''t have enough to try the sixth one, but I''m planning on making some money in the next two months'' time before I go watch the martial gathering, so I should be able to open the sixth one soon." But then she thought about something. "But I don''t think you can use my universe foundation as an example, that is because my dantian is a lot stronger after I broke through into the next realm, so whether I have a universe foundation or not, I think I would still be able to create the seventh at moment." Krune heard that and couldn''t help but agree with that statement. "Which means that we have no way to test if it was because of the universe foundation or not, but that isn''t a big issue, be it Yusa or Ao, you both are close to the Core Formation Realm anyway, and with the Spiritual Energy Meridians that you already have plus the Soul Technique of the Rainbow Sect, it shouldn''t be that big of an issue for you to succeed." Yusa smiled and said. "Not to mention that we have a wisp to eat a few Lightning Bolts, that will help a lot too." Krune almost fainted after hearing that, do they care about his wellbeing at all? Ao and Shinja just laughed. After the jokes were over, they decided their next steps and parted ways again, Shinja was going to take a few missions for Core Formation Realm cultivators to make some spirit stones, thanks to her combat prowess, she can get quite a bonus for completing missions above her cultivation level, she also was feeling close to breakthrough into the next stage, so she needed even more spirit stones. Ao wanted to digest what he learned during the Selection, but Krune and Yusa had things to do, so he went to Bary Casfiu to see if he could arrange someone to practice with him for a while, Bary was more than happy to help, he immediately called out a Core Formation Realm sword user to spare with Ao as much as he wanted, best of all, this guy also knew Sword Intent, as long as one doesn''t look for Foundation Establishment cultivators under 40 years old, it is not that hard to find sword cultivators that could use Sword Intent, and Bary arranged one at the Late Stages of the Core Formation Realm on top of that, Ao would not have to be afraid of hurting his opponent at all. Yusa went back to the Runestone Formations Hall, although she wasn''t ready to accept Halie''s offer, she still wanted to learn more, not to mention that she could make more spirit stones by selling the ones she made, for Yusa, the more wealthy you are, the better! As for Krune, he had already contacted Marcus to help him with his Shields forging, they haven''t started making them yet simply because Marcus was gathering the necessary materials first, the Mercenary Guild already told them that as long as the request isn''t ridiculous, they will pay for any necessities that Krune might have. Today, Krune was talking with Bary Casfiu to get spirit stones, he wanted to create his ninth Spiritual Energy Meridian, and for that, he will definitely need a lot of spirit stones. "How many spirit stones you need and what do you need them for?" Krune shook his head. "All I can say is that I need them for a breakthrough in my abilities, but I don''t know exactly how many I will need at moment, but I''m sure I will need a few thousand Rank Four high quality at the very least." Bary was taken aback with that amount, what exactly would need that many spirit stones? Only a breakthrough into Core Formation Realm could possibly need that number, he couldn''t help but feel a little suspicious, but regardless, as long as it wasn''t Rank Five Spirit Stones or higher, they could still support that without any big problems, Bary just saw that as an investment, especially since Krune is already this strong at the 7th stage of the Foundation Establishment. "Very well, I will give you twenty thousand, but I expect you to not fail in the Martial Gathering, if possible, try to breakthrough into the 8th stage in the next two months'' time, even if your foundation gets a little unstable, you can use the next six months before the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam to stabilize it again." Krune nodded. "I was already expecting to do that anyway, it shouldn''t be any problem." --- Back in his room, Krune took the spirit stones out and focused in the creation of his ninth Spiritual Energy Meridian, as expected, it used an enormous amount of spiritual energy, from the twenty thousand rank four spirit stones, Krune used almost thirteen thousand, a lot more than the last time. As soon as the ninth Spiritual Energy Meridian finished to form, the other eight meridians appeared at the same time, and as if that wasn''t enough, Krune also couldn''t control them, they started to move around on their own, as if they were searching for something, if someone could see Krune know, they would think that he looked like an octopus, it''s just that he had one extra tentacle. After moving around for a while, they finally focused on a single point and stayed there, Krune couldn''t help but think. ''Did they find what they were looking for?'' Krune then asked little light if he had any idea of what was happening. "No idea here, I''ve never seen this cultivation technique of yours before, but if I have to guess, the only thing available in that space is space itself." Krune was taken aback. "Space?" Little light continued. "Haven''t you noticed? In the exact point where the nine meridians are touching, there is nothing at all, there isn''t air, there isn''t spiritual energy, and much less any kind of element either, it''s completely void of anything." Krune immediately used his Divine Sense to check and confirmed that Little Light was right, he can''t feel anything what so ever in the point where they are focusing. "Does it mean that they have sentience?" Little light immediately disagreed. "I wouldn''t go that far, it''s more like an instinctual move, I refuse to believe that a sentient being would be able to hide its presence from me." Krune let out a sigh of relief, little light is already more than enough, and his core wasn''t a hotel after all. Since Krune couldn''t control them, he could only wait, little light was also curious so he also paid attention, the void area around the point where the meridians were touching was increasing bit by bit, Krune started to feel that if it continued like this, it might catch the attention of the guild, but that didn''t happen in the end, after the arena increased to more or less two meters, it stopped expanding, it was then that the meridians that were inside of the void area started to shine, they retracted a little and then attacked the center of that void area. Krune looked at that and was taken aback, that is because the meridians passed through some kind of barrier that shouldn''t be there and reached the other side, little light understood what was happening and explained to Krune. "They opened a spatial gate, it''s connecting to something, it''s just that it feels a little strange, the energy inside is somewhat familiar, what is it?" Krune was already numb with surprises, the meridians were still connected to him, so he knows that they haven''t left, but what is it that they are trying to take? It didn''t take long for the answer to appear, Krune could feel that the meridians started to absorb the power from the other side and that energy started to enter his core, that energy then started to take the space of his little universe at fast pace, Krune was alarmed since he doesn''t know what it is, but even when he tried to check that energy, he couldn''t identify what it was at all! "I see, so that''s what it is, now then, aren''t you a lucky bastard?" "Then tell me what it is, will you?" Little light just laughed. "It''s just elemental source energy, nothing impressive, you would get in contact with it after breaking through into the Core Formation Realm anyway." Krune finally felt relieved, he knows what it is from what he heard from Shinja. Elemental Source Energy is something that your foundation can help create to help your core nurture your Divine Soul, all Core Formation Realm cultivators, and demon beasts had to convert spiritual energy into elemental source energy if they want to progress further in their cultivation, this is also the reason why after you enter the Core Formation Realm, you can immediately gain a much higher control over the elements. Light little then added. "All the elemental energy in the universe comes from the elemental source, and that''s why you can use spiritual energy to convert it back into elemental source energy." But then Krune thought about something. "Wait, but my foundation isn''t capable of creating this kind of energy yet, isn''t that a problem?" Little light simply answered. "That''s why I said you are a lucky bastard, those meridians of yours can directly connect to the elemental source and take its energy, and you don''t need to care about using spiritual energy to convert into elemental source energy." Krune then asked "Is there any use for this elemental source energy before Core Formation Realm anyway?" Little light immediately answered. "Of course there is, it is much purer than spiritual energy, so you can use it for cultivation instead of spiritual energy, it will reduce the chances of your foundation get unstable and improve the speed at the same time, it''s very nice." Krune got excited, to think it''s that good, but then he noticed something. "But how come I still can''t control my meridians?" This time, little light didn''t have an answer. "Maybe they also need elemental source energy?" Krune nodded and then focused on his Spiritual Energy Meridians, and sure enough, they were absorbing that energy, in fact, more than 90% of the energy was being used by them, only a small portion was reaching the end of the meridians and entering his core, Krune couldn''t help but wonder what would happen to his meridians. Chapter 90 - Rainbow Meridians Your Head! The process continued for over an hour before finally finishing after the Spiritual Energy Meridians retracted from that spatial gate, Krune noticed that they started to change, he looked at that and his mouth twitched. "Why does it have to be Rainbow too?" That''s true, Krune''s spiritual energy meridians now had the same colors as his irises and hairs, little light looked at that and confirmed that they had the same color as his elemental core too. "Try to see if you can connect to the elemental source energy on your own as they did." Only then did Krune wake up. "That''s right, if I can keep connecting to the elemental source energy, I won''t need to care about spiritual energy anymore." Krune immediately summoned his Spiritual Energy Meridians and tried to do that, but he soon found a problem. "Wait, first of all, how exactly did my Spiritual Energy Meridians even create that spatial gate?" Little light also didn''t know. "I have no idea, in theory, without the help of formations, only at the Void Breaking Realm would one be able to open a spatial gate, and this is totally different from simply teleporting over, I reckon that no formation master in your planet would be able to make a formation capable of opening a spatial gate that can be kept open." Krune tried to put them together like they were before but nothing happened, then he tried to attack a single point in the air as the meridians did, but that was no good either, Krune was puzzled as he could be. "Let me try to cultivate with them, maybe there is something different now." Krune concentrated once more and started to cultivate, his Spiritual Energy Meridians started to absorb the spiritual energy of the surroundings as they always did, but suddenly, Krune noticed that something else different. "I see, they can now absorb spiritual energy and convert directly into elemental source energy as well." As mentioned before (check chapter 6 if you don''t remember), the Spiritual Energy Meridians are able to convert the Spiritual Energy around straight away, cultivators and demon beasts can''t take the Spiritual Energy as it is since it would not be compatible with their cores and dantians, they need to convert it first, and the Spiritual Energy Meridians conversion capacity is far above any normal meridian, the elemental source energy is exactly the same thing, Core Formation Realm cultivators have to convert the spiritual energy into elemental source energy for their use. "But this speed¡­" Krune noticed that the majority of the Spiritual Energy was the same as always, just around 10% of the Spiritual Energy taken for conversion became Elemental Source Energy, the rest was still the same converted Spiritual Energy that he always used. Little light saw that and said. "What are you complaining about? This is already very good, if I was you, I would keep this energy aside instead of using for cultivation, it will help a lot during your Core Formation Breakthrough." Krune then asked. "How will it help me there?" Litle light answered with another question. "Why do you think cultivators and demon beasts need so many spirit stones when they are breaking into the Core Formation Realm?" Krune was taken aback with that question, but couldn''t find an answer, he knows that the process includes having part of your own soul being absorbed by the core, but he never thought on what the spiritual energy was used for, seeing that Krune didn''t know the answer, Little Light continued. "The reason is that only the soul alone isn''t enough, the core itself needs that spiritual energy to finish its final transformation, or could it be that you thought that the core of a Core Formation Realm was exactly the same as the one you had during the Foundation Establishment?" Little light continued. "This is also the reason why cultivation becomes slower, although you can still use Spiritual Energy for battle, when you talk about increasing your cultivation, the conversion has to be done first, otherwise, it would be much easier to reach the peak of the Core Formation Realm, think about this, does it make any sense to you that the same spiritual energy that you always used to cultivate before is also effective in the Core Formation Stages?" Krune felt enlightened. "I see, now that you said that, it really looks weird that higher level cultivators need the exactly the same kind of energy for cultivation, and when I think about my breakthrough, since I will need a lot of spiritual energy, if I use Elemental Source Energy instead, the quality of the core last transformation will improve, and so will the Divine Soul inside, am I right?" Little light chuckled. "You aren''t that dumb after all." But then Krune got a little curious. "Do you know if other cultivators are able to get the same result as me?" Little light answered straight away. "There are some treasures out there which can help to better nurture the Core and the Divine Soul inside as well, but I reckon that this Spiritual Energy Meridians of yours is a first." But then Krune thought about something. "In that case, can''t a Foundation Establishment use the Elemental Source Energy of a Core Formation Realm?" Little light just said. "You already know the answer to this question, don''t you?" Krune felt a little embarrassed, he did know indeed. "Cough, Cough, the Elemental Source Energy that the Core Formation Realm cultivators convert are only compatible with themselves, others wouldn''t be able to use it." In fact, Krune just wanted to know if there was a way from him to provide this energy to help Ao, Yusa, Lakin, and everyone else, but he understood that it wouldn''t be possible. "What kind of treasures can be used for that then?" Little light snorted. "Treasures that you absolutely won''t find in this piece of shit planet that you live in." Krune then sighed, that difference between planets was just too great. "Sadly, I can''t connect to the Elemental Source Energy behind that spatial gate anymore, I could few that there was so much there." Little Light, on the other hand, didn''t think it to be strange. "It''s already a wonderful thing that your Spiritual Energy Meridians were able to connect to that at all, I really can''t understand how a Spatial Gate could be open without your cultivation being at the Void Breaking Realm, that''s too unrealistic." Krune nodded, since he can already store that energy, then that''s enough, it''s not like his cultivation had any need for that before, it only means that he will need to cultivate at the same pace as he always did. Little Light then said. "By the way, you meridians now don''t simply absorb spiritual energy anymore, so Spiritual Energy Meridians isn''t exactly a proper name for it, what about simply call then Rainbow Meridians?" Krune felt like forcefully dragging little light out to give him a beating. "Rainbow Meridians your head!" Little light, of course, was just having some fun, after the time he spent with Krune, he knows how Krune came to be very sensitive with this word. Krune pondered a bit and then said. "Elemental Source Meridians will do." Little light just laughed "That''s not very original." Krune didn''t mind though. "Simple is best, no need to overthink it." --- After spending some more time getting used to the meridians new abilities, Krune left his room and went back to the Blacksmith Hall, Marcus had already contacted him to tell that he got all the materials needed for his Thirty-Eight Hexagonal Flying Shields. Arriving there, he could see Marcus at the entrance waiting for him, they moved straight away into a forging room, Krune would need to forge his own Divine Imprints while Marcus would add them to the shields that Krune asked to be forged. "It gave me quite a headache to find this amount of Spiritual Azure Steel, the Mercenary Guild got very generous after you passed that Selection, didn''t they?" Krune just laughed, it''s good that they did, otherwise, he might have been the one to accept that deal about giving up the chance to fight for a slot in the Martial Gathering. "This Azure Spiritual Steel can hold a lot of spiritual energy, so unless the battle takes a long time or the cultivation of the person you are fighting against is much higher than yours, it should not run out of spiritual energy, I reckon I will need around a day for each of the shields you want, but since I already got paid, you don''t need to worry about the time, just be sure to be ready to forge a Divine Imprint every time I ask you to do so." Krune nodded. "As long as they are finished before the Martial Gathering, I don''t mind how long it will take, I''m a long-ranged cultivator, so they are very important for me, take as much time as you need to make sure that they are forged well." Marcus nodded and started to work straight away, during the time that he was forging, Krune would stay by the corner with a few spirit stones cultivating, the time to make a Divine Imprint was a lot smaller, after all, it''s just that they were best if done together with the equipment, so he had to wait for when Marcus asked for them. --- Back in the mercenary training room, Ao was sparing with Orle Haviu, the Core Formation Realm cultivator that the guild paid to help with his training, and also, a Sword Intent user. Suddenly, a body came flying and hit the protection formation on a platform used for sparing, that body was obviously Ao Sulian. "Wrong! Why did you raise your sword in the last moment? If you had curved it thirteen degrees to the northeast position, you would have disabled my previous attack without putting pressure on your sword, let''s go again!" Orle Haviu is at the Late Stages of the Core Formation Realm, so he knew how to control his attacks so that Ao wouldn''t get seriously injured, but that didn''t mean that he was going to take it easy on Ao, he didn''t come only because the guild was paying him, but because he was also part of the mercenary guild of the Yule Continent, when he heard that a Foundation Establishment under the age of forty had comprehended Sword Intent in their Yule Continent guild, he was the first one to apply for that job, the only reason why he was accepting that payment at all was so that he could keep some face. "Yes!" Ao slowly stood up and came back to the platform, he knows this is an amazing opportunity, so he wanted to make use of it as best as he can. Orle nodded and attacked again, and after a few exchanges, Ao was sent flying once more. "Wrong! This time you stepped back a split of a second before you sword skill reached its zenith, because of this, you left behind a huge flaw that could be exploited for any cultivator with good eyes, get up and let''s go again!" In fact, Orle was genuinely impressed with Ao, how many times worse he was when he had Ao''s age? He really wanted to see where this guy who appeared out of nowhere could go, he has no doubt that Ao can fight for one of the ten slots for the Foundation Establishment cultivators that are going to the Divine Path Sect. Ao wiped the blood on the corner of his mouth and got up again. "Yes!" Who knows how many times Ao would be sent flying in the next two months. --- Yusa was also receiving some training, it''s just that it wasn''t battle-related. "You see the juncture here, if you had used the two stars form to inscribe that Spiritual Energy path, the flow of energy would have been much faster, it would have raised the level of the Runestone Formation and its usefulness." Halie was teaching Yusa what he knew about Runestone Formations, although Yusa hasn''t accepted him as her master, he simply couldn''t resist giving her some pointers when he saw her practicing in their Runestone Formations Hall. "I see, but if I do that, won''t it get in conflict with that Spiritual Energy path close to the center?" She then pointed at the place she was talking about. "No, take a look at the two stars form, can you see that they follow the same principle? That''s why even though they look different, the Spiritual Energy flow will still work as it should." Yusa paid attention to that and her eyes lit up, she immediately took out another runestone and started to inscribe a formation following the steps that Halie told her. Halie saw that and nodded satisfied, she only needed a few words and the rest would come naturally to her, he really wished that Yusa stayed behind in their Runestone Formations Hall as his disciple, but he couldn''t help but think. ''Her talent for Runestone Formations is far above mine, maybe it really isn''t a good idea for me to take her as a disciple, I would run out of things that I could teach her in no time.'' In the end, Makui Planet can only go so far in the field of side occupations, they are lacking way too much information and heritages. Yusa then caught his attention once more while inscribing that new Runestone Formation. "You see it here if you had done¡­" --- As for Shinja, she had teleported back to the Ice Continent, during the time that she spent looking at the mercenaries battles, she could feel that her Soul Cultivation Technique, the one that had water as one of its elements of focus, progressed much smother in the Ice Hell Danger Zone than back in the Yule Continent, so she came here to take a few missions of the local mercenary guild while using the place to improve her abilities. "That Spiritual Ice Metal that the client asked should be around this place, no wonder they had to send a Core Formation to take it, there are too many Demon Beasts around, and I even fought two Early Stages Core Formation Realm Frozen Eagles on my way here, fortunately, their feathers are worthy quite some money." Shinja had also practiced her combat skills every time possible, as long as she doesn''t start attacking low-level beasts, the Divine Soul demon beasts of the Ice Hell won''t come out, those are the rules agreed between the human leaders outside and the demon beast leaders inside of the danger zones, both sides need combat experience, so they encourage combats between foes of the same level, not to mention that Shinja got used to Krune''s habit, so she only killed when extremely necessary, much for the Divine Soul Demon Beasts Happiness that were overseeing the place. "The spiritual energy here is also a lot easier to be converted into my own type of Elemental Source Energy, I guess I will stay here for a while after I finish this mission." --- And just like that, the days passed, the martial gathering was getting closer and closer. Chapter 91 - The Divine Path Sect Arrives It had been a month since the start of Shields forging, today, Marcus had forged the thirtieth one, there was only another seven to go, Krune, of course, was there with Marcus to forge his own Divine Imprints, he couldn''t help but be impressed with Marcus'' skills, every single shield connected with each other perfectly, but that made some sense, he is a Five Stars Blacksmith after all, only beneath the Hall Master himself who is at the Six Stars. Marcus started the forging process of the next one while Krune was sat by the side, suddenly, Krune opened his eyes, and a blast of Spiritual Energy filled the room where they are staying, Marcus was a little surprised by that, it was obvious that Krune had achieved a breakthrough. That was right, Krune had finally entered the 8th stage of the Foundation Establishment, he could have done it a few hours earlier, but he was waiting for Marcus to start a new forging process, like that, he knew that Marcus wouldn''t need his Divine Imprint for the next few hours, that was enough time to stabilize the chaotic spiritual energy inside his foundation before the next one needed to be forged. After this breakthrough, Krune''s Divine Sense and soul power increased once again, he brought out the already forged thirty Hexagonal Shields and poured his Spiritual Energy inside, according to Krune''s specification, the shields were made so that they could accept any kind of element and not just spiritual energy, just like Lina''s weapons back in the mercenary selection where they could be used with fire and lightning. He then released the shields and used his Divine Sense to control them, they started to float around while slowly spinning, Krune then tried to make a few different formations with them, but it turned out to be harder than he thought, Marcus wasn''t kidding before when he said that too much flying shields would put a lot of burden on the soul, and there was still another eight shields incoming. ''Seems like I will need to practice for a while, although I have enough soul power to control them with Divine Sense, it still is hard to precisely use them together, no wonder cultivators at my levels don''t like to use too many flying weapons at the same time.'' Krune sighed and then put his shields back into his spatial ring, without having all thirty-eight together, there is no point in practicing now, it will only make him feel weird when more shields suddenly appear in the situation. --- In the Makui Continent, several elders, sect leaders, kingdoms representatives, guild heads and other organizations people from all powers in the world were gathered, this is the gathering to receive the representative of the Divine Path Sect who would be overseeing the Martial Gathering this time around, suddenly, a boom could be heard coming from the sky, everyone''s eyes lit up when they saw that, it was the sound of a spaceship when it entered the atmosphere, the spaceship was azure like and bigger than any spaceship owned by the people in the Makui Planet, on its side one could the see the heavens symbol emblem of the Divine Path Sect. This spaceship would also be the one to take the ten Foundation Establishment winners and the Core Formation Realm competitors that are under 40 years old to the Divine Path Sect entrance exam. The ship approached the city where everyone was waiting and not long after, it stopped right above it, the ship was so big that it could cover one-tenth of the entire city, this is also a way of showing the Divine Path Sect''s power in their own territory, the comports of the ship opened and three people could be seen coming down, an elder and two Core Formation youngsters, judging by their appearance, they are obviously under 40 years old as well, even before they arrived on the ground, the people there could already hear the young man complaining. "Elder, why do I have to come to this place? There is nothing worth spending my time here anyway, this planet hadn''t had a successful contestant entering the Divine Path Sect in ages, we could simply ignore them and say that we didn''t find anyone worthy of taking notice." The young man didn''t hide his words at all, the disdain in his eyes was apparent for everyone to see, but he was obviously a member of the Divine Path Sect, so even the Soul Forging Realm cultivators of the Makui Planet couldn''t retort. The Elder heard that and his face darkened. "Shut up! If our Divine Path Sect starts to neglect the cultivators in our own territory as you say, it won''t take long before our Sect''s power starts to diminish." The other youngster was a woman around the same age as the man. "Elder is right, I''ve told you hundreds of times, you never know where a real talent might appear, it''s our duty to make sure that the talents of our territory are properly taken care of, this attitude of yours would just send the sect to its ruins." The young man snorted and didn''t say anything else, but it was extremely obvious that he wasn''t convinced by the words of the elder and his martial sister. They arrived on the ground and were greeted by Kaio Gleem, he was the overall representative selected by vote to speak on the behalf of the powers of the Makui Planet, and also the leader of the Divine Swords Sect, one of the strongest powers of the world at the moment. "Welcome, my name is Kaio Gleem, we have been waiting for your arrival, Divine Path Sect Elder." He then asked. "May I ask this esteemed elder''s name?" The elder nodded in approval. "My name is Loni Ravser, an outer sect elder, there is no need to be so polite, it''s our duty to oversee all competitions of the planets in our territory, don''t mind this idiotic disciple of mine, he is young and hasn''t properly seen the universe yet." Everyone heard that and secretly let out a sigh of relief, it seems like this time they got an easy-going elder, there have been several times where the Divine Path Sect representative was someone hard to deal with, they have got quite a few representatives that were just like the young man beside the elder as well. "Elder is too polite, we have gathered all the powers that will have a cultivator participating in the Martial Gathering and are ready to take the elder Loni''s orders." In fact, the Martial Gathering contents were never decided by the planet itself, but by the representative of the Divine Path Sect, that was also the reason that no power would ever fail in sending someone to hear the contents, the earlier they know about it, the better is the chances of their own contestants during the gathering, from the Yule Continent Mercenary Guild Side, none other than Bary Casfiu came to check things out. Loni then asked. "How many contestants you have gathered this time around?" Kaio dutifully reported. "Our planet has a total of 1349 Foundation Establishment contestants this time around." "And how many under the age of 40, Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beasts are you sending this time?" Kaio answered again. "Our planet was lucky this time around and gave birth to sixteen under the age of 40, Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beasts that are willing to try the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam." Loni got a little surprised, for a world of the size of the Makui Planet, to have sixteen Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beats willing to participate, that is indeed a very good number. Of course, compared to the real strong planets in their territory, this number wasn''t anything worthy of praising at all. Loni then opened the screen of his communicator, and after checking the information for the Makui Planet he said. "This martial Gathering will have Three Phases." "As you probably have already guessed, the first is the elimination phase, which will cut down the cultivators number up to 400." "The second phase will once again eliminate the majority and only 160 will remain." "The last phase will be one vs. one battles, in the end, only ten will remain which will then come with me to the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam a few months later." The contents always varied, there have been gatherings with up to ten phases, it was up to the Divine Path Sect representative to choose, there were even a few impatient ones that went with a single phase only, you never know what they will be planning. The elder then looked at everyone and revealed the contents that he chose this time around. "The first phase will take place in the Gamon Planet, the cultivators will be released at certain points of the world and will have to make their way to the location specified beforehand, the first 400 to arrive will advance to the next phase, as for the contents of the second phase, you will come to know that after the first phase is concluded." "To make sure that the Martial Gathering will start in the appointed time, we will be departing in fifteen days, and the travel to the Gamon Planet will take twelve days, if someone is not here by that time we leave, they can only blame themselves for their lucky, that''s all for now." Everyone took their communicators out and started sending the news back to their powers, they had to make sure that their contestants would be here in time, Bary also did the same and immediately contacted the guild, he then passed the orders to find Shinja in the Ice Hell Danger Zone and also asked for Krune and Ao to be informed. Shinja had left the message that she would stay inside the Danger Zone until the time for the Martial Gathering starts, but they will be leaving the planet for the first phase, which is a very rare occurrence, so they will need to have her back before the appointed time, fortunately, she had left the approximated location where she would be staying, so the guild immediately dispatched three Divine Soul Realm cultivators to find her as soon as possible. The elder then looked at his two disciples and said. "You are free to do whatever you want in the meantime, but don''t go out there and start making trouble for the people of this planet, and I''m especially talking to you, Roni." Roni then nodded and left, since he had to wait here anyway, he might as well take a look. The elder saw that and shook his head, this disciple of his has always given him headaches, he then looked at his female disciple. "Lena, keep an eye on your martial brother, will you?" Lena nodded and then set off in the direction that Roni left, she was already expecting as much anyway. --- Back in the Mercenary Guild, Krune and Ao had already received the message from Bary about the contents of the Martial Gathering, Krune looked at that and left a sigh of relief. ''Fortunately, my shield will be completed in time.'' Chapter 92 - The Shields are Ready A week later, the three Divine Soul elders of the Yule Continent Guild came back with Shinja, surprisingly, her cultivation had reached the second stage, it was basically because of her Pure Yin Body compatibility with the Ice Hell Danger Zone spiritual energy, which was a lot easier to convert into Elemental Source Energy, the elders had arrived at her place just a few hours after her breakthrough and were quite surprised with that outcome, it has only been more or less a year since she entered the Core Formation Realm, that speed was simply frightening! Of course, other than her Pure Yin Body, Shinja had the Spiritual Energy Meridians to thanks for that too, all the spiritual energy that is absorbed is immediately compatible with her core, so she only needs to focus on converting it into the Elemental Source Energy, not to mention that the Ice Hell Danger Zone Spiritual Energy is easier to be converted as already mentioned. Krune was still in the Forging room, Marcus was working in the last shield at moment and that would take some time to finish, but he wasn''t in a hurry anyway, he took his time to separate the Elemental Source Energy from the spiritual energy that he uses for cultivation while reinforcing his foundation, even if just 10% turns into Elemental Source Energy, after a long time of cultivation, Krune already had quite a bit of it, he couldn''t help but feel expectant about his Core Formation Realm Breakthrough. Two hours later, Marcus asked for him to forge the last Divine Imprint, by this time, Krune was already completely used with the forging process, at first he would take over two hours to finish making one, but now he didn''t need even thirty minutes, Marcus had to keep adapting to Krune''s speed, but that wasn''t a big issue, he just had to ask for it later. After completing the last Divine Imprint, Krune went back to his corner and waited, even after the Divine Imprint was done, the process of forging the shield would still take a few more hours, for a second, Krune thought that since this is the last one, he didn''t need to wait, but he ignored that idea, he had waited for so long already, a few more hours will make no difference, so he stayed. It was already night time when Marcus took a deep breath, the last of the thirty-eight shields was finally completed, one could see the fatigue on his face, but at the same time, he seemed quite pleased with the results, he then passed it to Krune and asked him to give a quick try with all of them together. Krune was also happy to see that all of them were finally done and immediately took out the other thirty-seven shields, after charging them with enough spiritual energy, Krune then went to an open space of the room, he then released the shields on the air and they started to float around him following different directions, it was quite a magical scene to see Krune in the center of those flying shields, Marcus couldn''t help but nod in approval, Krune could really control all of them at the same time. Krune then performed a few maneuvers but couldn''t get them to attach together as he wanted, sometimes they didn''t stop one beside the other as he wanted, other times their corners hit the corners of the other shields, leaving the formation of the shield wall incomplete, Marcus saw Krune doing that and started to laugh out loud. "That is to be expected, precisely controlling thirty-eight shields at once wasn''t something that a Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator could do to start with, you will need to practice quite a lot, but since you can already control them to a certain extent, it will only be a time issue until you can use them properly." Krune then recalled the Shields back into his spatial ring and nodded to Marcus. "I was already expecting it as well, it''s really hard to control them perfectly, but I believe I will be able to do so in no time, I really have to thank you for these marvelous shields, they are simply amazing, I can feel the sturdiness of every single one of them, not to mention how easily the spiritual energy and the elements flow inside of them are, I can definitely call them masterpieces." Marcus nodded. "There is no need for all of that blabbering, I was paid for this job already anyway, so it goes without saying that I would definitely complete them to the best of my abilities, I look forward to seeing how you will use them in the Martial Gathering." Krune nodded and exchanged a few more words, just when he was about to leave, Marcus called him from behind. "Krune, your talent for forging is no less than Alchemy or Formations, in the future, you will come to understand that a weapon, or a shield in your case, can only achieve its best results in the hands of the person who forged it, so, don''t give up forging, it will be of immense help for you in the future." Krune wasn''t surprised with that statement since he already guessed as much, but for him to be able to make shields of this quality, he would need to be at least a Five Stars Blacksmith like Marcus, and he didn''t have enough time nor the cultivation to reach that level. "I know, I will not leave my forging skills behind, there will come a day when I forge the perfect shields." Marcus heard that and was surprised. "So you didn''t want to simply make a few Divine Imprints, that is good them, don''t forget to pay me a visit after you come back from the Martial Gathering, I want to hear how was the performance of my babies." Marcus then passed a spatial ring to Krune. "Inside you will find the necessary materials to repair your shields, you might not have achieved the level to make them, but it should be no problem for you to keep them in good condition." Marcus then laughed and went back to the Blacksmith Hall. Krune liked Marcus very much, he was really an easy going person and nice to talk with, not to mention that his abilities were the real deal. --- Krune went back to his room and opened his communicator, he then told Yusa and the others that he had finished making his equipment, and then asked if they didn''t want to go eat something, everyone had been busy training all this time, so this little time to relax was greatly appreciated. They gathered in Ao''s room, and the one who cooked, of course, was Krune again after the food was ready, they started to eat while Krune explained what happened after creating the ninth meridian, Shinja and the others couldn''t help but be amazed by that, of course, Krune left out little light''s existence. "The meridians opened a spatial gate, how is that even possible, it''s a totally different matter from simply teleporting, I can''t believe that." Shinja was a lot more concerned with the changes though. "To think you can acquire Elemental Source Energy before the Core Formation Realm, if I knew that, I would have waited for when I had nine meridians too, that would give me a nice boost." Of course, Shinja knows that Krune is a pioneer in the Spiritual Energy Meridians, so he was also discovering things little by little. Krune then said. "I gathered some information and it seems like there are a few treasures that can help with the core just like the Elemental Energy Source, it''s just that you won''t be able to find them here in the Makui Planet." Yusa and Ao were a little sad. "In our case, it''s even worse, we do know that it is possible to do that, but because our dantains can''t support nine Spiritual Energy Meridians, we won''t be able to do it before the Core Formation Realm even if we know." Krune then shook his head. "It might be impossible, but don''t forget that once you breakthrough into the Core Formation Realm, you should be able to support nine Spiritual Energy Meridians, at that time, we will know if they can also be upgraded to the Elemental Source Meridians like mine." He then continued. "The best part of the Elemental Source Meridians is the fact that they can already convert part of the Spiritual Energy directly into Elemental Source Energy, you won''t need to do it yourself, and so it will increase the speed of your cultivation in the Core Formation Realm by quite some extent." "Also, I think that their efficiency will increase once they are used by Core Formation Realm cultivators, I say that because my old Spiritual Energy Meridians got a lot better after I entered the Foundation Establishment." Everyone nodded, they had to admit that such a possibility was really high, Ao then asked Shinja about her progress with the Spiritual Energy Meridians, since she is already a Core Formation Realm cultivator. "I gathered quite a few spirit stones doing missions and assaulting a few spiritual energy veins deep into the Ice Hell Danger Zone, so I used them to open my sixth Spiritual Energy Meridian, but I''m still quite far away from getting the last three." She then continued. "But I already tested if it is possible to create a seventh meridian, and I was able to start the process without feeling anything, so you should be able to do the same after you enter the Core Formation Realm." Yusa and Ao nodded, they were already expecting as much, it was then that Krune looked at Yusa and said. "I can see that you entered the 9th Stage of the Foundation Establishment, even Ao, who had a higher cultivator than you in the past, has fallen behind now." Yusa immediately showed a smile. "That is to be expected since I said that I was going to participate of the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam, I will need to enter the Core Formation Realm in the next seven months before it starts, so I focused a lot more in reinforcing my foundation and cultivating." Ao also reported his progress. "I spent every single second I had sparing against senior Orle, I don''t mind my cultivation falling a little behind, I got a lot more during those fights against him, I believe that if I fought Arlan now, I definitely would be at his level, not to mention that even if my cultivation hasn''t improved, it got a lot sturdier." Ao then reminded Yusa. "You should reinforce your cultivation too, focus mainly on it, then you can definitely avoid any instability, the worst thing you could do it to attempt a breakthrough with an unstable foundation, even if you succeed, you won''t bring the best results out of it." Yusa agreed with that. "There is no need to worry, I already used some of my spirit stones to buy a few items capable of accelerating the reinforcement of my cultivation, I''m sure that my foundation will be totally fine when I try to Breakthrough into the Core Formation Realm." Yusa then looked at Krune. "But your case is different, you were the one who lagged behind the most, is it okay for you to be in the 8th stage already?" Krune understood her concern. "I did it for the Martial Gathering, my foundation indeed got a little unstable after this last breakthrough, but I''m already at the level that I was planning to be, so I won''t cultivate anymore until the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam starts, that will give me enough time to reinforce it, not to mention that I already got a few cultivation resources focused on the foundation from Guild Head Bary, so I should be fine." With all said and done, they went back to enjoy their food, according to Guild Head Bary, they would be leaving for the Makui Continent next day morning, even though there is still a week before the Divine Path Sect Spaceship leaves, Bary wants to make sure that nothing goes wrong, so they are leaving really early. Chapter 93 - Trouble Incoming Next day morning, Bary and a few elders were already waiting close to the long-distance teleport formation, Krune''s group arrived right after, only Krune and Ao will be participating this time around, but Shinja and Yusa were going together just to see how the first phase would go out, Bary didn''t mind, there is a lot of contestants that are bringing their subordinates to take care of their necessities, it''s a common situation in the cultivator world anyway. "I see that you achieved a breakthrough into the 8th stage, that is good, you should have a better chance passing the Martial Gathering now, but I know that you did it quite in a hurry, so remember to spend the next few months reinforcing your foundation instead of cultivating." Krune nodded. "That was my plans from the start, Guild Head Bary has no need to worry." Bary then looked at Ao Sulian. "How was this period of training with Orle?" Ao immediately thanked Bary. "He was of immense help, I was somewhat weaker than Arlan, but I reckon that I should be able to fight on equal grounds against him now." Bary and the elders hear that and were very satisfied, Arlan definitely had the strength to fight for one of the ten slots, if Ao has the power to fight against him on equal grounds, that means that he also has a chance of getting one of the ten slots, Bary them clapped his hands and said. "Alright, get over the long-distance teleport formation, we are going to the Makui Continent." They stepped on it, after the teleport formation finished charging up with spiritual energy, everyone on it disappeared with a silver flash. --- The city of Marlow was the place where the Spaceship of the Divine Path Sect was staying at moment, it was on the border of the biggest danger zone of the Makui Continent, the Abyss Danger Zone, different from other cities that are bordering danger zones, this one was stationed right beside it, so anyone who wished to enter the danger zone wouldn''t need to travel for days to reach it. One of the various long-distance teleport formations in the city started to shine and an instant later, Krune''s group appeared on it, this time, there was no one waiting for them, which is to be expected, there is a lot of contestants this time around, the city couldn''t possibly arrange so many people at the same time, after arriving there, Guild Head Bary guided everyone to the Mercenary Guild Branch of that city where their rooms were already waiting for them. As soon as they arrived, they bumped on the Makui Continent Mercenary Guild Head, Lowen Isfal, and beside him was Arlan Rosier, they had just arrived as well, Bary and Lowen went somewhere else to talk while Arlan stayed behind, he then turned to Krune and Ao. "It''s been a while." Ao and Krune nodded, Ao had quite a good impression from him. "Not that long, just one month and something, how has your training coming around?" Arlan laughed at that question. "You really are a sword maniac just like me, the first thing you ask is about my skills, but I like that, I''ve been receiving swordsmanship training from the Guild Head this time around, it seems like he has quite high hopes for me." Ao eyes lit up, all he wanted at moment was to spare with Arlan to see how much both of them had really improved, but Yusa stopped them middle way. "Alright, don''t go out there challenging people right when you see them, you need to keep your peak condition for the Martial Gathering, and you can display all your skills as much as you want when it starts." Arlan and Ao nodded, in the end, Krune''s group invited Arlan to have a meal with them, surprisingly, Arlan really accepted the invite. "I was expecting you to refuse, you know?" Arlan then asked. "Should I leave then?" Krune shook his head. "Ignore her, I''m more than happy to cook for more people, just meet us back here in an hour, I''m going to take a look in my room first and I believe the rest of us will be doing the same." Arlan nodded and then went back to do his own things, the same was for Krune and the others, after checking in their rooms and looking into a few information, they gathered back in the entrance around one hour later. Arlan then asked. "Where should we go? I know a few restaurants around here." Since he was willing to show it for them, everyone nodded. They arrived soon, after taking a room for themselves, Krune looked on the menu and asked for almost everything he hasn''t tasted before, which made Arlan''s jaw drop, he wondered if Krune could really eat all of that, not long after, the food arrived. While they were eating, Arlan made an invite. "I''m going to the Danger Zone beside the city after this to train my sword skills a bit, do you guys want to tag along?" Ao immediately accepted, seeing that, Krune and the others nodded too, they had nothing to do in the meantime anyway, since they still have a week before the Spaceship departs, they might as well take a look in this danger zone, as long as they don''t go deeper, a group of their level shouldn''t have any issues. After finishing eating, they were about to stand up to leave the restaurant when suddenly, they heard a commotion coming from the entrance, after making their way down to see, they found out who was the culprit, Arlan then explained. "That is Roni, he came with the elder of the Divine Path Sect who is overseeing the Martial Gathering of our planet this time, I heard that he hated to be in our planet and had been causing trouble around ever since he arrived." Krune''s group didn''t expect that guy to be someone from the Divine Path Sect, they could see he complaining about the quality of the restaurant and its food, Arlan then explained the things Roni had been doing ever since and how his martial sister had to intervene every time to prevent things from scaling. Krune''s group saw how Roni was acting and their first impression of him was as bad as bad could be, but they decided to ignore him, this guy wasn''t their problem, after all, so they moved to the entrance to exit the restaurant, it was then that Roni caught a glance from Shinja in the middle of Krune''s group, as a Pure Yin Body woman, she was obviously very beautiful, he immediately stopped what he was doing and came over. He stopped the group and talked with Shinja, his eyes didn''t stop on Krune or the others for even a second, he was obviously treating them like air. "Hello, lady! Would you like to accompany me for a chat?" Shinja''s face immediately darkened, other than the people in her group, she usually turned a cold shoulder to anyone who approached her, Divine Path Sect or not, she couldn''t care less about him. "Scram!" She ignored him and left with everyone, Roni was frozen on the spot, he had never expected that someone of this planet would dare to ask for him to scram, a moment after his face turned ugly and he immediately went after Krune''s group, but just as he was about to start another big commotion, his martial sister appeared and grabbed his shoulder. "She doesn''t want to talk with you, so leave her alone." In fact, Lena was very satisfied with how Shinja treated this idiot martial brother of hers, if not for the fact that they have the same master, she would have crippled him already, she really couldn''t understand why her master kept someone like him on his side as a disciple. Roni understood that he wouldn''t be able to make a move on Shinja at this moment and just snorted, he took flight and left straight away, Lena looked back at Krune''s group and sighed, she knows that Roni won''t give up so easily, his pride is so big that it could reach the heavens, but she did all that she could at moment, she then let out a sigh and left as well. Arlan was still impressed with how Shinja treated the Divine Path Sect guy, how many people in their planet would dare to do so? "Sister Shinja, I''m really amazed by your actions, don''t you fear that guy taking revenge on you? I heard that he raised a tumult every time something displeased him on our planet, quite a lot of people got injured just because of his whims." Shinja wasn''t the only one to not care about Roni, Krune too didn''t give a damn about him, as for Ao and Yusa, they were more or less following the flow, they do think that offending someone of the Divine Path Sect isn''t good, but they won''t stand on their side if Roni decides to bully someone of their group. "He is just a Core Formation Realm like me, I have nothing to fear, not to mention, according to what you told us, the Divine Path Sect seems to don''t mind his actions, only his martial sister is stopping by sometimes to check if he isn''t starting a war all of sudden, which means that no one is giving him any backup." Arlan was taken aback by those words, he had to admit that it made some sense, other than Lena, no one appeared to care about what he was doing. It didn''t take long for them to arrive at the city''s gate, after signing the same agreement as always, they immediately left, Ao and Arlan decided to use the demon beasts to see who was better at fighting them, although their personalities were quite different, they seemed to be very competitive when the way of the sword was involved, Krune and the others tagged along and watched the show, it was very entertaining for them to see those two fighting. There was only one thing Arlan found strange, Ao had put the condition that they shouldn''t kill or cripple the demons beasts, only defeat them. ''Maybe because it''s harder to simply defeat instead of killing that he asked for it.'' Back at the Divine Path Sect Spaceship, Lena was taking care of a few things when she noticed that her martial brother disappeared again, she could already imagine where he went, but since that girl who said ''scram'' to Roni is also a Core Formation Realm cultivator, she should be able to at least flee, so she didn''t pursue him this time, instead, she went to talk with her master. After knocking the door, her master allowed her to enter. "Master, that time bomb left again." Loni heard that and sighed. "Just let him be, I''m starting to feel tired of taking care of his delusions already." Lena couldn''t help but ask. "Master, I really can''t understand, I refuse to believe that you would take someone like him as a disciple, he doesn''t suit master''s teachings at all." Loni heard that and shook his head. "I don''t like him either, but that was a request from his grandfather, I couldn''t simply refuse." Lena was taken aback, to make an external elder to be forced to take Roni as a disciple, his grandfather must have great influence in the sect. "Just who is him?" Her master looked away and just said. "His grandfather is Gile Qergil, one of the Core Elders of the sect." Lena finally understood why her master couldn''t ignore that request, but why would they ask an external elder to take care of a member of their family, with their influence, it would be way too easy to ask for an inner elder to teach him instead. Noticing the puzzled face of her disciple, Loni explained. "It''s his talent, turns out that his family has very little hope for his future accomplishments, so they ditched him over for me to take care, that''s why he is always like that." Lena got puzzled again. "But he is also a 3rd stage Core Formation Realm just like me, and he is even two years younger, how come his talent is low?" It was then that Lena thought about something. "I see, it was through a lot of pills and resources that he got to where he is, am I right?" Loni nodded. "Yes, but his talent wasn''t always like that, he had big hopes before, but his nature of always playing around and never cultivating affected him greatly, I heard that after he used some pills to raise his cultivation, he got addicted to them, he thought that with his background and enough amount of cultivation resources, he wouldn''t need to care about getting strong, of course, as you know, if you don''t properly cultivate and keep using pills and whatever all the time, your foundation will become unstable, eventually, you won''t be able to improve anymore." He then continued "His family has a lot of children, so they usually don''t pay too much attention to every single one of them, when they finally noticed how shaky Roni''s foundation had become, it was already too late to fix it unless they paid a heavy price for some heavenly treasures, there is no way he can recover from that, and considering his lax attitude and laziness for cultivation, there is no way that his family would ever pay the price for him, so they could only ditch him somewhere, and your master just happens to be the one to bear the burden." Loni then sighed. "Of course, with his background and resources, he can still enter the Soul Forging Realm relying on it alone, maybe even the Void Breaking Realm, but for a member of the Core Elder Gile Qergil''s family, stopping at the Void Breaking Realm is nothing but humiliation in their records, that''s why they immediately got rid of him." Loni then put a serious expression and warned Lena. "Do not spread this information, it is because master trusts you that I''m telling you about it, otherwise, the Qergil family might find problems with you, your talent is a lot higher than mine, I trust that you will be able to become an inner elder or maybe even a Core Elder in the future, so make sure to stay out of this troubled water." Lena took a deep breath and nodded. --- Roni was still holding a grudge about what happened with Shinja, even though he was cast aside by his family, he is still a member of the Divine Path Sect, and considering his extremely prideful character, there is no way he could simply let it go, so he made sure to keep track of where they had gone and immediately left the city after Krune''s group since they entered the danger zone, he doesn''t need to care about what happens there, he was planning to kill Krune and the others and rape Shinja before killing her too. Even though his foundation is now lost, his cultivation techniques and skills are far above those that can be found in the Makui Planet, so he would still be able to fight 4th and even 5th Stage ordinary Core Formation Realm cultivators, he noticed that Shinja was only at the 2nd stage, so he wasn''t afraid of her at all, as for the others, since they weren''t in the Core Formation Realm, he couldn''t care less about them. It only took him a few hours to catch up with them. "Gotcha!" Chapter 94 - Im Just as Warm as You All Everyone in Krune''s group at moment had powerful Divine Senses, so they immediately felt when Roni scanned their positions, they looked over and it didn''t take long from him to coming flying at them, Shinja''s face immediately became ugly, only an idiot would not understand that he came for her, Arlan looked at Shinja concerned, but then, he noticed that Krune and the others didn''t pay much attention to Roni. Krune simply looked at Shinja and asked. "Need our help?" Shinja just gave him a side glance, Roni might be one stage higher than her, but she is still confident in her abilities, she had the Spiritual Energy Meridians and the Soul Cultivation technique from the Rainbow Sect, not to mention the power of the Pure Yin Body, if with all of that she still can''t match Roni, then she might as well give up joining the Divine Path Sect. "No need, I am more than enough." Roni finally arrived and looked at everyone, he then gave a lecherous smile at Shinja and said. "I can give you a chance, warm my bed tonight and I will only cripple your friends, what about that?" Yusa heard that and started to laugh. "Shinja has a Pure Yin Body, doesn''t matter how much she stays in your bed, it will never get warm." Ao and Krune heard that and started to laugh as well, only Arlan felt that they were out of their minds, that is a member of the Divine Path Sect, you know? Surprisingly, Shinja retorted that comment. "Don''t talk as If I''m a block of ice, as long as I don''t use the power of my Pure Yin Body, I am as warm as any of you, of course, that idiot from the Divine Path Sect over there will never find out about it." Ao didn''t lose the chance. "How can you say that about Shinja? It''s obvious that the one who will turn out to have a cold body is that Roni guy, after all, dead people can''t get warm." Of course, Shinja wouldn''t dare to really kill or cripple this guy, but a beating should be just fine. Roni heard all those comments and got even more infuriated, let alone Shinja, even the Foundation Establishment ones aren''t putting him in their eyes at all, it especially hurt a lot more because of the fact that his family had also lost any hope on him, so their attitude reminded him from when he was cast aside from his family. "You are courting death!" He ignored Shinja and immediately attacked the person closest to him, which just so happened to be Krune, Shinja saw the speed which he pounced at Krune and just snorted, he is indeed fast, but he obviously used just the necessary speed to deal with ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators, and Krune, of course, could be anything but ordinary. "Tribulation Lightning Instant Movement!" Roni''s took out his spear and attacked Krune, it then passed through Krune''s body, but he didn''t feel the sensation of a weapon piercing a body, it felt like his spear hit nothing but air, it was then that he noticed that Krune''s body wasn''t anything more than an afterimage, he spread his Divine Sense and found out that Krune was behind Shinja, which alarmed him greatly, that speed wasn''t something a Foundation Establishment of a planet like this should be able to achieve. Krune then looked at Roni and said. "She is your opponent, don''t bother wasting time with me." He then retreated to the side with his group and they gave space for Shinja to deal with Roni. Roni was even more enraged now, the people from this planet that he considered to be ants, were looking at him with disdain, it should have been him the one to look at them like that, he immediately moved and attacked Shinja, and he used his sect movement skill, this time, he was moving without holding anything back. Shinja finally put a serious face, although Roni doesn''t seem very strong, his movement skills are obviously might better than hers, unfortunately for him, the lack of combat prowess made it easy for Shinja to deal with his speed, they exchanged quite a few blows, but no victor could be seen, Roni was starting to lose his mind already, this girl that he believed he could crush with his finger turned out to not be any weaker than himself, and her cultivation was even lower! It was then that an Ice Icicle came out of nowhere and hit him on his shoulder, not only that, but the power of the lightning element was inside that icicle, his body immediately went numb and made him lose his attention for a second, Shinja used that chance to summon the Myriad Water Thunder Dragons and attacked him, with nowhere to run, Roni could only do his best to defend against the dragons, but every time he destroyed one, the power of lightning inside them was released and attacked him again. Shinja''s control over her Ice, Water and Lightning element had increased by leaps and bounds, she can even use Ice and Lightning together without being afraid of the lightning destroying the ice, and Myriad Water Dragons is even more so, it is now a two in one attack, if the Water Dragons Fail, there is still the lightning attack behind it, and of course, if they don''t fail, then the damage is even higher. Finally, Roni wasn''t able to hold the attacks anymore, just when he was about to lose and suffer several injuries, an old man appeared and deflected the attack. Be it Shinja or Krune, neither of them noticed from where this guy came from, everyone was immediately put on high alert, Roni might be easy to deal with, but this man in front of them is obviously in another league. His name was Harold, and his cultivation is at the Soul Forging Realm, he was given the mission by the external elder to protect Roni in case anything went wrong, but he could only appear if Roni was in real danger. The old man looked at Shina and said. "Let''s finish it here, I could see that you weren''t really trying to kill or cripple him, only giving him a beating, which is totally understandable due to the way he treated you all since that''s the case, I will not make a move on you, just go back to the city for now." Roni finally came back to himself just in time to hear what his protector said, he immediately got furious and rebuked the old man. "What the hell are you doing? Kill them now! They humiliated me, only death can pay for their sins." The old man looked at Roni with a helpless face, he then covered Roni with his spiritual energy and forcefully dragged him back to the city, he is only responsible for protecting him, as for how to deal with this trash of their Divine Path Sect, this is something for the external elder to decide. Shinja and the other let out a sigh of relief, if that guy really made a move, they would be doomed for sure, fortunately, he was a reasonable person. Krune looked at everyone and said. "Let''s go back, for now, it will be better than risk having that idiot giving us trouble anymore." Everyone nodded and started to move back, at first, this was supposed to be a relaxing trip with no dangers involved, but it turned out to be a serious issue now that the Divine Path Sect is involved, they could only hope that it wouldn''t affect them during the Martial Gathering. --- Back into the Spaceship, Harold released Roni in front of the external elder, Loni Ravser looked at Roni and sighed once more, how many sighs have he done ever since he got to take care of this idiot? Harold took out a recording device and showed to the external elder what happened, as soon as Loni saw the battle, he got excited, Shinja''s prowess far surpassed what he could expect in a planet like Makui, it was then that he heard Roni asking for Harold to kill everyone, immediately, his expression turned livid, he looked at Roni who pretended to not care about anything and couldn''t hold himself anymore, he then gave Roni a kick and sent him flying until he hit the wall of the Spaceship, Roni coughed some blood and almost passed out, his face showed surprise, he had never thought that this external elder would dare to kick a member of the Qergil family like him. "You trash! Instead of recognizing your inferiority and use this chance to put more focus on your cultivation, you asked for Harold to kill them? Do you have any idea how much humiliation I and Harold would suffer if someone found out that we raised our hands against Core Formation Juniors?" Loni grabbed him by the neck and continued. "Your family abandoned you, and that is completely understandable, with this kind of resolve of yours, the laziness for cultivation, weak mind, and meaningless pride, you are fated to be trash for the rest of your life! When will you understand that only your own power can be counted with?" The elder threw Roni to the side and gave him an order. "From now on you are confined in your room and will focus only in reinforcing your foundation, although it has been damaged due to your carelessness, it still can bring you up to the Void Breaking Realm, I will check your progress in a few months times, and if it hasn''t improved even a little bit, just see if I don''t give you another beating!" Roni slowly got up and stared in hatred at his master. "You dare to hurt a member of the Qergil family? You are doomed, just you wait until I contact my grandfather!" Loni sent a wave of spiritual energy and knocked Roni to the ground again, he then opened a communicator and connected to the monitor in the room, Roni looked at who his master was video calling and his face went pale. On the other side, a burly old man appeared, he had white hair and a short beard, the scars in his body showed how many battles he had gone through in his life, cultivators can get rid of scars easily, but that old man considered those scars his pride, he looked at Roni''s sorry state, then at Loni Ravser and sighed. "What did this idiotic grandson of mine done this time?" As soon as Roni heard those first words, he lost all hope, that old man was none other than his grandfather, Gile Qergil, the core elder of the Divine Path Sect. Loni Ravser immediately played the video of Roni''s battle against Shinja, Gile was really impressed, that Shinja girl had amazing talents, he was told beforehand that she was only at the 2nd Stage of the Core Formation Realm, and Gile didn''t even know about this planet called Makui before, it goes to show how insignificant this world is, but it still gave birth to such a talent, not only her, he also saw the moment that Roni attacked Krune but the later dodged the attack as if it was nothing, he was getting excited the further the battle continued, it was then that Harold intervened and Roni asked to kill everyone. Gile''s face contorted at every word said by Roni, he even had the urge to kill Roni himself. "Bastard! You wanted to kill someone who defeated you in a fair and square battle and who even had cultivation and techniques worse than yours? And she was even holding back to not really hurt you! But instead of acknowledging their talents which is exactly what our Divine Path Sect seeks so much, you asked to kill them? Are you even a thinking member of our Sect?" Gile looked at Loni Ravser in the video and said. "Well done in lecturing him, Loni, I own you one, I give you total authority to do whatever you think necessary to put this idiot grandson of mine back in line, he better not let me hear about anything like that again, otherwise, the one who will kill him is none other than myself." Gile then sent a private message to Loni. "Also, pay attention to that group, from what I could see, they have enormous potential, a promotion might even be in line for you depending on how good their abilities turn out to be." Loni nodded. The videocall was finished and the elder locked Roni in his room, on the sides Lena watched everything, she was also impressed with the combat power that Shinja demonstrated in the video, and she made a mental note to pay attention to her. Inside Roni''s room, he was cursing everyone to no end, his family, his master, the ones who put him in this position, the hatred in his eyes were obvious for everyone to see, but he knew that he won''t have his way anymore, with his grandfather final decree, no one can save him from this predicament, eventually, he calmed down and started to focus on reinforcing his foundation, with everything said and done, there was only one way to leave this room, and that is to complete the task his master had given him. "You just wait, I won''t give up just like this." --- Back in the mercenary guild, Krune and the others reported what happened to them in the Danger Zone, Guild Heads Bary and Lowen were taken aback, to think that such a thing would happen as soon as they arrived, they immediately contacted the Divine Path Sect Spaceship and check the situation of their members, they were afraid that the elder would take out Krune, Ao, and Arlan''s chance to participate in the martial Gathering. But to their surprise, the one who received their call was the external elder himself, Loni Ravser. "I''ve heard what happened, and I''m deeply sorry by the behavior of my disciple, I already gave him a harsh lecture and you have my word that he won''t cause any trouble anymore, as for your members slots in the Martial Gathering, you have no need to worry, everything will continue as planned, that''s all for now." After Loni disconnected, Bary and Lowen looked at each other, and they could see their weird faces, just what happened here? Chapter 95 - Dragon Essence Liquid The Guild Heads came back and told Krune and the others that there was no problem with their slots for the Martial Gathering, much for their relief, that was a Divine Path Sect disciple after all, after Guild Head Lowen left with Arlan, Krune''s group went back to do their own things, just to be safe, they decided to not leave the city anymore in the next few days before the Spaceship departs. Days passed and finally a week went by, today, all the contestant were waiting in front of the Divine Path Sect Spaceship for the external elder to come out, not long after, the comports of the ship opened and Loni Ravser appeared, he took a look at everyone and then said. "Alright, you can all enter now, the people inside will show your own cabins, and the ship will leave in one hour, those who aren''t here by that time will not be able to participate anymore, if you have anything else to do, do that now, that''s all." After that, he went back into the ship, everyone immediately went aboard, it took only a few minutes for they to disappear inside, outside, only the people from their own guilds or whatever who aren''t going stayed looking, the clock kept moving and now and then, someone would come rushing into the ship, even at this moment, there were those who are late, the last hour passed fast and finally, the ship''s comport closed, a few minutes later, it took off. Krune''s group was looking outside, it was the first time for all of them that to leave the planet, and it had a special meaning for Krune since he still intends to keep his promise, it could be said that this is the first step towards that objective, of course, in Krune''s mind, he still believes that Feifei had long since forgotten about him already, but he didn''t bother with that detail now. The ship was really spacious, even with the over a thousand participants, there was a lot of empty rooms, the ship also had training rooms, cultivation rooms, so on and so forth, Arlan had already kidnapped Ao to spare a little with him, on the condition that they wouldn''t go overboard, he also asked Krune if he wanted to come, but Krune refused, he wanted to use his free time to get used to his Hexagonal Shields, and several days of hard work were finally paying off, although it couldn''t be considered perfect, he already could make several formations with his shields. Krune is also a Four Stars Formations Master, so he had taken a few items from the Mercenary Guild to inscribe protection formations on each one of them, the only problem was that the space he had for inscribing them was quite small, so he couldn''t do anything too complicated, but nonetheless, it was already much better than having nothing. Shinja and Yusa left together, their job at moment is pretty much cultivation or reinforcing their foundation, so they got a cultivation room and practiced together, now and then Shinja would practice combat with Yusa, they use the same elements after all, and just like that, their travel continued. Twelve days later, they finally got to the Garmon Planet, this is a planet used especially for things like the Martial Gathering, the people in the Ship could see several other ships outside, during this time of the year, it was common for several elders to select the Garmon Planet for their own competitions, so a lot of other planet''s people could be found here, the Spaceship entered the atmosphere and it didn''t take long for it to arrive in one of the few cities of the planet, as a planet used especially for testing, it didn''t have kingdoms, countries or anything like that, just cities ruled by the Divine Path Sect. The comport of their ship opened and the external elder, Loni Ravser, guided everyone to the building where they would be staying, after arriving there, the people found out that they weren''t the only ones staying in this place, the building was big enough to hold tens of thousands of cultivators and demon beasts, and as soon as they entered, Loni''s face changed, that is because he noticed someone he didn''t want to see. It was another external elder of the Divine Path Sect, a woman called Kirian Lou, elders Loni and Kirian have always been on bad terms, whenever possible, they would find a reason to get in the other''s way, and this time was not different, elder Kirian was tasked to overseeing the competition of the Ragne Planet, which is a planet with higher standards than the Makui Planet, so she made sure to find out where elder Loni would be going, and as soon as she found the information, she immediately applied for the Garmon Planet as well. "Look who is here, isn''t that Elder Loni? What a coincidence!" Elder Loni''s face was as ugly as it could be. "Coincidence your head! Who do you think you are talking to? It is obvious that you arranged it on purpose, so speak, what you want?" Elder Kirian heard those harsh words but didn''t care at all if the positions were swapped, he definitely would have done the same, so elder Kirian just laughed and said. "Oh, it''s nothing much, I heard that you were coming here to test your planet''s contestants, so I brought mine as well to have some fun, at the same time, we could make a little bit." Elder Loni knew very well why she would offer it, the Ragne planet was stronger than the Makui planet, and so was the average combat power of their geniuses, she wants to have their test together and the planet with the higher results would win. "Hmph! You are only taking advantage of the difference in level between the planets that we are overseeing, are you not ashamed of yourself?" Kirian kept smiling and said. "Oh, I know the difference between both of them, but if you think that I''m going to take advantage of that, then you are completely wrong, as far as I know, you brought over 1300 contestants this time, right? My Ragne Planet was little harsher with this year''s competitions in their planet, so I only got a little bit less than 1000 people, you still would have the advantage in numbers, we both know that my Planet is only one level higher than yours, so it should be very fair, no?" Elder Loni was conflicted, they had 30% more people than elder Kirian, but he also understands that their combat prowess is bound to be higher than normal since the Ragne Planet usually have around 2000 people, even though he knows that, if he runs away while having the numbers advantage, he would be the laughing stock of the outer sect when he goes back, after pondering about the pros and cons, he showed a determined face. "Fine, I accept, what are we betting this time?" Elder Kirian''s smile immediately got even brighter. "Oh, nothing much, I hear that you have just obtained a big chunk of Spiritual Luminous Ore, and it just so happens that I need some of that ore, so what do you think?" Loni''s face immediately contorted, he paid a very big price for that ore, and it wasn''t something that you could buy just because you had the money, although he wasn''t very willing, if Kirian asked for his Luminous Ore, then she definitely had something on par to offer back. "And what are you putting against my ore? As far as I know, you don''t have anything of that level." Kirian laughed after hearing that. "That''s where you are wrong, I also acquired a treasure recently, here I have a bottle of Dragon Essence Liquid that I got by chance, and I shouldn''t need to say anything else, right?" Elder Loni''s eyes almost popped out of their sockets, he scanned the bottle with his Divine Sense and confirmed that Kirian wasn''t lying, that was really Dragon Essence Liquid! "You! How did you get this Dragon Essence Liquid?" Kirian put that bottle back inside of her spatial ring and just said. "You aren''t the only one with connections out there, you know?" "So, how about it, still afraid to bet?" Elder Loni took a deep breath, he really wanted that bottle of Dragon Essence Liquid. "Fine, how should we do it?" Kirian immediately replied. "Let''s follow your arrangements, if I''m not wrong, you were planning to do a team exploring contest, right? It''s just that we are spicing it a bit." Loni kept hearing. "We will put both planets contestants together and give each team a team token, their objective is to have at least three tokens by the time they arrive at the other side of the testing zone, less than that and the team will fail, let''s bet on the best team of each planet, after counting the tokens of all teams that cleared the test, we will check which team has the highest number of tokens and the planet that they are from, depending of that result, we will know who won." At first, Loni was going to refuse, but then he remembered the talk he had with Gile Qergil back in the Makui Planet, he didn''t know much about Krune''s power, just that he was extremely fast for his level, but Gile seemed to be really impressed with him, so Loni then greeted his teeth and said. "I accept!" Kirian was taken aback, she was sure that Loni would complain about this arrangement, after all, it totally benefits her side, but the fact that he accepted the bet without complaining about her idea made her more cautious than happy. ''Could it be that a real genius appeared in the Makui Planet?'' But it was too late to go back on her word now, so she could only follow the flow. In fact, Loni wasn''t very confident in Krune or his group, but he really needed that Dragon Essence Liquid, and it wasn''t like he couldn''t afford to lose his Luminous Ore either, so he decided to risk this bet. This arrangement will probably make the number of people of the Makui Planet finishing this test to be under than the planned 400, but that isn''t a problem since he can simply adapt to the final number, not to mention that only the best ten would be going to the Divine Path Sect entrance exam anyway. Loni gathered all the Makui Planet''s contestants and then told them about the test changes this time around. "You will need to leave this city in two days at 10 o''clock in the morning, you are not allowed to leave earlier but can do that later, it''s up to you, this time around, you will be competing with the Ragne Planet at the same time, so I doubt there will even be 400 of you in the end, but I tell you this, if a team of your Planet has the highest number of tokens between all teams, the victory is mine against Elder Kirian, and I will bestow six drops of Dragon Essence Liquid to that team, trust me when I say that it totally worth giving it your all." Krune heard that and immediately got excited, not a lot of people know about the Dragon Essence Liquid, but as a Four Stars Alchemist, he obviously had some knowledge, it had several uses, one of them was improving a demon beast''s bloodline, as for cultivators, they could use it in alchemy for Breakthrough pill, or foundation reinforcing pills, and many other ways, as far as he knows, such pills would be efficient even for Void Breaking Realm cultivators and demons beasts, best of all, the pills made of this essence would leave no side effects at all, and Krune knew exactly for what he would use those drops. "A Soul Healing Pill, I can make a Soul Healing Pill!" Chapter 96 - Feeling Like Leftovers As mentioned before, when a cultivator is entering the Core Formation Realm, they need to feed their core part of their own soul, and it will leave a severe injury right after the process that can''t be healed without a lot of time, but the Soul Healing Pill can heal the soul instantly! It is different from the Stabilizing Soul Technique, the technique simply repress the injury in the soul temporarily while the cultivator deals with the Heavenly Tribulation, but the cultivator still needs to take his time to slowly heal it after, if the cultivator gets the soul restored right after the core is fed, their chances of succeeding against the Heavenly Tribulation is increased several times, the Soul Stabilizing Technique is very good, but it can''t compare with the Soul Healing Pill. Ao heard what Krune said and asked what was it, as soon as he heard the explanation, his eyes lit up as well, he was the same as Krune now, determined to get those six drops of Dragon Essence Liquid at all costs! Elder Loni looked at everyone and then started to explain the rules. "As mentioned, this is a team contest, every team can have between three and five members, you can''t leave the city until 10 o''clock in the morning two days from now, the same is valid for the team members of the Ragne Planet, at moment we are on the border of this continent, your objective is to reach the Ravil City which is in the center, and the time limit is one month, each team will have one black token, any team who wishes to pass this test has to have at least three black tokens by the time they reach the Ravil City, and that is also counting your own token." Loni then continued. "Each team will receive another blue token meant to be a lifesaving method, every member of that group must use a drop of blood on this blue token, once this token is crushed, it will create a barrier around you and your team members which only a Divine Soul Realm Cultivator or higher can break, but remember that after activating this token, you will be officially out of this gathering, obviously, your black token will be automatically released outside of this barrier, a member of the Divine Path Sect will come out and them bring you back to the city after that, remember that this is your last resort, and only your team leader can activate your token." "There will be no one here to protect you, this is the territory of the Divine Path Sect, so no one will dare to break the rules to save your lives, there is no doubt that it is very dangerous, not only you will have to be careful against other teams, but there are several demon beasts and bandits who are not going to show any mercy to you all, they have all signed a blood contract with the Divine Path Sect, and the contract states that they must attack any enemy that might enter their territory, but there is one thing you don''t need to worry, there is no Divine Soul Demon Beast or Cultivators here, the highest cultivation you can find is the 5th stage Core Formation Realm." No one expected for the gathering to get this dangerous, but by now, everyone had already checked what the Dragon Essence Liquid was through their communicators, not to mention that they were all proud sons and daughters of heavens, they all went through their own powers tests to get their Martial Gathering slots, so there wasn''t a single one here who wasn''t confident in their strength. "To guarantee that a team of five won''t have three members betraying the other two so that they can get more Dragon Essence Liquid, the contract will also estates that until the end of the first phase, loyalty between members must be kept, if the above condition is broken, you will die, the Divine Path Sec doesn''t need disloyal members that can betray their own friends because of benefits." It was then that someone made a question "Then what if two teams are battling and another team decides to attack?" That was the doubt in most of the people''s minds, with the sheer amount of contestants this time around; that will happen for sure. Loni just smiled and replied. "Teams joining forces, gang up, ambushes, so on and so forth, this is all part of the cultivation world, your only guarantee is the blue token, think well how to use it." Some of the contestants nodded their heads, what Loni said is the truth, the only thing that they won''t bare is team members betraying each other, that is also a way to show that you can do almost anything, except betray your Divine Path Sect members. Loni then laughed and said. "You also have the option to give up your black token to your enemy and then work to get another three tokens, simple as that." Some contestants'' eyes immediately lit up, which is indeed a good way of avoiding a lost battle and still has a chance of passing the test. Another cultivator made one more question. "Is there a way of knowing if a team still has a black token or not and if they have, can we find out if they have more than one token?" "You can use your own black tokens to feel the presence of nearby black tokens, but you can''t tell how many that team has, just that they do have a black token, of course, if your team loses all your black tokens, you can only count on your own luck to find a team with one or more, and you can use the other teams tokens to feel other tokens again" With that, the discussion was over, everyone immediately tagged together with their own forces, of course, there was difference between the slots that each power of the Makui Planet received for this Martial Gathering, the stronger the power the more slots they had, some had only one slot, while others even had up to ten, so there was a lot of people who joined other groups as the same as there were forces that had more than five people and had to decide which one of them would join someone else''s group. Krune and Ao immediately smiled at each other, there wasn''t any need for words between the two of them, but they also got a problem, they need someone else to have at least three members, they couldn''t help but remember how Yusa sold her chance to get a slot, if they knew that it would happen, they would have dragged her by force from that room and not let her conclude that trade. Yusa and Shinja were also there to watch the gathering when the three of them looked at Yusa, she pretended to not know anything. "Cough, cough, so, who are you taking together with you?" Ao and Krune sighed and started to think, at first, they thought that Arlan would be a very good choice, but Arlan not only is a member of the Mercenary Guild, he is also a member of the Divine Swords Sect back in the Makui Continent, he had told them that he entered the Mercenary Competition because he had first joined the mercenary guild, and only after did he join the Divine Swords Sect, Krune and Ao are guessing that he would probably join his sect members which are all sword users. It''s worth to mention that the Mercenary Guild doesn''t stop its members from joining another power, which is to guarantee that they won''t decide to leave the mercenary guild because they prefer the other guild, or sect, or whatever. Krune and Ao were pondering if they should try to see if there is any team in need of members and then join their group, suddenly, they heard someone calling them from behind, in fact, Krune and Ao where so focused on this question that this person had to call the two of them several times until they finally noticed it. The one who was calling them was none other than Arlan Rosier, which puzzled the two of them greatly, what is this guy doing here? "You finally can hear me, were you ignoring my voice on purpose?" Ao and Krune shook their heads. "It''s just that we were thinking if we should join some other team that needs two or more members." Arlan immediately put a sad face. "Is that how much you consider our friendship? Couldn''t you have at least thought about me even for a second? Especially you, Ao, that hurts, you know?" Ao had a weird face. "I thought you would be joining some of your Divine Swords Sect members, no?" Krune, Yusa, and Shinja immediately nodded, they also had the same thought. Arlan then showed a helpless face. "You see, the Divine Swords Sect had ten slots to distribute for the Martial Gathering, and they have already made two teams of five, so I''m left out." Krune and Ao almost fainted; doesn''t that mean that they were his last option and a group that he didn''t want to join to start with? They couldn''t help but feel like they are leftovers. Arlan saw their disappointed faces and started to laugh. "Alright, alright, I''m joking, they had indeed called me to join their groups, in fact, most of them immediately reached me straight away, but I was the one to refuse, I believe we have a bigger chance if the three of us make a group instead." Everyone except Ao got curious, they thought that it''s not like Arlan knows about Krune''s real powers, but what they didn''t know was that Ao and Arlan had exchanged a few Divine Sense messages during the Mercenary Selection, at that time, Ao had told Arlan that he only had 10% to 20% of chance of beating Krune, and that is only if Krune stayed in his human form, otherwise, he would have no chance at all, of course, Ao hasn''t told Arlan which race Krune really is from. At first, Arlan didn''t believe that, but after seeing how fast Krune dodged Roni''s attack back in the Abyss Danger Zone, he thought that Krune might at least be as strong as himself, thus, his decision to make a group with Krune and Ao. Not to mention that if the three of them miraculously get more tokens than any other group, it will mean that each one of them will get two drops of Dragon Essence Liquid! How could that not make someone excited? Noticing Krune and the others puzzled face with Arlan''s choice, Ao sent them a message explaining what they had talked through Divine Sense in the Mercenary Selection, only then did they understand from where Arlan''s confidence in this group came from. Krune already had a good impression about Arlan, and he was also a Sword practitioner, but he was a lot easier going than Ao, and they do have some friendship to speak of. "Well, if that''s the case, then welcome to the group, I guess it will be up to the three of us now, we might not be able to get first place in tokens gathering, but I doubt we will have a problem getting enough to pass the first phase at least, but I would like to say that we are going all out for that Dragon Essence Liquid drops, so you better be prepared to work a lot." Arlan was more than happy with that, just like Ao, he is a sword maniac, the more battles to temper his skills, the better! "Well, External Elder Loni is distributing the blood contracts to the teams, so let''s go there." They got to the front and received one of the blood contracts, just as they were about to sign it with their three names, they heard another person calling them. "Hey, how come you forgot me? Let me join your group as well!" Krune and the others looked back, but their faces were full of confusion, it was a girl, and she did indeed look somewhat familiar, but they just couldn''t remember who she was, even Krune was having trouble to bring back that memory. Chapter 97 - Unnamed "Errr... who were you again?" The girl''s face immediately turned dark. They had participated in the same mercenary selection, but they can''t even remember her name. Just how little of an impression did she leave on them? "Lofa Harcken! We fought for the same slots before. Just how bad is your memory?" Krune''s group finally remembered who she was, Lofa had gotten the last slot available during the selection, but she really left a very small impression on the three of them. "Oh! I remember now." Surprisingly, Ao, Krune, and Arlan said that at the same time, which infuriated Lofa to no end. Can they be even more detestable? "You don''t remember me? Fine! I won''t bother with that. Like I said, let me join your team too, we are all from the same mercenary alliance after all" Krune and the others showed a complicated face, they really didn''t want someone that weak to be with them. They would need to protect her, not to mention that they don''t really think she can of much help at all. They had seen her abilities in the mercenary selection and know her strength. "Aren''t you from the Ice Continent? It should be better to join them." But Loja Harcken shook her head. "I don''t want to. I think it''s much better if I join your group since I already know your abilities. Besides, I also believe that my support abilities would work better in a team full of attackers like you." Ao immediately cut her off there. "There is no need. Krune is also a support cultivator. And I doubt that you can do it better than him." Not only Lofa, but Arlan too was taken aback. They didn''t know that Krune could play the support role as well. Of course, Arlan was now even happier to join this group. If there was something that he thought that they might lack, it was exactly a support cultivator for both him and Ao. Not to mention that with Krune''s strength, he is more than capable of protecting himself while providing that. Lofa''s expression changed. It was obvious that they don''t think much of her abilities, but she wasn''t willing to give up just yet. "Hmph! Don''t compare my abilities with what you saw back then, at that time I couldn''t play the support role. But if I can focus on it, I can guarantee you won''t regret this decision." Krune and the other two were feeling helpless. After all, they already had the confidence the way they are and haven''t thought about adding another member to start with. Krune sighed and then said. "Listen, we are aiming for the Dragon Essence Liquid, so we won''t be contented with just three tokens. We will be engaging in battle as much as possible, and there is no doubt that the other teams that are confident in themselves will do the same. Besides, if you really join our team, not only will we have to protect you, our speed would be affected and we would also need to share the drops in the end." Krune was being very direct. "It''s not that we are looking down on you. But from what we have seen, if a time comes when we can''t offer you protection against an enemy at the same level as us, we definitely won''t crush our blue token just for your sake. The Dragon Essence Liquid is too important for us. Believe me when I say that you will be a lot safer if you join a team that only intends to pass the first phase." Lofa finally understood why they didn''t want any extra members. She thought that with only three members, they were only trying to pass the First Test. Not to mention that they were right, she only wanted to pass the first test as well. "I see, but do you think you really have a change? The majority of the teams have five members while you only have three, and I don''t think it is a good idea. Not to mention that there will be teams who will join forces to hunt other teams." Krune nodded. "We know, but we obviously have the confidence to deal with them. Besides, we are all extremely fast, I refuse to believe that we wouldn''t have the ability to at least flee." There was also another reason that Krune hasn''t said. There is probably no one in this gathering with a Divine Sense as big and powerful as his. The last thing he is afraid of is ambushes. Lofa sighed and finally gave up. She turned around and went to look for the other contestants of the Ice Continent. Krune felt a little bad for her since they are members of the mercenary guild after all. But his group really can''t afford distractions on this journey. "Alright, let''s go back to business." Arlan, Krune, and Ao signed the blood contract and left the hall with Shinja and Yusa. After that, Ao asked for Krune and Arlan to come with him to a secluded place where they could practice. They nodded and left together. Ao and Arlan know each other quite well already, but Arlan and Krune knew almost nothing about each other. After they found a place, the training immediately started. But it was then that Krune brought out all his thirty-eight Hexagonal Flying Shields. Arlan was puzzled with that sight, not to mention that those plates are quite strange shaped. There is also a reason why Arlan hasn''t thought about them as spiritual equipment. There are too many of them! Krune finished charging them with his own spiritual energy and released the shields. Arlan then looked at that and his jaw immediately dropped. As soon as they took to flight, they started hovering around Krune like stars. ''How powerful is his Soul Power and Divine Sense? That is ridiculous! Can he even control all of them properly?'' He found the answer to his question straight away. Krune immediately started to do several unbelievable maneuvers, and the precision was terrifying. But that wasn''t all! He soon found that Krune was using five different elements at the same time on them, making each shield shine in a different color. He finally understood just how big the difference in Divine Sense between him and Krune is. Even if he decided to attack Krune, he doesn''t even know where to start breaking that elemental fortress in front of him. First of all, can he even break it? Just how many years had Krune practiced to achieve such control? Ao looked at that too and nodded. "It has been only a little more than two weeks since you got your hexagonal flying shields, but you can already control them to this extent. I thought it would still take another week at least." Arlan''s confidence crumbled just like that. Two weeks to achieve this level of control? Fuc* that shit! But the final blow was still incoming. "It was indeed very hard, but lately, I had been focusing on stabilizing my foundation; otherwise, I wouldn''t have taken this long to master them." Arlan finally passed out. Krune heard a sound of something hitting the ground and looked at it, but that body on the ground puzzled him. "What happened to him?" Ao immediately understood and just sighed. "Someone like you would never understand his pain." Krune thought that it was another one of those weird human habits and just ignored it. --- After Arlan woke up, their team resumed their activities. Both Ao and Arlan had never trained with Krune while he used his Hexagonal Flying Shields, so it was a new experience for them. But they came to understand how frightening it is. Krune''s defense was simply ridiculous now, and that is considering that he wasn''t using his Tribulation Lightning Movement. They also practiced while Krune used his shields to defend Arlan and Ao. Of course, the ones attacking in those cases were Shinja and Yusa, who were more than happy to help to beat them. Sometimes, one or another attack passed through Krune''s defenses, but the occurrence of such thing gradually decreased during those two days. By the end, even Shinja using her full power had a hard time reaching anyone under Krune''s watch. The key to Krune''s defense was the elements of each shield, and not only their sturdiness. Krune always used the right elemental shields to defend against the attacks. If there weren''t enough shields of the stronger element, he then complemented with more shields of the same element, which also proved to be very effective. They kept like that until a few hours before the first phase started. The extra hours were simply for Krune and the others to recover their strength after all this training. --- It was almost 10 o''clock when External Elders Kirian and Loni came out to check the contestants for this test. When they arrived at the exit of the city where they were staying, Elder Loni came forward and started to talk with the contestants of the Makui Planet. "There is a few minutes before the start of the test, so there isn''t much more I can tell you all now. Just remember that after it starts, no one is allowed to attack any other team in the first two hours of competition, which is to prevent several teams joining forces to attack smaller teams. There will be several members of the Divine Path Sect observing the process, so forget about playing tricks before the time is up. Just use your own communicators to check the time. I wish good luck to you all." Elder Kirian did more or less the same thing with the Ragne Planet contestants. Loni and Kirian looked at each other and then nodded, it was time to start! Chapter 98 - Hunting Time As soon as 10 o''clock arrived, all teams moved out. Those who made an alliance went somewhere together, those who decided to move alone tried to go away from others, there was obviously those who followed other teams that they thought to be good targets, and since Krune''s group had only three members, they had immediately become some of those teams targets that were being pursued. The rules only said that you can''t attack anyone during the first two hours; it says nothing about not following potential targets. Krune and his team, obviously, noticed them straight away, but that was also good, it meant that those contestants weren''t confident in a fair five vs. five battles, which also means that they are the real prey in the story. His group had purposely lowered their speed so that the contestants behind them could follow, and at the same time, it wasn''t so slow to not make their enemies think that they are being lured instead. In the end, it was an alliance of two teams of five people each. And judging by their appearance, they were obviously from Ragne Planet. They kept following Krune''s group until the two hours were over. Krune and the others also had a plan in mind. It didn''t involve their pursues though, but the other groups. They made sure to open as much distance as possible from any other group that might intervene during their hunt. Of course, a few would still be able to follow since the first group coming for them wasn''t all that fast. They are probably intending to do the oriole play. Thanks to Krune''s powerful soul, no team was able to hide from Krune''s Divine Sense, by playing the right movements, Krune and his group were able to lure the closest team behind them anywhere they wanted. As soon as the two hours were up, their enemies immediately attacked. They surrounded their group and used a small battle formation to guarantee that they couldn''t escape. It was then that someone came forward and said. "Just give us your black token and you can leave to try your luck again, it''s up to you whether we make a move or not." Ao and Arlan heard that and couldn''t help but smile. Krune, on the other hand, just sighed. "They couldn''t even notice that we guided them here. I wonder from where that confidence comes from." The enemy group heard that and immediately looked around with their Divine Sense, but there was nothing to be found. Ao shook his head while Arlan simply burst in laugh. "Wrong! Wrong! We indeed lured you into a trap, but it doesn''t mean that we have reinforcements. Simply put, the three of us are more than enough to beat all of you." One of the enemies just snorted after hearing that. "He! Sure you did! So why don''t you show us how exactly you want to deal with us?" Right after he said that all the enemies around Krune''s group attacked together. Since their targets were in the mood to provoke them, there is no need to hold back. As long as they get Krune''s black token or force their leader to use the blue token, the victory is theirs. Of course, if they don''t do any of the two options, they don''t mind forcing their hand. But just as they moved, their faces changed as if they had seen a ghost. Right in front of them, Krune, Ao, and Arlan suddenly disappeared! No! It''s not that they disappeared; they could still feel Krune''s group presence with their Divine Senses. It''s just that they were too fast for any of them to be able to follow their movements. "Support formation, don''t let them get close!" Noticing that they had hit a steel wall, both leaders of each team immediately changed their formation so that they could give support to anyone of their teams. Since there are only three of them, they can still tire them out until they have no more Spiritual Energy to battle. At that time, they will be able to launch a counter-attack or at the very least force them to flee. Ao and Arlan appeared close to one of their enemies each and immediately launched an attack. But thanks to the support formation, their companions were able to counter-attack at the same time. Several skills rained down on Ao and Arlan. But surprisingly, they didn''t retreat; they didn''t even defend at all and simply charged forward. "Are they planning to suicide?" That was the thought of everyone, once they saw that, they could only call such action suicide. But of course, they forgot a very important detail, Krune was still there! Just as the attacks were about to hit Ao and Arlan, several Hexagonal Shields appeared around both of them. They attached together creating small barriers that deflected the attacks away. Such a thing was only possible due to the trust that Ao and Arlan put on him. They simply didn''t think that Krune could miss those attacks even for an instant. "Crescent Searing Sword!" "Vacuum Blade!" "Swish!" Right after that, two enemy cultivators fell; there was simply no time to help them anymore. They couldn''t understand. How those small shields had enough power to defend against all their attacks? Once more, the secret was behind the elements of each shield! Krune made sure to use the elements of the right shields against their enemies'' attacks. But that was of little concern at the moment, that''s because everyone noticed over a hundred Blazing Wind Blades raining down from above. At everyone''s cultivation level and superior combat prowess, Krune''s Blazing Wind Blades weren''t that dangerous anymore. Of Course, that is in the case you have to deal with only a few Blazing Wind Blades. But each one of the remaining eight enemies had more than ten of those blades to deal with! They obviously could take care of them in normal times, but that wasn''t the case at the moment. Ao and Arlan took the chance that their attention was focused on the blazing wind blades, and used the breach in the enemies'' defenses, and in a flash, they got rid of another four cultivators. This battle had started just a few seconds ago, but then ten vs. three situations had already become a four vs. three now! Noticing that the outcome wasn''t good, the two leaders of the two teams immediately used their movement techniques to try to flee. It was too bad that Krune was already expecting that. As soon as they moved away from their positions, they feel inside two gigantic Water Prisons that Krune had prepared beforehand. In normal situations, they would have definitely noticed those water prisons and avoided them in time. But Ao, Arlan, and Krune''s coordination were perfect! The moment that the two leaders tried to flee, Ao and Arlan had sent attacks over. They had to divert their attention to those two attacks right when they entered inside the water prison range. The end result was both of them being trapped inside, not to mention that Krune''s Water Prisons aren''t something that cultivators at their level can easily deal with. Ao and Arlan immediately used that chance to finish off the last two guys and stopped right in front of the water prisons. The two leaders knew that there was no way out, so they tried to negotiate first. "We will give you our token as long as you let us leave this place. We won''t try to bother you three anymore after this. Please understand that we can''t simply give up like this; otherwise, our positions in our sect will be deeply affected if we are eliminated straight away." Krune, Arlan and Ao looked at each other. Although Krune is the one holding the tokens at the moment, that is because he has the highest speed and defense between the three of them. It''s not like there was a leader in their group to start with. In Krune''s eyes, everyone had the right to do decisions. Krune then asked while keeping his attention on both leaders. "What do you think? Personally, I don''t mind either. The two of you probably noticed as well, although they did try to ambush us with higher numbers, there has never been killing intent coming from them. I believe that they were really prepared to just force us to use our blue token or give up our black token." Ao simply put his sword away, that gesture was obviously showing his answer. Arlan just sighed and put his sword away as well. Ao had already told him about Krune''s personality and his aversion for killing. Arlan really couldn''t understand how Krune became this strong with such a kind heart. "Very well. Send over your black tokens and I will release you." The two prisoners looked at each other and nodded; they took out their black tokens and immediately threw them over to Krune. They were not in position demand Krune to do anything. If they tried, Krune could simply attack them until they were forced to use their blue tokens and then their black token would be lost anyway. They could only trust that Krune would keep his words. Krune exanimated the two black tokens and nodded. Right after that, the two water prisons skill were canceled, much for the two leaders'' relief. Krune then pointed at their team members and said. "We did inflict severe injuries to your team members, but they are not crippled or dead either. As long as you have enough healing pills, they should be able to recover in a few days. You still have a chance of passing this first phase too. Just remember that if you get close to us and we find out that you have black tokens again, we won''t show any courtesy." That was one more reason as to why Krune wasn''t forcing them to quit. The more teams that are out there, the bigger is their chances of finding more groups with black tokens. After that, Krune, Arlan, and Ao left straight away. While they were moving forward, Arlan and Ao seemed to be waiting for Krune to say something. "We did our best to lure the other teams, but they just kept close enough to check the situation. I believe that they were waiting for an opportunity to strike as soon as a victor emerged, so we had prepared a few traps according to our plan. Unfortunately, not a single one of them tried to join the fray from start to finish." With Krune''s Divine Sense, there is no way that he wouldn''t notice the other three teams lurking in the shadows. But Krune really didn''t expect that they wouldn''t act until the very end. Ao pondered a bit and said. "Could it be that we showed too much strength and scared them away?" Arlan nodded. "I also think so. After all, we did get rid of those ten cultivators with certain easy." But Krune then started to laugh. "Actually, the reason was much simpler! You should be able to guess it already." Ao and Arlan''s eyes suddenly lit up and they started to laugh too. "They had noticed each other and none of them wanted to be the first one to attack. In the end, none of them moved until the very end afraid that they would be ambushed by the other two lurking around." Krune nodded. "Correct! Their fear destroyed our plans and in the end, we only got two black tokens. Of course, the two hours of peace had just finished, to get two black tokens just a few minutes after it is already very good." Ao and Arlan also nodded. Then, the three of them looked at each other and showed an evil smile. They totally looked like villains from some evil sect at the moment. "But that doesn''t mean that we are leaving them out of the hook. Let''s keep moving this way, but be ready to move at full speed once I tell you." Krune was playing his support role to the fullest! His recognition and tracking powers were obviously no match for anyone around them. Chapter 99 - Shield and Sword Freaks They moved as if nothing was wrong while Krune kept his Divine Sense activated. Behind them, Krune could see those three teams following close; they thought that due to the distance, Krune''s group hasn''t noticed their presence. Krune was waiting for a chance, those three teams are close to each other, sooner or later, there will be a clash between them because of his group black tokens. That will be the moment for them to join the fun. Sure enough, one of the enemy teams run out of patience and decided to get rid of the other pursuing team. As long as they are fast, they should be able to catch up with Krune and the others in no time. Krune saw that and showed a smile, he turned around and said. "Now!" Ao and Arlan immediately used their best movement techniques and dashed back. But they aren''t aiming for those two teams who engaged in battle, they are after the last team that stayed outside of that mess. Their enemies had obviously noticed that. After all, they had kept their Divine Sense locked on Krune and the other two until now. "Shit, they are coming for us!" "What happened to the other two teams? I thought they would attack those three first." "Let me see." Their leader, who was focusing on Krune''s group, used his Divine Sense to check the other two teams that they know to be after their prey as well. "Fuc*! Those two are fighting each other!" Noticing that they wouldn''t be able to take advantage of the other anymore, they immediately prepared to receive Krune and his team. They had thought about fleeing for a moment, but their leader immediately gave up the idea once he noticed the speed that Krune, Ao, and Arlan were coming at them. There is no way they can be faster than that! Split and running are also out of question. Once a black token gets too close to another one, the leader can use it to track the enemies'' black token. Krune arrived before their enemies and immediately released his shields, Ao and Arlan dashed one to each side and started a pincer attack. Their enemies had five contestants, but they knew that if they don''t gather up to defend together, they will be cut down one by one. They think about themselves to be stronger than the last two teams that Krune defeated, but not to the point where they could win that fight with just two cultivators and one demon beast in human form. The better quality of this enemy team was quickly noticeable. Even with Krune protecting Ao and Arlan with his Shields, they still didn''t break through their defenses in one strike. But that wasn''t a problem. Just like the previous ones, they failed to grasp the key point of this battle, which is obviously Krune''s support. As soon as they deflected Ao and Arlan''s attacks, several Ice-Water-Thunder Dragons attacked them from all sides. This attack was a lot stronger than his Blazing Wind Blades, although not as fast. Just like with Shinja back then, every time a dragon was destroyed, it released a lightning attack that the enemies had to defend against too. Of course, that is considering that they could destroy them at all. The Ice Armor covering the external part of water dragons wasn''t something easy to break. And just like that, their formation defense crumbled while Ao and Arlan used that chance to take the enemies down. The leader of the group understood that it was over, so he immediately tossed his black token over to the enemy. "Here''s the black token, let us go with that!" Krune grabbed the token and scanned with his Divine Sense. After that, he gave a nod to Ao and Arlan which made them put their swords away. "Thank you for your patronage." Krune, Arlan, and Ao immediately departed after that, they still had another two preys to catch! The leader of the last group saw them leaving and just sighed. One of his companions who sat on the ground to recover couldn''t help but ask. "Those shields that demon beast was controlling, they had all five major elements on them, right?" The leader nodded his head. "Yes. And that wasn''t all. The Soul power and Divine Sense necessary to control so many at the same time with such precision is something that a Foundation Establishment shouldn''t be able to do. I''ve never seen someone like that! Not to mention those two swords cultivators, they are the real deal too." They could only blame their luck and greed for what happened here. Fortunately, their leader understood that it would be a lost battle and immediately gave up their black token; otherwise, they would suffer grievous injuries and might have to use their blue token in the end. --- Krune''s group was moving at full speed to the place where the other two teams were battling each other. Because they had been focusing on their enemies, they hadn''t noticed that Krune turned back and defeated the third team already. Of course, it didn''t mean that they weren''t paying attention to their surroundings. They soon noticed krune and the others'' arrival when they entered their Divine Senses. But they were surprised to find out that it was the same team they had been trying to catch so far. Too bad though! Krune, Ao, and Alran didn''t give them any chance to think things over. They immediately entered the fray and started to cut down enemies. The leaders of the two other teams noticed that battling each other would bring no good for either side and immediately formed an alliance on the spot. But how could a worn-out alliance that had just been made pose any threat to Krune''s defenses? It wasn''t even a fight anymore, but a one-sided slaughter! The leader of both teams could only give up their black tokens in the end. Krune looked at that and showed a bright smile. "Thank you very much for your cooperation, we hope we can strike such a good deal with your teams again in the future." The two team members'' faces couldn''t be any uglier. Who the hell would want to encounter those three freaks again? Ao and Arlan laughed at that and immediately left with Krune. --- Back in the previous city, Elders Loni and Kirian were watching the competitions through a few monitors. They had noticed quite a few teams that stood out, but it was too early to think that any of them would be the victor. "Should we start the next part?" Loni heard Kirian making that question and pondered a bit. "That should be enough already. Let''s pass down the orders for the bandit and demon beast leaders." Soon after, several demon beasts and bandits inside the testing zone received a message in their communicators. It was time for them to make a move. --- Krune wasn''t the only team with good harvests. The moment that the two hours of peace were over, several other battles happened all over the place. Of course, such a thing would only happen on the first day. After all, teams move far enough from the starting line, the chances of meeting one another will decrease drastically. Not to mention that lots of teams were forced to use their blue tokens and leave the contest. Krune, Ao, and Arlan started to make a name for themselves during the first week. Even though the frequency they found other teams decreased, with Krune''s ridiculous Divine Sense length, they had already encountered over twenty teams and quite a few alliances. If there were too many people, they would avoid them. If it was one or two teams, they would attack straight away. And no one could say that they are preying on the weak. That''s because every single team they attacked had more members than their team, not to mention that they engaged in head-on battles every single time. So their opponents couldn''t even say that they got sneak attacked. If someone complains that they were defeated in a ten against three fights, they would turn into a laughingstock. One must remember that every single cultivator or demon beast in this first phase is a famous figure on the place they came from. So their pride simply couldn''t allow them to talk about being unfair. In the end, Krune''s group was being called the ''Shield and Sword Freaks''. Somewhere midway to the Ravil City, there was a fragrant smell on the air. The reason for that was obviously Krune. There is no way that he would leave on a journey without bringing his cooking tools and ingredients. If one paid attention, they would see a few bodies grunting in pain around the place. Several demon beasts felt the smell of the food and came out to check. As the blood contract states, all the beasts and bandits in the Garmon Planet have to attack the contestant without mercy. Unfortunately for these ones, they just had to bump on Krune and his team. Ao had taken a table out and prepared the utensils for the lunch. By now, Arlan had already got used to this scene. It was as if eating was even more important than the black tokens for Krune. He would never pass the Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner. Of course, he wasn''t sad about that. After all, Krune''s food was fuc*ing delicious! Ao, Krune, and Arlan were eating the food on the table while chatting when suddenly, Krune''s expression changed. Noticing Krune''s behavior, Ao and Arlan immediately stopped and spread their Divine Senses. Unfortunately, they couldn''t see anything. But they didn''t let their guard down. In fact, they became even more serious after that. They know that Krune''s Divine Sense is a lot stronger than theirs. If Krune noticed something that they didn''t, it means that their opponent isn''t someone they can''t take lightly. Especially because Arlan and Ao''s Divine Sense is also very strong but they still couldn''t see what it was. Krune then stood up and put everything back into his spatial ring while sending Ao and Arlan a Divine Sense message. "It''s Core Formation Beast, and it''s approaching very fast. Its speed is the same as our own when we are moving with our group at full speed. We can choose to flee now or fight it." Ao and Arlan frowned. If Krune gave the option of fighting, it means that they do have a good chance at winning. But he also considered the fleeing option, so their opponent isn''t any weakling. While they were thinking if they should flee or fight, Krune''s black tokens started to show some reactions. "Hum?" Krune took one of the tokens out and after checking it, he confirmed that it was reacting to another black token in that Core Formation beast direction. "Somehow, that beast got a black token. Or maybe it was the Divine Path Sect plans to start with." Krune was right; it isn''t only the other teams that have black tokens. There is also a lot of bandits and demon beasts with them as well. "Then we fight! I refuse to believe that our cooperation can''t deal with a Core Formation Realm demon beast." Krune nodded and they got prepared. Chapter 100 - More Black Tokens Turn out that that Core Formation Demon Beast was a Black Demon Wolf. It is not a rare race at all. Just like Krune, they can also take the human form in the early stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm. The fact that this one was able to achieve the Core Formation Realm is already very impressive. And through his powerful Divine Sense, Krune was able to notice that this wolf is at the 3rd stage. This wolf was also under the blood contract agreement, so it didn''t say anything and attacked straight away. As expected, it was an agility type demon beast. And the fact that it is already in the Core Formation Realm made it even faster. Even Ao and Arlan could barely keep up to its movements. Fortunately for them, Krune''s defenses were air-tight. If even Shinja, who can defeat ordinary 5th stage Core Formation Realm cultivators, can''t pass through Krunes defense easily, let alone this wolf. After several exchanges, the wolf was already injured in quite some places. But thanks to its speed, it avoided any serious one. Noticing that it wouldn''t be able to beat Krune''s group like this, it immediately called for reinforcements. It opened some distance between them and gave a deep howl to the sky. Immediately, Krune''s face changed. That''s because he noticed that several wolves started to enter the range of his Divine Sense. But that wasn''t all. This wolf is the one who controls the territory they are in, so several other demon beasts from other races also answered its call. It is to be expected though. Wolves are creatures that live in packs to start with, so it would be weird instead if it had no backups. "Ao, Arlan, things changed. There is an army of demon beasts coming straight at us, we need to leave!" Ao and Arlan immediately stopped their attacks. If Krune said that there is an army, then there is certainly one. The three of them might be confident in dealing with the Black Demon Wolf alone, but definitely not against several demon beasts while at it. Ao and Arlan immediately retreated. The wolf changed from defense to attack once more and tried to stop them, but with Krune''s flying shields and skills from the side, it could do nothing to impede it. Unfortunately for Krune''s group, the black wolf seemed to have been prepared. It howled once more in the direction that they started to escape and a lot of Demon Beasts started to converge there. "Let''s go to the North-east! That''s the place with the least amount of demon beasts coming in our direction. We are going to forcefully breakthrough!" With demon beasts coming from everywhere, Krune could only choose to attack them where it was easier. Of course, the Black Demon Wolf didn''t give up either and followed them at full speed. It was really surprising that those Foundation Establishment contestants could move as fast as it. But it got even more excited with that. The Divine Path Sect always bestow rewards according to the number of black tokens they can gather during every gathering, and a group like this one is bound to have quite a few. The wolf was very confident. Even though Krune had selected the direction with the least amount of Demon Beasts, there were still tens of them, and every single one was at least in the 5th stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Its plan was to go all out as soon as they engaged in a battle against the beasts in the front. As long as it holds them back long enough, the rest of the demon beasts will surround and slowly swarm them. Krune''s group noticed it and looked at each other, and then they nodded. "Well, don''t blame us for being nasty!" Arlan, Ao, and Krune finally turned serious and released their full power! "Sky Searing Swords! Descent of the Sword Hell!" "Infernal Swords! All flames to Heavens!" "Heavens Thunderstorm!" Instantly, their attacks reached brand new levels of prowess. Ao and Arlan went to the right and left sides respectively. They looked like Fire Demons who slaughtered everything in their way. Anything under the Core Formation Realm was cleaved in two or burnt to crisp! But the real calamity came from Krune, Heavens Thunderstorm is a weaker variation of his Heavens Fall. He created this technique with Lightning Element and Tribulation Lightning as a base, the main use was for wide-scale battles against several enemies at the same time. Hundreds of Lightning Bolts fell from the sky and each one of them with a fraction of Tribulation Lightning. Even though it wasn''t his real Heavens Fall, an ordinary new Core Formation Realm cultivator or demon beast would have a hard time to defend against it. Let alone a bunch of Foundation Establishment Beasts. Krune might not like Killing, but it doesn''t mean that he will give up his life for that notion! The Black Demon Wolf''s face immediately changed. With the power that Krune''s group was showing at the moment, it wouldn''t take the risk. If they focus on it, it might really die in the end. The wolf might be bound by a contract, but it doesn''t mean that it should throw its life away because of that. The wolf turned around and tried to escape while dodging as many lightning bolts as possible. They might not do much harm individually, but it can''t just eat them all. "Don''t you think it''s too early to say goodbye?" "Right! You have just arrived after all." The black wolf''s back chilled when it heard those two voices! It immediately felt unprecedented danger and tried to dodge, but it was already too late. Two swords covered in flames appeared out of nowhere and impaled the wolf''s heart. It couldn''t believe it! It was sure that Ao and Arlan had just moved to the right and left side of Krune while moving forward, not to mention that they should have been in the middle of slaughtering the other demon beasts. How come they appeared here? It had to thanks Krune, Ao and Arlan for that. The three of them had already discussed a plan through Divine Sense as soon as Ao and Arlan moved out. The breakthrough the demon beast army was just a decoy; the real target was still the Black Demon Wolf. Ao and Arlan had really attacked the demon beasts in front of them, but it was right after that movement that Krune used one of the skills that Yusa likes very much, which is Water Frame! With the help of the illusory cover provided by the Water Frame, both Ao and Arlan used the elemental replacement. It was the same one that Thunder Hawk Tasier and Water Dragon Drorne used during the last Mercenary Selection. With those clones left to distract the demon beasts for a few seconds, Ao and Arlan sneaked beside the Black Demon Wolf and attacked as soon as it tried to escape from Krune''s Heavens Thunderstorm area. The demon wolf struggled a bit but soon stopped breathing. The other beasts saw that and immediately started to run away. If even their territory boss, a 3rd stage Core Formation Realm Demon Black Wolf, cannot defeat this group, let alone Foundation Establishment beasts like them. Silence soon came back to the surroundings and Krune could confirm with his Divine Sense that all the demon beasts were leaving this area. He then looked at the bodies around and couldn''t help but sigh. Ao noticed that and just put a hand on his shoulders. "There is a limit to how merciful we can get. If we go past that line, we might lose our lives instead." Krune nodded his head. "I know, but it doesn''t change the bitter feeling that it leaves behind. Don''t worry! It''s not like I haven''t killed before. It''s just that it has been some time since it happened." Since Krune was okay, he proceeded to check the Black Demon Wolf''s corpse. Sure enough, there was a thin collar around its neck that was hard to see due to its fur, and attached to it was a spatial ring. Other than a few resources that the wolf kept for itself, there were also four black tokens. It was obvious that they weren''t the first group that it had attacked. "It is as we thought, it''s probably part of the Divine Path Sect arrangements. I guess the more black tokens the bandit cultivators and demon beasts get, the more rewards they will receive from the Sect. Maybe they will be able to even leave this training planet where they are being forcefully held. Both the bandits and demon beasts around here have probably offended the Sect in some way, and instead of being killed, they reached an agreement to become the contestants'' enemies." Arlan and Krune heard that and agreed that it was most likely the reason. Of course, it didn''t mean that all demon beasts and cultivators were like this. With the sheer amount of time that they had been here, several offspring had been born and just took this place to be their home. With everything over, Krune''s group removed the demon core of the Core Formation wolf and the Foundation Establishment beasts and put them in their spatial rings. Demon Cores of dead beasts will lose their spiritual energy eventually, but the higher the beast''s level, the longer it takes for all the spiritual energy to disappear, especially the Core Formation Realm Demon Core. Krune and the others gathered everything they wanted and left right after, this battle will definitely catch the attention of other high-level demon beasts and cultivators. There are other teams as well. Not to mention that they used quite some spiritual energy and needed some time to recover it. Around an hour after they left, another Core Formation Beast appeared in the place where the Black Demon Wolf died. It looked at the demon wolf corpse and just snorted. He is a Fire Eagle that lived in the next territory; it then changed into its human form to check the battlefield. The reason it arrived so fast was that it could fly much faster than the other Core Formation Demon Beasts and Bandit Cultivators from the other territories around this place. After spreading its Divine Sense to the limit, it still couldn''t find any trace of the team that battled against the wolf. "There is no one that matches the description reported by the demon beasts that fled. It seems like they are very good at running as well." But then it showed an evil smile. "Looks like the demon beasts weren''t the only ones to notice the commotion." A group of five cultivators was also inside its Divine Sense range. It then returned back to its Eagle form and dashed away. Since it can''t take the tokens of those contestants that killed the wolf, it will have to be content with the leftovers for now. Somewhere not too far away, Krune, Ao, and Arlan were sat recovering their spiritual energy and discussing their next steps. Although they hadn''t used all their spiritual energy in the last battle, it was still good to keep their combat prowess at their peak. "We have been pretty slow already looking around for other teams. I think we should increase our pace and move past half the way to Ravil city. We can wait for other teams to appear around there." "It''s been only a week; I don''t think many teams arrived at that side already." "That''s exactly the main point! With Krune''s Divine Sense range, it would be easy to hunt down the teams that appear close to us." Arlan also gave his opinion. "What about the demon beasts? So far we have been avoiding the territory of those Core Formation Realm ones, but it seems like they could have black tokens as well." Krune shook his head. "It seems they are more like a last resort option for the teams that lost their black tokens. That way, they would still have a chance of at least finishing this first phase." Ao agreed with that. "Although the Black Demon Wolf wasn''t hard to deal with alone, when he called those beasts over, the situation changed completely. If it wasn''t us but some common team, they would have died or used their blue token without a doubt." Krune then asked. "Should we go past the middle then?" After thinking about it for some time, they decided to go ahead with this plan. They were just about to leave their hiding place when suddenly; Krune''s Divine Sense picked up something. "Uh?" Chapter 101 - Im Starting to Fell Jealous! Ao noticed something strange and asked what''s going on. "Well, I''ve just seen Lofa entering my Divine Sense range." Arlan and Ao were surprised, it''s not very easy to encounter a specific person in a place as big as this testing zone. "Quite a coincidence indeed. Did she get together with the people of the Ice Continent?" Krune shook his head. "That''s the weird part, she is alone. And she is moving pretty fast too. It seems like she is running from something, but I can''t see anything in my Divine Sense." Not only Krune, but Ao and Arlan were puzzled with that. Is there really some beast or cultivator that can hide from Krune''s Divine Sense? They looked at each other and discarded that idea, it''s too improbable. "Want to take a look?" Ao and Arlan looked at each other and nodded in the end. Loja is still part of their Mercenary Guild Alliance after all. Besides, it''s not like it will take too long anyway. But just as they were about to move out, Krune noticed another one entering his Divine Sense. "Not good, there is a Core Formation Demon Beast after her." Hearing that, they immediately set out at full speed. At the same time, Krune used his Divine Sense to tell Lofa to move in their direction. Lofa was already losing her hopes when she suddenly heard Krune''s voice. With no other choice, she immediately followed the directions provided by him. Although Lofa was moving towards them, the Demon beast was too fast! At this speed, it would reach her in time. Krune looked at Ao and Arlan and they nodded at each other, they took out their swords and Krune touched them for a few seconds. After that, Krune left straight away. His eyes turned sharp and the power of the tribulation lightning start to revolve around his body, and with a flash of purple light, Krune disappeared from his spot! "Tribulation Lightning Movement, 40%!" Krune had reached the conclusion that for him to not damage his body, 30% was the limit. But if he wants to reach Lofa in time, he still needs to pay a small price. Arlan and Ao knew about the fact that he could move faster, but it was still a sight to behold when he did so. That tribulation lightning was really overpowered! Lofa kept fleeing when suddenly, she heard a voice from behind. "Aren''t you quite fast at running? Too bad though, it wasn''t fast enough." It was the same Fire Eagle from before. It was looking for Krune and his team when Lofa''s group entered its Divine Sense. Lofa and her group had come after noticing the commotion from the nearby demon beasts. So they decided to check and maybe they would be lucky enough to get a black token. They had battled other teams but fled quite a few times. In the end, they were still lucky enough to gather two black tokens, needing only one more to get the three necessary. Unfortunately, they were spotted by the fire eagle who ambushed them. The leader of their group was caught off guard and killed before he could even use their blue token. But that wasn''t all. The eagle is bound by a contract, so it can''t just let the team go to start with; otherwise, the fire eagle wouldn''t even bother with the rest of the team after it got the black tokens. Lofa''s team immediately choose to separate since they weren''t the eagle''s match. That was their only chance to survive. Turns out that Lofa was quite lucky and the eagle targeted another member first. But in the end, it still caught up to her, and this is the final situation. The fire eagle was sure to catch her soon but then it noticed someone entering its Divine Sense as well. After seeing who it was, it was overjoyed. That guy completely fitted the description given by the other demon beasts, which means that he has the black wolf''s black tokens and their own as well. But its happy face disappeared in the next second. That''s because it noticed that Krune''s speed wasn''t the least bit lower than its own! ''How can a Foundation Establishment be so fast?'' But the eagle didn''t give up. It was obvious that Krune was coming for the female human cultivator in front of him. Unfortunately for it, Lofa was moving in Krune''s direction. ''I refuse to believe you can get to her before me!'' The eagle then increased its speed once again. If it can get to Lofa first, it might be able to use her to force Krune''s black tokens out. Krune also noticed that change and release more tribulation lighting power. "50%!" Little light saw that and said. "Your human form isn''t very good to control the tribulation power. If you go back to your wisp form, you should be able to use 50% without suffering any damage." Krune knew that. But that also means that his true form would be found out. Although he wants to help Lofa, he won''t risk that much for her. It is because he is confident to hold the eagle back that he decided to help to start with. Not to mention that Ao and Arlan would take part in the battle very soon. This much body damage wouldn''t take long to heal anyway. Lofa noticed Krune in the distance and was delighted, just as she was about to call his name, she heard a Divine Sense scream. "Get down!" Loja was alarmed with that but did as she was told. Boom! Right above her, several blue and red colored hexagonal shields formed a barrier and were struck by a gigantic fireball. Lofa saw that and her soul almost left her body. If Krune hadn''t warned her in time, she would have been burnt to the point that even her bones wouldn''t remain. But she didn''t delay even for a second, it was obvious that the situation was dire. So she immediately dashed in Krune''s direction. The fire eagle''s eyes almost popped out of their sockets. How can a Foundation Establishment control so many of them? Even it would have a hard time controlling that number of spiritual equipment, and it could see that Krune had even more around him that he didn''t use to resist that last attack. It''s not that Krune didn''t want to use them, but because they would be damaged instead. Only his shields with water and fire elements could resist that explosion without being harmed. The water element shields were the weakness of fire element to start with, while the fire element shields could resist attacks of the same element. By using water shields in the center and fire on the borders, Krune was able to block out the attack. As soon as Loja reached Krune, he grabbed her waist and said. "Hold tight!" Lofa got a little embarrassed but had no time to think, so she did as Krune told her. After that, he immediately retreated. This time, he went back to using 30% of tribulation lighting in his movement technique. The eagle noticed that he was a lot slower and immediately sent a barrage of attacks. But it soon found out that Krune''s shields and defense skills were annoying as hell! For it to send an attack of the same power as that fireball, it would need some time to gather spiritual energy again. The problem is, even if Krune is slower now that he is carrying Lofa, he is still a lot faster than she was. It would give Krune more than enough time to leave the area. Not to mention that he could probably block that again. ''This annoying fly!'' The eagle was enraged with that situation, it couldn''t accept that a Foundation Establishment was able to hold it for so long and still haven''t been injured yet! Well, at least not injured by one of its attacks. When Krune first arrived in the scene, there was already some burnt skin on his body and blood on the corner of his mouth. Obviously, a side effect of using more tribulation lightning than his body could take. Krune finally got used to carrying Lofa around and started to attack the eagle as well. But he wasn''t aiming to injure it, only faking some resistance and purposely using only water element attacks. Water was obviously the element that the fire eagle hated the most. So Krune was successful in enraging it even more. Noticing that, an imperceptible smile appeared on his face. He then sent a Divine Sense message to Ao and Arlan. "Everything ready?" Ao and Arlan immediately answered while paying attention to not alarm the fire eagle with their own Divine Sense. "No problem here. Unless the eagle pays special attention with its Divine Sense, it won''t notice anything." Krune had prepared an ambush, it was a very simple one though. In fact, he doesn''t think it will be enough to kill the eagle. But it should be enough to scare it away. Krune''s objective was to simply give a hand to Lofa since they are from the same guild after all. To make sure the eagle wouldn''t notice anything, Krune kept flying between the trees on the ground, making it look like he was trying to hinder the eagle''s flight so that he could escape. When he finally arrived at the ambush position, he passed by it and waited for eagle to come. Sure enough, the fire eagle was right behind and jumped straight into it. Suddenly, Ao and Arlan attacked it from both sides. There was no time for the eagle to dodge at all! But it was then that everyone received a Divine Sense message from the fire eagle "He! Do you think I didn''t expect this little trick? I know very well that you were a group of three and have been waiting for this moment." Divine sense messages can be sent and heard in an instant, only like this, the eagle had time to say those words. Then, the fire eagle''s feathers started to shine with a metallic and fiery luster. Suddenly, almost half of it shot out from its body. "Divine Feathers Mutilation!" The eagle might have had no time to dodge its enemies'' attacks, but the same could be said about Ao and Arlan now. Not to mention that the fire eagle was very confident that its attack was much stronger than its enemies''. It could already visualize Arlan and Ao being full of holes and dropping dead on the ground. Unfortunately, it wasn''t the only one to use a Divine Sense message at that moment. "He! It wasn''t like only you thought about that." Suddenly, tribulation lightning started to flow out from Ao and Arlan''s swords. All the metallic feathers aimed at them were immediately pulverized by the arcs of purple lightning. Ao and Arlan already expected that, so their attack hasn''t stopped for even a second. In that moment of life and death, the fire eagle used a secret technique that burned away its own life. Its body started to burn like a phoenix and a powerful fire barrier appeared between it and the swords. Of course, the power of the tribulation lightning isn''t that easy to block, not to mention that Krune had used around 50% of the amount available for him back then. But it was still enough to buy the eagle a precious second. It immediately used that chance and charged out of the encirclement, soon disappearing in the distance. As Krune expected, it did really escape. Krune then looked at Ao and Arlan with a smile and asked. "Did you get it?" Ao shook his head disappointed. On the other hand, Arlan burst in laugh. "Yeap! Just as we guessed, the eagle also had a spatial ring attached to a collar on its neck. I think it is okay to assume that all Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beasts of this test have at least one black token on them. Or at the very least, the bosses of each territory definitely do." Krune was happy with this result. Turns out that the fire eagle spatial ring had another three black tokens in it. But Krune was puzzled with one thing, Ao seemed to be somewhat disappointed. "Is there something wrong?" Arlan laughed even more after that. "He''s just sad that he lost our little game. We challenged each other to see who would be faster to grab the spatial ring, and he lost." Krune finally understood what was happening and sighed. Do they have to compete in literally everything? It was then that Arlan decided to ask something else. "By the way, how long will the two of you keep hugging each other? I''m starting to feel jealous." Krune sighed and shook his head. "I have released her a long time ago. But for some reason, she simply doesn''t let me go." Only then did Lofa notice that she was still embracing Krune, and it was so tight that she looked like an octopus! "Ahhhhh!" Lofa screamed and immediately kicked Krune away. Krune, who had just been injured even further by that kick, couldn''t understand a thing. He looked at Ao and Arlan and asked. "I just saved her life, didn''t I? What a poor way of thank someone." Ao shook his head sand said. "In my opinion, you already received a very good payment." Krune couldn''t help but think that sometimes, humans really made no sense! Chapter 102 - Food Can Conquer Ones Heart. Noticing that she made a mistake, Lofa immediately went over and apologized to Krune. It''s just that she hasn''t been that close with a man before, so she had that extreme reaction. Krune didn''t mind too much, though. As long as she regretted doing that, he definitely could forgive her. Krune then looked at Lofa and said. "You should regroup with your friends as soon as possible, going alone might be too dangerous." Before she could even answer, he then turned to Ao and Arlan. "Alright! We finished what we wanted to do and got a few tokens at the same time, let''s keep going so that we can arrive on the other side as soon as possible." Arlan and Ao nodded, and they immediately set off. But there was a small problem; someone was following them right behind. Noticing that, Krune, Ao, and Arlan immediately stopped. "Errr... Is there something else?" Arlan noticed that she seemed to be moving her lips, but he couldn''t hear what she was saying. "Did you hear what she said?" Krune and Ao shook their heads. "Speak louder. We can''t hear you at all!" Lofa then took a deep breath and said. "I want to go with you!" The three men looked at each other confused. They had been very clear that they couldn''t afford to protect her when they were back in the previous city. And reality proved that since they had to defend her in the end. So Krune could only be direct. "No can do. The further we go, the stronger the demon beasts and cultivators will become. You are indeed one of the geniuses of the Makui Planet, but truth be told, you are far from our level. And there isn''t much you can help us with. So you should go back and regroup with your team members, maybe you can still fight for the three tokens in the end." Ao and Arlan agreed with that. Even though Krune is harsh, that could also be said to be for her own good. But it was then that they noticed that she was trembling a little. Krune looked at Ao and Arlan, but they seemed not to understand what was happening as well. In fact, Lofa was merely scared. She didn''t want to be alone again in this place, simple as that. As to why they didn''t notice it, well, Lofa was one of the five contestants that got a slot from the Mercenary Selection. Who would believe that one of the strongest Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Mercenary Alliance would be scared of being alone? Seeing that the three idiots couldn''t even understand that much, she could only tell it herself. She looked at them with a red face and screamed. "I''m scared! Okay? I don''t want to be alone in this place again. My group is probably dead, or at least the leader definitely is! I''m afraid of wandering in this place alone, that''s why I want to go with you!" As expected, the three guys were taken aback. Now they are lost at what to do. Krune then looked at Ao and Arlan before asking. "Should we scout her back?" Arlan immediately shook their heads. "There isn''t enough time. We might not be at half the way yet, but we are definitely close. If we go all the way back and then come again, we definitely will lose the best period to hunt other teams there. Not to mention that we will spend a lot of time without getting any black token what so ever." Ao agreed with that. "We also don''t know if there is any other hidden feature in this first phase. If we take too long, we might lose some great opportunity. And even if we don''t, we don''t know how well the other top teams are doing, so we might not have a chance of fighting for the Dragon Essence Liquid Drops anymore." Krune''s group was caught in a dilemma. They couldn''t go back, but they couldn''t simply leave her here either. By the looks of it, Lofa wasn''t in the condition to give even a step back by herself. But what can they do about bringing her with them? Krune pondered a bit and then asked the source of the problem itself about it. "Hey, Lofa. You know that we can''t go back, but bringing you alone is as much as an issue. In that case, if we bring you with us, what can you help us with?" Ao and Arlan said nothing since they also couldn''t bear to leave a woman behind to fend for herself, especially when she couldn''t put up any resistance against the dangers anymore. Lofa thought that Krune was being too cold but knew this was her only chance at the moment. If she didn''t give a good reason, they might really leave her behind. Not to mention that she wouldn''t be able to catch up with them if they really focus on running away. "I... I have quite a good Divine Sense, and I should be able to detect others from further away than most of the contestants in this first phase." Ao and Arlan smiled bitterly. "Cough, cough. Our friend Krune here has a Divine Sense able to cover almost 40 kilometers, can you do better than that?" Loja''s jaw dropped! 50 kilometers? The Foundation Establishment with the biggest Divine Sense range she ever saw could only reach 22 kilometers! How the hell did Krune achieve this monstrous Soul Power? Not to mention that he is still at the 8th stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm, it''s not even the peak of the 9th stage like her. "That- That I can''t do." Let alone 40 kilometers; she couldn''t reach even 20! "Maybe... Oh, I know! I''m a three stars alchemist, so I brought quite a few healing pills with me. I don''t mind sharing it with you in case you get injured." Arlan and Ao''s smiles got even bitter. "Well, our friend Krune here is a peak Four Stars Alchemist himself. Healing pill or any other pill is definitely not a problem for him." Lofa almost fainted right there and then. She came from the Ice Continent, so she knows very little about Krune. Let''s not forget the fact that until recently, no one of the other four continents'' Mercenary Guilds had ever cared about the Yule Continent to start with. "Errr... I know a little bit about formations, I might be able to set up a few traps." Arlan and Ao had finally become helpless, Lofa looked at them and was even afraid to ask already. But Krune still gave her the final blow. "I''m already a Four Start Formations Masters. We are good in that requisite too." Lofa finally started crying. ''What are you? A God?!'' Arlan and Ao looked at that and sighed; they know way too well how that feels. In the end, Lofa didn''t have any other skill with which she could help them. She simply shook her head and said. "Sorry, that is all I''m capable of. Other than that, I can only cook some of my home country food." Krune''s eyes immediately lit up! "Great! You are in!" Ao and Arlan almost vomited blood. Brother, what happened with your priorities? just where are your principles? Lofa wasn''t any better. She couldn''t help but think. ''Since when cooking became a skill necessary for this first phase of the Martial Gathering?'' Krune''s teammates were helpless. Just by looking at those shining eyes, it was evident that it would be useless to speak reason with Krune anymore. Krune immediately grabbed Loja''s hand and left straight away. They just finished a major battle, and they need to recover their spiritual energy before moving forward, especially Krune, who needs to restore the power of the Tribulation Lightning in his Elemental Core. So he took this chance to talk with Loja about what kind of food she could prepare. Lofa was as red as a tomato, Krune was flying back to his previous group hideout while holding her hand! They totally looked like a couple at the moment. Krune, of course, didn''t notice any of that. In his head, there was only one word. Food! He couldn''t wait to share some recipes with her as soon as possible. Ao and Arlan, on the other hand, obviously noticed that situation. But they didn''t say anything and just sighed. Even Arlan had already come to know that Krune doesn''t have those kinds of thoughts at all! There is no doubt that he only cared about the food that Lofa could make at the moment. After arriving there, Krune immediately set up a table and the fire. He then called Lofa over and made her start cooking. Surprisingly, Lofa really did have some ingredients from her country in her spatial ring. Her love for cooking and food might not be as big as Krune''s, but she still liked to cook when she needed to get some distraction. That was her way of putting her mind out of cultivation. Ao and Arlan helped with what they could, and soon, a new dish was already served. Krune tasted that and was delighted! The food was really good. He also got some ideas about how to make it again but using his own methods and skills. After finishing eating, Krune looked at Lofa and said. "Don''t worry. I will definitely protect you until the very end!" Lofa immediately turned her vision away from Krune''s gaze. She was almost having a heart attack at that moment. Ao and Arlan started to feel pity for Lofa, though. She definitely is taking all that bullshit wrong. In the end, they could only use Divine Sense to tell her what was really happening. Chapter 103 - Traitors! After Ao and Arlan explained how Krune''s personality works, Lofa finally woke up from her dreams. One can''t blame her though, that was a perfect Denzel in distress situation. So she really got somewhat emotionally affected. Let''s not forget here that Lofa is a woman, after all. Lofa took a look at Krune, who was cleaning the cooking tools as if nothing had happened. Now that she paid more attention, he really didn''t seem like he was bothered by anything that happened before. Not to mention, she can see that Krune isn''t human, so it would be weird if he got interested in her all of a sudden. She then looked at Ao and Arlan and asked. "Is he always like that?" Arlan hasn''t known Krune for long, so he refused to answer. But Ao was different. "Yeap! That''s the Krune I''ve always know. But you don''t need to worry. If he says he will do something, he definitely will keep his words." Lofa then took a deep breath and nodded. Now that she was back to normal, she remembered that she hasn''t talked with Ao and Arlan yet about going together with them. "Sorry for becoming a burden for you two too. After what I''ve seen, I know very well that I''m not as strong as you three. So I will try to keep out of your way as much as possible and help when possible." Arlan and Ao nodded, now that it came to it, they might as well go to the very end. Ao was especially at easy with this. In the past, he was just an ordinary cultivator who liked swords. His future prospects weren''t that big to start with. It only changed after he met Krune. So he can understand how Lofa feels at the moment. Krune finished cleaning and asked everyone. "Alright. Have you all recovered already?" Ao and Arlan nodded. They didn''t use too much energy like Krune to start with. "And what about your Tribulation Lightning? Is it recharged already?" Krune shook his head. "It will take some time, but other than that, my spiritual energy and injures are done with. Also, I haven''t used all of it last time, so I still have enough for average level battles. Not to mention that we are going to spend some time to reach the other side, so it will definitely be recovered by then." Lofa finally thought back to the battle against the fire eagle, at that time, she really did feel the power of the Tribulation Lightning. But only now did she remember that it shouldn''t have been there. "Right! What is that Tribulation Lightning? How can you manipulate it?" Ao and Arlan looked at Krune; he is the one who can use it after all. "Well, it''s not like a big secret or anything. As you probably already know, universe foundation cultivators and demon beasts need to pass through a Heavenly Tribulation after the foundation is created. I just so happened to keep some of that lightning with me, that''s all." It indeed isn''t a big secret. There is no doubt that all the elders already noticed that in the last Mercenary Selection. Cultivators or demon beasts capable of using Tribulation Lightning power aren''t exactly unheard of. It''s just that they are scarce. Not to mention that as a member of the Mercenary Guilds Alliance, it''s an excellent thing for them. Lofa was even more amazed by Krune; she couldn''t help but think that this demon beast in human form is capable of everything. She wanted to ask what race Krune was from, but she remembered that it is a taboo question for those who are hiding it. Tasier and Drorne only kept using their original forms because they can''t transform while into the Foundation Establishment Realm. --- Krune''s group left soon after. They immediately proceeded to the other half of the testing location. On the way, they encountered two different teams and one more territory boss. But it wasn''t anything hard to deal with, and they still were able to get another black token. It''s just that Krune noticed the decline of contestants and couldn''t help but comment. "I wonder how many teams are still remaining." Lofa was part of an average team, so she had a better picture of the situation. "My team had encountered quite a few groups with no black tokens. Usually, they attacked straight away. I think the problem was when two teams without black tokens met each other. They couldn''t tell if the other side really didn''t have a black token or not, so they could only force their way. In the end, even more blue tokens were used because of that." Ao agreed with Lofa. "The initial plan was for our planet to go through this test alone, not to mention that there wasn''t supposed to be any tokens to be acquired. So our world was supposed to let the first 400 contestants pass the first phase. But now I doubt that even half of that number will finish this." Arlan and Krune also thought the same thing. The three phases of Martial Gathering might not even happen anymore. The time passed, and a few days later, they traveled around 70% of the way. "Let''s stay around here for a while and see if we can catch some other teams." That was the plan to start with, so they immediately began to act. There are still two weeks remaining for the end of the first phase, which is more than enough for them to arrive at Ravil City. It turns out that their plan worked, they really found a lot more teams that were making their way to the final line. Unfortunately, they got another problem now. "The majority of the teams we encountered are forming alliances of four or more groups. We can''t deal with so many top contestants like this. Not to mention that they all seemed to know about us already. There is always someone in their group keeping Divine Sense active, so approaching then without being noticed is also hard." It was true. The main problem was that continuing alone would be too dangerous due to the teams without tokens. That''s why so many alliances were made after more than half of the time passed. Also, the Shield and Sword freaks tag was weighting a lot now. Usually, if such an alliance saw a group with only three and noticed that they have tokens through using their own, they would immediately attack. But because they are known now, no one wants to risk getting separated while pursuing those three individually. As for Lofa, she usually stays behind before they start an attack against another group. That was the best solution to deal with her lack of combat prowess compared to them. Not to mention that the luring plan that they tried to use before needs speed as it''s base, and she couldn''t keep up with their pace since she isn''t a wind or lightning specialized cultivator. Krune and the others pondered a bit decided to give up team hunting for now. "I don''t think we are behind in tokens gathering, but to be sure, let''s try to catch some Core Formation Realm bosses spatial rings. Considering that they usually have a lot of subordinates, there is a good chance of finding one or two with more than a single black token. After all, they could simply overwhelm those alliances with their companions." Arlan and Ao nodded. It was their best course of action at the moment. Not to mention that they are confident in escaping in case things go south. Krune opened the map for everyone to see and looked at the areas controlled by Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beasts. "The closest one is the shadow leopard territory. Want to try this one?" Ao shook his head. "Let''s choose the sky tribe instead. It''s been a while since we fought cultivators. Demon beasts aren''t as good for swordplay training like humans." Arlan immediately nodded, because of the alliances, they hadn''t fought many cultivators lately. "Very well, the sky tribe it is." Lofa also heard their conversation and asked them expectantly. "Is there something you need my help this time? I''m sure there is something. Right?" Other than help Krune with cooking, she hasn''t been able to do anything else for them. Lofa couldn''t help but feel like a useless person. It was an unbearable feeling for her who always thought to be a genius back in the Makui Planet. Ao and Arlan immediately turned their heads away. She then looked at Krune with shining eyes. Krune saw that and felt helpless. He then gave Ao and Arlan a side glance as if asking for help. "Isn''t it a beautiful day outside, Arlan?" "It certainly is, Ao." "Then, let''s go take a look!" "That''s a great idea!" The two of them gave a mocking smile to Krune and left right after. Krune saw that and almost fainted. ''Traitors!'' He looked back at Lofa and started to think hard. Usually, he would have rejected her just like before, but Krune couldn''t help but feel that he is treating her like people treat the wisps. Useless for anything else than cultivation. It made him struggle with his decision. Suddenly, Krunes eyes lit up! He then looked at Lofa as if she was some kind of treasure. "I know exactly what you can help us with!" For some reason, Lofa felt like she made a mistake by asking him. Chapter 104 - Havens Chain Lightning Fall Close to the territory of the sky tribe. Lofa was watching a scene in front of her trying her best not to laugh. ''Just how did it turn out like this?'' Ao and Arlan, on the other hand, were feeling very indignant. They wanted to refuse this idea back then, but Krune didn''t give them a chance. Every time they remembered the purple Tribulation Lightning sparks gathered on Krune''s hands, they felt a chill on their backs. "Traitors have no right to chose! If you don''t comply, I don''t mind frying you two right here and right now." After receiving such a ''friendly'' request, how could they complain? They immediately put their hearts into the act. --- The people that lived in the sky tribe were in its majority, descendants of bandits from the Hadine Planet. Their leader was one of the very few who really came from there. He is a 4th stage Core Formation Realm cultivator called Hil Argen. Lately, he''s been busy because of the cultivators doing the test. By using superiority in numbers and some traps, he was successful in gathering six black tokens already. He will be able to exchange them for excellent rewards with the Divine path Sect later. Hil was having some rest when one of his subordinates came to report something. "Boss Hil, we found another group." "How many?" "Only four." Hil Argen was surprised, so far, the smallest team he found had at least five members, and it was only one group. The rest usually had ten or more. But then he sighed, such a small group probably doesn''t even have a single black token. Unfortunately, the blood contract states that he can''t ignore any contestant, so he could only set forward and start the attack. "Have you found who the leader is between the four?" The subordinate nodded. "Their group had three men and one woman, and it seems like the woman is the leader." Hil''s attention was picked. "When we used our Divine Sense to scan the area, we just so happened to see her scolding them while they were kneeling with their heads down. By the looks of it, it seems that they don''t dare to talk back at all." Hil was taken aback now, it''s not every day that you see a situation like that. "It''s just..." Hil urged his subordinate. "What is it? Say it." "From what we could pry, the three men seemed much stronger than her." Hil was delighted with that information. He couldn''t help but think that the woman probably had some great background. In that case, she might really have some black tokens on her! "Have you tested their strength?" His subordinate nodded. "We sent three peak Foundation Establishment cultivators over, although they lost and fled in the end, the battle took more than ten minutes to finish. Not to mention that they suffered a few injuries while trying to protect the girl." Hil was even surer now. "Very good, we are leaving immediately!" "Aren''t we waiting for everyone to be back first?" They sky tribe had sent several scouts around their territory to find the contestants, so there was almost no one behind. "Wait your head! If we take too long and they escape to another territory, I might lose quite a few precious black tokens. Not to mention, with the combat prowess that they showed, it will be way too easy if I take action." His subordinate thought that it really made sense. At the very least, they shouldn''t have a problem to flee if things go south. And just like that, Krune was successful in making Lofa become the perfect bait while avoiding too many enemies. As for feeling embarrassed about that situation? Krune has never cared about what others would think anyway. Much for Ao and Arlan''s sadness. --- Krune''s group was hidden close to a mountain range while waiting for their guests to arrive. Although they were pretending that to be safe, Krune had already told everyone that someone was observing them from afar. Their plan was to have Krune pay attention to how many enemies will come. If there are too many, they will leave. If not, they will use Lofa to bait the Core Formation Realm cultivator out. Lofa looked into her hand and could see the Runestone Formation that Krune had given her. It was a protective barrier that Yusa prepared for them before they started the first phase. It had the power to stop a Middle stages Core Formation Realm cultivator attack for a second. According to Krune, that would be all that they need. So she just had to be calm and... let the Core Formation guy attack her head-on while pretending to be too scared to move. Lofa was already regretting the decision back then. Why couldn''t she be satisfied with helping Krune to cook? Turns out that there wasn''t even need to act, her soul almost left her body every time that she thought in receiving that attack. Suddenly, they received a Divine Sense message from Krune. "Seems like the big boss is here." Lofa''s heart skipped a bit at that moment. Sometime later, another message. "Great! There are only four more guys with him. My plan was really perfect!" Ao and Arlan almost vomited blood after hearing that. Perfect your head! Can''t you think about a better way to do it? But since the play was going already, they might as ell finish it. Not to mention that Krune was right about one thing, the big boss really came out without an army. Hil used his Divine Sense to probe, and as he expected, they didn''t show any reaction, which means that the group ahead couldn''t feel it. It gave him more confidence that they are his match at all. After ordering the other four guys that came with him to encircle the arena, he and the other immediately attacked. Krune noticed that and said. "They are coming, they will be in front of us soon." Ao and Arlan got prepared to take the swords in their spatial ring. Lofa concentrated in the Renustone Formation in her hand. As for Krune, he started to accumulate Tribulation Lightning power to attack. As soon as Hil appeared, Krune''s group immediately got up while pretending to be alarmed. "Protect her!" The three men immediately entered in front of Lofa and launched an attack against the Core Formation Realm cultivator. As for the enemy''s subordinates, they were stationed around to prevent Krune''s group from escaping. Hil noticed those attacks and simply laughed, he used his spiritual energy to gather wind and fire elements and launched his own attack. "Fire Blast!" The attack didn''t hit Krune and his group, but the ground right in front of them. An explosion went out, and the three were blasted away. Hil''s main target was Lofa. When he got close to Krune''s group, he used his own black token to check who between them had black tokens as well. Turn''s out that krune had passed their black tokens to her even before their plan initiated. Because of this, Hil didn''t think twice about making Lofa his first target. Once he secures the black tokens, he will take his time to deal with all of them. He didn''t hold back, he was planning to get rid of her in a single strike! But just as his attack was about to reach her, something started to shine on her hands. Immediately, a white barrier appeared around her body. Boom! Hil obviously noticed what that was. "Runestone Formation!" Runestone Formations need time to gather spiritual energy. Considering that his attack happened in an instant, it shouldn''t be possible for Lofa to charge a Runestone Formation that can resist an attack of his level. In that case, it means that they had already been expecting him to come, which means this is a trap! Sure enough, as soon as his attack rebounded on the barrier, Ao and Arlan appeared on his side. They aimed their swords directly at his heart. But Hil wasn''t a 4th stage Core Formation Realm cultivator for nothing. Even in that split of a second, he was still able to back jump by using the remaining energy from the shield rebound, which made the swords hit him but miss the critical points. He was just about to let out a sigh of relief when suddenly, he noticed several purple-colored Hexagonal Shields all around him, thirty-eight to be exact. Immediately, he felt an extreme sense of danger and tried to move away from that area straight away! Krune smiled at that sight. It was too late! "Heavens Chain Lightning Fall!" Brrroooommmm! The entire area covered by the shields became an enormous dome of purple lightning! It was a union of his strongest skill, the Heavens Fall, and all his shields previously charged with tribulation lighting as well. The Tribulation Lightning plus Krune''s spiritual energy in the shields conducted the power of the Heavens Fall between each other. That created an attack as powerful as the Heavens Fall while increasing its effect radius several times! When the Tribulation Lightning finally disappeared, everything inside the shield''s area was burnt to charcoal. One could see quite a few sparks from the remaining energy on the ground. It was hard to say if Hil was able to survive or not. As for his subordinates, they wouldn''t dare to get close at all! They are not idiot, it was easy to see that Krune''s group had been faking their real strength all along. Suddenly, a flash of red fire dashed out of the Heavens Chain Lightning Fall zone! It was none other than Hil Argen! It''s hard to find a Core Formation or higher Realm cultivator without their own life-saving techniques. It was like this for Guild Head Yulie, for the Fire Eagle, and now for Hil Argen as well. But usually, those techniques have a heavy price to be paid, and it was no different for him. Worst of all, he had to use almost all the boost in energy from the technique to resist the previous attack. He knew that once the effect was over, he would be so weak that even ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivators could kill him. So he only had once chance, he needs a hostage! He isn''t a Core Formation Realm cultivator for nothing. He understood that Lofa was the weakness of this group. Different from Ao, Arlan, and Krune, she would not be able to resist a second attack like the first one. Ao and Arlan were just about to intercept him when they heard Krune''s Divine Sense. "Wait! Don''t stop him." Ao and Arlan were taken aback, Krune would never give up on her. So why did he hold them back? There was more time. Now that they missed the chance to intervene, Lofa is fully open for an attack, and she doesn''t have the Runestone Barrier anymore! It was at that moment that they heard another Divine Sense message that reached everyone on this battlefield. "STOP LOOKING DOWN ON MEEEEEEE!" After all that happened, it was too obvious what that Core Formation Realm cultivator in front of her wanted. Instead of running away, he thought that it would be much easier to kidnap her. For Lofa, that was the last straw! Yes, she was afraid! Yes, She isn''t a match for Ao, Arlan, and even less Krune! But she isn''t weak! She also had her pride! If she couldn''t even show that in a moment of Life and Death like this one, then all the training she had gone through during her entire life would have been for nothing! As a cultivator from the Ice Continent, Water and Ice element was her specialty. The temperature around her body immediately plummeted! Her trembling hands came forward and opened, Water and Ice element gathered at high speeds, all the spiritual energy of her body concentrate right in front of her body, and she was ready to release her strongest attack! "ICE RAY!" A powerful beam of icy light shot forward! Because of her cultivation, she still couldn''t control this attack''s trajectory, but there was no need for that to start with. Hil Argen was already right in front of her and had no time to dodge. In fact, he saw the moment that she was about to do that, but he completely ignored that. Not for even a moment, he thought that this girl would be able to stop him. Not to mention that if he delayed his plans for even a second, Krune and the other might caught up to him. "What?!" Both his and Lofa''s attack hit it other at point blank. An explosion of Blue and Red, Ice and Fire, blasted everything away. Both sides were sent flying and crashed on the ground over a hundred meters away. As for the point of the explosion, a half-frozen, and half-burnt crater appeared! Ao and Arlan were taken aback with that exchange, Lofa counter-attacked a full-power strike of a 4th Stage Core Formation Realm cultivator. Even if it was them, they weren''t sure if they could resist that clash. As for Krune, there was just a faint smile on his face. Lofa ended passing out after that attack, but Krune and the others could confirm that she wasn''t seriously injured. As for Hil Argen, he slowly got back of his feat and looked at Lofa in hatred. He had already lost all reason. "You fuc*ing ant, I''ll kill you!" Well, at least that was what he wanted to do. "I don''t think you can, though." Out of nowhere, a hand had appeared on his shoulder. It was then that he looked back and saw Krune brilliantly smiling at him. Hil Argen was immediately frozen on the spot, Krune approached his mouth close to Hil''s ear and whispered. "Lightning Touch!" Boom! Purple and blue lightning sparks flew everywhere! In the end, just a half-dead, half-living body fell on the ground. Ao and Arlan felt like they were put inside an ice lake. Wasn''t that the same lightning that Krune wanted to use on them if they didn''t cooperate? Suddenly, their play from before didn''t look so embarrassing anymore. That''s right, Ao and Arlan did it for the sake of luring the boss out, it''s not because they were afraid of Krune''s Lightning Touch at all! Chapter 105 - Just What Am I Doing? Krune then took Hil Argen''s spatial ring. Sure enough, there were some black tokens inside. He then looked at the other four people who came together with this Core Formation Realm guy and said. "He isn''t dead, but if you don''t treat him soon, he definitely will be. Well, it''s up to you whether you care about him or not." Krune grabbed Lofa''s body and left together with Ao and Arlan. Due to all the commotion, it wouldn''t be long until even more cultivators of the sky tribe appeared around. On their way back to their hideout, Ao asked Krune. "Did you know that she would be able to fend off the attack?" Arlan''s interest was immediately picked. He also wanted to know that very much. Krune shook his head, though. "I didn''t, but I could see the look on her eyes. So I decided to believe her." Ao and Arlan were taken aback. "Then what if she failed?" Krune just laughed. "If that happened, then I would think about something else." Arlan then asked why he decided to let her fend off for herself. "It was necessary. If Lofa kept that mentality that someone would always appear to save her, she would die sooner or later. It''s evident that she had never passed through real Life and Death situations. Most likely, she just cultivated inside her Clan, Sect, or whatever. Even when she left to train, I believe that someone was always there to look after her. That is also why she was so afraid when we were about to leave her alone after saving from the Fire Eagle back then." Ao and Alran nodded. Arlan was already strong even before he met Krune, so he obviously had his own life and death moments and knew that they made who he is today. Ao was no different, not to mention that a few of those moments he passed together with Krune. Suddenly, Ao felt like his mind was struck by lightning! ''Wait! Every time Krune uses his Heavens Fall, it always discharges enough power to win the battle. But he still had Tribulation Lightning power remaining after that Heavens Chain Lightning Fall! So he didn''t use all the Tribulation Lightning power available at that time yet.'' The more Ao thought, the crazier the idea sounded. ''Doesn''t that mean that he already knew about the Core Formation Realm guy being able to resist his attack? In that case, he let that guy attack Lofa on purpose, and he knew that he would select her!'' Ao looked at Krune''s indifferent face and commented. "Brother, you have gone through a lot." Arlan heard that but didn''t understand. Krune, on the other hand, laughed happily. He knows that Ao already found out the truth behind this matter. They haven''t been friends for years for nothing. That was true! With Little Light''s cooperation, how could Krune not know whether his Heavens Chain Lightning Fall had enough power to defeat Hil Argen? An attack based purely on Tribulation Lightning? Ha! That was way too easy for Little Light to measure. Little Light was also happy with the results today. The only thing he helped Krune with was to tell him how much Tribulation Lightning would be necessary to achieve his plans. All the control, spiritual energy, and ideas about that new Tribulation Lightning skill were done by Krune himself. Little Light felt very pleased with how much Krune improved his use of that power. ''So what if he is a wisp? He is great!'' Even he had started to acknowledge the ''wisp'' called Krune. Of course, Little Light''s pride won''t allow him to tell that to Krune. --- Back in their hideout, Krune used his Wood Element to create a leaves bed and put Lofa on it. After that, he started to use his spiritual energy to heal her injuries. It didn''t take long for Lofa''s body to be fully recovered. In the end, he took his robe out and covered her. After that exchange against Hil Argen, Lofa''s clothes became utterly ragged. And his experience told him that it''s never good to let a human female show too much, especially for his own physical health. Krune then went to the corner and quickly prepared an element gathering formation. He still has a lot of spirit stones with him, what he needed most at the moment was to recover his Tribulation Lightning power. Of course, he made sure to make one big enough so that Ao and Arlan could use it, much for their pleasure. Time passed, and a few hours later, Lofa finally woke up. She was feeling a little dizzy while looking around. Only after noticing Krune, Ao, and Arlan on the other side cultivating, did she remember about everything that happened. She then noticed that a blue robe was covering her, it was a little dirty due to having been used, and it was obviously Krune''s robe. She then took a look at her own clothes. Seeing that sight, she immediately felt embarrassed. By releasing some spiritual energy, a screen appeared around her bed, which she used to change her clothes quickly. Only after that, she felt relieved. Krune had already put another robe by that time and seemed to be focused on cultivation, Ao and Arlan were doing the same, so she didn''t bother them. Instead, she took that time to check herself as well. That moment of Life and Death had really opened her eyes, she felt like a new door opened and that she could cross it easily. Her soul improved quite a bit, and she thought she was able to control her spiritual energy smoother too. Not to mention the improvement of her control over her Water and Ice element. That was the best moment to consolidate those powers, she had to focus on them while it still felt fresh on her memory, so she started to cultivate as well. After a few minutes, she was also lost in the feelings of cultivation. --- Night came down, and Lofa was still cultivating when suddenly, she felt the smell of food. She hasn''t eaten anything since they departed for the Sky Tribe. So she ended up waking up from hey cultivation state. Only then did she notice Krune cooking while Ao and Arlan were preparing the table. She got up and went outside as well. Seeing that she was awake, Krune called her over. "Seems like you are okay now, come and help me with the food, I''m starving here." She didn''t know whether to laugh or cry, just half a day ago she had almost died! But here is she now, helping Krune to cook food again. While they were cooking, she asked everyone. "What happened after I passed out?" They then explained everything, it''s not like there was a need to keep secret anyway. After hearing that, Lofa could only sigh. "Even after using everything I had, I still couldn''t knock him out for good." Arlan shook his head and said. "That last attack of yours was excellent, at least I know I can''t use anything more powerful than that myself." Ao agreed with what Arlan said as well. "You should feel proud of yourself, you still exchanged a blow against that 4th stage Core Formation Realm Cultivator all-out attack, and you two ended even. The reason he didn''t pass out like you was basically due to his higher cultivator and stronger soul power." Krune also commented. "That Life and Death experience will be of great help to you in the future. At least you probably won''t feel afraid of being alone anymore." Lofa looked surprised at Krune. "Was my lack of experience about it that obvious?" Krune and the other only laughed after hearing that, Ao then sent her a Divine Sense message explaining the rest that Krune hadn''t told her. That made her feel even more amazed by him. If he could go that far to help her, just how far can he go for his friends? "Alright! The food is ready. Let''s eat!" They took their time appreciating their meal, and only when they got satisfied did krune start to clean everything for them to leave. They quick collected everything they wanted and left that place. Krune, Ao, and Arlan still want a few more tokens before moving to Ravil City. They are very confident in their Black Tokens numbers, but it won''t hurt to collect a few more. But there was one thing the Krune didn''t notice, his blue robe had utterly disappeared without a trace. --- During the next few days, Krune''s group kept hunting Core Formation Beasts and lonely groups. As always, there were a lot of severely injured cultivators and demon beasts. As always, when there is no need for killing, they don''t kill. He also took his time to give Lofa some pointers just like he did with Ao and Yusa back then. Lofa heard those ideas and suggestions and was amazed! Krune''s view about elements control is simply unbelievable. Even though Krune could only teach her for a few days, Lofa''s combat power increased by leaps and bounds. You couldn''t also compare the past and present her anymore. But as expected, the longer it took, the harder it was to acquire more Black Tokens, so they got only another five in the past week of hunting. Noticing that it should be the same for everyone else, Krune''s group finally decided to move into the Ravil City to finish the test. There was a funny situation, though. Close to Ravil City, there were hundreds of cultivators scanning the area as if looking for something. Krune felt that it was strange and asked the other''s opinion. "Could it be that they are looking for us?" Everyone looked at each other and thought that it was quite possible. Krune''s group knows very well that they made quite a ruckus as the Shield and Sword Freaks. Using his powerful Divine Sense, Krune started to hear the cultivators and demon beasts in the distance secretly. Turns out that they were right, everyone thinks that Krune''s group had was the one with the most tokens. Hence, all those people gathered together to ambush his team and take the black tokens that they had collected. After Krune told the rest about that, they immediately burst in laughter! Krune has the biggest Divine Sense in this competition by far! There is no way the enemies can catch their group if they can''t even feel when Krune''s Divine Sense scan everyone on their side. And it was precisely by using that unfair advantage that they sneaked past the defenses without anyone noticing anything. As soon as Krune and his friend entered the City, Elder Loni came running at him! Everyone could see the bright smile on his face when he looked at Krune and his companions. "Krune, Arlan, and Ao, well done! Come with me, you can stay at my place until the month is over. After that, we can go to the gathering to count the teams and find the one with the biggest number of tokens." Krune and the other felt that sight to be somewhat weird but followed nonetheless. Just as they were about to enter the building where the contestants are staying, Lofa''s jaw dropped! Right in front of her, she could see another two members of her group that split back then. "Luin, Jena, you two are fine!" She immediately rushed over to talk to them, when they noticed Lofa as well, they were just as surprised! Luin immediately said. "Lofa, you survived, that''s great!" Jena was also happy. "It''s good that you reached this place as well." Lofa nodded, she then brought them to meet Krune, Ao and Arlan. "They are the ones who saved me back then. We are all members who got our slots in the Mercenary Alliance Selection." They immediately complimented each other and then that Jena thanked them. "Thank you for helping Lofa to get all the way here. We might have failed in the first phase and lost two friends, but as long as we are alive, everything is possible." Luin also did the same. Krune''s group just laughed. It was then that Krune said. "But how come you failed? Don''t you have three tokens, Lofa?" Lofa looked at Krune puzzled, since when she had three tokens? Ao and Arlan immediately understood and followed suit. "Lofa is just being modest, she helped us to hunt down some other groups and Core Formation territory bosses. But she asked for Krune to hold the tokens until we got to the city just to be safe." Krune then took three black tokens out and passed it over to her. Lofa looked at that with a poker face, how come she didn''t know that? "Elder Loni, we can go now, Lofa will be staying with her friends." Elder Loni saw that but didn''t say anything, Krune and his group got those tokens themselves, it wasn''t his place to tell them what to do with them. Besides, he knows very well how many tokens they had, three more or three less wouldn''t change much. Lofa finally understood that it was definitely Krune''s idea. Not to mention that even though Arlan and Ao confirmed that fake story, their reaction was a bit too slow. So it was evident that they only found out about this plan of giving away three tokens at the same time as herself. Her eyes couldn''t help but feel a little moisty. --- When Krune, Arlan, and Ao arrived at Elder Loni''s place, he immediately arranged a room for each one. He told them that they can stay there until the first phase was over. With such a weird thing happening, they couldn''t help but ask what was happening. Elder Loni just laughed and said. "Both me and elder Kirian had been watching over the competition ever since it started, so we know very well how much tokens each team has. You three have more than double than the second place, so it is evident that I won that bet. We are just waiting for the first phase to be officially over now. Krune, Arlan, and Ao immediately got delighted! No wonder Elder Loni is treating them so well, he had won big this time. On the other hand, they also got six drops of Dragon Essense Liquid! How could they not be happy? Krune then contacted Yusa and Shinja, who were already in this Ravil City to come over. He would make a lot of food to commemorate today! --- Back at the building where the rest of the participants are staying, Lofa finally got some time alone and went back to her room. She sat on her bed and started to look at her spatial ring when suddenly, a blue robe appeared on her lap. She looked at that and sighed. "Just what am I doing?" Chapter 106 - Elemental Control. A few days later, the first phase was finally over. As expected, Krune''s team got the most Black Tokens between all groups by far. While elder Kirian had an ugly face, Elder Loni was smiling brightly! He extended his hand and asked elder her. "Well, where is my prize? It couldn''t be that an elder of our Divine Path Sect would go back on her words, right?" Elder Kirian heard that and replied. "Hmph! We have fallen out hundreds of times, have I ever gone back on my words? Here it is. There isn''t a single drop less than what it should have." Overall, Elder Kirian contestants got more tokens than Elder Loni ones, which shows that they are indeed a better-developed Planet than Makui. But it didn''t make her the least bit happier since she lost her bet anyway. Elder Loni saw her angry face and felt even better. It was true, they really bickered each other who knows how many times. But neither side had ever gone back on their words. It was their pride and the pride of their sect on the table, after all. In the end, Elder Kirian gathered her contestants and left as soon as possible. As for Elder Loni, he stayed behind and called Krune''s group over. He then took out a bottle with the six drops of Dragon Essence Liquid. "Here is what I promised for you. Not a single drop more, not a single drop less. It is up to you how you will share between yourselves." Krune received the battle and thanked elder Loni. After that, they left straight away. Outside, Krune''s group gathered together with the others and waited for Elder Loni to come out and talk about the next phase of the Martial Gathering. "Alright! As you can see, the initial plan has changed. We have only 113 remaining participants after the end of the first phase, the rest had failed in gathering three tokens or more, so they are disqualified. Because of that, the second phase has no meaning anymore. So we will jump directly into the third phase, which is the final one." Everyone was paying attention, the second phase was for the sake of cutting the initially planned 400 contestants to 160. It then would follow the same rule as the Mercenary Selection, which was the brackets system. In the end, there would be precisely 10 contestants remaining. But now, the numbers don''t match. "I know that we don''t have the planned 160, so I''m changing this last phase to something else." Elder Loni then asked for his subordinates to bring a few testing pieces of equipment out. After installing it in the middle of the room, they left. "We are going to test your elemental control. There is no need to think about several elements at the same time, go and pick the one you are most confident with. It''s a straightforward and simple way of finding the 10 best candidates for the Divine Path Sect entrance." Everyone was taken aback. To think that the final test would end this way. "It doesn''t matter how many elements you can control at the same time. What I want to know is how good you are with the one you like the most. The equipment will then show your aptitude with that element through a score." Krune looked at those pieces of equipment and noticed that they are quite similar to the Alchemist test. The only difference is that they were made to test a single element instead of several of them. Elder Loni then continued to talk. "The higher your realm, the easier it is to control the elements and use more than one or two at the same time. But in the end, most of the cultivators would still focus on the elements they are best at. So our Divine Path Sect puts a lot of importance on how good its members are at controlling a specific element." Everyone was eager to try and see their scores. Some of them might not be able to use three or more elements at the same time, but they are still confident if it only counts their best one. "Alright, you can start now." Suddenly, Krune noticed a figure flying to one of those pieces of equipment. Surprisingly, it was none other than the Thunder Hawk Tasier. "So, he also passed the first phase. Doesn''t that mean that all five cultivators and demon beasts from the Mercenary Selection succeed in the first phase?" Arlan heard that and nodded. "It''s not that hard to accept. The three of us already make up for three of the five slots of the Mercenary Selection, which means that as long as Tasier and Lofa passed as well, we would have all five here." Krune and Ao agreed with what he said, it really makes sense. Tasier then used his wings to channeling the Lightning Element power and discharged electric currents everywhere. Soon, a score appeared for everyone to see. -Lightning Element, 4329 points.- Although everyone could see that number, no one knew if it was good or not. Even Krune doesn''t understand since the equipment back in the Alchemist Guild could only show scores up to 3000 points. So it is evident that the measure used by it is different from the alchemists. To confirm if it was good or not, the other contestants could only try it themselves and compare their own scores in the end. One cultivator or demon beast after another went close to the equipment and used the elements that they are most confident with. Slowly, the results started to accumulate. -Water Element, 3910 points.- -Ice Element, 2761 points.- -Wood Element, 4178 points.- -Fire Element, 3498 points.- Elder Loni looked at that and didn''t say anything. Those results were well within his expectative. What he wants to see is how well Krune and his friends will do. Lofa finally gathered enough determination and went forward to test herself. She uses both Water and Ice, but if she were to select one, it would definitely be Ice. She took a deep breath and gave a final look at Krune''s group direction. Krune, Ao, and Arlan noticed her looking at them and waved to her while smiling. She then smiled back and turned to the equipment in front of her. Krune had helped her a lot in the last few days they stayed outside, thanks to that, her control of the Ice Element improved to a whole new level. Of course, compared to Shinja or Yusa, she is still leagues apart. She concentrated her spiritual energy and used it to control the Ice Element around her, then she placed her hand on the machine and started to revolve it. Not too long after, the result appeared. -Ice Element, 5628 points.- The room went silent, around half of the contestants had gone over to test their elements control already. But the highest so far had been 4925 points from a genius of the Divine Swords Sect. That result crushed all the previous contestants to the ground. Elder Loni finally showed some reaction as well. "Not too bad, little girl." Lofa got a little embarrassed with the Divine Path Sect elder compliment and immediately went back to her group. Jena looked at her, amazed. "Lofa, since when you got so good at ice Element control? Even that guy from the Divine Swords Sect was crushed by you." Luin was just as impressed. "Right, right! As far as we know, you always had a control pretty similar to ours. How come it''s so high now?" Lofa was lost at words, she can''t say that she got that better after just a few days of training, right? First of all, they would definitely not believe her to start with. "I had a breakthrough during that time with the Fire Eagles attack, after I survived, I felt that everything I know was different. So I started to change my way of controlling the Ice element. But I didn''t expect that it would change this much either!" While saying that, she gave a furtive glance at Krune''s direction. The reason was none other than that ordinary-looking guy with a rainbow-like hair. Arlan decided to give a try as well, as soon as he got close to the equipment, the room turned silent again. They all know that Arlan has a Pure Yang body, which gives him a fantastic control over the Yang Elements, especially fire. Arlan is different from Lofa, Yusa, or Ao. He already had a very high precision over the control of the Fire Element before meeting Krune. Even if they had never met, his score was bound to crush almost everyone. But he was curious now. That''s because Krune still helped him to refine his control even further. He channeled his fire elemental energy and used it on the equipment in front of him. A moment later, the results were out. -Fire Element, 8973 points.- Elder Loni finally looked impressed! He then opened his communicator to check Arlan''s information, and soon found out that Arlan has a Pure Yang Body constitution. But even with that, Elder Loni was expecting something around 7000 points. That result is way higher than he thought. "Boy, you are quite impressive. Haha!" Arlan smiled back to the elder and returned to Krune and Ao''s side. Ao''s competitive spirit was activated, and he immediately went further to take the test as well. Arlan looked at that and laughed. "Hey, don''t take it too serious! This grandfather here has always been amazing to start with." "Hmph!" Ao ignored him and arrived beside the test machine. By now, the majority of the competitors had already finished their tests. As expected, no one got even close to Arlan''s result. Ao started to use his Wind Element and let the machine measure it. -Wind Element, 8453 points.- Another wave of gasps appeared in the room. Elder Loni was already feeling like he found a treasure trove. Not in a million years would he expect to see so many talents at once in a plant like Makui. Everyone looked enviously to Ao. But he, on the other hand, had a disappointed look on his face. He came back to Krune and Arlan''s side and didn''t say anything else. Arlan didn''t let it go, though. "Haha! I told you that this grandfather here is amazing. But you weren''t too bad either, remember that I have a Pure Yang Body, it does give me a significant advantage at controlling the Fire Element. Otherwise, I believe that our scores would be pretty much the same. I might have even lost." Krune looked at that and sighed. He already gave up trying to stop them from competing for everything. There were only another five contestants to test their elements control, so Krune decided to give it a try too. Arlan, Ao, and Lofa noticed that he made his move and stopped talking. Krune arrived beside the testing equipment and pondered a bit. He doesn''t really have a preference for elements, he never had. Krune then looked at elder Loni and asked him. "What element you think I should use?" Elder Loni and everyone else was taken aback. "Didn''t I say to choose the element you are most confident with?" Krune innocently nodded. "I know, but I really don''t have anything I specialize at. So I can only ask which one should be better for me to try it." Some people felt that Krune was being too arrogant. Who would believe him to be able to use any element at the same level? "Well, it doesn''t really matter, just go for earth then. There weren''t many people using it so far." Krune nodded and proceeded with the test, he channeled his spiritual energy to control the earth element and let the machine measure it. -Earth Element, XXXX points.- Krune and Everyone else was puzzled, what does XXXX mean? Elder Loni, on the other hand, looked at Krune as if he was a monster. But he soon regained his composure. "Forget earth element, just try fire element for now." Krune nodded and did the same thing again. -Fire Element, XXXX points.- Krune started to feel annoyed and just tried to use other elements to get over with it, but... -Water Element, XXXX points.- -Lightning Element, XXXX points.- -Wood Element, XXXX points.- -Wind Element, XXXX points.- -Ice Element, XXXX points.- -Metal Elemen... Krune''s face was already ugly by this point. "Come on, you piece of sh*t! Show me something, I can''t believe I will fail here just because you can''t show some numbers. Elder Loni heard that and almost fainted. ''Fail your head! The equipment can only give a score of at most 9999 points, but your results are fuc*ing too high! It can''t measure you correctly at all.'' That''s what he wanted to say, but he couldn''t lose his composure in front of a bunch of Juniors. "Cough, cough. Let it be for now. I will arrange another testing machine for you." He then opened his communicator and asked his subordinates to bring over a piece of more precise equipment. The reason they didn''t bring it at first was that it was a lot bigger than the normal ones, so it takes longer to install. Not to mention that they didn''t expect that the Makui Planet would have someone who would need it in the first place. Everyone waited for it to be installed, two hours later, the equipment was finally ready. Elder Loni then turned to Krune and said. "Alright. You can test it now." £¬ Chapter 107 - We Are Friends, Right? Krune nodded and moved to the new testing machine equipment. He just channeled earth first as he did with the first machine. -Earth Element, 14597 points- Finally, a precise result came out. Seeing that score, everyone in the room went in an uproar! "What''s up with that number? Is that even possible?!" "That''s wrong! I refuse to believe that my earth element score is so much lower than him!" "Can we even be considered inside the same Foundation Establishment Realm?" "You are wrong there! He is still in the 8th stage of the Foundation Establishment." Elder Loni''s eyes were on fire! It was as he thought, the results of the previous test machine equipment couldn''t measure Krune''s score. Krune, on the other hand, was amazed by that score. He didn''t expect to reach such a number. Doesn''t that mean that all his other element scores are like that? Suddenly, he heard Elder Loni''s voice. "Krune, test the other elements as well, I want to see just how far you can go!" Krune didn''t want to try that at all! "Errr... Elder Loni, one number is enough, no? More than that might attract too much attention." Everyone heard that and felt like spanking Krune right there and then. Is it possible to attract more attention than this? They would find out that it really is. "Cut the crap, do it!" Krune felt helpless, but then, an idea came out, he thought about using his other elements wrong on purpose. ''Yes! It should work.'' Just as he was about to do that, Little Light advised him against that. "If you are thinking about deliberately doing bad, you better forget about that." Krune was taken aback! Why can''t he? Little Light then Explained. "That elder of the Divine Path Sect is a Void Breaking Realm cultivator. He will notice straight away by the moment that you channel your spiritual energy to control the elements. You will only succeed in incurring his wrath by doing it wrong." With his fate sealed, Krune sighed helplessly and then proceeded with his tests. -Fire Element, 15125 points.- -Wind Element, 15628 points.- -Water Element, 14826 points.- Every time a new element score appeared, the voices in the room increased a fold, those scores were simply out of everyone''s scope. Krune had already given up. His life, which had got pretty quiet in the last two months, was probably about to become tumulted again. He then tried his Lightning Element, but because he was feeling sad, he subconsciously used 30% of Tribulation Lightning and 70% Lightning Element as he always does. -Lightning Element, XXXXX points.- All the noise in the room disappeared once again. Elder Loni was already going crazy! The others might not have noticed, but how could a Void Breaking Realm Cultivator like him not? That was definitely the power of the Tribulation Lightning! Krune noticed the silence in the room and looked at the score, after seeing it, he felt like killing himself. He immediately tried to use an excuse. "Cough, cough. It''s a mistake in the machine, I will try again. This time, he only used Lightning Element without any Tribulation Lightning. -Lightning Element, 29834 points.- Krune finally vomited blood. "What the hell is that? Is that testing equipment making fun of me?!" Little Light answered that question for him, though. "Tribulation Lightning is much more powerful than simple Lightning Element. Because of your constant use of Tribulation Lightning, it goes without saying that your control over the lightning element improved much faster than the other elements." The reason that Krune didn''t notice that is exactly the same. He stopped using skills of the Lightning Element without Tribulation Lightning a long time ago. So he didn''t see the improvement in the Element alone. As for Elder Loni, he couldn''t be any more excited! This Krune had surpassed all his expectations! His control over the elements is on par with Middle and Late Stages Core Formation Realm cultivators. Not to mention his Tribulation Lightning! And as the elder presiding over the Makui Planet martial Gathering, great rewards are waiting for him after bringing Krune and his friends back to the sect. Of course, although he was delighted, Elder Loni didn''t let it appear on his face, he just praised Krune better than he did with the other three. It made the contestants feel like Elder Loni had seen a lot of cultivators like that before. "Alright, the test is over. Now I will announce the ten qualified ones." "Mercenary Guild Alliance, Krune." "Mercenary Guild Alliance, Arlan Rosier." "Mercenary Guild Alliance, Ao Sulian." "Mercenary Guild Alliance, Lofa Harcken." "Divine Swords Sect, Jade Masfey." "Eien Clan, Rick Eien." "Mercenary Guild Alliance, Thunder Hawk Tasier." "Mira Kingdom''s Third Prince, Abaleu Mira." "Carlen Clan, Yona Carlen." "Divine Swords Sect, Sword Mantis Revain. Except for the Mercenary Alliance Members, everyone else was surprised. The Mercenary Alliance took five slots at once, not to mention that they only had five contestants to start with. They couldn''t believe that everyone sent by the Mercenary Alliance successfully got five slots of the Martial Gathering. But the results were up for everyone to see. The Divine Path Sect would never go out of its way to trick some ants of a small planet like Makui. So there is no doubt that those scores are real. Tasier was looking at Krune''s group, Arlan and Ao had scores much higher than himself. Tasier couldn''t help but feel that something is wrong. But what really surprised him was Lofa''s score. He knows her power very well, and she shouldn''t be that proficient in Ice Element. He decided to go look for Lofa later after Elder Loni was done talking. But things weren''t over yet, Elder Loni looked at those who failed and then said. "I know that quite a few of you are not satisfied with this Elemental Control test. You were expecting to get your places through the bracket battles. I also know that quite a few of you are thinking that you are stronger than someone who got a slot. Considering that I changed the contents of the Martial Gathering because of my bet with Elder Kirian, I will give you all another chance. I will bring to the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam more five cultivators or demon beasts." The eyes of those who failed immediately lit up, a lot of them were really angry with using only elemental control to select the ten winners after all. But in the end, what was supposed to be only 10 slots, became 15! This also shows Elder Loni''s good mood. It seems like that that Dragon Essence Liquid Bottle was essential to him. "The 10 who already passed can leave if they want, those who didn''t will now enter the last five slots selection. 101 contestants are remaining, so I will separate you into five teams of 20 or 21 competitors. After that, we will start a round-robin competition. There will be five battles per day, in the next four days, we will find out who are the last five cultivators or demon beasts to go the Divine Path Sect Exam." Everyone was excited, they immediately checked their weapons and recovery pills. Everyone here is the cream of the crop between their own powers, so there was no such thing as seeded players. After drawing the lots, the battles started straight away. Krune sent a message to Shinja and Yusa to see if they wanted to watch the battles as well, it didn''t take long for the two girls to appear after that. Lofa, on the other hand, went back to her room again. She took Krune''s robe out of her spatial ring and held it on her arms. She wanted to stay with him but had no courage to approach by herself. Suddenly, Lofa heard a voice coming from the window that she forgot opened. "Isn''t that the robe that Krune used during the Mercenary Selection?" Lofa''s body immediately froze on the spot. She then looked at the window and saw who was there. Turns out that it was none other than the Thunder Hawk Tasier! Lofa then screamed so loud that Tasier''s ears almost exploded! But she was still holding the robe, she was so flustered that she completely forgot to put it back into her spatial ring. "Shut up! My ears are going to break! Don''t you know that Hawks have super sensitive ears?! And what are you screaming for? There is no one idiot enough to attack another contestant under the Divine Path Sect watch, don''t you think?" Lofa finally regained her senses and noticed the robe in her arms, she then immediately stuffed it back into the spatial ring. Tasier looked at her face, which was as red as a tomato, and finally understood what was happening. "Could it be that you-" Before he could even finish speaking, Lofa rushed over and closed his beak. "Shut up! You have nothing to do with it. If you tell anyone, we are going to be enemies forever! Understood?!" Tasier, of course, wasn''t the least bit afraid of Lofa. But for the sake of his questions, he accepted her conditions. The reason that he could identify that Robe was because Krune did really use it in the Mercenary Selection. Hawks have a vision that is several times better than humans, let alone a Thunder Hawk Demon Beast at the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm. He was able to tell that it was Krune''s robe with a single glance! "Anyway, what you do with that is not my problem, I came here to ask you something." Lofa looked at Tasier and then nodded. "What is it that you want to ask?" Tasier then explained to Lofa about the fact that she wasn''t that good with elements control before, at least, definitely not better than him. After inquiring around, he had found that she spent quite a few days with Krune''s group during the first phase, which led to him putting together the pieces of the puzzle. Lofa understood that denying it would be useless, anyone with a mind in the correct place would think the same thing. Especially him who had seen her battle prowess during the Mercenary Selection several times. "That''s true, it was thanks to Krune''s teachings that I got this good in controlling my Ice Element, his view about the elements control is simply unbelievable!" Tasier was finally able to confirm his hyphotesis. "I see, no wonder you lik-" Boom! The Thunder Hawk was suddenly sent flying until he hit the wall of the room. "If you open your beak to say that again, see if I don''t cut your wings off!" Tasier was amazed, since when Lofa became this physically tough? That kick really hurt him! "Cough, cough. Alright! Alright! I really can''t understand you, humans. If it was us demon beasts, whether female or male, we would be extremely direct about our feelings. This is to show to the other gender that we are mighty and imposing, but I guess you humans are too complicated for that." He then looked at Lofa''s scary face and changed the topic. "Okay, back to the main issue. Help me get acquainted with Krune and the others, I want to get better with my elements control too. Not to mention that Krune is best at lightning, which is exactly the one I''m best at." Lofa was taken aback, help him get close to Krune? She doesn''t know how to do that herself, how is she going to help him with it? But it was then that her eyes suddenly lit up! ''Right! If I used Tasier''s training as an excuse to get close to him, wouldn''t it be perfect?'' She then looked at Tasier as if he was made out of gold! "Tasier, we are friends, right?" Tasier was puzzled by that question. But since she is helping him and he knows her secret, it somewhat does count as a friendship of sorts, no? "I guess you could say so." Lofa became delighted! "Great! I will introduce you to Krune and his friends then." Tasier, obviously, was happy with that. But for some reason, he felt like he was selling himself off. ''I guess I''m overthinking. Yes, I probably am.'' Chapter 108 - Krunes Group is Too Open Krune and his group were watching the others'' battles when Tasier and Lofa arrived. Lofa then came forward to talk with them. "Since the five of us passed the Martial Gathering and are from the Mercenary Guilds Alliance as well, I brought Tasier over. I hope you guys don''t mind." She said that while avoiding making eye contact with Krune, Tasier then came forward. "I also like this idea, we can talk with the Mercenary Guilds Later about this Gathering. I''m sure they will go crazy." Arlan was an easy going guy, so he immediately accepted him. "That''s great! But I didn''t think you were the type to join groups, Tasier." Ao and Krune also nodded, but they didn''t mind it either. Tasier heard that and explained. "That''s where you are wrong, Thunder Hawks are quite a sociable race. It''s just that I''m the only Thunder Hawk around here now." Krune and the other didn''t really have a reason not to believe that, so they welcomed Tasier. Lofa then noticed that Tasier was looking at her, and the meaning was obvious. She then took a deep breath and approached Krune. "Krune, can I ask you something?" Krune nodded without much care. "As long as it isn''t dangerous." Lofa shook her head. "It has nothing to do with being dangerous or not." "Then it shouldn''t be a problem. What''s it?" Lofa seemed very embarrassed but still asked. "You see, Tasier and I aren''t as good controlling elements like you and your friends. Can you give us a few pointers again?" Krune just laughed after that question. "Of course, if it is something that simple, I don''t even need to be the one for that." He looked at Shinja, who was talking with Yusa and Tasier and called her over. "Shinja, Lofa is an Ice and Water elements cultivator like you. Your Ice and Water Elements control is more or less at the same level as mine too. But as a woman, it should be much easier for you to guide her in some specific parts. Would mind giving her some pointers? We are all part of the Mercenary Guild Alliance after all." Shinja immediately nodded, other than reinforcing her cultivation after the last breakthrough, she hasn''t been doing much recently. "Sure, I will call Yusa over as well. She has been focusing on cultivation a lot recently. I could use this chance to have her relax a bit." Krune nodded and then said. "As for Tasier, he is a Thunder, Wind, and Metal elements cultivator. Ao uses Metal and Wind while Arlan uses Thunder and Wind. I can use this chance to check their overall ability." Lofa heard all of that and immediately thanked him. But deep down, she was disappointed. But she couldn''t refuse Krune''s logic. It made sense that a woman would be better to teach another one when the teachers were at the same level of a particular element control. Tasier was still talking with the others when Krune came over to tell him the news. He immediately got overjoyed with that and wanted to start straight away. But Arlan, Ao, and Krune shook their heads. They wanted to watch the battles on going a little more, so Tasier could only wait for now. As for Lofa''s situation? Tasier had already forgotten about that a long time ago. Yusa and Shinja, on the other hand, decided to leave with Lofa early. "Come on, I will take a look at your abilities. Krune''s teaching is excellent, but there are really a few things that just another woman will be able to help you with." Yusa nodded and said. "She is right, Krune and Shinja had always been more or less at the same level when we talk about Water and Ice control. Although he shared a lot of new ideas with both of us, Shinja was still able to bring forward some issues to me that only she could understand. As you know, men''s and women''s constitutions are different, and that has some impact on the way we control the same elements." Of course, they wouldn''t tell her about the Myriad Energies Technique or the Soul Cultivation techniques of the Rainbow Sect. But even so, there is still a lot that can be taught without any of those. And Krune was right, they are all part of the Mercenary Guild Alliance and were participating in the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. But above all, Lofa is a woman too. There are already few women to start with, so Shinja and Yusa really wanted to help her. Lofa looked at how easy going Krune''s group is and couldn''t help but ask. "Have you guys always been like that? Accepting anyone who gets close to you?" Yusa and Shinja were taken aback with that question. Now that Lofa brought up this issue, they couldn''t help but agree that it seemed odd for them to act like that. Yusa pondered a bit and then started to laugh. "I guess that you can call it Krune''s infection." Shinja laughed at that ''illness'' name and nodded. "That''s a very fitting name, especially for me." Leaving Krune aside, Shinja and Yusa immediately dragged Lofa outside. Shinja then asked her to show some skills and started to teach her what she knew. --- Later on, the battles for the day were finally over. So Krune and the others came outside and could see Shinja together with Yusa and Lofa. He went to another corner and asked Tasier to show some of his skills. Just as Tasier started to channel Lightning Element to use one, Krune already stopped him. "Wrong! Why are you using only your innate ability to channel Lightning Element? What about the Lightning Element in the surroundings? No wonder you need so much space every time you initiate an attack, it takes too long to prepare a skill." Tasier immediately got confused. "But I''ve always done like this. When I try to use outside energy, it is much slower." Krune shook his head. "Then you are doing it wrong, as a Lightning Element demon beast, your control over the Lightning Element is higher by default. Let me see you using external Lightning Element." Tasier did as told and started to channel outside Lightning Element. Krune looked at that and immediately understood the issue. "It''s just incompatibility between your internal Lightning Energy and the outside Lightning Element. As long as you make them compatible with each other, you should have no problem in using both at the same time." Tasier got confused, he had no idea how to do that. Krune then took his time explaining what he knew. After leaving Tasier to practice the things he told him, Krune then went to check on Ao and Arlan. Ao had the Spiritual Energy Meridians, so there wasn''t much for Krune to help with. The rest mostly depended on his comprehension ability. As for Arlan, he didn''t have it, so his control of the other two elements was a lot worse than his Fire one. He pondered a bit if he should pass the Myriad Energy Techniques to Arlan as well. So far, he didn''t seem like a bad person. As long as he had the technique, Arlan''s fire control should reach a level close to his since he also has a Pure Yang Body. Krune then sent a Divine Sense message to Ao and asked his opinion. "I don''t think Arlan would do anything wrong to us, and I believe that he already noticed that we all have something different. But he never asked what it was. He is the type who respects the other''s secrets." Krune nodded and then talked with him. "As you probably know, my friends and I have some ways of improving our elements control even further. I don''t mind telling you this, but I will need you to sign a blood contract not to divulge it outside without permission." Arlan was taken aback with that sudden message. He then pondered a bit and then nodded. If it is just to not tell others about it, then he didn''t mind. After signing it, Krune started to explain the situation. "What do you know about the Myriad Energies Technique?" Arlan was surprised and answered Krune''s question with a question of his own. "How did you know that I cultivated it in the past?" This time, the one surprised was Krune. "You did? I didn''t know that at all! But that''s great, how many pseudo energy meridians did you create?" Arlan thought that Krune had looked on his background and found out that he had used that technique before. But it seems like that it was nothing more than coincidence. Still, why would he ask about such a basic technique ao of a sudden? Nonetheless, he replied about Krune''s question. "I opened seven before. You must understand that I came from an impoverished family, so this was the only technique I could afford during that time. That''s why I still cultivated it up to the seventh pseudo meridian." Ao heard that and was impressed. "And you got this strong so fast?" Arlan shook his head. "It is basically the side effect of my Pure Yang Body. It helped me comprehend fire element techniques easier. With that, I took even harder missions in the Mercenary Guild and slowly got to where I am now. I can''t even count the number of Life and Death situation I went through." Krune nodded after hearing that. "Anyway. The secret behind our much better control over the elements is in the Myriad Energies Technique itself. It goes like this." Krune then explained how he found out about the technique''s true form and the experiences he had in the past. Arlan, obviously, didn''t believe at first. But the more Krune explained, the more plausible it seemed. He then looked at Ao, who also confirmed that it is true. "You still have around five months before the Divine Path Entrance Exam. Considering that you already have seven pseudo meridians, it should be more than enough time for you to finish the other two." Arlan nodded and decided to give it a try. The main reason being that he is already at the peak of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Other than the Elements control that Krune was helping him with. He really didn''t have much to improve on any other side. "Very well, I will give it a try." Chapter 109 - Wait! Doesnt That Mean He is Even More Spectacular? While Krune and the others were training on one side, on the other side Shinja, Yusa, and Lofa were doing the same. But there was something strange, Yusa and Shinja noticed Loja''s attention being caught by the men''s group several times. Specifically, by Krune. Yusa noticed that something was different and waited until Lofa''s focus was away again. She then snaked behind and whispered on her ears. "Is there something special about Krune?" Lofa''s heart almost jumped out with that comment. She looked at Yusa with a face as red as a tomato. Yusa and Shinja would need to be blind not to understand what is going on. Shinja couldn''t help but comment. "You can''t be serious, right? What exactly did you see in that blockhead that only thinks about food?" Yusa nodded vigorously. She also couldn''t understand that. Lofa tried to say that they were wrong, though. "That''s not it! I swear that''s not it!" Yusa and Shinja didn''t believe it for a second and pressed forward. "Are you taking us for fools? No one in this universe would believe that after seeing your reaction." Lofa finally lost it and tried to leave, as long as she doesn''t say anything, they can''t confirm their theory. But how could Yusa ever let such a fun toy go like that? She just smiled and said out loud. "Hey, Krune! I just found something exciting. Do you wanna hear?" Lofa immediately charged back and begged for Yusa to not say anything. Too late, though. Krune had arrived by their side already. "What is it?" Shinja sighed at that sight, Yusa really has no shame. The two of then looked at Lofa, who seemed to be about to cry and then said. "Oh, nothing much. It''s just that we noticed that Lofa has an excellent talent for Ice Element control. So we are planning to help her for a little longer." Krune then showed an understanding expression. "Oh, that''s good then. Make sure to teach well. I''m going back now." Krune then returned to the men''s side. Yusa then looked at Lofa''s soulless face and started laughing. Shinja, on the other hand, just sighed. "Enough with playing with her, you should know Krune good enough to understand that it won''t work." Shinja then looked at Lofa and said. "Krune has someone he is interested already, so you should give up on this idea while it''s still early." Yusa finally stopped laughing and said. "She''s right. Krune definitely won''t look at anyone else. First of all, he doesn''t even comprehend relationships very well. So, let us tell you a few stories that will make you understand how his mind works." Yusa and Shinja then shared a few things that happened with them and Krune. They went from the Sex Shop incident all the way to the Face Changing pill. Lofa heard those things and couldn''t help but laugh quite a few times. "Is there such a clueless figure in this universe?" Yusa and Shinja laughed as well. "There is, and that is who Krune really is. So, he would never notice your feelings doesn''t matter how obvious you make it appear." Lofa stopped laughing after hearing that, but then she remembered about they saying that Krune already has someone he is interested. "Then how come he has someone? He doesn''t seem the type to fall in love after all what you told me." Shinja and Yusa looked at each other and nodded. "Well, it goes like this." They then explained how Krune came to know Wang Feifei and how she saved his life. Of course, they left out the fact that Krune is a wisp and the Myriad Energies Technique. "Now that I think about it, your story is very similar. You started noticing Krune after he saved your life. But there is a big difference between you and that Feifei. The one who proposed to him was Feifei herself." Lofa couldn''t help but ask. "But wasn''t Feifei just a nine to ten years old kid? How come Krune took her seriously?" Yusa and Shinja once more laughed. "And do you think that Krune would pay attention to that fact? The important thing for him wasn''t her age, but the promise that he made. She saved his life, and now he thinks that he owns her that much. If she wants to marry, then he will marry. It probably hasn''t much to do with love to start with." Shinja then said. "Of course, it was something that happened over three years ago. And Krune admits that Wang Feifei most likely has forgotten about him. He told us that if he arrives at the Wang Clan and she doesn''t want anything from him, then he will simply pay that life-saving debt through some other way." Lofa''s mood immediately improved. "Then, doesn''t that mean that I still have a chance? Since it''s all about keeping his promise, once he finds out that she forgot or didn''t want anything with him, he will naturally be free to do whatever he wants. It''s just like you said. It doesn''t seem to have anything to do with love to start with." Shinja and Yusa became lost at words. Did she hear what they said? Krune doesn''t have any sense about relationships, hey! "Are you perhaps forgetting that Krune isn''t a human?" Lofa, of course, knew that as well. Anyone who felt Krune''s aura would be able to tell that he isn''t a human. "I don''t care. It''s not like there haven''t been any couples between different races. I know one from where I came too." Shinja then pressed forward. "But what if he is a Frog type or Insect type demon beast? Would you still think the same?" Lofa finally stopped for a moment. "Does it means that you know what race Krune is from?" Shinja and Yusa looked at each other and then nodded at Lofa. "We do, but we promised not to tell anyone without his permission. But you should know this. Any demon beast that changes into human form during the Foundation Establishment is bound to be a very common one. And Krune just so happens to have acquired his human form the moment he entered the Foundation Establishment." Lofa was taken aback. "That weak?" She wasn''t wrong in saying the word weak. It''s common sense that the earlier the demon beasts can transform, the weaker their race is. And in fact, people couldn''t think about a race weaker than the wisp race. Shija and Yusa nodded. "Yeap, his race couldn''t be any more average. So don''t blame us if you find out that he is some insect or weird looking demon beast later." Yusa and Shinja finally thought that Lofa would give up, but her answer went against their expectations. "Isn''t that great? Look at him now! Coming from the bottom-most part of the food chain, and becoming the strongest contestant of the Martial Gathering! Just how much effort did he put to get where he is? And on top of that, his race doesn''t help him with anything. He did all of that alone. I couldn''t be more impressed with Krune''s life than I am now!" Yusa and Shinja almost fainted. Their efforts not only were useless; they even made Krune''s image look several times better on her eyes. Yusa looked at Shinja and asked. "Is that what they mean with ''love is blind''?" Shinja could help but nod. "It does seem like that." The problem is that they know she took all of it wrong. But Yusa and Shija soon noticed what their mistake was. As long as you don''t know that Krune is a wisp with a limited life span, It DOES look like he did something amazing. Wait! Doesn''t it mean that the fact that he is a wisp makes it even more spectacular? The two girls finally decided to stop thinking. "Then what will you do? Unless Krune hears from that Wang Feifei girl''s mouth that she doesn''t care about that promise anymore, he definitely won''t show any interest what so ever to any other female." Lofa answered with a question. "First of all, who is that Wang Feifei and where she is from?" Yusa sighed and reminded Lofa. "Didn''t we just say it a few moments ago? She is Wang Feifei from the Wang Clan." Lofa suddenly opened her eyes wide! "Wait! You can''t be talking about ''that'' Wang Clan, right?!" Shinja and Yusa nodded. "That''s exactly the Wang Clan that we are talking about." Lofa''s mood became gloomy straight away. "Doesn''t that mean that Krune will need tens, if not hundreds of years before he becomes strong enough to go there?" Shinja and Yusa nodded once more. "Seems like we finally found a reason for you to give up. It is also good since this is something you came to feel for Krune recently. It shouldn''t be too hard to forget him with some effort." Lofa started to think about it seriously. She could at least tell that Krune would not break a promise. Not to mention that everyone trusts him precisely because of how he is. Yusa decided to strike the iron while it was hot. "Also, remember that with his talent, there is a very high chance of him passing the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. At that time, if you fail, what will you do? You won''t be able to stay close to him anymore." Because Lofa doesn''t have the Spiritual Energy Meridians, her chances of passing are very slim. Not to mention that she also doesn''t have a soul cultivation technique. So those words were very effective against her. "I guess... I will think about it after the exam is over." Yusa and Shinja nodded. "That''s an excellent decision. For now, we will still help you with your elements control. If you succeed, then we can have this conversation again. Of course, that is considering that we will pass as well. Chapter 110 - Want my Help? Then Pay for It! Tasier was having some difficulties in making his internal Lightning Energy compatible with External Lightning Element. It''s not that he doesn''t have a talent for it, it''s just that he got too used to his own way of doing things. He then asked Krune if there was a way to keep using his own lightning only, but Krune was merciless. "If you can''t do even this least bit, then you can go away! This is nothing more than laziness from your part. If I say it''s possible, then it''s possible. Lofa was a much better student than you, she didn''t complain about anything I said and tried all be herself. Are you telling me that a mighty Thunder Hawk Demon Beast can''t even do as much?" The reason that Tasier could use three elements at the same time had a lot to do with his innate Lightning Energy. It was very natural for him to the point that he almost didn''t have to control anything. Now that he had to control the external Lightning Element, he is having a problem to do that together with wind and metal elements. But as soon as he heard Krune comparing him with a girl that couldn''t even confess and saying that he was worse than her, the fire on his heart burst forward! ''Who the hell can''t do it?'' Demon beasts are very good in situations like this, nothing is more effective than saying they are worse than anyone that they thought to be weaker. Those who saw Tasier during the next day would believe that he was possessed. He really pushed his limits to the max, and he couldn''t tolerate being looked down upon at all! Krune had already told him what to do, after talking a bit with Ao and Arlan, he went back to watch the matches of the second day. He only needs to reinforce his foundation for the next few months, so he didn''t need to seclude himself or anything like that. Not to mention that it was quite entertaining to look at the others'' battles. There was always one or two skills that gave him a few ideas to use on his own ones. As for Yusa and Shinja, they were still together with Lofa helping her with the Water and Ice Elements. The further you go, the harder it is to make progress, so she wouldn''t change much in just a day or two. But at least Lofa''s mind was back on track, so she would improve sooner or later. After talking with Krune, Arlan went back to his room and continued to work on his eight pseudo energy meridian. As for spirit stones? He was the star of the Makui Continent Mercenary Guild. As the biggest mercenary guild between the five continents, they gave him a lot more resources than Krune got from the Yule Continent one. All he needed was time. --- Tasier efforts paid off. At the end of the third day of training, he finally showed some control over both his internal Lightning Energy and external Lightning Element. The main reason might have been Krune''s ideas of how to do that, but the provocation really played a big part too. Of course, this was something he learned in just three days, so he was far, far away from achieving proficiency. Krune looked at his progress and finally nodded. "Now that''s more like it. For now, there isn''t much for me to say. Because of the long-time using only the Lightning Element of your body, your senses got numb to the Lightning Element from the surroundings. So there is no point in me teaching anything about the Wind of Metal elements at the moment. Focus on your Lightning Element for the next two or three weeks, and then we will see what you can do." Tasier nodded. He could feel those issues himself, so he was already planning to do that anyway. But before that, he decided to take a look at his Lightning Element Score again. Elder Loni had left the testing machine equipment in their places for everyone to try out. So he was curious to see if there was any significant difference now that he got a little better at both Lightning Energies. Arriving there, he found out that there were quite a few cultivators and demon beasts as well. That wasn''t anything hard to imagine. It was hard to gather the best Foundation Establishment Cultivators and Demon Beasts from the Makui Planet at the same location. So it was an excellent chance to see if their Elements Control was getting better after the several battles. Tasier went to the equipment and started his test as well. He channeled his Internal Lightning and made sure to make it as similar as possible to the Lightning Element of the surrounds. He then made the same thing again and tried to bring the external Lightning Element compatibility as close as possible to his Internal one. Only then did he bring it to the equipment. -Lightning Element, 4521 points.- Tasier was delighted! The increase in points was only 191, but he had been doing Krune''s training for only three days! Not to mention that only on the third day, he was successful in making his internal Lightning Energy compatible with the external Lightning Element. He knows better than anyone else how numb his feelings for the external lightning is at the moment. ''This is great! Krune, I really own you one now. Haha!'' Tasier took flight dashed outside, he was determined to train until he got half-dead. But just as he was about to start, Krune sent him a message. "I''m cooking some food, come over and take a bite too." Tasier got a little conflicted if he should go or not, he really wanted to go back to training again. But thinking back to how much Krune helped him, he decided to pass by anyway. Back at Krune''s place, he was taking his cooking tools out while the rest was helping to prepare the table. "Lofa, come and help me with the cooking." Lofa immediately rushed over with a happy face. Of course, on Krune''s eyes, she just enjoyed cooking like him. Back where Ao, Arlan, Yusa, and Shinja were preparing the table, Ao commented. "I hope she wakes up soon. Haha!" Yusa just shook her head. "Let her be, considering that it''s Krune who we are talking about, there is no way it will advance anywhere." Arlan and Shinja couldn''t help but nod. Suddenly, they felt some strong wind, and a second after, Tasier landed close to the table. "Hey, don''t land so close next time, you almost turned the table!" Tasier could only apologize since it was Krune who rebuked him. Sometime later, the food was finally read. Tasier couldn''t take the human form yet, so Krune prepared a big bowl precisely for him. They then chatted for a while when suddenly, Tasier made a request to Krune. "Krune, we are going back to Makui Planet to wait the next four to five months for the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. Is it a problem if I stay with you guys for the time being? I was hoping you could check my progress while I''m training my Lighting element." Yusa looked at that and then said. "Aren''t you being a little too shameless, he also has his own training to do, you know?" Everyone else agreed with what Yusa said, to help someone with their training, some time is necessary. Krune had already spent a full day when Tasier came over for the first time. If Krune starts overseeing everyone''s progress from now on, he won''t have any time for himself anymore. Krune then looked at Tasier and said. "I don''t mind if you come over, but you must understand that I won''t be able to help you all the time. Of course, things would be different if you are willing to pay for the services. Also, remember that I can only help you during my free time. Haha!" Tasier eyes immediately lit up. If payment is enough, then it won''t be a problem at all! First, he is the only contestant of the Borle Continent Mercenary Guild getting into the Martial Gathering and, consequently, the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. Second, the elders in the Thunder Hawks territory would definitely support him too. Spirit Stones really isn''t a problem for him. "No problem at all, how much is it for each time?" Krune didn''t expect that he would really pay for it. But his eyes immediately lit up, the Yule Continent Mercenary guild was already having some problems to support his expenditure. If he uses his teachings to make money, wouldn''t that be perfect? "How does a thousand Rank Five low-quality spirit stones per time sound like?" In fact, he thought that he was already asking for a sky-high price, but surprisingly, Tasier agreed straight away. "Deal! Then I''ll be counting on you for now on." Everyone from the Yule Continent heard that and sighed. "Is our Yule Continent really that poor?" They couldn''t be blamed, even Rank Five Spirit Stones looked like some cheap stones for someone like Tasier. He didn''t even think for a second before agreeing. Arlan looked at that and coughed. "I don''t mind paying some for the time you helped me with the fire element control, either." But Krune shook his head. "If I didn''t ask for anything before, I won''t ask now." Tasier felt something was wrong. "Wait! Doesn''t that mean that I''m the only one paying?" Yusa immediately refuted. "Of course not! Lofa and Arlan will be paying from now on, right?" Ao, Krune, and Shinja almost fainted! Can she be any more shameless than that? Can she? Can she?! Arlan just laughed out loud. "No problem! No problem! I''m not the only representant from the Makui Continent Mercenary Guild for nothing! Haha!" Lofa was a little embarrassed but nodded nonetheless, in her case, she was the only representant from the Ice Continent Mercenary guild too. Not to mention that different from Arlan, she did come from a wealthy family of cultivators. Yusa noticed Krune and the others look and retorted. "Hmph! Why are you looking at me? We are not doing charity here! Consider the first lessons we gave them as a trying sample. Now that they want to the main product, they need to pay!" Krune and the other two didn''t even want to look at her anymore, she is simply incorrigible! Chapter 111 - Rainbow Sect Found After the fourth day of battles, the last five of the fifteen contestants got chosen. Elder Loni then Gathered everyone again and announced the previous five just like he did the last time. "Divine Swords Sect, Kariu Rone." "Ferlo Clan, Edil Ferlo." "Watzen Kingdom''s Second Princess, Mari Watzen." "Purple Sea, Poison Eel Levi" "Blazing Leopards Territory, Blazing Leopard Rasma." "With that, all fifteen slots of this time are covered. Get ready because tomorrow, we are going back to your Makui Planet. We are then staying there during the next three months and a half. After that, we will depart for the Divine Path Sect Entrance. That''s all." Tasier went to talk with the Leopard Rasma since they are both from the Borle continent. Arlan then went to see the other Divine Swords Sect members. It turns out that the Divine Swords Sect title of strongest Sect wasn''t just for show. After all, they still got three slots in the end. And if you count the fact that Arlan is part of the Divine Swords Sect as well, then they have four. Krune and the others went back to do their own things since they didn''t know any of the other contestants anyway. The day passed, and it was finally time to go back. Inside the Spaceship, Arlan was talking with Krune. "So, you want to use the Dragon Essence Liquid to make a soul healing pill. I admit that it would help a lot to breakthrough into the Core Formation Realm. But don''t you think you should ask a higher tiered alchemist to do it? You are only at the peak of the Four Stars Level, after all." Krune shook his head. "My tier is enough to make those pills, not to mention that if I ask for another alchemist to make it, you will need to pay a very high fee and give up any extra pills that they make. Dragon Essence Liquid is too rare, so I want to keep as many pills as possible." Arlan then asked. "I think that your Yule Continent Guild would still find someone, though." But Krune was adamant. "I think that too, but I really want to try it out. Who knows when I will have a chance to use Dragon Essence Liquid again?" Arlan had to agree with that statement. "Are you confident about it?" Krune immediately nodded. "The Four Stars Soul Healing Pill isn''t super hard to make. The main issue is getting the Dragon Essence. I reckon that you most likely can''t put your hands on it in our Makui Planet. So we are fortunate to six drops now." Arlan pondered a bit and then made another question. "In that case, how many pills you can make with a drop?" Krune then shook his head. "I don''t know. First, I will practice making the same pill without the essence until I''m proficient with the process, only then will I have a base. But I reckon that it shouldn''t be less than three. Of course, I might fail the pill creation process too, and lose everything. Haha!" Arlan heard that and sweated all over, but then he greeted his teeth and said. "In that case, use my two drops as well. The more drops you have, the higher your chances of making them." Krune was surprised at that. "Are you sure about that? I''ve never tried it before, and I admit that a higher tiered alchemist might have better chances. If all of them fail, there will be nothing left." Arlan just sighed. "Since you trusted me to pass the Myriad Energies Technique, then I will believe that you can concoct the Soul Healing Pills. Besides, even if you fail, I will consider it the price for the technique you gave me." Krune just laughed after hearing that. It''s not wrong to say that the real Myriad Energies Technique isn''t the least worse than the Dragon Essence Liquid. If anything, it is probably worth even more! On the way back, Ao seemed a little bored. The reason is that Arlan was focused on finishing the last two pseudo energy meridians. So he didn''t have his usual partner to train with swords. In the end, he got to practice with Yusa instead. Yusa also needs to stabilize her foundation, and battles are an excellent way to do that. As for Shinja, she got Krune to be her spar partner. Both of them need to reinforce their cultivations too, after all. --- Two weeks later, they were finally back to Makui Planet. Krune''s group immediately left back to Yule Continent. Tasier, Arlan, and Lofa had to go back to their Sect or Family to report about the Martial Gathering. So they would come over to the Yule Continent a month later. After arriving at the Yule Continent, Guild Head Bary wanted to throw a banquet to commemorate Krune and Ao''s results, but they refused it. Krune wanted to go back to the Rainbow Sect to check on Lakin before coming back to concoct the Soul Healing Pill. Of course, bringing something as rare as the Dragon Essence with him would only incur disaster. So he left the six drops with Bary before moving out. There is no way that the Mercenary Guild would take it for themselves. After they saw Krune and Ao''s results in the Martial Gathering, it was evident that their chance of entering the Divine Path Sect is exceptionally high. Even a full bottle of Dragon Essence Liquid wouldn''t be worth it for them to betray Krune. Krune''s group arrived at Harta City without any commotion. Guild Head Bary made sure that no one would know that they left the Guild Headquarters. So, after changing their appearances a little, no one recognized them. As for the registration at the city gate before entering the danger zone? Bary had taken care of that as well! Krune couldn''t help but think how convenient it is to have connections. Krune''s group moved without anyone noticing, and they only took two days to arrive at the place where the gate is. But as soon as they arrived, they saw a big problem. They found loads of cultivators and Demon Beast at the Core Formation Realm and above around the area. Not to mention that with the sheer number of late stages Core Formation Realm cultivators, there is bound to Divine Soul Cultivator here too. "You four, this area is restricted at the moment. Whatever you are doing in this direction, go do that somewhere else." After hearing that call, Shinja played the role of the leader this time and asked what was happening. "This has nothing to do with you. We are inside a Danger Zone, so remember that even if we get rid of you here, no one will complain. Get out and don''t bother us." Krune''s group could see several types of emblems attached to the cultivators and demon beasts in human form. It was evident that several powers had gathered here. That''s why they didn''t get attacked straight away since it would be harmful in the eyes of the other powers. Shinja then apologized, and they left right after. By the looks of it, their team wasn''t the first one to bump into this place. After they traveled far enough, They finally stopped to discuss the situation. To be safe, they used Divine Sense for that. "We would have to be idiots to think that this has nothing to do with our Rainbow Sect. Could it be that they have already entered?" Krune shook his head. "They haven''t. I have the power to open and close the gate at the moment. If it were open, I would have noticed. Although I have no idea how they found this place, I can guarantee that the gate is still closed." The others let out a sigh of relief, specially Shinja, who was extremely worried about Cassy. They then looked at Krune to see if he had any idea. He is the only Legacy Disciple, after all. "Don''t worry, I have discussed with Hasik before. So I know where the other entrances are at the moment. Let''s move there and see how the situation is." After that, they immediately departed. Krune''s group traveled for another day until they arrived close to a big lake. "Is it inside the lake?" Krune shook his head and pointed up. "It''s above it, around ten kilometers high to be more precise." Shinja and the others were surprised! How did no one find it? "It''s because it has always been closed, so no one knows that it was there. But we have another issue. Because we are deeper inside the Danger Zone, there are probably some Divine Soul Demon Beasts overseeing the area. So they might notice what we are doing." Ao then said. "Then let''s look for another place. It''s better to prevent them from noticing." Krune shook his head. "There are another two entrances, but they are even deeper inside the Danger Zone. The demon beasts here might be stronger, but not to the point we can''t deal with them. Unfortunately, this is our limit, going further than here would be suicide." Krune then looked at Yusa. She noticed that and understood what he was thinking. "The best Runestone concealing formation that I have at the moment can at most keep us hidden from the middle to late stages Core Formation Beasts. If the Divine Soul Realm Demon Beast overseeing this area decides to penetrate the formation, the Runestone won''t be able to stop it." Krune nodded but then said. "We will have to take our chance; groups using runestone formations to conceal themselves should be a common occurrence in this place. I refuse to believe that the Divine Soul guys would waste their time to penetrate every single formation they see. Their job is to keep too strong cultivators and demon beasts from wantonly attacking weaker ones. But we just so happen to be at the right cultivation realms here." Yusa and the others couldn''t help but nod. That did make a lot of sense. Besides, it''s not like they have another option. After that, they immediately took flight while Yusa kept a concealing Runestone formation activated. It would be bad if aerial beasts saw them passing into their territory. Only after they got close to the place where the gate was would Yusa use her best Runestone formation to keep the site out of prying eyes. Chapter 112 - Little Light Strikes a Deal. Krune checked if he could feel the gate, and sure enough, it didn''t take long for him to find its exact location. "Alright, use your concealing Runestone Formation here. If you have anything that can help conceal the flow of elements and spiritual energy, use that too." Yusa nodded and immediately started to work. She didn''t have a Runestone Formation for the second thing Krune asked, so she made two Three Stars ones on the spot. After more or less thirty minutes, the new Runestones were ready too. "Alright. Krune charges the Illusory Concealing Runestone Formation while Shinja charges the Spiritual Concealing Runestone Formation. I will charge the Elements Concealing Runestone Formation." They took the Runestones and started pouring spiritual energy. After a few minutes, all Runestones activated, and everyone once again disappeared. Krune looked around and asked. "How long will it take for them to run out of energy?" Yusa pondered a bit and said. "Considering that they are midair, they have to cover a more significant range. So I would say that two to three hours at most." Krune nodded and started to concentrate. Not long after, the elements began to gather in a single point together with significant amounts of spiritual energy. Suddenly, a small explosion of spiritual energy happened, and a gate appeared. Krune''s group made sure to prevent that wave of spiritual energy from rushing outside the concealing formation as well. "Let''s go!" Every one passed through the spatial gate and soon appeared inside the Rainbow Sect. Hasik had noticed Krune''s presence the moment that the other gate appeared, and he couldn''t help but feel relieved. He then immediately sent a message to Krune. "There is a teleport formation right beside this second gate. Use it to teleport directly into the inner city." Without wasting any time, Krune and the others stepped on it, and with a flash of silver light, they disappeared. --- Back in the inner city, everyone was already waiting for Krune''s group, which included Ruik, Lakin, Cassy, and several others. "Master!" As soon as Krune appeared, Lakin came forward and hugged him! Krune wasn''t the only one, though. Cassy did the same thing with Shinja, which please her very much. "Alright, alright. We can catch up later." Krune had teleported directly inside the Order Hall, so he could already see the illusory figure of Hasik on the illusion formation. "I believe you already know what is happening outside, right?" Hasik nodded. "Yes! Although I can''t confirm how many they are, I can tell that they have been trying to open the gate for quite some time already." Krune nodded. "What happened here? The gate hasn''t been found for thousands of years. But suddenly, as soon as we come back, there is an entire army trying to make its way in." Hasik pondered a bit about the things he knew and then said. "I can only say that someone specialized in divination is probably involved. It is like you said, it shouldn''t be just a coincidence that the bumped on our dimension. Most likely, the fact that the sect''s fate started to change after you became the Legacy Disciple released some destiny ripples that were detected by him or her." Although everyone was puzzled, that wasn''t important now. "Doesn''t matter, do you have any idea what we should do now? Or could it be that they won''t be able to enter to start with?" Hasik shook his head. "If they wanted to force their way in, they would have done already. This dimension has been in existence for far too long. It wouldn''t be able to stop several Divine Soul Realm cultivators from forcefully entering. But that is also one of the reasons why they haven''t made a move yet." Hasik then continued to explain. "If they use force to break into this dimension, there would be a very high chance that it would collapse. In that case, anything inside here would be torn apart by the spatial forces. That means they wouldn''t get anything in the end." "The second reason would be the fact that they don''t know that there is someone inside, let alone a lot. If they find it out, they might force their way regardless of the risks. But I reckon they will notice it soon." Krune was alarmed. "Why is it?" Hasik looked in the direction of the second gate. "When you opened the second gate, the situation changed again. That gate hasn''t been opened for thousands of years too. So the explosion of spiritual energy released by its aperture has generated a few more destiny ripples." Krune couldn''t hold his curiosity anymore. "What are those destiny ripples?" "Everything in this universe has an action and a reaction. Those reactions cause an invisible force called destiny energy to move. You can also call it fate. Those able to perceive that destiny energy are called seers. Of course, being a seer is risky. That''s because they are using a force ruled by the heavens to find their answers. So they are always in danger of suffering backlashes." "You probably remember that one of the ten major cores is the destiny core, right?" Everyone nodded. "The destiny core itself is directly connected to this destiny energy, so it''s easy for the users to partially or entirely hide from the heavens. It will depend on what they are trying to find answers for, though." Krune and the others finally understood. "But isn''t the Rainbow Sect considered something extremely important in the heaven''s point of view? Regular seers shouldn''t be able to find its entrance or location, right?" Hasik shook his head. "The old Mohie Sect has long since left the stage of the big powers, and this dimension might even be the very last remnant out there. It sure would be extremely hard in the past. But not now. As long as you are willing to pay the price, a seer should be able to divine its place." "The reason they couldn''t notice its presence before was simply that this dimension did not react in a long, long time. So there was no destiny energy generated to start with. Of course, it should have been extremely hard for someone to notice the reactions that it caused in the destiny energy. So I can only say that whoever did was amazingly lucky to be around when that happened." Krune sighed. "Or better, we were unlucky instead." Hasik didn''t deny that notion. His face then turned serious and said. "Anyway, let stop it here. Nothing will change, even if I say more. The main issue is that they will soon find out that someone came inside. The several powers outside will think that someone between them found some secret passage to get in. At that time, everyone there will go crazy and will throw caution to the wind; they will immediately break the dimension shell apart to get in as soon as possible." Krune and the others nodded. "Is there a way to take this dimension away?" Hasik shook his head and sighed. "If you were at the void breaking realm, you could use the central dimension formation core to compress it and then take it away. But we, of course, don''t have this privilege." Krune pondered a bit about what he knew as Formations Master. "What about just a small part of it? I would use a formation like the same that is used to make spatial rings. Since this dimension is already formed, I would only need to compress the part that I want into one spiritual equipment. Then we leave the rest for everyone outside to play with." Hasik started to ponder about it. "If it is just a tiny small part, I guess it might be possible. But we have a problem, we would need a lot of spiritual energy to force the compression." Krune smirked when he heard that. "We, of course, don''t have that many spirit stones." He then raised his hand, and purple lightning started to run around it. "But, I do have an idea of how to give it a good kick to make up for the lack of spirit stones." Not only Hasik, everyone else looked at Krune as if he was crazy! "Are you mad?! If you use such a volatile force like the tribulation lightning, you will instead break the compressed dimension straight away. Everything inside will be torn apart by the spatial force!" Krune just laughed and said. "That you don''t need to worry about." With Little Light inside his core, how could the Tribulation Lightning ever misbehave? Krune then focused his attention on his Elemental Core and said. "Which means, I''m counting on you, Little Light!" "Hmph! Using my power to save this bunch of ants, you can keep dreaming." Krune then smiled and said. "Is that so? It''s such a pit, I was considering ''upgrading'' the way I address you, but I guess Little Light is still the best then." Krune picked Little Light''s interest straight away. "You mean it?" Krune immediately confirmed. "Of course, you should know me good enough to understand that I''ve never gone back on my word." If Little Light said that that name didn''t bother him, he would be lying. But he was feeling conflicted about being controlled like that by Krune. After a few moments of silence, Little Light finally agreed. "Deal!" Krune then returned his attention outside and asked. "Now comes the main issue. What will we use to hold this pocket dimension?" The surroundings became dead silent in a second. "Right! How could we have forgotten that? Just what kind of spiritual equipment would be necessary to hold a dimension? A simple spatial ring would definitely not be able to!" Everyone then looked at Hasik, only he might have something good enough for that. "Unfortunately, whatever spiritual equipment left behind had already lost its power. The only reason that the training facilities and formations still work is that the puppets keep them in good condition. But they aren''t skilled enough to maintain high-level equipment." Krune then asked. "What level of spiritual equipment would we need to keep the pocket dimension inside?" Hasik pondered a bit and then said. "A one Silver Star equipment should barely be able to do it." Everyone got puzzled, what the heck is a one Silver Star equipment? Chapter 113 - Spatial Box. "Don''t you know? Oh right, you told me that this is a very weak planet in some forgotten corner. The side occupations'' highest level here should be at most Eight or Nine Stars. In that case, the level above the first nine stars is the Silver Stars; consequently, the level above Silver Stars is Golden Stars." Everyone immediately understood. "So, we would need a piece of equipment made by a blacksmith at the Silver Stars Level?" Hasik nodded. "Considering the things necessary to keep a life-supporting small pocket dimension, a one Silver Star Spatial Equipment would be the very minimum." Everyone''s face became gloomy. Where would Krune''s group even find such equipment in the Makui Planet? "I can only think about Elder Loni from the Divine Path Sect. But, would he even consider giving us something of that level?" Shinja commented. Krune thought for a second when suddenly, his eyes lit up! "We do have something capable of trading for that." Shinja, Ao, and Yusa looked at Krune. "Do you mean the Dragon Essence Liquid? Now that I think about it, you said that this thing is extremely precious. Then maybe it is really enough to do that." Krune nodded and looked at Ao. Noticing his eyes, Ao just laughed in the end. "Just go for it! Soul Healing Pill, or not, I''m confident in my chances of succeeding in my Core Formation Realm breakthrough." Krune smiled and then looked at Hasik. "How long do you think we have?" Hasik pondered a bit and then said. "It won''t take long for their seer to find out about the changes in the destiny energy, and he might have found already. But the Rainbow Sect dimension outer shell isn''t that easy to break into. I reckon that it should take at least three days for it to fall." Krune face got serious, it would take at least two days for them to go back. Then another two days to return to the Rainbow Sect, there isn''t enough time! "I would need to make the trip alone in wisp form." Shinja immediately refused that idea. "No can do. There is no way that you can avoid detection for so long like that. I will go, I''m in the second stage of the Core Formation Realm, after all. I should still be quite fast, and I can keep going without stop. I believe I should take just a little more than a day if I''m alone." But Krune immediately shook his head. "First, I will need to take the necessary materials for the required formations. Second, I don''t think Guild Head Bary would give the Dragon Essence Liquid to you. And third, Elder Loni doesn''t know you." Shinja was lost at words, Krune was correct in everything he said, but still... Krune was also thinking in a way when suddenly, Little Light talked to him. "If all you want is to avoid not being detected by the others Divine Sense, I might have a way to do that." Krune was surprised. "How will you do that?" Little Light immediately answered. "Nothing hard, after changing into your wisp form, just keep a layer of Tribulation Lightning around your body. Do you think that the Divine Sense of some Divine Soul Realm ants have what it takes to penetrate the Tribulation Lightning power? Haha!" Krune''s eyes lit up! "Alright, let''s go with what you said." Krune immediately told everyone that he had a way to keep his true form hidden and left right after. The others were left behind to think about a plan in case he doesn''t come back in time. Once Krune arrived outside, Yusa and Shinja were with him. Yusa would have to keep the gate concealed while Shinja would help with spiritual energy. Krune was just about to change his form when Little Light told him another thing. "You will be immune against Divine Senses, but the same can''t be said for the naked eye. You better be careful to avoid as many demon beasts and cultivators as possible." Krune wanted to cry, why didn''t he tell that before? Krune then spread his Divine Sense and found the demon beasts nearby. After deciding a path to take, he transformed back into his wisp form. He then released a little bit of Tribulation power to make a layer of purple lightning. "Tribulation Lightning Movement, 50%!" Brommmm! In a flash of purple light, Krune disappeared in the distance. His wisp form has two significant advantages, the first being the fact that his elements control is much better like this. That''s why he doesn''t have a problem with filling 50% of the lightning energy necessary with Tribulation Lightning. The second would be his low mass, his wisp form needs a lot less energy, which saves a lot of Tribulation lightning and Spiritual Energy. Krune did his best to avoid other demon beasts'' eyes, and he was fortunate not to be seen by anyone in the first hour of travel. That prevented those demon beasts from knowing from where he came. But his luck didn''t last forever, there were situations where there wasn''t a path devoid of demon beasts. So he could only outrun them with sheer speed. He couldn''t simply change forms all the time since it also consumed Spiritual Energy. When Krune was in his wisp form coupled with his Tribulation Lightning movement at 50%, he was even faster than ordinary 4th stage Core Formation Realm demon beasts and cultivators. But it didn''t stop the news from spreading around. There were some demon beasts and cultivators on missions who noticed him in the end. Krune couldn''t care less, though. The closer he got to the Harta City, the lower was the cultivation of the demon beasts and cultivators. Which made it even easier for him to move. In the end, it only took Krune one day to arrive there. He found a secluded corner somewhere and transformed back into his human form. After that, he immediately entered the city and used the long-distance teleport formation to go back to the Mercenary Guild Headquarters. --- Bary was in his office, taking care of a few documents when Krune suddenly barged in like a tornado. He was surprised at how tired he looked. "Did something happen?" Krune shook his head. "I''m just in a hurry. Guild Head, I need to Dragon Essence Liquid." Bary didn''t mind and took out the bottle. After Krune received it, he immediately disappeared again. Bary, of course, got a little worried. It didn''t seem like Krune was really okay. He checked where Krune went, and soon found out that he teleported to the city where the Divine Path Sect Spaceship is staying. After appearing in the long-distance teleport formation, Krune immediately rushed in the Divine Path Sect Spaceship direction. But when he arrived there, he noticed something. "How am I going to contact Elder Loni?" The ship was enormous, not to mention that he doesn''t know if the crew would even listen to his request. It was then that a voice came from behind him. "I can help with that." Krune was alarmed and immediately turned around, then he noticed that he had seen this person before. "I''ve seen you previously with Elder Loni. Your name is Lena, right?" Lena smiled and nodded. "I''m impressed that you even noticed that since we never complimented each other before, you even know my name." Krune was relieved to find someone who knows Elder Loni here. "I''ve heard it from the other contestants. Anyway, I need to talk with Elder Loni, and it is very important. Would it be possible to do that?" Lena showed a complicated expression and then said. "Master is in seclusion right now, so I think it won''t be easy. If it''s not something hard to accomplish, I might help you instead. You are quite lucky already since I found you on my way back to the Spaceship." Krune was surprised, he didn''t know that Lena was Elder Loni''s disciple. "Since that''s the case, then I will count on you." Krune then explained what he needed and that he was willing to exchange his Dragon Essence Liquid for it. Lena heard that and was taken aback by that offer. "I don''t think this is good, your Dragon Essence Liquid drops are much more valuable than a piece of spatial equipment of one or two Silver Stars level." Krune nodded since he was already expecting it to be the case. But he needed that equipment now, so he couldn''t care about the price at the moment. As for the two drops that were Arlan''s, Krune would explain it to him later. "It doesn''t matter, as long as I can get one, I can give all six drops I have with me at the moment." Lena thought that something was wrong. "What do you need it for?" Krune just shook his head, though. "I can''t tell it, but this is extremely important for me." Lena pondered a bit and said. "Okay, wait here for a bit." She then entered the Spaceship, and sometime later, she was already back. She then took a metal box and threw it at Krune. "Here, take it. This is a Two Silver Stars spatial box, the space inside is several times that of a spatial ring that you can find here in Makui Planet. The best would be if it was a spatial ring as well, but something with the same space inside and the size of a ring would be a lot more expensive." Krune was overjoyed with that. He then took out the bottle with the six drops of Dragon Essence Liquid and passed to Lena. But to his surprise, she refused. "No need, I would be taking advantage of you if I accepted it. Instead, you will be owning me a favor. How about that?" Krune didn''t have time to think much about the offer, so he only thanked her and immediately left. Lena looked at Krune, disappearing in the distance, and just smiled. "That''s what I call a good investment." Krune immediately came back to the long-distance teleport formation and warped back to the Yule Continent Mercenary Guild Headquarters. Just as he was about to teleport again to the Harta City, Guild Head Bary stopped him. Chapter 114 - Going Back to Rainbow Sect. "Krune, wait a moment." Krune was puzzled and looked at him. "Can you tell me what is happening? It doesn''t matter how I look at it, something is not right with you." Krune didn''t want to talk, but he couldn''t simply ignore him either. "Something did really happen, but I can''t tell you about it. Guild Head, I''m in a hurry. So I''m going ahead." Guild Head Bary then sent him a Divine Sense message. "Does it have something to do with the new Secret Realm that appeared in the Raskie Danger Zone?" Krune heart almost froze, Guild Head Bary was spot on! Bary noticed the change on Krune''s face and then smiled. "Don''t worry about it. I''m not an idiot, you know? Let alone the fact that you, Ao, Shinja, and Yusa''s cultivation progress got the most significant boost after you started to train there. Then, a seer suddenly was able to divine that a Secret Realm appeared in the Raskie Danger Zone. Not to mention that it was just a few months after your improvement." Bary then put his hands on Krune''s shoulder and continued. "I was already expecting that to be the case. Now your group had just gone to the Raskie Ganzer Zone, and suddenly, you came rushing back. It was too much of a coincidence. If not for the fact that I hid the information that your group had been continuously training there, I have no doubt that other powers would think just like me." Krune was at lost of words. He couldn''t refute Bary''s words at all! "Guild Head Bary, I..." Bary stopped him. "That''s enough, I know what you want to say. But you must understand that this new Secret Realm is too important for the entire Yule Continent as a whole. So it would be best if you did not involve yourself with it. You can''t possibly go against all the Divine Soul Cultivators in there either." Krune immediately shook his head. "I''m not planning to stop them at all, that would be suicide. But there are a few friends who I left living there who I can''t just abandon." Bary was surprised, he didn''t think that that Secret Realm would be safe to the point where you could live inside without worry. "Could it be that this Secret Realm isn''t dangerous?" Krune pondered a bit and then said. "Except for a few illusory formations, there are not many things that are dangerous there. I''m not planning to take the treasures there with me. I only want to take my friends who are living inside away. I couldn''t take the treasures there even if I wanted anyway." Bary pondered a bit about it. Krune, Shinja, Ao, and Yusa are extremely important for their guild. Bary would not think twice to give up any treasures of this new Secret Realm if it meant that Krune''s group is safe. He then came to a decision. "You really aren''t trying to take this Secret Realm only for yourself, right?" Krune nodded. Due to the emergency situation, Hasik allowed Krune to take a copy of all the Soul Cultivations Technique with him. Of course, that was on the condition that he would only give it to those who passed similar tests as him. So the only things that Krune was planning to put inside of his spatial box were the necessary equipment that can keep a life-sustaining ambient and a few of the training rooms. He wasn''t even taking the medicinal garden with him. Of course, it was only possible because the dimension had already been created. Krune was merely grabbing a small part of it. Krune would never be able to create a dimension at his level. Hasik had told him that he couldn''t take the original copies since his job was to wait for more people to come. He is just a sliver of will, he can''t go against the orders given to him in the past. But he knows that the information about this secret realm will spread. So sooner or later, their mortal foe, the Rasie Clan, will find out. That means that everything inside the rainbow sect would be destroyed in the end. Bary looked deeply at Krune and then said. "Very well, I will send someone to help you with it. Make sure to not take the things inside for yourself. Or at least, leave enough for those cultivators and demon beasts outside to be satisfied." Krune didn''t know if Bary had really given up or if it was just a smokescreen to use him to find the other entrance of the Rainbow Sect. But at the moment, he could only hope for the best. Krune then tried to refuse the help, but Guild Head Bary was adamant. Just a few minutes later, Krune became surprised after finding out who it was. "Mile!" Mile was the Core Formation Realm female cultivator who saved his life during Shinja''s Core Formation Realm breakthrough. She also knew about his real identity as a wisp. "Hey! It''s been some time. How have you been?" Krune immediately complimented her. "The help that Guild Head Bary said was you?" Mile nodded her head. "You shouldn''t have any misgivings since I''m the one accompanying you, right?" Krune shook his head and laughed. "None at all!" He then turned to Bary and said. "Thank you, Guild Head Bary." Bary just shook his hands. "Enough of that crap. You can go now. Make sure that you aren''t discovered, or it will be a headache to save your asses." Krune and Mile nodded and immediately left. On their way back, Krune found out that Mile is at the 8th Stage of the Core Formation Stage and that she is a Nine-Tailed Fox. She was only able to take her Human form in the 4th stage too. She also used her spiritual energy to grab Krune and bring him with her. Even with his Tribulation Lightning movement, he wouldn''t be faster than her anyway. "Something is weird." Krune turned at Mile, puzzled. "There is a lot of demon beasts and cultivators around. It seems like they are looking for something." Krune then showed an embarrassed expression. He knows very well what it is that they are looking for. "What?! Did you use your wisp form to fly back to Harta City? How did the Nascent Soul Demon Beasts even let you go like that?" Krune then explained. "I can use my tribulation lightning to create a protective layer that expels Divine Senses. So those Divine Soul Realm cultivators couldn''t see me on my way to Harta City. The only ones who saw me where those who could look direct with naked eyes. By the time that their subordinates told them about this, I had long since left their territory." Mile nodded, it did make sense. "Then, how were you planning to go back if I wasn''t with you?" Krune showed a helpless expression and just said. "Well, the same plan again. I would just outrun the demon beasts and hope not to pass close to a Divine Soul Realm one." Mile sighed. It made sense that the first travel went without a problem. No Divine Soul Realm cultivator or demon beast knew that he was going to pass by. But the things are different now, she is sure that those high realm beasts are all looking around for him now. "You are fortunate that guild head Bary stopped you." Krune nodded, and suddenly, he noticed something. "Wait! Guild Head Bary shouldn''t have any idea that we are friends. As far as he knows, you just helped with Shinja''s breakthrough. He doesn''t know about our relationship. So how did Bary know that sending you would put me at easy?" Mile heard than and then showed her tongue playfully. "In fact, he knows about you." Krune was alarmed. He knows?! "Haha! I told him the day that the results of your Martial Gathering came out. You should have seen his face when he found out that you are a wisp. No money in this world can pay for that." Krune was feeling like crying. What if he decided to capture him? Mile understood what Krune was thinking and then explained. "You are underestimating your value way too much, you know? If it was in the past when you were nobody, then he might have tried to capture you to use as cultivation resource. But now, he would basically sign the Mercenary Guild death sentence if he did that." Krune pondered a bit and asked. "Is it because of the resources that the Yule Continent will get if I enter the Divine Path Sect?" Mile shooked her head. "It''s only half right. But the main reason is that Bary can''t touch you even if he wanted. You are a participant of the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam, and they don''t stop any race from participating. The various elders went to all planets to conduct the once in ten years competitions, and Elder Loni had already chosen Makui Planet''s ones." Krune didn''t have a high IQ for nothing. With only those words, he already understood. "It''s a question of Sect dignity. If a participant of the Entrance Exam is killed after one of their elders had chosen him, it would be the same as stepping on the Sect''s authority. If even our Makui Planet has seers capable of Divination, let alone the Divine Path Sect. It would be way too easy for them to find who was involved in the participant''s death." Mile nodded. "This is also the reason why he isn''t afraid of someone killing you. All you need to say is that you have been chosen to participate in the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. With your power, only Core Formation or higher Realm cultivators and demon beasts would be able to harm you. And no one at that level wouldn''t know about the Divine Path Sect. So they definitely wouldn''t touch you." Mile then showed a serious face and said. "But that is only considering that you don''t show your real form. A wisp of your level is probably the only hope of breakthrough for a lot of Divine Soul Realm geezers. Even if they have to defy the Divine Path Sect, I reckon that a lot of them would still risk it. Especially those who are close to the end of their life spans." Krune nodded, it made a lot of sense. Mile then smiled and commented. "To be honest, I don''t think that Bary would capture you even if you were still a nobody. He isn''t that type of person." Krune was surprised to hear such praise. "You seem to know Guild Head Bary very well. Why is that?" Mile heard that question and then laughed. "Well, this is not a secret to anyone. Since we are still several hours away, I guess I can tell you a little about it." £¬ Chapter 115 - I Will Make It Work! "Did you know that almost no organization would accept a fox demon?" Krune shook his head. "No wonder. Your wisp race is in a worse state than us, after all. But we fox demons aren''t trusted either. Some consider us to give bad luck; others don''t believe us because they are afraid that all fox demons aren''t loyal. Even with the blood contract in place, they are still afraid that we would find a loophole to get back at them." Mile sighed, then continued. "Because of that bad impression, we have quite a hard time to survive. It doesn''t matter if it is in the human world, or the danger zones. Everyone don''t trust fox demons. That''s why a fox demon that takes the human form will hardly show its true form again. As you know, demon beasts that live in the danger zones hardly use their human forms, but we would hardly do it after becoming able to change." "Fox type demon beasts situation isn''t as bad as wisps, but they don''t have it easy either. "So let alone me, a rare nine-tailed vixen that could only take the human form after the Core Formation Realm. My life wasn''t anything good. I was pursed by both cultivators and demon beasts several times too. Of course, my chances of surviving were much higher than your wisp race, so you don''t have to feel pity for me. Haha!" Krune shook his head. "Not having a place that accepts you is sad for anyone." Mile just smiled. "You say that because you don''t know that I had also used wisps for cultivation in the past." Surprisingly, Krune expression didn''t change even a bit after hearing it. "You seem very calm after I said it." Krune sighed and said. "I would just be deluding myself if I were to believe everyone I know hasn''t used wisps energy before. This is already considered a part of the planet''s culture. That''s why I won''t look into the past, I will only help to protect those who are in my reach. Otherwise, I would need to wage war against everyone." Mile was surprised by Krune''s point of view. "That''s a good way to see it. But you don''t need to worry. I now understand that consuming them is very bad for the foundation. I took a long time to get rid of all the impurities from their energy too. Of course, it doesn''t mean that I would still do it if there were no impurities. And you have Guild Head Bary to thank for that." Krune was puzzled but waited for her to continue. "It was he who found me a long time ago. At that time, he wasn''t at the Divine Soul Realm, and I wasn''t in the Core Formation Realm either. My life was the same as your previous one, running everywhere. But there came a day when I was finally caught. The one who got me was a Core Formation Realm Three-Headed Lion." "Fortunately, I wasn''t killed straight away. The lion seemed to have some personal grudges against fox demons, so it wanted to make me suffer first. Otherwise, why would he bother with an early-stages Foundation Establishment demon beast like me?" "I can''t even remember how long I was played by with that demon beast. Until one day, I heard the sounds of battle outside the lion''s den. It turns out that Bary had gotten a Mercenary Mission to acquire that lion''s blood. As you can imagine, he wasn''t the Guild Head at that time either. In the end, he was successful in killing it and obtaining the blood." "He then entered the den with his companions who took the mission with him. It was at that moment that they found me imprisoned inside. Even though the lion died, I didn''t have much hope anyway. Fox Demons are hated by both cultivators and demon beasts alike, after all." "Sure enough, Bary''s companions showed ugly faces after seeing me. One of them then came close, planning to finish me off. I had been tortured for a long time, so I couldn''t pose any defense. Not to mention that they were all in the Core Formation Realm. Even if I was completely fine, what an early stages Foundation Establishment vixen demon beast could do against them anyway?" "But just as that cultivator raised his sword to kill me, Bary appeared behind him and held his hand. The guy was taken aback and asked him what''s the meaning of that. Bary just told them to go ahead and gather whatever they wanted. Although Bary''s companion was puzzled, he didn''t do anything. Why would they start a fight because of a vixen demon beast anyway? And a nine-tailed one at that." "After they left, Bary cut the chains that were holding me and used his spiritual energy to heal my injuries until I got into a stable condition. I then asked him why he helped a demon vixen like me. Can you guess what he said?" Krune shook his head. "Because your fur is very beautiful, he said." Mile then started to laugh out loud. "I thought that he was the worst lier of all times. I was completely dirty after staying there for so long, not to mention that my fur was all bloodied. Due to my caution against everyone, I obviously thought that he was trying to do something with me. So I just waited to see what he really wanted. Sooner or later, he would say what his real intention for saving me was." "But then, he got up and... left." Krune as a little lost. "If your fur was looking so bad, then why did Bary say it was beautiful? Could it be that he likes dirty furs?" Mile burst out in laughter after hearing that. "You really have an interesting way of thinking. Anyway, that wasn''t that reason, he didn''t like dirty furs. After that, Bary gathered outside of the den with his companions who gathered the spoils. They had already started to fly away when I walked outside." "Before he could leave the range of my Divine Sense, I sent him a message asking what the real reason was to save me. He stopped for a bit and told the others to go ahead without him. He then turned back asked. ''Didn''t I tell you the reason already?'' He said. I got a little angry and told him. ''I don''t believe you! Can''t you see the state I am at the moment? What beautiful fur can you see here?''" "Bary then showed a puzzled expression and told me. ''It looks very nice to me, though. It''s as white as snow, very beautiful''. I finally lost my patience. I turned my head around and was just about to show Bary how horrible it looked like when suddenly, my mind went blank. The fur that was supposed to be filthy, full of scars, and bloodied, really looked as white as snow now." "It turned out that Bary had used an incantation back in the lion''s den to clean my body too after he finished healing it. Later on, I found out that it was an effortless skill to learn, anyone who went outside the danger zone could find it to buy in any skills shop. Of course, I didn''t know it at that moment. While I was looking dumbfounded at my cleaned fur, Bary laughed behind me and said once more. ''See? It''s very beautiful, right?''" Mile''s face seemed somewhat red at that moment. "I didn''t know what to do, much less what to answer. Bary then turned around and was just about to leave when I asked him to wait. He asked if there was something else I wanted, but I still didn''t know what to say. Should I thank him? Will he even accept the gratitude of a nine-tailed vixen? All I could say is that I didn''t want it to be over like that. So I gritted my teeth and told him to bring me together." Mile laughed once more. "Can you believe that? First of all, what if it was all part of his plan to fool me? But then I noticed that it was unlikely to be the case. He was already in the middle stages of the Core Formation Realm at that moment. What good would be there for him to fool me when he could simply knock me out and bring me with him wherever he wanted?" "Even I didn''t know why I asked such an idiot thing. Why would someone even bother to bring a hated vixen demon beast around? It made no sense! After thinking to that point, I decided to forget what I said and just leave. But it was then that he said ''Okay.''." "My body froze at that moment! But before I could even process what was happening, Bary enveloped my body with his spiritual energy and started to fly back to the city. He then began to tell me the rules in the country for demon beasts that haven''t got a human body yet. That I would be the mercenary guild''s responsibility and that I couldn''t make an ID yet." "Of course, all that information was entering through one ear and leaving through the other. I couldn''t care less about that at the moment. It turns out that Bary had never cared about race issues. And that''s why I told you that he probably wouldn''t have done anything even if he found that you were a wisp before. This is also why I won''t use wisps energy anymore. I don''t want to let him down." Krune couldn''t help but grow some respect for Bary Casfiu. Krune then thought about something. "But didn''t the mercenary guild complain about him when he brought you back?" Mile nodded. "That was to be expected. But because Bary is the son of protector Lian, no one complained too much. Not to mention that Lian was the Guild Head back then." Krune finally understood the situation, no wonder Mile trusted Bary so much. "Are you staying in the guild because you want to pay your debt to him?" Mile pondered a bit and said. "Not exactly." "Is it because of a blood contract, then?" Mile looked at Krune as if he was an idiot. How could he not have noticed yet? "Forget it, the main reason is simply that I love him." Krune, of course, didn''t notice it before. Only now, he became surprised. He then thought about himself and Feifei, and he couldn''t help but ask. "Do you think that it will work? I mean, the relationship between a demon beast and a cultivator?" Mile just laughed and said. "I will make it work!" That''s the good thing about demon beasts, they are straight forward with their feelings just like that. Chapter 116 - Not Enough Energy. Mile was faster than Krune, so they took less than a day to arrive at the entrance of the gate. But because everyone was looking for the super wisp, they were stopped by Divine Soul Realm demon beasts twice. At first, they demanded them to turn back into their original forms. Too bad, though. Mile took out a token of the Mercenary Guild and told them who Krune was. Divine Soul Realm cultivators and demon beasts have ways to communicate with others outside the danger zone. So after they heard who Krune was, they immediately gave up the idea of finding trouble with him. After all, the chances of any of those two to be the supposed super wisp was just way too small. After arriving at the right altitude, their vision warped around. A second later, Krune and Mile could see the elemental gate open. Shinja and Yusa were there, keeping the concealing formations activated. When they saw krune and Mile together, they were taken aback. "Mile!" Mile just laughed and said. "It''s been some time." Shinja and Yusa looked puzzled at Krune. "I will explain another time, I''m going inside now. Yusa, you come with me to help with the formations set up." Shinja stayed outside to keep guard, and the rest entered the gate. They then teleported to the inner city, and Krune called Hasik over. Mile looked at that and was impressed with the place, not to mention the sheer amount of wisps. She couldn''t help but ask what was happening. Krune then called Lakin over and told him to explain everything about the Rainbow Sect to her. Krune was just about to ask Hasik what he should take with them when suddenly, an explosion happened in the distance. Immediately after that, the entire dimension started to rumble! "What is happening here?!" Hasik concentrated in the Dimension Formation and soon found out the answer. "They broke the outer shell of the dimension. It was a lot faster than I thought, though. I guess there is at least one or two Soul Forming Realm cultivators or demon beasts with the." Krune was alarmed after hearing that. "Does it mean that the dimension will collapse soon?" Hasik shook his head. "It seems like those Soul Forging Realm guys are using their power to keep the dimension stable. They are putting a lot of effort into this quick invasion too. The dimension will not collapse in the end, either. But it was still a risky move. If they were just a bit off during their attacks, the dimension would have started collapsing already." Krune understood why they were in a hurry, it is because they already found out that someone is inside. They are afraid that their treasures are being taken away without even knowing. Hasik then checked the dimension formation once more and said. "The Soul Forging Realm guys stayed behind to stabilize the passage while the Divine Soul Realm ones are coming. But they all fell inside the illusion formations. It will all depend on how long it will take for them to perceive the illusion formation and break out of it." Krune knew that he didn''t have time anymore and immediately asked what he should bring with him. Hasik then passed the order for everyone to help gather the equipment necessary. At the same time, Krune set up the formation to compress the part of the dimension that he wanted to bring out with him. One hour later, everything they needed was already inside the corner of the inner city that would be used. It only required Krune to finish the formation now, but that wasn''t easy. Although Yusa had some knowledge about formations, Runestone formations are different after all. So she could only help with some of the outline parts. Krune was sweating all over. Now and then he would hear some explosion coming from the distance as well. Those Divine Soul Realm cultivators found out that they are inside the illusion formations, and now they are using brute force to deal with it. "It''s done! Everyone; get back." To take away part of an already existing dimension is a lot easier than making one. But because of Krune''s cultivation Realm, it still was extremely hard. If not that Krune had Light Little, together with the Tribulation lightning, it would be impossible for him to compress it to put in the Spatial Box forcefully. Krune then took a lot of spirit stones to help activate the formation. After that, a spherical barrier of around ten kilometers radius appeared inside the inner city. Everyone looked at that impressed, they could see the spatial ripples of silver light running around it. In the end, only formations can allow a low-level cultivator to manipulate spatial powers. Krune looked at that barrier while controlling the formation. It then started shrinking little by little. But it took an entire hour to compress only 20% of the total size. Of course, the size of the space inside the barrier was still the same, it only looked smaller from the outside due to the spatial laws. Suddenly, Hasik sent a message to Krune. "Not good, the second gate entrance was found." Krune was alarmed! That was the gate he was going to use to escape later. "What about Shinja?" "Don''t worry. Thanks to Yusa''s Runestone Formations, she was able to detect the Divine Soul Realm cultivator''s Divine Sense before it broke through the concealing formation. She immediately entered the gate before that guy could see her. She is coming here now." Krune nodded. "Make sure to turn off the teleport formation that sends those from the second gate into the inner city." "I already did that." Krune was starting to feel worried, the time that the formation is taking to compress that land is too big. The illusion formations might not be able to stop the enemy for long enough. There is also the problem of the escape route, at this moment, he can only use the other two gates that are deeper inside the Danger Zone. "Hasik, are the other two gates safe?" "No, because of the illusion formations, the enemy in the outer city doesn''t know the exact path to follow, so the third gate has quite a few cultivators or demon beasts nearby. Only the fourth gate is devoid of any presence for the moment." Krune nodded and didn''t say anything else. Two hours passed, and everyone in Krune''s group had already thrown all their spirit stones at the formation compressing the land. But the compression was still only 70% done. Krune could only use his Tribulation Lightning to finish the last 10% in one go. At the moment, it would be enough to force it to the end. "Hasik, is it really not possible to take the sect''s spirit stones?" "Unfortunately, it''s not possible. All the spirit stones are protected by the Dimension Formation. You would need to break through that to get them. Even I can''t break that rule, it was something set up by the Mohie Sect elders back then. Only if someone passes the disciple tests, I will be able to take the spirit stones according to the reward." Mile saw that they were running out of time and then said. "Krune, you own me two now." She then threw all her spirit stones from her spatial ring inside the formation. Surprisingly, Mile was quite rich. She had over twenty thousand Rank Four spirit stones and almost five thousand Rank Five ones. With the new surge of spiritual energy, the compressing speed of the formation increased once again. Boom! "Not good, the cultivators are already outside the inner city. They are attacking the protection formation." Krune was puzzled with that information. "Didn''t you say in the past that it could resist the attacks of Divine Soul Realm cultivators?" "I did. But there isn''t only one or two there, there are over ten of them. But that isn''t the main issue, the problem is that one of the Soul Forging Realm cultivators is there too." Everyone around Krune heard that and started to panic. They need to leave right now, or they will be caught by the enemy. "Shinja and Ao, you guys guide the wisps and demon bests to the forth gate. I will be there after I finish here." Mile immediately intervened. "No can do. The forth gate is inside the core region of the Raskie Danger Zone, right? The moment it opens from the inside, the Soul Forging Realm protectors of the Danger Zone will immediately notice it. You are basically sending them to their deaths if you do that." Ao and the rest felt a chill on their backs. Ruik then couldn''t help but ask. "In that case, what do we do? If our only gate in already like that, aren''t we simply trapped?" Shinja then shook her had. "I know what Mile meant, once the fourth gate is open, it will attract the attention of the Soul Forging Realm protectors of the Raskie Danger Zone. But that doesn''t mean that they will arrive as soon as it opens. As long as we are inside of the Spatiox Box Dimension and Krune uses his Tribulation Lightning concealment, they won''t notice him leaving." Mile nodded. "You are right. Sadly, there are too many high-level wisps here. Otherwise, I could still leave this place with Krune, Ao, and Shinja right before everyone''s eyes, and they wouldn''t be able to do a thing." She was talking about using Krune''s identity as a Divine Path Sect Contestant to stop them from attacking. All they would do is to force Krune to show everything he has in his spatial ring or spatial box. Unfortunately, he can''t do that. The barrier was only 5% away from the last 10%, where Krune could use his Tribulation Lightning. The problem is that the further it is compressed, the higher the number of spirit stones needed. Mile alone was responsible for almost half of the total amount of spiritual energy. Still, it was only able to compress the barrier from 70% to 85%. It was then that Hasik sent another message. "Krune, not yet? The protection formation of the inner city won''t hold anymore!" Krune was out of ideas, he already asked Little Light if they could force the extra 5% to compress as well, but Little Light immediately denied the idea. He guaranteed to Krune that the power they have now isn''t enough to do that. If he tried, he would run out of Tribulation Lightning power, and the last 5% would be even harder to overcome. It has to be 10% at the very minimum! Everyone was looking at the sweat-drenched. Lakin was especially furious that he couldn''t do anything at the moment for his master. It was then that an idea came in mind. Lakin looked at Cassy beside him and then greeted his teeth. He returned back to his wisp form and rushed to the formation. He was planning to use his life to feed it. Krune saw that and was alarmed! "Lakin, stop right now! This is your master''s orders!" Krune then returned to his wisp form as well and was just about to intercept his disciple when suddenly, Mile appeared in front of Lakin and grabbed his core. "Krune, focus on the formation. I will hold him." Lakin was struggling to leave her grasp. "Let me go! If I don''t do it, all the wisps will become cultivation resources and die!" Unfortunately for Lakin, there is no way he could get away from an 8th stage Core Formation Realm Demon Beast. Krune saw that and let out a sigh of relief. He then focused on the formation once more. But the problem at hand was still the same, there was no more energy, and the natural spiritual energy from heaven and earth was far from sufficient. It was then that he heard a voice somewhat familiar. "Well, I guess it''s my for this old geezer to say farewell." Chapter 117 - Sacrifice. Just as Krune heard that voice, he noticed a surge of spiritual energy entering the compression formation. He then looked in the direction of that voice and noticed that a wisp had thrown itself inside. "You! Get out of there!" That wisp heard Krune''s orders but completely ignored him. "Well, I was able to live without worry for a long time here. It was really nice, but I guess I had enough of this already." Just like the previous time, Krune felt a surge of spiritual energy entering the formation from another side. Once again, another wisp entered the formation. While Krune eyes were going red, Lakin was going crazy as well. But it didn''t stop there. "Haha! Lakin, you better take care of Cassy well. Otherwise, I will come back to haunt you as a ghost." "To think that I would leave this world as a hero, not bad for a wisp, right?" More wisps entered the formation and started to released their core energies inside. Krune understood what was happening here, so he couldn''t bring himself to stop them. It turns out that the wisps that are sacrificing themselves are the old ones. Lakin had gathered a lot of wisps, so it was evident that quite a few of them were at a higher age. "Krune, Lakin. Don''t worry about us old geezers, but make sure to take care of the young ones. That''s all that I ask." "He is right. Also, we have almost no hope to enter the Foundation Establishment to start with. So we would be able to live one or two more years at most anyway. At least like this, we can give hope to their future." Krune could feel their determination, and as unwilling as he could be, he knew that he had no other choice either. Lakin, obviously, understood that as well. But he still wanted to stop them. Unfortunately, Mile didn''t let him go. All the wisps which were above eight years old used their own energy to feed the compression formation. Finally, there was enough energy for the formation to finish it compressing up to 10%. Krune knew that there wasn''t time anymore, he immediately contacted Little Light, and they started to coordinate. Krune then gathered the Tribulation Lightning around the formation using his flying shields as conductors. Little Light controlled the energy so that it wouldn''t go anywhere else. After Krune brought almost all the power he had available, he concentrated on the formation stability. He then told Little Light to send the attack any time he wanted. Little Light was really good at it, the Tribulation Lightning struck the compression formation evenly from all sides. But even so, Krune was having a hard time to keep it under control. Fortunately, the last kick would be a one wave attack, so it took just a few seconds for the attack to be over. Krune then threw the spatial box in the middle of the formation and immediately sealed that compressed space inside. In the corner of the inner city, there was now a twenty kilometers radius crater, and right in the middle, one could see a spatial box lying quietly. Finally, the pocket dimension spatial box with a life-support function was ready. Boom! "Not good, the inner city protection formation has crumbled!" The only fortunate thing is that the inner city is also enormous. So even that Soul Forging Realm cultivator couldn''t spread his Divine Sense to cover it all. Not to mention that Hasik was using the dimension formation to intervene with their Divine Sense too. Krune couldn''t waste more time, he immediately grabbed the spatial box and examinated it. Just as expected, the part of the dimension that he took away could be perceived inside, it was pretty much like a spatial ring. krune then came close to everyone and said. "I will drag everyone inside, do not resist the suction power." Lakin had transformed back to his human form but looked completely dispirited. Krune then gave him a kick an sent him flying over a hundred meters away. He then grabbed him back and said. "Is that how you intend to act after what they have done for you? If that''s all you got, then I don''t need a disciple anymore." Before Lakin could even answer, he threw him inside the spatial box too. One by one, wisps and demon beasts disappeared inside. It only took Krune a minute to bring everyone into the spatial box pocket dimension. But Mile still stayed outside, though. "Are you not coming?" Mile just laughed and said. "There is no need for it, I will stay here to catch their attention while you move to the fourth gate. Almost all powers of the Yule Continent are involved in the opening of this new Secret Realm, so the mercenary guild is obviously among them. Bary had already registered me for this mission too, so they can''t find any fault with me. All they will do is to force me to show my spatial rings content." "But you are different, you can''t show what''s inside your spatial box, so you need to leave without me. Now go, there isn''t more time." Krune nodded and immediately covered his wisp form with Tribulation Lightning, grabbed the items with spiritual energy, and left. With Hasik''s help, Krune avoided bumping on the other cultivators and demon beasts. He then used a teleport formation that was already active to teleport beside the fourth gate. All main gates of the dimension had teleport formations nearby. With the sheer size of the city, it would be inconvenient to move without them. Before opening it, Krune asked what Hasik was going to do. He had spent quite some time with him, so he was obviously worried. Hasik heard about his concerns and just laughed. "What are you even thinking? I''m just a sliver of will left behind, my true self is probably out there somewhere. So there is nothing for you to care about, just go." Although Krune wasn''t sure if Hasik true self was really alive or not, he could only believe him for now. Krune then used his stats as Legacy Disciple to command the gate to open. Just as expected, everyone noticed the explosion of spiritual energy when it opened. The Cultivators and Demon Beasts inside the Secret Realm had already received the information that a second gate was open. So it confirmed the divination that said that someone had probably found a way in first. "Someone is escaping! Fast, we need to stop whoever it is." "But we are too far away from the place where that gate opened, it will take a few minutes even for Divine Soul Realm cultivators like us." It was then that an old woman appeared, she was one of the two Soul Forging Realm cultivators that came out this time around. Her name was Kalie Nessa. She looked at the direction where the gate opened and said. "Leave it to me, I''m much faster than you guys. Just make sure that we can control the inner city. I refuse to believe that whoever is there can leave the range of my Divine Sense in time." She then looked at three Divine Soul Realm cultivators and said. "You three will come with me, I need someone to protect this side of the gate." Everyone heard that and felt relieved. With a Soul Forging Realm taking action, they wouldn''t be afraid of traps on the other side of the gate. Just as expected of a Soul Forging Realm, she was much faster than any of the Divine Soul Realm cultivators and demon beasts inside the Rainbow Sect Dimension. She only took a little more than one minute to arrive beside the Fourth gate. She then looked at it and snorted. She refuses to believe that the other side would have a trap good enough to hold her, much less kill. She then left the three Divine Soul Realm cultivators inside for them to protect it. After that, she immediately crossed the elemental gate and appeared deep inside the Raskie Danger Zone. But contrary to her expectations, there was no trap on the other side. In fact, there was no one at all. It was evident that whoever had crossed the gate, left straight away. But that wasn''t all, she soon felt her body being scanned by another three Divine Senses, and they weren''t any weaker than herself. A minute later, three figures appeared in front of Kalie. "So it is the three protectors of the Raskie Danger Zone. Can you tell me what is happening here?" The three demon beasts looked at Kalie, puzzled. "We were expecting you to tell us what''s going on. Suddenly, an elemental gate appears right in the middle of our Raskie Zone. Right after that, you came out of it. As far as we know, you were supposed to be overseeing the new Secret Realm exploration with Jin. Could it be that this gate is connected to that Secret Realm?" Kalie wasn''t sure if they were telling the truth or not, but she couldn''t confirm it either. She then explained what happened and why she appeared inside their territory. "Someone opened the gate and escaped through it? That''s impossible! As soon as we felt its aperture, we used our Divine Sense to scan the location. However, we didn''t detect anything at all. Are you sure that you weren''t tricked into coming here while your enemy is still inside?" Kalie then verified back inside the Secret Realm if something had changed, but the guys she left inside told her that nothing happened. Kalie then returned to talk with the three protectors. "There are only two options, your targets only opened the gate to grab your attention and fled using another passage. Or they have a way to conceal their presence from our Divine Senses." If it was the first option, then Kalie and the three protectors are just wasting their time here. But if it is the second, the targets might be escaping right under their noses at this very moment. Kalie decided to return to the Secret Realm to keep watching its occupation. As for the three protectors, they immediately ordered all Divine Soul Realm or lower cultivators inside their territory to go out and search the place. --- Krune, of course, knew that he didn''t have much time to move. Another issue is that although his Tribulation Lightning layer can keep Divine Sense away, it is very catchy to those who look directly at it. So his plan after leaving the gate was to move as fast as possible in a single direction and use Little Light''s help to avoid any high realm demon beasts. But that situation wouldn''t last for long. Krune had used almost all his Tribulation Lightning power back in the compression formation, so he needed to find a place to hide as soon as possible. Chapter 118 - Finally Safe. Krune was sure that inside the core of the Raskie Danger Zone, the demon beasts would check everyone who wasn''t supposed to be there. So a Foundation Establishment like him would definitely be inspected. Not to mention that except for the subordinates of higher-level demon beasts, you wouldn''t find Foundation Establishment demon beasts inside the core zone that easy. Krune was moving fast but carefully. He was scanning everything for a place to hide, but it seemed like any location he found was already the lair of some demon beast. Little Light already told him that several Divine Senses had passed by him ever since he left the Rainbow Sect. It was evident that they were looking for him. It was then that he noticed something. ''I''m an idiot! There is only my spatial ring, the spatial box, and myself here. Since that''s the case, I can bury myself in the ground. If Ao, Shinja, and everyone else were with me, then it would be somewhat tricky since they would need air at least. But now I only need a small hole to fit myself and the equipment.'' After thinking about that, Krune immediately found a corner that was more or less concealed and quickly used his earth element to move down. The size of the hole was really small, just enough to fit the spatial box, which was the biggest thing there at the moment. Because of that, it was almost effortless to keep digging. Krune was very cautious. Everywhere he passed, he would fill the space left behind with the same soil again. That is not to leave behind a straight line that could be perceived by Divine Sense. He also made sure to go very deep to prevent any accidents. He doesn''t know how powerful the Divine Sense of Soul Forging Realm demon beasts are, so he had to be sure that he was far enough. After digging over 20 kilometers in the ground, Krune finally stopped. He decided to stay here for the time being. ''I doubt that their Divine Sense could reach this deep, and that is considering that the Soul Forging Realm ones are searching at all. If it were me, I would mobilize the forces that I have instead.'' Deep in the ground, Krune''s Divine Sense couldn''t go further than one kilometer, which is weird since he was able to reach over two before. ''It seems the deeper I go, there more affected my Divine Sense becomes. But this is also good. It means that the chances of being found are even lower now.'' After making sure that there was nothing around, Krune examined the dimension inside the spatial box. He couldn''t enter since it works the same way as a spatial ring, which means that someone must be outside to bring out anything inside. He then used his Divine Sense to communicate with Ruik. As mentioned before, Ruik was forcefully made the sect master, so he had to keep an eye on everyone there. Inside the Spatial Box, Ruik was looking horrible. Ever since they found out that cultivators and demon beasts were trying to enter the Rainbow Sect, he almost had no time to sleep at all. For him, that is as good as receiving a beating every day. He was checking all the equipment necessary for the life-supporting when suddenly, he heard Krune''s voice. "Ruik, I finally found a place to rest. How are things inside?" Ruik let out a sigh of relief when he heard that, then he used his own Divine Sense to answer. "Except for the gloomy mood, everything is pretty much fine. That kick you gave Lakin had really woken him up, so he is putting a lot of effort in comforting the youngest wisps. Cassy had been crying ever since then, but Shinja is taking care of her. As for Ao and the others, they have a lot of experience like us, so they are pretty much fine at the moment. The impressive one is Dier, who is helping a lot. He was one of those who calmed first." Krune was happy to hear that Lakin didn''t dwell on what happened for long. Before Krune was saved by Feifei, he saw many wisps being taken away or eaten by demon beasts. He still feels sad about those memories, he has long since understood that wisps die easily. "That''s good, after all of this is over, I will have Lakin leave to gain some experience. If he breaks down every time something happens, he will not be able to survive for long." Ruik nodded after hearing that. Krune then asked how the life-supporting formations and equipment were. "That compression formation of yours was excellent. While outside, everything was trembling and breaking, inside it was like nothing had happened at all. All the equipment and formations are working just fine. I can''t help but think how marvelous formations are to be able to control spatial powers." Krune was relieved to hear that. Ruik then remembered Krune about another thing. "Everything is working fine, but it all needs spiritual energy to keep running. Different from the Rainbow Sect dimension, this pocket dimension doesn''t have a connection to the outside world. At the moment, I''m using the cultivators, wisps, and demon beasts spiritual energy. Still, they also don''t have a way to recover themselves inside. We need to have some going outside to recover their spiritual energy soon." Krune was already expecting that. "We used all our spirit stones to feed the compression formation, so we are without any at the moment. But I already have an idea. You can also use the wisps spiritual energy, so I will let a few of them come outside to recover every time they get exhausted." Ruik nodded and accepted that idea. According to Krune, there is no air where he is at the moment, so it would be hard for cultivators and demon beasts to stay outside. But wisps that are in their wisp forms don''t need to breath. They can go outside to recover their spiritual energy without a problem. "Very well, if anything happens, focus your Divine Sense on the wall of the dimension. If you do that, I will be able to notice you." Krune then exchanged a few more words and moved to the next person. Lakin was talking with the young wisps, as Ruik said. Krune saw that and contacted him. "It seems like you understand your position now." Lakin''s heart almost stopped with that sudden voice. "Master!" Krune ignored his amazement and only asked one thing. "Do you know your wrongs?" Lakin heard that and felt embarrassed. "I know. I let master, Ruik, Cassy, Dier, and everyone else down. I shouldn''t have lost my calm like that, much less have a break down after what happened." Krune was satisfied with that answer. "It''s good as long as you know. Your master had seen a lot of wisps dying in the past, so I''m used to it. But that doesn''t mean I don''t care. Don''t forget that the wisps are counting on you, so don''t let them down. Your situation is different from the wisps who sacrificed themselves. You are the pillar for all the wisps that you saved in the past, even more than me. If you had died back in the sect, all of them would have panicked. That would really be a mess." Lakin knew that his master was right. That''s why Krune ordered Lakin not to enter the formation. Of course, more than half of the reason was that Krune didn''t want to see Lakin dying. "I understand, it won''t happen again, master." Krune nodded and said. "I have already talked with Ruik. After things get calm, I will have you go outside to gain experience. You better be ready." Lakin agreed with Krune''s ideas and went back to take care of the young wisps. Krune then exchanged a few words with the rest inside the spatial box and then returned his attention to the outside. There is still over four months before the departure of the Divine path Sect Spaceship. So Krune had a lot of time. In that case, he decided to focus on reinforcing his cultivation for the time being. --- Back at the Rainbow Sect, Hasik was looking at the two Soul Forging Realm cultivator and demon beast that were overseeing the operation. Hasik had done something that no one expected. After Krune and the others left, he forcefully wiped all the memories that he had about them. That was the only way he could think to prevent Krune''s identity from being found out. He even went against some of the rules and also deleted the Rainbow Sect name. Kalie looked at the illusionary form of Hasik and asked once more. "So, you really don''t know about those who came in first?" Hasik looked at her. "As I said, my memories had been wiped before you came in. I don''t remember anything about anyone who had been here before you." Jin Hevi is the second Soul Forging Realm and a demon beast. He was also responsible for the demon beasts'' interests in this new place. He was going to ask something when a cultivator came inside the Order Hall. Jin looked at him and asked. "Did you find anything?" The cultivator shook his head. "Whoever was here before did a great job, there are no traces left behind. At least none that could help us in finding their identities." Jin nodded and asked for his subordinate to leave. Hasik heard their coversation and simply commented. "That is to be expected. I have control over the dimension formation of this Secret Realm, so the people before had just to ask me, and it would be easy to scan for any important clue. After that, I just have to ask the puppets to get rid of everything." Jin looked at hasik and couldn''t help but say. "You are being very supportive, don''t you think?" Hasik nodded. "That''s the orders left behind all those years ago, I can''t block anyone from taking the Mohie Sect tests." Kalie noticed that it wasn''t going anywhere and then said. "Alright, let''s end this issue here. Hasik, tell us everything about this Mohiw Sect of yours and what kind of tests are those that you are talking about." Hasik nodded and started explaining everything about the Mohie Sect of the past. The more Jin and Kalie heard about it, the ugly their faces became. They never expected that this Mohie Sect was a mortal foe of one of the Big Four. "Now, things had become really complicated." Chapter 119 - One Day! At that moment, there was only Jin and Kalie in the Order Hall that Hasik is staying. Kalie looked at Jin and then said. "This is already out of our scope, we should contact the Divine Path Sect about this issue." Jin pondered a bit and then said. "The soul techniques here are extremely important for our Makui Planet. If we do as you say, we are going to lose everything. I think it''s better to gather the heads of the main powers and discuss it with them first." Kalie then said. "If the Divine Path Sect finds out that we were keeping it a secret, they will probably punish the powers of our Makui Planet heavily." Jin''s face changed a bit since he knows that too. "Anyway, this is beyond our scope like you said, let''s report everything to the higher-ups first and let them decide what to do. We did our part and secured the Secret Realm as we are told anyway." Kalie nodded and then asked one thing to Hasik in front of her. "Do you know what those who escaped had taken from this place?" Hasik nodded. "I have a full understanding of the Mohie Sect Dimension Formation, so it''s easy to find out what is missing. They took away a few training rooms and life-supporting formations and equipment. Also, they took some of the medicinal herbs in the garden, but nothing much." Kalie and Jin were surprised by what he said. "Does it mean that they didn''t take anything of value?" Hasik nodded. "Everything of importance is still inside the dimension. But I don''t have any records if they passed the Mohie Sect test, so I don''t know if they checked the soul cultivation techniques or not." Jin and Kalie let out a sigh of relief. At least they didn''t lose anything that matters. "It''s evident that they left everything back on purpose. That way, it wouldn''t make much sense in spending a lot of resources to bring them out." Kalie then said. "But they might have copies of the soul cultivation techniques. Is it okay to let them be?" Jin just shook his head. "We don''t even have a clue to start with. As far as I know, they might still be inside this dimension. Or maybe they already left through that last gate. I have already sealed the entrances and am having everyone checked, though." Kalie nodded. From now on, it''s not their problem anymore. They then exchanged a few more information with Hasik and left to take care of other things. --- Mile was still inside the Secret Realm. She had helped a lot during Krune''s escape. It was because of her that the cultivators and demon beasts were far away from the fourth gate when it opened. After that, she blended in the middle of the Core Formation Stage cultivators who were part of this mission. Even with the check, it was very easy for her to leave. Not to mention that she was listed as one of the demon beasts that came for the exploration. She also had a direct recommendation letter given by Bary. After that, she went back to the Mercenary Guild and reported everything to him. Inside Bary''s office, Mile and Bary were alone while she was telling him what happened. "I understand. I still didn''t get any information about Krune after he left there, which means that they made their escape successfully. We need to wait to see what he is going to do. If I''m not wrong, he is probably hidden inside the core region of the Raskie Danger Zone. There is no doubt that the demon beasts there are doing a full-scale search. So it will take some time before he can move again." Mile nodded. "Krune is very intelligent and cautious, so he won''t do anything idiot in the meantime." Bary nodded. If he didn''t have confidence in Krune, he wouldn''t have let him go in the first place. Mile then looked at Bary with a playful smile and said. "Now that my mission is over, I want my reward!" Before Bary could even say anything, she had already jumped to his arm and hugged it tightly! Bary saw that and had an annoyed face. "Why are you always so clingy? I could pay you back as I do with any other Mercenary, you know?" But Mile immediately shook her head. "Don''t wanna, this is the best payment ever." Bary saw that and just shook his head. He isn''t clueless like Krune and knew what she felt for him. He told her hundreds of times that it wouldn''t work between then, but she never gives up. The problem is, his own resolve had been shaking recently. No man could possibly remain unfazed after so many years of dedication, not to mention that Bary Casfiu isn''t engaged with anyone. Also, Mile is indeed a beauty when she is in her human form. Bary then looked at Mile, who seemed to enjoy herself very much and patted her head a little. Mile knew that her years of effort were starting to paying off. Years ago, he wouldn''t even let her stay too close to him. Suddenly, Mile''s eyes lit up! ''Chance!'' As fast as lightning, Mile tried to steal a kiss from Bary. Too bad, though. Bary is still a Divine Soul Realm cultivator, after all. Before she got close enough, he had already disappeared from the spot. Without looking at Mile, he turned around and said. "I... I have some other issues to take care of. See you later." Before Mile could even answer, Bary disappeared without leaving a trace behind. Mile, of course, was fuming! "One day! One day I will definitely catch you!" --- Around a month had already passed. Back in the Raskie Danger Zone, Krune had just sent the wisps that had recovered their spiritual energy inside the pocket dimension. During the last month, the demon beasts had been looking for Krune everywhere. It''s not like they didn''t think that their targets could have hidden underground. Just that they didn''t believe that Krune could have gone so deep. Because of that, even their underground search turned fruitless. After an entire month of search, the protectors of the core region of the Raskie Danger Zone had finally given up the search. First of all, they didn''t even know if there had ever been someone there to start with. Whoever it was, they don''t believe that they could have gone so long without being found. So they simply called off the search and reported back to the other powers that they didn''t find anything. But they weren''t worried anyway, they had already received the news that the Secret Realm had lost almost nothing. Everything important was still there for them. As for whatever that might have been taken away, there is nothing they can do if they can''t find the culprits. Krune decided that it was already time for him to go up again. He doesn''t know how the situation is, but he can''t simply stay down there forever. Moving underground is also of the question, it would take years for him to leave the core region if he decided to do that. Krune then started to ascend while keeping his Divine Sense spread for around ten meters only. He doesn''t want to alert other demon beasts with his Divine Sense, after all. After taking his time to go up, he finally exited the earth after a few hours. Krune, of course, already had his Tribulation Lightning layer around him. He then asked Little Light help again to check if there was any Divine Sense scanning the place. "I can''t feel anything, which is understandable. They didn''t even know if you really entered their region or not, so it makes no sense to keep searching forever." Krune then returned to his human form but kept that layer of Tribulation Lightning around his body. Although it spends more energy that way, he can''t walk around using his wisp form, after all. With Little Light''s help, krune started to move away from the core region. But it''s always better to play safe, the core region had too many Core Formation Demon Beasts, so he moved with caution. --- Back in the Mercenary Guild Headquarters, the Long-Distance Teleport Formation started to shine. After a few seconds, a Thunder Hawk demon beast appeared with a flash of silver light. That was none other than Tasier who came to keep his Deal with Krune. Tasier looked around and asked for information related to Krune and the others on the counter. "I''m sorry, Krune''s team received an important mission from the guild, so they are not here at the moment." Tasier was surprised by that. He thought Krune would stay in the headquarters to keep his condition for the Divine path Sect Entrance Exam. "Can you tell me where he has gone?" The attendant shook her head. "It is recorded as secret by the system. You are also part of the Mercenary Guild Alliance, so you should know what it means." Tasier nodded and then gave up. He can only wait for Krune''s team to come back. For them to have left during this time, it is bound to be something very important. Even Ao and Shinja had gone too. He was just about to look for a demon beast room to stay when he noticed someone he knows. "Yo, Lofa! You are here for Krune and the others too?" Just like Tasier, Loja Harcken had come to show the results of her training and get some more pointers from Shinja. Of course, the main reason was that she wanted to see Krune. Lofa noticed Tasier and complimented him back. "That''s right. I just arrived yesterday, but Krune''s group was gone by the time I came." Tasier nodded, he then pondered a bit and asked. "Are you in the mood to spar a little? Back in the Thunder Hawk territory, there wasn''t anyone at the same level of cultivation and combat power to practice with me." Lofa had to admit that it was the same case for her. After the improvement that she had gone with Krune and Shinja, her peers couldn''t put much resistance anymore. She even had a headache with her family elders, who kept pestering her about how she became that strong. Of course, she wouldn''t share her abilities without Krune or Shinja approval. "Very well, it''s better than keep wasting time here anyway." And just like that, they spent their time between cultivation and sparing once a while. Chapter 120 - Understanding the Divine Path Sect. The core region isn''t as big as the inner region, much less the outer region, but it still took Krune over a week to leave it. He then accelerated and left the core region behind as fast as possible. After getting some distance away, he brought Shinja, Yusa, and Ao out as well. That''s because it would look like they are on a mission and catch less attention. The inner regions also have Core Formation Realm Demon Beasts, and of course, the Divine Soul Ream ones watching over the place. But there are also a lot of high-level Foundation Establishment and low-level Core Formation like Krune''s team. Krune''s group even purposely bumped in some demon beasts on the way to fight. That made it much more unlikely for someone to suspect them. After traveling for an entire week, they were finally out of the inner region as well. It wasn''t before two weeks after Krune left the core region that they finally arrived at Harta City. But they didn''t stay for long. After paying the fee for the teleport, they went back to the Mercenary Headquarters. As soon as Krune arrived, Krune received a message from the cultivators looking over the teleport formation that Bary wanted to see him. "Let''s go there." In the office, they noticed that Mile was there as well. Bary looked at them and said. "I hope you don''t go out during the next months to prevent anything wrong from happening." Krune and the others immediately nodded. "Alright then, Mile told me everything. So you now have that pocket dimension and a lot of high-level wisps inside. But what are you planning to do?" Krune pondered a bit and said. "I''m planning to leave it with my disciple. He is a lot more involved in gathering wisps than I am, so it would be better if he had it with him when he goes out." Bary frowned after hearing that. "I would advise not doing that. This spatial box that you have is a Two Silver Stars spiritual spatial equipment, not something that you could acquire easily in our Makui Planet. The majority wouldn''t recognize its level, but those who did would definitely take it away. And once they find the wisps inside, their fate will be pretty much sealed." Krune couldn''t help but admit that it was true; it would be too dangerous. Bary then looked at him and said. "You should bring it with you. It might be considered a treasure here in the Makui Planet, but it is nothing in the eyes of the Divine Path Sect. I reckon that their disciples all have Silver Stars Equipment at the very least. Some inner and core disciples might even have Golden Stars level. So no one will care about your spatial box." Krune heard and then asked. "But is it okay to bring more cultivators and demon beasts with me? They might not care about the box itself, but I refuse to believe that they won''t notice the pocket dimension and those who are staying inside. I was also expecting to leave my disciple behind so that he could gather some experience." Bary heard that and started to laugh. "Seems like you really know very little about the Divine Path Sect. No, you know very little about the Big Four instead." Not only Krune, everyone else except Mile was puzzled. "To be honest, I''m don''t the exact details. But I do know that the Divine Path Sect, like any other of the Big Four, is an all-encompassing entity. Just how many cultivators and demon beasts stop there daily? The number is simply frightening! So they need a lot of menial disciples too. Another thing is that you can''t hunt any other race there, wisps included." Krune had heard something about it before, but he thought that it only applied to the disciples who entered the Sect formally. Bary then continued. "It is extremely common for the new disciples who pass the test to bring their own subordinates. They can even be considered menial disciples if they show that they can contribute to the Sect''s management. As long as you are a real disciple, your subordinates will be under the protection of the Divine Path Sect too." Krune then shook his head. "That would go against my plans, I don''t want a safe place for the wisps to live. What I want is a place for them to grow stronger. That''s also why I was planning to send Lakin out to gain some experience by himself. As a Divine Sect Disciple, there is no doubt that I will get several missions where I can temper myself. But everyone else will stay behind living a comfortable life. That will not work since if I die, they will be done for." Bary was surprised with Krune''s determination, how come he says that his disciple is more focused than him in protecting the wisps? "That is also not a problem, the menial disciples can also take missions themselves. Of course, those missions would not be as important or well rewarded as the real disciples. But I reckon that this would be just perfect for what you plan to do." Krune seemed to get interested now. That would indeed be very convenient. Bary noticed that and struck the iron while it was hot. "Lastly, the wisps that aren''t at the Foundation Establishment could still live on the premises of the Sect. Although there is no doubt that they would be looked down upon because they are wisps. The cultivators and demon beasts inside the sect would never take them as cultivation resources. First, because they all know that cultivating with wisps is prejudicial to their foundations. And second, because it would go against the sect rules to attack anyone without a valid reason." Krune was delighted after hearing everything. The wisps could live outside without being hunted, that was great. As for being looked down upon? That''s even better! Krune believes that such an environment is perfect for lighting up their fighting spirits. But then, Bary reminded Krune about a problem. "There is an issue though, you can only bring at most fifty subordinates. That is the limit accepted by the Divine Path Sect." Krune''s mood immediately turned to worse. Even after the old wisps sacrificed themselves, there are still over a hundred with him. Not to mention the few demon beasts as well. He has 163 there at the moment, and he can only bring fifty if he passes. Shinja, Yusa, and Ao knew what Krune was thinking and then laughed. Krune was taken by that, and just as he was going to complain about them for laughing at that matter, Yusa cut him off. "Isn''t it something easy to resolve? Each real disciple can bring fifty subordinates, which means that the four of us need to become one. With that, we will have two hundred slots." Ao then said. "What you talking about? Isn''t Arlan coming too? I doubt he won''t be able to pass it, we can also ask him for a few extra slots. Haha!" Shinja expressed her wish. "Cassy is mine! She will come with me to take the slots. I don''t want anyone competing over her with me." Krune was feeling extremely happy. There is no doubt that each of those subordinates slots could be sold for an astronomic price. Who wouldn''t want to make part of the Divine Path Sect even if it is as a menial disciple or a simple subordinate? But they gave up their slots quickly as that. Well, that is considering that they will pass the Sect Entrance Test, of course. In any case, what mattered for Krune was their feelings. Bary looked at all of that and nodded. There would be no need to worry about Krune while those guys are there with him. "With this part resolved, let''s enter the next topic." Everyone got silent again and waited for what comes next, the Mohie Sect issue. "As you know already, that Secret Realm was part of the Mohie Sect, a mortal foe of the Rasie Clan, which is one of the Big Four today. Fortunately, this is the territory of the Divine Path Sect, so they won''t be able to come too soon. It will probably take two to three months for that to happens. The Divine Path Sect has its own inheritance, so they won''t mind this branch of an extinct sect much. Still, they will ask for a great price if the Rasie Clan wants to come and destroy it." Bary then looked at Krune with a stern face. "Fortunately, you left everything of real value behind and only took a few training facilities and life-support equipment. So the powers of our Makui Planet aren''t paying much attention to you now. But the Rasie Clan probably won''t let anything escape their grasp. So everyone is doing their best in the tests left by the Mohie Sect to take a look at the Soul Cultivation techniques before they are destroyed." Krune was puzzled. "They have Soul Forging Realm cultivators now. Why wouldn''t they break the protection formation of the books hall and take it by force?" Bary shook his head. "Those formations were prepared very well. We do have the power to destroy them, but if we do that, another formation linked with the external one will explode, wiping out all the techniques." Everyone understood the gravity of this problem, which means the powers of the makui Planet don''t have too long to finish passing all tests. Even Krune took longer than that to become a Legacy Disciple. Not to mention that he has the Tribulation Lightning to temper his soul and the Myriad Energies Technique on top of that. So he is certain that the powers inside the Mohie Sect at the moment will at most become ordinary disciples. They won''t have access to the Legacy Disciple books. Bary looked at then and then asked. "What level of a disciple from the Mohie Sect did you all become?" Krune came forward and then said. "Quite a few became ordinary disciples, and I am a Legacy one." Bary didn''t know the difference between those since no one from the planet powers had become an ordinary disciple yet. Let alone a Legacy one. Krune then spent some time explaining the difference between Ordinary and Legacy disciples. By the end, Bary''s face was grave. "I see, so that means that you were able to have access to all the legacy soul cultivation techniques. No wonder your soul power is so high at your level." Bary then took a deep breath. "That is good, it will help with your future. But you must be sure not to let this information leave this room. Understood?" Krune nodded vigorously. Chapter 121 - No lazy life for Ruik. After Krune''s group left, Mile looked at Bary and asked him. "What if the seers try to use divination to find them?" Bary pondered a bit and said. "I asked for the seers to use divination to find the location of those who escaped from the Mohie Sect, but do you know what they told me?" Mile shook her head. "They can''t use divination on them. For some reason, every time the seers try, no answer appears. It is as if everything about Krune is covered by a blanket of darkness, that''s what they said." Mile then asked. "So how did they find the Mohie Sect entrance?" Bary nodded his head. "According to the seers, there is a difference between using divination to find a place and find a person. The way that both affect the destiny energy is different. That means, the Mohie Sect didn''t have anything covering its existence, so its opening affected the destiny energy greatly. But Krune is an individual, trying to use divination to find the place of a single cultivator or demon beast is much harder. And like I said, the seers felt that something is intervening when they try to use divination to find him." Mile pondered a bit and then asked. "Then what about Krune''s companions?" Bary also thought about that. "I guess it is because they are too close to Krune. That made them be covered by the same blanket of darkness. I can''t think about anything else since the seers also can''t find anything about them." Mile was really surprised, just what could be protecting Krune? Or better, is there something protecting him at all? Maybe it is Krune himself? Both Bary and Mile couldn''t tell. "But that''s a good thing, who would want to be seen if they had the choice? So I hope this continues like this. Once everyone in the Mohie Sect at the moment notices that they don''t have enough time to become legacy disciples, they would try to find Krune and his group. But it now became a hopeless act." Mile nodded and admitted that it was really a good thing. --- Krune''s group had just left Bary''s office when they saw Tasier and Lofa walking towards them. Only now, after all the tumult, did they remember that those two would come here. Lofa came first and complimented Krune first of all. She seemed especially happy. Krune wondered if something good happened to her. "Good to see you again. How''s your training going along?" Lofa nodded and said. "It''s okay, I have to ask Shinja and Yusa to see my progress, though. After that, I will try to adjust whatever I need. Oh, right! I brought the spirit stones that I promised." Lofa then gave Krune a spatial ring, but Krune didn''t even look inside. He turned to Shinja and Yusa and tossed it to them. "You were the ones who have been training her for real until now, so this is for you. I only gave her a few pointers here and there." But then he turned to Tasier, who was behind and said. "As for you, I want my payment indeed. Hahaha!" Tasier couldn''t care less though, that amount of spirit stones really isn''t much for him. On his neck, there was a necklace with some spatial rings that he used to carry his things. He used his spiritual energy to take one out and gave it to Krune. "There are over ten thousand Rank Five low-quality spirit stones inside, it should cover for all my apprenticeship. If you are free, I want you to take a look at my progress at the moment." Krune nodded and said. "I have something to resolve today, so I won''t be able to accompany you. But tomorrow I''m free all day, with this many spirit stones I will give you a full course." Tasier eyes lit up and nodded. Krune had just come back from that ''Secret Mission'' that he heard about, so it was understandable that he had some things to fix after that. Shinja and Yusa left with Lofa while Ao went to look for Arlan. It''s been over a month and a half already, so Arlan should have arrived as well. Krune then went back to his room and brought out Lakin, Cassy, Dier, and Ruik. He then explained what he heard from Bary and what he was planning to do. Ruik was the first one to talk. "Haha! So I will really leave this planet! I always thought that I would live and die here but look at me now. I''m going to the Divine Path Sect! So what if I become a menial disciple? That would be a dream for anyone that I know back in the katiu Forest! This grandfather will rise up in the ranks!" Krune shook his head and sighed. Ruik probably thinks that he will be able to sleep a lot after that. Too bad, though. Krune wasn''t planning to leave this guy living a lazy life at all! Lakin smiled a bit and said. "It would be nice if the other wisps were here too." Cassy looked at him and held his hand. She knew just how important Lakin thinks about all wisps. Krune, on the other hand, showed a serious face and then asked. "You aren''t showing this disgraceful face of yours in front of the young ones, right?" Lakin was taken aback and immediately shook his head. "No! Definitely not! I''m trying to cheer them up all the time." Krune then looked at Cassy, and she immediately understood his meaning. "It''s true, he isn''t lying. He really is making his best to comfort the wisps." Krune then nodded and told Lakin. "That''s better be the case, I won''t accept such a weak disciple that can''t even hide his emotion when the time asks for it." Lakin nodded vigorously, he knew that his master was thinking the best for him. "Very well. Ruik, I''ll give you two thousand Rank Five spirit stones. Bring it back and distribute them between the wisps and demon beasts for them to cultivate. There are also another thousand that you should use in the equipment, training facilities, and life-support formations. Also, I can see that you are already at the 6th stage of the Foundation Establishment. It''s good to see that you aren''t lagging behind." Ruik just laughed and said. "I''m the older than Lakin. If I can''t even show my prowess to the young, then what face will be left after it?" Ruik then took the spirit stones and went back to the pocket dimension. Krune then looked at Lakin and Cassy. He could also see that Lakin is at the fifth stage, but that is to be expected since the Myriad Energies Technique is a lot more suitable for wisps. "You two are free to walk around but don''t leave the headquarters. For now, the spatial box will be with me if you want to go back inside. If you can''t find me, just send a message in the communicator, I already prepared a few of them for everyone." Lakin and Cassy nodded and left. Krune then looked at the young man who remained in the room. He was obviously Dier, who had succeeded in his Foundation Establishment breakthrough. Only now that things calmed down did Krune have time to take a good look at him. "Very good, I can''t feel any instability in your cultivation. What kind of foundation did you use for your breakthrough?" Dier was feeling a little nervous. Krune is considered the Ancestor for all wisps, so being assessed by him made him sweat a bit. "I used a tree." Krune was surprised by that, that was a very simple and straightforward foundation. It was also the first time he heard about someone using it. "Why did you chose that?" Dier looked a little afraid when he heard that question. But Krune immediately understood why. "Oh! Don''t misunderstand my question. The best foundation is the one that suits you the best. There are indeed strong ones like the universe as the same as weak ones like the island in the lake. But I believe that nothing is better than a foundation that you feel the most comfortable with." Dier let out a sigh of relief. For a second, he thought that Krune would rebuke him for choosing something so simple. But he did have a reason for that. "Before Lakin found me, I have always used the cover of the trees to keep myself safe. After so long, I came to take the trees as friends, and I like them very much. I spent a very long time thinking about a strong foundation to create, but only when I thought about trees, I felt peaceful. There is really nothing I understand better in this world than trees." Krune nodded, and he was very satisfied with that answer. A strong foundation can indeed give you some advantages, but that doesn''t mean that you can''t accomplish anything with common ones. Krune still remembers Elder Loni''s words back in the Garmon Planet. ''The majority of our protectors and ancestors were all ordinary cultivators back in their time.'' So it was evident that a lot of them had standard foundations themselves. "That is very good. I''m happy that you succeed in your breakthrough and even happier that your foundation is something that you like." Dier was feeling embarrassed now. This time it was because he didn''t expect to gain Krune''s praise. Krune saw that and just laughed. "You also have a human form now, so you can go out and take a look around the mercenary headquarters. Just be sure to not return to your wisp form while you are out." Dier was delighted that he could go explore and immediately bid his farewell. After that, Krune brought out a few of the demon beasts from the pocket dimension as well and told them to do whatever they liked. They had also signed a blood contract with Lakin all the way back to Katiu Forest, so Krune isn''t afraid of any of them betraying their group. "Well then, let''s go see Marcus. I promised that I would give him feedback on how the Shields worked during the first phase, after all." Finally, Krune also left his room and went to the Blacksmith Hall. Chapter 122 - Shouldnt friends help each other? Back in the Blacksmith Hall, Marcus had already received the news that Krune returned. So he was expecting him to drop by sooner or later. Soon, an attendant contacted him to tell that Krune had arrived. Marcus then dropped what he was doing and went out to receive him. "So you finally came, you made me wait a lot, no?" Krune just laughed and gave some excuse. "It was a sudden mission of the guild, sorry for that. Marcus just brushed this information aside, though. "Alright, forget that. Come in and show me the Hexagonal Shields. I want you to tell me how they did during the gathering and if there was any problem." Krune nodded and went inside with Marcus. He then took all the shields out and gave them for him to check. "I see, it seems like they received a lot of attacks. There are even five of them with a few cracks inside. But it isn''t anything serious, and I can fix them in no time. You also did an excellent maintenance job on them. Otherwise, some of them might even have broken by now. So tell me, how did you use them during your time there?" Krune then explained the battles he had gone through and how he used the elements to fill the shields. He also told that he used them as conductors for Tribulation Lightning, which surprised Marcus very much. "I see, no wonder you got one of the slots for the Divine Path Sect Entrance. Very well, I will do a full check on the shields, and you can come back later to take them." Krune nodded. "How much will it be to fix the Shields?" Marcus refused any payment, though. "There is no need for payment, just the fact that you are using the Flying Shields that I made on the Divine Path Sect Exam is already enough. You might not know this, but having a name is extremely important for us blacksmiths. It will help bring a lot of jobs for us." Krune didn''t refuse the offer since he knows that Marcus wouldn''t lie about this. "Alright, then. I will be back tomorrow." Krune then returned to his room and spent his night reinforcing his foundation as always. He still plans to keep doing it until before his group goes to the Divine Path Sect Entrance. The next day, Krune sent a message to Tasier and went to the training room. Tasier appeared there just a minute after. Krune was on the arena, waiting for him. "Okay, show me what you''ve got during this month and a half." Tasier eyes lit up and flew above the arena as well. Tasier really wanted to see the difference between him and Krune during a battle. The protection formation of the arena activated, and Tasier immediately took flight. He wanted first to try Krune out and see how he deals with long-range attacks. Too bad though, long-range is Krune''s specialty. It only took Krune a few seconds to utterly suppress Tasier. Noticing that he made a mistake, Tasier immediately changed his tactic and dashed at Krune. He can now activate his lightning skills several times faster than before, so he doesn''t need all that space anymore. Krune saw that and smiled. He can see that Tasier put a lot of effort during the time they didn''t meet. But that was all. He was still not Krune''s match. He wasn''t even able to get close to him to start with. Krune''s fort is long-range combat, so his lightning movement skills are obviously top-notch. Krune doesn''t even need to use Tribulation Lightning anymore. Of course, that is considering that his opponent isn''t too strong. Krune purposely delayed the battle so that Tasier could show his skills. After he saw everything he wanted, Krune defeated Tasier straight away. "Very good, you didn''t let my efforts in teaching you down. I reckon that if you did the Elemental Test again, you should get around six thousand points. That is an amazing progress considering the time that you had to practice." Tasier was obviously very proud of himself too. "I had some of the Core Formation Elders in the Thunder Hawk Territory to practice with me. Only they could fight against me, so it helped to sharpen my numb feelings for the external lightning element a lot." Krune agreed that it was an excellent idea. The battle is still the best way to bring out one''s potential. Krune then spent the rest of the day guiding Tasier as he had promised. Still, without Spiritual Energy Meridians, it was evident that Tasier already has some difficulty to improve any further. Fortunately for him, his race has an amazing lightning affinity. He should be able to increase his proficiency up to eight thousand points while still in the Foundation Establishment. Tasier had paid enough spirit stones for ten sessions, and today was just the first one. He was planning to have Krune help him as much as possible. He even has a lot of spirit stones on him at the moment, just in the case that he needs more. Krune then thought about another thing. "Did your elders from the Thunder Hawk territory not bother you about your new lightning control?" Tasier immediately nodded. "They did, but then I said that I signed a blood contract not to spread this knowledge around. At first, they became worried. But I also explained that secrecy was the only rule, so they let me be after that. As demon beasts, we are very straight forward with our thoughts. So they asked me to thank you for the help you gave me so far. As for the supposed secret, they believe that once I become a Divine Soul Realm Thunder Hawk, I will be able to get rid of the blood contract and spread the teachings." Krune nodded, and they finished Tasier''s training for the day. Krune then returned to his room that night and spent his time reinforcing his foundation again. The next morning, he walked around for a bit when he finally bumped on Arlan. "Oh! It''s good that you are here." Before Krune could even say anything, Arlan had already stuffed a spatial ring on his hand. "This is for all the help you gave me and also a payment for the Myriad Energies Technique." Krune looked inside and could see another ten some thousand Rank FIve spirit stones, there was even a little amount of middle-quality ones. Krune was surprised when he saw that and asked. "Could it be that you were successful in making your first Spiritual Energy Meridian?" Arlan laughed and shook his head. "Not yet, but I already completed the nine pseudo ones. I''m now trying to form the first. But it is exactly as you said, this thing is really difficult to create. But I''m very close now, I believe that in at most a week, I should be able to finish it." Krune then asked the same thing to Arlan. "And what about the Makiu Continent Mercenary Guild and Divine Swords Sect? Did they ask anything about the fact that you can control elements much better now?" Arlan shook his head. "Although they think that you gave me some help. The Sect and Guild Head believe that my achievements with fire elements are due to my Pure Yang Body and also my superior talent. I was already considered powerful for the Makui Planet standards to start with, so they took it as a matter of course." Krune then asked. "Didn''t they say anything about the wind and lightning element?" Arlan just laughed again. "They didn''t. That is because I haven''t shown the higher-ups my improvement with any of the two. They think that I''m only good like that with fire." Krune finally let out a sigh of relief. One of the things that he was afraid of is that the Makui Continent Mercenary Guild and Divine Swords Sect would come to find trouble with him. He will make sure to ask Lofa later as well. "By the way, you took longer than I expected to come to the Yule Continent. Didn''t you say it would take at most a month?" Arlan seemed a little embarrassed after hearing that question. "Well, you see-" Just as Arlan was about to give an excuse, they heard a female shout coming from the other side of the corridor. "Arlan Rosier, you better not let me catch you!" Arlan''s face immediately went pale. "Sh*t!" Before Krune could even ask what was happening, Arlan had already disappeared from his sight. Not long after, a Core Formation Realm female cultivator passed by him like a tornado. She only gave Krune a side glance and kept pursuing Arlan. Krune was as puzzled as he could be. Not long after, Krune found Ao in the training room practicing his swordplay as always. He then used this chance to ask what was happening with Arlan. Ao immediately burst in laugh. "That is his fianc¨¦, Mina Gleen. She is the daughter of the Divine Swords Sect Leader, Kaio Gleen. In the past, it seems like Arlan and Kaio struck a deal, and he got that engagement." Krune was taken aback. "Does it mean that he is being now forced to marry because of that?" Ao laughed even harder after that. "Believe it or not, the one who asked for that engagement was Arlan himself." Krune was even more puzzled now. "Then why is he even running? Doesn''t that mean that he likes her?" Ao nodded. "He does like her, and she likes him back, but the thing is that he doesn''t want to marry so soon. As a cultivator and a talented one on top of that, he has a long life ahead. So he thinks it is still too early to think about settling down and start a family or whatever. The girl, of course, thinks the opposite. She wants to marry as soon as possible, so people will know that Arlan already has an owner. She is afraid that after he goes to the Divine Path Sect, someone will try to steal him from her." Krune finally got to understand the situation. Ao then continued to explain. "She wasn''t like that. Before, when the two of them came to love each other, they both felt that marriage was something for much later. But at that time, Arlan''s talent wasn''t very apparent, so she wasn''t afraid of anyone trying to take him away from her. She is the daughter of the Divine Swords Sect Head, after all. Who would try to steal him from her? But the story is totally different now that he is going to the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. If he fails, then it''s all good. But if he passes, then she doesn''t know what will happen if girls from much more powerful powers from other planets try to catch his heart. " Krune finally understood Arlan plight. "Weird, Arlan doesn''t strike me as someone who would betray his lover, though." Ao nodded. "I also think so, but can you really understand women''s hearts?" Krune immediately started to sweat. "I... I guess I should stay out of this." Ao laughed again after noticing Krune''s face. "In your case, that is indeed an excellent idea." It was exactly at that moment that a hand appeared on Krune''s shoulder. He turned around to see whose hand it was and almost started to cry. It was none other than Mina herself. "You are Krune, right? The one who made a group with Arlan during the first phase of the Martial Gathering." Krune then turned to Ao once more, trying to ask for help. Or at least, that was the plan. Unfortunately, Ao disappeared without a trace. ''Shouldn''t friends help each other?'' Chapter 123 - Krune Isnt Like a Certain Someone Mina asked once again. "You are Krune, right?" Krune really didn''t want to get involved in it. It was then that he had an idea. ''If Ao can escape, then so can I!'' "Tribulation Lightning Movement, 50%!" Brummm! Mina didn''t even have enough time to react. In just a second, Krune had already disappeared from her vision. She didn''t even know how to think about that, she just wanted to make a few questions and ask for help, but the guy disappeared like a ghost. ''No, first of all, is that the speed that a Foundation Establishment should have? Even I, as a Core Formation cultivator, can''t get even close to that!'' While in his human form, using more than 30% of Tribulation Lightning to move causes damage to the body. But Krune could only think one thing. ''Worth it!'' Krune only used it for a few seconds anyway, so he didn''t get too much injured. After returning to his room, It only took him around 30 minutes to heal himself. Krune then pondered about what to do and decided to keep stabilizing and reinforcing his foundation for the day. --- The next day, Krune was walking in the alchemist hall direction when he bumped on Mina again. Still, just as he was about to escape once more, he noticed that she had already caught Arlan. Mina noticed Krune and decided to try to talk to him this time too. She didn''t let Arlan escape her grasp, though. Noticing that Arlan was together this time, Krune decided to wait and see what happens. Especially because of his pleading eyes. Krune didn''t want to disappear suddenly like a certain someone. Mina then came close with Arlan and asked. "Why did you run yesterday? Am I some scary monster?" Krune looked at the pitful Arlan and then said. "Cough, cough. I was just a little scared that a Core Formation cultivator suddenly grabbed my shoulder. I thought something bad was going to happen, so I run. Sorry about that." Mina, of course, didn''t believe for even a second. But they don''t know each other to start with, so she didn''t point it out. "Anyway, this idiot over here is my fiance. Can you help me convince him to accept the marriage?" Arlan immediately retorted. "I told you hundreds of times, it''s too early! We had both agreed about it back then, so why you keep insisting on this?" Mina just repeated the same answer again. "I''m just protecting what is mine, what if other girls try to take you there? I can''t let it happen." Arlan then said once more. "You don''t believe me at all!" Mina shook her head. "What if they have a way to seduce you with some charming technique or whatever? Considering the scope of the Divine Path Sect and the powers behind those girls, it is totally possible to happen." Arlan didn''t give up, though. "But you are going there with me anyway! So why are you so afraid?" Mina just snorted. "This is this, that is that." Krune felt like he was watching some show. After they started talking, his presence had been completely forgotten. He didn''t know if he should leave or stay. First of all, would they even notice if he left? Only after a few minutes of comes and going did they finally remembered that Krune was still in front of them. It was then that they asked. "What do you think?" Krune looked at both of them weirdly. "Isn''t this something extremely easy to resolve?" Arlan and Mina immediately paid attention, and Krune then said. "Have Arlan sign a blood contract not to betray you. Any skill of charming technique will be useless since anyone bellow Divine Soul Realm can''t go against it." Arlan and Mina didn''t know what to say, but Krune still continued. "It does resolve both your issues at the same time. While Arlan wouldn''t need to marry for the time being. He also would be impeded from betraying." But Krune completely forgot the main issue, a relationship was supposed to be based on trust. Wouldn''t it be against this logic if they had to use a blood contract to ensure their views? Arlan then said. "This... don''t seem like a good idea." Mina also nodded. "Real couples shouldn''t need a blood contract to be loyal." Krune once again got confused and looked at Mina. "That doesn''t make sense. Isn''t this trouble precisely because Mina doesn''t ''really'' trust Arlan? If she did as she says, then you wouldn''t be going through this problem. Fortunately, the blood contract can resolve it. But if you think that a couple that really trusts each other doesn''t need it, then what exactly is all this marriage thing about?" What Krune said made Mina feel like she was being pierced by hundreds of swords. Those words hit the place where it hurt the most. Arlan just gave her a side glance. Deep inside, he was cheering for Krune already. Krune then just sighed and said. "Alright, you should think about it. See you later." Krune immediately left after that, he already said a lot more than he wanted. He really didn''t want to get involved in their problems. First of all, why did they even ask him? It''s not like he had any experience in this type of topic, right? Later on, Mina finally let Arlan go. Impressively, Krune''s cluelessness about relationships was what got their issue resolved. --- Krune finally arrived at the Alchemist Hall. After showing his Four Stars Alchemist badge, the attendant got an alchemist room for him only. Krune then took all the materials necessary to create the Soul Healing Pill except for the Dragon Essence Liquid. He then started to practice the pill concoction. ''As expected of a pill of this level, even without using the Dragon Essence Liquid, it is still harder than other pills from the same level.'' Krune had tried twice already but still failed to make the pill. Still, he wasn''t sad. With his All-Encompassing Soul Technique and the Elemental Meridians, he could see where he had gone wrong. All he needed was practice. Krune wants to finish making the real pills before the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. Like that, he can give one pill for Yusa to consume during her Breakthrough. As for Yusa, she was spending her time between sparing with Ao or Shinja and stabilizing her foundation. As mentioned before, she had bought quite a few cultivation resources capable of help with the foundation reinforcement, so she was very close to the peak of the 9th stage. In Shinja''s case, she spent most of her time with Lofa and Cassy or cultivating and reinforcing her foundation. It was just recently that she entered the 2nd stage of the Core Formation Realm, it will still take a long time before she attempts the next stage breakthrough. Krune spent his next two months between cultivating, Alchemy, and teaching Tasier. Also, for some reason, Lofa came to pay him a visit a lot too. Krune didn''t mind, though. In alchemy''s case, Krune was already able to create five to six Soul Healings pills without using the Dragon Soul Essence. Of course, he used a lot of materials in the tries. The majority of the items used for the pill that he got from the old Rainbow Sect were almost gone. In the end, he decided that it was enough practice. ''Considering the level of my pills at the moment, I should be very close to the five stars. Still, after all this practice, I don''t have enough materials to make the Soul Healing Pill anymore. I will ask Guild Head Bary tomorrow and then try to make the real ones this time.'' As for Tasier, he even got a lot of extra spirit stones from the Thunder Hawk. It seemed like Tasier''s supply of spirit stones was unlimited. But Tasier didn''t care, thanks to Krune, he should now be able to achieve around seven thousand points or more during the elemental talent test. Although the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam won''t be easy, he now has the confidence to try it. That same day, Yusa sent a message to everyone that she was finally ready. She could try to Breakthrough into the Core Formation Realm anytime now. Krune then answered her asking to wait until he finishes the Soul Healing pills. Yusa, that money-grubber, had still given all her spirit stones during the Rainbow Sect incident. So this could also be said to be a way to pay for her help back then. Yusa didn''t mind, there was still over a month before they leave for the Divine Path Sect. Krune then went to talk with Guild Head Bary to see if he could arrange the medicinal herbs he needs for them. Fortunately, he had the necessary ones. But he then told Krune. "Those herbs you asked are very expensive, and we don''t have much of them. If you fail, we won''t be able to give any more of them. Are you sure you don''t want us to call a six or seven stars alchemist to concoct it for you?" Krune shook his head. "This is very important for me, and I think I can make a breakthrough in my alchemy skills to five stars with it. This is a very rare pill and hard to make, but even four stars alchemists can still do it with enough luck. But I plan to achieve over 60% of element synch, that would make the pill a Five Stars one." Bary nodded and didn''t say anything else. Chapter 124 - Even More Tribulation Lightning. The next day, Krune was back at the Alchemist Hall in the Headquarters. He first prepared everything and made sure that nothing was out of place, then he took out materials and started concocting. All his efforts paid off in the end, Krune could already get to the point where he needs the Dragon Essence Liquid without any mistake. Finally, the time to put the liquid came. This is where Krune can''t predict the outcome anymore. But without trying, there is no way to know the results. Krune took out the bottle with the Dragon Essence Liquid and used one of his six drops. As soon as it got in contact with the medicinal liquid inside, the entire process changed straight away. The elements and properties inside started to go chaotic with the nourishment of the liquid. But Krune was long since waiting for that. With his All-Encompassing Sou Technique and Miryad Energy Meridians, Krune could tell where to intervene to take back the control. Krune worked hard for an entire hour. Unfortunately, he still failed. The first drop of the Dragon Essence Liquid was lost, just like that. But he wasn''t sad, if anything, he was delighted. Krune knows exactly where he missed. So he cleaned everything and started again. Krune failed again. This time, it was during the synching that he missed, the elements didn''t move as he predicted and another burnt cauldron was gone. ''So that''s how it is, the Dragon Essence Liquid can even affect how the elements usually behave. No wonder I missed twice. But now, I want to see just how you are going to burn in front of me.'' Krune was brimming with confidence. After cleaning everything again, he started to concoct the pill. Everything went as expected, and the synching time finally came. At first, everything was going fine when suddenly, the elements started to behave differently once more. ''It''s here!'' Krune''s eyes lit up and use used all his skills to the max! He wasn''t predicting how the elements would move anymore, but reacting to their changes. For some alchemists, the cauldron might look like to be in chaos. But for Krune, it couldn''t be more harmonious. Finally, after another two hours, the final synching process was over. He only had to transform the medicinal liquid into pills now. ''Let''s see how many pills I can make using a reactionary method.'' It had been the first time that Krune reacted to the elements instead of predicting how they would behave. It had both its advantages and disadvantages, but Krune was confident that he definitely achieved over 60% of synch. The medicinal liquid started to take the form of a pill, and a few minutes later, the lead of the cauldron opened with a boom! Soon, the entire room was filled with a medicinal smell. Krune didn''t fail, it''s just that the completed pill with Dragon Essence Liquid had soo much spiritual energy that the cauldron couldn''t hold it inside. Krune reacted fast and immediately caught all the pills before they could hit the ground. He looked at the results and let out a sigh of relief. There were now three pills in his hands. ''Almost 70% synch Soul Healing Pill, this is definitely at the Five Starts Level.'' Suddenly, Krune felt a ripple coming from his chest. He looked at it and took the thing that caught his attention. It was the Alchemist Badge, which was now glowing with a golden light. Krune looked at it, confused, but decided to not pay attention to it now. He wants to grasp this feeling of concoction while it is still fresh, and Krune still has another three drops of Dragon Essence Liquid to use. After spending his entire day in the alchemy room, Krune finally finished all the pills. In the end, he got a total of fifteen Soul Healing Pills. With his proficiency increased, making more pills in a single try was a must, after all. So in the next three attempts, he made precisely four pills each. Krune was feeling very tired, but at the same time, very satisfied. He finally opened his alchemy room and was about to leave. But he then remembered the golden glow in his alchemist badge, so he went to ask the attendant about it. At the counter, Krune took his badge out, which was still glowing and explained what happened to the alchemy hall employee in front of him. The look on the employee''s eyes changed immediately after seeing the Four Stars badge glow. He was looking at Krune with a hint of respect now. "Wait a moment here, sir. I''m going to call the hall master." Krune nodded his had and started to wait. He looked at his badge, which was glowing, and pondered a bit. Krune is a formations master as well, so he had an idea already as to what is happening. ''It probably can detect if an alchemist was able to create a pill above the rank of the badge itself. So it should be able to be used as proof of success.'' Krune was right. The alchemist guild couldn''t simply wait for an alchemist to make a better pill. There are way too many factors that could be involved, even the alchemist''s mood could determine failure or success. So the guild had long since used formations inside the Four Stars Badges and above that would check the quality of the pills of the alchemist. So as long as the alchemist makes a pill above his rank, the badge will start to glow, and it can be used to apply for a higher rank badge. Not long after, the hall master came out to see Krune. He was very calm since it wasn''t the first time he saw a new Five Stars alchemist. But when he looked at Krune''s cultivation while he was holding the badge, his heart almost froze on the spot. That''s because he could totally feel that Krune is still in the foundation establishment realm. At first, he thought that Krune might have got that badge from someone else. But then he remembered that the badges only glows if the owner has it. The badge doesn''t recognize anyone else, which means that Krune really is the owner of that glowing four stars badge. "Hello, my name it Keny Malaga. You are Krune, right?" Krune looked at the man and nodded. "I''m him indeed. You should be the Hall Master here in the Mercenary Headquarters. I''m also a Four Stars Formations Master. If I''m not wrong, this glow in my badge has something to do with the fact that I concocted a Five Stars Level Pill, right?" Keny was taken aback. "So you really did concoct a Five Stars Level Pill. You are right, the badge will glow if the owner concocts a pill above his badge level at least once. But I can''t understand how you did it at the Foundation Establishment." Krune just smiled and said. "That''s a little secret of mine, and I doubt anyone would be able to copy me anyway. So, what should I do now? Just exchange the badges? Personally, I don''t mind keeping the four stars badge either." Keny then said. "Normally, I wouldn''t believe that you were able to concoct a Five Stars Level Pill. But your badge is a Four Stars One, so it is also able to record the process in which the pills were made. If you don''t mind, I wish to take a look at it." Krune pondered a bit and then nodded. He doesn''t have any alchemy secrets to start with. Everything he learned about alchemy was through the alchemist guild on their database. As for his Elemental Meridians and Soul Technique, those aren''t things that can be perceived even while in the presence of others, let alone through a video. "I see, so you are one of those who are going to the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. No wonder you have so much talent. I just checked the recording of the pill concoction, and I''m really impressed that you can synch the elements at your level. Very well, I will send the request to the alchemist headquarters together with your badge recordings. Come back tomorrow, and the new one should be ready for you." Krune nodded and then left. He isn''t afraid about people seeing his Soul Healing Pills since it''s not a secret to anyone that he had Dragon Essence Liquid to start with. Everyone who participated in the Martial Gathering knows that his group got those drops. Krune then sent a message to Yusa and told her that the pill was ready. He also sent a message to Arlan and Ao for them to come and take their pills. Not long after, everyone was gathered with Yusa to discuss where she would go through the Core Formation Realm Tribulation. In the end, Ao and Arlan only took one pill each from Krune and left the rest with him. Krune didn''t mind since he will need more of them. Lakin, Cassy, Dier, Lizards Dragons, and the rest would sooner or later arrive at the Core Formation Door as well. So he was planning to keep those pills for that day. Mile was also present there and said. "I already prepared a place close to our headquarters. It''s just five hundred kilometers away from here. But what are you going to do, Krune? Are you planning to watch it closely like last time?" Krune was just about to say no when suddenly, Little Light contacted him. "What is it, Little Light?" Little Light immediately got angry, though. "Little Light your head! What happened to our agreement?" Only then did Krune remember that he was supposed to change Little Light''s name. "I see, you are right about that. What name should I choose?" Little Light immediately replied. "Tribulation Lightning God!" Krune immediately rejected the idea. "It''s too long, Little Spark will do for now." Little Spark almost fainted. "I will never help you ever again!" Krune laughed and said. "It''s just a joke, a joke! But seriously, can''t you think about something shorter and not soo ''grandiose''?" Little Spark started to ponder. "What about Light Spirit? At first, I thought about Lightning Spirit, but the name would be too long, so I shortened it." Krune heard that and nodded, that was easy to say and remember. "I didn''t think you would stick with the Light part, though. Anyway, this is a perfect name, much better than supreme something or whatever god." Krune then went back to the main topic. "So, Light Spirit, why did you call me?" Light Spirit then explained. "You should try to absorb the first and second lightning from her tribulation. The power you have at the moment isn''t a pure as the real thing, so you should use this chance to clean it further." Krune started to sweat all over. "You need me to absorb Tribulation Lightning again?" Light Spirit confirmed. "You are right, it will be extremely beneficial to your future. Not to mention, it''s much better to absorb Tribulation Lightning separately than wait for your own tribulation and get all at once. That would be too dangerous." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "What if I don''t do that?" Light Spirit answered. "In fact, not much. Your Tribulation Lightning will go out of control, and even I won''t be able to stop it from destroying your Elemental Core." Krune almost vomited blood. ''Not Much...'' Your Head! Chapter 125 - The Thing That His Universe Foundation Needs The Most. Everyone noticed that Krune had suddenly gone silent. He then took a deep breath and said. "In fact, I can help Yusa getting the first two Tribulation Lightning Bolts. At that time with Shinja, I wasn''t strong enough, and I didn''t know what was going to happen. But now I''m confident that I can take even more than two." Yusa immediately asked. "Are you sure? If you are doing it just because you are worried, I will say that you are overthinking. I''m very confident in my chances." Krune shook his head. "I''m doing it not only to help you but to help myself too. The Tribulation Lightning can help purify the one that I have. It will be of immense help to me in the future. Not to mention that I can take it as practice for my own Tribulation." Everyone couldn''t help but nod. Krune''s case is different from someone else helping. He is not directly intervening in the process, the Tribulation Lightning itself is the one going out of its way to strike him. So there is no risk of it getting stronger because someone is trying to help Yusa. Krune also said that it can be used as a practice, which is a valid reason. If it is only two Lightning Bolts, considering Krune''s power, it should be extremely easy for him to fend it off. Even though Krune''s realm is lower than Yusa''s, no one doubts that he is much stronger than her. "Very well, Yusa and Krune should rest for today. We will depart tomorrow morning. Because we are close to the Mercenary Headquarters, no one will try anything funny. So you only need to care about your Tribulation." Yusa and Krune nodded. In fact, because they are in a certain way sharing the burden, it is bound to be much easier for Yusa than anyone else before. Except for Shinja, of course. Krune was still quite tired of the whole day of alchemy concoction, so he returned to his room and rested for the day. There, he took the chance to ask Light Spirit about the details. "Should I use my Elemental Meridians to guide the Lightning inside my universe foundation like the last time?" Light Spirit replied "That is basically it. I have recovered quite a bit too. So as long as you guide it to strike your planet foundation, I will be able to guide the energy directly into your Elemental Core. Besides, there is a little good surprise waiting for you as well." Krune interest was picked. "What kind of surprise?" Light Spirit only laughed and said. "If I tell you, it won''t be a surprise anymore." Krune felt the situation somewhat fishy, but he couldn''t do anything anyway. So he just ignored it for now and went back to rest. The next day, everyone had gathered again. Mile checked if everyone was ready, and they departed right after. The place that Yusa was going to take the Heavenly Tribulation was quite close, so it only took them one hour to arrive. Not to mention that they didn''t move at full speed as well. After arriving there, Krune passed the Soul healing Pill to Yusa for her to consume after the soul gets hurt. Krune then left and went far away. He couldn''t stay close to Yusa since he would need to leave the range of the Heavenly Tribulation after he absorbs two bolts. Yusa took out several spirit stones and received Krune''s message that he was ready too. She then immediately pushed for the Breakthrough. Just like everyone else, she used her soul to feed the core inside her foundation, and it only took a few seconds for the process to start. Yusa''s soul was immediately absorbed by her core. Even though she was ready, she couldn''t help but grunt after the process began. Fortunately, Yusa had also gone through the soul tempering back in the old Rainbow Sect. So she was still leagues ahead of the majority of the cultivators who tried to Breakthrough into the Core Formation Realm before. Her core kept griding her soul away until it was finally satisfied. After that, her dantian started to change into the Core Formation Realm, and she could feel the connection with her own core now. She then looked above and could see the tribulation clouds starting to gather in the sky. Yusa then took the Soul Healing Pill out and consumed it straight away. In less than a minute, her soul became whole again, even the pain disappeared completely. ''It''s just as Krune said, the pill can really heal my soul entirely before the Tribulation even finishes charging the first bolt. As expected of the Dragon Essence Liquid that even the elder of the Divine Path Sect drooled for.'' Yusa could feel that she could control her strength without any problems again. She then took out a spiritual weapon that she asked for the Blacksmith Hall to forge. Yusa''s weapon looked like a pearl, and it basically had the same use as Shinja''s frozen hairpin. It could enhance her control over the water element. Everything was ready. She only had to wait for the lightning bolt now. Far away close to the border of the Heavenly Tribulation clouds, Krune was also waiting for the bolt to come. "Light Spirit, don''t you think that I''m a little too far? Will the Tribulation Lightning really feel my presence at this distance?" Light Spirit immediately replied. "Don''t worry, I can tell that the Tribulation Lightning already felt my presence. It is definitely coming after you." Krune nodded and then waited as well. It didn''t take long, though. The Tribulation Lightning finalized charging and immediately struck down. But just like the last time, it made a curve and rushed directly at Krune in the distance. Krune, of course, was already expecting that, and he controlled his Elemental Meridians to take it straight away. As soon as the Tribulation hit, the meridians guided it directly inside his Universe Foundation. Krune then used the same method as before and separated that power in several parts. After that, he immediately guided each one to his planet foundation as well. The bolts struck it, and Krune could feel the power of the Tribulation Lightning running all over. But just a second after, that power rushed inside and entered his Elemental Core. Suddenly, some rainbow-colored smoke started to come out of it. Light Spirit then said. "Don''t worry, this is the impurities I talked about. I''m refining the power of the Tribulation Lightning inside your core now. I need you to send more bolts faster. If you continue at this speed, I won''t be ready for when the next one comes." Krune nodded and guided one Lightning bolt after another to his planet. Although he could feel the pain in his soul every time it struck, it was only for a second every time. Compared to when he was tempering his soul with Tribulation Lightning, this is nothing! It all took some time to explain, but in the outside world, just a few seconds had passed. Krune and Light Spirit''s coordination was impeccable, as soon as one Lightning Bolt was absorbed, the next one arrived right after. In less than a minute, Krune and Light Spirit had dealt with all the Tribulation Lightning power. It was also good that they finished it fast because the second bolt was already coming. Krune then showed a smile and received it too. He was impressed with his improvement, he didn''t expect that it would be this easy to control the Tribulation Lightning of a Core Formation Realm. After receiving this second lightning bolt, Krune immediately rushed far away from the Tribulation. To be safe, he didn''t stop running until he heard the third lightning coming down. Light Spirit also confirmed that it wasn''t coming for them anymore. Krune then took his time to separated and send it to his planet foundation. Light Spirit and Krune kept their coordination, which proved to be very effective until the very end. Light Spirit saw that there was no more Tribulation Lightning and then said. "Alright, everything went just as we expected." Krune nodded and then asked. "It was easy than I thought. Shouldn''t we have absorbed more in this case?" Light Spirit immediately refused that idea. "No can do, your Elemental Core isn''t really finished yet. If we overdo it, it might get damaged. We should play safe." Krune heard that and nodded. He felt that he was too overconfident for his own good. Light Spirit then told him another thing. "Besides, if you take too much of Yusa''s Tribulation Lightning, her body and dantian will not be tempered by it. That would instead affect her future accomplishments." Krune got alarmed. "Doesn''t that mean that we already affected it?" Light Spirit just laughed. "Don''t worry, she wouldn''t be able to use all nine bolts even if she wanted to. I reckon that she will able to use five or at most six. More than that, and Yusa will probably die instead." Krune let out a sigh of relief, he was afraid that because of him, her future cultivation would be affected. But then, Krune noticed another issue. "Light Spirit, what about all this rainbow smoke inside my planet foundation? Should I use my Elemental Meridians and send it out?" Light Spirit heard that and laughed out loud. "First of all, this is not smoke, this is a kind of energy. Didn''t I say that a little surprise was waiting for you? Well, this is the one I was talking about." Krune was confused with that. "What is so good about it?" Light Spirit then said. "Let me explain. Tribulation Lightning only uses its own power. It has no need for other elements. But because it has been residing inside your Elemental Core, it couldn''t help but absorb some of the multi-elemental power that it has. The purpose of our Tribulation Lightning absorption today was to get rid of these unnecessary elements. But it doesn''t mean that they are harmful. Instead, this rainbow energy is extremely beneficial to your foundation." Light Spirit then continued. "But that''s not the main issue, that''s because this is not simple elements anymore. The rainbow energy elements had been purified for a long time by the Tribulation Lightning, so it has become something entirely different. It is much better than even Elemental Source Energy. You will also hear about its name in the future when you get stronger. Cultivators and Demon Beasts above the Void Breaking Realm call it ''Chaos Energy.''" "This energy will be more than sufficient for you to finish reinforcing your foundation and even Breakthrough directly into the 9th stage. So make sure that you use this change right." Krune''s eyes immediately lit up. He was expecting to keep reinforcing his foundation for at least two or three more months. But now he can finish it in one go and even Breakthrough directly. How could he not be happy? As for Yusa? He already took two Tribulation Lightning Bolts for her. She also had the Soul Healing Pill to start with. If she can''t succeed with such an advantage, then she was bound to die in her Core Formation Breakthrough from the very start. Krune was just about to start absorbing it when Light Spirit advised him. "Oh, right! You shouldn''t need more than 50% to 60% of it to finish your Breakthrough. After that, you should use the rest for something else." Krune then got curious once more. "What else can we use it for?" Light Spirit answered with another question, though. "The Universe Foundation has this name for a reason. In that case, what is it that you think that your planet foundation needs the most at the moment?" Krune''s eyes opened wide! If he could, there was indeed one thing that he always wanted but couldn''t make before. Chapter 126 - The Sun "Can I use it to make a Sun?" Light Spirit agreed. "You can." Light Spirit then explained. "The whole universe, as we know today, was only Chaos at first. From Chaos, everything was born. So, of course, the was Sun too." Krune then asked. "But isn''t our foundation something we make at the Foundation Establishment Breakthrough process only?" Light Spirit immediately denied. "Wrong! Foundation is something that the cultivators always have to improve. If you ask that Elder of the Divine Path Sect, he probably will tell you that he already changed his foundation once or twice. Of course, the amount that you can improve depends on what type of foundation you built at first." Light Spirit continued. "The condition is that you must have Chaos energy available. Only Chaos energy, which is the one that gave birth to everything, can be used as the same material as the core or dantian." Krune finally understood this issue. "Anyway, the longer we take, the less effective the chaos energy will be. Use it to finish your Breakthrough first, and I will help you thing the Sun." Krune then sent a message to everyone that he will need to spend some time cultivating and immediately started to absorb that rainbow energy. It was like Light Spirit said, his foundation began to reinforce at breakneck speed. It only took Krune a little more than one hour for his planet foundation to be as sturdy as it could be. Krune then continued to absorb that energy and used it to Breakthrough. Boom! Krune felt that familiar explosion of spiritual energy inside his foundation and swiftly advanced into the 9th Stage. But that wasn''t all, his foundation was still as sturdy as ever. Krune couldn''t feel the least bit of instability in his after this Breakthrough. He even wondered if he shouldn''t use the rest of the Chaos Energy to cultivate to the peak of the 9th Stage. But he immediately gave up that idea. ''I would be exchanging better prospects for short term strength, it is not worth it.'' Light Spirit noticed that Krune finished his Breakthrough and was delighted to see that there was still over 50% of Chaos Energy remaining. "Good, your Breakthrough used less energy than I thought. Now you only need to create the Sun. Of course, this amount of energy will only allow you to create a tiny one. But that isn''t a problem, you can feed spiritual energy for some time, and it will grow sooner or later." Krune then asked. "But how do I create this Sun?" Light Spirit then said. "That is simple, but you will need a lot of spirit stones. Fortunately, you got quite a few from that Thunder Hawk. Take them out and start absorbing the energy, then gather the Chaos Energy somewhere in your Universe Foundation. We are going to use spiritual energy to transform the chaos energy into the Sun." Krune did as Light Spirit told him and started to gather Chaos and Spiritual energy together into a single point. "Now press everything together. Usually, you would need to be at the Void Breaking Realm to be able to force the chaos energy to turn into a Sun. But you don''t have that power now, so I will use the Tribulation Lightning to give it a good kick, just like the Space Compression Formation from back then." Krune didn''t know if it was going to work, but since it was happening inside his universe foundation, he wasn''t worried. Krune can control everything inside his foundation. If something goes wrong, he is confident in stopping it or at least send the threat out. "Good, brace yourself because I''m going all out here." Krune concentrated in keep both energies in the same place, and Light Spirit gathered all the available Tribulation Lightning at the moment. After everything was ready, Light Spirit immediately shot the whole power into the Chaos and Spiritual energy, compressing it as much as possible. Boom! An explosion of energy and heat came forth, and all the remaining Chaos and Spiritual energy around the blast started to move to the center on its own accord. That was when Light Spirit noticed that they were successful! Because the Sun has enormous gravitational power, it was capable of sucking all the energy around it. "Good! Your Sun is formed now! It might be this small at the moment. But with enough time, it will definitely get bigger, and this is just the first one. I''m happy to see that I wasn''t wrong about you. I doubt that anyone else would be able to control the Spiritual Energy and Chaos Energy well enough for it to work." He was right. It was thanks to Krune Myriad Energies Technique, powerful Soul, and Divine Sense that Krune could control those energies good enough for Light Spirit to do his part. Krune was delighted in seeing that, even though it was several times smaller than even his planet, he could still feel the extreme heat coming from it. "Chaos energy is so magical!" Light Spirt agreed with that statement. Krune then asked something else. "I can feel it sucking all the spiritual energy around without stop. What if I run out of spiritual energy?" Light Spirit just said. "I will probably collapse. This Sun of yours is who knows how many times smaller than a real one. Theoretically speaking, it shouldn''t be able to keep its form with this size. It is your spiritual energy that keeps it running. So make sure to keep the flow of spiritual energy until it gets big enough to stay whole without your help." Krune immediately started sweating. Just how much spiritual energy will be necessary to make it grow to the size of the real Sun? No, first of all, his Universe Foundation is far from being big enough even to hold one! Light Spirit could tell what Krune was thinking and then explained. "Don''t worry, the higher your cultivation realm, the bigger your Universe Foundation will become. I reckon that it should be big enough by the time you reach the Soul Forging Realm. As for the Spiritual Energy, your rate of absorption will also increase several times the higher your realm is." Soul Forging Realm! Krune felt like crying but had no tears. Just how far is he from that? "Will something bad happen if it collapses?" Light Spirit answered. "Not really, it is way too small to turn into anything dangerous, and it will keep like this as long as you advance realms." Krune suddenly noticed something. "Wait! Doesn''t it mean that it will keep growing without stop? What if I don''t Breakthrough fast enough?" Light Spirit burst in laugh after hearing that. "If you were part of some other race, then you would be right in worrying about it. But you are a wisp, trust me when I say that your life span will be over way before your Sun reaches a size big enough to threaten your foundation. Also, you better let it grow on its own. the Sun is just like your foundation, it needs a steady rate of growth to keep its foundation stable." Krune let out a sigh of relief. "How much spiritual energy will I need to keep the flow?" Light Spirit looked at the little Sun and the Spiritual Energy running into it and then said. "I guess that at this moment, your own natural recovery should be enough to feed it. But the consumption will increase as time passes." Krune nodded, that made sense since it was going to get bigger, after all. Krune then checked how strong the gravitational power of the Sun was and concluded that it was far from enough to keep his Planet Foundation orbiting it. ''I will have to wait for quite some time before I can make my Planet act like a real one.'' Krune then asked Light Spirit. "Now that I have a Sun, what advantages did I get from it?" Light Spirit immediately replied. "The power of the Universe Foundation is directly connected to how close it is to a real Universe. Although the change won''t be significant, you should be able to feel the difference while circulating your spiritual energy now." Krune did as Light Spirit told him, and sure enough, he could feel that it became easier to control. But Krune could also say that the difference wasn''t that noticeable. Light Spirit then said. "You are fortunate! Before the Void Breaking Realm, you shouldn''t be able to get access to Chaos Energy. Of course, the amount that we used now is far from what a real Void Breaking Realm cultivator could control. But still, how many cultivators or demon beasts out there could change their foundation at the Foundation Establishment Realm?" Krune agreed that it was really a good thing. He then asked another question. "If I absorb more tribulation lightning in the future, will I get more Chaos Energy?" Light Spirit answered immediately. "You can get a little more, but not as much as you did now." Before Krune could even ask why Light Spirit already started to explain. "The first time was when your Tribulation Lightning was in its impurest form, so there were a lot of elements to be refined into the Chaos Energy. But now that it has received the first ''cleaning,'' the number of impurities inside it has been reduced by the highest margin. Next time you do it, there won''t be even one-third of how much you got this time. So you won''t be able to create anything else for the time being. Of course, you can still use it to reinforce your foundation or to Breakthrough if you are at a bottleneck." Krune nodded. But he wasn''t sad. By the time he gets into the Void Breaking Realm, his Sun should already be completed. That will be of immense help to him. Krune then made another question that was puzzling him. "You said that a Void Breaking Realm cultivator can use Chaos Energy. Does it mean that the energy they use to cultivate isn''t elemental source energy?" Light Spirit Started to laugh. "Smart! You are right. The cultivation realms go like this: Qi Condensation and Foundation Establishment use Spiritual Energy. Core Formation, Divine Soul, and Soul Forging use Elemental Source Energy, which they can convert from Spiritual Energy. Finally, Void Breaking Realm and above use Chaos Energy, which they can convert from Elemental Source Energy." Light Spirit then continued to explain. "That is also why they take so much longer to Breakthrough between the stages than the previous Realms. They need to make the conversion twice, after all. I mentioned it to you before, it makes no sense that higher realm cultivators keep using the same type of energy as a Qi Condensation ants." It was then that Krune thought about something else. "Wait! First, my Spiritual Energy Meridians could only absorb spiritual energy. After that transformation, they became able to create Elemental Source Energy from Spiritual Energy. Doesn''t that mean that they can evolve even further and create Chaos Energy as well?" Light Spirit was taken aback with that question. He couldn''t help but agree with that possibility. Light Spirit had never heard about the Spiritual Energy Meridians before, so he can''t deny that Krune has a point. "This... Although I''m not sure, I think that your theory is quite plausible. I wonder who was the one to create such a magical cultivation technique." Krune couldn''t help but nod. He also wanted to meet the cultivator or demon beast that created the Myriad Energies Technique. Krune had tried to search for it online and in the Mercenary Guild Database. But none of them said anything about where the Myriad Energy Techniques had come from. Chapter 127 - The leaving day arrived There was no point in keep thinking about the Myriad Energies Technique creator at the moment. So Krune spent the rest of his time checking his foundation and the new Sun. After confirming that he was okay, he moved back to where Yusa had gone through the Heavenly Tribulation. Sure enough, she was able to overcome the trial without much difficulty. "How is it? Is your Core Formation okay?" Yusa nodded and then said. "There was no problem. I was able even to use five bolts of lightning to temper my body and Core. It was only one less than Shinja. Both the Core in the foundation and my dantian as a whole are a lot bigger now. And I can finally understand what Shinja meant by feeling the connection with the soul inside your Golden Core. It''s like there are two of me now, and it''s quite weird." Ao then asked Krune how things were on his side. "Pretty good, it went like this..." Krune then explained everything that happened, leaving only Light Spirit existence out. He talked about his Sun and the ''mysterious energy.'' that he got from that refinement. Krune couldn''t tell them that it was Chaos Energy since someone at his level shouldn''t know it to start with. Shinja was quite impressed with that. She also has a Universe Foundation, but she doesn''t know much about it, just like Krune in the past. She paid special attention to the whole explanation. Ao looked at Krune and couldn''t help but comment. "So you finally caught up to me, I wonder if you are going to become a Core Formation Realm before me." Krune just laughed out. He knows that Ao''s cultivation is progressing pretty good as well. Besides, Krune won''t be able to get a lot of Chaos Energy any time soon, so their cultivation will probably progress at the same pace from now on. Mile looked at them and said. "Alright. Now that Yusa''s trial is over and Krune was able to finish his work, we should go back to the headquarters." Everyone agreed with her and went back. After they arrived, Mile went to report to Bary how things had gone, while the rest went back to their own things. Yusa had just broken through, so she will need some time to stabilize her cultivation now. Ao went back to the training room to keep his sword training. Shinja immediately hugged Cassy like a toy and left with Lofa, who had stayed behind. As for krune, he had to go to the Alchemist Hall to take his new badge. Just as he arrived at the Hall, the attendant immediately recognized him. Krune was then guided to another room to wait for the Hall Master. It didn''t take long, though. Keny arrived a few minutes later, and one could see the new Five Stars Alchemist Badge on his hand. "Sorry for making you wait. Here is your new badge. We have already registered you in the Divine Alchemist Alliance as well, so your badge should be recognized at the Divine Path Sect and any other planet if you require it." Krune was surprised. "The badges issued by the Alchemist Alliance of our Makui Planet can be used in other planets?" Keny nodded and then said. "It''s the same for all planets controlled by the big four. They all have alchemist guilds and alliances. So a bigger existence like the Divine Path Sect must regulate and keep them connected. It would be too inconvenient if you had to go through an Alchemist Test every time you arrive at a new planet, so that''s where the Divine Alchemist Alliance takes part." Krune nodded, it makes sense after all. Keny also commented. "Our Makui Planet Alchemist Guild isn''t the only one. The same can be said to the other side occupations, and they all work the same way as us. So it would be best if you register your other side occupation badges just in case." Krune agreed with his idea and bid his farewell to Keny. After that, he had some time to spare, so he paid a visit to the Formations Hall and Blacksmith Hall. They also know about Krune and applied for a register in their own alliances for Krune. He then left his two badges behind and was told to come back the next day, just like the Alchemist Hall. The next day, Krune received a message from Arlan telling him that he finished creating his first Spiritual Energy Meridian. He then went to the training room and found that Ao was there too. But that was good, he could have the both of them spar a bit for him to check how is Arlan''s Elemental Control Condition. After hearing Krune''s request, Ao''s eyes immediately lit up. "Haha! Great! I''ve been bored to death in the last few days. The previous Core Formation Instructor had already left, so I didn''t have anyone to practice with." Arlan also laughed. "You were not the only one. Even though I knew that focusing on the Spiritual Energy Meridians was for my own good, I couldn''t help but feel itchy all over. Now that I have one, I guess I can trash you quite easily." Ao, of course, immediately invited Arlan to the arena for him to try that. Krune just observed by the side, it is good that they are both excited. The mood of a cultivator can also affect their performance, after all. It is just that Krue had to wait a lot for them to finish their fight. Every time that he wanted to say something, they would start another spar straight away. In the end, Krune had to enter the arena himself and beat down the two idiots for them to finally pay attention to him. "Alright. Arlan needs to get used to his Spiritual Energy Meridians, Ao obviously had the advantage during all the spars, so take some time to understand it thoroughly. You have a Pure Yang Body, so it should give you an advantage in combat that Ao doesn''t have. As for Ao, you are doing pretty much okay, it is evident that you got quite used to your meridians." Krune then spent some time with Arlan and Ao talking about the Elemental Control. It''s just that it was a lot less than the past. The further you go, the harder it is to improve. So there wasn''t much that Krune could say to start with. --- Krune left the two with their own training and went back to the Blacksmith Hall to take his badge back. On the way, he bumped on Lakin. He had quite a gloomy face, which made Krune quite helpless. "Are you still thinking about the wisps back in the Rainbow Sect?" Lakin was surprised to hear his master voice, he wasn''t paying attention to the ones in front. He then immediately replied. "That''s not it. I''m indeed sad about what happened, but I already overcame it." That answer only made Krune puzzled, though. "Then why the I-wish-to-die face?" Lakin''s face suddenly went red. "This..." Before he could even say something, someone laughed behind Krune and replied for that question in Lakin''s place. "Oh, it is just that Shinja had been monopolizing Cassy recently, so he isn''t able to spend more time with her." The one who talked was none other than Ruik. He had already arranged everything inside the Pocket Dimension, so he also started to come out to check the Mercenary Headquarters. Lakin''s red face now was even redder, just like a tomato. Krune heard and started to laugh as well. "So that''s the case! No wonder, no wonder." Krune then looked at Lakin and asked. "Do you want me to ask Shinja to give you some time with her?" Lakin immediately shook his head. He couldn''t possibly accept such a disgraceful idea. Ruik and Krune were laughing even more. "That''s good then. If you needed me for something like that, then would you even be worthy of Cassy?" Ruik nodded. "Wisps are also considered part of the demon beasts, and we demon beasts are always straight with our feelings. Put yourself together and go after Cassy. It is that simple." Lakin heard their opinions and showed a determined face, he then bid Krune and Ruik a farewell and left straight away. Krune couldn''t help but remember Feifei. In the end, he still has a long way to go to pay for that life-saving favor. Krune then looked at Ruik and asked. "How has your cultivation going? Need me to take a look?" Ruik shook his heads. "No need, I''m not participating in the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam anyway. So I''m not oo much in a hurry like you guys. I will take it steady so that I can get a good grasp of my own abilities." Krune nodded and didn''t say anything else, they exchanged a few more words and then parted ways. --- Krune finally arrived at the Blacksmith Hall, and Marcus came out with his new badge. "Here, it''s already registered in the Divine Blacksmith Alliance. It can also be accepted in the Divine Path Sect, and other planets in that are part of the alliance, just like your Alchemist one." Krune took the badge and thanked him. After that, he went to the Formations Guild and received his Formations Master Badge as well. Krune then returned to his room to cultivate. Thanks to the Chaos Energy, Krune''s foundation was already stabilized in the 9th stage, so he only needs to accumulate spiritual energy now. He also kept his Elemental Source Energy that his Elemental Meridians could convert aside. He plans to use it during the Core Formation breakthrough. --- Time passed, and the day to leave the Makui Planet finally arrived. Everyone who was participating in the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam was already in front of Elder Loni''s spaceship. There were also the representatives of each power that had a member participating. On the Mercenary Guild from Yule Continent side, surprisingly, Kassius Ruli was the one coming with them. (chapter 27 for those who can''t remember) "Bary asked me to keep one eye on you three. So I''m going with you during this Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. I''m looking forward to your performance." Although Kassius knows Krune, Yusa, and Ao quite well, the same can''t be said for the three of them. The only thing Krune knows is that this was the man who gave him a Four Stars Badge back then, which reminded him of some pretty unfortunate events. Ao and Yusa also knew Kassiu''s identity only, but since it was Bary who sent him, it should be okay. It turns out that he is at the Divine Soul Realm, just like Bary Casfiu, not to mention that Bary trusts him entirely. Bary and Kassius had been friends for over a hundred years, and they met each other even before Bary found Mile back then. "As for Arlan, Tasier, and Lofa, the Mercenary Guilds of their continents are sending someone to take care of them." Krune''s group nodded and waited for elder Loni to open the spaceship. Chapter 128 - Arriving at the Divine Path Sect. Krune''s group soon found Arlan, Tasier, and Lofa as well. Since they were all part of the Mercenary Guild Alliance, they gathered together once more. The comport of the Spaceship opened, and one could see elder Loni coming out, beside him, was his disciple, Lena. He looked at all fifteen participants in front of him and nodded. "It seems like everyone is here, so you can enter and use the same room as you used before when we went to Garmon Planet. Now, everyone can go inside. We are leaving in a few minutes." The participants, their guardians, and their subordinates immediately boarded the ship, and the comports closed right after. Everyone outside watched as the Spaceship took off. It only took a few minutes for it to disappear in the sky. After that, Elder Loni gathered everyone on the ship to say a few words. "As always, the training facilities are available for everyone to use. The travel will take around a month since the Divine Path Sect is much further away than the Garmon Planet. I don''t mind if you decide to spar with each other, but make sure that you are in peak condition by the time we arrive." Everyone nodded and waited for him to talk. "Good! I can''t tell you what the exam will be, but I can''t tell you the rules of the sect for the exam. First, there is no rule to protect the life of the participants. As you can imagine, the sect wants the best, so stopping people from giving their all during the test won''t happen. But I''m sure you all were expecting it already." "Second, the sect knows that a lot of demon beasts don''t want to show their form. But to make sure that everyone gives their all, every demon beast will have to use their true form. This rule is only not applied if the demon beast can prove that he or she can fight better in their human form." Krune''s heart skipped a bit, but he soon regained his calm. As long as he passes the sect entrance exam, he won''t need to be afraid of the people from Makui Planet knowing his real form. "Third, once the exam starts, you won''t be able to leave until you fail or die. There will be no such thing as giving up. But you can, for example, not try to pass it anymore. Eventually, the test will be over, so you will fail at that point." "That''s pretty much everything necessary, as for the rules of the test, you will know before it starts. Now you can go back to do whatever you want, and I will send a message to the entire ship when we start to get close." Everyone separated and went back to do their own things. Arlan and Ao immediately left for a training room, and Mina was together with them. Want it or not, Mina was also a lady under the age of 40 in the Core Formation Realm, so she had the right to participate. Arlan didn''t mind, though. As long as she doesn''t bother him during this critical period, he is more than happy to have his fiance close by. Shinja left with Lofa and Yusa. Lofa can still improve a little before the exam, so Shinja decided to help her a little more. Yusa had also stabilized her cultivation during the last month, so she tagged along. In the end, Krune was left alone. He sent his Divine Sense into the Pocket Dimension and asked if Ruik and the others wanted to see the ship. There were no rules about how many people you could bring with you since everyone that fails will be sent back anyway. Of course, you couldn''t bring thousands of them. But Krune has the Spatial Box nevertheless, so he isn''t using any space on the ship to start with. Lakin, Cassy, Ruik, and everyone else got excited about the idea of seeing the space and immediately came out. Krune has a huge room for himself, so he also brought out the other wisps to take a look. Other than Elder Loni, no one can enter the contestants'' rooms without permission, so he wasn''t afraid of the wisps being found. All the rooms also had Formations to prevent Divine Sense from looking inside. After he brought them out, he noticed that two more wisps had achieved the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation. He then called the two over to talk a bit. Lakin and Cassy also came together to introduce the two guys. "Master, the wisp on your right is Liam, while on the left is Hana. Temporary names, of course. They entered the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation in the last month thanks to all the spirit stones you sent inside." Krune nodded, satisfied. "Hello, you two. I don''t have time to talk and take care of all the wisps, as Lakin does. So other than your names, I didn''t know much about you before. But now that you arrived in the 9th stage, I will share a little of my experiences so that it can help you in the future. Lakin and Cassy probably did it already, but just in case." The two wisps immediately got excited, it is not every day that the Ancestor wisp would guide them, after all. Krune then spent a few hours talking and teaching them, he also looked in their abilities and helped them to understand the Myriad Energies Technique better. All the other wisps were also watching and taking notes of what krune was saying and showing. Krune, of course, didn''t mind that at all. At some point, Ruik and the other demon beasts had left to look around the Spaceship, the only ones that should remain in his room were the wisps. Krune was feeling very relaxed during the next few days. He would cultivate at some times and teach the wisp during another. Sometimes he would spar with Shinja, Yusa, and the others too. He couldn''t help but think about how good it is. The only thing that puzzled him is how many times Lofa came to pay a visit, not that he minded, of course. He also received requests from tasier to train with him another three times, which gave him a lot of Rank Five spirit stones. But Tasier was already getting to the limit that his Lightning Element could achieve. Tasier''s last elemental test gave him a total of 7862 points for Lightning Element. So instead, Krune helped him with his other two elements, Wind and Metal, which proved to be the right decision. Tasier''s combat prowess increased by leaps and bounds. He could even spar for a little time against Ao and Arlan now. And just like that, the time passed. --- It had been almost one month since the Spaceship departed. Today, Krune was teaching the wisps a little more when suddenly, he heard a voice coming from everywhere in the ship. "Everyone, we are close to the Divine Path Sect. We should be able to see it in the next few hours, so take your time to rest and refrain from doing anything dangerous. We are arriving almost at the right time, so you will only have one day to prepare before the exam starts." Not only Krune, but everyone got excited as well. Krune then brought the wisps close to the monitor in the room and turned it on. It had the option to show everything around the ship. Even though they were still a few hours away, they could already see the sect in the distance. They couldn''t help but be amazed. The sect occupied, in fact, an entire planet! The closer they got, the bigger they noticed that the planet was. Krune''s Makui Planet could only be considered an Ant in front of this place. In fact, the Divine path Sect doesn''t have that many people, the biggest majority of those living on the planet just work for them. But they still had hundreds of thousands of members. Krune could also see Spaceships bigger and smaller than his coming and going. As the power controlling their territory, it goes without saying that a lot of deals and decisions happen in this place. While everyone was taking a look, Elder Loni sent them another message. "We are taking the test in the main sect." The monitor that showed the planet then zoomed the camera somewhere close to the middle of the planet. Even from this distance, it was possible to see a huge amount of buildings. Everyone single one was bound to be gigantic. The closer you looked at the center of those buildings, the bigger they got. The main sector definitely had over a kilometer radius. "As you can see, the sector is quite big. But I might tell you as well that the Spiritas Kingdom''s main sector expands even further than our sect. Anyway, the buildings are separated into Core, Inner, and Outer parts. There are a few more things, but it won''t matter for you at the moment. The test will happen in the outer parts." The camera then zoomed even further and showed a place where one could see tens of thousands of Spaceships. "This is the place where we are going to dock. As you can see, there is a lot of contestants who arrived already. But in the end, just how many will be able to enter the sect? I doubt that even 1% at most 2% will join it, So make sure to go all out! Every time the Entrance Exam stars, no less than a thousand dies, and even more get seriously injured or crippled for life. If you want to give up, the time is now. Just send me a message through the link I gave you, and I will have someone bring you back to the Makui Planet." Elder Loni then waited for a minute, but no message arrived. "Good, it seems like I didn''t bring any gutless ant. Take your time to rest and be ready by the time I tell you to exit the ship." Krune was brimming with confidence. He couldn''t help but wonder how the exam would be. But suddenly, he felt a ripple coming from his Elemental Core. In fact, it wasn''t only one, but three ripples! All of them coming from the place where the Spaceships were docked with the contestants from other planets. "Light Spirit, did you feel that?" Light Spirit immediately answered. "Yes." Krune felt that there was some kind of connection between him and those places. "Then what is it?" Light Spirit then said. "Major Cores Resonance!" Chapter 129 - Encounter. Krune was surprised to hear that. He didn''t know that Major Cores could resonate. "Isn''t it bad? If this happens, then it might get things dangerous, depending on the situation." Light Spirit answered. "That''s because your cultivation is too low, at the Core Formation Realm, you will be able to conceal the aura of a Major Core. A part of your soul will be inside the core, after all. So you will have control over it." Krune let out a sigh of relief. "Wait! I can already feel three Major Cores, doesn''t that mean that the Divine Path sect should have even more?" Light Spirit agreed with him. "Isn''t that obvious? The ten Major Cores are extremely rare, but the Divine Path Sect controls a planetary region with thousands, if not tens of thousands of planets. The total number of cultivators and demon beasts are probably inside of the quadrillions. It''s bound to have a major Core owner once in a while." Krune couldn''t help but nod, that indeed makes sense. "So, in this test alone, I will be against Three Major Core owners." Krune was thinking about how to deal with it since they could feel each other''s presence. --- At the same time, the other three contestants with Major Cores also felt Krune''s presence. In a Spaceship of the Feyi Planet, a woman was meditating in her room when she suddenly felt that ripple. She looked in the direction of Krune''s spaceship even though she was inside a closed room. "Four Major Cores. It seems like this exam will be interesting." She was Nala Glorel, a Peak Foundation Establishment cultivator, and a Life Core owner. --- In a room inside one of the buildings already on the Divine Path Sect Planet, a Fire Dragon was sleeping comfortably. Suddenly, it opened its eyes and looked at Krune''s spaceship direction too. "Another one? So annoying." His name was Gonat, a Yang Core Owner. He is part of the Palui delegation. Palui is an out of the norm planet, the majority there are demon beasts with just a few humans. --- As for the last one, it is a youth with silver eyes called Colen Fecit. At that moment, he was inside a pocket dimension receiving training from a Void Breaking Realm elder of his clan. Suddenly, he lost focus on his training and looked in a particular direction. His elder noticed it and asked. "What is it?" Colen immediately answered with a smile. "Another Major Core has just arrived." The elder felt no surprise. He and Colen are both from the Nakai Planet, one of the biggest and most well-developed planets in the Divine Path Sect territory. This elder has seen Major Core owners before. "Forget it, just focus on your training." Colen nodded and resumed his practice. --- Krune''s spaceship finally docked somewhere in the outer sector, and everyone inside came out. There was no one that didn''t look around curiously, this is the place that almost every cultivator and demon beast dreamed to join, after all. Elder Loni then guided his contestants to a residential area where all the contestants from all planets were staying. The place was enormous and had everything one could imagine. Not to mention that all the training facilities were top-notch. On the way, Elder Loni bumped into another Outer Sect elder called Masfiu Halen. "Hey Loni, are those your kids this time?" Elder Loni noticed Masfiu and immediately smiled. "Haha! Yeap, those are the ones. I''m very confident in some of them too." Masfiu and Loni were friends in the Sect, so there was no hostility between them. "I heard that Kirian paid you a visit during your test. Knowing her, she definitely went there to find a problem with you." Elder Loni heard that and laughed even more. "She did appear there, indeed. And she left behind a full bottle of Dragon Essence Liquid after losing a bet to me." Masfiu''s jaw immediately dropped. "A full bottle?! No wonder you seem to be in such a good mood. Haha!" Elder Loni then looked behind Masfiu and could see the contestants that he was encharged of. "It seems like those are your kids too, which planet did you this time?" Masfiu then showed an excited look. "Yamole Planet." It was Elder Loni''s time to drop his jaw. "Yamole? Isn''t that a planet that is usually encharged to Inner Elders?" Masfiu laughed there. "You are right. But because there was a lot of inner elders in seclusion this time, they had to send an outer core elder to this one, and I was the lucky guy." Elder Loni understood. But he didn''t feel jealous. First, Masfiu is his friend, so he was happy for him. And second, Loni is pretty sure that at the very least, Krune will definitely succeed in the sect entrance exam. "That''s good for you, and it seems like we are both lucky this time. I''m very confident in the chance of these kids here. I reckon that at least one will enter the Sect." Masfiu was surprised to hear that, it was then that he got an idea. "Hey, in that case, what about we check our kids'' elemental proficiency? There is a lot of kids from other planets in the Measurement Hall. It will also be good for them to know what is expecting for them." Elder Loni pondered a bit and nodded. "That''s indeed good, let''s go there." He then looked behind and told Krune and everyone else. "The Measurement Hall has hundreds of the same equipment that I used in the Garmon Planet to check your elemental talent. You will find a lot of contestants from other planets there too. Every time that a new Entrance Exam happens, it is common for them to compare their abilities there." Both Loni and Mafiu''s contestants got excited, they had just arrived, so they wanted to know how good they would fare against the other planets. But on the way there, Krune''s group could see the disdain on the face of the Yamole contestants. They obviously didn''t put the Makui Planet on their eyes. But none of them got angry, if anything, they felt that funny. If it was in the past, they might really not have a chance against a much better-developed planet like Yamole, but now... On their way there, Krune noticed one thing. "Light Spirit, I can feel that we are moving in the direction of one of the Ten Major Core." Light Spirit nodded. "You would get to know them sooner or later anyway, just take this chance to check the difference between you and them." Krune nodded and kept walking. He still hasn''t told anyone that he could feel the presence of the other Major Cores. By using the transportation available in the place, they only took around twenty minutes to arrive there. The area was filled to the brim with cultivators and demon beasts. It''s not that the place was small, in fact, it was enormous. But there were just too many of them there. Thanks to Elder Loni and Masfiu, they passed through the crowd without being barred. After entering the facility, they told their contestants. "There, in the middle, you can see two enormous monitors. The left one shows the best scores of all times. As for the right one, it is reset every time the Entrance Exam happens. You can go and take a look. Masfiu and I are going to talk with the other elders, you can go ahead and test yourselves. See if you can get a good score." But then, Loni remembered something. "Oh, right! There are participants at the Core Formation stage and Foundation Establishment. So if you look at both monitors, you will see that they are separated by realms. The points given to both of them are different, too. So don''t try to compare the score since the measurement used between them is different." Masfiu and Loni then went to a corner where some of the outer elders were talking and left their contestants behind. But in fact, they are paying attention to see how good they will do in this test. Krune didn''t pay attention to anything there, though. All he could do at the moment was to look in the direction of the Major Core cultivator in the distance. It was Nala Glorel who came this time. She had been dragged out by her sister, Nadia Glorel, who was also taking the exam. At this moment, both Nala and Nadia were the center of attention. Except for Krune''s friends, no one knows that Krune has a Major Core. But Nala is different, it is public knowledge that she has a Life Core. So a lot of cultivators from big and well-developed planets were swarming all around her. Fortunately, she had her elders to play the bodyguard role, so only really influential and strong contestants were allowed to talk with her and her sister. Although the Feyi Planet isn''t as bad as the Makui Planet, it wasn''t considered a strong one either. So they had to give some face to those from such planets. Krune ignored all of that and started to move in her direction, which puzzled Yusa and the others. But they know that Krune would never do anything reckless, so he must have a reason for that. The cultivators and demon beasts noticed Krune moving in Nala''s direction and snorted. "Hey brother, she isn''t someone you can talk to." "If you look too much, you might get blind." "You can''t blame him, who wouldn''t want to get along with a Life Core Owner?" "Just look how he gets beaten by those guys from the strong planets." Nala had long since noticed Krune too, but she couldn''t move because of those around here. She can''t be impolite with them since their planet might suffer due to their wrath. Only when everyone noticed Krune approaching did they stop talking to her and looked in his direction. They were just about to rebuke Krune when Nala suddenly said. "So, we finally met." Krune nodded. "This is really a magical feeling when I see you." Some people felt that Krune was trying to court Nala, and they were expecting him to receive a harsh reply anytime soon. Except for Krune''s group, of course. They know that Krune has no talent in the art of courting females, which puzzled them even more. "I agree, I also felt the same when I saw you." Contrary to everyone''s expectations, Nala really answered the same way as Krune. Nala then came forward and extended her hand. "I''m Nala Glorel, Feyi Planet." Krune smiled and did the same. "Krune, Makui Planet." No one understood what kind of relationship they had. It was evident that it was Krune and Nala''s first meeting, but they seemed to be expecting the other''s arrival. The only one who showed an understanding face was Nadia. Her sister, Nala, had told her that she could feel the presence of other Major Cores. She then smiled and thought. ''So, he is one of them.'' Chapter 130 - Brother, You Are Good. Boen Saviu is a member of the Hasvau Planet, another planet at the top of the food chain. Ever since he arrived, he had been trying to court Nala. She is beautiful, has a Major Core, and is free. But other than exchanging polite words, she hasn''t shown any interest to him so far. In fact, not only him, but no one else either. But out of nowhere, someone from a planet he had never heard before immediately caught his girl''s interest. If it was one of those from planets like his own, then he could accept it. But it was a punny planet which his clan could probably wipe out alone. He simply couldn''t accept that. Of course, Boen didn''t let it show on his face. He came forward and complimented Krune too. He was planning to humiliate Krune in the elemental test so that he would know his place. "Hello, it seems like you two were expecting each other." Krune and Nala looked at Boen and noticed that they were really catching a lot of attention. Krune then came forward and grabbed his hand too. "Hello, Krune from Makui Planet. Nice to meet you too." Krune wasn''t pretending, he isn''t the type that would notice someone bad intentions to start with. So he sincerely complimented Boen. As long as you are polite to him, he will be polite back. Boen''s mouth twitched, though. He really didn''t want to know this ant from whatever planet. But he had to show his good side to Nala, after all. Nala, different from Krune, isn''t as clueless. So she noticed that something is fishy, it was easy to see due to the smile on the face of Boen''s subordinates. But she didn''t say anything. She isn''t Krune''s friend or anything like that to start with. Her only interest was the fact that he also has a Major Core. Boen continued to smile and then said. "Did you come here to make the elemental test too? What about we do it together? It will be a lot funnier." Krune was taken aback with that idea and immediately refused. "It is not necessary. My elemental control is nothing worth mention." Krune''s habit of trying not to catch attention started again. Too bad that everyone''s focus was on him from the moment that he talked to Nala. But he still thinks that it is better not to show too much of his elemental powers. This isn''t totally wrong since it could also be said to be his trump card during the exam. Boen, of course, wasn''t going to give up so easily. "Come on, brother. What if we do it like this? We will bet some spirit stones just to make things interesting. You won''t reject it in that case, right?" Krune''s eyes immediately lit up. If there is one thing that he is always lacking, that is spirit stones. "How much spirit stones are we betting?" Boen''s smile got even bigger now. "Nothing much. What about ten thousand Rank Six High-Quality spirit stones? There is no need for us to make things big, this little amount should do." Krune was taken aback. He wouldn''t be able to fork out even a thousand of spirit stones of that rank, let alone ten thousand. The fact is that Boen wasn''t lying, considering the planet and the clan he came from, that was indeed a small amount. In the end, Krune could only apologize. "I''m sorry, the planet I came from isn''t that big or prosperous. I don''t have that number of spirit stones." Although Krune apologized, he didn''t feel embarrassed at all. In his eyes, there was nothing wrong with admitting that you can''t do something. If you can''t, then you can''t, that''s all. It was then that everyone heard a girl''s voice. "Oh, let me lend him those spirit stones, then." Everyone looked at her and noticed that it was none other than Nala''s blood sister, Nadia. She came forward and took out the spirit stones from her spatial ring. "Boen had given such a nice and funny idea, it would be a pity if we couldn''t see it happening." Krune was puzzled. Why would she lend him spirit stones? But he didn''t refuse since he really needs them, after all. Boen also smiled at this development. In his eyes, he thinks that Nadia wants to help him deal with Krune once for all. The only one who really understood Nadia''s thoughts was Nala. But she didn''t say anything either. She was also curious to know how well Krune would perform. Krune then received the spirit stones. "Thank you. I will give the spirit stones back to you after the bet is over." Everyone''s jaws dropped. Isn''t that the same as saying that Boen isn''t his match? Shinja, Yusa, and Ao were certain about one thing. Krune definitely didn''t notice the hidden meaning in his own words. They are absolutely sure that Krune really meant that he just wanted to pay the spirit stones back. Boen smiled disappeared at that moment. "You seem very confident, no?" Krune looked at him puzzled, but nodded nonetheless. Now that spirit stones are involved, he really is confident. Boen browns frowned, though. "Hmph! Then let''s see just how good you are, come to the testing machines." Krune followed Boen while everyone else was looking. After arriving at the equipment, Boen put a condition. "We have to use our best element, I don''t want you to hold back." Krune didn''t mind, though. For the sake of the spirit stones, he was going all out to start with. The only thing that he wouldn''t use is his Tribulation Lightning. He didn''t want the machine to show another XXXXX result. But he still chose lightning Element nonetheless. Boen went first to test his elemental control. He also wanted to show how good he is to Nala, so this was an excellent opportunity. Boen is a three elements specialized Foundation Establishment cultivator. He uses Wind, Metal, and Water. It is quite a weird combination, but for someone of a top-notch planet, there is definitely a reason behind that. And his best one between the three is Metal. Boen then took out a spear and concentrated in his Metal Element Control. The spear seemed like it came to life, and one could hear a humming sound from it. It was evident that his Metal Element Control had reached a frighteningly high level. Soon, the equipment showed his score. "Metal Element, 8942 points." Everyone went into an uproar. That was an extremely high score for a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Even Ao and Arlan were surprised. They know that Boen doesn''t have the Spiritual Energy Meridians, but he still got a score that is almost the same as theirs. Krune''s group immediately reviewed their thoughts of the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam, the top contestants from strong planets can''t be underestimated at all! Krune had always told them, the Myriad Energies Technique isn''t omnipotent. Now they had seen the proof right in front of them, and that is just one cultivator from those top planets. Elements control has a lot to do with the level of the Divine Sense, which is connected with a good soul cultivation technique. It seems like the Saviu Clan isn''t much behind in this in this field. Boen then looked at krune with a proud face and said. "I did my best, you better not disappoint me." Krune noticed that Boen seemed somewhat angry. Although he didn''t know the reason, he agreed to his request. His opponent had given his all in the elemental test just now. If he holds back, it would be disrespectful with him. At least, Krune definitely wouldn''t want someone holding back if he was the challenger, doesn''t matter the result. Krune then concentrated his Lightning Element around his body and also did his best over its control. He could feel that his control over the normal Lightning Element had improved once more in the past five to six months. It was all thanks to the Tribulation Lightning that helps him to understand it more and more. Not to mention his elemental core, which makes it even easier. Soon, the Elemental Test Equipment showed Krune''s result. "Lightning Element, 32589 points." Silence! The entire Hall that had been so noisy all this time became so silent that one could hear a needle falling on the ground. It didn''t last long, though. Soon, the entire Hall went into another uproar! This time, it was several times higher than when Boen''s result appeared. "This is crazy! It has entered the top 10 of all times!" "How could a shit planet like that give birth to such a monster?" "The old saying is really true, you never know from where a real genius could appear." Nala and Nadia also looked at that with their mouths open. That score is something that far exceeds their imagination. That was way too high, even for a Major Core! Krune then stopped using the testing equipment and went to talk with Boen. "It seems like I won. But your Metal element control is very good too. My friends over there all have around the same scores with their element as you. So it really surprised me." Krune wasn''t lying, he too knows that Boen doesn''t haven the Spiritual Energy Meridians. That served to show him how strong the top planets are. Of course, Boen didn''t like that comparison, though. But he had to keep his face and the face of his planet, so he took out the spirit stones and passed it to Krune. "Brother, you are good." Krune smiled and received the spirit stones. After that, he passed the spirit stone he received from Nadia back to her. As for Nala, she came forward and said. "It was even higher than I expected, your Lightning Element control is really frightening. Let me introduce myself again, but this time, in a different way." She then took a deep breath and said. "Nala Glorel, Ten Major Core''s Life Core." Krune understood what she meant. Suddenly, Krune''s eyes started to change color and returned to the rainbow-like state. Now that his Major Core is known, there is no point in hiding his irises anymore. "Krune, Ten Major Core''s Elemental Core." Krune knew that hiding it now would be of no use, be it cultivators or demon beasts, they would come to understand this fact after seeing his score. Not to mention that the Major Core users could feel his presence anyway. Not only Boen, everyone else finally understood what was happening here. Krune had one of the Ten Major Cores, and it was the Elemental Core on top of that! No wonder his elemental control reached such a frightening level! Boen finally understood why Nala and Krune seemed to expect each other''s arrival. As a member of a strong clan in a top-ranked planet, he had some extra information about the Major Cores that others didn''t. His elders had told him before that Major Core Owners can feel each other before entering the Core Formation Realm. He knew that krune and Nala had never met before, but they still seemed to know that the other was coming. The clues were all there to see, but his pride made him neglect this fact. He could only blame himself for being soo blind. He sighed deeply, someone like that is bound to ascend in the ranks. Nadia eyes lit up when she heard that, though. "Brother Krune, you are so strong! Do you have a girlfriend already?" Several female cultivators and demon beasts also looked at him like he was prey. "I don''t have a girlfriend, but I do have a fiance." Krune couldn''t help but think. ''Or at least, I think I have.'' Chapter 131 - Results The fire in several girls'' eyes extinguished as fast as they lit up, and Nadia was no exception. "I guess that was to be expected." Krune just laughed after that. On the corner with the elders, Loni had a beaming face. He already had an idea that Krune had a Major Core, there is no way he could have such a result in the Martial Gathering without it. "Loni, did you save the universe in your previous life? How did you find such a gem in that shit planet?" The other outer elders nodded vigorously! Loni just took that as a joke, though. Bringing back talents that can enroll the sect is also rewarded by the sect. He is probably going to get something very good for bringing back a Major Core. "You haven''t seen all yet, wait for the rest to take the test. Although they aren''t as good as Krune, they are not shabby." All the elders were taken aback! Could it be that there are even more talents from that planet? But it was then that they remember the special ability of the Elemental Core. "Right, the Elemental Eye Irises! If this guy used it to guide his companions for a long time, there is no doubt that they have improved their elemental control by leaps and bounds too." The other elders'' eyes lit up after hearing that! Now they are even more interested in looking at the results of Krune''s friend. But there is one thing that Elder Loni hasn''t told them. Krune can also use Tribulation Lightning! But he will keep quiet about that, Krune is probably keeping it hidden as his trump card. Nala then went to take the test herself. Since Krune showed his abilities, she had to do the same. She has her pride, after all. They just need to see which element she would use in the test. Nala got close to one of the equipment and started to focus on her wood element, not long after, the equipment showed her result. "Wood Element, 21065 points." Another uproar came out. Although Nala''s result wasn''t as good as Krune''s Lightning Element, it was still several times higher than the majority of the cultivators and demon beasts around. In fact, Krune''s element control was supposed to be lower than her. The Elemental Core is an element balanced Major Core. The proof is that Krune can''t achieve over 20000 points with any other element other than Lightning. But because he has both the Myriad Energies Technique and the Tribulation Lightning, he was able to show such an absurd number. "Impressive" Nala came back and shook her head. "Not as your Lightning Element, though." Krune then asked something that as puzzling him. "Aren''t Life Core owners supposed to be able to control Light Element even in earlier stages of cultivation?" Nala nodded. "I can, indeed." She then extended her hand and focused on the Light Element. Suddenly, specs of light started to spin around her hand, and it was very beautiful. "But it is exactly because I can do it in such an earlier stage of cultivation that my control over it is poor. If I tested it now, I reckon that I would barely surpass the 10000 points with it. Of course, if we are talking about plain healing ability, then my light element would be better for it than wood. Also, after I get to the Divine Soul Realm, this barrier that impedes me from using Light Element will disappear. So it will get a super boost at that point." Krune nodded, each Major Core had their advantages and disadvantages. If he were to think about one for his Elemental Core, that would be the fact that he doesn''t have any main strong element. Once again, his Lightning Element only got to this level because of the Tribulation Lightning and Myriad Energies Technique. Not to mention his All-Encompassing Soul Technique. If Krune removes his Elemental Energy Meridians and his Tribulation Lightning, he would have around 12000 to 13000 points in every single element at the moment. In the last six months, Krune''s cultivation had also reached the 9th stage. Thanks to his Elemental Meridians, he should now be able to achieve around 16000 points for each element other than Lightning. Krune exchanged a few more words with her and returned to his group, all he wanted to do was to see who had a Major Core like him. Yusa, Shinja, and Ao knew about it already, so they were calm. As for Tasier, Arlan, Lofa, and the rest of the Makui Planet contestants, that was the first time hearing about it. In the end, Arlan couldn''t help but comment. "We have been friends for so long, but you couldn''t even tell me about it." Krune laughed at that comment, though. "That would be no fun at all." Arlan also laughed. He knows what the real reason is anyway. An Elemental Core shouldn''t be something that you go around telling others about. But now that they are in the Divine Path Sect, Krune will have to go all out. His Elemental Core would appear sooner or later. Krune''s group was curious about another thing, though. "Did you know she had a Major Core from the start?" Krune nodded. "I could feel it resonating with my own. There is also another two Major Cores participating in the Exam, it''s just that they aren''t nearby at the moment." Everyone was taken aback, counting with Krune, there are four Major Cores! The Exam is getting harder by the minute. Not to mention those like Boen, who don''t have Major Cores but still have outstanding elemental control. One can only imagine how good their techniques and combat prowess is. Krune then turned to Ao and the others and said through Divine Sense. "You know the reason for my Lightning Element control to be this high, but my other elements aren''t the same. Shinja''s water element isn''t worse than mine either, and Arlan will probably come to have a fire element just as good. So don''t bother with the results of the others, I refuse to believe that you can''t fight them head-on!" Ao and the others nodded. If the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam was easy, their Makui Planet wouldn''t have failed for thousands of years. They should have expected that only monsters would appear around. Ao then took a step forward and went to one of the testing equipment. Because he was also part of Krune''s group, quite a few people paid attention to him. It has been half a year since the end of the Martial Gathering. During this time, Ao has broken through into the 9th stage of the Foundation Establishment and is close to the peak of it. So he got a good boost on his Divine Sense and, consequently, his Elemental Control too. He got close to one of that testing equipment and concentrated on his Wind Element. Soon, his result appeared on the monitor. "Wind Element, 10264 points." That was more or less what Ao expected. But he also knows that it is most likely the limit of what he can get in the Foundation Establishment. In the end, he only has six Spiritual Energy Meridians, and he doesn''t have any special traits Like Arlan or Shinja. Of course, he wasn''t sad about that result. When would he ever be able to get to this point if not for Krune? At that moment, the only ones that looked composed were Ao''s friends and the other qualified members from Makui Planet. The rest of the Cultivators and Demon Beasts went in another wave of discussion. Since when that little planet started to give birth to so many geniuses? Arlan decided to try right after, and of course, he chose Fire Element. In the last six months, he was able to open Six Meridians just like Ao. The reason for that is quite simple, he doesn''t lack spirit stones! The main reason as to why Krune and the others took so long to get that many meridians were basically the lack of spirit stones. But Arlan, as the only contestant of the Makui Mercenary Guild, obviously didn''t have that problem. "Fire Element, 12645 points." Arlan looked at that and sighed. He is still quite far away from Krune''s level in Fire Element. As for everyone else, their mouths couldn''t be more open at the moment. Just what is happening to this Makui Planet? Tasier and Lofa came right after. "Lighting Element, 9150 points." "Water Element, 8061 points." They don''t have the Spiritual Energy Meridians, nor do they even know that they exist. So it was already very impressive that in the least six months of guidance gave by Shinja and Krune, they achieved this level. Tasier having a bigger score than Lofa Harcken was pretty obvious. He is a Thunder Hawk, and Lightning Element is his race innate ability after all. Boen also looked at that like he had seen a ghost. Every single one had a control better or at the same level as him. But he wasn''t feeling insecure. He still believes that his clan techniques are much better and that his combat prowess is definitely higher than them. Shinja and Yusa decided to take the test too, but their scores were pretty standard. There are two reasons for that. First, the score measure for Core Formation participants is different from Foundation Establishment, so they can''t compare it with Krune and the others. And second, the scores that are shown at the moment are taking everyone under the age of 40 in the Core Formation Stage. There are definitely some geniuses from top-ranked planets in the middle or even late stages of the Core Formation Realm. It would be of no use for Yusa and Shinja to compare their elemental control with them. The difference in cultivation was just too big. Of course, some felt threatened by the two girls. And they were none other than those High Cultivation Stage Core Formation participants. They could sense Yusa and Shinja''s cultivator at the 1st and 2nd stages. But they still had such a high score comparable with even some of the 5th and 6th stages of the same realm. As for the other outer sect elders, they looked at Loni with envy. Why weren''t they the ones who were assigned to Makui Planet this time? Although this kind of situation wasn''t unheard of, it is still quite rare to happen. They are sure that Loni is bound to get a very handsome reward from the sect, and even a promotion to become an inner sect elder isn''t out of the question. Krune looked at all the results and nodded, he was pretty much satisfied with their progress during this time. As for the other two Major Core participants, it seems like he will need to wait until the Entrance Exam to meet them. Chapter 132 - The hundred floors tower! After all the participants finished their tests, elder Loni came to take them back to their rooms. He already told them that the Exam will start tomorrow, so he prohibited any dangerous activity before it happens. Krune and the others nodded, they also know that they need to be at peak state for that. Everyone spent that night relaxing. Krune, once again, invited everyone to eat. As always, he was the one cooking. There was no training or teaching, just chatting and food. Of course, Arlan and Ao still found a way to challenge each other, but Krune simply ignored the two idiots. Even Mina, Arlan''s fiance, was helpless at that sight. While the night passed uneventfully for Krune''s group, the same couldn''t be said for the outside. The news that a fourth Major Core appeared started to spread like wildfire. In just a few hours, no contestant didn''t have Krune''s picture on their communicators. They all knew the other three Major Core participants. After all, they were known even before the Divine Path Sect Exam arrived. But Krune really appeared out of nowhere, and there was way too little information about him. Gomat and Colen also got the information about him, but they didn''t care. Everyone who came to the Exam at least has confidence in their own abilities, let alone Major Core owners. Besides, this is not an exam to find a single cultivator or demon beast, but to find those who qualify to enter the Sect. In that case, it is almost certain that all for Major Core Owners this time will join the Sect. There is a reason why the Divine Path Sect doesn''t let the Major Core Owners enter straight away. First, they want to check their strength. And second, not only the major Core Owners but all the successful contestants'' position inside the Sect will be determined through this test. Depending on your results, directly entering the inner Sect isn''t impossible. Of course, it will be extremely hard. The next day, Makui Planet''s participants were gathered in front of Elder Loni, who was going to guide them to the test. "I hope you are all ready. Remember that once the test starts, you can only leave if you fail or die. But as long as you succeed, you will be able to join the DivinePath Sect, so I hope you won''t disappoint me. Let''s go!" Everyone agreed with Loni started to follow him. On the way, they could see several other elders guiding their Planet participants. After more or less one hour, Makui Planet''s contestant could see an enormous open field ahead, which was packed with cultivators and demon beasts. A lot of the demon beasts there are of rare or strong races, so they couldn''t change into their human form yet. Because of that, they occupied a lot of space. But even so, there was more than enough for everyone. Still, Makui Planet''s contestants were amazed by that sight, there is definitely over a hundred thousand here, maybe even over two or three hundred! But that was to be expected, each planet had at least ten slots to come, and there are thousands if not tens of thousands of worlds in the Divine Path Sect territory. Not to mention that strong planets have more than just ten contestants with good chances of passing the test, so they had even more slots opened for them. As the Makui Planet''s contestants got close, the other planets opened the way. This time, it wasn''t because of elder Loni, but Krune instead. Everyone could recognize him, which made him feel quite gloomy. But Krune didn''t regret his past day decision, he got ten thousand Rank Six High-Quality spirit stones, it was definitely worth it! The field was also full of monitors. In the distance, one could see a giant stage where several outer and inner elders were staying. The monitors were obviously there to show what will happen on the stage. More and more contestants from other worlds arrived on the field, after just one hour, the previous enormous area was now almost full. Fortunately, everyone was already there. There were several places in the middle where everyone wouldn''t get too close. Those were the top-ranked planets contestant areas and the four Major Cores participants area. So, thanks to Krune, Makui Planet had quite some space around. Finally, all the monitors turned on, and they could see the stage in the distance. The field became silent as everyone paid attention to the elders of the Sect. One of them came forward and talked to everyone. "Welcome to the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam, I''m the Core Elder Tiago Galey. I will be overseeing this Exam together with the other two Core Elders of the Sect. As everyone knows, we only accept the best! Race, Clan, Planet, Territory, Wealthy, here in the Divine Path Sect, they are worth even less than a copper coin. All that matters is one thing. Strength!" Tiago looked at everyone with a serious face. "Of course, there are those that are more talented with something else other than combat. But for that purpose, there are the side occupations alliances that are maintained by our Divine Path Sect as well. And the best place to learn the techniques from those alliances is no other than our Divine Path Sect too." Some cultivators and demon beasts immediately understood what the elder meant, Krune included. "I can see that a few already understood what I''m saying. That''s right, the best side occupation professionals of those alliances have also joined our Divine Path Sect. That means that not only are they the best in their fields, but they are also strong! What use is there if you can''t even protect yourself?" Tiago then looked at the demon beasts. "I believe that the elders that were overseeing each planet had told you that the beasts will need to use their true form. The only exception is those who have a higher fighting strength in their human forms. Once the test starts, the formation inside will activate, and only those with a seal will not revert to their real form.! Krune and all the other demon beasts in the human form already knew about that too. Tiago then started to explain the Exam. The exceptions that Tiago mentioned usually are given to sea demon beasts. After all, a fish moving on the earth in its true form would be very disadvantageous. "There are several contestants at the Core Formation Stage under the age of forty, but there are even more Foundation Establishment ones. For the first test to be a little fairer, it will happen inside the Sects illusory realm. There, you will all have a cultivation at the peak of the Foundation Establishment. But do not relax just because it is an illusory realm. If you die there, your soul will die outside too. We said before, we want everyone to give their best, and only life and death situations can bring out one''s real potential." No one seemed to be surprised by that. Their elders had told them time and time again that the death rate during the Exam was extremely high. So they were already prepared for something like this to happen. "Now then, let''s talk about the first test itself. It is called the hundred floors tower! Your objective is to reach the hundredth floor in the time of one month. But the higher you go, the lesser the number of contestants are accepted inside that floor. That means that you have to fight for the right to go up. Each level has a certain amount of doors that lead to the next floor, and all entries have a max number of contestants allowed to enter." Tiago then continued. "After entering the second floor, the third one will only open after the former is full. But you don''t need to worry about running out of time or not having enough contestants to fill up that floor, everything is accounted for. There is a time limit for you to enter the next level, if you don''t find a door or if you are too weak to fight for the right to enter, then you will fail. Of course, if you die, you fail too." It was then that Tiago smiled. "Another thing, you can''t enter a door straight away. All doors have several slots around them, you need to enter inside and stay there protect it for at least ten minutes. As you can imagine, if someone wants to take away your slot during it, they can do it. Of course, you can also give up if you see that you are not someone''s match and come back later. As long as the total number for that door hasn''t filled, you can try again." Some people got puzzled, what if they can defend their slot once and someone comes right after you finished a battle? Wouldn''t they be feeling weak to fight once more? Tiago immediately noticed their doubts and said. "Haha! You think it is unfair to force someone to battle several times? Then I tell you that the Sect is already being very merciful for keeping everyone at the same cultivation level. Do you think that on a battlefield, you would be able to complain about the enemy ganging up or that that enemy has higher cultivation? Keep dreaming!" There was something that Tiago didn''t mention, though. All he said was that you must defend your slot for at least ten minutes. In that case, you can basically delay a battle for that duration and defeat your adversary after that. Of course, he didn''t say it on purpose. The Divine Path Sect Disciples also need brains, after all. "Alright! This is all, you can form teams if you want, but slot battle can only happen in a one vs. one. In the end, your individual strength is what matters! Good luck to you all!" Before anyone could say or ask anything, the entire field started to shine! It turns out that they were already inside the illusory formation, and no one had noticed. When everyone opened their eyes again, they were already inside the illusory realm. But that wasn''t all, immediately after they were sent inside, all demon beasts in human form, started to revert to their original appearance. Krune, of course, was no exception! Chapter 133 - Im Sure They Liked the Taste. All demon beasts in the human form returned to their original form. But there was only one that really caught everyone''s attention. Quite a lot of cultivators and demon beasts were curious about which race Krune came from. After all, he has an Elemental Core. Tasier, Arlan, and Lofa could be said to be the most curious of all. They have known Krune for some time, but even they didn''t know that. Krune was feeling helpless, though. He was already expecting to use his original form from the start. That''s because he is indeed stronger in his wisp form, so he wanted to make sure to pass the test while using it. Still, he never expected that it would be so soon and in the middle of so many contestants. But there was nothing he could do, the situation happened too suddenly. Sure enough, just a few seconds later, Krune came back to his true form, and as expected, everyone had only one thought after seeing that. ''Is that a wisp?'' Shinja, Ao, and Yusa shook their heads. There was nothing they could do about it at the moment. Not that there is a need to do something anyway. So they just treated it as an unfortunate event for Krune. Tasier, Lofa, and Arlan had their jaws open wide! A wisp! Krune had always been a wisp! Neither of them had ever thought much about wisps. In fact, no one of those seeing him ever felt anything other than disdain either. But here he is, a wisp with one of the Ten Major Cores, the Elemental Core. Suddenly, a nearby cultivator burst in laugh. "A wisp! A Major Core appeared in a wisp! That''s the greatest joke ever! So what if he has a Major Core? A wisp is just a wisp, I can beat him with a finger." He wasn''t the only one finding this situation hilarious, quite a few cultivators and demon beasts around were laughing as well. Suddenly, a demon beast from one of the strong planets came forward. "I''ve never tasted a wisp since they aren''t good for the foundation, but this is an illusion realm, so I guess I can finally try how good their energy is. Not to mention that this one has a Major Core." This one was a Fanged Blood Bat. Different from the other beasts that were in human form before, this Bat couldn''t transform before the core formation due to its race. It then was looking at Krune as if he was already the meal of the day. Everyone around looked at that and just snorted, now that they found that Krune is a wisp, they couldn''t care less about his Major Core. It''s just a wisp, there is nothing to worry about. Lofa, Arlan, and Tasier were also taken aback. However, Krune had helped them a lot, so they still decided to step forward to defend him. But just as they were about to do so, Shinja, Ao, and Yusa stopped them. "No need, that Bat has just dug its own grave, stay here and keep looking." Others might not know, but how could Shinja''s group not? There is only one thing that can make Krune go mad, and that is to look down on his wisp race. Hunt, Eat, Absorb, Disdain, Sell, all of that is included in Krune''s unforgivable looking-down list. Everyone noticed that the contestants from Krune planet didn''t make a move to protect him. That made them think that they were afraid of the Bat and its companion from the same world. Since no one was in front of the Bat anymore, it immediately attacked intending to eat Krune whole. Shinja, Ao, and Yusa just shook their heads, that Bat really wants to die. No one could notice it because Krune was in his true form, but a certain wisp was really irritated at the moment. He intends to keep his Tribulation Lightning hidden as a trump card, but that doesn''t mean that Krune is weak with regular lightning and other elements. Before the Bat could even get close to Krune, the wisp in front of it disappeared! When everyone found him, Krune was already above the Bat. Around him, one could see several skills used all at once! Blazing Winds Blades, Myriad Water Thunder Dragons, Thunder Lines, Wind Ice Icicles, so on, and so forth! Every single one of them emanated a power several times higher than what any one of them could cast! But they could only see that for a second. That''s because that was all the time that Krune needed to prepare and shoot them! The Bat also noticed all of that with his Divine Sense, and it could only think one thing. ''Is that really a wisp?'' All of Krune''s skills were shot at the same time, but they weren''t all aimed at the Bat, just ten Blazing Wind Blades, and three Wind Ice Icicle came for it. Still, they were too fast! The Bat obviously tried to dodge, but not only were those attacks much faster than it, they even followed every change of position that it made. They can follow the target! A second later, the Bats head was sent flying by the Blazing Wind Blades while the Wind Ice Icicles pierced through its heart. It couldn''t be more dead after that! As for the rest of the skills? One could only hear screams all around! Krune didn''t only target the Bat, but some of those close by who were laughing at him too. The only difference is that they didn''t attack Krune at first, so Krune didn''t kill them either. Still, every single one of them had been crippled for good in this illusionary realm. Although they still have their cultivations and bodies outside, the Entrance Exam is simply over for them now. Krune was already being merciful, though. Only the Bat died in his hands, the others still can live a normal cultivation life after they fail in the test. If they are under the age of 30, they even have one more chance next time the Sect Entrance Exam happens. Krune then returned to his Planet''s group side and looked at everyone around. Although the contestants from other planets couldn''t tell where Krune was looking at, they all had the feeling that he was looking at them. Suddenly, everyone heard the wisp talk. "Is there anyone else still curious about how good wisp energy taste like? I don''t ming give the rest of you a taste of it as I did with those who were laughing just a second ago. In fact, I''m very eager to do so. I''m sure they the likely it very much too." Let alone laughing sound, no one could hear a single word. The majority even looked away, afraid to get this god of death attention. Especially those who also laughed but were lucky enough to be far at that time. Still, they noticed that except for the Bat, the other ten or so cultivators and demon beasts just had their Cores and Dantians destroyed. They are still alive. But that didn''t make them relived at all! Just how good must one''s element control be to precisely hit all those cultivators and demon beasts Dantians and Cores at the same time? As for the Bats companions, none of them said a single word. Some of them were in the batch that had just been crippled a moment ago, and they definitely don''t want their Exam to end right now. Krune looked around and noticed that no one showed a single look of disdain or laughed anymore. If anything, the majority was afraid to even look at him. Krune just snorted and turned back to his Makui Planet''s contestants. "Let''s go! There are too many participants here, and I believe that a lot of them had already departed to look for doors to use." This wasn''t the time to talk about his real form. At the moment, everyone is afraid of pissing Krune. Still, if they decide to gang up on him, even his Tribulation Lightning won''t be enough to keep everyone safe. The enemies also knew that very well, but there is also the fact that if they gang up on him, the first ones to attack are going to die without a doubt! No one wanted to be the sacrifice for the others, so no one made a move in the end. In the distance, Colen, Gomat, and Nala had also noticed everything that happened. But they were basically between the few who did, and that''s because they were focusing their Divine Senses on all the Major Core Owners. There are just too many contestants, and fights had broken everywhere already, not only on Krune''s side. So it could be said that Krune only caught the attention of those close to him. Colen, Gomat, and Nala made a mental note not to provoke Krune without reason. Of course, they are very confident in their abilities and aren''t afraid of Krune at all. If anything, they are confident that they can win. But they also admitted that he is powerful, so there was no need to look for a fight with nothing to gain from it. This isn''t related only to Krune. Nala, Gomat, and Colen also have no intention of challenging each other, either. At least, not until they find a reason for it. This is just the first test, after all. Everyone then spread in several directions. It is evident that this illusory realm is enormous, so they would need to find the next level doors as soon as possible. They still remember Tiago saying that there is a time limit for everyone to stay on each floor. Considering that there are one hundred levels and one month to conclude the test, each floor would probably have around seven hours to be passed. Of course, they can''t exclude the possibility of the time limit being different for each level. Ao, Arlan, and Tasier couldn''t help but look at Krune, the wisp. But Krune himself hadn''t said anything yet, so they decided to wait. Once Krune thinks that is a good time, he will naturally speak about the fact that he is a wisp with them. --- Krune''s group had a big advantage in this realm, though. It can reproduce one''s ability perfect, so his heaven-defying Divine Sense was still there for him to use. It didn''t take long for Krune to spot a door. There was one thing that was puzzling Krune, though. He can understand why Lofa, Arlan, Tasier, and Mina were following his group. They are friends, and Mina is Arlan''s fiance. But why is the rest of the contestants of his Planet, including those Core Formation ones, following him? Krune then stopped and looked at them. "Errr... Do you guys need something?" He didn''t come to the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam to do charity after all. Chapter 134 - More and More Spirit Stones! Those guys looked at Krune with an embarrassed expression. "Well, we just thought that it would be safer to travel together." Although they said that, they couldn''t tell what Krune was thinking. In his wisp form, there is no such thing as facial expression. "I see, you are not wrong in thinking like that. There is no doubt that the other planets contestants are moving together too. This way, they would even be able to stop the enemies from trying to take the gate from them and even let weaker friends go ahead first. Some might even decide to simply attack other teams to get rid of the competition straight away." Everyone nodded, they really thought about that before. So the best option was really to keep together, there is strength in numbers, after all. Krune then continued. "But the most we can do is help you until you get to the next level door. Once you enter a slot, you can only protect yourself. Also, if you fail to protect yourselves in the slot, no one here will give up our slots to come out and help you fight for the chance of getting another slot." Suddenly, Krune received a Divine Sense message from Yusa that made his eyes lit up! So he immediately let her talk. "Krune isn''t wrong, but I guess there is still a way to help you with that. We can let you enter the slot first and stay there alone for the necessary ten minutes. During that time, we can simply stop anyone from entering it and challenging you. Of course, as long as the ones attacking weren''t too strong. What do you say?" Krune still remembers those guys'' scores during the elemental test. Although they can be considered the top of the Makui Planet, they are indeed quite weak when put together with the Geniuses of all other planets. Without help, they won''t be able to secure slots for too long. But there was one thing that they thought about. "Why would you protect it outside? Can''t you just enter the slot with us and wait inside for those ten minutes? After that, you just need to leave it." This time, it was Arlan who talked, and he even laughed at that. "We are talking about the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam, do you think they would permit something like that? Chances are that both contestants will be sent out since no battle occurred. Remember, this is a test, not a walk in the park." Everyone nodded their heads, it would be way too easy otherwise. Still, having Krune''s group defending outside would be very good already. For a second, their eyes lit up! But soon after, they noticed that something was fishy. Why would Krune''s group go that far to help them? They looked at Yusa and then asked. "What are your conditions?" Yusa smiled and then said. "Every time we stay guard for you guys outside, you will pay us one five thousand Rank Five High-Quality spirit stones. Of course, this is the price for the entire batch, which means you all together. There are thirteen of you here, if you share the costs, it shouldn''t be too hard with the powers backing you up back in the Makui Planet." Yusa then continued. "There is also an individual price. If the majority decides that they will not need help protecting themselves, but one or two of you still wish for it, the cost is one thousand for that person or demon beast. What about it, not a bad deal, right?" Krune nodded at every word said by Yusa! Sprit stones! They make the world go round! Arlan, Lofa, and Tasier might not lack spirit stones, but Krune''s group absolutely does! Krune then looked at them and said. "Don''t think that we are robbing you. Arlan, Lofa, and Tasier already paid a lot of spirit stones to receive our teachings. Now they are strong enough to defend their own slots. Otherwise, they would have to pay too!" Lofa, Arlan, and Tasier nodded their heads, they have definitely paid over ten thousand already, especially Tasier. He spent no less than twenty thousand with Krune''s teachings. Although it wasn''t all high quality, the spirit stones were all at rank five, at least. Except for Arlan, Tasier and Lofa are quite fortunate already. It is thanks to the fact that they are also part of the Mercenary Guild Alliance that they got it cheap. Those guys then looked at someone in their group. It seemed like he was the strongest outside of Krune''s group, so they more or less thought about him as a leader for the moment. Arlan knew him as well, he is a Core Formation Realm cultivator of his Divine Swords Sect. He is also like Shinja and Yusa, having achieved that realm before the age of forty. His name was Joty Marcat. In fact, he was one of the few who still had some confidence in defending his slots against the enemies even without help. But he also has to think about the big picture and to have someone defending his slots from outside would obviously be the best option. As for the payment, it shouldn''t be hard to fork it if they join forces to share the burden. "Very well, but we will decide when we need help or not." This is a problem of interest. Joty knows that Krune''s group comes from the Yule Continent, which is indeed a lot poorer than the other continents. Not to mention that since Arlan and the others also paid before, it couldn''t be considered unjust anymore. First of all, no one is obligating them to pay for anything. As far as everyone is concerned, they can very well leave right now and go parted ways. Arlan, Lofa, and Tasier didn''t say anything. They don''t need the spirit stones to start with. They also know that Yusa was speaking on behalf of Ao, Krune, and Shinja. So they are free to do whatever they like during that time. Krune then said. "Very good, you will come to understand that this wasn''t a bad decision at all. Even if you don''t join the sect, you still have a huge chance of reaching the later parts of the tests." Krune''s group then moved to the previous door that Krune spotted with his Divine Sense. After arriving there, he could see that quite a few slots had been taken by other cultivators, but there are still quite a few free. Krune''s group then moved close to send those guys ahead first when suddenly, another three teams appeared in front of them. The leader of that alliance looked at Krune''s wisp form amazed, he has never thought that he would see a wisp in this place. But nonetheless, that wasn''t the reason why they blocked Krune''s team path, so he quickly regained his composure and said. "Those who want to use this door will have to pay a fee. One thousand Rank Five low-quality spirit stone per head. Otherwise, get the hell out!" Let alone Krune and Yusa, even Ao and Shinja''s eyes lit up at that moment. They aren''t thinking about sell door slots like them. Krune''s group idea was a lot more practical than wait for contestants to come. They will simply beat anyone in front of them. After that, they will ask for spirit stones. If they don''t pay, they will cripple their cores and dantians. Nothing will happen to their bodies outside, but their chance to enter the sect will be gone. "Brothers, what a great idea you just had! But let me ask you, how exactly will you collect the payment?" That was the only thing puzzling Krune at the moment, and that is why he hasn''t made a move yet too. Otherwise, he would have already crushed those guys there and then. Joty Marcat''s group issue is different, they are from the same planet, so they can''t simply flee from the debt. Not to mention that their Sect, Clans, or whatever reputation would also be on the line. The guy only thought that Krune wanted a guarantee, so he said. "In the illusory realm, everything that you possess is also replicated inside. So the blood contracts are also part of it. As you probably know, blood contracts put restrictions on the soul, and you are inside the illusory realm in soul only. That means that even an illusory blood contract is still effective against your soul." Krune''s group nodded. It really makes sense now that they thought about it. Krune then looked at the three teams in front of him, a total of thirty-four cultivators and demon beasts. He then moved forward and said. "Very well, each one of you has to pay one thousand Rank Five high-quality spirit stones. Otherwise, we will cripple you, and that will be the end of your exam." The guys from the other teams were taken aback. Suddenly, they burst in laugh. "A wisp has just threatened us! Can you believe that?" "Let alone that, look at the numbers of his group. He thinks that they can deal with all of us." Their leader was a lot more serious, though. For him to say that in this situation, he must have some confidence or be an idiot. He refuses to believe that an idiot would be able to arrive at the Divine Path Sect entrance exam, though. He then sent a Divine Sense message to everyone. "Pay attention, something is not right." Immediately, all the laughs stopped, and everyone spread their Divine Senses. But other than Krune''s team, there wasn''t a single other team around. Krune felt their Divine Sense scanning everything and then said. "You don''t need to look, we don''t have any support behind us. So, are you giving the spirit stones, or should we beat you first for you to understand." If Krune could be in his human form now, he would definitely be showing an evil smile. But that wasn''t necessary, that is because Ao and the others were doing it in Krunes instead. In Arlan and Tasier''s case, they don''t need spirit stones, but they welcome a fight like that with open arms. Lofa and Mina just sighed, though. But they stepped forward to help nonetheless. The only ones a little apprehensive were the second group. But they gritted their teeth and stepped forward too, it will be of no use if they don''t even have the guts to take a group battle like this. Not to mention that their deal with Krune''s group was for them to stop other contestants from fighting for their slots. There was nothing there about protecting them while they are outside. But to their surprise, Krune''s group had no need for their help. Krune alone could deal with at least ten at once, even without the Tribulation Lightning. As for Ao and the others, they might not be as strong as Krune, but with their strength alone, they could still take quite a few by themselves. Of course, the reason why they could deal with these three teams'' alliance is that they aren''t strong to start with. If it was an alliance of three top-ranked worlds, things definitely wouldn''t be this easy. Krune''s group still remembers Boen during the Elemental test, who had similar elemental control even without the Myriad Energy Meridians. But there is very little chance of finding a group like that, especially one asking for spirit stone. Contestants from those places would never lack spirit stones to start with. In the end, Krune''s group is a rare poor, and strong team at the same time. Chapter 135 - So yeah, Im a wisp. After beating up all their enemies, they were forced to hand over their blood contracts and sign up themselves. One thousand Rank Five High-Quality Spirit Stones per head. These three teams'' alliance was already doing this sort of scheme exactly because they wanted Spirit Stones. But now, they became even poorer. Of course, they were just unlucky to have bumped on Krune''s group. Having finished their collections, Krune''s group didn''t enter the door. Instead, they departed and started to beat up other teams. With Krune''s Divine Sense, he could see if their targets were strong or weak ones. But Krune didn''t target the weak, neither the strong, only the middle ones. Weak teams would probably have come from weak planets like his group, so Krune didn''t have the heart to take even more from them. As for the strong ones, it was better not to find a problem with them unless necessary. So they targeted the middle-ranked teams. It couldn''t be said to be unfair. Most of those teams, in general, had more participants than them. After all, anyone in the Core Formation Realm and under forty years old could take part in the exam. And those worlds obviously had a lot more cultivators and demon beasts in this kind of condition than them. By the time that two hours passed, Krune decided that they got enough on the first floor and moved to the next level. His group soon found a door with just a few slots remaining. Counting the fifteen slots for the Foundation Establishment and the slots for Core Formation under the age of forty, Makui Planet had a total of twenty-two participants. As mentioned before, there are very few that would risk going through the heavenly tribulation before their two hundred years of the life span was close to the end. The door that Krune found had sixteen slots still free and another eleven with someone inside waiting for the ten minutes of defense to be up. Krune then asked for the guys who decide if they would want them to help defend their slots or not. "No need, these are only the first floors, if we can''t even pass it with our own abilities, there is no need to talk about the further tests." Krune and the other didn''t say anything and just nodded. Now that they found such a good way of getting rich, the spirit stones that they would get from the Makui Planet contestants don''t make much of a difference anymore. Still, he let them take the free slots while his group went for the occupied ones. Ao, Arlan, and everyone else had no problem in defeating those inside that were defending. In the end, everyone was successfully sent to the second floor. There, Krune and his group restarted their spirit stones ''work''. They kept like that until the fifth floor, not staying more than two hours on each floor. When they arrived there, Yusa calculated how many spirit stones the other teams owned them. Her eyes then lit up with the result. "They already own us over one hundred and fifty-two thousand Rank Five high-quality spirit stones! Sharing it between the seven already gives us over twenty-one thousand for each. When had we ever made so much spirit stones in such a little time before?" Arlan, Lofa, and Tasier shook their heads, though. What they are more concerned at the moment is not the spirit stones, but another thing entirely. "Although this is a nice number, we don''t lack that amount. You can divide between the four of you." Ao wasn''t happy, though. "You guys also helped greatly in each fight, that is what you deserve." Krune and Shinja also nodded, only Yusa was struggling to give up that offer. But since Krune, Shinja, and Ao already agreed, she just let it go too. Arlan then pondered a bit and then said. "Let''s do like this then, the three of us will take 30% of all spirit stones, and the other 70% you share between you. Our condition is better in our continents. Not to mention that I believe that the four of you would still be able to gather this amount even without our help." Lofa and Tasier also agreed with what Arlan said. Ao just sighed and accepted that offer, and with that, they set off again. By the time they arrived at the tenth floor, the total amount of spirit stones was already two hundred and thirty thousand. But the number of teams that they are encountering is getting less and less. By now, there were very few weak teams, and middle-ranked teams were also in decline. "I think we should finish it here, we already got a harvest several times higher than we expected. If we keep forcing, we might really get on the bad side of all other teams as well. They are even calling us the Makui Money Grubbers already." It was Mina who said that. Krune''s group then looked at each other and nodded. This amount can already last for some time for them. This time, Krune took his chance to talk about another issue, and it was an issue that is without a doubt bothering everyone. The fact that he is a wisp! It''s not like he didn''t want to talk about it, just that he was more concerned about the profits that they could make at first. But now it is a good time. "Alright, let''s now discuss about my real form. So yeah, I''m a wisp. If you find it to be a problem, I will not hold you back. You have always had the choice to leave this group, and it is not different now." Tasier was taken aback at first when he saw Krune''s original form. But now he was as nonchalant as ever. "So what? I''m a demon Beast, and as one, I only care about one thing. Strength! You already proved that you are even more of a freak in your wisp form, so that''s all that matters for me." Arlan just sighed and said. "I told you before that I came from a poor family and made my way up with my own strength. But on the way, there had been a few times where I captured wisps to sell. Although I''ve never used them for cultivation, it doesn''t change the fact that it happened. So I should be the one asking, are you okay with that?" Krune just sighed too and said. "I''ll tell you the same thing as I did to Mile back then since she also knows that I''m a wisp and still told me that she used wisps for cultivation. What you did in the past is due to the wisps actual situation, whether I get angry or not will not bring them back. I only ask you to help them from now on like I do when I see something like that happening." Arlan smiled and nodded. Unless the situation was dangerous, it wouldn''t be a problem to give a helping hand. Lofa was the only one absent-minded. Shinja and Yusa know that she likes Krune, and this situation probably affected her more than anyone else. She came from a wealthy family, so there is no doubt that until today, she only thought about wisps as nothing. It was then that she received a Divine Sense message from Shinja. "Krune is what he is. If you really have doubts about your feelings now that you found that he is a wisp, then I can tell you that your feelings were not real to start with." Lofa''s heart jumped at that moment. But then, she looked at Shinja with gratitude. That is right, wasn''t she the one who said that she didn''t mind if Krune wasn''t human? Does the fact that he is a wisp really change anything? Although there would be loads of issues in those questions, what matters is what she thinks. She then looked at Krune and said. "As long as we can cook together, so what if you are a wisp?" Krune was taken aback with that answer, he could expect anything but cooking being brought up at this moment. He then looked at her and laughed. "Right! For food lovers, what race has to with any of that. Hahaha!" Shinja and Yusa only sighed after hearing that. Still, for some reason, Lofa seemed very happy with that answer, so they didn''t say anything. All is good as long as you are happy with it. As for the other contestants of the Makui Planet. Well, Krune didn''t have any significant relation with them, so he didn''t really care about their opinion. Still, they also said that they will help wisps if it isn''t dangerous to intervene. Krune doesn''t know if they were telling the truth or not, but as long as one of them follow their words, it is enough. Krune then decided to stop there for a while to rest and, of course, to eat! He then called Lofa over to help with the cooking, which she did with a beaming face, and the food was ready in no time. Unfortunately, Krune couldn''t join them, the formation in the illusory help is impeding him from transforming back into his human form. Still, he always felt happy to see others eating his food. Three groups passed by them in this hour that they were eating. They couldn''t help but think that they were hallucinating. There is a group wasting their time eating, and on top of that, that group had a wisp within, could it be part of the illusion of the realm? In the end, they decided to check it out. Even if this isn''t an illusion, they should be able to deal with a team that has even a wisp between them. It would also eliminate some of the competition. One could only say that they weren''t lucky. Although the teams that came were stronger than the teams that Krune''s group was targeting, they were still not their match. In the end, Krune''s group fortune jumped to two hundred and sixty-five thousand spirit stones. Good food and extra spirit stones, Krune''s group were in an excellent mood! Chapter 136 - Krune just cant let it go. So far, the group that Krune and the others are helping haven''t asked for help yet, at least not as a group. But it wasn''t without cost, two of them had their slots taken. So those two still asked for help in exchange for the spirit stones. This is only the 22nd floor, but they are already struggling. It shows how weak the Makui Planet Foundation is. Although Krune''s group haven''t attacked other teams for spirt stones anymore, they still bumped in some other teams that attacked them instead. But they couldn''t be blamed, Krune''s team usually had fewer contestants and even had a wisp. They all thought that his group got here by luck, so they decided to eliminate the competition for the doors earlier. Thanks to that, their total income has already surpassed 300k spirit stones. Krune even asked for Rank Six Spirit Stones instead. Krune had long since used the day that they were in the Divine Path Sect before the exam to memorize all planets ranks and their names. That''s how he always knows if they can pay or not. From the 22nd floor onwards, Joty''s group asked for help as a group quite a few times. Krune and the others then protected the slots they were in and followed right after that were transferred. Still, this situation only persisted until the 53rd level. On that floor, Krune found a strong team approaching his group. It is not that Krune couldn''t perceive the enemy team coming with his Divine Sense, it was just that his group didn''t want to leave the next level door that they are in. This door had a total of 51 slots, and the enemy team had a total of 40 contestants. So there is no way that they could let all of Krune''s group pass it since some of their companions would stay behind. In an even fight, Krune''s group could definitely fight back. Still, with this amount, it would be somewhat tricky since they are obviously a higher-ranked team. Krune''s group looked at each other. "Fight or retreat? If we enter the slots, I doubt we would have a problem in a one vs. one battle." "We do have that confidence, but Joty''s group isn''t the same. If we do like that, they are probably going to have their slots taken. Once that happens, there is a good chance that the enemy might have left behind some forces to deal with those who come out." Joty Marcat and his group were in the conversation as well, so Krune looked in their direction and left the decision to them. It was evident that it would be somewhat dangerous to try to protect their slots against that number. At least it would if Krune and his group didn''t show their real strength. Not only Krune, but Ao and the others also don''t want to show their real abilities yet. Joty understood what Krune meant and then talked with the others. "I will be honest with you guys, we could ask Krune and the others to retreat with us and find a safer door. But the higher we go, the fewer the doors and the slots will be. In the end, there will be no way they can protect us. First of all, I believe there will be a moment that a door won''t even have enough slots for us alone." Joty then showed a serious face and said. "There situation will only get more dangerous from now on, if you are not confident in protecting a slot, then you should find a place to hide and wait for the time to be over. That way, you will fail but won''t die." They had to make their decision fast, Krune already told that it will only take at most a minute for that team to arrive. They have to retreat to find a new door or enter the slots as soon as possible. Joty was telling the truth, they already got that far with Krune''s group help, it is now time to use all the strength they had been keeping. Everyone showed a determined face, immediately after, someone rushed inside a slot. Krune and the others saw that and smiled. "That''s how it should be done, if you came here to enter the Divine Path Sect, you have to have this much courage at least." Joty and Krune''s group all entered their slots, and the ten minutes countdown started. A moment later, the enemies that Krune had spotted finally appeared before them. They looked at the contestant inside the slots and were taken aback. First, because this is quite a small team. And second... "Is that a wisp?" Krune was already numb with that question, but that is okay. The more the enemy underestimate him, the easier his life would be. But surprisingly, the leader of the group suddenly said. "Do not let your guard down just because it is a wisp. Do you really think that someone weak would reach this far?" His name was Jano Filorie, the leader of the Vaspo Planet''s group. Vaspot Planet is one of the top-ranked worlds, and it was even inside the top one thousand. Someone in his group couldn''t help but comment, though. "They might have been lucky not to find any strong team and bump into doors faster." But Jano shook his head. "Don''t forget the rules, the doors for the next levels only open when everyone on the previous floor has passed it or failed. Can you imagine what the chances of something like that to happen are?" The guy who spoke immediately became silent. In the end, Jano just sent someone out to test Krune''s strength. He had noticed through his Divine Sense that Krune''s group had just entered their slots, so they still have a few minutes before everyone in Krune''s team is teleported. "Fino, you go. You have the best escaping abilities here, if something goes wrong, leave the slot." Fino was a Wind, and Lightning cultivator from their planet specialized in speed and scouting. He nodded and went forward, but he couldn''t help but feel the situation awkward. He didn''t believe that a wisp could pose any kind of threat at all. Fino then immediately entered Krune''s slot and said. "Do you want to leave by yourself, or should I send you out?" Krune, of course, just thought about this guy as an idiot. It was evident that this guy didn''t put his leader''s advice to the heart at all. Disdain was written all over his face. Krune just snorted and attacked straight away, he didn''t even want to talk with this person. The smiling face of Fino disappeared in the next second. That''s is because Krune was who knows how much faster than him. He tried to use his Divine Sense to keep track of Krune, but even so, he could barely notice Krune''s movement. Suddenly, he felt that death was looking at him. Krune had appeared right above Fino with several skills ready to shot. Every single skill was purposely aimed in a way that would make Fino''s escape impossible. Fino noticed the predicament he was in and immediately focused all his spiritual energy in defense. At the same time, he chose a direction to charge out. He knows that it is now impossible to avoid all attacks, so he wanted to break through by force. Boom, swish, crack! All sounds of different skills came out while Fino was being eaten by the barrage of attacks. In fact, Krune could have finished it in an instant. But he purposely held back to make it appear that he was strong but not too heaven-defying. Even the power of each skill was a lot lower than usual. One must remember that Krune''s skills now can follow the target, so he definitely didn''t need that many. Fino finally rushed out of the affected area, his body was full of injuries, and he could barely keep himself awake. But he didn''t stop and immediately rushed out the slot space. Krune didn''t stop him, although Fino was really showing little concern to his wisp form, he still gave him the option to leave the slot space. That means that Fino didn''t want to kill or cripple Krune to start with. He doesn''t know, but that was the reason why he still has a chance at the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. At first, only Jano was looking at Krune seriously. But now, there isn''t a single cultivator or demon beast in his group that wasn''t doing the same. Even Janos himself isn''t sure if he is Krune''s match or not. Even if he can win, there is no doubt that a price will have to be paid. Not to mention that it was evident that Krune still hasn''t shown his full strength. Janos then took a deep breath and talked. "I''m Janos Filorie from Vaspo Planet, who might you be?" Krune looked at him and simply replied. "Krune, Makui Planet." Immediately, everyone was taken aback! Isn''t Makui Planet''s Krune the new Major Core guy with an Elemental Core? Can a Major Core even appear in a wisp to start with? Although they wanted to deny such a notion, Krune''s strength spoke for himself. Someone couldn''t help but comment. "What a waste of a Major Core." Krune didn''t give a damn for what that guy said, but his friends were different. Their faces became quite ugly after hearing that. Ao, Shinja, and Yusa even wished for that guy to come into their slots to get rid of him. Janos didn''t say anything and looked at the other contestants from Makui Planet. Krune is one thing, but what about the others? "Harold, Yemy, Oskin, you guys go and test some of the other guys. If it turns out to be too difficult, we will find another door. It is still too early to put our lives in the line." Those three nodded and selected a slot different from Krune each. Joty, Shinja, and Mari were the selected ones. Mari was one of the winners of the Martial Gathering, she''s the second princess of the Watzen Kingdom. In Shinja''s case, it was a massacre. She vented her bad mood on the guy who came. In the end, she even crippled his Dantian before kicking him outside. Although Joty isn''t as strong as Shinja, he was still one of the very few Core Formation Realm under the age of forty, so his battle was on even grounds. It was evident that if it continued, the ten minutes would be over, and Joty would pass this door. But Mary''s situation was the worst. She was totally on the losing side, and she definitely wouldn''t be able to keep at that for ten minutes. She was pretty unlucky as well since the strongest of the three enemies had chosen her. Krune and the others looked at that and didn''t say anything. They had already made it clear, everyone would have to rely on their own strengths. Mary knew that as well, so she couldn''t blame anyone either. In the end, she lost and was sent out of her slot. She looked at Jano''s group outside and just sighed. Escaping from them wasn''t an option. She used her everything in that fight just now, but even if she was at her peak, it would still be near impossible with her abilities. In the end, Janos just asked. "From those in the slots, which are the strongest ones other than Krune and that Pure Yin Body girl? If you tell me, I might let you leave with your life." Mari was taken aback. She is really in a predicament now, and only death awaits her at the moment. The rest of the Makui''s contestants inside the slots also narrowed their eyes, Krune included. Mari couldn''t be blamed since she still had a chance at life as long as she sells that information. But as a princess of the Watzen Kingdom, pride runs through her blood. She then just snorted and said. "Go to hell!" Jano''s face became ugly after that. While everyone inside the slots got surprised that she didn''t exchange the information for her life. "Then you can go on your way." Jano is a Fire, Earth, and Metal element user. Surprisingly, he uses a bow as a weapon. He then concentrated the fire element on his arrow while using the metal element to increase its sturdiness and piercing power. The earth element was mostly used for defense. He pushed the bowstring and then shot the arrow forward. But just as the arrow was about to kill Mari, everyone heard a familiar voice sent through Divine Sense. "Sigh, why didn''t you give the information? As long as you did, I wouldn''t feel anything if you died." Boom! The arrow that was just about to pierce her heart was blocked by a flying shield filled with Water and Metal element. Janos then looked at the direction that the shield came from. There, he could see a wisp coming forward. Around him, one could see several arcs of purple lightning running around his ethereal body and making sparking sounds. Chapter 137 - Elder Loni Knew Everything. On Krune''s beside, one could also see Ao, Shinja, and Yusa. Ao then sighed and commented. "Just as I thought, you really came out after that." Yusa complemented. "No help in that, Krune is quite predictable, you know?" Shinja then laughed a little. "Isn''t that good? It''s because he is easy to read that we can trust him." Krune heard all those comments and felt like crying. "Couldn''t you at least say that I looked cool?" Lofa stuttered a bit but still said it with a tomato red face. "I-I think you were c-cool just now." Krune looked at Lofa and felt like crying again, but this time, it was out of happiness. At least someone respects his feelings. Ao looked at his side and saw Arlan standing there. "Do you wanna see who can beat more of them?" Ao snorted and immediately accepted the challenge. Tasier also came out. "If even some humans dare to fight, how can a member of the Thunder Hawk Clan like me stay behind?" Krune looked at Lofa and Tasier and then said. "This is very different from before, I might not have the time to give you any support." Tasier and Lofa nodded. They came out for different reasons, but it was still out of their own volution. Mari looked at that with wild eyes. Why did they come outside? Couldn''t they see how many enemies are there? She even felt her eyes a little moist. Jano didn''t attack straight away since he was waiting for more of them to come out. With his planet strength in numbers, he should be able to deal with this group. If he can eliminate that Major Core wisp now, that will be even better. Just as the fight was about to break out, Joty also came out from his slot where he was battling. It is not that he lost, but that that fight would end with no victor. Of course, if he continued inside, the one to be accepted as the victor by the door''s formation would be him who defended it. Except for Arlan and Mina, Krune and the others were surprised. He noticed Krune''s group weird faces and felt offended by that. "What? Could it be that only you guys can play cool? I''m one of the top disciples of the Divine Swords Sect back in Makui Planet, and I''ve never run from a fight against opponents of the same cultivation before. Since you guys can do it, why can''t I do the same?" Arlan and Mina are part of the same sect, and they knew him. They were already expecting that this guy''s pride wouldn''t keep him only looking. Slowly, more contestants from Makui Planet came out as well. Some because of pride, others because of friendship, and even because they wanted to form good ties with Krune and his group. Nevertheless, the entire Makui Planet contestants came out in the end. Krune nodded after seeing that. At least they know that advancing alone will only bring them so far. The two sides didn''t say anything, and there wasn''t anything to be said anyway. Both immediately attacked. Krune spread his Hexagonal Shield into groups of seven, leaving the remnant around himself. His Tribulation Lightning Movement activated at the same time, and he started his long-range attacks. The same could be said for Shinja and the other cultivators who also specialized in that like Tasier and Lofa. Of course, Tasier could be said to be a hybrid. If necessary, he could go on close quarters as well. Arlan, Ao, Joty, and the other cultivators focused in close combat immediately rushed forward. They even used a battle formation that Ao had taught them in the past few days. It wasn''t perfect, but with Arlan and Ao prowess, they could cover up for the flaws. That, coupled with the fact that they aren''t holding back anymore, made them start a massacre in the enemy''s rank. Yusa was the only cultivator entirely focused on support. But Krune and Shinja helped her whenever she needed it. Still, most of their support was on the common participants of the Makui Planet, those like Ao and Tasier didn''t need any help. Jano''s group wasn''t slow and also moved into action. They also separated into close and ranged attackers. Jano himself was a ranged one, just like Krune. But unfortunately for him, the wisp had paid special attention to his movements. So anything that he used was always blocked by Krune. Still, Jano''s group had the advantage in numbers, so they were still able to hold Krune''s group. The problem is, Arlan, Ao, Krune, Shinja, Lofa, and Tasier were much stronger than his common members. So it was a simple question of how long they will be able to resist. Jano was taken aback by this development. Especially with Krune''s ability to control the situation. Thanks to Krune''s Tribulation Lightning Movement, he could appear almost anywhere on the battlefield to give support or attack when the chance presented itself. Krune could even do all of that while controlling all his Hexagonal Shields to protect his members. The worst of all was the nine shields that were flying around Jano, blocking his vision and arrows. They were just like maggots, doesn''t matter what he does, they are always close to him. --- Outside of the Grand Illusory Formation, Core Elder Tiago Galey was looking at everything happening in the illusory realm. Not only him but the other two Core Elders too. Surprisingly, one of them just so happens to be Gile Qergil, Roni Qergil''s grandfather. He was paying especial attention to Krune''s group, as soon as he noticed their situation, he called the other two Core Elders over. "Take a look at those kids from Makui Planet." Jin Limoas was the third Core Elder, also overseeing this Entrance Exam. He and Tiago came over and took a look at them, both immediately noticed the arcs of Purple Lightning around Krune. Jin then commented. "Oh, a wisp with Tribulation Lightning? That''s the first time I see one. No wonder he got this far. With him, there are only three contestants that can use Tribulation Lightning this time." Tiago nodded, he then looked into Krune''s information. "Oh, isn''t that the Elemental Major Core that outer sect elder Loni reported?" Jin''s eyes immediately opened wild. "What? A wisp with both Tribulation Lightning and a Major Core? What are the chances of something like this to happen?" Gile shook his head. "Does it matter? The important part is that he came to our Divine Path Sect. The only issue is the fact that he is a wisp. His life span is too low, and he might not make the necessary breakthroughs to get into the Divinity View Realm in time." But then, Gile showed a smile. "However, look at this situation." Gile then operated the formation to show what happened a few moments ago. The image played hundreds of times faster than the normal speed, but with those elders'' cultivation, it was the same as a slow turtle. They looked at the moment that Krune came out just to protect his Planet member. Also, after playing it even further back, they found out that Krune barely knew this girl called Mari before. "Just because she didn''t exchange the information for her life, he came out to save her. I bet with you that he would definitely ignore her existence if she had said anything." Gile nodded and then said. "In fact, because of some idiotic thing that my grandson did, I''ve come to know him. So I had Loni keep an eye on Krune and investigate his background. He is the type that can do anything for his group, and because of that, it seems like his group became just like him. Elder Loni had followed him without anyone noticing ever since his Planet''s Martial Gathering was over." Elder Loni is at the Void Breaking Realm, in Makui Planet, there would be no one who could feel his presence. That''s right, Elder Loni had been there when the Rainbow Sect was attacked. He saw the entire process from saving the wisps to the day they departed from Makui Planet. How could he not? The talent that Krune showed was too big, so Loni was afraid that something might happen to him, and consequently, his promotion. "It seems like Krune and his close friends were quite fortunate, their group found a remnant of the Mohie Sect and a few soul cultivation techniques. But his power of the Tribulation Lightning and Major Core were things that he got even before that." Gile then explained everything that Loni reported to him. Tiago and Jin were quite impressed by everything they heard. "But how come a wisp have such a high speed of cultivation? Could it be that he found Ian''s cultivation method?" Jin, Gile, and Tiago pondered about that question. Ian was a wisp too, and he just so happens to have been a member of the Divine Path Sect in the past. Ian was a rarity between the wisps since he achieved the Divine Soul Realm. But his life span had long since finished, and he was dead as dead could be. As for his cultivation technique, he had left it within the sect. Unfortunately, other wisps weren''t able to cultivate it due to its difficulty. "I don''t think that is the case, it is probably something he invented himself. Ian was only known in our sect to start with. Why would he leave his cultivation technique in such a desolate planet like Makui? If that was the case, he might as well have divulged it everywhere. Not to mention that although it brought Ian to the Divine Soul Realm, it wasn''t any heaven-defying technique or anything like that." Tiago heard that and nodded. "That''s true. In that case, it is even better. It shows how great Krune''s talent is. Different from Ian, Krune has a Major Core and can even control Tribulation Lightning, so he might have a chance at Divine View Realm." Tiago then asked. "What about of that remnant of the Mohie Sect?" Gile answered that. "I already reported it to the sect, and they also contacted the Rasie Clan. It seems like they are negotiating the price to let go of the remnant inheritance." Tiago nodded and didn''t say anything else. Although it was very important for Krune''s group, it was just a remnant in the eyes of the Divine path Sect, not worth much. Jin then said. "Anyway, this is all talk for the future. For now, what I''m interested the most is Krune''s sense of loyalty. That''s precisely the type of members that our sect needs." Tiago nodded. "Not only Krune, but even his companions are also extraordinarily talented and very close to each other. As expected of the Elemental Irises, its power used for teaching can really improve the allies'' abilities to an extraordinary extent." Jin also commented. "We always said that the Divine Path Sect members should rely on their own power and strength. But quite a few forget that the sect is part of your power and that its members can become your strength." They had been watching over the entire exam so far. Still, very few planet teams did really put their all into protecting each other. The majority only cared about passing the exam at any cost. Although they could indeed join the sect like that, they will not receive much focus from it. This is a hidden rule that only the elders know. Of course, the top-ranked planets had their own connections, so some of them knew about it. Because of that, those planets'' teams would always stick together to look good at the eyes of the elders. Too bad, though. On those elders'' eyes, such plays had no meaning. It was way too easy for them to figure out if they are just pretending or not. That was an advantage for middle and low-ranked planets. The chances of them knowing about this secret were meager, so they had the opportunity to show their good side even without noticing. One must remember that back at the Garmon Planet, Elder Loni had commented that the majority of the strong cultivators and demon beasts of the sect weren''t top geniuses at first. But if one looks back at their records, they will find out that those protectors and ancestors were all extremely loyal to the sect and the team members during their exams. Their power of today is due to the focus that the sect puts on those who are loyal and think about the big picture. Geniuses are good, and they are indeed faster at cultivating and comprehension. But with the Divine Path Sect resources, such a thing can be overcome with effort and guidance. Gile was looking at Krune''s friends'' battle and couldn''t help but comment. "Krune''s elemental irises are really good for teaching. But aren''t his close friends a little too strong? Can guidance really help them achieve such an elemental control at their stage?" Tiago and Jin were taken aback, they paid more attention to Yusa and the others and had to admit, they are a little too overpowered. Of course, the main reason is that they came from Makui Planet, so Ao and the others shouldn''t be that amazing. Tiago then said. "It must be because of the Soul Techniques they got from the Mohie remnant. The stronger the soul, the stronger the Divine Sense is. Consequently, the better their Elemental Control. Not to mention that they probably had tempered their souls as well." Gile and Jin nodded, that is probably the case. Chapter 138 - Elimination rate starts to grow The battle on Krune''s side continued, and Jano''s group was losing ground bit by bit. Janos knew that it wasn''t good for his side and decided to go all out too. He then took a different type of arrow from his spatial ring that looked like made of silver. It was specially crafted to be able to hold his elements easier, be much sturdier, and higher piercing power. He then concentrated both fire and wind elements inside it to the limit and decided on a target. Although Krune''s shields were still flying around him, Jano is confident that this arrow would be able to pierce through it and still hit the mark. The reason for that is because he could see that although those shields could block his arrows, they couldn''t do it without receiving some damage. Krune had just eliminated another enemy when he noticed Jano''s actions, and he could feel that something was different about that arrow. But Jano didn''t give him time to think about it, he immediately aimed the arrow at Ao inside the battle formation and shot. Krune noticed the target and used one of his shields to stop it, but surprisingly, the arrows passed straight through it. Ao and Arlan were working together to cover up for the flaws in the battle formation. If one of them is defeated, the formation will probably crumble. Krune could only use his Divine Sense to alert Ao. "Arrow!" Ao was taken aback with that sudden message and noticed the arrow coming at him with his Divine Sense. He wanted to dodge but knew that it was too late. The arrow was too fast! Ao only had the time to raise his sword to deflect it. Still, the deflected arrow pierced his right shoulder, just a few centimeters away from his heart. Ao was sweating cold, just a split of a second later, and it would have taken his life. Jano saw that and sighed, this was a one time chance. From now on, the enemy would be warier against his attacks and be prepared to counter. He knew that his group chance of victory was very low now, so he sent a Divine Sense message to everyone. "Retreat!" Slowly, Jano''s group started to retreat while the ranged attackers provided cover. The Vaspo Planet contestants are indeed in a different league than Makui Planet. They kept their calm while focused on defense. In the end, Krune gave to order not to pursue a cornered enemy. Each of their members was stronger than anyone outside Krune''s friends except for Joty, who had similar strength to the common members of the enemy''s team. It was thanks to Ao''s battle formation and Shinja, Yusa, and Krune''s support that they were able to hold the upper hand. Of course, if the other contestants of Makui Planet didn''t join the battle, things would have been even more difficult. From the forty contestants of the Vaspo Planet, seven had been crippled or killed by Makui Planet''s team. But that wasn''t without a cost, Krune''s side also had two members crippled and one dead in the end. Krune wasn''t delusional. He knew that such a thing was probably going to happen sooner or later, and he didn''t regret his decision. He then looked at everyone and said. "This is already a very good outcome. The Vaspo Planet is ranked in the top thousand, but we still defeated them. Although three of us won''t be able to do it anymore, this battle will be very beneficial for all of us in the long term." Krune then went to check the two who won''t be able to continue anymore. One of them was the Ferlo Clan member, Edil Ferlo. The other one was Rasma, the blazing leopard. Both of them had their dantian or core damaged and wouldn''t be able to circulate spiritual energy anymore. Fortunately, this is an illusion realm. Their bodies outside are just fine, so they won''t have any injuries once they fail the test. Krune checked their conditions and shook his head. If he was the girl with a Life Major Core, he might have a way to heal them, but it obviously wasn''t the case. "You won''t be able to continue like that." Krune didn''t apologize since it was a personal decision for everyone if they would come out of the slots to help or not. Edil also shook his head. "I know very well that if I had gone ahead alone, I would be eliminated sooner or later. There is no way I could fight for slots with the little strength I have. This battle just now showed the difference between a low and a high ranked planet." Rasma is a demon beast, so he was even more straight. "I was weaker, so I lost. That''s all!" Krune the looked at the place where the dead member of the Makui Planet disappeared. In the illusion realm, a body doesn''t stay behind. Once someone is killed, their bodies become specs of light and disappear in just a few seconds. The unfortunate one was Kariu Rone, from the Divine Swords Sect. Arlan, Mina, and Joty are also part of the Divine Swords Sect, but they just sighed. They know that the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam has a high rate of deaths. So there was nothing they could do about that. Krune couldn''t help but comment. "I wonder how they resolve the grudges built during the test." Everyone heard that and were taken aback. That''s true, how many enmities are created during the exam? How exactly the sect deal with it in the end? But there was no point in thinking about it now. "Alright, let''s go to the next floor." Krune then helped the Edil and Rasma into their slots, and they appeared on the next floor. There, they found a place to leave Edil and Rasma hidden until the time for failing comes through. After that, Krune took some time to help Ao to heal his injuries. Everything they possess has been replicated inside the illusion realm, healing pills included. It didn''t take long for Ao to be on top condition again. Krune''s team then immediately departed to find the next door. With Krune''s Divine Sense, their group had quite an easy time during this process on every level. After arriving at the next one, Krune''s group started to wait again. The next floor hasn''t opened yet, so there was no point in entering the slots for now. This wasn''t the first time it happened, so Krune''s group already got used to this issue. Only when every door slot from the previous floor was used or when the time was over would the next level open for them to pass. They were challenged for the slots twice, but those teams had fewer members than the Vaspo Planet and were also weaker. So other than a few minor injuries, everyone was okay. After that, they entered the next floor as well when the door activated. They continued like that, and after two weeks, they had finally arrived at the 84th floor. On the way here, Krune had noticed that almost no team had more than 20 contestants. But that was to be expected, the number of slots in each door has been continuously declining. Not to mention that more and more battles were taking place for those slots, which is eliminating even more of them. His team was no different. Except for his group, the Makui Planet had already lost 7 contestants. So the initial 21 members of the Makui Planet had gone down to 14. Surprisingly, Mari was still there too. She could be said to be one of the weakest in the group to start with, but she still struggled to reach this point. Mari looked at Krune, Ao, Yusa, and the others in Krune''s group and felt somewhat ashamed. It was evident that it reached the point where she couldn''t help much anymore. But still, none of them said anything. Joty was the only one outside Krune''s group with enough combat power to make some significant difference. Especially during the battle formation, he got quite proficient in it in the past two weeks and could help cover for the flaws in it too. The only problem was that with the lower number of cultivators and demon beasts, the formation had been weakened quite a lot. --- Soon, Krune''s group found a door, and it had a total of seventeen slots. The problem was because there was already another team there. The other team obviously noticed Krune''s group approaching and immediately entered combat formation. This group had sixteen members, so they also wanted to use this door since it had enough slots for them. Once again, they were taken aback when they saw the wisp in the middle of the group. But by now, no one would underestimate any race in the test. Unless you had been heaven defyingly lucky, only strong teams remained. So none of them showed the least bit of disdain to the wisp in front. Krune''s group was also ready to fight, they couldn''t be so carefree to look for other doors anymore. With the fewer number of participants, the faster the previous floors were being cleaned. Thus, the next floor doors were activating faster and faster. If they leave to find a new one, there is a chance that everything will have been used already, and they will fail. It was then that the enemy''s team leader came forward to talk. "Our forces aren''t much different from each other, if we really fight, both sides will suffer. What about we decide which team is staying in another way?" Krune''s group was taken aback. That was the first time someone proposed something like that during this exam. Still, although Krune had the confidence of winning when their numbers are similar, it would be better to avoid injuries if possible. "What do you propose?" The guy smiled and said. "Leader''s fight! The leader of each group will enter the slot and decide the victor there." Suddenly, everyone from Makui Planet''s team looked weirdly at this guy, which made him feel that something was not right. Krune also noticed his friends look and was alarmed. "Alright, we accept." Krune was afraid that the guy would notice something fishy after looking at his idiot team members who couldn''t even hide their emotions. They couldn''t be blamed, though. Just how many contestants in this Entrance Exam could possibly be Krune''s match? Their expressions were something totally involuntary. Krune then moved in the direction of one of the slots. The guy noticed that, and his jaw opened wide. "Wait! Are you this group''s leader?" It was already strange that this team had a wisp within, but it was even the leader of the group. He couldn''t help but think if they were making fun of him. Still, the bet was on, if they sent the wisp, then it was even better for his group. Chapter 139 - Two Groups. Krune looked at him. "Is that a problem?" The guys immediately shook his head. "As long as you keep your end of the agreement, I don''t mind even if you are a fly." Both of them entered the dimensional slot while the other observed it with their Divine Sense. Around a minute later, Krune''s group was simply shooking their heads, the result was way too predictable. As for the enemy team, their eyes were almost falling off their sockets. Since when wisps are this strong? Turns out that Krune didn''t give the guy any chance to retaliate. By using his tribulation lightning from the start, he completely crushed his opponent''s defense. The battle finished with several skills disappearing right in front of the enemy. If Krune hadn''t stopped on purpose, the guy would be dead already. After coming out, he finally understood that he had hit a steel wall. His name was Heino Welzut, and he was obviously another cultivator from a top-ranked planet. That''s why he was confident in his own abilities. Unfortunately, he encountered Krune. He isn''t weak. In fact, he is even stronger than Boen back in the Measuring Hall. Even Ao, Arlan, or the others would have a hard time to beat win. After the two came out of the slot, Heino only let out a sigh. It can already be considered good that Krune showed mercy. He then looked at Krune and asked. "I''ve never heard about a wisp this strong, what is your name?" Krune replied. "Makui Planet''s Krune." Only now did Heino understand what kind of steel wall he had hit. "The Elemental Major Core, I''ve heard about you before the exam started. Not only you have an Elemental Core, but you can also use Tribulation Lightning... Impressive!" Heino then looked at his teammates and said. "We are leaving, the next floor door isn''t active yet, so we still have time to find another one." Krune heard that and felt relieved, the guy was really going to keep his promise. Just as Heino was about to leave, Krune gave him a piece of information. "On my way here, I spotted another door south-west from here. But there were three teams fight over that one. You can decide if you want to try that or not." Heino looked at Krune and nodded. "Thanks for the information." After that, they left. Krune looked at the door slots and then back at everyone. "As you can see, the number of slots is decreasing. What Joty said in the past turned out to be true, we probably won''t have enough slots for the entire team at some point. Of course, that is considering that we don''t lose anyone anymore." Everyone nodded, they had already expected this much. Shinja looked at Krune and asked. "What about we make two teams when that time comes?" The others also thought that this was the only way. "It''s not a problem, the issue is, who is joining which team?" Ao and Arlan immediately proposed. "The two of us will build a team, our coordination is very good, and we can use battle formation. We will definitely not be the only ones who need to separate, so I refuse to believe that we are going to find any team too strong. Even if we do, we can just ignore that one and try another." Krune agreed that it was a good idea. "Have Yusa join your side too, she bests at support, which will be of great use for you two." Yusa nodded. She also thought that it would be the best balance. Krune can also play the support role to start with, so his side would not need her that much. Joty, Mari, and the other guys were amazed by that decision. At first, they thought that Krune''s group would just cast them out, but instead, his group separated first. Shinja noticed the looks on their eyes and explained. "We don''t have any intention of relying on Krune''s power to pass the exam. Remember, this is a test! By separating at this point would give everyone a better chance to show their abilities." Krune agreed with Shinja''s words. That''s why he didn''t say anything when Ao and Arlan decided to part with him for the rest of the exam. Arlan then looked at Joty''s group direction and spoke. "You guys already got used to our battle formation, so you come with us too. You noticed that you aren''t at our level, but with the battle formation, you can still give us an enormous help. As long as we keep the members of the battle formation, I''m confident that we have a good chance of passing the test." Krune then warned everyone. "It has already passed the point where you can stay outside defending the slots before entering it without worry. The team battles are getting close to the end too. So you all better be prepared to enter a slot and defend it alone. I know that some of you are not confident about it, but there is nothing more we can do. We kept our promise and helped you get this far, you can only rely on your own strength after that point." Joty, Mari, and the other remaining cultivators and demon beasts nodded their heads. They also know that it wouldn''t continue like this forever. In the end, Ao''s group would have Arlan, Mina, Yusa, and Joty''s group. Krune''s side would have less, but each one of them should be able to fight or at least defend a slot for ten minutes. So they didn''t need to rely on group battle, his group could simply charge into the slots and defeat the inside opponents or defend it. Krune''s side had Shinja, Lofa, and Tasier. The only one that Krune was a little concerned about was Lofa, who could be said to be the weakest one in his group. Tasier and Lofa don''t have the Spiritual Energy Meridians, so they aren''t at Ao, Shinja, and the others level. But Tasier still had his innate lightning ability, which gave him a great boost. Lofa was the only one who could only rely on what she was taught. "Are you confident?" Lofa looked at Krune and smiled. "At first, I didn''t even have hope to participate in the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. But now, I''ve come this far. Whether I pass or not, I''m already happy enough." Tasier looked at her and said. "We spared several times, although you couldn''t beat me in the end, your defense abilities were enough for you to drag the battle for almost thirty minutes. Remember that I''m a lightning user, which is perfect against your water element. If you can hold me that long, you can definitely do the same against the others." Shinja heard that too and nodded. "Tasier is right, I had taught you myself, and I know very well what you are capable of." Lofa was happy to hear that. "I definitely won''t let you down." While everyone was discussing the issue, another team appeared inside Krune''s Divine Sense. The fact that they had appeared didn''t bother Krune, but there was one guy in the middle that made Krune warier. "There is more coming." The door to the next floor hasn''t activated yet, so there was no use to enter the slots at that point. It didn''t take long for the other team to appear. This group had a total of fifteen contestants, and surprisingly, their leader was none other than Colen. As mentioned before, Colen is the owner of the Space Major Core. Colen had also noticed Krune, and he did know who he is. He still remembers the battle that broke out as soon as the First Test started. Krune, of course, knew him too. Colen then came forward. "Ten Major Cores, Space Core Colen Fecit." "Ten Major Cores, Elemental Core Krune." The area became silent after that, neither side said or did anything. Colen then smiled and turned around. "Let''s go." His group was confused, but they didn''t say anything. Just like that, Colen left. On the way, Colen''s companion couldn''t help but ask. "Why didn''t we attack them? I don''t believe we could lose." Colen shook his head. "I can feel the presence of another door nearby, and I noticed that the next level door wasn''t activated yet when we met Krune back there. So we have more than enough time to conquer that one. I have no doubt that we can win, but starting a fight against a Major Core without need is idiotic." Colen then laughed. "Of course, if there was no other door and the next level was already open, then I would have charged at them straight away! But this won''t continue for long, slot confronts will definitely happen in the last ten levels, it is just a question of time." The door the Colen was talking about was the one Krune mentioned before to Heino. Colen felt the doors differently than Krune, he doesn''t need the Divine Sense, the spatial fluctuations that the doors give is more than enough for him. His ability to find other doors could be said to be even higher than Krune. Colen''s companion nodded and didn''t say anything else. Back at Krune''s place, everyone was sweating cold, except for Krune, of course. Yusa took a deep breath and said. "That scared me." Ao, Arlan, and others also nodded. Shinja then commented. "Only Krune would be able to contend against that guy, but his companions were obviously on another league too. I''m sure I could fight one of them head-on, but I''m not sure about the price I would need to pay to win. Not to mention that every single one seemed at the same level. In a group battle, our side would definitely lose." Krune agreed with what she said, if it really came to that, Krune would decide for a retreat. If it was only Colen, he could take him, and he has the confidence to win. Arlan, Ao, Shinja, and Yusa probably could take one of the others each too, and Krune was confident that they could also bring back a victory. But for the rest, only Tasier and Lofa would probably have enough strength to hold one back, not win, only hold. As for Joty''s group, there is no doubt that they would lose very fast. Once Joty''s group was defeated, Krune''s group would be assaulted from all sides. It was a hopeless battle to start with. Of course, the other side would have to pay some price as well since Krune''s group isn''t weak. Suddenly, the door behind them started to shine. "The next level is open, let''s go!" Chapter 140 - Entering the Last Ten Floors. Although they had decided to separate in two groups, that would be for the time that there aren''t enough slots anymore. On the 85th floor, Krune''s group was able to find a door with 15 slots, just one more than what they needed. They followed the same plan as before and defended it until the next floor opened. The situation continued like that until the 90th level. There, Makui Planet''s contestants finally found a door with less than 14 slots. Krune and Ao looked at each other and nodded. Krune then said. "My group has only four members, so I can move much faster than your group. In that case, I will be leaving first to look for another door. We just arrived at the 90th level, and it will take some time before the previous floor slots are totally filled or the time is over." Just as Krune was about to leave, he warned Ao''s group. "You have more cultivators and demon beasts, so you will probably run out of doors with enough slots soon. You better think about what you are going to do at that point." Everyone is Ao''s group nodded. Joty then told Krune. "We have decided already. When that time comes, Ao, Arlan, and Shinja will go ahead on their own while the rest of us will form another team. Until now, thanks to the battle formation, we did indeed give some help. But once we divide again, the formation will lose its meaning. At that point, sticking together with them will only dimish their chances of passing the exam. I''m not shameless to do that." Mari and the others also nodded. They know that it is already a miracle to have reached this far. Krune understood and didn''t say anything else. After that, his group departed. Unfortunately for Ao''s team, the second team plan would not go as planned. --- After running around, Krune''s Divine Sense finally spotted another door that already had a team defending. With Krune''s Divine Sense, he could see them, but the other way around didn''t work. "I found a door, but it is still closed. That team can''t see us because their Divine Senses can''t reach where we are. So we are going to wait for the door to activate and then charge into the slots they''re re defending. That team has 10 participants while the door has 12 slots. Lofa and Tasier will take the two free slots while Shinja and I will beat someone of them out of their one. Of course, that is considering that the defending team won''t lose to another group." No one complained about the arrangement. Tasier might be a proud demon beast, but he knows that between the four of them, Krune and Shinja are stronger than him. It''s past the point where pride can overcome overall benefits. As for Lofa, she knows her power very well, so this was indeed the best way for her. During the time that they waited, more teams appeared. In the end, it was as Krune had mentioned. The defending team was scared away, and the doors owners changed to a stronger team. But that didn''t matter. The battles for those slots had, in fact, reduced the number of contestants defending it. Now there were three available slots for them. The plan was still the same, with just Krune battling now. The only issue was that Krune could feel the presence of more contestants in his Divine Sense, and it seemed that they were waiting for the same opportunity. Still, Krune was confident in his team speed, so they should be able to enter a slot before others. Defending is easier than attacking, there is only the need to do that for ten minutes, and the defensor will win. Shinja, Tasier, and Lofa should be more than capable enough to do that. Not to mention that they had already decided to pretend to be weaker than the opponent to buy that necessary time. Krune kept using his Divine Sense for an instant every few seconds. That way, he didn''t have to keep it activated all the time, which would use too much spiritual energy. Around three hours later, the door for the next level started to shine with silver light. The next floor was now open! Krune, Shinja, and Tasier sped forward, the three of them used the Lightning Element Movement, so they were obviously fast. Krune used his spiritual energy to grab Lofa and push her with him since she isn''t specialized with speed. Not only them but everyone who was waiting for the door to open charged forward as well. They had the same plan as Krune, take a free slot, and defend it for the next 10 minutes. But they were amazed when they noticed Krune''s group speed, that was too fast! In the end, other than the team that kept defending, Krune''s group was the first one to arrive. But the defense team knew that they couldn''t possibly hold everyone back, so they each took a slot as soon as the door activated. Krune threw Lofa inside of one of the free slots while Shinja and Tasier entered the other two free ones. Krune then immediately charged inside of one of the slots occupied by the enemy. It only took a few moves for Krune to crush his opponent and send him out. The rules say that you need to defend it for ten minutes, but Krune was to the attacker, the ten minutes rule didn''t apply to him until he became the defending one. Everyone saw how a wisp trashed the guy defending that slot and was taken aback. They thought that the wisp was going to take a free slot, and they were all intending to attack Krune first. But not only did he not take an open slot, but he also attacked an occupied one. Not to mention how easily he destroyed the guy inside. Their idea of attacking Krune first had totally left their minds, it was evident that they would be courting death to enter that wisp''s slots. There is also the fact that they saw the other three who came with Krune. If a wisp is already that strong, just how stronger are his companions? Still, there were many more contestants than slots that could be challenged, so they couldn''t think much. In the end, other than Krune''s, all other slots had been challenged. Still, Shinja and Tasier had no problem in holding back their opponents. They can even defeat them, but they followed the plan and pretended to be at the same level. Lofa was the only one who was really giving her all to defend. Fortunately, the opponent was at the same level as her, so it was really a stalemate that they achieved. Since Lofa is a lot better at defending, both kept battling during the entire ten minutes. Close to the end, Lofa''s opponents used his strongest attack, which consumed a lot of his spiritual energy, to try to take Lofa out. But anyone with half a brain could predict that something like that would probably happen. So Lofa was still able to hold her opponent to the end. When the ten minutes were over, Krune''s group and everyone who had successfully defended for that time were sent to the next floor. From the 12 slots available before, only 8 succeed in defending while the other four had been lost to the challengers. So it will probably take some more time for those four slots winners to be sent over. Of course, Krune''s group didn''t care about that. They passed, so that''s all that matters. Although the 8 participants appeared in the same place, neither side tried anything with the other. Unless it is a slot competition, fighting would only increase both sides'' injuries now. Not to mention that they had seen Krune''s group power. Krune then approached Lofa and helped to recover from her injuries. Fortunately, it wasn''t anything serious. Shinja then came close with a serious face. "Krune, had you notice that there were way too many contestants than the previous floors?" Krune agreed with Shinja, he also thought it strange. "Yes, the number competing for the slots was much higher than any of the previous 89 floors." Tasier then said. "I think it is quite obvious, we are now inside the 91st level, which means that the last ten floors are now going to be used. If I was the power behind this, I would also increase the difficulty at the end of the test. They probably drastically reduced the number of doors and slots from the 90th to the 91st floor." Krune, Shinja, and Lofa agreed with Tasier''s thought. "That means that Ao and the others probably got in the same situation as we did. It''s just that they were the ones defending." Either way, Krune''s wasn''t much worried about Ao, Arlan, or Shinja. If things get out of hand, he was sure that at least the three of them could enter a slot and defend it by themselves. --- On Ao''s group side, things had turned out as Krune predicted. Although they were able to hold the place until the door activated, right after it happened, lots of contestants charged at them. Ao then immediately gave then an order to enter the slots and try to defend it. There was no way that they could hold so many enemies. Joty''s group understood that as well and didn''t complain, they know that the second team plan is over even before starting. They then immediately entered a slot, they might not be able to keep it, but they were determined to try. Arlan was feeling troubled, though. His fiance might be part of the Divine Swords Sect too, but she definitely isn''t at Joty''s level. She probably won''t be able to hold her slot in the end, even Joty will have a hard time doing so, if he does at all. But there was no time to think, the enemy would be there in just a few seconds. Mina noticed him looking at her and smiled. She then sent him a Divine Sense message. "No need to worry about me, if I can''t hold back, I will just give up and leave. I doubt anyone will try to fight me while I''m leaving, they need to conserve energy for their own fights, after all." She then entered one of the slots, Arlan gave her a final look and did the same. In the end, the situation turned out exactly as predicted as well. It''s not like a miracle could happen to start with. Except for Joty, who was lucky enough not to be paired against someone too strong, all the others were defeated inside their slots, Mari included. They then gave up and left their slot voluntarily. Their opponents could have pressed forward to try to kill then, but every single one knows that as soon as Mari, Mina, and the others leave, their own 10 minutes of defense will start. It would be idiotic to spend even a bit extra of spiritual energy just to finish them off. Arlan, who was playing with his opponent, kept his attention focused in the direction that Mina left and let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the late ones couldn''t waste their time and energy on them defeated ones, they need that for their own challenges. Not to mention that they also need to fight to see who will be the one entering the slot to challenge the defensors. Except for Joty, this was the end of the test for everyone else who wasn''t part of Krune''s group. Ao, Arlan, Yusa, and Joty finally kept their defenses tightly until the 10 minutes were over, and they were sent to the next level. They were the only ones on the other side, though. The other slots were still in the middle of the fight, and it would take some time for the next one to come through their door. "Mina and the others are okay, let''s leave." Joty, Arlan, and Yusa nodded and immediately left to look for the next door. They aren''t Krune, their Divine Sense can''t reach that far, so they will probably need more time to find it. On the way, Arlan gave Joty a few healing pills since he didn''t have an easy time like they did. The second team might have lost most of its members from the very start, but now only the ones with a real chance at passing remaining. Ten floors are left for the first test to be over, and only monsters will appear from now on. Chapter 141 - Lucky is Also Part of Strength. Krune and Ao''s group weren''t the only ones affected by the change on door and slot numbers. As far as Krune could see with his Divine Sense, there wasn''t a single team with more than seven or eight members, and that was already very rare to see. The majority had around 3 to 5 members, just like Krune. Both Ao and Krune''s group had already decided that the best way was to fight for single slots. There was no point in trying to monopolize door slots anymore. As expected, thanks to Krune''s Divine Sense, his side found a door first. After arriving there, they found out that another two small teams were waiting. The other side looked at then, and once more, they were taken aback by the wisp in the middle of that group. Krune and the others then went to a corner and started to wait as well. He then looked at the door slots and commented. "There are 10 slots in this one, but we are a total of 11 contestants here already. Of course, there will probably have much more by the time that the door opens." Shinja nodded. "What do we do then? You and I should have no problem in securing a slot, but Tasier and especially Lofa might have some issues." Before Krune could even answer, Tasier cut him. "No need to worry about me. If I can''t enter a slot or defeat someone inside, then I have no right to keep advancing. Pay attention to your slots only, I don''t need your help." Lofa came from a wealthy family, so she had her pride too. "Tasier is right! I don''t mind losing, but I do care about dragging you guys back." Shinja and Krune looked at each and nodded. "Very well, then I wish you good luck." --- Back at Ao''s side, they finally found a door after spending over an hour looking for one. Surprisingly, they were a lot luckier than Krune''s group. Their door only had another 5 contestants even though it had been a lot longer since this floor was opened. The door itself had 11 slots available, which means that even counting Ao''s group, there are still two free ones. The other group was obviously a team as well, for them to have arrived here with 5 members shows that they aren''t weak. Still, neither side did anything to the other. In the end, Ao''s group got to the same conclusion as Krune. "Alright, it is up to our own abilities now. Try to enter a slot as soon as possible when the door activates, the outside will definitely become a battle zone since everyone will want to enter." Joty, Yusa, and Arlan nodded. But who could have thought that the door activated just after they finished talking? Be it Ao or the other group on the side, they were both taken aback. This door opened a lot faster than any previous one. Still, they were delighted! They are the only ones here, and there are enough slots for all of them. So they immediately entered a slot each, and the 10 minutes countdown started. Ao then looked at Joty''s slot. "This guy isn''t only strong for someone without the Energy Meridians, his luck is also remarkable." Still, that was good news for his team, so he only hoped for it to continue. Lucky is also part of strength after all. During the 10 minutes that Ao and the others had to wait, another team appeared. They had a total of five members. After noticing the door already activated and the two free slots, they communicated through Divine Sense. They then decided who would take the free slots in just a second. After that, the other three looked at everyone inside the slots and randomly selected three of them. Unless you knew the opponent beforehand, it would be useless to overthink about which one you should challenge. The illusion realm made it look like everyone was at the peak of the Foundation Establishment, after all. This time, Arlan, Yusa, and someone from the other team were selected. Joty looked at that and let out a sigh of relief. He was lucky once more. Arlan and Yusa, obviously, had no problem in holding back their opponents. Especially Yusa, who bested at support. She had a lot of defensive skills. The 10 minutes soon finished and everyone was teleported to the 92nd floor. --- Earlier, on Krune''s side, the situation was totally different. Not only the door didn''t have enough slots, the number of contestants waiting for it to open increased a lot too. By the time that the next level door activated, there were already 48 contestants from several different teams. In fact, it shouldn''t have had so many contestants there, Krune''s team was just unlucky for so many to have found the same door. There is no need to guess what happened, everyone charged inside the slots they were close to. Several area attacks were sent at the slots to stop those closest to it from entering before them. In Krune''s case, it was useless. He used his Tribulation Lightning Movement from the very start, so in everyone''s eyes, he simply disappeared. When he reappeared again, Krune was already the first one to be inside a slot defending it. Shinja and Tasier both had Lightning Element Specialization, so they were also fast. Shinja was okay since she has a Pure Yin Body, which she used from the very start too. Thanks to that, she also was able to enter a slot to defend it. Unfortunately, Tasier''s case was different. He couldn''t simply take the attacks head-on, so he had to fight for his chance to enter it. In the end, he wasn''t the first one inside, but the second, which means that he was the attacker while his opponent was the defender. Surprisingly, Lofa got inside her slot first. Lofa is quite good at defense, so she paid some price to bear the attacks to arrive there. But she wasn''t dispirited, that''s because she had enough time to take one of Krune''s healing pill before the challenger was finally decided outside. She might have the lowest attack, but she is still very confident in her defense ability. Not to mention, a certain wisp was paying attention to her! How could she fail in front of him? Krune''s opponent entered just a few seconds after him. He then snorted and made the same thing as always, pretend that he was barely able to hold. Shinja and Lofa did the same, it''s just that Lofa had a harder time doing so. As for Tasier? He could only go all out! He was the attacker. Unless he becomes the defender, the 10 minutes countdown will not start for him. But his opponent wasn''t easy either. Usually, Tasier would resort to long-range bombardment, but this time he had to use his best skills. Tasier strongest battle mode is speed focused close combat while also using long-ranged skills. It is just that those long-ranged skills were also used while he was near. His opponent was taken aback by the sudden change in Tasier''s style and had a hard time holding him off. Still, the time was passing. Tasier noticed that it wasn''t good enough and started to draw out his Thunder Hawk bloodline power. Immediately, the power of his lightning increased, his speed got faster, and his attacks more potent. Finally, his opponent couldn''t hold anymore. It''s not like his opponent didn''t know how to attack, but that he had decided to only focus on defense from the start so that he could conserve energy. In the end, Tasier''s opponent had to leave the slot before he got killed. No one paid any attention to the guy who was defeated. As soon as he left the slot, another battle between those who were left outside started again to see who would take the chance to challenge Tasier. Everyone wanted to try since Tasier had just come out of a hard battle, so they thought that the Hawk was probably feeling weak at the moment. The surprising thing was that no one was beside Tasier''s slot when the battle finished. The majority was waiting close to Krune''s slot instead. They all thought that since Krune is a wisp, he will be the first one to lose. That involuntary help gave Tasier a few precious moments to take out some healing pills and focus on recovering. There was also the fact that since everyone was fighting for the right to challenge Tasier, his next opponent wouldn''t be at full power either. Sure enough, Tasier''s next opponent had quite a few injuries himself. When Tasier looked at him, he was surprised. It turns out that his opponent was also a flying demon beast, it was a Horned Ice Vulture from the Tialue Planet. This planet wasn''t inside of the top 1000 but was still much stronger if compared with Makui. Tasier immediately recovered his attention. Whether it was a Demon Beast or a Cultivator, what matters here is the opponent''s strength. The Vulture didn''t waste time either, it immediately took flight and charged forward. It had to beat Tasier first before 10 minutes were over and still defend the slot after that. The faster Tasier is defeated, the better it is for it. Tasier snorted and took flight as well. Before, he had to go all out and use his best close and long-range combat skills at the same time while keeping close to the opponent. But this time, he had no need to get close to the Vulture. For him who learned from Krune how to make the best use of his Lightning Element, keeping the distance from the Horned Ice Vulture wasn''t anything hard. The Vulture noticed that it wouldn''t be able to approach Tasier and started to use its bloodline power as Tasier did in the last battle. Immediately, an ice fog started to cover the entire place where the battle was happening. Still, Tasier''s control over his elements was much better than the Horned Ice Vulture. Although his speed was somewhat affected, he was still able to dodge the offensives. While Tasier was in the middle of the battle, Krune, Shinja, and Lofa were teleported. Their 10 minutes countdown was over, and they were considered victorious in their defense. Tasier had taken around 4 minutes to defeat his first opponent, which means that he still has the same time to keep defending his slot. Krune and the others then decided to wait. Fortunately, the Horned Ice Vulture didn''t give up and kept chasing after Tasier until the very end. The contestants outside were angry because it was evident that the Vulture couldn''t catch up with the Thunder Hawk. They wanted it to give up so that someone specialized in speed could enter and defeat Tasier. Of course, if it was any of them inside, none would have given up either, so their anger was meaningless. Krune and Ao''s group entered the 92nd level. There are eight more to go. Chapter 142 - Yang Core On the other side, Krune checked over Tasier, who used his bloodline power. Although he was putting a strong front, Krune could feel that he wasn''t feeling as good as it seemed. "How long until you recover from the usage of bloodline power?" Tasier pondered a bit about the time he kept using it and said. "If I keep using your pills, it should take half a day." Krune nodded. It means that Tasier won''t be able to rely on it for at least 4 or 5 doors, maybe more. He then helped Tasier and Lofa to recover from their injuries and once again set off to look for another entry. As for the contestants that teleported over with them, that group had long since left. On the way, Krune looked at Tasier and said. "During the next doors, you better not draw more of your bloodline since it weakens your overall combat power." Tasier nodded since he knows that too. At the moment, he can only fight with 60% to 70% of his full strength. And that''s because he didn''t use his bloodline for too long. If he had used it longer, it would be a wonder if he could fight with even 50% of his power. --- Krune''s group found another door around 30 minutes later, this one had 7 slots and had two contestants waiting beside it already. They looked at Krune''s group warily, but Krune did nothing to them, much for their relief. The door has been opening faster and faster, so Krune thinks that this one won''t take more than two hours to open as well. Tasier looked at Krune and asked. "There are only two of them here. Shouldn''t we take this chance to eliminate them and reduce the competition?" Instead of Krune, it was Shinja who shook her head. "We don''t know what kind of abilities they have, if one of them manages to flee and call over more contestants, the situation might get worse instead." Krune nodded at what Shinja said. "My Tribulation Lightning is powerful, but remember that it isn''t infinite. The more I use, the less I have. I''m taking every second available to recharge it, which takes quite some time." Over two hours passed, and the number of contestants around the door increased to 16. Krune''s group could be said to be the biggest at the moment, the others were lonely cultivators or demon beast, or their group had at most two contestants. Since the door has 7 slots, there is no doubt that everyone will at least be an attacker. Krune was totally focused on the door, it was about time for it to activate. He had discussed it with everyone, and they made a plan to try to seize the defender position from the start. But for some reason, the door didn''t open until three hours were up. It didn''t matter, though. The longer it was, the more Tasier could recover. Krune''s group was the strongest at the moment, and by combining their efforts, they were able to seize the defender side of the slots for everyone. Tasier has been recovering for those three hours, so he could already fight with 70 to 80% of his strength. Not to mention that this time, as the defender, he just had to hold. One must remember that Krune''s group isn''t the only one battling to advance. Their opponents also passed through several trials to get here, so some of them aren''t at full power either. Without any problems, Krune''s group advanced into the 93rd floor. --- A little earlier on Ao''s group side, the situation was basically the same, their door had 8 slots, and the number of contestants waiting for it to activate was only 15. Someone would even be alone inside without anyone attacking. The door activated the same way, and everyone rushed inside the slots. Ao and Joty were close to each other, and each one of them rushed to a door beside them. Surprisingly, because of one attack that Ao used to scare his opponent away, Joty''s opponent was also affected. Joty took that chance to rush inside and get the defender position. Once again, the ten minutes countdown started. As mentioned before, everyone had been going trough battle to get to this place, so quite a few were injured. Arlan, Ao, and Yusa had no problem to fend their opponents back. In contrast, Joty''s slot had become the lucky one without anyone attacking. The guy who intended to take Joty''s slot saw that Joty didn''t seem very injured and gave up the idea, he then attacked another door from someone who looked in a worse state. Not only Ao, even Yusa and Arlan, started to notice this guy''s luck. Ao thought back to the battles using the battle formation and recalled that during those times, there was rarely an opponent who decided to attack through Joty''s position. They couldn''t help but wonder if someone''s luck could really be that great. Still, once more, this is good news for their group, so they didn''t mind it for now. The ten minutes soon was over, and Ao''s group was teleported to the 93rd floor as well. The 93rd and 94th levels weren''t too difficult for both Krune and Ao''s group. Joty, somehow, still relied on his heaven-defying luck to get there, and even him was starting to feel that something isn''t right. --- Krune''s group was once more beside the next floor door waiting for it to activate when suddenly, another group with 5 members in total entered his Divine Sense. As soon as Krune saw who was there, he got taken aback. Not long after, a scorching heat assaulted Krune''s group and the other 7 contestants who were waiting for the door to be open. It turns out that the one who appeared was Gomat, the Yang Core Fire Dragon. Gomat looked at everyone and was surprised to see Krune there. During the opening of the first test, he had seen Krune''s transformation and the power that he could use. Gomat already knows that Krune is the Elemental Core owner. Still, he is extremely proud, so he looked at everyone and said. "Do you all which to leave now, or should I send you on your way?" Krune snorted and then went forward. Around his body, one could see the arcs of purple lightning going around his ethereal body. "I wish very much to see how you will send me away." Gomat saw that, and flames started to cover his entire dragon form. He would definitely not back out against Krune, nor would he back out against any of the other Major Core Participants. If it was back then where there was no need to enter useless fights, it would be okay to ignore Krune, but now the slots available are clearly not enough for his and Krune''s group. But just as they were about to charge at each other, Gomat received a Divine Sense message from one of his four companions. He then looked over and noticed that the other contestants had taken Krune''s side. It turns out that one of them had known that the wisp was the Elemental Major Core owner. Although they don''t know Krune''s power, they do know about Gomat''s. Gomat, Colen, and Nala were already somewhat famous even before the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam started. It turns out that Gomat''s reputation wasn''t very good, so they believe that sticking by Krune''s side will give them a higher chance of advancing the levels. Gomat saw that and narrowed his eyes. If it was Krune''s group against his own, he wouldn''t be afraid. But if his group is ganged up during the time that he is fighting Krune, he will probably have to retreat and find another door in the end. All the remaining contestants in the first test are top experts from high ranked planets. Even Gomat isn''t arrogant enough to think that he could deal with Krune and everyone else together. The flames around his body settled, and he went to a corner to wait for when the door is activated. In the end, Gomat could only wait with his companions to fight in individual battles. The key issue of this situation was Krune. If the Elemental Major Core''s group wasn''t there, Gomat was confident in dealing with the rest. Krune saw that and was relieved. At least he doesn''t need to fight that Dragon in a random situation with so many variants on his side. Once the competition for the slots starts, it will all become one vs. one. That is because this door has 7 slots, and the total number of contestants at the moment is 14. So every single one will be at least an attacker or defender. Not to mention that they have been waiting for almost two hours for this door to open, so it should open anytime now. There was one thing Krune''s group was worried about, though. Which slot will Gomat choose? Everyone here knows that both Gomat and Krune have a Major Core each, so no one wanted to fight them. Most likely, the slots that they chose would have no fights. Krune then looked at his group and said. "It doesn''t matter what you do, don''t try to fight that Dragon. Neither of you is his match. Although I''m confident that I can fight him, I would not be sure to defeat him in 10 minutes if he is the defender." Shinja, Lofa, and Tasier nodded. They didn''t need Krune to tell them that. It was evident that they would be courting death to get in Gomat''s way. Krune didn''t say it, but he decided to wait to see what Gomat would do first instead of rushing inside of a slot. He had the feeling that the Dragon might actually not select a slot to defend, but in fact, wait for them to be full and choose an opponent to attack. Not to mention that Krune is more than confident in defeating someone else other than Gomat, so he isn''t worried about losing the next floor entrance. Finally, the next level door activated, and immediately after that, everyone rushed inside to take a slot. Since Krune wasn''t going to enter straight away, he gave timing help to Lofa and Tasier, which guaranteed their defender position. Shinja, Tasier, and Lofa looked outside and noticed that Krune hasn''t moved yet, but then they looked in Gomat''s direction and found out that the Dragon had done the same. Gomat then looked at Krune and laughed. "Haha! Could it be that you are like me and prefer to attack?" Krune didn''t say anything and waited for Gomat''s decision. Chapter 143 - Major Core Battle! Gomat noticed that the wisp wasn''t moving, but he couldn''t say if Krune was looking at him or not. Since Krune wasn''t saying anything, Gomat just snorted and looked at the slots. Soon, Krune noticed that those who didn''t make it into the defender position had finally selected their opponents to attack. Not surprisingly, Lofa, Tasier, and Shinja received an attacker each, which means that Gomat couldn''t challenge them anymore. That was to be expected. For those outside Krune and Gomat''s group, Krune''s group definitely seemed weaker. It is just a question of who was famous before and who wasn''t. Seeing that there was no need to keep guard anymore, Krune immediately looked at the two slots still available for attack and rushed inside. But just as he was about to enter, a flame blade cut his path. Krune had kept Gomat inside his Divine Sense all the time, so he didn''t have a problem to dodge that. "What you want?" Gomat looked at Krune and laughed. "Neither you or I would take more than a minute to defeat the guy inside, so why don''t we play a bit?" If Krune wanted to enter now, he definitely could with the speed of his Tribulation Lightning Movement. But something was telling him that he shouldn''t let this chance pass. How many times can he challenge someone at his level? This is a very good opportunity! Even if logic says that he should avoid battle as much as possible, Krune still wanted to see the difference between him and Gomat. "Then, let''s see you are capable of." Arcs of Purple Lightning started to flow around Krune''s ethereal body, and he immediately began his assault. Gomat is a Yang Core owner and a Fire Dragon on top of that. Fire attacks would have little effect on him, so Krune started with his Myriad Water Thunder Dragons that used Tribulation Lightning. In fact, every skill that can be used with lightning will have Tribulation Lightning power since Gomat is the opponent, after all. Gomat noticed the dragons coming in his direction and snorted, suddenly the flames around his dragon body became blue! The water dragons hit his body but were incapable of making any significant injury. Krune looked at that and was taken aback, Gomat was the very first one to take his Thunder Water Dragons with his body! Not to mention, why are the flames around Gomat''s body blue? Krune then immediately accessed his memories about the contents that he learned during cultivation. Krune didn''t only spend time on other languages. He also took a look at several other subjects. He can cultivate and study at the same time. With his wisp IQ, it would have been a waste not to get more knowledge from the network available for him back in the Kaley City Mercenary Branch. ''Hydrogen generated flames!'' Krune immediately found the answer to his question after thinking a little about the elements. But how is Gomat separating Hydrogen, and from where? Krune wasn''t the only one surprised. Gomat was also taken aback when he looked at the small injuries in his body after receiving Krune''s Thunder Water Dragons. ''Tribulation Lightning!'' It only took a second for Gomat to understand why Krune''s Dragons were so powerful. Suddenly, Gomat started to laugh again! "Hahaha! Great! To think that you can even use Tribulation Lightning." Krune answered back. "And you can use hydrogen to create blue flames, just how do you do that?" Gomat snorted and then concentrated on his other element. Immediately, Water Element started to dance around him, which made Krune amazed! "Since you showed your Tribulation Lightning, I will tell you this much. There is a lot of Hydrogen in water, and it burns very well when you separate it from the Oxygen. At first, I just wanted to get rid of my weakness which was the water element, so I was bold enough to specialize myself in water element too. For that objective, I studied the water element to a deep understanding. Then I thought: Since Hydrogen burns easily, what if I use my Water Element Control to separate the Hydrogen from Oxygen and burn it? The result is that not only can I use Water Element to a high level, but my flames got even fiercer!" Shinja, who was playing with her opponent inside the slot, was paying attention to what was happening outside. She looked at Gomat and couldn''t believe what she was hearing and seeing. She has a Pure Yin Body and specializes in Water Element. Still, she had never studied it so profoundly as Gomat did. Immediately, she felt ashamed. It made her feel like she had never really tried to understand her primary element at all! Of course, Gomat wasn''t even close to achieving what a Yin Major Core could. Krune was equally amazed! A Fire Dragon with a Yang Core was now using Water Element right in front of him, and he was sure that his level of water control was only behind Shinja''s, who had a Pure Yin Body. Krune wasn''t underestimating Gomat to start with, but now his opinion of the dragon had changed entirely. Gomat obviously isn''t just a muscle brain as he thought. There is no doubt that he is brilliant! "Alright, enough with words, the time is passing, and we need to proceed with the test." Gomat then focused on his third element, Wind! The blue flames that were already strong immediately grew in power by several times. He then rushed directly at Krune like a giant blue fireball! Gomat is, at the very end, a dragon! So it goes without saying that he bests at close combat. Krune noticed that as well and didn''t hold anything back. He doesn''t fight close combat, so Krune immediately used his Tribulation Lightning at 50% to keep the distance from Gomat. The dragon didn''t think that it was strange, nor was he angry at that development. He can see that Krune is a wisp, it would weirder instead if Krune was a close combat wisp. Boom! Crack! Shhhh! Gomat and Krune exchanged several attacks, everything around has sparks of purple lightning or were deeply burnt. Although Krune was keeping his distance, it wasn''t like he was taking no damage. Gomat knows that Krune is a long-ranged combatant, so he had his own ways of landing his attacks on Krune. Of course, thanks to Krune''s Tribulation Lightning Movement, he could always dodge and take the least of damage even when he was caught by surprise several times. Still, his ethereal body started to become paler with time, and it was evident that Krune was using a lot of Spiritual Energy. Gomat wasn''t doing any better, it was mainly because of his Dragon Body that he could take so many hits from attacks fused with Tribulation Lightning. Still, his injuries were also accumulating. Both sides noticed that it wasn''t going well and started to use their trump cards. Around Krune, 38 Hexagonal Shields appeared and started ho hover around him. As for Gomat, his Dragon Wings were suddenly covered by some kind of metallic equipment. Those were Gomat''s trump cards. A pair of Three Silver Stars equipment. Krune looked at those and could see lightning element coming from them. Immediately, Gomat''s speed increased! Gomat''s Planet condition is who knows how many times better than Krune''s, so he had access to much better blacksmiths there. Not to mention that Krune could see formations inscribed on those wings equipment. It was probably those formations that gathered lightning element to improve the Fire Dragon''s speed. In contrast, Krune''s Azure Shields could be considered at most a Five Stars Shields. But Krune didn''t mind, Marcus had put a lot of effort into those shields, and they could be fused with his elements, which boosted their defense several times. Not to mention that it was evident that Gomat hadn''t created the Divine Imprints for those pair of wings, so his control over them was a far cry from Krune''s over his shields. Of course, the difference between normal stars equipment and silver stars ones wasn''t that easily breached. It was thanks to the Tribulation Lightning that Krune could bring so much out of his shields. Krune then kept his distance as a good long ranged fighter. "Thunder Line!" "Tribulation Chain Lightning!" "Explosion Blazing Wind Blades!" Gomat wasn''t holding back as well. "Blue Hell!" "Myriad Azure Fire Dragons!" "Azure Fire Twister!" Gomat and Krune continued at that until eight minutes were gone when suddenly, both sides separated. Gomat injuries looked quite ugly, and some purple lightning spark could be seen coming from his body. Gomat''s Silver Stars wings had quite a few cracks on it too. Krune wasn''t any better, his ethereal body looked quite pale, and his core had some scourging marks on it. Even his shields were not enough to hold all of Gomat''s attacks after he was boosted by the silver equipment. In the end, five of Krune''s shields had shatered, and ten others were severely damaged. Gomat looked at Krune and laughed once more. "Hahaha! Great! How long has it been since I had so much fun?! You have surpassed all my expectations!" But then, Gomat said. "But we better stop it here." The blue fire around Gomat''s body then extinguished, but his face showed that Gomat was in quite a good mood. Krune''s purple lightning then disappeared, and his shields came back to his side. "Likewise! I''m not very fond of killing, in fact, I hate it, but I do like good fights. It is not every day that I can fight someone at the same cultivation level as me with similar combat power." Gomat''s smile became bigger, and then he looked at one of the two slots that had no attackers so far. The guy inside wasn''t from Krune or Gomat''s group. He felt a chill on his back the moment that he saw the dragon''s eyes. He didn''t have to fight, so he spent all his time watching Krune and Gomat. It was evident to him that he wouldn''t be able to hold the slot against neither of the two. Krune also looked at the other slot without anyone fight. It is just that the demon beast inside couldn''t tell that since Krune is in his wisp form. But soon, he understood that Krune was aiming him since the wisp started to move in his direction. Before Krune or Gomat could even start to fight the guys inside of those two slots, their opponents voluntarily left. They still have a good chance of finding another door to fight over, but it would be suicide to try to stop those two monsters. During the time that Gomat and Krune were battling, quite a few nearby cultivators and Demon Beasts noticed the chaotic energy caused by both of them. But no one wanted to get close to the door where they were battling. If they tried to sneak around to take the two free slots, chances were that Gomat and Krune would join hands to get rid of them. So no one tried to pull their leg. Shinja, Lofa, and Tasier were teleported first. In Shinja''s case, it was easy for her to defend her slots. As for Tasier and Lofa, they still had quite some injuries by the time the ten minutes were over. Thankfully, they had quite a few healing pills that were prepared by Krune. Tasier was even happier since he didn''t need to rely on his Thunder Hawk bloodline to defend his slots. Around 8 minutes later, Krune and Gomat appeared beside their own teams too. Gomat then noticed Krune there and approached him, Shinja and the others were immediately put on high alert. But to their surprise, Krune did the same. When they were in front of each other, gomat talked first. "Ten Major Core''s Yang Core, Gomat." Krune also did the same. "Ten Major Core''s Elemental Core, Krune." Gomat smiled again and departed with his group after that, there was nothing more to be said. They are now, on the 96th floor. Chapter 144 - It Was Coincidence! I Swear! Shinja looked at Krune and asked. "How do you think he separated the Hydrogen?" Krune pondered a bit and said. "The blue flames will be impossible since you don''t use the fire element. But simply put, you can use Lightning Element and Salty Water to get the Hydrogen through electrolysis. Of course, you don''t have the time to do such a thing in battle, not to mention that it takes too long to get enough to create any blue flame. It is far from being worthy either. There is even the part of the salt as well, will you carry salt in your spatial ring just for it? I doubt so!" Lofa is also a Water Element user, so she asked too. "Then how did he get so much of it to use?" Krune was also curious about this issue. "I know, right?! If I''m not wrong, the trick is in the Spiritual Energy. Spiritual Energy follows a different principle of any other type of common energy. It is what allows us, cultivators and demon beasts, to display such an amazing combat power. He probably found a way to use Spiritual Energy, Water Element, and Lightning Element to separate the water into Hydrogen and Oxygen for his own use in real-time." Shinja and Lofa nodded. Krune then said. "What is even more frightening is that he also gets Oxygen from this process. As a Fire and Wind Element user, the power of his blue flames gets even higher." Shinja then noticed something. "Wait, doesn''t it means that Gomat can use Four Elements at the same time?" Krune nodded. "Of course! Did you think that just because I have the Elemental Core, I am the only one in the universe capable of using more than three elements at the same time while in the Foundation Establishment? That way of thinking is too naive! I have long since expected that such a thing was possible, and today I have witnessed it. I believe it''s safe to say that Gomat isn''t the only one either. Of course, his Wind and Water Elements aren''t as good as mine. But his Fire Element is frightening! I''m far from being his match on that. As for the Lightning Element, it can also be considered a Yang Element of sorts, so his control over it is definitely higher than your Water Element even if you have your Pure Yin Body." Krune then said. "Anyway, I don''t think it is hard to achieve what he did with the blue flames, we just don''t know it yet. Let''s try to find the next door while I try to figure it out. This is a new way of using a fire element that I very much wish to try." Lofa then asked something else. "What about your shields? I saw five of them shattering." Krune heard that and only sighed. "I can still fix the ones that aren''t totally broken, but the shattered ones are gone. Of course, this is an illusion realm, so my real shields are fine outside. Still, it is obvious the difference in equipment between our Makui Planet and the top-ranked ones. Gomat''s wings equipment had nothing more than a few cracks on it. Anyway, I can care about that later." Everyone finished recovering their energy and were about to depart. But It was at that moment that the so long silent Thunder Hawk Tasier spoke. "You said that for you to achieve the Hydrogen and Oxygen separation, there is a need to use Spiritual Energy, Water Element, and Lightning Element. Instead of trying to use Lightning Element, change it to Tribulation Lightning. I believe that the result will be very interesting." Krune looked at Tasier and nodded. "Indeed, that''s a very good idea." Light Spirit had been silent ever since the first test started, but when he heard Tasier''s words, he remembered something that happened in the past. ''Those flames again... How many had managed to bring them to life?'' But he didn''t tell Krune anything. Light Spirit wanted to see what Krune could learn by himself. --- On Ao''s group side, the 95th floor went without problems. Joty did not avoid confronting this time. But he was still the first one to get a slot to defend. His opponent was definitely a lot stronger than him, though. Fortunately, after Joty entered the slot, his opponent had to fight another cultivator to get the attacker position. It turned out that Joty''s opponent received a severe injury in a hasty attempt to enter Joty''s slots, which affected his combat power tremendously! In the end, Joty''s opponent couldn''t fight well, and Joty, who was much weaker, had barely held his position until the end of the 10 minutes countdown. When Ao''s group appeared inside the 96th floor, they could see that Joty was full of injuries. Even though his opponent couldn''t fight with the best of his abilities, it still wasn''t someone that Joty could win against. If not for the 10 minutes rule, Joty would definitely have lost for sure. Ao noticed that Joty didn''t use any healing pills this time and said. "Take this healing pill, it was Krune who made it." Joty accepted and thanked Ao. He then took the pill and started to recover from his injuries. Of course, Ao, Arlan, and Yusa got quite a few injuries already too. After all, the level of the contestants had increased several times compared with the start of the test. But it wasn''t anything as serious as Joty. The three of them were looking at Joty with puzzled faces. Once again, something had happened, which allowed Joty to pass into the next floor. Joty noticed their eyes and sighed. "Don''t look at me like that, I also don''t know what is happening here. I''m starting to feel that I probably saved the whole universe in my previous life. Even I can''t believe how my luck had been this heaven-defying until now." Joty then looked at Arlan and said. "Arlan can confirm that too, we have known each other for some time already from the Divine Swords Sect. He can confirm that my luck was just like anyone else and that I reached my place with my own strength." Arlan was indeed impressed with Joty''s luck. But after hearing what Joty said, he had to admit that Joty was right. "Although I can''t say that I totally believe him, I don''t think he is lying either. Joty had been a member of the Divine Swords Sect for some time already, just like me. However, I''ve never heard anything about Joty being someone lucky. Of course, he wasn''t unlucky either, just normal." Yusa couldn''t help but comment. "Could it be that it was all coincidence? What are the chances of someone''s luck to be this high at a specific time?" Ao then asked. "Have you gone through any surprising or peculiar experience before the test started?" Joty understood what Ao meant and started to ponder if anything had happened before the test started. It was then that he recalled something. "I wouldn''t say surprising, but it was indeed peculiar. The night before the first test started, I was cultivating as I always do. But at some point, I felt like the Spiritual Energy around had gone through some kind of change. It only lasted a second, but I was absorbing Spiritual Energy at that point. I immediately stopped and checked the Spiritual Energy around me. However, everything was back to normal by the time I paid attention to it." The more Joty thought, the weirder it looked. "At first, I thought that it had something to do with the Divine Path Sect planet, so I ignored and continued to cultivate. I asked Levi and Kariu the next morning if they had noticed something, but they said that they didn''t feel anything. In the end, since everything looked normal, I stopped paying attention to it." Ao, Arlan, and Yusa also thought it to be strange. First of all, was that really the source of his luck? Second, it might have been just coincidence to start with. Third, if Joty''s experience that night was really the reason, then why Joty? He came from the Makui Planet, a place which the majority of the cultivators and demon beasts in the universe had never heard about. Yusa then looked at him and laughed. "You are not some kind of descendant of some might being, are you?" Joty and the other two also laughed at that. "I don''t know my family to the point where I can tell the names of those more than 4 or 5 generations behind me. But, I''m sure that my grandfathers and grandmothers were pretty common. At this point, I look very much like Arlan. Although I won''t say that my family was as poor as his, they definitely weren''t anything grand either. I was also the first one to have achieved the Foundation Establishment in my family as far as I can remember who my ancestors were." Arlan then said. "Jokes apart, this is a good thing, not to mention that it might really have been just luck and nothing more. Let''s keep going to find the 97th-floor door." Everyone nodded, and they left. Ao''s group took quite some time to find another door, and the one they found had quite a few contestants already. Counting with Ao and the others, there were 19 contestants and only 5 slots. That was to be expected, this is already the 96th floor, it would be weird if there was still a lot of slots in every door. Let alone Joty, even Ao, Arlan, and Yusa had serious expressions. There were too many cultivators and demon beasts. Not to mention that the door hasn''t activated yet, so there is still a big chance that more cultivators and demon beasts will appear. Arlan then joked. "Maybe Joty used his luck so much that it got empty, and now he will even have to fight a Major Core Owner." It was at that moment that the contestants felt like the space around them was acting strange. Soon, Ao and the others noticed another group entering their Divine Sense range. The closer that group got, the weirder it felt. It didn''t take long for everyone to see that group of four arriving. Ao, Yusa, and Joty saw who the leader was. They then turned their heads to Arlan and looked at him as if he was the culprit. It turns out that Colen''s group was the newcomers! Arlan started to sweat all over when they looked at him. "Coincidence! It was a coincidence! I swear!" Chapter 145 - Moon Wolf Colen kept looking at everyone with as if looking for something. It was then that his eyes paused on Joty. He then smiled and approached Ao''s groups. Ao and the others were immediately put on guard, but it didn''t seem like Colen wanted to fight them. Colen then stopped in front of their group and looked at Joty once more. "So it''s you. Can you tell me how did you do that?" Let alone Ao, Alran, and Yusa, even Joty was as puzzled as he could be. "Are you mistaking me for someone else?" Colen''s eyes narrowed after that answer, and suddenly, his irises started to get silver-colored. Those are the eyes of a Space Major Core owner, which allows them to see and understand the space better than anyone else. Colen kept looking at Joty for a few more seconds and then sighed. "I see, so that''s how it is." He then turned and went back to his group. But before he could move farther, he heard Joty''s voice from behind. "What do you mean? Do you know anything?" Colen only laughed and ignored Joty. On the way back to his group, he gave his companions one order. "Don''t touch that guy, nothing good will happen if you try so." Ao''s group looked at Joty, who seemed to be lost. Joty couldn''t understand what was going on or why Colen said that nothing good would happen if someone tried to stop him. Ao and the others, obviously, had no idea too. "It probably has something to do with your recent lucky, no?" Yusa asked. Joty then looked at her and shook his head. "I don''t know, I''ve never gone through such a situation before." Ao put on hand on Joty''s shoulder and said. "Don''t mind it, if you don''t know, then there is no use to keep thinking about that." They might be all puzzled, but they also heard a good thing, Colen''s group will not try to touch Joty. That was already very good. Suddenly, Colen and his group left the area, which puzzled Ao''s group even more. The other contestants that were waiting for the door to activated let out a sigh of relief, though. But they still gave some side glances at Joty. For a Major Core Owner to leave willingly after saying something like that made them think twice whether to bother Joty or not. Colen, of course, didn''t mind changing doors. With his Space Major Core, it is even easier for him than Krune to find doors. Not to mention that the 97th floor had just opened, so time was definitely not a problem for him. Ao and the others then took a position close to a door each and waited for the 98th floor to be open. --- On Krune''s side, everything was moving fairly well. Krune had found a door with five slots too, and the number of contestants close to it was only 7. Tasier and Lofa were finishing healing their bodies while Shinja and Krune were pondering about Gomat''s Blue Flames. Krune had said that blue flames would be impossible if Shinja doesn''t focus on Fire Element, but she still thinks that there would be other uses for it. Around one hour later, Shinja, Tasier, and Lofa noticed that Krune was doing something. The Water, Lightning, and Fire Elements started to converge in his direction. Suddenly, the area around Krune began to increase in temperature. At first, it was just small blue sparks, but as time passed, those sparks turned into small blue flames. Those blue flames then started to increase in size. Ten minutes later, they couldn''t see Krune anymore, just a giant Blue Fireball! But then, everything disappeared. Shinja and the others were amazed, Krune hadn''t even taken 2 hours, but he could already create blue flames to that extent! Tasier couldn''t help but comment. "Staying beside him makes one feel like an idiot sometimes, don''t you think?" Shinja and Lofa nodded their heads subconsciously. Krune''s aptitude for elements control is just too heaven-defying! Tasier then asked Krune. "Those flames just now were made with normal Lightning Element, right?" Krune looked at Tasier and confirmed. "Indeed. Tribulation Lightning is harder to control, so I thought about using the normal Lightning Element first. Now that I have basic control over it, I can try to use Tribulation Lightning instead and see what happens." Shinja then asked. "In the end, what was the trick behind the Hydrogen and Oxygen separation? I don''t think you used any kind of minerals like Salt or anything like that." Krune agreed with what Shinja said. "You are correct! As I said, the trick was behind the Spiritual Energy. As you know, it is the Spiritual Energy that allows the lightning element to pass through the water. A good example is your or mine Myriad Thunder Water Dragons. 100% pure water doesn''t conduct Lightning, so it is the Spiritual Energy that plays the role of the mineral that conducts the energy." Shinja nodded since she knew that little, at least. Krune then continued. "The thing is that you need to control the Lightning Element to act like two poles, one positive and one negative. If it is done normally with a simple battery and salty water, the process would take too long and is completely impractical during battle. But the Spiritual Energy makes the whole difference here. It is it that accelerates the process hundreds if not thousands of times! It all comes to how good you are at controlling the Spiritual Energy, the Water Element, and the Lightning Element. In a single word, talent!" Krune then added. "There is another thing too. The normal Electricity that you use in your communicators is far from being as good as the Lightning Element used by cultivators, and that alone already accelerates the process even further! The result is that the blue flames generated by using the Elements and Spiritual Energy are not the same as the normal process that anyone can make at home with electrolysis. The azure or blue color from the flames is a lot more vivid too!" Shinja understood the principle, but she had never paid much attention to the technical part of the elements, so she would need quite some time to get any results. As for Lofa, she is not specialized in Lightning Element, so it would be even harder for her. Another thing is that neither Shinja or Lofa use Fire Element. So creating and controlling the blue flames with the little aptitude they have on it would be even harder. In fact, it wouldn''t be practical to start with. Tasier waited for Krune to finish talking and spoke. "You said that thanks to the Spiritual Energy and the difference between Lightning Element and normal Electricity made thee Blue Flames acquired from it to be different. Then try using the Tribulation Lightning now! I''m even more sure that the results will be amazing!" Tasier didn''t care about the Fire or Water Elements. Still, since the process used Lightning Element, he was very curious to see what the Tribulation Lighting could bring about. Light Spirit was also silently paying attention to Krune. Krune agreed with Tasier and decided that it wouldn''t hurt to try it now, but just as he was about to do it, the door for the 98th floor activated! Krune''s group might have been discussing other issues, but neither of them had stopped paying attention to the next level door. As soon as it opened, they all rushed inside while fighting those who tried to get in their way. As expected, Krune and Shinja got inside their slots first. As for Lofa and Tasier, they had some difficulties but still managed to secure the defender position thanks to Shinja and Krune''s well-timed help. Of course, there is also the part where there were very few contestants in this door, so it was easier for both of them. The 10 minutes countdown was finished quickly, and Krune''s group, together with the other lucky guy disappeared. --- On Ao''s group side, Ao, Shinja, and Arlan are already strong on their own. So even with the big competition, they were still able to get a defender position even though there were a few injuries. As for Joty, because of what Colen said, everyone thought that he was the most dangerous one. No one tried to stop him, but his opponents still tried to get inside the slot before Joty could do it. Everyone knows that the defender position is the best one to have. It turned out that Joty''s enemies injured each other when they tried to enter the slot, which left an aperture that Joty used to pass. In fact, Joty even trembled a little when he saw the power of the attacks of those guys. They were all killing moves that he wouldn''t dare to take head-on. Still, he greeted his teeth and charged in. This time, he was even luckier. Because of the injuries inflicted on each other, Joty''s opponents weren''t willing to enter his slot in their situation. They were afraid of dying to him. Of course, that was all a misconception created involuntarily by Colen and his group who had left over an hour ago. Ao and the others had already given up thinking about it too, they can ask the Divine Path Sect after everything is over. Suddenly, Ao, Yusa, and Arlan heard a sound that they are familiar with. Boom! The contestant who was inside the 5th slot available was suddenly thrown out. Ao and the others looked at his body and could see that it was completely charred! But that wasn''t what they paid attention, what really caught their eyes was the sparks of Purple Lightning coming from that body. Still, that guy wasn''t dead, he was just severely crippled. As long as he stays still until the illusion realm closes, his body and cultivation should be fine outside. Ao''s group knew what it was. "Tribulation Lightning!" Even though they are still in the middle of the battle, Ao, Yusa, and Arlan still averted some of their attention to the 5th slot. Inside, they could see a snow-white demon wolf that wasn''t much bigger than a normal one. They had noticed this wolf before but hadn''t paid much attention to it. Who could have thought that it could use Tribulation Lightning too? In fact, this is a very rare demon wolf called Moon Wolf, it is just that Moon Demon Wolves look very similar to common Snow Demon Wolves. If you don''t know them well enough, you won''t notice the difference. The wolf looked outside to the other contestants who were waiting for a chance to challenge someone. One could see the arcs of Purple Lightning contrasting with the snow-white fur giving it a purple hue. The opponents outside were silent, and no one wanted to charge in first. It was then that the wolf sent a Divine Sense message to everyone around. "Anyone who gets in my path, death!" Not only Ao''s group, everyone''s mouth twitched a little when they heard that. That''s because... that voice was very cute! It didn''t match the words used by it at all. In the end, this is a young female Moon Wolf! Chapter 146 - Ula The Moon Wolf then showed an angry expression at everyone. "Cute." That was the word that left the Majorities mouths. Even Ao, Arlan, and Yusa were no exception. But they didn''t have time to pay attention to the Moon Wolf since the battle in their slots was still ongoing. Yusa had even almost got hit because of that just now. Of course, the only one with enough time to spare at that moment was Joty, whose no one wanted to challenge. In the end, before the 10 minutes even finished, some of the contestants had already left to find another door. The next level had just opened, they still have a high chance of finding another door free or with competition ongoing. There were only two slots free to attack, after all. One was the weird situation of Joty''s slot. The other was the cute but deadly Moon Wolf with Tribulation Lightning. Neither slot looks like a good choice for the remaining contestants. When the time was over, Ao''s group was finally teleported to the 98th floor, where they took their time to recover from the previous battle. Around a minute later, the Moon Wolf appeared there as well. She looked at Ao''s group and was just about to leave when suddenly, she stopped and looked at Ao. For some reason, Ao felt a little embarrassed to have that cute Moon Wolf looking straight at him. The wolf then approached him carefully, which put Arlan, Yusa, and Joty on guard. That girl is very strong, and they know better than most how powerful Tribulation Lightning is. She then said with her Divine Sense. "I can feel a little bit of Tribulation Lightning power in you." Ao finally understood why she stayed. "Oh, that''s because a friend of mine who also uses Tribulation Lightning." It wasn''t any big secret to start with, Krune had already shown his Tribulation Lightning quite a few times too, so Ao didn''t mind saying that. The Moon Wolf nodded, although she could feel the Tribulation Lightning power on Ao, it was very weak. Knowing that it is a friend who he spends a lot of time with made sense now. "Where is this friend of yours? Is he someone from the Divine Path Sect already? Well, that probably is the case anyway." Ao shook his head. "He is in this exam with us, but I don''t know where he went, just that he definitely is inside this 98th floor too." Arlan, Yusa, and Joty nodded. They don''t believe that Krune would fail, which means that he must be inside the 98th floor too. The Moon Wolf also nodded and said. "I see, as expected of top-ranked planets, you have a lot of strong contestants. I saw your battle in the slots before, it was obvious that you could have defeated your opponents if you wanted, but you just staled for time. Which Planet are you from, it''s probably inside the top 100 like mine, right?" Ao''s group felt like a few swords passed through their hearts. Top 100? Makui''s position is so low that it doesn''t even have a position in the rank, let alone the top 100. The Moon Wolf noticed that she stepped on a landmine. "Errr... It''s okay if it isn''t top 100, the top 1000 is also very good. With contestants like you, it''s position will definitely increase in the future." Ao and the others'' expressions turned even gloomier now! That made the Moon Wolf feel helpless already. "I''m joking! Joking! Top 10000! The top 10000 is good too!" Ao''s group finally fell in despair, they didn''t want to hear anymore. Before the Moon Wolf could hurt his group even further, Ao decided to confess first. "Our Planet isn''t ranked. It''s so weak that a position hasn''t been given to it. So you can stop trying to guess already." It is one thing for others to know that you came from a weak planet, you can already guess their thoughts. But being mistaken for a strong one when you aren''t, hurts a lot more. The Moon Wolf was really taken aback now. Since when unraked planets are giving birth to so many geniuses like those four. Of course, she still has the impression that Joty is someone even more incredible when, in fact, it is already a miracle for someone with his strength to be here. The Moon Wolf then approached Ao and started sniffing him, which made Ao feel a little helpless. He couldn''t help but comment. "This is a test where everyone is at each other''s necks, you know? Aren''t you afraid that I would use this chance to cut you down? Although you can use Tribulation Lightning, I''m still very confident in taking you head-on." Ao wasn''t lying. How many times has he practiced with Krune? Few have a better grasp of how to confront a Tribulation Lightning user as he has. But the Moon Wolf just said. "You don''t smell like someone who would do that. You have a very nice smell, those who smell like this aren''t the evil type. So I''m not afraid. In fact, your smell is the most pleasing one I have ever felt! I wonder why that is." Ao felt embarrassed again, she hit right at his weak spot. She was right, as long as the others don''t have malice, he really wouldn''t do anything to them for his own benefit. Ao then looked at the Moon Wolf and asked. "By the way, what''s your name?" Only now did the Moon Wolf noticed that she hasn''t told them her name. "Oh! My name is Ula, and I am a Moon Wolf. I came as part of the Fajin Planet, which is ranked 77th in the Divine Path Sect territory." Ao and the others got puzzled. Not about the Planet she came from, but from her race instead. In their eyes, it was evident that Ula was from a top-ranked Planet to start with. They had noticed that even before she commented about her Planet. Joty then couldn''t help but ask. "Moon Wolf? Not a Snow Wolf?" Ao, Yusa, and Arlan were also curious about this. But Ula got angry at that remark. "Snow Wolf, your head! How can such a weak species of a wolf be mentioned on the same side as the Moon Wolves? Our bloodline difference is enormous! A Snow Wolf can already take the human form in the early stages of the Foundation Establishment. However, Moon Wolves can only achieve that in the Core Formation Realm! Only after I got to the 3rd Stage of the Core Formation did I get my human form too!" Ao and the others were taken aback. "You are already a 3rd Stage Core Formation Realm?" The Moon Wolf put a smug face and said. "Wrong! I''m at the 4th stage, and I am a very talented Moon Wolf too. Usually, Moon Wolves can already take their human form at the 1st stage, or at most the 2nd. But I could only do that in the 3rd one. That shows how pure my Moon Wolf bloodline is." For Ao and everyone else, they simply couldn''t see the difference between an ordinary Snow Demon Wolf and a Moon Demon Wolf. But Ula seemed to care a lot, so they didn''t talk about it anymore. Not to mention that she is powerful, there is no point in pissing off someone like that when they aren''t even fighting for a slot. Yusa then thought about something. "You said that Ao doesn''t smell like someone bad, so how do I smell?" Ula looked at Yusa and said. "Shameless." "Pfff... Hahahahaha!" Arlan and Ao couldn''t hold back after that and burst in laughter. Ao then looked at Ula and said. "You couldn''t have been more correct!" Arlan didn''t let it go either. "I''m awed by the powerful sense of smell of the Moon Wolves, it''s so precise!" Joty didn''t laugh since he hasn''t been with Ao and the others for long, so he doesn''t know Yusa well. As for Yusa... "Hmph! So what? Shameless people live longer!" She then ignored those two and focused back on healing again. Ula had a very prideful expression now that they understood that her sense of smell is the real deal. She then asked Ao and the others. "Can you tell me your names too?" Ao finally noticed that he also forgot to introduce himself. "Oh! I''m Ao Sulian. Those three are Arlan, Yusa, and Joty." Ao had a good impression of the Moon Wolf. Although she crippled the guy fighting for the slot before, she didn''t kill him. Ao is pretty confident is his character reading and couldn''t feel real malice from Ula. Ao and the others spent some time healing and recovering their strength before departing. During this time, Ula kept talking with Ao as if they were not in the middle of a deadly test. When the time to leave came, Ao and the others got up and bid Ula farewell. But before they could leave, Ula grabbed the corner of Ao''s robe with her mouth. "Errr... is there still something else?" Ula then said. "I go with you too." Ao and the others got puzzled. "Why?" Ula looked at Ao and said. "Because your smell is good." "Pfff... Hahahahaha!" This time, it was Yusa who laughed out loud, Arlan of course, didn''t forgive it either and laughed too. Ao couldn''t help but exclaim. "I''m not food!" Ula noticed that she had expressed herself wrongly and immediately shook her head vigorously! "No! That''s not it! What I meant is that I like your smell, but not because I think about you like food! Not at all!" Ao the others now got puzzled, is such a reason really enough to follow someone you just met? Does it even make sense? Ula definitely didn''t need their help, that''s for sure. In fact, her chances of passing this test alone are definitely higher than anyone in Ao''s group. Only during the first 80 floors or so a group would be a better choice. It was then that Ao thought about something else. "What happened with your Planet''s group?" Ula heard that and immediately got angry. "Hmph! Who cares about them?" The answer was short, but the meaning was very obvious and easy to imagine. Ula is both a genius and a Tribulation Lightning user on top of that. It is easy to imagine that the contestants of her Planet didn''t want to stay with her since it would reduce their own chances of acquiring slots. Who would want to challenge this monster for a slot? Ao''s group was indeed correct. When the test started, Fajin Planet''s group relied on their group power to get away from the crowd. But as soon as they got to a safe place, they separated into three different groups. It is just that Ula was totally left out of those groups. In the end, they just said that she didn''t need their help and left Ula behind. But as shown in the past, during the first 80 or so floors, it was a lot easier to move ahead as a group than alone. Still, Ula got to this place where she can finally shine alone. But before that, even with her Tribulation Lightning, she still got into several dangerous situations that could be avoided if one was in a group. It was at this moment that Ao, Arlan, and Yusa thought about something. That''s what makes Krune so special. They have never felt like they wanted to separate from him. They only separated in the end because there weren''t enough slots, and the one who left to look for a new one wasn''t them, but Krune instead. Not to mention that Krune went together with Shinja, Tasier, and Lofa. He didn''t cast anyone aside, just agreed that that was the best way for all of them to pass the test. If anything, Ao, Yusa, and Arlan would definitely prefer to stay with him, not get rid of him like Ula''s companions did. Krune truly wished for everyone he''s close with to join the sect with him. Ao then looked at Yusa and Arlan, and it was evident that they were thinking about the same thing. Suddenly, the three of them started to laugh. Ao then commented. "It''s all that idiot''s fault!" Yusa and Arlan nodded. They know that Ao is talking about their soft-heartedness. Arlan then commented. "Isn''t that good?" Ao and Yusa nodded, and the three of them didn''t say anything else. Both Ula and Joty were puzzled by their behavior, though. Just what are they talking about? Ao then looked at Ula and said. "Alright, let''s go then." Ula immediately showed a smile that was very cute in her wolf form. After that, they left. Chapter 147 - Energy Dot Krune''s group was quite lucky this time since they found a door in just a few minutes. This door in specific had exactly four slots, which is the number of Krune''s group. At least at the moment, Krune''s group was the only only one here, and no one else appeared. Of course, the 98th level had just opened, there is still some time before the next level opens again. Since there was nothing to do during the time being, Krune decided to try to use Tribulation lightning in the Hydrogen and Oxygen separation. He started to control it the same way as he did with his normal Lightning Element. But just as he started, the two poles lost control, and the process failed right there and then. "As expected, Tribulation Lightning is really a lot more difficult to do such a fine control than normal Lightning Element." Of course, Krune didn''t give up with just one failure. If anything, he expects it to have a much better result once it succeeds. So he spent his time trying it out. Each fails helped him to understand the process better, not to mention that his own control over the Tribulation Lightning improved. It was the first time that Krune tried to control Tribulation Lightning so precisely, and it helped a lot. Unfortunately or not, the next door for the 99th floor only took one hour to open, but Krune''s group really hit the jackpot this time around. In the end, what was supposed to have several competitors fighting over, had only 7, and it is already counting with Krune''s group of four. So it was evident that it turned quite easy for the four of them to pass over. Of course, Krune had to stop his practice to go to the next level. --- Around 30 minutes earlier, Ao''s group had finally found a door. But there was a problem here, this door only had three slots, which means that it is not enough for the five of them. When Ula saw that, she turned around and said. "I guess this is it then, we did find a door, but there aren''t enough slots. It was me who asked to follow you this time, so I won''t make things difficult for your side. I still have time to find another door anyway, so I''m leaving." Before Ao''s group could say anything, Ula had already dashed away. Ula could have simply stayed and fought for the slots, and there was a huge chance that she would get one. But every time she thought about Ao''s smell, she couldn''t bring herself to do anything. "Just what is different about him?" In the end, Ula just shook her head and put those thoughts behind her mind. She decided to keep focusing on the test for the time being and forget about anything else. The late part of the test is very good for lonely contestants since they don''t need to care about the number of allies, just the slot itself. While Ula''s mind was somewhere else, she didn''t notice that someone was standing just beside her while she flew ahead. When her thoughts came back to the path ahead, she finally noticed the person who was traveling with her, which made her almost jump in fright! Ao looked at her reaction and sighed. "Am I that ugly? You don''t need to act like that just because you saw my face, you know? That is very rude!" Ula was lost at words. "That''s not the reason I''m surprised at all! Why did you come with me? I know that I asked to follow you guys, but that''s because I was bored, that''s all! Since there weren''t enough slots, there is no reason for us to stick together anymore. Besides, what about your other three friends?" Ao looked at her and laughed. "You don''t need to worry about Yusa, Arlan, and Joty. They can take care of themselves. As for me, let''s just say that I''m bored too. Not to mention that the last door only has three slots, so it wouldn''t be enough for them and me anyway. Who knows? You can use Tribulation Lightning like my friend, so I think it might be easier to follow you around. You can protect and help me get a slot when the time comes." As one can imagine, Ao was talking nonsense. He has the confidence of getting a slot if he moves alone, but he just couldn''t leave this Moon Wolf. It somehow reminded him of Krune when he talked about his time alone in the Katiu Forest. Of course, Ao knows that her situation is still who knows how many times better than Krune''s past one. Ula was taken aback, though. She had seen Ao''s fight on the 97th floor too, so she knows he is blatantly lying! At the moment, she was conflicted. If she goes alone, her chances would definitely be better. But then again, why did she follow Ao''s group to start with? It was obviously disadvantageous to her. She then looked at Ao and started to blame him internally. ''It''s all because of your smell!'' Of course, she didn''t say it out loud, so Ao didn''t know what she was thinking. "Shall we keep going?" Ula finally gave up and nodded, and in fact, she was feeling internally happy even though she didn''t show it on her face. Both Ao and Ula are focused more on speed. Especially Ula, who can use Tribulation Lightning, so they didn''t take that long to find another door with 4 slots available. Just like that, there were now three groups. Krune''s group, Arlan''s group, and Ao''s group. --- Back at the door where Yusa, Joty, and Arlan were staying, there were also another 7 contestants, making a total of 10 contestants for only 3 slots. Arlan and Yusa, evidently, were not very worried. They can see that the majority had spent a lot of energy and had quite a few injuries. So their situation was the best between them all. Only Joty was still nervous, just how far this luck situation can bring him? He doesn''t know! The door then finally activated, and the slots were free to enter. Arlan and Yusa, as the cultivators in the best condition, didn''t have a problem to secure a defender position in one slot each. As for Joty, he wasn''t able to do so, but with a weird turn of events, he still became an attacker. But there was a problem here. His opponent is definitely much stronger than him! It was a guy from a planet called Tareili, ranked 233th in the Divine Path Sect territory. Of course, the guy didn''t know that Joty wasn''t as strong as him, so he kept his distance and waited to see what Joty would do first. All he needs is to wait 10 minutes, after all! Joty was also lost at the moment, not that he is a coward, but that after seeing all the battles from the 90th floor upwards, he knows he is far from being anyone''s match! Still, as the attacker, there is only one way for him to advance, and that is to defeat the guy in front of him and only then start his 10 minutes of defense. This is something that Arlan and Yusa can''t help him with. Joty then greeted his teeth and charged forward, but just as he was about to use his first skill, he saw something weird. There was a small energy dot floating close to his opponent''s waist. For a second, Joty wondered if this was some defense skill from his opponent. But suddenly, that small dot started to pulse and change positions according to what his opponent did. But that wasn''t what caught Joty''s attention, what really surprised him was that every time that energy dot pulsed, his dantian pulsed together. It felt like both of them were connected somehow. As mentioned before, Joty is a Core Formation Realm cultivator, it''s just that in the Illusion Realm, he can only show the power of a peak Foundation Establishment. However, his connection with his soul inside his core is still there, even though he can''t use its power. "Is it telling me to target that point?" As if answering his question, the energy dot and his dantian pulsed once more as soon as he finished asking. Joty had no time to think anymore and decided that it was worth a try. "I already have no chance of winning anyway, then so be it." Joty gathered his energy and attacked directly at that point. Even though the dot kept moving, Joty felt like he knew where it would go, and his weapon and skill followed the path perfectly. His opponent noticed Joty''s attack and immediately used a defensive skill. But he was surprised, he could feel that Joty''s attack power wasn''t anything significant. Still, he didn''t let his guard down. In his mind, anyone who got this far definitely isn''t weak. So he put his all into defending that attack since his opponent might just be faking weakness. What happened next made the blood of Joty''s opponent go cold! His skill, which he was very confident in, suddenly crumbled like a sandcastle! It didn''t put any resistance against Joty''s attack at all! Joty''s opponent wanted to dodge, but it was as if Joty''s weapon was alive. it didn''t matter what he did, the weapon followed him. It destroyed any defense he could put on that time. "Swish!" One slash and Joty''s opponent Dantian was destroyed! Joty''s opponent eyes opened wide! The other cultivators and demon beast who stayed outside also had the same reaction! But the one who was closest to have his eyes coming out of their sockets was Joty himself! "What the hell?!!!" Joty couldn''t believe what just happened. How could he have won this fight so easily? What was the energy dot? What does it have to do with his Dantian? What is that feeling of connection between him and that dot? Joty had thousands of questions, but no one to answer! But he also noticed something, the dot that showed him the way through the enemy''s flaw disappeared! Not to mention that Joty doesn''t even know how it appeared to start with! Still, everyone outside saw how Joty easily defeated his opponent in one move with such a weak attack. They all immediately lost any hope of defeating him. What if he decides to go all out? It is already good that he showed mercy and didn''t kill the guy! 10 minutes passed fast, and Yusa, Arlan, and Joty also appeared inside the 99th floor. As for Ao and Ula? Both of them are strong to start with, and with a door with four slots on top of that, they quickly got a slot and entered the next level as well. The 99th floor! Also, the last one! Those who enter the next will have advanced into the next test. £¬ Chapter 148 - Will! On the last floor, Krune appeared with Shinja and the others, but there was one thing different this time. As soon as Krune spread his Divine Sense, he could see hundreds of contestants! He immediately spotted Colen, Nala, and Gomat in the middle of the group. In fact, there wasn''t even a need for Divine Sense. One just had to look around, and they would be able to see everyone! Krune soon found Ao, Arlan, Yusa, and... "Wait! Is that Joty?!" Krune then immediately sent a Divine Sense message to everyone, and they soon gathered. Krune looked at Joty as if he was seeing a ghost. Considering the difficulty of the levels after the 90th floor, he didn''t have much hope of seeing Joty arriving here. "That''s surprising, you really did pass the first test." Joty seemed a little sad with that comment since it was evident that no one expected him to be on this level. But then again, he knows that they aren''t wrong either. If not for that strange Energy Dot, he would definitely have been eliminated. "I will explain it later after we leave this place." Krune agreed with him since the situation seemed too strange at the moment. While Krune had spread his Divine Sense to find everyone, he also noticed that it reached the end of this floor on all sides. That meant that this 99th level is very small. Another thing is that he didn''t find any door in his Divine Sense either. Krune then looked at Ao''s side and saw someone that he didn''t know. But after checking the Moon Wolf, he was surprised! He could feel the power of the Tribulation Lightning inside Ula. "And this is?" Ao then introduced Ula to everyone. "Oh, this is the female Moon Wolf Ula, and she joined us on the 98th floor. She can also use Tribulation Lightning just like you." Ula''s eyes had been fixed on Krune from the moment they approached each other. She also could feel the presence of the Tribulation Lightning inside Krune''s wisp core. But what really surprised her was obviously, Krune''s race! "Are you a wisp?" Krune confirmed. "Yeap, is that a problem?" Ula then asked with a surprised face. "Can you really use Tribulation Lightning?" She couldn''t believe that a wisp could resist the Heavenly Tribulation and even retain the Tribulation Power within himself. Ao understood what she was thinking and then said. "Cough, cough. You are underestimating Krune way too much, he is definitely strong too." Ula was still somewhat doubtful, though. Suddenly, Ula used her own Tribulation Lightning movement and charged at Krune! Ao and everyone else''s face immediately changed! Ao tried to stop her Ula before she made a fool of herself, but it was too late. As for Yusa and everyone else? They just sighed and shook her heads. This Moon Wolf could only blame herself now. Ula quickly approached Krune with arcs of purple lightning around her. She was definitely faster than Arlan or Ao. Unfortunately for her, Ula just had to use Tribulation Lightning in front of Krune. Just as she was about to land an attack at him, the Tribulation Lightning around her body disappeared! But she had no time to think about it since the wisp that was supposed to be in front of her disappeared as well! Before she could even finish spreading her Divine Sense to look for him, she noticed that she couldn''t move! For some inexplicable reason, the Tribulation Lightning power inside her body was restricting her own movements! It was then that she heard a voice come from her side. "The worst decision of your life was to use Tribulation Lightning in front of me!" Krune used an earth element attack and knocked Ula away. In fact, it looked like a simple first made with earth and Spiritual Energy and nothing more. Ula wasn''t severely injured or anything. Still, she understood that she was only alive because Krune wished so. Otherwise, he could totally kill her! She couldn''t believe it, not only is Krune able to use Tribulation Lightning, he can even control the Tribulation Lightning of others too! "How did you do that?" Krune heard that question and just chuckled. "That''s a secret, but I can tell you that probably no one at my level has better control over Tribulation Lightning than me!" Krune used the word ''probably'' because he isn''t full of himself. A universe is a gigantic place! Who knows what he could find out there? Maybe someone also had a ''Light Spirit'' of their own who could be even better at controlling this power than him. Of course, if Light Spirit had heard what Krune thought, he would definitely burst in a rage, saying that there isn''t anyone like him. Ula then calmed herself and stod up, the Tribulation Lightning in her body was back to normal, and she could use it again. Still, she now had a fearful impression of Krune, this isn''t someone she can afford to offend! Ula then came in front of Krune and apologized. "It was my mistake for judging you because of your race, I''m sorry." For Krune, almost anything can be resolved with the right words, so obviously, he didn''t mind Ula''s actions anymore. Not to mention that he didn''t feel any killing intent coming from her to start with. It was then that he received a Divine Sense message from Ao. "She looks like a tough girl, but she has quite a soft heart, though." Ao then explained what he had seen from her in the last two floors. Although she destroyed her opponents, she never did enough damage to kill anyone of them. Ao then explained how he decided to move with her and why. Which made Krune''s impression of the Moon Wolf to improve a little more. But there was one thing that Krune couldn''t understand. In fact, no one else could either, not even Ao. It is the fact that Ula kept glued at Ao 100% of the time. In the end, she just said that Ao smelled good, but they didn''t think that this could be a good reason for such behavior, Ao included. Krune then just sent a Divine Sense message to Ao asking him to be careful. They haven''t known this Moon Wolf for long, after all. Who knows if she has some ulterior motives? --- Time passed, and a few more battles here and there occurred because of several different reasons. Still, the majority kept quiet together with their own groups or alone in a corner in case of those who didn''t have any friends in this place. Now and then, a new cultivator or demon beast appeared, and they usually were full of injuries. It was evident that those were the slots that had gone through several battles until a winner was found. Around one hour and a half later, one last cultivator appeared, and the whole floor appearance changed. Suddenly, one enormous door appeared on the north side of the room, but surprisingly, no slots could be seen around. The cultivators and demon beasts were puzzled at what to do when suddenly, a voice reached everyone''s ears. "Congratulations on reaching the 99th floor! You might have already noticed, but for those who didn''t, you better know that at the moment, the number of contestants is almost exactly 10% of the total that started the test." Krune and a few others who had big enough Divine Senses had noticed that indeed. "Now then, we had said that the best 10% to reach the top would pass the first test and proceed to the next, but we lied! There had never been a second test to start with. Everything would be decided inside the hundred floors tower! Well, if you wish, you can consider that next door as the second test, I don''t mind." The voice then continued. "The reason we didn''t say it at first was so that we could check whose of you would put the best effort even though it was still the first test. Of course, it doesn''t mean that you will fail if you haven''t. There are even a few of you that wouldn''t be able to show everything you had since there wasn''t any worthy opponent, after all. This was just something for us to have a better understanding of you." Although it wasn''t everyone, the majority was indeed not expecting it. Some even cursed themselves for having hold back so much. It was a good chance to show their good traits even more, but now it was too late. Still, it seems like the chance of joining the sect hasn''t changed. The sect would probably use the results of this test to assign each cultivator or demon beast to a specific elder or something like that. The elder then continued. "Lastly, let''s talk about the new door that you can see. We already have a good grasp of the majority''s power, so we have no need for battles or competitions anymore. That door is called the pressure door, and it will do exactly as the name says. Pressure!" "But the pressure we are talking about isn''t the one generated by weight, gravity or anything like that, but by cultivation level! At the end of the door, there is one elder of the sect at the peak of the Void Breaking Realm. He will then release the pressure of his realm to suppress the cultivators and demon beasts that enter." "The further you go, the higher your chance of passing the test. There is no need to worry about the cultivation difference between your opponents. In this Illusion Realm, we can guarantee that no one can do anything above the peak of the Foundation Establishment. Even those below it had their cultivations boosted to the peak as well." "In the end, the pressure that everyone will receive is exactly the same, what is being tested in this door is nothing more than your will! If you lack a strong will, you shall fail. Otherwise, raise above your opponents and show what you are capable of!" "Finally, once you enter the door, any attacks are prohibited! I said it before, we don''t need to check your battle prowess anymore. As for the pressure released by our elder, you have no need to worry. He won''t make it easier or harder for anyone. First, because he would be courting death to do that in front of Divine View and Divine Path Realm cultivators and demon beasts overseeing the test. Second, because he is inside of a formation that makes it impossible for him to distinguish the contestants outside even with his Divine Sense." "Alright, I have said enough. The test will start in 10 minutes, so get ready!" Those last words made quite a few contestants curse the elder inwardly. They had just come out of big fights and are in poor condition, how is it fair?! But before anyone could complain, the ground of the 99th started to shine! A second later, every single cultivator and demon beast was fully healed and not filling the least bit tired. Only now they remembered, they are inside of an illusion realm! If the Divine Path Sect wishes it, they can be even brought back from death here. It is all an illusion, after all! Chapter 149 - Not Giving Up Yet? After the time was over, everyone was already in front of the door. Krune''s group and the other Major Cores were at the forefront. There are very few groups with more than 3 or 4 contestants remaining. And the Major Cores are one good example of those out of the norm. In Makui Planet''s side, eight contestants were remaining, Krune, Ao, Arlan, Yusa, Shinja, Tasier, Joty, and Lofa. Ula is not from their Planet, so she couldn''t exactly be counted in the same group. Nala''s group had a total of 9, which is already counting her and her sister. Krune and Nala haven''t met each other during the previous floors. Still, now all Major Cores are together, which made it very interesting to watch. Gomat had a total of 11, Krune''s group, obviously, wasn''t the only one to separate after the number of slots wasn''t enough anymore. Finally, Colen was the one with the most remaining participants. His group had a total of 14, and that was counting with him. Even though Krune''s group was the Planet with the least amount between the Major Cores, it didn''t matter at this point anymore. Not to mention that the difference in their Planet''s powers and the number of contestants that came was also big. If anything, Krune''s group was the one to lose the least amount of participants proportionally to their initial number. --- The door finally opened, and the groups and lonely ones started to enter. Immediately, the pressure of the peak of the Void Breaking Realm assaulted everyone who stepped inside. There were even some who fell on their knees as soon as they tried to move ahead. As said before, this is a test of will, physical abilities and cultivation have no meaning here. Between the four Major Core groups, no one seemed to have any problems moving forward. It was as if there wasn''t any pressure to start with. But deep inside, it was different. Take Lofa, for example. Although she did resist the wave of pressure, she still got affected by it. But because she didn''t want to look bad in front of Krune, she greeted her teeth and kept walking forward. In a certain way, that is also a type of will. Slowly, everyone moved forward. So far, no one had given up or lost consciousness yet. Not even those who were struck down at the start. They sat down and let their bodies get used to the pressure, after some time, they also stood up and moved ahead. It wasn''t before 537 meters into the door that the first cultivator passed out. The guy was someone from the Jalo Planet, ranked 1439th. Fortunately for the Jalo Planet, he wasn''t their only contestant in this place at the moment. His two companions, one girl and demon beast, looked at him and tried to help, but before they could even touch his body, it disappeared in thin air. The only thing they knew was that their companion wasn''t dead. He only fainted, after all. After his bode disappeared, something that looked like a flag made of energy appeared in his place. After the contestants used their Divine Sense to check, they noticed some information flowing in their minds. "Jalo Planet, Marui Haveny, 537meters." Everyone who saw that finally understood how they would be classified. It won''t matter if you are sent out first or last. Once again, the contestants got the certainty that only the total distance mattered. Of course, if you got the far ahead faster than the others but finished around the same distance, you would still be considered better by the Sect. It would show that your will is stronger. Marui''s faint seemed to have activated a chain reaction, and more and more contestants started to pass out and their bodies disappearing. Some were worse than Marui, others were better. Still, no one knew just how many would pass. From what they heard from their elders and relatives, the Divine Path Sect usually enrolls around 1% to 2% of all contestants who came for the exam. But that wasn''t absolute either. There had been cases where not even 0.1% passed and also others where over 2% got in too. In the end, those numbers are just an average, nothing more. On Krune''s group side, things were still pretty okay. Of course, the Major Core groups aren''t the only ones doing well either. Strong-willed geniuses are definitely what the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam doesn''t lack. But the contestants around Krune group were feeling like they wanted to skin Krune''s group alive. Even though they were still okay, they are still putting some effort to resist the pressure. As for Krune''s group? Well... "I''m telling you! Spiritual Brazed Pork Ribs is definitely the best choice for dinner after we leave here." Ao shook his head. "I disagree, cooled spiritual rice with four winged eagles eggs in the right choice! Our bodies outside haven''t eaten for quite some time, we need something light." Shinja then commented. "We are cultivators and demon beasts, there is no way our stomachs would be that weak. Still, I also don''t want Brazed Pork Ribs. We should instead make a three-legged chicken soup with spirit water mushrooms!" Yusa looked at Shinja and complained. "Why you like mushrooms everywhere? By the way, I don''t care much about the food, but make sure to bring a lot of spirit wine!" ''...'' How could the other contestants around not be angry at that? Here are them, suffering to move forward and to be approved inside the Sect, but Krune''s group minds aren''t even inside the test to start with. Food? Why the hell would you care about that at this point? Everyone had been led astray by Krune''s love for food weirdness. Of course, this is the case only for those with Spiritual Energy Meridians in his group. As mentioned a long time back, the Spiritual Energy Meridians have a strong effect on the soul. Let''s not even mention the fact that Krune''s little group had their soul tempered as well in the old Rainbow Sect. It helped them even more! Tasier and Lofa were having a hard time just like the other competitors around, though. Still, there was nothing that Krune''s little group of five could do for them. They don''t even know the existence of the Spiritual Energy Meridians, let alone try to create them now. As for Ula, she was doing pretty fine for herself. Tribulation Lightning is something both good and bad at the same time. That tyrannical power can also injure the user even during practice! So, just like Krune, she had her own taste of Tribulation Lightning backlashes. It helped fortify her will quite a lot too. On the other Major Core groups side, a few of them were also starting to feel the difficulty. There would always be those who got to their positions more easily due to their own powers'' help. This test just so happened to be targeted at them, too. --- 2km inside the last door, the number of participants had already fallen to less than half of the start. In the Major Core groups, two had already passed out, one in Colen''s group and the other in Nala''s group. Gomat''s Planet is occupied majorly by demon beasts, and there are no things like safe and danger zones, so battle there are much more frequent. That helped to temper the will of the participants of his Planet. Between the four Major Cores groups, Gomat''s group was the one that seemed to take it the easiest when you consider the entire group as a whole. On Krune''s side, he could see the Lofa was already nearing her limit. Lofa is, without a doubt, the one with the weakest will in his group. In fact, it was already very good for her to get this far. Shinja saw that and then said. "You don''t need to keep moving forward since what counts is the total distance you traversed. Sit down and let your body get used to the pressure, quite a few from the other Major Core groups already did the same. Don''t forget, what matters about this last door is to pass the exam, not to show your strength." Lofa then looked at everyone, and they nodded at her. She then let out a sigh and sat down. "You are right, just go ahead without me, I will rest a little." It was then that another voice appeared. "I will also take this chance to rest then." It was Tasier who spoke. He could have proceeded further, but he is also feeling the fatigue catching him up. So he decided to stay behind with Lofa. Ao then looked at Joty and asked if he was okay, but surprisingly, Joty was doing just fine. Joty was just about to explain when Arlan did that in his instead. "This last door is a test of will. In this case, I can guarantee that Joty will be one of those at the top." Joty then scratched the back of his head a little embarrassed with the compliment. But that also felt really good, ever since they started this hundred tower test, Krune''s little group had always worried if he could continue ahead or not. It was the first time since then that he received a vote of trust. Arlan then continued. "In the Divine Swords Sect, Joty is probably one of those who fought for better benefits for himself the most. He might not be very known outside the Sect, but inside, he is quite a legend for everyone with lower cultivations. So, believe me, if it is just ''will,'' he definitely won''t have a problem in passing this last door. Of course, I''m also a legend myself there now. Hahahaha!" Krune and the others nodded and then continued. Even though they could simply wait for Lofa to rest, no one knows that if there is any difference in the exam results if they get to the end faster. There is no time limit for this test, but nothing is saying that they won''t get anything better for being ahead of time. Not to mention, Krune also wants to test himself against the other Major Core owners. He wants to see who between them has the strongest will, and for that, pausing to rest would obviously show a difference in their standings. Lofa didn''t mind that at all, she was someone with no hope of passing this test to start with. But now, thanks to Krune''s group, she got this far! If anything, she is more than happy with her actual accomplishments. Tasier saw how Lofa looked at Krune, moving in the distance, and couldn''t help but ask. "Not giving up yet?" Lofa, of course, understood his words meaning. "Not before I see the conclusion of his matter with that Feifei girl." Tasier then sighed and didn''t say anything else. Chapter 150 - What the Hell Am I Thinking? The test continued, and more contestants failed. By now, not even half remained. As for the Major Core owners groups, they were still at the very forefront with a few other geniuses of other planets. Krune had already identified the third Tribulation Lightning user too. It was a cultivator called Mirrer from the Ostreli Planet, ranked 791th in the Divine Path Sect territory. Mirrer had approached Krune and Ula by himself since he also could feel the power of the Tribulation Lightning coming from them. It turns out that Mirrer was quite an easy-going guy who was fanatic with speed. He specialized himself in Lightning Element when he was at the Qi Condensation Realm. But thanks to his foundation, he also attracted a Heavenly Tribulation during his Foundation Establishment breakthrough. When he noticed the Heavenly Tribulation coming for him, instead of feeling afraid, he got excited instead! In his mind, Tribulation Lightning would definitely make him even faster! The rest you can already imagine, he found a way to resist the tribulation and was crazy enough to try to keep some of it inside his foundation. Most would say that it was suicide, but he being alive here together with Krune and Ula is the proof that it is still possible. Of course, it goes without saying that Mirrer also had his own share of Tribulation Lightning backlashes and injuries during his path. Hence, it was evident that he has a strong will. --- 4km inside the last door, the number of contestants in the forefront has declined quite a lot, and the overall remaining were around 30% of the initial amount. Lofa and Tasier had already got used to the pressure back then and continued walking forward too. Of course, they wouldn''t be able to catch up tp Krune''s group anymore. Between the Four Major Cores groups, Gomat''s group was still at the top in the strength of will. In his group, only two had stayed behind, and it wasn''t that they failed, they just stopped to acclimate themselves with the pressure to continue walking later. Colen''s group of 14 is now only 7 in total, which is counting Colen himself. Of those seven that were still participating, three already fell behind due to not being able to take the pressure any longer. So they sat some time ago to get used to it before continuing. Nala''s group could be said to be the weakest one. Her Planet isn''t a strong one to start with, so, other than her, most of her group are not that strong-willed. In fact, even Nala isn''t that much stronger. It is thanks to her Life Major Core, which has a great influence on her soul that she can still keep up the pace. As for Krune''s group? They had been the same ever since Lofa and Tasier stayed behind. On the way, Joty had told them several stories during his time on the Divine Swords Sect, which Arlan confirmed to be true. After hearing all of that, they came to understand why this guy''s will was so strong. The number of opponents and fights he had to overcome to get in that position was ridiculous. They even wondered how he can still keep his cool that easily. "Haha! Once you lose your mind, you lose your path. At least, that''s what I believe. The Divine Swords Sect is considered the strongest Sect in the Makui Continent. The reason for that is exactly that, inside there, dog eats dog. Of course, once you are outside of the Divine Swords Sect, they are extremely united! That is indeed a very good sect if you want to temper your will. Arlan can confirm it with you all." Arlan nodded. "That''s true, but I haven''t stayed so much inside as Joty did. As you know, I''m first a member of the Mercenary Guild, so I still spent more time on Mercenary Missions than the Divine Sword Sect''s ones. Of course, don''t think about the Divine Swords Sect like some hell. Killing or crippling members is forbidden, and death is the only outcome for those who break the rules." Joty sighed and couldn''t help but comment. "If the other members of the Divine Sword Sect had reached this place, I believe that they would have got a high chance of passing this last door too." That made Arlan remember Mina, who had to give up in the end. But what is done is done, and he can still bring her with him after. --- At the 5km Mark, only the real deal cultivators and demon beasts remained. Without any surprise, between the Major Core Owners, Nala was the first one to stop to recover and get used to the pressure. As for her group, they had long since stayed behind. Nala noticed the difference between her and the other three and greeted her teeth. "It seems like I have had too little experiences. I can''t tell how Krune is since his wisp form has no expression, but it is clear that Colen and Gomat are still taking it well. Once I enter the Sect, I will immediately leave to hone myself outside." --- At the 6km Mark, Colen''s group only had 2 people following him. Gomat''s group still had 5, while Krune kept the same number. Colen and Gomat finally started to pay attention to Yusa, Shinja, and the others. They didn''t expect them to be this strong-willed too. But in truth, only the Major Core Owners and the two Tribulation Lightning users were still somewhat fine. Be it Colen, Gomat, or Krune''s group, they finally started to feel the difficulty. Joty had a strong will, no one can deny that now. Still, he doesn''t have the Spiritual Energy Meridians, nor did he temper his soul in the Rainbow Sect before. So he was the first one to stop to recover between Krune''s group. Gomat''s group number had declined to only 4 while Colen was now alone. Finally, at 9km distance, Gomat became the only remaining contestant of his group too. Krune''s group was the only one that still had members other than Krune himself. Still, Yusa and Arlan had also stopped to recover a while ago. As for the Tribulation Lightning users, Ula and Mirrer started to show some discomfort but still kept the pace. Of course, you can''t take that only they remained. At the forefront, there were still a few more cultivators and demon beasts from other planets. You never know what those guys had gone through to reach this place. Some of them might have gone through real hells to get in here, so their will was also strong. --- The test continued, and at the 10km Mark, a change ocurred. Suddenly, the pressure doubled! "Argh!" No one expected that, even Krune. Everyone in the front stopped after that. Around them, they could see quite a few contestants who immediately passed out and their bodies disappeared. In their place, there was only a flag made of energy with information about their accomplishment. In the middle of this group, Shinja was included. Even with her Spiritual Energy Meridians, she couldn''t resist the elder''s pressure and passed out as well. Krune and Ao then sighed and checked her energy flag. "Shinja Avril, Makui Planet, 10000 meters, 1 hour, 37 minutes and 16 seconds." With this wave alone, more than half of the remaining participants at the forefront were sent out. The number now was only 9. Krune looked around and could see who they were. It included himself, Ao, Colen, Gomat, Ula, and Mirrer. Unfortunately, Krune didn''t know the identity of the other 3. Krune then looked at Ao and said. "The pressure is too great, let''s stop for a while and recover." Ao nodded and sat down. They weren''t the only ones, Goma, Colen, and everyone else did the same. What no one noticed is that... Krune was still fine! This is another good thing about his wisp form, no one can tell if he is suffering or not in this situation. Krune being the one in the best condition, was still expected, though. First, he has 9 Elemental Meridians, the evolved form of the Spiritual Energy Meridians! Second, he has Tribulation Lightning, and he was crazy enough to temper his soul with it! Third, he is also a Major Core owner. All Major Cores have an influence on the owners'' souls, consequently, their will! With all those advantages, it would be weird if Krune had the same reaction as everyone else, and that''s exactly what he wants to compare with the other Major Cores. Still, Krune stayed with Ao until he felt better to continue. His habit of not trying to catch attention was here to say hi once more. Too bad, though. Who were the ones controlling this illusion realm? The Divine Path Sect Core Elders! The moment that Krune received the double of the pressure, they immediately noticed his condition. "What a terrifying will!" Gile commented. Tiago heard that and nodded. "Although I was already expecting him to have the strongest one, I didn''t expect it to be this heaven-defying! I guess that''s what you get when you combine Major Core with Tribulation Lightning. Not to mention the Mohie Sect Soul Tempering that he probably had gone through." Gile and Jin agreed with him. "Let''s see how far he can go." --- After everyone had spent their own time recovering, some of them finally started to get up and continued walking forward against the pressure. But Krune didn''t move, he waited for Ao and Ula to be ready. A few minutes later, Ao finally opened his eyes and got up. His face was pale, but he could at least walk again. But before that, Krune spread his Divine Sense and found where Arlan, Yusa, and the others were. He then told them about what is going to happen in the 10km mark and that they should be prepared for that. Ula got up on her paws a minute later and looked at Ao, his appearance was of somewhat fighting with all his strength against the pressure. For some reason, it seemed like Ao''s smell got even better after she saw that. She couldn''t help but feel like throwing herself into his arms and ask to be petted. But she quickly shook her head. ''What the hell am I thinking?!'' She then focused on the path ahead, and Krune''s group finally started to move again. Chapter 151 - The End of the Hundred-Floor Tower The group moved forward at slow steps. Colen was already showing an ugly face with each meter moved. Gomat was also suffering, but not as much as Colen. Ao, Mirrer, and Ula were more or less at the same condition as Colen too. As for Krune, well, he was following Ao and the others at his own pace. He could have gone ahead, but he didn''t want to catch attention. Between 10500 and 11000 meters mark, Colen, Ula, and another two guys that Krune didn''t know the name finally reached their limits. There was no such thing as sitting and get used to the pressure anymore. Once they stopped, that would be because they can''t resist. Just like that, those four lost their consciousness, and only their energy flags were left behind. The remaining participants are now Krune, Gomat, Ao, Mirrer, and the guy that Krune doesn''t know. Surprisingly, Ao had resisted to this point, which amazed Krune a lot. But now wasn''t the time to talk to him since he could see that Ao was very close to his limit, it won''t take long before he also passes out. Mirrer was in the same state as Ao. It was a wonder to guess who would fall first. Gomat proved that he really came from a Planet with its majority being demon beasts. He was obviously putting a lot of effort, but Krune could see that it wasn''t his limit yet, Gomat can still move further! One really can''t doubt the will of a dragon! At 11259 meters, Mirrer passed out too. At 11423 meters, Ao couldn''t hold anymore and followed suit. At 11972 meters, that guy that Krune didn''t know the name bid farewell to the last door too. Gomat looked at Krune, and one could see a smile on his dragon face. He even had the luxury to send Krune a Divine Sense message. "Haha! I knew it! You were indeed the one to fight me in the end." Krune then replied back. "You are also amazing. As expected of a dragon, even their will is unfathomable!" Gomat slowly shook his head with some difficulty. "The fact that I have a Yang Core and I''m a dragon indeed helped. But what really tempered my will was the years of constant battles that I had undergone on my Planet and outside of it. I had experienced Life and Death situations more times than I can count already." Krune believed him, if not for his several cheats, he probably would have passed out too. Still, everyone has their own luck, and one can''t make little of the fact that Krune was the one who found about the Myriad Energy Techniques by himself. It is only right that he can use it without thinking that he is being unfair. Gomat and Krune pressed forward. 12km... 12.5km... 13km... "Argh" Finally, Gomat couldn''t resist anymore. In fact, at this distance, even Krune was felling challenging to move forward as well. If his conjecture isn''t wrong, he would at most be able to another kilometer if he kept this pace. After all, the further you go, the stronger the elder''s pressure is. Gomat looked at Krune and used his last bit of strength to send him a Divine Message again. "It was only an idea, but now I''m certain that this is not your limit! Show me what you are capable of, you definitely can go further, I know that." And then, Gomat''s dragon body disappeared. Krune was taken aback by those words, his idea was to move just a few more meters and then willingly give up. But after what Gomat said, he was conflicted. Gomat had done his best to challenge him until the very end, and Krune hates the idea of not giving his all after his opponent showed so much effort. "Very well, whatever happens, happens! It''s not like I can catch more attention than I already got anyway." Poor Krune had no idea how wrong he was. Krune thought that he would be able to move at most one more Kilometer with his actual speed, but that was only with this speed alone. Suddenly, Tribulation Lightning started to flow around his body, and Krune looked ahead. Then, with a flash of purple light, Krune disappeared from where he was! Krune''s idea was simple and straight forward. Since he can only move another kilometer at a slow pace, he will bear the grunt of the increased pressure all at once and move forward until he passes out too. The elders outside looked at that and were amazed. "What?! He can still move like that?" Gile was taken aback, even he didn''t expect Krune to be this bold. Jin and Tiago were also excited about that image. "Just how far can he get? Can he pass the previous record of 16.7km?" This was a record achieved by another Major Core owner over 50 thousand years ago, so not many could remember it. That Major Core owner was still in the Sect until now, though. Not only that, but he was also watching the test from his secluded place at the moment. His name was Lucio Koffel, the Divine Path Sect Sect-Head! The hundred-floor tower test only happens once every 1000 years. As for the cultivation pressure door, it is only added as part of the hundred-floor tower around every 10000! But today, there has been an exception, the pressure door was used again just 6540 years after the last time. The Sect Head was watching it with a thoughtful expression. He then thought about something that happened around 5 to 6 years ago. That day, he was coming back from an inspection of a branch of the Sect when he bumped into another spaceship. That spaceship was none other than the Wang Clan''s one! From inside, he could see Old Uncle Feng staring at him with Feifei by his side. At that time, he received a Divine Sense message from the old guy. "During your next Entrance Exam, you might want to put a little more effort into it. You will probably find someone you will really like at that time too." After that, the Wang Clan''s Spaceship departed, and Uncle Feng did not answer the Sect Head''s Divine Sense message when he asked what he was talking about. But as the Sect Head of the Divine Path Sect, he obviously recognized Uncle Feng with a single glance and couldn''t help but think. ''Feng the Crazy! I received information that he was under orders to protect a little girl from the Wang Clan. At first, I didn''t believe that. Why would a legendary figure like him waste his time to take care of a little girl? Even if it was the Wang Clan''s Head daughter, it was still asking too much of him.'' It was then that he remembered a rumor about the Wang Clan. ''They said that the Wang Clan gave birth to a Major Core owner. That itself isn''t very important, with the number of planets that each of our territories has, a Major Core still appears every few years. Sometimes even 2 or 3 appear in a span of 10 to 20 years. The problem is that there is a specific Major Core that is extremely hard to appear between them. Could the rumors be true, is it that little girl?'' In the end, after hearing that it would be someone that he would like, he decided to bring forward the same test that he had undergone in the past. The cultivation pressure door! The same one in which he detains the record of 16.7km! When he saw krune using that method to advance, the Sect Head eyes lit up! That was exactly the same thing he did in the past to beat the previous record too! Of course, such action would usually be considered suicide since you will receive the full increase of pressure way too fast. But! There is one thing that others haven''t considered before. If you are still feeling okay with the pressure on you and not on your limit. You can try to take all at once while you still can hold. This method doesn''t work for those who are at their limit. In fact, it is also very risky even for those who are still feeling okay since it will be like they were hammered with all the pressure at once! Chances are that If you can''t hold that impact, you will immediately pass out, and your final result will be even worse than if you had moved ahead slowly. --- Krune''s trail of purple lightning was increasing in size while his mind was entirely focused on resisting the pressure. 13.5km... 14km... 14.5km... 15km... The full impact of the elder''s cultivation pressure was making Krune grunt in pain, and he was almost reaching his limit. As far as he can see, he definitely can''t reach the 16km mark. But that was also good, he already gave his all anyway. Just as Krune was about to give up to the pressure and pass out, the long silent Light Spirit finally spoke for the first time during this test. "Use your Elemental Source Energy that you had been accumulating to guard your soul! This is an Illusion Realm, so your real Elemental Source Energy won''t be used anyway." Krune was taken aback at that idea, and he couldn''t help but ask. "But isn''t Elemental Source Energy something that was supposed to be used by Core Formation Realm cultivators? This Illusion Realm is blocking anyone from doing anything above the peak of the Foundation Establishment!" Light Spirit answered immediately. "Wrong! This illusion Realm in preventing anyone from doing anything that they were capable of ''AFTER'' breaking through the Core Formation Realm. You got your Elemental Source Energy while you were still inside the Foundation Establishment Realm, so it definitely isn''t something that goes against the rules of this Illusion Realm. If you don''t believe me, try it out." Krune didn''t have time to discuss anymore since he was already on the verge of losing his consciousness. He then focused on the Elemental Source Energy that he kept for his Core Formation Realm breakthrough and enveloped his soul with that energy. Sure enough, the moment that the Elemental Source Energy took its place, the pressure reduced significantly. Krune was ecstatic with that result and once more dashed forward. Even though he is using the Elemental Source Energy, the pressure was still tough to resist. Not to mention that he is using so much of it that the little bit that he accumulated won''t last more than 30 seconds or so. 15.5km... 16km... 16.5km... Lucio and the Core Elders'' eyes lit up at that point, and they were extremely excited! "Elemental Source Energy! It''s Elemental Source Energy! He can already gather Elemental Source Energy even before breaking through the Core Formation Realm!" Neither the Sect Head nor the Core Elders thought that Krune was cheating. Just what kind of Illusion Formation was the one that Krune was inside? It was the Divine Path Sect Illusion Realm Formation! Let alone a Foundation Establishment, even a Void Breaking Realm Cultivator or Demon Beast wouldn''t be able to go against its rules! "He can do it!" 16.6... 16.7... 16.8... Lucio was already laughing out loud! "He really has done it! He''s mine! I want to see who will fight against me for him!" But Krune didn''t stop there. "I can still go further!" 17km... 17.5km... 18km... Finally, at the 18329 meters, Krune''s Elemental Energy Source run out, and he was assaulted by the Void Breaking Realm elder pressure. In fact, even if his Elemental Energy Source hadn''t been used, he still wouldn''t have moved more than 1 or 2 hundred meters. The pressure at that point was so high that even it couldn''t protect Krune''s soul anymore. Krune then lost his consciousness right after, and his energy flag appeared in the place where he was a moment ago. --- The test still continued for those all the way back who hadn''t fainted or given up yet, only after one hour did the final cultivator pass out and the test finished. After that, the illusion realm broke apart, and the Formation propelling it was deactivated. Everyone opened their eyes at the same time, they then looked around and noticed that they were all back to the field before the test started. Then, on the monitors that everyone could see, the results were already out. Krune, of course, was the first place by far! Chapter 152 - Paying Respects to the Sect Master! But suddenly, Krune noticed that he was already in his human form again. When he looked at himself, he let out a sigh of relief. In the real world, he was still wearing clothes. One must remember that when a demon beast transforms back into their human form, clothes don''t merely magically appear on their bodies. They need to dress again after they take the human form. But it seems like Krune and all the other demon beasts in human form did not revert into their original forms outside the Illusion Realm. Leaving this issue behind, Krune and everyone paid attention to the displays. Of course, the majority didn''t know what those distance numbers meant. Still, the ones who participated in the pressure door couldn''t be more familiar with it. Colen, Nala, and Gomat had looks of disbelief on their faces. Even Gomat, who knew that Krune could go further, didn''t expect him to move THIS further. What kind of crazy will is that? Slowly, the contestants started to remember the events inside the hundred floors tower. Especially those who failed earlier, after that were eliminated, they were not expelled outside of the Illusion Realm but stayed in a dormant state for the rest of the time. "Does it mean that this Krune got the first place?" "But isn''t the difference between him and the second way too absurd? Is it really right?" "That''s too crazy, can the Major Core be so different in the will alone?" Nala was the one with the most complex feelings. She also had a Major Core, but even after stopping to rest and then continue moving forward, all she did was get to the 9.2km mark before passing out. She couldn''t even reach the 10km where the pressure was supposed to double. Even if she had, she would definitely have passed out there and then. ''As soon as everything is dealt with, I''ll immediately leave the Sect for missions. So what if the Life Major Core is best for healing and not battle? The last test tested our will, not the battle prowess. But even with my Life Core, I couldn''t get close to Colen or Gomat, let alone Krune, that won''t do!'' Determination could be seen on Nala''s face. Her sister, Nadia, noticed the complex expression or her sister''s face and understood why she felt like that. With such a big difference in the results, it would be weird if she was okay instead. Colen was also looking at that with narrowed eyes. He knew that he probably wouldn''t rank first when he heard that it was a will test. He spent most of his time training in his clan, after all. Although he also left it sometimes to experience the world, he knew it wasn''t at the level of someone like Gomat who was born and lived in the middle of the fight. Still, he didn''t expect the difference between him and Krune to be that ridiculous. ''Hmph! So what? I can still go further! From today onwards, I''m finally free from my clan''s reins. I will be able to go out and train myself just as much as any of you.'' Gomat was the only one surprised but not unhappy. If anything, he was delighted to have found someone like Krune. He is, after all, a dragon! His will depend on the challenges! What is a better challenge there than another demon beast with similar cultivation and power than him? Not to mention that Krune is a wisp! So Gomat refused to believe that he would surpass him! ''Haha! Great! This is becoming more and more interesting! It seems like that to come to the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam wasn''t a waste of time, after all.'' --- After a few minutes, the displays showing the results changed to the stage where the Core Elders were staying again. Tiago once more came forward and started to speak. "Congratulations to those who passed and thanks to those who participated. If you are under 30 years old, you can still try again in 10 years if you haven''t passed. If not, this is bound to be a great experience that will help you in your future. Not to mention that it isn''t certain that you have failed yet, but I will explain it later." Those who failed immediately looked at the stage too. Tiago then continued. "There are probably two things that you noticed. First, the time between the Illusion Realm and the outside world was different, It had been accelerated to 30 times the normal speed. So while you spent almost one month inside, only one day passed outside." "Second, everyone who was supposed to have died is still alive and kicking. You probably can remember me saying that once you died inside, you die outside too. But that was nothing more than another lie. If fact, the Sect always cooperates with all planets inside its territory to make it looks like there is a lot of deaths. But in fact, in all history of the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam, the number of deaths is just a little above eleven thousand." "Some of you might think that this is still a high number, but I must remind you that the Divine Path Sect has existed for over a million years! Each Exam would bring at least a hundred thousand participants, not to mention that the Exam almost always followed the 10 years schedule. There had been rare cases where this time between exams changed like in times of war, but that was all." Krune and everyone else couldn''t help but nod. With such an old sect and the number of contestants trying to enter it every ten years, eleven thousand is really nothing at all! Krune finally understood how the Sect managed to resolve the grudges between the participants during the Exam. Simply put, there were almost no grudges to start with, or at least not life and death ones. Very few would go so far as wanting someone else''s death just because they failed because of him or her. Not to mention that the biggest majority doesn''t even have the power to go after the culprit for their failure to start with. After all, they are probably from different planets, and most likely very far away from each other. It was also understandable why it was said that a lot of contestants died during the test. This way, every single participant would definitely give their all in order to survive. The elders of all clans, sects, or any other powers would definitely cooperate with the Divine Path Sect too. First, if they told the truth, their own contestants might relax during the Exam and fail because of that. Second, it would be going against the Divine Path Sect will, who would want to buy a fight with them? If the Geniuses really died every ten years, the overall power of the Divine Path Sect territory would plummet until it ceased to exist. After all, those geniuses that failed would still reach great weights in their own planets and territories. Not to mention that those same geniuses carry strong genetic traits that would be passed down to their descendants, which would give birth to even more geniuses in the future. All in all, the Divine Path Sect would never dare to really kill so many participants as the young ones believe them to. A Sect of this size can''t possibly guard its territory with its members alone, after all. --- "Now then, proceed with the schedule. First, let me explain about the Outer, Inner, Core, and Legacy disciples. As you probably expected, the results that you achieved during the Exam will determine the place you were sent too. Of course, the highest place someone can be sent to in the Inner Sect. That''s because to become a Core Disciple, you will need to accumulate merits! But this part will be explained by the elders in charge of the place you are all in." Everyone nodded, some already knew about this, while others were already expecting it not to be easy to become a Core or Legacy disciple. "Now, before we start to send you into the Outer and Inner sect, there is another thing we need to go through first." Tiago then looked above in the sky as if waiting for someone to come. Suddenly, several figures could be seen approaching the stage at high speeds. But the majority couldn''t determine who they were, that''s because neither of them was using a Divine Path Sect robe, but regular clothes. Of course, in the middle of everyone, there were several demon beasts in human form too, and in general, they used more casual clothes. But in general, everyone approaching the stage was well dressed according to the style of their own birth planets or what they simply liked. Quite a lot of contestants noticed clothes specific from their worlds in between and could tell that they came from the same place. But there was one thing in common between all of them, they all had the Divine Path Sect Emblem pinned on their clothes. However, although the emblems were similar, there were a few differences between them. It didn''t take long for everyone to understand that those cultivators and demon beasts were the elders of the Sect. It''s just that they didn''t think that the elder would dress so casually. They then looked at the elders like Tiago, Gile, and Jin, who were in the stage before. Before anyone could even notice, they had changed their clothes too at some point. Just what is happening here? Every single contestant or demon beast had weird expressions looking at all of that. "Haha! I love the look on your faces every time this moment comes. I even wish that the Sect made more exams just so that I could see it more often. What? Are you surprised that all the elders are not wearing the Sect''s clothes? Then let me tell you. The higher your realm, the more important your state of mind is. So the best thing is to feel good about yourself. You are free to do anything you like as long as you don''t break the Sect''s rules." Everyone here is at most in the Core Formation Realm, so things like the state of mind isn''t that important for them at the moment. Still, the majority immediately liked what they saw, especially the women! Tiago then put a serious face and said. "Alright, let''s continue with the next part. All the elders here present had watched the Exam and are now free to select anyone between those who passed to be their disciples. In fact, if they have got fancy on someone who failed, they can still use their authority to bring that person or demon beast under their wing and have them join the Sect too, so the failers still have a chance." Finally, those who failed understood what Tiago meant with his words back then. Of course, there were just around 300 elders, and the number of participants who passed the Exam was a lot bigger than that. Not to mention that there is bound to be elders who didn''t like anyone and won''t choose to start with. Just as the elders were about to select their own disciple or fight between them to get someone they liked, another person appeared in the sky. All the elders who saw that immediately stopped on their tracks and waited for him to approach. When all the contestants saw this person, which a few mouths twitched. That''s because this person''s clothes could be called anything but well dressed. He was using a pair of slippers, a t-shirt that was clearly several years old, and shorts. Everyone could see his hairy legs and his messy hair on the head. It looked more like he had just woke up. Or, to be more precise, he looked like a beggar! Of course, there were very few who had no idea who this guy was but still didn''t give a damn to how he dressed. And as you can imagine, Krune was one of them. He had never cared about clothes to start with. But everyone understood that this person is most likely another elder of the Sect. Except for some influent contestants from top-ranked planets, no one else knew who he was. It made the majority who passed to wish this elder not to select them as a disciple. It didn''t seem like anything good would happen if they were chosen by him. But the other elders'' words right after this guy appeared took everyone aback. Every single one of them bowed to this beggar and said. "Paying respects to the Sect Master!" Chapter 153 - Can I Think About It a Little? Sect... Head? Everyone felt like they were being played with. How could that beggar be the Divine Path Sect''s Sect Master? They must be kidding! Colen looked at everyone''s expressions and scoffed. As a member of the powerful Fecit Clan, he obviously knew how the Sect Master looked like. But still, Colen was also surprised, he had never heard of a time that the Sect Master appeared in the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. Could it be that he also took fancy on someone this time? Colen subconsciously looked at the wisp''s direction. But he immediately shook his head. It doesn''t matter how heaven-defying Krune is, he is still a wisp. His limited life span will be a gigantic hurdle in the further levels of cultivation. Because of that, Colen was thinking that the one who would be selected is himself or Gomat at most. Unfortunately for him, he had the wrong idea. In Colen''s mind, Krune is definitely at least 15 years old, if not close to 20. If he knew that Krune isn''t even 10 years old yet, Colen definitely wouldn''t be so sure of Krune''s chances of becoming the Sect Master''s disciple. Of course, Lucio knew about Krune''s age. It was included in the information given by Elder Loni before the test started. So he knew about Krune''s unbelievable cultivation speed! The Divine Path Sect doesn''t care about your race, only your strength, and Lucio could be said to be the very embodiment of this rule. Back then, he wasn''t considered one fo the top contestants for the first place in the Entrance Exam. In fact, he was pretty regular all the way up to the cultivation pressure door. It was only at the will test that he trashed everyone else under his feet and got the first place for the exam. --- The Sect Master then looked at the other elders and said. "You don''t mind if I select one first, right?" All the elders immediately shook their heads. It was not like he would select exactly the contestants that they are aiming anyway, and quite a few of them had more than one option in their minds too. Lucio then nodded his head satisfied and looked back at the crowd. Suddenly, he raised his hand. Then, rainbow-like energy came out of it and shot in the distance. Krune was watching what was happening in the stage through a monitor since he wasn''t close to it. The moment that he saw that energy, he immediately remembered the spiritual energy that fills his universe. It looked very much alike. He also wondered who the Sect Master would choose. Krune isn''t delusional. He understands that because he is a wisp, let alone the Sect Master, the chances of him being selected by any of the other elders were already very low. Elemental Core? Tribulation Lightning? First place in the Entrance Exam? None of those will change the fact that his wisp life span will scare away any potential masters. But that was also good, Krune didn''t even want to be chosen to start with. He already caught a lot of attention by grabbing the first place, so it is time to lay low for a while until the things calm down and everyone forgets about him... or so he thought. Suddenly, Krune noticed something strange. "Weird, why is the monitor display getting further away? Is it some kind of moving equipment? Yes, it must be..." Of course, it took only a second for Krune to notice that the one moving further away wasn''t the monitor display, but his body instead! "The hell?!" Only then did he notice that rainbow-like energy around his waist pulling him in the direction of the stage where the Sect Master was. What was more impressive was that he couldn''t feel the existence of this energy at all! If not for the fact that he is being pulled away, he wouldn''t even notice that this energy was there. Krune tried to get rid of it, but how could someone with his cultivation stop the power of the Divine Path Sect Master? Ha! What a joke! Everyone saw krune being pulled away, just like that. After all, everyone was expecting that the Sect Master was going to choose someone too. "Isn''t that guy the wisp?" "How come it''s him? What about his life span?" "It must be something else! Maybe the sect master doesn''t even want to take a disciple. It''s just that this wisp has something that he wants." Everyone had the same kind of thoughts, except for Ao and his group, of course. In their eyes, it is within reason that Krune was chosen. In the end, they believed more in Krune than Krune himself. Before Krune could make heads and tails of what was happening, he was already in front of the Sect Master. "Errr... Did I do something wrong?" Lucio''s mouth twitched a little. Why would he think that he was pulled over because he did something wrong? First of all, would he, the sect master, deal with Krune personally in that case? If there is one thing that Lucio doesn''t lack, it is subordinates to do this kind of work for him! "Cough, cough. Makui Planet''s Krune, do you accept me as your master?" Boom! Immediately, the whole field went in an uproar! "Impossible!" Colen didn''t want to believe what he just heard. "Hahahahaha!" In Gomat''s case, he was laughing out loud. He, too, didn''t believe that it would be Krune, but he didn''t care either. If anything, he finds this situation extremely funny! "Sigh, if even a wisp can do this much, I have no excuse to fall behind." As for Nala, she was a lot more composed. She knew that with her results, there would be no way that the Sect Master would choose her. --- Krune was lost. Why did the Sect Master select him? It must be a mistake! He doesn''t want to be chosen at all! Krune then looked at the Sect Master with a crying face and asked. "Can I think a little about it?" That was an unbelievable answer! Who would ask to think more about such an opportunity? But no one had time to even react to it, that''s because the Sect Master answered straight away! "Denied!" Immediately after that, the Sect Master enveloped Krune with his rainbow-like spiritual energy and... disappeared! No one knows where Krune was brought to, and one could only hear a scream in the distance. "Noooooooo!!!" Krune is bound to be in the news of the Sect, no, bound to be the in the news of the entire Divine Path Sect territory! --- Leaving Krune aside, the master-disciple selection still had to go on. Gile was feeling quite sad, he totally had the intention of fighting over Krune with anyone else. Unfortunately, this anyone else didn''t include the Sect Master! Still, he had other options, not to mention that this was an opportunity! It was an unwritten rule between the elders that each one could only take a single disciple, so he needed to select with caution. Fortunately, he had no intention of fighting over Gomat, Colen, or Nala. Although the three of them are Major Core owners, there are better-suited masters for them. Instead, he decided to select one of Krune''s friends. Krune will become the Sect Master''s disciple either he wants it or not, so it would be a good thing to keep a line between him and the Sect Master. The elders decided on their own disciples on the spot. There were Inner, Core, and even three Legacy Elders present at the moment. Between the Core Elders, there was one with a Life Core, so he obviously chose Nala. Nala, of course, immediately accepted. As mentioned before, her Planet isn''t a weak one but isn''t strong either, so she definitely didn''t have anyone to guide her with her Major Core. Gile also didn''t waste time and immediately called out. "Ao Sullian, will accept me as your master?" He didn''t select Ao because he was the furthest one in Krune''s group, not counting Krune. But because the elements he specializes in is the same as Ao''s, Wind, Fire, and Metal, not to mention that he is also a sword user. Of course, as a Divine Path Realm cultivator, Gile could now control all the elements at the same time without any problem. But his specialization is still those three. Ao, of course, had no idea that this elder in front of him is was Roni''s grandfather. (Roni was the guy who wanted to kidnap Shinja back in the Makui Planet.) Of course, Gile had absolutely no intention of taking revenge on Ao because of what happened to his grandson. If anything, Gile wanted to break the neck of that idiot himself. Fortunately, a good chance appeared for him now to get closer to the Sect Master. Even as a Core Elder, the number of times he personally saw the Sect Master could be counted in one hand. For that purpose, he will definitely guide Ao properly. Ao then looked at Gile and said. "Paying respects to Master." Tiago saw that and complained. "Gile, you wretched! I wanted him too!" Gile, of course, wouldn''t give Ao alway just like that. "Hmph! First come, first served! Do you wanna fight over him with this old man?" Tiago, obviously, wouldn''t step back. "Do you think I''m afraid of you?" Ao noticed that the situation was not good and immediately tried to intervene. "Elder Tiago, I''m happy that you also wanted to select me, but I already paid respects to elder Gile. So, I''m sorry." Although Tiago wasn''t happy with that, he still wouldn''t do something like arguing with a kid. "Hmph! You don''t know what is good for you. So be it, this old man has a lot of options anyway." Tiago''s eyes then turned sharper and extended his hand at Krune''s group direction. Suddenly, the same scene played again. But this time, the one coming flying over was Arlan instead. "Do you accept me as your Master?" Arlan knew that it was a fantastic opportunity and immediately accepted. If anything, he was already delighted to be chosen. After all, his results were a lot worse than Ao. For him who had challenged Ao all this while, it was obviously unbearable to lose so throughly! Tiago then nodded, satisfied, and pointed at Ao and Gile. "Gile had always been my rival ever since the time from the Entrance Exam 15690 years ago. As my disciple, your objective it to trash his one!" Ao and Arlan heard that and smiled at each other bitterly. They couldn''t help but think. ''Is this fate?'' --- The wave of selections then continued. Chapter 154 - Ready to Accept Me as Your Master Now? Lofa was at the very end between those who passed the Exam. In the end, the Sect took in the first 3500 contestants. Considering that the total number was a little over 300k, the Sect had admitted in a little more than 1%. That goes totally according to the majority of the past tests where the accepted number is usually between 1 and 2%. When Lofa looked at the list, she found her name in the 3415th position, which was very close to the end. But she wasn''t the least bit unhappy, if anything, she wanted to jump in joy at the moment. But unfortunately, Krune wasn''t here to commemorate with her. The Sect Master took him somewhere, and no one knows where they went. As for the elders'' disciple selection, just as expected, no one of them selected her. But she wasn''t disappointed by that fact either. Just the fact that she would be able to join the Divine Path Sect was already a glory that no one believed to be possible in Makui Planet. --- Shinja was still selected, though. Her Master turned out to be someone from the Inner Sect, a Divine View Realm Blue Luan! Her Master just so happens to be a Divine Demon Beast! Her Master was just as beautiful as Shinja herself in her human form, which for some reason that no one knows, turned out to be the reason why she selected Shinja. "The way you controlled your skills during the test was very beautiful for someone in your realm, and I love beautiful things. Shinja Avril, will accept me as your Master?" Although Shinja thought that reason to be somewhat sloppy, it doesn''t change the fact that a Blue Luan is an innate master of the water element. Shinja believes that this Blue Luan, as an Inner Sect Elder, has a lot to offer to her and her control over the water element. "Paying respects to Master." --- Yusa and Tasier were in the same boat as Lofa. Even though they had better positions, they still didn''t catch the attention of any of the elders. Of course, neither was sad with that. First of all, the chances were low to start with. As long as they are in the Divine Path Sect, everything else doesn''t matter. Inner Sect? Outer Sect? Either one is more than good enough! Ula and Mirrer were the other two Tribulation Lightning users, and each of them was accepted by an elder. As expected, both their Masters were also able to use Tribulation Lightning. Ula was brought away by a Triple-Horned Thunder Lion Demon Beast. While Mirrer left with another human cultivator. Of course, Ula made sure to take Ao''s communicator number before departing. As the masters were selecting their disciples, the number of elders remaining decreased. Once an elder selected someone, they would immediately leave. Things like registering in the Sect or whatever could be done by the menial disciples anyway. The only exceptions were Tiago, Gile, and Jin, who were taking care of the Exam this time. --- Finally, there was Joty. He didn''t have any big expectations to start with, but suddenly, an elder also called his name. "Joty Marcat!" The moment this elder''s voice appeared, all the other elders shut up. It was an old man with a big mustache and short hair. Although he didn''t look like the beggar Sect Master, he had quite a sloppy appearance. This man was one of the 3 Legacy Elders that appeared this time around, Amilio Tirac! Joty thought he was hearing things, but still, he went to the stage just in case. It turns out that the elder was really looking for him! Amilio then got close to him and grabbed his chin, then he looked deeply into Joty''s eyes. Suddenly, the elder''s pupils started to change! What before was a single pupil, became two, from two it went the three, and finally, four pupils appeared in his irises. Joty looked at that and had a fright! But just as he was about to try to free himself, his head started to hurt, especially his own eyes. He wanted to close his them, but the Amilio''s Spiritual Energy was gathered on both of them, and it was impeding him from closing. Joty wasn''t able to see it himself, but he could still feel it. Suddenly, his own pupils in each eye divided into two! Still, a second later, they came back to normal. Amilio then released Joty, who was still feeling a little dizzy with the experience. Amilio looked at that and then started to laugh out loud. "Hahahahahaha! Finally! Finally, someone appeared! I have been waiting for over 70 thousand years! But it''s finally here!" The other two Legacy Elders then approached Amilio. "Haha! Amilio, I thought it weird for you out of all of us to come here, but it seems like someone can finally inherit your mantle." The other elder complimented as well. "Now, you won''t have that stiff face every time we talk about our disciples anymore. Isn''t that good?" Amilio then looked at them and said. "Hmph! You just so wait! Now that this old man has found an inheritor, I want to see if you can still keep those smug faces when he trashes your disciples later on!" The other two elder heard that and sighed, this crazy guy has always had a competitive spirit. But because he had never found a disciple with the same special bloodline as him, he had never had the chance to talk when the other Legacy Elders spoke about their disciples'' accomplishments. "Then I will wait to see what you can bring out of this kid, but don''t forget that I''m taking that Fire Dragon that learned how to use Blue Flames by himself." The elder''s name was Hiro, a Draconic Salamander! Although he has the Draconic in his name, he isn''t exactly a dragon. But he still shares a lot of their traits. Not to mention that he is a Semi-Divine Beast. In fact, if he had used the Sect''s resources and refined the dragon bloodline in his blood, he could have evolved into a real dragon. But he refused! He fought as a Draconic Salamander for most of his life. Changing into a real dragon now would add little to his strength and bring a lot of problems instead, so he stayed as a Draconic Salamander. Hiro then looked at Gomat''s direction. "Gomat!" A second later, Gomat appeared on the stage. In fact, Hiro came from the same Planet as him, so it was already more or less decided that Gomat would be going into Hiro''s care. "Master!" Hiro nodded, turned around, and said to Amilio. "The winner isn''t decided yet. Hahaha!" He then brought Gomat away after that. Amilio didn''t give a damn, though. He looked at Joty and asked. "How long are you going to take to pay your respects?" Joty, who was still lost at everything that was happening in front of him, was taken aback once more. Isn''t this Amilio a Legacy Elder? What was all that talk of finally found someone with the same bloodline? It must have something to do with the weird things that happened during the Exam, isn''t it? Still, Joty knew that that was his chance! Joty then immediately said. "Paying respects to Master." Amilio nodded, satisfied. He then enveloped Joty with his Spiritual Energy and left straight away. On the way, Amilio commented with Joty. "I noticed your presence the day before the test, but there was too little time, so all I could do was to help you release a tiny bit of your bloodline''s power. That was for the sake of you passing the Exam so that no one would complain if I took you in without taking the test. But from now on, a harshly training schedule awaits for you. Are you ready?" Joty immediately answered. "I''m ready!" Still, he was confused. "But Master, what exactly is my bloodline power? Also, does it mean that my entire family has it?" Amilio shook his head. "They don''t, this is not something that is passed through genetics. In fact, it looks a lot like the Major Cores, you never know where it can appear, nor the conditions necessary. You probably noticed already after everything you heard back there. Yes, our bloodline power is even rarer than the Nine Major Cores, and we only lose to the Tenth One, the Heavenly Major Core." He then looked at Joty with a severe face. "As for what the power of our bloodline is, you will come to understand later." Joty and Amilio then disappeared in the distance. --- The last Legacy elder saw that the other two already left and looked at Colen''s direction. "Colen, let''s go!" Colen, who had been waiting until now, didn''t seem surprised by that. He then immediately appeared on the stage and said. "Yes, Uncle." Colen might be affected by the fact that Krune was selected by the Sect Master. Still, he already had his own connection in the Sect, so he didn''t need to be worried about an elder calling him to start with. The third Legacy Elder was Wallan Fecit, Colen''s Uncle. Well, Uncle was just a way to say that, the generations separating Wallan and Colen is already too hard to even count. Still, Colen came from the branch of Wallan''s sister back then, so he was still his Uncle to a certain degree. --- After the elders left with their own disciples, Tiago continued with the schedule. "For those who haven''t been selected, work hard, and rise above in the ranks. Our Sect is quite free, but if you want resources, you will need to fight for it! Here, Merits are everything! With enough merits, any cultivation resource, equipment, formation, and everything else is yours to take!" "Now, I will divide you into those who are going to the Inner and Outer Sect." Suddenly, everyone''s communicators received a message. "Look into your communicator, inside you can find a message with all that you need to know. If you have any questions, you can find a link inside where you can contact the Sect''s Disciple''s Care hotline. There you can also see where you make your Disciple Badge and where your residence is from now on." That was pretty much as the majority expected. Cultivators are indeed a lot stronger than technological equipment weapons. But when things come to information propagation, the technological gadgets like the communicators are indeed hundreds of times better than simple Divine Sense Messages or the old and obsolete jade slips. They can keep all the necessary information, after all. Tasier and Lofa looked inside and found out that they were sent to the Outer Sect. As for Yusa, although she didn''t get the attention of the elders, she was still sent to the Inner Sect due to her accomplishments. It was then that Yusa remembered something. "My spirit stones!" Yusa then spent the next hour running here and there collecting everything. Krune, Ao, and Arlan were taken away, so there was only her at the moment to do the job. Of course, Lofa and Tasier still helped to gather everything. "So what if I wasn''t selected by an elder, as long as I have spirit stones, nothing else matters. Hahahaha!" Lofa and Tasier saw that and sighed. Perhaps, she was good the way she is. --- Back into the Sect''s Master resting place, Lucio looked at Krune and asked. "Ready to accept me as your Master now?" Krune''s mouth twitched. "Is that the way someone asks the other to be his disciple?" Lucio just smiled and kept waiting. Poor Krune... didn''t look very well at the moment. Chapter 155 - Its Because We are Wisps Too. Krune was being held captive by Lucio, who was drinking tea by his side at that moment. Lucio was using his own Spiritual Energy to seal Krune''s cultivation and movements. It doesn''t matter what Krune did, he simply couldn''t get free from Lucio''s grasp. "As long as you acknowledge me as your Master, you will be set free. Not to mention that being the Sect Master''s disciple will bring a lot of advantages for you!" Krune sighed helplessly. "Why me? You should know by now that I''m a wisp, right? I have a small life span. Is it really okay for the Sect Master of the Divine Path Sect to take a wisp as his disciple?" Lucio heard that and laughed. "Whatever I do is my problem, and no one will complain to start with. As for the fact that you are a wisp, as long as you reach the Divine Path Realm, that problem will be resolved." Krune still wasn''t satisfied. "You haven''t told me why I was selected." Lucio smiled and said. "Because your Spiritual Energy looks very much like mine. Well, you noticed that too, didn''t you?" Krune couldn''t deny that fact. When he saw the Sect Master''s Spiritual Energy back on the stage, he really felt that it was very similar to his own. Still, Krune felt that there was something else behind it. Unfortunately, it didn''t seem like Lucio was going to talk. "Is there really nothing I can do for you to select someone else?" Lucio shook his head. "You are the very first disciple that I had ever accepted since I joined the Divine Path Sect. I have no intention of letting you go now." Krune then sighed helplessly. "Fine, how that Mater-Disciple thing works?" Lucio heard that and showed a bright smile. "First, you need to pay your respects to me." Krune twitched once more. "No chance!" Lucio didn''t mind, though. "Fine, forget that. I don''t like those pleasantries anyway. From now on, you are the Sect Master''s disciple." Lucio then clapped his hands, and a menial disciple from the Sect appeared right after. The Sect has a lot more menial disciples than it has real ones, and this is just one more of them. Of course, the Sect doesn''t force anyway to be one. To become a menial disciple, one has to accept it first. "Paying respects to Sect Master." Lucio nodded and said. "This idiot here is my disciple from now on, find a residence for him, and go through the other procedures. Because no one was expecting me to take a disciple, the arrangements made by the elders in the exam won''t work anymore, so make sure that everything is settled." Before they left, Lucio added. "Come to see me in a week, I will give you some pointers about your cultivation." The disciple accepted the order and brought Krune away. After krune disappeared, Lucio''s smile stiffed. "The first-ever disciple that I chose, and he didn''t want to be my disciple. Did something like that ever happen in the Divine Path Sect history before?" Lucio shook his head and then disappeared from the spot where he was. The menial disciple''s name was Harj Kamiu, and he was the only menial disciple in charge of the Sect Master''s necessities. Different from a personal disciple, the sect master changed his menial disciple every hundred years or so, and Harj had been the actual one for the last 23 years. But that was still good for those who were selected. Because of that, Harj had a higher status than even a few Inner Sect disciples. Of course, because he is still a menial disciple, he doesn''t have the authority to do or demand anything from any real disciple. There had been cases before of menial disciples trying to use the status of the elders that they were in charge. But how could the Divine Path Sect accept such conduct? The ending was far from good for all of them. In the end, such situations rarely happen now. Harj knows that very well, so even though he was the lucky one to be in charge of the Sect Master this time, he had never tried to use it against anyone. First of all, being the Sect Master menial disciple was already good enough. He received quite a good amount of resources comparable to the Inner Sect disciples, and sometimes when the Sect Master was in a good mood, he even receives some pointers. So there is no need to try to use his status to start with. But this time, he was feeling really annoyed. The sect master had never taken a personal disciple before, but out of nowhere, this Krune guy appeared. Harj wasn''t angry at the fact that Lucio took a disciple, but that Krune didn''t seem like he wanted it at all! Just how many would exchange everything they had for such an opportunity? He had been there waiting for the Sect Master''s orders, and he heard Krune and Lucio''s conversation. Krune tried everything to refuse the position and only accepted in the end because he was out of options. Still, Harj didn''t say anything. It is not up to him to decide whether Krune is worth of Lucio''s teaching or not. If he tried to intervene, chances are that he would be replaced with another menial disciple instead. There is no way that Harj would do something like this. Krune, on the other hand, noticed that Harj''s face didn''t look so well. "Are you angry at the fact that I don''t want to be his disciple?" Harj''s heart skipped a bit when he heard that. He is indeed not happy with that, but he would never say it out loud. Krune noticed his expression and then said. "Seems like I''m right. How about this then? I will ask the Sect Master to make you the personal disciple and let me go, that would be good for both of us, right?" Harj stopped and looked at Krune as if looking at an idiot. Finally, he couldn''t hold back anymore. "Are you making fun of me? The sect master had never taken anyone in the last 50 thousand years! But now he finally selected you, and you say that you don''t want it? Do you think that he will accept that? You can''t possibly be serious! First of all, what is it that you don''t like? Do you have any idea what the others would do to be in your place? Ahhhh! Forget it." Krune got even more puzzled now. "Does it mean that you don''t want it?" Harj almost fainted! "Of course, I would love it! But please don''t try to do that. Chances are that I will be replaced by someone else instead, and I''m very happy with my status as a menial disciple of the Sect Master at the moment." Krune nodded. "Alright. Then I won''t say anything." --- Krune was then brought to a courtyard located inside the Inner Sect. Even as the Sect Master''s disciple, he can''t go against the rules. To enter the Core of the Sect, he will need merit points, which can be acquired in several ways. Missions just so happen to be one of them. Of course, only merits weren''t enough, there is also the selection exam and even the necessary cultivation level. Harj then asked him if he needed any menial disciples to help take care of it, but Krune declined. "I already brought them with me." It was then that he remembered. "Oh, right! Every disciple can bring up to 50 subordinates that they can register under their name or as menial disciples, isn''t it?" Harj nodded. "Correct, you can bring them here, and I will take their names, races, and other information to create their IDs." Krune was delighted. "Great! Just wait a moment." Krune then turned on his communicator, and sure enough, he could soon found all his friends. He then called Shinja and the others over after passing his new address. Krune said to wait a moment, but in fact, it took over an hour for everyone to finally arrive. The Sect is enormous! If for the fact that it had several ways of transport like teleport formations and such, Yusa and the others might have taken over a day to arrive! The main reason why it took over an hour for them was the fact that they were also new here, so it was quite complicated to find their way around in the Sect. But thanks to Harj''s help through the communicator, everyone safely found their way to Krune''s new house. Ao was the first one to arrive. "I was also getting ready with everything on my side, your call made things quite difficult, you know?" Krune just laughed. Ao said that, but he didn''t seem to be sad at all. Soon, the others started to arrive one by one, and Harj wondered if they were all the ones that Krune wanted to register. But he immediately discarded this idea. While helping them around, he found out that they all already had their IDs completed, which means that they are all real disciples. Krune then took out the Pocket Dimension and released all the wisps and demon beasts in his yard. Harj''s mouth twitched a little after seeing that, though. "Could it be that you want to register all of them?" Krune nodded. "Exactly! I only have 50 slots available on my side, so my friends and I will share the number necessary to register all of them." Harj sighed but nodded anyway. It is just that it will take some time to register so many of them. Still, it was the Sect Master''s orders, so he would carry it to the end. But there was one thing that he was puzzled with. "Why are there so many wisps? You couldn''t possibly be thinking about using them for cultivation, right? I must remind you that such a way of cultivation is terrible for your foundation, and the Sect Master will definitely rebuke you if you do that." Although Krune didn''t like the term of using them for cultivation, he could see that Harj didn''t have the least bit of greed or disdain on his face. It was more like he didn''t care whether they were wisps or not, which was a significant improvement compared to others. Harj didn''t watch the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam, so he didn''t know who passed or not. The Sect is gigantic, and not everyone would pay attention to it every single time. He only knew that Krune was the first place one this time because the Sect Master had commented about it while discussing with Krune. "Oh, that!" Krune then reverted to his original form. Not only him, but the other wisps which were also in their human forms also transformed back. Krune then said. "It is because we are wisps too." Harj finally showed a surprised expression for the first time! Chapter 156 - Free Meal! "You! You are a wisp?!" Krune then reverted back to his human form and nodded. "Yeap. So, of course, I won''t use my own race for cultivation." Harj wondered if he was hallucinating. ''The Sect Master''s first disciple is a wisp! How could that be?!'' But Harj soon came back to himself and took a deep breath. "Alright, bring everyone forward for me to take their information." As unbelievable as it could be, there is no way that the Sect master doesn''t know it, which means that he has a reason for that. Not to mention that since Krune took the first place in the Entrance Exam, he should at least have the necessary talent. Harj then took everyone''s information and was just about to leave when he suddenly started to smell something good. When he turned around to see what it was, he found that that wisp started to cook right there and then. Krune turned his head in his direction and said. "Hey, come to taste my food too. You will definitely like it!" At some point, everyone in Krune''s house had already sat and were eating his food. As one can expect, Lofa helped him once more, so she was also serving it. Harj couldn''t help but wonder just what kind of wisp is that. "You know that you can ask any of the menial disciples in the sect o bring you any food you want, right?" Krune then looked at him, excited! "Really? Where is the kitchen? I''m going to pay a visit there later to learn more recipes!" Harj mouths twitched. He didn''t say that to send the Sect Master''s disciple there to learn more recipes! Krune is a wisp to start with, shouldn''t his entire focus be on cultivation alone? What if he runs out of life span?! But it was at this moment that he saw a scene that he never expected to see in his life. Krune was holding a piece of meat on a fork while he was looking at Harj. Suddenly, an old man who looked more like a beggar appeared by his side and ate it! "Hum... Quite good, but I prefer saltier." Krune''s heart almost stopped when he heard that voice, he then turned around and saw that his master was there chewing his meat! Yusa and the others also noticed the Sect Master and immediately got up to compliment him. Harj, of course, did the same. Although Lucio really looks like a beggar in those clothes, it doesn''t mean that he is dirty. In fact, it would be hard to find a single spec of dust on him. It''s just that his clothes... sigh. "Paying respects to Sect Master." Lakin, Ruik and the other wisps and demon beast got a fright! Is that the Divine Path Sect''s Sect master? Krune had already told them how he looked like, but they didn''t believe him when Krune spoke about how he liked to dress. Of course, by watching the reaction of Yusa and everyone else, they were now sure that this beggar is who they are heard about. Everyone immediately complimented the beggar the same way as Arlan, Shinja, and the others. Of course, everyone except for a single wisp... Krune looked at his Master chewing his meat, and his eyes narrowed. "You darn old geezer, that''s my meat! Don''t eat others''! I made a lot of food anyway, you could have simply asked for some!" Stealing his food? Even GOD wouldn''t be forgiven! Everyone heard how Krune treated the Sect master, and their hearts almost pulled out through their mouths! Is that how you treat one of the most important existences in the entire western protectorate?! By the way, isn''t he your master? Is it really okay to talk with him like that? Harj''s eyes, just like everyone else, were wide open! Except for the wisps without human form, of course. But they too felt like things turned out for worse. Harj even thought to himself. ''This Krune is done for!'' But contrary to everyone''s expectations, Lucio didn''t do anything. "Is there a need to be this angry? It is just a piece of meat anyway. But since you offered, I will take some as well." Krune was still somewhat angry but decided to let it go. "Hmph! Fine, looking at your starving appearance, it''s easy to understand why you wanted it too." Krune then took a bowl and prepared one for his Master. "Here. Ao is used to complain that I don''t put enough salt, so I always prepare two dishes at the same time, one with more and one with less salt. This one should be to your taste." The Sect Master then took the bowl and tasted a little. "Oh! This is much better, your friend is right, you should be able to enjoy this one much more." But Krune obviously didn''t think the same. "You are wrong! I don''t know how you guys like so much salt in the food, it destroys the ingredients taste, after all." Lucio''s eyes narrowed and said. "Wrong! It is because there is more salt that the food becomes even more enjoyable. Your friend is right in adding more salt." Krune had gone through a heated discussion about this issue before with Ao, and just like the last time, it also happened with his master. "Wrong! It''s you two that are mistaken." Lucio''s mouth twitched. Is that how someone should answer their master? "I''m your master, so you should hear what I''m saying!" Krune also didn''t let it go. "Who forced me to accept you in the first place? First of all, you are my Master in the path of cultivation, and it is obvious that your talent for food isn''t the same!" "How could you say that? Do you know just how many kinds of heavenly and earthly treasures your master had tasted in his 52370 years of life? How dare you question my taste for food?!" "Over 50 thousand years, and you are still that clueless regarding food? Haha! What a joke!" "Hmph! It is you who hasn''t seen the universe yet, once you experience what I did, you will understand that I''m right! Besides, I, your Master, am always right!" "When was it that the words right and wrong got swapped? How come I didn''t hear about it?" Everyone looked at that and didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. Even for Harj, that was definitely the first time he saw the Sect Master arguing to someone. Even Core Elders would only drop their heads and listen without saying a word! In fact, the Sect Master''s words themselves could be regarded as gold! After all, he rarely talked to anyone when there wasn''t a need for it. But today, here he was, watching one of the most powerful existences in the universe in a word fight against a Foundation Establishment wisp because of... food! Since when the Sect Master had been so... talkative? It wasn''t before a full ten minutes of arguing that the Sect Master finally said. "Hmph! Fine, I won''t waste my time discussing with a kid like you anymore. Let''s eat before it gets cold." Krune agreed with him. "You finally said something decent. In the end, food is more important!" Krune also sat down and kept eating. Except for Harj, everyone else didn''t know the Sect Master that well, so they just agreed that the man wasn''t that scary as they thought. Krune didn''t know when, but they had all sat down at some point and were eating while looking at the two of them performing a comic show. Harj couldn''t help but think. ''Just what is wrong with this group?'' Krune then remembered something. "Oh, right! Harj, you haven''t eaten yet, come and have a taste too. I made a lot of food, after all." Harj was already dizzy with everything that happened in front of him today that he didn''t even care anymore. He simply sat on by the table as well and served himself. He then took a glance at the Sect Master to see if he would say anything, but the later didn''t even notice his presence. He couldn''t help but wonder. ''Just how many menial disciples had ever had the chance to have lunch with the Divine Path Sect''s Sect Master on the same table?'' While they were eating, Krune turned his head in Lucio''s direction and asked. "By the way, old geezer. Why did you come here? Did you really come just to have a free meal?" Lucio''s spilled some of the soup on his mouth after hearing that. "Who the hell came to have a free meal? Ah, forget it! I came here just to pass it to you." Lucio then took out a token and passed it to Krune. "What is this?" "This is my token. As long as you have it, it will be the same as if I was the one talking. As long as you use it in the Sect or in any of the Sect''s Branches inside our territory, they will immediately recognize it and follow your orders. But remember not to use it for evil, or I will be the Devil himself when I catch you!" Krune looked at the token but didn''t think much about it. He prefers to rely on himself, so long as he doesn''t really need it, he won''t make use of the token. After that, everyone just chatted as if nothing had happened. It could be said to be a Krune-effect, so much sh*t happens around him that Ao and the others had already developed some immunity. The Sect master finished eating and then stod up. "Alright! I finished what I came to do anyway, so I''m leaving now." Harj and the others paid their respects again. Lucio nodded and disappeared in thin air, but then, everyone heard his voice coming out of nowhere. "Tomorrow, I want to barbecue!" Krune''s mouth twitched, and he couldn''t help but yell. "You really did come for free food, didn''t you?!" But he got no answer in the end. Krune then sighed and said. "Forget it, I won''t waste my precious time thinking about him anymore." After that, Ao and the others showered Krune with questions about the Sect Master. Krune felt helpless with all of that but still answered anyway. As for Harj, he already gave up thinking. He simply checked all the information he had in his communicator and left to finish the process of registering all of Krune''s wisps and demon beasts. --- Back at the Sect Master''s residence, Lucio was talking with one of the protectors of the Sect. As a Sect Master, Lucio didn''t have many friends, but this was definitely one of the few. His name was Ojilian Yun, someone he had known over 30 thousand years! "That wisp is helpless! Does he even understand who he is talking to?! I will make him pay for it later on." Ojilian sighed and then asked. "Then why don''t you just send him back? It''s not like anyone will question your decision anyway. You can say that he wasn''t what you expected him to be, and no one will complain about it. He is, after all, a wisp." Lucio heard that but immediately declined. "There is no need. If I do that, it will be the same as saying that I''m not capable enough to select a good seed. Where would my face as Sect Master go after that?" Ojilian then shuddered his shoulders helplessly. But deep inside, he was laughing instead. There are very few who know the Sect Master as well as him, and he couldn''t help but think. ''Hmph! Who do you think you are fooling? What a joke! Other than Falanea or me, who would ever dare to argue with you inside our Divine Path Sect? Only the ancestors, perhaps? But this is different, that wisp is nothing more than a kid. Haha! Simply put, he isn''t just a well-behaved kid like anyone else would be, and that''s what you like in him!'' Of course, he didn''t say it loud to save some face for his idiot friend. Chapter 157 - New Technique. Back at Krune''s residence, he started to ask Ao and the others how the Master-Disciple selection turned out. In the end, only Lofa, Tasier, and Yusa didn''t get a master, but they still joined the Sect without problems. Krune was especially impressed with the fact that Joty got a Legacy Elder as Master. Of course, Joty isn''t here at the moment, it was Yusa who told Krune about that. Although they could be said to be from the same planet, Joty hasn''t really been a part of his group before the test, so they weren''t that close to start with. Yusa also took that chance to share the Spirit Stones they got during the exam, when Krune and Ao saw that, their eyes lit up! They had always been the poorest ones, so the sight of spirit stones always lifted their moods. --- The next day, Yusa, Ao, and Shinja suddenly got a message. It was Kassius Ruli, the one responsible for them during this trip to the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. Kassius, of course, already knew about the fact that those four passed, which made him feel like he was on heavens! "Oh, senior! I will guide you, please come to my place." Kassius nodded, and Krune helped him to take the right route to reach his residence. Although Kassius wasn''t a member, Krune or any other one from his group could use their IDs to allow someone to enter the inner Sect. Of course, as long as they don''t enter any important place. Krune hasn''t got his ID yet, so he used Yusa''s one. After Kassius arrived, he gave Krune and the others a big bear hug! One could totally see how happy he was that even his status as senior didn''t matter anymore. That''s why the guild put so much effort on Krune, so that he could enter, but who could have thought that not only him, but even the other three also passed? "Haha! Great! I can''t wait to see the face of everyone when I get back to the Makui Planet. Not only is it a good thing for our guild, but this is also great for the entire planet! To think that we had a total of eight contestants passing the test this time around, and the majority came from our Yule Continent Guild! No one will believe when I tell them that." Krune didn''t mind Kassius'' mood. The Yule Continent Mercenary Guild had indeed helped him a lot to the point that he couldn''t be more grateful. He was more than happy with all the resources it will receive now with him and the others joining the Sect. He also took this opportunity to ask for something. "Senior, please use some of the resources in the Kaley City mercenary guild and the branch at the Katiu Forest." Kassius heard that and nodded. "Don''t worry, we would do that even if you didn''t ask. Oh right, what about that Solie Clan, I know that they have been helping you, but they also tried to harm you, what is your take on that?" Krune heard that and pondered a bit. "Hm... Oh well, just give them something too." Yusa and Ao did not look surprised at Krune''s decision. Kassius then asked why. "It''s true that they tried to harm us in the past, but it was also because of that that we came to have Ao with us. So I guess you can consider it a hidden fortune. Not to mention that after that, they really did everything we asked to them without any complaints." Kassius nodded and didn''t touch on that topic anymore. He then looked at Krune with a serious face. "I saw during the test, you are a wisp, right?" Krune nodded, now that he is part of the Divine Path Sect, there is no need to conceal it anymore. "I believe you can understand why I couldn''t show it." Kassius nodded, even he had to admit that with a Foundation Establishment wisp, he should be able to make a breakthrough as well. Even if his foundation was affected, there is no doubt that it would be worth it depending on the situation. So he agrees that Krune made the right choice in concealing it until now. "Indeed. Anyway, it doesn''t matter anymore. What I want to ask is what you intend to do now that you joined the Sect. As the Sect Master''s Disciple, no one in the Makui Planet would defy your orders. You can even say that wisps shall not be hunted anymore, and all the big powers in the Makui Planet will do their best to fulfill your wishes." Lakin, who was hearing the conversation by the side, immediately came forward. "Master, this is great! We could even create a country for the wisps to live freely there." Krune looked at Lakin and the other wisps and sighed. "Lakin, I know what you want to do, but there is one thing that is bothering me for a long time already. If we take all the wisps always and put them in a safe place, they will be able to live well for a long time. But what will happen if I disappear? The wisps will then become the main target of everyone there, and their safe heaven will be massacred without a doubt." Kassius heard that and nodded, it seems that he wouldn''t need to intervene. Krune then continued. "After this long, I came to understand one thing. What we need to do is not find a safe place where they can live peacefully, there is no such thing as eternal safety in this universe. So I got to the conclusion that what you, me, and all the wisps need to do is not save the wisp race, but give it them the opportunity to grow strong just like us." He then continued. "And such thing as putting then inside a box voided of any danger would be the most idiotic action. The wisps main issue at the moment is the fact that they have no way to cultivate as fast as everyone else. Because of their energy, they end up becoming cultivation resources." "But think with me, if we discard the fact that they can''t cultivate properly, is there any difference between them and the demon beasts or humans? Humans that enter the Danger Zones are there to acquire Demon Beast resources. In exchange, the Demon Beast can also kill the humans for their meat, Dantians, and items that they bring with them. In the end, both humans and demon beasts are also considered cultivation resources. Why is it that they are at the same level? It is because they can at least protect themselves, something that the wisps can''t do." "It is also because of this that they can grow stronger since they have opponents to help temper themselves. So what we need to do is not find a safe place and throw all of the wisps inside. Once more, what we need to do is to find a way to help them grow stronger!" Lakin and the other wisps felt like they had been enlighted! ''That''s right, if Master disappears, then what will happen with the wisps that remained? He could ask the Sect Master to help protect that place, but what about the wisps of other planets? What I want is not to save the wisps that are just in front of me, but all of them!'' But then, he thought about something. "But Master, if we want the wisps to grow stronger..." Lakin didn''t say anything else since Kassius was also present. But Krune understood that Lakin was thinking about the Myriad Energies Technique. That is the only thing that can help wisps cultivate, but it is also Krune''s greatest secret. They had all seen the effect of this cultivation technique in other races too, and although it is isn''t as good as it is for wisps, it is still a heaven-defying one. Not to mention that it is only considering the normal races, Krune still hasn''t passed it to a race specialized in the soul like the spiritas. Chances are that they would be able to achieve the same proficiency as them, or maybe go even higher! Krune, of course, knew all of that. "I know what you are saying, but there is no need to worry. It wasn''t just now that I started to think about it anyway." Krune then looked at Kassius and said. "Senior, this topic is a little sensitive. Would you mind to give us a minute?" Kassius didn''t mind at all, in the cultivation universe, secrets are common. He then nodded and left the room, Krune asked one of the Lizard Dragons to bring him to somewhere else. Krune then called two wisps over. Lakin, obviously, knew who they were. Their names were Tira and Juji, two wisps that had also received the Myriad Energies Technique directly from his Master. At the moment, both of them were at the 8th and 9th stage of the Qi Condensation. Juji, especially, was at the peak of the Qi Condensation Realm at the moment. There was one thing that Lakin always wondered, though. Why did his Master personally teach them? He could simply have asked Lakin, Cassy, or anyone else, and they would have done it for him. Krune then looked at Tira and Juji and asked. "How is it, did you find any problem during your cultivation of the new technique?" New technique? Let alone Lakin, everyone who knew about the Myriad Energies Technique immediately got their attention picked! Tira was the first one to answer. "I had no problems, Ancestor. I tried both versions, and they are practically the same. The only difference is that the new version is a little slower at the Spiritual Energy absorption, but not that much. I would say that the difference is between 10% to at most 20%." Krune nodded and looked at Juji. "Same thing here, Ancestor. I have been using the new version all along, and I''m confident that it would work even after the breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment." Yusa couldn''t hold herself back anymore and asked. "Can you please tell us what is happening? I''m about to explode out of curiosity!" This time, Yusa really did talk on everyone''s behalf. Krune smiled and then called another wisp over, but this wisp hasn''t started to cultivate yet. In fact, Krune only knew his name, Bril. Bril was nervous, that was the first time that the Wisp Ancestor had ever called his name. Krune then passed a cultivation technique to him, after that, he called all the demon beasts and cultivators there at the moment. "Here, take this cultivation technique that I prepared and try to cultivate it together with Bril." Shinja and the others already had an idea about what all of this was about, but they did as Krune asked anyway. Krune then personally guided Bril during his first time cultivating. With Krune''s help, it didn''t take long for Bril to create the first Pseudo Energy Meridian. As for all the demon beasts and humans? "This thing doesn''t work, it doesn''t matter how I try to guide the spiritual energy, I can''t make it take the form of a Pseudo Energy Meridian." The one who talked was Ruik, the Rainbow Sect leader. Or at least, that was how everyone still treated him. Shinja then looked at Bril and said. "So that''s what it is about, you created a new version of the Myriad Energies Technique, a version that only works for wisps and no one else." Those who were still lost finally understood the crux of the issue. Krune then laughed out loud and said. "I was the one who found about the Myriad Energies Technique true form! So, of course, I can also change it! This technique is basically the same as the real one, just a little worse at gathering Spiritual Energy. Still, it can also create the Spiritual Energy Meridians just like yours, and is very suitable to wisp and wisps only!" He then showed a proud expression and said. "I call it, Myriad Wisps Technique!" Chapter 158 - He Survived to Tell the Story. Shinja couldn''t help but ask. "How did you make it work only on wisps?" Krune heard that and shook his head. "This is a secret, it''s not that I don''t trust you and the others, but I prefer to keep this information to myself. Although I don''t think someone would be able to find the true form after acquiring this information, I prefer not to take the risk." Shinja nodded and agreed that it was for the best. As long as only Krune knows how it works, it will be safer for him and the wisps too. This time, Lakin was the one to ask. "But Master, if wisps start to cultivate now, wouldn''t it bring even more danger to them? After all, they would start to have even more energy, which would bring even more hunters after them." Krune heard that and started to laugh out loud. "Do you know why the new version is slightly worse than the new one?" Lakin and everyone else shook their heads. Krune didn''t mind and told them. "That''s because it changes the very structure of the Spiritual Energy of the wisps. As you know, the Spiritual Energy Meridians convert the outside energy into the energy that is compatible with the user. But in fact, it can also convert the users'' own Spiritual Energy to something else! This will not change anything for the wisps themselves, they won''t get slower, faster, stronger, weaker, more talented, or worse talented. Simply put, it has no meaning for the wisps." Lakin and the others were amazed. "How is that possible?" Krune smiled and said. "In fact, this was the easiest part to create. Do you know why all the races prefer to use wisps'' energy for cultivation? That is because their energy is a lot easier to convert and much faster to absorb than Demon Cores, Dantians, and Spirit Stones. If not for the impurities that profoundly affect one''s foundation, wisps could very well be considered the best cultivation resource in the universe!" "But it is exactly this easily convertible energy that makes it possible for me to use the new technique to alter it. By the time that the wisp finishes creating the nine Pseudo Energy Meridians, their own energy will not be a common wisp''s energy anymore." Suddenly, Dier''s eyes lit up! Dier was the wisp who entered the Foundation Establishment with a Tree as Foundation. "Ancestor, I think I understand already." Krune smiled and waited for Dier to talk. "If I''m not wrong, the conversion of Spiritual Energy that Ancestor is talking about is the same that the other races do. When the other races convert the Spiritual Energy for their own use, that energy will enter their Cores or Dantians. Everyone can use Dantians and Demon Cores to cultivate. Still, the difficulty of conversion and absorption between them and wisps is like the difference between heaven and earth. It is not even worth mentioning." Krune''s eyes lit up and said. "Bravo! Well done, Dier!" But the others still didn''t understand what Dier was talking about. Krune then looked at everyone and said. "Wait for it, I''m confident that Dier can explain the rest." Dier was feeling embarrassed with Krune''s praises and everyone''s eyes on him. Still, he continued to explain. "Well, what I meant is that after the wisp''s energy finishes its conversion at the 9th Pseudo Energy Meridian, it will become the same as Demon Cores and Dantians! It will be a type of energy that has already been converted and can''t be absorbed easily anymore. Simply put, whether you use a wisp''s core, a demon beast''s core, or a dantian, it won''t matter. They will all have the same difficulty to be absorbed and converted!" Clap, clap, clap, clap! Krune couldn''t help but applaud Dier''s intelligence. Finally, everyone understood just what kind of miracle Krune had achieved with the new Myriad Wisps Technique. Lakin was the one most affected by it since he immediately recognized the effects of such a change. "Amazing! With this, both Demon Beasts and Cultivators will lose their interest in any wisp with high cultivation. After all, it is just the same as killing any human or demon beast for their Dantians and Demon Cores. Considering that wisps are a lot rarer to find than demon beasts and humans, those two will definitely prefer to focus on the other. Wisps, Humans, and Demon Beasts will all have the same standards!" Krune nodded. But it was then that Lakin thought about something. "The only problem is that no one knows about it already, and even if they do, they can''t be sure if the wisps they find on the way is a user of Master''s technique or not. That means that there will be a need for a lot of wisp sacrifices until stability is reached and the other races give up on them. They won''t just believe it because we said that wisps aren''t good for cultivation anymore either." Krune sighed but still nodded. "Yes, that is the only thing that cannot be avoided. In the end, this is all I can do for the wisps." Suddenly, a man appeared beside Krune as if he was a ghost. "Every single race in the universe that reached the top achieved it through a journey of fights and sacrifices. It just means that this is the wisps'' time to start their journey too, and there is nothing wrong with that!" Krune''s heart almost stopped there. When he finally noticed who it was, his face immediately changed to dark. "You darn old geezer! Do you even know how to knock before entering someone''s house?" He was obviously none other than the Sect Master of the Divine Path Sect, Lucio Koffel! Lucio then showed a playful smile at Krune and said. "I''m the Sect Master, so the entire sect is my home. Obviously, I can enter anywhere I want! Especially my own disciple''s house." Krune''s mouth twitched after hearing that, but he knows that it wasn''t an important issue at the moment. "How long have you been there?" Lucio immediately replied. "Long enough to know that this Myriad Wisps Technique is nothing more than a worse version of the real thing. I can now understand how so many contestants of such a weak planet like Makui made it into my sect." Everyone''s hearts stopped for a second after what Lucio said that. Krune then took a deep breath and asked. "So, are you going to force my technique out of them or me?" Pow! Krune didn''t even see from where it came, but his head was knocked by his Master out of nowhere. "Hmph! Do you think that me, your Master, would do such an idiot thing? Unless I want to destroy my own Dao Heart, there is no way that I would make such a shameless thing." Krune couldn''t help but comment. "Said the guy who likes to sneak inside the other''s house." Pow! Krune head was once more smashed to the point that he even felt dizzy this time. Lucio then said. "Enough with that. Like I was saying before, sacrifices are unavoidable when a certain race starts to rise in the ranks. There is nothing wrong with that either. In fact, it is because of those sacrifices that your future Wisp Race protectors will come start to appear." He then put a serious face and commented. "My disciple, I can''t help but say that your heart is too soft! One day, it will backlash, so you should change it as soon as possible." Krune, on the other hand, didn''t have the least bit of an intention to change. "Out of the question. If I change the way that I am just because of what you said, would I still be me in the end? I believe that everything I had achieved so far is thanks to who I am and what I''ve done, so I won''t change! Even if I have to die because of it, I won''t change!" Lucio then shook his head, but deep inside, he was smiling. ''Such a strong will!'' Everyone else didn''t know what to think about this Master-Disciple relationship, but it was already good enough that the Sect Master wouldn''t pry further into the issue. Lucio then looked at the Krune and the other wisps and said. "Anyway, this is a good thing for your wisp race. It will probably take hundreds, if not thousands of years until your race gets a foothold in this universe. But that was the same for everyone else, humans included, so there is no need to feel sad because of that." He then paid attention to Krune and asked. "By the way, it is already the next day, where is my barbecue?" Krune didn''t want anything else other than kick this guy out, but he knows that such a wish is impossible to realize. He then turned to another one of the Lizard Dragons'' siblings and asked to call their brother and Kassius back. "Wait there, old fart. I was already planning to make some food since Senior Kassius came in today." Lucio''s mouth twitched a little "Who is the old fart? I should let you know that considering my cultivation level, I am a very young and handsome man." Krune just shook his hands. "Yes, yes, very handsome. Now, wait for the food to be ready. Lofa, give me some help here." Lucio didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. "Sigh, I should just find another disciple who knows how to respect his master." Krune heard that, and his eyes immediately lit up! "Great! Let''s go find someone else, I will help you! What about Yusa here? She''s quite shameless, just perfect for someone like you." Yusa heard that and almost fainted. Does Krune want to use her as a sacrifice now? As for everyone else? "Pss..." They were doing their best to hold their laugh. Lucio is the Sect master, after all. Lucio, obviously, noticed that. "Hmph! Forget it, if I let you go, you will definitely torment someone else, I couldn''t possibly let you do that." He then sat on the table and started to wait. Not long after, Kassius came back with the Lizard Dragons. He noticed the new person in the room, but because of the beggar like appearance, he didn''t recognize who it is. In the end, he thought that he is one of the menial disciples. After all, the Sect Master''s way of dressing isn''t exactly commendable. Krune noticed that Kassius was back and asked him to sit to eat with them. Kassius wasn''t in a hurry anyway, so he accepted. He then sat beside the Sect Master and took a bottle of wine out of his spatial ring. "Hey there, brother. Want some wine?" Lucio didn''t mind and accepted a glass. Noticing that this ''disciple'' was quite friendly, he commented. "By the way, brother. You should dress better since, at the moment, you look more like a beggar. We are in the Divine Path Sect, after all. Your face might not be that much, but a good set of clothes can transform a man just as much as a woman." Lucio almost vomited blood this time. "Your face isn''t that much! Your entire family''s faces aren''t that much!" Kassius didn''t mind the comment, though. As for everyone else, they couldn''t help but mentally praise Kassius'' guts! After that, Krune and Lofa served the food once more, and everyone ate and chatted. When they finished, the Sect master finally left. Kassius noticed that the ''menial disciple'' who was beside him until now disappeared, and he couldn''t help but ask. "Where did he go?" Krune then said. "Ignore him, my Master likes to have free meals and disappear right after, I decided that I will ignore it too." Kassius then nodded. "Oh, I see, your Master." For a second, Kassius didn''t mind Krune''s words that much. But suddenly, cold sweat started to appear all over his body. "Your Master? Krune''s Master? The Divine Path Sect''s Sect Master? That Master?" Krune gave a side glance to Kassius and asked. "Who else would it be other than that old geezer?" Kassius heard that and... passed out. Today, Kassius entered to history! He was the first Divine Soul Realm cultivator to say that the Sect Master of the Divine Path Sect is ugly right on his face and survived to tell the story. Chapter 159 - Spreading the New Technique Not long after, Krune got another fright! His Master once again appeared out of nowhere by his side. "You doing it on purpose, aren''t you?" Lucio smiled and said. "Oh, only now you noticed?" Krune was almost exploding, but he took another deep breath and asked. "What is it now?" Lucio then said. "I forgot to take a copy of your new technique for wisps, give me one and I will help you spread it around other planets." As the Divine Path Sect''s Sect Master, such a task was way too easy for him. In fact, it wouldn''t even be him who would do the job, he will simply pass it over to one of his subordinates, and they will get it done. Considering the Sect Master''s power, it is even easier than lifting a finger. Krune, of course, was delighted to hear that. In his mind, any other planet other than Makui would be quite complicated to spread the technique. He then immediately sent a copy to his master communicator. "Let me take a look." Lucio then started to look into it to see if there was anything out of place. To his surprise, the technique was really well made. "Oh, that''s unexpected, I can''t find anything wrong with this technique. I thought that I would need to change at least 99% of it or more before it could be considered usable, but it seems like it won''t be necessary." Krune ignored the sarcasm and said with a proud face. "That''s obvious! It was me who created it, not you." Lucio also ignored Krune''s poking and started to analyze it. "Let me see if I can deduce the real one out of it." Krune''s mouth twitched, his Master didn''t even try to hide his intention at all. Lucio then spent one hour reading and re-reading while making several tests on the spot. Krune noticed that he was really putting effort into it and silently left his Master there. He then helped Kassius, who was in another room, to get up, and passed a copy of the technique to him. "Senior, this is a technique that I created, which can only be used by Wisps. Can you help me spread it around Makui Planet?" Kassius was surprised that Krune had something like that. No wonder his cultivation speed was so fast, he created a cultivation technique especially made for wisps! Kassius took a quick look and could tell that the technique was complete. But he couldn''t tell why it only worked for wisps. He then tried to cultivate it for a minute and found out that Krune was right. He couldn''t get any results out of it. "So weird, at a first look, there wasn''t supposed to be any issues for me to cultivate it. However, once I start, it doesn''t matter what I do, I simply can''t get to create the first pseudo meridian." Kassius then looked at Krune and asked. "Is this thing based on the Myriad Energies Technique?" Krune nodded. "Yes, that is the only technique that I know that wisps can use, and it was through its research that I found a way to make the modifications for the wisp race. Other than the wisp race, I doubt any other race would be able to cultivate it. Even if they find a way to do that, the results that they will get will definitely be several times worse than wisps." Kassius was surprised with that and then nodded. "Alright, leave it to me. Considering that you are now the Sect Master''s disciple, there is a big queue of powers in Makui Planet that would like to curry your favor. They will definitely put the effort to spread it into the Danger Zones and to the wisps there. But have you thought about the consequences of having the wisps rise in cultivation? They will become even more of a target." Krune nodded. "I already thought about that, and this is a necessary sacrifice to be made. In fact, this is something that MUST happen in order to make the wisps a strong race in the future." Kassius nodded and didn''t say anything else. With his experience, he could tell that Krune had already thought about this possibility, which means that there is something else behind this technique. "Alright! I already got all the preparations done to go back to the Makui Planet, and I''m even bringing back a batch of the resources promised to the planets with successful contestants. I can''t wait to see Bary''s face when I come back. Hahaha!" Kassius then left that day and started his trip back to the Makui Planet with the contestants that failed. Back at Krune''s house, it had already been three hours since the Sect Master started to analyze his wisps technique. Finally, the Lucio came back to himself and sighed. ''What a terrifying wisp, I wonder how Ian would feel if he was still alive. It doesn''t matter how I look at it, all I can say is that it used the Myriad Energies Technique as a base, but I can''t tell why it only works for wisps at all! Much less deduce the real one from it.'' Still, he was happy to see how talented Krune was. Although he liked Krune, he did indeed care about the fact that Krune is a wisp. Deep down, he was afraid that Krune would run out of life span before arriving at the Divine Path Realm. However, now his confidence in Krune had been boosted quite a lot. Lucio left the room where he was and found Krune chatting with his companions. Krune soon noticed his Master coming close and immediately asked. "How is it, did you find anything?" Lucio shook his head. "Nope. I can tell that it was made using the Myriad Energies Technique as a foundation. Still, I can''t understand why it only works on wisps." Krune finally let out a sigh of relief and started to laugh. "See? That''s the wisps intelligence power!" Lucio then showed disdain on his face and said. "What are you laughing about? You are the Sect Master''s disciple! My Disciple! If you couldn''t do something as easy as this, you would not be worthy of my teaching." Krune almost fainted there and then! Easy? Does he know how much effort he put while creating this technique? Still, Krune decided not to rebuke. Otherwise, this guy might take even longer to leave. "Anyway, just keep your word and help me spread this technique around." Lucio nodded and then said. "There is another thing I want you to show me, release your spiritual energy, I want to check its compatibility with mine. It will help me to think about what I should teach you in the future." Krune didn''t mind and did as he was told. Since he got a Master, he might as well make full use of him. Lucio then released his own Spiritual Energy, just as before, his own was rainbow-like. Krune was now able to see how similar their energy appeared to be, even their rainbow-like hue looked a lot like each other. Of course, the Sect Master''s one was who knows how many times more powerful than his own. Krune then felt his Master Spiritual Energy entering his foundation, which made him try to stop it instinctively. But then, he received a Divine Sense message from his Master. "Don''t stop it, I need to check your entire foundation to see the progress of your Universe Foundation." But Krune was in a dilemma, Light Spirit is also there, after all. Fortunately, his fears were immediately dispelled by Light Spirit himself. "What? Do you think this ant can feel my presence? Keep dreaming! Let him do as he likes. I told you before, I can''t help you much with anything else other than Tribulation Lightning power. In that case, it will be good if you can get proper guidance." Krune let out a sigh of relief and immediately fully opened his Universe Foundation for his Master to check it entirely. Lucio was checking everything when suddenly, he found Krune''s Sun! Lucio''s heart even stopped for a second when he saw that. That is something which would need Chaos Energy to be created! Lucio, of course, immediately asked Krune how he did that. "Oh! That''s quite simple. I noticed that my Tribulation Lightning power wasn''t as pure as the Heavenly Tribulation itself, so I used my friend''s Heavenly Tribulation to clean it. The result is that the impurities that came out were only bad for the Tribulation Lightning power itself, not to me. When I tried to use it, I also noticed that that energy was easily changeable. Then I had an idea, why don''t I try to create a Sun for my Universe Foundation? After I gathered all of it together, compressed it with Spiritual Energy, and gave a good kick with Tribulation Lightning, the sun was born." Krune didn''t say the words ''chaos energy'' even once, he only mentioned that as a type of energy as if he didn''t know what it was. Everything so that he could conceal Light Spirit''s existence. Lucio''s mouth twitched. Gave it a good kick? Who would use Tribulation Lightning to kick something? But that wasn''t important at the moment. "Does it mean that you can get more of that energy?" Krune nodded and shook his head right after. "Although I can still get some, it won''t be that much." With Lucio''s experience, he didn''t need Krune to tell him the rest. "The first impurities cleaning was the one where you got the most of it out. You still have impurities in your Tribulation Lightning power, but not even close as much as you had the first time, am I right?" Krune was impressed that his Master understood everything so quickly. "Seems like you aren''t the Sect Master for nothing." Pow! This time, Lucio couldn''t hold himself and gave Krune another hit on the head, which made Krune feel dizzy all over. "Anyway, I have a rough understanding of your foundation and flaws at the moment. The reason that I asked you a week was so that I could devise the right way to teach you, and this check just now will help with it. I''m leaving now, don''t waste all your time eating and cultivate a little too, you are just about to enter the Core Formation Realm, after all." Krune nodded, and then Lucio left right after. Krune couldn''t help but be a little excited since his Master said that he found flaws in his cultivation. That means that his Master could really guide him further! Chapter 160 - My Krune! Krune spent the last night cultivating and decided to leave the next day to take a look around the sect. Lakin and everyone else had already taken their own IDs and could walk around the Outer and Inner Sect too. The wisps wouldn''t need to be afraid of anyone attacking them here, so almost every single one of them was out at the moment. Lakin immediately left to go find where Cassy was, Dier had stayed with Ao''s batch, so he wasn''t there to start with. Krune noticed that there wasn''t anything better to do and also left to take a look around. After checking the information about the facilities available for Inner Sect disciples, Krune decided to pass by the Cultivation Rooms first. The cultivation rooms of the Inner Sect had Spiritual Energy Gathering Formations at the Nine Silver Stars level, which was impressive for someone Like Krune. The best one he found before was in the Mercenary Guild Headquarters in Yule Continent, and that one was still at the normal Stars level. When Krune arrived at the facility, he noticed that he needed to pay Divine Merit Points for the time of use. One hour costs 100 Merit Points, and he has 2000 at the moment, which is the number that all Inner Sect Disciples who join for the first time have. Although he didn''t have much, he still decided to pay for an hour to see how good it was. The menial disciple responsible for taking care of the counter noticed Krune approaching and got a fright! "The Sect Master''s Disciple!" Everyone around heard the menial disciple words and immediately looked over. "So that is the Sect Master''s very first disciple." "I wonder why the Sect Master would accept a wisp as a disciple, though." "At first, I thought it was a mistake, but two days had already passed, and nothing changed. That means that the Sect Master really selected him." Krune could hear all the voices around him and sighed. That''s why he didn''t want to be the Sect Master''s disciple. Still, now it was too late to care about that. He then entered the room and started to cultivate so that he could see the difference. Suddenly, Krune''s eyes lit up! "Unbelievable! Cultivating inside here is the same as if I use Rank Five Spirit Stones without stop! Although it is a Nine Silver Stars Formation, it doesn''t change the fact that it is still at the Silver level. I wonder just how good are the ones at the Gold Stars level. From what I found in the Sect''s network, Gold Stars Formations are only available for Core and Legacy Disciples, though." Krune already checked what was necessary to enter the Core Sect. First, one had to be at least in the Core Formation Stage, anyone below that, even the Sect Master''s disciple himself, wouldn''t be allowed to enter. Second, there is another exam that happens every year for the Inner Sect Core Formation Realm cultivators to take. If they pass, they can enter the Core Sect. Still, it wasn''t easy. The number that was accepted every year wasn''t anything higher than 20 or 30 contestants. Don''t think that this number is anything significant. One must remember that every ten years, a big batch of Inner Sect disciples join the Divine Path Sect. The proportion of Inner and Core disciple is only around 1/100, which means that the Inner Sect has at least 100 times more disciples than the Core. Krune used every single second available to him to cultivate so that he wouldn''t lose his points for nothing. When he left his room, he felt that there were even more people and demon beasts here now, and all of them were looking at him. Krune pretended that it wasn''t his problem and decided to go to the next place. After taking a teleport formation, he arrived at the Cultivation Pavillion, a gigantic building with hundreds of thousands of cultivation techniques, skills, and even some forbidden arts and soul cultivation techniques. Compared to this place, the old Rainbow Sect dimension Books Hall looked more like a small hut. Once again, everyone present there at the moment noticed his presence, and soon, a crowd formed around Krune. He then arrived at the counter and paid 500 merit points, which would give him the chance to look through the techniques available for one hour too. After entering a private room, Krune activated the monitor in front of him and noticed that it had several filters. One of the filters even considered the race that the disciple was from, which immediately picked Krune''s attention. "Could it be that it has wisps included?" Krune then started to look for the wisps in that filter, and sure enough, the wisp race was also listed there. "Does it mean that the Divine Path Sect has cultivation techniques suited for wisps too?" Krune then immediately selected ''search,'' and just a second later, three options appeared for him. The very first one made his mouth twitch a little, though. Myriad Wisps Technique, by Krune. "That old geezer is quite fast, isn''t he?" The other two options were. Myriad Energies Technique, the common one, of course. and... Soon to Die Wisp Technique, by Ian. Krune couldn''t help but think that the name was very well fit for wisps. They have small life spans, after all. However, that wasn''t the reason why this technique was called like this. --- At the same time, the news that Lucio Koffel got his very first disciple spread like wildfire! Soon, images of Krune''s appearance and recordings of his achievements in the Entrance Exam started to circulate in the entire sect. It didn''t take long for the news to leave the planet and spread around the Divine Path Sect''s territory. It wasn''t only there, though. The other three big powers received the news even faster than some of the top-ranked planets in the Divine Path Sect''s territory. Wang Planet, Wang Clan''s main residence. A 15 to 16 years old girl was looking through some information in their territory network when suddenly, someone knocked on her door. "Come in." Soon after, a man came in and approached the girl. She then stopped what she was doing and looked at the man. "Uncle Feng, is there something?" Uncle Feng then sighed and said. "It''s not like you don''t know why I came here, right, Feifei?" The girl was obviously Wang Feifei. It had been around 6 years since she met Krune back in the Makui Planet, and she had turned into a beautiful lady since then. The number of suitors that came to the Wang Clan to try to strike a marriage with her couldn''t even be counted in the hundreds anymore. Still, Feifei refused every single one of them. Her father, the Wang Clan''s Clan Master, was starting to feel a little helpless already. It seemed like that it doesn''t matter who it was, Feifei didn''t show any interest in them. Of course, the Wang Clan''s Master had no intention what so ever of giving Feifei away to any other power. Those who came to propose had to agree to one absolute condition. They will be the ones marrying into the Wang Clan, not the other way around. Still, the number of suitors only increased, and they were all geniuses from powers inside the Wang Clan''s territory. Having a direct connection with the Wang Clan would not be bad for anyone, even if they have to lose an heir. Feifei immediately got up excited and said. "I know that it is something about Krune since it is around the time for the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. But like I said before, I can''t see anything about him, so I can''t tell what happened! That is one of the very few things that still makes me excited to find about. I''m very curious to know what happened in the Exam. So stop beating around the bunch and tell me already!" Uncle Fend could see the happiness on her face and sighed. Feifei basically couldn''t get excited like any other person about what would happen in the future since she could more or less see it. So it was very rare to see her this way. Uncle Feng then used his communicator and connected to the room''s monitor. After that, it started to play the entire Exam of the Divine Path Sect. The Exam was basically available for anyone with enough power, and the Wang Clan was obviously one of them. Feifei watched the entire process as if she was a kid who got a new toy. Of course, the images passing on the monitor were playing at 100 times faster than the normal speed. But Feifei had cultivation high enough to see it without missing anything. But there was a point were her happy smile immediately disappeared. It was when she found Lofa, of course! Krune is as good as a door when it comes to things like Love, but Feifei is obviously different, so she noticed that at first glance. "Who is she?! What does she want with MY Krune?!" Because Lofa was closely related to Krune, Feifei also couldn''t see much about her. This situation is even worse for Ao, Yusa, and Shinja, who had been with Krune for the longest. She also can''t see anything about those three. Uncle Feng then accessed a few more information in his communicator. He then told Feifei about Lofa''s identity and everything else available at the moment. "Hmph! That won''t do, I need to act before it is too late!" Uncle Feng got puzzled, though. "Are you going to get someone to kill her?" Feifei looked at uncle Feng as if she was looking at an idiot. "Isn''t that the same as saying that I''m not her match? That won''t do, my pride as a woman won''t forgive anyone who tries to do something like that to help me! Krune has his promise with me, but only the three of us know about that. No, wait! Maybe his friends know about it too, including that Lofa! Still, they probably don''t take it very seriously due to my identity." Uncle Feng pretended that he didn''t hear and looked away. Feifei then started to ponder about what she should do. But in the end, she decided to watch the rest of the recordings of what happened in the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. She would think about it when she was done with all the information. Finally, it came the time where Krune left the Illusion Realm and was accepted as the Sect Master''s disciple. Feifei saw how unwilling Krune was when that happened and started to laugh out loud. "Hahahaha! So funny! Who in the entire Divine Path Sect territory would be unwilling to be the Sect Master''s disciple? Indeed, my Krune is the best!" But it was then that Feifei''s eyes lit up! Uncle Feng saw that and felt a chill on his back. "Wait, you couldn''t possibly..." Before Uncle Feng could even finish talking, Feifei had already dashed out of the room. Poor Krune, he is still unaware of the storm that is coming his way! Chapter 161 - The Rumors are Incorrect! The Wang Clan has a tradition that has lasted from the times where they weren''t even part of the Big Four. Every single girl and boy who is born into the clan is given a seal called Wang''s Mark. That mark itself doesn''t have any power, can''t help with cultivation, nor be sold since it only has value for the Wang Clan. Once a woman or man is going to marry, they give their mark to the one they love. Once it is done, it is determined that they will stay together until the day of their deaths. But that only happens after the marriage is concluded. Before that, the mark only represents the girl''s or boy''s intention of marriage and can be retrieved before it happens. One case would be the partner''s betrayal or death, for example. Back then, it was exactly this mark that Feifei gave to Krune. Feifei was totally serious when she said that she wanted him to marry her. Different from Krune''s belief, Feifei had never thought of it as a kid''s harshness or anything. She was really looking forward to the day it happens and had been even secretly observing Krune''s path so far. The problem is that Feifei is way too important to the Wang Clan at the moment, so they couldn''t allow her to be married outside. In fact, the elders of the clan had even discussed if they should not let Feifei marry at all! But in the end, the tradition was still more important for the clan than Feifei''s power. Even if she was a boy, it would still be the same. The Wang Clan is a Clan where both men and women have the same status. It is so true that the Wang Clan''s strongest ancestor just so happens to be a woman. --- While Feifei was running in the direction of her father''s room, Uncle Feng appeared in front of her. "Wait, wait, wait! If you tell that you left your mark with him, your father will do everything he can to get him killed. He is still a Foundation Establishment cultivator, there is no way he can survive such a pursuit." There is no way that Feifei could be faster than Old Feng, so he was able to stop her just a second after she left. Feifei looked at Uncle Feng with an angry face. "But..." Uncle Feng didn''t give any chances. "It doesn''t matter if he is now the Sect Master''s disciple or not, he will, sooner or later, leave the sect for missions. At that time, if your father sends a Soul Forging Realm or above to take care of him, Krune will probably not survive at all. Is it what you want? Also, he is a wisp, it will be even more of a reason for your father to get rid of him." Feifei dropped her head and nodded. "But it won''t take long for him to notice that I gave it away." Uncle Feng just shook his head. "Just keep refusing everyone, if he tries to force the issue, just pretend something like you prefer to kill yourself or whatever. As long as you don''t accept any suitor, no one will ask you to give your mark to them." But there was still one problem. "Then what about that Lofa? What if she takes my Krune away?" Uncle Feng felt a headache. If he could, he would just send someone to take care of her and get done with it. But Feifei will never accept such an outcome, and there is no way he can do it on the shadows either. Feifei will find out the moment he decides to go ahead with this plan, after all. As Uncle Feng can see it, there are two big issues about Krune. First, Krune is the Divine Path Sect''s Sect Master''s disciple. So there is no way that that old foggy will allow Krune to be married into the Wang Clan. Not to mention that Krune is his very first disciple. Now that Uncle Feng thinks about it, he couldn''t help but wonder why Feifei decided to meet the Sect Master 6 years ago. Things got more complicated now because of that. Second, Krune is a wisp! It doesn''t matter how talented, powerful, intelligent, or whatever he is. As long as he doesn''t achieve the Divine Path Realm, his life span will always be an issue. No one in the clan would ever accept him even if Lucio agrees with letting him marry into the Wang Clan. After pondering for a moment, Uncle Feng remembered something. "Oh, that''s right! The exchange program." Feifei looked puzzled at Uncle Feng. "What is that?" Uncle Feng then explained. "This is a program where the big four send 3 geniuses to train with the other powers. Three genius for each power. It extends for one year, and during this time, the geniuses would go through the missions, training, study, and all the things that a real member of that power should have." Feifei''s eyes immediately lit up! She had never cared much about the big four relationships, so she didn''t know about that before. But now, she couldn''t be more interested! "When will it happen?" Uncle Feng checked his communicator and then answered. "Three months from now. You should use this time to convince your father that you want to go, though." Feifei then showed a playful smile and said. "That will be easy!" --- In a living room somewhere inside the Wang Clan''s main residence, a man was brewing some tea to pass the time. He had long hair and looked quite young. Of course, it was due to his cultivation. In fact, he could be called anything but young. His name was Wang Xin, the actual Wang Clan''s Head! Suddenly, he heard a knock on the door. "Come in." The one who came was obviously Feifei. "Father, I have a request to make." Xin was a little surprised that his daughter came to ask something directly to him. Usually, she just had to pass the order, and the Wang Clan''s subordinates would do it for her. Since she came here by herself, it is probably something important. His eyes then immediately lit up! "Could it be that you finally found someone you liked?" Feifei didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. "That''s not it, I came here because I want to enter the exchange program between the big four that will happen in three months. To be more specific, it has to be the Divine Path Sect." Xin''s eyes narrowed. He didn''t expect that Feifei would ask something like that. He then started to wonder why she would want something like that. It is not like Feifei never goes out or visit the other big four powers. In fact, she likes to travel quite a lot. That is also why Uncle Feng was put in charge of her protection. With him there, there is almost no one who could offer any danger to her. Even if the situation turns serious, Feng probably would still be able to scape with Feifei in the worst case. "Why is that? Is there something special about the Divine Path Sect?" Xin, as Feifei''s father, of course, knew about her special status and her abilities. In fact, the rumors that have been going around are not accurate at all! The other powers believe that Feifei might a Heavenly Major Core, but that is incorrect! Feifei then put a serious face and nodded. "I don''t know, but it is probably the case, that''s what my Core is telling me." Xin was surprised by that. "You can''t see what it is about?" Feifei shook her head. "I can''t, all I know is that I must go there, and the exchange program just so happens to be a perfect excuse." The Wang Clan''s had relied on Feifei''s power of foreseeing several times already, and they avoided quite a few problems because of that. Her Major Core is different from the Destiny Major Core, it is a lot more developed. But there is one thing that they are sure about, Feifei''s Major Core is not the Heavenly Major Core either. It looked more like a new version of the Destiny Major Core instead. Some of the elders believe that Feifei''s Core is evolving into the Heavenly Core at the moment because of that. Others refuse that hypothesis since it is said that a Heavenly Core is born from a normal Major Core. However, Feifei''s Major Core was already like that when it was formed. At first, they thought it to be a Destiny Core since she had the power of Divination. But later, they started to wonder if it was really the case. As mentioned before, to pry into the secret of the heavens is to go against it, so backlashes are unavoidable, even Destiny Core owners are no exception. Those who practice Divination have to look into Destiny Energy and make their calculations based on that. The heavens, of course, hates it! So that''s where the backlashes come from, it is nothing more than heavenly retribution. But Feifei''s condition is different! The heavens... can''t see her! It doesn''t matter how much she reads the Destiny Energy, the heavens had never caused a backlash to happen to her. Feifei even gave her Major Core a name, the Ultimate Destiny Core. Of course, she was the only one who liked to call it like that. That was also the reason why Feifei loved Krune so much. Every single existence in the Universe causes the Destiny Energy to move, by reading that movement, Feifei can see everything about them. But Krune is totally different! It is as if it doesn''t matter what he does, the Destiny Energy never moves when he takes action, which means that Krune is just like herself! If you want to find anything about Krune with Destiny Energy, you will need to read the movements of Destiny Energy caused by the things around him. For example, his friends or the aperture of the Rainbow Sect back then. But because Krune''s group had been staying with him for so long, even they are starting to be affected by Krune''s ability. --- Xin pondered a bit about the issue. So far, Feifei hadn''t been mistaken about her predictions, so he quite trusted her a lot. After considering that Feng would still be protecting her during this exchange program, Xin decided to accept her request. Not to mention that she would be the responsibility of the Divine Path Sect. Lucio Koffel would make sure that nothing happened to her to avoid any friction between their two powers. Still, Xin couldn''t help but remember a few things that happened in the past between him and Lucio too. But then he only sighed and said. "Very well, I allow you to go to this exchange program. But be sure to be careful, we still don''t know if your Major Core is really fail-proof or not." Feifei then nodded and left. After she got back to her room, she started to jump around out of happiness, which made Uncle Fend sigh again. Everything that Feifei told her father was, of course, a bunch of lies! She just wanted to go there to protect what was her''s! With Lofa''s existence, she couldn''t wait for Krune to come anymore. Chapter 162 - Elements Regulation. Back at the Divine path Sect, Krune was looking through Ian''s technique. But after reading it for some time, his expression changed to amazement! "This is crazy! Did he have a death wish?" It turned out that Ian''s technique was nothing more than suicide in Krune''s eyes. Ian relied on the power of the wisp''s Soul to cultivate! Simply put, he burnt away his own Soul in order to achieve faster cultivation and make breakthroughs. From the information that Krune got in the Cultivation Pavilion, Ian was still able to reach the Divine Soul Realm, though. "How the hell did he do that? He should have died way before the Core Formation Realm, let alone Divine Soul." But then, Krune thought about a possibility. Some treasures allow one''s Soul de recover from injuries. The pills that Krune made with Dragon Essence Liquid are a good example. Perhaps, by using several of those types of treasures in a roll, he was able to cultivate all the way to the Divine Soul Realm. Still, Krune also understood why Ian stopped at this Realm. First, those kinds of cultivation resources are extremely rare and expensive. One can see that when they think how Elder Loni, who is at the Void Breaking Realm, reacted when Elder Mirian betted the Dragon Essence Liquid. Second, it doesn''t matter what kind of treasure or cultivation resource it is, it will lose its effects if one uses it too much. Probably, Ian had bumped into some kind of inheritance and miraculously didn''t die there. That place most likely had a lot of Soul related items that Ian used for his cultivation. In the end, when those treasures finally lost their effect or Ian ran out of them, he lost the ability to cultivate further. That led him to his death when his life span ended. Still, Krune thought that this cultivation technique could come in hand in the future. If there comes a day when he must immediately make a breakthrough, he might use it at the moment to achieve that. "Still, it is good to know that there has been a wisp that went this far on the cultivation path." Krune then visited some other places while ignoring all the attention and returned to his house in the Inner Sect. He wanted to take a mission to get more points to use the gathering formation. Still, he already had a lot of spirit stones from the Entrance Exam, so he decided to use them first. --- Soon, one week went by, and Krune finally was called over by the Sect Master. When he arrived there, he noticed that there was another person there too. He then entered Lucio''s residence and arrived at the cultivation room. Lucio then looked at Krune and asked that person to check him. This person was one of the Sect Master''s friends, Falanea. But there is one more thing, she is also a Destiny Core owner! She then sat down and concentrated on Krune, who was in front of her. Krune had no idea about what was happening, but since it was his Master who asked for that, he just let she does as she pleased. Lucio then looked at Krune and said. "Alright, just ignore her for now. I will now pass you an elemental regulation technique that I devised especially for you. From what I could see last time, the main issue in your cultivation at the moment is the fact that you can control all elements. Because of that, your Spiritual Energy is very similar to mine, it has several colors just like a rainbow. It turns out that they are not in perfect harmony, try to bring your Spiritual energy out and send it in a straight line." Krune nodded and did as he was told. Krune''s spiritual energy then flowed out, and he commanded it to move as Lucio asked. Just as expected, it had several colors, as always. Lucio then did exactly the same and sent his own rainbow-like spiritual energy in a straight line. He then looked at Krune and asked. "Can you see the difference?" Krune hadn''t paid attention to it before, but now that his Master told him, he could indeed see the difference. His spiritual energy colors looked like they were fighting to see which one would appear the most, and lightning had the biggest advantage. However, his Master''s spiritual energy colors seemed to be moving in synch. The colors appeared one after another for the exact same time. It felt like the previous color gave its place for the next one willingly. Because of that, his Master Spiritual Energy Line was very straight without any bumps or deformations. But what about his one? After seeing his Master Spiritual Energy Line, Krune wondered if he could even call his own a line at all! It was flooded with flaws all the way, and it could be called anything but straight, it was more like a random colored cloud. "This... I always thought that my Spiritual Energy control was the best it could be, but compared to yours, I''m even ashamed to show it now." Lucio heard that and laughed out loud. "There is no need for you to worry, it is extremely normal for something like this to happen. You are still in the Foundation Establishment Realm, after all. You probably can feel how much smoother and easy to control my Spiritual Energy is to control, right?" Krune nodded, and then Lucio continued to speak. "I might as well tell you that I also have an Elemental Core, it''s just that I don''t use Tribulation Lightning. But forget about the Tribulation Lightning for now. Let''s take other cultivators and demon beasts as an example." "Once you arrive at the Core Formation Realm, depending on your talent, you wouldn''t have a problem to control all five elements at the same time. Even if you aren''t that talented, as long as you enter the Divine Soul Realm, it will definitely happen. At that point, using five elements at the same time will not be an issue." "Still, there are elements which those cultivators and demon beasts are better at and others that they aren''t. Because of that, they will focus on what they are good and leave the ones they are bad on the side, that''s the common sense in the cultivation universe. But for us, Elemental Core Owners, we are good at all of them. Of course, there are exceptions for this rule out there, but let''s not talk about it now." "The technique that I''m passing to you will help regulate the interaction between the different elements present in your spiritual energy. At first, you won''t feel too much of a difference, but it will present itself when you arrive at the Divine Soul Realm. At that Realm, you will come to understand just how harmful your actual control would be for your future progress." Krune nodded, and for the first time, he acted as a real disciple. He could see that his Master was taking this teaching very seriously too. Krune then bowed and said. "Yes, Master." Lucio nodded and then pressed his finger on Krune''s forehead. But suddenly, his eyes narrowed. Krune was a little puzzled but kept waiting anyway, only after a few seconds did Lucio finally remember. "Oh, right! Your Soul is not inside your head like the other races but inside your outer Core. Open your foundation for me again, I will send this Spiritual Energy Regulation Technique directly into your Soul." Krune finally understood why his Master did that and couldn''t help but laugh a little. He then opened his foundation like the last time and let his Master''s spiritual energy enter. Soon, that foreign Spiritual Energy reached his Planet foundation and sipped in until it arrived at the Planet''s Core. It then touched Krune''s Soul, and he could feel a stream of information flowing inside his mind. A few seconds later, that foreign Spiritual Energy disappeared as if it had never been there. Krune then went through all the new information in his head and immediately started to operate the regulation technique. Lucio looked at that and nodded. "In fact, I wanted you to practice my own regulation technique, but after what I saw in your foundation, I had to change it a little. The reason is that your Tribulation Lightning had boosted your control over the Lightning Element a lot more than the other elements. My technique took into consideration the fact that all Elements operate similarly, and your Lighting Element obviously isn''t like that. But now it shouldn''t give you any problems." While Krune heard his Master talking, he continued to operate the technique. Soon, he noticed that it would be anything but easy. "It''s quite hard." Lucio nodded. "It is! I took over a month back then to get a basic grasp over this regulation technique, so don''t worry about it, take your time and ask anything you want." This was the first time that Krune felt like the old geezer wasn''t that bad. At least, he really played his Master role very well. --- A few hours passed, and Krune had stopped to ask questions quite a few times. Lucio then answered every single one of them to the best of his abilities, which helped Krune a lot during his training. The time continued to flow and night finally came, Lucio then noticed that it was getting late and decided to stop the practice for the day. "Alright, that should be enough for today. Go back to your home and keep the practice up. Also, I believe that with your Soul Power, you should have no problem with splitting your mind in two to do two things at the same time. The regulation technique is different from cultivating, so there is no problem if you want to do both at the same time. In fact, it will even help you since you can see what happens when new Spiritual Energy arrives inside your foundation and the differences that it causes." Krune nodded and stood up, after that he complimented his Master and went back to his residence. After Krune left, Lucio turned to Falanea and asked. "How was it?" She then shook her head. "It was the same thing, it doesn''t matter what he does, the Destiny Energy around him simply doesn''t move at all! It is as if he wasn''t even here, the Destiny Energy can''t feel his presence. He is the same as that Girl called Feifei from the Wang Clan. You are sure that his Core is an Elemental Core, right?" Lucio nodded. "Although his Core had Tribulation Lightning revolving inside, I''m absolutely sure that it is an Elemental Core." Lucio then pondered a bit and said. "But it looked a little different, not because of the Tribulation Lightning, but something else. If I tried to guess, I would say that his Elemental Core is a lot more developed than mine was in his cultivation realm. It looks like it is much better at the elements'' control. How can I say it? It is as if it is a new version of an Elemental Core." Falanea then took a deep breath and said. "Then we should rethink that rumors that Feifei has a Heavenly Core, it might not be precisely that." Lucio nodded and thought about that time when Feifei''s spaceship stopped his own. Now he understands what that Girl found to be so interesting about Krune, maybe, they are the same! ''Well, I already accepted him as my disciple. So I''m sorry, but I''m not giving away now that you presented him to me.'' Chapter 163 - Different Elemental Meridians. Unaware of his Master''s conversation with Falanea, Krune returned to his place to keep practicing the Elemental Regulation Technique. At the same time, he did as his Master said and divided his focus to cultivate at the same time. Sure enough, cultivating at the same time allowed him to see the difference that new spiritual energy caused to the existing one. This helped him to comprehend it even further. ''I''m at the 9th stage and close to the peak, I should use this time to reinforce my foundation even further and get ready for the Core Formation Realm Breakthrough.'' Krune still had a lot of Spiritual Stones from the Entrance Exam, so he spent some time at home doing both things. As for everyone else, they also were training and receiving guidance from their own Masters. Of course, different from Krune, his friends'' Masters had several other disciples. So they had to get divided attention, and sometimes their Masters would teach a lot of their disciples together. Time passed, and soon, a month went by. During this time, everyone improved by leaps and bounds. There is a limit to how much Krune could help with his Elemental Irises, and it couldn''t replace the knowledge accumulated by the Divine Path Sect over the ages it had been here. There was another thing, Krune decided to pass his Myriad Energies Technique for both Lofa and Tasier too. When they heard about it, they were amazed by this information. The most common cultivation technique of all times turned out to be this heaven-defying! Lofa and Tasier didn''t have any reason not to believe Krune, so they immediately started to cultivate it. Of course, they had just started, and both of them had backgrounds before, so they didn''t need to create the pseudo meridians before. Because of that, considering the time that Ao and the others took to create all nine, Krune expects that they won''t be over with it before a few months have passed. --- Talking about the Spiritual Energy Meridians, there was one thing that puzzled Krune. Shinja had finally got enough spirit stones to create all Nine Spiritual Energy Meridians. Still, contrary to what happened to krune, her ones did not evolve into the same Elemental Meridians as his. Instead, her Meridians became transparent, just like Water. (Water is not blue, just so that you know) Shinja then showed it to everyone, which surprised Krune to no end. Still, there was something more to that, Krune could also see a few spots of blue on them. Shinja then said. "As you know, I specialize in Water, Ice, and Lightning. But Ice is still a branch element of Water. In a certain way, I''m still only using two elements, even though it can be considered three. The blue light spots on my Spiritual Meridians give me the feeling of Lightning Element." Krune was already expecting that answer. "I see, so the elements you best at will also determine what kind of Elemental Meridians you will have. I should have thought about this possibility before. Still, it is good to see that the Meridians that you guys have can also evolve into the next stage." It was then that Krune remembered something. "Oh, right! After your Meridians evolved, did they Breakthrough Space and connected to the Elemental Source Energy?" Shinja nodded. "Yes, such a thing did really happen. But according to what you told me, there is one thing different from my Meridians and yours. My Elemental Meridians did indeed connect to the Elemental Source Energy and absorbed its energy to evolve. But I could feel that they were absorbing a lot more Water Energy Source than the rest, Lightning was the second. As for the rest, they were being absorbed as well, but just a tiny bit of each one." One must know that Elemental Source Energy is composed of all elements. In fact, it also has other elements like Light and Darkness. But Krune was not able to absorb those either. "I see, tell me one thing. When you convert Spiritual Energy into Elemental Source Energy for cultivation, Is that Energy also mainly composed of Water and Lightning?" Shinja smiled and immediately nodded. "Yes. I still get other elements like fire, earth, and wind. But it is just like my Elemental Meridians. They can''t comparate to the amount of Water and Lightning Elements." Krune finally understood. "Then I believe there is nothing wrong with it. The Elemental Meridians will evolve according to your own traits. If it had become a Rainbow-Like Meridians just like mine, they would give you a lot of Fire, Earth, and Wind Elements, which would be of little use to your cultivation." Shinja nodded and agreed with what Krune said. Krune then asked. "Talking about cultivation, Core Formation Realm needs Elemental Source Energy to raise their cultivation. Because I''m in the Foundation Establishment, the amount of Elemental Source Energy that my Elemental Meridians convert is very small. How much Spiritual Energy your meridians automatically convert into Elemental Source Energy? I believe it will be different since you are already at the Core Formation Realm." Shinja nodded and then said. "I haven''t tried to cultivate after my Meridians evolved, so I don''t know yet. I wanted to talk to you guys first before trying anything, so let me try it now." Shinja then took out a few Spirit Stones and placed them around. After that, she started to cultivate. As mentioned before, the Core Formation Realm and above need to convert Spiritual Energy into Elemental Source Energy to raise their cultivations. Shinja concentrated at it to see how much Elemental Source Energy would be delivered before she had to convert the Spiritual Energy. Thirty minutes later, she finally opened her eyes, and veryone could see that she looked quite happy. "Impressive! The Elemental Meridians converted around 30% of the Spiritual Energy into Elemental Source Energy before it arrived into my Dantian!" Krune and everyone else''s eyes lit up at that moment. Don''t look down on 30% of converstion. Krune''s Elemental Meridians can''t even convert 10% while in the Foundation Establishment Realm! That was not all! If around 30% of the Spiritual Energy is converted straight away, it means that the cultivation time can be reduced in about 1/3! You only need to cultivate for 16 hours to achieve the same results as an entire day of cultivation! That''s is even more heaven-defying! After they learned that, everyone was ecstatic! Yusa then immediately bid farewell and returned to her own residence. She had already entered the Core Formation Realm and opened 8 Spiritual Energy Meridians in total. As mentioned before, Yusa had to stop at the 6 Meridians because her Foundation Establishment Dantian couldn''t support 9 of them. But after the Breakthrough, it had finally got strong enough to support the rest! So she wanted to finish her last one to get her own Elemental Meridians. Ao and the others were also hyped by that information and returned to their own residences to cultivate. Arlan, Ao, Lofa, and Tasier were all at the Peak of the Foundation Establishment, so they only needed to reinforce their cultivations and get ready for the Heavenly Tribulation. A few hours after everyone left, Krune received a Message from his Master. "One month has gone by, come to my residence for me to check your progress." Krune immediately got excited, he can finally show the fruits of his effort! After arriving there, Krune went directly to his Master''s Cultivation room. "You are here. So how was it? Did you get a basic grasp of my technique? This technique could be said to have four stages, fundamental, Intermediate, Advanced, and Peak. In my time, I only took one month to achieve the Fundamental Stage, so I hope you haven''t disappointed me." Lucio''s expression showed a lot of pride while saying those words. At that time, when he got this technique from his Master, even his Master was surprised by his speed. Krune noticed his Master smug face and snorted. "You old geezer, you took an entire month to get to the fundamental stage? Sigh... I wonder if you are really worthy of being my Master at all. It only took me one week to get there." Lucio almost vomited blood after that. One week? Are you kidding me? But before he could retort, Krune had already sent the same Spiritual Energy Line again. When Lucio saw that, his mouth twitched. Although it wasn''t even close to his, it was evident that Krune had really achieved the fundamental stage! In fact, Lucio could see that Krune is very close to entering the intermediate stage too! "Cough, cough. As expected of my first disciple, if you couldn''t do this much, Master would be disappointed." This time it was Krune that almost fainted! "What you mean this much? I practiced it like there was no tomorrow! Couldn''t you give a little bit of praise here? I smashed your previous time record to the ground, after all!" Lucio heard that and almost exploded. "Why must you say smashed? Can''t you be more delicate about it?" Once again, they started to bicker at each other, and it wasn''t before a full 20 minutes had gone by that they finally got tired about that. "Alright, enough already! Since you are doing this well with your practice, we can enter the next topic." Krune also stopped and asked. "What next topic?" Lucio looked at him with a serious face and asked. "When are you planning to enter the Core Formation Realm?" Krune was taken aback with that question but answered anyway. "My foundation has been reinforced quite a lot, and I''m also at the peak of the Foundation Establishment. I believe I can do it anytime." Lucio nodded and said. "During the time I was verifying your foundation, I noticed that you were keeping all the Elemental Source Energy instead of using it for cultivation. If I''m not wrong, you intend to use it in your Core Formation Realm Breakthrough, right?" Krune wasn''t surprised that his Master had found about it, so he simply nodded, he was really intending to do such a thing. "Very good, with this, we can make a perfect Core Formation Realm breakthrough!" Krune was puzzled, though. "What do you mean?" Lucio heard that and then smiled. Chapter 164 - Perfect Breakthorugh! Lucio started to explain. "There is a lot of Foundation Establishment cultivators that come to our Sect so that they can have a safer Core Formation Realm breakthrough. And it is true, we have a few techniques that can make it easier to achieve that. But this should not be a problem for you to start with. As I can see it, you wouldn''t have any problem with resisting the Heavenly Tribulation with your current ability. So I guess it is okay for us to try a perfect breakthrough." Lucio continued. "Usually, cultivators and demon beasts give a small part of their Soul to ''feed'' the Core, and that Core will nurture this small Soul into a Divine Soul. I believe you already know that, right?" Krune nodded. "But there is a thing that few know about, the amount that your Core is ''fed'' is divided by stages too. If you give 10%, it''s a fundamental Breakthrough; 20%, intermediate Breakthrough; 30%, advanced Breakthrough; And finally, 50%, a perfect Breakthrough. It will also determine the power of your Nascent Soul." Krune immediately got puzzled. "But Master, as far as I know, it is the Core itself that decides how much of your Soul it wants to absorb, or at least, that''s what I heard from everyone. Also, if I let the Core take even more of my Soul, won''t I die because of that?" Krune was also worried about another thing, Shinja and Yusa had already entered the Core Formation Realm, doesn''t that mean that they did it wrong? Lucio nodded and then shook his head. "This knowledge isn''t wrong but isn''t totally correct either. To be more specific, your Core is the one that determines for ''how long'' it will absorb the Soul. But it doesn''t change the fact that it is still the Core that decides, though. The trick for a perfect Breakthrough is in the size of your Soul!" Krune didn''t need his Master to continue, he immediately understood what he was supposed to do and why his Master spoke about the Elemental Source Energy. "So I will need to use the Elemental Source Energy to compact my Soul as much as possible. That way, my future Core will absorb a lot more of it before the time runs out." The reason for that is because when Krune used his Elemental Source Energy during the Hundred Floors Tower Exam to protect his Soul, the energy had also compacted his Soul so that it would be easier to defend. Lucio nodded, satisfied. "Smart! As for the risks of dying because of that, you can leave it to your Master!" Lucio then took out a pill and passed it to Krune. "Normally, the conscience wouldn''t be able to resist a loss of over 30% of the Soul. In typical cases, the conscience would break apart, and the Soul dissipates. But this pill here will make it different. It is called Awareness Moving Pill." Krune then received the pill and looked at it. Even as an Alchemist himself, he couldn''t determine the grade of the pill. It is obviously something extremely rare. Lucio continued to explain. "As the name implies, it has the capability of moving the conscience to a specific part of your Soul. But don''t misunderstand it, the loss of 50% or more of the Soul will still be a severe injury! You will just not die because of that, but the Pain will be who knows how many times higher!" Krune nodded. This is something that he was already expecting. It is half of his Soul, after all! Krune then took out another pill from his spatial ring and showed to his Master, it was none other than the Soul Healing Pill that he made with the Dragon Essence Liquid! "Master, can this pill heal my Soul instantaneously if the injury to the Soul is 50% or more?" Lucio then grabbed that pill and took a look. "Oh, this one isn''t that bad. Even though it is a normal Five Stars pill, it has fused with the Dragon Essence Liquid pretty well. If you have 10 of this, it should be possible." Krune almost fainted! "10? I have 12 at the moment, but I was waiting to give it to the others when they entered the Core Formation Realm. Is there a way in which I can gather more Dragon Essence Liquid?" Lucio looked at him and laughed. "At your level, no mission will give you the necessary points to buy Dragon Essence Liquid Drops. In fact, I''m impressed that you put your hands on some drops at all! I read the reports, you got those drops because of the bet between two Outer Sect Elders. But you probably noticed that even they thought about it as a treasure, and they were both at the Void Breaking Realm." Krune felt gloomy, those pills were acquired thanks to the effort of Arlan, Ao, and himself. He doesn''t think that it is right to use so many alone. But if he doesn''t, he isn''t confident of being able to pass the Heavenly Tribulation in that condition. Lucio then said. "Well, before I read the reports, I thought that you wouldn''t have anything good enough to recover your Soul from that injury." Lucio then took another pill out and passed to his disciple. Krune looked at that new pill and was surprised. "It''s also the Soul Healing Pill, but its power..." Lucio then said. "It is indeed a Soul Healing Pill made with Dragon Essence Liquid, but this one is at the 8 Silver Stars level." Krune nodded. "As I thought, I noticed the moment I saw it that my own pills simply couldn''t compare." Lucio continued. "Thankfully, even though you will lose 50% or more of your Soul at that moment, it doesn''t change the fact that it is still a Soul of an Early Core Formation Realm. Thanks to that, this pill should be enough to heal it completely. If it was an injury at the Divine Soul Level, this pill would have little effect, and your own pills wouldn''t change anything at all! So after the Core Formation Realm Breakthrough, be careful not to damage your Soul anymore." Krune nodded and immediately put that pill inside his Spatial Ring too, he then looked at his Master, who was giving him so many good things at once. "Old geezer, why are you being so nice with me?" Pow! Krune was immediately hit on the head again. "You are my first and only disciple, the only one in over 50 thousand years! What is so weird about me helping you with your cultivation path? Next time you make such a stupid question, it won''t be just a hit on the head that you will get!" Krune felt a little embarrassed and just nodded. With his power, there is nothing much he can do for his Master now, but he will remember everything he has done for him. There will come a day where he will repay his Master. "Oh, right! Master, is there a way to help improve the Soul in the Core of someone who is already in the Core Formation Realm?" Lucio looked at him and asked. "Are you talking about your friends who had already entered this Realm?" Krune nodded, if possible, he wanted to help Shinja and Yusa to improve as well. Lucio then said. "There are a few treasures that would be capable of that, but they are too rare and expensive, even I would feel Pain in my pockets if I were to use one. Also, I said that there are a few treasures that can improve the Soul inside the Core, but they will never get at the level of a Perfect Breakthrough! Of course, they are still too hard for someone like you to acquire anyway, and I will definitely not give you those since they can be used for much better things." Krune sighed and nodded, he was already expecting such a thing. "Then, is it okay to pass this information about the Core Formation Realm breakthrough to the others?" Lucio nodded his head. "It shouldn''t be a problem, but without the ability to gather Elemental Source Energy, I reckon that it will be useless. Without that, your friends can''t compact the Soul. Also, there is the problem of the Awareness Moving Pill. Without something like this, they probably will die because the injury will also affect their consciousness." It was then that Krune asked. "Oh right, what grade is this pill? I want to go to the Alchemist Hall to see if I could get it done. It shouldn''t be as rare as the Dragon Essence Liquid Soul Healing Pill, right? After all, it only moves the awareness, it doesn''t have the Soul Healing Ability." Lucio''s mouth twitched and looked at Krune as if looking at an idiot. "Not as rare your head! This pill can''t even be concocted here in the Divine Path Sect to start with!" Krune was taken aback, can''t be concocted in the Divine Path Sect? That rare? Lucio then took a deep breath and said. "I can''t even remember all the ingredients necessary to make this thing. Dragon Essence Liquid? You might as well call it dirty water compared to the materials used in this pill. I acquired it during a trip to the Central Region a few thousand years ago, and it cost me 103 million Rank 10 High-Quality Spirit Stones!" Krune almost vomited blood! 103 MILLION RANK 10 HIGH-QUALITY?!!! Is the pill inside his spatial ring that valuable?! Krune knows that the Divine Path Sect has even Golden Stars Alchemists. If they can''t create this pill, then just what level is this thing?! "You are not joking, right?" Lucio shook his head. "I won it in an auction back then. Our best alchemist here in the Sect at the moment is Jamile Tyranea, an 8 Golden Stars alchemist, and she was with me at that time. She was the one who convinced me to buy it too. This pill is a 7 Diamond Stars Pill, something that our Western Protectorate can''t even dream about concocting!" Krune then took a deep breath, just what kind of heaven-defying treasure did his Master just give him? There was another reason why Lucio wasn''t minding investing so much into his disciple. That is because back then, his Master also did the same for him! That is his way to show that he isn''t the least bit worse than his own Master now. Lucio then commented. "You took the Soul and conscience wrong. To heal the Soul is hard, but it is still within our means, but to move the conscience inside the Soul is another story altogether! As you know, we can still operate the Soul and if your cultivation is high enough, even bringing it out of the body is possible. But we have no way of touching the conscience itself! According to Jamile, only the alchemists in the Central Region have the power to achieve that through their pills." Krune then sighed, it seems like he won''t be able to help the others to achieve a Perfect Core Formation Realm Breakthrough or bring the ones who are in this Realm to the same level as himself. Lucio then finished with a piece of advice. "One must rely on oneself in the cultivation path, and I can tell that your friends understand that. It is up to them whether they achieve great things or not. It''s not wrong to help, but if you overdo it, you will instead become a barrier to their progress." Krune nodded and gave up the idea of helping them acquire a better breakthrough. Sill, he will give them the information, but it will be up to them whether they can make use of it or not. Chapter 165 - Choosing their own paths Next time Krune reunited with everyone, he told them about the Perfect Core Formation Realm breakthrough. But he also said that there was nothing he could do for them about that. Shinja and Yusa didn''t seem to care, though. "That''s not a problem, if it is meant to be, we will get those treasures you talked about, if not, then forget it. In the end, the number of cultivators or demon beasts that can try something like that is even lower than the number of Major Core Owners, so there is nothing to be sad about." Ao, Tasier, and Lofa also didn''t seem to care. That is Krune''s luck for being accepted as the Sect Master disciple, and they are very happy to be accepted into the Divine Path Sect already. The only one that seemed to be pondering about it is Arlan himself. He then looked at Krune and asked. "You said that there is also the Intermediate and advanced breakthrough. Doesn''t it mean that although a perfect one isn''t possible, I can still try an intermediate or advanced one?" Krune looked at Arlan and then said. "There are three things to pay attention to. First, is the fact that you will need Elemental Source Energy to compact the Soul. Second, you will need to resist the pain of having your Soul further damaged. Third, and this is the most difficult. You don''t have an Awareness Moving Pill, so can your conscience survive the removal of 20% or more of your Soul?" Arlan went quiet after hearing that. The Elemental Source Energy should be possible for him since he has a Foundation Strong enough to support nine Spiritual Energy Meridians at the Foundation Establishment Realm. That means that he can try to evolve his own Meridians before breaking through. He is also confident that he can resist the pain of having even more of his Soul being removed. But the third issue isn''t something he can deal with. A pill that even the Divine Path Sect can''t concoct is not something that he can acquire. Even if the Sect could, there is no way he would ever be able to afford such a thing. And although Krune hasn''t mentioned, there is also another issue, he will need even more Soul Healing Pills to recover from such damage during the breakthrough. "But, 20% should still be possible, no?" Krune shook his head. "I don''t know. But you should consider if it is really worth the risk. According to Master, the difference between fundamental and advanced isn''t that big to start with. Only when you achieve a perfect breakthrough will the difference worth it. Remember that I will only do it because of the things Master gave me. Otherwise, I definitely wouldn''t try such a dangerous thing." Arlan nodded and decided to give it some extra thought. Krune had already said he won''t intervene and won''t help with it either. He plans to do as his Master spoke. He won''t make any over moves anymore so that everyone can build their own path. They have all entered in the Divine Path Sect, so from now on, it is up to them what they can achieve or not. After chatting for a little longer, Shinja decided to tell them another thing. "My Master will be taking her disciples for a special training course outside the Sect, and according to her, it will take quite a few years. She gave all her disciples a choice of whether to go or not, but she will be going regardless of what we decide since it is also for the sake of her cultivation. All her disciples have Water as the main specialized Element, and so does she, so I also decided that I will be going." Yusa and Lofa heard that and seemed a little sad, but they soon shook their heads and agreed with Shinja''s decision. "You are doing the right thing. Your Master is a Blue Luan, wherever she is going to train, it is bound to be a fantastic place for Water Element users. So don''t worry about anything else, you should go." Krune and Ao just smiled, it is already time that everyone will forge their own paths. Ao then said. "I will also be leaving for some missions, it has been over a month since I joined the Sect and I learned a lot from Master. I want to ponder and temper all the new knowledge I''ve got so far. Also, I don''t want to fall behind at all!" Arlan then put his arm around Ao''s shoulder and said. "In fact, it is the two of us who are going. We have decided it already, and we are going to check out the missions around the Furani Region." Krune was puzzled, though. "What is this Furani Region?" Ao then explained. "It is a place with a lot of battles going around. From what I heard from Master, the Sect doesn''t intervene because it turned into a place quite good for tempering one''s ability. We thought that it would be better for us to go there and practice a little more before entering the Core Formation Realm. We are very young, after all. There is no need to hurry." Krune nodded, hastiness is the enemy of perfection. Krune thinks that their idea is quite good. As for Yusa, Lofa, and Tasier, they don''t have masters, so what they learned so far were the things available for the disciples of the Outer and Inner Sect. Lofa and Tasier decided to not leave for the time being. First, they are focusing on creating the nine Pseudo Meridians. Second, they are the ones with the least experience at using the Spiritual Energy Meridians. They don''t even have it yet, so they want to practice with it around the Sect when they open them. As for Yusa, she got an idea after what she heard from Ao and Arlan. "As you know, I''m mostly focused on support than attacks, what about I go with you two? I won''t intervene with the fights and only give support when necessary." Arlan and Ao looked at each other and nodded. They know how good she is at support, so it would be a good thing to have her in case things go south. Krune looked at that and let out a sigh of relief. ''Everyone is looking for their own paths now, it seems like that the group travels will get less and less frequent. But that is also good, I can hold by myself, and so can everyone else.'' Krune then thought about another thing. "Oh, right! What happened with Joty? I haven''t seen him ever since the end of the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam." Arlan was the one to answer that question. "He sent me a message a day after the end of the test. He said that his Master would be bringing him away from the Sect for the time being to help him awaken his bloodline. As for what this bloodline is, where he went, or what he''s gonna do, he didn''t tell in the message." Everyone nodded, they were already expecting that something was different about Joty, and the fact that he was accepted as the disciple of a Legacy Elder is the proof of it. It might take some time until they hear about him again. Krune then showed a happy expression and said. "Since the majority is going to leave for some time, today I will prepare a banket for everyone. Let''s eat and drink to our heart''s content." The moment he said that, the ghost Master once more appeared by his side while expressing his opinion. "Good, I want Flow Crow Egg Soup." Krune, once again, jumped out of fright. "You- You! How many times are you going to do that? Besides, what is it with this habit of listening to the others'' conversation?" Lucio showed a puzzled expression and said. "What you talking about? I literally just arrived, and all that I heard is that you are making food." Krune''s mouth twitched, he obviously didn''t believe it, but he wasn''t sure if it was a lie either. "Whatever, it''s not like there is any big secret either. Go take a seat while I prepare everything. By the way, as the Sect Master, don''t you have anyone to prepare food for you, especially ones with a lot of treasures and all of that?" Lucio then said. "I can have it if I want, but it is not the same as having your disciple cook for you. After all, I can''t possibly be the only one giving a lot and not receiving anything back, right?" Krune wanted to say that it was he who forced this Master-Disciple relationship but soon gave up the idea. Chances are that he will get even angrier. Besides, it''s not like he hasn''t cooked for more people and demon beasts before either. As for everyone else, they already gave up trying to understand what this all-powerful man is trying to do anyway. Later that night, Krune called Lakin and Ruik over. "How has the wisps and demon beats training going?" Ruik immediately answered. "The demon beats and wisps are using the training equipment of the Rainbow Sect as planned. According to what you said, we only let them have access to the Soul Techniques after the clear the first tests. As for Legacy Disciple Techniques, only Lakin has cleared the test so far. To be honest, I don''t think I will be able to clear it even with the Spiritual Energy Meridians'' help. The Soul is not my specialty, after all." Lakin then said. "Ruik is right, Master. The other demon beasts had also just barely passed the first tests, and that was after they finished the Soul Tempering. Shinja and the others also tried the Legacy Disciple tests, but they also fell short. Shinja was quite close, but in the end, she also failed." Krune nodded, it wasn''t like he wasn''t expecting for it. "It is okay, just keep following the rules that Hasik had stated. I believe he had a reason not to let anyone who hasn''t cleared the Legacy Disciple test to check those Soul Techniques. Not to mention that I promised him that I would follow the rules." Krune then looked at Ruik and Lakin and said. "From now on, I will leave everything related to the equipment in the pocket dimension up to you two. You can select other wisps or demon beasts to help with that as well if you want. Only call me if it is something really important. Otherwise, I trust any judgment you make regarding this issue. I won''t be able to care for so many things at the same time anymore, so I better deal with it now." Lakin and Ruik looked at each other and then nodded. "No problem, we are not disciples of the Divine Path Sect, so we have more time available." Krune nodded and then said. "That correct, but remember that menial Disciples also have the right to take some simple missions. Don''t forget that, depending on the results, even joining the Outer Sect isn''t out of the question." Lakin and Ruik nodded once more. They had already inquired about everything that Menial Disciples like them can and can''t do. Krune then spent some time with Lakin to help him with his training and then went back to cultivate. He intends to enter the Core Formation Realm before leaving the Sect for any reason. Chapter 166 - Revelations! Krune then spent his time cultivation and reinforcing his foundation, he believes that he won''t need more than two weeks before it is completed. One night, he decided to ask Light Spirit. "Back then, you asked me to keep the Elemental Source Energy by the side and only use it for the Core Formation Realm breakthrough. Could it be that you were intending to use it to compact my Soul as well?" Light Spirit laughed and said. "Correct! But you sure took some time to remember that, no?" Krune shook his head. "There had been so many things happening recently that even I haven''t thought much about it. Only during this last week, which has been quite calm did I finally remember those words." Light Spirit agreed with Krune since he saw everything that was happening first hand. "It was indeed the case, I was intending to make you use it to get a better breakthrough into the Core Formation Realm. This is a very important moment since it is this moment that will give you your future Divine Soul. But I was expecting to get you to make a semi-perfect breakthrough, not a perfect one. You should really thank your Master for the Awareness Moving Pill." Krune nodded, but he got puzzled. "What you mean with semi-perfect breakthorugh?" Light Spirit noticed that he made a small mistake. "Oh, I forgot that the names have changed after so long. Simply put, a semi-perfect breakthrough is what your Master called an advanced breakthrough. That one which you need to let your Core absorb 30% of the Soul." Suddenly, Krune started to sweat cold. "Th-Then, if I didn''t have this Awareness Moving Pill and tried that advanced breakthrough, how would you deal with the conscience issue?" Light Spirit then laughed out loud. "Isn''t that obvious? Guts! You would need to bear with that by pure will power! Don''t worry, I believe you could definitely pass this hurdle." Krune almost fainted! "Guts! Your head! Did you want to kill me?" Light Spirit seemed not to care, though. "What you talking about? How many times did you temper your Soul already? After using Tribulation Lightning for so long, do you really think you couldn''t resist this little? You are looking way too much down on the fact that I''m here together with the Tribulation Lightning. I refuse to believe you couldn''t resist a meager loss of 30%." Krune was still somewhat doubtful, and he couldn''t help but think that Light Spirit reminded him of his Master. "Oh well, whatever. Everything should be fine now." Light Spirit then said. "I have no doubts about that! You must remember that I believe you already had the power to resist a 30% of absorption without the Awareness Moving Pill. So it goes without saying that other than the pain, it shouldn''t be too hard to enter the Core Formation Realm." Krune agreed that if what Light Spirit is telling is true, then it might really go as he says. --- A week later, Krune received a message from his Master to go see him. Arriving there, Krune was brought to the living room where his Master asked him a question. "What is your relationship with the daughter of the Wang Clan''s Head?" Krune was taken aback at that question. "Wang Clan''s Head? The only people I know from the Wang Clan is a girl called Feifei and an old man who stays together with her called Feng." Lucio''s mouth twitched. "That''s exactly the girl I''m talking about!" Krune''s eyes went wide! "What?! She''s the daughter of the Wang Clan''s Head?" Lucio heard that and sighed. "Aren''t wisps supposed to be intelligent? How come you haven''t checked that even once after you entered our Sect? You definitely have access to this information if you look into your communicator and connect to our network." There was a reason why Lucio took this long to make this question. He wanted to ascertain by himself whether Krune was someone sent by the Wang Clan or not. Lucio also sent his own people to investigate this issue through and through. In the end, he finally got to the conclusion that Krune really isn''t someone sent by another power to cause problems to them. First of all, to send someone with such a talent would be the most idiotic thing ever! That is also the reason why he didn''t mind spending so much on Krune. Krune then immediately turned to his communicator and searched for the information his Master mentioned. Sure enough, it is said that Feifei is the daughter of the Wang Clan Head, and there were even quite a few pictures of her. Krune was certain, that this is, without a doubt, the Feifei that he knows. "That''s... unexpected." The promise back then suddenly became several times harder to accomplish. But Krune couldn''t help but think. ''Well, that is considering that Feifei still remembers me, which I find quite hard to believe. Sigh...'' It was then that he looked at his Master. "I didn''t know that she was the daughter of the Wang Clan." Lucio then shook his head and asked. "Now that you know, can you explain how you know each other?" Krune nodded and then explained how he came to know Feifei and uncle Feng back in the Makui Planet. Lucio heard that and was taken aback! "Marriage? She made you promise that?" Krune nodded. "Yes, but Master can rest assured. Feifei was just a kid back then, so she probably already forgot about it by now. It is a little embarrassing, but I believe that I''m the only one who still wants to keep that promise. After I get to talk to her and she confirms my conjecture that she probably doesn''t want anything to do with me, I will finally be free to do whatever I want. Of course, I rather she also still likes me and allows me to keep that promise. Haha!" Lucio sighed once more. He then decided that it was the time to tell Krune about what happened 6 years ago when he encountered Feifei and Feng during his way back to the Sect. Krune, of course, was surprised that something like that happened. "What does it all means?" Lucio shook his head. "I don''t know, but one thing is certain, she definitely hasn''t forgotten your promise. In fact, I believe it is because she wants your good that she warned me to take a look at the Exam. If she didn''t, she would never send you to me since I can definitely protect you. Of course, as I said, they just told me that someone interesting would try the Entrance Exam, nothing else. So the fact that you joined and that I got you as my disciple was your accomplishment and only yours. There is no need to feel in debt for that since you would have joined the Sect whether I got you as a disciple or not." Krune went silent for a moment and said. "It is also true that I got to this point thanks to the Myriad Energies Technique that I got from them back there, so what you said isn''t totally right, but isn''t totally wrong either. But what can I do now? I can''t help but feel excited about the fact that she might really not have forgotten me. Of course, Feifei and uncle Feng met you 6 years ago, so the chances are still that she already forgot me anyway. Haha!" Although Krune laughed in self-depreciation, Lucio could see that Krune''s eyes showed some hope in there. He then sighed and said. "That''s why I called you over, I can guarantee you, not only did she not forget you, she is coming for you now." Krune took a second to process that information. "What?! What you mean?" Lucio then explained about the exchange program that the Big Four always do between each other. "I just confirmed with the ones taking care of it, Wang Feifei is coming together with another two geniuses of the Wang Clan. The thing is, the Wang Clan rarely send direct descendants of their main family, let alone someone with Feifei status." Krune got puzzled at that. "What you mean with ''Feifei status''?" Lucio then went even further and explained about the issues that they found about Krune''s Major Core and how much it looked like Feifei''s. "Such a thing happened?!" Krune was already feeling numb with all the revelations happening at the same time. Now he just found out that he is immune to Divination too! Lucio then said. "I will make it clear. I have no intention of giving you to the Wang Clan, you better remember that!" Krune then gave a side glance to his Master and said. "Master, I will make it clear too. I don''t like men." Pow! Krune was hit once more, but this time, it was his fault. "Say that again and see if I don''t send you directly to hell! Your Master is a very straight man, you better remember that as well!" Krune nodded and didn''t say anything else. Not to mention, he can only think about the fact that Feifei is coming! As for the part where his Master said that he won''t give him away to the Wang Clan, Krune doesn''t care. With his cultivation at the moment, there is no way that he could do something like marrying Feifei. The Wang Clan wouldn''t let that happen at any cost. Especially after what he heard about his and Feifei''s Major Core situation. For now, he will just enjoy the moment. Lucio then asked Krune. "Do you really like her?" Krune was taken aback once more. "Errr... I guess so, at least I do want to stay with her. How can I say it? Ever since I met her back then, I always thought about how good those short moments were. Besides, from what Master said, it seems like Feifei really did mean well to me." Suddenly, Lucio''s eyes shined! "Then, that makes things easier! I won''t give you to the Wang Clan, but that doesn''t mean that you can''t take her from them. I''m counting on you, young ma- cough, cough, young wisp!" Krune looked at his Master''s joyous face and felt that something wasn''t right. "Why do I feel like this entire conversation guided me into this conclusion?" Lucio then laughed out loud and said. "Coincidence, it''s just coincidence!" But deep inside, he was thinking. ''How good will it be if I snatch that blockhead''s daughter fair and square? Krune already has his human form, which means that now he can leave behind descendants too. Let''s hope that things go this way. Hahahaha!'' It turns out that Wang Xin and Lucio Koffel had some past history together. Of course, it was only on a personal level. It had nothing to do with both the Clan or the Sect as a whole. In fact, almost no one knows about it to start with. Chapter 167 - Ao and Ula. During his time cultivating, Krune went out to see Shinja, Ao, Yusa, and Arlan off. Shinja was the first one to leave, and a few days later, Ao''s group decided to leave as well. But there was one thing that was puzzling Krune when he arrived at the Spaceship Port that Ao''s group was going to use. Krune looked at a young girl with white hair that didn''t look to be more than 18 to 20 years old. He couldn''t help but think that he knew her from somewhere. "Errr... and this is?" Ao scratched the back of his head helplessly and said. "It''s Ula, the Moon Wolf." Finally, Krune understood why she looked familiar. It wasn''t her appearance, but the Tribulation Lightning power that she controls! "Oh, I see! But... how come she is leaving with you?" Arlan and Yusa seemed like they wanted to laugh but still restrained themselves. Ao was just about to explain when Ula suddenly glued on him. "I invited myself in! I found out that Ao was going to take a few missions, and the Elder of my Moon Wolf race talked with everyone''s Masters to let me join them." That wasn''t exactly the answer that Krune was expecting, what he wanted to know was why did she join them to start with? She is a Tribulation Lightning user, so she probably would have no problems with leaving on a journey alone. But Krune''s doubts were soon cleared by Yusa trough a Divine Sense message. "Yesterday, Arlan, Ao, and I stayed at Ao''s house to finish the last preparations to leave. But suddenly, an elder of the Moon Wolf clan who is also an Inner Sect elder came to knock our door with Ula by his side. Just so that you know, he isn''t Ula''s Master, but a member of the same territory from the Planet that Ula came from, and he seemed to know Ula very well." Yusa then continued to explain the situation. It turned out that Ao noticed that he was a sect Elder and that Ula was also with him, so he invited them inside. Then, out of nowhere, the Elder used his power to lock Ao in place. Both Yusa and Arlan were frightened at first, but then they reminded themselves that they were in the Divine Path Sect, so there is no way that the Elder would try anything against Ao. In the end, the Elder walked around Ao as if measuring him over, and then he asked Ula: "Are you sure that this is the guy?" Ula then got close to Ao and sniffed him once more, then she immediately hugged him with a happy face. "Yes, yes! It''s definitely him!" Ao immediately felt embarrased. Since when beautiful girls started to hug him for no reason? One must know that Ula, in her human form, is quite the beauty! The Elder''s mouth twitched for a moment and looked at Ao as if he was the Moon Wolves race greatest foe. But then he sighed and released Ao from his confinement. Ao, of course, was as lost as ever! The Elder seemed dispirited and then said. "Why does it have to be you?" Before Ao could even ask what was happening, Ula immediately explained. "Elder told me that Our Moon Wolf race has a special trait. We can select our partner based on the smell! You noticed in the hundred-floor tower how my sense of smell is able even to judge a person or demon beast''s character, right? There is one special thing about it. When a Female or Male Moon Wolf finds a partner that they like, they will be totally enticed by their smell, just like I am by yours! So, from now on, you will be my partner!" Ao''s mouth twitched, what does he have to do with that? As for Yusa and Arlan, they suddenly burst in laughter! Yusa then said "Congratulation, Ao! Your single life is finally over." Arlan didn''t lose the opportunity either. "A couple made in heavens! I, Arlan, am very happy for you!" Ao felt like crying but had no tears. Just as he was about to refuse it, he looked at Ula''s shining eyes and swallowed what he was going to say. Just like back in the hundred-floors tower, he once again couldn''t bring himself to go against her wish. The Elder looked at that with a crying face. "You there! If it weren''t because of the Moon Wolf absolute rule of always to follow the smell engagement, I would have killed you already. I wouldn''t even care about being killed after by the Divine Path Sect." The Elder then sighed. "Ula has one of the purest bloodlines of our Moon Wolf race. We really didn''t want her to find a partner outside of our own race. But after she arrived at the right age, she didn''t find anyone in our territory that caught her sense of smell. So we were more or less prepared that she might find it somewhere else." "Also, it is not unheard of a member of our race to take members of other races as partners. In fact, around 1 every 200 Moon Wolves that are born end up finding the partner smell on someone from some other races. As Ula said, our Woon Wolves smell sense can go much further than a pure smelling, and it was through it that we never selected the wrong partner before." "So you better take excellent care of her, or our Moon Wolf Race of the Fajin Planet will definitely find you. I guess I don''t need to tell you what''s gonna happen if something happens." Ao heard all of that and felt despair! He looked at the Elder and started to speak. "I have nothing to do with-" Suddenly, he looked at Ula''s eyes, which kept shining at him. He then shook his head and tried to say it one more "I have nothing to-" She then smiled at him, which made him lose his concentration once more. "I have-" Now, Ula hugged him tightly. "I- I..." Ao was sweating rivers! As for Arlan and Yusa, they were already rolling on the ground, laughing. It was way too obvious that Ao couldn''t do anything against that cute face. Ao then gave up and said. "I will think about it." Ula didn''t seem disappointed and said. "There is no need to think since I won''t leave your side to start with." Ao just sighed and then gave a side glance to Arlan and Yusa, who were rolling on the ground. Pow! Pow! He gave the two of them a kick and sent them flying! Still, Arlan and Yusa didn''t care. It was more than worth it! The Elder, on the other hand, didn''t seem happy with his answer. "What you mean with you will think about it? Are you saying that she isn''t good enough for you?" Ao once more got nervous, but Ula immediately intervened. "It''s okay, Uncle Julios. I just have to make sure to keep him close until he gives up!" Arlan heard that and couldn''t help but comment while trying to hold his laugh back. "Although I''m happy for you two, I''m afraid it won''t be possible. The three of us are leaving for the Furani Region tomorrow to temper our skills, and we are probably staying there for quite some time." Ao and Yusa nodded, that was indeed the truth. Elder Julios then immediately took his communicator out and called a few numbers. Ao the others couldn''t hear what he was saying, though. A minute later, he finished his calls and said. "It''s done! I already called Ao, Arlan, and Ula''s Master. They have no problem letting Ula going together with you. Take care of her well." Ao once more felt like crying! He thought that it would be his chance to escape. Unfortunately, this Inner Sect Elder was a lot more capable than he thought. He even convinced three Core Elders at once! Ula, of course, was thrilled with that result. "Great!" Ao sighed and just let it go. Besides, Ula, in her human form, is really a beauty! It''s not bad to have such a female company other than that reincarnation of the shameless goddess of a woman over there in the corner. Yusa looked at Ao and could more or less guess what he was thinking. "Hey, it''s not my fault if you have such a ''nice smell.''" --- "And that is how it turned out like this." Krune heard all of that and felt like they were trying to making fun of him. Who the hell would believe all that bullshit? Surprisingly, when he looked at Ao, the later nodded as if confirming that Yusa and Arlan were really not lying. Krune then sighed and said. "Whatever. It is not up to me to decide who Ao is gonna get together with." It was then that he thought about something else. "By the way, how do a Moon Wolf and a Human kid look like?" Ao almost fainted! Are you saying that we are already to the point of starting a family?! Bro, aren''t you jumping several steps here, hey?! Ula, of course, didn''t mind at all since, on her eyes, it was already something meant to be! Arlan showed a serious expression and said. "Although they are extremely rare, I''ve seen one or another couple of Humans and Demon Beasts before in my travels. Their kids just so happen to have traits of both races. They looked like humans but had a few extra differences like horns or tails. So I guess it would be a human kid with a white wolf''s ears, hair, and tails, maybe some fur too." Yusa nodded. "That is true, I have seen only one couple like that before, though. It seems like the traits passed over are quite random, but one thing is certain, they will always have a human form as a base. The only doubt is what else will be added to it." Yusa then looked at Ula, smiling. "Of course, once that kid reaches a realm high enough, he can do just like Ula and take the perfect human form. Since Ula got her human form at the 3rd stage of the Core Formation Realm, their kid is probably going to need something close to that to hide his Moon Wolf traits and take the perfect human form as well." Ao was already crying. They totally think that he and Ula are meant to become a family already. Krune nodded and understood. Different from Yusa and Arlan, who were just saying that to make Ao go mad, Krune was really curious about that information. He has never had the opportunity to see a child of a human and a demon beast before, after all. He couldn''t help but think. ''What a child between Feifei and me would look like? Exactly what kind of wisp trait would it carry over? Or better, would it carry any at all? We wisps have no ''real form'' to speak of, after all.'' --- Krune then bid his farewell to Ao and the others and wished happiness to Ao''s new relationship, much for Ao''s sadness. He then returned to his home and thought. "Next is the Core Formation Realm breakthrough." Chapter 168 - Should I Leave Behind My Last Wish? Krune had been preparing ever since he received the Awareness Moving Pill from his Master, and today, he finally finished reinforcing his cultivation. He then sent a message to his Master as the later asked and told that he was ready for that. "Good, the Sect has a special planet where all the members who want to pass through the Heavenly Tribulation can go. Don''t worry, we have an extreme distance teleport formation that is always connected to there." Krune then thought about something and told his Master. "Master, won''t it be a problem since I can attract Heavenly Tribulations that are nearby?" Krune, of course, had already told his Master about this issue. Even if he didn''t, with the Divine Path Sect resources, Lucio would definitely find it out sooner or later. "Don''t worry, I reserved the entire place just for you." Krune was taken aback! An entire planet just for him to go his Heavenly Tribulation? Isn''t it a little too forcefull? But Lucio didn''t care at all! "Our Sect has a lot of Foundation Establishment and Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beasts, so that planet basically has someone going through the Heavenly Tribulation all year round. Because of that, we can''t do it today since the ones going through it at the moment can''t stop it middle way. Come to my home tomorrow, I will make sure that it is free and I will accompany you." Krune decided to do as his Master said in the end. Even if the planet would be reserved only for him, it''s not like it will bother a lot of people or demon beasts anyway. It is only for a single day, after all. The next day, Krune and Lucio departed from the Divine Path Sect through that Teleport Formation. --- The planet that Krune would be going through the Tribulation wasn''t that big but still more than enough. Even though the Sect had members going through the ordeal all year round, it wouldn''t be more than 10 or 20 per day. Considering that this is still an entire planet, there is more than enough space for everyone to use. One must remember that although the Sect not only has the official disciples, it also has many more subordinates and menial disciples too. Not to mention that they are also allowed to use this planet. The reason the Sect separated a planet specifically for it was that it was easier to protect while avoiding any damage from happening. This is, after all, an empty planet. Other than the members of the Divine Path Sect, there was basically no other life form around. "Paying respects to the Sect Master." As soon as Krune and Lucio appeared, the disciples responsible for taking care of the planet immediately came to compliment him. They already received the message that Lucio asked the planet to be free for his disciple during this day. They then looked at Krune from top to bottom. Just like Krune, they also thought that it was too much to reserve the entire planet just for a Core Formation Realm Ordeal. Krune noticed everyone looking at him and sighed helplessly. He could obviously understand what they were thinking too. So he said. "I know very well that it is too much to have this entire planet just for me, but I''m not at fault here. It was the idea of this old geezer beside me, and I have nothing to do with it." Everyone felt like their Souls were about to leave their body when Krune said ''old geezer,'' but surprisingly, the Sect Master took it quite well. Pow! "Stop speaking nonsense. This is my Sect, and everything goes as I want. If anyone complains, I will give them a beating, that''s all." Krune gave a side glance to his Master and said. "Old geezer, you are being too tyrannical!" "Hmph!" Lucio didn''t give a damn! First of all, he rarely asked for anything even as the Sect Master, so there is no problem in doing it a little more for his disciple now. As for if Krune understands him or not, he doesn''t care. Lucio then asked one of the disciples. "Is the Tribulation Ground ready?" The disciple immediately nodded. "Yes! As requested, we separated the ground with a peak Silver Stars Spirit Gathering Formation." Lucio nodded and immediately took Krune there. Usually, the disciples would use the teleport formations close to the entrance to teleport to the place where they would take the ordeals. But Lucio felt that it was too troublesome and immediately teleported with Krune over. As long as the distance wasn''t too big, he could basically appear anywhere with his cultivation and understanding of Space Laws. The disciple of the Sect knew where it was going to happen, and quite a few who were free used the teleport formation to go there take a look. After appearing there, Krune noticed the high concentration of Spiritual Energy and asked Lucio. "Master, isn''t it a problem to have external help when passing the Tribulation? Is it really okay to rely on the Spirit Gathering Formation?" Lucio then said. "There is no problem. Otherwise, you wouldn''t be able to use Spirit Stones either, right? The only thing you have to care about is not to have any external help trying to impede the Tribulation Lightning from hitting you." Lucio then added. "Don''t worry, with all the preparations that we have done, you should have no problem during it." Krune nodded and entered the Spirit Gathering Formation. Just like the one he tested before, this one was basically the same as using Rank Five Spiritual Stones without stop. Krune ate the Awareness Moving Pill and then reverted back to his wisp form. For him, it was easier to resist the pain if he didn''t have a body. "Light Spirit, are you ready?" Light Spirit understood what he meant and said. "Go ahead, your Tribulation should be enough to finish cleaning the Tribulation Lightning power inside your Elemental Core in just one go. You can leave the control of it over to me, just focus on your breakthrough." Krune nodded and then immediately started his breakthrough process. "First, use all my Elemental Source Energy to compact my soul to at least one-fifth of its size." Usually, the Core would absorb around 10% of the Soul in one go, so Krune had to compact it to that size so that the absorption time would take more or less 50% now. "Argh." Of course, compacting one''s Soul isn''t something pleasurable. Lucio looked at that and said. "This is just the start, bear with it. It is nothing compared to the pain of having half of your Soul being taken away. It also won''t be an immediate process, it will instead feel like your Soul is being grinded." Krune knew that already. In fact, it is not like he is feeling pain, it''s more like a weird type of discomfort. It only took him around a minute to compact his Soul. After that, he noticed that the Pill had already taken effect and that he could move his Conscience around his own Soul. It was a very magical feeling. Until today, Krune had always felt like the Soul and the Conscience were the same, so he was curious to see how the Awareness Moving Pill would really work. But it turned out that he now can feel his Soul and his Conscience as two different entities. Although they are intrinsically connected, they are still two different things. The Soul acted more like a house, and the Conscience was the family living inside it. With the Awareness Moving Pill, it was like all the family decided to gather in one of the rooms of the house while the rest stayed empty. "Well, now is the time." Krune them approached his Soul to the Elemental Core, and sure enough, the Core understood Krune''s intention and immediately started to absorb Krune''s Soul at a fast pace. "Ahhhh!" Krune had to admit. "This thing is painful as hell!" Still, he could hold that much. Krune had already grown used to pain anyway. Light Spirt was looking at that and couldn''t help but comment. "Weird, the Soul power was supposed to gather mainly in the center of the Core with just a few threads connecting it to the rest of the Elemental Core. But for some reason, the absorbed Soul is taking the format of an egg. Not to mention that this is a very colorful one. A Rainbow Egg, Perhaps?" Krune heard that and felt like crying, but he didn''t have time to answer. He was already doing his best to resist the pain of the Soul being absorbed. Still, he couldn''t help but feel a little worried due to it. Light Spirit then said. "Well, it has been ages since I was locked. Maybe things changed during this time for the Major Core Owners." Whether it was true or not, Krune couldn''t stop the process anymore, so he just resisted the pain and waited for it to be over. The process continued for around ten minutes when finally, his Elemental Core stopped the absorption process. Just as his Master said, half of his Soul was now gone. Krune didn''t waste time, he reverted back to his human form (naked) and swallowed the Soul Healing Pill that his Master gave him back then. Immediately, the part that had been injured started to grow. In just a few seconds, the pain was gone, and the entire Soul was whole again. Krune let out a sigh of relief and prepared to receive the Heavenly Tribulation. He took his Hexagonal Shields out since they were his weapons. Weapons are considered part of one''s strength, so the Heavens don''t judge it as external help. One has to control their weapons, after all. But it was then that he heard his Master''s voice. "How is that possible?" Krune looked at him, and he could see that his Master''s expression looked quite ugly. Not only him, but the disciples around who came to take a look at the Sect Master''s disciple tribulation were also taken aback. Krune then looked at the direction that they were looking at, and his mouth immediately twitched. Krune had seen the Core Formation Realm Heavenly Tribulation before when Shinja and Yusa went through it. Shinja''s Tribulation Clouds were something around 22km while Yusa was 20km or so. So he had an idea of how big it was supposed to be. Considering all his specialties, he reckons that his Tribulation would probably reach something around 30km or so. Even his Master agreed that it would probably be the case. But when he looked to the sky, he couldn''t help but feel like he had been mistaken by someone else. "There is no way that this Heavenly Tribulation is mine, right?" Above him, the tribulation clouds spread over... 300km! Krune couldn''t help but ask his Master. "Should I leave behind my last wish?" Chapter 169 - Rainbow Egg Divine Soul Lucio''s mouth twitched. "Keep dreaming, I won''t realize any last wish of yours, so find a way to resist it and do that yourself." Lucio looked at Krune and wondered if he is really just a wisp. But doesn''t how he look at him, Krune only looks like a wisp and nothing more. Seeing this gigantic Heavenly Tribulation that even some weak Divine Soul Realm breakthroughs have, made him sigh. Although he said that, even he doesn''t know if Krune will be able to fend it off. After all, this Ordeal is bound to be at least 10 times stronger than a normal one. Krune still had some time before the Tribulation comes down, so he took this time to think and ask. "Light Spirit, do you have any ideas?" Light Spirit was still paying attention to that rainbow egg of a Divine Soul when he heard Krune calling. He then looked at the sky and said. "This is probably because of the change in your Divine Soul, as to why it happened, I have no idea. But I can say that it isn''t this big because of me. I mentioned it in the past. Before the Tribulation Lightning comes down, it won''t be able to feel my presence." Krune didn''t want to know that now, though. "What I meant is if you have any idea of how to resist this Tribulation without dying! We can think about the Divine Soul later." Light Spirit then went silent for a moment and said. "The initial idea was to let the entire Tribulation Power enter your Universe Foundation and use it to cleanse the Tribulation Lightning in your Elemental Core. We still can do that, it is just that there will be no need for all of them, one or two should suffice with an Ordeal this big. So the question is what to do with the rest 7 bolts." Krune pondered a bit and asked. "The last bolt is always the strongest one, can we leave this one to do the cleaning of impurities in my Tribulation Lightning power?" Light Spirit pondered about the power of the last Lightning and the size of the Ordeal and said. "It should be possible, but the last one is a lot more powerful than the others. In this case, just that one alone will be enough. The question is what to do with the other 8 bolts." It was then that Light Spirit remembered one thing. "Oh, right! How could I have forgotten about that?! Because of the first impurities cleaning, you got enough Chaos Energy to make a Sun. Also, your Sun at the moment is very small and needs a lot of spiritual energy to grow into the size necessary to act as one. You can try to use the Tribulation Lightning Energy to feed it since the Ordeal does have a lot fo Spiritual Energy." Krune''s eyes lit up after hearing that. But then he thought about another issue. "We are talking about a total of 8 bolts, can the Sun take it all?" Light Spirit pondered once more and said. "Probably not, but that is not a problem. Try to do like this, resist the first three bolts, then use the next five to feed the Sun. As for the last one, you only need to guide it into your foundation. I can take care of the rest to clean the impurities of your Tribulation Lightning power. I believe that you shouldn''t have a problem if you only need to resist 3 of them." Krune immediately agreed with that idea. He, too, is confident that he can take at least 3 of the bolts if he goes all out. "Is there a problem if I use the Tribulation Lightning power to counter attack? I had done it back in the Makui Planet, after all." Light Spirit agreed. "No problem, what we are cleaning is the source of the power, not the power itself, so there is no issue if you use it to resist the Heavenly Tribulation." Krune was happy to hear that. He decided that he will use the Tribulation Lightning to resist the 3rd one while the first 2 will be held by his own power and shields. --- Because his Tribulation clouds were a lot bigger than normal Core Formation Realm breakthrough, it took quite some time until the first bolt charged up. It wasn''t before 30 minutes before the first one came down. Boom! Krune used his shield and charged them with Earth Element, which is the best one against Lightning. Still, some of the power passed through and hit him. Fortunately, Krune was already prepared for that and protected himself by sending several attacks that he had readied beforehand against the Lightning Bolt. Lucio looked at that and was amazed. The very first Lightning bolt already had the power of the last one of a normal Core Formation Realm breakthrough. But what really surprised him was how Krune resisted it with so much easy. Lucio could feel confidence coming from Krune''s defense. Perhaps, Krune could really resist it! Although Lucio wasn''t showing it on his face, the truth is that he is really worried about Krune. He is his first disciple (although by force), after all! The 2nd lightning bolt came down a little after, and Krune used the same method to resist it. The only problem was that some of his Hexagonal Shield Immediately shattered after being hit by it. Still, it wasn''t all of them, and the ones that did also helped to dissipate quite a lot of the power. After counter-attacking the rest of the power, some of it still hit his wisp body. But Krune didn''t care, that remaining power wasn''t enough to cause him any severe damage. Lucio was looking at everything and saw the moment that Krune''s shields shattered. ''Why didn''t I get him to make better ones?! I was so sure that this Ordeal was going to be easy that I didn''t even consider this possibility. If he survives this, I will definitely have him make some good ones.'' Krune then started to charge his own Tribulation Lightning Power to counter-attack the 3rd bolt of Lightning. As soon as it came down, Krune also sent his own up! Boom! Both powers annulated each other, and the third bolt was gone just like this. Unfortunately, Krune used a lot of Tribulation Lighting Power to achieve that. He had calculated how powerful the 3rd one would be and had no choice but to do this. After that, Krune immediately summoned his own Elemental Meridians out and opened them fully. "Now, I can only count with you guys and my Sun." This was the first time that Lucio saw Krune''s Elemental Meridians. He already knew about their existence since it is described in the Myriad Wisps Technique. But seeing it with his own eyes is another story. ''As I thought, the Myriad Energies Technique wasn''t supposed to be a simple common technique. But just how did he thought about this? I pondered about it for quite some time, but I still couldn''t find an answer.'' Lucio stopped thinking about that since the Forth Tribulation came down. As soon as it touched those Colored Meridians, they absorbed the Lightning Power entirely as if it was nothing. Let alone Lucio, even the disciples around, were frightened at that sight! "Just how powerful are those meridians?" But Lucio knew better! He knows that although the Lightning Power was absorbed, it didn''t disappear, which means that it is going rampant inside Krune''s Core right now! Krune, on the other hand, was quite calm. One of the advantages of the Myriad Energy Techniques is the fact that you can materialize them anywhere you want in your foundation. Since that is the case, Krune had obviously connected them directly to his Sun! The power of the Lightning Struck that mass of fire, and it started to eat the Lightning Power as if it was the most delicious thing in the universe! In just a few seconds, the Sun had doubled in size. All the Tribulation Lightning power was immediately converted into the Sun''s power! Krune saw that and was relieved. Considering how easily his Sun took that power, it should have no problem to resist the next 4. Tribulation bolt after Tribulation bolt continued to fall, but the Sun took them all. Still, Krune was happy that Light Spirit told him to let only 5 be absorbed. By the time that the 8th Tribulation Lightning bolt was done with, his Sun started to show signs of instability! Light Spirit noticed Krune worry and immediately said. "Don''t worry, it won''t be enough for the Sun to collapse. Given the right time, it will come back to normal sooner or later. Now, move the Elemental Meridians close to the Elemental Core, the rest is up to me!" Krune knew that is wasn''t time to admire that and did as Light Spirit said. He connected all 9 Elemental Meridians to his Elemental Core and waited for the Life Ending Tribulation Lightning Bolt. As expected, the last bolt took a lot of time to charge. At the same time, the Tribulation Clouds reduced severely in size due to the power being taken away. The Tribulation Lightning came down and struck the Meridians. It was definitely at the power of a Divine Soul Realm Tribulation Lightning! It was so strong that even the Elemental Meridians had some difficult to absorb it. Fortunately, they were still able to take it in. The Tribulation Lightning hit Krune''s Elemental Core Head-On and started to run rampant inside, it even wanted to eliminate Krune''s Divine Soul ''Rainbow Egg.'' "Hmph! With me here, I want to see if you can do as you wish, old villainous Heavens!" Tribulation Lighting was HIS power, and he refused to believe that he couldn''t control it. Slowly, that power started being absorbed by the Tribulation Lightning Source inside Krune''s Elemental Core, and the impurities that were still there also slowly came out. Krune looked at that worried, but it seemed like Light Spirit didn''t give a damn! He focused on the Tribulation Power and made sure that it wouldn''t damage Krune''s Elemental Core or Divine Soul Egg. Sometime later, all that rampant Tribulation Power was gone, and what remained was only the last bit of Chaos Energy that could be generated by the rest of the impurities. Krune finally let out a sigh of relief when he saw that everything was finally over. "Well done, Light Spirit!" "Hmph! This much is nothing." Although Light Spirit said that, Krune could feel that his voice was a lot weaker. It was evident that he had struggled quite a bit to get this done. Krune, of course, wouldn''t point it out. He is very grateful by what Light Spirit did. With his Sun saturated and no meanings of defense anymore, if Light Spirit hadn''t taken care of the last Lightning Bolt, he would be dead for sure! Krune then looked at that rainbow smoke that was the Chaos Energy and started to ponder where he should use it. Light Spirit already told him that the remaining Chaos Energy that he could get wouldn''t be enough to create another celestial body, after all. "Well, I guess I will use it to stabilize my Foundation now that I broke through." But before he could even touch that energy, his Elemental Core started to absorb it on its own! "The hell?!" In fact, it wasn''t his Elemental Core that was doing, but the Divine Soul ''Rainbow Egg'' instead! In just a few seconds, the entire Chaos Energy was sucked inside of it. Even Light Spirit was taken aback by that. "What a weird Divine Soul." Krune could see that the rainbow egg that was quite ethereal before now looked very solid, just like a real egg. It then started to glow, and some kind of strands like hair connected it to the whole Elemental Core. After that was done, Krune could finally feel the connection between himself and his Elemental Core. That is the main difference in the Core Formation Realm, the possibility of using the Elemental Core''s power! "It seems like it is finally over." Krune agreed with Light Spirit too. As for what is different about the rainbow egg Divine Soul, Krune will take his time to check it out later. Krune then looked at his Master and said. "Master, I succeed!" But for some reason, after Krune looked at his Master, he could see that his expression was quite weird. Not only him, even the disciples around, had quite funny faces while looking at him. "Errr... what is it?" Lucio noticed that he was paying too much attention to Krune and then said awkwardly. "Cough, cough. Nothing much, it is just that this is the first time I see a rainbow wisp." Krune was taken aback by those words and immediately conjured a crystalline water wall in front of him. It then reflected the image of his appearance. Krune saw that and almost fainted! Sure enough, Krune''s wisp form now was quite... colorful! Chapter 170 - Improvement. Krune took some time to calm down after seeing that but still did so. The rainbow had been following his shadow for so long now, so there is no point in thinking about that any further. ''Rainbow wisp, right? So be it, I will follow the rainbow and get the pot of gold at the end of it!'' Krune then reverted back to his human form, returned to his Master''s house, and then told him everything except for Light Spirit''s existence. Lucio heard that and was taken aback. "Open your foundation and let me take a look." Krune nodded and did as he was told. Lucio used his Divine Sense and enveloped Krune''s Elemental Core. Even at his Realm, it wasn''t very easy to make his Divine Sense enter a Major Core to look inside. Not to mention that it was only possible because Krune was willingly allowing it. After taking a good look at that Rainbow Egg Divine Soul, Lucio narrowed his eyes. "This is the first time I see something like this. As you know, I also have an Elemental Core, but my Core Formation Realm breakthrough was just like anyone else. My future Divine Soul didn''t take the shape of an egg, it just gathered in the center and spread the strands around my Core. I also had a Perfect Breakthrough at that time, so it shouldn''t be the reason. If I''m not wrong, this is because your Elemental Core is different from the normal ones, so it is also giving birth to a different Divine Soul." Lucio also added. "Of course, it could also be because of the Elemental Meridians that you created, but I can''t confirm that either." Krune nodded and agreed with his Master. Lucio had told him before that his Elemental Core was different, so he was already expecting that to be the case. As for the Elemental Meridians being the cause, he doesn''t think that it is the case since Shinja already evolved her Meridians, but nothing happened to her future Divine Soul. Or at least, she didn''t mention anything about it. Lucio then said. "Give me a second, I will call a friend to take a look too." Lucio then called Falanea back. Surprisingly, Ojilian was together with her too. "We were just chatting when you called her over, so I just followed to enjoy the fun." Lucio ignored Ojilian''s remark and told Falanea what happened. She then used her Destiny Core to try to check the destiny energy around Krune but still couldn''t see any movement. "Nothing changed, it doesn''t move at all." Lucio then pondered a bit and told Krune. "Come with me to my training pocked dimension, I want to check what you can do with it or if nothing will change before the Divine Soul Realm." Krune nodded and followed Lucio together with Ojilian and Falanea. Krune was quite impressed with the space inside his Master''s training pocket dimension. It was who knows how many times bigger than the Rainbow Sect pocket dimension. Still, he didn''t come here to admire it. Lucio looked at Krune and said. "Come at me with everything you got. I want to see if any significant side effect appeared after you got the Rainbow Egg Divine Soul." Krune sighed, and he could help but ask. "Master, can we change the name to Elemental Egg instead?" Lucio was surprised that Krune would care about such detail, but after checking his expression, he could see that Krune didn''t like that name very much. "No way! This name is perfect, the Rainbow Wisp has a Rainbow Egg, it''s very fit, don''t you think? It is even comical!" Lucio, of course, wouldn''t let such an opportunity pass by just like that. Krune could totally see that Lucio was doing that on purpose, though. "Old geezer, I was treating you with respect until a second ago, and that''s how you thank me?" Lucio, of course, was finding it very funny. "Hmph! So what if you treat me with respect. Isn''t this the way that you really act? All the seriousness makes me sick, you should stop it." And there they go again! Instead of paying attention to the critical task at hand, they prefer to argue with each other. Falanea looked at Ojilian and commented with a Divine Sense message. "It''s hard to see Lucio having this much fun." Ojilian nodded. "He is always taking care of everything in the Sect, so it could be said that Krune is his escape route out of that monotonous routine. At least, he doesn''t need to keep that serious face all the time when he is with his disciple. After all, this Wisp doesn''t give a damn to what Lucio thinks, and that''s what he likes on him." Falanea agreed that Ojilian is right. They have known Lucio for thousands of years, after all. Ojilian noticed that it would get late if they waited and intervene. "The two clowns over there, we don''t have all day! Can you start already?" Only then did the two of them stop. After that, Lucio said. "Alright, as I said before, go all out so that I can verify if there is anything different." Krune, of course, didn''t even need Lucio to say that. He was more than willing to attack with all his might at the moment. "Hmph! Believe me when I say that I won''t. But first, let me recover some Spiritual Energy. Also, my Elemental Core is empty of Elemental Source Energy, so I need to recover it too." To use the power of the Core, Spiritual Energy doesn''t work, it has to be Elemental Source Energy! Krune, who had just broken through, obviously had no time to replenish it. Lucio nodded and waited. Krune then sat down and operated his Elemental Meridians to absorb the Spiritual Energy around. He could feel that the Spiritual Energy around him was as concentrated as the one he got when he was inside the Spiritual Energy Gathering Formation. ''I guess this is to be expected of the Sect Master. This isn''t even the Cultivation Room, but the amount of Spiritual Energy is already this high!'' There was another thing that Krune wanted to test, as well. Exactly how much of the Spiritual Energy absorbed by his Elemental Meridians will turn into Elemental Source Energy? Is it the same 30% as Shinja, or is it more? He wanted to know! Krune started to absorb the Spiritual Energy, and when it first appeared inside his foundation, Krune''s eyes lit up! ''Great!'' It turned out that his Elemental Meridians converted around 50% of all the Spiritual Energy that came in, which means that half of the job was done by them alone! ''At this rate, if all I need is to recover the energy for battle, I cant fill me Elemental Core in just 10 minutes or so! As for cultivation, it will make it 50% faster to cultivate now. I really couldn''t hope for more!'' 10 minutes later, Krune got up. "Okay, I''m ready!" Let alone Lucio, even Ojilian and Falanea were surprised when he said that. "Did you recover to your peak, or did you just recover some of it?" Krune thought that there was no need to lie to his Master, so he told the truth. "I recovered it completely." Lucio''s mouth twitched. ''Isn''t this Myriad Wisps Technique too heaven-defying? Even the Sect''s top cultivation technique for Core Formation Realm can at most achieve 70% of Krune''s speed.'' Lucio then pondered a bit. ''But I guess it makes sense, wisps have too little of a life span, maybe this is the compensation for their lack of time. Otherwise, they wouldn''t have the time necessary to enter the next Realm.'' Lucio was right! After all, one can see it when they think about Shinja, who can only convert around 30% of the Spiritual Energy straight away. Of course, this is already very good! Lucio then showed a serious expression and said. "Alright, you can start at any time!" Krune didn''t waste time and immediately activated his Tribulation Lightning movement at 50%. But as soon as he moved, he stopped. That is because he noticed one thing. ''Wait! I''m not feeling at my limit when I use my Tribulation Lightning Movement at 50% output. Could it be that I can go further now?'' Krune then tried to increase the power of the Tribulation Lightning. 60%... he could still hold it. 65%... still okay. 70%... nothing. 75%... he finally noticed that his wisp body was reaching the limit, but he could still go a little further. 80%! Only at this amount of Tribulation Lightning power release did Krune finally feel like he would get hurt if he increased the output. ''80% of Tribulation Lightning power output. This is great! I reckon that I should be able to achieve 50% to 60% in my human form now too.'' Krune was ecstatic and immediately attacked his Master with everything he got. Now that he can release 80% of Tribulation Lightning power, his other skills that could be fused with it also increase in strength! Lucio received all of Krune''s attacks with a bored face. But in fact, he was really surprised by him. ''This speed and attack power, he can totally fight ordinary late stages Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beasts. If I consider the average combat prowess of the members of my Divine Path Sect, he should be able to challenge those on the 4th or maybe even the 5th stage of the same Realm. If we consider the Major Core owners, he should be able to win against a 2nd stage and even fight equally against those on the 3rd!'' One must remember that we are at the Divine Path Sect, each and every member is or was a genius on their own right. So it goes without saying that the realms that Krune could jump to fight were a lot lower than ordinary ones. Still, what Krune is doing is already a miracle in and out itself. ''As for the ordinary cultivators and demon beasts, the 7th stage shouldn''t be an issue, only the 8th stage should be able to put a challenge to him. Still, he wouldn''t lose that easy. Even if it is an enemy at the 9th stage, with his Tribulation Lightning Movement, he should be able to run away without a problem.'' While Krune was fighting, he was also checking the things that were happening inside his Elemental Core. ''According to what Master Said, Core Formation Realm should be able to use the power of the Core now. So far, it has been exactly like that. I can also see the difference between the Elemental Source Energy that I used before and the one that passed through my Elemental Core. The Elemental Source Energy that has been refined by the Elemental Core is several times easier to manipulate and fuse with my attacks. It gives me the feeling that it is, in fact, a part of me now. So this is the power of the Core that everyone talks about.'' Krune did really think that everything was going okay and that nothing strange happened. However, in Lucio, Ojilian, and Falanea''s eyes, it was totally different! While Lucio was fending off Krune''s attacks, he was also talking with Falanea and Ojilian through Divine Sense. "Impressive, isn''t it? His control of the Elemental Source Energy is definitely much better than my own when I was at his Realm." Ojilian nodded. "You said that his future Divine Soul took the shape of an egg, right? As we know, it is because of the Soul inside the Core that we can use the Core''s Power. But it seems like his Soul can manipulate the power of the Core much better than any of us when we were young." Falanea also commented. "And while all of this is happening, the Destiny Energy around him is still as calm as a lake, not even a ripple can be found. If I want to divine anything, I have to use the collateral damage that his attacks do to the environment. But it will never be as good as divining the cultivators or demon beasts themselves. Such an envious ability!" Lucio then laughed. "I''m looking forward to seeing just what kind of Divine Soul will come out of that rainbow egg." Ojilian and Falanea nodded. They, too, are very curious about what changes would be there. Chapter 171 - The Mark. Lucio thought that he had already seen everything and said. "Alright, that''s enough for now." Krune then stopped attacking and wait to see what his Master would say. "As I can see, it seems like everything is normal with the way that your Elemental Core works. The only difference is your control over the Elemental Source Energy. It is a lot better than any of us here when we were in your realm." Lucio then explained the difference in combat prowess between him and the others. Krune, of course, was ecstatic to hear that! "Is it that good?!" Lucio nodded and then asked a question. "By the way, your first Sun in your foundation has grown quite a bit after absorbing the Heavenly Tribulation. Is it possible to make your Planet orbit it now?" Krune immediately shook his head. "No. I checked it as soon as the Ordeal was over. The problem is that my Sun is too unstable at the moment, so its gravitational pull is disorderly. But as I can see, it should stabilize in a week or so, then I''m going to do what Master said." Lucio nodded and added. "Good, the more it acts as a real universe, the smoother your foundation will become. Of course, it is just one Sun and one Planet so far, so the difference that you will feel will be minuscule." Krune nodded. Light Spirit had already told him that. "Alright, you go back and spend the next month or so reinforcing and stabilizing your cultivation. There is no point in cultivating at the moment since your body will need time to get used to it. It should also coincide with your Feifei''s arrival for the exchange program." Krune nodded, but before he left, he decided to ask his Master another thing that was bothering him. "Master, after I broke through into the Core Formation Realm, I found something weird inside my core. Can you take a look at this?" Krune then opened his foundation for view and guided his Master with Divine Sense to the right place. There, one could see some kind of Mark silent staying without moving at all. Krune had asked Light Spirit if he knew what it was, but Light Spirit had no idea. All that Light Spirit said was that it had some power infused inside. Still, it couldn''t do him any harm, nor could it be used for anything cultivation related. It also couldn''t be tracked either. At most, it could be used as a means of identification like an ID, but that was all. As for what that power inside served for, he had no idea. Krune didn''t know when it appeared, too. In the end, he decided to ask his Master if he knew what it was. Lucio then took a look at that and was taken aback! "This- This is!" By Lucio''s reaction, Krune understood that it wasn''t just a mark, after all. Suddenly, Lucio started to laugh. "Wang Xin, I''m looking forward to seeing your face in the future. Hahahaha!" Krune got even more puzzled. But he could at least understand that it had something to do with the Wang Clan now and that it was probably Feifei or Uncle Feng that left it there. Lucio then looked at Krune and said. "Don''t worry, this thing can''t do any harm to you. In fact, this is something that you probably will like very much." Krune then asked what it was, but Lucio then shook his head. "You should ask your Feifei when she comes to the Sect. I''m sure she can answer your question. Consider it as a surprise." Although Krune was still somewhat puzzled, he let it at that. Since it is something good and related to Feifei, then he doesn''t care about keeping it with him. Krune then returned to his residence and did as his Master said. He immediately started to reinforce and stabilize his foundation. But there was one thing different. "Master said to spend a month doing it, but as I can see, I won''t need more than two weeks to get everything under control. Well, that''s even better, and I guess I will spend some time doing other things. I still haven''t gone to the Alchemist or Blacksmith Halls to take a look yet." Krune only stayed at home for 3 days when suddenly, he received a message from his Master. "Go to the Blacksmith Hall and have better shields created. During the last tribulation, they shattered way too easily. I can''t have you using something soo bad." Krune didn''t like that final comment since he knows how much effort Marcus put on forging those shields. Still, in his Master''s eyes, it is indeed something of inferior quality. It had nothing to do with Lucio being disrespectful, he was just stating a fact. Krune''s shields are indeed very bad when you consider the place that he is at the moment. Krune then decided that he would go to the Blacksmith Hall the next day to check his Master''s arrangements. He then took his remained Hexagonal Shields out and packed them carefully. After that, he asked for one of the wisps to send it back to the Makui Planet. He also left a recorded message inside so Marcus could take a look. Perhaps, it can help him in the future. The next day, Krune took the closest teleport formation to the Blacksmith Hall. This time, he had brought his hat together, so his rainbow hair was hidden. Thanks to that, no one paid attention to him. Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beasts are extremely common here, after all. Krune went to the counter and showed his Master''s badge, that would be the fastest way to get things done. The attendant saw that and almost jumped in fright. "You ar-" "Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Krune immediately closed the attendant''s mouth before he could say anything else. "No need to let everyone know, right?" The attendant nodded and understood what Krune meant. After that, he asked. "How can I help you today?" Krune then said. "Master sent me here to have some shields forged. But I also want to get some Blacksmith Study material and items to improve my forging. Do you know how to proceed from here?" The attendant nodded. "Do you already have a badge registered in the Divine Path Blacksmith alliance?" Krune nodded and passed it over. When the attendant saw that, he was taken aback. ''The Sect Master disciple is only a 3 bronze stars blacksmith?'' He was quite disappointed with what he saw. Still, he reminded himself that Krune came from a very weak planet, so it was understandable that the Blacksmith skills and teachings over there are not that great. "Should I call a Blacksmith from the Hall first, or do you want to get the Blacksmith Materials instead?" Krune pondered a bit and decided to call for someone first, he wants to ask what level of Divine Imprints he should need before forging the shields. As mentioned before, flying equipment is much easier to control if they have Divine Imprints made by the user himself. But the level of the Shields that Krune will get now is probably entering the Silver Stars. He needs to know to which Rank he should improve his forging first to create an equivalent Divine Imprint. The attendant nodded and immediately called a blacksmith. Krune then was guided into one of the Blacksmith rooms, and a few minutes later, the guy who was going to forge his shields appeared. "Hello there, my name is Elres Jorde. I already received the Sect Master''s message regarding this issue, so you can simply ask what you want. But remember, this will be a one time service. After it is concluded, any new equipment must be bought with merit points, so be careful." Krune then asked. "Could it be that I''m breaking the rules?" Elres shook his head. "No, every new Inner Sect Disciple has to right to have a single Silve Star equipment forged for free for them to use on their missions. Outer Sect Disciples can have one Bronze Star equipment of their choice too. Core Sect Disciples have the right to get one Golden Star Equipment. But for Golden Star Equipment, they will need to provide the materials by themselves. Golden Star Equipment Material is very expensive, after all." Krune got puzzled after hearing that. "Bronze Stars Blacksmiths?" Elres noticed that Krune didn;t hear that term before and immediately understood the situation. "Oh, you came from a weak planet called Makui, right? If I''m not wrong, they don''t have any Silver Stars blacksmiths there. That means that for them, the stars are just that. Simply put, the normal stars blacksmiths that you know are what we call Bronze Stars Blacksmiths. There is no difference, though. It is just a way of identifying them." Krune nodded after hearing that. Still, he was surprised with such a good service. But then again, it makes sense. This is the Divine Path Sect, it goes without saying that their Disciples must use the best equipment according to what part of the Sect they are. In a certain way, it is directly connected to the Sect''s face. Krune then started to explain about his shields and how he uses them. Elres heard everything and then confirmed. "So they have to be of the same size as the old ones, have to be able to be charged with any elements, need to be hexagonal, and a total of 38 are necessary to make a set. Is that correct?" Krune nodded, and then he asked another thing. "Also, I intend to make the Divine Imprints myself. What Rank should I achieve for that?" Elres looked at Krune, surprised. He didn''t expect that the Sect Master was also a Blacksmith. "That''s the right thing to do. I reckon that you are not making the shields, too, because your Rank isn''t high enough for that. But just the fact that you will make the Divine Imprints can already be considered very good." Elres continued. "To achieve all the requisites you asked me, we will need to use Core Magma Ore, which will turn your Shields into a Seven Silver Stars equipment. I could get some rarer ore and materials to make a Peak Nine Silver Stars equipment. Still, I reckon that it wouldn''t be so easy to control without a powerful enough Soul." Krune then asked. "Do you have a way for me to check if my Soul is strong enough to control a peak Nine Stars?" Elres thought that Krune was being too hasty since even the Seven Silver Star would already be very difficult, but he still nodded in the end. Elres then took out 38 pieces of Spiritual Spring Ore and said. "These here are all Peak Silver Star materials, Spring Spiritual Ores. They haven''t been forged yet, and they don''t have Divine Imprints. But if your Soul is strong enough, you should be able to control them all at the same time to a certain extent. If you can make them follow complicated orders, then your Soul should be good enough to control the real ones." Krune nodded and immediately charged those ores with spiritual energy and several different elements. Krune is very confident about his soul power, which was already at the Core Formation Realm level during the Foundation Establishment. Now that he is in the Core Formation Realm, it has become even stronger! Sure enough, the ores immediately started to float and follow all of Krune''s orders. Although it was somewhat difficult to control them, that was because they still don''t have Divine Imprints and haven''t been forged into proper Shields. Elres saw that and was amazed. "As expected of the Sect Master''s first disciple, even though you are a wisp, you didn''t disappoint." Krune ignored the wisp comment and asked. "So, what level of Divine Imprints will I need to make for them?" Elres nodded and said. "Those are Peak Nine Silver Star Shields, so you will need to become at least a Five Siver Stars Blacksmith." Krune was already expecting it that he would need to improve a lot, but it was still more than he expected. ''Well, whatever. Sooner or later, I would need to reach this level anyway.'' 172 The First Move! Elres then told Krune. "It seems like your level isn''t high enough. Anyway, when you are ready for it, you can come back here and ask me again. Of course, you can also have me make the Shields anyway without Divine Imprints. But I believe you know that it won''t be as good as a set with them." Krune nodded and then left. He went back to the counter and took all the materials for the study and the items. Instead of going back to his house, he went straight into a private room from the Blacksmith Hall and started to study and practice there. Krune spent his nights reinforcing and stabilizing his cultivation while also practicing the Elements Regulation technique at the same time. One good thing about the Elements Regulating technique is that it was bringing his other elements control close to his Lightning one. Of course, his Lightning Element would always be somewhat better so long as he is a Tribulation Lightning user. But still, the rest wasn''t going to be so far behind like it had been so far. During the day, Krune would study and practice Blacksmith. Every day he practiced, his proficiency increased by leaps and bounds. There were two main reasons for that. The first one, of course, was the Divine Path Blacksmith Hall. Krune could, at any time, seek advice from higher-level blacksmiths, and the study materials were who knows how many times better than the ones in Makui Planet. Not to mention how good the facilities were, Marcus''s private forging room back in the Makui Planet couldn''t even be put together in the same sentence. The second one is obviously Krune''s All-Encompassing Soul Technique. As mentioned before, it is not suited for combat, but is excellent for side professions! Putting all of this together with Krune''s innate IQ and talent, he was improving at a rate that was making even the blacksmiths in the Hall frightened. Still, he couldn''t simply become a Five Silver Stars Blacksmith in a few days. It would take him at least a few months for that. But if someone heard that Krune was going from a Three Bronze Stars Blacksmith to a Five Silver Stars Blacksmith in just a few months, they would stop to consider what they have been doing of their life. It was to the point that the manager in charge selected three Blacksmiths to be Krune''s personal advisers. He told them that whatever Krune did was to be kept in secret, and if someone asked, they were to tell that Krune was already a Silver Star Blacksmith when he came. He also explained the situation to Krune. If the news about his improvement goes out, the other apprentices might have their confidence destroyed, which would do no good for any side. Krune, of course, couldn''t be any happier with such an arrangement. For him, who doesn''t like to attract too much attention, this is a heaven''s sent request! "Don''t worry, I will absolutely not say a single word!" Because Krune was spending a lot of time in Blacksmithing, the initial two weeks that he would take to stabilize and reinforce his cultivation turned into one month in the end. Krune couldn''t help but wonder if his Master was already expecting that to happen when he said that Krune should spend a month or so on it. "Considering that I''m talking about that old geezer, it is very possible. Even though he looks like that, he is still the Sect Master." Somewhere in the Divine Path Sect, a certain Sect Master Sneezed. --- Krune spent the whole month before Feifei arrives in the Blacksmith Hall. His shields are directly connected to his strength. At the moment, his strongest attack, the Chain Tribulation Lightning, needs them to work. Besides, there was another new thing he wishes to try out that will need both the Shields and Tribulation Lightning. By the time that he received the information that the Exchange Program would start the next day, Krune had already achieved the level of an Eight Bronze Stars Blacksmith! Of course, it was much easier to go up in Rank at the Bronze Stars than it would be with Silver Stars. The several months that he had considered before would mostly be spent in the Silver Stars Level. At the moment, in the Sect, there are only two members of the Makui Planet, Lofa and Tasier. So the few times that Krune stopped to make some food, he would always invite them. Of course, a certain old geezer would also stop by now and then, but Krune got used to that already. Today, they were just eating again when Krune suddenly said. "Oh, right! The exchange program starts tomorrow, so the Big Powers are sending 3 cultivators each to go to each one of the other Big Four." Tasier nodded. "Yes, it has been the talk of the Outer Sect so far. They are all trying to guess who the other three powers are going to send here. There is even a rumor that a direct descendant of one of them is coming in this exchange program. But the guys don''t know which one it is." Krune nodded. "It is true. In fact, I know one of them." Lofa''s heart stopped for a second. If Krune knows, then it is probably only one person. Lofa immediately stood up and looked seriously at Krune, which took him aback. Tasier, of course, could already imagine why Lofa turned out like that. "Who is it?" Although Krune was puzzled as to why Lofa seemed that much interested, he still answered anyway. "Oh, it''s the person who saved my life all the way back. Her name is Feifei, and she is the direct descendant of the Wang Clan." Lofa looked at Krune as if she was going through a struggle at the moment. Krune looked at her and couldn''t help but ask. "Could it be that you know her?" In the past, the ones who told Lofa and Tasier about Feifei was Yusa and Shinja. Krune didn''t know that they heard about his past. Tasier immediately intervened and said. "Oh, Yusa and Shinja had told us about this Feifei before, that''s why Lofa is this surprised." Only then Krune showed an understanding expression. His past with Feifei isn''t exactly a secret to start with. He simply didn''t talk about it that much. Still, he didn''t mind if the others told Tasier and Lofa about what happened. It was the truth, after all. "I see, no wonder you are soo surprised then. Indeed, the Feifei that is coming is exactly the same one as back then. The one who saved my life and somehow turned into my fiance. Of course, only you guys and the others know about this." Suddenly, another voice appeared beside Krune as if coming out from hell. "Don''t forget that I also know about it." Krune jumped from his chair in fright, and his food almost fell on the ground. But Lucio was faster and used his Spiritual Energy to catch everything and put it back into the plate on the table. "How could you do this? Are you trying to waste food?" Krune wanted nothing more than give this guy a beating at the moment. Unfortunately, he is far from being able to do that. "You old geezer! I swear, one day! One day I will definitely get revenge!" Lucio, of course, just laughed out loud. "Haha! By the time you reach my realm, I will be even stronger! Maybe I will have already ascended at that point, so you can forget this impossible dream." Krune was just about to retort when suddenly, he noticed that his master said something that picked his interest. "Ascended? What do you mean?" Lucio noticed that he said too much and brushed the question away. "That''s not something for you to know now. It will have no use for someone as weak as you anyway." Krune''s mouth twitched, but he let it go. If even his Master at his level can''t accomplish this ''ascension'' thing, then let alone him at his cultivation realm. "Anyway, can''t you just stop appeared behind me like a ghost? Do you find it that funny? Besides, is it okay for the Sect Master to do something like this?" Lucio showed an evil smile and said. "Why should I stop? Your reactions are too funny for me to get tired of it. Besides, as long as no one sees it, my Sect Master image will be kept intact." Krune couldn''t help but say. "Can''t you see all Lofa, Tasier, and the Wisps?" Lucio then laughed out loud. "I can, but if they go out and tell everyone about it, how many do think will believe them?" Krune''s expression went gloomy. Indeed, no one would believe it even if he recorded and showed it right on their faces. "Forget it, why did you come for?" Lucio had heard part of Krune''s conversation with Lofa and Tasier and gave a side glance to Lofa. Lofa, on the other hand, was more preoccupied with Feifei''s arrival. So she didn''t even notice it. "Oh, I just came here to tell you that the sect already arranged the training program that the geniuses of the other three powers will go through during the year they are staying. I will also add you to this program since I believe that you want to spend some time with her, correct?" Krune''s eyes suddenly lit up! "Oh, my beloved Master. I have never expected you to be so attentive." Tasier saw that and almost fainted! What was that? Did Yusa''s spirit reincarnate inside you? Sure enough, it was a ''Yusa Effect'' that Krune learned with time. Tasier then looked at Lofa, who seemed to get even more downcast now. Lofa heard that and felt some sense of urgency. But then again, didn''t she decide to wait until the things between Feifei and Krune were resolved? Her plan included having Krune hear from her that she didn''t care about that promise anymore. So, with Feifei coming here personally, her wish to see what would happen will finally be granted. Still, Lofa was now afraid. At first, she thought that since it was a promise made by Feifei when she was still a child, she probably would have forgotten or ignored it by now. But if that was really the case, why would Feifei come with this exchange program then? From what Lofa knows, things like Direct Descendants or Heirs coming is something extremely rare to happen. ''Could it be that Feifei didn''t forget that promise as I thought? If that is the case, what do I do?'' Lofa looked at Krune, who seemed to be very happy at the moment. Only an idiot wouldn''t notice that he was looking forward to this exchange program a lot! ''I... have to make the first move!'' 173 Being Direct! Lucio heard Krune''s words and had goosebumps. "Scram! This grandfather here has no interest in rainbow wisps. Besides, this is also for my sake." Krune got confused. "For your sake?" Lucio nodded. "That''s why I don''t mind helping you. The reason for that you will know in the future, though." Krune didn''t mind. He doesn''t think that his Master wants to cause any harm to him or Feifei. Not to mention that doing such a thing might bring a lot of problems between both powers. Krune then asked. "By the way, what is the scheduled content for the exchange program?" Lucio answered immediately. "You are going to have access to the Sect''s Spiritual Pool during the first month. The next five months will be teachings and practical training from the high realm elders inside the Sect. Lastly, the next 6 months are going to be missions around the Divine Path Sect territory with a focus on newly discovered dimension realms. As you probably know, exploring new dimensions usually takes some time, that''s why we left 6 months for it." Krune then got curious. "What is this Spiritual Pool? Also, isn''t it too dangerous for us to explore newly found dimensions? Doesn''t the Wang Clan care about it?" Lucio then answered. "The spiritual pool is exactly as the name says. A pool made of pure spiritual energy condensed, and it is even better than using Rank 10 Spirit Stones. There is also another advantage, the Sect has always used several treasures so that it would help those who enter to fortify and stabilize their cultivations. Simply put, it won''t cause any side effects and make the cultivation several times faster. Of course, such a thing is limited, so the pool is only opened for a month every year, and just a few selected members can enter." "As for the danger you talked about in newly found dimension realms. That is obvious! Do you really think that any of the direct descendants or heirs of the other powers stay inside of their houses for life? If they really did that, I would have already lost the count of how many times the dominant forces changed hands." Krune noticed that he made quite an idiotic question. ''That''s true! How could such enormous powers like the Big Four keep on the leading position if their descendants and disciples never go out to experience life? That would be the same as cutting short their own futures.'' Lucio then commented. "Of course, we are not sending you guys into any suicide mission either. The Sect will always first check at which level those dimensions are. Although it will still be dangerous and one can die inside, it won''t be to the point where those who enter can''t do anything about it. You better know that it isn''t only us, but our geniuses that went to the other powers will pass through such experiences too." "Master, you said that Feifei is extremely special for the Wang Clan. How come they let her come this time? Especially considering the fact that we will enter those dimensional realms." Lucio agreed with Krune to this point. "To be honest, I''m also a little curious why they let it happen. But after what I found about your Elemental Core, I guess that what Feifei has is an improved Destiny Core. Probably, the Wang Clan trusts Feifei''s ability to divine her own path." Lucio was right, that was exactly the reason why Wang Xin allowed Feifei to come. Krune nodded and had to admit that it made sense. Lucio then exchanged a few more words with Krune and left right after. In fact, he could have sent someone else to do this kind of thing, but he simply couldn''t let go of the chances of importunate Krune. Tasier and Lofa could only hear the first part of the conversation. After Lucio entered the issues of the Improved Major Cores, he had used his spiritual energy to seal the surroundings so that only he and Krune could hear. After Lucio left, Krune finished his lunch with them and cleaned everything. "Well, I will be busy for the next year, it seems. I will first use the first month to enjoy that Spiritual Pool. As for the next five months of teachings and practical training, I will instead use it to improve my Blacksmith Rank. I already have Master anyway, so anything that I learn during those five months won''t be any better than Master''s one." Tasier couldn''t help but feel jealous. "I wish I could enter that pool too. It seems amazing!" Krune nodded. "If I could, I would bring you inside. But from what I can see, I''m only getting to enter it because of Master. If not, I probably would also be kept out of this opportunity." Lofa was hearing everything, but she wasn''t really paying attention. Krune noticed that she seemed to be worried about something, though. "Is there something wrong?" Lofa then greeted her teeth and asked. "Krune, would you consider taking me instead of Feifei?" Tasier was taken aback with that. He didn''t expect Lofa to be that straight! Krune, on the other hand, shook his head. "As I said, I''m not the one who decides who takes part in this exchange program. Let alone changing you for Feifei." Lofa and Tasier almost fainted! That wasn''t what she meant at all! As expected, Krune completely misunderstood Lofa''s meaning, which made Tasier feel quite sad for her. After spending such a long time together, he knows that she is quite shy when it comes to her feelings. "Cough, cough. I guess it''s time for me to leave." Tasier then sent a Divine Sense message to Lofa. "You should have understood that Krune is as good as a rock when it comes to this kind of conversation, so you will need to be even more direct. Also, you are running out of time, so if not now, then when?" On his way out, Tasier also called out the wisps that were there too. In the end, only Krune and Lofa remained. Krune noticed everyone leaving and then said. "Well, I guess it''s time for us to go too." Lofa, who still seemed to be lost, immediately recovered after that. She then charged forward and hugged Krune. "What I mean is that I want to stay with you!" Krune was taken aback! He then felt helpless and started to pet Lofa''s head. "Sigh... Alright, I will ask Master if he can open a slot for you in this exchange program too, but I can''t guarantee anything. Also, this will be the only time. I had decided that I would not intervene with everyone''s cultivation path too much. I''m only doing this because you want it this much." Lofa, who was as red as a tomato, immediately got lost at words. She couldn''t help but think. ''Even this isn''t enough for him to understand? Do I have to be even more direct? But, but...'' Krune then turned on his communicator and said. "Give me a second, I will call Master and ask him." Just as Krune was about to make the call, Lofa tried to kiss him! But just as she was about to succeed, the Mark left behind by Feifei back then suddenly activated! It then materialized right in front of Lofa''s face like a barrier, stopping her from accomplishing her objective. Both Lofa and Krune were taken aback by that. Lofa, of course, had no idea what this thing was. As for Krune, he was even more surprised since he couldn''t understand why it appeared here out of all times. After a few seconds, the barrier disappeared, and the Mark inside Krune''s core returned back to normal. Lofa felt dejected, just how many years worth of resolve did she have to gather to try that. But in the end, she was stopped. At first, she thought that it was Krune who did that. Still, after looking at Krune''s surprised face while looking at that Mark barrier, she understood that he also wasn''t expecting that to happen. "What is that thing?" Krune didn''t know why the Mark activated, but he knew that it was given to him by Feifei. "This is a Mark that Feifei left behind back then when she saved me, but it had never activated before. I wonder what could have caused it to appear now." Lofa had only to hear that to understand the meaning of it. She knew that Krune wouldn''t lie about this issue since he still hasn''t noticed her feelings, which means that that Mark was a kind of protection that Feifei left behind. It was her way of saying the Krune already had someone. Lofa then sighed and left to think about another way. She could have just told that she loves him, but Lofa had already used all the resolution that she had a few seconds ago. Still, she won''t give up that easy! As for Krune, he was still thinking about why the Mark activated. It wasn''t before 10 minutes later that Krune finally remembered that Lofa was still waiting for him to ''ask his master for a slot.'' But when he looked around, he noticed that Lofa had already left. "She probably got tired of waiting. Well, it doesn''t matter, let me see with Master if he can add her in this program. Since I''m already at this, I might as well ask for a slot for Tasier too. Between those who have the real Spiritual Energy Meridians, the two of them are the ones who are lagging behind the most after all." Of course, that is considering the ones who are part of the Divine Path Sect. Lakin, Ruik, Cassy, Dier, and the other couldn''t take part in this without being real disciples. Krune''s communicator connected with his Master, and then he asked. "Master, do you think it would be too hard to arrange two slots for Lofa and Tasier?" Lucio''s eyes narrowed. "I told you before that intervening in their cultivation path might do more harm than good, didn''t I?" Krune nodded. "I know, but I''m only asking for the slots. I have no intention of helping them unless extremely necessary during the time the program is going on. Once they get inside, they will still have to rely on themselves." Lucio then rebuked. "Those slots are very precious, and there is no lack of Core and Legacy Disciples fighting for them every year. Do you think it is right for me to bring them in when all the others fought for their right to enter?" Krune dropped his head a little embarrassed. He had to admit that his Master had a point here. It is already going out of the protocols to let him enter, and that was only because his Master is also the Sect Master. Lucio then noticed Krune''s reaction and sighed. "Alright, but it will only be this time that I''m doing such a thing." Krune was taken aback. "But won''t the others complain?" Lucio shook his head. "Every time that the exchange program happens, we keep a few slots free just in case the other powers send more participants. So those slots would be without anyone to use anyway. In fact, you are also taking one of those slots now." Krune''s eyes lit up! "Thank you, Master." Lucio nodded and disconnected. 174 Arrival At the same time, inside the Wang Clan space ship. Feifei was resting when suddenly, she opened her eyes. She then looked in the direction of the Divine Path Sect with an angry face. "Someone tried to touch my Krune, and it was probably that girl, I reckon." Feifei then smiled playfully. "Hmph! Unless you are at the Void Breaking Realm, you can already forget about touching my wisp." Feifei could feel that although the Mark activated, it hadn''t been broken. That means that whoever tried to have their way with Krune didn''t have the power to break the barrier. "Just one more day, and I will finally be able to see you again." Feifei then went back to rest. --- That same day, Tasier and Lofa received the message that they had been selected to also participate in the program. But instead of going to one of the three powers to train, they will take part in the Sect''s one. Both Lofa and Tasier were taken aback. Tasier then immediately called Krune and asked if he knew anything about it. "Yes, it was me who asked Master for that. Lofa seemed to want to participate very much, so I decided to give it a try. Since I was already at that, I also asked a slot for you. Turns out that there were a few free slots that were not going to be used, so Master made an exception and let you two come." Tasier started to flap his wings in happiness. He always thought that the best decision of his life was to befriend Krune and the others, now it was even more so! But it was then that he noticed one problem. "Lofa seemed to want it very much?" Krune nodded on the other side of the video call. "Yes, she even said she wanted to be with me after giving a hug. But remember, I won''t be doing this kind of thing anymore since it isn''t good for Master''s status either. You and I were just lucky to get the free slots that no one was going to use. That was the only reason that Master made an exception and accepted my request." Tasier heard that and felt bitter. He could already understand what really happened, and he was even impressed that Lofa was brave enough to hug Krune while saying that. Still, that ''door'' in human form didn''t catch the real meaning of the things. "Wait! Doesn''t it mean that Lofa and Feifei are going to participate in it together with you?" Krune looked at Tasier as if he was looking at an idiot. "Isn''t that obvious? It''s the same training program, after all." Tasier felt like crying but had no tears. Does this wisp even know what he has done? But in the end, Tasier decided to let it be. As awkward as the situation might be, it doesn''t change the fact that this is a very good opportunity for him and Lofa too. "Alright, see you tomorrow in the training program. I think I will take this chance to gather enough energy to enter the Core Formation Realm too." "This is an excellent idea. If you see Lofa later, tell her that it might be a good chance for her to do that as well. By the way, I can give you the Soul Healing Pill for that. Of course, for the right price." Tasier nodded and then finished the call. Krune then decided to spend the rest of the day in the Blacksmith Guild and returned to his home at night. Feifei was going to arrive the next day, so he decided to rest until there. Although Krune can''t sleep, he can still feel tired, so he decided to do nothing more that day. --- The next day, Krune was at the Divine Path Sect Spaceship Port with his Master, both of them were waiting for the participants of the program. One must remember that the Wang Clan isn''t the only one coming, there is also the Rasie Clan and the Spiritas Kingdom! The Wang clan had sent 2 extra participants other than the 3 agreed. In contrast, the Rasie Clan and Spiritas sent one extra each. In the end, the Wang Clan had 5 participants, while the Spiritas and Rasie Clan had 4. Other than Krune and Lucio, the other participants from their own Sect were there too. Lofa included! Krune checked the time and noticed that the big powers were all arriving around the same time, though. He asked his Master why is that. "Nothing much, they are all just trying to appear punctual. In fact, I reckon that our participants, on the other powers territories, probably did the same." Krune nodded and decided that this is another one of the humans'' habits. In fact, he himself was quite punctual, too. But this is still a rare trait for demon beasts. Suddenly, Krune heard the sound that looked like an explosion. In fact, it happened three times. It was the spaceships entering the atmosphere! Not long after, the three of them were already in their own places at the port. Krune, of course, was looking at the Wang Clan''s spaceship. There was one thing that Lucio, who was beside Krune, couldn''t understand, though. "Why exactly are you in your wisp form? Usually, you always stay in human form, no?" Krune agreed with his Master. "That''s true. But this is how I first met Feifei back then, so I want her to recognize me faster." Lucio couldn''t help but tease. "Indeed, there is no way to hide such a beautiful rainbow spiritual energy ball." Krune''s wisp body flickered a bit, and it was evident that those words affected him, much for Lucio''s amusement. Krune, of course, knew that his Master said that on purpose. "I''m in a good mood, so just leave me alone!" Lucio laughed and didn''t say anything else. --- The spaceships of all the Big Powers opened, and the participants came out. Feifei, of course, was there too. She looked around and soon noticed that rainbow spiritual energy ball floating close to the Sect Master. The moment she saw him, she smiled brightly. She was just about to rush to him when she was suddenly locked in place. The one who did that was obviously Uncle Feng. She then heard a Divine Message right after. "Don''t be hasty, remember that no one knows about your relationship with him. If you appear too excited, the others will get suspicious." Uncle Feng then sent a message to the Sect Master. "Lucio, you probably already know the truth, right?" Lucio just nodded, and then Uncle Feng commented. "Then make sure that things don''t go out of control. I can''t guarantee what will happen with Krune if Xin finds out about Feifei''s Mark." Lucio heard that and snorted. "I want very much to see what he can do with me here. But anyway, I''m not the one who will tell that. For things to get interesting, the one to announce it has to be Feifei, and I already alerted Krune about it too." Uncle Feng nodded. If what Lucio said is true, then Feifei is the one to chose when to talk. He had to admit that it makes sense, too. Otherwise, some will think that Krune or the Divine Path Sect stole the Mark somehow. Lucio, obviously, hasn''t told Krune what the Mark was, just that he shouldn''t tell anyone that he doesn''t trust about it. Krune is still curious to know what it is about. Because of Lucio''s warning, Krune also stayed in place and waited for all the participants to come forward first. The first ones to arrive were the cultivators of the Spiritas Kingdom. Spiritas look pretty much like any human, the only difference is their higher Soul power. In contrast, their physical power is quite ordinary. Of course, for them to become one of the Big Four, it means that such an outcome is far from being enough to bother them. In a certain way, they looked very much like Krune. While Lucio complimented the grand elder of the Spiritas Kingdom, the Core Formation Realm participants of the Spiritas Kingdom complimented the Divine Path Sect ones. But there was one thing that they were more interested in than anything. The fact that the Sect Master''s disciple is a wisp! The leader of the geniuses of the Spiritas Kingdom came forward and greeted Krune. "Hello, my name is Uriu Orion. You are the famous wisp that the Sect Master took as a disciple, right?" Uriu extended his hand, but it was only then that he noticed that Krune, in his wisp form, doesn''t have one. He was just about to retract it in embarrassment when suddenly, part of Krune''s rainbow wisp form took the shape of a hand and complimented back. "Hi, there! My name is Krune, and indeed, I''m the Sect Master''s disciple." Uriu let out a sigh of relief. For a second, he thought that he had done something terrible by trying to shake hands with Krune. Immediately, Uriu''s impression of Krune improved several times. After that, it was the Rasie Clan. As soon as the leader of that group came forward, he noticed some familiar energy from Krune. "You... Could it be that you practiced the Mohie Sect techniques before?" Krune was taken aback by that question! But he soon recovered. According to what he found, the Mohie Sect had left behind several hundred of hidden pocket dimensions for future descendants. That means that it isn''t anything rare for him to have found one here. Krune then said. "Indeed, it was thanks to that that I arrived where I am today. But you don''t need to worry, I don''t have any intention of picking a fight with your Rasie Clan." Krune then did the same thing and extended his Spiritual Energy Shaped hand to compliment that guy. "My name is Krune, and yes, I''m the Sect Master''s disciple." The guy decided to let it go since there was nothing he could do. He knew that a Mohie Inheritance was found in the Divine Path Sect territory, and it seemed like the one who found it was the Sect Master''s disciple. Still, the Rasie Clan already paid the price to take it away. Whatever happens after that is not his problem. He then extended his hand and said. "My name is Hulibe Acrol, a Rasie Clan disciple." If it was in the Rasie Clan territory, he would have the authority to attack Krune. But outside, he couldn''t do anything, nor did he want to. Since the Sect Master took him as a disciple, it meant that Krune definitely had his own ways of protecting himself. The Divine Path Sect and Rasie Clan members greeted each other and separated right after. 175 Gotcha! The reason that the Wang Clan sent 5 participants was that, other than Feifei, they were all men! They all had a prestigious family or came from the branch families carrying the same family name. Feifei''s father and the elders reckon that they are the ones with the highest chance of catching Feifei''s attention. They were Wang Ting and Wang Mo from the branch families, both at the late stages of the Core Formation Realm. As for the outsiders, they were Mar Jilano and Tuesly Huviu, from the Wang Clan''s territory. They are also at the late stage of the same Realm. The four of them know that their main objective is to conquer Feifei during this exchange training program, and because of that, they have been glued at her side ever since they left the Wang Clan residence. Still, it doesn''t matter what they did, Feifei just acted politely but showed absolutely no interest in any of them. Of course, they wouldn''t give up just because of that. There is an entire year ahead for this exchange program, after all. Feifei approached Krune with a smile and then said. "Hello, I''m Wang Feifei from the Wang Clan." Before Krune could even answer, she crouched in front of Krune and started to say. "Oh! So you are really a wisp and a rainbow-colored one at that. Such beautiful colors." It was the first time that Krune thought that the word rainbow didn''t sound so bad. Suddenly, Feifei grabbed his core with her hands and embraced him against her chest. That made everyone be taken aback! Krune''s Spiritual Energy Body made Feifei''s hair move a little like a calm breeze, and the colors of the Spiritual Energy made it look even more magical. "It''s so warm and comfortable. I like your rainbow-colored form very much." Krune then received a Divine Sense message from Feifei. "I hope you didn''t forget your promise. I''ve been waiting for very long, and even though I can''t say anything now, I will still wait for the day that I can." Krune felt somewhat emotional. Those words brought him back to that time when she had stepped forward to save his life. Krune then answered back. "I don''t know if I can reach the weight for that to happen, but I will definitely try. Still, you have no idea how happy I am to hear that you haven''t forgotten that. At that time, you were just a child, and I always thought that you would just take that moment as some kid''s words. Maybe you would even laugh at me when I appeared there to talk about it." Feifei then shook her head. Although this conversation seemed long, it was done through Divine Sense, so it didn''t take more than a few seconds. Uncle Feng saw how Feifei was acting and then said. "Cough, cough. Feifei, just because he is a wisp, to treat him like that is a little disrespectful." Of course, Uncle Feng was just pretending. How many people know Feifei better than him? He had already guessed that she would still try something when their time to greet the hosts came. Feifei then released Krune and pretended to be a little embarrassed. "Oh, right! That''s my fault. It''s just that this is the first time I see such a beautiful wisp, so I couldn''t hold myself." The members of the Wang Clan territory looked at that with burning jealousy. Even though they can see that Krune is ''just a wisp,'' it still is a treatment that none of them could get from Feifei so far. How much they wished to be the ones to be embraced by her? Of course, the reason isn''t Feifei, but her status and the change of being in-laws with the Wang Clan that they really cared about. But there was one person that was burning more than anyone else, and that was Lofa! The moment she saw Feifei embracing Krune, she had to hold her urge to go there and separate them immediately. Still, she was also feeling gloomy. Krune not only didn''t mind her doing as she wished, Lofa is pretty sure that he was also happy with that. Feifei then moved forward to greet the other members of the Divine Path Sect. When she arrived at Lofa''s position, the two girls glared at themselves as if they were fateful enemies. Lofa then received a Divine Sense message from Feifei. "I felt my Mark that I left behind being activated. It was you, wasn''t it?" Lofa didn''t seem surprised by that question. "It was. Unfortunately, that thing got in the way. Still, don''t think that I will give up that easily. Until it becomes official, I will do my best for him to notice me." Feifei just snorted and said. "You should give up already, there is no way I will let that happen." After that, Feifei moved forward to greet the rest. Tasier, who was there too, was sweating cold. He knows about everything and could feel the tension in the air. Even though he couldn''t hear the Divine Sense message between then, he was sure that it happened. He was even more amazed that the shy Lofa confronted the direct descendant of the Wang Clan head on! He couldn''t help but send a Divine Sense message to her. "You are crazy! That''s a direct descendant, you know?" Lofa heard that and just snorted. "So what? We are in the Divine Path Sect, so I doubt that they would do anything to me here. Besides, I can tell it! That woman''s pride can reach the heavens! She will absolutely not use such underhanded methods to deal with this situation." Tasier couldn''t help but ask. "How do you know that?" Lofa then answered. "Women''s intuition!" Tasier was taken aback, and then he laughed. He is a demon beast, after all. For him, this ''brave'' Lofa is much better than a shy one. "Well, good luck. But I can tell you that your chances are very slim. It is pretty evident that Krune is more than willing to stay with her. If you really want to catch his attention, you will need to be even more direct than you ever had." Those words made Lofa remember the day prior when she hugged Krune. Even as direct as that was not enough. "Do you mean?" Tasier nodded. "To Krune, only straight words are effective! Until the sentence ''I love you'' doesn''t leave your mouth, I believe he will never notice anything. Of course, there are more sure kill methods like trying to create a situation that leads to copulation, for example." Lofa almost fainted out of embarrassment after heard that. "Shameless! How can you use co- co- co-... that thing between men and women to conquer a partner?" Tasier then snorted. "Hmph! You, humans, are too complicated!" Lofa then sighed. Nothing good will come from his mouth in this situation. Still, she couldn''t help but imagine for a second such a thing happening, which made her face burn even more! She then answered. "I guess I will have to at least use the first option and say it straight to Krune." Lofa made up her mind and decided that she will confess her feelings to Krune when the opportunity arrives. Lofa might not have noticed it yet, but somehow, Tasier had become her love consultant. Tasier then answered. "That is for the best! Not to mention that it would also put an end to this situation, and you would be able to move forward. There are other men out there too, you know?" Lofa just nodded and didn''t say anything else. After all the greeting and done with, Lucio left with the grand elders of the other three powers to talk. As for the participants, they were brought to the residences that they would stay for the time being. The Spiritual Pool would only be opened in the afternoon, so they still had a few hours before that. --- Krune was in a very good mood. He even decided to go straight away to where the Spiritual Pool''s location and wait there for the time to arrive. It''s just that this time, he returned back to his human form. After arriving there, he noticed that there were only the guards around, but no participant could be seen yet. He then sat in a corner and started to cultivate. But before he could do it for even 10 minutes, another person appeared there too. He noticed Krune and narrowed his eyes. He was one of the Wang Clan''s members, Wang Ting. Even though he had never seen Krune in his human form before, he recognized Krune straight away. First, even if Krune changes his form, he can''t change his aura. And second, that rainbow hair was way too obvious! He then came forward and said. "Hey, you there. Don''t get the wrong idea towards what Feifei did back at the port. She was just curious about your colored wisp form, that''s all. Even if you are the Sect Master''s disciple, you are, in the end, only a wisp. There is a big difference in status between the two of you." Krune had been in a good mood just a second ago. Unfortunately, someone came to destroy it. He opened his eyes and looked at the guy in front of it. "What I do is not of your concern. Besides, if Feifei wants to embrace me and not you, then it''s your lack of attractiveness, not mine." Wang Ting almost exploded at that moment, he had never expected that he would be made fun by a wisp in his life. "Hmph! You are lucky that you are in the Divine Path Sect and are the Sect Master disciple. If not..." Krune then snorted. "Hahaha! You are at the 8th stage of the Core Formation Realm while I''m on the 1st. If you couldn''t beat me with that difference in level, I wonder if your life had even been worth it." How could Wang Ting not understand the meaning behind Krune''s words? It was evident that the wisp was saying that he isn''t his match at the same level! It was a WISP that was saying that! "Do you dare to accept my challenge then? I will suppress my cultivation to the first stage of the Core Formation Realm, and we can have a ''friendly'' fight." Krune showed an evil smile and thought. 176 Krune vs. Wang Ting If there was one thing that the Sect doesn''t lack, those are duel arenas. You never know when some discordance can be found between so many disciples of the Sect, after all. There are also those who just want to fight for training or test new abilities. Because of that, almost everywhere in the Sect has at least one arena with a protection formation. Of course, those arenas can at most hold cultivators and demon beast of the Divine Soul Realm. Above that, the formation would be too expensive to be maintained all the time. But any cultivator or demon beast above that realm can keep themselves alive even in the void. So there was no need for arenas, they just have to go outer space for whatever is the reason. Krune and Wang Ting just so happen to have chosen one of those. Not much longer after that, the elder responsible for the arena also appeared. The Sect can''t have disciples fighting to death since they are the geniuses of the entire territory, so the elders put in charge of those arenas are always at the Void Breaking Realm at the very least. But when the elder received the message about the ones fighting, he was taken aback! "What? The Sect Master''s disciple and the genius of the Wang Clan from the exchange program?" It didn''t take long for the news to spread, and soon, the surroundings were full of disciples and some elders who wanted to watch the show. Everyone knows that Krune is the Sect Master, but they don''t know much about his battle prowess. Because of that, everyone was curious to see just how he would perform. Not long after, even the members of other delegations appeared. They, too, were curious about Krune. Since the Sect Master dared to take a wisp as a disciple, he definitely isn''t simple. The only question is how good he is. In the end, even Lucio and the grand elders that accompanied their members here in the Divine Path Sect came to take a look. None of them tried to stop this battle. In fact, it was a very common occurrence during the exchange training program. Each and every genius of the big four wanted to prove that they are better than the other, after all. Lucio looked at that and laughed. "Haha! So the first ones not being able to hold back anymore were my disciple and the boy from the Wang Clan. I know my disciple very well, and I''m certain that he would never start a fight by himself. It seems like this Wang boy is quite the hot-blooded kid. The grand elder of the Wang Clan that also came with Feifei and Uncle Feng showed an embarrassed face. His name was Wang Tian. "Sigh. I know that kid too, so I can even understand why he went to provoke your disciple. I hope Sect Master won''t mind such behavior." Lucio simply shook his head. The elders of the other powers would never stop those battles since it would also affect their power''s face. --- On the arena, Krune noticed that a lot of eyes came to watch, which made him feel gloomy. ''Why did the elder from the arena wait so long? If he had let us start straight away, it would be already over before anyone arrived.'' But that was only for a little while. That''s because Krune also noticed that Feifei was there. Immediately, his eyes lit up! ''Well, it might not be so bad, at least I can show Feifei how much I have improved since the time we first met.'' The elder noticed that everyone that mattered was already there and decided to start the battle. "Are you two ready?" Krune and Ting nodded. The elder then said. "Start!" Wang Ting was a Metal, Earth, and Fire user. He immediately created a kind of Spiritual Energy Barrier that had both Earth and Metal elements infused. That was the first time Krune saw something like that. Krune had seen Spiritual Energy Barriers before, but not with two elements infused at the same time. After that, Ting took out a spear and charged forward. Krune saw that barrier and immediately understood. ''I see, Metal Element is a branch of the Earth Element, so they complement each other. Not only I need to break through his armor, but I also have to break through this barrier before even doing that.'' Wang Ting then said while attacking. "Are you not going to take your real form? You won''t have the change later." Krune then laughed. "Don''t worry, at this level, there is no need for me to go back to my realm form to battle, that would be just bullying." Krune could now use up to 50% of Tribulation Lightning power while in his human form, so he immediately did that. The second that Ting was about to reach the wisp, Krune disappeared! Still, Wang Ting is one of the top geniuses of the Wang Territory, so although Krune was fast, he could still keep track of his movements with his Divine Sense. ''So fast! But speed is far from being enough to get you the victory.'' Wang Ting then stomped on the ground, and immediately, thousands of metal spikes came out around the place that Krune was moving. Krune, of course, noticed that and counter attacked. Just as the metal spikes were about to hit him, they stopped in place. "Earth Manipulation!" The grand elders of the other powers and their participants opened their eyes wild! "Impossible!" Krune had just done something that they didn''t believe. He used his own Earth Element to intervene in the enemy''s own Control. But the thing is that it shouldn''t be possible! For Krune to achieve that, his understanding of the Earth Element must be much higher than Ting. But Ting is already at the 8th stage of the Core Formation Realm, and Earth Element is his specialization! How can Krune do that while he is still at the 1st stage?! Of course, another reason for that is because Wang Ting had suppressed his cultivation to the 1st stage of the Core Formation Realm too. Otherwise, the difference in cultivation would make it really difficult for Krune to achieve this result. At most, Krune would only be able to slow down the attack a bit. That wasn''t the first time that Krune did that, though. He also made something similar to it against Ula back in the Hundred Floors Tower test. Wang Ting also showed a face of disbelief! But the battle was still going on, so he couldn''t simply stop now. Ting then gave up long-ranged element manipulation and charged forward once more. The closer he is to the attack, the better would be his Control over the elements he is using. In that case, Krune wouldn''t be able to use this trick again. But there was one problem, Ting isn''t a speed-focused cultivator! It doesn''t matter how much he pursued, he simply couldn''t catch Krune. There was also another thing that was making him worried. Until now... Krune hasn''t attacked yet! Krune wasn''t doing that on purpose. This was the first time he was fighting in the Core Formation Realm, and for good or bad, his opponent is a real genius of the Wang Clan Territory. So this was a good opportunity for him to check his newly acquired power. ''I see, so that''s how it is, it seems like Master''s Elemental Regulation Technique is already taking effect. My other Elements Control power have improved a lot. Depending on the distance that the enemies are from the attack, I can even stop them from using it. This guy seems to have a very high defense, so let''s try some attacks now.'' Krune then finally started his long-ranged offensive. First, he used attacks without Tribulation Lightning to see how much damage it could cause. But Ting was indeed a genius. Although some of the attacks went through the Spiritual Energy Barrier, they were still stopped by his spear or armor. Of course, Krune wasn''t putting his all in those attacks either since he knows that Wang Ting isn''t his match in the same cultivation realm. Gradually, Krune''s attack power started to increase. Of course, Krune also started to use Elemental Source Energy on his attacks. Wang Ting was starting to feel helpless. Krune''s pool of Spiritual Energy and Elemental Source Energy seemed infinite! Worst of all, he knows that Krune is a Tribulation Lightning user, but he still hasn''t used that power to attack. So far, Krune only used that for his movement technique. ''This should be enough, I don''t think I can get anything else at this level anymore.'' Suddenly, Krune''s attack power increased several folds, and he started to infuse Tribulation Lightning power. Surprisingly, Wang Ting seemed like to use some technique that increased his defenses even more! The grand elder of the Wang Clan saw that and sighed. "He started to use a self-injuring technique. That should be the Elemental Source Release Technique, which can allow him to bring out up to ten times more Elemental Source Energy than he would be able to. But there is a backlash for that, not only will the consumption become more than double of what it should, his dantian will be affected as well. I reckon that he will need to rest for at least a month before coming back to his peak." Krune looked at that and was impressed. ''He can still resist my attacks! But what is that chaotic release of Elemental Source Energy? It is probably some forbidden technique of some sort. Anyway, that is also good! With his defense increased to this new level, I can finally try that out.'' Suddenly, the power of Tribulation Lightning, Water, and Fire Elements started to gather around Krune. He looked at Wang Ting in the distance and showed a playful smile before pointing the attack. "Heaven''s Tribulation Fire Explosion!" Immediately, an attack that looked like his Heaven''s Fall came down. But there was something different this time. The Purple Lightning was surrounded by Purple Fire! "Not good!" The Void Breaking Realm elder that was acting as a judge disappeared from his spot and reappeared right in front of Krune''s attack! Boom! Purple Lightning and Fire spread everywhere, and even the protection formation trembled! One must remember that this formation was able to hold off even attacks of Divine Soul Realm cultivators and demon beasts, which includes those at the peak of this realm. For Krune attack to make it tremble a little, it goes to show just how powerful it was! After a few seconds, the elder had put everything back into Control and looked at Wang Ting''s fearful face behind him. If the elder hadn''t intervened, Wang Ting would be dead now. In Fact, Wang Ting wasn''t even sure if he could resist that attack without suppressing his cultivation at all! The elder then looked at Krune''s calm face on the other side of the arena and said. "Krune from the Divine Path Sect wins!" Lucio was watching it and could see the grand elders'' faces on his side. "Haha! Did he think that this Sect Master''s first disciple would be weak just because he is a wisp? He is my very first disciple in 50 thousand years! It goes without saying that he had to be the best!" The crowd was on an uproar. Krune turned out to be just too powerful! All the doubtful thoughts about him disappeared like smoke after watching this show. That last attack was what Krune got from his battle against Gomat in the Hundred Floors Tower. Gomat used Water, Fire, and Lightning Elements to bring out Blue Flames. Krune then swapped the normal Lightning Element for Tribulation Lightning, and that was the result! Light Spirit looked at that and couldn''t help but think. ''So he really was able to bring those flames back. Now then, I wonder if you can bring the rest too.'' Back on the arena, Krune couldn''t help but think. 177 Spiritual Pool Krune came out of the arena, and the disciples opened the way for him. Feifei, who had been watching the fight, had a big smile on her face. Krune then smiled back and then went back to his corner. It was then that Lucio sent him a Divine Sense message. "You didn''t use this attack against me back then." Krune then answered back. "It wasn''t ready at that time, I used the next few days to get used to it after I returned home. But this was the first time trying it out, and to be honest, I wasn''t sure if it was going to work or not. Of course, this attack just now is still far from what it can get. If I had my Flying Shields, I could bring the real power of it out." Lucio was impressed that it was still not the limit of his power. "If that is true, then I reckon that you should be able to go up one more level against other Major Core owners. I believe that the 3rd stages shouldn''t be too hard while only the 4th stages would be able to fight you head-on. Of course, the western territory is big, let alone the entire universe. So do not let your guard down since you never know what kind of cultivator or demon beast is out there." Krune nodded and didn''t say anything else. Wang Ting then came back to his group with an awful expression. But no one blamed him, that wisp had just shown why it was the first disciple of the Sect Master. The grand elder then sent him a Divine Sense message. "In your condition, you won''t be able to use the Spiritual Pool properly. I already talked with the Divine Path Sect Master, and he agreed to let you enter it a month later after you return to your peak." Want Ting let out a sigh of relief and thanked the grand elder. Still, there was another thing bothering him, the fact that Feifei seemed very happy with this result. But it was not like he could rebuke her either, which made him feel even worse. In the end, he could only think. ''What side are you?'' But that was all. A few hours later, the Spiritual Pool was finally opened for everyone. They would be able to enjoy it for a month before leaving. It was the first time that Krune saw something like that, but it was also good since he would be able to test just how powerful his Elemental Meridians are. ''Even with Rank Five spirit stones, I still can''t bring my Elemental Meridians to their full capacity. Master said that this pool is even better than Rank 10 Spirit Stones, so let''s see just how much I can absorb at the same time.'' There was no specific place for everyone to stay, they just had to enter it and start to absorb the spiritual energy. Because of that, Feifei immediately decided to stay close with Krune, much for Lofa displeasure. Lofa then did the same and went there to stay close to him too. In the end, the Wang Clan Territory guys followed Feifei while Tasier and Lofa got close to Krune. "You guys! Can''t you go somewhere else? I can''t concentrate like this!" Feifei and Lofa then showed a sad face and asked. "Even me?" Krune was taken aback with that question. In fact, even the Wang Clan guys were the same. They already noticed that Feifei seemed to pay more attention to the wisp than them, and now, two girls even requested to stay with him! How could they not feel jealous? If not for the fact that they believe that Feifei is just acting like this out of curiosity for this wisp, they would have definitely intervened. Krune then steeled his heart and said. "I''m sorry, but I can''t lose this chance to cultivate! Please understand what it implies." Feifei and Lofa and sighed and looked at each other. "Hmph!" After that, they separated. Krune looked at the two girls'' reaction and couldn''t help but ask Tasier. "Did something happen between those two?" Tasier didn''t know whether to laugh or cry! How could Krune be so blind? "You will find out about it soon, for now, don''t ask me." Krune got even more puzzled but decided to put these thoughts on the back of his mind. He finally got enough space to cultivate so he can finally check how good his Elemental Meridians can perform. ''Well, let''s see.'' He immediately opened his Meridians and started to absorb the Spiritual Energy. Sure enough, the rate of absorption jumped several times! Krune''s eyes lit up at that moment! That''s because even with such a high rate of absorption, his Elemental Meridians were still able to convert 50% of the Spiritual Energy directly into Elemental Source Energy! ''That''s not all! Master said that this pool would also not cause any damage to the foundation due to the fast rate of cultivation. The cultivation resources used in this pool not only are keeping my foundation in a good state, but they are also improving it a little.'' Krune then showed a smile and thought. ''Time to go all out!'' Suddenly, everyone using the pool at that moment noticed a disturbance in the Spiritual Energy. When they opened their eyes and looked at Krune, they felt like they were hallucinating! There was so much Spiritual Energy rushing into Krune''s body that it was affecting even their spots far away from him! They couldn''t help but think. "Is that really a wisp?" In the end, they had to call Krune out to tell what he was doing. When Krune heard everyone''s voices, he was taken aback. "My absorption rate is affecting you all that distance away?" Everyone nodded, and even Feifei and Lofa were no exception! Krune then felt a little embarrassed. It wasn''t his intention to disturb anyone, and that''s why he made sure to open quite some distance from everyone else. Still, it seemed like his Elemental Meridians are too powerful! In fact, the majority called him over simply because they were jealous! They, too, wanted to be able to cultivate at that speed. ''Just how can this guy do it?'' They weren''t the only ones. The grand elders of the other three powers were also watching their members and were taken aback by what Krune did. "Lucio, just what is wrong with that wisp? No, first of all, is that really a wisp?" Lucio nodded. "He is as much as a wisp as any other wisp you had ever seen before. As for how he is so good at cultivation, that is a secret! Hahaha!" The elders felt gloomy but knew that it would do no good to ask further. Lucio then went to the border of the pool and yelled from a distance. "Hey, the rainbow wisp right there! Leave some spiritual energy for everyone." Krune almost fainted! His concentration that had just come back to normal was immediately broken, just like that. "Go to hell, old geezer! Do you think that after everyone''s complaints, I wouldn''t know that already?" Let alone the disciples of the Divine Path Realm and the elders, even the other powers participants and their elders froze at that moment! They couldn''t help but think. ''He dared to talk like that with the Sect Master?'' But to their surprise, Lucio just laughed out loud. "It''s good that you know. otherwise, you would make me lose face." Only gods know how much Krune wants to give that guy a beating! "Hmph!" No one could understand anything anymore! Where is the famous cold Sect Master Lucio Koffel? In fact, the grand elders of the other powers felt that Lucio was acting quite differently from what they knew. According to their information, Lucio was supposed to be a serious character and rarely showed a smile at all. But ever since they arrived, Lucio had been laughing a lot. And now, this situation! Krune then ignored that thing that was supposed to be his Master and focused on cultivating again. This time, he made sure that his own rate of absorption would not intervene with the others. Still, Krune''s cultivation speed was definitely at least 2 to 3 times faster than any of them! ''At this rate, by the end of the month, I should be already in the 2nd stage. Perhaps, I can even enter the 3rd!'' Feifei looked at Krune with a smile on her face. It was evident that their promise wasn''t the only thing that kept him moving forward anymore. ''So you have a lot more to care about now, don''t you? But that''s is good! With that determination, I''m sure you will get even further!'' Lofa and Tasier were also doing their best to cultivate. They were, after all, the only Foundation Establishment participants this time around. If not for Krune, they wouldn''t even be able to dream with such an opportunity! Just like that, a week passed. Suddenly, everyone felt a grand surge of spiritual energy, moving in a specific direction. This time, it wasn''t Krune, but Tasier instead. But that was all, Tasier then opened his eyes and flew away from the pool. Krune looked at that and smiled. ''He is ready to breakthrough now.'' That was right! The only reason that Tasier didn''t make the breakthrough right there was because of the Heavenly Tribulation. The place he flew to is the teleport formation that led to the Planet where the disciples usually make their breakthroughs. He had already reached a deal with Krune and bought one of his Soul Healing Pills. With that, Krune was pretty much sure that he wouldn''t have a problem during his breakthrough. Not to mention that Tasier is a Thunder Hawk, he is especially resistant to lightning type energies to start with. Lofa also noticed that, and a look of determination appeared on her eyes. 178 Breakthroughs A day later, Krune and everyone else were still cultivating when suddenly, a young man approached the pool while flying and entered it. If not for the fact that Lofa and Krune were quite familiar with his aura, they would definitely not recognize him. "Tasier!" Tasier looked at them and smiled. "Yo!" Lofa couldn''t help but think. ''He turned out to be quite handsome now that he got his human form.'' Of course, she wouldn''t be able to say that out loud. Tasier noticed Krune and Lofa looked at him as if he was some oddity and felt a little embarrassed. "What are you looking at? I told you before, didn''t I? I would need to reach the Core Formation Realm to be able to turn into my human form. Is there a need to stare at me for so long just because of that?" Krune then laughed. "It''s just that I had long since got used to your Hawk form. Now that you became like this, I can''t help but admire the difference." Lofa immediately nodded vigorously! Tasier then turned around and said. "Whatever! Go back to cultivate. I will also use the rest of the time to stabilize my cultivation and foundation here. We can''t lose time with idle chat like that." Tasier then tried to walk away when suddenly, he tripped! Krune looked at that and laughed out loud. Although Tasier had both his feet in his Hawk Form, it doesn''t change the fact that the difference in shape and weight is enormous! Simply put, he still couldn''t move his human body as he wished. Krune and Lofa laughed at that, especially Krune since he had passed through the same situation before. "Don''t worry, we shall make sure that the others know about it in the future too." Tasier felt like crying again. Can''t they just forget that it happened? Krune and Lofa laughed a little more and then went back to cultivate as well. During the 10 days of the Spiritual Pool opening, three participants had broken through a stage. Today, they once more felt that someone was doing the same, and this time, it was really Krune! With his Elemental Meridians plus the fact that he didn''t need to be afraid of damaging his foundation, it was just a question of time before he did that. Of course, anywhere else and Krune would have to spend months to achieve that. First, their amount of spiritual energy that he can get from his spirit stones isn''t even close to the Spiritual Pool. Second, he would need to care for his foundation all the while, which would take even more time. ''This thing really came in hand. It has been just around 2 months since I entered the Core Formation Stage, but I''m already at the 2nd stage. Anyway, I still have another twenty days, so I have to use this time to enter the 3rd stage or at least get close to it.'' There was another thing that made Krune happy, as well. Now that Krune had finally moved up a stage, a question appeared on his mind. ''Now that I think about it, what cultivation level is Feifei at?'' He did not check it before since he didn''t care, but now that Krune broke through, he couldn''t help but wonder. Krune then checked it with his Divine Sense, but in the end, all he could tell is that Feifei is in the Core Formation Stage too. ''For me to not being able to check what stage Feifei is with my soul power, she is definitely in the late stages, and I reckon that at least in the 8th one as well. I will ask her after the pool time is over. For now, it is better to not disturb her concentration. Time passed, and the second week was over. Today, Lofa was finally able to reinforce her foundation and accumulate enough energy for a breakthrough. She then looked at Krune and Tasier and said. "It''s my time, so I''m going ahead." They nodded to her and wished Lofa good luck. Lofa then took a final look at Feifei and left for the breakthrough. Feifei, too, noticed that Lofa was gone but didn''t say anything. Both Krune and Tasier weren''t concerned about Lofa''s Heavenly Tribulation since she also had the Soul Healing Pill. Not to mention that she also passed through the Rainbow Sect soul tempering test together with Tasier, so her soul was a lot stronger now. Sure enough, Lofa was already back the next day, just like Tasier. It wasn''t that the heavenly Tribulation wasn''t dangerous or easy to pass. Lofa and Tasier simply were lucky enough to have the right conditions to attempt it. Lofa then looked at Krune and sighed. She had noticed that now and then, Krune would give Feifei a glance, and Feifei also did the same. She came to understand that the chances that Krune would choose her were as slim as it could be. During all this time, she didn''t have a chance to talk to Krune alone. She, too, wanted to put an end to it just like Tasier suggested. Before Feifei appeared, her hopes were high since she thought that Feifei had already forgotten Krune. But now, Lofa could tell that Feifei wanted to be with Krune just as much as she did. ''After this Spiritual Energy Pool is over, I will tell him everything.'' The days continued to pass, and everyone was trying to take the most advantage of it. The Divine Path Sect Spiritual Pool was something that you could only find here. The other powers tried to get the secret behind its creation but failed time and time again. In the end, they gave up since it was something that can''t truly affect the balance between the powers. They, too, had their own ways to increase their cultivators and demon beasts power in a short time. It was just that they used different methods. There was only more five days for them to stay in the Spiritual Pool. The participants could also see that the pool was a lot clearer than it was before. Obviously, it was due to their constant absorption that it turned out like that. Again, another breakthrough happened between the participants. The grand elder of the Spiritas Kingdom looked at that and nodded. "Good, you didn''t waste this opportunity." The one breaking through this time was Uriu Orion, and he was just entering the 9th stage of the Core Formation Realm! The Spiritual Energy moved in his direction like a whirlpool, and not too long after, he completed the process. Uriu then took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Although he seemed calm, one could see that there was some joy there. ''Several months of hard work in just 25 days. The Divine Path Sect Spiritual Pool is really magical. Anyway, I still have another five days, so I better use it to the fullest!'' He then closed his eyes once more and went back to cultivate. By the end of the month, the Spiritual Pool was looking just like clean water. There was almost no spiritual energy inside anymore. Lucio and the grand elders saw that and decided that it was about time to finish it. But just as Lucio was about to call everyone out, he felt the surge of spiritual energy moving again. He then looked at who it was and immediately showed a smile. ''Hehe. You really are giving your master a lot of face, aren''t you?'' The grand elders and everyone in the pool looked at Krune, amazed! In this 20 days, he was able to complete a full stage breakthrough! Although the Spiritual Pool can indeed increase the cultivation speed several times, it shouldn''t be this heaven-defying! How could a wisp be so fast? If it was a Divine Beast, they could hardly accept it, but that is the weakest race in the universe! Sometime later, the surge of Spiritual Energy was over, and Krune left the pool. After this last breakthrough, he could feel that the pool wouldn''t be able to help him anymore. He had just absorbed everything that was still available around him, after all. Lucio then came forward and said. "Alright, time is up! Even if you continue there any longer, it won''t be much different than cultivating outside. So go back to your rooms and rest for the next two days. After that, the Sect will call you out when the teaching schedule starts." Everyone got up and thanked Lucio before leaving the pool. Except for a certain wisp, of course. Krune and Feifei exchanged a few Divine Sense messages and decided to meet up later. But when they started to move back to their rooms, they noticed that they were going in the same direction. "Could it be that old geezer''s doing?" Lofa noticed that and also followed together with Tasier. Not only them, but the Wang Clan participants were the same. It turns out that Lucio had arranged for their residences to be in the same place as Krune''s, and Feifei''s just so happened to be the one right beside Krune''s house! When Krune found out about that, he was completely sure. ''It was definitely him. I guess I will forgive you for the yelling at the pool this time.'' Krune then thought about bringing Feifei to his house to show everyone. Lakin and the others had always been curious to know just who this Feifei was and how she looked like. But just as he was about to do that, he received a Divine Sense message from Lofa. "Krune, can we talk in private for a while?" 179 Ye Krune turned to Feifei and said that he had to talk with Lofa first. Feifei, of course, narrowed her eyebrows. She then looked at Lofa and tried to check the changes in the Destiny Energy, but because Lofa had been close to Krune for so long, it was very hard to verify. Still, she was able to see a little. It was then that Fefei showed a smile and asked Krune to call her later. Back at Krune''s house, he invited Lofa in to hear what she wanted to talk about. Lofa looked at Krune and then took a deep breath. "Do you remember when I said that I wanted to be with you before the exchange program started?" Krune nodded. "Yes. That''s why I asked Master if he could make an exception and let you guys participate too. I remember that you looked to want it a lot." Lofa then sighed. "So, it was really that the reason. Have you ever thought that it had nothing to do with the exchange program?" Krune was surprised at that. "Nothing to do with that? But then why would you ask me to stay with you? Could it be that you are having problems in your element control and need more teaching? If that''s the case, you could just say it straight away. I wouldn''t mind giving a few more pointers. But I believe that Yusa also isn''t that much behind if you consider your Water Element control alone, though." Lofa felt gloomier the more Krune spoke. Yusa and Shinja had alerted her countless times that Krune was blind to those kinds of things, but to think that it could reach this extent. "It had never been about cultivation or training, not at all. What I meant was something completely different." Krune then showed a puzzled expression. As expected of the ''eyes for Feifei only wisp.'' When it has anything to do with love, he is totally clueless to anyone other than her. Lofa finally lost her patience and said out loud! "I wanted you to choose me because I love you! I wanted to stay with you because I wanted you to marry me instead! That''s what I meant! That''s what I always wanted ever since that time back in the Garmon Planet!" It doesn''t matter how clueless Krune could be. When it is put that way, even he would understand. "This..." Krune felt that it didn''t make sense. After all, he is a wisp, not a human. Why would Lofa give birth to this kind of feeling for him? But after looking at Lofa''s expression, he could at least tell that she wasn''t joking. "Why?" Lofa shook her head and said. "There is no why. It just happens. You like Feifei, don''t you? Then let me ask you, do you need a reason to like her?" "I see..." Krune then smiled bitterly and said. "I''m sorry." Lofa also smiled back at him. "It''s okay, I already expected that answer. I just wanted to hear it from your mouth." Lofa continued. "The reason I took so long to confess is that I was expecting Feifei to not care about you anymore. I mean, how could that even work, right? Although we didn''t know that she was the daughter of the clan head, we knew that she was from their family. How could she care about a promise that she made with a wisp when she was a child?" "That was why I decided to wait, wait for the day that you would receive her denial so that I could have my chance. But after finding out that she was coming, I got afraid. Still, I had some hope that it was just a coincidence. But that hope was shattered when I saw how she treated you on the first day. Others might not understand since they don''t know about your relationship with Feifei. But how could I not?" Krune didn''t say anything and just listened. "After we got to train in the Spiritual Pool, I saw how now and then, Feifei would look at you, and you did the same back. It was at that moment that I knew that I really had no chances anymore. So I decided that I would put an end to it after the Spiritual Pool closed. Now, here I am, making my confession." Lofa then laughed a little. "To be honest, I was still a little hopeful that after I confessed, you would change your mind. But of course, that was not the case." Krune felt somewhat gloomy, but he soon recovered. "That is right, I really can''t think about anyone else, so once again, I''m sorry. Still, I do consider you as important as everyone else. So I hope that you will still help me with cooking in the future." Lofa heard that and was taken aback. Then, she started to laugh. "What is it? After so much is said, we went back all the way to cooking again?" Krune noticed that it didn''t seem right either, and showed an embarrassed expression. "I... am not used to this kind of situation." Lofa then shook her head. "It''s okay, that is the Krune that and everyone else knows, after all." In fact, that is the Krune that Lofa fell in love with. But she didn''t say that this time. "Sigh. Anyway, I won''t get on your way anymore. I will take my leave now, too. I need to think alone for a while. Also, the teaching schedule is going to start in two days, so I need to get back to make sure that I''m ready for that." Krune nodded and bid farewell to Lofa. For him, there was nothing else to be said. He likes Feifei, and he doesn''t have any intention of changing it, so any further words would be futile. Lofa then started to fly back to her own residence in the outer sect, but when halfway there, she found Feifei blocking her path. She didn''t know how Feifei knew that she was going to pass through this place, but she didn''t mind much either. They are in the Divine Path Sect, so there is no way that Feifei will try something to her. Lofa then approached Feifei and said. "You don''t need to worry, I just got reject by him. In fact, I knew that it was going to happen the moment you played that scene with Krune at the Spaceship Port. I was just too stubborn to accept reality." Feifei then sighed and shook her head. "I already know about that." Even though Lofa''s destiny energy is hard to read due to her proximity to Krune, it was still possible for Feifei to see a little. When Krune said that Lofa wanted to talk with him, Feifei had tried to look at Lofa''s destiny energy. Sure enough, she was still able to see that Lofa would pass through emotional distress that day. It was then that she was certain that Krune would not break their promise. If fact, Feifei was pretty sure that Krune wouldn''t disappoint her anyway since she trusts him. I was just that, as a woman, she still felt somewhat fearful. Lofa was taken aback, though. "You know?" Feifei nodded. "Would you be able to keep a secret?" Lofa was surprised with that question but nodded anyway. Other than the fact that they like the same wisp, Lofa had nothing against Feifei to start with. Feifei then explained to her about her Major Core. Of course, she didn''t say that her Destiny Core was different from the others, just that it was a destiny core, nothing else. "I see, no wonder you knew I was going to flying past this place when I did." She then looked at Feifei and asked. "So, why did you come? I don''t feel like you are the type that would add insult to the injury." Feife then shook her head. "You are right, I''m not this type. I just wanted to talk to you for a while. Although we both liked the same wisp, it doesn''t change the fact that you were able to see Krune''s real worth. As you know, before that battle against Wang Ting from my territory, almost everyone only thought about him like a wisp, nothing more. Even as the Sect Master''s disciple, it was evident that no one thought much about him." Feifei continued "But you and your friends were different, especially you. You loved him even though you knew he was a wisp. Just how many would have the courage to do that? Some might say that it was because Krune was the Sect Master''s disciple, but I can tell that your feelings come from way before that happened." Lofa heard all of that but felt even more puzzled. "In the end, what you want to say?" Feifei then got close to Lofa and gave her a hug. "What I mean is that even though we were rivals for a short amount of time, I still like your personality." Lofa was taken aback and immediately got away from Feifei. "Stop it! I don''t need your pity. Just... leave me alone for a while." Feifei then nodded and said. "Very well. I just wanted you to know that you, who didn''t look down on Krune for his race, will always be someone I respect. I also respect you as someone who loved him too." Feifei then turned around and was just about to leave when suddenly, Lofa made her a question. "You keep talking in the past tense. Loved, liked... Just so that you know, I haven''t stopped liking him yet, okay?" Feifei then paused for a second and then continued to move forward, but she still left a sentence behind. "Haha! It''s as you said... Yet!" Lofa felt puzzled with those last words, but before she could ask, Feifei had already left. She then sighed and kept on her way back home. --- When she arrived there, she noticed that someone was already waiting in front of her door. "Tasier, why are you here?" Tasier then looked at her and said. "Isn''t that obvious? I came to know what happened after your confession." Lofa was surprised. "How did you know about it? I''ve never told you when I was going to do that." Tasier then started to laugh. "Have you forgotten who spent more time with you than anyone else? Even more than Krune, Shinja, Ao, or Yusa? I might be a demon beast, but I''m not an idiot. I dare say that I know you better than you know yourself at the moment. Hahaha!" Lofa felt a little embarrassed with that answer. "Is... Is that so?" Now that she thinks about it, she did indeed spend a lot of time with him. It was then that she remembered Feifei''s last word: Yet! She then looked back at Tasier and shook her head. 180 Everyones Situation Krune was still in his home, thinking about what just happened. But in the end, he just gave up the idea. ''There is no point in spending more time on it. I don''t like Lofa that way, and that''s all! Whether it will change our friendship in the future or not, it only depends on her. As for me, I will still think about her as a good friend, just like Ao and the others.'' Krune then decided to put the fool''s mood on the back of his mind and spent the rest of the day at home. He already contacted Feifei, and she said that she would come to meet Lakin and the other next day morning. Krune was now basically talking with them about it. Lakin was surprised by that. "So I can finally meet the person who saved Master back then. I understand. I will make sure to leave a good to impression on Master''s future wife." Krune heard that and felt a little embarrassed. Still, he did quite like how those words sounded. Ruik, on the other hand, didn''t care that much. "Do I really have to be here too? It''s not like I have any relation with her to start with." Krune shook his head. "I told her about everyone, even the Lizard Dragons and the wisps. She said that she wanted to see everyone when she comes, so bear with it." Ruik''s mouth twitched. "Why do I feel like I''m being offered as a sacrifice?" Except for the Lizard Dragon big brother, the Lizard Dragons also nodded. For some reason, they also felt the same way as Ruik. The Lizard Dragon big brother then laughed. "It''s okay. It''s not like Feifei is going to eat us to start with." Krune looked at the five siblings and couldn''t help but sigh. They all had cultivated the Myriad Energies Technique true form, so in the end, their cultivation was quite high. Their big brother was even close to Lakin and Ruik. Ruik had already arrived at the 8th stage of the Foundation Establishment while Lakin was on the 7th. As for the Lizard Dragon Big Brother, he was at the 6th stage! The youngest Lizard Dragon was also the one with the lowest cultivation, being only at the 3rd stage. Lakin had given the five of them a name too. From the oldest to the youngest, they were Lazin, Lania, Latina, Lavina, and Lariu. Two brothers and three sisters. Surprisingly, their big brother was already able to use his human form! Krune had asked Lakin why they had such similar names in the past, but Lakin only answered. "It was them who asked for it to be like that, so I just followed their wish." Krune then nodded. Since the Lizard Dragons like it, then all''s okay. In fact, Ruik''s double-headed snake race is even rarer than them. As mentioned all the way in the past, Ruik''s poison abilities work both on the body and soul. Because of that, Ruik will only be able to change into his human form after Core Formation. It was then that Lakin remembered something else. "Oh, right! Master, Juji is ready to try building his foundation. You were in the Spiritual Pool, so he decided to wait for you to come out to take a look. He knows that you are curious to see if something would happen because of his Myriad Wisps Technique." Krune''s eyes suddenly lit up! "Great! I was really very curious to see if the Myriad Wisps Technique would have any defects in higher realms. Now that I think about it, Feifei seems to have an improved Destiny Major Core. I will ask her to take a look at Juji, too, to see if everything is okay with his future." Krune then spread his Divine Sense around his residence and soon found Juji talking with the other wisps in one of the rooms. "Juji, come to see me." Juji was taken aback by that message, but he immediately understood that his Ancestor had returned. Not long after, Juji entered the room that Krune and the others were talking about him. "Ancestor." Krune nodded. "Would that be a problem if you try to breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment tomorrow?" Juji immediately got excited! He was simply waiting for the Ancestor to come out to see it, so now that Krune asked for it directly, Juji was more than happy to agree with that. "Great! There will be another person watching it other than us tomorrow too. But don''t mind it, she is someone that I trust, and she can even check if your breakthrough will be fine." Juji didn''t mind at all. "Yes, Ancestor. Then, I will go back to prepare myself and revise the foundation that I plan to build." It was then that Krune got curious. "Oh, right! What kind of foundation are you trying to build?" Juji immediately answered. "A spaceship!" Krune was taken aback. In fact, Lakin and Ruik had the same reaction when they heard about Juji''s idea too. "Cough, cough. Errr... why a spaceship?" Juji got excited once more! "Ancestor remembers that you let us take a look at the space from your room on our way to the Divine Path Sect, right? That day, Lakin had shown us how to use the computer to take a look around the ship and outside it. When I saw how cool it looked like and what it was capable of, I immediately decided that it would be my choice! Planets are nice, Suns, Moons, black holes, and all of that too. But it is the Spaceship that carries everyone." Juji continued. "After we got free to move around the Sect, I took my time to go through everything that makes a Spaceship work. Of course, I can''t go into every single small detail since it is just way too much for a single being alone. Still, I also believe that there is no foundation that is 100% perfect either." Krune was impressed with Juji''s choice, and he had no intention of changing it. "Very well. Be sure to give it a check before starting your breakthrough tomorrow." Juji agreed with that and then left. Krune then looked at Lakin and asked. "Does he know that if your realm is high enough, you won''t even need a spaceship to move?" Lakin nodded. "I believe he does, Juji is very smart, and the information is available on the network anyway. But just how many cultivators or demon beast out there have reached a realm high enough to not need a spaceship? In the end, he isn''t wrong. Almost everyone still needs spaceships to move around. After all, extreme distance teleport formations are also extremely expensive to build and use. The biggest majority of the planets still need to rely on the spaceships to move around." Krune nodded and didn''t ask about this issue anymore. It was then that he remembered another thing. Lakin just shook his head. "They still haven''t decided what kind of foundation they will build. But to be frank, I believe that they are afraid instead. I told them that wisps only have a single chance at Foundation Establishment, and if they fail, they will probably die. Maybe because of that, they had been delaying it this far." Krune nodded and said. "There is nothing wrong with that either. We wisps have only 10 years of life before breaking through. But if we fail, we will die straight away. We can''t simply expect that all wisps will try such a dangerous breakthrough as if it was nothing. Some of them will decide to wait until they are close to the end of their life spans, just like the other races do about the Core Formation Realm." Lakin and Ruik nodded. If they try to force Hana and Liam breakthroughs, chances are that they would fail instead. "Anyway! You guys can go back and do whatever you want. If you have any questions about your cultivation, do that now." Ruik left straight away while Lakin stayed behind to make a few inquiries about his cultivation. Just like that, the day passed without anything else happening. --- The next day, Feifei and Uncle Feng finally appeared at Krune''s door. The problem was that they weren''t alone, accompanying Feifei were also the Wang Clan Territory participants. Feifei had tried to sneak out like she did the day before without anyone noticing. But this time, she was caught by the Wang Clan''s grand elder. Of course, he wouldn''t try to stop Feifei from moving around. After all, it wasn''t like there was any danger with Crazy Feng there. Still, he knew that the other participants were sent here to try to catch Feifei''s heart. Because of that, he also sent a Divine Sense message to all four of them about Feifei leaving her room, which made them immediately appear by her side. Krune saw that, and his mouth twitched. "Feifei can come in. As for the rest, I don''t remember to have invited any of you here." Wang Mo, Wang Ting, Mar Jilano, and Tuesly Huviu heard that and almost exploded in a fury right there and then. As for Feifei, she couldn''t be happier after hearing those words. Unfortunately for Krune, Uncle Feng had to intervene. He then sent a Divine Sense message to him. "It would be better to let them in too. Otherwise, it would be too obvious that you two have something together. So far, everyone thinks that Feifei is just curious about the fact that you are a wisp and this strong. But it won''t stay like that for long if you don''t take care." Krune sighed but had to admit that Uncle Feng was right. He then turned to those guys and said. "At least, that was what I wanted to say. Still, it would not do any good for the Sect''s face if the Sect Master''s disciple doesn''t treat their visitors well. So you can come in too." Feifei also sighed but didn''t say anything. When everyone entered Krune''s house, they were taken aback. Wisps! Wisps everywhere! Now that Ao, Shinja, and Yusa left for missions and training, the wisps that were staying with them ended coming to Krune''s house instead. Krune, of course, didn''t mind it. As the Sect Master''s disciple, his home in the Inner Sect was enormous! So there was more than enough space for every single one of them. Not to mention that it makes Krune feel good to have them around. Krune then turned to Feifei and sent her a Divine Sense message. "Feifei, can you help me check a wisp that is about to enter the Foundation Establishment?" Feifei was taken aback with that question but nodded anyway. 181 Your Poison Wouldnt Work. Although there were more eyes than Krune expected, he isn''t afraid of any of them disturbing Juji''s breakthrough. After all, it would be the same as going against the Sect. Not to mention that Uncle Feng was also there, so Krune asked him to keep an eye on those guys. Krune then introduced the wisp to Feifei. "This is Juji, the first wisp entering the Foundation Establishment using the Myriad Wisps Technique. This technique is something that I invented, and it only works on wisps too." Not only Feifei, everyone else was taken aback by Krune''s words. Only now they tried to take a look at all the wisps'' cultivation in the house, and the majority was at the 5th stage of the Qi Condensation Realm or higher! Krune then asked for everyone''s communicator numbers and passed a copy of the Myriad Wisps Technique for them. This is a technique that is being spread far and wide at the moment, so there was no point in Krune trying to keep it secret. Uncle Feng took a look at the technique and immediately understood from where it derived. "You used the Myriad Energies Technique to build it, didn''t you?" Krune nodded and then explained how it worked. Of course, he didn''t tell things like the real Myriad Energies Technique or why this one only worked on wisps either. But he mentioned that wisps that cultivate it won''t be useful as cultivation resources anymore. Everyone was impressed by what Krune did. First of all, he created a technique that only works on wisps using as a base the most common technique out there. Then he made it into a top-notch technique that allowed the wisps to reach the Foundation Establishment in at most three years! That is just too fast! Only their clan best cultivation techniques would be able to achieve such a rate of improvement, and they wouldn''t be any better! Finally, he is also saving the wisps of the fate of becoming cultivation resources since their energy will be changed into something similar to the other races. Uncle Feng looked at Krune and couldn''t help but ask. "Is it really okay for you to show us such a peerless cultivation technique? All the best technique of any of the big four are kept as the biggest secret, and they don''t let anyone learn it that easily." Krune then laughed. "The technique is good, indeed, but the reason I created it was to save the wisps from their fate. If I don''t spread it out to the wisps, what good will be there? So, at this very moment, this technique is being disseminated around all the Divine Path Sect territory! It will take a long time, but there will come a day where wisps can stand side by side with the other races." Krune then continued. Uncle Feng looked at that technique in his communicator and couldn''t help but comment. "The wisp race... will rise. Of course, that is considering that this technique really works as it says." Feifei and the other Wang Clan participants that were there at the moment nodded. Krune also did the same. He knows that it is just the start, and he needs to see how this technique will fair in the future. Krune then sent a Divine Sense message to Feifei. "Anyway, Juji is the first one entering the next realm with it. Feifei, you have a destiny core, right? Can you take a look and see if anything will happen with him?" Feifei nodded and did as she was told. "It''s a little hard to see since he has been close to you for some time already. As you probably noticed, your side-effect on the destiny energy also affects those close to you to a certain extent." Krune nodded, Falanea, the Sect Master''s friend, had already told him about it. Feifei then put some effort into observing Juji''s destiny energy, and after some time, she smiled. "It is really quite hard, and I couldn''t see much, but I can at least tell that Juji probably won''t die today. Still, you better not tell him what I said. It might have a negative effect and make him take it easy. Such a thing might change the reading that I''ve done in the destiny energy, and he could still die because of that. Remember, the reading of destiny energy isn''t absolute. The simple fact that we read it might be enough to change the initial outcome." Krune nodded and did as Feifei suggested. But he was also happy to know that Juji would probably not fail as well. "Alright, Juji, you can start anytime you want." "Yes, ancestor." With or without Feifei''s readings, Juji was confident that he could succeed. He really spent a lot of time collecting and studying information about spaceships. With the wisps'' innate high IQ, Juji is, without a doubt, an expert in the general concept of a spaceship. He also had the chance to temper his soul in the Rainbow Sect pocket dimension, so he already has an idea of what kind of pain is waiting for him. Soon, Krune and everyone were able to hear a ''crack'' sound. "Argh." It doesn''t matter how many times Krune hears it, he simply couldn''t get used. But he was impressed with Juji''s determination, though. The first time you attack your core is, without a doubt, the most painful one. Still, Juji only let out a small grunt. Krune then nodded and kept looking. Lakin and Ruik were also there, and since they had seen a wisp''s foundation establishment breakthrough before, they can tell that Juji was doing quite well too. Of course, this was the case only for them. Feifei, Uncle Feng, and the other guys were still taken aback by that. They were using their Divine Sense to check what was happening, and they can see how the wisp is making its breakthrough. Want Mo couldn''t help but comment. "This is crazy! Isn''t the wisp''s soul inside the core too? What if he fails? Besides, isn''t that wisp doing the same as breaking his own soul apart?" Tuesly Huviu, who was beside him, commented. "Isn''t that obvious? Failing in the Foundation Establishment means that your core is destroyed, and you will need to start again. But if it is a wisp, you are probably dead. As for the soul part, I guess they can only bear with it." Krune heard that and commented. "Did you think that my Myriad Wisps Technique was omnipotent or something? There is obviously a price to pay for that. So I have no doubt that a lot of wisps will end dying doing this process. Still, it is better than stay at the bottom for life. Not to mention that they can simply wait for when their life span is near the end to try as well." Indeed, there is no such thing as free lunch in this universe. The reason that Juji is faring this well is simply because of the support that he has from Krune, Lakin, and the others. They know very well that it won''t be so easy for the other wisps out there. An hour passed without any big problems, and Krune recognized that Juji finished the most dangerous part. Feifei also sent him a Divine Sense message regarding that. "It''s all good now, his breakthrough did stir the destiny energy around him quite a bit, so I''m sure that he won''t have any problems during it anymore." Krune let out a sigh of relief and then turned to everyone. "Alright, a wisp''s breakthrough takes a very long time, so there is no need to keep looking at it. I reckon that Juji won''t be finished before a month or two anyway. Come with me, I will make some food for everyone." Food? Except for Feifei and Uncle Feng, the others were surprised by that. ''This wisp also cooks? Should the Sect Master''s disciple really be wasting his time cooking?'' That was what they wanted to ask, but before anyone did that, they noticed a man appearing beside Krune like a ghost. "Good! This Sect Master was starving after waiting for so long already." Except for Uncle Feng, who had a similar cultivation realm, everyone in the room was frightened by his sudden appearance. Even Krune, who should be used to it already, felt his heart stop for a second. It was not that he wasn''t expecting it to happen again. It is just that with Juji''s breakthrough and Feifei''s visit, he forgot about that possibility. "Old geezer, if not because it would be against my principles, I swear I would poison the food and send you to the next world!" Who else could it be other than Lucio? "Hahaha! Do you think that any poison that you use would have any effect on this grandfather? Keep dreaming! Anyway, what are you making for eating today?" Krune then sighed and told everyone what he was planning to cook. But no one of those who came to visit was paying attention to that anymore. ''The Sect Master''s disciple likes to cook, and the Master himself likes to eat it. Is the Divine Path Sect this free?'' Lucio then looked at a particular direction and said. "How long are you going to stay there? I told you that my disciple''s food is quite good, so come out already." It turns out that Lucio brought with him (although forced was more correct) the grand elders of the other powers too. They felt quite embarrassed to appear like this, but they couldn''t simply ignore Lucio''s ''hospitality.'' Then, Krune heard someone calling from outside. When he opened his residence protection formation, his mouth twitched. Not only had the grand elders come, but even their participants of the exchange program came too. It couldn''t be helped, though. The grand elders just didn''t want to be in that situation alone. So, as per their orders, they came as part of the sacrifice too. 182 We will find a way! In the end, the time alone that Krune wanted to have with Feifei turned our to be a group meeting. Krune also tried to contact Lofa and Tasier, but for some reason, neither one of them was answering his call. He could understand Lofa, but why he can''t reach Tasier too? Still, he just thought that Tasier was probably busy and gave up calling him as well. Feifei then spent most of her time with the wisps in the house. She looked like a kid who found a new toy and played quite a lot with the young ones. Although she wasn''t pretending, that also helped to reinforce the other''s convictions that Feifei was just being curious about the wisps and doesn''t have any interest in Krune specifically. Most of those who came left just a few hours later, Lucio and the grand elders were part of this group. The ones who stayed were basically Feifei, Uncle Feng, and the guys who tried to get closer to her all day long. Still, she paid little attention to their attempts. Krune saw that and just snorted. Feifei has already told him what the real reason for them to come to this exchange program, so he didn''t mind. Not to mention that Krune trust her, so he didn''t try to intervene either. Uncle Feng just sat in a corner while drinking. At his realm, getting drunk was basically impossible if he didn''t wish for that. Still, he enjoyed the feeling of good wine. Of course, Krune and Feifei were also talking with each other. It is just that they did that through Divine Sense, so no one noticed. "I see, so that is what this mark is about. Doesn''t that mean that I''m considered your first choice?" Feifei nodded. "Exactly! So you better make sure to not lose it. Also, it has a unique effect. If any other woman tries to have her way with you, it will appear and stop them from doing it." Krune was taken aback by that. But he finally remembered that day when Lofa hugged him and the mark activated. "I see, that''s why it came out that day." Feifei then gave him a side glance and said. "Well then, what day are you talking about?" As expected, Krune wasn''t able to see the ''angry'' meaning of that question. So he simply replied truthfully about what happened with him and Lofa. Feifei then started to laugh. "You thought that she just wanted to join the exchange program? How can you be so clueless about a woman''s heart? Still, I guess that was for the best. After all, it shows that you had no feelings for her to start with." Krune then sighed. "We can''t be together that way, but we can still be friends just like before, so everything is okay." Krune then said. "Anyway, forget that for now. What should I do with this mark? Isn''t it better for me to simply announce that I got it from you? That way, all those guys bothering you would fly away, no?" Feifei then laughed once more. "Sure, go ahead and do it. But remember that father would definitely do everything in his power to get rid of you. After all, whoever marries me is supposed to be someone from our own territory and must marry into my Clan." Krune was taken aback by that answer. "Cough, cough. I guess it is good to keep things as they are at the moment. As for marrying into your Clan, to be honest, I don''t mind it. But I guess Master would definitely not agree with that. Can''t we just get together without leaving our powers? It''s not like you need to leave the Wang Clan, or I leave the Divine Path Sect, right?" Feifei then sighed. "I, too, think that it would be the simplest way. In fact, that''s what I want to happen, as well. But for that, let alone you, even I will have to have enough power to make my own opinion valid. It has nothing to do with being a woman since my Clan doesn''t care about the genders, it is just that my improved Destiny Core is too important for them." Krune nodded and then said. "Then that''s okay. We just need to wait until we get strong enough to have our voices heard. Besides, Master wouldn''t approve me marrying into your Clan, but I''m sure that he wouldn''t care whether you marry into our Sect or not either. That old geezer just doesn''t want to give me away." Feifei shook her head. "It''s not that simple. I don''t know how long I can keep it like this. In my Clan, it is normal for both men and women to marry before the age of 30. So if I take longer than that, they will probably think that something is not right. At that point, I won''t be able to hide the fact that I already gave my mark away." Krune heard that and asked. "Talking about this mark, can they use it to track me down? I heard from Master that it shouldn''t be possible." Feifei nodded. "You are right, other than that specific ability that I left inside, it can''t be used for anything else other than proving that I selected you. But it won''t be necessary to track it down anyway. With the mark gone and me not saying where it went too, the Clan will be left with no other choice other than creating a new one. Although it was rare, it did happen in the past." Feifei then smiled and said. "At that point, you better be ready since I will tell everyone where it is. It is much better than have a new one made and have to marry someone else. Hahahaha!" Krune felt a chill on his back just by hearing that. "I... will give my best into cultivation." Feifei nodded. "And so will I! You are the one I want, after all!" Krune then laughed. "Anyway, we still have five months before the missions part start. I won''t be participating in the teaching program since I already have the Sect Master. But you can come to visit me, or I can go to your house any time you want." Feifei then showed a playful smile and asked. "Does it mean that you are going to visit a girl alone at her house?" Krune nodded. "Is that a problem?" Feifei noticed Krune''s clueless face and laughed out loud, much for the other guys'' confusion. "You are really the Krune that I know, totally clueless about those kinds of things." Krune didn''t know what Feifei was talking about, so he decided to ask someone else about it later. As for Feifei, she could only think. ''Indeed, I wasn''t wrong to choose you. All those annoying rules about the relationships have no meaning in your head. You are really the best!'' As a daughter of the Clan head, everyone around Feifei''s age always treated her with the utmost respect and acted accordingly. For someone with a playful mind like her, their way of acting was nothing more than torture! The worst part was to have to act the same way back to keep the Clan''s Face. But Krune didn''t give a damn to all that, though. Even after finding out who she was, he still didn''t change his ways. For Feifei, nothing could be better than that. Feifei then alerted Krune. "I will try to sneak away without the grand elder noticing, so you can just wait for me to come. But don''t go to my house, the grand elder would never let a man staying alone with me there, even if it is a wisp." Although Krune didn''t understand why is that, he realized that it seemed to be important, so he agreed with her. The day came to an end, and Feifei and the flies decided to leave. But before that happened, Krune told Feifei two things. "Oh, right! I need to give you the real form of the Myriad Energies Technique, next time you come, I will let you try it out." Krune then continued. "Also, remember that I won''t take part in the teaching program. I will use this time to finish improving my Blacksmith Rank before the missions start. I need to make sure that my shields are ready, after all. But I will send you a message through your communicator to tell when I''m not at the Blacksmith Hall." Feifei nodded. "Good, I doubt I will be back in the next few days anyway since it will be the start of the teaching part. But I will let you know too when things get calmer." Krune bid farewell to Feifei and Uncle Feng and went back inside. He hasn''t done anything during that day other than cooking, so he wasn''t tired. He then grabbed his things and went to the Blacksmith Hall to continue his practice. Now that he advanced to the 3rd stage, his ability has improved once again, which helped him a lot. Back at Feifei''s house, Feifei and Uncle Feng were talking about what happened that day. Uncle Feng looked at her and said. "Well, at first, I was doubtful about your choice. But after watching Krune during this one month, I have to admit that there are very few out there that could match him. Even though the Spiritual Pool helped, the fact that he was able to jump two stages in a month is impressive already. But not only that, his combat prowess is at the very top too! I can only think about four or five names that could put up a fight against him at the same level of cultivation." Feifei was very happy to hear that, only she knows how many times Uncle Feng tried to change her mind. "Haha! So you finally recognized him. Now, look at that, who changed his mind in the end, uh?" Uncle Feng didn''t care about Feifei''s teasing, though. With his age, there are very few things that could achieve that effect on him. "Anyway, getting my recognition is one thing. I look forward to seeing how you will convince your Clan instead." Feifei then showed an angry face that couldn''t really scare anyone. 183 Uncle Fengs Evaluation With Krune back to the Blacksmith Hall, his ''personal'' blacksmiths also returned to answer his questions. The teaching part of the program would extend for five months, and Krune intends to achieve the Five Silver Stars Blacksmith Rank by the end. Krune then spent around a week in the Blacksmith Hall without leaving. During that time, Krune and Feifei just exchanged a few messages through the communicator. Of course, Krune also sent a few messages to Tasier and Lofa, who were also there. Fortunately, it seemed that Lofa was finally willing to answer. "I talked a little with Feifei too. Although it still bothers me that you kept with her, I have to admit that she is a good girl. She doesn''t act like a spoiled child of a Great Clan like some of my cousins do back in Makui Planet. In fact, she is very playful. Now that I decided to not bother with the two of you anymore, she turned out to be very friendly." Krune nodded and said. "Oh, that''s good then. Anyway, I have Master to teach me, so I''m not participating in this part of the program. But you are different, so make sure to use this opportunity right." Lofa didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. Krune seemed like he didn''t care about what happened anymore. In fact, she is sure that he really didn''t. Any other person would feel awkward in this situation, but that wisp really thought about it as nothing. ''I guess this is good.'' Lofa then answered. "Don''t worry, I will make sure to pay attention to everything." Krune then ended the call and called Tasier after. "Hahaha! This grandfather here is doing great! I think I might be able to reach the second stage of the Core Formation Realm by the end of the next month." Krune then said. "That''s to be expected. You broke into the Core Formation Realm just as the Spiritual Pool opened, so you still had a lot of time to use it for cultivation. Besides, with the elders teaching you now, it goes without saying that you will improve even more." Tasier nodded. "Exactly! One of the inner elders here is a Lightning Eagle, and our way of doing things is very similar. So he had been helping me a lot. In fact, he is impressed with my talent for the elements that he is best at. He said that depending on my progress by the end of the five months, he might take me as a disciple too!" Tasier then continued. "Oh, there is one more thing. After all these months, I''m very close to finishing the last Pseudo Energy Meridians. The elders of my clan back in the makui Planet had also sent a lot of spirit stones for me. So I reckon that right after I create the Spiritual Energy Meridians, my improvement during this program will soar! Not to mention that I have enough spirit stones to open quite a few if not all nine Meridians by that time." Krune laughed after hearing that. Tasier nodded. "Right! Oh, I believe that Lofa isn''t too far either. But I haven''t asked her how many she had built so far. Anyway, I have some things to do, so I will see you later. Also, you should receive the payment for the Soul Healing Pill anytime now." Krune nodded and then finished the call. He had never been afraid that Tasier wouldn''t pay to start with. "They are doing their best, so I must not lag behind." In the third week, Feifei and Krune finally got some free time, and with Uncle Feng''s help, she slipped by the grand elder''s watch. She then went to Krune''s house to see what the Myriad Energy Technique is really about. Inside, Ruik and Krune were talking a little while they waited for Feifei to arrive. As for Lakin, he went somewhere with Cassy. From the looks of it, the two of them are doing quite well together. Krune then received a message that Feifei was already there and then opened the house protection formation. The first thing Feifei did after entering was to give Krune a hug! "Last time those annoying guys that father arranged to come with me were in the way, so I couldn''t do it. But this time, I will spend a lot of time with you." Even Krune had to admit that it made him quite embarrassed. As for Ruik, he just snorted at the scene. "I won''t stay here pretending that I can''t see you two. Krune, if you need something, let me know later." Uncle Feng also felt quite awkward, but he can''t leave Feifei''s side, so he just pretended that he was seeing nothing. Krune then patted Feifei''s head and said. "Alright, I won''t be able to show you the Myriad Energy Techniques like this." Only then did Feifei let Krune go. Krune also looked at Uncle Feng and called him over. "Uncle Feng, I will pass it to you too. Although I can''t say if it is of any use at your Realm, you can give it a try and see if you like it." From the very moment that Krune found about the Myriad Energies Technique, he had made his mind to pass it over to Feifei and Uncle Feng. It was only because of them back in the Makui Planet that Krune had a chance to find about it. So whether they want to keep it a secret or show it to the Wang Clan, Krune doesn''t care. Krune didn''t even ask them to keep it a secret to start with. Krune then spent the day talking about his experiences and showing his own Elemental Meridians. He told them about its good and bad parts, what they should pay attention to, and how they should proceed. Feifei was impressed with such a thing, but the terrified one was Uncle Feng himself. "This thing is too heaven-defying! It''s even better than the Myriad Wisps Technique that you created. At least, it definitely is for the starting realms. Give me some time, I will try to practice it." Uncle Feng is already at the Semi Divinity Realm. His control over spiritual energy is who knows how many times better than Krune at the moment. Because of that, even the creation of the Nine Pseudo Energy Meridians didn''t show too much of a challenge to him. Not to mention that Krune is also there, so he gave Uncle Feng a few pointers during the process. In the end, Uncle Feng was able to create all Nine Pseudo Meridians in just a bit more than 5 hours! No only Krune, even Ruik, the wisps, and other demon beasts there at the moment were taken aback. Feifei also tried to create the Pseudo Energy Meridians. Still, she was only able to create the first two by the same time. She is also going to need a lot more than that since each new one takes even longer to form. That is the difference in the cultivation realm for you. "Uncle Feng, that is too unfair!" He looked at Feifei and said. "This thing requires a lot from your spiritual energy control. But not only my control is hundreds of times better than yours, but I also have already comprehended some Laws. That helped me in creating them even faster. Don''t think that this is because my talent is superior, this is just a result of my experience, that''s all." Although Krune also felt quite jealous, he had to admit that Uncle Feng is right. Krune reckons that if he didn''t know about the Myriad Energies Technique and he tried to create the nine pseudo energy meridians from scratch now, he wouldn''t take more than a week. "Alright, Uncle Feng, try to create the Spiritual Energy Meridians now." Feng nodded and took out around a thousand spirit stones. When krune checked them, he almost drooled. Those were all Rank 9 Spirit Stones! Uncle Feng paid little attention to Krune''s envious face. He then started to follow the process according to what was described by the technique to create the Spiritual Energy Meridians. Sure enough, different from the others who took weeks or even over a month, Feng only needed around three hours to create the first one. After that, it was the same as anyone else. Once you understood how to create the first spiritual energy meridian, the next ones would be a lot easier to create. It followed the opposite trait of the pseudo ones where you need more time the more you create. Krune was also very curious to see if the Meridians could help someone as strong as Uncle Feng. Soon, there were two meridians, then three, four, five... With Uncle Feng''s Rank 9 Spirit Stones, spiritual energy couldn''t even be considered a problem. Finally, Uncle Feng created the 9th Spiritual Energy Meridian. As expected, just as he finished it, his spiritual energy meridians also evolved to the Elemental ones. But then... that was it. Nothing else happened after he got the Elemental Meridians. "Let me check how good they are." Uncle Feng then proceeded to cultivate while using the Elemental Meridians. "Hum... this is quite good." Krune was happy to hear that and immediately asked about it. Uncle Feng then started to give a more detailed explanation. "Let''s start with the realms that are. Qi condensation; Foundation Establishment; Core Formation; Divine Soul; Soul Forging; Void Breaking; Divine View; Divine Path; Semi Divinity; Divinity; After that comes ascension, but this is something way too far for you, so I won''t enter in detail." Feng continued. "As you know, between Core Formation and Soul Forging, spiritual energy has to be converted into Elemental Source Energy. Those are the realms where this Elemental Meridians will make the biggest difference." "After that comes the realms between Void Breaking and Divine Path. Those realms use Chaos Energy to cultivate. At this point, the cultivators and demon beasts will already have the ability to convert Spiritual Energy into Elemental Source Energy almost instantly. So the Elemental Meridians lose a lot of its effectiveness here." "Of course, considering that a good part of the Elemental Source Energy is still converted by the Elemental Meridians, it still makes their cultivation a tiny bit faster. That is already quite good since any help can make a huge difference in the end." "Chaos Energy is created by the use of Elemental Source Energy and Laws. But forget about the Laws. For now, this is also a concept that you won''t be able to touch before Soul Forging." "Since the Elemental Meridians can''t convert Elemental Source Energy into Chaos Energy, you can''t see any significant difference between those who use it and those who don''t. Of course, as I said, those who have the Elemental Meridians will still have a little advantage." "Finally, there is a type of energy necessary for Semi Divinity and Divinity. But your Elemental Energy meridians will have no use here, so I won''t comment about that now." Uncle Feng then looked at Krune and said. 184 Lucio Koffel and Wang Xin Krune had thought about it before. Spiritual Energy Meridians made the Spiritual Energy absorbed compatible with the user straight away. Elemental Meridians went a step further and converted some of the Spiritual Energy into Elemental Source Energy. So Krune thought that perhaps, his Elemental meridians could evolve once more and convert the Elemental Source Energy into Chaos Energy. But he also noticed a problem here. According to Uncle Feng, comprehension about laws is necessary for the conversion of Elemental Source Energy into Chaos Energy. Since that is the case, Krune definitely won''t be able to try anything new before he reaches a realm high enough to start touching them. ''I will need to reach the Soul Forging Realm first, it seems.'' Uncle Feng then said. "Alright, this is it for now. Feifei, you should try to create the Spiritual Energy Meridians and the Elemental Meridians as soon as possible. It will be very beneficial in your realm." He then turned to Krune. "As for you, what do you want from us in exchange for this technique?" Krune was taken aback, but he soon recovered and shook his head. "I want nothing. If Feifei hadn''t saved me back then, there would be no Myriad Energies Technique. The same goes for you, Uncle Feng. If you hadn''t given me the standard version of the technique, there would still be nothing in the end." "I have long since decided that once I met you again, I would pass the technique over. Whether you want to keep it a secret or pass it to your clan, it changes nothing for me." Uncle Feng heard that and sighed. "This technique''s worth is immeasurable. I can''t just take it like that, especially now that it is so beneficial for Feifei." Feifei also nodded. "That is correct. Although I''m your wife to be, we are still the ones receiving a lot here. Sure, I saved your life back there, but that doesn''t mean that I will take advantage of you. Think carefully, there should be something that can pay you back. Also, don''t worry, I will not pass this technique to anyone." Uncle Feng nodded. "Same thing here. In fact, to bring it out would sooner or later lead to your existence. Before you can defend yourself, I have no intention of putting Feifei''s loved one at risk." Krune couldn''t help but feel a little emotional. Not because he wouldn''t divulge the technique. But the fact that It was the first time Uncle Feng recognized him as Feifei''s partner. "Well, the fact is that I can''t think about anything I want at the moment. I could say spirit stones, but in the end, this isn''t a problem that I can''t resolve myself with time." Krune thought for a while and then asked. Uncle Feng started to think. Although he isn''t a blacksmith, he at least has knowledge about rare materials. After all, the worst thing to happen would be to pass by something valuable without noticing its value. "I think... I might have something good for that. If fact, this is a Golden Star Material, but it can be used to create a Silver Star equipment as well. It''s just that it would be considered quite a waste. Of course, shields made of this ore would be much sturdier and better at holding elements. As for your Tribulation Lightning, I reckon it will find it very natural to be conducted inside." Uncle Feng then took a small purple ore out. As soon as it appeared, Krune felt the familiar power of Tribulation Lighting coming from it. "This thing here is called Tribulation Ore. As the name implies, it is made through the use of Tribulation Lightning. It appears during the heavenly Tribulation of a Soul Forging Realm cultivator or above. In fact, I believe that your Sect also has it. It''s just that Golden Star Materials are not given for free. Usually, you have to provide the materials or buy them with the Merit Points." Krune''s eyes immediately lit up. He could feel the compatibility of his Tribulation Lightning and that ore. Without a doubt, his combat prowess would be much higher if his shields were made with them. "That is perfect! Thank you!" Uncle Feng nodded. "As I said, it is quite a waste to use it to make a peak silver star equipment. Still, with your future prospects, it shouldn''t be a problem if you use them for it now. Whether you are going to do it or not, it''s up to you, though." He then took quite a few more of them out and asked. "Is this enough to create all 38 flying shields?" Krune immediately confirmed. "Yes, yes! That is even more than enough." Krune then put all the ores inside his spatial ring. He was very happy at the moment. He didn''t want anything in exchange, this part was true. But since they insisted, he won''t be polite. Suddenly, Uncle Feng looked in a specific direction and said. "Seems like your Master is here." Sure enough, a few seconds later, Lucio appeared inside Krune''s house. "Why did you tell him? It is no fun when he already knows that I''m going to appear." Krune heard that, and his mouth twitched. "Old geezer, since when did the Sect Master become someone with so much free time?" Lucio ignored Krune''s question and said. "Anyway, why are you guys here? This rainbow guy is my disciple, you know?" Krune''s rage almost reached the roof after that comment. Uncle Feng just shook his head and pointed at Feifei. "The two love birds wanted to see each other without the flies sent by the Wang Clan bothering them. So I gave Feifei a little help to slip by the grand elder." Krune''s rage immediately deflated like a balloon after hearing Uncle Feng''s answer, and even Feifei got a little red after that. Lucio then nodded. "Oh, that''s good. I reckon that you aren''t against their relationship, right?" Uncle Feng also nodded. "I''m not. But I won''t lie either. Until the day that I arrived and saw his improvement with my own eyes, I was still against it. Fortunately, I did not try anything to stop it, and I''m happy about that." Lucio then laughed. "It''s already very good if Feng the Crazy recognizes my disciple. I might as well tell you this: I won''t give Krune to the Wang Clan, but I don''t care whether Feifei marries into my Sect or not either. If she wants, she can still be part of the Wang Clan even after it. All I want to see is Wang Xin''s face when he finds out that his daughter fell in love with my disciple. Hahaha!" Uncle Feng heard that and sighed. "You are still holding onto that issue. It was something that happened while the two of you were young, you know? Is there any meaning in thinking about that now? Besides, what''s the point in using Feifei for that?" Krune and Feifei were as puzzled as they could be. Lucio then shook his head and said. "I have already forgotten about that issue, and I hold no grudge. First of all, the final decision could not be made by Wang Xin or me to start with. So I''ve never felt like I had to take revenge or anything." Uncle Feng was taken aback. "Then why-" Before he could even answer, Lucio cut him off. "But it doesn''t mean that I don''t feel anything either. My disciple having a relationship with his daughter just turned out to be a coincidence. I knew that Feifei was the reason that I noticed Krune, but I''ve never thought that they liked each other. I want to help him get the girl he loves, and if that will also break Wang Xin''s leg, then why not? Haha!" Krune was feeling a mix of rage and gratitude at the same time. Anger because he was being used like that, and appreciation since being used wasn''t his Master''s primary reason. His Master first wanted him to be with the girl he loves, and his use against Wang Xin turned out to be a side effect. "Old geezer. Don''t you think that it is already time for you to tell me what''s going on?" Lucio turned his head away and said. "That''s not for you to know." Krune was just about to continue when suddenly, he received a Divine Sense message from Feifei. "It would be quite a boring story if it didn''t involve the Wang Clan''s Head and the Divine Path Sect Master. I heard it from my mother, though. It seems like that back then, both my father and your Master liked her. But she still had chosen my dad in the end. That''s what Lucio meant when he said that the final decision wasn''t his or my father''s. The final decision was obviously my mother''s." Krune finally understood what was going on, and he could help but sympathize a little with him. Still, it was due to that choice that Feifei is here today, so he can''t deny that he is happy that she chose the Wang Clan Head in the end. Feifei then continued. "Of course, back then, my father was just a descendant of the Wang Clan while your Master was only a disciple of the Sect. Neither of then had any power whatsoever. I heard from my mother that the two of them had been rivals for a long time even before that event." Krune nodded and then told Lucio. "Old geezer, now I know why you are still unmarried." Lucio almost fainted! "Now then, aren''t you the brave one to spill it on my face?" Krune didn''t care, though. "Hmph! So what? It''s not like you don''t say whatever you want, either. By the way, thank you for supporting me. I will give you this in exchange." Krune then sent a message to Lucio''s communicator. When Lucio looked inside, he was puzzled. "Myriad Energies Technique? What will I do with such a common technique?" Krune then laughed. "If you think this is nothing worth taking a look, then just delete the message." Lucio narrowed his eyes but decided to take a look anyway. "This!" Krune then said. 185 Even Wisps Can be Wrong, No? Lucio had his eyes glued in the technique for quite some time. He then took a deep breath and looked at Krune. "This thing is impressive. As expected of the one that I took as my disciple." Krune didn''t know whether to laugh or cry! What does it have to do with me being your disciple? "I won''t bother with your comments, old geezer. Anyway, what you plan to do with it now, will you give it a try?" Lucio pondered a bit and then looked at Uncle Feng. "If I''m not wrong, it doesn''t have much of use at our realm, correct?" Uncle Feng smiled and nodded. "Correct. This technique is amazing for those at the Soul Forging and below. You might as well say that it is the best I have ever seen. But at Void Breaking and above, it really doesn''t change much. It can''t create Chaos Energy, after all." Lucio agreed with that point. "I was already expecting it." He then looked at Krune and said. "I won''t try it since it has no use for me at the moment. But if you are ever able to create a version that can use Chaos Energy, then let me know." Krune was surprised by that. "Aren''t you going to ask to let the sect be able to use it?" Lucio looked at Krune and snorted. "I''m not that idiot. This thing would cause too much of a stir if we show it to the world. Even if I decided to only allow Legacy disciples to cultivate it, the other powers would sooner or later notice that they are improving way too fast. At that point, we might become the common enemy of everyone since the others would feel threatened." Uncle Feng heard that and nodded. "This is also the reason why I told you that I won''t show it to the Wang Clan. It might bring more harm than good. We are not talking about only the Western Protectorate here. This thing could cause a stir even in the Central Region, let alone the other sides." "Oh, right! There was one more thing. I noticed that it could also enhance the elemental understanding. It makes it easier to control them, as well. This is one more reason to not let it out so easily." Krune knew that his technique was very good, but not to the point of starting a war. Lucio then asked Krune. "I want an account of everyone who is currently practicing this technique. I need to talk with them all to make sure that they won''t let it go out." Uncle Feng also agreed with Lucio. "Your Master is correct. It is also for their own safety." Krune nodded and said. Krune continued "Other than them, there is also the demon beasts like the Lizard Dragons and Lakin''s friends, which are three. So, at the moment we have: 4 Wisps counting with me; 9 Demon Beasts counting with Tasier; The humans are Lofa, Ao, Yusa, Shinja, and Arlan; And the rest are Master, Uncle Feng, and Feifei." Lucio nodded. "If those are the only ones, then that''s okay. With this amount of practitioners, it will be too hard for anyone to notice any difference. After all, the Divine Path Sect has tens of thousands of disciples between Foundation Establishment and Soul Forging. But you should refrain from showing it to anyone else from now on, understood?" This was one of the rare times that Krune ever saw Lucio talking really seriously. Hence, he understood that the situation was graver than he thought. "Alright. I didn''t have any intention to pass it to anyone else for the time being anyway." Lucio nodded. "I will talk with everyone, too, just to make sure." Lucio hen turned to Uncle Feng, but before he could say anything, Uncle Feng cut him. "You don''t need to worry. I told you already, didn''t I? I won''t be showing it to the Wang Clan either. At least not until Krune has reached a realm where he can defend himself." Lucio nodded, satisfied. With this topic finished, Krune looked at his Master and asked. "By the way, old geezer. Why did you come here?" Lucio answered. "Oh, right! The Blacksmith Hall contacted me about your progress there. When I sent you to make your flying shields, I didn''t expect that you would try to create the Divine Imprints yourself. So I came to ask if you can get it ready before the missions starting in 4 months." Krune nodded. "That shouldn''t be a problem. They said that although I can''t create the shields themselves before reaching the peak of the Silver Star Level, I can leave the shields to them and make the Imprints only. Like that, I only need to reach the Five Silver Stars." Lucio looked at Krune and narrowed his eyes. "Is what they told me true? Were you just a Three Bronze Stars blacksmith around two months before the spiritual pool opened?" Krune nodded. It''s not like he needed to keep it a secret. He just didn''t want to catch the others'' attention. Uncle Feng noticed Lucio''s weird face and asked. "Errr... Then, what level are you now?" Krune then took out his Two Silver Stars badge and showed it to him. Uncle Feng looked at that amazed. "After you left the Spiritual Pool, you only spent three weeks in the Blacksmith Hall. Doesn''t that mean that you have gone from a Three Bronze Stars to a Two Silver Stars in a little less than three months?" Krune pondered a bit and nodded in the end. "That''s about correct. But it''s starting to get hard to improve my rank. I believe I will need the next 3 to 4 months to reach the Five Silver Stars. Sigh... It''s not easy to manage time when you are a wisp." Uncle Feng felt like giving Krune a good beating! Are you making fun of me? Usually, any normal Blacksmith apprentice would take no less than two years to go from Bronze Stars to Silver Stars, and that is counting that they are part of a big power like theirs. Even the talented geniuses still take over a year. But you did that in less than three months! Lucio, on the other hand, just laughed. "Hahaha! As expected of my disciple, you obviously had to be at least this talented." Uncle Feng''s jaw dropped! ''Perhaps, both Master and Disciple need a beating... together!'' Unfortunately, he knows that it was not the place for that. Feifei, on the other hand, felt even more proud of Krune. Her smile couldn''t be brighter at the moment. Lucio noticed that and chuckled. "This Wang girl is having quite the deal for getting this disciple of mine. Still, you are quite talented yourself, so I look forward to seeing how good your children will be." Uncle Feng also nodded. "Indeed, I''m very curious to see how a wisp and a human child look like. Too bad that it is still too early for that." Feifei''s face went totally red like a tomato. After all, to have a child, she would need to make ''that'' with Krune. Not that she is unwilling, of course. Uncle Fend and Lucio saw that laughed out loud. They then looked at Krune and were surprised. Krune didn''t seem embarrassed at all! In fact, he had a face that showed that he was thinking deeply about something. "What are you pondering about?" Krune was awakened from his stupor and said. "To have a child... Doesn''t that mean we need to have s*x with each other? Or at least, that''s what the other common beasts did while I lived in the Makui Forest. Should I just do the same? But now that I think about it, how do I get my pe-" Before he could finish, Feifei cut him off! "Shut up!" She couldn''t take that anymore. Krune was making it way too much ''detailed'' for her heart. Uncle Feng and Lucio, obviously, were laughing even more. That is, without a doubt, the Krune that they know! Krune was taken aback with that, though. ''Could it be that my information is wrong? I guess I will look into it on the Sect network later.'' While trying to stop laughing, Lucio turned to Krune and said. "Don''t worry. You are pretty much correct. Still, this is something that shouldn''t be discussed in the open like that, especially in front of your beloved." He then turned to Feifei and said. "When the time comes, you just need to leave it to Feifei. I''m sure that as a girl, she can make your little friend work without a problem." Feifei just wanted to dig a hole and hide inside there forever! Still, Krune was puzzled, though. "Which friend is it? Do I need a friend for it? So weird..." Only then did Lucio remember who he was talking to, and then he explained which ''friend'' he was talking about through a Divine Sense message. "Oh! So that is my little friend. Alright, I will wait until Feifei can show me then." Feifei finally had her fill and stood up to leave. "I... am going back to my room. I will send a message to you when I get free again." Krune nodded. "Okay. I also need to go back to the Blacksmith Hall to keep my training too. If you get any question about the Myriad Energies Technique, let me know." Feifei nodded and was just about to leave when she heard Lucio''s voice from behind. "Everyone here knows about your relationship. In that case, shouldn''t you at least give Krune a goodbye kiss?" Her feet then immediately froze in place. Krune heard that too and looked at Lucio. "Old geezer. If Feifei doesn''t want something, then there is no need for that. I will never force her to anything that she doesn''t want." Krune then turned to Feifei and said. "Feifei, just ignore this idiot Master of mine. Besides, I''m a wisp. I don''t see too much of a meaning in things like a kiss anyway." Feifei was taken aback. Krune might not, but she, as a human girl, obviously does! She then gritted teeth and walked back to Krune. She then grabbed his head and... forcefully stole Krune''s first kiss! "You might not see much of a meaning, but I definitely do! Also, I want a lot more in the future." Right after saying that, she disappeared like smoke! She probably had never moved so fast before. Uncle Feng, of course, followed Feifei with a smug face. Krune was taken aback by that and looked at the direction that Feifei left absent-minded. Lucio also had the same smug face as Uncle Feng and asked. "So... you don''t see too much of a meaning in kisses, right?" Krune immediately came back to himself and felt quite embarrassed. "Cough, cough. Even wisps can be wrong, no?" 186 Everyone is doing their best. Having sent his Master out, Krune also left for the Blacksmith Hall. Other than improving his skills at forging, he didn''t have much else to do. Of course, he also left his nights open for cultivation and practicing the Elemental Regulation Technique. Time passed, and three months went by. During this time, Juji had successfully built his foundation and entered the Foundation Establishment Realm. Krune then asked him if there was any problem with the Myriad Wisps Technique. "Nothing wrong here, Ancestor. My cultivation speed has improved a lot now that I brokethorugh too." Krune nodded and made a few more questions, but it seemed that his new technique was really working fine, much for his relief. Krune then returned to the Blacksmith Hall to continue his practice. Today, Krune was in the middle of crafting something new. He was sweating all over and feeling quite tired. Still, he kept at it for hours nonstop! Finally, he finished his job. Krune looked at that thing that looked like a seal in front of him and smiled satisfied. "Five Silver Stars Divine Imprint!" As soon as he finished it, his Four Silver Stars badge started to shine. That was the proof that he had forged something above of the level that the badge represented. Krune''s smile got even bigger after that since it also proved that he was successful. "I can finally ask Elres to start forging my shields." Krune then exited and went to the counter to exchange his Silver Stars badge. The Menial disciple that took care there was already numb to Krune''s improvement. Krune came to him for every badge exchange, which scared him at first. But now, he decided to simply ignore it. Not to mention that the Hall manager gave him strict orders to not spread Krune''s information around. "Here is the Four Silver Stars Badge. Please exchange it for the next one. Also, can you call Blacksmith Elres over? I need to talk to him." The Menial disciple nodded and left to change the badge. Sometime later, he came back with Elers by his side and the new badge. Krune then received his badge and followed Elres to his private Blacksmith room. Elres had already been made privy of Krune''s circumstances. Although he didn''t want to believe it, the proof was right in front of him. ''In this universe, there really are those called heaven-defying geniuses.'' He sighed deeply and then asked. "Did you make a Divine Imprint already?" Krune nodded and brought it out. After checking it, Elres nodded. "Very well. As you know, Divine Imprints must be attached to the equipment straight away after they are made. You will need to accompany me during the forging process to guarantee that every single one of the imprints is delivered at the right time." Krune agreed with that. Krune then brought out all the Tribulation Ores that he got from Uncle Feng. "I would like to use those ores to make my Flying Shields." Elres looked at that and was amazed! "This! They are all Tribulation Ores! How did you get your hands on them?" Krune laughed and said. "They were my payment, but that''s all I can tell." Elres then looked at Krune and asked. "Are you sure you want to use them to make peak Silver Stars Shields? I will be honest here, it would be quite a waste. After all, these Ores are Golden Stars Materials." Krune immediately nodded. "I''m sure! It has to be them." Elres then took the materials and said. "Okay, we can start an hour later. Considering the time that you take to forge a Divine Imprint, we are probably staying there for at least 10 days, so you better be ready." Krune nodded. As long as the shields are completed before he leaves for the missions in the dimensional realms, that is fine. --- At the same time, somewhere close to the border between the Divine Path Sect territory and the Central Region. There is a frozen planet almost voided of any life. The temperature is so low that a common human would freeze in just a few seconds. Still, this is also the Planet where the Blue Luan inner elder of the Divine Path Sect brought her disciples for training. Shinja''s Master''s name was Lua. Like most of the demon beasts, she also didn''t have a family name. Lua had prepared a full training program for all the disciples and their different realms. The reason that she chose this Planet was that it has existed for a very long time. Due to that, its core had long since cooled down. Another reason is that this Planet was different from others. Here, the deeper you go, the colder it gets. Lua then brought the group to a place where they could see a gigantic hole. Once you looked down, you simply couldn''t see the end of it. In the end, Lua told them that this Planet was one of the places that the Sect prepared for its disciples. Especially those who use water or ice as the main elements. It was also because this place had been prepared for the Divine Path Sect that they could even breathe at the moment. Lua looked at everyone and said. "Alright, for those at the Core Formation Realm, I hope to see you reaching at least 10km deep by the end of our stay here. Divine Soul Realm is 30km. Finally, Soul Forging Realm has to reach 80km. Don''t look down on the dangers of this place. The cold in this place is different from the one you all know. It can breakthrough your spiritual energy barrier and enter your body where it is really difficult to remove. If you see that you are getting close to your limit, come up again, rest, and go back inside when you are ready." One of the disciples who came here for the first time asked. "What are the advantages of this place, Master?" Lua looked at all the new disciples and said. "That cold that I told you is imbued with Water Element. Although it sounds obvious, the concentration that it reached in this place is out of the charts. Your objective is to use your own control of the Water or Ice Element to fend it out. You are not allowed to use any other element unless you get into a dangerous situation. First of all, if you use any other element to hold off the cold, the training will lose its meaning, and you will basically waste your time here." Only now they understood how strange this place is, but it was obvious that it was made for them to improve their control. "Alright, I''m going ahead, but I will keep a look at you all with my Divine Sense. Anyone who exceeds my expectations will receive a reward by the time we get back to the Sect." Immediately, everyone''s eyes lit up! Shinja came to understand her Master a little during the time they spent together. She was very strict and cold, but she was also very generous. All that she demanded was for you to give your all. As long as you reached her target, you would usually be compensated. For her Master to make it so clear this time, it was evident that she had prepared something very good for those who succeed! Lua then flew inside of the hole while her disciples followed right behind her. Just like this, Shinja''s Master special training program started. --- As for Ao''s group, their situation could be called anything but good at the moment. During this time, both Ao and Arlan had broken through the Core Formation Realm as well. Thanks to the Elemental Meridians, they are already close to the third stage while Yusa had already entered it. As for Ula, she had just broken through into the 4th stage when she participated in the Divine Path Sect entrance exam. So in the last months, she had reached the peak of the 4th stage. Don''t think about it as slow, one must remember that she doesn''t have the Myriad Energy Technique. This rate of improvement already shows how talented she is, even without the Elemental Meridians. Ao''s group was hidden inside a cave that they excavated themselves. They had quite a few injuries, including Yusa, who usually plays the support role. The one in the worst condition was Ula. As a 4th stage Moon Wolf and a Tribulation Lightning user, she turned out to be their main attack power. But because of that, she was also the one to suffer the most. Thankfully, Ao had brought a lot of healing pills, which he passed to Ula so that she could recover faster. It pained Ao to see Ula in that state, but he knew that now wasn''t the time to think about it. Ao looked at everyone and couldn''t help but comment. "Just how are they even tracking us down time and time again? Can divination really be that useful?" Yusa shook her head. "I don''t know, but I don''t think it is divination anymore. Unless we are facing a group with a Divine Soul Realm or even a Soul Forging seer. But why would such a high-level guy play with us like this? With that cultivation realm, it would be much faster if he just came by himself and finished us off." Arlan nodded. "Yusa is right. Whatever it is, it''s not to do with divination anymore. We have something that they are using to track us down." Ula was in her Moon Wolf form at the moment so that she could control her spiritual energy better. Still, she was fully focused on healing, so she didn''t pay attention to their conversation. Even in that form, Ao could see her pained expression, so he patted her head a little. Ula was taken aback for a second and then immediately relaxed while continued to recover. Ao then looked at Yusa and asked. "Are the detection runestones still working fine?" Yusa nodded. "As soon as a fly gets close, I will know." The situation continued like that for a few hours when suddenly, Yusa opened her eyes. "They are here, we need to move!" 187 Grandmaster Back at the Divine Path Sect, Krune had already spent 5 days during the process of forging his flying shields. His proficiency in making the Divine Imprints increased with each one made. It also decreased the amount of time necessary to make them. ''According to what I can see, just 3 or at most 4 more days and my flying shields will be ready.'' Elres already expected that, but to see it with his own eyes, that still did some damage to his pride. Still, he is a 3 Golden Stars Blacksmith, so he wouldn''t let it bother him for long. Krune also used the free time where he didn''t have to forge the Divine Imprints to cultivate and practice the Elemental Regulation Technique. ''It won''t be long before I reach the middle accomplishment stage of the technique. At that time, the difference between my Lightning Element and the others will reduce even more. It was thanks to this technique that I was able to create the purple flames so early, and I believe that their prowess will increase even more.'' It''s also worth mentioning that during these four months and a half, Krune was also able to reach the middle of the 3rd of the Core Formation. He could have gone even further, but for the sake of his shields, he put a lot more effort into his Blacksmith path. --- There is only another half a month or so for the teaching program to be over. During these months, both Lofa and Tasier were able to create their spiritual energy meridians. As mentioned before, both Tasier and Lofa came from wealthy backgrounds, so their elder had long since sent the spirit stones that they needed. Thanks to that, the two of them have already been able to evolve their meridians into the Elemental ones. As a water element user, Lofa obviously had a transparent Elemental Meridians, just like Shinja. As for Tasier, his race has both high affinity with lightning and wind. So his Elemental Meridians were a mix of Lightning Blue and Air Pale Blue. There were also a few spots representing his control of the Metal Element as well. Different from Ao and the others, they had the chance to enter the Spiritual Pool. During this time, Tasier was able to reach the peak of the second stage while Lofa was somewhere in the middle. One must remember that until a little time ago, they didn''t have the Myriad Energies Meridians. It was thanks to the pool that they were able to keep more or less at Ao''s group level. As for Feifei and Krune, they would now and then find a time where both are free. Sometimes Feifei couldn''t slip by the grand elder, so she had to drag the other guys from the Wang Clan territory around. But the times that she succeed, she would almost always spend it at Krune''s side. --- Finally, four days later, Elres put his tools away and took a deep breath. Krune''s 38 Peak 9 Silver Stars Hexagonal Flying Shields were completed! Elres then passed the last one to Krune, who received it with his eyes shining! "Thank you, Senior Elres." Elres shook his head and said. "That''s the rule of the Sect, the first equipment is always free as long as it is not at the Golden Stars Level. Since you provided the Golden Stars Material, the crafting was free anyway. Besides, we blacksmiths, also get paid for the job that we do here. I reckon that I will get quite a nice reward from crafting those shields with Golden Star Materials too." Krune nodded, but he still felt gratitude anyway. He could tell that every single shield was like a piece of art. It was evident that Elres really did his best at making them. Elres looked at Krune and commented. "During the time that we were doing your shields, your proficiency at making the Divine Imprints increase with every single one. With your talent, I believe that you won''t take more than 3 or 4 months to reach the Six Silver Stars level." Krune nodded and said. "That is more or less what I think too. But I won''t practice blacksmith for the time being. I''ve noticed that my rate of improvement in the occupation is also linked to the level of my cultivation. So the higher my realm, the easier it is to improve. After I come back from the missions in the dimensional realms, I will spend my time cultivating and doing other missions to gather merit points. I also plan to go back to alchemy and formations during that time, too, so that I can make them catch up with my forging skills." Elres didn''t know what to say anymore. Doesn''t that mean that Krune will also become a Silver Stars Alchemist and Formations Master? But then again, with Krune''s talent for side occupations, it might really be possible. No, if he puts the effort, Elres is sure that he definitely can do it! "Anyway. After you come back form the dimensional realm, make sure to drop by. This is the first time I made a Silver Stars Equipment using Golden Stars Materials. Although, in theory, it should work even better, I want to check again and hear about your experiences with the Equipment Set." Krune nodded. "No problem. For now, I''m going back to practice using them a little. If I see anything strange before I depart, I will make sure to drop by to ask your opinion too." Elres nodded, and they bid their farewells. While Krune was going back to his residence, he decided to tell his Master that his shields were also completed. Immediately after, his Master sent a reply. "Good. In that case, come to my home. You haven''t received any lesson or had the chance to practice at all during your time in the Blacksmith Hall. I will give you some help and check your condition before you leave for the Dimension Realm." Krune''s eyes immediately lit up after hearing that. If there is one thing he wants at the moment, that is to test the power of his shields against someone who he doesn''t need to be afraid of hurting. After taking a few teleport formations, Krune finally arrived at the Sect Master''s house. Lucio noticed his presence and sent a Divine Sense message from inside. "Come in, I''m in the pocket dimension." After arriving there, Krune noticed that other than Lucio, there was someone else that he had never seen before. But for some reason, he felt some familiarity with the man''s aura. Lucio then came forward and introduced the man. "This person here is my Master, Lani Gobel." Krune was taken aback by those words. If he is the old geezer''s Master, that also means that he is his Grandmaster! No, first of all, the old geezer is already that powerful inside the Divine Path Sect territory. Then, just how strong is the man in front of him now? "Are you really the old geezer''s Master?" As expected of the wisp who doesn''t care about status, he still didn''t give his Master any face at all! Lucio''s mouth twitched when he heard that. "It seems like there is a wisp here in need of a beating. Good, good!" Krune didn''t care, though. "Hmph! Knowing you, I reckon that it is very possible that you are trying to pull my leg. Don''t think that I will fall for your tricks all the time, old geezer." Lucio was feeling helpless. That really is his Master. He wanted to brag about how talented his first disciple is. Still, it turned out that he is being humiliated like that. But then again, it was his mistake to not think about such a possibility. Lani, who was hearing everything from the side, suddenly laughed. "Hahaha! No wonder you took him as a disciple. Now then, aren''t the two of you just made for each other? If you two swapped your souls, even I would have some difficulty to notice the change." Lucio heard that and felt embarrassed. Lani then came forward and extended his hand. "Hello there, kid. I''m your idiot Master''s Master, or your Grandmaster if you prefer. I have to say that you are exactly as I thought you would be." Since the man was being polite, Krune obviously followed suit and shook his hand. "I''m Krune, the wisp that was forced to become the old geezer''s disciple, or your grand disciple if you prefer." Lani nodded, satisfied. "Don''t blame him too much. You might not know this, but this Lucio now is already excellent. You definitely wouldn''t want to meet that young boy from 50 thousand years ago." Lucio was feeling like crying. "Master!" Lani looked at Lucio and said. "Shut up! I''m not saying any lies here. Besides, you will have the chance to do the same with your disciple''s disciples." Lucio sighed and just shook his head. Krune, on the other hand, got an amazingly good first impression of this man. "Grandmaster, I think we are going to get along very well." Lani nodded and then said. "Alright, I already helped you get back at him a little. Let''s go back into the business." Lani then retreated and let Lucio do the talk. "Cough, cough. Anyway, Master was curious about the fact that I finally got a disciple, so he came to check on you. We will go through the things that you learned and then do some battle practice to check this new Flying Shields of yours." Krune nodded and then immediately started to do what Lucio was asking. "Let me check your improvement with the Elemental Regulation Technique." Krune then sent a line of spiritual energy forward. Lucio looked at that and nodded. "Good. I can see that you are getting close to the middle stage of the technique." Lani was also looked at that and couldn''t help but give some praise in his mind. Lucio was already very good back then when he passed this technique to him, but Krune proved to be even better at that. Krune then spent the next days practicing and listening to his Master''s words. Finally, Lucio told Krune. "Alright, that is enough for now, you just need to digest everything you learned. For now, let''s move into some combat practice. I want to see just how good you became with your flying shields." Krune was ecstatic. The time that he had been waiting for was here! 188 Tribulation Calamity! Lucio looked at Krune and laughed. "This time, I won''t just stay put receiving your attacks. It would be of no use, after all. But don''t worry, I won''t hurt you... much." Krune didn''t care. In fact, it would be even better! Krune then changed back to his wisp form and immediately took his 38 Shields out. They started to orbit around Krune at high speeds, and one could see each one with a different Element. Krune, of course, immediately took distance. He has never been a close combat fighter. After that, 30 of his Shields separated from him and moved in Lucio''s way in various directions. "Tribulation Thunder Line!" Immediately, the Lightning Element plus Tribulation Lightning hit the closest shields, and from there, it followed to another one around Lucio. Thunder line was supposed to be a straight-line attack, but thanks to Krune''s flying shields positions, the attacks can change route and confuse the enemy. That made it very difficult to know which Shield would be the one to send the attack. Lucio saw that and snorted. As soon as the thunder line was about to hit him from the side, Lucio raised his hand as if he was going to block it. Krune saw that and wanted to smile. Unfortunately or not, his wisp form doesn''t have a face to start with. Just as the attack was about to be blocked, something unexpected happened. The Tribulation Thunder Line was supposed to move in a straight line after leaving a Shield, but surprisingly, it made a curve! Lucio didn''t have time to adjust, and the attack passed right through his defense. Sure enough, Lucio was hit! Right after, several other Tribulation Thunder Lines hit at the same time. "That''s what you get for looking down on me, old geezer!" But suddenly, Krune heard a voice behind him. "Is that so?" Krune was startled and only had enough time to reposition the 8 Shields that he left behind for his protection. Boom! His shield wall was struck by a powerful fire-lightning attack and was sent back against Krune. He did his best to stop the incoming shields, but they still hit him and sent his core flying back. Krune was confused for a second, but when he looked in the direction where his Tribulation Thunder Line hit Lucio, he noticed a congregation of spiritual energy dissipating. Immediately, Krune understood what was happening. ''That wasn''t the old geezer from the very start, it was nothing more than a spiritual energy clone! His one is also a lot better than the Elemental Ones that I and the others used in the past. Even after hitting it, I didn''t notice any difference until it started to dissipate.'' But Krune wasn''t sad. If anything, he was excited! ''I guess I know how it works, I will try to do that later as well.'' Lucio didn''t continue his attack after the first hit. He only looked at Krune and said. Only now did Krune pay attention to his Master. That was right, he could feel that Lucio''s cultivation was the same as his. "Hmph! Practice makes perfect, it won''t work twice!" Krune then controlled his Shields and started to attack again. This time, he only sent half of his shields out while he kept the other half with him. Lucio didn''t try to block Krune, he only dodged while approaching him at high speeds. But that made Krune amazed! After all, Krune is using his Tribulation Lightning movement at 80% of the power. But his Master, with the same cultivation and without the Tribulation Lightning, was even faster than him! ''How''s that possible?!'' Lucio then started his attacks. "Lighting Palm." "Azure Dragons." "Meteor Shower." While using several attacks of various elements, Lucio still looked calm and composed. Krune, on the other hand, was doing his best to simply keep himself in the combat. Still, he was getting even more excited! Every movement, attack, defense, control, and everything else was helping him to comprehend his own shortcomings. Lucio was always striking where it hurts, but Krune was taking it all! Of course, Krune hadn''t forgotten his objective of giving his Master the taste of one of his attacks. After a few more exchanges, Lucio once more found an opening in Krune''s defense and immediately charged in. Krune noticed that I tried to retract his Shields, but it was too late. "Haha! You fell for it, old geezer!" Just as Lucio was about to hit Krune, he suddenly noticed the power of the Tribulation Lightning, Water, and Fire congregating around Krune! ''Oh! Is it that Tribulation Fire Attack?'' If Lucio wanted, he obviously could leave the perimeter. But at the moment, he is pretending to be at Krune''s level, so he couldn''t do so. It only took a split of a second for Krune''s attack to be ready. It shows how much smooth his control over the Tribulation Lightning had become after the final impurities cleaning. The Shields that Krune pretended to retract to defend himself then took their position, making it look something like a dome around the two of them. "Tribulation Calamity!" From Krune''s body, Tribulation Lightning shot everywhere! But they all had a target, which was the Flying Shields! At the same time, the Water Element and Fire Element covered the entire dome as well. The Tribulation Lightning, which was being reflected everywhere by the Flying Shields, then ignited the elements. Soon, the whole ''dome'' was filled with Tribulation Lightning and Purple Flames! Not only that, Krune also used Wind Element to fuel the Purple Fire, turning the attack even more fearsome! If you consider the power alone, this attack was at least 3 to 4 times more potent than the one Krune used against Wang Ting! The best thing is that even though Krune is right in the middle, he is confident enough to move freely without being hit by his own attack. If someone could see inside, they would notice a tiny space void of both Tribulation Lightning and Purple Flames. It was just big enough to hold a core, or better, a wisp core! The attack used too much power, and maintaining it put a heavy burden on Krune. Because of that, the attack stopped just three seconds later. The power of Tribulation Lightning ceased, and the purple flames disappeared right after. One could only see the small sparks and of lightning and flames here and there, which would soon disappear too. Krune then looked at the spot where his Master was, and his mouth twitched. Lucio was glued at the same place while looking at Krune with a smile. Around him, one could see the Water and Earth Element forming something like a barrier. Those were the two elements best suited to deal with Krune''s power, and sure enough, that''s what Lucio did. Lucio might be at the same cultivation level as Krune. Still, his understanding of the Elements wasn''t something that Krune could match at the moment. Not to mention that he has already comprehended laws. Thanks to that, he was still able to defend himself against Krune''s attacks. "Not bad, not bad. This attack just now. If I was an ordinary early-stage Divine Soul Realm cultivation, even I would have been hurt by this attack of yours. Also, the fact that you were able to keep it hidden until the last second is commendable. You didn''t let you Master down." Krune then returned to his human form and put his clothes on. He knew that the battle was over at that point. "Sigh. Old geezer, couldn''t you let me hit you just a little? It could have boosted my morale a lot if you had, you know?" Lucio immediately retorted. "Boost your morale your head! I just said that this attack could even hurt an early stage Divine Soul Realm! Can I boost your confidence more than that?" Krune, of course, was happy to know that his trump card was this strong. But his objective of giving his Master a beating seems to still be far, far away. Lani, who watched everything from the side, was still smiling as if nothing had happened. But inside, he was totally different. ''What kind of monster did my disciple find? Even that Myriad Energies Technique couldn''t make Krune this powerful! Is it because of that improved Elemental Core that he told me? No! The improved Elemental Core indeed plays a big role in this issue. But most likely, it is the fact that both the Elemental Core and the Elemental Meridians complement each other. They are just way too much suited for each other.'' Lani continued to ponder. ''Also, that Tribulation Lightning that he uses seems somewhat different. I''ve seen a lot of cultivators and demon beasts using it before, but Krune is by far the one with the best control over it at his realm. Not to mention that it is a lot more powerful too! Is it because of those impurities cleaning that it turned out like that? I''ve seen a lot of Tribulation Lightning users using the Heavenly Tribulation to increase their Tribulation Power. But I''ve never heard about anyone using it for cleaning the already existent one.'' In the end, Lani got to a conclusion. ''There is no doubt, he is not just fortunate, his talent is also far higher than those around his level. The fact that he was able to find about the Myriad Energies Technique real form and even create the Myriad Wisps Technique is the best proof of that. I still think that he has some secret that he hadn''t told Lucio. But who doesn''t have a secret or two in the cultivation world? My disciple really found a gem this time.'' Lucio, of course, had passed a copy of the Myriad Energy Technique to his Master. So Lani already got a grasp of how the technique worked. Lucio was still discussing with Krune about their battle when suddenly, Lani came forward to talk. "Alright. I''ve seen everything, and I can say that I''m very satisfied. Krune, you will be entering the Dimensional Realm to train with the others in a few days. But don''t let your guard down. Even though you have this trump card, it is evidently not something you can use all the time. I reckon that your combat power is somewhere close to the others at the moment. Of course, except for those with Major Cores. Feifei, Uriu Orion, and Hulibe Acrol have them. So they are definitely stronger than you at the moment." Krune nodded. His Master had already told him that against other Major Core owners, he would jump only two or three levels to fight. With the addition of his peak Nine Silver Stars shields, he might be able to skip one more realm stage, though. But the three mentioned are all at the late stages of the same realm as him. Krune had never been overconfident, and he definitely wouldn''t start now. Lani also nodded and said. 189 Cilia Lucio heard that and couldn''t help but comment. "But Master, he has advanced two stages in just half a year, isn''t it too fast? Although the Spiritual Pool left has the power to leave no side effects, I still think that we should give him time to adapt to each stage." Lani heard that and shook his head. "It will be fine. Krune''s comprehension is far above yours or mine when we were at his age. You should be able to tell that after this last fight, no?" Lucio nodded. Krune was listening to them and said. "To be honest, I think Master isn''t totally wrong. I spent a lot of these months in the Blacksmith Hall, so I had little time to adapt to anything else at my level." Lani then shook his head. "Don''t worry. I could judge by the battle just now that you are fine. Although there are indeed places to improve, you are already far above those at your level. Anyway, I''m only doing it because you are leaving for the training in a few days. Otherwise, I would just let you cultivate slowly." Krune said nothing more after that. Lani then teleported Krune to his personal pocket dimension, and there, one could see another spiritual pool. Krune then understood why Lani wasn''t afraid to affect his foundation. It turns out that his Grandmaster has a Spiritual Pool of his own! Lani looked at Krune and said. "Alright, you can go in. This pool is a lot more concentrated than the one that was used by you before. So be prepared for an enormous flux of Spiritual Energy. Still, from what I could see, you should be able to hold it." Krune then asked Lani. "But if I use this pool, won''t it get worse for you later?" Lani laughed after that. "You are wrong here. I don''t have use for this pool anymore. At my level, this kind of help is unnecessary. The only reason that I have one is that I let some spiritual fishes growing inside." Krune was taken aback! He then looked at Lucio and asked. "Wasn''t this thing supposed to be expensive to maintain?" Lucio just shuddered his shoulders. "It is, but Master definitely doesn''t have problems with money, I can guarantee you that. Just wait until you see what he gives to his pets. I reckon it will make you feel like crying." Krune decided to not ask anymore. This is too much extravagance for his little heart. Lani, of course, was hearing them talking on the side. "Shut up! Now, go inside before I change my mind." Krune opened all his 9 Elemental Meridians at pull power, and soon, one could see a Whirlpool of Spiritual Energy rushing at him. Lani looked at that and was once again surprised. That rate of absorption of spiritual energy is even higher than he expected! He looked at Lucio and said. "The others using these Elemental Meridians, are they all like Krune?" Lucio shook his head. "They aren''t as good as him. Of course, from what I could see, they are still a lot better than those with common cultivation techniques. The main advantage is still the instant conversion of Spiritual Energy into Elemental Source Energy. It saves a lot of effort, after all." Lani then pondered a bit. "You also have an Elemental Major Core. Cultivate it until you transform the Spiritual Energy Meridians into Elemental Meridians, and see if you can replicate Krune''s state." Lucio understood and immediately took the technique out. Uncle Feng was able to do it all in a single day. As for Lucio, his cultivation was, in fact, quite a few stages higher than Feng, so he was even faster! A few hours later, Lucio took a deep breath and opened his eyes. He then opened his new Elemental Meridians. Lucio entered the Pool that Krune was cultivating and suppressed his cultivation to the 3rd stage of the Core Formation Realm. After that, he started to cultivate. Just like Krune, his Elemental Meridians were quite colorful. In fact, there were even a few more colors, like Dark, White, Silver, etc. He then cultivated for a few minutes, and his eyes narrowed. Lucio left the Spiritual Pool and returned to his Master''s side. "No can do, I can''t get to absorb the same amount as him." Lani heard that and nodded. "No problem. I was already expecting this much. There is something... extra about Krune Elemental Meridians that yours don''t have. But this is just a feeling. I don''t really know what it is." Lani then laughed a little. "Anyway. This is also good! Anything that can help my Divine Path Sect is always welcome." Lucio nodded and then left right after. Even though he is like that, he is still the Sect Master, so Lucio had more things to take care of. Time passed, and soon, 8 days went by. Krune finally reached the 4th stage door and immediately started to build up energy to make the breakthrough. Thanks to the cultivation resources used in the Spiritual Pool, Krune didn''t have to be afraid of getting a shaky foundation due to the high speed of cultivation. Sure enough, Krune entered the 4th stage without any issues. He then took a deep breath and started to stabilize his cultivation. After he finished, Krune looked around but couldn''t see his Master or Grandmaster anywhere. He was puzzled but decided to ignore it for now. He still has another two or three days before leaving, so it is better to use this time to further stabilize his cultivation in the pool. As expected, Krune received a message in his communicator two days later. It said that all those who are part of the program should gather at the Spaceship Port the next day morning. Krune saw that message and decided to leave the pool for now. He looked around but still couldn''t see any of the two guys anywhere. "Well, I guess I will just leave and send a message to Master later." But soon, Krune noticed a problem. "Errr... where is the exit?" The one who had brought Krune inside this place was Lucio and Lani. Not to mention that they came inside through teleportation. Krune walked around but could not find anything like a teleport formation or an exit door. "Let me call Master." Krune still hasn''t got his Grandmaster''s number, so he could only rely on his Master at the moment. Unfortunately, Lucio wasn''t answering at all. "That old geezer, as unreliable as ever!" But then Krune got puzzled. "Just how am I going to leave this place?" Krune was in doubt. Logic said that he should just stay put and wait for his Master or Grandmaster to be back. But he only has until tomorrow to appear at the Spaceship Port, so what if none of those two appear until there? "I will wait here for a few hours. If none of them appear until there, I will leave and look for an exit." Seconds turned into minutes, minutes, into hours, but still, there was no sign of anyone. Krune had tried to call his Master several times, but Lucio was never available. Calling anyone else would be of no use since this is one of the Sect''s Ancestor''s place. They definitely wouldn''t be able to get information about it. Krune was starting to get nervous since he was supposed to go to the Spaceship Port already. "Forget it, I will leave a message here and start looking for an exit." After leaving a few words behind, Krune spread his Divine Sense to its max range, but couldn''t see anything else other than the Spiritual Pool and the fishes inside. "This pocket dimension is also enormous, and it might be even bigger than Master''s." Since he couldn''t find anything, Krune randomly chose a direction and dashed forward. Using Tribulation Lightning for movement had already become a habit, so Krune, in his human form, used it straight away. Still, another issue appeared. Even after moving in several directions for an entire hour, Krune still couldn''t find an exit. In fact, he couldn''t find anything at all! "Why do they have to make things this big? Does Grandmaster really need all this apace?" Finally, around two hours later, Krune eyes lit up! He could see a building entering his Divine Sense. "It was about time already." Krune isn''t afraid of his Grandmaster not finding him. As the owner of a pocket dimension himself, he knows very well that it is possible to feel the presence of every single being inside it. That meant that his Grandmaster would be able to find him anytime he wanted once he is back. After flying a little, Krune finally could see the place with his own eyes. That building was more like a tower instead. Krune tried to check inside with his Divine Sense, but that tower obviously had some formations that prevented it. "Hum... Should I enter it? I don''t want to be like a certain Sect Master who enters the others'' houses without permission." Suddenly, Light Spirit talked with Krune. "That place, there is something familiar inside." Krune was taken aback! "Familiar? But haven''t you been imprisoned for ages? How come there is something from your time here?" Light Spirit answered. "I don''t know. I just feel a familiar type of energy, but I can''t remember what it is." Krune pondered a bit if he should enter or not. After all, it was evident that this place wasn''t simple. Suddenly, Krune and Light Spirit heard a voice coming from the tower. "This presence... Luvile, you rascal, is that you?" Light Spirit then felt like the most terrifying thing of the universe appeared right in front of him! "Pretend that you don''t know anything. Doesn''t matter what, you don''t know me, understood?" Light Spirit then hid his presence as much as possible and let Krune do the talk. Krune, of course, was as puzzled as ever. Still, he decided to do as Light Spirit did. "Errr... Sorry. My name is Krune, not Luvile." The being inside felt puzzled for a second, but suddenly, it snorted. "Oh, I see. That''s my bad. In that case, there is no problem in me talking about a certain Lightning Kid and his ''interesting'' experiences from a long time ago." Light Spirit, who was pretending to not be there, immediately jolted up like a cat who had its tail stepped on! Suddenly, Light Spirit''s voice projected outside. 190 More Questions. "Hmph! Is that how you treat your Dao Companion? Trying to hide your presence so that I can''t tell that it was you?" Light Spirit knew that it was a trap for him to fall, but he couldn''t let Cilia open her mouth. "Sigh. That was a long time ago, you know very well that we aren''t as we were before anymore. Cilia went silent for a few seconds. "What happened with our Taliu?" That was the reason that Light Spirit didn''t want to appear, but he knew that he should give her an answer now. "He failed." Krune felt like the voice inside the tower trembled a little. "I see... Was it because-" Before she could finish her question, Light Spirit cut her. "Yes, it was." Cilia went silent again and then said. "Anyway, let''s go back to business. What happened to you?" Light Spirit then answered. "I was imprisoned, and my Tribulation Lightning power stolen. It is now used by the old villainous heavens as a trial for those who cultivate." Cilia didn''t seem surprised by that. "I see, just as I expected. How come you would allow it to be used for something like that? Back then, you were the only one able to use it, after all. Light Spirit confirmed and then asked. "What about you? What are you doing inside this tower? Also, how come you are here in the Divine Path Sect?" Cilia then said. "My body was destroyed. This tower is what prevents my soul from dissipating. As for the Divine Path Sect, I made a deal with its founder, so I''m acting as a protector of some sort." Light Spirit was taken aback. "Acting as protector? Does it mean that you recovered your power?!" Cilia answered. "Not really. I do have the power to protect this Sect, but I''m not even close to what I was in the past. Also, it is not that I recovered it, but that I was able to prevent some of it from dissipating." Light Spirit immediately got disappointed. "I see... Still, that is also good. If you are strong enough to protect a Sect of this size, you probably have a long time ahead of you." "By the way. What is the deal that you made with the founder of this Sect?" Cilia sighed after hearing that. "I need a body, but to find one compatible with my Soul is as hard as finding a specific drop of water in the ocean." It was then that Cilia noticed something. "Wait! Since you also lost your body, you should be in the same situation as me. How come you are sharing this kid''s body? Is his body compatible with you?" Krune heard that and felt alarmed, but right after, Light Spirit started to laugh. "Hahaha! Compatible? Are you kidding me? Put some effort there and look at what race he is from before saying such baseless things." "What?! A wisp?!" Cilia sighed and said. "Now, I understand. Indeed, it would be impossible for someone like you to ever posses a wisp body. Still, what are you doing there? How did you enter someone else''s core?" Light Spirit said. "You are looking down on me way too much. Did you forget who I am? Tribulation Lightning is my power, and I can use it for several other things other than just attacking." Cilia felt like she was enlightened! "Haha! You scoundrel! Only you would try something as crazy as using Tribulation Lightning Source to hold your soul. I''m even more impressed that you didn''t die during the process. Still, why did you chose a wisp? That makes no sense." Light Spirit then sighed. "It''s not like I could choose, you know? You just said it yourself, trying to use my Tribulation Lightning Source to hold my soul was a dangerous attempt. After I escaped my imprisonment, I only had time to use the old villainous heavens'' Tribulation Lightning power to scan those who were going through their Heavenly Tribulation. Then I selected someone who had low cultivation to prevent myself from being detected by the target. In the end, Krune was the lucky one!" Krune had heard before from Light Spirit that he was selected by coincidence, and it seemed that it was really the case. Cilian then asked. "Do you have a way to recover?" Light Spirit immediately answered with confidence. "Yes! In fact, I have already recovered a tiny bit of my power. But my rate of recovering is determined according to Krune''s cultivation level. The higher his realm, the faster my rate of recovery will be. Still, I''m not sure when I can leave his body by myself. But I''m different from you, I lost my body, but it hasn''t been destroyed. It is still there, locked by this universe heavens, and I will do everything to take it back!" Cilia felt happy for Light Spirit. "That is good. Nothing is better than having your own body instead of taking someone else''s." Cilia then thought about another thing. "About our Taliu, can you enter the-" Light Spirit once more cut her in the middle. "I can''t, I''m not at a level where I can do it at the moment. Besides, it has been way too long. Finding Taliu might be even harder than it is for you to find a compatible body." Cilia then didn''t touch the topic anymore. She was about to ask something else when suddenly, she stopped. "Lani is back. We will talk about it another time." Light Spirit understood that she didn''t want to reveal his presence and immediately went silent as well. A few seconds later, Lani appeared just beside Krune. He then stepped forward and bowed to the tower. "Senior Cilia, sorry for not stopping my grand disciple from coming to your place." Cilia heard that and then laughed. "Hahaha! There is no problem at all. Still, I heard that he is Lucio''s disciple? I didn''t expect that that brat would get a disciple in the end. He was always against it, after all. But look at it now. Not only he got one, but it is also a wisp." Cilia then looked at Krune from inside the tower and said. "Kid, don''t misunderstand me. I''m not looking down on the fact that you are a wisp. In fact, I can feel your enormous talent. As long as you reach the Divine Path Realm, you won''t need to care about Life Span anymore. Since Lucio chose you, I''m pretty sure that you have what is needed to get there." Lani was surprised that Protector Cilia seemed to like Krune this much, but he didn''t ask why is that. Krune didn''t mind, though. "It''s okay. I know very well about my own capabilities. Although the majority might think little about me because of my life span, I''m confident to cultivate fast enough to surpass it. In fact, I''m just 11 years old. But look at me now, 4th stage of the Core Formation Realm. I still have 29 years before running out of life span. Of course, I won''t relax just because of that. I will do my best to make the disparity between my remaining time and my cultivation to be further and further away." Cilia laughed again. "Good, you can go now. I''m someone from too long ago, so nothing that I know can help you with the actual universe cultivation system. Still, I''m looking forward to seeing how far you can go." Lani then looked at Krune and said. "Alright, the other participants of the Program are already at the Spaceship, only waiting for you. I will bring you there now." Krune nodded and bid farewell to Cilia. Once he gets some time alone, he will make his question to Light Spirit. Cilia then said before they left. "Lani brat, bring him back here once he enters the Divine Soul Realm. I think I have something good that just so happens to be of some help for a race like the wisps." Lani was once again taken aback but nodded nonetheless. "Yes, protector." Lani then touched Krune''s shoulder, and both of them teleported away. Cilia looked at the spot where they disappeared and laughed a little before thinking. ''Well, that was a lie, though. How could I have anything good for wisps? I just want to check on Luvile''s progress when that time comes. Sorry for that, Lani brat.'' A second later, a flash of silver light appeared in the room where the participants of the Program were staying. Right after that, Krune appeared there alone. In fact, it was already a room inside of the Spaceship that they were going to use. Lani explained to Krune that he is one of the ancestors of the Sect, so he couldn''t appear that easy. It seemed to have something to do with the Sect''s face. Krune, of course, didn''t care about those things. ''It''s probably one more of those useless habits of humans.'' Feifei noticed Krune appearing and sent him a Divine Sense message asking why he was late. Krune couldn''t speak about Light Spirit or Cilia, so he just told the part where his Grandmaster helped him to enter the 4th stage. Only then did Feifei notice that Krune really had jumped one more level, which made her happy for him. Suddenly, an old man entered the room and introduced himself. "Hello, everyone. I''m Ramon Gonie, and I will be overseeing the dimensional realms this time around. As I believe all of you already know, the dimensional realms were selected considering the overall strength of your groups. So deaths are well within the possibilities. I ask you to not take it lightly." He then looked at Tasier, Lofa, and another three participants of the Program. "As for you five, you will be sent into another Dimensional Realm. Simply put, your strengths are not enough to enter the same one as the others. It would be suicide, and you would only hold your friends back. But don''t misunderstand. The other Dimensional Realm will present around the same amount of danger as the first one at your cultivation realms." Tasier didn''t mind that. He knows very well that with the difference in strength between him and Krune, he would really only hold him back if he stayed by his side. Instead, he is delighted that the Sect prepared a second Dimensional Realm that will give the same amount of danger for his cultivation level. Lofa, of course, felt a little affected by the fact that Krune would be going together with Feifei. But she had already made her mind to not meddle between them anymore, so she stayed silent. Suddenly, Tasier touched her shoulder. "Forget it for now, and focus on the mission! If you hold me back, I will kick you out and proceed alone." Lofa''s mouth twitched. "Who will hold you back, idiot bird? It will probably be thanks to my support that you will survive, don''t forget it!" Tasier just laughed after hearing that. "Good! I''m looking forward to seeing you keep your words." 191 On the way The Spaceship departed while Ramon Gonie was explaining the rules. "This dimensional realm exploration is also considered a mission, so everyone here will get merit points once it is concluded. For those who came from the other powers, make sure to exchange the points for the things you like before the end of the program. The number of merit points is determined according to how far inside you can reach." Roman continued. "Due to the instability of those realms, the highest cultivation allowed inside is the Divine Soul Realm. That means that no elder will be able to accompany you there this time. This is also the reason why we selected those places since its limitation in cultivation is also applied to all living beings inside." "As for the groups, you can decide for yourselves if you are moving together or alone. All that matters is your accomplishments. If you think that you can do better alone, by all means, go ahead and try it. We are not going to intervene with anything that happens inside." "Each of you will receive a Runestone Formation that can be used only once to leave the place. But don''t misunderstand it. This is supposed to be a trial to check your survival abilities and improve your potential through Life and Death situations. There are only two ways to activate this Runestone. The first one is to reach the Inner Core region. The second one is to wait for the 6 months of the realm aperture to be over." "Of course, once you get to the inner core region, you can select to go further and hone your skills even more. But don''t forget, Divine Soul is the limit but also the realm of the most dangerous things in there. So don''t overestimate your own abilities." "Finally, we have no idea what you might find inside. We just made sure that the dimension is stable and won''t collapse anytime soon. We did send a few Divine Soul Cultivators to take a look, but we made sure that they would not leave the outer perimeter. They basically entered just to see if the place was suitable for training or not. Also, the elders will stay guard outside in case something happens to the dimension." "Alright, that''s basically everything you need to know. We should arrive at the first dimension in three days while the second one is a week away. The first dimension is for the low realm team to enter." Feifei was just about to send a Divine Sense message to Krune when suddenly, the guys from the Wang Clan flocked around her. Wang Mo was the first one to talk. "Feifei, let''s go together. I''m the strongest between everyone from our Wang Clan territory, so I''m confident that I can keep both of us safe." Wang Ting didn''t lose this chance either. "Hmph! Isn''t that the same as saying that Feifei is weak and can''t defend herself? Feifei, I might not be the strongest, but I know that you aren''t as weak as Mo is saying. What about we work together?" Hearing all of that was making Feifei feel a headache already. Suddenly, she heard a Divine Sense message from Krune. "Would it be a problem if you leave them behind after entering the Dimensional Realm?" Feifei immediately answered. "The grand elder will definitely complain after I return, but other than that, it is okay." Krune then said. "Then let''s go together. I want to see if our combined strength will work fine. It''s also an excellent opportunity to see if something different will happen due to our different Major Cores." That was what Feifei wanted too, but there was a problem. "Those guys around me definitely won''t leave me alone. Not to mention that the grand elder probably told them to keep an eye on me all the time. Also, it is evident that the Divine Path Sect disciples intend to follow you too." Krune, Tasier, and Lofa, obviously weren''t the only members of the Sect in this program. In fact, the Sect had sent its own disciples this time around, so they had a total of five more Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beasts. They decided that the safest way was to follow Krune since they saw his battle against Wang Ting. Krune then smiled and said. "That is not a problem. Once we are inside, just grab my hand and leave the rest to me!" Feifei understood what Krune was going to do and couldn''t help but laugh a little. The guys around her heard that and were puzzled about what she found so funny. Feifei noticed that and said. "Oh, sorry. It''s just that this situation reminded me of something else. Anyway, you guys do as you wish, and I will do the same." They didn''t know what she meant with that. Still, they had indeed received the grand elder order to have one of them staying close to her. So whether she wanted or not, at least one of them would follow Feifei around. All this discussion was to see who it would be. Feifei, of course, just ignored them and left. --- Everyone had their own rooms in the Spaceship. When Krune finally got some time alone, he immediately asked Light Spirit about what happened back in the Sect. "So, what is this thing about Luvile. Is this your real name?" Light Spirit was already expecting him to ask that. "It was a long time ago. Now, only someone like Cilia would remember that." Krune then thought about the Dao Companion thing. "Was she your wife? As for Taliu, was he your son?" Light Spirit then answered. "Sorry, but I don''t want to talk about that." Krune didn''t force the issue, it was evident that something happened with Taliu. If Krune wasn''t wrong, he didn''t survive. Krune doesn''t have a child, but he considers Lakin as one, so he understood that it wasn''t his place to ask what happened. "Leaving that behind, what is that thing about your body being imprisoned ?" Light Spirit went silent for a little while and then said. "It is as you heard, my real body is imprisoned at the moment, and I intend to take it back. But there is no point in us discussing it now. After all, it is not like you can do anything with your power. Wait for the day you reach the peak of the Divinity Realm, and then we can talk." Krune sweated a little. The peak of the Divinity Realm? Just how long will it take? Light Spirit then commented. "Anyway. It is not like you aren''t getting anything good for sharing your core with me, so it is a good trade. I''m recovering my power while you are getting to use the Tribulation Lightning." Krune had to admit that Light Spirit is right, but he still had more questions, though. "Can you tell me this time who you were and what happened?" Light Spirit pondered a bit. There was a time he wanted to talk more. Still, Krune''s Spiritual Energy Meridians acted on behalf of someone to send him a warning. So he wasn''t able to say anything about the past at that time. "Well..." Just as Light Spirit was about to say something, Krune''s Elemental Meridians once more acted on their own. Much for Krune''s surprise. This is the second time it happened just when Light Spirit was about to talk. Light Spirit knew that it was the same warning from back then and said. "Your IQ is very high, so you probably noticed this time, right?" Indeed, Krune might have low EQ, but his intelligence is definitely not the same. For his Meridians to act by themselves two times and exactly when Light Spirit was talking. It was evident that they were the reason that Light Spirit couldn''t say anything. But that made Krune somewhat alarmed. Does that mean that his meridians are under the control of someone else? "This... Are they not my meridians?" Light Spirit then said. "They are, it''s just that they are also acting as an intermediate between me and whoever wants me to not say anything. Try to force them to calm down. At your level at the moment, I don''t believe that your meridians will answer to anyone else''s call." Krune tried to do as Light Spirit said, and sure enough, Krune soon took back the control of his Meridians. It made Krune sigh in relief. At least, it seems like he can prevent them from obeying the other part. "It is as you said. As soon as I tried to take the control back, they immediately answered my call." Light Spirit wasn''t surprised, though. "I can tell you this much. The other side is as strong as I was back then. So I can''t simply ignore his existence. Anyway, it is not like whatever happened back then would change anything for you now. When the time comes, I believe that the other part will tell you of his own volution. After all, you probably noticed no malicious intention, right?" Krune nodded. When he tried to take control of his meridians back, he felt like the other part to be somewhat... gentle. As if it was a good thing. Still, Krune couldn''t help but think about who it was. It was then that he had an idea. "Someone who can control my Elemental Meridians from a distance as long as I allow it. Who else could it be if not the creator of the Myriad Energies Technique?" Light Spirit laughed. "Indeed. I also reached the same conclusion as you a long time ago." 192 Movemen Three days later, Krune bid farewell to Tasier and Lofa. They were part of the low-level Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beasts that are entering a different Dimensional Realm. Before leaving, Lofa gave one last look in Krune''s direction and showed a determined face. ''This is the last time I look behind.'' She then moved out with the elders who were staying in this dimensional realm. Krune and Feifei had no chance to spend some time together. Ever since they entered the Spaceship, the guys from the Wand Clan would keep a close watch to see when Feifei was free or not. So Krune and Feifei could only bear with it and use video calls to talk. Four days later, they finally arrived at the Dimensional Realm for the high-level Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beasts. Ramon Gonie looked at the spatial gate in front of them that was being maintained by the Elders of the Sect and said. "This is the Dimensional Realm. It was discovered around three years ago and soon categorized as a training realm. You are the first batch to enter it since it was found, so be ready for anything. Of course, as I said before, a few Divine Soul Realm cultivators and demon beasts entered previously to check the outer perimeter, but that was all. We won''t tell you anything about that either." Ramon then took out several Runestones and gave them to everyone. "These are the Runestone Teleport Formations that I told you before, so make sure to keep them safe." Ramon looked at the elders at the Spatial Gate and nodded to them. Immediately after, the gate expended, and one could now pass through without any problems. "Alright. If you don''t have any questions, you can go in now." No one delayed their stay and entered the gate. As soon as they touched it, their bodies disappeared. Ramon looked at that and nodded. From now on, he would stay outside waiting for them. --- At the same time, in the Central Region. Here, there is a planet considered as a forbidden ground for almost everyone who lives in this Central part of the universe. That''s because it is controlled by an organization called Blood for Blood. As one can imagine, this is an Assasin Organization. Usually, no one would ever try to find trouble with them. In fact, this organization has branches everywhere in the universe. Even if this planet was destroyed, most of the organization''s power would still be preserved. Not to mention that its strongest members rarely stay at the same place. Also, they would accept contracts against almost anyone in the universe. Their scope of action is between the Divine Path Realm realm or below. The only powers that they wouldn''t touch are the three Sacred Lands of the Central Region. The Extreme Yin Yang Palace, the All Life Sect, and the Darkness Land. Somewhere inside the organization headquarters, there was a gigantic formation on the ground and five black-clothed cultivators and demon beasts on it. This is a Teleport Formation that the organization rarely uses due to how astronomically expensive it is to be activated. But this time around, the payment given for Feifei''s head was well within the Formation''s worth. This Formation is capable of teleporting anyone to almost anywhere in the universe. Of course, places like the Divine Path Sect and any of the other powers with enough strength had their own ways to stop the use of such Formations from teleporting enemies directly inside their homes. Unfortunately, the Dimensional Realm that Krune and the others are at the moment isn''t one of them. In fact, no one would ever think that assassins would be sent inside to start with. After all, it would obviously be an affront against both the Divine Path Sect and the Wang Clan at the same time. Due to Feifei''s and Krune''s importance, the Divine Path Sect had sent 3 Semi Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts to watch over the Dimensional Realm. So the Blood for Blood couldn''t simply attack head-on. Not to mention that assassins rarely showed themselves until the last moment to start with. The Formation activated, and hundreds of thousands of spirit stones started to dry out almost instantly! It is one thing for two teleport formations connected to each other to complete a teleport. But to teleport someone to a specific place where nothing is connecting to it is totally different! That''s the reason for this Formation to be this expensive. Even Lucio would feel pain in his pocket to use something like this. Around a minute later, the Formation Operator locked into the coordinates of the Dimensional Realm, and the 5 black-clothed cultivators and demon beasts disappeared with a flash of silver light. The operator left out a sigh of relief and started to fix the places that had been damaged with this last use. A formation of this size had several shortcomings, and having some areas broken after the activation is done is quite reasonable. While he was fixing it, he looked at the direction of another man beside the Formation and asked with Divine Sense. "Who is paying so much this time?" The man seemed to have been waiting for this question and just shuddered his shoulders. "I don''t know, we never ask for our employers'' names, right?" The operator snorted and said. "We don''t ask, but it is not like someone with your resources can''t imagine it, am I wrong?" The man just laughed a little and answered. "Well, all I can tell is that no one of the so-called big four of the Western Protectorate has a hand on it. It seems like this order comes from our Central Region instead." The operator was surprised by that information. "Why would someone from our Central Region waste so much time and money to act this way? Considering the power of the Central Region, they could simply send some Divinity Realm cultivators or demon beasts to take that child''s life head-on. I doubt that this Wang Clan would try to take revenge." The man beside the Formation shook his head. "You are expecting too much from me. It''s not like I know everything, you know?" The operator of the Formation snorted once more and didn''t talk anymore. But he was pretty sure that the man definitely knew a few more things related to this issue. Still, he was being paid to keep the teleport formation running and to fix it when necessary, so he only asked all of that out of curiosity. The man who answered the questions then turned around and asked the assistant beside him. "Is the Spatial Lock Formation ready?" The assistant immediately bowed and said. "Yes! We can activate it at any time." The man nodded and gave the order. "Very well. Those five that we sent inside are not part of our organization, so our contract ends here. Activate the Formation. From now on, we have nothing to do with them anymore." The assistant was taken aback. He thought that those assassins in black clothes were part of the Blood for Blood organization, but it turned out that they were someone else''s power. Still, it wasn''t his place to ask any further questions. "Activate!" Soon, the Spatial Lock formation that had been prepared before activated as well. --- Back at the Dimensional Realm, where Ramon and the other two Semi Divinity Realm guys were staying. Ramon had just taken a position to start cultivating when suddenly, he felt a fluctuation in the space. Immediately, he spread his Divine Sense, and sure enough, he could feel that someone else had teleported directly inside! "Not good!" As soon as he said that, the other two Semi Divinity Realm guys appeared by his side. "Did you feel it?" Ramon nodded. "Yes, someone else used the back door. Gather the Divine Soul Realm members and quickly send them inside, we need to bring Krune, Feifei, and the others out immediately!" The other two nodded, and just as they were about to do that, the Dimensional Realm gate in front of them started to shrink. Ramon immediately understood what was going on. "Spatial Lock Formation!" He didn''t even have time to stop it before the Spatial Gate was gone. Ramon didn''t waste time and contacted the Sect. Still, with the Spatial Lock in place, there would be little that they could do. "Sect Master definitely won''t like it." The Spatial Lock Formations can cut the connection between the Dimensional Realm and the outside. Once it is used, they will need to wait for the Dimensional Realm to mend its connection by itself. The problem is that it all depended on the Dimensional Realm itself. Another way would be to forcefully create a path. But this option had a high risk of destroying the Dimensional Realm outer shell. If that happens, everything inside will be destroyed by the spatial storm that will be created. Krune and the others were still at the Core Formation Realm, so there was no way that they could resist such a calamity! The last method would be to have a Semi-Divinity Realm or higher cultivator or demon beast to help mend the link between the Dimensional Realm and the outside. But this method would probably take weeks and maybe even more than a month! Still, that seemed to be the only option at the moment. Ramon looked at the place where the Spatial Gate disappeared and said. "We can only hope that they can hold on by themselves." 193 The deal Inside, Krune and the others appeared in sequence. They looked around to see if there was anything dangerous and then spread their Divine Sense. Noticing nothing wrong, every group gathered together to discuss where they should go first. Just as the Wang Clan guys were about to do the same, Feifei left their group and went to where Krune and the other participants of the Divine Path Sect were. They felt confused at first but still followed her nonetheless. When Feifei arrived there, she and Krune started the play they had agreed beforehand. "Krune, our deal is still up, right?" Krune came forward and nodded. "You already paid me for it, so don''t worry, I will keep my part of the deal." Both the Wang Clan and Divine path Sect participants didn''t know what they were talking about. Krune then asked. "When do you want to go?" Feifei pretended to think about it. Wang Mo couldn''t hold his curiosity and asked her. "Feifei, what is this deal that you are talking about? Where do you intend to go?" Feifei ignored him and said. "Now is a good time! Can we go?" Krune nodded and extended his hand. "No problem! Hold my hand." The guys narrowed their eyes when they heard that. Still, it seemed like Krune and Feifei had some kind of deal, so they just decided to follow Feifei, for now, to know what was happening. As soon as Feifei did so, Krune''s body started to let out sparks of purple lightning! Obviously, Krune was going to use his Tribulation Lightning Movement. The next second, Krune and Feifei disappeared in a flash of purple light! Of course, as soon as Krune left, the others used their Divine Sense to see where he was. Krune might be fast, but not to the point where he can leave the range of the Divine Sense in a second. As soon as the Wang Clan guys noticed that, they set off in pursuit. As for the Divine Path Sect participants, they were thinking if they should follow or not. They intended to stay with Krune from the start. But with what just happened, it seemed like Krune didn''t care about having a group or not. Not to mention that different from the Wang Clan guys, they didn''t receive any orders to stay with Krune or not. Wang Mo was the fastest one between the Wang Clan pursuers. But his face was quite ugly at the moment. That is because even after giving his all, he is just barely able to keep up with Krune''s pace. As for the others, they were falling behind little by little. One must remember that Krune''s cultivation is quite a few stages lower than them. It''s already impressive that he and Wang Mo have the same speed in his human form while carrying Feifei. "Wang Mo is already at the 9th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. The three elements he uses the most are Lightning, Fire, and Wind, so it is normal for him to be able to keep up with you. After all, you are still 5 stages lower than in cultivation." Krune nodded and then said. "Since that''s the case, there is no need for me to hold back anymore." Krune immediately returned to his wisp form while putting his clothes back into the spatial ring. He then grabbed Feifei with his Spiritual energy and once more dashed forward! This time, Krune was really using his fastest speed, the Tribulation Lightning Movement, at 80%! Not to mention that his control is a lot better in his wisp form. Feifei saw that and smiled. It gave her the same sensation when she embraced Krune back when she arrived at the Divine Path Sect. Wang Mo, who was already fuming with that fact that he could barely keep up, got even angrier when he saw Krune returning to his wisp form. It is common sense that Demon Beasts are always stronger in their original forms, so he knew things turned worse. Sure enough, Krune''s speed got a lot higher than before! Wang Mo simply couldn''t move that fast unless he is willing to pay the price. The problem is, he knows that Krune probably can move at that speed without any side effects other than a higher consumption of Spiritual Energy. As for him, he would be damaging his dantian if he used the same technique that Wang Ting did back then. Not to mention that his increase in speed would have a time limit, different from Krune. In the end, he decided to not risk it. He kept following Krune from a distance until a few minutes later, Krune and Feifei finally left the range of his Divine Sense. During all this time, Krune''s speed hadn''t lowered it the least! Wang Mo was now sure that that this is Krune''s real speed, and that keeping the pursuit would give him no results. He then stopped at the place where he lost Krune and Feifei and waited. Soon after, the other three guys from the Wang Clan territory arrived at his side. "Did you lose them?" Wang Mo nodded. "That wisp is just too damn fast! Not to mention that he was carrying Feifei with him. Once he turned back to his wisp form, even me at my fastest couldn''t keep up with him." Want Ting and the other two were surprised by that since they know that Wang Mo''s strength and specialized elements. "What do we do now? Grand elder will explode in rage if he finds out that we lost her." Wang Mo shook his head. "With Krune''s speed, there is nothing we can do. But we at least know where they should be heading to, which is the Inner Core region. As long as we go there, we should find them sooner or later." Wang Mo then looked at the other three and asked. "By the way. Do you know anything about this deal that Feifei had with Krune? It seems like Krune only did what he did because Feifei paid him for that." Tuesly Huviu pondered a bit and said. "Considering the deal that she said, it is probably because Feifei wanted to be alone. But she couldn''t outspeed us, so she paid Krune to bring her away. Chances are that they will part ways once she thinks that they are far enough." Wang Mo and the others nodded. With the information that they had, it seemed like to be the case. Mar Jilano then said. "Of course, that is considering that it is all true. At the end of the day, it might have all been a pretense as well. Still, we have no way to know that now, so we can only move to the Inner Core Region." Wang Mo had to admit that it made sense. After all, there was no need for Feifei to use words to talk about this "deal." She could have used the Divine Sense message instead. "Anyway, let''s move out. Also, remember that this place is a dimensional realm for us to temper ourselves. So there should be quite a few dangers the further in we get. Make sure to keep your eyes open because I won''t sacrifice myself for you in case you get into a hopeless situation." They might be together now, but they are still rivals trying to get Feifei''s heart. So the lesser the number of them, the better. It is also for the sake of their own futures. --- Somewhere else in the Dimensional Realm, the five Black Clothed cultivators and demon beasts in human form appeared. Although they had been teleported right inside the Dimensional Realm, it wasn''t possible to select a specific place to land. As soon as they looked around, an early stage Divine Soul beast noticed their presence. The beast was surprised that someone appeared inside its territory out of nowhere! But soon, the beast attacked! "You dare to enter my Lava Golem territory? Die!" The five guys looked at that and snorted. One of them came forward and took out a black pearl. That pearl then started to shine, and death energy sipped out. The Divine Soul Lava Golem noticed the danger and immediately retreated! It only took a second to understand that it wasn''t those black-clothed guys match at all! "Hmph! Isn''t it too late to run?" The lava Golem''s life force then started to come out against his wish. Soon, more than half of his life force was gone! It noticed that it would be dead soon and immediately used a forbidden technique of his race. Its body then turned into flowing Lava and sipped into the earth. It didn''t stop the life force from coming out but gave it the chance to scape its range. The man noticed that the Lava Golem escaped far into the ground but didn''t pursue it. His objective wasn''t to kill the Divine Soul beasts inside this place, after all. The leader and the other three looked at that but didn''t move either. After he returned to their group, the leader came forward to give the orders. "We are going to separate. Remember, unless you are leaving clues behind, try to focus on the target. If we fail this mission, consider our lives forfeit already. We need to kill her and take that thing back." The leader then took a tool out that looked like a compass and charged it with Spiritual Energy. Soon, his eyes narrowed. "It seems like we are on the northwest side of the dimensional realm. As you know, we can''t use divination on that Girl, so we will need to look for them the old way. Considering the information that we got about the Divine Path Sect, they will probably take around a month to mend the connection with the Dimensional Realm. So that is our time limit." He looked at the other four and said. "Lastly, there can''t be any witness. If you find anyone other than Feifei, kill them as well and make sure to not leave behind any clues." 194 It is good that you know what I wan Krune kept changing directions now and then to make sure that they weren''t being pursued. Only when Krune was convinced that the Wang Clan guys couldn''t catch them anymore did he stop. Krune then looked behind and felt relieved. He wasn''t sure if those guys had any other methods under their sleeves, so he felt tense all the time. Feifei looked around with her Divine Sense and also couldn''t see those guys. "Great! We are finally free of them. Of course, we might find them on our way to the inner Core Region. But at that time, we just need to flee again." Krune then returned to his human form and nodded. "Indeed. It seems like unless it is a dangerous situation, they won''t risk overdoing it just to catch up to us." Feifei nodded and looked back at Krune. But when she did, her face immediately became as red as a tomato. "You- you! Where are your clothes?" Krune looked down and then said. "Oh! It is just that when I turn back into my wisp form, the clothes have no use. So I put them inside my spatial ring. Now that I came back to my human form, I obviously don''t have them on. But it is okay, from what I heard, it seems like it is not a problem to be naked in front of your wife as long as it is just the two of you." Feifei felt helpless and said while looking away. "We haven''t married yet! So put them back." Krune was puzzled since he already considers Feifei his wife. Still, he did as she asked and put them on. Finally, Feifei looked back at Krune with his clothes. Still, she couldn''t simply forget what she saw just a few moments ago. Feifei then tried to put those thoughts behind her mind and asked. "What should we do now? Should we go to the Inner Core Region straight away?" Krune pondered a bit and said. "The idea here is to temper ourselves, so we should do it. Also, if we don''t find worthy opponents, there is no way we can test our combined attack power and teamwork." Krune and Feifei had already discussed several times about their own abilities, elements control, etc. As one could imagine, Feifei is perfect for the support role with her Destiny Major Core. She can predict the enemies'' next moves and deal with them before they are used. Of course, such ability had its limits. After all, she would need to do that in the middle of the battle. So at most, she could keep tags on three opponents of the same level. There is also a problem with the difference in cultivation. If the opponent''s cultivation is too high, reading the changes in the destiny energy would be a lot more complicated. So Feifei could at most keep tags against a single Divine Soul Realm opponent. Still, thanks to her improved Destiny Core, she would be able to calculate up to the 6th Stage Divine Soul Realm! If Feifei decides to pay the price, a 7th or maybe even an 8th Stage might be possible! That shows just how much better Feifei''s Destiny Core is in comparison to the others. She specialized herself in Water, Earth, and Wood. As the daughter of the Wang Clan''s Head, she received the best training since young. So she could also control Fire, Wind, and Lightning to a high level. It''s just that she couldn''t use Elements at the same time as Krune can. Of course, the other elements are still quite worse than the other 3 main ones. At the moment, Feifei is the same as Gomat, who can control Four Elements at the same time. In the end, Feifei is almost like Krune. Someone who could even fight other Major Core Owners at higher cultivation stages. Feifei didn''t hold anything back when she explained to Krune about her abilities. Krune, of course, did the same. He told her what he could and could not do. The only thing that he left out was Light Spirit''s existence. But Krune didn''t think it was a problem since he didn''t want Light Spirit''s help to start with. So he obviously wouldn''t call him out to help unless the situation was dire. Feifei nodded and said. "Then we can move in that direction slowly. The Sect also said that they only verified the ambient in the outer perimeter, so they don''t know much about the insides. Who knows? Maybe we will find something interesting there." Krune nodded. "That might be possible. Just one thing, instead of moving directly there, let''s take a roundabout route. That way, we can prevent ourselves from encountering others anytime soon." Feifei agreed with that, and she immediately decided to set off. But just before she could do it, Krune grabbed Feifei''s waist and gave her a kiss! Feifei, of course, was surprised that Krune took the initiative out of nowhere. After all, she knew very well that Krune wasn''t the type to care much about those things... or so she thought. "This... why that now?" Krune looked a little embarrassed and said. "Didn''t you say you wanted a lot of kisses in the future? I have to make sure that you will get what you want then." That was a LIE! In fact, ever since Krune got to taste a kiss from Feifei back at his home, he had been wondering when he could do that again. He couldn''t understand the reason behind it, but this action had made him very happy. It was only at that moment that he realized why other couples like to kiss each other. So he decided that although logic said that there was no meaning behind it, he would still do that anyway. Feifei, of course, didn''t mind it at all! If anything, she was delighted to see Krune taking the initiative as a good man should! She wondered before if it would turn out that she would have to be the active side of their relationship all the time. But it seems now that her worries were baseless. Krune just had to learn a bit more. Besides, Krune''s approach just now was quite satisfying! "It''s good that you know what I want." Feifei also gave him a kiss back and then said. "But we should move now, let''s go." Krune nodded, and the two of them departed. --- The Dimensional Realm was enormous! Even for those who moved in a straight line, it would still take a few days to leave the outer perimeter and enter the central one. The Inner Core Region, of course, was even further away. Uriu Orion had been moving with his group ever since they entered this Realm. So far, they encountered quite a few strong demon beasts that lived in the place. Still, Uriu and his companions were the geniuses of the Spiritas Kingdom, so they were able to deal with them. Some times it was easy, other times not so much. Of course, they haven''t bumped into a Divine Soul Realm enemy yet. Otherwise, things wouldn''t have been this simple. Uriu is just like Krune, Feifei, and Hulibe Acrol. A Major Core Owner! Of course, his one is a regular Major Core. He also has the Life Core, just like Nala back in the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. Still, that, coupled with his strong soul power as a Spiritas, made his healing abilities really fearsome! Nala is simply far from his level at the moment. Thanks to that, his group of three is pretty much unscratched! Uriu and his group are now traversing between the outer and central regions of the Dimensional Realm. As a place left behind by an expert a long time ago, there is bound to be traps left behind by its owner. So they were moving carefully to avoid attracting calamity. Suddenly, Uriu started to feel restless, as if something wasn''t right. When he tried to check what was making him feel like that, he noticed that his Life Core was the reason. As a Core Formation Realm cultivator, he also has a connection with his Life Core through the part of his soul inside. It was that connection that was passing to him his Life Core warning. "This! A Death Major Core owner!" After advancing into the Core Formation Realm, one can stop the resonance between Major Cores. For Uriu to be able to notice the Death Core''s presence, it has to be because its owner is purposely not hiding it. If that is the case, it also means that the opponent had already noticed their presence. Uriu was right, the one who appeared this time was none other than the black-clothed man who fought against the Lava Golem! As soon as he noticed Uriu''s group presence, he decided to attack so that he could ask them if they know where Feifei is. After that, he would kill everyone to eliminate the witnesses. Uriu didn''t know if this Death Core owner was someone from this Dimensional Realm of if it was an intruder. Still, he can tell that the other side had no good intentions. Otherwise, his Life Core wouldn''t be acting like this. Not to mention the close connection that Life and Death Cores have with each other, which made it even more evident for Uriu. "Enemy attack! Everyone, defensive formation. The enemy is strong, no doubt that he is in the Divine Soul Realm. Also, the enemy is a Major Core owner, so you all better take it seriously!" Uriu''s group was alarmed for a second, but immediately after, they took their positions to make a defensive formation. As expected, Uriu took the center of the formation. One of his companions is focused on attack power while the other is on defense. Uriu''s part was to serve as support. "Good, start moving back from where we came through the right side!" The other two were once more taken aback! That is because the route that Uriu chose would pass through a trap formation that they had avoided. Still, they immediately understood Uriu''s mind. It seemed like the enemy is really strong, so they can only count on this method to somehow deal with him. Sure enough, after some time retreating, the black-clothed man appeared in front of them. "One question. Where is Wang Feifei?" The black-clothed man asked only that. But that was enough for Uriu to understand that the enemy definitely isn''t someone from this Realm. He looked at the man and said. "We don''t know. After we entered this Realm, we separated into several groups. So I can''t tell you where Feifei had gone." The black-clothed man then snorted and said. "Okay, you can go to the other world now." Uriu was already expecting that the other part wasn''t going to leave them alone. 195 Forward! Krune and Feifei were using a roundabout route, so it took them some time longer to arrived at the borders of the central region of the Dimensional Realm. So far, they had also fought a few demon beasts, but nothing that they couldn''t deal with. If anything, they had it quite easy until now. But it seemed like their luck went just this far. Finally, they poked a hornet''s nest and were swarmed by a large number of three-horned beetles! Those beetles weren''t strong individually, with just a few of then barely reaching the late stages of the Foundation Establishment and even less at the middle stage. But the number alone wasn''t something that the two of them could deal with anytime soon. "There are too many of them! If we get surrounded, things might get really complicated." Feifei used a wide range of fire attacks to keep delaying the swarm. In contrast, Krune targeted the higher cultivation ones with Tribulation Thunder Lines. "Can you find the queen? As long as we deal with her, the swarm will disperse." Krune then asked. "Do you know how she looks like?" Feifei nodded. "She isn''t much different from the normal ones, but she should have red eyes instead of black ones. Also, her cultivation is most likely in the Core Formation Realm. Otherwise, she wouldn''t be accepted by the other beetles and changed into a queen." Krune nodded and spread his Divine Sense. But there was a problem. Although Krune''s Divine Sense was powerful due to his soul, there were still too many beetles. To make his Divine Sense pass through that mass of beetles and pinpoint a particular one in the middle of so many is very hard even for him. "They are too packed, we need to get them to spread so that I can see better." Feifei nodded and then said. "In that case, be ready to use some strong attacks in the points that I will tell you." Feifei couldn''t use her Destiny Core to calculate the movements of so many beetles at the same time. However, she could still find the results that a few attacks would cause to the surroundings. That way, she focused on calculating where the attack would make the beetles spread the most. Of course, such a thing was also very hard to do since she was running and attacking at the same time. After some time passed, Feifei started to sweat. Still, she kept trying to calculate the best positions. Krune decided that if things got out of control, he would immediately turn back to wisp form and charge out with Feifei using his Tribulation Lightning. Suddenly, Feifei''s eyes lit up! "Found it!" Feifei then immediately sent the positions and time to Krune through a Divine Sense message. Krune nodded and waited for the moment that Feifei mentioned. "Wait, wait... Now!" All 13 blades shot in the directions predicted by Feifei and killed everything in the way. Once they arrived at the points selected by her, they all exploded into gigantic purple fireballs covered by purple lightning! Right after that, it seemed like a chain reaction happened, which made the beetles spread everywhere for a short while. Feifei had selected those places because those explosions would momentarily cut the queen''s connection with the swarm. That was the reason why the beetles went out of control for a short amount of time. But that was enough for Krune! With his Divine Sense power, he was finally able to pinpoint that specific red-eyed beetle. Sure enough, he could feel that that beetle was in the Core Formation Realm 2nd stage! Krune showed a smile and said. "Found you!" The beetle queen obviously already had sentience. So the moment that Krune looked at her, she understood that things were not good. The queen tried to control the nearby beetles to create a living shield around her body, but that was too late! From above, the power of the Tribulation Lightning was already gathered, just waiting for the order to come down. "Heaven''s Fall!" Boom! All the beetles on the way were instantly pulverized. The queen still tried to use her cultivation to defend, but that was useless. Krune could even beat late stages Core Formation Geniuses, let alone a simple beetle with cultivation lower than his! As soon as the queen died, the beetles around lost their connection with her and started to hover on the air. After some time, they all went back from where they came as if it was an instinctual action. Without a queen to keep their race in control, the foundation establishment beetles ones immediately understood that a new one has to be found. So they gave the order to their own groups to move back to their nest. Not long after, Krune and Feifei couldn''t even see a single three horned beetle. Of course, except those who were killed or seriously injured on the ground. But even those with injuries were trying to move back to their nest. Krune looked at that and sighed. He then used his water and wood element to create thin vines that connected to all the still alive beetles. After that, he used his spiritual energy to connect to all of them and started to heal their injuries. Soon, one beetle after another took flight and moved back to their nest too. Feifei saw that but didn''t say anything. She already knew that Krune was this type of wisp for a very long time. She, too, thought that Krune might be way too soft-hearted. If there was no need to kill, he would definitely not do so. But then again, if she asked him to change, would he still be the Krune hat she knows? In the end, she understood that this Krune is still the best one. Feifei then used her own water and wood element to help the beetles who were still aline to recover. Around an hour later, all the beetles that could still be saved were healed and went back to their nest too. Without Krune or Feifei noticing, one of those beetles that they saved was at the 9th Stage of the Foundation Establishment. That beetle gave Krune and Feifei a final look before leaving as well. Krune looked at the last beetle flying away and said. "Sorry. I just couldn''t let them be like that." Krune couldn''t help but think that those beetles, or at least the ones that achieved sentience, weren''t having it easy too. Without Krune noticing her approach, Feifei gave him a hub from behind. Krune was obviously taken by surprise. "I know, but that''s how their race lives, and it is not up to us to change that." Krune then nodded and smiled. "Anyway, we won''t need to find another path, let''s enter the central region!" Feifei and Krune then left straight away. --- Somewhere else, Hulibe Acrol and his two companions were also having a hard time. They, too, got to find one of those black-clothed men and were in the middle of a battle against him. But one thing was different about this battle, that is because of the one on the losing end was the Divine Soul Realm Assasin instead! ''What is happening here? The information said that all the participants of the Divine Path Sect exchange program were at the Core Formation Stage. But those three are obviously in the Divine Soul Realm too!'' He had the same plan as his friend, who attacked Uriu Orion back then. Get information about Feifei, and then kill those guys after. But let alone get any information, he doesn''t even know if he will survive this encounter anymore. Hulibe and his two friends were also taken aback when they got attacked by this Divine Soul Realm cultivator. But as soon as this guy had asked where Feifei was, they understood that he wasn''t someone from this Dimensional Realm to start with. Most likely, he was an Assasin tasked to kill her. Hulibe had no intention to get in his way to start with. But when he said that he didn''t have any information about Feifei, the other side immediately attacked them. Hulibe and his two friends, of course, had to defend themselves. In fact, the Assasin is wrong about Hulibe''s group cultivation realm. They are still in the Core Formation Stage. But there is one thing that very few know about. Hulibe''s Ancestor is one of the most influential figures in the Rasie Clan, Hulibe Ronary! Although he isn''t a descendant of that Clan, he still has his voice heard in there. Not to mention that he is also one of the Semi Divinity Realm protectors of the Clan. Ronary had high hopes in Acrol due to his Major Core and talents. So he obviously filled him to the teeth with protection measures. One of them was a treasure that had part of his will inside. Even for a Semi Divinity Realm cultivator, such a thing is very hard and expensive to make! Still, he crafted it for Acrol with caring about the costs! It''s thanks to that will that Acrol and his friends can fight at the late stage Divine Soul Realm for some time. Although Acrol''s group had an overwhelming advantage, he knew that his time was limited and that he wouldn''t be able to kill that guy like that. He couldn''t help but take another item out of his spatial ring. This one the power to release an attack at the Soul Forging Realm level once! 196 To the Inner Core Region! Hulibe inserted his spiritual energy inside, and soon, a small projection of an old man appeared on top of it. The old man, obviously, was Hulibe Ronary! The projection looked around and immediately understood the situation. It then gathered all the spiritual energy in over 10km radius in a split of a second! The black-clothed Assassin realized that things had just turned worse and took a protection runestone out. It was an 8 Golden Stars space displacement runestone! The man had long since charged it just in case he needed that. But he had never thought that he had to use it during his very first encounter! The attack of Acrol''s treasure that was supposed to hit the man passed right through him instead! It was as if the man was there and at the same time not. Of course, the man still paid the price since he couldn''t displace the full power of Acrol''s Ancestor attack. Still, that was enough for him to survive. After that, a small-time window appeared on Acrol''s group attack. The man then immediately used a forbidden blood escaping technique to charge out of the encirclement. Just like that, the man fleed. Acrol saw that but didn''t pursue him. He understood that the man won''t be in any condition to battle anymore for quite a few months if not for over a year. He and his friends will be out of this Dimension Realm way before that happens. Hulibe Acrol looked at the direction that the man left and narrowed his eyes. ''Just what is happening here? That man''s attack skills didn''t seem to be something from the western protectorate. Did he come from outside the Big Four territories?'' Acrol didn''t have the answer for that now, so he decided to ignore him for the time being. He looked at his friends and said. "Chances are that there is more than one, and it seemed like that guy wanted to eliminate all witnesses. We are moving straight away to the Inner Core Region and using our runestones to leave this place straight away." The other two nodded, and their group immediately departed. Hulibe Acrol, of course, didn''t know that the connection between this Dimensional Realm and the outside was cut and that the runestones wouldn''t work. --- The Divine path Sect participants who came with Krune were in a different situation. They didn''t get any significant challenge, nor did they bump into one of the Assasins. One must remember that this is still the outer perimeter, so it is to be expected that it doesn''t have that many strong demon beasts or traps here. Today, however, they had finally entered the central region. There was a total of four of them together at the moment, and they made a demon beast called Juniu as the momentary leader of the group. At first, it was supposed to be Krune, but now that wisp wasn''t here. "Juniu, now that we are in the central region, should we look around first before moving to the inner core region?" Juniu pondered a bit and then nodded his head. "I think it is good too. This place hasn''t been explored yet, so we might really find something good." They did as planned and got quite a few harvests like Silver Stars Materials for crafting or herbs for alchemy. Of course, there was more danger inside the central region, so they had quite a few battles in the meantime. There was even an encounter with an early stage Divine Soul Realm demon beast, which forced them to flee and almost got them killed. Fortunately, as geniuses of the Divine Path Sect, they had quite a few trump cards themselves. It is just that they aren''t at the level of the ones brought out by Hulibe Acrol at that time. Still, none of them were depressed by that. The meaning of this training was precisely that, to temper themselves in life and death situations. On the fourth day, their group was moving around when suddenly, they noticed someone approaching. At first, they entered into combat state and were ready to attack or flee at any time. But surprisingly, the one coming was Uriu Orion, the Spiritas Kingdom Genius! When Juniu and the others looked at Uriu, they were taken aback. Uriu had lost one of his arms. There was a grievous injury on his chest and seemed like to be rotting at a speed that they could see. Not to mention the various other places on his body that also didn''t look much better. Because of the fact that his opponent had a Death Core on top of the Divine Soul Realm cultivator, Uriu was having a hard time to counter its effects. The only reason why Death Energy hasn''t killed him yet is that his Life Core just so happens to counter this kind of power. Another thing is that Uriu''s plan worked, and the trap left by the owner of this Dimensional Realm in the past worked on his favor in the end. Unfortunately for him, his two companions were not so lucky. Uriu gave his best to prevent Death Energy from taking their lives, but his Life Core wasn''t so efficient on others as it was on himself. Not to mention that Death Energy Skills weren''t the only type of attack that the Assasin used. In the end, by getting both himself and the Death Core assassin inside the trap, he found a small chance at life! Now, this state is the result of all his efforts. Uriu looked at the Divine Path Sect participants and used a Divine Sense Message to explain the whole situation. Divine Sense messages could be done in less than a second as long as you already know what you want to say to the other part. When Juniu''s group heard everything, they immediately felt alarmed! Assassins were able to pass through the elders of the Divine Path Sect and enter this place to attempt killing Feifei. They couldn''t help but think that perhaps the elders outside are already dead! But soon, Juniu shook his head. "No, that isn''t the case. It had been several days since Uriu escaped from the Death Core owner pursuit. If the enemies were really strong enough to kill the elders outside, they definitely would have several more Divine Soul realm assassins sent inside. Still, we haven''t found a single one since that time. I might be wrong, but I believe that those assassins entered the Dimension Realm without the elders noticing or at least not being able to stop them. Not to mention that if they had really killed the elders, then they have more than enough power to destroy the Dimensional Realm. That would guarantee Feifei''s death without the need to send anyone inside." Uriu nodded and then said. "I also gave a lot of thought, and I believe that you are right. But before we continue with this conversation, do you have any spirit stones with you? I used almost all of mine just to escape the Assassin''s attack. I need a lot of spiritual energy to get rid of the Death Energy inside me." Juniu and the other nodded and immediately gave Uriu some of their Spirit Stones. If what Uriu said is true, the best option would be to stay together for the time being to increase their chances of survival. Uriu immediately bowed and thanked them for the support. He was a little afraid that they would refuse and immediately flee from this place. Maybe even worse, they might have chosen to attack him instead! With enough spirit energy this time, Uriu was finally able to get rid of the death energy in his body after a few hours. With his life core and the ability to use Light Element, it only took a short time for him to heal himself. The only thing that was preventing it from happening was Death Energy. Otherwise, those injuries wouldn''t have bothered him until now. The Life Core healing power was really awe-inspiring! Even Uriu''s lost arm had grown back after some time. That is not something that an ordinary Core Formation Realm cultivator or demon beast should be able to do. Uriu then looked at this group and asked. "Who is the leader at the moment?" Juniu immediately said. "It is me for the time we are inside the Dimensional Realm." Uriu nodded and then said. "Alright. I will follow your orders from now on then." Juniu''s group was taken aback! For a second, they thought that Uriu would ask to let him lead them since he is the strongest here due to his Major Core. But he decided to not do so, much for their surprise. Juniu looked deeply at Uriu, who was waiting for his words and then sighed. "No need, you will be the leader from now on." One of Juniu''s companions immediately intervened. "Juniu, we only have his words at the moment. What if he is trying to guide us into a trap?" Juniu shook his head and said. "I believe my instincts, and now they are telling me the Uriu isn''t lying. Besides, if you are really doubtful, there is a straightforward method to check it, right?" Only then did they remember that Uriu is still in the Core Formation Realm, which means that he can''t go against a Blood Contract! Uriu also nodded and asked for them to write one straight away. It was a very simple one. It only stated that Uriu was not lying about the things he said. Uriu signed it, and the seal entered his soul, just to disappear right after. Since Uriu wasn''t lying, the blood contract lost its effect as soon as the conditions were met. Seeing that made Juniu''s companion sigh in relief, but at the same time, they understood the danger that they are in. Juniu then looked at Uriu and asked. "Should we go back to the entrance?" Uriu immediately shook his head. "That is unnecessary. You said it yourself, after the number of days since my group received the attack, we didn''t find any other assassin. But that also means that we didn''t find any reinforcements. Because of that, I believe that this dimension has lost the connection with the outside." Juniu was taken aback and immediately thought about a possibility. "Space Lock Formation!" Uriu nodded. "Exactly! It also means that it was used from somewhere really far away. If the Space Lock Formation was used from somewhere inside the Divine Path Sect territory, I find it hard to believe that your Sect wouldn''t notice it, much less not stop it in time." Juniu and the others nodded. Uriu then looked at the central region direction and said. "Let''s meet everyone in the Inner Core region. Only with the advantage in numbers, it might be possible to defend ourselves. After all, we have no idea when the connection to the outside will be mend. We can''t count on luck to stay hidden forever." 197 Flee! The leader of the Assasins was still looking for the targets when suddenly, he got a message. Different from Krune and the others who couldn''t communicate, those guys had brought special spiritual equipment that allowed them to talk to each other. "What is it, Angil? Did you find them?" The equipment could only transmit voice, so the leader couldn''t see the person or demon beast on the other side. "I found three of those mentioned in the information, but I almost died when I attacked. The three of them were, in fact, Divine Soul Realm cultivators or had a Treasure that allowed them to battle at that level. In the end, I received some severe injuries and had to use the blood escaping technique. Lanis, be careful of the Rasie Clan kids. They are not simple." Lanis was the name of the leader of the assassins this time. "Are you able to continue the mission?" Angil immediately answered. "No, the blood escaping technique plus the injuries had deeply affected my foundation. Let alone fight against another Divine Soul Realm, even some early-stage Core Formation demon beasts would have me running away at the moment." Lanis took a deep breath and answered. "Anyway, it is good that you gave us the information. I will send your message to the others. Did you leave behind any clues?" "Yes, I had to use a lot of my best skills, so they might be able to at least tell from where I came once they are outside." "Very well, I believe you know what to do." Angil''s voice, on the other side, went silent for a moment and then replied. "Yes, I know." Lanis and Angil finished their call. Whether the mission was a success or not, that would be the last time they talked with each other. Lanis then sent the information to the other three and told them to not meddle with the Rasie Clan ones for the time being. They should spend their efforts on Feifei only if possible. --- Krune and Feifei had been moving to the Inner Core region while fighting a few times on the way. With their own unique traits, they didn''t have much difficulty in dealing with the beasts. So far, the most dangerous encounter was still with the swarm of three-horned beetles. They even bumped on an Early Stage Divine Soul Realm demon beast. But with Feifei''s improved Destiny Core, it wasn''t too hard for them to escape. Not to mention that Krune''s speed wasn''t any lower than the enemy''s. Another week passed, and they got a few materials and herbs, just like the other disciples of the Divine Path Sect. Feifei then decided to leave them all with Krune. For her, those things didn''t have much value, different from Krune, who still had to follow the Sect Rules. When both of them were finally approaching the Inner Core Region, Light Spirit called Krune out. Krune immediately stopped as well and warned Feifei. Feifei was impressed that Krune was able to feel a Divine Sense that even she with her cultivation couldn''t. Still, she believed Krune, so she was also put on guard. They had finally encountered one of the assassins that were pursuing Feifei. When the assassin noticed her, he informed the other three, including the leader. "Found Feifei, come to this location." The assassin was planning to use a snake attack, but he didn''t expect that Krune and Feifei would stop the moment his Divine Sense passed through them. With his cultivation, they shouldn''t have been able to feel it, after all. Because of that, he decided to call for his companions first and keep Feifei under his watch. Krune was waiting for Light Spirit''s answer about the enemy. "Weird, he stopped and isn''t moving at all, could it be that he isn''t here for you two? Try to move a few kilometers ahead first." Krune immediately did as Light Spirit said, and they kept moving ahead for a little longer. As expected, the enemy also followed them but kept his distance. "He is still there, but he isn''t approaching. I can''t tell which stage of the Divine Soul Realm he is, but from the speed that he was moving at first when he saw you two, I would say he is at least in the middle stages. Someone like him shouldn''t be afraid of you two, which means..." Krune and Light Spirit immediately understood what that meant. "Not good, he is probably waiting for reinforcements." That could be the only answer since the enemy noticed that an ambush wouldn''t work anymore. Krune then told Feifei his conclusion and immediately went back to his wisp form. When the assassin noticed Krune''s real form, he finally understood. "So, that''s Lucio''s disciple like the information said. Why would someone take a wisp as a disciple, and a colorful one at that?" For a second, there was disdain on his face, but it was really for a second only. That''s because, in the next one, the disdain was swapped by surprise, and then disbelief! Krune could already use Tribulation Lightning at 80% in his wisp form as soon as he entered the Core Formation Realm. He is now at the 4th stage of the same realm, which turned it even easier for him. Considering that a Divine Soul Realm was waiting for reinforcements, it is evident that they would also be in the same cultivation realm. Krune couldn''t possibly allow them to surround him and Feifei. In the end, there was only one answer to this situation: Flee! "Tribulation Lightning Movement, 100%!" Krune grabbed Feifei with his Spiritual Energy and dashed away in a flash of purple light! Although it was easier to use the Tribulation Lightning Movement at the 4th stage of the Core Formation Realm, it didn''t mean that Krune could control it at 100% output. Still, Krune was confident that 90% would definitely be possible. As for 100%, although it would cause some damage to his Core, it wouldn''t be anything serious as long as he doesn''t use it for too long. The result was that Krune now was moving faster than the enemy could even follow! The assassin noticed it with his Divine Sense, and his face got even uglier. "Fuck!" This realm is enormous, so his companions would take a long time to arrive even at full speed! The guy started to ponder if he should use a forbidden technique to catch up with Krune. But after what he heart about Angil''s situation, he hesitated. If Krune and Feifei had a way of communication and were moving in the Rasie Clan disciples direction, then he might be throwing himself into the tiger''s mouth. Of course, although Krune was faster than the Divine Soul Realm guy, it wasn''t by much. The difference in the cultivation level was too high, and he was also carrying Feifei with him. But Feifei wasn''t just sitting there doing nothing. From the moment that the Divine Soul Realm guy appeared, she started to use her Destiny Core to calculate a safe route. A route that wouldn''t end up bumping on that guy''s companions or other things that might delay them! That was also why Krune had no worries about the places he was passing by. When Feifei finally calculated the best path, she started to smile. "What about we give that guy a few friends to play with?" Krune heard that and laughed inside. He totally understood what Feifei was about to do. Feifei then guided Krune through some routes where demon beasts were guarding. While the two of them passed undetected due to some weird moves, the assassin didn''t have it as easy as them. Finally, Feifei guided him to provoke a Divine Soul Realm demon beast, which immediately attacked the assassin. It wasn''t that the demon beast didn''t notice Krune and Feifei, it was just that it put a lot more importance on the assassin who was in the same realm as it! The assassin felt like crying already. Although he was stronger than the demon beast, he wasn''t a Major Core owner like the guy that attacked Uriu back then. In the end, it took him quite a few exchanges with the demon beast to finally force it into fleeing. Still, it was too late. Krune and Feifei had already left his Divine Sense range. Light Spirit also noticed that and said. "You are good now, he can''t reach you with his Divine Sense anymore." Only after hearing Light Spirit''s voice did Krune reduce his Tribulation Lightning output to 80% again. With Feifei''s help, they then got even further until the assassin couldn''t follow them anymore. When Krune finally stopped, both he and Feifei were exhausted. Feifei had been using her Destiny Core to divine a safe route. One must remember that although the Divine Soul Realm enemy wasn''t the focus of her calculations, he was still part of it. Not to mention that later, a Divine Soul Realm demon beast also took part in the predictions of the Destiny Energy. Fortunately, neither of them was the main focus of her efforts, but the route instead. Otherwise, she definitely wouldn''t be able to check both of them at the same time. As for Krune, it is pretty obvious. To keep his Tribulation Lightning output at 100% all this time had hurt his Core quite a bit. Because of that, he didn''t return to his human form but stayed like that so that he could heal himself easier. Now that they are safe, both of them immediately started to recover their energy and heal the injuries. Feifei was only able to tell that this place was safe for the time being. However, now that the Divine Soul Realm enemy is out of her range, she can''t Divine his actions anymore without more information. While they were recovering, Krune asked Feifei. "Is he someone from this dimension realm?" Feifei shook her head. "No, the changes in the destiny energy wasn''t something that someone from our Western Protectorate should show. He definitely came from outside here, and even outside the territory of the Big Four." Krune was taken aback! Doesn''t it mean that they came for him or Feifei? With Krune''s IQ, he didn''t take long to think about all the possibilities and reach the same conclusion as the other participants. He then told everything he thought to Feifei and said. "We need to gather with the other participants. That''s our best option at the moment since the realm is probably locked at the moment." 198 We have company Somewhere around the border between the outer perimeter and central regions, a man just appeared out of nowhere. His clothes were quite ragged, and it was evident that he had passed through a hard time. His name was Gelius, the black-clothed man that was pursuing Uriu Orion back then. "Fuck! That ant, when I find him, I will suck his life energy dry!" He had a lot of difficulties to leave that trap left by the owner of this place a long time ago. Only after over a week of effort did he finally escape its range. He knew that Uriu was guiding into that place. Still, he thought that even if he followed Uriu inside, he would be able to deal with it easily. Unfortunately for him, he had underestimated Uriu''s plans and the prowess of the trap formation. But now that he is outside, he immediately dashed to the inner core region direction at full speed. He wasn''t even afraid of alarming the beasts on the way. Anyone who tried to block him died! --- Krune and Feifei were also making their way there while Feifei was trying to calculate the position of the others. "It''s quite hard, I have almost no information regarding this dimensional realm. Because of that, it isn''t easy to calculate their positions at the moment. The best I can do is give a general direction." Krune nodded and said. "No problem, as long as you can tell where we should go, that''s enough. Sooner or later, we will bump on them." Sure enough, because everyone had been moving into the inner core region, Krune finally found some of them. It turns out that the ones they found out first were Feifei''s pretenders! She couldn''t help but sigh after seeing them in her Divine Sense. Still, it wasn''t time to care about it. The Wang Clan guys had been moving together ever since they separated from Feifei. It took them by surprise to see that Feifei was the one coming after them instead. When they looked at the wisp beside Feifei, they wanted nothing more than tearing it apart. Still, they knew that it wouldn''t be easy. Not to mention that Feifei couldn''t possibly allow them to do that. "Feifei, where did you go? If something happened to you, the grand elder would have skinned us alive!" Feifei didn''t waste time explaining why she separated from them and immediately told them everything through a Divine Sense message. "What?! An assassin? Here?" They couldn''t believe it! Someone tried to kill Feifei right under the Divine Path Sect and the Big Four noses. "Feifei, are you telling the truth? This isn''t a joke." Feifei didn''t blame them this time since she was the one to flee first. So to make things faster, she simply took out a blood contract and used it to prove her words. When the four guys looked at that, they were taken aback! Now they have no other choice other than believe her. "This..." Feifei noticed that and then said. "If you are not coming, then I will go alone with Krune. By the way, that is the safest option according to what I can see with my abilities." Wang Mo sighed and then said. "Fine, if it is what your prediction ability says, then I will follow krune''s idea." Wang Ting and the other two also nodded. Everyone knows about Feifei''s divination abilities, so it would be an idiotic act to go against it in this situation. The end result might even be their death because of that. Feifei then told everyone the direction that they should move, and they departed. On the way, Wang Mo passed Krune a combat formation through their communicators and told him to practice it for now. They would use it in case they find one of those Divine Soul Realm assassins. Krune looked at the information and had to admit that this combat formation was excellent, not to mention that it could support different numbers of cultivators or demon beasts. After reading everything and pondering about it for a while, he arrived at a conclusion. "For this formation to show the best result, I will have to be in the center controlling it." Wang Mo and the others heard that, and their mouths twitched. "You only learned about his formation a few hours ago, and you believe you can control it better than Wang Mo? Are you making fun of our faces?" Krune shook his head and said. "I see nothing funny in doing something like that. This formation requires a high control over the elements and excellent grasp between both attack and defense at the same time. I believe that I am indeed the best one here for that. With Feifei''s calculations, I have no doubt that no one is better than me for this role at the moment." Wang Mo and the others obviously didn''t believe it, nor did they want to be under Krune''s control. So they all immediately refused. Krune saw that and sighed. There would be no point in having Feifei demanding them to do as he said. If they are not willing themselves, the formation might indeed be worse in his hands. Only with everyone''s full cooperation, Krune can bring the best result out of this. Feifei also understood that point, so she didn''t say anything. If she forces them to cooperate, they will instead hold an even bigger grudge against Krune. On the way, they had also asked to Feifei why she had fled. "Because if I kept close to you guys, I wouldn''t be able to train myself, so I did a deal with Krune. He would bring me away, but he would not intervene in any battle that I went through. Thanks to that, I could finally test several attack and defense skills that I had thought about. It was a lot better than having you guys stepping forward every single second to ''protect'' me." They were taken aback, but they had to admit that they would indeed try to look nice in front of her by doing that. Also, because of the grand elder''s orders, there is no way they could let Feifei pass through any dangerous situation. But a dangerous situation was exactly what she wanted. Krune didn''t say anything and let everything for Feifei to deal with. A day later, Krune''s group tried out the combat formation. In the end, Wang Mo was the one controlling it while Feifei used her Destiny Core to help with the battle. Krune could only sigh after seeing the several points where it went wrong or that he could have done better. Still, he followed the orders without complaining. The Wang Clan guys had to once more admit Krune''s talent. He was, without a doubt, the one who contributed the most both in attack and defense. Not to mention his flying shields that could add an extra layer of protection. Of course, they could only test it against Core Formation Realm opponents since they would spend too much energy if they challenged a Divine Soul Beast. After a few more forced battles, they stopped at that since they were close to the inner core region now. Finally, Krune''s group reached the central and inner core region border. When they looked at the place, they were taken aback. There was a huge light barrier as far as they could see! It seemed like it entered the ground and also the air above. Also, they couldn''t see anything like an entrance at all! Feifei felt that something wasn''t right about this place. Krune noticed her behavior and asked through a Divine Sense. "What is it?" Feifei then said. "I don''t know, but it seems like there is something different inside." Krune was taken aback but didn''t show it on his face. "Can you tell me what it is?" Feifei went silent for a moment but then said. "No, it''s just a feeling, and it''s quite weird." Krune nodded slightly. "Let''s not care about it for now, then. We have bigger issues to deal with at the moment." Feifei agreed with him and focused back on the situation in front of them. Wang mo then looked at everyone and said. "Let''s follow the barrier to see if we can find anything further away. Also, the others probably were stopped by this thing, so it should be easier to find them now." Krune and everyone nodded, but Krune told them something else. "If we thought about this possibility, the enemy probably did the same, so let''s be careful." He then looked at Feifei and asked. "Which side is should we go to found the other groups?" Feifei focused on her Destiny Core once more and said. "Right side." Everyone nodded once more, and they departed. Around one hour later, two men from the assassin''s group appeared in the same place where Krune and the others were before. One of then was Lanis, while the other was the last Black-Clothed man. In fact, he is a demon beast in human form, a griffin, to be more exact. His name was Yano. Lanis looked at Yano and asked. "How''s that?" Yano nodded and said. "They had been here, but they were stopped by this barrier. Let me see..." Yano then took a piece of equipment and said. "They went to the right side, and it seems like there are more of them now. But I can''t be sure how much or who it is." Lanis nodded and said. "No problem. Gelius and Peily are also coming, so I will tell them the direction, and we are going ahead first. It''s one thing for the Rasie Kids to deal with one of us, but it won''t happen if we attack together. As for mounting an ambush, it seems it won''t work. Peily said that they can feel our Divine Senses already, even though they are in the Core Formation Realm. Those are some scaring kids." Yano and Lanis then moved out to see if they could find Feifei. Although Peily lost track from Krune, Lanis doesn''t believe that the same can happen with him since he is a lot faster. --- On krune''s side, they finally found another group, they were none else than the Rasie Clan participants. Hulibe Acrol had also noticed that, although he didn''t see any other assassin, there had been no other Divine Soul Realm from the Divine Path Sect, either. So he also concluded that this realm is possibly closed to those outside this place. He noticed someone approaching and went on guard, but when he saw that it was Krune and the Wang Clan people, he relaxed a bit. After that, he asked if Krune''s group knew what was happening and what they found. Wang Mo came forward and nodded. "Yes, we know everything already." Both sides then explained what they knew. "We should keep together for the time being. Like that, the combat formation that I have here will also get much better." Acrol looked at the formation and said. "Keeping together is indeed the best option since we don''t know if they have a way to track us down. Separating now might just make us being hunted one by one. Still, my group has no need for your formation, so you can keep it to yourselves. We have our own way of dealing with our opponents." They were just about to keep taking when suddenly, Krune came forward to talk. 199 Biding Their Time Sure enough, Hulibe and Mo noticed someone else approaching. But to their surprise, it was none other than Uriu and the Divine Path Sect disciples! After they got close, Uriu immediately started to tell them what happened. Krune heard that and said. "So you guys also found an Assassin. It seems like they are here for Feifei, and we are the witnesses that they need to get rid of too." If it was only Feifei, a few of them might have separated from her. But so far, it was evident that they should also be eliminated to prevent any clues of those Assassins to spread. That meant that just leaving Feifei behind will make them no good. Instead, it will reduce their combat power. Juniu and the other disciples of the Divine Path Sect then gathered around Krune. They know that Krune is the strongest from their Sect at the moment, and he was someone selected by the Sect Master. In their eyes, it would be safer to follow Krune instead. Krune didn''t mind it this time, he needed more strength, after all. But there was also another thing. With Krune''s group numbers, Wang Mo''s group had no right to say that Krune should follow their order while using the battle formation. Krune then turned to Wang Mo and asked. "Can I pass them the battle formation?" Wang Mo was taken aback since he thought that Krune would use this chance to ask for the central position in it, but he just asked for the combat formation instead. "Sure." He then sent the combat formation to Juniu and the others. But when they noticed that the one who was controlling it wasn''t Krune, they got puzzled. It was then that Krune said. "Alright, I will make a new group with them while you guys make a group yourselves. We don''t know how many enemies are there, but we can tell that it is at least three at the moment. The Rasie Clan seems to have their own way of dealing with one of them. So we need to be able to do something about the other two. The best way is to use two combat formations at the same time." Only now did Wang Mo understand the reason. But he had to admit that Krune is right. It''s just that after what Krune provided to their formation during that little training time, he felt like it was an enormous loss to have Krune leaving it. "Very well." Krune nodded and then told Feifei with a Divine Sense message. "It''s better for you to stay with them too. Only with your Improved Destiny Core can they have a chance against those guys. I will use my group to try to get rid of one of them as fast as possible." Feifei nodded and didn''t move away from Wang Mo''s group. That made them sigh in relief. If she wasn''t going with Krune now, then it meant that what they had before was really just a deal, and now it was over. So in their eyes, Feifei had chosen to stay with them. Uriu, who hadn''t said anything so far, came close to Krune. He didn''t say it, but another reason was that he wanted to avenge his friends from the Spiritas Kingdom too. Krune nodded and also passed to him that combat formation. They had little time to practice it, but with Krune''s understanding and pointers, they still took a basic grasp in the following time. While all that was happening, they were also moving along with the barrier. That was the only reason why the Assassin leader hasn''t caught up to them yet since they are moving in the same direction. Also, they wanted to see how they would enter this light barrier. After all, that was supposed to be the condition to activate the teleport runestone formation and leave this place. Suddenly, Krune heard Light Spirit''s voice. "A Divine Sense passed through you just now, it seems like they had come. This time, it isn''t only one, but two instead." Krune was surprised. "Only two, not three?" Light Spirit focused a bit and then confirmed. "Yes, only two." Krune then asked everyone to stop. "They are here, I just felt their Divine Sense pass through us, and there is two of them now." Everyone looked at Krune, surprised. None of them had felt anything, but Krune, at the 4th Stage of the Core Formation Realm, could feel those Divine Soul Realm Divine Senses. That was ridiculous in their eyes. Light Spirit then started to give reports on their movements according to the Divine Sense. "It seems like those two stopped as well. They are just observing us. They noticed that we already detected their presence, so they are probably biding their time to wait for their companions." Hulibe Acrol narrowed his eyes. They don''t know if three is the total number or if there are even more of them. "We should take this chance to attack. If even more of them appear later, we might not be able to deal with them." Krune and everyone else nodded, so they immediately took action. On the other side, the Yano and Lanis noticed that their target stopped and are now moving in their direction. Yano felt surprised and then snorted. "Do they think that they can deal with the two of us together? I wish to see how they are going to do that." But just as Yanos was also about to dash forward to attack, Lanis put a hand on his shoulder and said. "Let''s retreat. Those kids from the Rasie Clan are with them, and you know very well what happened to Angil after that." Lanis wasn''t afraid of taking them all at once, but he was prioritizing the mission above everything else. So he decided to keep his distance while waiting for the others. Like that, they can join forces and get rid of all the trouble at once. Yanos felt a little unwilling but still followed the orders. Back at Krune''s group, Light Spirit immediately told him what was happening. Krune then asked for everyone to stop. "They are not coming. Instead, the assassins are keeping their distance while keeping their Divine Sense on us. It seems like they have no intention of starting a fight with us before their group is full." Everyone stopped and then looked at Krune. At the moment, he was the only one who could feel the enemies Divine Sense. "What do we do then, they are both at the Divine Soul Realm. If they decide to keep their distance, we won''t be able to catch up." Krune also didn''t have many options at the moment. He then looked at Feifei to see if she could use her Destiny Core to find a way out. Feifei also knew what Krune was thinking and had already started to do that. Still, it was quite hard to do when Divine Soul Realm cultivators were involved in the calculation. Uriu Orion then said. "In that case, let''s keep moving along the barrier the same way we did before. There might have something somewhere that will allow us to enter. We might as well do like I did with that Death Core assassin and force them into a trap formation." Krune and everyone else nodded, and they resumed their travel in the opposite direction of the assassins. Sure enough, both Lanis and Yanos followed them from a distance. Time passed, and soon, two hours went by. During this time, Lanis and Yano gathered with the guy who pursued Feifei and Krune. His name was Yunir, and he too wanted to attack straight away. But Lanis didn''t allow it and said to wait for Gelius, who was coming to meet them at the moment. Krune also informed everyone about the appearance of another assassin and the fact they still stayed behind. Even though they didn''t attack straight away, that didn''t make anyone happy. That just reinforced their conjecture that the enemy still had more members. Suddenly, Feifei''s eyes lit up! "Found it! The entrance to the inner core region." She had been using her Destiny Core to try to calculate its position for a long time, and her efforts were finally rewarded in the end. Everyone heard that, and their eyes lit up too! "No wonder we couldn''t find it. That is because the entrance isn''t on the barrier itself. In fact, this light barrier is entirely closed, and there are no gaps. The entrance is a teleport formation instead. it is around an hour away from here in that direction." Feifei then pointed to a direction on the opposite side of the light barrier, which took everyone aback. No wonder the Sect gave them around six months to complete this challenge. If they didn''t have Feifei''s Destiny Core, there was no way they could have found it anytime soon. They would probably spend a lot of time around the barrier, trying to finding something that didn''t even exist! They immediately moved in the direction that Feifei pointed. Lanis, Yano, and Yunir noticed their change in direction and were puzzled. "Did they give up trying to find an entrance?" Lanis pondered a bit. "I don''t think it is the reason. Remember that Feifei has prediction abilities, so it was probably because of her that they changed direction." The other two nodded. "Should we attack straight away, then?" Lanis also thought that it would be the best option to prevent Feifei from pulling some tricks once more. But just as he was about to give his order, he received a message from Gelius, which made his eyes lit up! "Gelius is almost here already. Let''s wait for him and then get over with it." Hearing that their only Major Core member was close by made Yano and Yunir excited. "Great! Now I want to see just how they are going to escape from us." Back at Krune''s group side, Feifei was still using her Destiny Core to predict the situation ahead when suddenly, she noticed something. "Everyone, be careful. It seems that it won''t be easy to use that Teleport Formation." The closer they get to the teleport formation, the easier it is for Feifei to use her abilities, or so it was supposed to be. But surprisingly, she is having problems doing so. That means that the level of the dangers in that place is definitely above her cultivation level. Krune immediately got excited after hearing that! "That''s great! This is exactly the type of situation that we need at the moment." 200 Luring Krune then asked Feifei to keep trying to see what they would find there. For that, Feifei would need to get even closer, which was already happening. Finally, Feifei was able to give some information to Krune and the others. "It is as you probably thought, there are quite a few demon beasts living in that place." It was indeed what Krune was expecting, so he turned to everyone and said. "Everyone, I have a plan to lure those guys." They at him waiting for his words. Krune then sent to them a Divine Sense message explaining what they would do. When they heard about what Krune could do, they were taken aback. "Can you really do that?" Krune nodded. "We are almost there, so come closer. That will give us a big advantage. The assassins think that we are fleeing, but they don''t know to where. If we suddenly disappear, there is no doubt that they will come straight at us to see what happened." Krune then looked at Feifei and said. "Feifei, I will need you to find a route where we won''t bump on those Divine Soul Demon Beasts." Feife nodded and started to use her Destiny Core to the limit. So far, she had been using it sporadically so that she would always be in a combat state. But with Krune''s plan, it was now time to put it to good use. Suddenly, Uriu''s life core started to make him feel restless. "Not good, the Death Core owner is almost here." Krune then received a message from Light Spirit. "I can feel a new Divine Sense. That Uriu kid is not lying. Still, he is further away than the other three, so it seems like they aren''t coming before getting together." Krune then didn''t waste time and immediately went back to his wisp form. "Now, gather together." They got close to Krune, and suddenly, a small layer of Tribulation Lightning started to spread around them. That was the technique that Light Spirit taught him back then when he left the Rainbow Sect. The one capable of hiding oneself against Divine Senses! At that time, it was able to hide Krune against four Soul Forging Experts, so let alone a few Divine Soul Realm ones. The reason that Krune hasn''t used it so far was that he could only control it to cover himself. Even for Krune, he had to admit that controlling it was very demanding. It needs one to control Tribulation Lightning in a very delicate way, which was very hard with a power as berserk as this one. That''s why he hadn''t used it so far and asked Light Spirit to do it this time. Light Spirit usually wouldn''t intervene too, the more dangerous situations that Krune goes through, the faster he will grow. But the time now was different, so he had to do it for Krune for them to at least have a chance in this plan. In fact, Light Spirit didn''t have Krune''s limitation. If he wanted, he could control it even from far away! Surprisingly, it was a teleport formation one. But Krune''s idea was not to teleport everyone, but to use its space power to fool the assassins! On the side of the assassins, they had already noticed Gelius coming. They were just waiting for him to initiate their attack. But suddenly, Krune''s group disappeared from their Divine Senses! "Did they use a teleport formation or a runestone one?" Lanis nodded. "I was able to see that wisp bringing out a Runestone, and then I felt the power of the space around them just before they disappeared. Let''s go, with the number that had just been teleported, they shouldn''t have gone far. Yano, take a look if you can find the direction they had gone." Yano nodded and immediately started to work, he couldn''t pinpoint their exact location. Still, he could give a general direction as Feifei does. "They are still further ahead in the same direction." Lanis and the other two nodded and immediately dashed forward. On Krune''s side, he had Light Spirit use the Tribulation Lightning Layer just as they were about to enter the place of the Teleport Formation. With that, the demon beasts inside wouldn''t feel their presence. With Feifei''s help and the fact that she just had to predict what was in front of her, they were able to move past the demon beasts without being noticed. A few minutes later, the assassins arrived. When they used their Divine Sense to see the place, they soon noticed the number of demon beasts in the area. "No wonder they used a teleport runestone, there are too many beasts here, so they probably used it to pass by without alarming them." Still, they couldn''t waste time here. So they ignored the demon beasts'' eyes and moved forward. Even if a Divine Soul Demon Beast appears, they will be able to deal with it straight away with their combined power. But what they didn''t expect is that this place is guarded not by one or two of them, but six! The reason was evident, this is the place that has the teleport formation that leads into the inner core region, so it had a lot more protection. Sure enough, the low-level beasts noticed the assassins passing through and immediately informed their leaders. On Krune''s side, they were moving as fast as they can. Finally, they could see a giant building in front that seemed to be very old. Feifei then confirmed that the teleport formation is really inside. At the moment, no one was using their Divine Senses since they didn''t want to alarm the demon beasts at the same level or higher. In that case, they could only count on Feifei''s prediction ability. Krune looked at her and could see that Feifei was sweating quite a lot. It was evident that she was using her Destiny Core to a great extent. Suddenly, Feifei shouted through a Divine Sense Message. "Everyone get down now! Don''t move." They did as Feifei asked, and just a second later, they saw five flashes of light flying in the direction that they came. Immediately, Krune''s group understood who they were. As expected, those are the Divine Soul Demon Beasts guarding the location. They got information from their subordinates about the assassins coming in their direction. There were two Thunder Lions with one Lioness. Beside them, one could also see two Dark Tigers and one White. Of course, the White Tiger isn''t the Divine Beast Winged White Tiger, just a normal white one. Krune''s group knew that their luring plan worked, and the assassins did really get the Divine Soul beasts attention. The Assassins noticed the Divine Soul beasts coming in their Divine Sense. But at the same time, they also saw a teleport formation inside a building in the same direction! If they didn''t understand what was happening now, they would have lived their lives in vain. "Those brats!" The Demon Beasts were left behind with an order to kill anyone that intruded inside, and it had been like this for a very long time. So when those beasts arrived, they didn''t say anything and attacked straight away. The assassins weren''t weak, though. Even with the disadvantage in numbers, they were just put in a defensive position but were still able to hold the demon beasts back. But what they were afraid wasn''t the demon beasts, but the Teleport Formation inside the building. If Krune''s group goes through it and destroy the formation on the other side, it will take a long time until they find their group again. Unfortunately for them, Krune had already predicted this much. So it was well within his plan that they would try to stop them from using the teleport formation. With Feifei''s help, Krune and the others entered the building without alarming any of the lower level beasts. They could feel quite a lot of Divine Senses passing through them, but only the Core Formation ones would pose any risk. Still, Light Spirit was controlling the Tribulation Layer, so even they couldn''t feel their presence at the moment. But because of the battle outside, the majority of the Core Formation Realm demon beasts went out to check. So the place was pretty much empty at the moment. Thanks to that, by avoiding the other beasts and getting rid of some on the way. They arrived at the teleport formation but didn''t try to use it. Instead, Krune silently put several spirit stones around it so that they could use it at any time. Outside, Gelius had finally caught up with their group. Once there, he immediately attacked and put the demon soul beasts at a disadvantage. But Lanis knew that they couldn''t waste time here. "Yano, you go ahead and destroy that formation before they can use it, we will hold the demon beasts back!" Yano didn''t say anything and immediately turned back to his griffin form. He then dashed forward while Lanis, Peily, and Gelius stayed to deal with the demon beasts. The reason that Lanis asked Yano to do that is that in his griffin form, he is the best at keeping himself alive. They still couldn''t detect Krune''s group even after arriving into this place. But there is no way that these Divine Soul Beasts would let them use the teleport formation, so they arrived at the conclusion that Krune''s group was hiding from their Divine Sense. If not, then they were not here to start with. But they couldn''t take the risk, so Yano was tasked with destroying the Teleport Formation. Light Spirit noticed Yano coming and immediately told Krune. Although there was more than one entrance to the teleport room, Krune had Light Spirit to tell from where Yano would be coming from. After hearing that, Krune smiled. 201 Ambush Succeeded Knowing from where the enemy was coming, Krune asked Light Spirit to help cover his Flying Shields as well. Because the shields were made of Tribulation Ore, it was easier to use Tribulation Lightning on them. Light Spirit did as Krune asked, and with that, the shields were also hidden from the enemy''s Divine Sense. Krune had only one plan, get rid of at least one of the enemies before the rest came over. Even though they could use the teleport formation, there is no way to say if the assassins will be able to find a way to enter the inner core region. So it was best to eliminate part of the danger straight away. Krune had told the others what he was about to do, but Hulibe Acrol was against it at first. Acrol and his friends still could fight at the Divine Soul Realm level once more, so he wanted to be the one to make the attack. But even though Krune didn''t know why Hulibe could fight those guys, he decided to refuse his idea. "If you have a way to fight them, you better keep it for later. Don''t worry, I''m very confident in my attack power. At the very least, I should be able to severely injure him, so just keep looking." Acrol was doubtful, but he had to admit that if Krune could deal with one of them without needing his help, then that would be for the best. But the main reason he trusted Krune at the moment was that he was Lucio''s very first personal disciple. For the Sect Master to have chosen this wisp, Krune has to have some tricks of his own. Yano, as expected, was using his Divine Sense to check what was happening inside, but all he could see are the demons beasts that remained behind. There was no sign of Krune or anyone from his group. For Yano, it was good. He knew that Krune and the others ''teleported'' away, so with his companions holding back the demon beasts, it would be easy for him to destroy the Teleport Formation. Unfortunately for him, Krune was there waiting for his arrival. As soon as he entered the teleport formation room, Yano noticed several shields floating in the air around him. At first, he thought that it was a defensive formation, but that was for only a split of a second. That''s because those shields were not appearing in his Divine Sense! Immediately, he felt extreme danger fall over him and tried to retreat, but how could Krune allow him to do that? He had been prepared long before, and he wasn''t holding back anything. After this attack, he definitely wouldn''t be able to use it again before spending some time recovering the Tribulation Lightning power. "Tribulation Calamity!" Boom! Tribulation Lightning and Fire spread everywhere inside the range of the shields, and even Hulibe felt afraid of it. Even if he used his treasures for defense, they still might not be able to defend that attack. Not to mention that Krune wasn''t using any kind of treasure either. That was basically his own attack power! One must remember that when Krune used this attack against Lucio, it was his first time doing it, so he had got a lot better at it now. Also, krune had gone one stage of cultivation higher, which also contributed to the attack. Finally, there is the fact that Krune didn''t use his entire reserve of Tribulation Lightning against Lucio, but this time, he definitely did! If even his Master, Lucio, couldn''t leave the range of the attack in time, let alone this guy. Although Lucio had suppressed his cultivation to the 3rd level of the core formation, he was still a Semi Divinity Realm cultivator. But even he didn''t notice the attack until he was already inside. Yano''s Spiritual Energy barrier broke apart as if it was made of glass! The Lightning and Fire hit his body from all directions. At that moment, he knew that he was about to die. Still, he is a middle stage Divine Soul Realm demon beast and one good at survival. In that moment of Life and Death, Yano used a forbidden technique that drained his griffin bloodline to out. Right after, all his feathers turned blood red! His attack, defense, speed, everything increased, and he used that chance to charge out of shields range. That power of his would only last for a little while, and he would pretty much be without combat power left after that. Krune saw it and snorted. "You just got here, why don''t you stay for a little longer?" As soon as Yano hard that voice, his heart went cold. Just as he was about to leave the Tribulation Calamity zone, his griffin head hit a steel wall! To be more precise, he was stopped by Krune''s Flying Shields! The shields that Krune used to attack with the Tribulation Calamity already lost their Divine Sense cover, so Yano could see them now. Still, Krune had purposely left 5 shields unused for the sole purpose of defending in case his attack failed. But now that it succeeded, they were pretty much free, and they still had the anti-Divine Sense Tribulation Layer. Krune used them to stop the Griffin from leaving the range of his Tribulation Calamity. Yano then threw caution to the wind! At first, he could still recover after a few weeks of the side effects of using his bloodline. But now that it reached this point, he couldn''t care anymore. Yano then used even more of this power, which will definitely affect him for life! After that, he once more attacked the shields ahead. This time, there was so much power behind the attack that Krune''s 5 shields were sent flying! Yano used that change and left the place straight away. He didn''t even look back, nor did he care about the Teleport Formation anymore. In a red streak, Yano left the building and disappeared in the distance. Krune and the others knew that it was now time. The teleport formation activated, and the spirit stones left in place started to turn into dust. A moment later, Krune and everyone else disappeared with a flash of silver light. All of this took some time to explain but happened in no more than 10 seconds. The assassins saw everything that happened inside with their Divine Sense and were taken aback. They wanted to go there and help, but not only was everything over too fast, but the Demon Beasts also had no intention of letting them go. Just a second after the Krune and the others disappeared, the Teleport Formation suddenly broke apart. It was evident that the teleport formation on the other side was destroyed too. Usually, if you break one side of the teleport formation, nothing would happen with the other one. But because the formation was still active when they destroyed, the space power inside went in disarray, making that one break too. Yano had left straight away, and he didn''t come back to his group. It wasn''t that he didn''t want to help, but because he was almost without any combat power left. Fortunately, the assassins had the upper hand even with the disadvantage in numbers. But in the end, they decided that there was no point in keeping this fight against the Divine Soul Demon Beasts and retreated too. Sometime later, Yano contacted Lanis and told him where he was. After Lanis got there, his face went dark. Yano was basically only skin and bones, there is no way he would be able to participate in a battle anytime soon. Lanis then asked "How is it?" Yano looked dispirited and said. "It''s even worse than it looks, I have overdrawn my bloodline way too much, and I''m basically stuck at the Divine Soul Realm for life now. Unless I find some heaven-defying treasure, I have no hope of improvement in the future." Yano went silent for a second and then continued. "Even so, I still can use Divination, which should help you guys find another entrance. There is one thing that I''m sure about. That teleport formation definitely connected to the inner core region, and I''m confident that it isn''t the only one." Usually, Lanis would get rid of anyone that had no more use in this mission. But Yano was right, he could still use his Divination ability. He then took out a healing pill and threw it to Yano. "Use it." 202 Should we attack? Back inside the inner core region, Krune''s group was looking around after they destroyed the Teleport Formation. They were expecting that the other side would have some guardians, demon beasts, or traps waiting for them. But surprisingly, there was nothing at all, the place was completely empty. Wang Ting then wondered. "Could it be that the demon beasts didn''t know how to use the teleport formation, so no one ever came here through it?" Hulibe Acrol shook his head. "It doesn''t matter how ill-informed those demon beasts are, they should at least know how to use the teleport formation. For them to never come here, it is more like an order left behind by the owner of the realm." Hulibe knew that Feifei could make predictions, so he was going to ask her if she could see anything. But when he looked in her direction, he noticed that she looked exhausted. Only then did he remember that to use divination with so many Divine Soul Realm involved should have taken a lot of effort. In fact, as said before, Feifei couldn''t predict more than one Divine Soul Realm cultivator. It was because her focus was not on them but on the route that she was able to pull that off. Krune also noticed that, but there wasn''t much he could do either. Feifei could only recover by herself. Fortunately, thanks to Feifei''s improved Destiny Core, she didn''t have to deal with heaven''s backlash, so she just needed time to take a breath. Krune was just about to talk as well when suddenly, everyone heard a voice coming from everywhere. "So, you are the first ones to appear, uh?" Immediately, everyone raised their guard while spreading their Divine Sense to see from where it was coming from. But even Krune, the one with the largest Divine Sense, couldn''t find even a shadow. "You can already stop trying to find me. First of all, I don''t even have a physical body. My name is Xanio Faren, the Will of the previous owner of this realm and also the one responsible for managing it." Krune immediately understood. ''He is basically like Hasik from my old Rainbow Sect.'' The voice then continued. "I was left behind by the real Xanio with hopes of finding an inheritor for him. But no one showed even after hundreds of thousands of years. Even this Will that my real self left behind in a hibernating state was getting close from dissipation. But my real self had predicted that a successor would definitely appear, so I kept waiting. Sure enough, here you are." Krune and everyone else was hearing that, but they didn''t seem to have too much of a reaction. Every single one of them came from the top powers of the entire western protectorate. So at most, they will consider anything they get here as some extra income like Juniu and the others did. Suddenly, the place underneath where Feifei was resting started to shine! Krune and everyone were taken aback. Krune had the fastest reaction, he immediately used his Tribulation Lightning at 100% and dashed in her direction. Still, it was too late. Even Feifei herself barely had time to even notice what was happening before disappearing! Krune then immediately shouted. "Where is she?!" Krune wasn''t the only one concerned, but everyone else too. It is just that the rest were expecting to rely on Feifei prediction ability. Different from Krune, who was really worried about the person herself. Of course, the Wang Clan guys had one more reason to be concerned. The fact the grand elder will take their heads if something happens to Feifei. The voice went silent for a moment and then said. "It is as I said, a successor has appeared. There is no need for you guys to worry, I have no intention of injuring her at all." "My real self had a Destiny Core as well, so I knew from the start that that girl was a Destiny Core user. My real self didn''t simply use the Core for predictions, though. For hundreds of thousands of years, he really studied it deeply. He studied his destiny core to the point where he almost destroyed it several times. All for a single purpose, or to be more precise, because of a legend." "I believe that between you all, some definitely are Major Core owners, right? So there is no doubt that you heard about this legend as well." Hulibe, Uriu, and Krune were the first ones to connect the points. "The thing about the Heavenly Core being, in fact, the evolution of one of the other nine Major Cores, correct?" The voice agreed. "Correct!" He then continued. "What my real self studied was a way of making his Destiny Core evolve into a Heavenly Core. Still, that''s all I can tell you at the moment, the rest will be up to that girl whether she wants to talk or not. Although I say inheritance, it isn''t entirely correct. My real self left behind a few ways of using his Destiny Core that he found during his studies. But the most valuable thing is the knowledge about his research, which will be imparted to her." Hulibe started to think. The Heavenly Core is something that was researched not only by this guy but by the entire universe. He doesn''t believe that this Xanio has found anything that others haven''t already. In the end, all the researches about this topic turned out to be fruitless. But there is that rumor that his Ancestor told him. A story that Feifei might have a Heavenly Core. Still, from what he saw so far, Feifei''s Major Core doesn''t seem anything more than a Destiny Core. If there was anything different, it was the fact that her predictions ability seemed to be much better than what his Ancestor told him. The Rasie Clan obviously also had other Destiny Core users. Still, from what he knows, they aren''t as good as Feifei with it. ''Could the Heavenly Core and Feifei''s Core really be related? It doesn''t seem like it, though. There is way too little information about the Heavenly Core. Still, one thing is sure, the Heavenly Core was supposed to be a lot more powerful and useful than Feifei''s.'' Hulibe then put those thoughts on the back of his mind and went back to the issues at hand. "I don''t care about the inheritance, our problem at the moment are the assassins outside. They have higher cultivation than us and are definitely coming here. Without Feifei''s prediction abilities, it will get really hard to deal with them." The voice then laughed. "That has nothing to do with me. My objective was to find a successor, and that''s what I did. Now I only need to protect her until she finishes acquiring all the knowledge." Because Krune had been in his wisp form until now, no one could check his expression. But at the moment, he is really fuming! ''My master is definitely a descendant of this guy, I''m sure about it! Both of them forcefully took a disciple against their Will. What is this, some kind of ill fate?'' But then he calmed down, what matters at the moment is that Feifei seems to be safe. Krune only has to think of a way to deal with those assassins outside. He isn''t idiot, considering this place size, there are definitely other teleport formations connecting to this place somewhere. "Xanio, you don''t care about what happens, but you also don''t mind if we take a look around, right?" The voice then confirmed. "Indeed, as long as you keep away from the center, of course. It is not that I don''t want you to go there. It is just that if you are not at least at the Void Breaking Realm, you will definitely die if you enter that place. Unfortunately for you, this realm only allows those with cultivation in the Divine Soul Realm or lower to enter. Anyone who enters that place is pretty much signing their suicide letter." Krune then thought about something else and asked. "Can you tell us where the other teleport formations are? As long as we destroy them, they won''t be able to teleport here, right?" When everyone heard that, their eyes lit up! That''s right! They have the teleport runestones that can bring them outside. Although it is not working at the moment, once the dimensional realm reconnects with the outside, they will be able to use it. All they need to do is to keep those guys far away until that time. Unfortunately, Xanio threw a bucket of cold water on their heads. "Oh, you talking about the fact the protection formation? Don''t worry about that, it will disappear very soon." Krune and the others almost vomited blood! "What do you mean it''s going to disappear?" Xanio then said. "Now that an inheritor was found, all the energy that is keeping that barrier activated is being redirected to the central building. It is because of this that the central building defenses can hold off even Void Breaking Realm cultivators and demon beasts. Simply put, there is no more energy to keep the barrier on." Everyone felt like cursing this guy. Still, this is nothing more than a Will left behind, the real one had left a long time ago already. He might even be dead now. Krune and the others decided to ignore him for now and think about a way to deal with those guys outside. Fortunately for them, the assassins didn''t know that, so they were waiting until Yano recovers enough to move on. Still, once that huge light barrier disappears, there will be no way they can''t see what is happening. Krune started to think and then told everyone. 203 Heavenly Core Truth Deep inside the central building, Feifei was looking around to see what was happening. Suddenly, an ethereal project of a man appeared in front of her. "Hello there. Your name is Feifei, right?" Feifei didn''t seem surprised that he knew her name, this guy was the one who managed this dimensional realm, so he definitely had eyes everywhere. "Why did you bring me here?" Xanio then answered. "I finally found an inheritor, so I brought you here to pass on my knowledge." Feifei heard that and then laughed. "Did you know? I''m a direct descendant of the Wang Clan, so I don''t think there is anything you can give me that I can''t get already. In fact, I might have even better sources." Xanio wasn''t angry with that remark, though. "You say that, but your Destiny Core is saying the opposite, isn''t that right?" Feifei narrowed her eyes when she heard that. "What do you mean?" Xanio continued. "Let''s start with the legend about the Heavenly Core. It is said that the Heavenly Core always appeared after one of the 9 Major Cores evolved into it. This much you already know, right?" Feifei nodded and waited for Xanio to continue talking. "I dedicated my life trying to give birth to a Heavenly Core, but during most of it, I''ve seen my research turned into a fruitless effort. I thought that I would really leave this place before I could get an answer. I tried several things, both with my own Destiny Core and the other Major Cores. Still, nothing much changed. It was then that I thought about a possibility." Xanio''s face turned serious at this point. "Is it really the 9 Major Cores the ones capable of evolving? What if the previous Heavenly Core owners didn''t have a Major Core to start with? Or to be more precise, what if their Major Cores were not the same as the ones that I knew?" Feifei''s heart skipped a bit at that point. After all, both her and Krune seem to have a Major Core that is different from the others of the same type. "Following this logic, I changed the focus of my research. I went after records of the 9 Major Cores that had appeared until that point. As you know, Major Cores are extremely rare. Still, with the number of cultivators and demons beasts in the universe, there are quite a few appearing every year. Remember that we are talking about the entire universe here, not the Western Protectorate alone." "I spent thousands of years traveling around the universe and collecting records of the past Major Core owners. Finally, I stopped somewhere and started my studies." "Another thing that I noticed is that no more than one of each showed those peculiarities. What I mean is that, during the time a Heavenly Core appeared, only a single one of each Major Core type showed those changes. Or at least, I didn''t find any records of two Advanced Major Cores of the same type during the same age." "If my research isn''t wrong, every time those Advanced Major Cores show themselves, a Heavenly Core has a chance of appearing." Feifei got confused at that point and asked. "A chance? Does it mean that even if those Advanced Major Core owners appear, a Heavenly Core isn''t guaranteed to appear too?" Xanio nodded. "Correct. You must remember this, there is very little information about the Heavenly Core, and that is because it doesn''t always come to be. In fact, the chances are still low even during those times." Feifei seemed to understand something. "Wait, are you telling me that the Heavenly Core is a combination of those 9 Advanced Major Cores?" Xanio showed a smile after heard that. "Smart! That is also the reason why a Heavenly Core rarely appears. From what I found, each of those 9 Advanced Major Cores carries with them a fragment of the Heavenly Core. In fact, I''m almost 100% sure about that. Do you remember the thing that had been calling you inside this place?" Feifei nodded, it was evident that Xanio knew that she had a Major Core different from the others. Xanio smiled and said. "That is the Heavenly Core Fragment of an Advanced Destiny Core. That''s why you can feel its presence. No, to be more exact, it ''was'' a Heavenly Core Fragment, but it is not the case anymore." Although Feifei was already expecting it, she still was surprised to hear that. "What do you mean with ''was?''" Xanio sighed and said. "That is just a projection of the real thing that I made with the help of a friend who had the Time Core. We spent hundreds of years until we pinpointed the right time when it appeared. You probably noticed it already since you have one of the Advanced Major Cores. It''s impossible to ready the Destiny Energy of an Advanced Major Core. Because of that, it was really hard to get this projection working. Simply put, this Heavenly Core Fragnament of an Advanced Destiny Core doesn''t really exist anymore. Remember this, I''m almost sure that there will never be two Advanced Major Cores of the same type at the same time in the same Universe." Feifei heard this last part and made a question that was bothering her for a long time already. "How did you know that I was coming? You said it yourself, the actions of an Advanced Major Core owner can''t be read. In that case, it should have been impossible for you to find that I was coming." Xanio laughed after hearing that. "Exactly! That''s why I didn''t predict that you would come. First of all, I didn''t even know if you would be human or not. What I predicted was that I would receive an inheritor as long as I waited here, that was all. Also, I was sure that this person or demon beast would have an Advanced Destiny Major Core." Feifei is very intelligent herself, so she only needed those words to understand the entire situation. "I see! You used prediction on yourself! As for the reason that you knew that your inheritor would be an Advanced Major Core, I think I understand that too. Basically, even though you knew that an inheritor would appear, you couldn''t see anything about him or her. You couldn''t predict the time, gender, race, or anything like that. Still, that was all the proof that you needed. Since you know that you will get an inheritor, but can''t see anything about him or her, that can only mean that an Advanced Major Core is the only possibility. In the end, the Advanced Major Core special anti-destiny-energy-trait worked against itself." Xanio was feeling happier and happier with this girl, she was a lot smart than he thought. Just a few words, and she was able to unveil everything by herself. "Impressive!" That wasn''t all that Feifei thought. Feifei now understood what was happening here. Why assassins that seemed to come from outside the Western Protectorate wanted her dead. Feifei is only 17 years old, and the rumors that she might have a Heavenly Core only started a few years ago. Also, only the high echelon of each of the big four knew about this rumor. So it makes sense that it took a few years to reach the ears of those from outside. But now that they did, that power wanted her Heavenly Fragment from her Destiny Core. "How do you obtain the Heavenly Fragment of an Advanced Major Core?" Xanio sighed and said. "I''m not sure. As I said, there is too little information about the Heavenly Cores. Still, I believe that the Three Sacred Lands of the Central Region definitely have some information themselves. After all, most of the Heavenly Core owners in the past had been part of their powers. Unfortunately, it doesn''t matter what I did, I couldn''t take any information from them. In fact, there was even a time that I got pursued because of that." Feifei''s conjecture that those assassins came for her Heavenly Core fragment got even stronger now. Xanio then continued. "Still, thanks to those guys coming after you outside, I have some ideas now." Xanio''s eyes became cold when he talked about the assassins. "When they first appeared in my realm, I heard they commenting about having to kill you and take something back. I don''t believe that anyone of the assassins is an Advanced Major Core owner. That means that once you are dead, your Heavenly Core fragment can still be taken away." "Most likely, it can be absorbed by anyone of the Advanced major Core Owners even if it wasn''t they who killed you. This also proves another thing, the power behind those guys probably has an Advanced Major Core owner already. Otherwise, it would have been better to try to make you one of them. But it seems like they are dead set on taking your life." Feifei agreed with Xanio''s words. "Can''t you do something about them? After all, they are after my Heavenly Core Fragment. Also, I don''t want my friends outside to die." Xanio shook his head. "The rules left behind by my real self didn''t consider anyone else other than the Advanced Core owner, so I can''t help them. They even asked me if I could tell them where the other teleport formations to the inner core region were. Still, I told them that it would be useless since the light barrier will disappear anytime now." Xanio then explained the same thing as he did for Krune and the others. Feifei was taken aback by that. "In that case, I''m leaving. I have no need for your inheritance, nor do I want a Heavenly Core. If what I need to do to get that is to leave Krune behind, then I might as well pretend that it doesn''t even exist." There was another thing too. Feifei knows that Krune is probably another Advanced Major Core owner, so if she wanted a Heavenly Core, Krune had to die. That is completely out of the question for her. Fortunately, any comments about it were made through Divine Sense, so no one could have heard. Xanio didn''t expect that someone would simply give up the chance of getting a Heavenly Core like that. So he panicked a little when Feifei started to move away. Even though she can''t leave without his agreement, if Feifei is not willing to do ''that'' for him, then there is no point in it. "Wait, wait! I can do a little bit about that." Feifei showed a smile and then turned back. "Oh, is that so? Let''s hear your ideas then." 204 They cant be this lucky twice. Sometime earlier, Krune had commented about starting an attack by themselves. Uriu looked at him and asked. "Do you have a plan?" Krune nodded. "It''s not really a plan, I just think that we should use my skill to hide from their Divine Sense and attack." Wang Mo couldn''t help but ask. "Can we really succeed once more? As you said, they definitely have their guards up now, so I doubt that something like what happened before would happen. First of all, it seems like they also have someone capable of tracking us. So they should be able to know if we are close by or not even with your Tribulation Lightning Concealment." Everyone nodded when they heard that. It doesn''t seem very feasible to attack the assassins at this point. Juniu then asked. "Then what about trying to luring them one more time? We could try to lure the enemy inside the Central Building." Wang Mo immediately intervened after that. "To lure them inside, we would need to enter too. We would just die even faster." In the end, Krune came forward and said. "Let''s just go with the first option, we will conceal ourselves and wait for a chance to attack. If it works, then excellent! If it doesn''t, then we fight head-on! Isn''t the sole purpose of this training to go into Life and Death situations to temper ourselves? Even though I didn''t kill that demon beast, I still injured it enough. It definitely won''t be able to battle anytime soon." Hulibe Acrol was the first one to approve. "Agreed! I also don''t like to keep waiting. This is the best chance we have at the moment since the other two guys are out of the play." Uriu agreed with that too. In the end, everyone decided to follow this plan since Krune and Hulibe had a point. If they wait too long, the other two assassins might get back on their feet and help getting rid of them. Of course, they didn''t know that Angil wasn''t a risk anymore, so they also considered him as a treat. A few hours later, just like Xanio mentioned, the light barrier started to disappear. Fortunately, it was enough time for Krune to recover his Tribulation Lightning power to the peak. Since that was the case, they immediately set off. Because Krune was the one to activate the teleport formation, he had an idea from which direction they came. Also, he made sure to ask Light Spirit to cover them with the Tribulation Lightning layer once more. Just as they were about to leave, everyone heard Xanio''s voice. "I will give you some help with that. " Krune and the others immediately got confused. Didn''t this guy say that anything that happened to them didn''t have anything to do with him? How come he is willing to help now? Of course, they just needed one second to understand that Feifei was most likely the reason. Immediately, everyone''s eyes lit up! But Krune was the only one who thought about another thing. "What were the terms of this agreement?" Xanio answered. "That''s not of your concern. What you need to know is that Feifei already accepted it, so you should use this chance well." Although Krune wasn''t happy with that answer, he had to admit that the task at hand was the most important now. Hulibe looked at everyone and said. "My two friends here and I can fight at the Divine Soul Realm level for a short amount of time, so we need to find the best way of doing it." Krune was already expecting something like that since Hulibe said before that he could deal with one of the enemies at least. "Bring a Middle Stage one to join my group. I will use this chance to eliminate the Death Core owner." Wang Mo looked at him and asked. "Are you sure you can do it? I doubt that they will fall inside your Tribulation Lightning attack like last time." Krune nodded. "I can, and that''s because that wasn''t my strongest attack. First of all, that kind of attack takes too much space and time to build. So unless I take the enemy off guard, it wouldn''t work just like you said. There is one thing that I had been thinking, and I would like to try." Wang Mo and the others narrowed their eyes. Krune was intending to try a new attack in this situation, so what if it doesn''t work? Krune didn''t mind, though. He was pretty confident that it would be okay since the principle behind wasn''t as complicated as his Tribulation Calamity. It was a simply head-on full-power attack. "Trust me, it will definitely work. But I need that Middle Stage Demon Beast to hold the Death Core owner for a second." Usually, they would complain about his confidence. But after what they saw in the teleportation building, they had to admit that no one here had an attack power as high as him. If the next attack was even more powerful than that, then it might be worth the risk. Uriu was the first one to agree. "Let''s do as he says. I will use my Life Core to the max to keep the Death Energy of that guy at bay, so just concentrate on your task." Krune then communicated with Light Spirit and asked. "Are you sure you can control it?" Light Spirit immediately answered. "Hmph! Even if it was 10 times more powerful, I would still be able to do so. Although I have recovered just a little bit, it is still more than enough to control this amount of power. You just need to be sure that you can do what you said." Krune then took a deep breath and reassured Light Spirit. Not long after, a Middle Stage Divine Soul Realm demon beast appeared in their Divine Sense. They were surprised to see that it was a ten-legged Swamp Spider. It wasn''t a very rare demon beast. In fact, just like Krune, it could also enter the human form at the Foundation Establishment Realm. Still, because Krune said that he needed the enemy to be held for a second, this was indeed a perfectly chosen beast. Xanio then told Krune''s group where the assassins were located. Sure enough, as soon as they saw the light barrier disappear, the assassins immediately came inside. Thanks to Yano, who had healed enough to at least follow them, they could also tell Krune and the others'' general location. Still, Xanio told them that the enemy seemed to be very cautious while coming. Before Krune''s group entered the Divine Sense range of the assassins, Light Spirit immediately covered everyone with a Tribulation Lightning Layer. Light Spirit also did the same with the Spider, but it didn''t stay with the group. Instead, Krune told Xanio to keep it some distance away to launch a surprise attack at the Death Core owner. Because of the Tribulation Lightning Layer, the enemy wouldn''t be able to detect it. Not to mention that the enemy definitely isn''t expecting that a Divine Soul Realm Demon Beast is working with Krune. At most, they think that Krune would try to lure them into fighting one. Of course, such action wouldn''t work anymore, and Krune knew it. That''s why he wouldn''t try this move to start with. Krune''s group moved not at the direction of the assassins, but almost to the opposite side now. Since they had a plan, the best was to make them think that they are trying to escape. As soon as the Enemy''s Divine Sense passed through them, Light Spirit warned Krune. As per the plan, Krune''s group speed immediately soared as they dashed away. Of course, they wouldn''t be as fast at the Divine Soul Realm assassins. Only Krune, perhaps, would be able to do it if he was alone. Yano, who was tracking them, immediately told Lanis about what happened, and their group increased their speed too. Because both sides were moving away in the same direction, it took quite some time for the assassins to be able to see them. But once they did, they noticed that Feifei wasn''t with them. Still, their only choice was to attack so that they could ask where Feifei was now. Krune''s group then increased their speed even more, but that was to no avail. Gelius, the Death Core Owner, had his eyes fixed on Uriu, and immediately chased. Lanis kept his Divine Sense fully activated to prevent any mishaps. Still, he could only see Krune''s group trying to flee. Finally, Gelius caught up with Krune and Uriu while Peily went after Wang Mo''s group. Hulibe noticed it and shouted. "Fuck that! Since you want to fight, then let''s fight!" Hulibe then used the same treasure, and immediately, he and his two friends combat power raised to the Divine Soul Level. After that, they immediately rushed to Lanis, who was behind. Lanis saw what happened and just snorted. "Do you think I''m as weak as the other guy? Although my companion couldn''t tell it at that time, I definitely can. Let me see just how long the will inside your treasure can hold before going out of energy." Wang Mo''s group was the one in the worst condition at the moment. Peily was obvious much stronger than their combined effort, so all they could do was defend. Thanks to Uriu''s Life Core, Krune''s group was being able to hold the Death Energy of the Death Core Owner. Still, a Divine Soul Realm cultivator with a Major Core is usually much stronger than a normal one with the same cultivation. Because of that, even his group formation was having a hard time holding Gelius off. Fortunately, his Flying Shields were of tremendous help. Krune then looked at Peily''s direction and thought. 205 Conclusion Krune looked at Uriu and sent him a Divine Sense message. "Try to hold him for a second!" Uriu understood and immediately took Krune''s place in the center of the combat formation. Immediately after, Krune recalled all his shields. He then used half of them to make something like a cage around himself. Lanis, the leader assassin, had been waiting for something like a trap all along, so he noticed the change straight away. "Gelius, be careful." Gelius noticed that, and he opened the distance between him and Krune''s group a little, but he soon got puzzled. If he was the target, Krune''s group should have tried to stop him from getting away. However, they did the opposite and immediately assumed a protection position in front of Krune. Lanis still had a bad feeling about all of this. But he couldn''t simply leave now. Suddenly, everyone on the battlefield started to hear a loud sound of thunder. In their Divine Senses, Krune''s shield ''cage'' began to look like an Orb of Purple Lightning and Fire. Gelius looked at that and couldn''t help but think. ''Is he planing to self explode?'' But he soon shook his head. Why would he need to lock himself inside a shield''s cage if he wants to suicide? But one thing was evident to everyone. The amount of Tribulation Lightning energy growing inside that cage was tremendously high! Not only that, but all the power was also compressed in that small place. It was utterly different from Krune''s Tribulation Calamity, which covered a wide area. That shield''s cage was as everyone saw it, something that Krune was using to hold and compress the power of the Tribulation Lightning to the limit! Krune then sent another message to Uriu. "Don''t let that Death Core Owner intervene." Uriu noticed that it was a critical moment and did, as Krune said. Suddenly, Krune''s remaining shields formed something like a tube in front of the shields cage and pointed at Peily in the distance! After seeing that, everyone had the same thought! ''Is that a cannon?'' They were right, that was precisely what Krune had made with his shields, a Tribulation Cannon! But before anyone could even finish processing that thought, Krune had already released all the energy inside. "Tribulation Cannon, FIRE!" Even with Krune''s low cultivation realm, the Tribulation Lightning was already extremely fast. Let alone when it was compressed to that extent and released all at once. That wasn''t all, the Tribulation Lightning obviously had the Purple Fire mixed within too! Lanis finally understood what that bad feeling was. That''s because Krune''s target wasn''t Gelius to start with, but Peily! Because Peily was busy trying to finish off Wang Mo''s group, he was the last one to notice that change on Krune''s side. "Dodge!" Gelius also attacked Krune''s group with everything he had, he wanted to try to disrupt Krune''s attack even if just a little bit. Everyone on Krune''s side was also taken aback by that, but for another reason. ''Wasn''t it supposed to be used against the Death Core Owner? How come he is attacking someone else? Is it because he had a higher chance of success against that other guy?'' Everyone''s focus, Lanis included, was in the Lighting attack that would reach Peily in the next moment. Peily also noticed the attack coming in his Dinive Sense, and he immediately tried to move away from its route. But suddenly, Yano appeared right in front of Peily in his Griffin form! Yano was watching the battle from close by since he didn''t have any combat power left anymore. All he could do was keep moving, so he would hinder his companions back if he participated in this. Still, it was because he had been not part of any battle that he was the first one to notice the changes. At that critical moment, he steeled his resolve and decided to take the attack on Peily''s behalf! Krune''s group also noticed that, and they felt bitter all over. In the end, Krune''s attack wouldn''t hit the right target. But it was at that moment that Gelius, who went all out against Uriu, felt danger coming at him. Still, it was too late. "Hehe! Gotcha!" Puft! Out of nowhere, Gelius was hit on the back by some kind of sticky stuff. After that, he noticed that he couldn''t move any more! "Not good!" Who else could it be other than the Swamp Spider?! As soon as Gelius was caught by the Spider Attack, the Tribulation Lightning Layer around it disappeared. The four assassins then immediately noticed the presence of the Middle Stages Divine Soul Realm Swamp Spider in their Divine Senses. Gelius then used his weapon, that Black Pearl, and released an enormous amount of death energy at once that was contained inside! The Spider web that was holding him started to deteriorate, and it wouldn''t hold him for long. Normally, he would have noticed the attack coming at him and dodged it. But because of Krune''s attack, his entire attention was on Uriu''s group and that Tribulation Attack. "Light Spirit, it''s up to you now!" Light Spirit then snorted. "Hmph! You talk as if this is something difficult to do." No one could hear Krune and Light Spirit''s words, though. Still, it was at that moment that everyone saw something that they thought to be impossible happening right in front of their eyes. That lightning cannon attack made a curve! Let alone the assassins, even Krune''s companions were taken aback by that change! Lanis and the other assassins felt like crying already! Bro, can''t you follow the script for once, please? Was there a need to even make your shields look like a cannon to start with? The attack that was just about to hit Yano then rushed back at Gelius in the Spider Web confinement. There was nothing that anyone could do at the moment, even Lanis or Gelius himself. It took some time to explain everything, but all of it happened in a flash! Kabrum! "Ahhhhhhh!" The Tribulation Lightning and Fire attack hit Gelius head-on! Not only that, but that Spider Web immediately burned with the Purple Fire, increasing its attack power even more! One must remember that different from the Tribulation Calamity, this attack was entirely focused on a single point instead of a big area. So it goes without saying that it was a lot more powerful once it hits! Gelius tried to put up a defense with his Spiritual Energy and Death Energy, but it was useless. First of all, Tribulation Lightning is especially useful against Death Energy. Gelius only had the chance to let out that scream before he perished! The battlefield then went silent for a moment. "Great!" Krune''s side then immediately cheered after seeing what happened! So what if that wisp made something crazy? What matters is that it worked in the end! Krune then came forward and told the assassins. "Are you sure you want to continue this? That Demon Beast there is not a treat to us, and we have an extra Middle Stage Divine Soul Realm Demon Beast on our side. To be honest, I want to avoid meanless killing. Although I''m confident that our side can deal with the three of you, we would need to pay the price for that. So what about we cease this struggle?" Krune''s group was taken aback by those words, but they had to admit that Krune was right. They do have the advantage at the moment. Still, if those two remaining enemies decide to throw caution to the wind, they probably won''t be able to avoid some casualties. In the end, no one wanted to die here. Lanis heard that and then started to laugh out loud. "Indeed, with you guys combined power, we probably have no chance of getting that girl anymore. Still, we reached a point of no return. If we go back without completing our mission, we are dead for sure. So I''m sorry, but we are going to finish it here and now." Lanis then used a forbidden technique and started to draw out his own life essence. Such a move would forever damage his foundation. Still, since the only result was death otherwise, then he might as well bet everything at this last struggle! Peily saw what happened and then sighed. Immediately after, he did the same thing as Lanis. Krune understood that no leeway was possible anymore and sighed too. After that, The Rasie Clan guys, Krune, and the Swap Spider started to fight Lanis. As for Uriu and Wang Mo''s group, they fused their combat formation to fight against Peily. Both Uriu and Wang Mo had been using the same formation to start with, so it was easy to merge them together. This time, the ones running out of time were Peily and Lanis. The forbidden technique would leave them extremely weak once its effect runs out. Krune knew that so he used his entire concentration to just defend. At the same time, Hulibe Acrol''s group and the Swamp Spider were responsible for the attack. On Uriu''s fight side, Uriu took the command of the formation. The Wang Clan guys didn''t complain this time since they know that Uriu has a Life Core, which is perfect for this situation. The battle continued for quite a few minutes, and just as expected, casualties came out on both sides. Still, both Lanis and Peily couldn''t keep that amount of power running forever and ended up dying in the end too. The only survival now was Yano, the Griffin that didn''t have any combat strength left. In the end, everything was over with six dead on Krune''s side between cultivators and demon beasts. One of Hulibe Acrol''s friends, Uriu''s two friends from before, Wang Ting from the Wang Group, and two members of the Divine Path Sect. Not to mention the injuries of the others. Of course, that was already a miracle outcome. Be it due to luck or planning, the fact that Krune''s group was the final victor was something that no one would bet their money on. Krune then looked at Yano, who didn''t even try to flee and asked. 206 Xanios Objective. Yano looked at everyone and laughed a little. Still, it looked like he had already lost his soul. "Even if I wanted, I wouldn''t be able to. You can forget about it already." Hulibe Acrol narrowed his eyes. "I can tell that you are definitely not someone from our Western Protectorate, that I''m sure. So, can you at least say from where you came from?" Yano shook his head and said. "For the sake of your own backgrounds, it would be better if you don''t know that either." Krune''s group could try torture or something like that. Still, it would be better if they waited for the dimensional realm to connect outside first. The Divine Path Sect and the other three powers definitely had better ways to force this guy to talk. "Let''s just lock this guy somewhere and wait for the realm to reconnect. Once outside, we leave this guy to the elders to deal with." Suddenly, Yano started to laugh. "I don''t think that it will go as you planned." Just as they were about to ask what Yano was talking about, something happened. "Ahhhhhh!" Yano started to scream while holding his head, and it was evident that he was feeling extreme pain at the moment. But it didn''t continue for long. That''s because his soul soon disappeared right after. To be more precise, his soul was destroyed! Krune and everyone else looked at the lifeless body in front of them. None of them felt too surprised, though. It was quite obvious what happened. Hulibe touched the body and then said. "Since the other three died, whoever is behind this attack decided that their mission was a failure. I think its safe to say that the other guy that battle against me before is also on the other world by now." Everyone nodded. That could be the only explanation. Suddenly, that Swamp Spider started to go back to its nest. Right after, everyone heard Xanio''s voice once more. "All the assassins are now dead, so my part is over here. You guys just go ahead and do whatever you want. As for the central building, it is still as I said, so you better not try entering it." Krune and the others were taken aback and immediately tried to call Xanio back. Unfortunately, Xanio utterly disappeared, and no one answered their voices anymore. Wang Mo then looked at everyone and asked. "What do we do now? We already got into the inner core region, should we just wait?" Krune was more worried about Feifei at the moment, so he decided to go back to that Central Building even if he can''t enter. Wang Mo and the other two also did the same since they had the responsibility of protecting Feifei. Still, with everything that happened here, they weren''t afraid of the grand elder blaming them anymore. Uriu didn''t have much interest in anything here to start with, so he just stuck with Krune for the time being. As for Hulibe Acrol and his friend, the left straight away. No one asked where they were going. Krune looked at that enormous building in the center and could feel the danger inside. He then sat in a corner and started to recover himself. Because he is in his wisp form, no one noticed. But one must remember that Krune compressed all that power while staying inside of the Shields Cage! Because of that, his core got quite damaged too. Fortunately, it wasn''t something irrecoverable, Krune just needed time. --- Inside the building, Feifei just got the report from Xanio that the assassins were dealt with. Xanio also told her who, between them, died in the end. After hearing that Krune was fine, she let out a sigh of relief. Although it was sad that they lost a few of their members, Feifei didn''t have much of a relationship with them to start with. Xanio then ignored everything else and went straight to the point. "You should have understood that there is something that I want to do, right?" Feifei nodded and waited for Xanio to continue. "First, you are going to receive my legacy. Well, in fact, it''s just my own way of understanding the Destiny Energy and doing calculations. Considering that you are from one of those Big Four powers, my techniques might not be any better than theirs. After all, too long of time had passed already." "Second, it is the part that really matters. I need you to take back my soul in the underworld before my memories are wiped by it." Feifei was taken aback. "Underworld? Are you talking about the place where the souls go before reincarnating? No, first of all, is it even possible to enter it?" Feifei, as the daughter of the Wang Clan head, obviously had access to more information than most. Because of that, she knew about the underworld. Still, she never found anything about someone being able to enter it. Only then Xanio noticed that he had skipped a few steps. "Oh, I forgot to explain it from the start. It is possible to enter, but you will need to reach the Divinity Realm first. Usually, the cultivators and demon beasts at this level wouldn''t comment about this possibility. After all, they don''t want to raise the hopes of the young ones who lost someone important to them." "It is definitely possible to enter the underworld, the problem comes when you want to find and bring back a specific soul. The underworld is controlled by the heavens, and anyone who tries to intervene will suffer its wrath. So even Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts would not dare to touch the souls inside." Feifei then narrowed her eyes. "And you want me to do it? Isn''t it the same as committing suicide?" Xanio shook his head. "There are always exceptions for everything, and in this case, the Advanced Major Cores are the exception." Feifei immediately connected the points and said. "Advanced Major Core owners can''t be seen by the heavens. It is so much that they don''t cause any ripples to the destiny energy, which makes it almost impossible to use divination on them. If I''m not wrong, the heavens wouldn''t be able to notice when I take your soul back, right?" Xanio''s projection nodded his head. "Smart! But not entirely correct. It''s not that the heavens can''t see the Advanced Major Cores, it is because it chose to ignore them." Feifei was surprised by that. She had to admit that Xanio had a point there. Who can guarantee that the heavens really don''t know about her and Krune''s presence? Maybe, only the sacred lands in the Central Region know the answer. Xanio continued. "What I''m going to say now is just an idea of mine, but it is also important, so pay attention." "Why is it that the Heavenly Major Core is called like that? Is it because of the fragments inside of the Advanced Major Cores are, in fact, part of the Heavens itself? Think about it." Feifei then thought about something. "In that case, doesn''t it mean that the Heavens can still see me once I get your soul back?" Xanio nodded. "Correct. That''s why you shouldn''t do it too much. One or two souls are fine, but if you overdo it, then even I can''t guarantee that the heavens won''t get back at you." Feifei then asked. "How do you know that the Heavens won''t intervene the moment I take your soul, then? Can you guarantee that if I do it only once, I will not suffer a backlash?" Xanio nodded and then raised his hand. Right after, a jade slip appeared on it. Xanio is someone from way before technology appeared, so he still had no idea what communicators and electronic information storage mean. Because of that, he is still with his jade slips until today. Feifei knew what it was, but even she had rarely seen one of those. When she held that on her forehead to read, she couldn''t help but giggle a little. That, of course, made Xanio a little confused. After some time, Feifei came back to herself. Xanio noticed that and then commented. "As you can see, in the middle of the records that I gathered about the Advanced Major Core owners, there had been two cases where they took a soul back. Also, it is not mentioned anywhere that they received a backlash from the heavens. So I''m pretty sure that it should be fine." "Even if it is not, once you notice that you won''t be able to get it back without paying the price, then you can simply give up." Feifei nodded and then asked the most important question so far. "I understand everything, but why should I help you?" Xanio smiled and said. "Because I just saved your life and the life of your friends outside." Feifei''s eyes narrowed, but she waited for Xanio to continue. "I''m not talking about those assassins from before, but the sacred lands that are probably behind them. If I haven''t told you everything that I just said, wouldn''t you and your clan be in the dark, just waiting for when the other side comes to get rid of you directly? Of course, if you think that this is not enough, then I can only give up." Feifei felt quite helpless because she knew that Xanio told the truth. It is thanks to all his information that she now has a chance at living, and so does her Krune. Still, that feeling of being played with wasn''t nice. Usually, she was the one to play with others, after all. "Hmph! So be it, I will never own anyone a favor. If what you said is true and there is no problem to take back your soul, then I will do it if I survive until the day that I reach the Divinity Realm." Xanio let out a loud laugh and said. 207 You can keep dreaming Outside the Dimensional Realm, Lucio Koffel, Wang Xin, and Hulibe Ronary were helping the other elders to accelerate the fix of the connection between the two sides. Between the participants who came around this time, the Spiritas Kingdom could be said to be the only one who sent members who weren''t considered overly important. So after they got the news from the Divine Path Sect, they just sent another two Grand Elders to help. Still, the place was in full lockdown, and not a single fly would be able to pass through. Lucio was putting his power on the task while talking with the others through Divine Sense. "Just who could have sent those guys in and even used a Space Lock Formation from so far away? Could they be someone from the Central Region?" Wang Xin nodded. "It is possible, but we also can''t discard the possibility of being someone from the other three protectorates." Hulibe Ronary was also concerned about this issue. "I find it improbable to be the other protectorates. They aren''t any stronger than our Big Four, so why would any of them try to buy a fight with us?" A grand elder of the spiritas kingdom then said. "If it is some power from the Central Region, then it will be quite hard to find them. That place has several sects, clans, and alliances that aren''t any weaker than us. In fact, quite a lot of them are even stronger. Let''s not even talk about the Sacred lands." When the elder mentioned the Sacred Lands, even Wang Xin and Lucio Koffel showed some respect on their faces. The highest cultivation realm in their universe is the Divinity Realm, and all the Big Four have protectors or ancestors at this level. But the Sacred Lands are far ahead in this regard. A single Sacred Land has enough Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beast to wipe out the Big Four without using even half of their numbers. That wasn''t all. It is one thing to reach the Divinity Realm, but to achieve the late stages is something completely different. Putting the Big Four together, they probably don''t have more than 5 or 6 Late Stages Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts. Lucio Koffel''s Master, Lani, just so happens to be one of them. As for a single Sacred Land? Rumors say that a single one can mobilize over a hundred of them and still have some left to protect their homes. Of Course, how much of it is true or not, no one knows. But one thing is clear, they aren''t the kind of power that the Big Four could afford to offend. "Let''s not think about who they are. First of all, why did those guys come? As far as I know, we don''t have any grudge with any power that could afford such an approach. At least, my Divine Path Sect definitely doesn''t." The other also nodded. They, too, don''t remember to have bought a fight with anyone. If anything, the Big Four had been quite peaceful in the past thousands of years. "Wang Xin, that daughter of yours is the only thing I can think at the moment. In the end, what''s the deal with those rumors about her Major Core?" Wang Xin was already expecting this question. He just sighed and said. "If I tell you that even our clan isn''t sure about it, would you believe? I know about the rumors going around, but I can guarantee that Feifei''s Major Core definitely isn''t the Heavenly Major Core. In fact, I believe that you guys never really believed it to start with, right?" Quite a few nodded. They all heard the rumors about the supposed Heavenly Core, but no one really trusted that information. They are far too rare, not to mention that Feifei never really showed any heaven-defying power other than her prediction skills. Wang Xin then continued. "So that''s it. Feifei definitely doesn''t have a Heavenly Major Core, that we are sure about. But her Major Core is indeed different from the normal ones, and as to why, we don''t know. There are several theories between the higher-ups in the clan, but no one could prove anything. In my case, I think that this is just a mutation of a Destiny Core. But her Divination Abilities are indeed a lot better than anyone at her Realm, so that''s why the clan put a lot of importance in her." Hulibe Ronary then said. "It still doesn''t change the fact that she is probably the reason for those guys to come. It doesn''t matter if we believe or not, the issue here is if someone else believed instead." This time, Wang Xin went silent since he couldn''t deny that possibility. Lucio, who was hearing everything so far, then said. "Alright, whether it was because of her or not, it doesn''t matter at this moment. We need to get this connection to the Dimensional Realm fixed first. Also, since Wang Xin let Feifei come for this exchange program, then that means that at least Feifei herself should be fine, and probably are the others too." Uncle Feng then commented. "Lucio is correct. It was because of the Divination Abilities that the Wang Clan let her come. With that advantage, I doubt that something would happen to her." Although he was worried, Wang Xin also believed in what Uncle Feng was saying. It was because Feifei couldn''t see any danger and that her Destiny Core told her to come that he allowed it to happen. --- Back inside of the Dimensional Realm, Krune, Uriu, and the Wang Clan guys were sitting close to the Central Building while cultivating. Krune had already healed his injuries, so he returned to his Human Form. It had been over a week since Feifei entered, but no sign of her could be seen. Krune had been wondering if he should risk it all and enter to take a look. But he knew that he had no chance against the defense system of that pace. Finally, it had been almost a month since everyone entered the Dimensional Realm. Suddenly, Krune felt a ripple coming from his spatial ring. When he looked inside, he noticed the teleport runestone shinning. Immediately, he and everyone else understood. The connection between the Dimensional Realm and the outside had been restored! Uriu got up and told Krune. "I will be going then. I''ll be waiting for you outside." Krune nodded and said nothing. He had no intention of leaving before Feifei came out to start with. Uriu wasn''t the only one. Juniu''s group and Hulibe Acrol also used their Teleport Runestone straight away and left the place. Wang Mo and the other two guys were also considering if they should leave or not. But after thinking a little, they understood that the elders outside definitely sent Divine Soul Realm members to check the situation inside. Sooner or later, they would reach this place as well, so they decided to wait before leaving. Still, Krune and the Wang Clan guys didn''t have to wait for long. That''s because around an hour later, the defenses of the Central Building were turned off. A moment later, Feifei came outside with a tired face. However, Krune could see some excitement in her eyes. Whatever she got from Xanio, it seemed to have been very good. The Wang Clan guys were the first to talk to her, but Feifei just gave a few words saying that everything was fine. As for Krune, he already received a Divine Sense message from Feifei the moment that she stepped out. After that, Feifei approached Krune and smiled. "We will need to talk with my father and your master." Krune nodded. "I know. We can talk about it once we leave this place. The teleportation runestones are active now, so let''s leave first." Wang Mo and the others were puzzled about what they were talked about. Still, Feifei and Krune used their runestones before they could ask anything. Since there was no one else anymore, Wang Mo''s group also used their runestones and left. Not long after, the Central Building started to tremble and then crumbled down. Xanio''s will that was inside dissipated, and the projection of the Destiny Core Heavenly Fragment disappeared. Only Feifei would be able to tell what happened inside now. Outside, Wang Xin and Lucio Koffel already asked Uriu and the others what happened. When they didn''t see Feifei and Krune, they felt nervous. Uriu then explained everything that happened through a Divine Sense message that he had already formulated a long time ago. Only then did everyone there understand the circumstances. Lucio felt relived that Krune was fine, but Wang Xin narrowed his eyes. Unfortunately, his cultivation realm is too high, so he can''t enter the Dimensional Realm. In the end, he can only trust in the Divine Soul Realm subordinates that entered the realm a while ago. But his worries didn''t last long since Feifei, Krune, and Wang Mo''s group appeared outside an hour later. Seeing that Feifei was fine made Wang Xin sigh in relief. He looked at her and said through a Divine Sense. "I shouldn''t have let you come." Feifei looked puzzled at her father and commented. "Why? Did you forget about my abilities?" Wang Xin was taken aback. Feifei talked as if she had never been in danger to start with. Xin then remembered that with her Major Core, he couldn''t deny that perhaps, Feifei hadn''t been in danger to start with. Feifei, of course, was lying! Even she couldn''t predict what happened, so she had really been in grave danger this time. However, if she said that, her father might never let her come out again. In the end, she had to pretend that everything had always been under control. Feifei then put those thoughts behind her mind and was about to call Krune over. But when she looked in his direction, she felt like crying. Krune and Lucio were once more in an argument! She couldn''t help but think about how they can find a reason to start a fight every single time. Perhaps, that''s how they show their affection for each other. "Cough, Cough. Sect Master Lucio, I need to talk with you and Krune about something." Only then did Krune and Lucio stopped what they were doing. "Oh, right! Old geezer, Feifei has found some interesting news, so you should hear her." Lucio nodded and then made a cutting motion with his hand on the empty space. Suddenly, space divided itself, and a hole appeared where there was nothing before. "Come with me back to the Sect first, we can talk there." Feifei didn''t feel surprised with that, but it was the first time Krune saw something like that. After Krune, Wang Xin, and Feifei passed through that Spatial Gate, they immediately appeared in front of the Divine Path Sect! Krune looked at his Master like he wanted to eat him alive. "How come you never told me you could do something like that?" Lucio looked at Krune and said. "Where is the fun in that?" Krune''s mouth twitched, he understood that he made an idiotic question. With a Master like this one, it was evident that he would act this way. "I wonder if Grandmaster would take me a disciple instead of you." Lucio only laughed after that. 208 Why Should I Trust You? Wang Feifei, Xin, and Uncle Feng followed Krune and Lucio into his residence. When they arrived there, Lani was also waiting. Not only the outsiders, but even Lucio and Krune also weren''t expecting to see him. "Master, why did you come?" Lani looked at Lucio and then at the Wang Clan people. "After what happened, it is evident that I would keep an eye on you. As soon as the Wang Clan Head appeared, I came out to check." Wang Xin came forward and bowed respectfully to Lani. "Senior Lani, it is good to see you again." Lani Gobel is one of the very few Late Stages Divinity Realm cultivators or demon beasts in the Big Four Territories. So Wang Xin treated him with the highest esteem. Lani nodded and then and waited to see what they had to say. Feifei, on the other hand, had never seen him. Because of that, she didn''t know if it was okay to talk in his presence or not. But it was then that she heard Krune. "It''s okay. This is my Master''s Master, my Grandmaster. He is a lot more reliable than the old geezer. In fact, we might as well send the old geezer away and stay with Grandmaster only." Pow! Once more, Krune was hit on the head by Lucio. "Shut up and let''s hear what she has to say." Lani just shook his head. As for Wang Xin, he didn''t know what to say. Is this how Lucio''s first Disciple treat him? Why would he even accept someone like that? In the end, he decided to ignore and pay attention to what Feifei had to say too. Feifei did her best to hold her laugh. She then took a deep breath and resumed the entire situation in a Divine Sense message. Everyone was taken aback. Lani couldn''t help but comment. "Heavenly Core Fragments, Advanced Major Cores, Assassins that probably are from a Sacred Land. What kind of mess did we get into?" Wang Xin was concerned about another thing. "Feifei, why is it that you had to talk with Lucio too? This kind of thing should have been kept inside our Clan." Lucio and Lani didn''t mind that comment. They, too, didn''t think that what Xin said was wrong. Still, they know why Feifei also brought this issue to them. Before Feifei could answer Wang Xin''s question, Lucio did it himself. "That''s because Krune also has one of those Advanced Major Cores, am I right?" They didn''t need to think much to connect the points. Feifei immediately nodded. "That''s correct. Krune''s Major Core is most likely an Advanced Major Core too." Xin looked at Lucio and asked. "Did you know that already?" Lucio nodded and shook his head right after. Lani then intervened and said. "This is something that profoundly affects both your Clan and my Sect, so you better call Mei over. We can continue this discussion when she arrives." Wang Xin nodded and took out some kind of Token, after putting some Spiritual Energy inside, he just waited. After a few minutes, a Spatial Gate appeared outside of the Divine Path Sect Planet. The Sect protectors immediately noticed that, but Lani sent then a Divine Sense message that it was okay. The Planet''s Anti Spatial power Formation then opened a hole that an old woman used to pass through. Once inside, she quickly teleported and appeared right inside Lucio''s residence, where everyone else was. This time, it was Lucio who bowed respectfully to her. "It''s good to see you, Senior Mei." Mei just nodded and looked at Wang Xin. "What is happening for you to call me over with such urgency?" She was the Wang Clan''s Strongest Ancestor, the Late Stage Divinity Realm Wang Mei. Before Wang Xin could talk, Lani commented. "As cautious as ever, you only sent a close over." Mei didn''t mind that comment, though. "Do you think I''m wrong?" Lani shook his head. "Not at all, I''m in fact relieved to see that you never change." Mei laughed a little and then waited for Wang Xin to tell everything. Xin then used a Divine Sense message so that everything could be understood straight away. After hearing everything, even she was taken aback and looked at Feifei and Krune with a bitter smile. "What a mess!" Lani immediately laughed when he heard that. "Yeap! That''s exactly what I said when I learned about the situation too." Mei then commented. "But why did they send such a weak group inside that Dimensional Realm? It would have been several times faster if they had sent a few Late Stage Divinity Realm cultivators. In the end, there would be nothing that we could do against such a power." Krune heard that and gave his opinion. "I think I can understand why." Mei looked at Krune and asked. "Is that the wisp that I heard about?" Sure enough, Krune also couldn''t hide his real form against someone of her level. Lani nodded and said. "He is, but don''t look down on him. Krune is, after all, my grand Disciple." Mei was surprised back then when she heard that Lucio took a wisp as Disciple. But seeing him now, she could at least tell how big his talent is. Not to mention his Advanced Elemental Core. "No wonder. Go ahead, kid. Tell us your opinion." Krune nodded and said. "From what I could see from those assassins, they had techniques pretty much similar to each other. That probably means that they came from the same place. Considering that all Sacred Lands want to be the one to give birth to the next Heavenly Core owner, it would be bad if their competitors found out about the existence of the same Advanced major Core." Krune only had to talk to this point for everyone in the room to understand this situation. Mei gave him an approving nod and said. "Very good, kid! Indeed, considering that it seems that this Sacred Land already has an Advanced Major Core owner, they don''t want to alert the others that they found another one. For that, they can''t mobilize a strong force since the other two Lands definitely have several eyes on them. It would be the same as giving the enemy some free information." Mei eyes then narrowed. "But that is just a temporary issue. From here on, let''s consider that our enemy is really the Sacred lands. Since the first Sacred Land already received information about Feifei, the other two will soon find about it too. First of all, the rumors about Feifei''s Core isn''t exactly a secret in the Big Four territories to start with. It only took this long to reach that Sacred Land due to the distance and the fact that only the high echelon of each of our powers knew about it." Lani and everyone else nodded. Krune then said once more. "There is one good thing, though. The enemy still thinks that we have no idea about the Heavenly Core Fragments, so they probably will try to get Feifei without catching the other two attention. Still, the next time will be the last one. If they fail, they will probably throw caution to the wind and mobilize a full force to get Feifei straight away. Of course, this is just a conjecture that I have." Wang Xin couldn''t help but comment. "This wisp... is quite smart." Lucio heard that and laughed out loud. "Of course, he is my disciple, after all." Lani ignored the two and continued. "The problem here is, what are we going to do? Forget about getting a Heavenly Core owner ourselves. That would require us to fight against the Sacred land and take or kill their own Advanced Major Core one. That would just bring the destruction of our Sect and your Clan. Not to mention that for it to work, Krune or Feifei would have to give their Major Core away too, and that is absolutely out of the question." Lani and Lucio knew Krune, he would probably kill himself before taking Feifei''s Heavenly Fragment away. Also, Feifei came to speak with them from her own volution, and she definitely knew that they would notice this issue. Still, she entered the Divine Path Sect Planet without fear. Lani and Lucio haven''t declined so much to pretend that it had nothing to do with them. Lani then looked at Mei''s direction. Mei, of course, understood what that look meant. "Hmph! If even a shameless old man like you wouldn''t try something like taking our Feifei''s Heavenly Fragment, what makes you think that I, your grandmother, would do so?" Lani narrowed at that comment. "You know that I''m older than you, right? If someone can be a Grandfather or Mother, this one is me, not you." Mei and Lani noticed that their status as Ancestors was declining in front of the young ones and immediately came back to the main topic. Still, Lucio couldn''t help but ask Wang Xin through a Divine Sense. "Have you ever seen them acting like that?" Wang Xin immediately replied. "As if! Ancestor Mei had always acted high and mighty, this is a first for me too." Uncle Feng, who had been silent for a while already, decided to speak. "Anyway. Because we are expecting them to come, there is a very small chance of them succeeding in taking Feifei''s Heavenly Core Fragment. I guess you understand what I mean here." Everyone nodded. "They will be left with no other choice other than coming for a full-force attack to take Feifei away, and a Sacred Land attack is not something that we can stop with our means." Lani pondered a bit and then said. "We have only one choice here, and that is to send Krune and Feifei away." Wang Mei immediately rebuked. "I agree that I can''t keep Feifei in the Clan anymore, but should I send her with Krune? What if your Grand Disciple decides to take this chance to take her Heavenly Core Fragment." Lucio and Lani narrowed their eyes and were about to complain when suddenly, Krune cut them off. "Ancestor Meu, there is no need to worry about that, I can guarantee that I won''t ever harm Feifei." Wang Mei looked at him and said. "Hmph! And why should I trust you?" Feifei was a little worried about Krune, but she had never expected what was about to happen. "Oh, that? It''s very simple, let me show you." Krune then walked in Feifei''s direction, which puzzled everyone in the room, even Feifei. Krune then grabbed her waist and gave Feifei a kiss right in front of everyone! Let alone Wang Xin and Mei, even Feifei herself, was shocked by that! Those who knew Krune were speechless! IT, WAS, KRUNE! The last being in the entire universe that Feifei, Lucio, Feng, and Lani could ever imagine doing something like that! Krune then looked at Mei and Xin and said. 209 I guess Im getting old too There were two people completely red at the moment, one was obvious Feifei. As for the other, it was Wang Xin, Feifei''s father. It''s just that his redness was for a completely different reason. He was so angry that he was about to explode! "I''ll kill you!" Wang Xin immediately attacked. In fact, he only wanted to release his anger, not to really kill Krune. After all, he still knows that he and Feifei are inside the Divine Path Sect. But how could Lucio let him have his way? "Kill who, you say?" Boom! Both Lucio and Xin separated immediately after that exchange. Lucio looked at Wang Xin with a smile and said. "Why are you so angry? It''s mutual love, so is there a need for this?" Lucio couldn''t be happier. Krune had exceeded all his expectations. He felt like he had been avenged from what happened in the past between the two. As mentioned before, both Lucio and Xin loved the same girl, but that girl selected Wang Xin in the end. So he was feeling great to see his disciple snatching Wang Xin''s daughter right in front of his eyes. Wang Xin, of course, wouldn''t let it go just like that. "What mutual love? He obviously took Feifei by surprise! Or do you think that Feifei would ever kiss a wisp, uh?" Feifei knew that hiding things would be useless now. Her face showed determination, and she called out. "Father, check this out." Then... she kissed Krune back, much for Wang Xin''s despair! "Feifei... this..." Feifei nodded. "That''s excatly what you think. Sect master Lucio isn''t wrong, this is really mutual love. I didn''t expect it to be revealed in this way, but since things got to this point, then I might as well go all out." Not to mention that she was really happy with Krune''s actions. Feifei then looked back at Krune with a big smile. "To be honest, I''m happy that you showed such determination." Feifei then made a seal with her hands, and right after, the Mark that she gave Krune projected outside. Wang Xin felt even more helpless when he saw that Krune already had Feifei''s marriage mark with him. He then looked at Lucio and said. "This is all your doing, right?! It''s all because of what happened in the past, this is your way of getting back at me!" Lucio laughed out loud and said. "Although I am indeed very happy to see it, I will have to disappoint you. No, Krune and Feifei''s relationship goes way back. Of course, I gave my full support when I found about it. Hahahaha!" Wang Mei, who had been silent until now, then spoke. "So, that''s the reason you talked about?" Krune nodded. Feifei and Krune then explained the entire situation from the moment they met each other to now. Wang Xin didn''t know what to say, he then looked at Uncle Feng and asked. Uncle Feng shuddered his shoulders and said. "As you know, my duty was and has always been with Feifei. Without her word, I would not tell it to anyone." Wang Xin then asked again. "Alright, I can understand why you haven''t told it, but why didn''t you try to stop it." Uncle Feng sighed and said. "You think I didn''t? I tried to convince her thousands of times in the past years. But after we got to the Divine Path Sect, I came to know a few things about Krune. So I can only say that you are definitely not taking the short end of the stick here. As for why is that, I can''t tell you." Krune wasn''t surprised that Uncle Feng had tried to change Feifei''s mind in the past. But he felt quite happy to see that he approved it now. Wang Mei looked at Feifei and said. "Feifei, you know about the wisps'' life span, right? Are you really okay with it?" Feifei nodded. "I am! First of all, Life span isn''t a problem for Krune at the moment anyway. He is already at the 4th stage of the Core Formation Realm and still has 29 years ahead of him. I have no doubt that he can reach the Divine Path Realm as long as he survives." Wang Xin then tried to convince her again. "Feifei, I will never allow you to marry into another power." Feifei and Krune looked at each other and then laughed. "Don''t worry, father. I have no intention of leaving the Wang Clan to start with." Both Mei and Xin were taken aback. "Does it mean that Krune will marry into our clan?" Lucio immediately snorted after hearing that. "As if I would let that happen." Wang Mei immediately understood. "You two don''t plan to leave your backgrounds, is it?" Feifei nodded. "Why should we? I love my Clan, and Krune likes his Sect, especially his Master." Both Krune and Lucio almost fainted after that comment from Feifei! "Who likes this old geezer? We only got together because of his shameless character." Lucio gave him a side glance and snorted. "If not for your talent, do you think I would ever get a rainbow wisp as a disciple? You should be thanking the heavens that I''m this big-hearted." Feifei laughed a little and looked at her father. "See? They are just made for each other." Wang Xin''s mouth twitched. Where is the love between disciple and Master that she talked about? How come he can''t see it? "Anyway, father, I have no intention of leaving the Clan, so you don''t need to worry about me joining another power." Wang Xin looked at Lucio and asked. "Are you okay with this?" Lucio shuddered his shoulders too and said. "Why shouldn''t I? My Divine Path Sect isn''t a Clan. As long as our disciples don''t betray or harm the Sect, I''m fine with anything. I also think this is a good thing since both sides will have their support in the future. You can deny as much as you want, but at your realm, I refuse to believe that you can''t see Krune''s real potential. No other cultivator or demon beast in the same realm is stronger than Krune in our Big Four territories. At most, they would be at the same level, but even that I find it hard to think about." Wang Mei was a lot more cool-headed than Wang Xin, so she could see things further away. "I understand. Still, it is not a reason good enough for me to trust you. As far as I know, it could all be a trick to fool Feifei and taking away her Heavenly Fragment." Wang Xin immediately nodded. At least the ancestor is still on his side. Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Then what would make you believe me?" Wang mei replied. "Give me a sliver of your soul, if there comes a day that Feifei dies, I will crush it and end your life too." Lani immediately intervened. "You are going too far, Mei." But before they could discuss this issue, Krune already did as Mei said and sent and cut a sliver of his soul. He then delivered it right on her hands. Except for Feifei and Lucio, no one expected that Krune would be that daring! Mei received Krune''s sliver of soul and looked at it with surprise in her eyes. She thought that with this one thing alone, she would be able to reveal Krune''s real intention. In fact, she succeeded in doing that. However, it was a result entirely different from what Mei intended. Lani and Uncle Feng sighed after seeing that and knew that it was now too late to stop Krune. Wang Xin was delighted. As long as they have it, he can deal with Krune any time he wants. Wang Mei looked at that small piece of Krune''s soul with a gloomy face, though. She then sighed and sent it back to Krune, which then immediately fused back to his soul. Wang Xin delighted face immediately turned ugly again. "Ancestor, this..." Wang Mei immediately cut him off. "Shut up! If you can''t even see his determination after what happened, then you are a failure as a father! This wisp has more guts than any of those people from our territory that you have been sending on Feifei''s way. Tell me, which one of them do you think would put their lives on the other''s hand without thinking twice just for the sake of the one he loved?" Wang Xin felt a little embarrassed about being rebuked like that in front of everyone. "I..." Wang Mei continued. "Enough. Feifei already made it clear that she isn''t leaving our Clan. Isn''t that what you, the elders, protectors, and everyone else wanted? Then so be it." She then looked serious at Wang Xin and asked. "If you could marry the one you loved in the end, then why can''t your daughter?" Wang Xin was taken aback by those last words, and it totally affected him deeply! He looked at Feifei and asked one last time. "Feifei, do you really want him?" Feifei nodded. "If not him, then no one else." Wang Xin sighed and gave up. "Fine! Don''t say that I didn''t try to warn you." Feifei immediately jumped on Wang Xin''s embrace after that. She was obviously very happy with her father''s approval. Wang Xin felt gloomy instead, though. "Just how am I supposed to explain it to your mother?" Feifei just said. "Oh! Don''t worry, she knows already." Wang Xin''s mouth opened wide! "She... knows?" Wang Xin couldn''t help but feel like his position as Clan Head was more like a counterfeit. Why is it that he is the last one to know? Lani then sent a Divine Sense message to Mei. "That surprised me, the Wang Mei that I know would never act this recklessly. As far as I know, you would definitely keep Krune''s life in your hands." Mei heard that and sighed. "I guess I''m getting old too. That''s all." Lani couldn''t help but laugh at that comment. Wand Mei then decided to go back to the main topic. 210 Dalin Universe Wang Xin wanted to ask why Feifei''s mother knew about it, but he decided to ask it later. "Keeping them in the Sect or the Wang Clan will only bring the entire Sacred Land forces to our doorsteps sooner or later. The only chance is for them to disappear. Still, is it one thing for the that Sacred Land to discover Feifei''s existence, but another now that they know who she is." "Now that her identity as an Advanced Major Core owner is found, is there really a place in our universe where we can hide her? They definitely already acquired a reading of her aura, so changing her appearance will do very little." Lani and Mei looked at each, and it seemed that they came to the same conclusion. "In our universe, the three Sacred Lands are absolute, but the same isn''t for the others. They would have a tough time finding Feifei and Krune in that case." Feifei and Krune got puzzled. "What do you mean by others? Is there another universe?" Uncle Feng, Wang Xin, and Lucio also showed a severe expression when they heard that. Lucio couldn''t help but comment. "Master, if the thing about the Heavens ignoring their Advanced Major Core is true, then it probably won''t happen if they leave our universe. After all, the other universes have their own Heavens." Lani nodded. "Indeed, I also think that once they leave, the destiny energy around them will come back to normal. But even if their destiny energy can''t be read here, it won''t be a big issue to the Sacrad Lands once they all find about Feifei and Krune. At that point, all three of them will put their full focus on this task. It will be very hard to avoid being found unless we lock them inside a remote place, and they never leave it again." Lucio heard that and felt gloomy, he couldn''t deny his Master''s words, after all. Lani looked at Mei and asked. "What do you think, should we go with it?" Mei nodded. "Thankfully, their realms are very low, so both universes protectors won''t notice their entrance or leaving. Still, we won''t be able to send anyone else with them. Sure, we could send a few Divine Soul or Soul Forging Realms. But that would be too risky. I want to keep it between the people inside this room as much as possible." Krune and Feifei were still waiting for them to explain what is happening, though. Lani nodded and then told Krune and Feifei. "You know about the underworld already, right? It''s pretty much the same thing. There are other universes out there, and if you reach the Divinity Realm, you can force your way in. Still, it''s very hard to do so. The higher your cultivation, the higher the rejection of the heavens on that side. Not to mention that once someone with cultivation in the Void Breaking Realm or above enters, the Heavens itself will alert its strongest Cultivators and Demon Beasts about the intrusion." Krune then asked. "Won''t this ''rejection'' that you said hinder our combat power?" Mei shook her head. "The rejection that we talked about is the fact that someone is entering. It is there to prevent that too many high-level cultivators enter at once without anyone paying attention. In fact, even for Core Formation Realm like you two, there would be a limit. I reckon that no more than a hundred or so would be able to be sent before the other universe rejects their entrance too." "Of course, almost no one does that. It might be seen as one universe trying to occupy the other, which could start a war between the two. So unless there is no other choice, neither side would send people or demon beasts into the other''s house. The only exception is in case you really intend to conquer that universe. In that case, why would you care about alarming the other side?" Krune and Feifei understood. "Would they be able to see if we are from another universe?" Lani answered. "It would be very hard for the Cultivators and Demon Beasts, but the universe itself would notice it straight away once you guys reach the Divine Path Realm." Krune then asked. "What do we do in that case?" Lani and Mei shook their heads. "We don''t know. If you decide to come back at that point, you will need the help of a Divinity Realm cultivator or Demon Beast. If not, you won''t be able to open the passage. Or maybe you could try to reach an agreement with one of those universes powerhouses like our Sacred Lands. Although it is very rare, sometimes some people or demon beasts flee from their universe for who knows what reason. In the end, they seek protection from the other side in exchange for their services or whatever." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Does it means that we also have people and demon beasts like that?" Lani nodded. "We do. In fact, you have already met someone in a similar condition before." It was then that Krune exclaimed. "Cilia!" But it was then that he noticed something different in that statement. "Wait, you said that she is in a ''similar'' situation. What do you mean by that? Is she not from another universe?" Lani didn''t try to hide this information since Cilia''s existence isn''t a secret for the higher-ups of the Big Four anyway. "She is not. Well, maybe she was in the past before she ascended. Anyway, Cilia is someone from a higher plane that you can only enter after you surpass the Divinity Realm. As for the details, I don''t know since she never told us. Even if she had, I wouldn''t talk about it without her permission." Krune then asked Light Spirit about it. "He is right, both of us came from the higher plane. But for now, I won''t be able to tell you much more than that." Krune was still curious but decided to not ask anymore since he knows that Light Spirit won''t talk. Lani continued. "Back to the main topic, that is one of your options once you arrive there. But in the end, it is up to you to decide what path to follow." Mei then commented. "There is one thing, though. Would the powerhouses of the other universe target Krune and Feifei because of their Advanced Major Cores?" Lani shrugged his shoulders. "It is the fact that they don''t know that Feifei and Krune have an Advanced Major Core that we are sending them, no? So they will have to keep their mouths shut while they are there. Not to mention that we don''t know if they would target Krune and Feifei even if they knew that. This thing about the Heavenly Fragments is such a huge secret in our universe, so chances are that it is also the same there. In that case, I believe it should be fine." Mei didn''t comment on this issue any more after that. Lucio then asked. "So what is up for us now is to decide which universe we send them in, right?" Immediately, Lani and Mei became silent. The two of them are the only ones who could open a passage to another universe, so only they had some idea about what to expect on the other sides. Lani looked at Mei and said. "To be honest, I know very little about them since I rarely ever interacted with their forces." Mei then sighed. "Me too. At most, I opened a few passages for us to make a few trades, but neither side ever entered the other, only the items being traded." Suddenly, Light Spirit told Krune. "Tell everyone to ask Cilia''s opinion. She will be able to tell them the right choice." Krune was surprised to hear that and immediately told everyone in the room about it. "Senior Cilia?" Lani pondered a bit and then said. "It might be worth a try." With a thought, Lani sent everyone in the dimension where the tower was located. "Lani brat, what brings you and all these kids here out of nowhere?" Lani bowed and then explained the entire situation to Cilia. "I see." Cilia went silent for a few moments and then said. "It has been way too long since I ascended, not to mention that I lived for even longer in the higher plane. In that case, there is no doubt that anything that I knew about the other universes is probably different now. Still, a few things will never change." Cilia pondered a bit and then said. "Send them to the Dalin Universe." When Light Spirit heard that, he gave her a mental nod. ''As I thought. That is indeed the best place for someone like Krune.'' Mei and Lani were puzzled. They had never heard about this universe before. Cilia then sent a Divine Sense message showing its location to Lani and Mei. Still, let alone Lani and Mei, everyone else had the same question in their minds. "Senior Cilia, why this Dalin universe?" Cilia then answered. "If we talk about Spiritual Energy, there isn''t much of a difference between there and here. But if we consider the Elemental Laws, it is a lot easier to perceive there." Lani and Mei were surprised. "How come we never heard about it before? Such a place would be great for training the young even if we had to pay the price to the other side powerhouses to allow it." In the initial stages, laws don''t matter much. But once in the Void Breaking Realm, it changes completely. One must remember that to create Chaos Energy, it is necessary to use Laws and Elemental Source Energy, after all. It is also very good to the Soul Forging Realm since this is the Realm where a cultivator or demon beast usually starts to comprehend them. Cilia then commented. "You know that in this universe, the Sacred Lands are the absolute power, right?" Everyone nodded. "The same thing could be said about the relationship between the various Universes. There are stronger ones and weaker ones. The Dalin Universe that I showed you is the place used by the most prominent Universes to train their young ones. In the past, this Universe had been conquered by the others when it was still in its infancy. The reason is simple, such a Universe would become one of the strongest ones way too fast if left alone because of its difference in Laws. It might have even tried to get rid of the other ones at that pace." Cilia continued. "After it got conquered, the other Universe Powerhouses reached an agreement to only allow their offsprings to use it mutually. That way, they could keep their own position as the strongest ones and prevent other weaker ones from trying anything funny. After all, they wouldn''t become a match for them. Of course, there are always exceptions. After so long, some of those Universes'' Powerhouses of the past probably changed hands or crumbled completely." "Still, I believe that the Dalin Universe didn''t change. The only thing that changed was the ones who lost their free passes into it and those who got theirs." Cilia then laughed a little and said. "Since there are always quite a few different cultivators and demon beasts from other universes entering it, no one will pay attention to Krune or Feifei. After all, they would be considered just another pair from another Universe going there to train." Lucio then asked. "In that case, the Universes controlling this place definitely have several methods to find out if someone from an unrelated Universe entered or not. After all, if they don''t do this much, the other weaker Universes would definitely try to send their own people and beasts in. If we try to send Krune and Feifei there, won''t they be found straight away?" Everyone there nodded, Lucio had just spilled out their main concern. Cilia, on the other hand, just laughed once more. "That''s why the location that I sent you is a secret point that they definitely don''t know about. It doesn''t matter how long it had been, I refuse to believe that anyone found that connection." Immediately, Mei and Lani''s eyes lit up. 211 Wang Milia. Krune then asked something else. "Does our universe send anyone?" Cilia answered. "Our Universe doesn''t have a free pass to that place, so at most, the sacred lands might have paid the price to buy a few slots. But that doesn''t matter. They have no influence in that place, so there is no need to pay attention to it. First of all, just the chance of you bumping into someone from our Universe there is pitifully small. It is an entire Universe, after all. Even if you do find someone, there won''t be much that the other side can do, and that is considering that they know you in the first place." Krune nodded and didn''t ask anymore. Feifei then thought about something. "Father, how will you deal with the Sacred Land? Once they notice that I''m nowhere to be found, they definitely will come to our Wang Clan seeking answers." Wang Xin smiled and said. "That''s not up to you to worry about, but don''t worry, I will think about something. Our Clan has existed for so long, and it won''t crumble now just because of a single problem." Wang Mei nodded as well, she too is confident in keeping the Clan safe as long as Feifei really isn''t there anymore. Cilia then said. "Alright, that''s all I can help you with. Lani, let me talk with Krune a bit since he probably won''t be back for a long time." Lani nodded and guided everyone else out. "Luvile, this was your idea, right?" Light Spirit immediately agreed. "Yes, I know you still remembered that place, so I was sure that you would propose that Universe." Cilia then said. "Well, whatever. I won''t bring matters of the past anymore since it would be useless with our current state. Just be sure to recover your power and come back to help me out." Light Spirit laughed. "No worries. As long as this wisp doesn''t die, I should have no problem recovering again. But anyway, our reencounter will be a lot faster than it was before. At least, millions of years won''t have passed the next time it happens." Cilia didn''t say anything else and sent Krune out. Once he was back, Mei and Lani were already discussing when to send them there or if they should send someone else too. Mei then said. "I told you before, I prefer that only those who are here to know about this issue. The less, the better. Why you insist on sending more people?" Lani then said. "With Senior Cilia''s help, this turned out to be a good chance. The Sacred Lands won''t be able to do anything there, so we might as well send some more." Mei narrowed her eyes. She had to admit that the situation was a lot better, thanks to Cilia, but she still had her cautious nature. "I disagree. If anyone of them let out the information that they came in uninvited, we might be in for a calamity even bigger." Mei then called Feifei over while Lani did the same with Krune. "Krune, we decided that you can have one more person or beast coming with you. It goes without saying that you must have absolute trust in him or her. If you can''t think about anyone, I can help you find a good option for it. So, is there someone you would like to bring with you?" Krune was taken aback. Mei and Lani had decided this on their own, so it was the first time that Krune heard about that. "This..." Krune got lost at first since he had too many options. But he had to think about their own situations first too. "Can I have some time to think?" Lani nodded. "No problem, I doubt that that Sacred Land will act straight away, so I will give you a day. If there is anything else you want to do, you better do it now." Krune nodded and then asked. "Is there a way I can talk with my friends? They are in different places at the moment, but I would like to be able to talk with everyone one last time before leaving." Lani nodded and looked at Lucio. "You go and bring his friends back, make sure to not be seen by unnecessary people." Lucio''s mouth twitched, how come he is acting like a taxi now? Still, he left without complaining since the circumstances are like this now. Lani then looked at Krune and said. "I believe you know what to say and what not, right?" Krune nodded. "Don''t worry, Grandmaster. I won''t touch the topic of the Advanced Major Cores, Heavenly Fragment, or the Dalin Universe." Lani nodded, satisfied. "Good, if you have any doubt about cultivation, you might make all your questions now." Krune smiled and immediately put his mind into this. Lani then brought him to Lucio''s cultivation room, where he patiently guided and answered everything Krune asked. Sometime later, another Spatial Gate appeared outside the Divine path Sect. From inside, a young woman stepped out and looked at the Sect with worried eyes. Moments after, a hole appeared in the protection formation, and she teleported inside. When she appeared in the room, Feifei immediately spotted her. "Mom!" She was Wang Milia. She wasn''t part of the Wang Clan in the past, so she only changed her family name after she got married. Still, her first name was the same. Milia then immediately hugged Feifei and said. "What is all this about, how come you are leaving?" Wang Xin, who felt like he was being ignored, said. "Cough, cough. I will explain it." Milia then looked at him with as if she wanted to eat him alive, much for his sadness. It''s not my fault, okay? Xin then sent a Divine Sense message giving a resume of the entire situation. Milia is Feifei''s mother, so there was obviously no problem in telling her everything. Only then, the angry expression on her face disappeared. "I see." She then hugged Feifei even tighter and said. "Then, I''m going with her!" Wang Mei immediately intervened after hearing that. "Did you hear anything that was said? If a Semi Divinity Realm like you enter that Universe, there is no way that the powers controlling it won''t notice. Let alone protect Feifei, you will be putting her at an even greater risk." Milia still wanted to go, though. "But Ancestor..." Mei immediately cut her off. "Enough! This is my final decision." Milia knew that she wouldn''t have her way, so she gave up. Not to mention that the part where she would bring more danger to Feifei affected her greatly. "Fine! But I want to know who is going with her." It was then that Wang Xin finally found the chance to ask something that was bothering him a lot. "Oh, right! Milia, did you know that Feifei had given her mark away?" Milia heard that and smiled playfully. If others didn''t pay attention, they would not even see the difference between Feifei and Milia at all! "Oh, that? When you told me about your Wang Clan tradition and gave me your mark in the past, I decided to leave a little thing inside Feifei''s one when she was born. The moment that it left Feifei''s body and entered someone else''s, I immediately noticed it. It was at that moment that I understood that Feifei had finally found someone." Wang Xin was speechless. "Then why didn''t you tell me?" Milia shrugged her shoulders. "Where is the fun in that?" Wang Xin felt like crying already. Sure enough, Feifei is definitely this woman''s daughter, no doubt about that. "Then you didn''t mind the fact that he was a demon beast and a wisp at that?" Milia then answered. "So what? I have a friend from my family''s part from the time I was young who married a demon beast. They have been pretty much happy until today. Is there a need to care so much about it?" Milia then looked at Feifei with a severe face and asked. "Where is him? I didn''t tell your father about his existence, but that doesn''t mean that I approved him either." Feifei smiled and then told Milia about what happened when Ancestor Mei asked for Krune''s sliver of soul. When Milia heard about that, her serious expression relaxed quite a bit. "Hmph! At least he knows that you are worth much more than his own life. Still, I want to meet him and check if he is good enough." Feifei heard her mother remark, but she knew better. That answer just now was basically her agreement signature, even though she didn''t say directly. Not long after, Lani had brought Krune back. When Krune looked at Milia and Feifei together, he was quite surprised. The two of them looked too much alike! Still, it is Krune that we are talking about. So that thing about being nervous in front of the fianc¨¦e''s parents simply didn''t exist in his mind. "Oh, hello there. I''m Krune." Milia started to walk around Krune and measure him up and down. "You were not lying, he really has Rainbow eyes and hair. Feifei, are you really okay with it?" Feifei nodded. "Yeap, that is the best. There is no way I can mistake him for someone else, either." Krune felt weird with how Milia kept looking at him, it was like he was some kind of attraction. Milia then said. 212 I just want to sleep! Krune looked at Feifei, who nodded at him. "Alright." He then went back to his wisp form, colorful as ever. Milia looked at him and couldn''t help but comment. "It really is a wisp, but why so colorful?" Krune then said that it was because of his Elemental Core... or so he thought. While Milia was talking with Krune in his wisp form, Lucio came back to the Sect. Since Krune''s friends were all inside the Divine Path Sect Territory, it wasn''t difficult for him to locate them. Lucio then left everyone in Krune''s house and came back to tell him. When he arrived, he saw that Milia was too. Milia also noticed him and smiled. "Hey, if it isn''t Lucio. It''s been some time." Lucio felt a little gloomy but didn''t show it on his face. "Indeed. I see that you got quite an interest in my disciple. How is it? Do you think he is good enough? I don''t want to brag, but he is this old man''s disciple, so you definitely won''t find anyone better out there." Krune was surprised by this sudden praise from his Master. But then he remembered what Feifei told him about Lucio and Wang Xin''s past. ''I see, it''s because of her.'' Milia then put a serious expression and said. "He''s not too bad, I guess. Although I can''t understand why Feifei chose him, Love is not something that can be understood with words to start with." Lucio heard that and couldn''t help but agree with her. Even today, he is still unmarried because of what happened between him, Xin, and Milia. "Indeed, that''s not something that can be explained." Lucio then looked at Krune. "I brought all of them back and left them waiting in your home, so you should go back there now. Remember what and what not to say." "Alright, Master." Krune then disappeared from the room and went back. Milia looked at Feifei and asked. "Feifei, what about your choice of who you will bring with you?" Feifei looked at her mother. "I already know who to bring with me." Back at Krune''s residence, everyone was waiting with puzzled faces. Out of nowhere, the Sect master appeared right in front of them. He didn''t say anything and immediately grabbed everyone before bringing them back to Krune''s house. Fortunately, neither one was busy or doing anything important at that moment. When Krune arrived, Ao, Yusa, Shinja, and Arlan looked at him. Also, the wisps, Ruik, Lizard Dragons, Ula, Lakin, Lofa, Tasier, and the rest were already waiting there. There was only one thing that was certain, the reason had to do with Krune. Krune was already back to his human form. He then looked at everyone and said. "I asked Master to call everyone back because an opportunity appeared. So I''ll be leaving for a long time, and we won''t be able to see each other anytime soon." Immediately, everyone was taken aback. "Where are you going?" Krune shook his head. "I can''t say because it''s a secret of the Sect. I agreed to not disclose any information about that place. All you need to know is that it''s an excellent opportunity for me. Although I won''t be able to see you for hundreds or maybe thousands of years, know that I will do my best to come back as soon as possible." Lakin couldn''t help but comment. "But Master, without you, what will happen with the wisps here in the Sect?" Krune only laughed at that question. "Don''t worry, I''m still a disciple of the Sect, so my residence and subordinates will keep being mine. You can stay here until the next Sect Entrance Exam and try to join it on your own." Lakin then made another question. "Can I go with you?" Krune immediately shook his head. "Can''t do, you are the one who will be responsible for the wisps from now on, so you have to stay to take care of them." Ao then asked. "What about us? It''s not like we are being held here anyway. I can talk with Master, and he probably will agree if I say that this is something prepared by the Sect Master." Krune shook his head again. "I can''t bring you all with me either. Otherwise, I would definitely do so. Master only allowed me to bring a single person or demon beast, nothing more." Everyone then looked at Krune, disappointed. Krune then laughed and said. "Anyway, I wanted to spend the rest of the day with everyone and cook to you all. So there is no deed for any gloomy farewells. As I said, this is an excellent opportunity, I''m not going to be sacrificed or anything like that. By the time I come back, I will probably have left you far behind in cultivation. Haha!" Yusa snorted at that comment. "Do you think we have been playing outside? I admit that you might have higher cultivation, but I will make sure it won''t last for long." Shinja and the others laughed at that. They, too, are confident in their future prospects. Krune nodded and then went to cook. Lofa, as always, helped him this time too. It would be a lie if she said that she wasn''t sad, but she already decided to leave things behind. So she was really just helping with the food. Suddenly, Krune''s eyes got sharp, and he looked to the ceiling. "Old geezer, what do you want to eat? I''m feeling generous today, so I will make whatever you want." A second later, Lucio appeared inside the room with surprise written on his face. "How did you know that I was there?" Krune laughed and said. "I didn''t, I just presumed. Sure enough, you fell right into it. Hahahaha! For once, I got you, and it was just before my leaving. Now I can say that I have no regrets." Lucio felt gloomy when he heard that. Truth is, he didn''t want to separate from Krune, his life had been a lot funnier with him around, after all. Of course, he would never admit it in front of Krune. Lucio then looked at everyone in the room. "I hope that all of you can keep it a secret that Krune is leaving. He trusts you all, so make sure to live up to his expectations. Sooner or later, people will notice that he left. Still, if anyone asks, just say that you also haven''t seen him or whatever good excuse you can think of." "Yes, Sect Master." Lucio nodded, satisfied. He then looked back at Krune. "I want Dragon Pork Ribs." Krune smiled and nodded. Soon, everyone asked for the things they wanted too, which made Krune very occupied for the time being. There was another thing that surprised him. Feifei had come with her mother and father to pay a visit. Krune, of course, cooked what they asked too. When Milia ate Krune''s food, she was taken aback. She didn''t expect that food made with ordinary items could be that good! She couldn''t help but give a nod of approval. ''At least my Feifei won''t starve out there.'' Lofa noticed the new arrivals and immediately understood who they were. It was way too obvious since Feifei was basically a younger version of the woman. Their similarity was all over there for everyone to see! ''Wasn''t Krune and Feifei''s relationship a secret? How come Feifei''s parents are here already?'' She wasn''t the only one with that question in mind. Yusa couldn''t hold anymore and asked Krune directly through a Divine Sense message. "Oh, that? It goes like this..." Krune then explained what happened while omitting the critical parts. When Yusa finished hearing, she thought that Krune was making fun of her. The Krune that she knows would never be this straight forward! Still, the proof was right in front of her eyes. So she could only accept and then tell the others through a Divine Sense message. Immediately, everyone looked at Krune as if he was someone else. How come that low EQ wisp thought about something like that? Yusa couldn''t help but speak emotionally. "Our little wisp is growing up." Quite a few of them nodded after that comment. But for some reason, Krune didn''t feel like it was a compliment. ''What the hell are they talking about?'' By the end of the day, Feifei left with her parents. The rest then looked at Krune with curiosity. There was one thing that Krune hadn''t told them yet. "Just who are you bringing with you?" Suddenly, the entire room became silent. Everyone had the same thought. They wanted to see this place that Krune was going and check how good it is. Of course, they wouldn''t mind whichever Krune''s decision is. In fact, almost everyone was looking forward to that. ''Maybe it would be me,'' some thought. Still, they at least wanted to know who Krune would bring together. Yes... everyone wanted to know... with a single exception. "Rooooooonk... rooooooonk..." Because of the silence in the room, a particular Double-Headed Snake''s snore could be heard now in one corner of the place. "Boom!" Out of nowhere, Krune gave a Kick on it and sent that snake flying! "Crash!" Ruik then hit the wall, which immediately crumbled over him! "Who the hell kicked this grandfather? Show yourself!" But a second later, he noticed the guy with one of his legs raised. "You... What''s the meaning of this? I was having a great dream, you know? Also, I can''t go without my afternoon nap." Krune smiled and then started to touch Ruik''s head. Ruik, of course, got even angrier. "Do I look like a pet to you?" Krune didn''t mind, though. "You know, our rainbow sect can''t do with a weak Sect Master. So I thought that this would be a great opportunity for your training. Until the day we are back, Lakin can take care of everything. I have full trust in his abilities, after all." Ruik immediately got a sense of foreboding. For some reason, he felt like his naps and sleeping time would go down by a lot! "What are you talking about?" Krune ignored him and looked at everyone else. "What do you guys think?" Lakin was the very first to answer. "This is a great idea, Master! Ruik should be the one to go and experience all the dangers to temper himself. He is totally the type who would love it!" Yusa was next. "Indeed, there is no better choice in this world. With Ruik''s enthusiasm for cultivation and training, it might be the perfect opportunity." Then came Arlan, Shinja, Cassy, Dier, Juji, and everyone else. Every single one talked about how Ruik ''loves'' training, cultivation, dangers, and all of that. That made Ruik himself think that perhaps there is another person or demon beast called Ruik in the room. Ruik''s feeling that something was not right kept increasing. What danger? What temper myself? What great opportunity? Love for cultivation? What is that? I just want to sleep! Krune then smiled brightly! "Right?! I also think that it is true. It''s decided then, the one following me this time around is Ruik! We are going to cultivate and train like there is no tomorrow, a lot of sweat and effort await for us!" Only now did Ruik remember about the one slot available to follow Krune into the ''opportunity.'' 213 How do you call our Universe? Ruik couldn''t help but ask. "Are you being serious? With so many good options you selected me?" Krune nodded. "Of course. I''m sure that they will eventually reach a high realm with their dedication. But if I don''t keep an eye on you, what will happen with the face of our rainbow sect? A sect where all the members are stronger than the Sect Master? That can not happen, right?" Ruik couldn''t help but exclaim. "Then why don''t you select one of them as Sect Master? It''s not like it has to be me." Krune then looked behind and asked. "Anyone here wants to be the Sect Master?" The answer was unanimous. "No!" Krune looked back at Ruik and said. "There you go." Ruik''s mouth twitched. "Lakin is going to take my place for hundreds or even thousands of years. Isn''t it better to simply make him the Sect master, then?" Lakin was the one to answer this one. "I''m just taking it as an experience. How could I rob the real Sect Master of his position? Don''t worry, I won''t betray the Sect like this." Ruik was already feeling like crying. "Do I really have to go?" Krune looked at him and said. "Well, I won''t force you, of course. But out of everyone, I wanted you to come with me. Are you really going to refuse?" Ruik then received a Divine Sense message from Krune. "Out of everyone, you are the one with the most neutral position. If I selected someone else, I doubt that the others would complain or blame me in any way. Still, some will think: ''What or why didn''t I select them?'' You are the only one in our group that can make no one feel that way after being selected. I really put a lot of thought over it, and that''s the kind of position that you have in everyone''s mind." Ruik didn''t expect that he was seen like that. In the end, he just sighed and accepted his fate. "Fine, once I get to the Divine Path Realm, I guess I can sleep as much as I want." Lakin put one hand on his head and said. "That is considering that you will ever get at that Realm. Even I have passed you already. Let''s see what you can do with this personality of yours." Ruik didn''t care about that, though. "That''s only a temporary thing. Ao then asked Krune. "Is there someone else going with you?" Krune nodded. "Sooner or later, you would find out. But I hope you keep quiet for the time being. I''m going with Feifei too. That''s because, as I told you before, we have that thing about destiny energy not moving with our actions." Ao and everyone else remembered the day that Krune told them about it. For some reason, divination didn''t work on him, and it seemed like it didn''t work on Feifei either. "I see, I understand. By the way, if you can bring someone, she probably can too. Who is she selecting?" "I have no idea. I guess I will know by tomorrow anyway." Krune then spent the rest of the time chatting with everyone and doing whatever had to be done. The next day. Krune was back into his Master''s residence. Wang Mei and Lani where there already too. Beside him, Ruik had a gloomy face as if he was going for his execution. Feifei was also there, and beside her, there was another girl with pure black hair. When Krune felt her aura, he knew that she was a demon beast. She wasn''t that beautiful but not ugly either. Common was definitely the best statement. As for her race? She could be said to be extremely common too. That''s because she wasn''t anything else other than a Demon Crow! That''s correct, a very common animal that could be found almost anywhere in this Universe. Krune then sent Feifei a Divine Sense message asking about. "Oh, her? Her name is Tiane, and she had been following me ever since I was young. I''ve known her for even longer than you. Right, let me tell you how it became like this, I''m sure you will like it." Feifei then sent a Divine Sense message to explain everything to both Krune and Ruik. Usually, Demon Crows don''t cultivate to the point where they get sentience. At most, they would reach the 2nd or 3rd stage of the Qi Condensation, they are even weaker than that Four Winged Crow that attacked Krune back then. Due to a coincidence, Feifei was able to see Tiane''s future. There was nothing impressive in it. In fact, it was quite bad. According to what Feifei saw, she was supposed to be killed by a stronger beast and eaten after that. Quite a common fate for a lot of animals. Still, Feifei as a kid, couldn''t bear letting it happen. At that time, Uncle Feng explained that this is how the world works. The weak become prey for the strong. If she decided to save every single animal that has this kind of destiny, even her entire life wouldn''t be sufficient. Not to mention that she would disrupt the balance of other living beings. So he made a deal with Feifei as a kid. He would let Feifei bring that Crow with her, but she should not do that again unless it is something really important. There was even a similarity with Krune, Tiane was able to get her human form the moment she reached the Foundation Establishment. It once again goes to show just how common her race is. Still, once Tiane got sentience at the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation, she came to understand that it was Feifei that gave her that chance. So she decided to follow Feifei from that moment onwards. Tiane didn''t have any talent whatsoever, she is as ordinary at cultivation as anyone could be. But thanks to her hard work and the Wang Clan''s resources, she was able to reach the 3rd stage of the Core Formation Realm. That could already be said to be a miracle, and it only loses to Krune''s case. After hearing everything, Krune couldn''t help but feel some admiration for Tiane. He looked back at Ruik and rebuked him. "Now look at that. Tiane''s talents are worse than yours, her age is lower than yours, she doesn''t have the Spiritual Energy Meridians either. A Demon Crow! Don''t you feel ashamed of yourself for being in the 9th stage of the Foundation Establishment still?" Every word was a knife passing through Ruik''s heart. He looked at Tiane, who didn''t know anything about this conversation, as if she was a great foe. "Fine! I already said that I understand, didn''t I? You just wait and see how this grandfather will surpass her in no time." Krune laughed after hearing that. "That''s what I want to see because if not, you are definitely in for a beating!" Lani and Mei came forward and asked. "Are you four ready? We are going to open the passage now." They all nodded. Lani and Mei then helped each other so that nothing wrong would go with the passage. After some time, Lani said. "I found the location described by Senior Cilia." Mei nodded. "Let me help you open it up." The power of space-time came from both of them, and soon, a spatial gate started to open in front of Krune''s group. "Alright, let''s use this passage to find a planet for them to land. We can''t simply throw Feifei and the rest in the middle of the void, after all." Lani nodded. "I hope it doesn''t take too much time. The longer it takes, the higher the chances of the other side find out that a gate is open." Mei nodded, and they started to spread their Divine Sense into the Universe. But soon, both Lani and Mei were shocked! At first, they thought that it would take some time until they found a planet with the right conditions. Things like a population, technology, cultivators, and demon beasts. After all, if they sent Krune and Feifei in a desert planet, they would basically be stuck there for decades, if not hundreds of years before they can open a spatial gate themselves. But it turned out that every single planet that they scanned had everything that they were looking for! Soon, Lani and Mei understood the reason. That is a Universe that can speed up the rate of cultivation. So it goes without saying that every single Universe in control of this one sent as many people and demon beasts as possible. That way, their own universes would be strengthened. Because of this, now even the most remote planets had cultivators and demon beasts. Even planets that were in no habitable zones of that Universe were no exception! Thanks to formations and other means, those planets also were flourishing with life. Lani couldn''t help but say. "I thought that our problem would be to find a habitable planet. But I have never thought that the issue would be to select one instead." Mei nodded after hearing that. Even she was having a hard time just picking one. There were just too many of them! "I guess we might as well select a huge one. That way, Feifei and Krune will have a lot more chances of developing. It seems like Demon Beasts and Humans also live together without a problem there, so we don''t need to focus on this issue either." Lani nodded, and they immediately started to look for a good one. There were quite a few that fit this description, so in the end, they just selected the one that seemed to have the highest amount of spiritual energy. "Alright, this planet here has everything needed. Let''s go with it." Lani and Mei looked at those four waiting and started to explain the little bit that they could see about that place. Like the landing point, the nearest city, etc... "You can come now. Remember, no word about where you came from." Krune''s group nodded and bid their farewells. Feifei gave her mother and father a hug while Krune simply talked with Lucio. Lucio then remembered something and told him. "Oh right, you probably will like to know that your Myriad Wisps Technique is spreading quite well. I looked into it last night for you. Quite a few wisps started to enter the cities in their human forms. Also, the market for wisps began to decline since the wisps that were found were no good for energy absorption anymore. Of course, the changes are very small, and few noticed it, but soon, it should become a much more common situation." Krune felt a little emotional after hearing that. There was obviously a long way to go, but it seemed like that the wisp race in his home universe had finally crossed the start line. Krune''s group finished their preparations and went in front of the gate. Just when everyone started crossing it, Krune remembered something and quickly asked his Master. "Oh, right! How do you call our Universe?" Lucio was surprised that Krune still doesn''t know that, before the gate closed behind, he answered through a Divine Sense message. 214 Riren Once on the other side, Krune still had his surprised face. "Light Spirit, isn''t that your name?" Light Spirit didn''t mind it much, though. "Since my Tribulation Power is sealed by the heavens of that Universe, its name was most likely selected because of me too." Krune felt like that was more to it, but knew that Light Spirit wouldn''t say anything even if he asked. He then introduced himself to Tiane since he had not had the chance before. "Hello, I''m Krune. As you probably know, I''m a wisp." Tiane then answered. "Tiane, a Demon Crow." Tiane had quite a serious atmosphere around her that made it difficult for Krune to continue the conversation. "Ruik, you should do the same." Ruik didn''t mind, but just as he was about to do the same as Krune, Tiane cut him off. "I have no interest in lazy bastards, so I have no need to know your name." Ruik''s mouth twitched. "Are you looking for a fight?" Although Ruik is still in the Foundation Establishment, he is at the peak of it. So he is confident that with the Spiritual Energy Meridians, he will at least be able to put off a resistance even if he loses. Krune looked surprised at Feifei, who sighed after hearing that. She then sent a Divine Sense message to him. "She is not like that. It''s just that after hearing about that another demon beast is coming, she decided to show a strong front to mark her territory. Usually, she is very gentle." Krune had his doubts, though. Will a gentle demon beast act like that at the very first encounter? But he felt that it was also good. This way, Ruik would put a lot more effort in his cultivation. Feifei looked around and said. "Ancestor Mei and Lani made the landing point be somewhere around a mountain range. According to them, the closest city should be at north-east. They told us that they wouldn''t be very precise, so we might appear between 200 to 400 km away from there." Krune nodded. "Indeed. From what they said, this Planet is even bigger than the Divine Path Sect home one. But fortunately, it wasn''t protected by any anti spatial power formation. So that''s why we could land here. As for the city, all they could tell us was that it had over a hundred million lives alone. They didn''t try to pry further into it since they might have caught the attention of another Dinivity Realm." Ruik, who decided to ignore Tiane for now, also did the same. He looked around and could feel that the Spiritual Energy here was very rich. Of course, the Divine Path Sect home Planet wasn''t any worse. But one must remember that this is just a single planet selected in a hurry. What kind of even better Planets aren''t out there now? "I guess I will try to enter the Core Formation Realm first so that I can try to use my human form." "Why didn''t you do it back there, then?" Ruik then said. "I forgot." Feifei, Tiane, and Krune almost fainted! Tiane didn''t hold back. "Who the hell would forget something this important? Are you making fun of us? There is a limit for laziness." Ruik didn''t mind, though. "What is the problem? Whether it is here or there, it''s not like anyone could intervene anyway. I already have the soul healing pill, so it''s the same." It was then that Krune thought about something. "Light Spirit, our Tribulation Lightning happens because of your stolen power. So what about the other universes, do they not have Tribulations?" Light Spirit immediately answered. "Of course they do, but they vary in elements. Like Tribulation Fire, Water, Wind, Etc. There are even a few who have a Spatial, Darkness, Light, and other uncommon Tribulation Elements. Now that I think about it, this Dalin Universe was a Tribulation Fire during my time, but I don''t know if it has changed." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Does it mean that there are a lot of entities like you out there that had their power used as Tribulation?" Light Spirit denied that conjecture. "Although it is not impossible, it should be very hard to find such a place. Generally, the heavens of each Universe give birth to their own type of Tribulation." "Then why did our Luvile Universe use your power for it?" Light Spirit then said. "I can''t enter in details since even I am not sure about it. But I believe that it is to save energy." Krune was taken aback. "Save... energy?" Light Spirit was just about to explain more when suddenly, Krune''s meridians showed those irregularities again. Krune was surprised by that. Still, this time, Krune was prepared, so they Elemental Meridians didn''t act on their own. "I guess that''s this is as much as you can say." Light Spirit agreed. "Yes." But his Meridians being affected again wasn''t the reason that Krune got surprised. Instead, it was the fact that whoever had this ability, was strong enough to know that he left the Luvile Universe and can still detect his presence. Light Spirit knew what Krune was thinking and then said. "I told you before, didn''t I? The presence that I felt was someone who wasn''t any weaker than me. So things like moving to another universe don''t mean much for that guy, I can guarantee you that." Krune nodded and didn''t ask anymore. He then looked at Ruik and said. "I came to know that the Tribulation of each Universe is different, so you probably won''t get a Lightning Tribulation this time." Ruik was taken aback but immediately got excited. That''s because Tribulation Lightning was an element that worked quite well against demon beasts that had no affinity with Lightning. But if it was another element, Ruik is a lot more confident in surpassing it. "I will try." Feifei and Tiane looked at each other and could see that they were also curious about this different Tribulation. Krune then said. "Give me a few minutes to check the surroundings, and then you can start." Krune had the most powerful Divine Sense in their group, not to mention his Tribulation Lightning movement. So it really took just a few minutes for him to do that. "Alright, go ahead." They are not too far but not too close to the city either. So it shouldn''t be anything rare to see someone going through a Cultivation Tribulation to start with. Ruik then concentrated on his soul and allowed his Core to absorb it. As expected already, the pain was enormous, and the damage was very serious. Still, after the process was done, Ruik immediately took his Soul Healing Pill and got his soul recovered almost instantly. The Tribulation Clouds appeared right after. But different from their Home Universe, those Clouds were made of Purple Fire instead. Sure enough, just as Light Spirit said, the Dalin Universe Tribulation is fire-based. Krune then thought about something. "Light Spirit, do you think that those flames are the same as the Purple Flames that I use? I can''t help but feel like they are totally different." Light Spirit agreed. "It''s different. You need to use several elements to get your result, while this one is basically Fire Element alone. If you try to add Wind Element to increase this Tribulation Fire, it won''t work. Different from yours that Wind Element can increase the power a lot." Krune then asked. "Is there another Tribulation Lightning in other Universes?" Light Spirit knew what Krune meant with that question. "There are other Universes with Tribulation Lightning, but they are not the same as the one used by me. First of all, they aren''t purple, but blue. As I said, my Tribulation Lightning is probably being used to save energy. In the other Universes with Tribulation Lightning, the energy necessary to summon it is several times higher just to achieve the same effect. I told you before, my Tribulation Lightning is only mine and no one else." Krune nodded and didn''t ask anymore. He could tell at least that Light Spirit''s Tribulation Lightning is definitely stronger than that Tribulation Flame too. But this is, after all, a Tribulation. Krune still thinks that the lack of destruction power will be compensated by something else. Sure enough, it was as Krune guessed. Simply put, it was the time! The duration of this Tribulation Fire was being a lot longer than the span of nine Lightning Bolts from the Luvile Universe. Not to mention that it was continuous. There was no pause like there is between the lightning bolts. "It has already been the double of time from our Universe. It seems like we can''t underestimate any Tribulation, after all." Feifei nodded. "Yes. Fortunately, it was, as Ruik said. I can see that it is a lot easier for him to resist Fire Element than it would be with Lightning." Suddenly, Krune''s eyes narrowed. "There is a group coming our way." Feifei and Tiane immediately were put on guard. Suddenly, Krune''s group heard a voice coming their way. "What are you doing? Don''t you know that it is prohibited to pass your Tribulation outside the regulated points?" Krune and Feifei looked at the group that just arrived. They all used some weird clothes that they had never seen before. Still, it was evident that they were some kind of squad or team group since the clothes were the same for everyone. Their leader was an Early Stage Divine Soul Realm cultivator while the other 7 members were all at the Core Formation Realm. Krune then came forward and said. "We just arrived here, so we didn''t know that such a rule existed." The leader narrowed his eyes since he also noticed that Krune''s group clothes are very different from theirs. "Are you perhaps not from this Planet?" The reason he asked that was that everyone in this Planet knew the Tribulation Rules. Only those who came from outside would try something like that so close to the city. Krune didn''t know if he should say yes or not. But it seemed like that guy was pretty sure about his conjecture, so Krune decided to agree for the moment. "Yes. Our elders just opened the Spatial Gate for us, so we arrived in this place. My friend then felt that it would be the perfect opportunity to enter the Core Formation Realm due to the amount of Spiritual Energy around. We apologize for our lack of information." The leader then nodded and said. "With your realm, no one would try to break the law unless they are idiots who want to die. Still, rules are rules. Your group will need to pay the fee for the transgression. After he finishes his trial, you four come with me to the city to get the paperwork done. At least, because you didn''t know, and the fact that it should be your first time breaking the rules, you won''t be imprisoned. But remember this: Our Riren Planet takes the laws very seriously, so you better be careful in the future." Krune''s group nodded and then waited for Ruik to finish. Feifei then asked the others through Divine Sense. 215 In other words, we will need to work! Krune thought a little and then said. "It seems like they are pretty used to receive outsiders. So I guess it won''t be that bad to go to their place. Even if they ask from where we are, we can just say that by the orders of our Sect, we can''t tell its name so that people won''t give us an easier time because of our background." Feifei shook her head. "What if they ask for a blood contract to confirm if we are telling the truth?" Tiane gave them an idea. "We can do the same. Just say that we are also under a blood contract that we can''t reveal our backgrounds. From what I can see, as long as we agree to follow the Planet''s Laws, it shouldn''t be a big issue once the proper price is paid." Although Krune could still think about a few flaws in Tiane''s plan, he would need more information to decide how to act. Not to mention that fleeing would be a very bad idea. If they become fugitives as soon s they arrive, they will have a hard time while developing here. They are all in the Core Formation Realm, so they can''t simply flee from the Planet through the void. "Alright, let''s do as you say." Krune then paid attention to Ruik once more. It was then that he noticed that the Core Formation Realm guys positioned themselves around Ruik. At first, he got a little nervous. If they decided to intervene in his Trial, Krune definitely wouldn''t stay put. But soon, he let out a sigh of relief. Those guys weren''t doing anything to Ruik but stopping the flames of the Tribulation from spreading around. Only now did Krune notice that those flames were burning everything close to Ruik as well. "I see, considering the number of cultivators and demon beasts in this Planet if everyone goes through their tribulations anywhere, soon, the Planet will become a charred ball in the middle of space. No wonder there are laws set in place for this. It''s just like the Tribulation Ground back in the Divine Path Sect." Ruik, as expected, passed the Tribulation without any significant issues. Although he looked like a charred doll, he was pretty much okay at the moment. "Hahaha! As long as it is not lightning, this grandfather is not afraid of anything! Did you see that? Even though the time it takes is a lot longer, the different Element makes it a lot easier for me." Krune gave him a helpless sighed and said. "Can''t you see that we have company? Stop your blabbering and quickly heal yourself, we need to go to the city to pay the fee for your transgression." Only then did Ruik notice those guys with the same type of clothes around him and the leader looking at him outside. "Errr... What''s going on here?" Krune then sent him a Divine Sense message explaining the entire situation. "Oh, I see. Give me a second, I just need to heal the external injuries, and we can go." Krune and everyone else bowed to the guards and said. "Sorry for making you wait." The leader''s impression of Krune''s group improved a bit after seeing how polite they were. For them to have arrived here through a spatial gate, it is apparent that they have quite a good background. Still, they know how to show respect, which is a good thing. "Alright, let''s move!" Krune then asked. "Could you tell us your name?" The leader of the group nodded. "Julian." Krune also nodded, and their group then followed the guards to the city. Just as Lani and Mei mentioned, they were really just a few hundred kilometers away. From a distance, Krune and the others could see a gigantic wall that extended way past their Divine Senses. But that was to be expected since this is a city with over a hundred million people or demon beasts. They could also see a protection formation the covered all the way up to the sky. Krune''s knowledge of formations had fallen behind for some time now, but he could still tell that it was a detector type instead of a barrier one. Also, Krune could see that quite a few cultivators of demon beasts passed through it with his Divine Sense. Those ones were not trying to hide, so it wasn''t a problem for him and the rest to detect them. ''A barrier-type formation would be annoying to control with this amount of cultivators and demon beasts entering and leaving all the time. Still, it seems like the biggest majority of them have cultivation far higher than me or anyone in my group.'' Once they arrived at the city gate, they descended from the sky. It was then that Julian said. "This is Galeri City. Remember, no one under the Soul Forging Realm can fly inside the city. Otherwise, they will be charged for breaking the law." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "I can see that those guys flying have cultivations much higher than mine. Still, I can see a few who aren''t that strong. Do they have some kind of privilege?" Julian nodded. "Exactly, there is only one way for that. Paying the fee! As long as you can afford it, you will get a token that can be used to prove your status. Of course, even I don''t have one of those, so it goes without saying that it is quite expensive. The majority of those who have this token usually got it from their families who paid for them." Julian guided everyone to one of the guards'' office branches of the city, where he explained everything to his superior. "Well, it''s not like we don''t get clueless travelers like your group now and then. So let''s get done with it. First, I need your information so that an ID can be made. After that, you will need to pay the fee for the Tribulation issue. If you can''t pay, then you can have your elders come by and do it for you. If that also isn''t possible, we are going to assign you to a few places where you will work until you get enough Spirit Stones to clean your names. Any question?" Krune''s group shook their heads. So far, the system of the Riren Planet was pretty much the same as the one back in their homes. They had a specific set of rules and laws that had to be followed. "Alright, I need your names and birth Planet. If you came from a different Universe, I would need that too. Don''t forget your background if you are part of a Sect, Clan, or anything like that." Krune then couldn''t help but sigh. "We can''t give that information since it was the orders of our elders. At most, I can provide you our names. They made us swear to not divulge it so that our background wouldn''t be considered when others decide to deal with us. We are sorry." The guy heard that and didn''t seem surprised at all. "Tch, another group of young masters. Alright, but know that if you don''t give me that information, it will be quite expensive to create an ID. Are you okay with that?" The guy didn''t suspect Krune''s group since for Core Formation Realm cultivators to arrive on a planet through a spatial gate, they had to have some strong elders in their Clan or Sect. Even if they were some fugitives from somewhere, with their cultivation level, they wouldn''t be able to do anything in this place either. Krune''s group immediately nodded. They didn''t expect that everything could be settled that easy with Spirit Stones. "Very well. The fee for the Tribulation Issue is 324 Rank 7 Spirit Stones. As for the IDs, it is 127 Rank 8 Spirit Stones for each one." Krune''s group almost fainted! That''s too damn expensive! But it was then that Krune thought about a possibility and asked the guy. "By the way, if we had to work to pay for the transgression, how long would it take?" The man didn''t mind and answered. "I reckon that if it is the four of you, it would probably take around a year and a half to pay for everything." Ruik opened his eyes wide! "Only one year and a half to pay for that amount?!" Krune, on the other hand, just nodded. It was exactly as he thought. He then explained to Ruik and the others through a Divine Sense. "Did you forget the description that we received about this Universe? All the powerful Universes out there send their population here for training. It goes without saying that a lot of high-level Spirit Stones arrive in this place every single day. It might look a lot for us, but for them, this is nothing much." Feifei and everyone else nodded after hearing that. They had to admit that Krune''s thought made sense. Fortunately, both the Wang Clan and the Divine Path Sect had given a lot of high-rank Spirit Stone for Krune and Feifei just in case. So they could still pay for those fees. Still, it was evident that their reserves won''t last for long in a place like this. Krune looked at everyone and shrugged his shoulders. 216 Where is the fun in that? Krune then looked back at the officer and said. "We will pay the fees now, can you help us with the ID''s?" The guy nodded, and they went through the entire process. Nighttime came, and Krune''s group finally left the place with their new IDs. "Let''s find a place to stay tonight. We can look for a house or anything tomorrow." Everyone nodded and immediately started to look for an INN, which wasn''t hard to find. For a city of this size, you could find quite a few in several places. Still, they were amazed by the night fee! For a common one used by ordinary people, it was still possible to pay with gold or silver. But if you wanted one focused on cultivation, with spiritual energy gathering formations and the such, the cheapest one wasn''t less than 20 Rank 4 Spirit Stones! Although this number means nothing to Krune''s group at the moment, it would be a price that the majority of new cultivators wouldn''t choose to pay unless they didn''t have a choice. Or at least, that is the case back in the Luvile Universe. Inside one of the rooms that they rented, Krune and Ruik were looking at each other. It seemed like Krune was expecting something to happen and couldn''t take his eyes from him. Ruik noticed that, of course. "Do you need to keep looking at me? Why don''t you go cultivate or something else?" Krune shook his head. "I wouldn''t lose this chance even if a meteor were to be falling right on me at the moment." Ruik felt gloomy and then said. "Then forget, I won''t try it now." Krune''s expression immediately got ugly. "Do you want to do it the easy or hard way?" Ruik felt a chill on his back and shook his head. "Fine! It''s not like I will turn out as you did anyway." What else could it be than Ruik''s first time taking his human form? You might kill Krune, but you definitely wouldn''t get him to not see it this time. Krune is totally looking forward to seeing Ruik tripling here and there just like he did. As expected, his transformation went smoothly, and he soon took the form of a man. Black hair and no beard. Of course, he was completely naked, too, so that''s why Feifei and Tiane were not present at the moment. Krune didn''t care about any of this, what he wanted to see is Ruik trying to walk around. "What are you waiting by not moving a single muscle there? Come on! Didn''t you laugh at everyone who tried to move when they first transformed? Let me see it now! What goes around, comes around!" Ruik hasn''t moved yet because he was trying to get the feel of his new body. Still, it seemed like that Krune would kick him forward if he took to long. "Fine!" "What are you laughing at?! At least I wasn''t like a certain wisp who couldn''t move a single limb correctly!" Krune didn''t mind, though. "Of course, wisps don''t have a body to start with, so we don''t have a reference like you did. Besides..." Krune then approached Ruik and gave him a gentle pat on the back. Crash! That was all that it took for Ruik to lose his balance and fall with his face on the ground. As a Double Headed Snake, he obviously didn''t have limbs before. So he couldn''t control his new arms to stop that from happening. "Do you think I can''t see that you were trying to not use your arms at all? Hahaha!" Sure enough, Ruik arms started to move like a frenzy worms when he tried to use it to stop his fall! "Fine! I admit I had it coming. Satisfied?" Krune shook his head. He then put some clothes on Ruik and called Feifei and Tiane in. "Of course, I''m not satisfied, so I brought them inside to appreciate the view." With Feifei''s playful mind, she obviously loved Krune''s idea. As for Tiane, she couldn''t help but feel a little curious about how Ruik would turn out, so she tagged along. "Gogogo! Practice makes perfect! Keep moving!" Ruik felt like crying, but he had no right to refuse it now. Much less complain about them laughing at him. "Hmph! Just you wait and see, I will get used to it in no time. At least, I will be a lot faster than you were." Sure enough, Ruik really did get used to it a lot faster than Krune. That was to be expected since even though Ruik didn''t have limbs before, he still had a blood and flesh body in snake form. Different from Krune, Lakin, Cassy, and the other wisps, he had a reference from where to start. Still, it wasn''t before he tripled, hit a wall, or was forced into those two previous conditions by Krune and Feifei, that he learned enough. When Ruik finally got a hold of himself to be able to move without being afraid of falling, it was already the morning of the next day. Krune noticed Ruik''s gloomy face and laughed. "Alright, alright. We haven''t eaten anything since we arrived, so I will cook whatever you want today as long as I have the ingredients." Ruik''s dead eyes immediately resurrected! "Blood chicken wings!" Krune nodded and asked Feifei and Tiane as well. Tiane, of course, had heard from Feifei that Krune loved to cook. Still, she felt like it was a joke from Feifei. That is the Divine path Sect Master''s disciple. How could someone like that waste his time cooking? So she felt somewhat lost when Krune asked what she wanted. "Errr... Do you have Spirit Cave worms?" Krune nodded. "Tasier loved those, so I bought a few for when he asked for it. How do you want it? Fried? Steamed? I recommend it with soup, though." Tiane just accepted Krune''s offer. Feifei didn''t feel anything from the fact that Tiane liked those worms. After all, the two of them have been together for a long time already. As for Krune, in his eyes, food is food, that''s all! While they were eating on the table, Krune brought the work problem out. "I connected to this city network and checked the price for using formations, buying cultivation resources, rent a house, etc. Both me and Feifei have a little more than 10000 Rank 7 Spirit Stones. My master and Feifei''s Ancestor thought that it would already be a lot of spirit stones for someone at our realms. In fact, it really is if we consider the Luvile Universe. We could live for years with this amount if we don''t use them for cultivation." "Still, this is almost nothing in this place. Just to rent a courtyard somewhere cheap that can fit us four, it is already 500+ Rank 5 Spirit Stones monthly! And that is just to rent! I better not even talk to you about the buying price of those, let alone the price for good ones." "Still, it is only expensive in our eyes. In the eyes of the people and beasts here, this is just common. Because of that, any job that you do also pays several times more than what you would receive back in the Luvile Universe. So we can also make a lot of spirit stones by just working on our side occupations." Ruik then said. "But, I have no side occupation!" Krune then said. "That isn''t a problem, they also have something like the Mercenary Guild here. It is just that it is called the Mission Hall, you can complete the missions and receive the payment. Once again, you will get a lot more than what you would for a mission of the same level in the Luvile Universe." Feifei couldn''t help but comment. "No wonder the cultivation of everyone around seems far above average. Even the ordinary people seemed to be at least in the Foundation Establishment. With ordinary jobs paying much more, even they can get this far. I can understand why the universe powerhouses out there blocked the entrance to this place. As long as one puts the effort, they will definitely soar at a much higher speed." Everyone nodded, and Krune also added. "Not to mention that this Universe has easier to understand Laws! Simply put, this is a cultivation paradise! It totally makes sense why such a place is sealed for anyone else who hasn''t paid the price." Krune then sent a link to everyone and showed a severe expression. "Take a look at what I sent you." Everyone opened that and soon were taken aback! Tiane was the first one to comment. "So many amazing cultivation techniques! There are even a few that would be regarded as treasures by our Wang Clan. There are also skills!" Ruik also exclaimed. "Every single one being shown here can be bought with Spirit Stones! Of course, the excellent ones are extremely expensive. Still, they are things that you definitely wouldn''t get even if you had the money back in our Luvile Universe." Feifei noticed that Krune''s didn''t seem that happy and asked. "What is wrong with those techniques and skills?" Tiane and Ruik also noticed the change and looked at Krune. Krune, on the other hand, just shook his head. "There is nothing wrong with them, and that is the worrying part. Can''t you see it? Any enemy that we find from now on will be far above in strength than the ordinary ones back in the Luvile Universe." "No! To be more precise, this new level of strength is what we should call ordinary from now on. I had the confidence of beating any usual Core Formation Realm cultivator or demon beast before with easy. But now, it is obvious that things won''t be like that anymore. There is an uncountable number of battle videos around the network that you can take a look at. From what I could see, any 1st Stage Core Formation Realm from here can definitely put a fight to any ordinary 2nd to 3rd Stage back in the Luvile Universe." Krune then looked at Ruik and said. "So take this chance and go cultivate! Go take missions! Go make money! You have my Myriad Energies Technique and can now open the Elemental Meridians with your Core Formation Realm! If I see you losing a battle for an ordinary cultivator or demon beast of the same level, you better be prepared for the consequences!" Krune then connected his communicator to the monitor in the room and started to play a video... of Ruik trying his first steps in his human form. "Once we get back to our Universe, I will make sure to show this video to everyone!" Ruik felt like the world went dark right there and then. "You! Delete it now!" Krune just laughed, though. "Where is the fun in that? I already uploaded it to a safe place, even if you get my communicator, I still have my ways of getting this video. I''m looking forward to your improvement." Feifei and even Tiane were just laughing on the side. Feifei couldn''t but think. 217 The Sacred Lands Move. Sometime later, Feifei took the opportunity to ask Krune. "Do you mind if I pass the Myriad Energies Technique to Tiane? Don''t worry. I have full trust in her." Krune nodded. "I told you before, whatever you or uncle Feng decide to do with it, I will not complain." Feifei then gave him a quick kiss and thanked him. "Tiane, let''s go back to our room. I have a few things to tell you." Tiane didn''t know what Feifei wanted but followed nonetheless. Ruik then said. "I''m going to take a look at the Missions Hall, wanna tag along?" Krune pondered a bit and shook his head. "I will be going to the Alchemist Gui... Organization. Yea, it''s not called guild here. Anyway, I''m going there to see if I can improve my alchemy and make some money at the same time." Ruik nodded and left after that. Krune then checked a few more information on the network and left as well. . At the same time, back in the central region of the Luvile Universe. There was a planet where the night was perpetual, there was no sun to be seen. In fact, even if this planet got close to a sun, the formations around it wouldn''t allow the light to pass through. This is the home Planet of the Darkness Sacred Land. At this moment, an elder council was in progress, and only the highest echelon was allowed to participate. At the highest seat, the Sacred Land Master, Yamio Halas, was waiting for his subordinate report. "We confirmed that the mission is now a failure. Four assassins died, and we crushed the soul sliver of the last one to prevent any leakage." Yamio''s face went dark at that moment. "What about that little girl? Have you located her already? We are running out of time! Once the other sacred lands find out, we won''t be able to take her Heavenly Core back without a fight." The subordinate then continued. "From the information that we got, Feifei is now at the Divine Path Sect and hasn''t left since then. Although we do have some eyes in the Western Protectorate, they aren''t many. So all we can tell is that Feifei stayed inside sin-" Suddenly, the subordinate stopped his report. It seemed like he received a message all of a sudden. "Changing the report. We confirmed that the Divinity Realm of the Wang Clan arrived at the Divine Path Sect, which is quite weird since she rarely goes outside. But that only lasted a day. The next one, the Wang Clan members left the Sect, and we identified someone who looked like the target leaving together with the Wang Clan Ancestor." Yamio then said. "Forget the Divine path Sect disciple since he was just caught in the crossfire. They probably thought that this Krune or whatever was also a target." The subordinate acknowledged the orders. Still, Yamio was feeling gloomy. If the Wang Clan sent Feifei away, probably only the highest echelon of the Clan know where. ''Do I need to mobilize some Divinity Realms to force them to talk? But if I do that, the other two Sacred Lands will definitely notice.'' Suddenly, the subordinate expression changed. It was evident that he got another message. "Not good. The Extreme Yin Yang Palace and the All Life Sect are sending their Divinity Realm out. It seems like they are moving in the direction of the Wang Clan." Yamio''s face that wasn''t looking anything good got even worse now. He looked in the direction of one of the elders beside him and sent the orders. "Hule Aforein, take another 10 Late Stages Divinity Realm cultivators and move out immediately. We can''t allow the other two to put their hands on that girl first." Hule nodded and quickly left. Together with him, another 10 Divinity Realm cultivators followed. All of them at the Late Stages of that Realm. For Divinity Realm cultivators or demon beasts, traveling incredibly long distances is nothing complicated. So it wasn''t long before they arrived at the Wang Clan. Wang Mei was meditating in her room when suddenly, several powerful Divine Senses passed through her. She opened her eyes and looked in the sky above. "They are here. It was a lot faster than I thought, though. Probably, the other Sacred Lands got some information that forced the first enemy''s hand to come out in the open. In the end, they didn''t try a second assassination after the news that I let out. But that doesn''t matter. Feifei is already gone anyway." Wang Mei and the other Divinity Realm of the Wang Clan then appeared in the void outside the Wang Clan home Planet. Mei looked at those guys in front of her and asked. "Who are you guys?" Hule Aforein knew that he was without time, so he went straight to the point. "Hand over Wang Feifei, and your Wang Clan can see the light of the next day." Wang Mei''s face immediately got dark and snorted. "And why should I do as you say? You come out of nowhere without even telling your identity. First of all, what Late Stages Divinity Realm cultivator like you guys want with a kid at the Core Formation Realm? Don''t you feel ashamed of yourself?" Hule then added. "We are from the Darkness Sacred Land. As for why we want her, that''s not your business. Last warning, hand she over, and you can prevent your Clan from falling into a calamity." Suddenly, a few other Void Gates appeared, and some Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beast came out. They were Lani and the Divinity Realm protectors of the Divine Path Realm! The Darkness Sacred Land had the advantage since all their 11 members were at the Late Stages of the Divinity Realm. As for the Wang Clan and Divine Path Sect, they only had two, which are Mei and Lani. Still, counting those at the middle and early stages, they definitely had the advantage in numbers. Lani looked at the guy and said. "This is not how you treat a lady, don''t you think?" Hule looked at Lani and asked with a cold face. "What does your Divine Path Sect want by meddling in this issue? You have nothing to do with it. If you leave now, my Darkness Sacred Land can still pretend that we didn''t see you." Lani heard that and laughed out loud. "Pretend you didn''t see us? It was you who attacked our disciples, right? Do you think I''m idiot enough to not know that after here, you would come for our Divine Path Sect next?" Of course, all that conversation was nothing more than a pretense from Mei and Lani since they knew very well what the enemy wanted. Still, it was very convincing due to the situation. Hule remembered that the First Disciple of Lucio was also there and thought that the Divine Path Sect understood the situation wrong. "Our target wasn''t your disciple, only Feifei." Lani snorted after hearing that. "Is that so, then how come we got the reports that once they didn''t get the information from the other participants, they tried to kill them to eliminate all the witnesses? You will have to do better than that if you want us to stay out of this." Hule narrowed his eyes, he really didn''t have the time to deal with both powers at the same time. "What does your Sect want?" Lani smiled and said. "Oh, nothing much. Just that you guys leave and send a representative to talk things through. We will have a very long and nice chat with both my Divine Path Sect and the Wang Clan. Of course, both Feifei and Krune are out of this negotiation. Also, we need all the information related to the reason why you want to take our disciples and descendants away. I can''t imagine why a Sacred Land would want to put their hands on some kids. That''s too shameful." Hule''s face immediately got ugly! Let alone the fact that he can''t wait to have a calm conversation, they didn''t have any intention to give Feifei away. Worst of all, the Divine Path Sect ''thinks'' that they also want their Disciple, which is not true. "Enough! Since your two powers want to do it the hard way, I will force the information our of your mouths. Attack!" Wang Mei immediately gave an order back to her Clan. "Activate the protection formation!" Just as both sides were about to crash with each other, several more Spatial Gates started to appear in the vicinity. From inside, more and more Late Stages Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts appeared. "Now, now. Hule, you are too stressed. You should relax a bit, or it might affect your dao heart." The one who talked was a young woman from the All Life Sect, Linda Ophin. "Linda is right. Your Darkness Sacred Land wasn''t that hasty before. What could have made you act like that against little powers like theirs?" The next one was an old man from the Extreme Yin Yang Palace, Raro Tianmu. Hule understood that he already lost his chance of getting the upper hand, so he stopped his attack. He then snorted and said. "As if you weren''t here for the same purpose. What do you say we join hands to get rid of those flys and then the ones with the best ability get Feifei?" 218 Impasse On the other hand, Linda Orphin just laughed. "Wouldn''t it be according to your wishes? From what we found out, you already have quite some information about this girl called Feifei. To get rid of the Wang Clan would definitely play in your favor. How could I accept that?" Raro nodded after hearing that. "We are all intelligent beings here, so let''s stop playing dumb. Shall we, Hule?" Hule just snorted, though. "Then what do you propose?" Linda looked at Wang Mei and said. "Well, this is the situation at the moment. We want that girl called Feifei, and I believe that you don''t want your clan to be exterminated. The same goes for the guys from the Divine Path Sect. So how about you just tell us where she went and forget about it? That would be for your own good." Mei looked at Lani, and they nodded at each other. They had long since decided what they would do at this point. "Very well. We didn''t know who was after my Feifei. Because of that, my Wang Clan decided to use the favor that we had with an expert of another universe to send her away for the time being. As for who it is, we can''t tell you since the power behind him is even stronger than your Sacred Lands. That was the deal." Raro frowned and asked. "Do you think we will believe that? If that''s the case, which Universe did you send her?" Mei nodded and said. "You will believe it whether you want it or not. Through that favor, we sent Feifei to the Dalin Universe." Immediately, Raro, Hule, and Linda opened their eyes wide! "Impossible! There is no way you could have made the powers controlling that Universe accepts the entrance of a member of your clan." Rora then complemmented. "That is even harder to believe now. Wat proof do you have that you are talking the truth?" Mei then sent a memory projection into everyone''s minds. A memory project is totally different from saying something through Divine Sense, it has to be dragged out of real memories. If you try to create one, some discrepancies will definitely appear. For cultivators and demon beasts at their level, there is no way they couldn''t find it. The only problem is that for one to drag a memory out willingly, the Semi-Divinity Realm cultivation or higher is necessary. The memory that Mei sent them was the opening of the Spatial Gate that connected to the Dalin Universe. She also sent a feel of the images that she got from there together with what she saw about the laws there. Of course, she obviously didn''t show which Planet Krune and Feifei were sent to. Linda looked at that and didn''t know what to say. In fact, at first, she wasn''t certain if this one was really the Dalin Universe or not. But after checking the laws and the fact that that universe had almost all planets were occupied forced her to believe. Raro took a deep breath and said. "I will have to have my Sacred Land analyze this memory of yours to confirm if this is really the Dalin Universe or not." Mei nodded. "Take as long as you want. But I will repeat, I can''t tell you about the power which allowed us to send Feifei there. It was part of the deal. Even if you exterminate the entire Wang Clan and Divine Path Sect, I will still not say anything. It doesn''t matter how strong your Sacred Lands are, it doesn''t give me as much fear as them. If not for the luck encounter of a long-deceased ancestor of our Clan with them, we would never be able to ask for it." Linda thought that something wasn''t adding up and asked. "I do believe that this is the Dalin Universe since you probably know that we can confirm it. What I don''t understand is why you decided to use this favor with such a power to send Feifei away. It doesn''t matter how I look at it, it''s not worth to spend this favor on a single Feifei. So, why did you do that?" Wang Mei smiled and said. "Well, it''s not every day that my Wang Clan gives birth to an Advanced Major Core that has one of the Fragments of the Heavenly Core. So, of course, we decided that it was worth investing in her." Raro, Linda, and Hule expressions turned dark at that moment. "Knowing too much isn''t always good, you know?" Lani heard that and snorted. "Why are you even afraid? It''s not like we can do anything even if we have this information. After all, there would be a need to kill the Advanced Major Core owners of your own Sacred Lands if we wanted her to give birth to a Heavenly Core. It doesn''t matter how I look at it, we simply don''t have that power." Raro then asked. "Then, I will ask the same question as Linda. Why did you send Feifei away? If you had negotiated with any of our Sacred Lands, you could have gotten several benefits from any of us. But look at the situation now. You have instead made an enemy of all three." Lani snorted after hearing that. "That would have been even worse. That meant that after one of you got Feifei, the other two would probably seek revenge for losing a Heavenly Core Fragment, so we would be inflicted anyway. As for the Sacred Land that we did the deal with, why would they try to stop the other two Sacred Lands once they already got the Heavenly Core Fragment? Would they really protect our Clan or Sect? I''m sorry, but neither of us has that much trust in any of you, especially the Darkness one." They have reached an impasse. It is true that Feifei is now gone, and they won''t be able to call her back. But if they decide to destroy the Wang Clan or Divine Path Sect, Feifei would definitely never come back unless she was absolutely sure that she could get revenge. So either their Sacred Lands wouldn''t be able to touch her any time soon, or they would pay a heavy price once she gathered enough power to attack. For them, it''s not unheard of a single cultivator bringing the destruction of an entire power of their level. They have access to much more information than the Wang Clan and Divine Path Sect. There is another thing as well, Feifei''s Heavenly Fragment only works with the Heavenly Fragments of those of the Luvile Universe. It is useless for any Advanced Major Core of another universe to take it. So she won''t need to be afraid of the other side trying to take her Heavenly Fragment. Of course, Feifei and Krune had no idea about that at the moment. So they won''t show their Advanced Major Cores that easy to the others. In the end, the best thing to do was to get Feifei first. "What if we take the Wang Clan as a hostage and force Feifei to come back?" Hule commented. But Raro shook his head. "It won''t work. That is because Feifei probably doesn''t have anyone to send her back. Did you forget? Even if they got her to go there through a favor, there is no way that their backing would allow a high-level cultivator to go together. First of all, how do we even contact her to tell that her Clan is in our hands? If I was Wang Mei, I would definitely cut all means of communication and tracking possible." Linda then added. "Not to mention, we don''t know which is the power supporting the Wang Clan. But since they were able to allow Feifei to enter the Dalin Universe, it is evident that we can''t offend them that easily. Was it really just a single Favor that was bestowed to the Wang Clan? At this moment, probably only Wang Mei and Lani Gobel know the answer. They are also exactly the ones that we can''t injure because of this connection." Raro understood that staying any longer would bring no benefit to them and said. "I have no reason to stay anymore, so I''m taking my leave." Before anyone could say anything, several spatial gates opened, and Raro left with his companions. Linda just sighed and said. "Same here, I''m out." She then left right after. Hule, on the other hand, was very unwilling to do so. But it was obvious that the other two didn''t want to risk offending a Universe powerhouse. His Darkness Sacred Land, of course, couldn''t take the brunt alone either. Other than that, he had to immediately go back. Just because Feifei is there, it doesn''t mean that they can''t reach her. "Hmph!" Several more Spatial Gates opened, and the Darkness Sacred Land people and beasts left. Lani looked at the spot where they disappeared and felt like a huge boulder was lifted from his shoulders. He and Wang Mei then went back into the Wang Clan home planet to talk. "The lie seems to have worked out well. It is the fact that they don''t believe that we would ever be able to connect to the Dalin Universe unscratched that allowed the plan to work." Wang Mei nodded. "Indeed. But if one day they found out that it was all a lie, we are going to be in great peril." Lani looked to the sky and asked. "Do you think they can find out that no one helped us?" Mei immediately shook her head. "I don''t know, but I reckon that this would be a big challenge even for them. Also, even if they can''t find this ''backer'' of ours, they can''t rule the possibility that they simply didn''t find it. So for now, we should be safe." She was also thinking a lot about this issue. "What do you think they will do?" Lani looked at Mei with a worried face. "To be honest, considering their resources, I believe that they have a way to send people or beasts to the Dalin Universe if they pay the price. That is also the fastest way if I was them. As for the restrictions that they will get, that I don''t know. Still, Krune and Feifei are definitely a lot safer there than if they would be here." 219 The Sacred Lands Decisions. Back in the All Life Sect Sacred Land, Linda Ophin finished reporting the entire issue to the Sect Master. The Sect Master just so happens to be a female as well. Her name is Tika Tarkulie, an 8th Stage Divinity Realm Demon Beast. "I see, the situation got a little more complicated than we expected. Still, it was a lot better than if the Darkness Land had succeeded. As for how to get Feifei Heavenly Fragment, we can only send someone in that Universe to take it back. The problem is, that is the Dalin Universe, and I''m impressed by that Wang Clan ''backer.''" At first, Tika thought to be a joke, but once she looked at the memories given by Wang Mei, she couldn''t help but be careful. The Dalin Universe shown there is definitely the real one, which means that the Wang Clan probably wasn''t lying. She, too, believes that the Wang Clan doesn''t have the power to send someone there, and that can only mean that they have some kind of ''background.'' Linda couldn''t help but ask. "But how will we find her in that place? That is, after all, an entire universe. To find a single person in its middle is harder than a specific drop of water in the ocean." Tika smiled and shook her Head. "Finding her won''t be too hard. There is something that you don''t know since this kind of situation has rarely happened." In the Extreme Yin Yang Palace Sacred Land, Raro was having precisely the same conversation with the Palace Master. His name was Lue Barcou, a 9th Stage Divinity Realm cultivator. Raro couldn''t help but ask. "How come it won''t be hard to find Feifei there?" The Palace Master then said. "Once an Advanced Major Core leaves its own Universe, it loses the ''coat'' against the Destiny Energy. So it is possible to use Divination to find them. Still, considering the size of the Dalin Universe and the lack of information, it would be almost impossible to do so." Raro once more got confused, didn''t the Palace Master just say that it wouldn''t be too hard to find Feifei? Back in the Darkness Sacred Land, Hule Aforein was also confused in the same way as Raro. "It is almost impossible to use Divination, then how come it''s not too hard to find Feifei in there?" The Darkness Land Head, Yamio Halas, then explained. "That''s because Heavenly Core Fragments can feel the presence of each other once they are outside of our Universe''s Heavenly Protection. Although it rarely happened, there had been cases where an Advanced Major Core Owner fled to another Universe. As long as we send our own Advanced Major Core, he will be able to point their location." Back in the All Life Sect once more, Linda was taken aback by that information. "But if we send our own Advanced Major Core, won''t it become the perfect chance for the other two Sacred Lands to attack?" Tika nodded. Linda had to admit that it was true. What they need to think now is who to send together with their own Advanced Major Core to guarantee victory. Going back to the Extreme Ying Yang Palace, Raro Tianmu remembered something. "But what about the fact that Feifei is in the Dalin Universe? Just how many members can we send, and what price do we need to pay for that? Wait, there is also the cultivation level issue. I doubt that they will allow anyone with cultivation too high to enter." Lue Barcou couldn''t help but sigh at this point. "That is the issue. Considering how tight the Universes Powerhouses are controlling the Dalin Universe, any outsider entrance is extremely hard to happen. That is also why we shouldn''t touch the Wang Clan for now. Just how much influence that ''backing'' of theirs has to have to be able to send Feifei there without the others complaining?" Raro understood the Palace Master''s concern. Lue Barcou pondered for a bit and then gave everyone his orders. "Contact the Thakulo Universe. We had a few small deals with them in the past. Ask them the price to allow our members to enter and stay in the Dalin Universe. Don''t mention Feifei once you do so, we still don''t know the Wang Clan backer, so it is better to not catch his or her attention." In the Darkness Land, Hule Aforein couldn''t help but ask. "But Land Head, wouldn''t our pursuit of Feifei still infuriates the Wang Clan backer?" Yamio shook his head. "I don''t think so, his favor is with the ''Wang Clan,'' not Wang Feifei. It would be one thing if we decide to destroy the Wang Clan, but I refuse to believe that this person or demon beast will intervene because of a single girl. Even if he does, we have to take the risk. After all, the other two Sacred Lands will definitely do soo." Yamio looked at his subordinates and then said. "Get in contact with the Uline Universe, we are willing to pay the price to send our members inside." Finally, in the All Life Sect. Linda was put in charge of using their contact with the Galec Universe to send their own members. "We need to be fast before the other two Sacred Lands jump ahead." Tika heard that and then laughed. "No need to be in a hurry. Even if they arrive first, their Advanced major Core owners won''t be able to feel Feifei''s presence." Linda was surprised by that. "But didn''t you say that they can?" Tika nodded. "They can, but it will take time. Do you remember what I said? Once an Advanced Major Core owner enters another Universe, they lose their ''coat'' against the Destiny Energy." Linda immediately understood where the Sect Master was coming from. "I see, even in the middle of the rain, it is not like you will get wet straight away once you remove your coat. There is a need for some time to pass before the anti-Destiny Energy effect disappears." Tika was happy that Linda understood her meaning. "Exactly. According to the records, it will take 5 years if fast, and up to 10 years if slow. Still, try to get them inside as soon as possible so that they can get a footing in that Universe." But it was then that Linda got confused. "In that case, isn''t it better for us to wait 5 years before sending someone? If we do that, our own Advanced Major Core owner can hide from the other Sacred Lands since her ''coat'' will still be active." Tika smiled and didn''t answer, but Linda noticed that something wasn''t right with her idea just by looking at Tika''s smile. Suddenly, Linda thought about something else. "I see. That ''coat'' works both ways, correct?" Tika then laughed once more. "Smart girl. You are right! If the ''coat'' of our own Advanced Major Core owner doesn''t disappear, it will be impossible to feel the presence of the other Advanced Major Core owners. That''s why I said, you don''t need to be in a hurry, but try to send ours inside as soon as possible." Linda nodded and then left to do the preparations. The same thing happened in the other two Sacred Lands. Until now, all of them only recognized Feifei''s existence. But what they didn''t expect is that another Advanced Major Core was present at the moment. Krune, of course, is the variable that will change the entire outcome. Still in the All Life Sect Sacred Land, Linda entered a palace where quite a few girls could be seen. They were all maids encharged of taking care of the Advanced Life Major Core owner. After entering a big room on the back, she found who she was looking for. "Wamie, the situation has changed. The battle for the Heavenly Fragments is starting a lot earlier than expected." Wamie Zark. That is the name of the All Life Sect Advanced Major Core Owner. A female human at the 4th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. Linda then used a Divine Sense message to tell everything that happened. "I see... Very well, I''m ready anytime. Just let me know when I should go." Linda nodded and left right after. In the Darkness Land, deep inside the Planet''s Core, Hule Aforein appeared after using a teleport formation. In front of him, he could see a chamber guarded by a few elders of the Darkness Land. Inside, a pitch-black Skeleton Dragon was absorbing the Spiritual Energy around for cultivation. His name was Uer. Just like the majority of Demon Beasts, he also didn''t have a family name. Uer is the Advanced Death Major Core owner, and he is in the 5th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. Uer noticed Hule''s arrival and kept quiet. Hule noticed that and then said. "The Heavenly Fragments Battle is starting soon." He did the same as Linda and gave all the information about what was decided. "I will come back once the preparations are done, get ready." Uer just nodded and still didn''t say anything. In the Extreme Yin Yang Palace. Lue Barcou had personally come to inform their Advanced Major Core owner about the issue. The difference is that the Yin Yang Palace didn''t have one, but two Advanced Major Core owners! As one can imagine, they were a man and a woman, and a couple on top of that. They also had the Yin and Yang Advanced Major Cores. The Woman was called Rania Javiu and the guy Hobek Javiu. "I believe the two of you already know what happened. So you better be ready to enter the Dalin Universe. With your combined effort, I don''t believe that the other two Sacred Lands can stand a chance." The couple smiled, and the man said. "Don''t worry, Palace Master. We will not let the Yin Yang palace down." Rania was at the 3rd Stage of the Divine Soul Realm while Hobek was on the 5th. Still, with their abilities complementing each other, they could bring their combat power several stages higher. Lue Barcou nodded, satisfied. "Someone will come to fetch you two later, make sure you are ready." With this, four Advanced Major Core owners were about to enter the Dalin Universe! --- Back in the Riren Planet in the Dalin Universe. BOOM! Suddenly, an entire examination room of the Alchemist Organization branch came down! After the dust settled a little, the members looking at that apocalyptic scene noticed a young man with Rainbow Hair coming out of the rubbles. That young man was obviously Krune! Krune also noticed the others looking at him and felt quite embarrassed. 220 I Still Can Go Further! Going back to the morning of the same day. Krune had arrived at the Alchemist Organization and went to the counter. "Hello. I would like to apply for the alchemist exam." The receptionist was a girl. She noticed that Krune''s clothes were quite different and then asked. "New alchemist, or do you have experience already?" Because of the constant flow of people and beasts from other universes and planets, it was quite common to receive a new alchemist who already had a rank in their homes. "I was a Five Bronze Stars Alchemist before coming to the Dalin Universe. But I don''t know how my level is ranked here." The girl nodded. "In that case, you might want to take a look in our database for Bronze Stars level Alchemists. After that, you can try the examination and see where you are standing. Talk to me when you get a firm grasp of your current skill, and we can apply for a test of that level." Krune was quite please with how smooth the organization dealt with his issue and accepted the receptionist''s idea. "Very well. Where can I get access to the database?" The girl then gave him an electronic token and pointed to somewhere else. "Can you see that entrance? Inside you will find several rooms that are used for study only. You can go there and read the content available for Bronze Stars alchemists and above. Although it would be better for you to keep at the Bronze Stars at the moment." Krune agreed and then went to one of the rooms. Just as the receptionist said, there were several rooms from which Krune selected one. The room was just big enough to hold a single person or beast in human form. In front of him, there was a terminal with a place for him to use the token. After inserting it inside, the terminal activated automatically and displayed all the information available for Bronze Stars alchemists and above. "Well, let''s take a look inside and see where I can start." After just one hour of fast reading, Krune was utterly taken aback! ''The level of the alchemy of the Dalin Universe is several times higher than back in the Divine Path Sect. I haven''t seen how the Central Region of the Luvile Universe alchemy was, but I don''t think they would be better than this one. I wonder just how good the content for Silver Stars and above is.'' During his reading, Krune found an alchemy technique that caught his attention. It was called ''extreme infusion.'' This technique further increased the quality of the pill, but it was tough to control at the same time. The reason that it caught Krune''s attention was that the requirement was for the alchemist to have very high control of both elements and spiritual energy. Simply put, Krune was brimming with confidence! ''If everything is as described, I believe I can jump straight to a Seven or maybe even Eight Bronze Stars Alchemist level. Let''s take a further look into the information available to make sure nothing will go wrong.'' Krune then spent the day understanding the extreme infusion technique and the other content available. It had really been an eye-opener for him. He even took a quick look into the Silver Stars alchemist content available but decided to not spend much time on it due to his level. The girl was still in her work shift when Krune returned. She didn''t think much about it and just asked. "How is it, what level would you like to try?" Krune pondered a bit and said. "I think I will go for a Seven Bronze Stars test. The techniques available in the Dalin Universe are much better than the ones I had, so I think I should be able to achieve this." The receptionist thought that Krune was trying to bite too much by jumping two Stars at once. Still, it wasn''t her place to stop him, only to collect the fees. "Very well, you can participate in the daily alchemist test that we have at the end of the day. The material necessary for a Seven Stars pill will be given to you by the organization. The fee is 100 Rank 4 Spirit Stones, which will cover the test and the herbs." Krune already got used to the extremely high price or everything in the Riren Planet, so he just paid without complaining. "How long do I have to wait for the test?" The girl looked at the time and said. "It should start in one hour, so you better stay around to not lose it." Krune nodded and went to a corner to wait. At the same time, he was revising all the information that he got in his head. As mentioned before, as long as Krune wishes for it, he will never forget what he doesn''t want to. The test soon arrived, and Krune entered the testing room. Inside, there were another 6 alchemists who applied to for the bronze star levels test. The testing room had several booths with some Alchemist tools inside. Krune also noticed that every single one of those booths had a formation which he believed was used to suppress the energy of a failed alchemy attempt. Not long after, the examiner entered the room. Krune and the others noticed that he was quite young, definitely not above 30. He then went over to the stage in the back and started to talk. "Alright, let''s get over with it. My name is Yilio Tiun, and I''m a Four Sivel Stars alchemist. I will be responsible for this Bronze Stars Level examination." Yilio looked at the seven contestants and said. "Those in this room are all people or demon beasts that already have alchemy experience. I believe that the majority came from outside the Riren Planet and possibly from outside the Dalin Universe. Because you all just need to acquire the right rank for your actual skills at the moment, I won''t be teaching you anything before the test." Yilio continued. "For those who don''t know, each of the booths is protected by an energy suppressing formation. That means that even if you fail and your cauldron explodes, the other boxes won''t be affected by the explosion, and no sound will come out either. The formation will be adjusted to the level of the Alchemist Stars that you intend to test yourself." Krune and everyone just listened, so far, everything was going pretty much as they expected. "Alright, you can select any booth and start your concoction. Once you input your electronic token in the terminal, you will be able to select the pill you want to concoct. The compartment below then will open and give you the herbs and other items necessary for your pill. Make sure you select the right pill since if you fail, you will need to pay the fee for the exam once more." Krune didn''t think much and just selected a Foundation Stabilizing pill. He had concocted this pill several times before, so he was confident in bringing this one to the Seven Stars level. The examination started, and everyone put themselves to work. Yilio could see everything that was happening inside with his Divine Sense, so he just stayed sit put on the stage. Soon, he noticed the level of the candidates. ''Hum... everyone selected some simple pills to make. Well, that isn''t wrong since they only want their alchemist qualification. Still, Krune''s control of the Elements in the cauldron is quite good. I can also see that his Elemental Synch is quite refined. He should have no issues in bringing that pill to the seven stars level. As for the others, I can''t tell yet.'' There was nothing surprising about it. With Krune''s ''Alchemist Starter Pack'' and the new techniques available in the Dalin Universe, it would be a wonder if Krune couldn''t do this much. Let''s not forget that Krune had also advanced to the Core Formation Realm. The last time he concocted something, he was still in the Foundation Establishment! Krune was in the middle of the process when he finally decided to give the extreme infusion technique a try. ''It should be around now. I believe that my pill is already at the Seven Stars level, but I should try to do better. The synch can''t go any further, which shows my lack of training and experience in alchemy. Still, with the extreme infusion technique, I might be able to bring it to the Eight or Nine stars level. It would be much better if I got an alchemist bad- that''s right, they use the word ''Qualification'' here. It would be much better if I get a Nine Bronze Stars qualification from the very start.'' Krune then decided that even if he failed today, he just has to apply for the next day test, and that was it. With that thought line, Krune started to use the extreme infusion technique. Spiritual Energy started to forcibly enter the medicinal liquid in the cauldron, which further increased the elemental synch. Not to mention the quality and impurity removal. Krune couldn''t help but feel amazed by the result of this thing. ''Impressive! To think that such a technique existed. I just started a few minutes ago, but I already brought the pill to the Nine Stars Level! From what a know, to bring a pill to the Silver Stars level, one must infuse Elemental Source Energy inside. Just like the Spiritual Energy, the Elemental Source Energy Elements must also be brought into synch. The further synched, the higher the level of the Silver Star. Since I''m already here, I might as well go all out!'' Yilio, who was watching the alchemist, already had his mouth wide open! ''Impossible! Was this Krune really only a Five Bronze Stars level before? His medicinal liquid can already bring him a One Silver Star level pill!'' Krune, of course, didn''t pay attention to Yilio at all. ''I still can go further!'' Two Silver Stars Level; ''Further!'' Three Silver Stars; ''Keep going, I still can do a bit more!'' Four; Five... Krune was just a Five Bronze Stars a few minutes ago, so the fact that he is pushing the pill to this level is already extremely taxing on him. His human body was sweating all over, but he didn''t care about any of that! He was in a trance at the moment. In Krune''s eyes, there was only him and the pill. But Krune failed to notice one problem. The pill ingredients quality... were not supposed to hold this amount of Spiritual Energy and Elemental Source Energy! Yilio, who was also in a trance watching Krune, finally noticed this problem. ''Not good!'' Still, it was too late. The medicinal liquid inside the cauldron couldn''t hold that amount of energy anymore and finally went out of control. The result? BOOM! The Energy Suppression Formation from Krune''s booth, which had been adjusted to a Seven Bronze Stars Level, broke apart as if it was made of glass! The explosion swept all the other booths with the alchemists inside, and soon, the examination room was the next to not be able to hold it anymore. "Crumble!" And just like this, Krune sent another examination room to the other world. Krune then started to move away from the wreckage and noticed the ragged Yilio on the other side. Not only him, but the other alchemists in the exam and the people and beasts outside were looking at Krune too. All that attention made him feel quite embarrassed. "Cough, cough. I think that the Energy Suppression Formation wasn''t working properly." Yilio''s mouth twitched after hearing that. 221 Alchemist Organizations Plan Yilio didn''t want anything other than cut Krune in pieces. Still, he couldn''t deny that Krune''s achievement before the explosion was amazing too. In the end, he just sighed and said. "Alright, follow me for now." Krune didn''t say anything and did as asked. Yilio then brought Krune to another examination room that was destined fro Silver Stars Tests. "Before your pill failed, I could see that it had each the level of a Five Silver Stars pill. Still, that is also due to the level of the herbs and the other ingredients. I will give you another chance to try to make the pill, but this time, you will use much older herbs. With this, you shouldn''t have a problem with an explosion due to the poor quality of the items." Yilio continued. "Also, because those herbs can hold a lot more spiritual and elemental source energy, they are harder to concoct. You probably won''t be able to achieve the same level as you did previously. But I believe you can reach the Silver Stars anyway, so give your best." Krune then asked something else. "What about the room and the equipment? Also, what''s the fee for a Silver Star test?" Yilio answered straight away. "The branch will calculate the damage and give you the fee to be paid after. As for the price of the Silver Stars test, it is 100 Rank 5 Spirit Stones, which will be included inside the damage fee." Krune couldn''t help but sigh. Still, he knows that it was his fault that things went out of control. If he had paid attention, he would have noticed that the medicinal liquid inside the cauldron couldn''t hold anymore. "Alright." Krune then entered the booth in the other examination room and selected the same pill again. This time, he chose the Silver Star level, so the herbs and other ingredients that he got were a lot older and more capable of holding energy. The process of the concoction went the same way as before, but Krune soon noticed a big difference. ''Silver Level herbs are a lot harder to infuse spiritual and elemental source energies than the normal ones. There is no way I can achieve the level that I did before with them. Of course, it is thanks to this resistance that I don''t have to be afraid of how much energy I use. Even though it''s harder, the amount of power that they can hold is several times higher too.'' After using the extreme infusion technique, Krune was able to bring it to the Silver Star level again. It''s just that this time the pill could only reach the Two Silver Stars level, and that was after Krune put his all on it! Yilio took the Foundation Stabilizing pill and nodded. "Good! This pill can definitely be used by Core Formation Realm or maybe even some early stages Divine Soul Realm. Congratulations, from now on, you are a Two Silver Stars Alchemist." Krune sighed in relief. Krune nodded. It was simply the same function as the Alchemist Badge back in the Luvile Universe. Yilio left after they arrived at the registration office, and Krune started to wait for the attendant to come. Not long after, a few more alchemists came in as well to do the same thing. They were the alchemists that were first making the same test with Krune. The noticed Krune''s presence and showed quite a few ugly faces. They couldn''t be blamed. After all, Krune destroyed the room while they were in the middle of the concoction. In the end, Krune could only apologize. "I''m sorry for the previous event. I didn''t expect that the medicinal liquid wouldn''t be able to hold the energy." The majority just ignored him, but there was still one who just sighed and came forward to talk. "Well, as long as I got your apology, I don''t mind. Still, what did you do to generate such a big explosion? Did you try to use the Extreme Infusion Technique?" His name was Carlo Cabral, someone from another universe as well. Of course, different from Krune, he came into the Dalin Universe legally. Also, as someone from one of the powerful universes, he already knew about the Extreme Infusion Technique even before reaching this place. Krune nodded. "Yes. It was the first time I tried that. I had no idea about the existence of this technique, so I got fascinated by it. But in the end, that was the result. Even though the medicinal liquid inside got to the Silver Star level, I failed to notice that the herbs and other ingredients couldn''t take energy anymore. Such an embarrassing outcome." Carlo was surprised by that. Not because Krune used the Extreme Infusion Technique, but because he was still able to bring the pill to the Silver Star Level! Just as he was about to continue asking, the attendant in the room called Krune over. "Krune, your Two Silver Stars qualification is ready. Please give me your ID and some other information." Krune nodded and bid farewell to Carlo. Carlo, of course, was once again taken aback. ''Did she just say that he got a Two Silver Stars qualification? Wasn''t today the very first time that he used the Extreme Infusion Technique? I know that he was brought away to remake the test. But to think that he was able to create a Two Silver Stars Pill is unbelievable! Just what kind of monster control is that?'' Carlo wasn''t the only one. In another room in the same branch, Yilio was talking with the current supervisor, Ramon Forkin. After hearing Yilio''s explanation, Ramon decided to take a look in the concoction video and couldn''t help but ask. "Are you sure he said that it was his first time using the Extreme Infusion Technique?" Yilio nodded. "Yes. Of course, Krune might be lying, but I don''t think he would explode the entire examination room just to prove the contrary. I can tell that his concoction is very unrefined, and he made the mistakes that others do when making a Silver Star pill for the first time. Still, his elemental and energies control can only be said to be heaven-defying for someone at his level. With that alone, he was still able to make a Two Silver Stars Foundation Stabilizing pill." Ramon pondered a bit and then said. "Anyway, the fact that he is a genius at concoction is obvious. Even if he lied that it wasn''t his first time using the Extreme Infusion Technique, just that level of control is already impressive enough. We will know the truth sooner or later once he stars concocting pills for selling. After all, he has to pay for the damage in the first examination room." Ramon looked at Yilio and then said. "Charge the max price for everything that was destroyed. I want him to stay here as long as possible for me to check his alchemist skills. If it turns out that it was really his first time using that technique, then his ability at concoction will improve by leaps and bounds from now on. Depending on the result, we might use him in the next solar system junior concoction championship." Yilio wasn''t surprised since that was the reason why he reported Krune. "Yes, it would be best to have someone to participate with me. That way, our chances of getting a better position will increase. His realm is evident for everyone to see, 4th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. I just need to check his age when he finishes his qualification registration. As long as he is under 35 years old, we should be good to go." Ramon nodded. "Good! You can go now." Krune, who was going through the registration process, didn''t know anything about that. Sometime later, another worker from the Alchemist Organization entered the room where Krune was. "Here is the total that has to be paid for the damage and the Siver Stars Test." Krune took a look at the number, and his soul almost left his body! "1532 Rank 7 Spirit Stones?! Are you serious?!" The attendant nodded. "The herbs, equipment, formations, and the room itself. All together is definitely worth at least this much. Of course, you don''t need to be afraid of paying it. You are already a Two Silver Stars Alchemist, so it shouldn''t be too hard to pay everything with. Not to mention that we are not charging the price for the time that the examination room will be deactivated." Krune couldn''t help but sigh. Still, he took out the payment and passed it to the worker. "Here it is, 1532 Rank 7 Spirit Stones." The worker didn''t know anything about what was decided, so he didn''t think that anything was strange. At most, he believed that Krune was some rich young master. But there was another person watching this scene, and that was Yilio! "He can pay that? It seems like I will need to think about another reason to keep him working here." But before he even started to think, he heard Krune''s next words. "Will it be a problem if I want to use the alchemist rooms anyway? Senior Yilio said that I should try to use them if possible." Yilio''s eyes immediately lit up! "Great!" In fact, Krune didn''t have another choice to start with. Sure, he could go to another alchemist branch in the city since it had more due to the city''s size. But it would be a lot further away from the place where his group is staying at the moment. With the city''s flying restriction, it would be troublesome to make the round trip every time. Also, Krune wanted to start as soon as possible so that he can gather enough Spirit Stones to buy or at least rent a courtyard for everyone. The worker immediately nodded after hearing that question. "Of course. As long as you don''t destroy it, we don''t mind letting you use our facilities. The majority of the alchemists of our branch do it anyway." Krune nodded and decided to go back to his room. It was already getting dark, and he wanted to see what plans Feifei and Tiane had as well. 222 To the Missions Hall. Once Krune got back, Feifei had already finished teaching Tiane how to use the Myriad Energies technique. Krune noticed that Tiane seemed to be looking at him differently now and couldn''t help but ask why. "I can''t help it, this technique that you came up with is incredible! I have a new level of respect for you now." Krune felt a little embarrassed with that praise but smiled nonetheless. "Thanks." Krune then told Feifei and Tiane how things went in the Alchemist Organization. Feifei, obviously, immediately started laughing out loud. "Unbelievable, you sent the entire examination room down? It''s too funny! I can only imagine the others'' expressions after that happened." It wasn''t before 5 minutes later that she stopped. She then looked with a smile at Krune and said. "Don''t worry too much about the spirit stones, we can get them back." Krune felt a little gloomy but couldn''t bring himself to feel mad at Feifei. In the end, he just put this matter on the back of his mind and asked something else. "I pretend to gather spirit stones with Alchemy and, at the same time, improve my Alchemy Rank. What do you intend to do?" Feifei then said. "Oh, right! I haven''t told you what kind of side occupation I have yet." She then took out a 6 Stars Badge from her Spatial Ring. When Krune saw that, he got surprised! "You are a 6 Silver Stars Formations Master!" Feifei nodded. "If not because I didn''t bring any Formations Material during the Dimensional Realm event, I could definitely have built some good traps. Of course, considering the place where those assassins came, they probably would have countermeasures for it. Usually, I only do it as a hob, but I guess I can make quite a lot of Spirit Stones in this Universe with my skills." Krune nodded, satisfied. It seems like there will be no need for him to sustain others this time. Tiane then took another badge from her Spatial Ring as well. "I''m not as good as Feifei, but I''m also a Formations Master." Her one was a 2 Stars Badge. Obviously, she selected that side occupation because it was the same as Feifei. Krune didn''t mind. Considering the price for the things in this Universe, both Feifei and Tiane definitely could provide for themselves with their abilities alone. "We just don''t know how we are categorized in this Universe. But considering that the Wang Clan Formations Guild was the top one in our territory, I believe it won''t be much lower." It was then that Feifei remembered something. "I forgot. They call it Formations Master Organization here, right?" Krune nodded. Krune then thought about Ruik. "Is Ruik not back yet?" Feifei and Tiane looked at each other and shook their heads. Krune then took his communicator out and called Ruik. "Is everything okay over there?" Ruik then answered. "Everything is fine. It''s just that I have to take a test to determine my level in the Missions Hall. As the Mercenary Guild back in the Luvile Universe, the missions and reward that you get are established according to your level." Krune nodded and thought about something. "Now that I think about it, we might need the Missions Hall qualification in the future. When does your test start?" Ruik then looked at the time. "It should start in about an hour." Krune checked the distance to that Mission Hall Branch and asked Tiane and Feifei. "What do you think? Should we go and get a qualification too? It''s not bad to have one if there is something we need from their Reward System in the future." Feifei and Tiane didn''t have much to do at the moment anyway, so they nodded and decided to tag along. Krune''s group arrived at the Missions Hall 30 minutes later and went directly to the counter to apply for the examination. "Core Formation Realm tests are 100 Rank 5 Spirit Stones per person or demon beast." Krune and the others paid and went to the corner to wait with Ruik. Around 20 minutes later, everyone that had applied for the examination was called over. In the examination room, the examiner started to explain the Missions Hall rules. "Let me explain to those who don''t know yet." He looked at the contestants and continued. "The majority probably already know it, but our Mission Hall qualification system is different from the other side occupations. We don''t have Stars System. Our mission hall only cares about your combat prowess. We will judge here how many stages higher your combat ability is compared to ordinary cultivators of the same level." "If it turns out that your power is the same as an average one, you won''t be accepted in the Missions Hall. You must have the ability to fight at least one cultivation stage higher than your level, it''s that simple. After that, the missions in the system will be unlocked according to your results." "If your cultivation improves more than 5 stages, you will need to do another examination for us to make sure that you still have the same ability. So I urge you to not be hasty in your progress and damage your Foundation for short term strength." Krune and the others didn''t mind this new system. In fact, it was quite straight forward, which was good too. The examiner looked at the room behind him and then explained the rules. "This is the testing room for those at the Core Formation Realm. Inside we have an illusion formation that will spawn cultivators and demon beasts randomly. They will start with a cultivation one stage higher than the participant. After you defeat the first one, the next one will appear with a cultivation stage higher than the previous one." "Our formation is based on the average level of cultivators and demon beasts of the Dalin Universe. So if you can''t defeat the very first one, it means that you aren''t qualified to part of the Mission Hall. Also, it goes without saying that there is no need to worry about injuries." "Alright, that''s all for now. If you have any other inquires, ask it after you pass the exam. Otherwise, it will be a waste of time to explain anything now." The examiner took out a list and called the first name. "Ruik, you can enter." Ruik had arrived quite early that day, so he turned out to be the first to register for it. Krune patted his shoulder and said. "With all your cultivation advantages and the Myriad Energies Technique, you should be able to defeat an ordinary opponent at least two or three stages higher than your level. So don''t worry, you will be fine." Ruik nodded and then entered the illusion formation, disappearing inside. On the side, there was an enormous monitor that showed what was happening in the formation. As soon as he appeared in the monitor, the illusion formation summoned a cultivator at the 2nd Stage of the Core Formation Realm. Ruik decided to take things seriously from the very start, so he immediately returned to his double-headed snake form and started the battle. Ruik''s poison was both effective against the body and soul. With his other perks, he got the upper hand almost immediately. Speed, power, elemental control, and spiritual control. Everything was much better than the illusory cultivator. Around 30 seconds later, Ruik''s opponent was already on the ground. The examiner saw that and nodded, satisfied. The next opponent was a demon beast, a white turtle with two horns on the head. The illusion field also changed into an ocean type, which the turtle made full use. Still, Ruik was able to defeat the turtle after some time. It should have been much faster, but Ruik was trying to save as much Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy as possible. He relied on his poison to slowly weaken the turtle until it couldn''t fight anymore. As Krune mentioned, Ruik was really able to defeat the first two without significant issues. But the third one proved to be a big hurdle for him. It was then that Krune remembered. ''Oh, right! Ruik hadn''t had the time to evolve his Spiritual Meridians into Elemental ones. No wonder he is already having trouble at this stage. Well, it doesn''t matter. He can apply for the examination another time if he feels like it.'' Ruik was still able to defeat the third opponent three stages higher than him, but that was his limit at the moment. Krune and Feifei weren''t surprised by this outcome, but Tiane had her eyes open wide! Ruik lost in the fourth battle and came out of the Illusion Formation. Tiane couldn''t help but think. ''Is this the power of the Myriad Energies Technique True Form? Once I''m back, I will focus on gathering spirit stones and create the Pseudo Energy Meridians with all my might!'' Thanks to the Wang Clan techniques, Tiane was confident in fighting against one or maybe two levels higher than herself. But she definitely wouldn''t be able to jump three cultivation stages like Ruik. It was a big blow to her pride since she already found out how lazy that snake is. Tiane wasn''t the only one impressed. The examiner and the other contestants were also taken aback by how strong this double-headed snake is. "Very good, you will get a good qualification and access to better reward missions in the system later. Make sure to keep the hard work." Ruik nodded and went back to Krune''s side. "I guess this is my limit at the moment." Krune shook his head. "Once you get the Elemental Meridians, your combat power should increase a little bit more. Although you might not be able to defeat that last illusion, you definitely wouldn''t lose that easy anymore. Not to mention that you also have to get used to your new realm. Still, you probably noticed that their concept of ''ordinary'' is a lot higher than the Luvile Universe, right?" Ruik nodded. "Yes. If it was the Luvile Universe, I''m confident that I would be able to defeat an ordinary cultivator or demon beast 4 stages higher. But here, I lost almost instantly to their 4 stages higher ''ordinary.'' In fact, I was quite luck against the demon beast 3 stages higher than me. If luck wasn''t on my side, I could have totally lost. I reckon that my level at the moment is the same as an ordinary cultivator or demon beast 3 stages higher now." 223 I Must be Hallucinating! Before entering the illusion formation, Tiane looked at Ruik with a gloomy face. She knows her own power and is certain that she won''t be able to defeat someone 3 stages higher than herself. ''Well, no point in keep thinking about it. Once I open the Spiritual Energy Meridians, this difference will disappear.'' As mentioned before, Tiane is at the 3rd Stage of the Core Formation Realm, so her first opponent was at the 4th stage. Fortunately, it was as Tiane had predicted. She could still defeat someone one stage higher thanks to the Wang Clan techniques, which are top-notch in the Luvile Universe. As for the second opponent, it was a cultivator 2 stages above. Tiane had to go all out against this opponent, and even so, she could only barely defeat him. In the end, she stood no chance against the demon beast that appeared after the cultivator was done with. Still, the examiner was quite pleased already, other than Ruik, Tiane was the only one to defeat more than a single opponent. "Next, Wulia Feier." Wulia Feier was the alias that everyone came up with. Krune didn''t have to hide his name since the Sacred Lands don''t know about his Advanced Major Core. But Feifei is different, they don''t know if the Sacred Lands of the Luvile Universe can reach them here or not, so they decided for a different name for her. Feifei entered the illusion formation and started her battle. As an Advanced Destiny Core owner, she obviously had an easy time predicting the opponent''s moves. The only problem is that Feifei is already at the 8th stage of the Core Formation Realm. So after winning the first battle, the next enemy was already at the 1st Stage of the Divine Soul Realm! One must remember that even though it is a single cultivation stage higher, the difference in realms can''t be calculated in the same way. The Mission Hall also had rules for it. If you are at the peak of a realm, your test will be based not on defeating your opponent that is in the next, but how long you can fight against him. As long as you are able to hold for five minutes without fleeing or losing, you will be considered as someone who can fight those of a higher realm. Of course, if you defeated your opponent, that will be even better! Feifei''s opponent was an Ice Swan. Considering the ordinary level of attack power in the Dalin Universe, the swan was obviously stronger than what Feifei was used to see. Still, Feifei had already opened her Spiritual Energy Meridians and evolved it to the Elemental ones. With her Advanced Destiny Major Core, she was still able to defeat it. There was also another reason for Feifei''s improvement in combat prowess. That was the projection of the past Advanced Destiny Major Core Heavenly Fragment. Thanks to that, Feifei''s prediction ability improved by leaps and bounds before she exited the Dimensional Realm! "A good seed! She probably has a Major Core. It had been a few years since a Major Core came to our branch, it''s good to be able to see one again." Feifei''s next opponent was a cultivator at the 2ns Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. Fortunately, Feifei didn''t use much Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy in the last fight, so she could battle this 2nd Stage Divine Soul Realm. Still, it was not easy to jump into another realm to fight on equal grounds. So even if Feifei could predict the opponent''s movement, she had a hard time dodging and attacking. In the end, the battle dured over 30 minutes. Feifei was still able to defeat her opponent, but that was at a high cost. Feifei could be said to be almost dead at the moment. Of course, that is just her appearance inside the Illusion Formation. Outside, she was completely fine. Feifei didn''t even wait for the next opponent to appear before leaving the formation. There was no way that she could battle anymore. In fact, she is pretty sure that she wouldn''t win even if she was at her peak condition. The difference in cultivation is just too big. Even the previous victory might not happen again if she tried once more. The examiner looked at Feifei excited. The stronger the branch''s members, the more resources it gets from the headquarters. Someone like Feifei is sure to give the branch a good boost. "Next, Krune." The examiner had already noticed that Krune''s group were all able to fight at least 2 stages higher than themselves, and the same could be said by the other contestants. When Krune came forward to enter the illusion formation, all eyes were on him to see just how well he would perform. Krune, of course, felt that to be very annoying. Still, he also decided to put some effort into this test. The only thing that he won''t do for now is to change into his wisp form. He isn''t sure about the wisps standing in this Universe, so it is better to prevent problems if it is possible. The first opponent appeared, and the landscape changed with it. It was a Demon Mantis at the 5th Stage of the Core Formation Real. The field became a forest where the Mantis could make the best use of its abilities. Unfortunately for it, his opponent was Krune. The moment that the Mantis charged in Krunes direction, its head suddenly fell. It turns out that Krune used a simple wind blade that was summoned from behind it. With Krune''s powerful Divine Sense, Soul Power, Advanced Elemental Core, and his Elemental meridians, his attack range was second to none in this place. Outside, the examiner and the other contestants gasped. It was too fast! The battle didn''t last for even a second, and it was already over. Krune didn''t even move from his place to get it done. It was as if it wasn''t Krune who attacked, but some other existence instead. The second opponent appeared, and it was once more a demon beast. This time, the field changed into an ocean again, and the opponent was a Horned Demon Shark. The Shark didn''t charge at Krune straight away. Instead, it tried to use the environment in its favor to catch Krune off guard. Unfortunately for it, that was useless. Krune body started to give some electrical spark and suddenly. Boom! The area three hundred meters around Krune became a field of Blue Lightning! That''s right, Krune didn''t even use his Tribulation Lightning this time, but just the normal one. The Shark couldn''t resist the electrical current inside its body and passed out almost immediately. Although this battle took a little longer to finish, it was primarily because Krune had to accumulate enough Spiritual and Elemental Energy to make that discharge. The third opponent was already at the 7th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. This time, it was a cultivator with a bow in hands. It turns out that it was a cultivator specialized in long-range combat. He had good movement techniques, and his attacks were quite good. Too bad, though. He tried to play a long-range role in front of Krune. None of the archer cultivator attacks could break Krune''s defenses. In contrast, Krune''s own long-range attacks finished the opponent almost instantly. The examiner took a deep breath after seeing that. Until now, Krune hasn''t moved a single step away from his starting position. ''Just what is wrong with his group? They must have come from the same background, and it seems that it wasn''t a simple one either.'' Of course, such an event was more than welcome for him and his Mission Hall branch. Krune''s fourth opponent appeared with a cultivation at the 8th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. This time, Krune could few that if he stayed put, he would have to use more energy to defend than he wanted, so Krune opened distance on his own. As an excellent long-ranged attacker, Krune made sure to keep his distance while bombarding his opponent with his skills. Sure enough, his opponent was not defeated immediately. If it was an ordinary cultivator of the Luvile Universe, Krune is confident that he would have already won. That was all, though. With his opponent not being able to get close and the damage increasing, it only took a minute or so for his opponent to fall. ''Indeed, their level is much higher here. Using my human form, I will need to put some effort if I want to defeat the next one.'' In the end, it was as Krune predicted. His next opponent was a lot stronger. Krune had to use quite a few good techniques, and even so, he could only get the upper hand. One must remember that Krune is fighting someone 5 stages higher than him now. But there was a good thing, though. Krune still hasn''t used his Hexagonal Flying Shields or Tribulation Lightning. Krune intends to keep them for when the Divine Soul Realm opponent appears. His opponent, this time, was a Thunder Kaval. This is a type of Flying Demon Beast that looks like a vulture but had Blue feathers and one extra pair of wings. It''s a demon beast that doesn''t exist in the Luvile Universe but isn''t too rare here in Dalin. Thanks to its innate Lightning Element control, even Krune had a hard time hitting it. Of course, the opposite was the same. In fact, the Thunder Kaval was in a much worse condition since it hasn''t hit Krune with one of its attacks even once! The battle continued like that for over 10 minutes when finally, the Thunder Kaval received a fatal injury and fell from the sky. Krune took a deep breath and looked at the Kaval that became specs of light. ''Divine Soul Realm. It will be my first time fighting this level head-on alone. Will it be a demon beast or a cultivator?'' Krune thought that he was ready for anything that might appear, but once he saw what it was, Krune was frozen on the spot! ''I must be hallucinanting!'' Not only him, Feifei, Tiane, and Ruik also had their mouths opened wide! Strangely enough, the only ones who seemed that surprised at the moment were Krune and his group. The other contestants and the examiner seemed to be fine as if there was nothing wrong with the race that appeared to test Krune this time. Krune and his group couldn''t help but think about the same question. 224 The Power Balance! But Krune didn''t have time to think about it, that''s because the wisp immediately started to launch a barrage of attacks. Not too surprisingly, that Divine Soul Realm wisp was also a long-ranged attacker. Of course, with its cultivation alone, most of its attacks were a lot more potent than the previous opponent. Krune immediately activated his Tribulation Lightning movement and started to dodge. He might not be able to use it at full power output in human form, but it is definitely enough to at least keep himself in battle. Krune then brought out all his Hexagonal Flying Shields and was finally able to stand his ground. The opponent attacks were an eye-opener for Krune, that''s because it looked like the wisp was drawing out the spiritual energy that its body was made of. Krune had never tried anything like that before. Still, he could see that every time it happened, the wisp''s core seemed to replenish the part that was used. Only then did Krune understand the principle behind it. ''I''m such an idiot! I have always had so much extra and much easier to use spiritual energy, ready to be used, and I had never noticed it. My soul is inside my core, so my ethereal body isn''t exactly that important. Now that I think about it, I have been hit on my core a few times before. Although it hurt when it happened, my ethereal body had never been affected. Not to mention that it had almost no use for the defense to start with.'' If not because Krune didn''t want to show his wisp form, he would definitely try to do the same as his opponent. Still, Krune was puzzled with the fact that the wisp had reached the Divine Soul Realm. As far as he knows, this illusion formation uses the ordinary level of the cultivation realm of the Universe. If there is a wisp here, it means that records of Divine Soul Realm wisps exist in this place. ''I will have to do research later. For a wisp to reach the Divine Soul Realm, there must be a reason for it here. Could it be a cultivation technique like mine?'' Krune finally stopped his thoughts and focused on the battle. It took some time to explain, but all his train of thoughts happened in just a little more than a second. Krune then started to retaliate while making sure to protect himself with his Flying Shields. "Tribulation Thunder Line!" "Tribulation Blazing Wind Blades!" "Myriad Tribulation Water Dragons!" His opponent was just an illusion, so it had no emotions. That wisp used some attacks that looked remarkably like Krune''s ones. Still, they didn''t have the power of the Tribulation Lightning to increase the strength. Of course, as a Divine Soul Realm wisp, it was already enough to make Krune put his all on defense. Outside, the examiner looked at Krune with puzzled eyes. ''That Lightning power is obviously the Tribulation type, but I''ve never heard about Purple Tribulation Lightning. Also, his Tribulation Lightning is much stronger than the common one, just how did he achieve this?'' There was another thing that he couldn''t find an answer to. ''This Krune is at his limit on both attack and defense, so why isn''t he going back to his true form? Demon Beasts in human forms usually are weaker. Could it be that he is an Ocean type demon beast or something like that?'' Krune didn''t know what the examiner was thinking, but it didn''t matter at the moment anyway. ''No holding back anymore. Although it will hurt my human body, I will have to bring the power of the Tribulation Lightning to higher output.'' "Tribulation Lightning, 80%!" Krune and that wisp had been in a stalemate since the start of the battle. But now that Krune increased the Tribulation Lightning power in plus 30%, his attacks power surpassed the Divine Soul Realm wisp. Speed, Strength, Elemental Control, Krune''s overall combat prowess increased at that moment in exchange for damaging his human body. Of course, this is just an Illusion Formation. Krune''s real human body is still fine outside it. ''This should be enough!'' The speed that Krune got hurt wasn''t as fast as the wisp in the distance. Some of Krune''s attacks started to hit its core one after another, and after not soo long, the wisp''s core finally cracked. It wasn''t enough to kill the wisp, but definitely enough to defeat it. The illusion Formation considered that the Divine Soul Realm wisp had no chance of victory anymore and immediately dispersed it. Krune wasn''t much better either, so he didn''t even wait for the next opponent to appear before immediately exiting the Formation. He knows that for him to battle the 2nd Stage Divine Soul Realm, he would need to rely on his Wisp Form. Not to mention that he used a lot of Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy in the battle against the wisp, so his victory wouldn''t be assured anyway. Outside, the examiner looked at Krune''s group as if they were a bunch of monsters! Still, he couldn''t be happier with this outcome. "Good! Those who have defeated at least one opponent can follow me to make the registration." The examiner then looked at Krune and the others and smiled. "Now that I think about it, I haven''t introduced myself yet. My name is Rueter Kaves, I''m one of the examiners of this branch." Krune and the others complimented Rueter and followed him. On their way to the registration office, Krune decided to ask the examiner about that wisp. "Senior Rueter, that last opponent I fought against was a wisp, right?" Rueter nodded. "Yes, is there a problem? I can guarantee that the illusion formation did not make it stronger than it should." Krune shook his head. "That''s not it. It''s just that in the Universe we came from, wisps are extremely weak, and there is almost no one in its entirety that reached the Foundation Establishment Realm. So when I saw a Divine Soul Realm wisp, I was completely taken aback by that. Could it be that the wisps of the Dalin Universe are not like that?" Rueter then explained. "Oh, now that you said, I remember having read somewhere that wisps are quite a pitful race in other Universes. In fact, it could be said the same for our Dalin Universe. It''s just that here they have a much better beginning. The reason for that is the much higher proximity of our Universe with its own heavens." Krune was puzzled by that remark but knew that Rueter would explain to him. "As you know, our Dalin Universe has much easier to understand Laws, and the overall concentration of Spiritual Energy is much higher than the others. It is because of this proximity that wisps have an easier time to cultivate here than anywhere else. Wisps are born from the Spiritual Energy from Heaven and Earth, so they do have a better connection to the heavens itself. Thanks to that, all wisps are born directly into the Foundation Establishment Realm!" Krune and the others were taken aback! "Directly into the Foundation Establishment Realm?!" Rueter nodded. "Some even have the luck to be already at the late stages of the Foundation Establishment. There are even some extremely rare cases of wisps being born directly into the Core Formation Realm. But those are as rare as phoenix feathers." Rueter continued. "Anyway, because they are already at a higher cultivation realm, they have the extra life span. That means that wisps in our Dalin Universe have at least 20 years of life span from the very start, different from outside where they have only 10. It gives them a lot more time to cultivate and the chance to fight for resources." Krune then noticed something wrong. "Wait! Didn''t you say that the wisps are still considered a pitful race nonetheless?" Rueter nodded. "Yes. That''s because even though wisps have better conditions here in the Dalin Universe, their greatest flaw still remains. Their life span is just too small! Because of that, they would usually reach the Core Formation Realm or, at most, the Divine Soul Realm. But as you know, the further in the path of cultivation, the harder it becomes, and higher is the time needed. Because of that, the biggest majority of wisps can only reach the Divine Soul Realm. As for Soul Forging, I''ve only heard about them before, but I have never seen one. Let alone a Void Breaking Realm one." "Still, with the number of wisps that are born in this Universe due to its peculiarity, we have quite a few Divine Soul Realm ones. Too bad, though. Even at the Divine Soul Realm, they can only live at most 80 years. That is far from enough to surpass the Divine Soul Realm. Let''s not forget that the wisps that enter the Divine Soul Realm usually are already in their thirties, so they have even less time." Krune then sighed. For a second, he thought that the wisps in this realm had a cultivation technique just like him. "Are wisps used as cultivation resources in this Universe as well?" Rueter shook his head. "In our Dalin Universe, the number of idiots that would damage their own foundation by using wisps is extremely low. Although I won''t say that it doesn''t happen, you will find it very hard to find someone who tried this foolish method." Rueter then remembered something. "Now that I think about it, there is a Planet called Wisp World where the majority of its inhabitants are wisps. Although you can find wisps everywhere, that place is where you will find the majority of the Divine Soul Realm wisps." Rueter only talked this much because it was Krune''s group. Otherwise, he wouldn''t even pay attention to them. Still, he thought that Krune and the others were just curious, it had never passed through his mind the thought that Krune might be a wisp. Krune, on the other hand, was pondering deeply about this situation. ''The wisps here have a much better starting line, not to mention that almost no one uses them as cultivation resource. Still, they are barred by the life span, and usually, Divine Soul Realm is the limit.'' Krune isn''t idiot, his thought went much further than merely feeling excited that there was a lot of wisps with higher realm here. 225 Dealing With Everything. This place is different from his home Universe. Although wisps aren''t like humans or other common races, the Dalin Universe still has a lot of wisps since they aren''t used as cultivation resources. Because of that, if Krune introduces the Myriad Wisps technique to them, there is no doubt that the wisp race power would explode in a very short time. It is different from the Luvile Universe, where the wisp race will need to gain its footing step by step. It could be seen as a threat to the other races, and a mass wisp hunt might start because of that. That made Krune hesitate to whether he should spread his cultivation technique or not. Of course, he wanted to see that Planet at the very least. ''In the end, it might not only bring calamity to this Universe Wisp race, but also to me and the others. The wisps here still have their life span issue, but at least they aren''t in a dangerous state. The only reason Rueter said that they are pitful is that they can''t go too far in the cultivation path.'' Krune decided that for the moment, it would be better to refrain from intervening. First, he and his group need to cultivate and achieve a Realm where they can protect themselves. The Myriad Wisps Technique has already been spread in the Luvile Universe, and that''s enough for now. Of course, Krune could go to other weak Universes like his one to spread the technique. But for that, he will need to open the spatial gates for them. Obviously, neither he or Feifei are the least bit close to being able to do it. As for asking someone to do that, it doesn''t seem a very realistic option since you need a Divinity Realm help. First of all, even if Krune could enter other weaker Universes now, how will he spread his technique with his Core Formation Realm? ''I will not do that before ascertaining the conditions of the wisp race here. After I get into the Divine Soul Realm, I will check if I can pay a visit to that Wisp World. Also, I will do some deep research during this time to see if I can predict the impact that my technique would bring.'' While Krune was thinking about all of that, his group had finally arrived at the registration office. The process was quite simple since there was no such thing as Stars Ranking, Krune''s group got their qualifications and left around an hour later. Sure, his group was a rare gem in the eyes of this Mission Hall Branch. But considering the Geniuses that enter the Dalin Universe on a daily basis, Krune''s group isn''t particularly rare. After they returned to the hotel, they ate their fill in the restaurant and returned to their rooms to cultivate. The night passed, and on the next day, everyone left to do their own things. Of course, Krune had to kick Ruik once more for him to wake up. Ruik didn''t have a side occupation, so the Mission Hall was the only place where he could make a living. With a sleepy face, Ruik commented. Krune gave Ruik a side glance and said. "If I find out that you ran to a corner to sleep, you know what to expect once you are back, right?" Ruik felt a chill on his back and immediately shook his head. "I won''t, don''t worry." Ruik then disappeared in the distance after saying that. Krune just sighed and decided to not intervene for now. He would be able to see the results according to Ruik''s cultivation improvement anyway. If that guy starts to fall behind Tiane, then we better be prepared. Krune looked at Feifei and Tiane and asked. "So, let''s go find someplace to rent?" The two girls nodded, and they asked around for information. It didn''t take long before they arrived at a rental company''s door. After entering there, they went to the counter where a female attendant was talking with another customer. "Very well, then I shall go ahead and close the deal with that apartment''s owner. I will send you a message through the communicator later once we get the contract ready." The customer then exchanged a few more words with the attendant and left. The female attendant noticed Krune''s group waiting and asked them to come forward. "Hello! My name is Yuka Xikin, and welcome to the Migge''s Rental Office. Are you looking to rent or buy?" Krune decided to leave it to Feifei and Tiane since he doesn''t care too much about how the place looks like. He had long since noticed that females put a lot of importance to it, so it is better if he just tags along. "Hi, I''m Wulia Feier. We are at first looking for a Courtyard with at least four rooms to rent. Can you show us some available? Also, we have Formations Maters in our group, so the owner must not mind if we put up our own Formations in the place. Another thing, we are not that rich, so we are looking for something not too expensive." Yuka nodded and brought the group close to a big monitor in the room. There, she turned her communicator ON and connected it. After that, several images started to pass at very high speeds. Of course, as Core Formation Realm cultivators, Feifei and Tiane didn''t lose any detail of what was shown to them. "Those properties are the ones that match your preference. They are all in the City outskirts but have what you asked for. The monitor will keep passing the images for a while. Just pay attention to the number of the courtyard that you are interested in and tell me later." Feifei and Tiane nodded while they were fully focused on the monitor in front of them. Yuka then returned to the counter since another customer had just arrived. Krune already told them that he is fine with anything as long as it has enough space for them. Because of that, Tiane and Feifei were the only ones discussing what they saw with Divine Sense messages. Around ten minutes later, the monitor finished passing the images. Feifei and Tiane then started a heated discussion about which ones to chose. In the end, they marked three numbers and passed it to Yuka. "Very well, those are the prices and locations. Take a look and see if it fits your budget." It turned out that all three weren''t that bad both in localization and price. Of course, that is the case if you use the Dalin Universe standards. If you showed such a price back in the Luvile Universe, everyone would think that you are crazy! In the end, Feifei and Tiane opted for a Courtyard that was quite close to both the Alchemist and Formations Mater Organizations. From what Krune heard, the design of the courtyard satisfied the girls very, very much. As for the price, it went for 1500 Rank 5 Spirit Stones per month. Yuka received their request and said. "Very well, give me one ID for me to include in the contract. If you want, I can include all the IDs together too. The minimal renting time is one year, and it can be extended indefinitely. The first three months have to be paid in advance." Feifei nodded and gave the spirit stones over. They signed the contract after reading it and got the token that proved their rental. Krune''s group then left after a few more words and went directly to that place. Since they had already seen the pictures, it wasn''t hard to find. Once there, they used the token provided by the company and the simple detection formation protecting the place deactivated. Feifei and Tiane were quite pleased with the place while Krune just looked around to see where is the kitchen. They soon selected a bedroom each and reunited in the living room. Krune then prepared some food, and they had their lunch together as well. Of course, Krune didn''t forget to send the location of their new place to Ruik, who soon replied with an ''okay.'' Krune then said after they finished their lunch. "I''m going to the Alchemist Organization to take a few jobs, what are you going to do?" Feifei pondered a bit. "We need the materials to remake the Formation Protecting the courtyard, so we are going with you since the Formations Master Organization is close to the Alchemist one. We can also take the chance to make the Formations Master test and see where we stand in this Universe." Having decided what to do, Krune went back to the Alchemist Organization with Feifei and Tiane. Once they got there, Feifei and Tiane left. Krune entered the Alchemist Branch and went directly to one of the private concoction rooms. The system wasn''t much different from Kalin City. You could select the pills on the monitor that you wished to concoct, and any extra pills other than the number required were yours. The Organization taxed 10% of the Spirit Stones profit, though. Krune didn''t mind. With the price of the pill showed in the display, he simply couldn''t complain at all. ''Other than profit, I want to improve my Alchemist Rank, so I better try some harder pills now and then. Also, I will use the Spirit Stones for cultivation. Putting everything together, I should first guarantee the profit, though. Anyway, I will only understand this place''s concoction techniques after I try them out.'' Krune didn''t know, but one person was paying close attention to his moves. He was obviously Ramon Forkin, the supervisor fo this Alchemist Organization Branch. 226 Improvemen As time passed, things were getting agitated. Back in the Luvile Universe, the Sacred lands were having talks with their own contacts through the Universes. The first one to reach an agreement was the All Life Sect. \"Thank you, Kuley. We will send the payment today. When can our members enter the Dalin Universe?\" Kuley was the name of a Divinity Realm Demon Beast that lived in the Galec Universe. He had a lot of power, and allowing someone from outside the Galec Universe to enter the Dalin universe wasn''t too hard. Of course, there were rules that he had to abide by if he did so. \"I can send them tomorrow. Remember, the highest cultivation I can allow to enter is Soul Forging Realm and only a middle stage at most. Also, they can only stay until they reach the Divine Path Realm. Once that happens, they will be sent back home.\" Tika Tarkulie nodded. \"There is no need to worry. Well then, we paid for two slots, so we are sending one Soul Forging realm and one Divine Soul Realm. That shouldn''t give you any issues with the management.\" Kuley nodded. \"Good. You can simply send the payment over with the two kids that you want to enter. Once they get here, I will send them with the next batch that is entering in a week''s time.\" Tika Tarkulie agreed with the terms and the little spatial gate that was open for communication closed. Together with her, there were another two girls. One of them was the All Life Sect Advanced Life Major Core owner, Wamie Zark. The other was a Soul Forging Realm cultivator called Gilia Mink. \"You two heard him. I will have the payment ready by the end of the day, and you two will be going together with it. Although the main objective is to take Feifei''s Major Core Heavenly Fragment, it doesn''t change the fact that this is a great opportunity for you two. That is the best Universe for cultivation that we know about. Since it will take at least 5 years before you are able to feel the localization of your target, make sure to cultivate properly during this time.\" The two girls nodded and left the room to prepare for the travel. Tika watched them leaving and couldn''t help but think. ''It''s not the first time that a Heavenly Fragment fight happens outside of our Universe. But this is definitely the first that we can''t send any high-level cultivator or demon beast. Usually, the problems would be settled by the Divinity Realm experts. But this time, the Heavenly Fragment Owners can only count on themselves.'' Two days later, the Darkness Land was the next one to strike an agreement with the Uline Universe. Yamio Halas, the Darkness Land Master, agreed with those terms too. \"No problem, Juni, we already knew about the rules. We will be paying for both slots.\" Juni was the representative of the Uline Universe and another Divinity Realm Expert. \"Very well, just send those two with the payment, and I will take care of rest.\" The communication ceased after that. Yamio then sent down his orders. \"Get Uer ready to depart. As for the Soul Forging Realm help, send Mino Jan with him. Only that guy will be able to deal with Uer''s personality.\" The other elders nodded, and a few left the room. ''So weird. Its the first time that our darkness land can''t watch the development of the Heavenly Core Battle. I can''t help but think something is not right. Just how did the Wang Clan get access to that Universe?'' Yamio had no idea that not only had they entered, but the Wang Clan and Divine Path Sect even sent 4 inside! Not to mention that they didn''t pay a single Spirit Stone! The last one to get a place was the Extreme Yin Yang palace through the Thakulo Universe connection. \"Haha! Lue Barcou, to think that you would need a favor from me so soon.\" Lue Barcou, who is the Palace Master, had a gloomy expression on his face. \"Mirie, can''t you forget about what happened? It''s not like I''m not paying for sending my two kids over, right?\" Mirie was a female cultivator at the Divinity Realm from the Thakulo Universe. Also, it just so happens that Lue Barcou and her had some history together. \"Hmph! Fine! But are you sure you are not sending any Soul Forging Realm over? If you really send those two Heavenly Fragment Major Core owners at the Divine Soul Realm, the other Sacred Lands will probably be on the winning side.\" Lue Barcou shook his head. \"There is no need to worry about that. If it is those two, I''m sure that the Soul Forging Realm that the other two Sacred Lands are sending will not be a problem. Besides, It will take quite a few years before all the Major Cores can feel each other. So they have plenty of time to cultivate in that place.\" Mirie shrugged her shoulders. \"Well, they are not my kids, so it''s not my problem anyway. Just send the items that I asked you with them when you are ready. Once they get here, I will arrange for those two to go with the next batch. I believe you already know the rules, right?\" Lue nodded. \"Yes, you don''t need to worry about that.\" Mirie continued. \"Very well. You own me one, Lue Barcou.\" The communication ceased after that. Lue Barcou looked absent-minded for a few seconds and then sighed. ''Well, if everything goes as planned, it will be worth it.'' He then sent an order. \"Tell Rania and Hobek that the preparations are done. They will be departing tomorrow for the Thakulo Universe. From there, they will enter with the next batch into the Dalin Universe.\" The subordinate in the room accepted the order. \"Yes, Palace Master!\" - Back in the Dalin Universe, Krune was in the middle of concocting a new batch of pills. ''I see! When I used the extreme infusion this time, I lost control of the changes in the medicinal liquid. If I release the pressure of Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy and focus on controlling those changes, the synch level should go higher once again.'' The process went smoothly, and soon, the pills came out of the cauldron. \"Great!\" As soon as that pills appeared, Krune received an automatic message in his communicator. \"Congratulations! You have concocted a pill of a higher level than your alchemist rank. Please show the pill at your Alchemist Branch to have your Stars Level Qualification updated.\" Krune felt even happier after that message. It confirmed that he really didn''t fail this time around. \"It was the first time I tried this approach, so there is a lot of room for improvement.\" Krune then sent the pills that the request showed back to the buyer and took the extra pill with him. Once he registers his new rank, he will have access to higher-level materials and offers. At the same time, Ramon Forkin, the branch supervisor, received a message in his office. \"Hum? Oh! He advanced to the Three Silver Stars level, uh? Let''s take a look at his pill.\" He then sent a message to the alchemist that would check Krune''s pill and had it sent over to his place. Once he tested it with his Divine Sense, he got quite satisfied. \"Indeed, it seems like he wasn''t lying when he said that he had never tried the Extreme Infusion before. I can see the mistakes that a new user of this technique would make. Still, compared to the first pill that he made in the examination, the improvement is remarkable.\" \"Still, he had just started, so finding the main shortcomings of the Extreme Infusion is to be expected. He had been here for a week only, so I will keep watching you for the time being.\" Ramon then sent the pill back, which was returned to Krune right after. \"Congratulations. We checked the pill, and it is indeed a Three Silver Stars level one. I already changed your qualifications in the system, so you should have access to better offers now.\" Krune put the pill away and inquired. \"Thank you. By the way, I saw that the Alchemist Organization has a points reward system.\" The attendant nodded. \"Indeed. There are several items that you can get through the reward system. Of course, you can buy them as well as long as you have the money. But I reckon that they would be cheaper if exchanged through the system.\" Krune understood. \"Yes, I want to know how to accumulate points.\" The attendant then said. \"It''s very simple. Any extra pills that you make can be exchanged with points instead of keeping them for yourself. The total cost of your pills is definitely cheaper than the materials and cultivation resources you get.\" Krune could see from where the Alchemist Organization is coming from. \"I see. To make an extra pill, the alchemists need to get a lot better at the concoction. It will force them to practice more and raise their ranks so that they can get more points.\" The attendant nodded. \"Exactly.\" Krune then took that extra pill out and a few more that he got but had no use for and gave it away. \"Take these ones and exchange for points for me, please.\" The attendant was impressed with the number of pills. He knows that Krune was a Two Silver Stars Alchemist and that he joined the guild around a week ago. Not to mention that all the pills that Krune gave to him were at the Two Silver Stars Level too! It showed just how good of an alchemist Krune really is! \"Ve- Very well.\" While the attendant was calculated the points, Krune told him. \"Just add it to my ID, I will go back to concoct more.\" Once Krune returned to his room, he looked through the concoction list and thought. \"Even with all those pills, I''m probably far from getting enough points for that item. I guess it will take some time.\" 227 Called Over Time passed, and five months went by. Feifei, Krune, and Tiane had been spending most of their time in their side occupations and cultivating. As for Ruik, since he didn''t have a side occupation, he gathered his cultivation resources through the Mission Hall. By now, Ruik had already finished evolving his Spiritual Energy Meridians into the Elemental ones. There is also the fact that the Spirit Stones that he gets here are of much higher rank than the ones he used in the Luvile Universe. Because of that, there was much more energy which then transformed into a higher speed of cultivation. Lastly, there is the battle experience that he accumulated through the missions. With all that together, Ruik was successful in advancing into the 4th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. Tiane started to practice the Myriad Energies Technique only after they arrived in this place, so it took her those same months to finish creating the Pseudo Meridians. After that, with the Spirit Stones that she got, Tiane focused on opening all the Spiritual Energy Meridians and finally evolving them into the Elemental Ones. Still, it was only a few days ago that Tiane finished all of that, so her cultivation ended lagging behind. In the end, she only advanced a single stage, and that is because she was already close to entering the next one to start with. Now she was at the same level as Ruik, 4th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. She felt quite bad about it, so she started to put even more effort than before. Krune was personally impressed with Ruik''s improvement. It seemed like that Ruik''s pride really took a shot when he first met Tiane. Otherwise, Krune believes that this snake would definitely have found a way or another to sleep somewhere. Of course, Krune didn''t show it on his face. Instead, he pressed Ruik even more. "So what if you caught up to Tiane''s cultivation? Aren''t you already over 40 years old? Tiane isn''t even 20 yet, and you are feeling proud of your accomplishments? Do you have no shame?!" Ruik felt gloomy once more, but at the same time, his pride was fired up! "Fine, you just wait!" As for Krune, he didn''t slack even a bit either. His cultivation advanced to the 6th Stage already, and the elemental Regulation technique entered the middle Stage. As for his Alchemist Rank, Krune made a smooth advancement to the Five Silver Stars. In fact, Krune could have gone even further. But he also needed Spirit Stones, so he took a lot of orders where there was reasonable payment but gave no practical experience. ''I should have enough points for that item by the end of the week, once I get that, I will know if it is good for the Elemental Meridians too or not.'' Krune didn''t know if it would work since the Myriad Energies Technique meridians are different from the normal ones. Still, he thought that it was worth a try. In the worst case, he could use it for cultivation too. As for the soul part, with his own Tribulation Lightning tempering, this use of the Elemental Path Stone wasn''t that beneficial. In Feifei and Tiane''s case, they had their Formations Master Rank reduced by two levels each. There was no helping in it, the level of the Formation Masters in the Luvile Universe was just not on par with this one. Once the two girls finished the test to get their real qualifications, they found out that they were lagging quite far behind in knowledge and techniques. In Tiane''s case, she was just barely able to be accepted as a One Silver Star Formations Master. So after those five months of practice, Tiane was only able to improve her level by one while Feifei improved by two. Still, the jobs that Tiane and Feifei got had reasonable payments as well since everything here was expensive. Of course, the most profitable one had always been Alchemy since their demand is always high. Another thing worth remembering is that Feifei was only able to go back to the Five Silver Stars level because of her Major Core. With that, she could predict the changes in the formation and deal with it. Otherwise, she probably would have advanced just a single level like Tiane. Well, in fact, that was already terrifying in the eyes of the other members of the Formations Master Organization. Because of that, Feifei became quite famous in that Branch. Especially considering how young she is. As for cultivation, Feifei was at the 8th Stage when she arrived, and now she almost at the peak of the 9th. One must remember that the higher the cultivation, the longer it takes to advance stages. So it is already excellent that Feifei achieved this level in just five months. Feifei also started to make arrangements to enter the Divine Soul Realm. Thus she was saving a lot of spirit stones. Back in the Alchemist Organization Branch. Krune was once more checking the price of the Elemental Path Stone when suddenly, he received a message in his communicator. "The guild supervisor is calling you over, please go to his office once you get free." Krune got puzzled with that message. ''Want to see me?'' Only now did Krune notice one thing. ''Now that I think about it, I don''t even know who he is.'' Krune started to ponder if he had broken something again, but he couldn''t recall anything like that. At least not since the Alchemist Qualification Test. ''Well, since I''m free at the moment anyway, I will go take a look to see what he wants.'' On the way, Krune ended meeting up with Yilio, the person who acted as the examiner in his test. "Oh, hello!" Yilio nodded back. "It seems like you were also called by the Supervisor, right?" Krune confirmed. "Yes, although I don''t know what he wants to talk about." Yilio laughed a little and said. "Don''t worry, this is an excellent thing for you and me, but I will let the Supervisor talk about it." Although Krune got puzzled again, he decided to wait to see what the Supervisor had to say. Ramon was already there once they arrive. "Hello. I guess this is our first time meeting each other, my name is Ramon Forkin." Krune greeted him and waited to see what he had to say. "Yilio already knows this, so it''s basically Krune who I wish to pass this information." "Krune, I would like to have you and Yilio to participate in the next solar system junior concoction championship." Krune was surprised by that request. "Me? But I''m just a new member and haven''t participated in such a competition before." Ramon shook his head. "That''s not a problem, the only requisites are that you can''t be over 35 years of age, and must have cultivation under the Divine Soul Realm." Krune, as always, still doesn''t like to get attention. "I''m sorry, but I don''t have any intention of participating in this competition. I''m the type that likes to keep a low profile." Yilio heard that, and his mouth twitched. "Is it something that the ''Crazy Alchemist'' should say?" Krune almost fainted after hearing that. After that event in the examination, everyone started to pay attention to him. Because of his rainbow hair and irises, there was no way he couldn''t be recognized. With time, he began to be known as the ''Crazy Alchemist,'' much for his displeasure. That wasn''t all. If it was just the event where Krune destroyed the examination room, the others would have forgotten about him already. But during these months, his number of requests accepted, points earned, and the 3 levels of improvement contributed to his famous image. So Krune wasn''t regarded as ''Crazy'' only because of the examination room event, but mainly because he was crazily charging up in the ranks. To advance 3 Silver Stars in just five months is unprecedented in their Alchemist Organization Branch! Even Yilio, who was also considered a genius in alchemy, had only advanced a single rank during this time, being at Five Silver Stars at the moment. Krune then looked at the Supervisor and said. "Anyway, it''s not like I wanted all this attention. But if I participate in this competition, it would get even worse, so I prefer to refrain from doing so." Krune turned around and was just about to leave when suddenly, Ramon made a comment that made his steps froze in place. "I know that you have been checking for the price of the Elemental Path Stone. What if I say that if you agree to participate, I will give it to you for free? That way, you can use your points in another item or get a second one." Krune turned around and asked. "Are you for real?" Krune had been afraid that if the Elemental Path Stone didn''t work, he would have spent his point for nothing. But if he can get one for free to test first, that would be the best! Krune then started to ponder whether he should accept it or not. Ramon noticed Krune''s struggle and decided to strike the iron while it was hot. "In addition, I will give you an electronic token that will allow you to buy the items available in the reward system with a 20% discount." Krune''s eyes lit up! "Deal!" More important than his ''low profile life,'' is his capital! The more he can save, the better it is! Yilio, on the other hand, just shook his head. ''To think that an alchemist wouldn''t want to participate in the competition. If the other members in the Branch hear about this, would they kill this guy straight away?'' 228 Do I Know You? Ramon smiled and continued. "Good! The competition is going to be held here in the Riren Planet in a City called Anach. You still have two weeks before we need to go there, so please prepare yourself well. Yilio is also under the age of 35, so he will participate together with you." Yilio then got curious and asked. "Oh, that''s right! Since you accepted the invitation, it means that you are under 35 years old. But just how old are you at the moment?" Krune was indeed under the age of 35, in fact, he is way below that. "Oh, I''m 12 years old." Yilio and Ramon opened their eyes wide! "Are you making fun of us?" Krune shook his head. "I''m really 12 years old at the moment. Because my race doesn''t have that much of a life span, it looks likes I am a few years older. But don''t worry, my race reaches the adult mind around 3 years of age." Yilio couldn''t help but say. "Adult mind at 3 years of age... Are you a wisp?" Krune knew that hiding his race would be useless since there are bound to be several experts in this Alchemy Competition. If he stayed quiet in his corner, that wouldn''t be necessary. But he really wants that Elemental Path Stone. Also, there is the fact that he knows that wisps don''t need to be afraid of being used as cultivation resources in this place. "Yes. Is it a problem that I''m a wisp? Could it be that wisps are forbidden from participating?" Ramon immediately shook his head. "Of course not, there are no restrictions to which race the participants are from. It''s just that it is too sudden, I really didn''t expect that you were part of the wisp race." Krune let out a sigh of relief. "There is another thing that I must ask. My identity has to be kept secret. I will use something to cover my hair and face, as well." Ramon didn''t mind it since there were a lot of junior alchemists that did the same during the competition. Their elders were afraid that they would be stolen by other branches, so the best way to keep them safe was to hide their identities. Yilio just so happens to be doing the same thing this time around. Until now, no one except the Branch supervisor and a few trusted subordinates knows about Yilio''s attendance. "That is not a problem, I will arrange for your name to not be displayed." Krune was satisfied with that answer. "Well, then, I will go back to my concoction room to take a few more orders. Let me know when you guys intend to travel to that city." Once Krune left, Yilio couldn''t help but say. Ramon nodded. "Indeed, but that''s why we have you too. Everyone thinks that you are at the Five Silver Stars Level, but we both know that you are already at the Seven. Krune will be a good distraction for the others to look into while you silent advance in the ranks. Who knows, he might go further enough in the competition to bring some glory to the Branch as well. I can simply say that we don''t discriminate against other races, and no one will be able to say anything." Yilio couldn''t help but agree with Ramon. "Now that you said that, it really is a good thing to have the attention to be away from me while we are in the first stages. But did you notice one thing? Krune is only 12 years old and is already at the Five Silver Stars level. To be honest, his talent is way higher than mine. Even if the old geezers ruling the competition don''t want to spend anything on him, it might be a good idea for us to do so. After all, he is already at the 6th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. I have little doubt that he will become one of those Divine Soul Realm wisps, or maybe even one of the rarest Soul Forging Realm ones." Ramon pondered a bit and then said. "Let''s see how he fares in the competition and depending on the results, I might as well go with your plan." Yilio nodded and left the room. On his way back to his own room, he pondered about this issue. ''12 years old and already at the 6th stage of the Core Formation Realm, and he was only on the 4th stage 5 months ago. That''s quite fast, even for a wisp.'' He continued to think about this issue all the way back. ''Perhaps, those Soul Forging Realm wisps that I heard about were like this as well. Anyway, this is not my problem, so I better focus on my concoction for the moment. I''m very close to reaching the 8 Silver Stars Level. If I succeed in it before the competition, I might really have a shot at the championship.'' Yilio closed the door behind and decided to seclude himself for the next two weeks. Krune was also back to his room. "Hum... As far as I know, it shouldn''t be a problem to say that I''m a wisp. The research that I made after that examination proved that the wisps really have it quite easy here. Their only issue is their life span, and that''s basically it. Of course, they are also looked down upon since they can''t go too far into the cultivation path. But it isn''t exactly a threat to their safety." Krune decided that there was no need to overthink it and went back to work. That same day at night, Krune discussed what happened with Feifei and Tiane. Ruik was out in a mission again, so he wouldn''t be back for the next few days. When Feifei and Tiane heard that, they looked at each other surprised. "You too?" Krune was taken aback by that. "What do you mean by that?" Feifei then said. "I, too, received an invite of the Formations Master Organization to participate in the junior formations master championship. Also, it just so happens to be on the same day and city as your Alchemist one." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Did you accept?" Feifei nodded. "At first, I wanted to refuse since I don''t want my face appearing everywhere. But the Branch Supervisor was very annoying about it. In the end, I made a deal with him. I would participate as long as my identity and face weren''t revealed. He even gave me a temporary face changing pill to use." Krune laughed a little. "It is the same with me, I also asked to not have my identity being disclosed. Although the Sacred Lands aren''t after me, they definitely should have found out that I disappeared from the Divine Path Sect. If they aren''t idiots, they will be able to connect the dots. So concealing our faces and identities is the best for now." Feifei agreed with him. "Very well." Krune then changed the topic. "Anyway, let''s eat something first, and we can talk more later." Krune then went to the kitchen to prepare the food. A few days later, Ruik had just finished another mission. When he returned to the Mission Hall branch, quite a few eyes were glued at him. "Isn''t him that Two-Headed Snake? I heard that all the missions he takes are always far above his cultivation level. Still, he always completes it without a problem." "Yes. No one understands why Ruik is so strong since his race is nothing exceptional. The fact that he can jump at least three cultivation stages to fight is frightening." "Could it be that he bought one of those extremely expensive cultivation techniques and skills? Still, where would he have found the money for that?" Ruik heard some of them, but his face didn''t change outside. Yes, outside! Because on the inside, the story was completely different. ''Haha! That''s exactly it! I, your grandfather, am strong! As long as Krune or Feifei don''t appear to make missions, I will be the star of the Core Formation Realm in this Branch. Such a great feeling! Tiane, you just wait! Now that this grandfather is putting the effort, your destiny is to fall far behind the great Ruik in cultivation!'' Ruik then handed over the report of the mission. In fact, this is just to make things more formal since the contractor would always contact the Branch to tell if the task was completed or not. The receptionist took a look and nodded. "Excellent, another well-accomplished mission. The average level of this mission is for those at the 7th stage of the Core Formation Realm. Since you are three stages behind, you will get a 30% bonus in the Mission Hall reward system." The attendant then passed a spatial ring over. "Also, here are the Spiritual Stones payment from the client after the tax reductions. Please confirm that the number is correct." Ruik checked the amount and nodded his head. "It''s correct." He then turned around and started to make his way to the exit. At the same time, he kept his ''cool'' instance, which he had built his image in the Branch. Of course, if Krune was here, he would probably laugh out loud seeing this. Just as Ruik was about to leave, someone called him from behind. "Ruik, wait. I need to talk with you." Ruik turned around and saw a young woman. Still, he knew it was just the appearance since he couldn''t feel her cultivation. That meant that she was probably way older than it seemed. "Do I know you?" The woman''s mouth twitched. 229 The Great Ruik Understands Ruik indeed didn''t put much thought on it. \"I see... Now that I think about it, I don''t know your name either.\" The Supervisor felt like giving Ruik a beating but held herself back. \"Anyway, come with me. I need to talk to you.\" Ruik didn''t have anything else to do at the moment, so he followed the Supervisor into her office. \"First of all, my name is Tarsa Fila, the supervisor of this branch of the Mission Hall.\" Ruik introduced himself as well. \"I''m Ruik, but you know that already.\" Tarsa nodded and went direct to the point. \"The thing is, for someone of your cultivation, the missions that you have been doing are all far higher in level. Still, you are having no problem in completing them. For you and the Mission Hall, this is obviously a good thing, but there is a problem. You are a Two-Headed Demon Sneak, right?\" Ruik nodded. Tarsa then continued. \"The issue is, our Riren Planet has a Snake Clan, which is quite famous. There several types of Snake demon beasts that receive the best treatment, missions, techniques, etc. They have noticed your presence and your combat power, so they probably will want you to join their clan.\" Ruik was taken aback. The majority of snake species are solitary by nature. If Krune hadn''t come to him on that day years ago, Ruik would definitely be living alone until now. So it impressed him that the snakes created a clan for themselves. But that wasn''t the issue at the moment. \"It doesn''t matter how good my talent is, I''m still in the Core Formation Realm. Why would this Snake Clan even pay attention to me?\" Ruik felt like something was fishy. Tarsa explained. \"That I don''t know, but I believe that talent is welcome doesn''t matter which realm they are. Now, the problem is the fact that they will definitely ask for you to leave the Mission Hall and go live in their clan territory. As you can imagine, losing good talents is bad for my Branch too. But if I didn''t contact you, they would do so sooner or later, so I might as well tell you everything.\" Tarsa continued. \"Also, they are quite wealthy, so things like cultivation resources or whatever won''t be a problem for you anymore. They are the type that thinks about it as a long time investment.\" In Ruik''s eyes, whether he is part of the Mission Hall or the Snake Clan doesn''t matter much for him. As long as this Snake Clan could provide him the resources for his cultivation, that would be fine. The problem is that once he joins this so-called Snake Clan, he probably will be bound to it somehow. Losing his freedom is something that Ruik doesn''t want to happen. \"If I''m not wrong, I will be attached to them and will have to follow their orders if I want all of those benefits, right?\" Tarsa confirmed. \"Probably.\" Also, another issue is that he is supposed to be the ''Rainbow Sect Sect Master,'' so he can''t simply join another organization. Although he feels like it is troublesome, the fact is that Ruik always liked his position. He really expects to one day return to the Luvile Universe and shows how ''amazing'' he had become. He even dreamed about such a scenario before! \"Hum... You don''t need to worry since I don''t have any plans to lose my freedom. So if they appear making this request, just tell them that I''m happy with their offer, but I have no intention of joining any Clan at the moment.\" Tarsa heard that and let out a sigh of relief. Although Ruik''s realm is quite low at the moment, she believes that he will enter far higher realms in the future. Since he is registered in her Branch, it will be her and her Branch''s glory. \"Very good. But like I said, the snake clan didn''t ask me to invite you, I''m just informing you according to what I know. That means that they will look for you at some point.\" Ruik heard that and asked. \"Will they try to force the issue?\" Tarsa shook her head. \"I don''t think so since we have rules to be followed. But that doesn''t mean that they won''t try some other methods.\" Ruik pondered a bit and then nodded. \"Alright. Overthinking about it now won''t help. I will see what happens once they show before me. Thanks for the advice.\" Tarsa then asked another thing. \"Now that it is dealt with, I want to ask you about Wulia Feier and Krune. They have combat power higher than yours, but they have never done a single mission ever since they got their qualification. What happened to them?\" Ruik wasn''t surprised by that question. If anything, he was wondering why it took so long for her to ask it. \"Krune is an alchemist while Feier is a Formations Master. Both of them are at the Silver Stars level, so they don''t need to do missions to get the Spirit Stones needed. They had made the Mission Hall test basically because they might need something from it in the future. Still, they will probably come soon since only cultivation alone isn''t good.\" Tarsa nodded and didn''t say anything else. Ruik then returned home and found out that Krune, Feifei, and Tiane were eating. \"Oh! I arrived at the right time.\" Krune looked at Ruik and then pointed at the pot. \"There is quite a lot of food, just take as much as you want.\" Ruik nodded and then took some food too. After finish eating, he took the chance to tell what happened today in the Mission Hall. \"Snake Clan? Aren''t snakes solitary demon beasts in general?\" Krune asked. Ruik then laughed since that was also his first thought. \"Right? I also thought about that. Anyway, I won''t be joining them since I don''t want to lose my freedom.\" Krune then added. \"Well, they probably think you have some heaven-defying talent. So chances are that you will also be used for breeding. Haha!\" Ruik felt a chill on his back, only now did he think about that possibility. If there is one thing that he doesn''t want at the moment, that is to have a family. Especially when it comes around in such a process. \"Now, I''m even more certain that I don''t want to join them. If I see someone from their clan, I will run as fast as possible!\" Everyone started to laugh out loud after hearing that. Ruik felt gloomy again, but that also reminded him about another thing. \"Talking about family, how come you and Feifei are still sleeping in separated rooms? Shouldn''t you two be enjoying your time together instead? I''m still very curious to know how a child of a wisp and a human looks like.\" Feifei and Krune immediately smile froze on their face. Ruik''s counter-attack was very effective! Even Tiane felt a little embarrassed with such a question. \"Cough, cough. It isn''t the time to think about something like that, we are still young and have a long way ahead of us. Right, Feifei?\" Feifei immediately nodded vigorously. \"Yes, yes! It''s too early, very, very early!\" In fact, when Krune and Feifei returned home and Tiane wasn''t around, they liked to be quite lovey-dovey. Still, they won''t let those two know about it. Too bad, though. For Tiane, their real actions are as clear as day for her. Of course, Feifei and Krune haven''t crossed that last ''line...'' yet. It was at this moment that Ruik noticed that he stepped on gold this day! \"Is that so? Well, I will let it slide for now, but don''t think that I will forget about it.\" Sometime later, Krune warned Ruik. \"Still, you better be careful with this snake clan or whatever. If something happens, just send me a message.\" It was then that Krune thought about something else. \"Oh, right! Feifei and I are going to participate in the Alchemist and Formations Master competition that will happen in Anach. Tiane will be following to cheer for us, will you come too?\" Ruik pondered a bit about it. He had just come back from a mission, so it would be good to relax a little. He might as well use those competition days to sleep, which would be great. \"Sure, when is it happening?\" Krune could pretty much guess what Ruik was really thinking, but he didn''t mind since Ruik had been advancing a lot in cultivation in the last few months. \"We received the news a few days ago, so there is still a week before it takes place.\" Ruik nodded, and everyone talked about it for a while. Later, just as everyone was about to return to their own rooms, Ruik asked them something else. \"Now that I think about the Mission Hall, aren''t you three going to do any missions? The Supervisor was asking why neither of you showed your faces. As you know, you can''t rely only on cultivation alone, right? You need to go out to and do some battle so that you can get used to your levels.\" Krune and Feifei nodded. \"We were already thinking about that too, especially Feifei, since she is close to the Divine Soul Realm. We are going to look for a good one once we return from the competitions. Now that you said, we might go together.\" Tiane heard that and immediately shook her head. \"I won''t be going with you, a mission that can give you or Feifei a challenge isn''t something I can deal with. I''m planning to take another one around my own level. I believe I will get more experience like that.\" Ruik then said. \"Oh, then let''s go together. We are both at the 4th stage of the Core Formation Realm anyway. Not to mention that I know that Mission Hall quite well, so I can take a good mission for us. So far, I''ve been doing only solo missions, so it will be good to change a little.\" Tiane immediately replied. \"No need, I don''t want you to get in my way.\" Ruik heard that but didn''t get angry. Instead, he smiled playfully. \"Oh, I see. Because I caught you in cultivation, you are afraid of showing how weak you are in front of me at the same level. It''s okay, it''s okay. The great Ruik understands.\" Tiane''s pride immediately got a painful hit since it is true that she had been paying attention to Ruik''s improvement. \"Hmph! Very well, let me show the difference between a lazy snake and a demon crow who had been putting the effort ever since she got sentience.\" Krune and Feifei, on the other hand, just sighed and shook their heads. Tiane and Ruik had never been on friendly terms with each other to start with, so they decided that they might as well not meddle between those two. 230 Leaving Krune decided to use the last few days to raise his alchemist rank. As mentioned before, he could have gone further than Five Silver Stars, but he focused on high payment first. Now that he is focused on trying harder pills, his alchemist skills started to grow at high speed. Not to mention that it has been over a month since he entered the Five Silver Stars level, so he was already used to it. ''Hum... This one was very close to Six Silver Stars level, but I messed in a few places during the concoction. Still, I should be able to reach the Six Silver Stars in my next few batches if I fix some of the points. Let''s try it out.'' Although Krune thought that, it wasn''t that easy to get it right. There were a few times that he got some of those points fixed but messed with others that were right before. It wasn''t exactly his fault, it was just the law of cause and effect. By fixing a method, another one that was working didn''t go as expected anymore. Krune needed to find the balance between each other so that they would come out okay. In the end, Krune had to work on another 15 batches of pills until he finally broke the final barrier and entered the Six Silver Stars level. Once again, his communicator received a message congratulating him for creating a Pill above his level. That was the proof of his success. ''Finally done. Just two days before we departed. Let''s bring the pill out to be checked and then spent some time getting used to my new level.'' At the same time, Feifei was going through a similar process in the Formations Master Organization Branch. The Formations Master test is different from the Alchemist one, where you only had to show the pill that you had concocted. Every time Feifei, Tiane, or anyone else wanted to have their Star Rank raised, they had to build a Formation in front of the examiners. Other members of the Organization were also watching since it was suitable for their own training. Even Feifei herself had observed other Formation Masters during their tests, which helped her a lot in the past. Because Feifei is quite young and had been improving so fast, she was quite famous between this Branch''s members, especially men. \"She is already trying the Six Silver Stars test. Wasn''t her a Three Silver Stars Formations Master around 5 months ago?\" \"Exactly, Wulia Feier is so talented in formations that even the Supervisor is putting a lot of effort into teaching here in the few last weeks. It seems like she will be participating in the Junior Formations Master competition in Anach too. I believe Supervisor Hulio is expecting her to get some experience.\" \"I see, but won''t it instead backfire on him? What if the other bigger branches try to steel her with better offers? She might not have the highest rank between our members in this competition, but she definitely has the highest talent considering her age.\" \"I see, now that I think about it, quite a few do that during the competition. Let''s hope that everything goes well.\" \"Exactly. There is no risk of anyone of our Branch leaking this information either. After all, no one is idiot enough to buy a fight with the Formations Master Organization for no reason. The Headquarters is extremely strict with their rules.\" Feifei was oblivious to such conversations since she was entirely focused on the formation under her. ''The northwest side in getting in conflict with the inner core, I have to rearrange the connections from the two ends; The flow of spiritual energy of the southern border is getting out of synch with the northern one. Maybe I should use another material to reinforce its balance; I used too much Elemental Source Energy in the outer core, I need to compensate it somehow.'' Thanks to the Destiny Major Core, Feifei was being able to see where the problems would occur even before it happened. Thanks to that, she could build counter-measures in time to prevent the formation from being ruined. Around one hour later, Feifei wiped the sweat on her forehead and stood up. The trapping fog formation that she was building was finally completed! The examiners watching it then said. \"Alright, give us the key to the formation and activate it, we need to check the level from outside and inside.\" Feifei did as they asked and activated the formation. It soon came to life, and the fog started to spread around the structure. Some of the examiners entered it with the key, while others stayed outside to observe. Around ten minutes later, they deactivated the formation and started to examine the formation composition. Not too long after, one of the examiners smiled and said. \"Congratulations, this is a real Six Silver Stars Trapping Fog Formation, you can go to the office later and apply for your qualifications to be raised. I''m looking forward to what you will achieve in the Junoir Formations Master competition.\" Feifei felt quite happy! Even with her Destiny Major Core help, she wasn''t sure if she had succeeded or not. There were just too many components that she needed to pay attention to individually. If she had the time, she could read the destiny energy and find the answer, but that would take too long. It was a lot faster to let the examiners test it by themselves. Not to mention that Feifei doesn''t like to see the future unless it is something necessary. Later, she received a video call from the Hulio Gokin, the Branch Supervisor. \"I already arranged your entrance to the competition, so you just need to go to Anach City and talk with the members there who are organizing it. Come to my office later to take a token, just give it to them, and they will know what to do. Don''t forget that if you want to hide your identity, you should use the appearance change pill I gave you previously before departing.\" Feifei nodded to the Supervisor on the other side of the video call. \"Thanks, Supervisor Hulio. I will do my best in the competition, so don''t forget about our deal. I will participate, and you will give me that all-time discount token.\" Hulio laughed and nodded. That was part of the deal that Feifei made with him to participate in the competition. One was to have her identity not being displayed, the other was to give an all-time discount token for all the items available in the Formations Master Organization Branch. Just like Krune, Feifei also had several things from there that she wanted, so she convinced Hulio about it. \"As long as you don''t fare too bad in the competition, it will definitely be yours. Don''t forget that Julian and Binou will be participating as well, so you can count on them if you need any help.\" Feifei nodded. Julian Vian is a Seven Silver Stars Formations Master while Binou Rure is at the Eight Silver Stars level. There were others under 35 years old around the same Level as Feifei. Still, Fiefei was by far the youngest one, so Hulio wanted her to gain some experience this time around. What he was really relying on was the other two. Their talent isn''t as big as Feifei''s, but they were close to the age limit, so they had a lot of experience higher ranks. ''Well, from what I found from previous competitions, there is always some Eight or even Nine Silver Stars participants anyway. It will probably be impossible for me to get the championship. Still, I shouldn''t do too bad as long as I put the effort.'' After that, Feifei met with Tiane, who had been watching her test. The two girls then left together to buy a few things. Ruik didn''t have much to do in this week before the competition, so he decided to go back to the Mission Hall and take an easy and fast mission to not waste time. Of course, it was exactly because he got a quick and easy task that he also found some places where he could stop to sleep. That snake will probably never change. Fortunately, Ruik was still back home the day before Krune and Feifei departed. The day that they would be going to Anach finally arrived and the group went to the nearest long-distance teleport formation. Arriving there, a few members of the Alchemist, Formations Master, and other side occupation organizations were there already. The Alchemist and Formations Master competition weren''t the only ones happening. There were also Blacksmith, Runestone Formations, and other competitions happening at the same time. Feifei and Krune had already changed their appearance, so only the members of the Formations and Alchemist Organizations noticed them. The Alchemist Organization side didn''t think that there was anything strange. After all, there is nothing wrong with their members having a lover. But on the Formations Master Side, Julian and Binou narrowed their eyes. Both of them had been keeping an eye on Feifei, or better, Wulia Feier. So seeing someone else holding hands with her immediately affected their mood. Especially since they have no idea who this guy is. Feifei knew that and had even told Krune about it before, but Krune''s answer was straightforward to the point that she didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. That day, Krune looked at her and asked. \"Do you plan to leave me for one of them?\" Feifei just shook her head. Krune then smiled and said. \"Then why should I care?\" On one side, Feifei was happy that Krune trusted her that much. She couldn''t see any sign of him being afraid of losing her. On the other, she was a little sad that he didn''t show even a bit of jealousy. But now, they saw her with Krune, so she was curious about how things would play out. As mentioned before, if there is not a need for it, Feifei will not use her Divination abilities since she doesn''t really like it. 231 How old are you? Krune looked at those two and decided to talk himself. \"Hello, my name is Jolk.\" As mentioned before, both Feifei and Krune would take part in this Competition, hiding their own identities. So Krune went with the name of a person he had met a long time ago. Julian was just about to ask his relation with Feifei when suddenly, he noticed that Krune was using an Alchemist symbol on his clothes. \"Are you going to participate in the Alchemist''s Junior Competition?\" Krune nodded. \"Yes, since both Formations Master and Alchemist competitions will happen in Anach, Feifei and I decided to go together.\" Binou, who had been just hearing, decided to go direct to the point. \"What''s the relationship between you and Hana?\" Although Wulia Feier was Feifei''s alias here in the Dalin Universe, only Krune''s group knew about it. So for everyone else, her real identity is really Wulia Feier. Since she agreed to have her identity hidden in this Competition, she had to once again change her name, which is now Hana Feli. Krune smiled and then said. \"I''m her fiance.\" Krune said that without the least bit of embarrassment on his face. If he can say that even in front Wang Mei, let alone some weaklings around the same cultivation level as him. Julian snorted and asked. \"Do you even have the qualifications to say that?\" Julian turned to Feifei and said. \"Hana, have you not noticed that he is a demon beast in human form? You shouldn''t waste your time with someone like him.\" Feifei narrowed and was just about to talk when suddenly, someone intervened. \"I don''t know what your Formations Master Organization is thinking to talk like this with our members. Do you think that you are some big shit or anything like that? Why would a member of our Alchemist Organization not be worthy of this girl?\" The one who talked was surprisingly Yilio, the other member of the same Branch as Krune, who was participating in the Junior Alchemist Competition. Julian looked at the new comer and couldn''t recognize him. But it was different for Binou. \"Yilio, why are you getting involved in this? It has nothing to do with you.\" Yilio looked at Binou and smiled. \"You are wrong, Binou. Jolk is a member of my Alchemist Branch, so it has everything to do with me. I might as well tell you this, although his Alchemist Rank is smaller than mine, his talent is definitely higher.\" Binou was taken aback. He and Yilio had known each other for quite some time, so he knows that Yilio is quite a straightforward guy who didn''t like to play around. If he said that Jolk has a higher talent than his, then it is most likely the truth. \"Since when did your Alchemist Branch have someone like him?\" Yilio laughed and answered. Binou knew that there was no point in denying since Wulia Feier would also be taking part in their Formations Competition. \"Yes. Hana''s situation is the same as your friend. Her rank is lower, but her talent far surpasses mine. That''s why we don''t want her to get involved with no one else other than the members of our Organization Branch. It should have been the same for you, too, don''t you think?\" Feifei and Krune looked at each other and then laughed after hearing that. That puzzled both sides, though. Feifei, or better, Hana was the first one to talk. \"If that''s the case, I might as well leave the Formations Organization.\" Krune followed right behind. \"Yeap, I won''t mind leaving the Alchemist one either. After all, both side occupations are something that we are doing just to gather Spirit Stones. If to stay there, we need to go separate ways, we would rather leave the Organizations behind and think about something else to do.\" Both Binou and Yilio were taken aback. They didn''t know that Formation and Alchemy were worthy so little in their eyes. Julian, on the other hand, got nervous instead. If Wulia Feier decides to leave their Branch because of him, Supervisor Hulio will eat his heart alive! Yilio didn''t mind what Krune said since he wasn''t against it from the very start. But Binou was different, and it would be quite troublesome to explain if Feier decided to leave the Branch out of nowhere. Yilio looked at Krune, or better, Jolk, and said. \"Don''t worry, whether you two get together or not means nothing to us. I just don''t like how Binou said that you are not worthy of Hana.\" Binou narrowed his eyes and said. \"Whatever, the Junior Formations Master Competition is close, so I won''t bother with it for now.\" He thought that since he and Wulia Feier are in the same Branch, he will have a lot of time to convince her to leave that guy called Jolk. Julian also didn''t have much to say and followed. Different from Binou, he really can''t afford the consequences of Feier leaving their Branch. When the two were gone, Krune looked at Yilio and said. \"Thank you for your help.\" Yilio shook his head. \"Just make sure to concentrate on the Competition. I wasn''t lying when I said that your talent is higher than mine, so I believe this is going to be a good experience for you.\" Krune smiled and nodded. The long-distance teleport formation is activated every three hours, so Krune and the others had to wait for it. When the time finally arrived, he and everyone else going to Anach stepped on it. With a flash of silver light, everyone disappeared. In the center of Anach City, one of the various long-distance teleport formations activated, and soon after, Krune''s group appeared with everyone else. As soon as they arrived, Ramon was there to receive Krune and Yilio. As the Alchemist Branch Supervisor, he had to come earlier to complete the procedures for his participants. \"Oh, I see you brought some friends together. Are you three following Jolk?\" Feifei and Tiane shook their heads. Feifei then looked at Krune and said. \"I will be going ahead since my competition site is somewhere else. Tiane will be going with me, too. Once you get some time free, send me a message.\" Krune nodded and looked at Ruik. \"Are you going with the two girls or coming with me?\" Ruik pondered a bit and decided to go with Krune for now. He was just here to watch the fun, so it didn''t matter which one he followed. Krune gave Feifei a kiss, and they went their separate ways. Ramon, who was guiding everyone, asked Yilio about Feifei with a Divine Sense message. Yilio then explained the little bit that he knew, which surprised Ramon. \"Isn''t Binou a member of that Formations Master Branch close to our building? If I''m not wrong, he is the one with the highest Formations Master Rank under 35 years old from that place. Did he really say that that girl has higher talent than him?\" Yilio nodded. \"I was also surprised. I''ve known Binou for quite a few years already, so I know that he is quite proud. For him to say something like that, this Hana girl must really have an astonishing talent for Formations. Of course, this means very little for our Alchemist Organization anyway.\" Ramon nodded. \"Well, that is true. Anyway, as long as it doesn''t impact your or Krune''s performance, we have nothing to do with it. If anything, I''m quite happy to see that a wisp like him was able to conquer such a talented human girl. Haha!\" Krune didn''t know about what Ramon and Yilio were talking about, nor did he care. His mind at the moment was only thinking about the Elemental Path Stone that he will get after all of this is over. ''I hope that that thing also works with my Elemental Meridians.'' After arriving at the Alchemist competition site, Ramon brought Krune and Yilio to apply for their working stations. During the Competition, you can only rely on your skills. All the materials, cauldrons, and any other working tool will be provided by the Solar System Alchemist Headquarters. That is to guarantee that everyone would be at the same level. Ruik noticed that it would take some time and decided to go somewhere else. \"I already know where you will be staying, so I will pass by there this night. I will take a look around since I have nothing better to do.\" Krune nodded, he indeed had no reason to keep Ruik close by anyway. Since there were a lot of participants, Krune and Yilio had to wait with Ramon until their time for registration came. One of the employees in charge of making the registrations then looked at Ramon''s group and said. \"Next.\" Ramon then brought Krune and Yilio forward. \"Name and Rank.\" Yilio came forward first. \"Yilio, Eight Silver Stars Alchemist.\" Ramon was surprised to hear that and asked with a Divine Sense message. \"Did you advance in rank?\" Yilio nodded. \"Yes, I was already very close to making a breakthrough. So I used the last two weeks to give the final push. Still, I just barely reached this level, so I''m not very confident in controlling this level.\" Ramon shook his head. \"That is not a problem, the fact that you went up a level is a motive to celebrate anyway.\" The employee then brought out something like a crystal ball and said. \"Put your hands on it for the age check.\" Yilio followed the orders and put his hand on the ball. -Core Formation Realm, 8th Stage. Bone Age, 33 Years old.- The employee nodded and passed Yilio an electronic token. \"Your working station is the 5781st one. The Competition starts at 11 AM tomorrow, so be sure to be in your working station before that. Anyone late will be automatically disqualified.\" Yilio nodded and returned to Ramon''s side. Krune was the next one. \"Jolk, Six Silver Stars Alchemist.\" Krune then did the same thing as Yilio, but surprisingly, the information given was different. -Core Formation Realm, 6th Stage. Bone Age, impossible to determine.- The employee and everyone else around got puzzled. Soon, Ramon understood the issue. \"Oh, right! You are a wisp, the bone age check doesn''t work on you.\" The employee also understood when he heard that, but he was still surprised to see that a wisp came to participate. He then took a blood contract out of his spatial ring and wrote a few things on it. The contract simply stated that Krune had to tell the truth when he asks how old he is. There was no punishment written since it was just a truth test. Krune understood. Since he isn''t a Divine Soul Realm expert, blood contracts still worked. Krune signed it without thinking. The contract then burned down, and a seal was put on Krune''s soul. \"Very well, how old are you?\" \"I''m 12 years old.\" Immediately, the other competitors went silent, the employees went silent, every single being who heard that went silent. The only exception was obviously Yilio and Ramon. The seal on Krunes soul then disappeared right after, which proved that he was talking the truth since his contract terms were completed. \"Holy shit! A 12 years old Six Silver Stars Alchemist!\" 232 Who Cares? Krune looked at everyone and then said. \"It''s because I''m a wisp, so I achieved my adult mind when I was 3 years old. Sure there is nothing to be so impressed about, right? If I count the time that I started learning alchemist, it has been over 8 years already.\" Krune''s words made everyone almost faint! The average level of the participants is between Four to Six Silver Stars. There are very few above that level in this Junior Competition. But the majority is already over 30 years old and had been practicing alchemy for at least 15 or more years. But the fatal blow was still not done yet. Yilio came forward and then commented. \"Come on, Jolk. There is no need to be modest. Did you forget that you were a Five Bronze Stars Alchemist five months ago? Your talent is a lot higher than you picture.\" The surroundings once again went silent, and Krune was the one who almost passed out this time. He looked at Yilio and said. \"Can''t you pretend that I don''t exist?\" As for everyone else, they already gave up thinking. Some could still accept the fact that Krune took 8 years to reach the Six Silver Stars level. Although it would be frightening, they could agree that Krune, or better, Jolk advanced step by step to reach this level. But now, they found out that Krune went from a Five Bronze Stars to Six Silver stars in Five months! \"Now, I understand why my master said that there is always a higher mountain.\" \"Five months... Just five months... All the effort and sweat I put into alchemy, was it all for nothing?\" \"Fortunately, this is my last Alchemist competition. The next one, I will be over 35 years old already. I wouldn''t have the heart to compete against such a monster when that time comes.\" \"Indeed. Also, he is just a wisp. If he was from another race, I think I would kill myself right here and right now.\" Ramon and Yilio smiled even more after hearing all the comments. Their plan was for Krune to get all the attention, and it seems like it was working pretty fine. Krune, on the other hand, wanted to cry already. He quickly got his electronic token and swiftly left with the other two. Some distance away, there was another alchemist that didn''t seem to care that much. \"Seems like that guy''s talent isn''t that bad. Sadly, he is a wisp.\" That guy''s companion then snorted. \"Hmph! What does that have to do with us? We came here to fight for the top positions. Since he is still at the Six Silver Stars level, he isn''t our match.\" \"You say that, but I noticed the change on your face when you heard about he being a Five Bronze Stars five months ago.\" \"So what? Just because they said that it doesn''t mean that this is the truth. Let''s go, it''s our time for registration.\" The two then went through the same process as Yilio and everyone else. \"Name and Rank.\" \"Dano Fassi, Peak Eight Silver Stars Alchemist.\" Dano put his hands on the ball, and soon, the information appeared. -Core Formation Realm, 7th Stage. 25 Years old.- Quite a few felt shocked when they saw that. Of course, it wasn''t as much as it was with Krune. The employee quickly finished this guy registration and asked for the next one to come. \"Ernely Qitian, Nine Silver Stars Alchemist.\" Ernely did the same thing after saying his name. -Core Formation Realm, 8th Stage. 26 years old.- Another wave of exclamation appeared. To be at the Nine Stars level while still far from 30 years of age shows how much talent Ernely has. Dano and Ernely ignored everyone''s eyes and left right after getting their electronic tokens. Of course, they weren''t the only ones who caught the participants'' attention. Soon, more and more talented alchemists started to appear. That was to be expected. After all, this is the place where all the alchemists of the solar system gather to compete. It wouldn''t make sense if just one or two high-level young alchemists appeared. Still, so far, there wasn''t a single Golden Stars Alchemist below 35 years old. The bottleneck between both levels wasn''t something that could be broken that easily. The average age of the alchemists that enter the Golden Star level would usually be 100+ years old. That shows just how difficult the Golden Star Level Bottleneck is to be surpassed. Of course, there is always an exception now and then. This time, such an exception happened once more. \"Kaio Tirenia, One Golden Star Alchemist.\" Finally, someone was able to get the entire place quiet once more after Krune. Kaio then proceeded to put his hand on the crystal ball. -Divine Soul Realm, 1st Stage. 34 years old.- The place went in an uproar after seeing that. Being at the Divine Soul Realm before 35 years of age wasn''t anything especially difficult. So far, there had appeared one or another on this registration day. But a Golden Star Alchemist is another story altogether! Don''t look down on his close to the age limit for the competition. Kaio was the only golden star alchemist who appeared until now! There is a reason why the Golden Star level is so hard to be attained. That is because one will need to have the grasp of laws! Yes, Golden Star Level alchemists must at least have some understanding of the laws. Of course, having some knowledge and fully understand are two completely different levels. Fortunately, if you can apply the little that you know about it into your pills, you at least have achieved the very first condition to become a Golden Star Alchemist. Divine Soul Realm cultivators or demon beasts that can use a little of the laws are rare but not impossible to find. But those would usually be already at the late stages or at the peak of the Divine Soul Realm. Not to mention that they would also have much more than 35 years of age. Now a 1st Stage Divine Soul Real under 35 years old who can use laws? That is what the cultivation world calls talent! Of course, there is also the fact that we are in the Dalin Universe, where laws are a lot easier to be understood. It is also worth remembering that usually, one only starts grasping laws in the Soul Forging Realm. Kaio, too, took his electronic token and left right after. Because it was still early, there were a lot of alchemists waiting for their time to register. In the end, due to the number of talents coming out this time around, another 2 Golden Stars Alchemists appeared. One of them was a demon beast called Irken. Also a 1st Stage Divine Soul Realm and a Demon Purple Jellyfish. As for the other one, it was a female cultivator called Xaia Lian. A 1st Stage of the Divine Soul Realm as well. Everyone was impressed with the high level of the alchemists this time around, even the Solar System Headquarters wasn''t different. It was already quite hard for a single Golden Star Alchemist under the age of 35 to appear here, let alone three! As expected, the three of them were soon recognized as the three main candidates to get the first place in this Junior Alchemist competition. It went without saying that everyone was talking or thinking about those three. There were quite a few that were feeling depressed too, especially the Nine Silver Stars Alchemists. With those three into the play, it goes without saying that their hopes of getting the first place disappeared like smoke. Well, everyone except for a certain wisp. In a restaurant somewhere in Anach City. \"The taste is great! Waiter, would you mind if I talked with the chef? I would like to learn this recipe.\" Who else could it be other than Krune? After he and Feifei finished the registration, they decided to go out to eat with Tiane and Ruik. Both Krune and Feifei didn''t care that much about this competition, only the things that they would get after it as over. Golden Stars Alchemist? Golden Stars Formations Master? What are those? We don''t care! Ruik looked at Krune and rebuked. \"Can''t you stop being so shameless? If they start giving their recipes to everyone who appears, wouldn''t that impact their own business? Think a little before talking.\" Feifei, on the other hand, didn''t mind. \"It''s okay, Krune will probably pay for it anyway. Besides, it means that our food menu at home will increase once more.\" Tiane sighed after hearing that. \"Feifei, your taste for food changed quite a little after you two got together, no?\" Feifei nodded. \"Once you get used to eating his food every day, you can''t help but take a liking for it. Didn''t you notice that you also don''t eat just anything anymore? You always wait for us to get back home so that we can eat together.\" Tiane sighed once more since she can''t deny that. She, too, got used to how tasty Krune''s food is and feels like something would not be right if she doesn''t get her piece once a day. Krune, of course, ignored everyone and kept insisting on talking with the chef. In the end, the restaurant boss agreed to it for a price, but he had to wait for when the rush time was over. A few hours later, Krune left the restaurant with a big smile on his face. It was evident that this wisp was in an excellent mood. \"Finally, there was some use for coming to Anach City this time around.\" Alchemist competition? What is that? Compared with the new food recipes he got this time around, that Junior Alchemist Competition can go to hell! 233 Alchemist Competition Starts. With Krune''s group caring little for the competition, the next day soon arrived. Ruik decided to tag along with Krune once more to take a look. His reason was quite simple too. \"I understand almost nothing of both your side occupations, so I might as well go see the one the smells the best.\" Medicinal herbs did have a pleasant smell when concocted properly. Since there were only geniuses this time around, Ruik wasn''t wrong in saying that they would give quite a pleasant aroma. Krune and the other felt like crying but had no tears. Tiane, of course, followed Feifei instead. They bid their farewells and parted ways there. After arriving in the Alchemist Competition site, Krune went directly to his working station, the 7359th one. ''Hum... It seems like everything I need is really here. Oh! The quality of the herbs listed in the system is quite high too, guess I can use more energy this time. There are a few types of cauldrons as well, this should be enough for me and everyone else to work.'' Suddenly, Krune noticed that a lot of the alchemists were looking in his direction. For a second, he thought that he had done something to catch everyone''s attention again. But when he paid a little more attention, he noticed that they weren''t looking at him, but the guy in the next workstation. It turned out that Krune was placed right beside Kaio Tirenia, one of the Three alchemists in the Junior Competition at the Golden Stars level. Of course, Krune had no idea about who this guy was since he didn''t pay attention to the commotion the day prior. ''Could he be someone famous?'' Still, Krune soon put those thoughts on the back of his mind. ''Whatever. If he can grab all the attention for himself, that will be for the best. I won''t need to worry about having a lot of eyes on me anymore.'' Without Kaio knowing, he became Krune''s scapegoat for the sake of his low profile life. Alchemists arrived one by one, and soon, the place a full of them, and it didn''t take long for the competition start time to come either. The place was enormous, and at the front, one could see the stage. Of course, because each alchemist needed a working station, a lot of them ended being way too far from it. To deal with this problem, several big monitors were put everywhere on the site. Soon, an elder of the Solar System Alchemist Headquarters went up and started to talk. \"Welcome, everyone. My name is Palo Yiag, a member of the Solar System Alchemist Headquarters. I will be one of the examiners of our once in a 5 years Junior Alchemist Competition. I believe you all read the rules already, but I will talk a little about it just to keep the protocol.\" \"As you can see, we have way too many alchemists, 11238, to be more specific. Because of that, we need to first go through an elimination phase. In the end, only 1000 will remain.\" Krune heard that, and his eyes lit up! He might not be the highest rank alchemist around here. Still, if they are talking about pure knowledge, he is confident of getting an excellent position in the end. Palo then showed a serious face and said. \"I believe there is no need to tell that we are going to keep our Divine Senses on all of you. So if we get anyone cheating, you will be immediately eliminated and also expelled from the Alchemist Organization. Well, that is just the first part. As for what else we are going to do with the cheaters after that, I will keep it a secret so that they can enjoy the experience more thoroughly.\" Some of the alchemists felt a chill on their backs. There had been one or another that really thought about trying something like using their communicators to find the answer. But with so many high-level Divine Senses around them, the majority immediately gave up the idea. Palo then continued. \"The second phase consists of a simple task that all alchemists must go through. The medicinal properties extraction and impurities elimination. It is no secret that the better it is done, the easier it is for you to go through the synch of elements, energies, and everything else. Simply put, you can make a better pill if you can do this step well. We are going to select the first 100 with the best rates.\" \"The results will also be shown on all monitors and displays in the area, so those who failed in the first phase can stay and take a look if they want. This is not a competition only to find talents, but to spread the alchemy way too. I believe it will serve as a good experience for your future.\" \"The third and final phase should be quite obvious, though. Pill concoction! In the end, we are Alchemists, so pills are what we make. The one with the highest level pill will be obvious the winner. In case two or more alchemists make a pill of the same level, we will decide the winner according to the difficulty of concocting the pill. If they also selected the same pill, we will go into the pill elemental and energies synch rate.\" Everyone just listened and made no questions, the Junior Alchemist competition had always been like this, so they were used to it. Krune, too, had read the information before he came, so he had no doubts either. The examiners in the site then spread around to specific positions. That was obvious so that they could cover the entire competition with their Divine Senses and prevent other alchemists from cheating. Once they were all in their positions, Palo, on the stage, started to talk again. \"Alright, the first phase will last eight hours. All that you guys need to do is to answer as many questions as possible. There are no multiple-choice ones, every single of them has to be answered with your own words. But don''t worry, the sequence of questions is the same for every participant. We definitely put enough questions so that it will be impossible to answer all of them in just eight hours. But if by coincidence some of you start to jump all the problems, there will be a point where the sequence will reset to the first one, so pay attention to it.\" \"Lastly, every time a question is answered correctly, a point will be added to the participant who did that. Those points are being shown on the outside for the others through the network, so try your best to not shame our Solar System Alchemist Organization. There is no doubt that other Solar Systems'' Alchemist Organizations will be looking into it as well.\" This time, Krune didn''t mind much it since both his appearance and name have been changed. According to Ramon, no one other than the Solar System Alchemist Headquarters that he is at the moment can find his identity. Palo then sent a Divine Sense message to all the examiners on the site to see if they were ready. Soon after, he announced. \"The test starts now!\" Krune looked at the display in front of him and saw it coming to life. On the very top, there was a clock doing a countdown of eight hours. Krune ignored that and paid attention to the question in front of him. -Talaka Herb is used for the Spiritual Flow Pill. What differences does it make in the pill''s properties?- ''It can make improve the Flow trait. If done correctly, it can also be used as a catalyst for the other medicinal herbs in the concoction.'' Krune then answered in an easy to understand and fast way. He could have gone through a more detailed explanation, but this is also a run against time, so he had to save it. Krune was only making sure that the answer was correct and jumping to the next one. -Once Uruk mineral is used during the Calm Mind Pill concoction, what advantages it brings to the final product?- Krune pondered about the Uruk mineral for a second and made his answer. Just like that, Krune and everyone else kept answering their questions. Not so surprisingly, there were one or two alchemists here and there that tried to cheat in the test. It went without saying that they were immediately disqualified and sent expelled straight away. Of course, that would be just the start of their nightmares. Once the others noticed those ones being caught, any idea of breaking the rules disappeared from their minds. Krune, of course, didn''t even notice that happening. It had nothing to do with him anyway, so he considered such events meaningless to be paid attention. At the moment, there was only him and the questions on the monitor in the front. Krune didn''t know, but the name ''Jolk'' was becoming quite a trending topic between those watching the Alchemist Competition through the internet. 234 First Day 1 - Kaio Terinia, 752 points. 2- Xaia Lian, 747 points. 3- Jolk, 744 points. 4- Irken, 721 points. 5- Firal Uelen, 627 points. 6- Dan Vinik, 620 poi... The alchemists watching the competition were surprised by Krune''s, or better, Jolk''s score. A few looked into the information available for the public and even found out that he was only a Six Silver Stars Alchemist. Other than that, there wasn''t much more to be seen. The more experienced alchemists immediately understood that Jolk was one of those who were hiding their identities. \"Just who is this Jolk guy? How come his score is on par with the Golden Stars Alchemists? If we don''t count him, the alchemist closest to them is almost 100 points behind already. How is he even doing it?\" \"Could it be that he is hiding his real ranking? No, that wouldn''t be possible since the Alchemist Headquarters is very strict with this kind of thing.\" \"Aren''t you all being just too much impressed? This is just a knowledge test. As long as you study hard enough, anyone can do this much. It''s just that the others put more effort into their concoction experience other than plain information.\" \"The guy above is right, what can Jolk even be able to do against those Eight or Nine Silver Stars alchemists in the next phase? He probably thought that since he didn''t have a chance, he might as well focus on the knowledge side to be close to the top at least once.\" \"Is that so? From what is available for us to look, it seems like he is a demon beast. Aren''t Demon Beasts usually more relaxed when it comes to knowledge? Look at Irken, one of the Golden Stars Alchemists. It is obvious that he didn''t as much effort into expertise as the other two. Since this Jolk guy is also a demon beast, it is impressive that he can do this much at his level. He might really have a trick or two once the next phase starts.\" \"Haha! Who doesn''t like a black horse? I''ve decided that I will be cheering for Jolk from now on! Who is with me?\" \"Count me in!\" \"Here''s another one.\" \"Me too.\" - So far, only two hours had passed. The only reason why Krune and the others could answer so many questions at this time is because of their cultivation. It allowed the participants to read and type the answer at speeds that a normal person could ever hope for. After all, quite a few problems needed a significantly long explanation that would typically take some time to type down. This is also one more reason that some of the alchemists watching it were surprised since the information available also stated that ''Jolk'' is at the Core Formation Realm. Different from the Golden Star Alchemists that are in the Divine Soul. Time passed, and soon, two hours went by. \"The test is over!\" Suddenly, everyone''s monitor changed, and the questions disappeared. In its place, the score rank was now being shown. Immediately, everyone noticed that black horse in the middle of the Golden Star Alchemists. 1- Kaio Terenia, 3469 points. 2- Jolk, 3413 points. 3- Xaia Lian, 3395 points. 4- Irken, 3187 points. 5- Irman Golie, 2637 poin... \"Jolk? Who is this guy? He got second?\" \"I feel like I heard this name before, where was it?\" Suddenly, one of the alchemists remembered who Jolk was. \"Isn''t that the name of the 12 years old wisp from yesterday? The one at the Six Silver Stars Level?\" Quite a few had been there during the moment that Krune was registering. Although he wasn''t as impressive as the Golden Star Alchemists, he still left a deep impression on those of the same level. \"Right! That was him!\" \"Now, I remembered. I have heard that wisps are generally an intelligent race. But to get this kind of position while being just 12 years old? That is crazy!\" Krune, of course, was feeling like crying again. Before, everyone was paying attention to the guy beside him. But now, everyone is once more looking straight at him. The worst part is that even the ''famous'' guy that he doesn''t know is looking intensely at him too. That made everyone else even more aware of his presence. The commotion continued for quite a few minutes until Palo Yiag finally put an end to it. \"Alright! This is all for the first day of the Junior Alchemist Competition. Tomorrow, the next phase will start at 10 AM, so be sure to be here, or you will be disqualified. As for those who haven''t reached the top 1000, you are welcome to stick around to watch the rest of the competition, just use the workstations that you were in today. The formations inside will guarantee that you won''t bother the ones who passed, so take this chance to gain more experience. You are all dismissed.\" Krune, as fast as lightning, disappeared from the place in a blink on an eye. ''Sigh... How come I took the 2nd place? I always forget to hold myself back in the most important moments.'' Ruik was already waiting for him on the exit. This Two-Headed Snake knows Krune personality way too well, so he was confident that Krune would be flashing by anytime now. Sure enough, Krune almost passed without noticing Ruik''s presence. Fortunately, Ruik had sent him a Divine Sense message as soon as he appeared. \"Instead of running back to our hotel, let''s go to where the Formations Master Junior competition is happening. Their first test was also knowledge related, but their side started it two hours later than the alchemists.\" Krune paused for a second and then nodded. \"That seems like a plan, let''s go there.\" Even though Krune took the 2nd place, the majority thought that it was only because he studied more than the others. Instead of those who decided to cheer for the black horse, the majority didn''t spend much time overthink about his 2nd position. Thanks to that, Krune didn''t have anyone bothering him after he left. Back in the Alchemist Competition site, Yilio was looking into his position in the knowledge test. ''Hum... 78th place. That is well within what I predicted since I didn''t make studies my main focus. Still, to think that Krune got second place. I guess that the fact that wisps are an innately intelligent race wasn''t a lie.'' Yilio then looked at the three Golden Stars Alchemists rank and sighed. ''I thought that maybe I could get the first place if I was lucky enough to while overdoing my concoction. But with those three guys there, this chance is now gone up in smoke. There is no way that I can apply laws to my concoction, and I don''t even know how to understand Laws to start with. Not to mention that I''m still at the Core Formation Realm. Is it even possible to perceive the Laws in this realm?'' Yilio then decided that there was no point in overthinking it and put this problem on the back of his mind. ''Anyway, first is impossible, but I will try the top 10 at the very least. If my cauldron doesn''t explode, I might have a tiny chance at it.'' Yilio then met with Ramon, and the two went back to their hotel. - Krune and Ruik took almost an hour to reach the Formations Master Junior Competition site. But as expected, their own knowledge test wasn''t over yet. Krune looked at the score being displayed and soon found Feifei in the 173rd position. Ruik also noticed that and couldn''t help but comment through a Divine Sense. \"That''s quite a low position for someone with a Destiny Major Core, no? She should be able to predict what the correct answer would be.\" Krune heard that and shook his head. \"That won''t happen since Feifei doesn''t like to use her Divination Skills. According to Feifei, if she uses it all the time, nothing more will surprise her in the future. Feifei doesn''t want to live a life where she knows everything. She told me that ''life''s unpredictability is what makes it worth living.'' So unless it''s something vital like our safety or the like, she won''t use it.\" Krune then continued. \"Besides, Feifei has quite some pride herself. I believe that she thinks that it would be the same as admitting that she doesn''t have real knowledge, and I couldn''t agree more. It is one thing for her to use her Destiny Core to advance in the Silver Star Ranks since she isn''t competing with anyone. But another altogether when she is against other geniuses. Getting a higher Formations Master Rank won''t bother anyone, but it is different in a competition like this.\" Krune then smiled and said. \"You might not know this, but Feifei rarely uses her Divination abilities when she is practicing. Now, she is in the 173rd position without relying on it, that in itself is already amazing considering her age and rank.\" Ruik nodded but then asked. \"Wait, but aren''t you in the second position between alchemists being only 12 years old?\" Krune felt a little embarrassed when he heard that question. \"Well, you know, there were 53 questions that I know that I answered correctly, but I have no idea why they are the right answers. So you should consider that score to be 53 points lower since I don''t really understand them.\" Ruik''s mouth twitched, hearing that. ''Doesn''t that mean that you would still be the 3rd place? Are you looking for a beating?'' 235 Baby Snakes Feifei''s first day finished an hour later. In the end, she was able to push her way up to the 168th position. That is already an amazing accomplishment for someone of her age and level. After all, there are a lot of higher-level Formations Masters than her at the moment. Different from Krune, her actual position didn''t catch any significant attention. First, because no one could tell her real age since her appearance and identity had been changed. Second, because her cultivation can be considered quite high at the peak of the Core Formation Realm. Usually, someone around this level would be at least close or already in their thirties. Of course, there were exceptions. One was obviously Biano, Julian, and the members of the same branch as her. The other was the Headquarters, who had access to the hidden details about her identity. One of the examiners of the headquarters just so happens to be checking her information at the moment. \"Hum... So she is just 18 at the moment and was a Three Silver Stars Formations Master five months ago, is that correct?\" The subordinate in front of him nodded. \"Correctly. Unfortunately, we couldn''t find out what Feifei''s background is, just that she probably came from another universe.\" The examiner nodded. \"Well, there is nothing surprising about it, we get batches of new kids from everywhere all year round. A lot of them are prohibited from using their backgrounds during their training time in our Dalin Universe, it just seems like she is one more of those cases.\" The examiner pondered a bit and then said. \"Let''s pay some attention to this girl, depending on how she fares in the rest of the competition, we might extend an olive branch for her in the future. The Formations Master Organization is always open for big talents, after all.\" The subordinate nodded and then left. - Krune''s group then returned to their home after the end of the first day. As expected, Feifei couldn''t help but laugh when she heard about Krune''s day on his side. \"I say you are more like a magnet of attention. Except for the Golden Stars Level Alchemists, you basically crushed everyone else there. No wonder you are in the news at the moment. Fortunately, your real appearance and identity aren''t being disclosed.\" Krune sighed and said. \"That''s not my fault, I was just answering the questions. Not to mention that all the information is available in the Alchemist''s network. How could I expect that the other Silver Stars Alchemists couldn''t answer as much as me, it''s their lack of study, not mine.\" Feifei showed a playful smiled and asked. \"Oh, does it mean that it was my lack of study that I got only the 168th position then?\" Krune immediately stiffed. Even Tiane and Ruik couldn''t help but laugh at that scene. Feifei then gave Krune a kiss and said. \"I''m just joking. Anyway, If I had used my Destiny Core, I could have done a lot better. But you know me, I won''t use it unless it is essential or won''t bother anyone. I don''t like to know about the future. Also, I''m already pleased with what I got in just five months. Besides, it''s not like I wish to make a life out of formations, right?\" Krune and the other two nodded. They kept at it for quite a while before returning to their own rooms. The next day soon arrived, and the group parted ways again. On the way to the Alchemist Competition site, Krune wondered if he should change his appearance once more but soon gave up the idea. He would be using the same working station anyway, so it was too obvious who he was. Just as Ruik and Krune were about to arrive there, they were stopped by a girl. \"Wait a moment, please.\" They could feel from her aura that she is also a demon beast, just like they are. Krune then asked. \"Do you need anything from me?\" The girls shook her. \"Not you, him.\" She pointed at Ruik. Immediately, Ruik and Krune had the same idea. Ruik came forward and asked. \"Are you perhaps from the Snake Clan?\" The girl showed a surprised expression but nodded nonetheless. \"So you know about us already, that makes things easier then. Would you mind to have a chat for a minute?\" Krune and Ruik looked at each other and nodded. The Alchemist Competition would only start an hour later, so Krune could hear what she had to say too. The girl didn''t expect Krune to tag along but didn''t mind that much. Soon, they entered a private room in a nearby restaurant. \"My name is Katia Kaku, a member of the Snake Clan of our Riren Planet. I''m here to invite you to join our ranks, Ruik.\" Ruik, on the other hand, didn''t seem very interested. \"I''m sorry, but I don''t have any intention of being bound to some force. I''m pretty happy with my freedom, you know.\" The girl nodded and then said. \"We don''t have any intention of locking you away, you would still be free to roam anywhere you want as long as you at least tell the Clan where you are going. Of course, the Clan would need your strength now and then, so some of your time would be needed. But I can assure you that the time on those tasks won''t be any longer than the ones that you get from the Mission Hall. In exchange, we are able to provide a lot more resources than what you are getting at the moment.\" Ruik then commented. \"It does seem like a good deal, but is it really everything? I might as well tell you that I came from another universe, and I will have to return sooner or later.\" The girl seemed to be already expecting those words. \"There are indeed a few more things that we will have you taking care of. As for the fact that you will have to return to your own Universe, we can deal with it. Our Snake Clan can apply for a permanent stay so that you will never need to go back. I believe you won''t want to leave a place as good as this one, right?\" Instead of telling her about the fact that he wants to go back, he decided to ask something else. \"What are those things that you said that I will have to take care of?\" Katia then smiled and stood up. She went to the middle of the room and returned to her true form. It turns out that Katia was from the same species as Ruik, a female Two-Headed Demon Snake. Krune and Ruik were a little surprised by that scene but waited to see what she had to say. \"The other task is obviously to increase the Snake Clan''s talents, which means having children. We are a very open clan when it comes to this principle. Any snake with high talents can copulate with other snakes of the same level and talent as long as both parties agree with it. Still, Two-Headed Snakes aren''t that common, so I was quite happy when I heard about you. So if you don''t mind, I would also like to have talented children with you.\" Ruik then glared at Krune and sent him a Divine Sense message. \"You had to say that they would want me for breeding. Look at it now, Katia is totally ready to have baby snakes with me. Do something, this grandfather has no intention of having a family any time soon.\" Krune was taken aback. That was just a comment that he said in the passing back then. He didn''t really expect that Ruik would be used for breeding snakes. \"You can''t blame me, whether I had said it or not wouldn''t change the fact that they want you to do this anyway.\" Katia was quite beautiful in her human form, but Krune and Ruik didn''t care about that. Still, it was a different story now for Ruik, as someone of the same species, he had to admit that Katia is a gorgeous female Two-Headed Snake. It would be a lie if he said that he wasn''t the least bit enticed. \"Cough, cough. Even though you are really beautiful, I have no intention of starting a family, I''m sorry.\" Katia then shook her head. \"Don''t worry, you don''t need to take care of the children since the Clan has a section specially made for it. We just need the seed of talented snakes, that''s all. Not to mention that the Clan gives even more support to parents who can give birth to excellent talents. So you can basically put your seed in me and stop minding it completely after, the Clan will take care of your children for you.\" Both Krune and Ruik were even more surprised now, they didn''t expect that the Snake Clan was so... ''open'' to these matters. Ruik then shook his head. \"Err... I admit that it would be quite blissful to have the opportunity to do ''that'' with you. Still, I don''t intend to leave my children in the hands of someone else, so I''m sorry again.\" Katia''s eyes lit up when she heard that. \"That is great, then let''s take care of them together!\" Krune looked at Ruik, who was digging his own grave and couldn''t help but intervene. \"That isn''t the problem here. It''s just that Ruik already has his reasons to not be bound to your Clan. He has to go back to our Universe since he has responsibilities to take care of there.\" Ruik immediately nodded vigorously. \"Yes, yes! That''s precisely it!\" Katia pondered a bit and then said. \"Well, depending on your accomplishments, you might get the help of the elders to deal with your issues in your home universe as well. The Snake Clan is a lot bigger than you think, after all.\" Ruik shook his head. \"It has nothing to do with strength but a duty. This Sect Master here has a Sect to command once he is back, so I can''t accept your offer.\" Krune heard that and smiled a bit. As for Katia, between the various reasons that she had thought, Ruik being a Sect Master definitely wasn''t one of them. She then returned to her human form and then put her clothes on again. They are all demon beasts here, so whether they were naked in front of each other meant nothing to anyone in this room to start with. Katia seemed a little disappointed but said it anyway. \"I see, I will have to go back and talk to the higher-ups, I will be taking my leave now.\" Krune and Ruik nodded. Once Katia disappeared in the distance, Ruik asked Krune. \"Do you think they will come back?\" Krune shook his head. \"Who knows? If they do, just refuse it again.\" He then started walking back to the Alchemist Competition site. \"Anyway, for now, there is no point in overthinking about this issue, so let''s go back.\" 236 There is Another Jolk. Once they got there, Ruik went somewhere else to watch while Krune moved back to his work station. As expected, there were quite a few eyes on him once he appeared, much for his displeasure. ''Fortunately, I''m still at the Six Silver Stars level. From today onwards, I should fare quite average between the other alchemists, let alone the Golden Star ones that I found about yesterday.'' All the alchemists participating in the next phase arrived one after another. There were also those who failed but still went back to their workstations. They were here to see those who are participating in the next phase. Even though they are disqualified, they can still gain something from this competition. Kaio entered his workstation and looked at Krune beside him. Even though he got first place on the last day, it didn''t change the fact that he is a lot older and more experienced than Krune. So he still felt a little bitter that their scores were so close. Not to mention that he already found out that Krune, or better, Jolk, is a wisp. Especially the fact of him being only 12 years old. ''Oh, well. From now on, only skills matter. So I guess it''s a goodbye to this wisp.'' Irken and Xaia also were looking at Krune''s workstation from far away. Different from Kaio, the two of them had lower scores instead, so they were even more annoyed by that outcome. Especially Irken, who is also a demon beast. The start time soon arrived, and Palo Yiag once again went up on the stage. \"Welcome back. I won''t waste anyone''s time here, so I will go directly into the rules of the second phase. The medicinal properties extraction and impurities elimination. The way that you chose to do it is up to all of you, whether you do it fast or slow, I won''t care. All you need to know is that you will have once again 8 hours to give me the finished products.\" \"If you want to try several times, good. If you don''t, that no problem either. As long as I get the medicinal bottle with the result of your best work, that is fine. I believe that there is no meaning in saying this, but I will anyway. From now on, talent is highly required, so it''s time to put to the test how good you all are in comparison with the others.\" Palo also added. \"Just remember that if you send more than one bottle with medicinal liquid for examination, each one of them will receive their own score. So all of them will appear in the ranking after the second phase is over. Of course, after the initial rating is calculated, we will then separate the medicinal liquid with the best score of each candidate to advance to the next phase. So don''t worry about someone taking several positions inside the top 100. In the end, there will be 100 alchemists competing tomorrow in the final phase.\" Palo then once again checked all the examiners and announced. \"The test starts now!\" ''Let''s see, they gave us a list of herbs that can be used. All of them are more or less on the same level too. It is evident that they want to make it as fair as possible, which is a good thing.'' Krune scrolled through the list, and soon he found his target. ''Oh, they have the azure grass. Last time I used it was during the concoction of the Soul Healing Pill. Of course, this one is a lot older, and the quality is also a lot higher, definitely inside the Silver Stars level. Now that I remember it, I was still a 4 Bronze Stars alchemist at that time, it''s quite nostalgic.'' Krune smiled when he thought about it. ''It''s decided, the azure grass it is!'' Krune then selected the herb on the list, and just a few seconds later, it appeared on the small teleport formation beside it. ''Such a convenient way of transporting items.'' Krune took the grass and couldn''t help but nod. ''Such a good grass, I believe I can do a great job with this one. Let''s start.'' Krune then selected one of the cauldrons and immediately started to work. ''As expected of a Silver Level Grass, compared to the one that I used before, this one is a lot more resistant to the infusion of Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy. But that''s okay, this is proof that it can hold a lot more energy as well. Let''s start the extraction.'' Krune didn''t know, but his extraction method was a little different from the others. While everyone else ''pulled'' the medicinal properties out of the herbs, Krune used his Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy to ''push'' it out. This is something that he came up with a long time ago during his time at Kaley City''s Alchemist Guild. There wasn''t a real reason behind this, he just felt that it was easier to do this way. The only difference now is that he isn''t using only Spiritual Energy, but Elemental Source Energy as well. His method was quite straight forward. Fill up all the ''veins'' of the herb and push the medicinal liquid out. Thanks to that, he could ''feel'' the insides of the herbs and make sure that only the parts that really mattered would come outside. What Krune didn''t know is that this method was only possible because of his Myriad Energies Technique. Or to be more precise, his Elemental Energy Meridians. His control of both energies far surpassed other of the same level, after all. In the end, more than 80% of all impurities were left behind in the dregs instead of mixing together with the medicinal liquid. This is something that couldn''t be felt with Divine Sense. In the eyes of the examiners, Krune was basically doing the same thing as the others since all they could see was the medicinal liquid coming out of his grass. This could be said to be one of the greatest reasons as to why Krune can advance ranks so fast. A secret so well kept that even Krune, the user of this technique, didn''t know about its value. Because his medicinal liquids were always so free of impurities, it significantly increased his concoction success rate. Of course, the Elemental Meridians helped a lot more than just the extraction. The synch of elements and energies control is another part where it is of great help. Simply put, Krune''s Elemental Meridians are really a cheat through and through. For Krune, this is something as a matter of course. As mentioned a second ago, this process of extraction can''t be felt with Divine Sense. So Krune also never paid attention to the difference in the other alchemists'' way of extraction either. Whether they ''pulled'' or ''pushed'' mattered little to him. Of course, there is also the fact that he had never commented this with anyone. Otherwise, he would have noticed it already. Krune wanted to do his best, so he went through the process slowly. It wasn''t before an hour that he finished extracting all the medicinal properties in the azure grass. If others could check the purity of his medicinal liquid at the moment, they would see that it is already around 80%+ ''clean.'' For the other alchemists in the competition, the best one was Xaia. Her medicinal properties were almost 65% ''clean'' once she finished extracting it. With this, Krune''s impurities elimination started at least 15% ahead of anyone else in this place. ''This is good! The other higher-level alchemists probably had done way better than me, but it doesn''t matter. This is definitely one of my best extractions ever, so let''s start the impurities removal.'' The process of eliminating impurities is quite a personal choice. Some liked to use other herbs suited for it or minerals. Others liked to use their spiritual fire to simply burn it away. Of course, there were also those who did both at the same time. Not to mention that those weren''t the only methods available. Krune, of course, chose to one where his control over the elements and energies would help the most. So at least this time, he did one of the standard things, which was to simply burn the impurities. Well, the truth is that with his Elemental Meridians, Elemental Regulation technique from his Master, and the All-Encompassing Soul Technique, he was quite overpowered at this side too. ''Good! Even though the difference wasn''t that big from what I usually do, it is still quite better.'' Krune then looked at the clock and noticed that he only used 2 hours to finish this first medicinal liquid. ''Oh, I still have a lot of time. Haha!'' Krune then went through the herbs list once more. ''Since I don''t need to worry about getting a good position with my lower Silver Rank level, I might as well use this chance to practice with some of the rare herbs available. In the end, I will just send all of them together for checking. As long as I get into the top 200, I can say that my mission has been accomplished. Who knows? I might be lucky and get into the top 100 too. Haha! That would be great already. It wouldn''t be a position that catches too much attention, but would allow me to participate in the last phase.'' Krune then spent the next six hours to prepare another three bottles of medicinal liquid for examination. Once the time was over, he sent all four for analysis. ''Well, I hope at least one of them gets into the top 100. In the end, the one I have the highest confidence is still the Azure Grass, though. I feel like I did a lot better with it than the other three.'' Back on the stage, there was a formation made specifically to check the percentage of ''cleanness'' of the medicinal liquid in the bottles sent by the participants. The higher the number, the fewer impurities the medicinal liquid had. Everyone was watching it through the monitors and the internet. Still, the results would only be displayed once all the bottles were analyzed. So there was no other choice other than wait. Around thirty minutes later, the final medicinal liquid was finally tested. Palo Yiag then came forward and said. \"As mentioned before, the first score results would take all bottles without disregarding a single one. So this time, the same alchemist can and will probably appear more than once in the rank. Once this part is over, we will take the best score of each alchemist and make the real top 100 for tomorrow''s last phase.\" Palo looked behind him and said. \"Show the results.\" On the gigantic monitor behind the analysis formation and all the other monitors on the site, the results started to appear one by one. First, it showed the 100th place and kept going up. 100th- Eight Silver Stars, Merk Averg: 64.79% (Rocky Tree Leaves) 99th- Eight Silver Stars, Havan Yisser: 64.82% (Pony Root) 98th- Nine Silver Sta... The results kept appeared one by one until the 80th place. Krune looked at that and sighed. ''Already in the 80th place and my name didn''t appear. Well, maybe I still have a chance to get into the final phase once only the best scores of each alchemist are brought forward. After all, there had been three alchemists taking more than a single position already. Their lower scores will be eliminated later to give space to the top 100 anyway.'' 43rd- Eight Silver Stars, Yilio: 72.63% (Purple Aqua Stalk) Krune immediately noticed that. ''Oh, it''s Yilio. That''s quite a good position considering that a few Nine Silver Stars alchemists appeared already.'' The positions kept being played one by one, and soon, the 15th appeared. The problem is that it surprised all the alchemists watching it. 15th- One Golden Star, Irken: 82.37% The reason why the commotion happened is that everyone had been paying attention to Irken, Xaia, and Kaio, the three Alchemists at the Golden Star Level. The audience and people or beasts in the site at the moment all knew how many medicinal liquid bottles were sent by those three. Irken had sent 3 bottles for analysis while Xaia and Kaio sent 4 each. That means that those three could at most take 11 positions in the first ranking display. But for Irken to appear in the 15th position, it could mean only one thing. The rank will show one or more Silver Stars Alchemists in the middle of those Golden Stars ones. The surprise didn''t stop there, though. 14th- One Golden Star, Xaia Lian: 82.59% (Mink Mint) 13th- One Golden Star, Kaio Tirenia: 82.71% (Vulcan Lotus Leaves) The higher the rank shown, the bigger the commotion became. Xaia, Irken, and Kaio started to feel that something wasn''t right. When the 7th position finally appeared, It showed Irken''s last Medicinal Liquid Bottle. 7th- One Golden Star, Irken: 84.52% (Blood Flower) Irken immediately shouted \"Impossible!\" Of course, it didn''t stop there. The next two positions were also the last Medicinal Liquid Bottle from Xaia and Kaio. 6th- One Golden Star, Kaio Tirenia: 84.81% 5th- One Golden Star, Xaia Lian: 84.93% Both of them had hideous expressions as well after seeing that. As for Krune? He was just enjoying the fun. ''Oh, to think that someone beat all three Golden Star Alchemists. It seems like someone had been holding back until now. Well, I''m also curious to know who this guy is. Haha!'' Unfortunately, Krune''s smiled didn''t last long. 4th- Six Silver Stars, Jolk: 89.61% (Lightning Bamboo Leaves) Krune mouth twitched a little seeing that. ''There must be another Jolk who is also a Six Silver Stars Alchemist and used the Lightning Bamboo Leaves as well. Yes, that is definitely it!'' 3rd- Six Silver Stars, Jolk: 90.11% (Soul Rava) Quite a few alchemists were already looking in his direction. For some reason, Krune felt like it got hard to breathe. But he insisted on denying reality. ''Oh, it seems like that same Jolk also used a Soul Rava, such a coincidence.'' 2nd- Six Silver Stars, Jolk: 90.67% (Fire Olive Seeds) At this point, there wasn''t a single living being that wasn''t looking at him with their mouths open wide! Krune''s weak little heart was already in pain. Denying reality simply didn''t work anymore for him. \"You must be fuc*ng kidding me!\" But the fatal blow came right after. 1st- Six Silver Stars, Jolk: 95.39% (Azure Grass) Krune didn''t say anything else... That''s because... A certain wisp... Passed out... 237 Showing the Skills. Or so he wished. ''Why is this happening to me?'' As for everyone else, they didn''t know what to say anymore. This went totally out of anyone''s expectation. It would be one thing if by lucky, a Nine Silver Stars Alchemist got one score above the Golden Star Alchemists. But Krune, or better, Jolk, got the entire top 4. Not to mention that his results utterly crushed the Kaio and the other two. Kaio was already greeting his teeth after seeing that result. \"That''s not possible! There must be a mistake here! How could I lose to a wisp, and one still at the Six Silver Stars? I demand the analysis be done one more!\" He wasn''t the only one thinking that something wasn''t right. But then again, it would be one thing for one of the results to be wrong. But could four results be incorrect at the same time? Especially that Azure Grass, what if it isn''t wrong? Palo Yiag was as impressed as everyone else. Before the results were shown, even he didn''t know about it. The formation has always worked perfectly fine, so there had never been a need to check the results before it was announced. \"Cough, cough. Bring Jolk''s medicinal liquid bottles here. Also, ask the Formations Master that is waiting to check the formation.\" Palo looked at Jolk''s workstation direction and narrowed his eyes. If it was anyone else, he would be delighted to see such a result. But he knew that Jolk is a wisp because of the commotion yesterday after the knowledge test. As unbelievable as this wisp''s talent might be, it doesn''t change the fact that he will die way too soon. It''s not worthy of spending resources on him. Krune''s medicinal bottles were brought back, and the Formations Master rechecked the formation. \"There is nothing wrong with the formation, it is working as perfectly as it could be.\" In fact, the only need for the formation was to get an accurate reading. The alchemists like Palo could still use their Divine Sense to check how pure the medicinal liquid is. It''s just that they wouldn''t be 100% precise as the formation is, but they definitely would be close to it. So when Palo opened the bottle with the Azure Grass and checked it himself, he couldn''t help but sigh. ''There is no doubt, this is definitely a Diamond Stars Level rate of purity. The formation definitely wasn''t wrong.'' Still, Palo put all the four Medicinal Liquid Bottles on the formation again for check. As expected, the results were the same. Xaia and Irken also decided to protest against this result. \"There is no way this can be true!\" \"He''s right, how come a Silver Stars Alchemist reach the level of a Diamond Stars in purity?\" Palo looked at those three Golden Star Alchemists and then threw to each of them one of Jolk''s Medicinal Liquid Bottles. \"Unbelievable.\" \"This can''t be possible, just how did he do it?\" \"He must have cheated without the examiners noticing. Have him try again in front of everyone.\" Krune was already feeling depressed with all the attention, but when he heard that, he got even gloomier. If there was something good, that was the fact that his appearance and identity are concealed. ''Sigh, whatever. I will just ask the examiners to let me leave through a backdoor later and change my face once more.'' In fact, Krune was feeling a little mad too. Everyone around him keeps saying that he must have cheated, and that''s is really bothering him. ''Since that''s the case, I might as well throw my skills direct on their faces.'' Krune looked at everyone and said. \"No problem, I can do it again in front of everyone. I will even let you select one of the herbs of the list so that you don''t think I cheated in the selection of the herbs too.\" Kaio''s eyebrows narrowed, hearing that. He could at least feel the confidence behind those words. Palo came down and stopped beside Krune''s workstation. \"Very well, the three Golden Stars Alchemist, come over to see it too. If it turns out that he isn''t cheating, I want you to give an apology. Is that okay with the three of you?\" Kaio, Irken, and Xaia nodded. They are all proud alchemists themselves. If Jolk proves that he can really do it, then neither of the three would mind recognizing their mistakes. Those three looked through the herbs list and selected one for Krune to try. Krune didn''t mind and took the herb that they selected. It was at this moment that he heard Light Spirit''s voice. \"Someone just put a Divine Sense Mark on you. Judging by the level of it, the owner is at least at the Divine Path Level, probably in the Divine View.\" Krune stopped for a second and then smiled. According to Ramon, If there is one thing that the Alchemist Organization paid attention to, it was to protect its members. Krune could totally use them to say ''hello'' to whoever it was that left this Divine Sense Mark on him. But that can wait until he is finished with the Medicinal Extraction. As mentioned before, the Headquarters already knows Krune''s real identity and face. So they had no need to use a Divine Sense mark since they could come to him directly. Krune started to work and followed the same process as always. The herb that was chosen to him was a Haka Flower Stalk, suitable for some types of anti-poison pills. He filled the stalk with his Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy and started to once more ''push'' the medicinal properties out. This time, instead of paying attention to the stalk itself, Palo and some of the other alchemists decided to check the medicinal liquid coming out straight away. This time, they could see that the medicinal liquid coming out of the stalk was already around 80% clean. They finally understood what was happening here. Jolk''s most significant advantage was during the extraction. He was able to bring the medicinal properties out with a lot fewer impurities than any other alchemist present in this competition. \"Just how is he able to do that?\" Krune then explained while he worked on it. \"I''m not doing anything amazing. Instead of pulling the medicinal properties out, I push it instead. That''s all.\" The alchemists around understood what he meant. But there was a problem with that method, which was the fact that the herb would most likely be damaged instead. Usually, unless you reached at least the Void Breaking Realm, you wouldn''t have enough control over the Spiritual and Elemental Source to achieve that. At most, some alchemist geniuses might be able to do it around the Soul Forging Realm. But doing such a thing in the Core Formation Realm is unheard of. Kaio and the others wanted to refute his words, but they were seeing the process with their own eyes too. As for Palo, he already believed what Jolk said. If not through such a process, there would be no way that he could achieve this level of purity in the very first part of the process. That made him feel even sadder since he knows that Jolk is a wisp. Around an hour later, Krune Started to use Spiritual Fire to burn the rest of the impurities away. Once again, the alchemists around were surprised. Krune''s level of control could only be matched by the Golden Star Alchemists. The problem is because he isn''t in the Divine Soul Realm like them, but in the middle of the Core Formation instead. \"Such a frightening level of control, just how many Core Formation Realm alchemists can achieve this? This is crazy!\" The same way as before, Krune finished the process after two hours. The alchemists looking at it didn''t even have to use the Analysis Formation to know that this Medicinal Liquid was at the same level as the previous ones. Except for that Azure Grass, of course. Anyone could tell that Krune, or better, Jolk, was a lot more familiar with that and could do much better if he used the grass. Still, Palo knew that there were a lot of alchemists watching their competition through the internet. So he had to put it for analysis so that the result could be seen by them as well. -Six Silver Stars, Jolk: 90.49% (Haka Flower Stalk)- It was decided, Krune didn''t cheat. As hard as it was to believe, Kaio, Xaia, and Irken had to admit defeat. In the end, Krune''s level is simply higher when it comes to impurities removal. Kaio was the very first one to apologize. Since it is proved that Krune played by the rules, his pride as Alchemist wouldn''t allow him to deny the reality anymore. \"I''m sorry.\" Xaia and Irken came right after and did the same. Krune just sighed and said. \"As long as no one says that I''m cheating on the exam anymore, I''m okay with it.\" Kaio then asked something else. \"How come you are still at the Six Silver Stars level, then? With his degree of purity, you should be able to advance in the ranks pretty fast.\" This time, it was Palo who answered in Krune''s instead. \"That is a secret since the supervisor of his branch applied for secrecy.\" Kaio didn''t like that answer, but he knew how the headquarters worked. So he didn''t force the issue. \"Anyway, the fact is that you are still a Six Silver Stars Alchemist, which means that you still have to refine your skills at the pill making. I will be looking forward to your results tomorrow in the final phase.\" Palo then asked Jolk to follow him since it would be too hard to leave a place like this. Once they got into a private room, Krune decided to talk about the Divine Sense Mark. \"What?! Did someone dare to do it right under our noses? No, wait, how do you even know that there is a Divine Sense Mark on you?\" Krune Shrugged his shoulder and said. \"That is a secret that my elders passed to me back in my Universe. I can''t tell you how it works, I''m sorry.\" Palo felt like something was fishy about that explanation, but since it was a secret, he couldn''t simply force it out. Not to mention that the issue at the moment was the Divine Sense Mark. He is already the early stages of the Divine Path Realm, but he can''t feel it, which means that it is of a higher cultivation level than himself. He took out his communicator and made a call. \"Connect me with the elder Lagan in the headquarters.\" 238 Rico Guli In the Alchemist Headquarters, Lagan Jianto was in the middle of concoction when suddenly, his communicator received a call. ''Hum? Didn''t I tell them to not disturb me while I''m concocting?'' Lagan then connected the call while he kept making his pill. \"It''s better to be important, what is it?\" Palo noticed the elder was busy and went directly to the main issue. \"Hum? Someone dared to put a Divine Sense Mark on our alchemists?\" Lagan then looked into Krune''s information and frowned. \"Wait, why would someone waste their time following a wisp?\" Palo then explained. \"Well, it goes like this.\" Poff! Suddenly, the elder lost control of his concoction, and the pill-making failed. But he couldn''t care less about that since what he heard was way more important. \"Come that again. Did you just say that Krune got over 95% purity while still at the Core Formation Realm? You are not kidding, are you?\" Palo immediately shook his head. \"I''m not. If the elder checks the alchemist network, the second phase video should be available for you to watch.\" Lagan did as Palo mentioned and soon found the second-day competition video. He then played it so fast that a normal person wouldn''t be able to make heads and tails. But with his cultivation, it was the same a turtle. When he finally arrived at the analysis part, he got surprised. After all, Krune didn''t do just a single herb over 90%, but all four of them! He then turned to Palo once more and said. \"Wait a moment, I will be there in a second.\" Lagan then finished the call and made a cutting motion with his hand in mid-air. Right after, a spatial gate appeared right in front of him. The elder didn''t waste any time and entered it. As for the pill concoction that he failed, he had already forgotten that. Back in the Junior Alchemist Competition site. Krune noticed that Palo finished his call and was just about to ask when suddenly, a Spatial Gate appeared right in front of him. From inside, a man with white hair stepped out, and the gate closed right behind him. \"Hello there, Krune. I''m Lagan, one of the elders of the Alchemist Headquarters.\" It turned out that Lagan was just in the Planet neighbor to the Riren Planet. With his Semi-Divinity Cultivation, it was an easy task to open a spatial gate directly into the room where Krune and Palo stayed. Of course, there was also the fact that he knew the location and had a free pass into this place. Otherwise, he would not be able to do it. Krune immediately got up and greeted the elder. \"Hi, I''m Krune.\" Lagan nodded and then spread his Divine Sense around Krune''s body. It only took him a second to find the Divine Sense Mark on Krune''s back. \"So there is really someone trying to break our secrecy rule, hehe.\" On the other corner of the city, there was a man drinking some wine in a restaurant. He was acting quite leisurely as if nothing could bother him. Suddenly, he opened his eyes wide and got up from his chair. \"Shit!\" Just as he was about to flee, elder Lagan''s spiritual pressure came from above and locked him in place. As mentioned before by Light Spirit, the owner of the Divine Sense Mark was probably in the Divine View Realm, which is an entire realm below elder Lagan. Knowing that it would be useless to fight back, the man just sighed and waited in place. Right after, a spatial gate appeared beside him, alerting all the customers in the restaurant. After all, a spatial gate isn''t something that low-level cultivators and demon beasts see every day. From inside, elder Lagan, Palo Yiag, and Krune stepped out. When Lagan saw who it was, his mouth twitched. \"So it is really you, Rico. I knew I had sensed that aura before somewhere.\" Rico smiled bitterly and then said. \"There was no need for elder Lagan to show himself, right? What about we just pretend that nothing happened? I swear I won''t try it again.\" Pow! Elder Lagan smacked Rico''s head after hearing that. \"Do you think you can escape the punishment that easy? Just wait until I bring you to your father, I wonder if he will be as merciful as me.\" Rico''s face immediately went pale. \"E-Elder Lagan, there is no need for us to go that far, right? Father is a busy man, why should we bother him with such a small problem like this? We can resolve this here, and everyone will be happy.\" Krune couldn''t help but ask Palo beside him with a Divine Sense message. \"You guys know this person?\" Palo sighed and then answered. \"It isn''t even a problem of knowing him. In fact, we know him way too well. He is Amark Guli''s son, after all. As for who Amark is, he is none other than the head of our Solar System Alchemist Organization Headquarters.\" Krune was taken aback by that. If he really had that identity, then why exactly would he need to put a Divine Sense mark on him? Couldn''t he just use his connection with the headquarters to probe his identity? Of course, Krune understood that the situation wasn''t that simple. Palo knew that if Krune researched it later, he would definitely find out the truth since it isn''t a secret. So he decided to tell Krune everything. \"You see, Rico Guli left our Solar System Alchemist Organization behind and joined another one. He is very talented, so it was quite a blow for his father when he found out. But the problems didn''t stop there. For some reason, this idiot comes by every now and then to try to steal our Solar System talents. We lost quite a few geniuses because of him already.\" Krune understood that the story had a lot more behind it. But since it wasn''t his problem, he decided to not ask anymore. As long as they keep the secrecy part, he is okay with it. Elder Lagan turned to Palo and Krune and then said. \"I will bring this failure away to be dealt with.\" He then opened two spatial gates, one for him and Rico, and the other for Krune and Palo. \"You two go back and finish whatever you had to do.\" Rico had a very gloomy expression. Until now, he didn''t understand how they found his Divine Sense Mark. He had made a through and through research and knew that there wasn''t a single elder above the Divine View Realm in the alchemist competition. In theory, no one should have found his mark. Krune and Palo looked at each other and nodded. They entered the spatial gate that was opened for them, and soon, they appeared back into the private room back in the Junior Alchemist Competition site. Palo then turned to Krune and said. \"Alright, now that it is over, let''s go back to the main topic. You said before how you do your extraction of the herbs. How come you can control your energy so well at your cultivation realm?\" Krune shrugged his shoulders and said. \"Do you believe that until today, I didn''t know that what I was doing was something amazing? When I first tried it, I felt like it was a lot easier to get more from the herb if I did it that way. It was that simple.\" Palo looked deeply at Krune, but in the end, he didn''t force the issue. Everyone had their secrets, after all. \"Anyway, just change your appearance so that I can send you out. Also, remember that you are going to be in the middle of the spotlight tomorrow in the final phase. Do you think you can repeat what you did today?\" Krune shook his head. \"Six Silver Stars is really my level at the moment, so there is no way I can bring a pill to the Golden Star Level. First of all, I probably will be placed at the very end since there is a lot of Seven Silver Stars and higher alchemists competing tomorrow too.\" Palo didn''t seem surprised since the information that they got from Ramon''s branch really stated that Krune was at the Six Silver Stars level. \"Well, whatever. The fact that you can control spiritual and elemental source energy to this level is something to be very proud of. But I have bad news for you. As you probably know, the Junior Alchemist Competition happens so that we can find good talents to invest in. Unfortunately, although your talent is at the very top, your life span is way too small. Because of that, we won''t be able to help you since it wouldn''t have a good return.\" Krune didn''t mind that at all. He wasn''t expecting anything from this competition to start with. The fact that it went out of control like this was totally out of his expectations to start with. Not to mention that he is confident in raising his Alchemist Rank with or without the Headquarters help. Lastly, it would mean that he won''t be bound to them unnecessarily. \"Not a problem, I prefer it to be like that too. I''m taking my leave, then.\" Palo nodded and helped Krune leave through another passage where he wouldn''t be noticed. Krune also returned to his normal appearance, so other than his rainbow hair being catchy, no one else paid attention to him. Once Krune returned to the hotel, he found out that Yilio and Ramon were waiting for him already. Yilio then gave him a strong pat on the back. \"Alright! I understand why you can do that well in the knowledge phase, but how the hell did you do that in the extraction part?\" Krune then told him the same thing as he told Palo. \"What?!\" Yilio''s eyes lit up! \"Tell me more about that.\" Ramon noticed Yilio''s excitement and decided to intervene. \"Your energy control is far from enough to do that, so forget it.\" Yilio then smiled and said. \"That''s where you are wrong. Do you think that Krune is the only one with secrets? Anyway, Krune, if you don''t want to talk about it or if it is some secret, you don''t need to tell me.\" Krune shook his head and said. \"It''s not a secret, so I can tell how I do it.\" Of course, Krune wouldn''t include the Myriad Energies Technique in the explanation. But since Yilio seems to be confident, he had no issue in explaining everything else related to the alchemy part. 239 Invitation While Krune was explaining to Yilio how he did the medicinal extraction, two events were taking place. First, Feifei''s Formations Master Junior Competition''s second phase had just finished. Different from Krune, Feifei didn''t have any secret method to play in the second part, so she did pretty much what was expected from her. She finished in the 143rd in the Formations Master position. She was then eliminated since only the first 100 advanced to the final one. Still, due to her age, actual level, and talent, the Formations Master Headquarter was considering taking her in. When the second day was over, she was called to a private room by the Formations Master Leader Examiner this time around. \"Hi, Wulia Feier. I''m Hiu Dax, the elder responsible for this year''s Formations Master Junior Competition.\" Feifei, or better, Wulia Feier, bowed to the elder. \"Hello, elder. Is there a reason for you to call me here?\" Hiu Dax nodded. \"Our Formations Master Organization is always looking for talents to invest in. You were at the Three Silvers Stars when you arrived here around 5 months ago. But in this small period, you already advanced to the Six Stars level. Not to mention that in this Second Phase of the competition, you did better than even some Eight and Nine Silver Stars Formations Masters.\" The elder extended his hand and said. \"I would like to invite you to join our Headquarters'' Formation Masters group. There, you will receive a lot more attention, and your level will rise much faster and steadily. No tot mention that we can offer you the resources for your cultivation as well.\" Feifei was expecting something like that. The problem is that she just wanted to make some profit. Although she does like Formations, she had never thought about making it the main focus of her cultivation path. \"Thank you for the invitation, elder. Although I do like formations, I''m not interested in being bound to the Organization. Different from the other Formations Masters in this competition, I''m not planning to live for the occupation. This is just a way for me to make more spirit stones for my cultivation.\" Hiu was taken aback by those words. Any other Formations Master in this competition would be jumping in happiness. But Feifei only wants to make some spirit stones, can it get more unfair to the others? \"Cough, cough. Are you sure about it? I mean, if your problem is cultivation resources, our organization can totally provide it. Of course, you will have duties to pay attention to, but it''s not like you are going to be locked inside either. You don''t need to be afraid of losing your freedom. Also, due to the Formations Organization Power, we can apply for a permanent stay in the Dalin Universe in case you need it.\" Feifei shook her head. Hiu felt a little gloomier since he didn''t expect that. Still, he couldn''t give up that easily. \"Let''s do like this then. You will join our Headquarters in name, but you will keep your full freedom. That way, you will have access to the contents in there and only won''t receive cultivation resources. In case we need you in the future, you will have the choice to accept our request or not too.\" Feifei pondered a bit and then nodded. \"Well, If I don''t need to be bound to the Formations Master Organization, I don''t mind joining it only in name. But I can''t guarantee that I will be available when you need me for something. To be honest, at my level, I don''t think there is much I could do for the Formations Master Headquarters anyway.\" Hiu let out a sigh of relief and said. \"That is not a problem, there should be almost no place where we will need you too. The most important thing is to guarantee that we can keep our Solar System Talents under our banner.\" Hiu then thought about something else. \"Oh, right. You said that your main reason to learn and improve in formations at the moment is to make Spirit Stones. Once you get access to the Headquarters network, you should be able to get better tasks that pay more. As I said, since you joined just in name, we can''t offer you any extra resources, but we can still help you to get better jobs.\" Feifei''s eyes immediately lit up. \"That''s great! Then I''m counting on you, elder, to make the necessary arrangements.\" Hiu nodded and then sent Feifei, or better, Feier out. Feifei didn''t catch any significant attention in this Formations Master Competition thanks to her ranking. Also, the fact that no one knew her age and name helped a lot too. Because of that, Feifei didn''t have to be afraid of being followed or anything like that. - As for the second event, that is happening back in the Alchemist Organization. Inside an office room, there was a man with an awful expression on his face. At the same time, Rico Guli kneeled in front of him while Lagan kept him in place so that he didn''t try to escape. Who else could that man be if not Rico Guli''s father and the Solar System Alchemist Organization Head, Amark Guli? \"You left our solar system behind and joined another power, fine! It''s not like it is an obligation that someone''s son has to join his father''s organization. You are free to select anything you want, just like anyone else. But then you come from the neighbor and start stealing our Solar System talents. Not only that, but you did it more than once. Can you tell me this time why ''YOU'' would do that?\" Rico Guli avoided his father''s eyes and said. \"It''s not like you don''t know, and I''m not going to say anything else. You can deal with me any way you feel right, but in the end, you will have to let me go.\" Even though Rico put a strong front, he was really terrified at the moment. He knows how strict his father really is, and although what he said is true, he is sure that the punishment will not be anything light. But unexpectedly, his father didn''t seem angry this time. If anything, only disappointment could be seen on his face. They had caught Rico Guli doing those things in the past. And even after sending him through a hell of pain, he still came back time and time again to do the same thing. Not only that, but according to their information, he was also sent to other solar systems to try to take away their alchemist talents too. Of course, he wasn''t the only one, and neither was it something rare to happen. The competition for resources and talents is something that happens everywhere. But recently, the Yure Solar System, which is the Riren''s Planet Solar System neighbor, had been acting extremely blatantly. The Yure Solar System was quite big and had a few more planets than the Riren''s one. They had been acting to gather resources and talents from the other Solar Systems on a grand scale. Everything indicated that the Yure Solar System was trying to raise its ranking in the Dalin Universe. If they are successful in that, they will get a lot more attention from the other Major Universes. They will then receive more resources, and the cultivation speed of its residents will rise as a whole. To be able to do that, they need to provide the necessary environment in their home. The only way to achieve this objective without having to wait for their Solar System to slowly develop is to gather more and more talents. Those talents will then become the leading front that will carry the ''upgrade'' in their Solar System. But what Amark Ruli couldn''t understand is why his own son is helping another Solar System to steal their own talents. It doesn''t matter how many times he asked, Rico Guli had never given him an answer. In the past, before Rico joined the Yure Solar System, he was quite a passionate Alchemist of their Organization. He cared a lot for their home and participated in several competitions between solar systems to defend the Riren Planet''s Solar System banner. Amark Guli then shook his head and told Lagan. \"Just let him go, due to the rules that all alchemists must follow, we can''t really kill or cripple him anyway. There is just no point anymore in trying to punish him.\" Lagan was surprised by that. \"Are you sure about that? Even if we can''t do what you said, we should still punish him anyway. Otherwise, he will come back even earlier.\" Amark shook his head and didn''t say anything else. Lagan then sighed and released his Spiritual Pressure, which allowed Rico to get up once more. He looked at his father''s disappointed face and felt bitter inside. Still, he greeted his teeth and got up. Just as he was about to leave, he left two words behind. \"I''m sorry.\" 240 You Idiot Snake! After leaving the Alchemist Headquarters, Rico Guli took out his communicator and connected with the Alchemist Headquarters of the Yure Solar System. \"I''ve been caught again, so they are scouting me back now.\" The man on the other side frowned and said. \"It''s unfortunate, but there is nothing else to be done. Come back, and I will send you somewhere else. Wait for the dust to settle, and I will send you back once more another time.\" He then put a serious face and asked. \"You better not have said anything, or you know what will happen with them.\" Rico nodded. \"Don''t worry, they are still in the dark. So far, everyone from the nearby Solar Systems thinks that we are trying to raise the rank in the Dalin Universe. But because of our recent actions, there are probably a few old guys who are getting suspicious.\" The person on the other side didn''t care. \"That''s not something for you to care about. As long as you follow the agreement, everyone will be fine.\" The call was then finished, and Rico couldn''t help but sigh. ''Sorry, father. For the sake of our Solar System, I can''t help but disappoint you. There will be a day that you will understand.'' Rico then arrived at a long-distance teleport formation. After paying the fee, he disappeared with a flash of silver light. Somewhere far away from that place, an elder of the Alchemist Organization noticed when Rico left with his Divine Sense. \"Well, he''s gone now.\" He then opened a spatial gate and entered it, no one knew that he had been there. - Back at Krune''s Hotel, he had just finished helping Yilio and returned to his room. Arriving there, he found that Ruik was already sleeping in a corner in his true form in the living room. Krune didn''t have any reason to wake him up, so he just ignored that and returned to his room to think about the last phase in the next day. Also, there was something that had been bothering him ever since the second phase started. A few minutes later, Feifei and Tiane also returned. On their way back, Tiane had told Feifei what happened in the Alchemist Competition, which immediately made Feifei burst on laugh once more. She knows very well that Krune absolutely didn''t want to do that, and that was the funny part. She then entered the room where Krune was staying to check on him. As for Tiane, she immediately noticed the ''dead weight'' in the corner of the room, and her mouth twitched. Their hotel room is quite big, so there was a room available for each one of them other than the living room. But that snake just had to go back its real form and sleep in the living room. ''He''s doing it on purpose to bother me, I''m sure that this is the case!'' Back inside Krune''s room, Feifei noticed that he was deep in thought. So much that he didn''t even notice when she entered. Feifei approached and gave him a hug from behind. Only then did Krune notice that she was back. \"What is it, still bothered with the fact that you got first place today?\" Krune sighed and answered. \"Well, not that much to be honest. I had my identity hidden, after all. Still, there was something that happened while I was going through the extraction process.\" Feifei then asked. \"Did something go wrong?\" Krune shook his head. \"That''s not it. In fact, it wasn''t something happening in my working station, but the one beside me. You remember those Golden Star Alchemists that I told you about?\" Feifei nodded and waited for Krune to continue. \"Well, there is one of them just beside me, and his name is Kaio Tirenia.\" \"Is there something wrong with him, then?\" Krune shook his head once more. \"That''s not it either, it''s just that during the time that we were doing the Impurities Removal, I felt like something was different about him.\" Feifei got puzzled. \"What you mean?\" Krune sighed and continued. \"I don''t know... How can I say it? It was like the elements were acting more friendly to him. No, to be more precise, the Fire Element was. I couldn''t really understand since I''ve never felt it before. So I have been thinking about it ever since. Oh, but it only happened during the time that he was burning the impurities of his Medicinal Liquid away. It didn''t happen when he was extracting it.\" Feifei pondered a bit and then said. \"Maybe it''s his cultivation technique. Don''t you have that Elements Regulation Technique from your Master? Maybe he has something like that which helps him manipulate the Fire Element.\" Krune agreed with her. \"At first, I thought the same thing. But somehow, I felt like those differences were attracting me.\" Krune thought about asking Light Spirit but gave up the idea in the end. If he needs to ask him for help every time he has a problem, he won''t improve anymore. Feifei then released Krune and sat in front of him to hear more about the problem. But it was at this moment that she noticed something. \"Hum...?\" Feifei then approached Krune''s face and gave a deep look into his eyes, which puzzled Krune greatly. While looking at Krune''s eyes, Feifei asked. \"Is it me, or did the positions of the colors of your rainbow irises change?\" Krune was taken aback by that question, he then used a simple water element skill to create a water mirror in front of him. Sure enough, the position of the colors of his rainbow irises changed. It wasn''t easy to notice, though. Only someone as close to him as Feifei would probably notice that difference. \"What is happening here? Ever since my rainbow irises appeared, the colors had never changed.\" Feifei nodded. \"It looks like they moved a little in a circular motion, but they are still now. It probably has something to do with that thing about the elements that you told me. This morning when I looked, I didn''t see any difference. Of course, I might not have noticed too, but the timing is just too good for that to be the case.\" Krune nodded and dispelled the water mirror. \"It seems like it does indeed has something to do with the fire element that Kaio was controlling. Oh, now that I think about it, it had something to do with the fire element, but it wasn''t the fire element in its entirety either. It was more like a small part of the whole thing called ''Fire Element'' instead.\" Krune then put his hands on his head and started to shake it helplessly. \"Arrg! Do my words make any sense at all?!\" Feifei couldn''t help but laugh. \"Nope, I can hardly understand what you are ''really'' trying to say. Still, I think you will find the answer sooner or later.\" Krune looked at Feifei. \"How do you know?\" Feifei gave him a kiss and said. \"I just know. It''s not like weird things started to happen with you only now, right? But you always think about something. For now, just forget it and go back there tomorrow. You are still a Six Silver Stars Alchemist, remember? So there is no way you can beat those Golden Stars Alchemists. Why don''t you take this chance to pay attention to Kaio instead of concocting something? In the worst case, you will still finish in the 100th position anyway.\" Krune''s eyes lit up after hearing that. \"Great! I will do exactly as you said.\" It was then that he remembered something. \"Oh, right! Sorry, how was your day in the Formations Master Junior Competition? Did you advance to the last phase too?\" Feifei laughed once more and said. \"Only now you asked that? Such an insensitive wisp.\" Krune felt a little embarrassed but waited for her to continued. \"Well, I obviously failed. As you know, I''m not relying on my Advanced Destiny Major Core, so I ended in the 143rd position. Anyway, I''m very happy with my ending ranking since I was able to do better than quite a few higher-level Formation Masters.\" Feifei then explained how she was invited to join the Formations Master Headquarters and that she opted to enter only in name. Krune listened to everything and agreed with Feifei''s decision. They don''t know if they will need to leave or not, not to mention that Krune still wants to go take a look at that Wisps Planet. So the best thing was for all of them to not make any promises for the moment. \"Oh, right! Talking about invitations, the guys from the Snake Clan came to invite Ruik today as well.\" Feifei was surprised by that. \"Really? What happened?\" ''Tud!'' Just mas Krune was about to tell everything, they heard a sound coming from outside the room. \"Let me go, your idiot snake!\" Feifei and Krune looked at each other puzzled and decided to take a look in the living room. But when they arrived there, they were taken aback. For some reason, Tiane was on the ground, and Ruik''s snake body was wrapped around Tiane''s. Because of that, she couldn''t move a single muscle. As for how that happened, only those two know. Feifei and Krune looked at that scene and immediately turned around to leave. \"Cough, cough. Don''t bother with us, you two can continue.\" Tiane heard that and felt like crying! 241 Who Dares to Put Fire on this Grandfather? How such a situation came to happen? After Feifei entered the other room, Tiane heard Ruik murmuring something. She got close to see what it was and quickly noticed that the ''dead weight'' was dreaming. If that was all, it would be okay. She could have just ignored and returned to her own room. But the contents of the murmuring stopped her from doing so. \"Haha! See how the great Ruik... is the best demon beast!... How cares about Tiane? Once this grandfather... puts in the effort, someone like her can''t possibly... compare to me....\" Krune has been comparing him and Tiane ever since they met each other, so it had long since become a deeply rooted issue in Ruik''s mind. It was so much that it was enough to make him even dream about it. Hearing that, a vein popped out from Tiane''s head. She couldn''t just ignore that, so she gathered her energy and tried to give Ruik a good kick. Too bad, though. How many times had Krune kicked Ruik while he was sleeping? It reached a point where Ruik''s instinct would act by itself even in his sleeping state. Even Krune had almost been caught by him before, so he learned how to kick Ruik in a position where the snake couldn''t fight back. The moment that Tiane tried to kick This Two-Headed Snake, the ''dead weight'' entire body jumped like a spring. Tiane didn''t know about this ability of Ruik, so she was completely taken off guard. The result? Both he and she are now on the ground together while Ruik kept sleeping. In fact, it looked like he felt very ''comfortable'' in that position. Of course, he was the only one feeling like that. That''s because Ruik''s snake body was touching ''everywhere'' on Tiane''s body. Including some parts where a man shouldn''t touch lightly. Tiane, of course, immediately felt utterly embarrassed. Not to mention Krune and Feifei''s last words just collaborated to make Tiane even more flustered. Tiane finally lost her patience and gathered her spiritual energy to use a fire skill. A second later, Ruik''s body was burning all over. Ruik, of course, instantly woke up. \"Hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot!\" He then quickly used a simple water skill and put off the fire. \"Who dares to put this grandfather on fire? Show yourself!\" Tiane, with a red as tomato face, promptly answered his question. \"It was me, do you have a problem? After what you have done, be happy that I didn''t cut your two heads off.\" Ruik, who didn''t know what happened, got even angrier since he thought it was Krune who did that. \"Are you looking for a fight? Who in their right mind would put fire on the body of someone sleeping? Do you have no heart?\" To make sure that the Hotel living room wouldn''t be destroyed, Krune spread his Spiritual Energy around to protect its surroundings. He and Feifei then sat on a corner and watched the show. It wasn''t before 20+ minutes of skills, punches, and kicks that the two finally stopped. Both sides were gasping for air while looking hatefully at each other. ''Clap, clap.'' Krune clapped his hands then stood between the two. \"Alright, you two. I can''t stay here forever to protect the Hotel room. You two seem very satisfied, so lets put an end to this. If you really end breaking something expensive here, know that I won''t be paying for it.\" Tiane then looked away and said. \"Hmph! So be it, count yourself luck, damned snake.\" Ruik''s mouth twitched, but he ignored her. Instead, he asked Krune why Tiane put him on fire. \"Oh, that? Let me show you.\" Krune then used his Spiritual Energy to create a spiritual model showing what happened when he and Feifei came out of the room. Krune could already change spiritual energy shape back when Feifei first found him, let alone now that he is the Core Formation Realm. In fact, with his colorful energy, he created a very lifelike projection of what he saw before. Once Ruik saw it, the expression on his face contorted. As for Tiane, she got even redder. \"Are you making fun of me? How the hell would something like that happen?\" Feifei then gentle patted Ruik''s snake body and said. \"Our subconsciousness often leads us to make the things that we really want to but don''t have the courage for. That''s just how it works, don''t mind it too much.\" How could someone as playful as Feifei let such a golden chance slip by? Ruik almost fainted hearing that. \"Subconsciousness, your head!\" Feifei and Krune laughed once more and then returned to their room. Tiane couldn''t take it anymore either and entered her room as well. As for Ruik, that image was burned in his mind, and the more he tried to forget, the more it appeared. In the end, he decided to go out for a while to cool his head. The day passed without any other significant events, and soon, it was already the morning of the next day. This time, Feifei wasn''t participating in the Formations Master last phase, so she decided to tag along with Krune. \"Are you sure you don''t want to go check the final phase of the Formations Master Junior Competition?\" Feifei shook her head. \"I can take my time to practice it later. Different from your Alchemist Competition, my one didn''t have any Golden Stars Formations Master participating. So everything happening there is still inside the realm of the Silver Stars Level. I''m not as interested in that than I am in your one.\" Krune nodded and didn''t say anything else. After all, he was happy that she was coming with him instead. Krune then looked at the two ugly faces on both his and Feifei''s side and asked. \"The two of you, are you sure you want to come as well? I can''t help but feel like you are not in the mood for it.\" Tiane was the first one to answer. \"I''m just staying with Feifei. If there is an idiot snake following us or not, I couldn''t care less.\" Ruik''s mouth twitched, and he shot back. \"Am I the one following? I''ve been going together with Krune ever since the Alchemist Competition started. If there is someone following, it definitely isn''t me. I can''t help but think that this is an excuse to stay close to this grandfather.\" Krune and Feifei decided to ignore those two and started to make their way to the competition site. At some point, Krune''s group went to a corner to change their appearance back to the one they were using in the competition. No one noticed when, but the previous day first place had suddenly appeared again. Once they got there, Krune entered inside while the other three went to find a spot to watch the competition. All eyes were on Krune, but he didn''t care anymore. Today, he had only one objective, which is to try to understand what it was that he experienced last day with Kaio. For some reason, he knew that this was very important for him. Especially since even his rainbow irises changed. The last alchemists arrived one by one, and soon, everyone was once more gathered in this place. Kaio didn''t underestimate Krune this time. He felt that if this black horse could do that much, he might create another miracle again. Xaia and Irken were no exception either. It''s just that their working stations are quite far from Krune. Palo appeared on the stage again and greeted everyone. \"Welcome, finalists. As you know, today is the last day of our Junior Alchemist Competition. As everyone expects, is there any other thing to do other than pills? No! We are alchemists, so it goes without saying that the winner of this competition will be the one who makes the best pill! I had explained the rules before, so I won''t repeat myself. If someone has any questions, ask now.\" Palo waited a minute, but no one said anything. He then nodded and continued. \"Very well. Since the process of making pills takes time, you will have 12 hours to finish your best products. How many pills you make doesn''t matter, but we will accept only one at the end of the day. So make sure that you give us the one you think to have the highest quality.\" Palo looked at the other examiners, and they nodded. \"Junior Alchemist Competition, Final Phase. Start!\" There were loads of people and demon beasts watching it both live and through the internet. Not too surprising, the camera focused on Krune''s workstation had the highest number of spectators. But soon, everyone got puzzled. That''s because Krune wasn''t doing anything. He just sat down and watched Kaio working. At first, some thought that he was thinking about what to make, but as time passed, the spectators started to lose interest. Although some believed that Krune was planning something, they couldn''t tell what it was. In the end, the Golden Star Alchemists caught the attention, and the number of viewers from Krune plummeted. Krune, of course, didn''t care about anything like that. His Divine Sense and eyes were entirely focused on Kaio''s concoction. Still, it had been just a few minutes since he started, so Kaio was still in the middle of the extraction process. Krune knows that only after Kaio finishes this part, he will be able to see that phenomenon again. 242 Can He Really Get It? Kaio glanced at Krune and noticed how focused he was in his concoction. But he soon thought about a reason for that. ''Right, he is still a Six Silver Stars Alchemist, so he simply decided to watch me to gain some experience instead of trying to get a higher position. It will be impossible to take the top three with three Alchemists at the Golden Star Level.'' Convincing himself of such thoughts, Kaio kept extracting the medicinal properties of the herbs he had chosen this time. As for the pill that he selected, it is a Revolving Energy Pill. It makes the circulation of Spiritual Energy faster for a short time. Of course, he was making one at the One Golden Star Level. Krune stayed immovable for the first hour, and the viewers of his Workstation had dropped to almost zero. Suddenly, Krune''s eyes lit up! ''It''s here.'' Kaio had finally finished the extractions and started to eliminate the impurities of the herbs. He as using the standard method of controlling the fire element to burn them away. Krune''s rainbow irises immediately reacted the moment they saw it. Just like before, Krune could feel that Kaio wasn''t doing it with the Fire Element as a whole, but some part of it. Still, it was more than enough for Krune to notice the differences. Not to mention that this time, Krune is really paying attention. Time passed, and Kaio continued to burn the impurities away. It wasn''t before a half-hour that he finally reached his limit in that process. ''Good, I should have reached the max level that I can at the moment.'' Kaio then started the pill concoction per see. But when Krune saw that, he got even more excited! ''Now that he started to concoct the pill, the changes are even more apparent. I feel like I''m close to grasping something, it''s like there is a small line between me and what is happening in his concoction, but for some reason, I just can''t cross it. Still, I guess I finally understand what it is that Kaio is doing.'' Krune kept observing, and without him noticing, his hands started to move subconsciously. Another thing is that now, his rainbow irises colors were really moving in a circular motion. Krune then started to try to imitate those changes in the fire element just like Kaio, but every time, it was always somewhat wrong. While almost no one was paying attention to Krune, there were a few exceptions. Palo Yiag, the elder responsible for the Junior Alchemist Competition, just so happens to be one of them. When Krune started to try to imitate what Kaio was doing, his eyes opened wide! \"You can''t be serious! No, he isn''t quite right there yet. Still, he''s close, really close. Is it possible? He hasn''t reached the Divine Soul Realm yet. It seems like he is trying to understand what Kaio is doing, which means that he can at least perceive it. That is already a miracle in and our itself.\" Suddenly, the world around Krune disappeared. The Workstation, the tools, the alchemists, the ground, the skies, everything! Surprisingly, Krune didn''t notice it. That''s because there was still something that he was able to see. Kaio''s work! It was at this moment that Krune murmured to himself. ''Kaio''s understanding of laws, the Law of Burning!'' Krune finally understood why he felt like Kaio wasn''t controlling the Fire Element itself, but a small part of it. That''s right, Kaio was only controlling the Law of Burning, and it wasn''t perfect either. The laws surrounding the Fire Element were various. The Laws of Heat, Explosion, Burning, Combustion, and several others. All of them were part of the whole thing called The Fire Laws! In fact, Krune could feel that Kaio was very inexperienced with the Law of burning. As to why? Even Krune himself didn''t know. Time passed, and Palo kept observing Krune''s motions. The more he looked, the more impressed he became. Palo had already forgotten about the competition and the alchemists. His mind was totally focused on Krune and Krune only. ''6th Stage of the Core Formation Realm... Can he really get it?'' The answer to this question didn''t take long to appear. At some point, Krune had summoned the Fire Element in front of him, and he kept fueling it almost unconsciously. It stayed there, just like a very gentle small flame. Still, Palo knew that it was that little flame that would give him the answer that he seeks. Suddenly, a few ripples started to happen in that small flame. Palo noticed that and murmured to himself. ''It''s here.'' Krune was still in a trance, inside that dark world in his vision, he felt like he finally could reach that thing that Kaio was controlling. Palo then saw Krune extending one of his hands forward while the other kept holding that small flame. Krune then opened that hand and made a motion as if he was trying to grab something. It was at this moment that the small flame in his hand reacted and burned fiercely! Krune''s rainbow irises were moving so fast at this moment that it would be hard to even see where the colors are at the moment. Krune smiled faintly and then said. \"Gotcha!\" The moment he said that, the world around him came back to normal. Krune''s consciousness came back, and he looked around as if he had just awaked from a dream! Still, he knew that it wasn''t a dream, everything that he saw was real. Krune looked at the small flame fiercely burning on his hand and noticed that he now had some kind of connection to it. ''No, to be more precise, I have a connection to a tiny part of it. The Law of burning... I now have an initial understanding of it. But...'' Krune then thought about that dark world where he could only see the laws. ''Just what was that?'' It was at this moment that Light Spirit''s voice appeared. \"That''s the world of laws. It seems like it was really a good idea to bring you to this Dalin Universe. The laws here are really a lot easier to understand.\" Krune was taken aback. \"Does it mean that everyone can see it?\" \"In a certain way, yes. But your case is special. Because of my link with your soul, I was able to see what you saw too. The way you see the world of laws is who knows how many times clearer than the others. Even I felt like understand laws would be easier in there.\" Krune immediately felt excited! He had just used a few hours and had already grasped a little of the Law of Burning. Doesn''t that mean that all laws will be that fast to understand too? Light Spirit understood what Krune was thinking and laughed out loud. \"Keep dreaming! Do you think that this is that easy? First of all, you didn''t completely understand the Law of burning. In fact, you haven''t understood even half of it. The more you try to understand, the harder it becomes.\" Krune''s happiness was cut short. \"Couldn''t you have waited for a little before saying that? I could have enjoyed my dream a little further!\" Light Spirit then snorted. \"Hmph! Do you think I care? Also, I''m only talking about the easy part. Now that you understood a small part of the Law of Burning, try to do the same with the other laws and see what will happen. Let''s select an easy one, for example. Go ahead and try to understand the Law of Heat.\" Krune nodded and concentrated once more. After this experience, he understood how his rainbow irises worked, so he did the same again. Once more, his irises'' colors started to move in a circular motion, and the world around him disappeared just like the last time. But it was at this moment that Krune was taken aback. When he first was trying to grasp the Law of Burning, he could also feel the presence of the other Fire Laws. But this time, other than the Law of Burning, he almost couldn''t feel the existence of any other. In fact, it looked like the entire place was being occupied by the Law of Burning alone! There were just small gapings here and there, where he could barely see the other laws presence. Not to mention that those small gaps seemed to change position all the time! As for the Law of Heat, he could hardly find it anywhere. \"This... What is happening here?\" Light Spirit heard that and laughed once more. \"See? Let me make an analogy for you. Think about an empty pan. Suddenly, you fill it with rice, but now, there is almost no space left to put other ingredients. That''s basically how the world of laws works. Your understanding of the Law of Burning is basically filling nearly the entire pan, so you only have that much space to add other Fire Laws.\" Krune immediately understood why high-level cultivators and demon beasts took so long to understand them. \"Doesn''t that mean that I selected the Law of Burning as my starting law? If I knew, I would have thought about selecting something else!\" Light Spirit immediately disagreed with him. \"That''s not how it works. Gaining insight into the first Law is an opportunity, not something that you can actively seek. Tell me, before you understood the Law of Burning, do you think you would have been able to simply summon some other element and understand a Law from it?\" Krune was taken aback by that question. \"Indeed. I didn''t select the Law of Burning, it just so happens that I was close to Kaio when I first noticed its presence.\" Light Spirit agreed. \"Exactly! It''s not because Kaio was using the Law of Burning that you would definitely understand it. I might as well tell you that if he was using any other law, the chances of you noticing its presence would be minimal. In other words, you were lucky to even notice it at your Core Formation Realm!\" Still, Light Spirit gave Krune some good news too. \"The biggest problem is for you to understand the very first Law of your life, that is the hardest barrier, and you already crossed it. Think about it like you finally understand what a Law ''REALLY'' is.\" Light Spirit continued. \"Also, there is another good news for you. The ''filled pan'' analogy is only applied for the element in question. For other elements, the ''pan'' is still empty. Once you get back to the hotel, try to take a look at my Tribulation Lightning. I think you will get a pleasant surprise.\" While Krune and Light Spirit were discussing those matters, Palo was in the middle of a call with someone from the Alchemist Organization. \"Are you sure? Did he really understand a Law at the 6th Stage of the Core Formation Realm?\" Palo replied. \"As an alchemist, I''m also versed at Fire Laws. So I''m sure that he had just understood his very first Fire Law, the Law of Burning!\" 243 There is a Way! The person on the other side of the line was Amark Guli, the Solar System Alchemist Organization Head. "Wait, you said Krune? Krune, Krune... I did hear this name once." Palo nodded and reminded Amark. "Yes, he is the one that your son tried to steal away." Amark''s expression got a little gloomy for a second, but he soon concealed it. "Oh, that one. Anyway, why are you even calling me then? Just wait for this competition to finish and immediately recruit him. With his talent, he is more than worth grooming up." Palo scratched the back on his head as if he was in a tight spot and then said. "There is a small problem here. Krune is a demon beast." Amark got puzzled after hearing it. "What is the problem? Sure, we have a lesser number of demon beasts than humans, but that has never been a problem." Palo sighed and then continued. "He is a wisp." Amark''s expression finally changed when he heard that. "Come that again." "A wisp, Krune is a wisp! He is as much a wisp as any other wisp you have seen before. A wisp!" Palo knew that it was hard to believe, so he made sure to make it clear. Amark then sat down on his chair and crossed his arms. Palo could see that Amark had fallen deep in thought. Sometime later, Amark finally replied. "That''s complicated. Even with such a heaven-defying talent to the point of understanding a law at the Core Formation Realm, his life span is just..." Palo nodded. "That''s why I called you directly. Otherwise, I would have already prepared to recruit Krune straight away. In fact, I had told him yesterday that we wouldn''t be able to take him in exactly because of this issue. Of course, yesterday, he hadn''t understood a Law yet." Amark didn''t think Palo was wrong. They are not rich to the point where they can simply invest in every single alchemist in their Solar System. Amark kept thinking for some time and then said. "Let''s do like this, just recruit him in name. He will have access to the facilities, information, better jobs, and other things from the headquarters. But he won''t receive any cultivation of alchemy training resources. If he is okay with it, then we welcome him in. If his level keeps increasing at this pace, we can use him in the next Galaxy Competition." Palo nodded. He, too, was thinking about the same thing. In the past, Rico Guli had participated in that. Not to mention that he did quite well by finishing in the top 1000. But ever since, their Solar System didn''t have another Alchemist capable of repeating his feat. Even if Krune''s life span is small, considering that has is still 12 years old, he still has more than enough time to participate. In fact, he might be able to attend twice! Or so Palo and Amark hoped. - While Amark and Palo were discussing, Krune and Light Spirit were doing the same thing. "Is there no way to clear the view of the Laws so that I can see others?" Light Spirit confirmed. "There is, you need time. Because this is a new Law, your mind is overwhelmed by it. Once it gets used to the Law of Burning, it will start to perceive the other Fire Laws more clearly. Of course, it will never be like the first time when everything was clear. The more Fire Laws you understand, the more space they will take in your World of Laws." Krune let out a sigh of relief. The way that the Fire Laws are at the moment, Krune wasn''t the least bit confident of being able to grasp them anytime soon. Light Spirit then added. "The best way to make your mind used to it is obviously by fully understand the Law you are practicing at the moment. Otherwise, it will take even longer for the ''view'' to clear. Of course, you can also decide to put the Fire Laws aside and start to practice another element instead." Krune nodded. "I have never focused on a single element before, so I will try to see if I can get other Elemental Laws at work too." Light Spirit agreed with that. "That is good too, your whole combat power has a base on the Tribulation Lightning being used with all the other elements. For others, it might be a fool''s idea to focus on more than one or two elements at the same time. But for you, it will probably be the best course of action. Especially after I saw how clear your World of Laws is." He continued. "There is another thing that you need to understand. Once you understand all Laws of a single element, you will need to fuse them together. For example, once you get the Fire Laws fused, you will have understood one Major Law. I think it goes without saying that every element is a Major Law as well, right?" Krune then asked. "What changes when you understand a Major Law?" Light Spirit then added. "Well, there is no need to say that the help in your combat prowess is enormous. A cultivator with a Major Law and one without are in two completely different leagues. Even if they have the same cultivation level, the one with a Major Laws can completely crush the other without it. Unless some unexpected event happens, the later can only flee, that''s all." Krune was already expecting that much. Light Spirit then said another thing. "It is still way too early for you, but I might as well tell you this. To enter the Divine Path Realm, you will need to understand at least one Major Law. As for the specifics, you will understand when the time comes." Krune nodded. "Okay, is there anything else that I should pay attention to?" Light Spirit pondered a bit. "Not that I can remember now. But as you know, I have been away for way too long, so some things might have changed. Still, you can simply ask others in that realm later." Krune agreed with Light Spirit and then decided to go back to the World of Laws. As for the Alchemist Competition, Krune had already forgotten about it. Once there, Krune could see the Burning Law cleary. In contrast, any other Fire related Law kept appearing and disappearing between the gaps. Krune took a deep breath and started to understand the Burning Law. ''The earlier I fully understand it, the faster I can start the next.'' Krune spent an hour inside, but not much progress could be seen. ''Light Spirit was right, it won''t be something that I can fully grasp anytime soon.'' While Krune kept understanding the Burning Law, the Alchemist Competition continued. Kaio noticed that Krune had stopped to pay attention to him and seemed to be in a trance. Still, he soon ignored it and went back to his pill concoction. Finally, he had finished the very first one. "Great! It went way better than I expected. I will try to concoct another two different ones before the time is over, but I will probably use this in the end." He put the pill inside a bottle and then turned to the display to select the next herbs for the concoction. Xaia and Irken were just like Kaio and finished their first pill almost at the same time. The Silver Stars Alchemists around them looked at those pills at the Golden Star Level and felt quite jealous too. After all, only when you understand a Law, you will be able to bring the pill to that level. - Krune was still in the World of Laws after six hours of competition. By this time, he finally had an idea of how to proceed with his learning. ''Sigh... Just to catch the tail of the matter took me all this time, and that is when the Burning Law is as apparent as it is. This is definitely going to take very long, let alone the other ones that won''t be this clear after I finish the Burning Law.'' Krune looked at those small gaps when the other Laws appeared for an instant and disappeared. It was then that he had an idea. ''Even though the other Laws appeared for a tiny amount of time, it''s not like they are not here, right? If I try to understand one Law each time, it will take forever for me to reach the Divine Path Realm. I really might run out of life span by then. But what if I try to grab those openings to understand the other Fire Laws while I''m learning the Burning Law?'' If anyone heard Krune''s thoughts, they would think that he is crazy! It is already that hard to understand the Law that is occupying the entire World, let alone try to grasp the Laws in those openings! Of course, Krune cared little for what others might think about it. Krune tried this method for another hour but then shook his head. ''That isn''t working. To understand the little bit possible of those laws, I need to stop paying attention to the Burning Law. This way, I will end up not understanding anything at all.'' But it was at this moment that Krune remembered something. ''Wait! There is a way!'' 244 I Guess He Just Misspoke. Krune immediately exited the World of Laws and accessed the network with his communicator. Because the Knowledge test was over, no rules were impeding the competitors from using it anymore. ''Where is it, where is it? I know I saw that technique somewhere around here.'' Krune kept looking for that technique for over 10 minutes when he finally spotted his target. ''That''s it!'' -Mind Splitting Technique: Capable of making the mind work in separate tasks at the same time without losing focus. Beginner level: Three tasks at once Intermediate level: Five tasks at once Advanced level: Seven tasks at once Fully Learned: Ten tasks at once. Warning: Although you won''t lose the focus on those tasks, your capability of processing them will be affected if the Soul isn''t strong enough.- As mentioned before, the Dalin Universe had an unlimited number of techniques for sale. Even techniques at the level of Sect or Clan treasure in the Luvile Universe were available as long as you had the necessary spirit stones or items for the trade. Krune then proceeded to check the price, and suddenly, his face went dark, and then purple! ''THIS IS DAYLIGHT ROBBERY!'' -Price: 150000 Rank 8 Spirit Stones or equivalent in lesser or higher rank ones.- So far, as an Alchemist, Krune had gathered a little bit more than 11 thousand Rank 6 Spirit Stones. He needed 10 Rank 6 Spirit Stones to get one Rank 7 Spirit Stone. After that, he needs another 10 Rank 7 to exchange for one Rank 8 Spirit Stone. Simply Put, let alone 150000, Krune''s total wealth couldn''t be considered more than a hundred or so Rank 8 Spirit Stones. Krune then immediately started to think about a method to make more Spirit Stones faster. It was then that he remembered a thing. ''Wait, aren''t Golden Stars Level Pills worth a whole lot more than the Silver Stars?'' Krune then accessed the Alchemist Network and looked for jobs that required Golden Stars Level pills. When he saw the average payment for the jobs, his eyes lit up! ''Holy shit! They are worth over a hundred times more!'' That was to be expected. As mentioned before, to make pills at the Golden Stars Level, one must understand at least one Law. Usually, alchemists would only reach this level in the middle of the Soul Forging Realm. In the Dalin Universe, it was possible to find Divine Soul Realm at this level too. Still, they are quite rare. One could see it by the fact that after gathering the Alchemist Geniuses of the entire Solar System, they only had three who understood a Law. In the end, Golden Stars Pills are simply worth much more than any Silver Star Pill will ever be. They are in a completely different Universe from each other. There is also the issue with the Herbs and Minerals necessary to create Golden Stars Level Pills, which increase their price even more. Of course, those who buy or put on the jobs related to that level are usually at the Soul Forging Realm at the very least. So it goes without saying that they are several times richer than the majority under their cultivation level. They do have the wealth to pay for those pills. ''If there is one thing that I hate more than attracting attention, it is to not have enough money.'' He looked at the time and saw the there was still a little bit over four hours before the competition finished. Krune then spread his Divine Sense and soon found Palo on the stage in the distance. "Senior Palo, would you mind hearing a request?" Palo, who was still thinking about how to approach Krune about the recruiting issue, was taken aback by that message. "Oh! Sure, what is it?" Krune remembered the conversation he had with Feifei and the fact that she was taken in as an in name member of the Formations Master Organization Headquarters. According to what Feifei said, she would have access to even better-paid jobs once she enters it. Krune thought that the Alchemist Guild would most likely have the same advantages. "I know that because I''m a wisp, I can''t join the Headquarters as a fully-fledged member. But is it possible to join it as an in name member? I don''t need any cultivation of alchemist training resources, I just want access to the jobs available there." Palo couldn''t help but think if Krune had heard his conversation with the Headmaster, but he soon excluded that possibility. There is no way he wouldn''t have noticed Krune with their difference in level. ''Still, this is indeed a heaven-sent coincidence.'' "Cough, cough. Well, considering your talent, it shouldn''t be a problem if I recommend you. But it will really be as you said, you can have access to the facilities and jobs available in the headquarters. But you won''t receive a single Spirit Stone or alchemist training materials like Herbs and Minerals from us." "Still, it doesn''t change the fact that it''s worth accepting it. Who knows? If you prove that you can become a high-level alchemist, the Headquarters might make an exception and accept you as a real member." Krune shook his head and said. "Don''t worry, I don''t want to become a real member since I would be bound by some duties. The in name member is exactly what I want at the moment. Besides, I would like to keep my real identity secrecy status the same way it is. Would that be possible?" Palo felt it weird that Krune didn''t want to become a real member. Even if real members do have duties to take care of, the advantages are far more worth it. ''Well, I only said that he might become a real member so that he would be put more effort. I don''t think he would become one anyway, so I guess this situation also plays in my favor.'' He looked at Krune in the distance and pretended to be thinking about it. Sometime later, he agreed with Krune''s terms. "Very well, identity secrecy is something that quite a few young members have anyway, so it''s not a problem to keep yours too. Since you have no problem with the in name membership disadvantages, I guess it won''t be a problem to accept you with your skills." Palo then put a serious expression and said. "However, I have a condition. You have to concoct a pill worth of your level as Alchemist. This is, after all, an Alchemist Competition. So prove to me that I''m not wrong in accepting you in the Headquarters by showing your skills here." Krune''s eyes lit up after hearing that. "Thank you, senior Palo." "There is no need to thank me, just make sure you don''t shame the name of the Alchemist Organization." Krune nodded and said. "Alright, let me see if I can make a Golden Star Level pill. That should be enough to not let the organization down." Palo nodded, and they finished their conversation. But a second later, Palo noticed something wrong with Krune''s words. ''Did he just say that he will make a Golden Star Level Pill?'' Palo pondered a bit. ''I guess he just misspoke. Yes, that should be it. He had just comprehended his very first Law, not to mention that he is still a Six Silver Stars Alchemist. There is no way he can jump three stars and breakthrough into the next realm this easily. Also, the issue of using the Law he understood into the pill concoction isn''t something that you can just learn in the remaining 4 hours.'' Assuring himself about this, Palo once more started to pay attention to the alchemists in the competition. Krune then went to check the list of herbs available and soon decided on which pill he would concoct. ''Well, there aren''t many pills that I know about at the Golden Stars Level, so I will just go with the easiest I can think about.'' Krune then selected the Herbs and Minerals necessary to make a Cultivation Stabilizing Pill. This is one of the pills that have several different stars level. A Golden Star Cultivation Stabilizing Pill was effective for Soul Forging and even Void Breaking Realm Cultivators and Demon Beasts. It could be said that such a pill would be a waste if used by anyone at the Divine Soul Realm or below. Krune had made many of these pills at the Bronze and Silver Stars level, so he couldn''t be more proficient with it. Of course, he knows that the other Golden Stars Alchemists are bound to make better and harder pills, so he doesn''t have the intention to surpass them to start with. ''This is all for the sake of entering the Headquarters as an in name member. As long as I can accomplish that, a little bit of attention won''t be a problem.'' 245 I Know That Expression Way Too Well! Krune then started with his extraction process. Because there was more than a single herb, he had to divide his time between them. Of course, his extraction was still a lot better than anyone in this competition. Krune took almost two hours to finish it. After that, he went through his memories about the content available for Golden Stars Pills. ''Hum... So the main issue here is how to use the Law that you understood to force a synergy. There are obviously better Laws for certain types of pills, but generally, almost any Law can be used to make pills. For alchemy, Laws involving Fire, Wood, and Water are the best-suited ones. Since I comprehend the Burling Law, that should help a lot.'' Krune was a little lost at how exactly he should apply the Burning Law to his pill concoction. But then he remembered that Kaio Tirenia used it to eliminate the impurities of the Medicinal Liquid. ''That''s right, let''s try to use the Burning Law for impurities cleaning. Considering my actual control over the Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy, I shouldn''t have too big of a problem adding it to the mix... or so I hope.'' Krune took a look at the Medicinal Liquid in his cauldron, and his eyes became sharp. ''Let''s give it a try. In case I fail to make this pill, I should still have enough time to make a Silver Stars Level one. I am, after all, trying to jump four Stars at once.'' Krune activated his Spiritual Fire and started to clean the impurities in his Medicinal Liquid. As soon as he started, he also brought forward his understanding of the Burning Law. ''Impurities, only the impurities. I can''t overdo it!'' It turns out that adding the Burning Laws to his Spiritual Fire had made the Flames quite fierce. Still, he could control them as long as he did it slowly. Beds of sweat soon started to appear on Krune''s face, but he didn''t notice it at all. His entire focus was on the Medicinal Liquid and the Impurities. ''Impressive, the Spiritual Fire fused with my Burning Law is reducing the impurities to nothing! If just I had greater control, I could do it a lot better and faster. Well, I''m still at the Sixth Stage of the Core Formation Realm, and this is also my first time doing it, so it can''t be helped.'' On the stage, Palo stopped for a second to see how Krune was doing. But he soon noticed what was happening and sighed. ''He''s being too hasty. I thought he had misspoken when he said he would try to make a Golden Stars Level Pill. But it seems like he wasn''t. Still, it is too early for Krune to do that. The Burning Law won''t just Burn the impurities. It will burn grand part of the Medicinal Properties too. You need a long time of practice to even think about trying such a thing.'' Palo then resumed his watch over the other alchemists. "Impossible!" His voice was quite loud, so everyone watching him Live or through the internet noticed his change. Soon, they found out that the one beside him was ''Jolk,'' so immediately, Jolk''s viewers exploded once more. Still, the majority couldn''t understand what made Kaio so impressed. Jolk had indeed started to concoct his pill after so long. But was there a need to be surprised by that? Of course, there were those who immediately understood what was happening and why Kaio Tirenia acted that way. "Doesn''t the information says that he was supposed to be a Six Silver Stars Alchemist? How come he is using Laws, then?" "Check the information about this Jolk guy, it is obvious that the Rimeria Solar System is hiding his information." "That''s not quite right, did the Rimeria Solar System Alchemist Headquarters lie in the information available. It says that this Jolk was supposed to be at the Sixth Stage Core Formation Realm. Still, just by seeing how his flames are acting, I can totally tell that he is using a Fire Related Law. Is it the explosion Law? No... maybe Annihilation? No, that''s probably Burning. I can''t confirm it through this video, though." "Why are you calling me at this time? What? A Junior Alchemist Competition? I don''t have the leisure to wa... Okay, I will take a look." Kaio noticed that he had lost his focus and immediately shook his head. ''Ignore him, ignore him. You still have one more pill to finish, Kaio Tirenia. Focus on your job, not his.'' Around thirty minutes later, Palo took another look at Krune. He was totally expecting that Krune would have started everything again after the failure. But to his surprise, not only didn''t Krune fail, he seemed to be very close to success. ''Unbelievable.'' On Krune''s side, he was feeling tired already. It was his first time using Laws actively. Although Krune was getting a lot of experience during it, it doesn''t change that controlling his Flames fused with the Burning Law is quite a stretch. ''Just a little more, and I will be done with it. Almost there!'' Finally, Krune completed the impurities cleaning process. Of course, since it was his first time doing it, his medicinal liquid was still affected somewhat. Fortunately, it was not enough to be considered a failure. ''I definitely won''t have time to make another one, so even though I lost some of the medicinal properties, I have to do with this. Too bad, though. Golden Star Level is definitely out of the question now.'' That was true. The impurities cleaning didn''t completely destroy the medicinal liquid. Still, there was some damage to it. But there was a good thing out of it as well. ''At least, this medicinal liquid turned out to be of a much higher quality than what I''m used to making. I should be able to concoct a pill of a higher level than my actual one. As for keep using the Burning Law in the rest of the concoction...'' Krune looked at the medicinal liquid in his cauldron and then at himself and sighed. ''I''m not at this level yet. I was barely able to finish the previous step, and I''m sure I will fail if I keep using it in my actual condition. I''ve never thought that using Laws would be this hard.'' It''s good that Krune is only thinking about it. If he told the Alchemists around him that he just finished comprehending the Burning Law and didn''t fail using it for the first time, no one knows if he would leave this place alive. Krune then proceeded to finish the concoction the same way he always did. But thanks to the difference that the Burning Law made to the cleaning process, Krune felt like it was extremely easy to put the elements in synch. ''Wow, I''ve never felt concoction to be this easy before. How can I put it? Something that was hard had suddenly become soft. Wait, why does this sentence make me feel odd? Oh, whatever. To put the elements in synch, I had to use a lot of ''force,'' but now, even without trying much, they follow my every thought.'' Palo noticed that Krune stopped using the Burning Law and finally left a sigh of relief. ''At least, he couldn''t do more than complete the impurities cleaning using his Law. If he had finished the entire concoction using it, I wonder if I could ever show my face in public again.'' Some of the high-level alchemists watching ''Jolk''s'' concoction Live and through the internet noticed that his Spiritual Flame came back to normal. They, too, understood that ''Jolk'' had reached his limit. Of course, it didn''t make any less impressive. "He could only do the cleaning process using Laws, but can someone tell me how long it has been since he learned how to use it?" "No idea, but in the Second Phase, he definitely didn''t use it. I watched yesterday''s video, and his flame was normal." "Hey, you two, it couldn''t be that he learned how to use a Law since yesterday, right?" "Hahahaha! The guy above is reading too many novels. There is no way that he had been using his Law for only a day." "What I''m more concerned about is whether it is true that he is at the Sixth Stage of the Core Formation Realm or not. Because if he is, what he has done will put him at the top 100 alchemists under the age of 35 in the entire galaxy!" "Hey, everyone. I''m watching the competition live here in the Rimeria Solar System. I just checked this Jolk guy''s cultivation with my Divine Sense, and he is really at the Sixth Stage of the Core Formation Realm! If you think that I''m lying about being here, just check the link below. I''m using my communicator to transmit the competition from my point of view on my channel." Krune, or better, Jolk, was becoming more and more famous. Even Feifei''s group noticed it while watching from a distance. Ruik looked at the live transmission in his communicator and told Feifei. "Well, that''s quite a famous Fiance that you have there." Feifei, of course, was all smiles. After all, she loved those situations. She was even looking forward to seeing Krune''s face when she tells him everything that is happening outside. Back at Krune''s side, he was close to finishing his concoction. ''Alright, I just need to start the pill formation now. I believe that it should be enough to become an Eight Silver Stars pill at the very least.'' But just as Krune was about to do that, he stopped. Feifei and Ruik knew Krune quite well, and since they were watching him from very close, they immediately understood what that meant when they looked at his face. Ruik then let out a loud laugh and commented. "I know that expression way too well!" Feifei quickly nodded and laughed too. "That is definitely the face he does when a crazy idea pops up in his mind." Tiane didn''t know what those two were talking about, but she understood that something was about to happen. 246 You are saying that on purpose, right? Krune looked at the medicinal liquid in the cauldron that was ready to become a pill. All he needed to do was to take the last step. ''Should I try it? But if I fail, I won''t be able to achieve the condition that Senior Palo requested. Still, I really think it might work.'' The idea that Krune came up was to use the Extreme Infusion technique that he learned with his Purple Fire. In addition, he would use his Burning Law too. He knows that the Burning Law alone is already enough to make the normal spiritual fire to become fierce. But that is also because his control over it isn''t good enough. ''Oh well, if I can''t join the Headquarters, I can still take regular jobs. It''s not like they pay much lower than them anyway. The only problem is that because of my poor control with the Burning Law, I took way too long to finish everything. The twelve hours are almost up already too. Anyway, let''s start!'' Krune then gave up forming the pill and immediately changed the form of his Spiritual Fire. Its color suddenly changed to purple, which puzzled everyone looking at him. Palo, of course, was one of those watching at the moment. ''Purple? What is that? I''ve never seen an alchemist using a purple spiritual fire.'' He then checked it with his Divine Sense and got even more puzzled. ''Weird, I can feel a power similar to the Tribulation Lightning, but why is it purple? Anyhow, let''s see what he is planning.'' Krune ignored everything happening around him and started to use the Burning Law as well. Immediately after, the already hard to control Tribulation Fire became even more fierce. ''But this is okay. I just need to hold for a single minute, and that will be enough.'' Krune had already finished the entire process of creating the Medicinal Liquid for his pill, so there wasn''t really anything else to be done anymore. Using his purple fire to increase the level of the pill was just a last-second method. Of course, it is a very risky one since he is also using the extreme infusion technique, which is hard to control as well. One minute was simply Krune''s limit. The effect of the Law of Burning immediately started to take place in the medicinal liquid, and the Extreme Infusion Technique added more and more energy to the composition. ''I''m using High-Level Herbs and Minerals, so it should be fine.'' 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds... Krune'' cauldron started to tremble, but Krune couldn''t care less about that, he only paid attention to the medicinal liquid inside. 40 seconds, 50 seconds... Krune was already feeling the burden of controlling the purple fire, extreme infusion, and Burning Law. Beads of sweat streamed from his whole body. It was evident how hard it was to control all three at the same time, even for him. 60 seconds! ''That''s it!'' ''Wait, wait, wait! Aren''t those High Level materials? Why is it losing control? No, no, no!'' Unfortunately, the cauldron and medicinal liquid didn''t listen to his thoughts. Noticing that he would fail the pill creation, Krune greeted his teeth and threw caution to the wind! "To hell with it! I will form this damned pill even if I have to lose everything!" Krune didn''t notice that he had shouted instead of think, but he couldn''t care less either even if he did. Knowing that there was almost no time remaining, he immediately started to gather the medicinal liquid and form the pills. In fact, with the amount present, he would be able to make three of them. "Gather, gather, gather! Faster, faster!" The fact that there was so much energy inside the cauldron ended playing a big role in the pills formation. Krune used that same energy to further compress the medicinal pills. Finally, the Cultivation Stabilizing Pills were formed. "Success!" Or so he thought. It''s not because the pills were formed that the chaotic energy inside disappeared. Especially after it had been fueled by both Krune''s purple fire and Burning Law. Just as Krune was about to take the pill, the cauldron lost control, and the energy inside rushed out! He only had the time to taker one of the pills before the energy in the cauldron sent him flying! The remaining two pills ended becoming part of the fuel for all that energy. Palo and the other examiners looked at that, and their faces went pale too. "Not good!" He and the other elders immediately rushed over to help. Still, it was too late! BOOM! Palo and the other elders then took a formation around the explosion. They used their spiritual energy to create a barrier to contain the blast. Due to the difference in cultivation between Krune and the elders, they were more than enough to contain the explosion and prevent it from spreading. Still, Kaio and a few more alchemists around Krune''s workstation were caught in the situation anyway. Palo also covered them with his Spiritual Energy so that they wouldn''t be hurt by it. When everything was over, the 50 or so workstations around Krune''s one were reduced to crumbles. Palo and the other elders then retracted their Spiritual Energy. They took a look at the apocalypse view in front of them and felt like crying. Such a situation happened right in front of everyone, not to mention those watching it through the internet. Palo knew that he would be in for a scolding from the higher-ups later. Slowly, Kaio and the other alchemists started to walk away from the wreckage. Although Palo covered them with his Spiritual Energy, it was just to protect against the Spiritual Energy Blast. It didn''t prevent them from hitting a few walls or kicking on the ground here and there. They didn''t have any serious injury, it was all nothing more than a few bruises. Still, they looked quite miserable. Finally, some of the pieces of walls started to move in the area around the center of the explosion. From below it, Krune, or better, Jolk, began to dig his way out. When he looked around, he couldn''t help but think. ''Just why this kind of thing keeps happening to me? I must have destroyed an entire Universe in my previous life, that must be it!'' Jolk started to make his way to Palo''s direction while everyone looked at him. It was evident that they noticed that the explosion originated from his workstation. ''Sigh... whatever. At least I''m still with a different appearance and name, so everything should be fine. I just need to think about an excuse.'' After Krune arrived in front of Palo, he could see that he had quite an ugly expression. "Cough, cough. I think someone sent me poor quality materials. Because of that, they couldn''t hold the energy inside and ended up exploding." Palo''s expression got even worse after hearing that. "Ohhh... All the herbs sent to the participants are previously checked by me through Divine Sense. So you are saying that I made a mistake and that ALL the herbs sent to you were of poor quality, is it? Not only one or two, but every single one necessary to create your pill, right?" Krune immediately started to sweat. "Errr... you know, maybe I used just a little bit too much energy. Yes, that must have been it. There is no way that Senior Palo would ever make a mistake." Palo''s mouth twitched after seeing how easily Krune changed his own words. ''Is there another wisp in this Universe more shameless than him?'' Palo sighed and tried to think on the positive side. "Anyway. Because the competition was almost over, all the alchemists affected by your explosion had already delivered their pills before this event. The explosion will not affect their results anymore." He then looked at Krune and said. "Unfortunately, it seems like you won''t be able to deliver a pill anymore, so this is the end of the Alchemist Competition for you." Krune smiled after hearing that. "Oh, it''s okay. Just as the cauldron was about to explode, I was able to save one of the pills." Krune then handed over a bottle with a pill inside. "There you go. I''m sure I won''t let the Alchemist Organization down with this pill." Krune said that while showing a proud face. But Palo felt like giving Krune a beating instead. ''Is there a better way to let the Organization down than blasting over 50 workstations in front of everyone? You are saying that on purpose, right? Right?!'' Of course, Palo had more pressing matters at the moment other than scold Krune''s shamelessness. He told the other examiners to take care of the place and returned to the stage. "Cough, cough. Although a small accident happened, all the alchemists involved are fine and had already delivered their works. The end results will not be affected, so we will now start analyzing the pills." 247 Since When I Said I Was Ready? The pill examination followed a similar procedure to the last phase. There was a Formation at the Five Golden Stars Levels specially set up for this use. The difference is that the positions in the rank are first decided by the level of stars of the pills. Only the same pills at the same star level would need the formation to tell which one was better. For an organization like the Alchemists, they had long since created a list that is continuously updated with the level of difficulty of each pill existent and newly discovered pills. Yilio was also in the middle of the pack of Alchemists that participated in the last face. He seemed very tired, but couldn''t conceal the smile on his face. ''Leaving Krune aside, to think that the concoction really worked that way. I might not have made a Golden Star Level pill, but I''m very confident of getting into the top 10.'' Kaio and the other three Golden Stars Alchemists were also there waiting for the results. Although Kaio looked quite bad at the moment, he ignored it and decided to wait as well. As for Krune, he was feeling concerned about his pill. In the end, he didn''t have the time to check the pill before giving it to Palo. He had no idea about which level it had reached. Not to mention that because of the explosion, it might have been affected to some extent. ''Please, tell me that you are at least a Six Silver Stars Level.'' That was the only thing that Krune could think. After all, the energy in the medicinal liquid went on a rampage before he even started forming the pill. Krune was pretty sure that it would definitely reduce the quality of the pill. The examiner on the stage kept discussing while looking at the pills. Suddenly, Krune noticed that Palo and quite a few more examiners looked in his direction with an unbelievable expression. Krune immediately got nervous seeing that. ''Is my pill really that bad?'' The other alchemists also noticed that and looked at him as well. Kaio was one of them, for some reason, he had a foreboding feeling. Between young the alchemists participating in the competition, he was the only one to notice that Krune had used Laws while concocting his pill. The fact that the examiner all looked at him for a second might be bad news for him. ''It couldn''t be, right?'' The spectators noticed that the examination of the pills was taking a lot longer than it should. The reason for that is that the examiners were in the middle of a heated discussion through Divine Sense. The situation continued for quite a while, and only when everyone was starting to lose their patience, did they finish the examination. "Sorry for the long wait, everyone. Due to some unexpected issues, we had to discuss the release of the results for a little longer. We are going to start now." Palo Yiag started to read a list that he had in his hands. "98th Place, Walin Gurie: Seven Silver Start Anti Poison Pill." "97th Place..." Everyone felt that something was wrong. The last phase of the competition was supposed to have 100 participants, so how come the last Place is already 99th? "It''s probably because that Jolk didn''t deliver his pill. Did you guys forget that he only created a single pill, and it exploded in the end? So, of course, there is one less participant now." "That''s weird, I was looking at the video record, and I''m sure that I saw Jolk handing over a bottle to that examiner. Could it be that it wasn''t a pill that was inside?" "I think its the opposite. Because Jolk delivered that pill after the explosion, the examiners can''t be sure if that pill is really his or something he got before coming to the competition. As far as I know, he might as well have bought that pill and used this explosion to conceal the fact that he didn''t concoct it." "The person above is definitely not an Alchemist, so it''s normal for you to think about this possibility. Unfortunately, as an Alchemist myself, I have to say that your idea is impossible. The aura left behind in the pill by its creator is not something that can be forged. In that case, there is no way he can use someone else''s pill. Not to mention that Jolk is at the Core Formation Realm. They could totally use a blood contract to confirm the truth of the matter." "In the end, we are back to the start line. Was that thing that Jolk delivered to the examiner not a bottle with his pill? Did the pill get destroyed during the explosion then? We will know by the end of the ranking announcement." The ones watching the ranking weren''t the only ones thinking about it, Krune also had the same idea. "I don''t think the other alchemists didn''t deliver at least one pill for the test. It seems like my pill was really damaged by the chaotic energy and the explosion after. It just means that I''m not even worthy of appearing in the ranking anymore." Although Krune was sure about it, he still waited for the end of the results. "7th Place, Yilio: Nine Silver Stars Explosion Pill." As soon as yilio heard that, he almost jumped in joy. "Great! I really finished in the top 10, hahaha!" Krune, or better, Jolk, smiled at him. "Congratulations." Yilio put his arm around Krune''s should and said. "Thanks, but I believe that if that explosion didn''t happen, you would also get a very high position." Krune then shook his head. "It''s okay. Considering that I got to the last phase is already enough for me." Finally, Palo arrived at the top 3 positions. "3rd Place, Irken: One Golden Star Limb Recovery Pill." "2nd Place, Xaia Lian: One Golden Star Severing Pill." "1st Place, Kaio Tirenia: One Golden Star Soul Birth Pill." When Kaio heard that, he didn''t feel joy, but relief instead. ''Good, it seems like I was overthinking it. That wisp really didn''t make a Golden Star Pill.'' Palo smiled and continued. "My thanks to all the alchemists who participated in this Junior Alchemist Competition. The Headquarters will enter in contact with those who we think to be worthy of joining us. As for those who failed in the previous phase or didn''t get called over, use the experience that you gained here to improve yourselves." Before Palo could finish, someone intervened. "What happened with Jolk? I''m pretty sure he delivered a pill as well, no? He was the first place yesterday and second the day prior. Did his pill really get destroyed?" "That''s right! I had my Divine Sense on you guys when he delivered that bottle, and I''m sure there was a pill inside. How come he doesn''t have a position? Even if he was supposed to be last, he should at least appear in the ranking, right?" "I agree! We all noticed that at some point, all the examiners looked at Jolk at the same time. Even an idiot would notice the surprised expression that you all showed at that moment." Krune was taken aback by how everyone intervened in the announcement. His pill probably just got damaged, so that''s why he was not put in the rank. He doesn''t think that there is anything wrong with it. Still, contrary to his expectations, that wasn''t the case. "Jolk''s situation is a little more complicated. That Cultivation Stabilizing Pill that he made is something that we had never seen before." Palo shrugged his shoulder and added. "Simply put, we don''t know how to categorize his pill at all. We can''t even tell if that pill is a Silver or Golden Star one." Everyone expected several different excuses, but this one definitely wasn''t one of those. Let alone the spectators, even Krune himself, didn''t expect that at all! "Cough, cough. Senior Palo, what exactly do you mean that it can''t be categorized? To be honest, that was the very first time I tried to concoct using those methods. Did something happen to my pill during the concoction process?" Palo shook his head and said. "I don''t know, I will bring this pill back to the Headquarters to be analyzed first. Only after that, I can give you an answer." Palo then looked at everyone else and continued. "Anyway, I know that everyone is curious about it, but there is nothing we can do with the equipment available here at the moment." In fact, even Palo was having a hard time keeping the appearances. He wanted nothing more than going straight back to the headquarters so that they could check this pill. Of course, as the elder responsible for this Junior Competition, he had to follow the protocol to the end. After going through all the formalities, Palo excused himself and left the aftermath for his subordinates to finish. He then found Krune in a corner talking with a few of the Alchemists who participated in this competition and sent him a Divine Sense message. "Think about some excuse to tell them and come to my office after. We need to talk." Krune was already expecting something like that and immediately did as he was told. He also used his communicator to send Feifei and the others a message about what happened and that they could go back without him if they wanted. Once he arrived at Palo''s office, Krune noticed that he was talking on the communicator. He waited for him to finish the call before asking what was going on. Palo finally finished the call and looked at Krune. "You will come with me now." Just as Krune was about to ask where to, a Spatial Gate appeared inside the office just like the last time. Once again, elder Lagan came from inside it. Lagan looked at those two and said. "Good, it seems like that the two of you are ready. Let''s go!" Before Krune could even ask anything, he felt his body being grabbed by spiritual energy and then pulled inside the Spatial Gate with Lagan and Palo. Krune felt like crying already. "Since when I said I was ready? I don''t even know why I''m ready to start with!" Too late, though. The Spatial Gate closed, and Krune was gone with the two elders. 248 Research The Alchemist Organization Headquarters is located in a Planet called Jiran. This planet, of course, is in the same Solar System as the Riren Planet. Inside the Headquarters, in an enormous room deep inside the main Building, a Spatial Gate appeared. From inside, elder Lagan and Palo came out together with Krune. Krune took a look around and noticed that the place looked more like a lab, he looked back at Lagan and Palo and waited for them to explain. Palo knew that Krune was confused. "This is exactly what it looks like, a lab that we use to research pills. Didn''t I tell you before? We couldn''t analyze your pill, nor could we tell which grade it is. That''s why we had to come here." Krune sighed. "You could at least tell me that we were coming. I was pulled inside the Spatial Gate out of nowhere, which wasn''t a very pleasant feeling." Elder Lagan laughed and said. "My bad, my bad. I thought that Palo had already talked to you, and since I was in a hurry, I just brought you two inside straight away." Lagan then looked at a few other members who were already present in the room when they arrived. "Anyway, I did what I was supposed to do, let me know if you need me later." The leader of the group nodded, and Lagan left right after. That guy came forward and greeted Krune. "Hello there, I''m Lian Yasau. The chief in charge of this research lab. I was already informed about the fact that you probably created a new pill, so we are going to use this place to find out the pill grade and register its effects." Lian continued. "As you know, Alchemy is an occupation with unlimited possibilities. You never know when a new pill will appear out there and what effect it might have. It''s for that reason that our lab exists. We are also in contact with the other Solar Systems Alchemy Organizations. That''s how we update each other regarding new pills that appear in the market." Krune finally understood why he was brought here, but there was one thing that puzzled him. "But I just concocted a Cultivation Stabilizing Pill, was it really hard to give it a grade? Between the existent pills, this one was supposed to be a fairly common one." Palo delivered the pill that Krune made to Lian while saying. "So this is a Cultivation Stabilizing Pill. If you hadn''t told me, I wouldn''t be able to say it at all. Of course, I could already imagine it since I knew which herbs you used on it. Still, how come it became like this?" Krune looked at his pill and only know that he paid enough attention, did he notice the purple hue around it. That wasn''t all, the pill itself seemed to give some heat as well. Unless the pill was made using an item that had a warming effect, they would be cold all the time. Palo looked at Krune and then said. "That isn''t all. Try to put a little of Spiritual Energy over it." Krune nodded and did as Palo said. Suddenly, the pill itself created a purple flame around it, which took Krune aback. But the most surprising thing was the fact that the pill flame was not harmful. In fact, the temperature of the pill didn''t change at all. If the pill was consumed like this, at least that purple flame wouldn''t cause any damage due to its temperature. But it was then that Krune noticed. "Wait, I can feel a little bit of the Burning Law on it." Lian agreed with Krune. "Exactly, I can also tell this much." He looked deeply at that pill since it shouldn''t have such an effect considering the materials used. "Considering the law factor, it is most likely a Golden Star Level pill. But we still need to confirm it." Krune was happy to hear that since he thought that the pill had been damaged before. "Alright, you two can stay while my group checks it." Just as Lian was about to start doing the tests, he remembered another thing. "Oh, right! Krune, if you tried, could you create another one of this pill?" Krune pondered a bit about the steps that he took back in the Alchemist competition and then shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe? It was a crazy idea to concoct this pill like the way I did, so I don''t know if I can recreate it or not. As you probably know, there was even a little accident because of it." Palo heard the ''little'' accident words, and his mouth twitched. ''If the other elders and I hadn''t stopped the explosion, it would put half of the place down. Is that what you call a ''little'' accident?'' Lian didn''t know what Palo was thinking, so he just nodded back to Krune. "Well, whether there will be a need for you to make it again or not will depend on the results. If it turns out that this thing is harmful and brings no effect regarding the Cultivation Stabilization, you might as well forget how it was even concocted." Krune agreed with Lian''s words. What would be the point in making a pill that had no use and only harmed the user? It''s not like he is making poison pills anyway. In fact, if Krune wanted to, it would be more cost-effective to make a poison pill straight away. Lian then handed the pill to one of his subordinates and brought Krune to his table. "Alright. Tell me the entire process of how it was done. The more detailed, the better." Krune nodded and started to explain how he concocted that Cultivation Stabilizing Pill. Of course, he also apologized about the fact that there were a few things that he couldn''t say. Lian didn''t mind since secrets are part of the Cultivation World. He was already expecting this much when he saw the record of that purple flame that Krune used. While Krune and the others were making the tests, back in the Riren Planet, Feifei received another message. She looked at Tiane and Ruik and said. "Krune told me that they are making several tests with his pill, and because of that, he will probably stay there for two or three days to help. If it turns out that what he made is a new pill, they will need to have it registered in the system of the Alchemist Organization." Ruik nodded and sighed. "Only that idiot can create something new out of an explosion. Oh well, it doesn''t matter what he does, I can''t even feel surprised anymore." Feifei couldn''t help but laugh. "You couldn''t be more correct. Hahaha!" Ruik noticed Tiane beside Feifei, and then his eyes lit up! "Oh, now that I think about it, we were all going to take missions in the Mission Hall. Although Krune can''t come back for the next days, it is not like we are his fiance. So, what you say, Tiane? Should we go take that mission that we agreed from the start?" Only now did she remember that agreement. Still, after what happened in the living room the day prior, the last thing she wanted was to stay close to that snake. Ruik noticed her ugly face, and his smile grew bigger. "Of course, if you want to stay, I won''t insist. That just means that you aren''t capable of taking missions of the same level as me. There is nothing wrong with admitting that you aren''t quite at the right level. It''s okay to be afraid." Another vein popped out of Tiane''s head after hearing that. She immediately stood up and started to make her way out. When she arrived at the door, she asked Ruik back. "What are you waiting for?" Ruik laughed out loud and left with Tiane. He had found it quite funny to tease her every now and then. Feifei just shook her head and went back to her room to cultivate. She decided to wait for Krune to be back before they go take a mission for themselves as well. 249 Testing the New Pill. Two days later, Lian and the other alchemists were finally able to confirm that Krune''s pill at least probably wouldn''t cause any harm to the user. So today, they had someone finally trying it out to see its effect. While they were walking to the cultivation room, Lian commented a little about it. "As you know, Cultivation Stabilizing Pills are generally used by those who just had a Breakthrough. No one here is in that state at the moment, so I had the guys look for someone to help with it. Since we confirmed that the pill probably can''t cause any harm, what is left if for us to have it tested." "We also confirmed that the properties are indeed very close to a normal Cultivation Stabilizing Pill, so I believe that the pill should work just like any common one. Our doubts now are if it is as good as a normal one and if it has any other extra effect. Once they arrived in the cultivation room, there was a man already waiting for them there. "His name is Dilo Krois, 237 years old Divine Soul Realm cultivator. He had been at the peak of the 8th Stage for quite a good number of years now. Because of the missuse of cultivation resources, his Foundation was damaged, and he can''t advance in cultivation without external help. He will be the person testing our pill today." It turns out that the Alchemist Organization made a deal with Dilo. They would provide help for him to enter the 9th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm, and in exchange, he would test that new Cultivation Estabilizing Pill. Palo looked at Krune and added. "Our Alchemist Guild won''t force anyone into tests, we always try to strike a deal. They will then sign a contract with us, and both parties will play their own roles. Once the test is done, the cultivators are free to do whatever they want." Krune couldn''t help but comment. "But isn''t it too risky? What if the pill has a fatal issue?" The one to answer Krune''s question was Dilo himself. "That''s not an issue. Just like me, anyone who decided to make a deal with the alchemist guild knows very well about the risks. But the prospect of not being able to cultivate anymore is scarier for me than death itself. So even if the pill turns out into something dangerous, I am willing to take the risk. Trust me when I say that all the other cultivators and demon beasts that sign a contract with the alchemist organization are more or less in the same boat." Krune sighed and didn''t say anything else. In the end, since the organization didn''t force anyone, it was their decision to whether it was worthy or not participating in this. Palo then added. Krune then asked. "Wouldn''t it be better to test it first with some common animal?" As soon as Krune made that question, he immediately understood that it was quite an idiotic one. "Forget what I said. How come pills made for cultivators and demon beasts could show any desired results in common animals? That would be ridiculous!" Lian nodded. "That''s right. This time around, we selected a Divine Soul Realm cultivator because we believe that your pill is at the One or Two Golden Stars Level. It would be a waste to use it on those below. As for the Soul Forging realm and higher, the effect wouldn''t be as apparent." Dilo looked at the pill bottle on Lian''s hand and asked. "That''s the pill, right? Can we start now?" Lian nodded and passed to Dilo two different pills. One of them was Krune''s Cultivation Estabilizing Pill. As for the other, it was a Pill to help Dilo achieve a breakthrough even though his Foundation is damaged. After all, if he doesn''t advance to the next stage, there will be no cultivation to be stabilized to start with. In Dilo''s case, if not because of this test of the alchemist organization, he definitely wouldn''t be able to afford the pill. Dilo took both of them and heard the explanation from Lian. After that, Lian''s subordinates connected a few pads close to where his dantian was located. They would be used to analyze the effect that Krune''s pill will have in the chaotic energy after the breakthrough. Lian looked at Krune and commented. "Dilo''s case is excellent for the type of pill we want to test. Because of his damaged Foundation, he will be in an even more need of your cultivation stabilizing pill than anyone with a healthy Divine Soul Realm Foundation would." Krune nodded and hoped that his pill would at least work as it should. Everything was ready, and Dilo immediately consumed the first pill to make his breakthrough. He then opened his Foundation for the others to see with their Divine Sense as well. This is something that Krune had also done back in the hotel beside the Katiu Forest, so it goes without saying that Dilo can do it too. Everyone noticed the burst of spiritual energy rushing inside Dilo''s Foundation. He then made his best to convert as much as possible of that into Elemental Source Energy. As mentioned before, Core Formation and higher realms need Elemental Source Energy instead of the Spiritual one. The pill that Lian gave to Dilo helped him to make that conversion at much higher speeds than he would normally be able too. That also compensated by the cracks in his Damaged Foundation that leaked the Spiritual Energy. Krune could see something that looked like a soul deep inside Dilo''s Foundation. That ''soul'' was absorbing all the Elemental Source Energy that was converted. ''That probably is what they call nascent soul.'' Still, Krune knew that it wasn''t the time to pay attention to that. A few minutes later, Dilo finally attacked the next stage''s bottleneck. With the help of the Alchemist Organization, everything went smoothly, and he successfully entered the 9th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. Dilo had been stuck at the 9th Stage for several years already, so everyone could see the happiness on his face. As expected, the spiritual energy inside Dilo''s Foundation was pure chaos due to his breakthrough. Not to mention that it was damaged to start with, which further increased the mess. Dilo''s happy face immediately changed, and he quickly ate the Cultivation Stabilizing Pill from Krune. Lian then commented. "If it works like a normal Cultivation Stabilizing Pill, we should see a stream of gentle Spiritual Energy soon. That energy will then mix with his chaotic energy and slowly bring it under control. Considering that the pill is probably a Golden Star type at one or two Stars Level, it should take Dilo around 1 hour for him to finish bringing his cultivation back to control. At least, with a standard pill, he would need that much." Krune and everyone else nodded. They had paid a lot of attention to the Cultivation Stabilizing Pills in the last two days, so they all got even more familiar with it. Sure enough, as Lian mentioned, a stream of Spiritual Energy entered Dilo''s Foundation. But there was one thing different about it. Palo couldn''t help but comment. "Is it me, or that Spiritual Energy is purple too?" Everyone nodded, they too were seeing the same thing. But it didn''t stop at the color alone. What happened next was what really surprised everyone. Suddenly, that ''gentle'' purple Spiritual Energy seemed to change into a roaring dragon! It then spread around Dilo''s cultivation as if it wanted to take it all for itself. Gentle was definitely the very last thing one could call it. "Not good, if this energy causes even more chaos inside his Foundation, his Dantian will probably explode!" Palo was just about to make a move, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him from doing so. It turned out that it was Krune who stopped him. "What you doing? He will die if I don''t act now!" Krune shook his head and said. "Don''t worry, he is fine." Palo was taken aback by those words. "What are you saying? Can''t you see tha-" Palo didn''t even have the time to finish rebuking Krune when suddenly, one of Lian''s subordinates shouted. "Look! Something is happening to Dilo''s chaotic energy." Palo once more focused his Divine Sense into Dilo''s Foundation, and what he saw made him feel like the was hallucinating. "How''s that possible?!" Lian''s eyes immediately lit up! "I see, so that''s how it is." Everyone looked at Lian, waiting for an explanation. "That roaring purple energy wasn''t going on a rampage as we thought. No, to be more specific, it did go on a rampage. But the target of its rage was none other than Dilo''s chaotic Spiritual Energy. It is eating it all! Also, look! The places where it finished devouring Dilo''s chaotic Spiritual Energy, all that was left was the purple Spiritual Energy. Still, it''s not doing anything. It''s just staying there as if waiting for Dilo''s next order." Krune then comment. "Well, this is a very overbearing way to stabilize his cultivation." The alchemists heard that and looked at Krune. They all thought the same thing. ''Wasn''t it you who made it? Why are you acting like a third party?'' Krune then heard Light Spirit making a comment about it. "What did you expect? Your purple fire exists because of my Tribulation Lightning! Do you really thing think that something created through the use of it would be ''gentle?'' Ha! What a joke!" Krune couldn''t help but agree with Light Spirit''s point of view. Everyone''s nervousness finally started to disappear. Of course, the most nervous one between them was none other than Dilo himself. Half of the sweat on his body was simply due to the fright that the Purple Spiritual Energy gave him at the start. "Holy shit! This purple thing almost gave me a hard attack!" Dilo''s chaotic energy kept being devoured by the purple one during the next ten minutes until there was nothing left. In the end, all that they could see was the Purple Spiritual Energy. Of course, now everyone, Krune included, was curious about what was different in the purple Spiritual Energy. But there was one person that thought about something else. It was Lian! "Hey, doesn''t it mean that instead of 1 hour, Krune''s pill finished stabilizing Dilo''s cultivation in a little more than 10 minutes?" Only then did everyone remember what that pill was supposed to do! "No, wait! We need to see what that purple energy is first! If it turns out to be something harmful, then it won''t matter how fast the stabilization was done." Everyone nodded, and they looked at Dilo. Dilo started to feel nervous once more. He had never heard about something like this, so he had no idea about what was going to happen. Still, there was only one way to find out. 250 I Can do Anything. Dilo then started to try to convert that purple energy into Elemental Source Energy. To his relief, there was nothing wrong with it. It wasn''t neither faster or slower than the common Spiritual Energy either. For him, that is already good news, though. "I can''t see anything different. I guess that as long as I keep its conversion, the purple Spiritual Energy will disappear and give place to the normal one again." Everyone was watching Dilo''s Foundation, so they knew that he wasn''t lying. But while Dilo was transforming that energy into Elemental Source Energy, something unexpected happened. "Hum...?" Because of his damaged Foundation, Dilo couldn''t stop the spiritual energy from leaving through the cracks on it. But the purple Spiritual Energy seemed to be an exception. Even though there was a lot of it close to the cracks, it simply didn''t go out. It was if the purple energy as a whole is glued to his Foundation, and it didn''t leave. "Oh! Such a good side effect. It might not have any use for those with healthy Foundations, but for someone like Dilo, it is indeed quite good." Dilo agreed with those words. "Indeed. I feel quite sad that I will run out of this purple Spiritual Energy in at most one hour. But there is no helping in it." As Dilo mentioned, he didn''t get any boost in cultivation speed. The fact that the purple energy didn''t escape his Foundation was only good for someone with a damaged Foundation like himself. Not to mention that it wasn''t infinite. The only reason that there was so much is that he just finished his breakthrough. Lian nodded and then said. "Still, we can confirm that Krune''s Pill is definitely a Cultivation Stabilizing Pill. It''s just that this thing is a little overpowered." Palo sighed after thinking about what happened. "Overpowered is really the perfect name for it. Only a Five Golden Stars Level pill or higher would possibly reach that speed. I wonder if I should promote you straight away to that Alchemist level." Krune immediately shook his head. "Better not. First of all, I don''t even know if I can recreate such a pill. Even if I can, there were way too many random factors that happened during its creation. I can''t possibly have my cauldron exploding every time I want to concoct a pill, right?" Lian agreed with him. "Krune is right. There is no doubt that it is a Golden Stars Level Pill. Still, for us to give him a Golden Star qualification, he has to be able to concoct pills at the Golden Stars level the usual way first." Palo pondered a bit and then suggested. "Then why don''t we carry the test now? Krune, do you think you would be able to create a lower level pill?" Krune thought about it and then nodded. "As for that one that Dilo consumed, I doubt I can make something like that again anytime soon. After all, there was also a lot of luck involved in the process as well." Lian and everyone else had to admit that Krune was right. They all saw the recording of the day that Krune made the Cultivation Stabilizing Pill. The fact that Krune even got a pill out of that situation is already a miracle to start with. Palo then said. "Alright, let''s leave Dilo alone for a while for him to get used to his cultivation. Just keep someone to monitor him in case something happens. I will bring Krune to the testing room to see if he can create a Golden Star Level pill, and then proceed with his qualification update." Lian also added. "For the time being, I will register this Pill in the system too. Since the effects of this Pill can also be achieved by normal Five Golden Stars or higher pills, it shouldn''t bring any problem to Krune. At most, cultivators or demon beasts that have their cores damaged might have some interest in it. The only difference is that the normal Pill does it gently, while Krune''s one uses ''force'' to achieve the same result." Palo then requested. "For now, leave Krune''s name out of the registering forms. It won''t be good if someone finds out that he was able to create a pill at the Five Golden Stars Level." Lian agreed with Palo, it would only give Krune more concerns instead of advantages. Not to mention that Krune participated in the competition under another name and appearance. If they suddenly use Krune''s information in the Pill, some sharper eyes might connect the points. Just as everyone was about to leave the room, something happened to Dilo. *Bleh!* Out of nowhere, Dilo vomited blood! Such a scene immediately alarmed Krune and everyone else. Palo immediately rushed to Dilo''s side and put a hand on his back. But after circulating his Spiritual Energy to check Dilo''s condition, his expression became weird. "What is it? Is something wrong with his body?" Palo shook his head. "There is nothing wrong with him." His words immediately puzzled everyone. Dilo then opened his eyes and said. "He''s not lying. In fact, I couldn''t be better!" Dilo then took a deep breath and said. "As you know, my Foundation is damaged and has quite a few cracks. Because of that, my meridians also got affected after so long. To prevent the damage from spreading, I usually cover the cracks with even more Spiritual Energy. But who could have thought that the Purple Spiritual Energy started to heal those cracks? It was so sudden that it affected my meridians as well." Krune and everyone else felt that to be unbelievable. They then immediately used their Divine Sense to see Dilo''s Foundation once more. Sure enough, the cracks were still there. Still, they could see them slowly recovering while the Purple Spiritual Energy was being consumed at great speeds. By the looks of it, there wouldn''t be enough Purple Spiritual Energy to finish the job, though. One of Lian''s subordinates couldn''t help but comment. "That doesn''t make any sense, how come a Cultivation Stabilizing Pill has the power to heal the Dantian Cracks? The Pill itself has nothing to do with it." Lian and the others quickly nodded. "That''s true, Krune''s Pill should really have nothing to do with healing. But then again, what about what we are seeing right now?" Krune pondered a bit and then said. "If I remember correctly, which I''m sure I do, one of the Cultivation Stabilizing Pill items is Kalag Herb. It just so happens that Kalag Herb is also used for several types of healing pills. Between them, a few are focused on healing the Foundation. Could it be the reason?" Lian, as a Three Diamond Stars Alchemist, immediately nodded. "Yes, I have concocted such pills before. But not only they need Kalag Herb, but there are also a bunch of other herbs necessary as well. I won''t deny that Kalag Herb''s healing properties are excellent. It is also its great power that has a great effect when used for a Cultivation Stabilizing Pill. But since when that herb alone became powerful enough to heal a cracked Foundation?" Palo then commented. "It''s probably a side effect of that Purple Flame. Somehow, it increased the healing properties of the Kalag herb several times. Think about it, it''s not only the healing properties, but the stabilizing effect is also a lot higher." Krune also added his piece. "That''s not all, because the Purple Spiritual Energy devoured all the chaotic energy, it became even stronger. Probably, it also enhanced the properties left behind by the Kalag Herb." Dilo didn''t care about anything like that. All he wanted at the moment was to use this chance to recover his Foundation as much as possible. Even though he wouldn''t have enough purple Spiritual Energy to finish it, he would still be able to recover more than half of it. This time, no one left, and they watched as Dilo used the purple Spiritual Energy until there wasn''t even a single spec left. After checking Dilo''s Foundation with their Divine Senses, they concluded that around 70% of the cracks were healed, leaving only the smaller ones behind. Dilo then looked at Krune and requested. "Sir, what would you require from me if I asked for you to make another one of those pills? As long as I make another breakthrough and use it, I should be able to fully recover. I''m willing to do anything as long as I can get one more of those pills." Krune was taken aback by that request. "Cough, cough. As you probably heard, the creation of this Pill was basically coincident pilled with a lot of luck. I won''t say that I won''t be able to make another one anymore, but at least I''m not at the level where I can accomplish it that easy." Lian and Palo nodded as well. Chances are that if Krune tries to do that again with his actual experience, he will get a different result altogether. Dilo then kneeled in front of Krune and begged. "As I said before, I already tried other pills that could fix a foundation. But none of them worked it the end. The alchemists all noted that the damage was too big! They said that it would be better to start from zero. The problem is that I have an average talent, and I was already over 200 years old when the accident happened. There is no way I could reach the Divine Soul Realm again by starting with such an old body, much less now that I''m 238." "I used all my money trying to improve my cultivation, I even accepted to be a guinea pig for pills test in the past like this one now. Everything so that one day I could find a way to fix my Foundation. So believe me when I say that whatever you want me to do, I will definitely do my best to achieve it!" Krune felt quite awkward with the situation. Krune really wasn''t lying when he said that he didn''t know if he could reproduce the effects of that Pill at the moment. Palo and Lian didn''t intervene. This is a request done to Krune and only Krune, they already gave their opinions before, so it wasn''t up to them to decide. In the end, Krune sighed and said. "I can give it a try, but I won''t guarantee anything. Also, it won''t be now since that Pill was created in quite a weird situation. I will need to get used to concoct with using the Burning Law before I try it again. If you are fine with waiting, then I can do at least this much for you. After all, it was you who took the risk to try my Pill anyway, it can be considered as the payment for your help." Lian and Palo nodded, at least Krune knew that he had a lot of practice to do before attempting that once more. Dilo thanked Krune and then asked. "I don''t mind waiting at all! But just so that I can have a notion, how long do you think you will need to get proficient with it?" Lian and Palo almost laughed at that question. Concocting using Laws is an arduous process, even with Krune''s talent, it will already be a miracle result if he takes around 10 years for it. If anything, they expect Krune to take at least 15 or so before that happens. Krune pondered a bit and then said. "One month should do." Palo and Lian fainted right there and then... 251 Worlds Overlapping Krune looked at the two bodies on the ground and got puzzled at that. He knows that nothing wrong happened, so how come the two of them fell like that? ''Is this perhaps another one of those humans habits? I better not get involved with it.'' Lian and Palo came back to themselves a little later and noticed that Krune was already gone. "Where did he go?" One of Lian''s subordinates then said. "He asked for one of us if he could go make the Alchemist Test while you were out. Ilin wasn''t doing anything, so he decided to bring Krune there for the time being. It has been just a few minutes, though." Lian and Palo looked at each other and immediately went to the testing room to take a look. Before leaving, he ordered the rest. "Keep a look on Dilo for now. See if no side effects will appear on him." Dilo was still on the room focused on adapting to his higher cultivation level, so he wasn''t paying attention to Palo and Lian. Once the two arrived at the testing room, Krune was in front of a monitor while scrolling through a list of herbs. It was evident that he hasn''t decided which pill he would try to make this time yet. "Why don''t you try to make another Cultivation Stabilizing Pill?" Krune noticed that it was Lian who asked that question. Palo was with him as well. "Oh, did you guys sleep well?" Liam and Palo almost fainted once more. ''Who the hell was sleeping? It was your fault that we ended up like that.'' Or so they wanted to say. "Cough, cough. Yes, it was very... comfortable. Anyway, forget that already. Are you really making a different pill?" Krune nodded. "If I select a different pill, I will be able to check other points of view." Krune then commented. "Oh, right! I was also thinking about the effects of that Cultivation Stabilizing Pill. In the end, I''m sure that the main reason for Dilo to get his foundation healed was because he had just made a breakthrough. Without that enormous amount of chaotic spiritual energy, it definitely wouldn''t be possible for the healing process to occur so well." Lian nodded. "Indeed, I also have the same thought. But in the future, you might want to create a pill that doesn''t have a need for it. After all, the Cultivation Stabilizing Pill shouldn''t be used to fix foundations. Oh, right! There is a pill used to heal foundations at the Two Golden Stars Level. Why don''t you try that one?" Krune''s eyes immediately lit up! "Great! Which one is it?" Krune nodded. "It will be that one then." Krune then started to prepared the materials while Lian discussed something else with Palo through Divine Sense. "I don''t know if we should register Krune''s Stabilizing Pill anymore. At the very least, I don''t think we should reveal its power to fix foundations." Lain continued. "As you heard from Dilo, it was true that he had tried other pills before. In fact, at first, he even had gathered enough Spirit Stones to buy a One Diamond Star pill. But in the end, it wasn''t enough to fix his foundation, and it returned to the same state as before. If we release the information that a pill at the Golden Star level has the power that a Diamond Stars one doesn''t, things might get ugly." Palo nodded. "Indeed. The worst part here is the fact that Krune''s pill wasn''t even supposed to have that effect to start with. But it will also look fishy if we don''t release any information what so ever. I will talk with Headmaster Amark to see what we should do." Lian agreed with him. "Yes. That is the best course of action. If such a pill appears in the market, maybe even the Alchemist Organization of our Solar System won''t be enough to keep Krune''s identity secrecy. At the moment, only me, you, the headmaster, and a few trusted members know about the pill effect." Palo then took that chance to leave. Since Palo was already at the Headquarters, it only took him a few minutes to arrive at Amark''s office. He had previously called ahead, so Amark was waiting for him there. "What is it? Is it about the explosion in the Junior Competition?" Palo had finally forgotten that episode, but Amark just had to remember him about that disaster. "Cough, cough. That isn''t about that. No, it does have a relation, but it is not the point." Amark got puzzled by those words. Palo then decided that it was better to simply resume the entire situation through a Divine Sense message. Finally, Amark''s stern face changed into one of disbelief. "You must be kidding, right?" Palo shook his head. "Every single word is true. You can even check the information from when Dilo made his Breakthrough." Amark then accessed the Alchemist Network and went through the entire information plus the video and analysis of Dilo''s Breakthrough. "This is troublesome..." He looked at Palo and asked. "How many know about his Pill''s effect?" "At this moment, there is Lian''s subordinates, me, you, Dilo, and Krune himself." Amark let off a sigh of relief. "Good, if it is just these ones, we can deal with it." Palo then asked. "Are you planning to keep the pill and the entire event a secret?" Amark immediately shook his head. "No! Alchemists create pills for them to be consumed. If we stop Krune from spreading his pills, it will go against the meaning of the occupation itself. We will divulge the pill and its effects, but only after we confirm that Krune can concoct it successfully. Also, we will only reveal the pill itself, we won''t disclose his identity. Pass my order to all involved that any word about what happened here today is strictly forbidden from being released." Palo nodded. "Oh, right! Krune is now trying to pass the Alchemist Test to see if he can achieve the Golden Star Level. It just so happens that this time, he is really concocting a pill made for fixing damaged foundations. So, it would be better to first wait to see if his pill will have that same effect. It might turn out that it will be even better since it really is a foundation healing pill." Amark nodded. "Indeed, that one was just a side effect, after all. Very good, for now, just make sure that everyone will keep their lips sealed. Wait for him to finish that new pill and check its effects. I believe it should be much better for repairing foundations than the other one. After all, the new one is really a pill made for this purpose. As for the Cultivation Stabilizing Pill, wait for the results of the new one he is making come out before updating anything in the system." Palo nodded and then returned to the room where Krune was trying to create a new pill. Amark watched Palo leaving and then thought. ''The only problem now is his background. If he doesn''t reveal it, I won''t be able to find anything. It''s quite common for the other Universes to forbid their young ones to reveal it. Unless I have a proper reason, the management of the Dalin Universe will not accept my investigation request.'' It was then that Amark had an idea. ''Right! He is still at the Core Formation Realm! I just need to use a blood contract to make sure he is telling the truth and simply ask if his background will cause any trouble to us. I don''t even need to know his background at all!'' With that plan in mind, Amark started to make a few preparations. Back in the alchemist testing room, Krune was still in the process of extracting the medicinal properties of the herbs. Sometime later, he finished the extraction process and started to use his purple flame together with the Burning Law to clean the impurities. ''As expected, it is still quite hard to control the Burning Law when I need to look at the concoction process at the same time. The world of Laws eliminates everything around me except the Laws that I can perceive, after all. If just I could see both sides at the same time...'' It was then that Krune got an idea. ''What if I control only one of my Rainbow Irises to see the World of Laws?'' Krune felt that it was worth a try and immediately focused on his right one. Sure enough, only his right iris could see the World of Laws while the left one kept seeing the normal world. If one looked at his irises now, they would notice that they were spinning in two different directions. While one was moving clockwise, the other following the opposite course. Krune couldn''t help but feel amazed by that view, though. ''The world of Laws and the normal world are overlapping with each other, it''s such a magical scene.'' But Krune knew that it wasn''t the time to pay attention to its beautifulness. ''Great! Like this, it will be a lot easier to control both sides at the same time! I believe it would be even easier to see both worlds if I was in my wisp form, though. Oh well, no point in thinking about it now. I will try it once I get back home.'' Palo and Lian, who were looking at the process, immediately noticed the difference. Krune''s sudden improvement in just a few seconds made them open their mouths wide! "This is already outside the realm of talent. Just what kind of monster is he?" 252 Im Here For Your Every Call Different from the Cultivation Stabilizing Pill, Krune had it quite easy to finish cleaning the impurities with the Shell Fixing one. ''Great! Last time, I didn''t have conditions of keeping using the Burning Law anymore after finish removing the impurities. But now, I should be able to finish the entire process with it. Since that''s the case, let''s try the Extreme Infusion technique right from the start!'' Krune then went through the entire concoction by using his Purple Flames, Burning Laws, and the Extreme Infusion Technique. Of course, he isn''t using it for just one minute, but for the entire process, so he still felt quite some burden. ''Fortunately, I''m not using as much Spiritual and Elemental Energy as before. Otherwise, I definitely wouldn''t be able to finish this. Also, the level of the pill will definitely not be the same as the Cultivation Stabilizing one.'' Krune was once more sweating all over when he finally reached the point he had to form the pill. But he was happy to see that there would be no such thing as an explosion this time around. ''Let''s form the pill!'' The medicinal liquid started to gather in the center of the cauldron, while Krune kept looking at the changes in both worlds. This time, he could see the possible mishaps, so he prevented it from happening. Not long after, three pills shot out of the cauldron just in time for Krune to grab them. "Success!" Krune then fell on his but after putting them inside a bottle. Palo and Lian could see just how tired Krune looked. But the simple fact that he finished the entire concoction process using his Law is already amazing enough. Alchemists like Kaio, Xaia, and Irken were already at the Divine Soul Realm when they learned their Laws. So it was a lot easier for them to control it. Not to mention that they also had a lot of experience. But what about Krune? This is only the second time he concocted using Laws. The second! And he already succeed! "Nice work! How was it? Were you able to finish the pill?" Krune stood up once more and gave the bottle to Lian to check. "I believe so. Considering that the minimal level for the Shell Fixing Pill is Two Golden Stars, I''m surprised myself that it went this smooth." Lian nodded and brought two pills out. He passed one to Palo and kept one for himself. They then checked it with their Divine Senses. "Sigh... almost reached the Three Golden Stars Level. To think that this is only the second time, you are really not leaving any face for us old geezers, uh?" Krune scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed. "It only thanks to all the information available in the Alchemist Guild that I could reach this level so fast. Also, without that extreme infusion technique, there is no way I could do something like this." Palo nodded and then said. Krune agreed with him. "I was already planning to do that anyway. The good thing is that concoction is helping me a lot to understand the Burning Law, so I intend to spend some time on it for the time being. But first, I have another thing to do before I start practicing alchemy again. Since I did not need to concoct a pill like that Cultivation Stabilizing one, Dilo doesn''t need to wait a month for me. Just give one of those Shell Fixing Pill, and let''s see if it works." The three then returned to where Dilo was and talked with him about the new pills that Krune concocted. Dilo, of course, immediately got excited. "You have tried several different Foundation Repairing Pills before, so you should already know that you will need a lot of Spiritual Energy together with it. Last time you used the Energy from the breakthrough, this time, you will need Spirit Stones Instead. Do you have any with you at the moment?" Dilo nodded. "Even though I have spent almost everything I had, I still always keep some with me for some emergency. It should be enough to test this pill." Lian nodded and gave one of Krune''s pill to him. Dilo had tried a Shell Fixing Pill before, so he could tell that this one was definitely different. The most eye-catching part was the purple hue on it, just like the Cultivation Stabilizing Pill from before. Dilo then sent some Spiritual Energy on it, and sure enough, a harmless purple flame also came out from it. This scene immediately increased his hopes that the pill would work. Just as Dilo was about to consume the Pill, Lian warned him. "As you can see, this pill is also different from the common one. So it will be the first time someone is trying it. If something happens, the Alchemist Organization won''t be responsible. Are you okay with that?" Dilo then laughed out loud and said. "There was no need for you to say that. I''ve been a guinea Pig for quite some time now, so I have nothing to lose anymore." He brought out all his remaining Spirit Stones and ate the Shell Fixing Pill straight away. Different from the Cultivation Stabilizing Pill, this one''s Energy went directly to the cracks on Dilo''s foundation. Just like before, it was also purple. Dilo then started to absorb the Spiritual Energy from the Spirit Stones and send where the cracks and the Purple Energy were. The Purple Energy and Spiritual Energy of the Spirit Stones mixed together and started to heal Dilo''s foundation. Just like before, Krune''s pill purple energy seemed to devour the Spiritual Energy like it was a beast. Once the healing process started, Lian, Palo, and Krune immediately noticed the difference. The healing power of Krune''s pill had indeed increased quite a bit. Don''t look down on this improvement. Krune''s Cultivation Stabilizing Pill was at the Five Golden Stars Level, at the very least. But the Shell Fixing one is still at the Two Golden Stars level. The fact that its healing power is already higher while being at a lower level is proof that this pill was really made for this use. In the end, the Cultivation Stabilizing Pill was really a lot better for its original use instead of the side effect. Krune smiled after seeing that it worked. ''Fortunately, I didn''t have to spend an entire month to get used to the Burning Law. This Shell Fixing Pill already did the job. The good thing is that I really don''t need to repeat that process from the Alchemist Competition.'' Finally, the last crack on Dilo''s foundation closed up. With that, the Pill effect also disappeared. Dilo opened his eyes and felt like giving a roar. Immediately after, an explosion of Spiritual Energy came out from Dilo''s body. Lian and Palo quickly noticed what was happening. "He''s breaking through into the Soul Forging Realm! Quick, send him away, we can''t have the Tribulation Fire falling right in the middle of the Headquarters." Palo knew that it wasn''t Dilo''s fault. After consuming so many pills without being able to advance in Cultivation, it goes without saying that Dilo''s body accumulated a lot of medicinal power from those pills. Now that his foundation is repaired, it all came back at once. If he tried to hold all that energy, Dilo''s foundation might explode right there and then. Palo quickly opened a Spatial Gate and threw Dilo inside. There was still some time before the Tribulation arrived, so it was enough to send Dilo somewhere safe for the breakthrough. Palo looked at Krune after and asked. "What to take a look? I can bring you there, as well." Krune pondered a bit and nodded. "Sure, I''ve never seen a Soul Forging Realm breakthrough. This is a good chance to take a look." Krune also followed inside. Because the place wasn''t too far, even Palo could open a Spatial Gate with his Cultivation. Elder Lagan was only necessary because Riren Planet was quite some distance away. As soon as Krune appeared on the other side, he noticed the Tribulation Fire Clouds in the sky. As mentioned before, Dalin Universe uses Fire Tribulation instead of Lightning. Palo appeared beside Krune and said. "Seems like he will be fine, the amount of medicinal energy accumulated in his body during all this time should be enough for him to surpass it." Krune nodded and looked at the fire covering Dilo''s whole body. Sure enough, it was who knows how many times stronger than the one that hit Ruik. But with Krune''s Divine Sense, he could at least tell that Dilo was doing quite well by himself. All the medicinal energy that was overflowing in his foundation was being used to resit the fire. In the end, Dilo was able to succeed in his Tribulation without any significant problems. He then stood up once more and took out some clothes from his Spatial Ring. It goes without saying that his previous clothes were reduced to ash! Palo nodded and then opened a Spatial Gate again. "Let''s first return to the Headquarters, we can talk after that." Once they were back, Dilo immediately kneeled once more for Krune. Krune, of course, couldn''t stand it anymore and begged Dilo to stand up. Only after several tries, Dilo agreed with it. "There is really no need to go that far. I told you before, this would be the payment for your help with the first pill." Dilo shook his head. "There is no such thing as payment, both Pills were the reason that I restored my Cultivation. I wasn''t lying when I said that I would prefer to die than not being able to cultivate anymore. So, from this day onwards, I''m here for your every call." Krune started to sweat. "Cough, cough. There is really no need for that, trust me, it''s okay. Besides, following a Core Formation Realm weakling like me around won''t bring you anything good." Dilo couldn''t disagree more. He is sure that someone like Krune will definitely rise in the future. He wasn''t lying when he said that he has an average talent. If he doesn''t take this chance now, he is sure to regret it in the future. Not to mention that he really is grateful because of what happened! "It doesn''t matter what you say, I have made my mind." Krune could already feel the headache coming his way. 253 Amarks Regre After that event, Krune went to see Amark Guli. "Krune, as you probably noticed already, your pills have that weird purple flame effect to them. There will be a need for you to create more pills to test it out, but at first, it seems like any pill you make like that has its effects increased several times. Not to mention the side effects that might occur. So, let me ask you, can you tell us how did you create it?" Krune nodded and then shook his head. "I have no issues to explain to the whole process regarding alchemy, but if you ask me how my purple flame is made, I''m afraid that this isn''t something I can tell. If you are fine with just the concoction process, then I don''t mind talking about it." Amark Guli shook his head. "Then, there is no need. Lian and Palo watched the whole thing when you created the new Shell Fixing Pill. Other than the purple flame, there wasn''t really anything new to it. Your extraction method might be something hard or impossible for others at your level. Still, it is quite easy for Diamond Stars and above. As for the Law of Burning and the Extreme Infusion technique, we can replicate that as well as you." Krune agreed with Amark, other than his tribulation purple flame, there really wasn''t anything ''new'' to his concoction. It is thanks to his various perks that he can achieve the other requisites that only higher level alchemists should. Also, at the Core Formation Realm, Krune can do things that even peak Peak Divine Soul Realm Alchemists will have difficulty. But when you think about alchemists like Lian, Palo, and the Headmaster Amark. Anything that Krune did, they could do as well, and do it much better too. "I''m sorry. But it is related to a secret technique from my background. Even if I wanted to tell you, the seal put into protecting this information wouldn''t allow me to say anything." Krune was obviously lying right there and then. What seal? What background? He doesn''t have anything like that. Or better, he does have a background, but it meant nothing in a place like this. If anything, he arrived at the Dalin Universe illegally to start with. If he tells anything about his Tribulation Lightning, others might connect the dots and find out that he came from the Luvile Universe. That definitely wouldn''t be good. At the moment, Amark and the others can tell that Krune''s purple flame seems to have the power of tribulation. But this is nothing new. A lot of cultivators and demon beasts can use the elemental tribulation powers. Especially in a place like this that receives those from several different universes with different elemental tribulations. "In that case, I want to ask you another thing. Would your background cause any problem to our Rimeria Solar System Alchemist Organization?" Krune almost laughed at that question. Cause any problem? If the Divine Path Sect really found a way to cause a problem in the Dalin Universe, it would be a wonder if it would still exist a week later. Of course, Krune didn''t show his thoughts on his face. "They won''t, I can guarantee you that." Amark then asked again. "Would you swear it on a Blood Contract?" Krune immediately nodded. Amark then wrote a contract while Krune checked the terms and confirmed that it was only related to the previous question. Krune signed it, and the contract burned. It then put a seal on Krune''s soul, which lost its effect right after since its requirements were achieved straight away. Amark saw that and let out a sigh of relief. He might not want to deal with Krune''s background, but he had to at least confirm that it wouldn''t bring any harm to his organization. Now that the Blood Contract proved that Krune wasn''t lying, he wouldn''t need to care about where Krune came from anymore. "Alright, let''s go back to the main topic. Once we publish your Shell Fixing Pill, you will receive a few requests at first. Those requests are, without a doubt, just the other Solar Systems trying to test your new pill. But once they confirm its effect, I can guarantee that we are going to be bombarded with requests from everywhere. So we need to make some preparations first." "As you know, Dalin Universe receives cultivators and demon beasts from all other great universes. Such things like damaged foundations happen all the time. If we take Dilo as an example, his foundation definitely wouldn''t be able to be repaired without a peak Diamond Stars Level pill or above. But just how many can even afford such a pill? Let''s not even talk about the materials necessary to create it." "Simply put, those whose background thought that it wasn''t worth spending this much on them will definitely come after your pills. Of course, there are also the ones that don''t even have a strong background to start with. After all, it is, without a doubt, a Two Golden Stars Pill. It is who knows how many times cheaper than a Peak Diamond Level." "But what I''m really concerned at the moment is that the other powers will definitely try to find who made them. Not only that, but I''m also almost 100% sure that they will try to kidnap you so that your secrets can be revealed. That is what makes me really afraid." "Our Rimeria Solar System has just so much power. Compared to the powers in the center of the galaxy, we are nothing more than ants. Let alone those at the center of the Dalin Universe. That''s the main reason I called you here." Krune was already sweating cold. He knew that his pill was good, but he didn''t expect that it could bring such big waves in the Alchemist World. "That... Should I not concoct pills using my purple flame anymore, then?" Amark shook his head. "No, that would be against the will of the Alchemist profession. Which alchemist would ever feel happy knowing that they can''t concoct because of such bullshit? We, alchemists, concoct pills to be used! I would never accept another result!" Krune felt a little embarrassed by those words. That''s because he definitely doesn''t care that much for alchemy. Until now, he thought that his pill method would simply bring him more money, which would then help him buy the Mind Splitting Technique and keep his cultivation expenses. As for the will of the alchemists, he really didn''t think about it at all! Of course, Krune didn''t say it in front of Amark. "Then, what do you have in mind?" Amark''s fire immediately disappeared after hearing that question. "Sigh... I can only think about one answer. You will need another background strong enough to prevent anyone from having any ideas about your alchemy talents." Krune was taken aback. Where the hell would he find a background capable of stopping even the powers controlling the center of the Dalin Universe? He already did his research about the Rimeria Solar System and where it stands when you consider the entire Dalin Universe. Amark wasn''t lying before, their Solar System is really nothing more than an ant. They don''t have even a single Divinity Realm cultivator or Demon Beast overseeing it. As for Semi-Divinity, there wasn''t more than 30 or so. Elder Lagan and Amark just so happen to be two of them. That was also why the Alchemist Organization had a strong foot in the Rimeria Solar System. After all, how many powers here have a single Semi-Divinity Realm? Let alone two. It wasn''t that no one cultivated to reached that realm here before. But that once one enters the Divine Path Realm, they can totally leave and join a stronger power from another place. They will then have more cultivation resources and access to better conditions. People Like Lagan and Amark, who decided to stay, are extremely rare. "Does it mean that you want to use my concoction skills to find a power that I can join?" Amark shook his head. "Before I talk about it, there is something else that we need to discuss." Amark showed a helpless expression and said. "You might take this as us being shameless, and I won''t deny it. Before you showed your new concoction method, we couldn''t give you more than an in name position in our headquarters. And yes, the reason for that is the wisps'' life span. With so much to live, it normally wouldn''t be worth the resources spent." "But it is different now. As long as you have the right power behind you and your purple pills, you don''t even need our help to start with. So if you decide that you want to leave, I can arrange for you to travel to another Solar System with a bigger Alchemist Organization. I will simply take this as the punishment for our blindness. I swear on the name of the Alchemist Organization that I will keep my word regardless of your decision." Krune smiled when he heard that. It would be a lie if Krune said that he didn''t think about it. From the moment that his purple pill effects were confirmed, he obviously noticed the change in attitude. If Amark pretended that nothing happened and simply decided to help him now, he would have declined whatever options he brought forward. But who are we talking about? It''s Krune, of course! The same wisp that always thought that almost anything can be resolved as long as a sincere apology is given. Especially now that Amark brought the issue out himself. The fact that Krune didn''t need to point out their mistake was more than enough for him now. "There is no need. I will stay with the Rimeria Solar System Alchemist Organization. But there is one thing that is a must, my identity secrecy has to be kept." Amark''s mood immediately brightened, and he nodded. "But of course. In fact, for my method to work, your name and appearance have to be hidden to start with, or it won''t do." Krune nodded and then waited to hear the Amark''s plan. 254 Wisp Protection Amark then started to explain. "Do you know the wisp world?" Krune was taken aback by that question. "Of course, I''ve heard about it, and I did my own research. Usually, any wisp that got the means would move there. I heard that there might even be Soul Forging Realm wisps there." Amark nodded. "That''s correct. The background that we need to get is none other than the wisp''s world." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "But that doesn''t make sense. The highest level wisp there is probable only Soul Forging Realm. Who knows? Maybe there might be a concealed Void Breaking one. Still, this far from enough to pose any threat to any big power of the Dalin Universe. Why would you say that I should get their help?" Amark answered Krune''s question with another question. "In that case, why does a planet get to be governed by wisps since they are so weak? The Dalin Universe planets are basically all occupied. The reason we never run out of resources is that all the Great Universes keep resupplying it. Even in our Rimeria Solar System, there isn''t a single place without at least a few Divine Path Realm cultivators or demon beast. So why? Just why is there a planet governed by wisps, and no other power tries to take it over?" Krune went silent. Amark then continued. "That''s not all. Tell me, where is the wisp''s planet located at the moment?" Krune immediately answered. "Takave Galaxy, South East quadrant, Orluke Solar System." After Krune answered, he immediately noticed something. "Wait, Takave Galaxy... Isn''t that one of the galaxies close to the center of the Universe?" Amark smiled. "Correct. Once more, I ask. How come a race in which their strongest cultivation is at the Soul Forging Realm like the wisps can govern a planet in that place?" Krune didn''t know what to say. But his mind was working like never before. ''Right? That doesn''t make sense! There should be no way that the wisp race can have a planet only for themselves close to the center of the Universe? It would already be a miracle if they had one at the outskirts, let alone in the center.'' Amark then continued. "That''s not all. Although everyone knows about the wisp world, the fact is that the other planets in the Orluke Solar System are also in their hands. After all, if you think about all the wisps that decide to travel there from the whole Universe, a single planet really isn''t enough. Even with their small life spans, it would still gather a gigantic amount. Ther is even a lot of purposely made dimensional realms that are used to make more space." "That means that the wisps have control over an entire Solar System near the center of the Universe, and no one tries to take it away from them." Krune nodded. Amark nodded. "Exactly! But this is as much as I can tell you. Even I have no idea why the wisp world has this special status with their weak power. But wisps backed by the wisp world indeed have it quite easy outside. Of course, there is a rule for that. Once you get their help, you must not misuse it. Any wisp caught trying to use the wisp world''s name for their own benefit will immediately get expelled and pursued. But that shouldn''t be a problem for you with your personality." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "So how exactly I get their help?" Amark then explained. "First, you must be a wisp. That is the number one absolute rule. No other race can get it. But this is obviously not a problem for you since you are one. Second, you will need to pay a visit to the Orluke Solar System. Open the link that I will send to your communicator." Krune received the link and opened it straight away. "As you can see, any wisp that arrives at the Orluke Solar System will automatically be under the wisp world protection. The only exceptions are wisps that had previously committed some crime or something like that. The wisp world is not there to help criminals. It is there to help wisps that just want a peaceful place to live." "But there is a problem. That protection will only be valid as long as you stay inside the Orluke Solar System. Once you go out, the wisp world will have nothing to do with you anymore. As you can imagine, this is not what we want. That''s where the second option comes in place. The talented wisp protection law from the wisp world. You can also check it in the link that I sent you." Krune then looked for it and finally found the page describing that law. It turned out that wisps who have incredibly high talents can apply for this protection. The reason was very simple. Wisps have very limited life spans, so wisps that can enter the Divine Soul Realm are hard to find, let alone the legendary Soul Forging Realm ones. The wisp world needs wisps that can live for a long time (considering the wisp life span) so that they can take care of it in the future. But for a wisp to cultivate to that realm, they need to go out and experience life. With the absolute protection in the Orluke Solar System, a wisp has very little chance of getting that, which will then retard the progress of even the talented ones. That''s where the protection law comes in place. It is a safety guarantee for those wisps that have a chance of reaching the Divine Soul Realm and help with the wisp world management in the future. "I see, so I need to apply for this protection. Once I do that, I shouldn''t worry too much about anyone aiming to get the secret of my pills, right?" Amark nodded. "Also, you can stay here too. We can keep your secrecy, and no one will try to reveal it once we state that you are under the Wisp Protection Law. All that they will be able to see is your ''Jolk'' alias and your changed appearance in the system. Only Yilio and Ramon know your real name and appearance, and we already arranged for them to keep it a secret. As for the other members of your Alchemist Organization Branch, we took care of that already." Krune was quite satisfied with Amark''s preparations. After that, he asked another thing. "But if the wisp world is all the way to the center of the Universe, how do I get there and come back after? Also, how do you know that I will come back? After all, I could simply stay there forever if I wanted." Amark laughed and said. "If you decide to stay there forever, then so be it. I can only say that my Rimeria Solar System Alchemist Organization wasn''t fated to have you in our ranks. As for how to get there, this is a very simple question." Amark then sent another link to Krune. "As you can see, our Dalin Universe is packed with cultivators and demon beasts from other Universes. So it goes without saying that they need a way to move around fast and easily. Because of that, every galaxy has lots of super high distance teleport formations that connect everywhere. The closest one just so happens to be around 17 solar systems away. Elder Lagan can take you there in a blink of an eye." Amark added. "Right, it would be good if we send someone with you for protection until you reach that place. Although you probably won''t take more than a week to arrive, it is always good to be safe." Krune immediately shook his head. "There is no need. I will not be using my Jolk alias, so I should be fine by myself. I don''t intend to make pills during this time either, or at the very least, not make my special ones." Amark nodded and didn''t insist. He had already taken care of all possibilities of someone finding Krune''s real identity, so the extra protection was really just a formality. "Very well. Do not tell anyone that you are Jolk. That will be the identity that we will use in the future, after all." Amark then asked. "When do you plan to depart?" Krune pondered a bit and said. "I have a few things that I want to do, so I''m not sure at the moment. But I will let you know once I''m ready." "Very well. You have Palo''s contact number, and he was going to stay in the Riren Planet for the time being anyway. So you can contact him anytime you think is good enough." Krune nodded. After that, Krune and Amark discussed a few more things, and then Krune left. Palo and Krune entered a spatial gate that elder Lagan opened for them, and they returned to Riren Planet. Krune bid farewell to Palo and returned to his Hotel to talk about everything to Feifei. 255 Travel Plan After returning, Feifei was the only one still in the Hotel. When Krune arrived, he could feel that her cultivation was getting even closer to the next level. ''It seems like this Formations Master competition helped her quite a bit.'' Feifei noticed Krune''s presence and stopped her cultivation. "Oh! You are finally back. You have been out for almost an entire week." Krune nodded. "At first, it was supposed to take only two to three days. But because of a few things that happened during this time, it took longer. Anyway, let me tell you what happened." Krune then started to explain everything. How he found out that what he could see were Laws, how he did grasp the Burning Law, How his World of Laws is very clear. Krune also told her about the thing that happened to his pills and how they got a weird purple flame effect. In the end, he finished telling Feifei about Amark Guli''s plan to take the wisp world as his backing. Feifei got more and more impressed as she heard more about it. "I see, so that thing that you could see was Laws. Well, I was already expecting that much anyway. In the end, you comprehended a law while being two stages lower than me." Krune was taken aback by that. "Wait, do you mean that you..." Feifei nodded. "It was something I got from the time we were in that Dimensional Realm where the assassins appeared. Do you remember that I told you about the projection of a past Heavenly Destiny Core Fragment?" Krune nodded. "That''s the reason. I didn''t want to tell you since I thought that it would act as a bad example. As you probably found out already, everyone''s first Law is quite a personal thing. So I decided to keep quiet until the day you found one by yourself. But to think that you learned it while you were two stages lower than me, and you didn''t have any help as I did. That''s really impressive." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Which Law did you understand?" "It''s one related to the Destiny Major Law. The initial stage of the Cause Law. Well, from what Xanio told me, there are only three laws related to the Destiny Major Law. Cause Law, Effect Law, and Destiny Energy Law. When the three of them are fused, you will get hold of the Destiny Major Law." Krune understood what Feifei meant. "I see, even though there are only three ''sub-laws,'' they are who knows how many times harder to understand than any elemental law, correct?" Feifei smiled and nodded. "Yes. Ever since I used the projection of the Destiny Heavenly Fragment to understand the initial stage of Cause, I''ve been stuck at it since then. I can''t even see when I''m going to advance to the intermediate stage. But I''m not in a hurry, Xanio told me that it will be already a miracle if I understand the whole Cause Law by the time I reach the Void Breaking Realm." Feifei continued. "Of course, understanding the Cause Law was not without advantages. Destiny Major Cores are good at prediction, and understanding a Law related to it has increased my prediction abilities by leaps and bounds." Krune didn''t mind if it didn''t. He can understand just how difficult it would be for Feifei to go ahead with this Law. "That''s okay, take your time. It is not like you can''t understand other Laws for the time being, either." Feifei agreed with him. "Exactly. That''s what I''m doing at the moment. Since I''m completely stuck at the Cause Law, I started to comprehend Water Laws too. For now, I also learned the initial stage of the Flow Law, which I have to admit that is a lot easier than a Destiny Related Law." Krune then said. "That is indeed the best course of action. I also have to take a look at the other Laws since I can''t focus on only one." Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "Why can''t you?" Krune then explained. "This is also something to do with how I''ve been doing things. I''ve never focused on a single element before. The only reason my Lightning Element is stronger than the others is simply that the Tribulation Lightning influences it. But thanks to the Elemental Regulation Technique that Master passed to me, the difference between them isn''t that great anymore." "If I comprehend just one or two, the other elements that I''m used to using will definitely lag behind. In that case, I might as well comprehend all five at the same time. Oh, right! I intend to save money for the Mind Splitting Technique. That way, I don''t need to focus only on one or two each time." Krune then showed the Mind Splitting Technique that was available to buy. Feifei couldn''t help but feel quite interested in the technique as well. She, too, has quite a strong soul. So it shouldn''t be a problem for her to learn it. But when she looked at the price, she almost passed out! "This is ridiculous!" Krune laughed out loud when he heard that. "Right?! I also shouted when I saw it. But that is the price, and I do believe it will be worth it. Also, I''m quite confident in being able to make this money once I start concocting my special pills." Feifei then decided to ask. "We were supposed to go take a mission after our competitions were over. Should we delay it and go pay a visit to this wisp world first then? I admit that I''m also very curious to see how that place is." Krune pondered a bit and then said. "If we go, I would like to bring Ruik with us. He had been taking care of the wisps back in the Luvile Universe for way longer than I did. I''m sure that he will definitely want to see this place too. Besides, we might take a look at the mission hall and see if there is something that we can do on the way there." Feifei nodded. Because of all the teleport formations, the mission hall tasks weren''t focused on the Rimeria Solar System only. It is really possible that they can find something useful to do on the way there. As long as they can get some combat experience, that will be fine. "But before that, give me some time, I want to get used to my Law and take a look at a few things first." Feifei nodded. "Of course, I''m also in the middle of my cultivation, so I can wait as well." Krune then used his communicator to send a message to Ruik and Tiane, who were out in a mission. A few minutes later, he received an answer from Ruik. "We should be back in around a week. Do not go without me! I want to see the wisp world too!" After that, Krune and Feifei enjoyed each other''s company for a little while, and then Krune returned to his room. There was one thing that was making him really curious and that he had been wanting to try. ''Light Spirit said that I should gather some Tribulation Lightning and try to see the World of Laws with it. He said that I would get quite a surprise at that moment. But first, let''s try to see the World of Laws in my wisp form.'' Krune then transformed back and entered the World of Laws. Light Spirit noticed Krune''s actions and also used their connection to see what Krune was seeing. "Oh... The way that you perceive the World of Laws in your wisp form is even clearer." Krune was already expecting that Light Spirit would appear at this moment. "Indeed. My Rainbow Irises are nothing more than a reflection of my real vision as a wisp. It goes without saying that my view of the World of Laws is quite better while in my original form." In his wisp form, Krune tried to take a look at the Fire Laws. Sure enough, with his 360-degree vision as a wisp, it was a lot easier to perceive the gaps where the other Fire Laws appeared. Krune then stopped paying attention to Fire laws and paid attention to Feifei''s room direction. There, he could see the ripples of the Water Laws that she was practicing. ''Indeed, any other elemental law is still fully open for me to see.'' Light Spirit then reminded him. "Alright, go ahead and take a look at the Tribulation Lightning within the World of Laws. Make sure that your next Law is related to it." Krune nodded and gathered the Tribulation Lightning power around him. Sure enough, it was as Light Spirit said. When he looked at it through the World of Laws, he really got quite a shock. 256 Difficult to Control It turned out that the Snake Clan appeared once more. But this time, Krune was not there to help. In the end, Ruik made a quick deal with Tiane. He would do anything she wanted as long as she helped with the situation. Tiane immediately accepted the idea. Just like that, Ruik brought her close, and they pretended to have a relationship right there and then. Although Tiane was taken aback by that situation, she didn''t show it on her face, and ultimately, they were successful in driving the female Snake that came this time around. Once things were finished, the two immediately separated, and Tiane used her favor straight away. For one entire month, Ruik had to do whatever she said. If not, she didn''t mind contacting the Snake Clan, telling them the truth. Ruik might be the way he is, but he still knew how to repay favors. Since then, Ruik had been there for Tiane''s every call. That is also why he looked so gloomy. Krune and Feifei heard that and were speechless. "Well, I guess this is fine since he got away from the Snake Clan once more." Krune then ignored Ruik and proceeded to explain the situation about the travel to the wisp world. "So, we were basically waiting for you two to come back to see if we could start our travel. According to Amark Guli, it will probably take a few weeks to go there and come back. If any of you want to stay during this time, that''s good as well." Ruik immediately agreed with the idea. "I want to go, I wish to see how the wisp world is too." Tiane also accepted it. "Since Feifei is going, I''m definitely following. When are we departing?" Krune pondered a bit and said. "Well, I will need a few more days before that. So you can spend your time whoever you like. I will contact you three when I''m ready to go." Ruik and Tiane nodded. The four of them talked about a few more things, and then Krune and Feifei returned to their rooms. Ruik then got up and was moving to his room to take another nap when suddenly, Tiane called him out. "Alright. Ruik, I''m going to buy a few things, come to help me out." Ruik''s mouth twitched, but due to their agreement, he still had over three weeks to keep hearing what she says. "Okay." Tiane showed an angry face. "Okay?" Ruik almost exploded, but still hold himself back. "Y-Yes, Lady Tiane." Tiane smiled and then nodded. "That''s more like it, be a good little snake and come with me." Back in Krune''s room, he started to comprehend the Flash Annihilation sub-law again. That is the reason why he asked for a few more days. ''I few that I''m close to success. Once I understand the initial Stage, I will be able to use it in my Tribulation Lightning. As for the other laws, they can wait for now.'' Time passed, and soon, five days went by. The reason is that two days ago, Krune finally got into the initial Stage of the Flash Annihilation Law. The following two, he had been trying to use it together with his Tribulation Lightning. But it turned out that it was harder than he thought. If not for the protection formation that Feifei raised in the house, Krune might have destroyed it already. "This thing is too hard. It''s like a ranging dragon!" Light Spirit Laughed hearing that. "It just means that your control isn''t good enough. Also, this is just the initial stage of one of the laws. The more you comprehend, the greater will be the changes in the Tribulation Lightning. Still, you should have no reason to complain." Krune nodded. Controlling the Flash Annihilation Law in the Tribulation Lightning had increased its power considerably. This isn''t the kind of power that one could gain in such a small amount of time, so Krune really had no reason to complain. "Anyway, you should stop now. Forcing the issue might turn things worse in the end. Just give yourself some time to get used to the Flash Annihilation Law." Krune nodded. "Alright, since that''s the case, we are almost ready to start our travel to the wisp world. There is only one last thing remaining." Krune then brought several spirit stones out and started to cultivate. Not too long after, all that energy started to convert into Elemental Source Energy and entered his Rainbow Core. Inside, the Divine Soul ''egg'' absorbed it all to the very last drop. After some time, a burst of Spiritual Energy came from Krune''s wisp body, and it looked like his ethereal body had grown a bit. "Phew, 7th Stage of the Core Formation Realm." Light Spirit gave a mental nod. "You have been in the 6th Stage for a very little time. But thanks to the first understanding of Laws, it gave you a quick temporary boost. It is well within the expectation that you would enter the 7th Stage by now." Krune agreed with him and then spent the next few hours to bring his cultivation realm under control. After that, Krune returned to his human form and put his clothes on. He took his communicator out and then sent a message to everyone. Feifei was cultivating in her room as well, so she immediately came out. As for Ruik and Tiane, it looked like the two were somewhere else. Or better, Ruik was still being forced to work for Tiane while following her. Still, they arrived around an hour later. Krune then made some food for everyone to eat together. "Alright! I finished what I had to do, so we can leave at any time. But since you waited for me to end my cultivation, if you have something to do as well, I can wait too." Feifei shook her head. "In my case, I was already expecting this, so I went to the Formations Master Organization branch and arranged my departure. Tiane is also part of the same branch, so she did the same." Feifei then noticed. "Oh! You entered the 7th Stage, nice!" Krune smiled at Feifei and then waited for Ruik to answer. Ruik looked somewhat tired. In the past few days, Tiane had forced him to do everything for her, so he had barely any time for his beloved naps. Yet, he also wanted to go to the wisp world. "If I''m not in a mission, then I''m simply free. So I''m ready anytime." Krune nodded and then explained a few more things before contacting Palo Yiag. "I see. So you are ready to go there. That is good then, I will contact Elder lagan to help bring you to the nearest Teleport Formation. Also, someone will be here waiting for you too. For now, just come to the place where we held the Junior Alchemist Competition." Krune agreed with Palo, and everyone left. Krune and Feifei passed by the Mission Hall first to see if there was any mission they could take on the way. Both of them wanted to get some combat experience to test their improvement in cultivation. "Let''s see, there are a few missions here for a 1st or 2nd Stage Divine Soul Realm cultivator or demon beasts. Considering my and Feifei''s level, it should be more or less enough for us to test our abilities." Feifei took a look at it and approved it. "That''s good. I will try not to use my destiny core skills so that we can get a proper test." Krune nodded, and the two of them quickly applied for one of the missions that were on the way to the wisp world. The employee on the counter was taken aback when he saw ''Wulia Feier'' and ''Jolk'' taking a Divine Soul Realm mission with their Core Formation Realm. He wanted to refuse their request, but in the end, supervisor Tarsa Fila intervened and accepted it. She knows Feifei and Krune combat strength, so it was evident that they selected something that they are confident about. Not to mention that they finally came to her Mission Hall. This was the first time ever since those two got their Mission Hall Qualification. Krune and his group did as Palo asked and went to the agreed place. After arriving, Elder Lagan was already there waiting for them. But he wasn''t the only addition, there was one more person waiting for them too. "Hello, Krune. We met again." It was none other than Dilo Krois! Krune saw him, and his mouth twitched. "I told you, there is really no need for you to follow me at all! Just go away and do whatever you like." Dilo then asked. "Are you sure I can do as I like?" Krune immediately nodded without thinking. "Then, I will do as I like and follow you." Krune felt like crying. That''s indeed what he said, but following him or acting as his subordinate wasn''t part of the deal at all! Elder Lagan then said. "You should keep him. At least, let him help you on your way to the wisp world. He can act as protection in case something goes out of control. We have been making deals for testing pills with Dilo for a long time. We also know his past, and I can guarantee you can trust him." Krune sighed and accepted it in the end. 256 See You Later! Krune noticed that it was pure chaos! Although the other Laws aren''t something easy to see and comprehend, that still looked something orderly. But the Laws surrounding the Tribulation Lightning that Light Spirit controlled could be called anything but orderly. Krune didn''t even know where to start. "Haha! Do you like it? That''s as hard to understand as it is to control." Krune couldn''t help but nod. It looked exactly as Light Spirit described. Not only that, but the Tribulation Lightning Laws also seemed to be in conflict with any other Law around it. It was as if it was forcing others to obey. No, it looked more like it was eating them. Light Spirit then pondered a bit and said. "Alright, I guess it''s not a problem to tell you about it now. As I have told you before, my Tribulation Lightning is something that I created, and so are the Laws necessary for it to work. You might as well call it the Purple Tribulation Lightning Major Law or anything like that." Krune was taken aback! "You created a Law that didn''t exist?!" Light Spirit agreed. "Correct. You have no idea how hard it was to create a Major Law from zero. It''s evident that I used Lightning as a reference, but the two of them are different from each other. For one, Lightning Laws are not in conflict with the other Laws, but my Tribulation Lightning is. Also, it wasn''t just Lightning Law that I used to create it." "And before you ask, it is different from the other tribulations from each Universe. Although all of them can be called Tribulations, they are not in conflict with their own Universes'' Laws. On the other hand, as you can see, my Purple Tribulation Lightning is." Krune then asked. "Why did you create it?" Light Spirit laughed and said. "Isn''t that obvious? I didn''t want to feel trapped by what was expected of me. It felt like a cage, a prison! I could only use and practice the Laws that were already there, and couldn''t get free doesn''t matter what I did. Can you understand it? After living for so long, you still couldn''t do anything different from the others?" "Sure, there were techniques that used the laws and elements to accomplish an unlimited number of results. But at the end of the day, they were all accomplished by following the previously set rules of the Universe that they are in. I didn''t want it! I refused to accept such an outcome!" "After who knows how many years, I was finally able to create my own Major Law, something that is only mine and mine alone. That is the Purple Tribulation Lightning that you are using and the same that is used in your home Universe by its villainous heavens. How could I not feel infuriated knowing that my own power is being used by another against my will? If just not because of that..." Light Spirit then suddenly stopped in his tracks. Krune was obviously impressed. Create your own Law instead of following the existing ones. The other thing is that Krune was finally able to hear a little bit about Light Spirit''s past, which isn''t something easy to happen. "One day, I wish I''m able to do something like what you did too." Light Spirit laughed once again after hearing that. "Well, you do have the talent for it, at least. But even so, it will be extremely difficult. But you shouldn''t care about it for now. After all, I only accomplished it long after ascending. Not to mention that at that time, I had fused almost all Major Laws, so you have a long way ahead." Krune nodded and then asked. "So, how many sub-laws your Purple Tribulation Lightning Major Law has? Also, what names did you give them?" Light Spirit then explained. "The sub-laws are: Flash Annihilation, which I used the annihilation Fire sub-law as reference. Charged Lightning Energy, which comes from my understanding of the common Lightning Energy Law. The next one is the Purple Tribulation Law. Any expert that sees my Purple Tribulation Lightning will feel the power of Tribulation from it. But they will also notice that it is not precisely the same. They are correct, my one is a little different, but it is hard to explain with words. You will have to comprehend this Law if you want to understand what is different from the others. Those three are basically responsible for the total destructive power of my Tribulation Lightning. The next is the Law Eating Law, in which the name is self-explanatory. As you probably already noticed, my Tribulation Lightning eats all the other laws around it. That is also why it can be used with any other elemental attacks of yours. Lightning Flow Law, which I used the Water sub-law, Flow, as reference. That''s also why you can make my Tribulation Lightning change direction as you wish. Have you noticed that common Lightning can''t change direction? Of course, other cultivators use their own ways to redirecting their Lightning attacks, but this is an innate ability for my purple Tribulation Lightning. It has no need for other means. Lightning Formation Law, which is responsible for keeping everything together. To be honest, this was the hardest one to create. Even though I had a base formula for the others, I needed something that would control all the chaos that you are seeing. That''s where it goes and is definitely the hardest one to comprehend." Krune paid attention to every single word. "Once you fuse all six together, you will have understood my Purple Tribulation Lightning Major Law, or whatever name you wish to call it. For now, you should start with the easiest one. Your objective is to get an initial understanding of the Flash Annihilation Law. It will also help you in the future when you try to comprehend the Fire sub-law, Annihilation." Krune nodded and then immediately tried to comprehend it. Since Light Spirit can see what Krune could, it helped Krune to at least differentiate the laws inside that chaos. Still, it was really complicated. Krune took only a few hours to get an initial understanding of the Burning Law. He was also confident that he wouldn''t need too long to do the same with the first sub-laws of other elements. But for Light Spirit''s Flash Annihilation, that was the difference between an ant and a dragon. They simply couldn''t be put in the same sentence. A few days later, Krune could only think about one thing. ''If the Flash Annihilation is the easiest one, then I don''t even want to see the Lightning Formation Law. Not to mention that this is the very first one, which was supposed to make things even easier.'' Krune then decided to ask Light Spirit. "If Flash Annihilation is already this hard, shouldn''t I comprehend the Lightning Formation Law first? Once I comprehend the initial level of the Flash Annihilation, it will make things even more difficult for the other five." Light Spirit immediately denied that idea. "It''s useless. You can spend years trying, but you will definitely not be able to understand the Lightning Formation Law first. Do you know why this Law was the hardest one to create?" Krune pondered a bit and thought about a possibility. "It''s because, without the other five, there is no way this one could exist in the first place, am I right?" Light Spirit confirmed Krune''s idea. "Smart! That''s correct, it could only be created after I finished the base of the other five. Can you imagine how hard it was to notice that I needed the others first? There was no one to tell me how many I needed so that I could create it. Hell, there was no one to tell that I even needed this Law in the first place. I don''t even want to remember that time anymore." "Anyway, you will need to comprehend the other five before you can even perceive the Lightning Formation Law existence. Remember, my Major Law is not something that existed before, so it obviously has its differences." Krune nodded and once more focused on the Tribulation Lightning Laws. A week quickly went by when Ruik and Tiane finally got back home after their mission. For some reason, Ruik looked very gloomy while Tiane had a bright smile on her face. Krune was eating something with Feifei at that time when they arrived. He then noticed Ruik looking at him as if asking for help. Krune, as a good wisp and the best friend ever, then said. "Oh! I need to go back to cultivate. I left some food for you two as well. See you later." Feifei, on the other hand, immediately rushed at Tiane so that she could hear all the details. As for Ruik, he decided to put Krune on his blacklist from now on. 257 Difficult to Control It turned out that the Snake Clan appeared once more. But this time, Krune was not there to help. In the end, Ruik made a quick deal with Tiane. He would do anything she wanted as long as she helped with the situation. Tiane immediately accepted the idea. Just like that, Ruik brought her close, and they pretended to have a relationship right there and then. Although Tiane was taken aback by that situation, she didn''t show it on her face, and ultimately, they were successful in driving the female Snake that came this time around. Once things were finished, the two immediately separated, and Tiane used her favor straight away. For one entire month, Ruik had to do whatever she said. If not, she didn''t mind contacting the Snake Clan, telling them the truth. Ruik might be the way he is, but he still knew how to repay favors. Since then, Ruik had been there for Tiane''s every call. That is also why he looked so gloomy. Krune and Feifei heard that and were speechless. "Well, I guess this is fine since he got away from the Snake Clan once more." Krune then ignored Ruik and proceeded to explain the situation about the travel to the wisp world. "So, we were basically waiting for you two to come back to see if we could start our travel. According to Amark Guli, it will probably take a few weeks to go there and come back. If any of you want to stay during this time, that''s good as well." Ruik immediately agreed with the idea. "I want to go, I wish to see how the wisp world is too." Tiane also accepted it. "Since Feifei is going, I''m definitely following. When are we departing?" Krune pondered a bit and said. "Well, I will need a few more days before that. So you can spend your time whoever you like. I will contact you three when I''m ready to go." Ruik and Tiane nodded. The four of them talked about a few more things, and then Krune and Feifei returned to their rooms. Ruik then got up and was moving to his room to take another nap when suddenly, Tiane called him out. "Alright. Ruik, I''m going to buy a few things, come to help me out." Ruik''s mouth twitched, but due to their agreement, he still had over three weeks to keep hearing what she says. "Okay." Tiane showed an angry face. "Okay?" Ruik almost exploded, but still hold himself back. "Y-Yes, Lady Tiane." Tiane smiled and then nodded. "That''s more like it, be a good little snake and come with me." Back in Krune''s room, he started to comprehend the Flash Annihilation sub-law again. That is the reason why he asked for a few more days. ''I few that I''m close to success. Once I understand the initial Stage, I will be able to use it in my Tribulation Lightning. As for the other laws, they can wait for now.'' Time passed, and soon, five days went by. The reason is that two days ago, Krune finally got into the initial Stage of the Flash Annihilation Law. The following two, he had been trying to use it together with his Tribulation Lightning. But it turned out that it was harder than he thought. If not for the protection formation that Feifei raised in the house, Krune might have destroyed it already. "This thing is too hard. It''s like a ranging dragon!" Light Spirit Laughed hearing that. "It just means that your control isn''t good enough. Also, this is just the initial stage of one of the laws. The more you comprehend, the greater will be the changes in the Tribulation Lightning. Still, you should have no reason to complain." Krune nodded. Controlling the Flash Annihilation Law in the Tribulation Lightning had increased its power considerably. This isn''t the kind of power that one could gain in such a small amount of time, so Krune really had no reason to complain. "Anyway, you should stop now. Forcing the issue might turn things worse in the end. Just give yourself some time to get used to the Flash Annihilation Law." Krune nodded. "Alright, since that''s the case, we are almost ready to start our travel to the wisp world. There is only one last thing remaining." Krune then brought several spirit stones out and started to cultivate. Not too long after, all that energy started to convert into Elemental Source Energy and entered his Rainbow Core. Inside, the Divine Soul ''egg'' absorbed it all to the very last drop. After some time, a burst of Spiritual Energy came from Krune''s wisp body, and it looked like his ethereal body had grown a bit. "Phew, 7th Stage of the Core Formation Realm." Light Spirit gave a mental nod. "You have been in the 6th Stage for a very little time. But thanks to the first understanding of Laws, it gave you a quick temporary boost. It is well within the expectation that you would enter the 7th Stage by now." Krune agreed with him and then spent the next few hours to bring his cultivation realm under control. After that, Krune returned to his human form and put his clothes on. He took his communicator out and then sent a message to everyone. Feifei was cultivating in her room as well, so she immediately came out. As for Ruik and Tiane, it looked like the two were somewhere else. Or better, Ruik was still being forced to work for Tiane while following her. Still, they arrived around an hour later. Krune then made some food for everyone to eat together. "Alright! I finished what I had to do, so we can leave at any time. But since you waited for me to end my cultivation, if you have something to do as well, I can wait too." Feifei shook her head. "In my case, I was already expecting this, so I went to the Formations Master Organization branch and arranged my departure. Tiane is also part of the same branch, so she did the same." Feifei then noticed. "Oh! You entered the 7th Stage, nice!" Krune smiled at Feifei and then waited for Ruik to answer. Ruik looked somewhat tired. In the past few days, Tiane had forced him to do everything for her, so he had barely any time for his beloved naps. Yet, he also wanted to go to the wisp world. "If I''m not in a mission, then I''m simply free. So I''m ready anytime." Krune nodded and then explained a few more things before contacting Palo Yiag. "I see. So you are ready to go there. That is good then, I will contact Elder lagan to help bring you to the nearest Teleport Formation. Also, someone will be here waiting for you too. For now, just come to the place where we held the Junior Alchemist Competition." Krune agreed with Palo, and everyone left. Krune and Feifei passed by the Mission Hall first to see if there was any mission they could take on the way. Both of them wanted to get some combat experience to test their improvement in cultivation. "Let''s see, there are a few missions here for a 1st or 2nd Stage Divine Soul Realm cultivator or demon beasts. Considering my and Feifei''s level, it should be more or less enough for us to test our abilities." Feifei took a look at it and approved it. "That''s good. I will try not to use my destiny core skills so that we can get a proper test." Krune nodded, and the two of them quickly applied for one of the missions that were on the way to the wisp world. The employee on the counter was taken aback when he saw ''Wulia Feier'' and ''Jolk'' taking a Divine Soul Realm mission with their Core Formation Realm. He wanted to refuse their request, but in the end, supervisor Tarsa Fila intervened and accepted it. She knows Feifei and Krune combat strength, so it was evident that they selected something that they are confident about. Not to mention that they finally came to her Mission Hall. This was the first time ever since those two got their Mission Hall Qualification. Krune and his group did as Palo asked and went to the agreed place. After arriving, Elder Lagan was already there waiting for them. But he wasn''t the only addition, there was one more person waiting for them too. "Hello, Krune. We met again." It was none other than Dilo Krois! Krune saw him, and his mouth twitched. "I told you, there is really no need for you to follow me at all! Just go away and do whatever you like." Dilo then asked. "Are you sure I can do as I like?" Krune immediately nodded without thinking. "Then, I will do as I like and follow you." Krune felt like crying. That''s indeed what he said, but following him or acting as his subordinate wasn''t part of the deal at all! Elder Lagan then said. "You should keep him. At least, let Dilo help you on your way to the wisp world. He can act as protection in case something goes out of control. We have been making deals for testing pills with Dilo for a long time. We also know his past, and I can guarantee you can trust him." Krune sighed and accepted it in the end. 258 Its on Purpose, Right? Elder Lagan then opened a Spatial Gate that connected directly to the closest Super Long Distance Teleport Formation. Dilo, of course, followed as well. Krune looked at him and then asked with a Divine Sense Message. "Just what is it that you want? It doesn''t matter how I see it, a Soul Forging Realm like you following a Core Formation Realm like me feels weird. There has to be a reason for that." Dilo smiled and said. "I wasn''t lying when I said that it was thanks to you that my life was saved. I really would prefer to die if I couldn''t cultivate anymore, so my gratitude is definitely not a pretense. But there is indeed another reason for that. You probably guessed it already too. I''m thinking about your future." Dilo felt like telling everything was the best way to go. "I have little doubt that with your talent in Pill Making, your future is very bright, even if you are a wisp. So other than repay for your help, I also want to be there to see that happen. Call it greed, shameless, opportunism, or whatever. I will definitely do as I say. Also, in case you don''t believe me, here''s my guarantee." Without anyone noticing. Dilo took a sliver of his soul and sent it on Krune''s way. Krune almost had a hard attack seeing that. He quickly took that and hid it before anyone could notice. "Are you crazy? This is the same as becoming someone''s slave! As long as I have your slive of Soul, I can totally kill you anytime. Just why would you trust me this much? We barely knew each other a few days ago." Dilo laughed and said. "Consider it my own gambling. Since I decided that I owe you my life, what is the difference between you having a sliver of my soul or not? If you feel like my life isn''t worth keeping, you might as well crush it. I, Dilo Krois, have never gone back on my word before, and I don''t intend to start now." Although Krune is an easy-going wisp, he would indeed have his reservations about Dilo. But the guy just had to give him a slive of his soul to prove his determination. Krune couldn''t help but remember the time that Wang Mei asked for the same thing. Didn''t he give her a sliver of his soul without thinking as well? In the end, Krune could only sigh. "Fine, I accept your determination." Krune then sent Dilo''s sliver of the soul back to him, just to have it be refused by the later. Krune was taken aback by that. "What you doing? I don''t want it, I decided to trust you for now." Dilo, on the other hand, was adamant. Krune was feeling gloomy already. He really didn''t like the idea of holding someone''s life in his hands. "Cough, cough. Can''t we just use simple communicators? You know, like any normal person or demon beast?" Dilo''s face didn''t even change. It was evident that he wouldn''t hear it. After a few more minutes of insistence, Krune finally gave up. He decided that he would find a way later to make Dilo accept it back. "Fine, I will hold onto it for now. But this is definitely not a permanent thing. Are you okay with that?" Dilo smiled and said. "That''s good enough. Oh, right! You can also use it to force me to do anything, even if I don''t want to." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "You are not a masochist, right?" Dilo almost vomited blood! "You are a masochist, your entire family is masochist!" Krune let out a sigh of relief. At least he was wrong about this point. The group of five then arrived at a planet called Gilea. There, Lagan guided them to the teleport formation that they would use. Because this is something that would benefit both the Alchemist Organization and Krune, the Organization had already paid for the entire trip. It goes without saying that a trip this far would be quite expensive, but Amark Guli didn''t care at all. "Amark had me spend the last week doing research about the wisp talent test. But in the end, there wasn''t much information available. So although we said that the round trip would take a few weeks, that is only the travel time. We are not sure about how long it will take for you to get into the wisp protection system. In the end, it is all up to you." Lagan then took two tokens out. One blue and another red. "You can show the blue token at the teleport formations of each planet. It will be considered as the payment fee. The managers of the teleport formations will then send the bill directly to our Solar System Alchemist Organization." "As for the red token, it has two functions. The first is that my will is inside it. You can use it to contact me anytime. Once you understand how is the situation there, please tell me how it is. Amark wants to know how long it will take as well." "The second function is that it can be used once as a protective talisman. The will that I left inside should have enough power to make one attack at the Divine View Realm Level. So make sure that you only use it in case you are really in danger. Still, you will be able to contact me even after the attack is executed. The only difference is that it won''t be able to do anything else other than being used as a way to talk with me." Krune accepted both tokens. Now that he thinks about it, his Master and Grandmaster also gave him a token each. Lani''s token used his understanding of the Space Laws to teleport anyone anywhere tens of thousands of kilometers always. Unless Krune was dealing with someone at the Divine View Realm or above, they probably wouldn''t be able to find him. As for his Master, Lucio, token, it had his will inside. Unfortunately, because they are indifferent Universes, it couldn''t be used for communication. Lucio told Krune to only awake the will inside if he got stuck at cultivation. He made it as a way to guide Krune while not really being there. The reason that Lucio asked him to use it as little as possible is that he doesn''t know how long Krune will be away. Although the will inside could exist for a very long time, it wouldn''t be forever. So the least Krune used it, the longer it would remain there. ''I probably will have to use it soon. There are a few things I need to ask about the Elemental Regulation Technique. It''s just that I have been busy with other things lately that I still didn''t call it out.'' Krune then put those thoughts behind and took both tokens from elder Lagan. "Thanks. Once I arrive there, I will make sure to contact you back after I find out how long it will take." Lagan nodded and then spent some time talking with Krune and everyone else. A few minutes later, he bid his farewell and left. Feifei, Ruik, and Tiane were now looking at Dilo, who was going to follow them from now on. Krune wasn''t the type to keep secrets unless it was really necessary. Since that was the case, he decided to tell everything Dilo and him talked about. "What?! Did he give you a sliver of his soul?" Ruik looked at Dilo and asked. "Are you crazy or something?" Dilo just laughed out loud. "That''s my decision, and also the fastest way to be trusted." Feifei then asked Krune. "Considering your personality, I thought that you definitely would give it back to him. How come you still have it?" Krune put a hand on his head and answered helplessly. "I tried. Trust me, I really did! But it doesn''t matter how many times I sent it to him, he kept refusing and sending his soul sliver straight back to me. I''m also in a tight spot here." Tiane, Ruik, and Feifei looked at Dilo and asked. "Are you a masochist?" Dilo smiling face immediately contorted. Krune nodded after hearing that question. "I thought the same, but he says he isn''t. I have my doubts, though. Perhaps this is a side effect of the years that he tested new pills for the Alchemist Organization." Dilo felt like dying already! How come they had the same idea as this wisp? It''s on purpose, right? Right?! Poor Dilo didn''t know that this was just a Krune infection. The rest of the group really couldn''t be blamed. 259 Stopping to Practice. Because super long-distance teleport formations consumed too much Spiritual Energy, they were activated only once per day. The cultivators and demon beasts had to gather around so that all of them could be sent to their own destinations at once. There were several teleport formations around, so Krune looked at his communicator to see which one was correct. "So, the first teleport will send us to the Marroke Planet. It should be around time for it to be activated, so let''s go there." Krune showed the blue token that Lagan gave to him to the guy overseeing the teleport formation. After using some kind of Spiritual Equipment, he let Krune and his group pass. Thirty Minutes Later, the place had around a hundred or so cultivators and demon beasts using the same one. Everything went well, and soon, Krune''s group appeared on a teleport formation on Marroke Planet. The Mission that Krune and Feifei took can be done on a planet called Hived, which is six teleport formations away. Because each teleport formation had its own time to be activated, Krune''s group took almost two days to arrive in Hived. Once there, they immediately left for the Mission. "So, according to the information, we need to take care of a group of bandits from the Tissin Territory. Usually, this kind of Mission would be taken by the cultivators and demon beasts of the same Planet. So I have no idea why they would send it to planets so far away." Feifei then said. "Who cares? This is not our problem. Not to mention that this is exactly what we needed. As long as I get to test my skills and get some combat experience, it will help a lot. I also want to test some water skills with the Flow Law that I learned." Krune nodded. For this Mission, only Krune and Feifei would be participating. "Dilo, you will also stay out, or it won''t even be a test to start with." Dilo nodded but made sure to keep his Divine Sense spread just in case. "Do we know where to go?" Krune nodded. "It seems like they are quite famous in this territory and even have a base. There are two cultivators there that seem like to have some backing. Otherwise, there is no way that they could keep a base out in the open, and no one did anything." Feifei nodded. "So, how are we gonna do it?" Krune thought a little and suggested. "Should we go all out in a frontal attack?" Feifei laughed out loud. Krune seemed to be very confident about his abilities now. "Sure, why not? If they were just common cultivators and demon beasts, I would go easy on them. But since it is a group of bandits, I won''t hold back at all." Krune also nodded and decided to do the same. But he will keep his moto of not killing. His plan is to simply destroy the bandits'' cultivations. Human and Demon beasts without Spiritual Energy won''t be a cause of danger to anyone. "And what about this backing that they have? From what you showed me in the information, the leaders are two youngsters at the 1st and 2nd Stages of the Divine Soul Realm. Both of them are under the age of 30, so they definitely have some clan, sect, or something behind them." Krune shrugged his shoulders and said. "This is not our problem either. Once we finish the Mission, we will go back and teleport to the next Planet. There, if we have enough time, we will report the mission conclusion through the Misson Hall Network. Any side effects of this operation will be up to them to deal with." Dilo couldn''t help but few that Krune was quite shameless. But there was one thing that he was more concerned about. The fact that Krune is still at the 7th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. ''Can he really fight someone at the Divine Soul Realm?'' Dilo decided to just be more careful and intervene in case something happened. It took around one hour to arrive after taking a teleport formation to another part of that same Planet. "Oh! I can see their base already in my Divine Sense." Feifei then laughed a little. "I wonder if those two can even feel your Divine Sense at all." Only now did Dilo notice something. Krune Divine Sense power was ridiculously powerful! He could obviously feel it since he was in the 1st Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, but he is 100% sure that it would be impossible when he was in the 1st Stage of the Divine Soul. ''Just what is wrong with this wisp?'' He is following Krune because of his immense talent in Alchemy. But he wasn''t expecting much from his combat prowess at all. Or at least, he wasn''t until now. He thought that Krune was going to use some trump card to deal with those Divine Soul bandits, but now he wasn''t sure anymore. Krune then asnwered Feifei''s question. "Oh, they should be able to feel it, right? After all, I already reduced the power quite a bit." Dilo thought that he was hallucinating. ''Did he just say that this Divine Sense power is the one when he is holding back?'' Sure enough, the young bandit at the 2nd Stage of the Divine Soul Realm was still able to feel Krune''s Divine Sense. Inside a big room in the bandits base, two youngsters were drinking and laughing while a party was going on. Suddenly, one of the hosts stood up from his chair and looked in a certain direction. He then looked at his brother beside him and said. "Fian, we have company." The one who talked was Fien, Fian''s older brother. They aren''t like real bandits who attacked for the money, spirit stones, and other things. In fact, both of then could be considered very well off. Their father is an elder of a Kingdom nearby. So they really didn''t need any of those. It was due to his backing that they could do as they pleased in this place. But in the end, they committed way too many misdeeds. So some people and demon beasts who weren''t particularly rich but had some money gathered together. To make sure that they wouldn''t be found out, they sent a request that was already paid to other planets far away. Even though it might take some time until someone takes the mission, it would at least guarantee their secrecy. Now, Krune and his group just so happen to be the one who accepted the mission. Sure enough, both brothers'' father didn''t receive any information from their Mission Hall Branch connection, let alone the two young ones. Fien then left the room. Fian noticed that the situation didn''t seem good and followed right behind. Once they appeared outside, all they could see was Feifei and Krune. Of course, both of them had their appearances changed. Fien immediately got surprised. That is because he can tell that Krune and Feifei were only at the Core Formation Realm 7th and 9th stage. But what was weird was how powerful Krune''s Divine Sense was. He could only barely feel it and was sure that his younger brother couldn''t even notice a trace. Krune looked at Feifei and commented. "See? I told you. Now that I reduced the intensity of my Divine Sense, at least that guy at the 2nd Stage of the Divine Soul Realm felt it. Still, let''s not look down on our opponents." Because Fian couldn''t feel anything, he felt that Krune was being delirious. But once he looked at his brother''s ugly face, he immediately understood that it wasn''t a joke. He then heard a Divine Sense message from Fien. "Fian, those two are in the Core Formation Realm, but something feels off. I don''t know if he is lying about the fact that his Divine Sense is stronger than this. But there is no doubt that at this moment, it is stronger than mine at least. I can only barely feel its presence." Fian then snorted and said. "So what, a Core Formation Realm is still a Core Formation Realm. The gap between realms isn''t something that can be measured with Stages only or by the power of a Divine Sense. It seems like they were sent to deal with us, so let''s just get over with it so that we can continue the party." Although Fien felt that something was fishy, he really couldn''t see the presence of any other cultivator or demon beast around with his Divine Sense. Dilo, Ruik, and Tiane were obviously nearby. But they were far enough to not be detected. Dilo, of course, had a much more powerful Divine Sense than those two young brothers. So he wasn''t afraid of being found out. Krune could more or less understand what Fien was thinking, so he commented. "Don''t worry. The only reason why my fiance and I got this mission was so that we could test our abilities. There will be no one else coming to help us in this fight. Also, I don''t like killing, so all we are going to do is to destroy your cultivations and the cultivation of the other bandits in your base. That''s all." The brothers'' faces changed after hearing that. Krune was totally talking as if they had no chance of winning. Someone with a cultivation way below their own on top of that. Krune looked at Feifei and asked. "So, are you taking that 2nd Stage guy?" Feifei nodded. "The 1st Stage one would end too fast. Considering the difference in cultivations, it should be better this way." Feifei then looked playfully at Krune and asked. "Should we compete to see who will take their opponent down faster?" Krune shook his head. "We wanted to get some battle experience and test our skills after those months of a blank. If we go all out from the start, it will have no real practice value. Let''s just make the most of this chance." Although it seemed like Krune was saying that on purpose, the fact is that he was really speaking without any intention of provoking. Those are simply his real feelings regarding this battle. Krune couldn''t feel any danger coming from those two at all. Of course, Krune would never drop his guard just because of this. Even if Krune wasn''t intentionally provoking the two brothers, they obviously didn''t know that. "Asking to die!" In the end, they couldn''t take it anymore and immediately attacked. 260 Playing Around Fian, the younger brother, used his movement skill to approach Krune while taking out a Halberd. When he close to, he noticed that Krune didn''t look as if he was surprised at all. "Hehe! Let''s see how long you can keep acting cool." "Earth Nova!" Earth Element gathered around Fian''s weapon while it came hacking down. This was an attack that not only had high destructive power, it also connected the Earth Element on the weapon with the Earth Element in the ground to immobilize the enemy. Just as the attack was about to connect, Purple Lightning started to flow around Krune''s human body. "Tribulation Lightning Movement, 60%." Zap! In a flash of purple light, Krune disappeared from his position and reappeared over a hundred meters away. Fian''s mouth opened wide when he saw that. Even with his Divine Sense, he could only barely keep a tag on Krune''s movement. He was obviously much faster than his fastest speed. ''That''s what brother meant with something was fishy. So this couple really has the confidence of taking us down.'' He then took a glance at his older brother''s battle and noticed that he was also having difficulties to keep up with the girl. It could even be said that she was going easy on him since she used nothing more than Water Element attacks. Fian then returned his attention to Krune in the distance, but just as he was about to charge once more, he noticed several things flying around. He didn''t even know when they appeared. He looked at them and felt danger like never before. It was then that he heard a Divine Sense message. "You shouldn''t pay attention to others'' battles. If not because I still have several tests to do, I would have used this chance to finish the fight already." Fian immediately understood that the situation wasn''t good. He then charged at Krune once more while sending his brother a Divine Sense message as well. "Fien, I''m probably not this guy''s match. Should we flee or go all out?" Fien, who was starting to get nervous, received that message and pondered a bit. "I checked my opponent''s speed. I''m definitely not her match in it. It also seems like she is not using her full strength. What about you? Do you think you can overrun your opponent?" Fian then answered. "Not a chance. The speed that he showed just now is definitely much faster than me. In fact, he is much faster than you too." Fien heard than and then said. "Then let''s go all out. Those two came to deal with us, and we are too far from father at the moment. I already sent a message to him, but it will definitely take at least 20 or so minutes before he arrives. Do whatever you can to hold them back until then." Both brothers then took a black pill out and swallowed it. Feifei and Krune saw that and smiled. A battle that was being easy to control just got a lot harder. Fien''s attacks finally started to pass through Feifei''s defense while Fian''s speed could now barely keep up with Krune. Of course, Krune wasn''t going all out, and he had no intention to do so. ''Alright, I guess I can start it now.'' Fian noticed that suddenly, Krune''s Tribulation Lightning started to act weird. It was as if it was going out of control. ''I don''t care about what is happening, but this is a good thing for me.'' He decided to take this chance to increase his attack power even more. Krune looked at him and smiled. "Tribulation Thunder Line." Fian saw Krune directing that attack at him, and his heart almost stopped. It was just too fast! That wasn''t all, different from the previous attacks, it seemed like that the energy used on it was also a lot higher. Fian only had the time to step aside while using his Halberd to more or less parry the attack. *Crack* The attack hit the Halberd head and changed direction slightly, just enough to pass beside Fian. But it wasn''t without a price. The Halberd Head crumbled down after that. Fian''s weapon was destroyed just like that. Krune, too, was impressed by that. It was the first time he used a Tribulation Lightning attack with his understanding of the Flash Annihilation Law. Both Krune and Fian had the same thought. ''This thing is too strong!'' Fian came back to himself and immediately switched weapons. With all the loot that he and his brother got around the region, both of them had quite a few weapons on their hands. Krune then stopped using the Flash Annihilation law before it made his Tribulation Lightning go out of control. ''I can''t keep using all the time. I''m going to use it just a second before I use an attack or movement technique. That way, I should be able to keep control.'' Fian knew that running would be useless, so he paid attention to when Krune''s Lightning Power changed like it did last time. Just like that, they exchanged several attacks. Of course, Krune is an adept of Long Ranged attacks. The exchanges were all between Fian and the attacks that Krune used from far away. That''s because every time Fian caught up to him, Krune''s Lightning would go weird again, and his speed increased a lot because of that. Krune was also using the Flash Annihilation Law in his Tribulation Lightning Movement! But there was one thing that Fian was concerned about more than anything else. He already noticed that those things flying around were Shields. But so far, Krune didn''t use them for either attack or defense. Then, what were they there for? It was not that Krune didn''t want to use them. Krune was trying to connect his understanding of the Flash Annihilation Law together with his Shields. But it proved to be a lot harder than he thought. That was the only reason why he hasn''t used them until now. Still, the more Krune failed trying it, the better he understood his mistakes. After 5 minutes of battle had gone by, Krune finally succeeded in connecting one of his attacks using laws with one of his flying Shields. "Tribulation Thunder Line." Fian''s mouth twitched. ''That attack again?'' Fian immediately dodged and kept charging. But just behind him, the Shield that Krune had connected with appeared and was hit by that Thunder Line. Right after, the same attack was sent back at Fian once more. There is a difference between changing the direction of the Tribulation Lightning normally and doing it with his Shields. The speed that it could be done! Normally, the Tribulation Lightning would need to do a curve before going back. Just like Light Spirit did back then in the Katiu Forest. But Krune''s Shield simply reflected it back straight away. Of course, both ways had its advantages. Krune could have his attacks, like the Tribulation Thunder Line, to change direction before it hit the target. For example, he could have it make a small curve at that time when Fian dodged to the side and had his Halberd destroyed. That was a situation where using his Shields to change the Tribulation Lightning direction would be a lot worse. Fian had been paying attention to those Shields flying around until now. So when he saw the Tribulation Thunder Line being reflected right back at him, he immediately dodged. Still, the attack was as fast as ever, so it barely hit his right shoulder. Although the damage wasn''t anything serious, it made Fian understand that the situation was indeed a lot worse than he expected. After all, there isn''t just a single Shield, but 38 of them! There was a reason that Krune needed to connect his understanding of the Flash Annihilation Law with his shield. That''s because if he didn''t, there was a big chance that the Tribulation Attacks would cause his Flying Shield to have the same destiny as Fian''s Halberd. It wouldn''t be able to reflect the attack by having only Tribulation Lightning imbued inside as it always did. "Good! It really worked! I think I understand how to use my laws in my Flying Shields now. Let''s try a few other attacks." Fian heard that and felt a chill on his back. "Tribulation Thunder Line!" "Tribulation Blade!" "Tribulation..." Attack after attack started to come out. Fian, who had been both defending and attacking Krune until now, changed into a full defense instance. He completely gave up any idea about attacking Krune anymore. There were just too many attacks! Krune was feeling great at the moment. His control over the Flash Annihilation Law improved with every attack. His Shields reflecting the attacks only flashed with laws for a second to reflect the attacks and then returned to normal. With that alone, his attack power had increased by leaps and bounds. It wasn''t after 10 full minutes of fight that Krune finally stopped his barrage of attacks. As for Fian, he could barely stand anymore. If not because Krune wasn''t trying to finish him, he would have lost already. Never in his life, he thought that a Core Formation Realm demon beast would push him so far. Suddenly, Feifei sent Krune a Divine Sense message. "I have already tested everything I wanted to. How is your side?" Krune then answered. "I think I got a good grasp of how to use the Flash Annihilation Law. I''m still a little far from keep using it all the time. But I can at least use it for a second in every attack now. I can also use it on my Shields the same way. I believe that this is the limit of what I can do with the Initial Stage of understanding." Feifei nodded and then said. "Alright, let''s finish it then. Staying here too long might attract unnecessary attention." Krune agreed with her, and their stances changed. 261 Blue World Both brothers noticed the changes in Krune and Feifei and felt that the situation had become more dangerous than never. Fian knew that any other second there would end up in his loss. Even if fleeing was not possible, he at least had to try. Unfortunately for him, it was too late. "Myriad Tribulation Water Ice Dragons" "Blazing Tribulation Wind Blades" Krune finally started to use other elements instead of only his Tribulation Lightning. Fien''s situation wasn''t any better. Just as he tried to flee as well, he noticed that everything around him changed! "Let''s try this new attack of mine, then. It pales in destruction power like Krune''s, but I''m confident that its trapping ability is definitely above any of his. You should enjoy it while you can, this attack was only possible to be used thanks to the Flow Law from the Water Laws that I recently understood." "Blue World!" Feifei''s attack didn''t target Fien alone. Her skill instead covered their entire base! The bandits that had been watching the battle until now immediately understood that things went south. They tried to leave Feifei''s Blue World, but it was useless. It was as if they were trying to move against a raging river. "What is happening here? I can leave this place!" "Attack the barrier. Focus your attacks on a single point!" "It''s not working! Our attacks are passing through as if nothing is stopping them. Still, we can''t move out at all!" "Since that''s the case, let''s attack that girl! I refuse to believe that she can deal with all of us together!" Like bandits, they were obviously selfish. So until now, they hadn''t given any help to the two bosses since they could get hurt or even killed. But now that everyone was going down together, they finally decided to act as a group. Feifei smiled and then started to release even more Spiritual and Elemental Source energy. Suddenly, several water attacks started to come from everywhere inside the Blue World. Water blades, dragons, pressure, whatever water attack one could think of, they could probably find it inside Feifei''s Blue World. That also included defensive ones like the water wall and water frame. Krune looked at that and couldn''t help but remember Lian Casfiu back in the Mercenary Competition. ''It looks like the Domain that Senior Lian used. Still, I can feel it''s not quite the same. It hasn''t reached the level of a domain yet. But I''m impressed, Feifei was able to do that with her understanding of the Flow Law alone.'' Krune had already finished on his side. Just like he commented before, he did not kill Fian, only destroyed his cultivation. But he wasn''t paying attention to him anymore. At the moment, he was only looking at Feifei''s Blue World. That mess continued for another minute when, finally, every single bandit in the base had their cultivations destroyed. Feifei knows how much Krune hates to kill, and it started to more or less affect her as well. That Blue World then disappeared, and Feifei came back to Krune''s side. "I guess this is all, right?" Krune nodded. "Indeed, we have accomplished what was asked from us." Krune then looked at the time and said. "Let''s go back to the teleport formations. The time for our one to be activated is getting close, but we should be able to arrive there before that. We can report the mission conclusion to the Mission Hall when we arrive in the next Planet." Fian and Fien were nearby, but Krune and Feifei seemed to not care about the fact that they were being heard. Feifei nodded, and they gathered with Ruik, Dilo, and Tiane. They didn''t have any reason to stay either, so everyone immediately left. Not long after, a man with white hair appeared in the local. He then spread his Divine Sense and soon found Fian and Fien. He could feel that both of them were still alive and immediately rushed over to help. After feeding each of them a healing pill, he noticed that their cultivation was gone. "Father..." His name was Fink Jural, a Middle Stages Soul Forging Realm cultivator. "Don''t say anything, just let the healing pill treat your bodies." A few minutes later, the two brothers finally could talk properly again. Usually, they would use a Divine Sense message to tell everything that happened in a second. But now that their cultivation was gone, they also lost the ability to use Divine Sense. In the end, they could only talk like any ordinary person. "Two Core Formation Realm youngsters reduced you and all your subordinates to this state?" Both brothers nodded. They then proceeded to explain how the battle occurred. The more their father heard it, the higher was his surprise. "Just what kind of monsters are those two? They could even use laws while in the Core Formation Realm. Such geniuses were supposed to have amazing backgrounds. Why would they come here to deal with the two of you? That doesn''t make any sense!" Fien then remembered something. "I know why. Before and during the battle, they commented that we were being used to practice their new skills. It seemed like they had just understood a law, and wanted to put it to test. From what I heard after the battle, it seemed like they found us through a mission from the Mission Hall. Also, it seemed like they aren''t from our Planet to start with. They are just passing by." Fink thought the situation to get even more dangerous. Since they didn''t mind concealing their voice, it showed that they weren''t afraid of someone coming for revenge either. He is, after all, just an elder in a nearby kingdom. Geniuses, like them, would definitely have terrifying backgrounds! Fink reached the position that he has at the moment through knowing who he can and cannot provoke. His instincts were telling him that he might bring a calamity upon himself if he really tried to get revenge. He is almost 100% sure that those two definitely have protective measures. Something that would probably make it impossible for him to do anything to them. He looked at his two sons and then sighed. There would be no point in moving out just do die or become a wanted cultivator from a big power. "I should have stopped you two from acting like you did when I had the chance. But it seems like I have grown relaxed after becoming an elder. Because of that, you two ended in this state. Still, you two are only 26 and 29 years old. Different from me, you two really have high talents. In this Dalin Universe, I have no doubt that you can cultivate from zero once more." Fien and Fian were taken aback. "Are you not going to avenge us?" Pow! Fink then hit both his sons'' heads and rebuked. "Are you trying to kill me? Think better before spouting nonsense. Those two talked about what they were going to do and where they are going. Do you really think that geniuses like them have no one protecting their backs? Two Core Formation Realm that can use Laws! Tell me, if you two were elders in a sect, clan, or whatever that had geniuses like those two, would you let them adventure outside without anyone protecting their tails?" Fien and Fian immediately dropped their heads. Indeed, chances are that their father would die instead of getting the revenge they wanted. If that happened, then they would really be done for. For now, they can still have his help to cultivate again, but if even that disappears... "Sorry, father. We were wrong." Fink nodded, satisfied. "Let''s go back. Once you two fully recover, you will start cultivating straight away. You two had achieved the Divine Soul Realm before, so your path should be a lot easier since you aren''t old. Be thankful to lady lucky that you two are still alive." "From now on, I don''t want to hear that you went outside abusing your power. Unless, of course, you want something like this to happen again. It is obvious that it was the enemies that you two gathered during your time playing as bandits that brought this upon yourselves. Worst of all, the request was sent to Mission Halls far from our Planet. Otherwise, I could use my connections in our kingdom''s Mission Hall Branch to find out who did it." "Since that''s the case, there is no doubt that your enemies are still out there, in the shadows. I hope you two aren''t dumb enough to venture outside with shabby cultivation just to get killed by them." Fian and Fien''s expressions immediately changed. Only the two of them know just how much hatred they gathered during these years of bandit life. "We are going to play it low from now on, father." Fink nodded and disappeared in the distance with the two brothers. As for the other bandits that had their cultivations destroyed, Fink couldn''t care less about them. So they only had themselves to help. 269 I Hope Im Not Wrong Light Spirit then immediately warned. "In that case, the thing that we talked about is probably happening. Once the Great Universes'' powers find out that Wisps are all cultivating extremely fast and a lot of Divine Path Realm ones are about to appear, they will have to intervene. By intervening, I mean a full-scale wisp hunt!" Krune nodded. "I know, but we are at a point of no return now. If I don''t do that, then the Luvile Universe might really get destroyed! At least at the moment, I don''t have any better idea." Light Spirit pondered a bit and said. "Instead of starting spreading it now, you should hold yourself back for the time being." Krune then asked why. "Simple. It will take a very long time before anyone really notices that the wisps have a good chance of entering the Divine Path Realm in your home Universe. Think with me, aren''t you, someone with the Myriad Energies Technique, still in the 7th of the Core Formation Realm? Not to mention that the Myriad Wisps Technique is slightly worse than the Myriad Energies ones." Krune understood what Light Spirit meant. "I see, that means I still have quite a few years ahead. Even if the Great Powers find out about the Myriad Wisps Technique, they will not act straight away since there is no proof that this technique can give the wisps a chance to reach the Divine Path Realm. They will need to wait to see how this is going to play out." Light Spirit agreed with him. "Correct! You are, without a doubt, the wisp with the fastest cultivation speed. After seeing Lakin, Dier, Cassy, and the other wisps, it should be very obvious to you that they are not a match for your talent. Especially considering your Advanced Major Core. So it will be better if you first reach a higher realm before following ahead with your plan." Krune pondered a bit and then said. "I understand. I will not spread it now. Still, I should at least select a few wisps to pass the Myriad Wisps Technique. In case something happens to me, there will be someone else to pass it forward. Just Feifei, Ruik, and Tiane aren''t enough. Not to mention that their technique is the Myriad Energies, not the Myriad Wisps." Krune was about to continued talking when he heard someone calling him. Cinty saw that Krune was standing still for quite some time and then asked. "Are you alright?" Krune came back to himself and then nodded. "Yes, I was just thinking about Wally for a bit." Cinty nodded and then sealed Wally''s light once more. "Alright, let''s return to my room." Krune''s group then followed Cinty back. On the way, she started to talk. Tiane was also hearing everything and then asked. "In the end, why does the Wisp King or Queen have to have Major Cores?" Indeed, that was the main question in everyone''s minds. Cinty sighed and then said. "That''s because only a wisp with a Major Core would have the chance of reaching the Divine Path Realm. I can tell you that, at the very least, we have no records of a wisp without a Major Core achieving this realm before." Ruik then asked something else. "So, what will happen if a wisp enters the Divine Path Realm?" Cinty shook her head and answered. "As far as I know, it is for the sake of having a Wisp King who can take care of the wisp in Wally''s place. Of course, this is just speculation. I think that once a wisp who can achieve immortality appears, Wally might decide to go back to the Higher Realms." Krune found it weird. "Wouldn''t that leave the wisps here unprotected?" Cinty shrugged her shoulders. "As I said, this is just speculation. I have never talked with Wally, so I could not ask it myself. As far as I know, he might as well have left already, and no one knows about it." Krune wanted to say that it''s definitely not the case, but it would be too weird. Cinty would definitely ask how he does know about that. After arriving back in Cinty''s cultivation room, she looked back at Krune and asked. "So, will you accept being the next Wisp King? Of course, you won''t become one now. I still have more than 20 years ahead to live, not to mention that your cultivation is still not in the Divine Path Realm. So you will be free of the burden for the time being." Krune had a lot more doubts about this Wisp King role. Still, becoming one definitely wasn''t something someone like him wanted. It was at this moment that he thought about something else. "What happens if the throne stays empty?" "Nothing much, the management of the wisp race is then made by the Wisps in the Divine Soul Realm. The main issue is that even the Divine Soul Realm ones can only live around 80 years at most. There are also those at the Soul Forging Realm, but they will not intervene in the wisp worlds'' management unless necessary. You can think about them as the wisps'' protectors. They will just make sure that no one tries to seize control for their own benefit." Dilo couldn''t help but ask. "Does it happen often?" Cinty shook her head. "No. The wisp race, for some reason, is a lot more united than any other race. Although I won''t say that something like that didn''t happen after so many Chaos Cycles, you can probably count them in your fingers. I like to think that it is because of our life spans. With so little so live, who will waste time in seizing control? It''s not like our wisp worlds are rich or anything." Cinty continued. "To be honest, even the Wisp King or Queen doesn''t have that much of a difference in treatment than normal wisps. Every single one of them, me included, took the throne for the sake of our race. Still, just in case someone thinks about such bullshit, the Soul Forging Realm wisps keep an eye out to prevent it. Thanks to Wally, no other race tries to intervene in this matter, either." Feifei was hearing everything when suddenly, she thought about an issue. "But it only happens in the case that a Major Core Wisp isn''t available. At the moment, there is you, and there is Krune. I will be honest with you, I don''t want Krune to become the king at all, and I''m pretty sure he doesn''t want it either. After all, we all know that Krune deeply hates attention. What will happen with him if he decides to refuse to become the next Wisp King?" Krune nodded after hearing that. Feifei asked precisely what he was thinking. Contrary to their thoughts, Cinty just sighed. "In that case, we will simply send you out. Also, don''t you worry, we will not retract you from the Wisp Protection law. I will only pray that one day, you change your mind." Feifei couldn''t help but ask with a shocked face. "That simple?" Cinty then looked at her. "Wulia Feier, right?" Feifei nodded. It was her alias, after all. "Feier, the wisp King or Queen exists for the sake of the wisps. We commit our lives to help the wisps, a race that is already in bad shape. Let me ask you, what good would it bring to our wisp race if the next Wisp King doesn''t even want to be it?" Feifei and everyone else was taken aback. "This..." Cinty smiled and then continued. "I will tell you what will happen. If the new Wisp King doesn''t want to be it, then his management will be done poorly. He will not put any real thought into his decisions and only think about it as a bother. Such behavior will then only bring disaster to the wisps that live in here. In that case, I might as well leave it for the Divine Soul Realm wisps who REALLY wish to help their race." Krune couldn''t help but smile. Still, there was one more question in his mind. "Let''s say that I accepted to be the next Wisp King. What about the fact that Feifei is my fiance?" Only now did Cinty remember about this problem. "Ah! That''s right, this is indeed a problem." Cinty pondered a bit and then had an idea. "What about you keep it a secret? That should work, right?" Krune and Feifei''s mouths twitched. "It couldn''t possibly be that simple!" Cinty Shrugged her shoulders and answered. "Why not? Did you forget that wisps have little Life Span? It''s not like I think you will reach the Divine Path Realm anyway. Since your reign will only last as much as your life span, then it shouldn''t be an issue." Krune heard that and decided to ignore Cinty''s opinion on the matter. After all, he doesn''t want to be king to start with. He then closed his eyes and asked Light Spirit. "Light Spirit, what do you think?" Light Spirit immediately understood what Krune meant. "She does seem like someone that can be trusted, especially after saying that she will let us leave anytime we want. Since blood contracts won''t work for her, this is as far as we can go. I will leave the final decision up to you." Krune agreed with Light Spirit. The thing that caught Krune''s attention the most was her speech about the next Wisp King not wanting to be it. During that moment, Krune could feel the concern that she had for the wisp race behind that smile. He had only lived for almost 13 years, and he helped the wisps as best as he could. Krune could only imagine how much she had sacrificed for the wisps during her 200+ years of being in charge. ''I hope I''m not wrong.'' Krune opened his eyes once more and asked. "I''m curious, what if you reach the Divine Path Realm? Would you still pass your crown to me?" Cinty was puzzled with such a question. After all, it was evident that she wouldn''t be able to advance five stages in a little more than 20 years. "Hahaha! If such a miracle really happened, why should I pass it to you? I have always admired what Wally and his nine disciples did for our wisp race. If not for them, just where would we be today? I speak from the bottom of my heart, or core, if you prefer, that I would definitely follow in their steps and protect the wisp race until the day that I''m forced to ascend. I will then do my best to support Wally the best way I could, even if I have to descend right after." Krune could see the pride in her face, but at the same time, the sadness of knowing that such a dream wasn''t possible anymore. Krune smiled and decided to talk with her through Divine Sense Message from now on. Around one month later, Cinty broke through into the 6th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. 270 Finding About the Truth Although she made a breakthrough, almost no one knew about it. Just a few trusted old wisps and Krune''s group. In fact, not everyone in his group. Dilo doesn''t know about the Myriad Energy or Wisps Technique, so he kept like that. Around a month earlier Krune was then brought to another room where he and Cinty could talk in private. There, Krune finished explained how his Myriad Wisps Technique worked. That''s correct, Krune didn''t pass her the Myriad Energies, but the version made for Wisps instead. The Myriad Energies Technique has a much more complicated situation. After all, it could be cultivated by any race, the only difference is that Wisps are more suited for it. Still, Cinty was completely shocked when she finished reading the entire technique. For a moment, she even thought it to be a joke. To think that there is such a technique for wisps in existence? Not only that, but this was made using the Myriad Energies Technique that almost no cared about. Her doubts didn''t last long, though. As someone at the Void Breaking Realm, she obviously had a much better Spiritual Energy Control than Krune or Feifei. Of course, she was far from Uncle Feng, who was able to cultivate the 9 pseudo meridians in just a few hours. Still, it only took her a little more than a day to finish creating all 9 pseudo meridians. She, as a wisp in the Void Breaking Realm, obviously had a lot of spirit stones as well. So she started to open one Spiritual Energy Meridian after another. Finally, when all 9 were completed, they evolved into the Elemental Meridians. Only after seeing that did Krune see the Elements that Cinty is most proficient at. Her Elemental Meridians had 3 main colors. Dark for Darkness Element, Green for Wind, and Transparent for Water. Of course, there were also a few other colors, but they paled in comparison with her 3 main ones. The moment she started cultivating with those Elemental Meridians, she got shocked. Let alone being better than the technique she used until now, it would be a mistake to even put the two in the same sentence. Krune was also impressed by what he saw. The combination of Elemental Meridians and the Black Hole Major core was frightening. The Spiritual Energy rushing at Cinty was simply out of this world. Even the Spiritual Energy Gathering Formation was having issues to cope with her. In the end, Cinty ended calling over a Golden Stars Formations Master to create a bigger one. After everything was done, Krune and Cinty reached an agreement after her breakthrough a month later. "As I said before, this technique has to stay in secret. I guess you understand what will happen if a lot of wisps start to make breakthroughs here. It is one thing if only you enter the Divine Path Realm. After all, you do have the Black Hole Major Core, it is enough to be used as an excuse, and the great powers won''t mind just a single extra wisp in this realm." "I know that, but I also plan to keep my own cultivation a secret as long as possible. Still, I intend to get a few wisps to pass this technique to them. You don''t need to worry, though. They will never betray the Wisp Race. I trust them completely." Krune agreed with that. "That''s good, my plan was to get a few wisps which could keep this technique as well. In case something happens to me or you, the others would still have a chance to spread it later." Cinty then changed the topic. "Let''s talk about the reason you decided to pass this technique to me. Like I told you, in the wisp worlds, no one can touch you as long as you didn''t break the law. But you came from a different Universe that isn''t allied to the ones controlling Dalin. Not only that, but you used a secret passage that they have no idea about. So the law will not be applied to you." Krune nodded. "Exactly. That''s indeed one of the reasons I passed this technique to you. In case I am seized by those powers, you will be able to pass this technique forward. But that is not the only one. Let me tell the situation in the Luvile Universe." Krune then told her everything about the Myriad Wisps Technique already being disseminated through the Divine Path Sect territory, and how it probably spread to other areas as well. He then told her the reason he and Feifei left that Universe in a hurry. Cinty was indeed surprised by the fact that Krune made this technique public in his home Universe. But what really startled her was knowing that Krune was one of the Advanced Major Core owners. Not only that but his fiance as well. Her wisp world has no records about any other wisp with an Advanced Major Core. The only one has always been Wally, and only him. "Are you for real? You really have an Advanced Major Core? Doesn''t that mean that you can also fight for the Heavenly Major Core fragments?" But it was then that she noticed a problem. "No, wait! To do that, you will need to take your fiance''s, Wulia Feier, Major Core Fragment as well. I''ve known you for only a few days, but I can tell that you would definitely not make something like that. How do you plan to act, then?" It passed by Cinty''s mind to take Feifei''s fragment by force. But she immediately threw away that idea. Krune had just given to her, and the wisp race a light of hope. A technique that could not only be put together with the bests techniques out there but one that also changes the composition of the wisps'' Spiritual Energy. She is obviously well aware of wisps being used as cultivation resources in other places. In fact, even in the Dalin Universe, it happened now and then. As long as the wisps cultivated this technique, this risk would soon disappear. Krune heard that and shrugged his shoulders. "First of all, since I already told you from where we came, I might as well tell you her name. It''s not Wulia Feier, but Wang Feifei. Of course, just keep using Feier any time that you are not having a private conversation or in a similar situation." "As for how I plan to deal with it, I believe it is very obvious. The Heavenly Major Core can only be formed by gathering all the fragments. As long as I destroy one of them right in front of the Sacred Lands, this matter will automatically come to an end. Fortunately, we are in the Dalin Universe. So even if the Sacred Lands are able to send someone here, they won''t be able to find us that easily." Cinty''s expression suddenly changed after she heard that. Although the wisp race is considered weak, they were one of those with the most information in the entire Dalin Universe. Obviously, they also knew very well how the Major Cores with Heavenly Fragments worked. Including what happens when a Major Core with a Heavenly Fragment leaves its Universe. "Could it be that you don''t know about your Home Universe protection?" Krune looked at Cinty with a puzzled face. "What protection?" Cinty put her hand on her face and sighed. "Call Feifei over, there is something I have to tell the two of you." Krune felt something was wrong and immediately did as he was told. After Feifei arrived, he first explained everything that he had discussed with Cinty. The three of them then conversed about a few other things until Cinty finally decided to explain the reason for having both here. "Alright. It is evident that you only know part of the Advanced Major Cores'' history. First, let me tell you that it is possible for those sacred lands to send their members here. The only difference is that it will probably not be more than two or three each. Any Universe not related to the ones who control Dalin will have a hard time entering. Still, as long as a big enough price is paid, it is possible to send at least this much. Of course, they definitely won''t be stronger than the Soul Forging Realm. That''s the rules." Krune and Feifei didn''t seem surprised. They more or less expected that the Sacred lands would arrive in here anyway. Cinty then continued. "But that is not the issue here. The problem is in case they send their own Heavenly Fragmanet Major Core Owners. If they did, then neither of you will be able to hide for much longer." This time, Krune and Feifei really got surprised. "Do they have a way to find us?" Cinty nodded. "Not only they do, but you two also have the same ability." Cinty then explained to Krune and Feifei what happens when Advanced Major Cores leave their Universe. She explained about the protection or ''coat'' that will disappear with time. How the AdvancedMajor Cores from the same Universe will be able to feel each other, and how long it would usually take. By the end, Feifei and Krune felt that things turned a lot more dangerous. "As you expect, the wisp world won''t be able to protect you. After all, your entrance here was illegal. Once they report it, we won''t be able to prevent the Dalin Universe management from coming here." 271 Plans for the Future. Krune pondered a bit and then said. "That shouldn''t be a problem. After all, they probably think that we entered this Universe legally. Don''t forget that no one was supposed to be able to reach this place without the great universes noticing." Feifei agreed with Krune but noticed a problem as well. "That''s correct, but we won''t be able to use the Wisp Worlds'' protection anyway. That''s because I''m not part of the wisp race, and in theory, there is a chance that they still don''t know about Krune either." Cinty nodded. "Feifei is right, even if they think that you did enter legally, we don''t have the right to intervene in Feifei''s situation. If we do that, they might think that something isn''t right. If they go to the higher-ups controlling the Dalin Universe, the truth behind you two will sooner or later be found. Considering that you won''t be able to hide, it will be even worse." Krune pondered a bit and then said. "In that case, what about we have Cinty coming out with us when the ''coat'' around our Major Cores disappear? Since they couldn''t send anyone above the Soul Forging Realm here, Cinty should be more than enough for us to deal with their forces." Cinty heard that and immediately shook her head. "That won''t be possible. I''m someone who is closely watched. If I do leave the Orluke Solar System, I have no doubt that I will be immediately eliminated. They won''t make a move in the Divine Soul Realm wisps and lower, but I am a wisp with a Major Core. I''m sure that it will be enough for the enemy to make a move in the shadows." Feifei then asked. "What about paying for protection? Like posting a mission? We would then pay enough for a Void Breaking Realm cultivator or above to protect us when the time comes." Cinty shook her head. "To do that, you will need to provide a reason. The Dalin universe is a training Universe. So higher level cultivators or demon beasts are forbidden to make a move on lower realm ones. Unless, of course, they are willing to pay the price." Cinty then added. "But it is as I said before. It takes between 5 to 10 years for this ''coat'' to disappear. You have been here for half a year only, so you still have a lot of time. What you should do now is focus on cultivating. Heavenly Fragments always appear around the same time. So the other ones are at most in the Divine Soul Realm at the moment. Only their protectors would be in the Soul Forging Realm. Not to mention that the cultivation limit for an outsider to enter Dalin is soul forging middle stages at the most." Cinty continued. "Another good thing is that the rules go both ways. So they also can''t have anyone with a cultivation realm much higher than yours to take action. Of course, that is in the case someone can find about it. So make sure to always be somewhere well-populated once the ''coat'' disappeared." "Once this coat disappears, we will be able to feel them straight away. Not to mention that there is a difference in time between each one of us. It might turn out that they will kill each other before we can need to do anything at all." Cinty then changed the topic. "Alright, since this part is decided, let''s move to the other problem. The fact that your Myriad Wisps Technique is already being fully spread in the Luvile Universe. Thankfully, you are right about one point. The Luvile Universe is too remote, and the wisps there will take a long time before they can cause any disturbance. What I want to know is what we are gonna do when this time comes." The three went silent for a moment, and then Cinty gave an idea. "What about have a few of our Wisp World wisps going to the other Universes and start spreading it in secret? I do have a few Divine Soul Realm wisps who had only recently broken through and that I trust, and there will be much more as time passes too. Like you said, your cultivation speed is definitely on the top, which is probably because of your Advanced Major Core. We can use the time that you reach the Divine Path Realm to go into a full dissemination mode." Krune understood what she meant. "Do you mean, those wisps will then prepare to spread it everywhere at the same time? Would such a plan be kept secret all the way to the moment I enter the Divine Path Realm? After all, we will need to send thousands of wisps out." Cinty smiled after hearing that. "That you don''t need to worry. I can guarantee you that before the time comes, not a single one of them will say a single word. You haven''t been here for long, but I do. I know very well how our race is. You just need to leave it to me." Krune and Feifei looked at each other and nodded. "Very well. In that case, we will start to cultivate and take a few missions now and then to gain some combat experience." Cinty nodded. "I will keep you in the Wisp Protection Law for now. You can use it to do your alchemy as well. From what you told me, those pills of yours will be of great help in the future. You don''t need to worry. No one will try to uncover your real identity through the Alchemy Organization. Not only because of the Wisp Protection Law but also because we will get in contact with the Alchemist Organization Management for the Dalin Universe. Once they find about your new type of pill, they will be more than happy to help you keep your identity secret." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Why is that?" Cinty then laughed. "It''s simple. They will probably become one of your main clients! They know very well that they can''t touch you with the Wisp Protection Law. Since they can''t do it, they will not let anyone else do it either. I''m sure they will spend the next years trying to reveal the secret behind your pills. But I guess this is not a problem for you, right?" Krune nodded. "Indeed. Even if they do find out about it, it''s not something that can be easily copied. There are way too many things involved in this concoction process. So I''m more than willing to see if they can copy it or not. Even if they find a way, it''s not like I will run out of jobs either. For me, alchemy is ultimately a way of making Spirit Stones." Cinty and Feifei nodded, and the three of them discussed a few more details of their plans. That same day, the Wisp World contacted the Alchemist Organization in the Rimeria Solar System. They told Amark that Krune will be staying in the Wisp World. For a second, Amark thought that he had lost Krune in the end. But what they said after immediately made his eyes lit up! "Also, Krune made sure that we will keep him as a member of the Rimeria Solar System Alchemist Organization. His future breakthroughs in alchemy will be related to you as well. Simply put, the only difference is that he will live here with us, that''s all." Amark couldn''t be more satisfied. Krune''s situation turned out the way he wished for in the end. As for where Krune decides to live, that isn''t a problem at all. All the requests for Krune''s pills will be made through their Solar System, and that''s what matters. As far as anyone could see, it is his Rimeria Solar System alchemist who is doing all of that. "I can already see the resources coming our way! Hahahaha!" Amark finished that call in an excellent mood. After that, he immediately started to make the preparations for when Krune begin to take orders. The Rimeria Solar System Alchemist Organisation wasn''t the only one contacted. The wisp world also contacted the Dalin Universe Alchemist Organization Management and reported Krune''s situation. Those in the Alchemist Management felt like they were playing some joke with them. After all, how come a wisp created such a thing? Still, since it was the wisp world, they decided to approve it for the time being. "Make sure to request the Rimeria Solar System a few of this guy''s pills. If it turns out that they are lying, immediately punish them according to the rules. As if a wisp could create such a pill, ha!" Unfortunately for them, when the first pill arrived, and they analyzed it, the mouths of everyone testing it opened wide! As expected, Krune''s pills worked precisely as he said it would. The leader alchemist in the testing team greeted his teeth and said. "Immediately release the information about the pills. Follow the protocol and make absolutely sure that this wisp''s identity isn''t revealed. Also, try to order as many pills as possible from this Krune and bring it here. It doesn''t matter what happens, we need to find the secret behind those pills." One of his subordinates then asked. "Sir, wouldn''t it better to simply force them to tell us the formula?" Pow! The alchemist leader kicked that subordinate and sent him flying! "Are you trying to bring a calamity upon us? Do you have any idea what will happen if we try to touch a wisp protected by the Wisp Protection Law? Try to say something like that again to see if I won''t cut your head right here and right now!" 272 Feifei is Ready! Time passed fast and soon, half a year went by. During this period, Feifei and Krune left the Wisp World twice to accomplish a few missions and get some combat experience. With his pills, Krune was getting spirit stones like water. It only took him two months to gather enough to buy the Mind Splitting Technique, which he then passed to Feifei and the others. Of course, Feifei, Ruik, and Tiane also helped with part of the payment. It''s just that they couldn''t beat Krune''s alchemy earnings. Although the Alchemist Organization was buying most of them, the remaining ones were still sent outside. Rimeria Solar System then started to get guests from everywhere. Although Krun''s pills were expensive for their level, they had effects that far surpassed it. One of his most famous was still the Shell Repairing Pill, used for damaged foundations. It had to same power as Diamond Star Pills, but with a price far lower than them. Several alchemists and power tried to uncover Krune''s real identity, but they soon found that they couldn''t mess with it. Krune identity was being protected by both the Dalin Alchemist Organization and the Wisps Protection Law. Neither of the two couldn''t be messed easily. But there was one thing that was making those without pills preoccupied. The fact that this alchemist is a wisp! Considering the sheer number of requests that the Rimeria Solar System Alchemist Organization is receiving, they are afraid that Krune will die out of life span before they have their pill concocted! When the Wisp World and the Alchemist Organization were requested to at least reveal this wisp''s age, they blatantly ignored it. Thanks to that, Krune''s pill got even more expensive with the fear that he is close to the end of his life span. They thought that those two powers were not releasing the information exactly because this genius wisp alchemist was about to die. As for Krune himself, he wasn''t paying attention to this mess at all! He and his group were wholly focused on cultivation at the moment. Krune only concocted one day per week, the rest he spent cultivating or understanding laws. The Mind Splitting Technique price was really worth it in the end. Krune practiced it to the Intermediate level already and could split his mind in five now. Each one with the same mental capacity when he isn''t using it. As he had planned before, he would use one part of his mind to understand the law the occupied most of the World of Laws. At the same time, another three parts paid attention to the small gaps where other Laws of the same element could be seen. Thanks to that, Krune already had at least two sub-laws of each element. With the notorious exception of Light Spirit''s Tribulation Lightning Law. "Light Spirit, these laws of yours are too damn hard! Let alone comprehend the Purple Tribulation Sub-law, I still haven''t reached the intermediate Stage with the Flash Annihilation one!" "Haha! You learned my Flash Annihilation law just half a year ago. I might as well tell you this, it will be a miracle if you understand the second one in the next 5 years! But don''t give up too early, you know very well the difference that the Flash Annihilation Initial Stage made alone." Krune knew it was the case, but it didn''t change his gloominess about how difficult it is. Krune''s Flash Annihilation was the only first law Krune hasn''t entered the Intermediate Stage yet. If someone decides to check Krune''s progress in the Burning Law, a sub-law of the Fire Law, they would feel like dying! In just half a year, Krune''s comprehension about this law had already reached the Advanced Stage. Not to mention that he was quickly progressing into Culmination. In Light Spirit''s view, he thinks that Krune will achieve it in at most three more months. As for the other Elemental Sub-laws from Wind, Water, Earth, and Lightning, Krune had already achieved the Intermediate Stage with at least one sub-law of each of those. Thanks to his Tribulation Lightning experience, Krune''s first Lightning Law, the Flash sub-law, was at the door of the Advanced Stage too. - From the five things that Krune''s mind could pay attention to at the same time, four were used for laws, and the last one was being used for cultivation. The only moments that Krune would not be cultivating were during missions or when he is concocting. Of course, there are also the moments that he and Feifei made sure to separate for themselves. Or like when he was cooking and eating with everyone. Thanks to that, Krune entered the 8th Stage of the Core Formation Realm! Not only that, but he was quickly making his way to the 9th Stage. Tiane and Ruik were not left behind, either. Since their cultivation realm is lower, it is faster for them to cultivate. So those two were successful in achieving the 6th Stage of the Core Formation Realm as well. One must remember that Ruik and Tiane''s foundations are not as complicated as Krune''s Universe one. Because of that, it is indeed easier to make breakthroughs. As for Dilo, his situation is a little more complicated. He doesn''t have the Myriad Energies Technique and had been spending most of his time to create a Domain. A Soul Forging Realm with one is leagues apart from one without it. Dilo knows that very well, thus, his slow progress in cultivation. In the past 6 months, he didn''t advance a single Stage. Of course, even if he had been focused on cultivation alone, Dilo would still not have advanced into the Second Stage. He has average talent, and his cultivation technique is far from being a match to the Myriad Energies Technique. That is one more reason why he decided on creating his Domain first. That would be the fastest way of increasing his combat power in the shortest time possible. - Today, Krune was cultivating in his room when suddenly, he received a message from Feifei. Not only him but everyone in their group. "I''m ready." Those were the only words, but everyone immediately understood what those words meant. Krune immediately stopped whatever he was doing and rushed out of the room. Outside, Tiane, Ruik, and Dilo were there too. Feifei arrived a minute later with a big smile on her face. "I prepared the best I could, it is now time to enter the Divine Soul Realm." Although the big majority of wisps would achieve at most the Core Formation or Divine Soul Realm, it doesn''t change the fact that they, too, need to go through the Tribulation. Because of that, the Wisp World also has its own place where they go to pass the Tribulation without damaging the surroundings. Cinty knew that Feifei was very close to her breakthrough, so she had long since prepared everything for her Tribulation. "Should we go then?" Everyone nodded, and they departed through a nearby Teleport Formation. Not long after, that arrived at the Tribulation Zone. After looking around, they were able to spot another four wisps going through their Tribulations as well. All of them were entering the Core Formation Realm. That was to be expected. After all, wisps in the Dalin Universe are already born in the Foundation Establishment. The only problem is that they don''t have the opportunity to select which foundation they will build. It just comes in random shapes and sizes. Krune looked at Feifei and asked. "Do you already know how the process works?" Feifei nodded. "Yes. The Divine Soul Realm is basically achieved by cracking open the Core from the Core Formation Realm. The sole purpose of the Core was to nurture the Divine Soul, and at the same time, allow the Divine Soul to absorb the entire power of the Core. So the Core itself will cease to exists, but a Divine Soul that is much stronger than what the Core was will take its place." Feifei continued. "The main thing is that a Divine Soul is just an extension of your Main Soul, in a certain way, they are still the same. Thanks to that, it will become several times easier to use that power than what it was from having to absorb it first before using it. In other words, the Divine Soul is a Soul made almost entirely of Elemental Source Energy." "As for the process of breaking through, as far as what my Clan told me, the only risk is the Tribulation itself. If the Divine Soul has been properly nurtured, it should act just like a baby when it is born. The risks of ''birth'' are very low." Krune looked at Dilo, and he nodded. "That''s indeed the case. At the very least, that''s how it was for me and for those who I''m acquainted with." Krune then sent her a Divine Sense message. "Since you have the Destiny Major Core, it means that you will get a Destiny Divine Soul, right?" Feifei nodded. "Indeed. All major cores give birth to a Divine Soul of the same type. That means that not only I will get stronger, it will be easier to read Destiny Energy as well." Krune nodded and didn''t ask anymore. It was then that he thought about something else. Krune then closed his eyes for a second and asked Light Spirit. Since the Core will be broken, he was in doubt about what will happen with him. "Your Tribulation Lightning Source is inside my Rainb- cough, cough, Elemental Core, right? Will it cause you any problems?" 273 Advanced Major Cores Light Spirit simply answered. "If it was during the time I first arrived, then it would be a problem indeed. But fortunately, I have recovered a bit of my power, so moving the Tribulation Lightning Source to the same place that you keep your soul shouldn''t be anything difficult to do now. If anything, it should become easier for you to use it." Krune nodded and didn''t ask anymore. Feifei selected a random position far from the other wisps and immediately took a lot of spirit stones out. She then started to absorb and condense it until she couldn''t go any further and smashed the Core with it. Still, the Core is something very resistant, so just one or two attacks will be far from enough to crack it open. That is also the reason why you need a lot of spirit stones during this process. Every attack uses a lot of energy, which had to be replaced right after. Otherwise, the Core would recover from the previous attack, and the process would have to start again. Feifei went at it for over an hour until finally, her Core showed signs of breaking. Feifei knew that it was a good chance and increased the pace. Smash after smash, the Core was losing its shell. Feifei could feel that her Divine Soul was also trying to leave. *Crack* It was a sound that only Feifei could hear, and she knew that she had succeeded. That crack caused a chain reaction that cracked the entire Core until suddenly, it split apart! From inside, Feifei could see her Divine Soul appearing. For a second, she even thought that she heard the sound of a baby crying. What looked to be a mass of Elemental Source Energy then started to take form until finally, it ended really having the shape of a baby. Feifei had taken a look at her own pictures from the time she was a baby, so she could tell they both look very similar. ''Well, this is my Divine Soul, after all. It would make no sense if it looked like someone else.'' Suddenly, Feifei felt that the connection that she had with her Divine Soul got a lot stronger. Not only that, but the connection to the Destiny Energy as well since it''s a Destiny Divine Soul. The power of Elemental Source Energy that she could use had also increased several times. For some reason, she knew that she had total control over it, a link that allowed her to use her Divine Soul however she liked. Feifei, of course, was very happy. But it only took a second for her to feel the Tribulation Fire Clouds approaching. Even so, Feifei only smiled. ''Compared to the Purple Tribulation Lightning from my Universe, this one is quite easy.'' Feifei wasn''t wrong. One must remember the time that Ruik went through his Fire Tribulation, he even laughed because of the difference. The Fire Tribulation was more a contest of endurance than defense. Feifei had also prepared herself for it, so she was ready to fight against it. Time passed, and the fire kept burning. Just like any other cultivator, Feifei''s clothes were long gone. Of course, no one could see anything instead of that big dome of Tribulation Fire. Krune was using his Divine Sense to feel how the situation was going inside. Although it was obviously a painful process, he could also tell that Feifei was resisting well. Suddenly, the Tribulation Fire Clouds started to disappear, and the dome of fire shrink. It only took around a minute for the fire to be gone. If not because of the marks that it left in the land, one wouldn''t even be able to tell that Feifei had gone through her Tribulation here. Feifei looked very tired, so Krune helped her to get up. One could see that her entire body had burnt marks. He also took out some clothes to help her get dressed as well. He fed her with one of his new purple flame healing pills, and Feifei immediately started to recover. "When we get back, I will make your favorite food for us to commemorate. haha!" Feifei showed a tired smile, but it was evident that she, too, was delighted. Tiane couldn''t hold herself and gave Feifei a big hug, much for Feifei''s despair. "Ouch, ouch, ouch, it hurts!" Only then did Tiane remember the burnt marks on Feifei were still healing. "Ah! Sorry." Once they returned, Krune left to prepare the food while Feifei and the rest stayed. Krune also invited Cinty over, but she just replied that she was focused on cultivating. In fact, ever since they finished discussing their plans for the future, she rarely ever came out of her cultivation room. Krune''s purple flame pill was really much better than others at the same level. By the time he finished making the meal, Feifei''s body had already fully healed. Everyone drunk and ate for hours until finally, they decided to return to their cultivation. With one thing less to worry about, Krune and everyone else put even more focus on their cultivation. - Krune''s group wasn''t the only one focusing on their cultivation, though. Somewhere else, in a Planet called Omstil, Wamie Zark was also doing the same. Around her, one could see thousands of Spirit Stones. All the energy inside it rushed into her. It was quickly converted into Elemental Source Energy, which was then absorbed by her Divine Soul. Suddenly, an explosion of Spiritual Energy came from her body, sending all the spirit stones flying. "Phew... I''m finally in the 6th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm." Her protector that came to the Dalin universe together was also in the same room, Gilia Mink. "Congratulations, Wamie. If you keep cultivating at this speed, the others will soon not be your match anymore." Wamie shook her head and said. "That''s unlikely. They would never lose the chance to cultivate in a place like this Dalin Universe. This is so good that I even feel like to thank that girl from the Wang Clan to have fled here. Of course, I don''t think I will fall behind, either. We have been in the Dalin Universe for a little more than a year, so we still have at least another 4 before we can feel where the others are. In fact, it will probably take even more. After all, the chance that our ''coating'' will disappear exactly at 5 years is improbable." Wamie then asked something else. "How are the preparations?" Gilia immediately answered. "Because of the Dalin Universe Rules, we can''t use any cultivators or demon beasts that are over an entire realm above our enemies. But the same could be said for the others. In the end, it will come back to how many supporters we have." "The problem is how much we can pay for them. Because of those damned rules, cultivators, and demon beasts from outside the universes managing Dalin can''t bring a lot of Spirit Stones. I''m trying to earn as much as possible, but there is a limit to how much I can do with the time available." Wamie nodded and then said. "I should stop cultivating to help you then." Gilia immediately refused. "There is no need for that. The others from the Darkness Land and Extreme Yin Yang Palace are, without a doubt, focusing on their cultivation as well. You should just pay attention to yourself and leave the rest to me." Wamie agreed with her and didn''t say anything else. - The same thing was happening with Uer and his protector, Mino Jan. Uer was staying on a cold planet which its start had long since died. This place had no light except for the ones coming from other stars far from this place. Still, there was plenty of Spiritual Energy, not to mention that this planet was used for several cultivators and demon beasts that were used to Darkness Laws. As mentioned before, there is no planet in the Dalin Universe that isn''t occupied. "Uer, how is it going?" Uer, the Skeleton Dragon with the Advanced Death Major Core, looked at Mino disinterested. "7th Stage." Mino didn''t ask anything else and left right after. The only reason he came here was to check on Uer. Still, it seems that even this crazy guy understands the advantages of cultivating in the Dalin Universe. Thanks to that, Mino was having an easier time controlling this insane killing machine. - As for the Extreme Yin Yang Palace couple. They were the only ones without a protector. Because of that, Rania and Hobek couldn''t spend any time on recruiting help. Still, because their Advanced Yin and Yang Major Cores complemented it other, their cultivation speed was the fastest one. Rania was already in the 5th Stage while Hobek was on the 7th. Hobek looked at Rania and commented. "Let''s hope that the ''coating'' takes as long as possible to disappear. That way, I doubt any of the other parties will be our match." Rania smiled at him and nodded. "With our combination, the others will have a hard time to cope with us indeed." Just like that, everyone was doing their best to cultivate as much as possible. 274 Elemental Flowers. Another 4 months went by. Today, Krune was in a field while looking at another 21 wisps. They all had cultivations between the Early and Late stages of the Divine Soul Realm. Those were the wisp that Cinty prepared to receive the Myriad Wisps Technique, and the same ones that would be leaving for other universes later. Krune''s objective today was to pass his cultivation technique and answer all questions that they could have. Every single one of those wisps had a high talent and would have a small chance of achieving the Soul Forging Realm in the future. With his Myriad Wisps Technique, those chances would soar! They also knew about the real situation of the wisp race that Cinty explained to Krune and his friends in the Ancestry Hall. Krune then passed the cultivation technique and started to explain everything in detail. Between questions and answers, quite a few hours passed. Finally, an Early Stage Divine Soul Realm wisp was able to create the first Pseudo Energy Meridian. "Oh! Very good! It seems like you understood the principles behind this technique very well." The wisp''s name was Zuit. "Thanks. Still, I have my doubt if that so-called Spiritual Energy Meridians are as good as you and Cinty say. At the very least, it looks quite bad at the moment compared with my natural absorption rate." Krune smiled and said. "Even if you don''t trust me, you just need to trust your wisp queen. Have she ever done anything to harm the wisps in the past?" Zuit immediately shook his head. Krune laughed, seeing that. "That''s it. Cinty told me that you guys were select not because you were loyal to her, but because she believes in your loyalty for the wisp race instead. Since she said this much, I shall also trust you all the same way. So just make sure to cultivate it for now. Once you create the Spiritual Energy Meridians and especially evolve them to the Elemental Energy ones, you will understand the difference." Zuit nodded and went back to create his second pseudo meridian. The other wisps saw that and put even more effort into the process. They just didn''t want to fall behind Zuit. Especially since he is the youngest Divine Soul Realm wisp present at the moment. --- Between cultivation, teaching, and concocting pills or practicing formations, Krune and Feifei also took the chance to go to the Mission Hall some times to take a few missions. Feifei needed to get used to her new Realm while Krune had to stabilize his cultivation. Although he could use the Cultivation Stabilizing Pill, it is, after all, external help. Not to mention that Krune''s pills wouldn''t be different from the others at a specific point. The fact that the more you use, the lesser the effect. Krune and Feifei were browsing through the list of missions available when suddenly, Krune noticed one that caught his attention. Payment: Every three flowers acquired, one shall be yours. Starting time countdown: 13 days and 17 hours. Those interested, please come to the Etinol Planet''s Elemental Sect. Elemental Sect reputation on the Mission Hall: 5 stars.- ''With such a high reputation, that means they really keep their word about the payment.'' Feifei understood why it took Krune''s attention and then asked. "Do you know what those Elemental Flowers are?" Krune nodded. "They have quite a few uses like cultivation, alchemy, and laws. In my case, I would like to use them for laws since my cultivation speed is already good enough. It should be good for you too. Those flowers carry the five elements in them, which are very good even if you don''t practice all elemental laws like me. From what I found in the alchemist network, there are even a few of them that carry other characteristics like Darkness, Space, Light, and even Destiny." Feifei''s eyes immediately lit up. Just like Xanio mentioned, her first Destiny Sub-Law, the Law of Cause, made almost no progress at all until now. Xanio had warned that she probably wouldn''t reach culmination in the first Destiny Law before she reached the Void Breaking Realm. Still, it doesn''t mean that Feifei doesn''t want to be faster. So this information obviously caught her attention straight away. "Then, we should definitely go!" Krune heard that and pointed at the rest of the information. -The Dalin Universe Rules are not applied in the Elemental Path. The Elemental Sect isn''t the only one who will enter it either. Anyone who decides to go in must understand that they might lose their lives due to the environment or the fight against the other powers. The Elemental Sect will not take responsibility for anything that happens inside, so everyone using our entrance will have to sign an agreement related to it.- Feifei frowned. She is indeed in the Divine Soul Realm, and although Krune had just recently entered the 9th stage of the Core Formation, he also can fight at the Divine Soul Realm Level. The problem is that this realm will be open for anyone under the Soul Forging Realm. That means that the chances of Krune and Feifei encountering Late Stages Divine Soul Realm enemies is very high! As much as a genius they could be, jumping too many stages to fight is still out of what they can cope with. "Oh! It seems like this mission had been posted several times in the past. Let me take a look at the records." Krune then went through the reports and then reached a conclusion. "So, as far as I can see, there are always Late Stages Divine Soul Realm Cultivators and Demon Beasts participating. Still, they are the minority, not counting for even 10% of the total. The majority is in the Early Stages, while another good part is in the Middle. It seems like there are always several groups too." Feifei pondered a bit and then said. "We might as well join a group. The problem is to know who we can trust. The way it looks, it seems like those groups will be formed on the spot. Of course, chances are that the majority of the groups will be the ones which were already made before they even arrived there." Krune nodded. "In that case, we should take this mission for now. Once we arrive there, we can take a look around if there is any group worth joining. If there isn''t, we can decide if we will enter or not after getting a little more information." Feifei nodded. "Yes, we should at least take a look into it. I really want to take a look at those flowers with Destiny in them." After decided to go ahead with this plan, Krune and Feifei returned to their home to tell everyone. But in the end, Tiane and Ruik had left at some point, and they didn''t know where those had gone. Feifei checked her communicator and finally found a message left in there. "I left with the idiot snake for a mission. We should be back in three or four weeks at most. If you need anything, just send me a message, and I will come back as fast as possible." Feifei looked at Krune. "That''s what she said." Krune didn''t feel like disturbing those two. After all, they were not quite at the level where they should enter the Elemental Path. Not to mention that neither of the two has comprehended a law yet. Monsters like Krune and Feifei that can grasp one while being in the Core Formation Realm are as rare as phoenix feathers. "I will just leave a message for them as well that we will be leaving in a mission. According to the previous records, the Elemental Path is a dimensional realm that stays open for 18 days. Considering the travel time, we should be back in around a month as well." Feifei nodded and said. "Cinty, that cultivation maniac, probably won''t even notice that we left, but it''s better to leave a message for her as well." Krune agreed with Feifei. After leaving a message for both parties, Feifei and Krune got organized what they needed and left their home. Before leaving the Wisp World, Krune passed by the residence of those Divine Soul Realm wisps that were practicing his Myriad Wisps Technique. In the end, the first one to have completed all nine Pseudo Energy Meridians was indeed Zuit. When Krune arrived at his residence, it was just in time to see him creating the very first Spiritual Energy one. Krune couldn''t help but smile. "Yo! It seems like you finally got it right." Zuit looked at Krune and nodded. "Yes, this is the first one, so I still have to create the other eight." "That''s not a problem, the creation of the Spiritual Energy Meridians is a lot easier than the Pseudo ones. All you need is enough Spiritual Energy. Although our wisp world isn''t that rich, Cinty still separated enough Spirit Stones for you all to finish creating them." Zuit thought about Cinty and sighed. "Because you are new here, you don''t know that, but Cinty really sacrificed a lot for the wisps in the Wisp Worlds. So you don''t need to worry, I will complete my past of the mission once I leave for another universe. Compared to everything she had gone through, this is really nothing at all. I just hope that this technique is as good as you said." Krune nodded and then made a request. "In that case, why don''t you try to cultivate using just this single Spiritual Energy meridian?" Zuit nodded and sat down. Without him noticing, Krune silently left. Suddenly, Zuit opened his eyes while showing an expression of disbelief. Just as he about to talk to Krune, he saw that the later was already gone. "Hehe! It seems like our wisp race really has a sliver of hope with this technique." Zuit then thought about Krune''s smiling face and then shook his head. "No, perhaps we have two." He ignored everything else and went started to open the rest of the Spiritual Energy Meridians. As for Krune and Feifei, they have already taken the Teleport Formation leading outside the Wisp Worlds. 275 Instinc As expected, Krune and Feifei took around a week to arrive at the Elemental Sect in the Etinol Planet. Once there, they were guided to a field where all the other cultivators and demon beasts were waiting. Krune didn''t bring Dilo this time since no Soul Forging Realm and above could enter the Elemental Path anyway. So they left him back since he was still in the middle of creation his on domain. Krune looked at the time and commented. "It seems like we have to wait one more day before the Elemental Path opens. Still, I didn''t expect to see so many Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beasts as well." Feifei nodded. "Indeed. There was nothing in the records probably because the ones who reported felt like it wasn''t worth the time to talk about them. This is, after all, a mission made for the Divine Soul Realm level." While Feifei and Krune were discussing what they should do, a female cultivator approached them to talk. Or better, she wanted to speak with Feifei only. "Hello there! Are you perhaps looking for a group to join?" Feifei looked at Krune, and they nodded at each other. Krune and Feifei were already expecting that Krune would be ignored because of his Core Formation Realm cultivation. They then agreed that Feifei would be the one doing the talk this time around. "Indeed. My friend and I are here to grab a few Elemental Flowers. We are planning to use them for Law comprehension." The other part thought that Krune and Feifei were talking about using it in the future, so she didn''t mind it. "That''s perfect. My name is Marshine Xarain, I''m a 3rd Stage Divine Soul Realm Female Cultivator from Daiona Planet in the Kraven Solar System." Feifei and Krune then introduced themselves as well. "I''m Wulia Feier, 1st Stage Divine Soul Realm from Riren Planet in the Rimeria Solar System." Krune did the same, it''s just that he decided to use Jolk''s name and appearance from before. "I''m Jolk, 9th-" Marshine cut Krune in the middle of his introduction. "Oh, right. There is no need for you to do that, I''m only interested in your friend here. Anyone below the Divine Soul Realm will be of little help anyway." She then looked at Feifei, or better, Feier, and said. "I''m organizing a group to enter the Elemental Path to collect Elemental Flowers. So far, I have gathered another three Divine Soul Realm members. We are all between the 2nd and 4th Stages. So how about that, would you like to join?" Feifei then said. "I would not mind taking a look at your group, but my friend Jolk here has to come with me." Marshine sighed and then said. "I don''t mind if you are bringing him together, but you will have to share your spoils with him. Are you okay with that?" If anything, this situation played very well in their favor. Krune and Feifei know that there is nothing better than being underestimated. Especially in Krune''s case. Feifei and Krune followed Marshine to a conner were the other three members were waiting. Even though they were in their human forms, Krune and Feifei could tell that two of them were Demon Beasts through their auras. Marshine then introduced everyone. "This man here is a Human Cultivator just like me, Filio Humme." Filio looked quite old and had a big jug of wine on his hand. He took a huge sip and then greeted Feifei and Krune. "Hey there. I''m a Divine Soul Realm cultivator at the 2nd Stage. Let''s get well together." Marshine continued. "As for those two here, they are known as the black brothers. Or at least, that''s what they told me when they arrived here. They are both demon beasts from the Krakat Race. A specie of cougar with extreme sharp instincts." The older brother laughed and said. "Haha! Our race is indeed known for having sharp instincts. Still, if we are talking about talent, then I pale in comparison to my younger brother here in this area. Anyway, I''m a Divine Soul Realm Demon Beast at the 4th Stage. You can call me Tinnian." He looked at Krune, who was beside Feifei and then asked. "Why do we have a Core Formation Realm here? It couldn''t be th-" Just as Tinnio was about to continue talking, his younger brother stopped him with one of his hands. The younger Krakat Cougar then stood up and walked to Krune. He then started to walk around him as if he was measuring Krune from top to bottom. Everyone was puzzled about that behavior. But there was one exception, his older brother. He knew his younger brother as well as the back of his own hand, so immediately understood what that meant. The younger brother then started to laugh out loud. "Hahahaha! Brother, this guy is good, very, very good. If I''m not wrong, any average 1st or 2nd Stage Divine Soul Realm cultivator would be just courting death if they messed with him. No, perhaps even a 3rd stage wouldn''t have much of a chance either. Hahahaha!" Krune and Feifei were taken aback by those words, just how does he know about that? Marshine and Filio also looked at Krune but felt like it was a joke. Tinnian stood up and asked. "Rarol, are you sure about that?" Roral was the name of the younger Krakat Cougar. "Hahaha! Have you ever seen my instinct fail me in our over 50 years of life? This guy is strong, really strong. The girl beside him isn''t bad either, she definitely can fight brother on equal stands. But this Core Formation guy is the real deal. I''ve never felt so much danger from a demon beast of the same level as me, let alone someone in his Realm. Still, here I am, and a monster just appeared in front of me." Rarol extended his hand to greet Krune. "Hey there, my name is Rarol, a 2nd Stage Divine Soul Realm Krakat Cougar. I''m looking forward to seeing what you can do." Krune scratched the back of his head and sighed. He then extended his hand and shook hands with Rarol. "You are also good, I didn''t expect that someone''s instinct could reach this level. I''m impressed. My name is Jolk, a 9th Stage Core Formation Realm demon beast. As for my race, let''s keep it a secret for now." Rarol didn''t mind it at all and then proceeded to greet Feifei as well. "Well, you heard it just now, I''m Rarol." Feifei also shook hands with him while showing a smile. "Wulia Feier, a Human Cultivator. Jolk is a close friend of mine." Tinnian trusts his younger brother instinct to the point that he wouldn''t mind trusting his life to it. He then came forward and also greeted Krune and Feifei. "Sorry for my earlier behavior. It''s not that I have anything against Core Formation Realm demon beasts, it''s just that I don''t want our group level to drop. We are here for those flowers, so the stronger our group is, the more of them we will get. It''s simple as that." Krune didn''t mind at all. In fact, he noticed it from the very start and expected for it to happen. He just wasn''t expecting someone like Rarol to even exist. He wasn''t joking when he said he was impressed that someone''s instinct could reach such a level. Well, that is considering that Rarol is telling the truth when he says it is just instinct. But that was also good. Krune then sent a Divine Sense Message to Feifei. "If that was really instinct, then he is terrifying! What do you think, should we join this one?" Feifei nodded and pondered a bit. "We might not have the advantage of being underestimated anymore, but it is not necessarily a bad thing. Although I can''t see much, I can at least see in the Destiny Energy that we can more or less trust those two Cougar Brothers. Of course, that is as long as extreme benefits are not included. I''m trying to see what will happen in the Elemental Path. Still, the level of this Dimensional Realm is too high, I can''t see anything inside at all." Krune understood. "So that''s why you are trying to check their destiny energy before we enter. Once inside, it will not be as reliable, is it? In that case, what about the other two?" Feifei confirmed. "You are right. As for Marshine, I can see that she is quite the greed one, but she is far from being able to pose a real threat to us. In Filio''s case, all I can tell is that he is a mystery. It is as if his destiny energy is always moving into other possibilities. Simply put, it is as if a future is never fixed for him." Krune was taken aback. "Is that possible?" Feifei nodded and continued. "It''s not that rare. It just means that this guy is always thinking about several possibilities at every moment. But from the options that I can see, none of them have anything to do with us directly. I guess it would be a good idea to follow this group." Krune agreed with Feifei and let her do the talk as they combined. "Very well, we will join your group. Let''s get well together." Marshine felt a little helpless, she called Feifei over precisely because she was only at the 1st Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. She isn''t sure if she should trust Rarol''s judgment, but if he is right about what he said, she won''t be able to take any advantage from her or Krune. Still, she was the one who invited Feifei over, so she could only put on a fake smile and say. "Well then, welcome to the group, Feier, Jolk." 276 Elemental Path Opens The next day, an elder of the Elemental Sect came to the field. He looked at everyone and then started to explain the situation. "Welcome to the Elemental Sect, my name is Sian Rull. You already know why we called you here, so let me give you the more detailed information. We need as many Elemental Flowers as possible. The more you get, the better will be your payment. Once again, every three flowers acquired, one shall be yours." "There are rarer Elemental Flowers that have different elements or traits like Space, Time, Destiny, etc. They also follow the same rule, if you find three of them, one is yours. In case you can''t find at least three of this type of flower, we can negotiate later with you." "Now, about the Elemental Path Dimensional Realm. As the name implies, this is really a Realm in the form of an enormous path. It extends almost endlessly, and there are several risks inside. The first of them is the Demon Beasts. Those that were born inside this realm don''t have intelligence. It''s different from the Demon Beasts outside who gain sentience at the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm." "That''s not all, it also has several plant demons, old golems, long-forgotten formations, etc. Lastly, but not least, there are your competitors. The Elemental Sect is not the only one with access to the Elemental Path once it is open. There are also another 5 powers in control of another five entrances." "Although we all will appear in different points of the area, the six paths will eventually connect to each other. As long as you move forward without stopping, it shouldn''t take more than a day before all six paths connect. Although I won''t say that you can''t fight between yourselves, I would recommend that you leave it for when you find people or beasts from the other paths." "Every single one of you will receive a formation mark which is necessary for anyone to enter. This can also be considered as your ticket to the outside. Once 18 days have passed, the path will automatically close. This mark will then activate and immediately send you out. But don''t misunderstand it. This thing can only be activated once the realm starts to close, not before. If you somehow lose it, you will be locked inside. The Elemental Path only opens every 100 years. Still, we have never seen anyone who got left behind to come out the next time it opened. So make sure to protect your marks well." "Although I think it is obvious, I will say it anyway. The further inside you go, the more Elemental Flowers you will find, and so the dangers that you will meet." Someone then asked. "What is the story behind this place?" Elder Sian just shook his head. "We don''t know, it has existed for a very long time, and none of the powers controlling the entrances have found anything so far. Unfortunately, the highest realm of cultivation allowed inside is the Divine Soul Realm. We never had the chance to send a high-level cultivator or demon beast to check it entirely." Another question came after that. "What if we find some treasure not related to the Elemental Flowers?" Sian shrugged his shoulders and quickly replied. "Anything else acquired inside is yours to take. But I might as well tell you that no one has ever encountered anything else other than what I mentioned to you before. Well, I guess that the materials that those formations, golems, and demon beasts have could be considered as spoils too. It''s up to you if you want to bring it out with you or not." Tinnian from Krune''s group also made a question. "Why is it called Elemental Path?" Sian replied once more. "It''s due to its environment. Some times you will find snow, other times a desert, suddenly, a storm might appear, even an ocean is possible. Well, I guess you understood why we call it like that. Our Sect is also named like this because of the Elemental Path." Someone got curious and asked about the other powers participating. "Oh, they are all clans or sects like us. The big majority of their participants came through the Mission Hall requests. So even if I tell you about them, it won''t be of much help against your adversaries anyway." Sian then received a few more questions after that, and he answered all of them patiently. Krune noticed that close to the center, there were a big group os Divine Soul Realm participants all using the same clothes as Sian. Krune looked at Marshine and asked. "Are they members of the Elemental Sect?" Marshine nodded. "From what I heard, they are the explorer team. Different from us, they are not going inside for the flowers, but for the sake of exploring the place as far as possible. Even though the Elemental Path has existed for a very long time, all the six powers controlling the entrances still believe that some treasure can be found at the end. The other five also have explorer teams like this one." Krune nodded and didn''t ask anything else. He was here for the Elemental Flowers, after all. Around one hour later, the Elemental Path was about to open. Sian looked at everyone and said. "Alright, I have said everything I had to say. As you all know, our Elemental Path Sect has a 5 stars reputation with the Mission Hall. That means that we always keep our word. If you haven''t reached the Soul Forging Realm after a hundred years, we welcome you to participate in the Elemental Path Realm opening once more." Suddenly, Spiritual Energy started to gather in the center of the field. Suddenly, the Elements began to spin around the center and grow in size. Krune immediately recognized that phenomenon. ''It''s just how the old Rainbow Sect entrance looked like. So this is where the Elemental Path Entrance of the Elemental Sect appears. It''s right inside of their Sect. Well, I guess this was obvious anyway.'' It only took around a minute for the path to be formed. Once it appeared, the exploration team immediately rushed inside without saying anything. Elder Sian didn''t seem to care either. He just looked at everyone else and said. "Well then, the elemental gate is open. I wish you all good luck in your harvest. I will see you again in this field 18 days later." Krune''s group didn''t waste time and immediately entered. The other teams also rushed inside, and everyone soon disappeared inside the Elemental Gate. - Once inside, Krune''s group noticed that they appeared on a snowfield. Fortunately, it didn''t seem to have any dangers around. As for the Elemental Sect exploration team, Krune could only see them in his Divine Sense. It was evident that they immediately departed as soon as they entered. But soon, something unexpected happened. Krune, Tinnian, and Rarol returned to their original forms. Not only them, but all the demon beasts that were previously in their human form also transformed back. Some of them seemed surprised with it, others seemed to expect that already. "This..." Krune immediately understood the situation. "It''s just like the Divine Path Sect Illusory World. It forces everyone into their original form. Why didn''t anyone comment about it?" Before Krune finished transforming back, Light Spirit quickly acted and released arcs of purple lightning around Krune''s body. By the time that Krune finally returned to his wisp form, the others could only see a bid ball of Purple Tribulation Lightning. That obviously made a lot of the participants curious about him. Krune let off a sigh of relief and said. "Thank you, Light Spirit. You saved the day." Light Spirit didn''t seem to care too much. "There was no other way. Remember what Cinty told you before? A wisp with different color means a Major Core Owner. She probably already dealt with the ones who saw you that day in the Wisp World 13, but she won''t be able to do anything with the ones here. So we better keep the number of cultivators and demon beast that saw your true form as small as possible." Krune nodded and looked around. "Hey, Jolk. What is happening with you?" Krune just replied. "I''m just a little bit too shy, so I don''t like others to see my real form. Don''t mind it, keeping this layer or lightning is as easy as breathing for me." Marshine and the others didn''t believe about the shy thing at all. Still, it is not their place to complain about not being able to see Jolk''s real form or not. But there was one thing that they and the other participants thought to be impressive. The fact that their Divine Sense couldn''t feel Jolk''s presence at all! That is to be expected, Light Spirit used the same trick as he used when they left the Rainbow Sect back then. Still, this made everyone warier of Krune, After all, not being able to sense someone with their Divine Sense means a massive gap in the initiative. That technique was simply way too good for sneak attacks. Rarol just smiled, seeing that and said. "Alright, we have no reason to keep waiting. Let''s follow the explorer team since they definitely know the right way to go." Everyone in their group nodded, and they immediately moved out. 277 Specs of Ligh Just as Krune was about to move, something happened to his Elemental Meridians. ''Hum?'' Krune could feel that they were acting weird. The others noticed that Krune stopped and asked. "Is something wrong?" Krune immediately replied. "Oh, nothing. I just thought that I had sensed something, but it seems like it was my mistake." They nodded, and they once again started to move in the Direction that the explorer team went. Still, Feifei knew that it definitely wasn''t just that, so she asked Krune with Divine Sense message. Different from the others, Krune''s Tribulation Lightning layer doesn''t stop hers from entering. This is something that Light Spirit had taught Krune how to do a long time ago already. "What was it?" Instead of answering, Krune made a question. "Have your Elemental Meridians start to act weird?" Feifei focused on her Meridians and then shook her head. "Nope. There is nothing wrong at all." Krune pondered a bit and then said. "Weird, my meridians are acting strange." "Strange how exactly?" Krune focused on his Meridians once more and paid attention to them for a few minutes. "How can I say it, it seems like they are excited. As if there is something here that can''t help but wish for." "Wish for? Like what?" Krune couldn''t answer that question. "I have no idea, this is the first time they act like that. I really can''t tell what is happening, but I can at least say where they are pointing me at." Krune looked ahead and continued. "It''s the same direction as the explorer team is moving." Feifei pondered a bit and said. "Do you want to go take a look? It''s not like we must stay with our group or not. We aren''t that close to start with." Krune declined that idea. "There is no need. I can tell that whatever it is, it''s just way too far. We would need to travel several days without stop and even so I don''t know if we would arrive there. For now, let''s press forward with our group. If I notice something different, I will tell you." Krune then thought about something else. "Oh, right! How are your predictions in this realm? Is it really being suppressed?" Feifei nodded. "The level of this realm is too high, I can only see as far as a minute in the future. Not to mention that this is when I''m trying my hardest, which consumes a lot of energy. So I can''t keep it going. I will refrain from trying it so that I can save energy in case a battle breaks out." Krune nodded. "That''s good, being ready for a battle is a lot more important." Suddenly, Rarol changed direction and dashed forward. "Rarol, what is happening?" He just laughed and said. Everyone looked at Tinnian, and he nodded. "Trust Rarol''s instinct. It definitely won''t let our group down." Everyone then followed Rarol for a few minutes. Finally, Krune saw something several kilometers in the distance with his Divine Sense. "It''s an Elemental Flower! Wait, not only one but 5 of them!" Except for Feifei, everyone else looked at Krune surprised. They still haven''t seen anything in their Divine Senses at all! But that didn''t last long. Around a minute later, Tinnian was also able to see those 5 Elemental Flowers with his Divine Sense. "It''s true, I can see them. Those flowers just entered the range of my Divine Sense." Instead of feeling happy, their group looked at Krune with weird expressions. Even Tinnian''s Divine Sense was not a match for this guy called Jolk, and he is just at the Core Formation Realm! Just how much stronger will it be once he enters the Divine Soul Realm? In fact, Feifei had noticed those flowers almost at the same time as Krune, but she didn''t say anything. They soon arrived at the place with those 5 Flowers. But they didn''t collect it straight away. Instead, they looked at the area around it. Just as expected, there were quite a few Demon Beasts around protecting them. "Three Divine Soul Realm ones. The strongest at the 3rd Stage while the other two are in the 2nd. It shouldn''t be a problem for us to scare them away." Their group had decided that unless necessary, they won''t try to kill the beasts here. Killing them would spend a lot more energy, not to mention that once the demon beast is driven to a corner, it will definitely act recklessly. If something goes wrong, their group might get some serious injuries, or someone might even die. Everyone quickly decided on a plan and immediately attacked. The demon beasts protecting the flowers obviously retaliated as well. At first, everything was going well. Krune was giving support to the group with his Flying Shields while the others attacked. But once the demon beasts noticed that they didn''t have a chance of winning, they went on a rampage and attacked disregarding anything else. Tinnian greeted his teeth and said. "What is happening here? Why are they not fleeing? Are those flowers so important to them that they decided to stack their lives to protect?" Krune then replied. "It doesn''t matter. Since it came to this point, we can only finish off those demon beasts. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that they have no intelligence. Just focus on attack, all the defense will be performed by me alone." They were surprised by what Krune said. Can he really protect them all alone? But to their surprise, Feifei, or better, Wulia Feier, immediately followed his plan. Right after, Rarol laughed out loud and did the same. "It''s okay brother, my instincts say that he can really do it." Tinnian sighed and then immediately attacked as well. He truly trusts his younger brother instinct more than himself. Marshine and Filio didn''t go all out like the other three at first. After all, they couldn''t merely trust Jolk this easily as the other three. But the longer it took, the more surprised they felt. Let alone a struggle, it looked like Jolk was having an effortless time defending everyone against the berserk beasts with his Flying Shields. With time, Marshine and Filio started to put more trust in Krune''s defenses and increase their attack power. The battle continued for another 10 minutes or so when finally, the three beasts were neutralized. In the end, two of the beasts died while the strongest one couldn''t stand up anymore. But it didn''t finish with just that. There were also several other demon beasts in the Core Formation Realm or below that immediately attacked after the Divine Soul Realm ones lost. Krune and everyone else was taken aback once more. It was evident that those beasts had no chance against their group, but threw their life away regardless. Once everything was finally over, Krune''s group was feeling quite tired. Marshine looked at the corpses of the beasts around and couldn''t help but say. "What the hell was all of it? Are they some kind of suicide squad or something like that?" Krune shook his head and said. "We can think about it later, let''s take the Elemental Flowers and leave this place first." Everyone nodded, and they went forward to pick up the flowers. They had long since agreed on the order of taking them. Krune had offered himself to be the last one in the queue because of his cultivation while Feifei would be the one before him. In the end, he was the only one without an Elemental Flower. Just as they finished collecting the flowers, something unbelievable happened. All the demon beasts, be the dead or the still alive ones, turned into specs of light. Those specs of light then entered into the ground and disappeared. Around a minute later, there wasn''t even a shadow of a demon beast around them anymore. Krune looked at that and finally understood. "No wonder the demon beast put everything on the line to protect the Elemental Flowers. Their lives are directly connected to this land, and this connection is made through the Elemental Flowers. Now that we plucked them, they obviously returned to the land." Marshine couldn''t help but ask. "Does that mean that those demon beasts had never been alive to start with?" Krune pondered a bit and nodded. "I believe so. I think we could consider them as being the same as the land itself. It''s just a protection mechanism that the Elemental Path Dimensional Realm gave birth to protect the flowers. This also explains why the demon beasts here have no intelligence. They aren''t real demon beasts to start with." Everyone understood that getting the Elemental Flowers would be a lot harder than they thought. After putting the flower away, they immediately departed. Still, the others couldn''t help but feel someone embarrassed with this outcome, Krune was obviously the one who contributed the most to the previous battle. But he got no flower in the end. Suddenly, Rarol greeted his teeth and said. "Fuck this shit, I hate this feeling." He then threw his flower to Krune. "I will be the last one to take it. My conscience simply won''t allow me to ignore the guy who contributed the most." Krune was surprised by that. His impression of Rarol improved quite a lot after seeing his action. Still, he sent the flower straight back at him. "I said that I would be the last in the flower taking queue, and I will keep my word. It doesn''t matter what you say, I will not take you or anyone else''s flower." Rarol wanted to complain, but Feifei stopped him. "Nothing that you say will change his mind. Just make sure that you will help when we find the next batch. Not to mention that it was thanks to your heaven-defying instincts that we found this batch anyway. Let''s just move forward and collect more of them." Rarol looked somewhat displeased but put his Flower back in his spatial ring again. Just as everyone was about to leave, Krune''s Elemental Meridians started to act weird again. Right after, some of those specs of light left the ground under Krune and immediately entered his body, or better, his Elemental Meridians. It happened so fast that only Krune and Light Spirit noticed it in the end. ''What the hell?!'' 278 More Ligh Although Krune was caught by surprise, he didn''t stop moving this time, so no one noticed anything. "Light Spirit, did you see that?" Luvile Immediately replied. "Yes, your Elemental Meridians absorbed those lights. But it was far from the amount that entered the earth earlier, just a tiny bit." Krune then focused on his Elemental Meridians, but couldn''t see any difference what so ever. Except, of course, for the fact that he could feel the direction that they wanted him to go. Still, just before those light came out of the ground, Krune had felt that his Elemental Meridians'' target had changed for a second. The same second that the Lights were absorbed by them. "What is happening here? I''m sure that it was my Elemental Meridians that absorbed them, but I can''t see anything different in them." Light Spirit then gave an idea. "Try to cultivate a little while we are moving. See if there is any difference in the amount of Spiritual Energy absorption or Elemental Source Energy Conversion." Krune did as he was told and started to cultivate. With his Mind Split Technique, he could totally do both things at the same time now. The only reason that Krune doesn''t keep cultivating all the time is that he needs his Meridians for Battle as well. So it is better to leave them always ready for any dangers that might appear. Krune cultivated for a few minutes, but in the end, he just felt puzzled. Light Spirit then asked. "How was it, any difference?" Krune pondered a bit and replied. "I can''t tell for sure, I do feel that there was some difference in the amount of Elemental Source Energy converted. But it is so small that I can''t even tell if it was more or less. In fact, I might be even wrong about it to start with." Light Spirit thought about what happened and then suggested. "Most likely most of the Elemental Flowers, if not all, will be protected by demon beasts. Next time, don''t wait for your meridians to act on their own, try to absorb the lights on your own and see if it makes any difference." Krune nodded. "I will try. But just in case it is something bad, I will take just enough until I can tell what difference it does in my Elemental Meridians." Light Spirit agreed with Krune and waited for the next time they found an Elemental Flower. As expected, the region where everyone appeared had almost no flowers anymore. So instead of looking for it, Krune and his group decided to rush forward in the direction of the exploration team. Of course, the exploration team had long since left their Divine Sense range. But they at least knew what side they moved. Everyone nodded, and they moved as planned. On the way, Rarol felt like he could find some flowers if they moved in certain directions. Still, they ignored it and kept moving forward. They did find other demon beasts, old formations, and the like on the way. But since they were trying to avoid all of that, they did their best to leave all of it behind too. Finally, after two days of travel and a lot of battles and problems with the local formations, they stopped to recover. Marshine looked at everyone and then said. "Alright, this should be more or less enough to avoid most of the other teams. Thanks to Rarol''s instincts and Krune''s ridiculously powerful Divine Sense, I doubt anyone moved as far as we did. If we still had to battle that many times with this advantage, then let alone the groups coming after us. Of course, except for the exploration teams. But we have no need to care about them for now." Krune, or better, Jolk, suggested. "It''s okay to start looking for Elemental Flower now, but I think we should do it while moving forward. If we waste too much time in a single place, the other teams will definitely catch up with us." Everyone nodded, and they immediately started the search after recovering their energy. As expected, this was already a region where the groups from the previous Elemental Path opening haven''t touched yet. Thanks to that, Krune''s group was able to find a batch with Seven Flowers in less than an hour. Of course, with more flowers, there were more demon beasts as well. Krune looked at them with his Divine Sense and said. "One 4th Stage Divine Soul Realm, Two 3rd Stages and another Two at the 1st Stage. There is no one in the 2nd Stage in this group." Tinnian looked at Krune and asked. "What about the two of us deal with the 4th Stage fast while the others hold the lower realm ones. Once we finish it, we can move to one of the 3rd Stage ones." Krune and everyone else accepted the idea, and they immediately took action. First, Krune and Tinnian separated the 4th Stage Demon Beast from the others. Only after that did Tinnian change into full attack mode while Krune provided support. Soon, that 4th Stage Demon Beast started to go all out as well. But it was still not a match for the combined effort of Krune and Tinnian. Yet, it couldn''t flee since it would mean that the flowers would be plucked. As for the others, they were holding back their targets without any issues. They weren''t forcing their enemies into a corner, just preventing them from intervening in Tinnian and Krune''s battle. Since they didn''t have intelligence, they didn''t notice that this action was driving them into their end. Finally, Tinnian and Krune were able to defeat the 4th Stage Demon Beast and immediately selected one of the 3rd Stage ones to attack. It was the demon beast that Marshine was holding back. As for why they selected this one, that was because Krune, or Jolk, said so. "That level of demon beast wouldn''t be able to do anything to Feier. Let''s just give a hand to Marshine and Filio first." One by one, Krune''s group dealt with the demon beasts. After that, the same thing happened again, and the Core Formation Realm and below demon beasts attacked them once more. This time they were prepared, though. Krune''s group then disposed of those demon beasts very fast without using much energy. When the time to pluck the flowers arrived, Krune asked Feifei to take his one for him. He had already discussed with her about what happened, so Feifei just nodded and went forward. Sure enough, the Demon Beasts'' bodies started to disappear right after the last flower was plucked. Krune then approached one of the Core Formation Realm beasts. As soon as it started to become specs of light, Krune commanded his Elemental Meridian to absorb them straight away. As expected, his Meridians acted like a shark that sensed blood and ate everything. Not only that, but even the nearby specs of light from the other beasts bodies ended being absorbed as well. That really took Krune by surprise, but not as much as everyone else who was watching him. Marshine couldn''t help but ask. "Jolk, is there anything good in those lights for you to absorb them?" Krune looked at Marshine and answered. "I don''t know, that''s why I''m absorbing them. I want to see if I can get something from it." Rarol went close to one of the demon beasts'' lights and tried to do the same. Unfortunately, it doesn''t matter what he did, he couldn''t absorb them. "How did you do that? I can''t absorb them at all!" Krune didn''t know what to say. After all, even he didn''t know why his Elemental Meridians wanted it so much. He looked at Feifei and asked. "Feier, can you try it as well? See if you can absorb it." Feifei nodded and tried to use her Elemental Meridians. Surprisingly, her Elemental Meridians also absorbed them. Not only that, but even Feifei could feel like they were delighted with that meal. "I can absorb them as well. It seems like it has something to do with our Cultivation Technique." Tinnian then asked. "Which one?" Feifei, or better, Feier, shook her head. "It''s our Sect Secret, so I can talk about it." Rarol just shrugged his shoulder and said. "Well, whatever. Whether Jolk or Feier can absorb them or not means nothing for the rest of us. After all, if they weren''t here, those lights would simply go back to the earth. It''s not like they are stealing something since we couldn''t get them anyway." Indeed, none of them have ever heard anything about absorbing this light. If it was something important, it would definitely be described in the Mission Hall request. In the end, Jolk and Feier being here or not wouldn''t change that fact. Still, Marshine felt like she was losing something, so she asked. "So, what''s the difference when you absorb it?" 279 Special Flowers Krune stopped for a minute and tried to cultivate again. Finally, his Elemental Meridians had absorbed enough for him to tell the difference. "As it seems, the conversion of Elemental Source Energy increased. But it was really a tiny, tiny bit. If I didn''t pay attention, I wouldn''t notice it at all." Everyone was taken aback by that. "Those lights increase your conversion of Elemental Source Energy? How is that possible?!" Krune shook his head and said. "I don''t know. As I mentioned before, this is just my first time coming to this place. I also don''t know why Feier and my cultivation techniques can absorb those lights at all." Marshine and the others couldn''t help but feel a little jealous of this ability. Still, it is, as Rarol said. They can''t absorb them like Jolk and Feier, so whether Feier and Jolk can do it or not doesn''t change the fact that Marshine and the rest wouldn''t be able to do that to start with. Tinnian sighed and then said. "Whatever. We are here for the Elemental Flowers. As long as Feier and Jolk keep doing their part, I don''t care if they absorb the lights or not. Let''s not waste our time here and keep going." Their group agreed, and they immediately moved out. As for the rest of the lights, they had already disappeared underground. While they were moving, Feifei was talking to Krune through Divine Sense message. "Was it okay to tell that to them?" Krune answered. "After that display, it would be even worse to say that nothing changed at all. Besides, we already know that except for Marshine, the changes of the others making a move on us is very low. Not to mention that if the two of us attack together, we are probably stronger than their combined effort." Feifei nodded and then changed the topic. "Alright. So, what about those lights? I also can absorb them, which means this is something anyone with the Myriad Energies Technique can do. Did you feel anything wrong after getting your meridians to take them in?" Krune denied. "No, there was nothing wrong at all. We should take this chance to take as much of those Specs of Light as possible. But pay attention to your meridians every time we finish getting some of them. If something goes wrong, we will give up absorbing them straight away." Feifei agreed with Krune and then asked. "I wonder if there is a way to get those lights outside this Elemental Path. Otherwise, we will only be able to come back here a hundred years later. Not to mention that we can''t enter the Soul Forging Realm during this time." Krune pondered a bit and then said. Feifei found it weird. "If that is the only requisite, then anything would be good. But the majority of those places the beasts would be made of Spiritual Energy. It is evident that the demon beasts here are not made of Spiritual Energy alone. Otherwise, even after absorbing those lights, the only thing that would happen is that we got more energy to cultivate." Krune couldn''t help but agree with Feifei''s statement. "Anyway, we can''t do look into it in this place, so let''s wait for the 18 days to be over and take a look after. Also, there is the fact that my Meridians are still asking me to move forward. Who knows? Maybe we will find a way to reproduce this phenomenon outside." Feifei nodded, and they joined the group again. Krune''s group kept their plan. As expected, Krune''s Divine Sense and Rarol''s instincts made them find a batch of flowers after another. It looked like the Elemental Flowers were never alone either. There were always at least 5 of them together. Unfortunately, some of those batches had just too many Divine Soul Realm beasts protecting it. Others had an excessively high cultivation level Demon Beast like the 6th Stage or above. Krune''s group wasn''t sad, though. If this is already like this for them, then let''s not even mention the other groups. Of course, they know that there are groups with Late Stages Divine Soul Realm members, but there is nothing they can do about that. Krune''s group kept the pace, only stopping to grab flowers that they could deal with fast. If it showed to be too troublesome, they immediately ignored it and moved to the next. Marshine and the others had already got used to Jolk and Feier absorbing the lights right after the flowers were plucked. There was no point in getting sad because they couldn''t do the same. But the main reason for it was that Filio talked with them. "Just forget about it. Even if we got Feier and Jolk''s cultivation technique, then so what? This realm will close in a few days. Do you have any confidence in changing your cultivation technique to another in the remaining time? Since when it is this easy to change cultivation techniques? Even if for some miracle you are able to, how many days will you have to absorb the lights?" Marshine and the other couldn''t help but nod. Still, Filio continued. "That''s not all, the next time that this realm will be open is a hundred years later. Is there someone here who thinks that they won''t be in the Soul Forging Realm by then? Since that''s the case, what''s the point if you can''t enter this place anymore? Not to mention that having them in the group is an excellent thing. Without them, I believe you all know that we wouldn''t have even half of the Elemental Flowers that we have now." With those last words, Marshine and everyone else finally decided to forget about Feier and Jolk''s action. Well, in fact, the one who was really bothered with it was Marshine. Tinnian, Filio, and especially Rarol didn''t mind it much to start with. Just like that, another two days passed. Suddenly, Rarol felt something again and smiled. "This way!" By now, Krune and everyone else already got used to Rarol''s sudden actions. Every time he did that, it was because his ''instincts'' said so. They didn''t know if it was really instinct or not, but that didn''t matter. What mattered is the fact that they always find Elemental Flowers when they follow him. But this time, Krune noticed something different. "Hey, those are special flowers! Also, there are 11 of them!" The others looked at Krune, and their eyes lit up! "Really? Which type?" Krune focused his Divine Sense on those flowers and then said. "I''m not familiar with Space, Time, Destiny, and those things. But I felt the Dark and Light Elements before, so I can tell that it isn''t those two." Feifei, or better, Feier, then said with a smile. "It is destiny." Everyone, Krune included, looked at her. "Are you sure?" Wulia Feier nodded. "I have some experience in divination, so I can at least tell that those Flowers have Destiny imbued in them." Krune then warned everyone. "As you probably expect, I can already sense the presence of quite a few Demon Beasts. Although there isn''t anyone above the 4th Stage, there are still seven of them. Two 4th Stage, three 3rd Stage, and another two in the 2nd Stage. We are only in six here, which means that someone would have to hold two at the same time." "That''s not all, cultivation related, they are also above us. We only have a single 4th and 3rd Stages at the moment. This isn''t going to be easy." Krune could see that everyone was thinking about this issue. After that, he looked at Feifei. Feifei seemed very determined to get those flowers, and Krune knew very well why. In the end, he asked through Divine Sense. "Should we go a step further?" Feifei looked back at him as well and nodded. "Those flowers are very important to me. Even if we have to reveal a little more, I want to get them." Krune just laughed and said. "So what if we reveal more of our real strength? Since we can, let''s do it. This is a good chance to try our combination attack." Feifei laughed as well and nodded. Jolk then stepped forward and said. "Leave the two 4th Stage Demon Beasts for Feier and me. You guys only have to do one thing, hold the other 5 demon beasts for a few seconds." Tinnian and the others were taken aback. It was then that Rarol started to laugh again. "Hahaha! Great! Then I will leave those two for you." Marshine couldn''t help but say. "Wait, wait! Can you really deal with those two in just a few seconds? Aren''t you overestimating yourselves?" Feier shook her head. "Don''t worry. If this is Jolk and me, then I can guarantee that we can do it. Just trust us. If you see that it didn''t work, just run away without us. Those beasts will never leave the Elemental Flowers behind, so you don''t need to be afraid of being pursued." Filio sighed and then said. "Let''s trust those two. Have they let us down until now? No, right? I''m also curious to see just what they are up to. Haha!" Tinnian also nodded in the end. "Those beasts have no intelligence. So I can hold two 3rd Stages by myself for as long as you need. Marshine can hold the other one. Filio and Rarol will take care of the rest." Everyone nodded, and they immediately took action. 280 Combined Attacks The group finally took action. Feifei and Krune separated from the rest and targeted the two 4th Stage Demon Beasts First. Because they initiated their attack first, the Divine Realm Soul beasts all charged at them. Still, the 4th Stage ones were obviously faster. Since they don''t have intelligence, they didn''t coordinate with the others. It only took a moment for Marshine''s group to get in the way of the 3rd stage and below ones. Noticing that the 4th Stage ones were far enough, Krune and Feifei immediately changed stances. Feifei looked at those two Demon Beasts coming and showed a playful smile. "Let''s see how it is now that I have comprehended two sub-laws of water." Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy started to pour out of Feifei''s dantian. Soon, the world around Krune, Feifei, and the beasts turned into pure blue. "Blue World!" Sure enough, the two Demon Beasts felt it hard to move forward. Still, because of the difference in cultivation, Feifei''s Blue World couldn''t stop them completely. Fortunately, that wasn''t the only thing that she could do there. Just as before, several types of water attacks started to come from everywhere. Krune noticed that everything was ready and acted as well. "Let''s also see if my Tribulation Lightning Laws can merge with Feifei Water ones as well as they did when we practiced." Krune appeared beside Feifei, and her hand touched his core. With this, the two of them started to exchange their feelings of laws and energies. Suddenly, the water attacks started to become purple-colored. Not only that, but the entire Blue World was now a mix of purple and blue instead. "Tribulation World!" Arcs of Purple Lightning and Water spread everywhere and immediately target the two Demon Beasts. Let alone being able to attack, the Demon Beasts couldn''t even defend against so many attacks. Not to mention the fact that every attack was at least at their own level. The two 4th Stage Demon Beast tried to defend themselves the best they could. Unfortunately for them, it seemed like Feifei and Krune''s pool of spiritual energy seemed limitless! In fact, Krune and Feifei could have dealt with one of them each. Especially now that Krune was forced into his wisp form. But there was a reason for this combination attack. The fact that it didn''t use as much energy as it seemed. Either Krune or Feifei would need to spend a lot more Spiritual and Elemental Source energy if they wanted to finish those two beasts separated. Light Spirit looked at their combined attack and couldn''t help but sigh. ''Just like Cilia and me back then, it really brings back memories.'' As both of them had mentioned, it only took a few seconds. Those two 4th Stage Demon Beasts couldn''t resist anymore and were finally killed by Feifei and Krune''s combined effort. Tinnian couldn''t help but comment. "Laws..." Rarol laughed and added. "Not only that, but they merged their laws together. Just how much of a monster those two are?" Suddenly, Tinnian and Rarol got close to each other. With that, now the brothers were fighting two 3rd stage and one 2nd demon beasts. "Brother, shall we go crazy a bit?" Tinnian understood what Rarol meant and sighed. "You really hate to look weaker than others, don''t you?" Rarol laughed once again and nodded. "You talk as if you had nothing to do with it. Do you think I can''t see it? Behind this always calm face of yours, there is a crazier soul that mine will ever be." Tinnian couldn''t help but smile. Suddenly, something like black lightning started to come out of their bodies and enter each other. "Let''s go!" Their speed started to increase, and soon, their enemies couldn''t even see their movements anymore. Just black flashes the appeared for a split of a second everywhere. "Black Thunder!" The demon beasts couldn''t even see from where the attacks were coming. One strike and a big cut were left behind, another black flash, and a paw was sent flying. It looked like the scene of some horror film. Those three demon beasts were being cut to pieces. Krune saw that with his Divine Sense and was taken aback. "This feeling... Tribulation Lightning! But... it is totally different than mine." Light Spirit then commented. "That''s correct. But their ones are still the typical type of Tribulation Lightning. It''s just that they are adding their bloodline power into the mix, that''s why it looks black instead of blue. They also can merge their powers. Of course, there are no laws behind their attacks, only pure power." Light Spirit was right, Tinnian and Rarol combination attack used their bloodline and Tribulation Lightning only. Compared to Feifei and Krune''s Tribulation World, their energy expenditure was several times higher. Also, because of the lack of laws, it couldn''t reach the attack power that Krune and Feifei did. To prove that, the two of them took more than a minute to finish off those demon beasts. Feifei and Krune only took a few seconds. That shows just how much of a difference Laws can make to one''s combat power. Of course, that doesn''t mean that it was weak at all. Krune and Feifei had separated and help Marshine and Filio, so when Tinnian and Rarol finished their part, the result was decided. With the six of them ganging up on the remaining two Demon Beasts, the fight was over in a flash. Although there was still the lower level demon beasts, they weren''t a threat for Krune and the others. Once the battle was over, they soon proceeded to take the flowers. After taking them and sharing, Feifei and Krune immediately rushed to the demon beasts corpses. Sure enough, their bodies started to turn in specs of light again. Krune and Feifei quickly absorbed as much of that light as possible until everything disappeared. Once they finished, the two returned to their group. Rarol then commented. "So the two of you can use laws. That''s really impressive. Hahaha!" "That Black Thunder isn''t bad either." Suddenly, Rarol''s expression changed. "Danger!" Krune immediately confirmed Rarol''s words. "A group is quickly approaching us, and it seems to have 8 members. One of them is at the 5th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. I don''t recognize their appearance either. There is no doubt that they came from another path. They probably felt the changes in the Spiritual Energy and are coming to take a look. Let''s get out of here before they see us." Everyone nodded, and they immediately departed. They had spent quite some Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy already. Not to mention that the other group was not like the demon beasts. They have intelligence and most likely can use combat formations. There is also the fact that they have more members and higher cultivation levels. "That won''t work, they will definitely feel our presence before we move far enough." Tinnian then said. "Let''s just move as fast as possible. It is one thing for their strong members to follow us, but I refuse to believe that everyone can keep up to our speed. They will probably have to think twice before separating into two groups." Krune sighed and then said. "There is no need to worry, just stay close to me." Suddenly, Krune''s Tribulation Lightning Layer expanded and covered everyone. He also made sure to create another layer between him and the outer layer to keep his wisp form hidden. "Let''s go." Except for Feifei, everyone was taken aback. Rarol couldn''t help but laugh once more. "I see, you can hide all of us from their Divine Senses. Hahaha!" Krune''s group then kept moving away from the area. When the other group arrived in the place of the battle, their leader couldn''t see anything inside his Divine Sense. "Weird. I definitely saw someone at the borders of my Divine Sense range. But they soon disappeared right after. I couldn''t tell how many of how strong they were either since I was just too far." His friend then asked. "Could it be that they are lying down to ambush us?" Their leader immediately shook his head. "Looking at this battle site, I''m sure that they aren''t many. And it seems like they spent quite some energy after it was finished. They shouldn''t be in a condition where they can buy a fight against us." "Still, they are definitely something. From the time that the battle started to the end, no more than two minutes passed. We felt the changes in spiritual energy as soon as it started, but we couldn''t arrive in time. This is quite a strong group, and I would guess that they have a way to conceal their presence from Divine Sense. It is better if we don''t try to buy a fight with them either." Everyone agreed with the leader, and they immediately departed after that. As for Krune and his group, although they were moving in a similar direction, it wasn''t the same. This dimensional realm is still a one-way path, after all. Fortunately, the distance between the two side borders is enormous, so Krune was able to open a big enough gap between their group and the other one. Because both groups were close to each other, Krune''s Divine Sense would notice their presence once in a while. They would then change direction and get far away. This situation continued for a few more days. "It seems like another group had the same idea as us. They are definitely rushing forward while collecting as many Elemental Flowers as possible." Feier nodded. "Fortunately, we can still collect Flowers as well. We are also finding a lot more of those Special Flowers now." Filio shook his head and then complained. "Still, because we are trying to avoid them, we have lost a lot of opportunities. I don''t think we should continue this way." Krune, or better, Jolk pondered a bit and suggested. "Since you already know that I can hide everyone from Divine Sense checks, what do you think about we rush forward, ignoring everything as we did before? We already spent 10 days here, I think we will acquire a lot more if we get away from them." Tinnian agreed with him. "With Jolk''s Divine Sense protection, we should be able to avoid the majority of Demon Beasts now. I say it is worth a try." In the end, everyone agreed with the idea, and then they departed. 281 Do you have what it takes? What everyone didn''t expect is that they would catch up with the Exploration teams in just a single day! Krune''s Divine Sense is powerful for someone at his level, but he still couldn''t beat those at the Late Stages of the Divine Soul Realm. Fortunately, thanks to the Tribulation Lightning Layer, the other side didn''t notice them. Krune stopped and immediately told everyone. "It seems like the exploration teams are right ahead. But the weird thing is that they are all together." Tinnian asked. "Are they fighting each other, perhaps?" Krune checked with his Divine Sense once more and said. "No. There are six teams, one for each power. The Elemental Sect team from before the opening included. But they are keeping some distance from each other. There is no battle going on, either." Marshine then commented. "That''s weird. From what I found during my research, the exploration teams would keep always moving forward. They wouldn''t bother with the other powers'' team either. Their main objective is to reach as far as possible." Filio then said. "I have a few ideas. The reason that they are rushing forward every time is so that they can one day see what is at the end of the Elemental path. Could it be that they finally reached the end? Or maybe something appeared on their way that is making it impossible for them to continue moving forward. There is also the possibility that they aren''t moving because they are afraid of being attacked by the other teams. Lastly, it could be that they need help to keep moving, so they are waiting for the other teams." Filio was just like Feifei mentioned to Krune. He is always thinking about several possibilities, it''s just that he usually never shows it on the surface. In fact, he also thought about other circumstances, but he felt that they weren''t worth mentioning more than the previous ones. Krune heard about those options and then focused his Divine Sense once more in the teams ahead. This time, he paid attention to where they were looking at. "I think that Filio''s last idea is probably the right one. All the teams seem to be looking in the direction from where we came from. It is as if they are really waiting for someone to arrive. In that case, it can only be the other teams." Tinnian then commented. "We have been here for eleven days now, so we only have one more week before we are teleported outside. Considering that we have been rushing forward all the way, it will take at least three or four more days for the other teams to catch up with us. Of course, with the exception of that group that we were meeting yesterday. They probably only need half a day to arrive here." Marshine then suggested. "I don''t want to be the first one to arrive. What about we get away from here to collect some more flowers and come back later when there are more groups?" "There is no need. Ever since I heard Filio''s idea that they were waiting for other teams, I felt like we should meet with then." Tinnian immediately asked Rarol. "Is your instinct saying that it is safe." Rarol pondered a bit and then answered. "It''s not like it is safe, it is just that the danger is not coming from the exploration teams, but somewhere else. Or at least, that''s what I feel. I can''t tell from where the danger is thought. Of course, this is just what I can feel for the moment. I don''t know if they will decide to attack us in the future for some other reason." Krune then commented. "Well, there isn''t really a need for that. Whatever this danger might be, it is probably coming from the place that the exploration teams want to enter." Everyone agreed that Krune, or better, Jolk, was probably right. Filio then asked. "Should we go forward to check what is happening, then?" Tinnian immediately replied. "If Rarol''s instinct says that they aren''t going to attack us at the moment, then I believe it. Also, what if there is really some kind of treasure there and we are not here when it appears? Wouldn''t we regret it for life? We are cultivators and demon beasts. What is the point if we don''t fight for the opportunities?" Everyone agreed with Tinnian, and they decided to go meet the exploration teams. Krune''s Lightning Layer then disappeared and now was only covering himself. He looked at Feifei and said. "If something goes wrong, I will hold you with my Spiritual Energy. I will then use my Tribulation Lightning movement at full power to take us out of there. You focus on defense and predicting a safe way out." Feifei nodded and didn''t complain. When they are talking about speed, she really can''t beat Krune. It is better if he focuses 100% on fleeing while she uses her Destiny Core to predict the best route. Not to mention that probably no one would be able to stop this couple from leaving if they are really joining hands for this objective. They complemented each other just too well. Once the Tribulation Lightning Layer disappeared, all the members in the explorer teams noticed it. A member of the Elemental Sect looked at their leader and asked with a surprised face. "Did those five just appear in the middle of my Divine Sense out of nowhere?" The leader nodded. "They really did. But that''s okay, they are part of the ones who joined the Elemental Path through our entrance." Sure enough, some members of their team recognized Filio, Marshine, and the others with their Divine Sense. But when that group finally appeared in their vision, everyone was taken aback. That is because they could see a ball of purple lightning moving together with them. The problem is, that thing is not appearing inside their Divine Sense at all! It is as if it didn''t even exist. "I see, no wonder they appeared so suddenly. They were being covered by whatever that thing is." The Elemental Sect group leader then came forward to greet them. "So you are the first group other than the exploration teams to arrive, uh? My name is Hiro Elenk, the exploration group leader." Tinnian had the highest cultivation in their group, so they decided to let him do the talk. "We are an on-the-spot made group to collect the Elemental Flowers. We rushed forward so that we could leave the other teams behind. That way, it would be easier to obtain the Elemental Flowers. But we didn''t expect to catch up with the exploration teams at all." Hiro nodded and then explained. "Normally, that should really be the case. If not because our path is being blocked, you guys would indeed not have caught up to us. After all, we are indeed ignoring all the Elemental Flowers. Come, let me show you." Krune''s group followed Hiro until he stopped in the middle of the air. He then extended his hand forward. It was at this moment that Krune and the others noticed that the area where Hiro was touching shined. It was as if Hiro was pressing his hand against a white wall. "Do you see it? We have already checked the entire extension of the path. Still, this barrier is covering everything. That isn''t all, our Divine Sense also can''t pass through. In the end, we got stuck here." Marshine couldn''t help but touch it as well. Sure enough, her hand was also stopped by that barrier. "So weird. I don''t feel any energy at all. If it was a formation, we would at least feel some Spiritual Energy once we touched it." Feifei, or better, Feier, shook her head. "That''s not correct. I''m a formations master, so I can tell. If a Formation level is too high, it will act just like when you see someone with cultivation much higher than yours. You won''t be able to feel anything from that person or demon beast. I believe that this barrier is a perfect example of this ability." Hiro smiled and nodded. "That is correct, our group''s Formation Master also told us the same thing. He also said that this formation is at least a Five Diamond Stars one. Probably even higher." Krune also came forward and tried to touch the barrier. But just as he was about to do that, he felt his Elemental Meridians getting excited once more. It was evident that whatever is on the other side is definitely causing them to act like this. Krune then turned to look at Hiro and asked. "So, what do you guys plan on doing?" Hiro still felt somewhat weird to not being able to feel Krune''s presence even though he is right in front of him. He knows that this is not a difference in cultivation levels since no one above the Divine Soul Realm can enter. Hiro is already at the 9th Stage, so he had the highest allowed cultivation in this Dimensional Realm. Just as he was about to talk, someone from another team approached. "Hey, Hiro. What is it with this friend of yours? Why is he keeping himself hidden from our Divine Senses?" Hiro narrowed his eyes and said. "That has nothing to do with your Seasons Sect, Lire." Lire was the leader of the Seasons Sect exploration group, one of the six powers controlling the six entrances. "Of course it does. Everyone here is out in the open, all the demon beasts are in their original forms. So why only this guy is keeping himself in the darkness? The fact that he doesn''t appear inside of any of our Divine Senses is bothering me a lot." Lire started to approach Krune while saying. "You don''t mind if I bring him out of his shell, right?" Just as Hiro was about to intervene, Krune decided to act. Brummm! Several arcs of purple lightning started to spin around him. Krune knew that someone would definitely bother him sooner or later, so this was his way of putting a strong front. Lire looked at that and finally could feel the power of Tribulation Lightning coming from it. Not only that, but he could tell that they were extremely strong. "Hehe. Let''s see if you have what it takes to bring me out of my shell." Feifei saw that and just smiled while shooking her head. 282 Myriad Elements Protection Formation Lire couldn''t see that ball of Purple Lightning cultivation. All he could do was judge its strength through the power it was showing now. Suddenly, he heard Hiro''s voice from behind. "Lire, I won''t intervene as long as it is just you, but don''t say that I didn''t warn you. Hahaha!" Those words immediately put Lire on his guard. The last thing that he wanted was to get injured in this place. No one knows what is beyond that barrier, so he has to stay in peak condition for and if it opens. Lire then snorted and said. "Whatever, I don''t have time to deal with you." He then turned back and returned to his sect exploration team. No one from the other teams thought that Lire was afraid. If anything, they believe that he was right in retreating now. They, too, would have done the same thing. This isn''t the time to start a battle, especially one that you don''t know if you can even win. The arcs of purple lightning around Krune then disappeared, and he looked at Feifei while sending a Divine Sense message. "You knew it was going to happen, right?" Feifei laughed a little and shook her head. "Before he appeared, I wasn''t using my Destiny Core since I didn''t feel any danger. Only after he came for you did I check his destiny energy. His cultivation level is on the other side of the Divine Soul Realm, so I could only predict a few seconds in the future. It was only then that I found out that Hiro''s bluff was going to happen and work." Krune sighed and returned his attention to Hiro. "Well, then. Back to the previous topic. What do you guys plan on doing now?" Hiro laughed a little and then asked. "What about you guys introduce yourselves first?" Only now did Krune remember that they really haven''t done that yet. "Oh, sorry. I''m Jolk." Tinnian and the others proceeded to introduce themselves as well. Hiro nodded and then pointed to a specific direction. Krune''s group looked there and could see a pillar standing just in front of the barrier. Hiro and everyone else then went there to take a look. That pillar was quite small, no more than 2 meters high. They could see that there was some kind of seal in front of it. Hiro then turned to everyone and said. "There is a total of six pillars, including this one. This is probably because there are 6 entrances to the Elemental Path. So each power is holding one of those. Touch the seal, and you will understand why we are waiting for more cultivators and demon beasts." Tinnian was the first one to do that. Soon, his expression became weird. "What is it?" Tinnian sighed and said. "Check it by yourselves, and you understand as well." "Only when twenty marks of the same type are gathered, shall this path be open." Krune immediately understood why Tinnian showed a weird expression. The other teams are too far behind, so there will be very little time to explore after they gather enough marks. "I see, the mark it is talking about is the one we received before entering the Elemental Path, correct? Considering that your exploration team has 7 members in total, we now have a total of 13 members. We still need another 7 to come before we can disable this seal." Hiro nodded. "That''s why we are waiting here, and it''s the same for the other 5 groups. If we just had someone who could use all elemental laws, then we wouldn''t need to wait for it. But to find a Divine Soul Realm cultivator or demon beast who can use Laws is already very difficult, let alone all of them. Even I can only use one." Feifei and Krune looked at each other. "What do you mean?" Hiro then drew a seal with spiritual energy on the air and sent it to the Protection Formation. As soon as it touched the barrier, Krune and everyone else noticed several colored lights coming out from it. Krune immediately said. "The five elemental Laws." Hiro looked at Krune, or better, Jolk, surprised. "You can tell? You really aren''t the run of the mill demon beast after all." Hiro then looked back at the colored lights and continued. "You are right, those are the five elemental laws. There are several types of each one in it. That''s how we determined that this is a Diamond Stars Formation at the very least." Feifei continued from there. "Although Golden Stars Formations Master can use Laws in their formations, to use so many Laws would need to be a Diamond Stars at the very least. It is obvious that this formation has quite a few of each of the elements." Hiro nodded. "You are indeed a Formations Master. Feier is correct, with this many Laws inside, only a Diamond Stars Formation would be able to control them all." Hiro then looked at his friend and asked. "Sassa, can you tell them what you told me?" Sassa was a 7th Stage Divine Soul Realm cultivator. "Sure." He looked at Krune''s group and said. "From what we found, this is the Myriad Elements Protection Formation." Feifei''s eyes immediately lit up. "Wait, isn''t that a Diamond Stars formation from the war era?" Sassa smiled and nodded. "You seem to have studied formations a lot as well. That''s correct. This is a Formation from the time when the Dalin Universe was being conquered. A way to disable it had long since been found. At that time, the cultivators or demon beasts would need to be at least in the peak of the Semi-Divinity Realm to force their way in. But later, the formations master found out that as long as someone with some control over the laws of each element could also break it." "Well, ''break'' is the wrong way to say it. ''Bypass'' would be more correct. With that, we could open a passage on the formation, and then enter it. You only need to allow your five elemental laws to get in synch with the barrier laws, and you can force an entrance to appear for a short time." Marshine then asked. "What about getting one person with an elemental sub-law each and joining forces to open the path? Wouldn''t it work?" Feifei was the one to answer that question. "What they need here is someone who can synch their elemental laws. Those triers would need to understand each other very well and a long time of practice to achieve something like that. But even if we have the necessary elements, the time to learn how to control all together perfectly would definitely be more than the single week we have left." Sassa then shook his head. "You can already forget about this possibility. The six powers might not be on good terms, but we at least know that joining hands here would be the best choice. Unfortunately, we don''t have enough elemental sub-laws. Hiro can use one of the wind types, while Lire can use an earth one. But the rest of the groups don''t have anyone who can use any elemental law at all. We can only use the 20 marks rule if we want to move forward." It was then that Filio asked. "So what about those marks? I thought they were just something that your sect created to bring everyone back form the Elemental Realm. But it seems that there is more to this story." Sassa nodded. "Indeed, those marks are not something our Elemental Sect created. In fact, the other five powers controlling one entrance each are also the same. To be honest, I don''t know much about it either. All that I heard from the elders of the sect is that they found the method to create those marks at the same time they found the entrance." "From the records available, the Mark Crafting method rushed out of the gate at the same time that the Sect Ancestor found the entrance. We believe that there was some mechanism in place that detected our Ancestor arrival and released the Crafting Method the moment he appeared." Marshine nodded. "Well, that is to be expected. How come something you guys created to be used in this place, which is obviously much older than your sect? That would be too great of a coincidence." While everyone was discussing, Krune approached the barrier behind the Elemental Sect members and his group to take a look. Sassa then sighed. "It''s unfortunate that this realm only allows Divine Soul Realm and below to enter. Otherwise, we could bring an elder that comprehended some of each of the Five Elemental sub-laws to open a passage to us." Hiro then laughed and said. "Well, there is no point thinking about it for now. The chances of a Divine Soul Realm cultivator or demon beast like that to appear is almost zero anyway. Not to mention that controlling his Laws in perfect synch with the Protection Formation ones would need several days of practice. It wouldn''t be something that could be accomplished in a day or two. Hahahaha!" *Swash!* Suddenly, a tunnel appeared around the Formation, or better, around that ball of purple lightning. Immediately, everyone looked at him with their eyes open wide! "Oh! That was quite easy." 283 First Look Inside Hiro felt like crying already. ''Easy? What was easy? Open the barrier? Controlling the Elemental laws? No, wait! Since when have you comprehended sub-laws from each element? No, forget that for now, I just said that it would take several days of practice to synch the barrier and the user''s laws. Aren''t you a little too fast? No, wait again! He did that just as I said it, didn''t he? It was on purpose, right? Right?! He was definitely trying to pull my leg!'' Krune had no idea about what was passing inside Hiro''s head, nor did he care. He just looked at everyone and asked. "Are you guys going to keep looking? Shouldn''t we enter before the other teams notice it?" Only then did Hiro come back to himself and immediately sent the order to his group through Divine Sense. "We are going in!" Just as everyone started to pass through the barrier, they heard a scream from behind. "Hiro, damn you! Don''t think that I will let you go that easy!" The other teams soon noticed what happened and rushed over as well. Still, Hiro only smiled. Doesn''t matter how fast they are, they aren''t beside the barrier like his team. As soon as they passed through, Krune entered and moved away from the entrance. With that, there was nothing more holding the Protection Formation from closing itself, so the entrance disappeared right after. Lier and the other groups'' leaders could only look at Hiro and his team on the other side while cursing him. Hiro just laughed and then drew some words with Spiritual Energy on the air. "I can''t hear you, but I''m sure that you are congratulating me. Thank you for all your support, I will make sure to take a good look inside in your place instead." Even Krune felt like laughing after seeing that, let alone Feifei, who already burst out in laugher. The other groups felt like cursing Hiro even more, but it was evident that their voice couldn''t pass the formation as well. Hiro then ignored everyone and proceed to follow his group. But it was then that he remembered. "Right! Jolk, you can control laws of the five elements?!" Krune didn''t deny it. "I was just lucky during my cultivation. That''s all." Hiro might be surprised by that discovery, but the ones really terrified were the members of his group. After all, Marshine and the others all know that Krune is still in the Core Formation Realm! He hasn''t even entered the Divine Soul Realm yet. Still, they decided to not say anything. One must remember they are the weakest link of this group. Hiro decided to ignore it for now. The important is that they got inside before anyone else. Hiro and his exploration team then separated from Krune''s group. "We are going to move on our own, so you guys do whatever you like as well. If it comes to a fight for a treasure, may the ones with the best skills win." Krune and the others nodded. This is indeed the best outcome for them. The member in Hiro''s group with the lowest cultivation level was already at the 6th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. If Krune and the others followed them, they would only get the leftovers. That''s not what they wanted. The reason that Krune allowed the entire Elemental Sect group to enter was very simple. The other teams outside would indeed come in sooner or later, so it was better for them to have more targets than just his group. Not to mention that they only found about this possibility to open the protection formation thanks to Hiro''s group. This could also be said to be a way of repaying them for this information. "Very well, see you later." As mentioned before, the Elemental Path is really a one-way path. Still, the distance between its side borders is enormous. So there was more than enough space for both groups to move around. While Hiro''s group took the right side, Krune''s group did the same to the left. It didn''t take long before Rarol''s instincts acted again. "Haha! Come with me!" Krune and everyone else immediately followed him. Not long after, Krune''s Divine Sense finally found what it was. "Holy shit! There are over a hundred Elemental Flowers ahead, and at least half of them are the Special Types!" Filio then asked. "If there are so many Elemental Flowers, what about the demon beasts? Such a number of flowers will probably have an army defending." Everyone immediately stopped since they also thought the same. But surprisingly, Krune denied that conjecture. "Nothing... There is nothing at all! It''s only the flowers. I can''t feel the presence of a single demon beast what so ever." Everyone felt excited to hear that. Still, Krune''s group proceeded with caution. After all, they don''t know what kind of traps could be found here. But it was not necessary, though. They collected the flowers and shared between themselves without any issues. "It seems like that the land can''t give birth to those demon beasts inside the protection formation. Anyway, this is not a problem. Let''s keep moving." Feifei and Krune had absorbed a lot of the lights coming from those beasts before, and it indeed increased their rate of Elemental Source Energy conversion. But the fact is that the change wasn''t that great. Even after those several days of absorption, the improvement was nothing more than 1 to 2%. Of course, Krune and Feifei weren''t sad by those results. One must remember that they didn''t even expect to find something like those demon beasts to start with. Not to mention that in the long run, this 1 or 2% of increase will give a significant boost in the future. That wasn''t the first batch of Elemental Flowers that they found, though. The further they went, the more they plucked. In just a single day, Krune''s group members already had hundreds of flowers each. Feifei made a deal with the others Special Flowers and acquired their Destiny Related ones in exchange for time and space. Other than Feifei, no one else here was an adept of divination, so those flowers were indeed the least precious for them. It was a Win-Win situation for both parties. Suddenly, Krune''s Divine Sense picked something in the distance. "There is a building ahead." Everyone immediately entered on guard. Buildings have never been found in the Elemental Path before, so they don''t know what could be inside. Krune''s group approached that construction slowly while keeping their Divine Senses out. Once they arrived in front of it, they noticed that they looked quite well preserved, considering the time that this Dimensional Realm existed. Feifei then commented. "It''s most likely a formation. If you pay attention, the wind is being blocked for some kind of barrier. That is why it looks so well at the moment." Tinnian then noticed something. "Oh, I can see the entrance. But it seems to be closed." They got close to it, and so far, nothing happened. Once Krune''s group was in front of the gate, they noticed a small panel with a seal that looked like the one on the pillar outside the protection formation. Rarol got close and put his hand on it. "It''s okay, you guys can touch it too. It''s just information." Krune and the others touched that, and once again, information was sent directly into their souls. "Yang Hall." Everyone understood those words and decided to enter. But against their wishes, the door of the building didn''t even budge. "Should we attack it?" Tinnian touched the dor and tried to feel it with his Spiritual Energy. "No can do. This thing is definitely far above what our powers to achieve. I would be impressed if we could even leave a dent on it." Feifei then noticed something. "Wait, what about those marks that were given to us before we entered the Elemental Path?" Everyone finally remembered them and immediately brought the marks out. Tinnian was the first one, he approached the seal and put his Mark on it. Sure enough, his mark started to shine, and the door began to open. But right after, something unexpected happened. "He-hey! My mark, it lost its color." They looked at it and sure enough. Everyone could only tell the outline of it, the colors were totally gone. Tinnian then added. "It did lose the colors, but I can still feel its presence." Tinnian tried to see if he could make it go back to normal by touching the seal again, but nothing happened. Filio then reached a conclusion. "I guess it is safe to say that each mark can only open one building. After that, the only thing remaining is the fact that it can teleport you outside when the time is over. Of course, this is just a conjecture." Marshine than suggested. "If that is true, then there are a lot more buildings waiting to be opened too. Instead of using the remaining marks straight away, we should forget the Elemental Flowers and take our time to explore this place. So far, we didn''t find a single demon beast, so we should just move at top speed to save time." Their group nodded and then entered the building. Since they already lost a mark on this, they might as well take a look at what is inside. 284 Or So Everyone Thinks. The reason he told his real name was that it would be useless to hide it with the Blood Contract in place.At first, the group was expecting to find some treasures or high-level cultivation resources. But the further in they went, the more depressed they become. Marshine couldn''t take it anymore and complained. "What is happening here? Everything is empty! Let alone treasures, we haven''t found a single Spirit Stone!" Tinnian looked at her and said. "Stop with it. Even if we don''t find anything at all, the Elemental Flowers from outside are already more than enough for this exploration. We got more Elemental Flowers than any other group would take in several entries." Krune agreed with Tinnian. "He is right. Those elemental flowers are going to help a lot with my comprehension of Laws. If the information available about them isn''t wrong, I''m confident in being able to reach culmination with at least one sub-law of each Element." Feifei added. "As for me, those Elemental Flowers with Destiny Energy are a great treasure. There is almost nothing in this Universe that can help me understand Destiny Laws, so I have nothing to complain about already." The building had several floors going into the earth, and each one was bigger than the last. At some point, they noticed the temperature increasing, but it wasn''t something that could bother cultivators at their level. Unfortunately for them, the further they went, the hotter it became. Once Krune''s group reached the 43rd floor, even their Spiritual Energy protection wasn''t able to keep the heat out anymore. "This is bad. How many floors does this thing have?" No one knew, but they couldn''t simply give up now that they arrived so far. "Let''s do like this. We will press forward until we reach the 50th floor. If we don''t find anything by then, we will turn back and look for some other building." No one was against the plan. After all, they really didn''t any so-called treasure so far. Finally, when they arrived at the 49th floor, they found something. It was some kind of red crystal. In fact, the entire floor was full of it. "What are those things?" Krune got close and broke a piece of it with his Spiritual Energy. He examined it for a moment and then said. "It''s the same sensation as the Elemental Flowers. The only difference is that it only has one element inside, which is obviously fire. The difference is that the concentration is several times higher. Anyone using this thing to practice Fire Laws would definitely feel delighted." For a moment, everyone felt excited. Those crystals would definitely be worth a fortune! But soon, they noticed a problem. "These crystals can''t enter the Spatial Rings!" Everyone tried as well, and sure enough, they simply didn''t enter the spatial rings at all. "As I said, the concentration of Fire Element inside this thing is enormous. Maybe this is what is impeding the crystals from entering the Spatial Rings. Simply put, our spatial rings are not of a higher enough grade." Krune looked at everyone and then said. "My Spatial Ring is a Silver Stars one." "Mine too." "And Mine." It turned out that no one here had a Spatial Ring of a higher grade than Silver Stars. Even Feifei didn''t have it. It''s not that the Wang Clan couldn''t give her a higher grade one. It''s just that usually, no one really needed a Spatial Ring above the Silver Stars Grade. While they were thinking about how to deal with this issue, Feifei called everyone''s attention. "Hey, there is a big door at the end of this floor." Krune''s group then gathered in front of it and could see another panel with a seal on it. But this time, the seal looked different from the previous two. Rarol didn''t care and once more touched the seal. Immediately after, the projection of a woman appeared in front of them. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at everyone in front of her. To be more specific, she looked at Krune and Feifei. "So, a real Myriad Energies Technique user really appeared. You really took your time to come, didn''t you?" Krune and Feifei were taken aback. How did she know that they were using the Myriad Energies Technique? Marshine couldn''t help but think ''I did use the Myriad Energies Technique in the past when I started cultivating to open my meridians, but what does it have to do with anything? I have given it up after I got enough of my own meridians opened.'' Filio also thought the same thing. ''I used this technique at the start. Could it be that there is something else to it? Why the name of such a common technique would appear here?'' The woman looked at those two and snorted, she totally understood what they were thinking. "I''m not talking about idiots like you who only know the first form of the technique. I''m talking with that girl and the thing inside of the purple lightning ball who have cultivated it to the third form." Krune and Feifei immediately understood what she meant with the third form. The first form was the pseudo meridians. This is something that everyone knew about. With the exception of Krune and those who he passed his improved technique, everyone else only knew about the First Form. The second form was obviously the Spiritual Energy Meridians. Krune used it for a long time since he didn''t have enough Spirit Stones to create all Nine Meridians straight away. The third form could only be the Elemental Meridians. They are the evolution of the Spiritual Energy ones. Once Nine Spiritual Energy Meridians are successfully formed, they will automatically change into the following form, which is the Elemental ones. Krune then silently asked Luvile. "Light Spirit, I can understand Feifei''s case. But why can she tell that I have the Elemental Meridians while I''m inside the Tribulation Layer?" Light Spirit laughed and said. "What else could it be? Did you forget what you use to absorb the power of the Tribulation Lightning from your Core?" Krune finally understood. "I see, she can''t feel my presence, but the presence of the Elemental Meridians from where the Tribulation Lightning is passing through." Krune stepped forward and told the others. "Let me deal with it first, I will answer your questions later." He then turned to the woman in the projection and asked. "How do you know about the other forms of the Myriad Energies Technique?" The woman looked surprised and answered Krune''s question with another one. "Wait, wasn''t it Wally who sent you here?" "No, I got to know this place due to a Mission from the Mission Hall. Otherwise, I would have never come in the first place. I did hear about Wally''s history from the actual Wisp Queen in the Wisp''s Ancestry Hall, though." The woman then started murmuring. "Could it be that it is still not time? No, Wally wouldn''t have passed his Myriad Energies Technique Second Form and above to someone else if that was not the case. The first stage of the plan was for the First Form to be spread only." Krune heard that and then added. "I did not get the Second Form from anyone. I created it by myself using the first form as a base. As for the third form, it was an automatic thing. I didn''t have to do anything else for it to happen." After hearing that, the woman looked at Krune as is she had seen a ghost. "You... created it by yourself? Hehe... HAHAHAHA! What a joke! Do you have any idea how long we took to piece the parts together to create the second and third form? You are telling me that you devised the second form by having the first one alone? Sure, I will pretend that I believe." Kruen got angry and replied. "This is the truth, and I can sign a blood contract to prove." The woman was taken aback. "A blood contract? But those things only work on Core Formation Realm and below." Krune agreed with her. "I''m a 9th stage Core Formation Realm Demon Beast at the moment." Krune then expanded his Tribulation Lightning Layer until it covered him and the woman. Since she was also inside, she could now see Krune''s realm form and feel his realm. Krune also made sure that no sound would come outside. "A Core Formation Realm Wisp, and one with the Elemental Major Core. Now that''s what I call a coincidence. Wally just so happened to be an Elemental Major Core as well. The only difference is that he was a Special Type one that could become a Heavenly Core. In fact, he did become one, though." Krune agreed with her. "I know, I have been to the wisp world and heard about his story." Krune then first introduced himself. "My real name is Krune, but except for that girl, the others know me as Jolk." The reason he told his real name was that it would be useless to hide it with the Blood Contract in place. Krune then brought a blood contract from his spatial ring and was just about to start writing when the woman stopped him. "There is no need, I believe you." Krune didn''t mind and put the blood contract away. "So, who are you? How come you know about the Myriad Energies Technique next forms?" The woman smiled and said. "My name is Karine, one of Wally''s nine disciples. Just like you, a wisp." Krune immediately blurted out. "Impossible! Wally''s nine disciples died before the Myriad Energies Technique was created. There is no way you can know about the existence of the Myriad Energies Technique." The woman laughed and said. "Or so everyone thinks. Hahaha!" 285 Try a lot Harder! Krune was taken aback. "What you mean?" Karine just shook her head and said. "There is no need for you to know about that now. Also, your cultivation is way too low at the moment, so come back once you reach the Soul Forging Realm. Go outside and gather a few Elemental Flowers, you can also take those Extreme Fire Crystals if you want. They should provide you quite some help in the future." Krune immediately rejected that idea, he had way too many questions. "No can do. First of all, what is this place? What does Wally expect to achieve? Does it have something to do with the fate of the Wisp Race? I knew about the War to conquer the Dalin Universe all that time ago, so was your death and the other disciples faked? If yes, why? Also, was it part of the plan?" Karine laughed a little and answered. "Aren''t you a curious wisp? Well, I guess this is a trait that all wisps have anyway. I can answer your first question, though. This is where Wally and we created the Myriad Energies Technique. This is also why when you killed those demon beasts outside, their energy helped improve your Elemental Meridians a little." "As for what Wally is expecting to achieve. Isn''t that obvious? He just wants to save the wisps'' lives. You heard about the battle between him and the other ascenders, right? So you definitely know why the wisps are holding by a tread." Krune shook his head. "That''s not what I meant. I want to know what Wally plans on doing specifically." Karine just shrugged her shoulders. "That you will have to ask him directly. As for our deaths, I told you already. You have no need to know about what happened there. If it is part of some plan or not, you will need to ask Wally for that as well." Krune understood that it wasn''t going anywhere. "Alright! Then I''m going to ask Wally about it. So, where can I find him?" Karine sighed "Who knows? All I can tell you is that he definitely knows where you are, but I have no idea which Universe he is watching you from." Krune knew that she was right, that presence is his Elemental Meridians was more than enough proof that Wally knew about him. But he came to understand a piece of information. Wally wasn''t expecting him to learn the second form of the Myriad Energies Technique by himself. But since he didn''t intervene, it means that it probably fell into his plans as well. "You said to come back here once I reach the Soul Forging Realm. But in this Elemental Path Dimensional Realm, only Divine Soul Realm or below can enter. Soul Forging and above are impeded from doing so." Karine nodded and extended her hands. In front of her, Spiritual Energy started to converge, and soon, a token was formed with it. "Why Soul Forging Realm?" Karine showed a playful smile and answered. "That will be a surprise." Krune couldn''t help but feel that this girl resembled Feifei a little in her attitude. "There is one thing that has been bothering me. The Elemental Path has been ongoing for a very long time. But as soon as I entered it, that protection formation was found for the first time. Could it be that we only found this place because a real Myriad Energies Technique user appeared?" Karine nodded. "Smart! You are correct. This Dimensional Realm is not as endless as the outsiders think. In fact, it is quite small. Even if you appear at the start, you shouldn''t need more than 1 month to reach the end of it. It''s just that because only Divine Soul Realm and below cultivators can enter, they don''t have the level necessary to perceive what is happening around them. Every time we open this realm, we change its shape. So it always looks like they are entering a new region that had never been explored before." Krune agreed with her. He had this idea in his mind ever since he found that protection formation. Krune retracted his Lightning Energy, and it went back to cover only himself. He looked at the others behind him, and just as he was about to talk, Karine acted. Except for Feifei and Krune, the rest was lifted on the air for some kind of invisible energy and brought right in front of her. It doesn''t matter how much Spiritual or Elemental Source Energy they used, it wasn''t possible to move a single muscle. Krune immediately asked. "What are you doing?!" Karine looked at him and said. "Different from that girl over there, these ones don''t have much of a connection with you, right? In that case, I can''t let them go now that they know about the other forms of the Myriad Energies Technique." Krune didn''t like it and decided to intervene. But he soon noticed that he also couldn''t move, and the same could be said for Feifei. "Stop! You can''t simply kill them just because they heard something." Karine looked at Krune with a puzzled face. "Do I look like an assassin to you? I''m just wiping their memories of everything that happened in this Yang Hall, that''s all." Only then did Krune notice one thing. Rarol''s instinct always warned when some danger would appear. But he didn''t act at all until now. That means that there had never been a danger to him in this place to him to start with. Sure enough, a few seconds later, Karine put then back on the ground, and they started to make their way outside. When Krune looked at their eyes, he could see that they had lost all focus. They passed by him and started to go back upstairs. "Don''t worry, they will come back to normal once they leave this building." Feifei pondered a bit and then asked. "Just as I thought, you really are Karine, one of the Wisp God''s disciples, right?" Krune might have closed Karine and himself inside the Tribulation Lightning Layer. Still, Feifei had full access to it with her Divine Sense, so she heard everything they discussed. Still, he got surprised by that question. That''s because it seemed like Feifei already knew Karine even before she introduced herself to Krune. "You knew her?" Feifei nodded at Krune. "Don''t you remember? That day when Cinty released the seal covering the specs of light representing the nine disciples, we had the chance to look into all of them. Karine just so happens to be identical to the Karine in the Wisps'' Ancestry Hall. She was the owner of the Yang Core" Suddenly, Krune felt a little embarrassed. "Errr... Would you believe me if I told you that I only checked Wally''s one?" Karine and Feifei looked at Krune like he was an idiot. "Cough, cough. I just had too much in my mind at that time, so I forgot." In fact, it was because he had been talking a lot with Light Spirit at that moment. So it isn''t a lie if he says that he forgot the other ones. Karine then looked at Feifei and asked. "Well, and who are you? I can see that you are related. After all, both of you have the Elemental Meridians. Of course, only Krune has the main type." Krune got puzzled. "Main type?" Karine smiled and commented. "You will understand it in the future as well." Krune knew that asking would do no good, so he ignored it for now. Feifei then looked at Karine and said. "I''ll tell who I am." She smiled and grabbed Krune''s core out of the Tribulation Lightning ball. She then brought him close to her chest and proclaimed proudly. "I''m his Fiance, and he is my man!" If Krune was in his human form at the moment, even a love dull wisp like him would feel his heart racing. Karine saw that, and her mouth twitched. "Are you for real?" Krune immediately confirmed. "Cough, cough. That is true, we have been together for quite some time already." Karine couldn''t help but ask. "But are you okay with it? A child between a human and a wisp is very hard to be conceived, you know?" Feifei and Krune were taken aback. Who is talking about children here? It''s is still too early! They don''t have time to take care of one at all! But a second later, the two of them noticed the problem in that comment. "Wait, what do you mean with that?" Karine noticed that they weren''t pretending and decided to explain. "Well, If a reason has to be given, that is because wisps are too weak. Let''s see, how am I going to explain it..." Karine pondered a bit and then started to talk. "When a wisp gains its human form, their personality decides which gender they will have. From that point onwards, they can also have children. In the case of female wisps, they just need to make sure to not return to their wisp forms until the pregnancy is over." "If it was a wisp couple, then there would be no problem. After all, they are from the same race. I might as well tell you that what will be born from a Male and Female wisp is also a wisp. It''s just that their child will already be in the Foundation Establishment realm, just like their parents. Because of that, the wisp will be born in its human form too. Simply put, he will look just like a human baby. Once that newborn wisp learns how to control his cultivation, he can return to his wisp form just like any other wisp." "The problem here is the copulation between the wisps and the other races. As I mentioned before, wisps are too weak. Which means that their ''seeds'' are also in the same boat. A male wisp''s sperm is too weak to break the barrier of the female''s ovum. In case the wisp is a female, her egg will be too weak to resist the man''s sperm." Krune and Feifei looked at each other and had the same idea. "You said that it is very hard. Still, it also means that it is not impossible, correct? Then, what should we do?" Karine then looked away while scratching the back of her head. "Well... Errr... You just need to... Cough, cough... Try a lot harder... Errr... You know... Just... Go at it several times... Per day... Sooner or later... There will be a time where the... Cough, Cough... Where the ''trials''... will bear fruit." Feifei was already as red as a tomato when Karine reached the ''a lot harder'' part. But she immediately got a foreboding feeling. As for Krune, he waited until the end of the explanation. "A lot harder? Then that''s simple. I will make sure to try very ''hard.'' No, I will make sure to do it ''extra hard.'' Krune looked Feifei and then announced proudly! "Feier, you can count on my hardness!" 286 Will They Believe? Feifei felt like crying but had no tears. The worst part is that she knows that Krune wasn''t talking like that on purpose, so she couldn''t really blame him. He absolutely didn''t understand the other implications of that ''hardness'' word. "Cough, cough. I will leave that up to you guys'' efforts. After all, I can at least see that you really love each other." Karine then changed the topic. "Anyway. I finished saying everything I had to say, you two can go out after gathering the Extreme Fire Crystals." Krune then asked something else. "Wait. If this building is called Yang Hall, does it mean that there are several other buildings like this for the other disciples?" Karine nodded. "That is correct. Yang Hall, Yin Hall, Elemental Hall, Destiny Hall, so on, and so forth. But I have already contacted the others, so you won''t be able to talk to them anymore." "What about those crystals, does it mean that there are more of this kind of crystal in their Halls? Let''s say, Extreme Destiny Crystals, or Time Crystals?" Karine immediately shook her head. "Nope, those Extreme Fire Crystals are just the fruit of a few things I had been playing with in the past. I won''t say that you won''t find something similar, but the chances are low. Not to mention that you won''t be able to enter the other buildings anymore." Krune pondered a bit and then said. "That is to say that this place is not a treasure trove, but something made for the Myriad Energies Technique. Other than those flowers or things like this Extreme Fire Crystals, there is nothing else." Karine smiled and nodded. "Exactly! That''s why I said you should go out and gather a few more flowers. The protection barrier stopping everyone from entering had been there for a very long time, so you be able to find a lot of them." Feifei then thought about something else. "Is there a way to get that energy from the demon beasts here? It helped to improve the conversion of Elemental Source Energy a lot. It would be good if we had more of it." Karine then sighed and said. "There isn''t. Those demon beasts are, in fact, something that we didn''t predict to come into existence. They are indeed related to the Myriad Energies Technique in some way, but we didn''t put them there on purpose. Initially, there was supposed to be only the Elemental Flowers and nothing more. But I guess their appearance was quite a bonus for you." Krune felt it made no sense. "How come the energy they are made are good for the Myriad Energies Technique, but you don''t have a way to create it?" Karine shook her head. Krune then thought about a possibility. "Feier, did your Elemental Source Energy conversion improve after you entered the Divine Soul Realm?" Feifei immediately nodded. "Yes, It could be said that my Elemental Meridians can convert around 50% at once now." Krune nodded. "As I thought." He then looked at Karine and said. "If I''m not wrong, the conversion of Elemental Source Energy will reach its max capability at the Soul Forging Realm, am I right?" Karine smiled. "Not too bad. You are correct, the max conversion rate is achieved at that realm. Even if you come back here and kill those demon beasts to gather their light energy, the rate of conversion will not change." Krune then continued. "I see. That means that my Elemental Meridians are only absorbing it because it hasn''t reached its max capacity yet. Still, that is not the reason why they are feeling excited about this place. Even now, I can feel as if they are telling me to stay here." Karine nodded once more. "That is correct, what they are looking for is exactly the same thing that you will get once you reach the Soul Forging Realm." With that information alone, Krune already had an idea about what this is about. But he decided to ignore that for now since he is still far away from the Soul Forging Realm. "Alright, I asked everything I wanted. Although I didn''t get all the answers, I''m not at the level where I can force it out of you anyway. But there is one thing I want to ask." Krune then approached those Extreme Fire Crystals. "This thing doesn''t enter my spatial ring at all, just how do you expect us to bring it away?" Karine laughed a little and extended her hands. Right after, two Spatial Rings appeared on them. "Here are two Six Golden Stars Spatial Rings. Consider it as a first meeting gift. There is nothing inside them, but they can definitely carry those Extreme Fire Crystals." Feifei and Krune got one each and felt excited. Those crystals might only be suitable for Fire Laws, but they can also be exchanged for other things later. Not to mention that they are far more effective than the Elemental Flowers if you consider the Fire Law alone. Feifei, especially, is hoping to exchange them for as many destiny related flowers or other items as possible. After collecting everything, Krune asked something else to Karine. "We separated into two groups earlier when we entered this place. I have no doubt that the other group also found one of those buildings either. Does it means that the disciple in that building will also send them out as you did to my group?" Karine nodded. "Exactly. As I said, I already contacted the other disciples, so they know that only you and your fiance have the Myriad Energies Technique. In fact, Rile told me that he met this other group that you talked about. He already wiped their memories and sent them out." Feifei remembered that Krune hadn''t checked Wally''s disciples before, so she told him. "Rile was the wisp with the Death Major core." Krune agreed. "So, does everyone at least remember that they entered the Death or Yang hall?" Karine shook her head. "No. They will only remember that they stopped in front of the door. But even if they use their Marks again, the buildings are not going to open anymore. It will be as if they had never entered it to start with." Krune and Feifei nodded. "Alright, then. We already got all the Fire Crystals, so we are going to leave now." Karine warned Krune one last time. "Remember, only use that token after you achieved the Soul Forging Realm." "Don''t worry, I know what to do." Krune and Feifei bid farewell to Karine and then left the Yang Hall. Once they appeared outside, the door closed behind, and the seal on the panel returned to what it was. Only after that did the light return to Rarol and the others'' eyes. Marshine looked at that door and asked. "So, how do we open it?" That question was enough for Krune to understand that his group really didn''t remember anything that happened inside. In the end, they tried to use their Marks once more in the panel, but this time, it had no reaction. After spending an entire hour trying to find a way in, Krune''s group finally gave up the idea. "Forget it. The protection in this place is not something that we can breach with our Divine Soul Realm cultivation. Let''s look for something else." Since there was no such thing as night time in this Dimensional Realm, no one noticed that over one hour was spent inside the building before. Krune''s group then left, and they started to gather Elemental Flowers once more. In the end, Krune''s group found another 4 buildings, but not a single one could be open. After more than half a day''s time passed, Krune''s group ended bumping on Hiro''s group again. Tinnian came forward and immediately asked. "Have you guys perhaps found a few buildings with the Major Core names?" Hiro nodded. "Yes, we found the Time, Elemental, Blackhole, Death, and Light Halls. But we did not find a way to open any of them." Tinnian nodded and then said his part. "In our case, we found the Yang, Yin, Dark, and Space Halls. As you probably expect, we couldn''t open neither too. Attacks, Formations, Techniques, Divine Sense. Nothing worked on them at all. Krune even tried to use his Laws like in the protection formation back then, but there was no result." Hiro didn''t think they were lying since they too tried those methods and even more. "Does it mean that they can only be opened by force?" Krune then played his role of not knowing anything and suggested. "We did enter here because of a flaw in the formation. In the past, when that formation was created, the ones who lived here didn''t know about it. Because of that, it might be that those places will only open when the necessary marks are really gathered outside." Hiro and everyone else nodded. They, too, thought about this possibility. "What do you propose?" Hiro shrugged his shoulders and said. "What else can we do? Let''s go back to the Protection Formation and tell everyone about what happened." Krune''s group was taken aback. "Would they believe us?" Hiro laughed out loud and said. "Don''t worry, they will have no choice but to believe." 287 Following the Plan Their group quickly returned to the barrier. In the end, not even an entire day''s time passed. When Lire and the leaders of the other groups saw they coming back, they immediately got puzzled. Why would they come back? Shouldn''t they use the extra time as much as possible? When they arrived, it was just like Krune''s group had predicted before. The only extra team that was there was that one they almost met after fighting for the first Destiny Flowers. Haro asked Krune to reopen the protection formation and then said. "Come in, wasn''t that what all you wanted?" Krune had an idea about what Haro was doing, but he decided to leave it on his hands. Lire and the other teams immediately rushed inside the protection formation. But surprisingly, they didn''t attack as Marshine, and the others predicted. Another exploration team leader approached Haro and asked him. "Haro, I know you as well as the others. For you to come back so early could only mean that you need our help, or you had no other choice." Haro laughed, hearing that. "I sure wish that it wasn''t the case, Lila. Unfortunately, things didn''t go as planned. That is why I have come back since I had no other option. Do you think I would come back if I had the capability of taking anything precious? Haha, you know I wouldn''t, and you wouldn''t either." Another team leader called Janos then asked. "It''s not like I believe you. Still, I can at least hear what you have to say. What happened inside to force you to come back?" Haro smiled and then explained everything they found in this place. "So you are saying that the Elemental Flowers were literally the only thing you found so far? Those buildings that you found aren''t opening at all, either. Is that correct?" Haro nodded. "I know you won''t believe before seeing it, so why don''t you come with me for now and I show you? We can come back here after you have checked it with your own eyes." The other teams looked at each other and nodded. After that, they immediately departed. Sure enough, they visited each and every building that was found before. Just as Haro expected, it turned out fruitless. None of them could open those buildings at all! After visiting the last building, which just so happens to be the Yang Hall, the other teams finally gave up. Haro saw that and then laughed. "See? We found quite a few Elemental Flowers in this short time, but that is basically everything that you can get here. I wished someone of you had some secret weapon that could open this thing, but it seems like I was wrong." Lire immediately rebuked. "Cut the crap. I understand that you really didn''t enter those buildings. But everyone here knows that you probably have a plan, or at the very least, an idea." Haro nodded and looked at the Ball of Purple Lightning that was Krune. Krune agreed with that and repeated the same words again. "I see. It is indeed true that we are inside this place because of a flaw in the formation. So what everyone wanna do now? Return to the protection barrier and wait for the other teams?" Krune then said. "The six of us are not like your sects and clans, we do need those flowers. So we are going to stay inside and keep collecting them. If you want to go back, I don''t mind opening the barrier again." Some of the cultivators and demon beasts looked weirdly at Krune. After all, he was the only one with the power to open the protection formation. Everyone here was curious about the fact that he can already use so many laws. Still, they also didn''t want to start a fight with him. The reason was very simple, anyone with so many laws must be at least at the late stages of the Divine Soul Realm, probably even at the peak! The leaders are also at the peak of the Divine Soul Realm, but they would be no match against someone with that many laws. Lire was even feeling lucky that he didn''t start a fight with Krune back then. He is sure now that he would have definitely lost, and lost in a gruesome fashion. Of course, they were the only ones thinking like that. Krune''s group knows way too well that Krune, or better, Jolk, is only at the Core Formation Realm. Still, they had also thought about this possibility before, so they are keeping it a secret. Otherwise, they might become a target due to their lower cultivation realms. Haro then gave an idea. "We need to have some of our exploration group members there to receive the other participants. If we leave that place empty, those teams that have more marks will not stick around. Don''t forget that they are still fighting for more Elemental Flowers, so they won''t simply stay put waiting to be targeted by stronger teams." Everyone nodded. It would be better to leave enough members outside who could talk and protect those who wished to enter later. If Jolk''s conjecture is right, they need enough marks to have the protection formation to open. Of course, Krune and Feifei knew very well that it will not happen, but they still played their role and pretended that they didn''t know anything. Everyone then returned to the protection formation, and Krune let those who would stay out leave. After that, they agreed that they would come back two days later to check if there were enough participants to open the protection formation regularly. Just as Krune was about to leave with his group, Haro asked to let one of his members follow him. Not only him, but the other teams also did the same. Because Krune was the only one who could open the protection formation, they were afraid that he would be able to find a way into the buildings too. Simply put, those extra members would just be watching over him. If Krune was in his human form, he would have definitely smiled at that. "Sure thing. But the flowers that my team finds during this time will not be shared with them. Is that okay?" Haro laughed and nodded. "That''s not a problem at all. As you know, our six powers have been promoting the Elemental Path entrance for who knows how long. If there is something we don''t lack, that is Elemental Flowers. After all, from every three flowers taken, two stay with us. So we don''t have much of a desire for them as you guys do." Krune then received the extra members and immediately departed. Time passed, and Krune''s group was able to gather thousands of flowers. Even after sharing them with everyone, they still had over a thousand each. Two days soon went by, and Krune''s group extra members reminded him that it was time to go back. Once they approached the protection formation again, they noticed they several teams had already gathered outside. There were also the other half of the exploration teams that stayed inside to explore the place. Still, the explorer teams didn''t find anything else other than those buildings of the Major Core names. Krune opened the protection formation once more, and everyone went out. The new teams outside couldn''t help but feel impressed with Krune. After all, they had already heard that only someone with comprehension of at least one sub-law of each of the five main elements could do that. They too set Krune, or better, Jolk, as an entity that should not be messed with. With the rest of the exploration team and Krune''s group, there were finally enough marks to be used in the pillars outside. As mentioned before, each pillar needed at least 20 marks of every type for the Protection Formation to be open. Every power gathered their marks in front of their own pillars, and they immediately brought out their marks. Sure enough, those marks merged with the pillar, and the protection formation that only Krune could pass through was now deactivated. Except for Feifei and Krune, everyone else seemed excited. They immediately entered and headed for the closest building. They were hoping that with this, those places had finally opened. Unfortunately for them, it was as Karine mentioned to Krune and Feifei. Even after the protection formation was disabled outside, the buildings'' formations were still working as if nothing happened. Haro and everyone else got disappointed. To make sure that they didn''t miss anything, all the teams paid a visit to every building in this place. Still, that was to no avail. Haro couldn''t help but sigh. "Well, that was only an idea. There was no guarantee that we would be able to open these places just because the protection formation outside was deactivated." Lila then commented. "So what are these buildings here for? Are they just some kind of decoration?" Everyone got silent until someone thought about something. "Maybe these buildings only exist to make sure that the Elemental Path Realm keeps working fine." Lire got angry and then suggested. "Let''s all attack together. With this many Divine Soul Realm participants, we might be able to crack it open. It is better than doing nothing." Although the exploration teams felt that it would be meaningless, they still nodded. Just like that, their last try to open those buildings started. 288 Elemental Path is Over Everyone started to attack the protection formation and the entrance together. Still, let alone damaging it, the barrier and the gate didn''t even tremble. "Keep doing it, we might force it to use all its energy if we don''t stop." Still, after three hours, everyone finally run out of Spiritual and Elemental Source energy. Unfortunately for them, the protection formation was still standing there as if nothing happened at all. Haro couldn''t help but comment. "I guess this settles it. We have no other choice other than wait for the Elemental Path Realm to close so that we can ask our elders." As disappointed as everyone could be, that was really the case for them. "What are we gonna do now?" Krune came forward with his team and said. "I guess we will just keep looking for more Elemental Flowers. As I mentioned before, those are very important for us." The other groups that were not part of the explorations teams also decided to do the same. After all, the Elemental Flowers were really the reason they came here in the first place. Haro then commented. "Alright, but as I did before, I will keep a member of my group with you just in case. I hope you understand our predicament." Krune agreed with it. "Not a problem for me. As long as they don''t want out Elemental Flowers, we are pretty much fine with whatever." Just like that, the teams separated, and everyone started to look for Elemental Flowers as well. Since in this place there were no demon beasts, everyone was soon able to collect quite a good amount. Still, there were just so many flowers for every team. With no demon beasts defending, the stronger teams started to target the weaker ones for their flowers as well. The only exception was the Explorer teams that had several Late Stages Divine Soul Realms and Krune''s group that had a member of each exploration team following him. Weirdly enough, Krune became one of the most powerful groups without having to pay anything for it. Time passed, and soon, the 18 days'' time was up. Just as the elder of the Elemental Sect mentioned, their marks activated, and everyone was teleported outside. Krune''s group was obviously teleported to back to the Elemental Sect Field together with Haro and the other groups who participated. Krune looked around and noticed that only about 60% of the numbers that had entered the Elemental Path Realm came back this time. Whether they died to demon beasts, died to other groups, or simply lost their marks, he didn''t know. Krune put those thoughts on the back of his mind and let out a sigh of relief. He soon returned to his human form as well. Only then his Tribulation Lightning Layer disappeared. When Haro noticed that, he immediately found out Krune''s real cultivation. "Core Formation Realm?! Are you for real?!" Haro knew that there were more important things to take care of first, so he immediately started to organize his thoughts. Right after, he sent a Divine Sense Message with the entire story of what happened inside this time. At first, the elders'' eyes lit up. This was the first time they found anything other than the Elemental Flowers. But when they heard the rest of the story of how they couldn''t find a way into the buildings, they fell into contemplation. "Buildings with the Major Cores names, but not a single one could be open." "We need to think about a way to do that next time the Elemental Path Realm opens. Since the journey was finished there, they will probably start there again as well next time. But what can we use to open them?" "We can try to make a few tokens with our wills to send a few attacks at our level." "Because you are new in the elder council, you probably don''t know about it. It is indeed possible to enter with things like those. But doesn''t what our members inside do, those items never activate there. Simply put, anything that has a strength higher than the Divine Soul Realm can''t be used there." "Let''s gather the other powers to a conference to decide what to do. With the six together, we might be able to find a way." Finally, one of the elders changed the topic. "Alright, but there is one thing we should check first. The guy who first opened the protection barrier with his laws. Where is him?" Haro nodded and then pointed to Krune in the distance. Krune was talking with another elder of the Sect about the flower delivery. "Space, Time, and Destiny are not of much use for me at the moment. So I would rather keep the Five Main Elements and the Dark and Light Higher Elements. I''m soon to enter the Divine Soul Realm, so I want to use and comprehend these kinds of law too." The elder looked at Krune, or better, Jolk, and commented. "You are being too greedy. Let alone learn the Main Five Elementals Laws, I wonder if you will even be able to learn a single one before you reach the Soul Forging Realm. You should sticky with the Elemental Flowers only." Krune just smiled and didn''t explain. "It''s okay. I will just give up those three Laws and sticky with what I said. I know that Space, Time, and Destiny are worth a lot more than the Elemental ones, so make sure to calculate it when receiving the flowers." The elder didn''t mind. They, too, prefer to keep the Special Flowers instead the Elemental ones, even if it means the Higher Elements of Light and Darkness. Thanks to that, Krune was able to keep the biggest majority of the Elemental Flowers while giving up the rest. It was apparent how much more important Space, Time, and Destiny were for the Elemental Sect. The elders who talked with Haro heard all of that. But that wasn''t what they were impressed about. The problem is that they can totally tell what cultivation Jolk has at the moment. "Haro, are you certain it is him?" Haro nodded. "Yes, he is the demon beast that hid inside the Purple Lightning. Only after leaving the Elemental Path Realm did I finally see that he is only in the Core Formation Realm." The elders were taken aback. They have never seen a Core Formation Realm able to use so many laws. It''s not like there aren''t Core Formation Realm geniuses who can comprehend one Law or two, but they can''t remember one with as many as Krune. "Check his information. Someone like him is bound to have a fearsome background." Soon, that elder received a report. "What?! He is guarded by the Wisp Protection Law?! Are you sure?" The subordinate nodded. "He has been added in it around half a year ago. There is no mistaking it." That elder couldn''t help but sigh, a wisp in the Wisp Protection Law isn''t someone they can touch. "Anyway, I thought I would be able to convince him to join our Sect with the right price, but it seems like it was a foolish idea. Too bad, though, it''s such a pity that he is a wisp. Someone with that talent would definitely soar in the skies in the future. Unfortunately, his life span won''t allow him to do that." The other elders nodded as well. Still, this Elemental Path Realm aperture wasn''t bad. After all, inside of that place with the buildings, there were several times more Elemental Flowers, which means that they will make quite a fortune this time around. Krune finished his exchange and seemed to be in an excellent mood. After he was Feifei''s time. She, too, did the same thing, but she decided to keep as many Destiny Type Flowers as possible. In exchange, she gave up Space and Time. Of course, she knew that the ordinary elemental flowers were also crucial for her level. So she made sure to keep some of them too. One by one, the cultivators and demon beasts delivered their flowers to the elders of the Elemental Path Sect and left afterward. Krune and Feifei gathered with their team one last time after that. "Well, I guess this is it, you guys better be careful out there." Rarol laughed and then brought his communicator out. "Let''s exchange numbers. If I get some nice opportunity, I will give you a call." Tinnian and the others did the same, and soon, they all exchanged their numbers. After that, Krune invited everyone to eat in a restaurant in the city close to the Elemental Sect. Everyone enjoyed their company one last time and finally bid their farewells. Krune and Feifei then went to the nearest teleport formation and teleported away form the Planet. Next time Krune sees this place, it will be when he has entered the Soul Forging Realm. 289 Rainbow Egg On their way back, Feifei asked Krune about something else. "What do you think Karine was talking about when she said that you have the Main Type?" Krune pondered a bit and then said. "Have you noticed that my rate of Elemental Source Energy conversion is higher than any of you? Also, there is that strange phenomenon that happened every time I opened a Spiritual Energy Meridian. They always shined for sometime before settling down. It also happened when they evolved into the Elemental ones. As far as I know, it only happened with me and no one else. I guess this is what she meant with Main Type." Feifei had heard about those things before, so she couldn''t help but agree with Krune''s words. "I see. This is something different. Do you remember that Uncle Feng once said about the Void Breaking Realm?" Krune nodded. "He said that the conversion of Spiritual Energy into Elemental Source Energy will happen almost instantly. The Myriad Energies Technique will make little difference. Of course, it will still be better than not having it, he said." Feifei nodded. "Exactly! Karine said that the max rate of conversion will happen at the Soul Forging Realm. I guess that means that you will have the same speed as a Void Breaking Realm cultivator or demon beast. Of course, you will be an entire realm behind them. I think that is the main difference between you and me. Krune immediately understood. "I see. My rate of conversion will probably reach 100% since I have the Main Type. Even now that I''m still in the Core Formation Realm, my conversion rate is almost the same as yours in the Divine Soul. What you mean is that since your Myriad Energies Technique isn''t the so-called Main Type, you will not reach a 100% conversion." Feifei nodded. "Yes. Still, I will probably stop around 70 to 80%. If we compare it with a normal Soul Forging Realm cultivator or demon beast, this is already heaven-defying, so I''m not complaining. After all, this conversion happens instantly, while ordinary Soul Forging Realms still need to make the conversion by themselves." Krune admitted that she was right. Feifei then asked about his cultivation. "Was the battle experiences this time around enough for you?" Krune nodded. "Well, I had the chance to test several things, and I got used to this realm, so I don''t think I need to go out anymore. I think I focus on cultivation alone for a while so that I can enter the Divine Soul Realm." Feifei nodded. "I see. Anyway, have you asked Cinty about your Divine Soul Egg inside your Elemental Core? As far as I know, a Divine Soul shouldn''t get a shape like that. At least, I''ve never heard anything like that from Uncle Feng, the Wang Clan elders, or my parents." Krune confirmed. Feifei also had the same thought. "Anyway, Cinty said that she would be there with you to help if something happens. It''s a pity that it is impossible to use destiny energy readings to predict Advanced Major Core futures." Krune didn''t mind. "It''s okay. This is, after all, my Divine Soul. It''s just that it is a little different from the others. It probably will be just the same as any other one. Who knows? Maybe this is a good thing instead." Feifei couldn''t help but comment. "Isn''t exactly when you think that nothing will happen that something crazy always happens?" Krune''s mouth twitched. "It''s not like I want for all the bullshit to happen, you know? It''s out of my control. But I must be positive, everything will be fine, this time, it definitely will!" Feifei found it to be even more doubtful. "Why do I feel like the more you think it will be fine, the higher are the chances of the opposite happen?" Krune decided to ignore that last comment and change the topic. "By the way, how is your cultivation going?" Feifei then commented. "Adding the time that we took to arrive in the Elemental Sect and the time inside the Elemental Path, it has been only five months since I broke through. Thankfully, this time we spent there helped me to get used to this new realm. So I guess I will have no issues in entering the 2nd stage after we get back." Feifei then asked. "What about you? You had just entered the 9th stage when we came to the Elemental Sect. How long do you think it will take to try to break through?" Krune pondered a bit and said. "Normally, I would need at least 4 or 5 months. But as I said, I got a lot of experience this time around. Now that I don''t have to go out to get some battle experience or get used to my cultivation realm, I think I should be ready in at most 3 months." Krune and Feifei really did battle a lot in the Elemental Path. Even though they didn''t fight any other group there, the sheer amount of group battles against the demon beasts more than made up for it. Krune only needed to accumulate enough energy to reach the peak of the Core Formation Realm, and he would be ready to try entering the next one. "That is good. We also got a lot of Elemental Flowers. I can''t wait to go back and start using the Destiny Ones. I''ve been stuck at the initial stage of the Cause Sub-Law ever since I gained comprehension about it." Krune felt a little bit jealous about it. After all, there is no such thing as Purple Tribulation Lightning Flowers. In fact, there is probably no item out there that can be used to help him in his comprehension of this Law. Light Spirit understood what he was thinking and then commented. "There is no helping in that. As you know, my Major Law was created by myself, it is not in according to the heaven and earth Laws. So obviously, there is no way that the Universe can give birth to something that can help you with it." Krune nodded and immediately put those thoughts behind his mind. Since there isn''t, then there is no point in thinking about it. Not to mention that his Tribulation Lightning is already powerful even with a single law in the Initial Stage. Feifei and Krune then spent around a week to come back to the Wisp Main world. As soon as they arrived, Dilo came out to greet then. No Soul Forging Realm or above could enter the Elemental Path, so Krune ddi''nt bring him together. "Welcome back." Krune and Feifei nodded and they spent some time talking about the journey. Still, Krune left out the information about Karine and the Myriad Energies Technique as always. Dilo then looked at Krune and asked. "Krune, I would like to go out to do some missions myself. I''m in the middle of creating my domain, so I need to make a few tests. Is that okay?" Krune immediately nodded. "I told you before, you can do whatever you want. If it is better to you, I can give back the slive of your soul." Dilo shook his head. "There is no need, just use it to call me if you need. Anyway, I''m leaving." Krune sighed but didn''t force the issue. Krune and Feifei then went to see Cinty and talk about what they found in the Elemental Path. But they didn''t expect that Cinty would act like that. She looked like she was dreaming! Not many know this, but Cinty is a grand fan from Wally and his Nine Disciples. She became like this once she first heard about their story, and her passion hasn''t changed until now. Feifei and Krune knew that she admired them after they heard her telling their story, but they didn''t think it was to this extent. When they called Cinty over, she came to see them in her human form. So in Feifei and Krune''s eyes, Cinty looked like a little girl who had found the love of her life! Cinty then looked at Krune with stars in her eyes and requested. "Once you reach the Soul Forging Realm, you must bring me together! Oh, right! You said that what you saw was only a projection of Karine. She said that their death was something that the outside believed too, but did you confirm if she and the others are really alive?" Krune shook his head. "I haven''t seen her real body or anything. I don''t even know if she is there or if that projection was made through a will left behind. But from what she commented, I think it is safe to assume that she and the other 8 disciples are indeed alive. Especially considering that they had the power to wipe others'' memories. As far as I know, the will of a dead person or beast couldn''t be strong enough to do that." Cinty nodded vigorously! She felt more and more like she would really have the chance to meet them in this life. "No, no, no. I can''t stay here doing nothing. I must make sure that I will reach the Divine Path Realm. I''m going back to cultivate!" Just as she was about to leave, Krune stopped her. "Wait, wait! Is that all? Aren''t we going to discuss the Myriad Energies Technique, the purpose of that realm, or what Wally''s plan might be? There is a lot to think here, you know?" Cinty glared at Krune and then said. "Whatever conclusion you reach, then so be it. I will agree with anything as long as it is not harmful to the wisps. Alright, that''s all, see ya!" Suddenly, Cinty disappeared right in front of Krune and Feifei, much for their despair. They totally didn''t expect that the Wisp Queen was such a Fan Girl. For a second, Krune couldn''t help but think. ''Master and she would probably do very well together.'' Just as they were about to leave Cinty''s residence, they heard a Divine Sense message from her. "Oh, right! Let me know when Krune is entering the Divine Soul Realm, I want to see what will happen with his Divine Soul Rainbow Egg." Krune almost fainted. "Rainbow Egg your head!" 290 If Just It Wasnt a Dream Krune and Feifei then returned to their home. But the moment they entered inside, they were received with the image of Ruik and Tiane sleeping on a corner of the Living Room. Krune and Feifei looked at each other puzzled. Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Since when are they this close?" Feifei nodded while using her communicator to record that moment. "I don''t know, but I don''t want to wake them up. I told you before, right? Other than me, Tiane has never been close to others. I guess that the time they spent together might have helped her open a little to him." Krune felt that something wasn''t right. For some reason, it looked like Tiane fell to sleep in a too weird position. It was as if she had fallen while walking but didn''t get up after that. ''Who sleeps like that? Also, this is the first time I see Ruik sleeping in human form, but tiane is doing the same. Wait, isn''t Tiane''s face a little too red? Why is that?'' Krune pondered a bit but decided to give up those thoughts. ''Oh well, I have never slept, so I guess my opinion isn''t valid here.'' At the same time, Ruik was in the middle of a dream. In that dream, he and Tiane were having quite the ''exciting moment'' together, much for his pleasure. But there was a problem here, Tiane was indeed enjoying it with him, but she totally didn''t want to. Unfortunately, her body was out of control. It didn''t matter how much she was against it, her body continued to move as Ruik wished. ''What is this? How come I''m doing it with him? That makes no sense! No, wait! Why are we acting this close to each other? Why can''t I control my body? No, first of all, what are we even doing together?'' Who was Tiane trying to fool? She totally knew exactly what the two of them are doing at the moment! But it didn''t stop there, Ruik was acting totally the opposite of how he usually did. "Tiane, you have such smooth skin in your human form." "Of course, your black feathers are also beautiful in your true form." "If just it wasn''t a dream, how good would it be?" Tiane was totally taken aback. Between her moans and his words, she felt like her heart was about to explode! Tiane finally reached her limit and used every cell of her body to escape that situation. If she didn''t do it now, Tiane was sure that she would lose to those feelings and not return to herself until the deed was done! --- At the same time, outside, Feifei was still making a recording of the two lying on each other. Krune noticed that Tiane''s face was getting even redder to the point that Feifei also noticed it. Krune then suggested. "This is probably because she isn''t sleeping in a comfortable position. As much as you don''t want to wake them up, we should still have them move to their rooms." Feifei pondered a bit and nodded. Krune and Feifei approached the couple when suddenly, both of them were assaulted by a strong feeling of tiredness. Before they could even react, both of them fell asleep together. --- Back inside the dream, Krune and Feifei appeared beside each other just in time to see that scene! Feifei immediately covered her eyes while Krune was trying to guess what was happening to those two. Finally, Tiane got back some control of her Spiritual Energy, which immediately spread through her entire body. With that, she was back in control of her movements again. BOOM! This was, without a doubt, the strongest kick she had ever done in her life. Ruik, the poor snake, was sent flying away until he hit the wall! It hurt even more since he was in his human body at the moment as well. Of course, because this was all a dream, he didn''t suffer any injuries. He got up and immediately rushed back. "What are you doing? Is that how you treat me? This is my dream! Even though you look like the real one, you should still be under my control." Tiane immediately rebuked. "Not real your head! Let me leave this place right now! You better be prepared, I will definitely make you pay to push me into this situation! How come you are dreaming about me doing s-s-seeee-... those things with you?! Is that the image that you had about me?" Tiane then looked at the side and saw Feifei and Krune standing there. "Y-y-y-y-y-y-you, how come you are here too?" One must remember that both Ruik and Tiane are in their human forms and naked at the moment. Finally, Krune looked at Ruik, or better, something between his legs, and felt like he had been enlighted! He then looked at Feifei and asked. "I see, so that''s what Karine meant with trying ''hard,'' right? Don''t worry, I will try to be as hard as that!" BOOM! This was the second time someone was sent flying with a kick, surprisingly, this someone hit Ruik, and then both ended flying together and hit the same wall again together. Once again, both Krune and Ruik were fine since it was just a Dream. Ruik somehow knew that if he wished to, things would happen. He then thought for a second, and clothes appeared on both him and Tiane at the same time. Ruik and Krune then came back to see what was happening. Feifei was glaring at Tiane while saying. "Why are you two doing something like that in the open?! I don''t mind if you like each other, but go to a room first!" Tiane felt like crying but had no tears! Krune then came forward and said. "That aside, can someone explain what is happening here? Both me and Feifei were in the living room a minute ago, how come we reached this place? How come we are inside Ruik''s room back in the Divine Path Sect?" Tiane and Feifei finally understood where this place was. They had never been into Ruik''s room in the Divine Path Sect, but Krune, of course, had. Ruik then answered. "You are all inside my dream. As to how you ended here, that I don''t know. Until a moment ago, even I didn''t notice that this was my dream. But somehow, I can tell that I have full control over it." Tiane wasn''t in a situation where she could think straight at the moment, so she kept quiet. There was obviously angriness on her face when she looked at Ruik, but also, something else that she couldn''t describe. That feeling was already using her entire processing power. As for Feifei and Krune, they looked at each other and nodded. "You can feel it, too, can''t you, Feifei?" Feifei nodded. "Yes, there are Laws here, but this is a type of Law I''ve never felt before. It has nothing to do with Elements, it has nothing to do with Space, Time, or Destiny either." Krune and Feifei then entered the World of Laws, and sure enough, they could see that the origin of these Laws was Ruik himself. Krune exited the World of Laws and asked him. "Since when you can use Laws?" Ruik looked at Krune, puzzled. "Laws? What Laws?" Krune immediately understood that Ruik had entered this state without noticing anything. "Alright, let me help you to enter the World of Laws. Now that they are here, I have no doubt you can do that." Krune then explained to Ruik what the World of Laws was, and did his best to help Ruik comprehend how to do it. Sure enough, since those Laws were coming from him, Ruik was successful in entering the World of Laws for the first time. There, he could see that dream-like state where the Laws hovered. When he focused on the Laws of his dream, he noticed that there was one that occupied most of it, with the others only appearing between the gaps. For some reason, he knew that he understood the biggest one, even though he didn''t know what it was. Krune then explained to him that the biggest one was his first Law, and then proceeded to tell all the rest about how Laws worked. Although Ruik was paying attention to him, half of his mind was in the situation between him and Tiane a while ago. Still, he knew that he had to do something about this dream first. "I see, I feel like I understand it. Let me try to bring us out." Krune stopped him. "Wait. Try to send just Tiane out. I want Feifei and me to try something else." Ruik nodded, and after a few tries, Tiane, who still seemed absented minded, disappeared from his room. Krune then looked at Feifei, and both of them nodded. "Let''s try to use our own laws to escape this place." Sure enough, as soon as Krune and Feifei started to activate their own Laws, the world around them began to get warped. A few seconds later, both Krune and Feifei disappeared from Ruik''s dream as well. Ruik noticed that and then did the same he did to Tiane on himself. Just like that, the dream room disappeared, and everyone opened their eyes back in the Living Room in their home in the Wisp World. Tiane was still lying over Ruik when she woke up. She then looked at his face and felt like she was going to die. She immediately got up and rushed inside her room, quickly locking the door. Feifei glared at Ruik and then asked. "You understood a Law without noticing, that''s fine. But mind explaining how you and Tiane ended over doing s-s-s-seee-..." Krune looked at Feifei, puzzled, and decided to finish her words. "Sex. Intercourse. Reproduction. I saw some calling it ''Love'' on the internet as well. Is it what you want to say?" Feifei looked at him with a deadly gaze, and Krune immediately shut up. Ruik then scratched the back of his head. "Well, you see..." 291 To you, who is Tiane? Ruik pondered a bit about the situation before and knew that hiding would be useless. "I didn''t expect that a dream could pull everyone inside. Even I only noticed that it was a dream only after you came inside it. As far as I remember, I arrived home after buying some food and sat on the sofa. There, I just felt a little drowsy and decided to take a nap. Next thing I know, I was in my room back in the Divine Path Sect. What do you think?" Krune started to think about the Laws that created that world. "As far as I know, there are several other laws out there that are not exactly related to the Elements or Space, Time, and Destiny. One example is Laws related to weapons like swords. It seems like Ruik got to comprehend one of those Laws." Ruik pondered a bit and then said. "Does it means that I understood a Law related to dreams? But I''m still in the 7th Stage of the Core Formation Realm! If there is one thing that I''m sure about, it is that I''m far from being considered a talented Two-Headed Snake." Krune had to admit that Ruik was right. Compared to Lakin and the others who have the Myriad Energies Technique, he isn''t bad or good, just average. "Perhaps... No, it definitely has something to do with the fact that you love sleeping." Ruik couldn''t help but ask. "Can someone learn Dream related Laws just because they love sleeping? I wonder if it is even called Dream Laws to start with." Krune pondered a bit more, and finally, an idea popped in his mind. "I see... I think I know why. The problem here is not that you love to sleep. Of course, this was also a significant factor. But the main reason for that is because we always try to stop you from doing it. You always want to sleep, but I, Feifei, and Tiane try to stop you from doing that. After all, we all want you to use this chance to cultivate." Krune continued. "Your strong desire to be left in peace to sleep but not being able to do so led you to this situation... or so I think." Ruik couldn''t help but agree, that really made sense. While the two were discussing this problem, Feifei started to get angry. "You two! Do you think you can run away from the other problem by simply changing the topic to the Dream Laws?" Only then did Krune notice that he really was forgetting the main issue here. "Right! We can discuss your laws later." Ruik looked away, embarrassed. He really did want to change the topic. Feifei looked at him and asked. "How come Tiane was there with you?" Ruik thought a little and then said. "At first, there was only me in the room. So I just lay down and decided to take a nap." Krune didn''t know what to say anymore. "This guy was trying to sleep while he was sleeping, are you for real?" Feifei glared at Krune and said. "Let him continue!" Ruik then said. "But it doesn''t matter how much I tried to sleep, for some reason, I simply couldn''t. I didn''t know that it was a dream at that moment yet. So at some point, I got up and decided to leave the room. But it was then that Tiane suddenly appeared in the room." "And then?" Ruik felt a little embarrassed but still continued. "Well... She then started to undress, which puzzled me. We are both demon beasts, so seeing the other gender without clothes means nothing to us. The weird thing is that I didn''t dislike it. After that, she came to me and started to undress me as well. Once again, I didn''t think about it being wrong or right, I just followed the flow." Feifei started to get red as well when Ruik arrived at that point. But she wasn''t the only one! There was a specific female demon crow with her ears glued on the door that was locked, hearing everything. If Feifei, who wasn''t part of the dream at the moment, was this red, one can just imagine how the girl behind the door was. Ruik then continued. "The next thing I know, we were already in the middle of... well... you know... in the middle of doing ''that.''" Feifei finally couldn''t take it anymore. "Alright! That''s enough. There is no need to continue speaking." Krune immediately rebuked! "Eh? Why? It was so interesting!" Feifei gave another deadly gaze at him, which made Krune shut up immediately. But in fact, deep down, Feifei was thinking something else. ''How come they did it before us? That''s not fair. Wait! That was just a dream, it didn''t really happen, right? Wait, no! What am I even thinking?!'' Feifei shook her head and then said. "Alright, after Tiane kicked you, we heard you saying that she should be under your control since that was your dream. Does it mean that you noticed that it was a dream at some point?" Ruik started to sweat rivers. At first, he could use the excuse that he didn''t know that it was a dream, or that he wasn''t doing it consciously. But he just had to say those words inside there before. Krune understood what Feifei meant. "I see. If Ruik didn''t know that it was a dream, it would make sense that he wasn''t in control over it. But since he said that, it was obvious that he came to understand his situation during the act. So let me ask something. Since you knew, why didn''t you stop?" "As far as I know, you and Tiane aren''t exactly in good terms with each other. I believe that in your case, even the feelings of intercourse wouldn''t be enough to dominate your actions. Since that is not that case, what propelled you to continue doing that? What you had in your mind that was more important than stopping your actions?" Krune took a deep breath and asked with a serious expression. "To you, just who is Tiane?" Feifei looked at Krune, shocked. Since when he became so perceptive? Still, that was not the time to ask that. Feifei was several times more interested in Ruik''s answer at the moment. But not as much interested as a certain figure hearing the conversation inside her locked room. Tiane''s heart was beating so fast that it was about to leave through her mouth. Still, her ears didn''t separate from the door for even a split of a second. That was quite an idiotic act since she could totally use her Divine Sense to do that. But at this moment, cultivation related options were the last thing in her mind. Ruik looked at Krune after hearing that question and thought. ''To me, who is Tiane?'' Until the time where he slept in the living room, Tiane had just been someone who often complained about anything he did. Every day she would find a reason to bother him, and he wasn''t any different. After all, he, too, liked to pick up a fight with her. It was then that Ruik noticed something extremely important. ''Exactly when did those arguments become something that I enjoyed having?'' While Ruik was silent, Feifei noticed something and decided to ask. "You said that Tiane also didn''t stop what she was doing, right? When Krune and I first appeared inside your dream, we were not under your control. So I''m curious, was Tiane''s actions really involuntary? Or was it something that she also desired deep down?" Tiane, on the other side of the door, got startled! ''No, it can''t be, I refuse to believe that!'' Noticing the indecision on Ruik''s face, Feifei started to get angry. Krune is one thing, but to her, Ruik and Tiane''s relationship stopped being just acquaintances long time ago. In her eyes, it was just a question of time before it evolved into something more serious. Seeing Ruik''s state was really pissing her off. But just as she was about to say something, Krune acted first. Pow! Out of nowhere, Krune gave Ruik a punch on the face. Right after, he grabbed Ruik''s t-shirt and suspended Ruik on the air. "I might not have the best grasp of what feelings are. No, I probably have one of the worts! I often misunderstand things and have a hard time reading these kinds of situations. Not to mention, I make a lot of comments that although they looked correct in my eyes, it is, in fact, something that I shouldn''t talk that easily." Krune then put Ruik back on the sofa and said with a serious expression. "Still, I at least know that this is the time where the man HAS to have the initiative. You are a fucking demon beast! Not only that, but you are the MALE one! Since when have male demon beasts been so indecisive like you? Demon Beasts don''t care about consequences, demon beasts care about results! As a male demon beast, what should you be saying right now?! Is it really okay to think so much about a question that YOU KNOW the answer already? You are a DISGRACE to the male demon beasts out there!" Krune then took a deep breath and then yelled. "TO YOU, WHO IS TIANE?!" Ruik gritted his teeth and yelled right back on Krune''s face. "TIANE IS THE WOMAN THAT I LOVE!" 292 If Possible, For a Lifetime Suddenly, Krune, Feifei, and Ruik heard a sound coming from Tiane''s room. *Crash* When they looked over, they saw a broken door and a Tiane on the floor. It turned out that Tiane was pressing the door on the other side so firmly that it was about to break apart. The moment that Ruik said his last words, Tiane lost control over her Spiritual Energy for a second, and the door couldn''t resist anymore. The result is that the wisp world has now lost one of its doors. Tiane then looked at Ruik from the ground, and her face got even redder! She quickly got up and used her best movement technique to leave this place. "Wait!" Ruik wasn''t any slower and soon disappeared as well. Krune then looked at Feifei and asked. "Should we follow them?" As soon as Krune saw Feifei''s shining eyes, he understood that he made a very idiotic question. There is almost nothing in this life that could possibly stop Feifei from following them. Feifei looked at Krune and then laughed. "Hahahaha! Of course, we will, but make sure to use Divine Sense to watch from a distance. If we appear during this moment, it might turn things worse. This is a time where Ruik can only count on himself." Krune nodded, and the two of them immediately disappeared from their house. As for the things related to the Elemental Path and Wally''s disciples, that matters very little for them at the moment. But soon, Feifei and Krune noticed a problem. "Both Tiane and Ruik are in the 7th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. Still, Tiane is a Demon Crow and obviously specialized in Wind Element. There is no way for Ruik to catch her." Krune pondered a bit and then smiled playfully. "Ruik might notice the presence of laws now, but Tiane definitely isn''t at this level yet. Now look at that, I think that the weather isn''t looking very good today. For some reason, I feel like that the wind will start to blow in the opposite direction that she is moving." Feifei''s eyes immediately lit up! "Right, right! Not only that, but I think that the pressure of the wind will be very strong exactly where she is at the moment. Isn''t it such a coincidence? It must be the heavens playing at their favor!" Krune nodded vigorously and started to manipulate one of the two Wind Sub-Laws that he understood, Gale! Of course, Krune was too far away to manipulate it in the place where Tiane was moving, so he had to first catch up with her. To make sure that she wouldn''t notice him, Krune activated his Tribulation Lightning Layer, which immediately concealed his presence from Divine Senses. As for speed, Tiane might be fast, but against Krune using his Tribulation Lightning at full power, she might as well not move anymore. Although Tiane could see Ruik in her Divine Sense, she felt relieved since she knew she was faster. Unfortunately, the ''weather'' wouldn''t let that situation last for much longer. Krune finally caught up with Tiane and immediately started to use his Gale Law. He made sure to stay far enough so that Tiane couldn''t see his Tribulation Layer. It can hide against divine senses, but it was totally the opposite when looking at it. Suddenly, just as Tiane was about to leave the range of Ruik''s Divine Sense, the wind started to blow with extreme force against her. She spread her Divine Sense to the max, but couldn''t see anything that could be causing that. Although everyone in their group knows that Krune understood laws, he didn''t really talk much about it. Tiane had no idea that one of his Wind Sub-Laws was Gale, either. "What is happening?!" In the end, Tiane decided to change direction so that she wouldn''t go against the wind, but not Ruik''s direction either. Unfortunately for her, it seemed like the winds had eyes! Not long after she changed a course, the wind would once again chance and blow against the direction she was moving. Of course, the situation was entirely different for Ruik. Although there was some wind, they weren''t blocking his away. Finally, he was able to see Tiane in the distance once more. "Since when I''m faster than her while flying? Oh well, I will think about it later." Tiane knew that he was close and put even more Spiritual and Elemental Source energy in her flight. Still, it was to no avail. It looked like the more she tried, the stronger than wind became. It only took a minute for Ruik to catch up to her. Only when he was a few meters behind Tiane did he finally understand why he was faster. ''This wind... there is no doubt that it is that idiot wisp. Still, I will thank you for now.'' He had tried to use Divine Sense messages several times, but Tiane had completely blocked anything coming from him. In the end, he could only shout. "Tiane, why are you running?!" Tiane looked behind and shouted back. "It''s not your business! Why are you following me, anyway?!" Ruik then replied. "Isn''t that obvious? You heard what I said before, but that was not the right way of doing it! There is no point in saying that to Krune, so let me say it to you!" Tiane immediately shook her head. "I don''t want to hear anything, just leave me alone!" Ruik sighed and then said. "I will if you reject me. But not before you let me finish! Isn''t that okay? You are also a demon beast, so why are you acting like a human girl all of sudden? You were never the one to flee from a fight with me." In fact, Tiane had been taken in by Feifei even before she got her sentience. Since then, she lived with the humans of the Wang Clan. Because of that, she had a personality much more human-like than the biggest majority of female demons beasts out there. That''s why she ended up fleeing instead of confronting her feelings. But as soon as she heard that she had never fled from a fight, she hesitated of a second. Ruik immediately noticed that, though. "Chance!" Ruik exploded forward will all his energy and finally caught Tiane. Who started to struggle to get away from his embrace. Ruik looked at that and laughed. "You are such an idiot. You have been flying all this time, but had it never passed through your head to go back to your Crow Form? You can fly a lot faster that way. Well, not that I''m the one to talk since I''m also in my Human Form at the moment. Hahaha!" Only now did Tiane notice this fact. She couldn''t help but think that if she had done that, she wouldn''t have been caught in this situation. Ruik understood what she was thinking and immediately destroyed her delusions, though. "Oh, if you are thinking that you could have escaped in your Crow Form, I might as well tell you that it would be impossible. Do you really think that such a wind would blow out of nowhere and keep targeting only you? If it was really ordinary wind, I should have been even slower than you, don''t you think?!" Tiane opened her eyes wide! ''Right! It has to be Feifei or Krune, I''m sure about it now.'' She then turned her red face at Ruik and asked. "How long are you going to keep holding me?" Ruik then answered straight at her face. "If possible, for a lifetime." Feifei, who was watching and hearing everything from far away with her Divine Sense, felt her heart jump for a second! "Nice!" As for Krune, he had to admit that it would be hard for someone like him to say something like that. "Well, I guess everyone is different, after all." If Feifei, who wasn''t even really present, felt like that, one can only imagine how Tiane felt when those words were directed at her. "T-t-t-that would be impossible. First of all, you are a snake, and I''m a crow. What is there for you to like about someone like me?" Ruik looked at Tiane, puzzled. "Are you serious? Then what about Feifei and Krune, do you think that their relationship is wrong as well then? I''m sorry, but I absolutely don''t think like that." Tiane understood that she really made a very idiotic statement and ended up not saying anything else after that. Even she didn''t notice it, but she had completely stopped struggling by this point. If anything, she was feeling quite comfortable now. Ruik then descended from the skies with Tiane in his arms. Krune noticed that there was no reason to be there anymore and immediately rushed back to Feifei''s side. Once there, he held her hand, and the two started to watch the show. Ruik and Tiane kept silent for a few minutes when finally, Ruik took the initiative to talk. "Well... you know... I will let you go now so that I can say what I have to. But you don''t need to worry about me. If you don''t feel the same way, you just need to spill it directly on my face after I finish. We can go back to our daily arguments as we always did, that''s all." Ruik finally let Tiane go and took a few steps back. As for Tiane, she didn''t look at him. Instead, she just kept looking at the ground while Ruik could only see her back. "I''m a demon beast, I''m not good at words to start with, so I will try to keep it as short as possible." "I don''t know at which point it started, but suddenly, I started to feel like I wanted to go out with you more times. At some point, the arguments we had every day became something that I looked forward to. The times we went on missions were the funniest of all, even though we just kept challenging each other." Ruik then sighed and continued. "But to think that I would need a zero EQ wisp like that idiot one to make me perceive this, I''m really a disgrace as a male demon beast..." "Arrrgh, fuck all of this. The fact is: I love you, it''s that simple! So what you say?" Tiane''s heart pounded once more, but she kept silent. Ruik waited there for quite a few minutes, but Tiane didn''t say anything at all. In the end, he just sighed turned around as well. "Well, I guess that we are back to our daily arguments. Just pretend that I didn''t say anything then." Feifei, who was still watching, almost rushed over to give Tiane a slap. But just as she was about to do it, Krune stopped her. "There is no need." Feifei looked at him surprised and then used her Divine Sense to check once more. But this time, she noticed that Tiane was crying, it was just that Ruik couldn''t see it since she was showing her back to him. Just as Ruik was about to take flight, the positions inverted and the one embracing the other from behind this time was Tiane. Ruik was taken aback and tried to look at her, but she didn''t let him do it. In the end, Tiane simply started to talk. "Indeed, you are very annoying. Anything that I do, you try to beat me on it. If I don''t put my all, I will be the one to hear you laughing at my face for not being able to defeat you. When we got hungry during missions, you always somehow had some of Krune''s food with you. When I defeated you in our challenges to each other, you didn''t seem to care. Really, just when did you become the center of my attention? It wasn''t something recent, it had been going for a long time already, I think." "You are an idiot snake." "You really are an idiot snake..." "But... it''s okay, because..." "Because..." "Because you are my idiot snake." 293 Babies? Krune finally let out a sigh of relief. As for Feifei, her happy face and shining eyes said everything. It was obvious that she was enjoying the show more than anyone else. Krune then grabbed Feifei and started to leave. "Hey, hey, hey, what are you doing?!" Krune looked at Feifei and said. "Our job here is already over, it''s time to go back. I also need to make some food to commemorate when they come back, and you are coming with me." Feifei complained and struggled, but Krune didn''t let her go. In the end, she could only sigh and comply with his wishes. Once back home, Krune went direct to the kitchen to prepare the meal. Feifei was in an excellent mood, so she also followed and helped with whatever she could. Around half an hour later, Tiane and Ruik were finally back. When they arrived, they immediately felt the smell of the food. It just so happen that those were their favorite dishes as well. Ruik was feeling okay, but Tiane was still embarrassed. As soon as they entered the room, Feifei immediately rushed to hug Tiane. As for Ruik, he just commented. "It seems like the weather was quite weird today, don''t you think, Krune?" Krune laughed and nodded. "Indeed! I heard that the wind changed direction several times for some unknown reason. I wonder what happened..." While Krune was put the food on the table, he looked at Ruik and said. "By the way, I also heard that you became someone''s ''idiot snake,'' is that true?" Ruik looked away for a second. "Aren''t you someone''s ''idiot wisp?'' You are the last one I want to hear something like that." Krune couldn''t help but laugh. "Hahaha! It''s exactly because we are the same that I''m perfect for the job!" Ruik snorted and then sat on the table. As for Tiane, she heard everything through a Divine Sense message from Feifei, which made her even redder than before. "Look at you, sometimes I think that having you living with humans for so long made your actions a lot more like a human than demon beast. I wonder if another female demon beast would be as red as you." Tiane couldn''t help but sigh. She knew that Feifei was talking the truth, her own actions after that ''confession'' were nothing like a normal female demon beast at all! After finishing put the meal on the table, Krune looked at Feifei, hugging Tiane like a doll on the back and said. "Alright, you two can talk more about it later. Let''s eat and also talk about some important matters." Feifei sighed and nodded. Tiane did the same and sat as well. "Alright, first of all, let me give you a report of what happened this time around in the Elemental Path." Just as Krune was about to start, he noticed that someone was touching the protection formation outside their house. "Who could it be?" "Krune, right? I have a delivery from the Rimeria Solar System Alchemist Organization for you." Krune felt puzzled but received it anyway. One his ID was confirmed, the wisp left straight away. Krune then brought it inside and put on the table. "I wonder what it is." He opened the box, and soon, everyone saw something like a multi-colored stone inside. Krune immediately recognized it. "Ah! It''s the elemental stone! I completely forgot about it with everything that happened." Feifei looked at that, and suddenly, she felt something familiar from it. "Krune, don''t you think that its energy is a little familiar?" Krune used his Divine Sense to feel it, and sure enough, he also noticed this familiarity. "Indeed, it somehow reminds me of the Elemental Path Demon Beasts'' Energy. This thing is called Elemental Path Stone, could it be that they are related?" Feifei nodded. "Most likely, but how come we never found a single one of this stone there?" Krune pondered a bit and then said. "I have no idea, I will send a message to Amark from the Rimeria Solar System Alchemist Organization. Maybe he knows something from where this stone came from since it is in the reward system." Krune took his communicator out and immediately sent the message. He then put it away, and everyone went back to eating. "So, back at the topic at hand, this is what happened in the Elemental Path." Kruen and Feifei started to tell everything. How they got loads of Elemental Flowers, Karine''s existence, its relation with the Myriad Energies Technique, etc. In the end, Ruik and Tiane had utterly forgotten about their own issues. "Why do I feel like we are being dragged into some crazy plan which we don''t have the level for?" Krune nodded. "I also felt the same way. Still, there is something there that I need for my Elemental Meridians, so I will have to go back once I enter the Soul Forging Realm." Ruik then shrugged his shoulders and said. "Well, that''s gonna take some time, so there is no need for you to think about it now." Krune agreed with Ruik. "Now, let''s go back to your dream laws, or whatever it might be called." Krune then brought his communicator out once more and accessed the wisp world network. "Cinty said that they are one of the races with the highest amount of information, so they probably have something about your situation." It was then that Krune thought about something else. "Oh, right! I don''t mind if the two of you like having intercourses. Still, I would recommend not having any winged baby snakes anytime soon. I don''t think we are in a position where taking care of babies is the best idea." Ruik and Tiane immediately choked with their food. Feifei immediately saw a teasing chance and commented. "If I''m not wrong, winged snakes are called Quetzalcoatl, isn''t it?" Krune nodded while still looking into his communicator. "To be more specific, they are winged serpents, but I guess that snakes also enter this grade. Well, Tiane is a Demon Crow, so it would be a Black Winged Quetzalcoatl... I guess?" Tiane then looked at Feifei, who was smiling at her. "That was just a dream, it didn''t happen in the real world! There will be no winged baby snakes any time soon!" Feifei expression didn''t change one bit, though. "Stop doing that, Feifei!" Feifei chuckled and said. "Doing what? I don''t think I''m doing anything at all, right, Ruik?" Ruik''s mouth twitched. "Hoho, so that''s how you want to play, yea?" Ruik then slapped the table and said. "Although it was a dream, our relationship already went that step ahead, so what about you and this idiot wisp? Have you done anything like that at all, even in your dreams?" Tiane felt like dying, not even didn''t he avoid this topic, he brought even more fuel for the fire! Feifei, of course, immediately lost her composure. "This... Er..." Krune, on the other hand, didn''t seem to care much about that, though. "Why are you all firing up? Isn''t reproduction a natural thing? I really don''t see what you feel embarrassed about. Except for me, neither of you three would be here today if not for this." Ruik looked at Krune and snorted. "I see, so that means that you and Feifei already did it. That''s unexpected." Feifei immediately got up and denied. "We didn''t do that at all! Even in our dreams. Or better, even in my dream. After all, Krune doesn''t need to sleep." Tiane looked at Feifei and said. "We are all above the Foundation Establishment Realm, so the fact is that neither of us needs to sleep anymore." Ruik looked at tiane and rebuked. "Don''t change the topic, we are talking about sex at the moment, forget about sleeping or not." Tiane noticed that her attempt to change the course of the conversation failed and dropped her head once more. She just wanted then to not talk about it anymore. Krune then said with a stern face. "It''s not like I think it is necessary, so I will only be doing it when Feifei says that she wants it to happen. I really don''t mind about waiting or not. After all, it''s not like we want a child at the moment." Ruik snorted and then looked at Feifei. "See? Even though Krune talked like that, the truth is that you don''t want it, not him. Don''t female humans also have safe days like us demon beasts? Using the excuse that you don''t want a child is futile in my eyes." Krune was surprised to hear that. "Oh, is that so? It seems like I failed in my research. Anyway, I will still leave it up to Feifei to decide, that''s all." Feifei looked at Krune with teary eyes. Although he is just speaking what he feels to be logical, it was indeed very touching in her eyes. "Thanks..." Krune nodded and then asked Ruik. "Does it mean that you and Tiane will be doing that all the time then?" Ruik was taken aback this time. "This... I think that I will also wait for her to say it... I guess?" Tiane finally lost her patience and stod up. "Enough! Why are we even talking about other couple''s private things? Shouldn''t we be talking about the Dream Laws at the moment?" Ruik and Feifei felt a little embarrassed and sat back again. As for Krune, he just said. "Who said I wasn''t doing that? While you were discussing our sexual lives, I haven''t stopped looking for information about the dream laws for even a second." Only now did everyone else notice that Krune was really working on his communicator all the time. Ruik sighed and couldn''t help but comment. "Just how can he keep his composure in a moment like this? It''s to the point that I don''t know if I should feel jealous or angry." Feifei and Tiane immediately nodded. They had to admit that they understood Ruik''s feelings. "Oh, I found it!" Krune then connected his communicator to the monitor in their room and showed the information. "In the end, it is really called Dream Laws." 294 Dream Laws "Let''s see, let''s see..." Krune browsed through the information while everyone looked. "So, as I said, it is really called Dream Laws. It seems like it is not any big secret, either. The only problem is that not everyone can comprehend this Law. It says that there isn''t exactly a type of training, so there isn''t anything like that that can help someone notice it." "It is easily manifested in races that sleep a lot. Of course, all cultivators and demon beasts that are at the level that they can perceive Laws don''t need to sleep anymore. Still, they are just like Ruik, even though they don''t need it, they love it. I guess we can say it''s guaranteed that one''s love for sleep is really a part of the requisition." Krune continued to look into the information. "Oh! That''s how it works. So, the Dream Law is also considered a Major Law. There are also sub-laws that must be comprehended and fused together for one to be said that he has comprehended the Dream Major Law. In the end, it is just like the other laws as well." "Let''s see, the sub-laws of dream are: Dream World Construction; Nightmare World Construction; Illusion; Reality; Oh, and there is also one called ''Illusion and Reality.'' This one can only be felt after illusion and reality are comprehended individually. These are all the sub-laws of the Dream Major Law." "Hey, there is something different, after all. It says that Dream World Construction is always the first one. It is not possible to comprehend Nightmare World Construction, Illusion, or Reality first. The Elemental Sub-Laws are different since you might comprehend any of their sub-laws first." Krune and everyone continued to read about it. The last information made then shocked, though. "It says that once one masters the Dream Major Law, they can bring their dream into reality for a short time. That''s crazy! Doesn''t that mean that they can bring out even an apocalypse if they wish to?" Ruik then noticed something else. "Oh, but it seems like that it is not that simple. It says that there are several ways to resist it. The opponent''s own Laws are one of them. I guess this is what you and Feifei did when you entered my Dream, right?" Krune and Feifei nodded. "We used our Laws around ourselves. I believe that since your Dream World is not a real one, it couldn''t maintain the real Laws inside. So we immediately escaped." Ruik nodded. "It also says that the difference in cultivation is a significant factor. Anyone far above your realm will be hardly affected or not affect at all by that, and those at the same level can still resist it. It seems like I can affect the perception of my opponents with my dream world as well. They would have difficult to say what is real and what is not even with their Divine Sense. This is a great advantage." Krune nodded. Ruik nodded. "I will, indeed, have a significant advantage. But it is also written that manipulating a large amount of Elemental Source Energy can help break out of the dream as well. What is pulled inside is not the body but the soul instead? I guess they mean to send the Elemental Source Energy into your soul here." Krune, Feifei, Ruik then kept discussing the Laws, and at some point, Tiane tried to leave them. She didn''t have any grasp about Laws at all! So she simply couldn''t understand what they were talking about. It made her feel quite sad, so to make sure the others wouldn''t notice it, she went back to her room... or so she wanted. Before she could even take a step away, Ruik held her hand and asked. "Now then, aren''t you easy to read as always? Are you bothering about the fact that you don''t know any Laws at all?" Only now did Feifei and Krune notice that. Indeed, being the only one in their group that can''t use Laws is probably affecting Tiane to some extent. Feifei then hugged Tiane once more. "To think that this idiot snake would notice it faster than me... Sorry." Krune scratched the back of his head. The problem is that there isn''t a way that Krune or others can help her. Laws are something that must be felt individually when an opportunity arises. They really didn''t know how to help Tiane with something like that. First of all, just the fact that the three of them comprehended Laws at the Core Formation Realm is already a miracle in and of itself, especially Ruik. Krune thought about it for a moment and then said. "Well, you might not be able to understand any Laws before the Soul Forging Realm. Still, you at least have a higher chance than the others. That is because you also have the Elemental Meridians. As you already know, these meridians help a lot with your understanding and control of the elements. Understanding your own elements better is definitely the first step to perceive and comprehend their Laws." Ruik nodded and then said. "Also, don''t forget that I''m just like you. In the end, I didn''t understand anything about the Elemental Laws at all. It was just a coincidence that I bumped in the Dream Laws." Tiane then asked Ruik. "But once you understood a Law, you can use the World of Laws to see the other Elemental Laws, isn''t that right?" Krune answered that question in Ruik''s place. "Yes. Even if Ruik''s first Law isn''t an Elemental One, he can indeed learn those now that he can enter the World of Laws." Tiane sighed and then said. "See? We are not the same, after all. Don''t worry, you just continue your discussion. I will go back to my room to cultivate." Feifei and Krune didn''t know what to say. They really wanted to help, but their hands were tied. A miracle like Ruik isn''t something that happens all the time. Still, Ruik denied her request. "No can do, you will stay here and hear everything with us." Tiane got puzzled. "Why? I can''t help with anything." Ruik laughed and said. "Who cares? If that is really the case, then Feifei and Krune wouldn''t bring us to the Dalin Universe in the first place. I''m sure that they were not out of better options, after all. I can''t even think just how many more talented cultivators or demon beasts were there for them to chose. But they still brought the two of us, right? So why are you pretending to be shy now? Besides, the more you listen about it, the higher your chances of comprehending something should be." Tiane had to admit that Ruik was right. She is a demon crow, an extremely common demon beast in the Luvile Universe. A race the usually couldn''t get to the 9th stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, so the biggest majority never gained sentience to start with. Her talent couldn''t be more ordinary. Still, Feifei chose her over everyone else, didn''t she? "Ruik is right. I didn''t care about your talent, and I never did in the first place. There is no need for you to feel depressed just because of this. Instead, you should be happy. Just how many Demon Crows out there you know to have what you do?" Tiane couldn''t help but tear up a little. "Right! I''m sorry, I won''t act this idiotic anymore, I promise!" Ruik laughed, and before Tiane could react, he pulled her into his embrace and then went back to watch the monitor. "He-hey, you idiot snake, is there really a need for us to be like that?" Ruik looked at her puzzled. "What are you talking about? Aren''t Krune and Feifei doing exactly the same?" Only then did Tiane notice that indeed, Krune had copied Ruik and also pulled Feifei into his embrace. It also looked like Feifei wasn''t embarrassed at all. Feifei looked at Tiane and said. "You just need to enjoy the moment, that''s all. Hahaha!" Feifei, Ruik, and Krune then returned their attention to the monitor and continued to talk about the Laws. With time, Tiane finally noticed that although Ruik did give his opinion, it was apparent how much cruder he was compared to Feifei and Krune. It was more like he was the only one learning there. But it was evident that he didn''t care at all. Tiane finally gave up and simply laid comfortably there, just like Feifei was doing with Krune. Time passed, and soon, two hours went by. Krune and Feifei explained everything that they could to Ruik and Tiane. Just as Krune was about to call it a day, he received a message in his communicator. "Oh, it''s from Amark. He said that he found the information about the Elemental Path Stone." Krune then opened the link that Amark sent on the room monitor, and everyone started to check it as well. But by the time they finished, they were surprised! 295 Elemental Path Stones Again "What?! The Elemental Path Stones are made with Spirit Stones and Elemental Flowers?" Feifei couldn''t help but comment. "We got loads of those flowers, perhaps we can make a lot of those Elemental Path Stones!" Krune pondered a bit and then took out his box with the Elemental Stone. "First, let me try out this thing. It is said that it can improve the Meridians, let''s see if it has any use with the Myriad Energies Technique. We need those flowers to help in our Law Comprehension, after all." Feifei nodded and waited to see what Krune was going to do. Krune then held the Elemental Path Stone in his hands and summoned his Elemental Meridians outside. As soon as he did that, his meridians immediately attacked that stone. They then started to absorb its properties until finally, that stone turned into dust just like any other Spiritual Stone. "How was it? Did it make any difference?" Krune started to cultivate for a few minutes and then stopped. "Just as I thought, it has the same ability as those Demon Beasts'' Energies. The only difference is that this Elemental Path Stone can be used by normal meridians as well." Feifei then asked. "Does it mean that normal meridians can also convert Spiritual Energy into Elemental Source Energy instantly if they use the Elemental Path Stone?" Krune immediately shook his head. "I doubt so. Its effect is probably different on ordinary meridians. If I were to guess, it allows your meridians to absorb more Spiritual Energy instead. In a certain way, it can expend your normal meridians... I guess." "Still, the effect is very small. Unless you have a huge amount of those stones, you won''t feel too much of a difference. But as you can see, the Elemental Path Stone is very expensive. Not to mention that the material to create it, the Elemental Flowers, can''t be gathered anytime one wants it. No wonder the price to buy a single one is so high." Krune continued. "Of course, it is still worth the price. Even if the difference is minimal, any extra bit of speed can make a massive difference in the long run." Feifei nodded and then asked. "But how much of a difference did it do to your Elemental Meridians?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "The same as absorbing one body of Divine Soul Realm Demon Beasts from the Elemental Path." Feifei immediately felt disappointed. "That is far from worth." It was then that she remembered something. "Oh, wait! First of all, how many Elemental Flowers are necessary to create an Elemental Path Stone?" Krune looked at the information available and finally found it. "Sigh... At least 10 of them. Also, it needs at least 10 Rank 10 Spirit Stones and some other material." Feifei immediately gave up the idea. Krune nodded. "Not to mention that once e reach the Void Breaking Realm, any advantages that we had before will practically disappear." Suddenly, Krune received another message from Amark. "Hum...?" Krune went through the information, and his eyes lit up! "Hey, it seems like there is another way to gather Elemental Path Stones." Feifei, Ruik, and Tiane immediately looked at Krune. "Amark is saying that the creation of the Elemental Path Stone was based on the real thing. That means that there are created ones and natural ones. From what he is telling me here, Elemental Path Stones are formed every time the Elemental Path Dimensional Realm opens." Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "But how come the Divine Path itself doesn''t have any of those stones, then?" Krune kept reading the information it and soon found the answer. "It says here that the Laws of the Elemental Path and the Laws of the outside world are a little different. It is only when the Elemental Path Realm opens that they start to interact. The result is that the six planets that have one entrance each will then begin to give birth to Elemental Path Stones for the next two to three years. Only after this time passes, will the effect left behind by the Elemental Path Realm disappear." Everyone''s eyes immediately lit up! "So, what are we even waiting for? We should go back there straight away. Who knows, we might even find Stones from the other times when the Elemental Path opened!" Krune shook his head. "That will not happen." Feifei, Tiane, and Ruik looked at Krune, puzzled. "Did you not notice the box that my Elemental Path Stone was sent into?" Only now did Ruik and the others pay attention to that box. "This..." Krune nodded. "It has the same effect as the pill bottles that we alchemists use. It prevents the energy inside from escaping. That means that any stone from 100 years ago that appeared has definitely lost its power already." Feifei then said. "Anyway, we should still go there to look for the ones that will appear now." Krune nodded and then started to look into the information. "Alright, there are two problems. First, the Elemental Sect and the other Five powers are in control of their own planets. They are all very big Sect and Clans that have protected those entrances for a very long time. So I doubt that they will simply let people and beasts go around collecting their Elemental Path Stones. If you remember correctly, anywhere we went after the Elemental Path closed was heavily guarded, and the check was rigorous." Feifei immediately nodded. "Indeed. I thought that to be an exaggeration, but now I understand why that happened. The Elemental Sect was keeping tags on the entire planet because of that." Krune nodded. "As for the second problem, it is because there is no way to know where an Elemental Path Stone will appear. So the Elemental Sect uses tens of thousands of low realm disciples to sweep the planet. Still, it is not guaranteed that those stones will appear on the surface, so they need to continually check the surroundings." "The worst part is that it is very hard to notice with Divine Sense alone. Unless you are very close, let''s say, a hundred meters or less, you probably won''t notice their presence. So using a high realm cultivator or demon beast to scan the whole planet is useless as well. And that is considering that the stone is on the surface. Underground ones are even harder." Ruik couldn''t help but comment. "This searching problem is also another reason for this thing to be this expensive." Krune nodded and then smiled. "But we have an advantage, our Elemental Meridians and those stones are deeply related. Maybe, we can use it so find Elemental Path Stones that are too far underground for those disciples to notice. Of course, we will need to test it first." Krune couldn''t help but sigh after saying that. "If just Amark had sent this second message earlier, I would have used that Elemental Path Stone to see if we can locate them with the Elemental Meridians." Tiane then commented. "So our main problem is to get permission to look for Elemental Path Stones, am I right?" Krune nodded. "Exactly. But I do have an idea. I think I can use my own pills in exchange for the right to look for the Elemental Path Stones. As you know, my pills are something that, although it isn''t as expensive as the Elemental Path Stone, they are even harder to get." Ruik couldn''t help but comment. "In that case, wouldn''t it be better to simply exchange the pills for the stones?" Krune looked at Ruik and shook his head. "Didn''t you hear what I said? My pills are not as expensive as the Elemental Path Stones, just rarer. Also, we would need a gigantic amount of Elemental Path Stones to achieve a real difference in our Elemental Source Energy conversion. I would have to spend years concocting nonstop to reach an amount good enough to be worth it. Just how many Divine Soul Realm Demon Beasts you think we defeated there? Haha!" Krune looked at everyone and said. "What I''m betting in is the fact that the Elemental Sect also doesn''t expect me to find many Elemental Stones either. So they might think that it is worth it. Besides, it is not guaranteed that we can find a lot of them to start with. Using our Elemental meridians to find those stones is just an idea. In the end, they might really be the ones who profited in this trade." Feifei couldn''t help but sigh. "In the end, we can only rely on your pills to get our free pass. If this idea works, I will make sure to get as many Elemental Path Stone as possible to repay for your pills." Tiane and Ruik looked at each other and nodded, they too didn''t want to have Krune doing everything. As long as they find more Elemental Path Stone, they can have Krune stay with the biggest part. Krune just smiled and nodded. Feifei then asked Krune. "What about your cultivation?" Krune shook his head. "Don''t worry, I will not slack while I''m there, and you won''t do it either. We have the Mind Splitting Technique, remember? We can leave part of our mind focusing on cultivation and Laws while we use the rest to look for the stones. Since we don''t need to be ready for a fight all the time, it won''t be a problem to do it. Once I reach the point where I need to enter the Divine Soul Realm, I will return to the Wisp World for a quick breakthrough and go back straight away after that." Feifei then thought about something else. "Let''s ask Cinty to see if she has an Elemental Path Stone. That way, we can check if we can detect it before going there." Krune nodded and then called her with his communicator. "What? Elemental Path Stones? Hahahaha! Why would we have something like that? Before you brought the Myriad Wisps Technique, we wisps had never had meridians to start with. So what good would it do to buy those things?" Krune and Feifei felt a little embarrassed. That was quite an obvious problem, but it didn''t pass through their heads since they had been using their Elemental Meridians for a long time. "Errr... Sorry to bother you, then. See you later." Krune finished the call and sighed. "I do have enough Alchemists points to trade for another Elemental Path Stone. The problem is that it will need to be bought in the Rimeria Solar System. I could apply to transfer my alchemist points somewhere else, but it would definitely take some time too. And once again, I need to go back to Rimeria to do that." Tiane then just shrugged her shoulders and gave another idea. "Forget it, let''s just go the Elemetal Sect planet and check it there. If it doesn''t work, we can just leave. It is one thing to try to detect the Stones, but another to collect them. We don''t need to pay anything at first since we will not really take them." Feifei, Krune, and Ruik immediately agreed with her. Krune then sent a message to Dilo through his communicator telling where he could find them once he was back. With that, their plan was laid down, and they immediately left the Wisp World. 296 Collection Pass After another week of travel, Krune''s group then made their way back to the Elemental Sect Planet. Once there, they noticed how the checking rules were still as strict as before. "It seems like there are being very through with this." Feifei nodded. "There might have six planets with one entry to the Elementa Path Realm each. But the fact is that the supply of Elemental Path Stones of six planets is far from being enough for an entire Universe. Any kind of power would definitely do their best to protect it." Krune and the others nodded. "So, what should we do? Move around the city outskirts?" Tiane then suggested. "As long as we don''t leave the city without permission, there should be no problems. So I guess we should separate here and check everywhere with our Elemental Meridians. Considering that we are inside the city, there shouldn''t be many Elemental Path Stones. Not to mention that it was just recently that the Elemental Path Realm opened, so there shouldn''t be many stones formed yet as well. If we can find some stones in this condition, we can consider the Elemental Stones gathering plan feasible and move to the next part." Krune, Feifei, and Ruik accepted Tiane''s idea, and they immediately separated. The teleport formation that they used to arrive is inside a City called Tava, one of the biggest cities on the planet. So the city itself was, in fact, enormous. Each member of their group then decided to cover one of the cardinal directions. Krune South, Feifei West, Ruik North, and Tiane East. According to what Krune thought, they should keep their Elemental Meridians activated all the time. Krune is sure that the Elemental Meridians are very attracted by those stones, the question in hand is from how far they could feel that attraction. The answer didn''t take long to arrive, though. Just 20 minutes after they separated, Krune already got a message from Ruik. "Found one, or at least, I think I did. The problem is that my Elemental Meridians are asking me to go underground." Feifei and Tiane were on the same call as well. "Is the place you are at the moment bad for you to go down?" Ruik nodded his head. "Yes, I''m still in the middle of the city. If I didn''t need to care about that, I would have done it already." Krune pondered a bit and then said. "Forget this one. Let''s try to find stones that are on the outskirts. If you start using your cultivation to go underground in a place like this, it will be too suspicious. Before arriving there, ignore any other call from your Elemental Meridians." Everyone nodded, and they kept moving to the city''s borders. On the way, Krune, Feifei, and Tiane also had times where their activated Elemental Meridians felt like being attracted by something. But it was always underground. Krune was the first one to arrive at the southern borders. He could see the wall protecting the city''s entrance and a protection formation moving all the way up to the skies. ''That should be what they are relying on to stop others from leaving and profiting on their Elemental Stones.'' Krune ignored the wall and started to move around. He also kept some distance away from the wall since it had some patrols now and then. Still, it didn''t take long for Krune''s activated Meridians to once more feel attracted by something. ''I felt it two times already, and it was just like when my Meridians absorbed the demon beasts'' light and the Elemental Path Stone. It must be an Elemental Path Stone as well.'' Krune found the place where he felt his meridians attraction to be the strongest and immediately started to use his Earth Element and Laws to go down. This time, there was almost no one around since very few lived near the city''s borders. Thanks to his Earth Element and Laws, it was also easy for Krune to move the Earth without causing any ruckus. In less than a minute, Krune had gone over a hundred meters down. Finally, the attraction that he felt from his Elemental Meridians grew bigger, and Krune finally noticed the Elemental Stone in his Divine Sense. ''As expected, if one isn''t very close, it is hard to notice the stone with Divine Sense alone. The attraction from the Elemental Meridians can reach much further, though.'' Krune then moved to the Stone Direction and finally grabbed it. ''There is no doubt, it is an Elemental Path Stone. I guess it confirms the success of our plan.'' Krune didn''t take that Elemental Path Stone, though. He had already looked into the Elemental Sect Planet Rules for Elemental Path Stones. Any stones had to be delivered to the sect in case you bumped on one. The sect would then pay you a certain amount of its value. In case someone was caught smuggling stones out of the planet, the sect members have the authority to imprison that smuggler. The price to be released also isn''t anything that a single Elemental Path Stone could pay. Usually, the sect would put a seal and force those who broke the rules to work for them for several years. The total number of years depended on how many Elemental Path Stones he or she tried to take away. That is also why Krune wants to get permission to look for them so that his group wouldn''t fall into this situation. As soon as Krune returned to the surface, he received a message from Tiane. She, too, arrived at the outskirts and found a stone around 150 meters underground. Since their group had agreed to it before, Tiane also left that stone behind. Feifei and Ruik contacted Krune as well sometime later to tell that they too found it. The group then went back to the city center. In the end, Krune and the other spent around 2 hours in this endeavor and found the location of 10 or so Stones. "Alright. We confirmed that the Elemental Meridians are really much better to find hidden Elemental Path Stone than Divine Sense is. But we also found out that there are differences in quality. The Elemental Path Stone that I used back in the wisp world provided energy equivalent to a 1st Stage Divine Soul Realm Demon beast from the Elemental Path Realm. But the Stones we found this time around didn''t have that much energy." Feifei didn''t find it strange, though. "That was probably a crafted stone. They used Rank 10 Spirit Stones and Elemental Flowers to finish that. So I guess it is normal for that stone to give so much more energy." Krune and the others nodded. "Still, if we put all the ones we found together, it should have more energy than that single one I used. So the plan is still worth it. It is just that we will need to find thousands of them for each of us. But since we can do it while we cultivate, it shouldn''t be a problem." Krune then looked into some information in his communicator and said. "Let''s go to the Elemental Sect and see if my pills can really be traded by a collection pass. I already checked, and there is a branch of the sect in every single big city on their planet. We can go there now and check it." Feifei and the others nodded and immediately moved out. "Krune, do you have enough of your special pills with you?" Krune smiled after hearing that question. "I made a lot of pills, and I made sure to keep a reasonable amount for myself. That is also why I haven''t concocted in some time. It is simply because I already had the pills ready. Now those extra pills will have another good use." Krune''s group arrived in the Elemental Sect Branch a few minutes later. There, Krune went to the counter and inquired about the Elemental Path Stones collection. "It is indeed possible to provide a pass to gather Elemental Path Stones. But that pass is costly and has limited time use. Every pass has the same value as 100 Elemental Path Stones of any quality. The time that it is active is only one month. If you can''t find enough to cover for this price, you will be forced to work for the sect for several years to pay for the rest. Are you okay with that?" Krune then brought out his trump card. "Can the price be paid with alchemist pills?" The attendant nodded. "Depending on the type and tier of the pill, it can." The attendant didn''t know much about alchemy, so he called an alchemist that works in their branch to check Krune''s pills first. As soon as the Alchemist tried to check Krune''s pill with his Spiritual Energy and Divine Sense, the purple flame appeared around it. As an alchemist himself, he immediately understood what that meant. A lot of people and beasts want to have Krune''s pills, but there was simply not enough supply out there! Still, they had all read about the information about them and the so-called purple flame that it shows when Spiritual Energy is sent inside. "This! Are you sure you want to use these pills to pay for the collection pass?" Krune nodded. For him who can make those pills at any time, the Elemental Path Stones that had to be paid were of much higher value. "Very well, with this number, I can provide you with a one year pass. Jolk''s pills are not as valuable as the Elemental Path Stones, but they are much harder to find. The main advantage is that they can achieve the effects of much higher-tiered pills, so in fact, it saves a lot more money even if their value is lower." Krune didn''t mind. "It''s okay. What I want are the Elemental Path Stones, those pills are of little use for me at the moment." The Alchemist nodded and then talked with the attendant again. Not long after, Krune and his group received a three-months-pass each. Krune''s pills were worth a year of collection, but it was for him alone. Since they were in four, they would need a pass each. So that year was shared between the four. Before Krune left, that Alchemist asked him. "For you to have this many of Jolk''s pills, are you perhaps related to him? Or perhaps... are you him?" Krune smiled and just nodded. He was using his Jolk identity and appearance at the moment, just like Feifei was with her Wulia Feier alias and face as well. "If you want to receive this good deal again in the future, make sure to not spread the news. If it turns out that I can''t spend my time having fun with my friends here, then I will be forced to leave." The guy immediately nodded. Those pills would save a lot of money to their sect. So he might even get a bonus depending on how many of those pills he gets from Krune in the future. Krune looked at everyone and said. "Let''s go!" 297 Start the Gathering Krune looked back and couldn''t help but say. "It went better than I thought." Feifei agreed with him. "Indeed, I guess your pills are worth a whole lot more than you thought." Krune laughed and nodded. "Perhaps you are right." The four of them went to take a teleport formation that would send them to a more remote place in the Elemental Sect Planet. Since Tava was one of the biggest cities, there were just way too many cultivators and demon beasts coming and going. It wouldn''t be a good idea to look for Elemental Stones there. They decided to teleport to a city called Hiria close to the north pole of the planet. From the information gathered, whether there was cold or not, it didn''t change the chances of finding Elemental Path Stones. From there, Krune''s group entered some remote zone, but to their surprise, they could still see a disciple of the Elemental Sect every now and then. Some of those even stopped their group to inquire about their reason to be there. Of course, as soon as Krune''s group showed the collection passes, those disciples would let them be. "The Elemental Sect is really serious at it. Even in a place like this, we can still find those lower levels disciples flying around. I guess that it will be quite hard to find Elemental Path Stones on the surface for us." None of them minded it, though. "It''s okay, we came with the intention of getting the ones that are far from their reach, let''s just stick with the plan." Everyone nodded, and they kept flying away. Finally, once they thought to be far enough from any nearby city, Krune''s group stopped. "Here should be more or less enough. So let''s mark this location on our communicators and separate. Feifei and I are going to move North while you two go South. The distance that the Elemental Meridians can sense the Elemental Path Stone is something around 300 to 350 meters underground at most. So we can keep some distance from each other and still be inside the Divine Sense range. It will be better to move in two groups since one can cover for the other in case something happens." No one had any objection, and they immediately activated their Elemental Meridians. Having nothing else to say, the two couples went in their own directions. It only took Krune around 5 minutes to feel the presence of the first stone, but it was only the start. They began to find stone after stone underground. They also made sure to use their Divine Sense to see if someone was around before doing it. It was best to keep those diggings as concealed as possible. Feifei and Krune were still the fastest ones. Both of them had comprehended at least one Earth Sub-law, and their cultivation was higher than Tiane and Ruik. After one hour, those two had already gathered 12 Elemental Path Stones. Feifei nodded. "There is also the fact that every single one of them was at least 80 meters underground. It proves that those disciples of the Elemental Sect can''t feel their presence so far in there. In fact, even we wouldn''t be able to without the Elemental Meridians." Krune agreed with Feifei, but that was exactly what they were expecting. Some times, Krune and Ruik''s groups would notice a low realm disciple of the Elemental Sect flying around, but that wasn''t all. It was rare, but now and then, they also found cultivators or demon beasts that acquired a collection pass as well. The difference was that they were betting on their luck, while Krune''s side had a surefire method. After both groups scanned the area for a few hours, they reunited again to the same point where they departed before. Krune looked at Ruik and then asked. "How was it." Ruik and Tiane smiled and allowed Krune and Feifei to check their spatial rings with their Divine Sense. Sure enough, both of them had found over 70 stones altogether. "Haha! Great! Feifei and I found a little more, 92 to be more precise. But we do have earth laws and higher cultivation, so the time we spend going down is a lot smaller." Ruik and Tiane didn''t seem to mind it. "We already expected that to be honest. Anyway, this is worth a lot more than we are paying for those free passes. Even if we had to pay 100 Elemental Path Stones, it would still be worth it." Krune nodded. "Indeed. But since my pills aren''t hard to make, I prefer to use them to pay for it. Value-wise, I prefer the Elemental Path Stones." Feifei couldn''t help but comment. "The Elemental Sect is losing big with us here, don''t you think?" Krune then shook his head. "It''s just that we have the Elemental Meridians. If you think about it, those collection passes are a great idea in the end. The ones who pay for it need to give back 100 Elemental Path Stones of any tier. Since there will only be Elemental Stones for 2 to 3 years only, the Sect is profiting a lot more than if they didn''t issue those passes. Don''t forget that the stones lose their power if not store well." Tiane then commented. "I just hope no one notices our actions. Even though they wouldn''t be able to do anything to us since we are following the rules, it would attract too much attention in the end." Ruik shrugged his shoulders after hearing that. "It should be okay. Even if we are finding this many, the fact is that the planet is enormous. Compared to the number of stones that the Elemental Sect is getting from this full-scale search, our stones can, at most, be considered a spec of dust. And that is only because we have the Elemental Meridians. Otherwise, a speck of dust would already be considered an overstatement." Krune nodded. "Ruik is right. Besides, we already decided that we won''t stick to a single place for longer than we should. At most, we will stay for two or three days and then go somewhere else. This way, no one will pay much attention to our presence." Everyone nodded. "Alright, let''s keep looking for the stones. This time, Feifei and I will be moving around the North-East while you two go to the South-West." Krune''s group then immediately separated once more. Time passed, and the agreed three days were over. By now, Krune''s group had already found enough Elemental Path Stones to give at least 300 or so to each other. Once they gathered again, they decided to move back to the city and go to a Hotel. Once inside their room, they started to count how many Elemental Path Stones they got so far. "So, we have 1348 Elemental Path Stones here. They are all pretty much around the same quality, with just a few of them having more energy. So it is 337 for each one of us." Just as Krune was about to distribute them equally, Ruik stopped him. "From now on, you take 10% more than Tiane and me, this will be the payment for the Pills that you used in the Collection Passes. Both of us already discussed it, as well." Feifei nodded and did the same. "You can get 10% of mine as well." Krune shook his head, though. "I don''t need it. We have a lot of time to collect more, so it is not necessary." Still, Ruik, Tiane, and Feifei didn''t hear him. It wasn''t a question of needing it or not, it was more a pride issue. "We are not accepting them either. So what will you do, throw the Elemental Path Stones away? If you insist on not taking the stones, I will just go to an Elemental Sect Branch and buy a collection pass with them." Tiane and Feifei nodded vigorously after hearing Ruik''s words. In the end, Krune could only sigh and accept to take 10% more from now on. "Alright, here are 303 Elemental Path Stones for each one of you, satisfied?" Ruik and the others smiled and nodded. "Very satisfied." Krune then looked at everyone and said. "Okay, let''s start absorbing all of them. I know that we should use as much of our time as possible to search for the Elemental Path Stones. But just in case, I want to prevent a situation where we are found holding thousands of them. Any idiot would notice that something is wrong and that we probably have a better way to look for them." No one complained about that idea since they know that Krune is right. Even if their method of looking for Elemental Path Stone isn''t against any rules, they couldn''t deny the possibility that the other part greed is big enough to ignore Krune''s Wisp Protection Law. Not to mention that that protection law is only applied to Krune alone, not them. 298 Thanks for the Complimen Krune and everyone else started to use their Elemental Meridians to absorb one stone after another. The surprising thing is that the more they absorbed, the faster their Elemental Meridians absorbed the next. It looked more like those meridians were black holes instead. Of course, because each of them had more than 300 each, they still took an entire day to finish them all. Also, absorbing those stones turned out to be quite tiresome. Let alone Tiane and Ruik, even Krune felt somewhat sleepy. One must remember that Krune never sleeps to start with. Ruik gritted his teeth and said. "Not yet, I want to at least see the difference that all those stones made in my Elemental Source Energy conversion." Tiane also had the same idea, and those two started to cultivate for a short time. As for Krune and Feifei, they already had an idea of how it would be. Although they absorbed a lot of stones, not a single one of them was even close to those Divine Soul Realm beasts in the Elemental Path Realm. Still, Krune and Feifei also cultivated a little just to make sure. It was then that they noticed. "The progress slowed down. It is very faint, but I can feel it." Feifei nodded. "Me too. I guess it might be just like using pills, the more you use, the lesser the effect." Krune nodded. "Still, considering the difference, it will take a long time before it loses effect, so we should continue." Feifei agreed with Krune, and they waited for Ruik and Tiane to finish. When Ruik finally opened his eyes again, he looked quite excited. "Impressive, the difference didn''t amount to even 1%, but I can still feel it. We only took three days to get to this point, I think that by the time these two or three years are over, I might have increased my conversion to 100%. Haha!" Tiane opened her eyes right after. "Indeed, I can also say that they really improved. After resting a little, let''s go back to collect more of them." Krune heard their views and shook his head. "Feifei and I just noticed that the more you use them, the lesser the effect. So reaching 100% with the Elemental Path Stones alone will not be possible." Tiane and Ruik were surprised by that, but they waited for Krune to finish. "Still, it is not a problem. Don''t forget that the highest increase in conversion rate happens when we breakthrough into another realm. The two of us discussed that before. We believe that Elemental Meridians like yours and Feifei''s will achieve a 70 to 80% instant conversion rate in the Soul Forging Realm." Krune continued. Krune then shrugged his shoulders and added. "Of course, this is all just a conjecture. Even if you can''t pass the 70 to 80% that we speculated, you will at least reach this max capacity while still in the Divine Soul Realm. Your cultivation speed will continue to be several times fasters than any other ordinary Divine Soul Realm cultivators or demon beasts." Ruik nodded and then asked. "You already have a 50% conversion even while in the Core Formation Realm. Does that mean that you would get 100% or close to it even if you didn''t use these stones?" Krune didn''t deny that. "This is what I think. Still, if I use the Elemental Path Stone now, I can reach 100% or close to it while I''m still in the Divine Soul Realm. But remember, this is all just a conjecture. We need to collect a lot more Elemental Path Stones to test our theories. After all, I believe no one has ever tried it before, so we have nowhere to look for information." Ruik and the others had to admit that Krune is right. But it was totally worth a try. "Alright, absorb the energy inside the Elemental Path Stones turned out to be more tiresome than we expected. Let''s go out, eat something, and then take some time to rest. I would prefer that we keep our peak conditions while looking for them." It was then that Ruik thought about something else. "Oh, right! While we were looking for the Elemental Path Stones, we also cultivated at the same time. There was no problem with this point. Still, my Dream Laws were another story altogether. I couldn''t progress with it at all! It seems like that if I''m not sleeping, I can''t do anything about it. So I will be stuck in it for quite some time until we finish gathering Elemental Stones. Do you guys have any ideas?" Tiane looked at him and couldn''t help but comment. "Neither Feifei or Krune have comprehended this crazy Law of yours, you should stop being an idiot snake and rely more on yourself." Ruik then asked. "Is that how you talk to the snake that you love?" This was supposed to be Ruik''s counter attack, but Tiane just shrugged her shoulders and replied. "I told you before, you are my idiot snake. This means the fact you are an idiot snake doesn''t change." Krune and Feifei immediately nodded vigorously, and they even added salt to the injury together. "Tiane has a point, you know?" Ruik''s mouth twitched, but he decided to ignore those three. It was evident that he was alone here, and any efforts of coming back would be useless. After laughing a little, Krune finally pondered about Ruik''s situation. "This is just an idea, but I think it is because you haven''t got proficient enough with the Dream World Construction Sub-Law. Because of that, you don''t have that much of an influence on the real-world side. Use the times that we rest from now on to try to bring your Dream World Construction to the intermediate level. Who knows? It might work..." Ruik nodded and then asked Feifei and Krune about their own Laws. Feifei was the first one to answer. "While I was looking for the Elemental Stones, I also used three of my Elemental Flowers that had Destiny Laws traits in them. I have to admit, these flowers are excellent, I can finally see myself making some progress with the Cause Sub-Law. The good thing is that I still have loads of them, so I''m confident in reaching the intermediate level soon." Tiane then asked. "You said that Destiny Laws only have three Sub-Laws, right?" Feifei nodded. "Exactly, they are the Cause, Effect, and Destiny Energy Sub Laws. But it is exactly because there aren''t many that they are a lot harder than others. Even Ruik''s Dream Law, which is quite an uncommon one, has five Sub-Laws. Being able to reach the intermediate so soon already makes me feel delighted." Krune then told his piece. "I think that my case is quite apparent, though. I''m learning all the Elemental Laws at once with the help of the Mind Splitting Technique. My Burning Sub-Law from the Fire Major Law had already reached the advanced stage and is progressing very well into culmination with those flowers. I was even able to understand the initial stage of a third Fire Sub-Law. Now I know Burning, Annihilation, and Explosion." "In the case of the other Elemental Laws, they are also progressing well too. For example, my Flash Sub-Law from the Lightning Major Laws has reached the advanced stage in these last three days thanks to the elemental flowers as well. The second one, Current, is very close to the intermediate stage." "As for my Tribulation Lightning Laws..." Krune let out a sigh at this point. "Well, there is nothing in the Universes that can help me with it. So I can only learn it by myself. Until now, I still haven''t reached the Intermediate Stage of the Flash Annihilation Sub-Law." Light Spirit heard that and just snorted. He was already tired of saying that there is nothing wrong with that speed of comprehension. Ruik pondered a bit and asked. "Should I try to learn some other Elemental Sub-Laws now that I can enter the World of Laws? Of course, I mean to do it while we are looking for the Elemental Stones. During the rest time, I will go back to my Dream Laws since I know that it is the best suited for me. At least until I progress enough in the Dream World Construction, and in case it really is what I need to keep comprehending it when I''m not sleeping." Krune and Feifei looked at each other and nodded. "I think it is a good idea. Your mind Splitting Technique is at the Initial Stage, right?" Ruik confirmed. "Yes, I can split it into three parts." Krune then continued. "One part will be paying attention to the real world, the second will be cultivating, while the third should be free since you can''t practice Dream Laws at that moment. Just use this free one to learn some other Elemental Law of your choice. The first Sub-Law is always the easiest one, after all." Ruik then made up his mind. "Alright, I decided to go for the Earth Essence Sub-Law from the Earth Major Law next time." Krune nodded, and everyone finally left to go eat after that. On the way, Krune thought about something and asked Luvile. "Light Spirit, every Elemetal Major Law has an essence Sub-Law, even Light and Darkness aren''t different. Like Fire Essence, Light Essence, Earth Essence, etc. Why your Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws don''t have one?" Light Spirit heard that and laughed out loud. "My Tribulation Lightning eats other Laws, which also includes those Essence Sub-Laws. Since I can have my lightning eating those essences, why would I need to create a Purple Tribulation Lightning Essence Sub-Law?" Krune couldn''t help but sigh. "Your Purple Tribulation Lightning is really... Tyrannical..." Light Spirit then laughed once more. "Thanks for the compliment." 299 Back in the Wisp World Time didn''t wait for Krune and his group. Between cultivation, Elemental Path Stones collection, and rest, another 3 months went by. They have already absorbed thousands of stones, and their Elemental conversion rate increase by around 10% at this point. Ruik and Tiane were at 40%, Krune at 60%, and Feifei at 60% as well. Feifei would have the same one as Ruik and Tiane, but she is in the Divine Soul Realm, after all. Even though it looks a lot, the four of them already noticed that the stones are starting to lose effect. Still, it was worth to keep looking. They had at least two more years, after all. During this time, Feifei had already entered the 2nd Stage of the Divine Soul Realm while Tiane and Ruik reached the 8th of the Core Formation one. Ruik also had no issues in learning the first Earth Element Sub-Law, Earth Essence. As for his Dream World Construction Sub-Law, he was quite far from reaching the intermediate state. Krune and Feifei had been using their Elemental flowers all the time too. So it goes without saying that their Laws have improved a lot. Krune''s Burning Law, for example, finally reached culmination. As for Feifei, she was very close to get her Cause Sub-law into the intermediate stage. Of course, she also had the other Elemental Laws like Water Flow, which got into the advanced stage. Another good thing was that Krune could see the difference that the World of Laws received when he finished comprehending a sub-law. The Burning Law that had been occupying almost the entire extent of his World of Laws for Fire Elements finally gave some space for him to see the others more clearly. That made comprehending the other Fire Sub-Laws easier. Krune and Feifei were once again looking for Elemental Path Stones when suddenly, they felt something inside of their Spatial Rings. Krune was the first to take whatever it was out and soon found the reason. "Oh, the collection passes expired. We need to go back to the Branch of the Elemental Sect to renew this thing." Feifei nodded, and they contacted Ruik and Tiane. Immediately after, they left the zone they were in and went back to the nearest city. From there, they paid the fee and teleported to Tava city once more. But instead of going to the Elemental Sect Branch, Krune took out a few bottles with more pills and passed to Feifei and the others. "If you want, you can go ahead and collect more Elemental Path Stones. I will take this opportunity to go back to the Wisp World to make my breakthrough into the Divine Soul Realm." Feifei immediately shook her head. "I''m going back too. I want to see your breakthrough. After all, your case is a little different from the others, so I don''t want to miss it." Ruik and Tiane also wanted to do the same, but Krune advised them otherwise. Tiane and Ruik tried to change Krune''s mind, but they had to give up in the end. Krune was adamant about them keeping looking for the Elemental Path Stones. "If you say so, then so be it." They had seen Feifei''s breakthrough before, so it really looked quite simple. Not to mention that the tribulation of this Universe is a lot easier than Luvile''s one. Even if Krune had a weird Rainbow Divine Soul Egg, they believe that he will be okay. Krune then looked at Feifei and asked. "Are you sure you want to go back? I will only take two or three weeks to come back, you know?" Feifei nodded. "Still, I want to see it. Besides, Cinty will be there as well, so I want to hear her opinion." Krune smiled and didn''t force the issue anymore. The group then went to a restaurant to eat again and separated ways right after. Krune and Feifei then took the same long-distance Teleport Formation they used to arrive in the Elemental Sect planet and disappeared with a flash of silver light. On their way back to the Wisp World, Krune received a message from Dilo. "I''m going to the Elemental Sect planet now. Is there something you need from the Wisp World?" Krune and Feifei couldn''t help but laugh a little. Krune then replied. "Feifei and I are making our way back to the Wisp World this exact moment, so just wait for us there. Oh, right. There is something I want to talk with you, so make sure to be there once we arrive." A few minutes later, Krune received Dilo''s confirmation. Feifei looked at Krune and asked. "Are you planning to give him the Myriad Energies Technique?" Krune nodded. "You really know me well. Without it, there won''t be much of a reason for Dilo to go to the Elemental Sect planet. After all, he won''t be able to detect the Elemental Path Stones without the Elemental Meridians. It''s just that this time, I will need him to make a decision." Feifei could already imagine what it was. "It''s about his soul slive, am I right?" Krune nodded. "Indeed. The fact is, his appearance was too sudden, so we didn''t have a lot of time to know each other. I can''t simply let the Myriad Energies Technique be known at this time. I have always tried to give his soul slive back to him too, but he insists on leaving it to me." Feifei could understand why Krune was thinking like that. Cinty is different since she is a Wisp, the Myriad Energies Technique is something that she knows that can''t be passed out now. But Dilo, as a human, was a different issue. Krune and Feifei arrived at the Wisp Main World a few days later, and Dilo was already there waiting for them. "How is your domain now? Did you get to finish creating it during your time on the missions?" Dilo nodded and then shook his head. "I improved it a lot, but it is not at the level of a real domain yet. But I already tested everything battle related to it, so I just need to finish pondering about the rest. Only after I finish the last step will I go out to test it once more." It was then that Dilo remembered. "Oh, because you said that we will be staying in the Wisp World for some time, I brought my wife together with me after I finished my missions from the Mission Hall, is that okay?" Feifei and Krune looked shocked at Dilo. "You had a wife?" Dilo''s mouth twitched, seeing their reaction. "I''m already 239 years old, you know? It would be weird If I still didn''t have one instead." Feifei and Krune had to admit that Dilo was right. For someone of his age, it would be really strange if they were still alone, especially considering that he is human. Humans put a lot more importance on things like marriage, after all. "Sorry, I kept dragging you around and not even once I thought about asking you about your personal issues." Dilo laughed after hearing that. "It is okay. Both she and I knew about the condition of my Dantian during the time I was in the Alchemist Organization. She always supported me and let me go through all of those tests without ever complaining. Also, she is pretty much like me, someone who prefers to die if it meant not to cultivate anymore. I guess stubbornness was what brought us together in the end." Dilo then continued. "When I told her about what happened, she felt very grateful to you. So she had always asked me to introduce her, and that is one more reason why I brought her here this time." Krune and Feifei didn''t mind at all, if anything, they were happy that Dilo has someone like that by his side. "Oh, right. You said that you wanted to talk to me in private. Should we talk now?" Krune shook his head. "It''s okay, let''s go see your wife first. I already contacted Cinty, and she will be out tomorrow only. So I won''t try to breakthrough before that." Dilo had already talked to Krune through messages about his breakthrough, so he knew why Krune returned this time around. "Very well, we are living close to your house here, so let''s go there. Just don''t be too surprised when you see her. Haha!" Krune and Feifei looked at each other puzzled, why should they be surprised? The answer didn''t take long to be found. Once they arrived at the house the Dilo was staying, they immediately met with his wife there. Her cultivation was quite good, at the 6th stage of the Divine Soul Realm, but that wasn''t what caught their attention. There was something else that really made them shocked, Dilo''s wife aura! "I told you to not be surprised. Haha!" Pow! "Ouch!" Before Dilo could react, his wife slapped the back of his head. "Am I some kind of attraction for you so show?" "Sorry." Dilo''s wife stepped forward and introduced herself. "Hello, Jolk. I''m this idiot''s wife, Xankruan. I might be in my human form now, but as you probably noticed, I''m a demon beast as well. To be more precise, a Scaled Mare. Nice to meet you!" 300 Decision Krune soon recovered and quickly greeted Xankruan. "Oh, hi! Nice to meet you too." Feifei did the same right after. Xankruan smiled and then teased the two a little. "Are you surprised that I''m a demon beast? You should first look at yourselves if that''s the case." Feifei and Krune had to admit that she was right. It is just that, just like them, it is very rare to see a Human and Demon Beast couple. Krune really didn''t expect that Dilo and Xankruan would turn out to be one of those couples. He was also happy about how Xankruan called him. It shows that Dilo hasn''t told her about his or Feifei''s real identity so far, which is a good thing. It was then that Krune got an idea. "Xankruan, did he tell you that he gave a slive of his soul for me to keep?" Xankruan immediately nodded. "Yes, I really don''t know what he was thinking at that time, sigh..." Krune''s eyes immediately lit up. "Great! Can you convince him to accept it back? It doesn''t matter how many times I try to give it to him, he keeps refusing it. I really don''t what to do anymore." Xankruan glared at Dilo, and the later started to sweat a little. "Cough, cough. It is because I trust him that I don''t need him to give it back to me. Besides, I have to repay for the favor of fixing my Dantian, and this soul slive can be used to call me if he is in danger." Xankruan sighed once more and said. "Sorry, this guy is just like me. When he makes his mind up, there is almost nothing in the universe that can change it." Krune sighed as well and then gave up. Xankruan then invited them for lunch, and the two couples passed a few hours together. Although there was an enormous gap in age, their situation was identical. The only difference is that the genders of who is a demon beast and who is a human were swapped. Thanks to that, the four of them found a lot in common with each other. When it came the time to leave, Krune called Dilo over. Dilo knew that Krune had something to talk with him, so he bid farewell to his wife and left with Krune and Feifei. "It seems like she doesn''t know my or Feifei''s real name yet." Dilo nodded. "You told me to not pass it around, and so I did. In fact, even if I tried to do that, you would feel it through my soul slive." Krune shook his head. "It is okay, as long as you trust her, I don''t mind. After all, Feifei and my fake identities are just prevention. Anyway, what I want to talk with you is about your soul slive." Dilo immediately replied. "I''m not going back on my word, so I won''t accept it." Krune shook his head and said. "There is something I need to pass to you, but once I do that, I won''t be able to return your soul slive anymore. At least, not until I feel that it is safe to do so." "I want you to think it through. Once I give you this thing, your soul slive probably won''t be back to you for the next hundreds or maybe even thousands of years. Before you answer, there is something else that I need to let you know. Feifei and my situations are a lot more complicated than you think, we are probably going to be in serious danger in the future." Feifei also said her piece. "Forget about Divine Soul or Soul Forging Realm, the risks involved in this are in the Divinity Realm level. Anyone at that level can smash us to dust. I''m not lying in saying that you probably will have a much longer life if you decide to go parted ways." Krune and Feifei weren''t lying. They are talking about Divinity Realm Cultivators and Demon beasts. Once Krune''s Myriad Wisps or Energies Technique is found out, that is the level of enemies that will start to move. "I don''t want you to give your answer now, go back to your wife and discuss it with her. After all, there is no doubt that she would also be dragged into our problems in case you decide to stay with Feifei and me. I will breakthrough the Divine Soul Realm, so I expect you to give me your answer after that." Feifei also added. "This isn''t a decision you can take alone. So be sure that your wife is really okay with this. It is something that would affect even your future family." Dilo couldn''t help but ask. "Just how exactly did you two get in this level of a problem?" Krune and Feifei couldn''t help but laugh after hearing that. "All we can say is that we didn''t. It wasn''t something that we opted for. It is not like we went out of our way to provoke some big power or anything like that. You can even say that it is quite unfair that we are in this situation now." Feifei also commented. "Still, you better not hear the details since it would bring you no good. For now, you just need to understand what kind of danger you would be in if you decide to still follow Krune and me." Krune and Feifei then held hands and left, leaving Dilo behind with an absent-minded face. It wasn''t after a few minutes had passed that Dilo finally came back to himself and left as well. Once he returned home, he explained what he talked about with Krune and Feifei to his wife. Of course, he left out any details that might go against what Krune had asked him to keep secret. Xankruan sat on a chair and crossed her arms. "I see. I have no doubt that you really wanted to pay your debt to Jolk, but there was also another reason why you decided to follow him at first. If I''m not wrong, other than paying the debt for fixing your dantian, you probably thought that nothing wrong would happen while following an alchemist genius, right?" Dilo immediately nodded. "I have nothing to say, that is the truth." Xankruan nodded and then continued. "But now that you know that death is most likely the outcome of following him, you are hesitating. After all, how would you deal with forces at the Divinity Realm Level? Neither you or I have ever seen a Divinity Realm Cultivator or Demon Beast. Let alone have gone against them." Dilo nodded once more. Xankuran then snorted. "Could it be, it is because of me that you are hesitating?" Dilo opened his mouth, but in the end, no words came out of it. "Seems like I hit the bull''s eye." Xankruan sighed after saying that. "Not only that, but after your dantian stayed damage for so long, you also lost a lot of your confidence. Before that, you would be trying to convince me instead that we should take this chance. That''s because you know that since what is coming is a Divinity Realm level danger, it means that the rewards would also be around that level. You would definitely be saying something like, ''what''s the point in cultivation if we run at every problem'' or something like that." Dilo couldn''t help but drop his head. He knew that his wife was telling the truth. In the past, he loved to get himself in some tricky situations just because they had higher rewards. Still, even after hearing all of that, he was not sure if he should embark on this journey or not. Xankruan then stood up and gave him a hug. "You are really such an idiot. You are completely forgetting the main point here." Dilo got puzzled and looked at his wife''s face. "Which one?" Xankruan laughed while hugging him and asked. "Which Dilo did I fall in love with? The scared cat Dilo, or the always enthusiastic one?" Dilo''s eyes opened wide, and he stayed silent for a few seconds while looking as his wife smiling face. Suddenly... "Hehe... Hahaha... HAHAHAHA!!!" Dilo started to laugh out loud and then kissed his wife. "I''m really a disgrace! How could I forget such an obvious thing like that? Hahahaha!" Xankruan nodded. "You really are. Still, it seems like you aren''t without salvation yet. Since that is the case, you know what to do, right?" Dilo nodded and then showed a playful smile. "I feel like I had never had any other option to start with now." He then looked at his wife''s human form from top to bottom and said. "Still, I''m supposed to give him an answer after he finishes his breakthrough tomorrow. So for now, there is something else that I''m a lot more interested in doing at the moment." Xankruan showed an angry face and replied. "Pervert!" Dilo didn''t mind, though. "Thanks for the compliment." 301 Mo-Mother? The next day finally arrived, and Cinty was finally back. In fact, she had never left, it was just that she wanted to finish her cultivation seclusion first. "So, are you ready?" Krune nodded. "I already got enough Spirit Stones, so I should have no problem in entering the Divine Soul Realm." Cinty nodded. "Good, I already reserved the tribulation field for you, so there will be no other soul around." Since the tribulation field was on the Wisp World as well, Cinty''s was able to open a spatial gate connected directly there. She is, after all, a Void Breaking Realm wisp. The night before, Krune had already discussed with Light Spirit how they would move his Tribulation Lightning Source. The same one where his soul is deposited. Light Spirit told him that he only needs to make sure to crack open his core. He will take care of the rest and move the Tribulation Lightning on his own. Krune and light Spirit had already decided to keep the Source in the center of the planet together with Krune''s soul, so Krune could keep having an easier time using it. Once they arrived in the field, Krune gave Feifei a kiss and moved far away. The tribulation field was in complete lockdown, so only Feifei, Krune, and Cinty were present at the moment. Cinty did that just to make sure that nothing wrong would happen. After all, she knows that krune''s Divine Soul is different. Once Krune found a place he liked, he took several hundred Spirit Stones out and then returned to his Wisp Form, colorful as ever. "Alright, so the first step is to crack open the Elemental Core using wave os Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy. Then let''s start." Krune started to absorb the Spiritual Energy of the Spirit Stone and converge them in a single point. After that, he struck the shell of his Elemental Core. Of course, barely any change happened. Krune didn''t mind, though. He knew that to crack his Elemental Core, he would need to repeat this process hundreds if not thousands of times. The important point here was to not stop. He has to keep striking his core to not give it time for healing. Krune continued to send one attack after another. Around the 300th time, he finally noticed some change in the Elemental Core Shell. ''It''s finally loosening up. Let''s continue.'' 400 times. 500 times. 600 times. Somewhere around 600 and 700 attacks, Krune finally saw a crack appear on the Elemental Core. From that point on, every attack enlarged that crack a bit. Krune then started to use even more Spiritual Energy. The cracks kept spreading, and by the 900th attack, the entire Elemental Core was covered in it. ''Chance!'' Krune gathered a large amount of Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy at once and used it all in a single mighty strike. Finally, his core was cracked open! Krune was right. From what he heard from Feifei and the others, the core would break open in half, and the Divine Soul would come out while absorbing the entire power of the core into it. But his Elemental Core-Shell was blasted into pieces! Just as Krune was getting worried for his Divine Soul that was inside, he heard a warning from Light Spirit. "Dodge!" At some point, all the pieces of the Elemental Core shot at his own soul. Fortunately, this place is Krune''s Foundation, so he had control over almost everything in it, including his own soul. In that split of a second, Krune''s soul disappeared from its place and reappeared on the other side of his planet core. One must remember that Krune made his planet core''s space quite big so that he could also keep his own soul there together with his Elemental Core. Suddenly, Krune saw some kind of Purple Lightning Ball approaching him. It only took him a moment to know that that was Light Spirit''s Tribulation Lightning Source. Krune then looked at the Elemetal Core Pieces that attacked him and was taken aback. He could feel that those pieces were full of Tribulation Lightning and Elemental Source Energy. If he was hit by that, it would be a miracle if he didn''t die straight away. They were on a completely different level from the time when he used Tribulation Lightning to temper his soul. "Light Spirit, what is happening here?" Light Spirit immediately replied. "I''m damned if I knew! The moment that your core was blasted open, something other than your Elemental Meridians touched my Tribulation Lightning Source. Whatever it was absorbed an enormous amount of my power, which is now being used in those Elemental Core-Shell pieces." Krune then used his Divine Sense to check and finally noticed what was happening. "The Divine Soul Egg... No, it doesn''t look like an egg anymore." Krune was right, the egg form of his Divine Soul disappeared. Now it was nothing more than a big agglomeration of colored Elemental Source and Soul Energy. Krune had asked Cinty and the other Divine Soul Realm wisps before how the Divine Soul looked like, and all of them said that they looked just like themselves. But other than the energy like appearance, Krune''s Divine Soul was nothing like a wisp at all! It was then that he noticed that in the center of those energies, something was floating. Still, Krune quickly understood what that thing was. "So that is the so-called Heavenly Fragment of the Heavenly Core." Krune then looked at the Elemental Core-Shell pieces. "The Elemental Core Pieces are connected to it through very thin treads. It is those treads that are giving them the Elemental Source and Tribulation Lightning energy. But, how come my Divine Soul is attacking my Main Soul?" Light Spirit promptly replied. "No idea, I have never heard about a Divine Soul attacking the Main Soul. No, wrong. I did hear about it in the past, but those were fully developed Divine Souls, and their owners were far above the Divine Soul Realm as well. But this one has just been born, how come it has enough intelligence to start an attack?" "First of all, Divine Souls should be under the total control of their Main Souls. Those Divine Souls that I talked to you about were exceptions. That''s because their owners tried some kind of bullshit with them, and they turned out hostiles. At least, those were the cases. A divine Soul acting on its own against the Main Soul without reason has never happened before as far as I know." Krune and Light Spirit''s conversation seemed to take a long time. But, the two of them are connected through the Tribulation Lightning power inside Krune''s soul. That means that all those words were exchanged in just a split of a second. It is not a mistake to say that it is even faster than Divine Sense Messages. Krune noticed that those shell pieces coming at him again, and he used his control over his foundation to move his soul once more. Now that he is aware of the danger, even his Divine Soul would have a very hard time to do something against him. Krune also did the same with Light Spirit''s Tribulation Lightning Source. Usually, he wouldn''t be able to control that Source, but since Light Spirit is allowing it, he can do that now. "Light Spirit, in the end, what did those guys who lost the control over their Divine Soul do?" Light Spirit simply answered. "No idea, I''ve never passed through such a problem, so I never cared about them either." Krune pondered for a second and then sent a Divine Sense Message over. "Hey, you! Can you hear me?" Light Spirit was taken aback. "Are you trying to talk with it? It was just born, you know? Even if its sentience is evolved enough to attack you, your Divine Soul definitely isn''t old enough to have the intelligence necessary to start a conversation. It is most likely just attacking you based on Instinct." Suddenly, Light Spirit and Krune heard a childish voice. "Instinct your head! I''m not using Instinct!" Light Spirit heard that and was lost at words for a moment. "You can talk?!" Krune couldn''t care less about that, though. "Since you can understand me, can you explain what you are doing? How come my Divine Soul became my enemy out of nowhere?" The voice then replied with a crying tone. "Because you broke mother!" Krune and Light Spirit were taken aback. "Mo-mother? What mother? Are you talking about the Elemental Core?" The childish voice seemed to get angry and replied. "Stop talking about mother like she is an object! Mother is the one how nurtured me! Now that you broke mother, I will get revenge together with her. Mother would definitely be happy if she knew that I used her pieces to teach you a lesson!" Krune and Light Spirit didn''t know what to say anymore. His Divine Soul has sentience, but its intelligence is obviously at a kid''s level. How is he even going to resolve this situation? "Krune, your Main Soul should be linked to your Divine Soul when it is born, can''t you use it to control that?" Krune felt helpless. "I''m trying, but he is rejection all commands that I''m sending over. I can''t use the power of the Divine Soul at all!" Suddenly, Light Spirit exclaimed. "Not good!" Krune was puzzled for a second, but then, he started to feel the presence of a very familiar thing. "What?! The tribulation is coming down too?!" 302 How to Talk With Kids Outside, Feifei and Cinty noticed that something wasn''t right. The Tribulation Fire was about to come down, but Krune still seemed to not be using his Divine Soul Realm power. In fact, they couldn''t even feel the Core Formation Realm power either. That was to be expected, Krune''s Elemental Core is no more, so it would be a wonder if he could. Still, Krune could use Elemental Source Energy since his Elemental Meridians converted around 60% of it straight away. He was different from ordinary cultivator and demon beasts that needed to use their Core to achieve this conversion. Of course, his control over it dropped several times now that his Elemental Core was gone, and his Divine Soul is not willing to help. Krune paid attention outside and knew that he couldn''t waste time here anymore. "Light Spirit, do you think it would be okay to use the Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer to fend off the Tribulation Fire?" Luvile thought for a second and then replied. "It should be able to hold for some time. But because that thing over there took a lot of my power away when the Core was broken, I won''t have enough to pass through the entire process. In the end, you will need to find a way to use your Divine Soul power if you want to guarantee your safety." Krune couldn''t help but sigh. "Light Spirit, can I leave it to you to fend off the tribulation fire for a while, then? I will try to convince my Divine Soul to help." Light Spirit agreed. "Alright, but don''t forget that I don''t have much power left. If there was time, I could recover the energy that that thing took away from me, but time is the last thing we have now." Krune didn''t mind. "It''s okay, just make sure to warn me when the time comes." Light Spirit then started to concentrate on the outside and wait for when the Tribulation Fire descended. Krune then turned to his Divine Soul and asked. "Hey kid, what''s your name?" Light Spirit thought that question to be funny, he also never heard about someone''s Divine Soul having names. Still, he didn''t have time to think much about it since the Tribulation Fire descended right after. The Heavenly Fragment Divine Soul innocently replied. "Mother never gave me a name." Krune didn''t think it strange. The fact is that his Elemental Core didn''t have sentience, so it obviously couldn''t have given his Divine Soul a name. "I see. For now, I will just call you Heavin." Krune didn''t think much about this name. He just took the ''Heavenly'' of the ''Heavenly Fragment'' words and made it sound somewhat cuter. The weird thing was that Heavin didn''t seem to dislike it since he didn''t complain. "Listen here, Heavin, I need to borrow your power so that I can deal with that thing outside. If you don''t allow me to do it, both of us will die here." "Then it is good, mother will get revenge." Krune was speechless. His Divine Soul was just born, and he already didn''t care about death anymore! ''Wait, wrong! If my Divine Soul was really born just now, it wouldn''t be this intelligent. It means that it was already sentient way before I started to make my Breakthrough.'' Krune then asked. "How long have you been conscient inside the Ele- errr... your mother?" Heavin then replied. "A long time, I remember you entering a big building and talking about kids." Krune finally understood where Heavin first gained sentience. ''The Elemental Path!'' Still, it was impressive that Heavin developed such intelligence in just a little more than Three Months. But when he thought that he was a Divine Soul of a Wisp, he could accept that idea. ''It seems that he inherited the wisps'' innate high IQ as well.'' "Alright, Heavin. Then let me tell you that I didn''t know that you considered the Elemental Core as your mother. I will properly apologize to you once the Heavenly Tribulation outside is over, how about it? Can you let me use the Divine Soul power now?" Heavin immediately refused and attacked Krune once more. "I will not help you! The fire will kill you and me, and then I will become like mother!" Of course, Heavin had no chances of injuring Krune anymore now that he is aware of Heavin''s presence. ''I don''t know how to deal with kids at all.'' It was then that Krune got an idea. He then used his Divine Sense to contact Feifei and Cinty outside. After they heard what Krune said, they were taken aback. But that was of little importance now. Krune then asked the two girls something else. "Do any of you know how to talk with a kid? I can only speak with logic as I always do, but I don''t think it is being very effective." Cinty immediately denied. "Kids? How would I know that? After I became the Wisp Queen, I spent most of my time cultivating and dealing with the Wisp Worlds'' affairs. I have no idea how to talk with them. Even young wisps, I have seen very few of them since the other wisps always took care of this issue." Feifei then pondered a bit and said. "I can give it a try. The Wang Clan has always been a big one, so I have a lot of male and female Cousins that are younger than me. I often played with them as well while I stayed there." Krune immediately got excited and then said. "Send you Divine Sense inside, I will create a projection of yourself with Spiritual Energy, and you can use your Divine Sense to control it." Feifei nodded and did as Krune said. Krune also opened his Foundation so that Feifei had free passage all the way to his Planet Core. Once inside, Feifei soon found that projection that Krune talked about and used her Divine Sense to connect to it. That projection then opened its eyes, and Feifei could now control it. Krune also made sure that that projection looked precisely like Feifei. Feifei looked around and say that agglomeration of Elemental Source and Soul energy. Still, it indeed didn''t look quite like a wisp. "Krune, I think that this is not its final form yet." Krune immediately agreed. "Yes, I also think that this is not supposed to be how my Divine Soul looks like. Most likely, because of the ''mother'' issue, it didn''t complete its entire transformation. As proof of that, we can see the Heavenly Fragment inside it. When you entered the Divine Soul Realm, you were not able to see your Heavenly Fragment inside you Divine Soul, right?" Feifei immediately nodded. "Correct. I have no idea how my Heavenly Fragment form is. My Divine Soul was already complete when it came out of my Core." Feifei then ignored this issue for now and started to talk. "Hello, Heavin. Do you remember me?" Heavin then looked at Feifei. "Yes. You are always close to Krune." Feifei then smiled and asked. "I''m so happy that you know who I am. I decided to pay a visit to see you, but then I found out that you want to attack your father. Did he do something wrong?" Krune was taken aback. ''Fa-father? Errr... well, kids are basically a fusion of both mother and father''s parts in a certain sense, so I guess it isn''t wrong to consider the same for my Divine Soul since it was a part of my Main Soul.'' Heavin then felt angry. "He broke mother, so he can''t be father." Feifei noticed that Krune wasn''t wrong, this Divine Soul really has a kid''s way of thinking at the moment. "What?! Did he break your mother? How could he have done something like that! He must be punished!" Krune almost fainted! ''He-Hey! Aren''t you supposed to be on my side?'' Heavin, on the other hand, immediately agreed with Feifei. "Right, right! He must be punished!" Feifei then made a sad face and started to cry. "But it is so sad. Your mother was broken, and now her child will die because of the Tribulation Fire outside. I can only imagine how sad she would be if she knew that you are going to die. She definitely would be crying a lot." Both Krune and Heavin were taken aback. Even Krune felt like Feifei was crying for real. "I... I don''t want mother to be sad." While crying, Feifei then said. "But if Krune doesn''t drive that Tribulation Fire outside away, Heavin will die with him. She would definitely be very sad." Heavin started to waver and then said. "Then... then what should I do?" Feifei looked at him and then pretended to be thinking while she still appeared sad. "Maybe... no, Heavin would never accept doing something like this. Even if Heavin''s mother will be sad if he dies, I can''t ask Heavin to do it." Heavin immediately replied. "What is it?! Heavin will do anything for mother to not be unhappy!" Feifei then looked at Krune''s soul in the back and said. "Well, there is only one way for Krune to drive away that Tribulation Fire outside. If he wants to do that, Heavin will need to help Krune to do it. But he is the one that broke Heavin''s mother, I really can''t ask Heavin to do something like this." Feifei wasn''t planning to get Heavin to fully cooperate with Krune forever right now. Her primary objective was to have Krune''s Divine Soul to first help avoid the Tribulation Fire. They can think about anything else after that is done with. Heavin also seemed to hesitate after hearing Feifei''s words. Feifei knew that it was better to strike the iron while it was hot and then suggested. "Oh, I know! How about I help you to punish him when the Tribulation Fire outside is gone? That way, Heavin''s mother will get her revenge, and she would also be happy if she knew that Heavin is not going to die." As much as Krune knew that Feifei was doing it for him, he still felt a chill on his back when he heard those words. He couldn''t help but remember his first months in the human world and his time with Yusa and Shinja. Heavin seemed to become excited and asked Feifei. "You promise?!" Feifei smiled at him and nodded. "Of course! You also know that I''m his fiance, right? So I can definitely punish him as many times as you want!" Heavin then immediately replied. "Alright! For mother, Heavin will help him this time." 303 DID, YOU, ASK?! Krune finally felt that the connection with his Divine Soul wasn''t impeded anymore, and his control over the Elemental Source Energy soared. Not to mention the control over the Elements and Laws. One must remember that this is, in fact, an Elemental Divine Soul. Also, the sheer amount of Elemental and Spiritual Energy that he could use at once was simply not a match from when he was in the Core Formation at all! "Impressive, there is so much more power!" Krune spread his Divine Sense for a second and soon found that it could now cover over a 100km radius, it was utterly ridiculous! "Hey Krune, I''m almost out of Tribulation Lightning Energy, come out already and take care of this!" Krune didn''t waste time and started to use his Divine Soul Realm strength to fight the Tribulation. But he soon noticed a difference. "Light Spirit, isn''t this Tribulation Fire a lot stronger than Feifei''s one?" Light Spirit confirmed. "A tribulation is supposed to be a test, what use would be there for a Tribulation at the level of an ordinary Divine Soul Realm? In fact, Feifei''s Tribulation was also a lot stronger than ordinary ones. Still, her combat power isn''t as high as yours, so her Tribulation seems weaker than this one. If you see an ordinary Divine Soul Realm Tribulation Fire, you might even laugh at that." Krune immediately understood. Indeed, an ordinary 1st Stage Divine Soul Realm Tribulation would simply be of no risk to him. He could defend against that even if he was still in the Core Formation Realm. The Tribulation Fire was indeed stronger for Krune, but in the end, it wasn''t Luvile Universe''s Purple Tribulation Lightning. Besides, even if it was, Krune was still confident that he could overcome it with the power that he has now. His Elemental Divine Soul was really something else. The Tribulation Fire continued to envelop Krune, but it couldn''t even touch his wisp''s ethereal body, let alone his Core. If not for what happened to his Divine Soul, Krune would probably feel bored. Light Spirit then gave Krune an idea. "Since you can deal with it this easy, why don''t you bring some of the Tribulation Fire to fuel up your Sun? Different from my Tribulation Lightning, this Tribulation Fire is in accord with the Heaven and Earth Laws. As long as you can subdue it, your Sun will also have a good boost. Overall, your Universe Foundation won''t change much, but it will save you a lot of time." Krune didn''t really have reason to refuse since he also thought that this Tribulation was being too easy. Krune then opened a passage in his Energy Field and then used his Elemental Meridians to absorb the Tribulation Fire. Just like it was with the Tribulation Lightning, his elemental meridians also had no problem absorbing the Tribulation Fire as well. It turned out that the Tribulation Fire was perfect for his Sun, even with the little that he absorbed and subdued every time, his Sun was still increasing in size very fast. One must remember that ever since its creation, it never stopped absorbing Krune''s Spiritual Energy that he kept in his Universe Foundation. ''To think that the Tribulation Fire alone is giving it enough power equivalent to years of steady Spiritual Energy feeding.'' Time passed, and finally, the Tribulation Fire disappeared. As for Krune''s Sun, it had almost doubled in size thanks to it. It now had enough gravitational pull for Krune to make his Planet start to orbit it as well, which he immediately did. Thorugh the use of the Spiritual and Elemental Source energy, Krune pushed his world into a safe distance away from the Sun. From there, it started to accelerate until its speed was enough to not be pulled inside the Sun, but not enough to escape the gravitational field either. ''I will need to pay attention now and then since my Sun is still absorbing Spiritual Energy and getting bigger.'' It was then that Krune thought. "Light Spirit, at which point should I stop feeding my Sun with Spiritual Energy?" Light Spirit then immediately replied. "The difference in size between Suns in the Universe is gigantic. So, in a certain way, it can be fed almost forever. But I don''t think you need one of those massive ones, just use the Rimeria Solar System''s Sun as a comparative example, that should be good enough. In the future, when you enter the Void Breaking Realm and is able to create Chaos Energy, you can think about increasing its size. Well, at that point, you will need to create a lot more Suns, Planets, and things like that, though." Krune nodded and thought about the Rimeria Sun. ''It still needs to increase three times in size, more or less. Well, I guess I''m back to feeding it Spiritual Energy.'' With the Tribulation Fire over, Krune then paid attention to his Divine Soul. Ever since his connection with it came back to normal, his Divine Soul hasn''t said a single word. Even when he started to put his Planet in the Sun''s orbit, Heavin didn''t complain about his power being used either. "Weird... Heavin, are you there?" No answer... Right After, Cinty and Feifei arrived beside Krune. "How is it? Are you alright?" Krune looked at Feifei and then transformed back to his human form. "Yeap, I couldn''t be better." "What about Heavin, should I go talk to him again?" Krune showed a weird expression and then said. "Come inside to take a look, I will make a projection with Spiritual Energy for you two to control." Cinty and Feifei nodded, and they sent their Divine Sense into Krune''s foundation. As for Light Spirit, he just kept quiet in a corner. If anyone asked, Krune would just say that it is his Tribulation Lightning Source, which they already know that exists. After that, Krune also made a projection of his human form and then pointed at his Elemental Divine Soul. "Well, you see... After my connection with my Elemental Divine Soul was established, Heavin became completely silent. I tried to call him, but there is no answer at all." Feifei and Cinty looked at each other and then asked Krune. "Isn''t it the same as a normal Divine Soul?" Krune nodded. "I think so too, but still, its form continues the same. Just an agglomeration of Elemental Source and Soul energy. I can still see the Heavenly Fragment inside as well." Feifei then said. "You probably thought about it already, but I think it is because of your established Link with Heavin. He doesn''t have any control anymore now that the Link is in place." Krune nodded once more. "I think so too. Let me ask you something, do you think your Divine Souls have sentience as well?" Cinty and Feifei immediately shook their heads. "I don''t know the reason, but I''m sure that our Divine Souls don''t have intelligence. You can think about it as a new extension of our body. It is still controlled by the brain, even if it wasn''t there before." Krune pondered a bit and then said. "I can''t help but feel like I''m imprisoning Heavin inside his own body with my Link in place. He does have intelligence, after all." Cinty then said. "Is there a need to be worried? Now that you have the control, whether he is still there or not, it doesn''t matter anymore." Feifei, on the other hand, knew exactly what Krune was thinking. "You don''t like it to be this way, right?" Krune sighed and nodded. "You know me way too well. Stay here with me, I''m going to weaken my Link with Heavin to the point where it will reach the same state as before. If he doesn''t answer after that, then it means that his sentience is really gone. If he does, then we can talk to him." Feifei smiled and nodded. That is really the Krune that she knows. Cinty couldn''t help but disagree, though. "Why would you do that? It will only bring you more problems. Do you have any idea how strong your Divine Soul power is now? I noticed from the outside during the Heavenly Tribulation. Your combat power is definitely ridiculous! You should keep things that way and forget that this ''Heavin'' ever existed. This is for you and your companions'' own good." Krune looked at Cinty and just shook his head. "No can do." Krune didn''t wait for Cinty to answer and immediately started to work. He concentrated, and his connection with the Elemental Divine Soul began to get weaker and weaker until finally, Krune noticed that his commands got blocked again. "Ah! What happened? Did I sleep?" Heavin looked at Krune and then got angry again. "It was you, right? You tried to get rid of me, too, like mother!" Krune was taken aback, who said that he did it? Well, he did it indeed, but it wasn''t on purpose! Just as Heavin was about to attack again, he heard Feifei''s angry voice. "HEAVIN, STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" Heavin was taken aback, and the energy that he had initially accumulated to attack immediately disappeared. Feifei then moved her projection in front of the Elemental Divine Soul. Heavin also came back to himself and complained. "You said you would help punish him! If you don''t get out of the way, I will attack you too!" Feifei''s angry face didn''t disappear, though. "I said that I would, and I will. But that is another matter." Feifei''s projection got even closer to Heavin and then asked. "Did you ask him what happened that you lost conscience?" Heavin didn''t know what to say. "I... I..." Feifei''s face got even darker and asked once more. "DID, YOU, ASK?!" Heavin couldn''t take it anymore and said. "I... did not..." Feifei''s face finally came back to normal, and she smiled. "Good boy! Why don''t you ask what happened first before saying that it was his fault? I''m sure your mother would not like you to be unjust." Heavin really had a kid''s mind. He gets afraid easily, just as Feifei expected. But she could also tell that he wasn''t bad. ''Fortunately, treating him like the kids back in the Wang Clan worked well.'' Heavin then did as Feifei asked, and then Krune started to explain what happened from start to finish. Once Krune was finished explaining, Heavin didn''t know what to do. Feifei looked at him and then asked. "Heavin, now that you know it wasn''t his fault, what should you say?" Heavin was unwilling, but once Feifei started to get angry again, he could just do as she wanted. "I''m... sorry... for saying that it was your fault that I slept." Krune wasn''t good at this situation, either. "Errr... It is okay, I guess." Feifei smiled once more and said. "I''m proud of you, Heavin, and I''m sure your mother would be too." They couldn''t tell how Heavin was feeling since he didn''t have a face to start with. But Feifei was sure that he was feeling embarrassed now. "Well then, shall we proceed with Krune''s punishment then?" Heavin immediately looked at Feifei and felt excited! "Yes!" Krune, on the other hand, felt that it wouldn''t be a very pleasurable event. After some time of ''punishment,'' Feifei and Heavin finally stopped, much for Krune''s relief. Since Heavin couldn''t exactly go out to fight Krune, the punishment had to be carried on his Main Soul instead. It made him remember how painful his Soul Tempering was. "Alright, that is enough. Now let Krune explain why he broke your mother, he did have a reason for it, so you should listen to what he has to say at least." Heavin acted like an obedient child when he was with Feifei and nodded. "Alright." Krune sighed and then started to explain everything about cultivation, breakthroughs, and how one did to enter the Divine Soul Realm. Heavin had the same innate IQ as the wisps, so he quickly understood the entire process even though he had a kid''s personality. "So, it really wasn''t on purpose?" Krune, Feifei, and Cinty immediately nodded. "That is how everyone enters the Divine Soul Realm. In fact, the strange thing is that you have sentience. Other Divine Souls are not like you." Heavin then looked at the pieces of the Broken Elemental Core that he considered his mother and felt even sadder. "I think... if mother had sentience, she would want me to do it." Suddenly, Heavin started to absorb those pieces of the broken Elemental Core, and his body began to change! Or better, it was now finally taking the form that it was supposed to have in the first place. 304 Do You Have Divine Sense? Krune looked at that and was taken aback. "That... is not a wisp." Krune was right, his Divine Soul didn''t take a wisp form at all. Feifei looked at that and said. "Heavin looks like a core." Krune nodded. "To be more specific, it''s the exact image of my Elemental Core. If not for the Elemental Source and Soul Energy coming from it, I would have a hard time telling the difference." Heavin heard that and said. "Now I look like mother, isn''t that nice?!" He liked the Elemental Core so much that he retook its form. "Cough, cough. Well, if he likes it, I guess this is okay. I just didn''t expect to have the Elemental Core back." Heavin then replied. "Oh, in that case, I can change shape too. I took this one because it reminds me of mother." Krune and the others were really shocked this time. "Wait, you can change forms?" Heavin answered that by changing into Krune''s human form this time. "Yeap. It is quite easy." Krune looked at Feifei and Cinty. "Have you ever heard about a Divine Soul that can change forms?" Both the two girls immediately shook their heads. "I have never heard about it, but I will have the other wisps look into the records later. With the amount of information that we have here, there might have something about it in the past." Krune thanked Cinty and then asked Heavin. "Heavin, If you change your form, does it change anything regarding your power?" Heavin immediately shook his head. "Not really. I don''t feel different in any form I take." Heavin didn''t care much about how strong he was as a Divine Soul, so he immediately changed the topic. He looked at one side and soon noticed Light Spirit, who had been quiet all this time, pretending to be nothing more than a Lightning Source. Heavin approached him while using Krune''s human form and then apologized. "Uncle Light Spirit, sorry for taking your power earlier." Light Spirit could only think. ''Who the hell is your uncle?'' Krune and Light Spirit started to get nervous. Feifei and Cinty still have their projections in here, after all. Feifei didn''t find it weird, though. "It''s okay, Heavin, a Lightning Source recovers its energy with time. Soon, it will be as good as before." Cinty nodded. "She is right. Anyway, since everything is over, I''m leaving now. I will send you a message later if I find something about Divine Souls changing form." Cinty''s Divine Sense then disappeared, and her projection was dissipated by Krune. As for Heavin, he still kept trying to call Light Spirit''s attention. "Why aren''t you saying anything, Uncle Light Spirit? Could it be that you hate Heavin now?" Feifei, who was still there, then said. Heavin looked back at Feifei and shook his head. "That is not true, Krune had always talked with him. He probably hates Heavin now, that''s why." Feifei looked at Krune and felt that something was fishy. "Errr... I don''t know what he is talking about." Light Spirit could be said to be the only thing that he had never told anyone else. Krune really didn''t expect that Heavin knew that the two of them often talked with each other. ''It is probably because Heavin is also linked with my Soul, just like Light Spirit. That''s why he knows that I can talk with him.'' Heavin kept trying to call Light Spirit''s attention, but there were no results. He finally found that something might have happened to Light Spirit and tried to touch him. Light Spirit thought that Heavin was going to absorb his Lightning Energy once more and finally lost his patience. "Enough, leave me alone!" Feifei looked at that with wide eyes while Krune put a hand on his face and sighed. "In the end, he really doesn''t have that much patience." Feifei looked at Krune and asked. "Since when do Elemental Sources talk?" Krune shrugged his shoulders and just replied. "That, you will have to ask him. I made a promise to not talk about his existence." Krune then looked at Heavin, who was still trying to have Light Spirit''s attention and then said. "Heavin, come back here, there are a few things that I need to test." Krune then said to Feifei. "If Light Spirit wishes to talk, he will talk. If he doesn''t talk, then I really can''t tell you much." Feifei knows that if Krune isn''t able to talk, that is because he really can''t go against his words. Feifei then approached Light Spirit and decided to try it once. While Feifei and Light Spirit were on one side, Krune brought Heavin to the other to talk. "Heavin, as you know, you are my Divine Soul. Without you, I can''t fight at the Divine Soul Realm level. So, from now on, I will need to keep our connection properly going all the time, or it will be too dangerous." Heavin, who still had Krune''s human form at the moment, immediately shook his head. "I don''t want to fall asleep again." Krune shook his head. "That is not what I meant. I think you will be able to stay awake while I still can use your power. But the conditions for that is that you can''t block my commands like you are doing at the moment." Heavin looked suspiciously at Krune. "Are you sure I won''t fall asleep?" Krune shook his head. "I will not lie to you, I''m not sure. But that''s why I want to test it out." Heavin thought for a second and then agreed. "Okay! But if you see that I will fall asleep, you must stop." Heavin then stopped to block the connection between him and Krune. At the same time, Krune didn''t reinforce it as he did before. Soon, Krune once more felt like he could use the power of the Divine Soul Realm. "This is it! Heavin, are you still there?" Heavin nodded. "I''m still here." Krune sighed in relief. "Great. I can feel that even though the link between us is weak now, the fact that you are not blocking me still allows for the use of your power." Heavin then shook his head. "This is not my full power." Krune looked surprised at him. "Coul it be that you were still blocking me in some way during the last Heavenly Tribulation?" Heavin immediately shook his head. "No, it is just that after I absorbed the pieces of mother, I finished my transformation. Before, what you used was really my entire power at that moment." Krune then felt puzzled. "But I can tell that my power at the moment is the same as the last time. No, wait! Now that you said that, I can feel that it is quite lower indeed. I just didn''t pay attention before." Heavin then said. "I think it is because this link that you said is weak now." Krune finally understood. With him purposely weakening the link to avoid Heavin falling asleep, the amount of power of that Divine Soul Realm that he can use is also limited. "I see, would you mind if I give it a check? I will let you wake up straight away after." Heavin immediately shook his head. "Don''t wanna! I hate that feeling." Krune sighed and remembered that Heavin still has a child''s personality. "Well, at least, I can use my Divine Soul Realm power, I guess it should be enough for now." Krune then looked serious at Heavin and said. "In that case, if there comes a time that we are in danger, you must let me do it, agreed?" Heavin pondered a bit and then nodded. Krune smiled, and they went back to Feifei''s side. "Any luck?" Feifei shook her head. "It doesn''t matter what I do, Light Spirit doesn''t say a single word." Krune then said. "You better forget it for now, then. If Light Spirit doesn''t want to talk, nothing that you do will change it. Also, as I said before, I really can''t talk much about him due to my promise, sorry." Feifei didn''t mind, though. "It is okay, I will make sure to not let out a single word about it either." Krune smiled and nodded. "All you need to know is that Light Spirit had helped me and the others a lot in the past. You can trust him." Feifei nodded as well and then gave up. "Anyway, that is it for now, I''m going out since there is no need for me to stay here anymore." Heavin heard that and immediately asked. "Wait, are you leaving? For how long?" Feifei and Krune were taken aback. It was just due to an extraordinary situation that he let Feifei send her Divine Sense inside his planet foundation to start with. Otherwise, she probably would never be able to. "Heavin, this is my foundation, you know? I can''t simply keep it open all the time, much less can Feifei stay here either. She is using her Divine Sense to connect to this projection made of Spiritual Energy. She is not really here." Feifei then thought about something. "Heavin, do you have Divine Sense?" Heavin immediately nodded. "Can you send it outside Krune''s foundation?" Heavin nodded once more. "That was how I watched the world outside while I was being nurtured by mother." Feifei''s eyes then lit up, and she said. "Then, I think I know exactly what to do!" 305 Maybe It is Talent, After All Feifei retracted her Divine Sense and left the Tribulation Field with Krune. On the way, Krune asked Feifei what her plan was. "Oh! He can send his Divine Sense out as you do, but it is not the same as being outside, there is no interaction. That''s why I''m going to give him something very special to me." Once they returned to their home, Feifei immediately dashed inside her room. A few seconds later, she came back with a small puppet in her hands. "Heavin, are you there?" Heavin immediately answered with a Divine Sense Message. "Yes. What is this thing?" Feifei smiled and then explained. "This is a gift that my mother gave me when I was just a kid. It is a bird puppet that can be controlled by Divine Sense, and it is very easy to use. Even I, during the time I was in the Qi Condensation Realm, had no problems using it. Try to use your Divine Sense to send your conscience inside." Heavin didn''t have any better idea and did, as Feifei asked. Sure enough, the puppet was very easy to control, and soon, Heavin''s conscience was pulled inside it. The puppet bird was very lifelike. If you weren''t close, you wouldn''t even notice the difference between it and a real one. Feifei''s puppet had the format of a colorful Parrot, and it was really a treasure for her. Feifei couldn''t help but smile when she saw that the Parrot opened its eyes. "How is it, Heavin, do you like it?" Heavin has a kid''s mind, after all. Because of that, he really liked the Parrot. There was also the fact that his conscience was really connected to the Parrot. For Heavin, it really felt like he was the Parrot itself. Still, he could tell that he could leave it anytime he wanted. "I love it!" He then took flight and started to glide around the room. Feifei looked at that and warned him. "Heavin, this parrot puppet is very important to me, it was my mother who gave it to me. Make sure that you don''t break it, okay?" Heavin landed on the table in the room and nodded. "Yes, I will be very careful." Feifei nodded, satisfied. "This Parrot isn''t very strong, but it has a core where the Spiritual Energy is contained. You can also use it to manipulate the Spiritual Energy around you. In that way, you can grab things, open doors, and all those things that you would usually make with real hands. Basically, you can do the same as Krune when he is in his wisp form." Heavin nodded and was just about to fly out of the house when Feifei warned him. "Heavin, the Divine Sense transmission power of the Parrot isn''t that big. If you fly more than 10 km away, you will lose the connection with the Parrot. So pay attention to how far you are going." Heavin nodded once more and dashed outside of the house. Feifei looked at that and laughed. "Now then, he is really a kid through and through." "Are you okay with it? That Parrot Puppet is very important to you, isn''t it?" Feifei nodded her head. "It is, I often play with it myself even though I''m already this old. Still, I believe that it is indeed a kid''s toy, and it should be used by one. Besides, you have your connection with Heavin''s Divine Soul, so you can call him back at any time." Krune just nodded. Since Feifei is okay with it, this is not his place to say otherwise. "I will need a few hours to check my cultivation now that I''m in the Divine Soul Realm. After that, we can go back to the Elemental Sect Planet to collect more Elemental Path Stones. Oh, right! Let me send a message do Dilo as well telling him to come here later." Feifei nodded and decided to go check a few things while she still had time. But just as she was about to leave the room, Krune asked her a question. "Feifei, ever since we arrived in the Dalin Universe, our group has basically been following my plans. Don''t you, Ruik, and Tiane feel annoyed because of it?" Feifei didn''t know where that came from, but she just laughed in the end. "I don''t know what made you think like that, but I can assure you that the three of us are having the times of our lives at the moment. Even Ruik, with his sleeping troubles, is probably the same. Especially now that Tiane got him." Krune''s expression immediately improved, and then he said. "I see... that is good." Feifei left right after while Krune entered his room and started to manipulate the power of his Divine Soul. Heavin noticed that while flying around with the Parrot, but he didn''t care and just let Krune do as he wished. ''As I thought. With the link between Heavin and me being this weak, I can''t use too much power. Still, I should be able to fight an ordinary 6th Stage Divine Soul Realm Demon Beast or Cultivator like this while in my wisp form. I wonder how much better it would be if I got full control over Heavin. Maybe I can fight the 7th stage? No, if I goo all out, probably the 8th." Krune then pondered about the Divine Soul Realm Cultivators and Demon Beasts that he had seen and battled in the past. ''Still, isn''t this Divine Soul Realm combat power a little too high? I''m in the Dalin Universe, where the level of ordinary cultivators and demon beasts is higher than the Luvile Universe. Before, in the 9th stage of the Core Formation Realm, I could more or less fight a 5th Stage head-on for some time if I used my full power. Of course, I would still lose in the end if I didn''t finish the battle fast or fled. After all, the difference in the amount of Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy between me and someone like that is enormous. I would definitely run dry first.'' ''But now, even though I can''t use the full power of my Divine Soul, I think I can still fight the 6th stage with some easy. I won''t say that I would win, but I wouldn''t lose either. If my conjecture is right, and I can really fight against the ordinary 8th stage, it will be too heaven-defying. Before I entered the Divine Soul Realm, my best guess was that I would at most be able to fight 7th stage ones, and that would already be stretching it.'' ''It definitely has something to do with the fact that my Divine Soul has sentience. But first of all, why did it get sentient? Does it have something to do with the time I went to the Elemental Path? It is possible since Heavin said that his first memories were from the time we were there. It might have something to do with that ''come back in the Soul Forging Relm'' thing too.'' Krune thought a little more and then decided to put those thoughts to the side for now. ''Anyway, I entered the Divine Soul Realm, it''s time to use Master''s token.'' Krune brought the Token that had Lucio''s will inside and poured Spiritual Energy into it. A few seconds later, the Token activated, and a small projection of Lucio appeared in front of Krune. "Oh, look if it isn''t my idiot disciple. How are you doing?" Krune''s mouth twitched, but he decided to ignore it. This isn''t really his Master, just a will. There is no point in starting an argument with it. There will come a day where he will be able to beat his Master back in the Luvile Universe. "Hey, old geezer, I entered the Divine Soul Realm. What now?" Lucio showed a surprised face and nodded. "Good, as expected of my disciple, you aren''t too slow." Krune thought that he might not be able to hold himself even if it is just a project of his Master. Lucio, of course, couldn''t care less about what Krune was thinking. "Very well, first tell me everything that you learned, saw, and then show me your progress with the Elements Regulation Technique." Krune nodded and started to explain about the Laws he comprehended, his adventures, progress, and everything else. Finally, he finished by showing his Master the level of his Elements Regulation Technique. "Halfway through the intermediate level of the Elements Regulitaion Technique. Also, you are able to comprehend these many Laws already. Not only that, but you did it while still in the Core Formation Realm. Although your talent is definitely one of the reasons, I have no doubt that the Dalin Universe played a great role in it. I almost feel jealous of you." Krune nodded. "I think so too, believe it or not, even Ruik learned Laws while still in the Core Formation Realm. Although I believe that his case was more some kind of luck than talent." Lucio showed a surprised expression. "Could it have something to do with the Dream Laws?" This time, it was Krune who was taken aback. "How did you know?" Lucio Shrugged his shoulders and said. "I''ve been to your house several times back in the Divine Path Sect. Every time, that snake was sleeping in a corner, or you were kicking him awake. For someone as lazy as that guy, I guess only a Law related to laziness would ever be possible to be comprehended before the Soul Forging Realm. Well, maybe it is a type of talent, after all." A certain snake on a particular planet far away. "Achoo!" Tiane looked at Ruik, puzzled. ''Since when do snakes sneeze?'' 306 I Must be Crazy Lucio then put Ruik''s situation on the back of his mind and continued. "Alright. I am indeed intrigued by your sentient Divine Soul. Still, because this is just a will I left in the Token, I don''t have many memories that are not related to your training. Because of that, I won''t be able to help you much in finding out why that happened, so let''s go back to your cultivation." Krune nodded and then asked. "Master, I feel like although I''m in the intermediate level of the Elements Regulation Technique, I''m stuck in place. Why is that?" Lucio nodded and then started to gather the surrounding elements and separate them equally. Surprisingly, there were Light and Dark higher elements as well. "Can you see it? The Elements Regulation Technique that my Master, or your Grandmaster, created, is supposed to work with all elements. But because you weren''t in the Divine Soul Realm before, you couldn''t control Light and Dark." Krune nodded. "I see. I indeed can feel the presence of the Light and Dark Elements ever since I broke through." Krune then thought about something else. "Master, what about Time, Space, and Destiny? Are they considered Elements as well?" Lucio shook his head. "No, they are the same as the Dream Laws of your Snake friend. They are not Elements, only Laws. Our Elements Regulation Technique won''t be touching them." Lucio then showed a serious expression and said. "Pay attention, this is the next level of the Elements Regulation Technique. Because I''m just a will, I don''t want to use too much energy, so make sure to engrave it in your mind. This is also the reason why you couldn''t progress anymore with it." Krune nodded and immediately paid close attention. Lucio then controlled the Five Main Elements and the Two Higher ones together. After some time, they started to fuse! When Krune saw that, he was frightened! One must remember that there are elements that are simply the opposite of each other. Just how is his Master mixing Fire and Water, or Wind and Earth? Or better, how can he fuse all of them together?! "You see it? If you are not capable of doing this much, you will never enter the advanced level of the Elements Regulation Technique. You probably are thinking about how I''m fusing them together since there are opposite elements in the mix, right?" Krune nodded vigorously. "The reason is simple, I''m using proxies." Krune had a high IQ, after all, so he immediately understood the idea. "Wait, are you telling me that you are using elements that aren''t the opposite to make a connection?" Lucio smiled and nodded. "Smart! Indeed, Water and Fire are elements that shouldn''t be able to get together, but both of them can complement Earth. Wind can''t get fused with Earth, but by using Water or Fire, it becomes possible." "What about Light and Darkness?" Lucio laughed and said. "Isn''t that obvious? Light and Darkness are compatible from the very start. Remember, there is no Light without Darkness, and the opposite is also valid. It will be a lot harder to fuse them with the Five Main Elements than it will be with each other." Lucio then continued "But don''t misunderstand it. This Seven Elements Fusion is a different process from what you did with your Blue Flames. To create them, you separated the oxygen from the hydrogen. In the end, that Water couldn''t be considered Water anymore. What I''m doing here is fusing the Elements itself, not their properties." "Still, I believe that once you become able to do it, your own Blue, or better, Purple Flames will have a great boost." Krune then asked. "Master, I''m impressed that the Elements Regulation Technique can fuse all Elements Together, but what is the use for the result?" Lucio smiled and said. "The fact that they can be used in all types of Elemental Attacks. Take your combination of Myriad Water Dragons and Tribulation Lightning, for example. That is a synergy attack. Lightning and Water are very good with each other as long as you are good at controlling it. But do you think you would ever be able to put Fire Element inside it as well? Or better, do you think you could have all elements together, including Light and Darkness, fusing with that attack?" Krune had to admit that he wouldn''t be able to do such a thing. "Still, your Myriad Water Dragons would still be mainly a Water and Tribulation Lightning attack. The other fused elements are basically a boost for it. As I said, the Fused Elements are just a complement to increase the power of the habilities. They can be used with everything that is Element Related. Attacks or other kinds of Elemental skills that you thought to never be able to improve anymore just so happen to be perfect for it too." Lucio smiled and added. "Think about it as adding something extra that those skills didn''t have before, but are more than pleased to go with." Krune got excited after receiving the whole explanation. But it was then that he thought about something else and asked Luvile inside his Foundation. "Light Spirit, do you think that the Tribulation Lightning can be added to the Five Main Elements and Two Higher Elements in this fusion?" Light Spirit had been hearing everything until now and had to admit that he was curious as well. "To be honest, I''m not sure. But I can guarantee that it would be complicated. Don''t forget that my Tribulation Lightning eats the other Laws, so the chances are that the Fusion will fail from the very start." Krune didn''t feel sad but inspired instead. "If you say it like that, it is not an impossibility, right?" Light Spirit agreed with him. "Exactly. I have to admit that this Elements Regulation Technique is quite something. Although I could do what your Master is showing you, I was already in the higher realms. With my cultivation at that time, it was basically a forced process too. But this Technique is using some unusual characteristics to achieve the same result. I''m quite impressed." Krune then asked. "In that case, how should I go about it to get the Tribulation Lightning in the mix?" Light Spirit snorted and then replied. "Simple, the main hindrance to this Fusion is the fact that my Tribulation Lightning eats the other Laws. First, you need to reach the culmination in the Law Eating Sub-Law of the Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws. Then, MAYBE, you will have enough control over it to impede the Purple Tribulation Lightning from destroying the Fusion without losing its power." Krune excitement immediately deflated like a balloon after hearing that. Krune had already spent enough time in the World of Laws to understand that the Law Eating Sub-Law is one of the hardest ones. It only loses to the Lightning Formation Sub-Law that can only be comprehended after finishing the other five previous ones. Light Spirit knew what Krune was thinking and then said. "Don''t mind it now, you haven''t got used to Light and Dark Elements yet, much less have you understood any of their Laws. Before you are able to make that Fusion your Master is showing, there is no point in thinking about putting the Tribulation Lightning in the mix." Krune sighed and nodded. He then returned his attention to his Master and asked. "Master, so what should I do to fuse all seven?" Lucio nodded and stopped using the Fused Elements. "I will explain from the start, so be sure to pay attention." Lucio and Krune spent the next few hours practicing. Of course, Krune was far from being able to do what Lucio showed, but he at least understood which way he should go. "Alright, that should do for now. You just go ahead and practice it for the time being. Just be aware that it will take a lot longer to achieve this level than it was to reach the Intermediate Level. Still, by the time you complete it, you will be officially in the Advanced Stage. When that time comes, I will teach you the last step to achieve culmination." Krune nodded. "I understand." Krune then thought about something else. "Master, what about my Laws? Is there something that I should pay attention to?" Lucio shrugged his shoulders and said. "Laws are a very personal thing. There isn''t much that can be taught about ti to start with. If you are thinking about using the Elements Regulation Technique to fuse the Laws too, that won''t work. That is because there are other Laws that have nothing to do with Elements to start with." "Of course, there is no problem in using the Elemental Laws to help fuse the elements. In fact, it will be even easier to achieve the fused state if you do. But the Laws themselves won''t get fused." Krune nodded. He already understood it when Light Spirit said that he could control the Law Eating Sub-Law if he tried to fuse the Tribulation Lightning as well. It is also evident that his Master is expecting him to use Laws to achieve the fused state faster. Krune couldn''t help but feel impressed. After all, his Master''s Will was able to do the Fusion of the elements without using a single Law. It shows just how proficient Lucio got with the Technique. Krune and Lucio then talked for a little longer to fix some details. After that, Lucio''s Will returned to the Token, and the room became silent again. Krune looked at it and couldn''t help but sigh. If he said that he didn''t miss that old geezer, that would be a blatant lie! "I must be getting crazy if I''m missing him." By the time Krune finished, Dilo was already outside, waiting for him. In fact, it was both him and his wife, Xankruan. When Krune exited his room, he looked at Dilo and asked. "So, what is your answer?" 307 Heavin Wants to Help Dilo nodded to that question. "Yes, we decided to go for it." Krune looked at him and his wife. "We?" Before he could say anything else, Xankruan also did the same as Dilo and sent a slive of her Soul to Krune. "Yes, we. If Dilo is going, so am I." Krune mouth twitched. He already didn''t want to have Dilo''s soul slive, let alone get one more. "Are you sure about that? I told you before, the dangers involved are no joke!" Dilo and Xankruan nodded. "There is no going back from now on." Krune sighed and then took Dilo''s Soul Slive out of his foundation. "You two sit." Krune then activated the protection formation of the house so that no sound could leave. "First, as you know, I won''t be able to give it back to you anytime soon. I was really intending to give them back to you if you stepped back, but since you decided to go to the end, I can''t risk the information leaking out." Krune then sent the two Soul Slives back into his foundation together. "There is no problem, we are already prepared for it." Krune nodded. "Anyway, let me start to explain everything. If, in the end, you decided to give up, I won''t blame you." Dilo and Xankruan looked at each other and then nodded. Krune then started to talk about the Myriad Energies Technique, The Luvile Universe, Heavenly Fragments, Advanced Major Cores, Myriad Wisps Technique spread, and everything else. Krune told all that could be said to the couple in front of him. By the end of the tale, Dilo and Xankruan were really shocked. They didn''t expect that Krune''s situation could cause such big waves to the point of affecting all Universes of the lower realms. Krune looked at then and added. "As I said, there is no problem if you decide to step back. I will just hold your Soul Slives till the day I''m strong enough to defend myself and then release you two. I will never force you to do anything as well." Dilo and Xankruan were still processing all that information. One thing is to buy a fight with one Divinity Realm Expert, that was what they thought that it was. But a battle with all the most significant powers in existence? That was way ahead of what their most wide imagination could think. In the end, Dilo sighed and said. "As I said, there is no going back now. Besides, the higher the risk, the higher the rewards. I don''t have any big talents, nor does my wife. But we have always battled for our opportunities. We are willing to give it a try." Krune then laughed. "Well, although it will be dangerous, we are talking about things that will happen who knows how many years in the future. The only problem that Feifei and I have at the moment would be the other Advanced Major Cores that might be here in the Dalin Universe. Still, they would be more or less around or levels." "Alright, here you go." Krune then gave the Myriad Energies Technique to both Dilo and Xankruan. Now that he has both their Soul Slives, he really has no need to be afraid of betrail. "Take a good look, and if you have any questions, just send me a message. I will be going back to the Elemental Sect Planet to continue gathering Elemental Path Stones. You two should stay here and finish practicing it until you open the Elemental Meridians. After that, you can come to collect Elemental Path Stones with us." Dilo then asked. "Wouldn''t it be better to do it there instead? If you need our help, we would be ready." Krune shook his head. "There is no need, both Feifei and I are using our other identities there, so no one knows us. As for Ruik and Tiane, almost no one knew about those two even before we came to the Dalin Universe, so they are safe. Stay here where you have better conditions like the Spirit Gathering Formation and open all the Pseudo Meridians first." Dilo and Xankruna looked at each other and nodded. Still, they looked doubtful at the technique in their hands. Could this thing really make that much of a difference? Krune understood what they were thinking but just smiled in the end. They will understand what the Myriad Energies Technique is capable of once they finish getting their Elemental Meridians. This technique is best for those under the Void Breaking Realm, after all. "Alright, I said all I had to. Just go back and start your practice." Dilo and Xankruan nodded and went back to their home. A few minutes later, Feifei arrived back home. "How did it go?" Krune sighed and shrugged his shoulders. "In the end, even Dilo''s wife decided to follow, as well. I wonder just what they think the Soul Slive is, how the hell they give it away as if it was nothing?" Feifei laughed and then said. "This is a Krune effect. Those around you tend to trust your personality easily." Krune looked at Feifei, puzzled. "Krune effect?" Feifei shook her head and said. "It''s nothing. So, should we go back to the Elemental Sect Planet?" Krune nodded and then called Heavin back through his Divine Soul. Not even a minute later, Heavin''s Parrot Puppet flashed directly inside the house. "This Parrot is so cool! I can go everywhere with it and do whatever I want. It''s so nice!" Feifei laughed and then warned him. "But don''t do anything wrong with it, okay? I trust that Heavin isn''t a villain." The Parrot nodded. "Don''t worry, Heavin is an ally of Justice!" Even Krune couldn''t help but laugh after hearing that, let alone Feifei. "Alright, we need to go back to the Elemental Sect Planet. Are you ready, Heavin?" Heavin flapped his wings and landed on Feifei''s shoulder. "Yes! Time to discover new worlds!" Krune couldn''t help but think how different Heavin and Lakin are. Heavin is a very active kid, while Lakin was always the calm and obedient type. Krune, too, wasn''t even close to being like Heavin when he was a young wisp. ''Just how come my Divine Soul turned out like that? Oh well, whatever. It''s not like it is a bad thing, either.'' On the way back, Feifei decided to ask Krune about his Elemental Meridians. "So, you had already around 60% conversion rate before entering the Divine Soul Realm, how is it now that you broke through?" Krune smiled and then said. "So far, it is going as we guessed. The extra 10% that I got with the Demon Beasts of the Elemental Path and the Elemental Path Stones have really been carried over. My conversion rate is now a little bit above 80% more or less. If our plan works, by the time that the Elemental Path Stones stop appearing, I should achieve a 100% conversion rate just like a Void breaking Realm does." Feifei smiled and nodded. It was at this moment that Heavin asked. "Are you talking about the Elemental Source Energy that I keep absorbing?" Krune nodded. "This is what we need to increase our power. At the moment, we both are considered what others call a ''1st Stage Divine Soul Realm Demon Beast.'' I will keep sending the Elemental Source Energy to you so that I can cultivate it. You don''t need to worry about doing anything. With our link, I can do the cultivation part by myself. You just need to do whatever you want as long as you don''t cause problems for the others." The Parrot''s face looked a little gloomy after hearing that. Feifei, of course, noticed it and asked. "Is there a problem, Heavin?" Heavin nodded and said. "I''m Krune''s Divine Soul, but I feel like I''m not doing anything at all. I understand that cultivation is very important since I know about Krune''s secrets. I need to get stronger so that Krune can be stronger, but other than having fun, I don''t think I''m doing anything else." Krune shook his head. "That is not true. It is thanks to you, the Divine Soul, that I can protect myself now. You are my Divine Soul, so I believe you know how much stronger you are compared with the others at your cultivation level. Also, if things get dangerous, you already agreed to let me have full control. Isn''t that a huge help already?" Heavin''s Parrot face nodded, but he didn''t seem that happy. "Do you think I can do the cultivation part while you just send me the Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy?" Krune and Feifei looked surprised at him. "Can a Divine Soul cultivate by itself?" Heavin nodded. "I''ve felt how it works during the last two days of our travel. As you said, 80% of the Spiritual Energy is already directly converted to Elemental Source Energy by the Elemental Meridians. The other 20% is converted by me. Elemental Source Energy is then used to increase my power. Since it is happening directly to me, I can feel everything very cleary." Krune and Feifei looked at each other and then nodded. "Well, why don''t you give it a try?" 308 Who Else Other Than You? Krune is always using part of his mind with the Mind Splitting Technique to cultivate. So it was the first time he had to stop in a while. Instead, he just sent the Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy as they had agreed. Of course, as weak as Krune and Heavin''s connection might be, it would never be broken since Heavin is Krune''s Divine Soul. Let alone now that he isn''t blocking Krune anymore, so Krune could feel everything that was happening to him. Heavin instinctively knew that as well that his life was directly connected with Krune. Surprisingly, Heavin really could cultivate by himself. Not only that, but Krune felt like Heavin was a lot better at it than himself. Of course, It was not like Krune didn''t think about this possibility. After all, Krune is not in full control of Heavin at the moment. Even if he was, chances are that Heavin would still be better at it since he is the Divine Soul itself. Feifei noticed Heavin and Krune''s silence and started to get curious. "How long are you going to keep me waiting? Tell me how it is going!" Only then Krune did Krune talk with Feifei. "Oh, it is working pretty well. Heavin can really cultivate by himself, and he can do it a lot better than I do. If he keeps at it, I can use the part of my mind that I keep for cultivation in other things like Laws." But that idea only lasted for another 10 minutes. "I''m done. Cultivation is too boring! I need to stay still and concentrate all the time, I don''t like it!" Feifei and Krune looked at each other and started to laugh out loud! "Right! We forgot that you have a kid''s mind. Which kid would like to stay still doing nothing else other than cultivating? Hahahaha!" Feifei then said. "Give your Mind Splitting Technique to him as well. See if it works." Krune nodded and then passed the technique over. Unfortunately, it didn''t serve him. This technique was made to be used by real souls. As much as a Divine Soul looks like a real one, the fact is that it is not the same. So, of course, the Mind Splitting Technique was useless. Krune didn''t mind, though. His cultivation speed is already a lot faster than any other Divine Soul Realm cultivator or demon beast anyway. "Alright, Heavin. Just forget about that and go do something else. I will keep cultivating as I did before." Heavin was taken aback. "I..." Feifei then patted the Parrot Puppet''s head and said. "It is okay. There is no need for you to feel obligated to do anything. As you know, all the other Divine Souls don''t do anything at all as well! They need their owners to control them to be able to do anything. So it''s not like you are doing anything different." Heavin nodded and then thought an idea. "Krune, would you mind if I try to change this Mind Splitting Technique?" "Can you do it?" Heavin shooked his head. "I don''t know. But I feel like I have a few ideas." Krune pondered a bit and then said. "Well, you are as intelligent as me, since I could create and later change the Myriad Energies Technique, maybe you can change the Mind Splitting Technique for your own use as well. But you better be careful! Techniques that are directly related to the soul as very dangerous if used wrong." Heavin showed an excited expression and nodded. "Okay, I will do it!" Feifei and Krune looked at each other again and smiled. Heavin had just given up cultivating because it was too boring. So he probably will just give up this idea as well. After all, Krune and Feifei know very well that creating or changing a technique is very difficult and takes a lot of time. It could be said to be even more annoying than cultivating in certain places. Krune knows that even better since he still remembers how many months it took for him to devise the Myriad Wisps Technique. He still remembers how many trials and failures he went through to get that thing to work. Heavin''s parrot eyes then closed, and he stayed attached to Feifei''s shoulder. "Well, let him be. We should be hearing his voice in the next few minutes again." Feifei and Krune laughed and kept making their way back to the Elemental Sect Planet. Surprisingly, Heavin almost hadn''t said a single word during the entire week of travel. Of course, Krune and Feifei would check on him from time to time just to make sure he was okay. But so far, he seemed to be very interested in this technique alteration. If anything, he got even more excited about his changes as time passed. ''Maybe it is because he doesn''t need to be focused on a single thing that it is interesting for him.'' Since he didn''t seem to be in any danger, Feifei and Krune also didn''t intervene. In fact, they couldn''t even if they want. Heavin is changing a technique to be used by a Divine Soul alone, so only he knew how it could work or not. When Feifei and Krune arrived back in the Elemental Sect, Tiane and Ruik were already there by the Teleport Formation to receive them. From the time they left to the time they came back, just two weeks and a half went by. "How was it, did anything happen with your breakthrough into the Divine Soul Realm?" Krune and Feifei looked at each other and laughed once more. But before they said anything, Tiane came forward to Feifei''s side. "Hey, it''s your Parrot Puppet. It''s very rare for you to bring it out, no? Are you perhaps missing your parents?" Heavin then opened his eyes and said. "Hello, Ruik and Tiane. My name is Heavin." Ruik and Tiane looked puzzled at the puppet who just introduced itself. "Feifei, you are still good at controlling the Parrot, it seems. But what about this Heavin name?" Feifei shook her head and said. "I''m not the one controlling it." Krune then pointed at it and said. "Heavin is my Divine Soul, and Feifei lent him her Parrot Puppet so that he could interact with the world outside my foundation." Ruik and Tiane looked at Krune and asked. "Is this some kind of joke?" Krune shrugged his shoulder after hearing that. "Whether you believe it or not, this is the truth. Heavin is really my Divine Soul, and for some reason, he got sentience. He is quite the lively kid as well." Krune then started to explain to those two what happened during his breakthrough. In the end, Ruik couldn''t help but comment. "Why every time you act, something weird or crazy happens? Explosions, destruction, strange techniques, insane attack skills. Every single one of them never follows the norm. Tell me, are you sure you are not doing all of that on purpose? It is, right?" Krune''s mouth twitched after hearing that. "Purpose your head! Who the hell would like to cause explosions and destruction everywhere?" Immediately, Feifei, Ruik, Tiane, and even Heavin''s Parrot Wing pointed at Krune. "Who else other than you?" Krune wanted to cry but had no tears! ''A wisp can''t even count with his own Fiance and Divine Soul, such a sad life!'' Krune then decided to change the topic before he really went crazy. "Alright, let''s forget about it for now. How has your Elemental Path Stone collection going so far?" Ruik and Tiane smiled and said. "It seems like the effect that the Elemental Path Realm opening is increasing. We found quite a bit more Elemental Path Stones during this time. In the end, we might as well collect some of them to sell later." Krune then warned the two. "Just make sure that when you start to do it, do not let others know how many you have. Try to set up several accounts to sell over the network so that they can''t be pinpointed at you. If you want, I can do it for you once we finish using them." Ruik and Tiane accepted Krune''s offer. They know that Krune liked to spend quite some time on the network, so he definitely knew a lot more about it than the two of them. Feifei thought that it was indeed an excellent idea and decided to do the same thing as Ruik and Tiane. As for Krune, he already has his Purple Pills, so he isn''t really in need of money now. Krune and Feifei then returned to the Elemental Sect Branch, and the same alchemist from last time came out. He immediately checked Krune''s pills and issued a free collection pass for him and Feifei. Ruik and Tiane still had their own, so they had no need for it. Ruik then commented on the way out. "With the number of Elemental Path Stones we used during the last two weeks, we got to 41 to 42% conversion already. But it is exactly as you said, considering the number of Elemental Path Stones used, the effects that each one has is really lessening." Krune nodded. "I already expected it. Let''s just make sure that we don''t lose this opportunity and use as many as possible." Everyone agreed, and they immediately departed. 309 Underestimated Time passed, and another two months went by. During this time, Krune''s group only stoped for rest. The number of Elemental Path Stones they used already would make the majority of cultivators and demon beasts go crazy for. Still, the use of the Stones for normal Meridians is different than Krune''s group Elemental ones, so they really needed a lot more. Today, Krune''s group came to the teleport formation to receive Dilo and Xankruan. The two of them were supposed to have arrived a long time ago. But because they didn''t have enough Spirit Stones, they had to go out on missions together to get the ones necessary to open all 9 Spiritual Energy meridians. Fortunately, payment for a Soul Forging and Divine Soul Realm level missions are much better than in the Luvile Universe. They could have asked Krune for help since he does have a lot of spirit stones now. But Dilo and Xankruan didn''t want it, so they decided to do everything by themselves. When the two arrived, Krune then asked the two. "So, how was it? Are the Elemental Meridians worth it?" Dilo quickly nodded excitedly. "This thing is unbelievable good! The moment I finished evolving my Spiritual Energy Meridians into the Elemental ones, I tried to cultivate. Immediately, almost 80% of all Spiritual Energy was directly converted into Elemental Source Energy. This thing is too heaven-defying! Before, I had to absorb the Spiritual Energy, and only after it got inside my foundation could I start the conversion. But now, 4/5 of the work is done even before I need to start the conversion." Krune smiled and then said. "That is good to know. Since you are in the Soul Forging Realm, 80% was exactly what we thought to be the max rate. In that case, I believe that Xankruan is now able to convert around 50% since she is in the Divine Soul Realm, correct?" Xankruan nodded enthusiastically. "Correct! It worked as you said it would. But the much faster cultivation speed isn''t all! Our control over the elements also soared! I''ve never felt the Elements to be this easy to control before. Not to mention the effect that this Technique has on our Soul Power. Both Dilo and my Divine Senses increased quite a lot!" Feifei and the others also liked to hear all of that. "So now we really know that we will have a conversion rate around 80% when we reach the Soul Forging Realm. With Dilo here, we will also quickly find out if the limit of 80% can be surpassed or not! If he goes over 80%, then the increase that we got so far can probably be carried over as well." Krune nodded and then said. "Alright, first, you two will need to get a free collection pass in the Elemental Sect Branch." Krune told Dilo and Xankruan to teleport to another city that his group is staying now after they are finished. Around one hour later, Dilo and Xankruan appeared at the teleport formation in that previously mentioned city. Dilo then looked at Feifei and decided to ask something else that was bothering him. "I have noticed it before but, what exactly is this Parrot Puppet?" Krune and the others immediately laughed after hearing that. "This is Krune''s Divine Soul. Well, to be more precise, Krune''s Divine Soul is connected to it. His name is Heavin." Dilo and Xankruan were puzzled, just like Ruik and Tiane were in the past. Krune then explained to those two about the situation of his Divine Soul. "A Divine Soul with sentience! That is really something new. I''ve never heard about it before, at least. But how come he isn''t saying anything until now? Didn''t you say that he is a lively kid?" Krune shrugged his shoulders and said. "He is working on changing a technique so that he can use it even though he is a Divine Soul. Oh, right! Let me pass it to you as well. This is the Technique he is trying to modify, but you two can use the original version." Krune then handed over the Mind Splitting Technique so that Dilo and Xankruan could practice it. "This! The Mind Splitting Technique! We can''t accept this thing, it is too expensive! Even if I gather all the money I''ve earned until today, I still wouldn''t be able to pay for it!" Krune shrugged his shoulder and said. "It doesn''t matter. Just do like Feifei and the others are doing. 10% of the Elemental Path Stones that you find you give to me. In the end, it should definitely surpass the price of this Technique since Elemental Path Stones are quite expensive." Xankruan and Dilo looked at each other and nodded. "Alright. If we really can find this amount of Elemental Path Stones are you are saying, then it should really be more than enough to pay for this Technique." Xankruan then remembered something else. "I think you are forgetting the main point here. Krune''s Divine Soul is changing a technique by itself! Isn''t it too dangerous? This Technique is directly related to the soul, after all!" Krune nodded. "I also thought the same at first. But it seems like Heavin knows very well what he is doing. He did make a few mistakes while trying it out, but he always kept a safe approach when doing it. So far, he didn''t get any big problems." Krune then decided to change the topic. "Anyway, before you two go out to look for Elemental Path Stones, you should first achieve the Initial Stage of the Mind Splitting Technique. If you do that, you will be able to cultivate even while you are looking for the Elemental Path Stones. The first level isn''t that hard either, and considering your cultivations, I believe that one to two weeks should suffice." Dilo and Xankruan nodded, and Krune showed where the hotel that they are staying at this time is. Krune also mentioned that they wouldn''t be staying in this city''s surroundings for too long and would be moving away later to avoid suspicion. Just as Krune and his group were about to leave, Heavin opened his eyes excitedly! "I DID IT!" Krune and the others immediately looked at the thrilled Parrot Puppet. "Did what? Was the modification in the Mind Sppliting Technique successful?" Heavin immediately nodded. "Yes! It took a long time, but I finally finished changing it! I can finally practice it even though I''m a Divine Soul." Krune smiled and asked. "Are you sure? Before you can achieve the initial stage and split your mind in three, it can''t really be considered a success." Heavin showed an angry expression and said. "If I said I did, then I did it! I already practiced it to the initial stage too! I can split my mind in two now!" Krune and the others got puzzled. "In two?" Heavin nodded. "The problem was that I''m a Divine Soul, not a real one. So I had to reduce the number of parts that my mind can split in each level. My initial stage can now split in two, intermediate in three, advanced in four, and culmination in six. It is not as good as the real one, but it is okay since this is a technique that shouldn''t work for Divine Souls to start with!" This time, Krune and the others were really shocked! Did Krune''s Divine Soul really succeed in modifying a technique as complex as the Mind Sppliting one? Heavin noticed that everyone seemed to be doubting him and started to flap his wings in dissatisfaction. "Why are you looking at me like that? I did it! I really did it!" Krune then asked with a serious expression. "Then what about you try to cultivate while doing something else. Let''s say, try to keep flying while I check if you are really cultivating or not. Before, if you started to cultivate, you couldn''t do anything else and had to stay still, after all." Heavin immediately got excited! "You said it! You can''t lie to them when I show you that I really can do it! Krune smiled and then nodded. "But of course! After all, if you can really do it, I will be able to leave my cultivation for you to take care while I can use that part of my mind to do other things." Heavin nodded and then immediately took flight. At the same time, Krune paid attention to his Divine Soul to see if he was really cultivating as he said he would do. Surprisingly, Heavin wasn''t lying. Krune could feel that Heavin''s cultivation speed was as good as that time when he cultivated for a few minutes. He then looked above and could see that Heavin was also flying around like he wasn''t busy with anything else. "Impressive. To think that Heavin was really successful in modifying the Technique. It''s been only a little less than 3 months since he left the Elemental Core. If I count the time that he first gained sentience, then Heavin could be said to be born for half a year only!" Feifei and the others also felt that to be unbelievable. Krune kept looking at Kevin flying and then added. "Before, I said that he has an IQ as high as the wisps, but it seems like I underestimated him. His intelligence might be even higher than that!" Ruik heard that and said. "That''s is not good! If your Divine Soul is as intelligent as you, that will be the receipt for an apocalypse!" Krune almost fainted right there and then! ''Perhaps, the Universe doesn''t need this many Two-Headed Snakes.'' 310 Heavin Wants to Create Something New When Heavin returned, Krune went straight to the point. "Heavin, can I leave my cultivation up to you now? I will just send the Spiritual and Elemental Source energy for you to cultivate if that is the case." Heavin immediately nodded his head. "You can leave it to me, I won''t feel bored anymore now that I can do other things." Heavin then looked at Krune and asked something else. "Oh, right! I want one of those communicators. It seems a fascinating thing to be able to connect to the network. I want to see what more techniques are available online and if there is anyone that might be of some help to me." Krune nodded. "No problem. As long as you don''t stop cultivating, I have no issues with that." Krune then bought and registered a new communicator for Heavin. With everything in place, Krune and the others resumed their search for Elemental Path Stones. Once again, time started to pass, and soon, Dilo and Xankruan also joined the search for Elemental Path Stones. As always, their group would act in different directions. Krune and Feifei, Ruik and Tiane, and Dilo and Xankruan. Their group only gathered once in a while for Elemental Path Stone consumption and to rest after. Heavin played quite a lot outside, but because he couldn''t go too far from Krune, he had to always stay in the surroundings. In the end, he changed his focus to the network and the information inside. "Krune, next time we return to the city, would mind buying these techniques for me to take a look?" Krune took a quick look at what those were and understood what Heavin wanted. "Soul Strengthening Techniques, uh? You think they can help you?" Heavin shrugged his shoulders, which looked quite funny for a Parrot Puppet and said. "No idea. But it seems fun to try." Krune smiled and then nodded. That day, after they returned to the city, Krune made the payment, and those techniques were quickly delivered to his communicators. Krune then transferred it to Heavin to check. Just like before, Heavin attached himself on Feifei''s shoulder and went silent. Krune knew that he probably started to ponder about those techniques, and it would take quite some time before he came back. Not long after, the group reunited once more to check something. "Dilo, did you get enough Elemental Path Stones?" Dilo nodded. "We searched for an entire week and got a lot of them. It should be more than enough to test your theory of surpassing the absorption limit." Krune and the others nodded and then returned to the hotel. Everyone took this opportunity to absorb their Elemental Path Stones as well, while Dilo did the same. Another day passed, and they gathered together once more. "How was it?" Dilo smiled and nodded. Everyone immediately got excited hearing that. "Great! Since we are also cultivating while looking for the Elemental Path Stones, we are not losing any time." Krune smiled now that he knew that everyone could achieve that result. The only difference is that he would do it while in the Divine Soul Realm while the others needed to reach the Soul Forging Realm for that. "Alright, we passed an entire day absorbing the Elemental Path Stones. Let go to the restaurant to eat something and then take a rest. After we are finished, we are moving to another city again, is everyone okay with that?" Feifei and the others nodded. The next day, Krune''s group teleported away from that city. - Time continued to pass, and over two years were gone. By this time, the peak of the Elemental Stones appearance had already passed. They become quite hard to be found now, even for Krune and the others who had the Elemental Meridians. Still, those two years had an immense impact on everyone''s overall strength, cultivations, and laws. Krune was getting 10% more Elemental Path Stones until the very end, so he was obviously the first one to achieve a 100% absorption rate. He tried to change everyone''s mind several times, but they kept insisting on giving him those extra stones. Fortunately for him, he reached the limit half a year ago, so the others had no more excuse to force him to take more. Instead, he gave his ones to the others and sold a few. Just as everyone expected, the stones kept slowly losing effect on their Meridians, and by now, they were finally useless. If not for the fact that they could look for it while cultivating, they probably would have stopped already. After all, they are worth a lot of money. By now, both Tiane and Ruik also entered the Divine Soul Realm. As mentioned before, their foundation isn''t as big and complicated as Krune, so they didn''t need as much energy as him. Even though their Elemental Source Energy conversion rate stopped at more or less 80%, their cultivation speed was still pretty much the same as Krune with his 100%. One must remember that Krune uses part of his Spiritual and Elemental Source energy to feed his Sun. This is something that everyone else didn''t have a need to. Not to mention that a Universe Foundation obviously needs more energy to improve. Ruik and Tiane had both simple foundations, so they were pretty much the same regarding cultivation speed. At the moment, the two of them reached the 3rd Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. Feifei was already close to the 3rd Stage when Krune first entered the Divine Soul Realm. Even though she also has a Universe Foundation, she doesn''t have a Sun to feed, which improved her cultivation speed in comparison with Krune as well. Just a month ago, Feifei was successful in entering the 6th Stage. As for her Elemental Source Energy conversion rate, it also reached 80% when the Elemental Path Stones finally lost their effect. In theory, she, too, will get a 100% or close to it when she enters the Soul Forging Realm. Dilo was already in the Soul Forging Realm, so his cultivation speed was indeed the slowest one. Not to mention that he and Xankruan were half a year late to start gathering the Elemental path Stones. He was only able to bring his conversion rate to 95% to this point. Still, this is enough cultivation speed to put the biggest majority of Soul Forging Realm cultivators and demon beast to shame. These two years and something were still enough for him to jump two stages, being now at the 3rd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Xankruan was still in the Divine Soul Realm. Her conversion rate reached 77%, which shows that Dilo forced her to use more Elemental Path Stones than himself. When Xankruan joined the group, she was in the 6th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm, and almost entering the 7th. Now she is already at the peak of the 9th Stage and might enter the Soul Forging Realm anytime soon. She just wanted to go out to take a few missions to get more used to this realm before doing that. Finally, there was Krune and his 100% conversion rate while in the Divine Soul Realm. But as mentioned previously, he also has to feed his Sun, which uses quite a bit of his Spiritual and Elemental Source energies. Thankfully, Heavin is really better than him at cultivation, so that helped him as well. Krune was now in the peak of the 4th Stage, and he would soon enter the 5th. Lastly, there was Heavin, Krune''s Divine Soul. Heavin is really as intelligent as Krune himself, and since over 2 years passed, he, too, had developed his mind and left his kid self far behind. There was nothing weird about it. After all, a wisp would achieve an adult mind when they are around 3 years old. Let alone Heavin who was surrounded by Krune''s group and had access to the network with his own communicator. But that wasn''t the only thing that Heavin did. It turned out that Heavin loved to study soul cultivation techniques, skills, and other types. Krune would now and then buy a new one for him, and Heavin would go silent again to review it. Unfortunately, the fact that he is a Divine Soul made all those techniques useless for him... or so they should be. Heavin started to change and combine them in several different ways to the point that he finally could use them to a certain extent. Thanks to that, Krune could feel that his Divine Soul was quite stronger even though the realm itself didn''t change. At some point, Heavin thought about an idea. "I want to create a Divine Soul cultivation technique." Krune and Feifei didn''t seem very surprised. By now, they already understood that Heavin is really good at these things, so there weren''t any big risks as far as they can see. "What kind of technique? Isn''t it better to simply modify those ones you were working on?" Heavin shook his head. "No, the Soul Cultivation Techniques that exist at the moment are more for strengthening or learn new skills. What I mean is a real cultivation technique, with stages and realms to breakthrough." This time, Krune and Feifei were really surprised. They had never heard about this type of Soul Cultivation Technique before. Heavin was right, a Soul Cultivation Technique that would bring one through different realms really didn''t exist. Or at least, they didn''t find anything like that in the Dalin Universe network. Considering the sheer number of rare techniques available on the internet, it was hard to imagine that such a thing existed in other Universes as well. This is the Universe where all resources gather, after all. "Do you think it is possible?" Heavin nodded. "It is, but I will need a lot of Soul Cultivation Techniques, Skills, and other types to even start thinking about devising something." Krune then remembered something. "What about the Soul Techniques of the Mohie Sect that I gave you? There were quite a lot in that batch." Heavin agreed with Krune. "There was quite a lot, indeed, but I finished revising them already. In the end, that was a branch sect from before the technological era. Although there were a lot, there were quite behind. The soul techniques online have several of the same types but much more refined." Krune and Feifei looked at each other and nodded. "We will help with what we can, but I don''t think we have enough money to buy this many." Heavin nodded. "It''s okay, I will start my own research with the common ones available. They are cheap, and there is more than enough to occupy me for a very long time." 311 Upgrade Krune didn''t mind if he was buying cheap ones. With the money from the Purple Pills and the Elemental Path Stones, this expenditure wasn''t that hard to cover. "But there is one thing I''m curious. The Divine Soul Realm stages are also your Realm, right? Wouldn''t it turn out to be the same thing? As you know, we are at what is called 4th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. It means that you are in the 4th Stage too." Heavin shook his head. "Although it is true that it is us that are in the 4th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm, it is still a Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy cultivation type. What is increasing here is my power at absorbing and controlling those energies. Of course, it is also increasing my own level as a Divine Soul so that you can enter the Soul Forging Realm later." Heavin continued. "But what I want to create is the soul related part. Something that will have realms for a Soul to cultivate. It will be something totally different. You can consider it as a new cultivation system that doesn''t exist at the moment." Krune approved. "Alright, I hope it works well for you." Heavin looked at Krune and then said. "What are you talking about? This thing is not only for me, but for the two of us." Krune and Feifei looked at puzzled at him. Heavin noticed their doubts and then explained. "I am, after all, your Divine Soul. If I want to create a real Soul Cultivation Technique, I will need the the Main Soul to cultivate it as well. We are connected, our lives are one with each other. That''s why when I increase my Divine Soul Realm, you also become stronger. If I want to cultivation a new system based on soul, you will need to do it as well. It will benefit both parties equally." Feifei heard that and pretended to wipe a tear of her eyes. "To think that my Heavin has grown up so much. He is even thinking about the others now." Heavin felt embarrassed hearing that and pretended that he didn''t care. Of course, Krune was connected to him, so he knows how he was feeling. "Alright, Heavin. I will try to help you as much as I can." Heavin stiffly nodded. "Ye-yes." Krune knew very well that Feifei was a very important existence for Heavin, even though he rarely showed it on the surface. A proof of it is that even until now, he had never asked about using another puppet. He had always treasured Feifei''s Parrot Puppet a lot and never asked for a stronger one. He even often did maintenance on it himself and it could be said that the Parrot was a lot more lifelike than it was in the past. It was at this moment that Krune had an idea and used a Divine Sense message. "Feifei, what about we give an upgrade to the Parrot Puppet?" Feifei looked at Krune and understood what he was thinking. Krune nodded. "Exactly. But even though I''m the one giving this idea, it doesn''t change the fact that this is a gift that your mother gave you when you were a kid. So before you decide to ask Heavin, you should think if you want to have it modified at all. That''s because I know that Heavin will definitely ask you the same question." Feifei smiled and nodded. "It''s okay. It is indeed very important to me, but so is Heavin and you. An object is, in the end, an object. Heavin will have the abilities to do much more if I send it to be upgraded. In fact, I think I will convince Heavin to change it to a better one. An humanoid puppet would be a lot more useful for him." Krune nodded and left it for Feifei to decided. This is her Parrot, so he will not intervene in her final decision. Feifei looked at Heavin, who was still pretending that he wasn''t embarrassed, and then asked. "Heavin, would you like to have a better puppet to control?" Heavin immediately looked at Feifei with surprised eyes. But he soon understood why Feifei asked it and then shook his head. It was obvious that she was thinking about the limitations or her Parrot Puppet. After all, it was made for a kid in the Qi Condensation Realm to use. "No need. I like it a lot and have no intention of getting a different one." Feifei and Krune smiled hearing that. For them, it was also very obvious why Heavin said that. "In that case, would you like to have it upgraded? I can''t help but feel depressed everytime I think about how much more you could do in the outside world. That shouldn''t be a problem, yea?" Heavin, on the other hand, felt a little concerned. "But this is a gift that you got from your mother. If you change, it wouldn''t be the same anymore." Feife smiled and shook her head. "There is no problem. I have already decided to upgrade it, and so I will. I just need to know if you are fine with it." Krune also added. "If we get it upgraded to a Golden Stars Level Puppet, there will be a lot more for you to help us in the future. A Puppet at that level can even battle if necessary. This is also something that I was concerned. If we get involved in something dangerous, we might not have the change to pay attention to it. Even though you are my Divine Soul and nothing will happen to you even if it is broken, I would rather avoid losing Feifei''s Parrot if possible." Krune''s last statement was all that was needed for Heavin to make up his mind. "Alright. But the one who is going to make the modifications is me! I won''t allow anyone else to touch Feifei''s Parrot." Krune and Feifei were taken aback. "But to upgrade it to a Golden Stars Level, you will need to be a Golden Stars Puppeteer yourself." Heavin snorted and said. "So what? Any profession at the Golden Stars can use Laws in their creations. Since Krune and I are connected, I also can use his Laws. I just need to practice. The Spiritual Energy Manipulation that this Parrot has is more than enough to manipulate the materials for practicing." Heavin then looked at Krune and asked. "Krune, would it be a problem if you stopped by the Puppeteers Organization and register yourself as a Puppeteer to get their study materials?" Krune nodded. "Sure, no problem." Krune then thought about something else. "By the way, what level has your Mind Splitting Technique reached already? Will you be able to do three things at the same time?" Heavin laughed and showed a proud expression. "I''m already at the advanced level, and very close to culmination. At the moment, I can split my mind in four!" Krune was happy for him. "Very good. In that case, I will go to the Puppeteer Organization after we leave this city. Besides, I guess it is already time for us to depart." Feifei smiled happy after hearing all of that. Those two were going to that extent just because it is important to her. "Alright, you two. I''m counting on you to make a good work with my Parrot." Heavin put a wing on his chest and declared with a determined face. "I shall not disappoint you." Krune and Feifei looked at that and laughed out loud. That was a very funny interaction. That same day, Krune''s group gathered together to discuss. "As you already noticed, there is almost no Elemental Path Stones anymore. Not to mention that they have little to no effect on any of us. Considering the price of the Free Collection Pass, I don''t think that it is worth our effort. So I''m suggesting that we should leave now." No one had any reason to refuse Krune''s idea. They, too, have noticed that there wasn''t much more to be done here. Besides, there was almost no one using free collection passes anymore. It would be weird if they kept paying for them when there were almost no stones available. Ruik and Tiane looked at each other and nodded. "That''s a good thing then. Tiane and I have been cultivating all this time and only stopped to take a few missions when we were at the peak of the Core Formation Realm. After the breakthrough, we focused back in the Elemental Path Stones and cultivation. We are already on the 3rd Stage, and we still hadn''t had a chance to try our Divine Soul Realm power. Since we are leaving, the two of us will then take some missions in the Mission Hall to get used to this Realm." Everyone nodded. "I think that this is the case for everyone here. Feifei and I were also going to do the same, and so I believe Dilo and Xankruan will do." Dilo and his wife confirmed. "Indeed. Xankruan hasn''t tried to enter the Soul Forging Realm yet because she wants to get used to her peak Divine Soul Realm. If she tried to enter the next Realm like this, she might lose control over her own power. So we, too, are going out to gain some combat experience. In my case, I finished revising my Domain, and I want to test it out." Krune then looked at everyone and asked. "Since that''s the case, let''s talk about our progress in the Laws as well. It should help a lot to have several points of view of what we comprehended to far." 312 The Current Progress Turns out that two years make a lot of difference for those at the first steps in the Laws. As Krune thought before, thanks to the Elemental Meridians that greatly increase the control over the elements, Tiane was finally able to comprehend one after her breakthrough into the Divine Soul Realm. As a Demon Crow, it went without saying that her first one was a Wind Sub-Law, and it was the Essence of Wind on to of that. As mentioned before, since Tiane was able to comprehend a Law, it means that the World of Laws also opened for her. With that being the case, Tiane quickly used this opportunity to learn another two, Lightning and Fire. After the last two years and something, Tiane had brought her Wind Essence to the intermediate level and comprehend the Breeze Sub-Law at the Initial Stage. The Fire and Lightning ones were still in the initial stage, and she only learned one of each. Heat for Fire and Current for Lightning. Although it looks little, one must remember that Tiane is still in the Early Stages of the Divine Soul Realm, and only two years passed. There is also the fact that Tiane put quite some effort into the Mind Splitting Technique, so she was now in the intermediate Stage. She could now split her mind into five and practice a lot more. As for Ruik, his Dream Laws turned out as Krune predicted. Once his Dream World Construction Sub-Law reached the Intermediate level, Ruik was finally able to practice Dream Laws while he was awake. It turns out that Ruik is really suited for the Dream Laws. This is a Law almost at the level of Time, Space, and Destiny, but even so, Ruik reached the Advanced level of the Dream World Construction in such a short time. Not only that, but he was also able to comprehend the initial Stage of the Nightmare World Construction Sub-Law as well. Considering that these Laws were supposed to be harder than the Elemental Ones, Ruik''s progress turned out to be really remarkable. Krune had spared with Ruik a few times to test his Dream Laws, and he had to admit that they are a pain in the ass. Krune always reduced his cultivation to the same level as Ruik when they fought. Although Krune was still the winner every time, he still had to put a lot of effort to keep his mind clear from the effects of the Dream Laws. Feifei also battled Ruik in the same state, and only after she released the full power of her Destiny Major Core did she gain the advantage. That shows just how terrifying Dream Laws can be. It kept affecting the enemy''s perception, and if one didn''t pay attention, they would be pulled inside it. The only way to scape that was to use their own laws to counter-attack the effects of the Dream Laws. Even so, the time necessary to escape the Dream World might turn fatal. Feifei''s Destiny Sub-law, Cause, had entered the Intermediate Stage, and she had been progressing in it quite well thanks to the Elemental Flowers. Still, she was far away from reaching the Advanced Stage. Not to mention that her Elemental Flowers with Destiny Traits are almost gone by now. It goes to show how hard the three top Laws, Space, Time, and Destiny, are. But she wasn''t disappointed. She still remembers Xanio''s words back in the Luvile Realm that said she wouldn''t finish comprehending a Destiny Sub-Law before the Void breaking Realm. Her actual progress could be said to be far ahead of what she expected in the past. As for comprehending the second Destiny Sub-Law, Effect, that seemed to be impossible for her at the moment. One must remember that the Destiny Major Law has only three Sub-Laws: Cause, Effect, and Destiny Energy. Of course, Feifei had gone a lot further in her Elemental Laws. With no surprise to anyone, her Water Major Law was the first to have a Sub-Law reaching culmination, Flow! Her Wave Sub-Law was at the Intermediate level, and she comprehended a third one as well, Water Essence! Feifei was doing pretty much like Krune and using her common Elemental Flowers to comprehend all the Elemental Laws at the same time. Thanks to that, she also knows at least one Sub-Law of each Element, and that had Light and Darkness included. Of course, for Light and Dark Laws, she only had comprehended the Initial Stage of each. Light Essence initial Stage for Light Laws, and Decay Initial Stage for Dark Laws. Light and Dark are elements very hard to use, and so are their Laws to comprehend. Only Krune had a better comprehension of those two at the moment. Dilo was already a Soul Forging Realm cultivator, so his cultivation alone already allowed him to feel the laws easier than those at lower realms. When the Elemental Meridians were included in the mix, it was like giving wings to a tiger. Dilo was able to quickly reach the culmination of his first Elemental Sub-Law in these two+ years, Gale! Of course, it doesn''t mean that Dilo is a genius or anything. As proof of that, he is now barely making any progress with the second Wind Sub-Law that he has, Drifting. So far, he only reached the intermediate level with it and is quite far from reaching advanced. Simply put, he put all his effort into this Law alone. As for a reason for that? Because he wanted to use it on his Domain! A domain can only be created with Laws, and Dilo first created one based in the Gale Sub-Law. Of course, the further he comprehended the Wind Sub-Laws, the better his Domain would become. He already started to include his Drifting Sub-Law in his Domain as well. As for the other Elemental Laws, Dilo decided to simply comprehend the initial Stage of the Fire Sub-Law, Burning. The reason is that Fire can complement Wind, simple as that. Still, he is also far from being able to use this one in his Domain at the moment. Xankruan could be said to be the slowest one regarding Laws here. She only Comprehended Earth Laws. But she couldn''t be blamed. She was already at the 6th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm by the time she got the Elemental Meridians. She and Dilo were very late in getting used to their Elemental meridians too. So it is normal that she took this long to finally Learn a Law. One must remember that usually, a cultivator or demon beast would only comprehend their first Law in the Soul Forging Realm. Dilo just so happens to be an excellent example of this rule. Xankruan is a Scaled Mare Demon Beast, so she had a lot more affinity with Earth Laws, just like Ruik. She, too, knew that she isn''t any talented genius or anything like that. So she focused on what she was best at. Thanks to her efforts, she was able to quickly bring her Earthquake Sub-Law to the Intermediate level. But what really surprised everyone in the room was that she was able to comprehend the initial Stage of Gravity! Gravity is quite an ethereal thing, you know what it is, but can''t really touch it directly. Even between all the Elemental Sub-Laws, Gravity is one of the hardest to put your hands on. It was supposed to be a Law to make anyone proud of being able to comprehend so soon. After all, very few should have been able to do it while still in the Divine Soul Realm. Yes, it was supposed to be like that... if not for a certain wisp. "Oh, you comprehended Gravity too? This is indeed a fantastic Sub-Law! I''m just waiting for the time I go on a mission to use it in real combat experience as well. Oh, right! I have just reached the Advanced Stage with it." Xankruan and the others looked at Krune with weird expressions, much for his confusion. "Did I say something wrong?" Feifei sighed and then got up. After that, she approached Xankruan and gave her a hug. "Don''t worry, trust me when I say that he is really not doing it on purpose. We all know how frustrating it is, but we have long since given up thinking about this kind of situation when Krune is around." Ruik and Tiane immediately nodded vigorously. "Feifei couldn''t be more correct. You just need to ignore his existence, and your world will be a lot brighter! I myself do it all the time." For some reason, Krune felt like he was being abused, even though no one was talking with him directly. "Heavin, did I do something wrong?" Heavin shrugged his shoulders. "I have no idea." After consoling Xankruna for a few minutes, they returned to the topic at hand. Obviously, Krune was at the very top when one talked about Laws. As an Elemental Major Core Owner, it goes without saying that all the elements are there for him to enjoy. Let''s not even talk about his Elemental Meridians. Krune''s Burning Law was already at culmination two years ago, and he had now reached culmination with at least one Elemental Sub-Law Each. For Fire Sub-Laws, Krune had also reached completion with the Annihilation. Krune already had three Fire Sub-Laws comprehended two years ago, and now he has Four. Burning, Annihilation, Explosion, and Fire Essence. Explosion and Fire Essence are at the intermediate and initial stages each. But there was a problem after he finished comprehending the second Fire Sub-Law, Annihilation. The progress of the rest was significantly reduced! Krune knew that once you reached culmination with one Sub-Law, it would be easier to see the other ones. But it didn''t mean that that Law would disappear from the World of Laws. Quite the opposite, it would still occupy a big part of the World of Laws forever. It''s just that the space that is used while being comprehended is not as big as now. When he finished comprehending Annihilation, this one, too, is now occupying another big part for Fire Related Laws in the World of Laws. The other Main Elements Sub-Laws were almost the same as Fire. Krune had also comprehended Four Sub-Laws from Each. The only difference is that he only had one Sub-Law at culmination with the others. As for Light and Darkness, they weren''t called Higher Elements for nothing. Krune could finally understand why only a Life or Death Major Cores could use those Elements before the Divine Soul Realm. They are really difficult to use, and even more so to comprehend their Laws! This is also the reason why Feifei was still in the Initial Stage for her two. For Light Laws, Krune only got to the Intermediate stage of Brightness. As for Dark Laws, he was also at the Intermediate stage with the Shadows Sub-Law. That was all, he was still far from being able to comprehend anything about a second Dark or Light Sub-Law. 313 More Wisps is Always Better Krune had also been practicing his Elements Regulation Technique, but it turned out harder than he expected. Let alone fusing all elements, he couldn''t even make a fusion with two opposite ones with a proxy yet. Of course, he knew that it would take a long time to start with, so he wasn''t disappointed. Finally, there was his Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws. Krune was at least able to reach the Intermediate Stage with the Flash Annihilation and was close to comprehending a second one, Charged Lightning Energy. Although it looked slow, Light Spirit was, in fact, impressed that Krune reached this level so fast. Still, Krune knows that things would only get harder. After all, his Elemental Flowers are pretty much gone, just like Feifei. ''I guess it can''t be helped. I wasn''t supposed to be comprehending the Laws using the Flowers to start with, so I guess there is no point in bothering with it now. It just means that I''m back in comprehending Laws like everyone else.'' Everyone kept discussing their laws for a long time after reporting their current level. That helped to make things clear for those that were behind in certain elements. Of course, it was more like Krune and Feifei explaining most of the stuff with the others giving some opinions now and then. "Alright, I guess this is enough for all of us. As you all know, it has been 4 years since we arrived in the Dalin Universe. The protection that Feifei and I have on our Advanced Major Cores is supposed to disappear between 5 and 10 years after leaving our Home Universe." Krune continued. "If the Sacred Lands really sent their own Advanced Major Cores to this place as well, then we are getting close to being able to feel each other. So Feifei and I are going to use this remaining safe year to improve our combat power as much as possible. Also, I have a plan for the case that they really came." Everyone looked Curious at Krune. "Simply put, we can''t use too strong cultivators to fight for us since it would go against the rules of the Dalin Universe. If the other Advanced Major Core owners are not idiots, they will not leave the range of populated planets. That way, they won''t be killed by someone with cultivation much higher than themselves. The same could be said for me." "Still, there is nothing about using cultivators and demon beasts that are at most one full realm above. As Cinty explained to us, there is a limit of cultivation for those who come from outside. Not to mention the limit in resources as well. So there is no way that those guys would come with their Sacred Land full monetary backing. In that case, I refuse to believe that they can make more Spirit Stones than myself." Dilo and the others understood. "You are planning to post a mission in the Mission Hall and get as many Divine Soul and Soul Forging Realm as possible to help you, right?" "There is a problem with this idea. I don''t know when those guys would come or if they would come at all. So if I recruit too many, I will not be able to keep paying them in the long term. Unless, of course, I use a lot more time to concoct even more pills to sell. But in that case, my time for cultivation will be reduced. After all, I need all Meridians during the concoction process, so I won''t be able to keep cultivating at that time. But that is not what bothers me. What I''m afraid is if I could trust those from who come from the Mission Hall at all." Feifei then asked. "So, what are you planning to do?" Krune nodded. "Instead of having several Cultivators and Demon Beasts recruited through the Mission hall, I will ask the help of the other wisps in the Wisp World. They are a lot more reliable, and there would be no risk of betrayal. Cinty and I had been exchanging messages for quite some time regarding the Myriad Wisps Technique. She selected quite a few wisps that could be trusted but didn''t have a chance to enter the Soul Forging Realm anymore due to the lack of life spam." "Those ones are different from the wisps that are going out of the Dalin Universe. After all, the wisps going out need to have enough life span to build their foundations on the other Universes. So they are all quite young even though they are in the Divine Soul Realm." "The wisps that I plan to help me during the time that Feifei and my protection is over are the ones who are close to the end of their life. Still, they are in the late stages of the Divine Soul Realm. Thanks to the Myriad Wisps Technique, they now had hope of entering the Soul Forging Realm. Cinty selected quite a few of them and passed the technique around 2 years ago. Now, it seems like this strategy is finally bearing fruits." Feifei got curious and asked straight away. "In that case, how many old wisps in the Divine Soul Realm were successful in entering the Soul Forging Realm with this help?" Krune smiled and said. "25!" Everyone got impressed at that number. "In that case, just how many wisps in the Divine Soul Realm did Cinty pass the technique over? After all, since they were all in close to the end of their life spans, there shouldn''t have enough time for the majority to succeed in it." Krune sighed and nodded. "You are right. The Wisp Worlds have a lot of Divine Soul Wisp that don''t have the change of entering the Soul Forging Realm. Cinty selected only those that were at least in the 8th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. In total, she passed the technique to 287 wisps. From this number, 25 entered the Soul Forging Realm, 13 are still trying, as for the rest..." Krune didn''t need to say it for the others to understand. The rest had run out of life span and died. In the end, even the Myriad Wisps Technique wasn''t enough to give them that chance of breaking through. "Don''t feel sad for them. Those wisps at least received the chance to dream about it. Fortunately, 25 of them were successful. They already agreed with helping me when the time comes for us to deal with the other Advanced Major Cores in case they really came to the Dalin Universe. They are all in the 1st or 2nd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, but this number alone is more than enough for now." "Besides, different from Cultivators and Demon Beasts that you recruit in the Missions Hall, I can really trust them. When the time comes, I plan one using a combat formation with all of them if possible." Still, Ruik couldn''t help but comment. "Well, I''m still impressed with the fact that you got so many Late Stages Divine Soul Realm Wisps. I thought it would be harder to find that many." Krune shook his head. "That''s where you are wrong. In fact, this number is very small. Do you know just how many wisps we have considering all the 15 Wisp Worlds?" This time, Krune''s words picked everyone''s attention. They never tried to really look into this information before. Krune noticed their curiosity and said. "Over 200 billion!" Ruik and everyone else gasped at that number. "We are talking about a place that gathers wisps from the entire Dalin Universe, after all. But in the end, Cinty could only find 287 in the late stages of the Divine Soul Realm that were close to the end of their life spans. Do you understand now why they had to create the Wisp Protection Law? That''s because really too little number of wisps have the chance to enter the Divine Soul Realm at all." In a place like the Dalin Universe, between over 200 billion, not even 0.001% can enter the Divine Soul Realm. The situation is completely different for any other race. Ruik scratched the back of his head. "287 is really a small number, sorry." Krune shook his head. "It''s okay. 287 is just the number of those that fully filled the criteria. There were also those who are in a lower cultivation stage or that Cinty couldn''t be sure if she could fully trust them or not. If we count all the Divine Soul Realm wisps in existence in all the Wisp Worlds, we still have a few tens of thousands." Although Krune said that, it doesn''t change the fact that the number is pitifully low compared to other races. 0.001% of the total, 200+ billion, would be at least 200 thousand. But the Wisp Worlds didn''t even reach 100 thousand to start with. Krune then went back to the topic at hand. "Anyway, that is the actual situation at the moment. Different from the Sacred Land guys, we have a force that we really can trust. Of course, we are talking about something that will happen over a year or more in the future, so for now, let''s just focus on increasing our power." Dilo then raised his hand. "In that case, I have an idea." 314 Hakasha Everyone immediately looked at Dilo. "Well, usually, we take missions to get some combat experience. But because we had been stuck in the Elemental Sect Planet for this long, we hardly made much progress at this point. So the best thing for all of us now is not to really cultivate even more, but to get used to our realms. In that case, I don''t think Missions with specific objectives would be the best option." Xankruan was the first one to understand what Dilo was going to propose. "I see, the no law zones, right?" Dilo smiled at his wife and nodded. "Correct!" Krune and the others looked puzzled at them. "The No Laws Zones are places where no rule is applied. The Dalin Universe is a place for training. If the only thing available where Missions, then it would be too hard to let loose when needed. That''s why the No Law Zones exist. They are galaxies where it doesn''t matter what happens, it is of no one''s concern." Krune and the others immediately understood. "Oh, it is basically like the Danger Zones back in the Makui Planet. The difference is that we are talking about entire galaxies." Dilo nodded. "I don''t know these Danger Zones that you are talking about, but I believe that they are pretty much the same. Anyway, those places also have Mission Halls. Still, as you can imagine, any mission given in that place is far more dangerous than your average one. In fact, there are even fake missions as well. Traps to bait cultivators and demon beasts and robe them of their items, or maybe even their lives." "The Mission Hall outside the No Law Zones have what we call ''Reputation'' for those who issue the missions. But the Missions in the Mission Halls in those Zones have nothing like that. Of course, missions are not the only thing that you get to do in that place. Like I said, that is a No Laws place. You can move out of the cities and start hunting anyone you see in front of you." "Of course, unless you look like a fat sheep, usually no one would start a fight with you for no reason. High-Level cultivators and Demon Beasts wouldn''t lay their hands on weaklings with realms far lower than them as well since it would be an embarrassing thing. Once more, provided that you don''t look like some fat sheep or have many treasures with you. If you do, then even those with realms far higher than yours would not hold back." Krune nodded once more. "I thought it to be the same as the Danger Zones, but it is a lot riskier. In the danger zones back in the Makui Planet, the Divine Soul Realm Demon Beasts would make sure that those with higher realms would not touch the ones with lower." Dilo nodded. Dilo shrugged his shoulders and finished. "Anyway, you all get the idea of what kind of place it is. As I said, this is just an idea. If you think it is too risky, you can simply continue doing the regular missions outside the No Law Zones." It was then that Dilo remembered one thing. "Oh, right. Although it is like I said, there is still one rule that can''t be broken. The Dalin Universe is a training place, so even the No Law Zones are not exempt from this rule. Because of that, no one above the Void Breaking Realm can intervene in the fights happening there. They also can''t participate in the fight for any inheritance, tomb, dimensional realm, etc. The only thing allowed is in case they wish to leave their own inheritance behind there, that''s all. That''s why you can find a lot of those things there. As far as I know, no one dares to break this rule doesn''t matter how tempting an inheritance or whatever might be in their eyes." Feifei then commented about one thing. "This indeed would be the best place for training, but we would need to leave it in a year. Otherwise, the protection will be over at some point, and we would run the risk of being ambushed by someone contracted by the other Advanced Major Core Owners. Of course, I know that the ''coat'' takes between 5 and 10 years to disappear, but it is best to be safe." Krune didn''t mind it, though. "It should be fine, even if the ''coat'' were to disappear while we are there, it is not like the enemies could arrive straight away. Besides, for them to feel us, their ''coat'' has to be out as well. It means that the first two to have their protections worn out will feel each other at the same time. Also, chances are that they might think it is a trap, and they won''t even come to start with. I think it is worth it." In the end, everyone decided to follow Dilo''s plan and go to one of the No Law Zones. Before going there, Krune passed quickly by the Puppeteer''s Organization and went through a quick test. At his level, to gain just the One Brozen Star qualification was easy. He could have done better, but he only wanted access to the Puppets Creation information. Once he got it, he passed them to Heavin and then left right after. It was up to him to take care of this now. The No Laws Zone they selected was the closest to the Wisp Worlds, the Hakasha Galaxy. When Krune''s group arrived at the teleport formation that leads inside that galaxy, they noticed a difference. The formation was far away from the others, and the place had several warnings for those who decided to use it. Usually, every city Teleport Formations would be kept close to each other for easier management. Still, the Teleport Formations that leads into a No Law Zones were always separated from the rest. That was to make sure no one would be idiot enough to use it by mistake. Surprisingly, the formation was packed with Cultivators and Demon Beasts. The biggest majority with average cultivation between the Core Formation and Void Breaking Realm. In fact, this Teleport Formation alone had more customers than all the other common ones by far. Not to mention that the teleport formation itself was a lot bigger. Dilo noticed Krune''s group surprise and explained. "This is normal. We are not the only ones who have thought about training in the No Law Zones. As for the reason why there are so many of them, that is simple. Although there are quite a few No Law Zone Galaxies when they are put together, the fact is that the number is tiny compared to the normal ones. It wouldn''t be an exaggeration to say that you have only one No Law Zone Galaxy for every thousand galaxies or so." Krune couldn''t help but ask Dilo and Xankruan. "Have you two been to a No Law Galaxy before?" Xankruan''s expression turned a little gloomy when she heard that, but she did not stop Dilo from talking. After a few seconds, Dilo sighed and said. "Yes, it was in a No Law Zone were I had my dantian previously damaged during a Mission. Well, it wasn''t even a mission to start with. At that time, an inheritance had been found, but a lot of cultivators and demon beasts gathered to fight for it. Xankruan and I just so happen to have participated in that. In the end, both of us were ambushed inside the inheritance and almost died." Xankruna then added. "You don''t need to hide it. It was because of me that you got your dantian damaged, after all. If I wasn''t so slow at that time, we could have escaped with just a few serious but not permanent injuries." Dilo heard that and then laughed. "Isn''t that a good thing, though? If not for that, I would never found Krune, nor would we ever receive the Myriad Energies Technique. Now that I think about it, that was a lucky event disguised as misfortune. So there is no need for you to think about that anymore." Xankruan nodded and tried to drive away those thoughts. Ruik laughed and then said. "Well, you are a lot stronger now, so if the chance shows itself, you might be the one protecting him in the future." Pow! Tiane immediately slapped him on the back of his head. "Why did you do that?" Tiane then rebuked. "Isn''t that the same as saying that she will be the one having her dantian almost destroyed? You are really an idiot snake." Ruik got angry as well, and those two start a whole new argument again. Krune and the others really couldn''t understand how those two ended up together. Xankruan sighed and then smiled, seeing that scene. She then sent a Divine Sense message to Dilo. "To think that a bunch of kids would be enough to make me feel better." Just like Dilo, Xankruan is also over 200 years old already. It just doesn''t look like that because she is in the Divine Soul Realm. 200 years of life would still be the same as being in her twenties if she was an ordinary Demon Beast. In her eyes, Krune and the others are really just a bunch of kids. Dilo laughed after hearing that. "They look like kids to us, but we are the kids when we think about those with a higher cultivation level. So there is no need to feel like that, just enjoy the trip." Xankruan nodded and put those useless memories on the back of her mind. Just like any Extreme Long Distance Teleport Formation, this one is also activated only once per day. So Krune''s group had to wait quite a few hours until the time arrived. That only contributed to the number of Demon Beasts and Cultivators to increase even more, though. "Now I understand why they made such a big Teleport Formation. If they didn''t, there wouldn''t be enough space to send so many cultivators and demon beasts at once." When the time arrived, one of the management workers came forward to make an announcement. "The teleport Formation to the Eritel Planet in the Dekalion Solar System will be activated in a few minutes, please step on it if you desire to be sent there. Remember that the destination is a place inside one of the No Law Zones, so make sure that you know what you are doing. That''s all." Krune''s group then paid their fee and stepped on it. A few minutes later, their group and everyone else disappeared with a flash of silver light. 315 Doesnt It Look Familiar? The city of Lakas is one of the few ones in the entire Dekalion Solar System that receives Cultivators and Demon Beasts from outside the Hakasha Galaxy. Because of that, the city itself was one of the biggest cities in the Eritel Planet. With a population of over 50 million, the city range extended as far as the eye could see. But as a place inside the No Law Zone, the place was pretty much chaotic all day long. With the exception of the guards that prevented fights from destroying the city, anything else was pretty much valid. But even so, the city gave a certain feeling of stability. Maybe it was because fights couldn''t happen inside the city, or perhaps it was because you would probably offend someone stronger than you. After all, if you fought in the middle of so many people and beasts, you are bound to hit someone you shouldn''t. Whatever the reason was, this chaotic city never got to the point of going out of control. Right in the middle of the city, an enormous teleport formation activated, and with a flash of silver light, thousands of Cultivators and Demon Beasts appeared at once. Somewhere in the middle of this batch, Krune''s group could be found as well. As soon as they appeared on the Formation, Krune and his group felt who knows how many Divine Senses passing through them at once. They spread their Divine Senses as well and soon found out that everyone was doing the same. It seemed like that Divine Senses were always active in this place. But they soon understood the reason. In a place where Laws have no meaning, it is up to each one to keep themselves safe. Having their Divine Sense active as long as possible is obviously a way to prevent problems. That wasn''t all. When Krune and the others looked around, they were taken aback. That is because the number of Cultivators and Demon Beasts that appeared on the teleport formation was at least 4 to 5 times the number that teleported with them before. Dilo noticed that and then explained it. "Oh, it''s just that many teleport formations are leading inside the Hakasha Galaxy, but there are few to receive them. Because of that, every single Teleport Formation has to receive several cultivators and demon beasts from several different places at once. They are all connected." The only one who wasn''t paying attention to anything was Heavin, who was in his own little world revising the Soul Techniques that Krune acquired for him. Feifei looked at the teleport formation under her, and her eyes shined. She is a Formations Master, after all. She couldn''t help but think just how complicated such formations had to be to receive several teleports at once. ''I had little time to practice formations back in the Elemental Sect planet. But this time, I''m going to take some time to finish reaching the Golden Stars level.'' Krune nodded and then said. "In that case, we should go to this city''s Mission Hall. Usually, that is the best place for you to hear about the news by connecting to their local network. Inheritances, Tombs, Dimensional Realms, every time some of those appear, it would be posted there. There is also, of course, the missions from the Mission Hall itself." Dilo suggested. No one had any reason to refuse that idea, so they went straight there... or so they intended. On their way, Krune''s group passed by a commercial street with several booths and shops that sold almost everything you could imagine. If that was all, it was okay. Krune and the others could have simply ignored everything. If not for a commotion that was happened right in front. "I said that this Jade Slip is mine! How the hell did you turn out to be its owner? If you want it, pay the price listed!" "Pay the price your head! This is a Jade Slip that I lost on my way back to the city. Are you trying to buy a fight?" "A city with over 50 million people and beasts and this Jade Slip just so happens to be the one you lost. Now then, isn''t that such a nice coincidence?" "Hey, punk. Are you going to hand over the Jade Slip or not? Do you really want to make enemies with the Lavara Family?" When Krune and his group finally found space to see what was happening, they noticed that there was a small booth selling items. Also, Its owner was just a Peak Core Formation Realm demon beast in human form. In front of the booth, there was a group using matching clothes. It was obviously the Lavara Family that Krune and the others had heard on their way here. Dilo then said to the others with Divine Sense. "This is pretty common. You might not be allowed to start a fight in the city, but there are no rules about threatening someone. I don''t know this Lavara Family, but their group leader is at the 9th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm, which isn''t anything that impressive. They probably will tail this Core Formation guy later and get rid of him when the opportunity arises. In fact, that would probably happen even if he had handed over that Jade Slip straight away." One must remember that jade Slips were old ways of stone information. Nowadays, in the technological world, they aren''t used anymore. Ruik couldn''t help but ask. "Is that jade slip something important?" Dilo shrugged his shoulders and replied. "I don''t know, but there is nothing wrong with being safe. Check the price of the jade slip in the guy''s booth." Only then did Krune and the others look at it. Once they saw the price, they were shocked. "100 thousand Rank 7 Spirit Stones?! He is crazy!" Dilo nodded. "Probably, he noticed that this jade slip that he found is from some big inheritance or something else. But his level is far from being enough to open it alone. He was probably expecting someone to buy it for this price so that he could make some money. After all, he wouldn''t get anything from the inheritance itself once it is found." Tiane then thought it to be strange. "Why didn''t he simply keep that jade slip a secret then? Once he reached a realm high enough, he could go there and try to open it by himself." Dilo sighed and then replied. "Who knows? First of all, no one can guarantee that that jade slip is real or not. Even if it is real, who said that the inheritance hasn''t been taken already? In my eyes, it is definitely not worth it to pay 100 thousand Rank 7 Spirit Stones for it. It might not even be an inheritance in the first place. Maybe a Tomb or a Dimension Realm? I have no idea." Krune then pointed out something. "Doesn''t it look like he is trying to catch the others'' attention instead? I mean, such a ridiculous price would definitely attract a lot of eyes in a place like this." Dilo nodded. "That is also possible. He might instead want someone to open the inheritance for him. Or maybe he is in a group that will trap and kill the group that comes to the location in the Jade Slip, so he is trying to bait the biggest fish possible." Krune and the others couldn''t help but sigh. This isn''t something that you can see outside the No Law Zones, after all. One had to think about all the possibilities before adventuring in something like that. Krune and the others were just about to leave when suddenly, Krune felt that jade slip to look somewhat familiar. "Hum...?" Feifei noticed the change in Krune''s expression. "Is there something wrong?" Krune nodded. "Maybe." Krune used his Divine Sense to check it and then looked at Ruik to ask. "Ruik, doesn''t that Jade Slip look like the ones we saw during our training in the Mohie Sect Branch Dimensional Realm? Take a look at the symbol on it." Ruik was taken aback and then used his Divine Sense to check as well. "Oh! You are right, that is indeed the symbol of the Mohie Sect. But how come something like that is here? Could it be a coincidence?" Krune also thought about the same possibility. After all, the Mohie Sect was only at the level of the Big Four back in the Luvile Universe before being destroyed. They shouldn''t have enough power to send anyone inside the Dalin Universe. So the only explanation is that someone used the same symbol here in the Dalin Universe. Still, Krune felt that this coincidence was too much since both symbols are nearly identical. The only reason that Krune wasn''t sure was that the one on that Jade Slip was dilapidated, so he couldn''t make the outlines very well. Krune wasn''t the only one. Ruik spent a lot more time inside the Spatial Box, where they moved all the training things of the Mohie Sect branch. It just so happens that there were many jade slips with information about soul training there as well. Since Ruik was acting as the Rainbow Sect''s Sect Master, he often dealt with those Jade Slips. Because of that, Ruik, too, thought that it wasn''t simply a coincidence. Ruik and Krune then looked at each and nodded. "Shall we take it for ourselves?" Both of them smiled and stepped forward. "100 thousand Rank 7 Spirit Stones, we are taking it!" 316 Can My Friend Fight? Both the Lavara Family group and the Core Formation Realm demon beast looked at Ruik and Krune simultaneously. The Leader of the group noticed that Krune was at the 4th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm while Ruik was at the 3rd Stage. "Are you looking to die? Disappear from my sight before you bring a calamity upon yourself." Krune ignored that guy and moved to the Demon Beast with the Jade Slip. He took out an extra Spatial Ring and threw it at him. "Check the content." That Demon Beast didn''t know if Krune was joking or being for real. But when he checked what was inside the Spatial Ring, his eyes lit up. He took the Jade Slip and immediately handed it to Krune. "It''s all yours, thanks for your patronage." Krune and the others had made quite some money with the Elemental Path Stones after they ran out of effect for them. After Krune made sure to sell them separately online, no one would be able to track it to him or his group. He also sold them at a somewhat lower price so that they could get rid of all of them as fast as possible. By now, no one in his group would have many problems in forking that price for the jade Slip. After taking the Spirit Stones from Krune, that amount would be able to last him a very long time. Now that he has gotten it, there is no need to stay in such a place anymore. He quickly packed his things and decided to take the very first teleport formation leading outside the Hakasha Galaxy. But how could the members of the Lavara Family let him leave this easily? They immediately surrounded Krune, Ruik, and the Demon beast. The Leader of their group then came close and said. "You two are not living for much longer, but I can still let it go if you leave the Jade Slip and all your Spirit Stones behind." Dilo was about to intervene when suddenly, he received a Divine Sense message from Krune. "Don''t come out, I want to see how things work in a No Laws Zone." Dilo then stepped back and pretended that he didn''t know Krune and Ruik at all. Feifei, Tiane, and Xankruan also didn''t seem like they would do anything either. Krune had obviously just paid the 100 thousand Rank 7 Spirit Stones as if it was nothing. So in the eyes of this group of enemies, he is a very fat sheep waiting to be slaughtered. Krune and Ruik looked at each other and laughed. "And just how are you expecting to make us hand over our Spirit Stones? As far as I know, no one can attack us inside the city." The Leader gave out an Evil Smile and then said. "That is very simple." He then took out a dark token and crushed it right there and then. Immediately after, all the spectators took several steps back as if staying close would drag them into the problem. "Who crushed the challenge token?" The Leader of the Lavara Family group immediately came forward. "It was me, I want to challenge this idiot here." The guard nodded and then verified Krune''s cultivation. "Peak of the 4th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm, the challenge proceeds." Ruik looked puzzled at the guard and asked. "What is this all about?" The guard noticed that Krune and Ruik were new to the Eritel Planet and then gave a quick explanation. "Challenge tokens can be used to settle disputes inside the city, and the other part can''t refuse. The rule is that both parts must be in the same Realm. Whether one side dies or not, it doesn''t matter. Also, the winner takes all, so whatever you have on you will be the winner''s belongings." Krune thought it to be strange. "Isn''t it too far fetched? In that case, every single cultivator in the Late Stages of a Realm will start to challenge all the others in the beginner stages. In that case, I don''t even see a need for this token to exist; just let everyone attack as they wish." The guard laughed and then pointed at the broken token on the ground. "Those challenge tokens are very expensive, and the higher the Realm, the more expensive it is to acquire one to battle at their Realm. This guy just crushed a black token of the Divine Soul Realm, which is worth 45 thousand Rank 7 Spirit Stones. Do you think someone would pay that price all the time? The majority of cultivators and demon beasts in this Realm wouldn''t have enough treasures to cover this expenditure at all." Krune and Ruik were taken aback. They didn''t expect that it was so expensive to challenge someone inside the city. He then looked at the Demon Beast at the peak of the Core Formation Realm and asked. "Doesn''t that mean that you will receive one challenge after another after today? After all, I bought your Jade Slip for 100 thousand Rank 7 Spirit Stones." The demon beast smiled and said. "A person or beast can only be challenged once per month. Otherwise, no one would come to the city to sell their things anymore. Since I''m in the peak fo the Core Formation Realm, I''m more than willing to accept any challenges. After all, if the fight doesn''t conclude in five minutes, the challenger will be considered the loser and will have to pay the price." Krune was surprised by what he heard. "Oh, is there such a rule?" The City Guard nodded. "If the challenger doesn''t finish it in five minutes, he will need to pay the price that his opponent desires. It can be anything. All his belongings, his life, or you can simply force him to give a piece of his soul. In that case, he will become your slave. That''s why almost no one issues this kind of challenge in the city. The stakes are too high for the one who is challenging." Krune finally understood. It would indeed be very risky to be the challenger in this city. Even if a peak Divine Soul Realm challenged a 1st Stage one, if the 1st Stage guy can hold for five minutes, his opponent will lose everything. One never knows what kind of defensive treasures the other part might have, after all. It was evident that this Lavara Family guy acted too much on impulse. Krune looked at the Leader of the Lavara Family Group and snorted. "Are you sure you want to go ahead with it? I''m sorry to tell you this, but you are not my match." Immediately, everyone around got excited. If the Lavara Leader steps down after hearing this, he will become the laughing stock of the city. After all, his opponent is 5 stages below him in the same Realm. Of course, that guy had no intention to step back to start with. "I will give you a quick death!" The City Guard captain nodded to his subordinates, and they immediately set up a battle formation around Krune and the Lavara Family Group Leader. They were not doing it attack them, but to impede any shockwaves from destroying the city around them. Also, to prevent one of them from fleeing now that the challenge was in place. "Alright, move to that open field at the north. There isn''t enough space here." Krune and his opponent nodded and started walking there. Ruik, who was just beside Krune, decided to ask. "Do you want me to do it? This kind of opponent will be too boring for you, after all." The spectators following were taken aback. Not only Krune didn''t seem worried, his friend, who was still in the 3rd Stage of the Divine Soul Realm, wanted to fight instead. They couldn''t understand where their confidence was coming from. As for Krune''s opponent, he was on the verge of exploding! Both Krune and Ruik are far below him in the Divine Soul Realm, but they acted as if he was nothing but air. He was being thoroughly humiliated in this place. Krune then looked at Ruik and asked through Divine Sense. "Can you defeat him in five minutes?" Ruik pondered a bit and said. "It depends if he has what it takes to escape my world. But even if he has, holding him back shouldn''t pose a problem at all. I don''t feel like he can use any laws yet, either. But the main reason is that it would give you no benefits what so ever. As for me, I will be able to try out my skills in someone else other than you." Krune pondered a bit and then nodded. "Well, you are right about that." Krune then looked at the City Guard Captain and asked. "Is that okay if my friend battle in my place instead? He wants to test out his abilities. I don''t feel like I would learn anything from this battle, after all." The City Guard nodded. "If your opponent doesn''t refuse it, it is no problem. But if he loses, he will have the right to decided both yours and your friends'' destiny." Krune nodded. "Great! I doubt he would be afraid of fighting someone who has a cultivation realm even lower than mine, right?" After Krune spoke like that, the guy couldn''t possibly back down. "Why not? I can catch two fishes instead of one. That is perfect!" With both sides agreeing with the plan, Ruik now became the one fighting instead of Krune. 317 The Five Minutes is Up Once Krune and Ruik arrived in the open Field, the City Guards opened the circle and gave Ruik and his opponent enough space to fight. Krune looked at the Lavara Falimy Group Leader and remembered one thing. "Oh, right! I still haven''t asked your name." "Lahain Lavara." Krune nodded and then went to a corner to watch the show. The guards also kept a close look at him to make sure he wouldn''t escape during the battle. But as far it seemed, Krune looked like he already knew the result. The Captain of the City Guards Group came forward, and the said. "You know the rules, so I won''t waste my time with this shit." "Start!" Lahain then started to gather Spiritual and Elemental Source energy when suddenly, he heard a voice coming from his side. "The five minutes is up, the challenger has lost." Lahain almost vomited blood! The five minutes were up? What is he even talking about? They didn''t use even five seconds, let alone minutes! Lahain looked at the City Guard Captain. "Are you fucking me up? How come five minutes are gone? neither of us has made a single move yet!" The Captain didn''t care, though. "If I said that five minutes is up, then five minutes is up. In this city, the City Guards are the Law! I''m too lazy to wait for the real Five Minutes to pass, and neither do I care about who wins. So the five minutes are up!" Ruik, on the other side of the Field, smiled at Lahain and said. "Don''t be too sad, this is a No Laws Zones, so even the city guards Laws don''t have much of a meaning. Anyway, I just want all your belongings, and then you can leave." Lahain was on the verge of exploding already. He looked at the City Guard Captain and complained. "Even if laws have no meaning here, the City Lord Challenge Tokens are not to be defied! Are you really going to simply ignore the City Lord Rules?" The Captain shrugged his shoulders and said. "As if anything that a punny Divine Soul Realm said could possibly reach the City Lord''s ears. Hahahaha!" The Captain then looked Ruik and said. "You there, half of the things that this idiot here has is mine, are you okay with that?" Ruik laughed as well and said. "But of course! I was able to make it big without lifting a single finger, why should I mind it?" Lahain still couldn''t accept that situation, but he couldn''t possibly act against this City Guard Captain. First, his family would pay for his transgression, and second, he isn''t possibly a match for this Captain. He would be courting death if he attacked now. Lahain then looked at his subordinates on the side, but all of them looked away. It was evident that they didn''t want to have anything to do with this situation. Still, Lahain didn''t want to give up now. He decided that since he was going down, he might as well bring Ruik with him. He tried to reach his swords inside his Spatial Ring when suddenly, he noticed that he couldn''t connect to it. "I can''t open my Spatial Ring? Why?" The City Guard Captain just kept smiling at him as if nothing was happening. "Something isn''t right." Lahain then spread his Divine Sense as far as possible. At the Peak of the Divine Soul Realm, his Divine Sense could go over 150km. But when he did that, he noticed that the city itself didn''t extend for more than 20 kilometers. After that range, there was nothing! What was even more impressive is that he couldn''t see this ''void'' with his eyes at all! Only his Divine Sense could perceive that ''void.'' "This..." It was then that he looked at Ruik, who was laughing on the other side of the Field. "It was you! Where did you bring me? Where is this place?" Ruik then stopped and said. "What are you talking about? We never left that Field even for a second. At this moment, you are staying still right in front of everyone doing absolutely nothing. Oh, by the way, four minutes have passed already." Only now did Lahain understood the situation he was in, this place isn''t reality. Somehow, he was pulled inside some kind of illusion. An incredibly lifelike one! ''This is probably some kind of illusion formation. But when did he set it up? He shouldn''t have had the time for it at all!'' Lahain knew that asking Ruik to stop it would be useless. They are opponents stacking their lives, after all. So he could only think about attacking Ruik in the distance. Unfortunately for him, this is Ruik''s Dream World! Because Lahain hasn''t comprehended any Laws, he didn''t notice that this isn''t an Illusion Formation. If he had, he would be able to notice that the Laws in this place aren''t exactly like what the real world should be. There are ways to escape the Dream World even if one doesn''t know Laws. But because Lahain didn''t even know what the Dream Laws were, he couldn''t possibly know how to escape it either. He kept attacking Ruik, but every time he got close, Ruik would disappear and reappear somewhere else. As for the City Guards and everyone else, they aren''t really real to start with. So they don''t have any power to what so ever. In fact, Ruik was supposed to attack Lahain''s real body in the real world while his opponent was trapped here. If he had done that, the battle would have been over already. Still, Ruik wanted to see just how far he could keep someone with much higher cultivation than himself inside there. The fact is that Ruik already had a hard time keeping the dream world on going. After all, the Difference in cultivation is still there whether he likes it or not. Especially now that Lahain is using vast amounts of Spiritual and Elemental Source energy. Lahain soon noticed that the world around him warped every time he used a lot of energy. With that, he decided to try it out and concentrate all his energy on attacking the world itself. Sure enough, the changes in the world intensified, and soon, the Dream World broke apart. When Lahain finally came back to himself, he could hear his subordinates shouting at him. "Lahain, attack, attack! Stop wasting time!" "Lahain, what the hell are you doing?!" "Lahain, five minutes is almost up! You are going to lose!" Only now did Lahain notice the City Guard Captain and Ruik on the other side of the Field. Ruik was sweating rivers but still kept straight. After all, Ruik didn''t suffer any physical injuries, it was just that his mind was exhausted. Lahain knew that if he didn''t move now, everything would be over. He immediately brought his Sword out of the Spatial Ring and charged at Ruik. But just as he was about to reach him, the City Guard Captain appeared in front of him and stopped the Sword with his bare hands! Lahain looked at him, surprised. Just a few more steps, and he would have sliced Ruik in half. "The five minutes are up, it''s your loss." Lahain obviously didn''t want to accept that outcome. "That wasn''t fair, he used an Illusion Formation and trapped me inside! I couldn''t do anything for most of the time at all! He shouldn''t have had enough time to set up this formation, so it was obviously a trap made ahead of time by him or someone else. The challenge is not valid!" Boom! The City Guard Captian then lost his patience and kicked Lahain flying! Lahain couldn''t possibly defend or dodge a Peak Void Breaking Realm Cultivator. If the Captian hasn''t shown mercy, he would be dead already. "Illusion Formation? What bullshit are you even talking about? From start to finish, there wasn''t a single formation in this place. What he used has nothing to do with formations at all. It was, without a doubt, his own strength!" The Captain looked at Ruik and asked. "What is your name, kid?" Before coming to the Hakasha Galaxy, Krune''s group decided to change their appearance and names again. In fact, a lot of those who stayed in a place like this would continuously change their appearances and name as well. The Captian knew that and was just asking so that he could address Ruik somehow. "My name is Kiur." The Captain nodded and then said. "Nice Laws you have there, Kiur. I''m impressed to see someone using the Dream Laws at such a small cultivation realm. You must have a frightening background." The truth is that Ruik was lazy to even select a name, so he simply decided to use his name backward. "Senior is too courteous. I''m still far from mastering it." Although Lahain was injured, he still heard everything they said. Of course, he still didn''t know what the Dream Laws were, but he had a vague idea of how it worked just based on the name. First of all, he couldn''t believe that he was paired against someone who knew laws. Just how many Early Stages Divine Soul Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts out there know Laws to start with? The Captain looked at Lahain and then added. "You should be thankful. Kiur could have finished this battle in the very first seconds. Your body was completely exposed, and all he needed was to cut your head off or piecer your heart. You would die inside the Dream World and wouldn''t even notice." Lahain felt a chill on his back when he thought about it. Indeed, he had stayed still doing nothing for almost five minutes. That was enough time for even a Foundation Establishment to kill him over a hundred times. Let alone a Divine Soul Realm Demon Beast. "If I just didn''t accept that idea and had fought the 4th stage guy instead. It wouldn''t turn out like this." Krune and Ruik looked at each other after hearing that and burst out in laugher. Ruik then looked at lahain and said. "I wonder if I should tell you that I''m not my friend''s match. Ops, I already said." Everyone then looked at Krune as if he was a monster! Krune didn''t mind the attention, though. After all, everyone in his group changed their appearances and names. Whether they remember his face in the future or not will matter not for him. 318 Being Observed The Captain then looked at Krune and asked. "You were the victor in this challenge, what do you want to do with him? Everything is valid, and no one can stop it. Of course, this guy''s family might tail you later to get revenge, though. Anyway, it is up to you." Krune looked at Lahain on the ground and then sighed. "Boring..." He then turned around and left with Ruik. But before he could get far, he saw a white token flying in his direction. He looked at the Captain of the City Guards Group, puzzled after that. "This is proof that you have already been challenged. For an entire month, no one can rechallenge you in this City. Of course, if you leave the city range, then you are on your own, and no one will stop or be punished if they attack you." The Captain then gathered his subordinates and then left right after. As for Lahain, he was supported by his group members and brought away from this place. Krune then asked Ruik how it was with his Dream Laws. "Pretty much as I expected. If the opponent has not comprehended any Laws, they are very vulnerable to the Dream Laws. Of course, I was only able to hold him inside for so long because he didn''t notice he was inside my Dream World. Also, it was obvious that he didn''t know how to escape it either. If he did know, let alone over 4 minutes, I probably wouldn''t be able to keep him there for even 20 seconds." Krune nodded. "Still, 20 seconds is several times more than what you need to finish off his unprotected body. Your main advantage is the fact that no one expects you to know the Dream Laws. So even if they have comprehended Laws, they will still be caught by surprise." Ruik agreed with Krune. "That''s correct. Unfortunately, when I try to use my Dream World on you or the others, it takes too long to bring you guys inside the Dream World. That is because your own Laws will be on the way. As long as the opponent focus on gathering his Laws around his body in time, he won''t fall into the Dream World either. Of course, even though they wouldn''t fall inside the Dream World, my Dream Laws are still able to disrupt their perception, which is a great advantage in and of itself." Krune pondered a bit and admitted. "In the end, what counts most is whether you are prepared or not. That time when Feifei and I first entered your Dream World, we didn''t know about the Dream Laws. It was exactly like you said, it took a few seconds before we both were dragged inside your Dream World where you and Taine were enjoying your time." "Cough, cough. Leaving that matter between Tiane and me aside, it is precisely as you said. So I will probably be able to enjoy this advantage for a long time. Still, that Captain of the City Guards group that attended us knew that it was Dream Laws straight away." Krune shrugged his shoulder and said. Ruik nodded and made a mental note about this risk. After the two of them finished talking, Krune sent a Divine Sense message to Dilo and the others for them to keep some distance away from him and Ruik. Krune could tell with his Divine Sense that the show wasn''t over yet. Still, because he just finished a challenge, no one could make a move on him for now. The reason that Krune knew that was because he could feel some Divine Senses that were quite powerful watching him. The impressive thing was not that, though. It was the fact that those Divine Senses owners were also in the Divine Soul Realm. It was then that Ruik sent him a Divine Sense message. "It seems like that quite a few want to test their strength against you or me." Krune nodded. "Yes, I can tell that much. The Hakasha Galaxy is one of the No Law Zones, and I have no doubt that several geniuses came here to train as well. After our little display back there, it goes without saying that those geniuses would start paying attention to us." Ruik sighed and commented. "Anyway, are you going to take a look at the Jade Slip now?" Only then did Krune remember the Jade Slip with the same symbol of the Mohie Sect. As mentioned before, Jade Slips aren''t used nowadays anymore, so there was a change that this thing was the real deal. Krune then put it against his forehead and used his soul power to read the contents. "Let''s see, let''s see..." After finishing reading its contents, Krune showed a weird expression. Ruik noticed that and couldn''t hold his curiosity. "How is it?" Krune then sent a Divine Sense message to Ruik and the rest of his group in the distance. "It seems like the name in this Jade Slip is really Mohie. Still, it isn''t Mohie Sect, but Mohie Clan." Tiane, Dilo, Xankruan, and Feifei didn''t know much about it, but Ruik and Krune knew it way too well. So Ruik was really shocked when Krune confirmed that it was a Jade Slip of the Mohie Sect, or better, Clan. "Clan? Not Sect? What does that mean?" Krune shook his head. "I don''t know. But as far as I can see, Mohie was supposed to simply be a name that the founder of the Mohie Sect used. Hasik had told us that the founder''s family name was also Mohie, so there is probably a connection to it. But the thing that really caught my attention was the name of the person who created this Jade Slip. It is Mohie Zarks!" Ruik was taken aback. "Wait, THE Mohie Zarks? The Founder of the Mohie Sect in the Luvile Universe?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "I don''t know if it is the same Mohie Zarks. After all, this Mohie Clan might be quite big as far as I know. So it could totally be someone else with the same name." Krune then asked Feifei. "Feifei, do you perhaps know anything about the Mohie Sect Founder?" Feifei immediately replied. "No, but the Wang Clan might have some information on it. Unfortunately, we have no way to contact them anymore." Krune nodded. He was already expecting this much anyway. Tiane then asked something else. "So, what was this Jade Slip about anyway? Is there no other information inside?" Krune answered. "There is, it seems like this Jade Slip is one of an 18 Jade Slips set. It seems to have been left behind by a Cultivator who was part of the Mohie Clan tens of thousands of years ago. It also can explain why the symbol of the Mohie Sect, or Clan, is so dilapidated." "It seems to be some kind of inheritance or whatever. Once all 18 are gathered, we can pinpoint the local of the heritage itself. Well, that is considering that this supposed inheritance hasn''t been found yet by coincidence. Even if it hasn''t, the fact that there is a need to gather the other 17 or so doesn''t help much either." It was then that Krune remembered something. "Oh, right! Where is that Core Formation Realm Demon Beast that sold it to us?" Krune then spread his Divine Sense and soon found him. "Found him, he is walking to the Long Distance Teleport Formations. He is probably going to leave the Hakasha Galaxy now that he got enough Spirit Stones. A smart decision for someone with that cultivation. Let''s go there, Ruik. As for Feifei and the others, just stay far away from us." Krune wanted to ask that Demon Beast where he found this Jade Slip. Maybe, there would be more of them in the place where it was found. Also, just because it is a set of 18, it doesn''t mean that he really needs all of them to find the secret behind it. A few minutes later, Krune arrived at the Long Distance Teleport Formation. In the end, no one tried to challenge this guy. It was pretty evident that the consequences of losing weren''t something that the others could take so easily. Not to mention that he is at the peak fo the Core Formation Realm, so chances are that he definitely can hold for those five minutes. After all, only those in the same realm can challenge him, higher realms are prohibited from doing so. Of course, this rule is only applied while you are staying inside the City. Krune approached him and then asked. "Hey there, I have a few questions for you, if you don''t mind." The Demon Beast recognized Krune and then laughed. "Hey, look if it isn''t my patron. Thanks for buying the Jade Slip. Still, I will tell it to you straight away, I won''t give the Spirit Stones back." Krune shook his head and said. "There is no need, this Jade Slip just so happen to be something that I need, so I don''t want to exchange it back. What I want to ask is where you found it." The Demon Beast nodded and then replied. "If that is the case, then there is no problem. I found it while my group was fighting against an ambush. It turned out that the other group underestimated our strength, and we reached a stalemate. In the end, quite a few died on our side, while others died on their side as well. Fortunately, our group ended up making a comeback, and we were successful in driving them away. I found that jade Slip in one of the Spatial Rings of the enemies'' bodies." Krune sighed after hearing that. That kind of information wasn''t of any help at all. For the looks of it, this Jade Slip have been changing hands for a long time already. Who knows from where in the world it came. Worse than that. It might not have been found in this world to start with. Krune then shook his head and said. "Well, thank you for the information. By the way, what is your name?" The Demon Beast nodded and said. "You can call me Turin." Not long after, the Teleport Formation activated, and Turin left the Hakasha Galaxy. As for Krune, he had to talk with the others about what they should do from now on. 319 Found It! Krune then used his Divine Sense so that he could talk with Ruik and the others in the distance. "So, this is the situation at the moment. What should we do now?" Dilo was the first to answer. "We can simply follow the same plan as before. Let''s go to the Mission Hall of this city and connect to their network. If there is any news about this Mohie Sect or Clan, it will definitely appear inside. Perhaps the other owners are also looking for it at the moment." Krune nodded, and they decided to follow Dilo''s plan. But before that, there was one thing that they had to take care of first. The fact that they have been followed all the time. Krune couldn''t bring Dilo out since it would just make those who want to fight him and Ruik to call their own Soul Forging Realm companions. While Krune was pondering about this issue, a young man approached him. "Hello there. Can I have a minute of your time?" Krune and Ruik looked at him and nodded. "You were one of those keeping Divine Sense on us, right?" The young man nodded. "Exactly. My name is Joiu Rak, a Divine Soul Realm cultivator. I''m also one of those who want to challenge you as well if the opportunity ." Krune and Ruik were already expecting this much. "I see. So it was really because they want to fight against us. But there is one thing I don''t understand. It is evident that you all can feel each other''s presence, so why don''t you use a black token to challenge those guys?" Joiu smiled and then explained. "That''s because we don''t want to be the ones who are issuing the challenge. As you know, as long as you hold for five minutes, it will be your victory. After that, the other part has to do whatever you want them to do. We are all geniuses here, so no one wants to risk it." Krune nodded. "I see, it is really disadvantageous to be the once issuing the challenge. So, why are you all focusing on my friend and me? Even if I didn''t have the white token, I don''t think anyone between you would challenge me anyway, right?" Joiu confirmed Krune''s assumptions. "Exactly! What I''m here for is to offer you the chance to join our group. Of course, even though I say we are a group, the fact is that there is no such thing as a leader or that many activities that we do together. Our group usually has only one objective, to be able to challenge each other without the need to pay anything to the victor. You can simply see us as sparring partners that will issue challenges to each other now and then." Krune finally understood. "I see, so you are basically a representative of everyone else." Joiu nodded. Krune pondered a bit and then said. "Very well, I accept." Joiu immediately showed a happy expression. "Great! Bring out your communicators. I will pass you the other members contact so that we can keep in touch. Oh, you will be able to find a few pieces of information about each one of us inside too. Like which type of opponent we wish to test our abilities against and other things like that." Joiu then remembered one thing. "Oh, right! No one holds back when we fight against each other, so there is a chance of dying. Please be careful if you decide to accept a challenge or challenge someone instead." Krune and Ruik nodded, and they passed their contact numbers over. Soon, the two of them received several friend requests from the other members. They were even invited into a chat group that those geniuses keep together. "Well, this is it. If you decide to accept a challenge, you won''t need to care about black or white tokens. The city has arenas with protection formations ready for anyone who wishes to fight. Of course, different from outside, there will be no judge, nor will there be anyone who will save you in case you are about to die, so keep that in mind." Krune and Ruik noticed that the majority of the Divine Senses disappeared right after they received the friend requests. "Alright. There is another issue, if I''m not wrong, this group thing only works inside the cities, right? If I leave the city, everything goes back to the Law of the Jungle, correct?" Joiu nodded. "It''s good that you understand this part." Joiu then turned around and started to walk away. "Anyway, that''s all I had to do, so take a look and see if you want to accept someone''s challenge or if you want to challenge someone yourself." Joiu soon disappeared in the distance. Still, even though most of the Divine Senses disappeared, there were the common ones that one would normally notice while walking in this city. "Can''t say if the remaining ones are after us or if they are just passing by. Well, I can''t complain since I''m keeping my Divine Sense spread all the time as well." "Let''s go to the Mission Hall first. I want to take a look at their network." Ruik nodded, and they immediately departed. Since those Divine Senses from before disappeared, there wasn''t much of a meaning to keep Dilo and the others far away anymore, so they joined Krune and Ruik right after. Once they arrived there, Krune noticed several Missions, Inheritances, Tombs, and Dimension Realms information being displayed in a big monitor. There was even a countdown timer on their sides. "Those are the ones which had their information was spread. Usually, those places would be full of danger, so people and beats decide to divulge the information to gather as many triers as possible. Of course, you can''t really trust those timers. If someone wishes, they have the right to simply charge directly inside without caring about anyone else. But habitually, everyone waits so that the hasty ones would pave the way with their bodies." Krune couldn''t help but comment. "It seems like there are always inheritances, tombs, dimensional realms, and the like ready to be open. I guess that they are not only left there by some high-level cultivators or demon beasts trying to find inheritors, but they are also put at those places by the Dalin Universe Management so that the young would venture inside." Dilo nodded. "I think so too. The low realm cultivators and demon beasts that come to the Dalin Universe have a limit of how many cultivation resources they can bring with them. It is obvious that places like this are also built so that they can fight for the resources that they are lacking. This constant life and death struggles are precisely what the Universes Powerhouses want to see. It''s from those places that the real strong ones will emerge." Krune then moved to the counter and asked access to the Hakasha Galaxy Mission Hall network. In fact, not only Hakasha, but it was also linked to all the other No Law Zone Galaxies. After connecting, Krune immediately searched for the Mohie Clan information. Surprisingly, there was a lot more information than he could have ever imagined. "It seems like the Mohie Clan is in control of one of the Main Universes that control Dalin, a Universe called Hara. I wonder if the Mohie Sect founder in the Luvile Universe, Mohie Zarks, was someone important for this Mohie Clan. At the very least, he was definitely someone from the Mohie Clan." Feifei then said. "Look, this Mohie Clan of the Hara Universe also has the same emblem as the one on your Jade Slip. At least now we know that they are related. I doubt that someone would use the Mohie Clan''s mark in the open considering that one of the Main Universes are controlled by them." Ruik nodded and then commented. "But now comes the questions. Since this Mohie Clan is so powerful, why didn''t Mohie Zarks ask for help when the Rasie Clan started a war with his Sect?" Krune then said. "Well, I have several ideas." "Mohie Zarks might not have been in the Luvile Universe anymore. Let''s say that he was the only Mohie Clan member in the Luvile Universe. After he left, the Mohie Clan simply had no need to care about a Sect with their name in such a remote Universe anymore." "Or maybe Mohie Zarks was there, but he had some conflict with his Clan, so the Mohie Clan didn''t help even if he asked for help." "There is also the possibility that Mohie Zarks wasn''t anyone important to start with, so the Mohie Clan didn''t think that it was worth their time to help him." Krune sighed and then said. "Anyway, I could keep going for hours on this ''ideas'' topic, but that would be useless. We have way too little information to work with. For now, let''s see if we can find something about this Jade Slip." Krune then shrugged his shoulders and added. " Well, chances are that we won''t find anything anyway. Haha!" It was at that moment that Tiane called them out. "Found it!" Krune''s mouth twitched. Could it be that she waited for him to make that last comment before bringing this issue up? "Cough, cough. Did you? That''s good! Can you pass us the link?" Tiane laughed a bit and then nodded. Right After, Krune and everyone else opened the information related to the Jade Slips. -Looking for the 18 Jade Slips of Mohie Zarks. If you find one, please sent a message to this virtual address. Any price can be discussed. In case you wish to keep your Jade Slip, you might also join the others who have at least one of them to open the inheritance together.- -Total of Jade Slips found at the moment: 13- Krune''s group looked at each other with weird expressions. "That was... quite fast." 320 Safety Plan Since Krune had no reason to wait, he immediately sent a message over to the address listed in the information. Just five minutes later, Krune already got an answer. -Hello there, I''m Ricarte Fonklue. Are you perhaps interested in selling your Jade Slip?- Krune immediately replied. -Hi, I''m Darten. No, my group and I are planning to find the location as well so that we can see what is inside. I wish to know what the other owners have decided so far.- Darten is the name that Krune is using with his new appearance this time around. Before, Krune had used Jolk, the name of the man who first gave him clothes when he left the Katiu Forest for the first time. This time, he used Darten, which was the name of the son of the Head Chef back in the village beside the Katiu Forest. It was that Head Chef that first taught Krune how to cook and gave him his recipes'' book. In exchange, Krune had helped Darten to think about what foundation he would create. Ricarte then started to explain. -As you probably know, the Mohie Clan is the one controlling the Hara Universe, which is one of the Universes that control Dalin. Any time that an inheritance, tomb, dimensional realm, or whatever with their name on it is found, great riches and danger follow. Still, it would always cause a big ruckus between the No Law Zone Galaxies, and many cultivators and demon beasts would gather.- -This time it will be no different. Every Jade Slip Owner has already agreed that once we can pinpoint the right location, we will divulge the information straight away. The Mohie Clan related explorations are always filled with corpses, so we don''t plan on trying our luck alone.- -We tried to use our 13 Jade Slips to construct the map where the hidden place is. But so far, all we could find is that it is located in the Lokin Solar System in the Hakasha Galaxy. Because of that, all the Jade Slip owners have gathered in this No Law Zone. If possible, I would like you to join us in the Yatil Planet of the Lokin Solar System. We will try to put all the 14 Jade Slips together to see if we can near down the search range.- Krune thought something and then decided to add. -I might be wrong, but I believe that the remaining 4 Jade Slips probably have an owner already.- Krune thought about this possibility since the previous owner of this Jade Slip definitely knew about the Jade Slips search. After all, the Mohie Clan information was available on the Mission Hall network for everyone to see. That means that the remaining owners probably know about the existence of the rest as well. Krune then continued. -Of course, you guys probably already guessed this much. Are you perhaps expecting them to show themselves once we can near down the search range?- On the other side, Ricarte smiled and then answered Darten''s question. Krune, or better, Darten nodded after reading that. -As I thought. In that case, when do you plan to gather together?- -As soon as possible. We have been in this stalemate for over 3 years already, so we want to go do other things, but we are stuck here. All the Jade Slip owners are afraid that once they leave to do something, the others might luckily find the location and move ahead without them.- Krune pondered a bit and then replied. -Very well, I will give you an answer soon.- Krune then turned off his communicator and looked at everyone. "Well, you saw all the messages, so what do you think?" Dilo immediately commented. "Not good. I don''t think we are even nearly strong enough to take part in this. By the looks of it, chances are that the other 13 groups probably have Soul Forging and even Void Breaking Realm Cultivators and Demon Beasts on their side. I doubt that we keep our Jade Slip safe once we leave the range of a city. In fact, I doubt we can keep our lives to start with." Krune then looked at Feifei, and she immediately understood what he meant. "Alright, pass me the Jade Slip, I will try to divine something. But remember that Soul Forging and Void Breaking Realms are involved in this, so I won''t be able to see much." Krune and the other nodded and waited for Feifei to do her job. Soon, Krune noticed that Feifei started to sweat all over, and her face started to get pale. Still, he did not stop her since he knows that stopping the process in the middle would waste her efforts. Around 10 minutes later, Feifei finally finished her divination. She then sat on the floor and started to recover all the energy she lost. Fortunately, she is an Advanced Destiny Major Core Owner. So backlashes are several times smaller than it would be with anyone else. No one bothered Feifei while she rested and patiently waited for her to open her eyes. Another two hours went by, and Feifei finally came back to herself. "As I thought, the scope of this divination is too wide, and the realms involved are too far ahead of my own. Still, there is good news. I could see that no one above the Soul Forging Realm would be able to take part in this. I don''t know why that is, though. As for anything else, it is too hard for me at the moment." Krune nodded and then pondered a bit. "This information is already more than enough for us. The fact that only the Soul Forging Realm and below can participate is probably because this is a Dimensional Realm. Otherwise, the Void Breaking Realm ones would definitely enter as well. It seems like they won''t be able to use the same strategy as they did back in the old Rainbow Sect to force their way in." "Of course, this is still dangerous. After all, any middle and late stages Soul Forging Realm wouldn''t be someone we can deal with easily. The fact that we are the ones holding one of the Jade Slips would make things even more complicated. There is a very high chance that the Jade Slips also act as some kind of keys, so everyone wants to have at least one." "We also have to think about the trip to the Dimensional Realm entrance. I refuse to believe that we are lucky enough for the entrance to be inside of a city. So on the way there, any Void Breaking Realm that will be accompanying the other groups can smash us and take it for themselves." "What we need here at the moment is not the Jade Slip, nor the Mohie Zarks inheritance, but a survival plan. How are we going to enter that place without becoming everyone''s target?" Krune then shrugged his shoulders and added. "Of course, we can also ignore this thing completely and wait for the day we also enter the Soul Forging Realm. As for how long that will take, I have no idea." It was then that Ruik thought about something. "What if we call our new friends on this trip?" Krune looked at him, and his eyes immediately lit up! "Great! Some of them most likely have Void Breaking Realm protecting them. After all, they were supposed to be geniuses of their own powers. They would make the perfect group on our side." Feifei couldn''t help but comment. "But what if they decided to attack us as well?" Krune shook his head. "It won''t happen." He then looked at the Mission Hall display and started to search for something. When he found that, he smiled playfully. "Found one. A Void Breaking Realm Demon Beast ready to be contracted. Although it is very expensive to recruit someone in such a realm, it will be worth it. We only need one, that''s all." Ruik and the others immediately understood. "I see, this guy will be our safety pass while we are dealing with our own group. And our own group will be our safety pass to reach the Place where Mohie Zarks hid the Dimensional Realm." Tiane then asked something else. "Still, isn''t there a risk of us being betrayed right from the start by this guy? What if you pay, and he doesn''t even come?" Krune smiled and looked at Feifei once more. "I see... so that''s how it is. Leave it to me! If all I need is to Divine if he will betray us or not, then even if he is in the Void Breaking Realm, I should still be able to see this much. After all, I don''t really need to see all the details of his or her future, only what the part related to us." Ruik and the others immediately got excited. It seems like this trip to Hakasha Galaxy is starting to get interesting. 321 Protection Fortunately, due to the size of the city itself, there were a few Void Breaking Realm cultivators and demon beasts giving this type of service for the right payment. Krune then first called over a Demon Beast in the 7th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. On the surface, Krune just wanted to discuss the price of the service, but in reality, it was to get as much information as possible from them. Name, cultivation, techniques, whatever is possible. That''s because the more information Feifei has, the easier it will be for her to Divine her group''s future. Even false information is good since they are the ones using them, which still makes the destiny energy move. The first Void Breaking Realm ended being a failed process, though. After finishing her Divination, Feifei sent a Divine Sense message to Krune. "This one is no good. I don''t know the reason, but he would be fleeing at a certain point before entering the Mohie Dimensional Realm." Krune nodded, and then after exchanging a few more words. He told this Demon Beast that they still need to check the prices for the protection service with other Void Breaking Realm guys. That Demon Beast didn''t seem surprised and then bid farewell. This situation was already common between those who were looking for someone''s protection. Feifei then sat down and started to recover from the last Divination. Although there is only one target, the enormous difference in cultivation is still there. Just like the last time, Feifei took around two hours before coming back to her peak condition. Krune then called the next, an 8th Stage Void Breaking Realm cultivator. Unfortunately, there would be a breach of contract again. This time, she was able to tell that he would even attack their group. "As expected of the No Law Zone, it is hard to find someone who is really willing to follow the contract." Feifei then commented. "The fact is that usually, they would follow the contract to the very end. But because of the scope of this next mission, something happens that forces their hands. Of course, each person and beast is a different case altogether, so we can only keep trying." Krune nodded, but he wasn''t in a hurry. In the end, Krune called over another 5 cultivators or demon beasts. But it wasn''t until the 8th one that Feifei finally saw someone who wasn''t going to betray them. It was a Demon Beast in the 8th stage of the Void Breaking Realm. Krune and the others soon came to understand why that was the case, though. His name was Laex, a true Divine Beast! To be more specific, a pure-blooded Black Dragon! Dragons are known for being extremely prideful species, let alone a pure-blooded Divine Beast. They wouldn''t go back on their word unless it was an extreme situation. Even so, chances are that they would still stick to it until their death. First, they wouldn''t need that money. Divine Beasts are strong and usually have great backgrounds. So the price offered for the protection service wouldn''t be something that they need. Second, as mentioned before, dragons are very prideful, so they wouldn''t lower themselves as protectors unless it was for someone of their own clan, race, sect, or the like. Because this Blackdragon was already in the Void Breaking Realm, he already acquired his human form. It looked very young, 16 to 18 years of age at most. Of course, Krune and the others knew very well that his age would be many times higher than that. After Krune received Feifei''s confirmation, he smiled at Laex and said. "Alright, Laex. As a Divine Beast, are you okay with being our group''s protector? Sorry if I''m being rude, but we really never heard about a Divine Beast, especially a Pure-Blooded Dragon, to offer protection services." At first, Krune and the others were expecting someone cold who spoke very little. But it turned out that Laex was the opposite of what one could expect of a Divine Beast. "Hahaha! Don''t mind it, I''m not exactly like the other Divine Beasts out there. To be honest, I''m very carefree. My parents and the elders of my Race territory always complained that I wasn''t acting like a realm dragon. But I simply can''t force myself to keep an aloof stance all the time as they do." "I will tell you a little secret here. In fact, most of the pure-blooded dragons aren''t really that cold as they picture themselves. It is just because they need to keep the appearances that they act like that in front of the others. When they are between friends or family, you would see the majority of them acting pretty much like everyone else." "Still, as I said, they wouldn''t show it in front of the others. So I''m quite an exception." Krune nodded and then asked. "Alright, but why did you accept this job?" Laex then scratched the back of his head and said somewhat embarrassed. "Well, it is exactly because I act like this outside that my race doesn''t want to help me with resources. So I need to take jobs here and there to make up for the lack of those resources. Oh, but don''t you worry, I''m a Divine Beast and a pure-blooded Black Dragon. I still have a dragon''s pride and shall not go back on my contract unless the situation is dire." Feifei let off a sigh of relief and then told Krune with her Divine Sense. "I didn''t expect him to reveal this much about his story. Thanks to that, it was a lot easier to Divine if he would betray us until the end of the contract or not. You can take him in as long as we can pay the price." Krune nodded, and then the two of them started to negotiate. Since Krune was determined to employ this Black Dragon, he decided to reveal as much as possible so that Laex could get a big picture of the situation. "I see, a Mohie Clan inheritance... That''s gonna be quite dangerous. But why is it that you only want protection until the entrance and after you leave? Wouldn''t it be better if you had me protecting your group inside as well?" Krune then looked at Feifei, and she nodded at him. Having received her confirmation, Krune explained. "Fina has some skill with Divination. Thanks to that, she was able to see that no one above the Soul Forging Realm will be able to enter that place. So even if I wanted you to protect us inside, you wouldn''t be able to enter to start with." Fina was the name that Feifei was using this time with her new appearance. Laex looked surprised at her. As a member of a pure-blooded dragon race, he knew a lot more about Divination than the majority. He was surprised that Fina was able to calculate something considering the scope of the Divination. "You... are quite good." Feifei, or better, Fina smiled at him and nodded. After that, Krune continued to explain everything that he could say. Laex then started to ponder about it for some time. Krune and the others didn''t say anything and just waited for his answer. Laex then smiled and said. "Alright, but my price will be quite high. Since I won''t be able to get anything from this Dimensional Realm, I will pretty much spend my time there doing nothing. Unless I have to battle to protect you on the way, of course." Krune smiled and then agreed with Laex. As expected, Krune had to pay quite a high price for his protection services, but he didn''t mind since he wasn''t really in need of money. Even if he was, he is still the Purple Flame Pills Creator. He can do a lot more later if he wishes it. Krune and Laex then used the Mission hall to write the contract, and both sides signed it. Although those contracts didn''t have much weight and couldn''t really control anyone, it was still a good way to keep things clear between both parties. Krune then said. "Very well, then from now on, we will be in your care, Laex. If you have any other demands in the future, let me know. I will do my best to fulfill them." Laex laughed a little, hearing that. "You are being way too serious. I already received half of the payment as we agreed, so I will make sure that I can get the other half." "Oh, by the way, when are you going to put your plan in action?" Krune took out his communicator and said. "Now." 322 It Will Be a Lot Funnier! In fact, Krune had already discussed everything with his group. All they needed was to find a worthy protector. Now that the last obstacle was cleared, he had no need to delay things. Krune then opened the group chat that he and Ruik were included and immediately shared the information. As soon as he did that, the chat became alive, and several geniuses who were staying on the same planet or solar system quickly replied. It didn''t take long for them to gather together. By the end of the day, those in other cities or outside doing some missions had already returned. They all agreed to discuss this mission in the Mission Hall when everyone was present. Just as Krune expected, almost all of them had Void Breaking Realm protectors by their side. Some even had more than one. Krune let off a sigh of relief since he was correct in contracting Laex this time. The others also noticed Laex and couldn''t help but be taken aback. Some of them knew Laex from the mission hall. Others even wanted to recruit him to be their protectors while they were staying in the Hakasha Galaxy. But because of his exorbitant price, rarely anyone really opted for him. It made everyone understand that Darten is probably quite wealthy himself. In the room where they were gathered, a demon beast in the 8th Stage of the Divine Soul came forward to start the talking. His name was Gatu, as for his race, no one knew since he rarely ever returned to his true form. "Alright, Darten, everyone is already here. Can you give us a better explanation about this Mohie Clan inheritance." Krune, or better, Darten nodded and then explained everything except for the fact that the Realm was limited to Soul Forging Realm and below. If he had said this much, others would soon understand that he has a fantastic divinator on his side, which might put Feifei in unnecessary danger. "I see, so we would need to be together if we don''t want the Jade Slip in your hands to be stolen by the other owners, correct?" Darten nodded. "Exactly. Of course, I don''t plan to force anyone to take part in this. As you probably know already, all the Mohie Clan related inheritances are usually very dangerous. Still, if you guys are really looking to temper yourselves and get a lot of resources at the same time, you should really follow me there." A cultivator in the Soul Forging Realm then commented. "But who can guarantee that we will be able to find that place? After all, you are still lacking 4 Jade Slips even after putting together the other 13." Darten nodded once more and continued to explain. He told the group about how there were only 9 jade slips at first, and how the other four appeared after. They are expecting that they might be able to gather all jade slips. This group had quite a few geniuses. So, in the end, a few of them left since they didn''t want to risk something as dangerous as a Mohie Clan inheritance. Still, over 90% of them remained. Everyone was already expecting that, though. A Mohie Clan Related inheritance is a very tempting matter, even if you include the dangers. Krune smiled and then said. "Good, then I''m going to contact the other side and tell them that I will be coming with my group." Just as Krune was about to take out his communicator, another cultivator came forward to ask something else. His name was Fiarit Yhalan, 9th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. "Before that, don''t you think it would be better for someone else to hold this Jade Slip that you have? I will be blunt, you are still in the 4th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm, so the Jade Slip should be used by someone stronger." Krune looked at him and then snorted. "There is no need for you to worry about me. It was I who found it, so I''m obviously the one holding it. Besides, I''m very confident in my own strength." Fiarit smiled and then said. "Is that so? Then why don''t we make a bet here? If you can defeat one of my subordinates, I won''t complain anymore. But if you lose, then you will have to hand it over to someone else with better abilities." Krune smiled at him and then said. "Sure, why not? So who will it be, you?" Fiarit shook his head. "Of course not. I''m at the peak of the Divine Soul Realm, it wouldn''t be considered fair at all. My subordinates don''t have the same combat prowess as me, but they are still several times stronger than those in the same Realm." Fiarit then looked back at a cultivator and then said. "Erventik, can I count with you for this?" Krune looked at him and soon noticed that Erventik is a cultivator at the 6th stage of the Divine Soul Realm. Seeing that, he couldn''t help but sigh. Krune was sure that Fiarit wasn''t lying and that this Erventik can probably jump one or two stages above his cultivation to fight. Still, he simply wouldn''t be his match at all. Of course, Krune didn''t show it on his face. Besides, he didn''t know if this guy had some trump card or not, so he will take him seriously as he does with everyone. Fiarit then looked at everyone else and asked. "Is there anyone who disagrees with this arrangement?" No one said anything. Some were even smiling. It was evident that quite a few of them were thinking the same thing as Fiarit. "Very well, then let''s move to one of the arenas in the city. There is no need for a black token here." Laex looked at Krune, or better, Darten, and then asked through a Divine Sense Message. "Are you okay with this, Darten? He is two stages higher than you, after all. If you want, I can carry this Jade Slip of yours, and I doubt anyone would complain anymore." Krune shook his head. "That is not the problem here. Even though there are several Void Breaking and Soul Forging Realms in this group, our group chat was composed of only Divine Soul Realm Cultivators and Demon Beasts. Those above the Divine Soul Realm are only here as protectors of those geniuses. This display is simply to show who between the geniuses here is worthy of being the leader of the group. The Jade Slip has little to do with it." Krune then shrugged his shoulders and said. "But for some reason, he thinks that it would be too much to send someone with a much higher realm than me to fight. Because of that, he entrusted it to his subordinate, who is only 2 stages higher than me. The best outcome will be if his subordinate kills me. That way, he can claim the Jade Slip and the others'' approval at the same time. At the very least, he expects that no victor will be found, which is already enough to support his statement that I''m not strong enough." Laex then asked. "Are you confident in your abilities?" Krune smiled and said. "I will never look down at an opponent, so you don''t need to worry. Although I won''t be showing my full strength, I will need to make sure that I leave a good impression on the others. I guess I will show a little bit of what I''m capable of." Laex laughed and then nodded. "Great! I''m looking forward to seeing a good show. You better not disappoint me, okay?" Krune laughed as well, and they kept moving to the arena. On Fiarit''s side, he received a Divine Sense message from another genius in their group. "Are you sure he can deal with Darten? Darten''s friend could already use Dream Laws, and he said that he isn''t Darten''s match." Fiarit laughed out loud and then answered. "You are overthinking! That guy called Kiur only won that easily because his opponent didn''t know about his Dream Laws, nor did he comprehend any Laws himself. Erventik is different, he does know laws and the existence of the Dream Laws. If they had fought, Erventik would have trashed that Kiur due to their difference in cultivation. Darten probably did the same thing, so it is not like he is really stronger. He simply has higher cultivation, that''s all." They soon arrived at the arena. Krune and Erventik entered it, and the protection formation closed around them. Right after, an automatic voice appeared. "No Law Zone arena, no one is allowed to intervene, and any outcome is valid. If someone tries to save the other part, they will be punished according to the City Lord''s rules. You may start battling at any time." Erventik didn''t waste time and took out a Spear from his Spatial Ring. He then covered it with the metal element and used the Earth Law that he had comprehended to strengthen it. He had comprehended the intermediate stage of the Strength Sub-Law and was now using it in full display. He also used it around his body just in case Krune, or better, Darten used Dream Laws like Kiur. This way, he wouldn''t be pulled inside the Dream World. With everything in place, Erventik immediately charged at Krune. He didn''t comprehend any Wind Sub-Laws, but he was still a Wind Element user as well. He used his Wind Movement Technique and quickly approached Krune. It took some time to describe the process, but it all happened in a split of a second. Erventik was planning to take Darten off guard and finish this fight in a single strike. Unfortunately for him, Krune was his opponent. Krune noticed that there wasn''t any secret behind that attack. In fact, he could even see that Erventik was really underestimating him. ''Well, even if he wasn''t, he would still not be able to do anything to me with this level of strength.'' Krune looked the approaching Erventik and said with a Divine Sense message. "Earth Laws? I know how to play with them, as well." Krune then used his index finger to point at Erventik and then to the ground right after. "DOWN!" Boom! Immediately, an immense gravitational pull dragged Erventik''s body to the floor of the arena. Outside, the others could only hear the sound of bones breaking. Earth Sub-Law Advanced Stage, Gravity! Not only that, but Krune was also using his Earth Essence Sub-Law to increase the power of the Gravity Sub-Law. One must understand that Earth Essence is Krune''s only Earth Sub-Law that reached completion. Erventik tried to use his Spiritual and Elemental source energy to counter-attack the gravity pull, but how could Krune allow him to do that? He increased the gravitational pull even more, and one could hear even more bones breaking. Krune then slowly walked in Erventik''s direction and stopped right beside his head. He then looked back at Fiarit outside the arena and asked. "Are you sure that sending this guy is enough? Why don''t you try it yourself instead? It will be a lot funnier!" 323 Mohie Danif Fiarit noticed Krune''s smile and felt like he was going to explode. Still, he didn''t dare to take up the challenge. Although he, too, could defeat Erventik easily, it definitely wouldn''t be to the level that Krune, or better, Darten did. That wasn''t all. Everyone outside could tell with just a glance. That was far, far from being Darten''s real power! Although they were confident that they could take him head-on, they weren''t sure if they could win or not. Even if they did, that would come at a very high price, not to mention that they might be the ones losing in the end. But that wasn''t what frightened them. What really left everyone shocked was the fact that Krune is still in the 4th stage of the Divine Soul Realm, while the majority watching were at least in the 7th. They are already not sure if they can win while Darten has such a much lower cultivation realm, so what about when he reaches their same level? If that wasn''t a big enough display of strength, then nothing else would be! Fiarit swallowed his anger and then smiled at Darten. "Hahaha! There is no need. This was just a test, after all. Now that you proved that you are strong, I have no need to test you myself." Although those words could be considered humiliating, no one thought that Fiarit did wrong. Krune then nodded. "Oh, is that so? That''s good then. I guess no one else has any issues with me holding the Jade Slip, am I right?" No one said anything, which Krune decided to take as a silent agreement. Everyone returned to the Mission Hall, and Krune immediately called Ricarte back. "Hello. It''s me, Darten. I''m ready to go anytime, are you guys all there as well?" Ricarte immediately smiled on the other side of the call. "Oh, so that''s how you look like. Last time we just exchanged messages, so it is the first time seeing your face. Of course, I know that there is a high chance that it isn''t your real one, though." "Anyway, we are ready anytime you are. I advise you to come with a big enough group as well. Otherwise, you can''t blame me if the others decide to find trouble with you because of your Jade Slip." Krune agreed with him. "Don''t worry, it shouldn''t be a problem on my side. Where should I find you and the others?" "You can come to the Mission Hall in Kulue City. It is on the same planet I mentioned you before, Yatil of the Lokin Solar System." Krune nodded and then finished the call. "Well then, shall we go?" Everyone already accepted that challenge outcome, so no one complained with Krune, or better, Darten, calling out the tips. Of course, no one here considered him a leader or anything. It was just that he had the Jade Slip, and without it, there would be no point for the others to move there anyway. No one had anything else to do, so they moved directly to the Mission Hall right after. There, Ricarte was already waiting. "Hey, Darten! I see that you''ve come." Ricarte then looked at Krune''s group behind him and nodded. "Good! That''s exactly what I meant when I said you should bring your own group. They can also be considered your own force, so the others won''t find trouble with you for the time being." Krune could finally see what cultivation Ricarte has. He was a cultivator at the 2nd stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Ricarte then guided everyone to the room where the others were waiting. Just as expected, they could see the groups well separated. Still, there weren''t another 13 groups, but 9 only. "Is someone absent?" Ricarte shook his head. "No, this is the total at the moment." Krune then nodded. "I see, some of them have more than just one Jade Slip from Mohie Zarks, right?" Ricarte immediately nodded. "Yes. I just so happen to be one of them. At the moment, I have 2 jade Slips, one I found myself, while the other I bought from another cultivator." Krune nodded, and they finished their conversation there. Ricarte then brought Krune forward and introduced him to everyone else. "This one here is Darten, he is the last one to join our group and has one Jade Slip from Mohgie Zarks. As you all know, I already spread the information that we gathered 14 Jade Slips. So if everything goes according to the plan, we should be seeing at least two or three others appearing soon." Ricarte then pointed at Krune''s group. "Those there are part of his group, so I believe no one has any issues with the fact that he is one of the Jade Slip owners." The other groups immediately nodded. As long as one had the necessary combat power, they wouldn''t complain about Krune having a Jade Slip. After all, they already have at least one themselves. Ricarte then went to the center of the room, and soon, the leaders of each group also stepped forward. Each one of them had a Void Breaking Soul Realm behind them, which were responsible for their safety. Krune then looked at Laex, who immediately followed behind him. Ricarte then was the first one to bring his two Jade Slips from the Spatial ring and show to everyone. "These are my two Jade Slips." As soon as the two appeared together, something like a projection appeared above them. It looked like that by resonating, both Jade Slips could create that phenomenon. Still, the image above was way too blurry, and no one could tell what it was. Then another Cultivator did the same thing and brought out one Jade Slip. Krune could feel that he is in the Soul Forging Realm, but it was still in the initial stages, just like Ricarte. "Hey there, Darten, my name is Lutin Hravent. Nice to meet you!" The Jade Slip on his hand then started to resonated with Ricarte''s two, and the image above them seemed to get a little clearer. The next one was a Demon Beast, and this one was at the peak of the Divine Soul Realm. "Prianeo." He just said his name and brought his Jade Slip out as well. Once again, the resonation increased, and the image got even better. By now, it was at least possible to see some outline, although Krune couldn''t tell what it was. The next one was a Female Cultivator who was also in the Soul Forging Realm. "Amelia Linxin, good to see you." The same process continued, and one by one, the participants took out their Jade Slips. In the end, Krune was left as the last one. By now, the image was quite easy to identify. By the position of the planets, their moons, and the position of the Sun. One could determine that they are indeed in the right Solar System. "I''m Darten, nice to meet you all." He also brought his Jade Slip out, and finally, the 14th one resonated with everyone else''s Jade Slips. The image that before was showing the Solar System then approached once more and stopped on a Planet. Ricarte looked at that and nodded. "So it is not in the Yatil Planet as we suspected, but in the Yakil Planet instead. That planet is not as big as Yatil, but it is still quite large. With a single extra jade Slip, it will still be hard to pinpoint the right location." Suddenly, everyone heard a voice at the entrance of the room. "What if I add two more Jade Slips then?" Everyone looked at the direction from where the voice came and soon noticed a man entering the room. Right behind, there was another group of people and beasts that seemed to have come with him. Krune looked at him and could tell that he was far above the others'' Realm. By the pressure that he is giving, most likely, he is already in the Void Breaking Realm. It was then that he received a Divine Sense message from Laex. "6th stage of the Void Breaking Realm. But I can tell that his fighting prowess definitely surpasses the stage he is in at the moment. Too bad, though. He won''t be able to enter the Dimensional Realm." Krune answered back. "He doesn''t have to know that now, right?" Krune and Laex looked at each other, and faintly smiled. Ricarte then smiled as well and said. "That would be great. With your two Jade Slips, we would have a total of 16. The search range will once again decrease. By the way, how should we address you?" The man nodded while bringing his two Jade Slips out. "You can call me Mohie Danif." This time, everyone was really surprised. They never expected that a descendent of the Mohie Clan would appear here. It was at this moment that he looked at Krune and asked. "How come you have the All-Encompassing Soul Technique of my Mohie Clan? It shouldn''t have been out there for selling." Krune and Ruik immediately narrowed their eyes. They didn''t expect that Krune''s Soul Technique would be noticed this easily. 324 Have We Met Before? Krune then smiled at him and asked. "How do you even know that?" In fact, Krune knew already. The same thing happened back in the Divine Path Sect when the disciples of the Rasie Clan visited. Their strongest one was able to tell that Krune had used the techniques of the Mohie Clan straight away. There is no doubt that this Mohie Clan guy can do the same thing. Danif expression changed a bit. Usually, because his clan is one of those controlling a Universe, others would show restrain against him. But that guy in front of him seemed to not care one bit. He then took a look at Laex, who was beside Krune, and his eyes narrowed. He could tell that that Void Breaking Realm Demon Beast wasn''t anything simple. "The Mohie Clan is a Clan specialized in Soul Power. So it is very easy for us to identify other cultivators or demon beasts soul waves. As small as they might be, they can''t escape our perception. Through those waves, we can compare with the techniques we have and reach an answer. That''s why I know that you are using the All-Encompassing Soul Technique." Krune pondered a bit and then nodded. "Indeed. I found this technique a long time ago through my explorations. If you ask me if I knew that, the answer is yes. I came to know that this is a Mohie Clan Soul Technique. But since I found it myself, why should I care if it was out for sale or not?" Krune knew that stepping back here would do him no good. Besides, his appearance and identity are different now. Unless he and Danif meet each other in the future again after this event, it would be unlikely that anyone else could tell him apart. Danif looked at Krune, whose expression didn''t seem to change one bit, and the shrugged his shoulders. "There is nothing wrong with that, I was just curious. The Mohie Clan is enormous, and it is normal that now and then, a disciple dies or breaks the rules and sells a technique like that in the black market. But the same could be said for any of the other big powers. Besides, since you found this technique, that means it isn''t anything important to start with. So you can use as much as you want, I won''t care about it." Krune looked puzzled at him. "Not important?" Danif nodded. "Any Core Soul Technique in the clan can only be accessed and practiced in the Mohie Clan Planet in the Hara Universe. Those can''t be brought out, and anyone who practices them has to receive a seal that locks the information in the memory. Even if they wanted, they wouldn''t be able to share their information outside. That''s why I said, this technique isn''t that important to start with. I was just surprised to see someone using it." "I see, then that is good. I wouldn''t want to start having problems now that we are this close to open Mohie Zarks inheritance." It was then that Krune noticed one thing. "Oh, right! Doesn''t your clan leave those types of techniques behind in the inheritances or the like that you build for training?" Danif nodded. "We do, that is one more way that you can find a few of the Soul Techniques of the Mohie Clan. But once again, it won''t be anything related to the true legacy of the Mohie Clan in the Hara Universe, so those who find it, feel free to use as you please." "By the way, what''s your name, friend?" Krune answered quickly. "You can call me Darten." Danif nodded and then approached the other Jade Slip owners. His two Jade Slips then started to resonate with the rest, and the image of the Yakil Planet above approached once more. This time, it stopped around the south pole of the planet. Ricarte and the others'' eyes immediately lit up. Although the search range still covered the entire south pole, they at least had a point of start. "If we just had at least one more Jade Slip..." Mohie Danif nodded and then answered. "Don''t worry, we do have one more coming." Ricarte and the others looked at him, surprised. Just as they were about to ask Danif about it, the door of the room opened once more, and the participants soon noticed another group entering. Their leader was seemed to be someone at the 9th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. But his group also had several supporters. This guy was obviously a demon beast and a powerful one at that. His aura somehow made people feel uncomfortable, too, as if their lives were being seeped away. But Krune and Feifei felt something different, although they couldn''t really tell what that difference was. The new guy also looked at the two of them for a moment. It looked like he also felt something different coming from Feifei and Krune. ''Those two... Major Core owners, perhaps?'' Ricarte sighed and then said. "He doesn''t even try to hide the fact that he has a Death Major Core." Indeed, the more knowledgeable ones knew that this feeling happened once a Death Major Core didn''t restrain the Core''s nature. The guy heard that and then laughed. "Why should I? I love killing, so I have no reason to hide that." He approached everyone with his own Jade Slip and then introduced himself. "I''m Uer, a Skeleton Dragon and a Death Major Core owner. I also just so happen to have one of the Jade Slips from Mohie Zarks." Uer was the Advanced Major Core owner from the Darkness Sacred Land in the Luvile Universe. Together with him was Mino Jan, the protector who came with him. Of course, neither Feifei, Krune, or Uer recognized each other. Uer knew only Feifei''s appearance, but she had changed it this time. As for Krune and Feifei, they didn''t know how the Advanced major Core Owners of the Sacred Lands looked like to start with. Uer''s Jade Slip then resonated as well, and the image of the south pole approached the east side. Ricarte and everyone else started to get excited. Although the area of search was still somewhat troublesome, they now had a good chance of finding the right place if they are lucky enough. Suddenly, someone sighed and then said. "Since we got to this point, I think I don''t need to hide this anymore." Everyone looked at the source of the voice and noticed that it was one of the group leaders. His name was Reiny Wacelian, a Cultivator in the 4th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. He was also one of the owners of the Jade Slips. But no one thought that he had two instead since he always showed only one during their gatherings. "Reiny, you hid it very well, didn''t you?" Reiny smiled but didn''t answer. It is not like there was a rule saying that he couldn''t do it. Also, everyone understood that he was just trying to avoid problems for having more than a single Jade Slip. But now that 17 Jade Slips were gathered in a single place, hiding the last one would be meaningless since they would just waste time looking for the right place. The image above in the room then approached once more and showed a mountain range. This time, it also showed a redpoint marked right above one of the mountains. Or to be more specific, it was an enormous volcano in the middle of the mountain range. That wasn''t all. Right above that volcano, few words appeared. "The path shall appear once the eighteen keys are gathered." This time, there was no mistake, they could see exactly where they should be going. Everyone then put their own Jade Slips back inside their Spatial Rings. Ricarte looked at everyone and commented. "Alright, since we pinpointed the location, I will immediately share the news on the Mission Hall. As you all know, a Mohie Clan inheritance is bound to be very dangerous, so the more cultivators and demon beasts, the better. Is everyone okay with departing in one week? It would give enough time for those interested to arrive. Also, we don''t need to be afraid of someone entering first since you saw that we need the 18 keys, or to be more specific, the 18 Jade Slips." No one seemed to disagree with Ricarte''s idea. They had long since discussed it, and they knew that he was right. Even Mohie Danif and Uer, who just joined the expedition, didn''t seem to care about it. Ricarte noticed that no one seemed to want to add anything and left the room for a moment. He was going to post their newfound information in the Mission Hall network. During the time he was out, Uer looked at Krune and Feifei once more before coming forward to talk. "Hey there, are you two perhaps Major Core owners too? Since we will be waiting for a week, would you like to do a battle to the death with me?" Krune and Feifei looked at each other and shook their heads. "No can do. We want to see what is inside the Mohie Clan inheritance before using any energy." Uer laughed and then asked with a serious expression. "Have we met each other before?" Krune and Feifei were taken aback by that question. "Not that we remember." Uer then shrugged his shoulders and said. "Whatever. See you in the Mohie Clan inheritance, then." Uer then returned to his group, where he received a Divine Sense message from Mino Jan. "What was that about?" Uer looked at him and snorted. "Just two interesting chickens to kill." 325 What Should We do? Krune and Feifei also exited the room after that and soon noticed the big monitor on the Hall. At the very top, the Mohie Clan inheritance was now marked with a 7 days countdown. It was obvious that this inheritance would attract lots of Cultivators and Demon Beasts. Sure enough, as soon as it appeared, an uproar happened, and Cultivators and Demon Beasts started to flock in from everywhere. Core Formation, Divine Soul, Soul Forging, and Void Breaking. Cultivations of several different realms started to appear on the Yakil Planet Teleport Formation. The majority think that Core Formation Realm participants are pretty much suiciding. But there are always those who want to try their luck. Especially when they are the types without any talent or have suffered some deep injuries as Dilo did in the past. Ricarte had told everyone that they could be going ahead if they wanted or wait for the opening day. Krune''s group isn''t exactly a united one, so they preferred to stay in a City as close as possible to the right place for the time being. That would help them avoid problems in the place where the inheritance would be open. Krune and his group stayed in a hotel for the time being. Inside one of its rooms, Krune was discussing the next steps with everyone. The only one not present was Laex, who went somewhere else. Since they are inside a City, only Black Tokens could be used to force Krune and the others into a battle. Laex can''t intervene in Black Token''s battles, so his presence here at the moment would be meaningless. "Heavin, there is a good chance that we are going to find quite a few good techniques for you to research. The Mohie Clan is specialized in Soul Techniques, after all." Heavin, the Parrot Puppet, nodded. "Yes, I had been looking into the ones I have already, but it is hard to think about something new with only this. Still, high-level Soul Techniques are too expensive for us to buy a lot. I''m looking forward to seeing what we can find there." Feifei then asked him. "By the way, how is the upgrade of my Parrot going?" Heavin nodded and then said. "Krune had bought quite a few amounts of materials for me to practice. That, together with the study material from the Puppeteer Organization, made things a lot easier. If I were to guess, I think that I should be able to reach the Silver Stars level in a month or so. Still, it will be something for after we leave the Mohie Zarks Dimensional Realm." Ruik then decided to ask something else. "Anyway, so what about that Uer guy, did you find anything?" Krune and Feifei looked at each other and shook their heads. "No, it is too hard to find anything since all the information is controlled by the Dalin Universe management." Heavin then asked. "What are you talking about?" "Oh, it goes like this." Krune then explained what happened and how they thought that something was different about Uer. Of course, they are not dumb, so they thought about the possibility of Uer being one of the Sacred Lands Heavenly Fragment Owners. Still, the chances of bumping into one of them in an entire Universe is near zero, and there is also the fact that Uer already said that he has a Death Major Divine Soul. As far as they know, that feeling might as well be just a resonance between Major Divine Souls and nothing more. After all, Uer wasn''t trying to hide the existence of his Major Divine Soul as a normal owner would usually do. Heavin heard everything and nodded. "I see, in that case, I think I can help to check." Everyone immediately looked at him. "You can?!" Heavin nodded. "It''s just a guess, but I can more or less feel Feifei''s presence when she is close to me. I think that has something to do with her own Heavenly Fragment and my one. At that time, I didn''t feel anything since I was not paying attention. This presence feeling is minimal and hard to detect, so I will need to be close to Uer once more." Krune pondered a bit and then asked. "Wouldn''t that be the same as we did then? Your Divine Soul was born from my Elemental Major Core. This feeling that you have might be just a small resonance between Major Divine Souls." Heavin immediately shook his head. "It is not, I can guarantee that." "How so?" Heavin then explained. "That''s because we had been close to Cinty several times before, right? She has a Black Hole Major Core, or better, Black Hole Divine Soul. Still, I have never felt her presence doesn''t matter how close she is to us. It is completely different from Feifei." Tiane then commented. "If that is the case, I might tell you that Uer is in the same city at the moment. I saw his group in the Mission Hall branch of this place earlier. He might still be there. Do you want to go and check?" Everyone looked at Heavin, who immediately nodded. "Sure thing. It will be better if we check it straight away." Krune''s group then immediately left the Hotel room and went to the Mission Hall. Fortunately, they didn''t have to get close to Uer on purpose since Uer and his group was just leaving the Mission Hall. Krune and his group then landed close to him and passed by as if they just wanted to enter the Mission Hall themselves. Heavin then concentrated on the feeling that he feels from Feifei. He wanted to test if he could feel something similar coming from Uer himself. Just as Krune passed by Uer, the Parrot Puppet and Uer looked at each other at the same time. Still, Krune didn''t stop walking. Heavin then looked away as if nothing had happened. As for Uer, he showed a pondering expression. Mino Jan beside him couldn''t help but ask. "What is it?" Uer looked back at the Parrot Puppet on Krune''s shoulder and then commented. "That parrot is not simple. But I can''t tell what is different about him. It gives me the same feeling as that Darten and Fina do." Darten and Fina are the names that Krune and Feifei are using this time. Mino Jan narrowed his eyes. "I thought about the possibility of them having a Heavenly Fragment from our Universe. After all, although the ''coating'' protecting your Death Divine Soul hasn''t disappeared yet, perhaps the proximity would be the reason for you to feel like that. But if even that Parrot Puppet gives you the same feeling, then we might be wrong about it." Uer then asked back. "Didn''t you say that Divination didn''t work on those two? Usually, only Heavenly Fragment Owners are immune to Divination, right?" Mino nodded. "Yes. At least, that would be the case in our Luvile Universe. Unfortunately or not, there are several treasures out there that prevent others from checking their Destiny Energy. In fact, in the middle of these several groups with the Jade Slips from Mohie Zarks, there are another 7 guys that Divination also doesn''t work. It is nothing that rare when you think what kind of place Dalin Universe is. The elders of those geniuses would usually provide them with something capable of hiding them from the Destiny Energy. Those are treasures hard to obtain in our Luvile Universe, but it is a completely different story for the Universes controlling Dalin." Uer then laughed out loud. "Well, whether they are the Heavenly Fragment owners of our Universe or not, it doesn''t matter. As long as I kill both, we will find the answer." Mino Jan looked at Uer''s crazy expression and sighed. It was already a miracle that he was able to keep this guy in check for so long. Perhaps he should thank this Universe excellent cultivation conditions. After all, Uer was putting a lot more effort into raising his level. Not to mention that he could also use the Black Token to force a challenge onto Darten or Fina. But it seems like even Uer isn''t idiot enough to think that he could finish another Heavenly Fragment Owner in just Five Minutes. On Krune''s side, Heavin sent a Divine Sense message to everyone. "As I thought. It is just like Feifei, I also can feel his presence when we are close to each other." Krune then commented. "I see... Although we can''t guarantee that he is really a Heavenly Fragment Onwer, the chances are very high. He also has quite a big group with Void Breaking Realm ones included. As for the time when we enter the Mohie Dimensional Realm, his side also has several Soul Forging Realm participants. Of course, we also have our own group, so he couldn''t simply attack us either." Feifei looked at Krune and then said. "This might be a chance. Now that I think about it, I shouldn''t be able to use Divination on him if he has a Heavenly Fragment. If that is the case, this is another way to confirm his identity. Of course, there would also have the possibility that he is a Heavenly Fragment Onwer from another Universe altogether." Krune nodded. "That''s a good idea, please do." Feifei then stopped on a corner and started to use her Destiny Major Divine Soul the best she could. Sure enough, she couldn''t feel any movements what so ever from the Destiny Energy around Uer. "Indeed. I can''t see anything. Of course, you already know that there are treasures that can stop someone from being seen by the Destiny Energy, so there is still a small possibility that that is the case." Krune nodded and then said. "Then it settles everything. We are at least 90% sure that Uer is a Heavenly Fragment, and since Heavin can feel his presence, it probably means that he is from the Luvile Universe as well. Are you all okay with this conjecture?" Everyone nodded. "Then the question now is: Does he know that Feifei and I are also the same? If yes, should we use this opportunity to leave this place or not? What should we do?" 326 The Time Has Come Dilo was the first one to comment. "Truth be told, your cultivations are far below Uer''s. Also, I have no doubt he is capable of fight quite a few stages above his own realm. Although I won''t say that he can jump as many levels are Krune, he should be somewhat close. I don''t think that Krune or Feifei''s chances of winning in a one vs. one battle are very optimistic." Krune and Feifei nodded. They, too, already thought about this possibility. If there was any chance, it would be with the two of them together. Or, at the very least, it would need Krune to be in full control of his Divine Soul. Heavin also understood this point and then said. "I''m not the kid from two some years ago anymore who felt afraid of being controlled. If you feel like you need to take control of the Divine Soul completely, just go ahead and do it. In fact, I would say that if you feel that there will be any danger, you should do it straight away. Also, if you want it, I won''t mind falling asleep during the entire duration of the Mohie Dimensional Realm." Krune then shook his head. "I will indeed use my Divine Soul as you mentioned if there is a need for it. But I also want you to see as much as possible. Just be prepared for the possibility of me taking control over my Divine Soul. Depending on the situation, I won''t be able to tell you in advance, so make sure to keep it open for me all time." Heavin nodded. "There wasn''t even a need for you to say that. I accepted our linked lives a long time ago, so my Divine Soul had always been open for use at any time." Ruik then commented. "If that is the case, then are we following the plan and entering Mohie Zarks Dimensional Realm?" Krune pondered a bit and then seggested. "Let''s go by votes. Those who want to still enter the Mohie Dimensional Realm raise their hands." Immediately, everyone raised their hands at the same time. Seeing that, everyone smiled at each other. Feifei then changed the topic. "Alright, since we are going, what will we do in relation to Uer?" Tiane was the first one to comment. "We don''t know if Ure and his group know about Krune and Feifei, so I simply suggest that we ignore them for the time being. As you said, the ''coat'' around your Divine Souls will take at least one more year to disappear, probably even more. So I think it would be an idiotic idea to simply engage him now." Xankruan also agreed with Tiane. "I think she is right. Of course, there will probably be several situations inside where we will have to fight. But if no one provokes us or if there is no competition for treasures or resources, we should not start a fight ourselves." Dilo pondered a bit and then suggested. Feifei shrugged her shoulders and then said. "Well, those who agree with Dilo''s plan, raise their hands again." Once again, the answer was unanimous. Krune''s group already has to deal with the Dimensional Realm dangers to start with, why should they stay close to other group and run the risk of battling them? Even though they will have to explore the Dimensional Realm by themselves, they still prefer to not have to worry about the other groups. Krune confirmed everyone''s decision. "Very well, then that''s how we will be doing it. Of course, chances are that we will still bump into other teams and have fights here and there. But by following this plan, we should be able to avoid most of them." Ruik then added. "Well, that is considering that the realm allows us to separate from the others. As far as I know, there are plenty of realms who like to force group tests over the participants." Dilo nodded once more. "Ruik is right. There are even traps specially designed to force everyone to fight until only one or a certain number is left alive." Everyone then kept discussing several scenarios that might happen inside. They went from a full chaos situation to cases where everyone is completely separated from each other. It wasn''t before a full hour of talking that they finally put an end to it. - Time passed, and soon, almost an entire week went by. Today, Krune had agreed with Ricarte that their two groups would go to the Inheritance location together. At the city exit, Ricarte and his group were already waiting for Krune and everyone else. "Hey, guys, ready to go?" Krune looked behind him, and everyone nodded. "Seems like we are ready." Krune always asked the other members of the chat group before doing something. After all, he wasn''t really a leader here, nor did he want to become one. Their get together would go as far as the moment when they enter the hidden place. Besides Krune''s group, no one knew if it was a Dimensional Realm, a Tomb, an underground Cave, or whatever. So they will be moving together until they can enter there. Laex was also there, and he was glued at Krune''s side. As carefree as he can be, he really took his words very seriously, so he intends to protect Krune, or better, Darten, and his Jade Slip until the end. Ricarte checked with his group as well, and they, too, were ready to go. Everyone took flight and started their journey to the Volcano that was shown by the Jade Slips. Although they stayed in the closest city, the fact is that it was still far away from their destination. Even with everyone being at least in the Divine Soul Realm, the trip would still take half a day at their speed. The Void Breaking Realm Cultivators and Demon Beasts could have opened Spatial Gates to arrive there faster. But the fact is that no one was in a hurry. Besides, some of the participants didn''t have Void breaking Realm friends to help, and they wouldn''t simply enter an unknown Spatial Gate. Who knows where that thing could really lead them? This is a No Law Zone, as long as you aren''t above the Void Breaking Realm, everything is valid outside the cities. On the way, they passed by several other groups, who decided to join their own by staying close. Ricarte and Krune didn''t mind it, though. The idea of divulging the information was to have as many participants as possible, so having them following behind is all good. Except for a few battles between small groups on the way, Krune''s journey was pretty much smooth. Thanks to Laex, no one tried anything against him on the way either. Once everyone arrived there, Ricarte separated from Krune and went somewhere else to talk with another jade Slip Owner. After a few minutes, Ricarte returned and told Krune''s group the news. "So far, everyone had been looking for the Inheritance entrance, but they didn''t find anything at all. Some even used Earth Movement Techniques to go far down in the earth, but no results either. You know what that means, right?" Krune nodded. "A sealed Dimensional Realm." Laex looked at Feifei, or better, Fina, and thought about the day when they told him that it would be a Dimensional Realm. ''If her prediction was right, only Soul Forging Realm and below will be able to enter this realm. I''m looking forward to seeing the faces of all the Void Breaking Realm cultivators and demon beasts once that happens. Haha!'' Krune then asked. "Are we going to open it straight away?" Ricarte shook his head. "There is still one group with a Jade Slip that hasn''t arrived yet. Mohie Danif''s group." Krune looked around, and sure enough, he couldn''t spot Mohie Danif anywhere. "Where did he go?" Ricarte shrugged his shoulders and answer. "Who knows? Still, there are another 3 hours for the appointed opening time, so he isn''t exactly late." Krune nodded and then started to wait with everyone else. Around two hours later, 5 powerful auras fell on everyone who was in this place at the moment. Even the Void Breaking Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts paled in comparison to that. Krune felt surprised for a second, but he soon noticed that Ricarte and the other groups didn''t seem concerned about it. Right after, a Spatial Gate appeared right above everyone. From inside, Three men and two women stepped out. Judging by their auras, two of them were demon beasts while the other three were cultivators. Laex noticed Krune''s group surprise and then explained through a Divine Sense. "They are the enforces. When a rare inheritance is about to be open, the Dalin Universe management sends some high-level cultivators and demon beasts. They are here to guarantee that no one above the Void Breaking Realm will intervene with the fights. Of course, they won''t help or save anyone. Even if everyone ends up dying, they won''t move a single muscle." Krune and his friends immediately understood. "I see, an Inheritance like the Mohie Clan one usually would have very tempting treasures inside. They might be so good that even those above the Void Breaking Realm would like to have them. They are here basically to stop such people or beasts from using their cultivation to rob everyone else, correct?" Laex nodded. "Exactly. Simply put, you can ignore them. Rarely someone in the Divine Path Realm or above would be idiot enough to try something like this." Krune''s group nodded and then continued to wait. Just as the three hours were about to finish, another Spatial Gate appeared, and Mohie Danif stepped out with his group. It seemed like his group has no need to be afraid of entering their own Spatial Gates. Krune looked at that and then took out his communicator. He looked through his contact list and select one of them. After that, he just wrote a simply message. "The time has come." 327 Cultivation Limi Krune, Ricarte, Danif, Uer, and all the other group leaders then gathered together above the volcano. All the cultivators and demon beasts that came here for the opening of the inheritance had their eyes glued at them as well. They then took out their Jade Slip and put them close to each other. Right after, the Jade Slips started to resonate again. But this time, they didn''t show any image. Instead, the resonance between them seemed to resonate with the space around as well. It felt like the world started to tremble out of nowhere. Inside the volcano, the lava started to part ways to reveal am empty space inside. At first, there was nothing there, but soon, the power of the Space Laws and elements started to get inside at high amounts. Soon, an explosion of Spiritual Energy came out from the aperture in the lava, and something like a Silver Gate appeared. Obviously, that was the Spatial Gate leading inside the Sealed Dimensional Realm. The eyes of all cultivators and demon beasts immediately lit up after seeing that. They wanted to rush right inside, but they knew how dangerous a Mohie Clan inheritance is. So, at some point, the situation became weird, with no one trying it. Uer lost his patience and then appeared beside one of the cultivators who came for the opening. The guy didn''t even have a chance to react before he was captured. He was only in the 2nd Stage of the Divine Soul Realm, and his talent is quite average. He also appeared to be alone in this expedition, so he was the unfortunate choice. No one tried to stop Uer from doing that. It is known to all that since you came here, you already accepted all the risks, including being used as a guinea pig by others. Uer then approached the Spatial Gate and threw the guy inside. If there was some trap in the Spatial Gate itself, everyone would find it straight away. Uer''s protector, Mino Jan, also left a slive of his will inside that cultivator. If he died inside, he would notice straight away. Well, in fact, almost everyone who was confident in their abilities did the same with that cultivator, Laex included. "That guy is still fine inside, but that''s everything I can tell you." Krune and the others nodded and kept waiting. Uer then looked at one of his subordinates, and he nodded. This guy just so happens to be in the Void Breaking Realm. If there was anything wrong inside, his cultivation level would at least help him to defend himself. The plan was to simply let him enter and then wait for him to come out. That guy then took a deep breath, approached the Spatial Gate, and entered inside. But as soon as he started to pass through it, something unexpected happened. Except for Laex, the Void Breaking Realm cultivators and demon beasts expressions immediately changed! As for the one with the worst expression of all? That was none other than Mohie Danif! "What the hell?!" Only an idiot wouldn''t understand that the Dimensional Realm has a cultivation level limit. The guy who entered before was only in the 4th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. Since Danif''s own cultivation is already at the 6th Stage, then it is evident that he would end having the same outcome or maybe even worse. Laex looked around with his Divine Sense and was doing his best to not start laughing. He then glanced at Fina, who was looking at the gate as if nothing happened. ''Haha! This little girl is good, she was spot one with her divination.'' Mohie Danif was almost at the point of exploding, but there was nothing he could do about it. While the expression of all Void Breaking Realm cultivators was terrible, the Soul Forging and Divine Soul Realms was the polar opposite. With no Void Breaking Realm enemies to care about, things would be a lot easier for all of them. The only thing now is to discover which is the highest cultivation allowed inside. A Void Breaking Realm Demon Beast at the 3rd Stage then approached the gate as well. But instead of charging inside, he only put his hand inside. Surprisingly, nothing happened to him at first. A Dimensional Realm cultivation limit isn''t only determined by the Cultivator''s Realm. It can also be determined by the Cultivation Stage! That means that since his cultivation is lower than the previous guy by one Stage, there is still a chance that the realm can accept him. That demon beast then gritted his teeth and slowly stepped inside. But he made sure to protect himself the best he could in case he feel something changing. Sure enough, it didn''t work. Once he was completely inside, the spatial storm started once more. Fortunately for him, he had a friend staying behind to help him. With his own power and the help of his friend pushing him out, he was able to escape the Spatial Gate without dying. But it wasn''t without a price, though. He still got severely injured in that split of a second inside. That demon beast then got away from the Spatial Gate with his friend and immediately swallowed a Healing pill. The Same situation then started to repeat with lower realm cultivators and demon beasts. 2nd Stage of the Void Breaking Realm, Failed; 1st Stage of the Void Breaking Realm, Failed; 9th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, Failed. From the 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm and below, no one wanted to try anymore since they weren''t confident in escaping the Spatial Storm in time. The Soul Forging Realm cultivators and demon beasts at the 8th Stage and below then started to slowly get away from the gate. None of them wanted to be forced into entering that death trap just for the sake of a test. Unfortunately for some, the test had to go on. Soon, one 8th Stage Soul Forging Realm was capture and then thrown inside. In the end, he also was killed by that Spatial Storm. Then it came to a 7th Stage and a 6th Stage, in the end, those two died as well. Finally, when a 5th Stage Soul Forging Realm was capture and thrown inside, he passed through and disappeared with a flash of silver light. It was just the same as the Divine Soul Realm that had entered before. Finally, everyone came to understand the highest cultivation level allowed there. Krune''s group then smiled at that sight. They already informed Laex beforehand about this situation. Although Feifei couldn''t tell that there was a limit even in the Soul Forging Realm, she was not wrong in saying that only Soul Forging and below could enter. From the groups that were the Jade Slip owners, it turned out that the leaders of three of them had cultivations higher than the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Of course, Mohie Danif was included in this list. As for Mino Jan from Uer''s group, he could only let off a sigh of relief. He just so happen to be at the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm himself, the bare limit. Krune then looked behind at everyone who was part of their group chat and noticed that they were also looking delighted. The ones that were part of the group chat were all in the Divine Soul Realm. The Soul Forging and Void Breaking Realm ones were just their subordinates. The fact that no one above the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging can''t participate is also great news for everyone in this group. Krune smiled as well and then asked. "Well, shall we enter?" Everyone nodded, and they began to enter the Spatial Gate one by one. Ricarte, Uer, Lutin, Amelia, Reiny, and the others also did the same as Krune and entered together with their own groups. Laex already knew that he would have to wait, so as soon as he saw Krune and his friends disappearing inside, he went to a corner and sat down to cultivate. Mohie Danif knew that there was no point in wasting time here anymore and called a member of his group forward. This member was also part of the Mohie Clan, someone called Mohie Maran. "Maran, I''m giving these Jade Slips to you. Take everyone at the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm and below and go see what is inside the Mohie Zarks inheritance. If possible, try to retrieve that thing. I''m sure you know how delighted the elder would be if you find it, right?" Mohie Maran looked at Danif and nodded. "Very well, but I won''t guarantee anything." He then took the two Jade Slips from Danif and entered with his own group inside. As for Danif, he also went to a corner and sat down to cultivate. As unwilling as he might be, there is nothing he can do about this situation. Finally, when all the Jade Slip Owner groups entered, the random cultivators and demon beasts started to enter as well. Their number was many times bigger than the Jade Slip groups by far. So it took quite a few minutes for everyone to pass through the gate. With this, the Mohie Zarks Dimensional Realm event had finally started. 328 Bubbles On the other side, Krune and his group appeared together with the others. The place looked like a gigantic cave, with walls on both sides. Fortunately, it was big enough to accommodate all the cultivators and demon beasts who entered. No one knew where they were at the moment, so no one moved carelessly. Only after the last participants entered did some started to move away with their own groups. As dangerous as this Dimensional Realm might be, if no one moves, then nothing will be earned. As for that Divine Soul Realm cultivator and the other one at the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, they had long since disappeared. Since they were sent inside first against their will, there was no need for them to wait there to guide the others. This place didn''t allow Krune and his group to simply chose a direction to get away from everyone else. So at first, they had no other choice other than following the flow. This situation didn''t last for long, though. A few kilometers ahead, everyone found an exit and finally stepped outside. What appeared in front of them was a flat land as far as the eyes could see. It didn''t matter what side they looked at, they simply couldn''t see the end of it. Divine Sense was useless as well, as far as they could perceive, the situation was the same. Someone finally started to move away from the entire group when suddenly, he disappeared right in front of everyone. There wasn''t a single cultivator or demon beast without their Divine Senses spread at the moment. Hence, they all saw when that happened. Krune pondered a bit and then summoned several wind blades. He flew above everyone''s head and then shot the wind blades to all sides. Soon, the wind blades started to disappear one by one until they were all gone. Still, soon, all the blades that disappeared begun to come back again. This was something that Krune had planned from the start. He had created his Wind Blades in a way that they would make a 180 degrees curve and fly back to the same point from where they were shot. Krune then used his Divine Sense to feel the conditions of the wind blades and noticed that they had changed a bit. It is not that they were damaged or anything, it is just that since this ability was wind-based, the air around the blades affects their composition to a certain degree. Because of that, he could tell that the places were his Wind Blades had been had different environments. Some of the wind blades seemed to have passed through cold places, others through hot ones. There were a few who also gathered some sand, water, etc. Ricarte also paid attention to Krune''s Wind Blades that returned and immediately understood the situation that they are in. "I see, this is a multi-dimensional realm!" Krune and the others who didn''t know what it was then looked at Ricarte. Krune then asked. "Is there a way to know which ones are safe or not?" Ricarte shrugged his shoulder and said. "Sure! Ask the person or beast who created it to come out and tell us which one we should use." Krune and the others sighed. Is the creator of this Dimensional Realm even alive still? It is evident that they can''t find him or her. The other cultivators and demon beasts started to use their own methods to check the different dimensional realms around them before entering. Krune then looked at Feifei, who immediately shook her head. It was evident that this realm was also too hard for her to predict too far in the future, just like the Elemental Path. Krune started to think about the wind blades that came back and then made a decision. He looked at Feifei and the others and said. "Let''s enter the realm where my wind blades suffered no change. At least, those are the ones that look the safest at the moment." Feifei and the others nodded, and they flew beside Krune. Krune then looked back at the guys of the group chat and said. "What are you guys going to do? We already entered the inheritance, and since there are no more Void Breaking Realm people and beasts, there isn''t much of a need for us to stay together. Of course, there is safety in numbers, so I won''t mind if you guys decide to follow my friends and me either." Suddenly, the world around Krune''s group started to change. It looked like everything started to freeze, even the air itself. Krune narrowed his eyes and soon understood what was happening. ''Domain...'' A Domain is a skill that everyone at the Soul Forging Realm must comprehend. It directly increases the user''s combat power while it disrupts anyone that the user considers as an enemy. Domains can only be created after a Cultivator has understood at least one Sub-Law. That''s why it is usually only used by Soul Forging Realm ones. Not to mention that they use a lot of Spiritual and Elemental Source energy to keep it activated. Right after, two cultivators and two demon beasts appeared around Krune. The weakest was at the 2nd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm while the strongest was at the limit, 5th Stage. The other two were both in the 3rd Stage. But that wasn''t all. The people and beasts of his bigger group were also surrounded by different domains. It was evident that his entire group was being targeted here. Krune looked at the guy in the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm and then asked. "Do you need anything?" The guy laughed and then said. "Hey there, you can call me Illo. As for what I want, as long as you give up your Jade Slip, we will immediately leave. We don''t know what will happen in this Dimensional Realm, but I believe that the Jade Slips will be of great help. Do that, and I will disperse my Snow Domain." Krune looked at him and then asked. "Does that mean that those guys holding the rest of my group are also your friends?" Illo nodded. "You could say that. We gathered together during the time we were waiting for the inheritance to be open. We aren''t the only one either, take a look around." Soon, Krune noticed that the other Jade Slip Owner Groups were also in a similar situation. From the look of it, a few of the Jade Slips will be changing owners very soon. "I see... It seems like everyone wants to hold one of the keys, right?" Krune then looked at Dilo and asked. "Do you need help?" Dilo looked back at Krune and laughed out loud. "To get rid of a domain of this level? No, thanks." Dilo then activated his own Storm Domain, and Illo''s Snow Domain started to get suppressed. Dilo might be only in the 3rd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, but he does have the Elemental Meridians. Also, different from Illo, his Domain has a Wind Sub-Law that reached completion! The law that Illo had comprehended was the Intermediate level of Cold, one of the Water Sub-Laws. Simply put, Illo was losing in both Laws and Elemental Control. So it was evident that his Domain couldn''t fight against Dilo''s one. Illo suddenly gritted his teeth and said. "The three of you, help me with this." The other three also activated their own domains, and together, they were finally able to stop Dilo''s Storm Domain rampage. Illo looked at Krune and his group and said. "He might have a better Domain than me, but can he protect low-level cultivators and demon beasts like you and the friends on your side?" Krune looked at everyone and then asked. "Seems like we already got our first Life and Death situation, shall we put what we learned into practice?" Feifei then looked at one of the 3rd Stage enemies and said. "In this case, that one is both Xankruan''s and mine." Ruik and Tiane didn''t stay behind. "Great! Tiane and I will take that 2nd Stage bug." Tiande and Ruik were the weakest ones in their group, so they joined forces to deal with the weakest guy who was in the 2nd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Fortunately, Ruik''s Dream Laws were really overpowered, which helped him and Tiane to stand their grounds. Krune looked at Dilo and then asked. "Can I leave Illo to you?" Dilo laughed and didn''t say anything, just nodded. As for Krune, he put the Parrot Puppet that was on his shoulders in his Spatial Ring and then talked with Heavin through their connection. "The remaining one is at the 3rd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, I will need full control of the Divine Soul, alright?" Heavin didn''t mind and just sadi. "I''m not blind, you know? Just go ahead with it, I''ll be fine. Just make sure to not reveal everything. From the age that he is showing, he is obviously not a genius or anything, so try to beat him without using your Wisp Form." Krune nodded, his opponent was practically a full realm above him, so he would need to take things a little more seriously. "It is a good chance to test that." 329 Which One Should I Use? Dilo''s Storm Domain was centered on him, so when the battle started, he couldn''t expand it to the point where he could cover Krune and the others. Fortunately, the weaker guys'' Domains weren''t anything that impressive, so the others could still deal with it. Krune also started his battle against the 3rd Stage one and immediately opened distance from him using his Tribulation Lightning Movement. Krune already could use it at 100% output without damaging his body, so he didn''t need to be afraid of doing that anymore. Considering that he also understands several wind and lightning laws, he was really far faster than anyone at his level at the moment in this Dimensional Realm. Still, his opponent was 9 stages above his own, and in another realm on top of that. So by using his Domain and cultivation alone, he could still barely keep up with Krune. Of course, he was also shocked to see that someone with cultivation so much weaker than his own could run like that. Krune looked at his opponent while thinking. ''Hum... So even without my wisp form, my speed can still keep up with an ordinary 3rd Stage Soul Forging Realm. If his Domain wasn''t in place, maybe I would be a tiny bit faster, I guess...'' Krune kept dodging his opponent while using several skills to keep his distance. So far, he hasn''t made a single attack yet. ''Well, it is obvious that he isn''t a cultivator focused on speed either, so this conjecture can''t be applied to the others that easily. His Domain is Fire Based, and I can feel the Heat Sub-law behind it. From its level, it seems like he is still in the Initial Stage of it.'' Krune then paid attention to himself now that he is in full control of his Divine Soul. ''Still, my Divine Soul is really good when I''m in full control of it. Putting my Laws, Tribulation Lightning, and Divine Soul Together, I can jump this many levels to fight. Of course, each level of the Soul Forging Realm provides a lot more power than each level of the Divine Soul Realm. So the higher the Stage of my opponent in the Soul Forging Realm, the lower will be the number of Stages I can jump.'' ''If he was in the 4th Stage, I would most likely need to be in the 6th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm to achieve the same result in my actual state. If he was in the 5th, then the 8th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm would be the bare minimum. Of course, there is the fact that I''m not using my Wisp Form, not attacking with my Tribulation Lightning, and not using a Domain Yet.'' Krune then took a look around with his Divine Sense and paid some attention to the several Soul Forging Realm cultivators and demon beasts battling. Considering all the groups fighting at the moment, Krune could finally make a comparison to understand what could be regarded as an ordinary level between them. ''Of course, that is only when I look at the ordinary level. If I include the guys from group chat who came with me, even their subordinates can do a lot more than just that. There is also the other Jade Slip Owners whose subordinates and friends are obviously a lot stronger than the majority in their level.'' Krune then noticed that some of those Jade Slip Group owners were having a tough time defending themselves as well. ''I see... it''s not because every group with Jade Slips are strong that the cultivators and demon beasts groups without one will necessarily be weak. There are a few of them who also have geniuses in between who can fight on equal grounds to them. They just didn''t have the luck to find a Jade Slip before. Fortunately, none of those groups are attacking my team at the moment.'' Although Krune was thinking a lot, the fact is that just a few seconds passed. After organizing all the details that he had been curious in his mind, Krune decided to pay attention to the opponent in front of him. The only reason that Krune could afford to pay attention to the others was that this guy wasn''t a cultivator focused on speed, and the Law that supports his Domain is only at the Initial Stage. In fact, Krune was sure that this guy is below the average level compared to the others at the moment in this Dimensional Realm. ''Let''s try out a domain, then.'' Krune looked at the fire-based Domain of his opponent and pondered a bit. But in the end, he couldn''t reach a conclusion, so Krune sent a Divine Sense message to him. "Hey, which type of Elemental Domain would you like to fight against? I can''t decide, so I will let you chose." His opponent almost vomited blood! ''What type should he use? Does that mean he can use all Elemental Types? Does he think I can''t see that he is only in the 4th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm? Is he trying to take me for a fool?'' Still, because Krune kept fleeing, he decided to select one to see if at least he stopped running. "My Domain is called Eternal Heating, why don''t you use another Fire Based Domain and see if you can counter attack mine?" Krune nodded and accepted the idea. His Fire Laws were the only ones that had two Sub-Laws at culmination, which are Burning and Annihilation. It would be an excellent chance to try a Domain based on both. "Alright, let''s see how to make one then. This is my first time trying to create a Domain, so please don''t mind if it turns out to be bad." His opponent felt like dying already! Is he going to create a Domain on the spot? Weren''t Domains something you need to ponder for a very long time and practice like crazy to finally be able to use? Since when they became something this cheap? While dodging his opponent''s attacks, Krune focused on the world around and paid special attention to his opponent Domain. He wanted to use it to understand how to release one of the same element. Because it was a fire-based Domain, the world around Krune looked at little red. Krune then focused on this image and tried to bring forth both Annihilation and Burning together with the Fire Element of the World. The space around Krune and the enemy, which was already red, became even redder. Not only that, but it seemed like the air itself started to ignite on its own! The temperature that was already high due to the Eternal Heating Domain also increased even more. Suddenly, the Eternal Heating Domain was engulfed by an even bigger fire-based Domain! Krune''s opponent looked at that as if he had seen a ghost. The Domain created by a 4th Stage Divine Soul Realm was completely suppressing his own! ''No, first of all, the only Divine Soul Realms I have ever seen using Domains were already in the Late Stages. Not to mention that their Domains were at most at the same level as mine. But this guy is only at the 4th Stage at the moment, and his Domain level is far above my one. This is ridiculous!'' He wasn''t the only one seeing that. Quite a few battles around stopped for a moment after that enormous Fire Domain appeared. A Fire-type Demon beast looked at that and couldn''t help but comment. "What a terrifying Fire Domain." It was then that Krune''s opponent thought about something. Even though he can''t use other Fire Sub-laws, he can at least identify them through the World of Laws. Thanks to that, he finally found out what Laws Krune was using. In the end, that vision made him start to consider if he had lived his life in vain. ''Burning and Annihilation, both at culmination...'' But this is, after all, a Life and Death battle. He can''t simply give up now. ''I have the advantage in cultivation. If we continue like this, his Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy shouldn''t last as long as mine!'' Krune looked at his newly created Domain and then sighed. "As I thought, it went quite bad for the first time creating a Domain. The Burning and Annihilation Laws are not working very well together either. I will need to practice a lot to make it usable." Everyone who heard that felt like killing themselves already! If this is what you think to be bad, just what would you say about our Domains then? Perhaps even trash would already be an overstatement! Of course, due to the difference in cultivation, Krune could only suppress his opponent now. He couldn''t simply throw caution to the wind and charge at him. ''As I thought, this guy is really below average compared to the others at his level. So, with my Tribulation Lightning Movement, Laws, Elemental Divine Soul Full Control, and Domain, I can fight 9 stages or maybe a Full Realm above against average cultivators or demon beasts. Now, if I want to finish this battle fast, I will need to start using other Laws as well. As for my Wisp Form, Tribulation Lightning Attacks, and Hexagonal Shields, it won''t be necessary unless a 5th Stage Soul Forging Realm comes at me.'' Krune then looked at Ruik and Tiane''s battle. ''Tiane and Ruik are the only ones having a hard time. Well, even if they are fighting together, their opponent is still 9 Stages above them and in another Realm as well. The only reason that they haven''t lost yet is that Ruik can use the Dream Laws. I can see that his opponent''s perception is being severely affected by that. Still, it seems like Ruik failed in dragging him into the Dream World, though. There is also the fact that Tiane and Ruik are using their Elemental Laws to resist the opponent''s Domain.'' Krune also took a look at Feifei and Xankruan. But after seeing that, he couldn''t help but smile. ''Now, that is interesting.'' 330 A Good Name Krune saw Feifei using a realm domain for the first time. Feifei was using a Water Type Domain, which used her only Elemental Sub-Law that reached Culmination, Flow! Krune could see that with her Domain and Xankruan''s support, they were having an easier time than himself. But that wasn''t all, Krune could also feel that Feifei was using two different Water Sub-Laws in that Domain, it''s just that the second one wasn''t perfect yet. ''That is obviously Wave Sub-Law. Xankruan is a close-range attacker, while Feifei had always been more like the support type. Those two really complement each other quite well. Xankruan doesn''t seem like to have a Domain yet, but the fact that she comprehended the Gravity Sub-Law is an enormous help for a close-range attacker like her. It''s just that her gravity pull isn''t good enough to make significant changes since it is still in the Initial Stage.'' Krune also noticed that Feifei wasn''t making use of her Destiny Divine Soul, which he thought that was on purpose. ''She, too, doesn''t want to show all the cards here.'' Lastly, Krune looked at Dilo''s battle against Illo. But he didn''t need to pay attention for long. Dilo''s Domain has a Wind Sub-Law at the culmination level. He also has the Elemental Meridians, which further increase the control over the Wind Element. Dilo was totally playing with that 5th Stage Soul Forging Realm guy. To be more specific, Dilo was using this opportunity to try out many things that he couldn''t during the last two-plus years collecting Elemental Path Stones. ''Okay, I better finish my side fast so that I can lend Ruik and Tiane a help.'' Krune then stopped being on the defensive. So far, the only thing he used was the Fire-Based Domain, but he still hadn''t attacked yet. Now, it was time to start attacking as well. "Blazing Wind Blades!" Since Krune decided that he wouldn''t use his Tribulation Lightning to attack, he would have to rely on his traditional skills. Of course, Krune''s skills are on a completely different level now that he is in the Divine Soul Realm and has Full Control over the Divine Soul. ''But, this is more than enough.'' Several of Blazing Wind Blades rushed at the enemy from all sides. The guy noticed the power behind it and knew that if he put his all, he would probably be able to defend against half of them before they broke through his Energy Protection. Any cultivator or demon beast at this level can easily form a barrier of Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy, so it is quite a common practice between them to always keep it up. ''No, I better dodge to save as much energy as possible.'' The guy saw that the majority of those Blades would hit his lower body, so he immediately moved up... or so he tried. Suddenly, an enormous gravitational pull came out of nowhere, and his intention to dodge was disrupted. Krune nodded and then continued. But this time, even more skills came out than the last time. "Blazing Wind Blades!" "Thunder Line!" "Fire..." Krune''s opponent felt like he had seen a ghost and totally lost his will to fight. ''Flee!'' He ignored everything and tried to rush out of Krune''s Domain as fast as possible. Of course, with Krune''s Gravity Laws, it became something really hard to do. Every time he tried to dodge a skill, Gravity would start to act in different levels of power. Sometimes Krune purposely didn''t use Gravity to disrupt his opponent, making him rush at Krune''s skills by himself. In the end, he lost all his protection and was hit by Krune''s attacks one after another. It then finished with Krune using a Fire Explosion skill that sent him flying! Everyone looked at him and felt a chill on their back, no one that charred body was dead or alive. But he wasn''t the only one. "Ahhhrg!" Right after Krune finished his opponent, another Soul Forging Realm cultivator was also defeated. The difference is that this one was in the 5th Stage instead of 3rd. When Krune and the others looked at him, they saw a dried up body and the Death Energy that flowed around it. That guy couldn''t be more dead. "Booooring!" Right after, Uer appeared beside him and kicked the body away. Around him, one could see a Domain as well. Krune looked at that through the World of Laws and immediately narrowed his eyes. ''Darkness Sub-Laws, two at Culmination, they seem like Decay and Death. There is also one at the Advanced Stage. If I''m not wrong, that is the Dark Essence Sub-Law. The two higher Elements, Light and Dark, are a lot harder to comprehend, but he already can use a Domain with three of them. I have no doubt that he can also use other types of Sub-Laws, but he seems to be holding back just like me.'' Uer also noticed Krune inside his Fire Domain and smiled at him. After that, he looked around the battles that his group was going through and then rushed inside. His Darkness-Based Domain covered a few of the lower realm Cultivators and Demon Beasts, and it immediately started to rob them of their life. Krune understood that no one would be able to rob Uer of his Jade Slip like that. He then stopped paying attention to that part of the field and rushed back to help Ruik and Tiane. Krune could have gone to help them earlier, but this type of pressure is exactly what one needs to improve. So he only joined the fray when Ruik and Tiane reached their limit. His Fire Domain covered their opponent, and the flow of the battle immediately changed. With Krune, Ruik, and Tiane working together, especially Krune, all they needed was a few seconds to severe injury him. The guy knew that everything was lost when Krune appeared, so he tried to flee as well. But how could they let him go? Because he lost his attention for a moment, Ruik was finally able to bring him into his Dream World. Due to the difference in cultivation and the fact that he also knows Laws, Ruik wouldn''t be able to keep him there for more than 1 or 2 seconds. Still, that was more than enough to finish his unprotected body outside. Just like that, another one of the attackers was dealt with. Krune looked at those two and said. "Try to get some rest, I will give Feifei and Xan-" "Boom!" Before Krune could even finish talking, another Soul Forging Realm was defeated. This one just so happens to be Feifei and Xankruan''s opponent on top of that. Krune smiled bitterly, seeing that. "Cough, cough. Nevermind." Dilo''s battle was almost finished as well, so Krune didn''t intervene. He looked around to those Divine Soul Realm geniuses groups and noticed that they, too, were pretty much finished on their side as well. That was to be expected since even their Soul Forging Realm subordinates and friends were already stronger than your ordinary ones. Dilo noticed that Krune and the others already finished their side and decided to put an end to it as well. He further increased his number of attacks and the power of his Storm Domain. His opponent was already in the defensive to start with, and now, he couldn''t even defend anymore. In the end, he could only flee, but not after being severely injured by Dilo as well. He rushed inside of one of the Multi-Dimensional Realms and disappeared just like that. The other groups on his side also finished their battles not too long after, and they gathered with Krune''s group again. Fiarit was there as well and decided to ask Krune, or better, Darten. "Darten, what is the name of that Fire Domain of yours?" Fiarit and everyone else also saw Krune''s Fire Domain, and they had to admit that none of them could pull that off. They could use a Domain already, but definitely not one as strong as Krune''s. Not to mention that Krune won a fight against a 3rd Stage Soul Forging Realm while he is still at the 4th Stage of the Divine Soul. As much as they didn''t want to, they knew that Krune has the highest talent between them. Of course, the majority of those Geniuses in the Divine Soul Realm are in the Late Stages, so they also would be able to fight a 3rd Stage Soul Forging Realm too. But that is because their cultivation is higher. Krune, or better, Darten, started to ponder a bit about this question. "A name... I just created this Domain on the spot, so I haven''t thought about a name for it. I just used it because when I asked that guy which type of Elemental Domain he would like to fight against, he selected a Fire-Based like his own. Is there anyone here with a good idea for a name?" Krune then looked at everyone and saw their shocked faces. He thought for a second and then ''understood'' why they looked at him like that. "Come on! Do you really need to make such faces just because it has no name? It''s not that big of a deal, right?!" Everyone almost vomited blood! Fiarit couldn''t hold back and shouted at him. "Who the hell is shocked because it has no name? We are like this because you said that you create it on the spot! Are you making fun of us? First of all, doesn''t that mean that you can create any Elemental Domain you like at any time? Go die!" Feifei and the others nodded vigorously as well. They, too, understood very well how Fiarit and the other geniuses are feeling. It''s just that they already got used to it... a little. 331 Long Time No See Krune felt like he was being wronged. ''Since I could do it, then I just did. Is there a need to take it this seriously? Look around, can''t you see Domains everywhere? It was just that I was... a little faster.'' Of course, he felt like they would complain even more if he told them that, so he decided to leave at that. In the end, Krune simply decided to call it ''Burnnihilation Domain.'' He uses both the Burning and Annihilation with it, so that would be an easy name to remember. Still, the others looked weirdly at him, and that made him feel even more embarrassed. "What?! I''m not good at names, okay? At least it has a name now!" Krune then ignored everyone and looked at the situation on the battlefield. Uer''s side, obviously, crushed all those who tried to take his Jade Slip. With his three Sub-Laws domain, it was obvious that no one could even get close to him. The other teams that also were successful in defending their jade Slips were Ricarte, Mohie Maran, Lutin, Amelia, and a few others. Still, there were two whose groups couldn''t get the upper hand and lost their Jade Slips. There was also one of the Jade Slip Owner teams that decided to break through the encirclement and fled to one of the Multi-Dimensional Realms. Ricarte came back after his own battle to talk with Krune, or better, Darten. "Hey, Darten. How was it on your side?" Krune nodded and answered. "A few deaths, but the majority is still fine." Krune then looked around and commented. "Still, the big majority of the Cultivators and Demon beasts who were not in a Jade Slip Group did not act against us. Could it be that they were waiting for a chance to attack as well?" Ricarte shook his head. "No, it is just that those are all small groups or are acting solo. If they really got a Jade Slip by chance, they would become everyone''s target. Also, there is definitely a lot who preferred to keep their forces intact instead of risk get injured at the very start. So don''t let your guard down, you never know when they will come for your group''s Jade Slip." Krune nodded and then asked. "What are you planning to do now? Do you want to enter the same Multi-Dimensional Realm as us?" Ricarte shook his head. "My group and I are going to look for our own opportunities. So we are entering a different realm than the others. Of course, with the number of unaffiliated cultivators and demon beasts, there will probably be quite a few entering the same one like us. Still, I hope that no one with a Jade Slip follows us." Krune nodded, and then he pointed in a certain direction. "We are going in that direction. When I tested those realms with my Wind Blades earlier, I noticed that the air environment was pretty much as this one." Ricarte nodded. Krune also had the same feeling. "I think so, too, this is probably not the last place where the Jade Slips can be used." Ricarte then bid his farewell and left for one of the realms. From what Krune could feel with his Wind Blades, that one was probably a water type one. Krune then looked at Fiarit and the others and asked. "Well, are you guys planning to follow us, or are you going to try to find your own opportunities as well?" Krune and his friends had decided before that if possible, they would separate. But if Fiarit and the others are determined to follow, then it would be hard to leave them behind. It is one thing if Krune can use the Tribulation Lightning Movement, but completely different for Feifei and the others. Fiarit shrugged his shoulder and said. "I''m not the type who needs to rely on the others, so my group and I are simply entering another realm. See ya!" Before Krune could even say anything, Fiarit and his companions already rushed into a random direction. A few seconds later, they disappeared from sight. It was evident that they entered some other realm. From the rest of the Divine Soul Realm geniuses, the majority made the same decision as Fiarit. Krune, or better, Darten and his group are very strong. It would be idiotic to follow them and have to fight for the resources later. In the end, there was only one exception, Joiu Rak and his group. "I prefer to bet that your Jade Slip will give me better opportunities." Krune and his group looked at each other and then nodded. "That''s okay, but. Are you sure you want to follow us? It will be a competition of skills from now on, so I can''t guarantee that we will share things with you." Joiu Rak shrugged his shoulder and said. "The same could be said for you. If we are faster, we will get the rewards. But my main reason is to keep a strong enough team together. It will make things safer for us." Krune nodded and didn''t try to stop him anymore. "Darten, shall we go?" Krune, or better, Darten, looked at him and said. "Just wait a minute, another two guys are coming with us." Joiu was surprised that there was still someone and then looked around. Sure enough, some moments later, he noticed two demon beasts moving in their direction. One of then laughed out loud and tried to talk. "Hey J-" Immediately, the other one covered his mouth and stopped him from talking. "It''s Darten this time, idiot." Only then did he realize that he almost said too much and nodded. "Sorry, sorry." "Hey, Darten, long time no see!" Krune also laughed and went ahead to greet them. "Indeed, it seems like you two brothers are still as close as ever." Feifei also came forward and greeted them. Those two are none other than the Krakat Cougar Brothers, Tinnian and Rarol. They were part of Marshine''s group together with Krune and Feifei back then when the Elemental Path opened. At that time, their group had relied on Rarol''s instinct and Krune''s enormous Divine Sense to avoid most of the problems. Krune knew that Rarol''s instinct was no joke, so he called those two brothers over. He didn''t know if they would come since a Mohie Clan inheritance is known for its dangers, and those two were still in the Divine Soul Realm. Fortunately, Rarol answered straight away, and they came as well. Tinnian looked at Krune and shrugged his shoulders. "Rarol''s instinct told him that we definitely shouldn''t lose this opportunity. So, here we are!" Krune nodded and then introduced the Cougar Brothers to the rest of the group. Krune''s objective in calling them here as pretty obvious. He wanted to rely on Rarol''s instinct to guide them through the Dimensional Realm. Those two brothers never get separated, so he invited both at the same time. It turns out that this is the perfect type of Dimensional Realm where Rarol''s instinct would shine. Even Krune was surprised when he heard about this Multi-Dimensional Realm from Ricarte. His decision to enter the next realm was also based on Rarol''s opinion, which he talked about through Divine Sense earlier. Feifei then looked at the two and joked. "Still, didn''t you see that we were in the middle of a battle earlier? You could have helped us a little, you know?" Rarol laughed once more and said. "There was no need, I knew that you could deal with it. Don''t forget that we saw what you were capable of back in the Elemental Path Realm, let alone now that your cultivations improved so much. Both my brother and I wouldn''t have been of much help to start with. After all, our cultivation speed is ordinary. Haha!" That was true, they don''t have the Myriad Energies Technique, so their cultivation improved just a single realm each since the time the Elemental path closed. In fact, that can already be considered very good since they improved a stage of the Divine Soul Realm in just three years. It seems like the resources that they got in exchange for the Elemental Flowers was the main reason behind it. Tinnian was at the 4th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm at that time, so now he is in the 5th. As for Rarol, he went from the 2nd to the 3rd Stage, just like Tiane and Ruik. Of course, their combat power was far behind what Ruik and Tiane had. Krune then asked the brothers. "Did you at least comprehend any Laws with those Elemental Flowers?" Tinnian shook his head and then looked at Rarol. "It is embarrassing to say this but, only my little brother here comprehended one. I still can''t feel anything." Rarol kept laughing as always and said. "Who cares? Compared to Darten and Fina, what my Initial Stage of the Shadow Sub-Law can amount for?" Although he said that, Krune was quite impressed with this outcome. Shadow is also the only Sub-Law of the Darkness Element that Krune comprehended so far. For Rarol to comprehend it instead of the other Elemental Laws is definitely a reason to be proud. Especially because he doesn''t have the Elemental Meridians and is still in the 3rd Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. Joiu noticed more and more groups leaving and then urged their group. "Hey, if you keep talking for too long, all the treasures will be taken away." Krune and the others nodded. "Joiu is right, let''s go." 332 First Bubble Realm Krune and the others then moved in the direction that they agreed earlier. Sure enough, due to the sheer amount of cultivators and demon beasts, quite a few groups or solo ones followed them as well. Krune didn''t mind, though. It was something that they couldn''t avoid unless they attacked everyone. That obviously wouldn''t work since there was a lot more than the number that attacked them before. When they passed through the division between realms, they finally were able to see how the next realm resembled. It looked like a gigantic valley in the middle of the mountains. However, when Krune looked beyond the mountains on both sides, all he could see was darkness. It was pretty evident that the ''bubble'' realm isn''t that big to start with. Krune could also see quite a few cultivators and demon beasts ahead who had entered this realm before them. At the bottom of the valley, his group could see a small village as well. Through his Divine Sense, Krune noticed that there were a few cultivators and demon beasts in those houses looking for treasures or resources. Noticing that everything looked fine, Krune once again reduced the connection between him and his Divine Soul. Heavin immediately woke up after that and took control of the parrot once more. Krune then gave a quick explanation to him and then moved forward. Still, even though this bubble realm didn''t look too big, it was several times the size that Krune''s Divine Sense could cover. Krune looked at Rarol and waited for his opinion. Rarol then shrugged his shoulders and said. "You know how it works. My instincts don''t act when I want them to. So, at the moment, I can say even less than you can. But that also might mean that there isn''t much in this first realm." Joiu Rak heard that and felt puzzled. ''Are they perhaps relying on this Demon Beast''s instinct? Is that a good idea?'' Of course, he was the one who decided to follow, so he had no right to complain about how they did things. Krune nodded and said. "I see, anyway, let''s keep moving them. If you feel anything, just give us a warning." Krune''s group then quickly descended into the valley and entered the village as well. Unfortunately, as far as their Divine Sense could tell, there was nothing worth paying attention to. Everyone then agreed to separate and search the village as well. However, they made sure that everyone kept inside the other''s Divine Sense, just in case. The village didn''t look that big from afar. But once Krune''s group started to search, it took quite some time for them to look into all the houses. Finally, they arrived at the other side of the village, and they noticed quite a few cultivators and demon beasts gathered in front of a big house. Krune then asked one of the demon beasts about what was happening. "Everyone tried to enter this house, but it doesn''t matter what you do, it simply doesn''t open. The guys are discussing if they should start attacking or not. Mohie Clan Inheritances have lots of traps, so some are afraid that it might trigger some calamity." Krune nodded, and his group moved forward to take a look. On the door, Krune could see the symbol of the Mohie Clan, so he thought that it might be related to the Jade Slip. Krune brought it forward, and sure enough, the seal on the door started to shine and then disappeared. The few cultivators and demon beasts in this place got excited, and they all tried to rush inside. Krune narrowed his eyes and was about to do the same thing when suddenly, he and his group received a Divine Sense Message from Rarol. "Not good! Fall back, now!" Krune and Feifei already told Ruik and the others to always trust Rarol''s instinct. So they immediately flew away as fast as possible. As for Joiu and his group, they hesitated a bit. After all, they couldn''t see anything wrong. Still, Joiu gritted his teeth and decided to trust Krune, or better, Darten''s friend. Suddenly, the house started to shine, and just a split of a second later... "Boom!" An enormous explosion of Spiritual Energy blasted the house and everything hundreds of meters around it. The shock wave also sent the Cultivators and Demon Beasts who were close to the explosion flying! Because Joiu''s group hesitated a bit, some of his lower realm subordinates were still caught by the explosion and received several injuries. Some were light, while others were quite serious. The shockwave finally passed, and nothing more than an enormous crater remained. Although the biggest majority still survived, that was because they weren''t close to the house. Those who were too close or had entered it, their outcome was pretty much obvious. Krune and Joiu''s group gathered again and looked at the place where the house previously was. They couldn''t help but feel a chill on their back. They, too, were just about to rush inside for fear of losing the treasures and resources that might have been there. Joiu made his companions who were injured swallow a few healing pills and then looked at Rarol. He finally understood why Krune, or better, Darten, trusted him. He was just not sure if it was really instinct or not. Still, that doesn''t matter. As long as it works, he will also follow this guy''s words. Krune kept looking and couldn''t help but comment. "No wonder they say that the Mohie Clan Inheritances are dangerous. Even after Rarol warned me, I still couldn''t sense anything. Only when that big house started to shine did I feel the enormous amount of Spiritual Energy that was charged inside it." Joiu nodded. "I also hadn''t been in a Mohie Clan Inheritance before, so I only read the information. Still, seeing it with your own eyes is another story. We will need to be a lot more cautious from now on." Rarol was also looking at the place that the explosion happened and then said. "Darten, I think there is something there now." Krune and Joiu looked at him and then back at the crater. Because the explosion had just happened, there was smoke and dust everywhere. Also, the explosion affected the flow of spiritual energy, so Krune and the others were having a hard time seeing inside with their Divine Senses. Krune didn''t mind it and decided to enter anyway. After walking slowly for a bit, he was finally able to see what the thing that Rarol said was. On the ground at the center of the explosion, there was a tiny crystal, not much bigger than a ring. However, everyone could feel the energy that it contained. Krune collected it and tried to verify with his Divine Sense, but he and the others couldn''t tell what the use of it was. "Well, let''s keep it for now." After that house exploded, everyone started to take extra care while looking into the other houses. Still, in the end, they didn''t find anything else. Everyone then took flight once more and started to move to the other side of this bubble realm. Krune kept his Divine Sense spread to see if he could find something, but until the very ending, there was nothing. When they reached the other end of the bubble realm, Krune''s group noticed that once again, several cultivators and demon beasts were gathered. When they landed, they noticed something that looked like a large door attached to the end of the bubble realm. "This is probably the door that connects to the next Bubble Realm. But it seems like it is closed at the moment." Everyone waiting there then looked at Krune. They all knew that he is one of those who have a Jade Slip, so they thought that they would need him to open the next Bubble Realm. Krune didn''t have a reason to do otherwise either, so he simply approached it and took his Jade Slip out. Everyone immediately took several steps back and were ready to flee at any moment. Krune looked at them, and his mouth twitched. They want him to test things first before getting close. Still, if Krune doesn''t do that, he will have to give it to someone else to try it out. Since he didn''t want to give away his Jade Slip, he obviously had to do it himself. Krune then charged the Tribulation Lightning around his body and was ready to move away from this door as fast s possible if it was needed. But in the end, the Jade Slip caused no changes on the door what so ever. "Seems like this is not it." Ruik then suggested from far away. "Try that crystal that we found earlier, that might be it." Although Krune felt somewhat gloomy for being the only one here, he still did what Ruik said. He took that small crystal from his Spatial Ring, and sure enough, it started to resonate with the door. To be safe, Krune didn''t get too close. Instead, he simply threw the crystal against it. The moment the crystal touched the door, it looked like it fell into a lake instead of hitting a wall. It then disappeared inside, and the door started to shine as well. Krune didn''t care what that meant, he immediately backed away as fast as possible. When he reached a place that he felt to be safe, he started to look at the door too. This time there was no explosion, though. The door then started to open slowly until finally, everyone could see the other side. Sure enough, that door connected to the next bubble realm. 333 Any Ideas? This time, it was an enormous mountain that extended for several hundreds of kilometers. Around the mountain, there was nothing more than emptiness, it was obvious that this Realm only extended that far. When Krune''s group passed through the door, they noticed that behind them, there was no opening anymore. Still, cultivators and demon beast kept appearing one after another. Krune tried to go back through the location that he came, but there was nothing but the air there. "It is as Ricarte mentioned, the realms wouldn''t allow you to go back at some point. I just didn''t expect it to be this soon." Everyone also noticed something else. "Divine Sense is being extremely restricted in this place." Krune nodded. "Indeed. I can''t see more than 3km around me. Also, we better be prepared because there is a chance that several Realms, if not all of the next ones, will have the same effect." Krune''s group and everyone else then started to explore the mountainsides without entering the void. But the outside of the mountain seemed to be completely empty. A few minutes earlier, they received the information that a cave entrance was found not too far from where they are. Arriving there, Krune noticed that all cultivators and demon beasts were gathered once more. It''s not that they were afraid of entering, but because they couldn''t. In front of the cave, there was a seal preventing anyone from passing through. Krune asked everyone to take a safe distance to try to use his Jade Slip once more. But then one of the cultivators waiting said. "I think it is not the issue. This Seal will be opened in another way." Krune and the others looked at him, puzzled. "Well, touch the seal, and you will understand what I mean." Krune noticed that a few of the earlier ones were also doing that. His group then touched the Seal, and sure enough, a stream of information flowed inside their soul. "Only once everyone in this Realm is gathered, shall this Seal be removed." They immediately understood why the Jade Slip would be of no use here. Joiu pondered a bit and then said. "That makes sense. There are only 18 Jade Slips, but there are a lot more realms than that. How would the cultivators and demon beasts that don''t have a Jade Slip proceed forward? The Realm also has its own ways to allow everyone to pass through since it was obviously created to support a lot of them." Krune nodded. "Indeed. That house that exploded before. Maybe there was another way to activate that explosion as well. It''s just that since I had the Jade Slip, it opened straight away. Let me see if this Seal can be opened with the Jade Slip as well." Krune brought his Jade Slip forward, but this time, the Seal had no reaction what so ever. "Seems like we need to wait for the rest to gather here, then." The information soon spread to the others who were exploring outside. More and more cultivators and demon beasts started to gather in front of the Seal. Around one hour later, just when a solo demon beast arrived, the Seal started to shine. Everyone felt a chill of their backs and immediately ran far away from the Seal. No one wanted to be close if this thing decides to explode as well. But in the end, the Seal in front of the door disappeared. Krune''s group and the others came back once more... slowly. When then finally got in front of the cave, no changes happened at all. "Well, I guess we can just enter." Usually, the greed ones would have rushed inside, but it seems that the last house explosion helped them to cool down their heads. The cave entrance was enormous, so everyone could pass without any struggle. All the teams continued forward until they reached a bifurcation. There were no Signs, Seals, Formations, or whatever. But everyone soon noticed another thing. "The Divine Sense is even more restricted here, I can''t see more than a single kilometer ahead now." Obviously, the cultivators and demon beasts would need to choose their own paths without the Divine Sense help. Rarol then sent a Divine Sense message to their group. "Right side. I feel like the left will not have a nice outcome." No one asked any questions, and they immediately entered the right entrance. The majority of the Demon Beasts and Cultivators ended following Krune''s group, but a few decided to try their luck and entered left. Krune''s group continue forward for a few minutes when suddenly, they felt the cave tremble! Everyone immediately raised their energy barriers and got ready for any situation. However, nothing happened after that. Dilo looked at his group and the commented. "It was probably the guys who took the left side. Whatever they found there, it doesn''t seem to have been good." Krune and everyone else nodded. "Let''s keep going." Not too long after, their group had to select another route. But this time, there were three paths to be chosen. Rarol looked at them and narrowed his eyes. His older brother, Tinnian, noticed it and then asked. "What is it?" Rarol then said with a Divine Sense Message. "The center seems fine while the left gives me the same sensation as the previous one. As for the right... it is a mix of good and bad feelings. If I was to guess, there would be some interesting rewards, but at the same time equivalent danger. It is up to you guys which side you are going to follow, center, or right." Krune looked at everyone, and they nodded. "Well, the right side it is!" That was obvious. They came here to see if this Mohie Zarks had something to do with the same Mohie Zarks from the Luvile Universe. But at the same time, they also wanted to find treasures, resources, and Soul Techniques for Heavin to analyze. Once again, the majority followed Krune''s group while a few took the left and center paths. This time, Krune and his group were moving very slowly to be ready for any trap. After a few minutes, the cave trembled again. They didn''t need to think much to understand that the left path was probably the reason. They ignored it and pressed forward. At some point, Krune detected that the tunnel started to expand. Soon, they reached what seemed to be an enormous space inside the mountain. They looked around and could see several small cave rooms on the sides. On the other side, the path to keep moving forward as there as well. Just as Krune and the others were about to enter that space, Rarol stopped them with a Divine Sense Message. "There is something ahead." Although Krune and his group stopped, some of the cultivators and demon beasts didn''t. They rushed inside, expecting to be the first one to take the treasures in those rooms. The rest had noticed that Krune didn''t enter, so they, too, decided to play safe and wait with Krune. Sure enough, that space that seemed to be silent until now changed completely. Krune felt the Spiritual Energy rushing into the soil, and soon, several vines shot out of it. They immediately targeted the cultivators and demons beasts that entered the space. Those guys were all in the Divine Soul or Soul Forging Realm, so they obviously had the power to protect themselves... or so they thought. Although their attacks damaged some of the vines, the majority were still fine. It didn''t matter what element or laws they used; it didn''t seem to have much of an effect on the vines either. That wasn''t all. Their energy barriers were utterly useless against those vines. They pierced through it as if they were made of paper! Those vines soon penetrated everyone who entered the space, and the bodies of the Demon Beasts and Cultivators started to dry quickly. They tried their best to get rid of the vines, but it was useless. Just a few seconds later, only their bones were left behind. Still, there were three exceptions! Two Demon Beasts in human form and one Cultivator were at the center of the room, looking at all of that frightened. But for some reason, the vines didn''t target them. Krune was paying attention to everything and then said. "I see, so that''s how it is." He then started to move forward as if nothing had happened in the first place. Feifei and the others didn''t understand what he was thinking but followed him nonetheless. Soon, Krune got beside those three who felt too scared to move. "Don''t worry, the vines will not attack you here." Krune then looked behind to the others and said. "As long as we don''t enter those cave rooms, the vines won''t do anything. Just follow the center path through the room to the exit on the other side, and we will all be safe. Those vines are here to protect the cave rooms, that''s all." Finally, everyone understood why Krune wasn''t afraid of entering and soon followed. Just as he said, those vines did not approach the center path that leads to the other side. While the others were passing, Krune and his group stayed in the center of the room. There were, of course, a few others who also stayed there, and they all had the same idea. If those caves are being protected, then some of the treasures and resources that they are after is probably inside. Feifei then looked at Krune and the others. "Well, any ideas?" 334 Attack! Krune pondered a bit and said. "It depends on how the Vines feel our presence. Could it be Divine Sense?" Feifei understood what Krune wanted. "The Tribulation Lightning Layer can indeed hide you from Divine Sense, but I think it is too risky. As far as I can see, those vines would probably be a problem even for Void Breaking Realm cultivators and demon beasts." Suddenly, Krune and the others saw one of the cultivators trying to move close. Surprisingly, they could barely feel his presence. If not because he was right in front of them, they might have missed him unless he got closer. "He''s using a technique to merge with the environment." At first, it seemed to be working. He got into the range of the vines, but they didn''t seem to react. Unfortunately, just when he stepped on the soil between the vines, the situation changed, and the vines all shot at him. That guy noticed that things had gone south and burst out of the Vines Range. Fortunately, he was prepared for it, so he was fast enough to leave their attack range. Krune looked a the full event and then had an idea. "Maybe, it is the vibrations." Everyone looked at him, puzzled. "Any movements that you make will cause a reaction. Once you step forward, the ground trembles a bit, if you decide to float, the air around you will move. All of that causes vibration, which I believe the vines are using to feel our presence." Krune then trowed a Wind Blade above the Vines, and sure enough, the vines immediately attacked it. Finally, everyone understood what Krune meant with that. Dilo then thought about one thing. "Look at the other side of the vines. It seems like they are only stopping us from passing through. They are not beside those cave rooms. I''m not sure, but there is a chance that once we pass through the vines, we will be able to enter the cave rooms and take what is inside." Krune and the others nodded. They, too, noticed this much. One of the outsiders also noticed when Krune threw that wind blade and tried to fly above the vines'' range. Unfortunately, that idea failed miserably. That''s because when he approached the top of that space, more vines came out of it and attacked him. Different from the last guy, this one didn''t react fast enough and was soon sucked dry by the vines in the ceiling. "Seems like that flying past them is also of the question. The vines above are covering any possible gaps now." It was then that Ruik had an idea and sent Krune and his group a Divine Sense Message. "Hey, what about Ao''s skill? Wouldn''t it be perfect?" Krune was the only one who understood what Ruik was talking about. "Yes! Ao''s Vacuum Blade!" Ruik and Krune noticed Feifei, Tiane, Dilo, and Xankruan''s puzzled faces and then explained. Krune then pondered a bit and said. "Still, at my level at the moment, I think I can use it to make a tunnel void of any air." Krune then accessed his memory and soon found the skill. Back then, Krune could already use it to a certain degree, so now it would be a lot easier. That skill was, after all, made for low-level cultivators and demon beasts to use. Krune didn''t have a sword to use like Ao. However, he could still create something similar with his Spiritual Energy Manipulation. It wouldn''t compare with the real thing, but it was more than enough for what he wanted to do. Krune then made a small modification so that instead of clearing the air around him, it would create a long void tunnel. The vines soon noticed the difference in the air around them and started to attack in all directions. Still, there was nothing for them there. When the airflow returned to normal, the vines calmed down again. Still, Krune''s void tunnel was there, without any air inside. It''s just that it couldn''t be seen since there was nothing inside. Ruik then put a little of spiritual energy inside a pebble he found on the ground and threw it through the tunnel. Sure enough, the pebble passed by the tunnel in a flash, but since there was no air, no vibrations were created. The pebble landed on the wall on the other side, and nothing happened to it. Just to make sure, Ruik also threw another pebble. This time, he didn''t use the Void Tunnel, though. As expected, the vines immediately attacked and destroyed that pebble. That was the proof that they needed, the vines really are reacting to the ground and air''s vibrations. The other cultivators and demon beasts also saw that, and their eyes lit up. But there was one problem, what if someone tries to alert the vines while someone is passing through? Feifei then sent a Divine Sense message to Krune. Krune understood what she wanted and then released his Burnnihilation Domain! Krune looked at the cultivators and demon beasts outside his group and said. "I don''t mind if you use your own methods to reach the other side and take whatever is there. First come, first served. I totally agreed with this sentence. But if any of you tries to purposely alert the vines while my friends are passing through, know that there will be no tomorrow for you." What Feifei told Krune was that she was going there to check. She will be using her Destiny Divine Soul to the best of her abilities to try to predict any movements in the vines. Although Krune wasn''t sure about it, he had to trust her. Krune could also have been the one passing through. But because he is one of the strongest in their group, it was better to stay behind to serve as a warning for the others. "In exchange, I promise that my group will not touch anyone who tries their own methods to reach the other side. Whatever you do, it''s up to you." Feifei then concentrated in her Destiny Divine Soul. Although the level of this realm is high, she could at least see a few seconds in the future. That was enough for her to pass through the sea of vines. As soon as she saw one opportunity, she rushed at top speed to the other side. She wasn''t the only one, though. Ruik followed right behind as well to help her check the cave rooms. Soon, they landed on the other side. Fortunately, the vines really didn''t attack there. As for Joiu and his group, they decided to pay attention to the other side of the room instead. "Since Fina and Kiur can land on that side without problem, it means that the opposite side is the same." Joiu then took a Runestone Formation out of his Spatial Ring and charged it with Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy. This one is a Golden Stars Teleport Runestone. Different from the ones Krune used in the past, this one could be charged in just a few seconds. Joiu wasn''t the only one to think about it. Still, because no one was sure if the other side of the vines was safe or not, no one wanted to teleport there. Soon, Joiu and a few members of his group disappeared with a flash of silver light. Right after, the same group already appeared on the other side of the vines'' range. Seeing that, the other cultivators and demon beasts did similar things and started to pass through the vines without alerting them. They were especially relieved when they saw that Krune kept his promise and didn''t do anything to stop them. Since Feifei and Ruik were the first ones to arrive, they were also the first to enter a Cave Room. After making sure that there was nothing to stop them, they immediately put everything inside their Spatial Rings and rushed to the next. One by one, Feifei, Ruik, and the other cultivators and demon beasts kept their making harvest. There had been even a few fights in the rooms, but no one tried to attack Ruik or Feifei. When the rooms were finally emptied, those who survived immediately used their own methods to return to the center of the room. Feifei and Ruik also did the same and passed by Krune''s Void Tunnel. Tiane and the others received them with a smiled and asked. "So, what did we get there?" Feifei and Ruik used spare Spatial Rings to collect the rewards, so they made it possible for the others in their group to check inside with their Divine Senses. It turns out that there wasn''t any treasure per see, it was all cultivation resources. Spirit Stones of Rank 8 or higher, Different Pills, Herbs, and a few others. There was quite a good amount, which at least made up for the risk of going to the other side. Feifei then took two Jade Slips out of her Spatial Ring and passed them to Heavin. "I found these two Soul Related Techniques. I don''t know how good they are, but I know that they are different from the ones Krune gave you." Heavin immediately used his Divine Sense to read the information inside. After he finished, he got excited. "Good! No wonder this Mohie Clan is considered a Soul Eespecialized one. These two Soul Techniques aren''t anything impressive, but it is evident that they have been refined several times. It seems like we are going to find quite a few of them in this Dimensional Realm." Sometime later, Joiu reappeared beside Krune and the others. It was visible that he used another Teleport Runestone Formation again to bring everyone back. Krune looked at him and saw that he looked in a good mood. "It seems like your group also had a good harvest." Joiu laughed and then nodded. "Indeed. Although it is all cultivation resources, there was quite a bit of it." Krune nodded and then said. "Well, it seems like the rooms have all been emptied. In that case, let''s keep moving forward." 335 The Outcome Krune''s group and the other cultivators and demon beasts kept moving forward after the vines room event. In the end, the number of passages that they had to chose kept increasing. Fortunately, Rarol''s instinct wasn''t just for show. By now, the paths already surpassed more than 10 choices. But Krune and the others also noticed one thing. Behind them, there where other tunnels that connected to the paths rooms. It seemed like those who selected paths without any reward or traps would end over in the same place at some point. Another thing that they noticed is that it was not possible to go back. Even though the passages were there, once you entered the room with the paths to chose, something like a formation would stop you from going back in any of the passages. Lastly, they noticed one thing thanks to Rarol''s instinct. There is always only one safe passage. There would be some times where there would be rewards, but those rewards were always followed by dangers. As for the trap path, they were always at least one-third of the choices. Of course, it is not because you entered the wrong path that you would die. Although there had been deaths, a few cultivators and demon beasts were still able to pass through it and arrive in the same place as Krune''s group again. It''s just that sometimes they would be severely injured, so they would have to stop for some time. Fortunately, the rewards were good as well. The danger in the rooms was proportionally equal to the rewards. There had been even a few good materials, treasures, and weapons. Krune''s group was also found quite a few Jade Slips with Soul Techniques, which they passed all to Heavin to take a look. Krune''s group left another space and were proceeding forward. But when they arrived at what was supposed to be the next paths room, they noticed that there was only one route to chose. Rarol looked at everyone and laughed. "Haha! Well, it seems like we are in for quite some fun this time. I don''t know what is there, but it makes my hair stand just looking at this passage." Krune and Joiu''s group understood that this is probably one of the paths that they definitely wouldn''t choose if there was another choice. Maybe even worse. Xankruan then commented about something. "So far, we didn''t find another of those crystals. If the passage for the next Bubble Realm also requires one, then I can understand why there is only one path. Most likely, this is a trial to see if we can get another crystal or not. Of course, I might be wrong since this is just a conjecture based on past events." Dilo shook his head and said. Krune and the others agreed with Dilo. That was most likely the case. "Alright, nothing will change if we wait here. Let''s keep moving forward." The other cultivators and demon beast aren''t idiots either. So they understood that there was a big change of things going bad in the next cave space. Because of that, everyone proceeded in high alert. When Krune and the others arrived at the next location, they ended in front of what seems to be the biggest space inside the caves so far. The highest point in the ceiling was probably at least 5km high. The entire area looked like a big dome, or even an arena if you wish to think like that. At the center, they could see the corpse of a Dragon. On each of its legs, they could see a chain attached. The chains then extended all the way to the walls on 4 sides. There was one extra chain on its neck, and this one was attached to the top of the ceiling. Krune and the others knew that staying at the entrance wouldn''t change anything, so they slowly approached the corpse in the center. Finally, the Dragon Corpse entered Krune''s Divine Sense. One must remember that Krune''s Divine Sense can''t spread more than 1km at the moment. Soon, the Dragon also entered the Divine Senses of everyone. Still, it doesn''t matter how they looked at the Dragon, it couldn''t be more dead. "Could it be that the initial idea was for this realm to have been opened earlier and then battle the Dragon while it was alive?" No one paid attention to who said that, but they had to admit that he made sense. Everyone kept approaching the Dragon and finally got close enough to touch it. Krune also touched and sent a stream of Spiritual Energy inside to check its conditions. Sure enough, it was dead both to his Divine Sense and Spiritual Energy. Krune then looked at Rarol and saw him nodding his head. Surprisingly, he wasn''t even laughing as he always does. "That bad?" Rarol nodded. "I can''t help but feel like running away at this very moment." His older brother, Tinnian, also said the same. "Although my brother''s talent for the Krakat Cougar Instinct is higher than anyone else in our territory, it doesn''t mean that the others also don''t have the same ability. Compared to a normal demon beast, my instinct is definitely several times better. At the moment, I also can tell you this much. Something is definitely not right." Krune and his group kept looking around the corpse when suddenly, they heard something. Surprisingly, it was the same sound when someone uses a teleport formation of a runestone. Krune looked around and saw that a few cultivators and demon beasts appeared out of nowhere. But he recognized them; they were a few of the ones who selected different paths in before. "What is happening?" "How come I ended here?" "I was sit healing from my injuries and then, puff! I was already here." Krune and the others noticed that there wasn''t anything wrong with them. It was just that everyone who still hasn''t reached this room was immediately teleported here. After that, a formation underground activated, and the room was sealed. It was then that everyone felt the Spiritual Energy in the room to get agitated. Krune didn''t know what was happening, so he decided to check the Dragon Corpse once more. Still, this time he paid extra attention to what was happening. It was then that his eyes opened wide! Krune immediately put the Parrot Puppet into his Spatial Ring and didn''t even tell Heavin that he was taking control. Heavin was taken aback for a second but understood that things probably went wrong, as combined before, he didn''t try to stop and immediately feel asleep a second after. Everyone noticed Krune transforming right there and then, taking the form of a rainbow-colored thing. "Is that a wisp?" Everyone was taken aback to find out that Krune was, in fact, a wisp, but they didn''t have time to think about it. That''s because Krune sent a Divine Sense message to every single Cultivator and Demon beast in the room. "Everyone, attack the Dragon''s corpse now! It is about to be revived, and its cultivation is definitely above the Void Breaking Realm! If we don''t finish it or at least do enough damage before the process is completed, we are all dead!" When the words ''above the Void Breaking Realm'' came out, everyone''s hearts froze! The highest cultivation at the moment was only the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. That was the limit that the Mohie Clan Dimensional Realm accepted. But that was only the limit for those who wish to enter this place, it has nothing to do with those who are already inside. For example, a Dragon that is above to be revived! No one knew if Krune was talking the truth or not, but they definitely wouldn''t risk having to fight something above the Void Breaking Realm either. Everyone immediately started to release their strongest skills one after another. Krune, Feifei, and the others also didn''t hold anything back either. Several Domains appeared and overlapped each other. Because they all considered only the Dragon Corpse as an enemy, the Domains didn''t intervene against each other either. Krune brought his Hexagonal Shields out and once against controlled them to assume the shape of a cannon. That was Krune''s strongest single-target attack! While Krune charged it with Purple Tribulation Lightning and Flame, everyone suddenly heard a Dragons Cry! Roarrr! That wasn''t an angry cry, but a painful one. Even though it''s a body of a Dragon at least in the Divine Path Realm, the fact is that it had been dead for too long. Not to mention that before the revival process is over, it can''t control all that Spiritual Energy to defend itself. A few seconds later, Krune charged his Cannon made with his Shields to the limit. The fact is that he could have released even more Purple Tribulation Lighting and Flame. Unfortunately, his Shields were still at the peak of the Silver Stars Level. Any more than that and they wouldn''t be able to hold all that energy. "Tribulation Cannon!" Boom! The shockwave of Krune''s attack sent quite a few weaker Cultivators and Demon Beats flying! Even the ones who were in the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm looked at him fearfully! That attack would definitely have pulverized them. The Dragon once again let out painful Dragon Cry after that attack. Everyone soon returned their attention to the Dragon laid on the ground... or at least, it was lying on the ground before. That dried corpse was now gone. Now, they could see a little of an azure color on it. The reason that is was just a little is because it was fully covered in injuries from where Dragon Blood flowed out. But one injure in particular caught everyone''s attention. Close to its chest, there was an enormous and deep wound to the point where its heart could be seen. The way everyone looked at the Dragon, it was a miracle that it was standing at all! Krune looked at its eyes and could see the madness that they looked at him. But one thing called Krune''s attention more than anything else. "It''s... regenerating!" 334 Old Skill Krune pondered a bit and said. "It depends on how the Vines feel our presence. Could it be Divine Sense?" Feifei understood what Krune wanted. "The Tribulation Lightning Layer can indeed hide you from Divine Sense, but I think it is too risky. As far as I can see, those vines would probably be a problem even for Void Breaking Realm cultivators and demon beasts." Suddenly, Krune and the others saw one of the cultivators trying to move close. Surprisingly, they could barely feel his presence. If not because he was right in front of them, they might have missed him unless he got closer. "He''s using a technique to merge with the environment." At first, it seemed to be working. He got into the range of the vines, but they didn''t seem to react. Unfortunately, just when he stepped on the soil between the vines, the situation changed, and the vines all shot at him. That guy noticed that things had gone south and burst out of the Vines Range. Fortunately, he was prepared for it, so he was fast enough to leave their attack range. Krune looked a the full event and then had an idea. "Maybe, it is the vibrations." Everyone looked at him, puzzled. "Any movements that you make will cause a reaction. Once you step forward, the ground trembles a bit, if you decide to float, the air around you will move. All of that causes vibration, which I believe the vines are using to feel our presence." Krune then trowed a Wind Blade above the Vines, and sure enough, the vines immediately attacked it. Finally, everyone understood what Krune meant with that. Dilo then thought about one thing. "Look at the other side of the vines. It seems like they are only stopping us from passing through. They are not beside those cave rooms. I''m not sure, but there is a chance that once we pass through the vines, we will be able to enter the cave rooms and take what is inside." Krune and the others nodded. They, too, noticed this much. One of the outsiders also noticed when Krune threw that wind blade and tried to fly above the vines'' range. Unfortunately, that idea failed miserably. That''s because when he approached the top of that space, more vines came out of it and attacked him. Different from the last guy, this one didn''t react fast enough and was soon sucked dry by the vines in the ceiling. "Seems like that flying past them is also of the question. The vines above are covering any possible gaps now." It was then that Ruik had an idea and sent Krune and his group a Divine Sense Message. "Hey, what about Ao''s skill? Wouldn''t it be perfect?" Krune was the only one who understood what Ruik was talking about. "Yes! Ao''s Vacuum Blade!" Ruik and Krune noticed Feifei, Tiane, Dilo, and Xankruan''s puzzled faces and then explained. Krune then pondered a bit and said. "Still, at my level at the moment, I think I can use it to make a tunnel void of any air." Krune then accessed his memory and soon found the skill. Back then, Krune could already use it to a certain degree, so now it would be a lot easier. That skill was, after all, made for low-level cultivators and demon beasts to use. Krune didn''t have a sword to use like Ao. However, he could still create something similar with his Spiritual Energy Manipulation. It wouldn''t compare with the real thing, but it was more than enough for what he wanted to do. Krune then made a small modification so that instead of clearing the air around him, it would create a long void tunnel. The vines soon noticed the difference in the air around them and started to attack in all directions. Still, there was nothing for them there. When the airflow returned to normal, the vines calmed down again. Still, Krune''s void tunnel was there, without any air inside. It''s just that it couldn''t be seen since there was nothing inside. Ruik then put a little of spiritual energy inside a pebble he found on the ground and threw it through the tunnel. Sure enough, the pebble passed by the tunnel in a flash, but since there was no air, no vibrations were created. The pebble landed on the wall on the other side, and nothing happened to it. Just to make sure, Ruik also threw another pebble. This time, he didn''t use the Void Tunnel, though. As expected, the vines immediately attacked and destroyed that pebble. That was the proof that they needed, the vines really are reacting to the ground and air''s vibrations. The other cultivators and demon beasts also saw that, and their eyes lit up. But there was one problem, what if someone tries to alert the vines while someone is passing through? Feifei then sent a Divine Sense message to Krune. Krune understood what she wanted and then released his Burnnihilation Domain! Krune looked at the cultivators and demon beasts outside his group and said. "I don''t mind if you use your own methods to reach the other side and take whatever is there. First come, first served. I totally agreed with this sentence. But if any of you tries to purposely alert the vines while my friends are passing through, know that there will be no tomorrow for you." What Feifei told Krune was that she was going there to check. She will be using her Destiny Divine Soul to the best of her abilities to try to predict any movements in the vines. Although Krune wasn''t sure about it, he had to trust her. Krune could also have been the one passing through. But because he is one of the strongest in their group, it was better to stay behind to serve as a warning for the others. "In exchange, I promise that my group will not touch anyone who tries their own methods to reach the other side. Whatever you do, it''s up to you." Feifei then concentrated in her Destiny Divine Soul. Although the level of this realm is high, she could at least see a few seconds in the future. That was enough for her to pass through the sea of vines. As soon as she saw one opportunity, she rushed at top speed to the other side. She wasn''t the only one, though. Ruik followed right behind as well to help her check the cave rooms. Soon, they landed on the other side. Fortunately, the vines really didn''t attack there. As for Joiu and his group, they decided to pay attention to the other side of the room instead. "Since Fina and Kiur can land on that side without problem, it means that the opposite side is the same." Joiu then took a Runestone Formation out of his Spatial Ring and charged it with Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy. This one is a Golden Stars Teleport Runestone. Different from the ones Krune used in the past, this one could be charged in just a few seconds. Joiu wasn''t the only one to think about it. Still, because no one was sure if the other side of the vines was safe or not, no one wanted to teleport there. Soon, Joiu and a few members of his group disappeared with a flash of silver light. Right after, the same group already appeared on the other side of the vines'' range. Seeing that, the other cultivators and demon beasts did similar things and started to pass through the vines without alerting them. They were especially relieved when they saw that Krune kept his promise and didn''t do anything to stop them. Since Feifei and Ruik were the first ones to arrive, they were also the first to enter a Cave Room. After making sure that there was nothing to stop them, they immediately put everything inside their Spatial Rings and rushed to the next. One by one, Feifei, Ruik, and the other cultivators and demon beasts kept their making harvest. There had been even a few fights in the rooms, but no one tried to attack Ruik or Feifei. When the rooms were finally emptied, those who survived immediately used their own methods to return to the center of the room. Feifei and Ruik also did the same and passed by Krune''s Void Tunnel. Tiane and the others received them with a smiled and asked. "So, what did we get there?" Feifei and Ruik used spare Spatial Rings to collect the rewards, so they made it possible for the others in their group to check inside with their Divine Senses. It turns out that there wasn''t any treasure per see, it was all cultivation resources. Spirit Stones of Rank 8 or higher, Different Pills, Herbs, and a few others. There was quite a good amount, which at least made up for the risk of going to the other side. Feifei then took two Jade Slips out of her Spatial Ring and passed them to Heavin. "I found these two Soul Related Techniques. I don''t know how good they are, but I know that they are different from the ones Krune gave you." Heavin immediately used his Divine Sense to read the information inside. After he finished, he got excited. "Good! No wonder this Mohie Clan is considered a Soul Eespecialized one. These two Soul Techniques aren''t anything impressive, but it is evident that they have been refined several times. It seems like we are going to find quite a few of them in this Dimensional Realm." Sometime later, Joiu reappeared beside Krune and the others. It was visible that he used another Teleport Runestone Formation again to bring everyone back. Krune looked at him and saw that he looked in a good mood. "It seems like your group also had a good harvest." Joiu laughed and then nodded. "Indeed. Although it is all cultivation resources, there was quite a bit of it." Krune nodded and then said. "Well, it seems like the rooms have all been emptied. In that case, let''s keep moving forward." 335 Attack! Krune''s group and the other cultivators and demon beasts kept moving forward after the vines room event. In the end, the number of passages that they had to chose kept increasing. Fortunately, Rarol''s instinct wasn''t just for show. By now, the paths already surpassed more than 10 choices. But Krune and the others also noticed one thing. Behind them, there where other tunnels that connected to the paths rooms. It seemed like those who selected paths without any reward or traps would end over in the same place at some point. Another thing that they noticed is that it was not possible to go back. Even though the passages were there, once you entered the room with the paths to chose, something like a formation would stop you from going back in any of the passages. Lastly, they noticed one thing thanks to Rarol''s instinct. There is always only one safe passage. There would be some times where there would be rewards, but those rewards were always followed by dangers. As for the trap path, they were always at least one-third of the choices. Of course, it is not because you entered the wrong path that you would die. Although there had been deaths, a few cultivators and demon beasts were still able to pass through it and arrive in the same place as Krune''s group again. It''s just that sometimes they would be severely injured, so they would have to stop for some time. Fortunately, the rewards were good as well. The danger in the rooms was proportionally equal to the rewards. There had been even a few good materials, treasures, and weapons. Krune''s group was also found quite a few Jade Slips with Soul Techniques, which they passed all to Heavin to take a look. Krune''s group left another space and were proceeding forward. But when they arrived at what was supposed to be the next paths room, they noticed that there was only one route to chose. Rarol looked at everyone and laughed. "Haha! Well, it seems like we are in for quite some fun this time. I don''t know what is there, but it makes my hair stand just looking at this passage." Krune and Joiu''s group understood that this is probably one of the paths that they definitely wouldn''t choose if there was another choice. Maybe even worse. Xankruan then commented about something. "So far, we didn''t find another of those crystals. If the passage for the next Bubble Realm also requires one, then I can understand why there is only one path. Most likely, this is a trial to see if we can get another crystal or not. Of course, I might be wrong since this is just a conjecture based on past events." Dilo shook his head and said. Krune and the others agreed with Dilo. That was most likely the case. "Alright, nothing will change if we wait here. Let''s keep moving forward." The other cultivators and demon beast aren''t idiots either. So they understood that there was a big change of things going bad in the next cave space. Because of that, everyone proceeded in high alert. When Krune and the others arrived at the next location, they ended in front of what seems to be the biggest space inside the caves so far. The highest point in the ceiling was probably at least 5km high. The entire area looked like a big dome, or even an arena if you wish to think like that. At the center, they could see the corpse of a Dragon. On each of its legs, they could see a chain attached. The chains then extended all the way to the walls on 4 sides. There was one extra chain on its neck, and this one was attached to the top of the ceiling. Krune and the others knew that staying at the entrance wouldn''t change anything, so they slowly approached the corpse in the center. Finally, the Dragon Corpse entered Krune''s Divine Sense. One must remember that Krune''s Divine Sense can''t spread more than 1km at the moment. Soon, the Dragon also entered the Divine Senses of everyone. Still, it doesn''t matter how they looked at the Dragon, it couldn''t be more dead. "Could it be that the initial idea was for this realm to have been opened earlier and then battle the Dragon while it was alive?" No one paid attention to who said that, but they had to admit that he made sense. Everyone kept approaching the Dragon and finally got close enough to touch it. Krune also touched and sent a stream of Spiritual Energy inside to check its conditions. Sure enough, it was dead both to his Divine Sense and Spiritual Energy. Krune then looked at Rarol and saw him nodding his head. Surprisingly, he wasn''t even laughing as he always does. "That bad?" Rarol nodded. "I can''t help but feel like running away at this very moment." His older brother, Tinnian, also said the same. "Although my brother''s talent for the Krakat Cougar Instinct is higher than anyone else in our territory, it doesn''t mean that the others also don''t have the same ability. Compared to a normal demon beast, my instinct is definitely several times better. At the moment, I also can tell you this much. Something is definitely not right." Krune and his group kept looking around the corpse when suddenly, they heard something. Surprisingly, it was the same sound when someone uses a teleport formation of a runestone. Krune looked around and saw that a few cultivators and demon beasts appeared out of nowhere. But he recognized them; they were a few of the ones who selected different paths in before. "What is happening?" "How come I ended here?" "I was sit healing from my injuries and then, puff! I was already here." Krune and the others noticed that there wasn''t anything wrong with them. It was just that everyone who still hasn''t reached this room was immediately teleported here. After that, a formation underground activated, and the room was sealed. It was then that everyone felt the Spiritual Energy in the room to get agitated. Krune didn''t know what was happening, so he decided to check the Dragon Corpse once more. Still, this time he paid extra attention to what was happening. It was then that his eyes opened wide! Krune immediately put the Parrot Puppet into his Spatial Ring and didn''t even tell Heavin that he was taking control. Heavin was taken aback for a second but understood that things probably went wrong, as combined before, he didn''t try to stop and immediately feel asleep a second after. Everyone noticed Krune transforming right there and then, taking the form of a rainbow-colored thing. "Is that a wisp?" Everyone was taken aback to find out that Krune was, in fact, a wisp, but they didn''t have time to think about it. That''s because Krune sent a Divine Sense message to every single Cultivator and Demon beast in the room. "Everyone, attack the Dragon''s corpse now! It is about to be revived, and its cultivation is definitely above the Void Breaking Realm! If we don''t finish it or at least do enough damage before the process is completed, we are all dead!" When the words ''above the Void Breaking Realm'' came out, everyone''s hearts froze! The highest cultivation at the moment was only the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. That was the limit that the Mohie Clan Dimensional Realm accepted. But that was only the limit for those who wish to enter this place, it has nothing to do with those who are already inside. For example, a Dragon that is above to be revived! No one knew if Krune was talking the truth or not, but they definitely wouldn''t risk having to fight something above the Void Breaking Realm either. Everyone immediately started to release their strongest skills one after another. Krune, Feifei, and the others also didn''t hold anything back either. Several Domains appeared and overlapped each other. Because they all considered only the Dragon Corpse as an enemy, the Domains didn''t intervene against each other either. Krune brought his Hexagonal Shields out and once against controlled them to assume the shape of a cannon. That was Krune''s strongest single-target attack! While Krune charged it with Purple Tribulation Lightning and Flame, everyone suddenly heard a Dragons Cry! Roarrr! That wasn''t an angry cry, but a painful one. Even though it''s a body of a Dragon at least in the Divine Path Realm, the fact is that it had been dead for too long. Not to mention that before the revival process is over, it can''t control all that Spiritual Energy to defend itself. A few seconds later, Krune charged his Cannon made with his Shields to the limit. The fact is that he could have released even more Purple Tribulation Lighting and Flame. Unfortunately, his Shields were still at the peak of the Silver Stars Level. Any more than that and they wouldn''t be able to hold all that energy. "Tribulation Cannon!" Boom! The shockwave of Krune''s attack sent quite a few weaker Cultivators and Demon Beats flying! Even the ones who were in the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm looked at him fearfully! That attack would definitely have pulverized them. The Dragon once again let out painful Dragon Cry after that attack. Everyone soon returned their attention to the Dragon laid on the ground... or at least, it was lying on the ground before. That dried corpse was now gone. Now, they could see a little of an azure color on it. The reason that is was just a little is because it was fully covered in injuries from where Dragon Blood flowed out. But one injure in particular caught everyone''s attention. Close to its chest, there was an enormous and deep wound to the point where its heart could be seen. The way everyone looked at the Dragon, it was a miracle that it was standing at all! Krune looked at its eyes and could see the madness that they looked at him. But one thing called Krune''s attention more than anything else. "It''s... regenerating!" 336 The Outcome "Continue! It''s healing itself. We can''t let it recover at any cost!" Everyone gritted their teeth and immediately started to bombard the Dragon again. The Dragon might be standing now, but it was obviously close to death already. Roarr! The Dragon then weaved one of its claws, and it looked like the fabric of space was ripped apart. Even though the chains didn''t allow it to charge at the cultivators and demon beasts, the fact that it had already surpassed the Void Breaking Realm meant that it understood the Space Laws to a certain extent. A few of the attackers tried to dodge that attack, but they were too slow. They were immediately cut apart and fell on the ground. They couldn''t be more dead. The others who saw that got even more frightened. Still, they knew that this place is entirely sealed, so there was nowhere to run. They had to keep attacking and not allow it to recover. The Dragon then tried to bring out its own Domain, which was, without a doubt, several times stronger than any other here. Unfortunately to the Dragon, there were so many Domains overlapped with it as the target that its own Domain couldn''t do much. Krune started to released his Tribulation Lightning and Flame once more to use another Tribulation Cannon. But the Dragon knew that he was the most dangerous one. It immediately slashed with its claws in Krune direction, totally intending to get rid of him. An attack at that level is way to fast for Krune, so he only had enough time to put a few of his shield in front of it. His shields, unfortunately, were far from being able to stop the attack. In the end, they also got cut in half because of the space laws. Fortunately, it was enough to delay the attack for a moment. That was all that Krune needed to be able to dodge with his Tribulation Lightning Movement. ''Five of my Sheilds got destroyed, just like that.'' The Dragon had to pay to avert its attention to Krune, though. The Cultivators and Demon Beasts aimed at the injuries on its body and increased the damage even more. Roarr! Another painful cry came out, and the Dragon started to send random attacks everywhere. This Dragon couldn''t think straight at the moment, and the pain only worsened its state. The Cultivators and Demon Beast noticed that as well and could predict its movements by looking at the claws and the chains. Still, once in a while, someone died for not being able to move away in time. The Dragon might not be able to leave the center of the arena due to the chains, but its space laws were more than enough to send attacks everywhere in this place. A few seconds and several dodges later, Krune finally released enough Tribulation Lightning and Flame and used his Tribulation Cannon once more. Boom! Except for the claws, its arms definitely weren''t as resistant as its chest. Even though it tried to build an energy barrier to fend off some of Krune''s attack power, its arms still got severely damaged, and the Dragon fell on the ground. Usually, an energy barrier at its cultivation realm would be more than enough to stop the attack of anyone in this place. But the Dragon is really gravely injured, so it can barely control any energy anymore. Suddenly, the Dragon started to inhale with all his might. One of the Demon Beasts noticed what was happening and immediately sent a Divine Message to everyone. "Careful! It''s going to use a Dragon Breath!" The Dragon looked at Krune''s direction and let out the attack. This Dragon Breath wasn''t simply fire. It had both the Fire Laws and even some Space Laws behind it. Everywhere the fire passed, the fabric of space shattered and the world burned. Fortunately, thanks to that Demon Beast''s warning, Krune knew that it was probably an attack aimed at him. So even before the Dragon finished turning in his direction, Krune had already dashed away. It was really a lucky thing since even though Krune''s reaction was fast, he still had to use his shields to protect him from the edges of the attack. Because of that, another 4 Shields Shatered and 3 more were badly damaged. There was good news, though. A Dragon Breath used with the body in that state had also injured the Dragon Internally! Its lungs could not use such an attack a second time. Krune didn''t stop charging his Tribulation Cannon for even a second. He even ran the risk of losing control of all that energy since a few of his shields got destroyed in the last exchange. Krune''s Sheild was what he used to keep the Tribulation Lightning and Flame condensed in one point. If he lost more of them, he really wouldn''t be able to use his Tribulation Cannon anymore. "Light Spirit, the two previous attacks should have been enough. I''m counting on you for the next." Luvile then replied. "No problem, just make sure that you can release one more attack, and I will deal with the rest." Krune then moved behind the Dragon and released the attack. "Tribulation Cannon!" The Dragon had been paying special attention to Krune all the time, so when it saw the attack coming at its back, it focused all its energy there. The Dragon also used his wings to cover the point where the attack would lend. There was no doubt that it would suffer big injuries again, but they wouldn''t be fatal. Unfortunately for the Dragon, it was going to be the second being to be fooled by this strategy. Just as the Tribulation Cannon attack was about to hit its energy barrier, it made a curve! The Dragon really had no time to react. Even if it was in a perfect state, such a point-blank attack would have been hard to dodge, let alone now that it could barely move. The attack went around the Dragon and hit the large injury on its chest. With nothing to protect it, the attack also hit the Dragon''s Heart and destroyed it! The Dragon had then vomited blood and looked at Krune in disbelief. It really didn''t expect that a Divine Soul Realm could do such a thing. It was right, though. Krune really couldn''t achieve this level of control yet. It was Luvile who controlled the attack in the final moment and aimed at the injury on the other side. The Dragon then feel on the ground and slowly closed its eyes. Everyone noticed that and immediately used their Divine Sense to check the Dragon again. This time, it was really dead for sure. Immediately, all the survivors went in an uproar and cheered. Feifei, Ruik, and all the others also sighed in relief. At the start, Krune asked Feifei to pay attention to the others and warn them if they needed to move. Feifei had to use her all to be able to predict nothing more than half a second in the future. That was the difference in the cultivation level right there for you. When everything was over, Feifei was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. The only one that Feifei didn''t try to help was Krune. He had asked her to focus on the others only. He told her that he had the confidence to keep himself alive as long as he was in his Wisp Form. Of course, Krune was just forcing the issue. That last Dragon Breath, for example, would definitely have killed him if that Demon Beast hadn''t warned everyone in time. While everyone was celebrating, Krune looked at the Dragon and sighed. That time when he checked the Dragon''s condition, he noticed that there was a very faint spark of life in its body. It was so dim that he had failed to notice at first. But because of a long time of wait, it was almost gone. When the formation started to operate, it wasn''t really reviving it since it wasn''t completely dead yet. Still, the fires of life were already too faint, so even though the Dragon looked okay on the outside, Krune knew that it wouldn''t live for long, even if it had won. This battle was probably the last struggle it could have made before falling into eternal silence regardless of the outcome. ''Most likely, it would have been controlled even if didn''t want to attack us. The final trial had to be carried off, after all.'' Krune then returned to his human form and touched the Dragon Corpse. "Sorry about this, but we had no other choice. You knew it, and so did I. Fortunately, your soul was not destroyed, so you still can reincarnate one day. At least, you don''t need to be in this prison anymore." Krune took a deep breath and stood up. Just as he was about to leave, he heard a faint womanly voice. "Thank you." Krune felt shocked and immediately looked behind him, but the Dragon was still dead as it could be. Krune then smiled a bit and then returned to his group. 337 Three Choices Krune returned to his group and asked their conditions. "We are fine. Feifei is very exhausted due to the continuous use of her Destiny Major Divine Soul. Still, thanks to that, we avoided any casualties in our main group." Of course, his conversation was made through Divine Sense with Krune''s real group only. "At the moment, you should think about what to do with everyone else. Take a look around." Sure enough, Krune''s display had caught everyone''s attention. He was still in the 4th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm, and he is even a wisp. It doesn''t matter if they were geniuses or not, none of them could possibly do what he did. No one had seen such a strong wisp before in their lives. Krune shook his head and then said. "It doesn''t matter. My combat power is here exactly for moments like that. What would be the use to hide everything and died in the end? Hiding my identity as a wisp might be impossible now, but it is not like they can do anything about that either." While Krune was talking with his Group through Divine Sense, the others were also talking about him. The only ones that felt somewhat assured were the 5th Stage Soul Forging Realms, who could also fight above their level. Although they didn''t have an attack as potent as Krune''s Tribulation Cannon, they also saw just how long it took for him to prepare that thing. In a battle at their level, such a long charging time would be deadly. Of course, none of them were intending to start a fight against that wisp. Krune is one of the leading characters in this exploration, and his group had guided them through the best rewards. Another reason is the fact that Krune kept the same stance until now. No one in his group ever fought for an item that had already been acquired by someone else. Of course, there is also the fact that no amazing treasure or something like that has appeared yet. If it had, then the outcome would probably be different. Finally, there is the fact that Krune''s group is far outnumbered when you consider the rest. That also gave them some insurance. Sometime later, the formation in the room lost its power, and the passage ahead was finally open. Right in front of it, a small pillar appeared, and a crystal was now placed on the top. Almost everyone here had seen Krune using a similar thing before, so they knew that it was the key to open the next Bubble Realm. Krune noticed that everyone was looking at him and then shrugged his shoulder. "It''s just the key to the next realm. If you want to take it, go ahead. It matters little who will open the next door anyway." In fact, Krune just didn''t want to be the one to do that. One of the Demon Beasts then suggested. "Before we keep moving, let''s sit down and recover our energies. There is a lot of us with severe injuries as well. In case the things ahead turn for the bad, it would be better to be in peak condition." No one had anything against that beast''s idea. Everyone then found a corner for themselves and started to recover. Krune and the others were no exception. Especially Krune and Feifei. Krune had used a lot of his reserved Tribulation Lightning Power while Feifei had to recover from the constant use of her Destiny Divine Soul. Krune also used this chance to let Heavin awake again. While he was recovering, he explained everything to his Divine Soul. Because a few of the participants had severe injuries, everyone had to wait for a few hours before they were fully recovered. No one complained, though. If it was them, they would want to have the time to recover as well. They stayed in place for around four hours before everything was ready. Krune and the other''s group then stepped outside of that room and continued moving ahead. The group had to walk just for another 10 minutes until they finally arrived at the next Realm Door. But there was one thing different this time. Instead of a single door, there were three of them. Unfortunately, there were no marks or anything else that could tell what to expect on the other side. Krune took a look at Rarol and saw him shooking his head. "I have no idea either." There was only one crystal. So they would need to choose one of the three doors. Everyone then looked at that cultivator and waited. That guy felt some pressure with all the eyes on him, but since he couldn''t see any difference either, he just selected a random one. But just as he brought the crystal out of his spatial ring, the three doors started to shine. Everyone immediately took some distance from then just to be safe. A few seconds later, they noticed what it was now possible to see the other side. However, the seal was still on the door, so they couldn''t pass any one of them. "The first has a snowy climate, the second looks like a desert, and the third is a forest. Which one should we chose?" One demon beast came forward and then said. "It would be better to select the door, which is most suited to us. Let''s simply go by vote. Gather in front of the door that you which to enter. The door that has the highest number of cultivators and demon beasts will be the chosen one." Krune smiled after hearing that. He was pretty sure that the door he selected would be the one with the least amount. That''s because no one would want to give him a field advantage. "Since that''s the case, I might as well select a random one." Krune didn''t really mind any of them. So it didn''t matter which one was selected in the end. But he still had to consider his group. So after he talked with the others through Divine Sense, he positioned himself in front of the Snowy Realm door. Together with him were Ruik and Feifei. Tiane, Xankruan, and Rarol paused in front of the Desert Realm while the rest went for the Forest. Considering everyone''s laws, they decided that the Desert or the Forest would be the best choices. Especially the Forest since Krune, Ruik, and Xankruan lived in such an environment before for a long time. Just as Krune expected, only a few moved in front of his door, the rest went either to the Desert or the Forest. In the end, the door with the highest number was the Forest. The others also thought that Krune might be trying to mislead them. Still, there would be no meaning to keep thinking about that. The reason why the Forest was selected was that they can skill remember Krune''s Burnnihilation Domain. The desert was probably going to be a place where the Fire laws could be used more naturally, so they took the Forest instead. Krune, Ruik, and Xankruan looked at each other and smiled. That cultivator sighed in relief. At least, the decision wasn''t made by him alone, so the others won''t be able to complain if something goes wrong there. He brought out the crystal and placed it in front of the Forest Bubble Realm. Just like before, the crystal touched the door and disappeared inside. The door then slowly opened, and the Forest bubble Realm was finally accessible for all the groups. By this point, no one acted hastily anymore. After the Dragon''s fight, their number had been reduced by almost 30%, so no one wanted to become the next sacrifice. Unless something worth fight for appeared, no one would dash forward. Everyone started to enter slowly and appear on the other side. Sure enough, their Divine Sense was still restricted. Krune''s one could only reach 3 km again. Because it was hard to see through the trees and Divine Sense wasn''t very effective, some of them tried to fly above the trees. Unfortunately, just as they were about halfway up, they lost their ability to fly and fell. Krune and the others tried as well, and sure enough, they couldn''t go higher than a few meters. Everyone could still fly, but it didn''t matter much since they couldn''t go above the trees. Some tried to use a few techniques that would allow them to see from a higher point, but even those didn''t work. It was obvious that this Forest Bubble Realm was made so that they couldn''t avoid it. Krune then used a Wind Blade and tried to cut down the trees. But even that didn''t work. His Wind Blades could at most cut halfway through them. Considering the number of trees, it would be a waste of energy to try to cut them all. Noticing that no one would be able to avoid the Forest environment, Krune and his group started to move forward. They didn''t have much of a choice since this realm also didn''t allow one to go back to the previous one. Also, everyone noticed that just a few hundreds of meters behind, the edge of this Bubble Realm could be seen with their Divine Senses. At first, nothing was different. It was really just like any other Forest. But at some point, a Demon Beast appeared. There was one thing weird, though. The moment that everyone noticed this Demon Beast, it was already charging at them. Krune looked at it with his Divine Sense and narrowed his eyes. "I don''t think it has any sentience." Joiu, who was beside Krune, nodded his head. "There is nothing wrong with it. You can''t possibly provide enough Demon Beasts or Cultivators for all the inheritances. So it is very reasonable for Inheritances like this one to use formations to reproduce this kind of beasts. Most likely, we are going to see a few cultivators soon as well." The Demon Beast was quickly dealt with since it was only in the 3rd of the Divine Soul Realm. The biggest majority here at the moment could smash it anytime they wanted. That beast then disappeared as if it had never been there to start with. Sure enough, Krune saw a cultivator a few minutes later. Just like the demon beast, it already appeared inside everyone''s Divine Sense charging at them. As Joiu mentioned, the cultivator also disappeared after being defeated. This kind of situation continued, but the intervals in which those demon beasts and cultivators appeared started to get smaller. Not only that, but their strength also increased with time. Krune then sent a Divine Sense message to his group. "Are you thinking the same as me?" Feifei and the others nodded. "It seems like this is some kind of endurance trial." Krune agreed with that answer. "In that case, it might be a bad idea if we keep moving this slow." 338 Line Krune''s group wasn''t the only one to notice it. Everyone felt like things were getting worse. Krune then sent a Divine Sense Message to everyone. "Guys, if we keep waiting like this, the situation will only deteriorate. My group and I are going to charge ahead to try to pass this Realm as fast as possible. The rest of you can do whatever you want. You can keep moving slowly, or you can speed up as well. Whether you follow us or not, it is up to you all." Krune didn''t wait for a confirmation from the others, and his group immediately departed. Of course, Krune only gave voice to everyone''s thoughts. As soon as he started moving, the other groups did the same. Because no one knew where to go, they decided to tag along together as well. Sure enough, the number of fake Demon Beasts and Cultivators started to increase, and so did their power. Before, they were coming one by one. Now, the number had already increased to three at the same time. Their apparent cultivation also jumped from the 3rd Stage of the Divine Soul Realm to the 5th. And all suggest that it will keep increasing. The main issue at the moment is because no one knew where to go, so they just kept moving to the opposite side from where they entered. It turns out that this Bubble Realm was bigger than the previous two ones by quite a few times. Considering the time they had been moving and their speed, all the groups would have crossed that village in the mountains Bubble Realm several times already. Some of the participants were already starting to feel preoccupied. "This doesn''t seem right, how come we haven''t reached the other side of this Realm yet? How many times bigger is this thing?" "If you have time to complain, then make sure to keep moving. No one knows where to go in the middle of this forest, so we can''t delay. We have to cover as much terrain as possible so that we can at least make an outline of this place." "Still, there are already five to six enemies coming from time to time now, and the intervals as getting smaller. We have the numbers and cultivation advantage at the moment, but what if we take too long?" "How can I know? If things go south, I will just charge out on my own. Whatever you guys decide, it is up to you." Time passed, and over five hours went by. At this moment, the number of attacking Demon Beasts and Cultivators had already surpassed more than 15 at once. Their cultivation also reached the 8th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm or higher. Some of the Divine Soul Realm participants were already having trouble dealing with it and needed the Soul Forging Realm ones to step in. Krune looked at Rarol and asked. "So, what is your instinct saying, Rarol?" Rarol smiled bitterly and said. "I can feel danger everywhere. It doesn''t matter how much we advance, this feeling is still coming from all sides. Joiu is probably right, this must be some kind of Formation, and those people and beast are just spawning randomly." Feifei is the one with the broadest knowledge about formations at the moment, so after she heard what Rarol said, she immediately shook her head. "It is not random. The Formation definitely knows where we are at all times. That is also the reason why the fake Demon beasts and Cultivators never spawn inside our sight vision." Krune then asked her. "Do you have a way to find the core of the formation?" Feifei shook her head. "I''m still a peak Silver Stars Formations Master. This Formation here is, at the very least, a Diamond Stars one." Krune then looked at Joiu. "You are wasting your time, no one in my group is a Formations Master to start with." Krune sighed and then sent a Divine Sense message to all the other cultivators and demon beasts. "Does anyone of you have an idea of how to find the Core fo the Formation?" They all looked at each other, but only silence remained. It''s not like there were no Formations Masters in this group. It''s just that no one could think about a way to find the core... Or so was what everyone thought at first. "I- I think I have an idea." Immediately, everyone''s attention was dragged to a Demon Beast on the back of the group. But when they looked at his cultivation, they were taken aback. That demon beast in human form was nothing more than 6th Stage Core Formation Realm one. One must remember that before the Dimensional Realm opened, there were Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beasts in the middle of those waiting for it. But everyone thought that anyone at this level was basically courting death to enter. So their number was quite small to start with. Those at the Core Formation who decided to enter were normally the type with low talent or with some other extreme reason. Sure enough, when Krune checked that Demon Beast''s foundation, he could see with his Divine Sense that Spiritual Energy kept flowing out. It was just that it went in faster instead to make up for the loss. Dilo also noticed that and sighed. ''A damaged core, just like my dantian in the past.'' That Demon Beast was expecting to find some healing medicine to fix his Demon Core. At the very least, enough treasures and resources so that he could sell them and buy a good enough medicine later. Noticing everyone''s eyes on him, that Demon Beast felt quite nervous. After all, the biggest majority in this place could smash him any time they wanted. "My sect has a formation that looks pretty much like this one. Well, at least I think they still have. I was expelled, so I don''t know if things changed. Anyway, during the time I stayed there, the other members thought about a method to find the core of the Formation as fast as possible. The group line strategy." He then continued. "Simply put, the cultivators and demon beasts would form a line and cover the biggest distance possible. The group then would move together and check the respawn of the enemies. Usually, this kind of Formation will give priority to the ones who are closer to the core. The only problem is that our Divine Sense is severely restricted at the moment, so the distance we can open from each other isn''t that big." "Fortunately, we have a lot of Demon Beasts and Cultivators. Even with the restricted Divine Sense, we should be able to form a big enough line. As I can see, we have a total of 246 Demon Beasts and Cultivators at the moment. If we use only those with Divine Senses that can surpass more than 2km, we should be able to make a line of 100 or maybe even 200km large. As for the ones who can''t spread their Divine Senses this long, they will give support to those who can, so that we can deal with the enemies." Krune and everyone else didn''t have any better idea, so they immediately did as that demon beast suggested. To make sure they would be safe, the entire extension of the line group had Soul Forging Realm cultivators and demon beasts evenly spread. That is because, with the level of the enemies at the moment, the Divine Soul Realm ones would have a hard time defending against. Krune then looked at that demon beast with a damaged core and said through a Divine Sense. "If it works, I will give you a pill that can heal your core later." That demon beast eyes immediately lit up, and it prayed that this strategy works. The ones with strong Divine Sense then connected with the other two on both side, and soon, the line was completed. Krune, Feifei, and Dilo also helped with this part, and they had the rest of the members to stay close with them. After that, they restarted their search. A few minutes later, the right side of the line received an attack of the fake cultivators and demon beasts. Everyone there quickly dealt with it and continued to move. Soon, the same side of the line group received another attack. With those two attacks, the entire group understood to which side the core of the Formation was. The line group then changed direction and moved once more. The idea was to have the demon beasts attacking the center of the line group. Once that happens, they will know that they are moving in the direction. Of course, since this Bubble Realm was enormous, it took them quite some time to get used to the attacks. Not to mention that the enemies'' strength kept rising. Fortunately, the plan worked out, and they finally started to get attacks at the center of the line group constantly. That meant that the center of the group was the closest one to the Formation Core. The two extremes of the Line group then sent some of their supporters to help defend the attacks directed at the middle. After all, they can''t afford to lose anyone now that things are growing more dangerous. After almost two hours of travel, Krune''s group and everyone else could finally see something different in the distance. "Seems like we finally reached our objective." 339 Ruins In front of everyone, were some old ruins that had already been invaded by the vegetation. Once the line group saw it, they immediately retracted that Formation and gathered together once more. "We don''t have time to explore it slowly, so keep your Divine Senses spread and let''s search this place." Suddenly, a cultivator shouted. "Hey, I can fly higher in this place." Everyone looked at him, surprised. Sure enough, a few others tried, and they, too, were able to surpass the previous limit. Still, there was a limit. They couldn''t fly more than 50 meters in the air. "Alright, let''s take flight and keep looking." Of course, the enemy''s attacks didn''t stop. By now, the groups attacking them already had at least one Soul Forging Realm Demon Beast or Cultivator. The ruin''s size was quite big, so even after searching for 30 minutes, they still haven''t found anything out of the ordinary. But one thing was sure, the core of the Formation was definitely in this place. Suddenly, Krune and the others heard a Divine Sense message from someone else. "Hey, look! Over there!" Everyone looked at the direction that the guy was pointing at, and they could see some kind of underground entrance with a seal in front of it. They didn''t waste time and moved close to check. Near the entrance, Krune and the others could few a big flow of Spiritual Energy. "The core of the formation is probably down there." They touched the Seal blocking the entrance, and a stream of information flowed inside their minds. "Resist time: 7:46 minutes. Requirement: 12:00 hours." One didn''t need to be a genius to understand what those numbers meant. "Well, at least we know that the formation spawning those enemies will probably stop working when 12 hours is up. Still, it''s gonna be quite complicated to hold all the way to the end." That''s true, with just a little less than 8 hours, they were already being attacked by groups with Soul Forging Realm in the middle. Their number will definitely increase as time passes. The question is if they can hold until the time is over. Some of the cultivators and demon beast tried to use earth movement techniques to bypass the Seal. Of course, even they didn''t think that it would work. Sure enough, the entire underground place was sealed just like that mountain in the previous Bubble Realm. But then, Krune had an idea and used a Divine Sense message to ask. "Feifei, does the formation use something like Divine Sense to feel the others'' presence?" Feifei then answered. Krune then asked. "What if I cover everyone with my Tribulation Layer? Would it work the same way against Formations?" Feifei pondered a bit and then nodded. "It should work if the Formation is using an artificial Divine Sense. But I can''t tell if it is the case since the level of this Formation it too high. Our cultivations are too low to feel that level of Divine Sense, even if it isn''t a real one." Krune nodded and then explained. "Alright, I first want to test one thing. I believe that the number of Demon Beasts and Cultivators attacking us is based on the number of participants we have on our side. Think like this: If there was only a single Cultivator or Demon Beast in this Realm, the number of enemies that are attacking us at the moment would definitely have finished him or her already." "In that case, it would make no sense to have a test like this. So what if a few of us disappear? Would the number of attacking enemies decrease? Would the Formation think that we died and, thus, reduce the attack level?" Feifei had to admit that it made sense. This place was not build to kill them but to test instead. If that is really the case, there is a chance that the income number of enemies will decrease once a few fo the participants disappear.'' "At the very least, it might slow down the increase in numbers of fake Cultivators and Demon Beasts." Krune agreed with her. "Alright, let''s try it out." Krune then messaged his group so that they knew what was going to happen and spread his Tribulation Lightning layer. It quickly expanded and covered his and Joiu''s group. Of course, the others soon noticed that sphere of purple lightning increasing in size. "Hey, what is Darten doing?" "How can I know? Perhaps he has a plan?" "Hey, I can''t feel anything with my Divine Sense, it is as if they disappeared. But Darten''s group is right in front of me, how is that possible?" Before the discussion could grow any further, everyone heard a Divine Sense Message from Krune, or better, Darten. He then explained what he was trying to do and asked for a few more of the Soul Forging Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts to enter his Tribulation Lightning Layer. There was a reason why Krune asked for the strongest cultivators and demon beasts to come. That is because if his conjecture is right, the Formation spawning those fake Demon Beasts and Cultivators would try to adjust to the new level of cultivations. The best thing is that even though those guys are floating inside Krune''s Tribulation Lightning Sphere in the sky, Krune can still allow them to use their Divine Sense to see what is happening around. By using their Divine Sense, they can send long-ranged attacks and help the weaker cultivators and demon beasts. The attacks continued at the same level for another 4 to 5 waves. But at some point, the number and strength of those attacks started to decline severely. When all the groups noticed that, their eyes lit up! "Darten''s anti-Divine Sense technique is really working. The batch of enemies usually had around 20 attackers with two or three Soul Forging Realm in the middle. But this last one there was only 12 with a single Soul Forging Realm in the there." "Yes, not to mention that the guys inside his lightning sphere are still helping the others outside. If we keep things like this, we should be able to hold the 12 hours without too many issues." "In that case, wouldn''t it be better to simply send everyone inside and just leave a few Core Formation and Divine Soul Realm outside?" A Formations Master who heard that immediately shook his head. "That would be foolish. It would be one thing if just a few of our numbers disappeared at once. But if the majority disappears, we might trigger a different reaction due to the number remaining. Who knows? The Realm itself might simply explode because the required number wasn''t here anymore." Krune, who was looking at everything with his Divine Sense, nodded his head. That guy just spoke exactly what was in his mind. He, too, thought for a second in sending the biggest majority inside, but Feifei stopped him from doing so for the same reason. Although the number of Cultivators and Demon Beasts inside isn''t even 1/5 of the total, Krune made sure to bring in the ones with the highest cultivations. Those guys are now providing support to the weaker ones outside, which made it very easy to hold them off. Sure enough, there were no surprises until the very end of the 12 hours time. No one could blame the Formations Master who built this Formation, though. After all, Krune''s Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer isn''t something that anyone would expect. Even if someone had some treasure that helped them to avoid Divine Sense, it would only be a few of them at most. Not to mention that there is a limit to how good those treasures are. Considering the level of the Formation itself, it was hard to think that there is anyone here who could really avoid the Formation''s detection with that method. Maybe only geniuses with a big background like Joiu might have such a treasure. When the 12 hours time was up, the mobs attacking them already had around 30 enemies. But the highest cultivation between them was only the 2nd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. With the ones at the 5th Stage helping them out in the Purple Tribulation Lightning Sphere, it was quite easy to deal with those mobs. Suddenly, the Seal blocking the underground passage disappeared. As for the fake Demon Beasts and Cultivators that were in the middle of an attack, they vanished in thin air as if they had never been there. Krune then retracted his Tribulation Lightning layer and landed close to the entrance with the others. Joiu couldn''t help but comment. "So far, we got no treasures or anything else. If there is anything, it is probably inside." Krune nodded. "Yes, but don''t forget that we didn''t get anything from that village in the valley. Not to mention that a gift was left behind, and a very bright one at that. So make sure to not rush things." Krune wasn''t using Divine Sense to talk with Joiu, so everyone heard what he said. They then remembered that house explosion and felt a chill on their back. If this place explodes just like that house, they will definitely be done for. Krune looked at Rarol, and he nodded. "There is danger inside, I can feel this much. But it isn''t like that house where we had to run immediately. So it should still be this Realm''s test." Krune nodded, and started to look around. 340 Playing Lots! Before they entered, Krune found where that Core Formation Realm demon beast was and threw him a pill. That was the Shell Repairing Pill that Dilo used to heal his Dantian in the past. Krune then told him with a Divine Sense. "This pill of mine is quite overbearing. So make sure to have a lot of spirit stones available once you swallow it." Fortunately for that Demon Beast, he still had a few spirit stones from the rewards in that Mountain Bubble Realm. Although they were just leftovers from the battles for the resources, it was still a lot for a Core Formation Realm like him. The Demon Beast immediately took them out and sat on the ground. Right after, he swallowed the pill. He was afraid that if he kept this pill for later, he might get robbed. After all, he doesn''t have any chance of defending against the majority here. At least, if he uses the pill right after Darten gave it to him, the others will probably show some respect to Darten and refrain from doing anything. Krune looked at that and smiled. He knew his pill very well. Considering the low level of cultivation of Demon Beast, he would probably finish repairing his Demon Core in just a few minutes. No one paid much attention to that demon beast. They just kept discussing with their own groups about what they would do. Krune did the same with his group and decided to step inside. The others also didn''t have much choice and followed right behind. When they entered, there was only one way ahead. Just like the previous Mountain, everyone''s Divine Sense got even more restricted. On the way, Krune and the others noticed a few images on the walls. It was evident that they depicted some kind of story, but no one other than Krune and Ruik paid much attention to it. At some point, they finally got to see what were the dangers inside. Traps, Slaughtering and Illusion Formations, and lastly, high-level Puppets. But while the others were having some issues dealing with that, Heavin was furtively collecting the pieces of the broken puppets that fell on the ground. For him, those materials were still of high value, even if they are broken. At the very least, he can study them later. Krune and Ruik had been paying attention to those images on the walls very closely. They still think that this Mohie Zarks has something to do with the same one in the Luvile Universe. "From the looks of it, there had been some kind of battle. It seems like Mohie Zarks had to leave this inheritance behind in a hurry before leaving this place." Ruik then asked. "If he was being pursued, then why would he even finish this place?" Krune shrugged his shoulders and said. "Who knows? Perhaps he wanted the others to know the truth in the future. But it has been too long, so I can''t tell who was pursuing him or what they wanted." Ruik nodded. Krune nodded and returned his attention to the passage ahead. "More puppets, be careful." Krune and the others kept making their way forward. Finally, they arrived in a room with several Teleport Formations. It was obvious that they would need to select one of them if they wished to continue forward. Everyone then looked at Krune''s group. So far, they had basically followed him, so they would probably keep doing the same now. Krune, of course, felt that to be quite problematic. However, there are always exceptions to the rules. A small group with five members stepped forward and immediately used one of the Teleport Formations. No one tried to stop them since there really were many Teleport Formations available but no information. There was no guarantee that they picked a good or a bad one either, so there was no point in intervening. But soon, they noticed that the teleport formation that that group chose broke apart. "Did they break the formation on the other side?" Another group also selected a random formation and activated it. Just like the previous group, their teleport formation broke right after the teleport was completed. "I doubt that they both broke the teleport formation on the other side, though." Krune then looked at everyone and said. "Alright, we are going ahead. You guys just select any of those that you feel lucky with." Even though the others wanted to follow him, Krune had no need to wait for them. In fact, his group wanted to go on their own way since a long time ago. These Teleport Formations might be just the chance that he and his group waited for. Before anyone could say anything, Krune and the others already stepped on one of the Formations. The teleport formation then activated and was just about to teleport his group. Unfortunately, some of the other guys tried to follow Krune''s group anyway. But there was a problem. The Teleport Formation that Krune''s group selected had just so much space. In the end, the teleport formation stopped working and didn''t teleport anyone. Krune and his group were taken aback by that. Even if a few ended following his group through the teleport, as long as the majority couldn''t, that was already good enough. But it just had to stop as soon as it was about to send them away. "What is happening?" Feifei sighed and then said. "Overload. The Teleport Formation cant teleport too many at the same time. These Teleport Formations are quite simple as far as I can see, so we won''t go anywhere if so many try to follow us." Krune narrowed his eyes and looked at those guys who tried to follow him again. "How long are you staying there? Can''t you see that it is not possible to teleport all at once?" One of the guys then said with a stone face. "That''s not it. You are the only one who has the Jade Slip from Mohie Zarks. So it is obvious that we want to go with you since there is a big chance that we will need the jade Slip in the future. Who would try to follow if not because of that?" Ruik couldn''t help but exclaim. "Then what? If you keep trying to use the same teleport formation, we won''t go anywhere. It can''t teleport too many at the same time. And don''t come at me saying that as long as Darten leaves his Jade Slip behind, you won''t follow him. That is because the same problem would happen again, even if he isn''t the one with it." That was true. Whoever held the Jade Slip would have the majority following. So, at this moment, it mattered little if it was Krune who had it or not. "Should we decide it by luck? From what I can see, these formations should be able to support around 30 cultivators and demon beasts. Darten''s group only has 15 members, which leaves another 15 more or less." The others didn''t know what to say until someone finally asked. "How do we decide it? No one here wants to fight to decide it since this Realm is probably far from over. To get severely injured here will be idiotic." The guy then shrugged his shoulder and said. "What else? Let''s just play lots." Some mouths twitched after hearing that, but they really didn''t have much choice. Still, there was one rule. Only those who had strong team members could participate in it. After all, those with high cultivation and combat power wouldn''t accept being left behind by some weaklings. Krune and his group looked at that with weird faces. There is a bunch of cultivators and demon beasts playing lots in the middle of a deadly Dimensional Realm. Where has anyone ever seen something like that? Krune couldn''t help but think. ''I wonder how Mohie Zarks'' face would look like if he saw this. He probably was expecting a fierce battle for the Jade Slip, no doubt.'' In fact, that would have been the outcome... if Krune hadn''t shown his real power. There is also the fact that it was because of him that a lot of them didn''t die during that battle against the Dragon. Although the other groups were confident in taking his Jade Slip with their numbers advantage, the price to pay would be too high as well. Besides, once one group took it away from him, they would immediately become the target. This was simply... the most reasonable way they could think of at the moment... probably. In the end, the 15 were quickly decided, and they stepped on the Teleport Formation with Krune and his group. In fact, they also had another mission, prevent the Teleport Formation on the other side to be broken on purpose. They still didn''t know if the previous two groups had done that on purpose or if the formations were built to be like that. Krune didn''t care about any of that, so his group just stepped on the teleport formation with the others. The Formation activated, and with a flash of silver light, they all disappeared. Of course, this Formation was chosen by none other than Rarol! 341 The Theory Was Righ When Krune and the others appeared on the other side, they noticed that there was no Teleport Formation around. They seemed to be in a closed room with nothing more than a door. The additional 15 that came together then waited a minute to see if someone else would appear, but there was no one else in the end. "It seems like the Teleport Formation really breaks on its own after someone passes through. Otherwise, there would be more cultivators and demon beasts here already. There is probably a few thinking that we broke the teleport formation as well, though." One of the guys then said. "Don''t worry." He then took something that looked like a red gem and broke it. "Oh! Gemini stone, uh?" Krune looked at Feifei, puzzled. "Gemini stones are made in pars, then don''t have much of a use other than the fact that once one breaks, the other breaks too. As long as you are not in another Universe, it will definitely work. It''s quite a common item, to be honest. That guy probably agreed to break the Gemini stone if they didn''t destroy the Formation. Just a way to tell the others on the other side that we didn''t do anything." Krune nodded. "Quite a convenient item, I will buy some once we are back." Krune looked at the extra cultivators and demon beasts. He then paid attention to the female cultivator who looked like the leader. "So, how should I call you?" Her expression didn''t change much, but she answered nonetheless. "Pana Loerk." Dilo then told Krune with a Divine Sense Message. "She is at the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm." Krune nodded once more and then said. "Well, let''s keep moving them. As far as I can see, there is only one exit, so let''s take a look." They opened the door and stepped outside. But when Krune and the others looked where they were, they were quite surprised, especially Krune. The place was a Herb Garden. Although the area wasn''t that big, Krune could see several Herbs that were hard to find outside. "Great! Jalin Tree, Frozen Dark Vines, Kahara Flowers, Orlo Leaves..." Krune looked excited at all of that. "Although there is a lot of Bronze and Silver Stars, there is also a good amount of Golden and even a few Diamond Stars level Herbs here!" Pana looked at him and asked. "I saw that the pill that you gave to that Demon Beast healed his foundation very fast. Could it be that you are an Alchemist?" Krune looked at her and nodded. "Yes. Alchemy is one of my Side Occupations." Krune then looked at Rarol with a grateful expression, which made him laugh once again. "It''s okay! I only knew that something good would be inside, that''s what my instinct told me. I had no idea it would be a Herb Garden, though." Krune then looked at Pana and said. Pana shook her head and said. "Neither I or any of the members of my group are alchemists. So we wouldn''t be able to identify all the herbs. If it really becomes a competition of skill, then your side would have a big advantage. Let''s just collect and share them between us." Krune then said. "Okay. But make sure to do it like this: If you see only three herbs, leave one, if you see five, leave two. Don''t kill the Herb Garden. In the future, if someone comes here again, it won''t be just a deserted land." Pana didn''t care much about those who came after, but she knew that alchemists usually cared about the herbs, so she agreed in the end. There was really a lot of them, which will probably last quite a few years for Krune. That is already considering that the Herbs had been shared. Surprisingly, there were no formations, traps, puppets, or whatever protecting them. Rarol, too, wasn''t feeling any danger in this place. But that was the case only for themselves. Rarol instincts had really paid off this time. That is because all the other Teleport Formations had several levels of trials inside. Some were hard, while others were easier. As for rewards, they couldn''t compare to the Herb Garden that Krune''s group found. Krune and his group didn''t know anything about that, though. With everyone working together, it only took 30 minutes for them to collect everything. Krune then took a look around and nodded, satisfied. Everyone followed his request and left enough herbs behind so that the Herb Garden could recover again. The Herb Garden wasn''t big, so it was easy to see that there was only one exit. Everyone immediately departed after they finished everything there. The exit was a big corridor. On the way through, Krune and Ruik noticed that it also had more images left behind. "These images are better preserved than the last ones." Ruik nodded. "Yes, it seems that there are more of them now as well." Krune and Ruik kept looking at it when they finally saw something different. "Look, it seems like that battle was because of some treasure or artifact." They then looked at the image of a man holding something that looked like a bright gem. Ruik then asked. "Is that how Mohie Zarks looks like?" Krune also thought the same. "I don''t know, but he is the one holding the item depicted on the previous wall images. Most likely, that is him." Krune and Ruik never bothered to ask Hasik for a picture of the Mohie Sect founder in the Luvile Universe, so they were not sure about his looks. Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "What is that gem about? Does it have any powers?" "We don''t know. But it should be something very good since Mohie Zarks had to leave this place as soon as he finished building it. There is even a chance that this gem is in this Dimensional Realm somewhere." Krune kept looking at the images on the walls. They also showed the process of building this Dimension Realm. Still, there was no information about who was pursuing Mohie Zarks for his artifact. Pana and the others were also looking at those images, but they didn''t seem to care much. They were only here for the resources and treasures. What happened to Mohie Zarks matter little for them. Of course, if possible, they would also fight for the gem if it is really here. When they exited the corridor, the gated to the next Realms were already opened in front of them. This time, there were five choices, though. "So... no crystal needed to open the gates this time, it seems?" Krune and his group quickly took a look through the gates and decided which one to choose. As for Pana and her group, whether they choose to follow or not, that is up to them. Rarol couldn''t tell which one was better or worse, so they simply select the middle one. The situation continued. Krune and the others cleared a Realm, collected the rewards if there was any, and entered the next. There had been several dangerous situations on the way. Still, thanks to Rarol, Krune, and Feifei''s combination, their group got at most severely injured but avoided any deaths. Of course, this is the case only for Krune and his group. Joiu''s group and Pana''s group weren''t so lucky. Joiu had lost one of his Soul Forging Realm subordinate. As for Pana, she lost one at the peak of the Divine Soul Realm and another at the Soul Forging as well. They couldn''t help but admire Krune and Feifei''s, or better, Darten and Fina''s support skills. In Pana eye''s, Darten''s control over his Shields was simply unbelievable. He could change the elements, and even the laws on each one to best match their enemies. There were even a few times where he had the chance to help her group. As for Joiu, he felt that Fina was the most impressive one. Joiu noticed that it was because of her that Darten and the others were always read for sudden developments. By now, he could already tell that Fina was amazing at divination. He had no doubt that a few of Darten''s group members would have died if not for her. Of course, there was also the fact that Rarol was there. His combat prowess wasn''t anything noteworthy. But it was thanks to him that they always knew when calamity was about to befall on their group. ''If this is really instinct, then it has already reached a ridiculous level!'' That was Joiu''s opinion of Rarol. It was to the point that he thought about recruiting him later if the chance appears. Thanks to that, it could be said that Krune''s entourage was having one of the lowest death rates during the last two weeks that they stayed together. But Krune knew that it was probably because they still had Pana and Joiu''s group help. Of course, during the time they passed by the several Realms, Krune and Ruik were able to get even more information about Mohie Zarks and this realm. This time, they were looking into some jade slips they found in one of the realms when suddenly, Xankruan called Ruik and Krune over. "What is it?" Xankruan passed a half-broken Jade Slip to them. "Take a look yourselves, I guess this is what you were looking for." Krune and Ruik looked at each other and then took the Jade Slip. There wasn''t much information inside, but what was there confirmed their theory. -... I''m almost done with this Dimensional Realm construction. Once I''m finished, I''ll be departing for the Luvile Universe. Because of a coincidence, I have been there in the past and noticed something different. For some reason, that place''s Tribulation Lightning existence can hide my aura. It should be enough for me to heal my injuries without anyone coming after me, the only problem will be wh...- Although there was more information inside, the rest was basically a few notes of this Dimensional Realm. There were also parts that were lacking information due to the conditions of the Jade Slip. "So... he was really the same Mohie Zarks from the Luvile Universe." 342 Reencounter There were more Jade Slips in that room, but none of them had more information about the same issue. Krune and the others finished looking at everything in this place. Fortunately for Heavin, a few of the Jade Slips also had some Soul Techniques. Krune, Pana, and Joiu''s groups then moved forward and entered the next Realm. But there was one thing different in this one. They weren''t alone! This Bubble Realm was quite small, probably no more than 20 or so km radius. Because of that, Krune and his group immediately noticed the other side. Also, they could see several bodies on the ground. Judging by the environment, quite a few battles happened already. It turned out that the group they encountered was none other than Uer''s! It was also obvious that they were the ones who killed the other groups who arrived here. Uer also noticed Krune''s group presence and started to laugh out loud. "Hahahaha! Great! I''ve been waiting for the time I would meet your group. So how about it, are you willing to take my offer now?" Krune narrowed his eyes and asked. "What offer?" Uer smiled and answered. "Have a battle to the death against me. Exciting, right? So far, all the groups that I met were a bunch of weaklings. They couldn''t do more than kill half of my subordinates, really disappointing. But look, thanks to that, our groups are almost at the same size!" Krune then shook his head. "Thanks, but no thanks. I have no intention of having death battles." Uer laughed once more and then said. "Unfortunately, you have no choice here." Uer then activated his Death Domain and immediately gave the order to attack. Mino Jan, the protector that came with him from Luvile Universe, was also intending to finish everything as fast as possible. He wants to confirm if Krune and Feifei really have Heavenly Fragments or not. If they have, then they hit the jackpot. They would get two Heavenly Fragments at once. But just as they were about to start, another group appeared inside that small Realm that they were in. Krune looked at the newcomers and recognized them. "It''s Ricarte and his group." Ricarte saw that situation in front of him and sighed. "Hey, you two, what is happening here? Why are there so many bodies on the ground?" Krune then pointed at Uer. "That guy there seems to be killing everyone who arrives. So now that we are here, he intends to do the same." Ricarte nodded. He already expected that it was the case considering how Uer acted back in the Dimensional Realm Entrance. "I see..." Ricarte then got close to Krune''s group and asked Uer. "Are you still going to insist on this fight?" ''Time Major Core! No, he isn''t in the Core Formation Realm anymore, so it''s a Time Major Divine Soul!'' Uer narrowed his eyes and then snorted right after. "Forget it. I''m not idiot enough to think that I can deal with you both at the same time. Still, how many Major Divine Souls we have in this Inheritance already?" Ricarte laughed and then answered. "As far as I know, no less than nine." Krune''s and Feifei were taken aback. They didn''t expect that this place had gathered so many Major Divine Souls. Uer then went to a corner and sat down. Mino Jan sighed and did the same, he couldn''t help but curse his luck. Their group then took some distance, and everything was over before even starting. Ricarte then looked at Krune, or better, Darten, and asked. "So, why are you even staying here?" Krune shook his head. "I don''t know. I didn''t have the chance to look around. But if they are not moving forward, this is probably because of that Spatial Gate on the other side." Krune then pointed at the gate on the other side of this Bubble Realm. There was only one this time around, and they could also notice another seal blocking it. Still, this one looked different from all the other passages between realms so far. Ricarte and Krune''s group then approached the gate and touched the Seal. Soon, the information regarding its opening flowed into their minds. -This gate shall be opened when all 18 keys have been gathered. Total number present: 05- Krune and Ricarte''s group immediately understood why Uer''s group was here waiting. It turns out that the next Realm wouldn''t open even if they wished to. Also, it seemed like Uer or Ricarte got an extra Jade Slip as well. But Krune didn''t care about it, as long as he has his one, that is enough. Ricarte couldn''t help but comment. "Just how long would we need to wait for everyone to arrive. And what will happen if someone decides to not move forward anymore?" Krune shook his head and said. "I don''t know, but I don''t think that Mohie Zarks wouldn''t have thought about it. There was a Bubble Realm before where all the late participants were forcefully teleported to that Realm'' last trial. I believe that something like that will probably happen again." Ricarte had to admit that Krune was probably right. "Indeed. My group also passed for two similar situations where we were teleported or forced to follow a specific path. Anyway, all we can do is to wait, so I guess I will simply cultivate a little." Krune nodded, and his group also decided to do the same. Ricarte and Krune''s group then stayed somewhat close to each other just in case Uer''s group decided to try something. A few hours later, another group arrived. This time, it was Mohie Maran and his subordinates. Maran also took a look at the Seal in the Spatial Gate and found a place to cultivate. He didn''t seem surprised by the bodies on the ground nor by the information about the gate. Just like Ricarte, Uer, and Krune''s groups, Mohie Maran''s one was obviously smaller than the time when they separated at the Dimensional Realm Entrance. Time passed, and even more groups arrived. Two days later, the number of Cultivators and Demon Beast already surpassed 500 hundred. Of course, considering the number that first entered the Mohie Zarks Inheritance, this amount wasn''t even 1/10 of the total. As for jade Slips, 9 of the 18 total were already present. There was one thing that made the others feel weird, though. The fact that Krune cooked something now and then. He had a full chef set prepared in his Spatial Ring and a plethora of ingredients. Krune''s group even had a set of tables, plates, and everything else. Just who would expect someone to lose their time in a place like this to cook? At first, the others thought that it was some joke. But when they started to sense the smell, they couldn''t help but feel like eating as well. "Hey, Joiu. Do you and your group want some?" Joiu felt somewhat awkward hearing that question, but he had to admit that Krune''s food was very fragrant. At his cultivation level, he didn''t need to eat anymore, so even he can''t remember the last time he stopped to eat something. "Errr... Sure..." Joiu knew about the possibility of Krune, or better, Darten, having poisoned the food. Still, for some reason, he felt like he wouldn''t do that. Seeing Krune and Joiu''s group eating made the others quite jealous. Still, they were all way too proud to ask for some, so they tried to ignore it. They made a small barrier with their Spiritual Energies that blocked the smell. Another 3 days passed, and the number continued to increase. However, much more slowly. There were now around 800 Cultivators and Demon Beasts present, and 13 Jade Slip Owners. Krune was once again cooking when suddenly, he felt that something was happening to the Spatial Gate. He wasn''t the only one, though. Everyone looked at that at the same time. The Seal on the Gate started to change, and with that, the Realm that they are in at the moment as well. The change was that a lot of Spiritual Energy started to gather in this place. Krune and a few other groups immediately recognized what was happening. "There they come." Sure enough, it was just like Krune and Ricarte said. The cultivators and demon beasts that weren''t here yet started to appear one after another. Those were obviously the ones who were late or gave up moving forward at all. Surprisingly, Krune saw that Demon Beast, which he gave the Shell Repairing Pill. ''Oh, he is still alive, and even broke through into the 7th Stage of the Core Formation Realm.'' The newcomers looked around, puzzled. But soon, they gathered information with the others and understood the situation. Around a minute later, the situation stabilized, and the teleportations stopped. Krune then approached the gate and touched it. -Total number present: 16- Krune narrowed his eyes. There is a total of 18 Jade Slips from Mohie Zarks, but only 16 are present now. The others also felt puzzled by that situation. "Could it be that the owners of the other two died?" "Probably." "What about the Jade Slips, then?" "Why are you aking me? Even if I knew, I wouldn''t tell you anyway." The Seal on the Spatial Gate then changed once more, and this time, two bright lights appeared above everyone. A few seconds later, the light disappeared, and two Jade Slips could now be seen. The Jade Slips then started to drop on the ground since no one was holding them. Any idiot would understand which kind of Jade Slips those two are. "The Jade Slip Keys!" For the two of them to appear here alone, it was evident that their owners were already dead. Also, anyone could imagine that those Jade Slips would have some critical use from now on. Immediately, a fierce battle for the two Jade Slips started. Krune looked at his group and shook his head. "Don''t intervene. Even if we didn''t have one, the risks would not be worth it. Let alone that we do have one." 343 Three Slots Although many cultivators and demon beast were fighting for the Jade Slips, more than half of the groups without one didn''t take part in it. First, because they weren''t at the level that they could have a change of keeping it. And second, even if they did get a Jade Slip, they wouldn''t be strong enough to protect it after. As for the Jade Slips owners, only Uer wanted to take part in that fight. But he was stopped by Mino Jan. No one knows what Mino said to convince that maniac to stop from jump right in the middle. Soon, the difference in power between the groups fighting became apparent, and the ones who knew that they weren''t strong enough retreated. In the end, the last two Jade Slips found their new owners. Of course, it wasn''t without casualties. In this exchange, over 30 cultivators and demon beasts died. With everything resolved, the Jade Slip owners then approached the Spatial Gate and brought out their own. The gate counter then reached 18, and the seal started to fade away. But at the same time, a new stream of information flowed into everyone''s mind. -Each Jade Slip Key is worth three slots. Once the Jade Slip holder selects his two companions, he may enter the gate. As for the inheritance acquired, that will depend on your luck.- The Cultivators and Demon beasts'' groups without a Jade Slip couldn''t help but get angry. "What about us? Are we to sit here and wait?" "This is not fair, I came here for the inheritance, not just some resources!" "I can''t believe that I made this far for nothing!" As if answering everyone''s complaints, a new Spatial Gate appeared just beside the main one. There were no seals or anything like that. It was open for anyone who wanted to try. Rarol looked at that new gate and felt a chill on his back. "This new gate... is no good." Krune''s group immediately looked at him. If Rarol''s instinct is saying so, then it most likely correct. Krune looked back at his group members and then asked. "So, how are we gonna do this? It doesn''t seem like we have many choices." Ruik asnwered through a Divine Sense Message.. "Simple. You, Feifei, and Dilo will enter the main gate. You three make the strongest front that we have at the moment. The rest of us will enter the other one." Kruen and Feifei nodded. They know that although Rarol said that the new gate is dangerous, the main one is probably even more. That''s because only the powerful ones will be entering the main gate this time. Not to mention that Krune and Feifei still don''t know whose the other Major Divine Soul Owners are. But one thing was sure, they would definitely enter as well. "Very well, I will tell you what we found inside once we get back." Dilo looked at Xankruan and got worried. But before he could ask to change team, Xankruan messaged him with her Divine Sense. Dilo sighed and then nodded. But just as Krune finished selecting their members, Joiu came forward to ask. "Darten, can''t you leave one of the three slots for me?" Krune looked at him and then said. "But you are still at the Peak of the Divine Soul Realm. I''m not looking down on you, but can you fight against those guys at the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm? My friend definitely can, and I have a reason to have Fina following us too." Jou smiled and then extended his two hands forward. "You two, give me your hands for a second." Feifei and Krune looked at him puzzled but still touched on of his hands each. Suddenly, the two of them felt a surge of life energy coming into their bodies. What impressed them was how pure, and at the same time, how concentrated it was. Both Krune and Feifei are already in the Divine Soul Realm and even know one Sub-Law of the Light Laws. But they wouldn''t be able to do even 1/10 of what Joiu was doing. They only needed a second to understand what was happening. ''Life Major Divine Soul!'' Krune and Feifei were also impressed by how long he concealed it. During all the battles they passed through, not even once had Joiu showed his real power. But one thing was sure, Joiu could already fight at the Soul Forging Realm level without using the power of his Life Divine Soul, so he would definitely be a lot stronger when he decides to do it. Krune then talked with his group members through Divine Sense message, and they reached the conclusion that it was worth a try. Especially with someone like Uer out there. Dilo was especially happy to be able to go with Xankruan, which made the later sigh. Krune looked at Joiu and then nodded. "Very well, you will be taking his place." This time, it was Joiu who got surprised. He thought that they would definitely take Fina out to put him, not the 3d Stage Soul Forging Realm guy. Joiu then decided to send Krune a Divine Sense message. "Darten, are you sure that this is the best set up? I know about your friend''s ability with divination, but it won''t be of much use if she can''t protect herself." Krune couldn''t help but laugh out loud after hearing that. "Don''t worry, you still haven''t seen what she is really capable of." Joiu felt a little doubtful after hearing that, but he decided to trust Krune for now. It was because he knew how strong Krune really is that his words carried that weight. "Very well, I will follow your arrangement. How will we distribute the treasures, artifacts, resources, and other things?" Krune stopped at that moment. Because he wanted to go with Dilo, they could simply decide to do the shares later. But with Joiu going in instead, they would need to agree with it now. "How about this: 50% for me and Feifei and 50% for you. If we happen to find something unique, we will take them in order. I only have one condition, that gem that we saw on the wall image, I want it." Joiu pondered a bit and decided to agree. Krune had no need to bring him together, so this is already a good thing. Not to mention that there is nothing that guarantees they will find that gem. In that case, Krune''s offer was already very generous. "Very well, that shall be it." Krune nodded and then sent a message to Heavin, who was busy looking into the Soul Techniques that they acquired. "Heavin, we are entering now. Just to be safe, I''m going to keep full control until it is over." Heavin heard that and agreed. "Very well, you better not die in there. After all, I would die too." Krune''s mouth twitched a little. ''Is that the only reason you don''t want me to die?'' Heavin then continued. "But... about Feifei..." Krune smiled and answered. "I know." Krune then took control of his Divine Soul and put the Parrot Puppet back in his Spatial Ring. He then looked at Ruik and the others and said. "Alright, let''s go!" Krune approached the Spatial Gate and brought his Jade Slip out. Beside him was Krune''s and Joiu''s group to make sure no one would try to intervene. When the other noticed Krune''s group level, they were taken aback. There wasn''t a single Soul Forging Realm in between them! The Spatial Gate activated, and Krune''s group disappeared inside. As for Ruik and the others, they didn''t waste any time and immediately passed through the second gate as well. Krune decided on a group in just a minute, but even so, they were one of the last ones to enter. Right after, the last two groups passed through the gate as well. When Krune, Feifei, and Joiu appeared on the other side, they were in front of a castle, or at least, that''s what it looked like. Krune didn''t waste any time and immediately returned to his Wisp Form. Uer, Ricarte, and a few other Major Divine Soul Owners had also joined this last struggle, after all. Not to mention that Krune still doesn''t know who the others are. After transforming back, Krune also brought out his remaining Flying Shields. But that wasn''t all. He extended his Tribulation Lightning Layer, which would prevent anyone from sensing his group through Divine Sense. "Shall we go?" Although Krune didn''t have an expression in his wisp form, Feifei and Joiu could tell how serious he was taking this. Unfortunately, they couldn''t move more than a few steps before hitting a wall! At first, they couldn''t see it, but after they slammed on that, the place where they hit glowed with light. Feifei looked at that and immediately said. "This is definitely a protection formation, and a different one from the Elemental Path." "Could it be that we can''t enter the castle?" Krune and the others then tried to move in other directions, but they soon realized that they were trapped inside it. Front, back, sides, up, and down, there was simply no way out of this thing. "Maybe we have to destroy the formation first. Who knows, some kind of strength test?" Joiu and Feifei felt that to be very unlikely, but they didn''t have any other idea either. Not to mention that Feifei is far from being able to deactivate this formation. Fortunately, Krune didn''t have the time to do that. That is because right in front of them, a man who looked exactly like the one on the walls back on the other bubble realms appeared. The same one they thought to be Mohie Zarks! Well, to be more specific, it was just a projection of the same. 344 The Truth. "Hello there! My name is Mohie Zarks, but I guess you already know that." Krune''s group looked at him and confirmed. "Yes, we have seen a few pictures of you on the wall in the previous Bubble Realms." Zarks smiled and nodded. "That was really me. Well, the real me, to be more specific. As you can guess, this is nothing more than a will left behind." Zarks expression then became serious. "Anyway, I wasn''t intending to appear anytime soon. But while I was observing everyone passing through the Realms, I''ve noticed something peculiar." Zarks then looked at Krune and asked. "Your Tribulation Lightning, it came from the Luvile Universe, right?" Krune and Feifei were taken aback while Joiu had a puzzled face. Still, Krune soon remembered something. "I see... In the information that we found in one of the Jade Slips, you commented that you had been to the Luvile Universe in the past. That''s why you can recognize the power of the Tribulation Lightning, right?" Zarks nodded. "Exactly! Still, I didn''t expect that Wally would send you here, that was quite unexpected." Krune and Feifei really got shocked this time. Not because he knew about Wally, though. But because he talked in a way that it looked like he knew Wally personally. "Have you met him before?" Zarks nodded. "I did, the one who gave me that Treasure that you saw on the wall pictures was none other than him. Well, that thing got me tormented by a certain someone who was also part of the Mohie Clan, though." Zarks continued. "That thing is called a Tribulation Jade, and it can not be found in the Lower Realms." Light Spirit then immediately sent Krune a message. "Oh! So that''s how it is. The Tribulation Jade is an item from the higher realms. It is something that can help against the Tribulation. If you use it in the Higher Realms, the power of the early Tribulations could be reduced by 1/3. But if you use it here in the Lower Realms, it should be twice as effective at the very least. No wonder this guy got pursued." Krune got puzzled. "Is there really a need to go after him because of that? After all, they were from the same Clan. Also, anyone can still pass the Tribulation on their own." Luvile sighed and then explained. "You don''t understand. Have you ever asked your Master or anyone else about how many Cultivators and Demon Beasts are successful during the Ascencion Tribulation?" Krune had to admit that he hasn''t. "Is it difficult?" Luvile laughed and then said. "Usually, not even 1% are successful in overcoming it." Luvile then continued. "That''s not all. After you reach the Divine Path Realm, you will gain immortality. You probably noticed already, right? Even when you are not cultivating, your Core still absorbs a little amount of Spiritual Energy all the time. So even if you don''t cultivate, your cultivation will still increase, albeit very slowly." Krune nodded. "Yes, but if I rely on it to cultivate, I will die 100 times out of life span before reaching the Divine Path Realm. Even someone with a higher life span wouldn''t be able to rely on it." Luvile agreed with him. "Yes, but unless someone kills you after you reach the Divine Path Realm, you will eventually reach the Peak of the Divinity Realm. Of course, you also need to surpass each Cultivation Realm Tribulation. Anyway, everyone is crazy about gaining power. So the number of Cultivators and Demon Beasts that decide to stop cultivating after that is almost nonexistent." Krune understood where Light Spirit was coming from. "I see, it means that sooner or later, one will have to fight against the Ascencion Tribulation. When that time comes, they will probably die. So that''s why Zarks'' Tribulation Jade is so important. A Tribulation with half or less of its total strength can increase the chances of success several times. Any Divinity Realm would go crazy for this thing." Although Krune and Light Spirit''s talk seemed to take a long time, the fact was that it was done through their soul connection, so it took just a second in the real world. Mohie Zarks then continued to explain. "Anyway, I guess Wally sent you here to test yours and your friends'' power, right? I have to say, that was quite a risky move considering the level of your cultivation. Wally should have quite some confidence in you." Krune and Feifei got even more puzzled now. "What you mean with we were sent here? I''ve never met Wally in my life before, nor have we ever talked with each other." Zarks was the one to look at Krune puzzled now. "He didn''t send you here? Then how did you find this place?" Krune then explained how they found that Jade Slip when they arrived at the Hakasha Galaxy. The fact that his group paid 100 thousand Rank 7 Spirit Stones, etc... But it was at this moment that Krune noticed something. "I''m an idiot!" Feifei knew that Krune noticed something. "What is it, what did you find?" Krune then said. "Think with me. This Mohie Zarks is the same Mohie Zarks from the Luvile Universe. Now we came to the Dalin Universe, and we just so happen to bump on his Inheritance. We are talking about an entire Universe here. What were the chances of finding this exact Inheritance, which was built by Mohie Zarks himself?" Feifei immediately understood. "It is nearly impossible!" Krune nodded. "It is just too much to expect from fate alone. That demon beast, Turin, he was there selling Mohie Zarks Jade Slip on purpose. He wanted us to see it! Sure enough, we ate the bait, and here we are." Krune also added. "It doesn''t end here. We are pretty sure that Uer is one of the Heavenly Fragment Owners of the Luvile Universe, right? Once again, just what are the chances of we meeting him in this place? Just how big can a Universe be? Most likely, he was also guided to this place without noticing. All for the sake of meeting us here!" Mohie Zarks heard everything and then laughed. "So that''s how it is! I wonder if that demon beast that you saw was really a Core Formation Realm one or if he was Wally himself. Hahaha!" Krune sighed and then decided to ask. "So, why did Wally give you that thing to start with?" Zarks shrugged his shoulders and said. "Let''s just say that I had something Wally wanted, and he had something I wanted. That''s all." "Oh! As for the Tribulation Jade, you will not find it anywhere. Considering that time that has passed, my real self probably has used it already. Still, this castle of mine has quite a few treasures, artifacts, spiritual equipment, resources, and others." Krune nodded. "Does it mean that you are going to help us?" Zarks immediately shook his head. "That''s not gonna happen. The order left by my real self is that I should not intervene in the Inheritance Trials. So whether you succeed or die, it will have nothing to do with me. So you three better be prepared for everything." Feifei then decided to ask something else. "Then, why exactly did you build this Dimensional Realm for? Was there really a need to finish it before you left for the Luvile Universe?" Zarks nodded. "There was. Although it is indeed an Inheritance, there was another reason as to why I built it. This place was made like this so that I wouldn''t alert anyone when I left for the Luvile Universe. Because of the several ''Bubble Realms'' around this last one, any prying inside was extremely hard to be done." "As you probably know, the Dalin Universe is monitored at all times. When someone opens a Spatial Gate from another Universe to here, the management will immediately notice. That is to prevent cultivators and demon beasts from other Universes from sneaking inside undetected. So, it goes without saying that the opposite is also valid." "To open a Spatial Gate to the Luvile Universe without anyone noticing is an arduous task. If I was caught, anyone could tell where I was going to. Fortunately, as one of the higher-ranked elders of the Mohie Clan, I also knew how the monitoring is done. The whole process of building this Inheritance was so that I could leave without leaving any trace." "Of course, such a thing is only possible if you are leaving. The opposite definitely wouldn''t work." Krune and Feifei then remembered how Cilia knew about a passage to this place that wasn''t monitored. Of course, they wouldn''t talk about it. But thanks to that, what Zarks thought to be impossible was now possible. "Is it really okay to tell us all of that?" Mohie Zarks shrugged his shoulder and replied. "It doesn''t matter anymore. I was already at the peak of the Divinity Realm when I got that Tribulation Jade. That means that I was just a few thousands of years away from being forced to take the Ascencion Tribulation. By now, there are only two outcomes. I succeeded and Ascended, or I failed and died. Whatever happened, telling everything now makes no difference. I just needed a place where I couldn''t be found while healed my injuries." Zarks then looked at the three of them and said. "Anyway, we have talked too much already. I''ve been keeping you, and all the other participants looked until now. The others are starting to get restless. As for the exit of this Realm, it is somewhere inside the castle. I wish you good luck. Oh! And make sure to send my compliments to Wally if you see him in the future." Mohie Zarks left, and the protection formation locking Krune''s group disappeared too. 345 Krunes Choice Once Mohie Zarks was gone, Joiu decided to ask. "So, what was all that about?" Krune and Feifei didn''t know how to really explain. "How can I say it... From the looks of it, my group was purposely guided to find this place." Joiu then asked. "But that Tribulation Jade thing. He did not tell us what it really was." Feifei nodded. "Indeed. But it is not here as well, so it matters little anyway. First of all, Zarks said that he probably used that already, so we won''t find it here or anywhere else." Joiu had to admit that she was right. Krune then paid attention to the front and said. "Alright, any other questions can come later. Let''s focus on the task at hand." The three then entered the castle. But just as they were about to move, they heard Mohie Zarks Voice resonating in their minds. "Any treasures, artifacts, or whatever that can surpass the power of a 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm have now been blocked. I''m looking forward to seeing what all the participants can do." It wasn''t only Krune''s group who heard that, but all the teams. It means that Feifei and Krune''s protective tokens like Krune''s Grandmaster''s one will not work here. Of course, that meant that the same thing was valid for all the participants in this Castle Realm at the moment. Joiu then explained. "That''s normal, most of the high-level Inheritances that you enter in the No Law Zones have similar setups." Krune and Feifei nodded, and they started to move forward. But just a few seconds later, they felt the ground tremble a bit. "It seems like there is already a battle going on." "Forget them, keep your Divine Senses spread, and let''s move forward." Krune then spread his Tribulation Lightning Layer, and the group entered one room after another. Just as Zarks mentioned, there were a lot of resources available in this place. Each room had at least a good amount of Spirit Stones. As far as they can tell, Zarks had spread everything evenly around the enormous castle. Another thing was that the closer to the center they got, the higher the amounts. "Hey, there are Soul Techniques here." Krune immediately started to look into all the Jade Slips together with Joiu and Feifei. "Alright, let''s bring the Jade Slips out of the Dimensional Realm first. We can take our time to both sides memorize the contents. That way, we won''t need to share." Joiu and Feifei nodded, and they stuffed everything inside their Spatial Rings. Krune''s group then left the room and started to move again. But suddenly, Krune stopped. "Wait!" "They are two floors below us, but they can''t feel our presence with Divine Sense. Let''s keep moving and avoid battle as much as possible." Of course, everything wasn''t perfect. Just as Krune and his group started to move again, that group two floors below attacked the ceiling above them and immediately reached the same level as Krune and the others. It turns out that they weren''t using only Divine Sense to check the surroundings. Unfortunately, Krune didn''t know what they did to find them. Krune''s group immediately recognized the other side. It was Lutin Hravent''s group, one of the Jade Slip owners. He was also able to protect his Jade Slip until the very end and enter the Castle Realm. "This Purple Colored Lightning... From what I heard from the guys in the previous Realm, it seems like you are Darten, right? The multi-colored wisp." Krune wasn''t surprised that they knew. Quite a few of the Cultivators and Demon Beasts that reached the Realm Prior had been with him when they fought that Azure Dragon in the Third Realm. Since they stayed several days there doing nothing, it wasn''t hard to think that his information had been spread. "And you are Lutin Hravent, right? You are still in the 1st Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, so it is impressive that you also protected your Jade Slip until now." Lutin then laughed. "Not as much as you, who is still in the 4th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm." Krune decided to stop the pleasantries. "So, what you plan to do? Are you going to start a fight here? We are just at the start of this Realm, are you sure it is worth the risk?" Lutin shook his head. "Don''t worry, we just wanted to see who you were. It seems like you have some technique or treasure that keeps you concealed from the other''s Divine Sense. If not for the fact that my friend has a technique that enhances his perception of vibrations, we wouldn''t notice your presence at all." Lutin then extended his hand. "So, what about this? You give me this treasure of yours or pass me this technique that conceals against Divine Sense, and we can leave each other alone for the time being." Krune sighed and then retracted his Tribulation Lightning Layer. "Unfortunately, this is not a treasure. This is a technique of mine. Still, this is not something you can learn even if you wanted. There is a certain something that you would need if you desire to use it. Of course, I can''t tell you what it is, but I can tell that it is impossible for you to acquire one." Krune was, in fact, talking about Light Spirit. Indeed, it wasn''t something... or someone that you could simply find anywhere. He was the one and only! It is because of Light Spirit''s presence that Krune is able to control the Tribulation Lightning to conceal their existence from the others'' Divine Senses. Lutin laughed and then said. "No problem, all I need to do is take whatever it is from you. After I force you to tell me how to use it, I will naturally know how to use it as well." Krune, Feifei, and Joiu knew that talking more would be useless, so they immediately got prepared for battle. Lutin''s group had three Soul Forging Realm members. Lutin was in the 1st Stage while the other two were in the 3rd and 5th. Krune then sent a Divine Sense message to his group. "Lutin is definitely a lot stronger than his Realm depicts him, probably even more than that 3rd Stage guy. So Joiu, I will leave him to you. As a Peak Divine Soul Realm with a Major Divine Soul, I believe you can hold him. That 3rd Stage guy is for Fina, while I will try to get rid of the 5th stage one as fast as possible." Joiu then immediately shook his head. "You are still underestimating my combat power, Darten. Sure, Life Cores are not exactly good for attacks, but they are definitely better for defense. I can totally hold that 5th Stage guy by myself. So, Darten, you will take care of Lutin, and Fina and I will keep the other two away from you." Krune was surprised that Joiu was that confident. But he had to admit that Life Core power of healing would indeed give him an enormous advantage while defending and providing support. "Fina, should we use them now?" Feifei knew what Krune was talking about, but shook her head. "We don''t need both yours and mine. I have already tested mine, so go ahead and try yours first. If things go wrong, I will use mine as well." Joiu didn''t know what the two were talking about, but it was evident that Darten and Fina had some trump cards to use. ''So, he didn''t use everything back then against the Azure Dragon.'' Although that conversation seemed long, it was done through Divine Sense, so it took just a second. Lutin and his group also decided on what to do, and the fight immediately started. What Lutin was really concerned about was that Krune''s group would try to flee instead. So they decided to pin down Feifei, who looked the weakest one in their group. It would force Krune and Joiu to stay to protect her. But when he saw that all three of them coming at them, he felt delighted. "Great! It''s good that you want to finish it fast as well." Joiu attacked the 5th Stage Soul Forging Realm guy. He released the power of his Life Divine Soul, and life energy flowed around the entire place. Everything was also very bright, with rays of light everywhere! "Light Speed Domain!" Lutin''s companion immediately understood that Joiu wouldn''t be so easy to deal with and became serious. He also released his Domain to counter-attack Joiu''s. Unfortunately for him, Joiu''s comprehension of the Light Laws far surpassed his one with his Earth Domain. Still, his cultivation was several stages higher than Joiu''s, so they two immediately reached a stalemate. Feifei did the same and released her Blue World Domain. She, too, had a better comprehension of the water laws than her enemy had with his Wind One. Unfortunately, she couldn''t jump as many realms to fight as Krune, so she went on the defensive from the very start. She was using her Destiny Divine Soul to ensure she would be able to protect herself until Krune is finished on his side. The good thing is that both her and Joiu''s Domains were of a higher level than their enemies. So when the two got together, they were successful in suppressing their enemies'' Domains even more. Lutin noticed that he had totally underestimated Feifei and Joiu, so he too thought about finish his side as fast as possible. "Don''t think that Joiu is the only one!" The Space around Krune and Lutin then started to get warped, and it became quite hard for Krune to move around. Even the elements started to get in disarray. "Space Suppressing Domain!" It only took Krune''s group a second to understand what was happening. ''Space Major Divine Soul!'' Lutin turned out to be one of the Major Divine Souls that came this time around to the Mohie Zarks Inheritance! "You are done for!" Joiu started to get nervous. Both of them have Major Divine Souls, but Lutin is in the next Realm while he is still in the Divine Soul. However, it was at that moment that he saw a smile on Feifei, or better, Fina''s face. Joiu then paid even more attention to Darten with his Divine Sense. Krune looked at that Domain and said. "Is that so?" Purple Lightning and Fire started to spread around, and the world around Krune also changed into the same color. The warped space from Lutin''s Domain then returned to normal, and his Domain started to disappear little by little. Lutin looked at that and felt like something impossible was happening. That is because he could feel that the Space Laws that he was controlling in his Void Suppressing Domain were being absorbed by Krune''s one. Or to be more specific, his Space Laws were being eaten! It was then that Krune remembered that he hasn''t given a name to this Domain yet. "Errr... Purple Tribulation Lightning And Fire That Eats Other''s Laws... Domain!" Light Spirit almost fainted when he heard that name. "You are doing it on purpose, right? Right?!" 346 Come Forth! Lutin had no time to think about Krune''s ''extraordinary'' naming sense, though. His Space Suppressing Domain was disappearing right in front of his eyes, so he had to act now! Lutin immediately from his weapon out, something that looked like a small bead. It was a space-related Spiritual Artifact that was created especially for him called Void Sphere. But when Krune looked at that with his Divine Sense, he immediately understood that that thing increased Lutin''s control over the Space Laws. Krune didn''t waste any more time and started to send his Long Distance Attacks. "Tribulation Fire Slash!" "Tribulation Blazing Wind Blades!" Once Krune starts to use Tribulation Lightning, all his elemental attacks increase in both power and speed. Lutin saw that attack coming and felt alarmed. That attack was much faster than he thought it would be possible. Still, because of his weapon, he was able to use dodge fast enough. He, too, started to attack as well after that. "Void Separation!" "Space Breaker!" The space around Krune then started to break apart once more. Krune, of course, had his Tribulation Lightning Movement, so he immediately dodged. At the same time, he sent even more attacks at Lutin. ''He is also a long-range fighter. He is keeping the same distance, just like me. Let''s see who can hit the other first, then.'' "Myriad Tribulation Water Dragons!" "Tribulation Thunder Line!" "Tribulation Blazing Wind Blades!" Hundreds of attacks came at Lutin at the same time, but he once against use his power of space to dodge the attacks... or so he tried. Krune had purposely left more space open on the right side when he sent those attacks. So when Lutin appeared there, Krune immediately used his control over the Gravity Laws. "Left!" Suddenly, Lutin felt an enormous pull coming from his right side, forcing his body to move to Krune''s left side. "Not good!" The Void Sphere then released even more power, and Lutin was able to avoid the range of the attacks in by a hair! Krune tried to take that chance to attack again, but Lutin wouldn''t stay only in the defensive. ''It''s my time!'' "Space Piercer!" The space in front of Lutin started to contract into a single point. After that, Lutin pressed the Void Sphere, and a straight line Spatial attack burst forth from that point. Krune was alarmed, that attack wasn''t any slower than his Tribulation Lightning ones! He immediately brought his the closer Shields in front of himself to defend against it since it would be too late to dodge. The first and second Shields were pierced right through with only the third being able to stop that attack. Krune looked at that with his Divine Sense and felt quite frightened! But then he looked at his Shields and sighed. But the one really surprised was Lutin himself. He knows very well how fast and powerful his Space Piercer is, especially when he is using his Void Sphere. Not to mention that it used a lot of energy to make that. From what he could see with his Divine Sense, those Shields shouldn''t have been able to stop his Space Piercer. Lutin was right, the only reason that his Space Pierce failed was that they used Space Laws. Krune''s Flying Shields were also full of Tribulation Lightning and, obviously, his comprehension of the Tribulation Lightning Sub-Laws. Part of the power of the Space Pierce was eaten away when it passed through Krune''s ''Purple Tribulation Lightning And Fire That Eats Other''s Laws... Domain.'' The rest was then destroyed by the Tribulation Lightning in the Shields. Krune didn''t have time to think about it and attacked even more. Every time he would be controlling the Gravity in the room, forcing Lutin to use his Space Laws to dodge. Of course, Krune was having to use his Tribulation Lightning Movement to keep himself safe as well. Both sides started to grasp how the other battled, and the fight got into a stalemate as well. But this situation wasn''t good for Krune''s side. Feifei was fighting on the defensive while Joiu could only hold his opponent back. The worst part is that all their enemies are in the Soul Forging Realm, so they had a much bigger poll of Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy. If things continued like this, Krune''s group would definitely run out of energy first. Feifei also understood that situation and thought about to use her trump card as well. But it was then that Krune acted. "Fuck it! All my Domains, come forth!" While Krune and the others were moving between the realms with Joiu and Pala''s group, Krune had the chance to try out Domains of all five Main Elements! But this was the first time he decided to use all at once. Not to mention that his Tribulation Domain was still active! Earth, Fire, Wind, Water, Lightning, and finally Tribulation Lightning and Fire! The only ones that Krune hasn''t tried to use Domain yet are Light and Dark Laws Domains. Still it was quite a colorful scene, just like himself. The Domains appeared once after another and overlapped with each other. Of course, such a move would consume a lot more Spiritual and Elemental Source Energies. Not to mention the burden to the mind when Krune tries to control all of them together. One must remember that Krune still hasn''t comprehended the Law Eating Sub-Law from the Tribulation Lightning Laws. So this effect of his Tribulation Lightning Domain still can''t be controlled. ''I won''t be able to hold all of this for long.'' Still, the effect was immediately felt. Lutin''s Space Suppressing Domain couldn''t even be seen anymore, even his control over the Space Laws got severely affected. If not for his Void Sphere, he wouldn''t be able to control anything at all! Lutin knew that he had really hit an iron wall this time, so he immediately sent a Divine Sense message to his companions. "Retreat!" But how could Krune let him go this easy? When Krune brought his overlapped Domains together, he was already expecting their actions. So before he did that, he had spread his remaining Flying Shields around him and Lutin. "Tribulation Calamity!" Krune hadn''t used this attack in a long time, but he decided that with the power of his overlapped domains, it should be enough to cover all escape routes. Lutin knew that he had fallen in a terrible situation and then pressed his Void Sphere. The Void Sphere release even more power than ever before, which allowed Lutin to recover his mobility. He knew that using his Void Sphere like that would probably damage it, but it was still better than risk dying here. Unfortunately for him, just as he was about to move out, Krune appeared right beside him! ''Weren''t you a long-range attacker as well?'' That was all that Lutin could think at that moment. Right after, he felt an immense pulling power coming from Krune''s Wisp body. Krune decided that to guarantee his victory, he would use the Gravity Law on himself. The closer he is to the place where he is controlling Gravity, the higher is its pulling or pushing power. Lutin didn''t expect Krune to appear beside him in that critical moment and was too late to react. Krune''s Heavens Fall hit his Flying Shields, which then create a chain current that initiated the Tribulation Calamity attack. That wasn''t all, with Krune''s control over the elements, he also made sure that his Tribulation Calamity had both the Purple Lightning and Fire, further increasing the attack power. "Arrrrrgh!" Lutin''s two companions noticed that things went south and tried to intervene. Joiu was able to stop his opponent from doing so. Still, Feifei had been on the losing side since the start, so she couldn''t do much when her opponent attacked Krune''s Shields from the outside. The fact that she resisted until now was already remarkable considering her cultivation. The attacks sent some of Krune''s Shields, that were conducting the Tribulation Lightning, flying! With that, the current lost its connection, and the Tribulation Calamity attack disappeared. But when everyone looked at the area affected, all they could see was a rainbow wisp and a charred body on the ground! Don''t underestimate Krune''s Tribulation Calamity. It is backed by his comprehension of the Flash Annihilation Sub-Law, which is already in the intermediate stage! Lutin''s companions knew that it was too late and immediately gave up rescuing. The two of them turned around and dashed away. Joiu and Feifei were about to try to stop then when they heard Krune''s Divine Sense message. "Let them go!" Those two soon disappeared in another corridor, and only Krune and his group remained behind. Krune, Joiu, and Feifei''s Domains disappeared right after. Krune then grabbed the Void Sphere and Lutin''s Spatial ring and released his Tribulation Lightning Layer to protect them against Divine Senses. After that, his group immediately left the place. Although a lot of things happened, the fact is that from start to finish, no more than two minutes passed. Krune''s group had to leave this place quickly since the fight probably caught other participants'' attention. A few seconds later, after Krune and his group went in a different direction, they felt the ground and walls trembling again. But this time, it looked like the battle was very close. "Those two guys were probably caught by another team, we need to leave this place fast." Krune''s team didn''t know what happened to them, nor did they care. The three of them were quite tired, especially Krune. So they had to find a safe place to rest first. After running at full speed for 30 minutes, Krune''s group entered a room and started to recover. Only now did they have time to think about that battle. "Darten, since when you can use so many Domains at once?" Krune looked at him and said. "Well, that was the first time I ever tried something like that, so I''m glad it worked out." Joiu was surprised by that. ''Not only can he use several elemental Domains, but he was also successful in doing that in his first try! Are wisps supposed to be this talented?'' Joiu couldn''t help but think that his decision to join Krune''s group was really the right one. It was then that he thought about something else. "So, how do you call it?" Krune was taken aback for a second. "I haven''t thought about a name for this one either..." Joiu pondered a bit and then suggested. "What about Rainbow Domain?" Krune felt like crying after hearing that. As for Feifei, she burst in laugher already. Joiu, of course, felt puzzled by their reactions. "Is it a bad name? I feel like it was very suitable, though. It looked very much like your true form as well." Krune sighed and then said. "Let''s just... Whatever, Rainbow Domain it is, then." Joiu then controlled the Light Element and gathered it around Krune, Feifei, and himself. Krune and Feifei immediately noticed that their recovery speed increased several times. "Thanks." With Joiu''s help, everyone was able to recover to their peak in a little less than an hour. Krune then brought the Void Sphere and took a look at it. He could feel that this thing is related to the Space Laws, but because he is still in the Divine Soul Realm, he isn''t sure if he can comprehend anything from it. Not to mention that Lutin had obviously damaged it in that last moment by trying to escape Krune''s overlapped Domains. Krune then looked at joiu and asked. "Would you mind if I take this thing?" Joiu shook his head. "It was you who defeated him anyway, so it is only proper that you take it." Krune nodded and put that thing inside his Spatial Ring. He then to out Lutin''s Spatial Ring, which had several resources, techniques, spirit stones, and more. Krune''s group then shared the spoils inside according to their agreement, and they started to move again. 347 Dont Forge "The exit is probably at the center of the castle as well, so we can only keep moving forward." Joiu couldn''t help but ask. "What about those who had more than a single Jade Slip? They definitely have more members. It was already that complicated to deal with only three, let alone six." Krune then answered. "There isn''t much we can do about that. Still, those guys are probably more concerned with the groups that also had more than a single Jade Slip. So, at the moment, there are three teams in that state. Mohie Maran, Uer, and Ricarte. They are probably more concerned about themselves since the others only have three members each." Krune then looked at Feifei. "Were you able to see anything?" Feifei shook her head. "Very little. The level of this realm and the number of participants is too high. Not to mention that everyone has higher cultivation than me in this place. If I use it for battles, I can see a few seconds in the future, but I can''t see much in the long term. Considering the danger here, I prefer to keep my energy for the battles." Krune agreed with Feifei and didn''t ask anymore. As Krune mentioned, the teams that have more than three members were really more concerned about themselves. At this very moment, Mohie Maran and Uer''s groups were in the middle of a fierce fight. Maran, who is in the 2nd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, was fighting against Uer. "This guy''s Death Domain is a pain in the ass. I have the Yang Major Divine Soul, but he can still fight with me in equal terms! I know that he has a Death Major Divine Soul, but my techniques and cultivation are of a higher level. How can someone who isn''t part of a big power be this strong? Could it be..." Uer, on the other hand, was enjoying himself. "Hahahaha! Great! To think I would have so much fun in this Universe, I simply can''t hold myself back! Make sure to hold in there, I''m going to get serious!" "Claws of Death!" Maran was taken aback! Uer''s attack power and speed suddenly increased even more. "What?!" Maran then started to get suppressed by Uer. The battle between the two, which had been even until a second ago, suddenly turned into Uer''s advantage. ''As I thought, there is no way a Normal Death Major Divine Soul can be this strong. This guy is definitely a Heavenly Core Fragment Owner!'' The other five battles were also more or less evenly matched. So when Uer got the advantage, the balance was broken. Uer''s Death Domain became stronger and started to affect the other battles going around. Mohie Maran gritted his teeth and said through a Divine Sense message. "We are leaving!" Uer and his group immediately noticed the difference, though. "Leaving already? Sorry, but the fun isn''t over yet." Uer then looked at Mino Jan and shouted. Mino Jan''s mouth twitched, but he followed the order, and their group initiated a battle formation. Through Mino Jan, Uer, and the rest Domains, The area around became a death field. Maran and his group soon noticed the difference and knew that the situation turned out for worse. "Arrrgh!" In just a few seconds, one of Mohie Maran''s subordinates, a 3rd Stage Soul Forging Realm Demon Beast, died. Maran looked at that and shouted back. "Uer, don''t force my hand. There is no need for us to kill each other at this point." Uer, on the other hand, just laughed. "Of course, there is! It''s fun! So why should we stop?" Maran and his companions defended while they kept running as much as possible. But around a minute later, another one of Mohie Maran''s subordinates met his end. Maran knew that it would get worse if this continued like that, so he made a decision. "Don''t say that I didn''t warn you!" Maran then looked at one of his subordinates and ordered. "Go!" The guy was a 5th Stage Soul Forging Realm cultivator. The guy turned around and charged at Uer''s group. Mino Jan noticed that and immediately understood what was happening. "Shit! Everyone, fall back!" But it was too late, Mino Jan only had the time to grab Uer and dash back. BOOM! That guy self detonated! The 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm is the highest cultivation in this place, so the detonation of a Core or Dantian has enough power to kill anyone here who is close enough. Everyone in the castle felt it tremble more than any other time, and some of them were able to guess what happened. Ricarte and his team were one of them. "Someone self exploded. That''s quite a rare thing to see since the biggest majority would usually be too scared for that. Once you Self Detonate, your soul is destroyed as well. There will be no path into reincarnation for you anymore." His companion on the side then said while exchanged attacks against an enemy. "We don''t have time to think about them. Don''t you think it is better to deal with the situation in front of us first?" Ricarte and his group were also in the middle of a fight at the moment. His opponents just so happen to be in six as well. But they were different from Uer, Ricarte, and Mohie Maran. Their group of six was initially two groups of three. But when they saw how each jade Slip had the right to bring three members, they noticed that they would be at a disadvantage against Ricarte and the others. In the end, they joined forces so that they could have a chance. Ricarte looked at his opponent in front of him and said. "Hey, Amelia. Are you sure you want to keep this going with Reiny?" Amelia and Reiny were two who were able to keep their Jade Slips until the end. "Aren''t you the one who attacked us first? We would not be in this stalemate if not for your harshness." Ricarte laughed and then said. "Sorry, sorry. I just wanted to test you out a bit, but it is not worth the effort anymore." After hearing that, both teams separated. After that, Amelia looked at Ricarte and said. "Hmph! You thought that because you had a Time Major Divine Soul, you would be able to control the battle with easy, right? But you never expected that I had the Yin Major Divine Soul." Ricarte shook his head. "That''s incorrect. We have had the Jade Slips from Mohie Zarks for quite a few years already, so I was already expecting that quite a few of us had Major Divine Souls. After all, Dalin is a gathering of geniuses, so Major Cores and Divine Souls are continually being sent from the Universe Powerhouses into here. I just wanted to see what kind of enemy I was fighting against." Reiny, who was just hearing, felt a little gloomy. That is because although he is one of the Jade Slips owners and a genius, he doesn''t have a Major Divine Soul. "Can you two stop showing off?" Ricarte laughed once more and then said. "Anyway, we shall meet again at the center of this Castle Realm. See you later, my friends." Just as Ricarte turned around and was about to leave, he heard a sound of flesh being cut through. He smiled playfully and then looked back again. Amelia, who had her attention on Ricarte all the time, had a Sword pierced through her Dantian. As for the one holding the Sword, it was none other than Reiny! Amelia looked at him and couldn''t believe what had just happened. "You..." Reiny showed no remorse what so ever. "Don''t blame me, this is for my own sake." With her dantian destroyed, Amelia lost all her power, so she couldn''t do anything anymore. Her two companions looked at that in disbelief. But this wasn''t the time to think about it, any idiot would understand that Reiny had been allied with Ricarte from the very start. "Run!" With Reiny''s group addition, Ricarte''s group had nine members in total. The two of them would stand no chance against them... or so Ricarte and Reiny thought. Just as Ricarte and Reiny''s groups were about to attack, the scared expression on the two''s faces disappeared, and only a faint smile remained. Amelia, who knew that she was dead for sure, thought in her mind. ''Then you shall follow me into hell!'' BOOM! BOOM! Even Ricarte wasn''t expecting that both guys would self explode straight away. "Time Slower!" Ricarte Immediately used the power of his Time Major Divine Soul to buy them as much time as possible. But those were explosions at the Soul Forging Realm! Trying to slow the time around so much energy isn''t something simple, even for a Time Divine Soul. "Fuck!" Everyone tried to dash away as fast as possible, but from their team of nine, five were not fast enough to leave the double explosion range. In fact, two Soul Forging Realm exploding at the same time shouldn''t have given anyone in that place the time to flee. But because of Ricarte''s Time Slower, the other four were still able to react fast enough. "What the hell? Why is everyone self-detonating now? I''ve been to several other inheritances in the No Law Zones, but I only saw two self detonations until today. I can''t believe that two happened right in front of me. Were they really this mad with what happened to Amelia?" Ricarte shook his head. "Wrong, if they were normal cultivators or demon beasts, they would have tried to flee and definitely not self detonate. But the way they acted together, I''m pretty sure they were Slaves. Without a doubt, Amelia had a Soul Slive from both of them." Ricarte then sat down to recover his energy. He had to go all out to slow down the double explosion of those guys, so he needed time to recover. Reiny then sighed and said. "I lost two of my subordinates because of this, so you better not forget our deal." Ricarte nodded. "Don''t worry, I won''t." 348 No Time to Reac Krune and his group noticed the entire castle tremble twice during the time they were moving, so they knew that things were getting more out of control. Joiu then explained to Krune. "Those were probably self detonations. Still, very few would ever consider doing that, so I believe that those were slaves. I can consider it a coincidence if one guy decides to explode, but definitely not two. No one is willing to give up even reincarnation." Krune didn''t care about that, though. "It''s okay, let''s just keep collecting everything and move to the center of the castle. We will need to pay extra attention as well. It seems like my Tribulation Lightning Layer isn''t enough to conceal our presence." Feifei nodded. "That was to be expected. Since our Divine Senses are restricted in this place, it goes without saying that the other teams are relying on other methods to find the location of their opponents. I doubt that Lutin''s group was the only one like that. Of course, it doesn''t mean that all of them will be like that." Krune and Joiu agreed with her and kept their guard high. Finally, Krune''s group started to get close to the center. But they had to stop since the path ahead was blocked. "It looks like a normal door, should we try to attack it?" They looked at each other and nodded. There obviously would be other paths since the teams entered this realm through different positions. But nothing guarantees that they would be open. Also, chances are that they would bump into other groups as well. Krune then used two Blazing Wind Blades and threw them at the door. As they expected, although it looked sturdy, it was still not enough to stop Krune''s attack. Both Blades passed through the joints on each side, and the door fell on the ground right after. Krune and the others looked inside, and they noticed that it was an enormous room with several other doors. They also saw something that looked like a small key floating on the other side. Behind the key, there was another door that seemed to lead to the Core of the Castle. That was because it was a lot bigger and more detailed than the others. Krune, Feifei, and Joiu approached the key slowly to avoid any traps. But just as they were about to get the key, they heard a loud sound on their side. As mentioned before, there were several other doors around this room, and one of them was just sent flying. A group then came inside to take a look. Krune was surprised because he didn''t feel their presence with his Divine Sense, which showed that they, too, had a way to hide from it. The other group, obviously, didn''t expect to find Krune''s group here either. Although his race name had Dragon in it, the fact is that he is an insect type Demon Beast without any Dragon Blood what so ever. Still, his race is quite a rare and strong one that can only attain the Human Form in the Core Formation Realm. His two companions just so happen to be from the same race as well, and it was evident that they were not a group that had just been formed for this event. They noticed that big sphere of purple lightning and immediately understood who they were against. As mentioned before, everyone had a long time to exchange information in the previous Bubble Realm, so very few didn''t know about Krune''s Purple Lightning at the moment. Both sides knew that that key probably had some critical use, so Rui''s group immediately attacked. But since Krune''s group had entered the room first, they were just beside it now. Krune then used his Spiritual Energy and quickly grabbed the key, soon putting it in his Spatial Ring. Rui''s group knew that they wouldn''t make it in time, so they didn''t try to get the key, but attack their opponents instead. Both sides then released their Domains. Surprisingly, Rui''s group all used Wind Related Domains. Not only that, but each one of them had a Wind Sub-Law mastered as well. Krune''s group looked at that and were alarmed. "Fast!" Even Krune had to admit that those Golden Dragonflys were really fast. He only had a small advantage, even with his Tribulation Lightning Movement. Let alone Joiu and especially Feifei. Fortunately, Krune''s Tribulation Lightning Domain was acting against their Domains, which gave their side some time to breathe. Krune''s group then decided to use the same strategy as before, so Joiu immediately attacked the 5th Stage Soul Forging Realm, Rui. But it turned out that Rui was a lot stronger than that guy he fought before, so he quickly fell into a passive position. Feifei was in an even worse condition since she wasn''t specialized in speed to start with. Just as Krune was about to use his Overlapped Domains, he heard a Divine Sense message from Feifei. "Wait a second, let me go first!" Krune knew what Feifei was going to use and stopped his Overlapped Domains. Feifei hasn''t practiced using several Domains in the past, so she didn''t try it to start with. She quickly deactivated her Blue World Domain and swapped it for another one. "Illusion of Destiny Domain!" Feifei''s new Domain had no color. In fact, one could even say that it was invisible. Still, anyone who understands Laws could tell that it was there, and it was definitely not simple. However, the Golden Dragonflies couldn''t say what it was good for. At the very least, they didn''t feel any deterrence in their own Wind-Based Domains coming from that. Suddenly, Rui noticed that his enemies'' movements became weird. They were being able to suppress the other side with just their speed alone until a second ago. But now, it seemed like their enemies could tell each of their movements. He was right, Krune''s group could really tell exactly what they were going to do. Feifei''s Illusion of Destiny Domain created faint illusions, or projections if you prefer, of the Golden Dragonflies'' next movements. Not only that, but only the ones that Feifei considered to be allies would be able to see it. Simply put, it was a domain that could show up to two seconds in the future of everyone inside it. Two seconds don''t look to be much, but for a battle at the Divine Soul Realm and above, that can be considered an eternity! Krune already knew about that since Feifei told him, but Joiu was another story. He had never seen a Domain like this before! ''Holy Shit! Is it even possible to lose when you have something like this? I can see everything that my opponent is going to do even before that happens.'' But it was then that he received a Divine Sense Message from Feifei, or better, Fina. "Don''t lose this opportunity and finish it fast. This Domain of mine is too hard to keep up. If you two don''t end at least one of those Golden Dragonflies in the next minute, I will not be able to help anymore." Joiu was taken aback for a second, but he immediately understood. How can such a heaven-defying Domain possibly be easy to use? He had seen Fina getting tired when she used her Divination Skills for herself only, let alone give the others the power to see what she does. Joiu didn''t waste time and immediately went into attack mode. His Light Speed Domain increased in power, and everyone''s speed increased. He hadn''t shared this effect with the others before since it had the same side effect as Feifei''s Domain. It consumed way too much energy. But now was not the time to hold back. Krune and Feifei felt delighted when they felt the improvement given by Joiu''s Domain, so they also started the counter-attack. Feifei''s Domain couldn''t only show the future when they attacked, but also their defense, dodge pattern, and everything else. Having that information gave Krune''s group an enormous advantage. Still, the three Dragonflies were far above their cultivation levels. With their reaction speed alone, they were able to hold their positions. It only took Krune a few seconds to understand that this wasn''t a good situation, so he also went all out and released his overlapped Domains. This became the first time that Krune, Feifei, and Joiu were using every notch of power available to them. The three Dragonflies'' situation, which wasn''t good to start with, deteriorated even more. Not only that, but Krune had also waited until the moment he released his Overlapped Domains to begin using his Gravity Sub-Law! Because of that, even the Dragonflies'' reaction speed wasn''t enough to keep them away from Krune and Joius'' attacks. They were not like Lutin, who had a Space Major Divine Soul. They didn''t have control over the Space laws to use displacement. Half a minute later, two of them were severely injured. Obviously, they are the opponents that were fighting Krune and Joiu, especially Krune''s one. That Golden Dragonfly was on the verge of losing already. Rui then gritted his teeth and started to use his Golden Dragonfly bloodline. He was the only one in his group who had a bloodline pure enough to pull that card. But there was a drawback once he uses it. Rui''s body and cultivation will suffer a backlash, and it will take a few months before he can recover to his peak. Immediately, his speed, attack power, defense, wind element control, and everything else soared! But he didn''t use that power to counter-attack Krune''s group. Instead, he grabbed his group member who was too injured and told the other to retreat. As long as he doesn''t keep his bloodline active for too long, the side effects won''t be too harsh. Otherwise, even if he wins this battle, he won''t be able to do anything else later. Krune noticed that and sent a Divine Sense message to his group. "Let them go. We also should save as much energy as possible just in case. I doubt they will come back to find a problem with us anytime soon." Feifei, Krune, and Joiu then stopped using their Domains and let out a sigh of relief. But it was at that exact moment that the door beside Feifei blasted apart! It was not that Krune and the others let their guards down, it was just that those guys did not appear inside their Divine Sense! Just like the Golden Dragonflies, this new group also had a way to conceal themselves from Divine Senses. Because of that, Feifei had no time to react at all. The ones who appeared where Uer and his group, or at least, what remained from it when Mohie Maran''s subordinate self detonated. Two of Uer''s companions had died during that explosion, leaving him with four members in total. Uer, who was in his Skeleton Dragon form, went straight at Feifei while Mino Jan and the other two stopped Krune and Joiu from intervening. "Claws of Death!" It was too fast, too sudden! When Feifei noticed the attack, it was practically in front of her! There is no doubt that she would be severely injured if not killed by that. She didn''t have time to even raise her Spiritual Energy barrier. "FEIFEI!" Krune immediately shot forward, ignoring everything! But he was too far, his Shields wouldn''t make it in time either! Not to mention that Mino Jan was right in front of him. Krune''s Rainbow Colored Wisp body then became utterly red! It was then that Krune went crazy and touched the power of the Tribulation Lightning, which immediately alarmed Light Spirit! "Stop!" But Krune ignored him. "Tribulation Lightning Movement, 1000%!" 349 Why Must You Make Me Use More Energy? In that split of a second, Krune disappeared from everyone''s vision. There was only a flash of purple lightning! But at the same time, Krune''s output of Tribulation Lightning started to damage his Core! Still, Krune couldn''t care less at that moment. Unfortunately for Krune, that was still not enough! The time seemed to come to a stop while Krune looked Uer''s attack that was about to pierce through Feifei. "It''s not enough! I won''t make it in time! I''m still too slow! I need more power!" Krune was already at the limit of anything he could have ever done. He released 1000% of his Tribulation Lightning through his wisp body at once, which also put him at risk of breaking his Wisp Core. But even with that, he would still be a tiny bit too late. During that split of a second, which looked like an eternity, Krune remembered about Ian''s cultivation technique! Back when Krune looked at the Cultivation Techniques of the Divine Path Sect, he found out that there was a wisp in the past who reached the Divine Soul Realm. That wisp''s name was Ian, and the cultivation technique that he used was simply to burn away one''s soul in exchange for the power necessary for a breakthrough. Of course, such a thing was also considered very risky and had to be carried out carefully. Not to mention that it had severe side effects. Krune was already at the Peak of the 4th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. When he thought about how he was lacking a little bit more power, Ian''s technique was the first answer in his mind. He was already on the verge of losing his mind, so he immediately burnt away half of his soul at once! That barrier separating him from the 5th stage of the Divine Soul Realm was torn apart like it was made of paper. Of course, making such a breakthrough while his Core is about to break apart couldn''t be considered anything else other than suicide! However, Krune had no time to plan for it carefully, nor did he care anymore! Krune felt his power increasing and used everything on his Tribulation lighting movement. Finally, that crazy move that used his everything allowed him to appear in front of Feifei at the very last moment! But another problem surfaced, his Shields would definitely not arrive in time to defend him! Dodge, at this point, was also impossible! But Krune didn''t feel desperate. If anything, he felt happy that he was there on time. Uer''s Claws of Death hit Krune''s Wisp Core head-on! Krune had tried to bring up an energy barrier, but it didn''t have time to form. Krune''s Wisp Core than slammed on Feifei and both of them were sent flying against the walls, falling in two different sides of the room! Krune''s Wisp Core immediately cracked all over, and it was about to break apart. Uer was taken aback when he saw Krune appear right in front of him. But then he laughed out loud. When Mino Jan heard the name ''Feifei'' from Krune, he knew that he had hit the jackpot! That was really the Feifei that all the Sacred Lands were after. Now that both Krune and Feifei ended like that, he felt delighted since they would get a Heavenly Fragment. No, maybe they will get two since that wisp is probably a Heavenly Fragment Owner as well! He then looked at Joiu, who was being attacked from two different sides and immediately moved to finish the job. Joiu was already in bad shape when he was ambushed earlier by those two. Let alone now that Mino Jan joined the fray. His situation was desperate, and he definitely wouldn''t be able to escape either. It only took a few seconds for Joiu to fall into the brink of death as well. Feifei also got severely injured. But on her face, there were only tears while she tried to get up. Feifei could barely move at all, so she walked slowly to where Krune''s Wisp Core landed. Her body was bleeding everywhere. Several bones were broken, and the Death Energy from the Death Domain was robbing her of all her vitality. She definitely wouldn''t survive for long in that situation. Still, she didn''t care about anything like that. She just wanted to see how Krune was at the moment. It was because of her that Krune turned out like that, so what if she died trying? However, just as Feifei was about to reach Krune''s Wisp Core, Uer landed right in front of her. Feifei looked at that Skeleton Dragon, which was a low bigger than herself, but gritted her teeth and kept moving forward. Uer laughed once more and then said. "Thanks for showing me such an amazing thing! Unfortunately, I have no interest in you two anymore." Uer raised his Skeleton Dragon''s Claw and attacked Feifei, who was trying to pass by him. Even in her peak state, Feifei would find it difficult to dodge an attack at this distance, let alone now that she is doing her best to simply walk. But it was then that Uer''s Claw Attack, which was just about to hit Feifei, suddenly stopped right in front of her. It wasn''t that Uer decided to stop at the last moment, but simply because he couldn''t move any more! His Skeleton Dragon Body was locked in place. When Mino Jan looked at him, he got shocked! Purple Lightning was wrapped around Uer''s body as if they were chains. Uer had to do his all to simply turn his Skeleton Dragon Head. Right where Krune''s Wisp Core had landed, a completely cracked Core started to float again. It looked like that if anyone exerted the least bit of pressure, it would break apart. Krune''s Ethereal Wisp Body had almost disappeared as well. Still, everyone in the room could only feel dread when they looked at that Wisp Core! "Sigh... I''ve been putting so much effort into recovering my powers, but you guys just had to come out and cause problems." Who else could he be other than Light Spirit? If Uer''s was in his human form, he would be sweating all over! As for Mino Jan and the other two guys, they were already drenched! Uer could only think one thing. ''Even the old geezers at the Divinity Realm never made me feel like this.'' Mino Jan then came back to himself and immediately attacked Krune''s Core. He had to save Uer at all costs! But before he could even move, Purple Lightning appeared out on nowhere and zapped him in half! Mino Jan couldn''t even understand how that happened before everything went dark. The other two guys immediately tried to flee, but they couldn''t move any further than Mino Jan did. Uer immediately understood that it definitely wasn''t the wisp the one who was doing that. Whoever that voice''s owner was, he could totally kill him like an ant! Feifei and Joiu were still there, so they looked at that scene with their eyes wide open! That helpless situation had turned around, just like that! Feifei, of course, had an idea about who it was, but she didn''t say anything. Krune''s cracked Core approached Uer and simply demanded. "Heavenly Fragment, give it to me." Uer heard that and then started to laugh. "Hahahaha! Keep dreaming, old geezer!" Right after, Spiritual Energy started to gather at the center of Uer''s Demon Core. He was planning to self detonated right there and then. Someone as crazy as he would never accept being controlled in that situation. Light Spirit could only sigh once more. "Idiot... Why must you make me use more energy?" Purple Lightning then pierced Uer''s Demon Core and went straight for his Death Divine Soul. In the next second, it was completely obliterated! Uer then went from a Peak Divine Soul Realm Demon Beast to an ordinary Demon Beast without any cultivation what so ever! His Self Detonation attempt obviously failed as well. After all, Demon Beasts without cultivation can''t possibly control Spiritual Energy, much less gather it to self detonate. Light Spirit Purple Lightning then obliterated Uer''s Soul right after. Without a Soul, the Skeleton Dragon immediately fell apart. The moment that Uer''s Death Divine Soul was destroyed, Feifei, and all the others Heavenly Fragment Owners from the Luvile Universe felt Uer''s Heavenly Fragment Presence! Light Spirit then looked at it for a second and then at Feifei. Before Feifei could even react, Purple Lightning struck her exactly where her Dantian was located. But surprisingly, she did not feel any pain at all! The next second, she felt that something struck her Destiny Divine Soul too. For a moment, her Divine Soul struggled as if it didn''t want that to happen. But then, it calmed down. However, there was a difference now, Feifei could feel that her Divine Soul had become a lot stronger than it was until a moment ago. It was as if they were completely different entities. Light Spirit looked at her and said. "If you intend to keep staying with this idiot wisp in the future, you will need more power. Make good use of that Heavenly Fragment, it should help you catch up with Krune as well." Feifei was taken aback by those words. But just as she was about to thank him, Krune''s Wisp Core disappeared in a flash of Purple Lightning! Boom! One of the doors that connected to the room was then blasted apart by that same Purple Lightning. When Feifei and Joiu looked at that, they noticed that Three Cultivators and one Demon Beast were there as well. Those ones were none other than Ricarte and Reiny''s group! Ricarte never felt so frightened in his life! He had arrived just a few seconds after Krune''s battle against the Golden Dragonflies started. But he kept hidden, waiting for an opportunity to strike and take that Key for himself. Just as his group was about to act, Uer robbed them from their initiative, so they decided to stay hidden for a while longer. However, they never expected to see what happened after Light Spirit appeared. They completely lost any intention of trying anything when they saw how easily Light Spirit Crushed Uer and the others. All they hoped was that their presence hadn''t been noticed. Obviously, that didn''t happen. Ricarte''s family had three Divinity Realm Cultivators, and one of them is at the 9th stage at that! But the dread that Ricarte is feeling while looking at Krune''s Wisp Core far surpasses the fear that he felt from his family''s strongest ancestor. That was to be expected. Light Spirit is someone who came from the Higher Realms, not to mention that he was one of the strongest ones at his time. The Peak Divinity Realms of the Lower Realms are really nothing more than ants in his eyes. Light Spirit asked him. "Ricarte, right?" Ricarte nodded. "Y-Yes, s-senior." Light Spirit then used his purple lightning to point at Feifei and Joiu. "You are going to protect this Wisp Core and those two over there until they recover. Do you understand?" Ricarte nodded vigorously! How could he ever try to refuse that order? Light Spirit then released some Purple Tribulation Lightning, which entered the bodies of Ricarte, Reiny, and the other two guys there were with them. Ricarte and the others felt frightened for a second, but then... nothing! "Don''t worry, this is just a little insurance that you will keep your word." In fact, Light Spirit was simply fooling them. He didn''t leave anything inside Ricarte and the others at all! Of course, Ricarte''s group didn''t know about it. "D-Don''t worry, senior. We will take good care of them." Light Spirit then returned to Feifei''s side and sent her a Divine Sense message. "The rest is up to you." Before Feifei could ask anything else, the purple lightning around Krune''s cracked Core disappeared, and he fell on Feifei''s hands. She looked at that and felt pain in her heart. It looked like if she wasn''t careful while carrying him, his Core would break apart at any shook. Ricarte then gritted his teeth and said. "Hey, you three! We need to leave, this commotion will definitely attract unnecessary attention." Feifei and Joiu nodded at each other, and they left with Ricarte right after. Of course, Ricarte had to give them a helping hand since they couldn''t move properly with their injuries. A few moments after the place became empty, Mohie Zarks'' projection appeared and looked at the direction that Krune''s group went. "An Ascender. This wisp''s background seems to be a lot more complicated than I thought... Well, that is not my problem." After that, Mohie Zarks projection disappeared as if he had never been there. 350 Waking up Ricarte and his group moved for a while until they found a safe place. There, they put Feifei and Joiu down. Feifei was holding Krune''s wisp core until now. She then released it carefully and took a few Healing Pills that Krune had concocted. She gave some to Joiu as well and warned him. "Take out a few Spirit Stones, these pills are quite hungry when it comes to Spiritual Energy. Still, they will help our bodies recover the fastest." Joiu had never heard about a healing pill like that, but he did, as Feifei said. After that, both of them ate their pills and started to recover. Sure enough, the special property of Krune''s Purple Flame Pills appeared right after. The Pill Effect forced Feifei and Joiu to absorb Spiritual Energy as fast as possible too. Ricarte was looking at them with his Divine Sense and felt surprised at that scene. Both Feifei and Joiu''s Injuries started to recover much faster than he could expect. One must remember that the higher the cultivation, the longer the body takes to recover from injuries. There is also the fact that both of them had been affected by Uer''s Death Domain energy for some time. ''Are those Diamond Stars Pills? Only something like that could reach this speed of recovery... Still, I think I''ve heard something about pills with a purple flame before.'' While Feifei and Joiu were recovering, Krune''s soul had been in a sleeping state. Heavin also couldn''t wake up since when Krune was struck unconscious, he was still fully connected to his Divine Soul. Krune has to weaken their connection by himself, or Heavin won''t wake up either. Light Spirit looked at Krune''s soul, which was only half the original size, and sighed. ''His soul is very weak at the moment, no wonder he lost his consciousness after that strike. Before waking up, he will need to heal a bit.'' Light Spirit started to ponder how to do that. After all, Krune isn''t in his human form, so there is no mouth for him to swallow anything. ''Well, I guess I can only wait. Considering how much Krune tempered his soul with my Tribulation Lightning in the past, his soul should at least stabilize in a few hours. Also, once that Life Divine Soul guy recovers, I can use him a little.'' Light Spirit was right. Krune had injured his soul hundreds, if not thousands of times, while he tempered it with Tribulation Lightning. So Krune''s soul natural recovery definitely far surpassed the majority. Thanks to Krune''s pills, Joiu and Feifei recovered very fast. At some point, Joiu got well enough to control Light Element again, which sped up the process even more. Around two hours later, Joiu finally let out a sigh of relief and got up. He looked at Feifei, who was holding Krune''s Wisp Core and then asked the question on everyone else''s mind. "So... Who are you two? I can tell now that you are Heavenly Fragment owners, but from which Universe exactly?" "We are indeed Heavenly Fragment Owners, that is true. But I can''t tell exactly from where we came. Let''s just say that I''m not from one of the Universes controlling Dalin." Joiu nodded. "I see, you are one of those who paid to enter Dalin temporarily. But I didn''t expect that your Universe would send their Heavenly Fragment Owners away. Usually, a Heavenly Core, or Divine Soul, is something extremely important for a Universe. The powers behind each Heavenly Fragment owner wouldn''t let them leave their sight if they didn''t have another choice." Feifei smiled bitterly. "You are right, it was because there was no other choice that we came to the Dalin Universe." Joiu and Ricarte nodded. They already expected as much. "Well, what about that guy who took control of this wisp? Don''t tell me that it was really Darten because no one would be idiot enough to believe that. But one thing is weird. Mohie Zarks had blocked the use of anything that surpasses the level of a 5th Stage Soul Forging Realm. So how could he show that power?" Ricarte nodded. "I heard that too. I even tried to use one of my protection treasures, which can unleash the power of a Divine Path Realm attack. Still, it didn''t matter what I did, I couldn''t activate it. So how come Darten was able to do so? Well, Darten most likely isn''t his real name anyway." Feifei shook her head. "I don''t know much about it either. You will need to wait for him to wake up to ask. However, I doubt he will answer your questions. After all, he didn''t answer even when I asked it myself." Suddenly, everyone in the room heard a voice. "Hey, Joiu Brat." Joiu almost jumped in fright. But he immediately remembered that voice. It was the same one who saved him and Feifei from Uer''s group. Obviously, it was Light Spirit. "Y-Yes?" Light Spirit then said. "It seems that you have recovered already. Since you can already control the Light Element again, gather some Life Energy and send it into the Wisp Core, I will take care of the rest." Joiu didn''t dare to delay and immediately did as he was told. Light Spirit then used that energy to help stabilize and heal Krune''s Soul. Of course, it would be impossible to make a full recovery with just this much, but that wasn''t why he was doing it. Around one hour later, Light Spirit noticed that Krune''s Soul was good to go. He then gathered some tribulation lightning and struck it. Zap! "Wake Up!" "Arrrgh!" Krune''s conscience immediately came back. That was indeed a very effective and painful way of waking up. "Why did you do that?!" Light Spirit snorted and said. "I don''t have time to babysit you all day. Now that you woke up, take care of yourself. Because of you, I had to use a lot of my energy, and I will need to rest for a while. Don''t expect me to come out anytime soon to save your ass. Oh, wait! You don''t have an ass in your Wisp Form. Oh well, whatever. We will talk again later." Krune was taken aback by all of that, and he started to recover his memories of what happened. But it was then that an intense pain assaulted his soul. "This thing hurt like hell! Did Ian really cultivate like this all the way to the Divine Soul Realm? He was crazy!" Feifei and Joiu noticed that Krune''s Wisp Ethereal body started to grow once again, although it was still quite dim. A few moments later, Krune''s overall consciousness reached the outside world as well. When he looked around, he was surprised to see Ricarte and his group there. "What happened?" Feifei started to cry again and embraced Krune''s Wisp Core tightly! "Ouch, ouch, ouch! Too strong, too strong! You are going to break me!" Feifei got frightened by those words and immediately released Krune after that. Still, she was fuming at the moment. "What the hell were you thinking back there? What if your friend didn''t help us in the end? Instead of only one of us dying, it would be two instead! What would be the point in that? Are you perhaps one of those who thinks that following the other in death is the right thing to do?" Joiu heard that and glanced at Feifei. ''Wasn''t you who ignored the Skeleton Dragon right in front and kept walking in Darten''s direction? You were basically doing exactly the same thing, you know?'' Of course, Joiu didn''t let those words leave his mouth. Krune was taken aback for a moment, but then answered resolutely. "Sorry, but I would still do the same thing if that happened again." Ricarte looked at that scene and then asked. "Cough, cough. Should we leave the room for a while?" Feifei immediately got embarrassed and shook her head. "N-No need!" Feifei wiped her tears and then took a deep breath. "I''m okay now." Krune then looked at everyone. "Well, can you guys tell me what happened after I got knocked out by Uer? How come Ricarte is here as well?" Joiu nodded and then started to explain. "Well, it goes like this..." Krune then heard everything that happened, and how Light Spirit had come out to deal with everything in a flash. But one thing was weird, they said that Light Spirit put something in Ricarte and the others to prevent them from trying anything funny. But as far as he can fell, there is nothing inside them at all! Of course, Krune only needed a second to understand what Light Spirit did. ''I see... it is good that they believe that they are being held by a tread. When this is over, I will tell then the truth.'' "Alright, I understand the situation now. Give me some time first." Krune then started to look at his Wisp Core damage. In the end, it turned out worse than he thought. ''I wonder how I didn''t break apart yet. Spiritual Energy is leaking like a fountain. The energy inside is completely chaotic too. I can only try the shell Repairing pill at the moment.'' Krune then took out his pill and used his Elemental Meridians to absorb its properties. At the same time, he took a lot of Spiritual Stones out since his pills needed them. The repairing process then started, and the cracks on his Wisp Core started to mend. However, there was a problem. "The damage was a lot higher than I thought. My Shell Repairing Pill isn''t strong enough to mend the biggest cracks. I guess I will need to concoct a stronger pill later. For now, I will close up the small ones to reduce the Spiritual Energy Leakage and stabilize the energy in my Foundation." 351 Bones Once the Shell Repairing Pill reached the limit of its use, Krune started to stabilize his cultivation. After all, he had made a breakthrough, which made things even more chaotic. He pondered for a moment if he should use a Cultivation Stabilizing Pill but decided to not do so for the moment. Krune then took his time to recover his Tribulation Lightning power. He also tried to call out Light Spirit, but it seemed like he really went into sleeping mode. While Krune was recovering, he asked Feifei something else. "So, Light Spirit gave you the Heavenly Fragment. Did you feel anything different when that happened?" Feifei nodded. "I checked it as soon as he gave it to me. No wonder the sacred lands want it so much. I can feel that My Divine Soul has gotten a lot stronger. And this is just a single fragment. Just how powerful would it be to have a Heavenly Divine Soul? I can only imagine. But that isn''t all. I can also feel that my Spiritual and Elemental Energy Control improved, not to mention that the World of Laws looks clearer as well. Simply put, this thing gives you an overall upgrade!" Krune was surprised that it could increase one''s strength by that much. "That is great!" But it was then that Krune noticed one thing and felt shooked! "What?! How come you are in the 7th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm?" Feifei looked at Krune, puzzled. "7th Stage? What are you talki-" Suddenly, Feifei jumped in fright! "I''m really in the 7th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm!" Joiu and Ricarte were taken aback by those words. They used their Divine Senses to check Feifei, and sure enough, Feifei had jumped from the 5th to the 7th Stage out of nowhere! But the weird thing is that it looked like even Feifei didn''t notice it until now. "How come I broke through two stages without even noticing? There was no torrent of Spiritual Energy, nor did my cultivation went chaotic after the breakthrough either!" That was also why no one noticed it. Usually, when someone breaks through, it would be followed by a great burst of Spiritual Energy. Anyone around the same realm as the person or beast who broke through would immediately notice that. But there was no such thing in Feifei''s case at all! "It must be the Heavenly Fragment." Krune, Ricarte, and the others nodded. There wasn''t another explanation. The fusion of the two Heavenly Fragments had increased Feifei''s cultivation without any side effects. Feifei then focused on her Divine Soul and paid attention to the Elemental Source Energy. "This... It seems like it''s not over yet." Everyone looked at Feifei jealously. Isn''t this kind of breakthrough too heaven-defying? Krune then thought about something. "How is your foundation? Such fast breakthroughs would usually destabilize it." "Nothing... I can''t feel any difference what so ever. My foundation is as sturdy as it could be." Krune let out a sigh of relief. "That''s good then." He then looked at Ricarte and Reiny. "By the way, what were you doing behind the door at that moment?" Ricarte shrugged his shoulder and answered truthfully. "What else? We were waiting for an opportunity to attack. We, too, wanted to get that Key of yours." Krune couldn''t help but feel impressed by how Ricarte blurted it out without trying to find any excuses. "Well... I guess I can''t blame you since those are the rules of the No Laws Zone." Another 30 or so minutes passed. It was then that they heard Feifei''s voice once more. "I entered the 8th Stage now. Still, I can feel that the speed in which my cultivation increases slowed down a lot after this last breakthrough. I doubt I will make it into the 9th Stage." Of course, no one would ever complain about something like that. After all, Feifei jumped three Stages in just a few hours without the need to care about her foundation. Usually, only a Blackhole Major Core or Divine Soul wouldn''t need to care about their foundations. One must remember that Blockhole Major Cores and Divine Souls don''t have a foundation to start with. "Alright, we have rested enough. We should keep going." Ricarte and the others nodded. Their group now had seven members, so there would probably have no other team that could pose a threat to them. "Darten, I still can see a few cracks in your Wisp Core. Are you okay to go?" Krune nodded. "Yes. My Purple Flame Shell Repairing Pills are not enough to mend the biggest cracks, so I will need to leave them be for the moment. Once I get out, I will try to concoct a better pill." "Also, my name is Krune, not Darten. Now that you found out about Feifei''s true name, there isn''t really a point in hiding mine either." Joiu, Ricarte, and Reiny weren''t surprised by that. Using fake names is something very common in the No Law Zones. "Anyway, we can talk more on the way. If we wait too long, the rest of the resources will be taken away by the other teams. If they haven''t already, that is." Everyone agreed with him, and they quickly departed. On the way to the Castle Core, Ricarte suddenly said. "Ah! I remember now. The Purple Flame Pills that have been appearing recently. They are the talk of the Alchemist Organization everywhere." Ricarte then looked at Krune and asked. "Are you perhaps the so-called Jolk? The new Alchemist Genius who invented the Purple Flame Pills?" Krune felt a little embarrassed to be called like that but decided to agree in the end. "Well... you could say so." Ricarte felt ecstatic when he heard that. "Great! I''ve been trying to get your pills for quite some time now. But the Alchemist management of the Dalin Universe always buys almost all of them. In the end, just a few reach the market. Would you mind selling me a few ones of them later?" Krune didn''t really have a reason to refuse, so he agreed. "Sure, but why do you need them? From what I can imagine, your Background definitely isn''t simple. You probably can get stronger pills in the Diamond Stars level that can do the same or even better than my ones." Ricarte didn''t deny that. "That''s true. My family has three Divinity Realm cultivators, after all. If I really wanted, I could get a Diamond Stars pill or even higher grade ones like Divine Stars level. Of course, that would be only in the case that I really need them. I''m also not asking it so that I can save money. The reason I want them is for my sister." Krune and the others looked at him, puzzled. "For your sister? From what you are telling me, it doesn''t seem like she needs them for their use. Could it be that she is also an alchemist?" Ricarte laughed and then nodded. "Exactly. Her name is Racia Fonklue, and she is an alchemist fanatic as well. That''s why I recognized your Purple Flame Pills. My sister had been going crazy over these pills of yours for a while now. Still, they are just way too scarce that even when she asked one of the Ancestors, she couldn''t get one. After all, my family is far from being the only power with Divinity Realm baking us." Krune understood the situation and then threw a bottle at Ricarte. "There are two Shell Repairing, three Stabilizing, and four Body Resurgence Healing Pills inside. Just give it to her." Krune didn''t care much about those pills. After all, he had a lot of them and could make even more anytime he wished. "This... How much you want for them?" Krune refused the payment. "Even though it is forced, the fact is that your group is helping us with protection. Just consider it as a form of payment." Ricarte felt delighted. "Well, I will not refuse it then." Reiny and his two other companions then looked at Ricarte. Their facial expressions showed exactly what they meant. ''We want some too!'' Ricarte, of course, noticed that. "Hmph! If you want yours, go ask it yourselves." Feifei and Joiu looked at that and couldn''t help but laugh a little. Sometime later, Krune and his group arrived in the same room where the battle happened. The bodies of the Skeleton Dragon and the rest were still there. Krune then approached Uer''s Skeleton Dragon body and looked at those bones. ''I wonder what grade those bones are. Uer had been the gem of one of the Sacred Lands, so there is no doubt that they didn''t hold back to increase his power.'' Krune then took them all and put inside his Spatial Ring. He would check later if those bones could be used as material for crafting. Using Demon Beasts parts to craft equipment is quite a common thing, after all. Their group then looked at the Main Door that connected at the Core of the Castle and noticed that it was already open. Ricarte then shrugged his shoulder and said. "Well, that was to be expected. We have been out for a few hours already. I wouldn''t be impressed even if the fight for the treasures was over and the teams left." For some reason, Krune felt like Ricarte didn''t look much concerned about this issue. As if the treasures and resources meant little for him. "Anyway, let''s enter and take a look." 352 Spatial Gate Krune''s group entered the center part of the Castle and started moving forward. They verified room by room to check if there was anything left as well. Unfortunately, they were all as they predicted. Everything was already wiped out. On the way, Krune and the others also noticed signs of battle that happened not too long ago. Krune even found one of the Golden Dragonflies corpses at one of the battle sights. It was obvious that a few fierce battles for resources and treasures happened there. This time, Krune wasn''t using his Tribulation Lightning Layer since he didn''t want to risk losing control over the energies in his foundation. It was already quite difficult to keep everything inside calm the way it is. Everyone kept moving for over an hour without finding anything or anyone until finally, they arrived at an enormous building in the middle of the Castle. The door of the building was already open, which means that others had entered already. Unfortunately, the building seemed to have some kind of formation protecting against Divine Senses. When Ricarte and Reiny saw that place, their eyes immediately lit up! "Let''s enter." Krune''s group moved slowly between the corridors of that place. This building also had several other rooms inside, but they all seemed to have been cleaned of whatever they had already. However, when they reached the center of the building, there was a door with a seal on it. On the top, one could see a name written: ''Multi-Dimensional Spatial Gate Room.'' When Ricarte saw that, he couldn''t help but exclaim. "That''s it!" Krune then looked at Ricarte and said. "As I thought. When we passed through the rooms that were emptied already, both you and Reiny didn''t seem very concerned about that. So your objective had never been the Treasures and Resources to start with, right?" Ricarte laughed and then nodded. Just to be safe, he started using Divine Sense message to talk with Krune and the others. "Was it that obvious? Oh well, it doesn''t matter. You are correct, what we came here for is not the resources, techniques, treasures, or whatever. We came here for one reason only, Mohie Zarks'' Undetectable Universe Crossing Spatial Gate." Krune knew what he was talking about. Mohie Zarks projection had talked with his group when they first entered the Castle Realm. He said that the bubble realms'' main reason for existence was so that Zarks could leave the Dalin Universe undetected. It seems like this locked room is exactly where the Spatial Gate that he used is at. "For what you need this thing?" Ricarte and Reiny looked at each other and then at Krune. "Isn''t that obvious? We wish to leave the Dalin Universe without being noticed!" But Joiu was different, after pondering a bit, he found the answer. Of course, he realized that it was a delicate topic, so he also used Divine Sense Messages. "Are your families from the Dalin Universe?" Ricarte and Reiny nodded. "Yes." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "What is this about?" Joiu looked at Krune and explained. "You know how the Universe powerhouses send their geniuses here to train, right?" Krune and Feifei nodded, so Joiu continued. "But what should we say about the geniuses who are born here? In a Universe like this, there is no doubt that it will give birth to the highest number of them. No other Universe could ever hope to match it, right?" Feifei and Krune looked at each other and nodded once more. "Right." "Good, let me explain from the start. It is very easy to identify cultivators and demon beasts who come from other Universes since the only way in is through the official Spatial Gates from each Main Universe. You probably still remember that when you came in, you had received the same special mark as I did. Once you reach the Divine Path Realm, you will be forced to leave this Universe unless you join some power here. Still, that mark will always be there with you if you do that." Krune and Feifei made a poker face. What mark? We entered this place illegally, so we have no mark what so ever! Of course, they wouldn''t say it aloud. Feifei and Krune then agreed with Joiu. "Yes, we did ''receive'' the mark." Joiu nodded. "Of course you did. Anyway, the situation is different for those who are born in the Dalin Universe. This is their home, and this is a home that gives birth to a lot of talents. Usually, the cultivators and demon beasts would return to their own home Universes when they acquire the right cultivation. But since Ricarte and Reiny are already home, they don''t need to go anywhere." "Now comes the issue. What if the cultivators and demon beasts grow up and decide to take Dalin back for themselves? The other Main Universes can''t possibly allow such thing to happen. That is why once a cultivator or demon beast who was born here reaches the Divine Path Realm, they will receive a Seal into their cultivations. That Seal exists to prevent that once they grow up and enter the Divinity Realm, they won''t try to start a rebellion." "Because those Seals were put while they were still in the Divine Path Realm, it fuses with their foundation as they continuing to cultivate. So it becomes impossible to remove in the future. Simply put, you will be imprisoned until the day you ascend." Krune then thought about something else. "What if you try to leave the Dalin Universe before you reach the Divine Path Realm?" Ricarte was the one to explain this part. "If you wish to leave, you need to use one of the Official Spatial Gates. Even if a Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast tries to open a personal spatial gate, it won''t work. So when you are not in the Divine Path Realm and try to leave through the Main Gates, you will simply receive your Seal earlier. Only then can you pass through." "All the Spatial Gates are guarded by several Divinity Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts. Not to mention the several Divinity Star Level protection and analyzing Formations. Simply put, it is impossible to leave without having your Seal placed on you." "There is only one exception to this rule, which are the wisps. Everyone knows that they can''t reach the Divine Path Realm even while staying in the Dalin Universe, let alone once they leave. So placing Seal on them is a waste of resources. Well, not that there is many wisps idiot enough to leave since it is very expensive to do so. Not to mention the fact that they would be giving up the already almost nonexistent chance of advancing between the earlier realms." Ricarte then looked at Krune and added. "Don''t take it personally, that is just how the things are." Ricarte knew that Krune was very talented. Still, he doesn''t believe that Krune could reach the Divine Path Realm either, just like any other wisp. Krune didn''t mind at all. In fact, such an arrangement couldn''t be better for him and his wisp race. After all, their plan consisted of several wisps entering other Universes with the Myriad Wisps Technique. Not being marked while they are there is obviously the best thing that could happen. "It''s okay, you are not wrong about that." Ricarte nodded and then pointed at the door. "Anyway, that''s what it is about. Both me and Reiny don''t want to be imprisoned by those Seals. The same goes for my two friends behind me. That is also why we joined hands in this Dimensional Realm Inheritance thing." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "How did you find about this Spatial Gate?" Ricarte shook his head. "For the sake of my family, I can''t tell you." Krune didn''t force the issue after hearing that. Not to mention that he also wanted to take a look at this Spatial Gate. Krune and Feifei wouldn''t be leaving now, but they might use it in the future. Krune brought out that Key that they had acquired and pressed it against the Seal. But just as they were about to enter, they heard a sound coming from somewhere nearby. Krune and the others looked in that direction, and soon, they could see a three members team approaching. It turned out that it was Mohie Maran and the other two survivors from before. "So, it was you all that had the Key to this Spatial Gate room." Ricarte narrowed his eyes and asked. "So what? Do you want to fight for it with us?" Maran immediately shook his head. "Do I look like an idiot? You guys have seven members in total while we are only in three. Sorry but I don''t have the intention to suicide yet." Because Ricarte, Krune, and the others were using Divine Sense Messages, Maran did not hear about Ricarte and Reiny''s plans. "So, what do you want?" Maran nodded and then said. "I''m willing to part with all the treasures, soul techniques, resources, and everything else we found inside this Inheritance. I only want a single thing." Maran then created an image projection with his Spiritual Energy. Feifei, Krune, and Joiu immediately recognized that item. ''The Tribulation Jade.'' But there was a problem, according to Mohie Zarks, this Tribulation jade was brought away with him when he left thousands of years ago. Unless he was lying, such a thing doesn''t exist in this place anymore. Of course, only Krune''s group knew about it. So they pretended that they didn''t know anything. "I don''t mind it but, what if we don''t find what you said?" Maran then shrugged his shoulder and said. "After making sure that this Jade isn''t inside, we will simply leave. Whatever you plan to do after that is not my problem, nor do I care. Besides, you won''t be able to enter without this thing." Maran then took out another key that looked exactly like Krune''s. The only difference was that it had other colors. Krune and the others then looked at the door and immediately understood. "It needs two keys to open, not only one." Maran nodded. "Exactly! Otherwise, I would have entered already. The room that we selected to enter the center of the Castle was where we found this key. Only when I tried to use this thing did I understand that I would need more than one." Krune looked at Ricarte, and they nodded at each other. "Very well. Let''s go according to what you suggested." 353 Artifact Formation Krune''s group could simply drive Maran away, but Krune opted for not doing so. From the looks of it, only Ricarte''s group knew about the real use of this room. Not to mention that they would need Maran''s key as well. Maran then approached and used his key on the door. Krune followed suit and repeated the same process. The seal on the door then started to change, and a few seconds later, it disappeared. With the door open, both groups entered inside. But surprisingly, the room practically empty. There was only one exception, a big formation on the ground. Krune then messaged Feifei with a Divine Sense. "Do you recognize this Formation?" Feifei shook her head. "This thing is way too complicated for me. If not for the name of the room, I wouldn''t be able to tell that this has something to do with Spatial Gates at all." Krune nodded and didn''t ask anymore. Both groups looked everywhere in the room, but in the end, they didn''t find anything else. Maran narrowed his eyes while looking at that Formation on the ground. He isn''t a Formations Master, but he could at least tell that this thing is a really high level. "What is happening here? Not only the Tribulation jade isn''t here, but this Formation is not doing anything either." Ricarte was also looking at that with a pensive expression. He knows that the Spatial Gate that he wants to use is probably opened through this Formation, but even he doesn''t know how to activate it. Krune couldn''t help but say. "Could it be that there is a special condition to activate this Formation?" It was then that Ricarte remembered something. He then cut his finger and let a drop of his blood fall on the Formation. Everyone noticed that and looked at that drop of Blood falling as well. Sure enough, as soon as that happened, the Formation came to life. Ricarte then felt like some kind of connection between him and the Formation was established. "As I thought. This is a Formation, and at the same time, it is also an Artifact. Now that I dropped my Blood on it, the contract between me and it has been established." Maran immediately asked. "Does that mean you can activate it now?" Ricarte nodded. "As the room name implied, this is really a Spatial Gate Formation. As for the place that it is connected to..." Ricarte then checked it for a moment. "It seems like it is connected to everywhere in the Mohie Zarks Dimensional Realm. It can send us anywhere we want as long as we are inside the Inheritance." He then sent a Message to Krune and his group. "I''m not lying, it can really send us anywhere inside this Realm. But it also has that ability that I commented to you earlier. It is just that to open a Spatial Gate to another universe would cost a lot of Spirit Stones." Maran then asked. Ricarte shook his head. "There isn''t. But I can see that there are quite a few realms that haven''t been explored yet. So the rewards left behind in them are still there to be taken." Maran, of course, had his doubts if Ricarte was telling the truth or not. "If that is the case, pass the rights of the Formation for me. I want to take a look at it myself." Ricarte smiled and then nodded. "Sure." Suddenly, the Formation deactivated, and the room became silent again. "Done! Just drop your Blood on it, and you will gain control over the Formation." Maran and everyone else was taken aback. No one expected that Ricarte would give up control over the Artifact Formation so easily. Maran then gritted his teeth and dropped his Blood on the Formation. Sure enough, it accepted its new master, and soon, Maran could see the entire Dimensional Realm in his mind. Every single Bubble Realm was as clear as day. Krune couldn''t help but ask Ricarte through a Divine Sense message. "Is it really okay? Wouldn''t he find about the ability to open Spatial Gates to another Universe?" Ricarte shrugged his shoulders and said. "Probably not. Maran came here for that item, so the fact that it can open Spatial Gates to another Universes is of little concern to him. I can bet with you that he is desperately looking for that thing through all the Bubble Realms at this very moment." "Besides, even if he does find out about this ability of the Spatial Gate, so what? I doubt he will open one and enter himself. In the end, he will simply give up and leave. If we can avoid any battle, that will be for the best. Especially considering your condition at the moment. From what I found, once you leave the Dimensional Realm, the contract with the Artifact Formation is canceled. All we need to do is wait." Ricarte was right. That was exactly what Mohie Maran was doing. At first, he found out that Ricarte wasn''t lying. There wasn''t any treasure room or anything like that at the moment. He could see the Bubble Realms that hadn''t been explored in the end as well. Unfortunately for him, the Tribulation Jade was nowhere to be found! "That''s not possible! It was supposed to be here! Where is it, where is it?!" Krune, on the other hand, was pondering about their situation. ''Feifei and I can''t use this Formation at the moment. First, I still need to go back to the Elemental Path when I reach the Soul Forging Realm. Second, there is the Wisp Worlds and the Myriad Wisps Technique spreading plan. Third, even if Fiefei and I return to the Luvile Universe, it would be even more dangerous since that is the territory of the Sacred Lands.'' Time passed, and soon, three hours went by. Maran had been verifying every single Bubble Realm. Still, he didn''t find anything at all! In the end, he could only give up and turn off the Formation. There were only two options now. ''The Tribulation Jade wasn''t here to start with, or someone has gotten it already.'' He then looked at Krune and Ricarte''s group and narrowed his eyes. Worst of all, if it was really here, and it was taken, there is no guarantee that it was them who took it. After all, the other groups left already. "What you guys are waiting here for? I haven''t found what I''m looking for, so I won''t be giving you anything." Ricarte sighed and then said. "Did you not hear what I said earlier? There are still a few Bubble Realms that haven''t been explored. The rewards left behind in those places count for quite a big amount. Not to mention that our group arrived at this building too late, so you guys already took everything that was inside. We want to at least get something extra before leaving as well." Maran couldn''t help but snort. "You can have as much of those resources as you want. I have no interest in leftovers." After the full search, Maran was absolutely sure that there wasn''t anything that he wanted in this Inheritance anymore. Because he didn''t pay attention to the Formation itself, he ended not noticing the ability that it had to open Spatial Gates to other Universes. But he couldn''t be blamed. Maran is not a Formations Master to start with. First of all, Ricarte only knew about that function because he knew exactly what he was looking for. Otherwise, chances were that he would miss it as well. Suddenly, a Spatial Gate opened, and Maran immediately left through it with his two subordinates. This one connected right where the exit was located. There was no way he could force Krune and the others to show their Spatial Rings, so he had to leave first to talk with Mohie Danif. After that, they can decide what to do about all the groups that participated in the last Castle Realm. Especially the ones who left already. With Mohie Maran gone without a need for a battle, Krune sighed in relief. Although no one here took the Tribulation jade, he knew that Maran was probably considering the option that they have it. But that doesn''t matter since he has a plan. Krune looked at Ricarte and asked. "Would you mind if Feifei takes a look at the Artifact Formation First?" Ricarte nodded without caring much. Not to mention that Light Spirit has his group lives in his hands... or so they think. Because of that, they can''t really complain. Krune looked at Feifei, and she nodded. Because Mohie Maran left the Inheritance, the Artifact Formation lost its master once more. Hence, Feifei was able to bind it easily. "Found them." The reason Krune wanted Feifei to check first was that she is a lot better at Formations than himself. Also, he wanted to use the Formation to find Ruik and the rest of his group. Sure enough, they were still inside the Inheritance, so Feifei was able to locate them. "Open a Spatial Gate close to them." Krune then looked at Ricarte and asked. "Should I bring the ones who were part of your group as well?" Ricarte shook his head. "There is no need. From my entire group, only five knew about my real plan. The others really came here for the sake of the resource and treasures." Reiny also added. "In my case, the two who died from my group and I were the only ones who knew about it, so you can simply leave the others who came with me doing their own things. They are still fighting for their own rewards, which is a good thing for them." Krune then looked at Feifei and asked. "How are they doing?" Feifei then said. "It seems like they are moving with other teams. From the looks of it, they passed through quite a harsh time. Dilo has quite a few injuries on his body as well. Still, they are all alive." Krune nodded and entered the Spatial Gate. He still had a lot of question for Ricarte and the others, but it was better to bring everyone back first. 354 Questions Quite a few Cultivators and Demon beasts were moving together in another Bubble Realm. Those were the ones who couldn''t enter the Castle before and had to choose the secondary Gate. Ruik and the others just so happen to be with them. Xankruan looked at Dilo and asked concerned. "Are you sure you are okay?" Dilo nodded. "I''m fine, I just didn''t expect that Mohie Zarks would leave a Void Breaking Realm Golem behind. I''m already lucky to have suffered just these injuries. A lot of Cultivator and Demon Beasts even died at that thing''s hands." Rarol then commented. "Fortunately, we had enough numbers to overwhelm it. Otherwise, I believe we would all have died." Ruik nodded. "Indeed. But it was not for nothing. The rewards that we got in this realm more than compensate for the risk. I got enough Spirit Stone to last for over 2 to 3 years. That is already considering that I won''t try to save anything. Putting it together with what we found earlier, we could say that this trip has been totally worth it." Tiane also added. "Well, our main objective was to get some experience and get used to our cultivations. After so many battles, I can tell that this objective was more than complete." Suddenly, a Spatial Gate appeared right in front of everyone. For a moment, everyone took several steps back, afraid that something like that Golem would come out as well. But right after, a Rainbow Colored Wisp appeared. Of course, that one was Krune. Not only him, but Ricarte and Joiu came out as well. Ruik and the others were taken aback. Krune soon noticed Ruik''s group and sent them a Divine Sense Message. "There you are! Come with me, this Gate will take us somewhere else." Ruik and the others nodded and then approached the Gate. However, the other cultivators and demon beasts noticed that and got close as well. Krune looked at them and said. "Are you sure you want to follow me into the Spatial Gate? I might have prepared some traps for you on the other side. Who knows where you are all going to be sent if you do so?" With just those words, everyone stopped. Krune was right, they don''t know where that thing is connected to. Krune then turned around and entered the Spatial Gate with Ruik and the others. He received a few questions through Divine Sense but decided to not answer anything. It was not that he didn''t want to help the others, but because Krune knew that they wouldn''t be in danger anymore. So they didn''t need any help. After passing through, it started to close in front of everyone. But just as the Gate was about to close completely, a demon beast gritted his teeth and charged inside as well. Krune''s group looked at that and soon recognized who it was. "Aren''t you that Demon Beast that I gave the Shell Repairing Pill? Why did you follow us inside?" That was correct. He was the 7th Stage Core Formation Realm Demon Beast that had his Core Damaged. He was also the same one who told them about the Line Group strategy, which helped Krune and the others finish the Forest Bubble Realm. Krune had to admit that he was impressed with the fact that this guy was still alive. After all, his chances were totally against him. "I just thought that I would have a greater chance of surviving if I entered the Spatial Gate than if I followed the other group. I''m only at the Core Formation Realm, so I wouldn''t pose any threat to your group either." Krune then told him. "Well, to be honest, you wouldn''t find any more danger whether you entered our Spatial Gate or not. But anyway, let me tell you where the exit is." Krune than explained where the exit was located and that he could go there by himself. There were only them inside the building now, so he should have no problem going alone. The Demon Beast seemed a little hesitant, though. "Would you mind if I waited until you leave as well?" Feifei immediately understood why. "Oh, I see! A Core Formation Realm exiting the Inheritance is probably going to be targeted. After all, it is easier to simply wait outside for the weak lucky ones to leave. I have no doubt that quite a few groups are waiting there to rob the others." The Demon Beast immediately nodded vigorously. Krune pondered a bit and decided to agree. Since he already helped this Demon Beast in the past, he might as well help him to the very end. "Very well, go to the exit and wait for us there. We might take some time before leaving, though." The guy''s eyes immediately lit up. "Thank you! I will be waiting." Just as he was about to leave, he remembered something. "Oh, right! My name is Ofelo." Ofelo then started to make his way to the exit. Rarol then grabbed his brother, Tinnian, and said. "We are going there too. I believe you have some things to discuss, so go ahead and don''t bother with us." Feifei and Krune couldn''t help but think. ''This instinct thing is really overpowered.'' With this issue resolved, Krune looked at Ricarte, Reiny, and Joiu. He had a few questions now that he heard about the Alliance Seal. "Alright, I need you to clarify a few things to me." "First, you said that once a cultivator or demon beasts from the Dalin Universe reach the Divine Path Realm, they are forced to take the Alliance Seal. How exactly does the Dalin Universe Management know that you got into the Divine Path Realm?" Ricarte was the first one to answer it. "That is simple. You know that every Universe has its own underworld, right?" Krune nodded. "That''s where all the souls go when one dies. There, their memories are wiped out, and they wait for reincarnation... or so I''m told." Ricarte confirmed it. "Correct! Whether it is a totally new soul or a soul from someone who died and had its memories wiped, they all come from the underworld. The Dalin Universe management uses the link between that place and the Dalin Universe to brand everyone born here. I don''t know exactly how they do that, but it guarantees no soul will pass unnoticed. It''s through that brand that Dalin can find anyone who enters the Divine Path Realm. It is like an alarm that sets off when the right time comes." Krune narrowed his eyes and thought. ''There is no way that Cinty doesn''t know about this. I will need to ask her later about this.'' Krune looked back at them and made his next question. "Second, you said that you wanted to give my pills to your sister, who is an alchemist fanatic. If you are entering another universe, how exactly do you intend to deliver it? Could it be that you have a way to send items between Universes without anyone noticing?" Ricarte shook his had. "I will simply send a puppet with the pills to my subordinates who are in the Void Breaking Realm waiting outside. They are loyal members of my family, so I know they will deliver it to her without a doubt." Krune nodded. "This Spatial Gate can send you to another Universe without Dalin noticing your leave. But can it receive others as well?" Feifei heard that and understood what Krune meant. But she was also the one who answered the question. "I have checked it already. I might not understand this Formation well since its level is too high. But I can at least tell you that this is a one-way only. You can not use it to come back." Ricarte also confirmed that. "Indeed. The information that I have also confirmed what Feifei said. Besides, I told you this before. Leaving the Dalin Universe is one thing, but entering is another completely different. Chances are that even if you could come back through the Spatial Gate, you would probably be noticed by the Dalin Universe Management." Krune nodded once more. "Third, who else from your family knows that you are leaving? Or better, how many of them know about this thing''s existence?" Ricarte pondered a bit and then said. "Besides those who were planning to move into another Universe with me, only my father and the three Ancestors. But that''s all I can tell you at the moment. I also urge you to not try to contact them, or else I believe they will try to kill you at all costs to cover the truth." Krune was surprised by that warning. "Why would you say that? Wouldn''t it be better if your family got rid of me after?" Ricarte nodded. "It would, but I don''t know what that thing that took control of your body earlier put on me. But above all else, the fear and pressure that it gave me were several times above what my family''s strongest Ancestor did. Call it instinct, but I believe that whatever it was, it is definitely stronger than my Ancestor. I don''t want to risk having my family falling into a calamity. That is also why I''ve been so cooperative as well. Otherwise, trust me when I say that I would have killed you and Feifei already." Krune had to admit that Ricarte was right. Light Spirit was indeed much stronger than anyone they could find in the Lower Realms. As for the fact that they would be killed, he didn''t think anything about that. As for Ruik and the others, they got puzzled by what they heard. After all, they didn''t know about Light Spirit''s existence. Still, they decided to ask it another time. "Alright, one last question, what about the mark left behind in your soul?" 355 Sending Messages Ricarte answered. "That is not a problem, this is a brand left during the time the soul is being attached to a body. Different from the Alliance Seal, this mark only works when you are inside the Dalin Universe. Once we are outside, no one will notice us even if we enter the Divine Path Realm." Krune nodded. "Alright, that''s all I wanted to ask that was important." Krune then looked at the Formation. "Anyway, are you going to leave now?" Ricarte looked at Reiny, and the other two guys, and they nodded at each other. "We will." Ricarte then took out a simple puppet that could follow simple orders and passed the bottle of Purple Flame Pills to it. After that, he used his Divine Sense to tell the puppet what to do, and it started to make its way to the exit of the Inheritance. Krune and the others could tell that it was going to deliver the bottle to Ricarte''s subordinates above the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm outside. Krune didn''t try to stop it since he didn''t care much about those pills to start with. Ricarte then looked at Feifei and asked. "Can I have control over the Formation for a moment? I already know where we are going." Feifei nodded, and Ricarte started to use the Formation. A few moments later, his group took hundreds of Spirit Stones out. Each of one them was a Rank 10 Spirit Stone, which made Krune and the others impressed with their wealth. The space at the center of the Formation started to change. The Spiritual Energy also started to leave the Spirit Stones at great speed and rush inside. Not long after, there was a burst of Spiritual Energy that spread everywhere in the room. Suddenly, the gate expanded three times and stabilized like that. "Alright, the path is open." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Where are you going now?" Ricarte shrugged his shoulders and answered. "To a place outside of the Universe Powerhouses influence. That is all I can say." Ricarte then asked Krune. "What about the thing that your friend left inside us." Krune pondered a bit. In the end, he decided to change what he was going to say. If he told the truth that there was nothing there to start with, Ricarte might really change his mind and attack them. Feifei and Joiu are one thing, but he is really not in a condition to do battle now. "It won''t be any problem for you and your friends as long as there are no intentions of harming my friends or me." Ricarte and Reiny didn''t know if it was true, but they had no way of testing it. "Very well." Ricarte then looked at Reiny and the others. "You go ahead first. Once I leave this room, I will lose control over the Spatial Gate and won''t be able to keep it open." But before that, Reiny passed Krune a token. "My group also had several people and beasts that couldn''t enter due to the Inheritance Cultivation Restriction. Show them this token, and they will understand that they can leave." Krune nodded and accepted the token. He just had to pass it over, after all. Reiny passed through the Spatial Gate with Ricarte''s two companions and soon disappeared inside. Ricarte then looked at Krune and his friends and asked them with a serious expression. "Please, do not spread the information about this Spatial Gate. It might bring a calamity to my Family." Krune nodded. "We won''t. After all, we also have a use for this Spatial Gate in the future." Ricarte smiled and quickly passed through the Spatial Gate as well. As soon as he disappeared, the Spatial Gate started to tremble and shrink to the normal size once more. It meant that Ricarte left the Dimensional Realm Inheritance. Krune took a deep breath and shouted. "Mohie Zarks, you are there, right? Please show yourself." A moment later, a projection of a man appeared inside the room where they had been staying. He was obviously Mohie Zarks. Ruik and the others were once again taken aback, but Krune gave then a quick explanation about this person through Divine Sense. Mohie Zark looked at Krune and asked. "What is it?" Krune went straight to the point. "What was the reason to leave behind this Formation? This thing can allow others to leave without being noticed, so I don''t understand why you would leave the keys that gave access to it. Or better, I can''t help but think that you should have destroyed it as soon as you left the Dalin Universe yourself." Mohie Zarks couldn''t help but laugh. "Although there is a reason, it is nothing that complicated. Ricarte''s Family knew about what I was going to do, so I left it like this so that they could find it one day." Krune narrowed his eyes. "Then why would you make it something this difficult to access? Wouldn''t it be better to simply leave a passage for Ricarte''s Family to use? Ricarte had to wait until all 18 Jade Slips were gathered and then pass all the trials to finally reach this place. It doesn''t look like you wanted them to use it at all." Mohie Zarks then shook his head. "That I don''t know. I''m only a will left behind, so I don''t have the Main Body''s memories. You will need to ask the real Mohie Zarks if you wish to have the answer. Well, that is considering that I am still alive." Krune didn''t know if he was telling the truth, but he had no way to verify it either. "Whatever. Will something be happening to this Inheritance Dimensional Realm in the future? I wish to use this Spatial Gate Formation Artifact another time." Mohie Zarks nodded. "Yes. Once everyone leaves, it will be sealed once more. But considering your relationship with Wally, I will give you this." Suddenly, spiritual energy started to gather inside the room. It all converged in a single point until something like a medallion appeared. "If there is a time you want to enter this place again, use this medallion at the Volcano Entrance. It will then teleport you and those who you consider your friends inside. But you will not be allowed to take anything, only use the Teleport Formation Artifact and nothing else. Also, you can only use it once every 100 years. So make sure you really want to come in." Krune was more than satisfied with that. "Very well, thanks." Mohie Zarks projection disappeared right after. Krune then looked at Joiu and asked. "I will need to talk a few things with my group too. Can you go ahead and wait for us at the exit too?" Joiu didn''t mind it. "Sure, see you later." Joiu immediately left after that. Everyone had their secrets, even himself. So there wasn''t much of a reason for him to insist on hearing. Not to mention that he developed some trust for Krune by this point. Krune then looked at Feifei and nodded. "We won''t be returning to the Luvile Universe now, but we can still use it to go back in the future. For now, how about we use it to send them a message?" Feifei smiled and nodded. "Bring Heavin out for a second." Krune then took out the Parrot Puppet and weakened his link with his Divine Soul. Heavin woke up right after and quickly assumed the control of the puppet. "I''ve finally awoken again. This time, it felt like an eternity!" He then checked Krune and was immediately startled! "You... How did your Core become like this? It is almost falling apart!" Ruik and the others were also surprised by that statement. Because of Krune''s Ethereal Wisp body, they haven''t paid attention to his Core until now. Feifei felt a little gloomy and decided to explain everything herself. "It goes like this..." Feifei then organized her thoughts and used a Divine Sense message to convene the entire chain of events. Tiane couldn''t help but hug Feifei after that. How could she not understand how Feifei really felt at the moment? Ruik also looked at Krune with a concerned face. Krune, of course, noticed that and laughed. "What is that? That is not like you at all! I already took my Shell Repairing Pill and healed most of the cracks in my Wisp Core. I just need to wait for us to go out and concoct a stronger pill to fix the rest now." Dilo, on the other hand, was more curious about something else. "Who was this entity that helped you in the end? For Ricarte to say that it is probably strong than a Divinity Realm cultivator, just where did it come from?" Krune nodded and said. "Well, you only need to know that he won''t be helping me anytime soon. As for who he is and where he is from, even I have just a little information. Still, I will need to wait for him to answer it himself since I promised to not talk." Heavin heard everything as well and then sighed. "I think I will have to find a way to not fall asleep anymore. Anyway, you did call me for a reason, right?" Feifei nodded and then plucked a feather from the Parrot Puppet. "I just wanted you to know that I''m taking one of your feathers. This Parrot was a gift from my parents, and they made sure to mark it if one day they needed to find me. Once I sent this feather inside the Luvile Universe, Father and Mother will immediately notice its presence." Krune, Ruik, Tiane, and Feifei then took their time to store a few messages in Jade Slips. They didn''t bring any electronic device that could do recordings, so they had to use some of the Jade Slips that they found in this Inheritance to do that. Krune also took this chance to pass the Soul Techniques that they acquired so that Heavin could memorize them. But there was one Jade Slip that Krune left a special something inside, though. They put everything inside a spare Spatial Ring and attached the ring with the Parrot Puppet''s Feather. "Alright, the Spiritual Stones that Ricarte used before still have quite some Spiritual Energy left. I will add some of ours as well, and it should be enough to open a Spatial Gate to the Luvile Universe." Feifei then controlled the Formation, and soon, it grew in size once more. Krune then threw the Spatial Ring attached to the feather inside. A little time after it disappeared, the Spiritual Energy ran out, and the gate returned to its normal size once more. 356 Three Remaining A few hours earlier in the Darkness Sacred Land. There is a place called Soul Flame Hall. Inside, one could find thousands of lanterns with different colored flames. Under each of those flames, one could see a name written together with a little more information. Those flames represented the lives of all the essential members of the Darkness Sacred Land. Unless someone died or ascended, those flames would never extinguish. It doesn''t matter when or where that person or beast died, their Soul Flames would definitely die with them. Ever since Uer and Mino Jan left for the Dalin Universe, the Sacred Land Headmaster, Hule Aforein, made sure that their Soul Flames were given special attention. Today, a manservant was watching over those two when suddenly, Mino Jan''s Soul Flame extinguished. That guy immediately got frightened! "Not good, I need to inform this issue!" The guy immediately dashed out of the Soul Flame Hall. But while he was out, Uer''s Soul Flame also disappeared. A few minutes later, the Headmaster arrived at the Soul Flame Hall. However, not only had Mino Jan flame disappeared, but Uer''s was also completely gone! "How is that possible? The coating time always takes between five to ten years to wear off. There is still a little more than six months before the five years are up. Not to mention that the chances of everyone''s coating disappearing exactly at the Five Years time is almost impossible." "There are two possibilities. First, Uer and Mino Jan didn''t die because of the other Heavenly Fragments owners. Or second, they met with one of the Heavenly Fragment owners and lost. The second option is nearly impossible to happen due to the size of an entire Universe, which leaves me with the first option only." Little did Hule knows that it was precisely the second option that was correct. "So we are already out of the competition this time? Could it be that we were the very first ones?" Hule then looked at his subordinate and passed the order. "Investigate! I want to know if the Soul Flames of the Heavenly Fragment Owners of the All Life Sect and Extreme Yin Yang Palace are still alive." The subordinate immediately accepted the order and left. Hule then started to ponder about this issue and thought about something. "So far, the Time, Blackhole, and Space Heavenly Fragments haven''t appeared yet. If I can find one of them, my Sacred Land still has a chance. Heavenly Fragments always appear in the same generation, so the problem will be to find where they are." It was then that Hule thought about an issue. Hule was correct. Since there is no way to control who will become a Heavenly Fragment Owner, it wouldn''t be weird if a clueless human or an ordinary demon beast that doesn''t have sentience received them. Both situations would do the search for those three extremely complicated. "No, there is also a chance that some power is hiding them as well. It is not like only our Sacred Lands know about it. Several other powers in the center of our Universe also know about the truth behind the Heavenly Core and Divine Soul." Hule kept thinking about this issue for a while longer. "I guess it can''t be helped. It will reduce the control that our Darkness Sacred Land has over the Center of our Luvile Universe, but it will increase our search range several times. If we don''t get the Heavenly Core Owner this time, we would be suppressed until he ascends anyway. So there isn''t much to lose now that Uer died." "Perhaps, this was a blessing in disguise. Uer had a terrible personality and was extremely hard to control. If his Death Divine Soul evolved into the Heavenly Divine Soul in the future, there was a good chance that he would also cause us an unlimited number of problems." Hule looked at the other subordinates and said. "Pass my orders and let the Sacred Land protectors aware. Uer has died, so the Darkness Sacred Land will be shifting most of its resources to the Time, Space, and Blackhole Heavenly Fragment Owners search." The subordinates acknowledged Hule''s orders, and a few of them immediately left. Sometime later, Hule received the information he asked to be investigated. "We didn''t find any changes in the All Life Sect and Extreme Yin Yang Palace. From what we can tell, Wamie Zark, Rania Javiu, and Hobek Javiu are still alive. Also, we have spies in the Divine Path Sect and Wang Clan. Now that we know that Krune is probably the Elemental Heavenly Fragment Owner, we kept a close eye at the Divine Path Sect too. Still, both Feifei and Krune''s Soul Flames are okay." Hule didn''t care much about those two. In his eyes, the inheritances from the Sacred Lands put their Heavenly Fragment owners several levels above what Krune and Feifei could possibly achieve. "Very well, keep watching everyone." The subordinate accepted the order and swiftly left. "I can only hope to find one of those three." --- Somewhere close to the Southern Protectorate, right in the middle of the void. There was nothing here that one could see other than that far distant stars. Suddenly, a Parrot Feather with a Spatial Rind attached to it appeared out of nowhere. It then floated in the middle of the Space without moving at all. At the same time, at the Wang Clan main residence. Wang Milia and Xin were cultivating when suddenly, both of them opened their eyes at the same time. "It''s Feifei Parrot Puppet!" Wang Milia immediately got up. "I''m going!" But Wang Xin stopped her before she could leave. "What is it?!" Xin shook his head and said. "Just give me a second, I will ask one of the Divinity Realms of the clan to go with you. The parrot appeared too far away. With your Semi-Divinity Realm cultivation, you will take a lot longer to arrive." Milia calmed down and nodded. "Alright." Xin then immediately reported the issue to Wang Mei, who quickly sent one of the Divinity Realm cultivators of them clan to where Milia and Xin were staying. Xin and Milia noticed when that guy appeared, and they greeted him. "Ancestor Hao, thanks for your help." Wang Hao was one of the few Divinity Realm of the Clan, and he is at the 6th Stage at the moment. "It''s okay." Hao then put his hand on Milia''s shoulder and said. "Show me where it is." Milia nodded and used her Divine Sense to show the way. Right after, Hao made a movement with one of his hands and opened a Spatial Gate right in front of them. Milia and Hao passed through it, and the gate disappeared right after. Time passed, and the place where the Feather appeared went through a sudden change. The space a few hundreds of kilometers away split apart, and a Spatial Gate appeared right there and then. Wang Milia and Hao quickly left the gate after that. As soon as Milia appeared there, he felt the presence of the Feather. With a single teleport, she disappeared and reappeared right beside the Feather and Spatial Ring. It was easy for her to recognize the Parrot Puppet''s Feather, but Feifei wasn''t there as she wished. Hao and Milia spread their Divine Senses but couldn''t find anything other than that. Hao''s Divine Sense could go much further, so he confirmed that Feifei was definitely not there. "Alright, let''s leave before we get into trouble. This is not our Western Protectorate, so the powers controlling this region will soon notice our presence." Milia seemed a little unwilling but still nodded in the end. Hao opened a Spatial Gate once more, and both of them disappeared inside it. The place stayed calm until a few minutes after Hao and Milia disappeared, another three Spatial Gates opened close to the same place. From inside, one could see two cultivators and one demon beast coming out. The Demon Beast looked around with his Divine Sense and then said. "It seems like whoever came here has left already. Talia, can you check it out?" Talia was one of the two cultivators who came this time around. "Alright." Talia then started to control the Laws of Time, and soon, an image of what happened in this place started to show itself in front of everyone. Talia kept reversing time until they were finally able to see what happened in this place. "Hum...? I don''t recognize any of those two. They are not from the Southern Protectorate at the very least." "They came here for that Feather and Spatial Ring. Talia, can you reverse time even more." Talia nodded and said. "Sure, but I can''t go much more than a few extra minutes in the past." Talia continued to reverse time. What they wanted to check was how that Feather and Spatial Ring appeared in this place. Sure enough, Talia was able to go back enough time to see just the moment those items appeared. Talia then finally stopped using her time reversal. She just so happens to have a Time Divine Soul, that''s why she could do such a thing. Still, it was very hard to show the past, so she could only go back 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the situation. "So those things appeared out of nowhere. How come we didn''t feel anything?" The other cultivator shook his head and said. "Most likely, those items were marked." The demon beast then shrugged his shoulders. "Anyway. I will simply report it back since it seems like they already left our Protectorate." The other two cultivators nodded and did the same. They opened their own Spatial Gates and swiftly left that region. 357 Special Message! Once they came back, Milia immediately took a look at what was inside and found several Jade Slips. Xin and Milia then checked each one of them and soon found Feifei''s one. Inside, she explained everything that happened so far, except for Light Spirit''s existence and the things related to Krune''s wisp race like Wally. She also didn''t mention about the Formation Artifact that Mohie Zarks created in the Inheritance. Still, she told that they encountered Uer, one of the Sacred Lands Heavenly Fragment Owners. The fact that he died, and that ''Krune'' had given her the Heavenly Fragment. In fact, Krune''s initial idea was to destroy it. But Light Spirit thought that although the others might not be following Krune in the future, Feifei probably will. Or the opposite, Krune might be the one following Feifei, too, depending on the circumstance. So he decided that that extra Heavenly Fragment would help close the gap in strength that his Tribulation Lightning created between Krune and Feifei. She also said how everyone''s cultivation was going on, how easy it is to perceive the Laws in the Dalin Universe, the fact that Tiane ended together with Ruik. There were also mentions about Dilo, Xankruan, Rarol, and other characters that they encountered in their journey. She also corrected all the information that they had about the Advanced Major Cores and Divine Souls. Like the fact that there is a protection or ''coating'' that takes a few years to disappear. Or how the Heavenly Fragment owners of the same Universe will feel each other when that happens. In the end, she just asked for them to make sure that Krune and Ruik''s Jade Slips will reach the Divine Path Sect. Wang Milia and Xin''s expressions changed now and then at every part. They could have read everything in a second, but they still followed everything like a text. They didn''t know when they would receive a message from her again, so they purposely delayed the reading. When it was finally over, they couldn''t help but sigh. Wang Xin, Feifei''s father, then commented. "So many things happened on their side. Krune even almost died protecting Feifei too, so I guess I can accept that wisp a little bit. Mainly because his cultivation speed shows that he most likely will reach the Divine Path Realm, so our daughter won''t become a widow due to his Life Span." Wang Milia glanced at him. "Were you still thinking about getting them separated? Unless he dies, there is no way she will do that. Did you forget what kind of person Feifei is?" Wang Xin''s mouth sighed, but he didn''t deny that. "Anyway, I will pay a visit to Lucio in the Divine Path Sect to deliver his disciple and this Ruik guy Jade Slips. I will leave the Jade Slips that Feifei sent to her friends for you to deal with." Wang Milia nodded. Wang Xin shrugged his shoulders and said. "Feng has been her protector ever since she was born, so it''s not like I can''t understand it." Wang Xin then opened a Spatial Gate and entered it. He was going to deliver it himself since there were bound to have some personal information inside. --- While Wang Xin was on his way to the Divine path Sect, the Sacred Lands were quite lively at the moment. Because of Hule Aforein''s orders, the Darkness Sacred Land immediately started a big mobilization, so the other two were trying to find out what happened. At the All Life Sect, a maidservant entered the meeting hall. There, one could see several Divinity Realm Elders and, obviously, the Sect Master at the Sect Master''s seat. "Reporting! We already found out why they are mobilizing. It seems like Uer''s Soul Flame extinguished." The Sect Master, Tika Tarkulie, narrowed her eyes. "Uer died before the first five years are up. Was it the other Heavenly Fragment owners or our Wamie Zark?" One of the elders, someone called Iriuo, immediately shook his head. "I doubt so, without the protection disappearing, it would be way too hard to find another Heavenly Fragment Owner from our Universe. Unless, of course, they purposely started to spread information about their own location. But I find it hard to be the case." Another elder agreed with Iriuo. "Yes. Chances are that Uer died at the hands of someone else. But the fact that the Darkness Sacred Land already lost its Heavenly Fragment Owner is a good thing for us, so we should celebrate!" Tika shook her head. "No, this full mobilization of the Darkness Sacred Land is too weird. Usually, they would enter in a conservative state and wait for the next time the Heavenly Fragments appear. But it seems like that they haven''t given up yet." Another elder called Goerke then snorted. "Hmph! Isn''t that obvious? Different from what happens typically, a Heavenly Fragment Owner representing a Sacred Land died while he was still very young. Usually, by the time one of them dies, our Sacred Lands already knows the location of all the other Heavenly Fragments. But because the competition just started, we still don''t know where the Time, Space, and Blackhole Heavenly Fragments are located. The Darkness Sacred Land is basically spreading their entire force so that they can find at least one of them." "Of course, this will force them to give up some of their strategic points. We should take this opportunity and take control of those places as fast as possible. The more resources we have, the better will be our situation." Tika nodded and then sent down the orders. "Investigate all the weak points in the territory of the Darkness Sacred Land. We are going to take them for ourselves. Since they don''t want them anymore, we can''t simply leave it for the Extreme Yin Yang Palace." At the same time, the Extreme Yin yang palace received the same news. Just like th All Life Sect, they still have their Heavenly Fragment Owners. Because of that, the Palace Master''s orders were the same as Tika''s, to conquer all the places that the Darkness Sacred land left open. "We need to go fast, or we will fall behind the All Life Sect." Just like that, several battles started inside the Darkness Sacred Land territory in the center of the Universe. Hule Aforein already knew that it was going to happen, so he didn''t try to intervene. "With some luck, maybe the Extreme Yin Yang Palace and the All Life Sect will destroy quite a few of their own forces in the process." --- Wang Xin didn''t know about anything like that, so he just kept on his way to the Divine Path Sect. After arriving at the Divine Path Sect planet, the protection formation activated, and a tunnel appeared. Xin used it to pass through. A second later, he already appeared right in front of Lucio''s residence. Lucio, as always, was using his slippers and T-shirts. His hair was as messy as it had always been too. "Can''t you act more like a Sect Master for a change? The head of the Wang Clan came here to pay a visit, so you should at least show some respect, you know?" Lucio snorted and said. "Respect your head! How long have we known each other already? Even if I try to dress well to receive you, the fact is that you already know my real personality. So what''s the point in it? Besides, I don''t know how you can keep using those long robes day and night. Don''t you feel suffocated?" Xin knew that it would be useless to keep this conversation and then went to the main topic. "We received a few Jade Slips with messages from Feifei and the others. I came here to deliver your disciple and Ruik''s Jade Slips. It seems there is one for each one of their friends here too. Are they perhaps around?" Lucio was taken aback by that, and his mood immediately improved. "Good! Give it to me!" Lucio shook his head and then said. "First, bring all of Krune''s friends and his disciple out. Otherwise, considering your personality, you will probably forget to deliver the Jade Slips to them." Lucio''s mouth twitched, hearing that, but he decided to not fall for the provocation and start a fight. "Hmph! Give me a second." Lucio then spread his Divine Sense through the Sect and found a few of Krune''s friends. But there were also others that were on missions at the moment. Suddenly, all of those who were in the Divine Path Sect appeared in front of Lucio''s house. They, of course, felt extremely puzzled at what was happening. One second they were cultivating, training, or doing something else. The other second, they were in front of the Divine Path Sect''s headmaster. Of course, they knew that they should show their respect even though they didn''t understand the situation. "Paying respects tot he Sect Master." Lucio nodded and then looked at Wang Xin. "Those are all the ones that are in the Sect at the moment. The others are out on missions or doing something else." Xin nodded, satisfied. "That is enough." Just as Xin was about to bring the Jade Slips out, Krune''s Grandmaster, Lani Gobel, appeared beside Lucio. "What is happening here?" Lucio quickly explained the situation to his Master and took the chance to do the same with Krune''s friends. At the moment, Shinja, Ao, Ula, Lakin, and Cassy were the only ones present. Lakin and the others immediately felt ecstatic when they heard that they received information from Krune. Lani, of course, kept his composure. But it was true that he was also interested to see if there was something for him. Wang Xin immediately bowed and greeted Lani. "Senior Lani, I will give everyone their Jade Slips now." Wang Xin didn''t read those Jade Slips since Feifei also asked for them to not do something like that. So he simply delivered the Jade Slips marked for everyone. Lani, of course, also got one. Xin then left Lucio for last on purpose, which made Lucio feel like eating him alive! "Here is yours." Lucio''s mouth twitched, but he still received it. "Hmph!" But just as Lucio touched the Jade Slip addressed to him, something surprising happened. A projection of a person with Rainbow Hair appeared from it! Lucio, Lani, and Xin felt shooked! "He can already leave his will behind on things, impressive!" Still, Krune''s work was very crude, so they could see that this will wouldn''t last more than a minute before disappearing. Krune''s projection then opened his eyes and looked at Lucio. "Oh! It seems like I succeeded!" Krune understood the situation of his will and quickly went straight to the point. "Hey, old geezer! I left some information in the Jade Slip for you to take a look later. Still, I had to say something else to you personally. My cultivation is improving very fast, and so are my laws. So you better be careful since it won''t be long before I kick your ass! Hahahahaha!" Crash! Lucio couldn''t help himself and instantly crushed that Jade Slip, which made Krune''s will disappear immediately! "Good! Good! This Master of yours will be ''eagerly'' waiting for your return!" 358 Mountain! Suddenly, Wang Xin started to laugh out loud. "Hahahahaha!" "Lucio, I have to say, I''m starting to like this disciple of your more and more!" Lucio''s mouth twitched. "Are you looking for a fight?" Lani then put a hand on Lucio''s shoulder and sighed. "What about the information inside the Jade Slip?" Only then did Lucio remember that part. "Ah!" Lani had already read the message in his Jade Slip, so he threw it at Lucio for him to take a look. Lucio looked at his Master, confused. "Take a look, and you will understand." Lucio then put that sent his Divine Sense inside. "Grandmaster, by know, the old geezer probably crushed the Jade Slip I sent him. Once he calms down, give this one for him to read as well. Everything that happened until now is described inside, so please take a look as well." Lani couldn''t help but say. "You two know each other way too well. No wonder your personalities are so similar." Lucio didn''t know if that was a compliment or not, but he still read the rest of the things inside. Just like Feifei, Krune told everything that could be said in that Jade Slip. There were also things about his cultivation, laws, etc. Lucio didn''t read it slowly as Feifei Parents did. He just swiped everything with his Divine Sense and then thought about the contents. "I see, so the Sacred Lands really sent their own Heavenly Fragment Owners away. But to think that Feifei would get the Heavenly Fragment from Uer, that was unexpected." Wang Xin knew that his job here was over and then said. "Anyway, I delivered the Jade Slips. I left a few more with Krune''s friends for them to give it later, too. So, I''m leaving." Lucio nodded, and Wang Xin teleported outside the Planet. From there, he opened a Spatial Gate and disappeared inside. Lucio then waved his hands, and Lakin''s group disappeared from his residence. He sent everyone back to the places where they were at first. After that, he looked at Lani and asked. "Master, what do you think about all of this?" Lani shook his head. "I don''t know. But it seemed like Krune didn''t say everything that was to be said. Maybe he was afraid that we wouldn''t be the ones who found the Jade Slip first." Lucio nodded. "I thought so too." Lani and Lucio then exchanged a few more words and then returned to their own places. Lakin was the one who received the others Jade Slips, so the first thing he did was to send a message to everyone that wasn''t present in the Divine Path Sect. After making sure that it was done properly, he sat down in the room and looked at the message given to him. Krune then talked about his experiences and especially the food that he ate during his time there. Lakin made sure to read everything slowly as well to enjoy every part. After he finished, he smiled and murmured. "Master, you are looking down on me. I''m already in the 8th Stage of the Core Formation Realm, you know?" Lakin wasn''t the only one who improved by leaps and bounds during the past years. Thanks to the Myriad Energies Technique, everyone improved at least half a realm. The only difference is that other than Shinja, no one comprehended any Laws so far. Still, that was to be expected. After all, Dalin Universe is known for its easy to comprehend Laws. The greatest cultivation between Krune''s friend so far was from Shinja as well, who broke through the Divine Soul Realm and was at the 3rd Sage. As for her Laws, she had only comprehended the Initial Stage of the Water Essence Sub-Law. The Elemental meridians and her Pure Yin body obviously had a lot to do with it. Dalin Universe is several times better for Laws. However, if one thinks about Spiritual Energy alone, the Luvile Universe isn''t that much worse. Of course, the difference could still be felt. One only had to look at Tiane and Ruik''s cultivations, and they would see it. Dalin universe had more resources, and any transaction got them a lot better Spirit Stones. Because of that, those two who were quite a few stages behind Shinja now had the same cultivation as her. Not to mention that they went much further in Laws comprehension. The others who also entered the Divine Soul Realm were Ao, Yusa, and Arlan. One being at the 1st Stage while the others were on the 2nd. Krune, who in the past had lower cultivation than all of them, now was quite far ahead with his 5th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. One could say that other than the Dalin environment, Krune''s talent, Major Divine Soul, the Elemental Stones, and the Mind Splitting Technique played a big part in it. Krune didn''t only talk about what they passed through. He also sent several techniques that they found in the Dalin universe like the Mind Splitting and Soul cultivation ones to be added into the Spatial Box Dimensional Realm. The mind splitting technique, especially, would definitely improve everyone''s cultivation quite a lot. If there was one thing that they were sad about. It was only the fact that Krune didn''t leave any instructions about how to contact them back. Krune had also not disclosed the Mohie Zarks Formation Artifact, so they didn''t know how he sent it into the Luvile Universe to start with. Let alone send something back. "Sigh... Master, I have so much to tell you, but for now, don''t worry about me and the others. Once you get back, I will let you see just how much I improved." --- Somewhere else, in a remote Planet where the highest Cultivation Level was only the Initial or Middle Stages of the Divine Soul Realm. This Planet was called Westil and was part of the Eastern Protectorate. The power controlling this part of the Eastern Protectorate rarely ever paid a visit to this place. Hence, the cultivators and demon best here were more or less imprisoned. Around twenty years ago, a weird event took place in one of the countries of this place. There was a certain mountain that suddenly started to gather a lot of Spiritual Energy. That Mountain didn''t seem to have anything special, though. The big Sects, Clans, and other powers came flocking in, hoping that a new treasure was born. Still, the Mountain wasn''t anything that big to start with. Its range radius was just 40 or so KM. Even with the low cultivation standard of this Planet, the cultivators and demon beasts checked everything that was possible to check in just a few days. The ones good at Earth Element even went underground to see what was happening. Unfortunately, they didn''t find anything at all. In the end, the sects and clans simply gave up the hope of finding any treasure. However, no one wanted to leave. That is because the amount of Spiritual Energy gathered in this place was several times higher than any other place in this Planet. Every single Sect, Clan, or other powers wanted to take this mountain range for themselves. Because of that, a bloody battle started to see who would be the one controlling it. That battle lasted over a year with the biggest powers of the Planet reaching an agreement. The mountain range would be equally shared between the 10 biggest powers. As for the others, they would be able to use it as well, but sporadically. Today, the cultivators and demon beasts were cultivating as they always did when suddenly, an enormous burst of Spiritual Energy surged from the center of the Mountain! That wave of Spiritual Energy alarmed all the Divine Soul Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts overseeing the Mountain. They immediately gathered at the center of the Mountain to see what was happening. But there was nothing there that indicated the reason for such thing to happen. At first, quite a few thought that someone was trying something with the Mountain, so they got doubtful about each other. Still, after several days of search, nothing was found at all. As far as it seemed, the event would be over without any conclusion... or so they thought. One week after the burst of Spiritual Energy, the entire Mountain started to tremble! This time, no one could tell why it was happening either. It was then that suddenly, the Mountain began to shrink at high speeds! The buildings over it started to fall apart due to their ground disappearing, all the cultivators and demon beast that could fly immediately did so. As for those who couldn''t, they ran as fast as possible. Because of what happened a week ago, the number of Divine Soul Realm cultivators and demon beasts in this place increased several times. Everyone was afraid that someone was trying to take the Mountain for themselves. But they never expected that the Mountain would start to disappear by itself instead! After just a few minutes, the Mountain had already shrunk by 100 times, and it continued to contract. Finally, it reached a point where the entire Mountain was at the size of a human. In fact, not only was it the size of one, but its form was also that of a human as well! Everyone looked at that with wide-open eyes! The Mountain... had just taken the human form! To be more precise, it was a naked female one! 359 Trata All the Divine Soul Realm cultivators tried to see what cultivation she possessed, but they simply couldn''t see anything at all! Some of the stronger ones then started to approach the girl. "Hello! Might I ask who you are?" The girl looked puzzled at those cultivators and demon beasts. She then pointed down and said. "Mountain." The guy''s mouth twitched a little when he heard that, though. ''Do you think we are blind?! We all saw you transforming, you know?'' Of course, he didn''t say it aloud. "I see... do you have a name?" The girl seemed to ponder a bit and then said. "I don''t have a name." Everyone noticed that this girl wasn''t the type who talked much. In fact, this girl only knew how to talk because of the time she spent observing everyone who lived on her. But she never had the chance to talk before, so she didn''t know what to say. "Cough, cough. Could you tell us then why you never said anything? You know, all our Sects, Clans, and others were residing here before. But now that the Mountain is gone, everything disappeared." The girl narrowed her eyes and said. "The Mountain was my body, and I never said you could build anything on it. So why should I care?" The guys didn''t know how to answer that. The fact was that no one knew that the Mountain was alive to start with. Of course, now they all understood why so much Spiritual Energy gathered here. It was just that this Mountain was cultivating! Still, how come she could attract so much Spiritual Energy? There was a reason for that. This girl had the Blackhole Divine Soul... and was also the Blackhole Heavenly Fragment Owner! That was also the reason why a Mountain like her was able to reach the Soul Forging Realm in just 20 years. Of course, the cultivators and demon beast of a planet of this level wouldn''t know what that meant. Unanimated objects gaining sentience isn''t unheard of. Still, they are extremely rare, let alone an entire Mountain! Usually, those guys would not be so amicable with someone. After all, all their powers have been relying on that Mountain for years. But the fact is that they can''t see her cultivation, so they are afraid that she is a lot stronger than any of them. "In that case, what do you intend to do now?" The girl went silent once again. The only reason she took this long to change into her human form was that she didn''t have a high enough Realm. A week ago, she finally broke through into the Soul Forging Realm, which was the necessary cultivation for her to transform. Still, she didn''t know exactly how to do that, so she took several days of observation to understand it. That''s why she took a whole week to transform for the first time. Different from other races, she couldn''t control Spiritual Energy until now. She also didn''t have a Divine Sense either. The way she looked at the outside world was basically the same as Krune and the other wisps. The Mountain itself was her eyes. She felt empty, it was not like she wanted to do something. Maybe it was because of her life as a Mountain, but she didn''t feel like she had an objective in life. In the end, she could only answer. "I... don''t know." Everyone looked at each other until someone finally asked. "What is your cultivation realm at the moment?" Immediately, everyone''s attention was picked. That was one of the most important questions at the moment. Depending on the answer, some of them might even force her to go back to her Mountain Form and stay like that forever. The girl pondered a bit and then said. "I only know the realms up to Divine Soul Realm. But I believe I have already entered the next. Or at least, that is what I found after watching you all during all these years." That was the truth. She only saw Divine Soul Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts. This planet didn''t have a single Soul Forging Realm, so she didn''t know how the Realm she was in at the moment was called. Still, that wasn''t the same for the Divine Soul Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts. Their planet might not have a single Soul Forging Realm, but they at least know how the next Realm was called. "That means that you are at the Soul Forging Realm." The girl nodded and made sure to remember that world. She then thought about something and started to look around her body. So far, she had been floating in the air subconsciously. She then decided to land to try out this new body of hers. Sure enough, the moment she tried to stand by herself, she fell. Demon beasts that didn''t have legs by the time they first transform would always have problems controlling that new body of theirs. The cultivators found that scene quite comic. A naked girl was trying to learn how to walk. That wasn''t something they see every day. As for the demon beasts, especially the ones that don''t have legs in their true forms could totally understand what she was going true. While the Mountain Girl tried to adapt to her new form, the leaders of each power gathered to discuss this situation. "What should we do? If she doesn''t go back to her mountain form, we will have no place to cultivate anymore." "What you want to do then? She is in the Soul Forging Realm! Is anyone here confident in forcing her to change back and stay like that?" "We can try a sweet talk. After all, she is just a naive girl." "Naive? Hahahahaha! Did you forget what she said? The Mountain Girl told us that she had been observing everyone who lived on her during years! This Mountain started to gather Spiritual Energy around 20 years ago. If she had been watching us all during all this time, do you think she would still be naive? In fact, she might have one of the most wretched minds between us all!" The leaders immediately narrowed their eyes after that last comment. If that was true, then trying to fool her would only cause a tragedy for them. "Still, we can''t simply give up. What if we join forces to suppress her?" One of the guys immediately shook his head. "Let alone the fact that we don''t know if we would be her match. Even if we are, just how many sacrifices would be necessary? Let''s assume that we will win, why would she simply transform back into a mountain? She might not beat us because of numbers, but can we stop her from fleeing? I doubt so!" The oldest cultivator in that group, someone called Butian, then sighed and said. "All we can do is ask her sincerely and hope that we have something which would convince her doing so." While they were discussing, the girl noticed something different. She could now spread her Divine Sense! Before gaining her human form, the Mountain Girl had never been able to do so. She heard about Divine Sense so many times and had an idea about how it worked, though. But now, she was finally successful in doing that! Her Divine Sense instantly covered an area of over 200km when suddenly, she noticed someone just 20 or so km away. It was a demon beast, or to be more precise, an Earth Beaver. Earth Beavers aren''t anything rare. These types of beavers are different from common ones. They don''t like to leave close to rivers, for example. In fact, they are quite common in the Westil Planet. Usually, they wouldn''t reach the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, so most of them didn''t have intelligence. Still, due to their numbers, a few of them would get to that point. It might be because they stumbled on some Spiritual Herbs or just because they found a Spiritual Vein. But they sure existed. This Earth Beaver just so happens to be one of them. Earth Beavers had just half the size of a human without their human forms, so it wasn''t inconvenient for them to stay in their true forms. He had been accepted in one of the Sects that oversee the Mountain due to his Earth Element Control. Every day, he would go around the Mountain to complete his chores. The Mountain Girl had been observing this Earth Beaver for several years already. What caught her attention was the fact that the Beaver always treated the Mountain with respect. He never tried to build something unless ordered and spend most of its time cultivating on a bolder at the side of the Mountain. With time, the Beaver started to talk with the Mountain itself, even though it knew that it would never reply to his words. It could be said that talking with the Mountain was just a way of talking to himself and to pass the time. Every time the Beaver stopped cultivation, he would also thank the Mountain for the Spiritual Energy. But what he didn''t know is that the Mountain Girl had always been hearing him. Even though she really couldn''t answer. But today, his Mountain had suddenly disappeared! He then heard a Divine Sense message from one of the higher-ups to stay far away from the center. So he was now waiting in this place with other disciples of the same sect. When the girl noticed the Earth Beaver, she showed everyone the first smile of her 20 years of life. The next second, the girl disappeared from the spot she was in, which alarmed everyone! The Divine Soul Realm cultivators and demon beasts immediately spread their Divine Senses and soon found where she went. But they didn''t feel relieved by that at all. That is because after they saw her movement speed, they concluded that it would be impossible for them to be a match for her, even with their numbers. What the Mountain Girl used was not a simple movement technique, but an earth movement one! Simply put, she could move a lot faster underground than above it. The reason for that was quite simply, that is because she had already comprehended 3 of the 5 Earth Sub-laws to completion! The Earth Beaver was standing and looking in the direction from which the Mountain disappeared when suddenly, a naked girl appeared right in front of him! Before he could even react, that same naked girl jumped at him and gave a big hug! This could be said one of the very few things she ever wanted to do. She has heard the Earth Beaver thanking her for the Spiritual Energy thousands of times, and he was the only one who ever bothered doing so! So in her mind, she always wanted to tell him back. "Trata, you are welcome!" 360 Finally Ou Trata was the name of that Earth Beaver. As a demon beast, the fact that he was being hugged by a naked girl didn''t bother him. What surprised him was the fact that she knew his name. ''And what exactly does she mean with ''You are welcome?'''' Trata quickly separates himself from the girl and ask. "Who are you?!" That was the question on the heads of all disciples who were here with Trata at the moment. Just where did this girl come from? Only then did the girl remember that she was now in her human form. "Oh, sorry. It''s just that you had always thanked me when you finished cultivating that I really wanted to say this." Trata was once again taken aback. "How do you know that? I have always cultivated alone, were you spying on-" It was at that moment that he felt a sense of familiarity coming from the girl. The next second, an absurd idea popped in his mind. "You- You! You are the Mountain?!" "EEHHHHHHHHH?!!!" The moment Trata said that, everyone exclaimed together! That enormous Mountain had become a girl? Is that for real?! The girl nodded. "That is me." But before anyone could make any other questions, several Divine Soul Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts appeared together in the place Trata and the Mountain Girl were staying. Butian came forward and said. "Please don''t disappear like that. You really gave us a fright for a moment." Trata felt overwhelmed by that group. He recognized a few of them as being the Divine Soul Realm cultivators and demon beasts that lived in this Mountain. Or at least, until there was a Mountain before. The others that he didn''t recognize were probably in the same Realm as well. For an Earth Beaver at the Foundation Establishment like him, any of those existences were the same as gods in his eyes. The girl heard that and narrowed her eyes. "I did not ask for any of you to follow me." Butian had seen how the Mountain Girl treated that Earth Beaver, so he immediately thought about an idea. He spread his Divine Sense and sent that beaver a Divine Sense message. "This girl is the human form of the Mountain. Help us to convince her into going back to her Mountain Form, and you will be greatly rewarded. Reaching the Divine Soul Realm might not be just a dream for you anymore in the future." Trata was taken aback by that. How come such a big decision fell on his lap out of nowhere? He really didn''t want to get involved in this thing at all! Still, he at least understood one thing. For a Divine Soul Realm cultivator to be asking him to do such a thing, it is evident that this girl is anything but weak! Trata felt like he was stuck between a sword and a spear, with nowhere to run! "I..." --- Back at the Dalin Universe, Feifei deactivated the Spatial Gate Formation Artifact, and the room went back to normal. Everyone smiled at each other, and they went to where the Exit of the Inheritance was located. Rarol, Tinnian, Joiu, and Ofelo were already there waiting for them. They would need to use that exit as well. Feifei had verified if it was possible to connect the Spatial Gate to somewhere else inside Dalin Universe. Unfortunately, that thing was projected to only work inside the Inheritance and connect to other Universes. "Let''s first wait a few hours before leaving. We told Mohie Maran that we would explore the remaining Bubble Realms, so we can''t possibly come out so fast." Everyone nodded, and they sat to cultivate. Krune also took that opportunity to further recover his Spiritual Energy that had been continuously leaking. Time passed, and half a day went by. Krune was able to recover some of his battle ability as well. Noticing that he got up, everyone stood up as too and nodded at each other. "Well, we can only leave now." They stepped inside the Spatial Gate and disappeared inside. The world around them warped by a second, and when it came back to normal, they were all above the Volcano. Laex had been waiting all this time, so the moment that Krune and his group appeared, he immediately flew to their side. The same thing could be said about Joiu''s group. Surprisingly, Ricarte''s Void Breaking Realm cultivators and demon beasts and did the same. The new leader of that group came forward and complimented Krune. "It seems like you saved Ricarte''s life in the Dimensional Realm once. He sent us a message to help protect you until you arrive in the city." Krune and the others immediately understood what kind of excuse Ricarte gave them. But that was to be expected, though. Otherwise, they might think that Krune''s group knew about the truth of the Spatial Gate. Ricarte used that puppet to tell them that he owns Krune''s group a favor. Noticing that, Krune immediately played along. "Oh, thank you. By the way, where is Ricarte? We separated after to look for resources in the unexplored realms, so I haven''t seen him after that anymore." The guy nodded and replied. "Young Master Ricarte told us to go ahead since he had a few things to do." Krune nodded. "Alright, let me just deliver something." Krun approached Reiny''s group, who couldn''t enter the Inheritance and passed a token to them. "Reiny asked me to give it to you guys, so I''m done with it now." Krune immediately left after that. Not much time passed, and Reiny''s group started to go back to the city as well. Krune''s group gathered, and they started to make their way back when suddenly, Mohie Danif stopped them on their tracks. Laex came forward and asked. "Do you need anything?" Danif smiled. "I have a question to those friends behind you who entered the Inheritance. Have you perhaps seen this thing?" Danif then created an image with Spiritual Energy that depicted the Tribulation Jade. Krune shook his head. "I have told your Clan member before, we didn''t find anything like that inside. In fact, Mohie Maran should have said to you that our group was the very last one to reach the last building in the Castle Realm. If there was really such an item like that there, our group was obviously not the one who took it." Mohie Danif narrowed his eyes, but he had to admit that Krune was correct. Maran had already confirmed that Krune''s group didn''t appear in the building until a few hours later. There was another thing as well that Krune''s group didn''t know. Mohie Maran had met with the Golden Dragonflies and killed them. But before doing that, he questioned them about the other Key to the Spatial Gate room. From their answer, he came to know that Krune''s group went through a fierce fight against Uer''s group. Most likely, Krune''s group had to retreat to recover from their injuries. It meant that Krune''s group was indeed the one with the least chance of having acquired the Tribulation Jade. First of all, there were no guarantees that the Tribulation jade was in that Dimensional Realm to start with. All that they know is that Mohie Zarks suddenly disappeared one day while he was inside the Dalin Universe. "Very well, I just wanted to confirm the information." Mohie Danif then retreated with his group. They were strong, but Krune''s group had several Void Breaking Realms as well. Not to mention that Danif could tell that Laex was definitely not simple. Krune let out a sigh of relief. They really didn''t have that thing, so it would be really unjust to fall into a fight because of an item that didn''t exist. On Mohie Danif''s side, he was pondering about the teams that already left. Krune''s group just so happen to have been the last from the Castle Realm. Well, that is if you don''t count Ricarte and Reiny, who will never come out. "Send some people to verify all the groups that entered the Castle Realm. If any weird movements are seen, make sure to inform me." A subordinate behind Danif nodded and immediately departed. The Realm kept open for another day until the last group stepped outside. Once they were out, the Spatial Gate inside the Volcano started to close as well. To be more precise, it was being sealed. Danif waited until the last moment, but Ricarte''s group did not come out in the end. "Does this mean that they died?" Usually, Inheritances would not be closed until the very last cultivator or demon beast was out or dead. So he couldn''t help but think about that possibility. Of course, it didn''t mean that all of them were definitely like that. In the end, Danif knew that staying here anymore would be useless. "Let''s go." He opened a Spatial Gate himself and entered inside with his group. Soon, the Mohie Clan party was already gone. Only a little more than 30% of the groups that entered Mohie Zarks Inheritance came out alive. The rest all died inside. Still, no one thought it to be strange. That is just how the Mohie Clan Inheritances usually worked. The four High-Level cultivators and demon beasts who were overseeing the Mohie Clan Inheritance noticed that all the important groups had left already. They, too, opened a Spatial Gate each and left after that. Their job was simply to stop anyone above the Void breaking Realm from intervening. With this, the Mohie Zarks Inheritance was now officially over. 361 Investigation Krune''s group way back to the city was uneventful. Once they arrived there, Krune paid Laex the other half of the agreement. "Great! With this, our contract is over. If it happens that you need a bodyguard again, let me know. Here''s my communicator number." Krune smiled and accepted that. The two of them bid their farewells and went their own ways. Joiu stayed with the group, though. He had a few things that he still wanted to ask. "So, can I start now?" Krune nodded. "Sure, I just don''t know what I can and cannot answer." Joiu nodded as well. "First of all, who is that Wally that Mohie Zarks talked about?" Krune pondered a bit and felt like it would be useless to hide this part. Wally is known by all the Great Powers, after all. Joiu would be able to find it if he contacted his background. "Wally was the only wisp to ever reach the Divine Path Realm that we have a record about. He continued to cultivate until one day, he ascended..." Krune then explained the part of the story that everyone knew. Of course, he left out the parts that shouldn''t be known. "To think that such a thing happened... But, aren''t you a Heavenly Fragment Owner wisp as well? Does that mean you can also reach the Divine Path Realm? Maybe it is because of it that Mohie Zarks said that you have been guided here." Krune shrugged his shoulders and said. "Who knows? I indeed feel like it was too much of a coincidence to have stumbled on Mohie Zarks Inheritance, so it might be true that I''m being watched by him. But it is still too early to think about it since I''m only a Divine Soul Realm wisp." Joiu nodded. "What you plan to do about that Spatial Gate thing?" "For now, I think it is a good idea to keep it a secret. If we are to divulge its existence, we might gather a lot of unwanted attention. Sure, we might be rewarded by the Dalin universe Management guys. Still, we also might be killed to not leave behind any information that such a thing ever existed." Joiu felt a chill on his back. It would be a lie if he said that he didn''t think about trading the Spatial Gate''s information for a reward. But he had not thought about the point where he could be killed because of that as well. "Cough, cough. Let''s just pretend that it doesn''t exist." Krune smiled and agreed with him. Joiu then asked several other questions, and Krune answered what he could. After that, they quickly brought out all the resources they gathered in the last Realm and shared them according to their previous agreement. In the end, they exchanged contact information, and Joiu left as well. Krune also took that opportunity to bid farewell to Rarol and Tinnian. They had come just to participate in the Mohie Zarks Inheritance. Now that it is over, they had to go back to their world too. "We should go back to the Wisp World first. Because of what happened in that Dragon Ressurection fight, many cultivators and demon beasts already know that you are a wisp. The main issue is also the fact that Wisps with different colors mean that they have Major Cores. We better be far away before the information spread." Krune and the others immediately nodded. They took the closest Long Distance Teleport Formation and immediately started their Journey back. In the end, it was just as Feifei predicted. Krune''s prowess and information soon appeared in the Mission Hall beside many others. There were quite a few Cultivators and Demon beasts who recorded their time in the Dimensional Realm. Some of them were obvious together with Krune during that time they fought the Dragon Corpse. That fight immediately spread like wide fire. Especially because that was something that happened in a Mohie Clan Inheritance, which is usually famous to start with. Fortunately for him and his group, every single one of them was using different appearances and names. So unless Krune decides to walk around in his true form, all the information would lead nowhere. Still, the fact that Krune is a Major Core Wisp and that he is strong enough to jump several stages soon arrived at the Dalin Universe Management. Alliance Solar System, Alliance Management Planet. In a certain room in one of the tens of thousands of buildings in this place, a man was reading the information about Krune and his group. "Another Major Divine Soul wisp, uh? Cinty is very close to the end of her Lifespan, so there is a big chance of this guy becoming the next Wisp King. Still, isn''t this Purple Tribulation Lightning way too strong? He can jump an entire Realm to fight..." The man tapped the table in front of him with his finger while thinking. Wisps related information had always been watched carefully because of Wally, after all. "First of all, where did this Purple Tribulation Lightning came from? Is this Wisp from another Universe?" The man then brought out his communicator and contacted someone. "Check one thing for me. Look into the record of all wisps who came into the Dalin Universe in the last 20 years. Give special attention to the ones from 5 years ago to now." He then turned off his communicator and kept looking at the recordings where Krune fought the cultivators at the entrance of the Mohie Zarks Inheritance and especially the Dragon''s event. Fortunately for Krune, the recordings available were only from those two times. After the battle against the Dragon, Krune''s group separated from the others, and only Pala''s group followed them. Still, no one in her team recorded anything, so there wasn''t more information at the moment. Soon, he received the information that he had requested. "A total of 1356 wisps entered the Dalin Universe in the last 20 years, and only 239 in the past five. Most of them were basically following some of the cultivators and demon beasts and had very low cultivations. Not a single one of them was at the Core Formation Realm, either. Anyone that comes from another Universe will be marked with the cultivation monitoring, and the wisps are no exception." The man once again took out his communicator and passed more orders. "Check all the wisps and see if anyone of them has a rainbow-like color now. Also, check their cultivation and see if any of them match this Darten''s description." Three days later, he received all the information he had requested. "873 of those wisps already died, mostly because of Lifespan. The ones who are still alive, not a single one is even close to reaching the Divine Soul Realm. That means that this Darten is a Wisp born in our Dalin Universe. Well, I already expected this much anyway. Still, Dalin Universe''s Tribulation is a Fire one, so how did he get this Purple Tribulation Lightning? An inheritance, perhaps?" Not even for a second had this person thought that Krune came in illegally. After all, there were no recordings of someone entering the Dalin Universe through other means during thousands of Chaos Cycles. "Sigh... This thing about not being able to touch the Wisp Worlds is really annoying. It makes everything so hard to investigate. Oh well, for now, I will label this guy as the probable next Wisp King. Cinty''s Lifespan should be running out in the next 20 or so years, so we will find about him very soon." In the end, he passed orders to keep monitoring the Wisp Worlds and see if they can get any information about the new Major Core Wisp. Back in the Wisps World, Krune and Feifei were reporting the things that happened in the Mohie Zarks Realm. "So we can only use that Spatial Gate once, uh? That''s unfortunate. If we had full access, we wouldn''t need to rely on the Spatial Gates from the Alliance to send our wisps out." Krune then asked. "How many wisps with the Myriad Wisps Technique had left already?" Cinty thought for a second and then said. "We sent 21 in the first year, and until now, a total of 52 are already gone. Fortunately, they can''t be branded with the Alliance Seals." Krune nodded. "I heard about that. It seems like it is not worth spending the resources to use the Alliance Seal on wisps, right?" Cinty heard that and said. "I''m not sure if that is really the reason. It might have been because of Wally as well. But the thing is that wisps really don''t get the Alliance Seal." Feifei, who had been hearing until now, decided to ask something that was bothering her. "Cinty, we heard that everyone who is born in the Dalin Universe has their souls marked during the time they are passing from the underworld to their new body. It seems like it is to make sure that the Dalin Universe management can find out those who reach the Divine Path Realm. You were born in this Universe, doesn''t it mean that you have the same thing?" Cinty shook her head. "Such information is really true, but Wisps are excluded from that. The reason is very simple, Wally intervened when they tried to do it. It was an event of many Chaos Cycles in the past, though. But since then, the Dalin Universe Management didn''t dare to brand Wisps." Krune nodded. "As I thought. You didn''t seem the least bit concerned when you found out that you had a chance at the Divine Path Realm. So I guessed that there was a reason for you to not care about this thing." Krune and Feifei then exchanged a few more words with Cinty and left. Feifei looked at Krune and asked. "What you plan to do now?" "For now, I have to practice alchemy and concoct a stronger Foundation Repairing Pill. Then I need to do something about my Soul as well." 362 Zenfin Sec That''s all Krune could do for the moment. So he went directly back to his room and started to check the information about higher-level pills. During there years, Krune''s alchemy level increased by leaps and bounds, so he was already considered a Nine Golden Stars Alchemist. The reason for such a fast pace of improvement was very simple. The Golden Stars Level were directly connected to one''s comprehension of Laws. At the moment, it is hard to find a single Soul Forging Realm with Laws as advanced as Krune, let alone Divine Soul Realm ones. That''s why his pills were already at this level. "Sigh... Diamond Level Pills need Chaos Energy. There is no way I can concoct such a thing. I will have to go with the highest Golden Stars one that I can find." Fortunately, no one heard Krune. Such words probably have the power to kill other alchemists. Krune searched through the system and soon found a target. "Wall Construction Pill. Another pill made to fix someone''s foundation. Why can''t they reach an agreement about those names? Anyway, let me see, this pill needs..." After checking everything, Krune decided to contact Amark in the Rimeria Solar System Alchemist Organization to ask him to send the necessary materials. But it was then that Krune noticed that Amark had tried to contact him several times in the past few days. "Could it be that they already ran out purple flame pills? No, I made sure to leave a lot with them. Unless they decided to put everything to sell at once, it was supposed to last a few months. I also asked to not release too many so that it would be considered as something hard to get, and the price wouldn''t go down." Krune stopped thinking at that point and decided to simply call him out. At Rimeria Solar System Alchemist Organization. Amark was passing back and forth without stopping. He had tried to contact Krune, or better, Jolk several times in the past few days. He even sent someone to the Wisp Worlds as well, but they could not go to the Wisps Main Planet. He knows that there are times when Krune simply won''t answer his calls. But in those cases, he would only leave a message and wait for Krune to contact him back. Unfortunately, due to the situation, he couldn''t afford to wait much longer this time. Suddenly, Amark''s communicator activated. When he looked at who was calling, he felt like he went from hell to heaven in a single step! "Jolk! Finally, I was able to contact you!" Krune showed a puzzled face on the other side of the call. "What is so urgent that you needed to call me so many times?" Amark nodded and took a deep breath. "Can you come to the Rimeria Solar System? There is someone who wants to talk with you. Please, you must come as soon as possible." Krune immediately rejected the idea. Krune had got a lot of Herbs from the Mohie Zarks Inheritance Garden, so he had quite a few of the necessary ones. Amark was taken aback. Usually, Krune would be a lot more cooperative. But it seemed like he was also in the middle of an emergency. "Wall Construction Pills, those are peak Nine Golden Stars pills, you know? Can you concoct such a thing?" Krune nodded. "I''m already at the Nine Golden Stars level. It''s just that I never bothered to take another test to register my new level. Of course, this is the first time I will be concocting Wall Construction Pills, so I will need to practice first. Make sure to send a good amount of materials since I will probably fail quite a few times." Amark was about to get happy for Krune when suddenly, he noticed something. "Wait, could it be that those pills are for yourself?!" Krune nodded. He wasn''t afraid of Amark spreading this news since they had long decided to keep their conversations a secret. "There was an accident, so my Core is damaged at the moment. Unfortunately, the Cracks are too big for the Shell Repairing Pill to mend them. So I will need a stronger pill. That''s also why I can''t leave at the moment since I have no way to protect myself if needed." Krune immediately noticed that Amark seemed to be hiding something. "Anyway, who exactly is this person you need me to meet? Is that really such an important thing? Although my Golden Stars Pill can do things that even Diamond Stars can, that all that is. If this person you want me to meet is really that important, he should be totally able to get pills of the Diamond level or probably even higher grade ones. So why me?" Amark smiled bitterly and then said. "I don''t know why you, but he said that you were the only one who could possibly help. His name is Olave Merfil, from the Zenfin Sect." Krune was puzzled for a second. "Zenfin Sect? What Zenfin Sec-" It was then that Krune remembered. "Wait, you mean the Zenfin Sect from the Larael Universe? THE Zenfin Sect?" Zenfin Sect was the Sect that controlled one of the Universes Powerhouses, the Larael Universe. They were also one of the Universes that managed Dalin. They are just as strong as the Mohie Clan, which controls the Hara Universe. Amark nodded. "That is precisely the Sect I''m talking about. But you are forgetting the main point here, his name is Olave Merfil." Krune got puzzled once again. "Could it be that this Olave Merfil is someone important in the Zenfin Sect?" Krune knew about the Zenfin Sect, but that was basically everything he searched about them. He doesn''t know the names of anyone from that place. Nor did he ever care about looking for it since it wouldn''t be of much use for him. The Zenfin Sect higher-ups and himself are in completely two different leagues, after all. Amark, on the other hand, was shooked by Krune''s words. "Wait, how come you don''t know Olave Merfil? He is the Zenfin Sect Sect Master!!!" Krune froze the moment he heard those words. "Se-Sect Master? You mean, THE Sect Master? Are you taking me for a fool? Why would someone like that ever come asking to talk with me? Are you sure this is not an impostor trying to rob you and the Alchemist Organization?" Amark was frightened by those words. Fortunately, he is the only person in the room. Still, he spread his Divine Sense just o make sure that no one was around at that moment. "You! Don''t say something like that again! Of course, I''m not being fooled! Do you think anyone would try to pose as the Zenfin Sect Sect Master? First of all, who would be idiot enough to court death like that? Anyway, he is the real deal, I can guarantee you that." Krune finally understood why Amark seemed to be so worried. Someone like him should have never met a person like Olave in his entire life. But suddenly, there he was! Even Krune felt somewhat intrigued, and he was far, far away at the moment. "Alright, alright! So, what does he want? He has to have a reason for calling me out, right? I''m sorry but, I really have no intention of leaving the Wisp Worlds anytime soon. Especially now that I know that he needs to see me. What if he wants to kidnap me so that I can reveal the Purple Flame Pills secret? He is the leader of one of the powers that control the Dalin Universe. The rules about cultivation definitely mean nothing to him!" Amark was taken aback by that, but he had to admit that Krune was right. If Olave wanted to take Krune, or better, Jolk away, who exactly would try to stop him? No one! Amark could already feel a headache coming when he thought. "Well, then you don''t mind if I bring this call to him, right? At least, you can talk to him from the place where you are at the moment." Krune pondered a bit and then nodded. "Sure, that should be okay." Amark immediately opened a Spatial Gate and left. A second later, he appeared in outer space. Right in front of him, one could see a gigantic Space Ship with the emblem of the Zenfin Sect on it. Amark then sent a Divine Sense message, and soon, he received confirmation that he could teleport inside. Amark was then guided to the place where Olave Merfil was waiting for him. All of that didn''t take more than 10 minutes to happen. Amark finally arrived at a luxurious living room where he could see an old man drinking some wine. He took a deep breath and then said. "Sir, Jolk can not come at the moment, but I have him on a call with me. He wishes to talk with you about the reason why you need to see him." Amark then connected his communicator to the room''s monitor. Immediately, Krune''s face appeared on the other side. Olave narrowed his eyes after seeing all of that. He wanted to talk with Jolk face to face, not through some call. Krune finally could see the face of the man itself. He smiled and then said. "Hey there, I''m Jolk. Sorry but I am stuck at the moment. Is there a reason why you asked to see me?" 363 So What If You Accept?! "I asked you to come to see me. How come you are not here?" Krune shrugged his shoulder and said. "Because I don''t feel like being kidnapped yet." Amark almost fainted! ''Can''t you be a little more respectful with this person?'' But contrary to his expectations, Olave laughed instead. "Hahaha! Good, it''s not every day I find a young one as brave as you. But unfortunately, what I need from you must be done personally." Krune shook his head and said. "I won''t be leaving the Wisp Main world anytime soon, that is already a given. I''m not in the condition to move even if I wanted to anyway. So you will need to ask someone else." Krune really didn''t want to get involved with someone like that at all. The risks of his illegal entrance being found are too high. Olave, on the other hand, was adamant about his decision. "No can do, it has to be you. I need you to come with me to see someone in the Zenfin Sect." Krune smiled and shook his head. "This is not going anywhere. What is it that you need me so much? As you know, I''m only an alchemist. Sure, my pills have some nice side effects and can even compare to Diamond Stars ones. But someone at your level can definitely get pills which are several grades higher than simple Diamond Stars ones." This time, Olave talked seriously. "That is indeed what I need from you, to concoct a pill for me. But the person who is going to swallow it is not here in the Dalin Universe. As for the fact that I can get much higher grades pills, that I admit being true. Unfortunately, none of them are useful in this case." Krune immediately felt puzzled. "If pills above the Diamond Stars level are not of any use, then mine will be even less. What are you talking about?" Olave shook his head and said. "You are correct when you say that your pills are of a much lower level than the ones I can get, but the other pills don''t have that special Purple Flame property." "The purple flame?" Olave then explained. "What I need you to concoct for me is the Life Dew Pill." That name immediately reminded Krune and Amark of what kind of pill it is. The Life Dew Pill is the best Golden Stars Level healing pill that exists. It is said that as long as one is under the Divine Path Realm and still has a breath remaining, this pill can absolutely heal you completely, and that includes the Soul. However, the pill also used Life Dew in the concocting process. That was also why it was called that. After hearing that, Krune felt like it was a joke. "The Life Dew Pill is indeed a good pill, but I don''t see why you need that? Sure, it can bring someone back from the brink of death as long as they are not in the Divine Path Realm or above. Still, with your power, you could simply get a higher grade pill that didn''t have this limitation in transportation. For example, why don''t you use an All Life Pill? Although it is on the Dinivity Stars level, I''m sure you can get something like that." Olave nodded. "You are right, I can indeed get one of those. But it won''t work on the person who I need to heal. Let me ask you, do you know which kind of leaf the Life Dew appears on?" Krune pondered a bit and then answered. "The death tree from the underworld." Olave nodded. "It''s quite a magical thing, don''t you think? The death tree, a tree from which death energy emanates without stop. But every one thousand years, during a single day only, the death energy stops and the tree and the leaves green into a beautiful green. It''s precisely on those leaves that the Life Dew appears." Suddenly, Krune had an idea. "Wait, you couldn''t possibly be saying that the person you want to treat is, in fact..." Olave smiled and then nodded. "It seems like you really know your stuff. Yes, the person I want to heal has died already. I only have her Soul at the moment. The problem is that her Soul is too weak, so I can''t send her into the reincarnation path yet. Souls from dead people are totally different from the Souls of living ones. The only thing that can heal them is the Life Dew Pill." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Why can''t you send her into the reincarnation? As far as I know, even weak souls would be healed once they are sent into the cycle of samsara. So unless you want to keep her Soul with you, the best thing to do is to simply let her go. She will eventually get healed and be born again when the time is ripe." Olave nodded. "Correct, but if I do that, she will lose all her memories." Krune finally understood the crux of the issue. "I see, you want to brand her Soul so that the cycle of samsara will not wipe out her memories. Once her cultivation reaches the Divine Soul Realm, she will remember everything from her past life... or so I''m told." Krune then continued. "If I''m not wrong, because her Soul is still too weak, if you brand her Soul now, she will probably not resist the process and dissipate. Am I correct?" Olave was impressed that Krune understood everything with so little information. "It''s good that you understand. So, can you help me?" Krune narrowed his eyes and said. "Still, I don''t see the use of bringing me around. Sure, although the Life Dew Pill is amazing, it is still a Golden Stars Level one. In that case, why not call out a Divinity Realm Alchemist? I''m sure that the pill they will create will be nearly perfect. If you don''t count my Purple Flame Concoction, I am several light-years away from being able to do what they can." Olave then sighed and said. "Do you think I haven''t tried already? I tried not only once, but over a 100 times! I called several famous alchemists from different Universes to concoct the Life Dew Pill for me, but it was all for nothing!" Krune then said. "I see... it''s the grade of the pill. That''s why you need my Purple Flame." Olave looked at Krune even more shooked now. "Yes! That''s precisely it! All the alchemist said the same thing. The Life Dew Pill is excellent, but it can not go above the Golden Stars level. But from the information I got, your Purple Flame pills can make a Golden Stars pill reach a level of effect far above what they were supposed to. The Life Dew Pill is a peak Golden Stars Level one. With your Purple Flames concoction process, it definitely can show achieve the effect of a High-Level Diamond Stars one." Krune sighed and then asked. "Olave, have you ever tested one of my pills before?" Olave was taken aback. "What you meant?" Krune then looked at Amark and said. "Amark, give him any of my Purple Flame Pills and let him use it. He will immediately understand what I mean." Amark nodded and brought out a cultivation stabilizing pill from his spatial ring. Olave looked at the pill puzzled, but swallowed it nonetheless. With his cultivation, he wasn''t afraid of a pill made by someone as weak as Krune. Soon, he understood Krune''s concern. The Purple Flame Pills are really... Tyrannical! Although he had nothing to be stabilized, the pill still worked on its own and acted on his Spiritual Energy extremely forcefully. He felt like instead of Stabilizing Pill, it would be better to call it Cultivation Submission Pill. Krune looked at him and asked. "Do you see it? That''s how all my Purple Flame Pills act. Everything follows the principle of force! Let me ask you, do you think that the Soul you want to heal can resist this ''force'' of mine? I won''t say that the Soul will definitely perish because of my pill. Especially because I have never concocted and seen a Soul from a dead person using it before. But I would reckon that we have at least a half-half chance of death here. And that is considering that even if the Soul doesn''t dissipate, the pill might still not work. Olave went silent for a moment. If it worked, that would be great! But if it failed, in the best-case scenario, the Soul wouldn''t be healed. In the worst case, the pill would destroy the Soul! Krune believed that with this, Olave would finally leave him be. Unfortunately, that wasn''t the case. Olave gritted his teeth and said. "I accept the risk! If I sent her into the cycle of samsara and she loses her memory, she won''t be the person that I knew anymore! It will be the same as being dead anyway." Krune heard that and immediately exclaimed. "So what if you accept the risk?! I definitely don''t! Any idiot can see that if I fail, my life is over! Shoo, shoo, I''m out!" Krune then finished the call without even waiting for an answer. However, Olave didn''t have the time to get mad. That''s because, in the next second, the call connected again! ''Did he change his mind? That''s good for you! It is not a good thing to make the Sect Master of the Zenfin Sect, me, angry.'' But contrary to his expectations... "Amark, don''t forget my pill materials." Krune then finished the call once more! 364 Need for Check Krune couldn''t be blamed. The guy is asking him to exit Dalin! No way Krune would do that. Krune also had both his Core and Soul damaged, which he needed to deal with as soon as possible. Otherwise, his cultivation speed would plummet. "After all I said, he still insisted on taking the risk. Since that didn''t work, then I could only be direct." Krune then opened the Alchemists'' Network and browsed through a few more materials. "Let''s see. I need a pill for my Soul as well. The problem is that I burnt way too much of it, so common Soul Healing ones might not be enough." After some time looking into it, he finally decided. "The best would be the Soul Resurgence one. Alright, Soul Resurgence it is!" Back in the Rimeria Solar System, Amark was sweating rivers while he looked at Olave. The Zenfin Sect Master was emanating a killing intent, which would make the majority fall into submission. Olave then looked at Amark. "Is that how you control your Alchemists?" Amark didn''t know what to say. There was even a chance that he would die here today because of that. Still, he really couldn''t blame Krune. In the end, he gritted his teeth and replied. "This person you wish to save is obviously very important for you. So you can''t blame him for thinking like that. He would need to leave the Dalin Universe and create a pill that could possibly destroy the Soul. Doesn''t matter how I look at it, he would probably be the target of your wrath if that happens. What could he do in that situation other than wait for death?" Krune had done a lot for the Rimeria Alchemist Organization in the last four years. If Krune was wrong, he would definitely point it out. But the thing was that Krune was right, so Amark couldn''t bring himself to betray him now. Olave was fuming, Amark''s answer made him even more so. But in the end, he controlled himself and didn''t do anything to Amark. If Krune, or better, Jolk didn''t want to help the way it is now, then let alone if he kills Amark. That would simply be the proof that Krune was right. In fact, Olave knew that what Krune said was right. Considering his own temperament, he would definitely destroy Krune in body and Soul if that person''s Soul was destroyed in the end. Amark let out a sigh of relief when suddenly, his communicator activated again. This time, it was just a message. Krune had sent a list of material for pill concoction again, but this time, it was for a different pill. Amark immediately recognized the pill when he looked into the list. ''Could it be that not only his Wisp Core but his Soul as well was damaged? Just what did he do to become like this?'' Amark shook his head and paid attention to the situation at the moment. "Is there anything else I can help with?" Olave looked at Amark and started to think. Amark was taken aback, as far as he knows, the wisp worlds are kind of a restricted zone, if for the big powers. Of course, he knew nothing about Wally or whatever, so he thinks that Olave might have his ways. "Alright, I will be back soon." Back in the Wisp Worlds, Krune was studying about the two pills he would concoct. It was then that Heavin''s Parrot Eyes opened. "Oh, we are back already?" Krune nodded. "Yes, we arrived a few hours ago. Were you looking into the Soul Techniques we got this time around?" Heavin nodded as well. "Yes, those techniques were really of a much higher level than the ones you gave me before, so it will take some time to finish them. Anyway, I will keep the process later. For now, I need to take this chance to practice my puppeteer skills." Heavin then took flight and went away while saying. "I will be in my room doing exactly that. After all, I don''t know when we will need to leave again. Call me if you need anything." Except for Krune and Feifei, everyone else was digesting the experiences they went through in the Inheritance. After such a long time of blank, they suddenly got into a place where they went through several Life and Death situations on a daily basis. Each one of them had the opportunity to try several new things and see where exactly their power stands at the moment. As for Feifei, she was trying to understand what she got from the Heavenly Fragment other than the cultivation. At this moment, Feifei was looking into the World of Laws. "As I thought, Darkness laws seems to have become a lot easier to understand now. It is at the same level as the Main Five Elements. No wonder Uer had three Darkness Sub-Laws mastered when he used his Domain." Feifei kept looking into it for a while longer and then left the World of Laws. Even if Darkness Laws became easier, the fact is that it isn''t something she can learn in a day or two. Feifei then left her house and accessed one of the Dimensional Realms available for training. Inside, there was just an enormous land with mountains all around. In this place, one could go crazy without being afraid of damaging anything outside. "Let''s see, if I''m not wrong, the leap in Stages was not the only thing that improved this time." Feifei then started to send one attack after another, she tried every element and paid attention to the effects. "Indeed, my control over the Elemental Source Energy also got better. Although it isn''t as good as Krune, it isn''t so far either. I reckon that I should be able to fight one stage higher than I could before now." Feifei then thought about what Light Spirit told her that day she got the Heavenly Fragment from him. ''If you intend to stay with the idiot wisp, you better make good use of this Heavenly Fragment.'' Feifei took a deep breath and murmured. "Thank you, I will make sure to master my new abilities." Feifei then showed a determined expression and resumed her practice. Half a day went by, and Krune finally exited his house as well. "As far as theory goes, I did everything I could. Now I only need to wait for the materials for the two pills. Fortunately, I also have a lot of herbs from the Mohie Zarks Inheritance Garden." Krune passed by Feifei''s house and noticed she wasn''t there. "Well, she is probably training at the moment. Since that''s the case, I will take a look at the Blacksmith Organization Branch in the Wisp World 9." Krune then called Heavin over and left. Wisps also have a need for equipment and such, so they also had at least one Branch of each organization in the Wisp Worlds. The blacksmith one just so happens to be in the 9th Planet of the Wisp Solar System as well. Krune took a teleport formation and soon arrived in the place he was looking for. The first he noticed was that the number of wisps that worked in this place was minimal. But after thinking a bit, he had to admit that it made sense. Different from other races, wisps would not take side occupations in general. So the Branches of the side occupations ended being managed by other races who could afford to spend the time taking care of it. Another thing that he noticed was that the level of the Branch wasn''t that high. Because it was already rare to have Divine Soul Realm wisps, they didn''t need high-level equipment like Diamond Stars or above. Because of that, most of the blacksmiths around were all in the Silver or at most the Golden Stars level. The only exception was the Manager of the Branch, who is a Three Diamond Stars Blacksmith. Still, it was precisely because Wisps couldn''t spend much time on other side occupations that the Organization Branches were always busy. Wisps would rather prefer to have other races to do those jobs since it would save time. Because of that, many new Blacksmiths, Alchemists, Formation Masters, and such liked to come to the Wisp Worlds. Here, they would be able to practice a lot due to the high demand for their services. Today was no different. The Blacksmith Branch in the Wisp World 9 was flocked with wisps everywhere. Krune then went to a counter and asked to see a Golden Stars Blacksmith. There weren''t many Golden Stars blacksmith available, so the attendant had to confirm if the request was worth the Blacksmith time or not. "Would you mind telling me what your reason for asking for a Golden Stars Blacksmith is? We don''t have many of them, so they are usually busy. If you wish, I can call a Silver Stars straight away instead." Krune then took his Blacksmith Token and said. "I''m already a Silver Stars one, so I need to call a Golden Stars one. As for a reason, I just have a few materials that I found in a Dimensional Realm that need to be analyzed. Unfortunately, I failed to do so with my actual abilities." Because Krune was in his human form, the guy didn''t notice that he was a wisp. So in his eyes, there was nothing impressive about the Silver Stars Qualification. Still, that was at least enough for him to understand that Krune had a valid request. "Very well, give me a minute." After calling making a call through his communicator, he pointed in a certain direction. "Those are the request rooms, just go to the 119th one. The Blacksmith will be there with you soon." Krune smiled and nodded. After arriving in the room, Krune had to wait for another 20 minutes or so. If he used his status, he could have everything immediately, but he simply didn''t like doing such things. Finally, the door on the other side of the room opened, and the Blacksmith came inside. Surprisingly, Krune could tell that she was a Female Demon Beast due to her aura. Blacksmith isn''t a trendy profession between females, be they humans or beasts after all. She looked at Krune and asked. "So, what is it you want me to check?" Krune came back to himself and immediately brought Uer''s Skeleton Dragon Bones out. "I can''t tell the level these bones reached, so I need a second opinion." The Demon Beast looked at those bones, and her eyes lit up! "Oh, Skeleton Dragon Bones! That is not something one sees every day." 365 Who It Is? "Oh, by the way, you can call me Jika." Krune nodded and asked. "So, what level do you think those bones reached?" Jika nodded and then took a few instruments from her Spatial Ring. "Let''s see, let''s see..." "Would you mind if I cut a nail size small piece of one of those bones?" Krune shook his head. "No problem, I got a full set of them after all." Jika then cut the piece she needed and started to analyze it using her equipment. Some times, he would see her murmuring something, but he didn''t pay much attention. Soon, over one hour went by. Still, Krune didn''t mind waiting since he was waiting for the Pill Materials to arrive too anyway. Finally, Jika finished assessing the bones and took a deep breath. "This is really good stuff. Whatever the background of this Skeleton Dragon was in the past, it seems like they spared nothing to make it stronger. I can only imagine how they will feel once they find it has died. Hahahaha!" Krune felt a little happier hearing it. He already hasn''t a good impression of the sacred lands. So giving them a bigger blow was quite delightful. "So, what is the level?" Jika nodded. "They are definitely a Peak Golden Stars level material. The only sad thing is that this Skeleton Dragon didn''t have the chance to enter the Void Breaking Realm. If he did, the Chaos Energy would have immediately improved his bones to the Diamond Star Level. The death energy emanating from them makes it especially appealing since its quality is very high. A cultivator or demon beast who is focused on the Darkness Element and Laws would benefit greatly from them." Krune already imagined it to be the case. "Do you think it can hold other elements as well?" Jika looked at him and said. "That will depend on what kind of element. What do you have in mind?" Krune shrugged his shoulders and said. "This is the main one that I need to check." Krune then summoned some Tribulation Lightning on his hand for Jika to check with her Divine Sense. "Wow! Tribulation Lightning, and it is even purple. Quite an interesting thing. Still, you are out of luck. The Lightning Element is the bane of Death Energy. Not only would it be worse if you use it in these bones, but you would also most likely damage them with long term use." Krune didn''t feel surprised by that either. He just had a little hope that perhaps, the Dalin Universe Blacksmiths had some way to resolve this issue. Jika looked at Krune and then suggested. Krune''s attention was immediately picked. "Oh! What do you suggest?" Jika then said. "There are several cultivators and demon beasts that are probably looking for exactly this type of bones that you have. There is a very high chance that some of them will have some Lightning compatible material of the same or even higher quality. It wouldn''t be strange if you got some Diamond Stars Level either." "Why don''t you go to the Blacksmith terminal outside and post it online in the Blacksmith Network? Considering that your bones are rarer, you shouldn''t have a problem asking for the other part to come to the Wisp World 9 for the trade. I could also take a look at that time and tell you if the trade is worth it or not." Krune''s mood immediately improved after hearing that. "Great, thank you very much for your help." Jika shook her head. "I''m the one who should thank you is me. Being able to see Skeleton Dragon bones of this quality is an excellent thing for me as well." Jika was just about to leave then room when suddenly, Krune called her back. "If you want, you can take one of the bones. I have the entire body, after all." Surprisingly, Jika shook her head. "Whoever comes to trade with you later, will probably ask for the entire thing. That small piece I took to analyze later won''t make any difference. Still, if I receive an entire bone, the overall price of the entire thing will drop considerably." Krune couldn''t help but be taken aback. "Why is that?" Jika laughed a little and then said. "That is because the ones who are going to trade with you probably don''t want it for Blacksmithing, but for making a Puppet instead. A puppet missing a part is a defective puppet, so it loses a lot of its value." Jika turned around again and said. "Anyway, that''s all for now. I will take this small piece that I cut earlier instead. This is a good enough payment for me already." Krune smiled and nodded. He then put all the bones back into his spatial ring and left the room. Outside, he connected his communicator to the Blacksmith Network and immediately posted his Bones online. He put everything that Jika said in the information as well. As for the price, Krune put Tribulation Lightning related materials. Or at the very least, normal Lightning Element ones. After that, Krune returned to his house to wait. Heavin immediately went back to his room as well to continue practicing Puppet Making. Since Krune couldn''t cultivate at the moment, he entered the World of Laws and started to comprehend them again. He didn''t have anything better to do anyway. Time passed, and the next day arrived. Krune was practicing comprehending his laws when suddenly, his communicator flashed. He took a look and saw that it was a message from Amark. "Jolk, I brought your Pill Materials, can we come over?" Krune immediately agreed and gave permission for their entrance in the Wisp Main World. The Wisp Main World was mostly occupied by wisps, even more than the other worlds in the same Solar System. So anyone who came over needed permission to enter. Olave, who just so happened to be with Amark, immediately gave the order for the Spaceship to enter the orbit of the Wisp main world. As the Sect master of one of the strongest powers, he knew very well what the Wisp Worlds meant. Usually, he would never get close to it, but the situation asked for it. As soon as his ship arrived there, Olave felt pressure falling over his body. When that happened, he felt a chill on his back. That pressure didn''t have killing intent or anything like that. But he could tell that whoever was doing it was who knows how many times stronger than him. Immediately, a name appeared in his mind. ''Wally.'' He still had a little hope that perhaps, he wouldn''t feel anything and could take Krune away if he was fast enough. But it seems like that was really just a wishful thought. Still, as long as he didn''t do anything wrong, he would be able to stay in the Wisp Main World. That wasn''t anything rare. Cinty and the other older wisps would have to make negotiations with other races now and then. If they couldn''t even enter the Wisp Main World, things would be annoying to deal with. So, at the moment, Olave was treated like one more of those people and beasts. It is not possible to open Spatial Gates that connect to the Wisp Main World, so he had to go down and use the same Teleport Formations that everyone did. It was quite a different experience for him. Usually, anywhere he goes, everything was out in the open. There were no locks, and he could appear and disappear wherever he desired. He couldn''t help but remember the time when he was just a disciple of the Zenfin Sect. ''Time sure passes fast.'' It took around 30 minutes to go from the place where his Spaceship was docked to the house where Krune was staying. Amark then touched the protection formation outside, which immediately caught Krune''s attention. He opened it and simply sent a Divine Sense Message saying that he could come in. Krune was preparing some food in the kitchen to offer to Amark, so he didn''t notice that there were two people instead of one. It was not like Olave subordinates didn''t want to follow him, but because the rules didn''t allow that. When Krune came to the living room and saw Olave there as well, he couldn''t help but sigh. "So you really came in the end. I will repeat myself. There is nothing that will make me leave the Wisp World anytime soon. I will also give you a small warning. In the Wisp Worlds, your status as the Zenfin Sect''s Sect Master worth as much as the status of any ordinary Cultivator or Demon Beast. I believe I don''t need to tell you what will happen if you try something in this place." Olave nodded. "You don''t have to warn me. I know very well what would happen if I tried anything funny. Even now, I can still feel the danger of the presence that is observing the entire world. I have no interest in suicide yet." Krune nodded. "Alright, you two can sit on the table, I just finished cooking Blue Zink Bird Breasts. It would be a waste to not eat it hot." Amark already knew that Krune, or better, Jolk liked to cook. But Olave was different. He couldn''t even remember anymore when it was the last time he put food in his mouth. Still, he had to convince Jolk to come with him somehow, so he followed his request and sat on the table as well. But before he could say anything, Krune made a question. "Just who is this person that you want to save so much?" 366 What If? Olave stopped in his actions for a second and then returned to normal. Just as he was about to answer Krune''s question, Feifei came back into the house. "Oh, it''s Amark." Feifei had seen Amark a few times during the time Krune stayed in the Wisp Main World, so she immediately recognized him. "Hey there, Feier. Long time no see." Feifei noticed that Amark looked somewhat nervous, but didn''t pay much attention to it. "Who''s your friend?" Olave got up and introduced himself. "You can call my Olave Merfil." Feifei nodded and then sat on by the table as well. "Nice to meet you. I''m Wulia Feier, Jolk''s Fiance." Krune looked at Feifei and asked. "Did you finish your training already?" Feifei shook her head. "Not really, but then I got your message that Amark was coming over and that you were making some food. So I decided to take a pause." Krune nodded. "I see. Anyway, the food is on the table, so just take anything you want." Feifei nodded and started to eat, as well. Olave looked at Jolk and Feier weirdly. As far as he knows, Jolk was supposed to be a Wisp, so how come he has a human fiance? Not only that, but with his cultivation at the late stages of the Divinity Realm, he could totally tell that Feier is exceptionally talented. Someone like that would usually have a deep background. So how come she ended over with a wisp? ''Maybe it is because of Jolk''s ability to create Purple Flame Pills. According to the information, Jolk''s first Purple Flame Pill was created a little over 4 years ago. So she was probably sent here to convince Jolk to give his Purple Flame Pill formula.'' "Cough, cough. You are a couple, uh? How long have you been together?" Krune pondered a bit. Considering that Feifei became his fiance back in the Makui Planet... "12 years already." Feifei nodded. "It has been very long, indeed. Oh, compared to the two seniors age, 12 years is probably nothing, though." Olave''s conjecture was destroyed as fast as it was created. "12 Years..." Olave shook his head and put those thoughts on the back of his head. He just looked at the food on the table and continued to eat. Krune then looked at him and asked again. "So, who was that?" Olave nodded. "The soul a need to be healed is from my Daughter. She died during one of the Sect''s Dimensional Realm training. Fortunately, I was successful in bringing back her soul before she entered the Cycle of Samsara." Feifei looked at Krune, puzzled. She didn''t know what they were talking about. Still, she decided to wait for them to finish the talk first and ask later. Krune then shook his head and said. Krune then looked at Amark, who was sweating all over and asked. "Did you bring the Pill Materials?" But before Amark could say anything, Olave interrupted. "I''m willing to pay any price as long as you come with me." Krune narrowed his eyes and said. "I don''t have any need for the reward if I''m dead." Olave immediately replied. "Even if you fail and she dies, I will not blame you. I will make sure to bring you back and pay whatever we agree with." Krune shook his head. "There is nothing in this Universe that could possibly make me believe you. The Larael Universe is your home, why would you keep your promise anyway? Even if you were to break it a thousand times, no one would say a single word, much less save me in that case." Feifei, who had been hearing until now, then asked. "Can''t you simply bring this girl''s soul over? As long as Jolk is in the Wisp Main World, he won''t need to be afraid of failing or not." Krune nodded. "That''s true, wouldn''t it make everything simpler?" Olave shook his head. "She is not in the condition to travel. Keeping her Soul Stable in the same place is already as difficult as it is. A Soul as weak as my Daughter''s wouldn''t resist the Spatial Transfer between one Universe to another. The only way is by going there." Krune also shook his head and replied. "Then we are done here. There is no guarantee that I would come back alive." Olave insisted. "I''m telling you, no one will try to kill you. I can also guarantee your safety! This is the promise of the Sect Master himself, isn''t that enough?" Krune looked at Olave and then sighed. "Well, it is already all over the Mission Hall network anyway, so showing it here now wouldn''t change anything. It is only a question of time before someone connects the points that Jolk and Darten are the same Wisps." Krune then transformed back to his Wisp Form. Initially, Olave was puzzled why Jolk would go back to his Wisp Form. After all, he already knew that Jolk was a wisp. That didn''t bother him at all. But after Krune finished his transformation, he finally understood why his promise as the Sect Master of the Zenfin Sect wasn''t enough. "You... are a wisp with a Major Divine Soul..." Krune then returned to his human form once more and nodded. "Correct. Cinty has already told me how dangerous it is for a Major Divine Soul wisp to leave the Wisp Worlds. She also said that the Dalin management didn''t want anything else other than she stepping out to get rid of her. After all, she has the Blackhole Major Divine Soul." Olave felt like he was struck by lightning. That is because his Zenfin Sect is also one of those who would try to eliminate any wisp that could possibly reach the Divine Path Realm one day. No one would try to touch the wisps inside the Wisp Worlds. But once they leave, things are different. Of course, they wouldn''t simply go ahead and kill every single Wisp they see. The powers controlling Dalin only have a single target, Major Core and Major Divine Soul Wisps. The other wisps couldn''t possibly reach the Divine Path Realm. Those Major ones were the only ones that might have a tiny chance of doing so. And that is because they are in the Dalin Universe. If it was any other Universe, no one even pays attention to them since the result is already obvious. Of course, that was the case before Krune came up with the Myriad Wisps Technique. But he wouldn''t tell Olave about such a thing. "So, Zenfin Sect''s Sect Master, Olave Merfil. Would you be able to guarantee my safety? First of all, let''s forget about the other powers. Would you be able to guarantee my safety against the Zenfin Sect itself? Or better, wouldn''t you be the one taking my life regardless if I succeeded in saving your Daughter or not?" Olave fell on his knees. Anyone could see that his hope of ever bringing Jolk out of this place was simply gone. Since Jolk showed his real form to him, it means that the Dalin management already knows about it or is at least close to finding out. Since that is the case, he definitely wouldn''t be able to protect him. That is because, considering his position as Sect Master, the information of his travel to Dalin is known to everyone. The Universes Powerhouses would always have spies inside each other. That is a given so that they can keep the balance and prevent being caught off guard. First of all, he didn''t care about concealing his tracks since he was just trying to have Jolk create a pill. The other powers shouldn''t have a reason to stop him from saving his Daughter. Such a thing would only create friction between themselves. But now, the situation is totally different. The moment Olave brings Jolk out, all the other powers will immediately contact him and demand Jolk''s extermination. He can''t possibly go against all the other powers by himself. First of all, the Ancestors of his Sect would be the very first ones to make a move. Even the Wisp Protection Law is not enough to protect against it in Dalin, let alone after Jolk leaves Dalin and enter Larael. It was then that he thought about something. "Then, what will happen if you need to leave the Wisp Main World at some point?" Krune smiled playfully and said. "I obviously have my ways of not being detected. Our Wisp race might stay without a Wisp King or Queen for a few generations. Still, sooner or later, a Major Core or Major Divine Soul Wisp would appear again. Do you think we haven''t thought about ways of going out without anyone noticing? Although you might not know this, the Dalin universe had definitely noticed it a long time ago. Of course, knowing that it happens and finding where they went are two completely different things." Krune wasn''t lying. Cinty had long since told him about the principal secrets of the Wisp Main World. That includes the ways that the Wisp Kings and Queens used to go out and come back without being found. If they couldn''t go out, they wouldn''t be able to temper themselves, so their cultivation would sooner or later stagnate. Olave had to admit that it was true. It is just that he had never paid much attention to the Wisp Kings and Queens before. Usually, the Dalin Universe was in control of such things, so he didn''t have to care. "Can''t you use one of those ways to sneak out and encounter with me somewhere else?" Even Olave knew how ridiculous that question was. Leave and encounter with him? Why? So that Jolk would be killed by his Sect in the end? Once the time comes for them to pass through the Spatial Gate connecting to the Larael Universe, he wouldn''t be able to hide Krune anymore. For the sake of protecting the Dalin Universe, no one can escape the search rules. The Divinity Level Formations are there exactly for this reason. Jolk would definitely be found out as soon as he is forced into his true form by those Formations. Krune couldn''t help but ask. "You are not an idiot to the point that you think it would work, right? First of all, the main issue remains. Even if for some miracle, I am successful in leaving the Dalin Universe without anyone noticing. Once everything on my side is done, why would you keep me alive?" "Let''s pretend that everything goes well for me. I leave the Wisp Main World without being found out. Then I enter the Zenfin Sect, heal your Daughter, and no one notices that I''m a Major Divine Soul Wisp. Then you also keep your promise and don''t kill me. How exactly do you expect me to come back to Dalin after that? As you know, Dalin is the only Universe where wisps have a chance of entering the Soul Forging Realm or maybe even the Void Breaking one. Once I get trapped outside, my life will be basically over. You won''t need to do anything since I will simply die due to my Lifespan." That was Krune''s last strike. It was simply a dead end. All the other routes between Krune and Olave''s Daughter could only lead to Krune''s death. Feifei looked at Olave with a sad expression. She could tell that Olave really loved his daughter more than anything else. She then sent a Divine Sense massage to Krune. "I don''t know the entire story, but is there really no other way to help his Daughter?" Krune glanced at Feifei and gave a faint smile that only she noticed. Then, a small spark of Purple Lightning appeared on his hand. But it was so small that only Feifei, who was paying attention to Krune, noticed. That made her understand that Krune already had an idea. "You bully!" Olave finally came back to himself and got up again. "Sorry for taking so much of your time." Olave started to walk to the exit of the Krune''s house when suddenly, Krune asked. "What if I say that there is a way to bring your daughter to Dalin without the risk of her Soul being further damaged by the Spatial Transfer?" 367 A Favor Olave looked back at Krune. "What do you mean?" Krune shrugged his shoulder and said. "At the moment, this is nothing more than me and you talking about a possibility. It''s not like such a thing is possible or not." Krune then continued. "Also, there is no guarantee of success. But, considering that I won''t leave the Dalin Universe, that''s your only choice. Of course, you would need to find a way to provide the Life Dew here in the Dalin Universe, but I think you have your ways." Finally, Olave nodded and said. "Very well, so what would be the price for it?" Krune lifted one finger and then said. "I don''t know yet, so count it as you owing me a favor." Olave heard that and couldn''t help but ask. "What makes you think that I would keep this favor?" Krune laughed and then said. "Did you forget who will be concocting the pill that can save her? I will obviously leave insurance behind to guarantee that you won''t go back on your words." Olave immediately understood. Simply put, his Daughter''s Soul would be made a hostage in some way. If he went back on his words, Krune would have a way to get back at her. Killing intent started to sip out of Olave''s body, but soon, it disappeared. "Very well, I accept your terms. But what guarantees can you give me that you won''t use this to force me to do everything for you?" Krune shrugged his shoulders and said. "I don''t have any. First of all, I''m not forcing you to accept this offer. If you decide that it is not worth it, you can simply leave now. As you know, there is no way I can leave Dalin unnoticed, so that''s all I can offer to you at the moment. I will definitely not follow you into Zenfin Sect." Olave started to ponder whether it was worth the risk or not. But he soon reached a conclusion. "Very well, but there is a limit of what I can do for you. If this is something that could bring harm to the Zenfin Sect, then I will have to give up my Daughter. Of course, that would also make us mortal enemies." Krune smiled and then said. "Good! Then we have an agreement." Krune then took a fragment of one of his Broken Hexagonal Shields. As mentioned in the past, his Shields were made of Tribulation Ore from Luvile Universe, so they could hold Tribulation Lightning power very well. Krune then imbued it with the power of Purple Lightning and left his will inside just like what he did with Lucio''s Jade Slip. Krune then brought one more fragment and repeated the process. After that, he passed both fragments to Olave and said. Olave could tell that both fragments were imbued with Tribulation Power, which made him puzzled. He couldn''t understand exactly how it could protect his Daughter''s Soul against the Spatial Transfer effects. However, Krune had given him two pieces so that he could use one to test, and for him, that was enough. "Very well, is there anything else?" Krune nodded. "The Life Dew Pill, I will need all the other materials that are part of the pill recipe. I haven''t concocted such a pill in the past, so I need to practice first. I will leave that for you to arrange as well. Lastly, there is the Life Dew itself, it is up to you to find a way to bring it here in the Wisps Main World before it loses its effects." Olave nodded. "That is not a problem. As long as I don''t have to go from one Universe to another, I have a way of bringing Life Dews fast enough. The Dalin Universe also has its own Underworld, so it obviously has Life Dews, that''s all I need to know." Krune nodded and then said. "Good, then I will wait here for your return. How long do you think it will take for your return?" Olave snorted and then said. "Two days, two days is all I need to go there and come back. As long as this thing works, I will definitely be back here." Olave then left the house and immediately returned to his Spaceship. He didn''t even wait for Amark and left him behind. Amark, of course, couldn''t be happier with that. Every second he spent beside the Zenfin Sect''s Sect Master was like an eternity! "Sigh... I guess I''m going as well, I will take a few days of rest when I get back. This was too much for my heart." Krune laughed after hearing that. "Don''t worry too much about it. Anyway, give me the materials, I need to practice those two pills." Amark nodded and passed a Spatial Ring to Krune that had everything inside. After that, he bid his farewell and left the Wisps Main World. After Amark left, Feifei finally decided to ask about what was happening. "Oh, it goes like this..." Krune then explained who Olave Merfil was and what the Zenfin Sect represented. When Feifei heard everything, she felt a chill on her back. That man which she had been acting casually to was one of the most powerful in all Universes! "Next time, you should tell me those things in advance!" Krune laughed once more and then said. "Still, a favor from Olave Merfil will be very helpful in the future." Feifei pondered for a second and asked "Are you intending to use it to help against the other Heavenly Fragment Owners?" Krune shook his head. "Not at all. This is too valuable for us to use it against problems of our level. First of all, these trials against the other Heavenly Fragment Owners are things that I consider as necessary for us all. I intend to take it head-on! Of course, I don''t know what is going to happen." Feife had to admit that it was true. They should use it for something much more important than the Heavenly Fragments. In the end, their opponents are also around the same cultivation levels as themselves, so their group should be able to deal with it on their own. "Alright, then. I''m going back to the dimensional realm for training." Krune nodded. "I will take the other pills material to practice them." But it was then that Krune received a message in his communicator. "Hum...?" Krune took a look, and his eyes immediately lit up! "Great! It seems like quite a few buyers appeared for the Skeleton Dragon Bones. I''m going to the Blacksmith Guild, see you later." Feifei nodded and gave him a kiss before leaving. Krune then immediately took the teleport formation back to the Wisp World 9. Once he arrived at the Blacksmith Organization Branch, Jika was there already waiting for him. "Just as I told you, your Skeleton Dragon Bones made quite some success. There are a few Lightning Releated materials that you probably will like. For now, the others only sent an answer with what they have, so I called you to talk about those materials so that you can select one." Krune nodded and followed Jika to a private room. There, Jika opened the messages that Krune''s offer received for his Skeleton Dragon Bones. "So, there are five materials that caught my attention." "First, it''s the Golden Lightning Bamboo. Its properties can purify the Lightning Element that you send inside, which changes the lightning that comes from it to a faint blue-golden color. Such a process increases the Lightning Element Power." Krune immediately shook his head. "No can do, the things that I want to craft are Flying Shields. If they can''t resist impacts, then I don''t have much use for them." Jika nodded and then continued. "In that case, we can exclude the last offer as well. It was another wood lightning type material, but it won''t work for shields. It leaves us with three options. The Sea Lightning Stone, Kirin Horns, and Kaleu Tribulation Steel." "The Sea Lightning Stone is a Diamond Stars Level Material. The good thing is that it is also highly compatible with Water Element and Laws. On the other hand, you would have problems with Fire Related Elements and Laws." "The Kirin Horns are pretty much obvious. Kirins are Lightning Type beasts and quite rare ones at that. Still, the horns offered are at the Golden Star Level and have quite a few flaws. The reason that I considered it is that those Horn are great at resisting other elements." "The last one was Kaleu Tribulation Steel. This is a material brought from the Kaleu Universe, where the Tribulation is also a Lightning Type. They developed a method to forge Steel during a cultivator or demon beast''s Tribulation. The drawn back is that it doesn''t have any other good property other than conducting Tribulation Lightning well. The strength of any other element that you use on it will depend on how good you are with them." Krune then asked. "What level is the Kaleu Tribulation Steel?" Jika smiled and said. "It seems like you are quite confident in your other elements control. According to the guy who made the offer, the Steel he has is also at the Diamond Stars Level. But it would be one or two Stars at most." "Personally, I would take the Sea Lightning Stone or the Tribulation Steel. But that is up to you." Krune didn''t have to think much. Tribulation Lightning is his main power, and he is indeed extremely confident in his other Elements Control. "The Kaleu Tribulation Steel it is, then." 368 There Are Too Many Mysteries In The Universe Jika nodded and then made the arrangements with the Kaleu Tribulation Steel owner. "Alright. He is quite far away at the moment, so he said that it will take at least two weeks to arrive." Krune nodded. "No problem, I will not be leaving the Wisp Worlds anytime soon. Just let me know when he arrives." Jika nodded and then said. "I don''t have the level necessary to craft this thing. Diamond Stars Level materials need Diamond Stars Level Blacksmiths. That is because Chaos Energy is necessary for the process. If I try it, the level of the Shields will fall to the Golden Stars level. Besides, I''m only a SevenGolden Stars Blacksmith, so it would be a complete waste to use me." Krune agreed with Jika. "Only the Manager is at the Diamond Stars level here in the Branch, right? Would it be possible to ask him, or do I need to go out for it?" Jika shrugged her shoulders and said. "Well, you won''t know until you ask." The Manager''s name was Yanvlal Surrigel, A 7th Stage Void Breaking Realm cultivator and a Three Diamond Stars Blacksmith. He also had been the Manager of this breach for over 20 years. Considering his level, he should have left a long time ago. But because the benefits paid for the Blacksmith Organization were quite good, he extended his stay. He was dealing with a few supplies documents when someone knocked on his door. "Come in." The visitors were obviously Jika and Krune. "Oh, it''s Jika. I can see you brought someone as well. What is the problem?" Jika then explained that Krune needed a Diamond Stars Blacksmith to craft his Flying Shields. "I see... As long as you pay the Blacksmith Organization Price, I have no problem doing it. But remember that this is gonna be a Diamond Stars Level Shields, and there are a total of 38 of them. Considering the time and level necessary, it will cost quite some Spirit Stones." Krune already expected for that. After all, Blacksmiths don''t work for free. The fact that Jika helped him for free until now was basically because of her curiosity about the Skeleton Dragon Bones. "That won''t be a problem. If there is something I''m not lacking at the moment, it is Spirit Stones." Yanvlal nodded, satisfied. "Very well, just come back when you get the necessary materials." Krune then asked something else. "As far as I know, there should be no need for Divine Imprints now that I''m at the Divine Soul Realm, right?" From what Krune heard in the past, Divine Soul Realm cultivators and demon beasts could use their Divine Sense and Blood to bound an ownerless Divine Imprint. So, in theory, Krune shouldn''t have a need to create a Divine Imprint close to the level of the Flying Shields anymore. Yanvlal heard that and nodded. Krune then asked. "Why is that?" Yanvlal then explained. "Your Shields are going to be a One or Two Diamond Stars level. So you will need at least a Seven Golden Stars Divine Imprint to bind them. Once a Blacksmith enters the Golden Stars Level, they use their own laws during the forging process. Do you understand?" Krune nodded. "Simply put, if the Divine Imprints are crafted using my own laws, my control over them should be better." Yanvlal smiled and nodded. "Well, that''s basically it. Anyway, I will be staying in this Branch for the next few years. So I am in no hurry to craft your shields. You can decide if you want to craft your own Divine Imprints or let me use Ownerless ones." Krune nodded, and then he left the room with Jika. Yanvlal looked at the door from where they left and remembered one thing. "I haven''t asked what level of a blacksmith he is. Oh well, if he was together with Jika, he is probably at the Golden Stars as well." Yanvlal then kept checking the documents on his table as if nothing had happened. On the way back, Jika commented. "Seems like you will have your Shields crafter in two weeks then." Krune looked at her with a puzzled face. "How come? I''m only a Silver Stars Blacksmith, not to mention that my qualification was from before I came to the Dalin Universe. There is no way I can Craft the Divine Imprints in just two weeks." This time, the one who was puzzled was Jika herself. "I know that you are a Silver Stars Blacksmith, the attendant who contacted me earlier mentioned that. That''s why I''m saying you can craft it in two weeks. After all, there is no other choice other than using Ownerless Divine Imprints. In that case, you better have it crafted straight away." Krune shook his head. "Of course, there is. I just need to become a Golden Stars Blacksmith myself. Simple as that." Jika''s mouth twitched a bit. "Just how long do you intend to wait to have those Shields crafted? A hundred years?" Krune looked at Jika as if he was looking at an idiot. "Who the hell would take a hundred years? One year is more than enough." Krune finally arrived at the Branch''s exit and was just about to bid farewell when he noticed Jika''s face. ''What''s wrong with her?'' Little did Krune know that Jika was about to explode in anger. ''Who the hell takes a hundred years? I TOOK A HUNDRED YEARS YOU SHIT!'' Still, she didn''t say that out loud. She thought that Krune was probably joking. Heavin, who had come together because he and Krune can''t be separated, decided to ask. "Do you really need an entire year just to go from a Silver Stars to a Golden Stars? With your laws at the moment, it was supposed to be a lot faster." Krune shrugged his shoulders and said. "There is no need to be in a hurry. It is best to advance steadily and slowly to consolidate one''s blacksmith foundation. Besides, I don''t plan to leave the Wisp Worlds for some time." Jika almost fainted right there! ''Steady and slowly? That is what you call steady and slowly?! Go to hell!'' Jika turned around and entered the Blacksmith building again while fuming! She refused to believe that someone could advance that fast. Heavin and Krune looked at that and felt puzzled. "Why she looked so angry?" Krune shook his head and sighed. "Who knows, there are too many mysteries in the Universe." Krune then took flight and went back to his home with Heavin. While Heavin went back to his room, Krune took this opportunity to pay Cinty a visit. After all, he had to at least inform her about Olave Merfil''s visit. "I see, so you decided to help him in exchange for a favor. But what if you fail? Are you really willing to be enemies with him?" Krune shrugged his shoulders and said. "It is not like you don''t know the meaning behind this, right?" Cinty looked at Krune for a second and then started to laugh. "Hahaha! It is good that you know. You are right. Whether you succeed in saving her or not, it doesn''t change the fact that the Dalin Universe management probably knows about your existence. Since that is the case, they would hunt you regardless of the outcome, so you have nothing to lose to start with." Krune smiled and nodded. "Exactly. By the way, I''ve never used the formation for the Wisp Kings and Queens before. Is it really safe?" Cinty nodded. "You don''t need to worry. It was built by Phillin himself! He was a Space Major Divine Soul Divinity Realm Wisp, and also one of Wally''s nine disciples. Even I myself had used it quite a few times, including after you passed me the Myriad Energies Technique." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "How''s your cultivation going?" Cinty showed a brilliant smiled and replied. "Thanks to your technique and my Blackhole Major Divine Soul, I''m already in the middle of the 7th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm! It feels so good to have meridians, the Spiritual Energy rushes inside so fast! I advanced two stages in just 4 some years, so I''m very confident in having a shot at the Divine Path Realm." Krune was happy for Cinty. "That is good then. I will go back to practice some alchemy. There are two pills that I need to concoct to repair my foundation and heal my soul." Cinty then suggested. "Why don''t you take the opportunity to use the Life Dew to make more than one pill? Life Dew Pill, especially one made by you, should be a lot more effective than those two." Krune agreed with Cinty. "That is the plan. But since I''ve never tried to make a Life Dew Pill before, I don''t know if I will succeed or not. Just in case that something happens and I am not able to concoct it, I better have the other two to guarantee my recovery. Anyway, I will know if I can do it or not in just a few days." Cinty nodded. "Very well, since you already have everything planned, I will leave it to you." Krune then bid farewell to Cinty and returned to his room to practice alchemy once more. 369 Bye! That same day, Olave reached the Spatial Gate that connected to the Larael Universe. After passing through all the procedures, Olave was finally about to pass through the gate. But before that, he took out Krune''s Piece of Broken Shield and injected some Spiritual Energy inside. Right after, Krune''s Will appeared and looked at Olave. "I''m not good at this Will stuff, so my Will won''t last more than a minute or so. Quickly tell me who I should put the Protection on." Olave nodded. He also could see that Krune''s Will was very weak from the very start. Still, it was an impressive thing that Krune could even leave behind some of his Will at his cultivation level. Olave didn''t waste time and called one of his subordinates. "Give me a slive of your soul." The subordinate didn''t ask or complain. Even though giving someone a slive of their Soul is the same as becoming a slave. This manservant was completely loyal to Olave to start with. Whether Olave had his Soul Slive or not made no difference for him. Olave then used his Spiritual Energy to damage it to the point where it was about to disappear. The owner of that Soul also felt extreme pain from that. Still, he didn''t say anything and just bared with it. Krune didn''t care about that since he is sure that those guys have more than enough resources to heal the guy''s Soul later. Olave held the Soul on his hand and told Krune. "I made this Soul Slive reach a state similar to my Daughter''s Soul. If your method can protect it during the Spatial Transfer, then I believe that you aren''t lying about being able to protect it." Krune nodded and immediately controlled the power of the Purple Tribulation Lightning that was left inside the Broken Shield Piece. Purple Lightning started to wrap around that Soul Slive until it reached a point where Olave couldn''t even see it anymore. However, Krune didn''t use the concealment skill method on that, so Olave could still see the Soul inside the Lightning with his Divine Sense. Krune soon finished protecting the Soul and then said. "It is done, it has enough power to keep the Protection running for 10 minutes or so. Be sure to finish the Space Transfer before the power runs out." With those last words, Krune''s Will dissipated completely. Olave didn''t waste any time and gave the order. "Initiate the Spatial Transfer." Olave''s Ship then entered the Spatial Gate connected to his Larael Universe and soon disappeared inside. During the Transfer, Olave paid close attention to the Soul Slive inside the Lightning. He was curious to know just how exactly the Lightning would protect the Soul against the Space Laws effect. But it was then that he noticed something that made his eyes open wide! ''This thing... is destroying all the Space Laws that get close! No, that''s incorrect. It is eating them!'' But Olave couldn''t care less about anything like that. His entire attention was in the Soul Slive inside the Tribulation Lightning. He examined it with his Divine Sense for quite a few minutes. In fact, he didn''t need even a second to finish the examination, but he had to be sure that what he is seeing isn''t wrong. After he confirmed that the Soul Slive didn''t get affected by Space Laws'' effect from the transfer, his mouth couldn''t help but show a faint smile. "Good! It seems like the little Wisp was not lying. But then again, just where the hell did he find this Purple Tribulation Lightning? I could tell that he didn''t have the mark that all outsiders receive when they enter Dalin, which means that he was definitely born inside. Could it be an inheritance? Still, I''ve never heard about a Purple Tribulation Lightning cultivator or Demon Beast in the past..." Olave shook his head and put those thoughts behind. It was not time to care about it, after all. Olave then removed the Tribulation Lightning that was around the Soul Slive and returned it to his subordinate. The guy merged it back to his own Soul and took out a Soul Healing Pill. After swallowing it, the small damage in his Soul disappeared almost instantly. One can only imagine at which level that Pill was. Olave didn''t care about that, though. He ignored the welcome party outside and passed new orders. "Immediately set off for the Zenfin Sect, full speed!" The Ship then initiated another Spatial Transfer. With a big flash of Silver Light, it disappeared in front of everyone. Half a day later, Larael Galaxy, Zenfin Sect Solar System. Also, the home of the Zenfin Planet where the Sect was established. Right outside of the Planet, an enormous Space Ship finished its spatial transfer. Olave quickly teleported away and reappeared inside a building somewhere on the Planet. As the Sect Master, he didn''t have to care about the Protection Formations or anything like that. Olave then entered a big room where he could see several elders controlling a Time-Slowing formation. The longer the time passes, the worse would be the Soul''s situation, so the Formation was made without saving any resources. The time inside moved 1/1000 of the outside world speed, and there was an elder of the Sect keeping the soul stable inside as well. Just beside the Formation, there was an old woman who kept looking at the Soul inside. She was Olave''s Wife, Valindra Merfil. When she noticed Olave''s presence, she immediately asked him. "How was it, did you bring him?" Olave shook his head. "It is impossible to bring Jolk to the Larael Universe." Valindra was taken aback. "Even you couldn''t bring him? How is that possible?!" Olave sighed and then organized his thoughts. It would be a lot faster to simply send the entire chain of events through a Divine Sense message. After Valindra found out about Jolk being a Major Divine Soul Wisp, she finally understood why it would be impossible to bring him out. Jolk would need to have a death wish if he agreed to it. Still, she also heard about the method to protect the Soul that Jolk gave to Olave, and how he would need to bring their Daughter to the Wisp Main World in the Dalin Universe. "Can we really trust him? We know about Wally and the wisps situation, so we have hunted all the Major Divine Soul wisp for who knows how many Chaos Cycles. Wouldn''t this Jolk try to destroy her Soul straight away once we give him access to her?" Olave sighed and then said. "This is our only choice. As you know, Jolk would never follow me to the Zenfin Sect for obvious reasons. And there is no way he could ever share his Pill Concoction Methods either. Also, if we let our Daughter pass through the Cycle of Samsara the way she is, her memories will be completely wiped before reincarnation. That would be the same as being dead." Valindra knew that it was the truth. She struggled for a few minutes but then showed a determined face. "Alright, let''s go ahead with it. But if she dies, I want that Wisp!" Olave nodded. "That goes without saying." Olave gave the order, and the time formation immediately stopped. Even though it would accelerate the Soul''s deterioration, it is not like it will disappear straight away. "We probably have a 5 or so days before her Soul reaches a critical point. Let''s move!" Valindra nodded and carefully wrapped their Daughter''s Soul with her Spiritual Energy. Just like Olave, Valindra is also at the Late Stages of the Divinity Realm. Both Olave and Valindra then teleported right back into Olave''s Space Ship. The Ship initiated a Spatial Transfer and went directly to the Spatial Gate that connected to Dalin, which took another half a day. Different from Spatial Transfers between universes, Spatial Transfers within the same Universe is not as dangerous. It is the barrier between Universes that causes the Spatial Laws'' effects to be harsher than usual. However, since everyone who passed through it was cultivators and demon beasts with bodies, they didn''t need to be afraid of it. Only something as weak as Olave''s Daughter''s Soul could possibly be affected by it. Once they were beside the Spatial Gate, Olave took out the second Broken Shield Piece and inserted his Spiritual Energy inside. Sure enough, Krune''s Will appeared a second time. Krune also didn''t waste time and asked. "Where is it?" Olave then pointed at the Soul on his Wife''s Hand. "Very well." But just as Krune was about to use his Tribulation Lightning Protection, Valindra warned him. "If something happens to her, I will hunt you down until the end of my life." Krune heard that and then smiled. "Oh, so that''s how it is? Alright then, bye!" Krune''s Will disappeared right after, just like that. 370 Underworld Information Valindra was taken aback! What was that supposed to be? She didn''t expect that just those few words would make Jolk give up her daughter that easily! She then looked at Olave and saw him sighing. "He is already a must die wisp in the Dalin Universe Management''s eyes, so you hunting him down obviously means nothing to him. You are used to saying what you want because of your cultivation and position in the Zenfin Sect. Remember, it is already a miracle that he is willing to help in exchange for a favor. Those words of yours were really unnecessary." Valindra looked at her Daughter''s Soul and felt like killing herself. They had just spent half a day outside the Time-Slowing Formation. Now, because of that, it was all in vain. But it was then that Olave said. "Don''t worry, Jolk isn''t gone yet. Because of his cultivation, his ability to leave a Will behind is terrible. However, it can still hold for a minute or so. Just now, he stayed outside for only 10 seconds, so his will is still present in this Broken Piece." Olave once again injected Spiritual Energy into that, and sure enough, Krune''s will appeared once more. "What is it?" Olave smiled bitterly and looked at his wife. Valindra immediately understood what he meant. "I-I''m sorry. Please help my daughter." Krune narrowed his eyes but sighed in the end. He then started to use his Tribulation Lightning to wrap around Olave and Valindra''s daughter'' Soul. At the same time, he spoke with a severe face while looking at Valindra. "Don''t forget, I have absolutely no reason to help you guys. Whether I have Olave''s favor in the future or not means little to me. It was because my fiance sympathized with his situation that I''m helping at all. Also, I already told him, I can not guarantee her safety, so there is still a high chance of death. If the outcome of her soul death is you hunting me down as you said, you better go back and pretend that nothing ever happened." Krune used every single bit of the Tribulation Lightning left behind in the Broken Shield Piece. "Alright. Because her Soul is a lot bigger than that Soul Slive from before, the energy will run out faster. Make sure to finish passing through the Spatial Gate in at most Five Minutes. I will see you later if you decide to go ahead with it." Krune''s Will really ran out of energy this time and disappeared right after. Olave looked at Valindra and waited for her decision. Valindra nodded and said. "I understand, let''s go." Valindra finally understood how that Tribulation Lightning worked and couldn''t help but be amazed as well. That was the first time she saw Laws being eaten. "It is a good thing that he is a wisp. If he was from another race, he might have lived long enough to become a strong foe in the future." Olave nodded and then returned his attention to the procedures outside. Anyone who enters Dalin has to go through a full check with the Formations and other methods. It took them around an hour to finish, and they were finally ready to go. The Spaceship then initiated another Space Transfer and made its way to the Wisp Main World. In the Wisp Main World, Krune had been practicing the Wall Construction and Soul Resurgence Pills during the past day. Today, he finally finished his first Purple Flame Wall Construction Pill. ''Seems about right... Should I give it a try now or wait for the Life Dew Pill?'' Krune pondered a bit and decided to follow the plan. The Life Dew Pill is bound to be much better, and it would be able to heal both his Foundation and Soul at the same time. Krune felt that it was better to do that to prevent creating any resistance against those pills. ''Well, let''s try to make the Soul Resurgence Pill as well.'' Krune looked at the time and saw that he still had a few hours before the two days'' time was up. Since that was the case, he started to create his first Soul Resurgence pill for real. Time passed, and another half a day went by. Surprisingly, Krune still hasn''t succeeded in the Soul Resourcenge Pill. Puff! Suddenly, the cauldron started to leave a burnt smell, and the contents inside were once again destroyed. ''As expected of a Soul Related Pill, it is a lot harder to make. But I''m very close, so I will definitely succeed in my next few tries.'' Just as Krune was about to resume his concoction, his communicator flashed. He looked at the message and understood that there was no more time for that. ''So, they are here.'' That was right, Olave''s Space Ship had just stopped outside the Wisp Main World. Olave was just waiting for Krune''s permission so that he could go down. He also mentioned that his wife came with him, so he wanted him to let her come. Krune didn''t mind that and quickly allowed them. Around thirty minutes later, Krune felt that someone touched the Formation Outside his house. He then deactivated it and let Olave and Valindra come in. When the couple entered, they noticed that it wasn''t only Jolk there, but Wulia Feier was also present. Feifei had asked Krune to let her know when Olave is back because she wanted to see that Soul. Since this is the Wisp Main World, Krune didn''t mind it and sent her a message when that happened. "You two can come with me, I will guide you to the Alchemist room." Olave and Valindra nodded and followed him. Once there, Krune asked. "So, did you bring the items necessary for the Life Dew Pill? I will need to practice the pill without the Life Dew itself first. Otherwise, I will probably waste a lot of Life Dews for nothing. I guess that 4 or 5 days of practice should be enough before I give a try at the Life Dew Pill itself." Valindra was taken aback. "4 to 5 days? My daughter''s Soul won''t last that long! We had kept her inside a Time-Slowing that was moving at only 1/1000 of the normal time speed before." Krune was taken aback by that. "This... give me a second." Krune then sent a message to Cinty to ask if they had any time formations in the Wisp Main World. Fortunately, he received a good answer. "Of course, we have! Wisps have a very limited life Span, so we set up a few Time Formations that slowed time. That would possibility that Higher Level Wisps to manage the Wisp World for longer. However, the ones we have here are not that great. Time Formations are very expensive to maintain, and out Wisp Worlds aren''t exactly wealthy. Because of that, the ones we have here can only go at 1/20 of the normal time." Krune nodded. "That is enough." He turned off his communicator and said. "We have a 1/20 Time-Slowing Formation. It should be enough, right?" Valindra and Olave looked at each other and nodded. "Yes, that should do the trick." Krune then looked at Feifei and asked. "Can you bring her there? I will start preparing the alchemist room." Feifei nodded. "Sure. I went there in the past, so I know where it is." Feifei then asked Valindra to follow her while Krune and Olave stayed behind. Olave then took out a Spatial Ring and threw it to Krune. "Inside, you will find herbs and other things enough for a 1000 tries or more. That should give you enough experience." Krune was taken aback! ''A thousand tries?! Even though the Life Dew will not be used at first, the other materials are by no means cheap. They are all at the Golden Stars level.'' Krune looked at Olave and saw that he seemed to not care at all. ''Well, for a person who can even get Divinity Stars Level pills, I guess that this much means really nothing to him.'' He then took a deep breath and said. "Very well, I will start immediately." But it was then that Krune remembered. "Oh, right! How exactly will you get Life Dews? Don''t you need to go all the way to the Underworld and then come back? After all, Death Trees can only survive there." Olave chuckled and explained. "It seems like you don''t know much about the Underworld. The Death Tree is only present in the Underworld, that is true. But the Underworld is not a place where you can go by simply traveling. It is not like you have an entrance or anything like that. The Underworld is omnipresent, even here in the Wisp Main World. Just think about it as another plane that is overlapped with each Universe. All I need to do is open a passage to this other plane, which is just beside you, me, and everyone else." Krune was surprised by that. He had never cared much about the Underworld since his cultivation is way too low to go there. But he never thought that it was always beside him. "That''s quite interesting. But what about the Life Dews? Those Death Trees only give birth to Life Dews one day every thousand years. Can you find it?" Olave nodded. "That is not a problem. Although it only happens once every thousand years, the fact is that the Underworld has quite a lot of Death Trees. I just need to spread my Divine Sense, and we are bound to find a few of them every day. After all, the Underworld always has the same size as the Universe that it is connected to." Krune nodded and didn''t ask anymore. Although Olave made it look easy, he knew that it was probably because he is the Sect Master of the Zenfin Sect. Others most likely didn''t have that freedom as he did to go there and take as much as he wants. 371 Life Dew Pill Krune started to prepare the items, Cauldron, fire, etc. Because he was already concocting before, it didn''t take long for him to start. Olave asked if Krune wanted him to leave, but Krune shook his head. "Even if you see it, it doesn''t change the fact that it can''t be copied." Krune wasn''t lying. Even the people in the Luvile Universe who were able to use Tribulation Lightning wouldn''t be able to do it. It is thanks to Light Spirit that Krune reached this level of comprehension, after all. Soon, Krune turned on the fire, and Olave finally saw why his pills had a Purple Flame. That was because Krune himself used Purple Flames to create his pills. That was the first time he saw a fire of that color, but he could still feel the power of the Tribulation Lightning in it. ''So he is using his Tribulation Lightning to create that Purple Flames, really impressive.'' Krune then started to put the herbs necessary for the concoction and practice. The end results would be meaningless, but the process was what really mattered. Krune wanted to get as proficient as possible with the entire process before the Life Dew was added. Olave, who was already impressed with the Purple Flame, got really shooked when Krune started to use his Laws. Krune was using several of them at once while concocting that pill. Especially Fire, Water, and Earth-related ones. Not to mention that some of them had already reached culmination. ''Let alone Soul Forging Realm, even Void Breaking Realm cultivators and demon beasts would have a hard time to match him. Sure, Jolk has the Elemental Divine Soul, but even with this, his comprehension ability is too overpowered.'' After a few minutes, the room was filled with a burnt smell. It was obvious that Krune had failed his first try. ''As expected, this is quite a hard pill. I couldn''t finish even 10% of the process before I lost control. Anyway, I can only keep trying.'' Failure after failure came one after another, but the time in between them increased after each try. It was evident that Krune improved in his concoction with each one of them. By the end of the first day, Krune had already passed 40% of completion. Another failure came out, and Krune stopped a minute to recover some energy. He had been using his Tribulation Lightning to create the Purple Flame all day long, so he finally ran out of it. Feifei had come by for some time, but because Krune said that it will take a few days to finish, she decided to go back to training. She is still not used with all the new perks from the Heavenly Fragment, so she wanted to finish as soon as possible so that she can concentrate on other things. Olave saw that Krune stopped for a bit and decided to ask. "How is it?" Krune nodded and said. Olave felt relieved that it was the case and then changed the topic. "So... from where exactly did you get this Tribulation Lightning?" Krune glanced at him. "Isn''t that obvious? It was an Inheritance." Of course, it is a blatant lie! But because Krune didn''t get the mark that all outsiders get when they enter Dalin Universe, he knew that Olave probably thinks that he was born in Dalin. Since that is the case, an Inheritance was the best answer possible. "As I thought, what was the name of the cultivator or demon beast that left it behind?" This time, Krune shook his head. "That is a secret." Olave didn''t mind it since he was just asking out of curiosity. The important thing for him is if his daughter can be healed or not. A few moments later, Krune finally got up again. Time continued to pass, and the number of failures increased. Of course, Krune''s proficiency got better and better. Finally, four and a half days had gone by when Krune finally stopped. He then took a deep breath and said. "I guess this is it. Without the Life Dew, it will be too hard to improve any further. Can I bother you to get them for me?" Olave nodded. "Let it to me." Olave moved to an empty area in the room and raised his hand. The Space laws started to converge around it, and soon, the Space around Olave began to contort as well. Suddenly, Olave thrust his arm forward. Krune couldn''t help but feel impressed. That was because, contrary to his expectations, a Spatial Gate did not open. Instead, it seemed like Olave''s hand had disappeared! Olave became silent for a few minutes, but Krune knew that he was probably using his Divine Sense to look for a Death Tree in the Underworld that was about to give a Life Dew. Finally, Olave''s eyes opened, and he exclaimed. "Found you!" Olave''s hand on the other side made a grasping motion, and suddenly, the Life Dew, which he discovered, disappeared. When it appeared again, it was already inside his hand. Olave then pulled his arm back, and Krune could finally see it again. When Olave opened his hand, there was a white-colored water drop floating on his hand. Krune felt amazed by how much Life Energy was coming out of that single drop. "Here it is, use it straight away before all the Life Energy disappears." Krune nodded and immediately used his Purple Flame to start the concoction. He then took the Life Dew and threw it inside the Cauldron. One hour passed, and suddenly, a burnt smell spread in the room once more. "I failed. Give me a few minutes, I need to ponder a bit about where I missed and what I should do." Olave nodded and waited. Fifteen or so minutes later, Krune opened his eyes once more. "Alright, you can look for the next one." Olave and Krune then started to repeat the same process over and over again. Although there had been over ten failures, Olave could see that the interval between them was getting bigger and bigger. Krune failed once more, but this time, his eyes lit up! "I see, so that''s how it is." He turned to Olave and asked. "This time, bring me two drops of Life Dew. I believe the next try will be successful." Olave felt excited and immediately did, as Krune said. It took a few more minutes for Olave to find two Death Trees at the right time. But because he didn''t take the Life Dew of the first straight away, it wouldn''t start losing its properties. Once he confirmed the existence of the two, he immediately brought them out. "Phew... here you go." Krune noticed that looking for the Life Dews seemed quite a tiresome process. Even someone at Olave''s cultivation level was already sweating a little. "Good! Leave it to me." Krune once again started the concoction process. He added herb by herb, and finally, the two drops of Life Dew. ''It should be enough to make at least two pills now.'' The synching process went smoothly while the Laws integrated with the medicinal liquid. After an hour, a strong medicinal smell began to drift around the room. That was the sign that Krune was ready to form the pills. But before that, he had to do something else. ''Now, the guarantee.'' Suddenly, Purple Tribulation Lightning came out and entered the Cauldron. Olave narrowed his eyes, seeing that. So far, the concoction process hadn''t used Tribulation Lightning in the Cauldron at all. Only the Purple Flame, which was outside, used some of it. Krune saw that it went well and smiled. He then started to form the pills inside. The medicinal liquid began to converge at high speeds, forming a white-colored pill with a purple hue. Krune opened the lead of the Cauldron, and three pills flew outs at the same time. He quickly grabbed them and put each one in a different medicinal mottle. "Success!" Olave looked at the pills inside the Medicinal Bottles, and his heart accelerated. Those were his daughter''s last chance of keeping her memories, after all. Olave then opened his communicators and called Valindra over. The two of them exited the area and went to the living room. Once there, Krune passed a medicinal bottle to Olave while he opened another and immediately swallowed a pill. Olave saw that and was taken aback. "Why did you eat one?" Krune looked at him and said. "I needed one too. Both my Foundation and Soul are damaged, so I need to recover. This pill just so happens to be perfect for it. Besides, I believe it will make you a little more relaxed if you see that I''m also using the same pill." Olave sighed and then nodded. He had to admit that seeing Krune consume that pill gave him some extra insurance. "Tell me how it was when you finish." Krune nodded and concentrated on absorbing the pill. Soon, a powerful Life Energy rushed into his Wisp Core. It made the Life Energy gathered by Joiu look like a kid''s play. Not only that, but the Purple Flame was present in that Life Energy as well. Krune was also curious to see what side effect would come from his Purple Flame Pill. ''Indeed, this power is definitely above what a Golden Stars Pill can achieve. Still, because of the lack of any Chaos Energy, it is definitely considered a Golden Stars Pill.'' Krune''s Foundation Cracks and Half Burnt soul started to heal at high speeds. In the end, Krune had to bring out hundreds of Spirits Stones to deal with the Spiritual Energy consumption. ''As expected, it is as tyrannical as ever.'' A few minutes passed, and Valindra and Feifei finally arrived in the room. They then looked at Krune and noticed that something was going on. Olave quickly sent the two a Divine Sense message explained what happened. Valindra then used her own Divine Sense to check Krune''s condition. Still, because Krune is not letting them see inside his foundation, they can only tell that he is absorbing an enormous amount of Spiritual Energy. As for Feifei, she already knew what Krune was going to do, so she just waited. Fortunately, everything went as expected. Krune then opened, and one could see the excitement in his eyes. "Good! Both my Foundation and Soul got fully healed." Feifei laughed, seeing that. She was really happy for him since she was the cause of his injuries. Valindra and Olave were more concerned about something else, though. "What about the effects? How was it?" 372 Guarantee Krune looked at Olave and Valindra and said. "It is as I told Olave in the past. My Purple Flame Pills are very tyrannical, so if you decide to step back, now is the time to do it. If you choose to go ahead, then make sure that enough Spiritual Energy is provided." Olave looked at the Pill and at his daughter Soul. It was then that he remembered that all of Jolk''s Pills had a Purple Flame once you injected some Spiritual Energy. He tried it out, and sure enough, an ethereal Purple Flame that didn''t cause any harm appeared. Olave and Valindra looked at each other and exchanged a few words through Divine Sense. In the end, both nodded at each other. "Alright, we will go ahead." Krune smiled, hearing that. "Just approach the Pill to the Soul and use your Spiritual Energy to melt it. Because of the Life Dew of the Death Tree, the Soul will immediately start absorbing it. From then onwards, it is up to your daughter''s luck." Olave did as Krune said and began to melt the Pill. Right after, the weak Soul felt the presence of the Life Dew and started to absorb it. Olave prepared everything and even brought out thousands of Spirit Stones that filled the ground around him. While the Soul absorbed the medicinal liquid, Feifei decided to ask Krune through a Divine Sense. "Don''t your Purple Flame Pills usually have some extra effect?" Krune nodded. "Yes, but this time, it seems like it is not related to the effects after being swallowed." Feifei was puzzled at first, but then she remembered what Krune told her about the Life Dew Pill. "I see, this Pill is supposed to be consumed as fast as possible, or its properties will disappear. Could it be that the side effect this time is related to it?" Krune smiled at Feifei after hearing that. "Precisely. Check it out with your Divine Sense." Krune brought out the last bottle with Life Dew Pill and gave it to Feifei. She then user her Divine Sense to feel the Pill itself. Sure enough, the leaking of Life Energy that was supposed to be happening was nowhere to be found. "Doesn''t that mean that you can make Life Dew Pills that last forever? Just how much would it be able to de sold for if others find about it?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? Anyway, we would need the help of Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts to be able to get Life Dewdrops in the Underworld. So it is not very realistic to want to sell it. I will just keep this one for an emergency." Feifei had to admit that Krune was right. No Divinity Realm would pay much attention to the money that a Golden Stars Pill could make. Of course, unless they are also in a situation similar to Olave and Valindra. "What is happening?!" Krune sighed. "I told you, didn''t I? My Purple Flame Pills are just like that. Her Soul is too weak, so she is struggling to deal with the Medicinal Properties. Look at the Spiritual Energy coming out of the Spirit Stones, it is being crazily absorbed. I reckon that if she can hold for at least a minute, the most dangerous part will be over." Both Olave and Valindra got nervous and looked at their daughter''s Soul. Krune had mentioned about this risk several times, so they couldn''t really complain about it. Every second was like an eternity for the couple, but the Soul resited. Finally, the first minute that Krune talked about passed. By now, Olave and Valindra could see that the struggle that the Soul was passing through lessened. Krune saw that as well and smiled. "The recovery already started. If she didn''t disappear until now, then she probably won''t anymore." Olave and Valindra let out a sigh of relief and kept waiting. Sure enough, they could finally sense with their Divine Senses that he deteriorated state of the Soul was disappearing. It quickly began to grow in size as well. Eventually, the speed which it was absorbing the Spiritual Energy started to reduce until it stopped altogether. Suddenly, that mass of soul energy started to change, and it took the form of a girl who seemed to be in her teens. Krune and Feifei immediately understood that that was how that couple''s daughter looked like before she died. Of course, they know better that it was only her appearance. Her real age was probably several times higher than that. "W-Where... am I?" Valindra started to cry. "Maelyrra, it''s me, your mother. Can you remember me?" Maelyrra Merfil was her name. She looked at her parents and felt like the world around was spinning. She couldn''t make heads and toes of what was happening. But after a few minutes, her Soul began to stabilize, and her memories got clearer. "Ah! I.. my heart was pierced through by that Saber. I was supposed to be dead, what is happening?" Olave smiled and then used a Divine Sense message to explain everything that happened. When Maelyrra finished sorting all the information, she couldn''t help but look gratefully at Krune, or better, Jolk. After all, anyone would choose to not have their memories wiped out during reincarnation. "Thank you." Valindra and Olave did the same and thanked Krune as well. Krune nodded and said. "Don''t worry. Just make sure that when the time comes, you will help me." It was then that Olave and Valindra remembered that Krune said that he would leave a guarantee behind. Both of them immediately used their Divine Senses to thoroughly check Maelyrra''s Soul. Still, in the end, they couldn''t find anything. ''Could it be that he didn''t do anything?'' Krune, of course, could totally tell what they were thinking. He snapped his finger, and suddenly, an arc of Purple Lightning appeared around Maelyrra for a second. "Maelyrra!" Valindra and Olave were shooked to see that and thought that Krune had hurt their daughter. But contrary to their expectation, Maelyrra just looked at them with a puzzled face. "Is something wrong?" It was then that Olave and Valindra understood. Maelyrra didn''t see or feel anything. At that moment, they received a Divine Sense message from Krune. "Don''t worry, she doesn''t know anything. As I said before, this is just a guarantee to ensure that Olave will keep his promise in the future. Do not take it personally, don''t forget that your Zenfin Sect and all the others want me dead. So I can''t simply trust your words. Also, I did warn Olave about it when we made this agreement." Although Valindra was fuming, Olave didn''t let her say anything. He also sent a Divine Sense message to her "Don''t forget how his Will acted last time you threatened him." Valindra''s anger immediately deflated like a balloon after hearing those words. Sure enough, she remembers how Jolk instantly gave up helping their daughter last time she did that. If things went wrong, he might kill her daughter right here and right now. She felt like a threat would be the worst thing she could say at the moment. Krune, of course, didn''t know what happened between the couple and his Will. A Will is something you leave behind without a connection. It is different from a Soul Slive, which the Soul is connected to. Still, Krune isn''t an idiot, so he could tell more or less what they were thinking. Olave saw that his wife calmed down and then said. "As I said, as long as it is not something that will harm my Zenfin Sect, I will definitely pay this favor." He then took out a Token from his Spatial Ring and passed it to Krune. "In case you need me, put some spiritual energy inside this Token. I will be immediately informed that you want to see me. This Token has a Divine Sense mark of mine, so I can feel its presence anywhere inside Dalin Universe." Krune nodded and put the Token away. Of course, Krune wouldn''t bring such a dangerous thing with him out of the Wisp Worlds. He will simply leave it here and use it when the time comes. Olave then looked at Maelyrra and said. "Even though your Soul has recovered, the fact is that you died. So it will start to deteriorate again very soon. Because of that, we will have to send you into the Cycle of Samsara straight away. But don''t worry, I already used my Divine Sense to cover your Soul, it will protect your memories during the passage. Once you reach the Divine Soul Realm, those memories will be released." Maelyrra nodded but decided to ask a question first. "What about the one who killed me?" Olave''s killing intent started to leave his body after hearing that. "I haven''t found who did that yet. But I will definitely do it." Valindra also nodded. "Mother will help too, so go ahead and don''t worry about us." Maelyrra knew that it was time and agreed with them. "Alright, I will see you again someday." Olave sighed and held Maelyrra''s Soul, Space laws started to get around him, and once more, he connected to the Underworld. This time, he really opened a Spatial Gate. He didn''t do that before because opening one to the Underworld used too much energy. But because he had stopped Maelyrra''s Soul from crossing naturally before, she wouldn''t be able to do that anymore on her own. So he was forced to open the Spatial Gate this time. Maelyrra felt like something was calling her from the other side of the gate and started to subconsciously move in that direction. Olave and Valindra knew about that already and didn''t say anything. Maelyrra''s Soul passed through and finally, disappeared inside. The Spatial Gate was kept open for just a few seconds, but it was enough to make Olave Sweat bullets. He finally confirmed that she finished passing through and closed the gate. Maelyrra was gone. 373 Cant You Be a Little More Discreet? I was already night time when everything was done. Still, it matters little for cultivators and demon beasts. That being the case, Olave and Valindra decided to leave right after since they didn''t have anything else to do. Once the two were gone, Feifei smiled at Krune playfully. "You liar." Krune was taken aback by that. "What you talking about?" Feifei laughed and then revealed the truth. "Who do you think you are fooling? You would never leave behind something that could damage Maelyrra''s Soul. You are not that type of wisp at all!" Hearing that made Krune feel quite embarrassed. Sure enough, Feifei saw right through him. "Cough, cough. It is good as long as they think that such a thing exists. I indeed left some Tribulation Lightning power in that Life Dew Pill. But it definitely doesn''t have enough energy to do any serious injures. At most, it can be used to play a little trick like the one I showed them. That was all." Feifei then hugged Krune and gave him a kiss. "I''m not blaming you. Instead, I''m happy that you did so. If you had really done something like that, you wouldn''t be the Krune I know." It was then that Feifei thought about something. "Oh, right! Have you decided on what you are going to use that favor from Olave?" Krune shook his head. "I''m not sure yet. At first, I thought it would be good to force the Sacred Lands to stop their hunt against us. But then I remembered that I would need to reveal that we weren''t born in the Dalin Universe. Since we don''t have the mark that all outsiders have, Olave would immediately understand that we found a way in that the Dalin Universe Management doesn''t know about. It would only turn things for worse." Feifei pondered a bit. "Indeed. Not only that, but they would also find out about the Myriad Wisps Technique once they investigate Luvile Universe. That would immediately bring a calamity to our homes there." Krune nodded. "Yes. Simply put, our cultivation is too low for us to use such a favor. Not to mention that the Myriad Wisps Technique spreading plan is still in its initial state. Before we release it in sufficient Universes, it will be too risky to make any connection with the Luvile Universe." Krune then smiled and said. "Let''s leave this topic for the future. If we get a good idea, we can call Olave at any time. Now that I''m healed both in Foundation and Soul, I can finally start cultivating again. By the way, how were your last days of training?" Feifei smiled back. Krune agreed with her. "That is true, you even have Sub-Laws at culmination already. A golden Stars Formation shouldn''t be anything hard for you, especially if you use your Destiny Divine Soul to train." Feifei nodded. "Correct. Although I don''t like to use my Destiny Major Divine Soul, I have been stuck in the Silver Stars for way too long already. So I will make an exception here and practice Formations with its help." Feifei then looked at Krune, who seemed to be fine, and asked with a concerned expression. "Your Soul and Foundation are really healed, right? Is there really no side effects?" Krune laughed out loud and said. "Yeap! Even I am impressed with the effect of the Life Dew Pill. No wonder it is called the best healing pill between all Golden Stars Pills." Feifei let out a sigh of relief and remembered that day that Krune''s core was almost destroyed. It was all because she wasn''t paying enough attention. If not for Light Spirit, they would really be dead now. "Ah! How is Light Spirit? Have he woken up?" Krune shook his head. "It seems like he went back to the same sleeping state that he was when he first came into my Foundation. Still, he should wake up very soon. After all, my cultivation is several times higher than when I first entered the Foundation Establishment. Because of that, his recovery also got faster, or so he said in the past. I can even feel the Spiritual Energy being sucked inside the Tribulation Lightning Source." Feifei smiled and nodded. "Then, that is good." Feifei looked around and asked. "Where is Heavin?" "He left to practice his Puppeteer Skills. He should be in that big room on the other side of the courtyard." Feifei nodded and then asked while looking a little embarrassed. "I will go there to take a look. Are you going to stay at home?" Krune pondered a bit and then nodded. "Yes, I haven''t cultivated in a while, so I want to get used to the feeling once more. So I will stay here for now. I will probably only leave when the guy who traded Uer''s bones with me arrives, which should take another week or so. Why you ask?" Feifei''s face then got a little red. "I''ll tell you later." Feifei immediately rushed out after that. Krune had a puzzled expression after seeing that but didn''t pay much attention. He went back to the alchemist room to clean everything up before going to cultivate. Feifei soon arrived in the big room and opened the door. As soon as she entered, she saw pieces of puppets everywhere! There were all kinds and shapes available, humans and demon beasts alike. Suddenly, she heard a Parrot''s laugh. "Hahahaha! I am a genius!" Feifei approached the place where the laugh came from and then saw Heavin looking at an Alligator Shaped Puppet right in front of him. The Alligator followed every single command that Heaving gave him. By looking at its speed and strength, Feifei knew that it could definitely match an ordinary early-stages Core Formation Realm cultivator, maybe even middle-stages! "Behold! The moment that this grandfather becomes a Six Silver Stars Puppeteer!" Heavin then looked at his parrot wings and said. "You just wait, it won''t be long until I turn you into a Golden Stars Puppet! When that time comes, I''m sure Feifei will be happy." It was then that Heavin heard a voice coming from the entrance. "Even if you don''t turn him into a Golden Stars Parrot Puppet, I''m already very happy with your feelings alone." Only now did Heavin saw Feifei on the other side. He then immediately flew to her shoulder. "Feifei, look, look! It''s a Six Silver Stars Puppet! What do you think?" The Alligator puppet then came forward and greeted Feifei. Of course, she knew that it was Heavin that was controlling him. "Hahaha! It looks amazing. Especially the fact that you reached this level in such a little time. Perhaps, you will help us a lot more in the future." Heavin raised his chest with pride, but Feifei only found that a comic sight. It was then that she remembered what she came here for. "Oh, right! Heavin, when your conscience is in the Parrot, can you see what is happening around Krune as well?" Heavin shook his head. "No." "Of course, my real conscience is still inside the Divine Soul, but while I''m connected to the Parrot through Divine Sense, it becomes my center of attention. Why? Do you need me to check on him?" Feifei immediately shook her head. "No, in fact, I want to ask you to give us some time alone since I need to... talk with him." Heavin found it weird, but he was already old enough to understand that everyone had their secrets. Besides, he trusts Feifei and Krune, so he quickly accepted. "Sure, I''m not planning to leave this room unless Krune needs to go somewhere anyway. So just take your time talking to him." Feifei immediately nodded and thanked him. After that, she returned to the house. Coincidently, Krune had just finished cleaning the Alchemist room as well, so he was about to go back to his room. "Wait." Krune looked at her. "Yes?" Feifei grabbed his hand and pulled him over to her room, which puzzled Krune even more. When he looked at Feifei''s face, it was as red as a tomato. "Are you feeling well?" Sure enough, this wisp is still as dense as a rock! Fortunately, Feifei had long since expected for this reaction. She then pointed at the bed and said. "What do you think we could do in a bed... as a couple?" Krune pondered a bit and said. "Sleep?" Even though Krune gave that answer, he felt that it was not the right one. After all, he doesn''t need to sleep. In fact, even Feifei didn''t need to sleep anymore with her cultivation. Suddenly, a vein popped out on Feifei''s head. ''Even such an obvious hint isn''t enough? Oh, fuck it!'' Feifei threw Krune on the bed and started to take his and her own clothes. Finally, Feifei''s action became obvious enough for Krune to understand what was happening. "Wait, wait, wait! Are you sure about this? Are you not forcing yourself or anything like that, right?" Feifei then showed a very angry expression and said. "If you repeat something like this again, we are done with each other." Against such overwhelming odds, Krune decided to give up and go with the flow... If Feifei had any doubts in the past, they completely disappeared after what happened in the battle against Uer. She came with terms with her feelings a long time ago, but this was the first time she wanted to take the next step. She wanted to bring this... ''issue'' out before. But because Krune was worried about healing his Soul and Foundation, she didn''t have the courage to say that. But now, most of her worries were finally gone! It was the first time for both parties, so one can''t say that things worked perfectly. Still, instinct always talks louder, so even Krune, a wisp, found his... ''path'' into Feifei. The night passed while the couple enjoyed their close company for the first time. It''s just that they should have paid more attention to the room''s protection formation... which they completely forgot to activate. Because of that, quite a few moans and other ''sounds'' could be heard outside. And of course, what better time would it be for Ruik and Tiane to come back if not now? Those ''sounds'' immediately reminded Tiane of her time with Ruik inside the Dream World. Sure enough, she quickly got a red as a tomato too. Ruik couldn''t help but laugh. "They are really going at it." Tiane couldn''t help but ask. "What should we do?" Suddenly, Ruik grabbed Tiane''s hand and pulled her into his room as well. "What else? Let''s follow the flow!" Tiane felt like killing a particular snake! Still, after a lot of ''insistence,'' she yielded as well. The ''mood'' in the air could be said to have helped a lot in this. That was a memorable night for both couples. --- The next morning when Krune and Feifei left the room, they noticed that Ruik and Tiane were already there in the living room too. When Tiane and Feifei''s eyes met, both got red at the same time. "Cough, cough. Krune was just helping me move a few things." Krune immediately felt puzzled. "Move a few things?" As for Ruik, he immediately burst out in laugher! "Hahahahaha! Sure, there is a certain part of your body that definitely moved a lot last night. It kept ''opening and closing'' hundreds, if not thousands of times, so it was definitely a lot of movement. Feifei left like she was struck by lightning! She was so red that even a tomato would be jealous. As for Krune, he finally ''understood.'' "Oh! So that''s what you meant with helping to move a few things. What a weird way to talk about sex." Feifei almost vomited blood! "Can''t you be a little more discreet?!" Krune felt puzzled once more. "Why should we? Isn''t it a normal thing between couples? Besides, Ruik and Tiane were definitely doing the same last night, or could it be that you didn''t hear the sounds?" Tiane wanted to find a hole to hide herself! She couldn''t believe that she was loud enough to make the couple in the other room to hear them as well. By the way, why didn''t she activate the protection formation of her own room? She felt like an idiot. In fact, Feifei really did not hear anything. She was way too ''busy'' last night after all. Ruik laughed once more after hearing those words. As expected of Krune, common sense means nothing to him. He then looked at Krune and asked. "So, how was the experience?" Krune pondered a bit and said with a serious face. "I finally found something better than eating!" Tiane and Feifei were speechless! "Eating your head!" As for Ruik, he burst out in laugher once again. When he finally finished, Ruik decided to ask Krune another question. "Well, who was the one that said that we should be careful to not have babies, uh?" Krune was taken aback. "Oh, that''s right! I was careless." Krune pondered about it seriously but relaxed in the end. "Oh well, we are all from different races, so the chances are minimal to start with, especially for a human and a wisp like Feifei and me." Two weeks later... Feifei and Tiane found out that both were pregnant. 374 You Wont Escape! No content 375 Kiirion It turns out that Feifei was correct. There was really someone Cinty liked. Surprisingly, it was someone a lot younger than herself too. Cinty is already 301 years old, while the one she likes is a little bit over 200. Still, his cultivation was close to her own at that time. Cinty was at the 1st Stage of the Void Breaking Realm while he was at the 8th Stage of the Soul Forging. His name was Kiirion, a Silver Feathered Kite. Cinty came to know him over 70 years ago when she was out looking for some experience after spending some time cultivating. Of course, during the times she was out, she always refrained from using her real form. Hence, although the Kite knows that Cinty is a Demon Beast, he doesn''t know that she is a wisp. Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "He was already over 200 years old, was he still single when you met?" Cinty nodded. "It is nothing rare for someone to stay single for thousands of years when you think about a Cultivator or Demon Beast''s Lifespan. I myself am already over 300, you know?" Feifei then asked. "Do you see him often?" Cinty shook her head. "How could that be? It would already be a miracle if we met each other every 2 or 3 years. Other than cultivating, there is a lot of things I need to take care of in the Wisp Worlds." Feifei and Cinty continued to talk while Krune just listened. When they first met, Cinty was just passing by forest when she coincidently saved him. It was inside a No Laws Zone, so she found him injured and unconscious. Usually, she wouldn''t have minded it. After all, the No Law Zones are places where death is a common occurrence. But at that time, Cinty was looking for an item for a mission of the Mission Hall called Florked Stone. It was quite a rare one used by blacksmiths when making high-level Spatial Rings. But thanks to its Spatial Properties, it could not enter a Spatial Ring as well. Still, the payment for the task was reasonable, so she decided to give it a try. When she passed by Kiirion, she noticed that he was holding exactly the same Stone that she needed. She came close and took the Stone. After that, she wanted to leave, but her conscience spoke louder, so she ended healing Kiirion right there and then. Kiirion''s condition improved as time passed until he finally woke up the next day. Noticing that it was Cinty who saved him, Kiirion thanked her. But Cinty shook her head and showed the Florked Stone that he was holding. "I only saved you because I needed this Stone, so there is no need to thank me. Just focus on your recovery for now. Once you feel like you can fly back to the city, my part will be over." Kiirion had spent a long time looking for it, so he didn''t want to give it up. In the end, it took him his all to manage to just escape. But the injuries took the better of him, and he finally passed out. But now, he didn''t care much. He knew that he would be dead if not for Cinty, so the Stone was a price good enough for his life. The thing that really mattered was the fact that those guys who attacked him didn''t get it in the end, so it was a good enough consolation. In the end, things didn''t go as expected. That group hadn''t given up looking for Kiirion at all. A few hours later, they finally found the place where Cinty and Kiirion were staying. The leader of the group was a 3rd Stage Void Breaking Realm, two stages higher than Cinty. Of course, Cinty had a Major Divine Soul, so she really didn''t care much about him. She was pretty confident in beating or killing that entire group. But the thing was that Kiirion didn''t know about that! Next thing Cinty knew, Kiirion had already charged at the enemy group while sending her a Divine Sense message. "I will try to hold them as long as I can, please run! Also, thanks for saving my life, even though it turned out to be useless." When Feifei heard that part, her eyes shined like bright stars! "That''s so unfair! Which woman wouldn''t feel moved by it? You obviously had a higher cultivation than him, and he was injured. But he still chose to exchange his life to give you enough time to flee." Cinty nodded vigorously! "Right?! Right?!!! No one cares about the others inside No Law Zones, so that really caught me by surprise! Of course, things like love only flourished later on. At that moment, I was just moved by his personality." Of course, the result of that suicide attack was obvious, the Void breaking Realm cultivator immediately sent Kiirion flying with a single attack. Still, Kiirion got up once more and attacked again. The enemy got annoyed and decided to get rid of Kiirion first before dealing with Cinty. But just as Kiirion was about to get close, his body was locked in place by a powerful Spiritual Energy! Kiirion immediately thought that it was the enemy who did that and did his best to get free. But surprisingly, the one who stopped him was none other than Cinty. "Are you idiot? Who said that I needed your help?" Only then did Kiirion understand that it wasn''t the enemy who did that, but Cinty instead. "You... Aren''t you only in the 1st of the Void breaking Realm?" Cinty nodded. "So?" Kiirion was speechless! ''So? What so? Even that guy who has higher cultivation than you wouldn''t be able to lock me down with Spiritual Energy alone!'' But before he could say something, Cinty attacked! Sure enough, she wasn''t a Major Divine Soul owner for nothing. Cinty quickly got rid of everyone, while only the guy at the Void Breaking Realm managed to escape. Cinty could have pursued him to finish the job, but she felt too lazy to do so. She then looked at Kiirion and rebuked him. "What were you thinking? Did someone ask you to sacrifice your life for me? Even if I wasn''t this strong, I would still be a 1st Stage Void Breaking Realm Demon Beast. I could still flee, you know?" Kiirion was taken aback. "So-sorry... I guess?" Cinty sighed and gave up complaining. What was done is done, after all. From that moment on, Cinty and Kiirion started to spend more time together. Of course, Cinty was a lot stronger than Kiirion, so they often got separated to go around doing their own missions. Still, they would always meet now and then. Finally, it came a day where Cinty had to go back to the Wisp Main World, so she only told him that she didn''t know when she could come out again. Surprisingly, Kiirion didn''t mind and simply passed his communicator''s contact ID to her. The years passed. Cinty stayed in the Wisp Main World cultivating and dealing with the Wisps issues as she always did. During this entire time, she didn''t contact Kiirion even once. She believed that it was just a one time experience, and it was already over. Because Phillin''s Teleport Formation could send her almost anywhere in the Dalin Universe, she would end up in different corners every time. That was to prevent the Dalin Universe management from finding out where she went or that she left at all. She once again used it and came out to get some battle experience and to get used to her cultivation. It was then that she remembered Kiirion''s contact ID. She pondered a bit and decided to at least send him a greeting. Unfortunately, Cinty could only tell him about the missions and how the place looked like since she didn''t have much to talk to other than that. But sadly, she didn''t get a reply. In the end, Cinty simply sighed and resumed her daily practice and missions. ''Well, I guess this is it then.'' But one day, when she came back to the Mission Hall where she was taking the tasks, Kiirion was already there waiting for her. Cinty was utterly taken aback. She had gone to a completely different region exceptionally far away from where she first met Kiirion. How come he is here? But before she could ask, he talked first. "I say, why do you need to appear again in such a remote place? Do you have any idea how many teleport formations I had to get to arrive here? Look at my Spatial Ring; half of the spirit stones are gone because of this travel." Different from Krune''s group, other cultivators and demon beasts don''t have that many Spirit Stones to spend everywhere. So such a distance was really expensive for someone like Kiirion. "You... how did you know where I was?" Kiirion laughed and said. "Didn''t you write about the missions and how the place you were staying looked like? I only had to go to the Mission Hall network and search for a place that looked like the one you described. Sure enough, quite a few met the requirements. From that point onwards, it was easy. I just had to contact each one of them and ask if they had seen someone like you around. In the end, I found you here." Cinty was speechless! Would someone really go that far? Of course, it would be a lie if she said she wasn''t feeling a little happy. 376 Bottomless Pi The years continued to pass, and Cinty would be going to a different place every time she left the Wisp Main World. She also made sure to use different communicators and names every time she contacted Kiirion. But somehow, he would always found a way to come see her. They got older, and their cultivations improved. Kiirion finally entered the Void Breaking Realm when Cinty was at the 3rd Stage. Thanks to that, Kiirion could get better missions, which gave more Spirit Stones. That made things easier for him to travel every time Cinty appeared. Any idiot could tell that Kiirion liked Cinty, and it didn''t take long for Cinty to yield as well. Still, until today, Cinty has never told him from what race she is or from where she came from. Cinty sighed after finishing. "And that is the whole story." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Doesn''t that mean that the fact that I didn''t become the new Wisp King held yourself back as well?" Cinty laughed and said. "You don''t need to care about it. One of the reasons that I never told Kiirion the truth is because of my Lifespan. Even if you didn''t have the Myriad Energies Technique and had become the Wisp King, I would still not tell him the truth. After all, I would die a lot earlier than him, so what was the point?" "Besides, I don''t know if the things will still be the same once he finds out that I''m a Wisp." Feifei immediately shook her head. "So what? Krune is a wisp too, but I don''t care the least bit about it." Cinty patted Feifei''s head. "Thanks." She then got up and said. "Anyway, I have to go back to cultivate. If I am successful in entering the Divine Path Realm, then I plan to tell Kiirion who I really am. So I have to make sure to not waste time." But before Cinty left, Krune remembered to ask another important question. "Cinty, do you know how a hybrid of Wisps and Humans are like?" Cinty was surprised by that question. "Did you not search for it on the network?" Krune and Feifei looked at each other and shook their heads. Cinty then laughed out loud and said. "In that case, I forbid you two from doing so!" Feifei and Krune were taken aback. "Why is that?" Placing a finger on her lips, Cinty winked at Krune and Feifei. "That will be a surprise." After that, Cinty returned to her cultivation room. Krune and Feifei were surprised by that gesture and felt even more curious. However, they knew that Cinty wouldn''t say that with bad intentions, so they decided to not check it themselves. After that, they took the chance to leave as well and go back to their rooms. "We just need to wait for Cinty to contact us back now. Once the Formation is completed, I will contact Olave." Krune looked at the time after that and said. "No problem, you can go do your things. I will go back to practice my formations as well after I pass by Tiane''s room." Krune nodded and gave Feifei a kiss before going to the nearest Teleport Formation. He had started his blacksmithing practice around a week ago after he completed the trade for the Kalue Tribulation Steel. Before he had his new Flying Shields ready, he didn''t plan to leave the Wisp Solar System at all. Especially now that Feifei is pregnant. In the end, Heavin had to move his Puppets workshop to a place near the Blacksmith Organization Branch. After all, he can''t stay too far away from Krune due to his Divine Sense range. Feifei soon arrived at Tiane''s room and saw that big Demon Crow on the bad. One must remember that different from humans, demon beasts usually get bigger as their cultivation grows. So, although Tiane wasn''t at the height of a human yet, she was at least 2/3 of the size of an average one. Even Krune''s Wisp Core was at least two times bigger than what it was back in the Makui Planet. Because both Tiane and Ruik''s races are egg layers, she didn''t have a problem in staying in her Demon Crow form. In fact, it was a lot better for her to keep up that way since her body would work much better in her true form. Feifei then sat beside the bed and asked. "How are you feeling?" Tiane couldn''t help but sigh. "Terrible. I guess that because we are from different races, my body is having to work quite hard to create my egg. I had taken a look at normal Demon Crows in the past so that I could understand my race better, so I know it shouldn''t be this hard. Still, I feel a lot better when I''m in my Demon Crow form. When I change back to my human one, I feel like my life is being robbed by it..." Tiane expression got angry and then exclaimed. "It is all that idiot snake''s fault!" Feifei heard that and laughed. "Well, you are still quite good. Don''t Demon Crows usually only take around three months to lay their eggs? After that, you just need to take care of it. Look at me, considering its growth rate, I think that I might stay pregnant for more than 9 months. Don''t forget that I will need to carry my own during this entire time." Tiane couldn''t help but ask. "Wisps are originally energy beings. Doesn''t your baby absorb a lot of Spiritual Energy because of that? I can tell that my one is quite hungry in this sense." Feifei sighed and then looked around with her Divine Sense. She noticed that neither Krune or Ruik were around, so she decided to talk the truth. "Don''t tell it to Krune or Ruik so that they don''t get needlessly preoccupied. But you are right, Krune''s baby is a bottomless pit! This little guy or girl is sucking so much spiritual energy that I can barely keep up with it. Fortunately, there is no pain or anything like that, it is just that my own cultivation speed was reduced to a snail''s pace. Anyway, if I happen to need more Spiritual Energy, I have more than enough Spirit Stones for that." Tiane was taken aback. "That much?! You are already in the Divine Soul Realm 8th Stage. Not to mention that you have the Elemental Meridians, how come you can only barely keep up with it?" Feifei laughed and said. "Human babies don''t even use Spiritual Energy to start with, so how do you expect me to know? This is totally new for me." Tiane immediately nodded. "That is the same for Demon Crows. Our eggs don''t use Spiritual Energy either. I asked Ruik a few days ago, and he said that his Snake Race, or at least, his Double-Headed Snake Specie''s eggs, also don''t use Spiritual Energy." Tiane and Feifei looked at each other and seemed to have reached the same conclusion. Tiane was the first one to ask. "Could it be the Elemental Meridians?" Feifei immediately nodded. "I thought so too. That would also explain why my own is absorbing a lot more Spiritual Energy as well. After all, we know that Krune''s Elemental Meridians are at a different level than ours. So his baby might have inherited its special traits. Besides, Krune is a being of energy to start with, so the Elemental Meridians only made things worse." Tiane and Feifei then laughed at each other. "It seems like some pretty amazing babies are going to be born." Feifei then remembered why she had come here for. "Oh, right! Let me tell you what Krune and I discussed with Cinty." She explained everything about the Cultivation Monitoring Mark and the Alliance Seal, then she went to the fact that Krune decided to use Olave''s favor to avoid it. After hearing all of that, Tiane couldn''t help but feel a little emotional. "Just how much do we own him already?" Feifei shrugged her shoulder and replied. "It doesn''t matter, he is happy the way things are, and so am I. If there is an opportunity, just make sure to give your all to pay him." Feifei then got up and stretched a little. "Well, I''m going back to practice my formations. I intend to enter the Golden Stars Level in at most two weeks." Tiane then asked, concerned. "Are you fine to do that in your state?" Feifei nodded. "Although this bottomless pit won''t let me cultivate, it is not bothering me with anything else either. Besides, you know as well as me that Formations are highly more reliant on Spirit Stones instead of the Formations Master Spiritual Energy. So it won''t bother me much. Also, being pregnant doesn''t affect my Laws comprehension, so I can practice my Formations without any risks." Tiane sighed in relief. "Then, that is okay. But if you feel like you are putting too much effort, you must definitely stop." Feifei laughed after hearing that. "Who is the older sister here, me or you? Don''t forget that I''m 4 years older than you." Suddenly, the room''s door opened, and Ruik came in. "Oh, it''s Feifei! How was your talk with Cinty?" Feifei pointed at Tiane. "Ask her, I need to go back to my training. See you later!" Feifei left the room and went to the training field she was using to practice formations. 377 Praise, Praise! Back in the Blacksmith Organization Branch, Krune was going through the information and materials for his practice. ''Hum... I guess this amount of volcanic spiritual ore should be enough for now. Let''s see... I will need the juncture of the sword hilt to be turned at this point and then...'' Once again, Krune started his training. To be a blacksmith, just forging Shields would not be enough. So Krune had been creating several different types of equipment in the past few days. Still, he found out that his Blacksmith Ranking from Luvile Universe was only considered a Three Silver Stars here in Dalin. Because of that, Krune was putting a lot more effort to advance faster. There was also another thing. The same way that alchemy uses fire, so does Blacksmith. So Krune came up with the idea of using his Purple Fire during the forging process. But it turned out to be a lot more complicated than he thought. The reason was simple, there was a need for a much greater amount of Purple Fire in Blacksmithing than Alchemy! In the end, all the equipment that he tried to create with his Purple Fire failed until now. The more Purple Fire Krune used, the harder it was to control. Not to mention that the temperature that Krune had to reach was several times higher than the temperature needed for concocting. So, in the last two days, Krune had been trying some simple equipment to get used to it. The reason Krune insisted on using the Purple Fire was that he noticed that the materials were melted with greater ease when using it. That made things easier when he had to shape the forms. Fortunately, thanks to the Blacksmith Workshop''s electronic equipment, Krune was able to adjust the temperature to greater precision. He just needed to get used to the output of Purple Fire, and he would be good to go. Time passed, and Krune carefully molded the Sword. What a blacksmith of his level would take no more than two hours to finish, took Krune over five hours to reach the same state. Finally, Krune finished forging his very first equipment through the use of his Purple Fire. Krune looked at that Volcanic Fire Ore Sword and nodded satisfied. ''I took a lot longer to complete this thing, but the end result was better than I expected. Sure, it has quite a few bumps here and there, but I just need to get used to how soft the material became when I used my Purple Fire. I believe that as my proficiency increases, the time to forge will also reduce. Eventually, I should be able to reduce the necessary time to the point where I''m going to be faster than using normal fire.'' But there was one thing that made Krune intrigued. Still, Krune knew that his Purple Flame Pills all had some kind of side effect, so he couldn''t help but think that perhaps... ''What if I use some Spiritual Energy?'' Krune immediately released the Spiritual Energy from his Core and infused it in the Sword. Suddenly, Purple Flame appeared on the Sword! ''Oh! As I thought, the Purple Flame effect also applies to equipment that I make using my Purple Fire. If just Ao or Arlan were here, I could ask them to give it a try.'' Krune shook his head and put those thoughts away. He then brought that Sword outside and looked for someone who used Swords as well. Although the Wisp Worlds are majority occupied by Wisps, it doesn''t mean that some Cultivators and Demon beasts don''t pass by or live here either. Soon, Krune saw a Cultivator in the requests queue. He was at the 5th Stage of the Core Formation Realm and had a Sword on his back. Krune could tell that that Sword was at the Silver Stars level, just like his one. He thought that it was worth a try and decided to call him out. At least, it would be a lot faster than go look for Dilo in the Wisp Main World. "Hello there. Are you perhaps in the queue to ask for your Sword to be repaired?" The guy looked at Krune, puzzled. However, he immediately understood that Krune''s cultivation was a lot higher than his own, so he acted with more respect. Especially since he can see that Krune is using the same clothes as the other blacksmiths around. "Ah! Yes, that''s precisely why I''m here. I just got a mission to deliver a few things on the neighbor planet, Wisp World 10, so I took the opportunity to stop by and repair my Sword. The wisps in the Wisp World 10 said that the price here was quite good because many Silver Stars Blacksmith liked to come to this branch to practice." Krune nodded. "You are not wrong. Since most of those who live in the Wisp Worlds are wisps, Silver level equipment is what most of them use. Just think about the wisps lifespan and cultivation levels, and you will understand why." The guy nodded. "Yes, I had figured it out already. By the way, my name is Wirenth Loraqen. Is there something you need from me?" Krune nodded. "Yes. I just finished creating a new Sword, but I need a swordsman to test it out. Would you mind going to the testing field beside the Building and try it out? You can have the Sword for yourself later, I just need your sincere opinion." Wirenth was taken aback. He didn''t expect that someone would ask him to test a new product. He looked at the queue and could see that it was still quite big, so it wouldn''t make much of a difference if he had to leave it now. "Sure. I''m also curious to see what is this new Sword or yours. Oh, right! My own Sword is only a Five Silver Stars one. If the level of yours is too different, I might not be able to get a good grasp straight away." Krune smiled and said. "Then that should be fine, my one is a Three Silver Stars Sword, after all." Wirenth eyes immediately lit up after haring that. Although the new Sword was a little weaker than his own, he would get it for free. He could keep it in reserve for an emergency or even sell it later for a reasonable price. On their way out, Krune bumped on Ruik. "Oh, did you come here to see me?" Ruik nodded. "I just have a few things to ask about the Earth Essence Sub-Law. I feel like I''m very close to culmination, so I want your opinions on a few points." Krune nodded and then said. "Alright, just give us a few minutes. I want to test a new Sword that I created in the testing field. Wanna tag along?" Ruik didn''t have anything better to do, so he just nodded and followed as well. Krune, Ruik, and Wirenth only took a minute to arrive there. Since the Blacksmith Branch made lots of equipment daily, they obviously needed a place to make tests. So any Blacksmith Organization Branch always had a testing field nearby. Krune then paid the fee for the use of the testing field, and Wirenth entered a Creation Formation. Although it was a Diamond Level one, its function was quite simple. It could create several forms that could resist attacks on a predetermined level. Krune then operated the Formation from outside, and soon, a Spiritual Energy Fake Boulder appeared in the center. Krune had adjusted the boulder to resist attacks at the 7th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. Wirenth is only at the 5th Stage, but one has to calculate the power behind the skill and Sword he was using. Weapons were made to increase the cultivators and demon beasts'' power, so it goes without saying that their attack would surpass what they would usually be able to do without them. Wirenth assumed a sword stance and then charged forward. Wind and Fire Element gathered around Krune''s Sword too. After Wirenth reached the full momentum, he used his skill. "Hell Slash!" Krune''s Sword penetrated the Spiritual Energy fake boulder, and instantly, half of it was cut through. Wirenth took a few steps back after that and took a deep breath. "Phew... This is a good sword. Through the way my elements acted over it, I could say that it is on par with even some Four Silver Stars Swords. The fact that it is a Three Silver Stars Sword shows that it was very well made." Wirenth then looked at Krune and said. "To be honest, I was a little in doubt about its prowess when I saw the few forging bumps on it, but I guess this is what one means to never judge a book by its cover." Krune smiled and was happy with the praise. Still, the test has not performed the way he wanted. "Try it again. But this time, instead of only using your Spiritual Energy to gather the Wind and Fire Element, put some Spiritual Energy inside the Sword as well." Wirenth was confused by that. As far as he can see, this is just a normal Silver Stars Sword. "Is it a Spiritual Equipment? A flying sword, perhaps?" Krune shook his head. "Nope. This is really just a normal Silver Stars Equipment. I did not use a Divine Imprint, so it is definitely not a Spiritual Equipment. It is just that I used something new during the forging process, so I want to see what it is capable of." Wirenth looked at the Sword. He had noticed the strange purple hue on it before, but he didn''t pay much attention to it. But now, he thought that perhaps, it had something to do with this new forging process. "Alright, leave it to me." Krune operated the Formation and created another Spiritual Energy Fake Boulder. Just like before, it was adjusted so that it could resist the attack of a 7th Stage Core Formation Realm cultivator or demon beast. Wirenth took a deep breath and charged forward once more. He built his momentum and summoned the Wind and Fire element too. He decided that he would inject Spiritual Energy into the Sword the moment he was about to strike. That way, he wouldn''t waste Spiritual Energy, which would help Krune to get a better evaluation of the Sword. In a split of a second, Wirenth reached the boulder and injected Spiritual Energy into the Sword. "Hell Slash!" Suddenly, the Fire Element around his Sword changed color and became Purple! Boulder? What Boulder? Wirenth felt like his slash went through butter instead! The boulder was instantly disintegrated by the Purple Flame! But that wasn''t all, his Hell Slash continued forward and hit the Protection Formation of the area that he was using. The Protection Formation adjusts to 3 Stages higher than the tester''s cultivation. That means that it would be able to resist an attack at the 8th Stage of the Core Formation Realm, just like the boulder itself. Unfortunately... that wasn''t enough... Crash! The protection formation was torn apart instantly too! Unfortunately, the protection Formation was connected with the Creation Formation as well... Crack, crack, crack... Shatter! The Diamond Stars Creation Formation... was gone as well... Suddenly, Krune heard Ruik''s voice behind him. "I see, so you also learned how to destroy everything indirectly. Praise, praise!" Krune''s mouth twitched after hearing that. ''I wonder if Tiane would mind being a single mother.'' 378 You Are Too Hungry Fortunately, the price of a Diamond Stars Formation is something that Krune doesn''t have problems to pay anymore. More important, by what he could see from that strike just now, it was definitely at the levels of a peak Core Formation Realm. As for Wirenth, his mouth was opened wide! His Hell Slash had never been so powerful like that. That had far surpassed anything he could do at the moment. He then looked at the Sword on his hand and saw that Purple Flame slowly disappearing. "This..." Krune came close to Wirenth and patted his shoulders. "Very good. So, what do you think about it?" Wirenth was taken aback for a second but quickly composed himself. "Cough, cough. Is that Purple Flame the thing you really wanted to test?" Krune nodded. "Exactly. That''s why I wanted a Swordsman to take a look." Wirenth then stopped to think about that last strike and couldn''t help but ask. "Would you mind if we check again. That Purple Flame Effect was too sudden! So my attention was caught by it in the last moment and what happened after that." Krune agreed with him. "Alright, there are several Creation Formations here anyway. This time, I will adjust it to a level where that strike of yours won''t break it." Krune then apologized to the training field supervisor and quickly paid the price for the broken Formation. After that, Wirenth entered another one, and Krune controlled it from the outside while Ruik observed. Another Boulder appeared. This time, Krune made it possible to resist the attack of a 1st Stage Divine Soul Realm. Wirenth then repeated the attack, just like the last time. Sure enough, his ''Purple'' Hell slash left a deep cut that went halfway through and then lost its power. It didn''t have the energy necessary to pass through the boulder. Still, it didn''t make Wirenth less excited. ''Reserve? Sell? To hell with that! This Sword will be my trump card from now on!'' Wirenth then took a deep breath and said. "When th Purple Flame effect comes out, my Fire Element get mixed with it. Thanks to the Wind Element, the fire gets even stronger. But I noticed that the Purple Flame itself doesn''t have much power. It is the mix with the other elements that bring out its true potential. The result is, as you can see, I can release an attack that has the power of an all-out attack of a peak Core Formation Realm. This Sword is definitely at the Eight Silver Stars level at the very least, probably even a Nine Stars! Also..." Wirenth then kept explaining everything he noticed during his test. It wasn''t before ten or so minutes that Wirenth finally finished talking. "Good! I was right in asking for a Swordsman to try it out instead of myself. Well, Wirenth, as we agreed before, you can have it. I made it using Volcanic Spiritual Ore anyway, so it isn''t anything expensive for me." Krune then bid farewell and left with Ruik. As for Wirenth, he returned to the Blacksmith Branch since he still had to repair his other Sword. He had decided to not use Krune''s Sword unless he was in a dangerous situation. After all, having a treasure without the power to protect it is also considered a crime. Krune and Ruik returned to the Forging Room. There, Ruik decided to ask first. "Is that thing related to your Purple Flame Pills as well?" Krune nodded. "I used the Purple Tribulation Lightning Flame to forge that. Some of the properties entered it and created that effect. Just like my pills, it seems like the Purple Flames can increase the prowess of equipment as well." Ruik nodded and then asked. "Do you think I should use something like a Sword or other equipment?" Krune pondered a bit and replied. "You basically use your Poison and Dream Laws at the moment. So I can''t really think about a piece of equipment that would be helpful for it. First of all, you had never used a Sword or anything else before, so you would need a long time to get proficient with it." Ruik had to admit that Krune was right. "I will give it some thought and see if there is anything I could use later." Krune nodded and then changed the topic. "So, what is it you want to ask about the Earth Essence Sub-Law?" "Ah! That''s right. It goes like this..." Krune and Ruik then discussed the Laws for an hour. Although each one''s comprehension of laws is not the same, they are still similar. So that talk helped Ruik to clarify a few points that he was missing. After they finished, Ruik returned to the Wisp Main World, and Krune resumed his Blacksmithing training. Time passed, and soon, another three months went by. Today, Krune was back in the Wisp Main World because it would be Five Years since he and Feifei entered the Dalin Universe. Of course, as mentioned before, the chances of the ''coating'' disappearing right at the five-year time is minimal. By now, Feifei''s belly had started to appear, although it wasn''t anything impressive yet. As for Tiane, it seemed like a hybrid between Snake and Crow changed things a little. Demon Crows should have laid their eggs in at most Three Months after getting fecundated. However, Tiane could tell that she probably still needed another two months at the very least. Krune still remembered the exact time their group arrived in the Dalin Universe, so he was looking at his communicator and sitting beside Feifei. Krune had even set up a countdown on it. Tiane and Ruik were also there, just to see if something different would happen. As for Xankruan and Dilo, they had left to do some missions together. Because Xankruan was close to the Soul Forging Realm, she wanted to try a few things first. Krune and the others looked at the time and could see the numbers on the screen. 00:15:37. "Hum... Once you start waiting for the time without doing anything, it really takes forever." Krune couldn''t help but agree. "That''s true. There are still 15 minutes left, so I guess I will make some food for us. What do you guys want?" Immediately, everyone asked for the things they wanted the most. Recently, Krune noticed that both Tiane and Feifei''s taste got quite weird as well, but he didn''t mind it. Krune went to the kitchen and started preparing everything. Of course, to make everything that was asked, he would need more than just 15 minutes. In the end, the countdown he had set up was finished while he was cooking. He momentarily came to the living room just as it was over. Still, neither Krune or Feifei could feel the presence of any other Heavenly Fragment Owner. Krune then returned to the kitchen and finished preparing the food. Back in the living room, everyone was eating while talking. Krune commented "So, it was as we expected in the end. Both Feifei and I couldn''t feel the other Heavenly Fragment Owners." Ruik shrugged his shoulders. "Isn''t that good? We don''t need to be afraid of them coming here to cause problems." Feifei nodded. "The main issue is the fact that both Krune and I aren''t someone from this Universe, so it might turn out that we will be found out." Tiane shook her head. "I think that the chances of them thinking that you came inside illegally is very low. So you shouldn''t be afraid of such a thing. Still, because Krune came from outside of the Dalin Universe, they will also find that the Wisp Protection Law doesn''t apply to him. So they will not care if you are a wisp or not. As for Feifei, there is nothing to protect her from starting with." Krune nodded. "But that isn''t an issue either. That is because the Wisp Protection Law is supposed to be something for when I''m outside the Wisp Worlds. As long as I''m here in the Wisps'' Solar System, they would not be able to do anything. Of course, I don''t plan on closing myself here. So when the time comes, I will be coming out with Feifei so that we can finish this." Feifei agreed with him. "As long as we are not in the No Law Zones, fights can only be carried by those at similar levels. You already got Cinty''s promise that the Soul Forging Realm wisps will help you, so our preparations are as good as they could be." Suddenly, Krune and Feifei''s communicator flashed. They opened it and saw a message from Cinty. "The Stars Path Formations Master is arriving tomorrow to build the Formation." Krune and Feifei''s eyes immediately lit up! "Great!" They quickly told Tiand and Ruik as well about it, which improved the mood in the room several times. "Alright! Let''s put the serious talk behind and enjoy the food." They ate and chatted happily. After everything was over, everyone returned to their own things. The Formations Master would only arrive the next day, so they still had to wait a bit more. Feifei then entered the Dimensional Realm, where she was practicing formations, and looked around. She then took a deep breath and took out several Spirit Stones from her Spatial Ring. Immediately, she started to absorb the Spiritual Energy from them while touching her belly. "Little guy, you are getting too hungry! If this continues like this, I don''t know if I can keep up with you." Feifei still hasn''t told Krune about this absurd amount of Spiritual Energy needed to not make him worry. But it seems like she won''t be able to keep it a secret for much longer if the rate of Spiritual Energy needed keeps increasing. 379 Thousand Times in a Year The Stars Path Formations Master took almost an entire week to finish building the Formation. Feifei didn''t have a chance to see such a high-level Formations Master, so she made sure to accompany him until the end too. She only left a few times to feed her baby in her belly with more Spiritual Energy. Although she had a hard time understand it, the Formations Master was gentle enough to answer her questions. There were two reasons why the Formations Master helped Feifei during this week. The first was the fact that he noticed Feifei''s talent for Formations. He had just made a few comments while building it. However, Feifei was still able to understand and give her opinions about it. He was impressed with her comprehension ability about Formations, so he decided to give her several pointers during the time he was building it. The second was the fact that he was being paid with three Fire Crystals! Those were things that he had been in great need, so his mood improved several times when he received this job. Feifei, of course, was more than happy to have someone at that level to help her too. In the past three months, she had successfully advanced into the Golden Stars level. So her comprehension about Formation got many times better. In the end, the Formations Master even asked Feifei if she didn''t want to be his Disciple, but Feifei refused. She had a lot to care about, so she wouldn''t be able to put her all into Formations as that master would require. Once the Formation was done, Dilo and Xankruan had already returned. Surprisingly, Xankruan had her Breakthrough while they were out, being now in the 1st Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Krune and the others obviously were happy for Xankruan. After all, anyone could see her excited expression. Once the Formations Master left, Cinty came out to check the Formation. She couldn''t appear in front of others at the moment since she is hiding her cultivation improvement. "Feifei, let me check your baby." Feifei nodded and let Cinty use her Spiritual Energy to check the conditions. Because Feifei had already fed it with Spiritual Energy a while ago, it wasn''t is its bottomless pit mode at the moment. Cinty quickly finished and smiled. "It''s growing very well. It has already been three months, so the brain is already present, although not fully developed yet. That is enough for our test since it should already have a Soul, which will stay dormant until the day the baby is born." Cinty then looked at the Formation and said. "Go inside the Formation, and let''s try it out. In theory, it should already be saying that your baby has the Cultivation Monitoring Mark. After all, it is added to the Soul when it comes from the underworld." "Don''t try to stop the light, let it go into your soul so that it can be checked." Hearing Cinty''s voice, Feifei took a deep breath and lifted all the protections around her Soul. The baby''s Soul is asleep at the moment, so it didn''t have any protection to start with. The Formation operated for around ten minutes until finally, the specs of light all returned to the Formation. "It is over, come take a look." Krune and everyone else immediately approached Cinty. She then pointed to a certain point of the Formation where two agglomerations of light could be seen. One of them was completely white, while the other had a few specs of blue in it. "The totally white one is Feifei''s, while the one with the blue lights is her baby''s. Those Blue lights represent the presence of the Cultivation Monitoring Mark, which all souls that are born in the Dalin Universe receive." Cinty continued. "In fact, the use of this Formation is not so that you can check if someone has this specific Mark or not, but usually to test if someone had become a slave or had some type of seal. For example, several Sects and Clans like to seal their disciples and family members'' memories so that their secret techniques won''t leak out. It just so happens that the Cultivation Monitoring Mark also enters this category, so quite a few powers like to use this Formation." Krune and the others immediately understood it. Tiane then looked at the Formation and couldn''t help but ask. "Is that okay if I test myself as well." Cinty nodded her head. "Sure, go ahead." Tiane immediately flew to the Formation. Cinty then operated it, and soon, the same result came out. Out of curiosity, Xankruan and Dilo did the same thing. Of course, they already knew the result, so there was nothing to be done about that. The outcome was as they expected; both had the Cultivation Monitoring Mark in their souls. After that, Cinty told Krune. "Alright, go ahead and call Olave over. You should have this Mark removed as soon as possible." Krune nodded, and he took Olave''s Token out. After sending some Spiritual Energy inside, the Token started to shine brightly for a few seconds until finally, Krune and the others heard a voice from it. "This is the Larael Universe Spatial Gate Management. We have received your request and will inform Sect Master Olave on the other side. Please keep the token close to you so that he can call you out once he is here." Before Krune or anyone else could reply, the Token came back to normal, and the connection was finished. "Well, I thought that I would talk with Olave Straight away, but it seems like this Token can''t connect to another Universe straight away." Cinty smiled and then said. "Don''t worry, Olave thinks that you have his daughter''s life on your hands, so he will definitely contact you as soon as possible." Sure enough, the next day, Olave was already back into Dalin Universe. He then used his connection to the Token to tell Krune that he was coming by. Cinty obviously did not appear since she can''t show her cultivation level. Once Olave arrived, he went straight to the point. "What is it that you need?" Krune and Feifei nodded at each other and told him. "As you can see, Feier is pregnant. What I want from you is that the Cultivation Monitoring Mark gets removed before he or she is born. Also, another friend of mine is pregnant, so I''m including her on the list. Oh, and don''t forget that it also includes the exemption of the Alliance Seal when they enter the Divine path Realm." Olave only heard to the point where Krune, or better, Jolk, said that Feier was pregnant. That''s because he, too, knows very well just how difficult it would be to a hybrid between human and wisp to be conceived. In the end, Olave couldn''t help but ask Jolk. "Is this really your child?" Krune and Feifei wanted to get angry at that question, but in the end, they couldn''t. "Sigh... Sure enough, anyone would think it, right?" Feifei nodded. "There is no helping in that, we really hit the jackpot here. No one would believe that I got pregnant from a wisp on our very first time together." Olave, who was surprised at first, got really shocked now. "Fi-First time?! What kind of ridiculous lucky is that?! Even I and my wife, both humans, had to try over a thousand times in a period of just one year! This is not fair!" Feifei and Krune looked at Olave, stunned. "Thousands of times..." "In just one year..." "Ah!" Only then did Olave notice that he let out some unnecessary personal information. "Cough, cough. Pretend that you didn''t hear anything." Still, Olave was really impressed by Jolk and Feier''s fortune. "Anyway, congratulations. Make sure to take good care of your baby since I doubt you will be this lucky again." Olave then went back to the main topic. "However, are you sure you want to use your only favor for something like this? To be honest, although it might give me some trouble, it is not that difficult to pull this out. I thought that you would make some unreasonable requests, but this one is entirely unexpected." Krune smiled at Olave and then asked. "Is it really unreasonable? Let me ask you. If it was your daughter there, what would you do?" Olave was taken aback. "This..." In the end, Olave just sighed. "I guess it is not that unreasonable, after all. No, in fact, it is the obvious choice." Krune and Feifei smiled after hearing that. Olave felt a little embarrassed with youngsters looking at him. "Anyway, that shall be done. I hope you won''t go back on your word, though." Krune nodded. "There is no need to worry. I can guarantee that my part will be carried out, as well." Olave nodded, and after getting some information from Feifei and Tiane, he immediately left. But that wasn''t for long. Just five days later, he was already back to the Wisp Main World. In fact, Valindra was also with him. She came because she wanted to see by herself that Krune would keep his promise. "It is done." Krune and Feifei were taken aback. They thought they had come to remove it. They didn''t expect that the process was already done since Feifei and Tiane didn''t notice anything different. Still, there was a quick way to check it. "Good! I''m going out for a second to check it. You two just wait here in the living room for a few minutes." Krune and Feifei then called Tiane and Ruik over. Feifei also knew how to operate the Formation, so she tested on Tiane first. When they checked the Lights that represented Tiane and her Child, everyone let out a sigh of relief. Different from the past, both Light Agglomerations were completely white. There wasn''t a single spec of blue light present anymore. Krune then operated the Formation this time, and Feifei went through the same process. The end results made both couples cheer in joy. Still, Krune knew that Olave and Valindra were waiting back in his house, so he quickly returned with Feifei. The reason he couldn''t let Olave and Valindra see it is because the Formation also shows the result of both Feifei and Tiane. After all, both girls came inside illegally, so they were supposed to have at least one of the two Marks, the being-born-here-in-Dalin-Mark, or the one you get when you enter Dalin from the outside. A few minutes later, Krunje and Feifei were already back in the room. "Now, it is time to keep my side of the deal." 380 Inheritance "Or so I would like to do, but it is impossible for me to remove my Tribulation Lightning from your daughter." Olave and Valindra were taken aback. Right after, both of their expressions turned dark. "Are you saying that you are going to keep using it against us?" Feifei saw that and couldn''t help but laugh. "Stop bullying them." Krune looked at Feifei and laughed as well. "Alright, alright. It is just a little revenge for what they have done to the wisps so far." Olave and Valindra obviously got puzzled. It seemed like there was something wrong in this situation, but they couldn''t understand what. "I''m not lying. I really can''t remove the Tribulation Lightning from your daughter''s Soul. But it is not because I want to use it against you two. It is just that her Soul doesn''t have it to start with. The little bit that I left inside the Purple Flame Life Dew Pill was only enough to play that little trick you saw in the past." Olave and Valindra were taken aback. "Are you telling me that she is fine, and you couldn''t do anything against her to start with?" Krune shook his head. "Wrong! If I wanted, I could have left enough Lightning Power hidden in her Soul to destroy it. But I didn''t, that''s all." Olave couldn''t help but ask. "Why?" Krune shrugged his shoulders and said. "She had nothing to do with our deal. I would never use an innocent for my own sake, either. So whether you had paid your favor to me or not, I would still not have done anything against her. It is that simple." Valindra narrowed her eyes after hearing that. "What proof do you have that can make us believe you?" Krune shook his head. "I don''t have any. Unless you consider the time to be the proof itself. One day, she will reincarnate, and I''m sure Olave can feel the location of his mark once she appears in Dalin once more. She will cultivate under your protection and one day reaches the same level again. When that time comes, you will know that I told you the truth." Olave patted Valindra''s shoulder and spoke. "We will hold onto your word." Valindra knew that there was really no way to prove that Jolk was telling the truth. In the end, she sighed and nodded. "Very well, I will believe it for now." Krune nodded. "Don''t worry, you can do whatever you want from now on." Both parties then exchanged a few more words and then bid their farewell. But just as Olave was about to leave, he asked something else. "Oh, right! There is a friend of mine who would also love to use that Purple Flame Life Dew Pill of yours. As you probably can imagine, I''m not the only cultivator in existence who stopped a loved one from entering the Cycle of Sansara." "Take it. That''s the Purple Flame Life Dew Pill." Olave and Valindra were shocked to see that. "This... Isn''t this Pill the same one you crafted a few months back?" Krune smiled. "The one and the same." Olave thought it to be impossible! The Pill was supposed to have lost its effect in at most an hour after it was concocted. Not to mention that every minute would make it lose a lot of its effects. Using the Life Dew Pill during the last minutes would make almost no change either. "What is happening here? Does it mean that you could have created a Purple Flame Life Dew Pill that could be carried around from the very start?" Krune nodded and shook his head at the same time. "It is true that you can carry it around now, but the fact is that I didn''t know that my Purple Flame could hold the pills'' effect inside. As you know, that day when you were here with your Daughter''s Soul, was the first time I had concocted a Life Dew Pill. So I was also taken by surprise when I found out this side effect of my Purple Flame." Olave had to admit that it was true. He was here that day, after all. "What do you want in exchange?" Krune shook his head. "Let''s just say that I''m seeding some good karma. Hahaha!" In fact, the one who asked Krune to do that was Feifei. Krune trusted Feifei''s judgment, so he just followed her request. Olave narrowed his eyes for a few seconds while thinking. In the end, he accepted the Pill. "Thank you." Krune nodded. Suddenly, Space Laws started to gather around Olave''s hand. Krune looked at that and couldn''t help but think about that day when he first created the Purple Flame Life Dew Pills. Sure enough, Olave thrust his arm forward, and once again, it seemed like it had disappeared. Krune knew what he was doing, and a smile appeared on his face. ''Just as Feifei said.'' Feifei had told him through a Divine Sense Message to pass over the Purple Flame Life Dew Pill. If he did that, probably something good would happen. Around twenty minutes later, Olave pulled his arm back. On his hand, Krune could see a total of the drops of Life Dew! Olave immediately passed it to Krune and said. "I will make sure to tell my friend about it." Olave and Valindra turned around and left Krune''s house straight away. Krune knew that he couldn''t waste time, so he immediately rushed inside his Alchemist room. The concoction went without any issues, and three new Purple Flame Life Dew Pills came out. Krune looked at that and couldn''t help but feel excited. All three of them had the same trait. They didn''t lose any life energy at all! Feifei, who was observing everything, couldn''t help but smile. "Fortunately, I wasn''t wrong." Krune nodded. "Thanks to your Divination, that is." Surprisingly, Feifei shook her head. "I didn''t use my Divination Abilities. Because Olave''s cultivation is too high, I wouldn''t work to start with. It was nothing more than something that I felt on the spot." Krune was surprised by that. "Like... instinct?" Feifei couldn''t help but nod. "Yes! That would be a very fitting word for it. Divination and Instinct aren''t too different from each other, so the new Heavenly Fragment might have something to do with it. Or maybe it was just luck too. Of course, I can''t possibly compare myself with Rarol. That Krakat Cougar is just too overpowered. In his case, even the cultivation level makes no difference." Krune smiled and then passed a bottle with one Pill to Feifei. "Whether it was something like Rarol or just luck, the fact is that we got three Purple Flame Life Dew Pills. These little guys can become a lifesaver in the future. I will also give one Pill to Tiane and Ruik, just in case. The last one, I will keep with me." Feifei nodded and put the Pill in her Spatial Ring. Krune smiled and gave her a kiss. "I''m going back to the Blacksmith Organization Branch in the Wisp World 9. Do you need anything?" Feifei pondered a bit and nodded. The high rate of Spiritual Energy absorption from her baby is really starting to worry her, after all. "Well, to be honest..." When Krune heard everything, he was startled. "How can that be?! Isn''t it way too hungry?" Krune pondered a bit and decided to go ask Cinty about it. The couple soon arrived at Cinty''s place and went to see her in her cultivation room. When Cinty saw the two of them, she returned to her human form and smiled. "I got the message, it seems like the trade went well." Krune nodded. "Yes, but we can talk about it later. There is something else we need to talk to you." Krune looked at Feifei, and she explained everything to Cinty. Cinty, of course, was also surprised by that development. She couldn''t help but look at Krune. "Why everything about you is always this damn confusing?" Krune''s mouth twitched. "It is not like I''m trying to make things complicated, you know? They simply... happen!" Cinty ignored him and then took a look at Feifei''s baby. Cinty didn''t notice anything wrong before because she was only checking the baby''s growth. But this time, she paid attention to the Spiritual Energy entering its body. "Impressive! Tell me how many spirit stones you used already." Feifei pondered a bit and then said. "The first two months, I was able to feed the baby without any Spirit Stones. But from five weeks ago, I had to use Spirit Stones to be able to keep up with him. So far, I guess I used around 400 Rank 5 Spirit Stones." Cinty nodded. "It seems like not be using much at the moment. But if I''m not wrong, the rate is still increasing, right?" Feifei nodded. "So much Spiritual Energy... It is as if..." Krune just had to hear until that part to understand where Cinty was coming from. "As if the baby is advancing in cultivation!" Feifei then thought about something and immediately opened her communicator. She quickly entered a specific contact ID and called it over. "Tiane, can you come to Cinty''s house? If possible, bring Ruik as well." Tiane and Ruik quickly arrived there. Feifei then went straight to the point. "Is your Egg absorbing more and more Spiritual Energy as it grows?" Tiane didn''t know what was happening, but it seemed important, so she told the truth. "Yes. But I can still provide enough of it without using Spirit Stones." Krune, Cinty, and Feifei nodded. "As we thought. They seem to be cultivating, although not consciously." Feifei then sent a Divine Sense message to Tiane and Ruik explaining everything that they had been thinking. The crow and snake, obviously, were shocked when they heard about it. However, it was then that Krune thought about something. "Right! How could we have forgotten?! If they are really cultivating, then they must have a dantian or a core!" Hearing that, Ruik immediately sent his Spiritual Energy and Divine Sense into Tiane''s body. At the same time, Krune and Cinty did the same with Feifei. Sure enough, both sides found what they were looking for. Ruik couldn''t help but exclaim. "Already in the 3rd Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm." Krune and added his piece. "4th Stage here." They hadn''t noticed it before because Feifei and Tiane''s cultivations were obscuring the Egg and Baby''s ones. Still, Feifei couldn''t help but comment. "Isn''t it way too low for the amount of Spiritual Energy absorbed until now?" Cinty immediately shook her head. "You must remember that they are doing it unconsciously, so there is no doubt that the majority of the energy is being wasted. It''s simple as that. As for why they can already absorb Spiritual Energy... Could it be the Elemental Meridians?" Feifei and Tiane nodded. "We also thought about this possibility." But that''s where the problem resided. "The Myriad Energies Technique is, after all, a technique. Can it really be passed down like bloodlines?" Krune pondered a bit and reached a conclusion. "Most likely. As for a reason, it is very simple. Do you remember that when we were creating the Pseudo Energy Meridians, we could destroy them and create new ones?" Everyone in the room nodded. It was really possible to make it with the Pseudo Energy Meridians. Krune then continued. "At that point, the Myriad Energies Technique could really be considered only that, a technique. But after we created the real Energy Meridians, it became impossible to get rid of them. Think a little, whether you are cultivating or not, they are always there, they are part of your body! Let alone after they evolved into the Elemental Meridians." Suddenly, Krune''s eyes lit up. "Right!" First, Krune took a sword out of his spatial ring. He had been forging in the last three months, so he had quite a few pieces of equipment. After that, he summoned one of his Elemental Meridians and... attacked it! Everyone was taken aback by that scene! Why would Krune attack his own Elemental Meridian? "Arrrgh!" Feifei immediately got worried. "Are you okay?!" Krune nodded with a pale face. "I''m fine." He then looked at everyone and said. "I had to use a sword without any energy. Otherwise, my Elemental Meridians would definitely absorb it. If these guys can even absorb Tribulation lightning, I doubt that any Energy attack could cause anything to them." Krune continued. "Anyway, it proved my theory. That fact that I felt pain!" Ruik was the first one to catch the clue. "I see... If the Elemental Meridians were really just something you got because of a Technique, then there shouldn''t be possible for you to feel pain." Feifei couldn''t help but comment, though. "But there are lots of techniques that cause pain to the user." Cinty''s eyes lit up, and she also understood where Krune and Ruik were coming from. "You are wrong, Feifei. The pain inflicted by those techniques were usually due to the misuse or because of a backlash. It is not like the techniques themselves are inflicting the pain. But the Elemental Meridians are different. What Krune felt was not the pain of a backlash of a misuse. What he felt was a nerve-like pain, the same type when you receive an injury." Ruik decided to do the same thing as Krune. He summoned one of his Elemental Meridians and used Krune''s sword to slash at it. Of course, just like Krune, he controlled his force. "Ouch!" Ruik confirmed that Krune was correct. "Indeed, this is the same pain when I injured my normal meridians in the past. Before meeting Krune, I was already a Foundation Establishment Demon Beast. I also had a small territory with a Spirit Vein. Because of that, I had to fight a few times to protect it. In one of those battles, two of my body meridians got injured, so I know the pain very well. Fortunately, it wasn''t anything serious, so they healed themselves with time." Krune nodded. "I guess we can proceed with this logic. The Elemental Meridians are not just a technique, but real Meridians that are part of each of our bodies. They are something that can be inherited... just like bloodlines!" 381 That Has Nothing to Do With Me Cinty thought about the wisps of Dalin Universe after that. "Well, there is also the fact that Wisps in the Dalin universe are already born in the Foundation Establishment Realm. So it might have something to do with the fact that Feifei''s has higher cultivation." "Anyway, even if Tiane or Feifei run out of Spiritual Energy, it would simply mean that the little ones wouldn''t be able to cultivate. But it might not be a bad thing. If you stop before the Foundation Establishment Realm, you can help them to create a good Foundation Form when they enter that Realm. It would be better than letting a Foundation appear randomly." Tiane couldn''t help but ask. "But wouldn''t it be bad if they couldn''t absorb more spiritual energy?" Krune shook his head. "First of all, at least Tiane''s child shouldn''t be absorbing any Spiritual Energy at all. He or she was supposed to grow without the need for it to start with. Of course, this is just a conjecture, and I might be wrong since this is something completely new for me." Ruik immediately rejected the idea. "Then it is out of the question. It doesn''t matter how small the risk is, if there is a chance of my child being affected in a wrong way because of the lack of spiritual energy, then I won''t care if he or she gets a random Foundation." Tiane and Feifei nodded as well. "The same goes for us." Cinty sighed after hearing that. "Well, that is up to you guys. Just make sure to have a lot of spirit stones available from now on in that case." The group talked for a while longer until finally, they all went back to their own things. Krune, of course, returned to the blacksmith branch in the wisp world 9. During the past three months, Krune had been getting proficient in using his Purple Flame while forging. Now, the time he needed to make equipment with that was similar to one without it. But that wasn''t all; this fine control over the Purple Flame had improved his overall ability to control it. That means it also helped everything else that needs Purple Flame in the process, like alchemy, for example. Another thing worth mention is that Krune''s rank as a blacksmith had also soared in this meantime. He went from a Three Silver Stars Blacksmith to a Nine Silver Stars one. That was to be expected, though. Krune is already in the Divine Soul Realm 5th Stage and also has several laws to help him. He is far above any other Blacksmith of the same age or cultivation. As for his Purple Flame Equipment, Krune simply left them to the Blacksmith Organization Branch to sell it for him. They would be pilled in a corner if he simply kept them, after all. Not to mention that the practice needed materials, so he had to at least get his money back. He also took several requests that the Branch received and crafted the items himself. Time passed, and another month went by. Today, a Saber that Krune had crafted reached the Blacksmith Organization Management of the Dalin Universe. Rumors about the Purple Flame equipment had been spreading recently between the Blacksmith Network. So it didn''t take long before one of them reached this place. A Demon Beast called Argoth, responsible for testing new types of equipment, had that same Saber on his hands at the moment. ''So this is the Purple Hue that Yanvlal Surrigel mentioned in his message. Well, I guess I can only test and see what happens. Let''s see... he said that I will need to use Spiritual Energy as if it was a Spiritual Equipment. Weird, this Saber definitely doesn''t have a Divine Imprint as far as I can see. Well, here goes nothing...'' In front of Argoth, there was a Pillar that he used to test weapons. The good thing about this is that it could be reinforced to any level with the use of a Formation. It goes all the way up to the Divine View Realm attacks. Of course, the Saber in his hand was only an Eight Silver Stars Equipment, so he simply adjusted the pillar to the same level. He used a simple Saber Technique for starter, but when the Purple Flame came out, the power of the technique increased instantly! The slash passed through the pillar as if it was made of paper and hit the wall on the other side of the room. Fortunately, the wall of the testing room was made to resist attack up to the Peak fo the Divine View Realm too, so it had no power to cause it any damage. Still, it didn''t reduce Argoth''s amazement. He looked at the Saber as if he was looking at a treasure. "How''s that possible?!" The pillar that had been cut through then started to repair itself as if it was made of some liquid. Argoth then kept increasing the resistance of the pilar until finally, it was able to stop his saber technique. The problem is, the pillar resistance had been increased to th point where it could resist an attack at the 3rd stage of the Divine Soul Realm! "Is this a blacksmith''s life masterpiece? If not because I can''t feel any laws on its creation, I would definitely say that it is at the Golden Stars Level. Still, this thing''s power is at least at the Two Golden Stars Equipment. No, wait! Yanvlal Surrigel said that all the equipment that this ''Jolk'' created had the same abilities. Does that mean that this Purple Flame can increase any equipment''s power by several stages of its real level?" Argoth knew that this thing is too overpowered, so he had to immediately report. A day later, the Blacksmith Organization Branch of the Wisp World 9 received an order. All of Jolk''s Purple Flame equipment had to be sent to the Blacksmith Organization Management. If possible, he shouldn''t take any more requests, either. Krune, of course, got puzzled at that. "What is this supposed to mean to not get any more requests? I understand they want to research my Purple Flame equipment, but that doesn''t mean I shouldn''t work anymore. Besides, I''m taking requests from the wisps, so I''m definitely not stopping. My Purple Flame equipment can help them a lot, after all." Yanvlal Surrigel sighed. "I know what you mean, but this Purple Flame thing is too overpowered. The Organization is afraid that its secret will be found out. If that happens, the biggest majority of the equipment outside will immediately become obsolete. All the blacksmith works will be considered subpar when compared to one made with Purple Flames." "It is totally different from your Purple Flame pills. After all, once a Pill is used, it is gone forever. But equipment is not the same, they will accompany the cultivators and demon beasts for years. Unless they get destroyed, of course." Krune still didn''t care, though. "It has nothing to do with me. Besides, I''m the only one who can create them. It is not something that can be copied by anyone else." That was the truth. As mentioned before, such a thing is only possible thanks to Light Spirit''s existence. Otherwise, Krune would never have been able to control the Purple Flames. To prove this point, no one in the Luvile Universe has ever created Purple Flames before. If you count the entire Luvile Universe, there is definitely a lot of Tribulation Lightning users. Still, not a single one can do what Krune can. Ula is a very good example of this. Yanvlal Surrigel narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure that it can''t be copied?" Krune smiled and answered with another question. "Have you heard about anyone else concoction Purple Flame Pills before?" Yanvlal had to admit that Krune was right. The Alchemist Organization Management had been buying Krune''s Pills for years already. However, they still hadn''t figured out how Krune could make them. "Alright. I will pass your answer to them." Krune nodded and changed the topic. "There is a thing I want to talk about. When the time comes to craft my new Shields, I would like to use my flames in the process. I can''t use chaos energy, so I can''t craft Diamond Level equipment. But as long as you use my Purple Flames, it will be enough." Yanvlal eyes lit up! If it was only the flame, he could still create Diamond Stars Level Shields. Besides, he will be able to work with 38 Shields while seeing the Purple Flames. If there is any chance of learning how to use it, that will be the time for it. Even if he can''t, the opportunity to work with the Purple Flames is still very enticing for a Blacksmith like him. "Alright, we shall do as you said." It was then that he remembered something. "Oh, right! What''s your level as Blacksmith at the moment?" Krune nodded. "I have just become a Two Golden Stars one." Yanvlal couldn''t help but sigh. He already found out that Krune, or better, Jolk, was nothing more than a Three Silver Stars blacksmith four months ago. His rate of improvement is simply ridiculous! Of course, he came to know that Jolk can control several Sub-laws already, so advancing this fast between the Silver Stars Level was not totally unexpected. That was the only consolation that he had. As for Jika, she already gave up paying attention to Jolk. Otherwise, she might end giving up Blacksmith altogether. 382 Heavins Cultivation Technique Krune wasn''t the only one who entered the Golden Stars level. Both Feifei and Heavin had achieved the same thing. Heavin was now considered a One Golden Stars Puppeteer, while Feifei was even further as a Four Golden Stars Formations Master. Feifei''s case is totally expected. Her laws are very well developed, only losing to Krune. She was also using her Destiny Major Divine Soul in the process, so her rate of improvement was to be this fast, at least. She could have gone even further, but because of the baby, Feifei has to stop to absorb Spiritual Energy several times. As for Heavin, he partnered up with Krune. Heavin was making the designs of the puppets while Krune created the parts with his Purple Flames. Of course, Puppets used other materials that aren''t metals, so Heavin had to create those by himself. Still, with the addition of the metallic parts made with Purple Flame, Heavin''s puppets increased in level by quite a lot. "Heavin, when are you planning to upgrade the parrot?" Heavin pondered a bit and then said. "It is still too early. Thanks to the laws that we know, I''m sure I can reach the peak of the Golden Stars. It will be best if I can upgrade to this level. Also, a Peak Golden Stars parrot with the metallic parts made with Purple Flame is bound to be very strong. I won''t need to keep looking in the sidelines anymore since I will also be able to help." Krune nodded. "By the way, how is the Soul Cultivation Technique research going?" Heavin immediately got excited by that question. "It''s going great! With the last examples that I got from Mohie Zarks Inheritance, I''m very close to creating a basic version. But I also found out something very interesting!" "I believe... that I can move my conscience away from the Divine Soul. Simply put, I will be able to separate from you." Krune was taken aback. "Is that really possible? Wouldn''t I lose my Divine Soul instead?" Heavin shook his head. "If my plan works, I will be able to move my conscience to one side of the Divine Soul and then cut it off. After that, I just need you or Feifei to move it to one of my puppets. From that moment on, I will be me, and you are going to be you." Krune still had a doubt, though. "But isn''t the Heavenly Fragment inside the Our Elemental Divine Soul? I always thought that your conscience was attached to it. Or to be more specific, I thought that your conscience was born from it." Heavin nodded. "It is, but that is why I told you I need to reach the Soul Control Realm. Once I do that, I can move my consciousness away. That also means I can free myself from the Heavenly Fragment, or so I believe. This thing is a hot potato, and I want to stay as far as possible from it." Krune''s eyes immediately lit up! Heavin nodded. "For that, I just need to reach the fifth Realm with my Soul Cultivation Technique." Krune got puzzled. "Fifth Realm?" It was then that Heavin remembered that he hasn''t mentioned his progress with the Soul Cultivation technique for a long time already. "My Soul Cultivation Technique has been devised to go up to five realms so far. Of course, I intend to create more Realms in the future, but for now, I''m focusing on those five. Different from conventional Cultivation Techniques, my one only has Five Stages for each of them. Of course, since it is a different system, some of the names are also different." "The first one I still kept Qi Condensation. After all, it simply uses Spiritual Energy to advance through the Five Stages." "The Second One I also kept similar, which is Soul Foundation. But different from the normal Foundation Establishment, the Soul Foundation will not give birth to a Core for the next Realm." "The third one is where the main difference between systems start. I called it Soul Enhancement Realm. It also uses Elemental Source Energy from this point onwards. By the way, I will be starting directly in this Realm. After all, I''m already a Divine Soul that can create Elemental Source Energy, so I don''t need to pass through the first two realms. This Realm will strengthen the Soul to prepare for what is coming in the next one." "The Fourth Realm is called Soul Transformation. This is a Realm where the Soul has to be changed. The reason for that is because up to this point, the Soul can only do so much. If I don''t change it, I won''t be able to advance any further. This was also the part I spent more time until now and the one in which I have the most significant concerns. If not for this Realm, I would have already started cultivation my Soul Technique. Oh, right! It is also quite similar to the transformation of the Soul Forging Realm of the normal Cultivation System." "Finally, the Fifth Stage is Soul Control. Only in this Realm, I will be able to move my conscience at will. That is the moment where we will be able to separate from each other." Heavin then took out the information regarding each Realm and showed it to Krune. Although Krune still has some doubts, he has to admit that Heavin''s work so far is fantastic. He accounted for every possible flaw. But what really caught his attention was the safety insurances. Heavin made sure to devise a way to revert the process in case something started to go wrong during a Realm Breakthrough. So even if things got risky, he could go back to the start point. Another thing that Krune noticed is that the Soul Realms are not in parallel with the normal Cultivation Realms. For example, Chaos energy is necessary to cultivate the 6th Realm, Void Breaking. But Heavin''s Soul Control, which is the 5th Realm, also needed Chaos Energy. That means that Heavin won''t be able to enter the Soul Control Realm before Krune becomes able to create Chaos Energy himself. After reading everything, Krune started to give his own opinions. Quite a few suggestions came out, and Heavin made sure to record each of them. It wasn''t before an entire day of discussion that the two of them finally finished that conversation. "Well, I guess this is as far as I can help you with. So I only hope everything goes okay." Heavin nodded. "That was more than enough already. You even helped me with a few points of the Fourth Realm. Don''t worry, I will definitely make it work." Krune nodded and exchanged a few more words with Heavin before he went back to his Blacksmith practice. --- Another month went by, and today, Krune got a message from Feifei. "Tiane has finally laid down her Egg!" Sure enough, it was just as Tiane had predicted, it took her more than five months for her body to finish creating the Egg. Krune was surprised with that information, so he stopped what he was doing and went back with Heavin to take a look. After arriving there, he noticed that Tiane was lying down on it while several Spirit Stones were surrounding them. It was also obvious to Krune that Tiane looked quite tired. "Seems like bringing an egg out is quite hard." Feifei was too happy to rebuke Krune for that comment, though. "Now that the Egg is out, we can feel its cultivation very clearly." Krune agreed with Feifei. He could totally tell that the Egg was at the 5th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. Also, it was easy to see that Cinty was correct. The biggest majority of the Spiritual Energy absorbed was being completely wasted. Just a little bit was added to the little guy''s cultivation inside the Egg. Krune could also see that some of the Spiritual Energy were being used on the body as well. Probably to strengthen it. Krune got close and touched the Egg. Tiane saw that but didn''t say anything, she was too tired to even talk at the moment. After sending his Spiritual Energy and Divine Sense inside, Krune could finally see an outline of the creature. He couldn''t help but smile. "So it really is similar to a Quetzalcoatl." In th end, he couldn''t help but laugh. "Well, it seems like this guy doesn''t have two heads as Ruik does, though." Ruik, of course, was there as well. "Hmph! So what? He still has this handsome grandfather''s serpent body. That is enough." Krune was surprised. "He? So it is a male?" Ruik nodded. "Yes, his serpent body seems very similar to mine. Although it is far from being fully formed, I can already tell that he is bound to be a male." Krune then laughed once more. "As long as he doesn''t sleep as much as you, I guess it is okay." Heavin also flew beside the Egg and looked at it and Tiane''s Demon Crow body with interest. ''So that''s how a bird type should be. I guess I will try something different later.'' Krune went back to Feifei''s side and looked at her. After five months, her belly looked quite apparent. She was also correct about the time. From its rate of growth, Krune was sure that Feifei wouldn''t be giving birth in just nine months. "How is it?" Feifei nodded and said. "Pretty much okay. She is growing well, but I believe that the pregnancy will take around one year instead of nine months. So I will need to carry this little girl for an extra three months." Krune and Feifei already noticed what the baby''s gender is. So the only thing they were in doubt so far is what name they should give her. As for how the baby looked, it did have the human shape, at least. However, they still remember Cinty''s comment from before. So they are quite curious to see how she will look like. But there was one thing that made Krune worried. The Five Years'' time after arriving at Dilan has passed already. That means that both he and Feifei might be feeling the presence of one of the Heavenly Fragment owners at any moment. Of course, the opposite would also be the case. Feifei could obviously understand what Krune was thinking. "Don''t worry too much. Even if they end noticing me first, they will soon find out that I''m in the Wisp Main World. Everyone who isn''t from the Wisp Race needs permission to land on the Wisp Main World. So we should be fine." Krune nodded and put those thoughts behind. He had long since prepared everything he could. Only his Shields were left now. Suddenly, Krune''s communicator flashed. He took it out and saw a message on it. He couldn''t help but smile after seeing that. "It seems like one of my preparations has just arrived." 383 Heavenly Competition Krune came out with Feifei to receive the newcomer. "Yo! So you finally arrived." It was none other than Laex, the Black Dragon Divine Beast. "Hahaha! Of course, I would come. After the price you offered, there is no way I would refuse." Laex then looked at Feifei''s belly and was taken aback. "Hey, look at that! It seems like the two of you had quite some fun together after you came out from Mohie Zarks Inheritance. Still, that''s quite a rare thing for a demon beast and a human to conceive." Krune and Feifei smiled. "Well, we were quite lucky. Especially since I''m a wisp." Laex then sighed. "As I thought. So you really are a wisp. I found it weird when you asked me to come to the Wisp''s Main World." Laex did not enter Mohie Zarks Inheritance, so he had not seen Krune in his Wisp form. After their contract was over, Laex also didn''t bother looking for information about it. After all, he had already received his payment at that time, so he had no need to think about it anymore. That''s just how carefree Laex is. "Anyway, congratulations." Krune couldn''t help but say. "You seem to accept the fact that Feifei really got pregnant with my child very easily." Laex got puzzled. "Feifei? Wasn''t her name Fina?" Feifei shook her head. "That was just an alias. I also use another alias when I''m outside, so you might hear someone calling me Feier as well. Still, my real name is really Feifei, once again, nice to meet you." Krune also added his piece. "You can call me Krune. Darten was also a fake name. Oh, but when we are outside, try to use Jolk instead." Laex nodded. "Well, that is understandable. Many cultivators and demon beasts use fake names and appearances when they go to a No Laws Zone. If not because of your auras, I wouldn''t have recognized you straight away. I guess what I''m seeing now is how you really look like?" Feife and Krune nodded. "Yeap, that''s pretty much it." Laex seemed to not be very concerned with all of that. "That''s good to know then. By the way, what did you mean with I accepted the fact that she is pregnant with your child? Are hybrids of humans and wisps very rare?" It was then that Krune noticed. It is not like everyone would know about how hard it is for a wisp and another race to have children. Krune then explained to Laex just what were the real chances of something like that to happen. "What?! Are you kidding me? How the hell did you get it in your first try then?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "I guess I''m just lucky." Laex then put his arm around Krune and Feifei''s shoulders before suggesting. "How about we pay a visit to the Yuggel Planet, uh?" Krune and Feifei got puzzled. "Yuggel Planet?" Laex smiled playfully. Krune and Feifei remembered Cinty saying something similar to it. Krune then looked at Laex and sighed. "You did not spend all your payment on gambling, right?" Laex immediately shook his head. "Of course not, only 30% of it." Krune''s mouth twitched. "30% is already a fortune! You should use it to cultivate." Laex didn''t mind, though. "Who cares? The purpose of life is to be happy! Even when I lose, I''m still having fun, so why bother? Besides, I just need to make more Spirit Stones again, and that''s why I''m here." Krune and Feifei couldn''t help but think that Laex and Rarol are quite similar to each other. The two of them are always laughing. The difference is that Rarol doesn''t gamble... or at least they think he doesn''t. "Anyway, what is going on here? For you to show me your real names and appearance, there must be a reason for that. I''m glad that you trust me this much, but I won''t be entering a death mission just because of that." Krune nodded and then brought Laex back to his house. "What I need from you is similar to what you did in the past. Just a guarantee that rules won''t be broken. As for a reason behind our realm names and appearance, that is because Feifei believes in you." Feifei nodded. "I have long since used my Divination Skills. Although your cultivation is much higher than mine, I can at least tell that you would not betray anyone that treats you with respect. So I''m not the least bit afraid of you going around displaying our picture everywhere with our names under it." Laex couldn''t help but feel a little embarrassed. It is not every day that someone would say something like that on his face. "Cough, cough. That''s good and all, but let''s go back to the main topic, shall we?" Krune laughed and then explained everything. The only thing he left out is the fact that his group entrance in the Dalin Universe was illegal. He even told about the fact that their Universe Heavenly Fragment fight is about to start. As for Laex mission? It is to prevent other Void breaking Realms from intervening. As long as they are not in the No Law Zones, one can''t be attacked by others with cultivation realms much higher than theirs. But it doesn''t mean that someone wouldn''t try it. For example, if a Void breaking Realm becomes a slave for some reason, he wouldn''t be able to defy the owner''s order. In that case, the laws would matter little. "I see... To think that I would see two heavenly Fragment owners together. Last time I saw one was over 5 years ago." Krune and Feifei''s attention was picked. Of course, because it was over 5 years ago, it probably meant that this owner wasn''t someone from Luvile Universe. "You have seen one before?" Laex nodded. "He was someone from a Universe called Jirai. At that time, he was only at the Core Formation Realm. Still, his combat power was something that I would never be able to copy when I was in the same cultivation level. I also heard about a few other Heavenly Fragment owners from other Universes that entered Dalin." "Still, the majority would refrain from leaving their own Universe. After all, you never know what could happen when you separate yourself from your own background." Feifei and Krune understood this part. Most likely, the only reason the others came to Dalin was that they fled here to start with. But Laex next words left Krune and Feifei puzzled. "It seems like everyone is already preparing for the Heavenly Competition." Krune and Feifei had never heard about it, even from Cinty. "What is the Heavenly Competition?" Laex was surprised by the fact that Krune and Feifei didn''t know. "Wait, isn''t that the reason why you came to Dalin Universe?" Krune and Feifei looked at each other and shook their heads. Krune then opened his communicator and called Cinty. Since it was just a video call, Laex wouldn''t be able to tell what Realm she was, so it was fine if he saw that. "Cinty, have you heard about something called Heavenly Competition?" Cinty confirmed on the other side. "Sure, what about it?" Krune and Feifei were speechless. "Shouldn''t it have something to do with our Heavenly Fragments?" Cinty confirmed once again. "Yes and no. Only those who get a Heavenly Core, or better, Heavenly Divine Soul can take part in it. But you and Feifei will never give your Heavenly Fragments to the other, right? So neither of you will ever have a Heavenly Divine Soul to start with. In that case, what is the point in talking about the Heavenly Competition?" Not only Krune and Feifei, but even Laex was also surprised by that. Of course, the reason Laex was surprised was totally different from Krune and Feifei. "Right! How can I have forgotten this?! If you two are from the same Universe, then one of you must lose your Divine Soul so that you can get the Heavenly Fragment." It was then that Feifei and Krune understood the crux of the issue. Since they are not doing that, then this so-called Heavenly Competition has nothing to do with them to start with. That''s why Cinty hasn''t told them anything. "We are not. Be it Feifei or me, we are definitely not taking the other''s Heavenly Fragment. In fact, our plan is to destroy one of them so that the other side will give up taking it." Laex was taken aback by that. "Is it possible to destroy a Heavenly Fragment? At the very least, I''ve never heard about a Heavenly Fragment being destroyed, only their owners." Krune shrugged his shoulders. "I don''t know, but it worth a try." Feifei was still curious, though. "Anyway. Even if we don''t get a Heavenly Divine Soul, I still wish to know what this Heavenly Competition is." Cinty sighed and then explained through the monitor. "Well, the Dalin Universe has several Universe Powerhouses managing it. But when you put all the Universes in that we know, the Powerhouses'' number can''t even be considered a number at all. So if they really decide to monopolize Dalin, things might get out of control if thousands of other Universes decide to join forces to take it away from them. That''s where the Heavenly Competition comes in." Laex nodded. "She is right. In total, there are 5 slots opened for other Universes to become one of those controlling Dalin. Also, the Heavenly Fragment Owners always appear at the same time in all the Universes. Of course, no one knows why they appear together. Anyway, as you probably know, a Heavenly Divine Soul cultivator or demon beast is considered the strongest of their own Universes. So they will be their own Universes representatives in this competition." Cinty confirmed that Laex was telling the truth. "That goes to show just how much of a heaven-defying treasure Dalin is considered to be. Dalin is basically the only Universe that has ever been found to have these special properties about cultivation and Laws. A Universe that is in control of Dalin is bound to get several times stronger until the next Heavenly Competition starts. So it goes without saying that everyone wants to have their Heavenly Divine Soul cultivators and demon beasts ready for it." Cinty then repeated herself. "Still, it has nothing to do with you. After all, you won''t ever get a Heavenly Divine Soul. Remember, Havenly Fragments from other Universes are useless to you. A Heavenly Divine Core or Soul can only be completed with the Heavenly Fragments of that specific Universe." 384 Purple Flame Brand Krune and Feifei nodded. I would indeed have nothing to do with them. Still, that is definitely something that any Universe would like to take part in. Now they could understand why the Sacred Lands would send their own Heavenly Fragments here. "By the way, what were the rules for it?" Laex answered that question. "As far as I know, your Universe controlling power, or powers, has to have a Heavenly Core or Divine Soul owner. Also, the cultivation limit is Divine View Realm or below. Well, it would be very difficult for any Heavenly Divine Soul to have cultivation above Divine View anyway. As far as what my Uncle told me, it was already a miracle if even 2 or 3 Divine View Realm Heavenly Divine Soul owners appeared." Kruen couldn''t help but comment. "Is that is the case, doesn''t that mean that there is a specific time for the competition to start?" Cinty confirmed. "Yes, the time starts when the first Heavenly Fragment Owner appears. The competition is always carried out 50 years after that. Which means, there is still another 20 or some years before the time comes." Laex shrugged his shoulders. "Anyway, it seems my job is to stop the Heavenly Fragment Owners from your Universe to from using underhanded tricks against you. That will be okay, then. We have already agreed on a price, so this is good enough." Krune nodded. "That is correct. Just make sure to stay around during this time." It was then that Feifei sighed. "I wish I could meet a Heavenly Divine Soul owner. I wonder just how different they are." Laex then said. "Is that so? I know one if you want to see him. Well, to be more specific, my Uncle passed me his contact ID." Feifei was surprised. "Is there a Heavenly Divine Soul already?" Laex nodded. "Of course, there is. The same way that some Universes have several powers controlling it, there are those who only have one power in control. Those Universes would have an easier time gathering the Heavenly Fragment Owners of their turf. They would them make a competition between them or simply chose one and forcefully take the other Fragments. Anyway, the fact is that there should be quite a few Heavenly Divine Soul Owners already. Some of them are even here in Dalin already." "Of course, they would not go out unless they needed some battle experience. Otherwise, they would stay cultivating all the time in seclusion." Krune shook his head. "It would not be a good idea to leave the Wisp Main World now. You are pregnant, and we don''t know when we are going to have the ''coating'' removed. If, by any chance, it disappears while we are out, we might get in a dangerous situation." Feifei knew that it was the truth. "Alright, let''s at least wait for when the baby is born." Cinty then said. The call ended right after. Laex also added. "If that is the case, then you let me know when you want to go take a look. Anyway, where is my residence? You won''t let me sleep outside, right?" Krune nodded and asked one of the wisps to prepare a place close to their house for him. Krune is spending a lot on Laex, but he believes it is more than worth it. After that, Krune and Feifei went back to Tiane''s room to talk a little more. Heavin seemed to have quite some fun while talking to her too. A few hours later, Krune and Heavin returned to the Wisp World 9 to continue their training. Time continued to pass, and after another month, Krune''s Purple Flame Golden Stars equipment started to appear outside. The majority of the Wiss ordered Silver Stars Equipments, but it didn''t mean that some of them wouldn''t need Golden Stars level one. But that wasn''t all, Krune didn''t sell all his equipment that weren''t request to the Blacksmith Organization Management, he also put some to sell outside. Krune simply didn''t like the idea of the Blacksmith Organization monopolizing his pieces. Sure enough, rumors started to spread, and a few cultivators and demon beasts started to come to the Wisp World 9. Their requests were very simple, they wanted Purple Flame Golden Stars Equipment. Krune knew how good his items were, so he obviously charged them the price equivalent to their real prowess. At first, everyone was doubtful about this so-called purple Flame. But after testing, they couldn''t help but fall in love with Krune''s crafts. Thanks to that, a simple rumor started to get something real. Of course, considering the size of the Dalin Universe, this was nothing more than a simple spark in the middle of an enormous forest. It is just that this spark had created a fire, which started to spread slowly, just like Krune''s Purple Flame Pills. Because of that, the Blacksmith Organization Management had no other choice other than sending a representative to talk with Krune, or better, Jolk. "That''s why I''m saying it. Look at this, there was a demon beast who used a spear made by you in his sect competition. Although he didn''t win, he used the prowess of the spear to advance all the way to the 11th position. He was far from being considered a favorite, and no one expected much from him. But now, every disciple around his level wants a Purple Flame Equipment. The blacksmiths in the area obviously have no idea how to create them, so now we have a lot of them sending us messages asking about this new crafting method." The one talking was the same demon beast who first tested Krune''s Saber back in the Blacksmith Organization Management Headquarters, Argoth. Krune shrugged his shoulders and said. "What is bad about that? That might force them to put more effort into forging and become better blacksmiths. Besides, I told Yanvlal already, so he should have informed you. I''m the only one who can use my Purple Flames, and I believe that you already know that I''m also the Purple Flame Pills creator. I am, after all, just one wisp. There is no way I can create enough equipment for an entire universe so that the other blacksmiths will go out of a job. That would be ridiculous!" Argoth sighed. "As I said, the problem is not that. The issue is the fact that the Purple Flame equipment exists, but no one else can craft it. I told you before, the Blacksmith Organization will buy all your equipment and even give a higher price for them. Just don''t let it flow outside. Unless, of course, you are willing to share the secret of your Purple Flame. In that case, we can definitely pay you an astronomic price." Krune shook his head. "It has nothing to do with me sharing the secret or not. It is merely that even if I tell you, no one else would be able to do it. I know you won''t believe it since your Organization is bound to have many Divinity Stars Blacksmiths, but this is the truth. If they came here and saw me crafting Purple Flame weapons, they would see that other than the Purple Flame, I''m not doing anything different." "As for seeling everything to the Blacksmith Organization, I can do the same thing as the Alchemist Organization. How about that?" Argoth pondered a bit. "You mean, the majority would be sent to us, and only a few will be left with the Organization to sell. Is that it?" Krune nodded. "That way, I can get the payment that you offer, but not all equipment will be monopolized by you. But you need to make sure that a few of them will be sold. Just make it as some rare type of good. I guess that is possible, right?" Argoth opened his communicator and immediately called the headquarters. He then explained Jolk''s terms. In the end, the Blacksmith Organization agreed. As long as Jolk''s items don''t come out in great batches as they have been so far, they can at least control the flames. "Alright. The Organization offered that from every 10 Purple Flame Weapons, we will keep 8 for research, and 2 will be sold. Are you okay with that?" Krune nodded. "That is pretty much what the Alchemist Organization has been doing so far. Although I think it will be a waste of time for you to research my weapons, as long as you pay for it, I won''t mind." Argoth couldn''t help but be impressed with how confident Jolk was that they wouldn''t be able to replicate his Purple Flame crafting. "Very well. What about the requests, then? Your list of requests seems to be full at the moment." Krune glanced at Argoth. "If the ones making it are the wisps, then I will forge for them. As for any other race... let''s follow the same process. For every 10 pieces that I forge through requests, only 2 will be for other races. You shouldn''t have anything to complain in that case, right?" Argoth nodded. It was already a huge commitment from Jolk, who didn''t have to follow their orders to start with. "Very well, now you just need a brand for your items." Krune looked at Argoth, puzzled. "Brand?" Argoth nodded. "Every famous blacksmith has an emblem or a mark representing their brand. There is no doubt that your pieces of equipment will become famous, even with just this little amount going out. So you need to think about something like that." Krune pondered a bit. "Let''s just use a Purple Flame Mark then. My weapons all have the Purple Flame Trait, after all. It is simple and easy to identify. I might as well use it with my pills." Argoth accepted the idea. "Purple Flame it is." And just like that, the Purple Flame Brand was created. 385 Yin and Yang The Blacksmith organization followed the same plan as the Alchemist one and started to sell the Purple Flame weapons. Obviously, the Blacksmith Organization wasn''t the only one interested in the Purple Flame Weapons. So quite a few powers that focused on blacksmithing tried to acquire them. The Wisp World 9 also started to get a lot more visitors. All of them, with the same objective, make a personal request to Jolk. But they soon found about Jolk''s rule for requests. Only two pieces of equipment after every 8 wisp''s request. Everyone knows that Jolk is a wisp protected by the Wisp Protection Law, so they could do nothing about it. Krune''s request list was already completed filled as well, so newcomers couldn''t even make the requests. In the end, several of them started to try to buy the equipments from the wisps themselves. Still, the wisps that requested Golden Stars level equipments were few and far between. So those blacksmiths from outside would usually only get a Silver Stars Equipment. And that is considering that those wisps were willing to sell them at all. Krune, who wasn''t paying attention to any of that, had just finished crafting an Awl. He looked at that and smiled. ''To think that my first Four Golden Stars equipment would be something like this. Oh well, a request is a request, after all.'' Krune then asked one of the Branch''s employees to bring the Awl away and take the payment. Things like that Krune had no need to deal anymore. Krune started to look into the list of requests to see what he would forger next when suddenly, he felt a weird sensation coming from his Foundation. Immediately, Heavin came flying inside and asked. "Did you feel it?" Krune nodded and smiled. "Yes, it is Feifei." Soon after, Krune''s communicator flashed. He didn''t even need to think to know who it was. "Feifei, can you feel it too?" Feifei nodded. "Yes. It is quite weird. Even though you are in another Planet at the moment, I can tell exactly where you are. So this is the so-called ''connection'' between Heavenly Fragments. But other than you, I can''t feel anyone else." Krune nodded. "I guess the fact that our ''coating'' disappeared first was to be expected. We have been together ever since we arrived, so it goes without saying that we would start to feel each other''s presence sooner. I hope it means that the others who are far away will take longer to feel our presence." Heavin agreed with Krune. "Feifei is still around 5 months away from giving birth, after all. Feifei then laughed. "What are you two so worried about? I told you before, didn''t I? As long as I don''t leave the Wisp Main World, I should be fine." That was a widespread occurrence when one is a cultivator, so Feifei immediately understood and smiled. ''Cinty advanced another stage.'' Feifei waited outside for a few hours so that the Spiritual Energy around would settle. Only after that, she called Cinty. Cinty, of course, quickly invited Feifei inside. Although Cinty was in her Wisp Form, Feifei could feel the excitement on her voice. "You seem to be very happy. Did you enter the 8th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm?" Cinty confirmed. "Yes! I still have 19 years ahead, more than time enough to reach the Divine path Realm. As long as I pass the Heavenly Tribulation, I will be the 11th Wisp to have ever advanced this far." Feifei smiled playfully. "And will also be able to go see Kiirion." Cinty immediately went silent, which made Feifei laugh. "Alright, alright. I just came here to tell you that I can feel Krune''s presence now. It seems like our ''coatings'' have finally disappeared." Cinty was surprised by that, but she, too, understood that it was probably because of how much time they passed together. "Very well. Just make sure to stay in the Wisp Main World from now on. It has already been seven months since you got pregnant, so I doubt something could happen until it is over." Feifei nodded, and they talked a little more. In the end, Krune was right. It was because he and Feifei had been close to each other that their ''coating'' disappeared just a few months after the five-year time. But there was one problem, there was another couple which had been in the same situation but had arrived in Dalin just a few days later. Obviously, they were both Rania Javiu and Hobbek Javiu. The Yin and Yang Major Divine Souls and Heavenly Fragment Owners. The members from the Extreme Yin Yang Palace. Because of that, their ''coating'' also disappeared not long after Krune and Feifei. That left only Wamie Zark, the Life Major Divine Soul, without being able to feel anyone''s presence. The moment Rania and Hobbek''s protection disappeared, the two of them immediately looked in a specific direction. Back in the Wisp Worlds, Feifei, Krune, and Heavin also felt the same thing. They couldn''t help but look in the direction that Rania and Hobbek were as well. Still, both parts were taken aback. That is because either side wasn''t expecting to feel the presence of two new Heavenly Fragments at the same time. In the end, be it Krune and Feifei, or Rania and Hobbek, both thought that perhaps, the other side had joined hands with someone else against them. Back in the place that Rania and Hobbek were staying, Rania started to talk about it. "What should we do? We were expecting to only feel the presence of a single one at first. But it is evident that they, too, are together. Besides, there is a good chance that they are the ones who got that Heavenly Fragment we felt a few months back." Hobbek nodded. "Other than us, there are only Wamie Zarks and Uer from the other Sacred Lands. Considering that we came here because of Feifei of the Wang Clan, there is a chance that she was the one who died. After all, she was the weakest between all of us, according to the information we got. However, from what we know about the Darkness Land Heavenly Fragment Owner, I can''t imagine Uer joining forces with Wamie Zarks." Rania nodded. "Which means that one side has probably become the other''s slave. Still, I thought that anyone of us would probably rather die than do that. Or..." Hobbek nodded. "Or the things that the Palace Master told us might be true. That Feifei wasn''t the only outsider who came into Dalin. Sigh... this thing about not being able to contact Luvile Universe back is really annoying. Anyway, shall we go there and take a look?" Rania nodded. "We got enough forces already, so we should be fine if we want to just investigate." Rania and Hobbek hadn''t simply cultivated. They also spent part of their time gathering enough helpers and making Spirit Stones. They made a few agreements that would need to be paid once they leave the Dalin Universe as well. In the end, they have quite a few Soul Forging Realm and even three Void Breaking Realm supporters. They didn''t try to acquire anyone at the Divine Path Realm or above, though. That''s because it would be going against the Dalin Universe rules, which had a higher chance of getting them in trouble. Let alone being expulsed of the Dalin Universe, they might be simply instantly killed instead since it would be faster and cheaper. At the same time, Krune gathered his tools and informed Yanvlal Surrigel that he would continue his practice back in the Wisp Main World. Krune had been staying in the Wisp World 9 since it was easier to get the requests and his own equipments done. But now that he can''t hide anymore, he decided to stay as close as possible to Feifei. The moment Krune arrived at his home in the Wisp Main World, everyone was there too. Feifei had informed Cinty and the others as soon as she felt the other Heavenly Fragment Owners. Cinty didn''t seem worried, though. "I only came to repeat once more that you shouldn''t leave the Wisp Main World for now. As long as you do that, no one will try anything. Alright, I said what I had to, so I''m going back to cultivate." Krune''s group was then left alone. However, because of Feifei''s pregnancy, Krune was still worried. "Laex, I want you to stay close to Feifei from now on, is that fine with you?" Laex just laughed. "You paid me already, didn''t you? So I will keep my part of the contract. As long as a Divine Path Realm or above doesn''t appear, I can guarantee her safety." Suddenly, Feifei and Krune looked in the same direction. "They are coming." Feifei couldn''t help but think. "I wonder what they will do once they find out that we are in the Wisp Main World." Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Well, we can only wait and see." 386 Cant Touch Them Rania and Hobbek and been using a Dual Cultivation technique provided by the Extreme Yin Yang Palace. The fact that both were the Yin and Yang Major Divine Souls also helped a lot. Because of that, they were not losing even to the Blackhole Major Divine Soul in cultivation speed, being both at the Soul Forging Realm after five years of cultivation. Yin and Yang complement each other, so that was expected to happen. Not to mention that the Extreme Yin Yang Palace had paid an enormous price in the past for the cultivation technique that they were using. It wasn''t even created in the Luvile Universe to start with. Rania was at the 2nd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, while Hobbek was on the 3rd. One must remember that just a few months ago, Uer was only at the peak of the Divine Soul Realm. Uer and Hobbek were at the same 5th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm when they first arrived in the Dalin Universe. There is also Hobbek and Rania''s Laws. Hobbek is extremely proficient in Yang laws life Fire, Lightning, and Light. While Rania got her best results from Water and Darkness, which are considered Yin Laws. --- Of course, except for Feifei and Tiane, Krune''s group also advanced a lot in the past 7 and a half months since they left Mohie Zarks'' Inheritance. Krune was able to heal himself just two weeks after with the Life Dew Pill, so his cultivation speed came back at full power. Thanks to the mind Sppliting Technique, he always made sure to keep part of his focus on cultivation all the time. So now, he has already advanced to the 6th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. But the main improvement he made so far was with his Tribulation Lightning Laws. Krune finally comprehended the Initial Stage of the second Sub-Law, Charged Lightning. Together with Flash Annihilation, Krune''s Tribulation Lightning reached a whole new level. Of course, there was progress on other fronts as well, like his Gravity Sub-Law, which reached completion now. Ruik was in the 3rd Stage of the Divine Soul Realm when he came back, but he has now advanced to the 5th. His Dream Laws also went a step further. Although his Dream World Construction was still in the Advanced Stage, his Nightmare World Construction advanced to the intermediate Stage. Not to mention other laws like Earth Related ones. Especially Earth Essence, which reached completion. Dilo was already in the Soul Forging Realm, a realm where understanding Laws is much easier. So his Drifting Sub-Law reached the Advanced Stage while he comprehended the initial Stage of the Wind Essence. His cultivation also advanced from the 3rd to the 4th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Lastly, Dilo was now able to add the Drifting Sub-law to his Storm Domain, which only used Gale so far. As for Tiane and Feifei, because of their babies'' enormous consumption of Spiritual Energy, their cultivation advancement was minimal. However, Tiane was able to enter the 4th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm just a few weeks ago. That is because after she laid her Egg, her part was over, so she could focus on cultivation again. As for Feifei, she got three Stages higher because of Uer''s heavenly Fragment, and that was without any side effect. Even if she hasn''t advanced anything in the last 7 months, what she got before that far surpassed what she could do by herself without it. One must also remember that Tiane and Feifei''s comprehension of Laws was not hindered because of their pregnancies. So it could be said to have made their major improvements with them. Too bad that the Elemental Flowers were long since gone, otherwise Feifei would have improved even more. Tiane''s Wind Sub-Laws, Wind Essence and Breeze, improved one level each. They are now at the Advanced and Intermediate Stages. Her only Lightning Sub-Law, Current, also reached the intermediate Stage. As for Feifei, Destiny laws are still as hard as they had always been. She got a better comprehension of the Cause Sub-law, but not enough to go to the Advanced Stage. At least, Feifei felt that she was close to comprehending the Initial Stage of Effect. However, her Elemental Laws were different. Her Darkness Sub-Laws, especially, had made a big leap thanks to Uer''s Death Heavenly Fragment. In just seven months, her Decay Sub-Law went from the Initial to the Advanced Stage. She even comprehended the Intermediate Stage of Dark Essence. --- Time passed, but Krune and Feifei still felt the approach of the two Heavenly Fragments. Because of the distance, it took the enemies two entire weeks to enter the same Galaxy that Krune and Tiane were staying at the moment. But when they finally pinpointed the exact location of the Solar System and Planet, one of their companions stopped them from moving forward. His name was Ivaran Holavalur, a 6th Stage Void Breaking Realm cultivator. "Are you sure that it is this planet where they are?" Hobbek and Rania nodded. "We have no doubt about it. Is there something wrong?" Ivaran then sighed. "That is the Wisp Main World of the Orluke Solar System. But others like to call it Wisps Solar System instead. If they are really inside the Wisp Main World, then there is absolutely nothing we can do to them." Rania and Hobbet were surprised by that statement. "Why is that?" Ivaran came from quite a prominent Sect, so he knew a few things about the Wisps in the Dalin Universe. His father made sure to warn him about it before he entered Dalin too. Still, it was evident that his contractors didn''t know anything about the wisps situation, so he started to explain everything that he knew. Another one of the Void Breaking Realm cultivators, a guy called Elmer Erzumin, couldn''t help but ask. "I also know about this, but how exactly did they get into the Wisp main World? As far as I know, you need permission to live there if you are not a wisp." Hobbek and Rania looked at each other and nodded. "I don''t want to believe it, but it seems like the Palace Master was right." The group looked at Rania and hobbek, puzzled. Rania noticed that and then explained. "Before we entered the Dalin Universe, the Palace Master of the Extreme Yin Yang Palace gave us a piece of information. Although the chances were minimal, they thought that a Wisp called Krune might have the Elemental Heavenly Fragment. They also confirmed that they couldn''t find this Wisp anywhere before we came to Dalin, so he might have come together with Feifei. The Divine Path Sect and Wang Clan are allies, so it wasn''t totally impossible that such a thing happened." Hobbek agreed with Rania. "That changes our first conjectures. If there are two Heavenly Fragments in the Wisp Main World, it probably means that this Krune is involved. If this is really the case, then there is no way that Uer or Wamie Zark are there. That is not all, it would also confirm that the one who lost the Heavenly Fragment wasn''t Feifei, but Wamie Zark or Uer instead. Of course, we will need to investigate to find out the truth." Hobbek and Rania understood that going to the Wisp Main World is useless. So they decided to not move for now and let the rest of the group investigate the Wisp Worlds for information. "Still, it is not totally a bad thing. It means that a Wisp has received the Heavenly Fragment. That will make things easier to deal with. I don''t know how they defeated one of the Heavenly Fragment''s Owner, but the same will not happen to us." Everyone nodded. None of those present thought much about Wisps since they rarely see one at the Divine Soul Realm, let alone above it. Soon, only one Void Breaking Realm cultivator stayed with Hobbek and Rania. At the same time, the rest of the group left for the Wisps Solar System. Krune and Feifei, of course, noticed when Rania and Hobbek stopped in a nearby Solar System as well. "As I thought, they wouldn''t simply charge directly inside. They will probably send some of their companions to search for us first. Especially considering that we are in the Wisp Main World at the moment." Krune started to ponder about what to do. He feels like if he stays put, things might escalate, and his group entering Dalin illegally might be found out. "Hum..." Krune then opened his communicator and made a call. "Have all the wisps which are working on the management of the other Wisp Worlds pay attention if anyone is looking for someone who looks like Feifei or me. Once you find one of them, let me know." The Wisp on the other side immediately accepted the order. Cinty had long since introduced Krune as a probable next Wisp King. Not to mention that very few knew about her cultivation improvement, so the other wisps also treated Krune just like her. Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "What you intend to do?" Krune gave Feifei a kiss and smiled playfully. "Being on the passive side is not exactly how I want to spend my time." 387 What Do You Propose? Sure enough, Krune received information just a few days later. Quite a few cultivators and demon beasts had been asking around about them. From the looks of it, two of those guys were even in the Void Breaking Realm. Still, the majority was in the Soul Forging Realm with a few in the Divine Soul Realm. From the numbers so far, Krune believed that the enemy''s group had a total of 15 or so members. Krune tracked the path they were doing and their cultivations, especially the Void breaking Realm ones. Finally, he found his target and moved out. He had just confirmed the position of the two Void Breaking Realms, so he wasn''t afraid of the rest. But just to be certain, Krune selected one of the three Divine Soul Realm members. Krune moved fast and teleported to the Wisp World 7, where the guy had been seen. Krune even had the wisps pay attention to where he was going. After arriving at the place informed, he spread his Divine Sense and looked for someone that fit the description. As expected, the cultivator that Krune was looking for was just 20 or so KM away from him. Krune moved as fast as lightning and soon arrived in front of the guy. He wasn''t any genius or anything like that, just an ordinary cultivator. But Krune was sure that he was part of the enemy''s group since he was looking for someone who looked exactly like Feifei''s real appearance. The number of people and beasts that know both her name and appearance are few and far between, so it should be impossible for this guy to know it. ''Which means that he got information from the guys from the Luvile Universe.'' The guy got a fright when he saw Krune appearing right in front of him. Krune used his Tribulation Lightning Movement, so an ordinary Divine Soul Realm couldn''t possibly be as fast as him. Before he could even move, he was struck by Krune''s Tribulation Lightning and immediately lost his conscience. He took the guy''s body and wrapped it in Tribulation Lightning. After that, Krune returned to the Wisp Main World. Rania and Hobbek noticed the change in position of one of the Heavenly Fragment Owners, but it went back to the Wisp Main World just a few minutes later. By the looks of it, Rania and Hobbek had the same idea. "Probably, they found out one of our guys." Rania nodded. "Let''s try to contact every one and see if someone isn''t answering." Sure enough, a guy called Arbane Crarel, who was at the 8th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm, wasn''t answering his communicator anymore. "Alright, the rest of you can come back now. We got enough information already anyway." Hobbek decided to recall the rest of the group since it seemed to not be necessary anymore. Luvile Universe''s Tribulation is a Purple Lightning, and they know at least that Krune is a Tribulation Lightning user. Even though what he is using is called Purple Flame, the time of his appearance and especially his talent left almost no room for doubt. It could only be the Krune. The only reason they kept staying the Wisp Worlds was to see if they could get permission to enter the Wisp Main World to investigate further. But by the looks of it, Krune has a good grasp of the Wisps in that place. So keeping the rest there would just reduce their numbers one by one. "Besides, we should be able to talk with him very soon." Hobbek was right, back in the Wisp Main World, Krune''s group was looking at Arbane Crarel, who was locked down. Krune used a little bit too much force on him, so he took an entire day to wake up again. "This..." Krune sighed and went straight to the point. "You can try to escape if you want, but I don''t think you will be able to in the Wisp Main World. Anyway, the reason I brought you here is very simple. Your bosses should be looking for me, so call them with your communicator. I want to have a little chat with them." Arbane was taken aback. He hadn''t expected to be brought to the Wisp Main World that he was trying to enter during the last few days. Still, this wasn''t exactly the way he wanted this to happen. Looking at everyone in the room, he knew that trying to escape would be a foolish action. Especially when he looked at Laex. That Demon Beast in human form was giving him chills. "A-Alright." A communicator only worked if the owner wished it, no one else could force their use. Arbane quickly turned it on and accessed a specific contact ID. Krune also asked him to connect it to the monitor in the room and for his group to stay out of the camera. Sure enough, the call was answered almost instantly. Hobbek and Rania were already expecting this, so when they say Krune, they didn''t feel the least bit surprised. Hobbek started to talk first with a smile on his face. "Well, I guess you are the guy called Krune that the Palace Master told us about, or should I call you Jolk instead?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Either one is fine. Still, I have no idea who you are, so what about a self-introduction?" Hobbek put one of his hands on his face. "Right! How could I forget about something like this? My name is Hobbek Javiu, the Yang Heavenly Fragment Owner. This beautiful woman beside me is my wife, Rania Javiu, the Yin Heavenly Fragment Owner." Krune was taken aback, he was expecting an alliance between two Heavenly Fragment Owners, but not to the point where they are married to each other. After all, he and Feifei are in a similar situation. It is just that they haven''t really ''married'' yet. "How is that possible? What about the Heavenly Divine Soul? One of you two is gonna need to give up the Heavenly Fragment if you want it in the future, you know?" Hobbek laughed after hearing that. "Of course, we do. But that is something for us to care about after all the other Heavenly Fragments have been collected. For now, we are very happy the way we are. Anyway, what about you? How come I can''t see Feifei anywhere?" Krune smiled as well. "Don''t worry, she is here too just on the other side of the room, hearing everything. If you have something to ask her, she can answer straight away." Hobbek and Rania got puzzled. They already know how Feifei looks like, so why is she not appearing in this call? Still, if she didn''t want to show herself, there is nothing they can do. "That won''t be necessary. As long as Feifei is hearing, that is enough." Krune nodded and went straight to the point. "I will be direct here. We have no intention to gather all the Heavenly Fragments. The very reason we came to Dalin was precisely to avoid this meaningless pursuit. Still, we didn''t know about the Heavenly Fragment Resonance before. As long as you simply leave and don''t bother us, we can still live our lives as if nothing happened." Rania shook her head beside Hobbek. "That can''t be done. Do you know just how important a Heavenly Divine Soul is to our Luvile Universe?" Krune nodded. "You are talking about the Heavenly Competition, right? To be honest, I couldn''t care less about it. First of all, do you really think we have a chance to get one of the Five Slots? I''m sorry, but I don''t believe so. There are already Heavenly Divine Souls here in Dalin practicing for this very event. What could a Universe as late as ours that is far from getting gathering all the fragments do? By the time a Heavenly Divine Soul is finally formed, the other Universes'' participants will have long since left our representative in the dust." Hobbek was impressed that Krune knew this much. "I guess my friend here wasn''t wrong, the Wisp World is really well informed about things. That is correct, we want the full Heavenly Divine Soul so that we can try to get a slot for our Luvile Universe. Of course, a Heavenly Divine Soul has several other uses too, but I will not enter into details now." "As for your question, I can guarantee you that we have a good chance of getting one of the five slots. Let me ask you, what did happen after you got that extra Heavenly Fragment? Oh! Don''t come at me saying that it wasn''t the two of you. I already know about the Mohie Clan Inheritance, where a powerful colored wisp appeared. After we confirmed that you were definitely a wisp, we did our homework. It wasn''t hard to find the information on the Mission Hall Network. Mohie Clan Inheritances are quite famous, after all." "Besides, when Rania and I felt the presence of that Heavenly Fragment, it was coming precisely from that Inheritance direction. But it soon disappeared, which means that the Heavenly Fragment has already been absorbed. We just had to connect the dots to understand what happened." Krune sighed and then nodded. With that amount of evidence, it would be idiotic to deny it. "You are correct, we were the ones who got that Heavenly Fragment. But before you say anything, know that we only bumped on that guy by mere coincidence. Both sides had no idea that the other would appear there. If the other side hadn''t driven us into a corner, we wouldn''t do anything, nor would we end getting this Heavenly Fragment." Of course, Krune left out the fact that they were probably baited there by Wally or someone else. Hobbek shook his head. "If you wanted it or not matters little. What I want to talk about is the side effects of getting another Heavenly Fragment. You definitely know that already, though. As soon as you or Feifei absorbed that thing, your cultivation got a boost, and there was no side effect what so ever, right? Also, your comprehension of the Laws related to that Fragment definitely soared too." Krune finally understood where he was coming from. "So what you are saying is that as long as someone gathers all the fragments, you can definitely catch up with the ones who already have a Heavenly Divine Soul." Hobbek smiled. "Not too bad. As long as I or Rania finish or Heavenly Divine Soul, we will definitely catch up with the others. In the end, it will come to the other''s resources, techniques, talents, etc. I will tell you a little secret. Our Extreme Yin Yang Palace is especially confident about this next Heavenly Competition. That is all I can tell you, though." Krune narrowed his eyes. If that is the case, none of the Heavenly Fragment Owners will give it up easily. "So... what do you propose?" 388 Trance Hobbek smiled and asked. "Instead of making things complicated with several other cultivators and demon beasts in a chaos fight, why don''t we make it simple? Let''s go with single fights. I can fight you while Rania can fight Feifei. What do you think? We will use the deathmatch mode of any arena nearby. Winner takes all." Krune was already expecting something like this. "We got a Heavenly Fragment on our side, wouldn''t it be disadvantageous for one of you at least?" Hobbek and Rania laughed. "There is no need for you to worry. We are very confident in our own strength." In fact, Hobbek also knew what cultivation Krune and Feifei had because of the information about Mohie Zarks Inheritance. He thought that even with a Heavenly Fragment, both Krune and Feifei would still have lower cultivations than them. At most, the one who got a Heavenly Fragment would be closer, but that was all. He wasn''t wrong, though. Krune and Feifei really have lower cultivations. Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Wouldn''t it be better for you two to fight together? Why would you offer single fights?" Hobbek nodded. "Of course, if you want a 2 vs. 2, we more than welcome you. But I thought that you would definitely refuse such odds; that''s why I offered single fights." Krune started to ponder. His plans so far were to use the wisps to fight with a battle formation. Cinty had promised that the Soul Forging Realm wisps would help him when the time came. But now, he has a chance to finish everything without extra sacrifices. However, that might be, in fact, more dangerous than the initial plan. After all, deathmatch mode arenas will not allow one to leave unless one side is dead or the winner side allows the other to go. It was then that Feifei said. "2 vs. 2 it is then." Krune and Hobbek were taken aback. It was then that Krune received a Divine Sense Message from Feifei. "Did you forget? The information about us that is available on the Mission Hall only goes up to the battle against the Dragon Corpse. The things that happened in the last realm are nowhere to be found in their network. I doubt that Hobbek and Rania have the means to find the ones who entered that place either. Although they know that we might have something better to show, it wouldn''t be much more than that. Simply put, that is the reason why they are underestimating us." Krune pondered a bit and had to admit that it was true. They had long since verified the information from the Mission Hall, so Krune knew that Feifei was correct. "In that case, wouldn''t it be better to have two single fights? I believe that their teamwork is nothing to be scoffed at." Feifei smiled and said. "And since when our teamwork is bad?" Krune couldn''t help but laugh a little. "Alright, I will follow your plan." "It is as she said, we would rather have a 2 vs. 2 battle. I believe you have nothing to complain about it, right?" Hobbek and Rania found it weird for Krune to ask for this. However, it was true that they are even more confident if they fight together than alone. If they decide to step back in this situation, then everything they had gone through together would mean nothing. "Sure thing! Let''s select a city in some big planet. There is no way we can start a fight inside other than the arena as long as we are there. What about the Jionin City From the Heras Planet? It''s quite close, and there is a long-distance teleport inside, so we can all teleport directly inside." Krune opened his communicator and looked for information about this city. Sure enough, it was a city just as Hobbek mentioned. In a place like that, breaking the city rules would only bring a calamity for either side. "That''s good enough. But I have a condition. Our battle has to be half a year later. During the last Mohie Zarks Inheritance, I suffered quite a serious injure in my Wisp Core, so it will take at least this amount of time for me to recover. I believe you have an idea about how it happened, though." Hobbek nodded. "It can only be because of the other Heavenly Fragment Owner who died. Alright then, half a year it is. Still, there should be one more Heavenly Fragment Owner from our Luvile Universe, so what if we start to feel its presence as well?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "I told you before, didn''t I? Both me and Feifei don''t want anything to do with you lot. So as long as he or she doesn''t come to bother us, we won''t go out of our way either. Whatever you do, that is up to you. We are going to do things our own way." Hobbek nodded and then finished the call. There was a very simple reason why Rania and Hobbek didn''t mind waiting for half a year. That is because they believe that their cultivation is faster than anyone else. So the more time passes, the better it will be for them. Not to mention that it would be a 2 vs. 2 battle, so they couldn''t be more certain of their victory. On Krune''s side, he asked Feifei. "Are you sure you don''t want to simply go with the normal plan? I can still use Cinty''s Soul Forging Realm wisps. Even if things go wrong, we can always escape back to the Wisp Main World in the end." Feifei shook her head. "I know that you don''t want to involve anyone as much as possible. Besides, even with the Soul Forging Realm wisps using the time formation to slow down time, the fact is that there are very few Wisps at this realm at the moment. Losing any of them wouldn''t be a good thing to the Wisp Worlds." Tiane, who was beside Feifei, felt somewhat useless. "But if you do that, I can''t help you in any way." Ruik, Dilo, and Xankruan and agreed with her. They were supposed to support Krune and Feifei during this time, but it came back to the two of them alone. As for Laex, he wasn''t going to do much to start with, so he didn''t care about what they decided. It is not like he is a real member of their group or anything. In his eyes, they only have a contract. That''s all. Feifei laughed and said. "Of course, there is something you guys can do. What will happen to my kid if we lose? I need you to take care of her in that case." Ruik couldn''t help but comment. "You could simply ignore their existence and stay here in the Wisp Main World. No one can do anything to you while you are here, after all." Krune immediately shook his head. "Why should we get trapped here? It is not like they are stronger than us or anything. All heavenly Fragments appear around the same time, so their cultivation shouldn''t be that much higher than ours. Of course, they had a much better head start since they are from the Sabred Lands, but Feifei and I have improved by leaps and bounds as well. And don''t forget, we have the Elemental Meridians." Feifei nodded. "I also have a lot of confidence if I''m fighting with Krune. I have my Illusion of Destiny Domain, while Krune has his Rainbow one too. Not to mention that Krune and I had improved a lot after everything that happened in the Mohie Zarks Inheritance. In the end, life and death situations are the best help one can have in their cultivation path." Everyone talked a little more and returned to their own things. Krune, of course, continued to practice his Blacksmith while the other parts of his mind cultivated and comprehended Laws. ''Half a year... that should be more than enough time to get to the Seven Golden Stars level.'' It was then that Krune thought about something. ''I''ve never seen Feifei using any weapon. Does she really not need one?'' Krune thought that perhaps, he could also forge a Purple Flame weapon for her. Having thought this, Krune quickly went to the Dimensional Realm, where she liked to practice her formations. Arriving there, he could see that Feifei was working on another formation. He could also feel the Laws that Feifei was manipulation while building that. ''It seems like a Spatial Lock Trap Formation. Indeed, only a Formation would allow you to touch the Space Laws before reaching a higher enough level. Well, that''s all I can tell, though. I haven''t practiced Formations in a long time, after all.'' Surprisingly, Feifei was using that ''Space Related Weapon'' that Krune got from Lutin after their battle as the Formation''s Core, the Void Sphere. Krune had passed it to her since he hasn''t found much use for it in his actual level. But a formation would at least be able to use its properties correctly. Seeing how concentrated she was, Krune did not disturb and only paid attention. Besides, seeing Feifei moving around the Formation with her big belly made Krune feel quite at ease. It was as if all his worries were being washed away. Krune had always been thinking about several things at the same time, be it while cultivating, practicing, or anything else. Considering that he also never sleeps, his mind was always fully occupied. But now, everything was gone. Because this was a Golden Stars Level Formation, it takes very long to be finished. Feifei would probably have to stop a few times during the process and ponder about the progress too. But even up to this point, Feifei hasn''t noticed Krune on the side. Krune had a smile on his face at first while looking at her. But at some point, he subconsciously half entered the World of Laws. It was just like when he was concocting his first Purple Flame Pill back in the Alchemist Competition. But this time, his focus was on the Void Sphere and Feifei at the same time. No one knew, but Krune had entered a trance. His world now only had Feifei, the Spatial Formation, and the Void Sphere. Everything else had disappeared entirely from his mind. This situation continued for several hours, and finally, an entire day. It was then that Feifei suddenly felt something from her belly and stopped. "So, you are hungry again." Just as she was about to take a few Spirit Stones to feed her baby, Feifei noticed that the laws around seemed somewhat off. When she looked around, she finally saw Krune some distance away, looking at her. But the impressive thing is that the Space around him seemed somewhat warped. She couldn''t make out his figure very well as if it was blurry. However, Feifei knew that it wasn''t an illusion. "This..." Just as Feifei stepped outside the Spatial Lock Formation to take a closer look, Krune woke up. "Ah!" The center of his trance was Feifei, the Formation, and the Void Sphere. Now that one of them got removed, Krune immediately lost his concentration, and he came back to himself. The Space around him also returned to normal, and the Laws stabilized once more. Feifei asked with a concerned face. "Are you okay?" Only now did Krune notice that he had been absent-minded during this entire time. "I... Errr... What happened to me? I was watching you when suddenly..." It was then that Krune noticed something new in his World of Laws. Something that wasn''t there before. No, to be more specific, it was something that he wasn''t supposed to be able to see or feel at the moment. "Are these... Space Laws?" 389 Follow Me, Idiot Wisp Krune couldn''t believe what he was seeing in the World of Laws. As far as he knows, only a Space Divine Soul would be able to understand anything about Space Laws in the Divine Soul Realm. At most, Krune thought that he would see it somewhere around the Soul Forging Realm, or maybe only in the Void Breaking Realm. The Space Sub-Laws were composed of Expansion, Contraction, Displacement, Connection, and Void. The Sub-Law that Krune ended noticing and comprehending first was Contraction, which was the main one used in the Space Lock Trap Formation. Not only he grasped it, during that trance, Krune went as far as reaching the Advanced Stage! Krune then gathered the Space Laws on his hands, and Space itself started to contract in a blink of an eye. Next time Krune and Feifei noticed, the Space above his hand looked somewhat blurry. Feifei tried to move her hand inside but saw that some kind of force was stopping her hand from doing so. "This... isn''t it similar to the Space Lock Formation that I''m building?" Krune nodded. "Yes... but why am I able to see the Space Laws now?" Feifei looked at Krune with a smile. "What happened after you came here?" Krune pondered a bit and said. "I came here to ask if you wanted me to make some weapon or armor with Purple Flames. But then I saw how concentrated you were on the Formation, so I decided to wait. For some reason, seeing you working around with the Formating made me feel quite at ease, so I just paid attention without bothering you. Let me see... at some point, my mind started to become empty of any thoughts as I got relaxed until finally, I wasn''t thinking about anything anymore. It was at that moment that I think I started to see the Space Laws even though I wasn''t really trying to." Feifei couldn''t help but feel happy. "So seeing me makes you feel relaxed, is it?" Krune nodded without hesitation. It was in moments like this that his personality worked the best. He wouldn''t feel the least bit embarrassed to admit it. Feifei then said. "I heard it from Uncle Feng and Father, it seems like what you experienced was called enlightenment or trance. A state of mind where everything else doesn''t matter anymore. In this state, everything about what you are comprehending becomes as clear as the blue skies. The Space Lock Trap Formation uses mainly the Contraction Sub-Law, so it ended being the first Space Law you ever experienced. Unfortunately, this condition only happens by chance; it isn''t something that one can enter just because they want to." "Ah!" It was then that Feifei noticed a problem. "Sorry." Krune looked puzzled at Feifei. "For what?" Feifei sighed with a sad face. Krune put his hand on Feifei''s cheek before she could finish talking. "Apologizing? Why? I wasn''t supposed to be able to see Space Laws at this moment. It was the vision of my Feifei working with her big belly that put me in that state to start with, so I can''t even thank you enough. As we know, without a Space Divine Soul, I should only be able to see it at the Void Breaking Realm. Maybe, with some luck, the Soul Forging Realm. But look at me now. I can see the Space Sub-Laws thanks to you." Feifei could never understand how Krune could say so many embarrassing words so easily. Still, she couldn''t feel happier at the moment. Krune then asked. "Since you stopped working on the Formation, does it mean that you finished?" "Oh!" Feifei''s mind was so caught by the event that she completely forgot the hungry girl inside her. She immediately took several Spirit Stones out and started to absorb the Spiritual Energy while talking with Krune. "I''m not done yet. I will probably take two or three more days before I finish. I only made a pause because our Kid was complaining about the lack of Spiritual Energy. This girl is bound to bankrupt us, you will see." Krune couldn''t help but laugh out loud. "Don''t worry, father will make sure to work hard to prevent that from happening." He also took that opportunity to ask again. "Feifei, do you want some kind of Purple Flame weapon or armor? I have quite a lot of Kaleu Tribulation Steel, more than I need for my Flying Shields. I could use this chance to make something that you need." Feifei pondered a bit and said. "Although I know a little of the Lightning Sub-Laws, I''m not that proficient with them. So it would be quite a waste to use it to make me something." Krune''s eyes lit up after hearing that. "Does that mean you do have something you want?" Feifei nodded. "I''m also a long-range attacker who is more focused on support than firepower. So it would be good if I had something that could increase my attack power if I can''t pass through the enemy''s defense." Krune nodded. That was indeed the case. "Something for attack... Have you ever considered flying swords? With your control and destiny laws, they should prove quite efficient." Feifei pondered a bit and thought that it might be worth a try. She had never used swords before, but the same could be said for other weapons. In that case, whatever she got, she would need to learn from the start. "Alright, but Flying Swords made of Kaleu Tribulation Steel won''t be of much use for me. It would be better if they were neutral or had something with Water Elements. After all, Water Sub-Laws are the ones I''m best at other than Destiny. It is just that Destiny doesn''t have any attack power what so ever." Krune nodded. Considering the time half a year, that should be more than enough to find some useful Water Element related material. "Good! Then I''m going to start looking for the material necessary. I''m going to use a Fire Crytal to get something good." Feifei nodded. Usually, she would think that it might be a waste to use Fire Crystals on it. But with her child there now, she was willing to get all the help she could. "Once you forge or ask someone else to do it, make sure it doesn''t surpass the Three Diamond Stars Level. If I get something higher than that, I won''t be able to control it well. Especially since I will have several of them. Oh, right! Make me nine swords at first." Krune didn''t understand why she wanted exactly nine swords, but he didn''t ask either. She must have a reason for requesting that number. It was then that Feifei said. "Once you are finished with your shields and my swords, bring them to me. I want to try something new I had been practicing recently." Krune was surprised by that. "Formation Weapons?" Feifei smiled and nodded. "Yes. The Stars Path Formations Master that came last time helped me to clarify several things about them. Although most of the Formations Masters only start using them at the Diamond Stars level, it doesn''t mean that those Formations need Chaos Energy. It is just that their Formation Building Skills are not good enough before that. After all, their scale is entirely different. But I believe that if I use my Destiny Divine Soul, I can make it happen. Of course, it will still be tough, and I will probably fail several times. But I''m confident that I can do it." Krune was obviously more than happy to have something like that in his Shields. "Sure, I will make bring them to you." Krune then asked more about the Swords Feifei would like to use: length, weight, form, etc. "Now, I only need to ask Dilo." Feifei looked puzzled at Krune. "Dilo?" Krune nodded. "Dilo also uses a Sword. It is just that his Sword is still a low-level Golden Stars one. Even if I don''t use my Purple Flames, the Swords I can make at the moment are much better than that. So I might as well ask if he doesn''t want something new. Besides, I noticed that he had been focusing on Lightning Elements and Sub-Laws recently. In that case, I can use the remaining Kaleu Tribulation Steel to make something nice for him too." Feifei nodded. "That is a good idea, indeed." Krune and Feifei then talked for some time when Krune finally decided to leave. But just as he stood up, Feifei grabbed his arm. Seeing that, krune looked at her and asked. "Did you forget something?" Feifei, with an embarrassed face, suggested. "You don''t need to really go back now, right? It had been some time since we... you know..." Krune got puzzled. "We... you know... what?" Feifei sighed, hearing that. "I was an idiot to expect you to understand. Just follow me, idiot wisp." That night, Krune was ''forced'' to understand what Feifei meant with those words. He probably wouldn''t forget again. 390 The Right Level The next morning, Krune''s work started to progressing very well. Especially because he felt very relaxed due to last night''s events. It was then that Heavin came flying inside his workshop. Krune looked at him and could see that he didn''t seem to be in a good mood. "Did something happen?" Heavin rolled his eyes at Krune and said. "Next time, make sure to let me know that you two are going to spend the night together. I had sent my conscience back into the Divine Soul to ask you a few things about the parts I needed. So I almost got in the way of your intercourse. Fortunately, I didn''t say anything. Feifei would definitely be unhappy if I stopped your moments." Krune understood what he meant. "Oh... I see." Krune didn''t care much about being seen since he believes that such actions are the natural way of things. But since Heavin asked him, he will be sure to warn him next time. In fact, Heavin is pretty much like Krune, he didn''t care much about that either. He really simply didn''t want to bother Feifei since she seemed to be... ''enjoying'' the moment. "By the way, what are the parts that you need?" Heavin nodded and passed Krune a list. "Those are mostly joints and conductors of Spiritual Energy. If you are not too busy, I would like to have them ready in the next two or three days." Krune nodded. "No problem, they are all at my actual level as Blacksmith, so they will prove to be good for training." Heavin knew that already. He didn''t want to delay Krune''s progress either, so he was always asking things that could match Krune''s ability. Sometime later, Dilo appeared inside his workshop as well. "Oh, you are here. I called you because I want to know if you would like me to forge a new sword for you with the remaining Kaleu Tribulation Steel." Dilo was surprised by that question. "Sure! I have been using the same one for a long time, after all." He then took his Sword out and passed it to Krune. "If you can make one that looks like this one, it would be the best!" Krune took a look and nodded. "I will keep it with me for the time being. I''ll give you back once your new one is ready. It is just that it will take some time." Dilo didn''t mind that. "What is the price for a sword of that level?" Krune shook his head. "It is okay, I''m just using my remaining Steel to make it." However, Dilo immediately refused. "Then I don''t want it. I will pay for your work, that is my final decision. Otherwise, I might as well continue with my normal Sword." With everything dealt with, Krune returned to his Blacksmith practicing. As mentioned before, Krune has the Mind Splitting Technique, so he can keep cultivating and comprehending laws by half entering the World of Laws while doing other things too. Usually, he would keep his focus equally shared between all Elemental Laws. But this time, other than the Tribulation Lightning Sub-Laws and Cultivation, Krune used all the rest on the Space Sub-Laws. There was no helping in that. Space Laws are as difficult as Feifei''s Destiny Laws. The fact that he got one of them at the Advanced level in a single day could only be considered a miracle already. Krune still remembers how good these laws are from when he fought Lutin back in the Mohie Zarks Inheritance. He wants to see if he can learn at least the Initial Stage of Displacement. Although Space and Destiny are considered to be similar in difficult to comprehend, the fact is that Space has more Sub-Laws. So individually, they are easier to grasp than a single Destiny Sub-Law. ''Also, I might be able to do that.'' After the event with Hobbek and Rania, nothing else significant happened. So Krune and the others could spend their time peacefully. Time passed, and soon, four months went by. Feifei''s belly got even bigger while the little guy inside Tiane''s egg was developing very well too. From what Feifei and Krune could see, it wouldn''t be more than a month before their girl came out. Today, Krune had just finished forging a Shield pretty much like the ones he had been using so far. It was just that this one marked the success of his progress as a Blacksmith. "Hahaha! A Seven Golden Stars Shield! I did it!" Krune had finally reached a level where he could craft the Divine Imprints necessary to support his Kaleu Tribulation Steel Shields. "Alright, now I need to practice forging a few Divine Imprints. Once I''m done with it, I can finally ask Yanvlal Surrigel to craft my new Shields." Krune didn''t waste any time and immediately went to forger his Divine Imprints. The first Divine Imprints turned out to be a failure, though. But Krune wasn''t sad because of that. He knew that Divine Imprints are a little different from normal equipments, so he just kept trying. Sure enough, Krune made his first successful one four days later. It took so long because one needs to use their Laws on Golden Stars level equipments. Not to mention that he insisted on using his Tribulation Lightning Laws on top of that. However, the result would be much better if he did that since his Shields Main use would be through Tribulation Lightning energy and laws. Just to be sure, Krune forged another three Divine Imprints. But now that he already succeeded in one, he did not have any problems repeating the process. After finishing the last one, Krune immediately opened his communicator and called Yanvlal Surrigel over. "Hey, Yanvlal. I got to the Seven Golden Stars Level. When would you be ready to craft my Shields?" When Yanvlal heard that, his eyes lit up! "Anytime! I can go to the Wisp Main World right now if you want." Yanvlal had been waiting for the opportunity to forge something with Krune''s Purple Flame ever since Krune suggested it. Because of that, he made sure that everything would be ready for his absence during a few days in the Blacksmith Organization Branch of the Wisp World 9. He didn''t know why Krune wanted to do everything in the Wisp Main World and not leave it. But it wouldn''t be a problem for him since he can carry everything he needs in his spatial ring. Krune smiled after hearing his confirmation. "Great! Please come over. I will be waiting for you." Krune then looked around and cleaned the Blacksmith room. After that, he sorted through the materials necessary to forger his Shields, Feifei''s Flying Swords, and Dilo''s Sword. Around two months ago, Krune put one Fire Crystal to trade for any good Diamond Stars Material compatible with Water Element and Laws. Immediately, his post fired up, and quite a few thought that it was a lie. But when the Blacksmith Organization came forward and said that the trade was the real deal, all the doubtful voices quickly disappeared. Diamond Stars Level materials are usually not worthy of Fire Crystals unless the quantity was really high. Krune obviously knew that, so he made sure to ask for the proper amount. Even if he would only make nine Flying Swords for Feifei this time, he could use the rest of the material later if necessary. The material he traded that Fire Crystal turned out to be Ocean Orgen Ore. A type of Water Element material at the Seven Diamond Stars level. Of course, although the ore''s level was that higher than expected, Yanvlal could still use it to create a Two or Three Stars Diamond Level Equipment. The best thing is that this ore would be useful later if there was a need to create stronger Swords. Yanvlal only took one hour to arrive at Krune''s place. From there, he went straight into Krune''s Blacksmith Workshop. He took a look around and nodded, satisfied. "It seems like you had been keeping this place very well. I will need just a few more things, but I brought them with me already." Yanvlal didn''t waste time and quickly prepared the place for them to start forging everything. "First, I want to try to forger some different equipments. I don''t know how your Purple Flame works, so I need to get used to it. Let''s not use any higher-level material, either." Krune was already expecting that. "Sure thing. Oh, right! I also have a few Swords that I will need to be forged after my Shields. Is that okay? Of course, I will pay the price for them as well." Yanvlal nodded happily. "We can forge as many equipments as you want. As long as I can see your Purple Flames working, I don''t mind how much work we have to go through. Of course, I will still get my payment, though. Hahaha!" The two of them smiled at each other and immediately started to work. 391 I Think So Too Yanvlal and Krune decided to use some low-level Diamond Stars materials. Although it would still be somewhat expensive for them, it would all come back when they put the completed equipements for sale. Swords, Shields, Spears, Yanvlal Surrigel created several types of equipments with Krune''s Purple Flames. They also sent every completed work directly to the Blacksmith Organization. Sure enough, when they started to get those Diamond Stars Purple Flame items, they felt frightened. But they soon found out that the one forging them was a Diamond Stars Blacksmith. Krune was just providing the Purple Flames itself. In fact, they aren''t as good as if Krune had made them himself. After all, as well synched as Krune and Yanvlal work could be, there is bound to be some problems. Too bad that Krune was far from being able to create Chaos Energy, so he could only use this method. However, it did not diminish the price of those items. In fact, due to the accord with the Blacksmith Organization, two of every ten equipments must be sold outside. So when the first Diamond Stars Purple Flame Weapons appeared, a bidding war started in the Blacksmith Organization Network. In the end, Krune''s and Yanvlal equipments were sold for ten to fifteen times the price of an equipment at the same level. That more than paid for the materials used by several times. Krune''s pocket kept getting fatter and fatter the more he and Yanvlal forged things. Not to mention that Krune is making Ownerless Divine Imprints, so those turned out to be Spiritual Equipements. One week later, Krune and Yanvlal finally took a break. They had forged without stop during this entire time, so be it Purple Lightning or Chaos Energy, both had been depleted. "Phew... I think I have enough grasp of how your Purple Flames work. They are much stronger than the normal ones. My own flame can only be considered stronger at the moment because of my cultivation, that is all. Also, I finally noticed how you create those flames. No wonder you said that it is impossible to copy, I''ve never seen someone using Tribulation Lightning like that." Krune shrugged his shoulders. "I told you that. It was you and the Blacksmith Organization that didn''t believe me. Anyway, after we recover our energies, let''s start my orders. I won''t be able to stay here a few weeks later, so I want to finish it as soon as possible." Yanvlal nodded and didn''t ask why. Wherever Krune, or better, Jolk goes has nothing to do with him. Krune also took that pause to cook something and invite Yanvlal to eat together. Although he was surprised to discover that Krune liked to cook, he accepted in the end. Not to mention that Krune''s food was really delicious! One must remember that Divine Imprints with an owner must be attached to the equipment as soon as they are finished, or they will lose their use. They are different from the Ownerless Divine Imprints that Krune made so far for the other weapons. In just a few hours, the very first Kaleu Tribulation Steel Shield was ready. Krune looked at the Shield, and his eyes shined. He sent a little bit of his Tribulation Lightning inside and noticed that it worked as well as his previous Tribulation Lightning Shields. One must remember that Krune''s previous Shields were made of an Ore that appears after a Heavenly Tribulation in the Luvile Universe. For the Kaleu Tribulation Steel Shield to reach the same level, it shows that the material level is excellent. Krune also tried his other elements, and this time, he felt a difference. The new Two Diamond Stars Shield had a much easier time letting the Elements and Laws running inside. It would definitely increase their protection level by several times over. But the thing that Krune was really happy about was with the amount of Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy it could hold. His previous Shields couldn''t do even a tenth of what the new one can do. ''It seems like that idea will really work.'' Yanvlal Surrigel looked at Krune and asked. "How is it?" Krune turned to him with a bright smile. "It is perfect!" Yanvlal laughed out loud after hearing that. "Good! Let''s continue then." Shield by Shield, Divine Imprint by Divine Imprint, the work progressed. One day, three days, five days, one week. During this entire time, over 20 Shields were completed. Krune and Yanvlal had to once again take another break to recover their energies. After another day of rest, they immediately started to work again. It took almost two entire weeks for Krune''s 38 Flying Shields to be finally finished. Even though Krune was tired, he couldn''t help but go out to use the entire set at once. But that also helped him realize how harder it became to use them. The higher the level of the equipment, the more Soul Power one needed. Krune is still at the Divine Soul Realm. Simultaneously, Diamond Stars Equipements were supposed to be used for high-Level Soul Forging Realm and above due to the presence of Chaos Energy. Of course, although Krune felt that it was harder to use, it wasn''t to the point where his fine control got prejudiced. After all, both Krune''s Soul Power and Divine Sense range far surpass an ordinary Soul Forging Realm cultivator or demon beast. If we make an analogy, it is as if you can lift 30k with ease without getting tired. So far, you had been lifting 10k, but now, you need to lift 20. Although it is heavier, you can still lift it without any problems. After finishing testing his new Shields, Krune and Yanvlal took another break to recover their energy once more. They ate and drank for the day. It was evident that both sides were very happy with the result of their work. When it came the time to start forging the Feifei''s Swords, Krune called her over to watch and give her opinion. Although he had heard about what Feifei wanted, it would still be better to see the crafting process herself in case she felt like to change something. Yanvlal was surprised to see a pregnant woman here. But in the end, he simply ignored it. After all, he doesn''t really know about Feifei and the others, nor is it his problem. As long as he gets paid, he will make the Swords. Not to mention that he can craft even more with the Purple Flames. Yanvlal came to get addicted to how easy the material became to model when the Purple Flames were used. So the more he could craft, the better. The forging process started once more. Feifei looked at everything with attention too. Sure enough, during the crafting process of the very first Sword, Feifei noticed a few things she wanted to change. First, it was the weight of the Flying Sword. She thought that she couldn''t make it too heavy. Still, Feifei noticed that she could handle more than what was presumed without difficulties when she held the material used in the Sword. There were also a few other things like the position of the Divine Imprint. Instead of having it at the center of the Sword, she asked it to be put a little closer to the end. Krune and Yanvlal didn''t ask why. Equipments were personal things. What feels good for you doesn''t necessarily feel the same for someone else. The one who made the Divine Imprints this time was Yanvlal. After all, Divine Imprints like Krune''s were only good if the person or beast himself forged them. Since an Ownerless one is being used, Krune gave up forging it this time and ask Yanvlal to do that. Yanvlal''s level as a blacksmith is much higher than his; he can use Chaos Energy too, so the choice was obvious. Before, Krune created them because those were going to be sold outside. So it would be good for him to practice more. Feifei also asked that the Swords were made at the Two Diamond Stars Level. Although she is confident to use Three Diamond Stars or even one or two levels higher, she preferred to play it safe. Battles in a high level of cultivation can be decided in a split of a second. So a small mistake due to the level of the equipment could prove fatal instead. Stronger doesn''t always mean better. Once the First Sword was finished, Feifei brought it outside and tried to control it. Sure enough, her soul power made it extremely easy to handle the Flying Sword with her Divine Sense. The Sword answered every single of her calls without a problem. Of course, Krune and Yanvlal could see that she was definitely a beginner. Her control had no problem, but she missed the timings, the power of the slashes, and things like that several times. Suddenly, Feifei stopped and touched her belly. Immediately after, she took out hundreds of Spirit Stones and started to absorb the Spiritual Energy from them. Krune didn''t see anything wrong with that, but Yanvlal almost jumped in fright! He could totally see with his Divine Sense that the one who was absorbing the Spiritual Energy wasn''t Feifei, but her child instead! "Just what kind of monster baby is that?" Krune looked at him and smiled. "It''s my little girl." Yanvlal nodded. "I see..." But it was then that he noticed a problem. "Whose baby is that again?" Krune didn''t mind answering. "Mine." Yanvlal was shocked! After all, he knows the chances of hybrid pregnancies. Of course, he didn''t know exactly what the chances between wisps and humans were, but he believed it to be very low too. It''s just that he didn''t expect Jolk to be engaged. "Now... That''s what I call luck." Krune laughed. "I think so too." 392 Its time Feifei soon finished absorbing all the Spiritual Energy she needed and took a deep breath. "Hungry as ever." She stood up and then restarted the practice with the Flying Sword. In the end, she nodded, satisfied. "That''s more or less it. I hope you guys can make another eight like this to me." This time, Krune couldn''t hold his curiosity. "Why nine swords?" Feifei smiled after hearing that question. "My Clan believes that nine is an auspicious number. So a lot of things there they use multiple of nine. I grew up in this environment, so I also like to think that nine will give me luck. If I had asked for more swords, I would jump straight to eighteen." Krune didn''t care about such things, but if Feifei is okay with it, then so be it. Yanvlal and Krune then returned to the blacksmith room with Feifei to restart the forging process. All nine swords took around 5 days to be finished. Feifei then tested the Swords outside and couldn''t help but smile. Especially after seeing that Purple Flame effect. Even though it looked like a flame, it didn''t get in the way of her Water Element or Sub-Laws. After Feifei finished, she accessed the network to look for a good Flying Swords Array. With the money their group has now, they can get access to top skills. Soon, she found an array that caught her attention called Nine in Nine Swords Transformation. After reading the description, it turned out that the technique had several levels, and each one needed an extra nine Flying Swords to be used. ''A total of 12 levels and not considered complete yet. I guess I will go with it then.'' Sometime later, Dilo arrived at the Blacksmith Room. His Sword would be the last one to be forged. Different from Feifei, Dilo''s actual Sword is not a Spiritual Equipment. He is a close-quarters attacker, so he uses his Sword with his own hands. Of course, it would be better if his new Sword could be made as a Spiritual Equipment. After all, if he loses the grasp of it during a battle, he could immediately call it back. It''s just that Spiritual Equipments are always a lot more expensive, so he had only used a normal one so far. He already knew exactly how his Sword would be since he used the old one for a long time. During the entire forging process, there were very few things that Dilo asked to change. After coming out to test, sword intent spread out while Dilo used several Sword Techniques. There were even some that he invented himself. Dilo wasn''t considered a wealthy guy in the past, so he couldn''t pay for expensive ones. With this, Krune and Yanvlal finally finished all the forgings. Dilo and Krune then paid him for the works. That night, Krune cooked a feast for him and everyone else as well. This is almost like a ritual for Krune and his group. It also helped then to rest their minds after keeping training all the time. The next day, Yanvlal Surrigel returned to the Blacksmith Organization in the Wisp World 9. He was, after all, its manager. Arriving there, he opened his communicator and reported everything to the Blacksmith Organization about his forging process. Of course, he had already informed Krune that the Organization asked him for that. Krune, on the other hand, didn''t mind it at all. Other than the Purple Flame, his forging is pretty much like anyone else after all. Sure enough, Yanvlal explained everything he understood about the Purple Flame. The fact that it was made through the use of Tribulation Lightning, or that the flame used the same principle of the blue flames. He could also see with his Divine Sense that it was the hydrogen and oxygen burning process that changed the equipment; that for some reason, they carried the properties of the Purple Flame into them. The problem is, even the Blacksmith Organization didn''t know how Krune achieved that. It is not like some of the Universes with Lightning type Heavenly Tribulations haven''t got Tribulation Lightning Users. After so long, the number of those who tried to use the Blue Flames process with Tribulation Lightning was not so small either. Some had even succeeded in that, but their Tribulation Flame didn''t increase the attack power of equipments forged with it. If anything, they only made the forging process easier or harder. Yanvlal Surrigel knew that Krune was right, his Purple Flames is not something that can be copied. There is definitely something special to Krune''s Purple Flames that no other Tribulation Lightning could replicate. Back in the Wisp Main World, Krune decided to spend his time with Feifei from now on. After all, it was evident that their little girl wouldn''t take more than two or three weeks to come out. It would also give them a few weeks before they needed to keep their promise with Hobbek and Rania. Feifei took that opportunity to start practicing the Weapon Formation Inscribing. But sure enough, it was as hard as she expected. Even with her Destiny Core and several days, she hasn''t succeeded even once. There was a reason why Formations Masters only tried it after they went up to the Diamond Stars Level. That is because their control over the elements and laws would be much better in the Void Breaking Realm than it is in the Divine Soul. However, Feifei wasn''t dishearted. Every fail brought her close to success. The main problem of Weapons Formations Inscribing is the size of the Formation and its resilience. It had to carry all the habilities of the Formation, and above all else, it had to resist the process of a battle. So, on top of the Formation abilities, there was a need to have another overlapped protection Formation. That Formation can''t impact the equipment''s user either. All in all, it was several times more difficult than making a regular formation. Time passed, and two weeks went by. By now, Tiane also stayed beside Feifei as much as possible. Cinty had also prepared the room where Feifei would give birth and those who would help her with it. Even though the Wisp Worlds were mostly filled with wisps, it didn''t mean that other cultivators and demon beasts didn''t live there. So it wasn''t hard to find a few women who knew how to help. Suddenly, Feifei shouted. "Success!" Krune and Tiane looked at Feifei''s bright smile while she held one of her Swords. "Did it work?" Feifei nodded. "I finally got the Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy connection formation working with a protection formation on top of that. All of them are at the Five Golden Stars Level as well!" The Spiritual and Elemental Source connection formation can link Feifei''s dantian to the Sword itself trough the Space Laws. Through that, she will not need to bring the swords back to her side to recharge them with those energies. It can be transferred directly into the Swords. The main advantage of such a formation is evident. Feifei won''t need to worry about the Flying Swords running out of energy during a battle. It will allow her to use the Sword''s properties without stopping. Krune, too, had to always pay attention to his Shields Spiritual Energy. If one thinks about Krune''s old battles, his Flying Shields weren''t always present. He was used to keeping them in his Spatial Ring and not use them unless he was against a strong foe. But if Feifei inscribes such a formation in his Flying Shields, Krune will have no need to hold back anymore. Tiane and Krune were feeling happy for her when suddenly, Feifei felt some pain coming from her belly. Krune and Tiane''s expression immediately changed, seeing that. Right after, some liquid started to run down from the chair. Krune didn''t feel afraid, though. He is the type who likes to make a through and through research about everything. So he had long since looked into the birth process of a human. So far, Feifei''s pregnancy had been remarkably similar to a normal human couple. If there was any difference, it was the fact that the pregnancy took an extra three months and that his child started to cultivate even before leaving the womb. "Oh! Let''s bring her to the room, the labor process has just started." Everything was already prepared for that, so Krune was at ease. Through his Divine Sense and the information he got, he could see that nothing was going different from expected. The only thing that bothered him was the fact that Feifei looked to be in pain. Still, that was also part of the process. Fortunately, as a cultivator, such a thing was not exactly a problem for Feifei, either. It is common for fathers to wait outside, but Krune didn''t give a damn to customs, so he stayed in the room and observed the entire process. Feifei knew that asking him to leave would be meaningless since he had a powerful Divine Sense. He would still be able to see anything he wanted. Besides, his ''as-expected'' face while looking at what was happening made her feel a lot safer. One must remember that this is definitely not the first time that Krune or Feifei saw the process of birth. In fact, most cultivators or demon beasts in the Core Formation Realm or above probably have seen it at least once. After all, just how big their Divine Senses are? Every time Krune, Feifei, or any one of their group stays in a big city with millions of residents, they are bound to catch a glimpse of some woman giving birth somewhere. It would have been a miracle if they hadn''t seen it instead. 393 Fie After some time, a child''s cry could be heard... not. Krune and Feifei''s girl came out in the world with nothing more than a curious face. Of course, she was just born, so she didn''t understand anything. As for her appearance... at first, she did look like a human. If not for the random hair and irises. However, that was not what caught Feifei and Krune''s attention. What surprised them was that when the midwife raised the little girl, she stayed there... floating! Do not misunderstand it. It is not that the rainbow-haired and eyed girl didn''t have weight, but that instead of a dantian, she had a Wisp Core inside. Her weight was pretty much the same as any human baby of her size. It was the Wisp Core that was keeping her afloat. The girl, who didn''t understand anything, seemed to not be enjoying that sensation, though. It looked like she was about to cry too. The midwife dazed expression disappeared and quickly grabbed the little girl, delivering her to Feifei. She had heard that the baby would be a hybrid between wisp and human and that she should expect some differences. Of course, the midwife still felt shocked to see the baby floating. "Cough, cough. Have you decided on a name?" Krune and Feifei came back to themselves after hearing that question. They then smiled at each other and nodded. "Her name is Fie, Wang Fie." Krune doesn''t have a family name to start with, so they simply decided to use Feifei''s one for that. As for the Fie name, it was Krune who gave the idea. Since she was a girl, he wanted something that resembled Feifei''s name. At that time, even Feifei was surprised by that suggestion. After all, Krune''s naming sense isn''t exactly ''remarkable.'' But Fie was indeed a very good name that she liked at lot. Especially since Krune selected it because of her. Krune touched her and sent his Spiritual Energy and Divine Sense inside. Now that she was finally born, the blockage that Feifei''s own cultivation exerted on her was gone. Krune was able to pry inside Feifei''s womb before but had a hard time seeing everything clearly. Feifei was the same thing. The first main difference was her meridians. Different from a human, Fie did not have blood and flesh meridians. Instead, Krune could totally feel the presence of the nine Elemental Meridians in her body. That confirmed his group theory that the Elemental Meridians could be inherited. Feifei, for example, still has her bodily meridians, but she had not used them for a very long time, nor did she need them. ''It is probably because I don''t have normal meridians to start with, so she inherited a body without meridians from me. Well, even if the Elemental Meridians had not been inherited, she could still practice the Myriad Energies Technique later and create her own, so it wouldn''t be a problem.'' "Look, her Elemental Meridians are like my own, very colorful." Feifei was surprised by that and checked it as well. "Oh, you are right! Does it mean that she will be good at elemental control?" Krune shook his head. "I don''t know, but I hope she will." "Let''s see what else is different." Krune kept checking her body and soon found her Dantian, or better, Wisp Core. "Oh, it''s a Wisp Core. No wonder she was floating earlier and seemed weightless. It is the Wisp''s Core fault. Still, this Wisp Core is different from the other wisps. I can see a few traits of a human''s Dantian on it. I guess this is a good thing. I always believed that part of the reason why Wisps have a low lifespan had something to do with their Wisp Cores. Since her Wisp Core isn''t the same, she probably won''t have the same issue." Suddenly, Krune heard a voice inside the room. "You are correct." A small spatial gate appeared inside, and right after, Cinty came out in her wisp form. She quickly went back to her human form, though. "Still, there is a difference between a human''s lifespan and a hybrid between wisp and human. She is exactly in the middle. A human that doesn''t enter the Foundation Establishment can live around 100 years. As for wisps, they can only live for 10 years in the same condition. That means Fie has a lifespan of around 50 to 55 years if she doesn''t enter the Foundation Establishment." Feifei and Krune didn''t feel the least bit sad by that. 50 to 55 years of initial lifespan was more than enough for her to cultivate without having to worry about time. Especially since she has the Elemental Meridians. First of all, Krune and Feifei could see that she is already in the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. In the end, she did not enter the Foundation Establishment. That was good, though. This way, she would have time to think about her own Foundation Form. But it was then that Krune''s expression changed. He immediately sent his Spiritual Energy and Divine Sense inside, but soon after, Krune relaxed. Feifei noticed it, though. "What happened?" Krune patted Feifei''s head and said. "Nothing. Because Fie is a hybrid between human and wisp, I was afraid that her soul was inside her Wisp Core. Fortunately, she inherited the human trait in this case. Her soul is in her head, so she doesn''t have the risk of dying if she fails to breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment Realm." Cinty confirmed Krune''s words. "That''s one good thing about a hybrid between wisps and humans. Even if she fails and her Wisp Core breaks in the process, thanks to the Dantian traits of the Core, she will be able to recreate it and try again." Knowing this, Krune and Feifei were obviously even more delighted. Cinty then looked at the group of midwives and asked. "How was it?" The midwives had low cultivations, so they couldn''t tell at what level Cinty was. That''s why Cinty didn''t mind appearing in front of them. "Everything went fine, it was exactly like you mentioned to us before we came here. Feifei delivered the placenta a little after the birth, which means that this was really a very human-like process." Cinty nodded, satisfied. "Good." She then threw a few spatial rings to the group. After checking the contents inside, their eyes all lit up. Although what Cinty paid them wasn''t considered much in her eyes, it was definitely a lot for cultivators and demon beasts at their Realms. "Thank you." Cinty smiled and asked. "Is there something else you need to do, or is it okay for you to leave already?" The leader of the midwives said. "If everything is really like a human''s birth process, then you should be able to take care of yourselves from now on. Especially since the mother obviously has very high cultivation, so she shouldn''t face any problems anymore. Of course, if you see anything happening in the future, you have all our communicators'' IDs, so you can call any of us. We will help as much as possible." Suddenly, Fie started to cry for the first time, which immediately alarmed Feifei. "Wh-What is it?" One of the midwives laughed and said. "Fie is just hungry, you need to feed her." Feifei sighed in relief and then took several Spirit Stones out. But this time, Fie didn''t stop crying, nor did she absorb any Spiritual Energy. The midwife''s mouth twitched, though. "Who the hell gives Spirit Stones to a just born baby? She is obviously hungry for your milk!" "Ah!" Only then Feifei noticed how idiotic her action looked like. But she couldn''t be blamed; just how many times did Feifei feed Fie with Spiritual Energy in this entire year of pregnancy? She simply got too used to it, that''s all. Feifei then approached her daughter to her breast, and sure enough, instinct spoke louder. Fie immediately started to suck her mother''s milk. Feifei couldn''t help but feel her eyes tearing up. That was her first time ''really'' feeding her own child, after all. Krune, on the other hand, laughed out loud. "It seems like we will need to feed her with more than just Spirit Stones from now on." Seeing that everything was okay, the midwives decided to leave. Feifei and Krune then thanked the group as well. After that, a wisp came by and guided the midwives back to their own places. With they gone, Tiane, Ruik, Laex, and the rest of the group came inside the room. Cinty also took that chance to ask. "So, how was it, was her floating ability surprising enough?" Krune and Feifei looked at Cinty and nodded. "It really was. For a second, I thought Fie had no weight. But when I held her, I noticed that her weight was normal, it is just that she had this ability." Cinty nodded. "Although extremely rare, it is not like there had been no hybrids of humans and wisps before. But there are some differences in yours. For example, the fact that her hair and eyes don''t have the normal blue-green coloration that normal wisps have. Most likely, her rainbow-like features happened because of Krune''s Elemental Meridians'' connection to his Elemental Divine Soul." Cinty patted Fie''s head and continued. "There is also one more thing that you will see anytime now. Oh! It seems like it is about to happen." Suddenly, Fie''s body started to release some kind of colored flame. Feifei was frightened for a second, but she soon noticed that the flame was more like Spiritual Energy. It''s just that the Spiritual Energy wasn''t dissipating, but gathered around Fie''s body. Also, there was no pain even when you touched that. Krune, of course, immediately understood what that was. "It''s the wisp''s ethereal body!" Cinty nodded. "Correct. However, it seems like Fie also inherited your rainbow side on this. Hahaha! Fortunately, her appearance is just like Feifei, which is good. It would be too sad if everything was like this idiot wisp father." Krune didn''t mind it at all. Having a child that looked just like Feifei was an excellent thing for him. As for the rainbow features... ''Well, I guess I don''t hate this word so much now.'' 394 Displacemen Sometime later, the ethereal rainbow energy around Fie''s body disappeared. Of course, Fie looked like to not have even noticed that. Feifei, Krune, Ruik, Tiane, and everyone else looked at each other, puzzled. Cinty couldn''t help but laugh, though. "It''s okay. Once Fie learns how to control her Spiritual Energy, she will be able to control her wisp side as well." Cinty then looked at Tiane and asked. "So, how is your egg?" It turns out that Tiane and Ruik''s child will take a lot longer to come out. But that is to be expected, after all, different races always had different growth rates. "As far as we can see, Liriu will still take another two or three months before coming out." "Liriu?" Tiane and Ruik nodded. "That is the name we chose for him." Feifei couldn''t help but comment. "That''s a very cute name." Krune and the rest looked at Ruik with weird faces. Can Quetzalcoatls be considered cute? If anything, they look very fierce instead. Ruik, of course, noticed that. But he could only sigh in the end. ''Don''t look at me, I couldn''t convince her otherwise.'' Seeing that, Krune Dilo intervened. "Well, if they are okay with it, I guess this is fine... right?" The rest could only nod. Cinty then decided to change the topic. "Alright! Fortunately, everything went as planned, but don''t forget that your promise with Hobbek and Rania is just a month ahead. So instead of using all your time pampering Fie, you should instead prepare as much as possible. I don''t want to have to take care of someone else''s child while I don''t even have one of my own." Krune and Feifei''s expression turned serious after hearing that. "Don''t worry, we didn''t forget what we are supposed to do." Sometime later, Fie was finally satisfied and fell straight asleep. Krune and Feifei then cleaned her while she slept and put some prepared baby clothes. After that, Feifei sent Fie into a pocket dimensional realm box just like Krune''s one back in the Luvile Universe. Inside, they had prepared everything like a bed, food, sprit stones, etc. The best thing is that Feifei bound that Small Realm with her Divine Sense. So anytime Fie woke up or cried, she would be able to feel it straight away. Krune and Feifei had to practice in different places, so they couldn''t exactly leave Fie alone. They also didn''t want to leave it at the care of others, so that''s when the pocket dimensional realm box came in. They could bring it anywhere they wanted, and once they stopped to rest, they could bring Fie out to play with her. Back then, when Feifei finished her breakthroughs after absorbing the Uer''s Heavenly Fragment, she stopped in the middle of the 8th Stage of the Divine Sou Realm. Even though her pregnancy severely affected her cultivation speed, it was not like it reached a complete stop. So she had got closer to the next Stage. With this sudden momentum in cultivation, the last month was enough for her to finally step inside the 9th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. But after that, Feifei''s Divine Soul thirstiness seemed to have been settled, and her cultivation speed came back to normal. However, Feifei could see that repeating this kind of process would not be a good idea in the future. It is too easy to damage one''s Foundation if they keep using it too often. In the end, steady progress is the best way. After Feifei finished inscribing her Swords with the Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy Connection Formation, there were only a little more than two weeks before they had to leave for Jionin City in Heras Planet. So Krune refused Feifei''s offer to inscribe his Hexagonal Shields for now. After all, he felt that it would be better for Feifei to get used to her Sword Array first. Having just a few of his Shields with the Formations wouldn''t change Krune''s combat prowess that much. But in Feifei''s case, getting more proficient in the Swords Array was definitely a great boost in attack power. As for Krune, he finally reached the Initial Stage of the Displacement Sub-Law. ''Compared to reaching the Advanced Stage of the Contraction Sub-Law in one day, this one is really too time for me to understand. I wonder if I will fall into a state similar to that day when I started seeing Space Laws. Even after 4 months, I was only barely able to understand the Initial Stage of Displacement with almost my entire mind on it.'' Still, that was the threshold for something he had been thinking about ever since he started seeing the Space Laws. Krune left his cultivation room and flew a few hundred meters above his house. "Alright, if the information is right, I should be able to do this now." Space Laws started to gather around Krune''s hand. A lot of Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy also poured out of his Foundation. Krune then concentrated on his target and suddenly made a slash motion of his hand. Space started to split apart, and the Space laws could now be clearly felt inside on that fissure in Space. However, they were extremely chaotic. It would be impossible to comprehend anything looking at that. But that wasn''t the reason why Krune made that fissure in Space, what he wanted to do was to completely open a Spatial Gate! ''This is not enough, I will be smashed by the Space Laws if I enter it in this state. Still, this is already very good for a first try. ... Again!'' Fissure after fissure kept appearing above Krune''s house. Some wisps which were passing close noticed that but didn''t say anything. That is the ''next wisp king''s'' house, after all. Whatever he is doing is not of their concerns. It was not before resting four times and over a hundred fissures that Krune finally created a stable enough Spatial Gate. Krune could feel what was on the other side as well. He then took a deep breath and entered it. Even though the Gate was somewhat stable, it is still a fact that it was very crudely made. Because of that, Krune received some damage to his body during the passage, nothing serious, though. Once he appeared on the other side, he couldn''t help but feel delighted! "Success!" Krune couldn''t go that far. It was only a 400km distance or so. Of course, this entire distance only took him a second to travel, which was the time he took to traverse the Gate. As fast as the Tribulation Lightning Movement might be, it is far from allowing Krune to cover such a distance in a second. "Alright, now, time to try something else." Krune brought all his shields out and charged them with as much Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy as possible. After that, he covered the Shields in Tribulation Lightning, which made them immediately disappear from others'' Divine Senses. Lastly, but not least, Krune started to infuse them with his Wills, just like what he did with the broken Flying Shield Pieces and Lucio''s Jade Slip. Although the Tribulation Lightning covered the Shields against others'' Divine Senses, it was totally different for Krune. So he used that to connect to his Wills inside them. After that, Krune spread his Shields around and started to manipulate them while performing an imaginary battle. Time passed, and Krune had been doing his combat simulations for an entire day. "Good! I don''t believe anyone can expect something like that. Those two don''t know just what is expecting them." Krune tried to open a Spatial Gate to go back once more. Of course, it was still difficult for him to do it at once. However, he only needed twelve tries to succeed this time. Compared to the previous over a hundred attempts, this is a monstrous improvement. Krune made the other side appear far above his house as well. After that, he went to the place where Feifei was practicing her Sword Array. When he arrived there, he noticed that the Nine swords were on the ground beside Feifei while she was feeding Fie. Tiane was also beside Feifei and looked at the two with some jealously. Her own kid still needed some time until it came out of the egg, and even after that, it wouldn''t be the type that needs milk to start with. As mentioned in the past, Tiane had always lived with the humans in the Wang Clan, so mothers feeding their children was the common thing for her instead of the common way of birds and snakes. That''s why she couldn''t help but wish a little for that sensation as well. Krune gave Feifei a kiss and patted Fie''s head before asking. "What are you two doing?" Feifei smiled. "Tiane was helping me a little with the Swords Array by being my opponent. She is very fast in her Demon Crow form. Especially when she uses her Wind Element and Laws. So it is very hard to control the Array to catch her." Tiane sighed. "She says that, but I have to go all out to escape her Swords Array range. Two weeks ago, I didn''t even need to use my Wind Element, let alone my Laws. But look at me now, I''m already tired after just 20 or so minutes dodging her attacks. To think that this is just the first level of the Nine in Nine Swords Transformation. I feel scared, just imagining how crazy the last level is. If Feifei used her Destiny Divine Soul, I wouldn''t last even half of that time." Krune was surprised by both sides, though. The Swords Array that Feifei started practicing two weeks ago is already at such a level. As for Tiane, the fact that she can still resist this long against such a top-notch Swords Array is amazing considering the difference in cultivation. Let''s not even mention that Feifei has two Heavenly Fragments! Tiane then looked concerned at Feifei. "It is tomorrow, right?" Feifei nodded. "I will leave Fie in your care during that time. So make sure to take good care of her while I''m out. I will make sure to come back as fast as possible." Krune just laughed. "Don''t worry, we are definitely coming back." 395 Fusion Cinty knew that Krune had decided to accept the challenge, but she was still worried about the fact that he is a Major Divine Soul Wisp. After all, wisps with a Major Divine Souls are always hunted by the Dalin Universe Management. "No need to worry, we are teleporting directly inside the Jionin City. Besides, Hobbek and Rannia probably think that we came in here using the right methods, so it matters little since we would need to go back to our Universe Later. Not to mention that they need our Heavenly Fragments, so they can''t simply have it lost. After all, chances are that whoever came after us would not give the Heavenly Fragments to them." Cinty nodded. "Since you already thought this far, then there is no need for me to stop you. The teleport formation is ready, so you can leave at any time. The right coordinates are input inside as well, which will teleport you directly there." Krune, Feifei, Laex, Dilo, and Xankruan were going this time. Not only them, but Cinty also had 10 Soul Forging Realm wisps following as well. Of course, this is all just for safety. Who knows if there isn''t really a trap even though it is inside a big city. As for Ruik and Tiane, Feifei asked them to take care of Fie here in the Wisp Main Word, so they were not coming. Krune then looked at the wisps helping them this time. "Thank you for your support." The oldest one, a Wisp over 150 years in the 6th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, just laughed. "It''s fine, we spend the majority of our time in the Time Slowing Formation, so it''s good to come out for some exercises. Besides, you are going to be the next wisp king in case Cinty fails in her breakthrough, so we need to make sure you are safe. To be honest, I would prefer that you had just stayed in the Wisp Main World. Unfortunately, the conditions of your arrival in the Dalin Universe don''t leave you with any other choice other than accepting this fight." Krune nodded. "I think so too, but I don''t have any intention of being on the loser side." The teleport formation activated, and with a flash of silver light, everyone disappeared. Jionin City was really one of the biggest cities in a hundred Solar Systems range. With over 60 million residents and a point of connection for several Long Distance Teleport Formations. One of those teleport formations started to shine, and swiftly, Krune''s group appeared right above it. Everyone looked around with caution, but after checking everything with their Divine Sense, there seemed to have nothing wrong. Krune then looked at his Communicator where the City''s arena was located, and their group started to make their way there. They took around 30 minutes to arrive. Usually, such a distance could be traversed much faster, but the City has a flying restriction. Only those at the Void Breaking Realm and above could fly inside. Finally, Krune and Feifei saw Hobbek and Rannia. In fact, both sides knew exactly where the other was because of the resonance of the Heavenly Fragments. "So you came. I was afraid that you wouldn''t keep your part of the deal. In that case, things would be really complicated for me to act inside the Wisp Main World." Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Well, we had a reason for it, so we could only come now. It is a good thing that the last Major Divine Soul ''coating'' hasn''t disappeared yet, so I expect that no one will intervene this time." Hobbek nodded while he took a glance at his Void breaking Realm companions. One of then nodded at him and said with a Divine Sense message. "There is a Void Breaking Realm between them. It is that demon beast beside the girl called Feifei." Hobbek asked back. "How strong?" The guy pondered a bit and said. "Extremely strong. I doubt that the three of us together would be his match. The feeling he''s giving me is that of a very strong race as well. I''m not sure, but if I had to guess, he is a Divine Beast or has a very pure bloodline." He wasn''t wrong. Even with his personality, Laex is, after all, a Pure Blooded Black Dragon. Hobbek narrowed his eyes. He can''t do anything inside the City, but you never know what might happen. He couldn''t help but wonder how Krune and Feifei got the support of such a strong Demon Beast. If he knew that it was nothing more than Spirit Stones, he might think that it was a joke. Laex, on the other hand, had noticed the other 3 Void Breaking Realm cultivators. Still, he felt nothing about them. He is already in the 8th Stage of the same realm, and with his Dragon Bloodline, very few could match him at the same level. Suddenly, Rannia eyes lit up! Right after, she got close to Feifei while smiling. She wasn''t afraid of anyone attacking her in this place, after all. "I see, I see! No wonder you didn''t appear during that video call last time, no wonder Krune asked half a year before coming. You became a mother! Hahaha!" Krune and the others were surprised by that. Rannia, on the other hand, just laughed once more. "What with the surprised faces? I might not be a mother myself, but I''m still a woman. Once a woman gives birth for the first time, the structure of her bones changes in certain places. Besides, any idiot would be able to see the milk in her breasts with a simple Divine Sense check." Sure enough, everyone spread their Divine Senses and noticed that difference. As for Feifei, she didn''t mind it. There wasn''t really a reason to hide it to start with. "So what?" Rannia smiled back. "I respect you a little bit more now. To think that you would get pregnant during a time like this, that is quite courageous of your side. By the way, where is the father? Did he stay behind taking care of the kid?" Krune just replied. "I''m right here, though." Rannia and Hobbek smiles disappeared and looked at Krune. After they found out about the wisps situation in the Dalin Universe, they both researched everything about them. So they also know that hybrids of wisps and other races are one of the most difficult ones to happen. "Is this some joke?" Krune, on the other hand, just shrugged his shoulders. "Whether you believe me or not, that is not my problem. Anyway, we didn''t come here to talk about my relationship with Feifei or our kid. Shouldn''t we get over with it and register an arena?" Hobbek came back to himself and nodded while smiling. "You are correct. In fact, I don''t think that having a kid before this is a wrong idea. After all, you are probably dying today. At least, you two left a descendant before that happened." Krune ignored the remark and went to the counter. They applied for an arena in deathmatch mode and a concealing formation. Only those who they selected would be able to watch it while anyone else would be kept outside. Quite a lot of cultivators and demon beasts like to watch those matches, but because of Krune''s Wisp Form, he had to make sure to keep hidden. Besides, Hobbek and Rannia, too, didn''t want to be seen. "Alright, it is arena number 317. It is quite a big one with a strong enough Protection and Concealing Formation." Krune and Hobbek selected it together, so neither side had any complaints. The two groups soon arrived at the right one. Krune, Feifei, Robbek, and Rannia then entered from different sides. Right after, the protection formation activated, trapping both couples inside. Following that, a concealing formation covered the arena and the spectators'' place. Although the protection formation is already activated, the battle couldn''t start until they agreed with it. That was to prevent someone from trying something before both sides are ready to give their all. To make sure it would be like that, there is also a barrier separating both sides. That barrier will only disappear once the opponents touched a small pillar at each entrance''s side at the same time. Seeing that, Krune returned to his wisp form and brought his Purple Flame Flying Shields out. He also had already taken complete control of Divine Soul even before coming to Jionin City, so Heavin was already sleeping to start with. Feifei did the same thing, and her nine Swords began to hover around her as well. Hobbek and Rannia didn''t mind either one, though. Hobbek smiled and then said. "I can still give you guys a chance. As long as you simply give me the Heavenly Fragments, you can leave this place alive and start cultivating from zero once more." Krune and Feifei looked at them, puzzled. "But we are not going to lose, so why should we do that?" Hobbek sighed after hearing that. "Well, I warned you. Let me show you why our Extreme Yin Yang Palace is so confident in winning one of the 5 slots of the Dalin Universe this time." Rannia and Hobbek smiled and held their hands together. Right after, a shocking scene played right in front of everyone. Their Yin and Yang Divine Souls came of out their bodies and started to fuse together! Not only that, but their bodies also started to shine and become one. That kind of transformation had taken everyone aback. Even Laex, who was part of a Divine beast race, opened his eyes wide! He, too, had never seen it before. When the transformation of the body finished, the fused Divine Souls came back and entered the new body. Hobbek had the highest cultivation before that, being at the 3rd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. But after that weird Yin and Yang fusion, their cultivation seemed to complement each other. That made their cultivation jump straight to the 6th Stage! Krune narrowed his eyes, seeing that. Hobbek and Rannia were almost an entire Realm above him now. They are also Heavenly Fragment owners, so they are definitely strong to start with. Besides, one can only imagine how strong the fusion of Yin and Yang can be. Rannia and Hobbek had become one with body and mind. Even their voices seemed to be overlapped now. "Don''t take it personally, it is common for one to hide their trump cards until the right time." Right after, the fused body took a Sword and a Spear from their Spatial Rings. Looking at them, anyone could see just how confident they are. But... Krune felt like laughing at that scene. In fact, even Feifei, who was worried just a second ago, was doing her best to hold her laugh and not showing it on her face. 396 Checkmate Rannia and Hobbek''s overlapped voice then came out. "Surprised? I found about your Purple Flame weapons during our investigation. When you put these two for sale in the Blacksmith Organization, we paid a very high price for it. I have to admit, I''ve never seen such ability before. This Purple Flame can increase the Diamond Stars level by several stages, surpassing the limit that we could use with our cultivation. I have to thank you for that, they are going to be very useful for us during the next few years." If Krune wasn''t in his wisp form now, his mouth would definitely be twitching. Sure, he did not leave any countermeasure in case someone decided to use his Purple Flame Weapons against him. If fact, Rannia and Hobbek had already checked it and knew that there was nothing left inside Krune''s Purple Weapons that could be used to control them. Why didn''t Krune do that? Because there was no need! His Purple Flame Weapons are carrying the Purple Tribulation Lightning properties, which means that he doesn''t need anything else if he wants to command it! This is not on purpose, it is just how the things worked. As long as it was related to Light Spirit''s Tribulation Lightning, no one could use it against him. A very good example of it was when Ula tried to use her Tribulation Lightning against Krune. In the end, she simply self-destructed! Feifei, obviously, knew about that already. Krune had told everyone in his group about his Tribulation Lightning control, so she was speechless when those weapons appeared. In the end, Krune decided to send her a Divine Sense Message. "Err... Let''s just... wait for them to attack first." Feifei nodded while trying to hide her excitement. Both sides then touched the pillar beside the entrances, and the barrier separating them disappeared. Hobbek and Rannia didn''t waste any time. The power of the Yin and Yang Divine Souls started to gather around the Spear and Sword. Krune could feel the presence of several laws from both sides too. It was evident that those two had reached a very high level of mastery in that fusion technique. After that, their Domain spread out together and overlapped. Feifei and Krune could see the power of Yin Yang coming from it too. Without a doubt, that was a very strong domain supported by several laws from both Hobbek and Rannia. Swiftly, they charged forward straight at Feifei. From what they know, she is the weakest link, so it would be better to get rid of her first. Feifei, of course, knew what they were thinking. Still, she pretended to want to dodge. Krune, too, played along and controlled his Shields to block Hobbek and Rannia. "Yin Yang Obliteration!" They didn''t hold back at all. With that one attack, they were sure to break through the shields and hit Feifei. Their Domain, which was also filled with the power of Yin Yang, helped to increase the strength of the attack even further. But just as the attacks of both Sword and Spear were about to hit the first Shield, something unbelievable happened! The entire energy gathered changed direction together with the Spear and Sword! Hobbek and Rannia eyes opened wide and couldn''t believe it when their attack suddenly came in their direction instead! There was simply no time to dodge or create an energy barrier. After all, as the one holding the weapons, they couldn''t be more close to it! It was a completely point blank full power attack with no chance for a reaction! Boom! Their fused body was sent flying! The Yin Yang and Laws'' power ravaged their insides. Both Spear and Sword were Purple Flame Weapons, which means that they surpassed others'' power at the same level by several Stars! That only contributed to making things worse. Noticing that they would be finished if that continued, Hobbek and Rannia immediately broke their Fusion so that they could dispel the power of Yin and Yang. However, that forced split caused the energy of the separation to once again send them flying in different directions! Feifei, who was already expecting something like that, controlled her Swords Array to attack the exact places where they would fall. Hobek and Rannia were taken aback by that. That was a completely random outcome, so how come those Swords knew exactly where they were falling? "Illusion of Destiny Domain!" It could show an illusion to the user and her allies of everything that would happen in the future. The closer the cultivation, the further the prediction of the Illusions. It had almost no effect on Rannia and Hobbek when they were fused, but now that they are separated, the story is completely different! "Nine in Nine Swords Transformation First Form, Flowing Thrust!" Five Swords went at Hobbek while another four went for Rannia. The Swords attack positions became hard to predict as they moved between each other. The main reason for it is the Water Laws that the Swords had in them, making their movements extremely fluid. One must remember that Feifei''s Flow Sub-law is also at completion here. But that wasn''t all! Even faster than Feifei, Krune had appeared right between those two and used his own attacks. He didn''t hold back either and used one of his strongest skills. "Heavens Fall!" Not only that, with Krune as the center, the Rainbow Domain also descended and suppressed the already weak Yin Yang Domain. Hobbek and Rannia could totally feel the laws inside their own Domains being destroyed... or better, eaten away! But what really shocked them was Krune''s speed. Even with their fused body, they could only at most match it, they were definitely not faster! Let alone now that the Fusion was broken. The power of Tribulation Lightning gathered above each one of them in a split of a second before falling down! Like Feifei, they noticed that Krune also knew precisely where they would be falling. However, Hobbek and Rannia were not Heavenly Fragment owners for nothing. They immediately gathered their Spiritual and Elemental Source energy to fight against the inertia. Like that, they would be able to avoid the hit point. "Do you think that we will simply fall inside your attacks?" Krune laughed. "Yes, I do!" Just as Hobbek and Rannia were about to dodge the attacks, they felt an extreme pressure pulling them back. The fully comprehended Earth Sub-Law, Gravity! And to make it stronger, Krune used his Earth Essence Sub-Law to support it, which also reached completion, increasing the gravitational pull even more! However, Hobbek and Rannia couldn''t be underestimated. In that Life and Death moment, they were still able to somehow parry part of Feifei''s Swords attack while creating an energy barrier with everything they had to block Krune''s Heavens Fall attack. One must remember that Hobbek and Rannia still have higher cultivations that Krune and Feifei, after all. Swish! Kabrum! Still, that didn''t mean they weren''t affected by the attacks. Some of Feifei''s Swords pierced their bodies, only avoiding fatal points. At the same time, their Energy barrier could only hold a little more than half of Heaven''s Fall attack, so they had to bear with the rest. They knew that the situation was dire. But finally, they could see that Krune and Feifei had no more attacks coming at them... or so their Divine Sense was saying. Too bad, though. Before the battle started, Krune hid two Shields behind Feifei, which had the Tribulation Lightning Layer on them. Because of that, Hobbek and Rannia couldn''t see them at all. Those exact two Shields, which had Krune''s will inside, were now right behind the unprotected Hobbek and Rannia''s back. Of course, they didn''t appear there by being moved. After all, they were behind Feifei before. If krune used movement to place them behind Hobbek and Rannia, their eyes would definitely catch their presence. Krune had been holding this trump card until this very last moment. Space Sub-Law, Displacement! That was the law that allowed Void Breaking Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts to open Spatial Gates and teleport! That was also what was used to teleport the Shields to those positions. Krune''s Wills, which were liked to him through Divine Sense, then came out. They gathered almost the full power of the Tribulation Lightning and fed it with as much Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy as possible. Leaving behind just enough energy to keep the Shields afloat and the Tribulation Lightning Layer that hid the Shields from Divine Sense. As for a reason for leaving behind his Wills? That is because Krune can''t use skills coming from the Shields, so that was the Wills'' job! Hobbek and Rannia''s companions saw that from outside and were shocked! Especially the three Void Breaking Realm cultivators. After all, they are seeing the use of Space Laws even though Krune doesn''t have a Space Divine Soul. Only someone with a Space Divine Soul would be able to use Space Laws while still in the Divine Soul Realm... or so they thought. "Impossible!" They wanted to warn Hobbek and Rannia, but the arena was made so that literally no one would be able to do intervene. It was a checkmate! "Tribulation Line!" The power of Tribulation Lightning came in a straight line directly at Hobbek and Rannia. When it was finally out of the Tribulation Layer of the Shields, those two finally noticed it with their Divine Sense. But that was too late. Not because they wouldn''t be able to react fast enough, but because they couldn''t. Thanks to Feifei''s "Illusion of Destiny Domain," Krune knew that they would still be able to avoid the fatal point, so he made sure to prevent that from happening. "Space Contraction!" His Advanced Stage Space Contraction Sub-Law showed its full power, even if it could be sustained just for a second. The two Tribulation lines pierced right through both Hobbek and Rannia''s Dantians, shattering them! The Yin and Yang Divine Souls were utterly obliterated by that as well, leaving behind just two Heavenly Fragments that seemed to have not been affected at all! Without receiving a single injury, Feifei and Krune''s fight for the Heavenly Fragments was over. 397 Wanna Try It? Hobbek and Rannia fell on the ground, but they were not dead. At the same time, Feifei, Krune, and Wamie Zark felt the presence of the Heavenly Fragments that were now without any protection. Krune and Feifei were already expecting for it, but Wamie Zark was different. She still had her ''coating,'' so for her to feel its presence, it means that the Core or Divine Soul where the Fragments were present before had been destroyed! "Two Heavenly Fragments... how?" Her protector, Gilia Mink, looked at Wamie. She was the one which came together with Wamie from the Luvile Universe. "What is it?" Wamie Sighed. "Just now, two Heavenly Fragments appeared. It is too hard to imagine that two ''coating'' disappeared at the same time, which means that two Heavenly Fragment Owners probably died." Gilia was taken aback. "Wait, you already felt the presence of a Heavenly Fragment appearing and disappearing right after. Doesn''t that mean that three Heavenly Fragment Owners are already finished? If they were all dealt by the same cultivator or demon beast, we would have almost no power to fight back." Wamie nodded. "I know, but there is nothing we can do at the moment. I can feel that those two Heavenly Fragments are way too far. We would never arrive in time to see what happened. All we can do is send someone to investigate." Gilia suggested. "Shouldn''t we go too? In case they were not killed by another Heavenly Fragment owner, we might be wasting time here. There is always such a chance, right?" Wamie Zark pondered a bit and then nodded. "Alright, in case I stop feeling their presence, we can come back and continue to cultivate." The two girls then called their own companions and left straight away. Back in the Jionin City, Krune was looking at Hobbek and Rannia, who seemed to be doing their best to just keep standing. "How did you do that? We made sure to verify both weapons. There was definitely nothing inside that should allow you to control them." Krune snorted. "That is a secret. Why should I tell you that?" Feifei also came forward and looked at the Heavenly Fragment floating on the arena. "Shall we try it?" Krune nodded. "Yes, that is the only way to get rid of all these problems at once." Outside, Dilo and the others sighed in relief when they saw that Krune and Feifei emerged victoriously. Laex, especially, was as amazed as the enemies'' Void Breaking Realms. He, too, knows very well what kind of monster someone has to be to use Space Laws in the Divine Soul Realm. Especially since Krune doesn''t have a Space Divine Soul to start with. He looked at the other group and then snorted. It was evident that the Void Breaking Realm guys on the other side were preparing to break through the arena''s protection to rescue Hobbek and Rannia. Laex''s thoughts were right. The payment agreed with Rannia and Hobbek were to be made once they return to the Luvile Universe with the Heavenly Fragments. They accepted that deal because they knew about that couple''s fusion ability. In their eyes, there was no way they would lose to the other Heavenly Fragment Owners as long as they were careful. But who could have thought that Krune could control his Purple Flame Weapons even though there should be nothing inside allowing it? Laex didn''t move a single finger, though. ''Idiots. If every young master in danger could be saved like that, what would be the meaning of the arena protection formation?'' Sure enough, when those three attacked the arena Protection Formation, it didn''t even tremble. Instead, some kind of reaction happened, which send a powerful spiritual energy attack directly at their souls. "Arrrrgh!" The three of them fell down while holding their heads in pain. Although it wouldn''t leave any lasting effect, that was enough for them to understand that it would be impossible to break through with their power. While in the middle of pain, they couldn''t help but lament for the payment that they hadn''t received yet. Back inside of the Protection formation, Hobbek and Rannia looked at Krune and Feifei with a shocked expression. That''s because they seemed to be preparing to attack it instead of getting the Heavenly Fragments for themselves! Now that Krune had enough time, he gathered his Shields back and prepared to use his most potent attack, the Tribulation Cannon. Feifei also helped him and poured as much Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy inside as possible. The power of the Tribulation Lightning continued to increase inside the dome of Shields. Back in the Mohie Zarks'' Inheritance, Krune had to stop charging Tribulation Lightning because his old Shields couldn''t hold the amount of Energy Inside. But this time, his new Kaleu Tribulation Steel Shields could hold his max power and even more! Krune aimed at one of the Heavenly Fragments and released the attack. BOOM! An enormous shockwave ravaged the insides of the arena. Hobbek and Rannia, who were now only in the Qi Condensation Realm, were obviously sent flying against the arena protection formation. They didn''t have the power to resist such a thing anymore. Laex, who was outside looking at everything, felt a chill on his back. Even though that attack took a long time to charge and was impracticable in battle, he had to admit that even he would not dare to block it at his current level. For Krune to make him feel like that, one can only imagine how many times stronger than an average Divine Soul Realm attack it was. Sometime later, the energy released inside the Arena Protection formation settled down. However, Krune and Feifei could still feel the presence of the Heavenly Fragment. When the vision of them became clear again, Krune and Feifei couldn''t help but sigh. Let alone destroy the Heavenly Fragments. It looked like Krune didn''t even attack to start with. Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "Should we try again?" Krune shook his head. "That was the best I could do. It definitely can''t be destroyed." Feifei pondered a bit and asked. "What if we throw them inside of a Spatial Fissure? Even if they are not destroyed by the Spatial Laws, even a God wouldn''t know in which Universe they will fall into. Isn''t that the same, then?" Krune looked at Feifei, and his eyes lit up! That was indeed a very good idea. That was also the reason why Krune didn''t kill Hobbek and Rannia, he wanted them to see what they were doing to the Heavenly Fragments. He would let them go, and after that, they would naturally go back to the Luvile Universe and report it. From that point onwards, the Heavenly Fragment Fights would become pointless. Krune then tried to open a fissure in space, but for some reason, he failed in doing it. "Most likely, there is some kind of protection in the arena that prevents someone from opening Spatial Gates. Let deactivate it." Krune and Feifei then touched the pillar on both sides. The protection Formation then disappeared, leaving only the concealment formation active. Laex immediately appeared beside Krune and Feifei while the other Void Breaking Realm guys did the same with Rannia and Hobbek. Even though they are still feeling the backlash from the previous attack, they got enough time to recover a little. Krune ignored them since Laex was still there. He again tried to open a Fissure in Space, and sure enough, he succeeded this time. Krune and Feifei then grabbed the Heavenly Fragments and immediately threw it inside. Hobbek saw that and asked someone beside him. "Is that Spatial Gate connected somewhere?" The Void Breaking Realm guy beside him shook his head. "No. That thing was not made to connect some points. Inside it, there are only spatial storms. If those Heavenly Fragments don''t get destroyed in the process, they will most likely be thrown somewhere else, definitely not in the Dalin Universe." Hobbek and Rannia finally understood why Krune and Feifei left them alive. They wanted to end the Heavenly Fragment fight once for all. The chances of finding both fragments once again were so small that it wasn''t worth even mentioning. The Sacred Lands would never spend their time trying it either. The Spatial Fissure then closed, and the Yin Yang Heavenly Fragments were gone... not! Right after the fissure closed, both Heavenly Fragments appeared beside Krune and Feifei out of nowhere! "The hell?!" Krune looked at Laex and Feifei, but they, too, were surprised by this outcome. Krune didn''t give up and opened another Spatial Fissure. But a few seconds after the fissure closed, the Heavenly Fragments appeared by their side once more. Seeing that made Krune feel like crying. "Why don''t you just go away?!" Laex looked at Krune. Even though he thought that Krune and Feifei should use those Heavenly Fragments themselves, he understood what he was trying to do. "Sigh... give me a second, I will ask my uncle." Krune and Feifei were surprised. Laex''s uncle was obviously another Divine Beast, and probably someone powerful. Laex brought out his communicator and made a call. A few seconds later, the image of a Fire Dragon taking a bath in a poll of lava appeared on the other side of the screen. "What is it? Can''t you see that I''m resting?" Although Krune and Feifei were shocked by that scene, Laex acted as if nothing strange was happening. "Hi, uncle. It''s just a question. Have you ever heard about someone trying to get rid of Heavenly Fragments by throwing them inside a Spatial Fissure?" The Fire Dragon was surprised with such a question, but he soon came back to normal. "Well, there had been some idiots who tried to do that before so that their enemies at least wouldn''t get it. But an ownerless Heavenly Fragment can only exist in a space where another Heavenly Fragment is present. If you throw it inside a Spatial Fissure, it will reappear near the closest Heavenly Fragment. As to why it happens, I have no idea." "Is that all?" Laex pondered a bit and then asked. "Is there a way to destroy it?" His uncle nodded. "Sure, you need to attack it with enough power. Just go to the Higher Realms and ask some of its strongest existences to do that for you. Hahahaha!" Laex''s mouth twitched. "Forget it, thanks." Laex finished the call and looked at Krune and Feifei while shrugging his shoulders. "There you go. Wanna try to destroy it?" Krune felt like crying again. "Try your head!" 398 Hobbek and Rannia Krune looked at those fragments and then said. "Let''s bring them back to the Wisp Main World for now. It would be a terrible idea to absorb them at this time. After all, our cultivations would increase because of that, which means that Feifei would definitely go into the Soul Forging Realm. Maybe even myself since I''m in the 7th Stage." Krune and Feifei took the and then left the City. As for Hobbek and Rannia''s group, they couldn''t care less anymore. None of Hobbek and Rannia''s companions tried to stop them either. First, their numbers were similar, and second, they would be going against the laws if they attacked first. For the Void breaking Realm guys, it was enough that Krune didn''t kill those two. With that, they can get their payment back... or so they wished. But now, that might be impossible as well. There was also another problem. Only a Heavenly Fragment Owner can absorb the fragment of another. A cultivator or demon beast without a fragment would never be able to make it their own. So it would be useless even if they had recovered the fragments by luck. While they were healing their injuries, Hobbek and Rannia also thought about another problem. The fact that they don''t have the fragments anymore. It could be said that they are basically useless to the Extreme Yin Yang Palace as of the moment. Because of that, they doubt that the Palace will pay those three Void Breaking Realm cultivators for their sake. Hobbek had already paid the Soul Forging Realm guys since their case was only Spirit Stones. "You guys can go back to your own places already. We won''t be able to do anything for you all anymore." The guys in the Soul Forging Realm were already expecting this. So they bid their farewell and left straight away. They felt some greed about Hobbek and Ranni Spatial Rings, but as long as they are inside of a City, especially a big one like this, they won''t be able to touch them. Hobbek then looked at the Void Breaking Realm cultivators that stayed and sighed. "Well, it is obvious that you are here because of what we promised you. But the way we are now, there is simply no way that the Palace will pay you. After all, it would be a simple waste of resources. So what do you plan to do? If it is Spirit Stones or our weapons, I can at least do this much for you. Staying with us would be a waste of time for both you and us." They also couldn''t attack Hobbek and Rannia here, and Hobbek also confirmed what they feared. "Sigh... whatever. Just give us those Purple Flame Weapons. Although you can''t use it against Krune, they obviously can be used against others. Besides, they are worth a fortune. I know that you used almost all your Spirit Stones just to buy those two things." Those three just looked at each other and nodded. The fact is that they don''t want to risk using these weapons, so they will just sell it back and share the payment. It is not like they need to ask for Spirit Stones alone. Due to the Purple Flame Weapons'' rarity, they probably can get something better. They had been a group of three friends who stayed together for a long time. Because of this, none were afraid of the other stealing the others. Without even bidding farewell, the three Void breaking Realm guys quickly left. Leaving only Hobbek and Rannia behind recovering from their injuries. Rannia looked at Hobbek and asked. "Say, what do you think we should do now?" Hobbek shrugged his shoulders. "What else can we do? We are already here in Dalin anyway, so we can just cultivate once more. Fortunately, our Laws were not affected, we just can''t use them due to our cultivation level." Hobbek thought about everything that he and Rannia had gone so far. All their battles, decisions, and everything else that had been for the sake of the Heavenly Fragments. But now that they lost the Divine Souls that held them, they wouldn''t be able to become Heavenly Fragment owners anymore. So he felt like their purpose had disappeared. As for hatred? Well, if those two said that losing their cultivation and Heavenly Fragment didn''t affect them, it would be a lie. Still, they didn''t exactly feel hatred for Krune and Feifei. The reason was quite simple, though. From the very start, they knew that they might be the ones losing everything. The fact that Krune didn''t kill them is already an excellent outcome. Rannia then advised. "Shouldn''t we go back to the Extreme Yin Yang Palace to report everything that happened?" Hobbek looked at the sky above. Countless thoughts were going through his mind. Both he and Rannia understood that Krune''s initial plan was for them to see the destruction of the Heavenly Fragments. After going back to report it, the battle for the Heavenly Fragments would obviously become pointless. But after he opened the arena protection formation, no one from both sides could touch the other anymore. Krune also couldn''t hide them either, so the battle will continue for those who still had them. It''s just that Hobbek and Rannia are now out of it. "Say... We know very well how the Extreme Yin Yang Palace works. Once we return and report everything that happened, the Palace will simply not bother about our existence from there onwards. At most, we will just become ordinary disciples or maybe not even that. So what about we simply stay here instead and forget about all of this?" Hobbek then looked back at Rannia. "Collect Heavenly Fragments, fight for the Luvile Universe in the Heavenly Competition, and all the burden that would be coming next. Don''t you feel like now that we are free from all of that, it might not really be a bad thing? After all, I still have you, so it''s not like I needed anything else from the start." Rannia was taken aback. Deep down, she always thought that she and Hobbek''s relationship wasn''t frank. That they were both just using each other to achieve greatness. Because of that, she couldn''t help but get a little red after his last words. After all, there isn''t really a need for them to stay together anymore. She felt like this was the first time that she knew Hobbek''s real feelings. "Hum... I guess it is worth a try. But what should we do once we reach the Divine Path Realm? After all, we would be forced out of Dalin at that point. Because we are not going back to report everything straight away now, the Palace might take it at us once we enter the Luvile Universe." Hobbek laughed. "That is simple. Several powers in the Dalin Universe can allow us to stay as long as we join them. So why don''t we do just that? Even if we decide to not join anyone, it is not as if we can''t select another Universe to go after here instead of going back to Luvile." Suddenly, Hobbek noticed something and couldn''t help but comment. "It''s quite weird, don''t you think? I feel like this is the first time ever since I found out to have a Heavenly Fragment that I''m making my own decisions. So far, I always followed the Palace''s orders. In fact, I believe it is the same thing for you too." Rannia was taken aback once more. "That... seems to be true." It was then that she remembered Feifei and Krune. Those two were obviously not following anyone''s rules and certainly didn''t care about the Heavenly Fragments either. They even tried to destroy them so that they could get their peaceful life back. Not only that, but they also had a child... probably. It was still somewhat hard to believe that the kid was Krune''s. But for some reason, Rannia also felt like it wasn''t a lie. "Hobbek... do you want a child?" Hobbek felt like he was struck by lightning. "Say what?!" He looked at Rannia, who seemed to have gotten even redder. "You said that we were making our own decisions, right? This would obviously be our own decisions as well." Hobbek scratched the back of his head. He felt like this was the first time that he and Rannia had ever really ''talked'' with each other. It was then that Rannia noticed that she forgot the situation that they were in. Which made her feel like an idiot. They have almost no cultivation at the moment. So it would not be a good idea to do that now. "O-Of course, I''m not talking about now. How could we do that at the moment like this, right? We first need to recover our cultivations and then we ca-" Suddenly, Hobbek covered Rannia''s mouth with his finger. "I want it now." Rannia was surprised by that, but then she started to laugh. "Sure, but I believe it would be better for us to recover our injuries first, right?" Hobbek felt embarrassed at that comment. Of course, they need to at least recover their bodies to the peak state. It was a good thing that they had several healing pills in their Spatial Rings, so a full recovery wouldn''t be a problem. "Ri-Right..." Ever since that day, Hobbek and Rannia disappeared from everyone''s radar. No one knows if they would appear once again. 399 No More Hesitation To prevent any mishaps from happening, Krune and his Group went straight back to the Wisp Main World. After all, those Heavenly Fragments were obviously being felt by the other Heavenly Fragment Owner. They don''t even know if there is just one or more of them either. So far, they found out the Yin, Yang, and Death Heavenly Fragments. If they consider the Elemental and Destiny ones, it means that there is still another 4 to be found. Life, Time, Space, and Blackhole. After arriving there, Krune and Feifei went straight to Tiane to take their child back. As for Heavin, he knew everything that happened already. When Krune let him awake, he took control of the parrot and returned to his Puppeteer training. As for the wisps that accompained Krune, they immediately returned to the Time Slowing Formations. Tiane, who had been nervous this entire time, couldn''t help but tear up when Feifei came back. Feifei hugged her and patted her head until she calmed down. As for Ruik... he was sleeping... Seeing that, Krune couldn''t help but send him flying with a kick again. "Can''t you be a little more concerned about me?" Ruik, who was awakened, didn''t look the least bit happy. "Concerned your head! I have long since understood that you are just like a cockroach, you simply don''t die. So what was there to be concerned about?" Krune didn''t know if he should feel happy or sad with that comment. "Whatever..." Krune then sent a Divine Sense message to explain everything at once. After getting Fie back, Krune and Feifei went to Cinty''s house so that they could ask her opinion. Cinty let off a sigh of relief when they came back. In fact, she had to admit that they returned way faster than she thought. "It seems like your opponents didn''t try to call the Dalin Universe Management. In the end, it was just like you thought." Krune nodded. "That was to be expected. Otherwise, even if we died, Hobbek and Rannia most likely wouldn''t acquire the Heavenly Fragments. So it would be a terrible idea to do so since they were very confident in their victory." Krune also used a Divine Sense message to tell Cinty everything that happened. "I see... Since there is no way to destroy it, and hiding is meaningless, you might as well fuse with them. After all, it is not like it is a totally bad thing. You will jump several Stages of cultivation, and it will be enough to prevent any bottleneck. The laws related to each of the Heavenly Fragments will also be a lot easier to comprehend." Krune and Feifei nodded. They just came here to see if Cinty had some other idea, but it seems like she doesn''t know about anything else. Krune couldn''t help but remember what Karine said. "Karine told me that once I reached the Soul Forging Realm, I should go back to the Elemental Path. You also wanted to come, right, Cinty?" Cinty''s eyes lit up! "Right! So it would happen this early... I wanted to be in the Divine Path Realm at least before going there, but I guess I can''t just make you wait, right?" Krune pondered a bit and then asked. "How long do you think it would take for you to reach the Divine Path Realm?" Cinty was at the 8th Stage of the Void Breaking realm at the moment. Also, her cultivation could be said to be one of the fastest in the Dalin Universe thanks to the Elemental Meridians and her Blackhole Divine Soul. When she got the Myriad Energies Technique, she was still in the 5th Stage. It means that she jumped three Stages of the Void Breaking Realm in just 5 and a half years! There weren''t many out there that could match her cultivation speed. "If I continue like this, I believe I would need between two and a half years to three years. But this would be enough for you to enter the Soul Forging Realm even without the Heavenly Fragments. So are you sure you want to wait for me?" Feifei then said. "I don''t really mind to enter the Soul Forging Realm through the normal way. In fact, I think it would be safer if we did that. You never know if something could happen, so who knows if the Tribulation doesn''t suddenly change because we made a Breakthrough like that?" Krune then commented. "What about the other Heavenly Fragment Owners. As long as we don''t absorb it, any other one would feel these fragments. We don''t know how many Heavenly Fragment owners are remaining in the Dalin universe, after all." Cinty shrugged her shoulders. "Would that make any difference? Your ''coatings'' disappeared already. So once the others disappear as well, they will naturally feel your presence. The Heavenly Fragments just so happen to be in the same place as you two. Considering that no one can barge into our Wisp Main World, it will be useless even if they know it is here." Feifei then remembered something. "But isn''t it the chance of our illegal entrance being discovered that makes it a problem? Hobbek and Rannia knew about Krune, so chances are that the others also know it." Krune nodded. "That was also the reason why we took in Hobbek and Rannia''s challenge. To prevent them from thinking about this possibility since they couldn''t enter the Wisp Main World. After we accepted their challenge, their minds were focused on the battle that was about to happen, not in a way to force us out of the Wisp Main World." "In that case, you can only absorb the fragments so that their presence will disappear." While they were pondering about what to do, Feifei felt a ripple coming from the pocket Dimensional Realm Box. The next second, Fie appeared on her arms, crying. "She is just hungry again." Looking at Fie, who was drinking Feifei''s milk, the couple realized something. "We shouldn''t be hesitating. For Fie, we should take the risk since we can''t really get rid of the Heavenly Fragments." Feifei nodded. "Let''s just fuse with the Heavenly Fragments then." Cinty couldn''t help but feel a little jealous of that scene. "Alright, since you reached a decision, you better do it as soon as possible. I will follow you into the Elemental Path as well, no need to wait for me to enter the Divine Path Realm." Sometime later, Fie was finally satisfied and fell asleep again. Krune looked at Feifei and said. "I will be absorbing my Heavenly Fragment first. If I breakthrough and something different happens, I should be able to deal with it with my Tribulation Lightning." Feifei agreed with Krune since she had seen he using Tribulation Lightning against the Dalin''s Heavenly Tribulation before. Feifei sent Fie back to the pocket realm box, and the two immediately moved to the Tribulation Field. Krune also informed Heavin and the others. Heavin, of course, was the one most concerned about that new Heavenly Fragment. After all, it was something directly connected to his existence. But he also knew that it would give Krune and himself a great boost in overall strength. "Let''s do this!" The process of breaking through into the Soul Forging Realm did not affect the Divine Soul, though. The Soul Forging Realm would remodel the cultivators or demon beasts'' real soul. That was so that it could get prepared to control the tremendous amount of energy that would be available during the next realms. Of course, although the Divine Soul didn''t suffer any change, it would still get stronger and able to use even more energy with every Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. As for how that Soul Forging happened, one would need to fuse it would Elemental Source Energy. The process was really a complete transformation between what it was and what it will be. One had to strike their own soul with Elemental Source Energy without stop. As if you are forging a completely new soul. That''s where the name came from as well. Krune and Heavin''s Parrot Puppet were looking at the Yang Heavenly Fragment in front of them. They then looked at each other and nodded. "Time to start!" First, Krune brought out several Spirit Stones from his Spatial Ring. He would need as much Spiritual Energy as possible during the forging process. With that done, he pulled the Yang Heavenly Fragment into his Foundation. It stopped just beside the Divine Soul. Heavin could feel that both Heavenly Fragments, his own and the one in front of him, were calling each other. "Well, here goes nothing..." Heavin then pulled the Heavenly Fragment against his Divine Soul. When both fragments touched each other, they melted. The two melted liquids seemed to struggle to get together for a few moments until they finally became one. Heavin felt like his mind became lethargic during that time as well. He could barely think at all. Fortunately, it didn''t take long. After the liquids became one, they assumed the form of a bigger Core Fragment with twice the original size of each one. Heavin''s mind also came back to normal, and he finally relaxed. What he was most afraid of is that the new Heavenly Fragment might have done something to him. But it seemed that it was not the case. If anything, he feels that his mind is a lot clear now. With the new Heavenly Fragment in place, Krune''s cultivation, which was already close to the 8th Stage, instantly broke through. Like Feifei, there was no cultivation disorders, chaotic energy, a burst of Spiritual Energy, or anything like that. In fact, Krune could understand why Feifei didn''t notice her cultivation improvement for the first time. If Krune wasn''t paying attention to his cultivation, he, too, would not have noticed it. Krune''s cultivation then started to increase once again. The way it was improving, Krune knew that he would not have a problem reaching the peak of Divine Soul Realm, so there was only the Soul Forging Realm in front of him now. 400 Breaking Thorugh Sometime later, Krune advanced into the 9th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. Once again, there were no side effects. His cultivation foundation also didn''t become unstable at all. It kept increasing when it finally reached the peak of the Divine Soul Realm, where it finally stopped. ''I guess it can''t go any further without me entering the next Realm. Alright, let''s start.'' Elemental Source Energy started to gather at great speeds and struck against Krune''s Soul. The Spirit Stones around Krune also were being depleted very fast. Still, Spirit Stones are what Krune doesn''t lack at the moment. ''It was not as painful as I thought it would be.'' Of course, it was not that changing the Soul wasn''t painful. It is just that Krune had tempered his Soul with Tribulation Lightning so many times that it got a lot resistant against pain. But it also came with a side effect. ''I see, it seems like I will need to strike the Soul several times more than someone else would need to.'' It can''t be helped. The Soul resistance obviously will make it harder to for the transformation to happen. Krune''s only choice was to do it several times over. ''From the information available, an average Peak Divine Soul Realm would need to strike 200 to 300 times. But from the looks of it, I won''t stop before at least a thousand or two, maybe more. I guess the stronger the cultivator or demon beast, the more they need to do it. That should be a good thing in theory.'' Krune was right. The more times you needed to strike the Soul with Elemental Source Energy, the more thoroughly the transformation would happen. Some Sects and Clans also liked to use this method to measure a member''s talent. It would show just how much effort that member put into his cultivation up to that point. Feifei, who was watching from outside, couldn''t help but ask the others who were already in the Soul Forging Realm. "How many times you had to attack your souls during the breakthrough?" Dilo was the first one to answer. "I didn''t have the Myriad Energies Technique at that time, so my soul power was just like any average one. I struck it 273 times to finish the complete transformation. Now that I remember, it was really a painful thing that I don''t want to repeat." Xankruan then answered next. "I already had the Myriad Energies Technique by the time I entered the Soul Forging Realm. However, the time I spent with it wasn''t as long as you guys, so the number didn''t increase that much. After 407 hits, the full transformation was done as well." Cinty was the last one to answer. Dile and Xankruan were surprised. That was more than double their numbers. "That was probably excruciating." Cinty shook her head. "The stronger your Soul, the lesser the pain since it becomes more resistant. I would say that the pain that I felt with my 914 hits was probably lower than your 273." Dilo felt like crying. Not only was his Soul just average, he even had to feel more pain because of that. ''I guess that this is the effort being paid back.'' Cinty then continued. "Still, Krune''s Soul is supported by the Myriad Energies Technique since he was in the Qi Condensation Realm. He also used his Tribulation Lightning to temper it so many times that he probably doesn''t even remember the number anymore. He also has his All-Encompassing Soul Technique. Simply put, his Soul was on an entirely different level from mine when I was in his Realm. I wouldn''t be surprised if he needed to go over twice than what I required. His entire Breakthrough will probably take quite some time to finish too." Time passed, and Krune kept hitting his Soul with Elemental Source Energy. 300 times... 500 time... 1000 times... By this point, Krune finally could feel his Soul starting to transform. ''Only now the transformation began, at least there isn''t much pain. Let''s continue.'' 1500 times... 2000 times... 2500... It takes some time for you to gather the Elemental Source Energy to hit the Soul, so by the time Krune reached 3000 hits, over a day had gone by. Fortunately, Krune could tell that it was almost finished. ''Just another 200 or so hits, and the transformation will be completed.'' Finally, 3246 attacks later, Krune''s Real Soul finished its transformation. Now, it was very similar to his own Divine Soul, a mix of Soul and Elemental Source Energy. Krune also noticed that his Soul became more compact. However, at the same time, he felt like his control power over everything increased several times. That wasn''t all. Krune entered the World of Laws and finally understood why Soul Forging Realm cultivators and demon beasts had an easier time comprehending Laws. "I see... the laws are being attracted by my cultivation. No wonder the biggest majority outside Dalin Universe would start comprehending Laws only in this Realm." Suddenly, Krune heard Heavin''s voice in his conscience. "You can feel amazed as much as you want later, our little friend in the skies is here to pay a visit already." Krune looked up, and sure enough, the Heavenly Tribulation Clouds started to gather again. "So far, this is just like a normal breakthrough. If anything, the Heavenly Tribulation size is several times larger than what was in Dilo''s case. Still, this is something that I was already expecting." Krune didn''t even wait for the Tribulation Fire to descend. He got up and charged directly inside the clouds. The Tribulation Clouds seemed to get enraged by Krune''s boldness and immediately released the Tribulation Fire. However, Krune didn''t care. He first activated his Tribulation Lightning Domain, which could eat the laws of everything. By the time the fire reached Krune''s Wisp Body, its power was already reduced by half! "It''s Sun feeding time!" Krune opened his Elemental Meridians and again guided the Tribulation Fire directly at his Sun in his Universe Foundation. Last time, Krune''s Sun had gotten big enough to finally exert the necessary gravitational pull for his Planet Foundation to orbit it. During his entire time as a Divine Soul Realm Wisp, his Sun continued to absorb even more Spiritual and Elemental Source Energies. It was now at least 50% bigger than when he entered the Divine Soul Realm. Still, the Tribulation Fire was by far the best type of Energy for it. Krune could also guide a lot more Tribulation Fire than he could in the past, so his Sun was having the feast of its life. Krune was also taking care of his Planet Foundation since the gravitational pull of his Sun kept increasing. Krune looked at that and couldn''t help but sigh. "Light Spirit was the one who gave me this idea before. I wonder when he will wake up again." Suddenly, Krune heard a familiar voice that he hadn''t in a very long time. "No need to wonder, I''m already here." Krune was taken aback by that voice. "Light Spirit! You are finally awake!" Light Spirit, of course, didn''t show the same enthusiasm as Krune. "How can I not? With all this Tribulation Fire power shaking everything here, it would be a miracle if I did not wake up. Well, at least, you are doing the right thing by increasing the Sun''s size." Just as Krune was about to reply, Heavin''s Divine Soul approached Light Spirit''s Tribulation Source. He came so fast that Light Spirit had to dodge him to not hit each other. "So you are finally back. Why did you take so long to wake up? Krune had been feeling gloomy for a long time because you never woke up, you know? Well, Krune doesn''t matter much, so you don''t need to care about him anyway." If Krune was in his human form, his mouth would definitely have twitched after hearing that. "The problem is that even Feifei felt sad because of you and that I can''t let pass." Light Spirit was speechless. "You didn''t forget who saved your asses back in the Mohie Zarks Inheritance, right? It was exactly because of that that I had to sleep for some time." Heavin didn''t care, though. "This is this, and that is that. You have to apologize to Feifei later, or I will keep pestering you day and night until the day we get separated." Krune couldn''t help but remind them. "You guys didn''t perhaps forget that I''m in the middle of a Heavenly Tribulation at the moment, right? So, what about paying attention to it first?" Light Spirit took a look outside and snorted. "Hmph! Such a puny level of power. If you can''t even deal with this weak thing, then there is nothing more for us to talk about. Anyway, I''m going to sleep a little more, call me if you need anything." Krune couldn''t help but sigh. ''Does this guy even know how much I worried about him? Oh well, whatever... I''ll tell Feifei later.'' 401 No Surprises As strong as the Fire Tribulation might have been, it was still not at a level where it could threaten Krune. Since the Tribulation Lightning Domain was being used alone, Krune also didn''t need to care about it affecting the other ones, so it wasn''t an issue to sustain it. In fact, even if he had run out of Tribulation Lightning power, he is more than capable of resisting the Tribulation Fire without it as well. This time, everything went according to the plans, Krune finished his Tribulation and officially entered the Soul Forging Realm. But things didn''t stop there. Krune took in Hobbek''s Yang Heavenly Fragment, who had a higher cultivation than Uer in the past. So now that he finished his breakthrough, his cultivation started to increase once more. However, there was only enough strength for him to reach the 2nd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm before it settled down. Krune wasn''t sad, though. He went from the 7th Stage of the previous realm to the 2nd of the next in just a bit more than a day. Not to mention that his Sun had once more doubled in size, which improved his Universe Foundation as a whole. Besides, there were no side effects in his cultivation or foundation at all. When he noticed that everything was over, he returned to his human form and came back to Feifei and the others. At the same time, Wamie Zark, who was on her way to this place, had to stop. "One of the Heavenly Fragments disappeared, there is only one now." Gilia was surprised by that. The Heavenly Fragments had appeared over a day ago. Hence, they thought that perhaps their owners really died to something not related to their Universe fights. But then again, some other Heavenly Fragment owner might have been close and arrived first as well. "Should we keep moving? We are not even halfway there. Both Fragments were in the same place, so most likely, the second one will be absorbed as well." Wamie narrowed her eyes while thinking about it. "Let''s keep going. If the other one disappears as well, then we still have a lot of time to go back." Back in the Wisp Main World, Krune was talking about his breakthrough with everyone. "Well, everything went pretty much fine. I didn''t see anything different because I used the Heavenly Fragments." Ruik couldn''t help but ask with a shocked face. "How is that possible?!" Krune looked at him, puzzled. "What you mean?" With the same expression, Ruik added. "There must be something wrong. There were no explosions, new Souls, the environment is just fine too. Since when can you make a normal breakthrough? I was even expecting a God to descend and destroy the entire Universe this time!" Everyone immediately burst out in laugher. "That''s true, this is not like Krune at all. Sure there was some explosion somewhere we didn''t see, right?" "I thought it would be a demon god instead." Krune''s mouth twitched after hearing all of that. It is as if they are disappointed because everything worked out well. Still, it was true that all of Krune''s previous Realm breakthroughs, something weird happened. So they couldn''t be blamed for expecting some heaven-defying event. "Hmph!" Feifei, who was still laughing, then passed Fie for him to hold. "Alright, alright. Now is my time, so take care of Fie." Krune nodded while still showing an annoyed face. She quickly took some distance away from the group and took out the Yin Heavenly Fragment. After preparing enough Spirit Stones, she immediately absorbed the Fragment. Just Like Krune, her actual one and the new melted. Sometime later, they once more assumed the form of a single fragment, which was now bigger. Feifei was in the 9th Stage, so her cultivation started to increase until it reached the peak. Just like Krune, her cultivation also stopped at that point. "Time for a breakthrough then." Feifei started the process of forging the Soul with Elemental Source energy. Like Cinty mentioned, the stronger your Soul, the lesser the pain. At the same time, the higher the number os hits it had to receive. Feifei got the Myriad Energies Technique all the way back in the Core Formation Realm, so she had been using it for quite some time. Feifei was also a descendent of the Wang Clan, so they took extra care of her cultivation and Soul. Especially since they thought that she had a different Major Core at that time. Because of that, her cultivation and Soul power were already strong even before the Myriad Energies Technique. Thanks to all of that, she had to strike the Soul over 2000 times. To be more precise, her Soul received 2341 hits, which was a fantastic number that few and far between could achieve. It was more than the double of Cinty''s, for example. The next part was obviously the Tribulation Fire, which Feifei did not have any problem fending off either. Although it couldn''t be said to be as easy as Krune, she, too, overcame it without any surprises. Once her breakthrough finished, her cultivation started to improve again. 2nd Stage; 3rd Stage; And finally, Rannia''s Yin Fragment had enough power to barely reach the 4th Stage. At the moment, in a one vs. one battle, both Krune and Feifei would have no problem in dealing with Wamie Zark, who was in the 3rd Stage of the same Realm. After all, Wamie didn''t have any extra Heavenly Fragment, nor did she have the Myriad Energies Technique. Let alone being a Tribulation Lightning User. Wamie Zark, who was still moving in the Direction of the Wisp Main World, finally stopped once more. "As expected, the last fragment presence disappeared." Gilia was already expecting that as well. "Should we go back then?" Wamie nodded. "There is no point anymore since I was too far away. I only know the general direction, but the area of search would be ridiculously enormous. Besides, if it turns out to be all the same Heavenly Fragment Owner, I wouldn''t be his or her match at the moment." Wamie pondered a bit and then said. "Let''s wait for my ''coating'' to disappear. Once that happens, I will be able to feel the presence of the others as long as their coating disappeared as well. If ten years pass by and I can only feel the presence of a single Fragment Owner, that would mean he or she got all the other fragments. In that case, it will be idiotic to go after the fragments." Gilia nodded, and their group turned around. Back in the Wisp Main World, Feifei went back to Krune in a hurry since Fie spent almost an entire day without feeding. She didn''t even bother to check her foundation since she could hear her child''s cry. "Why didn''t you give her the milk I left for you?" Krune smiled and said. "Because I think it is better for you to do so directly." Feifei sighed, she really couldn''t go against those words. While she let Fie take her fill, Feifei explained how everything happened on her side. "So, basically, nothing went wrong in my side either. I was even able to barely reach the 4th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Oh, right! Krune already had a 100% conversion of Spiritual Energy into Elemental Source Energy, so nothing changed for him. But for me, now I also reached 100% conversion with my last breakthrough." That was something that everyone was already expecting, so no one felt surprised. Tiane couldn''t help but lament. "Now I''m an entire Realm behind you. I wonder if there will be anything I can do at all from now on." Feifei laughed and patted Tiane''s head. "Your cultivation Realm is a lot lower than mine, that''s is correct. But it also means that the cultivation speed will be a lot higher. By the time I make a single Stage Breakthrough, you will probably make two. It was only because of the Heavenly Fragments that Krune and I turned out like this. Besides, I''m happy as long as you stay with me." Krune then looked at Ruik with a not very willing expression. "Errr... Do you need me to comfort you as well?" Ruik almost vomited blood! "Comfort your head! I don''t need any comfort, especially from you! And what with the annoyed expression when you asked it?" Krune sighed in relief. "It''s just that I somehow felt creepy when I thought about having to do that. It''s good that you don''t need it then." Ruik couldn''t be more unwilling too. "Hmph! You are overthinking." Feifei and Tiane couldn''t help but laugh out loud after that comic play. "They are really close, don''t you think?" "Yeap, they might have even married if they weren''t from the same gender." Krune and Ruik felt a chill on their backs after hearing that. Cinty then stopped their conversation and said. "Anyway, when do you want to go to the Elemental Path?" Krune finally came back to himself. "Oh, I guess that the sooner, the better." "Are the rest of you coming as well?" Tiane, Ruik, and the others nodded. Since there was no restriction, and it had something to do with the Myriad Energies Technique, they wanted to go take a look. Krune nodded at everyone. "Alright, we will leave a few days after Tiane''s egg hatch." Tiane was surprised by that. "I can bring it inside a pocket dimension box, there isn''t really a need to wait." Feifei shook her head. "No can do. What if you need to go out for some reason? Besides, although it will take around a month for it to hatch, who said that the time we are going to spend in the Elemental Path will be lower than that? Both Krune and I aren''t in a hurry, so let''s make sure everything is fine before that." Cinty agreed with Feifei. "She is right. Anyway, it will only be a month and some days of wait. What does such a time mean for a cultivator and demon beast? It will be over in a blink of an eye." Thus, their departure got scheduled for after Tiane''s egg hatch. 402 Hatching On their way back, Krune told Feifei that Light Spirit had finally awoken again. After hearing that, she wanted to talk with him, but as always, Light Spirit didn''t say a single word. Heavin, who saw that, pestered him for five hours without stop! Finally, Light Spirit gave up and decided to exchange a few words. He spread his Divine Sense and soon found Feifei in another place. "What you want?" Feifei was surprised when she heard that voice. But she soon recognized that voice from when they were saved in the Mohie Zarks Inheritance. "I just wanted to thank you for what you had done for me back in the Mohie Zarks Inheritance." Light Spirit didn''t seem very moved. "There is no need. I did that so that the idiot wisp wouldn''t act like that again. If you are strong enough, there will be no need for him to throw himself in front of an attack." Feifei nodded. She was already expecting this much anyway. "Still, I''m very grateful." After saying that, the room became silent, which made the situation quite awkward. Feifei quickly thought about several ideas when she suddenly remembered one thing. Feifei then brought Fie outside of the pocket Dimensional Realm, who just so happen to be sleeping again. "Have you seen our child already?" Light Spirit''s interest was finally picked. "I saw her when you went to take your Heavenly Tribulation. As expected, the girl also turned out to be as colorful as the idiot wisp." For some reason, Feifei felt like Light Spirit''s voice got a little more tender when he talked about Fie. "Right?! Although I can''t say that I wasn''t expecting that, it was still a surprise to see her rainbow-like hair and eyes. But did you see the wisp ethereal body effect?" Light Spirit got puzzled. "Effect? What effect?" Feifei then explained about the fact that sometimes, Fie''s body would release colorful energy around her, just like Krune''s wisp form. She also told that because of the Wisp Core, Fie could float as well. Of course, Cinty had already explained that once Fie manages to control her Spiritual Energy, both the Wisp body effect and the float thing can be controlled. Light Spirit couldn''t help but laugh. "Now, that''s quite an interesting girl." Feifei nodded vigorously and then explained the other things they found about Fie. Like the Elemental Meridians that can be inherited and that she didn''t have the problem about dying if she failed to enter the Foundation Establishment. Feifei nodded. "It''s okay. The Elemental Meridians are a lot better, after all. Even I haven''t used my normal Meridians ever since I got my Elemental ones. The fact that they can instantly convert Spiritual Energy into Elemental Source one is undoubtedly several times better." Light Spirit pondered a bit and had to admit that she was right. "She was born for a month or so already, did you see anything else different?" Feifei shook her head. "No, that''s all so far." Feifei then showed a playful smile and asked. "By the way, aren''t you a little too interested in our Fie?" Light Spirit was taken aback by that. "Cough, cough. It''s your imagination. I''m only interested in the changes that a hybrid with Elemental Meridians will go through, that''s all." Seeing Feifei''s expression, Light Spirit obviously understood that she didn''t believe a single word of his. "Anyway, this is all for the moment." With that, Light Spirit retracted his Divine Sense. "Done, I talked to her. Now leave me in peace while I recover my energy." Heavin nodded. "Very well, Feifei has to be treated the best, don''t forget it." He then took control of the Parrot Puppet and returned to his Puppeteer practicing. As for Krune, he couldn''t help but comment. "You took longer than I expected to finish your conversation with her. Normally, you would simply say some short sentences and go away. What did you talk about?" Although Light Spirit heard that question, he pretended that he didn''t. However, he had spent so much time with Krune that he felt somehow responsible for Fie as well. It was very similar to how Uncle Feng felt regarding Feifei. He couldn''t be blamed, though. Just how long had he been locked down in the Luvile Universe? Even a stone heart like him would long for some type of connection after all that time. Besides... he felt it very funny when he saw the colored hair and eyes, just like Krune. Of course, his pride would never allow him to say that out loud. Krune thought that perhaps Light Spirit went straight back to sleep, so he ignored him for now. Since there was still a month or so for them to leave, Krune decided that he might as well keep practicing his Blacksmith. He is already a Seven Stars one, so it shouldn''t take long to reach the Nine. Besides, Heavin''s Puppets would probably need pieces at this level later as well. ''There isn''t enough time to reach the Nine Stars, but I can finish the rest when I come back.'' As for Heavin, he was already a Six Golden Stars Puppeteer. All thanks to Krune''s high comprehension of laws! As mentioned before, Heavin can''t comprehend Laws himself, but he can at least use the ones that Krune did. Still, that raised a question from Krune some time ago. "If you need my comprehension to be able to use Laws, what will happen once we get separated? Will you still be able to use them?" Heavin laughed after hearing that. "No need to worry. If everything goes as planned, I should be able to comprehend my own laws after reaching the Soul Transformation Realm. Of course, I still need to test it later." Time passed, and that month went by. Tiane could already feel with her Spiritual Energy and Divine Sense that he egg was very close to hatch. Although it looked like Tiane''s egg was slower in cultivation, the fact is that the little guy inside took longer to grow up. That also impacted its cultivation speed. By now, Tiane and Ruik could already feel that Liriu was also in the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, just like Fie. During this time, Krune successfully reached the Eight Golden Stars as Blacksmith. Mainly because Heavin started to make even harder orders for his puppets, which forced Krune to improve faster. Of course, Krune didn''t neglect his other jobs. Krune had already reached the mastery of his Mind Splitting Technique, which means that he can divide it into ten parts without losing focus. Because of that, he was doing several things at the same time. Cultivating, comprehending Laws, practicing his Master''s Elemental Regulation Technique, etc. Krune was an all in all multi-tasker. However, he didn''t feel bothered by that. Krune enjoyed the feeling of improving. For him, as a wisp, the fact that he can do so much is something he can not neglect. He has never forgotten about the other wisps who didn''t have the chance to do what he can. As for Feifei, she started to Inscribe Krune''s Flying Shields with the Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy Connection Formation. That was also a good thing since she could practice her own side occupation. One must remember that due to the limited space, inscribing formations on equipments is a lot harder than the normal ones. Fortunately, she could prevent big fails thanks to her Destiny Divine Soul. Another good news this time was that Dilo reached the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. That was to be expected, though. His foundation is quite simple, which means he requires less energy to advance Stages. It''s pretty much like Ruik and Tiane''s case. Of course, the fact that it was a simple foundation also impacted his overall strength. However, as a Myriad Energies Technique user, he could be said to be far ahead of ordinary cultivators. He wouldn''t have any problems in fighting against the 8th Stage ordinary ones. As long as Feifei and Krune were not included in this list, some might think that he is really a genius. That''s just how amazing the Myriad Energies Technique is. A week later, everyone received a message from Tiane. Her and Ruik''s egg finally started to hatch. They stopped whatever they were doing and gathered together. When Krune arrived there, he noticed that the egg wasn''t moving at all, though. "Are you sure it is hatching?" Tiane, who was using her Spiritual Energy to check inside, nodded. "Liriu is finishing absorbing the last bit of nutrients, so he should try to break the Egg Shell anytime now." Sure enough, a few minutes later, the Quetzalcoatl started to try to break out of the egg. Krune and the others could also see that the egg would tremble once in a while, which showed its tries of getting free. Tiane got preoccupied and felt like she should help Liriu to get out. However, Ruik put a hand on her shoulder and stopped her. "I know what you want to do, and it is wrong. Liriu has to get out by himself. This is his first obstacle in life, and you should not intervene. Besides, you don''t need to worry. There is no way that our child will fail against such a simple task." Tiane knew that Ruik was right, so she held herself back. Time passed, and the number of times that the egg trembled increased. Finally, everyone heard a ''crack'' sound. That crack seemed to create a chain reaction, and a moment later, the entire egg cracked. Finally, with a final push, the side of the egg broke, and a snakehead could now be seen. 403 Back Into the Elemental Path Slowly, Liriu started to crawl out of the Egg. Although it looked like a snake, it had a pair of black wings that, when stretched, were almost as big as the body. It was hard to tell if the body had scales or feathers, though. They did look like feathers but gave the feeling of being as resistant as scales. Still, they were quite beautiful. Tiane extended her hand close to him. Liriu then used his tongue to check the surroundings and felt like something familiar was close. Not long after, he started to coil around Tiane''s arm and suddenly fell asleep. Krune couldn''t help but laugh. "He only took a second to sleep. There is no doubt that he is Ruik''s kid. Hahahaha!" The others couldn''t hold themselves and laughed as well. Indeed, that was a very Ruik-like action. Ruik, of course, rebuked back. "Hmph! What is wrong with it? He might even comprehend the Dream Laws faster than your grandfather here. He is doing the right thing." Tiane slapped Ruik''s backhead and said. "Stop talking nonsense and help me clean your child. He is all sticky now that he came out of the Egg. Be careful to not wake him up, it is obvious that Liriu is very tired." Krune then looked at the broken Eggshell and took a piece on his hand. He tried to break it further, and the piece broke in half. Still, Krune felt shocked when he did that. Ruik noticed Krune''s action and asked. "What is it?" Krune took another piece of Liriu''s broken Egg and passed it to Ruik. "Try to break it." Ruik looked confused at Krune but did as he was told. Still, after breaking it, he was also taken aback. "This... just how strong was this eggshell?" Krune nodded. "I thought it weird that Liriu, who was in the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, did not break out the Eggshell straight away. Considering the resilience of these eggshell pieces, even an ordinary 1st Stage Foundation Establishment Realm cultivator or demon beast would find it hard to breakthrough. Your kid... is quite strong." The others were also surprised by what Krune said and grabbed a piece of the Eggshell each. Sure enough, they all confirmed that they had to use more strength than a common 9th Stage Qi Condensation could. Liriu was just in the middle of being born and didn''t know about anything. However, with his strength alone, he was still able to break out of the Egg. Ruik and Tiane, of course, became very happy after hearing that. "Haha! As expected of the Great Ruik''s child. So young yet so strong!" Krune glance at him and shrugged his shoulders. "Said the Double-Headed Snake, who definitely didn''t have this kind of power when he was in the 1st Stage of the Foundation Establishment Realm." Once again, everyone laughed out loud. Ruik, on the other hand, couldn''t help but ask. Krune nodded. "I still haven''t forgotten your ''Praise, Praise.''" Ruik was reminded of the comment he did when Krune''s first Purple Flame Sword destroyed the Formation in the testing field. "Oh, that one. Then I guess it was worth it." Tiane, who already started to Clean the Quetzalcoatl, rebuked Ruik. "Are you going to help or not?" Ruik came back to himself and immediately went over. Since everything seemed fine, the group decided that they would be leaving a week later. Tiane also prepared a pocket dimensional realm box just to keep Liriu inside. Still, Liriu spent most of his time coiled around Tiane or Ruik''s shoulders. Also, he wasn''t really the sleeping type. Most of his time, he was awakened, looking around with curiosity. If one looked at the sleeping time alone, Fie could be said to sleep a lot more than Liriu. Because he is a demon beast at the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, Liriu already had sentience. Of course, that didn''t mean that he could already communicate. Those kinds of things need to be learned with time, just like any newborn baby. Tiane and Ruik also confirmed that Liriu was just like Fie. He had the Elemental Energy Meridians. But there were no such things as Flesh and Blood ones. A few days later, Tiane and Feifei put them together to see what would happen. Of course, with Tiane and Especially Feifei''s cultivation, neither side would have the chance to do something wrong with the other. But for some reason, they looked they knew each other. Liriu came close and coiled around Fie, who touched his head back. Liriu ended flapping his wings as if answering the action. Feifei looked at that and commented. "Could it be something about the Inherited Elemental Meridians? I thought that since Liriu was still young, he would attack anything that he wasn''t familiar with by instinct." Tiane agreed with her. "I thought so too. Well, I guess it is a good thing that they get along." Soon, the remaining week was over, and everyone gathered at Cinty''s house. Krune also asked Laex to stay since it wasn''t something related to him. Laex, of course, didn''t mind. Krune is paying him by time, so wherever he goes or stays, that will depend on whether Krune wishes it or not. To be safe, Liriu and Fie were sent back into the Pocket Dimensional Realm Boxes too. Krune looked at the group and asked. "Is everyone ready?" They all nodded. Krune then took out the Token that Karine had given him before and put his Spiritual Energy inside. Suddenly, the token started to shine, and the Laws of Space began to gather around it. Krune and Cinty, of course, immediately felt that. A few moments later, a Spatial Gate appeared right in from of everyone. Krune also returned to his Wisp Form so that he would be ready for anything. Tiane, Ruik, and Xankruan did the same. The majority of Demon beasts are stronger in their true forms, after all. "Let''s go!" With flashes of Silver Light, everyone disappeared inside. Elemental Path Dimensional Realm, Inside the Yang Hall. Suddenly, Space laws started to gather, and a Spatial Gate appeared right after. From inside, Krune and his group came out one after another. Feifei looked around and commented. "It''s the place where we talked with Karine the last time." Suddenly, everyone heard a voice around them. "Oh, you are back already? You were faster than I thought." Karine''s human form projection appeared once more. Cinty, of course, immediately recognized her. "H-Hi, I-I''m Cinty, this generation Wisp Queen." She could barely speak straight in front of one of her idols. Karine looked at Cinty and smiled. "A Blackhole Divine Soul, Xiun will be happy if he sees you." Cinty was taken aback. "Wally''s Blackhole Wisp Disciple, Xiun?!" Karine couldn''t help but laugh. "It''s great to see that the Wisp World hasn''t forgotten about us yet." She then took a look at Krune and was surprised by what she saw. "Already in the 2nd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm? And your fiance there is even in the 4th. Isn''t your cultivation speeds way too fast?" Suddenly, Karine''s surprised expression changed into one of utter disbelief. "That! Did you perhaps betray Krune and became a mother with another man?" Sure enough, Karine immediately noticed the changes in Feifei''s body due to her previous pregnancy. As for Feifei and Krune, they couldn''t even feel angry anymore. It felt like everyone who knew them a little would first think about Feifei betraying Krune and having a child with someone else. That''s just how difficult to be born a hybrid between wisps and humans were considered. Still, Feifei knew that seeing is believing. She didn''t feel any danger around after passing through the Spatial Gate either. Not to mention that Fie is not a Heavenly Fragment Owner and had shallow cultivation. Because of that, Feifei was able to pry inside her short term future without problems. Thanks to that, she was sure that nothing bad would happen to Fie at least. A second later, a little baby girl with a rainbow-like hair and eyes appeared on Feifei''s arms. Feifei checked for a second and then released her. Sure enough, Fie started to float right there and then. Since Krune is in his wisp body as well, the resemblance of his Rainbow Wisp Body and Fie''s Rainbow features was obvious. Karine couldn''t hold her excitement anymore. "Hahaha! I can''t believe you two really had a child. Just how many times you tried after you left this place?" Feifei grabbed Fie and sent her back into the Pocket Dimensional Realm Box. "Believe it or not, it was just a single time." Karine was taken aback once again. "Did you two save several Universes in your past lives, perhaps? Otherwise, what is up with this heaven-defying luck of yours?" Just like before, Karine seemed to be quite an easy-going wisp. "Even if that is the case, I''m more than happy to use all that accumulated luck on this." Karine nodded and then looked at the others. "Oh, everyone here is cultivating the Myriad Energies Technique. But it seems that only Krune has the main type. I can also see that you used a lot of Elemental Path Stones to increase your Spiritual Energy conversion to Elemental Source Energy. That was a very good idea, I have to say." She returned her attention to Krune and asked. Anyway, you kept your promise and came back after entering the Soul Forging Realm. So, shall we start?" Krune looked at Karine, puzzled. "Start what?" Karine smiled. "Isn''t that obvious? It''s time for you to learn the 4th Stage of the Myriad Energies Technique." 404 The Fourth Form "As you know, the Myriad Energies Technique that you are using has different forms. The First Form is the one that is widely known, the Pseudo Meridians. They are necessary for the cultivators or demon beasts to understand the steps required to create the true ones." "The Second Form is the Spiritual Energy Meridians. They are the result of your training and the fusion of all Nine Pseudo Meridians into one. Unlike normal ones, the Meridians will make the Spiritual Energy compatible with the user straight away. It is also during the opening of the Energy Meridians that they will start to become one with the body." "The Third Form is the Elemental Meridians. It has the ability to convert Spiritual Energy into Elemental Source Energy straight away. At it''s maxed capability, it can convert 100% of the Spiritual Energy at once. It is also the moment when the Meridians will finish fusing with you. It will become an extension of the body, and as you know already, they can be passed down like a bloodline. Your kid just now had the Elemental Meridians as well, so I believe I don''t need to say more." "Finally, there is the Fourth Form, which I believe you can have an idea of how it works. From the Void Breaking Realm onwards, one needs to create Chaos Energy by using laws and Elemental Source Energy for cultivation. Usually, you could do it by yourself after taking in the Elemental Source Energy, but having the Meridians doing it is several times better. Simply put, it will cut part of the job necessary." Krune then asked. "So, I will need to change them?" Karine shook her head. "No, you will need new ones specifically for this. That means you won''t have only Nine, but Eighteen Meridians from now on. The previous Nine are already in their complete form, so there is no need to do anything with them." Krune thought about something. "Usually, I send the Elemental Source Energy directly to my Divine Soul for cultivation. Does that mean that I will need to redirect the Elemental Source Energy of the Elemental Meridians into the new ones?" Cinty nodded. "That is correct. Think about it as if you are connecting two tubes. The first half makes the Elemental Source Energy while the second makes the Chaos Energy." Feifei then asked. "Does the Myriad Energies Technique have more forms? As far as I know, the Semi-Divinity and Divinity Realms also use a different type of Energy. Could it be that there is a Fifth Form that can create that type of Energy necessary?" Karine nodded and shook her head. Krune understood. "That means if I want to create the Energy Necessary for the Semi-Divinity and Divinity Realms, I will need to create a new form of the Myriad Energies Technique myself. Is that correct?" Karine then shrugged her shoulders. "Well, it is not wrong. But it doesn''t mean that it has to be you. Who knows? Some of your friends here might be the one who thinks about it in the future." Krune didn''t mind, though. More heads think better than a single one after all. "Can I teach the others about the Fourth Form later?" Karine nodded. "Sure. As long as you can comprehend it yourself, you should have no problem teaching the rest. It is just that they will need to wait until the Void Breaking Realm for that. But you must remember that the Fourth Form is different for everyone." Krune understood why. "Chaos Energy is created through the use of Laws and Elemental Source Energy. Although the laws are the same, the way you comprehend them is different from others. That should also impact the way you fuse them to your new Meridians, correct?" Karine smiled and nodded once more. "It''s good that you understand. The new meridians need laws to be fused together with them. Oh, but don''t misunderstand, you don''t need to have comprehended a Law to create a Chaos Meridian. You can create all Nine Meridians even if there is a type of Law that you haven''t understood until now. Still, the more Laws you comprehend, the better the Meridians will be able to create Chaos Energy. Any Laws are welcome in this, even the uncommon ones. After all, there are a few cultivators and demon beasts that are better in those too. In the end, it is the interaction of Elemental Source Energy and Laws that creates Chaos Energy." Immediately, everyone looked at Ruik. Ruik, too, had the same idea. "Does that mean that I can use my Dream Laws for that?" Karine nodded. "Exactly. There isn''t really a limit to how many laws you can fuse with the Nine Chaos Meridians. So the more, the better." Even though it looked simple, everyone understood the difficulty behind it. Just how many laws will they need to fully comprehend to get a 100% conversion rate? What about the Elemental Source Energy that hasn''t been converted? Karine understood what they were thinking and then said. "Of course, it doesn''t mean that you can''t convert the rest of the Elemental Source Energy into Chaos Energy. For example, look at Cinty. She doesn''t have the Fourth Form of the Myriad Energies Technique. However, she can still use the conventional way of converting Elemental Source into Chaos Energy by herself. It is just that she needs time to do so." "Well, she does have the Blackhole Divine Soul, so her cultivation speed is still ridiculously fast. You probably won''t be able to reach the same rate. Nevertheless, that will be fast enough for you to achieve the Divine Path Realm several times over. In fact, even if Krune doesn''t have the Fourth Form, he should still be able to cultivate all the way to the Divine Path Realm. It is just that he will take a lot longer to do that than if he had the Fourth Form." Krune agreed with her. "That is thanks to the Myriad Energies Technique. If I didn''t have those meridians, it would be practically impossible with the amount of lifespan that I have." Krune then decided to ask something else. "Why did I have to wait until the Soul Forging Realm for it? I already understood Laws while I was still in the Core Formation Realm, you know?" Karine then explained. "That is because I needed your meridians to reach maturity. Since your Meridians are the main type, it should have happened once you entered the Soul Forging Realm. That is also the time when your conversion rate of Elemental Source Energy will reach 100%. I know that you got 100% conversion while you were still in the Divine Soul Realm by using Elemental Path Stones, but it was not a natural achievement. Only after the Soul Forging Realm did your Elemental Meridians finished their growth." Feifei also understood something else. "I see, that''s why you said that in our case, we will need to wait until the Void Breaking Realm. That is because since our Meridians are no the Main Type, they can''t reach real maturity before the Void Breaking Realm." Karine nodded. "That is correct." After she finished saying that, Karine''s hand started to draw some seals with Spiritual Energy in midair. Those seals eventually gathered together into an orb of light. Right after, that Orb of Light floated all the way to Krune. "Everything you need for the process is inside." Krune then sent his Divine Sense inside, and immediately, an enormous amount of information started to pour inside his mind. The Fourth Form of the Myriad Energies Technique had several times more information than all the three previous forms together. But that was to be expected. After all, Laws are not as simple as controlling the elements. The others also did the same, and the information poured inside their minds as well. It was not after an entire minute that the whole information finished to appear in their minds. Krune and the others would probably take days just to go through everything. Let alone start using it to create the new Chaos Meridians. "Take your time going through the Fourth Form information. After you finish comprehending everything, let me know so that I can send you to the next step." Everyone looked puzzled at Karine. "What next step?" Suddenly, the door behind Karine started to open. Back then, when it was only Krune and Feifei here, they noticed that there was a door that they couldn''t open inside the Yang Hall. Karine also said that it wasn''t of their concern at that time. "Every Hall of the Elemental Path has a room like this one. Inside, you will need to cultivate the Fourth Form to create the specific meridian of that type. The Fourth Form of the Myriad Energies Technique uses Nine Meridians, each one of a single kind, just like the Nine Major Cores/Divine Souls. My Hall, obviously, will help you in creating the ''Yang Chaos Meridian.''" Krune understood the method. "I see... Yin, Yang, Elemental, Blackhole, Life, Death, Time, Space, and Destiny. All the laws in the universe definitely have something to do with those nine types. That''s why we are going to create one Chaos Meridians for each one of them. Like this, it doesn''t matter what Laws we use, we can definitely fuse them with those Meridians." Karine smiled, satisfied. "Very good! I''m looking forward to seeing the creation of your Chaos Meridians." 405 The First Chaos Meridian At the moment, only Krune could create the Chaos Meridians. So he kept revising the contents of the Fourth Form for a few days just to make sure he was right. Still, the others also did the same even though they couldn''t create the Chaos Meridians just now. There were several instances where Krune would discuss the contents with the others or ask Karine''s opinion. Karine, of course, answered everything with the best of her ability. Krune had also asked Karine about what he could expect inside. At that time, Karine explained. "The Yang Halo. This is something that we all worked very hard to create. This Halo will connect you with the Yang Essence of the Universe, which will then be used to pull the necessary power to create the Yang Chaos Meridian. It is like a Yang Major Core/Divine Soul, something that drags the power of Yang to the user. As an Elemental Divine Soul, you probably can understand this feeling, right?" Krune nodded. "Yes, with the Elemental Divine Soul, I can really feel the power of the Elements being pulled to me." Karine continued. "It is just that a single Major Core/Divine Soul wouldn''t be strong enough to create a Chaos Meridian. That''s why we Created the Halos of each type. You can think about it as a Yang Divine Soul that is a lot more powerful, but the only thing that it can do is to connect you with that kind of power. Anyway, once you start to use it, you will understand." The days continued to pass while Krune and the others studied the new Fourth Form. Due to the fact that there was no danger in this place, Feifei and Tiane also brought out Liriu and Fie. Karine couldn''t help but get curious about those two. Although she knew that the Elemental Meridians could be passed down like a bloodline, this was, in fact, her first time interacting with real inheritors. Just like Feifei and the others, the kids'' Meridians were still immature. In fact, they were on a level even lower than when Krune first evolved his Meridians. But that was to be expected. After all, they are both in the Qi Condensation Realm. The Elemental Meridians can only mature as the cultivation grows since they are both intrinsically connected to each other. But there was a good thing for them. Both Liriu and Fie were born the Elemental Meridians Main Type, which means that they also can create the Chaos Meridians once they reach the Soul Forging Realm. Krune and the others were obviously happy to hear it from Karine. Finally, Krune reached a point where he couldn''t go any further with theory alone, so he decided to give the Fourth Form a try. Krune then passed through the door and immediately appeared inside a separated Dimensional Realm, which looked quite small. In the center, Krune could see the Halo that Karine talked about. He couldn''t help but feel similar to the way he feels with his Elemental Divine Soul. "She''s right. It is the same feeling that I get from the essence of the elements. It is just that I have never felt this type before. I guess this is what a Yang Major Core/Divine Soul would be connected to." Krune agreed with Heavin. "But it is also as Karine told us, the power is several times higher than what we can feel with our Elemental Divine Soul." The closer Krune got to the Yang Halo, the more he could feel its power. Finally, Krune couldn''t get any closer because he felt it hard to resist the Yang Power. Even some of his elements became somewhat hard to control since they were related to Yang as well. "This distance should be enough." Krune then started to cultivate the Fourth Form of the Myriad Energies Technique as described by Karine before. But it turned out to be harder than he thought. When he started to create the Yang Meridian, he couldn''t even gather the Yang Power correctly, let alone begin forming the Meridian itself. Still, Krune couldn''t help but smile. "No wonder Karine said that I would need the Elemental Meridians to be fully mature. The Fourth Form uses them as the base for the creation of the Chaos meridians. If I tried to create a Chaos Meridian before the Elemental ones were complete, I would only fail miserably." But at the same time, Krune understood how good the new Meridians would be. "However, I just tried once, and I already could feel my Elemental Laws related to Yang stirring." Heavin agreed with Krune. "I felt that too. Still, I didn''t expect it to be this hard to gather the Yang Power. Just try to imagine how hard it will be to create the Time, Space, and Destiny ones." Krune was taken aback. "Indeed, I believe we are going to spend quite some time here from now on." Time continued to move forward, and soon, Krune had already spent an entire month in front of the Yang Halo. What made him impressed is that it didn''t matter how much Yang Power he extracted from the Halo, it seemed to never go down. Finally, after one month and one week, Krune reached success in forming his Yang Chaos Meridian. Immediately after it, any elemental Laws that Krune comprehended related to Yang started to gather around it. Krune could feel them entering it and fusing with the Meridian. Fire, Lightning, Light, etc. But there was one thing that confused Krune. "Light Spirit, I always thought that your Purple Tribulation Lightning was related to Yang. But as far as I can see, the Purple Tribulation Sub-Laws are not fusing with the Yang Chaos Meridian." Light Spirit answered. "Isn''t that obvious? The laws of my Purple Tribulation Lightning are things that I created. They have nothing to do with this or any other Universes'' Laws. So it is evident that they won''t fuse with any of your Chaos Meridians." Krune nodded. That indeed made a lot of sense. The process of his Yang related Laws fusing with the Yang Chaos Meridian took two days to finish. Yet, Krune was far from being able to create Chaos Energy. "Only after I create all nine types of Meridians will I be able to create Chaos Energy. At that point, I will finally be able to improve my Universe Foundation. It has been a long time since I had this single planet with a Sun, I need to make more things." Light Spirit agreed with Krune. "Indeed. It is a good thing that you will be able to do that while still in the Soul Forging Realm. All you need to do is expand your Universe Foundation, and the celestial bodies will come with the expansion. It will be different from the time when I helped you create a Sun, there will be no need for me to help you with anything. " Krune was happy to know that. He can''t rely on Light Spirit all the time, after all. "Alright, let''s go out." Krune finally came out of the Dimensional Realm. As soon as he stepped out, everyone looked at him at the same time. "How was it?" "Everything went okay. It''s just that I didn''t expect it to be this hard to create a Chaos Meridian. Fortunately, there were no risks involved as well, so all you need to do is to keep trying." Krune then explained how the process went, which made everyone''s eyes lit up. It looked like all of them can create the Chaos Meridians in the future. The only difference is how much time they will need due to the difference in talents. Karine''s projection then appeared once more. "Well, bring it out. Let me see your Yang Chaos Meridian." Krune nodded, and soon, his Meridian appeared for everyone to see. Not only that, but Krune''s Elemental Meridians also appeared around it. Sure enough, the Chaos Meridians needed the support of the Mature Elemental Meridians to work. Everyone could also feel the several laws fused with it. "The Yang Meridian fused with all the sub-laws I knew that were related to it, just like what was described in the Fourth Form information." Karine took a look and then nodded, satisfied. "Good. This Meridian of yours was very well made. I guess that your high comprehension of several laws helped a lot in stabilizing its structure. In fact, I wasn''t expecting you to finish this fast, so it was quite a surprise. As you can see, they need the support of the Elemental Meridians Mature Form, or they can''t even be summoned." Krune then thought about something. "Can Chaos Meridians also be passed down like the Elemental Meridians?" Karine pondered a bit and then said. "To be honest, I don''t know. The Fourth Form of the Myriad Energies Technique was only completed a lot later than the three previous forms, so we never tested it. After all, before you found about the real Form of the Myriad Energies Technique, only Wally and we, his disciples, tried to cultivate it. But one thing is sure, even if a child is born with the Chaos Meridians, they would be of no use for him or her at first." Krune understood why. "Their Elemental Meridians are not mature at that point, so the Chaos Meridians would be inactive until they reach the Soul Forging Realm." Karine nodded. "Exactly." After Krune retracted his Meridians, Karine asked him. "Do you want to go to the next Hall now?" 406 One More Krune pondered a bit and said. "Give me a day to rest, and we can go tomorrow. Creating the Chaos Meridians takes a long time, so I want to spend some time with the rest first." Karine didn''t mind and nodded. "Very well." The first thing Krune did was obviously... food! Around an hour later, the whole place was smelling good due to his cooking. After finishing eating, he and Feifei spent some time with Fie. It''s been over three months since Fie was born, so she started to show her intelligence that she inherited from Krune. Of course, she was a human''s kid, too, so her mind wouldn''t mature the same way as the Wisps. She would need to pass through her infancy like any other human kid. Still, her IQ was already a lot higher compared to them. For example, during the time that Krune was in the Dimensional Realm, Fie was able to say her first words. Of course, compared to a realm wisp, she was far behind. As long as he is taught, a Wisp can totally talk normally by the time they are Three Months old. Fie''s mind could be said to be in between a wisp and a human''s intelligence. Not to mention that her human side made will not make her achieve an adult mind before she is at least 13 or 14 years old. The day soon passed by, and Krune''s group left the Yang Hall. Karine told them to go to the Yin Hall this time since it was the nearest one. Arriving there, Krune touched the seal on the building, and the door opened. Just like the Yang Hall, the Yin hall also had several floors going down into the earth. Finally, they arrived in a room that was pretty much the same as the one where Karine''s project appeared. Sure enough, another projection appeared, showing the image of a man. "Well, hello there. Karine already told me of your visit." Cinty was the most excited one since that man in front was obviously the human form of Wally''s Yin Divine Soul disciple, Zuvan. Surprisingly, the Yang Divine Soul appeared on a woman while the Yin Divine Soul appeared on a man. "Hi! I''m Cinty, the actual Wisp Queen." Zuvan nodded and then looked at Krune and the others. He wasn''t the type who talked a lot like Karine, so he went straight to the point. "Alright. Krune can enter the Dimensional Realm with my Yin Halo to create the Yin Chaos Meridian. As for the rest, you can just stay around and do whatever. If you have any questions, you can ask me now." Krune nodded and immediately entered the door. Once inside, he looked for the Yin halo and soon found in in the center of that place. The same way as before, Krune approached it and began to use the Yin Power to create his Chaos Yin Meridian. ''It seems like I will need a similar time to finish it. Oh well, there is no helping it.'' After coming back, Krune took another day of rest and moved to the Life Hall. Krune had the chance to meet all Wally''s nine disciples. Yang Divine Soul, Karine. Yin Divine Soul, Zuvan. Life Divine Soul, Aimer. Death Divine Soul, Rile. Blackhole Divine Soul, Xiun. Time Divine Soul, Aila. Space Divine Soul, Phillin. Destiny Divine Soul, Amisra. And Finally, Elemental Divine Soul, Eldrin. In the Elemental hall, Krune was able to talk with Eldrin. Being both Elemental Divine Soul Wisps, they had a lot in common. Surprisingly, even their personality was very much alike, including Krune''s EQ issues. Everyone couldn''t help but think. ''Is it a special trait of all Elemental Divine Soul Wisps? Perhaps Wally is also the same.'' Wally might have been an Elemental Divine Soul owner in the past, but he still took another disciple with the same core as his. That''s where Eldrin came in. After Krune created his Third Chaos Meridian, over four months had already gone inside the Elemental Path. During this time, Fie was already over 7 months old. By now, she could already talk a little and understand most of the sentences. She also started to get her first steps. As for Liriu, he wasn''t as intelligent as Fie. So even though he already had sentience, he was taking a lot longer to develop his mind. However, it seemed like Fie and Liriu had no issues together. In the Blackhole Hall, Cinty could be said to be one of those who most benefited. Xiun was very happy to see another Wisp with a Blackhole Divine Soul. While Krune was creating the Blackhole Chaos Meridian, he took his time to teach Cinty as much as possible. Cinty was even able to make a breakthrough way faster than she expected, being now in the 9th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. She was also able to understand her laws a lot better, especially Space and Time, which are the most compatible with the Blackhole Divine Soul. It took Krune almost two years to finish all Chaos Meridians. The fastest ones were Yang, Yin, and Elemental. The second were Life, Death, and Blackhole with Time, Space, and Destiny being the ones that took the longest to form. The Time Hall was the last one Krune went through. When Krune existed the Dimensional Realm that held the Time Halo, he tried to create Chaos Energy for the first time. His Chaos Meridians and Elemental Meridians appeared together. As mentioned before, the Chaos Meridians need the Elemental Meridians to support them. After that, the Elemental Source Energy came in and passed through the Chaos Meridians. Sure enough, the conversion of Chaos Energy happened almost instantly. It''s just that most of the Elemental Source Energy was still not converted. Everyone was looking at Krune with curiosity wanting to know just how good it was. "Well, as far as I can tell, it seems like around 15% of the Elemental Source Energy became Chaos Energy." That result took everyone aback. "That little?" They couldn''t be blamed for thinking like that. After all, Krune was someone who had the biggest amount of Laws by his side. Aila''s projection, who was in the Time Hall, then explained with a smile. "That is normal. Usually, you should take a very long time converting Elemental Source Energy into Chaos energy. You can confirm it with Cinty. The fact that you can already turn 15% is, in fact, a big surprise. If we are not wrong, you will need to fully comprehend several laws before you can get a 100% conversion rate. That means to understand all the sub-laws of a Major Law and then to fuse those Sub-Laws to finally get a Major Law. And you will need several of them. Are you close to fuse any of them already?" Krune shook his head. "Not even close. Still, I''m already getting Chaos Energy even though I''m in the Soul Forging Realm. So I have nothing to complain. Just now, I tried to use that Chaos Energy to expand my Universe Foundation. As expected, it worked very well. Of course, I just cultivated with the Chaos meridians for an hour, so the difference that it made to my Universe Foundation was hard to detect." Aila nodded. "That is normal. But from now on, you can only rely on yourself. We haven''t created a Fifth Form for the Myriad Energies Technique, so it is all up to you. At least, all of your Chaos Meridians are finally complete." Krune shook his head. "Not all of them, there is still one more." Let alone Aila, even Krune''s group, was taken aback. "One more?" Light Spirit couldn''t help but feel a chill on his back. 407 Convincing Krune then looked inside his Foundation, or to be more specific, at the Purple Tribulation Lightning source where Light Spirit''s soul resided. "What you want?" Krune smiled and asked. "Isn''t the very essence of the Tribulation Lightning inside the Tribulation Source? What about you let me create a Purple Tribulation Lightning Chaos Meridian? That will help a lot!" "Scram! The essence of my Tribulation Lightning is not as simple to create as the Tribulation Lightning itself. It will take me forever to recharge it." Krune didn''t give up, though. "Isn''t there a way to recover it faster?" Light Spirit chuckled. "Sure, just master all the Sub-Laws and fuse them together into the Purple Tribulation Lightning Major Law. When you do that, you will be able to help me refill the Tribulation Lightning Essence. Simple, no?" Krune''s mouth twitched. "Simple your head! Come on, there must be something that can help me with it." "No can do." "Then how long would it take for you to recover that essence?" Light Spirit pondered a bit and answered. "Considering that my Tribulation Lightning Laws are harder to comprehend than Space, Time, and Destiny, you will need at least twice the time using my Tribulation Source Essence. So I guess I would need at least 20 years to recover everything. You are still 19 years old, it is more than the double of your life already." Krune then had an idea. "Can''t we do something like using little by little so that you can keep the essence full with your recovery speed?" Light Spirit Laughed. "In that case, you would be the one using 20 years to finish the Chaos Meridian." Krune had to admit that it was true. But it was then that Krune heard Light Spirit. "Unless..." "Unless what?!" Light Spirit pondered a bit and suggested. "Unless I can use those Halos. My Tribulation Lightning essence can recover very fast with those things." Krune was taken aback. After all, what will happen with the others if he feeds the Halos to the Tribulation Source? "That..." Krune conscience came out of his Foundation right after. "Aila, you all perhaps don''t have more of those Halos, do you?" Aila looked at Krune as if she was looking at an idiot. "What do you think those Halos are? Candies? It took us several chaos cycles to finish those things, okay?" Krune sighed and was just about to give up when he heard Light Spirit''s voice. "I can feed one whole to the Tribulation Source, or I can use a little of each of those nine. If the Halos are not destroyed, they should be able to recover by themselves with time." Krune''s eyes lit up, and he immediately requested. Aila couldn''t help but ask. "Just how exactly do you want to create a new Chaos Meridian? Each of the existing nine already encompasses all the laws in all the Universes, including Tribulations, so there shouldn''t be anything else to be created." Krune shook his head. "Not all laws." Suddenly, arcs of Purple Lightning started to go around his body. "My Purple Tribulation Laws are not something that exists in any of the Universes out there except for the Luvile Universe. So what I''m going to create is a Purple Tribulation Lightning Chaos Meridian." Aila was taken aback once more. She then paid close attention to those arcs of Purple Lightning. Sure enough, she could feel the presence of Laws, but they weren''t any type she felt before. It was then that Aila remembered one thing that her Master, Wally, said a long time ago. "There was a time in the higher realms where some guys tried to create their own laws. But, because of that..." Aila didn''t dare to think any further. She then contacted all the other disciples and explained the situation to them. In a place where Krune and his group couldn''t see, the projection of the Nine Disciples appeared together. Phillin was the first one to talk. "Do you think it has something to do with Master? After all, a Myriad Energies Technique user shouldn''t have appeared this soon." Rile shook his head. "I genuinely believe that Krune found out about the Second Form of the Myriad Energies Technique by himself. During these last two years that he had been creating the Chaos Meridians, I''ve been observing him. His talent is really frightening, even for a wisp. Of course, as soon as he cultivated the Second Form, Master should have noticed his presence. If he did not intervene, that is because he has plans for him." Karine pondered a little before saying. "Still, those Purple Lightning Laws are definitely not from the Lower Realms. No one in this place would be able to create new Laws. The fact that no one noticed it yet is because they don''t know that those Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws are not natural. Even for us, we only noticed that after Krune said it himself. And mainly because neither one of the Nine Chaos Meridians can fuse with those laws." Aila then asked the real question. "Anyway, we know that Master definitely knows about his existence. So what should we do, will we let him take 1/9 of each of our Halos? Truth be told, if it is only this much, we should be able to heal the Halos with time. In addition, we would be able to see a totally new Chaos Meridian. Of course, that is considering that Krune can really create a new Chaos Meridian at all." Amisra tried to pry into the Destiny with her Destiny Divine Soul, but even she couldn''t see if Krune would succeed or not. "Because those Laws are not part of the Universe, I can''t tell what would happen if he tries it or not. When I try to check the Destiny Energy around the Purple Tribulation Lightning, all I can see is a big void. As if someone had put a black hole that can suck in Destiny Energy. It is impossible to read it." Aimer laughed and then said. "Let''s do it. Since the Halos won''t be destroyed and we can heal them, it is worth a try. After all, weren''t we looking for a breaking point in our research? Who knows? This new Chaos Meridian might be exactly what we have been lacking to create the 5th Form of the Myriad Energies Technique." After hearing about the 5th Form, all their eyes lit up. "Then it is decided, we will allow him to try it once as long as he doesn''t absorb too much of each Halo." 408 The Last Elemental Meridian. Krune and the others kept waiting for Aila to give an answer. Finally, she reappeared once more and told Krune. "Very well, but you need to let us take a look at your new Meridian after it is created. As you know, we still haven''t created a 5th form for the Myriad Energies Technique, so we want to analyze it to see if we can get some ideas." Krune asked Light Spirit, and the latter agreed that it is okay. "Very well." Aila nodded and reopened the Dimensional Realm for Krune. "You can go in now. But remember, it is only 1/9 of the Halo, if it turns out that you need more, you should give up. Any bigger damage than that would make it too difficult to fix. Understood?" Krune shook his head, though. "I just came out, and I haven''t gone through everything in my mind yet. So give me a day to rest before I try it." Aila nodded and kept the Dimensional Realm open for him. Krune then returned to Feifei and the others. "Sorry, I might need you to stay here for a while longer. If you want to go back before me, I can ask Aila to open a Spatial Gate leading outside." Feifei and the rest immediately shook their heads. "We have been here for this long already, so why should we leave now? Besides, Wally''s disciples are always happy to answer our questions about cultivation. For bad or for good, they are all Divinity Realm Wisps. So this was not just your good fortune, but ours as well." Krune smiled and nodded. He then took his tools out of the Spatial Ring and started to cook once more. He had stayed in the Time Dimensional Realm for over 4 months, so he missed the taste of food a lot. The others also helped with what they could. In these 2 years inside the Elemental Path, everyone improved even more. Especially Tiane and Ruik, who had the lowest cultivations. Because of that, their breakthroughs were a lot faster. Also, Wally''s disciples deactivated the Protection Formation that prevented the cultivators and demon beasts outside from entering this Halls Place. Thanks to that, they all could go out and battle the demon beasts, golems, etc. Not to mention that they once more could gather Elemental Flowers. The Elemental Path is closed, so no outsider would enter it. Of course, because the Elemental Path had opened recently, there weren''t many Elemental Flowers to start with. Still, this was enough to help with everyone''s laws. Dilo and Xankruna took their time to gather Elemental Flowers. So they had been focused on their Laws a lot more than their cultivation. In the past two years, both of then only advanced two stages. Of course, this is low when using Krune''s group standard. If they were compared to the majority outside, their cultivation is definitely faster than at least 95% of the others or more. Feifei was one of the happiest. Her Destiny Sub-Law, Cause, reached the Advanced stage. At the same time, she finally reached the Initial Stage of the second Sub-Law, Effect. As mentioned in the past, there are only Three Destiny Sub-Laws, so one can imagine just how hard it is. As for her cultivation, she decided to take it slow. She had gone all the way up to the 4th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm because of the heavenly fragment, so she wanted to get used to her power first. Because of that, Feifei only improved a single Stage, being now in the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Krune was using most of his mind for the creation of the Chaos Meridians, so his laws didn''t change much during the past two years. He also wanted to get used to his cultivation, which made him go up just a single stage like Feifei. Krune was now in the 3rd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. However, there was a Sub-Law that Krune always left one part of his mind focused on. The Purple Tribulation Laws. Thanks to that, his Flash Annihilation Law reached the Advanced stage as well. Fie and Liriu were still in the same 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. Feifei and Tiane decided to keep them away from creating a Foundation before they got older. Not to mention that a Foundation is a personal choice, and both kids hadn''t seen the world yet. Especially since they are both in the Elemental Path Realm at the moment. Feifei and Tiane wanted the two to see a lot of things before deciding on what they should use as a base. Besides, both are very young, so their parents simply didn''t want them to care about cultivation at this point. Even Feifei, as a member of the Wang Clan, was only introduced to cultivation after she became seven. Fie could already talk pretty well thanks to her inherited intelligence from her Wisp Side. She also could control whether the wisp body effect appears or not together with her floating ability. Usually, a Qi Condensation Realm couldn''t really fly without some kind of help. But thanks to Liriu''s wings and Fie''s Wisp Core, the two often flew around to play. The day soon passed, and Krune finally entered the Dimensional Realm with the Time Halo. When Krune got close to it, Light Spirit asked him. "Connect my Tribulation Source with the Time Halo through your Elemental Meridians. You can leave the rest with me. All you need to do is to keep absorbing the Purple Tribulation Lightning Essence Power while I absorb the Time one. With my Tribulation Lightning Laws, I should be able to keep refilling what you take. Once I use 1/9 of the Halo, I''ll let you know." Krune nodded and immediately started to cultivate the Fourth Form of the Myriad Energies Technique. Of course, it wasn''t exactly the same one. Krune''s idea of using the Tribulation Lightning Essence to create a Tribulation Lightning Chaos Meridian had first appeared after he finished the Yang Chaos one. Since then, he had been revising it to see what he should change to create the new Meridian. The process didn''t change much, though. The important part is that you had to have a type of essence power that hasn''t been used before. That said, Krune''s two years of research bared fruit, and he finally devised a new extension of the Fourth Form of the Myriad Energies Technique. Krune immediately started to absorb the Purple Tribulation Lightning Essence from Light Spirit''s Tribulation Source. At first, Krune got surprised. Even though the Tribulation Source occupies a tiny space in his Foundation, the amount of Essence inside was definitely enormous! That was also the reason why it could generate so much more Tribulation Lightning Power than normal users of the Tribulation Lightning. Time passed, and soon, a month went by. As Krune expected, the Purple Tribulation Lightning Chaos Meridian would take a lot longer than even Time, Space, and Destiny. But Krune wasn''t sad, though. That is because he confirmed that his alteration in the Fourth Form turned out to be correct. Although there were a few points where it went wrong, that was because he hadn''t had the chance to try it with the real thing before. When he bumped in such situations, he wouldn''t take long to find a way to fix it. Suddenly, Krune heard Light Spirit''s voice. "I reached the limit of what I can take from the Time Halo, let''s go to the next." Krune left the Dimensional Realm, and without greeting anyone, he flew at top speed to the next Hall. He is in the middle of his creation, so he couldn''t waste time. Now, inside the Small Dimensional Realm with the Life Halo, Light Spirit began to absorb it. At the same time, Krune did the same with the Tribulation Lightning Source. Another month later, Krune and Light Spirit rushed to the Death Hall. This process continued. Yang Hall, Yin Hall, Space Hall, Destiny Hall, Elemental Hall... The last one was supposed to be the Blackhole Hall. However, it turned out that Krune got stuck at the Elemental Hall. Inside the Small Dimensional Realm with the Elemental Halo, Krune was at the last step at forming his new Meridian. But something was lacking. It was as if a final piece wasn''t there. He had even stopped absorbing the Tribulation Lightning Essence since he couldn''t finish forming the Meridian. "What is it?! What am I lacking?!" Light Spirit was focused on the Halos, so he didn''t pay attention to Krune''s progress until now. The only one who knew everything was Heavin. Without another choice, he had to follow Krune into those Dimensional Realms where the Halos were. So he ended sharing and helping Krune to devise the new extension for the Fourth Form. "Can''t you see it?" Krune was taken aback by that voice. "Heavin, did you notice something?" Heavin sighed and then said. "It is very simple, the Chaos Meridians need the support of the Elemental meridians to work. But the tenth Chaos Meridian, or better, the Purple Tribulation Lightning Chaos Meridian doesn''t have anything to support its existence. Obviously, it can''t finish being formed." Krune was surprised. Not by what Heavin said, but by the fact that he had been so focused in the Chaos Meridian itself that he completely forgot such an obvious point. "That is to say, I also need a tenth Elemental Meridian, but is it possible?" 409 The Tenth! It is not like Krune had never tried to create a tenth Spiritual Meridian before. In fact, he tried several times. But all the tries ended in failure, so eventually, he gave up. However, Heavin is right. Without an Elemental meridian to support the Chaos one, the tenth Chaos Meridian can''t be completed. It was then that Krune had an idea. "It is not that I can''t create a tenth Spiritual Meridian. It is just that there are only Nine Pseudo Spiritual Meridians to start with. It is the process of fusing all nine Pseudo Meridians together that gives birth to an Elemental Meridian. Each Pseudo Meridian is different from the other, so as long as I create a new type of Pseudo Meridan, I should be able to make a new fusion." Heavin then asked. "If the limit of Spiritual Meridians is due to the number of Pseudo Meridians, then if you create more and more Pseudo Meridians, shouldn''t you be able to create more and more Spiritual ones?" Krune shook his head. "It is not that simple. Now that I think about it, the creation of Nine Pseudo Meridians was already connected with the existence of the Nine Universe Foundations. Since there is no other foundation, there is obviously no other Pseudo Meridian. If I want to create a new Pseudo Meridian, I can only use something that doesn''t exist. That means, my only chance is to create a new Pseudo Purple Tribulation Lightning Meridian and move from there." Krune didn''t waste any time and went all the way back to the very first form of the Myriad Energies Technique. Since he stopped the creation of the Chaos Meridian, Light Spirit is not absorbing the Elemental Halo anymore. Now that he was free, Krune started to ask several questions while he devised a new extension of the First Form. As for the Tribulation Lightning Chaos Meridian, Krune dispersed it. He couldn''t keep that in an incomplete state for long to start with. But that wasn''t a problem. The majority of the Tribulation Lightning Essence that Krune used so far was basically to learn how to create its Chaos Meridian. Now that he went all the way up to near completion, the remaining Halo Powers is more than enough to repeat the process. Working on the first form wasn''t a simple task. That''s because the first form would lead to changes in the Second and Third as well. Not only that, but Krune''s Fourth Form would need to change a little so that it would work using the new Tenth Meridian as support, which wasn''t the case before. In the end, Krune, Heavin, and Light Spirit worked together in the new forms for another entire month. Eldrin had to even tell the others outside that Krune was fine and seemed to be working in something new. "Alright, let''s give it a try!" Failure after failure, Krune kept trying to create the new Tribulation Lightning Pseudo Meridian. Heavin and Light Spirit also accompanied the changes, and they would discuss with Krune what went wrong with every try. Finally, another week later, Krune was successful in creating his first Tenth Pseudo Meridian based on Light Spirit''s Tribulation Lightning. When Light Spirit saw that, he couldn''t help but think. ''If he can create a new meridian based on unnatural laws foundation like mine, does that mean that other Laws of the same type can be done like this too?'' As mentioned a long time ago, Light Spirit wasn''t the only one to create a personal law separated from the Universe''s one. So this possibility was very high. Krune didn''t know anything like that, and even if he knew, it would be useless. After all, it is not like he can find a new law out of nowhere. Besides, he was way too happy with his new Tribulation Lightning Pseudo Meridian to care about that now. "You can feel excited later. Now comes the hard part, fuse the Nine common Pseudo Meridians with the tenth one to create a totally new Spiritual Meridian. I believe I don''t need to tell you that something made using my Tribulation Lightning as a base will not be very welcome of other powers." Krune''s excitement immediately disappeared. "I know. But I have to make do with what I got." Krune immediately took out hundreds of Spirit Stones from his Spatial Ring and started the fusion of all ten Pseudo Meridian. Sure enough, the moment that the other nine touched the Tribulation Lightning one, their structure was destroyed almost instantly. "This... is gonna take some time." One week, two weeks, three weeks. Time continued to pass while Krune kept failing to bring out a new Spiritual Meridian. But he wasn''t sad. From the very start, he knew that it would be really complicated to control the Tribulation Lightning Pseudo Meridian. Still, after an entire month, Krune could already keep the Pseudo Meridians together for a few minutes, at least. Time didn''t wait for anyone. Just like that, Krune spent three entire months trying to fuse the Tribulation Lightning Pseudo Meridian with the other nine common ones. However, practice makes perfect. Today, Krune''s new attempt finally reached a critical conjuncture. All ten Pseudo Meridians were adequately matched, Krune just needed one final push, and the fusion would be completed. Heavin and Light Spirit also noticed that this was the closest that Krune got so far, so even they became somewhat nervous. "Here goes nothing..." Krune then forced the last part. It was then that he heard a ''click'' sound. The same sound that he heard all the way back when the first Spiritual Meridian was created. That meant that the fusion was finally completed! However, Krune knew that it wasn''t the end. Suddenly, the new Spiritual Meridian seemed to become a hungry beast. Spiritual Energy from everywhere around Krune started to rush into it. No one was surprised by it, though. All of the previous Spiritual Meridians acted the same way as the tenth one. Krune kept bringing out Spirit Stones. Every single one was at least a Rank 6. Krune already expected the last meridian to absorb a lot more Spiritual Energy than the other nine, but it was still surpassing his expectations. Krune couldn''t help but feel lucky. If he wasn''t in Dalin and was swimming in Spirit Stones, he definitely wouldn''t be able to feed it. In the end, this thing would even absorb himself. In the past, it did almost happen, and that experience still made Krune feel a chill on his back. It turned out that the new Spiritual Meridian absorbed over a hundred times more Spiritual Energy than the other nine first meridians together! "Light Spirit, even here this Tribulation Lightning of yours is overbearing." Light Spirit obviously laughed at that comment. "Of course, it had to be at least this strong. Otherwise, what would be the point?" The new Spiritual Energy meridian then settled down and didn''t cause any other reaction. Seeing that, Krune, Heavin, and Light Spirit nodded. "It is just like we thought, it did not evolve into an Elemental Meridian." Light Spirit also complemented. "It is the connection with the Elemental Source Energy that causes the evolution. But my Tribulation Lightning doesn''t have a connection with that, so it obviously can''t evolve through the normal way. Also, this little guy definitely can''t be passed down like a bloodline, either." Krune nodded. "I agree. However, we need to make it reach the third form, which is the Elemental one. Fortunately, we probably only need one thing." Krune then summoned his Tenth Spiritual Meridian and used the other nine to bring out Tribulation Lightning Energy. Sure enough, the new Spiritual Meridian immediately started to absorb it like a black hole. "It is good that it only requires Tribulation Lightning Power and not Essence. Otherwise, we might not have had enough for it." Krune and Light Spirit can create as much Tribulation Lightning Power as they want. Even if they run out of it, a few hours of rest will be enough to recharge it. That is exactly the type of power that Krune''s Tenth Spiritual Meridian needed to evolve into the Elemental State. Of course, we are talking about a Meridian made using the Purple Tribulation Lightning as a base to start with. So this thing still required Krune to recharge his Tribulation Lightning power over 10 times until it became satisfied. It then passed by the last transformation, which was an automatic process. Now, Krune, Heavin, and Light Spirit were successful in creating the new Purple Tribulation Lightning Elemental Meridian! "Alright, it is finally time to bring out the Purple Tribulation Lightning Chaos Meridian!" 410 More Chaos Energy Light Spirit once more, began to absorb the power of the Elemental Halo. At the same time, Krune restarted the creation of the Chaos Meridian. As mentioned before, Krune had to make a few alterations to the previous form. Still, most of the parts stayed the same. The Elemental Halo had already been used for some time before Krune stopped last time, so after he and Light Spirit started to use it, it didn''t take long for them to have to move. After Four Months, the door leading to the Dimensional Realm with the Elemental Halo opened again. But before anyone could ask Krune anything, he was already gone in a flash of Purple Lightning. Soon, Krune arrived at the last Hall, the Blackhole. Once inside the Dimensional Realm with the Blackhole Halo, Light Spirit started to absorb it while Krune kept forming his Purple Tribulation Lightning Chaos Meridian. As expected, Krune didn''t take too long to reach the last step of the Meridian Creation. Even though there were a few differences, Krune was able to circumvent it. That said, after another month... "This is the moment of truth." Using the tenth Elemental Meridian as support, Krune gave the final push into the Tenth Chaos Meridian Creation. This time, Krune''s path was not blocked, and the last Chaos Meridian was finally formed! Light Spirit noticed that and immediately stopped absorbing the Halo''s power to replenish his Tribulation Lightning Essence. Sure enough, as soon as the Tribulation Lightning Chaos Meridian was completed, Krune''s comprehended Tribulation Lightning laws started to fuse with it! Heavin, Krune, and Light Spirit couldn''t help but get excited about it. All the work was finally paying off. "Great! It is finally completed!" The fusion with the laws took another day to finish. Finally, Krune exited the Dimensional Realm with the Blackhole Halo. Xiun, of course, noticed Krune''s presence outside straight away. He took that opportunity and called all the other disciples as well. Soon, the room in that Hall had the projection of all nine of them. Krune also decided to wait for everyone to come before trying it. Feifei and the others then received a Divine Sense message saying that Krune was out, so they didn''t take long to arrive. With everyone in the room, Krune tried to use his ten Chaos Meridians to create Chaos Energy. Even though the tenth Elemental Meridian did not evolve the natural way, it didn''t mean that it couldn''t convert Spiritual Energy into Elemental Source energy. So it also helped with the conversion. In fact, Krune could feel that because of the tyrannical power of the Tribulation Lightning inside this Meridian, it was even faster at absorbing Spiritual Energy than the others. As mentioned before, the Chaos Meridians need to work together to be able to convert Elemental Source Energy into Chaos Energy. This time, except for the fact that there are ten Chaos Meridians, this rule did not change. Krune cultivated for half an hour until he finally stopped. When he opened his eyes again, everyone could see the happiness in it. "Hahaha! The Purple Tribulation Lightning is really overbearing. Since it had to work with the other nine Chaos Meridians, it basically forced them to work a lot harder. Not only can I absorb more Elemental Source Energy at once, but the conversion rate also doubled! 30% of all the Elemental Source Energy that I get becomes Chaos Energy straight away!" Wally''s disciples were taken aback by that result. That far surpassed their best expectations. They didn''t believe that Krune would be able to convert more than 20% at once, even with an extra Meridian. "Quick, quick, bring your Chaos Meridians out for us to see!" Krune nodded and did as they said. Soon, twenty Meridians appeared at once. Karine and the others were even more shocked now. In the middle of the colored Elemental Meridians, there was a new Purple One. Still, they all could tell that it was still an Elemental Meridian. "From where the twentieth Meridian came from?" Krune then explained that for him to create a Purple Tribulation Lightning Chaos Meridian, he had to have the support of one more Elemental one. Because of that, he had to create a new extension for the previous three forms of the Myriad Energies technique too. Krune then explained the process of creation and everything he went through to bring that Tenth Elemental Meridian to life. Amisra, the Destiny Divine Soul Wisp, couldn''t help but say. "I see... I don''t know if it will serve as much help, but I believe that we can at least use this as a base for the Fifth Form." The others couldn''t help but ask why. "That is because Krune is using a type of Energy and Laws that weren''t supposed to exist. Who knows? Maybe that is exactly what the fifth form is lacking, something to go against the rules of the Universe." She continued. "Think about it like this: The Myriad Energies Technique allows us to create a type of Energy that we weren''t supposed to be able to before the right cultivation realm. Because of that, the reason why we can''t devise a higher version of the technique is that the rules of the Universe aren''t allowing our experiments to bear fruit." Feifei thought it to be strange. "But if that is the case, how come we can do that with Elemental Source Energy and Chaos Energy? If we take Krune as an example, he can even create Chaos Energy before the Void Breaking Realm. So far, it doesn''t seem like the Universe is intervening in it." Surprisingly, the one who refuted that fact was Krune. "That is not the problem here, Feifei." Krune then looked at Amisra and asked. "If I''m not wrong, what you want to say is that the first Four Versions came to life because the Cultivation Realms that they impact are not that high, right?" Amisra was surprised that Krune caught the meaning behind her words so easily. "Smart! That is correct. All the Cultivations up to the Void breaking Realm aren''t really considered anything special. They are simply too weak to provoke any significant change that could impact the Universes as a whole. Because of that, whether you can jump realms and create different types of Energy earlier matters little." "However, the Fifth Form of the myriad Energies Technique is trying to create Divine Energy! Divine Energy is what Semi-Divinity and Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts need to cultivate. They are also an existence that can cause big movements in the Universes." Amisra then shrugged her shoulders. "Well, this is all nothing more than a conjecture. Whether I''m right or wrong, I can''t tell." Eldrin agreed with her, though. "I think it is worth a try. The problem is, where will we find a type of Energy that doesn''t exist in the Universes? We can''t rely on Krune since, during the Purple Tribulation Lightning Chaos Meridian creation, it was evident that he didn''t have enough Energy for him alone. We even had to allow him to absorb part of the Halos to make up for it. We need something that can be resupplied with as much as we need for the research. Besides, it is not like we could keep Krune here forever since such research is bound to take enormous time." Just as Krune was going to say that he didn''t mind helping, someone intervened. *Clap!* Suddenly, everyone looked at Karine after that hand''s clap. "Alright. The Fifth form is something for us to deal with, not Krune, and his group. They all have a long path ahead, so we can''t keep wasting their time. No cultivator or demon beast can improve by being locked in a single place." The other Divinity Realm disciples couldn''t help but nod. "Karine is right. It is already time for Krune and his group to go out to gain more experience. If they want, they can help us with the Fifth Form by giving their ideas when they come back here." Karine then made a few seals in midair, and six tokens appeared. Except for Krune, and the two kids, Fie and Liriu, everyone received a token. "These token can be used once to bring you into the Elemental Path Realm. Also, unlike the one Krune had before, they can only carry a single cultivator or demon beast. So make sure to only use it when you are ready to create your own Chaos Meridians. Don''t forget to bind it with a drop of your blood so that the only one who can be transported is yourselves. Finally, do not think about it as a lifesaver treasure. It will not activate unless you are completely alone and in a peak state." The token was made like that so that they wouldn''t be careless during their travels outside while thinking that they could escape into the Elemental Path anytime they wanted. This kind of mentality where one feels that he is always safe is not suitable for a cultivator or demon beast''s improvement. Everyone immediately thanked Karine for that. But someone seemed unhappy with those actions, Phillin. "Sigh... Even though I was the one who created the tokens that can be used anywhere in Dalin, she is the one to be thanked. Such a selfish Wisp." Karine''s face got a little red out of embarrassment, and she glared at Phillin. "You are lucky that we are all locked in our specific positions. Otherwise, I would make you eat all the tokens I have." Phillin snorted, though. "You and what army?" While those two started to argue with each other, Xiun, the Blackhole Divine Soul Wisp, teleported everyone outside the Blackhole Hall. "Cough, cough. Don''t mind those two, they had been like this for as long as I remember. I will now open a Spatial Gate leading you outside since we already have all the necessary information. Is there anything you need still?" Krune and the other looked at each other and shook their heads. Be it Krune''s Chaos Meridian opening or the other''s cultivation and battle training, they all had excellent harvests, so it was indeed time to go out. After all, they spent almost three years in the Elemental Path! "Very well." Xiun gave Krune a different token. "This one will allow you to communicate with us in case something happens." Krune thanked him. Soon, a Spatial Gate appeared in front of everyone that connected exactly in the place that had left before, Cinty''s house. But as soon as Krune and the others came out, something that no one thought to be possible happened. 411 Papa Back in the Luvile Universe, at the very center, there was a massive black hole. This one was, without a doubt, the biggest one in the entire Luvile Universe. Because of it''s gigantic Gravitational Pull and the enormous effect on time and space, even Peak Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts needed to be careful to not be dragged inside. Because of that, this place rarely sees a single visitor even during an entire chaos cycle. Still, somewhere inside of this death zone, there was a hidden Dimensional Realm. The fact that a Dimensional Realm, which is sustained by spaces laws, can exist in this place like this, is something that no one could imagine. But this Dimensional Realm was different. Even though it was separated from the outside, one could still see everything from inside. It was as if the Dimensional Realm was made of glass. Yet, from the outside, it was like there was nothing there. Those who know about this Dimensional Realm existence could be counted on one''s hands. To be more specific, they were the Sacred Lands Masters and the Masters that came before them. Usually, no more than six cultivators and demon beasts knew about it at the same time in the Luvile Universe. The ones that came before them have already ascended or died during the Ascencion Tribulation. This Dimensional Realm was almost empty. There wasn''t even ground for one to step on. The only thing that one could find inside was a body. Every now and then, enormous arcs of purple Lightning flashed around it and were quickly absorbed by some kind of supernatural power. That body... was none other than Light Spirit''s! The enormous arcs of purple Lightning were what the Luvile Universe used for its own Tribulations. A Single Arc of Purple Lightning was enough to send tens of thousands of Heavenly Tribulations everywhere in the Luvile Universe. Still, not even the Sacred Lands Masters knew why it was here, much less who built this Dimensional Realm that imprisoned that body. However, they knew that this body was responsible for all the Tribulation Lightning of the Luvile Universe. They tried to enter this Dimensional Realm several times, but everything ended in failure. In the end, they locked down this place and reached an agreement to keep it a secret. Light Spirit had been trapped inside this Dimensional Realm for who knows how long. It was just recently that he was successful in creating a small Tribulation Lightning source that was capable of holding his Soul. That was a bet, though. If he had lost, his Soul would have been annihilated. Fortunately, he was successful in escape this place and ended inside Krune''s Foundation. Suddenly, an Arc of Purple Lightning several times bigger than any other so far came out of Light Spirit''s body. It was so powerful that the thing that was absorbing the Purple Lightning so far could not take it all. Sure enough, it happened at the moment that Krune came out of the Elemental Path. Because the Elemental Path was not only a Dimensional Realm, that place was made to completely stop any connection with the outside. Even the barriers between Universes weren''t as powerful as the Elemental Path. That''s why such a reaction only happened the moment Krune came out. The remaining Tribulation Lightning power that left Light Spirit''s body immediately escaped from that Dimensional Realm in the center of the Luvile Universe. The next instant, it broke through the fabric of Space-Time and disappeared inside. --- Through the effort of tens of thousands of Divinity Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts, the Dalin Universe was closed with a Protection Formation. Except for Krune''s group and their ancestors back in the Luvile Universe, no one knew about any other gap in this barrier. It had stood tall, separating Dalin from other Universes for who knows how many Chaos Cycles. But today, it would not be able to stop what was coming for it. Luvile''s body Purple Tribulation Lightning might have lost a lot of its power before breaking free of that Dimensional Realm. However, it was still a lot stronger than a punny barrier made by some Divinity Realm ants could stop. Suddenly, the fabric of Space-Time right in from of the Dalin Universe''s barrier was broken apart as well. From inside, a powerful flash of Purple Lightning came out and rushed against the Protection Formation. That Formation also affected the Space-Time, so it prevented anyone from using it to pass through the Universe''s barrier. That was the only reason why that Purple Lightning appeared in front of it instead of rushing straight inside. Too bad, though. Preventing the Lightning from passing through the fourth dimension could not stop its advance. In front of the Purple Lightning attack, the Dalin Universe''s protection formation might as well be made of paper. Boom! An area of nearly a million kilometers radius of the Protection Formation was shattered in an instant! Let alone stopping that Purple Lightning, the barrier wasn''t able to even slow it down after the contact. With nothing stopping the Purple Lightning from moving forward anymore, the Fabric of Space-Time was torn apart once again, and the Lightning disappeared inside Dalin Universe. At the same time that the barrier was broken through, all the powers managing Dalin Universe received the alarm. Immediately, tens of thousands of Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts were contacted. When they looked at the information, even the calmest ones couldn''t help but feel their heart skipping a bit. With that, another tens of thousands of Spatial Gates were open one after another, all in the direction of the same place. As to what happened, they would only know after they arrive there. The powers managing Dalin Universe were not the only ones to notice that event. The moment that the Purple Lightning entered Dalin, Light Spirit and Krune felt it almost instantly. "Fuck yea! Krune, go to the Tribulation Field, quick!" Krune didn''t know what was happening, but he could feel that something was approaching him at a frightening speed. Not only that, but it was definitely powerful! Krune''s time in the Elemental Path was not in vain. During his rest times in between the training, he asked Phillin to help him with his Space Laws. Because of that, although his comprehension didn''t change much, his ability to control it improved several times! With that, Krune was now able to open a Spatial Gate without any problem. Of course, as long as he doesn''t need to go too far away. For example, opening a gate between two planets is impossible for him. But he would have no problem traveling to the other side of the Wisp Main World at least. Krune opened a fissure in space and immediately passed through. But before anyone could follow him, they heard a Divine Sense message. "I''m going to the Tribulation Field, but don''t follow me through the same gate. Ask Cinty to open another one far away from me if you wish to come." Krune didn''t know what was coming for him, so he couldn''t let the others be close to him since it might be dangerous. In the next second, Krune was already in the middle of the Tribulation Field. Before Krune could ask what was happening, Light Spirit said. "It''s coming, I''m going out." Those words surprised Krune, that was the first time that he had seen Light Spirit coming out of his Foundation. "I''m only outside to help disperse its power. The real target is not me, but you. It seems like the Purple Tribulation Lightning Main Source inside my body in the Luvile Universe felt the presence of your Tribulation Lightning Elemental or Chaos Meridian. I don''t know why that happened, but this is a good thing for you and me. Part of the Source got free from the imprisonment and is coming straight at us. Bring all your Meridians out, both Elemental and Chaos, and let them absorb it." Light Spirit had spent more time with Krune than anyone else, so he knew very well how the Myriad Energies Technique worked. He knew about its unbelievable power of absorption too. Also, even though he didn''t know why, it was evident that the reason for that was the Purple Tribulation Lightning Elemental or Chaos Meridians. Maybe even the two together! He was sure that as long as Krune''s Meridians absorbed that Source, Krune''s Meridians would achieve a totally new level. At the same time, his recovery rate would speed up a lot since he would absorb as much as possible too. It was a win-win situation! The reason Light Spirit came out was that the power embued in that Source was enough to pulverize several Peak Divinity Realm Cultivators or Demon Beasts. So his objective outside was to disperse the Tribulation Lightning Power leaving only the Tribulation Lightning Source for him and Krune to absorb. Light Spirit couldn''t be happier for not being in the Luvile Universe at the moment. If he was there, the heavens of that place would intervene, and it would be almost impossible to control that level of power with his current strength. But in the Dalin universe, such a thing doesn''t exist! Here, he is the ultimate god of Purple Tribulation Lightning. This is a power that he created, after all. Suddenly, the entire Wisp Main World and the surrounding Wisp World Planets'' space changed into a Purple Colour. Let alone those who didn''t know what was happening, even Krune was shocked by that scene! But he had no time to think. In the next moment, the Fabric of Space-Time broke apart, and a Titanic Bolt of Purple Tribulation Lightning went straight at Krune! When Cinty saw that, she almost fainted. Such power was definitely enough to blow the entire Wisp Main World to bits! If she and Krune''s group weren''t far enough, just the pressure of that thing would be enough to crush them! "It''s over..." That''s what Cinty thought. But just as it was about to hit Krune and the planet, everyone heard a big laugh. "Hahahahaha! Come back to papa!" 412 Blaming Others Everyone closed their eyes when that Bolt of Purple Lightning was about to hit the Planet. Still, the end did not come. When they opened their eyes again, they saw that Bolt that seemed like a spear trying to pierce through what seemed to be a small orb of Purple Light. Of course, only those who were close enough could see it like Feifei and the others, and that is only because of their cultivations. Even though that attack seemed terrifying, Light Light was only laughing. Arcs of Purple Lightning dispersed in various directions, destroying the terrain around him and Krune. Others were scattered back into space as well. However, Light Spirit made sure that none was sent into the Wisp Worlds directions. As for if they would hit some other planet, that wasn''t something he could control at the moment. That Bolt of Lightning then started to decrease in power and size. What before was big enough to paint all the planets around with purple light, now only had the ability to do so with the Wisp Main World. More Lightning kept being dispersed, and the Bolt became even smaller. "That should be enough, start absorbing the Main Source. If I scatter more of the attack power, it might turn around and flee." Krune was taken aback. "Does it have a conscience?" "No, it is just a protective measure that I created a long time ago. Stop wasting time and use your Meridians to absorb the Source. I will do the same." Krune nodded and immediately started the absorption process. His Chaos and Elemental Meridians acted like sharks who had smelled the scent of blood and began to crazily absorb the Source. Light Spirit wasn''t any slower and absorbed even faster than Krune''s 20 meridians together. "Remember to fuse it with the Meridians, you won''t have much use for the Source inside your foundation." Krune nodded once more and let the Meridians do their job. The Purple Elemental and Chaos Meridian were obviously the ones that absorbed the most. The two alone were taking more than 70% of the total absorbed. The remaining was being equally distributed between the rest. Time passed, and the Bolt of Purple Lightning seemed to lose even more power now. It was not because it was being dispersed, but that the Main Source of that power was being taken away. However, the process wasn''t too fast. Krune and Light Spirit would need at least a few more minutes to finish absorbing everything. Light Spirit didn''t mind, though. By now, he already locked the Tribulation Source in place. Still, Light Spirit did not disperse the remaining Tribulation Lightning power. That''s because he was waiting for something. "Here you are." Suddenly, one Spatial Gate after another started to open outside the Wisp World. Those were the First Divinity Realm cultivators, and demon beasts who were close by that came to investigate. Every single one of those Divinity Realm guys couldn''t help but feel frightened by that view. They all could tell that that thing had enough power to destroy anyone who tried to stop it, including themselves. However, it seemed like there was something able to block such a power in the Wisp Main World. Unfortunately for them, they can''t tell what it is due to the anti-Divine Sense protection of the Wisp Main World. Back at Cinty''s house, she took out her communicator and inputted a certain ID. This is a call that she hasn''t made in over a hundred years. In fact, it wasn''t her idea, but Light Spirit''s. When she received that Divine Sense message from him, she could only follow his orders. As for who she was calling, that was the Dalin Universe Management Leader, Norzulun Odgas. Due to what happened in the Dalin Universe protection formation, Norzulun was extremely busy at the moment. Also, just a minute ago, he received the information that the attack that destroyed part of the Formation appeared in the Wisp Main World. Suddenly, his communicator flashed. When he looked at who was trying to contact him, his facial expression couldn''t help but change. At the moment, no one knows what is happening. All that they know is that whatever broke the Dalin Universe formation was now attacking the Wisp Main World. The problem is that he doesn''t know if the Wisp Main World was responsible for it or if they were the target. He connected the call and immediately saw that Black Colored Wisp on the other side. "Norzulun Odgas, what is the meaning of this?! Did the powers controlling Dalin finally lose their patience and decided to get rid of the wisps? If not for Wally''s protection, our Wisp Main World would be nothing more than rubble now!" Norzulun Odgas couldn''t tell if Cinty was deceiving him or not. After all, it is not like he can read her expression when she is in her Wisp Form. That was Light Spirit''s plan, to simply blame that Purple Lightning attack on Dalin Universe Management. As for the Tribulation Power being the same as the one Krune uses, he wasn''t worried about that. As the god of Purple Tribulation Lightning, Light Spirit was more than capable enough to hide its properties. Because of that, no one could tell just what kind of Lightning it was, even those outside the Wisp Main World. Their Divine Sense simply gave them no results what so ever. "Destroy your Wisp Main World? Ha! What a joke! Did you know that that Lightning Bolt destroyed over a million kilometers radius of the Dalin Universe Protection Formation? Do you think we have the power to do something like that? Are you sure it wasn''t your plan?" Cinty was taken aback. She didn''t expect that that thing was powerful enough to pierce through the Dalin Universe Protection Formation. Of course, she already understood that the Dalin Universe management and the powers controlling it had nothing to do with the Purple Tribulation Lightning. Still, she had to keep her pretense. "Destroy part of the Protection Formation? As far as I know, you guys might have destroyed it yourselves just to give an excuse in case the attack failed. Oh, I see... It is because this Wisp Queen''s lifespan is close to its end that you decided to act now. Now everything makes sense." Norzulun Odgas mouth twitched! "Makes sense your head! We are not that idiot to buy a fight against Wally, at least not at this moment. I won''t lie, we have wanted to get rid of you all for who knows how many Chaos Cycles, but we can''t deal with Wally''s power. So what if we destroyed the Wisp Main World? Such a thing would only incur his rage. It is no advantage for anyone here!" Cinty then replied. "Are you talking the truth? Was it really not you guys? Then just from where the hell this thing came from?" Norzulun shook his head. "The management is fully mobilized trying to find clues, but that thing is simply untraceable. If not because we have our eyes on the Wisp Worlds all the time, we wouldn''t even know that this thing attacked your Planet. If you want, we can even send a few Divinity Realm inside to help you deal with it." Cinty refused, though. "No need. The formations left by Wally are more than enough to deal with this level of attack. It won''t be long before that thing''s entire power is dispersed. I will trust you for now, but you better tell me from where it came and what it is once you find an answer." Norzulun knew that he couldn''t force Cinty to do anything, so he just nodded and ended the call. Of course, he also didn''t have any obligation to tell her anything in the future. First of all, he doesn''t even know if they can find the origin of that thing. Back in the Wisp Main World, Cinty already sent Krune a Divine Sense message telling that she had dealt with the Dalin Universe Management issue. Hearing that, Light Spirit immediately started to disperse the rest of the Bolt of Purple Lightning power to the outer space. When the cultivators and demon beasts watching the situation outside saw it, they became alarmed! Those bolts were just too fast! Those dispersed bolts of Lightning then started to hit one after another. However, because they were just some tiny bits of power from the main thing, those Divinity Realm guys could at least block it with their power. Of course, they still ended receiving severe injuries and had to escape straight away. Finally, a few minutes later, the entire Purple Lightning trying to pierce through the Wisp Main World disappeared completely. Light Spirit and Krune also finished absorbing the Source inside, so no one saw it. Today, two big news spread through all the Universes that were part of the Dalin Alliance. The first one was that over a million kilometers radius of the Protection Formation was instantly destroyed by an attack. The second one is that the Wisp Main World protection formation was strong enough to repeal the exact same attack. The first news was shooking, but not at the point of alarming the powers controlling the Formation. With their resources, it wouldn''t take long for them to restore it. What was really frightening is that the Wisp Main World is a fortress that they definitely wouldn''t be able to pass through. If even an attack of that power didn''t break through the Wisp Main World protection, let alone what their forces could do. Of course, the Wisp Main World didn''t have anything like that. It did have a protection formation, but Light Spirit warned Cinty to not waste her efforts since it wouldn''t be able to stop the Bolt of Lightning. Still, she definitely wouldn''t tell Norzulun the truth. What she wanted to know now was only a single thing. "Just what the hell was that?!" 413 200% As soon as Light Spirit finished absorbing the Tribulation Lightning Source, he felt like some kind of memory came into his mind. Or to be more specific, it was a path memory. Light Spirit wasn''t the only one, Krune also received the same thing. "Light Spirit, this just now..." Light Spirit became excited when he saw that. "That was my body. I see... so that''s where you are." It was as Krune thought. "So that is your body that you said to be imprisoned. But I always felt like you knew where it was. So it turns out that you didn''t. But then again, how come you didn''t know since you escaped from there?" Light Spirit didn''t deny that. "That''s because I placed my Soul inside the Tribulation Source. After that, I used the Heavenly Tribulation to move it. So I had no idea from where I came from. Still, I didn''t care much. As long as I recovered enough power, I would be able to find where it was... or so I thought. But by looking at the Dimensional Realm where it is imprisoned, it seems like it wouldn''t be that simple. Thankfully, your new Meridians caused some kind of reaction to my Tribulation main Source." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "What would happen if we went there? Can you free your body from that place?" Light Spirit sighed. "I can''t. If I could, I wouldn''t need to send my Soul away like that. I will need a strong external power if I want to break into that thing. Still, this is something for later. The important thing is that I know where it is now." Krune nodded and didn''t ask anymore. Soon, Cinty and the others came back to see how he was doing. Feifei was the first one to ask. "Was that Lightning just now something that came from our Universe?" Krune nodded. "Yes, it seems like my new Purple Elemental and Chaos Meridians caused this reaction. As for why it happened, even Light Spirit doesn''t know. Fortunately, we were able to deal with it. Also, I was able to absorb some of its Source thanks to him." Cinty nodded. "I noticed when your Meridians did that. Did they change in some way?" Krune also had the same question, so he immediately started to cultivate. But it didn''t matter how much he cultivated, it looked like nothing had changed. It was then that Light Spirit told him. "You use your Meridians to control the Tribulation Lightning Power, so the advantages that you got are related to the Tribulation Lightning, not the cultivation. Try to use my Tribulation Lightning, and you should be able to see the difference." Krune''s eyes lit up, and he started to use the Tribulation Lightning power. Sure enough, it was several times easier to bring the power out of Light Spirit''s Purple Tribulation Source. "Wait, I can go up to 200% of Tribulation Power output without receiving any backlash!" Light Spirit agreed. Light Spirit continued. "Also, your comprehension of Laws is connected to your Meridians to a certain extent. Try to check the World of Laws for my Purple Tribulation Lightning. It should have become easier for you to discern and understand them." Krune nodded and immediately entered the World of Laws. Sure enough, Krune felt it to be a lot easier to comprehend and find the different Laws inside. It could be said that now, his Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws were at the same levels as Time, Space, and Destiny when one thinks about the difficulty for comprehension. Until now, Krune''s Tribulation Lightning Laws had been the hardest one to progress, so Krune couldn''t help but feel excited after seeing that. Light Spirit was satisfied with the result as well. "Alright. Even though you absorbed some of the Purple Tribulation Lightning Main Source, I absorbed several times more than you. Because of that, I will need to fuse it together with my actual Source. It will probably take some time, so don''t call me if it is nothing important." Krune nodded and then released the control over his Divine Soul. He didn''t have time to explain anything to Heavin before, so he had to first let him wake up. Heavin quickly regained his conscience and took control over Feifei''s parrot one more. "What happened?" Krune looked at him and the others in front. "It goes like this..." Light Spirit''s existence was already known by everyone there, so Krune didn''t have an issue explaining what happened. After hearing everything, they couldn''t help but feel surprised by that. "So that Bolt of Lightning was nothing more than a small part of Light Spirit''s real power? No wait, that thing had no conscience, so no one was controlling it. Doesn''t it mean that it wasn''t even close to what it was supposed to be able to do?" Krune nodded. "Correct. Light Spirit said that it doesn''t have a conscience, so I believe that if he was the one controlling that Source, it would be a lot more powerful. Of course, he was the creator of the Purple Tribulation Lightning, so it didn''t have a chance to cause me or the planet any harm to start with. As far as I could see, he was having an easy time fending it off." Cinty agreed with Krune. "He even kept some of the Tribulation Power at bay without dispersing just so that I could use it to give the Dalin Universe Management a fright. Now they definitely believe that breaking into the Wisp World is as hard as becoming a god." For that, Cinty was very grateful to Light Spirit. The Wisp World had been in the Dalin Universe for so long already. There was bound to be a few cultivators and demon beasts that thought it to not have anything to protect itself anymore. Some might even have believed that Wally wasn''t even watching anymore. So today''s event acted as a wake up to them to not underestimate the Wisp Main World. "Do they know from where it came from?" Cinty shook her head. "If they aren''t lying, then they have no idea about its origins. But I believe that they are telling the truth. After all, who could imagine that Dalin''s Protection Formation would be broken through? No one was expecting that, so I believe that they won''t be able to trace it back." Krune sighed in relief. After all, it came from the Luvile Universe. Krune and the others then exchanged a few more words, and they returned. But just as Cinty was about to leave, Krune asked her something else. "Aren''t you going to create your Chaos Meridians? After all, you are already in the Void Breaking Realm, so your Elemental Meridians should be the Mature Ones already." Cinty agreed with him. "I intended to, but Xiun thought that it would be better for me to train with him first. So I spent most of my time there receiving guidance from him. As both Blackhole Divine Soul Owners, we had a lot in common. Not to mention that he is a Divinity Realm wisp, so I learned a lot. I plan to go back there in a few days after I finish dealing with everything here in the Wisp Main World. As the actual Wisp Queen, there is a lot of things I need to take care of." Krune had to admit that she was right. Receiving guidance of a Divinity Realm with the same type of Divine Soul as yourself is definitely much better in the short term. Krune knows that well since his Master, Lucio, is also an Elemental Divine Soul Owner. Even though he is still in the Semi-Divinity Realm, Krune knew just how helpful his guidance had been for him. ''Now that I think about it, I stopped practicing the Elements Regulation Technique when I started to create the Chaos Meridians. I should take this opportunity and pick it up again.'' Krune wasn''t the only one to receive guidance. Feifei got a lot of pointers from Amisra, the Destiny Divine Soul Wisp. Those almost three years inside the Elemental Path had helped her a lot with her Destiny Laws too. Ruik and the others might not have any Major Divine Soul, but they still have the Elemental Meridians. Thanks to that, there were quite a few things that Wally''s disciples could help them with. So they also improved a lot during this time. The only ones who stayed the same were Fie and Liriu, but that is because Feifei and Tiane don''t want them to care about cultivation for now. Instead of going straight back into training, Krune and everyone else decided to take a few weeks of rest. Fie and Liriu finally had the chance to meet other kids. As mentioned before, the Wisp Main World is mainly occupied by wisps, but it didn''t mean that other races didn''t live there. So, of course, there were a few places where those races gathered. Feifei and Tiane arranged for those two to interact with others. They had stayed inside the Elemental path for three years, so all their memories were only from that place. This is also part of their plan so that Fie and Liriu could come up with a Foundation that interested them. Of course, only Fie could talk normally. Liriu doesn''t have the half Wisp Intelligence side, so all he did was follow here up close. He could barely bring a few words out through Divine Sense. One must remember that most of the Demon Beasts can''t talk in their original forms, so they need their Divine Sense help for it. Krune and Ruik also followed them during this resting time, so they finally had a more ''family'' time together. 414 Fie wants to cultivate Fie was eating together with Krune and Feifei when she suddenly asked. "Dad, mom, when can I start to cultivate too?" Krune and Feifei were surprised by that question. This was the first time that Fie ever asked about it. Other than Liriu that she knows ever since she was born, Fie didn''t like to interact with kids at the same age as her. That was because they really couldn''t understand what she was saying and could barely speak a few sentences. Because of that, only the kids around 7 years old or more could have a talk at the same level. Of course, they only talk like kids at that age. Liriu was the only exception for that rule, and that is because he had been forced to keep up by Fie. With no other kid at the same age as him in the Elemental Path, he could only follow Fie around, which led to his faster learning speed. Of course, he couldn''t really be compared to her. Krune and Feifei looked at her and said. "Well, you don''t need to care about it for now. There are many things that you have to see and experience before you start to cultivate." Fie really didn''t care much about cultivation before, neither did Krune or Feifei ever touched the topic with her. After all, she didn''t have a Wisp''s lifespan, so she could take her time to enjoy her infancy. It was because of her interactions with the older kids that she came to ask this question. It seemed like they are all starting to cultivate now, and because of their increase in strength, cultivation had become their main topic. Fie might be a lot more intelligent, but it doesn''t change the fact that she is a kid. So she also liked what the other kids did. The other kids'' parents and the wisps around never bothered much about Fie and Liriu''s cultivation either. As impressive as Fie and Liriu might look with their 9th Stage, the fact is that the majority here are Wisps still. Wisps are already born in the Foundation Establishment Realm at the very least, so there was nothing to feel impressed with a 9th Stage Qi Condensation Realm. Krune smiled and then asked. "Do you know at which level of cultivation those kids you told us about are at the moment?" Fie pondered a bit and then remembered that some of them commented about it. "Idiot Iolia said that he is already in the 4th Stage of the Qi Condensation, and he keeps bragging about it. The others are all in the 3rd or 2nd. There are also a few demon beasts that we need to take care of. I heard that the demon beasts of 5 years old or more are all in the 3rd or 4th Stage of this Qi Condensation thing." However, here in the Dalin Universe, it is a lot easier to cultivate, so there are very few demon beasts that wouldn''t reach the 9th Stage during their lives. Of course, that is considering that they won''t be killed before that happens. "Oh, is that so? Are you perhaps jealous that you aren''t even in the 1st Stage? But you shouldn''t bother with it at the moment. After all, you are still 3 years old." All the cultivation conversations that Krune and the others had only talked about things in the Divine Soul Realm or above, so Fie had never had the change to understand at what level she was. She was born in the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation, so she thought that her actual power was the same as someone who hasn''t cultivated yet. Of course, she never had tried to compare her strength with the other older kids. Otherwise, they would all be in for a good beating. As for her floating ability, she told the others that it was because her father was a wisp, so she could float like a wisp too. Kids wouldn''t think much about whether such a thing was true or not, so they simply believed her. "Yes, I also want to cultivate like them! They think they are better because they can cultivate, so I want to be able to cultivate too. I will also teach Liriu how to do that, and we are going to be very strong." Feifei and Krune couldn''t help but laugh out loud. In part, they are at fault for never talking about cultivation with her, so she really thinks that she is weaker than them. "Mom will tell you a secret. Both you and Liriu don''t need to care about the Qi Condensation Realm thing." Fie couldn''t help but show a sad face. "Why? Are we not good enough for cultivation? I heard the other kids say that when you don''t have enough talent, you should not waste precious resources cultivating." Krune''s expression immediately changed into a serious one. In his eyes, talent is definitely not a reason to forbid someone to cultivate. As a Wisp of the Luvile Universe, that reminds him of how he and the other wisps couldn''t do anything about their cultivation speeds. No one would want to waste resources on them. "Fie, remember what I''m going to say now. You should never, ever, judge someone because of his or her talents. Understood? There is no such thing as not cultivate because of your talent. All that matters is how much effort you put in. As long as you don''t give up, even the most untalented one can achieve great things." That was the first time that Krune had showed such a serious face to her. So she nodded obediently. Feifei smiled and then said. "Your father and I would never forbid you to cultivate because of resources. In fact, we could be said to be quite rich when resources are considered. The reason why we said that you and Liriu don''t need to care about the Qi Condensation Realm is that you already finished cultivating all nine Stages. That means that you are already a lot stronger than any one of them." Fie showed a shooked face, which made Krune and Feifei burst out in laugher. "Bu-but, I have never cultivated before..." Krune shook his head. "You did, but it was during the time that you were inside your mother''s belly. That''s why you can''t remember now. The day you were born, you were already in the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, and so was Liriu. Because of that, you can only cultivate any further if you breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment." Fie didn''t expect that, but she was also having a hard time believing that. "Don''t you believe me? Then why don''t you challenge one of them next time? Just promise me that you won''t hurt them badly. Once the victor is decided, you must stop, alright?" Fie seemed uncertain about it, but after thinking about the kid called Iolia bragging at her, Fie''s mind was set. "Alright! I will challenge him tomorrow." There is a reason why the other kids couldn''t see Fie and Liriu''s cultivation level. Basically, one can only open Divine Sense at the 7th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. So for them, Fie really seems like to not have any power what so ever due to her age and size. Fie never fought any of them either, so this misunderstanding persisted until now. Suddenly, the door of the living room opened, and Ruik entered with Tiane. Liriu was there as well coiled around Tiane''s shoulder. Fie saw Liriu entering and immediately dragged him to a corner to talk about her new discoveries. Liriu, the poor guy, was once more forced to follow Fie in her whims. Tiane couldn''t help but sigh. "Feifei, she is way too much like you when you were young. You simply couldn''t stay still in a single point, not girly at all..." Feifei showed an embarrassed face. "Cough, cough. That was me in the past, now I''m a very well behaved woman." Let alone Tiane, even Krune and Ruik looked at her with weird faces. "Could it be that you are hallucinating? Since when have you been a well-behaved woman? No one likes to play more around than you. You are the very first one to jump right in when a teasing chance appears." Feifei looked away and pretended that she didn''t hear anything. Krune and the other couldn''t help but start laughing at that scene. Ruik and Tiane then sat on the table and started to eat as well. Everyone chatted happily when suddenly, both Krune and Feifei looked in a specific direction at the same time. Ruik and Tiane noticed that change and asked. "Is there something wrong?" Krune nodded. "I can feel another Heavenly Fragment. I was starting to hope that there weren''t any other heavenly Fragments in the Dalin universe, but it seems like that I was wrong. Still, there is only one this time." In the end, it took Wamie Zark almost nine years to get rid of her ''coating.'' Now, the last Heavenly Fragment in the Dalin Universe had finally appeared. 415 Go Away At the same time, Wamie Zark felt Krune and Feifei''s presence. "I can feel them. There are two Heavenly Fragment Owners, and they are together." Gilia Mink was surprised to hear that. "So it took you almost 9 years to have the ''coating'' removed. Since you said that there are two of them together, they must be Hobbek and Rannia from the Extreme Yin Yang Palace. Only those two would be staying together." But it was then that Gilia noticed something strange. "Wait, if there are still two remaining, it means that there is one extra Heavenly Fragment." Wamie nodded. "Exactly. I was expecting to find just one extra Heavenly Fragment since I already felt the presence of another three. But the fact that there are two means that one more came into Dalin Universe. This means that it is probably the wisp called Krune from the information we got before coming to Dalin. After all, the Divine Path Sect and Wang Clan are allies." Gilia agreed with her. "Entering Dalin Universe is extremely difficult for the powers that are not part of the management system. Wang Clan seemed to have used a favor from the past, so only they would have a way to come other than the sacred lands. It seems like they used it to bring the wisp too. Of course, it is just a conjecture." Wamie then said. "That means that those two might be the wisp and Feifei as well. Still, things got really complicated in any case. Be it Feifei and Krune, or Hobbek and Rannia, we are in a very bad position. After all, it is certain that they have already absorbed 3 Heavenly Fragments. To be honest, our chances of victory are too bleak." Gilia then asked. "Are we going there to check them?" Wamie shook her head. "Let them come, they have the advantage, so they should be the ones approach us. There is nothing strange with me not going against higher numbers. We are inside one of the biggest cities between all planets in this galaxy, so they won''t be able to do anything while we are here. If I''m not wrong, the other side will try to communicate with me once they get close." Too bad, though... Krune and Feifei had absolutely no interest in Wamie''s Heavenly Fragment. Because of that, both sides stayed still in the same place for three months straight! For Feifei and Krune, nothing could be better. "Could it be that the other side also doesn''t want the Heavenly Fragments anymore?" Feifei shook her head. "I don''t think so. It is just that the two of us are together, and this is our turf. Not to mention that the other side isn''t idiot enough to not understand that we got the other three Heavenly Fragments. Most likely, the other Heavenly Fragment Owner doesn''t want to be the one attacking first." Krune agreed with her. Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "Shouldn''t we send someone to check at least?" Krune shook his head. "Different from the other side, we have no idea who it might be. Now that I think about it, I should have asked Hobbek and Rannia if they knew about any other Heavenly Fragment Owner and their appearance. We, or at least one of us, would need to go there so that we can pinpoint the exact location." "Anyway, it is not like we want the other side to come at us, so let''s just enjoy our peaceful time. As long as we are in the Wisp Main World, nothing will happen to us. Not to mention that we just recently left the Elemental Path, so everyone in our group has a lot to digest. We are going to stay in the Wisp Main World for quite some time. Also, the longer it takes, the better it is for us. After all, we have the Myriad Energies Technique, so time is on our side." Feifei nodded. "Talking about the Meridians, how long you think Cinty will take to come back?" Back when Krune and Feifei felt the presence of the Heavenly Fragment, Cinty had left for the Elemental Path once more. After all, she already had the Mature Elemental Meridians since she was in the Void Breaking Realm. So she is now creating her own Chaos Meridians. Krune pondered a bit and then said. "She is also a wisp, so she might take a time similar to mine. Still, Cinty is at the peak of the Void Breaking Realm, so her comprehension ability might be higher than mine. In that case, there is a chance that she will take less than I did. But one thing is sure, she definitely won''t be back before at least a year is gone. Don''t forget that I took two years to create all nine original Chaos Meridians." Feifei nodded and returned to her training. Fie and Liriu had already got used to the life in the Wisp Main World, so they moved around as they wished. Of to be more specific, Fie moved around while dragging Liriu together. It turned out that Fie really challenged the older kid called Iolia and won easily. With that, it was proved in the kids'' circle that Fie had the highest cultivation even though she is so young and small. Back at Wamie Zark''s'' place, Wamie had a black expression. She had been waiting for three months straight. But let alone coming at her, she didn''t get any information about anyone looking for her. "Why are they waiting so long? It is as if they don''t even want the Heavenly Fragment." One could only wonder how her expression would be if she discovered that Krune and Feifei really didn''t give a damn to her Heavenly Fragment. Gilia had also prepared their supporters that they were able to gather in Dalin, but it looked like everything was for nothing so far. "Are we waiting still?" Wamie took a deep breath and shook her head. "That might be their plan. Let''s keep waiting. I refuse to believe that they will resist the desire to acquire another Heavenly Fragment." Another three months went by, and it has been half a year since both sides started to feel each other. Half a year became 9 months... And then 9 months became one entire year... During this time, Krune''s group kept improving and enjoying the peaceful time while Wamie patience disappeared little by little. Finally, one year and two months later, a total of ten years had passed since Krune, and the other Heavenly Fragment owners had come to the Dalin Universe. With this, both sides understood that no more Heavenly Fragment Owners were present in the Dalin Universe. Unless, of course, a new one had come inside in a later day. But the chances of such a thing happening is just too small. Wamie Zark couldn''t care less, though. Her patience was finally gone by now, so she decided to go where Krune and Feifei were staying and check things by herself. Sure enough, as soon as Wamie and her group started to make their way to the Wisp Main World, Krune and Feifei noticed her movements. At this point, they were really hopeful that the other side would simply ignore their existence forever, but it seemed like it wouldn''t be the case. "Well, I guess the other side got tired of waiting. It would be so great if we could simply stay each in a corner without bothering with the other." "Let''s just wait. I''m almost 100% sure that this person or demon beast is going to use the same method and Hobbek and Rannia. This Heavenly Fragment Owner will first get somewhere nearby, and then send some scouts to check the situation. At that time, we will simply hear what it has to say." Wamie was really far away, so much that she took three entire weeks and lots of Long Distance Teleport Formation. Finally, Wamie and her group stopped a few solar systems away from the Wisp Main World. There, Wamie could finally determine where exactly Krune and Feifei were staying. Just like Hobbek and Rannia, Wamie immediately understood that it was definitely the wisp that was the extra Heavenly Fragment Owner. Just as Krune mentioned, Wamie sent some of the members of her group to check the planets for information. Krune then once more capture a random guy, and through the use of his communicator, both sides started to talk. The first thing Krune did was to give a suggestion. "Hey there, what about you forget that we exist and go away?" 416 Rules Wamie Zark, obviously, was taken aback by those words. But her eyes narrowed right after. "What do you mean?" Krune sighed and said. "I won''t lie here. Be it Feifei or me, we don''t give a damn to your Heavenly Fragment, nor do we care about the Heavenly Competition. If Uer, Hobbek, and Rannia didn''t come at us first, we would have completely ignored them as well. So that''s my plan, you just go back to wherever you came from, and we will both ignore each other''s existences from now on." Wamie immediately shook her head. "And why would you not want the Heavenly Divine Soul?" Krune and Feifei looked at each other and laughed. "That''s because we would need each other''s Heavenly Fragment, and such a thing is impossible to happen." Wamie snorted after hearing that. "Do you want me to believe that you won''t take each other''s Heavenly Fragment in the end? Don''t make me laugh! If that was the case, why would you absorb the other three Heavenly Fragments?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "I told you already, didn''t I? It wasn''t we who went after them, it was they who came after us. If you want proof, this over one year without going after you should be quite a good one. After all, we do have an advantage in numbers. Besides, what is your cultivation level at the moment? I might as well tell you that I''m at the 4th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm while Feifei is in the 6th." In this one year and two months, Krune and Feifei advanced one more stage each. Not only them but Dilo and Xankruan as well. As for Ruik and Tiane, they had both succeeded in entering the Soul Forging Realm. Wamie Zarks was in the middle of Krune and Feifei, being in the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. When she heard that, Wamie got impressed. Not because of their cultivation, but because they are still similar to herself. As a member of a Sacred Land, she knows very well that absorbing Heavenly Fragments gives one a tremendous boost in cultivation. For them to have a cultivation level like that, it means that they defeated the other Heavenly Fragment Owners with lower cultivation. "Are you really in the 4th and 6th stages?" Krune and Feifei looked at her and nodded. "We are, so I believe that you should be somewhere close to us. There isn''t much a point in hiding it since once we meet each other, we would find it straight away." Wamie pondered a bit and then confirmed. "I''m indeed close to you two. Still, it is one more reason to don''t let it go. After all, you are similar in cultivation to me, so there is no guarantee that I would lose." Krune sighed and then said. "Then what about this? Would you like to spar with me? No death allowed, once a victor is decided, the battle is over. The loser has to follow the wish of the winner. What about that?" Wamie was taken aback. Krune nodded. "Even if that is your choice, I won''t complain. But you also have to follow one of my orders in case I win." Wamie couldn''t help but ask. "And how do I know that you are going to keep your promise?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Isn''t that obvious. Once we register for an arena in a Big City, we can select the rules for that match. It is even possible to request the enforcement of the previous agreement between both parties. All we need to do is pay the required amount by the arena officers. If we do that, there will be simply no way to run away from the agreement anymore. The loser side will not be able to leave that place until the winner''s wish is guaranteed. Of course, ask for such a service will cost a lot of Spirit Stones, but I''m willing to pay for everything." Wamie pondered a bit and nodded. She knew that the rules in the Dalin universe are very strict. As long as they don''t go into a No Laws Zone and are inside a well-protected city, they will have to follow the terms that they agreed before. Krune then said. "Very well, from what I can feel, you seem to be in the Taen Planet. The only big City there is the one called Jacare. So I believe you are staying in there, right?" Wamie nodded once more. "Very well, I''ll see you in a minute." The call was ended right after. Wamie was taken aback once more. She didn''t expect him to come this fast. She didn''t even have time to prepare anything at all. Krune and Feifei then used Phillin''s Teleport Formation and appeared right on the City''s doorsteps. Together with them was his group and Laex. This time, Krune didn''t have the intention of going into a Death Battle. After all, the Heavenly Fragment can''t be destroyed, nor be sent away. All he wanted was to guarantee that Wamie wouldn''t tell the management of Dalin Universe about his location when he goes out. At the moment, she wouldn''t do such a thing since the conditions were in her favor. Sure enough, Krune and Feifei noticed Wamie inside the City. The same happened to her. Krune didn''t waste any time and moved directly into the City''s arenas. Wamie also greeted her teeth and went there. Since she agreed with this, there would be no point in delaying it now. Once both sides encountered each other, Wamie was taken aback. That is because, together with them, there was a little girl that looked a lot like Feifei. Not only that, but she also had rainbow-colored hair and eyes, just like Krune. "This..." Even though it might be dangerous due to his status, Krune still decided to bring Fie together with them. He wanted her to see more of the Universe than just the Wisp Main World. Also, it might help her decide what kind of foundation she will have in the future. Of course, since that was the case, Tiane and Ruik also brought Liriu to see it. Wamie would need to be an idiot to not understand whose daughter that little girl is. It was then that she remembered her comment in the communicators just a while ago. ''Do you want me to believe that you wouldn''t take each other''s Heavenly Fragments in the end?'' To make sure she wasn''t wrong, Wamie spread her Divine Sense and examined both Feifei and Fie. Sure enough, as a woman, she noticed that Feifei''s body changed due to having given birth in the past. As for fie, she could totally tell that although she looked very like a human, she wasn''t one. At least, not entirely. As hard as it is to believe, that Wisp Core in the place where the Dantian was supposed to be is undeniable proof. Now she was a little hesitant about her previous statement about taking the other''s Heavenly Fragment. They are a family, after all. Still, she couldn''t help but ask. "Is she your daughter?" Krune and Feifei nodded. "Her name is Wang Fie, a hybrid of human and wisp." Krune then released her and walked to the counter to register for a non-deathmatch fight. Fie, who was released, then floated to Feifei''s direction. That scene wiped away any other doubts that Wamie might have. For one, no demon beast can take the human form before at least reaching the Foundation Establishment. Fie is still in the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, so she obviously wasn''t a transformed human. And two, the fact that she floated without the help of wings, skills, laws, or anything like that. Wamie could tell with her Divine Sense that the floating ability was due to the Wisp Core inside her. Gilia looked at Wamie and could see her faint eager expression. There is one thing that very few know about, but she is one of them. Wamie Zark... loved kids! Especially those who were very cute, which is obviously Fie''s case. When Feifei was young, she was cute to the point that even Krune thought that when he saw her for the first time. Thankfully, Fie turned out to look a lot like Feifei at the same age. As for her Rainbow Hair and Irises, they just added more to the charm and didn''t seem strange at all. Totally different from Krune''s human form, which indeed looked quite weird with the rainbow-like features. Gilia touched Wamie''s and called her out of her trance. "Wamie..." Wamie came back to herself. "Cough, cough. I''m going to register as well." She immediately moved to the counter. The guy taking care of the entries for the arenas then asked. "So the rules you selected was a no deathmatch, but the other side has to follow one wish of the winner. Is there a limit for what can be asked from the other side?" Krune and Wamie shook their heads. In Wamie''s eyes, getting Krune''s Heavenly Fragment is all she needs. As for Feifei''s one, she will think about it later. As a member of the All Life Sect, Wamie was also the type who didn''t like to kill when it was not necessary. In Krune''s case, he already knows exactly what he wants from her. "Very well. Both sides then understand that any other request other than death is totally valid. It has to be followed to the letter as long as it is something within the loser''s ability. Do you both agree?" Krune and Wamie nodded. "Very well, notice that anyone who breaks the rules will be dealt with the law enforcement. Let alone Soul Forging Realm like you two. Even a Divine Path Realm cultivator or demon beast would not be able to escape without keeping their side of the agreement. You two can take this token and move to the arena number 146. The for the enforcement of the duel''s rule is..." Krune then paid everything as they had agreed, and both parties moved to the arena. 417 Heavins Parrot Puppe Wamie might be one Stage higher than Krune, but that didn''t bother him at all. Krune had way too many advantages at the moment. He got his Chaos Meridians and had been expanding his Universe Foundation ever since. He can now use 200% of the Purple Tribulation Lightning output without suffering any backlash. Light Spirit''s Tribulation Source is a lot bigger than before, making the Tribulation Lighting recharging rate more than double the previous speed. As for Laws, this one year and two months were enough for him to reach the Intermediate Stage of the Charged Lightning Energy Sub-Law. This is the second Sub-Law of the Tribulation Lightning Laws. His Space Sub-laws also improved thanks to the insights that he received from Phillin back in the Elemental Path. His Contraction Sub-Law was still in the Advanced Stage, but his Displacement Sub-Law reached intermediate. Now Krune can freely teleport as long as the Space Around him isn''t affected and the distance isn''t too big. Let''s not forget his new Kaleu Tribulation Steel Flying Shields. Finally, there was one more addition to Krune''s arsenal. Heavin had finally become a Nine Golden Stars Puppeteer! With that, he completely reformed Feifei''s Parrot Puppet. Using the best materials. Especially the parts that had to be done by a Black Smith. Krune, who was also in the Nine Golden Stars Level as Blacksmith, forged all the metallic pieces with his Purple Flames. Feifei''s Parrot Puppet now had the power to fight an ordinary 7th to 8th Stage Soul Forging Realm cultivator or demon beast. Heavin thought for a moment to make more puppets, but he quickly gave up the idea. During the heat of battle, it is already hard to keep one''s attention to control a single one, let alone more. More is not always better. Of course, if Heavin wanted to battle, Krune wouldn''t be able to take full control over his Divine Soul. Because of that, Krune wouldn''t really be able to fight at full power. Still, Krune was confident enough to not need it at the moment. So Heavin''s part in fight is more like a test for when he tries to move his conscience into a Puppet in the future. Both Heavin and Krune had already agreed that if the battle took a turn to worsen, Heavin would give up the control over the Divine Soul for Krune to go all out. Krune and Wamie entered the arena. Right After, they activated the Concealing Formation. Heavin looked at Wamie on the other side and said. "Krune, I''ll be going first. Let me try out my new upgrades." Wamie was taken aback. She then looked at Krune with a severe expression. "Aren''t you the one controlling this Puppet? This is a one vs. one battle. Any outsider help is a breach of the rules!" Krune and Heavin looked at each other and started to laugh. "Don''t worry. Heavin here is not outsider help, he is my Divine Soul." Wamie felt like she heard something absurd. Krune shook his head. "I''m not lying or pretending. Heavin is really my Divine Soul. It is just that he gained Sentience. Still, it doesn''t change the fact that he is part of my own power, so this is not against the rules. I will be using only my own strength to fight you." Still, Krune couldn''t help but think. ''Well, at least this is the case until Heavin succeeds in moving his conscience away.'' Krune then continued. "If you don''t believe, my Foundation is open for you to take a look at my Divine Soul." Krune didn''t have any issue in doing that since inside his foundation, he is god! So all that Wamie would be able to do there is take a look at his Divine Soul, and nothing more. Because Wamie and Krune were separated by the arena''s Protection Formation, there was no risk for her to take a look at Krune''s Foundation with her Divine Sense. Sure enough, when she saw Krune''s Divine Soul, its soul energy changed in the shape of a Parrot and greeted her back. "Hey there, I''m Heavin, the idiot wisp''s Divine Soul." Wamie really couldn''t believe that. Still, her Divine Sense proved that Krune wasn''t lying. She really can feel a presence inside of Krune''s Divine Soul. "How did you do that?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "I didn''t. This guy appeared on his own. It is not like I asked for such a disrespectful Divine Soul to start with." "Hmph!" Krune laughed and then said. "Anyway, this is proof that Heavin is not outsider help. He is, without a doubt, part of my own power." Wamie started to feel like she was being baited. Still, she would not step back. She has to use this change while Krune is beneath her in cultivation. If she waits longer, he might surpass her in the future. Krune and Wamie touched the pillar beside each entrance, and the protection formation in the middle of the arena disappeared. Heavin''s colored wings suddenly started to shine with purple light, and he vanished from Krune''s shoulder. Wamie couldn''t help but feel surprised. Heavin''s speed was just too fast! This was one of the Parrot Puppet''s abilities. It could also store Krune''s Purple Tribulation Lightning energy! Heavin also made sure that the container was big enough to sustain a battle for quite some time. However, she isn''t the Life Heavenly Fragment owner for nothing. Her own combat power could jump a lot more stages than what Heavin could fight. She released her Life Domain, and immediately, her own strength soared. In fact, Wamie''s Domain had another use: to affect the enemy''s life energy. They would need to spend quite a lot of Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy to keep it under control. That would, in turn, reduce their overall strength. But Heavin is a Puppet, and Puppets don''t have Life Energy to start with. If Heavin''s Soul was inside the Puppet, then it would be possible since a soul also needs life energy, but that is not the case at the moment. Wamie, of course, also kept her Divine Sense at Krune on the other side. Still, Krune didn''t do anything else other than changing into his Wisp Form. It was then that she saw Heavin charging at her from the flank. But she only snorted "Light Hack." Light Element gathered on her side, and suddenly, it shot forward! One of the Light Element''s main property is its speed. So any attacks produced with it would be extremely fast. That was also why Wamie didn''t care about Heavin''s speed. After all, her attacks are definitely faster than him. In an instant, the attack was right in front of Heavin. Still, he did not try to dodge, nor did he reduce his speed. Tribulation Lightning started to gather on his wings and around him. Suddenly, Heavin disappeared! Wamie was alarmed by that because, for a moment, she felt the presence of Space Laws! Heavin can use all Laws that Krune comprehended, so obvious, he can use the Displacement Sub-Law to teleport away. That was not all. Because of the Tribulation Lightning around his Parrot Puppet, he completely disappeared from Wamie Zark''s Divine Sense. She couldn''t see where he went at all. Of course, this arena is fully closed, even Space Laws couldn''t be used to pass through that protection formation. Which means that Heavin is still inside. It was at this moment that Wamie felt danger and used her Light movement to dash away from her position. Still, it was a little too late. "Tribulation Line Charge!" This is a very simple skill that Heavin came up with after reforming the Parrot Puppet. It basically merged Krune''s Tribulation Line with the Parrot itself. Heavin had made the Parrot''s wings sturdy to the point that even a low-level Diamond Stars Weapon wouldn''t be able to break them easily. By appearing at Wamie''s blind spot with the speed of the Tribulation Line Skill, it gave her almost no time for reaction. *Putch!* Part of Wamie''s shoulder was slash trough before she could flee. Still, it wasn''t a severe injury. As a Light Element expert, all the light around is under her control. Even though Heavin had disappeared from her Divine Sense, it didn''t mean that he wasn''t there anymore. So when she felt a difference in the light coming from behind, she knew that it was the place where the Parrot appeared. Heavin was also surprised that Wamie was able to dodge in time. He used his Tribulation Lightning reserve from the very start to make Wamie think that he was going to rely on his speed. At the critical moment, he teleported right at her back while hiding himself with a Tribulation Lightning Layer. That was supposed to be the perfect surprise attack. However, she was still able to react and even move in the right direction to avoid a severe injury. Suddenly, Life Energy gathered on the place where Heavin attacked, and the injury on Wamie''s shoulder started to heal. In just a few seconds, it was already gone. Heavin couldn''t help but praise. "As expected of the Life Heavenly Fragment Owner, your healing abilities are no joke." Wamie didn''t feel like praising him back, though. That was because she finally understood the situation she got herself into. If Krune had used that change to attack her, she was sure that she wouldn''t be able to dodge him as well. Depending on the type of attack and the injury, she might have lost right there and then. Still, the rainbow-colored wisp didn''t move a single millimeter. But the moment he decides to attack as well, she will have a hard time just to hold them back, let alone winning this fight. Suddenly, she heard Krune''s voice talking from a distance. "Heavin, how was it?" Heavin knew what Krune was asking about "Pretty much as I expected. There is a lot of room for improvement in the Parrot, especially the joints and the Purple Flame Tribulation Lightning conductors. I will need you to forge a few things for me later to correct the unbalanced distribution of energy." Krune didn''t mind. "It''s okay. Since I can already produce Chaos Energy, I might go straight into Diamond Stars pieces." Heavin shook his head, though. "No Diamond Stars, it is already difficult to control the Puppet as a peak Golden Stars Puppeteer. If I add Diamond Stars pieces into it later, I will most likely lose the control due to the Chaos Energy inside." Wamie heard all of that and was both angry and frightened. She was angry because they were using her as a testing subject. At the same time, she was frightened to know that Krune can already use Chaos Energy even though he isn''t a Void Breaking Realm wisp. ''Besides... Since when Divine Souls started to get side jobs? This is ridiculous!'' 418 Light Fusion Heavin then resumed his attack with even more fierceness. He kept teleporting everywhere and using the Skills that Krune liked to use. Unfortunately, the first attack was really the best moment. Once Wamie saw it, she was always ready and could dodge and counter-attack without problems. In the end, their battle only lasted for two minutes, and Heavin had to retreat after. That''s because his reserve of both Tribulation Lightning and Spiritual Energy was almost depleted, so he had to recall the Parrot. He teleported once more and appeared right beside Krune. Wamie''s Light attack came right after, but it was suddenly blocked by a Flying Shield with Dark Element and Laws behind it. She knew that the one who blocked it was not Heavin, but Krune instead. "Are you two finally going to join hands?" Krune answered that question by putting Heavin''s Parrot Puppet in his Spatial Ring. "He ran out of energy, so it is only me now. In fact, I''m impressed that he lasted this long against you. After all, your battle power is definitely several stages above him." Heavin could have put one of Feifei''s Formations in the Parrot, but he refused that idea. Heavin wants to know how to fight by having a limited supply of energy since Krune wouldn''t always be there for him to recharge. Wamie felt like cursing him. Sure, she was much stronger, but she doesn''t have any comprehension about Space Laws. Because of that, she couldn''t change the space laws around her to prevent teleportation. Krune saw that she didn''t reply and then released all his Kaleu Tribulation Steel Shields. He also took full control of his Divine Soul so that he could be safe. Suddenly, Half of the Shields started to teleport around the arena. Not only that, every single one had the Tribulation Lightning Layers that can hide them from Divine Sense. Wamie was really taken aback by that scene. It is one thing to be able to use Space Laws with one or two equiments. But Krune is constantly teleporting 19 of them! Sure enough, energy attacks started to come from every possible direction. Krune, too, began to send his own Long Ranged skills, which were even more powerful. Of course, Krune was also using his displacement to teleport around. This kind of advantage will only last during the Soul Forging Realm. Once he starts to battle Void Breaking ones, the opponent won''t allow him to use the Space Laws to do it. Void Breaking Realm can distort the Space laws in the arena, making teleportation a suicide thing. In a second, Wamie was already in a bad position. Still, she wasn''t a Heaving Fragment owner for nothing. She once more released her Domain and started to use the light to see from where those attacks would be coming from. She was hit now and then, but with her Light laws and Life Divine Soul, it only took seconds for a full recovery. As mentioned before, Krune kept half of his Shields with himself. So wherever he moved or teleported, those Shields would come together. He is taking this opportunity to try out his Laws and cultivation improvement. Also, there was still one thing Krune wanted to test. ''Alright, time to use Chaos Energy.'' Although Chaos Energy was being used to expand his Universe Foundation, it didn''t mean that Krune couldn''t stop it for a while to focus on a fight. Sure enough, be it Krune''s attacks, defense, speed, or whatever, everything about him seemed to jump several levels. When Wamie Zark saw that, she understood that only now Krune was using his real power. Krune also started to release 200% of his Tribulation Lightning. He then used his Chaos Energy with it, which increased the Tribulation Lightning power even more. There was only one thing that Krune hadn''t done yet: to release his own Domain. Even though Wamie''s Life Domain was annoying, Krune''s Tribulation Layer diminished most of its effect on him. If he releases his rainbow domain, then Wamie won''t be able to do anything anymore. Wamie also knew that things couldn''t continue like this, so she greeted her teeth and made a decision. "Light Fusion!" Immediately, the Light Element around Wamie started to gather and enter her. Not only that, but her entire body seemed to shine with white light as well. Let alone Krune, even Gilia Mink, who was Wamie''s protector, was taken aback. She had never seen Wamie using that skill before. What seemed to be a one-sided battle, suddenly had a turn. Wamie seemed to become light herself! Be it her Light Element Control, Laws, Strength, or Speed. Everything seemed to have improved several times, just like Krune! But such a technique had a price. This put an enormous burden on her body, dantian, and mind. So she had a time limit to finish the battle, or she would be incapable of continuing very soon. "Light Rays!" Hundreds of orbs of Light Element appeared around Wamie and released light ray attacks at Krune. At first, Krune tried to block them with his Flying Shields. But surprisingly, they moved around just as they were about to hit! Krune had no other choice other than teleporting away. "Light Suppression!" The whole light in the arena seemed to get brighter, and Krune felt his control over the elements being outshined by the presence of the light Laws. ''Impressive. I''ve never seen an Element and Laws being used this way.'' Using teleport now would be a little tricky. But Krune also understood why Wamie hasn''t done it before. She needed to be in that state to be able to use this skill. Obviously, that skill also put an enormous burden on her. Light Rays started to rain down on Krune once more. Not only that, but Wamie was also increasing the power of her Domain, which forced Krune to use even more energy to keep his Life Energy under control. Still, Krune wasn''t alarmed or frightened. If anything, he was happy to see that. This Wamie Zark right now was just the perfect opponent for him. Krune immediately gave up using his Space Laws for teleportation and changed into his Tribulation Lightning Movement. Krune can now use it at 200% output, so one can only imagine how much faster he became. A few of the Light Rays still caught up to him, though. Krune smiled and controlled his Shields to block it once more. Wamie then used her control to move around the Shields like last time, but it didn''t matter where the Light Ray moved, there was always a Shield in front of it. Just how long has Krune been using his Flying Shields? Something like merely changing the direction of an attack isn''t enough to pass through them anymore. Because of his Speed, only a few of Wamie''s Light Rays were able to catch him, but his Shields were more than enough to deal with it. Krune''s other Shields that were not protecting him also stopped teleporting. But they still moved around with the Tribulation Lightning power inside them. They aren''t as fast as Krune since they are far away from the Tribulation Lightning source. But that didn''t mean they are slow. Besides, thanks to Feifei''s Energies Connection Formation, they had Krune''s unlimited supply of Spiritual, Elemental, and Chaos energies. ''Time to come out, guys.'' As if they had received a command. Krune''s Shields started to use Skills themselves! So far, they had only been releasing energy attacks. But out of nowhere, Krune''s skills began to come out from them. What else could it be if not Krune''s Wills? Krune had become a lot more proficient on it than when he was in the Divine Soul Realm. Now his Wills won''t last a single minute, but an entire hour! In fact, they could last a lot longer than if they didn''t do anything, but that wasn''t their purpose. Tribulation Lines, Tribulation Blazing blades, Myriad Tribulation Water Dragons, and others, all of Kurne''s most-used skills started to come at Wamie from everywhere. Not only that, with much more Purple Tribulation Lightning and the new Chaos Energy inside, each and every one of them had speed and power that far surpassed any ordinary Soul Forging Realm! Wamie, of course, was taken aback by that. Once again, she started to get suppressed by Krune''s attacks. But at least, she was also on the offensive. It was then that she noticed something. Far above in the arena, Purple Clouds started to gather and increase in size. As a person from the Luvile Universe, she immediately understood what those clouds are. "Heavenly Tribulation clouds! How did he copy them?!" In fact, these could be said to be the original ones. With Light Spirit''s help, Krune was able to understand the principle behind them. Today, it was the first time he was trying it out. "Tribulation Storm!" Suddenly, several attacks around half the power of Krune''s Heaven''s Fall started to come down. This type of attack also took some time to get ready. But in an enclosed environment like an arena, he didn''t need to be afraid of Wamie escaping its range. Wamie wasn''t to be underestimated, though. "Light Converge, Light Shield!" Light Element quickly gathered around her, and a super-concentrated Light Shield appeared around her body. She could still barely dodge Krune''s Shield Skills while being hit but some and healing right after. But she really couldn''t take that many Purple Tribulation Lightning. Wamie supply of Spiritual and Elemental Source energy started to decrease at fast speeds. Especially because every time a Lightning Bolt hit her Light Shield, the Laws that composed it would be eaten away. It forced her to use even more energy to gather those Laws back. But she had no choice since if she got hit by all of that, she would lose for sure. Krune, too, was started to get tired. ''Well, it went a lot better than I thought. It is time to finish it.'' Wamie had a feeling of foreboding. It was then that she remembered that Krune still hasn''t used something that all Soul Forging Realm cultivators and demon beasts always do. Suddenly, the entire arena was covered by a rainbow color. Or to be more specific, all of Krune''s Domains appeared at once and fused together, including his Tribulation Lightning one. "Rainbow Domain!" 419 Me too Immediately, Wamie''s Life Domain was suppressed to the point where it almost ceased to exist. All the Laws she was controlling were also being eaten away. Her Light Protection diminished by more than half in power, which made Krune''s Tribulation Storm Lightning Bolts start to pass through it. Krune''s other elemental attacks being sent out by the Wills in the Shields also increased in power due to the domain of their elements. So what was already powerful and fast, became even more so. One of Krune''s most significant advantages in a Soul Forging Realm level battle had always been his Rainbow Domain. When he used it for the first time, due to the Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws'' characteristics, he could only keep it for more or less a minute. But now that he is in the Soul Forging Realm and has much better control over his laws, Krune is able to sustain the Rainbow Domain for at least 10 minutes! In a battle of this level, 10 minutes could be considered an eternity. Wamie tried her best to resist. But let alone being able to defend herself, she couldn''t even spare anytime to send attacks in Krune''s direction anymore. Also, she was already on her limit with the Light Fusion skill. Sure enough, her Light Fusion dissipated, and her strength dropped far below what it was when she first arrived in the arena. That couldn''t be helped, this was the backlash of the Light Fusion skill. The longer Wamie kept it activated, the worse it would be. She had hold that state for as long as possible, but any more than that and her Dantian would be damaged to the point of no recovery. Not to mention that her Soul and Body also received their share amount of damage. But Wamie didn''t give up victory yet. Suddenly, she took out a token from her Spatial Ring. That token had the will and power of one of the Divinity Realm elders of the All Life Sect. Of course, it couldn''t really release an attack at the Divinity Realm level, but one at the Divine View Realm should be possible. Krune immediately recognized what she was trying to do. However, he didn''t feel the least bit afraid. He took out a token from his own Spatial Ring and showed her. That was the token that his Grandmaster had passed him in the past. "What? Do you think you are the only one with one of those?" Wamie was alarmed. If both of them release attacks at that level in such a small place like this, she will be dead for sure. But the same can''t be said for Krune since he is still in battle condition. Besides, he has his shields. Of course, it is not like Krune can resist an attack of that level just because of that. Both tokens'' attacks would first hit each other and generate an enormous shockwave mixed with all kinds of laws and energies. What Krune would need to resist is the side effect of the attacks, not the attacks themselves. "Fine, I give up. This is your victory." Krune nodded and then returned to his human form. After that, he deactivated the protection and concealing formation. Outside of the arena, there was an elder who had been waiting. He was the one sent to make sure that whatever agreement that was made would be followed. Krune had paid quite a high price for this when he talked with the employee back then. That Elder was in the Divine View Realm, so whether it was Krune or Wamie''s group, neither side would be able to go back on their words. Unless, of course, they wanted to leave their lives here. Of course, the Elder did not see the battle, nor did he have any interest in the fight of two Soul Forging Realms. He only cared about the payment that he received beforehand and the result of their quarrel. The Elder then looked at Krune and said. "It is quite rare for someone to pay the price for the enforcement. Especially when the payer is only at the Soul Forging Realm. I guess you have quite the background if you were able to afford it." He then looked at Wamie and continued. "Anyway, the victor is decided, so you have to follow one of his wishes as long as it is something that you are able to accomplish. Understood?" Gilia wanted to take Wamie away, but she knew that in front of that Elder, they would have no chance of escaping. Wamie also can''t use her token with the Elder''s will inside. After all, the protection of the arena has been lifted already. That means that using it now would be considered as a battle being initiated without permission. Big cities in Dalin have stringent rules, and such an action would just make things worse. In the end, Wamie just nodded. She was even prepared to give her Heavenly Fragment away. At least, she will be able to cultivate from the start again. Although she will lose her Life Divine Soul and Heavenly Fragment, she is still in the Dalin Universe. Her cultivation will be a lot faster than in Luvile. She couldn''t complain about the results since there was almost no difference in cultivation. In fact, she was even a stage higher than Krune. Krune took a look at the Elder, and he immediately understood. Suddenly, a Spiritual Energy barrier covered Wamie and Krune, leaving everyone else outside, including the Elder. No one would be able to see what is happening there. Krune smiled and then said. "Very well, give me a slive of your Soul. After that, you can just leave and do whatever you want." Wamie was taken aback. "What? You want me to become your Slave?" Krune shook his head. "I don''t need a Slave, what I need is that you don''t open your mouth about when I''m out of the Wisp Main World." Wamie then understood. "Oh, I see. You are afraid that I would follow the Heavenly Fragment connection to catch you outside. But in that case, why don''t you ask for my Heavenly Fragment straight away?" Krune was taken aback. ''Could it be that she doesn''t know about the must kill rule for Major Divine Soul Wisps?'' Krune was right. Wamie really didn''t know about such a thing. In fact, it is to be expected. She came from the Luvile Universe. The Wisps'' situation is usually passed down only in big Clans, Sect, and Organizations. Since she isn''t part of any of them, it is understandable that she never heard about it. Hobbek and Rannia had been lucky in this aspect. One of their companions just so happened to know about it, but it isn''t the case for Wamie and her group. That meant that Krune''s fear of being ambushed by the Dalin Universe management while being here in the Jacare City was unnecessary. "Cough, cough. I told you before, I only took those Heavenly Fragments because they came to me first. Both me and Feifei don''t want to have anything to do with the Heavenly Divine Soul, Heavenly Competition, or whatever. In the case of Hobbek and Rannia, I even tried to destroy their Heavenly Fragments. Unfortunately, it seems like even a Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast wouldn''t be able to do it." "Anyway, as long as you let me keep a slive of your Soul, it will prevent you from having any harming thought about Feifei or me. That includes telling anyone about the fact that I came from the Luvile Universe. It would be better if you never talked about me ever again, even if someone asks you. That being said, you can just leave and do whatever once I get what I want." Wamie couldn''t help but hesitate. After all, if he really wants, she will become his Slave with a single thought. There was no way to know if he was telling the truth about not using it against her. But then again, she has to follow one of his orders as long as it can be accomplished, and giving away a Soul Slive is definitely possible. Wamie then gritted her teeth and separated a slive of her Soul. She then sent in Krune''s direction, who immediately stored it in his Wisp Core. As long as it is there, no one will be able to take it away. "Very good. From now on, you are free to do whatever you want as long as it is not harmful to Feifei and me. If there is a day when I don''t need to be afraid of the Sacred lands anymore, I will release it." Krune then touched the Spiritual Energy barrier, and the Elder quickly dissipated it. "Are you two done?" Krune nodded. "Yes, she kept her part of the agreement. Thank you for your help, Elder." The Elder shook his head. "No need to thank me. You paid the price for this service, so I''m only doing my part. Since it is over, I''m leaving." Krune didn''t even have the chance to say farewell before the Elder disappeared from his sight. Krune then returned to his group. "Alright, we are done here. Let''s go home." Except for Fie and Liriu, Krune also sent everyone a Divine Sense message explaining everything. Gilia Mink quickly helped Wamie to get up. But at the same time, she was confused. Wamie still has her cultivation, which means that she hasn''t lost her Heavenly Fragment. If that is the case, just what was it that Krune asked her? Wamie was also surprised. Krune is really leaving, just like that. She can tell that he didn''t turn her into a Slave, and the only order in her mind is to not harm Feifei, him, or anyone he knows. That was all! "Wait!" Krune was just about to leave with everyone when suddenly, Wamie grabbed his hand. "Are you for real? Is this really all you want?" Krune looked at her hand, which was holding his own. Only then did Wamie noticed what she was doing, and she got embarrassed, quickly releasing it. She couldn''t be blamed. After all, she rarely had any contact with men while in the All Life Sect or here in Dalin. If there was any, they were majority kids, so it wasn''t the same thing. Krune then sighed. "I don''t need anything else. So you can do whatever you want. Why is it so hard to understand? Anyway, I''m leaving now." Wamie then looked at Fie and made a decision. "Since that is the case, I will go with you all too." Let alone Krune''s group, even Gilia Mink, was shocked by those words. Everyone couldn''t help but think. "Just why did it turn out like this?" 420 Duties Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Errr... I did say that you can do whatever you want, didn''t I?" The others also had the same question in their minds. Since Krune left her be, why exactly would she come with them? That made no sense. Wamie then pointed at Fie. "Her!" Krune and Feifei looked puzzled at Fie. Is there something with their daughter? They can''t see anything wrong, though. "What about Fie?" Gilia finally understood what was happening. "Wamie, stop with your nonsense. We need to go back and discuss what happened." Wamie shook her head. "There is no need. Since it came to this, I will follow Krune''s group too." Wamie then looked at Feifei and Krune and said. "I will even help with whatever you need, so let me hug her!" Except for Gilia, everyone else looked strange at Wamie Zark. Krune looked at Feifei and sent her a Divine Sense message. "Is it another humans'' habit?" Feifei felt like kicking him! "Habit your head!" Gilia noticed that Krune''s group had the wrong idea and then explained through a Divine Sense. "Don''t mind her, she just like kids. But it is not like she is a pervert or anything like that. She is totally harmless. Well, it''s not like you would let your enemy hold yo-" "Here." Feifei then passed Fie for Wamie to hold a little. Gilia almost vomited blood! ''We are your enemies, you know? Where are your priorities? How could you pass your child to her that easily? Is she really your child?'' Of course, Gilia knows that Wamie would most likely kill herself before harming a kid, let alone one as cute as Fie. Gilia still doesn''t know that Krune has Wamie''s Soul Slive, so she wouldn''t be able to do anything even if she wanted to. Besides, it is not like Feifei doesn''t understand Wamie''s feelings. Her child is just too cute! Since there was no danger, she was compelled to share Fie''s cuteness with the world! As for Krune, he trusts Feifei. If it is okay for her, then it is okay for him too. Wamie eyes lit up and hugged Fie tightly. It was as if she found the greatest treasure in the Universe! Well, Fie is, in fact, even rarer than any treasure out there. After all, it is easier to find Peak Divinity Stars Weapons than finding another hybrid of human and wisp. As for one with rainbow-like features? Fie is the only one! Fie, of course, was lost with all of that. "Mom, why do I need to do this?" Feifei just laughed, and a few minutes later, she took Fie back to her embrace. "Alright. I can understand how you felt after looking at my Fie. But now that you got what you want, there is no need for you to follow us anymore." Feifei, Krune, and the others started to make their way to the Long Distance Teleport Formation. Wamie saw that and then turned back, which made Gilia let out a sigh of relief. ''Finally, we are going away. There will be a lot more chances in the future. We can think about a way to get those two Heavenly Fragments later.'' But contrary to her expectations, Wamie stopped in front of the helpers that they had contracted and passed them several Spatial Rings. "Those are all the payment for the services that we agreed beforehand. You can all go away. From now on, our contracts are finished." The cultivator and demon beasts were also surprised by that. But they didn''t say anything and immediately departed. They were here for a single reason, to keep their part of the contract. Since the contractor ended it herself before the specified time and even paid them in full, there is no need for them to complain. If anything, they are happy to have been released earlier. Gilia, on the other hand, wanted to cry already. It was her who worked hard to gather those guys, and now Wamie let them go just like that! She looked at Wamie and asked. "Care to explain?" Wamie sighed and then said "I will do it on the way, let''s catch them up." Before Gilia could even answer, Wamie had already carried her away. Krune and his group soon arrived at the Teleport Formation. It would take some time until the next activation, so they had to wait. But a few minutes later, Wamie also appeared there. Once again, Krune and the others looked puzzled at her. Wamie then looked at Krune and Feifei. "Cough, cough. Sorry for my behavior earlier. It is just that I have always liked kids. During these ten years in Dalin, Gilia had been pestering me to cultivate, so I hardly interacted with any. When I saw your kid, I just couldn''t hold myself. She is just too cute." Feifei was very satisfied with that statement. "Anyway, I came here to ask something else. I now believe that you two really don''t want to take the Heavenly Fragments. After all, you had to right to take it from me back in the arena, but you didn''t. So I want to ask what exactly your plans are? If you go back to Luvile Universe now, the Darkness and Extreme Yin yang Palace would definitely extend an Olive Branch to you two." Krune snorted. "They would extend an Olive branch, but that is in case we are willing to take each other''s fragment. After all, they need a complete Heavenly Divine Soul, which obviously won''t happen. As for our plans, we don''t intend to go back before we are strong enough to fend for ourselves." Wamie narrowed her eyes. "What about the Dalin Universe Cultivation Limit? Once you reach the Divine Path Realm, you must leave or join one of the inside powers. Could it be that you pretend to join one of them?" Krune and the others shook their heads. "We have our own ways." Krune then thought inwardly. ''Besides, by the time we are strong enough, all the Universes will be a lot more worried about the Wisps'' cultivations. The Heavenly Divine Soul will be the last of their problems.'' The Myriad Wisps Techquine Spreading plan was working exceptionally well. Cinty had sent quite a few batches of trustworthy Wisps outside Dalin Universe. Once they arrived outside, they once again separated and entered other Universes where they would start to spread the technique to other wisps. It was then that Krune thought about something. "Also, the Heavenly Competition starts 50 years after the discovery of the First Heavenly Fragment, right? As long as the time limit passes, why should we care? Once the Sacred Lands lose the chance to enter, it will matter little whether we have Heavenly Fragments or not." Wamie Zark was taken aback by that statement. "I see... You two are part of the Wang Clan and Divine Path Sect, so you obviously don''t know it." Those words immediately caught Krune''s group attention. "What are you talking about?" Wamie then explained. "Sure, the Heavenly Competition is the priority at the moment. After all, even though the chances are low, it means gaining the opportunity of being one of the Universes controlling Dalin. But that is far from what a Heavenly Soul Owner means for a Universe. At this point, you probably already know that the Heavenly Soul Owner is usually the strongest cultivator or demon beast of a Universe. With that title, several other duties follow." "Duties?" Wamie nodded. "The Heavenly Soul Owner will be responsible for representing the Universe in all kinds of events and disputes between the Universes. There are several times when some dispute is resolved in a battle between two Heavenly Soul Owners, preventing the occurrence of war. The Luvile Universe is no different. Once an Owner reaches the Divinity Realm, he or she would generally stop cultivating at the 1st Stage. That way, the only cultivation they get is the natural accumulation that can''t be prevented." Krune understood where she was coming from. "I see... If you enter the Divinity Realm and don''t cultivate, it will take an absurd amount of time for the natural accumulation of energy to bring you to the Peak of that Realm. My Grandmaster is already a 9th Stage Divinity Realm cultivator, but he is already over 100 thousand years old. As far as I know, he cultivated all the way to that level." Krune continued. "Considering that he took at least this amount of time to reach the 9th Stage while cultivating, then someone who stops and only leaves the natural accumulation will take several Chaos Cycles! He or she will be able to represent their Universe during all this time, am I correct?" Wamie nodded. "Yes, That is just how vital a Heavenly Soul Owner is for a Universe. Without one, several disputes between Universes will need to be fought with other cultivators or demon beasts. But their chance of winning against such odds are bleak. In the worst case, it could lead to war." Krune then thought about another possibility. "Wait! Is it because the Heavenly Divine Soul Owners live this much that the next Heavenly Fragments take so long to appear? I mean, a Universe can only have a single Heavenly Divine Soul each time. So if they don''t ascend or die, the next Heavenly Fragments can''t appear." Krune continued his train of thought. "No, that is not that simple. All Heavenly Divine Soul Owners from all the Universes must be gone. Not a single one can be alive or not ascended. After all, the Heavenly Fragments of all Universes start to appear at the same time. That means that as long as a single Universe still has a Heavenly Fragment Owner, the next Fragments will not appear doesn''t matter what, right? That also determines how long a Heavenly Competition takes to take place." Wamie was impressed with Krune. His entire conjecture was right on point! "Indeed, it is exactly as you thought. All the Universes are connected to each other in some way that they know when all Heavenly Divine Souls have finally disappeared. We don''t know how it happens, though." Wamie then added one last piece. "It has been happening like this for thousands of Chaos Cycles. Usually, it takes the Heavenly Divine Soul Owners around 12 Chaos Cycles to be forced into the Ascension Tribulation. Of course, as long as they don''t die before that." Feifei heard that and couldn''t help but comment. "Seems like that representing their Universe isn''t the only reason. It is evident that a lot of them are also afraid of dying to the Ascension Tribulation." Wamie nodded. "I can''t deny that. From what the All Life Sect elders told me, the Heavenly Soul Owner Ascension Tribulation is even more terrifying than the other cultivators and demon beasts. It seems like their chance of succeeding is also smaller than the rest." Krune laughed after hearing that. "If before I didn''t want the Heavenly Divine Soul, now I don''t want to get even close to it." 421 Consequences of Going Back Wamie couldn''t help but comment. "I think that the advantages are worth it, though. You will have the chance to experiences several things during such a life¡ªbattles, riches, resources, status, etc. Besides, do you know what the chances of normal cultivators and demon beasts succeeding in the Ascension Tribulation are?" Krune nodded. "It seems to be something around 1%, right?" Wamie nodded. "Since that is the case, what is the issue about having lower chances with a Heavenly Divine Soul? From the very start, your prospects were bleak, so it is not like a Heavenly Divine Soul would change your outcome that much." Krune shook his head, though. "Still, I don''t wish to stop cultivating. Also, I do want to surpass the Ascension Tribulation. So any extra chances I can get, I will take it. Of course, it is not just because of that that I don''t want the Heavenly Divine Soul. For example, that thing about being responsible for the Decisions of your home Universe is terrible in my eyes. I don''t want to have anything to do with it at all!" Feifei and the others were not surprised by that. Krune never liked the attention to start with. It was only recently that he stopped to care that much about this issue. Still, it is not like he began to like being in the center of the storms. In the end, Wamie decided to ask the most critical question. "Are you confident that you can avoid having a Heavenly Divine Soul finished?" Krune smiled and nodded. First of all, he and the others don''t have any mark that will tell when they reach the Divine Path Realm like Wamie. Because of that, they can stay in Dalin even if he goes above that Realm. In the case he really needs to leave, he can even use Mohie Zarks Teleport Formation to go to some other Universe other than Dalin or Luvile. Before, Wamie was basically enchanted by Fie, so she said she would follow them just as a whim. But now she is really considering this option. The main reason for this is apparent. Since Krune has her Soul Slive, she wouldn''t be able to do anything to him even if she wanted. So she might as well see it first hand. Krune gave her total freedom to do whatever she wanted, so she can leave anytime as well. "Alright, then I will really follow you guys for the time being. I want to see just how you are going to deal with it in the future." Gilia was taken aback. "You can''t! What if they use the time you are on their planet to attack, you won''t be able to do anything." Wamie looked at Gilia and said. "He could have asked for my Heavenly Fragment back then, and I was ready to give it away and start to cultivate again. In that case, what is the meaning of killing me when I don''t even have the cultivation to struggle a chicken anymore? Still, he didn''t take it, so he doesn''t want to kill me to start with." However, Krune rejected her idea. Wamie was taken aback. "This..." Indeed, the one who he has a Soul Slive is her alone. Krune doesn''t know who Gilia is, so how could he let her stay close to his group. Especially since they have two kids. After all, they are indeed enemies at this moment, so Gilia might try to do something with Fie, Liriu, or someone else. Gilia, on the other hand, was even more shocked. Wamie is the Heavenly Fragment Owner, so why would Krune be able to trust her? That doesn''t make any sense! ''Unless...'' Suddenly, Gilia had an idea. She immediately looked at Wamie and asked ou loud. "Could it be that what he asked was a Slive of your Soul?" Krune smiled and didn''t say anything. He already expected that her friend would find about it. Still, he decided to let Wamie do the talk. He was curious to see if she and Gilia would understand the hidden meanings behind his action. He took that chance and sent a Divine Sense message to his group to not intervene as well. Wamie looked at Gilia and nodded. "Exactly. But it seems like Krune''s group doesn''t want me to be a Slave, nor do they want me to do anything for him. The sole purpose of this is to prevent me from telling others his or Feifei''s location through the Heavenly Fragments connection. As long as he has my Soul Slive, I won''t be able to do any harmful actions. His only order is also that simple. I should not do anything that could put anyone he knows in risk, that is all." Gilia couldn''t help but sigh. She should have guessed it earlier. ''I''m such an idiot. Since he didn''t take her Heavenly Fragment away, what else could he use to guarantee that you won''t attack them ever again? Obviously, only a Soul Slive would fulfill this requirement.'' Gilia then asked back. "Since he gave you the freedom to act as you pleased, shouldn''t we go back to the Luvile Universe to report everything?" Wamie looked at Gilia. "We can''t. First of all, it would be considered against the rule of not harming Krune and his group. Reporting this situation would lead the All Life Sect to think about other ways of getting back at Krune, so I wouldn''t be able to say a single word. The only reason I can tell you this is because it was evident to you that I had a Soul Slive being taken away. Otherwise, I wouldn''t let you know about it." Gilia couldn''t help but say. "You don''t need to. I can be the one to talk, and you will only observe without saying anything." Wamie smiled and asked. "That is precisely where the problem lies. If you report that I can''t do a single thing against Krune and his group from now on, what would be the use of keeping me around? Don''t forget that the Time, Space, and Blackhole Heavenly Fragments hadn''t appeared until we left the Luvile Universe. If the All Life Sect gets one of them, wouldn''t it be better to simply kill me and pass the Heavenly Fragment away?" Except for Krune, the rest of his group was taken aback by those words. Gilia, of course, was even more so. Now that she thought about it, that would indeed be the case. For the Sacred Lands of the Luvile Universe, giving birth to the Heavenly Divine was a must! Wamie can''t do anything against Krune anymore, so they would probably never get a Heavenly Divine Soul through her. Simply put, in the All Life Sect Sacred Land, Wamie Zark lost her use the moment she gave a Silve of her Soul away. Wamie then said. "Besides, I really want to see what Krune and his group can do. He could have ordered me to do a lot of things. For example, he could have told me to go back to the Luvile Universe and say that after waiting for ten entire years, I''ve never felt the presence of a single Heavenly Fragment. Or some other excuse like that. He could also have had me act as a spy inside the All Life Sect, which I don''t even need to tell you how useful it would be." Krune inwardly shook his head after hearing that, though. ''That would be useless.'' Still, Krune didn''t point the problem out and kept listening. Gilia felt a chill on her back. That is because she also thought about another possibility. For Wamie to do those things that she mentioned, Gilia must not be there anymore. After all, she can report the real truth of the matter. In that case, Wamie would need to kill Gilia first. But then, Gilia shook her head. "No, wait. That wouldn''t work. After all, the Sect could test you to see if you had become someone''s slave. No, in fact, they would definitely do so when you return without any extra Heavenly Fragment. It would be too suspicious that you didn''t find anyone during this entire time. In the end, would woul-" "Ah!" Krune finally let out a smile. ''It seems like those two understood, after all.'' Wamie felt like laughing when she saw Gilia''s face. "Seems like you understood the problem. Correct! In the end, everything would come back to the start. I would be found to have given a Slive of my Soul away and would die nevertheless. Whether I go back willingly and have you report it in my place or follow an order and go back to try to fool them, both paths would lead to me having my ''Slave'' status found. Everything that awaits me when we go back is my death and my Heavenly Fragment being taken away. So... my only choice is to stay here and not do anything against Krune and his Group." Feifei, who had been hearing everything so far, looked at Krune and snorted. "Of course, a certain wisp already predicted all of that, right?" Krune couldn''t help but laugh. "Well, I won''t deny that. But there is one thing that I didn''t expect either. I really didn''t think she decided to come with us. In my first conjecture, she would just leave and pretend we don''t exist anymore until the day she was forced to go back to Luvile. But that would be several years in the future." Wamie smiled and then said. "I told you, didn''t I? You could have avoided all these issues by simply taking my Heavenly Fragment away. At most, I would only be able to report back. But with my Heavenly Fragment gone, the All Life Sect wouldn''t have a need to kill me. They would just take away all my advantages in the Sect and assign me to some corner like any other ordinary disciple. That''s all." "That being said, you must be really confident in your plans. So I want to see just what you are going to do. Just what can make you so sure that you can reach a level where they won''t try anything against you and your Heavenly Fragment in the future?" "So yea, I would like to follow your group and see what will happen. But..." Wamie looked at Gilia. They had been together for many years. Their friendship goes way more back than just the time they spent inside Dalin. So she didn''t want to leave Gilia alone. 422 Laex and Krunes Agreemen Gilia immediately understood Wamie''s look. Indeed, Wamie had given away her Soul Slive, so betrayal was impossible for her. But Gilia''s case was different. Krune can''t force her to do anything, and she sure wouldn''t enter in a fight against Krune. Even though her cultivation is higher than Wamie, being at the 9th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, she wasn''t as strong as Wamie, let alone Krune. "No can do, I will not give a Slive of my Soul to him! You can give up that thought of yours." Sure enough, Gilia guessed Wamie''s intention straight away. Wamie slimed playfully and then said. "Are you really going to make me use my trump card?" Suddenly, Gilia''s face changed. "You wouldn''t dare! Wamie Zark, if you bring that matter out, we are done! Even if I have to go against the All Life Sect orders, I will leave your side straight away! We shall never see each other again in this life!" Wamie didn''t take that threat seriously at all, though. She looked at Krune and the others and then started to count a story. "A long, long time ago (not really), there was a naive little girl called Gilia Mink. She had a pure heart and rarely doubted others. But one day, that nai-" "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!" Immediately, Gilia jumped at Wamie and covered her mouth. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Wamie didn''t struggle to free herself, she just looked at Gilia at the corner of her eyes playfully. It was evident that she already expected that reaction from Gilia. "Wamie, you are detestable!" Gilia then greeted her teeth and said. "Fine!" She looked at Krune and said. "But you shall never ask anything regarding this issue, do you understand?" Krune and the others were taken aback. First of all, Krune expected that with this issue, Wamie would finally leave him be and go away. He doesn''t feel like bringing them together with him at all. But instead of that, Wamie convinced Gilia in giving her a Silve of Her soul. ''Just what could be so severe to the point that she would give a Slive of her Soul away?'' Still, he immediately recovered and looked at Feifei. He was a little lost at the moment. From the very start, he didn''t expect to bring anyone back with him, after all. "What should we do?" Feifei, on the other hand, was still curious. ''I want to know what Wamie was going to say!!!'' But when Krune asked her opinion, she finally came back to herself. "Errr... As long as we have a Soul Slive, there is no risk of betrayal. The two of them are top experts as well. Wouldn''t adding them to our group be a good thing? We also won''t need to care about their expanses. Do you remember how many companions they have? If they can provide the Spirit Stones for all of them, it means that they can make their own Spirit Stones." Of course, Feifei had another ulterior motive. Sure enough, Feifei is still Feifei. Well, in truth, even Krune and the others were curious about what was the rest of that story. Krune then clapped his hands and said "Very well, I shall never use my authority as the Soul Slive holder to ask you about whatever it was. To be honest, I will never use it for anything unless it is extremely necessary, either. As long as you bare no ill intentions to me, my family, or my friends, you can stay as long as you wish. But I will have you two helping me out if there is a need for it, understood?" Gilia nodded, and then she glared hatefully at Wamie. After that, she cut a Slive of her Soul and passed it to Krune, who immediately stored it in his Foundationtion. Wamie, of course, didn''t take Gilia''s glare seriously at all. She knows how she is, so Wamie was sure that Gilia would calm down and forgive her sooner or later. Just like that, Krune''s group got two new members, and powerful ones at that! Especially Wamie, Krune was really impressed with her fighting prowess even though she doesn''t have the Elemental Meridians. As for Gilia, as the protector who came from Luvile and a member of the Sacred Lands, there is no doubt that she is a lot stronger than ordinary cultivators and demon beasts at the same level. Krune''s group and the two new girls then spent some time talking with each other. Gilia and Wamie soon came to understand that everyone there seemed to be very carefree. Well, it was not like everyone was like that before. It''s just that Krune and Feifei''s influence got into them as time passed. Finally, it was time for the Long Distance Teleport Formation to activate. Krune''s group stepped on it, and with a flash of Silver Light, they disappeared. --- Back in the Wisp Main World, Krune and Laex were talking with each other. "So, all the Heavenly Fragments are finally dealt with. At least, the ones who came to the Dalin Universe are. In that case, do you still need me for something else? Of course, if you want to keep paying me for the protection, I''m more than willing to stay here." During his years together, Krune came to understand that Laex was really a trustworthy Dragon. Some time ago, Krune decided to tell him a few things as long as he promised to not spread the information. Laex, of course, immediately nodded. He was also very curious to know just how a Wisp could become that strong. Krune then explained to him about the Myriad Energies Technique that he invented. Also, the fact that now, he can create Chaos Energy even though he is still in the Soul Forging Realm. Of course, Krune did not touch the topic about him and his group arriving at the Dalin Universe illegally. Laex thought that to be some joke at first. How could such a magical Cultivation Technique exist? But after Krune showed his Chaos Energy, he could only accept the truth. At the same time, it put Laex in a dilemma. As a member of the Dragon Clan and a Divine Beast, he is well aware of the Wisp''s situation in the Dalin Universe. He is also sure that Krune and Cinty would have no problem achieving the Divine Path Realm, which is precisely what all the powers feared. In fact, most of the wisps who get this technique would at least have a good chance to arrive at that realm. So he struggled for some time on whether he should report this issue back to the Clan, and consequently, to the powers controlling Dalin. But in the end, his pride as a Dragon spoke louder. The other part came to consider him as a friend and even told his secret. Laex personality simply couldn''t bring himself to betray such convictions. But there was another reason as well. Laex... was simply too lazy to be dragged into this mess. So he also kept silent to prevent problems coming on his way. If someone asks later, he can simply feign ignorance. As a member of the Pure Blooded Dragon Clan, others would need to think twice before touching him. Also, his time working as Krune and Feifei''s bodyguard had been one of the best since he left the Dragon Clan. Krune''s payments were excellent, and he didn''t have to do anything. There hadn''t been a single instance where he had to battle to protect them. How could he complain about such a life? If there was a bad thing in all of this, it is the fact that he had to stay in the Wisp Main World all this time and only left when Krune and Feifei left as well. He likes gambling but hadn''t had the chance to do so for the past 6 or so years. But now, Krune''s main concerns are finally gone, so even if he keeps his bodyguard job, he will have his time off to go play out too. That would be the best outcome for him. Krune, on the other hand, really wanted to keep his company. Laex was also a great sparring partner. As a Divine Beast, his strength was also far above those at the same level. But Krune had to admit that Laex protection was costly. It was only because he had a steady income from Purple Flame Weapons and Pills that he could keep Laex until now. "The payment for your service is just too high! Now that the risk of another Heavenly Fragment appearing is low, I can''t simply keep paying you like before." Laex nodded. He, too, knew that his services weren''t that necessary anymore. "How about this. You can now create Chaos Energy, so why don''t you make a Purple Flame Diamond Stars Weapon for me? Of course, I''m a lot stronger in my Dragon Form, so I would need something that I could use in that state." Krune was taken aback. Now that he thinks about it, he had never seen Laex''s true form. Still, it was already part of his plan to advance his Blacksmith and Alchemist qualification into the Diamond Stars Level. So it would be convenient for him. "Sure thing, but I need to take a look at your true form first." Laex didn''t mind. He stood up and left Krune''s house. If he transformed there, the house would be torn apart, after all. In the courtyard, Laex form started to change. Black scales started to appear, Laex''s arms became another pair of Dragon Legs. On his back, two Black Wings that when stretched were longer than Krune''s house. A Dragon Head soon appeared, followed by the growth of a Bone Spiked Dragon Tail. Turns out that Laex is bigger than a house. Truly enormous! "Creating a weapon for someone as big as you will take quite some time." Laex couldn''t help but laugh. "Do you think I''m big? That''s because you haven''t seen the elders in my Clan, especially those in the Divinity Realm. Those guys are bigger than this entire courtyard! That is also why while we are not in the Dragon Clan territory, we are used to staying in our Human Forms. The size of our bodies is just too bothersome while we are not in the middle of a battle." Krune nodded and started to think about what he should make for Laex when his Blacksmith Levels is high enough. It was then that Krune thought about something. "Laex, what about a Dragon Pearl? Would that be useful for you?" After hearing that name, Laex was taken aback. "Can you create a Dragon Pearl? Are you for real?!" 423 Laex Wants to Show Off A Dragon pearl could be said to be both fantastic and useless at the same time. That''s because other than dragonkin, no other race could make use of its features. Krune, for example, would be unable to use even an iota of its power. Even for dragonkin, their Dragon Bloodline concentration has to be at least 50% or higher. A Dragon wouldn''t use it as a weapon. Instead, they would fuse it with their body, enhancing their Dragon Bloodline power. Once the battle is finished, they can then cancel the fusion, and the Dragon Pearl would come out. The problem is that the process of making a Dragon Pearl is really complicated. First of all, each Dragon Pearl will only work with the Dragon who offered his blood to make it. Not only that, but the amount of blood is also ridiculous. The process of forging one would need more than the total concentration of blood of the Dragon himself. The Dragon would need to keep recovering his blood, and then go back into forging it once again. Simply put, it is a long process that can take over a month. And that is considering that the Dragon has Pills that help it to replenish its blood. Otherwise, it would take even longer! Another problem is that the forging process must not stop. So it was also a great burden for the Blacksmith himself. He had to have a huge supply of Spirit Energy. Finally, the Blacksmith had to be at least a Diamond Stars one. That is because the forging process is highly dependent on Chaos Energy being fused with the Dragon Blood. Beneath the Semi-Divinity Realm, a Dragon Pearl could be said to be one of the best treasures for a Dragonkin. But usually, Blacksmiths wouldn''t do such a thing because of how hard it is. He can never let the Fire Extinguish. The Chaos Energy has to be infused without stop either. Besides, it is very hard to keep control over the Dragon Blood. After all, even if you use a dragonkin with exactly 50% Dragon Bloodline concentration. The Blacksmith will have to disregard the other blood and only use the dragon bloodline in the middle. Dragon Bloodline is a Divine Beast bloodline. There is no doubt that it is powerful! Controlling such a thing for so long is not a feat for every Blacksmith out there. But Krune... he definitely was one of those capable of such thing. First of all, his Conversion of Elemental Source Energy into Chaos Energy is an instantaneous 30%! Krune can simply keep using only the Chaos Energy. Because of that, he will never run out of Chaos Energy during the process. As for control? Krune has the Elemental and Chaos Energy Meridians. Not to mention to his Elemental Regulation Technique from his Master and Grandmaster. Let''s not forget his All-Encompassing Soul Technique, either. At the same level, Krune could be said to have one of the best, if not the best Elemental Control between all Blacksmiths. So he was very confident in succeeding in his Forging process. Krune looked at Laex and smiled. "I can, but I will need to raise my Blacksmith level to the Diamond Stars first. So it will not be now. I''m also very curious to see how a Purple Flame Dragon Pearl is going to work on you. Would it work for something like that? If it does, then your Dragon Pearl is bound to be better than anyone else''s. After all, a Dragon Pearl has nothing to do with the Blacksmith Stars, it doesn''t have a level. So even if I''m only a Diamond Stars Blacksmith, the one that I create will be just as good as any other Blacksmith''s out there. Perhaps, the Purple Flame effect can finally create a new level of a Dragon Pearl." Laex eyes were as bright as the Sun! "Great! I would already be more than happy if you were able to forger a common Dragon Pearl. But if you are able to forge a higher level one that no other Dragon has, you can be sure that I will be here for your every call from now on." Just the thought of a Dragon Pearl that is better than all others made Laex''s blood boil! He had never heard about a different Dragon Pearl. All of them are identical in what they can do, so every single Dragonkin would burn with jealousy once they see that his one is better than theirs! The thing is that it is completely useless for them to rob his one. A Dragon Pearl only works for the Dragon who offered his blood to forge it, after all. Laex couldn''t help but think about going to pay a visit to the Dragon Race territory to display it in front of the others. The elders had cut his Resources because of his personality. Just the thought of them flattering him to know who forged his Dragon Pearl was enough to make this trade. Krune couldn''t help but laugh. "What every call you talking about. You are not a slave or anything. But I would be happy with your help if there is a need in the future. First of all, you have been helping me and the others by fighting against us, that is already a huge help." Laex nodded and promised that he would help as much as he needed. After another week, Wamie and Gilia had finally got used to living in the Wisp Main World. Because of Wamie''s and Gilia''s power, Krune''s group got more sparring partners as well. Wamie and Gilia were also taken aback once they found out about Krune''s cooking skills. The guy could Forge, Concoct, was overpowered in combat, and even his Chef Skills were top-notch! Is there something he can''t do if he put his mind in it? One day, Krune called Wamie and Gilia over and passed to the two Girls a copy of the Myriad Energies Technique. Now that he has their Soul Slives, he didn''t really need to be afraid of them leaking the information out. He even gave them orders as the Soul Slives'' owner that the girls should never pass it down without his permission. That is just how important he considers this matter. Wamie and Gilia were a little lost. The Myriad Energies Technique is nothing more than trash in their eyes, so why would Krune even pass such a thing to them? Not only that, but he even gave such a strict order using their Soul Slive. That made no sense! However, they immediately noticed that Krune''s Myriad Energies Technique information was at least thousands of times higher than it was supposed to be. Gilia and Wamie looked at each other and then started to read through the technique. At first, there was nothing wrong. The first form of the Myriad Energies Technique is, after all, the same as the entire Universe knows. The only exception is Krune''s specially made one for the tenth Pseudo Meridian, the Purple Tribulation Lightning one. Of course, he didn''t pass that one since it would be useless for the two girls. Once Wamie and Gilia reached the Second Form, their expressions finally changed! The more they read through the information, the more astonished they became. They then read the information about the third and fourth forms. By the time they finished reading everything, they had thought that this was impossible. Still, as long as they think about Krune, they can only accept the truth. Krune smiled at the two and said. "Cultivate it well. At your level of control over the Spiritual Energy, it shouldn''t take more than a few days for you to get used to creating the 9 Pseudo Meridians. As for the Spiritual ones, they are highly dependent on the Spiritual Energy, so make sure to have a lot of Spirit Stones. Anyway, I''m looking forward to seeing the color of your Elemental Meridians once you open all nine Spiritual Energy ones." Wamie couldn''t help but ask. "Just how did you find about this thing? Who passed it to you? Was it the wisp queen?" Krune shook his head. "I found about the Second and Third Form by myself. Only the Fourth Form was passed down to me later. Anyway, all you need to know is that it is one of the reasons that I achieved the level I''m in at the moment." Krune then remembered one thing that he thought he should warn the girls. "Oh, right! Once you evolve your Spiritual Meridians into the Elemental ones, they will become part of your body. That means that once you have a child, he or she will inherit your Elemental Meridians. In case you don''t like this idea, then you better think twice before cultivating my technique." Krune then got up and left the room, leaving the two girls behind with their own thoughts. Even though he said that. Krune was pretty sure that they will cultivate the technique anyway. 424 Cinty is Back Time passed, and a year went by. During this time, Krune secluded himself to practice both Blacksmith and Alchemy. Unlike the Golden Stars Level, which was basically dependent on the Users'' laws, the Diamond Stars Level had a lot more to be considered. First of all, using Chaos Energy in the Side occupations was not easy. For example, in Alchemy, trying to synch the elements of the herbs during a concoction that uses Chaos Energy was ridiculously harder than the previous level. Even after an entire year of practice, Krune''s level as Diamond Stars Alchemist was nothing more than Two Stars. Of course, compared to the other alchemists out there, Krune''s progression rate is so fast that it is almost hateful! However, now he is creating Purple Flame Diamond Stars Pills! That means that his pills that were already famous before became even more so. Also, the Alchemist Organization started to release a lot more pills than before. That is because, after all their efforts, they simply couldn''t reproduce Krune''s Purple Flames at all! Krune''s Blacksmith Level wasn''t going any better. It had been just a few weeks since he reached the Two Diamond Stars level. Of course, being able to create Purple Flame Diamond Stars Level Equipments increased his profit several times. Krune even thought about improving the level of his new Shields. But for that, he will need to progress a little further and get even better materials. That won''t be an easy task. On the cultivation side, the speed of his improvement slowed down. Of course, Krune already expected that. After all, he is now creating Chaos Energy to expend his Universe Foundation. Chaos Energy needs Elemental Source Energy, which is the same energy that Krune would be using for cultivation instead. With less Elemental Source Energy for cultivation, his speed was obviously affected. However, the benefits were already starting to appear. Until a year ago, Krune''s Universe basically had a Sun and a Planet. Now, his Universe Foundation is taking the shape of a real one more and more. Orbiting his first Sun, there is a total of three Planets already. His Foundation one even had a moon orbiting around it. As mentioned before, the more the Universe Foundation resembles a Realm Universe, the better will be the flow of all the Energies inside. Even though Krune''s cultivation didn''t move that much, his overall strength was definitely doing much better than if he used all the energy for cultivation. Still, he was able to at least advance one Stage in cultivation, being now in the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Feifei, who was the second in Laws'' comprehension in their group, had also advanced into the Diamond Stars Level as a Formations Master. Because of her Destiny Divine Soul, she was even able to surpass Krune, being now in the Third Star. Of course, Feifei has only one side occupation, while Krune has two of them. The reason for that is very simple, though. There is not enough Chaos Energy! Krune is already using his Chaos Energy for both expand his Universe Foundation and Practice his Side Occupations. Simply put, he doesn''t have Chaos Energy to spare for Heavin. That being said, Heavin stopped his practice and dived straight into his Soul Cultivation Technique. The Soul Control level of his technique was made to work as an equivalent of the Void breaking Realm. That way, he would also be able to create his own Chaos Energy. After this entire year of gathering techniques to improve his own, it could be said that his Soul Cultivation technique is nearly complete. Krune had taken a look at it a few weeks ago and was impressed with the results. If Heavin suddenly said that his technique is ready, he wouldn''t be surprised. Wamie and Gilia successfully cultivated the Myriad Energies Technique. As expected, Wamie''s Elemental Meridians turned out to be almost fully white. It is not that she is bad using other Elements. In fact, she could be said to be in the third position inside Krune''s group regarding all the laws. It''s just that her aptitude for Light Element is frightening high! But after Krune thought about how she was even able to use that Light Fusion skill, he had to admit that this was the only outcome possible. Krune is sure that he cannot use such a technique, at least, not at the moment. ''Fusing oneself with the element... I wonder if I can do it.'' After Wamie got used to her new Elemental Meridians, she challenged Krune for another fight. This time, Krune had to take her seriously from the very start to defeat her. Wamie''s fighting prowess had just gone to the roof after the acquisition of the Elemental Meridians. Feifei also fought Wamie since she is also a Heavenly Fragment Owner. Sure enough, Feifei also won, but her to use her all. One must remember that Feifei does have three Heavenly Fragments. Not to mention that one of them is Uer''s Death Heavenly Fragment, which made Feifei''s Darkness Laws improve by leaps and bounds since she acquired it. Even though her Darkness Laws can''t compare to Wamie''s Light Laws, it was more than enough to protect her against Wamie''s Light Element. Feifei was also extremely proficient in other elemental laws and had her Illusion of Destiny Domain. That is a type of Domain that even Krune thinks to be overpowered. Of course, Wamie had a lot to improve from now on, so she would only get stronger. This served as motivation for everyone looking at their battles. Still, once Wamie lost again for Krune, and especially against Feifei that doesn''t have that annoying Tribulation Lightning, she stomped her feet on the ground furiously! "I don''t accept it! You just wait, I will definitely surpass both of you!" She then ran straight at Fie, who was also watching their fight, and hugged her tightly. Only fie could help to get rid of her frustration. Fie didn''t mind it, though. Feifei would frequently hug her ever since she can remember herself, so she simply got used to it. Everything seemed to be progressing peacefully until finally, Cinty came back from the Elemental Path Dimensional Realm. It took Cinty over two years to finally open all 9 Chaos Meridians. She had to admit that Krune couldn''t be blamed for the time he took. It was indeed very hard to create them. One must remember that Cinty is already in the peak of the Void Breaking Realm and lived for much longer than Krune. Thanks to that, her control and laws were already very well developed. Otherwise, she would have taken even longer to finish them. Cinty''s mouth was twitching while looking at the Krune and his group. She had expected that Krune would go out to fight the other Heavenly Fragments owners while she was out. She even considered the chance that he might lose and even made plans for that case. But... "How come there is an extra Heavenly Fragment owner for your Universe here?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I wasn''t expecting for things to turn out like this either." He then explained everything that happened about him and Wamie''s side. Cinty only relaxed when she heard that Krune got a Soul Slive from both Wamie and Gilia. Only with that guarantee would they be sure that the news wouldn''t be spread around. Cinty sighed and then shook her head. "Whatever. During my time Opening the Chaos Meridians, I reached the peak of the Void Breaking Realm. I''m planning to enter the Divine path Realm in the next few days now." Krune and the others got surprised by that news. Finally, a Divine Path Realm wisp was about to be born after thousands of Chaos Cycles! Ever since Wally''s disciples ''passed away,'' the Wisp Main World had seen tens of thousands of Wisp kings and Queens. Still, the Void Breaking Realm was their limits. Not a single one had succeeded in entering the Divine Path Realm before. Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Are you confident about the Heavenly Tribulation? As far as I know, the Divine Path Realm Tribulation is a lot stronger due to the fact that one gains immortality at this point." Cinty nodded. "I asked Xiun, who is also a Blackhole Divine Soul owner, about this issue. He said that there is no difference between a wisp and another race''s Heavenly Tribulation. As for how strong it is, he was pretty confident that I should have no issue surpassing it. I should just be careful once I land on the path to the Divine." Krune nodded. He could only hope that Cinty would succeed. 425 Path to the Divine "Alright. Since you have the Elemental and Chaos Meridians, it shouldn''t be that hard for you to pass the Tribulation. Xiun also said that you should be okay, so I guess we are fine." Feifei also commented. "Cinty will definitely succeed. After all, that means she can finally go see Kiirion." Cinty''s face immediately got a little red. "Cough, cough. Anyway, what are you planning to do now that the Heavenly Fragments issue is over here in Dalin?" Krune and Feifei nodded and then said. "We will basically cultivate and practice for the time being. We will also take some missions outside in case we need to test our strength and things like that. I guess it will be quite a leisure time for the next few years. We are also planning to travel to a few different places with Fie and Liriu so that they can see and experience more things. That should help then to select what kind of Foundation they wish to build." Cinty agreed that was indeed the best plan for the moment. "Very well. Now you all can leave. I need to prepare for the Heavenly Tribulation." Krune and the others nodded, leaving right after. A few days later, everyone gathered once more in the Tribulation Field. Present at that moment were they and a few trustworthy wisps which were part of the management of the Wisp Worlds. Other than them, the field was completely empty. After all, Cinty is entering the Divine Path Realm, so it has to be kept a secret. In the middle of the Field, Cinty took thousands of high-rank Spirit Stones. After preparing herself mentally for a few minutes, Cinty attacked the barrier of the Divine Path Realm. Striking the barrier could be said to be the right way to describe this Breakthrough. This is a moment when the Cultivator or Demon Beast forcefully opens a path leading to the Divine. Each Stage of the Divine Path Realm is one step closer to take a View of the Divine. That is also why the next Realm is called Divine View Realm. After entering the Divine Path Realm, the Cultivator or Demon Beast''s Divine Soul will be connected to this Path. The Divine Soul will then benefit from the Power of the Divine, become stronger with each stage. What Cinty was doing was to break the barrier between her Divine Soul and that Path. That is also the moment that Xiun told her to be careful. One must not be complacent when stepping on the Divine Path for the first time. After all, the power of the Divine is not to be trifled with. Even though a Divine Path and View Realms can''t use that power, they will still be in contact with it. Her Divine Soul has to get used to used and use its power to strengthen itself. Without enough strength, the Divine Soul won''t be able to take the next step, which means that one can''t advance the Stages of the Divine Path Realm. Only someone at the peak of the Void Breaking Realm can connect oneself with the Divine Path. Before that, they can''t even feel its existence, even if they know that it is there somewhere. Cinty was no different. The day that she reached the Peak of the Void Breaking Realm, she immediately felt that faint connection with this Path, it was also proof that she was ready to try. Cinty Gathered an enormous amount of Spiritual Energy, converting it into Elemental Source, and then Chaos Energy. Once enough conversion was made, and she gathered the energy needed, she would strike that barrier between her Divine Soul and the Divine Path. Only the Divine Soul is able to step on that Path, which is also the reason why the Soul is called Divine. Time passed, and Cinty had been striking the barrier for half a day. Still, she wasn''t in a hurry. There isn''t a time limit for the Breakthrough to start with. Not to mention that Heavenly Tribulations only happen once a breakthrough is finished. It wasn''t after an entire day that Cinty finally Broke the Barrier, and the Path appeared under her Divine Soul. Cinty Slowly stepped on it and prepared all her energy. Sure enough, the moment her Divine Soul touched the Path, it was assaulted by some kind of Energy that Cinty never felt before. Obviously, that was the Divine Energy! Cinty could finally understand why one had to be careful once stepping on it. Even though she was ready, her Chaos Energy Protection was almost instantly shattered. If not because she made sure to save a lot of Chaos Energy just for this moment, she might have been expelled from the Path with severe injuries to the Divine Soul. Still, Cinty was calm. She kept using Chaos Energy to protect against the Divine Energy while trying to get used to it. Slowly, Cinty started to let the Divine Energy pass through her protection. When the Divine Soul and Divine Energy touched each other, Cinty was able to feel some kind of connection between them. Unfortunately, that connection is not enough for her to make use of that. Only when one enters the Semi-Divinity Realm will they be able to use Divine Energy. Before that, it is all preparation for that moment. "Go through the Divine Path Realm so that you can see the Divine." "Go through the Divine View Realm so that you can comprehend the Divine." "Only at the Semi-Divinity Realm shall you be able to use the Divine." "Only at the Divinity Realm shall you become Divine yourself." Slowly, Cinty''s Divine Soul started to get used to the foreign and, at the same time, familiar energy. That energy also helped Cinty''s Divine Soul to get stronger as time passed. Finally, Cinty dispelled all the Chaos Energy protecting her Divine Soul and basked it on the Divine. Between the time Cinty''s Divine Soul touched the Divine Energy and the time it got used to it, another 5 hours had already passed. It was then that Cinty noticed that she didn''t have to protect her Divine Soul anymore. It had more than enough resilience to stand in the Path by itself. She also noticed that her Divine Soul strengthened a lot now. She could use a lot more Chaos Energy than when she was in the Void Breaking Realm. Not only that, but it was also as if she could comprehend this energy better as well. "I''m finally in the Divine Path Realm." Cinty also understood why one becomes immortal at the Divine Path Realm. It is a gift from the Divine, a gift from being able to accept its power. Suddenly, clouds started to gather in the skies. Seeing that, Krune and everyone else felt happy. If the clouds are here, that means that Cinty had successfully entered the Divine Path Realm. However, Krune could see the difference in power in the Tribulation. It wasn''t just an increase in power due to a Different Realm. Those clouds'' ability was fundamentally different from those from the previous ones. Still, Krune snorted. "With Cinty''s Elemental and Chaos Meridians, I want to see what you will be able to do against her." Not long after, the Tribulation Fire descended and assaulted Cinty''s Wisp body. The raging flame was really powerful. Everything in an entire kilometer radius was being incinerated to nothing. That was a lot of power, and no one in Krune''s group would be able to fend it at their current level. However, Cinty was not at the same level as them. In the middle of everyone looking at that Tribulation, Cinty is definitely the strongest one. Especially now that her Divine Soul entered the Divine Path and got Strengthened. Her control over the Chaos Energy and the speed with each she can gather it can''t be compared to what it was before. It was an utterly qualitative change! Sure enough, with the Realm of the Myriad Energies Technique, even a Tribulation with power matched for a Major Divine Soul was far from being able to Breakthrough Cinty''s Chaos Energy Protection. The raging Tribulation Flames continued for another half a day. But Cinty didn''t feel like being in the least bit of danger. Her Chaos Energy Barrier kept sturdy as a metal wall until the very end. In the Skies, the Tribulation Clouds started to reduce in size. The Flames around Cinty''s Wisp body also began to disappear. What before expanded for an entire kilometer, was now getting smaller and smaller. Finally, the Tribulation Fire dissipated, and the Tribulation Clouds were gone. After thousands of chaos cycles, the wisp race now has one more Wisp at the Divine Path Realm. 426 Fie and Liriu Breakthorughs That day, Krune cooked for everyone. That was a very happy event, after all. Cinty also explained her own view and what she thought about the breakthrough. It wasn''t before several hours that everyone returned to their own places. Two days later, Cinty sneaked out of the Wisp Main World trough Phillin''s teleport formation. When Krune and Feifei found out, they couldn''t help but laugh. "She definitely went to see that guy called Kiirion." Krune nodded. "Let''s hope everything goes well for here." A few days later, Krune and Feifei also left with Fie, Tiane, Ruik, and Liriu. Laex also followed them just in case. They had already agreed that they would visit different places to help both kids see more of the Universe. With different names and appearances, as long as they use Phillin''s teleport formation, they shouldn''t be at any risk. Time passed, and another 3 years went by. With no risk of being found by other Heavenly Fragment Owners, everyone was able to cultivate and train as they wished. Some left to take missions, others secluded themselves, those with side occupations practiced their jobs as well. All in all, it was as Krune predicted, they had quite a leisure time. Today, Fie was finally creating her Foundation. Although she is slower than Krune, she is definitely faster than Feifei. Feifei only started to cultivate at the age of seven, as for Foundation Establishment, she was already nine by the time she attempted it. In Fie''s case, she is eight years old at the moment. In the end, all the travel around proved to be very beneficial for her. It was during those travels that Fie decided on creating a Foundation based on a Universe. Just like Krune and Feifei. The difference was that she chose to start with a Sun first. Unlike Krune, Fie''s Soul isn''t inside her Core, so there was no problem about where to keep it. Krune and Feifei, as Universe Foundation Owners, were more than happy to hear that. Since she decided on a Universe Foundation, Feifei and Krune helped her comprehend everything necessary to mold something similar. To make sure everything would go okay, Krune had her study about it for two years. It turned out that it was worth the wait. Fie had no problem in creating a Universe Foundation, with the Sun being the first thing inside. Right after, she had to fend off the Heavenly Tribulation. But the Heavenly Tribulation of Dalin was also one of the reasons why Fie started with a Sun. As mentioned before, Dalin''s Tribulation is fire-based. So she used her own Elemental Meridians to guide the power of the Fire Tribulation to her Sun. Fie''s Sun, which wasn''t that big at first, increased in size three times when her Heavenly Tribulation finished. Although it couldn''t be compared to Krune''s actual Sun, it was at least able to generate enough Gravity for a planet to orbit. Of course, Fie doesn''t have a world yet, but it didn''t matter. The closer it is to a real Universe, the better it is. So the Gravity of the Sun was also important. Fie''s future Core turned out to be a common one, though. Still, that was to be expected. It is not like you can have a Major Core anytime you wanted it. They were not called the Ten Major Cores for nothing. Of course, be it Krune and Feifei, they couldn''t care less whether Fie had a Major Core or not. Fie''s importance for them wouldn''t change even if she failed. As for Liriu, he followed another path altogether. When everyone heard what he wanted to do, they were taken aback. It turned out that he had seen Laex Dragon form a few times during these past years. Simply put, he found Laex to be very cool! So he decided to make a Foundation that looked like a Dragon! Laex, of course, laughed out loud when he heard that. "Do you like this grandfather this much? No problem, no problem! You can use my majestic Dragon Form as the base of your Foundation as much as you want! First of all, you are a half reptile, and Dragons, as mighty as they might be, are still reptiles as well. Using a Dragon Form as a foundation should be quite beneficial for you." A Foundation is a personal thing. Since Liriu was dead set on making a Dragon Foundation, Ruik and Tiane simply supported him. Laex then passed a few weeks with Liriu explaining to him everything about a Dragon like him. He even kept in his Dragon Form most of the time so that Liriu could take a good look. The day that Liriu decided on creating his Foundation, Laex even gave him a present. He took some of his own Divine Beast Dragon Blood and passed it to him. "Drink it. As a pure-blooded Dragon, my blood has the power to enhance and transform other races'' blood related to our own. As I said, you are half a reptile, so my blood should give you some concentration of Dragon Blood. All the other Dragonkin Races are like that precisely because their ancestors drunk Dragon Blood in the past." Liriu immediately thanked him with a Divine Sense message. "Big Brother Laex, thank you." Tiane and Ruik were also happy for him. There is nothing wrong with wanting to become strong as a Dragon. In a certain way, this could be said to be the dream of most reptile races. To one day, evolve into a Dragon. Liriu immediately drunk the blood, and Laex used his Spiritual Energy to help him fuse with his blood. The process was quite painful. After all, the very structure of Liriu''s blood was changing at that point. Still, Liriu persevered and didn''t waste a single drop of Laex''s blood. "Hahaha! Great, you didn''t let this grandfather down." With Laex himself helping him, Liriu''s Foundation Establishment passed without any issues. But as soon as Liriu finished his breakthrough, something unexpected happened. A Heavenly Tribulation also came for him! Tiane, Ruik, and everyone else were taken aback, including Laex. "Were there supposed to have a Heavenly Tribulation with a Dragon Foundation?" Laex immediately shook his head. "Lots of reptile races try to create Dragon Foundations, some succeed, others not. Still, I''ve never heard about a Heavenly Tribulation after a Dragon Foundation is formed." Suddenly, Liriu sent a Divine Sense message. "Mom, dad, big brother. My body feels weird." They were taken aback and immediately used their Divine Sense to check Liriu''s body. Let alone Tiane and Ruik, even Laex was shocked by what he was seeing. Liriu''s Elemental Meridians had connected his Dragon Foundation to the Dragon blood in his body. Somehow, the Dragon blood was transforming Liriu''s Dragon foundation entirely. In exchange, the concentration of Dragon blood was increasing at a very fast pace. "No, it is not increasing, it is changing his blood completely. That... There is some other kind of blood in his body before. Thanks to the Dragon blood I gave him, it seems like to be awakening." Laex then looked at Tiane, the mother. Suddenly an idea appeared in his mind. ''It can''t be, can it?'' Tiane and Ruik felt extremely nervous. They wanted to help, but no external help is allowed during a Heavenly Tribulation. If they did so, not only wouldn''t it help, the power of the Tribulation would increase even more. Suddenly, Liriu roared. Roarr! The sound of that Roar made Laex, a pure-blooded Dragon, feel chills on his back. It wasn''t powerful, nor was it that loud. But something in that roar made his Dragon Blood tremble! The Heavenly Tribulation came down and enveloped Liriu in Tribulation Fire. However, there was no sign of the Fire hurting him. If anything, it seemed more like his body and Foundation were absorbing the power of the Heavenly Tribulation utterly. With his Divine Sense, Laex could see the chance on Liriu''s blood. The Dragon Blood concentration was disappearing. Not only that, but even Liriu''s normal blood was changing too. In their place, a new type of blood was being formed and replaced the old ones. That blood then started a qualitative change in both Liriu''s body and Foundation. It was evident that the Elemental Meridians, which were making the connection between both, seemed to be the reason behind it. Liriu''s feathers and scales began to grow together with his body. The Dragon Foundation that he had created using Laex''s Dragon Form changed along with it, taking a form identical to Liriu''s new body. The most impressive thing is that the power used for that transformation was none other than the Tribulation Fire! The Heavenly Tribulation dured one hour before disappearing. Finally, everyone could see Liriu''s new form. He had increased in size by more than two times. Fortunately, Liriu was quite small to start with. So now, he was only at the size of an average human. Ruik''s snake body, for example, was a lot bigger than that at the moment. A Demon Beast increase in size after a cultivation breakthrough was nothing rare to either. Tiane and Ruik immediately rushed over and held him. It was evident that Liriu was feeling very tired and could barely move at the moment. Fortunately, their Divine Sense told them that he wasn''t in any risky situation. But surprisingly, his color changed. His body scales and feathers turned fiery red. One could even see some flames come from them now and then. After seeing this scene, Laex''s blood ran cold. It was as if he had seen a ghost. "Impossible!" 427 Lirius Transformation Be it Tiane, Ruik, or the others who were watching, everyone looked at Laex. His reaction obviously showed that he knew something. However, Laex ignored their eyes and got close to Liriu before touching his body. He sent a stream of Spiritual Energy and checked with his Divine Sense to make sure his conjecture is correct. Ruik and Tiane didn''t mind. Laex had been around long enough for them to trust him this much, at least. But the longer Laex checked Liriu''s body, the uglier his face became. In the end, after confirming that he was right, he could only sigh and retract his hand. Everyone looked at him, waiting for Laex to talk. No one forced the issue since it seemed to be something really important. Laex knew that he needed to give an explanation, so after taking a deep breath, he started to talk. "Liriu''s bloodline passed through an incredible transformation. Something that was only supposed to have happened in legends. It is soo unbelievable that even though it is right in front of me, I can''t help but feel like I''m hallucinating." "Before I tell you what it is, we need to talk about a few other things. First, do you know who is considered the ancestor of all reptiles in all Universes?" Surprisingly, Ruik answered without even blinking. "Dragons. At least, that''s what I''ve heard in the past. Between the reptile races here in Dalin or in our home Universe, that is what is believed." Laex nodded. "Correct. I gave some of my blood to Liriu precisely so I could awake the Dragon Blood in his body. Doesn''t matter which reptile it is; they all have a certain amount of Dragon Blood. As long as your race is connected to some reptile species, that fact will not change." "However, due to the enormous amount of time since the Dragons first appeared, many of those branch races'' Dragon Blood concentration decreased. It reached a point where the concentration was so small that their Dragon Blood entered into a slumbering state. Those are also known as the Reptile races that don''t have Dragon Blood. The fact is not that they don''t have it, it is just that their bloodline is so thin that it couldn''t show its traits anymore." Krune and the other nodded. It is not a piece of information that hard to accept. "Thanks to my Dragon Blood, it awakened Liriu''s one and used my own to increase his Dragon Blood concentration. It could be said that after he fused with my Dragon Blood, around 99% of his Dragon Blood was mine, while the rest was the awakened blood that he already had in himself. Of course, let''s say that the ''master dragon blood'' position was still that 1%, not my 99%. As the ''master blood'' of Liriu''s blood, it dominated mine and changed it into its own. Now, the whole blood was really Liriu''s and not mine anymore." Laex then narrowed his eyes and continued. The more everyone heard, the more shocked they got. Tiane couldn''t help but ask. "And what was that other bloodline that appeared out of nowhere." Laex smiled bitterly and then looked at Tiane. "It didn''t come out of nowhere, it came from you." Tiane and the other were taken aback. Tiane is one of the most common races out there, a Demon Crow. If not for Feifei rescuing her in the past, she would have never gained sentience to start with. After all, unless a Demon Crow was lucky enough to bump into some fortune, they would spend their lives without ever reaching the 9th of the Qi Condensation Realm. How could a bloodline capable of bringing such a legend into the real world possibly be inside her Demon Crow Race? Suddenly, Krune''s eyes lit up. "I see... If all reptiles ancestors can be considered the Dragons, then it means that all birds also have such an Ancestor, right?" Laex smiled. "Smart. That is correct. So let me ask you now, which bird is considered to be the ancestor of all birds? If it is too hard to guess, then think like this. The strongest reptile in the Universes is the Dragon. In that case, which bird is considered the strongest one in all Universes?" Any idiot who has the least bit of knowledge would be able to answer that question. A race that by no means is weaker than the Dragon Race. "The Phoenix Race!" Laex nodded. "That is precisely the type of bloodline that awoke in Liriu''s blood. After all, Tiane is a bird herself. That also explains why the Tribulation Fire of the Dalin Universe was absorbed into his body as if it was food. Only the Phoenix race could possibly absorb a Tribulation Fire as if it was nourishment. Let alone be considered as a Tribulation, Dalin Universe''s Tribulation is really nothing more than a cultivation resource for the Phoenixes." "The most impressive thing is that the Elemental Meridians were the reason behind it. During Liriu''s breakthrough, I believe you all noticed how his Meridians acted as a link between his foundation and both bloodlines, didn''t you?" Everyone nodded. After all, they, too, were using their Divine Sense at that time to check Liriu''s body state. Ruik then laughed out loud. "Isn''t that great, then? My boy became a hybrid of Phoenix and Dragon, so his future is limitless!" Laex smiled bitterly after hearing that. "If just it was so simple as that." Ruik''s smile immediately disappeared. Only now did he remember that while Laex was checking Liriu''s body, his expression was as dark as the bottom of a pot. If that was a good thing, how come he didn''t seem to be happy? "I told you, didn''t I? This is a type of bloodline that only appeared in legends. It shouldn''t exist anymore. The implications of such a thing... are not as simple as you think." 428 Ralaz Laex then organized his thoughts and began to tell a story. "Although it is extremely hard for a Phoenix and a Dragon to give birth to a hybrid, it is not like it didn''t happen after soo many Chaos Cycles. There had been a few instances where such a child come to be. However, these kids'' bloodline had never been a fusion between phoenix and dragon. At most, the two bloodlines inside of those children didn''t reject each other and worked in harmony. In some cases, they even attacked each other, making the kid''s life a real torment." "Some of those younglings would have a higher rate of Dragon Bloodline, while others would have a higher concentration of Phoenix one. Still, their bloodline had never really ''fused'' together into a new one. Depending on which bloodline was stronger, the youngling would be taught that race''s technique. He would also be considered just a Phoenix or a Dragon depending on this point as well." Laex''s expression then changed from this point onwards. "However, there had been a single instance where such a thing happened. This is a legend passed inside both the Dragon and Phoenix Race. During times immemorial, when each Universe had only so many races alive, the Dragon and Phoenix races gave birth to a hybrid with a fused bloodline. Both races were in good terms during that time, so this news made everyone happy. His name was Ralaz." "However, it was then that a problem occurred. As the youngling grew, his bloodline power far surpassed both Dragons and Phoenixes''. It reached a point where it was so strong that only the elders of both races could resist it." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "What you mean with ''resist it''?" Laex then continued. "It means that those who couldn''t resist would fall under his control. Simply put, that bloodline power forced both Dragons and Phoenixes to follow his order, no questions asked. Even if he asked them to suicide, the Dragons and Phoenixes would do so without even blinking." "Ralaz started to grow thirst for power. Having both the Dragon and Phoenix races under his every call, he began to covet the control of all Races in all Universes." "You must understand that there weren''t as many Universes during that time as there is now. So such a dream would be possible if one had total control over two of the Strongest Races. Of course, the Dragon and Phoenix Races didn''t really want to go into war against everyone else. But they were powerless against Ralaz. Once a Dragon or Phoenix fell under his control, they would never wake up again." "However, the fact is that his opponents were a lot more numerous. So, in the end, Ralaz was killed under a joint attack of several elders of various races in a final attempt to put an end to his reign. The moment Ralaz died, all the Dragons and Phoenixes who were under his control immediately woke up. Thanks to that, the war was finally over." "The repercussions of such a war lasted for many Chaos cycles. Also, thanks to the fact that the elders of the Dragon and Phoenix races also helped with everything they could, the other races didn''t eliminate our Races." "Of course, there was also the fact that the remaining number of Dragons and Phoenixes was enormous. To entirely eliminate both races would be practically impossible. It would only cause the death tool to increase even more. Not to mention that all of them were only being controlled. The biggest majority of the Dragons and Phoenixes had no intention of beginning that war to start with." Laex eyes seemed to shine while telling that story. It was evident that his Dragon Race put a lot of importance on it. "Since then, Dragons and Phoenixes would refrain from having children together. Even when they couldn''t resist the urge, their youngling would be watched closely. If it was found out that he has a fused bloodline, the rules stated that he should be immediately killed. No questions asked, as well. Of course, the chances of a fused bloodline appearing was simply too low! Be it before Ralaz was born or after Ralaz died, such a fused bloodline only has appeared once. However..." Laex then looked at Liriu with a complicated expression. "Well, I guess I don''t need to say anything else. Here he is, the second-ever born Dracophoenix in history. Right in front of me." Tiane and Ruik''s expressions were pale as a piece of paper. Doesn''t that mean that the entire Dragon and Phoenix Race will be coming after their Liriu with full power? How could they even dream about resist such an assault? Laex couldn''t help but sigh again. "To think that these Elemental Meridians were capable of bringing forward such a transformation." Krune shook his head, though. "It is not too hard to think about the Elemental Meridians as the reason behind it. After all, we already know that the Elemental Meridians can become part of one''s bloodline, or are at least similar to it. There is a lot that we don''t know about the Myriad Energies Technique, so I wouldn''t be surprised if we find even more secrets in the future." Feifei and the rest agreed with Krune. After all, the Myriad Energies Technique could be changed, and new forms could be created as well. It is really an unbelievable technique. Tiane didn''t care bout that at the moment, though. "Who cares about that? I want to know what I should do? Liriu is in as much danger as Krune and Cinty now." Laex shook his head. "Liriu is in a much more dangerous situation. That is because different from Krune, who doesn''t have any bloodline, Liriu''s bloodline is way too easy to perceive. Even now, while he is weak and not doing anything, I can feel my Dragon Bloodline inferiority compared to his. As long as he gets close to any other Dragon or Phoenix, or any subrace with a high enough concentration of either bloodline, they will immediately notice his presence." Laex then got up and said. "Besides, I need to report it back to the Dragon Race as well." Everyone was taken aback. They didn''t expect that Laex would do such a thing. Ruik, obviously, immediately got enraged. "Laex, how could you?!" Ruik couldn''t control himself and attacked Laex. At this moment, he couldn''t care less about their difference in cultivation. 429 Laexs Play But before Ruik could get close to him, a flash of Purple Lightning appeared on his way and stopped his advance. Obviously, it was Krune who intervened. "Ruik, you are being unfair with Laex." Ruik was taken aback. "What are you talking about? If he tells the Dragon Race, it will put Liriu in extreme danger. Are you telling me to just let it happens?" Krune shook his head. "Can''t you understand his side? Do you have any idea how much commitment he had to put into it to tell us the truth? As far as we are regarded, Laex could have simply stayed silent and create an excuse to leave the Wisp Main World. No one would suspect anything." "Not only that. Cinty is not here at the moment, and she is the only one with a Cultivation High enough to stop him. Still, he did not make a move on Liriu. Telling us the truth and not killing Liriu himself. If this doesn''t show how much he cares about him, then I don''t know what it is." After hearing that, Ruik''s rage deflated like a balloon, completely disappearing a moment later. Krune sighed out in relief. "This has nothing to do with him wanting to hurt Liriu. In the Dragon and Phoenix Races, this is considered a calamity through and through. It might be regarded as even worse than the Wisps'' situation at the moment. Laex also knows that, so he has to fulfill his duty as a member of the Dragon Race." Krune looked at everyone and then said. "If any of us was in his skin, I''m sure you all would do the same thing. At the very least, I know that I would. In the end, the needs of the race is a lot more important his own." Laex had indeed spent a lot of time with Liriu in the past years. So he was very fond of him. This was also a tough decision for him. If one paid attention, they would notice him clenching his fist so hard that his nails entered his palm. "The fact that he did this much is already enough for us to know that he wishes Liriu''s safety. So don''t make things harder than it is." Ruik understood the logic behind it, but he still couldn''t accept it. He simply turned around and went back to Liriu''s side. Liriu was still sleeping due to his tiredness, so he wanted to stay by his side. Krune then looked at Laex. "Thanks for letting us know about it." Laex was surprised by this and then smiled bitterly. "Anyway, it is not like I need to leave the Wisp Main World to make my report. So I guess I will stay here for the time being." Everyone looked at Laex, puzzled. Isn''t he leaving the Wisp Main World after this? Laex then said. "It is as krune said. This is my duty as a member of the Dragon Race. I must inform the elders about it. But after that, I''m free to do whatever I want." "Laex? Why are you calling me? Didn''t I tell you last time that I''m resting?" Krune and the others were taken aback. It had been years since they last called this fire Dragon. Does it mean that Laex''s Uncle had been resting in that pool since then? However, when they stopped to think about how old he probably is and his cultivation, those few years probably meant nothing to him. "Hey Uncle, I''m just calling to tell you that I found a Dracophoenix. Also, it seems like I feel under his control due to his bloodline. Because of that, I won''t be able to help any more than what I''m doing now. It seems like I''m using my last will power just to tell this much. Oh! I''m losing control. Ohhhhh nooooo! I can''t fight against his bloodline anymore. Ohhhhhhh... ... ... Anyway, that''s it. See ya!" Laex then finished the call. Right after, he took his communicator out and crushed it. Everyone was taken aback. What kind of control is this that you are losing? With the difference in cultivation between you and Liriu, there is no way in hell that it is true. Let alone the fact that Liriu is sleeping at the moment. First of all, even if Liriu''s cultivation was high enough to control you, he wouldn''t do such a thing. Laex smiled back at everyone and said. "Ohhhh... How could I let such a thing happen? I can''t fight anymore... It seems like I have no other choice other than help protecting him against my will. How could that be? How could that be? Ohhh..." Pssst. Immediately, everyone burst out in laugher. Even Ruik and Tiane, who were the most affected ones, couldn''t help but laugh as well. In the end, Feifei wiped out a tear of the corner of her eyes due to having laughed too much and said. "That was, without a doubt, the worst play I had ever seen in my life." Laex shrugged his shoulders and extended his arms. "What are you talking about? Can''t you see that I''m under Liriu''s control? I have no power to resist at all. It is not my fault that I became like this." In the end, Tiane couldn''t help but ask. "But is it really okay? It will make you fall against your own race." Laex didn''t mind, though. "Since I''ve come this far, there is no need to hold back anymore. I did what I had to do, now I''m free to do whatever I want." Ruik then sighed and said. "Thanks." Laex nodded. "Anyway. As long as Liriu stays in the Wisp Main World, there won''t be any risk to him. But how do you plan to deal with this issue from now one?" Krune pondered a bit and said. "No other choice, we can only Seal his bloodline." Everyone looked puzzled at Krune. "Seal his bloodline?" 430 Body Changes Krune nodded. "It is nothing impressive. Simply put, Liriu won''t be able to use the power of the Dracophoenix bloodline. As for the Seal, I found it inside one of the Jade Slips in the Mohie Zarks Dimensional Realm. In fact, if you look into the network, you can find a few of this type." "They are mainly used to deal with bloodline problems." Laex heard that and started to ponder a bit. "Now that you said that, I do remember those hybrids of Dragon and Phoenix with bloodline issues using something like that. The ones that I told you about that had their two bloodlines attacking each other. If I''m not wrong, they used it to seal the side with a lower concentration of it." Krune nodded and then said. "In Liriu''s case, it will be easier. That is because his bloodline is a fused one. That means that he doesn''t have two bloodlines anymore, but just a single one. Of course, there will be a side effect on it. For example, he will lose quite a lot of combat power. However, Liriu hasn''t had a bloodline up to this point, so I guess it won''t be much of a change." Ruik and Tiane didn''t think much and immediately agreed with the idea. "As long as it can hide the effects, it should be fine. After all, other than us, no one else knows about Liriu''s appearance or that he is a Dracophoenix." Krune''s group agreed with the plan and immediately started to work. They used this time that Liriu was still weak to Seal the bloodline. The more Liriu recovered, the stronger he is, and harder for the Seal to take effect. Around one hour later, Liriu''s body was covered in several Seals. They went from top to bottom and even his wings'' feathers. Krune had specially made those Seals with chaos energy, so it would be tough to break them. After he finished, he poured Spiritual Energy inside and activated them. Those seals started to enter Liriu''s body and suppress his bloodline. Seeing Liriu''s face, it was evident that it caused quite some pain. But there was no helping it. Finally, all the Seals activated successfully and disappeared inside Liriu''s body. Together with it, those small flames that appeared around his body spontaneously totally stopped as well. His fiery red color also dimmed quite a bit. Krune let out a sigh of relief after seeing that. "Alright, it is done. The Seals will need to be reinforced every year with Chaos Energy. But it won''t be a problem as long as Laex, me, or Cinty are around. The only problem now is Laex. After all, the Dragon Race does know him." Laex laughed and said. Krune was happy to hear that. "How many know that you came to the Wisp Main World?" Laex pondered a bit and then said. "Quite a few. It won''t be a problem for the Dragon Race to investigate this much since I participated in the Mohie Zarks inheritance. I have also used my ID in a few places around here, so they definitely can find it." Krune nodded. He was already expecting this much. Before, Laex didn''t have a need to hide, so it would make no sense to conceal his ID or use a fake one. Especially since the Dragon Race has a bad impression of him. "Well, I already couldn''t use the common way of leaving the Wisp Main World before, so I guess it won''t make much of a difference." A few hours later, Liriu finally woke up. But when he saw his body, he was shocked. Liriu didn''t expect that he would become red-colored. Not only that, but quite a bit of his body structure changed a well. Let alone his size that more than doubled, it seemed like he was growing limbs now, although they were almost imperceptible at the moment. There was also a new and very small pair of wings. Laex looked at his shocked face and laughed. "You are evolving into a Dracophoenix, so it is evident that your old Snake Body won''t do. Your body will change little by little during your next breakthroughs to support the change in your bloodline. But don''t you worry, not only will you look a lot cooler, you will become a lot stronger too." As soon as he heard ''cooler,'' Liriu''s worries were completely swept away. He is just 8 years old at the moment. If even Fie, who is two months older and has much higher intelligence, is still acting like a kid, let alone Liriu, who doesn''t. "Stronger and cooler!" Liriu''s eyes were shining with after hearing that. Tiane and Ruik didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. He has such a huge danger behind him now, and all he cares about is how cool he looks like. Kids will always be kids, after all. Ruik, Tiane, and Laex then started to explain to him about the fact that he can''t tell anyway about his bloodline. They took that topic very seriously and made sure he would remember it. Krune then passed Tiane and Ruik a runestone sometime later. "I asked Feifei to help me inscribe this Runestone. Although Feifei isn''t a Runestone Formation master, both fields are very close to each other. Not to mention that the Formation Inside wasn''t anything hard to accomplish." Krune patted Liriu''s head and said. "As long as you put your Spiritual Energy inside, the Seal blocking your bloodline will be released. I did that for the case where if you find yourself in danger, you can release your locks and gain a boost in strength. Of course, do not do that unless you think it is really necessary. After all, resealing your bloodline takes quite some time and effort." Liriu and his parents nodded. "Alright, for the time being, this problem is dealt with." 431 Cinty and Kiirion A few days later, Cinty returned to the Wisp Main World. Together with her was a short man who looked to be in his thirties. He just so happens to be Kiirion, the same man who didn''t know about Cinty''s real identity in the past. Kiirion had been coming to the Wisp Main World with Cinty ever since Cinty entered the next level. Back then, Cinty had snaked out of the Wisp Main World just a few days after her breakthrough into the Divine Path Realm. Krune, Feifei, and everyone else immediately understood where she was going. They knew that she had made her mind that she would tell the truth to Kiirion once she broke through. When Kiirion saw Cinty a few days later, he immediately understood that she entered the Divine Path Realm. But he didn''t feel that surprised. Even after Cinty got Krune''s Myriad Energies Technique, they still met once in a while. Thanks to that, he already knew about Cinty''s fast improvement. Of course, he was still happy for her. But it was then that Cinty started to transform in front of him. Cinty had agreed to meet in a concealed place where no one would see them, so she wasn''t afraid of others finding out. This time, Kiirion''s eyes almost popped out of their sockets! ''Is that a Wisp?'' A few moments later, Cinty once again returned to her Human Form. Seeing his shocked face, Cinty decided to explain. "Well, that is why I never told you anything. I''m a Wisp, so I had a very limited lifespan. It was only a few days ago that I advanced into the Divine Path Realm and gained immortality. I didn''t want to take a step further before since I would die a lot sooner than you." However, Kiirion still had a shocked expression. Cinty didn''t know what to say, but she felt like Kiirion was disappointed to learn about it. Cinty then sighed and started to leave. However, just as she turned around, Kiirion grabbed her hand. "So that was the reason you never told me. You are dumber than I thought." Cinty looked back at him with a startled face. Kiirion then pulled Cinty into his embrace the same way he had done several times in the past. "If I say I''m not surprised to find out that you are a wisp, that would be a lie. But I knew that you were a demon beast ever since we had met for the first time, didn''t I? Since I never cared about the fact that you are a demon beast, what is so different about being a wisp? They are still demon beasts, after all." Cinty''s eyes couldn''t help but feel a little soar. "Besides, didn''t you just say it yourself? You have an unlimited lifespan now, so you don''t need to bother about that anymore." Kiirion then showed an angry expression. Cinty immediately went silent. She was really planning to never tell him and simply pass away without him knowing. "I..." Kiirion looked at her. "I... what? Say it." There is one thing that Kiirion knows very well. Cinty is quite a prideful lady, or wisp lady if you prefer. It was quite rare to see her apologizing. "I...m sorry." Seeing Cinty doing her best just to squeeze out those simple words immediately made Kiirion burst in laugher. Cinty, of course, got quite angry because of that. She looked away and rebuked him. "Hmph! You are lucky that I''m feeling guilt at the moment. Otherwise, you would be in for a good beating." Kiirion took the opportunity that Cinty was looking away and pressed her cheek with his finger. Cinty immediately looked back at him with an angry expression. Still, before she could even react, he was already kissing her. That was a snake attack that she wasn''t prepared for. However, she couldn''t be happier at the moment. One thing led to another, and it didn''t take long for the couple to be lost in fiery passion. That was a night bound to be remembered for several years to come. Back to the present, Cinty and Kiirion had just heard the story about Liriu''s bloodline fusion and were shocked as well. "Just why so many unbelievable things keep happening around you? Can''t you hold yourself back a little?" Krune was speechless! This time, it had nothing to do with him! ''Errr... well, it was the Elemental Meridians that caused such a change on Liriu... It was also me who found out about the Myriad Energies Technique in the past, which led to this situation... But it was Laex who gave him the Dragon Blood, right? So he is also part of the reason! Still! It is not like it was all my fault, right?'' Seeing Krune lost in thoughts, Cinty chuckled and said. "Whatever. What is done is done. By the way, I have something for you." Krune came out of his own little world. "What is it?" Cinty then sent him a message through their communicators. Seeing that, Krune, and specially Heavin, got quite happy. Those were Soul techniques, and quite a feel that Heavin still didn''t have in stock. "Thanks. I will pass it to Heavin later." Cinty nodded. "While I was out with Kiirion, we took a few missions for an old clan in the Juti Galaxy. It turned out that they had quite a few Soul Techniques. So instead of the payment, I decided to ask for those copies." Krune then immediately sent it to Heavin''s communicator and told him about those techniques through his Divine Soul. After that, Krune discussed a few more things with Cinty before leaving. Later that day, Heavin came flying into the house. Krune and Feifei were eating together with Fie when they noticed his arrival. Heaving looked at them and laughed. "This grandfather did it! I finally finished the Soul Cultivation Technique!" 432 New Effects Krune was surprised by that. Heavin had been on the verge of completing that technique since 3 years ago. But it didn''t matter how many times he tried, it seemed to always lack that final step! It continued like that until now. "Could it be that the final link was inside those Soul Cultivation Techniques that Cinty collected this time?" Heavin immediately nodded. "Exactly! Thanks to Cinty, I finally found was I was lacking." Suddenly, some kind of power spread around the room. Feifei and Krune could feel it, but they simply couldn''t tell what it was. It wasn''t Spiritual, Elemental Source, or even Chaos Energy. Definitely not Divine Sense either. It was completely different from anything they had ever felt before! Suddenly, Krune and Feifei felt some kind of pressure enclose on their Souls, which immediately alarmed them! Instantly, they sent Elemental Source Energy to protect their Souls against that energy. Only then did it stop. Krune and Feifei remembered something and immediately looked at Fie. But for some reason, she seemed to not have felt anything at all. Fie continued to eat her food, not paying attention to anything that they were talking about. "This..." They would need to be idiots to not understand that the one doing that was Heavin. A second later, something that looked like a blade started to form in front of Heavin. Both Krune and Feifei''s Divine Sense told them that that blade was made of the same energy that was pressuring them at the moment. Heavin shot the blade in Krune''s direction without even flinching. Krune could feel the danger behind it and immediately summoned one of his Shields from his Spatial Ring in front of the blade. But then something inconceivable happened! That blade... passed right through his Shield! Krune only had the time to create a Chaos Energy barrier, which the blade slammed on. However, his Chaos Energy barrier had little effect on the blade. It pressed forward and hit his body, leaving behind a small cut. Krune''s body was sweating cold! He could tell that that that blade worked in a completely different way from the laws of the world. It could be said that they weren''t even related to each other to start with! Still, Krune didn''t have time to think. That is because another blade was hidden behind the first one! As soon as the first one hit his body, the other changed direction and hit the place where his Wisp Core was. This time, there was no cut left behind. Instead, it entered his Wisp Core and went straight to Krune''s Soul! Krune once more covered his Soul with as much energy as possible. Only then did the blade got blocked. However, it was not before it pierced through at least half of the energy barrier around his Soul. Krune can count in his hands the number of times he felt to be close to death. This one has just be added to this number. "The hell was that?" "Hahahaha! Did you like it? I call it Mental Energy!" Even though Krune and Feifei were frightened, they knew that Heavin was just probing them. There was no such thing as killing intent from the very start. "Mental energy? Is it a side effect from your Soul Cultivation Technique?" Heavin nodded gleefully. "Yes. This is really an unexpected gain. As I mentioned before, once my cultivation technique was complete, I would be able to start directly in the Soul Enhancement Realm. That is because my Divine Soul is already able to create Elemental Source Energy. But I never expected that my Soul Cultivation Technique would give birth to this kind of energy." Heavin continued. "At first, I was confused. I knew that there was something new in my Soul, but I couldn''t tell what it was. However, I soon noticed that I could control this thing. Of course, the first time I ever tried to use it was when I arrived here. After all, my Soul is still inside your foundation. It seems like I have a very limited range depending on what I want to do." Krune was quite interested in the technique. "What else can this Mental Energy do?" Heavin shook his head. "My first tries were against you and Feifei. So I haven''t tried anything different yet." Krune pondered a bit before saying. "Alright, come with me so that we can do a few tests." Feifei and Fie seemed to be curious about it, so they tagged along. In the end, Heavin''s Mental Energy had several uses. One of the most impressive them was obvious the low effect that the other energies had on it. Unless you put enough effort, you wouldn''t be able to block it entirely. However, the Mental Energy necessary to create an attack that can penetrate someone fully prepared is enormous! Heavin could only generate three mental blades with enough strength to surpass Krune''s protection before running out of energy. Also, once those blades are condensed, they can be perceived by Divine Sense. With that, a cultivator or demon beast can prepare themselves beforehand. Another short come is the distance that those attacks can be generated. The further away you try to create a Mental Blade, the more time you need, and it was a lot harder too. Not to mention that it also required more Mental Energy to be accomplished than one created close to you. Another thing is that you can''t create it directly inside someone''s body. The Spiritual and other energies running inside would impede the congregation of Mental Energy, so it had to be done outside. As for the Soul Pressure, it is basically Heavin releasing all his mental energy without restraint and guiding it to Krune. It doesn''t need to be accumulated, but its effect is minimal as well. As long as the opponent covers his Soul with an energy barrier, the Soul Pressure would have little to no effect. Also, Mental Energy worked well against all energies, with one exception. Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning! As soon as a Mental blade or any other type of Mental weapon touched the Lightning, it would be almost instantly destroyed! It was even less effective than regular attacks. ''As expected, Light Spirit''s Purple Tribulation Lightning isn''t that simple.'' Heavin couldn''t help but complain. "That''s so unfair, is there anything that can beat this thing?" Light Spirit snorted. "Hmph! If you could bypass my Purple Tribulation Lightning this easy, I would have lived my entire life in vain." Krune didn''t care, though. He could think about several ways of using this power. This is something that no one expects to exist in the first place. If he hides this power with his Purple Tribulation Lighting or behind other attacks, it could give a fatal blow to an opponent, immediately changing the fight in his favor. But there was one thing that Krune noticed that he found extremely useful. Mental Energy could work like Divine Sense. Also, it was a lot more effective. First of all, as long as Heavin isn''t targeting anyone, the other side can''t feel its presence. He even called Laex over and confirmed that he couldn''t feel anything. Laex''s cultivation is a lot higher than Krune, so there is no way he can''t feel Krune''s Divine Sense. But Mental Energy was a completely different story. If Krune hadn''t told him, Laex wouldn''t even know that it was there at the moment. Also, if you aren''t trying to create something with Mental Energy, then you could spread it through a very long range. Although it couldn''t reach the distance that the Divine Sense could, it could still go one-third of it. Of course, Krune made a comparison using the Divine Sense of an ordinary Divine Soul Realm cultivator or demon beast. But that was already impressive since it can''t be detected. ''Perhaps, only someone who can use Mental Energy would be able to perceive its existence.'' Last but not least, Anti-Divine Sense Formations were useless against it! Mental Energy could pass through it as if it didn''t even exist. That was, without a doubt, one of its most significant advantages. When everyone heard about it, they couldn''t help but think. "Heavin created something really frightening!" 433 Out in the Open That day, Krune and Heavin compiled all the information about the Soul Cultivation Technique and passed it to the others. Of course, Krune and Heavin had to work on it for a few days to alter some of its properties. After all, a Divine Soul is not the same as the Normal Soul. They have their own differences that had to be accounted for. Fortunately, it didn''t take long since the main issue of the technique was already resolved. Different from Heavin, the others would need to start from the beginning, though. The reason Heavin could start from the 3rd Realm was basically that this Realm allows you to create Elemental Source Energy. Since his Divine Soul is already capable of it, he jumped the first two without a problem. As for everyone else, they obviously couldn''t do such a thing with their Main Soul, only their Divine Souls were able of such thing. However, the idea was increasing the strength of the Soul, so there was no point in using the Elemental Source Energy of their Divine Souls. Besides, their Divine Soul can''t generate Mental Energy like Heavin either. Even in Krune''s case, the one who could do it was Heavin, not himself. If there is something that Krune and the others don''t lack, that is Spirit Stones and other resources for cultivation. The others didn''t even need Krune''s help with it anymore. At their level of strength and Phillin''s Teleport Formation, they can go out and do missions far above their level. This would give them higher rewards and even help with their combat and cultivation experience. The first Realm of the Soul Cultivation Technique, Soul Qi Condensation, was passed in a flash. Each of the Soul Cultivation Realms only had five Stages. That being said, it was a lot faster to cultivate the First Realm five Stages than the ten Stages of the regular cultivation system. But that was basically the only part where it was easy. From the Soul Foundation ahead, the difficulty level raised several times. The Foundation Establishment of the normal cultivation system seemed like kids play in front of it. When questioned, Heavin laughed out loud. "Hahaha! Did you forget that my Soul Cultivation Technique and the standard cultivation system are not in parallel? For example, if you don''t count Krune''s Chaos Meridians, you should only be able to create Chaos Energy at the 6h Realm, the Void Breaking Realm. But in my Soul Cultivation System, it is already possible to do so in the 5th Realm, the Soul Control Realm. So yea, the difficulty on each Realm increases a lot more than the standard system." They had to admit that he was right. There was another problem, as well. While using Heavin''s Soul Cultivation System, they couldn''t split their minds with the Soul Splitting Technique. That means that they couldn''t cultivate and comprehend laws at the same time. Hearing about that, Heavin could only laugh again. Not too surprising, everyone''s cultivation and laws comprehension speed were affected. They started to use half of the day for Heavin''s Cultivation Technique and the other half for the standard system. Time continued to pass, and another 2 years went by. During these 2 years, the news about a possible Dracophoenix existence spread like wildfire! Both the Phoenix and Dragon clan were looking everywhere for this individual. However, considering that Laex was the one to report it, they weren''t sure if it was just a joke from his side or not. They tried to contact him several times, but it looked like his communicator was always off. Their investigation brought them to the Wisp Main World, just as Krune and Laex predicted. Unfortunately, this was a place that they couldn''t enter. However, they at least confirmed that Laex is probably inside this World. The elders of the Dragon and Phoenix races then used the Dalin Universe management to enter in contact with Cinty through her communicator. Cinty, of course, denied everything. "Dracophoenix, what is that? Although the biggest majority here are wisps, we have a few other races with Dragon or Phoenix blood. But I''ve never heard about a Dracophoenix." The elder didn''t know if she was lying or not, so they had to explain from the start. "Such a thing happened? It''s the first time I hear about something like that. How does a Draconphoenix look like?" The elders of the Dragon and Phoenix Races were taken aback by that question. That is right! How does a Dracophoenix look like? It is impossible to tell. That is because Dragons and Pronix are quite different races. So the few hybrid offsprings of both Dragon and Phoenix in the past always had different appearances. There is no doubt that this new one, if he exists at all, would also be different. "I see... In that case, why don''t a few of you come here to the Wisp Main Planet and check it? This Dracophoenix or whatever can suppress both your bloodlines, right? As long as you can feel it, you will know that he is the one." The Dragon and Phoenix Clan were taken aback once more. They didn''t expect that Cinty would agree that easily. "Why the surprised expressions? Didn''t you say that this Dracophoenix might causa a calamity for all Universes? I want to at least help with it. You all know what the situation of my Wisp Race is at the moment. The last thing I want is to be related to this issue and give you one more reason to want to get rid of us." Of course, Krune and the others already knew that it would happen. So they decided to let the two Races do that from the very start. Also, they would not hide Liriu, but leave him out in the open. Krune wanted to see if his Seal was powerful enough to completely conceal Liriu''s Dracophoenix bloodline. As long as Liriu is in the Wisp Main World, no one would be able to attack him, after all. So this was the best place to try it. As for Laex, he took Phillin''s teleport formation and went somewhere else. Of course, the elders of the Dragon and Phoenix Clan are not idiots. They knew that the Dracophoenix and Laex would probably not be in the Wisp Main World anymore. But they didn''t have any other clue, so they had to go there anyway. Krune ended being the one who attended them. It is already no secret anymore that he is a Major Divine Soul Wisp, so they expected him to be the next Wisp King once Cinty passes away. Krune being the one to show them around, was just right and proper. As for Cinty, he just said that due to her being close to the end of her lifespan, she wasn''t in the condition of seeing them at the moment. Whether it was true or not mattered little, though. The elder then made Krune a few questions about Laex. "Yes, I employed him for a few years to work as my bodyguard. Our contract was over around 3 years ago, though. So I don''t know where he went after that." Krune then brought the elders to see each and every resident of the Wisp Main World that had a Dragon or Phoenix bloodline. At some point, he coincidently passed by Liriu, Tian, and Ruik. It would be a lie if Liriu didn''t catch their attention. Still, that was not because of his bloodline, but because he is a hybrid. Everyone knows that Hybrids are hard to be conceived, so it wasn''t something you see every day. In the end, they just looked at him for a second and kept following Krune to the next guy. Seeing that, Krune, Ruik, and Tiane sighed in relief. It seemed like the Seal in Liriu''s bloodline was working fine. Those elders also used their Divine Sense to check the planet while they were at it, but they could only see what Krune already showed them. Finally, their search ended fruitlessly, and they left. After seeing their departure, Krune felt a weight being lifted off his shoulders. "Liriu should be fine for now." 434 Frightening News After the elder left, everyone returned to do their own things. Whether their investigation would turn out into something problematic or not would be an issue for the future. During these two years, no one stopped their training. This was also the time necessary for everyone to get into the Soul Enhancement Realm. Of course, that did not include Liriu and Fie. Heavin told everyone that they need a cultivation level that can match the power of the Soul. The Soul Enhancement Realm required at least a Divine Soul Realm cultivation level. Fie and Liriu were still far from it, being now in the Initial Stages of the Core Formation Realm. As for the normal cultivation level of the others, they needed a lot more time to advance. Not to mention that the Soul Cultivation Technique took a lot of their normal cultivation time as well. Feifei advanced into the 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm while Krune jumped to the 6th. The others also improved a lot during this time. Wamie and Gilia didn''t take long to finish their Elemental meridians. So their cultivation speed also improved. Wamie was still one Stage above Krune, being now in the 7th. As for Gilia, she was already on the 8th Stage when she first came to the Wisp World, so she is now on the 9th. The next step for her would be the Void Breaking Realm, and that needed a lot of time for preparation. Ruik was in the 4th Stage with Tiane in the 3rd. Xankruan was on the 5th. Dilo has the same cultivation as Feifei, being in the 8th Stage now. Their laws comprehension also improved a lot. The one with the biggest change was Ruik, who finally reached completion with his Dream World Construction Sub-Law. Even though he had only half of the time, the fact is that he was already in the advanced Stage of this Sub-Law before. Of course, now that all of them reached the Soul Enhancement Realm in the Soul Cultivation Technique, they all could use the Mental Energy. That also helped them to see the differences between themselves and Heavin. First, no one had a Mental Energy as powerful as Heavin at the same level. They used the distance that they could cover with their mental energy to test it. When Heavin entered the first Stage of the Soul Enhancement Realm, his Mental Energy could spread around 100 to 105km. As for the others, they were way below it. Krune, obviously, had the strongest Soul when not considering Heavin''s Divine Soul. Even so, his Mental Energy in the 1st Stage could only go as far as 70 to 72km. The weakest one turned out to be Xankruan, with her Mental Energy being able to spread only 50 or so kilometers in the same Realm. Heavin, on the other hand, was already expecting it. Krune nodded. "It is okay. The mental energy was not the only thing we got from this. With your Soul Cultivation Technique, our Soul Power increased a lot too. My Divine Sense increased at least another 30% in the distance, just that alone already makes all my efforts until now worth it." Everyone agreed with Krune, higher Soul Power means Higher Divine Sense, Control, Comprehension, etc. It is a totally worth cultivation technique even without the Mental Energy included. In Heavin''s case, he was progressing in it at a breakneck speed. Not only it made his Mental Energy more powerful than the others in the same Realm, but his speed was also unmatched. In these two years, since he finished creating his Cultivation Technique, he already entered the Soul Transformation Realm. Krune could feel his Divine Soul changing over time. It was obviously becoming a lot stronger than it had ever been. Of course, Krune knows that it is only a temporary boost. Once Heavin reaches the Soul Control Realm and leaves his Divine Soul, it will probably go back to normal since it has no conscience anymore. --- Back in the Dalin Universe management, something unprecedented was happening. The leaders of the powers controlling Dalin started to gather in secret. Galec Universe, Thakulo Universe, Uline Universe, Hara Universe, Larael Universe, and others. It had been two weeks since the elders of the Dragon and Phoenix Clan left the Wisp Main World. It was also them who assembled this meeting. Olave, of course, was also there representing the Zenfin Sect of the Larael Universe. But even he didn''t know what the reason behind this reunion was. The only information he got was that it had to do with the Wisp Main World. The Wisp Race is treated with extreme seriousness. Once they were called over, everyone immediately stopped what they were doing to attend this meeting. In a big hall, Olave and the other power leaders were sitting on their own chairs. There were a total of 20 chairs in this room. 15 of them were black while the other 5 were white. Those 5 white chairs were the positions of the Universes who gained their control over Dalin through the Heavenly Competition. All the leaders of each Universe, or the representatives in the case of Universes that had more than one power in control, were now waiting to see what is happening. Behind them, they were allowed to bring a total of two subordinates who would stay up and would only listen to this conversation. There was a man behind Olave, or to be more specific, a demon beast in human form. His name was Poliare, a Kirin, who is also considered one of the Divine Beasts out there. Krune didn''t know who this Kirin was, but the Kirin definitely knew Krune. That day when Krune gave Olave a second Life Dew Pill, he told him that he would be giving it to a certain someone in a situation similar to his. Poliare just so happens to be this certain someone. Thanks to that, Poliare was able to preserve the memories of one of his descendants who was about to enter the Path of Reincarnation. Soon, the reunion started, and the Dragon and Phoenix Elders who went to the Wisp Main World last time appeared before everyone. One of them walked into the middle of the room and started to talk. "Hellow everyone, I called you here because we have frightening news." One of the Leaders sit on the chairs couldn''t help but ask. "I heard that you went to the Wisp Main World to look for the presence of a Dracophoenix. Could it be that the Dracophoenix was really there?" The elder immediately shook his head. "The Dracophoenix is of utmost importance for both the Dragon and Phoenix Race. But we didn''t find any trace of it in the Wisp Main World. Still, we found something that might be even more serious." The elder expression then turned severe. "Cinty, the actual Wisp Queen, has entered the Divine Path Realm." Boom! Everyone felt like they were struck by lightning. 435 Higher Realms One of the Elders of the Dragon Race, a guy called Qyzzei, also happens to be a Divine Stars Formations Master. When he went into the Wisp Main World, he had the responsibility of looking inside Anti-Divine Sense protection formations. Qyzzei was only able to do such a thing thanks to a Secret Technique that he himself developed. Also, it wasn''t something easy to do and had a big backlash in the user''s Soul. If not because of the issue about the Dracophoenix, he would never use it that lightly. The higher the level of the Formation, the worse the backlash. The Anti-Divine Sense Protection Formation in Cinty''s house was obviously a high-level one. Otherwise, she wouldn''t have stayed in the Wisp Main World to start with. Qyzzei did not even appear in this meeting since he had to recover immediately after. It could be said that he did an excellent job hiding his injury while he was in the Wisp Main World. He had purposely targeted the Formations with the highest level, and Cinty just so happened to be inside one of those. The leaders in the room immediately got dark expressions. Everyone knows that an immortal wisp is what they had always tried to avoid. Suddenly, one of them got up, his name was Kavari Iulou, the representative of the Thakulo Universe. "There is no need to panic over it. Cinty is basically the only wisp to have ever achieved such a thing in thousands of Chaos Cycles. That being said, one wisp would make too little of a difference. That is also considering that Wally''s ability to descend from the Higher Realms without backlashes is applied to all wisps or not. Other than that, there is a long time ahead before Cinty can try to ascend. Last but not least, the Ascencion Tribulation is no joke, so chances are that she would die during it." The other leaders and representatives nodded. What Kavari Iulou said made a lot of sense. Just the Ascencion Tribulation alone would most likely do the job. Still, one of them decided to talk. "Too naive. Have you forgotten the name of the wisp protecting the Wisp Worlds? I heard that the Higher Realms have things like Tribulation Jades, so chances are that Wally might have one of those. After all, Wally was considered a powerful opponent even in the Higher Realms. It wouldn''t be weird if he had such a thing. I say that we should get rid of Cinty as soon as possible." It was then that one of them thought. "Wait, just recently, we saw that Lightning destroying a part of the Dalin Universe protection formation. Could it be related?" The Galec Universe representative immediately shook his head. "Although we don''t know what that Lightning was, it is hard to believe that they are related. After all, the power of that bolt is not something we could ever dream of stopping. I refuse to believe that something so powerful could be used to help a wisp enter the Divine path Realm." "Anyway, the fact that Cinty is just one wisp is still true. So there is no need to panic too much. For now, we should contact the Higher Realms as we were told by the ancestors of the past." Everyone nodded. They would decide what to do after that. Everyone then looked at the center of the room, and the elder of the Dragon Race stepped back. Right under the place where that Dragon was staying, one could see a formation. That Formation just so happens to be the one necessary for contacting the Higher Realms. It had been here in the Dalin Universe since the end of the fight of Wally against the other Ascenders. As mentioned in the past, the price to contact the Higher Realms was high, but when all the powers joined together, they could still pay it without hurting much. This Formation had been prepared with everything necessary for it to work. All they needed to do now was activate it. Some of the Leaders and representatives couldn''t help but feel excited. After all, the number of times that this Formation had been activated in the past thousands of Chaos Cycles could be counted on one''s fingers. Several cultivators would be born, cultivate until the peak of the Divinity Realm, and then Ascend or Die without ever seen it activated. "Let''s start." Everyone in the room started to pour their energies into the Formation. The Formation had a total of 20 locks. It needed a Leader or Representative of each Universe in control of Dalin to be opened. One by one, the locks disappeared until finally, the real Formation under those locks appeared. Suddenly, a ray of light shot from it and seemed to pierce through the fabric of space-time. Everyone in the room then sighed in relief after seeing it activating correctly. They sat once more and then waited. From now on, they would need to wait for the answer on the other side. At the same time, in the Higher Realms, there is a place that is guarded day and night by several Cultivators and Demon Beasts. Deep inside this area, a formation that hasn''t activated for several Chaos Cycles came into life. Overseeing it was an elder who looked more like a statue. Suddenly, the Formation in the middle of the room activated, and a flash of light appeared. Seeing that, the elder who hasn''t opened his eyes for several years finally moved. "Hum?" He extended his hand, and white-colored energy came from it, quickly entering that flash of light. "The Dalin Universe? It has been a very long time since we got a connection from them. Let''s see what they want first." Back in the Dalin Universe, the leaders and representatives in the room of the Formation suddenly felt a pressure coming from that fissure in space. From inside, a type of energy that they could barely bear flowed out. They had to use their full power just to resist that energy. The elder in the Higher Realms wasn''t doing it on purpose. It is just that a little of the Higher Realms'' Energy would inevitably pass through. There was nothing he could do about that. "Speak, why did you active the Formation?" The elder of the Dragon Clan then used his own energy to connect with that Flash of Light. "Senior, it goes like this..." 436 Stellar Needle Once the elder in the Higher Realm finished hearing everything, his eyes narrowed. "Very well, wait a minute." Suddenly, a fissure on space appeared right beside him. Surprisingly, he could see someone else on the other side. It was totally different from the Spatial Gates opened in the Lower Realms. It was opened so easily that if the elder wasn''t alone in the room, one might think that it wasn''t him who did that. On the other side, he could see another cultivator who seemed to be playing with a formation. The guy noticed the elder''s presence and spoke. "Malai, uh? What is it?" That was the name of the elder who talked with the Dalin Universe. He bowed and then explained everything to that person. "I see... After so many Chaos Cycles, a wisp finally entered the Divine Path Realm once more. They said it was only one, right?" Malai immediately nodded. The cultivator playing with Formation stopped what he was doing and said. "If it is only one, then we are fine. It took too long for one extra wisp to appear, so there is nothing to worry about. But just to be sure, send it to the lower realms. This should be enough to get rid of that Wisp Queen. I doubt Wally will start a revolt just because of a single wisp, either." Suddenly, something that looked like a big needle appeared on the cultivator''s hand and passed through the fissure in space. Seeing that needle, Malai narrowed his eyes. Not because it was something incredible, but because it was an item. It is one thing for Malai to send a message down, but an item would be quite tricky. After all, if the Higher Realms could keep sending items without any issues, the balance of the Lower Realms would be deeply disrupted. Noticing Malai''s expression, that cultivator asked. "Is there a problem?" Malia sighed and shook his head. "No. I''ll send it right now." That fissure in space closed, and Malai looked at that needle in his hand. "Sigh... It will take quite some time to recover from this." Back in the Dalin Universe, another fissure in space appeared. All the Leaders and Representatives couldn''t help but feel alarmed by that. This place is protected by a Formation that impedes Spatial Gates from being open. The only exception was for the Formation that was used to contact the Higher Realms. Since another Spatial Gate appeared, it can only mean that the Higher Realms were responsible for it. From inside the fissure, a needle-like object came out. Once again, everyone in the room was affected by the energy from the Higher Realm. But soon, that fissure disappeared, stopping the leakage of that energy. The needle fell on the ground, catching everyone''s attention. "Use this Stelar Needle to target that Wisp Queen you talked about. There shouldn''t be anything capable of stopping it once a target is selected. At least, not in the Lower Realms. Unless Wally is paying attention and intervenes himself, she will not survive." The Elder of the Dragon Race quickly asked. "How do we activate it?" "Just have someone who felt her aura in the past control it. The Stelar Needle will be able to target the owner of that aura. After that, charge it with as much Divinity Realm Energy as possible. You will probably need 30 or so Divinity Realm Cultivators or Demon Beasts to fulfill it. Once it is charged, have the guy who controls it chant the spell imbued in the needle, and it will activate. He will understand what to do once he touches it." Immediately, everyone remembered Qyzzei, who wasn''t present at the moment. The Dragon Clan elder immediately agreed with it. "Very good. That''s all for now, make sure to finish it quickly." The Formation then deactivated, and the Flash of Light piercing through space disappeared. Immediately after, the Dragon Clan Elder called Qyzzei over. Although Qyzzei was still recovering in another room, they couldn''t wait. This was an order coming from above, so they had to have it finished as soon as possible. While everyone discussed, Olave noticed that Poliare retreated to a corner. He didn''t say anything, nor tried to stop him. In fact, he even covered for Poliare so that no one would notice his absence. Back in the Wisp Main World, Krune was practicing alchemy when suddenly, his communicator flashed. Looking at that, Krune noticed that it had an ID that he had never seen before. Krune then connected it, but no image appeared. It was only a voice transmission. "Who is it?" The voice didn''t answer his question. Instead, it only left a single message. "The Dalin Universe management already knows that Cinty is at the Divine Path Realm. They contacted the Higher Realms to discuss this issue and just got a treasure that will be able to kill her straight away. I have no way to help you stop it, so I''m calling to tell you what is gonna happen. Whatever comes after that is up to you." Krune was taken aback by that. If not for the fact that Cinty''s cultivation Realm was a secret, he would think that this guy is fooling him. The voice on the other side went silent for a few seconds before saying. "Also, thanks for the Purple Flame Life Dew Pill, with this, I paid my debt with you." The call ended right after that. Krune had tried to ask other things, but the guy didn''t say anything. Only telling what he wanted. Still, Krune understood that he was running against time. He immediately opened a Spatial Gate while he talked with Luvile. "Light Spirit, do you have any idea of what they can use to attack Cinty in the Wisp main World?" Light Spirit pondered a bit and then said. "This place is protected by Wally. For the Higher Realms to be this sure of their success, they are definitely using a God Level treasure. Also, you know that there is a limit to the level of equipment one can use with their Soul Power. That being said, this treasure already received a command. The one operating it will only give information about the target. Most likely, it is Cinty''s aura." "But if the guy is right and they just got this treasure, they will need quite a few Divinity Realm Cultivators or Demon Beasts to charge it with enough energy. I believe that she won''t be targeted straight away." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "How long do you think we have? Also, is there a way to stop it?" Light Spirit pondered a bit and said. "If I''m not wrong, it will take at least one hour if they already have all the necessary cultivators and demon beasts." Light Spirit''s voice then turned grave and said. "As for how to stop something at that level, we only have one chance." 437 Dodging A Spatial Gate appeared right in front of Cinty''s house. Krune then contacted her through his communicator, and the protection formation disappeared. After Krune entered, he immediately explained everything through a Divine Sense message. Cinty got alarmed as soon as she heard about this. "Using a treasure from the higher realms to deal with me? How''s can that be? First of all, how did they find about my cultivation?" Krune shook his head and said. "We can think about how they did that after. For now, we should focus on what is coming for you. I also asked Light Spirit''s help. Anyway, I will let him do the talk." A new Divine Sense message then came out, which was quite surprising. The number of times that Light Spirit talked with someone other than Krune can be counted on one''s hands. "I''m far from having the power to stop something at this level. But I can make it lose its target. We should move to a deserted place first. When the attack is about to arrive and strike you, I can cover you with my Tribulation Lightning Layer, making it unable to feel your aura. But it has to be done at the last moment possible. Otherwise, a treasure at this level will simply stop and start looking for the target again." "The idea here is very simple, by dodging it in the last moment possible, we will have it hit the place behind you. Of course, simply hitting the ground or anything like that will be useless. A treasure of this level will simply go through the ground as if it is made of paper. We need something resistant enough to stop it for a second. As long as I have a second, I can wipe out whatever order inside it with my power." Krune and Cinty were taken aback. Something that can stop a god-level treasure, just where would they find something like that? Luvile laughed and said. "There is. And it is so big that it covers an entire Universe." Immediately, they understood what he was talking about. "The Dalin Universe Protectiong Formation? Can it hold a god-level treasure for a second?" Light Spirit confirmed. "Probably. That thing was created with the help of tens of thousands of Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts, right? It should have enough energy to hold it this long. Don''t misunderstand, this treasure is strong for the parameters of the Lower Realms. Still, it is probably nothing impressive in the Higher Realms. They have no choice since sending any treasure down would create an enormous backlash on the sender. Besides, the sender has to have very high cultivation." "If you compare it to that Tribulation Lightning Bolt of mine, it can''t even hold a candle. So we should move straight away. Using Phillin''s Teleport Formation, we will be able to reach the Universe''s border in a second." Krune also sent a message to Feifei and everyone else. Although he couldn''t bring them, he had to at least explain the situation. Right after, Phillin''s Long Distance Teleport Formation activated, soon making Krune and Cinty disappear with a flash of silver light. Sure enough, as long as they know where they want to go in the Dalin Universe, Phillin''s formation would be able to teleport them straight there. Once they got there, Cinty couldn''t help but ask. "Just how will I know that this thing is coming to me? I can''t possibly feel the presence of a god-level treasure." Light Spirit laughed and said. "Don''t worry, you might not be able to, but I definitely can. All you need is to pay attention to yourself. Once you see my Tribulation Lightning Layer appeared around you, that is the moment your aura will be concealed. I don''t care what methods you use, but you need to move away immediately. Your reaction speed will be the key to save your life." Krune also asked something else. "How do we know that this is a physical attack-type treasure? Couldn''t it be something else that uses energy to attack or anything similar?" Light Spirit immediately denied this idea. "It is definitely the treasure itself that will be coming. I told you before, there is a high price to pay even if you want just to send an ordinary item from the Higher Realms to the Lower Realms. Let alone a treasure of the god level. I''m absolutely sure that they sent the most straightforward type. Anything with a higher level of complexity would cause a backlash that no one up there would be willing to take." Rearing that made Krune and Cinty a little more confident. It was then that Krune thought about something. "Oh, right! Cinty, wouldn''t it have been better to contact Wally? Is there no way of doing it?" Cinty nodded. "There is, but I can''t do that. If the wisps call Wally every time a Wisp Queen or King is in danger, just how many times would he need to intervene? I myself had passed through several life and death situations in my life. As dangerous as it seems, at least I know a way out of this one. There had been a few times that I even thought that everything was over but had miraculously escaped. So I refuse to do such a thing." Krune wanted to say something else but gave up in the end. It was as Cinty said, even a Wisp Queen or King needs to go out to temper themselves. Otherwise, their cultivation will hardly improve. That being said, the number of dangerous situations all of them passed through during all this time is uncountable. They can''t simply have Wally coming out every time something happens. Probably, unless the Wisp Race itself gets into some danger, they wouldn''t call him. Suddenly, small specs of purple light started to come out of Krune''s body and spread around. If one paid attention, what seemed a slow spec at first, was already far away the next time they looked at it. A few seconds later, those specs of light were already out of Krune and Cinty''s vision. "This..." Light Spirit explained. "Don''t worry, I''m just spreading some of my Purple Tribulation Lightning. This is what I''m going to use to detect the presence of the incoming attack." Krune had never seen the Tribulation Lightning being used like this before. "Can I do the same thing?" Light Spirit pondered a bit and then said. "Not at the moment, your comprehension over the Tribulation Lightning Laws is lacking too much. Anyway, we can talk about it later. Cinty, stay in front of the Dalin Universe Protection Formation and be ready. The moment you see a layer of Tribulation Lightning appearing around you, get out of there straight away." Cinty nodded and returned to her Wisp Form. She got rid of all miscellaneous thoughts and fully focused on the task ahead. Everything depended on that single moment. 438 Unexpected Gain Everything was happening as Light Spirit predicted. Back in the Dalin Universe Management area, several Divinity Realm Cultivators and Demon Beasts were charging the Stellar Needle that they received from the Higher Realms. Qyzzel was also there, although his expression didn''t look well. It was easy to notice the backlash that his soul received after he pierced through the Anti-Divine Sense formations in the Wisp Main World. Olave and Poliare were also helping with the infusion of energy. While doing that, he couldn''t help but ask through a Divine Sense message. "Did you perhaps inform him about it?" Poliare looked at Olave and nodded. "I owed him this much, at least. As to how they intend to deal with it, that is their problem." Olave sighed. "Anyway, it is not like I don''t understand you. Whether Cinty is fated to die or not will depend on themselves. Still, they should be fine. After all, Wally should be able to stop something like this." Poliare narrowed his eyes after hearing that. "That has nothing to do with me anymore." Olave shook his had and didn''t say anything else. After one hour or so charging the Stellar Needle with Divinity Realm energy, it finally came to life. The Needle then started to float by itself, as if waiting for orders. Everyone then looked at Qyzzel. Understanding their meanings, he took a deep breath and touched the Stellar Needle. Sure enough, as soon as he did that, a stream of information flowed inside his mind. Following the directions, Qyzzel used his knowledge about Cinty''s aura. The Stellar Needle was white at first, but after it got to know the target''s aura, it became white blue instead. Qyzzel knew that it had worked. He then started to chant the spell he received from the Needle. Suddenly, the Needle began to tremble with energy. The more he spoke, the more energy fluctuations could be felt from it. Finally, the entire chant was completed. It was then that the Needle turned into another direction and shot forward. What everyone found weird is that the direction it turned to was completely different from the Wisp Main World. The Needle then pierced through the fabric of Space-Time and disappeared inside. Everyone wanted to follow the Stellar Needle, but it was just too fast for them to do so. Olave looked in the direction that the Needle disappeared and sighed. ''We did what we could. It is all up to you now.'' Back at the Dalin Universe''s Protection Formation, Light Spirit''s specs of Purple Light had covered a distance of over a hundred thousand kilometers! When Krune heard about it, he was amazed. Nothing that he can do could reach such a range. Of course, Light Spirit is far from being at his peak. Otherwise, it wouldn''t be just this much. Suddenly, Light Spirit felt a fluctuation at the border of his Purple Lightning Detection. He looked at Cinty and didn''t say anything. He simply spread his power, and a Layer of Purple Tribulation Lightning power appeared around her. The Needle might have just appeared a hundred thousand kilometers away. But a treasure of this level could cover such a distance in a blink of an eye. Cinty was so concentrated that even before the Tribulation Lightning Layer was completed, she already started to move. "Space-Time Transfer." As fast as lightning, Cinty disappeared from the position she was just a moment ago. Light Spirit couldn''t help but feel surprised by what he saw. That Space-Time Transfer was used extremely fast. Cinty is still a Divine Path Realm wisp, for her to use the Void Transfer with such proficiency was really commendable. ''I guess her time with that Wisp called Xiun was not for nothing.'' Blackholes affect both Space and Time. So it goes without saying that a Blackhole Major Divine Soul is exceptionally proficient with both types of Laws. They are not as good as Space and Time Major Divine Souls when using those Laws individually. However, if one is talking about using them together, a Blackhole Major Divine Soul definitely doesn''t lose to anyone. Light Spirit then returned his attention to the place where Cinty had just stayed a moment ago. Her dodge time was perfect, and her aura completely disappeared, so the Stellar Needle didn''t change direction. It tried to stop to look for the target again. Still, due to the inertia and how close it was to the Dalin Universe protection formation, it was too late. Boom! In an instant, the Dalin Universe Protection Formation cracked all over the place where it was hit. Fortunately, it was also as Light Spirit had predicted, the amount of energy used in this protection formation was no joke! It immediately activated and held the Stellar Needle in place. Of course, it wouldn''t be able to keep it for long. As impressive as the Dalin Universe Protection Formation might be, it was still a Lower Realms level Formation. But that was all that Light Spirit needed. An arc of purple lighting hit the Needle almost instantly. The Purple Tribulation Lightning wasn''t trying to destroy the Needle. At Light Spirit''s current level, it would be impossible for him to do so. All he did was to destroy the order left behind inside the Stellar Needle. Without an order anymore, the Needle immediately stopped using its power and became just an ordinary object once again. Of course, it is still a god-level treasure, but it simply had no power anymore. Even the Divinity Realm Energy that was charged inside entirely dissipated after it lost its objective. In the end, the Dalin Universe protection formation was able to hold it. Now that the attack failed, the Stellar Needle stayed there, floating in the middle of the void. Cinty quickly returned and looked at the Dalin Universe Protection Formation. There were cracks as far as she could see. Light Spirit didn''t waste time and reminded them. "Alright. Those Divinety Realm guys will be coming soon, so we need to leave. It is not easy to get material from the Higher Realms, so make sure to bring that Needle with you as well. That Stellar Needle was supposed to explode as soon as it hit the target. But as you can see, it did not happen since I wiped the order inside." Krune''s eyes lit up, that was really an unexpected gain. He tried to put it inside his Spatial Ring. Not too surprisingly, it did not enter. "As I thought, my Spatial Ring level isn''t high enough to hold it. It seems like I can only carry it with me." Cinty then opened a Spatial Gate, and both of them entered it. Cinty''s actual level and control over the Space laws were more than enough to transport them somewhere safe. 439 New Beak As Light Spirit said, it didn''t take long for several Spatial Gates to appear in the point where the Dalin Universe Protection Formation broke. Of course, by the time they got there, Krune''s group was long gone. This time, however, the Protection Formation didn''t break. Between those who arrived, the Leaders and representatives of the Universes'' powerhouses were present. As for the rest, they came because of the warning they got after the Protection Formation was damaged. The Dalin Universe Management immediately took care of the situation while those higher-ups pondered about the situation. "This is definitely the place where I last felt the Stellar Needle. Judging by the Protection Formation, it is obvious that it was hit by it. However, there is no Stellar Needle here anymore, nor can I confirm the presence of anyone suspicious." A Time Major Divine Soul Cultivator called Toiak then stepped forward. "Let me make the time go back to check. It only happened a few minutes ago, so it shouldn''t be hard for me." They nodded before making everyone retreat. Toiak then used the power of his Time Divine Soul, and an illusion of what happened in the past started to show in front of everyone. At first, everything was going normal. But suddenly, Toiak''s expression begun to get ugly until finally, his control over the time laws were lost. "What happened?" Toiak shook his head. "I don''t know. There was something in this place that messed up with the time laws. Because of that, I can''t show what happened at that point. Not only here, but everywhere around us is like this." Everyone thought that it was probably because of the Stellar Needle. That thing was, after all, a piece of god-level equipment. Too bad, though. What really messed up with the Time Laws of this place was Light Spirit''s Tribulation Lightning. Of course, they would not be able to see it. However, they have to confirm if Cinty is alive or not. The problem with the Stellar Needle can be dealt with another time. Suddenly, Norzulun Odgas, the one responsible for the Dalin Universe management, noticed his communicator flashing. When he looked at who was calling, his mouth twitched. "Cinty is calling me." Hearing that, everyone grimaced. Still, Nrozulun answered the call. As soon as the call connected, Zorzulun noticed Cinty in her human form. But that was not the surprising thing. Instead, what shocked them was the Stellar Needle on her hand. "Norzulun, mind explaining what is this thing?" Playing dumb would be insulting both his and the other part''s intelligence, so Norzulun simply admitted. "What else? It was supposed to be able to kill you. But it seems like things didn''t work well." Cinty''s expression didn''t change a bit after hearing that. CInty smiled and then said. "For now, I will keep it with me here in the Wisp Main World. I still remember yours and a few other interesting auras from the past. So you better be careful. If my hands get itchy, I might think about playing with this thing a little." Nrozulun and the others'' hearts skipped a bit. If she uses the Needle against anyone of them, wouldn''t they die without a grave? Being in another Universe won''t help it either. "Are you threatening me?" Cinty laughed and nodded. "I am, so what? Anyway, you got a warning. Whatever happens after this is up to you and your friends'' behavior." The call ended right after. "Damn it!" Norzulun was the one in the worst situation. That is because he really met with Cinty in the Wisp Main World before. So there is no doubt that he is a potential target. In fact, he is probably the main one. The Dragon Clan Elder sighed and said. "Let''s go back. We need to contact the Higher Realms and ask them what we should do." Everyone nodded, and they returned. After contacting the Higher Realms, they reached the conclusion that Wally must have intervened. Otherwise, it would be impossible to stop that god-level treasure. That being said, whatever they send down from now on would be useless. Besides, the Higher Realms'' elder wouldn''t take another backlash of that level for nothing. Still, they were not that worried. Cinty is just a single wisp. She alone won''t cause a problem for them. After all, she probably won''t even succeed against the Ascension Tribulation. Even if she does, they won''t need to care about Wally in the Higher Realms, so they can also take this opportunity to get rid of her there. A few days later, Cinty and Krune returned to the Wisp Main World. They had already contacted the rest, telling them that they were successful in stopping the incoming attack. Cinty even showed them the Stellar Needle, which caught everyone''s attention. "How come I can''t feel any power coming from it?" Krune nodded. "From what Light Spirit said, it seems like we just don''t have the level necessary to feel the difference. But this is definitely a weapon that came from the Higher Realms. However, because the order inside was wiped out, it became quite useless. Cinty''s threat was nothing more than empty words. It is impossible to use it the same way as those guys did." Heavin looked deeply at the Stellar Needle. "This Needle is just so big, so it wouldn''t be of much use as a weapon unless you turn it into another Needle." Krune shook his head. "There is the problem of the level of the material. We definitely can''t support it with our cultivations and Soul power." Heavin nodded. "I know, that''s why I have a proposal. It is not enough to make a weapon, but it is definitely big enough to make a small Parrot Puppet Beak. Also, I don''t need to control it, so there is no need for me to care about cultivation or Soul power. That being said, would you mind if I use it to replace the Parrot''s Beak?" Heavin looked at Feifei. Even though he had reformed the Parrot several times, he still considers it as Feifei''s Parrot. Feifei couldn''t help but laugh. "What you looking at me for? I already gave you the Parrot, so do whatever you think to be right. You should instead ask Krune if he doesn''t have a better use for it somewhere else." Krune immediately shook his head. "I only use Shields as equipment, such a small piece wouldn''t make too much of a difference. Heavin is always with me anyway, so if there comes a day where I need it for something important, I can simply ask it back." Krune then looked at the Needle in his hand and said. "The only doubt is, can I really melt this thing?" 440 Autograph However, before Krune thinks about it, there is a more significant issue to talk about. "Anyway, I will test it later. What about Cinty? They now know about her Divine Path Realm cultivation. First of all, how did they even find about it?" Heavin then commented. "I don''t know how, but the timing was way too good. So it was definitely those elders of the Dragon and Phoenix Races. Most likely, they found about it when they were looking for Liriu. Surprisingly, this was nothing more than a coincidence." Of course, there was still the issue about Cinty being inside the Anti-Divine Protection Formation. But since Krune''s group can use Mental Energy to pry inside. Those elders might have a way of doing something similar. It is not like they are unique in the Universe. Cinty then shrugged her shoulders while spreading her arms. "What else can we do? Nothing. At least, they probably think that it was Wally who intervened, so such an attack shouldn''t come again. Light Spirit said that the price to send an item like that down is too high. In that case, I should be fine for the time being. Also, I''m the only Wisp in the Divine Path Realm at the moment, so they shouldn''t be seeing it as something that serious." Feifei then sat down and used her Destiny Divine Soul to help her make divination of Cinty''s future. It wasn''t detailed divination, just a very simple life or death in the future. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes again and said. "Because of the difference in cultivation, I can''t see more than 2 to 3 months ahead. Also, the most I can do is see if you would be alive during that time. Anyway, it seems like there is nothing dangerous for the time being. Of course, because I told you this information, your actions from now on aren''t going to be the same as if I haven''t. So there is still a small risk due to the butterfly effect." Cinty nodded and thanked Feifei. "Alright. Since there is no danger, let''s go back to our own things for the time being." It was then that Feifei remembered something else. "How did you know that Cinty was being targeted?" Krune then opened his communicator. "This guy sent me a message saying that the Dalin Universe knows about Cinty''s cultivation. It was also him who told me about the incoming attack. However, I have never seen this ID before. He said that this was his way of thanking me for the Purple Flame Life Dew Pill. That being said, he is the guy Olave told me he would give the pill too." Cinty wanted to thank him as well. "Can''t you contact him back? I would like to thank him for that." Krune nodded and then tried. But doesn''t matter how many time he called, no one answered. He also tried to contact Olave to get that information, but that was no good either. Cinty nodded and made sure to save it. Krune then returned home with Feifei and Fie. When they got back, Feifei couldn''t help but hug him. "You take way too many risks." Krune just laughed. "Not this time, though. Light Spirit was the one in command. Also, the one being targeted was Cinty, not me. So the one who really took risks was her." Feifei narrowed her eyes and said. "Do you take me for a fool? What if, during the time Cinty was being attacked, those Divinity Realm guys appeared? What would you do then? I get it, you couldn''t simply let Cinty die like that. The Dalin Universe Protection Formation was the only way to stop that Stellar Needle long enough. Still..." Fie also looked at Krune and nodded. "Mother is right. This time you had no other choice due to the circumstances. But Father shouldn''t intervene in every problem that happens. Also, what mother is furious about is the fact that you didn''t bring her with you." Krune smiled bitterly. He couldn''t fool the two girls, after all. "Alright, alright. I will take more care in the future." That Night, Krune made some food just for the three of them and put all the training aside. Later, Fie went to sleep, and the couple was left alone to enjoy their night together. Krune only returned to his alchemy practice the next day. He was close to reaching the Five Diamond Stars Level, so he wanted to finish it before going back to Blacksmithing. --- While Krune and the others were busy with their own things, somewhere else in Dalin Universe, a young man was looking through some information in his communicator. In fact, judging by his aura, he was definitely a Demon Beast in human form. "Laex found a Dracophoenix?" After that, he watched a video. Surprisingly, it was a recording of the call between Laex and his Uncle. The same last call before Laex broke his communicator. The guy''s mouth couldn''t help but twitch, seeing that terrible play. "Who the hell would believe that pretense of yours? Just what is this idiot doing?" He then closed the video and called a different ID. Not long after, the call was answered. "Hey, idiot. What the hell was that play? Also, why didn''t you tell me about the Dracophoenix?" Surprisingly, the one showing on the other side was none else other than Laex himself. "What? Did you like it that much? Don''t worry, this grandfather will give you his autograph later. Of course, nothing in this world is for free, so I will have to charge you a few Spirit Stones. However, since you are a friend, I will give you a discount." The guy didn''t want anything else other than kick Laex at that moment. "Fuck you! Who the hell would want your autograph? I would rather pay to never see it in my life instead." Soon, he noticed that he got dragged in the wrong direction. "Forget it. Let me see the Dracophoenix." 441 Laka Laex narrowed his eyes. This other Demon Beast is called Laka, a friend that Laex has known for quite some time. "Laka, If I didn''t know you, I would say that the elders asked that. Anyway, considering you now, you shouldn''t have a need for a Dracophoenix. What is that about?" Laka smiled. "Isn''t that obvious? I want to feel the bloodline power. Is it enough to suppress me? I need to know. You know you don''t need to worry. I have never followed the geezers'' orders, nor would I say anything to them either." Laex sighed after hearing that. "Fine. But you will need to change your appearance. After that, come to the Wisp Main World. I have a few friends I want to introduce you as well." Laka was surprised to hear that. "So you are really inside the Wisp Main World. How much are you receiving to work for them?" Laex laughed out loud and said. "I''m not really working for them, but helping on my own volution. However, I am indeed receiving something really interesting soon." Laka got curious. There aren''t many things that Laex would seriously consider really interesting. "What is it?" Laex shrugged his shoulders. "I will tell you once you get here." Laka immediately departed as soon as they finished their call. Back in the Wisp Main World, Laex told Ruik and Tiane that a friend of his was coming to take a look at Liriu. Hearing that, Tiane couldn''t help but ask. "Is it safe?" Laex nodded. "Don''t worry, that guy is even more of a lost cause than I am. If he says he won''t say a word outside, he won''t say a word. Besides, there is something else that Krune and Feifei will like to hear about." Tiane and Ruik looked at each other and nodded. Since that was the case, they might as well follow Laex''s plans. Around two weeks later, Laka arrived outside the Wisp Main World. Krune received the information and called Laex to confirm that that was really the one. After confirming his identity, Laka was allowed to come down. Of course, just as Laex requested, he had changed his appearance. "Where is him? Where is him? Let me see it!" Laex slapped the back of his head. "What are you, a pervert?" Laka looked resentfully at Laex. "Is that how you treat a visit?" Laex then pointed to the Long Distance Teleport Formation. "You are free to leave any time you want." That was enough to shut him up. Laex didn''t take long to arrive at Krune''s courtyard. Arriving there, Krune and the others were already waiting. Laex said that there is something that they will be interested in this guy called Laka. As soon as Laka landed his eyes on Liriu, he just knew that that was the guy. But it also made him puzzled. "A Quetzalcoatl?" Laka then looked puzzled at Laex. Laex shrugged his shoulders. "That is not for you to know. Anyway, go ahead and do your part as well." Laka shook his head. "Not yet, I can''t feel his bloodline power. It is evident that you got it sealed. Release the lock temporarily for me to check." Krune looked at Laex, and Laex confirmed that it was okay. "Alright. If you say so..." Krune released the Seal on Liriu''s bloodline, but only partially. After all, it would be hard to put the Seal on the bloodline once again if it was gone entirely. As soon as that happened, both Laex and Laka felt pressure coming from Liriu''s bloodline. Still, it soon disappeared. That''s because Liriu controlled his bloodline to prevent that from happening. Laka''s eyes shined, and he laughed out loud. "It is the real deal! Impressive! Still, I could totally resist it. It has nothing to do with the cultivation difference. Even if it was higher than mine, Liriu''s bloodline simply can''t be used to control me. Finally, my last doubts are cleared." Laex already expected that. "Obviously. If it worked even on you, that it would be really way too overpowered." Laka nodded, and then he sat down to talk with Liriu. It was then that Laex remembered why he called Laka here. "Oh, right. Go ahead and do your part, stop wasting time." Laka nodded and immediately changed into his Demon Beast Form. As soon as everyone saw that, they were surprised. Laka was also a Dragon, but at the same time, his wings were covered in flames. His claws were also somehow different from a normal Dragon. Last but not least, there were a few fiery red feathers over his body. Laex saw that and then explained. "This guy is also a hybrid of Dragon and Phoenix. The difference is that his bloodline did not evolve into a Dracophoenix one. I told you before, right? It is not like hybrids never came out before, it is just that their bloodlines don''t get fused. In Laka''s case, his Dragon Bloodline is the dominant part, occupying over 80% of his entire bloodline." Liriu, of course, was looking at Laka with shining eyes. Although his true form was a little different, Liriu also found it very cool. "Did you have the problem of bloodlines attacking each other? Can you revive like a Phoenix? No, wait, can a Phoenix really revive to start with?" Laka laughed out loud and then started to answer his questions. "I can''t revive like a Phoenix. Also, a Phoenix''s rebirth by flames is extremely rare. The majority would not succeed in doing so. If Phoenixes could really revive once killed, they would dominate all the Universes. The chances of succeeding in rebirth are rare as a chance of a Major Divine Core appearing." Fie also came out to ask him her questions. She was very curious to see a hybrid just like them. When Laka noticed her, he was quite surprised. That is because he could see Fie''s Wisp Core with his Divine Sense. "A hybrid of human and wisp?" Laex nodded. "She is even rarer than you. Hahaha!" Laka glared and Laex but decided to not answer that. "Well, I guess you should be expected for something like to happen in the Wisp Worlds. If not here, then where, right? But..." Laka looked at Krune and then ar Fie again. "How come the two of you have rainbow-colored hair? Of course, although the man looks weird, the same traits look very nice in the girl." Krune''s mouth twitched. It was not like he wanted his hair to be like that... Laex then smiled and looked at Krune, Feifei, and Wamie. "However, the real reason I called him over was because of the three of you." Krune''s group looked puzzled at him. Laka then laughed and got close to Krune''s group. After that, he released his cultivation power. Immediately, Krune, Feifei, and Wamie felt pressure coming down. Laka has higher cultivation than them, but the pressure didn''t come from his cultivation. Instead, it came from something much more powerful. "So you are the Heavenly Fragment Owners that Laex talked about. Nice to meet you, I''m Laka, the Heavenly Divine Soul owner of the Uelin Universe." 442 Ancestor! Laka was already at the 7th Stage Void Breaking Realm. Of course, he was a lot younger than Laex, and his high cultivation had a lot to do with the Heavenly Fragments he got in the past. He and Laex just so happened to meet by chance. In the end, they ended up as good friends. However, the only ones who know about their friendship are themselves. Even the elders of the Dragon and Phoenix races have no idea about it. Krune and the others were obviously surprised to hear that. "To think I would see a Heavenly Divine Soul owner. No wonder Laex said that it would be way too overpowered if the Dracophoenix Bloodline worked on you too." Feifei then asked. "Does it change anything once you get all the Heavenly Fragments? Does anything special happens?" Obviously, this was an excellent opportunity to understand it better. Laka nodded. "There are many things. For example, if you understand all fire Sub-Laws, it will be easier to fuse them into the Fire Major Law. Creating Elemental Source and Chaos Energy becomes a lot easier, too, so your cultivation can improve faster than usual." "Your control over the elements also goes a step further, you become able to gather and use them really fast. If a Heavenly Fragment Owner can summon one Fire Ball using the Fire Major Law, a Heavenly Divine Soul can summon two or three at the same time. Anyway, you probably get it. Having a Heavenly Divine Soul makes you a lot stronger." Laka then looked at Krune''s group and asked. "Laex told me that you three are Heavenly Fragment Owners of the same Universe. Aren''t you going to complete the Heavenly Divine Soul?" Krune shook his head. "In fact, we wanted to destroy them so that this fight over the Fragments would be over. We even tried to send it away through a Space Fissure. But it didn''t work as well." Laka was taken aback. This is the first time he heard about someone trying to get rid of the Heavenly Fragments. Especially considering that they are Heavenly Fragment Owners themselves. "Oh, well. This is your problem, not mine. Does that mean that you are participating in the Dalin Universe Heavenly Competition as Heavenly Fragment Owners?" Krune and the others looked at Laka, puzzled. "Can a Heavenly Fragment Owner participate? I thought only Heavenly Divine Souls could take part in it." Laka nodded. "They can. There are a few instances where a Universe can''t decide who will take all the Heavenly Fragments. Especially those who have more than one power controlling that Universe. So they can choose one representative with a Heavenly Fragment instead. As long as the guy is related to the Heavenly Divine Soul, he or she can participate." Krune understood what he meant. Even now, he can feel the difference between him and Laka. He isn''t sure if he would be able to beat Laka even if they were at the same level. Laka then looked at Krune and the others and said. "Anyway, you still have another 14 years before the Competition occurs, so you have a lot of time. Who knows what could happen during this time. You might even end up creating a Heavenly Divine Soul due to the circumstances. So I wish you good luck." Krune''s group nodded. They decided to not talk about the issues with the Luvile Universe since Laka is only staying here temporarily. It was then that Laka remembered one thing. "Wait! Laex, what was that interesting thing you said you would receive soon? For you to say those words, I''m sure it is very nice." Only then did Laex remember that too. "Oh, that? Hahahaha! Have you ever heard about the Purple Flame Weapons?" Laka nodded. "The guys over the Blacksmith Network are going crazy for them now that Diamond Level ones are appearing. I also plan to buy one, but not now. The level of the ones which are appearing is still around 3 to 4 Stars. I want one at least at the 7 or 8 Diamond Stars level." Laex then pointed at Krune. "The rainbow guy beside you is the one who creates them." "What?!" Laka looked at Krune, shocked. He didn''t expect that it was a Wisp who created those weapons. Immediately, Laka knelled shamelessly in front of Krune. "Grandfather, Laka is willing to pay double if you can make a weapon specially designed for me!" Krune''s mouth twitched. Isn''t he a part of the Dragon Race as well? Aren''t Dragons Proud? How come he knelled this easily? Sure, part of his bloodline is from phoenixes, but they are also proud Divine Beasts. Laex laughed out loud after seeing that. "I told you, didn''t I? This guy is even more of a lost cause than I am. Do you believe me now?" Laex then kicked Laka''s ass and sent him flying. "You!" Laka, of course, got enraged attacked Laex too. As a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, he was much stronger than Laex. But just as his first punch was about to reach Laex''s face, he heard him saying. "Do you still want a Purple Flame Weapon?" Laka''s fist stopped right in front of Laex. One could totally see how much effort he was putting to hold himself back. "You are shameless!" Laex didn''t mind it, though. "Not as much as you." Feifei couldn''t help but laugh a little. "Don''t you think that their relationship is very much like you and your Master?" Hearing that, Ruik burst in laugher. "Indeed. It really looks a lot like that." Krune simply pretended that he didn''t hear anything. Unfortunately, Fie was very curious, so she asked Feifei and Ruik what they were talking about. So while Laex and Laka were staring and arguing at each other, Feifei and Ruik started to talk about a few ''tales'' of a certain master and his wisp disciple. The more Krune heard about, the redder his ears became. Not only that, Wamie, Dilo, Xankruan, and the rest also sat around to listen to the ''tales,'' which made Krune feel like crying. ''Why did it turn out like this?'' "Alright, the two idiot Dragon Race members over there, that is enough. Do you want to destroy my courtyard?" Laka could only stop after hearing that. "You are lucky that it is Master Krune who is asking it. Otherwise, I would sweep the ground with your ass." Laex just laughed. He knows Laka very well, so they would never get into serious fights. Of course, he knows that Laka is stronger, but that was what made things funny. "Oh, by the way, Krune will be making a Purple Flame Dragon Pearl for me. As you know, the Purple Flame effect increases the power of the equipment. Even though all Dragon Pearls were supposed to be equal in power, we expect a Purple Flame Dragon Pearl to be better than normal ones. It will probably be the first Dragon Pearl to ever surpass the power of the others." Laka froze in place when he heard that. His face obviously showed incredulity. However, he still remembers the famous Purple Flame Effect. Something that the Dalin Universe Blacksmith Organization was not able to copy even after years of study. Immediately after, Laka knelled in front of Krune once more. "Master Krune, no, Ancestor! This lowly one is willing to do anything for a Purple Flame Dragon Pearl!" Krune could feel a headache coming his way. 443 Holy Land Krune sighed and then said. "No can do, this thing is too hard to make. Besides, money is not something I lack at the moment." Laka looked at Krune with a crying face, but Krune did not relent. "What if I act as your bodyguard in that idiot''s place? I''m a lot stronger than him." Laex, of course, was having a lot of fun seeing this guy. "Hahaha! Laka, give up already. Krune is a Major Divine Soul Wisp, so he can''t go out much. When I worked as his bodyguard, the Dalin Universe Management didn''t know about him. But now, things are different. Even I am not of much help." Laka glared at Laex and then greeted his teeth. "I''m willing to bring you all with me to the Holy Land." Immediately, Laex''s expression changed. "Don''t spurt bullshit. Are the slots of the Holy Land something you can touch? It was already hard for your Universe to get a slot for you, let alone get a slot for all of us." Krune and the others were utterly puzzled. "What is this Holy Land?" Laex looked at them and said. "The Holy Land is a Dimensional Realm left behind by one of those Ascenders from the past. You remember that Wally fought several cultivators and demon beasts of the Higher Realms, right? After they finished their battle and reached that agreement, the ascenders returned to the higher Realm. Still, some of them stayed longer, one of them was called Sentoi Havan stayed behind for longer." Suddenly, a Spatial Gate appeared, and Cinty came out of it. She didn''t even look at Krune, but straight at Laka instead. "Are you really capable of bringing us there?" Laka patted his chest. "I definitely can!" Krune and the others were surprised to see Cinty appearing as soon as this topic came out. Noticing their attention, Cinty turned around and continued Laex''s story. "As Laex said, Sentoi Havan was an Ascender. Not only that but also one of the strongest ones who descended during the fight against Wally. At least, that is what is said in the information left behind during that time. As for the Holy Land, you can think about it as a cultivation paradise." "From what I know, the Holy Land has a small connection between it and the Higher Realms. Of course, you can''t enter the Higher Realms through it. But because of this connection, the place is basked with the Higher Realm''s Energy." Krune couldn''t help but stop Cinty there. "Wait! I might not be familiar with the Higher Realms, but I read in the network that the Energy from there is not something that we can resist. Even a Divinity Realm cultivator would have to give his all to not be killed by that. What use does that have to cultivators and demon beasts of our level?" Laex nodded and continued from where Cinty stopped. "Sentoi was a brilliant guy with exceptional abilities with formations. He made a formation that keeps the Holy Land connection with the Higher Realms ON almost forever. Also, that connection is only enough to let a tiny amount of Energy to pass over time. That Energy is then separated over the entire Holy Land, reducing its effect by several times." Cinty agreed with Laex. "The Holy Land is one of the most famous Dimensional Realms of the entire Dalin Universe. It has several levels, and the higher you go, the stronger the Energy of the Higher Realms is. Oh, by the way, this Energy is also called God Energy." Laka showed a confident expression and continued. "The Holy Land only opens once every 1000 years. Fortunately, it is beginning just a few years before the Heavenly Competition, so the amount of Heavenly Fragment and Divine Soul Owners coming this time is no joke. Every Universe with some influence pulled every trick possible to send their own contestants inside." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "But is it safe for us? I mean, with so many powerhouses behind this event, wouldn''t it be an extremely high risk for me and the others? First of all, if Cinty and I appear there, they might have some kind of formation that forces us into our Real form. Once they see us, we are done for." Laka laughed out loud after hearing that. "They would be courting death if they did that. There are just too many Demon Beasts going there now, and keeping their race hidden is also considered a trump card. If they Dalin Universe really did something like that, they would be too biased to the human race. Remember that the Dalin Universe is not composed of humans alone. If you separate humans and demon beasts without caring for the demon beasts'' races, there are definitely more demon beasts." "Also, it is not only the demon beasts who want to conceal their real forms and appearances but the famous human cultivators too. After all, between those who are participating in the Heavenly Competition or are trying to, many are already known by their abilities. So they, too, are most likely using different appearances this time around." "Besides..." Laka looked at Cinty and said with a smile. "Who would believe that the Wisp Queen is idiot enough to leave her Wisp Main World now that they know about your real cultivation?" Sure enough, Laka also received the information about Cinty''s event. Krune pondered a bit and then asked. "Leaving aside whether you can or not bring us in. What guarantees are there that you won''t be the one exposing our real identities?" Laka shrugged his shoulder and simply looked at Laex. Laex, of course, understood what he meant. "There is no need to worry. This idiot and I will be using the Dragon Blood Pact. Am I right?" Laka nodded. "As long as I can get this Purple Flame Dragon Pearl, I''m willing to do almost anything." "Dragon Pact?" Cinty knows about this, so she explained in Laex''s instead. "This is a technique of the Dragon Race. It uses the blood of both sides to seal a deal. Whatever the conditions are agreed beforehand, it won''t be possible for both parties to break. It is quite similar to the Blood Contracts, it is just that it only works for those with Dragon Blood. Also, both sides have to have at least 50% of Dragon Blood concentration." Laex nodded. "She is right. As I said before, 80% of Laka''s blood is from the Dragon Race, with only 20% being from the Phoenix side. That is more than enough for the pact to take place." Laex sighed and added. "Well, to be honest, I don''t think that this idiot would break his promise even without the Dragon Pact." Laka laughed after hearing that. "It is good that you know me." Krune nodded and then asked. "Alright, since Laex is sure, then we can move forward. Now, the Holy Land slots were supposed to be very hard to get, so how will you bring us inside?" 444 Deal Laka smiled playfully and then showed 4 tokens. Seeing them, Laex immediately got shocked. "You! How did you get this many tokens?" Laka laughed out loud. "You were right to say that the Uelin Universe did their best to get me a slot. But it wasn''t only for me but all the remaining Heavenly Fragment owners. At first, they didn''t know if the Battle for the Heavenly Fragments would finish fast enough or if it would even finish. After all, the Uelin Universe is controlled by more than a single faction." "Because of that, they got a total of 4 slots. Each faction was expecting to send their own Heavenly Fragment Owners inside. Perhaps, the Heavenly Divine Soul would be born during that time. But who could have guessed that due to some agreement between all parties, the battle would be carried over earlier? In the end, other than my own token, I also got the other three." Laex couldn''t help but ask. "But how exactly did you convince them to give the other three? As far as I know, each one of them is extremely valuable. There is no doubt that those factions in your Universe lost a layer of skin for these tokens." Laka shrugged his shoulders and said. "That was part of the agreement back then, and all factions were more than happy to accept it. After all, as long as their Heavenly Fragment Owner was victorious, they would be the ones getting these tokens. As for why I''m the one holding them, that is because I demanded it." The others got curious. "Demanded it?" Laka nodded. "Since I will be the Heavenly Divine Soul Owner for the next few Chaos Cycles, I obviously had to use the power of this position. I simply told them that I want to be the one to select the users of these tokens. Anyway, as valuable as they might be, the extra three tokens were not bought by the faction supporting me. Thanks to that, I was able to convince them." "At first, I was intending to sell them, but a Purple Flame Dragon Pearl is way more valuable than anything I could use at my current level." Krune then decided to warn him. "I have never tried to make a Dragon Pearl Before. Also, I don''t know if the Purple Flame Effect will work on it. Even if it works, I can''t guarantee that it will be a good thing. Since you already know so much about my Purple Flame Equipments, you definitely understand that it is a tyrannical power. Are you willing to go ahead with this trade regardless?" Laka nodded. "Just the chance is already enough. If such a Dragon Pearl falls on my hands, I will probably be able to get one of the Dalin Universe''s five seats during the next Heavenly Competition. You definitely know just how vital such a position is for a Universe as a whole." "Very well." Krune then looked at everyone and said. "Now, we just need to decide who are going to use those three extra tokens." Laka shook his head. "There is no need. Every token owner has the power to bring two companions with them. If you count my own, there are 10 positions available for you. That should be enough to bring this entire group. Oh, right. I say 10 because one slot is already reserved for a protector that my Universe forced to my side." Krune was taken aback. It was already an excellent deal to have three slots, but he didn''t think he would be able to bring everyone in. "That is quite generous. Why didn''t you offer a single one instead? I would definitely go ahead with this deal regardless." Laka shook his head. "I want you to put your all into this Dragon Pearl, so I''m putting my all. Besides, although I planned to sell them earlier, the fact is that I don''t lack resources. Don''t forget, I''m the Heavenly Divine Soul Owner of an Entire Universe. Do you think I need more cultivation resources than what I can get? This grandfather is rich! If I wanted, it would be easy to get a common Dragon Pearl." The others couldn''t help but agree with him. "Oh, right. When will the Holy land be opening?" Cinty answered that. "It should happen 1 year from now." Krune pondered a bit and then said. "Very well. Six months from now, I will start Laex and Laka''s Dragon Pearls creation. This is also an excellent opportunity for me since such a laborious crafting process will help in my Blacksmith practice a lot." "Six Months?" Krune nodded. "I want to reach the Five Diamond Stars Level first." Only then did Laka notice a huge issue. "Wait! I thought your Diamond Stars weapons were being forged by someone else while using your Purple Flames. Wasn''t that the case?" Laka couldn''t be blamed for thinking like that. After all, one can only become a Diamond Stars Blacksmith once they are able to use Chaos Energy. But Krune is still in the Soul Forging Realm, so Laka found the notion of Krune becoming a Five Diamond Stars Blacksmith ridiculous! "Oh! Indeed. My first ten or so Diamond Stars Weapons were really crafted by someone else. But I have no need for this help anymore, I can create Chaos Energy myself." Laka was shocked to hear that. He had never heard about a Soul Forging Realm creating Chaos Energy before. Laex patted his shoulder and said. "Let''s make our Dragon pact. I''m also adding in the terms that you shall not say anything about Krune and the others. So make sure to keep this information for yourself. Haha!" Laka sighed and then nodded. As impressive as it is to create Chaos Energy at Krune''s level, it has nothing to do with him. If anything, his Purple Flame Dragon Pearl will be crafter a lot earlier than expected, so it is a good outcome. 445 Unexpected Encounter! The time didn''t stop in the Luvile Universe either. Back then, the Darkness Sacred Land had employed its full force into searching for the remaining Time, Space, Blackhole Heavenly Fragments. In the end, their efforts proved rewarding. On a planet called Tirank, they were able to find a cultivator called Askol Jofen. The planet of Tirank was a remote one, with cultivators and demon beasts not being able to go over the Soul Forging Realm. It was pretty much at the same level as Makui. The only difference is that it was a lot further away from the powers controlling this region. Thanks to that, no one noticed Askol''s presence until now. Askol turned out to be a genius, easily dominating everyone in the same generation. When he was only twenty, he broke through the Divine Soul Realm. At the age of 32 years, he entered the Soul Forging Realm! Don''t look down on this cultivation speed. Considering the environment Askol grew up in, that is already a frightening speed of advancement. Around a year ago, an emissary of the Darkness Sacred Land arrived at the Tirank Planet. Using his authority, he made all the cultivators and demon beasts from the big sects look for heaven-defying geniuses. Not too surprisingly, he quickly heard about Askol, who surpassed everyone else in battle prowess and cultivation speed. When the emissary went to test Askol himself, the later was able to escape his pursuit by using his comprehension of the Space Laws. The emissary is at the Void Breaking Realm. For a 1st Stage Soul Forging Realm to be able to escape from him, he immediately understood that perhaps he found the right person. Instead of keep searching for him, the emissary immediately contacted the Darkness Sacred Land. Sure enough, the Darkness Sacred Land was desperate to find a Heavenly Fragment Owner. With this sudden news, they immediately sent a Divinity Realm over. With a simple Divine Sense scan over the entire planet, that Divinity Realm quickly found Askol. It doesn''t matter how impressive a Space Major Divine Soul is, the difference in cultivation was simply too big! The Divinity Realm guy''s comprehension of the Space Laws far surpassed Askol''s. Askol couldn''t understand how he offended such a terrifying existence. But not too long after he was confirmed to have the Space Heavenly Fragment, the elders of the Darkness Sacred Land explained everything to him. With no other choice, Askol went back to the Darkness Sacred Land with the Divinity Realm elder. In exchange, the Darkness Sacred Land had to treat his family and sect properly. The elders of the Sacred Land knew that acquiring Askol''s loyalty was the first step. So they immediately helped his sect become the strongest one in the Tirank Planet. As for his family, they helped them with pills, cultivation techniques, and other things. It wouldn''t take too long for his parents to soar in cultivation, which pleased Askol very much. His overall abilities were another story, though. Things like top cultivation techniques, Top skills, Foundation Enhancement Methods, etc. All of that improved several times under the Sacred land''s watch. His comprehension over the Space Sub-Laws also soared with the help of the elders. The Darkness Sacred land finally had one more Heavenly Fragment Owner! Better than that, Askol was not like Uer, who was always a keg of gunpowder that could explode at any second. He was easy to talk and quickly adapted to the Darkness Sacred Land rules. --- At the same time, Trata (the Earth Beaver) and the mountain girl were traveling from one planet to another. Back then, when Trata was given a choice to help the sects or the mountain girl, he ended choosing the mountain girl in the end. He was also the one to name her, choosing Lia as the name. Lia seemed to like that name a lot, so she quickly accepted it. Obviously, the sects couldn''t let things be over like that, so they tried all means possible to convince her to stay and go back to her Mountain Form. The mountain girl, obviously, immediately refused that. She had spent her entire life as a mountain, not being able to move at all! Who the hell would go back to that form? She would only do so when she needed to cultivate. She simply grabbed Trata and went somewhere else. With her power, no one on this planet could force her to do anything. Besides, she would appear with Trata somewhere and then disappear again. So the powers of this planet had a hard time finding her. At some point, a new mountain would appear somewhere on the planet. That was Lia passing her time cultivating with Trata. But when the sects and other powers finally caught news of her presence, she would already be gone from that place. Lia and Trata entered several different cities. With Trata''s help, Lia learned how to write and read too. She also came to understand how the cultivation world worked. At first, Trata and Lia were trapped inside that planet since there were no Long Distance Teleport Formations. But at some point, a Space Ship from the powers controlling that region arrived. Trata and Lia quickly reached an agreement with the troupe inside, and they brought those two away from there. Obviously, they had no idea that she has the Blackhole Heavenly Fragment. Or to be more precise, they aren''t anyone important, so they didn''t even know about the Heavenly Fragments to start with. As a Blackhole Major Divine Soul and with a Blackhole Heavenly Fragment Owner, Lia''s cultivation speed was simply frightening. Especially when she assumed her mountain form. When that happened, the entire extension of the mountain was her body! So all of that could be used to absorb the Spiritual Energy of Heaven and Earth. It could be said that her true form and her Blackhole Divine Soul were basically made for each other. At the moment, she was already in the 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, and it didn''t seem like her speed was going down at all. Trata also used those moments when she was back into her Mountain Form to cultivate. With so much Spiritual ENergy coming down, even his cultivation increased several times. Especially considering that Lia was purposely making a lot of Spiritual Energy pass through the place where Trata was. By now, Trata was already in the 5th Stage of the Core Formation Realm, which is impressive considering his previous Early Stages of the Foundation Establishment Realm. Trata simply couldn''t thank Lia enough. Lia had another big advantage. She more or less could understand the mountains! It was as if Lia could even talk to them. Thanks to that, it was easy for her to find deposits of Spirit Stones anywhere she went. It helped a lot with their travel expenses. At some point, the two of them also acquired two communicators. After learning how to use it, they started to buy the available cultivation techniques and skills. Of course, compared to the Dalin Universe''s ones, those examples aren''t even worth mentioning. There was no helping it. In the Luvile Universe, any rare cultivation techniques, skills, soul techniques, etc. were considered the Sects, Clans, and Organizations'' treasures. So one wouldn''t be able to find them for buying over the Luvile Universe''s network. Today, Trata and Lia were cultivating. Suddenly, Lia felt like someone''s Divine Sense passing over the place they were staying. The two had come to a remote region so that they wouldn''t be bothered. Mainly because she was in her mountain form. Transforming back to her original form elsewhere would attract too much attention. Not long after, A man and a woman appeared above her mountain body. The woman was a Demon Beast, while the man was a Cultivator. The man looked at the woman and asked. "Are you sure it is here?" *sniff, sniff.* After using her nose, the woman nodded. "Yes. Although the smell is different, it is also very familiar. How can I saw it... It is as if they are from the same type and at the same time not." The man looked around and could only see the mountain. "You first felt this smell a few planets away close to a Long Distance Teleport Formation. By following the path of the scent, we went through one teleport formation after another. So whatever it is, should be important." The woman nodded, and the two of them landed on Lia''s mountain body. Trata was also there, but because Lia was the mountain itself, she could use her form to hide Trata. "Weird... How come there is so much Spirit Energy in this place?" The female demon beast nodded and said. "Not only that, but the smell is also the strongest here as well. We should be able to see where it was coming from. Still, there is nothing, unless..." Suddenly, the woman transformed back into her demon beast form. She had white fur, wolf appearance, and some arcs of purple lightning running through her body. It turns out that she is none else other than Ula, the Moon Wolf. As for the man beside her, it is Ao Sulian, Krune''s long life friend! 446 Ewan Ula started to charge her own Purple Tribulation Lightning and was about to strike the mountain. It was not that she understood the truth, but because she thought that whoever it was, it was definitely inside the mountain¡ªa simple misunderstanding. So she decided to simply... blast it away. But just as she was about to do so, Ula and Ao heard a Divine Sense message. "What do you want?" The discharge was immediately canceled, and under their own feet, the mountain started to shrink at a frightening speed. Before Ula and Ao''s eyes, a naked girl appeared beside an Earth Beaver. Be it Ula or Ao, both of them have the Elemental Meridians, so their cultivation speed during this entire time wasn''t slow. Ula was in the 2nd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm while Ao was in the 3rd. However, compared to the Blackhole Divine Soul and Heavenly Fragment combo, they were still not a match. Especially since she can use the entire extent of her mountain body to absorb Spiritual Energy. Simply put, they would be hard-pressed against Lia''s 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. "The entire mountain was your body?!" Sure enough, both Ao and Ula couldn''t believe what they saw. Lia was also surprised since she thought that they had identified her. But it was a misunderstanding of both parties. "So you didn''t know I was the mountain... Anyway, you said that I have some familiar smell and came to check, what is it?" Ula could see that Lia''s cultivation was a lot higher, but not to the point where she and Ao would be helpless, so she wasn''t afraid. "That''s correct, you have a familiar smell. For some reason, you remind me a friend who left this Universe several years ago." Ula had heard from Ao everything about Krune, Feifei, and their Heavenly Fragments. For some reason, although Lia''s scent was different, it reminded her about them. "Left this Universe?" Ula then approached and introduced herself. "I''m Ula, a member of the Divine Path Sect of the western protectorate. This guy beside me is my husband, Ao Sulian." Ao nodded at her. "Nice to meet you. We definitely didn''t have any bad intentions against you or your friend. Ula just thought that the thing she had been following for several planets was inside the mountain. She wouldn''t have tried to attack your body if she knew that you were a sentient being. Please understand that we really had never heard about a mountain gaining sentience before." Lia dropped her guard a little after hearing that. After traveling for so long, she understood that cases, where unanimated objects gained sentience, are extremely rare. There are even more ordinary Major Divine Souls than beings like herself. Their misunderstanding was totally understandable. Trata patted Lia''s head and smiled at her. He came forward and gave Ao a handshake. "I''m Trata, and the mountain girl is called Lia. You are quite far away from the western protectorate, arent you?" Ao smiled and nodded. "Indeed. We are traveling to temper our skills. We had been to the north and south as well, and we stayed quite a few years out. This place was supposed to be our last stop before returning to the Divine Path Sect." Ao then looked at Lia for a second and then looked away. "Cough, cough. Would your female friend mind put some clothes?" Ao was the only human between the four, so the others really didn''t mind Lia''s naked body. Still, she also understood that humans don''t like to see other human bodies naked, so she put some plain clothes on. Ula also returned to her human form, putting her clothes on too. "There is no need for us to keep floating like this, let''s go down to talk." Ao had taken Krune''s taste for food, so although he wasn''t as good of a cooker, he still knew how to prepare his own share. Ula, obviously, loved that too. He made some simple and fast thing and shared with Trata and Lia. Lia could see Ula''s eyes glued on her and her nose twitching now and then. It finally reached a point where she couldn''t hold her curiosity anymore. "Is my scent really that similar to your friends?" Ula nodded vigorously but then shook her head. "It is, and at the same time, it is not. Now that I''m close to you, I finally understood why, though. It is because the smell is mixed with your own body scent." Ula looked at the position where Lia''s core should be and then asked. "Do you perhaps have something inside your Divine Soul? Like... something that looks like a fragment?" Let alone Lia and Trata, even Ao Sulian, was shocked by that question. "Ula, you can''t possibly be saying..." Ula looked at Ao and nodded. "That''s the only thing I could think of. Your friend, Krune, always had a specific scent that I could only feel on Feifei." "In Krune''s case, his body smell only got mixed with the other when he was in his human form. After all, Krune didn''t have a scent in his Wisp Form. During the times Krune was in his original form, only this particular smell remained." "Feifei was pretty much like Lia, though. She also had a similar smell to Krune''s, but her body scent was also mixed with it. Feifei and I had very little interaction, so I didn''t have much of a chance to talk to her. However, other than the two of them, I have never felt this smell before. Well, not until a few days ago back in the Earkei Planet." Trata was surprised to hear that. "We indeed passed by the Earkei Planet on our way here. Just like you, we are also traveling around." Lia was more preoccupied with the Fragment part, though. "So, this smell is something left by this fragment that you talked about?" Ula pondered a bit and said. "Well, as I said, it is just a conjecture. Perhaps there are more people and beasts out there with this specific smell too. If you say that you don''t have this Fragment I told you about, then you can forget I said anything." Lia looked deeply at Ula. Although they had just met each other, it didn''t feel like Ula was lying. Besides, she does indeed have a fragment inside her Divine Soul but had only told Trata about it. Trata would definitely not spread this information around, so it served as proof that Ula was probably not lying. "Indeed, I do have something that looks like a Fragment in my Divine Soul. Would you mind telling me what it is? So far, I have not met anyone with similar characteristics." Ula and Ao were really shocked to hear. That was a blind shoot. After all, there is supposed to be only 9 Heavenly Fragments in the entire Universe! Looking at Ao and Ula''s expressions, it was evident that the Heavenly Fragment inside her Divine Soul wasn''t anything simple. But just as she was about to ask more. "Ah!" Ula showed a startled expression. Right after, she took out a small box, or to be more specific, a pocket dimension spatial box. In the next second, a little guy who seemed to be a mix of wolf and human came out. He had a human form but with cute wolf ears with snow-white fur on them. The white fur contrasted with his white hair too. It was also easy to notice his 4 canine teeth, two up, and two down. Not to mention the catchy White and Furry wolf tail on the back. His name was Ewan Sulian, the child of Ao and Ula that was born during their travels. Obviously, a hybrid of Moon Wolf and Human. It turns out that Ao and Ula were a lot later than Krune and Feifei or Tiane and Ruik. Their kid was only a few months old now and was still breastfeeding. As one can imagine, Ewan also has the Elemental Meridians instead of the normal ones. Not to mention that he, too, was born in the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. Ula and Ao reached the same idea as Krune''s group. They bought a pocket dimension spatial box where they could keep Ewan while he was sleeping or if there was any danger. "Sorry, he is just hungry. But we can continue to talk while I feed him." Lia looked at the child, feeding on Ula''s milk and nodded. "Very well. Can you tell me more about this Fragment that I have in my Divine Soul?" Ao and Ua looked at each other and then nodded at Lia too. "It goes like this..." 447 New Friend Ao and Ula explained everything in the smallest details. They talked about the fact that there is supposed to be only nine in total and that their friend had to go to another Universe to avoid pursuit. By the time they were finished, Lia''s expression had already turned into one of disbelief. She took some time to think and added. "I think that I indeed have this Blackhole Heavenly Fragment. So far, I haven''t seen anyone cultivating as fast as me. Also, I''m indeed several times stronger than other cultivators and demon beasts at the same level. Not to mention that other than Earth Laws, I''m indeed extremely proficient in Space and Time laws as well. It is just that I focused a lot more on Earth Laws, so those two lagged behind." It was then that Ao noticed something. "Wait, you said that so far, no one had the same characteristics as you. Does that mean that you made inquires about the Fragment in your Divine Soul?" Lia nodded. "Yes. But I had never mentioned that I had it myself." Ao shook his head. "That is not the problem here. Only big powers like the Sacred Lands and other influential ones know about the existence of Heavenly Fragments in our Luvile Universe. The fact that you went around asking about it is more than enough for you to be tracked down. We should move immediately." Ao was right. At this very moment, the All Life Sect already caught the news. There were even several subordinates of their Sect looking for someone like Lia in the region that they are at the moment. Fortunately, Lia never told anyone where she was going. She also stayed in this remote region for quite a few days, so she hasn''t been discovered yet. Different from Askol''s time, there is no Divinity Realm looking for her. That is because the information that the All Life Sect got was too vague, and they thought to be just a coincidence or made on purpose. Such a thing had happened thousands of times in the past, so they couldn''t mobilize a Divinity Realm Cultivator every time something like that occurs. During Askol''s time, he was able to escape from a High-Level Void Breaking Realm cultivator of the Darkness Sacred Land with just a 1st Stage Soul Forging Realm. Not to mention that the difference in skills, cultivation techniques, and others was enormous. So the Darkness Sacred Land had substantial evidence that Askol was probably a Heavenly Fragment Owner. Only after that did they mobilize a Divinity Realm Cultivator to capture him. Ula looked worried at Lia. She was definitely in danger at the moment. They just don''t know when the enemy would appear. Lia, on the other hand, simply asked Ula. "Can others use my smell to find my location as you did?" Ula shook her head. Lia nodded and declared. "Then, there is no danger. As long as I am in my Mountain Form, no one can feel my presence. All that they can see is a mountain, nothing more. As far as my Divine Sense can see, there is no one around. Give me some space, I will go back to my real form." Ao and Ula were surprised to hear that, so they quickly gave her some space. A few moments later, a new mountain appeared in this place. Not only that, but Lia was very proficient in doing this. If Ao and Ula hadn''t seen it with their own eyes, they wouldn''t be able to tell that this mountain wasn''t here before. Lia made sure to merge even the borders of her mountain body perfectly with the scenario around. It was then that Ao, Ula, and Trata received a Divine Sense message from Lia. "I will stay for a few months like this. I doubt that their investigation will take this long. At the very least, this Sacred Lands that you talked about will give up this region and move into another. After that, Trata and I will move again." Ao couldn''t help but ask. "Aren''t you afraid of us bringing them to you instead?" The one to answer this question was Trata, though. "Hahaha! Although I won''t say that the chances are zero, I very much doubt so. Otherwise, wouldn''t it have been a lot easier for your wife to simply lie during our conversation? At that moment, she only mentioned that Lia had a similar smell to your friends called Krune and Feifei. Ula could have invented some other bullshit and then departed with you right after. However, you two still told us everything about the Heavenly Fragments. Considering those actions, I refuse to believe that you have bad intentions." Ao chuckled. He was starting to like this Earth Beaver quite a bit. He then looked at Ula and suggested. "What about we stay here for a time too? It seems like cultivating close to Lia is quite good." Ula smiled and agreed immediately. "She can also conceal our presence as she did with Trata, so I guess it is fine. Lia, would you mind it?" Lia was surprised to hear that. So far, she only interacted this closely with Trata, so she was a little lost at what to do with that couple, or better, that family of three. "Cough, cough. Errr... Sure, why not? As long as you are inside my mountain range, I can conceal your presence since the entire mountain is my body. However, I can''t offer you anything close to a house, so it is up to you to accommodate yourself." Ao nodded. "No problem, we have a Pocket Dimension Spatial Box. If we need privacy, we can always go inside. It also won''t take any space on your Mountain Body." Just like that, a new Heavenly Fragment owner made contact with Krune''s group. Albeit indirectly. 448 Triwater Sisters Shinja had got permission from Lua to bring the other two here. Just like her, Yusa and Lofa also specialize in Water Element. This Planet was also the one with a big hole that led to the Planet''s core. As mentioned before, this Planet was different from the normal ones. Its core had long since died, and the deeper you went, the colder it got. Shinja was cultivating at a distance of 150km down, while Yusa and Lofa were at 100km or so. Lua had mentioned that the right distance for Soul Forging Realm is around 80km. Still, due to their Elemental Meridians, Yusa, Lofa, and Shinja could go way further. Especially Shinja, who has a Pure Yin Body. The three girls had stayed here for over two years already, and there were no men in sight. It is not that this Planet doesn''t receive male cultivators and demon beasts, but that they would practice their water laws on the other side of the Planet. The Divine Path Sect had prepared this Planet like many others for one to entirely focus on cultivation and Laws Comprehension. That being said, the Sect made its best to eliminate any distractions for both sides. Due to her Pure Yin body and this special environment, Shinja was able to advance to the 4th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. In fact, she could have gone further, but she stopped to comprehend the Laws too. One must remember that only recently did Krune send the Divine Path Sect the Mind Splitting technique, so they got it quite later than Krune and the others. Yusa and Lofa were also in the Soul Forging Realm, but both girls were only at the 1st Stage. Of course, compared to the other girls who entered the Sect at the same time as them, Yusa and Lofa''s cultivation speed is frightening. Yusa and Lofa were cultivating beside each other when suddenly, Yusa asked Lofa with a Divine Sense message. "So, is it really okay to not see Tasier for this long?" Lofa was startled with that question, and she almost lost control over her Spiritual Energy. If that happened, she would need to go up as fast as possible to prevent the cold energy from damaging her body. Fortunately, she regained her concentration fast enough to drive the cold energy away again. "Where did that come from?!" Yusa couldn''t help but sigh. "So there is still nothing... I can''t help but feel sorry for Tasier." Lofa got a little red hearing that. In fact, she would be a lot redder, but the environment prevented it from showing up too much. "It''s not like there was nothing..." Hearing that, Yusa''s eyes immediately shined. "Oh?! Tell me more!" Unfortunately, Lofa dodged the topic. "What about you? Don''t you have anyone?" Yusa laughed. Lofa nodded vigorously after hearing that. "That''s true, it would be a suicide mission." Yusa couldn''t help but twitch. "Wasn''t this supposed to be the moment that you comfort me?" Lofa looked at Yusa through the corner of her eyes and snorted. "As if someone like you need to be comforted." Suddenly, Shinja came back from her time cultivating and passed by Yusa and Lofa. "I''m going up. Are you up to go to the Ice Arena?" Lofa and Yusa smiled at each other and nodded. "Sure thing!" The ice arena was a place prepared for the Sect where one could test their ability against the others. It was positioned halfway to the place where the men cultivated. There was only one rule. Doesn''t matter what kind of skill you use, all of them had to have water element and laws in its composition. Although the arena was open for everyone to fight each other, the fact is that this place became a gender''s fight. It was always a man against a woman. Rarely you would one see a fight of the same gender. The Sect and the masters of this place didn''t stop it, though. With the number of people and beasts of the Sect, it was too hard to not find a worthy match. After those two years here, Shinja, Lofa, and Yusa ended being called the Triwater Sisters. The three of them often did group battles and rarely lost. Even when they did lose, it was because the opponents usually had much higher cultivation levels. That goes to show just how terrifying the Myriad Energies Technique is. Today, it was no different, the three joined together. Soon, several groups of three also offered to challenge the girls. But just as they were about to accept the challenges, a new group that they had never seen before appeared. Shinja''s group couldn''t be blamed. After all, those three were not part of the Divine Path Sect, but from the Spiritas Kingdom, one of the Big Four. This group had two women and one man. They had come this time around as a program of training between disciples. The Divine Path Sect had also sent some of their own to the Spiritas Kingdom for the same purpose. Obviously, there were a lot more members of the Spiritas Kingdom around this time. Still, only this group had a level similar to Shinja, Lofa, and Yusa. They had heard about the Triwater Sisters, so they decided to wait here until those three appeared. Sure enough, they immediately challenged Shinja''s group. "Very well, we accept. However, you do know the rules, right?" The enemies'' cultivations were between the 2nd and 4th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, quite similar. But Shinja could tell that the woman at the same Stage of cultivation as her wasn''t simple. "Yes, the three of us are also Water Element and Laws experts, so you don''t need to worry. By the way, I''m Hiasa, the other girl beside me is Juna, and the man Koley." Shinja smiled and introduced her group, as well. "I''m Shinja, my two friends here are Lofa and Yusa." They didn''t waste more time with pleasantries and immediately entered the arena for group battles. The Divine Path Sect always kept some higher cultivation members to prevent any mishaps, so this time around, this group battle also had a judge. An 8th Stage Void Breaking Realm Demon Beast of the Inner Sect. Everyone gathered around to watch. It wasn''t every day that they received visitors from the Big Four, not to mention that they were fighting the infamous Triwater Sisters. Many cultivators and demon beasts immediately stopped their cultivation and used the teleport formations to come to this place after receiving the news. The judge looked at both sides and nodded. "You can start whenever you want. If I see that a victor was decided, I will stop the battle. If you insist on continue with your attacks, don''t blame me for being harsh. That''s all." Shinja, Yusa, Lofa immediately entered a combat formation and attacked straight away. Shinja was the main attacker while Lofa and Yusa gave support. The other side wasn''t slow either and started with a combat formation of their own. Both Hiasa and Shinja seemed extremely confident in their attack skills. With both sides giving their support to the two girls, the attacks quickly arrive. "Ice Ray!" "Water Nova!" Boom! Water Element and Laws hit each other, and both attacks were nullified. Both sides had used their companions Spiritual Energy and laws to increase the attack''s power, but they were evenly matched. Seeing that, Hiasa and Shinja couldn''t help but show a hint of Surprise. It was really hard to find an opponent at the same level that could match their powers. "Great!" "Marvelous!" This time, they didn''t hold back anymore. Skills, attacks, movement techniques, illusions, clones, everything they used had water elements and water laws behind. Sometimes, Shinja''s group would be on the winning side, others they would be suppressed. But be it Shinja, Yusa, Lofa, Hiasa, Juna, or Koley, everyone could see that they seemed to be having a lot of fun. Unfortunately for Shinja''s group, they missed a timing defense, and Hiasa''s group quickly seized the chance. With a combination of the water skills, Shinja and the others couldn''t hold the attacks anymore and were defeated. The judge immediately appeared between the two groups and announced. "Hiasa''s group is the winner of this match." All the spectators went into an uproar. This battle was a real eye-opener for everyone who is specialized in water elements and laws. Even though their sect members lost, it was really a close call. Until the very end, they couldn''t tell which side would emerge as victors. Shinja, Yusa, and Lofa got up and sighed. They lost fair and square. Even though Juna and Koley had slightly higher cultivation than Yusa and Lofa, it wouldn''t serve as an excuse, nor did they intended to use it. Hiasa''s group wasn''t much better. They had several wounds and were almost without any Spiritual and Elemental Source Energies remaining. Haisa came forward to compliment Shinja, but it was at this moment that Shinja asked. "You have a Yin Major Divine Soul, right?" Hiasa was taken aback but then laughed. "Yes, what about you?" Shinja shook her head. "I don''t, but I do have a Pure Yin Body. However, you don''t need to worry. I have no intention of saying that I lost because of that. It just means that we haven''t trained hard enough." Hiasa was surprised to hear that. Still, she smiled and replied. "We are going to stay here in the Divine Path Sect for two years. Let''s have a few more battles in the future. Besides, I also want to challenge you in a one vs. one." Shinja laughed and nodded. "Sure, I''m up for it anytime." Shinja, Yusa, and Lofa will have a lot to do for the time being. 449 Fly Somewhere else, a Flying Demon Beast and a Man were having a fierce fight against each other. Fire and Thunder spread everywhere, and the scenario got scourged. Still, quite a few cultivators and demon beasts were looking at their match. Finally, it reached a point where they couldn''t keep going anymore, and they had to stop. Those two were none other than Arlan and Tasier. Because Tasier wasn''t specialized in water laws and elements, he and Lofa ended going to different places. Arlan just so happened to be going to the same area, so the two traveled together. At the moment, they are in a place in the central region of the Luvile Universe called the Warriors Den. The entire planet was entirely driven by the arenas that expended for kilometers. Several geniuses and adventures liked to come to this place to test their abilities. Arlan and Tasier just so happen to be two of them. As long as one was below the Void Breaking Realm, they were free to challenge anyone. As for Arlan''s fiance, that was a thing from the past. The two of them had already married, so now that she got a hold of him, she gave Arlan a little more space. Besides, she had her own training to do, which didn''t follow Arlan''s path. In fact, Arlan and Tasier had just arrived a few days ago, so they are still getting used to the place. After exiting the arena, Arlan couldn''t help but ask Tasier. "I''m happy that you also came with me and that we can challenge each other. But why didn''t you go somewhere else more suitable to your Lightning Element and Laws?" Tasier, already back to his human form, shrugged his shoulders. "I was, I spent almost two years in the Diantal Planet where thunderstorms are constant. It helped with my laws and cultivation a lot. However, there weren''t many cultivators or demon beasts there for me to challenge, so I got stuck. I need to get used to my new power, so I thought that coming to this place would be a good idea." Arlan admitted that this place was perfect for gaining fight experience. Arlan, just like Shinja, has a unique body constitution, the Pure Yang Body. Considering that he also has the Elemental Meridians, his cultivation speed wasn''t any slower than her. He, too, was in the 4th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Before coming to this planet, Arlan went to one of the planets prepared by the Divine Path Sect to train his Fire Element and Laws. He could have stayed there and foght the Sect members like Shinja''s group. But it would always be a fight under a judge''s eyes, and that was not what he wanted. That''s why he came to this planet. Here, no one had to hold back, and no one would complain regardless of the outcome of the battle. Of course, it didn''t stop the death toll from being quite big. After all, the cultivators and demon beasts wouldn''t run unless they were sure they couldn''t win. Besides, with every arena having several spectators, the cultivators and demon beasts'' honor held them back as well. As for Tasier, he is one step above Lofa, being in the 2nd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Although Arlan and Tasier had just arrived, they caught the attention of quite a few cultivators and demon beasts. Of course, that was on purpose, they had been challenging each other to display their own abilities. That is because they are marked as outsiders. The cultivators and demon beasts of the central region would usually look down on those who came from other jurisdictions. Tasier and Arlan knew that no one would take their challenges seriously. That''s why they are using this way to prove them wrong. Sure enough, it didn''t take long for someone to appear. It turns out that it was another Lightning Element user. But different from Tasier, he was a cultivator. "Hey, chicken! Aren''t you being too cocky showing those miser abilities against your friend? What''s the point in fighting a battle where both sides aren''t trying to hurt each other?" Arlan smiled and simply stepped back, this one had nothing to do with him. In Tasier''s case, his eyes shined. He knew that he had finally caught someone. "Is that so? But where would I find a challenge? As far as I can see, there is no one around capable of taking me on. No, wait! Could it be that you are talking about yourself? That can''t be, right? Hahahaha!" The guy was a 3rd Stage Soul Forging Realm cultivator of the central region. He noticed that Tasier''s laws were quite good while he fought Arlan. Still, he didn''t put Tasier in his eyes. So he wanted to show Tasier in his place. But he didn''t expect Tasier to be bold enough to say that in front of everyone. "Hahaha! Good! You have guts, chicken. What about going into the arena to play with me?" Tasier shook his head. "No can do. I''m tired and used a lot of Spiritual Energy in my practice with my friend here a moment ago. But if you are not afraid enough of waiting for me to be at my peak, then I don''t mind accepting it. Of course, if you think you can''t deal with me like that, I will pretend that a fly came to bug me." Suddenly, someone else held Tasier''s shoulder. When tasier looked at who it is, he noticed that the other part''s cultivation was much higher, probably at the Void Breaking Realm. The guy had a dark expression as if he wanted to Kill Tasier right now. Tasier started to sweat cold. How did he offend this person, or better, Demon Beast in human form? The guy then asked with a cold voice. "So my Fly Race isn''t capable of nothing more than bugging you, yea?" Arlan immediately burst in laughter. There are insect demon beasts out there, so obviously there were some flys who also got lucky enough to be able to cultivate. But to think that Tasier would offend one of them this easily? Tasier smiled bitterly. "Cough, cough. That is my fault, brother. How about I pay you a meal, and we right this offense off, shall we?" The guy shook his head, though. "No, no! I want to show you how our fly race bugs others. Come on, let''s enter one of the arenas. I promise it won''t take long. I''ll make sure to not bug you too much." Tasier then looked at Arlan with pleading eyes. However, while still laughing, Arlan looked elsewhere and pretended to not know him. Tasier, of course, felt like crying but had no tears. "Wait, brother, its a misunderstanding." The guy didn''t mind Tasier''s words, though. "It''s okay, it''s okay. We flies love to bug others, you are not wrong at all." The guy who challenged Tasier also didn''t try to stop it. Sometime later, Tasier was finally back. Of course, quite a few feathers were missing, it was as if he was stripped of them. In fact, he was! Seeing Tasier''s appearance, Arlan once again burst in laugher. Arlan knew that the Void breaking Realm guy of the Fly Race wouldn''t really kill or cripple Tasier. After all, as someone with such a much higher cultivation, it would be disgraceful to do that against someone so much weaker than him. However, he was totally within his right to teach Tasier a lesson. That''s why even the power protecting this place didn''t intervene. Tasier looked hatefully at Arlan. "What if he really wanted to kill me? Would you really let me die?" Arlan nodded. "Of course! Do you think I would be able to stop a Void Breaking Realm Deamon Beast? Hahaha! You must be dreaming!" Tasier then sat on the ground and begrudgingly swallowed a Healing Pill. There was really nothing that he or Arlan could have done. Still, receiving a beating in front of everyone, and such a shameful one was hard to accept. ''Good thing that he didn''t know that I ate flies when I was a kid.'' Tasier is a Thunder Hawk, after all. An insect diet was also part of his daily life before gaining sentience at the 9th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. 450 Lakin and the Wisp Race On a planet somewhere in the Divine Path Sect Territory, Lakin and Cassy were cultivating. After over a decade, those two ended up together just as everyone expected. However, they did not have children like others. Not that they didn''t want, but that they didn''t have time to take care of them. Lakin used Lucio''s authority to acquire an empty land of the size of a country on the planet of Junan. Although this planet is populated, several places had barely anyone living in it, including Demon Beasts. Here, he had several enormous formations built which monitored who came in and out. He made such a move so that he could build a place where the Wisps could live safely. After more than ten years spreading the Myriad Wisps Technique, the results started to appear. Everywhere around the Divine Path Sect Territory had Foundation Establishment Wisps appearing one after another. The Wisps merchants looked at that and felt helpless. A foundation Establishment wisp would be worth a fortune in the past. However, such high-level wisps rarely appeared. At first, those merchants were thrilled to see the rise of so many good quality wisps. They all thought that they would get rich selling those Foundation Establishment Wisps for others to use their energy. Unfortunately, the bomb dropped on their heads, not too long after. No one did anything to them, it is just that those wisps had no value anymore. Krune modified the Myriad Energies Technique so that only wisps could use it, creating then the new Myriad Wisps Technique. The Wisps Energies Technique was almost as good as the Myriad Energies but had a particular trait that made all the difference. It changed the properties of the Wisps'' Spiritual Energy. That being said, any wisp that cultivated the Myriad Wisps Technique would be unsuitable for energy absorption. It is as if they had become just like any other Demon Beast around. That obviously ruined the plans of all Wisp Merchants in the entire Divine Path Sect Territory. The Wisps were growing in power, which made it harder to capture, and even after capturing, there would be no profit. Without another choice, one Wisp Merchant after another had to close their doors or change their business type. The Myriad Wisps Technique was already too well known to be stopped or prohibited. Even in other territories, this technique began to spread like wildfire. Of course, the Wisps condition didn''t simply improve in a single day. It would take decades, centuries, or even millenniums before it finally stabilized. Lakin had especially created this place to accommodate those wisps who got higher cultivations and were suffering because of it. This place carried a quite straightforward name, Wisps Country. Lakin had connections in several planets, and he used it to bring more and more wisps here. At the moment, more than a hundred thousand wisps lived in this area. But there was a prerequisite for a wisp to be brought here, he had to be at least in the Foundation Establishment Realm. It is not that Lakin didn''t want to bring them all, but because he is far from having the necessary resources to do such a thing. In the end, he had to begrudgingly make this decision since he needed wisps that could live longer. Another thing that was decided is that the Rainbow Sect would seize to exist. Instead, it is now considered a branch of the Divine Path Sect. The Divine Path Sect Rainbow Section, to be more precise. Although it accepted other races, the biggest majority that joined were still the wisps. Of course, this section followed a different rule from the Divine Path Sect. After all, the Divine Path Sect only made one recruitment test every ten years. First, It was the only Main Section located outside the Divine Path Sect Planet. Second, anyone could join at any time, but they won''t be considered real disciples of the Divine Path Sect. That being said, they received very little support from the later. Lakin had nothing to complain about, of course. Just by being considered part of the Divine Path Sect was enough to guarantee the Wisp Country''s safety. Besides, Lakin wants the wisps to build their own future, not to depend on the others to get it. The protection of the Divine Path Sect is already more than enough in his eyes. Back then, although the Wisp Country territory was quite big, there were simply not that many wisps here. It started with a small city with no more than 2000 or so wisps. At that time, Lakin was the only wisp present with a cultivation higher than the Foundation Establishment. However, ten plus years made a big difference. The Wisp City was getting bigger while the cultivation of the wisps also increased. By now, they already had more than a thousand wisps in the Core Formation Realm, all thanks to the Myriad Wisps Technique. Lakin was really putting his all on it. He brought branches of the Side Occupations to the city. Now any wisp interested could join them. With the help of the first wisps that reached the Core Formation Realm, the command chain got stable, and the city prospered. The wisps slowly started to make their own money and Spirit Stones with their own work. With that, they could cultivate much faster, and more high levels wisps began to appear too. Of course, not everything was flowers. Several planets refused to help with the high cultivation wisps gathering. Some more remote ones who had a strong foundation of wisps'' energy even saw them as enemies. The Myriad Wisps Technique had simply destroyed their path for easy breakthroughs. Quite a few of them ended releasing their fury on the wisps of their planets too. Well, it is not like things changed to those wisps to start with. After all, their fate was to have their energy absorbed, making them disappear. At least now, they could show some resistance. That and many other problems occurred. They are still happening and will keep recurring in the future. All of that had long since been predicted by Krune when he first passed the Myriad Wisps Technique ahead. After a few days, Lakin and Cassy came out of their seclusion. Lakin was close to the Soul Forging Realm, but he was holding it back a little longer to guarantee a stable foundation. As soon as they appeared outside, a wisp in human form came forward to tell him about the things that happened during his cultivation. "The plans to build a new city further away from Wisp City are going well, and quite a few wisps volunteered for it. The Divine Path Sect asked the report of the situation at the moment too, which should be ready by tomorrow. The Formations Master guild is sending a representative to talk about the new branch opening in the south this afternoon..." Lakin heard the reports and then gave his orders. It wasn''t until an hour later that he finally got free from all of that. Seeing the tiresome expression of Lakin''s Face, Cassy couldn''t help but laugh a little. "Now then, aren''t you looking like a president of some sort?" Lakin gave a dry laugh before shooking his head. "I really don''t know how there are humans who actively seek to become one. This thing is like hell! However, I''m only a temporary replacement. I''m putting all my efforts to make it get bigger and better. Then, when Ruik comes back, I will throw everything on his back at once. It is thanks to these thoughts that I can keep going on. I can''t help but think about his sorrowful state when he takes over." Cassy laughed even more after hearing that. "Indeed, that is something to look forward to!" Somewhere in a certain different Universe, a particular snake sneezed. "By the way, did you get any news from Ao and Ula?" Lakin shook his head. "They disappeared around a month ago. There had been no contact what so ever. Shinja and the others also don''t know anything. However, their Soul Flames are still fine back in the Divine Path Sect. Considering that they are traveling around the Luvile Universe, it isn''t too hard to imagine that they arrived in a place where they can''t communicate." Cassy nodded and didn''t ask anymore. She knows that Ao and Ula can take care of themselves. The only thing she felt pity is that their child was born while they were outside, so she still hasn''t seen Ewan. Well, she saw him, but it was through a video call, which was not the same thing. Lakin then got close to the window and looked at the Wisp City in front. He couldn''t help but think about how his master was doing at the moment. 451 The First Purple Flame Dragon Pearl Back in the Dalin Universe, six months had already passed. Krune was now crafting the first Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. As he had planned before, Laex''s one was the first. For this Dragon Pearl, Krune had Laex prepare several Blood Recovery Pills. As mentioned previously, the blood of the Dragon who is going to use it is necessary, and in vast quantities. The Forging process would take at least a month to be over. Krune made sure to let everyone know that he wouldn''t be able to stop during this time. The forging process required him to never turn down his flames, and there is a need for constant replenishment of Chaos Energy. Laex arrived at Krune''s workshop and went to an empty space that had been prepared for him. Right after, he transformed back to his dragon form. Seeing that, Krune nodded and asked. "Are you ready? It''s going to be a lot of blood." Laex nodded. "I spent quite some Spirit Stones buying a large number of pills, so go ahead and start anytime. For the next month, you can call me Blood Dragon. Hahaha!" Krune shook his head and pretended that he didn''t hear it. The process soon started, and Krune brought out the materials necessary to forge the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. The reason a dragon pearl used so much blood is that the power in the blood itself is completely absorbed by the material. A Dragon''s blood possesses incredible strength, so much that it could even awaken a reptile type demon beast''s long since sleeping dragon blood. That was precisely the power that Krune needed to fuse into the Materials. First, Krune forged the Pearl using his Purple Flame. "Alright, Blood Dragon. You can start pouring the blood now." Although Krune had forged the Pearl, it wasn''t the last time he did it. As the power of the Dragon Blood was absorbed by the Pearl, many impurities would come together. This would also make the Pearl increase in size. Krune''s work was to reforge the Pearl several times during this month to eliminate those impurities. The Purple Flame would be heating it nonstop too. Laex cut himself, and soon, blood started to pour down. Krune quickly used his Chaos Energy to force the Pearl to absorb the Dragon''s Power. "That''s enough. Wait 30 minutes while I take the impurities out. Take this chance and swallow a Blood Recovery Pill." Laex did as Krune said and then laid down. Thirty minutes later, Krune finished removing the blood''s impurities and asked Laex to pour more. Soon, a day was gone, then a week. During all this time, Krune didn''t stop to rest, neither did Laex stop recovering the lost blood. Fortunately, Laex is quite a big dragon with high cultivation, so his blood recovery speed could keep with the Forging Process. Of course, one thing is to recover the blood; another is not to be affected by this process. Laex was already starting to feel a little dizzy. Laex couldn''t help but laugh. "Don''t worry, only when I get at the brink of death shall we interrupt this forging process. As much as you need, I will provide to you." Laex could already feel the Dragon Pearl''s power, and it was more than enough to keep him awake. Two weeks went by, then three weeks, and finally four weeks. Now, Krune''s Purple Flame Dragon Pearl already had its full form. Not too surprisingly, other than the Dragon Power inside, it also had the famous Purple Hue over it. Laex couldn''t even get up anymore, he just moved his hand and poured the blood when needed. At this point, just staying awake required great perseverance from Laex. "It seems like we will really finish it. There is only one last step, so I will only need your Dragon Blood one last time." Laex forced a tiresome smiled but didn''t say anything. The last step would converge all the power in a single point, making it burst inside the Dragon Pearl, granting it a pseudo-life. This was also the most critical moment. A mistake in the control over Chaos Energy would make all the effort go to waste. However, if there is someone confident enough with his control over energies, that one is definitely Krune. With his Chaos Meridians, it would be hard to find someone at his level even at higher realms. "Alright, send it down. This time, I will need twice as much." Laex felt like crying when he heard that. Still, he gritted his teeth and sent down the blood. When he finally finished, he completely lost consciousness. However, Krune just smiled, seeing that. He had really persevered to the end, and the blood received was more than enough. "Converge!" Using his Purple Flames, Chaos Energy, and even a bit of raw Purple Tribulation Lightning, Krune forced everything in at the Pearl''s center. "Burst!" Suddenly, an enormous wave of energy rushed out. It swept quite a few of Krune''s tools and other things in the surroundings of his house. Laka, who had been waiting all this time, immediately looked at Krune''s workshop direction. "Haha! I can feel it, it''s alive! Or better, half-alive would be more correct." Back inside the workshop, Krune held the Dragon Pearl on his hand. Looking inside, Krune was able to see the energy running around in a circle. But the impressive thing is that now and then, he would see small sparks of Purple Lightning. "It seems like I was correct, the Dragon''s power is strong enough to hold some of the Purple Tribulation Lightning. It should make its prowess move a step further. It was even able to hold a tiny amount of Purple Tribulation Lightning Essence." Suddenly, Light Spirit complained. "Hmph! Using our so hard-earned Purple Lightning Essence. Even though it is almost insignificant, it will still take more than a week to recover." Krune didn''t mind, though. "Stop being so stingy. When I learn enough laws to create Purple Lightning Essence, I will help you recover it." Krune didn''t bother Laex and put the Dragon Pearl in his Spatial Ring. He would need to wait for Laex to wake up and recover first before testing it out. Krune is specially concerned with the Purple Flame and Lightning Essence powers that might be too much to resist. After all, the Dragon Pearl must be fused with its owner if the Dragon wishes to use its power. Krune then glanced at Laex before thinking. ''Considering this idiot''s personality, he will try the Pearl straight away before finish recovering. I''ll better keep it with me for the time being.'' Krune exited the workshop, and Laka immediately appeared on his side. "Ancestor! How was it? Let me see!" Krune glance at him and asked back. "Why would you want to see? It would be useless in the hands of anyone else other than Laex." Laka''s excitement immediately died after hearing Krune''s words. Seeing that, Krune couldn''t help but laugh. "Hahaha! I''m joking with you." Krune then took out Laex''s Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. Soon after, Feifei and Fie also appeared. They had felt the energy coming from the workshop, so they rushed here. Laka held the Pearl and couldn''t help but feel emotional. "It is definitely better, I have no doubt! I''ve seen and even felt other Dragon Pearls'' powers before, and they were all similar. However, this one definitely surpasses any of those." Krune nodded. "That is good to hear. Anyway, you better prepare yourself. One month from now, we will start forging yours." Laka passed the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl to Feifei and Fie before asking. "One month? Can''t we start earlier?" Krune shook his head. "No can do. I want to wait for Laex to recover and try its power first. If it turns out that it can harm you two, I will have it destroyed. My greatest concern is that the Purple Flame power will make your own energies go berserk. You might even explode right there and then." Laka felt frighetened by it. "Is it really this tyrannical?" Krune confirmed. "Yes. I even added a particular thing that should have increased its power. So you will have to wait for the test first. I might be wrong, but I think that Laex can defeat you with this Dragon Pearl. At the very least, if his energy doesn''t go berserk, he should have power compared to yours." Laka nodded seriously and awaited for the time Laex recovered. He, more than anyone else, wanted Krune to be right. 452 Pearls Completed It took Laex an entire day to wake up. He was too weak at the moment, so Krune and the others helped him recover. Around a week later, he finally could move normally. However, it would take another two weeks for Lex to go back to his peak state. As expected, Laex wanted to try using the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl straight away. Krune, of course, stubbornly denied. It didn''t matter how many times he asked, Krune did not relent. He didn''t even show the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl to him. Finally, three weeks went by, and Laex could be said to be back to his peak state. "Give me, give me! Let me see it." Krune sighed and finally took out the Pearl. As soon as Laex saw it, he felt the connection between his Dragon Blood and the Pearl. But before passing it over, Krune warned. "If you feel like you are losing control over your energy, immediately cancel the fusion, understood?" Laex nodded vigorously. "Don''t worry, it won''t happen. Even though it is a Purple Flame Dragon Pearl, I can feel the compatibility with my body. Most likely, what you think isn''t going to happen." "That would be good." Laka was also here for this moment. Krune asked him to challenge Laex, after all. Laex, of course, accepted it too. He really wanted to see if the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl could make up for the Heavenly Divine Soul. Laex then absorbed the Pearl, and it fused with his body almost instantly. Both of them could be said to be a single being now. When the Pearl Fused with Laex, its power that had been contained inside broke free and spread through Laex''s body. Immediately, Laex felt his overall strength swelling. His body got sturdier, he could feel the laws and elements easier, and his Spiritual, Elemental Source, and Chaos energy output increased. At the 9th Stage of the Void breaking Realm, Laex could fight ordinary 2nd Stage Divine Path Realm cultivators and demon beasts. However, with the Purple Flame Pearl''s addition, he felt like even a 5th Stage wouldn''t be much of a problem. A standard Dragon Pearl would never bring his strength up to this point. Of course, it wasn''t just good news. If he wanted to sustain this power, a lot more energy was necessary, so he would definitely lose in a battle of endurance. Also, he could feel sparks of Purple Tribulation Lightning running in his Foundation. It stimulated his Energies, but at the same time, making them a lot harder to control. Fortunately, what Krune mentioned didn''t happen. The Pearl wasn''t able to make Laex''s energies go berserk. Krune let out a sigh of relief after confirming that. "Good! It seems like it is doable." Krune then looked at Laka and nodded. "Alright, show me what you two can do." They opened a Spatial Gate and moved to a deserted place in the Wisp Main World. There, Laex and Laka immediately started their fight. Krune also noticed a change in Laex''s power. Any form of elemental attack that Laex used always had a purple hue to them. That was obviously the effect of the Purple Flame spreading through Laex''s body. It really increased the attack power a lot more than common Dragon Pearls. In the end, the fight ended without a victor. Although Laex was ahead in combat power, his consumption of energy was a lot higher. Also, it was evident that he was having a hard time controlling them. By the time Laex came back, Krune had already sent him a Divine Sense message. "I really think you should use the Myriad Energies Technique. I know you don''t want to because you like to rely on your body''s Meridians. Still, it would improve your control over your energies several times. It is perfectly fit for your Purple Flame Dragon Pearl." Krune had indeed offered the Myriad Energies Technique for Laex in the past. But because it would make his own meridians obsolete, Laex had refused. It was merely a Dragon''s pride, simple as that. He didn''t want to give up the meridians of his own body for the new ones. However, this time Laex couldn''t help but ponder about it. He is extremely happy with the results of the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. Unfortunately, Krune was right. It was really difficult to control the energies in his body. His combat power would have been a lot higher if Laex could do it. He would probably have won against Laka just now too. "Give me some time to think. I''ll give you an answer after you finish forging Laka''s Pearl." Krune nodded and didn''t insist any further. After they returned, Krune told Laka that they would start his in a week''s time. He was still digesting the experience he got during the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl''s creation. Although the next one would be the same, Krune thought that he could reduce the time and the blood necessary. A week quickly went by, and Krune finally started Laka''s Pearl. Just like Laex, Laka needed loads of Blood Recovery Pills. It was a good thing that Krune''s proficiency in creating the Pearl increased after last time. That is because only 80% of Laka''s blood is from the Dragon''s side; the other 20% is part of the Phoenix Race, which wasn''t useful during the process. That being said, Laka would need to give a lot more blood to Krune if he wanted to complete his Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. Of course, that wasn''t necessary anymore. Krune was able to finish Laka''s Purple Flame Dragon Pearl almost at the same time as Laex''s one. Just like Laex, Krune refused to give the Pearl to Laka for testing. Although it seemed like it would be fine, Krune didn''t want to take risks. "Stingy!" Ignoring him, Krune went back home. During the next week, Krune didn''t cultivate or did anything else. He just relaxed with Feifei and Fie. Recently he had been busy with too many things, so he also needed some time to rest. The others had also been doing their own things. With Liriu''s Blood Sealed, Tiane and Ruik had gone somewhere else with him. Dilo and Xankruan were doing a few missions to gather some Spirit Stones. As for Cinty, she stayed in her house with Kiirion, those two seemed to be a lot closer recently. Finally, another month went by, and Krune gave Laka''s Purple Flame Dragon Pearl to him. "Thank you, Ancestor!" Krune''s mouth couldn''t help but twitch. "Can you stop with this Ancestor thing? I don''t remember to have such a shameless descendant. Besides, Wisps don''t even look like Dragons to start with, let alone a mix of Dragon and Phoenix." Laka laughed out loud but didn''t deny it. "Anyway, there is still another 2 months before the Holy Land opens. When do you plan to move there?" Krune pondered a bit. "There are a few of us who aren''t here at the moment, but they said they would be back soon. Once they are here, we can go together." Laka nodded and didn''t say anything else. He had nowhere to go anyway, so he would just join Krune''s troupe. 453 Beloved Protector No content 454 Convincing Alacanta A few hours later, only a ragged doll that was once known as Laka remained. Seeing that scene, Laex couldn''t help and stepped forward. "I pray for your soul to reach the other side safely. Laka, I shall never forget our friendship." Of course, Laka wasn''t dead. That was simply Laex adding salt to the injury. ''Once I recover, you won''t have that smug smiled in your face anymore.'' Ignoring the half-dead Laka on the ground, Alacanta looked at Krune''s group and asked. "Are you perhaps the ones that Laka sold the Holy Land slots to?" Krune''s group nodded. Their presence earlier was just so that they wouldn''t get involved in Laka''s ''business.'' Neither they nor Alacanta had believed it even for a second. "He sold it to us. After that, since we were coming to the same place, he just accompanied us." Alacanta sighed before extending her hand. "I''m sorry, but could you give the tokens back to me? This guy took it without anyone noticing, so he had no right to sell them." Krune and the others were taken aback. It was a completely different story from what Laka told them. "Cough, cough. Sister Alacanta, I already received the payment, so there is no way we can get those tokens back." Alacanta glared at him, and Laka immediately shut up. "Whatever the price, I''m willing to pay it back with interest. However, those slots are too important to us. Tell me, just how much did you pay him?" Krune and the others looked at Laka. The payment was the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl, so even if Laka gave it back to Krune, it wouldn''t have any use whatsoever. A Dragon Pearl can only be used by the Dragon who provided the blood, no one else. "Errr... I don''t think we would have any use for that anymore. We are fine with the slots alone. But thank you for the offer anyway." Alacanta narrowed her eyes. But just as she was about to talk, Laka intervened once more. "Sister Alacanta, they are right. The payment is simply not something that can be paid back. Even if I return what I got, it would be nothing more than a piece of trash in their hands." Alacanta felt that something was wrong. "You sold the slots of the Holy Land for a piece of Trash?" Laka sweated a bit and immediately shook his head. "Of course not! It is useless in their hands, but in mine, it will probably become the difference between getting one of the five slots in the Heavenly Competition or not. No, to be honest, if I get in the top five, it is definitely because of what they offered me." Alacanta was surprised by that statement. "Just what was it that would make you so much stronger?" Laka slimed and said. "A new type of Dragon Pearl. One that is several times better than any other Dragon Pearl you had ever seen." "I only believe what I see. Let''s go to one of the concealed arenas. You will fight me with everything you got. If it turns out that you are speaking the truth, I won''t demand their slots back anymore." Laka smiled brightly after hearing that. He and Laex already fought after his Purple Flame Dragon Pearl was completed. That being said, he is sure that the trade was more than worth it. After paying for an Arena and activating its concealing formation, Alacanta and Laka immediately initiated their battle. Sure enough, Laka was several times stronger than he was in the past. Laka hasn''t improved his cultivation even a single stage since a year ago, but his combat power simply soared. If Alacanta wasn''t a phoenix with a Yang Major Divine Soul, she wouldn''t be able to win in the end. That meant that Laka could definitely win against ordinary 8th Stage Divine Path realm cultivators and demon beasts! Maybe even a 9th stage wouldn''t be his match. Such power far surpassed what a common Dragon Pearl could offer him. The Heavenly Divine Soul isn''t this overpowered either. Whether Alacanta wished it or not, she could only believe Laka''s words. "Just who forged this thing for you?" Laka shook his head. "Unfortunately, the blacksmith behind it is a senior that doesn''t want to appear. This entire year that I disappeared was basically to convince him to forge this Dragon Pearl. The Slots and his identity secrecy was what I had to pay for. I also made a Dragon Pact, so I can''t go back on my word." Alacanta couldn''t help but frown. "Do you have any idea what you have in hands at the moment. I won''t complain about the Slots anymore, and I will also explain it to our faction. However, if the information of a higher level Dragon Pearl appears, the entire dragon race will go in an uproar." Laka just laughed. "Then it is a good thing that I got mine already. I can guarantee you. If not for a stroke of fate, I would have never acquired this thing. It doesn''t matter how many Dragons go out of their ways to beg this master, he won''t move a single muscle." Hearing that, Alacanta thought that perhaps, this Master Blacksmith was someone with an incredible background. He is probably linked to one of the Main Powers controlling Dalin. Otherwise, he wouldn''t be able to ignore that pleads of an entire Dragon Race. "Very well. However, if you want me to convince the elders in our faction to give up those slots, I will need to tell them about this Dragon Pearl of yours. They were planning to send a few other geniuses inside the Holy Land, after all. First, they wanted them to increase their levels fast. Second, it was also to help protect you." Laka then glanced at Krune, and the latter nodded. Either way, this new Dragon Pearl wouldn''t be hidden for much longer. Once Laka starts to use it in fights outside, everyone would understand that something isn''t right. At most, its presence would be concealed until the Start of the Heavenly Competition in 14 years. Last but not least, Krune was really curious to see just how much interest the Dragon Race would show for it. Who knows, his Purple Flame Dragon Pearl might become a big bargaining chip that could help him or the wisps in the future. "Alright. You can go ahead and tell this much." Alacanta nodded and then looked at Krune''s group. "What about them? Although you can''t say who this master is, it is not like they can''t as well, right? After all, this master got those slots for this group." Hearing that, Laka only laughed. "Group? What group? Sister Alacanta, aren''t those guys just a few friends that we coincidently made once we arrived here?" Alacanta was taken aback. "Are you asking me to not report about them? Why would I do that?" Laka smiled playfully. "How could that be? Sister Alacanta simply forgot to tell them, that''s all." It was then that Alacanta received a Divine Sense message from Laka. "Sister Alacanta, wouldn''t be reveling their connection with this Master Blacksmith a mistake? After all, if the Dragon Clan''s old geezers really want this new Dragon Pearl, the last thing I recommend is to involve his juniors. Wouldn''t that be the same as threatening him? Do you really want to be on the bad side of someone who can forge something like this?" Alacanta''s heart froze. Indeed, if she reported this to their faction, some greedy guys wouldn''t be able to hold themselves back. If things went wrong, they might bring a calamity back home. She is not a Dragon, so she isn''t blinded by how amazing this Dragon Pearly is. "Cough, cough. Now that you said, I think I forgot who they are. Anyway, we have stayed here for too long already, let''s go outside." They soon found a place to stay, and Laka took that opportunity to tell Krune what he agreed with Alacanta. "I see. That is perfect. As long as it can be hidden until we leave the Holy Land, that is good enough. It won''t matter how much they look for this hidden master blacksmith, only we know about it. After we leave the Holy Land and go back to the Wisp main World, I will let the Blacksmith Organization know." Krune then looked in the direction of the Holy Land. They were only a month away from its opening. 455 Crafty Sure enough, the news about a New Type of Dragon Pearl startled Laka''s faction back in his Universe. Well, to be more precise, only the Dragon Race members were like that. However, they aren''t part of the Universes controlling Dalin, so they couldn''t simply enter whenever they wanted. It was already a good thing that Alacanta could communicate with them without leaving Dalin. However, the elders reached an impasse. Should they inform the Dragon Race or wait for when Laka is back? Laka is under the Dragon Pact and can''t tell who this Master is, but that doesn''t mean that he can''t contact this Master himself. If the Dragon Race members of their faction can get those new Dragon Pearls first, that would be the best outcome. At the moment, only Laka knows who this Master Blacksmith is. "Let''s keep quiet and wait for the Holy Land to be over." Suddenly, everyone looked at the Faction Leader. All of them were waiting for an explanation too. "Can''t you see it? Laka got someone to forge this new Dragon Pearl inside the Dalin Universe." Finally, everyone understood what he meant. That is correct. Whether they spread this information to the Dragon Race or not, they can''t enter Dalin Universe to request one. It would also increase the chance of this Master crating other Dragon Pearls for other participants of the Heavenly Competition. Laka is far from being the only Dragon Blood taking part in it, after all. At the moment, with Laka being the only one with this Pearl, they have a huge chance of acquiring one of the five slots of the Dalin Universe. That being said, their priorities are already decided. They will wait for Laka to come back from the Holy Land before making any further questions. At the moment, getting to be one of the Universes controlling Dalin is the most critical objective. After considering their options, all the elders in the hall knew what to do, even the members of the Dragon Race. "Agreed!" The faction leader nodded, satisfied. "Very well, until the Holy Land closes, this information shall not leave this room." --- Back in the Dalin Universe, Krune and the others didn''t know anything about it. Even if they did, they wouldn''t care. As long as their presence here is not revealed, that is more than enough. During this month, Laka, Alacanta, and Krune''s group kept a low profile. Although Laka wanted to challenge other Heavenly Divine Soul owners, he knew that it wasn''t the time. The further he can keep the existence of his Purple Flame Dragon Pearl hidden, the better it is. Once the Holy Land entrance closes and the ten years time starts, no one would be able to contact the outside. He will have plenty of time to test his Dragon Pearl. "This should be the accumulated Spiritual Energy inside the Holy Land in the last 1000 years. Now that it opened, it rushed out like an explosion. The Holy Land is finally open." A few minutes later, the spiritual pressure disappeared. Immediately after, thousands of Spatial Gates started to open. Laka and Alacanta were together with Krune''s group too. Cinty then looked in the direction of the Holy Land Entrance and opened a Spatial Gate as well. Everyone entered and disappeared from the room. On the other side of the Spatial Gate, Krune''s group members appeared one after another. The Holy Land Entrance was right in the middle of the void, so everyone was floating in space. Looking around, Krune could see Spatial Gates appearing without stopping. ''Sure enough, the Qantun Planet wasn''t the only one where the Cultivators and Demon Beasts awaited. There is a lot more who didn''t mind waiting further away.'' Looking at the front, everyone could see something that looked like a huge whirlpool. It definitely expanded for over a hundred kilometers. But instead of water, it was made of space laws. Also, it was still possible to feel the enormous amount of Spiritual Energy coming from inside. However, that puzzled Krune. "Shouldn''t we be able to feel the Higher Realms energy as well?" Alacanta was the one to answer it. "The Higher Realms energy, or Godly Energy if you prefer, is sealed inside. Sentoi Havan had created God-Level Formations inside, which are sustained by that same Godly Energy. So there is no way for Godly Energy to ever flow outside of the Holy land." Everyone nodded. That was indeed a plausible explanation. Spatial gates continued to appear for another hour or so. Finally, several Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts appeared in front of the entrance. They were there to prevent anyone without a slot from entering. Eventually, one of them came forward and greeted all the participants. "Welcome, token holders. As you know, the Holy Land Entrance is almost ready to be passed through. You just need to wait for the Flow of Spiritual Energy to stop, and we will allow you to enter. But before that, I will announce the rules." "First, only those with tokens or those following someone with a higher slots'' token can enter. No one above the Divine Path Realm is allowed to participate either. It isn''t us who are stopping you from entering with higher cultivation, but the Holy Land itself. Since time immemorial, no one above the Divine Path Realm had ever succeeded in passing through its entrance. They all died. Of course, if you think that you are some favored child of the heavens, you can try your luck. As long as you have a slot, we won''t stop you." "Second, once the Holy Land''s entrance closes, you are all going to be trapped there for the next ten years. Even if your home Universe explodes, you won''t receive any information, nor will you be able to do anything. The only way to leave it is to wait for ten years or breakthrough into the Divine View Realm. If any of those two options happens, you will be immediately teleported outside." "Third, it doesn''t matter what you get inside, you won''t be able to bring it outside. You can try to put it in your Spatial Ring or whatever, it still doesn''t work. Holy Land objects can only exist in the Holy Land, the moment you are teleported outside, it will all disappear. Once again, if you want to try, you are welcome to do so. I would call it a waste of precious cultivation time, though. After so many Chaos Cycles, no one succeeded, so think twice if you would really be an exception." "Forth and last, whatever happens inside is not of anyone''s concern. No one will mind the difference in cultivation either, so be careful about who you are offending. Simply put, you are on your own. Even if you die, no one will care. Remember, your greatest enemies are the other participants, not the Holy Land." "That''s all for now. I wish every participant good luck." As soon as the guy stopped talking, the Spiritual Energy flow coming from the entrance disappeared. Right after everyone''s tokens started to shine. Krune''s group ones were no exception. Krune focused, and the Light of the token surrounded him, Feifei, and Fie inside his Pocket Dimension Spatial Box. As he passed by the Divinity Realm protectors, Feifei sent him a Divine Sense message. "Although I can''t see it, I can feel the presence of several formations, and powerful ones at that." Krune nodded. "That is to prevent anyone without a Token from entering the Holy Land. There is no lack of methods to conceal someone''s presence, so those formations should be covering all possible flaws." Feifei agreed with him. "Yes. I could feel that some kind of search happened in the Pocket Dimension Spatial Box. There is no doubt that they could see Fie inside." Krune didn''t mind, though. He made sure to cover Fie with the Light of his token too. As Laka mentioned, none of the demon beasts were forced to return to their original forms. However, it was then that Krune felt a spark of Purple Tribulation Lightning coming out and entering Cinty''s body. It was so subtle that only he and Cinty noticed it. Not too long after, they heard Light Spirit''s Divine Sense message. "Hehe. What a crafty bunch those ants are." Krune and Cinty were taken aback. "Why is it?" Light Spirit snorted before explaining. "Indeed, there isn''t a formation capable of transforming you two back into your Wisp Form, but there is one capable of seeing which race you are from." Cinty and Krune hearts froze for a second, and they immediately looked around. Still, it didn''t seem like those Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts were coming for them. Light Spirit saw that and laughed, though. "Haha! Don''t worry, I stopped it from feeling your presence. So none of them noticed anything. As long as it isn''t anything at the God-Level, I''m pretty confident against it. Still, that was really a close call. If I hadn''t noticed it in time, we would be in a tight spot." Krune narrowed his eyes and asked. "Do you think Laka has something to do with it?" Light Spirit immediately denied that possibility. "No, be it he or that heating chicken called Alacanta, neither one knows about it." Krune was surprised that Light Spirit was so sure about it. "Why is that?" Light Spirit laughed once more before saying. "Look around and tell me what you see." Krune did as Light Spirit asked and quickly understood what he meant. "I see... not only them. Actually, no one knows about the fact that their real forms were already seen through. Am I right?" Light Spirit nodded. "Correct. If they knew it, they wouldn''t all be acting this calm. It is no secret that a lot of those demon beasts are trying to hide their true forms. That is not how you should act after having your true form revealed, though. That''s why I said that those ants are crafty. They know which races are going in but kept it a secret until now. However, that is also good for us." Krune nodded, as long as they are safe, that''s what matters. Knowing that Laka or Alacanta weren''t planning something against them was good as well. Soon, Krune''s group approached the whirlpool and were sucked inside. The space around them warped, and everyone disappeared inside. Thanks to Light Spirit, their time inside the Holy Land started without any accidents. 456 Star As soon as Krune''s group appeared on the other side, they were assaulted by the Holy Land''s Godly Energy. Everyone immediately put up a Spiritual Energy barrier, but even it seemed of little effect. Fortunately, the Godly Energy at the entrance is at its weakest. The Holy Land has several levels, the higher you go, the stronger the Godly Energy. Not only that, but even the Spiritual Energy is a lot more concentrated than outside. Hence, cultivation speed is also better inside. Krune and everyone else didn''t take long to get used to that Energy. After all, it wasn''t even a thousandth of its actual level. Feifei and Tiane, who were holding the pocket dimension spatial boxes, then allowed a little of that Energy to sip inside. They wanted to see if Fie and Liriu would have any issues resisting it. Because Fie and Liriu are still in the Core Formation Realm, their defenses are a lot weaker than the others. However, they were still able to hold against that amount. Seeing that everyone was okay, Krune nodded and started to look around. "It seems like we started inside a forest or something like that." Laka agreed with him. "This is the first level of the Holy Land. If you look around, you can see the other cultivators and demon beasts too." Indeed. Even though they appeared in the middle of a forest, it was still possible to see quite a few participants from other groups. However, it was calmer than Krune thought it to be. "No one seems to be in the mood to attack others it seems." Alacanta also noticed that. "The Holy Land is very dangerous, so no one wants to be engaged in a fight before assuring that their place is safe." Laex then suggested. "Anyway, let''s leave this place. There are way too many cultivators and demon beasts around. We better find a place where it is calmer." Krune and the others nodded before starting moving. Things like stopping to cultivate and checking the benefits of the Godly Energy could be done later. However, just as they began to do that, all the trees around them began to act weird. Not only them but around all the other participants as well. Suddenly, hundreds of roots shot from the ground and attacked the participants. Krune and the others immediately counter-attacked with their skills. Still, they quickly found out that Energy attacks seemed to have minimal effect on those roots. Without wasting time, Krune brought out his Flying Shields and used them to block the attacks. Everyone else also took out their weapons and did the same. "Let''s fly, stying in the ground is too dangerous." The group immediately took flight... or so they tried. It turned out that they couldn''t go over 5 or so meters above the ground. Sure enough, this Holy Land wouldn''t be so nice to the point of allowing the participants to avoid the dangers that easily. "Follow me!" Except for Laka and Alacanta, the rest didn''t even think before going after Feifei. But seeing how much they trusted her, they gritted their teeth and followed as well. One thing impressive about these roots is that it seems like their strength was determined by the target. Although they had the same size, the roots that attacked Alacanta were several times stronger than the ones attacking Krune. Still, Krune could tell that if his group didn''t have a combat power far above their cultivation level, some would have been caught already. "What a terrifying control. Whatever is controlling these roots is able to do so against everyone in my Divine Sense range. Those are millions of commands at different levels of power. Really impressive. Feifei, is this a Formation?" Feifei, who was flying in the front, quickly nodded. As mentioned, one couldn''t go over 5 meters, but that didn''t mean they couldn''t fly. "There is no doubt. This is entirely different from Mohie Zarks Inheritance. That time, the roots acted on their own, and there was no control to be seen. But now, the roots know exactly who to attack and how much strength to use. Only a formation can achieve something like this. Not to mention that it is a terrifying high grade one." The fact that their skills were weak against the roots proved that Godly Energy was also involved in it. Also, Krune didn''t want to use his Purple Tribulation Lightning at the moment. This kind of power is very eye-catching. Although the chances are meager, everyone in this place has incredible backgrounds, so some probably know his characteristics. He thought that it was better to not risk it. Not to mention that Alacanta is still here, and she didn''t know about Krune''s real identity. Fortunately, his group was able to fend off the roots all the way to the forest''s exit. It is not that they were having an easy time, but that Feifei was the one leading the group. She was able to guide everyone through the safest route all the way out. As soon as they exited the forest, the roots stopped pursuing. Sure enough, those roots were more like a test for all the participants. If you couldn''t even pass through it, you would have no right to be in this place. Feifei couldn''t help but let out a sigh of relief. "Fortunately, those tree roots didn''t have any cultivation level, so it was easy to predict a safe route. Otherwise, I doubt I would be of much help. I tried to use my Destiny Divine Soul to understand this place, but I can''t see anything at all. This is definitely the highest level Dimensional Realm I have ever seen." Everyone nodded. Krune then looked at Laka and Alacanta. "What are you two going to do? Truth be told, a group of our level would only hold the two of you behind. Laka has a Heavenly Divine Soul, while Alacanta is an 8th Stage Divine Path Realm Phoenix with a Yang Major Divine Soul. There is really nothing we can do to help you in any way." Alacanta agreed with Krune. "It is good that you understand that. I will bring this idiot with me, so I wish you good luck. May we meet again later or outside." As important as being related to Krune might be, Alacanta was more concerned with Laka. He carried the hope of their Universe to get in the top five in the Heavenly Competition, after all. Krune and the others already expected that, so they didn''t try to stop them. Laka showed an apologetic expression, but he had to follow Alacanta''s orders while inside. Krune only laughed, seeing that. "It''s okay. This is something that we were already expecting to start with. Just make sure to survive. I don''t want my Purple Flame Dragon Pearl to be wasted." Laka laughed as well, and the two of them departed. Truth be told, even if Feifei hadn''t guided them, they wouldn''t have had much of an issue leaving that forest with their strength. At the moment, everyone was on flat land. As far as they could see, it was the same. Without any other choice, the group moved forward. While they were at it, Feifei sent everyone a Divine Sense message. "We will be staying here for ten years, so there isn''t really a need to go too far. I have brought a lot of materials to make formations. As soon as we find somewhere safe, I will build an Energy Gathering and Concealing Formation. We can take our time inside to get used to the Godly Energy and test its benefits." No one was against her plan. Around a day later, the flat land was finally left behind, and a mountain range appeared in their sight. Krune''s group had encountered several cultivators and demon beast groups. However, no battle happened since everyone was still getting used to the environment. After choosing a random mountain, Krune checked the surroundings with his Divine Sense and didn''t find anyone. Laex did the same thing since his cultivation is a lot higher than Krune. "Alright, let''s build a cave here. Feifei will also build an energy gathering formation and concealing one. Let''s do it fast before someone appears." "Yes!" But soon, they noticed a big problem. The Holy Land was had been basking in the Higher Realm''s Energy for countless years. So when they tried to make their way into the mountain, it proved to be several times harder than expected. Ruik even started to lose his patience. "This thing is hard as hell! An entire hour of work and we only excavated halfway through. Are you sure you want to do it here?" Dilo looked at him and rebuked. "Stop complaining and keep digging. It is not like we are lacking time anyway." Suddenly, Feifei came back and landed beside their group. She did not participate in the excavation. Instead, she went around the mountain to build her concealing formation first. As a Peak Golden Stars Formations Master, such a concealing formation isn''t anything hard to do. "I finished it already. How long will it take to dig a cave for us?" Krune looked at the progress and answered. "Probably another hour." Feifei nodded and started to help, as well. Finally, they finished opening it, and Feifei took the opportunity to build an Energy Gathering Formation inside. She even modified it on the spot so that the Godly Energy would be gathered too. "Phew... It is ready. Time to check things out." 457 Light Spirits Explanation With their safety measures completed, Feifei and Tiane let Fie and Liriu come out. Sure enough, it was a lot harder for them to resist the Godly Energy than the others. Still, their parents didn''t intervene. It was the only way to have your body used to it. Seeing that Fie and Liriu were doing fine, the others finally started to focus on their cultivation. One thing is to get used to Goldy Energy, another one is to use it directly. As soon as they allowed Godly Energy to come inside their foundation, everyone grunted in pain. Sure enough, this wasn''t the kind of energy that one could take lightly. Especially now that Feifei''s Energy Gathering Formation is bringing even more of this Energy here. To be safe, everyone only allowed a small amount of it to enter every time. There was no helping it, they didn''t know how to use it correctly yet. Well, everyone except for a single guy. "Ah... It''s so good to be able to feel this Energy again. Just how long had it been? I can barely remember..." Obviously, it was Light Spirit. As someone from the Higher Realm, this kind of energy couldn''t possibly cause him any damage. If anything, it increased his recovery speed several times. "Why are you talking so long? Absorb more! This is far from enough!" Krune''s mouth twitched. "Absorb more your ass! My foundation trembles every time I take a little, do you want me to break it?" "Oh! Is that the problem? Alright, then." Suddenly, Purple Tribulation Lightning spread out and covered the inside walls of Krune''s foundation. As soon as Light Spirit did that, the pain of the Higher Realms energy immediately disappear. Krune, of course, was shocked after seeing that. "Why didn''t you do it earlier?!" Light Spirit snorted. "You didn''t ask." Krune felt like crying but had no tears. "Forget it. I was an idiot to expect a proper answer." Knowing that there was no need to hold back anymore, Krune started to absorb the Godly Energy in this place like a bottomless hole. Obviously, everyone noticed the difference between them and Krune. "Could it be that Krune came from the Higher Realms, and we didn''t know?" "Of course not. Krune probably did something ridiculous again. By the way, shouldn''t we get away from him? I feel like he might explode again at any moment." Everyone nodded, and they immediately went to the other side of the Energy Gathering Formation. Not only that, but they all raised their Energy Barriers as well. Krune almost fainted, seeing that. In just a second, everyone abandoned him, even his family was no exception. "Who the hell might explode again?! You guys! Do you even care about my feelings?" Feifei laughed and gave the last fatal hit. "We don''t. If you want to explode, go ahead and blow alone. Don''t get us involved." "Uncle Ruik, will father explode another planet again?" Ruik nodded while showing a poker face. "It is possible." Krune felt the urge to strangle a certain snake. "Who the hell exploded a planet? What did you tell her?" Everyone else immediately burst in laugher after hearing that. Even Heavin on Krune''s shoulder couldn''t hold himself. With a broken heart, Krune decided to ignore those ungrateful bunch and focus on his cultivation again. "Light Spirit, what should I use this Godly Energy for?" Not losing that chance, Light Spirit advised. "The first thing you should do is to not explode." ''Et Tu, Brute?'' That was the kind of feeling that Krune was having at the moment. "Fuck you!" Light Spirit laughed out loud and then continued. "Alright. I need to explain it to the others, too, anyway." Light Spirit then used a Divine Sense message to contact everyone at the same time. "Godly energy is the first type of energy you will all get in contact once you reach the Higher Realms, this much you already know. But what happens when you arrive there? The fact is, your entire being will be changed. You can''t live in the Higher Realms with a body from the Lower Realms, so it has to be... let''s say... upgraded." "To resist such an ''upgrade,'' you must be at the peak of the Divinity Realm. Only a body at this level can achieve this. As for the preparation for the ''upgrade,'' that happens once you pass through the Ascencion Tribulation. You could say that the Ascencion Tribulation is not there to stop you but to test your strength. A cultivator or demon beast who can''t pass through the Ascension Tribulation shouldn''t even dream about having their bodies changed to accept Godly Energy." "Of course, this is only part of the reason. After all, it would make no sense to have different levels of Tribulations, but there are. Heavenly Divine Souls, for example, they get the most potent Ascension Tribulations. In their case, this is because the Universe is trying to hold back the Heavenly Core inside their Divine Souls." "It is no secret for you anymore that the Heavenly Fragments and the fully formed Heavenly Cores are part of the Universe they came from. So the Universe itself is trying to stop you from bringing it away. It is as simple as that." "Now, about what you should do with the Godly Energy. Your bodies, be it demon beasts or humans, can''t possibly withstand such a transformation. Besides, even if you can control Godly Energy, once you leave the Holy Land, this ability will become useless until the day you ascend. That being said, what should you use the Godly Energy for?" Light Spirit then paid attention to Cinty in the middle of the group. "I believe Cinty already understood, am I right?" Cinty was taken aback. Immediately, everyone looked at her, waiting for an explanation. "Cough, cough. I didn''t know if I was doing it correctly or not, but I thought it was worth trying. You guys were trying to use the Godly Energy alone, but that was painful and slow. In my case, I simply mixed the Godly Energy together with the Spiritual Energy before making the conversions." Light Spirit commended Cinty. "Very good, and then?" Cinty continued. "I had to first find a balance between the two, and I believe that it is different for everyone. After all, each of us has their own level of tolerance. It is not difficult to do it, just start small and keep increasing the amount of Godly Energy mixed with the Spiritual Energy. Soon, you will find a perfect balance for yourselves. After that, I noticed that be it the converted Elemental Source or Chaos Energy, both of them had far higher quality. It simply couldn''t compare at all." "Simply put, using this Chaos Energy for cultivation became a lot faster. Not only that, but I also couldn''t see any sign of destabilization of my foundation. This much higher speed of cultivation didn''t affect my foundation as all." Light Spirit confirmed that she was right. "Cinty is correct. The quality of Godly Energy is several times higher than any energy you can find in the Lower Realms. They simply can''t be put at the same level. Even the Divinity Energy that Semi-Divinity and Divinity Realm uses to cultivate is far inferior." "At the moment, it seems like we are only in the Holy Land''s outskirts. From what we found out, there are several higher levels in this place too. The higher we go, the more Godly Energy we will be able to use. So your objective is to first get used with this Godly and Spiritual Energies mixing. Once you find a comfortable position, we will move forward to higher levels. The more Godly Energy used, the faster will be your cultivation." "With the amount of Godly Energy in this Energy gathering formation, I guess your cultivation speed would double at most. Once you get used to it, let''s move ahead." "Oh, right! There is another thing as well. It seems like no one has entered the world of laws yet. Why don''t you try it?" Sure enough, everyone was taken aback with what they saw. "The laws are a little different?" Light Spirit explained. "No, the laws are still the same. It is just that, with the presence of Godly Energy, it is a lot easier to distinguish them. That''s why they look different. The more Godly Energy present, the easier it will be to notice the laws'' true forms. Of course, clearly seeing them will only be possible once you reach the Higher Realms. You should be grateful to the Myriad Energies Technique. The laws you see with its support are already much clearer than other cultivators and demon beasts. The Godly Energy only made it even better." "Anyway, I''ve spoken too much already. Don''t lose this chance. This Holy Land thing, it is indeed an amazing opportunity." Once Light Spirit finished his words, he sent a message to Krune alone. "As for you, just get as much Goldy Energy as possible. Since I''m protecting your foundation, you have no need to hold back. Of course, I will use most of it in my recovery, so your cultivation speed won''t be that much different from the others." Krune nodded and started to absorb all the Godly Energy around him. A small part of it was mixed with his Spiritual Energy before converting through the meridians or directly. The rest was left for Light Spirit, who absorbed every spec possible. It seems like Light Spirit will have a feast this time around. 458 Different Paths Krune''s group stayed in that place for an entire week. But during this time, they noticed something different. The speed which they were getting used to the Godly Energy was too fast. Even Liriu and Fie were no exception. Of course, anyone here could tell why that is. The Myriad Energies Techquine! Suddenly, a burst of Spiritual Energy came out, and everyone looked at Fie. She was the first one to make a breakthrough in this place. Of course, she was only in the 5th Stage of the Core Formation Realm now. She still had a long way to go. Not long after, Tiane followed by entering the Soul Forging Realm 3rd Stage. After two weeks, another two had made breakthroughs. Liriu entered the same Stage as Fie, and Ruik is now in the 4th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. However, everyone felt like they could go further, so they set off, leaving their hiding place behind. Fie and Liriu returned to the pocket dimensions too. But while they were moving, Dilo and Xankruan suddenly stopped. Seeing that, Krune and the others stopped as well. Dilo and Xankruan then looked at each other and nodded before explaining. "We are going to go parted ways from here. Krune, I hope you don''t mind it." While a few felt surprised by that, Krune just smiled and nodded. "That''s okay. I was going to mention something like that soon as well." Krune then looked at everyone and continued. "To be honest, our group is too big, we are catching too much attention. Not only cultivators and demon beasts at our levels will avoid us, but those who decide to attack will also be far above in power. This will only bring danger and no benefit since we can''t have battle experience. So I was intending to say the same thing sooner or later." Feifei then came beside Krune and nodded. She already knew about it since Krune talked with her trough Divine Sense. "I agree with him. This Holy Land is both an excellent opportunity to cultivate and gain combat experience. So we should really follow different paths. Is there anyone here who has a different opinion?" Right after that, Wamie and Gilia separated from the group as well. "Good! I thought that I was the only one thinking that, but I''m happy that I was wrong. Since that is the case, Gilia and I are going to move by ourselves. See you later, everyone." The two girls didn''t even wait for an answer before flying in another direction. First of all, they were supposed to enter the Holy Land alone, so it wasn''t like their plan changed much to start with. Dilo and Xankruan also bid their farewells and went in another direction. Tiane and Feifei hugged each other while Cinty patted the girls'' heads. As for Krune and the other men, they just talked a little while the girls were at it. "With Laex and his Purple Flame Dragon Pearl there, you and Tiane shouldn''t be in too much risk." Ruik nodded. "Yes. However, we also need combat experience, so I hope Laex won''t intervene unless extremely necessary." Laex just laughed at those words. "Don''t worry. I''m sure that there is plenty of opportunities both for you and me." Krune also passed some Purple Flame Pills for them to use if necessary. After that, they also bid their farewells and left in another direction. In the end, there was only Krune, Feifei, Fie, and Cinty. "Cinty, what will you be doing?" Cinty pondered a bit and then said. "At first, I thought I would follow you three. But considering the difference in our cultivations, I don''t think it is a good idea. I might drag you into some Divine Path Realm level battle. If that happens, you will be helpless. I have the Blackhole Major Divine Soul and the Chaos Meridians, so I''m very confident in fleeing. But I can''t say that I would be able to bring you two together." Feifei nodded. "That is true. Considering the fact that we are Heavenly Fragment owners, we are already much stronger than ordinary cultivators and demon beasts. Tiane and Ruik would definitely need Laex''s help if things go south, but it should be fine for us. Your laws and cultivation should also improve much faster if you are not being dragged down by us." Cinty laughed but didn''t deny that. Their cultivation is really too far apart, so there was no need for lies here. "Very well, I wish you three good luck." But just as Cinty was about to leave, Krune stopped her. "Wait! Bring this token with you." Cinty looked at the token, puzzled. "What is this?" Krune smiled and explained. "This is something I made using my old Tribulation Lightning Shields. Once you pour Spiritual Energy inside, it will release a Tribulation Lightning Layer that will hide you from the Divine Sense scan. The enemy will only be able to see a ball of Purple Lightning. With that, you can go back to your real form to battle without being afraid that they will discover your identity as a Wisp." Cinty couldn''t help but feel surprised by that. This is indeed a great thing. "How long can it last?" "It should be able to last an hour or so. So try to not use it unless extremely necessary. I don''t know when we will meet each other again." Cinty nodded and carefully kept the token inside her spatial ring. "Thanks, this will be of great help. Well, I''m leaving." Feifei also gave Cinty a hug before they separated. Now, only the family of three remained behind. Of course, Heavin and Light Spirit were also there, but they simply had no other choice since they can''t be separated from Krune at the moment. Still, Feifei could see the worry in Krune''s expression. She sighed and embraced him while saying. "There is no helping it. Being together won''t allow anyone to grow up. There might be some mishaps, some of us might die, including us. But we all knew what we signed up for. We can only wish that they will return stronger. Of course, we need to get stronger ourselves." Krune smiled and gave her a kiss. "You are right. We should worry about ourselves." "Cough, cough. If the two lovey-dovey are done with the melancholic exhibition, shall we move forward?" Feifei and Krune looked at Heavin''s Parrot Puppet flying and laughed out loud. "Sure, let''s move as well. I want to reach the next level as soon as possible." Feifei, Krune, and Heavin immediately dashed forward. All they had to do was follow the flow of Godly Energy, and they would sooner or later arrive at the next level. --- Two days later, Krune''s group spotted an enormous pillar of light. It went so high that they couldn''t see the end of it. Divine Sense didn''t help either since this Holy Land also restricted how far the Divine Sense could go. At the moment, Krune''s Divine Sense couldn''t move more than 10km. Of course, Krune, Feifei, and Heavin still had Mental Energy. But even that seemed to be affected by the Godly Energy. Heavin, the one with the strongest Mental Energy, could only see things up to 30km. "So annoying. It is evident that this Realm didn''t expect the use of Mental Energy. However, this Godly Energy still prevents it from going too far." Krune looked at him and shook his head. "What are you complaining about? Mine and Feifei''s Mental Energy can''t even reach 20km. If we use Divine Sense, 10km is our limit. You are already doing a lot better than most of cultivators and demon beasts. I doubt that there is a single one in the Soul Forging Realm that can beat you." Heavin could only nod in the end. It is not like things would change just because he doesn''t like it. "By the way, is this the entrance to the next level?" As Krune, Feifei, and Heavin got close, they noticed that many cultivators and demon beasts were waiting around it. Surprisingly, the majority of them were injured and recovering their energies. Also, they all had several different levels of cultivation. Suddenly, the Light Pillar shined on the base. A cultivator was then spilled out, immediately crashing on the ground with immense force. The poor guy vomited some blood before slowly getting up and moving away. The way he reacted, it seemed like it wasn''t the first time it occurred. Krune looked around and saw a small group that seemed to have cultivation similar to his group. "I''m sorry for interrupting your recovering time, friends. Would you mind telling me what is happening here?" The leader of this group didn''t mind explaining. He was also injured and needed to recover from it, so he wouldn''t move from this place anytime soon. "That pillar there has a test inside. As you can imagine, it is quite dangerous too. Once you enter, you will have to battle ten levels of enemies. They are all adjusted according to your cultivation level too. If you fail, you will end up like us. However, you can recover and try again if you wish." Krune and Feifei nodded. "Thank you." They exchanged a few more words and then left the guy alone. But it was then that he remembered something else. "Ah!" However, Krune and Feifei were already gone. "Oh well, it''s not like they could do anything about that anyway." He put those thoughts behind his mind and focused on his recover once more. At Krune''s side, he and Feifei stopped in front of the Light Pillar. "Now then, how should we do this." --- Somewhere else, Alacanta was curious about something else. In the end, she decided to ask Laka. "By the way, why didn''t you tell them?" "Tell what?" Laka stopped for a moment and looked at her, puzzled. "Isn''t that obvious? Why didn''t you tell them that every level has several different Dimensional Realms and that everyone is sent into them at random?" Laka''s heart skipped a bit. "Say what?!" Looking at Laka''s face, Alacanta immediately understood. This idiot completely forgot about the explanation given by the elders of their faction before. Or to be more specific, he had never paid much attention to start with. "Oh well, it will be a good test for them anyway. You can''t have everything going as you planned in the cultivation world, after all." Laka began to feel nervous, but it was too late. Alacanta didn''t know about Liriu and Fie, that''s why she wasn''t concerned. "Well... fuck!" 459 Going Through the First Tes Before Krune and Feifei decided to give it a try, they tried to gather more information. As it seems, one can only go through the test alone. That means that Feifei and Krune can''t help Fie. Also, once you pass, you can''t come back. So if your companions can''t go through, you will be alone up there. Also, Krune and Feifei found that you don''t need to defeat all those ten enemies, you just need to hold for 10 minutes. As long as you stay for this long, you will be sent to the other side. However, it seemed like this Light Pillar was also an excellent opportunity for training. The enemies inside were created through a fantastic formation, and they were a perfect match for each cultivator and demon beast. If if you lose, you still gain quite some experience. They seemed to target every cultivator and demon beast''s shortcomings. "So, Fie has to be the second one to try. Also, it is only in case the first one passes it. Who should try it first?" Feifei then passed the Pocket Dimension Spatial Box to Krune and stepped forward. "I''m going first since it will be better for you to stay with Fie. After all, you are the strongest between all of us. She will be safer by your side in case I pass straight away, but she fails." Not too surprisingly, Feifei and Krune put more importance on their child. Krune nodded and went to the side. That being said, Feifei touched the Light Pillar and entered. "According to the guys around, Feifei will have to hold 10 minutes. She has her Destiny Major Divine Soul and a Heavenly Destiny Fragment, so I guess it shouldn''t be too hard. Besides, she also has the Elemental Meridians." Krune was right. As soon as the battle started, Feifei activated her Illusion of Destiny Domain. Through that, she could predict all the enemies'' movements before they even did it. Of course, the Illusion of Destiny Domain is very hard to keep activated all the time. The more enemies, the harder it becomes. Also, their cultivations were a factor to be counted as well. Sure enough. Feifei had to give up her Illusion of Destiny Domain after only five minutes. But that was enough. She hadn''t sustained any injuries so far. Although her Soul Power was weak due to the Illusion of Destiny Domain long use, her cultivation was at full power. In the end, 10 minutes passed, and all the enemies stopped moving at the same time. To be honest, Feifei could defeat them if she gave her best. But she didn''t want to use more energy than necessary. Before Fiefei could think about anything else, she was teleported over. Outside, everyone saw a ball of light brightening at the Light Pillar''s Base and going up at frightening speeds. Regarding that, quite a few cultivators and demon beasts showed a jealous expression. That was proof that Feifei had just passed the test. Krune let out a sigh of relief and then looked at Fie inside the pocket dimension. Fie showed a bright smile and nodded. "Don''t worry, dad. I can definitely do this. I''m a lot stronger than any of the kids at my age." Krune smiled and let Fie come out. He also passed her the Pocket Dimension so that she could bring it with her up there. When the others looked at Fie, they couldn''t help but be surprised. No one expected to see a kid, much less a core formation realm one in this place. Not to mention that she didn''t seem to be having problems with the Godly Energy. Still, that was not their problem. They simply thought that this kid had some incredible background for her to have a pass to enter the Holy Land. Fie then touched the Light Pillar and disappeared. Inside, Fie encountered ten demon beasts who had cultivations between the 5th and 9th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. They didn''t waste time and immediately attacked. As for Fie, her body was suddenly enveloped by blue flames! Sure enough, Krune had taught her how to use Lightning and Water to create them. All the participants outside that Krune talked with said that the enemies would usually target their weak point. Be it Elemental, Physical, Or Laws. But Fie''s battle was different. It didn''t seem like her enemies were targeting anything specific at all. It couldn''t be helped, though. Krune and Feifei had trained Fie to be an all-rounder. Be it speed, attack, defense, or elements. Fie was proficient in all of them! The only reason laws were not involved is because Fie hasn''t comprehended anyone yet. "Water Frame!" "Blazing Wind Blades!" "Lightning Movement!" "Myriad Thunder Water Dragons!" "Water Prison!" "Earth Lava Spikes!" If others could see what was happening inside, they would be shocked. Let alone holding ten minutes against those demon beasts, Fie was utterly trashing them! Different from Feifei, she didn''t care about saving energy at all. Fie had learned everything from Feifei and Krune. Feifei was still somewhat easy going. But when it came to training with her father, Krune showed no mercy! He didn''t hold back at all, forcing her to do her best every time they trained together. Of course, Krune only did this much because he loved her. The stronger Fie became, the safer she would be. Because of those spartan like training, Fie was indeed far above all her peers. Even Liriu wasn''t her match. Of course, every time their training was over, Krune would hear Fie''s wishes and bring her around to play. Only like that would the little girl forget the hellish training. Because of that, Fie would get angry at most but would never hate that wisp father of hers. Precisely five minutes later, the Light Pillar shinned on the Base again. After seeing that, everyone shook their heads and watched for the kid to be thrown out like a cannonball. But then, the Light started to rise and accelerated toward the skies. Everyone was baffled by that vision. "How come she spent only five minutes inside and passed? Could it that the test takes only five minutes for kids?" "Bullshit! The formation inside can adjust according to the cultivator or demon beast''s level. Why would it lessen the time necessary?" "Then how did she pass? She should need another five minutes for it, no?" "Did you forget? Those Heavenly Fragment and Soul Owners also passed it before the 10 minutes were over. That can only mean one thing, the kid also defeated all the targets inside." Krune heard all the conversation around and felt quite proud. That was his daughter that they were talking about! ''My Fie is the best!'' However, he couldn''t delay here. Stepping forward, Krune entered the pillar of Light as well. After all, he doesn''t know how Fie and Feifei are faring up there, so he has to pass the test as fast as possible. Suddenly... *brummm* The ground around the Light Pillar trembled for a second, which caught everyone''s attention. It had been just a few seconds since Krune entered the Light Pillar. Right after, the Light on the Base brightened again, and the Ball of Light shot up in skies once. Krune understood that no one could see the participants inside. Since that was the case, he didn''t hold back. He immediately returned to his Wisp Form and used the Heavens Fall Storm. The battle only lasted so many seconds because that was the time necessary for Krune to charge that area attack. As soon as it was done, the enemies were doomed. All the Heavens Falls came down together, destroying all those fake demon beasts and cultivators that the formation created. Sure enough, Krune only had enough time to return to his Human Form before being sent away. Outside, everyone looked at the Ball of Light going up in the Light Pillar as if it was a ghost. The previous guy only stayed inside for a few seconds! That means that he destroyed all the fake enemies during this time. Just how much above his own cultivation is this guy''s combat power? It was ridiculous! "That must be a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, and one of the most powerful ones!" "Just where did he come from, does anyone knows who he is?" Everyone shook their heads. None of them knew someone like that. Krune, of course, didn''t know what those below were talking about. Even if he did, he definitely wouldn''t care about it. At the moment, he was worried about something completely different. "Where are Fie and Feifei?" 460 Ill Leave Him in Your Hands With his Divine Sense Restricted, Krune spread his Metal Energy instead. Although it also had a limited range, it was able to see much further than his Divine Sense at the moment. However, be it Feifei or Fie, none of them were inside his field of view. "Light Spirit!" Luvile knew what Krune wanted. "Alright, let me give a quick check." Buzz Suddenly, Krune felt the Tribulation Lightning on the Purple Tribulation Lightning Source activate. It moved like an arc around Light Spirit''s source for a few seconds and then stopped. "This is not good, they are not in the same Dimensional Realm as you at the moment. This Holy Land has several levels, so Fie and Feifei were probably sent to some of the other ones." Krune couldn''t help but feel worried. Feifei had more than enough power to take care of herself, especially with her Destiny Major Divine Soul. But Fie was utterly different. She is only at the 5th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. Anyone in this place can kill her with a finger. "However, I can still tell that the specs of Tribulation Lightning Essence in their bodies are fine, so both girls shouldn''t be in danger. Anyway, there is no point in overthinking it at the moment. We can only move forward." Krune took a deep breath and nodded. He always followed logic, so there would be no point in panicking now. Krune couldn''t find anyone inside his Metal Energy Range, so he immediately departed. Still, there was one thing bothering him. "The problem here is different. Even though I was sent to another Dimensional Realm, there is no doubt that Fie and Feifei were also sent to similar level ones. I doubt that there are entrances connecting them, which means that we can only hope to meet each other in higher ones. But how will Fie pass through everything on her own?" Heavin answered. "That conjecture is only valid if Fie is really alone. However, she might as well be with Feifei at the moment. After all, we don''t know how many similar levels there are. Who knows? There might be only two to start with." Light Spirit agreed with Heavin. "He is correct. Besides, this is also an opportunity for you to train alone. You have been with Feifei for quite some time now, so you got a little too used to her Illusion of Destiny Domain. Take this chance to deal with things on your own." Krune nodded and then put those thoughts behind. First, he has to reach the entrance of the next level. --- Different from what Heavin replied, Fie wasn''t together with Feifei. In fact, she wasn''t together with anyone as far as she could see. Fie had never been alone before, so she obviously was feeling a little apprehensive. After walking for a few minutes, nothing happened. Fie had never been a calm child. She is Feifei''s daughter, after all. She began to lose her patience quickly and finally decided to take flight. Her speed gradually increased until she finally flew as fast as possible while making sure not to deplete her Spiritual and Elemental Source Energy pool. "There is nothing, just where is this place? Dad said that the Purple Tribulation Lightning essence could show the way to the friend inside his foundation. I tried it before, and it always worked. But now, it is completely still. It can''t feel dad''s friend''s location at all." Fie continued to fly while cultivating at the same time. Krune had long since passed her the Mind Splitting Technique, so she, too, could make several things simultaneously. This place also had Godly energy, and it was quite a lot more than the previous floor. However, Fie also has the Elemental Meridians, so she got used to it just like everyone else in their group. After flying for an entire day, Fie began to feel really worried. There was no one, no life, no nothing¡ªonly the same white flat land. The only reason Fie could tell that she was moving forward was because of her communicator. Krune told her how he used it in the Mohie Sect Dimension back in the Luvile Universe together with Shinja, Ao, and Yusa. Fie could leave a marker behind, and the communicator would be able to show its direction. Back then, when this Holy Land was built, things like electronic equipment didn''t exist. Obviously, no countermeasures were prepared for them too. However, even this had a limit. The communicator on Fie''s pulse could only reach so far with the markers. When she went out of the range, she had to put a new one. Of course, compared to not having one, it is thousands of times better. At the very least, she knows that she isn''t moving in circles. Three days went by, and Fie could only tell that thanks to the clock in her communicator. But by now, she was holding herself to not cry. It doesn''t matter how intelligent she is, Fie is still a kid. She is really scared at the moment with this never-changing scenario. Suddenly, an ethereal voice appeared from everywhere. "Child, how did you came up here?" Fie was frightened for a second. She looked around but couldn''t see anyone. The voice also seemed to have come from all directions. "Who are you?" The voice went silent for a moment before answering. "I''m this Holy Land''s Artifact Spirit." "Artifact Spirit?" Fie had never heard about it before, so she didn''t know what this voice was talking about. "Sigh... Anyway, how did you enter this place? No one should be able to step inside this origin realm." Fie pondered a bit and then shook her head. "I don''t know. There was a big pillar of light, and then I fought ten demon beasts. After I beat them, I was teleported here." In fact, the Artifact Spirit knew about Fie''s presence the moment she entered this place. However, it didn''t know if Fie had come here by herself or if someone sent her here on purpose. This Origin Realm in the backbone of the Holy Land. So, in theory, no one should be able to enter without the Artifact Spirit''s consent. That obviously put it on his guard against Fie at first. The Artifact Spirit thought about getting rid of Fie straight away. But because it was just a child, it couldn''t bring himself to do so. At its level, it was simple to check her bone age and ascertain that it was definitely a child. It then began to observe Fie flying around. Due to its connection to this place, the Artifact Spirit could feel the fluctuations in Fie''s emotions. It was just when Fie was about to cry that the Artifact Spirit finally convinced itself that she wasn''t here for it. "That''s weird. Could it be that there is a flaw in the teleport formation? Although it is hard to believe, I can''t think about another reason. I better recheck the Light Pillars'' Teleport Formations later." Fie didn''t know what the voice was talking about. However, she was at least able to calm herself a little. What scared her the most was the fact that she couldn''t see anyone anywhere. "Artifact Spirit, is that your name?" The Spirit was taken aback. "Name? I don''t have one, you can simply keep calling me Artifact Spirit." Fie immediately shook her head. "That won''t do. It is too sad. What about Little Arty?" Sure enough, Fie''s sense for names is just as good as Krune. She simply used the existing one and simplified it. A very Krune-like way of doing things, it probably is in the DNA. "Li-Little Arty...?" Fie''s eyes brightened while she nodded vigorously. Anyone could totally see the expectation on her face. "This is quite..." Suddenly, Fie''s expression changed as if she would cry at any moment. "Is it a bad name?" Seeing that, the Artifact Spirit immediately changed his stance. "Of course not! Little Arty is great! I love it! Yes! Definitely! You can totally trust me!" Fie immediately showed a smile as bright as the sun, to the point that Little Arty felt it to be too shiny. "Little Arty, do you know where are my father and mother?" Little Arty pondered a bit and then asked. "How do they look like?" Fie thought about showing a few pictures from her communicator. But then she remembered that Krune and Feifei changed their appearances. In the end, she could only try to explain it as good as possible. Little Arty is the Holy Land''s Artifact Spirit. Everything that happens inside is under his control. That being said, it wasn''t hard for him to find Krune and Feifei, who had been teleported to different places. Suddenly, several images appeared around Fie, showing pictures from different angles of Krune and Feifei. "Are these the correct ones?" Fie immediately nodded, and tears started to fall from her eyes. After so many days alone in this strange land, she was finally able to see them again. "Errr... why would you cry if they are the right ones?" Fie then laughed while wiping the tears on her face. "I''m just happy to see them again. Little Arty, can you send me to them?" Little Arty sighed and then explained. "I can, but not now. This place where we are is separated from the Holy Land''s first levels as a safety measure. That''s why I found it weird that you appeared here instead of going to the next levels. I can send you to a much higher level, though. But they won''t be there for quite some time. Besides, the Godly Energy there is much stronger, so you won''t be able to resist it with your body." Fie nodded. "Then I will train hard until I can resist that energy. When my Mother or Father arrives at the higher levels, you can send me there too. Is that okay?" Little Arty agreed with her. "Very well. I can control the flow of Spiritual and Godly Energy in this place. I can even help you with some formations for combat training. So it shouldn''t be hard for you to increase your level in this place." As the Holy Land''s artifact spirit, it had a lot of power. In this place, no one could challenge. So changing Energy flows or providing a few simple formations is just too easy for Little Arty. Fie showed a bright smile again and bowed. "Thank you, Little Arty!" Little Arty just laughed. Suddenly, small spheres of white light shined while showing a specific direction. "Just follow those light balls, you will find a better place to spend your time." Fie nodded and immediately flew away. Little Arty''s presence also disappeared, making this land quiet once more. However, it was at this moment that a projection of an old man appeared just where the two were talking. Surprisingly, not even Little Arty, the Holy Land''s Artifact Spirit, knew about his existence. "Little Arty, uh? What a funny name you got." He then looked at the direction that Fie disappeared. "Little girl, I''ll leave him in your hands. ''Little Arty...'' has been alone for too long already." After that, the man''s projection made a seal on the air with his hand and then disappeared. In fact, he didn''t have much energy since he was just a will left behind countless years ago. Sending Fie here had spent the little much he had left. Now, he was really gone forever. 461 Customers Back on Krune''s side, he was in the middle of a battle against two Heavenly Fragment owners. Or better, he was simply dragged into it. Krune was following the flow of Spiritual and Godly energy when he saw those two battling each other. He decided to ignore them at first, so he used his Tribulation Lightning Layer to hide from Divine Senses. But he didn''t expect them to leave behind a Warning Formation. It was like a thin and invisible barrier. It had so little energy that even Krune had difficult to notice it. But it was too late, both of the cultivators immediately looked at his direction. They thought that Krune was planning to be the mantis hunting the cicada. In the end, the two of them joined forces temporarily to get rid of Krune first. Krune could have run away, but Light Spirit stopped him. "This is a good opportunity to gain some combat experience. You are in dire need of it at the moment, so don''t lose this chance. Their cultivation is also similar to yours, being in the 8th and 9th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm." Krune didn''t want to waste time here, but he had to admit that Light Spirit was right. Heavin then flew somewhere else to not get in the way and left Krune alone. The two enemies quickly arrived and immediately attacked. "Space Slash." "Time Slow." Purple Lightning appeared around Krune''s body, and the Laws of Time binding him instantly crumbled. "Tribulation Lightning Movement." With a flash of purple light, Krune disappeared from the spot he was in before the Space Sash could reach there. Krune''s Shields immediately spread and hovered around him a moment later. ''I guess I can test Mental Energy attacks this time.'' While Krune dodged their attacks, two of his Shields teleported away. Displacement Sub-Law! When they reappeared, they were covered by the Purple Lightning Layer, hiding their presence from the enemies'' Divine Senses. Krune''s will came out and immediately used Tribulation Lightning Attacks. "Thunder Line!" The two guys were taken aback by that surprise attack. However, they were still Heavenly Fragment owners. One used the time laws to accelerate the time around him while the other teleported away just like Krune did with his shields. The Thunder Lines hit nothing but air and shot in the distance. However, Krune just smiled. That split of a second that they were paying attention to the attack coming from behind was enough for Krune to send another wave of attacks. The two enemies were alarmed and were obliged to defend. Krune had spent quite a few seconds creating those two needles inside his Shields who were covered in Tribulation Lightning Layers. Mental Energy attacks take longer to charge but are extremely fast since physical resistances mean little against it. The two Heavenly Fragment owners used their weapon to block those needles. But to their despair, those needles passed through their weapons as if they didn''t even exist! They raised their Energy Barrier, but it had a minimal effect against the Mental Energy Needles. Both needles pierced through their dantians and went straight for their Divine Souls. Unable to create anything that could stop those needles, their Divine Souls were pierced by them as well. The needles then exploded in a wave of Mental Energy, obliterating their Divine Souls completely. Immediately, their Soul Forging Realm cultivation dropped all the way to the Qi Condensation. Seeing their cultivation dropping, hey couldn''t help but look terrified at Krune. "How come there is something like that in this world? Be it our weapons or Energy Barriers, it went through them as if they didn''t even exist. Could it be that we were seeing an illusion and got attacked from somewhere else?" Heavin came back flying and then laughed. "Sorry to disappoint you, but no, it wasn''t an illusion. That was Mhmhmhmh-" Krune stopped Heavin by closing his beak, preventing him from talking more than necessary. "Why would you reveal your trump cards to the enemy, are you idiot?" Heavin opened his eyes wide! "Oh, right! Sorry, I can''t tell you what it was. But know that the creator of that thing is none else than your grandfather Heavin. Hahaha!" Heavin then flew back to Krune''s shoulder. Krune looked at those two and then sighed. "I was only passing by and had no intention of intervening in your battle. But you just had to try your luck." The guy who had the Time Heavenly Fragment couldn''t help but ask. "Are you perhaps hiding your cultivation?" Krune shook his head. "I''m really in the 6th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. However, I did gather more Heavenly Fragments than you. Anyway, would you mind passing me your Heavenly Fragments? Don''t worry, if I wanted you to die, you would be dead already." They lost their Divine Souls that were holding their Heavenly Fragments, so they couldn''t be Heavenly Fragment Owners anymore. Just the fact that Krune wouldn''t kill them is already a bonus considering their situation. At least, their bodies are already used to the Godly Energy, so they can cultivate from the start again. If they hide well, they can stay in this place for the next ten years before being teleported out. "The victor is the king, that is the rule in our Universe. However, what would you use our Heavenly Fragments for? You are not a Heavenly Fragment Owner from our Universe, so it is useless to you, no?" Krune smiled after hearing that. "Isn''t that obvious? I can still sell it to the other owners! Haha!" Those two were taken aback. Someone who can get a slot to enter the Holy Land needs money? That seemed ridiculous! However, Krune wasn''t in the mood to explain that he got those Slots by chance. For him, any extra income was more than welcome. ''You never know when you might run out of Spirit Stones.'' After getting those two Heavenly Fragments, Krune immediately departed, leaving those two behind. Whether they survived or not was up to them. Krune doesn''t like to kill, not to mention that he was indeed the one who interrupted their duel. So he simply let them go like that. On the way, Light Spirit couldn''t help but comment. "This mental energy is really something else. Other than my Purple Tribulation Lightning, it seems to be able to pass through almost anything." Heavin shook his head. "Energy barriers can still affect my Mental Energy to a certain extent. If the opponent''s cultivation is too high, it will have a hard time passing through. Of course, we should use it as a sneak attack as much as possible. Let''s try to not reveal the Mental Energy existence until we get a real chance." Krune agreed with Heavin. Those two said that the Mental Energy Needle passed through their defenses as if there was nothing there. But Krune could tell that at least 50% of the Needle''s Mental Energy was used to achieve that. Those two guys cultivations aren''t much different from Krune''s, either. Now and then, Krune would ask Light Spirit if the Purple Tribulation Lightning Essence left in Fie and Feifei was still there. As it looked like, both girls were still alive, although he couldn''t say anything else other than that. It took Krune three days to arrive at the entrance of the next level. During this time, Krune found out that every level had several light pillars that could send you to the next one. That also explained why he didn''t meet anyone of his group back at the previous level. Thanks to Heavin''s Mental Energy Sense that could reach up to 30km in this Realm, Krune successfully avoided other participants with cultivation much higher than himself. There were also three in the Divine Path Realm. With the power of their Divine Sense, reaching more than 30km was also possible. However, Krune''s Tribulation Lightning Layer was always ON, so they couldn''t feel his presence. Once Heavin spotted them, Krune would be sure to stay far away. Finally, his little group arrived at the next Light Pillar. Just like the last one, this Light Pillar extended all the way to the skies. However, the number of groups resting around was a lot smaller than the previous level. That was to be expected, though. Many cultivators and demon beasts were still in the last level, while another big bunch who had advanced are still getting used to the higher amount of Godly Energy here. That being said, they haven''t come to try to enter the next level yet. "It seems like they are avoiding starting any battle around this pillar. Now that I think about it, there was no one battling close to the previous level pillar as well. I thought that it was just a coincidence. That no one wanted to bet their coins while still on the first level. However, it seems like I was wrong." Light Spirit and Heavin agreed with Krune. Considering the number of participants, they should have seen one or another conflict raised between enemies. Still, there was nothing, everything was peaceful. Just as Krune decided to ask, someone called him from behind. "Hey, you there. Where have you gotten those Heavenly Fragments?" Krune looked behind and noticed that a small group of five members was coming in his direction. The guy who talked to Krune was in the 1st Stage of the Void Breaking Realm, while the other varied between the 7th and 9th Sage of the Soul Forging Realm. ''It seems like a customer has just appeared.'' 462 Godly Stones "Oh! Are you talking about these two?" Krune then showed the Heavenly Fragments in his hand. For those guys to have noticed its presence, it was evident that they had a Heavenly Fragment Owner from the same Universe. The guy at the Void Breaking Realm stepped forward after seeing them. "Those are the fragments of the competitors of our Universe. Did you kill them?" Krune shook his head. "I left them alive. Of course, they have no cultivation anymore. Also, don''t try to blame me. I was only passing by when those two suddenly attacked me together. It was just self-defense. Anyway, are you also a Heavenly Fragment Owner of the same Universe as them?" The guy nodded. "My name is Fuliek. I am the Yang Heavenly Fragment Owner. Now, give me those fragments since they are useless to you." Krune nodded. "No problem. As long as the price is good enough, they shall be yours." Fuliek was taken aback. Price? Who would lack spirit stones when they can enter a place like this? He couldn''t help but think that he was being made fun of. "Stop saying bullshit. Are you going to give it or not?" Krune shook his head. "Not gonna happen. Since you don''t want it, so be it. Farewell." Without even waiting to hear their answers, Krune turned around and walked in the Light Pillar''s direction. Fuliek got furious and immediately attacked. But just as he was about to reach Krune, the Pillar of Light released a Spiritual Pressure that knocked him against the ground. Krune could even hear a few of his bones cracking. The others around shook their head and looked at him as if they were looking at an idiot. Krune was surprised to see that scene, though. "No wonder no battles happen around those pillars. This is a safe zone." He looked around and then decided to ask one of the cultivators. "Hello, friend. Do you know if this Pillar of Light was supposed to be like this?" The guy looked at Krune and didn''t know what to say. It looked like he didn''t know anything about the Holy Land. Still, since he had nothing better to do, he explained it to Krune. "Only during the Five First Levels. From what I heard from my Clan elders, the sixth level onwards will have no such thing as safe zones. Anyway, as long as you are inside a Safe Zone, even a Divine Path Realm cultivator or demon beast won''t be able to touch you." Krune nodded. "What about the tests? In the first pillar, I had to fight a few fake cultivators and demon beasts. Are all the pillars like that?" The guy shook his head. Krune was taken aback. "Rank system?" The guy looked at Krune, puzzled. "You really know nothing about this place, right? How did you even get in here?" Krune scratched the back on his head. "I just obtained a slot by coincidence. Sorry for making you explain everything." Hearing that, the guy could only nob. He was already expecting something like this. "When you touch the Light Pillar, instead of using Spiritual Energy, try to use your Divine Sense. Of course, it only works if you use your Divine Sense while touching the light pillar. Using Divine Sense from afar will give you no results." "Anyway, that is basically everything you need to know. The rest is basically cultivation and more cultivation. Try to not waste any second in this place." Krune agreed with him. "By the way, friend. How many levels are there in this Holy Land?" This time, the guy only shook his head. "No one knows. It seems like you can keep going as long as you can resist the increase of Godly Energy. Some believe that if you reach the highest level, the Godly Energy in that place is as strong as in the Higher Realms. Of course, no one really reached that place to check if it is true or not. That is also supposed to be where the Holy Land and the Higher Realms'' connection should be." It was then that he remembered one thing. "Oh, right! Once you reach the tenth levels, there won''t be several Dimensional Realm anymore. Every single participant will have to pass through the same places." Those words answered another question from Krune. If Laka came with a protector, then the several Dimensional Realms rule would make it useless for Alacanta to be here. But since there will only one Dimensional Realm starting from the tenth level, they would sooner or later meet there. Krune then thanked him and moved in the direction of the Light Pillar. But just as he was about to touch it, Fuliek barred his way once more. By now, the pressure coming from the Light Pillar already released him. "What do you want for those two Heavenly Fragments? I''ll tell you in advance that I don''t have that many Spirit Stones, only enough for my own cultivation." Krune smiled after hearing that. "In that case, what can you offer me?" Fuliek reached his Spatial Ring and brought out something that looked like a Spirit Stones. However, instead of Spiritual Energy, Krune could few Godly Energy coming from it. As soon as that thing appeared, all the eyes around lit up. It was as if they were looking at a treasure. Krune, of course, noticed the other people''s gazes too. "What is this thing?" Fuliek and everyone else was taken aback. "You don''t know? What are you even doing in this Holy Land then?" Krune shrugged his shoulder while spreading his arms. "I only got a slot by chance, I have zero knowledge about it." Fuliek didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. Such a demon beast defeated two of his Universe Heavenly Fragment Owners. It really looked like a lie. "Forget it. This thing is called Godly Stone. Just like the Spirit Stones, it has Godly Energy instead. However, this one is several times gentler than the Godly Energy you feel around you. Not to mention that the amount is much higher. If you use it correctly, your body and soul will get used to the Godly Energy a lot faster than it would normally be. Simply put, you will reach higher levels earlier than expected, which will allow you to cultivate much quicker too." Krune''s eyes lit up! For him, who wants to keep going up, this thing is really an excellent item. "Why don''t you use it yourself? Wouldn''t it be better?" Fuliek shook his head. "Compared to the boost that the addition of these two Heavenly Fragments will give me, this deal is definitely much better than using it myself." Krune had to admit that he was right. He knows just how good an extra Heavenly Fragment is, let alone two. "Deal!" The two of them quickly made the exchange. Fuliek then went to a corner and started to absorb both Fragments. Since he was already in a safe zone, this is the best place for him to do so. As for Krune, he decided to take a look into the Rank System that the other guy talked about. Krune touched the Light Pillar and sent his Divine Sense inside. Right after, he received a question instead of the information he wanted. "Name?" Krune pondered a bit and understood. Indeed, there is no way the Holy Land would magically guess his name, so how could it tell who he was? He had to first give himself a name. Krune then sent a Divine Sense message into the Light Pillar. "Lakin." Krune simply chose his disciple''s name. It''s not like anyone knew Lakin to start with. Besides, the others would definitely recognize him. As soon as Krune said that, a stream of information flowed through the Divine Sense. Something that looked like a ranking appeared in his mind, and thousands of names appeared without stop. It seemed like it was divided into two different roles. There was one for each Light Pillar''s level and another for all Light Pillar Levels together. Krune took a look at the first level Pillar and soon found out his own name there. "First Level Light Pillar: 1-Lakin (8 seconds) - 100 Points. 2-Oraven (34 seconds) - 99 Points. 3-Yatal Rile (37 Seconds) - 98 Points. 4- Tar... ... 205- Your Grandfather R (2 minutes and 41 seconds) - 0 Points. 243- Beating Grandfather R (3 minutes 21 seconds) - 0 Points." Krune''s Mouth twitched after seeing that. Who else ''Your Grandfather R'' could be other than Ruik? Beating Grandfather R is probably Tiane as well. Krune also found Laka, and it seems like he was making good use of his Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. 13th- Laka (59 Seconds) - 87 Points. "Laka is definitely holding himself back. With the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl''s power, he should have destroyed all the 10 enemies in a flash. However, it is probably the same thing for the other Heavenly Divine Soul Owners as well. I was just in a hurry to reach the next level, so I went at it seriously. Otherwise, I wouldn''t have gotten those 8 Seconds." Krune couldn''t find Feifei or Fie, though. Feifei didn''t try to defeat the enemies, she just held them back and didn''t expend any energy. Feifei isn''t much weaker than Krune, so he was sure that she could have done much better. Because of that, she was in between those with a 10 minutes conclusion outside the Rank. As for Fie, Krune knew how long she took to complete the first level Light Pillar, but her name didn''t appear in the Rank. That meant that Fie hasn''t registered a name in the pillar yet. Suddenly, Krune noticed that there were also rewards provided for the top rankers. It worked accordingly to the positions of each pillar too. He then checked the First Light Pillar that was the only one he concluded so far. "First Level Light Pillar Rewards: 1st to 10th - Ten Godly Stones. 11th to 20th - Nine Godly Stones. 21st to 30th - Eight Godly Stones 31st to 40th - Seven Godl..." It went all the way to a single one. Now Krune knew from how Fulike got that Godly Stone. But it was then that he noticed something weird. "Fulike is not there in the top 100 of the First Level Pillar, so how did he get a Godly Stone?" Heavin then suggested. "I think it makes sense. Fulike was just a Heavenly Fragment Owner and probably had a single Heavenly Fragment so far. So he shouldn''t be able to enter the top 100 with all those Heavenly Divine Souls everywhere. Besides, no one said that you can''t buy or rob others'' Godly Stones." Krune nodded since it made sense. He got a Godly Stone through a trade himself. "Oh, it seems like that you must keep your position in the top 100 for a least three days for you to get the Godly Stone. I''ve been in this second level for more than that, so I guess I can get mine now." Krune asked for the Godly Stone with his Divine Sense. Immediately after, the Light Pillar began to shine brightly, catching everyone''s attention. Suddenly, ten Godly Stones appeared in thin air. Krune looked at that as they slowly descended on his hands. However, he wasn''t the least bit happy with that. ''Can''t you be a little more discreet? Do you really need to make such a big entrance like that?'' Everyone looked at him as if he was prey. If not because of the Safe Zone, everyone would probably have attacked already. Considering that ten Godly Stones appeared, it was also evident that Krune was one of the top 10 in the first level pillar. A single Godly Stone is one thing, but ten at once would definitely cause many problems for him. 463 Laws Tes No content 464 Ponkeli Frusin Somewhere else, Feifei found out about the ranking system and the Godly Stones. Without wasting time, she immediately began to browse the list to see if she could find Fie or Krune in it. -Second Level Light Pillar Ranking: 1- Lakin, 500 Broken Windows - 100 points 2-... Feifei didn''t care about Krune''s ranking. Instead, she was more worried about what it meant for Krune''s name to be in the Second Level Light Pillar Rank. "That should be Krune. If his name is here, Fie was supposed to be too. So there are two options. Fie''s ranking is so low that she doesn''t appear. Or two, Fie is not with Krune, which is most likely the real reason." "Considering that I entered a different level, Krune would have noticed it after getting into the second level too. If he was with Fie and knew that we could be sent to different places, he would never take the risk to advance with Fie on his side. After all, there would be a chance of them separating in the next transfer. He would stay with Fie on the second level all the way until the ten years passed to protect her. He is probably trying to reach the 10th level since from there on, there is only one Dimensional Realm available for each level." After arriving at that conclusion, Feifei got even more worried. However, she gritted her teeth and sent Spiritual Energy into the Light Pillar. Right after, Feifei appeared in the Windows corridor. Just like Krune, she received the information about the test and pressed forward. First, she had to make her name appear in the rank so that both Fie and Krune would be able to tell that it is her. -The Windows of Laws, Makui WF- Feifei chose this name because she was sure that Krune would understand. Makui was the name of Krune''s Birth Planet, and WF obviously stood for Wang Feifei. -Level adjusted to the 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. You may begin- Feifei had already acquired the Heavenly Yin Fragment. Together with her Elemental Meridians and talent, her Water Laws advanced even more. At the moment, she had three Water Sub-Laws at culmination, Wave, Flow, and Water Essence. The other two, Calm and Cold, were in the Initial and Intermediate levels. Her level of comprehension of Water only loses to Krune''s Fire Laws. Shatter, shatter, shatter... Feifei didn''t stop at all. Finally, on the window number 279, she stopped. Not that she wanted to, but because that was her limit. Her cultivation is higher than Krune, which made the levels harder for her. Besides, her Water laws were a little bit behind Krune''s Fire ones too. However, these results were enough to trash everyone else other than Krune. Outside, everyone noticed this change. -Second Level Light Pillar Ranking: 1- Lakin, 500 Broken Windows - 100 Points 2- Makui WF, 279 Broken Windows - 99 Points 3-... --- Back on Krune''s side, he had found a hidden place to consume his Godly Stones. He could feel the third level''s pressure, so he needed to get used to it first. Even though he is worried, he had no other choice since Krune could feel that his body wouldn''t resist the next level''s pressure of Godly Energy. That being said, he also took this opportunity to calmly cultivate. The gentler Godly Energy of the Godly Stone mixed with spiritual energy before being converted into Elemental Source and Chaos Energies. Sure enough, the energy in the Godly Stones made it a lot easier to increase his cultivation. Light Spirit looked at that and reminded. "You are doing good. Considering the exponential increase of Godly Energy of the first, second, and third levels, you will need to cultivate here for at least a month." Krune was taken aback. "Do I need to wait for this much?" Light Spirit confirmed. "Yes. If you enter the Forth Level the way you are at the moment, you can forget about advancing. I doubt you will be able to even move. In fact, your Wisp Core might shatter straight away. It doesn''t matter how worried you are because of Fie, you won''t be able to do anything dead. Calm yourself and cultivate properly, that is the fastest way to advance through the floors." Krune sighed before commenting. "I wonder if there is any point in going up at all. I might be getting even further away from Fie." Light Spirit didn''t deny. "That might be true. But the fact is that you can''t move to the other dimensions of the same level. If there is any way of doing it, the key is definitely not down here. You need to go higher to see what you can find. So far, we got no clues whatsoever, but that doesn''t mean it will always be like this." Heavin also added his piece. "Besides, you are not the only one in this situation. Don''t forget about Ruik, Tiane, and Liriu. Tiane and Ruik should be able to take care of themselves. But Liriu is also in the Core Formation Realm only. Not to mention that if a year passes and he doesn''t find Laex, you, or Cinty, his Bloodline Seal will break. So he might be in an even worse situation than Fie now." "The faster you find a way to move between dimensional realms, the higher will be their chances of returning safely. Just concentrate on your cultivation, that is the best you can do at the moment. I''m also doing the same with my own." Krune nodded and put all the unnecessary thoughts on the back of his mind. The faster he cultivates, the better. Krune really had a magical combo at the moment. Elemental and Chaos Meridians and Godly Stones. With those three, almost no one could dream about cultivating as fast as him. Perhaps only Cinty would be able to do so. Laex did accept Krune''s offer and took the Myriad Energies Technique, but he only had a few months before the Holy Land appeared. Because of that, he didn''t have time to go to the Elemental Path to create his Chaos Meridians. Time passed, and two days went by in a flash. Suddenly... *Crack! Puff!* The Godly Stones in Krune''s Hand became dust and disappeared. Krune then opened his eyes and took a look at his cultivation. ''Impressive. Although I didn''t have a breakthrough, two days were the same as cultivating at least twenty outside the Holy Land. I was making one breakthrough every year more or less, but now I can achieve it in a month and some weeks.'' ''Well, that will be the case as long as I have Godly Stones. Without them, my cultivation speed is only 3 to 4 times faster. Although it''s impressively quick, it can''t compare to the Godly Stones'' effect. Not to mention that Godly Energy leaves behind no side effect. I can cultivate as fast as I can without being afraid of damaging my foundation. No wonder everyone wants to come here and are willing to pay a fortune for a slot.'' Krune still had another 10 Godly Stones from his reward of the First Level, so he simply took another one out and resumed his cultivation. Of course, cultivation wasn''t the only thing he did. The other parts of Krune''s mind were totally focused on laws. Or to be more Specific, Light Spirit''s Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws. Krune expects that by the time he finishes all the Godly Stones in his possession, his Flash Annihilation Sub-Law will reach culmination. This First Sub-Law had been on the Advanced Stage for years already, so it was about time for him to end it. --- Somewhere else... "Space-time Destruction!" "Heavenly Break!" Shatter! Boom! Suddenly, two figures shot like cannonballs in two different directions, quickly falling on the ground. One of them just so happened to be Cinty. As for the other, it was a cultivator called Ponkeli Frusin, who is also a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner. Ponkeli is in the 1st Stage of the Divine Path Realm, while Cinty is on the 3rd. She was in the 2nd Stage when she entered the Holy Land, but had made a breakthrough just a few days after being separated from Krune and the rest. Cinty then got up and looked at Ponkeli on the other side with her Divine Sense. This battle started because Cinty also got a few Godly Stones thanks to her Elemental and Chaos Meridians. She was at 69th position of the First Level and got 4 of them. However, Ponkeli coincidently passed by her while making his way to the Third Level pillar. Seeing she consuming the Godly Stones, he demanded her to pass them over. Cinty, of course, refused to do so. That being said, a battle started between the two. Fortunately, Cinty was two Stages higher in cultivation, which allowed her to even the stakes against this Heavenly Divine Soul Owner. Of course, part of the reason was also due to the Elemental and Chaos Meridians. Her Blackhole Major Divine Soul alone wouldn''t be able to bring her battle power this high. Ponkeli also noticed that things were not good. In the exchange just now, he only won by a tiny bit. Besides, after seeing Cinty''s cards, he already figured out that she has the Blackhole Major Divine Soul. If she decides to run, he definitely won''t be able to stop her. "Hey, female demon beast. Are you not going to show your true form?" Cinty shook her head. "There is no need since I don''t plan to entertain you for longer. We battled for over 20 minutes already, which will definitely attract unnecessary attention. Besides, this was enough for me to understand just how strong a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner is." Ponkeli narrowed his eyes and decided to ask something that was bothering him. "Do you have the Heavenly Blackhole Fragment?" Cinty shook her head. "I don''t." Ponkeli grimaced after hearing that. Even though Cinty is two stages higher in cultivation than him, his Heavenly Divine Soul and Core should have put him in absolute advantage. A simple Blackhole Divine Soul shouldn''t make her this strong. However, he had to fight the previous Heavenly Blackhole Fragment owner to get the fragment to complete his Heavenly Divine Soul. Thanks to that, he knows very well how is the feeling of fighting someone with a Blackhole Fragment. Still, from the very start, Cinty had not made him feel like that at all. Now that she confirmed that she wasn''t a Heavenly Fragment Owner, he couldn''t help but feel shocked by her battle prowess. One must not forget that Cinty isn''t in her real form at the moment. Ponkeli only has a little advantage against her, if she goes back to her realm form, he might even need to go on the defensive. 465 Liriu, Tiane, and Ruik However, Cinty did not do that. She really just turned around and decided to leave. This battle against a Heavenly Divine Soul owner helped Cinty to understand her power much better. Besides, the protection that Krune passed to her would only last one hour. So unless she is in a dire situation, she won''t use it. "Wait!" Just as she was about to take flight, Cinty heard Ponkeli''s voice and looked back at him, puzzled. "What is your name in the ranking?" "Tincy." Leaving behind that single name, Cinty left. Ponkeli didn''t try to follow her since he knew he couldn''t stop that female Demon Beast. "Tincy... I don''t remember any genius who had a similar name. She also doesn''t have a Heavenly Fragment or Heavenly Divine Soul. I guess this is what you call a black horse, or perhaps a ''blackhole horse?'' Haha! Too bad no one was here to hear this joke. Anyway, I wonder just how strong she would be if she had a Heavenly Fragment." This battle might have finished without a winner, but Ponkeli was also happy enough with the experience. Both sides didn''t hold back at all, which was the best way to get used to one''s own power. After feeling the flow of Godly Energy for a few seconds, Ponkeli turned in a different direction and departed as well. Suddenly, somewhere near the place where those two were battling, a rock''s shadow started to move. The shadow then took the shape of a dark-colored snake which looked at the directions that Cinty and Ponkeli left. "Blackhole Horse, your ass! Sigh... whatever. Unfortunately, they didn''t fight to the bitter end." The snake then merged into the shadow again and disappeared. It was waiting when both sides were too weak to continue, allowing it to finish both simultaneously. At the very least, it was expecting to get one of them. Unfortunately for it, both sides didn''t act as expected, forcing the snake to leave empty-handed. --- Surprisingly, Liriu''s situation was not as bad as Krune, and the others imagined. He had indeed be sent to some other place separated from the others. However, while he flew around without a real destination, he was spotted by another Demon Beast participating in this Holy Land. That Demon Beast got close and noticed that Liriu was only a kid at the Core Formation Realm. At first, the guy thought that this was some kind of trap. But as Liriu flew around, nothing else happened, especially since Liriu was flying very low while avoiding getting anyone''s attention. Finally, this Demon Beast lost it''s patience and called him over. "Kid, what the hell are you doing in this place alone?" Liriu was frightened when that voice appeared on his mind. He had put so much effort into staying out of sight, but someone already found him. "Wh-Who is it?!" "It was me, do you have a problem?" Liriu immediately shook his head vigorously. "So, how come you ended inside the Holy Land?" Liriu didn''t know if he could trust the old man in front of him. However, Liriu could tell that the man''s cultivation was definitely several times higher than his own. That meant that he would be dead already if the man decided to attack. Since that was the case, Liriu decided to at least tell how he got alone. "I was together with my parents and my uncle until we reached a big Light Pillar. My father took the test first, and I went second. After destroying all the fake enemies created by that Light Pillar, I was teleported here. However, my father was no were to be seen. I waited for a long time, but my mother and uncle, who were supposed to come after, also didn''t appear. So I tried to move around to see if I could find them." The Demon Beast immediately went into a rage. "Who the hell would try something idiot like this? Didn''t they know that there are several different dimensional realms for each level? It was evident that you would get separated if you went through it. First of all, who would bring a kid to a place like this? Are they even thinking with their heads?" It was then that he noticed a problem. "Wait! How can you resist the Godly Energy in this place with such low cultivation?" Liriu looked at him, puzzled. But then his eyes lit up. "Oh! I can indeed feel the pressure of Godly Energy, but it is quite comfortable." The man''s mouth twitched. "Com... comfortable?" For a second, the man thought that the kid was fooling him. But then again, Liriu didn''t look the least bit troubled by the Godly Energy. If anything, it was he who seemed to have problems resisting it. He had to use his Chaos Energy to block at least half of the Godly Energy in the Second Level. It would still take quite some time before he got totally used to it. "You... What kind of demon beast are you?" It was then that Liriu remembered. Laex, Tiane, and Ruik warned him thousands of times that if anyone asked, he should say... "I''m a Fire Quetzalcoatl." "Fire Quetzalcoatl? I''ve never heard bout this subspecies of Quetzalcoatl before." Liriu didn''t know what to say, he just understands that he can''t tell that he is a Dracophoenix. In the end, he went silent. However, the man had to admit that Liriu looked like a Quetzalcoatl a lot. It is just that he was firey red. ''A hybrid? Perhaps between some firebird race? Well, he does look like a Quetzalcoatl.'' The man sighed before saying. "Forget it. You are lucky that I was the one who found you. I will need to stay on this second level for quite a few months before going up, so you can stay with me during this time. My ability to adapt to the Godly Energy isn''t as good as yours, after all." There are thousands of Major Divine Souls, Heavenly Fragments, and Heavenly Soul Owners. Also geniuses and rare beasts. However, a lot more are just rich enough to by a slot to the Holy Land and aren''t that heaven-defying. This Demon Beast in human form just happens to be one of them. So he isn''t as fast as those geniuses and needs a lot more time to get used to the Godly Energy. The only reason he is in the Second Level already is that he can use the Chaos Energy to resist it with his Void Breaking Realm Cultivation. In fact, he almost lost in the battle against the ten enemies in the first Light Pillar. He had to give his all just to resist those ten minutes. "Anyway, just stay with me during this time." Liriu didn''t know what to say. "I..." The man snorted and turned around. "Well, I''m not forcing you. If you want to stay alone, be my guest." The man began to fly away without even bothering to insist on Liriu following him. It is not like he had any obligation to start with. However, Liriu is still an 11 years old kid, so he was indeed scared of being alone in this place. Since someone appeared and offered help, he could only accept. What Liriu didn''t know is that he was indeed fortunate. During the time he was flying around, quite a few Cultivators and Demon Beasts noticed him with their Divine Senses. But after seeing his cultivation, they just ignored and pretended that he didn''t even exist. What could a Core Formation Realm Demon beast possibly do for them? Some also thought that it might be a trap as the old man did, so they stayed even further away from him. Liriu quickly followed without even looking back. As for things like his bloodline seal and others, he will need to think about that later. --- Surprisingly, Tiane and Ruik ended being sent to the same Dimensional Realm in the Second Level. Of course, once Liriu disappeared, they started to search for him as if they were crazy. However, because Laex also disappeared, they soon concluded that there might be several different Dimensional Realms for each level. Once they arrived at the Second Level Light Pillar, they got the necessary information from the surrounding cultivators. That confirmed their theory that there were several different Dimensional Realms. "What do we do now?" Ruik pondered a bit and suggested. "Krune, Feifei, and Fie are probably in the same situation. However, the information we got from the other cultivators and demon beasts says that there is no way to travel between Dimensional Realms of the same level. Knowing Krune, he will probably try to look for a way as he goes up. We might as well do the same. Staying put in this place won''t help with anything." As worried as Tiane might be, she had to admit that Ruik was right. That being said, both of them immediately entered the third level as well. It was also during this time that ''Your Grandfather R'' and ''Beating Grandfather R'' names appeared. Krune ended reaching the second level pillar after them since he was able to see their names at that time. On the third Level, Tiane and Ruik encountered the same problem as Krune. They couldn''t resist any more Godly Energy. In the end, they also found a concealed place and sat down to cultivate while their bodies got used to the Godly Energy of this Level. 466 Teamwork Krune had a total of 11 Godly Stones at first. Considering that he used one every two days, he spent a total of 22 days in seclusion consuming one by one. During this time, he had a breakthrough, and he is now in the 7th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. He also succeeded in achieving culmination on his first Tribulation Lightning Sub-Law, Flash Annihilation. As a bonus, his second Sub-Law, Charged Lightning Energy, reached the Advanced Stage. Also, he finally comprehended the initial Stage of Purple Tribulation, which is the third Tribulation Lightning Sub-Law. In these 22 days alone, Krune combat prowess reached a whole new level. After Krune got up, Light Spirit commended him. "Your progress in the Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws went further than I thought, very good. I was expecting you to reach culmination with Flash Annihilation, but the Advanced Stage of the Charged Lightning Energy and Initial Stage of Purple Tribulation were a surprise. Make sure to use this change well. Perhaps, you might end these 10 years of Holy Land with more than two Purple Tribulation Sub-Laws at culmination." Krune nodded and then called Heavin over. "Let''s go, I''m out of Godly Stones, but I should be able to get a few more from the next Light Pillar." Once Krune went outside, he felt the flow of Godly Energy and immediately decided on a direction to go. But he didn''t simply fly. He also tried his Tribulation Lightning Movement while employing his new comprehension of Laws and cultivation. With a flash of purple light, Krune disappeared from his spot. Fast! Extremely Fast! A few cultivators and demon beasts saw the Flash of Purple Light passing by for a second and were amazed. Krune wasn''t using his Purple Tribulation Lightning to block Divine Sense, so others could feel his 7th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm cultivation. However, the speed he was showing was several times above what someone at his level should be able to achieve. "That is as fast as a 5th Stage Void Breaking Realm at the very least, just who is that guy?" "Is he trying to buy a fight with others? Isn''t that showing off too much?" "Impressive. He is probably a Heavenly Divine Soul owner." As Krune moved forward, more eyes got on him. However, he didn''t care. He was trying to get used to the changes in his comprehension of laws. Suddenly, someone appeared in front of him, blocking his path. Krune stopped and looked at the person but couldn''t recognize him. As for his cultivation, Krune could tell that he was in the Void Breaking Realm 6th Stage. Nine stages higher than himself. "Is there a problem?" The guy smiled before asking. "You are Lakin, Right?" Krune pondered a bit but nodded in the end. He did select Lakin as name, after all. "Do I know you?" The guy shook his head. Krune shook his head. "No. I''m a Heavenly Fragment Ower, just like you. In my case, I have the Elemental and Yang Fragments." Tikal nodded before saying. "I saw before that you got 10 Godly Stones and came into this Dimensional Realm. I also wanted those Godly Stones, but entering the ranks is just too hard, so I''m really impressed with your feat. However, those tests are adjusted to the contestant''s cultivation, which means that you are still weak even though you are the top scorer. A 7th Stage Soul Forging Realm is way too low, you know?" Krune smiled and shook his head. "There is no need to worry about me. I already said that I''m Lakin anyway, so what is it that you need?" Tikal laughed after hearing that. "To be honest, I didn''t think I would be lucky enough to be sent into the same Dimensional Realm as you. But to my surprise, while I was cultivating and getting used to the Godly Energy of this Floor, you appeared. In that case, I thought I could borrow a few Godly Stones from you." Krune laughed out loud at the man''s request. "First of all, I have been cultivating for over 20 days, so my Godly Stones are gone already. Second, why would I lend it to you, anyway? Do you have anything that I want?" Tikal narrowed his eyes before snorting. "Bullshit, 10 Godly Stones can''t be absorbed this fast. You would need at least 2 months of hard work to get rid of all of them. I''m giving you a chance now. Give me your Godly Stones, and I can let you live. I advise you to not try to leave. As a Destiny Major Soul and a Destiny Fragment Owner, speed alone will not be enough to escape from me. Well, I don''t mind searching your body, too, if that is needed." Krune already expected this. Still, Krune couldn''t say that his Myriad Energies Technique allowed him to absorb the Godly Stones much faster. Not to mention that Light Spirit also consumed a great deal of their power. Besides, there was something that he wanted to test in battle, so this was an excellent opportunity to test it out. "Well, I''m not lying when I say that I have no Godly Stones remaining. But it is up to you to believe it or not. So what about we stop wasting each other''s time and get over with it?" Tikal didn''t expect that Krune wanted to fight, but he wasn''t afraid either. "Since you want to do it the hard way, don''t blame me for being unpolite." Tikal''s Domain spread out, and Krune started to see copies of his enemy. His Destiny related domain was different from Feifei. It messed up with his own destiny, showing images of what could have happened had he selected to do other things. "Myriad Possibilities Domain!" Obviously, these were not just copies, so Divine Sense could not tell who was the real one and who wasn''t. Even Krune''s Mental Energy had some difficulty to see through it. "Purple Tribulation Lightning Domain!" Krune also released his Domain to counter-attack. Immediately, the Laws of Tikal''s Destiny Domain started to get eaten. In the end, Krune admitted that this Domain''s old name was too big and just made it simpler. However, the difference in cultivation was still very high. So Krune''s Purple Tribulation Domain could only affect the images of destiny close to him. "Heavin, It''s your time to show off. Let''s see how good we can do when we work together." Heavin''s eyes lit up, and he immediately took flight. He had been waiting for this for a long time already. "Hahaha! Leave it with your grandfather Heavin, it will be over in a flash. Just make sure to keep him occupied." Krune nodded and paid attention to his surroundings. Of course, Krune and Heaving talked through Divine Sense, so Tikal couldn''t hear anything. Tikal noticed that his Domain had no effect when it got close to Krune, only when it was far enough would it work properly. Still, he is also a Ranged attacker, so it didn''t mean much. As for the Parrot Puppet that took flight, he kept his Divine Sense on him just in case. From his spatial ring, a bow came out, and several arrows that hovered around him. All the images created by his Domain then showed the same bow and arrows. "Space Piercing Shot!" Krune didn''t move since he couldn''t tell which one was right. However, his Kaleu Tribulation Lightning Shields Hovered around him as well. Suddenly, five Shields formed a Barrier, and Purple Tribulation Lightning covered them. Boom! Out of nowhere, one of the hundreds of arrow images slammed against Krune''s Shields. Krune might not be able to see who was the real one shooting the Arrow. But once it got close enough of his Purple Tribulation Domain, any laws it had would be affected. Even Space Laws were no exception. No laws can escape the Law Eating Properties of Light Spirit''s Purple Tribulation Lightning. Tikal was surprised that Krune could find his Arrow that had been concealed by Space and Destiny Laws so easy. ''Hehe. You can block one attack, but can you block all of them?'' "Space Piercing Shots!" "Frozen Space Icycles!" "Fate Twists!" "Thousand Ste..." One attack after another came in Krune''s direction. That Fate Twist skill seemed to affect the outcome of the attacks themselves too. However, Krune''s Kaleu Tribulation Shields charged with Purple Tribulation Lightning blocked everything. Sure, Tikal was an opponent hard to deal with and even harder if you decided to escape. Tricks are not very useful for those who specialize in Destiny Laws. However, they are also lacking attack power. So far, Krune''s Kaleu Tribulation Shield did not suffer the least bit of Damage. Well, a big part of the reason was due to the Purple Tribulation Lightning being charged inside them through Feifei''s Energy Transfer Equipment Formations drawn on them. Krune really couldn''t tell which one was real. There were ways to screen him out, but it would consume a great amount of energy. That''s why Krune left it for Heavin to resolve. He would attract Tikal''s attention while Heavin figured out where he was. Krune''s Mental Energy had difficulty to see through this farse, but Heavin''s one is in a completely different league. He was the creator of mental energy, and it was made for Divine Souls to start with. So it was obviously much stronger. Suddenly, Heavin looked in a specific direction. ''Found you!'' Not wasting any time, Heavin started to dive at full speed. Suddenly, Purple Tribulation Lighting appeared on his wings, and his speed multiplied. Not only that, but Heavin also gathered a vast amount of Mental Energy on his beak! When Tikal saw where Heavin was headed, he laughed internally. That was a dummy that he had created to advert attention. Although the fact that he found the dummy could be considered impressive. In the end, it would matter nothing even if it was destroyed. He could instantly create a few more. Still, he was really surprised with the speed that Heavin was showing. It was not the least bit slow than Krune himself was. Well, that was to be expected. Any law that Krune can use, Heavin can too. Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws were no different. That being said, Heavin was able to achieve the same speed as Krune. Although it took time to explain, from the moment Heavin selected a target to the moment he dived at him, only a split of a second went by. Battle at this level are resolved in a moment, everyone agrees with this saying. However, just as Heavin was about to pierce through the dummy and destroy it, Tikal heard a voice echoing in his mind. "You lost." Suddenly, Heavin''s Parrot Puppet disappeared and reappeared right behind Tikal''s real body. Space Sub Laws, Displacement, Teleport! Tikal was alarmed by that. It was too close, too sudden. During the entire battle, neither Krune nor Heavin had shown any signs of using Space Laws. Tikal tried to use his own Space Laws to teleport away. But it was also at this moment that the Space Laws from the surroundings went in disarray. "Rainbow Domain!" Krune''s Rainbow Domain descended! With the power of Six Domain together and the Purple Tirublation Domain as the base, Krune affected all laws in the surroundings, not only Space Laws! Teleporting in this situation would be suicide! Tikal would be torn apart by the Spatial Storms created by the disarray of Space Laws. There was no time to think anymore. Tikal turned around as fast as he could and used his own bow to block Heavin. At the same time, he put his entire focus on his Energy Barrier. All the Chaos Energy of his 6th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm was being used to protect himself. But then something unbelievable happened! His Energy barrier did not stop the attack at all! It was as if his energy barrier didn''t even exist to start with! Mental Energy! All types of energies other than Purple Tribulation Lightning would need to do much better than that to stop it. But even more unbelievable, his bow, a Peak Nine Diamond Stars Weapon, was pierced through as if it was made of paper! No, a piece of paper would probably be more resistant than that! God-Level Stellar Beak! Krune''s effort had finally paid off. Three Months! That was the time that Krune had to keep using his Purple Flame to melt and remodel the Stellar Needle into a Parrot''s Beak! Even the Dragon Pearls didn''t take that long! The result had been decided. Puft! Heavin''s attack passed right through Tikal''s Dantian. His Destiny Divine Soul was instantly decimated, and only the three Heavenly Fragments were left behind, now inside Heavin''s Beak. Heavin looked behind before laughing. "Did you really think that such a poorly made dummy could fool your grandfather Heavin? Haha! Idiot!" 467 Ignoring the Threats Heavin quickly returned to Krune''s shoulder and dropped the three Heavenly Fragments on his hand. Seeing those things, Krune couldn''t help but think. "I wonder if I can get more Godly Stones with these ones as well." Krune then walked to Tikal''s side, who seemed to have lost his soul. Nothing made sense in his head. How did that Parrot find his location? It should be impossible with Krune''s level of Divine Sense. What was that energy that broke through his Chaos Energy Barrier as if it wasn''t even there? What is that Parrot''s Beak made from that his Peak Diamond Stars Bow broke like an egg being hit by a hammer? Also, the thing that made Tikal the most puzzled about was those final words. He received the Parrots message, but it wasn''t Divine Sense at all! The Parrot''s voice appeared out of nowhere in his mind, just like a Divine Sense message, but it was one for sure. Such a thing should only be possible if the Parrot''s cultivation was far above his one. But that would mean that the Parrot is above the Divine Path Realm, which he is sure to not be the case. ''No, wait! Why does it look like the Parrot has sentience? Wasn''t it Lakin who was controlling him?'' There were too many questions in his mind, but no answers. No one knows about the Mental Energy, and Krune wouldn''t tell him either. "You perhaps don''t have a few Godly Stones to lend me, do you?" Tikal wanted to die already. Those were precisely the same words he asked Lakin when they met. Tikal took his Spatial Ring and threw it at him. "That''s everything I have, do whatever you want. I just ask you to not kill me." Krune looked inside and was surprised to see that, in fact, Tikal had two Godly Stones! He didn''t expect him to have any at all. "Haha! Good, then it is a deal." Krune took the Gogly Stones out of Tikal''s Spatial Ring and threw it back at him. "These two Godly Stones are enough, I don''t have any need for the rest." With a beaming smile, Krune and Heavin quickly left. There are quite a few eyes around, so he didn''t want to stay for much longer. Tikal looked as Krune disappeared in the distance. He didn''t expect that the other would really leave him alive. ''Doesn''t he know what it means to get rid of the roots?'' In the end, Tikal shook his head and walked away. He wasn''t out of danger yet since someone might come to attack him for whatever reason. As for revenge or anything like that, he can think about it once he is safe. He has no other choice other than start cultivating from zero again. Even though Krune wasn''t showing his real speed anymore, he was stopped by another two more enemies on the way. Both of them only paid attention to Krune''s 7th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Unfortunately, they overestimated themselves and lost their cultivations as well. First, their cultivations were below Tikal''s, and second, they were not Heavenly Fragment Owners, let alone Heavenly Divine Souls. It was simply to easy to beat those two black and blue. Of course, Krune also didn''t find anything of interest in their Spatial Rings. Around two days later, Krune finally arrived at the next Light Pillar. As one can imagine, the number of cultivators and demon beasts resting around it was even smaller than the previous level. The higher you go, the more Godly Energy there is. So the ones with lower cultivations would take a lot longer to get used to this dimensional realm''s level, which means that they won''t come anytime soon. In contrast, the cultivators and demon beasts present around this Pillar at the moment have much higher cultivations. There were almost no Soul Forging Realm present; they were nearly all at the Void Breaking Realm or above. They could use their own cultivations to forcefully resist the Godly Energy and get used to it faster. Krune knows that even with his Myriad Energies Technique, there is a limit to how much he can do with his cultivation. After all, Krune''s adaptation level can''t possibly compare to Divine Path Realm cultivators or demon beasts. Krune was bound to find higher-level opponents in the future since those at his level are stuck behind. ''No one is coming for me yet, seems like the Heavenly Fragment Owners from the same Univer as Tikal are not here. Well, I will simply keep these fragments with me for now.'' The first thing Krune did was to check the Light Pillar for the previous rankings. Sure enough, he immediately spotted Makui WF in the second position. No doubt that was was Wang Feifei. However, he quickly reached the same conclusion as his woman. Feifei would never advance through the Light Pillars if it had the chance to get separated from Fie. That means she was also alone. "Light Spirit, can you tell me if Fie''s Tribulation Lightning Essence still there?" Light Spirit confirmed. "Yes, there has been no change so far, which means that she is at least alive and well. But that is all I can tell from here." Only then Krune stopped to pay attention to his position in the previous pillar rank. "What?! I was the only one to break 500 Windows?!" Heavin looked at Krune as if he was looking at an idiot. "Are you kidding me? Your name is right above Feifei''s second place! How come you only noticed it now?" Krune scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Cough, cough. I forgot I used Lakin''s name for myself." Heavin shook his head and didn''t say anything else. "Anyway, let me take the rewards for the previous Pillar then." "Are you sure? The ten Godly Stones will all appear in front of everyone, you know?" Krune sighed, hearing that. "I don''t have another choice. At least, this is a safe zone, so no one can attack me. I need those Godly Stones if I want to finish to adapt to this level in the next ten to fifteen days. I will just cultivate here and ignore everyone else." Heavin and Light Spirit had nothing to say, that was indeed the only option. After all, he would need to take those stones sooner or later. Sure, he could cultivate without them and wait for the time he is ready to go up before taking the stones. It wouldn''t give time for the others to say anything, and he would be gone. But it would take more than double the time he would need to stay here. Krune sent his request into the Light Pillar, which quickly verified his achievements. Krune had stayed in the top 100 for at least three days in a row, so the Pillar immediately began to generate his Godly Stones. Outside, Godly Energy started to gather from the surroundings at fast speeds and one Godly Stone after another was formed, ten in total. They slowly descended on Krune''s hand once more, which caught everyone''s attention. Still, Krune ignored them and put nine inside his Spatial Ring, leaving only one out for him to start cultivating. Sure enough, after seeing Krune''s cultivation, some of the observers quickly talked with him. "Hey, kid. Give me the Godly Stones." "Why should he give to a weakling like you? Kid, if you know what is good for you, pass me your Godly Stones." "Haha! The two of you scram to the side, his Godly Stones are mine." Krune, on the other hand, totally ignored all of them. Those guys obviously noticed that Krune kept using the Godly Stone without even looking at them. Not only that, but they could see just how fast he was absorbing ''their'' Godly Stone''s Energy. "Are you deaf? Last warning, pass the Godly Stones over." Still, Krune didn''t move a single muscle. One of the demon beasts threatening Krune lost his patience and attacked. However, as the majority already expected, he was quickly crushed by the Light Pillar. In the end, he couldn''t touch even a single hair from Krune. That was also the reason that the others still didn''t make a move. As long as you are inside the Safe Zone, they can''t do anything. They were basically threatening Krune using their higher cultivation. But it proved to completely useless. "Kid, you better don''t let me see you outside the safe zones." One by one, those guys retreated, but they all stayed close in case things changed. Godly Stones are just too rare, and everyone here wanted them. However, getting a high position in the ranks was too hard when you were not a Heavenly Fragment or Divine Soul owner. Also, those who were in this group would usually have high cultivations and were hard to deal with. You simply couldn''t use their cultivation level to judge their strength. While Krune was cultivating with the Godly Stones, one thing happened that made him happy. ''It really took a long time, but I can finally merge a little bit of all elements together. It means that I''m getting close to the advanced stage of the Elements Regulation Technique that master passed me.'' Krune gathered the five Main Elements and the two Higher Ones on his hand. Immediately, they started to merge together. Although it wasn''t even close to what Lucio could do, Krune could already see the black color that the merging caused. ''I wonder if I can put Purple Tribulation Lightning in the mix.'' 468 Catch! However, Light Spirit immediately refused his idea. "Not gonna work, this merging of elements you are doing is a very delicate process, not something you can achieve forcefully. The Law Eating Sub-Law of my Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws will immediately destroy the balance. If you really want to try something like that, you will need to completely comprehend my Law Eating Sub-Law. Only then will you be able to stop my Purple Tribulation Lightning from destroying your Elemental merge." Krune was obviously sad to hear that. "There is no need to feel like that. Instead, you can use the Purple Tribulation Lightning as support for skills that use it. For example, you like to use your Myriad Water Dragons with the Purple Tribulation Lightning. Although they are not really merging, they are still supporting each other. It greatly increases the strength of your Myriad Water Dragons. You can simply do the same thing with skills that use this Merged Elements. Use the Purple Tribulation Lightning to boost the power of the skills." Krune nodded, he had to admit that it was a very good idea. Suddenly, someone stood up and moved in the direction of the Light Pillar. "Look, someone is finally trying again!" "Great! I wanted to see the test once more, maybe I can understand something." "Understand what, Idiot? This is a test of resolve, of will! If your will is not strong, you won''t be able to pass. It is that simple!" Krune heard the conversation around and felt puzzled. Looking around, Krune selected someone in the middle of those who were talking to ask with a Divine Sense Message? "Hey, friend. Shouldn''t the test be closed from view? Can you really see what is happening inside while he is in the middle of it?" The person looked at Krune and noticed that it was the guy using the Godly Stones. For a second, he thought about ignoring him. But in the end, he knew Krune would find the answer once the person moving to the Light Pillar entered it. So he decided to talk since he wouldn''t lose anything anyway. "It is usually like this. However, this level is different. It will show images of the person going through the test to those outside. As you heard, this is a test of will. The formations inside will attack your mind. It has nothing to do with Soul Power, though. Having a strong or weak Soul will make no difference for the test." "All that matter is if your own will is strong enough to step forward or not. Everything can affect someone''s will, even an audience. Everyone believes that this test shows those inside so that they will feel even more pressure. Anyway, I think you understood the gist of it. This thing has a total of 18 levels from what I heard. All you need to do is to walk forward." Krune couldn''t help but feel interested in this test. He had never passed through something like this before. Even the tests of the Mohie Sect back in the Luvile Universe were targeted at the soul rather than the will. Sure enough, as soon as that guy entered, images of what was happening inside were shown through a powerful Divine Sense that came from the Light Pillar. The participants outside could block it if they wanted, but who would lose the opportunity to watch the show inside? The first area that appeared seemed to be a snowing path. The guy instinctively raised his Energy Barrier to block the cold, but it proved to be useless. The others outside laughed after seeing that. "Idiot, energy protection is completely useless. Even equipments are of no use there." "Hahaha! Does he even understand what a test of will is?" "I bet he won''t reach even the 6th floor." "6th? I think it will be a miracle if he enters the 4th." Noticing that any type of energy protection was useless, the man gritted his teeth and went with the cold. He wanted to fly and pass the 10km fast. But he noticed that he could not fly, even running was also out of the question. Krune also noticed one thing. The time inside that test passed at least a hundred times faster. But he soon understood. If this test followed the outside time flow, this test would take to long to finish. However, Krune could already see that he seemed to be having a hard time continuing. The cold continued to seep into his body, which began to get hard to resist. That wasn''t all, the cold didn''t attack only the body, but the mind too. It was indeed a test of one''s will. Of course, this was only the first level, so he was still able to finish. On the second level, the ambient changed entirely. What before was a snowing path, now became a searing desert. For a moment, the guy relaxed. He felt comfortable to have all that cold expelled from his body. However, before walking past even 1/10 of the desert, he was already feeling thirsty. He took a jar from his spatial ring and started to drink whatever was inside. Unfortunately, it didn''t matter how much he drunk, it didn''t change anything at all. It was as if he wasn''t even drinking to start with. Finally, the guy gave up using any outside help and focused on the test alone. It was evident that nothing else would help him in this test. Slowly, he pressed forward. The third level was some kind of underworld. The dead passed by him, and their deathly energy seeped into his body. The feeling was worse than the cold and hot levels together! Just are the majority predicted, he passed the third level too. The fourth level was different. It didn''t bring you suffering, but pleasure instead. The feel was so intense that it would make someone drunk with it. Of course, if the guy succumbed to these pleasures and stopped moving, he would fail, and he knew that. Against the odds, he did not fail in the fourth level, which surprised many spectators. Unfortunately for him, the fifth level was his stopping point. This was a messed level that would constantly throw you around, making your feeling of balance disappear. You couldn''t even tell if you were going back or forward. Of course, for those observing outside, he was definitely moving forward. Finally, he fell on the ground and was unable to continue. A few seconds later, his body disappeared from inside the 5th Test Level and reappeared outside. Everyone looked at him and laughed. They loved to watch this show. Of course, the Holy Land is a cultivation land. All the Light Pillar tests were made to help the cultivators and demon beasts improve. So this experience would, without a doubt, help this guy to harden his will. Sooner or later, everyone around this pillar will end passing this test too. Krune was obviously surprised by this test. He even felt eager to try to test his will. However, he still needs to finish getting used to this third-dimensional realm''s Godly Energy first. Two days passed in a flash. During this time, another twenty some cultivators and demon beasts tried their luck inside. Although the majority still failed between the 4th and 7th levels, three reached the 8th at least. Krune also noticed one thing. Once someone reached the 8th level or higher, they would be given the option to return to the same level and try the test again once they reached their limit. It was evident that this test''s creator was asking if they wanted to temper their wills even more or if they wanted to continue like this. Two of the guys who succeeded immediately departed, while one of them returned. This guy''s name was Frahem, a Demon Beast in human form at the 4th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. He wasn''t anything impressive. He didn''t have a Heavenly Fragment or Heavenly Divine Soul. He wasn''t a standard Major Divine Soul either. However, he was still able to reach the 12th level of the Will Test! It proved that this guy''s will was powerful. Not only that, but it seemed that he wanted to temper it even more since he returned to the third level instead of advancing. The majority thought that he was an idiot, that he shouldn''t waste time in the lower dimensional realms. Krune was different, though. He thought that there was something else to it, so he asked Frahem out of curiosity. "Why do you want to temper your will even more?" Frahem looked at him and laughed. "Haha! Other than my will, I don''t have anything to distinguish me from everyone else. Different from the majority, who got their slots thanks to their backgrounds and connections, it was through a hellish effort that I got a slot to enter the Holy Land. For someone who doesn''t have anything else other than willpower, this level is tailor-made for me. I will not leave this place before I pass all eighteen levels. Even if I run out of time and ten years go by, I will not regret it!" Krune''s eyes shined after hearing that. Just the fact that he is willing to waste his ten years of the Holy Land in this place already shows his resolve. No wonder he went so far in this will test. Although Krune has several perks under his belt, it doesn''t change the fact that he got into this place with his own effort. Purple Flame was his creation; the Purple Flame Weapons were his creation too. It looked like Krune had it easy to acquire these slots for the Holy Land, but just how much he went through to reach the point where he could create the Purple Flames? Although he received a lot of help on his path, it was mostly thanks to his own efforts that he is here now. Krune didn''t notice, but suddenly, everyone close to him heard the sound of something breaking. Once they looked at Krune''s hand, they noticed the Godly Stone turning into dust! Immediately, they all felt frightened! "How can he absorb the Godly Energy this fast?" "Is this some trick?" "It shouldn''t be, who would waste Godly Stones just to trick someone? Godly Stones are too important to be used for something like that." Only when everyone looked at him did Krune notice that his first Godly Stone was already gone. "Ah! Let''s take another one." Krune glanced at Frahem, who had closed his eyes to recover. It was then that Krune sent him a Divine Sense message. "Hey, brother, catch!" Frahem heard that and opened his eyes again when suddenly, a stone came flying against his face. It was so sudden that he was alarmed and immediately used his hand to stop it. Fortunately, he caught it before it hit his face. For a moment, he got angry at Krune. But then, he noticed everyone looking at him with envious eyes. When he looked at what was that Krune threw at him, he was shocked! ''Godly Stone!'' 469 The Willpower Tes Frahem looked at Krune, shocked! Everyone considers Godly Stones treasures. How can he simply give one away this easy? "This..." Krune laughed and said. "Don''t worry, this is not like wanting you to owe me anything. Although I have several things that make me stronger than others, I also started my path at the very bottom. I understand very well just how much work you put into reaching this point, probably even more than myself. So just consider it a meeting gift." Frahem didn''t know what to say, but in the end, he just nodded. "Thank you." Krune nodded. "I hope to see your name at the top of the third Light Pillar Ranking. I believe you can definitely do this." Krune then took another Godly Stone out of his Spatial Ring and continued to cultivate. As for what everyone else was thinking, Krune didn''t give a damn! Twelve days and Six Godly Stones later, Krune''s body finally got used to the Godly Energy of this level. It was now time to enter the next one. Krune stood up and walked in the direction of the Light Pillar. Obviously, everyone noticed this. Krune had been the center of attention in the past few days while using his Godly Stones, so everyone wanted to see how this top ranker would fare in the Will Test. After pouring his Spiritual Energy into the Light Pillar, Krune was immediately teleported over. At the same time, everyone outside received the images of what was happening inside through Divine Sense. Between all of them, it could be said that only Frahem was hopping for his success. Inside the test, Krune opened his eyes and looked forward, the same Snowing Path appeared in front of him. At the same time, he heard a voice in his mind. "The test of Will. You must reach the 8th level if you wish to advance. You may start now." Krune smiled and began to walk forward. Sure enough, as soon as he gave the first step, the cold energy seeped into his body and soul. Any type of protection seemed to be useless against it. "Indeed, this is a good test of will. Let''s keep going." Although the cold was there, Krune didn''t seem concerned about it. Cold? I''m a wisp, I never cared about the cold! Of course, this test wasn''t simply the same as a winter cold. It could also affect Krune, just like everyone else. It was just that Krune paid it no mind. Krune''s plan was pretty simple... Ignore it! Ignore it all! Pretend that such a thing doesn''t even exist. Although it seemed easy, that was not the case. Several other cultivators and demon beasts also tried to use this method. But in the end, the majority failed. The reason was quite simple too, it all depended on their willpower! There is a big difference between ''wanting'' to ignore something and ''being able'' to really do so. However, for Krune, who tempered his Soul with Purple Tribulation Lightning, the cold''s discomfort was a joke! "Just how much of a monster can this guy be?" "He must be pretending. I don''t believe anyone can resist those two realms without feeling anything." "Well, there had been a few before us who passed it without problems. So I guess it is fine for a top ranker to be this good, no?" "Indeed. Let''s wait and see if he can really make it past the 8th realm." Krune quickly arrived at the third level, where death energy started to seep inside his body. It wasn''t as easy to ignore and the cold and heat levels. Still, it was far from being able to hinder Krune''s progress. Then came the Fourth Level. There, could saw Feifei, Fie, and several other friends of his. Krune had to admit that he felt the urger to stop by to talk with all of them. There was also a lot of food he had never seen before, which increased that urge to stop by. However, he still ignored it all and pressed forward. Then came the fifth level, the sixth, seventh, and finally eighth! Krune had now granted his green pass to the fourth Dimensional Realm. However, he smiled and continued. He needs Godly Stones, so he will make as far as possible. Of course, even Krune was finding it somewhat hard to resist the attacks on his will at this point. He understood that he definitely wouldn''t make it to the last level. But that isn''t a problem. He had checked the willpower test ranking before, the highest placed one walked 5039 meters of the 14th level. Krune pressed forward. 9th level... 10th level... 11th level... Finally, he arrived at the 12th level. This was a pain-inducing realm. It looked like a battlefield, and the warriors here would always attack your body. Swords, maces, spears, arrows, you name it. Once an injury appeared, it was instantly healed, though. This was also the level where Frahem failed last time. Krune had to give his all to resist this place until the end. Fortunately, he still passed it. However, what Krune didn''t know is that Frahem could have gone further. But because he knew that his will would not be strong enough to reach the top, Frahem gave up middle way. Of course, no one other than Frahem knew it. Frahem couldn''t help but smile after seeing Krune passing that level. "Looking at your state, the thirteenth level should still be possible. I wonder if you can make it through the 14th, though." Frahem was right. Krune really managed to pass the 13th level and enter the same realm as the first placed person. The 14th level was a suffering one. One''s mind would be purposely affected by the formation. Then it would show scenes of one''s family members, friends, or whatever they regarded as important in their lives being lost several times over. As much as everyone knows that it was all an illusion, the formation inside forced your mind to believe it was happening. However, something that no one expected happened. The first scene was of Krune''s family being killed by a demon beast. Krune was supposed to try to resist it and move forward... or at least, that is what everyone was thinking. But Krune ignored this logic completely! First of all, he didn''t want to resist! Krune immediately destroyed the demon beast. After Fie and Feifei were saved, Krune looked at them with a smile as their bodies began to disappear until they were finally gone. Right after, Krune looked at the sky and snorted before saying. "So what if it is just an illusion? Anyone who dares to touch my family, death! I am more than happy enough to fail here if that means I can stop it." Everyone was taken aback by those words. Some thought that Krune was an idiot, it was evident that he could have made much further, but he stopped because of such a bullshit reason. Others nodded vigorously and agreed with his point of view, they too considered their family member important enough to do the same thing. There were also those who were neutral and preferred to not say anything. A few seconds later, Krune''s body disappeared from the 14th level and was teleported over to the fourth Dimensional Realm. He ended this Light Pillar in the 4th position, having walked just 10 meters before failing in this realm. Frahem looked as Krune disappeared and couldn''t help but sigh. "I wonder if I would have done the same if I had a family." Frahem is an orphan, and he is not married either. In fact, he had never cared about love before. All his mind was in the path of cultivation. That being said, he didn''t have an answer to that question. Frahem then put those thoughts away and regained his concentration. His objective hasn''t changed, reach the 18th level of the willpower test! Krune quickly appeared on the fourth level. Immediately, the higher level of Godly Energy assaulted his body mercilessly. In the end, Light Spirit was right. If he hadn''t gotten used to the third level Godly Energy first, he definitely would have a hard time resist the fourth. Perhaps, his Wisp Core would have really broken apart. Heavin then spread his Mental Energy and pointed in a different direction. "There seems to be a good place to hide for the time being in the direction. You still have another two Godly Stones, right? Let''s stay there while you use those last two." Krune nodded and followed Heavin''s directions. Soon, he noticed that there was an enormous cliff. Heavin then pointed at a specific point between the rocks. "You should be able to see the cave behind those rocks with your Mental Energy already, right?" Krune nodded. "Yes. Let''s go over." Suddenly, Light Spirit Warned them. "Don''t go, there is a much stronger demon beast inside already. I just felt his Divine Sense. Krune immediately stopped, turned around, and left without even looking back. For Light Spirt to say that this Demon Beast is much stronger, then it meant that he had no chance against it. The demon beast also noticed Krune leaving as soon as he arrived. ''Hum? Did he notice my presence? How?'' But just as the demon beast was about to pursue, Krune disappeared from his Divine Sense. "What?!" The demon beasts then exploded forward and quickly arrived where it felt Krune''s presence for the last time. "How is that possible?!" Obviously, it was Krune''s Tribulation Lightning Layer! By the time the demon beast arrived, Krune was long gone already. 470 Stealing Krunes Food A few days later, Krune was once again hidden in the middle of a forest while finishing using his last Godly Stone. Suddenly, a cracking sound could be heard before the stone turned into dust. Heavin then came flying and landed on his shoulder. "You still have to get the Godly Stones from the Previous level in the next Light Pillar. Are we going there now?" Krune pondered a bit and asked Light Spirit''s opinion. "I think it is useless. As you can see, this level of Godly Energy is much higher than the previous one. Even if you use all the Godly Stones reward that you got from the previous level, you will still be lacking. Rather than that, I would recommend that you stay here and cultivate until you reach the 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm." "You aren''t that far since you already used 10 Godly Stones while still in the 7th Stage. At most, you should take two months to achieve this breakthrough. The rewards you got from the previous level should be just enough to have your body getting used to the Godly Energy of this level after that." Krune nodded. "Very well. If I can''t do anything in the next level the way I am at the moment, I can only here for the time being." Suddenly, Krune felt a Divine Sense checking the surroundings. Not long after, a cultivator appeared in his sight. It seemed that the guy was coming directly on attack mode, which was also good in Krune''s opinion. "Well, I can''t only cultivate. I need some combat experience too." Heavin laughed and immediately took flight. "Good, I''m joining this time as well." A moment later, explosions and waves of energy spread everywhere around. --- Holy Land, six months after the start. Back inside the Origin Realm, Little Arty guided Fie while she fought a fake demon beast created by a formation. "Wrong, wrong, wrong! Why did you use your Lightning Movement just now? If you had used this chance to throw a Blazing Wind Blade, it would have lost its balance, and you could give a finishing blow." Fie immediately sulked. "Little Arty, you are as annoying as my dad when you are training me! Can''t you give me a little break? Please?!" Fie then looked at Little Arty''s projection with pleading eyes. Little Arty had taken the form of a big colored orb. He told her that this is just how he looks like. Fie also asked to see it personally, but he refused without even thinking twice. "Is your father really like this?" Fie eyes lit up, and she immediately nodded vigorously. Maybe she can convince him to take it easier on her. "Great! Then I like him already. That is proof that he really loves you very much. Now stop complaining and pay attention, there comes the next one." On the first day, she tried to put a strong front, continually saying that she didn''t care. On the second day, her expression wasn''t that brave anymore. On the third, she began to feel scared that Little Arty had really gone and left her there forever. On the forth, her pretense finally fell. While tears fell from her face, she promised that she would train diligently. Only then did Little Arty appear once more, and everything around Fie transformed back to what it was. For fie, being alone was scarier than anything else. "Little Arty, you bully me too much!" "The tenth level Godly Energy is extremely strong, how do you expect to resist it with a weak body like that? If you want to see your parents when they arrive there, you have to be able to survive that first. Stop complaining. Look, the next one is attacking again. After you finish it, I will let you eat anything you want." Fie''s eyes lit up as she looked at the beast. "You said it! Anything I want!" Sure enough, Fie is just as a glutton as Krune. One must not underestimate DNA. In the last six months, Little Arty had been training Fie rigorously. He could only send her out at the tenth Dimensional Realm, so he had to make her strong enough to resist that Godly Energy level. Little Arty controlled the Godly Energy present in the Origin Realm of the Holy Land perfectly. It was never too much or too small. In a certain way, Fie was one of the luckiest participants of this Holy Land opening. She went from the 5th Stage of the Core Formation Realm all the way to the 9th. Thanks to the Godly Energy properties, her foundation was not affected due to the speed of cultivation. Little Arty was now preparing her for the breakthrough into the Divine Soul Realm. Still, he was really impressed by Fie''s capability of adaptation to Godly Energy. This speed is nothing more than a miracle in his eyes for someone at her cultivation realm. Of course, he had no idea that it was all thanks to the Elemental Meridians. He had asked Fie bout her cultivation technique before, but Fie insisted that she didn''t have one. It wasn''t a lie, Fie and Liriu were already born with the Elemental Meridians. That being said, they did not have the need to practice the Myriad Energies Technique. It was already part of their bodies. Little did he notice, but his life had been a lot more enjoyable ever since she appeared. He could not communicate with those that are outside. His only duty was to make sure that the Holy Land worked smoothly. As far as he remembers, that had always been his only job ever since his Master left. So he had never had anyone to talk to, all he could do was to observe. After so long, he already grew numb to this sensation of solitude. But now, things have changed. Someone had finally entered his Origin Realm, and Little Arty could finally communicate. Boom! Suddenly, the fake Demon Beast that was attacking Fie fell on the ground. Not long after, it became specs of light and disappeared. "Not too bad. That last strike was somewhat passable." Fie was drenched in sweat, but her face showed happiness. "Yay! Don''t forget your promise!" Little Arty didn''t mind. "Very well, what do you want to eat?" Fie pondered a bit before asking. "Can you show me the list again?" Suddenly, an enormous list of food appeared in Fie''s mind. One would be wondering how Little Arty got food in this place, right? The fact is, he didn''t. All the food appearing in the list were things that are inside the Spatial Rings of all participants of the Holy land. That''s correct, he could rob everyone of everything they had if he wanted to. Of course, his mission is to make the Holy Land run smoothly, so he didn''t take anything that could affect the participants. Still, now and then, a demon beast or a cultivator would notice that part of the food they brought in disappeared. Although most cultivators and demon beasts would not eat anymore, there are always some ''Krune-like'' participants. That is where all the food was coming from. Even Krune had become a target three times! After all, few had as many types of food as this glutton in their spatial rings. Krune, of course, noticed that. He even threw a tantrum once and went on a rampage against the cultivators and demon beasts around the place he was in. How dare they steal his food? Unfortunately, he did not find the culprit. Those poor and innocent demon beasts and cultivators... just what did they do to deserve this? --- On Liriu''s side, he had been following the same demon beast until now. In the end, he found out that his name was Zulin, a horned golden shark from a Planet in Dalin Universe called Ealiu. According to Zulin, 95% of his planet''s surface was covered by water, and horned golden sharks were quite common there. Zulin also asked Liriu about his story, which Liriu explained as well as he could. Simply put, Tiane and Ruik were the same as Krune and Feifei. They didn''t know about the several realms in each level and ended getting separated. Zulin was also curious about Liriu''s cultivation technique. After all, Liriu''s cultivation speed was really fast! But he was shocked to hear from Liriu that he didn''t have a cultivation technique, just like Fie. For him, it was natural to cultivate at this rate. In these six months, Liriu got into the 8th Stage of the Core Formation Realm, one below Fie. It is already a surprising speed, though. He didn''t have Little Arty''s support and could only rely on the second dimensional realm''s Godly Energy. As for his body adaptability to the Godly Energy, it was mostly due to his Dracophoenix bloodline. Although it is sealed, it is still there. Even Fie with Little Arty''s help couldn''t compare to him in this aspect. Liriu had been at the level to enter the third level a long time ago, but he simply didn''t dare to leave Zulin''s side. Unfortunately for Liriu, they wouldn''t be able to stay together for long. "Liriu, my body finally finished adapting to the Godly Energy. I''m going to enter the test of the laws tomorrow, so if I pass, we will probably get separated. From there on, you will need to take care of yourself." 471 Lirius Peril Liriu was taken aback by those words. "I will go too!" Zulin didn''t mind. "That''s up to you. However, the chances of we appearing inside the same Dimensional Realm is minimal. So you should think twice if you really want to take the test. If I were you, I would stay inside the Safe Zone and not leave until the ten years are up. No one can touch you there, after all." Liriu shook his head. "I don''t want to stay behind. I will try it too!" Zulin didn''t try to stop him. He already helped Liriu for long enough. Although it is extremely dangerous, it might prove to be a good thing for him in the future. "Very well." The next day, Liriu and Zulin arrived at the Laws Test Pillar. There were still a lot of cultivators and demon beasts here. Quite a few were surprised to see that Core Formation Realm kid as well. Still, that wasn''t their problem, so they just ignored it. "I''m going first. If I fail, I will end back here. If not, you will see a bright light ascending through the pillar, which means that I passed. Understood?" Liriu nodded. Zulin had already explained to him how everything worked. Zulin''s Laws were not too bad, especially his Water-related ones. After all, he is still a horned golden shark. Thanks to that, he was able to shatter 79 windows before being sent to the third level. Outside, Liriu looked as the Light ascended. That was proof that Zulin had passed the test. Liriu looked around and noticed that no one seemed to be moving forward. As long as he stays close to this pillar, he will be safe. That''s what Zulin told him. Nevertheless, he simply couldn''t bear with it. Making up his mind, Liriu got close to the pillar and first sent his Divine Sense inside. "Name?" Liriu was taken aback for a second, but then he remembered that Zulin commented about it. You had to give a name for the pillar to process your position into the rankings. Liriu didn''t have any better idea, so he simply used his own. "Liriu." Immediately, an enormous list of rankings appeared. There was one for the total score between all pillars and another for each pillar that participants accessed so far. In total, there seemed to be seven pillars accessed. That meant that at least one participant of the Holy Land already surpassed the seventh level and is inside the eighth. It was then that Liriu found his own name in the First Light Pillar ranking. 78- Liriu, 4 minutes and 31 seconds - 22 points (3 Godly Stones) "This..." Seeing that reminded Liriu of something that Zulin always complained about. Zulin knew about the Godly Stones, but he also understood that there was no way for him to get his hands on one. He explained to Liriu just how good it would be if they could get just a few. Now, Liriu found out that he had the right to take three. Sure enough, Liriu''s Godly Stones caught everyone''s attention. They all looked at him as if they were looking at some prey. A few high-level cultivators and demon beasts immediately came forward to demand him to give up the Stones. However, Liriu, too, knew how important those stones were. He steeled his resolve and sent them into his Spatial Necklace. Even at the 8th Stage of the Core Formation Realm, Liriu still couldn''t take the Human Form. That being said, he had no fingers to hold a spatial ring. Ruik and Tiane then bought a Spatial Necklace so that he could keep his items. The cultivators and demon beasts around him obviously felt enraged by that. Yet, they knew that they couldn''t touch Liriu in the safe zone. In the end, they kept threatening him. Liriu couldn''t take it anymore and finally sent his Spiritual Energy into the Light Pillar, quickly disappearing from everyone''s sight. Some of the spectators got curious, though. Liriu was an 8th Core Formation Realm Demon Beast, does he even know any laws to start with? The answer to this question was yes! Liriu has the Elemental Meridians, and they are the main type on top of that. Also, Liriu is a Dracophoenix, so his attunement with Laws is higher than others to start with. Last but not least, he had been in a place with Godly Energy! As mentioned before, Godly Energy makes the Laws even clearer for everyone. Considering all these advantages at the moment, it is no surprise that Liriu did comprehend a law. He basically only lost to Krune in this part. Of course, Fie also comprehended laws, but she did it in the same Stage as Liriu, the 7th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. The Law that Liriu comprehended was the Fire Sub-Law, Explosion. Not too surprisingly, Liriu had an easy time understanding it. It was basically his Phoenix side showing its effect. Thanks to that, in just a few months, he already comprehended this Explosion Sub-Law to the Intermediate Stage! While Liriu still felt somewhat scared of what just happened outside, the same voice appeared in his mind. "The Windows of Laws..." "Test adjusted to the 8th Stage of the Core For..." "You may start." Liriu then calmed himself and approached the first window. He didn''t know how good his comprehension was considered since he only knew a single Sub-Law. But to his surprise, the window in front of him instantly shattered. That was to be expected. Comprehension of Laws at the Core Formation Realm is extremely rare, let alone the intermediate level of one. Since the level was adjusted to his own cultivation, the windows would definitely shatter in front of him. Liriu moved forward, and the windows shattered one after another. Not too long after, Liriu was already in front of the 100th window. Even though he now had to concentrate the laws into the windows, they still quickly shattered. Only at window number 173 did Liriu finally stop. He didn''t do as well as Krune or Feifei, but that was a remarkable achievement. Enough to send himself all the way to the 45th position in the second Pillar Ranking. That was enough for another 5 Godly Stones next time he arrived in a Light Pillar too. Outside, the Light Pillar Brightened on the base, and the Light shot to the skies. With that, everyone understood that Liriu had passed the test. Obviously, the majority was surprised since that meant that Liriu knew laws while still in the Core Formation Realm. Not too long after, Liriu appeared on the third level. He quickly looked around, but couldn''t see Zulin anywhere. He couldn''t help but feel sad by that. Still, it was his decision to come here, so he couldn''t go back. Liriu looked around and then searched for a place where he could hide again. Liriu had three Godly Stones that he can now use. Also, he has to adapt to the Godly Energy of this level as well. After flying around for an hour, he found a place that seemed good enough and landed there. It was a small natural cave in the middle of a forest. He quickly took a look at the surroundings to see if there wasn''t anyone close and then entered it. He also took some foliage to cover the entrance. The cave wasn''t big, just a few tens of meters deep. Still, it was the best he could find in the meantime. Liriu is still 11 years old, so it could be said that he is doing very well by himself. Liriu first took his time to calm himself. After feeling the Godly Energy of the ambient, he noticed that it wasn''t affecting him that much. Liriu had stayed in the second level for much longer than he needed, so his body got a lot more used to this energy than the others. Now that he entered the third level, he obviously didn''t feel as much pressure as everyone. Seeing that everything was fine, Liriu took out one of the Godly Stones and tried it himself. Feeling that gentler Godly Energy mixing with he Spiritual Energy made Liriu''s eyes lit up. "This is great!" Without any delay, Liriu began to cultivate seriously. However, he was really unlucky. His cave wasn''t that deep. A few hours later, a small group of three passed by over it by coincidence and ended seeing him with their Divine Sense. "What?! Godly Stone!" 472 Broken Seals Suddenly, the foliage covering the entrance of the cave was swept over, which immediately alarmed Liriu. Just as he was about to move, a Spiritual Energy Pressure locked him in place. With his 8th Stage of the Core Formation Realm, almost everyone in the Holy Lands could do it to him. A few moments later, three figures appeared in front of Liriu. One of them was a cultivator, while the other two were demon beasts in their human forms. The demon beast in the front then came forward and took the Godly Stone from Liriu''s wings. "Hahaha! Kid, just how did you get this thing? It shouldn''t be an item for someone like you to use, you know?" Liriu used his Divine Sense to answer the question. "I got it in the previous Light Pillar." The Spiritual Pressure increased even more. "Haha! So you are a genius, uh? Well, that is obvious. After all, you can already resist the third level Godly Energy with your meager Core Formation Realm cultivation." The cultivator behind snorted before saying. "Hey, brother. Check his necklace, it seems like a Spatial one." "Oh! That''s right." The guy took Liriu''s Spatial Necklace and tried to pry inside. However, it was blocked by Liriu''s Divine Sense. "Release it." The Spiritual Pressure increased even more, and Liriu grunted in pain. Without any other choice, he could only do as they said and make his Spatial Necklace ownerless. "Hahahaha! There are another two Godly Stones inside! There is a lot of Spiritual Stones too, you seem to have quite a background, no? Still, what a weird Demon Beast. You look like a Quetzalcoatl, but somewhat different." The guys then shared the three Godly Stone between themselves. Surprisingly, they are all from the same background. It is not that the random realms didn''t separate them, but that their initial group had many members to start with. After passing through two Dimensional Realms, only those three arrived at this specific third level Dimensional Realm together. The rest was sent to other realms of a similar level. "Now then, what should we do with you?" One of them suggested. "We should get rid of him. With such high talent, he might have a troublesome background. Leaving him alive will only bring trouble." "Indeed, that would be the best option." "Hahaha! In that case, let me play with him a little." "There you go again, you are really a sadist." Liriu was frightened to hear that they would kill him, but nothing could done about it. He simply lacked too much cultivation to resist. The other two then sat down to consume those godly stones while the last one started to torture Liriu. The more Liriu screamed in pain, the more delighted he felt. As for the other two, they just shook their heads. Suddenly several seals appeared on Liriu''s body, which caught their attention. But then they started to fade. The guy noticed that it was because he had stopped torturing Liriu, so the lack of pain made them slowly disappear. "Oh! That is not good, you need to properly show them to me." Without losing time, he increased the Spiritual Pressure on Liriu''s body even more. Liru felt like he was almost going mad. The seals appeared once more while the three guys checked it. "Hey, I have seen it before, it is a bloodline seal." "Bloodline Seal?" "Yeap. Someone wanted to suppress his bloodline for some reason." "Hahaha! Now that is funny, it seems like I''m not the only one who played with him in the past." The guy shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? I only recognized it by coincidence. I didn''t waste time learning more about it." "Anyway, let''s continue the play." The other two sighed and returned to their positions to continue absorbing the Godly Stones'' energy. As the pain increased, Liriu was starting to fell his body breaking apart. But it was then that something inside his bloodline began to awake, the power of the Dracophoenix bloodline! The more pain he felt, the stronger that power seemed to want to burst out. The seal on Liriu''s body then got brighter and brighter. Seeing that, the demon beast torturing him felt even more delighted. In his eyes, it was very entertaining. Those seals were white at first but started to change to red. The red color got brighter until it went utterly fiery red! Finally, the bloodline seals on his body couldn''t resist the power of the Dracophoenix anymore and burst apart one by one. Flames burst out of his body, and the Dracophoenix bloodline power spread out. The demon beast in front of Liriu was surprised with the power of that flames. "Oh! Impressive, a low-level Divine Soul Realm would definitely be burnt to a crisp by this flame. Too bad, though. I''m a lot stronger than that. Hahaha!" But he noticed that Liriu wasn''t answering. "What? Fainted already? So boring..." However, it was at this moment that he heard Liriu whispering. "Kill them..." The guy was taken aback for a second, but then laughed once more. "Hey, you are awake, after all. Very well, let''s continue the p-" *Puft* Suddenly, a spear passed through his heart. Immediately after, it exploded with energy and obliterated his heart completely! The guy looked behind him with his eyes wide open. The one who attacked him was none other than the second demon beast in their group. "Yo-you..." His body then fell on the ground. His face still showed incredulity. Why did his companion attack him? That made no sense. Unfortunately for him, he would never get the answer. The other companion, who was a cultivator, immediately got up in alarm. "Mian, what''s the meaning of this?" Mian was the name of that Demon Beast. However, Mian didn''t answer his question and immediately attacked. A fight broke out while the two took it outside. The cultivator was alarmed at how mad Mian''s attacks were, it looked like Mian was planning to die with him if necessary. However, he wouldn''t stay still and wait for his death. He immediately turned around and fled without even looking back. He can''t get seriously wounded here, after all. But he soon noticed that Mian didn''t follow, which gave him an idea. "Mian, did you do all of this just for the Godly Stones?" He got angrier the more he thought about it. That could be the only answer possible. As for Liriu''s strange behavior, he didn''t think to have anything to do with it. After all, Liriu was still a Core Formation Realm Demon Beast. An ant in his eyes. "You just wait! Once we get out, there will be no place for you in the Sankis Universe. I hope you think it is worth it." Without stopping, the cultivator flew away. Mian then returned to that cave and helped Liriu over. He used his Spiritual Energy to heal his injuries as well. The little Dracophoenix was completely exhausted, and the pain inflicted by that guy who died still scared him to his bones. But he was also confused. At that time, when he was almost losing control, he felt like his bloodline connected to this guy. For some reason, he knew that he had authority over him. However, it didn''t take long for him to remember. Back then, when he turned into a Dracophoenix, Laex had explained everything to him. That was also the reason why Krune put a bloodline seal on him. The key for his seal was left with Ruik, so he couldn''t take it out himself. Of course, once a year went by, the seal would disappear, whether he wanted or not. After all, there was no one to reinforce the seals with Chaos Energy. Liriu also didn''t talk about it with Zulin, so he didn''t know. In the end, that was the reason why he was saved. If Zulin had reinforced his bloodline seal, Liriu would not have been able to break it this time. After organizing his thoughts, Liriu looked at Mian and started to ask questions. "Who are you?" "My name is Mian, Master." Master? It was the first time Liriu heard someone calling him like that. ''It should be because of my Dracophoenix Bloodline Power.'' "What kind of Dragon are you?" Liriu could feel that the blood that he gained control over was the Dragon-type. That''s why he didn''t ask if Mian was a phoenix or a descendant of one. "I''m not a Dragon, Master. I''m a Jade Turtle." Liriu was surprised by a moment, but then he understood. Laex had commented that all reptiles are descendants of Dragons. So the reason he was able to control Mian was the thin Dragon Bloodline in his body. But what surprised him is that it seems like Mian''s Dragon Bloodline hasn''t been awakened. So it was shocking that he could still control Mian in the end. "What''s your cultivation level?" "I''m at the 2nd Stage of the Void Breaking Realm, Master." Liriu''s eyes lit up. With a bodyguard this strong, he should be able to protect himself for the time being. The problem will be once he decides to change levels. After all, they probably will end in different places. ''I guess I will think about it later. If Dad, mom, or uncle Laex were here, they would know what to do.'' "Cough, cough. You should protect me from now on." "Yes, Master." Liriu couldn''t help but feel a little scared of his own power. ''No wonder Uncle Laex said that the Dragon Race and Phoenix Race wanted to kill me. This power is too dangerous. I should use it as little as possible.'' 473 Being Too Greedy On Feifei''s side, she didn''t get into much danger so far. With her Destiny Major Divine Soul, she could at least keep herself safe. Of course, she knew that combat experience was necessary for one to get used to their powers, so she purposely let herself be caught a few times. With her Elemental Meridians and Three Heavenly Fragments, she could fight several stages above her level too. Oh the third level, Feifei also took out the Godly Stones and used them. Thanks to that, she entered the 9th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm around three months ago. She was now accumulating energy to try a breakthrough. She entered the fourth level two months after Krune. On the willpower test, she ended in the 81st Position. Feifei didn''t mind it, though. After all, she knows very well her own playful mind. She was already happy enough to even get two Godly Stones from that level. Not to mention that it also meant that her willpower was strong than the majority. --- Back on Krune''s side, he stayed hidden, cultivating with only the Godly Energy of the surroundings for more than two months. Light Spirit said that he would need to enter the 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm without the Godly Stones, and so he did. Now, he was inside the 4th Light Pillar Safe Zone, consuming his Godly Stones. Of course, he once again received several threats that he should give his Godly Stones over. Not surprisingly, Krune ignored their words completely and kept cultivating. Like before, Krune was using one Godly Stone every two days, which made everyone red with jealousy. Only when he finished using the Godly Stones, he looked at the Light Pillar in front of him. Krune took around three months to arrive at the fourth level, but he spent another three on the fourth level alone. It was easy to see that his lack of cultivation held himself back, different from higher level cultivators and demon beasts. They could use their own cultivation realms to resist the higher levels'' Godly Energy. Laka, for example, had already passed the 5th level and was inside the sixth at the moment. Krune could tell that since Laka''s name was present in the top 10 rankings of the Fourth and Fifth Light Pillars. Krune then put his Spiritual Energy in the Light Pillar and was teleported into the test room. Right after, he received the Divine Sense message with the information about this test. -Elemental Control Test.- -Test Level adjusted to the 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm.- -You may start.- Krune smiled at this. If it is Elemental Control, he is pretty sure to be one of the best ones on his level. One could choose any element they wanted, but the more proficiency you showed with each one, the best your results. Krune, of course, entered the top 10 easily. He had just too many advantages under his belt: Elemental Meridians, Chaos Meridians, Elemental Major Divine Soul, Elemental Heavenly Fragment, Elements Regulation Technique. Only a Heavenly Divine Soul could possibly compete against him. But surprisingly, Krune was not the first placed participant. Instead, he was 4th! 1st: Hiran Falasas - 100 Points. 2nd: Wolsin - 99 Points. 3rd: Dafria Vissark - 98 Points. 4th: Lakin - 97 Points. Of course, Krune didn''t know that. He would only find out about these results once he reaches the 5th Level Pillar. Then he was quickly teleported to the next level, where he could once again start to adapt to the level''s Godly Energy. "Impressive. The Godly Energy is getting stronger and stronger. I wonder just how powerful it is in the Higher Realms." Light Spirit laughed after hearing that. "I believe that those up there wouldn''t even notice the presence of Godly Energy of this Level. Hahaha!" Krune couldn''t help but sign. He was really far from his ascension day. He could only imagine how things would turn out over there. "Anyway, how long do you think I need to cultivate to get used to this Level?" Light Spirit pondered a bit before saying. "You gathered more Godly Energy than I expected thanks to the last Godly Energy Stones. So I guess it should be fine if you cultivate with the usual Godly Energy for two months and then use the Godly Stones Prize of the last Light Pillar." Krune nodded and immediately departed. Instead of finding a place to hide this time, he decided to go straight to the Light Pillar. He saw the Fourth Light Pillar ranking, but he didn''t know how good his test was. It was different from the willpower test, where the rankings were separated straightforwardly. So he wanted to know how many Godly Stones he could take. "You should be careful. I doubt you can find even a single Soul Forging Realm cultivator or demon beast in this place anymore." Krune understood this logic. Without his Myriad Energies Technique, those at his level had very little chance to advance through the levels as fast as him. "It''s okay. I will be moving with the Tribulation Lightning Layer this time. With Heavin on my side to detect others through Mental Energy, we shouldn''t bump into anyone until we find the next Light Pillar. Of course, if I find some good matches, I will release it since I haven''t fought for over three months already. I also need combat experience, after all." On the way, Heavin spotted a few cultivators and demon beasts. Also, each and every single one of them was at the 4th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm, at the very least. Krune didn''t waste those chances and released his Tribulation Lightning Layer, allowing those around the 5th Stage to find him on purpose. If they didn''t attack, Krune wouldn''t do anything, but he welcomed it if they did. Of course, not everything was flowers. There was one 7th Stage Demon Beast that overwhelmed Krune completely. In the end, he had to flee using his Tribulation lightning Movement at full power. But Krune understood the reason, though. That demon beast was a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner! After some time fleeing, Heavin then confirmed that that Demon Beast wasn''t following them anymore. "Phew... Heavenly Divine Soul Owners are really scary. I reckon that we would have no chance even if we had gone all out." Krune agreed with Heavin while he swallowed a Purple Flame Healing pill. "Indeed. I don''t think the results would have changed even if I was in my Wisp Form. Fortunately, that guy was not specialized in speed. Otherwise, I would need to go back to my Wisp Form and maybe even surpass the Purple Tribulation Lightning Output Limit to run away from him. I guess this proves that even Heavenly Divine Soul Owners like to specialize in specific Elements, Laws, and Combat Styles." Light Spirit confirmed. "Isn''t that obvious? Before they became a Heavenly Divine Soul Owners, they were mostly focused on their Heavenly Fragment properties. Cultivators and Demon Beasts like you who like to try everything are extremely rare." Heavin couldn''t help but wonder. "What kind of Demon Beast was him in the end? He didn''t transform back into his original form." "Probably a defense type one. His attacks were powerful, but not at Laka''s Level. If you remember correctly, Laka was in the 8th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm before I forged the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. Laka was only a single Cultivation Stage higher than that guy. However, Laka''s attacks against Laex back then were much more powerful." Heavin nodded in agreement. "Anyway, shall we keep going? The Godly Energy Flow is increasing, so we should be able to see the 5th Level Light Pillar very soon. Probably in a day or two at most." Krune agreed again. "Very well, let''s go!" The Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer then spread around Krune before he departed. On the way, Krune asked Luvile something else about the last battle. "Light Spirit, what cultivation level you think I would need to fight that Heavenly Divine Soul Owner?" Luvile pondered a bit before answering. "At the very least, you are absolutely not his match in the Soul Forging Realm. If I were to guess, you would need at least the 2nd Stage of the Void breaking Realm to have a chance. Of course, you would need to depend on all your tricks, and most likely, it would still be your loss." Krune sighed after hearing that. However, Krune isn''t a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, so Light Spirit''s evaluation is extremely high. Being half a Realm below and having a chance is already Heaven-Defying enough. Others definitely wouldn''t be able to claim the same thing. "There is nothing I can do about the Heavenly Divine Soul, so what level you think I would need to be if I wanted to have the advantage." "In that case, I would say the 5th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm." Krune was taken aback. "Only at the 5th Stage? That far?" Light Spirit felt like giving Krune a beating after hearing that. "Are you pretending to be a fool? Just like you said, you are not a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner. Still, you can get the advantage even though you are two stages below in cultivation. What is it? Do you perhaps want to be a god or something? If others heard your frustration, they would probably die of anger." Krune scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. Indeed, he was being too greedy. 474 Laexs Big Brother Krune finally arrived at the fifth and last Light Pillar with a safe zone. As soon as everyone present saw him, there were surprised. That is because so far, no one below the Void Breaking Realm had arrived at this place. Still, Krune is in the 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm, so they couldn''t be blamed for feeling like that. As Heavin mentioned before, Krune took around two days to arrive. On the way, Krune had another two chances to battle. Surprisingly, one of those battles gave him a Time and Space Heavenly Fragments, which Krune made sure to keep with him. That being said, Krune now had Two Space Heavenly Fragments from different Universes as well as one Yin, Destiny, and Time ones. However, it seemed like no one in the middle of this group of cultivators and demon beasts felt theses fragments'' presence. He couldn''t help but sigh at this view. It meant that there would be no one to buy his Heavenly Fragments. "Whatever, let''s see how many Godly Stones I have the right to take now." Krune sent his Divine Sense inside and soon checked what he needed. "4th position, uh? That is good enough. As long as I get 10 Godly Stones, the position won''t matter that much." Krune didn''t take those Godly Energy Stones out, though. He would have to cultivate for the next two months without them, so there was no need to catch everyone''s attention by summoning those stones now. However, a day later, after he started to cultivate, someone who just arrived recognized him. "Ah! You are the top ranker from before." With that, everyone looked at Krune at the same time. That couldn''t be helped, there are just so many Dimensional Realms for the first 9 levels, after all. Sooner or later, Krune would meet someone he met from the previous Light Pillars. A cultivator then asked the newcomer. "What is his name, do you know?" "Yes, he is the one called Lakin. I saw his Willpower test on the Third level Light Pillar." Everyone immediately accessed the Fifth Level Light Pillar and confirmed his ranking. As expected, they soon found Krune in the 4th position of the previous Light Pillar. That meant that Krune still had 10 Godly Stones to retrieve from the system. "Hey kid, what about bringing out the Godly Stones?" Obviously, the same process of threatening but no action happened once more. Krune, once again, could only ignore it. However, it was at this moment that Krune''s expression changed. It was not because of that they said, but because of something that disappeared inside his Foundation. "Gilia''s Soul Slive disappeared!" Light Spirit confirmed. After all, the Soul Slives that Krune kept were close to him as well. "That can only mean one thing, she is dead." "Light Spirit. how is F-" "She''s fine, the Tribulation Lightning Essence left in her is still there." Light Spirit already expected that question, so he immediately answered. Krune nodded and put all those thoughts behind his mind. As for the people and beasts threatening him, he couldn''t care less at the moment. He would be here for the next two to three months, after all. --- Somewhere else in a Fourth Level Dimensional Realm, Wamie Zark''s fell on the ground while she wept. She obviously had a way of knowing whether Gilia was well or not, so the moment Gilia died, she found out just like Krune. Gilia had been with her for a very long time, and she was her best friend. Their relationship was beyond being just a protector and protege. "Gilia..." She stayed there on the ground for over an hour, without moving at all. She didn''t want to do anything at the moment due to her sadness. However, it wouldn''t stay like that for long. At some point, a demon beast noticed her presence, and especially her 1st Stage of the Void Breaking Realm cultivation. In the six months inside the Holy Land, Wamie''s cultivation went from the 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm to the Void Breaking''s 1st Stage. She even got a few Godly Energy Stones thanks to the Elemental Meridians. So she could be said to be improving really fast at the moment. Everyone in the Holy Land was here for cultivation and fast improvement. That demon beast didn''t have anything against Wamie; it''s just that she had the same cultivation as him. That being said, he thought that battling her would give him valuable battle experience. There was no lack of battles in the Holy Land that started for this same reason. However, he couldn''t have selected a worse time for such a thing. Seeing that this Demon Beast was coming at her, Wamie felt enraged! With her Elemental Meridians and Life Heavenly Fragment, she had a fighting prowess several stages higher than her own. That Demon Beast wasn''t a Heavenly Fragment Owner either. Not surprisingly, he was completely trashed by Wamie. Instead of killing him, Wamie used the poor guy to release her anger. There was a time that the demon beast even begged for death, but she didn''t care. Once she was finished, one couldn''t even tell if the demon beast was dead or alive. Still, wamie didn''t cripple his cultivation, so if he was lucky, he might be able to recover in the future. As Wamie flew away, she murmured to herself. "Gilia, I will definitely find who did it to you." Wamie then disappeared in the distance, heading to the next Light Pillar. --- Laex was on the sixth Level at the moment, one above Krune. He went up one cultivation level in the past six months, being now in the 1st Stage of the Divine Path Realm. Although it was only a stage, it was a Realm Breakthrough, so his power increased a lot more than a breakthrough in the same Realm''s stages. He had been worried about Liriu just like Tiane and Ruik, but even after looking for information everywhere between the cultivators and demon beasts, he didn''t find any clue. Without any other choice, he could just go up and expect to meet the others in the 10th Level. However, while he was following the flow of Godly Energy, he ended bumping into another Dragon Race member. Worst of all, it was someone he knew. "Drovax!" Laex knew this Dragon from the time he stayed in the Dragon Race. He was 21 years older than Laex and had a very serious personality. He often gave training to the young Dragons in the Dragon Race territory, and Laex still remembered just how spartan he was. Due to Drovax''s Divine Sense, he noticed Laex''s presence first. Although Laex had a different appearance, Drovax would never mistake his aura. "Laex!" Laex, of course, turned around and fled straight away. He really didn''t want to talk get involved with this guy. There was nothing more than bad memories when it comes to Drovax. "Laex, you better stop right there! If you don''t, don''t blame me for being nasty!" "Who the hell would stop? Shoo, shoo! You are one of the last Dragon I want to see in my life!" "Hmph! Don''t say that I didn''t warn you." Drovax speed suddenly increased, and the distance between them began to reduce. Drovax was already in the 4th Stage of the Divine Path Realm, and he was mainly focused on Wind Element and Laws. That was also why he could be so fast. "Shit!" Laex put even more effort into the running, but Drovax still caught him up in the end. "Dragon Stomp!" Boom! Laex''s body was hit, and he crashed against the ground. However, Drovax wasn''t really trying to hurt Laex, so Laex only received a few bruises. First of all, neither of them turned back into their Dragon Forms, so it was obvious that they weren''t going all out. Drovax then landed beside Laex while looked at that ragged body on the ground. "I told you to wait, didn''t I? Do you perhaps want to receive my punishments like in the past? I still have my Dragon Rod with me, you know?" That Rod was made specially to be used against young dragons who didn''t follow the orders. Although it didn''t cause any injury to the body, it inflicted a terrible pain. With Laex''s personality, one can already imagine just how many times he was spanked by it. Those were real, painful memories. Laex felt a chill on his back when he heard that and immediately kneeled in front of Drovax. "Ancestor Drovax, there is no need for such seriousness. This lowly one was just showing how fast he became after receiving your training in the past. How could I really run in front of my great big brother?" "Hmph! If I didn''t know you, perhaps I would fall for this trick." Drovax''s eyes then got serious before entering the main topic. "I will not ask how the hell you got a slot to enter the Holy Land. However, the Dracophoenix is another story. Speak, where is it?" Laex then looked away as he spoke. "Oh! That? Did you see the video I sent Uncle? I''m being controlled by that Dracophoenix, so I really can''t tell you anything, it is his orders." Drovax then took out a rod that was covered in azure scales from his spatial ring. "Who the hell would believe that you are under control with that trash performance?! I see, so you don''t want to talk. Don''t worry, I will make you change your mind. Just so that you know, the elders already asked a few Divinity Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts with Destiny Major Divine Souls for help. After putting their efforts together, they were able to confirm that the Dracophoenix was really alive. It seems like you really know him, too, so you better be prepared." Laex''s expression changed when he saw that azure Rod, but he was still adamant about not saying anything. "I already did my part and told the Dragon and Phoenix Races that the Dracophoenix existed. My duty to you and the elders is completed. But other than that, I won''t say anything else. You guys will have to find him by yourselves." Seeing Laex''s determined expression made Drovax hesitate a bit. He had never shown such a face in front of him in the past. But he soon came back to himself. "Whether you want or not, you will talk, even if I have to force it out of you." 475 Laex vs. Drovax Drovax Stepped forward and swung his Dragon Rod, but this time, Ruik counter-attacked by punching it. Boom! The Rod was made to teach young dragons, so it obviously couldn''t resist a fight at this level. If Drovax hadn''t covered it with his Spiritual Energy, it would have definitely broken. Drovax looked at it and then sighed. He quickly put it back into his Spatial Ring and looked seriously at Ruik. "Are you sure you want to do this? Even if you are one of my previous students, I will not hold back." Laex nodded. "I said it already, I fulfilled my duty by telling the old geezers that the Dracophoenix existed. There is nothing else to be said now." Drovax closed his eyes for a second before opening them again. "Very well." Suddenly, his body began to transform, and in less than a second, he was already back into his Dragon Form. Seeing that, Laex grimaced. It was evident that Drovax was planning to take it seriously. "Big Brother, I won''t hold back either." Laex did the same and transformed back into his Black Dragon Form. Right after, he took his Purple Flame Dragon Pearl out. Drovax saw that and narrowed his eyes. "A Dragon Pearl? I''m impressed that a blacksmith was willing to create one for you. However, do you think you are the only Dragon with one?" Drovax also reached his Spatial Ring, and another Dragon Pearl came out. However, Laex didn''t seem the least bit concerned about it. Both Dragons fused with their own Dragon Pearls, and their battle strength immediately soared. However, in Laex''s case, his own battle strength went even higher. His Black Scales then started to give a purple luster while the Energies in his Demon Core seemed to have been filled with steroids. Drovax noticed that change, but he couldn''t tell what was wrong with him. "Hmph! Petty tricks!" Drovax dashed over with his Wing Movement Technique and arrived in front of laex is an instant. "Take my claws!" Laex snorted. "As you wish!" Boom! Laex counter-attacked with his own dragon claws. Space was then ripped apart by the collision''s might, while both Dragons were knocked back in two different directions. This time, Drovax looked at Laex with surprise in his eyes. The attack just now had used at least 80% of his full strength, but Laex still repealed him. Still, he attacked once more. "Wind Dragon''s Breath!" Laex once again answered with the same coin. "Black Dragon''s Breath!" The surrounding temperature immediately soared tens of thousands of times. Both Dragons Breaths encountered each other, and the area below quickly became an enormous pool of lava with Spatial Fissures everywhere. Anyone below the Void Breaking Realm would definitely die if they tried to pass through this place now. A Dragon''s most potent weapon is its body. Techniques and skills were good, and all, but a Dragon would always bring its greatest might through its physical strength. Laex and Drovax were very good examples of it. "Dragon Stomp!" "Soaring Dragon!" "Dragon''s Breath!" "Dragon Sweep!" "Draconic Might!" "Descent of the Dragon!" "Eyes of the Dragon!" "Dragon''s Terror!" Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Laex couldn''t help but feel ecstatic about this fight. If it was just the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl, he would probably be on the losing side due to the rampage energies in his Demon Core. But the fact is that he accepted Krune''s idea and used the Myriad Energies Technique. Laex didn''t have time to go to the Elemental Path to open the Chaos Meridians. However, the Elemental Meridians alone already gave a massive boost in energies and elements control. Thanks to that, Laex could now control the crazy energies and apply them in actual combat. This is something that even Laka doesn''t have. After all, Laka doesn''t even know about the Myriad Energies Technique to start with. Drovax was frightened by Laex''s combat power. He was really going all out, but he couldn''t get the advantage. There is no doubt that they were evenly matched. Still, Laex is a total of Three Stages below him in cultivation, so how could he not be shocked? ''The Laex that I knew wouldn''t be able to fight like this. By the way, what are those purple hues that accompany his Spiritual Energy? Any attack he uses is followed by that thing. Is it a forbidden technique? No, forbidden techniques would only increase your power for a limited time, and the power would gradually reduce as time passes.'' ''However, Laex''s power is at the same level since the start. What is happening here? Also, why is he so adamant in protecting that Dracophoenix identity? I really doubt he is under its control. That is not how a dragon under the control of a Dracophoenix should act. At least, not as it is described on the records left behind by the ancestors of that time.'' "Dragon''s Dive!" "Dragon''s Bloodline Shield!" Boom! Once again, Laex and Drovax got separated by the collision. "Enough!" Just as Laex was about to attack again, Drovax called a stop of the fight. Right after, he returned to his human form once more. Seeing that the battle was over, Laex also did the same and returned to his human form. "Laex, are you really going to hide this calamity? You should know very well just how critical the elimination of this Dracophoenix is for the Dragon and Phoenix Race. Have you thought about what will happen when he controls everyone again?" Laex closed his eyes for a second before opening them again. In the end, he just sighed. "You are mistaken. This Dracophoenix will not turn into that monster like Ralaz. You don''t know him, but I do. This kid is very gentle; he rarely ever got in a fight during the times we traveled. Even the battles he went through were because his parents insisted that he needed combat experience to help stabilize his cultivation." "Ralaz had a contorted mind. Also, as far as the records go, his parents had a great deal of guilt on his outcome. But my little guy is completely different. He doesn''t like battles, let alone killing. He definitely doesn''t have the soul of someone who wants to rule. My little nephew will not become a threat. He will be a Dracophoenix that will treasure his relationship with everyone, just like his parents and friends. But above all, just like a certain colorful guy with no common sense who made everyone around him think like that." Drovax was really surprised by Laex. Those words were not fake, they came from his heart. Drovax could tell that Laex truly believed what he said. "I can feel your conviction. However, I need you to tell me. What if it turns out that you are wrong?" Laex narrowed his eyes before declaring. "If it comes a day where I see that he is becoming someone like Ralaz, I will kill him myself." Drovax stared deeply at Laex. In the end, he gave up since it didn''t seem like Laex would change his mind. "Very well. However, if I do find him, I will not hesitate, understood?" Laex laughed. "Don''t worry, it is like I said. It will be up to you, Dragons and Phoenixes, to find him. I already did my part. Of course, if it happens that I''m by his side at that time, I will definitely do my best to protect him." Drovax nodded. "Alright, that will do." He then got close to Laex before asking. "Now, can you explain to me how the hell you got so strong? I''m three cultivation stages above you, but our combat power was still at the same level. Does it have anything to do with that purple hue that keeps appearing around you?" Laex smiled and then canceled the fusion of his Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. The Pearl slowly emerged from his body until it stopped right in front of Laex, floating. Drovax looked puzzled at that, though. "A Dragon Pearl?" Laex nodded before asking. "Can you see anything different?" Drovax paid close attention, and sure enough, he could see the purple effect around it. Not only that, but now and then, purple lightning would run inside the Pearl. It was really a magical view. "This... Just what is this?" Laex laughed out loud. "A Dragon Pearl, of course." 476 Void Breaking Another six months passed, and it has now been one year since Krune''s group entered the Holy Land. Krune spent around three months to enter the 9th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm and consume the Godly Energy Stones. On the fifth Light Pillar Test, he went through a Spiritual Pressure test. The further you moved under that pressure, the better it would be. The passing mark was 2km, but Krune walked a total of 3,3km, getting the 509th position. There was nothing to be done in this test since it is mostly relied on the power of the body to resist it. Using any type of energy or defense was prohibited, so Krune, with his Human Form, could only do so much. A wisp is not known by its physical body, so Krune already did very well considering this weakness. Obviously, he didn''t get any Godly Stones whatsoever from this Fifth Level Light Pillar. This was a test that was almost completely dominated by the Demon beasts, with just a few cultivators with body training techniques here and there. Because of that, Krune had stayed in the 6th Level until now. Well, he would spend around three months to adapt to each Level, so these three months were still okay. The issue is that he is far from adapting to this place without the Godly Energy Stones. But Krune already had an idea, though. What possibilities others to go further than him is their cultivation level, so Krune decided to have his breakthrough into the Void breaking Realm as soon as possible. The boost proportioned by the change in Realms would be much bigger, and it would allow him to resist and adapt to the Godly Energy much faster. The difference between the Soul Forging and the Void Breaking is basically the capability of creating Chaos Energy. At this point, cultivators and demon beasts would be able to improve their own foundations, just like Krune is doing with his Universe One. But there was good news for Krune. As the name suggests, the Void Breaking Realm gives one the capability of interacting with Space Laws. So far, cultivators without high talent or with some relation with Space wouldn''t be able to see the Space Laws in the World of Laws. This breakthrough would allow them to do so, though. The Space Laws would then interact with their own Divine Souls, creating there a connection between the two. At this moment, it could be said that the Divine Soul is prepared to receive Chaos Energy for cultivation. However, Krune already understood Space Laws, so all he needed was to let this connection happen naturally. For him, this breakthrough would be one of the easiest. Krune knew this, so he had been accumulation Energy to reach the peak of the 9th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. But who could have thought that the first one to be ready for a breakthrough was Heavin? "What?! Are you going to enter the Soul Transformation Realm?" Heavin laughed out loud. Krune nodded. "That is indeed a good thing. But you are also lucky. If I didn''t have the Chaos Meridians, you wouldn''t be able to make this breakthrough." Heavin agreed with Krune. "That is true. To enter the Soul Transformation Realm, I will need Chaos Energy. It is thanks to your Chaos Meridians that I have somewhere to get it from. Otherwise, I would need to wait for you to enter the Void Breaking Realm first." Krune then asked. "So, when are you going to try?" Heavin pondered a bit before saying. "I guess I will just go for it now. We have been hidden in this place, and so far, we didn''t see anyone. I will just use this moment then." Krune nodded. But it was then that he remembered something else. "Oh, right! My own Soul is in the Soul Enhancement 2nd stage. However, when I entered the Soul Enhancement Realm, I did not get any Tribulation whatsoever. You also started directly into the Soul Enhancement Realm, but there was no Tribulation for you either. Do you think there will be one now?" Krune was telling the truth. Neither he nor Heavin passed through any tribulation when they arrived in the Soul Enhancement Realm. Feifei was also in the 1st Stage of the Soul Enhancement Realm, but it was the same thing for her. "Hum... I can''t say. In theory, the Soul Enhancement would be something between the Core Formation and Divine Soul Realm. So if you consider power alone, being in the Soul Enhancement Realm 1st Stage would definitely make you stronger than the Core Formation Realm 1st Stage. Still, while all the Core Formation Realms received a Heavenly Tribulation, my Soul Enhancement didn''t. If I were to guess, I would say that the ''heavens'' don''t recognize my cultivation system." Krune had to admit that it made sense. "Of course, it might be that it is just a coincidence. Who knows, I might get a Heavenly Tribulation this time. Anyway, I will only know after I try. However... there might be a small problem." Krune got curious but waited for Heavin to continue. "Although you can already create Chaos Energy, you can''t use it with our Divine Soul for cultivation. At most, you can use the Chaos Energy to create even more Elemental Source Energy and then send it into the Divine Soul. That being said, I don''t know if I can make this breakthrough since our Divine Soul is still not ready to receive Chaos Energy." "Ah!" Only now did Krune think about it. Indeed, could his Divine Soul, which is still in the Soul Forging Realm level, receive Chaos Energy? Without that, Heavin wouldn''t be able to make a Breakthrough. "Anyway, I can only try, so let''s go ahead." Having said that, Heavin retracted his Divine Sense from the Parrot Puppet and had Krune leave their hiding place. Inside Krune''s foundation, Heavin started to gather the Chaos Energy that the Chaos Meridians created. Krune even stopped his own use completely, leaving everything for Heavin to use. Krune could feel the Chaos energy flowing into his Divine until suddenly, it stopped. His Divine Soul didn''t receive much to start with, but now he could feel the Chaos Energy coming out of his Divine Soul once again. "Was it a failure?" Heavin''s Divine Sense connected with the Parrot once more before nodding at Krune. "It was just as I imagined, our Divine Soul simply can''t get it at all. It seems like that before you enter the Void Breaking Realm, I won''t be able to make a breakthrough myself." Krune just laughed after hearing that. "There is no need to be feeling down. Have you forgotten? I''m already in the 9th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. If everything goes according to the plan, it shouldn''t take me more than a month to be ready for my breakthrough." Heavin nodded. He wouldn''t need to wait for long, so it was good. Krune talked a little more with Heavin before resuming his cultivation. He already got more than enough combat experience, so he would only stop now when the breakthrough time comes. --- While Krune hasn''t achieved his breakthrough into the Void breaking Realm, there was someone else who did. Obviously, it was Feifei, who had been in the 9th Stage for a few more months than Krune. She also got a few Godly Stones, so it was well within the expectations that she would achieve it before him. Of course, thanks to that, she was now able to see the Space Laws as well. For the last few months after her breakthrough, other than cultivating, Feifei focused the rest of her mind in the Space Laws. Thanks to the Holy Land''s Godly Energy, the Laws were a lot clearer. By now, she already reached the Initial Stage of the Displacement. In fact, most of new Void Breaking Realm cultivators and demon beasts would select Displacement. After all, it allowed one to use Teleportation into short distances and open Spatial Gates. Unfortunately, Spatial Gates couldn''t be opened inside the Holy Land, so Feifei couldn''t test this ability. Suddenly, Feifei disappeared from one spot and reappeared a few hundred meters away. She looked back to the place where she was a moment ago and nodded, satisfied. "So this is what teleporting feels like. It is completely different from when someone brings you together. However, I won''t be able to use it much in battles of the Void Breaking Realm." Feifei was right. Usually, when two Void Breaking Realms battled, they would purposely mess with the Space laws around the battlefield. That would make teleporting a suicide attempt. Chances were that you would be caught into a space storm while dislocating from one point to another. Back then, when Krune fought that Destiny Heavenly Fragment Owner, his enemy''s greatest mistake was to think that Krune couldn''t use Space Laws. He left the space laws around their battlefield intact so that he himself could teleport if necessary. In the end, Heavin used this flaw to finish the battle. Feifei took a deep breath and felt the flow of Godly Energy around. Once she confirmed the direction, she departed. She was now moving to the 5th Level Light Pillar. 477 Changes Another one who was close to his breakthrough at the moment was Dilo. After getting separated from Xankruan in the first level''s Light Pillar, he also spent a lot of time looking for her. But in the end, he couldn''t find his wife. Without another choice, he proceeded to the second Light Pillar. Only then did he find out that there were several dimensional realms for each level. However, he also came to know that the 10th level and above only had a single Dimensional Realm each. That being said, he started to make his way up too. Dilo wasn''t like Feifei or Krune, so he didn''t get any Godly Stones. In fact, he lagged behind with most of cultivators and demon beasts. He could have gone further ahead. After all, his Elemental Meridians allowed him to adapt faster to each level''s Godly Energy. Still, he knew that Xankruan would probably be moving at the same pace as him, taking her time to cultivate properly, so he did the same. Thanks to that, he also didn''t find many too strong cultivators and demon beasts. Those who could resist a higher amount of Godly Energy would have gone up by now. Dilo had the chance to battle quite a few opponents at a similar level. Of course, not all of them were like that. He found a few that he could easily defeat. At the same time, there were others which he had no chance, so he had to flee. He passed through a few dangerous situations, but in the end, that is all that cultivation is about. Thanks to that, Dilo had gotten more than enough combat experience. At the moment, he was looking for a safe place to make his breakthrough into the Void Breaking Realm in the Third Level. He knows about the safe zones, but with the number of participants who are usually there, who knows what could happen? He didn''t want to risk, so he moved to somewhere more remote. To do that, he purposely went in a different direction of the Godly Energy Flow, which led him further away from the Light Pillars. It is not like he wouldn''t find anyone, but at least the chances were much smaller. --- Dilo really knew Xankruan well. She was doing just like he thought, taking her time to cultivate well. By now, Xankuran was almost in the 7th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Without Godly Stones, Dilo and her Cultivation can''t reach Krune''s speed. Even with them, they would still be somewhat slower. However, breaking through one level of the Soul Forging Realm every six months was already very fast. Of course, Xankruan would still take a long time before reaching the Void Breaking Realm, probably no less than a year. But she didn''t mind it, she never thought she was a genius or anything. For her, being in the Holy Land at the moment is already forcing her fortune too much. --- "Little Arty, how are father and mother doing?" The artifact spirit''s projection, Little Arty, appeared beside Feifei before showing her several images of Krune and Feifei. "They seem to be doing well. Your father is about to break through into the Void Breaking Realm, while your mother already did so." "Is there really no way to contact them?" "There isn''t. It goes against the rules left by my Master before he departed. The most I can do is send you into the Tenth Level, but you are far from reaching the level necessary to resist that place''s Godly Energy." Fie sighed and then got up once more. "Alright, let''s continue then. I want to check how my Lightning Laws are faring in battle. But after we are done, I want to choose my food again!" Little Arty didn''t mind. "As long as you put the effort, it won''t be a problem." Poor Krune, obviously, would have even more food stolen from him in the future. --- Liriu didn''t have that perfect amount of Godly Energy, but he did have his Dracophoenix Body. Sure enough, it was several times stronger than Fie''s. Thanks to that and his Elemental Meridians, his adaptability to the level''s Godly Energies didn''t lose to anyone. Especially after his bloodline seals were broken, bringing out his might as a Dracophoenix. With Mian''s protection and the fact that he stayed on the third level, he didn''t encounter any dangers anymore. So after so long, he also broke through into the Divine Soul Realm. One must not forget that Liriu also got Godly Stones from his ranking in the Second Light Pillar, which helped him a lot. By now, he was already in the 2nd Stage. Still one Stage below Fie''s, though. However, the Godly Energy in the third level was starting to not be enough for Liriu anymore. If he continued in this place for too long, his cultivation would begin to lag behind. Liriu knew that, but going up another level with his cultivation Realm was also too dangerous. After all, Mian would most likely be sent to a completely different Dimensional Realm of the fourth level. "Sigh... Mian, what do you think about it?" Mian, the Jade Turtle, bowed to Liriu before answering. "Master, Mian believes that you should stay here. Master''s cultivation is too low, and Mian won''t be able to protect you. Unless Master takes control of another Dragon or Dragon Related race demon beast, Master will most likely die there." Liriu shook his head. "I don''t want to rob others from their free will. I don''t know if it is possible, but I also plan to let you go at some point. So unless extremely necessary, I won''t do such a thing. Dad, mom, and uncle Laex would definitely be sad if I did it." Even though Liriu said that much, there wasn''t a single ripple of emotion on Mian''s face. She really didn''t care at all with what would happen to her. It was as if she had turned into a puppet, with no feelings what so ever. Liriu is already 12 years old this year, so he could more or less understand what was happening to her. Such a level of control over one''s mind really frightened Liriu. This was one more reason why he didn''t want to use his Dracophoenix power. It was then that Liriu thought about another thing. "Mian, you sparred with me several times to help me gain some combat experience. Although these could not be considered Life and Death situations, they helped me a lot to understand my Bloodline Powers. Can you tell me how strong you think I am at the moment?" Mian immediately nodded. "Master''s talent is the highest that Mian has seen in her entire life. Even the legacy disciples of my sect wouldn''t compare to you. You Fire Laws are advancing at a frightening pace, your body strength is several times my own when I was at your level. There are also your elements control and cultivation speed. If Master was paired with ordinary cultivators and demon beasts from outside the Holy Land, Mian believes that Master should be able to fight at the Soul Forging Realm 1st Stage. As for Divine Soul Realm, Mian finds it challenging to think about someone who can compare to you at the same level." Liriu nodded. "What about the cultivators and demon beasts of the Holy Land?" Mian shook her head this time. "It is hard to say. The Holy Land has loads of Divine Major Souls, Heavenly Fragments, and even quite a few Heavenly Divine Soul owners. There are also those with unique constitutions and others who are geniuses even though they don''t have any of it. Not to mention the rare demon beast races that entered this time. Dragons, Phoenix, Kirins, Golden Crows, you name it. You will probably find their descendants here too." Mian pondered a bit before continue. "If I were to guess, I believe Master has the power to fight those between the 6th and 9th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. Of course, I''m leaving the Heavenly Divine Soul Owners out. After all, an entire year has passed, so there is no way Master will encounter one of them in the Lower Levels anymore. In fact, even Heavenly Fragment Owners will be hard to find." Liriu nodded before asking. "What if I fought a Heavenly Divine Soul owner with the same cultivation as me?" Mian shook her head again. "Master doesn''t need to think about it. No Heavenly Divine Soul would be under the Void Breaking Realm at this point. So it is useless to think about an impossibility." "I know, but I''m still curious. What if there was one?" "I can''t say because I''ve never seen one of them fighting in my life." Liriu nodded and remembered Laex and Laka''s battle back in the Wisp Main World. However, their power was too high, so he couldn''t make heads and tails of what was happening there. "I''ve decided. Fie is probably cultivating very fast now, so I can''t stay behind. Once I reach the 5th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm, I''m going up!" 478 Things Never go as Normal for Krune One month went in a flash, and Krune finally reached the peak of the Soul Forging Realm. Just like Dilo did, Krune also followed a different direction from the sixth level Light Pillar, ending in some more remote place. For this breakthrough, Krune would have total control over the Divine Soul, so Heavin went back to sleep. "Light Spirit, can you feel anyone''s Divine Sense here?" Luvile quickly replied. "I haven''t felt anyone in the past week at the very least. However, once the Tribulation Starts, others will probably notice it. So you better be ready to run after it finishes. No one will intervene in the Tribulation since they will be marked as targets. However, some would not lose the chance of attacking you in your weakened state after it is over. Well, you won''t be really weakened since the Fire Tribulation from Dalin isn''t as strong as the Luvile Universe." Krune nodded and then found an empty space to prepare. He confirmed that he was in peak condition and that he had enough Spirit Stones. Krune also separated a lot of Chaos Energy just in case of an emergency inside his Foundation. With everything ready, Krune immediately started his breakthrough. The first part is to achieve a connection with space laws. However, Krune already had that. So the space laws of the surroundings instantly interacted with his Divine Soul. As Krune observed that, he couldn''t help but feel impressed. "It feels like that space and the divine Soul became intimate with each other. So that''s why any Void Breaking Realm can use Space Laws." As that connection between the two continued, the Divine Soul went through a transformation. The Divine Soul was mainly formed with Elemental Source Energy and Soul Power. However, that same Elemental Source Energy began to change into Chaos Energy instead. The process was very natural. Krune already had a high comprehension of the Displacement and Contraction Space Sub-Laws. One at the Advanced Stage while the other at the Intermediate, respectively. That only made the transformation of the Divine Soul go even smoother. New Void Breaking Realm cultivators and demon beasts without previous Space Laws'' comprehension would take several times longer to reach this stage. But that wasn''t all, during the Soul Forging Realm breakthrough, the Soul is tempered with Elemental Source Energy. It becomes very similar to the Divine Soul itself. Now that the Divine Soul is changing into Chaos Energy and Soul Power, Krune''s Soul is also passing through the same transformation. That is one more advantage of being in the Void Breaking Realm. Krune could do the same thing as Cinty now. The Chaos Meridians convert a part of Elemental Source Energy at once, and the Divine Soul do the rest. Another thing is that Krune could feel how much easier it became to control his Chaos Energy. Because of how easily Krune achieved the breakthrough, one might think that it is the same for all. But the truth was completely different. The biggest majority wouldn''t have comprehended any Space Laws like him. That is, without a doubt, the hardest part of the breakthrough. A breakthrough into the Void Breaking Realm might take several days or even weeks. That is because one must comprehend at least one sub-law of space. If you fail, your connection with the Space laws disappears, and you would need to start from the beginning again. It is by no means easy since Space Laws are one of the three higher laws, Time, Space, and Destiny. Krune didn''t have much time to test his new power, though. That is because the Dalin Universe''s Fire Tribulation was already coming for him... not! The world around Krune suddenly started to become dark as the Tribulation Clouds were really coming. However, Krune felt like it wasn''t what he expected. The power inside those tribulation clouds was completely different from what he got outside in the Dalin Universe. Light Spirit, however, immediately identified it. "Well... Usually, I would feel surprised to see something like this appearing. But since we are talking about you, I guess I really couldn''t expect anything normal. Sure enough, you attracted something horrifying as always. Good job, calamity magnet." Krune''s mouth twitched. "I don''t remember to have done anything this time, though?" Light Spirit sighed before saying. "Forget it. What you are seeing is what we call an ascension tribulation. However, it is several times weaker than a real one." Krune''s face immediately went pale! "Ascension Tribulation? Wait! That makes no sense. I''m far, really, really, far from ascending. How come there is an ascension tribulation coming for me?" Obviously, Krune got frightened hearing that name. He looked at those dark clouds and felt like he was an ant. Krune simply had no confidence in surpassing it at all! There was just way too much power inside it. Seeing Krune''s terrified face, Light Spirit chuckled. "That''s why I told you, it is an idiotic thought to think that you would have a normal breakthrough to start with. Perhaps Ruik was right last time you entered the Soul Forging Realm. Maybe a god would really descend and destroy the universe now." Krune wanted to cry but had no tears. "Can you take this seriously? That thing is about to destroy me! How can I resist something like that?! First of all, even if I pass it, I can''t ascend! The Godly Energy of the higher realms will smash my wisp core to bits!" "Don''t worry, you won''t ascend. First of all, the Higher Realms would not accept someone at your level of cultivation. It is just that you are passing through the same type of Tribulation, that''s all. Wait, let me try something." Krune nodded and waited for Light Spirit. As he did so, he felt like a few changes were going into Light Spirit''s Tribulation Lightning Source. However, a few seconds later, it came back to normal. "Sigh... As I thought, I can''t leave your body yet. I won''t be able to escape as it seems." Krune was shocked! "Were you trying to run away without me?" Light Spirit shamelessly replied. "Of course! Who wants to die with you? Anyway, since there is no other choice, let''s see if we can go through it." Krune was even more overwhelmed by how blunt Light Spirit put it. He didn''t try to look for an excuse at all! "Hmph! Even if you wanted to leave now, I would definitely hold you back. Do you think I would let you use me for so long for free? You better put the effort to help me pass it!" Light Spirit couldn''t help but laugh. "Hahaha! Sure. At least your mood improved. A second ago, it felt like you were already thinking about how your next life would be." Krune was taken aback again. ''Sigh... this guy. Can''t he think about another way of helping me to calm down?'' Sure enough, Light Spirit wasn''t really trying to run away. It''s was just that Krune seemed to have given up the moment he noticed the power inside the Tribulation. Light Spirit had to first help him regain his confidence, even if just a little. "Anyway, the clouds are almost fully formed. The Ascencion tribulation is a combination of all five Elemental Tribulations. However, there is some good news for you. My Tribulation Lightning Source is a lot stronger now. So I''ll be able to support you even more." Krune nodded and then returned to his Wisp Form. At first, he was planning to pass the Heavenly Tribulation if his Human one, but that is no longer possible. Krune had to go all out to resist this thing. Whether someone will see him or not, that matters little at the moment. "How should we go about this?" Light Spirit pondered a bit before suggesting. "All five Tribulations have different times of duration. Although all five will come at once, the time for them to start is different. The longest Tribulation is the Water Type and the shortest in the Lightning. That being said, the Water Tribulation will descend first. Earth, Wind, and Fire will come next with Lightning being the last." Krune nodded. "I see where you are coming from. I should first try to resist them on my own. You will only intervene when I reach my limit, is that right?" Light Spirit confirmed. "Correct. If it was only one of those, you would pass it easily. Two should also be possible for you. Only at three things will get tricky. However, I would like for you to do your best to hold the three. The later I have to intervene, the better our chances will be." "Very well, let''s do this then." Although this conversation seemed to take very long, the fact was that Krune and Light Spirit are connected through the Tribulation Lightning in Krune''s Soul. So their conversation was even faster than a Divine Sense one, taking no more than a blink of an eye. As Krune and Light Spirit expected, a few cultivators and demon beasts noticed the Tribulation''s power. Especially since this was the ascension one, which could cause waves of energy that went much further. Not to mention the dark clouds that expanded through an absurd distance. So now, quite a few who were close by started to get close to watch it. 479 Tribulations Descending Soon, the surrounding cultivators and demon beasts gathered. There wasn''t more than 20 or so, but they all came to watch the show. "Aren''t these Tribulation Clouds somewhat different? Who is making a breakthrough?" "Weird, this is not the Fire Tribulation of Dalin, what is happening?" "This... aren''t these the same ascension clouds I saw from my Sect''s Ancestor Tribulation 20 years ago? But that shouldn''t be possible. Is someone ascending? No... the clouds and energies are the same, but it is much much weaker." One by one, Divine Senses started to scan the place under the center of the tribulation clouds. Light Spirit and Krune obviously noticed that, but they didn''t care at the moment. However, everyone else was shocked by what they saw. "Is that a Wisp?" Sure enough, they found out about Krune''s real form in an instant. And what impressed them, even more, was that the wisp was entering the Void Breaking Realm! But soon, their attention was caught by the Tribulation itself. Suddenly, particles of water started to form around Krune. However, they were completely different from normal water. They were full of Water Element and Water Laws of all types. They slowly started to make a whirlpool around Krune, which increased the pressure several times. Krune had never entered deep into the ocean before, but now he was having a first-hand experience of how it was. It was even worse since the whirlpool of the water element and laws got faster and faster, seeming to want to reap his body apart. However, this was just the first Tribulation, which had the same power as an ordinary one. For Krune, something like this wasn''t that hard to resist. Krune kept just a small layer os energy protecting his body. As the Tribulation got stronger, Krune''s energy release increased accordingly. It was a very fine control, which any little mistake would allow the water element to pass through his protection. If that happened, Krune would need to use a lot more energy to first drive that out while keeping the barrier. Still, Krune was confident in his Elemental and Energies control, so he kept at it. Krune could see why the water tribulation was the first one. It started very slowly, and the power itself increased little by little. Although it would be terrifying at the end, it really did take its time to accumulate energy. This situation then continued for another 10 or so minutes. However, as Krune protected his body, Earth Element began to gather into his Wisp Core. It seemed like his energy barrier that was protecting against the water tribulation had no use against it. Not only that, but that Earth Element seemed to want to transform his Wisp Core into stone! Krune quickly understood that the Earth Tribulation had arrived and started to use the foundation''s energies to block it from the inside. Water Pressure outside, Stone Petrification inside, Krune was dealing with both at the same time. Another 15 or so minutes passed until finally, the Wind Tribulation began. Surprisingly, the Wind and Water Tribulation joined together, creating a vortex of water and wind elements around Krune''s Wisp Core. While the Water Tribulation put even more pressure on Krune, the wind element attacked his core. This time Krune couldn''t keep his fine control anymore and had to release his Spiritual, Elemental, and Chaos Energies without stop! He couldn''t find a perfect balance between the three to save energy anymore. However, as Light Spirit saw that, he felt satisfied. "If he continues like this, he will be able to resist until the Fire Tribulation comes on his own" One must remember that all those Tribulations will reach their peak in power at the very end. However, Krune was already in the middle of resisting three of them without getting any damage in his Wisp Core. That was impressive. Of course, It was all thanks to the Elemental and Chaos Meridians, which immediately converted part of the Elemental Source Energy into Chaos Energy. "How are you doing?" "I''m reaching my limit, but I can still hold for a while." Of course, Krune didn''t waste time saying that. He used his connection with Light Spirit to do so. Finally, Krune''s familiar Fire Tribulation descended. Not too surprisingly, the Wind Tribulation also boosted the Fire Tribulation just like the Water one. While the Whirlpool of Water pressured Krune on the sides, the Fire Tribulation attacked Krune from above. As everyone around saw that, they couldn''t help but feel terrified. Some even went further away just in case a mistake happened. No one wanted to be targeted by that thing, only daring to use their Divine Senses from as far as possible to observe. But more impressive was that the wisp in the center was being able to resist that chaos. No one here would be confident that they could have done the same if they were the ones entering the Void Breaking Realm. As for Krune, he was already going all out. Not only those Tribulations came together, but they were also supporting each other, increasing their power. Even Light Spirit was shocked by Krune''s resistance. He thought that by this point, he would be using his Tribulation Lightning to help him already. However, the tribulations still kept increasing in power until, finally, Krune couldn''t hold back anymore. "Light Spirit!" Light Spirit had been ready the entire time. The moment Krune''s voice appeared in his mind, Arcs of Purple Tribulation Lightning rushed out, creating a barrier around Krune. Light Spirit''s Tribulation Lightning then ate all those laws while its power blocked the Tribulations. Instantly, more than 50% of the Tribulations'' power disappeared, which made Krune sigh in relief. Light Spirit could have blocked everything if he wanted, but he couldn''t use all his Tribulation Lighting in a single moment. Instead, he worked with Krune to resist it while saving energy. Krune finally had some time to recover his Spiritual, Elemental, and Chaos energies. The Spirit Stones under him kept breaking one after another as more and more came out of Krune''s Spatial Ring. At this level, Krune could both keep his defenses up while recovering some of the energy. "Try to recover as much as possible. It will take at least 30 or so minutes before the Lightning Tribulation comes out. Once that time arrives, all the other Tribulations will be at the peak of their power." However, it was then that Light Spirit noticed that a problem. "Ah! Krune, there is not enough Spiritual Energy the Lightning in the end." Krune agreed with him. "Don''t worry, I already have a plan. Just make sure to save as much Purple Tribulation Lightning power as possible. I''m using the highest ranks of Spirit Stones I have at the moment already to recover as well. If it goes as planned, I the rest of my Spiritual Energy should be enough." Light Spirit and Krune then focused once more on resist the ever-increasing power of the Elemental Tribulations. "What is that wisp? He is a monster! How can he resist something like that?" "Idiot, can''t you see? He is as colorful as a rainbow. He is obviously a Major Divine Soul owner. What I''m more concerned about is not that, though. That Purple Lightning is protecting him, and that is the real trick behind his defenses. I want to know where he got that thing." "Correct. However, you can''t deny that even without that Purple Lightning, he resisted the power of all those tribulations for a long time. I would have been destroyed in body and soul way before him in the same situation." As far as everyone was trying to stay, no one left. This is something that the majority had never seen before. Not to mention that all of them wanted to see what would happen in the end. By now, the majority already understood that the next one to come was definitely the Lightning Tribulation. Finally, the time came. On the dark clouds above Krune, another vortex started to form. Everywhere around the Tribulation Clouds was possible to see Lightning moving in the direction of that vortex. It was as if the Tribulation Clouds'' entire power was being gathered to be used in the next step. Seeing that, Krune prepared himself. "It''s time!" ***** Check author''s thoughts. ;) 480 Last Defense As the vortex on the clouds accumulated energy, Krune also prepared his side. "Light Spirit, I will leave the Fire, Water, and Wind Tribulation for you. Just make sure they are out. The rest will be up to me." Light Spirit immediately agreed. "Very well. You better know what you are doing." The Purple Lightning, which was resisted only half of the Tribulation''s power, then increased in strength. The Purple Lightning Barrier outside Krune suddenly became a lot sturdier. The entire force of those three tribulations was barred outside. Krune was satisfied with those three Tribulations disappearing. After that, he looked up in the sky and knew that it was time. "Feifei, I hope your Energy Transfer Formation on the Shields can resist it." Right after, all Krune''s 38 Kaleu Tribulation Shields came out at once and formed three layers of protection above him. However, Krune didn''t have more Spiritual Energy to divert for them, let alone Purple Tribulation Lightning. Compared to when Krune uses them in battle, they were quite weak without the energy and elements to support them. However... ''Hehe. Energy to increase their resistance? I have loads of it!'' Suddenly, Krune completely stopped to resist the Earth Tribulation! His Elemental and even Chaos Meridians then connected with the Shield''s Energy Transfer Formation. Immediately, Krune started to absorb the entire Earth Tribulation Power and transfer it to the Shields just like he does with his Purple Tribulation Lighting. This is quite a risky move since the Earth Tribulation is not under his control. Krune is having to force this transfer, which is quite hard even for him. This is an Earth Tribulation of a Void Breaking Realm Breakthrough, after all. Also, the Kaleu Tribulation Shields are a Lightning Compatible Equipment. So it was even harder to use the Earth Tribulation to reinforce it. Seeing that, Light Spirit couldn''t help but laugh. "Hahaha! You are crazy!" However, he had to admit that it was the best solution now that Krune was almost without any energy left. Krune''s Kaleu Tribulation Shields then started to shine yellowish. The Tribulation Power, which tried to escape, was then forced to stay by Krune''s wills in each one of them. Finally, the Tribulation Lightning first bolt came down. Boom! Waves of energy spread everyone, but it did not get even close to Krune. Then the next ones arrived one after another. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom... As mentioned before, the number of Lightning Bolts was a lot high than the Luvile Universe. That is because Normal Tribulation Lightning is weaker than Light Spirit''s one. The higher amount was there to compensate for that lack of power. Then came the second layer, which had time to gather even more Earth Tribulation Energy. However, the Lightning Bolts got even stronger. Not Long after, the second layer also disappeared. The Lightning Bolts continued for a while longer until finally, they stopped. However, Krune knew what that meant. The last lightning bolt was about to come down. It was always the strongest one, much more powerful than the previous attacks. Nevertheless, Krune didn''t care. The Tribulation clouds started to reduce in size, but at the same time, the vortex in the center charged with even more energy. The Cloud Vortex wasn''t even black anymore, it became utterly blue and white due to the amount of Tribulation Lighting Power inside. It was then that it came down. Boom! Krune''s last layer of Kaleu Tribulation Shields blasted away almost instantly. However, that was Krune''s strongest layer that had accumulated Earth Tribulation power for the longest time. Thanks to that, over 50% of the power of the Lightning Bolt was consumed. As for the rest, they hit Krune''s Wisp Core head-on! A crater immediately opened, and the wave of energy blasted everything in over a kilometer radius. One must remember that this place is the Holy Land. Everything here is hundreds if not thousands of times more resistance due to the Godly Energy. For a crater to appear shows just how powerful that last strike was. Right after that Lightning came down, the Tribulation Clouds started to dissipate. All the other Tribulation Powers also scattered as if they had never been there. Soon, the area was once more back to normal. Of course, normal if one didn''t count the damage caused by the Tribulations. Suddenly, a Wisp began to float out of the destruction. Not only that, but Krune seemed to be okay even after being hit by the remaining power of the Tribulation Lightning Bolt. Krune looked at everything around him and couldn''t help but feel scared. "Fortunately, I had left the Chaos Energy from before the breakthrough for the last moment. Otherwise..." It was then that Light Spirit remembered. "Oh! Now that you said that, you really separated that Chaos Energy. I was wondering where you got the power to fend off that last strike. In the end, you didn''t use it until the very end." Krune laughed while he confirmed that. He used everything at once in that last moment to create an energy barrier focused right above him. Krune then released Heavin once more, who quickly took control of the Parrot Puppet. "Is it over? Uh? How come you look so ragged? It was supposed to be an easy breakthrough, no?" Krune returned to his human form while smiling bitterly. Through a Divine Sense message, he then explained everything that happened in his breakthrough. "Holy Shit! I was almost killed with you, and I didn''t even know? Why do you have to always make things so complicated?" Light Spirit agreed with Heavin. "Indeed, you should stop trying to kill yourself at every breakthrough. Suicide is not good for health." Krune''s mouth twitched. "Fuck you! Do you think I wanted it? I was also waiting for a common tribulation. Even I don''t know how this happened at all!" Light Spirit chuckled before changing the topic. "Anyway, we should leave now. There are plenty of cultivators and demon beasts looking at us with their Divine Senses at the moment. I don''t know about you, but I used almost all the Tribulation Lightning Power stored." Heavin heard that and immediately spread his Mental Energy. Sure enough, there were around 20 to 30 spectators. It wouldn''t take long for them to come for Krune either. They all saw that he is a wisp, so things wouldn''t be good if they decided to attack. Krune agreed with Light Spirit and immediately expanded the Tribulation Lightning Layer. Light Spirit used almost all the Tribulation Lightning Power, but not all of it. If it was only for the layer and Tribulation Lightning Movement, there was enough for it. Suddenly, Krune disappeared from everyone''s Divine Sense like magic. Right after, he selected the direction that had the least amount of spectators. Everyone was taken aback when Krune vanished, quickly coming over to see what happened. But only three of them, two Demon Beasts and one Cultivator, saw a flash of Purple Lightning passing by them. They thought about pursuing it, but they immediately gave up right after. It was just too damn fast! Those three were also in the Void Breaking Realm, which was one more reason why Krune selected their direction. It was better to not risk passing close by Divine Path Realm ones. In the end, no one was able to do anything with Krune. Krune flew for two hours or so before finally stopping. On the way, he also used Spirit Stones to recover his energy as fast as possible. Fortunately, no one seemed able to follow him. Heavin''s Mental Energy is different from Divine Sense. Even if the enemy has much higher cultivation, he can still see them. Krune then found a place to hide again and started to properly recover his energy. At the same time, Light Spirit recharged his Tribulation Lightning. "You two, don''t forget that the next one to make a breakthrough is me, alright?" Krune nodded. "Don''t worry. Just give me some time to recover my energies and repair my Kaleu Tribulation Shields." Heavin didn''t mind it. "No problem, I will use this time to check the differences in our Divine Soul." ****** Check Author''s Thoughts. ;) 481 Heavins Breakthrough As Krune recovered, he couldn''t help but comment. "It seems like I really didn''t ascend." Light Spirit confirmed. "Obviously. I told you, your cultivation is just too low, the path would never open for you at the moment." Krune nodded before asking. "In the end, just why did it appear for me?" Light Spirit pondered a bit before saying. "The only thing I can think about is the Godly Energy. This is something from the Higher Realms, and the ascension tribulation is what you need to pass to go there. There might be some relation between the two. Of course, I can''t guarantee since I''ve never seen such a situation before." Heavin then spoke his piece. "If what Light Spirit said is true, then we don''t need to worry about it once we go out. Anyway, you are in the 1st Stage of the Void Breaking Realm only, so it will take a long time to reach the Divine Path. There is no need to worry about another tribulation anytime soon." Krune nodded and then put those thoughts behind. A few hours later, Krune was back to his peak condition. He then took all his Kaleu Tribulation Shields out to check. "There are quite a few cracks. Fortunately, the Formations didn''t break." Krune had brought all his forging tools in the Spatial Ring. After bringing everything out, he immediately started to repair them. Krune had used Kaleu Tribulation Ore to make the Shields, but there was quite a bit remaining after the Shields were done. At least, it was more than enough to repair them. Light Spirit finished recharged his Tribulation Lightning Source not too long after. He took the chance and covered their hiding place with a Tribulation Lightning Layer to prevent the Divine Sense scan too. Krune worked on his shields for an entire day before everything was finally repaired. Most of his Wills that he had left behind dissipated, so he infused his Shields with more of them. At his current realm, his Wills can last for years as long as their energy is not used. Even when called out, Krune believes that they can work for quite a few hours if not destroyed. With everything finished, Krune looked at Heavin. "Alright, I''m ready here. Are you going to try it now?" Heavin''s eyes lit up, and he immediately nodded. "But of course!" Light Spirit then retracted the Tribulation Lightning layer, and they appeared outside. Krune, once more, stopped using Chaos Energy for anything else other than support Heavin. It started to enter his Divine Soul without stop, and this time, it did not come back. Krune could feel the power of Heavin''s Soul increasing as he observed. The Soul Transformation Realm would, in theory, allow Heavin to create Chaos Energy without the need for his help. That would also allow him to support himself in case they really get separated one day. "Success!" Krune smiled after hearing it. He also looked to the skies, and sure enough, no such thing as Heavenly Tribulation could be seen. "Seems like the Universe really doesn''t recognize your Soul Cultivation System." Heavin laughed. "It is too good for it to understand, that''s all." Krune didn''t deny it, Mental Energy was really powerful, after all. "So, what is different about you now?" Heavin immediately concentrated and put his Divine Soul to work. Sure enough, Heavin was able to create Elemental Source Energy and Chaos Energy on his own now. "Good. It is as I planned it to be. You noticed the difference in our Divine Soul, correct?" Krune nodded before Heavin continued. "Once you reach the Soul Transformation Realm with your own Soul, you won''t feel any difference whatsoever. It only happened because I''m a Divine Soul. The crux of the issue is that now I can comprehend Laws by myself instead of having to rely on you." Krune was surprised to hear that. "I see, no wonder you can create Chaos Energy. After all, you have to have the support of laws to do so. If you couldn''t use your own laws, it would be impossible to create Chaos Energy." Heavin nodded. "Exactly! Of course, the laws that you comprehended I did too, so I don''t need to comprehend them again. But once I''m out, I won''t have your support anymore, so I needed to make this change. I''m glad that everything worked as I expected." Krune then got curious. "So, what is the difference in your Mental Energy now?" Hearing that, Heavin immediately put it to use. First, he spread his Mental Energy once more. He was able to see everything in a 30km range or so before, but now... "Hahaha! It doubled in power, I can see everything on a 60 or so kilometers radius now!" That was really an impressive thing. That meant that Heavin had could see further than some Early Stages Divine Path Realm cultivators and demon beasts. Krune''s Soul Power is enormous for his cultivation. But even with his last breakthrough, he could only reach 15 or so km with it. Of course, his Mental Energy could go further, reaching a 20km radius. "That''s really impressive. It is one more way to keep ourselves safe. What about Mental Energy attacks?" Heavin concentrated and tried to form a Mental Energy Blade. In just a single second, the blade was ready! That shocked Krune and Heavin more than anything else. "Just a second? This is great! How many of those can you make at once?" Heaving quickly concentrated, and another ten Mental Energy Blades appeared right after. "This thing will be amazing. I can also feel that their power is much higher." Krune agreed with Heavin. "That is good since you use it to cover the Parrot too. When you put the God-Level Beak and the Mental Energy together, I doubt there will be anyone under the Divine Path Realm that can stop it." Heavin was feeling extremely happy. "Yes! Fortunately, I don''t need to control this God-Level beak as you do with other equipment. Otherwise, it would be impossible for me to use it. I just need to use my head to point in the right direction while using Mental Energy in front of it." Light Spirit finally spoke at this moment. "Everything is good and all, but you will need to go under combat experience to learn how to use your new powers. So stop wasting time and move, we can still find a few cultivators and demon beasts on the way to the next Light Pillar." Hearing that, Krune and Heavin''s eyes lit up. They, too, wanted to check just how much stronger they got now. On the way to the Sixth Level Light Pillar, Krune found a few demon beasts and cultivators. At the moment, there isn''t anyone under the Void Breaking Realm anymore. But that was also good. In the end, Krune was against a 7th Stage of the Void Creaking Realm cultivator. As always, Krune let the other side purposely noticed him. Seeing Krune''s cultivation, the enemy was surprised first. Even though the Void Breaking Realm was everywhere in the Sixth Level, a 1st Stage one was tough to find. The majority was already in the 4th Stage or above. The guy then immediately attacked. Not because he thought that Krune would be a good opponent, but because of his cultivation. If Krune reached this place with his level, he is most likely one of those super-geniuses that entered the Holy Land. There was a very good chance that Krune would be carrying some Godly Energy Stones that he got from the Light Pillars'' Rewards. Seeing the guy coming at him, Krune smiled. Soon, waves of energy and explosions spread everywhere. However, Krune could already fight a 6th Stage 3 Heavenly Fragments Owner while in the Soul Forging Realm. Now that he is in the Void Breaking Realm too, a single Stage Higher cultivator couldn''t pose too much of a threat to him. Let alone one without a Single Heavenly Fragment. Not too long after, that cultivator turned around and fled for his life. Krune didn''t stop him, though. He looked at that and only smiled. "Indeed, only other Heavenly Fragment owners can prove to be a challenge now. And even then, they will need to be a lot stronger." Light Spirit agreed. "That''s to be expected. You have your Elemental and Chaos Meridians, and now your Divine Soul can control Chaos Energy much better than before. If you put your Two Heavenly Fragments and my Purple Tribulation Lightning in the mix, this result is more than expected." Krune then gathered the elements in his hands and tried to fuse them together. Although most of it didn''t fuse, a small bit still did. "Too bad that I can''t use my Elements Regulation Technique like Master yet. I tried to use this little bit of Fused Elements in the battle just now, but it takes too long to gather. In the end, it is much better to simply keep using the Elements as I''ve been doing so far." Krune then looked at Heavin. "How was on your side?" Heavin nodded before explaining. "The upgrade in Mental Energy made everything much easier. It wouldn''t be too hard if I wanted to kill that guy. However, I''m already feeling the limitations of a Peak Golden Stars Puppet. Even though part of the Parrot Puppet was made with Purple Flame Forged Metals, it has its limit." Krune agreed with him. "Void Breaking Realm is also considered the Diamond Stars Realm. For your Parrot to be struggling now is well within expectation. You also brought your Puppeteer equipment and a lot of materials with you, no? Why don''t you make a few modifications next time I stop to cultivate? I don''t mind forging some of the parts necessary since I can keep cultivating anyway." Heavin pondered a bit and admitted that it was a good idea. "Very well. I couldn''t practice my Puppeteer Skills before since there was not enough Chaos Energy for the two of us. But now, I can create my own Chaos Energy, so I can focus on it again." Krune smiled. "Just don''t forget to leave part of your mind focused on cultivating your Soul Cultivation Technique. Since you can also use Godly Energy, it would be a waste if you didn''t use every second available to do it." Heavin agreed once more. "Don''t worry, I haven''t forgotten my priorities." Krune and Heavin then departed once more. They still wanted to have some extra combat experience. If possible, find someone stronger than the last guy. A Heavenly Fragment Owner, perhaps. 482 The Sixth Light Pillar There was one thing risky about the Light Pillars now. From the sixth level and onwards, there would be no safe zones anymore. However, if Krune wants to advance, he will need to go there where the Light Pillar is. Not only that. If he wants to take any Godly Stones Reward, he will have to summon it in front of everyone around the Light Pillar. Fortunately or not, Krune did very bad in the last one, so he didn''t have any to take this time. "Heavin, keep your Mental Energy spread while I use the Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer. We will check what is around the next Light Pillar like this. If it is too dangerous, we will choose another one." Heavin agreed with Krune while they traveled against the direction of the Godly Energy flow. Finally, they arrived at the next one. However, the surroundings were completely empty, there wasn''t a single living soul as far as they could see. "A trap?" Light Spirit agreed. "Most likely, although you can''t see them, I can feel their Divine Senses." Heavin then pointed at a certain direction. "Found them. In fact, there are quite a few different cultivators and demon beasts hidden around the Light Pillar. However, it doesn''t seem like they are friends with each other, either. They all have different clothes and seem to be of different races." Krune pondered a bit before asking. "Can you see their cultivation level with your Mental Energy?" Heavin nodded. "The majority is at the Void Breaking Realm, with just a few at the Divine Path. That''s weird. They definitely know about each other, so why are they staying hidden? Did they reach an agreement to attack anyone who approaches together?" Krune shook his head. "From what you are telling me, there are way too many of them to be worth it. There must be another reason behind it. Something that has nothing to do with other cultivators and demon beasts that arrive. Heavin, check if there is anyone around who isn''t too close to the majority, we will go ask what is happening." Heavin nodded before pointing in the direction of a rather weak demon beast. The guy was only at the 5th of the Void Breaking Realm and was keeping quite some distance from the others. "Sorry, friend. Are you alone?" That demon beast almost jumped in fright. He kept his Divine Sense spread all time, but he hadn''t seen Krune approaching him at all. It was then that he looked behind and saw a small ball of purple lightning floating there. Obviously, it was Krune''s group. "Who are you, how can you see me?" Krune just smiled. "Don''t worry, I don''t plan to do anything to you, friend. It''s just that I noticed that there are a lot of people and beasts hiding around this Light Pillar. Is there a reason for it?" The demon beast looked around and didn''t find anyone else. ''Seems like it is not am ambush.'' "No one is hiding because they want, but because of the Light Pillar." Krune got puzzled but waited for the guy to continue the explanation. "If you pay good attention, you should be able to see a difference in this pillar, right?" Krune looked at the Light Pillar and noticed that some red marks could be seen at its base. The previous ones didn''t have such a thing. "Yes, it''s those marks." The demon beast nodded. "Those are protection marks. They scan the surroundings at random times, looking for targets to attack. That is why everyone is hidden. Once those marks find a target, this unfortunate person or beast will be attacked by the formation deep in the underground. Anyone under the Divine Path Realm would most likely die to it." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Then how do you plan to enter the Light Pillar test?" The guy shook his head before continuing. "You don''t understand, that is the test. Since you were able to find me, you should also be able to see that there isn''t a single living soul in a 30km radius around the pillar, right?" Krune looked at Heavin, who confirm that the guy was right. "Yes, I can see many you, but no one is close to it." The demon beast nodded. "That is because the 30km around the Light Pillar is considered an almost certain death zone. Inside this range, nothing can hide you against those marks protection. Hiding abilities only work outside that range. The test is very simple and, at the same time, very hard. You need to touch the light pillar, that''s all. Your rank will depend on how long you take to approach and touch it." Krune nodded. Still, there was one thing puzzling him. "Then why don''t you stay far away from it and only come after you decide to give it a try?" The Demon Beast was already expecting this question. "That is because the formation under us isn''t always at full power. At certain random intervals, the formation protecting against those who approach the Light Pillar gets weaker. At that point, everyone who wishes to pass the test will charge at the same time." "Have anyone tried to hide from the protection somehow?" "Hehe! Of course, there is always an idiot who thinks that his or her ability is good enough to do that. But everyone failed and died miserably, no exception. Anti-Divine Sense, Hide in the Shadows, Camouflage, Space Distortion, nothing worked. Also, the space inside is completely messed up. If you try to teleport there, only death awaits you." It was then that Light Spirit commented. "He is right. If I''m not wrong, what we have under us is a god-level formation. Most likely, once you enter the Light Pillar 30km range, no anti-detection ability will work. Although I''m confident to hide against any type of Divine Sense detection, this formation is definitely not this simple. It should have several other ways of finding you. Forget about using my Tribulation Lightning Layer, it won''t work." Krune nodded before asking another question to the Demon Beast. "How do you know the time that the formation gets weaker?" Suddenly, Krune noticed a stone flying into the 30km range of the Light Pillar. Immediately, something that looked like a beast made of energy appeared. It attacked that stone with lightning speed, completely pulverizing it. Even Krune felt a chill on his back when he saw that. "Did you see it? That is how we test the level of the formation. At the moment, it is at full power. But when it gets weaker, the attacks get a lot weaker and slower than what you saw." Krune then thought about another possibility. "But if everyone enters at the same time when it gets weaker, wouldn''t it be hard for those with much lower cultivation? Those Divine Path Realm cultivators and demon beast could use them as bait to attract the attacks." The demon beast couldn''t help but laugh out loud. "Do you really think that such a flaw would be left behind? This is a test, after all. Once you enter the 30km radius, your cultivation will be locked at the 9th Stage of the Void breaking Realm. Of course, if you are under this level, your cultivation will not increase to the 9th stage. So those at the 9th stage can still use weaker ones if they feel like it. However, since the difference in cultivation is too small, no one will try such an idiot thing unless they are in a situation where they have no choice. Using someone with similar cultivation as scapegoat or bait would be too risky." Krune nodded. Usually, 30km for a 9th Stage Void Breaking Realm wouldn''t take more than a few tens of seconds to be traveled. However, Krune was sure that it wouldn''t be this simple at all. "Thank you, friend, this was of great help." The demon beast nodded and then went somewhere else. There were two reasons why it talked so much to Krune. The first was because it couldn''t see Krune''s cultivation or even feel his presence with Divine Sense, so there was a chance that Krune had a much higher cultivation than it. The second is that the more participants who tried simultaneously, the higher the chances of passing through the test. After all, the formation would have to divert its attention to everyone. "Heavin, this will be a speed test. To increase our chances, I''ll be taking full control of the Divine Soul." Heavin nodded on Krune''s shoulder. "No problem. I also think this is the best way. However, let''s not enter the first time it happens. It will be better to observe and see if everything is like what that demon beast said. Who knows, he might have hidden something." Krune agreed with Heavin. He wanted to go up as fast as possible, but he will never reach the tenth level if he is dead. 483 Passing Through It didn''t take long for the time to come. As the hidden participants threw stones into the 30km range now and then, it came a time when the retaliation inside suddenly got weaker. Seeing that, around 20 cultivators and demon beasts came out of their hiding places and charged inside. Krune immediately noticed that one of them was in the Divine Path Realm, although he didn''t know which Stage exactly. But as soon as he entered the 30km range, some kind of light covered his body faintly. Right after, his cultivation immediately plummeted to the 9th Stage of the Void breaking Realm. The formation was a physical one. Several types of energy-like beasts, cultivators, and weapons attacked from all sides. Sure enough, it was impossible to make a beeline to the Light Pillar. The formation made sure to keep a tight defense, which stops anyone from simply charging forward. Since there weren''t many trying this time around, there was a lot of space for everyone. Soon, Krune narrowed his eyes. That is because although the attacks got weaker, it definitely wasn''t something that an ordinary 9th Stage Void Breaking Realm could hope to avoid. "It seems like the person who made this formation knew very well that the majority coming to this place would be geniuses. Weaklings would simply have no chance in this place." It didn''t take long for the first victim to appear. A cultivator failed to notice a blade coming from his back while he dodged a horde of demon beasts in front. The formation gave no chance for recovering. The moment it pierced through that guy, it immediately exploded. Although the cultivator reacted fast enough, he was still grievously injured. He tried to go back and leave the Formation Range, but it was too late for him. He was the first one to die. Krune wanted to check another thing as well. Just how long will the formation keep in this weakened state? Soon, more than ten minutes passed, and another 5 participants already lost their lives. However, there was also one who was also hit by an attack but was still able to retreat. He immediately hid once more and started to recover. That meant that even if you were caught, you still have a sliver of hope of escaping. The one closest to the Light Pillar was the demon beast who was in the Divine Path Realm. Even though its cultivation was locked in the 9th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm, his experience and laws far surpassed the others. Also, it was a flying type Demon Beast and a swift one at that. At the 18 minutes'' time, that Divine Path Realm demon beast finally touched the pillar. Immediately, all the attacks coming in its direction stopped before disappearing completely. "I see, once you touch the Light Pillar, you will have passed the trial. So you can take your time to retrieve any Godly Energy Stones and check the rankings." Around 25 minutes after everyone entered the Light Pillar range, the formation recovered! All the formation''s attacks increased several times in power and speed. Those who were still in the middle of the test were almost instantly slaughtered. "More or less 30 minutes until the formation recovers its power. That should be enough time for anyone attempting to pass it. Still, even the 9th Stage of the Void BReaking Realm is already this difficult. Just having full control over my Divine Soul will be risky." Krune pondered a bit before deciding. "I will enter it in my wisp form. Although a few cultivators and demon beasts saw my Purple Tribulation Lightning and wisp form, most don''t know about it. I guess I will use the Tribulation Lightning Layer as well just to be safe." Heavin agreed with Krune and retracted his Divine Sense from the parrot before Krune put it away. After that, they began to wait for the next time the formation would get weak again. Two days later, the time finally arrived. As one more stone was thrown inside, the attack that came at it was once again weaker than normal. Krune''s eyes lit up, and he immediately transformed back into his Wisp Form while covering his body in Tribulation Lightning. With a flash of purple light, Krune rushed inside the slaughtering formation. Roar! As soon as Krune entered, three energy demon beasts pounced at him. Sure enough, the Anti-Divine Sense effect of the Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer didn''t work on them. Those beats had no problem finding his location. *Swish, swish, swish* Another 33 cultivators and demon beasts entered as well from all sides of the light pillar. Three of them were close to Krune. Because of the proximity, they all tried to use the others as cover. Krune was using his Tribulation Lightning instant movement together with his Wisp Form, though. With that combo, he wasn''t any slower than this group. It didn''t take long before Krune opened some distance from them. Krune had no intention of using anyone as cover to start with. Also, since he purposely separated from this group, the others didn''t follow. They would only try to take advantage if it was beneficial to them. However, Krune followed a path that brought him further from the Light Pillar, so they immediately ignored him. With his path clear of nuisances, Krune immediately returned his attention to the Light Pillar once more. *Zap, Zap, Zap!* *Boom, Boom, Boom!* Flashes of Purple Lightning appeared everywhere as Krune dodge and counter attacked those energy beasts, cultivators, and weapons. "I need Godly Energy Stones, so I can''t waste time here anymore. Time to get serious." "Tribulation Lightning Movement, 250%!" The arcs of Purple Lightning around Krune increased several times in size and power. His speed, which was already frightening for someone at his level, got even faster! Krune wasn''t holding back at all. Light Spirit had recovered a good part of his Tribulation Lightning Essence back then when it came from the Luvile Universe. Krune had also absorbed part of that essence, which allowed him to have an output of 200%. However, Krune was still a 4th Stage Soul Forging Realm Wisp at that time. Now, had broken through the Void Breaking Realm, so his Wisp Body was a lot sturdier and could resist even more Tribulation Lightning without damaging it. Obviously, it was around 250% now![1] It wasn''t just is his movement technique. Any attacks that used his Tribulation Lightning could now be made at the same level. Krune''s overall strength wasn''t something that just anyone could compare to. The others outside and the ones inside taking the test were surprised by that. "Impressive, that is definitely the speed of an ordinary Divine Path Realm cultivator or demon beast in the first or second stage." "He might be a Divine Path Realm to start with. So it shouldn''t be surprising that he can do his much. Look at that other demon beast on the other side. He is also a Divine Path Realm. Even though his cultivation was locked in the 9th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm, his speed is still at the Divine Path Realm level." "You guys are all wrong. You don''t know who this guy is, but I do. Just a few days ago, he went through his Void Breaking Realm tribulation, and I was there to see it. I would never mistake that Purple Lightning. Especially since now, I understand why he disappeared from my sight at that time. That Purple Tribulation Lightning can hide him against Divine Sense. However, I can guarantee you, he is still an Early Stages Void Breaking Realm... Wisp!" Everyone was shocked when they heard that, they turned in Krune''s direction and couldn''t believe it. "Is that a Wisp?" Of course, the majority thought that it was just a joke. How could a New Void Breaking Realm be this fast and a wisp on top of that? The guy who recognized Krune knew that the majority wouldn''t believe him. So he didn''t even try to say that that wisp''s Tribulation was an ascension type one. If he did, everyone would just curse him thinking that he was making a fool of them. Just like that, Krune''s efforts to the fact that he was a wisp secret was destroyed. That wasn''t the only thing that surprised the others, though. Krune was also advancing at a frightening pace to the Light Pillar. Places where others would find extremely hard to pass through, he passed as if it was the simplest thing in the world. The reason was his Mental Energy! It wasn''t t the same level as Heavin, but he can still spread it much further than his Divine Sense. The restrictions that affected one''s Divine Sense weren''t as severe with Mental Energy, so Krune could see much clearer too. *Zap!* With one last Flash of Purple Lightning, Krune''s Wisp Core touched the Light Pillar! Right after, he returned to his human form before finishing using his Tribulation Lightning. Only his Tribulation Lightning Layer remained now. With that, Krune finally passed the Sixth Light Pillar test. "Phew... It''s finally over." Light Spirit then commented. "It went better than I thought. I have to admit that this Mental Energy thing is quite handy." Krune smiled before letting Heavin awaken again. After that, he sent his Divine Sense into the Light Pillar. He wanted to check his and the other''s positions. [1] I''m well aware that this 250% should instead be considered his new 100%. However, it would be hard to notice the difference if I just said it got stronger, so Like to put it this way. ^^ 484 Frunkan Clan As the rank appeared, Krune was able to find the names he could recognize. Surprisingly, he even saw Liriu''s name, which Liriu didn''t change to start with. However, Fie''s name was still not present. Krune began to think that perhaps, Fie hid in the second level and didn''t leave anymore. As for his own position, he was able to verify straight away. In the end, Krune took 5 minutes and 23 seconds to make his way to the light pillar, which gave him the 8th position. "Good, those are another 10 Godly Stones." Heavin nodded on his side. "Even better. Since you weren''t sent to the next level right away, you can take the Godly Stones right now." Krune''s eyes lit up, and he immediately selected his reward. "Wait! I would need to wait 3 days for my position to be consolidated, no?" "Ah!" Only now did Heavin remember that such a rule did exist indeed. Krune tried to take the reward nonetheless. However, he just received a notice that he couldn''t take it away at the moment. Sighing, Krune looked around and could see that the other participants were making their way to the Light Pillar. Although some died, it looked like quite a few would make it through. Krune, of course, wouldn''t wait for them to arrive. Especially since there was even a Divine path Realm in the middle of those guys going through the test. After sending his Spiritual Energy into the Light Pillar, Krune was teleported to the 7th level straight away. --- As Krune entered the 7th level, those with high talent and cultivation finally started to appear in the 10th level. At this same place, there was a concealment formation that has just been recently built. Inside, a small group of Divine Path Realm cultivators and demon beasts awaited. Time passed, and a few days went by when suddenly, a new cultivator entered the Concealment Formation. The others inside looked at the newcomer and immediately greeted him. "Welcome, Senior Brother." They were all part of the Frunkan Clan, a Clan that exists in another Universe called Zaral. This Universe had ties with one of the Universes controlling Dalin, and they used this connection to send all these members inside. In total, there were five members present: two demon beasts and three cultivators. The Strongest one was their Senior Brother, Hanan Frunkan. He was in the 7th Stage of the Divine Path Realm cultivator and a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner on top of that. The other two cultivators were also at the Divine Path Realm. One of them was Tannin Frunkan, a 9th Stage Divine Path Realm. The third one was Julie Frunkan, also a 9th Stage Divine Path Realm female cultivator. The Last one was also a Demon Beast that only existed in the Dalin Universe in the past, a Flegen. This Demon Beast looked like a mix of buffalo and rhinoceros, known by its strong defense and high aptitude for Earth Element and Laws. His name was Morjin, and he was in the 8th Stage of the Divine Path Realm. Hanan looked at Julie before asking. "Start it." Julie took a deep breath before taking out a piece of equipment that looked like an Orb. She sat down on the floor and used her Spiritual Energy to activate it. At first, the Orb looked transparent, but a white fog started to form after a few minutes. Finally, the white fog took the form of an old man''s face. That old man looked at every around before nodding. "It seems like the prophecy was correct. As you can see, the Seal that locks down the Holy Land was lifted. Otherwise, it would be impossible for me to talk with all of you. Even until now, we don''t know what caused the Seal to be lifted, but it matters little at the moment." Everyone''s eyes immediately lit up after hearing that. "Our time has finally come. This imprisonment that has lasted thousands of Chaos Cycles is finally about to be over. However, for that, we will need the Core Artifact of the Holy Land. Only with that will we be able to drive away all the resistance." The old man looked at the five juniors before saying. "Such a chance won''t appear again. It doesn''t matter what happens, you must reach the Origin Dimensional Realm and retrieve the Artifact. This is our only chance!" Everyone had resolute expressions on their faces. "Don''t worry, Clan Head, we will not fail. Even if it cost our lives, we will retrieve the Artifact." The man inside the Orb nodded, satisfied. "The only way to enter the Origin Dimensional Realm is through the 50th floor. Usually, it would be impossible to even go that high. However, now that the Seal has been lifted, the flow of Godly Energy from the 10th floor onwards will decrease by a lot. There will be little difference between each of them now." "You have a little less than nine years to reach that place. It won''t be easy, and the tests'' difficulty probably won''t be affected. Still, we prepared the five of you just for this moment. If you can''t do that, no one can." The man then looked at Hanan. "The Artifact Spirit will most likely try to protect itself from being taken. At that moment, use the item that I gave you. It should be able to subdue him. Remember, this is a secret mission. If anyone finds out, kill them immediately. If this information escapes outside, everything will be for nothing." "Yes, Clan Head!" The man acknowledged. "Good! For the Liberation of Dalin!" "For the Liberation of Dalin!" The white fog inside the Orb then disappeared, finishing their connection to the outside. "Let''s go, we are running against the time." The concealment formation that this group was using was different. It created a pseudo dimension, separating them from the area of the Holy Land temporarily. They weren''t afraid of the other participants hearing them, but the Artifact Spirit instead. After taking the formation down, the group immediately departed. --- The Artifact Spirit might not know about that groups'' plans, but it had noticed the Godly Energy problem on the 10th floor and the next ones straight away. "What is happening here? Why is the Godly Energy flow gone down so much?" The Artifact Spirit then checked the connection with the higher realms, but couldn''t see any problem with that. "The Godly Energy coming in is still at normal levels. However, it seems like it is leaking outside for some reason." Little Arty was intrigued by this issue. First, someone was teleported inside the Origin Dimensional Realm. That had never happened before. Now, there is a problem with the Godly Energy Flow. He couldn''t help but think if it was Fie''s fault or if she was also affected by whatever the problem is. However, after spending more than one year with her, he highly doubts that Fie has anything to do with it. At most, she was also caught in the middle. "Unfortunately, I won''t be able to check what is happening now since the Holy Land opening is still ongoing. Only when it closes will I be able to check all the formations. Wait, could it be..." Little Arty focused his mind on the Seal that held the Holy Land and was taken aback! "This... the Seal is gone? How? Only Master should be able to lift the Seal. However, Master has been gone for too long. I can''t feel his presence either." Little Arty kept thinking, but couldn''t find an answer. "How did it happen? Could it be because of someone who is in the Holy Land this time? No! Even a Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast wouldn''t be able to lift the Seal. The highest cultivation between the participants at the moment is the 9th Stage of the Divine Path Realm, so it is impossible for them." "With the Seal lifted, anyone can take me away. I''ve been the Core of the Holy Land during all this time. Still, I can''t even imagine what would happen if I disappeared." As Little Arty looked where the Seal problem was, something unexpected happened. "Hum?! What is this?" When the creator of the Holy Land returned to the Higher Realms, he left his hut behind. At the moment, Fie was the one using it. Still, Little Arty knew this hut from top to bottom. With his level, even if an extra spec of dust appeared, he would know. But out of nowhere, an emblem appeared on one of the hut''s walls. Little Arty was sure that it wasn''t there. Also, he always took care of Fie, so he knew that she didn''t draw it. At the moment, Fie was outside practicing according to his orders. So she didn''t know anything about that either. Little Arty''s projection then appeared inside the hut. "It''s Master''s emblem!" Little Arty then touched that emblem with his energy. Right after, the wall revealed a secret compartment. Inside, there was a letter. On top of that, it was addressed to him. Controlling his Energy, Little Arty grabbed the letter and opened it. "This!" ****** Check Author''s Thoughts. ;) 485 A Letter for Little Arty Little Arty was shocked by what he read inside. "I''ve never given you a name, so I wonder if you will have one when you find this letter. The Dimensional Godly Energy Sphere was a Godly Artifact that I designed. Its original use was so that I could have access to high amounts of Godly Energy regardless of where I was located. It is one of my best creations, and I take a lot of pride in it. However, it had to use it to create the Holy Land. Otherwise, it would be impossible to keep the connection with the Higher Realms during all times." "But who could have thought that while I was building the Holy Land, the Dimensional Godly Energy Sphere would give birth to an Artifact Spirit? Even in the Higher Realm, it is very rare for Artifact Spirits to appear. However, thanks to your existence, a lot of things got much easier. Your connection to the Holy Land would help it keep operating for much longer than I initially desired. Perhaps, it could even be eternal." "You already know that I came down to the lower realms to stop Wally. But the truth is, I didn''t want to come. Still, I had to make my part as the leader of the Inihal Sect. However, I''m glad that I did. The birth of an artifact spirit only happens by chance. If I hadn''t come down, I doubt you would ever have appeared." "However, I noticed that you were developing your own emotions as time passed. In the end, I simply couldn''t bring myself to make an eternal Seal. That being said, I left my Will behind in a way you wouldn''t notice its existence. It would only wake up once every thousand years. Obviously, it was during the time that the Holy Land was open." "Its mission was just one. It would judge your work and decide when it was enough. Once that time came, my Will would then release the Seal, leaving you free to do whatever you want. At that point, you would have already worked enough and deserved your freedom. Whether you decide to take a new master or simply leave the Holy Land on your own, it would be up to you." "After the Seal is undone, it can''t be repaired anymore. It will also be the last time that the Holy Land will be open. Once the ten years of its opening are over, the entire dimension will be sucked into the Dimensional Godly Energy Sphere, which means, yourself. You can use the Holy Land as you see fit. As for everyone inside. They will be teleported out as always. You will probably notice the Holy Land''s changes at that time too." "Anyway, if you are reading this letter, it means that the time has come." "Anyway, I''m not saying that you must follow the one that my Will selected. In the end, as I said, it will all be up to you. If you wish to go out on your own, feel free to do so. I wonder which one will it be. Would you get your freedom or find that existence first? I can''t help but feel excited when I think that it is the second option." "PS: Although you can move by yourself, your power can only be displayed once someone uses you. If it turns out that you don''t like the person or beast that my Will selected, make sure to find someone worthy of it. I hope this new Master of yours will bring you to the Higher Realms one day. Perhaps, we can meet again." Little Arty finally understood why the Seal was undone. "Master..." In the end, it really was as he suspected. Only his Master, or previous Master, could destroy the Seal. As for the one responsible for making his Master''s Will do it... "Found you!" Little Arty got a fright. He quickly looked behind him and noticed that Fie had just entered the hut. "Wasn''t it you who said that you would help me with the training today? How come you disappear just like that?" Little Arty looked at Fie, and several complex emotions passed through his mind. "Oh! What is that?" Fie then tried to grab the letter that was floating in the air. However... *Shua* The letter was burnt into a crip instantly. "Ah! That is no fair, I haven''t read it yet." "Hmph! That has nothing to do with you. Besides, you seem to be doing nothing now, so what about stop wasting time and go back to your training?" "Eh? But it was you who said that you would train with me. And it was you who disappeared. Why Am I the one to take the blame? Some times I think you can be worse than my dad when it comes to training." Little Arty didn''t care, though. "Just because I''m not there, it doesn''t mean that you can''t train on your own. It is because you are this lazy that you take so long to improve. Come on, your day is still far from over. We are going to put extra effort to compensate for it." "Tch..." Fie then followed Little Arty once again, obviously, sulking a lot while at that. --- With Krune''s Breakthrough into the Void Breaking Realm, his capability to adapt to Godly Energy increased several times. His Divine Soul wasn''t mostly Elemental Source energy anymore but Chaos Energy instead. The level of this type of energy was much higher, which helped a lot. That and his Elemental/Chaos Meridians made him unmatched for Godly Energy adaptation in the Void Breaking Realm. On the 7th floor, Krune spent only one month, but the results far surpassed what he expected. "Light Spirit, I''m feeling quite comfortable with the 7th Level Godly Energy already. Does it mean that I could go to the next floor straight away?" Light Spirit pondered a bit. "I think so. It seems like your greatest barrier was indeed your cultivation. Of course, the only thing that increased was your adaptation, not your cultivation speed. After all, there is only so much Godly Energy around that you can use. Although there is more than the last floor, it is not that much of a difference." Heavin then suggested. "Then lets immediately go up. The higher we go, the more Godly Energy there is, right? I''m also using Godly Energy to cultivate my soul, and I can tell that I can hold much more than what we have now." Light Spirit agreed with them. "That''s not a problem. But before that, Krune should use his Godly Energy Stones. It will give you a good boost in cultivation. Although it won''t be enough to break through into the next stage, you will be quite close to it. Not to mention that your Wisp Core will be even more resistant to Godly Energy. Perhaps you can go straight to the Ninth Floor after that." Krune narrowed his eyes. "For that, I will need to retrieve the Godly Energy Stones in the next Light Pillar. I don''t think I will have the chance to stay on the 7th floor anymore once those Godly Stones appear. After all, I doubt that there won''t be anyone close to the 7th floor''s Light Pillar." Light Spirit then said. "Then just use it straight away after you reach the 8th floor. Anyway, you don''t know how the 7th Light Pillar Test is, so you will need to check it first." Krune and Heavin nodded and immediately departed. But there was one problem now. On the last floor, the smallest cultivation Krune could find was the 4th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. But so far, Krune hasn''t found anyone under the 7th Stage. In fact, Krune had only seen a single 7th Stage. The rest was all above the 8th or 9th. Of course, the number of participants decreased even more on this floor. It would also keep dropping as he goes up. 486 Another year of improvemen Soon, another year went by. Krune had passed both the 8th and 9th Light Pillar tests without much issue. He also got another 16 Godly Energy Stones during this time. With Krune''s level of adaptation to Godly Energy, he could have gone even further, but he took his time to properly cultivate. Besides, even though the number of cultivators and demon beasts around him decreased, their cultivation was not to the same. So advancing recklessly without the power to protect oneself wouldn''t be a good idea. Thanks to Heavin''s Mental Energy and the Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer, Krune avoided being found for quite a few Divine Path Realms. That''s why he stopped to cultivate on the Ninth Floor for the last year. The Godly Energy here was already quite high, and he could have time to absorb his Godly Energy Stones. Krune went from the 1st Stage of the Void Breaking Realm all the way to the 4th. One must remember that every time a user of the Myriad Energies Technique breaks through a Realm, their Meridians improve. It will continue like this until the Meridians are able to do a complete conversion. Krune''s Chaos Meridians could now covert almost 50% of the Elemental Source Energy into Chaos Energy instantly, while the rest was converted by his Divine Soul like any other Void breaking Realm cultivator or demon beast. Still, three small realms in just a year was really a frightening thing to see. Another thing was that Krune had several opportunities to battle in the meantime. As the cultivation of the opponents'' increased, so did their combat prowess. Krune had even bumped on another Heavenly Divine Soul, which forced him to flee straight away. There were also a lot more Heavenly Fragment owners. In the end, Krune gathered quite a few different Heavenly Fragments from other Universes. Fortunately, he found owners of the same Universes coming at him after that. Sometimes they would immediately attack or demand the Heavenly Fragments in Krune''s possession. In the end, Krune would take their fragments as well. Of course, there were those who were also strong, so Krune had an even match or even be at a disadvantage. But it was also those ones that would understand that they wouldn''t be able to defeat Krune. Without another choice, they traded their Godly Energy Stones or other things for Krune''s Heavenly Fragments. This way, Krune got another 9 Godly Stones, which was also part of the reason why he is already in the 4th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. Krune was once again hidden somewhere in the Ninth Floor while cultivating. Heavin was also there, and just like Krune, he had improved a lot in this last year. First, he did as Krune said and practiced his Puppeteer skills while using his Mind Splitting Technique to not stop cultivating. As for the lack of materials, it was not a problem. Some of the Heavenly Fragment Owners didn''t have Godly Stones, so Krune took materials as payment. Otherwise, Heavin''s Parrot Puppet wouldn''t be in the Diamond Stars Level now. Another point was that Heavin went from the 1st to the 3rd Stage of the Soul Transformation Realm. Since Heavin was part of his Divine Soul, it also increased Krune power considerably. As mentioned before, the Soul Cultivation Technique that Heavin invented only had Five Stages in each Realm. Being in the third was already impressive. Krune''s own Soul Cultivation was lagging more and more behind. That showed that Heavin''s Cultivation Technique was really made for Divine Souls. Of course, it was not like Krune''s Soul hasn''t improved. He was now in the 3rd Stage of the Soul Enhancement Realm, and his Mental Energy could spread for over 25km. Although it paled in comparison to Heavin, that was also a great weapon on his side. Last but not least, There were Krune''s Laws improvements. Krune had been 100% focused on Light Spirit''s Purple Lightning Tribulation Laws, leaving all the others aside. He didn''t have much issue comprehending the other Laws outside the Holy Land, but Light Spirit''s ones were another story. So he had long since decided to not lose his time in the other Laws. His Flash Annihilation Sub-Laws was already at culmination; therefore, he focused on the other two that he could see at the moment. The first was Charged Lightning Energy Sub-law, which was in the advanced Stage a year ago. This one didn''t change, though. It was still at the same level. However, Krune could feel that it wouldn''t take long for him to reach culmination with it as well. The other one was the Purple Tribulation Sub-Law, responsible for the Tribulation Power in Light Spirit''s Purple Lightning. This one went from the Initial Stage to the Intermediate. Krune couldn''t help but feel excited about how fast his Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws were advancing. The more he comprehended, the easier it was to control. It directly affected all his attacks that were dependent on it and especially his Rainbow Domain. At some point, Krune stopped cultivating for a moment to check his condition. "Almost in the 5th Stage of the Void breaking Realm. I wonder just how long would I have taken to reach this level without Godly Energy." Light Spirit was also happy with the situation. "Indeed. Thanks to the Godly Energy, I was able to recover quite a lot as well. What I would have taken at least ten years was done in just two. The Godly Energy of the higher levels is going to be even higher. Anyway, once you enter the 5th Stage, let''s move to the 10th Floor." Krune nodded. "That''s the place where everyone can gather. Feifei had been in the 7th Floor last time I checked, and I''m sure she will continue to go up. On the 10th Floor, we will finally be able to find each other. Besides, I believe that Laex will probably be there as well." Light Spirit agreed. "Indeed. Anyway, go back to cultivate. And before you ask, Fie''s Tribulation Lightning Essence is still in her, so she is fine. Most likely, she really did hide in the 2nd Floor and stayed there, as you said." Krune smiled and quickly went back to his cultivation. --- Krune was right. Feifei was really on the 7th Floor. She didn''t have as many Godly Stones as Krune, but her cultivation was higher than his by two stages before. Unfortunately, she doesn''t have the Chaos Meridians yet. Because of that, her cultivation was quite slower than Krune''s. By now, Krune had finally caught up with her, and both of them are at the 4th Stage. Feifei had the same idea as Krune and focused her mind on the Laws that were the hardest for her to comprehend. Thanks to that, Feifei had finally reached culmination with her first Destiny Sub-Law, Cause. Even the second one, Effect, had now arrived at the Intermediate Stage. It was all thanks to the Godly Energy present in the Holy Land. Still, Feifei hasn''t grasped the last Sub-Law, Destiny Energy, yet. --- Over Two years had made a great difference for Tiane and Ruik. Their cultivation was far behind Krune and Feifei to start with, so they were faster. Besides, they don''t have Universe Foundations like Krune and Feifei, so it was easier to achieve breakthroughs as well. Tiane and Ruik were lucky to have been sent to the same Dimensional Realm after the first Light Pillar. But from the second onwards, they got separated too. Still, this proved to be a great experience for the couple. They were basically like Dilo and Xankruan, so their pace was very similar. Tiane is now on the 5th Floor. Her cultivation went from the 3rd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm all the way to the 8th Stage. Her Laws also improved a lot since she focused on the Wind and Lightning, which were part of the five Main Elements, the easiest ones. Wind Essence was at culmination, Breeze reached advanced Stage, and finally, she grasped a new sub-law of wind, Gale, which was at the intermediate level now. As for her Lightning Laws, Current reached culmination while Lightning Form got up to the Intermediate Stage. In Ruik''s case, he spent a lot of time in the Dream Laws. His first one, Dream World Construction, was already at the culmination level to start with. That being said, he could focus on the next ones from the very start. Nightmare World Construction was now at the Advanced Stage, close to culmination as well. At the same time, his Reality sub-law arrived at the Intermediate Stage. As for his cultivation, Ruik was already at the 9th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. --- A year ago, Dilo was looking for a place to enter the Void Breaking Realm. Although he went to a remote area, it didn''t change the fact that he was still on the Lower Floors, which meant there were many more cultivators and demon beasts. In the end, he was attacked after his Breakthrough was over. Fortunately, the enemies weren''t the top geniuses of the Holy Land. Those ones had long since gone to higher floors and wouldn''t waste their time on the Lower ones. Therefore, Dilo was able to escape. He was a Wind Element and Laws expert, after all. His Storm Domain had the support of more wind laws, too, making it was quite a strong one at the moment. Now that another year went by, his cultivation reached the 2nd Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. He understood that by now, Krune and Feifei had probably surpassed him. Still, he didn''t feel the least bit sad about his accomplishments. He knows the difference between him and those two from the very start. Xankruan, his Wife, hasn''t entered the Void Breaking Realm yet, but she was already at the peak of the Soul Forging Realm. She was in the same situation as Dilo before, looking for a place to Breakthrough safely. Her Earth Laws also improved by leaps and bound. Earthquake Sub-Law had reached culmination, while Gravity went all the way up to the Advanced Stage. She even grasped the Earth Essence Sub-Law now, which was in the Intermediate Stage. She even created quite an interesting Gravity Domain. This Domain would always act against the movement of her opponents. It was different from normal Gravity Law users, who had to control it according to what they wanted. Her Domain was automatic! Of course, she also changed Gravity sometimes to confuse the opponents even more. Her Domain, combined to her own changes on the Gravity, made it quite annoying to deal with. Just like that, everyone was improving as well as they could in this Holy Land. ******* Read author''s thoughts, please. :) 487 Fies Strange Phenomenons and Lirius Path Fie was now thirteen years old and was already looking like a beautiful little lady. Different from Krune, Fie''s rainbow-like features really matched her appearance. There was no doubt that she would conquer some hearts once she goes out again. However, there was a small problem that Little Arty had quite some issues dealing with a few months after Fie became twelve. Well... Fie is half a human, so her body pretty much worked as a female one. That being said, she had her first period... Little Arty had received a lot of knowledge from his Master. It could be said that he was one of the best teachers in the Dalin Universe at the moment when it came to cultivation. However, nothing prepared him for this... special moment. Or to be more specific, he didn''t know anything about it! First of all, why should an Artifact Spirit even know about the reproductive system of humans? Obviously, Little Arty''s old Master did not include anything about this topic in his teachings. So he was completely lost because of that. In the end, the girl and the artifact spirit were frightened when Fie''s period arrived. Fie was still just 11 when she was brought into the Holy Land, so Feifei didn''t have this conversation with her before. In fact, Feifei didn''t even know if she should have talked about it or not. Once again, Fie is half-human, but half-wisp at the same time. So Feifei wasn''t sure if she would have a female human''s period during her life. Feifei was waiting for when it happened so then she could do the explanation. If it never happened, then there would be no point in talking about a woman''s period. Still, it didn''t matter how many times Little Arty examined Fie''s body, he simply couldn''t find anything wrong with her health at all. However, this ''phenomenon'' stopped by itself at some point... or so Fie and Little Arty thought. In the next month, the exact same thing happened. Little Arty even considered that Fie had some kind of disease that he couldn''t detect. Fie, too, was quite worried about this problem. But then came the third month, then the fourth, then the fifth... At some point, Little Arty thought that something wasn''t right. How could be a disease that acts at such precise intervals and leaves no injure what so ever? At that point, he mentioned. "Perhaps, this has something to do with the fact that you are half-human and half-wisp. Just wait for the day when I will send you to the 10th Floor. You should ask your father or mother if they know anything about it." Without any other choice, Fie could only comply and be ready to clean herself every time this thing happened. Little Arty even prepared some ''sanitary pads'' for her to use for these days of the month, which Fie gladly accepted since her ''disease'' was really annoying. Fie Laws also improved by leaps and bounds. Her Lightning Sub-Law, Lightning Essence, had already reached the Advanced Stage. Not to mention that she also grasped another one, Charge. This one was still in the Initial Stage, though. One must remember that Fie doesn''t have a Major Divine Soul, only the Elemental Meridians. So her accomplishments in the laws of Lightning are remarkable for her age and cultivation. Of course, a great part of the reason that she went this far was thanks to Little Arty. She never lacked combat experience with the formations available for Little Arty to use. There was simply no one with a better cultivation environment than Fie at the moment. Sometimes, Little Arty even let her do real Life and Death battles against the fake enemies created by the formations! He knew that such experiences were necessary, so he went forward with it. Well, in fact, he would have intervened if she was really about to die, but he didn''t tell her that. "Little Arty, I think I will try to enter the Soul Forging Realm next week." Little Arty''s projection then appeared beside Fie. "Out of the question. You are still not used to your cultivation, and it will take you at least another month to get ready for it. Your cultivation has been improving too fast for your own good. If not for the Godly Energy that prevents your foundation from becoming unstable, you would never be able to cultivate this quickly. Take your time and diggest everything you learned." Fie couldn''t help but say. "But Father is almost ready to enter the 10th Floor, isn''t he? If I don''t make this breakthrough, I don''t think I will be able to resist the Godly Energy there." Little Arty then laughed. "Hahaha! So that''s what you are worried about? Don''t worry, he will not leave the 10th Floor." Fie was surprised to hear that. "How do you know?" "Isn''t that simple? First, he will need some time to get used to the 10th Floor Godly Energy. So he won''t move to the next one straight away. Second, I''m sure he already knows how the 10th Floor and the higher ones work. In that case, wouldn''t he first wait for your mother to arrive on the 10th Floor too? I can guarantee that it will take even longer." "Ah!" Fie''s eyes immediately brightened. What Little Arty said made a lot of sense. "Great! Then I will do as you said. But if you notice that dad will change Floors, you must tell me!" "Yea, yea... if that happens, I''ll tell you." Little Arty then disappeared once more. In the past few days, Little Arty seldom showed himself unless Fie asked. Fie inquired about what he was doing, but he kept saying that he was just taking care of the Holy Land. Fie didn''t really have a reason to doubt him, so she didn''t complain. --- Another little one who was doing quite well for himself was none other than Liriu! He really went to the Third Light Pillar and succeeded in passing it. Of course, Liriu''s willpower wasn''t anything that impressive. He was only 12 when he passed the test, and he did fail several times. What kind of willpower would you expect from a kid? However, there was one thing that Liriu couldn''t avoid. That was the power of his bloodline leaking out. Any reptile or dragon related race around him in the Third Pillar safe zone felt his presence. However, there was no one at that point anymore that knew about the Dracophoenix. Some of those demon beasts came to talk to him to see what was happening, but Liriu simply faked ignorance... or so he tried. Well, he wasn''t very good at it. Fortunately, no one could attack inside the safe zone. Also, Mian was still with him, so she helped Liriu deal with those demon beasts. In the end, they could only give up and ignore that uncomfortable sensation. Not too surprisingly, Mian did not come to the same Dimensional Realm as Liriu. With those random floors, it would be too much of a coincidence if she did. However, Liriu''s extended time on the lower levels was of great use. The number of high-level cultivators decreased a lot. One already couldn''t find Void Breaking Realm below the 5th Floor anymore. Unless, of course, they stayed behind on purpose. That being said, Liriu and his unsealed bloodline made him several times stronger than those at the same level. At least, compared with those who were also struggling on the same Floor as him. He was now in the 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. But thanks to his Bloodline and Elemental Meridians, Liriu could even fight against a 3rd Stage Soul Forging Realm. If he just wanted to flee, not even a 5th stage could stop him. In fact, Liriu already encountered some cultivators and demon beasts like that. The majority would simply ignore him due to his cultivation. Others would attack to see if he had something good. So Liriu was able to get a good amount of combat experience. Another good thing is that these times alone honed his mind, so his naivety couldn''t be found anymore. Finally, there was his Fire Laws, which were improving even faster than Fie''s Lightning Ones. Is was mainly due to his Dracophoenix Bloodline. Several races had a better affinity with certain elements. Tasier, for example, has an affinity with Lightning Laws. As for Liriu, it was the Fire Laws from his phoenix side. The Explosion Sub-Law had surprisingly reached culmination! Not only that, but he was also able to grasp another two, Annihilation and Fire Essence. Annihilation was at the Intermediate Stage, while Fire Essence was in the Initial. Last but not least, Liriu also created his own Domain based on his Fire Laws. Although it was a common one, the fact that he could create it on his own is already impressive. One must not forget that he is just 13 years old and doesn''t have a wisp''s mind. At the moment, Liriu was cultivating once again. In fact, he even thought about moving to the 5th Floor straight away since he didn''t feel any problem with the 4th Floor Godly Energy. But Mian had warned him against it. She told Liriu that his cultivation was too low. The higher he goes, the stronger the opponents. He shouldn''t enter that place before the Soul Forging Realm. Mian could not lie to Liriu due to the control of the Dracophoenix bloodline. In fact, she couldn''t even have thoughts about it. Thanks to that, Liriu was able to keep himself safer to a certain degree. That being said, Liriu followed Mian''s warning and decided not to enter the 5th Floor before the Soul Forging Realm. --- Back on Krune''s side, a month quickly went by, and he had finally decided to enter the 10th Floor. 488 Zero Somewhere on the 9th floor, a burst of Spiritual Energy suddenly came out of an inconspicuous area. It spread for quite a few kilometers before finally settling down. It''s just that there wasn''t anyone close at that moment, so no one saw it happening. Krune then came out of that place a few hours later. If someone checked his cultivation now, they would see that Krune is now in the 5th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm! "Phew... finally had my breakthrough. Alright, guys, let''s go to the 9th Light Pillar." Heavin quickly put his things back into the Spatial Ring and flew to Krune''s shoulder. "So we are finally moving up. Only there will we be able to encounter with Feifei and the others. However, we don''t know if Laex and Cinty were waiting in that place." Krune shook his head. "Laex will probably stay there since he was together with Liriu, Tiane, and Ruik. He definitely understood that they got separated. As for Cinty, she decided to move alone when we separated. So she might not know about the several Dimensional Realms per floor. Anyway, we will find out once we reach there. First, I need to deal with the 9th Light Pillar Test." Without wasting more time, Krune paid attention to the Godly Energy flow and departed. He was really fast now, not being any slower than a 9th Stage Void Breaking Realm. In fact, he wasn''t even using his Tribulation Lightning to achieve that. Around two days later, Krune was already able to see his destination. Soon, Heavin detected the presence of others around it. Of course, it wasn''t many of them. At most, fifty or so. One must remember that each floor has more than a single Light Pillar for one to chose. Also, due to the fact that Krune is on a higher floor level than most, the number of participants kept decreasing. By far, this was the Light Pillar with the least amount of participants close to it that Krune had seen until now. However, Krune couldn''t find a single cultivator or demon beast with cultivation similar to his. The majority was at the peak of the Void Breaking Realm with just a few at the 8th Stage. Not to mention that at least ten or so were already in the Divine Path Realm. Sure enough, the moment Krune appeared there, several eyes showed surprised expressions. They all thought that they wouldn''t see someone with such low cultivation anymore. Krune then looked around and smiled at one of the Void Breaking Realm guys. "Hey, brother. Do you know what is this 9th Light Pillar test about?" The guy narrowed his eyes. "And why should I tell you?" Krune didn''t mind it, though. But just as he was about to talk again, another cultivator called him out. "I don''t mind telling you, but I want the Heavenly Fragment of my Universe that you have with you." "Great! Which one of those is from your Universe?" Krune then took out twenty-two Heavenly Fragments from his bag. As mentioned before, Heavenly Fragments can''t enter Spatial Rings, so Krune had to carry it around. When everyone saw that, they were shocked! Just how many Heavenly Fragment Owners did this guy kill until now? Immediately, all the disdain on the faces of the cultivators and demon beasts around disappeared. It was evident that Krune''s cultivation didn''t display what he really is capable of doing. The guy who made the question also narrowed his eyes. At first, he didn''t care whether Krune would give him his Universe''s Heavenly Fragment or not. If he refused, he would simply take it by force. But after seeing all those Heavenly Fragments on Krune''s hands, that idea disappeared like smoke. The guy then took a deep breath and showed a smile while pointing at a specific Heavenly Fragment. "Cough, cough. It''s this one, brother. Will you really trade with me for the information?" Krune took that Heavenly Fragment and threw it at the cultivator before saying. "Yeap. I have many them, but it is hard to find those who want to trade with me for them. In that case, I might as well take this chance since I have no use for them myself." The guy looked excited at his Universe Heavenly Fragment and quickly put it away. Once he absorbs it, his cultivation will increase, so he will need to break through into the Divine Path Realm. That being said, he needed to first find a safe place to do it first. "Very well. This 9th Pillar is not a test of cultivation. The only thing that you can use is Godly Energy. Inside, you will find a big transparent orb. That thing will check just how good you are with Godly Energy control. All you need to do is touch it and send the environment''s Godly Energy inside the orb." "However, the more Godly Energy you send inside that orb, the harder it becomes to continue doing so. Your results will depend on how much Godly Energy you can fill it with." Krune nodded, satisfied. "No wonder there is no one injured here. This is not a dangerous test to start with." The guy nodded. "The amount necessary to pass the test is 50%. Anyway, that''s basically it. Once you pass the test, you will finally enter the 10th floor where everyone gathers. Just be careful because, with your cultivation, quite a few cultivators and demon beasts will target you up there." Krune laughed and didn''t mind. He knew that the reason no one attacked him here was that he showed all those Heavenly Fragments. So even the few Early Stages Divine Path Realm ones are quite aware of him. Without wasting any time, Krune moved to the 9th Light Pillar. But it was then that Eight Godly Stones appeared above Krune! That was Krune''s reward from the last Light Pillar, which he could only retrieve after he got to the next one. Everyone''s eyes immediately glued on him, and Krune could feel the greed coming his way. However, Krune was already expecting it, so as soon as he got the Godly Stones, he sent his Spiritual Energy inside the Light Pillar. The guys around hesitated on whether they should have attacked or not, and it made them lose their chance. However, they soon arrived at a mutual understanding. If Krune fails and appears outside again, they will not give him the chance to try again. As for how they would share the Godly Stones, that will depend on their own abilities. Too bad, though. Krune would not appear on the 9th floor anymore. Inside, the same automatic voice as always appeared in Krune''s mind. -Godly Energy control test. Trier must fill at least 50% of the Godly Energy Orb, or it will be considered a failure. Trier has one minute to start the test, or it will also be considered a failure. Once the trial begins, the Godly Energy Orb has to be continuously filled. If no extra Godly Energy enters the orb for over a minute or if the amount is too small, the test will stop, and the results will be checked.- -Godly Energy Control test adjusted to the 5th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm, you may begin.- Krune couldn''t help but smile when he looked at the transparent orb. Let alone him, no one in his group would fail this test for sure. After all, his Myriad Energy Technique also helped with the Godly Energy Control. It would be very hard to find others with better control over this energy than him and his friends and family. That was also why he didn''t even care about hiding the Godly Energy Stones that he got outside. Krune was confident that he wouldn''t fail to start with. That being said, he didn''t need a plan or anything. Once he passed, he will disappear from the 9th anyway. "Well, let''s start." Krune put his hands on the orb, and his meridians immediately start to work. The environment had the same amount of constant Godly Energy as outside, so Krune didn''t feel any discomfort. Soon, Godly Energy started to rush inside of the Godly Energy Orb like a torrent. It didn''t seem like it would slow down any time soon. What Krune didn''t know was how long he would need to complete this task. An hour passed in a flash, and the orb kept absorbing the Godly Energy like a bottomless hole. He couldn''t help but feel impressed with how much Godly Energy could fit inside this thing. However, he at least knew that he was doing right. That''s because the automatic voice would always tell him how much energy the orb got over time. 10%... 20%... 30%... Three hours went by, and Krune had already surpassed the 50% mark. Furthermore, he understood that this test was a lot more complicated than the guy outside had made it look like. The problem wasn''t only the difficulty of fitting more Godly Energy inside. To keep doing it for so long was also really exhausting, even for Krune. If it was already like this for him with his Elemental Meridians, then let alone for the others without it. 60%... 70%... 80%... Krune was finally reaching his limit. The amount of Godly Energy that he could keep sending inside had already decreased by more than 9/10 of what he could do at the start. However, Krune didn''t want to give up since it would impact how many Godly Energy Stones he would get on the next floor. Finally, an hour later, Krune heard that same automatic voice once more. -The test is over. Trier spent over a minute without filing the necessary amount of Godly Energy. Trier has filled 93% of the Godly Energy Orb. The test is a success, congratulations.- Krune smiled while showing quite a tired expression. If he had returned to his Wisp Form, he probably could have done a little better. But there was no need for that. He had confirmed the position of the others before entering this test. The participant with the highest percentage only had 83% of the orb filled. So Krune knew that he would definitely take the first position. Even if someone beat him later, he would still be in the top ten. As long as he was there, he would get ten Godly Energy Stones regardless. "Phew... Now I only need to wait for Feifei to arrive on the tenth floor as well." But it was then that something unexpected happened. -Over 90% of the Godly Energy Orb has been filled. Conditions for Special Transfer met. Sending participant to floor number Zero.- "The Hell? Sto-" Too late, the teleport formation activated, and Krune was gone! 489 First Meeting Krune wasn''t the only one shocked, Little Arty was even more so. He had been watching Krune for Fie, so he noticed when Krune went through the test. That was the first time he saw someone doing more than 90% in the Godly Energy Control test too. But that was it, Little Arty also thought that Krune had simply passed the test. "What?! Floor Number Zero? What Floor Number Zero? Since when the Holy Land has a Floor Number Zero?!" Little Arty spread his search everywhere, but he simply couldn''t find Krune at all! "Master... Just what were you thinking? Also..." Little Arty then looked at Fie, who didn''t know anything. "How will I explain it to her?" --- On the so-called Floor Number Zero, Krune''s body finally appeared. As soon as that happened, he had Heavin spread his Mental Energy to check everything. However, the entire place was pitch black. It was the opposite of what the Origin Dimensional Realm looked like when Fie was teleported there. Through his Mental Energy, Heavin couldn''t find anything except for a small hut that looked very like the one Fie was staying at. Heavin and Krune looked at each other and then moved in the Hut''s direction. "Just why did it happen? I was so close to the 10th..." Light Spirit rebuked him, though. "Stop complaining, you can only do one thing anyway, go there and check it." Krune sighed and kept walking, but it was then that he heard a voice coming from inside. "Oh! So you finally arrived." The door on the Hut slowly opened, revealing the image of a man walking out. Surprisingly Krune knew this man. "Turin!" Turin was the Demon Beast that sold Krune the Mohie Zarks Inheritance Jade Slip. At that time, another group tried to buy the Jade Slip from him, but Krune intervened since that Jade Slip had the same symbol as the Mohie Sect in the Luvile Universe. In the end, Ruik fought the leader of the opposite group and won. Krune then went to the City''s Teleport Formation to talk with that Demon Beast, and it was there that he heard this guy''s name. "No, wait... Your hair..." Although the face was the same, Turin now had a Rainbow-Colored Hair, just like Krune. Turin couldn''t help but laugh, though. "Well, I guess that is the fate of all Wisps with an Elemental Heavenly Fragment. Did you know? The hair in the human form of a Wisp with a regular Elemental Divine Soul doesn''t change. Only a Wisp with an Elemental Heavenly Fragment in their Elemental Divine Soul will see this change in their hairs." Krune was surprised to hear that, but it also reminded him of Eldrin, one of Wally''s nine Wisp Disciples. Eldrin had a regular Elemental Divine Soul, but the hair in his Human Form wasn''t rainbow-colored like his. Suddenly, Krune heard another voice from inside the Small Hut. "Hey, Wally. How long will you keep the guest waiting? Quickly call him inside." Krune was shocked! "So you are Wally!" Turin, or better, Wally, just laughed out loud. "Let''s go in first; we have a lot to talk." Inside the Hut, Krune found a cultivator who seemed to be around his thirties. He had long hair and no beard. However, Krune could tell one thing. That is not the real him, but just some kind of projection of the real person. "This senior is?" The man nodded at Krune before introducing himself. "My name is Sentoi Havan, the one who built this Holy Land. Nice to meet you, Krune." Krune didn''t waste his chance and immediately asked. "Then can you tell me how my daughter is doing?" Wally and Sentoi were taken aback. So his very first question had nothing to do with the situation he is in, but his family. That made their impression of Krune improve a lot. "Don''t worry, she is doing well. Once you reach the 10th Floor, you will meet her again." Krune was ecstatic to hear that. As long as Fie is okay, he is fine with it. As for what happened to her during the last two years, Krune can ask about it later. "Then what about Liriu? He is also a kid from my friends. Is he fine at the moment?" Sentoi nodded once more. "He is, but he will not arrive at the 10th anytime soon. I believe he is staying behind on purpose to cultivate. Still, that is a good thing. With his cultivation, going up too fast would only bring his death." Sentoi also added. "Oh, right! Before you ask, I can only check their conditions, I can''t do anything else other than that." Krune didn''t mind. He only asked about Fie and Liriu because they were the only kids in his group. All the rest of his group members entered the Holy Land knowing about its dangers, so none of them could complain about it. Heavin then flew from his shoulder and landed on the table in front. "Hum... I always thought that Wally was some kind of god or something, but he looks pretty normal. Well... as far as Rainbow-Colored hair can be considered normal, that is." Wally then laughed out loud before looking at him. "I see, so you are a Divine Soul, uh? Now, that is quite a rare thing. Even in the Higher Realms, an existence like yours is extremely rare." Wally then looked at Krune, or to be more specific, at Krune''s Wisp Core direction. "And that friend over there, won''t you come out?" "Hmph!" Suddenly, Purple Tribulation Lightning came out of Krune''s body and took the form of a man of Lightning. He also had the same appearance as Luvile''s body back in the Luvile Universe. "So it was you who kept me from talking too much, right?" Wally nodded. "Don''t take that personally. It''s just that there wouldn''t be anything good telling Krune unnecessary things." Wally then bowed at Luvile. "This might be the first time I talk to you, but I''ve heard a lot during the time I was in the Higher Realms. It''s my honor to meet the Purple Lightning God." Krune didn''t look surprised to hear that. He always thought that Luvile was someone really powerful during the time he was alive. Luvile then looked at Wally and shrugged his Shoulders. "Well, before escaping that cage and coming to the Dalin universe, I had no idea who you were. However, I knew that you had always kept an eye on us. This feeling of being observed at every second was quite annoying. Anyway, was it you who selected Krune to be my host?" Krune was taken aback by that. Didn''t Light Spirit say that he was chosen at random in the past? How come it was Wally''s choice? Sentoi beside Wally immediately burst in laugher. "So, you were not as secretive as you thought to be, right, Wally?" Wally scratched the back of his head as if an embarrassing truth was found out. "Cough, cough. I thought I had been careful enough, but I guess I can''t trick the Purple Lightning God that easily." Luvile nodded. "Your arrangements were excellent. I really thought that me falling into Krune''s Wisp Core was just a coincidence. But as time passed, and more truths about Krune and the wisp race were revealed, I started to question myself. That day when I escaped from the cage in the luvile Universe. Was it really through my own efforts? Considering all the possible choices, how could I fall inside such a heaven-defying wisp? The more I thought about it, the more I believed that it wasn''t just coincidence." Sentoi Havan agreed with Luvile. "You were right, it wasn''t just a coincidence. Wally here wanted to give the little Wisp who finally figured his Myriad Energies Technique some protection. Although the fact that he was born in the Luvile Universe was a coincidence, it also played in your favor. Otherwise, I believe you would still be stuck inside that place." Luvile didn''t feel angry. Whether he was involved in something he didn''t know or not, it didn''t matter. The fact is that thanks to Wally and probably this Sentoi guy, he finally got a chance to get free. So, in the end, he was quite grateful to them. Of course, he wouldn''t admit such a thing that easily. "Anyway. What is happening here? Could it be that you were in cahoots with that brat called Laka? Otherwise, how come Krune would end up inside this Holy Land?" Wally was the one to answer this question. "That is incorrect. I had plans to bring Krune into the Holy Land, but it did not involve Laka. In fact, my initial idea was to have him coming alone, not with his entire group. But fate is such a weird thing, who could have thought that that brat called Laka would appear? If you think about the chain of events that led to it, you have to admit that it would be too much to control." Krune pondered a bit and had to admit that Wally was correct. Liriu first became a Dracophoenix, then Laex released the information about him. Only then did Laka find out about this and contacted Laex. Not to mention that Laex and Laka were friends from way before Laex met Krune. When you put everything together, that is indeed too much for someone to control. There were hundreds of other ways to bring Krune inside the Holy Land without relying on such a random chain of events. Besides, Wally is pretty sure that even he couldn''t predict that Liriu would become a Dracophoenix, which was the main reason for Laka''s arrival. 490 Sentois Reques Krune then decided to go back to the main topic. "Alright. So why am I here then?" Wally nodded while he pointed his finger at Krune. Suddenly, Krune''s Elemental and Chaos Meridians appeared on their own. From inside them, Krune could see some kind of energy coming out. Still, there was no pain or anything like that. If Krune wasn''t seeing it with his own eyes, he wouldn''t even be able to tell that it was happening at all. The process only lasted a few minutes until finally, Krune''s meridians returned to his body. Krune quickly did a check on them, but it seemed like they were fine. Cultivation was also working without any problem. Wally looked at him before reassuring. "Don''t worry. I didn''t do anything to your Elemental and Chaos Meridians. I just retrieved a certain thing from them." Light Spirit snorted. "He is right. What he took away was the thing that allowed him to watch over you and me. Simply put, your meridians will never act on their own ever again. Am I right?" Wally nodded. "I hope you don''t mind it. The reason I had been observing Krune so far was to guarantee that he wouldn''t be the wrong wisp. If he had turned into some maniac who desired only power and blood, I would have killed him myself. I couldn''t let my Myriad Energy Techniques fall on such hands." Krune was surprised to hear that. "So that''s why you always knew what was happening to me." Wally nodded. "Yes, but it is over today. I have ascertained that you don''t have this type of personality. Not only that, but you are also a wisp that puts the well being of everyone above yourself to a ridiculous level. In fact, I even wanted you to be a little more decisive when fighting. You rarely ever kill anyone unless extremely necessary or when they really deserve it. Even your friends were affected by this personality of yours." "Anyway, I don''t have to be afraid of you becoming some Tyrannical Wisp Leader in the future. That''s the reason I had you come into this place. As for everything else, I will leave on your hands." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Wait! Then what about your disciples in the Elemental Path? Also, don''t you want to say anything about what is happening in the Wisp World? Cinty and I have been spreading the Myriad Wisps Technique everywhere, you know? There should be hundreds if not thousands of Universes already where you will be able to find my Myriad Wisps Technique." Wally nodded. "You are right. I have nothing to say about them. You can do as you wish, and I will give you my help if there is really a need for it." Let alone Krune, even Luvile was surprised to hear that. "Wasn''t it part of your objective to free the wisps? How come you won''t intervene in it?" Wally shook his head. However, the one to answer was Sentoi. "He can''t even if he wanted to." "Wally doesn''t have much longer to live." Boom! Krune''s group felt like they were hit by lightning. "Die very soon? But don''t you have an unlimited lifespan after entering the Divine Path Realm?" Wally nodded. "You are correct, but I''m not dying out of lifespan. Instead, it was due to an injury that I received back when I fought all those ascenders. Before you ask, there is nothing that can be done about it. First of all, I already lived long enough, so I don''t really mind it that much." Heavin then thought about something else. "Wait, something doesn''t make sense. From what Cinty told us, you came from the Higher Realms because your disciples were killed. But we all know that they are alive in the Elemental Path Dimensional Realm. That being said, why exactly did you come down, then?" Wally agreed with Lakin. "That was what happened exactly. I came down because I felt that they were killed. Fortunately, different from what the majority believes, their soul was not destroyed. I can only thank Rile for that. It was he who created a method to keep all my disciples'' souls safe. However, I had long since ascended by the time he created such a thing, so I didn''t know about it." Krune remembered Rile. In the Elemental Path Realm, he is the Death Major Divine Soul wisp. "In fact, even Rile didn''t think that he would need to make use of that method on all the wisps simultaneously. That was supposed to be just a safety measure if something went wrong with his brother and sisters." "You probably can imagine the rest. I felt all my disciples'' souls being destroyed, so I really came down for revenge. In the end, I found out that I could descend without being affected by the forceful entry into the Lower Realms. But so did the other powers. I was planning to fight to the very end, but it was then that I found out that Rile and the others weren''t really dead. The rest of the story, you already know." Luvile then asked. "What about the fact that they are being held into the Elemental Path? As you know, once one reaches the Divine Path Realm, he or she can''t stop cultivation entirely anymore. It might take several Chaos Cycles, but they would eventually reach the peak of the Divine Realm and be forced to ascend... or die trying. However, they had been inside the Elemental Path for much longer than the time necessary to accumulate the necessary energy." Sentoi agreed with Luvile. "You are correct. Following the logic, they should have ascended already or died during the Ascencion Tribulation. However, you are forgetting the main point here. They died once, so they lost their wisp bodies." Luvile immediately understood what they meant. "I see, no wonder they couldn''t appear before us with their real bodies. That Elemental Path Dimensional Realm isn''t just a place where they are researching the Myriad Energies Technique. That is also the location where they are reforming their Divinity Realm Wisp Bodies, correct? Still, why is it taking so long?" Wally confirmed. "Indeed. Without their Wisp Bodies, their cultivation really reached a full stop. As for why it is taking so long, that is because we have no experience in it." "Ah!" Only now did Light Spirit notice this problem. Indeed, a Wisp Body is different from any other race in the entire Universe. It is formed with its core, and that''s all. However, other than Wally and his disciples, there had never been a Divinity Realm Wisp before. Obviously, there was no such thing as techniques available to recreate a Wisp Body. If it was any other race, they probably would have a method for it already. Even if a race hasn''t developed one in the past, there is bound to be a similar race who did. By using that other race''s technique as a reference, it wouldn''t be too hard to create one for themselves. Unfortunately, no other Race could be used as a reference when creating a technique to rebuild a Wisp Body, or Wisp Core, if you prefer. "That is not the only problem. A Wisp Core is simply too different! It is not generated by a womb, egg, division, or anything that those with material bodies have. I''ve been living for so long, but I still don''t know why Wisps are born. That is really quite a hindrance in their research." "However, I believe that they are close to a breakthrough. If I''m not wrong, it won''t be too long before they can finally create a Pseudo Wisp Core where they can rest their souls inside." Luvile nodded once more. "Alright, that answers those questions for now. So, what else you two want? Don''t tell me you brought Krune here simply because you wanted to remove that thing from his Meridians." Krune also had the same thought as Luvile, and so did Heavin. "Hahaha! Indeed, that wasn''t all. However, the one who wants something from Krune isn''t me, but Sentoi instead." Sentoi Havan sighed after hearing that. "I do need one thing from you, indeed. To be more specific, I need Luvile''s help. But since he can only exist inside Krune''s foundation, I had no other choice but to ask my friend Wally for some help." Luvile narrowed his eyes while looking at the projection of the man in front of him. "You are not in the lower realms, right?" Sentoi nodded. "Correct. For now, I will only tell you this. The Gods... began to move once again." Luvile showed a shocked expression as if he had heard that the Universe was going to explode. "Are they crazy? Do they have any idea what will happen if they mess with that? Wasn''t what happened during my time a good enough lesson?" Sentoi nodded. "I also think so. But you know how it is to be a god. Unlimited lifespan and absolute power. You, better than anyone else, know what such a life would make you feel like." Luvile dropped his head while thinking about the past. He simply couldn''t refute Sentoi''s words. Krune and Heavin, on the other hand, were completely confused. "What are you talking about." However, Luvile cut them right there and then. "It has nothing to do with you." Luvile then looked back at Sentoi and asked. "Can''t you see my condition? What do you expect from me?" Sentoi just laughed after hearing that, though. "Senior Purple Lightning God is being too modest. We both know that you can definitely recover your full power. Of course, I only know about this because Wally and I are friends. Other than me, no one else in the Higher Realms has any idea about what happened with senior." Luvile''s face went dark. "Is this a threat?" However, Sentoi immediately shook his head. "It is not. I will not tell a single soul about senior''s recovery. That was the agreement that I made with Wally to allow me to meet you." Luvile looked at Wally, who nodded his head. "Don''t worry. I can bet my life that he isn''t lying. Unless Senior Purple Lightning God desires it, Sentoi won''t say anything about it." Luvile then began to think. It was not that he trusted them, but that there wasn''t much he could do even if Sentoi and Wally were lying. "It will take time. I''m really far from being able to recover my real power. However, if it means that I can stop those idiots, I don''t mind being used for this purpose." Sentoi''s eyes immediately lit up! "Thank you, senior. As for the time, senior doesn''t need to worry. I still have enough influence to delay it for a long period. I don''t know if it will be enough for senior to recover your powers, but I''m willing to bet on this." Luvile pondered a bit before nodding. "Very well." 491 Back to the 10th Floor In the end, no one told Krune what Luvile and Sentoi were talking about, so he could only give up. Well, one thing they were right, it probably wasn''t something that he could help with at the moment. Wally then looked at Krune before saying. "Whether the Wisp Race can thrive or not will depend on you and that Wisp Queen efforts. I will not intervene, so just do as you wish. However, bring this with you." Wally then passed a small rainbow-colored bead to Krune. "If you find yourself in a problem caused by the higher realms, just put your Spiritual Energy inside. I will immediately help you to the best of my abilities. But only for this kind of case. For anything else, you will need to rely on yourself. I''m looking forward to seeing how the Wisp Race will develop from now on." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Is there really no way to save you?" Wally laughed out loud after hearing that. "It is true that I will die soon, but that is considering the total time I lived so far. Don''t worry, my ''soon'' is not the same as your ''soon.'' I''ve been staying in a time slowing formation so far, so I will still stick around for quite some time. As for a method to save me... Well, if you succeed in ascending one day, we can talk about it." Krune nodded. It seems like Wally will be around for quite a few thousands of years. He has lived for thousands of Chaos Cycles, so his concept of ''soon'' is really different from Krune. Heavin, however, thought it to be weird. "If the method to save you is in the Higher Realms, why don''t you ask Sentoi then?" Sentoi and Wally looked at each other before laughing out loud. "If just it was that simple. Hahaha! Anyway, you will know once you get up here." Luvile pondered a bit as he looked at Wally. ''Could it be...'' But he shook his head and dissipated that Purple Lightning Body. Krune then changed the topic. "Senior Sentoi. Since you can see what is happening in the Holy Land, can you bring Fie to me?" Sentoi immediately shook his head. "I can''t, as Luvile mentioned, I''m not here at the moment. Wally also doesn''t have any authority over the Holy Land, so he can''t help you either. The most I can do is observe. Anyway, you will be able to meet your daughter on the 10th level, so there is no need to be in a hurry." Krune nodded before looking at Wally. "What about the Myriad Energies Technique? You said that I was able to figure it out by myself. Does it mean that you wouldn''t let anyone know about its true form if I didn''t? Wally pondered a bit before saying. "Hum... How can I put it? I was making a bet." Krune got puzzled. "A bet?" Wally nodded. Krune didn''t understand completely, but it seemed like it was imperative for Wally. As if it had to be this way. Krune then talked with Wally for some time. Surprisingly, Wally didn''t pass any technique or given Krune any equipment. "You have no need for them. As you know, there is a limit to the quality of the equipment that one can use depending on their cultivation. However, you created something completely out of my expectations, your Purple Flame. Whatever you create that matches your own level will be much better than others without the Purple Flame. So there isn''t much of a point of giving you anything. Besides, it''s better to rely on yourself than others. That''s how I did so far, and I believe you can do the same." Krune felt a little embarrassed with all that trust. They had never really met each other before, so it was quite awkward. The two of them conversed for a while longer before Krune asked. "Oh, right! Why did we have to meet in this place? Couldn''t you contact me somewhere else?" Sentoi shook his head. "Only in this place, no one will detect my presence. It''s that simple." Krune nodded. He already expected that it was something like that. "I have one last question. When I entered the Void Breaking Realm, I got an Ascension Tribulation. Although it wasn''t as strong as the Divinity Realm one, it was, without a doubt, an Ascension Tribulation. Do you guys have any idea why it happened?" Be it Wally or Sentoi, they had seen when it happened. At that time, Wally got quite nervous, afraid that Krune would die there and then. Fortunately, Krune had managed to pass through it with Luvile''s Help. "To be honest, even we got surprised by that. I guess it had something to do with the Godly Energy since it is from the Higher Realms. However, we really don''t know if it was really the case. That was the first time that Sentoi and I saw something like that." Krune couldn''t help but sigh. Even Wally didn''t know the answer in the end. "Well, let''s just hope it won''t happen after I leave the Holy Land." Krune then noticed that he had been staying here for too long. "Alright. Should I take my leave now?" Wally and Sentoi nodded. Sentoi then waved his hand, and a teleport formation appeared beside the Hut. "Just step on it, and you will be teleported to the 10th floor. The Holy Land will still be opened for a little less than 8 years, so use this chance well." Krune was just about to do that when he remembered one last thing. He then sent Wally a Divine Sense message, which surprised Wally. "Hahaha! Sure, when that time comes, I will be there with you. Such a thing had never happened before, so I''m very interested in seeing how it will turn out." Krune nodded before moving to the teleport formation. Heavin also took flight and landed on his shoulders. However, before leaving, Sentoi and Wally asked one more thing to Krune. "Oh, right! Keep our meeting a secret. Don''t let anyone know about it, including your family and friends. I guess I don''t need to tell you this, but no one can know about Wally''s real condition. They must think that he is still okay and ready to fight at any time. I know you trust your family and friends, but caution is never enough." Krune didn''t mind. Even if they knew about this encounter, it is not like they could do anything anyway. Even he doesn''t know what this encounter was really about. The only ones who made some kind of agreement were Luvile and Sentoi, that''s all. After a flash of silver light, Krune disappeared. Wally then looked at Sentoi. "Is it really okay to not tell him about those guys?" Sentoi nodded. "It''s better for them to resolve it themselves. Besides, the cultivation path is filled with dangers, and this will not be the last one." Wally nodded before disappearing completely. He returned to his own resting place, where he had the Time Slowing Formation. After Wally was gone, Sentoi looked up and smiled. "Little Arty, uh? Seems like the Will I left behind found quite a suitable brat for him." Sentoi''s projection also disappeared, and the Hut returned to its silence. Who knows how many years will be gone before anyone appears here again. Back on Krune''s side, he finally appeared in the 10th floor as he wished. As soon as he stepped out of the Teleport Formation, the Godly Energy assaulted him once more. However, something was different from what he expected. "Eh? Isn''t the difference between the 9th and 10th Floors too small?" Light Spirit agreed with Krune. "Indeed. Every time we went up a floor, the Godly Energy increased a lot. But this time, I can barely feel any difference from the 9th floor." Obviously, Krune and Light Spirit didn''t know about the transformation of the Holy Land. It was being prepared to be dragged inside Little Arty''s Dimensional Godly Energy Sphere. Thus, the flow of Godly Energy was being affected on the 10th floor and higher ones. "Well, you can move to higher floors much earlier if that is the case." Krune immediately shook his head, though. "No can do, I will at least wait for Feifei to arrive here. Besides, Sentoi said that I would meet Fie on the 10th floor as well. There is no way that I will go up now." Luvile didn''t mind it. "Well, then let''s just find a place to hide and start cultivating. It will still take a long time before Feifei arrives. In any case, I left a little my Purple Tribulation Lightning Essence with them, so I will notice when they appear here. Until that moment comes, we better use our time well." Krune nodded and immediately departed. --- On Little Arty''s side, he finally found Krune once more. "Ah! He finally reappeared! It seems like nothing happened to him, either." Little Arty then pondered a bit. ''He went to this Floor Zero, but only spent a few hours there. What did Master create that floor for?'' In the end, Little Arty decided to put those thoughts behind. He trusted his old Master, so there was no need to overthink it. Another month went by in a flash, and Fie finally got ready for her Soul Forging Realm Breakthrough. 492 Stubborn "Little Arty, I''m ready!" Little Arty''s projection appeared once more. "Good! Your cultivation is very stable, and your control over your power has no flaws. There will be no problem if you breakthrough now." Fie''s eyes brightened. Without wasting time, she began her breakthrough. Little Arty had made sure that she understood the entire process perfectly, so he wasn''t the least bit worried. He knows how strong she is for her age, so she shouldn''t have a problem passing through this Tribulation. Time passed, and Fie finally finished tempering her Soul with Elemental Source Energy, concluding her breakthrough. Right after, the Tribulation Clouds started to gather above her too. The Fire Tribulation from Dalin Universe came down and enveloped Fie completely. Her Tribulation was quite strong, but Little Arty had already expected that. Her talent is really abnormal, so the Tribulation has to match her real power. Still, he was quite impressed with her tenacity. "Seems like all that training I gave her was not for nothing." As expected, Fie passed the Tribulation without any big issues. Although she was tired in the end, she didn''t receive any serious injuries. Of course, there were quite a few burn marks on her body. Little Arty then controlled the Godly Energy and quickly healed her body. "Alright, first rest up a little. Once you are ready, let me know." Fie nodded and returned to the Small Hut in the distance. Fie slept for an entire day before finally waking up. As soon as she did, she found quite a few foods that she liked on the table. Without wasting any time, she stuffed everything in her belly. "Delicious!" Little Arty''s projection then appeared inside the Hut once more. "How is it?" Fie nodded, satisfied. "Really good, I could eat even more!" "Not the food, idiot! How is your body at the moment?" "Ah!" Fie concentrated a little before answering. "Yeap! I''m completely fine, ready for anything." "Alright, come out of the Hut, I will test your resistance to the Godly Energy now." Fie nodded and quickly left. On an empty space, Little Arty controlled the Godly Energy, increasing it bit by bit. "If you can resist this amount of Godly Energy, I will send you to the 10th Floor straight away. Your father is there already, hidden in a corner while cultivating. So there is no need to hurry." Fir nodded and kept accepting the Godly Energy. At the same time, she used her cultivation to resist any extra portion that her body couldn''t take. A few minutes later, the Godly Energy around her finally achieved the same level as the 10th Floor. Although Fie looked quite uncomfortable with that energy, it was a fact that she was somehow resisting it. Although Fie was sad, she couldn''t refute Little Arty. She wouldn''t be able to do anything the way she is at the moment. But when she remembered that she was so close to seeing her father again, determination filled her mind! "One week it is! I will definitely get used to it!" Little Arty laughed a little and then disappeared. He still had one last preparation to do. A week quickly went by. In the end, Fie''s efforts were rewarded. She really got used to that flow of Godly Energy. Although Little Arty was far from satisfied with the current progress, he had to admit that Fie wouldn''t be powerless in that place anymore. "It would be better if you stayed in here a while longer, getting more used to it. Do you really want to go like that?" Fie immediately nodded. "I simply can''t wait anymore! I want to see father." Little Arty sighed but agreed in the end. "Very well, take this." Suddenly, a small necklace with a rainbow-like pearl on it appeared in front of Fie. As she took that, she couldn''t help but love its appearance. It was very much like her own hair and eyes. Not to mention that it also reminded her of Krune. In the very next second, she was already wearing it. "It''s beautiful! I love it!" Little Arty laughed at her reaction. "Hahaha! It''s good that you like it. This is my gift for you. Make sure to never lose it." "Now, put a drop of your blood on it. It will be attached to you from now own." Fie nodded happily. She thought that Little Arty had prepared a defense treasure for her. The blood quickly fused with it, and Fie could now feel the connection between her and the pearl. Suddenly, a teleport formation appeared out of nowhere beside Fie. "Step on the formation, it will teleport you directly into the 10th floor." Fie nodded before saying. "Alright, let''s go, Little Arty." Little Arty was taken aback after hearing that, though. "What are you talking about? This is a teleport formation for you, not me." Fie''s expression immediately changed after hearing that. "No can do! If Little Arty is not going, then I''m not going either!" Fie immediately stepped out and stopped right in front of his projection. Her expression was clearly showing how angry she was. It was as if she was ready to even grow roots in that place. "What you talking about, brat? Just go already, your father is waiting for you. Or could it be that you like my training so much that you can''t let it go?" Fie immediately shook her head. "Hmph! Who likes to be bullied like that?" Little Arty laughed once more. "Then, just go. What''s the point in wasting time here?" However, Fie quickly shook her head even more vigorously. "Little Arty, you idiot!" She looked directly at Little Arty''s projection, showing a stubborn expression. "If I go, you will stay alone again. The thing I fear the most in my life is to be alone. Back then, when I arrived in this place, two days without seeing anyone was enough to leave me terrified! You said that this Holy Land existed for thousands of Chaos Cycles, and you had always remained here, without anyone. Just how much frightening was that?" Fie couldn''t hold her tears while thinking about it. She then began to stomp the ground with her feet while saying in a fury. "If Little Arty doesn''t come, then I will drag you with me by force! If I''m not strong enough, I will stay here and train hard until I can do that! I will never leave you here alone again! NEVER!" Little Arty''s soul trembled as he heard that. He doesn''t have a body, so he couldn''t cry either. However, if he had, he would definitely be doing so now. It was evident that Fie was ready to pass the rest of her life here if necessary. "Sigh... You can be quite stubborn, can''t you?" Fie immediately jumped in fright after hearing that. That''s because the voice did not come from the projection in front of her, but the small bead attached to her necklace. In fact, that projection had utterly disappeared now. "Little Arty!" "What? Am I that frightening? Then just throw me away." Fie''s expression instantly changed. She quickly embraced that bead as if it was the most precious treasure that had ever existed. At the same time, tears continued to fall down from her eyes. "I will never throw you away, I promise!" Little Arty didn''t know how to react at all of that. But he was sure that this was definitely the right decision. Sentoi''s Will had selected Fie for him, but ultimately, he was the one to decide if he wanted to go with her or not. Sentoi had made it very clear that he could choose to follow someone or go away by himself. "Alright, enough with the waterfall! You are soaking me here. Just step on the teleport formation, and I will send you there." Fie nodded with a smile. However, it was being quite hard for her to stop her tears. Nevertheless, those were happy ones, so Little Arty didn''t mind. "Let''s go, I will introduce you to father later." Just as the world around them warped, Little Arty took one last look at the Origin Realm that had housed him for so long. ''Master, I will definitely meet you again. As long as I''m with her, I believe I can do so.'' 493 Meeting Little Arty Buz! ''Hmm?'' As soon as Fie appeared on the 10th Floor, Light Spirit immediately detected her presence. "Krune, Fie has appeared. Let''s go." Krune''s eyes immediately lit up after hearing that. Without wasting any time, he left his hiding place. "Which direction?" "To that side." Krune returned to his wisp form and activated his Tribulation Lightning Layer to hide from Divine Sense. Right after, he departed at his fastest speed. *Brumm!* At the moment, Krune was definitely not slower than any other early stages Divine Path Realm, maybe even faster. However, he didn''t need to move for too long. Little Arty was in control of the teleport formation before they left Origin Dimensional Realm, so he teleported her quite close to Krune. It only took Krune around 30 minutes to reach her. "Fie!" "Dad!" Krune immediately hugged Die after returning to his human form. As for Fie, she couldn''t hold her tears while hugging him back. It wasn''t after an entire hour that Fie finally calmed down. Well, even Krune took quite some time to do the same. "Fie, just where have you been so far?" "Ah!" Only now did Fie remember Little Arty attached to her necklace. "Dad, let me introduce you. This is Little Arty!" Krune looked puzzled at the rainbow-colored pearl. Other than the colors, he couldn''t feel anything from it. But it was then that Light Spirit said. "God-Level equipment with an Artifact Spirit!" "What?!" A second later, the pearl floated by itself and complimented Krune. "Hey there, I''m Little Arty, the Holy Land''s Artifact Spirit." "Holy Land Artifact Spirit?" Fie nodded. "When I teleported from the first Light Pillar, I ended on the same floor as Little Arty. It was him who kept me safe and trained me until now." Krune looked at Fie and checked her cultivation. "Soul Forging Realm?!" Fie nodded while showing a proud expression. It''s just that it looked quite funny with her red eyes after crying so much. It was then that Little Arty told. "I had to train her. Otherwise, she wouldn''t be able to resist the 10th Floor Godly Energy." Little Arty and Fie began to explain everything. Fie had a lot more to talk, so they stayed there for quite some time before everything was over. Once they finished, Krune immediately thanked Little Arty. "I don''t know how to thank you enough. I had no idea that each floor had separated dimensional realms. I''ve been extremely worried about her so far, so it is good to know that Fie was fine the entire time." "Little Arty, can you show me where Feifei and the others are?" "Unfortunately, for certain reasons, I can''t at the moment. However, I checked on Feifei and the others some time ago. Most of them seem to be doing pretty fine by themselves." "The ones without much talents stayed on the lower floors on purpose, which helped them avoid danger against higher level cultivators and demon beasts. As for those who were strong like your friend Laex and Feifei, they are making their way here. Well, Laex arrived before you anyway." Krune nodded. "I know, but even though this 10th floor has only one Dimensional Realm, it is too hard to find someone. I looked for Laex but couldn''t find him in the end." "That makes sense. From the 10th floor onwards, there will be just a single Dimensional Realm. That being said, they are several times bigger than the previous ones. However, since I checked on your friends before coming here, I naturally know where he is. It''s just that he is quite far away, so it will take some time to arrive." Krune''s eyes lit up. "Great! Let''s go meet him, then." Little Arty nodded and pointed the right direction. "Fie, hope up on my back, we are going to move at top speed." Fie happily hugged Krune from behind before the Tribulation Lightning Layer appeared around them. Krune might be slower on his human form, but he was still at the Divine Path Realm level. Nevertheless, Little Arty said that it would take at least 5 days to arrive where Laex is at this speed. Krune didn''t mind, though. On the way, Krune began to ask other questions. "Little Arty, you are a God-Level Artifact Spirit, right?" Little Arty was surprised that Krune knew it. "You can tell?" Krune nodded, Light Spirit had given him a general explanation of how Artifact Spirits were born. "From what I know, Artifact Spirits are extremely rare. And that is already considering the Higher Realms, let alone this place where we are in. Considering that you are the Holy Land Artifact as well, there is no doubt that you are at the God-Level." Little Arty had to admit that there weren''t many options available when guessing it. "That is correct, I''m a Dimensional Godly Energy Sphere. I''m a type of Energy Gathering Equipment that has been modified by my Master. Simply put, I can drag loads of Godly Energy regardless of the place I''m located at the moment." Krune was surprised to hear that. "Even if you leave the Holy Land?" Little Arty laughed after hearing that. "The Holy Land is part of me. It is thanks to my existence that it can have Godly Energy on all floors." Krune couldn''t help but feel excited. Doesn''t that mean that his daughter got an unlimited supply of Godly Energy? Krune, obviously, was happy for her. As for taking Little Arty for himself, such an idea didn''t even pass through his mind. "What else can you do?" "Hum... I guess you can consider me a huge Spatial Ring, and one that has no restrictions on the item''s level to be placed inside. You can see that since even Heavenly Divine Soul Owners can enter it. In a certain way, you guys are all inside of my Spatial Space." "Other than that, I can provide Godly Energy during battles, so anyone wearing me would be much stronger due to that. Of course, it all depends on the level of the person or beast. They can only control so much Godly Energy depend on their level." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Wait, if you are a piece of God-Level equipment, how can someone at Fie''s level use you? There were supposed to be a limit to the level of equipment that she can manipulate." Little Arty agreed with Krune. "You are correct. Fie shouldn''t be able to control a God-Level Equipment, at least not one without an Artifact Spirit." Krune immediately understood what he meant. "I see, you can control your own power, so you can make it so that Fie can use you too. It''s just that since you have to match her cultivation, there is just so much you can do in that state. Am I correct?" Little Arty answered. "Smart! That is precisely how it is. Since Fie is in the 1st Stage of the Soul Forging Realm now, I can provide her the amount of Godly Energy that matches her cultivation. But not more than that, else, her body and soul would be damaged." "Of course, if she and you all enter my Holy Land Dimensional Realm later, you can have any amount you desire." Krune''s eyes lit up. "Even Godly Energy Stones?" Little Arty laughed after hearing that. "Keep dreaming. My old Master made the Light Pillar tests so that no one can cheat. Once you pass it once and get your Godly Energy Stone, you won''t be able to get any more from the same place." Krune sighed in disappointment. Sure enough, it wouldn''t be that easy. Little Arty continued. "But that is good already. If you can cultivate in an environment with Godly Energy at any time, that should be more than enough. You will all be in great advantage." Krune had to admit that he was being too greed for his own good. Just who could say that they have Godly Energy available for them to cultivate at any time? ''Anyway, with Little Arty there, Fie would be able to protect herself much better.'' Little Arty then mentioned one last thing. "Oh! I can also be used as the core of any formation level and still provide all the energy through my link with the Higher Realms. Well, but in that case, I would not be able to move around. Of course, you will have to wait for the integration of the Holy Land into me to finish." Krune pondered a bit. "That''s quite a nice feature, but I don''t know if I would have much use for it. After all, I can simply use Spirit Stones or other forms of energy in that case. I feel like it would be quite a waste not to bring you around. Besides, I would never confine a sentient being in a single place just because of a formation. That''s just too sad." However, what Krune didn''t know was that the Frunkan Clan was seeking Little Arty precisely because of this feature. He totally failed to see the real scale of this ability. Little Arty could even support an entire universe formation on his own with his use of Godly Energy. Fie laughed after hearing that. "That''s what I told him before I came out. Dad, did you know that he stayed alone in that gloomy place ever since the Holy Land began to open?" Krune couldn''t help but sigh after hearing that. "Fie, Little Arty came out because of you, so promise me that you won''t let something like that happen again." "I promise!" Little Arty couldn''t help but feel a little moved. ''No wonder she is like this, her parents had taught her like that.'' It was then that Light Spirit spoke as well. "Little Arty, right? I''ll be direct, is Fie your new Master or are you just using her?" Little Arty was taken aback. He didn''t feel Light Spirit''s presence at all! Not to mention that could also feel the dangerous tone on that voice. "You are?" "There is no need for you to know, I just want your answer." Fie, on the other hand, immediately intervene. "Little Arty would never do that!" Light Spirit didn''t care, though. "I won''t let him stay close to you if I don''t trust him, so he better answer." Little Arty didn''t know why, but he felt threatened by Light Spirit''s voice. As if this wasn''t someone that even a God-Level Equipment like him could afford to offend. Still, he felt relaxed at the same time. ''It seems like it isn''t only her parents who care about her.'' "Cough, cough. She is already my new Master. I accepted her blood not too long ago." Light Spirit calmed down after hearing that. Since that is the case, he wouldn''t be able to betray her. He didn''t think Little Arty was lying since it would be way too easy for him to verify it. Fie, on the other hand, had a shocked expression on her face. "I am?!" It was then that she remembered the drop of blood that she used on the pearl. "Ah! Seems like I am, indeed. Hahaha! Little Arty, then you will need to hear everything I have to say." Little Arty snorted after hearing that, though. "I see, it seems like you are having quite a leisured time. Very good, I will put double the effort into your training next time." Fie''s face became pale instantly! "Father, help me!!!" However, after looking at Fie''s cultivation and her strong foundation, Krune just requested. "Little Arty, please take care of her." "Leave it to me." Fie wanted to cry but had no tears. Her father betrayed her so easily! 494 Fiding Laex Krune then remembered about Gilia, whose Soul Slive disappeared. "Little Arty, have you seen the moment Gilia died?" Little Arty confirmed. "It was a fight for a few Godly Energy Stones. She was even able to grab one. However, even more cultivators and demon beasts appeared. In the end, she had to give up the stone and fled, and no one pursued here either. Unfortunately, she had too many injuries and what seemed to be poison. So she did not resist." Krune sighed after hearing that. Godly Stones are extremely precious, so Krune was careful when bringing them out. No wonder she was also attacked once she got to hold it. However, these are the dangers of the Holy Land, and she came inside knowing it. Little Arty still remembered that Fie felt gloomy for quite a few days after finding it. Wamie liked to often play with Fie, so Gilia would end up following her as well. Because of that, Fie came to know Gilia quite well. Noticing the gloomy environment, Light Spirit decided to change the topic. "Little Arty, you said before that due to certain circumstances, you can''t see everyone anymore. Is it due to the Master Transfering?" "Yes." Little Arty continued. "All the formations in this Holy Land are passing by a transformation at the moment since they had my previous Master as their owner. Those formations were directly linked to me, so we share the same trait. Now that my Master has changed, the formations are changing to the Dimensional Godly Energy Sphere new owner." "God Level formations are a lot more complicated than the Lower Realm ones, so it will take a lot of time. I reckon that before the Holy Land closes, I won''t be able to control them again." Krune remembered that Sentoi didn''t talk about Little Arty. He doubts that Sentoi didn''t know about Little Arty''s thoughts, which means that he purposely let Little Arty go. ''It seems like it was already part of his plan to give Little Arty his freedom to chose his path.'' Krune also asked about Cinty, who was already in the Divine Path Realm to start with. But it seemed like she had already gone past the 10th floor, so he wouldn''t be able to meet her anymore. Time passed, and soon, 3 days went by. Due to the size of the Dimensional Realm, Krune rarely met anyone on the way. Unless Krune decided to move in the direction of a Light Pillar, this situation wouldn''t change. However, he still passed by a few cultivators and demon beasts. He traveled for three days straight, after all. But the majority didn''t even notice him due to his Tribulation Lightning Layer. As for those who could see him with naked eyes, they didn''t risk an attack. Krune couldn''t appear in their Divine Sense, but his speed was definitely in the Divine Path Realm. Such an opponent would be too disadvantageous. It was not that the guy was a Heavenly Fragment Owner. It''s just that the chasm between Void Breaking and Divine Path is too big to jump. Of course, that person was a genius from his own power too. Otherwise, he wouldn''t have arrived at this place so fast. That being said, he was above ordinary Divine Path Realms on the same level. The fact that Krune could fight to a standstill against him was more than commendable. There were a Realm and 7 Stages of difference between the two of them, after all. "Brother, you are good. I didn''t have the intention to kill you to start with, I was only testing my own strength since I just made a breakthrough. Now that we had our fun, I will take my leave." The guy wasn''t lying. He saw Krune''s speed and knew that even if he could defeat Krune, there would be no way to stop him from running. Still, he attacked nonetheless. It was obvious that he, too, just wanted to test his power. Krune smiled. "I know, I didn''t fill any killing intent coming from your attacks. Of course, there were really powerful. May we have another match one day." The man bowed and immediately departed after that. Krune then took one last look at him before saying. "Let''s go!" Finally, they arrived in the area where Little Arty last saw Laex cultivating. However, Laex wasn''t around this time. "He was here last time, but it seems like he left. Probably, he went to where the next Light Pillar is located." Krune immediately shook his head, though. "Laex knows that this is the only place he has a chance to meet Liriu, so he wouldn''t go anywhere without him. Laex would stay here until the very end of the Holy Land. That being said, he wouldn''t go to the next Light Pillar. Instead, he would look around to see if he can find Liriu somewhere. Or maybe he left to have some combat experience while at it." Heavin and light Spirit agreed with Krune. That is definitely how the idiot Dragon would act. "Then how are we going to find him?" Krune smiled before asking Luvile. "Light Spirit, is this close enough?" Light Spirit confirmed. "Yes, I can feel the lingering presence of my Purple Tribulation Lightning in this place. Just follow my lead." With a flash of purple Light, Krune disappeared in the distance. --- 15th floor. Hanan Frunkan and his group were hidden while cultivating and getting used to the floor''s Godly Energy. "It is just as the Clan Master said, the difference in Godly Energy between floors has decreased a lot. We need to advance as fast as possible and acquire the Holy Land''s Core. Remember, avoid all unnecessary battles." "Yes!" The Frunkan Clan''s group Was advancing at frightening speeds. With the leakage of Godly Energy, just a few months was enough for them to go up 5 floors. However, they still didn''t know. The Core of the Holy Land wasn''t in the same place anymore. --- Krune only had to travel for a few hours to find his target. Laxe was once again cultivating. So far, he had broken through the Divine Path Realm but was still in the 1st Stage. However, it wouldn''t take long before he reached the 2nd. Suddenly, he felt a Divine Sense passing through the place where he was hidden. "Hmph! Are you looking for a fight?" Laex appeared outside in a blink of an eye. But when he sat the small group of three smiling at him, he felt like he was seeing an illusion. Obviously, they were Krune, Fie, and Heavin. "Yo-you! Hahaha!" Laex quickly came forward and gave them a bear hug. It''s just that he didn''t measure his strength very well. Krune was fine due to his cultivation, but Fie felt like she was going to die. "Uncle Laex, you are breaking my bones!" "Ah!" Laex quickly released them while showing an apologetic smile. "Oh, right! Did you bring Liriu with you?" Hearing that, Krune couldn''t help but sigh. "Liriu is still on the 5h floor. If he really makes it to the 10th, it will take a very long time." Laex was taken aback. "How do you know?" It was then that Little Arty spoke. "Because I saw him there a few days ago." Laex jumped back in a fright. "The necklace is alive?" Little Arty ignored him and continued. "By the way, he is in the 8th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm now. However, even 4th or 5th Soul Forging Realm cultivators and demon beasts would find it hard to defeat him." Laex couldn''t help but look curiously at that thing. Even though it is talking to him, he can''t feel anything whatsoever. All his Divine Sense said was that it was simply a colored pearl, nothing more. "By the way, just what is that kid? He looks pretty much like a Quetzalcoatl, but those flames that he can control are simply too strange. They are far stronger than what a demon beast or cultivator at his level could use." Krune nodded. He hasn''t explained about the Dracophoenix yet. However, since Little Arty was Fie''s bound equipment now, there should be no issues in telling him about it. However, before that... "What is this thing?" Krune laughed as he hard Laex making that question. He then took a quick look around and suggested. "Let''s go down first so that I can tell you." Laex nodded, and they all entered the place that Laex was using to cultivate. First, Krune explained to Little Arty the situation with the Dracophoenix. "I see, I heard Master talking about this before. There is a handful of them up there in the Higher Realms too. However, I don''t know anything else about it, so I can''t tell if the Higher Realms Dracophoenixes are using this kind of power on their races or not." Krune and the others were surprised. But after thinking a bit, the Higher Realm really seems like a place where you can find something like a Dracophoenix. Krune then began to explain everything to Laex, and Fie took her chance to complain about how spartan Little Arty was with his training methods. Sometime later, Laex finally understood the general situation. "Fie, you are quite lucky, aren''t you?" "Uncle Laex, how can you say that? Didn''t you hear what I said? Little Arty keeps bullying and forcing me to train all the time. He even made dad take his side. Uncle Laex, please, you must do something!" Laex looked at her and nodded. "Alright, leave it to me." Fie''s eyes brightened when she heard that. However... "Little Arty, just double the training will not be enough, I would suggest you triple the amount." "Oh?! I see... I also thought that I was taking too easy on her, but I was afraid that I might be wrong. Seems like I wasn''t then. Very well, I will triple it." Tears began to fall from Fie''s eyes. "How can even Uncle Laex betray me?!" Laex snorted, though. "Hmph! If it was Liriu, he would be jumping in happiness. But you were always a lazy lass, so this is necessary." Fie felt indignant. "I always see you sleeping and avoiding training too!" "Cough, cough. I''m a Dragon, Dragons can make whatever they want." "That is not fair!" Laex laughed shamelessly. "The Universes had never been fair to start with. Hahahaha!" Everyone one began to laugh after that, even Light Spirit chuckled. On the other hand, Fie began to consider whether it was really a good thing to bring Little Arty with her. 495 Wamie and Feifei Arrive in the 10th Floor Krune decided to wait until he finds Feifei again. Laex had the same idea, but because of Liriu instead. With Laex and Krune, there wouldn''t be many participants on this floor that could put them in danger. Time passed, and another six months went by. Feifei, who was already on the 8th floor before, was now on the 9th. Her cultivation also continued to grow steadily, achieving now the 6th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. It has already been 3 months since she stepped in this floor, so she had got used to the Godly Energy. That being said, she moved to the next Light Pilar. However, Feifei wasn''t the only one. Wamie Zarks had also arrived on the 9th floor. Other than that, Wamie''s cultivation was the same as Feifei, being in the 6th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. It''s just that she only had a single Heavenly Fragment, different from Feifei, who had three. If not for the fact that her cultivation was higher than Feifei to start with, Feifei would have passed her. In combat power alone, Feifei would definitely have the advantage. She has been using the Elemental Meridians for much longer, after all. Suddenly, Krune felt a presence and looked in a specific direction. The one he noticed wasn''t Feifei, but Wamie instead. In the end, Wamie arrived on the 10th before Feifei. As for her Godly Energy Control test, she was able to fill up 77% of the Orb, making it into the top 20. Krune didn''t leave his place, though. Wamie would be coming to him regardless. After all, Gilia died on this Holy Land. Sure enough, Wamie arrived at Krune''s location one week later. As soon as she saw him, she immediately inquired. "You know about Gilia''s death, right?" Krune nodded. "I felt her Soul Slive disappearing. From what I found out, she got herself involved in a battle for Godly Energy Stones. But this battle got bigger and bigger, more and more cultivators and demon beasts joined in it. She did acquire a Godly Stone, but it also made her the target. In the end, she gave up the Godly Stone and fled. Unfortunately, she was already poisoned, which brought her demise." Wamie was taken aback. That was really a very specific explanation. A thought passed through her mind, and she narrowed her eyes before asking. "You were there observing and didn''t do anything?" Krune shook his head. "Fie, Little Arty, it is up to you." Fie came out from the hiding place where Krune''s group was staying, and her eyes lit up. "Sister Wamie!" Fie rushed forward and hugged Wamie tightly. Wamie was taken aback for a second but gave up in the end. Fie had grown up a lot, but she still liked her. Although she wasn''t exactly in the mood, she still forced a smile while hugging her back. "It''s good to see you, but why do you look so tired?" Fie was just about to complain about Little Arty again when the same began to float. "Ah!" Wamie jumped back in an instant. Even at her level, she simply couldn''t feel his presence at all. Little Arty didn''t mind and then began to explain about Gilia''s situation. "Couldn''t you do anything?" "Even if I could, I wouldn''t. I''m an Artifact Spirit, so my Master''s orders were absolute. Don''t misunderstand things. Your friend was not the only person to die in this Holy Land. Everyone who enters this place is well aware of the risks involved. Or could it be that you didn''t?" Wamie wanted to refute that, but she couldn''t. She indeed knew what would be awaiting them here. "Did you see who did that with Gilia?" Little Arty sighed. "I wasn''t paying too much attention at that time. After all, I had to observe the entire Holy Land. If not because Fie asked me to keep an eye on her too, I wouldn''t even have bothered. There were at least a hundred Demon beasts and Cultivators fighting for those Godly Energy Stones, which is very common on the lower floors when they appear. So I can''t really tell which one was responsible." Wamie expression went dim. However, she at least knew now how Gilia died. She can''t get angry at Little Arty since she would be in the dark without him. Little Arty then added. "Life and Death are part of the cultivation path. If you don''t get used to it, your path will become even harder in the future." Wamie took a deep breath and nodded in the end. He knew all of that, but she still had the hope to seek revenge for Gilia. However, it would be impossible if there were so many cultivators and demon beasts involved. Even Little Arty didn''t know all of them, so how could she? Wamie then looked at Krune before saying. "I will keep moving forward alone. I hope you don''t mind it since I need to train as much as possible." Krune nodded and didn''t mind. "That is the correct decision. Staying together will not be as challenging. With your cultivation and Laws, I have no doubt that you can at least keep yourself safe. Of course, that is not considering that you find some freak with a Heavenly Divine Soul. But in that case, even I might get helpless." Wamie looked at Krune, and only now she noticed. Krune was quite behind her in cultivation when they entered the Holy Land. But now, he was the same as her, a 6th Stage Void breaking Realm! That was to be expected, though. With all his advantages, it would be weird if he was still behind. In the last six months, Krune broke through into the next stage and was making his way to the 7th. Buzz! Suddenly, Light Spirit felt something. "Feifei arrived." "What?!" Krune, Heavin, and Fie''s eyes lit up. "Where?" Light Spirit then pointed in a direction. "It''s there, around 2 days ahead." Laex, who had been listening so far, came out as well. "Shall we go then?" Everyone nodded except for Wamie. "I will be biding my farewell to you guys here. May we meet again at the end of the Holy Land." Krune and Fie smiled. "Okay." Fie gave one last hug at Wamie, which much pleased her before they left. On Feifei''s side, she looked around to see where she should go from here. She knew that everyone would arrive in this 10th floor since it was a single Dimensional Realm, so she had to wait for Krune and Fie here. "Considering Krune''s position in the Light Pillars, he should be here already." Feifei then took out a small piece of Krune''s old Tribulation Shields that he used back in the Luvile Universe. Inside, the Power of the Purple Tribulation Lightning could be felt. Krune had made it so that Feifei could find him in case they got separated. As soon as that appeared, a spark of Purple Lightning was released in a particular direction before disappearing. Seeing that, Feifei smiled. Sure enough, Krune was still on the 10th floor. With both sides moving in the same direction, the initial two days of travel were instantly reduced to a single one. However, a few hours after Feifei departed, she ended up catching someone''s attention. Feifei always used her Destiny Major Divine Soul to find the best route. But it didn''t work if the opponent''s cultivation was much higher than hers. The 10th floor is the place where all cultivators and demon beast are gathering. Six months had already passed since Krune arrived here, so the number of them kept increasing. That is to be expected. Since Krune knew that he could gather his group here, then so did others. So a lot of the cultivators and demon beasts did not advance to the 11th floor onwards. As time passed, these numbers only kept increasing. "Hum...?" A Divine Path Realm Demon Beast was traveling to the next Light Pillar when Feifei appeared inside his Divine Sense. "6thg Stage of the Void Breaking Realm? For her to arrive on the 10th floor with such low cultivation, she is probably one of those geniuses." The demon beast was a Scarlet Bear at the 3rd Stage of the Divine path Realm. This type of Demon Beast had a high concentration of Divine Beast Bloodline, the Sun Bear. So it was quite strong even without a Heavenly Fragment or a Major Divine Soul. The Bear didn''t attack Feifei straight away. Instead, it checked her with its Divine Sense for a while longer. Suddenly, its eyes lit up. "She is blocking a lot of the Godly Energy of the 10th floor with her cultivation, this proves that she has just arrived here. Perhaps, she got a few Godly Stones from the Previous Light Pillar." The Bear was right. Feifei has the Elemental Meridians, and she had it for much longer than Wamie. Thanks to that, she was able to fill the Godly Energy Orb up to 81%, putting her in the top 10! "However, even if she has got Godly Energy Stones, she will need to go to the Light Pillar to retrieve it. Once the Godly Stones appear there, it won''t be me who will end up with them. What to do?" The Bear thought for a while longer when suddenly, Feifei''s speed exploded forward. "Shit, she noticed me. But how?" The answer was simple, Mental Energy! Mental Energy could go much further in the Holy Land, so when the Bear got close enough, Feifei immediately noticed its presence. "Fuck it! She might have some other Godly Stones. It''s better if I catch her before anyone else appears." The Bear didn''t hold back anymore and dashed forward. Its race might not excel at speed, but its cultivation was much higher than Feifei''s. 496 The Diamond Golem Race Back on Krune''s side, Light Spirit noticed a change. "Something is wrong. Feifei''s speed increased a lot, and she is dashing at full speed here." Krune narrowed his eyes. "It is because she is worried about me? No, she knows that I can take care of myself." Heavin pondered a bit. "Feifei would do that if she knew that Fie was here, no? Perhaps she knows that and is coming as fast as possible. She might be able to predict it with her Destiny Major Divine Soul, after all." Krune thought that Heavin had a point. However, he was still worried. "Laex, you are the fastest of us here. Can I bother you to bring us there faster?" After six months, Laex had finally stepped into the 2nd Stage of the Divine Path Realm. In fact, it happened just a single month after Krune found him, so he had been in the 2nd stage for 5 months. That being said, he was quite close to the 3rd stage as well. "Alright, leave it to me." Laex then returned to his Dragon Form, which was already quite enormous. But then, it shrank quite a lot until he was just big enough to carry Krune and Fie. After entering the Divine Path Realm, a Demon Beasts can control its body size to a certain degree, and that''s what Laex did just now. After Krune and Fie flew to his back, Laex fused with his Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. His overall strength increased, including his speed. With a flash of Purple-Black Light, their group disappeared in the distance. --- One streak of light passed, and sometime later, another one followed. The Bear had following Feifei for an hour already, but it could only decrease their distance little by little. Feifei was almost as fast as itself, which increased its belief that Feifei was one of those super-geniuses that always got Godly Energy Stones. It was dead set on catching her now. Feifei looked behind with her Mental Energy and narrowed her eyes. That demon beast was 7 stages above her cultivation, and also in the next realm. It would be too difficult to defend if she was caught. "I can only rely on my Illusion of Destiny domain when the time comes." Feifei was expecting two things. One was to meet with Krune and join forces to deal with the Bear. The other was to bump into another Divine Path Realm and use the chance to escape. However, the second option would be too risky and without any guarantee that it would work. Still, she had no other choice. She was already flying at her top speed, but the Bear was slowly catching her up. Finally, The Bear was close enough to start his attack. But it was at this very moment that the Bear and Feifei were caught of guard. "Illusion of Destiny Domain!" Immediately, thousands of illusion of boulders started to appear on Feifei''s vision. Still, they were just to fast, so Feifei had to fight one or another when she didn''t have space or time enough to move. The Bear was in an even worse state. First, because it was in its true form, so it was much bigger. Second, because its race doesn''t excel at speed. However, the Bear''s defense was far higher than others, so it was smashing one boulder after another. Seeing how Feifei was doing her best to dodge these boulders, the Bear immediately understood that it had nothing to do with that girl. They had been ambushed by someone else. The Bear was also a little proficient in the Earth Laws, so it knew that whoever it was, it was definitely much stronger. Just the complete Major Law of Earth was enough for the Bear to understand that it isn''t a match. Suddenly, the Bear received a Divine Sense message. "I don''t care about the fact that you were trying to catch me. If this continues, we are both dead. I will allow you to see the illusions of my Domain, so focus on the defense." The Bear was taken aback. But suddenly, several boulders illusions began to appear. One of them passed through the Bear, which gave it quite a fright. "Those are the illusions of a small moment in the future, pay attention." At some point, Feifei appeared right above the Bear and focused on keeping the Illusion of Destiny going. The Bear gritted its teeth and did as she said. With those illusions showing what was going to happen, its defense got watertight, which finally lifted the pressure it was feeling. ''Such a fantastic Domain. Just how long would I need to fight her if she used it to predict my moves?'' Still, the Bear put those thoughts on the back of its mind and focused on defending the two of them. Although it took time to explain, the entire event didn''t last more than a minute. In the end, both the Bear and Feifei survived that calamity. However, they didn''t dissolve their alliance straight away. The main culprit for that ambush is definitely close to them. Now that his first attack failed, the enemy will most likely appear to finish the job. "Hoho! To think that you would really survive my ambush with just this much damage. I guess I underestimated your abilities too much." Sure enough, the ground below them began to tremble as if there was an earthquake happening. An enormous spiritual pressure then fell on Feifei and the Bear at the same time. Feeling that, both their eyes narrowed. This wasn''t someone they could afford to fight. Slowly, the Earth below began to move. It then caved in, and a giant demon beast emerged. Seeing that, they couldn''t help but be shocked. "The Diamond Golem Race!" Both Feifei and the Bear''s expressions turned much worse after seeing that guy. The Diamond Golems are also considered a Divine Beast race, and a powerful one at that. But that wasn''t the main issue. The problem was that this Diamond Golem was already in the 6th Stage of the Divine Path Realm! Both the Bear or Feifei couldn''t fight such a thing. ''No wonder I felt the entire Major Law of Earth. If it is the Diamond Golem Race, then that makes sense.'' Suddenly, Feifei landed on the back of the Scarlet Bear. "What?!" "Little Girl, do you think I''m your mount? If you don''t leave now, don''t blame me for being nasty." Feifei shook her head, though. "If we want to have any chance at escaping, we will need to rely on my Illusion of Destiny Domain. Thanks to your cultivation, you are faster and stronger than me, so stop complaining and start running! But make sure to pay attention to the Illusions of the future that I''ll be showing you." The Scarlet Bear gritted its teeth in fury. For the Bear, it was a complete humiliation to have a human using itself as a mount. But after taking one last look at the Golem, the Bear knew that it had no other choice. Between its pride and life, it was very easy to understand which one was more valuable. "At first, I just wanted your items. But now I changed my head. If we survive, I will definitely give you a beating!" "Hmph! If you were not pursuing me, how would we have ended in such a situation? It was all your fault, now be a good mount and go. Or do you want me to put some reins on you first?" "Fuck you!" Still, all this conversation was made through Divine Sense, so it only took a second. The Bear then turned in the direction that Feifei showed it and immediately began to flee! "Oh?! You think you can escape from me? Haha!" Suddenly, an enormous pressure began to attract the Bear towards the Diamond Golem. ''Gravity Field!'' "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" The Bear couldn''t help but curse again. The Diamond Golem wasn''t fast. But with that enormous gravitational pull, it was simply too hard to fly away from him. "Stop complaining. Follow the direction that I will show you." The Bear got a set of directions on the ground below and felt confused for a moment. However, it wasn''t that time to think about it. The Bear immediately approached the ground and began to fly just a few meters above it while escaping. As it did that, Feifei looked behind and couldn''t help but feel impressed by that Golem''s Earth Laws. His gravitational pull was much stronger than Krune''s. One must remember that Krune''s Gravity Laws was already at culmination! ''So that is how strong someone''s laws become once they comprehend all the sub-laws and merge them.'' Surprisingly, as soon as the Bear began to follow the patterns that Feifei showed, the Gravitational Pull decreased a lot! ''We can do it!'' The Diamond Golem narrowed his eyes, though. ''How do they know my gravity field weak points?'' ''It''s that girl, she is the reason!'' That was correct. Obviously, Feifei couldn''t predict anything about the Diamond Golem due to her lack of cultivation. That being said, Feifei used herself as the focus of her divination to tell which direction would have been the one with the least amount of pulling force on her body. "You think you can escape?!" "Stone Domain!" The Major law of Earth began to act, covering both Feifei and the Scarlet Bear at the same time. That Earth Law began to penetrate their bodies, trying to transform them into stones. Seeing that, the Scarlet Bear''s eyes went red. "Might Domain!" A Domain created to help increase its power to the limit. It had no side effects on the enemies but could make his overall strength soar. That included its defense against the Stone Domain of the Diamond Golem. Thanks to that, the pressure on his body decreased while his speed went up quite a lot. However, Feifei wasn''t faring as well as him. "Hey, little girl, you better hold in there! If you become a stone, we both will die." That was true. Feifei wasn''t only telling the Bear the safe route, but her Illusion of Destiny was also preventing the Bear from being caught by the Diamond Golem''s ranged attacks. There were several types of earth attacks coming at it all the time. The Bear was only able to dodge, defend, or destroy them because it knew where they would appear. Unfortunately, Feifei could already feel her body stiffing despite her best efforts. ''It can''t continue like this!'' 497 Running The Earth Elements kept entering Feifei''s body, and she could already feel her skin hardening. But it was then that Feifei had an idea. ''Light Spirit''s Purple Tribulation Lightning can eat all laws, then maybe...'' Feifei took out that broken piece of Krune''s old Tribulation Shield. This is what she used to find Krune''s direction, but it was also filled with Purple Tribulation Lightning. However, Feifei couldn''t control Purple Tribulation Lightning. So it was a risky choice. Nevertheless, Feifei gritted her teeth and pressed the broken piece. Immediately, a current of Purple Tribulation Lightning ran through her body. "Argh!" Although it was just for a second, Light Spirit''s power was no joke. Still, Feifei was able to resist it. Sure enough, the Earth Laws that were entering her body were also destroyed by the Purple Tribulation Lightning. It is not that the Diamond Golem''s laws were weak to be destroyed so fast. It''s just that they were already fighting against Feifei''s own resistance. Once the Tribulation Lightning passed through, the little advantage that it had on Feifei crumbled, wiping it out instantly. The Diamon Golem in the distance noticed that, and his eye narrowed. ''Just now, my Earth Laws were... eaten? What was the Purple Lightning? It looked like she was attacking herself with that, though.'' But he soon put thoughts behind. ''Hmph! Let''s see how many times you can do it to yourself.'' Indeed, Feifei''s body received quite some damage. She was already hard-pressed against the Earth Laws from the Stone Domain, so she didn''t have the time to protect against Light Spirit''s Purple Tribulation Lightning either. ''But this is good enough.'' The stone transformation immediately vanished, and it would need to start again from zero. Besides, Feifei got more used to its effects, so she was much better prepared now. The Scarlet Bear saw that her complexion got better and sighed in relief. "Hold tight, I''m speeding up!" Feifei nodded, and they shot forward once more. However, the Diamond Golem didn''t want to give up. Its pride couldn''t allow them to escape under his eyes. His body began to shrink, just like Laex''s. With that, his speed started to increase. However, the gravitational pull generated by his body also decreased. Still, Feifei noticed that his extra speed more than compensated for that. Feifei''s eyes narrowed for a second, but she quickly recovered. "Illusion of Destiny Domain, Second Form!" Suddenly, the Diamon Golem began to see several Scarlet Bears and Feifeis. Not only that, but his Divine Sense simply couldn''t tell which one was real and which one was fake. He couldn''t be blamed, though. Those were not simply illusions, but images of the several futures that Feifei could have chosen. It was the same Domain Ability as the one used by Tikal Barax when he fought against Krune. The difference was that Feifei could keep both traits at the same time now. The Diamond Golem was taken aback. Which one should he follow? However, there was a flaw in this ability. Once the Illusion left Feifei''s Domain Range, it would disappear. The same happened if the Diamond Golem left her Domain Range as well. Still, that''s what Feifei wanted. ''If he stays out of my Domain Range, he won''t be able to approach us. If he comes in, the Illusions of Destiny will keep coming out nonstop. Even if you are lucky and start following our real bodies, more illusions of other choices will appear right after. How many times can you make the right choice?'' Sure enough, everything played as Feifei predicted. The Diamond Golem entered her Illusion of Destiny a few times and ended making the wrong choices. Only when those illusions left Feifei''s Domain Range would they disappear. That only made the Diamond Golem even more furious. "Little girl, I don''t believe you can resist my Stone Domain for much longer. Once I get you, even god won''t be able to save your life." He was right. After another 30 minutes of pursuit, Feifei''s body began to show the same issues again. She then gritted her teeth and left the Purple Tribulation Lightning to pass through her body once more. Her body got even more damaged, and her Domain almost crumbled. The Scarlet Bear looked at that nervously. For a second, it thought that Feifei would lose consciousness. "Hahaha! Little girl, how many more of those shocks can you resist? Too bad you didn''t pass out just now." The several Feifei''s Illusion looked back at the Diamond Golem and smiled at the same time. "Is that so?" She then took a pill out of her Spatial Ring and swallowed it. Almost instantly, her body injuries began to heal at a frightening speed! In just a few seconds, there wasn''t a single mark left anymore. Be it the Diamond Golem or the Scarlet Bear, they were both dumbstruck. ''Just what kind of heaven-defying pill was that? Was there such a strong pill?'' The Golem pondered a bit. ''Perhaps it was a healing pill above the Stars Path level. No, wait! That is impossible. Such a pill is too strong for her cultivation level, it would cause more damage instead. But then, how?'' Of course, there was a pill capable of such high healing capabilities. And it worked for anyone at the Void Breaking Realm and below. Krune''s Purple Flame Life Dew Pill! The normal Life Dew Pill couldn''t be kept since its power would disappear very fast. Thankfully, this was the Purple Flame Life Dew Pill, which only Krune''s group, Olave, and a few others knew about. His Purple Flame effect was capable of keeping the Life Dew Properties that any other pill wouldn''t. Krune had made a few of those with Olave''s help in the past and gave them out. Feifei, obviously, had them. The pursuit continued. On the way, they did pass by a few other cultivators and demon beasts. But after they noticed the Diamond Golem, no one dared to intervene. Diamond Golems were not to be trifled with. Unfortunately, another problem began to appear. Feifei''s cultivation is much lower than the Diamond Golem. Keeping her Domain Activated for so long was quite a burden too. Feifei was bringing out as many Spirit Stones as she could absorb. But the main issue was her soul power, which was greatly necessary to control the Domain. The Scarlet Bear did its best to run, but its attention didn''t leave Feifei. It didn''t take long for the Bear to notice Feifei''s pale complexion. ''She won''t resist for long. What to do, what to do? Do I really need to rely on that?'' Time continued to pass, and Feifei was about to lose her consciousness. She had already passed her limits a long time ago, and what sustained her was pure willpower. Finally, she couldn''t hold anymore and fell on the Scarlet Bear''s back. Immediately after, the Illusion of Destiny Domain disappeared, bring all the Illusions with it. On Krune''s side, Light Spirit noticed that instantly. "There is a change in my Tribulation Lightning Essence inside Feifei''s body. I think she passed out." Krune''s group complexion worsened. "How far?!" "Not too far, just a few minutes ahead." "Laex!" "Don''t worry, hold tight!" Laex gritted his teeth and increased his speed even more. At his moment, he was going beyond his control of the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. Obviously, that began to damage his own body. "Are you alright?" "I''m okay. If it is just a few minutes, I won''t suffer much damage. All I need is enough time to rest after." Krune nodded while looking at Fie and Little Arty. "Little Arty, I''ll leave you two here. Take care of Fie for a moment." Little Arty knew that Fie would be of no help there, just another burden, so he immediately agreed. Fie didn''t want to stay behind, but Krune didn''t have time to argue with her. Krune simply let her go while he and Laex disappeared in the distance. Little Arty looked at Fie''s awful expression before saying. "Does it irritate you? That is because you are too weak! If you want to help them in the future, you have to become strong yourself." Fie bit her lips and nodded. She wanted to help her mother, but she simply had no power to do so at the moment. Back on Feifei''s side, the Scarlet Bear saw the Illusion that helped it on the escape disappearing. ''No other choice then.'' Its eyes suddenly became red, and the fiery color of his fur seemed to turn ablaze. The Bear was now drawing the power of its bloodline! From now on, it could only rely on itself to escape. As for the side effects of doing such a thing, the Bear couldn''t care anymore. At the same time, Feifei was unconscious, so she wouldn''t be able to hold herself on the Bear''s back anymore. However, just as she was about to fall, the Scarlet Bear gritted its teeth and held her with its Spiritual Energy. *Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!* The Scarlet Bear couldn''t avoid all the Diamond Golem''s ranged attack anymore. Still, with its bloodline being used, he simply smashed through them all! "Hahaha! The girl is down already, so just give up. How long you think your bloodline will resist?" As a Divine Beast, he immediately understood what the Scarlet Bear was doing, so he wasn''t in a hurry. He knew that the bear would run out of power very soon. However, it was then that he noticed a Black-Purple streak of light moving straight at him. "Who dares to get in my way?!" However, the streak of light didn''t stop. "Black Dragon Blast!" "Tribulation Cannon!" The fabric of Space broke apart, and Spatial Storms appeared everywhere those two attacks passed. The Diamond Golem complexion turned serious. Neither of those two attacks could be ignored. "Gravity Field, Reverse!" "Earth Apocalypse!" The pulling force of his Gravity Field then changed direction, repelling the two attacks. At the same time, the Diamond Golem returned to his original size while stomping the ground. Immediately, his Major Law of Earth entered the land below. The earth in a several kilometers radius trembled as an enormous mountain appeared between him and Krune''s group attack. *Boom!* The Black Dragon Blast and Tribulation Cannon hit the mountain, completely pulverizing it. Nevertheless, it was enough to stop the attacks. The Diamond Golem then looked at Krune and Laex on the other side. It was then that his attention was taken by Krune. ''Is that a Wisp?'' 498 Fight! The Diamond Golem was surprised when he saw Krune, but he quickly recovered. The attack of the two just now could hurt him severely if it had hit. However, that made it even more furious. Krune wasn''t using his Tribulation Layer, so he could feel his cultivation. 6th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm! How could the prideful Diamond Golem Race accept such a weak guy intervening? Not to mention that he was a Wisp! As for Laex, he was in the same Divine Path Real as him. However, it was only the 2nd Stage, far below his own cultivation. Krune then looked at the Scarlet Bear before his Divine Sense checked Feifei. Fortunately, she was only unconscious. Nonetheless, Krune''s complexion turned awful after seeing that. "Hey, the bear over there. Keep her safe while we get rid of that rock on the other side." The Diamond Golem exploded in rage after hearing the insult. "Stone Domain!" "Diamond Revolution!" The Golem''s body began to transform and get even harder. Several Diamond Spike appeared around all his body too. Right after, he shot forward in Krune''s direction. "The full Major Law of Earth." Krune immediately understood it when he saw that. "Laex, let''s go. Heavin, wait for a chance." Heavin nodded and flew away from his shoulder. Supported by the Earth Laws and Element, the Golem brought the fight into a melee. However, the last thing Laex was afraid of was physical combat. "Dragon Claws!" Boom! As soon as both attacks hit each other, they shot back in opposites directions like cannonballs. The Diamond Golem might have much higher cultivation. Still, he doesn''t have the Elemental Meridians much less something like a Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. "What?!" The Golem couldn''t believe that he and the Dragon were evenly matched in physical attacks. However, he didn''t have time to think about that. With his Tribulation Lightning Movement at full power, Krune appeared right behind him before attacking. "Myriad Purple Ice Dragons!" Hundreds of Ice Dragons shot in the Diamond Golem''s direction. Each one of them was covered with Purple Lightning, increasing their power even more. "Diamond Shield!" The earth below the Diamond Golem broke open, and a large Shield appeared between him and Krune''s Purple Ice Dragons. Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The Dragons hit the Shield but were only able to crack it a little. Krune couldn''t help but sigh after seeing it. ''The difference in cultivation is too big. In a one vs. one battle, I would have no chance whatsoever. But with Laex and Heavin, we should be able to do it.'' Suddenly, Krune felt his Wisp Core being attracted to the Golem''s direction. "Gravity Field Pull!" The Diamond Golem also shot in his direction while at it. "Die!" "Too Slow." With a flash of Purple Light, Krune disappeared from his previous position, making the Diamond Golem''s attack miss him altogether. ''A wisp only has a mass on his Wisp Core, and the amount present is too little. The smaller the mass, the less is the effect of gravity over the body. I can also feel that he reached the Culmination Stage with his own Gravity Sub-Law. Although it is not as good as mine since I comprehended the entire Earth Major Law, it is still enough to prevent himself from being attracted.'' The Diamond Golem might be furious, but he didn''t lose his mind. No Divine Beast would have reached such level with only brawn and no brains. ''Not good!'' His Gravity Field was pulling everything to himself, so whatever attack coming to his direction increased in power as well. "Gravity Field, Reverse!" "Dragon Stomp!" The Gravity around Laex changed once more, and his attack power was instantly reduced. However! "Rainbow Domain!" "Black Flames Domain!" Krune and Laex''s Domains activated at the same time, immediately suppressing the Diamond Golem''s one. The Reverse Gravity Field lost a lot of its power as well, which restored quite a lot of Laex''s Attack strength. *Boom!* The Diamond Golem was sent flying, and it was even possible to see a few cracks on his body now. ''Impressive. Even with such a point-blank attack, Laex was only able to inflict this much damage.'' Still, Laex pressed forward. As for Krune, his Tribulation Shields formed another Cannon shape while his Purple Tribulation Lightning and Flames accumulated power inside. The Golem fought it out with Laex, but his Divine Sense was locked on Krune. ''It seems like my Stone Domain doesn''t have much effect on them. These two also have this Purple Lightning, completely eating all the Earth Laws that enter their bodies. Not only that, but the Purple Lightning is not attacking their bodies as it did with that girl early.'' As he and Laex exchanged blows, the Golem noticed the power increasing inside Krune''s shields. ''It''s that attack he used at first with the Black Dragon. No wonder it was so powerful, it takes a very long time to charge. There was no way someone at his cultivation level could instantly pull an attack with so much power.'' Krune finally finished charging his attack. "Tribulation Cannon!" "Hmph! Do you think I can''t defend myself because this Dragon is fighting me?" He Earth Golem stomped the ground once more. At the same time, he changed his position so that he could defend against Krune and Laex''s attacks simultaneously. "Earth Apocalypse!" Once again, another mountain appeared between him and his enemies. Laex was too close to him, so it had little effect on his charge. Still, the Tribulation Cannon was shot from far behind, so it would need to pass through the mountain before getting him. "Black Dragon Breath!" A sea of Black Fire appeared in the Diamond Golem''s vision. But he only snorted seeing that. "Diamond Shield!" The ground cracked open again, and the same Shield covered his body. However... ''Something is not right. I didn''t hear the explosion of the Wisp''s attack on the mountain... Not good!'' Still, it was too late. Obviously, Krune could control the Tribulation Cannon attack trajectory, especially since Light Spirit was there with him. The world around the Diamond Golem turned purple as he looked at the Tribulation Cannon Attack coming from above. The previous Black Dragon Breath was nothing more than a distraction. *Boom!* Krune''s attack hit the Diamond Golem head-on! He was then sent flying while the crack on his body increased even more in size. ''They are too strong together, I better retreat for now.'' "Ground Tunneling!" With his comprehension of the entire Earth Major Law, even the Holy Land''s Earth couldn''t hinder him. All he had to do is go underground, and no one would be able to stop him from fleeing. "You think you can run?!" It was then that a streak of Purple Light appeared right behind the Golem! It wasn''t Krune, but Heavin instead. His wings were fully purple as he charged forward. There was no way the Golem could enter the ground before Heavin''s attack arrived. He was also surprised that Heavin appeared behind him without being detected by his Divine Sense. It definitely wasn''t a teleport ability since the entire space several kilometers around them was in chaos. Risking a teleport in such an environment would be nothing more than suicide. Of course, the reason he could sneak behind the Diamond Golem was none other than Krune''s Tribulation Lightning Layer that could hide his presence from Divine Sense. He just had to wait for an opportunity when the Golem''s awareness was completely taken by Krune and Laex. But when the Diamond Golen saw Heavin''s size, he almost laughed out loud. Even if it had some attack power, what could it do against his enormous body? It would be nothing more than a mosquito''s bite. Heavin, of course, was more than happy to be ignored. *Puch!* Heavin''s attack pierced right through the Diamond Golem''s Energy Barrier with his Mental Energy. At the same time, his God-Level beak went through his Diamond Body as if it was made of paper. As soon as the Golem saw it happening, his disdain turned into terror. But it was too late. Heavin had aimed directly at his Demon Core. Crack, Bang! The Diamond Golem''s Demon Core was pierced right through while the Mental Energy traveled inside his Foundation and annihilated his Divine Soul! Immediately, the Golem''s cultivation disappeared. Krune and Laex did not waste that chance and attacked his head as well. "Dragon Blast!" "Heaven''s Fall!" *Boom! Boom!* "Ahhhhh!" Without his cultivation to protect himself, the Diamond Golem''s head was destroyed. His body then crumbled right there and them. He was as dead as dead could be. Krune ignored it and immediately turned in Feifei''s direction. The Scarlet Bear was still there, holding Feifei on his back. He had used his Sun Bear Bloodline without stop, so he had no strength to keep running anymore. His only chance was on this new mysterious group that appeared out of nowhere. Krune quickly came in his direction, but the bear immediately warned him. "You better not get any closer." Krune, Laex, and Heavin immediately stopped in their tracks. Krune also took that opportunity to return to his human form. "Friend, this girl on your back is my wife. We have no intention of attacking you now that you saved her." However, the Scarlet Bear snorted. "And why should I believe you?" Krune then and a spark of Purple Lightning came out of Feifei''s Body. It was the Tribulation Lightning Essence that he had left in her body to find her. "This is my Purple Lightning. It was this ability that allowed me to find her." The Scarlet Bear narrowed his eyes while pondering. ''As I thought. Well, it was too obvious after seeing him using this Purple Lightning during the battle. But what to do now?'' 499 Did Any of you Notice? ''First of all, it was after pursuing her that we got ambushed by that guy, so I''m the real one at fault here. If I knew it was going to happen...'' The Scarlet Bear was pondering when suddenly, Feifei began to wake up again. ''Shit, couldn''t you sleep for a while longer?'' As Feifei looked at the situation, she saw the Diamond Golem crumbled body in the distance. There was also Krune, Laex, and Heavin in front of her. Last but not least, she was above the Scarlet Bear. "This..." As Feifei looked at the Scarlet Bear under her, she couldn''t help but ask. "At that time, when I passed out, why did you not leave me behind?" Feifei passed out, but she still remembered a little of what happened before she lost consciousness completely. The Scarlet Bear and her are enemies, so why would it rescue her at that point? "I..." The Scarlet Bear didn''t have an answer. It''s just that it didn''t feel right to simply leave her there after fleeing during all those hours. Suddenly, Feifei smiled and got down from his back. She could feel it, be it her or the Scarlet Bear, they both don''t have the power to do anything at the moment. "Don''t worry, this is a good little bear." The Scarlet Bear mouth twitched. "Who is the good little Bear? Are you making fun of me?" Feifei laughed and then walked back to Krune. There was another reason why she knew everything was fine. She checked it with her Destiny Major Soul. Of course, she used herself to check again since the Scarlet Bear''s cultivation is too high. The Bear was taken aback. Was she not afraid that it would attack her from behind? Well, if the Bear really did that, Krune''s group ahead would cut it to pieces. ''Sigh... I don''t have energy from anything else anymore. Whatever happens, happens.'' That was the side effect of drawing the power of its Bloodline. It isn''t a Sun Bear, just has some of its Bloodline. After forcefully using it, the backslash is quite severe. For the next few days, it won''t be able to kill even a chicken. Krune was a little confused about Feifei and the Scarlet Bear, but since Feifei seemed to not have much prejudice against it, he simply let it go. He quickly came forward and held her. It was evident that she had overexerted herself. He quickly took a healing pill from his Spatial Ring before making her swallow it. Of course, it wasn''t a Life Dew Pill. That one is too rare, and he won''t get any more Life Dews anytime soon. Since there was no danger at the moment, it was better to use his normal ones. Well, the other healing pills are also made with Purple Flame, so they are also above average ones. Suddenly, Feifei heard a shout from a distance. "Mom!" Feifei''s eyes immediately followed it. Sure enough, Fie was coming flying at her. As weak as Feifei could be, she still found forces within herself to rush at her too. The mother and daughter hugged each other as tears flowed down from their eyes. Heavin then took flight and went there as well. As for Krune and Leax, they just smiled and returned their attention to the Bear lying on the ground. With their Divine Senses, they could see that the big Bear didn''t have the strength to even stand anymore. "Hum... what do we do with it?" The Scarlet Bear body trembled a little when it heard that question. "Well, Feifei said it is a good little bear, didn''t she?" "Little, uh?" Krune looked behind, but it didn''t seem like Feifei had any intention of doing anything to the Bear. Of course, he will need to ask her later what really happened. "Oh well, for now, swallow this pill." Krune the took a Bloodline Restoration Pill from his Spatial Ring. His group had members like Laex, Liriu, Tiane, Ruik, etc. So he had long since prepared Purple Flame Pills for this kind of issue. The Scarlet Bear didn''t know if it should swallow the pill or not, especially since it had a weird Purple Hue. ''Is this poison?'' But after pondering a bit, it swallowed anyway. What''s the point in poisoning it now? Anyone in that group could kill it at the moment. Poisoning it would be a waste of resources. As soon as the pill dissolved in the Bear''s mouth, the Purple Flame effect activated together with the pill''s one. Its Bloodline, which had been completely drawn of its power, seemed to wake up like a dragon! The Purple Flame Effect enhanced the power of healing by a lot, too, quickly restoring some of the Scarlet Bear''s Sun Bear Bloodline power. Of course, the Scarlet Bear was in the 3rd Stage of the Divine path Realm, so a single pill would be far from enough to recover completely. Krune''s pills are most useful to cultivators and demon beasts at the Void Breaking Realm and below. Nevertheless, it was enough for the Scarlet Bear to gain the power to move again. Krune and Laex then turned back and flew back to where Fie and Feifei were creating a waterfall of tears. The Scarlet Bear didn''t know what to do, though. ''Should I take this chance to flee? But I''m not fully recovered yet. However, those two also went through a serious battle, so they should be quite weak at the moment too.'' But just as it was about to leave, the Bear caught the sign of quite a few presences approaching their location in its Divine Sense. Sure enough, such a large scale battle attracted the attention of nearby cultivators and demon beasts. ''Shit! If I leave now, I''m probably dead.'' Heavin, who was on Feifei''s shoulder, then communicated through his Mental Energy. ''There are quite a few cultivators and demon beasts approaching, we should leave first.'' Feifei finally came back to herself after hearing it. She then lifted Fie like a kid, even though Fie was quite big now. Still, she didn''t care. ''Let''s leave first.'' Krune and Laex nodded. But before that, Krune looked in the direction of the Diamond Golem''s crumbled body. In a flash of Purple Lightning, he appeared right above it. As he extended his hands, he pulled the Diamond Golem''s entire body inside his Spatial Ring. At the same time, he acquired his Spatial Compartment as well. It was a Spatial Box that he seemed to keep inside his own body. ''This Diamond Golem Body is exceptionally resistant. If I refine it with Purple Flames, it should become even more so. As for his spatial box, I''ll take a look inside later.'' Krune appeared back beside Feifei and the others before saying. "Let''s go!" Without wasting any time, their group quickly chose a direction with the least amount of presences and departed. As for the Scarlet Bear... it followed right behind. Well... it had no other choice other than doing that anyway. Krune looked at that with a puzzled face. "Feifei, what about that Bear? Just what happened?" Feifei laughed a little before using a Divine Sense to tell everything that happened. "What?!" Krune''s expression went dark after hearing everything. Wasn''t because of it that Feifei almost died? "I''m gonna get rid of it." Pah! Suddenly, Feifei hit Krune''s back head. "Stop with that. It is a good little bear." Let alone Krune, everyone else, Fie included, couldn''t see what was good about it. After all, it wanted to Kill Feifei and take her items. The reason they got involved in this battle against the Diamond Golem was also its fault. What is good about him? "There was nothing wrong with what it did. Don''t forget what kind of place this is. Or are you going to tell me that you didn''t start your own battles on purpose until now?" "This..." Feifei was right, they did have several battles, quite a few of them was started by themselves too. "Still, the Bear is an enemy, isn''t it?" Feifei pondered a bit before saying. "Hum... I thought the same before. But I still don''t know why he saved me in the very end. He had no idea that your group was coming in our direction. So, in theory, the moment I lost consciousness, it should have abandoned me. If all it wanted was my items, it could have taken my spatial ring and left my body behind. But the Bear still brought me together. Why would it do that? It would bring no benefit whatsoever." Krune and the others were taken aback. Indeed, the Bear was already using its bloodline power, so any extra burden would be critical. Why did it do that? Everyone looked at the Scarlet Bear flying behind, which made the Bear''s body sweat a little. However, all it could see was puzzled expressions. "What? Have you never seen a Scarlet Bear in your life?" The Bear then took that chance to return to its human form. However, Krune and the others were taken aback. The Bear... was a female one! "This... Did any of you notice that it was a female?" Everyone shook their heads. Even Feifei, who was pursued first, had first seen the Scarlet Bear already in her true form. It was then that Krune remembered something. "Cough, cough. The Male Bear who is actually a Female Bear over there, what''s your name?" That Female Scarlet Bear felt like someone struck her head with a hammer! "Who you calling a male Bear?!" 500 Resting Time But soon, the Female Scarlet Bear calmed down. Why should she care whether they think her as a Male or Female? "Lala." "What Lala?" The Female Bear narrowed her eyes. "Lala is my name." Krune''s group was once again taken aback. Isn''t that name way too... cute? It doesn''t match her Scarlet Bear Form at all! That ferocious body that seemed like it could tear everything apart could be called anything but that. "What?! Do you have a problem with the name my parents gave me?!" Krune and the others immediately shook their head vigorously! "Cough, cough... that is a very nice name, yes, definitely!" "Hmph!" Lala then ignored Krune''s group... but kept following them regardless. Krune''s group soon passed by a few cultivators and demon beasts that had come because of the battle. But after seeing the 3rd and 2nd Stages Divine Path Realm in Krune''s group, no one tried anything. Finally, Heavin couldn''t see anyone in his Mental Energy search anymore. "We should be fine now. No one is following us." Feifei then looked back at Lala, the Scarlet Bear that brought her so many problems and almost her death. But in the end, decided to save her too. "Sigh... Let''s find a place to rest first." Feifei quickly set up a concealing formation, and they began to rest. Now that Feifei entered the Void Breaking Realm, she had finally become a Diamond Stars Formations Master. Feifei had more than enough knowledge for that, she only needed the Chaos Energy. "Fie, tell me everything that happened until now." Fie nodded and began to explain everything. Including Little Arty''s presence. After hearing everything, Feifei thanked Little Arty the same way as Krune did. "Thank you for helping my daughter." Little Arty didn''t mind, though. "It''s okay, I quite like the lass." However, it was then that Little Arty remembered something. "Oh, right! Fie, now that your mother is here, you should take this chance to ask her about that disease of yours." Immediately, everyone''s attention was caught. Disease, what disease? Feifei and Krune quickly got worried. Fie had been staying with Krune all this time too, but even he didn''t know about that. "Ah! That''s right!" "Mom, for some reason, I start bleeding every month. But Little Arty couldn''t find where I''m hurt." Krune got even more worried. "Bleeding? Where are you ble-?" But Feifei immediately covered his mouth. "Idiot! Don''t ask such embarrassing things." Krune got puzzled. Embarrassing? Bleeding? How come he doesn''t see the correlation in those two words? "Mommy is very happy to hear it. That means the Fie can become a mommy in the future too." Little Arty and Fie looked puzzled at Feifei, but Krune finally understood what was happening. "Oh! Now that I remember, I really did a lot of research on it. Well, I guess it was expected since her body biology looks pretty similar to a human''s one. So her reproductive system already kicked off, uh?" Feifei nodded. "Yes. I didn''t touch this topic before since I wasn''t sure if Fie''s half wisp side would prevent her from ever having this moment." Krune then organized all his thoughts into a big compile of all the information he had about the Female and Male Human Reproductive Systems. Right after, he sent it all to Little Arty, Fie, Heavin, Laex, and Feifei through his Divine Sense! However... that also included the entire process, including a certain part of a man''s body having to enter Fie''s own. That was really... a very detailed report. Fie opened her eyes wide when she heard and ''saw'' all the ''information'' that she got. As for Feifei, she felt like strangling Krune right there and then. "How can you show such things to your own daughter? Are you a pervert?!" Krune looked at Feifei with a puzzled expression. "This is all the necessary information. Everything inside is the truth, so how did I become a pervert?" Fie, on the other hand, was impressed with everything that appeared in her mind. "Mom, Dad, did you really do such a thing?" *Cough, cough, cough...* Feifei didn''t know how to reply. However... "Yeap, me and your mon did that a lot. Well, it had been quite some time since we had sex after we got into the Holy Land, though." Feifei almost vomited blood! There wasn''t the least bit of embarrassment on Krune''s face. He talked about that as if it was the most common topic in the world. Of course, in Krune''s mind, he couldn''t see what was embarrassing about it. That''s how you make kids, so why should you hide it? What is wrong about knowing how you were born? As for Feifei, her face turned as red as a tomato. Still, she couldn''t say that she was surprised. After so many years with Krune, this kind of behavior was already expected. "Sigh... whatever. Fie is already 13 and a half years old, so I guess it is due time to explain everything to her just in case." Laex looked at all of that and couldn''t help but think. ''Should I really be listening to this conversation?'' "Cough, cough... you go ahead and explain things to her. After all, female dragons don''t have... errr... what was the name you said? Oh, right! Periods, that''s it. It has little to do with my race, so I''ll take my leave." He quickly got up and went to a corner to cultivate and recover his power... okay, he just fled. But Heavin was different. He is basically a copy of Krune when it comes to topics like these. Information is power... or so he believes. "When Feifei got pregnant, I also did my own research, so you can ask anything to me." Krune and Heavin looked at each other and nodded. With the two of them here, all the information is ready to be delivered neatly and comprehensively. They are confident that not a single detail of the entire ''process'' will be left out. However... *Kick! Vanish!* Feifei kicked Krune away at the same time that she put Heavin''s Parrot Puppet back into her Spatial Ring. Right after, she took Little Arty from Fie''s neck and threw him at Krune. "If any of the three of you get close, see if I don''t tear your bodies apart." Right after, she drew a small concealing formation that only covered her and Fie, leaving the three guys out of it. After such an event, Little Arty couldn''t help but ask Krune. "What just happened? Shouldn''t more opinions be of more use? Why did she kick us out?" Krune agreed with Little Arty. "I think the same. But for some reason, Feifei wants to explain this part by herself." After pondering a bit, Krune couldn''t find a logical answer for that behavior. "Sigh... just forget it, that''s probably another weird human habit." During all this time, Lala was observing the entire interaction with her Divine Sense. ''Such a weird group. They just escaped a life and death situation, so how do they have the mood to talk about those things?'' Lala then put those thoughts behind and returned her attention to cultivation and recovery. She was planning to depart as soon as she had enough power to protect herself. Sometime later, the concealing formation around Fie and Feifei disappeared. Krune looked at that, but after seeing Feifei''s ''do not make any question to Fie or I''ll kill you'' face, he gave up his thoughts. "Well, how is your body, Feifei? I gave you a Soul Healing Pill as well, but your Soul Power was quite deteriorated by the time I passed it to you." Feifei sighed before saying. "I will need at least another month to recover from it. The pill already made its part, it is more like a side effect of pushing the use of my Domain too far. But this is also good, I was able to comprehend many things about my Destiny Laws and Domain during this last battle. I think I can push the Cause Sub-Law to culmination now." Krune was happy to hear that. "That is a great thing. Considering that the Destiny Sub-Laws are only three, that is already one-third of the way." Krune then passed Little Arty back to Fie. But he also noticed that Fie looked someone absent-minded. That being said, he could only ask Feifei about what was happening. "Is everything okay with Fie?" Feifei smiled before nodding. "It''s just that I had to explain a lot of new concepts to her about the relationship between males and females, so she is probably stuck on it. Just give her some time to put her thoughts together." "Concepts? Like what?" "Well, why do you think I decided to spend my life with you?" "Oh... I see. I guess there is no help then, even I took several years to understand what loving you meant." Feifei couldn''t help but laugh out loud. Simultaneously, she also felt happy about how Krune never felt embarrassed to say how he loves her. "What do you mean with ''even I?'' You were one of the slowest creatures in all Universes regarding this kind of topic. Fie is half a human, so she will come to understand it much faster than you would ever be." Krune scratched the back of his head while showing a gloomy expression. He had no words to use in his defense. 501 Fire Tribulation Source Although Feifei would take around a month to recover from the damage on her Soul Power, her cultivation wasn''t affected. On the next day, Krune''s group was already up again, ready to move. But there was one thing that still made them puzzled, what to do with Lala over there? "Feifei, is it really okay to leave at this?" Feifei nodded. "Don''t worry. Once Lala recovers enough of her bloodline power, she will leave on her own initiative. As for the danger of having her coming behind, you don''t need to worry. I used Fie with my Destiny Major Divine Soul for Divination. The chances of something wrong happening are quite low." "But, there are chances, right?" Feifei nodded. "Divination isn''t perfect. Just the simple fact that you now know what will happen already changes the outcome of the future. There is no such thing as a perfect prediction. But I only did it to a few days, so it should be fine." Krune accepted that logic. "Well, if you are saying, then I have nothing against it. Let''s go find a better place to cultivate, this area is too close to a Light Pillar, so the movement is too big." Feifei agreed with that. "Lala, we are changing places. Do you wanna come?" Lala opened her eyes. After checking her body and bloodline''s condition, she decided that it would be better to stick with them for another two or three days just in case. Besides, it didn''t seem like they would do anything to her. After all, she was utterly powerless just a day ago, but nothing happened. As they flew forward, Lala followed from behind, keeping a certain distance from Krune''s group. Krune didn''t mind that, though. However, Feifei took Fie''s hand and went there to check. Lala narrowed her eyes when she saw that Feifei and Fie were flying just beside her. She didn''t remember to have asked for something like this. "What? Spit it out." It was then that the mother and daughter hugged Lala together. Lala was taken aback by that since it was too sudden. For a moment, she believed that Feifei and Fie were attacking her and thought about striking back. But... that was that. Lala didn''t feel any danger from those actions. The two girls simply kept rubbing their faces against her own. "What you think, Fie? I''m right, am I not?" Fie nodded. "She really has a very warm body, it is so comfortable. I can''t feel any Spiritual Energy being used to make it happen either." Lala was taken aback. Comfortable? Warm? Of course, I''m warm. I''m a fucking Scarlet Bear with some of the Sun Bear bloodline! My body is naturally warmer than other Demon Beasts in their human form. Krune looked at that from the front, and his mouth twitched. ''Was that the reason Feifei let Lala go? Just because she has a warm body?'' In the end, he shook his head and turned his attention elsewhere. "Enough!" She then returned to her Scarlet Bear form, bouncing the mother and daughter back. ''Hmph! Let''s see what you think now!'' But the next second, they were rubbing against Lala''s fur. "It''s even more comfortable now." "Exactly! I stayed on her body for several hours. If not that we were in the middle of running, I would have definitely slept on it. It is so good!" Lala began to get infuriated. Returning to her Original Form didn''t scare the two girls at all! *Vup!* In the next second, the enormous Scarlet Bear was gone once more. The naked girl then quickly put her robe once more before saying. "Can you stop? It is annoying!" Feifei shook her head. "No can do, this is the payment for all the trouble you caused me." Fie nodded as well. "Mommy is already making it very cheap, so you better comply." Lala was just about to go all out when suddenly, she noticed Krune and Laex''s eyes glancing at her from the front. If she really decided to fight here, she would have absolutely no chance. After gritting her teeth, she decided to let it go. At least, it wasn''t anything dangerous. Just like that, their group moved while Fie and Feifei kept hugging Lala during the entire way. --- Somewhere else on the Fifth Floor, Dalin''s Fire Tribulation kept attacking Liriu''s body. The last six months were enough for him to go from the 8th Stage of the Divine Soul Realm to the peak of the 9th Stage. Today was the day that he decided to enter the Soul Forging Realm. However, although it was a Tribulation, Liriu didn''t feel anything. Or to be more specific, he felt quite comfortable as the Tribulation Fire enveloped his body. He could feel his Fiery Feathers and Scales absorbing it. That energy was then transferred to his entire body, making it stronger. "It feels so good!" However, he knew that this was am important moment, so he focused on guiding part of that energy to his Dracophoenix Foundation. Sure enough, be it a Dragon or a Phoenix, Fire was always a close companion. Let alone him who is above the two. His Foundation also greatly benefited from this Fire Tribulation Power. It was then that Liriu noticed something deep inside his Dracophoenix foundation forming. It looked like it had a life of its own, and at the same time, not. There was kind of a connection between Liriu and this thing. At first, it looked just like a spark. But as more Fire Tribulation Power flowed into his Foundation, the bigger it became. Sometime later, it began to look like a Sun, but not quite. "This is... Fire Tribulation Power?" Liriu was right, inside his body, a Fire Tribulation Source appeared. It was just like Ula back in the Luvile Universe, who had used the Purple Tribulation Lightning of her Breakthrough to create a Purple Tribulation Lightning Source. At this moment, the same thing was happening with Liriu and Dalin''s Fire Tribulation. Liriu could feel that he had total control over that thing, and it was quite powerful. Not only that, but it made his intimacy with the Fire Laws much better. "Great! Let''s move the entire Fire Tribulation Power into it." Liriu could temper his body later. But Fire Tribulation would only appear during a Realm Breakthrough. So it was better to use it to increase the power of the Fire Tribulation Source. All the Fire Tribulation power around Liriu began to rush into him as if he was a black hole. The few observes outside could see something like a whirlpool of fire with Liriu at the very center. That was quite a frightening view. As mentioned before, the lower the floor, the more cultivators and demon beasts you will find. Even though Liriu looked for a remote place as far as possible from the Light Pillars, there were still a few who noticed his Tribulation happening. Fortunately, since Liriu stayed behind in the Floors run, the others who remained in the same place didn''t have big cultivations. Finally, the Fire Tribulation clouds began to disappear. As it happened, Liriu couldn''t help but feel a little sad. Let alone defending, Liriu felt like he could even sleep in the middle of it. But his sadness only lasted a second. As he checked the Fire Tribulation Source inside his Foundation, he couldn''t help but feel excited. With the Tribulation Gone, Liriu''s Dracophoenix Body began to grow once more. That was a common occurrence for Demon Beasts, which always got bigger after every breakthrough. Suddenly, Liriu let out a defying roar, and Tribulation Fire exploded out of his body, spreading everywhere around him! The cultivators and demon beasts who saw that felt quite frightened. That wasn''t the power of a mere 1st Stage Soul Forging Realm. It was several times higher! Liriu ignored those around him and concentrated on his body. But after some time, he sighed. "I still can''t change into my Human Form." There was no helping it. Liriu''s race wasn''t just a bird and snake hybrid anymore. His bloodline evolved, and he is even above Dragons and Phoenix. Before the Void Breaking Realm, it would be impossible for him to transform. Maybe even Void Breaking Realm wouldn''t be enough. If counting from head to tail, Liriu was now over 20 meters long! His fiery wings caught even more attention. ''Well, I''ll think about something else another time.'' Liriu then chose some random direction and shot forward. As the others around saw this, they got even more shocked. Liriu was simply too fast! A few moments later, he was already gone from everyone''s sight. 502 Food Power! Krune''s group and Liriu were not the only ones improving at the moment. Dilo had finally broken through and entered the Void Breaking Realm. Although he can''t compare to Krune and Feifei, who are in the 6th Stage already, he is doing pretty well by himself. He is now in the 1st Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. Xankruan wasn''t so far yet but still made her way to the 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Like Dilo and Liriu, she stayed behind in the earlier floors to prevent herself from bumping into someone too strong. However, Liriu is on the 5th Floor, while she and Dilo are on the 6th. Tiane and Ruik are further ahead on the 7th Floor. Their cultivation is smaller than Dilo, but they wish to go up as fast as possible because of Liriu. At the moment, the 7th Floor was the best suited for them even if it was more dangerous. Ruik has now caught up with Xankruan, being in the 8th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm too. As for Tiane, she continued one Stage behind Ruik, being in the 7th Stage. --- Back on Krune''s side, they found a good place to rest. Feifei spent an hour building a concealing formation before they began to cultivate or recover once more. However, there was a certain someone who wasn''t feeling very pleased. Obviously, it was Lala. She first sat while lying against a rock. But at some point, Fie and Feifei also sat beside her. If that was all, then it wouldn''t be so bad. But the two girls were now lying on her too. ''Am I a fucking pillow?!'' Still, Lala kept her cool. ''Be patient, Lala. Just two more days, and you will have recovered enough.'' That''s what she kept repeating to herself. But it was at this moment that her nose caught the scent of something really good. However, Lala was taken aback. As a Divine Path Realm Demon Beast, she had stopped eating a long time ago. She simply didn''t need material food anymore. But as time passed, the scent got stronger. Without Lala noticing, her mouth began to drool. Finally, she opened her eyes again and looked in Krune''s direction. There it was, a wisp in human form busily working as if he was a chef! Not only that, but he also had the full set prepared. Table, chairs, plates, knives, you name it! ''What are you, a housewife?!'' It didn''t take long for Feifei and Fie to notice as well. At the same time, their stomachs began to growl. Fie quickly got up and rushed over. "Dad! Do you want help with making food?" Krune smiled at her but shook his head. "Just wait on the side with the rest, it won''t be long before it is read." Krune then noticed that Lala was also looking in his direction. Especially the drool on her mouth. "Hahaha! I''ll make some meat for you too." For Krune, someone drooling because of his food smell is one of the best compliments. Laex quickly came over to Krune before saying. "Put more salt on my portion." "Sigh... why you guy love salt so much?" "You simply don''t understand the Dragon''s tastes. Strong Demon Beasts should eat Strong Flavoured food! It is a Dragon''s rule!" "Dragon''s rule your head! You just invented it just now." "Whether I invented or not doesn''t matter. The important part is that it is the truth! A new Dragon''s truth!" "Sure, sure... a new Dragon''s truth, so be it..." Krune then looked at Lala to ask. "How much salt you want in your meat? Or do you like any other condiments like Black Pepper? Maybe some sauce?" Lala was a little lost. "Eh? Me? Err... I... don''t know?" Krune nodded. "Alright. I will leave them on the side, and you can add them later too see which one is better for you." *growl...* Lala looked at her own belly and felt like crying. That sound was so loud that everyone looked at her at the same time. Food was supposed to be completely useless for her body. So why is her stomach acting like it had been starving for the last ten reincarnations? She couldn''t even remember anymore when it was the last time she had eaten anything. Feifei laughed and grabbed her hand. "My wisp''s food is the best, no demon beast or human can stay cool in front of it. Let''s go sit at the tables too." Before Lala could even answer, she was already dragged over. Not too long after, Krune served the food for everyone. Krune not only had made food, but his Spatial Ring was full of drinks as well. He took quite a few different ones, and everyone selected what they liked the most. Lala didn''t know what to do. Should she eat? Bears are solitary demon beasts, especially one as strong as her, so she wasn''t used to this kind of atmosphere. *Growl!!!* Her face became even redder now. If the previous time it was loud, now it looked more like a roar. Obviously, the others laughed even more. "Ah, fuck it!" She immediately grabbed an enormous piece of meat and began to devour it as well. Her eyes couldn''t help but shine once the meat touched her tongue. ''This is so fucking good!'' Lala then looked at the condiments on the side and couldn''t help but try them out. Some made it better, others not so much. In the end, her tastes were pretty much like Laex''s. "Hahaha! See? I told you, strong demon beasts prefer intense flavors! That''s the Universe''s truth!" Krune and Laex then began another argument about it. Not only that, but Feifei and Fie joined as well. Each side was defending its own point of view. Their discussion began to get more and more intense while they ate their food until suddenly. *Bang* Lala slammed the table while showing a severe expression. "STRONG FLAVOR IS MUCH BETTER!" "Ah!" Lala couldn''t believe what she did. How come she joined such a ridiculous argument? ''What the hell am I doing?'' Laex''s eyes lit up after hearing that, though. "See?! Even she lost to the power of strong-flavored food! You simply can''t understand our feelings." Krune didn''t let it go, though. "Hmph! It just two against three. What are you feeling happy about?" The argument continued until the end of their meal. After that, Lala returned to her corner, absent-minded. She had indeed lost to the power of Krune''s food. Fie and Feifei once again laid on her warm body, which really felt comfortable for the two girls. However, Lala didn''t feel like it was so bad now. Lala then began to concentrate on cultivating once more. On the other side, Krune began to clean the things while Laex helped him out. Lala could hear that even though the meal was over, those two kept arguing about who was right or wrong. For some reason, Krune and Laex''s voices began to get distant. Eventually, it reached a point where Lala couldn''t hear anything anymore. The day passed and night quickly arrive. Even though they are inside the Holy Land, the Dimensional Realms were really lifelike. They, too, had day and night, just like the worlds outside. The night also passed quickly, and the morning arrived once more. Lala was lying against the rock when she slowly began to open her eyes. Fie and Feifei were still attached to her while sleeping. Those two seemed to be having a great time as their faces seemed really relaxed. But as Lala saw that, her heart suddenly skipped a bit. ''I... SLEPT?! How come I slept? Ever since I entered the Core Formation Realm, I had never slept again! Why did I sleep? What if I was attacked during this time?'' Lala then though about a possibility. ''Was it Krune''s food? Did he put something inside that made me sleep?'' Lala quickly checked her body''s condition, but she was completely fine. In fact, she seemed to have recovered a lot since the last day. As for her spatial ring, there wasn''t absolutely nothing missing inside. ''Eh? Nothing wrong?'' It was then that Lala noticed Krune and Laex. One was cultivating on her right while the other was doing the same on the left. Not only that, but she also saw Heavin on the top of the rock, the same one she was laid against. By the looks of it, only Feifei, Fie, and herself slept last night. Krune, Laex, and Heavin stayed awake to watch over them. Krune noticed that Lala opened her eyes. To prevent Feifei and Fie from waking up, he used a Divine Sense message to talk with her. "Oh, you are awake! If you don''t mind, would you stay like you are at the moment? Although Feifei and Fie looked okay, the fact is that those two hadn''t seen each other for years. They might have no problems within their bodies, but their minds were, in fact, quite fatigued. They just didn''t let it appear on the outside. Let them sleep close to you for a few more hours. I''ll pay for it if you really don''t want to." Lala didn''t know what to say. But she does know that Fie and Feifei are parent and child. She then looked up to the sky before nodding. "Okay." Krune smiled after hearing that. "Thank you." Lala kept looking to the sky, though. ''When was the last time I felt so relaxed like this?'' 503 Realms Connection Just as Krune expected, Fie and Feifei still slept for a few more hours. In the afternoon, the two finally woke up, though. Feifei was the first one. "Hm?" Feifei still had a sleepy face as she looked at Lala. "Ah! Sorry, did I sleep too much?" Lala shook her head. "It''s okay. I woke up just a while ago too." Feifei nodded and got up. She then went beside Krune, who was cultivating and laid one him a little. It seemed like she had no fear what so ever to leave Fie sleeping with her. A few minutes later, Fie also woke up but didn''t seem like she wanted to leave Lala''s side. "You woke up, uh? Good! Time for training." Fie''s sleepy face instantly changed into a terrified one. "Can''t you give just a little bit more time?" "No can do, you slept for almost an entire day, that''s enough." Little Arty began to float while pulling Fie with the necklace chain. "Lala, help me!" Lala looked away and pretended to not hear anything. Still, he found that necklace to be quite weird. It could talk and looked like it had a life of its own. ''Oh well, that''s not my problem.'' As Little Arty began the daily training for Fie, Krune gathered with Feifei, Laex, and Heavin. Light Spirit was obviously there as well, it''s just that Lala didn''t know about his existence. "What will we do now? Should we wait for the others to go up as well?" Laex shook his head. "The whole point in staying in the Holy Land is so that we can train, right? In that case, you should keep going up where there is more Godly Energy." Krune looked at Laex before asking. "What about you?" Laex just laughed, though. "I will stay here to wait for Liriu. I doubt he will really spend his 10 years on the lower floors now that I saw Fie''s rate of improvement. He has the Dracophoenix Bloodline, after all. Even without Little Arty''s help, he shouldn''t be so behind Fie." Feifei couldn''t help but narrow her eyes. "Is that really okay? What if you need help with Liriu later?" Heavin shook his head, though. "In theory, Tiane and Ruik would arrive in this place way before Liriu. I doubt they would go up without him either, so I guess it is okay." Laex nodded. "You probably are thinking about the fact that the Holy Land will come with Little Arty, right? But it is not the same with its cultivators and demon beasts. This is a very good place to get some combat experience." They then began to discuss this issue when suddenly, the dimensional realm began to tremble. "What is this?!" It wasn''t only around Krune''s group. From the 1st to the 50th floors, all the dimensional realms were experiencing the same thing. Krune and Feifei disappeared from their spot and reappeared beside Fie almost instantly. "I''m checking it now, give me some time." Krune nodded as everyone gathered. Finally, Little Arty found the answer. "Oh! The floors are connecting themselves. I see... so that''s what Master planned in the end." "What do you mean?" Little Arty organized his thoughts and began to explain. "As you know, the 2nd to the 9th floors have several different dimensional realms in each one of them. However, those dimensional realms are now connecting to each other. That means each floor will only have a single Dimensional Realm from now on, just like the 10th floor and higher." "Also, it seems like the blockage between floors is being lifted." Krune and the others got puzzled. "What do you mean?" Little Arty then continued. "Simply put, you will now have free passage between the 1st and 50th floors. The Light Pillar Tests are still there, but you can choose to not take them. It will all depend on whether you can resist the Godly Energy of higher levels or not." Laex''s eyes immediately lit up. "Doesn''t that mean I can go down as well? That''s perfect! Little Arty, can you check where is Liriu at the moment?" Little Ary immediately replied. "I told you before, didn''t I? I''ve lost control over the formations for the time being. They are switching owners at the moment, so there is nothing I can do. The only reason I could tell what is happening is that I''m connected to the Holy Land as a whole. Unfortunately, any kind of monitoring formation is out of my reach." Laex narrowed his eyes. Even if he goes down, how exactly would he find where Liriu is? That would be way too hard. However, Feifei smiled before saying. "It won''t be a problem. As long as we are inside the same dimensional realm, I can use my Destiny Major Divine Soul and divination abilities to find the right direction. After all, Liriu''s cultivation is a lot lower than mine. Not to mention that the more information I have, the easier it becomes. I doubt that there are many others out there that know more about him than me." Laex and the others were happy to hear that. "Doesn''t that mean we can gather everyone else as well?" Feifei nodded. "As long as their cultivation isn''t too high, I should be able to at least tell their general direction." With that, there was no need to think anymore. "Then it is decided, let''s first gather everyone back together. After that, we can go in our separate ways with the right groups this time." However, Little Arty immediately stopped them. "Not too fast. The connection between realms and floors has just started. It will still take at least a month to be over." Everyone sighed after hearing that. "Well, we can just wait then." Although a lot had been said, it was also done through Divine Sense, so it only took a few seconds. Because of that, Lala didn''t hear anything. "Do you guys know what is happening?" Krune looked at Lala and nodded. "More or less. You don''t need to worry, this situation will only last a month at most. There is no danger, so let''s just go back to cultivate." Lala was taken aback. They were quite alarmed just a few moments ago, but they seem to be fine now as if nothing was happening. "Then tell me what is happening." Krune pondered a bit and decided to give an answer anyway. Of course, he left out critical parts like Little Arty''s real identity, and so on. "The floors and dimensional realms are connecting? This... how do you know that?" Krune smiled at Lala. "That''s a secret." "Hmph!" Lala wasn''t pleased with the answer, but Krune didn''t have an obligation to answer her either. If anything, at least she knows what is happening. The other cultivators and demon beasts didn''t even have that much. She then noticed that Krune and the others returned to their own things as if all the Holy Land changes didn''t matter at all. Yet, a few moments later, Feifei came to Lala''s side to talk. "Sorry about that. Krune is being very cautious about our time here in the Holy Land. Trust me, he really doesn''t have anything against you. Well, maybe the fact that you put me at risk before, but he will forget that eventually." Lala was a little surprised that Feifei came to her just to say that. "It''s... okay. Krune already said a lot anyway. The other demon beasts and cultivators probably don''t even know what is happening, so I''m already quite lucky." Feifei smiled while giving Lala another hug. Lala was already helpless with this behavior of Feifei''s, so she just sighed. It was then that Feifei offered. "In a month''s time, we are going down to look for a few of our friends. It will probably take a few weeks before we are back to the tenth floor. Do you want to come too? If you want, I can help you to find your friends as well." "This..." The offer was excellent since she knew that Feifei has a Destiny Major Divine Soul. However, Lala didn''t have any companions in this place to start with. So in a certain way, it didn''t have much of a use for her. ''But if I don''t say that, at least I can stay with them for a little longer.'' Lala looked at Feifei and nodded. "Okay." Feifei was happy to hear that. "Great! I will go cultivate and focus on recovering my Soul Power. If you need anything, let me know." Lala nodded, but just as Feifei was leaving... "Ah!" Feifei looked back with a puzzled face. "Is there anything?" Lala immediately shook her head. "No... it''s nothing." Feifei nodded and finally left. As for Lala, she finally noticed what she had just done. She didn''t have any companions to be found in the Holy Land, then just why did she keep it a secret? Lala could have said that she didn''t have anyone and left straight away, but she didn''t. Of course, deep down, Lala knew why she did that. ''Do I really want to stay with them this much?'' By the end of the day, Fie came back from her training. She then collapsed beside Lala once more to rest. "Lala, Little Arty''s training is too hard." "Hmph! There will come a day when you will thank me for that." Lala couldn''t help but laugh while patting Fie''s head. "He is right, even I can tell that his teachings are excellent." Fie sulked a bit but nodded in the end. At least, Lala''s warm body was a relief for her soul after an entire day of hard work. Later on, Krune made food for everyone again before they returned to their cultivation time. Fie and Feifei already slept a lot, so they probably wouldn''t sleep again for quite some time. Just like that, a month quickly went by. 504 Finding Liriu At first, everyone was worried about what was happening, but after an entire month, most of the participants got used to it. In fact, a lot of them noticed what was really happening. After all, new areas began to appear in places where the dimensional realms were supposed to be over. On the very last day of fusion, the Light Pillars on all floors began to shine brighter than ever. During that time, no one could take the tests at all. That phenomenon lasted an entire day before settling. After the cultivators and demon beasts checked it, they understood that now they didn''t need to take the tests anymore. Of course, for those who could fight for the top 100, they would still take the tests anyway. After all, it would give them more Godly Energy Stones. Some of them even thought about retaking the same test again now that they are stronger. Unfortunately for them, once someone goes up, even if they come down, they can''t retake the same test anymore. Although the majority were happy, they still felt that something was wrong. After all, the Holy Land had no records of something like this before. Some thought that perhaps, some treasure was sent from the higher realms, others believed that the Holy Land was breaking apart. Anyway, several theories were going back and forth. On the 19th floor, Hanan Frunkan and his companions had calm expressions, though. They knew that something was going to happen to the Holy Land from the very start, so it didn''t alarm them. After they checked the Light Pillar and saw that no tests were necessary anymore, they felt that everything was going according to their plans. "Very well. With this, we just need to adapt to every floor''s Godly Energy. Let''s not waste time with the tests anymore, focus on going up." Everyone nodded, and they immediately departed. Cinty was on the 14th floor at the moment. Together with her, there were a few demon beasts and cultivators who were also checking the Light Pillar in front. ''No more obligatory tests?'' Cinty narrowed her eyes. As the wisp queen, she had a lot of information about the Holy Land. Still, there was nothing talking about this phenomenon. ''Should I go up directly or take the tests?'' After pondering a bit, she still decided to take the safe route. Sure, there might be some new treasure or opportunities if Cinty goes up faster, but it would also be more dangerous. Not to mention that it is on the upper floors where most of the Heavenly Divine Soul Owners are gathered. She decided that it would be a lot better to simply go through the tests and try to take her Godly Energy Stones. Then, she would spend her time to cultivate properly. Back on the 10th Floor, Krune''s group was already gathered in front of a Light Pillar. As soon as the light returned to normal, they checked it, and sure enough, they could go down now. "Let''s go!" *Vup!* On their way here, Feifei first found Ruik and Tiane. They had been staying on the 7th floor while training, so it wasn''t too difficult to do so. Not to mention that they are quite behind Feifei in cultivation. That made things easier to divine their positions. Dilo and Xankruan were fine as well. Surprisingly enough, those two seemed to be connected by fate. After the Dimensional Realms of the 6th floor fused together, they ended finding each other in the same Light Pillar for the next level. That being said, after they encountered Krune and the others, they did not follow them. Now that they didn''t have to be afraid of being split anymore, they preferred to continue their journey by themselves. Krune didn''t mind it, though. They came here to train, and their presence wouldn''t make too much of a change when looking for Liriu anyway. He simply wished them good luck and kept moving down with his group. On the 5th floor, Feifei immediately sat on the ground and began to do her calculations. Her Destiny Major Divine Soul also empowered her divination abilities even more. After spending around 30 minutes, she finally opened her eyes again. "That Dracophoenix bloodline is really terrifying. Any other cultivator at Liriu''s level would be easy to find, but I had to put a lot of effort just to be able to tell his general direction. Anyway, the closer we get, the easier it will become." Krune nodded. "Very well, let''s go!" Of course, Feifei said those words through Divine Sense. She wouldn''t let the word Dracophoenix come out of her mouth that easily. Especially since Lala was still with them. Even though the lower levels are opened again for everyone, to arrive here takes quite some time if you are too high. Not to mention that those who were ahead wouldn''t go down without reason either. In that case, only cultivators and demon beasts of the Soul Forging Realm could be found on the Fifth Floor at the moment. This level of cultivation didn''t pose any threat to Krune''s group, so Krune didn''t need to use his Tribulation Lightning Layer to hide them. One day passed in a flash. Feifei then sat on the floor once more and used her divination abilities. This time, it was a lot faster. She only took 10 minutes to find Liriu''s general location. This method continued for another day until, eventually, Feifei was able to pinpoint Liriu''s correct position. "Found him!" Laex, Ruik, and Tian''s eyes lit up. "Then let''s go." Feifei led the group as they quickly departed. It only took them around one hour before Heavin suddenly said. "I can see him. But it seems like he is the middle of a battle." "What?!" Tiane, Ruik, and Laex expressions went dark. But before they could dash forward, Heavin continued. "Oh! Heavin has really improved a lot, no? He is fighting against three other Soul Forging Realms, but he isn''t in the least bit of disadvantage. From what I can see, he could have run anytime he wanted, but he seems to be sticking around on purpose." Tiane and the others were taken aback. But the one who was the most impressed was Lala. She is in the 3rd Stage of the Divine Path Realm, but even she can''t see as far as Heavin. In fact, it felt quite weird since she can''t feel Divine Sense power coming from him at all. ''Just what is wrong with this group? The more I learn about them, the harder it becomes to understand.'' On Laex''s side, his eyes lit up after hearing Heavin''s report. "Oh?! Let''s get close then, I want to watch it." Heavin nodded excitedly. "You guys are probably having a big surprise when you see him." Everyone''s worried faces changed into curious ones. Only Tiane seemed to be still concerned nonetheless. As they got closer, Liriu began to enter their mental energy range one by one. Lala was still a Divine Path Realm demon beast, so her Divine Sense was quite powerful. That allowed her to catch Liriu''s figure almost at the same time as the others. Heavin and Krune were basically the only ones to be able to see things further with Mental Energy than Lala with her Divine Sense. "This!" Everyone immediately identified Liriu. But it turned out that Liriu was a lot bigger than before. Sure enough, the Core Formation Realm Liriu and the Soul Forging Realm Liriu were in two completely different leagues. Laex couldn''t help but comment. "So big! At least twice as I was when I reached the Soul Forging Realm." However, Krune was more attracted to something else. On Liriu''s side, the battle continued. He was fighting against a demon beast and two cultivators. The cultivators were at the 5th and 6th Stages of the Soul Forging Realm. As for the demon beast, it was at the 7th Stage. Also, it looked quite similar to an Armadillo, obviously a defense type one. Bang! Liriu''s tail and demon beast''s shell hit each other, sending those two flying like cannonballs. At the same time, the cultivators took the change to try to attack Liriu by the sides. "Hell Piercing Spear!" "Mountain Splitting Sword!" Liriu couldn''t stop the inertia of his body, so he didn''t try. Instead, he counter-attacked with his own skill. "Tribulation Fire Breath!" The power of the Fire Tribulation gathered on Liriu''s mouth like torrents. Sure enough, as a Dracophoenix, Liriu had the Dragon''s signature attack, the Dragon''s Breath. It''s just that he used it with his Tribulation Fire instead. The fire spread, enveloping both the cultivators before their attacks landed. With no other choice, they could only change the target and counter-attack Liriu''s Tribulation Fire Breath instead of Liriu himself. Boom! The two cultivators might have been taken by surprise by that. However, their cultivations were still higher than Liriu. Not to mention that Liriu''s counter-attack was brought out hastily. Both cultivators were sent flying by the power of Fire Tribulation Energy, but they suffered very little damage. The Armadillo demon beast then quickly came back and joined the battle once more. Bang! Boom! Boom! Skills, Domains, Melee attacks, Ranged attacks, the battle continued for quite a few minutes. Both sides began to accumulate injuries, but so far, they weren''t anything dangerous. Finally, it came to the point where both sides used their strongest attacks against each other. "God Slaying Spear!" "World Sundering Slash!" "Titan''s might!" Liriu didn''t hold back either. "Dracophoenix Supernova!" As Liriu''s enemies'' attacks approached, his entire body began to lit up with Tribulation Fire. The fire quickly spread as it became a giant ball of flames. It was so bright that it looked like the Sun itself! Boom! As body sides clashed, the Sun-like Fire Sphere exploded with enough energy to obliterate an entire mountain. The fabric of space was broke apart as if it was a battle at the Void Breaking Realm level. Even with their combined effort, the two cultivators and the Armadillo couldn''t hold back against Liriu''s attack. They shot back like cannonballs before hitting the ground with immense energy. All three of them couldn''t help but vomit blood. As one looked at Liriu, it was also possible to see that his Dracophoenix Supernova consumed a lot of his energy too. He looked quite tired as his body gasped for air. But Liriu quickly recovered and began to move in the direction of those three. Seeing that, Krune couldn''t help but narrow his eyes. "Is he going to finish them off?" Tiane looked at that, concerned that Liriu might have changed a lot during this time. Her Liriu, from the time they entered the Holy Land, wouldn''t kill others that easily. 505 Goodbyes However, Laex and Ruik didn''t seem concerned, though. It was as if they were already expecting this outcome. The moment Liriu arrived in front of those three, he began to laugh out loud. "Hahaha! Today is my victory again!" One of the cultivators gritted her teeth as she pointed at Liriu. "That was not fair! You said that you wouldn''t use your Supernova this time!" Her name was Yuliva Hretkin, a female cultivator who came from another Universe to participate in this Holy Land. She was the cultivator at the 5th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. The demon beast and the other cultivator nodded while showing upsets expressions. "He''s right!" "That was shameless!" The male cultivator was Jivo Karlie, who was from Dalin. He was in the one in the 6th Stage of the same Realm. In the Demon Beast''s case, his race was called Klekindillo. He came from another Universe as well, just like Yuliva. He had the Highest cultivation between the group, being at the 7th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. As for his name, it was Roggo. Liriu just laughed, though. "You can thank my Uncle and Father for this. Hahahaha!" In the past, Liriu didn''t have the heart to act like this. But as things got worse, he had to learn how to put Laex and Ruik''s teachings to good use. Sure enough, he looks quite similar to those two now. "We don''t even know where this Uncle and Father that you talk so much are, how can we complain to them?" At the same time, Krune and the others looked at Laex and Ruik with weird faces. "Cough, cough. We might have taught him a little thing... or two... maybe three..." Tiane''s mouth twitched, though. "Ruik was already shameless enough, but I could still hold his reins. But when Laex was added to the mix, I''m not surprised that Liriu turned out like this. You two are better to be prepared for the punishment later." Laex and Ruik felt a chill on their backs and quickly changed the topic. "Anyway, did you see his Tribulation Fire? Isn''t that amazing? As expected of my nephew, he didn''t disappoint me." "What are you saying, that was my kid, so it was obvious that he could do this much!" Everyone sighed. Sure enough, these guys had no shame whatsoever. "Anyway, let''s go there and see how he is doing." "No!" However, Ruik immediately stopped everyone. "Why?" Laex also nodded, though. "Ruik is right, we shouldn''t go there." Tiane was about to explode in rage. How dare they stop her from finally get reunited with her child? Still, Laex and Ruik kept looking at that Liriu. They simply couldn''t see the least bit of his previous naivety anymore. Tiane immediately refused, tears flowing from her eyes. Still, she quite understood what they meant. "But what if they try to trick him. How can you trust those ''friends'' of him that easily?" Ruik and Laex sighed after seeing that. They, too, wanted to go see him. But they couldn''t force themselves to do so. "Whether we can trust or not is not the problem. The issue here is if Liriu can judge others well enough to put his trust in them. It matters little if they betray Liriu latter. After all, it will become one more experience in his life. For the sake of his own future, we should not intervene. The Holy Land is dangerous, but at the same time, it is a great opportunity. He... is strong enough to take care of himself now." Tiane looked at Liriu, who was so close to her. But as much as she didn''t want to admit, it was evident that Liriu had matured a lot. However, they could still feel that his kind heart was present. Even though he was quite shameless as well. "I..." Ruik then embraced his Tiane. "I know, so you don''t need to say it. If we bring Liriu with us, we might prevent misfortunes to fall over him, but that will only make him into a cowardly demon beast in the future. We already know that he is fine and strong, let''s just trust him." Heavin had been hearing everything so far, so he couldn''t help but comment. "But what about his Dracophoenix Bloodline? Is it really okay to leave it like this?" Laex laughed out loud, though. "Hahaha! There is no need to worry. You are not a dragon, so it is obvious that you can''t tell." Krune thought about a possibility. "Wait, could it be..." Laex nodded. "It''s as you thought exactly. Even though we are this close, I can''t feel the least bit of Liriu''s Dracophoenix Bloodline. The only moment I could feel anything was when he was in the middle of the battle, and even so, it was only faintly. It seems like Liriu can already control his bloodline''s power to prevent its presence from leaking out." Everyone was happy to hear that. As long as Liriu can hide his bloodline presence, that is good enough. "It''s good that he doesn''t need the bloodline seal anymore. Like this, he can bring out his full combat power anytime he really needs." Ruik then patted Tiane''s head. "You see? There is nothing to worry about. Well, there is, but it is not as bad as it could be. Let''s leave, okay?" Tiane nodded, although unwillingly. Krune then looked at Feifei. "You know..." However, Feifei cut him right there and then. "It''s okay. I know what you mean." She then looked at Fie and called her over. Until now, Krune''s group was only communicating through Divine Sense messages, but this time, she talked with her words. "Fie, you should stay with Liriu from now on." Fie was taken aback by that. "But... I don''t want to get separated again." Fie''s eyes immediately teared up, which made Feifei tear up as well. However, after seeing how much Liriu has matured, Feifei and Krune admitted that Fie was lacking precisely the same thing. She had stayed with Little Arty all the time. After she left the Origin Realm, she immediately encountered with Krune, who kept her safe. Simply put, Fie hasn''t had any real-life experience yet. The couple knows that sooner or later, that will become Fie''s most significant flaw. Krune might not like killing. But when there is really a need for that, he doesn''t hesitate. Feifei was also the same. However, Fie had never really killed anyone. To be more specific, she had never had a need to do so. The universe isn''t filled with good people and demon beasts only, so it was time to let Fie experience it. "I know, but you must. Or could it be that you wish to leave Liriu alone? You are like brother and sister, aren''t you?" Fie nodded. "Then you should know that Liriu will need your help in the future too. Mommy and Dad can''t do, it has to be you." "But..." "Your mother is right." Surprisingly, the one who said that was Lala! "Lala..." Lala nodded before looking at Fie. "If you really want to become as strong as your mother, father, or even me, then you need to learn how to take care of yourself. At the moment, you are depending too much on them. It is time for you to create your own path." Tiane and the others also nodded. They also think that it was time for Fie to go out alone. She has similar cultivation to Liriu''s, so this is the best place to let her go. Feifei caressed Fie''s rainbow-like hair while saying. "If you really trust your dad and me, then you should do as we say. Don''t worry, we will meet again once the Holy Land is over." At this moment, Little Arty began to float, quickly removing itself from Fie''s neck. He then landed on Feifei''s one instead. "There will be no point if I follow you as well, so I''ll be staying with your mother. However, if you need to talk with me, just focus on our connection. I''m your artifact spirit, so you can communicate with me at any time. It''s just that if this isn''t something urgent or cultivation related, I won''t say a single word." Fie was taken aback. She thought she should be happy that Little Arty wouldn''t be forcing her into training anymore, but in fact, she felt quite sad instead. "Okay..." Suddenly, arcs of Purple Lightning began to come our of Krune''s body. A second later, they entered Fie''s instead. Seeing that, Krune couldn''t help but laugh. "It seems like your uncle Light Spirit is quite worried about you." "Hmph!" Light Spirit didn''t even bother to answer that comment. Obviously, Light Spirit had left a protection measure behind, just in case. In fact, he even used quite a lot of Purple Tribulation Lightning Essence. This was the first time Krune had ever seen Light Spirit spending so much essence with someone other than him. Feifei then kissed Fie''s forehead. "Alright, off you go. Also, if Liriu asks anything, just say that you were traveling alone and found him by coincidence." Fie couldn''t help but ask. "What if he doesn''t believe me?" Krune and the others couldn''t help but laugh out loud. "Don''t worry, your ability to pretend is not the least bit weaker than your mother. You two are experts at this. Liriu and his friends will definitely believe you." Feifei glared at everyone else after hearing that. "Are you guys looking for a beating?" Everyone talked a little more with Fie before they finally let her go. It was time for this 14 years old girl to spread her wings. 506 Dont Look Down on Lalas Abilities! As fie left, Krune''s group turned around and did the same. "Let''s go!" Without Liriu even noticing, everyone disappeared. Sometime later, Liriu noticed someone approaching inside his Divine Sense. Not only him but the members of his group as well. "Hum...? A kid?" Sure enough, they could see that Fie wasn''t that big. But it was then that Liriu''s eyes opened wide. He would never mistake that long Rainbow Hair. "It''s Fie!" The others were taken aback. "You mean, that Fie? The one who grew up with you?" Liriu nodded before immediately taking flight. He dashed to encounter her as well. Although Fie was sad that she had to separate from Krune and the others, she was still happy to see Liriu as well. "Liriu!" They quickly reached each other. Fie then gave him a hug... or so she tried. "Ah! Liriu, you grew way too much! I can''t hug you at all!" Liriu laughed after hearing that. "Well, you will need to wait until I can take my human form." "Can''t you do that in the Soul Forging Realm?" Liriu shook his head. "I tried, but it seems like it doesn''t work." Liriu''s friends quickly arrived, as well. Liriu then introduced everyone. Just like that, the new group was formed. --- Back on Krune''s side, they quickly arrived at the closest Light Pillar. Without wasting any time, they immediately entered the 6th floor. However, Feifei remembered one thing. "Ah! That''s right. Lala, should I try to look for your companions now?" "Eh?" Lala was taken aback. Only now did she remember about this issue. "Errr... There is no need. I have a connection with my friends, but I couldn''t feel their presence at all. That means they probably went higher than me already." Feifei laughed a little before nodding. "Is that so?" Lala looked away as if trying to avoid Feifei''s curious eyes. Krune didn''t mind that, though. "Well, since that''s the case, let''s go back up." However, Tiane and Ruik didn''t follow up. "In that case, we are also leaving here. Now we can''t get separated anymore, Tiane and I are going to follow our own path." Krune and the others understood. It was basically the same decision as Dilo and Xankruan had. "Very well, We''ll see each other when the Holy Land is over." Tiane and Ruik bid Krune, Feifei, Lala, and Laex farewell before leaving in another direction. Still, Krune couldn''t help but ask Laex beside him. "Aren''t you going with them?" Laex shook his head, though. Krune had to admit that he was right. "Well, the tenth floor is far from being enough for us anymore, so let''s go directly to the eleventh." Laex and the others agreed. The lowest cultivation in Krune''s group now is the 6th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. Obviously, this is Feifei and Krune. That being said, they could now move much faster than before. It only took them a few days to arrive on the 10th floor once more. "We are taking the 10th Light Pillar Test, right?" "Of course, it still can provide us with Godly Energy Stones!" Feifei then looked at Lala. "What are you going to do now? We are going to keep going up, but you don''t have a need to follow us anymore. As far as I can see, it seems like you are already recovered." Lala finally didn''t have an excuse anymore. Unless she states it herself that she wants to stay, she will have to leave. However, saying something like that would go against her own pride. Well... it''s not like it was worth much since she used the ''friends'' excuse to stick together until now. Seeing Lala''s dilemma, Laex began to laugh out loud. "Hahaha! Lala, there isn''t much of a point to struggle. You are a demon beast, aren''t you? Just say whatever you want. Tha''s how a demon beast should act like. At least, that''s how I did so far." Lala was taken aback by those words. But she had to admit that Laex was right. As a demon beast, why would Lala mind hiding her own feelings? Demon beasts are direct, so she should be direct too! "I don''t really have any companions that I need to find since I came into the Holy Land alone. I just feel that I like to stay with you, so I intend to keep like that for now." Krune narrowed his eyes before asking. "Why?" Lala smiled at him in exchange. "Because I want to." Feifei sighed before answering. "You should have said that since the beginning. Why all that pretense? It was quite annoying to watch that." Laex nodded as well. "I found it quite funny to watch, though." It turns out that Lala isn''t a good lier or an expert at hiding her feelings. Maybe because she is a Bear demon beast, so she spent most of her time alone. That being said, she didn''t develop many skills on that side. However, there was someone who didn''t notice anything. Or better, two. Krune and Heavin looked at each other, puzzled. "Was she pretending?" "Feifei and Laex are saying that she was." "I see..." Sure enough, the zero EQ wisp and wisp''s Divine Soul aren''t that good with those things as always. Still, Feifei patted Krune and Heavin''s heads. "You two are good the way you are." For some reason, Krune and Heavin felt like they were being made fun of. "Well, the important thing is that Feifei trusts her, so that is fine." Lala was surprised to hear that. "I thought you were against it." Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it seems like Feifei enjoys to sleep close to you a lot, so I will leave it at that." Laex laughed before saying. "Welcome aboard, pillow." Feifei got angry at Laex''s words, though. "Lala isn''t a pillow!" Lala''s eyes shined when she heard that. ''At least Feifei understands this point. I''m a Scarlet Bear, not a bed.'' However... "If anything, Lala is a mattress and pillow combo! Didn''t you see how big and furry she is in her real form? You should show more respect for her real abilities!" Lala almost vomited blood. "Who is a mattress and pillow combo?! First of all, since when being compared to those things is an ability worth of respect?" Feifei then hugged her, not mind her words at all. "Just ignore those two, I''m proud of your warmness and softness abilities." Lala felt like crying but had no tears. So what if you feel proud about it? I''m not proud, okay? I''m not proud at all! But the worst part was to see what happened next. Krune, Laex, and even Heavin quickly bowed. "Sorry, Lala. We were not thinking straight. Indeed, you are much more than just a pillow. We understand it now. Mattresses are really important too." Lala finally couldn''t hold back anymore. "Fuck you all! I''m not staying even one more second in this place." Lala began to move away, fuming! Still, Feifei quickly hugged her back while apologizing. Krune, Heavin, and Laex laughed out loud but apologized as well. In Krune and Heavin''s case, they only participated in that joke because Feifei asked them to do so through a Divine Sense. Feifei was basically trying to get rid of the awkward feeling from a moment ago. Of course, she was very successful in doing so. As Lala complained and rebuked, everyone moved in the direction of the 10th level Light Pillar. Sure enough, there was almost no one there when they arrived. Now that the participants aren''t obligated to take the tests anymore, those who could go up had gone already. As for those who couldn''t resist the next floor''s Godly Energy, they stayed hidden somewhere else while cultivating. "Heavin, can you feel anyone''s presence close by?" Heavin nodded. "There are three hidden ones. However, they are pretty far away from the Light Pillar, and they are using Anti-Divine Sense methods. Most likely, they are just biding their time to go up as well. It doesn''t look like they prepared any trap." Krune nodded. "Little Arty, what is the tenth floor Light Pillar Test about?" Little arty then began to explain. From now on, Krune''s group was pretty much free of worries. That being said, Krune, Feifei, Laex, Lala, and Heavin will be able to focus entirely on cultivation. Just like that, another five years went by... 507 More Five Years 1 37th floor. Feifei and Lala were resting somewhere in this place. At the same time, Feifei was holding Little Arty against her forehead. Little Arty had the ability to communicate with Fie, thanks to their connection. But surprisingly, he could extend this ability to others as well. Still, he only allowed one communication every six months. After all, the whole point of leaving Fie and Liriu behind was that so they could temper themselves. He also made a rule that prohibited Fie from speaking anything they did or how their situation was. That was to prevent Feifei or anyone else from helping them in this testing time. Krune already used his chance, so Feifei was the only one left. Feifei didn''t like it but accepted in the end. At least, she could confirm whether her daughter was fine or not. Every time she had the chance, she would talk to her for hours. As the years passed, the content of their talk changed as well. That was the effect of a maturing Fie, so her topics became more adult-like while at it. Little Arty also used this connection to pass Fie''s training to her. Not only that, but he also gave a set for Liriu and the others who are close to her. As for how Fie convinced Liriu and the others to follow it, that no one knows. Five years in the Holy Land changed a lot of things. Fie was now a fully grown lady, her child time''s features had disappeared completely. If Fie already looked a lot like Feifei back then, now she is even more so. Of course, one can''t consider her Rainbow-Like hair, which was a gift of her father. In five years, there had been quite a few cultivators who got dazzled by Fie''s beauty. Fortunately for her, the Rainbow Features only served to contribute to her charm, utterly different from a certain wisp who only looked weird. Too bad for them, though. Liriu, Jivo, Roggo, and Yuliva didn''t let any of those guys try anything funny. In a certain way, Fie''s figure had caused quite a few troubles on their side. Still, Fie had also matured a lot on the mental side. There had been instances where their group had to go all out and kill, so Fie already graduated from her naivety. She understood that there are times where she simply couldn''t hold back, or the one who would die was her. Fie got quite depressed during that time, but it also helped her to grow to this point. Of course, just like her father, she wouldn''t kill if possible. Fie, who was in the 3rd Stage of the Soul Forging Realm back then, was now in the 4th Stage of the Void Breaking. Although it looked fast, she still pales in comparison to Krune. Nonetheless, it is still much better than the majority by a lot. She has Two Lightning Sub-Laws at culmination at the moment, Lightning Essence and Charge. There are also another two in the Advanced and Initial Stages, which are Flash and Lightning Form. Fortunately, it wouldn''t take long for the Flash Sub-Law to reach culmination as well. On Liriu''s side, he was behind Fie in cultivation, being in the 3rd Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. Yet, for him, who was two stages behind before, being just one now showed that he was doing very well. If one looked at Combat Power alone, Liriu was definitely much stronger than Fie or their other companions. That was easy to be seen if one looked at his Laws, for example. It turned out that Liriu wasn''t only good at Fire Laws, but Space Laws too. He couldn''t say if it was related to his Dracophoenix Bloodline or not, though. During his breakthrough, he also selected Displacement as his Void Breaking Realm First Space Sub-Laws. By now, it was already in the advanced Stage. At the same time, he also comprehended the Void Sub-Law, which is in the Intermediate now. Of course, Space Laws still couldn''t beat his Fire Laws. Even though he entered the Soul Forging and Void Breaking after Fie, his Fire Laws were far ahead of Fie''s Lightning ones. Liriu reached a culmination with Explosion, Annihilation, Burning, and Fire Essence. The only Fire Sub-Law remaining for Liriu was Heat, which was in the Intermediate Stage. Sure enough, he had to thank his Dracophoenix Bloodline and the Fire Tribulation Source in his body for this. Only Godly Energy and the Elemental Meridians wouldn''t be enough for such a fast improvement. Once Liriu finishes comprehending the Heat Sub-Law, the only thing remaining will be to fuse all Laws together into the Major Law of Fire. Another good thing was that Liriu could finally change into his Human Form! Nevertheless, he looked pretty much like Ruik when that happened. In the end, no one can beat DNA. Leaving his looks aside, being able to change into his human form made everything easier. When Liriu broke through into the Void Breaking Realm, he reached a frightening size of 30 some meters! It was simply too hard to flee or hide in that situation. Another thing is that as long as he doesn''t go back to his Dracophoenix Form and releases his bloodline''s power, no dragon or phoenix would be able to tell which is his real race. In fact, even in his Dracophoenix Form would be hard to know since he just looks like a fiery Quetzalcoatl. "Alright, Fie. I''m leaving here now, so you better be careful. Tell Little Arty if something urgent comes up." "Don''t worry, mom. Until next time." Little Arty then landed on Feifei''s bosom once more after that. Lala then looked at Feifei before asking. "How is she?" Feifei smiled, but her face still showed that she missed Fie. "She has been changing a lot. There is no doubt that Fie has become an adult both in body and mind now. However, it didn''t seem like her cheerful side was affected, which is the best thing." Lala nodded. "That is good then. Let''s go, we have been separated from Kruna and Laex for three weeks already. If we take too long, they will get worried." During these five years, Krune''s group didn''t always stay together. The reason was very simple. It would be hard to find good enough challenges if they were always moving in a group. So they had long since decided that they would stay together for a week, and spend the next two or three separated. Sometimes they would move alone; other times, they would move in two like Feifei and Lala now. Little Arty might not have the Monitoring Formations control at the moment. However, he knew the Holy Land better than anyone. Thanks to that, everyone always knew where they could gather together again. It worked perfectly regardless of the floor. It only took two days for the two girls to arrive in the gathering location. From afar, Krune and Laex could already see Feifei and Lala inside their Mental Energy range. "There they come." Feifei quickly hugged Krune while giving a kiss. But soon, Krune noticed something. "Oh! You made a breakthrough, that''s great!" Feifei smiled happily. Indeed, she really made a breakthrough this time around. Feifei was in the 6th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm five years ago, but she is already in the 2nd Stage of the Divine Path. One must remember that the higher you go, the slower the cultivation becomes. Even with the help of the Godly Energy Stones that she got here and there, there was a limit to what could be done. Yet, there was another reason for the delay, the Holy Land transformation. The Godly Energy on each floor after the 10th had reduced a lot. It was to the point that there wasn''t much of a difference between one floor and the next one. With less Godly Energy, the cultivation also got slower. Of course, Feifei wasn''t the least bit sad. What some might time hundreds or even thousands of years to achieve, she did in just 42 years of life. She also has a Universe Foundation, just Like Krune. So by now, it has already expanded a lot. Suns and Planets were everywhere. Although it can''t be compared to Krune''s one, Feifei''s foundation is also getting more and more like a real Universe. As for her Destiny Laws, they gave one more step forward. Her Cause Sub-Law and Effect Sub-Law had both achieved culmination. The only Sub-Law remaining in the Destiny Laws was Destiny Energy. However, this was also the most difficult. So much that Feifei had been stuck in the Initial Stage of it for over a year now without any progress. Even the Godly Energy couldn''t help her in that. Feifei understood that she will need a long time before she can advance once more. That being said, she shifted some of her Mind Splitting Technique to Water Laws. Feifei had stopped her Water Laws for a long time, but it finally began to progress again. Her Water Essence, Wave, and Flow Sub-Laws were already at culmination before entering the Holy Land, so she only had Calm and Cold remaining. Calm was now at the Advanced Stage while Cold reached Intermediate. "Yeap! Isn''t your wife great?!" Krune nodded vigorously. "My Feifei and Fie are the best." "It''s good that you know." "I wish I could go to the Elemental Path Dimensional Realm to build my Chaos Meridians. Anyway, how are you doing on your side? You had been advancing a lot faster than anyone. After all, you do have the Chaos Meridians. Maybe only Cinty, who also has hers, can compare to you in the speed of cultivation." Krune couldn''t help but think about all the time he spent in the Holy Land so far. He had really improved a lot. 508 More Five Years 2 First, Krune remembered his Divine Path Realm Breakthrough. Sure enough, it was the same as his Void Breaking Realm one. He once again had to face the Ascencion Type Tribulation. However, be it Krune or Light Spirit, both of them were fully prepared for that now. Although it was still very dangerous, Krune passed it. By now, Krune had already achieved the 3rd Stage of the Divine Path Realm. Just as Feifei mentioned, the only one who could be compared to Krune was Cinty. After all, not only Cionty had the Chaos Meridians as well, she also had the Blackhole Major Divine Soul. Krune was behind Feifei when he entered this Holy Land, but now he is ahead. The truth is that Krune could have gone even further, but he held himself back. He also gave up using some of his Godly Energy Stones and passed them to Lala or Heavin, for example. Although there wasn''t a side effect to his foundation while using Godly Energy, his rate of improvement was too fast. Krune needed to digest the differences of every breakthrough. A Stage Breakthrough in the Divine Path Realm was utterly different from one in the Void Breaking. There was much more energy involved in the process. As for his foundation, Krune already had difficult to even count how many stars and planets had been created with his Chaos Energy. There were also meteors, nebulas, white dwarfs, you name it. Even a few black holes could be found in it. Of course, since he could still count all of that, it showed just how tiny it was compared to a real Universe. His Universe Foundation couldn''t even be considered a tenth of a single galaxy in proportion. Nevertheless, Krune''s one was far ahead of anyone at the same cultivation as his. After all, he began to expand it when he was still in the Soul Forging Realm. His foundation being more developed didn''t make Krune stronger, but his Spiritual, Elemental, and Chaos Energy reserves were definitely much bigger. In a battle of attrition against opponents of the same level, Krune would definitely have the advantage as well. Another thing that also became better was his Chaos Meridians. Just like the Elemental Meridians in the past, his Chaos Meridians also matured once more. Now they could convert almost 70% of the Elemental Source Energy into Chaos Energy instantly. Krune believes that the 100% conversion will definitely happen once he enters the Divine View Realm. With such a change, it became even more apparent how much Krune was holding back in his cultivation speed. Krune had Flash Annihilation, Charged Lightning Energy, and Purple Tribulation Law finished. Now he was comprehending the Law Eating Sub-Law, which is in the Intermediate Stage. Also, the Lightning Flow that was in the Initial Stage. Since Krune wasn''t stuck anywhere with his Purple Tribulation Laws, he didn''t do like Feifei and diverted his Mind Splitting Technique elsewhere. That being said, his other laws were still stopped in time. Of course, Krune had nothing to complain about it. Comprehension in other laws couldn''t possibly compare to Light Spirit''s one. The place where his Purple Tribulation Laws improvement could be felt the most was in his Rainbow Domain. To use it, Krune had to keep the Purple Tribulation Domain active together with all others. Unfortunately, the Law Eating Sub-Law kept affecting the other Domains involved in it. Because of that, Krune had never been able to sustain his Ranboim Domain for more than 10 to at most 15 minutes. However, now that he already got at the Intermediate Level of the Law Eating Sub-Law, he could control this side effect much more effectively. Of course, it was still far from perfection. Before reaching culmination with the Law Eating Sub-law, it would always affect everyone that uses Tribulation Lightning to a certain extent. Still, his Rainbow Domain could be maintained for over 30 minutes if he wanted. Now, Krune could use it from the very start of the battle without being afraid of it crumbling in the middle. Last but not least, Krune is getting close to reaching the Advanced Stage of his Elements Regulation Technique from his Master. He had called Lucio''s will out to help him comprehend it quite a few times in the past five years, so his progress was evident. Before, he could only barely fuse together the elements gathered in his hand. But now, he could already do it with more than half. It wouldn''t be long before he reaches the Advanced Stage of the technique. When that time comes, Krune will finally be able to use it as he pleases. "My progress is going okay so far. Still, I can''t let my guard down." Krune then thought about the fights he had against the Heavenly Divine Soul Owners. He and his group had been advancing at a fast pace between the floors, so it is obvious that they would bump into them sooner or later. "To be honest, I thought that I could even fight the Heavenly Divine Soul Owners with my level. However, they still proved to be a lot harder to deal with than I thought. I can''t be more than 2 stages behind them, or I will not have the advantage. If I''m 3 stages behind, then we would be more or less evenly matched." Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "Isn''t that good enough? Three stages behind but still fighting at the same level. That should be a good thing, no?" Krune nodded. "It is, of course. It''s just that after my improvement with the Purple Tribulation Laws, I thought I would have more advantages than that. But those Heavenly Divine Soul owners really can''t be underestimated. So what if I''m progressing at this speed? Their Heavenly Divine Souls also helps them as much as Light Spirit''s Purple Tribulation Lightning helps me. No wonder Heavenly Divine Soul Owners are deemed as almost invincible existences." Light Spirit confirmed Krune''s words. "You are right. However, you are forgetting something fundamental. Each stage of the Divine Path Realm is different from each stage of the Void Breaking Realm. The amount of power gained with each one of them can''t be compared. If you and the Heavenly Divine Soul Owner were both in the Void Breaking Realm, being 3 stages behind would still give you the advantage, and a big one at that. Your opponent probably would have no other choice other than flee. So don''t think that your improvement is at the same level as them. In fact, you are still faster." Laex then looked at Krune and rebuked him. "What are you complaining about? I''m already in the 7th Stage of the Divine Path Realm, but you can still fight me to a standstill. I''m fucking 4 stages above you, you know?! Not to mention that I need to use my Purple Flame Dragon Pearly to be able to do that!" While Krune advanced seven stages in the last, Laex did only five. Of course, one must remember that he doesn''t have the Chaos Meridians yet. Besides, the higher the cultivation, the slower it becomes. His cultivation speed is similar to Feifei at the moment since she also doesn''t have the Chaos Meridians. In fact, it should have been slower, but Krune provided him some of his Godly Energy Stones from the Light Pillar tests. If compared to Lala, he was doing frighteningly well. Lala was at the 3rd stage when she joined Krune''s group. But five years in the Holy Land only allowed her to advance 2 stages. She is now in the 5th Stage of the Divine Path Realm. This goes to show just how heaven-defying Krune''s Myriad Energy Technique is. As mentioned before, when they entered the Holy Land, the Elemental Meridians had a much easier time to absorb the Godly Energy than the normal ones. Krune did not pass her the Myriad Energies Technique. Lala also didn''t ask for it at all, nor did she inquire about the technique. Lala knows that everyone has their own secrets, she is not different. In Lala''s mind, she believes that this has something to do with Krune and his friends'' background. Whatever it was, it shouldn''t be passed to others that easily. Perhaps, there were even counter-measures that prevent them from doing so. --- 50th Floor. Hanan Frunkan and his group were looking at the entrance that leads to the Origin Dimensional Realm. Different from the other floors, the origin Realm entrance looked like a big White Spatial Gate. But their group didn''t mind it. If anything, they were even more sure that it probably led them to the Origin Dimensional Realm. By now, all his group members that weren''t in the 9th Stage of the Divine Path Realm before had already achieved it. That included Hanan himself. Five Years ago, he was already in the 7th stage, so going up just two stages in a place like the Holy Lands isn''t anything impressive, especially when he has a Heavenly Divine Soul. By now, all of them stopped cultivating thoroughly. At most, they kept using Chaos Energy to improve their own foundations. After all, once someone enters the Divine View Realm, they would be immediately teleported outside. In fact, such a thing has already happened a few times. "According to the information, we have already gotten used to the Godly Energy of this Floor. However, don''t rush things. We disregarded everything to reach this place as fast as possible, so we should still have an advantage over other groups. Pay attention to the surroundings since we don''t know what kind of defense is waiting for us. Alright, let''s go!" 509 Searching for Little Arty Hanan''s group had been waiting for a big wave of Godly Energy when they entered the Origin Realm. Still, to their surprise, it didn''t happen. In fact, they could barely feel the presence of Godly Energy at all. As they looked around, they noticed that everything was pure white. Pretty much like it was when Fie first arrived in this place. "That''s not exactly as I thought. In theory, the place with most Godly Energy would be where the Holy Land''s Artifact should be placed. But with this little amount of Godly Energy, could it be that we are in the wrong place?" Hanan the looked at Julie before asking. "Julie, try to see if you can find the right location." Julie nodded and quickly took out a device from her Spatial Ring. It looked somehow like a compass but inside a transparent orb. Not to mention that the needle inside seemed to be able to point in all directions possible. As Julie poured her Spiritual Energy inside, the needle began to tremble. Not too long after, it pointed in a specific direction. However, Julie narrowed her eyes after seeing it. "Weird, it can only barely feel the presence of that artifact." "What you mean?" Julie pondered a bit before saying. "There are several possibilities. The artifact might be inside a formation that blocks its energy from leaking out. Or we might be so far away that the Orb is having difficult to feel its presence. There is also another possibility... but we need to go there to check first." Hanan and the others nodded. Without wasting any more time, they began to make their way while following Julie''s directions. They did not move fast nor slow since they didn''t know what to expect ahead. But so far, no protection formation or any other kind of defense appeared. This journey lasted three entire days. Finally, they arrived at what seemed to be an immense altar. They could see several formations of all kinds around it as well. However, they were all god-level formations, so no one in Hanan''s group could understand them. Most likely, those were the formations used to control the Holy Land as a whole. But none of that mattered. That''s because when they looked above the altar, the place was completely empty! There was only a small shaped hole that seemed to have contained something inside before. All the formations of the platform were also connected to that hole. Hanan narrowed his eyes before looking at Sark, one of the Demon Beasts of his group. "Sark, go ahead and check the altar. You have the best defense between us, so if something happens, retreat immediately." Sarks nodded and stepped forward. Hanan and the others observed that while keeping their guards high. Still, Sark was able to make his way to the altar without any issues. Too bad, though. Even after arriving there, he couldn''t see anything like what they had been looking for. "Impossible! It was supposed to be here." "Could it be that someone came here before us?" Hanan''s group immediately fell silent. Sure, they haven''t found anyone on the upper floors for a long time. After all, they had been moving up as fast as possible. But each one of the floors was immense. Not to mention that there wasn''t just a single Light Pillar connecting them. That being said, they can''t rule out the possibility of someone having used another path to reach this place first. "Julie, I''ll have to count on you for that." Julie sighed but nodded nonetheless. She then approached the altar where the Holy Land Artifact was before and took another piece of equipment out of her Spatial Ring. After putting it on the altar, she began to draw several Seals on the air. As those Seal activated, the equipment seemed to come back to life. Inscriptions began to shine around it as the surrounding energy began to rush in and out. It was as if that thing was filtering the energy that it took. As the process continued, Julie''s complexion began to pale. However, she didn''t stop and kept using the Seals. Finally, she couldn''t hold back anymore and vomited blood. The equipment then fell on the altar once more. Yet, the inscriptions on it didn''t disappear as it continued to filter the energy of the surroundings. The process continued for another 30 or so minutes before it suddenly brightened. The light kept coming out of the equipment for a few more seconds until it eventually disappeared. Julie sighed in relief as she took it back. "It is done. However, I had to use too much energy on it. After all, this is a Divinity Realm level equipment. From now on, I''m almost useless in battle." Hanan didn''t mind, though. "It''s okay. As long as we can bring the artifact back with us, everything else won''t matter, including our lives." Julie and the others nodded. Hanan then took that equipment that seemed like a box and poured his Spiritual Energy inside. His complexion also turned worse for a second, but he quickly recovered. Using a Divinity Level equipment at their level was really too hard. Even though Hanan only activated it for a second, his foundation was almost damaged. Let alone Julie, who used it for so long. The box had filtered the energy on the altar, separating the Holy Land Artifact''s lingering power from the rest. Now it could be used to find the location of the thing that had the same kind of energy. "Sigh... It is not in the Origin Realm anymore. Let''s make our way back while we take turns to activate it. Most likely, someone took it already." Hanan then looked at Julie before saying. "I know that your foundation has been severely damage-" However, Julie cut his words right there. "Don''t worry, I''m going as well. It is exactly because my foundation is damaged that I should use the equipment even more. It is better to keep the four of you at peak state since I already can''t help anymore. Every time one of you uses it, I will be the next one. That is the safest way." Hanan looked at Julie with a complicated expression, but he knew that it was necessary. "Very well, let''s go." The four of them quickly made their way out of the Origin Realm. As soon as they stepped on the 50th Floor, Julie took the box and poured her Spiritual Energy into it once more. "Argh!" Her complexion, which was already bad, got even worse. She then passed the box back to Hanan while gasping for air. "It''s... not in the 50th floor''s... dimensional realm." Hanan quickly helped her up. "I''ll carry you from now on, just focus on recovering before you need to use the box again." Spiritual Energy came out of Hanan''s body and enveloped Julie''s body. She then began to float right there and then. This is what wisps do to move things when they are not in their human form. Anyone can do that as long as the other party doesn''t fight against it. "Alright, let''s go to the next Light Pillar." Back on Krune''s side, Little Arty had just received a message from Fie. "Little Arty, something is wrong. I felt like my connection with you has been messed up somehow." Usually, Little Arty wouldn''t answer. However, he also felt the same thing, and it happened twice already. "I know. Our connection is made through the energy of your body and mine. But it seems like something tried to pry inside my energy, even though it was for a single second only. That''s why we felt this together. Of course, you don''t need to worry. A connection between a Spiritual Artifact and its master can not be cut just like that. Unless you die or I''m destroyed, such a thing would be impossible." Of course, Fie could release Little Arty of her own volution if she wanted. But that wasn''t the case. "What do you think that is doing it?" Little Arty snorted after hearing that. "You don''t need to worry, I know what is happening. Leave it to me, just focus on your training. You only have another one year, and some months before the Holy Land closes. After that, you won''t be able to find so many geniuses to fight against anymore." Fie nodded and didn''t ask anymore. If Little Arty said that there is no problem, then it should be fine. After all, he is the Holy Land Owner. Little Arty''s attention came back to his group. Everyone was still gathered while deciding their next move. "Alright, listen up. We have company." Krune''s group attention was immediately caught by Little Arty. "Company? Heavin, check around!" Heavin nodded and immediately spread his mental energy. In these five years, Heavin went from the 3rd Stage of the Soul Transformation Realm all the way to the Soul Control Realm 1st Stage! Heavin had now the ability to move his consciousness as he sees fit. Of course, Heavin wouldn''t be idiot enough to do such a thing now. First, Krune and Heavin don''t know the side effects of the separation. After all, Heavin would need a part of the Divine Soul to be cut. Krune''s Life Dew Pill can only guarantee a full recovery while he is in the Void Breaking Realm or below. Now that he entered the Divine Path Realm, he doesn''t know how effective it would be. Second, Heavin''s puppet is far from being ready to hold a soul. Not only he lacks the material to make a good enough one, but he also requires the experience. He will need to wait to go outside to began to practice it seriously. So until they are back to the Wisp Main World, Heavin will not leave Krune''s foundation. However, being in the 1st Stage of the Soul Control Realm had made Heavin a lot stronger. His Mental Energy was now able to go as far as 180km while still in the Holy Land. Even Hanan Frunkan''s Divine Sense, the Heavenly Divine Soul Owner at the peak of the Divine Path Realm, couldn''t do go that far. The others were also practicing Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique. Still, even Krune, the one with the second-highest soul cultivation, was only in the 1st Stage of the Soul Transformation. No one could possibly compete with Heavin in this area. "I''m checking it here, but there isn''t anyone close to us." Little Arty quickly explained. "Don''t worry, these ''friends'' are not here yet. They are on the 50th Floor. At the moment, they are making their way to the 49th one." Krune and the others were taken aback. "Does it mean that you recovered your power over the formations of the Holy Land?" Little Arty then continued. "Almost six years passed already, so a few simple ones like the monitoring formations have already completed their owner shifting. Don''t expect me to be able to do anything spectacular, though. First of all, I wouldn''t do it even if you wanted since it would go against the Holy Land''s purpose. This is the last time the Holy Land is open, so I want it to be over as my old master devised it." "Anyway, forget about it. There seems to be a group that came inside with the purpose of acquire me. They went to the Origin Realm but couldn''t find me there. However, they brought with them some kind of spiritual equipment that is able to pry into the lingering energy I left behind. At the moment, I believe they are checking each Floor''s Dimensional Realm for my presence." Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "Why didn''t you tell us that before?" "That''s because I didn''t know about them until they tried to find where I am. At first, I wasn''t sure, but when they tried the second time, I was finally certain that they came after me." Krune narrowed his eyes. "Seems like it''s quite a strong foe." Little Arty agreed with Krune. "Indeed, they are not a group that you would be able to deal with. If you encounter them, you will all be dead for sure. However... there is a little trick we can use against them... hehe!" 510 Holy Lands Next Transformation Everyone looked at Little Arty at the same time. "What trick?" Little Arty laughed before saying. "Actually, it is very simple. We just need to move to the next Light Pillar and wait for them to come. I''m monitoring them, and I can tell that they can only check each floor twice. From the looks of that girl in their group, the device''s level they are using to look for me is much higher than what they could support." "Most likely, it is a Divinity Level one. But that is comprehensible. I''m already a god-level equipment, so I''m impressed that a Divinity Level one can even feel my presence. Sure enough, the backlash after using it is not easy to resist. So they are checking the same floor when they arrive and a few days later when they are about to leave it." "That being said, we just need to wait for them to teleport to this floor while we teleport to the next one. Once they do the search on this floor, I would be gone to the next already. They won''t find anything and will move down again, so they will pass by us without even noticing." Krune and the others couldn''t help but laugh after hearing that. Indeed, that was a very effective method. "Alright, let''s follow Little Arty''s plan." Everyone nodded. Soon after, Krune''s group began to make their way to the next Light Pillar. Somewhere close to it, Feifei built a concealing formation, and they started to wait. Since there was nothing better to do, they simply cultivated during this time. The days passed in a flash when finally, Hanan Frunkan''s group arrived at the Light Pillar that could bring them to the 37th floor. Little Arty, of course, was keeping a close eye on them. "Well, wait for a second. They are about to search for me with that box again." Back on Hanan Frunkan''s side, Morjin, one of his companions, was doing the search. "Argh..." His face went pale, but he soon finished the search. After taking a healing pill, he looked at everyone before saying. "It is not on this floor either. Are you sure this thing works? Why would the guy who took the Holy Land''s Artifact descend so much?" Julie, who had a terrible complexion, could only answer. "I don''t know, but this is the only way we have at the moment. I won''t deny, perhaps the Artifact hasn''t been there for a long time already. Maybe whoever took it broke through into the Divine View Realm and was teleported outside with it. There are many possibilities, but we can only do what we can now, which is looking for it." Hanan nodded. "Julie is right. Let''s keep going down. If we reach the first floor and don''t find anything, then we can only contact the clan head and see what he has to say." Everyone agreed with Hanan, and they immediately passed through the Light Pillar once more. Back on Krune''s side, Little Arty also gave the order. "We can go up now." "Little Arty, how is it?" "Give me a second, I''m looking at them. It seems like that girl in their group is once again doing the search now." On Hanan''s side, Julie vomited blood, but still finished the search. Hanan and her companions couldn''t help but feel dejected every time they saw that. "There is no need for you guys to feel like that for me. I''m doing it because I want to. Anyway, the search returned no results, either." Little Arty saw that, but because Julie used a Divine Sense message, he didn''t know whether she had found something. "Alright, we should move to the next Light Pillar. They finished their search once more, so if they found something, they will most likely come up. If that happens, we need to be ready to move." Krune and the others agreed with Little Arty. But in the end, there was no need to be worried since a few days later, Hanan''s group went down once more. "It seems like it worked." Krune''s group let out a sigh of relief. "Alright, we should focus on our cultivation once more. For the next few days, let''s stay together too. In case they decide to come up again, Little Arty will be able to tell all of us. If not, we can go back to our previous cultivation schedule." Hanan''s group already arrived on the 30th floor a few days later, but they still found nothing. Without any other choice, they could only keep going down. In the end, they didn''t go up anymore. With that out of the way, Krune''s group began to do what they did before, separating and going in different directions. Of course, Little Arty showed them where they could gather once more as always. Time passed, and a few months quickly went by. Hanan''s group began to take even longer to check each floor since Julie reached a point where she couldn''t use their search equipment anymore. That being said, they could only sit down and spend a few days to recover before doing the search again. However, they finally arrived at the first floor after so long. On their way here, Little Arty paid attention to see if they wouldn''t detect Fie as well. But by its looks, their equipment could only find his presence, not his master''s. Hanan''s group didn''t find anything, so they could only contact the Frunkan Clan Head again. Of course, before that, they used the same method that they did when they reached him for the first time. So even Little Arty couldn''t see or hear anything. Soon, the white fog inside the transparent orb took the form of a head as it looked at Hanan and the others. "How was it?" Hanan took a deep breath. "Reporting to Clan Head, it goes like this..." As Hanan explained the situation, the complexion of the man in the orb became worse. Finally, Hanan finished saying that they verified each and every floor, but found nothing as well. "How is that possible? No one should know about the Holy Land''s Artifact! It must be in there, it must!" Hanan then asked the man. "Clan Head. Could it be that whoever took it broke through into the Divine View Realm to be teleported outside? After all, the Holy Land doesn''t allow anyone above the Divine Path Realm to stay inside. This would be a sure-fire method to bring the Artifact outside, no?" However, the Clan Head immediately shook his head. "That is impossible. The Holy Land and the Artifact could be said to be one with each other. If someone really brought it away, the Holy Land would most likely break apart. But I can guarantee that the Holy Land is still in the same place." The man didn''t know that the Holy Land''s transformation was so that it could be sent into Little Arty''s body, though. Hanan nodded. "In that case, what does Clan Head suggest? We are in a blind run here at the moment. The search box didn''t locate it anywhere at all." Just as the Clan Head was about to talk, something unexpected happened. Suddenly, the entire Holy Land began to tremble once more! "What is happening?" Hanan looked at Tannin Frunkan before asking. "Tannin, go outside and check it. See if anyone is attacking us." Tannin nodded and immediately rushed out of their hiding place. However, it took only one minute for him to come back. "That wasn''t it. As far as my Divine Sense can see, all the land is trembling. It is just like 5 years ago." Hanan narrowed his eyes. "Could it be..." Back on Krune''s side, they are staying close to a light pillar. Their plan was to go up to the 42nd floor, where the Godly Energy is stronger. But now that the Holy Land began to tremble again, they immediately discarded this idea. However, what really caught Krune''s group attention was the Light Pillar instead. *Crack, crack, crack!* Several fractures started to appear on it. But it wasn''t the only one. All the Light Pillars of the Holy Land began to crack as well. The process continued for a few minutes until finally... *Shatter!* The Light Pillars began to break apart! The entire structure then fell down on the ground. All the cultivators and demon beasts who saw that were worried about what was happening. Of course, Little Arty immediately understood it. "As expected, the first time wasn''t the last." Everyone looked at him, waiting for an explanation. "The first phase of the Holy Land transformation was to gather the random Dimensional Realm of the first floors together. Now it seems like the Holy Land is entering the next step of this transformation, which means that all 50 levels are going to become a single gigantic one." Krune and the others were taken aback. "What about Godly Energy? Wouldn''t it crush everyone who can''t resist its pressure?" "No. Have you noticed that the closer you were to a Light Pillar, the stronger the Godly Energy flow was? After all the realms fuse together, the same thing will happen. The closer you are to the center, the stronger the energy will be. So as long as you move away, you should be fine. The problem is, we won''t be able to use that trick anymore." Krune immediately understood that Little Arty was talking about his pursues. "It seems like we will need to think about another counter-measure." 511 End of Fusion! Krune pondered a bit and asked. "Now that the Light Pillars are destroyed, no one can change floors, correct?" Little Arty confirmed. "Yes. Everyone is locked until the realms finish fusing." "In that case, how long will it take for everything to connect?" Little Arty thought for a while before answering. "This fusion is much bigger than last time. So it will take a lot longer. From what I can see, I believe that no less than 5 months." Krune nodded. "In that case, we have plenty of time to prepare. What are the cultivation levels of our opponents?" "The five of them are all in the peak of the Divine Path Realm. However, one of them is not in a condition to battle anymore, so there are four instead. Oh, right, one of them is a Heavenly Divine Soul. I can tell this much since I''ve been observing him during these months." Krune narrowed his eyes. A peak Heavenly Divine Soul is way far from his reach. To battle on equal terms, Krune would need to be at least in the 6th Stage of the Divine Path Realm, but 5 months is far from enough to get there. Not to mention that there are still the other three who have the same cultivation. "Well, it doesn''t mean that we can''t ask for help. Little Arty, you know where Cinty and Laka are at the moment. Also, knowing their cultivations would be quite good." Little Arty focused on the monitoring formations. Cinty was on the 45th floor at the moment. When she entered the Holy Land, she was already in the Divine Path Realm 2nd Stage. After eight years and a half, she already arrived in the 9th Stage. That was to be expected. After all, not only she had both the Elemental and Chaos Meridians, she is also a Blackhole Major Divine Soul owner. At this moment, Cinty was more focused on expanding her foundation and comprehending laws. As for Laka, he doesn''t have the Elemental Meridians, let alone the Chaos ones. Because of that, his speed is far from what Krune and Cinty can achieve. Still, he entered the Holy Land at the 9th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. After all this time, he was able to cultivate on his own to the 6th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. One must remember that a Blackhole Heavenly Fragment must be added to the mix for a Heavenly Divine Soul to appear. So Heavenly Divine Soul Owners have faster cultivations than others to start with. "I see, Laka has a Purple Flame Dragon Pearl, so he definitely can jump another 2 or 3 Stages while fighting. Alacanta is definitely with him, and she is also a 9th Stage Divine Path Realm Phoenix. If we can get the help of Laka and Alacanta as well, we won''t have anything to fear." Feifei agreed with Krune. But it was then that Laex laughed. "Don''t worry. If it is just that, you can leave it to me. I know how to convince Laka without having to reveal anything." Krune nodded. "Since that is the case, we are pretty much prepared. First of all, I''m not sure if a fight will even be necessary. We will have to hear the other side first. As for the rest of our group here in the Holy Land, their cultivation is too low, so they won''t be able to help. It is better to leave them out." Heavin couldn''t help but ask. "Shouldn''t you look for Wamie as well?" Krune shook his head. "She should have cultivation on par or below Feifei at the moment. So she will not be of much help either. In fact, I wouldn''t let Feifei participate as well if not for her Illusion of Destiny Domain. The difference in cultivation is too high." Feifei wasn''t angry to hear that. She knows that Krune was right. The fact that she can at least help with her Domain is already an excellent thing. "Very well. So we will follow this plan. Five months from now, we will gather those three and prepare a welcome party for those friends." Everyone agreed with the plan and returned to their cultivation time. Since they are locked in this place, they might as well increase their strength as much as possible. Back on Hanan''s side, he reported what was happening to the Holy Land to the Frunkan Clan Head. "I see... Such a thing is happening to the Holy Land. I believe your conjecture. Most likely, they Dimensional Realms of the Holy Land are fusing together. After all, that''s what happened before. But this is also good. If the Holy Land Artifact is really inside the Holy Land, then you should be able to detect it after the fusion." "However, you better be careful. The fact that such changes are happening with the Holy Land is most likely because of the Holy Land Artifact too. Although you all have the highest cultivation possible for this place, you don''t know what to expect ahead." Hanan nodded. "Don''t worry, Clan Head. We will make sure that everything ends well. But I have a question, though. If we find the Artifact and it is being protected by others, what should we do if we can''t beat them?" The Clan Head narrowed his eyes. That was really a possibility. First and foremost, he knows that Hanan is far from being the only Heavenly Fragment Owner in the Holy Land. "If it is really the case, try to negotiate with them. If possible, call me over when the time comes. Of course, if you can eliminate any resistance and get the Holy Land Artifact, that will be for the best." Hanan sighed but nodded in the end. The mission this time around was supposed to have gone without any problems. But no one expected that the Holy Land Artifact would have been taken by someone else. Their group then discussed for a while longer before cutting the connection. They took the pseudo-dimensional realm formation down once more after that. "Alright, since we are stuck here, focus on improving yourselves. Even though we are on the first floor, Godly Energy is still Godly Energy. Not to mention that we don''t need to cultivate anymore, so Laws and Foundation should be your focus." Hanan then looked at Julie with a gentle expression. "You should take this time to stabilize your foundation as well. Once we are out, I''ll do my best to get someone to heal your foundation." Julie smiled at Hanan before she focused on her recovery. Because of the constant use of the Divinity Level Searching Artifact, her foundation was not only on the verge of breaking apart, but her cultivation was also profoundly affected. The only reason it hasn''t dropped so far was that she kept taking several healing pills to compensate for it. Still, if she doesn''t stabilize it soon, it would start to drop. Time passed, and the Holy land transformation continued. Little by little, the Dimensional Realms began to connect together. The Origin Realm, where the connection with the Higher Realms is located, became the very center. After three months, it was already possible to see the other Dimensional Realms when you went to the border of the Realm you were staying at. However, there was still a spatial barrier separating them. Because of that, no one could pass from one Dimensional Realm to another. As the shape of the transformation took place, Krune''s group moved close to the place they would be closest to Cinty. The total time it took for all the Dimensional Realms to connect was five months and twelve days. With that, the Holy Lands had now been open for over 9 years too! As soon as the last Dimensional Realm arrived in its position, the spatial barriers separating all of them began to dissipate. Krune and his group saw that as well, so they immediately moved out. Little Arty, of course, led the way to where Cinty was discovered. At the same time, Hanan''s group did the search once more. This time, however, they finally got an answer. "Found it!!!" Hanan and everyone else''s eyes lit up! It was finally time. "So it is still inside the Holy Land after all..." He then took a deep breath before saying. "Let''s go!" 512 Gathering Everyone Because Hanan was all the way back to the first floor, he was several times further from Krune''s group than Cinty or Laka were. That being said, Krune found Cinty first in the place which was considered the 45th floor before. Krune then explained the entire situation to her. "I see... to think so many things happened in the meantime. But you are right, considering their forces, as long as we get Laka and Alacanta, we shouldn''t be in the losing end. To be honest, I think we would have the advantage instead." Krune nodded. "I agree, but Little Arty said that they are already coming in our direction, so we should go find Laka straight away." Cinty agreed with Krune as Little Arty looked for Laka and Alacanta''s location. "If you two are finished, then let''s go." Krune''s group once again departed, making their way to where Laka was staying. All the Realms of the higher floors were quite big to start with, so to cross the entire distance still took them two whole weeks. Sure enough, Laka was taken aback when he saw Krune''s group appearing inside his Divine Sense. "Oh?! To think they would appear here." Not too long after, they met each other. "Hahaha! Nice to see you guys. It''s been nine years, uh?" Pah! Suddenly, Alacanta gave Laka a slap on the back of his head. Krune and the others looked at that, puzzled. Did Laka say something wrong? "Aren''t you forgetting something first, idiot?" In fact, Laka was already stronger than Alancanta. Still, the fear of several years under this Phoenix''s watching wasn''t something that could be erased that easy. Because of that, Laka didn''t dare to go against her words. "My beloved protector, what did I do wrong?" "Do you even need to ask? You forgot to tell them a piece of critical information about the Holy Land when they came in, no?" "Ah!" Only now Laka remembered that problem. "Errr... Sorry about that. I completely forgot about the random realms of the Holy Land." Laex shrugged his shoulders, though. "Of course you did. You wouldn''t dare to hide it from me to start with." "What do you mean? Do you think I''m afraid of you?" "You might not be afraid of me, but about a few things that I know." Laka looked at Laex, not knowing what he meant. But it was then that Laex began to tell a story. "Cough, cough. Planet Vaiun, close to a particular mountain called Harklin. There you can finmhmhmhhmhmhh..." Laka''s face went pale almost instantly! In a flash, he already appeared in front of Laex, quickly covering his mouth. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Laex glanced at Laka. Anyone could see that he was trying to hold his laugh. Still, he quickly removed Laka''s hand before continuing. "Is that how you should ask me?" "Oh my Ancestor Laex, is there something you need from this lowly one?" Everyone looked at that with weird expressions. By now, everyone wanted to know what was the continuation of Laex''s story. However, they understood that it was something that Laex had to keep secret. "Very good. It seems like you still know your place. Don''t forget, I''m older than you, so you should treat this ancestor of yours with respect." "Yes, yes! Definitely!" As fast as Laka kneeled down, he got up again. "Good. I need your help with something. We found a treasure in this Holy Land, but it seems like there is a group after it. I need your help to defend against them. For some reason, they seem to be able to find its location. You wouldn''t mind offering us a hand, right?" Laka was obviously curious about what kind of treasure it was, but he knew it was not part of the deal to know. "Alright! But once I''m done with it, you should never touch that topic ever again. Deal?" Laex smiled while nodding. "Deal. I shall bring that thing to my grave." Laka sighed in relief after hearing that. As for Alacanta, she simply didn''t know what to do with Laka anymore. Yet, she had to admit that she was quite curious about Laex''s story. ''Perhaps, I can convince him to tell me later. It would be very good to keep this idiot outside trouble.'' Laka then looked at Krune and the others before asking. "So, what is it that I should expect? For you to ask my help, there should be some strong opponents on the other side, right?" However, Alacanta was more curious about something else. "I will help as well since I''m this idiot''s protector, but there is one thing I want to know. How did you find us?" Krune then answered. "Laka''s Dragon Pearl. As long as he isn''t too far away, I can use its lingering power to locate him." Alacanta quickly nodded. She really thought that it had something to do with the Dragon Pearl. In fact, it wasn''t totally a lie. As long as Laka is close enough, Light Spirit can use the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl''s lingering power to find its location. Krune had done it to find Laex in the past too. Of course, this time, they used Little Arty since it was a lot more practical. Alacanta didn''t complain about this ability to find Laka''s position through his Dragon Pearl. Considering the benefit that it brought to him, this was a small price to pay. With that out of the way, Krune began to explain everything while hiding the fact that Little Arty was the Holy Land''s Artifact. "A peak Heavenly Divine Soul Owner?! Great! I haven''t found a real match in a long time. Ever since I passed the 5th Stage of the Divine Path Realm, my combat power became higher than most of Heavenly Divine Soul Owners." Krune wasn''t surprised to hear that. "That''s the power of the Dragon Pearl, after all. Anyway, we need help to protect it. Since this is already the last year of Holy Land, you wouldn''t mind giving us a hand, yea?" Laka patted his chest. "Leave it to me! I won''t ask what this treasure is either. After all, your special Dragon Pearl is a lot more critical for the Dragon Race." Alacanta also nodded. She, too, thinks that the Dragon Pearl is better than anything else they might find. Krune''s group had now two 9th Stage Divine Path Realm demon beasts, Alacanta and Cinty. Laex was in the 7th Stage while Laka was on the 6th. However, Laka was definitely the strongest one in the group, thanks to his Heavenly Divine Soul and Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. For Krune to battle him, being three stages behind wasn''t enough anymore. Krune would have to be in the same cultivation stage for sure. That''s how heaven-defying a Dragon Pearl is for the Dragons and Dragonkin races. In the last five months, while the Dimensional Realms were fusing, Krune had another breakthrough and was now in the 4th Stage of the Divine Path Realm. Lala was still in the 5th while Feifei was in the 2nd. The plan was simple. Laka and Alacanta would take care of the Peak Heavenly Divine Soul Owner cultivator. Laex, with his own Purple Flame Dragon Pearl, would take care of one of the 9th Stage enemies. Cinty had both the Elemental Meridians and Chaos Meridians. Not to mention her Blackhole Major Divine Soul, so she was also responsible for another 9th Stage oppo. Finally, Krune, Feifei, and Lala would take care of the last one. As long as it is not a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, Krune is confident that he can take one of them head-on. Let alone with Feifei and Lala''s help. That is also why Krune believes that his group definitely had the advantage. Last but not least, they had Heavin on their side, which was kind of a secret weapon. After they discussed the plan, everyone found a good place to wait. They could keep running away, trying to avoid this battle, but that wasn''t what Krune desired. Since they can find Little Arty''s location, it was better to get over with it before they need to exit the Holy Land. Alacanta then took the opportunity to make a few more questions. "By the way, I won''t ask you what kind of treasure it is. However, does it have something to do with the actual state of the Holy Land? All the Dimensional Realms Fused together, something that never happened in the past." Krune pondered a bit and nodded. "It is indeed related. But you don''t need to worry. From what we found out, the Holy Land will not be destroyed with us inside it or anything like that. Once the ten years have passed, everyone will be teleported out as always." Alacanta nodded, satisfied. Her main concern was that they might have been in danger of dying because of the Holy Land transformation. But if they can all leave this place safely, then that is enough. As for why the change was happening, she wasn''t interested. The Holy Land is considered part of the Dalin Universe. It goes without saying that the Dalin Universe Management thought about it as something extremely important. That being said, someone like her or her Universe did not have the power to meddle on whatever might be happening with this place. If anything, she doesn''t even want to get involved. The days passed in a flash, and another two weeks went by. Eventually, Little Arty warned everyone. "They are here." Heavin spread his Mental Energy, and sure enough, he was the first to detect their presence. Krune then got up while looking in the direction they were coming from. "Well, let''s say hello to our new ''friends.''" 513 Battles for Little Arty It didn''t take long for Kurne and Hanan''s group to meet each other. After looking at Krune''s entourage, Hanan couldn''t help but narrow his eyes since Krune''s group numbers were higher than his own. Hanan then looked at Krune''s neck and almost instantly recognized it as the item he had been looking for. To be safer, Little Arty decided to stay with Krune this time around instead of Feifei. "I believe you have something that is mine." Krune snorted, though. "I believe you are wrong. Am I not right, Little Arty?" Little Arty then began to float. "So you are the guys who entered my Origin Realm to look for me, uh? Speak, what do you want?" Hanan wasn''t surprised that it could speak. They had already been informed that the Holy Land Artifact had an Artifact Spirit. "I can''t tell, but I can guarantee that we mean no harm to you. As long as you come with us, no one needs to get injured." Hanan decided to negotiate first. The strength of the opposite group was above what he expected. Not to mention that he could see Laka looking at him as if he wanted to fight as soon as possible. As a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, he could totally tell that Laka was the same type as him. In the end, he had no confidence that they could really take the Holy Land Artifact on their own. Little Arty, on the other hand, began to laugh out loud. "I''m sorry to throw it on your face, but your group doesn''t have the ability to beat mine. I''m not trying to trick you, but just stating a fact. Besides, who would follow you just because you said so? Ridiculous!" Hanan then asked back. "Then why are you following this group? Isn''t that the same thing?" "You are wrong. I have accepted a new master, so I obviously had to follow them. But before you have the wrong ideas, I select my Master on my own. I wasn''t forced by anyone to do so." Hanan just sighed. "Of course, you were not forced. You are a God-Level Equipment. Considering that no one in the Holy Land has cultivation above the Divine Path Realm, it is simply impossible to force you to do anything you don''t want. Well, at least, everyone other than us." Little Arty snorted once more. "It seems like you came prepared for my rejection. Too bad, though. If I was still under my last Master''s contract, then it might have worked. Let me guess, you brought a Catacklie Stone, am I right?" Hanan''s expression changed after hearing that. This was the first time he heard something he didn''t expect. "You know about it?" Little Arty confirmed. Hanan didn''t know if the Artifact Spirit was telling the truth. But it would be quite troublesome if it was so. "What can we do for you to accept to come with us?" "You shouldn''t make this question, though. First, I need to know what you want me for." Of course, Little Arty was necessary for their Liberation of Dalin''s Plan. However, he couldn''t tell that now. This is a strictly forbidden secret that shouldn''t leave the Frunkan Clan at any cost. Otherwise, the Frunkan Clan would most likely be wiped out. However, it didn''t seem like Little Arty would come with them without hearing the reason. ''I better try their strength first. They only have two Peak Divine Path Realm and one Heavenly Divine Soul Oner. If it turns out that we are stronger, then we can force the artifact spirit to come with us in exchange for their lives.'' "In that case, let us battle. Negotiations are made between parties of equal strength. If your group can prove that you have the power, then we shall continue this conversation." Hanan then looked at Julie. "Stay far away. We won''t be able to protect you for now." Julie quickly nodded before retreating. She really was in no condition to force a battle at the moment. On Krune''s side, Laka immediately got excited. "Great! I was afraid I wouldn''t be able to have fun today. Alacanta, do not intervene. That guy with the Heavenly Divine Soul is mine. Hahaha!" Of course, Alacanta wouldn''t simply follow Laka''s orders. However, she decided to watch on the sidelines to see what Laka could do with his cultivation and Dragon Pearl. After all, his opponent was three stages above him. Laka, Laex, Cinty, Krune, Alacanta, and Lala. All the demon beasts in their group immediately returned to their real forms. Still, Alacanta was taken aback by that. After all, this was the first time she saw Krune and Cinty''s real form too. She didn''t expect that those two were wisps at all! Hanan''s group was also shocked after seeing Krune and Cinty. Obviously, they knew everything about the wisps situation. Right now, there are two wisps in the Divine path Realm right in front of them. How could he not be startled by that? ''Could it be Wally''s doing?'' Indeed, anyone in Hanan''s position would have this idea as him. However, it was not time to think about it. That''s because Laka was coming straight at him. Laka''s entire body had a purple hue, which was the effect of the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. Hanan was three stages above Laka, but something told him that Laka couldn''t be underestimated. "Dragon and Phoenix Blast!" One must remember that although Laka isn''t a Dracophoenix, he is still the child of a Dragon and a Phoenix. So he could use both their bloodline powers! Hanan''s expression changed as he immediately attacked back. "Heaven and Earth as one, Heavenly Sunder!" KaBoom! Hanan and Laka went all out in the very first clash. But surprisingly, neither side got the advantage in this first exchange. Immediately, the fabric of space over several kilometers broke apart! That instantly impeded anyone from using abilities like teleport. Without a stable space, teleporting was akin to suicide. Laka and Hanan got knocked back by the explosion. Still, Laka quickly recovered and charged once more. His eyes were brimming with fighting intent. This exchange just now confirmed to Laex that he could really go all out. He had been looking for someone like that for quite some time. However, Hanan was really shocked by that. He had really used his full power in the last attack, but he still couldn''t get the upper hand even with his cultivation advantage. Of course, that only lasted a moment. The battle was ongoing, so he couldn''t waste time thinking about it. He had to accept the reality of things. Hana took out his weapon and charged forward as well. Immediately the area around those two became a forbidden zone that very few could intervene. The others were not still either. Laex also fused with his own Purple Flame Dragon Pearl and began to battle Sark, the Zukan. As mentioned before, this is a type of flying demon beast of the Dalin Universe that spread out through other Universes after Dalin was conquered. "Descent of the Dragon!" "Windy Space Cutter!" *Crash!* As soon as both attacks hit each other, Sark''s expression paled. That''s because Laex passed right through it with pure might! Sark''s advantage in cultivation proved to be useless. Laex could totally fight him on equal terms. Or to be more specific, Laex had the advantage! Laex has the Elemental Meridians, so his ability to control the Dragon Pearl''s overflowing power is much better than Laka. The cultivation difference between them is smaller than that of Laka and Hanan as well, so he obviously got it easy. Fortunately for Sark, he was faster than laex, so he dodged the Descent of the Dragon in the last moment. "This is going to be complicated." On Cinty''s side, she was fighting the other demon beast of the Hanan''s Group, Morjin. For her, things were being even easier. First, she is also at the peak of the Divine Path Realm. Second, she had the Elemental Meridians, Chaos Meridians, and a Blackhole Major Divine Soul. If not for the fact that Morjin was also a Major Divine Soul Owner, he wouldn''t even be able to resist her. "Space-Time Severing!" Space began to split apart around Morjin as the time seemed to come to a standstill. Morjin felt alarmed by Cinty''s power. She was much stronger than he could have expected. "Elemental Destruction!" The Five Elements gathered around Morjin as they began to react to each other. Suddenly, the entire area around began to explode with several kinds of colored energy. Usually, Morjin would use this ability to attack. But he was forced to use it as a defense this time. Space, Time, and Elements encountered each other in a great clash that transformed the land around Morjin. Kaboom! "Argh!" Morjin was immediately knocked away like a cannonball, only stopping several kilometers away. After seeing that, Cinty had to admit that she was a little impressed by Morjin''s choice. "I see... you have an Elemental Major Divine Soul, right?" Morjin answered that with a question of his own. "And you have a Blackhole one, correct?" Although he looked composed, the fact is that he already understood that things were terrible to his side. He doesn''t have a chance to win this battle. The previous exchange was enough for him to realize that Cinty surpasses him in both power and laws. Cinty didn''t answer and continued her long-range assault. Sure enough, as a wisp, she was focused on long-ranged fights just like Krune. The last battle was on Krune''s side. However, this one could be said to be the easiest one between them all. First, Feifei''s Illusion of Destiny Domain allowed Krune and Lala to be ready for anything that Tannin Frunkan threw at them. Not to mention that her Swords'' Formation gave them some support. Second, they had the numbers advantage. Third, Krune''s attack wasn''t the least bit weaker than his opponent. Last but not least, Lala was in the front keeping Tannin occupied while Krune focused on his attacks alone. Lala is four Stages below in cultivation than Tannin. However, she is a Scarlet Bear, a demon beast with a lot of defense. Adding Feifei''s Domain and Krune''s Tribulation Shields'' Support, she could charge forward without fear. Tannin already had a hard time dealing with Krune alone, let alone when Feifei and Lala were there too. Without a doubt, Tannin would be the first one to fall if the situation continued like that. Hanan Frunkan might be going all out against Laka, but he kept his Divine Sense focus on everyone. So he could tell that the situation wasn''t good to their side. Not to mention that Alacanta, the peak Divine Path Realm Phoenix, hadn''t made her move yet. His team was already on the losing end, even though she wasn''t doing anything. If Alacanta joined any of the battles going around, they would lose for sure. But it was at this moment that the last member of Krune''s group made his appearance. Purple Lightning was coming out of his wings as Mental Energy accumulated in front of his Beak. Of course, this one none else other than Heavin! With his last breakthrough in his Soul Cultivation Technique, his Mental Energy became even stronger. The Mental Energy in front of Heavin''s Beak was so concentrated that even space around it began to get affected. As for his target, it was obviously Tannin Frunkan. After all, this was the guy in the worst condition at the moment. As long as he can get rid of this guy, Krune''s side will be free to help the others. Heavin was fully covered in Purple Tribulation Lightning to prevent Divine Sense Search, so Tannin didn''t see him coming at all! Heavin had been hidden this entire time, waiting for the right opportunity to attack, and that was now! Boom! Tannin was knocked back once more by Lala directly to the place where Heavin''s attack would land. Heavin could totally see the perfect timing thanks to Feifei''s Domain too. However, one last member of Hanan''s group had been watching the battle from far away. Thanks to that, this member wasn''t inside Feifei''s Domain. Suddenly, Heavin saw another Illusion of Destiny appearing right in front of the location where Tannin was about to land. Sure enough, that was Julie Frunkan, the girl who had damaged her foundation and shouldn''t be doing battle at the moment. Hanan''s eyes went red when he saw Julie trying to block Heavin. It was because Julie came forward that he finally noticed Heavin with his eyes. Heavin was still covered in his Purple Tribulation Layer, so Hanan''s Divine Sense couldn''t feel what was inside. He didn''t understand what was wrong about that Purple Lightning ball, but he felt his hair standing up just looking at it. "Julie, Stop! You won''t be able to block it!" He immediately sent his Divine Sense message to warn Julie. Of course, Julie also felt like this thing attacking Tannin was extremely powerful. However, she couldn''t simply stay still as Tannin was about to die either. Heavin didn''t care, though. Since he was going to hit one of them head-on, then that was good enough. ''I refuse to believe you can block both my Mental Pierce attack and the God-Level Beak.'' Julie''s face paled as Heavin''s attack appeared right in front of her eyes. There wasn''t any change to dodge it anymore. But it was also in this moment of life and death that Julie remembered one thing that could give her a slive of hope. Suddenly, a Small Red Box covered with several inscriptions appeared right between her and Heavin''s Mental and Physical attacks. As soon as that thing appeared, Little Arty identified it. "It''s the searching equipment they were using to find my location!" 514 Baren Frunkan Hanan also saw that, and his eyes lit up! ''Great! That''s a piece of Divinity Level equipment. Even though it is only a searching type, no one in this Holy Land should think about breaking it. That should give Julie a chance to retreat.'' Heavin didn''t know what that was but didn''t hold back at all. *Clash!* Heavin''s God-Level beak hit the Divinity Level Search box head-on. As soon as that happened, Julie did her best to retreat. She was already happy that she timed the block well enough. But just a split of a second later, the Search Box began to crack! The crack began to spread all around the box until finally, it shattered! Hanan and his group couldn''t believe what they saw. How come there is something capable of breaking a Divinity Level Equipment? Still, Julie got the time she needed. Heavin does have a God-Level Beak, but it is not like he can control it with Spiritual Energy. All he does is basically point it in a direction and strike. That being said, he is far from being able to use that thing''s real power. Thus, Julie was able to buy enough time to get away from him and save Tannin at that. Julie felt like her heart had been pierced when the box broke apart. The only reason she dared to bring it out was that she genuinely believed that no one inside the Holy Land would ever be able to damage it. Otherwise, Julie wouldn''t have risked destroying the only thing that could track the Holy Land''s Artifact. Not only her, but even Hanan''s entire group thought that she had the right idea at that moment. They, too, felt like that the box would never be broken. "Do you have time to pay attention to others? Hahaha!" Boom! Laka and Hanan once more exchange another blow. The shock then sent both of them in two different directions. "Enough, let''s end this battle here!" Laka just snorted, though. "You are clearly in the losing end, and now you want to stop?" However, Krune quickly accepted Hanan''s idea. "Laka, let then be. Continuing this battle will be pointless." Laka looked at Krune, puzzled. Why would he stop since they will win for sure? Still, he did stop. Not only him, but the battle was ended in all fronts. Hanan''s group quickly gathered back together. Yet, it was evident that everyone is his team was seriously injured. As for Krune''s group, they all seemed to be okay to continue. After seeing that, Laka couldn''t help but ask. "Why did you stop us?" The one to answer this question was Alacanta. "Because Krune was right. Continuing this battle would be pointless. If we extended this fight, their group would retreat. As long as they put their all on fleeing, it would be way too hard to kill all of them. At most, we would be able to get rid of one or two at most. The best chance at killing someone was already lost when that girl intervened with that mysterious box." "That is correct. Once Hanan escaped, he would become a great threat in the shadows. For example, he could simply go around rallying all cultivators and demon beasts saying that we got a treasure of the Holy Land. We might be able to cope with his group, but we definitely can''t go against everyone in the Holy Land." Hanan sighed in relief after hearing that. It seems like they won''t need to go desperate. Krune once more looked at Hanan before talking. "Now then, I believe we do have the ''negotiation rights'' you talked about, am I right?" Hanan smiled bitterly but nodded in the end. "Yes. If anything, the question here is whether my group has these rights or not. However, we will still try to do so." Hanan then looked at Tannin before asking. "Set up the Pseudo-Dimensional Realm Concealing Formation. We can''t risk having anyone hearing what we are going to say." Krune, who was already back in his human form, narrowed his eyes. Still, Feifei stopped him from intervening. As she looked at the formation that Tannin was creating, she could tell that it posed no risk for them. It was really a type of Space Concealing Formation. Their battle had attracted quite some attention around. However, those far away didn''t dare to approach. After all, both teams were too strong with several Peak Divine Path Realm. Not to mention the two Heavenly Divine Soul Owners. The concealing formation was being made so that none of them would hear their conversation. Around an hour later, the space around Krune and Hanan''s groups distorted, partially separating them from the Holy Land''s Dimensional Realm. Hanan then asked for Tannin and Morjin to keep a look outside in case someone gets close. Seeing that, Alacanta quickly grabbed Laka and went outside as well. "Hey, hey! I want to hear it too!" "Shut up! Our agreement was to help to protect them. This thing involves a secret of the Holy Land, so the less we know, the better it is. Don''t forget why we came here, it was all for the sake of the Dalin Universe''s Five Slots." Laka''s expression was awful, but he still complied with Alacanta. He then stepped outside of the Concealing Formation and kept watch over the surroundings with her. Hanan took out a Transparent Orb, the same one they used to talk with the Clan Head of the Frunkan Clan. After pouring enough Spiritual Energy, a white fog began to appear inside. Not too long after, it took the shape of a man''s head. The head looked around and noticed Krune''s group together with Hanan. Immediately, he understood what was happening. "It seems like you weren''t able to defeat the group who got the Holy Land''s Artifact." Hanan quickly bowed. "We let the Clan down. Sorry, Clan Head." The man on the other side just shook his head. "There is no need to apologize. I''m well aware of your abilities and loyalty. If even you were not able to do it without getting to this point, then no one else would." Hanan and the others couldn''t help but show a sad face. In the end, they were not able to accomplish the mission passed for them. Hanan then proceeded to explain the entire situation. The man in the Transparent Orb listened to it, quietly. Finally, he finished hearing the whole report and turned his attention to Krune''s group. "First, let me introduce myself. I''m the Frunkan Clan Head, Baren Frunkan." Krune nodded and went direct to the point. "It seems like your clan members already knew about the existence of the Holy Land Artifact. However, the other demon beasts and cultivators in the Holy Land don''t seem to know anything about it. Thanks to that, I can guess that your objective from the very start was to get Little Arty. I can understand why you want him. After all, he is a God-Level Equipment and the core of the Holy Land at the same time. Anyone would want to put their hands on him." "However, if this is all the reason you have to take Little Arty away, then I''m afraid I have to disappoint you. Little Arty has his own wishes, and he already accepted another master. That being said, I won''t let anyone simply take him away." Baren shook his head, though. "The reason why we need him is not that simple. We paid an immeasurable price just to find out the day that the Holy Land would allow someone to go all the way up. However, we really didn''t expect that someone also knew about it." Little Arty immediately intervened. "You are mistaken about this part. They had no idea about what was happening to the Holy Land, nor did they know about my existence. Believe it or not, I came to know my new master by chance. In a certain way, you could say that your group was unlucky." Baren narrowed his eyes, but he didn''t doubt Little Arty''s words. After all, such a lie would change nothing about the actual situation. So it would be meaningless. "I see... Anyway, let''s put this matter aside." Baren looked deeply at Krune, who seemed to be the leader of his group. "I''ll be straight, my Frunkan Clan is willing to pay any price as long as we can have the Holy Land Artifact." Krune immediately shook his head. "It seems like you have the wrong idea here. Our opinions matter little. All that I care about is whether Little Arty wants to go with you or not. If he says that he does, then I won''t ask for anything in return. I will even keep it a secret if he wishes so. The one you need to convince is not me, but Little Arty himself." Baren was taken aback by those words. Would someone who got to become the new master of a God-Level Equipment simply let it go like that. However, he didn''t have much time to think before Little Arty intervened. "That''s how things are. Let me make things clear. Nothing that you can get in the Lower Realms would be of any use for me, so keep that in mind. What I want to know is, what do you need me for? Depending on your answer, I might consider giving some help. However, since your clan members came out intending to kill my new master, you better have an excellent reason for that." Baren began to feel a headache already. Things turned out completely different than what he imagined. Sure enough, Lower Realm riches were meaningless for a God-Level Equipment like Little Arty. "Very well, then let me explain." 515 Heavins Idea Baren took a deep breath before continuing. "My Frunkan Clan is a remnant from the old Dalin universe, the one before the conquest. We have fled and built a new clan. Since then, we kept living in the shadows, waiting for a day when we could take our Dalin Universe back. Finally, the chance has arrived, but we will need the God-Level Equipment, the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere, for that to work." Krune and the others were taken aback. Dalin had been under the control of all Universes Powerhouses for countless years. Who could have thought that there was a group preparing to rise again? That was too hard to believe. "It doesn''t matter how I look at it, this shouldn''t be possible." Baren nodded. "Normally, it wouldn''t. If not for the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere, it would all be nothing but a dream. However, we can definitely do it now." Little Arty then asked. "Still, how exactly do you plan to do that.?" Baren smiled. "By locking down the entire Dalin Universe, not allowing anyone to enter or leave ever again. If someone really wishes to leave, they will have to ascend. That''s the only way we can get our freedom back. Since the other Universe Powerhouses can''t send experts inside our Dalin Universe, the ones remaining here will eventually die or be forced to ascend, no exception." Krune knew that. Once you reach a certain level, even if you don''t cultivate, your body will still accumulate energy. It''s just that it will be several times slower than if you did. Sooner or later, these resistances would disappear too. "How exactly can Little Arty be used for such a thing? Is it really possible to block the entrance?" Baren nodded. "It is. As long as you block it with a strong enough formation, that is. Fortunately, such a formation already exists." Krune and the others immediately understood. "The Dalin Protection Formation!" That was the formation that prevents anyone from coming in without using the official Spatial Gates. The only instance where it had ever been broken was when Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning came from the Luvile Universe. Of course, there is also Krune and the other''s illegal entrance. But that time, they didn''t break through the Dalin''s Protection Formation. Instead, they used a secret gap that no one else knew about. Feifei knew more about formations than anyone else in their group, so she immediately found a problem in that plan. Baren agreed with Feifei. "You are correct. We have obviously considered these two points. However, there is one way to impede the formation from being broken through. It won''t matter how many Peak Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts attack, it will all be useless." Little Arty finally understood. "I see... You intend to change this Peak Divinity Level Formation into a God-Level one. But for that to work, you would a constant flow of Godly Energy, and there is only one way you can get it in the Lower Realms, me! Once it has become a God-Level Formation, the power of the Lower Realms will be useless against it." Baren nodded once more. "You are correct. Of course, our plan has several more steps. Taking Control of the Formation''s Core, Change the Formation so that it can work with Godly Energy, Preventing anyone from intervening while working. Also, getting rid of the Soul marks that are put during the Reincarnation, Retaking Dalin Universe from the remnant forces, etc, etc, etc... However, to summarise the entire plan, Little Arty is the key to make it all work. Nothing can substitute him." Little Arty had to admit such a thing at least made sense, however... "Let''s leave aside whether you can take control of the Dalin Universe''s Protection Formation or not. Why should I help you to start with? I might as well tell you this. I have no intention of staying locked into a single place anymore. For your plan to work, I will have to be locked into the Dalin''s Protection Formation forever. Do you really think I would do that? Let me ask you, do you have any idea what it feels to be in that state for so long?" Baren was taken aback. It wasn''t part of his Clan''s plan to account for the Artifact Spirit''s feelings. Little Arty was correct. For their plan to work, the Core of the Formation will have to be replaced with himself. Obviously, he won''t be able to leave that place anymore. It was then that Little Arty added. "Oh, and you can forget about ordering me around. Even if a Peak Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast became my Master, their cultivation would be just too low. There is no way you would ever be able to order me around with such a weakling. So even if you find a way to forcefully put me into the Dalin''s Formation as its core, I could simply choose to not fuel it with any Godly Energy. It would be that easy." Baren couldn''t help but comment. "Sentoi Havan was your previous Master. But above all, he was also an old Dalin Universe resident who ascended. Don''t you want to free the place that your old Master and Creator was born?" Little Arty answered. "You might not know this, but this same old Master left me a message saying that he wishes to see me again in the Higher Realms. Since that was his wish, how come I can stay in the Dalin Universe? That wouldn''t work." In the end, Little Arty couldn''t help but sigh. "Listen, I sympathize with your predicaments. You want to free your home, which had been taken away from you, and no one can really find fault with that. But for that, you would need to sacrifice me. I have already sacrificed all my life up to this point, taking care of the Holy Land. Do you really think that it is fair for me to repeat something like this again?" "I won''t lie. The fact that I could possibly help my Old Master''s born place to be free is very tempting. So if there is another way that I can help, I wouldn''t mind do so. However, I will definitely not lock myself into a cage again." Baren and Hanan''s group expression looked awful. It doesn''t matter which conditions they would need to comply, they wouldn''t even flinch if it could bring Dalin''s liberation. That also included their own lives. But there is just one thing that they can''t avoid. The Godly Energy Dimensional Realm Sphere must become the Core of the Protection Formation. That is the only thing that is unavoidable. But it was then that someone said. "Do you really wish to help them with this, Little Arty?" Suddenly, everyone saw a Parrot Puppet flying above them before landing on Krune''s shoulder. Hanan and the others finally could see that ball of Purple Lightning''s real appearance. ''So that is the thing that broke our Search Box, a piece of equipment at the Divinity Level. Is this Puppet at the Divine Level? It''s hard to believe looking at him, though.'' However, Little Arty was more interested in the hidden meaning of Heavin''s words. "If I could, I wouldn''t mind doing so. After all, Baren was not lying. Dalin is indeed the place where my Old Master, Sentoi Havan, was born. I believe that my Master would still feel happy if it could regain Dalin''s freedom once more." Heavin nodded before saying. "You said that you want to ascend, but do you know if you must be inside the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere to achieve that? Would it be a problem if your Spirit was inside another object other than the one you are inside at the moment?" Baren couldn''t help but think. ''It''s a puppet. But who is controlling it?'' However, it wasn''t time for him to care about there details, so he quickly put his curiosity aside. Baren didn''t know Heavin, but he also understood what he meant. "Are you talking about moving the Artifact Spirit into another Equipment? That won''t work. Let alone the fact that we don''t have another thing at the same level as his Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere. Even if we had, we don''t know any way to move an Artifact Spirit. After all, they are just too rare. I don''t even know about another one in the Lower Realms." However, Heavin just laughed. "You might not know, but I definitely do. However, I can''t guarantee anything. The question here is, would you want to give it a try, Little Arty?" 516 Only Words to Trus After five years, Little Arty already came to know about Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique, so he knew about the ability that it had to separate a soul''s consciousness from the body. Still, Little Arty hadn''t thought about using it even once. "This... Indeed. If I use that, it might be possible to leave the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere behind. But, would it work with an Artifact Spirit?" Heavin pondered a bit before answering. "In general, any form of consciousness needs soul energy, be it a Divine Soul or a normal one. Since you do have a consciousness of your own, soul energy is definitely present as well. So it shouldn''t be a problem as long as I make a few tweaks here and there. After all, you know that it works for both Normal and Divine Souls, so why not Artifact Spirit Souls?" Baren was as lost as he could be. "Wait! Are you saying that it is really possible to separate the Artifact Spirit from the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere? Wouldn''t it immediately destroy the Artifact itself instead?" Little Arty denied that notion. "Seems like you are misunderstanding something here. The Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere didn''t have an Artifact Spirit to start with. It worked perfectly fine without one too. Whether I''m here or not only changes the fact that I''ll not be the one controlling it anymore. My absence wouldn''t damage it at all." Baren couldn''t help but be excited. "Then, will you help us? We are willing to accept any terms as long as we can use the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere!" However, Little Arty stopped Baren right there. "First of all, the method that Heavin, the Parrot Puppet, is talking about can''t be executed immediately. He will need to modify his method so that it could work for me, which takes time. Second, I would need even longer to become proficient with it. We are talking about decades or even centuries here." "But before anything like that, you will need to provide a full rundown of the entire plan. I want you to make me believe that you can really accomplish it. After all, if you fail, my Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere would most likely fall in the hands of the enemy. I might be willing to do it for my old master, but I''m not going to boldly dive into it." Baren quickly calmed down. Revealing the entirety of the plans included even how to take control of the Dalin Universe''s Protection Formation. That is a secret that even Hanan''s group didn''t know about. The most crucial point of the entire thing. If it is leaked out, it would be impossible to execute. ''What if we kidnaped his actual master? No, that would be even worse. If he decides to go back on his words at the last moment for revenge, we would be utterly helpless. The last thing we can do is to be on his wrong side.'' As Baren thought about the possibilities, Little Arty began to talk about another issue. "Now, what about we talk about the Wisps?" Baren''s attention was immediately picked. "As a clan from the time that the Dalin Universe was being conquered, I won''t believe if you say that you don''t know their situation at the moment." Krune and Cinty had already revealed their real forms, and Hanan had mentioned it to Baren as well. With two Divine Path Realms right in front of him, Baren couldn''t simply pretend that they didn''t exist. Krune and Cinty also nodded their heads. If Little Arty hadn''t mentioned it, they would definitely do so. Baren took a deep breath before saying. "I mentioned it before. My clan is willing to accept any conditions as long as we can have the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere. What exactly would you want from me?" Cinty and Krune smiled. "Well, it wouldn''t exactly be a problem. You do know that we have Wally on our side. So even if you put up a God-Level Protection formation, he isn''t someone you can block with it." Baren nodded. Obviously, he had thought about this possibility the moment he heard about the two Divine Path Realm wisps in front of him. As far as he knows, there had never been Divine Path Realm or above Wisps ever since Wally disciples ''died.'' "Yes, I understand this much. In that case, I can declare it here and now. Our Frunkan Clan will hold no grudges whatsoever against the Wisp Race. First of all, why would we care about the wisp race if we don''t even have a house anymore?" Cinty shook her head. "We don''t need to make an alliance or anything like that. But the wisps in the Dalin Universe must be treated just like any other race. At this moment, any Void Breaking Realm wisp would immediately be hunted down if they leave the Wisps Worlds. Because of that, we always need to move in secret. As long as you can guarantee it after the Universe is retaken, I have nothing to complain." Baren pondered a bit before nodding. "That is not a problem. Unless the wisp race decides to take control over the entire Dalin Universe one day, I don''t think there will be a problem with living together. Oh, right! You don''t need to worry. It will not be like our Frunkan Clan will be the one controlling the Dalin Universe either. For such a plan to work, we obviously need a lot more power than our clan alone has. So if nothing goes wrong, Dalin Universe would be more like a shared place. We all know that if we don''t unite, we will end losing the Dalin Universe again." Cinty was quite satisfied with that arrangement. "Very well. Our wisp race will take your word. I will personally contact Wally to pass the news too. He can''t intervene in such things due to the old agreement. But after the Dalin universe is taken, it will be out of the range of the Universes Powerhouses, so there will be no need for him to hold back inside the Dalin Universe. I hope you understand my side." Baren couldn''t help but sweat cold. Indeed, if the Dalin Universe is completely blocked, the agreements made between the Universes Powerhouses'' ascenders would be meaningless there. But in that case, Baren also noticed a problem. Couldn''t Wally use his own strength to take control of Dalin after it is blocked? ''No, that would make no sense. With Wally''s power, he could have done something similar. Why would he wait for us to block the Dalin Universe first? The agreement? Something seems not correct about it. Anyway, whatever it is, as long as we keep our side of the deal, there shouldn''t be a problem. The priority now is to regain control over the Dalin Universe. Anything else can be discussed after.'' Baren looked at Cinty and nodded. "If this is the Wisp Queen''s desire, I accept your terms." Cinty smiled after hearing that. "Very well. Then I have nothing against this plan of yours. Just the fact that the higher realm wisps won''t be confined in the wisp worlds is more than enough for me." Little Arty was satisfied with that too. "It seems like you reached an agreement, so that is good. As for your plan, you don''t need to tell me now. After all, I will not give you the Dimensional Sphere any time soon. But before you come to ask me about it, I must know the details." Baren nodded before making another question. "How long do you think it would take?" Little Arty sighed. "I have no idea. But I believe that it might even take a few centuries depending on the conditions. However, all you need to know is that I intend to help. Besides, what are a few centuries for you who waited for so many Chaos Cycles?" Baren had to admit that Little Arty was right. It''s just that he is afraid of them talking about this after they leave this place. At the moment, all they did was to exchange their words. No side could really provide any guarantees of what they said. Little Arty then continued. "After the Holy Land is over, I''ll be moving to the Wisp Main World. You can send a representative of your clan there later with a way of contacting you. We can continue to talk about more specific details after that. For now, it is better to enjoy the last year of Holy Land." Baren nodded. "Very well, it seems like we have no other choice other than believing your words. Once the Holy Land closes, I will send someone there, as you asked." Little Arty''s group nodded, and they finally left after that. Hanan then looked at the Clan Head before asking. "Is it really okay like this, Clan Head?" Baren couldn''t help but sigh again. "It is not like we have another choice. We must absolutely not show any of our forces at the moment. Besides, the wisp race does have a lot to gain from this, but nothing to lose. In fact, it is exactly because the wisp race is involved that this deal seems a lot more trustworthy. After all, they are already being pursued by everyone to start with. So even if the plan ends in failure, their situation will continue the same. It''s simple as that." Hanan nodded and didn''t ask anymore. 517 Representative Back on Krune''s side, Laka talked with everyone for a little while. "Alright, since your problem is dealt with, my beloved protector and I will be taking our leaves." Alacanta shook her head every time she heard that ''beloved protector'' thing. "Ignoring this idiot''s unnecessary words, the first part was correct. We don''t want to get too involved in this secret of the Holy Land, so we will take our leave now. Besides, the equipment that they were using to track you down ended being destroyed anyway. As for the issue about you and Cinty being wisps, I will pretend I didn''t see anything. After all, it is not like our own Universe cares much for the wisps'' situation to start with." Krune nodded after hearing that. "That is also good for us. Laka, let your old geezers that I will allow them to send three dragons of their choice to make Dragon Pearls. This is my payment for the enormous help you gave us this time around." Laka and Alacanta were delighted with that. Three Purple Flame Dragon Pearls were priceless treasures in their eyes. Simple Holy Land slots can''t possibly compare to it. "Good! Some time after the Holy Land is over, I''ll send them to your place." After they exchanged a few more words, Laka and Alacanta once more separated from Krune''s group. They were planning to use the rest of the time in the Holy Land to cultivate, improve their foundations, or comprehend Laws. Krune then looked at Little Arty. "Little Arty, are you sure you want this? If you don''t feel like leaving the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere, you should just say it. As long as we have the Wisp Main World, there shouldn''t be many risks of you being taken away." Little Arty didn''t mind, though. "It''s okay. I wasn''t lying back there. If I can really free Dalin, which is my old master''s birthplace, I''m quite happy doing so. Also, their plan seems somewhat feasible. Not to mention that if they were talking the truth, then they had been planning everything for thousands of Chaos Cycles. For them to reach this point, there must have some consistency in their project." Krune nodded. Since that was his own wish, he wouldn''t complain. After that, Krune decided tot alk with Cinty about another issue. But this time, he used a Divine Sense message since he was going to talk about something that some members of his group didn''t know. "The Dalin Universe will be completely locked down. Could you be planning to use the gap in the Dalin Universe''s protection to keep connected outside?" Cinty looked at Krune and nodded. "Indeed, I am. After all, it is not like we can leave it normally after the block. Of course, I won''t let anyone know about this gap in the Protection Formation. I plan to only pass it to the next Wisp Queen or King. As long as the number of people who know are kept under control, we should be able to hide it." "I see. We must make sure that this ''gap'' secret is not leaked. However, we are not the only ones who know this. There are a few people back on my Luvile Universe that know about it as well." Cinty pondered a bit before asking. "Would they let this secret be found?" Krune shook his head. "I don''t think so, but it isn''t always an impossibility. What I want to say is. Maybe, there will be a point where you can''t use it anymore." Cinty nodded. "If that happens, so be it. It''s not like I can protect the wisp race forever anyway. There is only so much I can do, so the wisps outside the Dalin Universe will have to rely on themselves at that point. In fact, it would be the case whether the gap existed or not." Krune nodded. Since she already thought about this, then there wasn''t anything else to be said. After that, Krune finished using Divine Sense messages. "Alright. If Dalin really comes to be closed at some point, we will need to leave first. After all, we can''t be locked inside." Lala didn''t know much about the group as the others, so she couldn''t help but ask. "Are you guys not from Dalin Universe?" Krune nodded. "Four of us did, Feifei, Ruik, Tiane, and myself. So we are planning to go back there before the Universe closes completely. Of course, this is a talk for years in the future." Lala became even more confused. "But shouldn''t outsiders who reached the Divine Path Realm be sent back to their own universes straight away? Or could it be that you came from one of the Universes Powerhouses? But then again, there is the fact that those who enter Dalin will be marked. Isn''t it too risky for you as a wisp? After all, if you came from outside, you definitely received the mark as well." Krune couldn''t help but laugh. "Seems like you know a lot of the procedures of entering the Dalin Universe. Are you not from here too, Lala?" Lala nodded. There wasn''t really a reason for her to deny that. "That''s correct. But since I came from one of the Universes Powerhouses, I didn''t need to leave after I reached the Divine Path Realm. To be more specific, I came from the Galec Universe." Krune nodded. "That makes sense. Indeed, anyone who isn''t part of the Universes controlling Dalin must leave after they reach the Divine Path Realm. But there is an exception for that rule, do you know which one it is?" "Ah!" Only now, Lala remembered that. It was mentioned before, as long as you join one of the powers controlling Dalin inside, they can apply for your stay. Of course, Krune and his group didn''t have anything like that, but he couldn''t tell Lala about it. That''s why he used this excuse. "I forgot that the Wisp Race is also part of the Dalin Universe, so Cinty can probably apply for such a thing." Cinty smiled but didn''t say anything. It was good that Lala reached such a conclusion by herself. Lala then continued. "But what about the mark that is put on you when you enter Dalin? That is the rule for all outsiders, after all." In fact, even Laex got curious. He knew about the fact that Krune''s group came from outside. After all, he had been staying with them for a long time. But only now he remembered that mark rule. Krune laughed after that. "That''s a secret. All you need to know is that there is no need to worry about that. They won''t be able to use that mark to track me or any of my friends down." Of course, Krune, Feifei, Ruik, and Tiane didn''t have a mark to start with, so they obviously couldn''t be tracked. But Krune won''t say that either. However, this conversation made Krune remember something else. "Now that I think about it, Wamie is also from the same Universe as us. There is no doubt that she will enter the Divine Path Realm here in the Holy Land, either. In fact, she probably has entered it already. Won''t the Dalin Universe detect her cultivation after she exits the Holy Land?" Cinty nodded. "They definitely will. So if you have something to talk with Wamie, it is better to do it before the Holy Land is over." Lala got puzzled again. "Can''t you simply use the same method to keep her here?" Krune shook his head. "I don''t want Wamie to stay since I need her to deliver a message back to my Home Universe. It''s just that this time came a lot faster than I thought. Anyway, you don''t need to worry about that since it is all according to the plan." "Little Arty, can you tell me where Wamie is at the moment? I want to make a few arrangements." Feifei looked at Krune before asking. "So, you are really going ahead with that plan." Krune nodded. "That is the best way to end this issue." Little Arty quickly did a search and soon found Wamie. "Found her, she is closer to the Origin Realm. With everyone''s strength at the moment, it shouldn''t be a problem to resist that level of Godly Energy. I''ll show you the way." Krune thanked Little Arty, and they immediately departed. Around three weeks later, they finally met with Wamie again. It had been over 5 years already, so she had improved quite a lot too. As Krune expected, she did really enter the Divine Path Realm and was in the 1st Stage at the moment. She had to thank the Elemental Meridians for that, though. Otherwise, she definitely wouldn''t have cultivated this fast. Still, Krune found it quite dangerous for her to be wandering around the center with such cultivation. "You are quite crazy, no? What if you were targeted by Heavenly Divine Soul Owner? This place has a lot of them." Wamie smiled bitterly. "I did that on purpose to push my potential as far as possible. Still, it seems like I fell behind you and Feifei nonetheless." Feifei shrugged her shoulders while spreading her arms. "Isn''t that obvious? There is a difference between hard effort and recklessness. What you were doing here was definitely not hard effort, don''t you think? Obviously, your cultivation would move opposite to the direction you wish." Wamie was taken aback, but she sighed in the end. "Perhaps, you are right. It''s just that Gilia''s death affected me quite a lot that I became a little desperate to increase my strength." Krune and the others didn''t know what to say. They knew that Wamie was very close to Gilia in the past. However, Wamie quickly changed the topic. "Anyway. For you to come looking for me like this, something must have happened. What is it?" Krune nodded and began a Divine Sense message conversation with Wamie, Cinty, and Feifei only. He kept the rest of the group out of it since it included a lot of information about the Luvile Universe. "After we leave the Holy Land, you will be sent back to the Luvile Universe. After all, you entered the Divine Path Realm, which is the highest cultivation allowed for outsiders. The mark that you received after entering the Dalin Universe will definitely reveal your cultivation to the Dalin management. Since that is the case, I want you to deliver a message to the Sacred Lands back in the Luvile Universe." Wamie nodded. She knew about this rule from the moment she arrived in Dalin. So she was already expecting to go back after it. "Very well, what shall I tell them?" Krune smiled before saying. "Tell them that I''ll be participating in the Heavenly Competition as the Luvile Universe''s representative." 518 Revealing the Myriad Wisps Technique Wamie was taken aback by that. "What do you mean? Are you going to enter it without a Heavenly Divine Soul? Isn''t it the same as suicide?" Krune shook his head. "I''m a lot stronger than you think. Even with my 4th Stage of the Divine Path Realm, I can fight someone at the 6th stage. Of course, this is just a conjecture. I don''t know what kind of abilities the other competitors will have, so it will vary. For example, thanks to Laka''s Purple Flame Dragon Pearl, I need to be at the same cultivation Realm as him if I want to have a chance. Still, that means that I''m at least confident in taking those at the same level." Wamie couldn''t help but ask. "But what about the fact that you are a wisp? I''m sure that they will find out about it once you start to use your real power? After all, just how many out there have Purple Tribulation Lightning? You would definitely be discovered even if you fight in your human form." Krune agreed with her. "I know, but there is no need for you to be concerned, I have a way to prevent anything from happening to me even if I appear there in my wisp form directly. The key issue here is that you must convince them about it." Wamie pondered a bit and nodded. "For the sacred lands, the most important thing is that we get this Dalin Universe slot. Since your fight strength is this high, it might be possible to convince them." "However, once you were found out to be from the Luvile Universe and a wisp at that, wouldn''t the Luvile Universe be checked? They would sooner or later find about the Myriad Wisps Technique that had been spreading there like wildfire, no? Wouldn''t that be a calamity instead?" Cinty was the one to answer those questions. "That won''t be a problem. You simply have no idea how many places I''ve sent this technique in the past 20 years. Before the Heavenly Competition starts, the Myriad Wisps Technique will already be found out. The fact that the Luvile Universe has wisps practicing will be the last of their concerns. After all, why would the Universes Powerhouses care about such a remote place like Luvile while a lot of bigger and stronger universes are already spreading it?" Wamie was shocked to hear that. "Wait? Isn''t it bad if they find about it? Wouldn''t that start a full-scale wisp hunt instead?" Cinty shook her head. "At first, the Universes Powerhouses will try to eliminate the focuses. However, they will soon notice that it is already too late to stop it anymore. Besides, if they go too far, the one who will intervene is Wally himself. So I''m sure things won''t go out of control." Wamie pondered a bit before asking. "What about the Higher Realms? Wouldn''t the ascenders try to come down again to deal with this issue?" Krune couldn''t help but sigh after hearing that. Wamie understood the logic. "Nevertheless, I think it is too risky. You should give it more time for this technique of yours to spread more so that stronger wisps can mature. It is still quite at its initial stage, isn''t it?" Cinty shook her head. "There is no need. That''s because the first part of the plan should be already completed at this point. The second part is to let everyone know about it." Wamie immediately got puzzled. Why would their plan involve letting everyone know about the Myriad Wisps Technique? Cinty didn''t explain, though. "Don''t worry. When the time comes, everyone will understand why we made this decision." Wamie nodded. "Very well, it seems like you two had all of it planned for a long time already. That being said, I will tell the Sacred Lands about your request. However, it will be hard without some prof. Do you have a way to show to them that you are the best choice?" Krune pondered a bit before saying. "Because the Heavenly Competition is close, the Universes that will participate are sending their Heavenly Divine Soul Owners to fight. All of them are also sending their own representatives to protect their Heavenly Soul Owners, one per Universe. That is the only moment they allow so many Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts to come from outside. Since that is the case, tell the Sacred Lands to send their protector ahead of time. He can come to the Wisp Main World and test my power by himself." Wamie had to admit that it was indeed a good idea. As long as the Sacred Lands'' representative confirms Krune''s power, he will be able to convince the Sacred Lands. "Very well. My last question is about the other Heavenly Fragment Owners. What will you do about them?" Krune laughed before answering. "What exactly can I do to them? If they don''t come to the Holy Land, then I''m powerless. Perhaps the Sacred Lands have sent them into Dalin while we were inside the Holy Land. Perhaps they will send them with the representative to check my strength against them. There is even a chance that one of those three gathered the Space, Time, and Blackhole fragments, so he or she will challenge me to take mine. Either way, they will come for me before the Heavenly Competition as long as they are interested in the Heavenly Divine Soul." Wamie, Cinty, and Feifei nodded their heads. Chances are that Krune is correct with at least one of the outcomes. "Okay, then. I''ll follow your plan." Krune then exchanged a few more words with Wamie before they departed again. This time, Wamie left the Holy Land center so that she could train in a safer place. She still had a little less than a year of Holy Land, after all. Krune had asked Wamie if she wanted to stay with them, but she refused in the end. As for Krune''s group, they decided to stay around anyway. There were more Heavenly Divine Soul Owners in this place, but Krune was pretty confident in the strength of his actual group. This is a perfect place to acquire Fight Experience and cultivate with a lot more Godly Energy. "Too bad that those Light Pillars broke apart. They had a lot of trails that were very good for training." Even Little Arty agreed with him. "Indeed. But I guess that my old master made all of that on purpose." Krune nodded. But it was then that he remembered one thing. "Oh, right! Little Arty, is it possible to at least check the remaining positions of the Light Pillar Ranks?" Little Arty confirmed. "If it is something that simple, then I can do it. But why? Is there someone you are interested in?" Krune smiled while thinking about Frahem, that demon beast who purposely stayed behind in the Willpower Test. "Can you check the Willpower Light Pillar Test Ranking? Look for a Demon Beast called Frahem." Little Arty then checked the positions and found the one Krune was talking about. "Oh! Now that''s quite impressive, he passed the Willpower Test in the first place. Not only that, but he also finished all the floors before advancing. Now that''s what I call willpower. In those thousands of Chaos Cycles, not even 20 participants completed the Willpower test entirely." Krune couldn''t help but laugh. "He really did it! I wish we can meet someday again." Krune didn''t ask anything else. That guy had reached that point alone, so there is no point in wanting to help him. Krune felt that Frahem wasn''t someone who would need it to go further. The days passed, and quickly, the months went by. Sometimes, the Holy land would start to tremble again and stop. Krune''s group simply didn''t care about that anymore, though. In the last month, Krune''s group began to gather together again. Dilo, Xankruan, Ruik, Tiane, Fie, Liriu, etc. Finally, the last year came to an end. Fie then looked at Little Arty, who was already with her and asked. "Little Arty, what will happen now?" Little Arty sighed. "Who knows? We will need to see it." 519 Holy Land Closes Outside the Holy Land, thousands of cultivators and demon beasts were waiting in front of the Holy Land entrance. Due to the leakage of Godly Energy, the ones outside had long since noticed that something was wrong inside. However, the Holy Land was a God-Level Dimensional Realm, so the Dalin Universe management and the powers controlling it couldn''t force their way in to see what was happening. Inside the Holy Land, things were quite chaotic as well. The entire fused Dimensional Realm began to contract even more. The cultivators and demon beasts furthest away from the center began to be forced towards the middle. Some even had problems resisting the Godly Energy that increase as they got moved further. Finally, the Holy Land entrance opened once more, and all the cultivators and demon beasts started to be teleported outside. "Little Arty, are we going to be teleported outside too?" Little Arty tranquilized them. "No, now that the Holy Land is over, I got control over all the formations once more. So I''m impeding them from teleporting you all. Once the Holy teleports everyone outside, I''m going to send you all to another exit." Everyone got puzzled. "Another exit?" "Yes. That way, you won''t appear in the midst of all those Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts of the Dalin Universe, but in another Solar System instead. After that, I will need to wait to see how things will be done. The Holy Land will probably keep contracting and eliminating unnecessary areas until it is small enough to be fused with my Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere." Krune and the others nodded. However, it was at this moment that Wamie said. "In that case, let me go out now. I''m not someone wanted to start with, so it will be better if I''m in the batch that appears outside. We don''t know if the Dalin Universe management has some kind of checking system or not. In that case, if I arrive at the Spatial Gate leading outside the Dalin Universe after not appearing outside the Holy Land, things will get complicated for my side." Lala immediately nodded. "She is right. I''m also not from this Universe, so I better appear outside as well." Krune and the others agreed that it was a good choice. Little Arty then controlled the formations and made Lala and Wamie go out. Sure enough, it was just like Wamie predicted. As soon as she came outside, she and Lala were required to give their full details to those Divinity Realm protectors. After that, they were guided into a waiting zone close in the outer space where everyone was being gathered. After all, the Dalin Universe Management had to understand what was happening. The teleportation process lasted just ten or so minutes until finally, the Holy Land''s entrance closed once more. Surprisingly, Fie and Little Arty came out as well. "Is it okay for you to leave?" Little Arty didn''t answer, though. Instead, he positioned himself right between the entrance and exit of the Spatial Gate. Soon, a magical scene played behind Little Arty. The land behind him seemed to began to be sucked inside the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere. It began to increase in speed more and more to the point that you couldn''t even make what was what in there anymore. However, Krune immediately understood that it was only their view from the outside. The Holy Land itself wasn''t being affected at all! If they could see inside, they wouldn''t see anything changing in their field of view. That was the Laws of Space doing its wonders. It was at a much higher level than Krune, Liriu, or even Cinty, who had the highest comprehension of Space Laws. "Little Arty, are you okay?" Little Arty finally answered. "I''m... fine. It''s just... that this process is very demanding of... the Godly Energy Dimensional... Sphere. Don''t... worry, it will be over... soon." No one felt surprised about that. After all, that gigantic fused Dimensional Realm was being put inside that small colored pearl. It would be weird if it was something so simple. As Krune and the others observed what was happening on the other exit, all the Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts back at the main entrance were alarmed. "What is happening with the Holy Land? Why is it disappearing?" "No idea, but is definitely leaving this place." They couldn''t really ''see'' what was happening with their eyes. But their Divine Sense and comprehension of Space Laws were more than enough to tell that something was happening to the Holy Land. However, neither of them could do anything about it. "It feels like it is being absorbed?" "Someone is stealing the Holy Land!" "How''s that possible?!" Immediately, all those Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts spread their Divine Senses. At their level, it wasn''t a problem to cover half of the entire galaxy. So, obviously, they could reach the place where Krune and the others were waiting. Too bad, though. Krune''s group had long since predicted that such a thing could happen. That being said, the moment Krune appeared outside the Spatial Gate, he was already covered in Purple Tribulation Lightning. He then immediately expanded the layer to include the gate and a small area around. As they waited, Light Spirit could tell that hundreds of Divine Senses were passing by them. ''Hmph! If a bunch of ants like you see through my anti-Divine Sense protection, I might as well kill myself here and now.'' Sure enough, not a single one of those Divine Realms could feel Krune''s group or the Spatial Gate''s presence. "I can''t find anything." "Me neither." "There is a high chance that whoever is doing it is using something to protect against Divine Senses." "Is there a treasure capable of hiding against so many Divinity Level Divine Senses? I don''t believe so. Otherwise, it would need to be at the God-Level at least." "What do we do?" "How would I know? Do you want to go around looking for it with your eyes alone?" One thing was to use Divine Sense to check, it was effective and fast. But if Divine Sense failed, then they would be powerless. Let alone half of the galaxy, just how many days would they need to verify only the Solar System they are in? And that is because they have hundreds of Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts available here. As for half of a Galaxy? Ha! What a joke. In the end, all they could do was watch as the Holy Land disappeared in front of their Divine Senses. Some of those Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts immediately looked in the direction of the crowd. They thought that it had something to do with someone of them. However, they couldn''t simply go around killing everyone there. There were many Heavenly Divine Souls in that bunch. Even if they decided to get rid of the ones that aren''t, chances are that the culprit is not in their midst. Not to mention that they can''t possibly make enemies with so many Universes at once. Finally, the Holy Land completely disappeared from their Divine Senses. No one knew how, but it was gone now. Well, no one except for Hanan''s group, Lala, and Wamie. But none of them would dare to say anything. Right after, several rounds of interrogation started with those participants. All of their descriptions were almost identical. The Dimensional Realms that were once separated fused together. Then the Light Pillar Tests broke apart. There were several Dimensional Oscillations as well, which made the land tremble now and then. Unfortunately, other than that, there was nothing else. Back on Krune''s side, Little Arty flew back to Fie, and the collar he was attached fell around her neck. "I''m finally done. To think that my old master had prepared a Puzzle God-Level Formation, really incredible." "Puzzle God-Formation?" The only one who had an idea of what Little Arty meant was Feifei. "Do you mean that each of the Dimensional Realms had a piece of a Formation?" Little Arty confirmed. "Correct. Each of them was part of a Monumental Spatial Formation, the same one used to bring the Holy Land inside my Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere." The others didn''t know much about it, so they just nodded. It was already good that they at least understood the principles. But Feifei was really impressed by that. She can only imagine how difficult it would be to make God-Level Formations like this. Breaking it in several parts, and keep it in perfect condition during thousands of chaos cycles. In her eyes, the person who made this Holy Land could really be considered a God of Formations. But that also fueled her determination. Since someone was able to reach this level, then she could too! "Anyway. I will need to rest for a few days, so don''t bother me during that unless it is really important." Little Arty then went silent. After that, Cinty opened a Spatial Gate. She had the highest Space Laws comprehension between them, so her one was the longest and safest. "Well, let''s get out of here. I need to see how the wisp world is doing in my absence." Everyone nodded, and they immediately departed. The Tribulation Lighting Layer around them continued there in middle space for a few more seconds before disappearing too. 520 Back to the Wisp Main World While Krune''s group was going back to the Wisp Main World, the news about the Holy Land disappearance spread like wildfire! It soon reached the point where it left the Dalin Universe as well. The Holy Land was one of the most important Dimensional Realms, so there was chaos everywhere because of it. However, because it was a God-Level Dimensional Realm, even the Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts with Destiny Major Divine Souls had a hard time divining anything. As for the participants, they were kept in the same place for investigation. However, everyone felt like it wasn''t of much use. After all, the Holy Land was brought somewhere else, so spending their time with those guys didn''t make much sense. Soon, the Universes with Heavenly Divine Soul Owners and others with Fragment Owners began to complain and ask to let their participants out. After all, the chances of their own members having something to do with it was low. Dalin Universe Management started to feel pressured due to the enormous numbers of Universes complaining. The Universes protecting Dalin were the strongest ones, but that didn''t mean they could buy a fight against everyone else. Besides, the investigations were bringing back the same results, and everyone''s declarations were identical. It''s just that they had different points of view and ideas as to why such a thing happened. Sure, there were things like Soul Search. Whatever someone of them could be hiding would definitely be found out. However, Dalin Universe Management definitely couldn''t use it. Let alone the fact that the soul could be damaged. Just how many secrets each of those minds had about their own Universes? There is no way the powers behind them would accept it. First of all, protecting the Holy Land was Dalin Management''s duty. If they failed, that was their problem. In the end, everyone was released after not getting any useful information. Wamie was able to enter the 2nd Stage of the Divine Path Realm before the end of the Holy Land. Obviously, the moment she was released, the Dalin management contact her, saying that she should go back to her Universe. The limit was the 1st Stage, but since she got it during the Holy Land event, they could only inform her now. Wamie didn''t waste time and immediately left for the Official Spatial Gate that leads outside the Dalin Universe. From there, she would leave and then contact the All Life Sect Sacred Land in Luvile. Her ancestors would then open a Spatial Gate, and she would finally be able to go back. Of course, it would take some time before she arrived back in the Luvile Universe. The first thing Cinty did after ''leaving her seclusion'' was to call the Wisps responsible for the Myriad Wisps Technique spread plan to report everything to her. "Things are becoming complicated now. With the constant stream of wisps leaving the Dalin Universe, the Dalin Universe management is becoming suspicious. A few Soul Flames of the wisps we sent out were even extinguished during the time they were stepping outside. Obviously, they were being captured as soon as they did so and ended dying." "However, they all head the memories about the plan and technique sealed. Thanks to that, nothing had been found out until now. At least, that''s what we think." Cinty nodded. "We already expected that such a thing could happen. We also warned every single one of them about the risks, and they accepted it." She then changed the topic. "You said that a lot of them are being captured, but not all, right?" The wisp confirmed. "Correct. Many wisps were going out after receiving the full training, so the majority still passed through without any problems. However, chances are that they are being observed. I believe it won''t be long before the Myriad Wisps Technique is found out. Maybe it has already happened, and we just don''t know yet." Cinty smiled after hearing that. "No problem, continue with the plan. Whether they find out or not, it is too late now. Besides, the second phase of the project is about to start anyway. If Dalin Management really knows, then it won''t be long before the news spread. In fact, increase the pace and number of wisps participating in the plan. The more, the better." That wisp soon moved out to execute the order. After that, Cinty received an enormous pile of documents and things like that to deal with. As the Wisp Queen, she was the voice of the wisps. After more than 10 years of absence, a lot of matters accumulated for her to resolve. When she looked at all of that, she even felt a headache coming her way. Krune wasn''t much better either. He had left a lot of Purple Flame Pills and Purple Flame weapons ready for seeling after he departed to the Holy Land. So in the eyes of the Dalin Alchemist and Blacksmith organizations, he was still crafting everything as always. However, there came a time when the supply was cut out abruptly. At that time, Krune (or Jolk) announced that he was close to a breakthrough, so he went into seclusion as well. Therefore he had been missing for the last 5 years. It didn''t matter how many times the Alchemist and Blacksmith organizations tried to contact him, the wisps of the Wisp Main World simply said that they didn''t know where he went. Now that Krune was finally back, he got an enormous pile of requests. That was obvious since the Purple Flame Pills and Equipments were highly required. Of course, he also got all the payment for everything that was sold during that time. When he looked at the mountain of Spirit Stones, his eyes couldn''t sigh. "So much Spirit Stones. Still, the spatial rings of those young masters who participated in the Holy Land gave me even more." Ten years of Holy Land made Krune accumulate enormous wealth. It wasn''t only Spirit Stones, those Spatial Rings he got had several more things that could be sold or used by him and the others later. Simply put, Krune didn''t even need to sell Purple Flame pills and equipment anymore if he didn''t want to. With a wave of his hand, all Krune''s Kaleu Tribulation Shields appeared in mid-air around him. Krune could totally see the several marks of his own reforging and repairings. Some of them weren''t even fixed. As his cultivation level increased, the Shields'' usefulness began to drop just as fast. A lot of them had broke during the Divine Path Realm Heavenly Tribulation as well. "It''s time to retire these shields." With another wave, all the shields were put away. In their place, a mountain of Diamond-Like material appeared. Sure enough, that is the crumbled body of the Diamond Golem that Krune and Laex defeated back then. This is the body of a Divine Demon Beast who had comprehended the entire Major Law of Earth, so its resistance could be imagined. "There is no doubt that Shields made of the Diamond Golem body would be much better than my Kaleu Tribulation Ore ones. However, this isn''t a material compatible with my Purple Tribulation Lightning." Heavin, who was on his shoulders, then suggested. "Why don''t you trade it for something of equivalent strength like the last time?" Krune pondered a bit but shook his head in the end. "No, I have the cultivation necessary to become a Stars Path Blacksmith now. I believe there was a way to deal with these kinds of issues after that, let me check where I saw it." Krune then accessed the Blacksmith Network and soon found what he was looking for. "Indeed, here it is, the Elemental Forging Change, a Stars Path and above technique. It won''t be as good as making shields with Lightning Related materials, but it will get very close. However, the Diamond Golem Race body is an excellent Stars Path Material. Its resistance more than makes up for the loss of Lightning Compatibility. It will be quite hard to find an equivalent replacement for this golem''s body. After all, it is still a Divine Demon Beast''s one." Heavin nodded. "Since that''s what you have decided, then so be it. However, you are still quite far from the Stars Path level. Can you reach it before the Heavenly Competition four years from now?" Krune smiled as he looked at the enormous list of Purple Flame equipment requests in his communicator. "I will definitely try it. This time, I won''t have anyone forging my shields, I will make all of them myself." Heavin then looked at all of those materials before saying. "In that case, I believe there is enough for me to use too, no? I want to move out before the Heavenly Competition starts." Krune immediately nodded. "This Golem''s body was enormous, so I still have a lot of his body in my Spatial Ring. Let alone 38, I can even make a hundred or more shields, and there would have material to spare. Besides, it is indeed a good idea to make your new body with it. However, you will need to wait for me to become a Stars Path Blacksmith before I forge or refine it." Heavin didn''t mind. "That''s not a problem. If I want to use a Stars Path Material, I will need to become a Stars Path Puppeteer myself too. Thankfully, we don''t lack spirit stones now, so I can buy all the materials for my practice as well." Krune pondered a bit before asking. "Will you still use the Parrot Puppet design?" Heavin pondered a bit before shooking his head. "No, it is due time for me to give Feifei''s parrot back. However, I haven''t decided what I will do yet. I''ll think about something later. Maybe I''ll make a Dragon or a Phoenix. Hahaha!" Krune smiled and didn''t comment. Ultimately, that was Heavin''s decision. Heavin then took flight and left the room. He had his own place to practice his Puppeteer skills, after all. "Well then, shall I start?" Unfortunately for Krune, he didn''t have the chance. "Start your head!" Feifei suddenly appeared beside Krune and dragged him back to their bedroom. Well, let''s just say that ten years without ''action'' was quite hard for Feifei to bare with. Fie was in the living room when she suddenly saw her mother bringing her father back to their room. Seeing that, she couldn''t help but smile. ''It would be quite nice to have a brother or a sister.'' 521 Back to the Luvile Universe Unfortunately, Fie''s desire didn''t come to bear fruits. Well, her very own existence is kind of a miracle already considering the chances. For that to happen again... well... Feifei and Krune will need to have a lot more ''action.'' Relived from his ''marital duties'' a few ''days!'' later, Krune finally had the chance to begin practicing his Blacksmith Skills. But that was good since, on the next day, Krune and Cinty became the only ones available in the Wisp Main world. That was to be expected. After all, everyone else had already achieved at least the Void Breaking Realm. That being said, they all could open their Chaos Meridians now. Ruik was in the 8th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. There was nothing wrong with being so much lower than Krune and Feifei. After all, those two have Heavenly Fragments, which gave them a cultivation boost. Ruik''s Dream Laws progressed by leaps and bounds, though. Unless he finds a freak like Krune, Ruik will find it hard to find a match at the same level. Of course, we are not including here Heavenly Fragment owners and much less Heavenly Divine Soul ones. One must remember that Ruik doesn''t have a Major Divine Soul or any kind of special constitution either. Ruik Dream World Construction was already at culmination when he entered the Holy Land. Now he achieved completion with Nightmare World Construction and Reality. His Illusion Sub-law was also in the Advanced Stage now. Unfortunately, the last Sub-Law of the Dream Laws, Illusion and Reality, can only be comprehended after Reality and Illusion reach culmination separately. As mentioned before, the last Sub-Law is a mix of the previous two, that''s why ''Illusion and Reality.'' Ruik could totally fight an ordinary 1st or 2nd Stage Divine Path Realm cultivator or demon beast and still have the advantage. If they were taken with their guards down, the battle might be over in a second the moment they are dragged into the Dream World. Tiane was still a Stage behind Ruik, being in the 7th one. Her Laws were Wind and Lightning. As two of the Five Main Elemental Laws, Tiane had it a lot easier than Ruik, Krune, Feifei, or Cinty. For Wind Sub-Laws, Wind Essence, Breeze, and Gale reached a culmination. The fourth one, Gust, was at the Intermediate level. As for Lightning Laws, Current and Lightning Form were at completion while Lightning Essence was on at the Advanced Stage. Nothing was surprising about it since she is a Flying Type Demon beast. Xankruan was at the same level as Tiane, the 7th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. She also did the same as Dilo. She only focused on one single Elemental Law, Earth. Earth Essence, Earthquake, and Gravity reached culmination, while Vitality and Strength were at the Advanced and Initial Stage, respectively. Fie and Liriu were a lot faster than those mentioned above in cultivation. Fie had support from Little Arty during all these years in the Holy Land, while Liriu is a Dracophoenix. That being said, it would be weird if their cultivation was slow than Ruik and the others at their level. In Fie''s case, she had already cultivated to the 6th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm, right behind Tiane. After so long in the Holy Land, the gap in cultivation due to their ages had disappeared, just like that. After Fie separated from Feifei and Little Arty, she also began to comprehend Water Laws, just like her mother. So now, she is proficient with both Lightning and Water Laws. Of course, Laws were different from cultivation, so the gap in age couldn''t be breached that easy. Neither her Lightning nor Water laws were ahead of Tiane''s Wind Laws. For Lighting, Fie had two at culmination only, Lightning Essence and Flash. As for Water laws, there was only one, Water Essence. Little Art already told her that once she finishes opening her Chaos Meridians, she should forget about cultivation and focus on her laws and foundation expansion. Because of that, Fie is bound to stay locked in the 7th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm for a long time. As for Liriu, he had an advantage in it. His Dracophoenix Bloodline! Thanks to that, not even Krune could beat his speed in Fire Laws Comprehension. Let alone that he also has created his own Tribulation Fire Source. Just like Dilo, Liriu is a single Sub-Law away from comprehending the entire Fire Sub-Laws. After that, he will only need to merge them all into the Major Law of Fire. Most likely, he will do that before Dilo. As for his cultivation, he already caught up to Fie and is now in the same 6th Stage of the Void Breaking Realm. --- There is a Halo for each Chaos Meridian in the Elemental Path. That being said, nine triers could open them at once. Surprisingly, there was one extra person this time around, Cinty''s husband, Kiirion. Before leaving the Wisp Main World, he was also left with the Myriad Energies Technique to practice. Cinty trusts him deeply, so Krune had no calms in passing it to him. Back then, there weren''t enough slots so that he could come with them to the Holy Land. Because of that, he volunteered to stay behind and act in Cinty''s absence. Of course, he wouldn''t work as if he was the new Wisp King or anything like that. He would only give the wisps, who were really left in charge of everything, some help if needed. But because that, he hasn''t left the Wisp World at all in the last ten years. However, this was more than enough time for him to get all nine Elemental Meridians. Cinty heard from the wisps who knew the truth that Kiirion really gave them tremendous help. Primarily because other than Krune and Cinty, there wasn''t anyone else in the Void Breaking Realm or above in the wisps'' midst. To compensate for it, Krune had contacted Wally''s disciple and requested a favor to let them bring Kiirion into the Elemental path to open his Chaos Meridians too. Wally''s disciples didn''t have much of a reason to refuse to start with, so Kiirion ended being brought too. Of course, he only came several days later. That''s because both he and Cinty had also been out of ''action'' for a long time, so they spent their sweet time together to make up for it. It was the same for Krune and Feifei or Dilo and Xankruan. Both Krune and Cinty took more than a year to open all the Chaos Meridians, so they believe that Feifei''s entourage will take more or less the same time to return. --- "Well then, now that I have sent everyone out, I can finally focus on my Blacksmithing again." Krune looked through the list of requests and immediately took out the highest level ones. The Blacksmith Guild believed that Krune was around the Four Diamond Stars level, which wasn''t far off. That being said, their hardest requests quite matched up with Krune''s level. Krune was now in the Five Stars, so even he wasn''t sure if he would become a Stars Path one before the Heavenly Competition. Just entering the Stars Path wasn''t enough, he had to at least be able to refine those Diamon Golem materials. --- Time passed, and three weeks went by. Today, a Spatial Gate connecting the Galec and Luvile Universe opened. Galec Universe was the one that the All Life Sect Sacred Land used to send Wamie over. When the higher-ups of the All Life Sect received a message from Wamie, they all felt excited. They had prepared a slot for her and Gilia to enter the Holy Land, so it meant that at least Wamie came back alive from there. However, when Wamie passed through the gate, they immediately noticed that she was alone. Gilia was not with her at all. Even if Gilia wasn''t in the Divine Path Realm, it was her duty to protect Wamie. She would come back with Wamie regardless of whether she entered the Divine Path Realm or not. One didn''t need to be a genius to guess what happened. However, the All Life Sect Master, Tika Tarkulie, had to ask. "What about Gilia?" Wamie shook her head. "She died in the Holy Land." Tika sighed but didn''t ask anymore. This topic can be discussed later. "I can see that you reached the 2nd Stage of the Divine Path Realm. This is far beyond my expectations for you. Could it be that you were successful in acquiring all the Heavenly Fragments?" All the elders around immediately looked at Wamie. That was by far the most critical question. However, Wamie shook her head. "No. Let alone get all fragments, I''m lucky that I didn''t lose mine. Krune is way too strong. I''m not his match at all." "Krune?! You mean, the Divine Path Sect''s Sect Master''s Disciple? So he really entered the Dalin Universe?" Wamie nodded. "Yes. But things turned different than elders might be thinking. Let me explain." 522 Invitation Tika and the other elders heard the entire story while showing weird faces. In the end, they didn''t even know what to say. "You are saying that Krune has become strong enough where he can fight Heavenly Divine Soul Owners at the same cultivation level head-on?" Wamie shook her head. "In fact, he can fight them with slightly lower cultivation, one to three small realms depending on the opponent''s power. Still, he said that there might be some that he can only fight at the same level as him. But those are quite rare." Tika and the elders found it hard to believe. "Do you expect us to believe such a thing? Heavenly Divine Soul Owners are not that easy to be defeated. Are you being controlled to be saying this?" Wamie sighed before continuing. "I''m not being controlled, but he does have a slive of my soul. That is the reason I wasn''t killed." Tika and the other elders smiled bitterly. Since Krune has a slive of Wamie''s soul, she is the same as his slave. Even her statement just now that she isn''t being controlled, can''t be trusted. "I know what Sect Master and the other elders are thinking. I can''t prove that I''m not being controlled either. However, he asked me to send this message." "If you don''t believe I''m strong enough to take Luvile Universe''s Fighter position, you can send someone to the Wisp Main World to test my strength. After all, seeing is believing." Tika narrowed her eyes. "Is he that confident that we won''t simply kill him in this Wisp Main World planet?" "Ah!" Only now did Wamie remember that the Wisps'' situation isn''t known by everyone. A remote place like the Luvile Universe can''t possibly be aware of such secrets like the battle against Wally back then. "Unfortunately, even if a peak Divinity Realm were to go to the Wisp Main World, he wouldn''t be able to even touch Krune. The Wisp Main World is protected by law, after all. Let me explain what I can." Wamie then explained about the rule where no one can touch the wisps in the Wisp Solar System. Obviously, Tika and the others got shooked once more. How could they know that inside the Dalin Universe, there was a place like this for the Wisps? No one, even the Dalin Universe Management itself, could touch the wisps there. Just how ridiculous it seemed? One of the elders immediately got up. "I don''t believe it! Why would everyone be afraid of such a puny race like wisps? I say that she is spouting nonsense. Perhaps that''s the order she received from the very start." All the other elders nodded. They couldn''t really think that the wisp race had such a place in the Dalin Universe, so they also believe that this is a lie that Krune forced Wamie to say. However, Tika raised her hand to stop all the elders. "I''m also having a hard time believing it. However, there is a quick way to check." "Is that you again, Tika? What business you have with me this time?" All the elders immediately understood who it was. This was the same guy from Galec Universe who they negotiated to send Wamie over. It was through this connection that Wamie could enter the Dalin universe to look for the other Heavenly Fragments. "Thank you for your help last time. I''m doing it again because an unexpected situation appeared on our side. Elder, would you mind to tell us if the Dalin Universe has a place called Wisp Main World that no one can touch?" The voice on the other side went silent for a moment before answering. "I don''t know how you got involved with this, but you lot better never touch that place. No one in the Lower Realms can afford to offend the existence behind that world. The planets in the same Solar System of the Wisp Main World are protected by law. I''m only telling this much because your All Life Sect had been a good customer in the last few chaos cycles. Don''t forget, unless you have no bad intentions, do not touch that place." Right after, the gate closed. There wasn''t even time to make more inquires. Tika and all the elders opened their mouths wide! Wamie wasn''t lying, there was indeed a place like that in the Dalin Universe. Seeing this situation, Wamie understood that she should strike the iron while it was hot. "Sect Master, I believe you understand it now. Maybe the reason Krune became this strong is exactly because he got a connection to that place''s Wisp Queen. Anyway, the simple fact that he entered the Divine Path Realm as a wisp is more than enough proof that he isn''t simple. I ask Sect master to send someone to test his power. I can''t prove that I''m not under his control, but I still need to say this. If our Luvile Universe has any chance whatsoever of getting one of Dalin''s next Five Slots, that chance lies on Krune''s hand. In fact, this is, without a doubt, the best chance our Luvile Universe has ever had." Tika began to ponder while the sect elders discussed what they just heard. She then took one last look at Wamie''s determined face before saying. "Contact the Darkness and Extreme Yin Yang Palace Sacred Lands, we need to talk. Also... bring someone from the Divine Path Sect and Wang Clan as well." Those two other Sacred Lands were surprised to receive such an invitation. But when the content ''The best chance to get one of the Dalin Universe''s five slots'' was heard, their feelings changed into shook. The sacred lands could tell that Tika was being quite urgent with her message, so both of them resolved to send their leaders. Of course, each side also sent several Divinity Realm members to protect themselves. The meeting point was in a region close to the three big powers'' borders, so it didn''t take long for the Darkness and Extreme Yin Yang Palace to arrive. Once there, they could see that Tika and her elders were also waiting for them. While the elders stayed around, there was a space at the very center where only Tika Tarkulie and Wamie Zarks were present. Yamio Halas, the Darkness Sacred Land Head, was the first one to approach. A few minutes later, Lue Barcou, the Extreme Yin Yang Palace''s Palace Master, arrive too. "Tika, I can see that you got your Heavenly Fragment girl back from the Dalin Universe. Could it be that she got all the Heavenly Fragments?" Yamio was quite impressed with Wamie. He could see that she was in the 2nd Stage of the Divine Path Realm. Their Space Heavenly Fragment Owner, Askol Jofen, had just entered the Void Breaking Realm. He wouldn''t be her match at all! For her cultivation to be so much higher than Askol, it could only mean that she got all the Heavenly Fragments in the Dalin Universe. Lue Barcou narrowed his eyes. He hasn''t received any news from Rania and Hobek Javiu until now, but their Soul Flames were still lit up. Rania and Hobek were the previous Yin and Yang Heavenly Fragment Owners. But after seeing Wamie''s cultivation, he thought that perhaps she got their Heavenly Fragments without killing them. However, Tika immediately shook her head. "My Wamie didn''t get any. She still has only her own Life Heavenly Fragment, that''s all. In fact, she wasn''t a match from the other Fragment owner at all." Yamio and Lue were taken aback. Did she get to the Divine Path Realm without the cultivation boost of the Heavenly Fragments? It was too hard to believe. "What are you talking about?" Tika smiled. "It''s too early to discuss it, wait for the other guests to arrive." Yamio and Lue got confused. What guest? The three Sacred Lands are already present, so was there a need for anyone else? It was then that two spatial gates appeared nearby. All the Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts immediately looked at it. From inside, Lucio and Xin stepped out. Although they are the Divine Path Sect and Wang Clan leaders, they are still Semi-Divinity Realm cultivators. So seeing those two weaklings appearing was quite weird. Well, Lucio and Xin were quite nervous as well. They suddenly got an invitation from the All Life Sect Sacred Land, so they had to come. However, they were still feeling quite pressured. The ancestors of their powers didn''t accompany them. In fact, it would be useless even if they did. After all, their background is far from being any threat to those Sacred Lands. "Cough, cough... Did the All Life Sect invite us over?" Tika nodded and called them over. "Yes. Come and join us since this topic involves both your powers as well." Lucio and Xin looked at each other before nodding. They didn''t need to be geniuses to understand that it definitely had something to do with Krune and Feifei. Yamio Halas and Lue Barcou also recognized this fact, so they didn''t intervene. "Everyone necessary is here now. I just ask everyone to wait for Wamie to explain everything before making any question. Wamie, it is up to you now." Wamie nodded and quickly bowed to everyone. "It goes like this..." 523 Negotiations After hearing the whole story, everyone became startled. First, the fact that a Wisp was able to reach the Divine Path Realm. Second, not only has Krune got there, he is even stronger than some Heavenly Divine Soul Owners at the same level. That sounded like a terrible joke. Suddenly, Yamio snorted. "He said to send someone to test his strength? Didn''t you say that the Wisp World is protected by a powerful being that even the Dalin Universe management can''t touch? That being said, what impedes him from using this background to force our representative to say whatever Krune wants?" However, Lue barcou shook his head. "Yamio, you are missing the entire point here. If Krune has such a background, why would he even waste his time doing such a thing?" Yamio glanced at Lue before asking. "Do you really believe such words?" Lue just shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I can confirm it very fast. As long as I contact Thakulo Universe and inquire about it, they will be able to tell me whether this Wisp Main World thing is true or not. In fact, I believe you have your own ways to check it as well, so why don''t we try it first?" Yamio narrowed his eyes. Still, he had to admit that if he pays a good price, he has a way to get this information. Both Yamio and Lue then went back to their groups and used their own ways to contact the stronger universes they are acquainted with. Around an hour later, Yamio and Lue returned to where the Wamie and the others were waiting. "So, how was it? Do you believe that the Wisp Worlds exist now?" Yamio didn''t mind it, though. "Hmph! So what? The wisp can now stay there as long as he wishes, that''s all. Why should we select him as the representative?" Tika couldn''t help but sigh. "I won''t lie, I don''t like it either. But you know it already, don''t you? The Holy Land is over, and the Heavenly Divine Soul owners became even stronger. I''ll be direct, neither my Wamie nor your Askol have the slightest chance of achieving anything in the Heavenly Competition." Lue Barcou pondered a bit before saying. "We have four years for the Heavenly Competition. So far, we still haven''t found the Time and Blackhole Heavenly Fragments. But that doesn''t matter now. Let''s suppose that we did find them, what use would be there with Krune and Feifei being in the Wisp Main World? There is no way we could touch those two while they are staying in that place. Simply put, it is impossible for us to create a Heavenly Divine Soul owner before the time arrives." Tika agreed with Lue Barcou. "You are right. Wamie has no chance against those monsters, let alone Askol. If I''m not wrong, Askol is only at the initial stages of the Void Breaking Realm, am I right, Yamio?" Yamio wasn''t surprised that Tika knew about it. Having spies inside the other Sacred Lands was something common already. It was simply too hard to wipe them out. "Hmph! I guess you are also forgetting something else. This Krune is not part of any of our Sacred Lands. Why don''t we just take the Wang Clan and Divine Path Sect as hostages and force Krune''s side to hand over the Heavenly Fragments?" Wang Xin and Lucio sighed. They were already expecting something like that to happen. Still, they wouldn''t simply retreat here. "Our powers can''t possibly contend against any of the sacred lands, but if you think that we will stay still and wait for that to happen, then you couldn''t be more wrong. We will fight to the very last member! There will be no hostages, just dead bodies." Surprisingly, Lucio and Xin were of the same thought. Fortunately, that didn''t seem necessary. "Stop spouting nonsense, Yamio. Can''t you see that this is the best chance? Krune isn''t part of any of our Sacred Lands, that''s true. But that is also the best thing that could have happened. If he was part of any of us, the other two sacred lands would definitely not agree. However, he has a neutral position. Neither of our three sides would be losing anything here." "Besides, so what if we could get his and Feifei''s Heavenly Fragments? Lue Barcou already said it, the Time and Blackhole Fragments are missing! We simply have no way to complete a Heavenly Divine Soul at all! How exactly do you plan to fight in the Heavenly Competition then?" Still, Yamio was unwilling. The Darkness Sacred Land had spent a lot of resources and even lost some of its territories just to find that Space Heavenly Fragment Owner. If he backs down now, wouldn''t all of that be lost for nothing? "What are you saying? That I should simply pass Askol over to Krune and let him take his Space Heavenly Fragment? In that case, why didn''t Wamie give her Life Heavenly Fragment away?" Wamie then said. "He doesn''t want it. So there is no need for senior Yamio to give Askol to Krune. In fact, even if you send him over, Krune will refuse to take it from him. Of course, as long as Askol doesn''t do anything stupid against Krune." Tika then looked at Lue Barcou. "Palace Master Lue, am I correct to assume that at least you are in favor of this plan?" Leu Barcou pondered a bit before answering. "That will depend on whether Krune is really as strong as you are saying. If he really has the chance to get one of the Five Slots of the Dalin Universe, then I''m willing to give it a try. Out Luvile Universe has never got even close to taking one of those slots, after all." Lue then looked at Yamio. "The three sacred lands had long since decided that the representative would always be the Heavenly Divine Soul Owner. But this time around, we don''t have one. That being said, we need to select a new representative with what we got. As you can see, Krune is the best thing we got at the moment. The fact that he isn''t part of any of our three Sacred Lands is even better since the power won''t be concentrated into any of us." Yamio answered that with a question. "What about the Divine Path Sect, then? Krune is part of their power. If he really gets a Slot for the Luvile Universe to control Dalin, wouldn''t we be creating a new power? Are you guys okay with it?" However, the one to answer that question was Lucio. "Isn''t that a little too short-sighted?" Yamio''s expression turned dark as he looked at Lucio. If they were alone, he would have cut Lucio''s head already. "What do you mean?" Lucio shrugged his shoulders. "As long as we can get this slot to become one of the Universes controlling Dalin, everyone inside the Luvile Universe will have a free pass into that place. That includes either the Sacred Lands or our Divine Path Sect and Wang Clan. That being said, how would we surpass you guys in power if you have the same benefits as us?" Wang Xin also added. "There is an even more significant advantage. Krune is not a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, nor will he become one, wouldn''t that make it even safer for your Sacred Lands? From what I understood, the Heavenly Divine Soul owner would be the pillar of the Universe he came from, but such a thing would not exist in our Luvile Universe. So the power would still be shared equally between you three." "Sure, thanks to Krune and Feifei, the Wang Clan and Divine Path Sect will thrive like never before, but it is far from enough to compete with the Sacred Lands. If a single Heavenly Divine Soul owner was enough to break the balance between the Sacred Lands, the previous Heavenly Soul Owners of the past would have wiped out the enemy Sacred Lands already, no? But how come all three Sacred Lands are still here?" Yamio was taken aback. That''s because what Wang Xin said was true. There had been several Heavenly Divine Soul owners in the Luvile Universe before. But the sacred lands never lost their positions. Every Heavenly Divine Soul of the past came from one of the Sacred Lands, so they obviously acted in favor of their side. Usually, the Sacred Land that had the Heavenly Divine Soul owner would suppress the other two, but it was simply impossible to uproot them. Their foundations are a lot deeper than anyone could imagine. Not to mention that the two Sacred Lands that didn''t have a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner would usually ally against the one that had. There is a limit to what the Heavenly Divine Sou Owner can do, and destroying two Sacred Lands was definitely not one of them. In this case, the three sacred lands could even ally together to hold Krune back if it was necessary. Yamio could see that Tika and Lue were at least willing to try out Krune''s strength. The main point here is that they might really get a Dalin Universe Slot. "Sigh... Fine! I agree, but only after Krune''s strength is confirmed to be as strong as this lass is saying." 524 Preparations Next, it came to the discussion about who would go there to test Krune. After all, each Universe that isn''t part of the ones managing Dalin can only send one protector for their Heavenly Competition participant. This would be the same guy that will stay with Krune until the end of the competition too. Obviously, all three Sacred Lands wanted to have their one going there. In the past, it would depend on which Sacred Land had the Heavenly Divine Soul owner. However, neither of them had it now. In the end, it was decided that a member of the Extreme Yin Yang Palace would be going. The reason turned out to be quite simple, they were the only ones who didn''t have a Heavenly Fragment Owner under their command anymore. The guy was called Erzato Brangen. Obviously, a Peak Divinity Realm cultivator. All the other Universes would only have their strongest members accompanying their Heavenly Divine Soul Owner. After discussing a method of communication back to Luvile Universe, Erzato left for the Dalin Universe. Several weeks passed by. Krune was still in his Blacksmith workshop, practicing his forging while Cinty and Heaven were doing their own things. Krune had taken the hardest requests, but in the end, there weren''t many of them. That being said, he had to contact the Blacksmith Organization once more to describe the types of requests he would take from now on. When the Blacksmith Organization received Krune''s call, they were overjoyed. That''s because the Heavenly Competition is close by, so thousands of Universes that are taking part in it kept bugging them. They all wanted the Purple Flame Equipment, which could increase their competitors'' combat power more than any other blacksmith weapon. Of course, there was a problem with these requests. All of them were asking not for the Diamond Stars Equipments, but for Stars Path Level ones. However, Krune wasn''t at that level yet back then. Without another choice, they could only tell the truth. But now, Krune began to make requests far above the previous level. So the Blacksmith Organization thought that perhaps, he was now at the Stars Path Level or close to it. The levels requested were Six Diamond Stars or higher, so they sent Krune the list and the materials for weapons that go all the way to the One Star Path Level equipment. Hopping that they would get that Stars Path equipment finished as well. When Krune received the requests, he was quite impressed by the numbers of high-level ones. He also wanted to reach the Stars Path Level before the Heavenly Competition, so it was quite good that they did it for him. ''Still, I might not have enough time to reach the necessary level to use the Diamond Golem''s body. It seems like I will need to do that in the end.'' Suddenly, Krune noticed that someone had arrived outside his courtyard protection formation. "Oh, he''s here." "Thank you for coming, senior. My name is Krune. I believe you were already told about what I need, right?" The old man nodded. "Hello there, you can call me Wellink Zuto. I''m here on behalf of the Formations Master Organization Branch. They said that you needed a Time Control Formation, is that correct?" Krune nodded. "Yes. But it doesn''t have to be anything grand. I only need it to move three times faster than usual." The man nodded once more. "Then that''s okay. The problem would be if you needed something ten times faster or higher. In that case, you would need someone more qualified than me. If it is just three times, then it will be easy. I already received the payment as well, so where do you want it?" Just as Krune was about to tell, Heavin came flying in his direction. "Oh, the guy is here, yea? Great, I will need a time formation as well. The same speed as his one is good enough for me." The man looked at the Parrot Puppet and thought that its real owner was controlling it from somewhere else. Krune then guided the man to his Blacksmith workshop, and Heavin''s Puppet''s one. Krune''s issue at the moment was time, so he decided to use a Time Control Formation to have more time to practice before the Heavenly Competition. However, Krune is already 36 years old. As mentioned before, the Heavenly Competition is realized fifth years later after a Heavenly Fragment is found out anywhere in any universe. Together with that, an age requirement is also set. Otherwise, things would go out of control due to the existence of Time Formations. The age rule was quite simple but different from the usual one. It didn''t check the Heavenly Fragment or Divine Soul owner''s total age. Instead, it checked how long it has been since he or she achieved the Foundation Establishment Realm. After all, that is the moment everyone receives their Heavenly Fragments. That being said, no one could be above 50 years of ''Foundation Establishment.'' Krune achieved his Foundation Establishment when he was close to 4, so he is already 32 ''Foundation Establishment'' years old. Obviously, Krune couldn''t become too old. Otherwise, he wouldn''t be able to take part in the Heavenly Competition. Also, a formation that accelerates time makes using the laws harder than normal. If he accelerates too much, he won''t be able to use them. To make an analogy, it is the same as driving a car while looking at the scenery just a few meters around it. If you drive slowly, you can make out the details without a problem, but if you are too fast, that obviously becomes much harder to do. Everything is bound by time, even laws. Heavin also asked for the same thing for the same reason. It took the Formation''s Master three days to finish both formations. After Krune and Heavin confirmed the efficiency, they quickly thanked the man. "Good. I made it automatic. As long as Spirit Stones are inserted in the Formation''s core, it will activate straight away. If you wish to stop it, just remove the spirit stones." Krune and Heavin nodded. "Thank you, Senior." The man smiled and then bid his farewell. He was quite satisfied since he was paid a lot more just to come as fast as possible. He made a good profit this time around. "Alright, Heavin, let''s go back. Make sure to keep your communicator synched to the network so that you won''t lose track of time." Heavin agreed with Krune. "Don''t worry. Anyway, now we have 12 years instead of 4 to practice. Although the laws will be a little more annoying to use, the extra time more than make up to it." "Yes. With this, we can both finish our preparations for when the time comes. Tell me if you need any part forged with Purple Flames later." Heavin nodded and went back to his Puppets. Krune then looked in the direction that the Elemental Path was located. His face showed determination as he turned around and entered his Blacksmith workshop once more. Around a month later (three in the Time Formation), Krune received a message in his communicator. It seemed like someone called Erzato was requesting entrance to the Wisp Main World. Krune then exited the time formation and called the guy directly. "Hello there. Does this senior has something to talk to me?" Erzato nodded. "I''m the protector assigned by the three Sacred Lands to come this time around for the Heavenly Competition. I''m also here on their behalf to check whether you really have the strength you mentioned before or not. We will only accept you as the representative of the Luvile Universe if you really can show what you said." Krune wasn''t surprised by that. In fact, he thought that they took quite some time to arrive. "I was waiting for you, senior. Place move to the teleport formation. It will teleport you directly inside the Wisp Main World." Erzato nodded and did as Krune asked. Once inside the Wisp Main World, Erzato felt the same thing that everyone who wasn''t from the Wisp Race did. I kind of pressure that went beyond his power as a Peak Divinity Realm cultivator. His entire body told him that whatever it was, it could crush him like an ant in the very next second. ''Seems like the information isn''t false. There is a supreme being protecting the Wisp Worlds. Still, why would this be the case?'' Erzato then put those thoughts behind his mind. Whether there is someone or not matters little. The only thing that he cares about is Krune''s real strength. It didn''t take long before he reached Krune''s courtyard. The Formation outside opened, and he quickly came in. It was then that he noticed that youth with rainbow hair. Sure enough, Krune looked just like the descriptions he received before. "So you are the wisp that Wamie talked about. As I can see, you are at the 5th Stage of the Divine Path Realm. However, Heavenly Divine Soul owners would be able to fight Peak Divine Path Realm with the same cultivation as yours. In fact, they would most likely crush them. In that case, I will reduce my strength to the Peak of the Divine Path Realm. As long as you can defeat me, I will take it that your words were not a lie." Krune smiled as a Spatial Gate appeared beside him. "That''s fine by me." Heavin came flying and landed on Krune''s shoulder before they all entered the Spatial Gate. 525 After Effects Around one hour later, Krune and Erzato returned to Krune''s home. If one looked at Erzato at the moment, they would see that he was quite pale. But above all, he was absent-minded. It was as if he had seen a ghost. Krune looked at Erzato and patted his shoulders. "Sorry, senior. If I knew, I would have held back a little." Erzato''s mouth twitched after hearing that. However, he had no words to answer Krune back. He almost died just a moment ago. If Erzato hadn''t released his full cultivation in the last moment, he would have been zapped in half! However, Erzato could only blame himself for that. He didn''t believe that a wisp could really reach that level of strength, so he underestimated Krune. He locked his cultivation at the Peak of the Divine Path Realm as he said, that much was true. But that was an ordinary Peak Divine Path Realm! The power he used was equivalent to someone without any Bloodline, Major Divine Soul, or anything like that. Obviously, Krune didn''t know that, so he went all out. Well... let''s just say that Erzato didn''t have a good time, but more like a traumatic experience. "Cough, cough... don''t worry about it. As a Peak Divinity Realm cultivator, I wouldn''t die that easy anyway. I was just caught by surprise, that''s all." Erzato quickly recovered and then looked at Krune. "Anyway, the test we did after was a lot more conclusive. You could still easily defeat me even when I locked my strength in the Divine View Realm. Now I have no doubt that you really have the power to match those Heavenly Divine Soul Owners. I''m going back to report it to the Luvile Universe after it." Krune nodded. "Please do so. I will stay here for the next four years, so you can come at any time if you wish to talk to me." Erzato nodded and bid his farewell. He had no way to contact the Luvile Universe while staying in Dalin. Only after he left would he be able to contact them. Fortunately, he is the registered protector of the Luvile Universe''s participant, so he wouldn''t need to be afraid of not being able to come back. After finishing his report, he would most likely stay with Krune until the day for them to depart. "Oh, right! What about Feifei? I was requested to ask about her by her father back in the Luvile Universe." Krune shook his head. "She is not here at the moment. But she should be back in two years. As for a reason, I can''t tell you now. Just tell Father in Law that he can expect a big surprise once we return to the Luvile Universe." Erzato was confused but didn''t ask anything else. It was not like it was important for the Sacred Lands anyway. That being said, he finally took his leave. After Krune saw Erzato out, he once again returned to his Blacksmith practice in the Time Formation. He felt like he was very close to achieve the Six Diamond Stars Level. --- At the center of the Dalin Universe, there is an enormous planet, several times bigger than the Wisp Main World called Caskin Planet. This planet was receiving visitors from everywhere. It wouldn''t be wrong to say that it was the busiest one at the moment. This also happens to be the planet where the Heavenly Competition would take part. The news about the Holy Land disappearance hasn''t faded away yet, but it didn''t mean that the Heavenly Competition would be delayed. At the moment, Formations Masters were working day and night to prepare everything. There was simply not enough space for everyone, so it wasn''t just anyone who could come to watch it four years later. Still, all the Universes participating needed to know what was going to happen. That being said, the event in this place had to be transmitted outside the Dalin Universe to everyone else. That was what these formation masters were preparing. Connecting so many Universe in a real-time event was anything but easy. Especially in a closed Universe like Dalin. Somewhere on this planet, there was a man at the peak of the Divine path Realm comprehending Laws and expanding his Foundation. If Krune was here, he would identify him straight away. It was none other than Hanan Frunkan, the Heavenly Divine Soul Owner who fought Krune''s group back in the Holy Land. Hanan was now alone. Since the Holy Land was over, his companions had to return to their Universe. After all, they were all in the Divine Path Realm already. Suddenly, Hanan heard a knock on his door. He quickly got up and opened it. After seeing the man on the other side, Hanan bowed while showing aa respectful expression. "Paying Respects to the Clan Head." The man was Baren Frunkan, the one who negotiated with Krune and the others. He looked at Hanan and couldn''t help but sigh. "Hanan, I believe you already expected this. We poured all our resources to increase your strength. I refuse to believe that there are many Heavenly Divine Soul Owners out there that can fight on equal terms with you. However, we can''t take any risks, so I will have you use the Clan''s Forbidden Technique." Hanan''s expression didn''t change even one bit. "Clan Head has no need to worry about me. Everything is for the sake of the Dalin Universe Liberation. Our plan relies on me getting one of the Five Slots of the Dalin Universe, so I can''t afford to lose. I don''t mind even if my cultivation is lost in the end. Besides, once the Dalin Universe is closed off, it will matter little whether I''m still a Heavenly Divine Soul owner or not." Baren nodded, satisfied. He then took out a Jade Slip from his spatial ring and passed it to him. Yes, Baren didn''t use a communicator message, but a Jade Slip instead. "Study it well. This forbidden technique will draw out the power of your Heavenly Divine Soul beyond its limits. But don''t use it from the very start. Make sure to keep it for when you encounter an opponent you can''t deal with." Hanan accepted the jade slip with a determined expression. "Don''t worry, Clan Head. I''ll be sure to master it before the time comes." Hanan wasn''t the only one taking precautions. First of all, there was no rule saying that forbidden techniques can''t be used. Because of that, quite a few participants would end using it anyway. --- Laka had temporarily returned to his Universe. There, he had to spend a lot of time giving thousands of explanations about his years in the Dalin Universe. But because of the Dragon pact, he simply couldn''t say anything about Krune and the others. However, everyone was satisfied nonetheless. In the last year of Holy Land, Laka had broken through into the 8th Stage of the Divine Path Realm. They had already tested out his strength and knew that the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl was no joke. Because of that, they were all excited about the result of this time''s Heavenly Competition. The Dragon Race Elders of his Universe were even more so. After all, Laka already told them that ''Krune''s Master'' would be forging three Purple Flame Dragon Pearls for them. The only reason Laka hasn''t returned to the Dalin universe yet was that those elders were discussing which Dragons would go there to have their Dragon Pearls Forged. But in the end, the elders of the Dragon Race reached a conclusion. It was better to wait for the Heavenly Competition to be over first. If they get one of the five slots, they can personally go and pay their respects to this master. Laka took two months to return to the Dalin Universe. This time, Alacanta wasn''t together with him. Instead, it was another Dragon Race Elder at the peak of the Divinity Realm called Tranfan. "Laka, there will be quite a few Peak Divine Path Realm cultivators and demon beasts in this competition. Do you think you can have a breakthrough before it starts? It would make our chances better." Laka pondered a bit before answering. "Extremely difficult. Without the support of Godly Energy, my cultivation speed plummeted. I''m not even 1/10 as fast as I was in the Holy Land. Besides, it has been 42 years since I entered the Foundation Establishment Realm. If I use a Time Formation, I would only have a little less than 7 years to cultivate. So I better focus on my Laws and Foundation for the moment." The elder nodded and didn''t ask anymore. --- A month later, Erzato finally passed the news to the Sacred Lands, Divine Path Sect, and Wang Clan. Not only that, but he also recorded the entire process with a Spiritual Equipment. After everyone saw his battle against Krune, they were shocked beyond comprehension. Krune''s power far surpassed everyone''s expectations. However, they soon got ecstatic! If Krune is really as strong as that, then they might really get a Slot from the Dalin Universe this time around. The only problem was that he is still in the 5th Stage of the Divine Path Realm. After all, there is no doubt that there would be Peak Divine Path Realm Heavenly Divine Souls in the Heavenly Competition. 526 The Myriad Wisps Technique Spreads Two years went in a flash, leaving only two years until the Heavenly Competition. But today, some news started to spread everywhere. The wisps have invented a cultivation technique, the Myriad Wisps Technique! This technique could allow wisps to cultivate extremely fast, which helps them to avoid the lifespan issue. After investigating, it was found out that there were high chances of wisps being able to achieve the Divine Path Realm before dying. In fact, the chances were higher than any other race. Obviously, this shocked everyone. In fact, it was found out around 2 months ago. However, Dalin and the Universes controlling it tried to keep the information secret. They wanted to eliminate the focuses where these wisps were found. Unfortunately, they soon came to an understanding. The wisps had been spreading it non stop. There was simply no way to know just how many universes have wisps with this technique. In the end, the only choice was to release the news and hope that all the Universes would work together to hold them back. Cinty was back in the wisp world, checking a few documents. As soon as the news was released, she received a call from Norzulun Odgas, the one in charge of Dalin Universe Management. "Oh, hello there. Is there a reason for you to contact me, Norzulun?" The guy on the other side had a dark expression. "What''s the meaning of this? From where this Myriad Wisps Technique came from?" Cinty shrugged her shoulder. "Is that why you called me? Obviously, it was us, wisps, who created it. Is there a problem?" Norzulun''s mouth twitched. "You know very well what the problem is. You guys had never had a cultivation technique before. But now this thing can pretty much guarantee that you will all reach the Soul Forging Realm or higher. Depending on the wisp''s talent, even the Divine Path Realm is not impossible anymore." Cinty nodded. "That''s true. Now, just like all the other races in all Universes, our wisp race has a cultivation technique. Of course, we are still far behind you all. After all, just how many cultivation techniques each race has on their hands? We only have a single one, though. Oh, I see. You are calling me to congratulate us. Supervisor Norzulun is too courteous." Norzulun almost exploded. "Congratulate your head! Do you have any ide-" Bam! Cinty slammed the table in front of her. "If I have any idea? Of course, I have an idea! Our wisp race can finally rise to stand on equal terms with all the other races. We finally will give birth to wisps who can protect our race interests, just like all other races have. We finally will have a chance to live a long life, just like all other races have. We finally won''t be looked at with disdain by everyone, just like all the other races. Tell me, is there anything wrong with that? Is that really a big problem that we won''t be the only race in existence to die without another choice?" Norzulun was taken aback. The wisp race has always been seen as a threat. So that''s why he was enraged when this Myriad Wisps Technique appeared. But now that Cinty put it like that, he couldn''t deny her words. Everything she said was true, after all. Norluzun then took a deep breath to calm down. "Alright. I will admit that everything you said is right. But that''s not where the problem lies, and you know it. You know as well as me about what happened with Wally back then. If wisps can now reach the Divine Path Realm, there is bound to be wisps ascending one day. If those wisps can then come back to the Lower Realm without paying any price, the Universes will eventually be dominated by them. That''s why we can''t allow wisps to cultivate past the Void Breaking Realm." Cinty snorted, though. "So you saying that the wisp race''s feelings matter not. Everything we have passed through since we came to exist should simply be accepted. Alright, then let''s think about it like this. All the other races in all the Universes have dominated them for countless chaos cycles. So what''s the problem if our Wisp Race dominates for a while? Or could it be that only you, the all might flesh and blood races, are worthy of staying at the top?" "This..." Norzulun was speechless once more. However, he quickly recovered. "That''s not what I said. Don''t try to change the topic here either. If the wisps began to come down from the Higher Realms without any backlashes, they would dominate forever! Eventually, the time they stay on top will surpass all the other races together, and it will never end." Cinty shrugged her shoulders. "You said the right thing just now. Such a situation is only possible if the wisps can come down from the higher realms without paying any price. But as far as I know, Wally was the only wisp to ever achieve this. Where is the proof that all the wisps can do the same thing as him?" Norzuluan answered straight away. "If they can''t, then that would be for the best. But what if they can? That is the issue here." Cinty didn''t care. "Well, there is only one way to find out, no? If the wisps don''t ascend, how do you expect to know? You guys should just sit down and observe, that''s the best thing you can do." Norzulun''s eyes narrowed. "The problem is that no one intends to give it a chance. It''s always better to prevent the disease than heal it." Cinty couldn''t help but laugh. "Too bad, though. The ''disease,'' as you call us, has already been spread. I might as well tell you this. It doesn''t matter how many forces you mobilize, no one can stop the Myriad Wisps Technique dissemination. Way too many Universes had already received this technique. Especially now that you released the news." "Oh, right! I have to thank you for helping us to start the phase 2 of our Myriad Wisps Technique Spreading plan. You guys probably thought about mobilizing the other Universes to do a quick subjugation of the wisps that are spreading this technique. Unfortunately, you are too naive." "This will indeed slow down the spread, that much is true. However, it will also be the reason why our Myriad Wisps Technique will reach even further places that would usually be impossible for my forces alone to do." "There will be several cultivators and demon beasts who will participate in it. But in the end, some will bring a copy of the technique back with them to their home Universes. Slowly, but certainly, the number of Universes that will spread this technique will increase. That initial slowed speed of spread will eventually speed up once more due to the number of Universes that have it. Even if the Higher Realm began to send their forces down, it would still be useless." Norzulun was taken aback. Cinty was right, they had indeed slowed down the spread of this technique by eliminating the sparks around the Universes. But could he really stop the cultivators and demon beasts from bringing a copy away with them? "You! You are crazy! Are you perhaps wishing to start a war against all races of the Universe?" Cinty shook her head. "Don''t talk bullshit! Take a very good look at history. Our Wisps Race has been, without a doubt, the most peaceful race to ever exists. We seldom try to find problems with others. If anything, it''s you guys who always cause us an unlimited amount of troubles. Our wisp race doesn''t want to antagonize anyone. We only want to live our lives and have our chances like everyone else. If this ''war'' you are talking about really happens, it will not be because we started it. As long as you leave us alone, neither side will have to suffer." Norzulun felt helpless at that. "You know that it is not that simple. The other races will eventually take action to prevent the wisps from rising. It will definitely become a full-scale wisp hunt everywhere." Cinty shook her head. "There is no need to worry. I can guarantee you it won''t reach this point." "Why?" Cinty slimed before continuing. "Isn''t that obvious? It is simply impossible to completely eliminate all wisps with the Myriad Wisps technique. Sooner or later, hidden Divinity Realm Wisps will ascend. Once they get strong enough, they will want to come back for revenge." "If the thing about all the wisps being able to come down without backlashes is true, the Universes who hunted those ascended wisps relentlessly will be their very first targets. Once they come down, all the enemy forces will have to face the calamity caused by their own actions." Norzulun couldn''t help but sweat cold. What Cinty said really made a lot of sense. Cinty then added. "If the Universes out there wish to prevent such a thing from happening, there will be only one choice. Do not antagonize the wisps. Treat them just like you treat any other race in your Universe. If a wisp gets in a fight for a treasure in some whatever dimensional realm, then he might die just like everyone else in that battle. This is the kind of treatment we want. To be treated as if we were like any other race around." 527 Higher Realms Again Norzulun began to ponder about everything Cinty said. Of course, not everything would work according to Cinty''s plan in all Universes. Still, he had to admit that there were high chances of what she told happening in most of them. "You have no intention of calling back this mess, do you?" Cinty shrugged her shoulders. "Calling back? I''m not a god, you know? It is simply impossible to recall everything. I wasn''t lying when I said that it couldn''t be stopped anymore." Norzulun nodded. "Very well. I don''t know what can happen, so I can''t say anything. Whether what you said will work or not is still open to see." Cinty agreed with Norzulun. "I believe so too. Until next time, supervisor Norzulun." Finally, their call was finished. Cinty had put a strong front during the talk, but she couldn''t help but feel her legs giving in when the call was finally over. "From now on, it''s all up to fate." A week later, the leader of the Universes Powerhouses gathered once more. It was really rare for two gatherings to happen in such a small time span. Just a few years ago, they had gathered as well when they found out that Cinty was in the Divine Path Realm. Obviously, they called everyone over for the same thing, trying to contact the Higher Realms and see what they have to say about it. "As all of you know, from the moment we released the information about the Myriad Wisps Technique, the Wisp Race ceased all pretense and began to spread it everywhere in the open. If you go into the network now, you can definitely find a copy of it. It doesn''t matter how many times we remove it, there is always someone who posts it again." Everyone nodded. Truth be told, the technique has already appeared in their Universes as well, not only Dalin. It looked like a plague that began to appear everywhere. It wasn''t only the wisps spreading it anymore. Loads of cultivators and demon beast also had their own copies. One must remember that it allowed wisps to cultivate fast enough to avoid the lifespan issue. That meant that the wisps now had a chance of reaching the Divine Path Realm in the 320 years of life available to them. Sure enough, a lot of cultivators and demon beasts became interested in it. After all, the majority takes much longer than that. Only significant powers have cultivation techniques that are good enough to allow their members to reach the Divine Path Realm under this time. Of course, the Myriad Wisps Technique can only be used by wisps. However, those cultivators and demon beasts don''t know about that. Even if they do, they still think that they perhaps can modify it for themselves. Having said that, they are gathering together and using even more wisps to make tests. That obviously facilitated the spread again. It was like cinty mentioned, it couldn''t be stopped anymore. "Seems like we don''t have another choice, we need to contact the Higher Realms." Everyone in the room nodded, Olave Merfil included. Even he was shocked when he found out about the technique. ''No wonder that wisp''s cultivation was so high. With a technique like this one and his Elemental Major Divine Soul, it would be weird if he wasn''t this fast.'' No one complained about the suggestion, and they quickly activate the formation that could contact the Higher Realms. Once again, Malai was the person to answer their call. "How come you are contacting us so soon? Did something happen?" Just as Lidmir was about to talk, another voice intervened. "Don''t worry, I''ll explain it myself." All the leaders of the Universes Powerhouses were taken aback. There was someone else in the room, but they couldn''t feel his presence at all! Suddenly, a colored wisp appeared right in the middle of the room. He looked pretty much like Krune, except for the fact that he was much bigger. His wisp core was at least four times the size of Krune''s one. Who else could it be if not Wally? At the same time, all these leaders of the Universe Powerhouses felt like they were being pressured by a mountain. They simply couldn''t move at all. All these all-mighty Peak Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts were nothing more than ants in front of this wisp. "Hey, the brat on the other side. Tell Neto that Wally wants to talk with him." Malai was taken aback when he heard that. "You! You are that wisp!" "Stop wasting my time and connect him. You were going to do that anyway, so be quick." Malai took a deep breath and immediately contacted Neto. Neto was the cultivator that Malai had called in the past. The same guy who sent down the God-Level equipment Stellar Needle to kill Cinty. Neto, of course, was surprised to hear that Wally wanted to talk with him. "Well, to think that you would contact me by yourself. Have you perhaps decided to surrender?" Wally snorted, though. "As if! I''m only talking to you because if I don''t, someone else will. Anyway, let me tell you what is happening at the moment." Wally then passed the information about the Myriad Wisps Technique. After hearing everything, Neto couldn''t help but feel shocked. "You know very well that we can''t permit that to happen. We only reached an agreement with you in the past because the chances of Divine Path Realm wisps appearing was extremely low. You should know better than anyone else that we can''t risk having ascended wisps going back into the Lower Realms." Wally sighed after hearing that. "How many times do I have to tell you? I''m a special case. Other than me, no one else should ever dream about descending from the Higher Realm without paying the price. It has nothing to do with being a wisp at all!" Neto snorted, though. "If that was really the case, then why you keep refusing to tell us about it? Since it can only be used by yourself, it shouldn''t make any difference whether we know or not." Still, Wally refused. "And I told a million times that it would bring no good. There are definitely a few idiots who would try the same thing, which would bring irreversible consequences. That''s why I can''t tell you." Neto didn''t believe a single word. "That''s what you say. But isn''t it perhaps an excuse to drop our guards against the wisps? Once enough of you gain enough power in the Higher Realms, you will all descend together and dominate the Lower Realms. From then on, it will be just a question of how much time it will take for you to dominate the Higher Realms as well." Wally really felt helpless every time he talked with this guy. "Whatever. You will find soon enough that the other wisps can''t come down. After all, the wisps now have a cultivation technique that allows then to vie for the Divine Path Realm." Neto seemed confused with that statement. "You don''t expect that the Higher Realms will simply sit down and wait for the wisps to come, right? There is no way we are going to take those risks." Wally couldn''t help but laugh. "So what? Are you perhaps going to destroy all the universes where the Myriad Wisps Technique appeared? Are you prepared to destroy hundreds of thousands of them?" It was then that Neto answered with an authoritative tone. "If it is necessary, then it shall happen. Or what, are you perhaps going to stop us? You are definitely strong, I admit that. No one is your match in the Lower Realms. But you are only one. You can select a few Universes to defend by yourself, but can you protect all the others at the same time?" Wally immediately answered. "Do you want to try me?" All the Universes Powerhouses'' leaders sweated cold. If all the Universes that have the Myriad Wisps Technique are going to be destroyed, then that also included themselves! The Higher Realms would then cease to be an ally and become their greatest foe! There was a sudden silence in the middle of the room. Wally didn''t say anything, nor did Neto on the other side. This impasse continued for a minute before Neto began to laugh. "Hahaha! Alright, alright! There is no need for us to be this serious. Say it, why did you call me? If you don''t want us to go around destroying all the Universes, then you most likely have a plan to convince us. What is it that you have to offer?" Wally''s tension also weakened as he offered. "The first door key." No one in the room understood what Wally meant. In fact, not even Malai in the Higher Realms had any idea. However, when Neto heard those words, he felt like he was struck by lightning! "You- You! So it was you! You had it all the time! No wonder we couldn''t find it anywhere, it wasn''t in the Higher Realms anymore! You are despicable!" Wally laughed out loud. "Me? Despicable? Hahaha! You are absolutely the last person in the Lower and Higher Realms that I want to hear it from." "Ugh!" Neto felt like he was stabbed in his heart. Still, he quickly recovered. "What do you want for it? I''ll warn you, as important as the key might be, the Wisps'' situation is even more. If I have to give up the key to get rid of this Myriad Wisps Technique, I will do so!" Wally smiled after that. 528 Final Desicion In the end, the last agreement made between Wally and Neto wasn''t heard by anyone. Wally then left the Hall, much to the cultivators and demon beasts'' relief. However, the formation to communicate with the Higher Realm was still active. Ludmir then came forward to ask. "Senior, what the Higher Realms have decided?" Neto quickly replied. "Just let it be, it''s not like you want us to intervene, right? If we move, it will be quite the calamity for the Lower Realms. Anyway, it''s all up to you guys now. Do whatever you want." With that, the connection was severed. Usually, those leaders and representatives wouldn''t like that the Higher Realms didn''t help. However, this time they had to admit that they were relived. They asked for help, but almost got their own Universes destroyed. With the communication over, Ludmir looked at the rest in the room. "So, what now? Should we keep intervening or let it be?" Olave Merfil was the first one to asnwer. "That isn''t a simple question. We might be strong, but the fact is that there are way too many Universes. Our authority can only reach so far, which means that each Universe will most likely act as they see fit. If the only way to stop the technique spread is by destroying the Universes, I would rather not intervene." The others around nodded as well. The Uline Universe representative, Paskar, also added. "Not to mention that the Higher Realms seem to have reached some kind of agreement with Wally again, so we can already forget about getting their help." Ludmir thought for a while before bringing up another issue. "Our problem here then is the fact that the Myriad Wisps Technique is a very advanced cultivation technique. Although it doesn''t mean that all the wisps can reach the Divine Path Realm, the percentage of those who can is definitely higher than the other races. If we let things like they are now, in a few chaos cycles, wouldn''t the wisps surpass any other race in the number of Divinity Realms?" Someone else then commented. "This is a problem of several chaos cycles in the future. Would we need to care about it now?" Mohie Zorval, the Clan Head of the Mohie Clan, which controlled the Hara Universe, shook his head. "We all heard the part where Wally said that he was a particular case and that other wisps shouldn''t be able to come down as he did. Let''s suppose that he is telling the truth. If that is the case, our only problem would be the quick increase of High-Level wisps. However, it is not like we don''t have cultivation techniques that are just as fast. It''s just..." "Ridiculous! Do you know just how long had my Sect protected or cultivation technique? Other than the Core Disciples, no one has ever had the chance to cultivate it! Now you are telling to simply pass it everyone who wishes to see?" "That isn''t the only problem. It also means that several other powers would begin to rise as well. In the long term, we can totally expect changes in the controlling powers of each Universe. Perhaps even our own." Another Universe representative commented. "It doesn''t have to be your top-secret techniques. We all have a few legacies that are not as good but would still achieve a similar effect, right? We could use those ones." Olave then mentioned. "It''s like Ludmir said. If we don''t go for that, sooner or later, the wisp race will surpass any Universe Power in the number of Divinity Realms." Still, there were those who were against it. "I believe this is too much of a hasty decision. We can''t stop the spread anymore since way too many cultivators and demon beasts know about it, that is true. However, it just began to happen. At the moment, other than Cinty, how many wisps are in the Divine Path Realm? Definitely not many, that''s for sure. Yet, you are already talking about being surpassed in the number of Divinity Realms. That''s a ridiculous notion." "Wrong! You are missing the point here. The longer we take to make this decision, the worse it would be. Sure, now it makes no difference. We can even use our power to delay them as much as possible. However, this is just temporary. In fact, purposely delaying them would simply make the relationship between the other races and the wisps to worse." The guy continued. "Let''s not even talk about the alliances that would appear in the future. Some weaker races deciding to ally to the wisps in the hope of better conditions and things like that. Don''t forget, the wisp race was the weakest one until now. But that doesn''t mean that there aren''t other races in similar conditions." The Hall went silent after that. Finally, Ludmir stepped forward before saying. "Let''s decide by vote. Those who agree to spread techniques of the same level as the Myriad Wisps Technique raise their hands." A month later, shocking news began to spread. Top-Notch cultivation techniques are now being released for free! They aren''t as amazing as the Universes Powerhouses'' best ones, but they didn''t lose by much. Sure enough, they began to spread even faster than the Myriad Wisps Technique. When Cinty saw the news and the techniques available there, she couldn''t help but sigh in relief. ''It seems like they decided to pay us back in the same coin. The Myriad Wisps Technique is fantastic, but it is just a variation of the Myriad Energies Technique. It simply isn''t just as good as the original. Just like us, they did not release their best ones. Nonetheless, those techniques are the dream of the majority of demon beasts and cultivators. With this, their cultivation wouldn''t be any slower than the wisps.'' Cinty also went to talk with Krune and told him about everything. "That''s their decision? Weird, what about the Higher Realms?" Cinty shook her head. "I have no idea. But since they decided it, most likely, there won''t be something like a Wisp Hunt." Krune pondered a bit and felt like it wasn''t this simple. He was totally expecting some kind of retaliation from the Higher Realms. After all, when Cinty became a Divine Path Realm Wisp, they went as far as sending the Stellar Neddle down to kill her. "Let''s keep observing. Let me know if you discover anything." Cinty nodded and then left. This was something decided by the Universes Powerhouses, so Krune''s group won''t get the details easy. A few days later, a Spatial Gate opened close to the Wisp Main World. From inside, Feifei and Fie stepped out. Right after, Liriu, Tiane, Ruik, and the rest appeared as well. It has been over two years since they went to the Elemental Path, so it was about time for them to return. Soon, everyone arrived at Krune''s Courtyard. Well, everyone except for Kiirion, who went to see Cinty first. When Feifei looked at Krune''s Blacksmith Workshop, she immediately noticed the Time Increasing Formation. She touched it, and the formation immediately deactivated. Krune, of course, noticed that. He quickly came out just to see that everyone was there waiting for him. Fie and Feifei promptly hugged him, much to his satisfaction. "Hahaha! So you guys are back. How was it, did you all open your Chaos Meridians." Ruik nodded. "Pretty much. These things are really useful, it saves a lot of time converting Chaos Energy." Krune nodded. He decided to stop working for the day and cook for everyone. Fie also followed him to help. As one can imagine, she turned out to be quite a foody, just like her father. Not too long after, Heavin also came flying, quickly landing on Feifei''s shoulder. As everyone ate, they also talked about what happened. "So they released all those techniques, uh? It seems like it won''t be Dalin only." Krune nodded. "Yes. If their plan is to match the Myriad Wisps Technique''s speed, then they will need to release them to the weaker Universes outside. Otherwise, it would be meaningless." Tiane couldn''t help but comment. "Well, this is good. From now own, you don''t need to worry about the Wisps in the Luvile Universe. After all, the Myriad Wisps Technique is available everywhere. They will think that the Luvile Universe is just one more of those who got it." Krune smiled after hearing that. "Anyway, we will need to wait and see what developments will happen in the future. It is still Dangerous for Cinty or me to go outside without hiding our identities. But it won''t be long before a lot more Divine Path Realm wisps appear. I''m looking forward to that day." Krune then looked at Fie''s necklace. "Little Arty, I have a favor to ask." Little Arty then began to float. "What is it?" "Would you mind to let me cultivate in the Holy Land until the Heavenly Competition arrives? I want to reach the 7th Stage of the Divine Path Realm before that. I still have another two years, or six if I count the time formation." Little Arty didn''t mind. "Sure, but you don''t need to come into my Holy Land to receive Godly Energy. I can simply release it around me so that everyone can keep doing their own things. I can also control the range of effect, so there is no risk of others finding out. You can simply stay in your workshop during it." Krune nodded. "Thanks." In the end, everyone decided to move their houses close to Cinty''s residence. Another Time Formation was also made there for Krune to keep his blacksmith practice while cultivating with Godly Energy at the same time. Praise the Mind Splitting Technique! Because of how chaotic Dalin was at the moment, Krune''s group decided to not leave for the time being. There is the Holy Land disappearance as well. So they all stayed in the Wisp Main World as everything happened outside. One and a half years before the Heavenly Competition started, another news began to spread. Stars Path Purple Flame Weapons appeared in the Dalin Universe Organization. Sure enough, with the Time Formation, Krune was able to spend over 6 years practicing. Not to mention that Krune found it much easier to manipulate the purple flames with the help of Godly Energy. At first, there weren''t many Heavenly Competition participants interested. After all, those were just One Star Path Purple Flame Equipment. It couldn''t beat Nine Stars Path ones. But it wouldn''t stay like that for long. 529 Stars Path Blacksmith Inside Heavin''s puppet workshop, Krune had just helped him to attach some Stars Path materials he forged. "Heavin, how is it?" Heavin began to check everything. A few minutes later, he answered Krune''s question. "Hum... seems like I mistook the amount of Spiritual Energy delivered through the wings. Anyway, this is just a prototype, so it will take some time to understand all the flaws. This is my first Stars Path Puppet, after all." Krune nodded and didn''t mind if it went wrong. Be it Heavin or Krune, they had just recently arrived at the Stars Path Level in their side occupations. Their advancement being similar is understandable since they use the same laws. "By the way, it looks very lifelike. Is this how your Puppet Body will look like?" Heavin nodded. "In the end, I''m quite used to bird types. In that case, I might as well make one that looks like a Phoenix. I asked Liriu, and he helped me with some Tribulation Fire. Oh, right! I will need you to change the shape of the God-Level beak to a Phoenix-like one." Krune nodded. Now that his level increased, it became easier to do that. Those two then exchanged a few more words before Krune returned to his workshop. This process continued for another year. To be more specific, it was three years due to the Time Increasing Formation. Krune saw his progress with blacksmith improving much faster thanks to the Godly Energy. It was simply too compatible with his Purple Flame. Light Spirt said it was to be expected. After all, the Purple Flame was made with Purple Tribulation Lightning, which was created in the Higher Realms. Even though the Heavenly Competition participants weren''t interested in the low Stars Path level equipments, there were plenty who wanted them. Thanks to that, Krune had no problem seeling them all. It was not like he needed the money, but the more he had, the better. However, as the level of the equipments available increased, the Heavenly Competition participants began to take notice. Finally, the very first Six Stars Path Purple Flame Sword appeared in the Blacksmith Network. The highest cultivation allowed in the Heavenly Competition is the peak of the Divine Path Realm. This means that the highest level of equipment used is Nine Stars Path. Anything above that would be considered a Stars View one, which was obviously above the Divine Path Realm cultivation, so it wasn''t allowed either. Between the Heavenly Competition participants, not everyone was at the Peak of the Divine Path Realm. In fact, the majority was between the 5th Stage and 8th. Only a few had cultivated fast enough to reach the peak. That being said, the Purple Flame Equipments that could show higher power while being at a lower level were extremely appealing. Soon, a bidding war began between those who weren''t able to get Peak Stars Path Equipment. Not that Krune couldn''t make anymore, but because only now he reached a level where he could forge the Diamond Golem''s body! Simply put, he didn''t have time for the others anymore. "This thing turned out to be harder than I expected. I thought that once I was in the Four Stars Path Blacksmith level, I would be able to refine it. But I couldn''t be wronger. Only at the Eight Stars Path did I finally get some results." Feifei was also there with Krune since she was the one who would redraw that Formations on the shields. "Well, it''s better later than never. How long will it take for you to finish refining the Diamond Golem Body?" Krune took a piece of it and began the refining process. He kept at it for a few minutes before giving an answer. "At this speed, probably one month until I get enough to forge my new shields." Feifei nodded. It had been a few weeks since Krune achieved his Eight Stars Path, but he focused on stabilizing his level first before touching the Diamond Golem''s body. Suddenly, Heavin appeared inside his workshop as well. "Well, I will need you to refine some more since I will need it for my Phoenix Puppet as well." Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "Isn''t the Diamond Golem Body pieces a little incompatible with a Phoenix Type puppet?" Heavin shook his head. "Not necessarily. I will only use it for the more complex and small parts that could break easier. The rest of the Puppet''s body will be made with Lightning and Fire compatible materials. I also sold my own puppets that I made during this time, so I got enough money to buy everything I needed. I was even able to buy the necessary Peak Divine Path Realm Phoenix Feathers. At the moment, I passed those feathers to Liriu for him to temper it with his Dracophoenix Flame and Tribulation Fire." Heavin then looked at Krune. "Let me know when you are ready, there are a few other materials that I will need you to forge for me as well with your Purple Flames." Krune nodded and then made another question. "That''s okay. But how is your Phoenix Puppet''s Soul Recipient? Is it good enough to hold part of the Divine Soul inside?" Heavin pondered a bit before saying. "I can''t be 100% sure since it wasn''t made with Divine Souls in mind. I made a few modifications and reinforced it to be at least three times more resistant than normal ones at this level. However, since no one had tried something like this before, I have no way to check. I can only rely on my theories. However, my methods brought me this far in my Soul Cultivation Technique, so I''m pretty confident in them." Krune and Feifei agreed that Heavin was right. "Alright, you two don''t need to stay here with me. To make sure I have enough, I will refine the Diamond Golem''s body during the next two months. It will still give us 1 year and 3 months before the start of the Heavenly Competition in the Time Formation." Heavin agreed with the idea. "That will give us more than time enough to have my Soul moved out and finish your Shields as well." Having that said, Heavin took flight and returned to his Puppet Workshop. Feifei then gave Krune a kiss before leaving too. "Well, let''s start." Krune didn''t notice, but his communicator was being filled with messages of the Blacksmith Organization without stop. Because of his sudden break, the other Heavenly Competition participants who didn''t get one of Krune''s Weapons bothered the Blacksmith Organization ceaselessly. "Why did he stop again? Did you get any message from him?" Back in the Blacksmith Organization, its manager had a headache because of the number of complaints he received. Even after explaining hundreds of times that the Blacksmith Organization doesn''t have any control over the Purple Flame Equipments created, the harassment didn''t stop. "No, sir. We also sent someone to the Wisp Main World, but it seems that it is impossible to see him at the moment. From what we heard, he is in seclusion." "Sigh... whatever, just keep trying." The manager couldn''t help but feel helpless. The Blacksmith Organization had tried to recreate Krune''s Purple Flame weapons or something similar tens of thousands of times. However, it simply didn''t work at all! It ended making Krune''s brand to be even more famous than some Divinity Realm Blacksmiths. Two months then went by inside Krune''s Time Increasing Formation. As Krune looked at the Diamond Golem Material accumulated on the ground, he couldn''t help but smile. Before, they had a more blue to transparent coloration. Now that Krune refined them using his purple flame, they acquired a purple hue around them. "Now, I can start using the Elemental Forging Change technique. Fortunately, I already prepared a lot of Elemental materials, especially Lightning type ones at the Stars Path Level. Still, none of them are at the level of the Diamond Golem level. I guess that is to be expected of a Divine Demon Beast''s body." But just as Krune was about to start his work, he finally noticed the messages in his communicator. A smile then appeared on his face once he saw the contents. "So the Heavenly Competition participants want Purple Flame Equipments, yea? Hehe!" 530 Some News Krune knew why they wanted it. So it wasn''t anything surprising. However, the only ones who know that Purple Flame Weapons don''t work on him are his friends, the previous Yin and Yang fragment owners, and their subordinates from that time. In fact, even if the cultivators and demon beasts knew that Krune''s equipment can''t be used against him, they don''t know who he is. After all, he always operated under the name ''Jolk'' in the Blacksmith Organization. ''Hum... I think I will make a few more after I finish everything on my side. I might encounter someone using them in the later parts of the Heavenly Competition.'' Krune then put those thoughts aside and began the forging of his Shields. It was better to have them finished first. This was also the first time Krune was making his own shields, so he couldn''t help but feel a little excited. He had always heard the other Blacksmiths saying that the best equipments are the ones made by yourself. Because Krune had to use the Elemental Forge Change technique, each Shield took a lot more time to be made. Krune spent almost an entire day for each. However, when Krune finished the first one and tried it out, he had to admit that he never felt so comfortable while using one of his Shields. Even the fact that it wasn''t 100% compatible with Purple Tribulation Lightning didn''t bother Krune much. Every small detail was exactly as Krune desired. He also got Feifei''s descriptions of the Formation that will be used on them, so he prepared the necessary space during the forging. ''I can''t wait to have Feifei drawing the formations.'' Krune then put the first Diamond Shield away and began his work on the second one. Just like that, Krune spent over an entire month inside the Time Formation to finish all 38 that he is used to controlling. "Phew... They are finally ready." Krune took all of them and charged with energy. Without Feifei''s energy transfer formation, he needs to do it directly. But it didn''t matter since it was just a simple test. The shields gathered while forming several forms. Every command worked perfectly as if they were a part of Krune''s own body. Krune even felt it to be quite fun to move them around. That usual burden of controlling so many at the same time didn''t appear at all. "Great!" After playing with them for some time, Krune finally exited the Time Formation. He then opened his communicator and sent Feifei a message, saying that the shields were ready. Feifei was also practicing her formations while inside a Time Formation as well. Krune didn''t wait since he knew Feifei might be practicing. Once Feifei is ready, she will message him back or come at him directly. Finally, the Phoenix landed on the ground once more and looked at Krune. "Oh, you are here." Krune could see the immovable Parrot Puppet on one corner of the room, so it was evident that Heavin''s conscience was in the Phoenix at the moment. "How is the puppet, is it as good as you designed?" Heavin nodded. "Pretty much. It''s just that there are several components that I haven''t added yet. For example, the parts that I''ll need you to forge. Because of that, I''m only using some cheap replacements. It will become much better after you make them since I designed it with them in mind." Krune nodded. "I just finished my shields, so I''m basically waiting for Feifei to come back. Once I pass my Shields to her, I can start forging the parts you asked me." Heavin was satisfied to hear that. "That''s good. It''s just that Feifei had just entered the time formation, so she will probably take two or three days to come out." "Oh, you saw her?" "Yes, she seemed quite excited since she was about to try to make a Stars Path Level Formation. Considering her Destiny Major Divine Soul, I doubt something will go wrong anyway." Krune was happy to hear that. "That''s great. In that case, I''ll go make something to eat while I wait for her." Heavin didn''t mind. "Go ahead. I still want to do a few tests, so I''ll stay here." Once Krune arrived in the house, he noticed that Fie was there in the living room. Together with her was Liriu and Tiane. "Dad! Did you finish your work?" "Pretty much, I only have Heavin''s part and a few things for the Blacksmith Organization. What are you guys doing?" It was then that noticed that they all had their communicators open. "Did something happen?" "Not really, we are just checking the news about what is happening outside. After all those cultivation techniques appeared, it has been quite lively." Krune checked and could see several topics on the network related to it. Some also speculated that it might have something to do with the disappearance of the Holy Land. Together with those topics, there were also several others about the Myriad Wisps Technique. In fact, Krune could find the files containing the entire cultivation technique available for download. He downloaded some of those random ones and confirmed that they were indeed the real deal. Only influential powers know about the wisps situation, so those without this information even think that the Myriad Wisps Technique was also released by the those Universe Powerhouses. "Indeed, Dalin Universe can''t really stop the spread of the Myriad Wisps Technique anymore, so they might as well give up altogether. Instead, the topics about those top cultivation techniques for other races are far more accessed." Tiane shrugged her shoulders. "Well, that is obvious. After all, there are only so many wisps. They are not higher in number than some other ordinary races out there. When you put all the Blood and Flesh races together, the wisps can''t amount even for 1% of their total." Krune nodded. "That''s good. It means that no one will target us for the time being. I''m going to make some food, do you guys want some?" Liriu''s eyes lit up. It had been some time since he ate Krune''s food. Fie and Tiane also took their chance to ask for what they wanted. Krune didn''t work in anything during the next few days. He had been working on his Blacksmith Skills and cultivating all the time, so he decided to simply rest until Feifei comes out. Fie only had a single day off. After that, Little Arty dragged her somewhere together with Liriu to continue their own training. Liriu was the opposite of Fie, he always put the full effort. Little Arty loved that since Fie couldn''t pretend to not see Liriu working hard, so it helped her to put her all as well. In tiane''s case, she went back to where Ruik was staying. It seemed like that lazy snake was close to a breakthrough, so he didn''t appear this time. The days passed, and another week went by. Surprisingly, only now did Feifei come out of the Time Formation. It was a lot more days than Heavin had predicted. Krune didn''t find it weird, though. She was trying a breakthrough in her Formations, after all. Feifei seemed quite tired, so when she saw Krune in the living room, she couldn''t help but lie against him. She obviously wanted some attention. Krune smiled at that while patting her head. "How was it, did you succeed? Heavin told me that you were trying to create a Stars Path Level Formation." Feifei, who was quite satisfied with the treatment, nodded her head. "It cost me a layer of skin, but I finished it. Next time I try a breakthrough in Formations, I won''t select one so hard to draw." "Which one did you use?" "It was a creation formation. As long as the conditions were right, it could summon fake demon beasts and cultivators. Their power would be something between the 2nd or 3rd Stage of the Divine Path Realm. No wonder there aren''t many of these formations everywhere. It is tough to account for all the variables in power and elements. They also had to have an intelligence of their own so that they could adequately battle. Still, I wanted to challenge myself, so I did this idiot choice of a formation." Krune laughed before asking. "But you did finish it, didn''t you?" Feifei nodded. "Of course, who do you think I am? My wisp is already an Eight Stars Path Blacksmith, so how could I keep at the Diamond Level as a Formations Master?" Feifei then gave Krune a kiss before changing the topic. "I got your message, do you want to me to start drawing the formations in your Shield now?" Krune pondered a bit and shook his head. "You just finished creating that crazy thing, so take the rest of the day to rest. We still have a few months ahead. That is more than enough time." The two then talked for a few more hours before they went back to their bedroom. Krune had some ''marital duties'' to fulfill, which he gladly did. On the next morning, Feifei took all his Diamond Shields and went somewhere else to draw the Energy Transfer Formations. As for Krune, he went to talk with Heavin so that they could start forging the Puppet Parts that he required. 531 Moving Heavins Soul Heavin and Krune quickly started to work on his Phoenix Puppet, which took another three weeks inside the Time Formation. There was no help since there were too many different parts that required more than one or two tries to find the right way of making it. But in the end, everything ended as Heavin desired. He then tested it several times. Flying speed, defense, applied laws, attack power, compatibility with his Mental Energy, you name it. "How is it?" Heavin nodded, satisfied. "I doubt I can make anything better than this before becoming a Stars View Puppeteer. However, that will take a long time since I will need to devise the next Realm of my Soul Cultivation Technique." Krune understood. "That makes sense. Anyway, since many of its parts were made with Purple Flames, it''s quite stronger than puppets at the same level. I guess you would have no problem to match a Peak Divine Path Realm with it alone. If you put your Mental Energy in the mix, you can definitely pose a threat to a Divine View Realm." Heavin agreed with him. "That''s true, this will be more than enough to serve as my home for the time being. Anyway, I really have nothing more to do now, so I would like to try to move my conscience inside it for real now." Krune smiled. "So, it is finally time for you to live around on your own, uh?" "That''s basically it. Besides, I don''t want to catch you and Feifei having sex every time I return my attention to the Divine Soul." "Cough, cough... sometimes... Feifei is a little too much in a hurry." Krune then called Feifei and Cinty over. Cinty already made her Breakthrough, so she was now in the Divine View Realm 1st Stage. After that, they began to talk about what Heavin and Krune were about to try. The two girls knew about that already, so they helped with they could. They went through every step that Heavin could think of until finally, Krune and Heavin decided to give it a try. Heavin then commented. "Alright, it should be a simple process. First, I will move my own consciousness to the top of the Divine Soul. With my cultivation at the Soul Control 3rd stage, it is nothing hard to do. After that, I''ll use my own Mental Energy as a blade that will severe that part of the Divine Soul away." Krune continued from there. "I will then use my own meridian to guide the severed part to the Phoenix Puppet''s Soul Recipient. At the same time, I will use my Life Dew Pills, which can be consumed by Souls. Although my Divine Soul is already past the Void Breaking Realm, it doesn''t mean that the pill is useless. It''s just that the effect will be reduced. However, I believe that it will be enough to stabilize Heavin''s severed Divine Soul so that it at least won''t dissipate." Heavin nodded. Cinty and Feifei smiled. "Well then, shall we make what hasn''t been done before?" Krune took a deep breath and returned to his Wisp Form. After that, he summoned one of his Chaos Meridians and waited for Heavin to start. Noticing that Krune was read, Heavin moved his consciousness to the top of the Divine Soul before creating a Mental Energy Blade. Mental energy already proved to be extremely effective against souls. Since the one using it was Heavin himself, that was the best way to severe that part of the Divine Soul. "There is a very good chance that I will pass out right after severing the part of the Divine Soul where my consciousness and memories are. Still, my role will pretty much be done at that point, so I count with you. Be ready to use the Life Dew Pill and move it straight away. The main body of the Divine Soul might also try to pull the severed part back, so Krune has to be fast to avoid it." Krune assured Heavin. "Leave it to me." Heavin couldn''t help but laugh at this point. "If it turns out to go wrong and the Divine Soul is destroyed, sorry for that." Krune didn''t mind, though. "I already have an unlimited lifespan, so I can simply cultivate again since the Foundation is already established." Heavin was relieved to hear that. Right after, he moved the Mental Energy Blade and cut the part of the Divine Soul off. A Divine Soul is directly connected to its user''s Main Soul, so Krune immediately felt excruciating pain! Still, for someone who even tempered his Soul with Tribulation Lightning, that wouldn''t be enough to make him pass out. "It hurts like hell!" Heavin was right, the moment that part of the Divine Soul was cut, the main body tried to pull it back. That''s because Heavin didn''t cut it with the intention to damage the soul, but simply to separate it. That being said, both the Main Divine Soul and the severed part still had a connection between them. However, Krune''s Chaos Meridian quickly acted, pulling the Severed Divine Soul away. Krune then used two Life Dew Pills. He doesn''t have many remaining, but he didn''t take risks this time. Both pills fused with Heavin''s Divine Soul, which did indeed stabilize that severed part. Krune also took an extra one and used it on himself. As for Heavin, he did really pass out. Krune only had a connection to his Divine Soul, but he still felt that much pain. So let alone Heavin, who is part of the Divine Soul itself. It only took Krune a few seconds to deposit the Severed Divine Soul with Heavin''s consciousness inside the Phoenix Puppet''s Soul Recipient. In fact, when Heavin''s Divine Soul got close to the recipient, it seemed like it was absorbed straight away. Heavin said before that he had made a few modifications to the Soul Recipient, and it was now a lot more compatible with its new job. Instead of normal Souls, it was much better at keeping Divine Souls. Krune then pulled his Chaos Meridian away and focused on recovering his Divine Soul. Although he had felt a lot of pain, Krune could tell that the damage to his Divine Soul wasn''t anything that serious. The severed part was really just a small part of it. That being said, his Life Dew Pill seemed to be more than enough to heal it. It''s just that the Divine Soul was already above the Void Breaking Realm, so the Life Dew Pill would take some time to recover it. Feifei and Cinty didn''t care about it, though. Cinty immediately started to use the Seals while Feifei controlled her Destiny Major Divine Soul to help Cinty avoid mistakes. The process took quite some time to finish, but thankfully, nothing went wrong. When the last seal was used, all the seals fused with the Soul Recipient, completely sealing whatever could be inside. "Phew... it''s done." Feifei finally could go back to Krune''s side to see how he was faring. The concern on her face was apparent for everyone to see. "Are you okay? Do you need anything?" Krune didn''t take long to stabilize his Divine soul, so when Feifei asked that, he quickly returned to his human form. Krune then took a deep breath and nodded. "I''m fine, the damage to my Divine Soul was a lot smaller than what I was expecting. Most likely, it is because the Heavenly Fragments stayed with me. Their strong connection with my Divine Soul made it a lot more resistant." Feifei sighed in relief after hearing that. "How about Heavin?" Krune looked at the Soul Recipient in front of them. It basically looked like a black orb with double the size of a pearl. "I don''t know. Heavin immediately passed out as soon as he severed that part of the Divine Soul. I used two Life Dew Pills on him straight away, so I can tell that the severed section was at least stable by the time it was absorbed inside the Soul Recipient. However, this is something no one tried before. Well, at least we don''t know anyone who tried something like this in the past. We will need to wait to see if he will recover his consciousness later." After hearing that, Cinty looked at Krune and asked. "Did you check your own Divine Soul? Are you sure Heavin is not in there?" Krune nodded. "Yes. Heavin is definitely gone, that much I''m sure." Light Spirit couldn''t help but chuckle. "It seems like it is only the two of us again." He didn''t hide his voice, so Cinty and Feifei heard that as well. In the end, everyone laughed. "Hahaha! Sure enough, we went back to what we were." Cinty took that chance to ask something that puzzled her. "Light Spirit, why don''t you move into a puppet as well? Wouldn''t you be free to roam in that case?" Light Spirit denied that conjecture. "I can recover several times faster if I stay here. As for freedom... Well, I admit that it would be good. But after you have lived as much as me, you will understand that this little time I passed inside Krune''s foundation can''t bother me. I plan to only return to my own body, nothing else." Krune didn''t mind. "Well, that is good for me. After all, your soul is inside the Tribulation Lightning Source. If you leave, I won''t be able to use Purple Tribulation Lightning anymore." Light Spirit agreed. "That is also true." Krune then looked at the Soul Recipient. "Well, we can only wait now. If nothing went wrong, Heavin should wake up sooner or later." 532 Time to Go Sometime later, Feifei and Cinty went back to their own things. Krune also left Heavin alone since there wasn''t anything else he could do anymore. Krune then spent his next days to fully recover the missing part of his Divine Soul. Once it was back to normal, he noticed that his connection with it was at 100%. As mentioned in the past, Krune had to reduce the connection with his Divine Soul. Otherwise, Heavin would fall into a slumber since he lost control over it. Now, however, Krune didn''t even try to take control. It was as if it had been like this from the very start. ''I guess that''s how it was supposed to be if Heavin wasn''t there.'' Krune went into a Dimensional Realm where he could test his power. Sure enough, he didn''t have to pay attention to the connection anymore. If stayed like that on its own. Krune is a lot stronger when using his Divine Soul like this. It''s just that when Heavin became able to fight with the Parrot Puppet, it was a lot better to fight together than fight alone. Heavin''s sneak attacks had helped Krune several times in the past. Krune kept using his power for a while longer. Finally, he reached the conclusion that the connection with his Divine Soul couldn''t be weakened anymore. Even if he tried, it simply didn''t work. "Good!" Krune finished his practice and returned to the Time Formation. He then focused on his cultivation while he waited for Heavin to wake up. With the help of Godly Energy, Krune had already advanced into the 6th Stage of the Divine Path Realm. He still has another year in there, or four months outside, to cultivate peacefully. Another week quickly passed. Suddenly, Krune felt like he could feel a presence. When he looked at its direction, he noticed it was coming from the place where Heavin was staying. ''It was about time.'' Krune quickly arrived inside Heavin''s Puppet Workshop and noticed the Soul Recipient floating in the air. It was also possible to see a lot of Spiritual Energy quickly rushing inside it without stopping. "Seems like you can already focus on healing you Divine Soul, uh?" Heavin heard that and used his Spiritual Sense to look at Krune. "Hahaha! Yeap! I thought about giving you guys a surprise when I was finished, but it seems like you noticed the moment I woke up." Krune nodded. "The Divine Soul, where your consciousness and memories are staying, is still part of my own Divine Soul, after all. I could feel your presence the moment you came back. Heavin agreed with Krune. "In fact, I can also feel your presence because of it. I guess this is good since we can tell where each other are at any moment. Anyway, have you checked your Divine Soul, can you use it at full power without me?" Krune nodded. "Everything is fine on my side. The connection is fully established. Believe it or not, I can''t weaken it even if I wanted." This connection was at a completely different level of what Heavin had used until now. So far, Heavin had been using his Divine Sense to control the Parrot Puppet, but this time he used Soul Energy. It connected the Puppet directly to his soul, making it feel like Heavin was really the Puppet itself instead of the soul inside only. "Hum... it feels quite cranky... It will take some time before I get used to it." Krune didn''t find it strange but decided to ask anyway. "Is everything okay with your Divine Soul? You only have a small part of it, after all." Heavin''s Phoenix Head nodded at Krune. "It''s okay. Given enough time, I can make it regrow to be as big as the main one. Since it was a part of a whole, it will eventually try to restore its former self. Well, it won''t be anything fast, though." Krune didn''t mind. "As long as you can recover, that is fine. Let''s go, Feifei has been worried about you. You should show your face to her first." Heavin nodded, and the two left the time formation. That night, everyone commemorated Heavin''s recovery and his new freedom. From now on, he had no need to follow Krune everywhere. He could move wherever he wanted. However, he couldn''t be considered part of Krune''s anymore. That also meant that Krune couldn''t bring him into the Heavenly Competition. There is no way he can say that he is the one controlling it with all the Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts watching. In fact, it wouldn''t be a good idea either since Heavin is an unheard case. It is better if others don''t know about a Divine Soul with sentience is walking around. Feifei also took that opportunity to pass the shields back to Krune. "Oh, you finished?" Feifei nodded. "It took a lot of time, but that was because I draw all the formation at the Stars Path Level. Because of that, even with my Destiny Divine Major Soul, I failed several times. Still, I believe you will love the results. Since they are drawn on the back of the shields, they won''t get damaged easily." Krune smiled and put his Shields back into his Spatial Ring. On the next day, everyone once more returned to their own things. There was only one last thing Krune had to do now that Heavin''s problem is resolved. Back inside the Blacksmith Workshop, Krune opened his communicator and opened a big list. "Well, I guess I can spend the rest of my time making as many of these equipments as possible. I wonder just who will end buying them. Hehe!" Sure enough, Krune would not let the opportunity of using his opponents'' weapons against themselves. Of course, he would only do so if he encountered a strong opponent who is also using his creations. If they were weaker, there would be no need to reveal his trump card. Back in the Blacksmith Organization, they finally received Krune''s answer. When the manager looked at the contents, he also jumped in happiness. "Finally, those powers will stop bothering me. Let''s see, Jolk said that he will try to make as many as possible before the Heavenly Competition. Oh! He said that he will be staying inside a Time Formation during this time to speed up the process. Great! Let''s see how many he can make in these last months." Soon, several Purple Flame Equipments at the Eight Stars Path Level began to appear one after another in the Blacksmith Network. Sure enough, everyone who didn''t have their own began to bid for them without stop. This was directly connected to their chances of obtaining one of Dalin''s Five Slots of Management, so no one was willing to save money. Over two hundred Purple Flame Equipments appeared for sale during the next three months, and all of them were sold without exception. Because there were many wealthier buyers, Krune made quite a fortune. His capital now definitely surpassed the majority of Divine Path and View Realms cultivators and demon beasts. He was even more affluent than some Semi-Divinity ones. Obviously, Krune separated part of his mind to keep cultivating during the last year inside the Time Formation. Thanks to that and the constant flow of Godly Energy, he successfully entered the Divine Path Realm 7th Stage. Finally, only two weeks remained for the start of the Heavenly Competition. Erzato, who was considered Krune''s protector during the contest, stayed in the Wisp Main World all this time. It''s just that he wasn''t allowed to approach the place where Krune and the others resided. He didn''t mind, though. Erzato simply thought that Krune didn''t trust him that much to let him get close. Suddenly, Krune''s communicator flashed. When Krune answered the call, he noticed that it was Erzato on the other side. "It''s time to go, are you ready?" Krune nodded. "Pretty much, I''ll meet you soon." Erzato nodded and finished the call. Krune then turned to Feifei, Fie, and everyone else. The planet where the Heavenly Competition will happen is too small to hold everyone who wants to see it. That being said, only really powerful or wealthy people and beasts could go there. The Wisp World definitely wasn''t one of those. Also, it wouldn''t be a good idea for everyone to follow him this time around. That being said, they would watch it online just like all the other Universes, Luvile Universe included. "Well, it''s time to go." Feifei and Fie immediately hugged him tightly. The others also wished Krune good luck. Unfortunately, the Heavenly Competition was outside their range, not to mention that it only accepted one participant by Universe, so only Krune could participate. "Hahaha! Don''t worry. I can''t be sure that I will win one of the five slots, but I can definitely guarantee that I won''t die." Fie couldn''t help but ask. "How can you be so sure? What if those Divinity Realm cultivators and Demon beasts decide that it was better to eliminate you?" Krune smiled as he patted Fie''s head. "Don''t worry, I prepared for it a long time ago. All you need to do is sit down and watch me." Krune then gave Feifei a kiss and left. The time to show the wisps'' power has come. 533 Divinity Essence Caskin Planet has thousands of Long-Distance Teleport Formation, and they flashed with silver light nonstop. Still, they were all being managed by just as many cultivators and demon beasts. All of them didn''t have a cultivator or demon beasts lower than the Divine View Realm. They were there to ensure that those who arrived really had the necessary status to be here during the Heavenly Competition. As mentioned before, a single planet can''t possibly hold everyone who wants to watch the Heavenly Competition, so the biggest majority will have to watch it from other places. Suddenly, one of those thousands of teleport formations activated. When the silver light disappeared, it was possible to see an old and a young man standing there. With that, the cultivator taking care of this specific one came forward to check their identities. "Hello there. I will need your names and reason for the visit." Erzato then took a token from his Spatial Ring and passed it to the guy. Once the cultivator put his Divine Sense inside, he immediately received a stream of information. He gave it back to Erzato right after before saying. "Luvile Universe participant and his protector. I will need the participant''s name since we don''t have it registered yet." Krune knew that hiding his identity from now on would be meaningless, so he just went for his real name. "Krune." The cultivator nodded before opening his communicator. After a few minutes going through the registration process, he took another token out and passed it to Krune. "Please keep it safe, this is your registration token, which allows you to participate in the Heavenly Competition. If you lose, it will be quite annoying to make another one." Krune nodded and put it into his Spatial Ring as well. With everything handled, Krune and Erzato were allowed to leave the Teleport Formations'' area. Erzato looked around. "There is still another week before the Heavenly Competition starts. So let''s find a place to stay for the time being." Krune nodded as the two moved to the city where the majority of the competitors were staying. Of course, considering the strength of Divine Path Realm Heavenly Divine Soul Owners, the competition can''t happen inside the city. Otherwise, the city would suffer a lot of damage. Besides, it''s not like it will be only one vs. one fights. With nothing better to do, Krune went direct to the restaurants available. Erzato, of course, was surprised that Krune even liked to eat. After all, he knows that Krune is a wisp. But he didn''t have anything against it either, so he accompanied him. Krune couldn''t feel the presence of those Divinity Realm cultivators or demon beasts since the cultivation difference was too big. Or at least, not with his Divine Sense. But his Divine Sense was more than enough to see all the competitors walking around. Suddenly, they were stopped by a young man''s Divine Sense message. In fact, the man wasn''t trying to communicate with Krune and Erzato specifically, but everyone who passed through that street. "The Heavenly Auction will be happening in two days times, acquire your token now before it is too late." It was then that Krune noticed his clothes. Because of his Divine Sense, Krune could tell that several more cultivators and demon beasts in human form were doing the same thing around the city. Krune''s interest was picked. "Senior Erzato, what about we take a look?" Erzato nodded. They didn''t have anything better to do anyway. Surprisingly though, the token was really expensive. But that was to be expected. Otherwise, there wouldn''t be space for everyone. If one couldn''t even afford the token to enter the auction, then let alone buy anything. A day later, Krune''s Divine Sense detected someone he knew. The other side also noticed him, so they ended encountering in the City Center. "Hahaha! So you came, uh? Did you come to watch this grandfather''s performance?" This was none other than Laka and his protector. Krune laughed too as he shook his head. "I''m also participating in the Heavenly Competition, so I won''t have time to watch your performance at all." Laka was taken aback. "You taking part too? Oh! You are already in the 7th Stage of the Divine Path Realm! Man, your cultivation speed is too fast! Anyway, considering your combat power, it''s not weird that you are participating. Will you tell me which Universe you came from this time?" Krune smiled as he nodded. "I don''t need to hide it anymore. I came from the Luvile Universe." Laka pondered a bit but couldn''t remember any Universe with such a name. "How come I''ve never heard about?" Krune shrugged his shoulder. "Well, there is no helping it. I came from a very remote Universe, after all. So far, I haven''t seen anyone ever talking about my Universe. The fact that you don''t know is to be expected." Kruen and Laka talked for a while before they separated once more. Once Laka was far enough, his protector asked him. "Is he someone to take notice?" Laka nodded. "I''ve seen his power first hand. I wouldn''t find it weird if he got another one of the five final slots, that''s how strong he is." Laka also wanted to say that Krune was the one who forged his Purple Flame Dragon Pearl, but he couldn''t since he is bound by the Dragon Pact. Only if Krune allowed it would he be able to do so. Laka''s protector was surprised by that judgment. After all, he could see that Krune is only at the 7th Stage of the Divine Path Realm. There are loads of Peak Divine Path Realm Heavenly Divine Soul owners, so one could imagine just how much of a freak Krune is. "Let''s hope you don''t have to engage him any time soon." Laka smiled but didn''t say anything. He loves challenges, so he wouldn''t mind fighting Krune if there was a need for it. Erzato also asked Krune the same question. "Well, he is really strong. He even entered the 8th Stage of the Divine Path Realm after the end of the Holy land. If nothing goes wrong, I don''t think there will be many out there who can threaten him." Erzato nodded. He knows that Krune had been to the Holy Land, so it wasn''t surprising that he met other Heavenly Divine Soul Owners. Another day passed, and the auction day finally arrived. The auction building was inside a pocket dimensional realm, so it could fit tens of thousands of cultivators and demon beasts. Krune and Erzato stayed together with the crowd. There were special booths for those who paid more, but Krune didn''t care about those things. He only came to watch, after all. In any case, even if something he wants appears, it will be hard to acquire, considering the wealth of the Divine Realm cultivators and demon beasts around. The auction started after another two hours. Finally, a female demon beast in human form went up in the stage. Krune couldn''t tell her cultivation with his Divine Sense, but he was sure that she wasn''t below the Semi-Divinity Realm. "Welcome, everyone! The once is a Heavenly Competition time auction is now starting. I hope your pockets are full so that you don''t regret losing the items you are about to see. Without further ado, let''s begin!" Right in the middle of the stage, there was a teleport formation. It flashed with silver light for a second before revealing a flask with a gray liquid inside. Krune looked at that but couldn''t identify what it was. "I believe the majority know what it is, but in case you don''t, let me explain. This is the Planet Core Essence, refined from over a hundred planets. As you know, it is extremely difficult to make even a drop, let alone an entire bottle. I wonder just how many years the alchemist who refined it took? Perhaps over ten thousand? Who knows? It''s definitely worth of being party of our auction, especially since so much had been refined, don''t you think?" "It can be used for many things, but the most common use is for Spiritual Equipment Forging. Something made with it is bound to be much better. Divinity Realm Blacksmiths would love to have just a few drops to work with. Now, you all have the chance of get some." "The initial price is 100 bottles of Divinity Essence." Kruno was interested in it, but he had no idea what Divinity Essence was. Without another choice, he could only ask Erzato. 534 Transparent Fragmen Krune got puzzled. "Divinity Essence?" Erzato quickly explained through a Divine Sense message. "That''s something that can''t be found in nature. Only Semi-Divinity and Divinity Realm cultivators or demon beasts can make it. However, it takes a long time to make even a single drop, let alone a hundred bottles. It is even worse if you are at the Semi-Divinity Level. At this level, you can also use Divinity Energy to create Divinity Essence, but the rate of conversion is at least 10 times slower than a Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast. So almost no one tries to create it at the Semi-Divinity Realm." "How long does a drop take to be created by a Divinity Realm?" Erzato pondered a bit before saying. "It depends on which stage they are at the moment and their own talents. But I guess the average would be something around 1 year for a drop. She is asking 100 bottles, which have 1000 drops each, so 100000 drops in total." Krune was taken aback. "One hundred thousand years just to make enough to buy that Planet Core Essence?" Erzato laughed out loud. "That is just the initial price, just look as the bidding war starts." Sure enough, it began. "130 Divinity Essence Bottles!" "150!" "200!" "220!" Krune felt his heart hurting after hearing those prices. Just how long did it take for them to make that many Divinity Essence? In the end, the Planet Core essence was sold for 257 Divinity Essence Bottles. Or to be more specific, 257000 years of accumulation! Gone in just a second. "Oh, right! What do you guys use Divinity Essence for?" Erzato shrugged his shoulders. "Isn''t that obvious? They are just like Spirit Stones. The more you have, the faster you can cultivate. Semi-Divinity and Divinity cultivators and demon beasts take forever to cultivate, so all of them would love to have unlimited amounts of Divinity Essence for it. In the end, it became a type of currency, just like Spirit Stones." Krune nodded. That made sense. The Core Planet Essence was quickly delivered to its buyer. After that, the next item appeared on the stage. However, when Krune saw that, his mouth twitched. "This is something that all the Heavenly Competition participants would love to have. But unfortunately, the Blacksmith Organization already sold all of them. It''s an Eight Stars Path Purple Flame Equipment. While it was for sale in the Blacksmith Organization Network, you could still buy it for Spirit Stones. Unfortunately, you won''t have a chance anymore. At least, not before the famous blacksmith, Jolk, forge more of them. Obviously, the majority of the participants can''t wait for it, so our Auction House made sure to acquire some pieces, three in total." Krune almost vomited blood. He sold all of them for Spirit Stones. But these guys of the auction are taking advantage of the Heavenly Competition to sell it for Divinity Essence. Normally, it would be impossible to do that. After all, Stars Path Level equipment is far from being worth spending Divinity Essence on them. But now, with the Dalin Universe''s Five Slots on stake, the price greatly increased. ''Wait!'' Krune looked into his spatial ring and found quite a few of his Purple Flame Weapons. Those were basically the last ones he made while he was practicing. He felt too lazy to put them for sale, so they stayed there. ''Perhaps, I can sell them in this auction as well. If something I want appears, I will at least have the chance to bid!'' Krune quickly made his mind and made his way to the counter where there were some of the auction employees working. Erzato, of course, followed him right behind. Once there, Krune asked those guys. "Would that be okay to enter some of my items for auction?" The employee looked at Krune before nodding. "It is, but there is a certain level requirement. Also, there is a 10% fee over the final price it is sold for. Are you okay with that?" Krune nodded. "Very well, please follow me." Erzato was curious to see what Krune wanted to sell, but he didn''t ask since he would see it soon anyway. Krune was guided into a private chamber by the employee. A few minutes later, an appraiser arrived in there too. "Hello, friends. Would you mind to let me see what you wish to put out for auction?" Krune waved his hand, and suddenly, 23 pieces of Purple Flame Equipment appeared on the table. All of them at the Eight Stars Path Level. Let alone Erzato, even the appraiser, was taken aback by that. The Purple Flame Equipments are very easy to identify thanks to their Purple Hue and the Purple Flame Mark that all of them carried. However, the appraiser quickly calmed down. Because of the rarity of the Purple Flame Equipments, a lot of fake ones began to appear in the market. He had to first make sure that these were the real deal. "I must let you know that those who offer fake equipments will be severely punished. Are you sure you want me to verify them?" Sure enough, the appraiser doubted that they were real. It was very hard for them to acquire 3 pieces, but now there is 23 more just in front of him. He couldn''t be blamed for being suspicious. "Don''t worry, you can appraise them as much as you want. I can guarantee that every single one is authentic." The appraiser nodded. He then took out a small box from his waist and tapped on it. Immediately, everyone inside the room was teleported into another Pocket Dimensional Realm. To test if the Purple Flame Weapons were real, he had to use them. That''s why he brought everyone in here. The appraiser grabbed the first Purple Flame Weapon and began to perform his tests. Time passed, and 15 minutes later, Krune was back in the previous room with Erzato and the appraiser. "Thank you, friend. We will put every single one of them for auction." Krune nodded. "In your opinion, what''s the least amount of Divinity Essence I can make with them?" The appraiser pondered a bit before answering. "They definitely won''t sell for less than 200 Divinity Essence Bottles each. After all, there are way too many Heavenly Competition Participants. So you definitely won''t get less than 4600 Divinity Essence Bottles. Considering the auction 10% fee, that would be 4140 Bottles." Krune nodded. "Then would you mind if I make bids with this number in mind? I don''t know when my weapons will be put out for auction. If something I want appears before that, I wouldn''t have the money yet." The appraiser agreed happily. "Definitely! I''ll make the arrangements on my side, so you can simply go back and watch the auction. As long as you don''t surpass the 4140 bottles, that will be fine. You will most likely get much more than that, after all." Krune smiled and nodded. After that, he and Erzato returned to their sit in the Auction House. Erzato finally couldn''t hold his curiosity anymore and decided to ask. "Where did you get all that equipment?" Krune shrugged his shoulder. "Isn''t that obvious? I forged them. It is that simple." Krune didn''t try to hide it. He can use Purple Tribulation Lightning, and everyone will be able to see it later. Also, ''Jolk'' is protected in the Wisp Protection Law, so everyone knows that he is a wisp. Erzato only needed to connect the points to understand that Krune was their real creator. Sure enough, Erzato was surprised, but not to the point of being shocked. There is also the fact that those were Eight Stars Path Equipment, which matches Krune''s cultivation level. Erzato then shook his head. He knew that without the Heavenly Competition, these equipments would never sell for Divinity Essence, so it was basically a one-time event. Only when Krune becomes able to make Equipments at the Semi-Divinity Level will they really be worth Divinity Essense. "What do you want to buy?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "I don''t know. It''s just in case something a want appears. Even if it doesn''t, I guess there is nothing wrong with having Divinity Essence on reserve for later." Erzato agreed with Krune. Krune is getting over four thousand bottles of Divinity Essence. That''s an enormous amount even for someone like him. Unless he has an excellent reason, the Extreme Yin Yang Palace would never let him take that amount with him. "Too bad the Planet Core Essence is gone already. It would be very useful for me in the future." Erzato then said. "There is no need to worry. It was really a rare item, but not impossible to acquire through other methods. It''s just that you won''t be able to get an entire bottle of it." Krune smiled and kept watching the auction. In the end, his first Purple Flame Weapon went for 294 Divinity Essence bottles. Of course, that one wasn''t his, so he had no share in that payment. Suddenly, the female demon beast on the stage seemed to receive a message. She directed her eyes to the public before announcing. "I have great news for everyone. It seems like Jolk, the blacksmith responsible for the Purple Flame Equipments, has just offered another 23 of them to be put in this auction. Even we didn''t expect him to appear here. Our auction house deeply thanks you, Jolk." Immediately, everyone began to look around. Everyone wanted to know who this Jolk is. However, the auction house didn''t point at anyone. It was obvious that they didn''t intend to reveal his appearance to the others. Krune heard that as well and smiled. "Sure enough, they also guessed it right. Oh well, they would need to be idiots if they couldn''t figure out this much." The Auction house became lively after receiving that news. That gave the ones who didn''t have a Purple Flame Weapons a higher chance of acquiring one. "Let''s continue our auction." The next item was then teleport on the stage. After a brief explanation, another bidding war started. Time passed, and over thirty items came and went. The majority of them were things that the Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts wanted. Those at Krune''s level wouldn''t have much use for them. It was only when the 37th item appeared that Krune''s attention was finally aroused. Not only him, but a lot of the Heavenly Competition Participants also noticed when it appeared. "Is that... a Heavenly Fragment? But... it''s transparent?" Krune looked around and noticed that a lot of cultivators and demon beasts around his level also had the same impression. The female auctioneer smiled before explaining. "The next item is a Heavenly Fragment of a destroyed Universe. Because of that, it is not bound by the laws of its previous Universe anymore. That means that any Heavenly Fragment Owner of any Universe... can absorb it too!" 535 Bidding War Boom! Immediately, all those who haven''t completed their Heavenly Divine Souls got up! Obviously, they were extremely interested in it. The female auctioneer then continued. "I urge you to not forget. Heavenly Fragment Owners can only absorb fragments that are not related to the ones that they already have. For example, suppose you have a Blackhole Heavenly Fragment. In that case, you can''t take in a Blackhole Heavenly Fragment of a destroyed Universe." One of the participants of the auction immediately asked. "Which Heavenly Fragment is this one?" That was the question for most of the Heavenly Fragment Owners in the auction at the moment. The female auctioneer shook her head. "It seems like that little friend doesn''t know much about it. Once its Universe was lost, it lost its properties too. Only when it is absorbed by someone, will it come back to life again. At that time, if you already have a Heavenly Fragment of this type, it will then be expelled from your foundation. But if you don''t have one of its types, it will fuse together with the others as if it was part of the Universe you came from." Someone found it strange. "The guy or group who got it couldn''t find out which type of Major Divine Soul its previous owner had? In my eyes, it is just so that even more Heavenly Fragment Owners here will bid for it. Am I right?" The female auctioneer smiled but did not answer that question. In everyone''s eyes, the reason was obvious. "The starting bid is 400 Divinity Essence Bottles." Krune immediately made a bid. "500 Divinity Essence Bottles!" But the others were not intimidated by his raise of 100 bottles. This thing is entirely different from external help, like pieces of equipment. As shown in the past, absorbing a Heavenly Fragment gives a huge boost in cultivation without any drawback. Of course, it also has a lot to do with the cultivation of its previous owner. If the guy was only at the Divine Soul Realm or lower, it wouldn''t change much the cultivation of a Divine Path Realm cultivator or demon beast. However, it can still open the doors of laws related to that Fragment. So regardless, it is totally worth having it even if the cultivation boost isn''t anything impressive. "550!" "600!" "700!" Krune narrowed his eyes, it was obvious that a lot of those who haven''t completed their Heavenly Divine Souls wish to have it at all costs. That being said, Krune didn''t hold back either. "1000!" Everyone then looked at Krune''s direction. 1000 bottles of Divinity Essence would take a Divinity Realm cultivator 1 million years to gather! Not many would be willing to spend this much in a Heavenly Fragment. However, there are always those who are wealthier. "1100!" "1150!" "1200!" "1300!" Having said that, as long as a Heavenly Fragment Owner knows that he has it and deliberated hides without showing any clues, it becomes quite hard to find them. After all, someone with eight of the nine possible Heavenly Fragments would definitely be much stronger than the last guy or girl with the last one. No one wants to lose their lives just to make the other side stronger. What use would have one of the Five Slots of Dalin if you are dead? Of course, there was also the option to only destroy the foundation and Divine Soul to get the Heavenly Fragment without killing. Krune had done that several times in the Holy Land. However, that also implies giving up your Major Divine Soul, which is always the same type as your Heavenly Fragment. You could cultivate again, but you would become only ordinary. Who would accept that? Even with the bids going up, Krune didn''t cower. "1500!" However... "1600!" "1700!" "1800!" It began to reach a point where even Krune started to think about whether it was worth it. But then he remembered that he didn''t really have other uses for the Divinity Essence bottles on his hands. Krune then showed a determined expression as he bid. "3000!" Finally, the entire auction went silent. With this increase in price, it was apparent just how much Krune was willing to expend to take this Heavenly Fragment. The silence continued for a few more seconds. Ultimately, someone decided to test the waters one last time. "3050!" Krune shot straight back. "3500!" Krune''s action was evident to everyone. Doesn''t matter how much you offer, I will cover it. Ultimately, the Transparent Heavenly Fragment ended in Krune''s hand. Of course, Krune still felt pain when he thought about the amount of Divinity Realm Essence that he lost. After a pause, he sighed and put the Heavenly Fragment away. He would absorb it later. The auction continued. Every now and then, a Purple Flame Weapon would appear. Just like the appraiser mentioned, none of those sold so far went for less than 200 Divinity Essence Bottles. The lowest one was a pair of chakrams, which weren''t that widely used. It was auctioned for 243 Dinivity Essence Bottles. The ones that sold for the highest prices were the Swords and Spears, going for at least 290 or more. The day quickly passed, and most of the purple flame weapons were auctioned. In the end, Krune got 5219 Divinity Essence Bottles, including the Auction House''s fee already. Deducting 3500 of the Heavenly Fragment, Krune still finished with 1719. A Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast wouldn''t go crazy over it, but they would still be kind of jealous. Erzato included. Once it finished, Krune and Erzato returned to the room they had rented for these days. Krune could feel a lot of eyes on him, but he didn''t mind them. His Low Profile Life was over a long time ago, so he was used to it already. Well... his low profile life never started to begin with. Only he believes that it actually existed in the past. That night, Erzato kept guard as Krune absorbed his third Heavenly Fragment. So far, Krune had the Elemental and Yang fragments, which are already fused into a bigger Fragment. Also, the chances of this one being the same type as those two are quite low. When the Heavenly Fragment entered his Divine Soul, it began to awake. Its transparent color began to change into a black. Or to be more specific, it was not exactly black. It is just that no light could escape it, so it looked black. "A Blackhole Heavenly Fragment. This thing will be good for Space and Time-related laws." Krune was correct, that was the two main characteristics of the Blackhole Fragment. Of course, there was also the Gravity Part, but Krune''s Gravity Sub-Law had long since reached culmination. Finally, the bigger Heavenly Fragments began to attract it, as if trying to force its surrender. The Blackhole one still tried to resist, though. As much as it has lost its Universe bound, it was ultimately a Heavenly Fragment of another Universe. It wouldn''t give up that easily. Krune started to feed his Divine Soul with more and more Chaos Energy, which increased the pressure on the Blackhole Heavenly Fragment. This fight between the two sides continued for the entire night. Only when the morning arrived, did Krune''s Heavenly Fragment succeed into subduing it. Finally, they melted together, just like the last time. After some moments, the three melted Heavenly Fragments began to take the form of an even bigger Heavenly Fragment. Krune could also feel as if his connection with Space and Time laws had strengthened. Of course, the Blackhole Fragment can''t compare to the Space Heavenly Fragment in Space Laws. Same thing for it and Time Heavenly Fragment. It had more of a balanced structure. As for Krune''s cultivation... It almost didn''t even move. "It seems like its previous owner had quite a low cultivation. He or she probably was at the Core Formation or even Foundation Establishment Realm." Krune didn''t mind, though. The advantages with Laws were apparent. Not to mention that Krune could feel that it became much easier to absorb Spiritual Energy from the surroundings. Krune then took a deep breath as he exited his room. Erzato noticed him and saw that his cultivation didn''t change too. "Did you succeed?" Krune nodded. "Yes, but the cultivation of its previous owner was too low to affect mine. In the end, I''m still at the 7th Stage of the Divine path Realm." Erzato shrugged his shoulders. "Well, in the long run, it will still be worth have it." Krune smiled and agreed with him. 536 Alliance Time continued to pass until finally, the day for the Heavenly Competition arrived. Krune and all the other participants had to move to the extreme north of the Planet, which was thousands of kilometers away from any city. Well, with everyone''s understanding of Space Laws, they all simply opened spatial gates and appeared there a few seconds later. The region was an ice territory, but as one can expect, cultivators and demon beasts at the Divine Path Realm couldn''t care less about it... or so they thought. Krune felt the cold hitting his body and could tell that it wasn''t just normal coldness. "It seems like this place is under some kind of formation effect." Erzato nodded. "Yes. At my level, this can''t affect me, but Divine Path Realm cultivators and demon beasts will have a hard time defending against it. Well, this is just one of the things you will need to pay attention to." As more and more participants appeared, some famous ones began to be recognized. But there was one in particular that caught more attention than anyone else. "Hey, Iem Turo. He''s the Dalin Universe''s representative." "Isn''t Dalin controlled by the Universe powerhouses? Can they participate in the Heavenly Competition?" "You don''t know this, it seems. The Dalin Universe is indeed controlled, but they still can give birth to a Heavenly Divine Soul owner. They were given permission to try to vie for one of the Slots. That being said, if they get one, their Universe members will be able to have some authority. Of course, they won''t take the Dalin Universe back, but they can at least participate in the decisions made for it." "I see... they have quite the advantage since they were born here to start with." "That''s true, and according to the records, the Dalin Universe participants got one of the five slots quite a few times. Unfortunately for them, it is still very hard. After all, everyone can only go to the Peak of the Divine Path Realm. There is plenty of adversaries at this level when the Heavenly Competition stars. Well, they have got a slot more times than anyone else, though. In general, Dalin Universe always wins a slot in every five or so Heavenly Competitions." Krune heard all of that and couldn''t help but think about the Frunkan Clan. ''I wonder what they would think if they knew that there is a chance of Dalin Universe being permanently blocked a few years later.'' Krune shook his head and moved in another direction. He could see Laka with his Divine Sense, so he went to talk with him. "Hey, you are here." Krune nodded. "How is it, did you find what will happen during the Heavenly Competition?" Laka shook his head. Krune nodded. "I wonder what the Universes who lost their Heavenly Divine Soul Owners would do. After all, the Universes like to use them during their negotiations and disputes, no?" Laka shrugged his shoulder. "It depends on each Universe. Still, most would generally create alliances with nearby Universes who also lost their Heavenly Divine Soul Owners to resist outsiders. In the end, it is not like they will be at that much of a risk. Situations, where a Universe is conquered, are very rare. Let alone being destroyed. The hatred between both sides must be very deep for a Universe to be destroyed in the process." Krune nodded and remembered about the Destroyed Universe Heavenly Fragment he acquired. "Oh, right. You probably know that I got another Heavenly Fragment already, right?" Laka nodded. He was in one of the special booths at that time, so he saw Krune buying it. "In that case, you know which Universe was destroyed for this Heavenly Fragment to lose its bound?" Laka pondered a bit and then looked at his protector. "Uncle Tranfan, do you know which one it was?" Tranfan shook his head. "How many Universes you think there are outside? Unless it is some influent Universe, it would be too hard to receive any news about it. Of course, we can find out if we investigate, but is there any reason for that?" Laka then looked at Krune with the same expression as Tranfan. Krune didn''t mind, though. "It''s okay, I was just curious." Krune and Laka continued their talk as more and more Heavenly Competition participants arrived with their protectors. A few hours later, the Dalin Universe Management appeared as well. Several Peak Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts appeared one after another. A lot of them were just spectators who came to watch as well. Obviously, Norzulun Odgas, the Dalin Universe Management Supervisor, was there as well. He was also the one who would do the talk on its behalf. He stepped forward and used his Divine Sense to speak with everyone. "Welcome. Another Heavenly Competition is about to start. I can see that we have a lot more participants than the records of the last time says. Still, only five slots are available to become one of the Dalin Universe''s managers." The cultivators and demon beasts present weren''t the only ones seeing it. The entire thing was being transmitted to all the Universes outside who had participants. Luvile Universe included. The Sacred Lands, Divine Path Sect, and Wang Clan were watching it together with a few other powers. Norzulun then waves his hand and an enormous formation that covered the entire north in what seemed to be a giant bubble. Immediately, everyone''s Divine Sense was affected. It was so restricted that even Krune couldn''t spread it more than two kilometers. Let alone the majority that can''t hold a candle to Krune''s Soul Strength. "First, I would like to ask the protectors to exit the protection formation. You don''t need to worry, Divine Sense originated inside is affected, but the ones that come from outside aren''t. You can still observe your participants with your Divine Senses without a problem." Erzato and Tranfan then exchanged a few words with Krune and Laka before leaving together with all the others. Once they were outside, they used their Divine Senses to see what was happening inside. Sure enough, they could watch Krune and Laka without a problem. Of course, they could also tune their communicators into the broadcast to see what was happening as well, just like the outside Universes. As the protectors left, someone approached Krune and Laka. They just needed one glance to see who it was. "Hey, aren''t you that Hanan guy? Oh, you are also a Heavenly Divine Soul owner, so I guess it is to be expected that you are here." Hanan nodded. "Correct. I also noticed you, that''s why I came here. I wanted to ask Krune something too." Krune''s interest was picked. "Krune, that promise is still valid, right?" Krune understood what he meant. "Yes, Little Arty will not go back on his words. I can guarantee that he really wishes for the same thing as your clan, so there is no need for you to be worried. Of course, you will need to prove to him that you can do what you said." Hanan nodded. "Then, that''s not a problem." Hanan then continued with a Divine Sense Message. Divine Sense is restricted at the moment, but since he is very close to Krune and Laka, he can still reach them. "By the way, part of the plan relies on me acquiring one of the Dalin Universe''s slots. In the case, would you like to make an alliance?" Krune was taken aback for a second. But after thinking about it, he had to admit that having a Dalin Slot would make a lot of things easier for the Frunkan Clan and their plan of closing off Dalin. Laka, however, didn''t know what they were talking about. Krune nodded in the end. "Sure. Both your Frunkan Clan and my Wisp Race have a lot to gain from it." He then looked at Laka. "What you say, Laka? It would be good if we stay together first. Since the Heavenly Competition contents always change, there is a big chance that an alliance will be beneficial in the first stages." Laka didn''t know what the plan they were talking about was, but he knew Krune''s real power. Joining the same side as Krune at first would indeed be better depending on the rules of the first phase. "Sure. Of course, it will also depend on what we need to do when it starts." Krune and Hanan nodded. They also understood this logic very well. They weren''t the only ones to do that. Almost all the Heavenly Competition participants also had their own clicks. Some were simply trying to create the strongest team as others gathered together because of their lower cultivation. Whatever the reason, it was quite hard to see anyone alone at this point. Once all the protectors were gone, Norzulun continued. "Alright. Now we will start the first phase of the Heavenly Competition." Suddenly, the entire dome shined. Krune''s group immediately noticed that the Space Laws began to act on them. "Not good, hold each other, we are going to be teleported." Laka, Hanan, and Krune grabbed each other''s arms just a second before everyone was teleported away. But that wasn''t all. The entire northland began to change, as well. Blue walls with several inscriptions started to rise in the skies, all the way to the formation ceiling. In a matter of seconds, tens of thousands of kilometers became a big maze with several levels! 537 Strong Suppor Think about the North of the Canckin Planet as a large circle. That''s because the formation around it made so that you could only move inside the ring it covers. Krune''s group was teleported to the north side of this ring. As for the others, they were teleported everywhere. Some noticed the space laws and grabbed their groups'' members'' arms like Krune''s one did. Others were not so lucky and ended being teleported randomly into other locations far away from their initial group. Nevertheless, that mattered little since a tiny number of groups ended like that. The majority was ready enough to react fast as Krune did. Krune, Laka, and Hanan looked around and couldn''t see anyone. Krune had the strongest Divine Sense, but he could only see 2 kilometers in all directions. Unfortunately, once his Divine Sense hit the walls around him, it would be rejected even further. That being said, his 2 kilometers Divine Sense ended having only half of its effect. It was evident that those walls also had protection against Divine Senses. ''Well, mental energy it is then.'' Krune is in the 2nd stage of the Soul Transformation Realm. He went one step higher since he left the Holy Land. Sure enough, formations made to affect Divine Sense had no use against Krune''s Mental Energy. Thanks to that, Krune could see as far as 70 to 80km. This was an advantage that none of the other competitors had. It was almost like cheating. Well, Krune didn''t mind it, though. Thanks to his Mental Energy, he was finally able to find other cultivators and demon beasts. Some groups were inside higher levels; others were below. In total, five teams appeared in his perception range. Krune''s group soon noticed another problem. "It''s freezing in here." Laka and Krune agreed with Hanan. "These formations are driving the coldness into our bodies, and it is quite harmful. I can feel it blocking my flow of Spiritual, Elemental, and Chaos Energies. It can even invade our foundations." "We need to use quite a lot of energy to drive it off. I guess Dalin Management doesn''t want things to keep going for too long. At this rate, one week would be enough to freeze at least half of the competitors. The energy necessary to fight against it is much higher than what we can recover." Krune looked away and pretended to agree with Hanan and Laka. However, thanks to his Elemental and Chaos Meridians, his conversion of Spiritual Energy was several times faster than them. Not to mention now that he got a Blackhole Heavenly Fragment. Simply put, he would never run out of energy at this rate. Of course, he wouldn''t point it out. Suddenly, everyone in the Heavenly Competition received a Divine Sense message from Norzulun. Laka decided to test it out. He quickly returned to his real form and attacked the wall in front of him. "Dragon Blast!" Boom! The wall cracked a little but did not break. That wasn''t all, that crack then began to repair itself at high speeds. In just a few seconds, the wall was back to normal. It even looked like it didn''t receive an attack at all. Of course, Laka wasn''t the only one. Almost all the other cultivators and demon beasts tried it as well. Still, the result was the same thing. "If I want to break this wall, I will need to use all my strength, and it is just one wall. Just how many would be there until we reach the Formation''s Core? The energy necessary is far from enough since I doubt they teleported us close to the Formation''s Core to start with. Even if we work together, it will still be meaningless." Norzulun waited until all the explosion faded away before continuing. "It seems like you all tried it already. Whether you wish to use this method or not is up to you. Anyway, let me continue. I believe that the majority can''t last more than a week, even if they don''t use any energy at all. The more you use, the quicker you will freeze. However, there is a way to prevent that from happening. As long as you kill another participant, the formation will stop to act on you for one hour. You can use this time to recover your energy, which will give you more time to resist the cold. It is that simple." In the end, even Dalin Universe Management didn''t know what Krune was capable of. "Alright. Currently, there is a total of 25783 participants, but only the first 5000 will advance into the next phase. Once the last qualified cultivator or demon beast is decided, the competition will be over for the rest. The remaining alive participants will then be teleported outside so that they can go back to their Universes with their protectors." "Well, that''s all. Good luck, everyone!" Norzulun''s Divine Sense Message stopped there. Krune didn''t waste time and immediately returned to his Wisp Form. Even though his recovery of energy was higher than the consumption in his human form, that was only by a tiny bit. However, in his wisp form, his rate of recovery was much better. In fact, all the demon beasts also returned to their real forms since they could fight the cold better like that. However, Krune''s wisp form immediately attracted everyone''s attention outside. With the Divine Sense of those Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts, it was very easy to watch the entire extent of the formation. Obviously, they noticed Krune''s transformation. "Is that a wisp?" Everyone knows about the Myriad Wisps Technique by now. However, they were still impressed to see that a Divine Path Realm wisp participating in this competition. The ones who were the most shocked were the Dalin Universe management members, Norzulun included. "Isn''t that the wisp from the Wisp Main World? The one that was supposed to take Cinty''s place when she died?" "Let me check... he is the representative of the Luvile Universe, and his name is Krune. Wait! That doesn''t make sense. Wasn''t he supposed to be a Wisp from the Dalin Universe? How did he become a Luvile Universe representative?" One of the Management elders quickly checked something in his communicator. "The records aren''t mentioning anything about a wisp coming from the Luvile Universe, only its protector. How did he enter the Dalin Universe without going through the registration process?" Another elder quickly added. "That''s not all. I just checked it here. Krune doesn''t have the mark that all outsiders receive before entering Dalin. That''s not possible, no one should be able to enter Dalin without it." The elders looked at Norzulun. "He entered Dalin Illegally, so he must be quickly captured. We need to verify how he did it! There wasn''t supposed to be any way of entering Dalin without anyone noticing." "That''s not all, he is also a wisp in the Divine Path Realm with a Heavenly Fragment. We should take this chance to kill him after the interrogation. Let''s go directly for a Soul Search. Since he dared to leave the Wisp Main World and show his face, he can''t blame us for what will happen. We also have reason on our side since he is an illegal immigrant." All the elders of the Dalin Management nodded. However, Norzulun narrowed his eyes. "Would the Wisp Race let someone like him appear here? Krune is right in the middle of the tiger''s den. In theory, nothing he did could be used to escape our grasp." It was then that Norzulun remembered something. "No, there is one thing. Or better, there is one existence capable of doing all of that." Suddenly, a hand appeared on his shoulder. Norzulun almost jumped in fright when he saw that. Not only him but all the elders of the Dalin Universe Management. No one had noticed this guy appearing. But how did he do it with so many Peak Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts around Norzulun? "Hahaha! There is no need to be this frightened, Norzulun brat. I only came here to check on my little friend over there." Norzulun was present during the last gathering of the Universes'' powerhouses. The same one they used to discuss the Myriad Wisps Technique. Having said that, he immediately recognized this man with rainbow-colored hair. Norzulun smiled bitterly before bowing to him. "It''s an honor to have senior Wally, the Wisp Race God, here with us today." All the elders were taken aback. How could they not know who Wally is? This is a legendary existence that no one in the lower realms would ever dare to offend. Who would be idiot enough to buy a fight against an ascender? Wally''s power wasn''t something that anyone could contend against. Wally nodded at Norzulun and then looked at the elder who suggested to use a Soul Search on Krune and then kill him. "I heard quite a few interesting words. What was that? Errr... Right! Something about using a Soul Search in my little friend Krune down there and even killing him. Could it be I heard it wrong?" That elder immediately began to sweat rivers. He can''t even remember the last time he had felt fear. After all, he is a Peak Divinity Realm cultivator. Still, he is nothing more than an ant in front of Wally. "Cough, cough... this lowly one was obviously just joking, that''s all." Wally then smiled as he nodded his head. "Oh, so it was just a joke, then that''s okay." Wally then simply let it go, much for that elder''s relief. For a second, he thought that he was dead. However, Norzulun still had to play the Dalin Management''s Supervisor role. "Senior Wally. According to the agreement, you should not intervene in the affairs of the Lower Realms. I hope you didn''t forget it." Wally quickly nodded. "Of course, I haven''t forgotten. I have no intention whatsoever in meddling in this Heavenly Competition. However, the agreement also says I can protect the wisps as I see fit as long as it doesn''t get in the way of those affairs you mentioned. That being said, I won''t do anything. Even if Krune fails or dies during this Heavenly Competition, I won''t care." "However, there is no rule saying that a wisp can''t participate in the Heavenly Competition. Not to mention that he is indeed participating on Luvile Universes'' behalf. So I won''t stand for some older brats trying to get in his way." Norzulun and the others didn''t dare to deny wally''s words. As much as it seemed ridiculous, there wasn''t such a rule indeed. That meant that wisps were also allowed to participate. "As for the thing about the illegal entrance into Dalin''s universe, you don''t need to worry about that. It was me who brought him inside, so you obviously didn''t notice." Norzulun couldn''t help but say. "Isn''t that the same as intervening?" Wally looked puzzled at Norzulun. "How come? I just brought a brat into the Dalin Universe, which is also my home and birthplace. Why should I report to you if I want to bring someone into my house or not? Does it make any sense? You should be grateful that I had never done it before." Norzulun could only sigh and accept. That was just an excuse, but at the same time, one that he couldn''t refuse. Still, he was already happy enough. At least, he got Wally''s word that he won''t intervene in the result of the Heavenly Competition. That meant that Krune will have to rely on himself to take one of the five slots. In the end, only the elders present, and Norzulun knew about Wally''s presence. The rest had no idea about what was happening. Norzulun then made an announcement to the powers who knew about the wisps'' situation. No rules are preventing a Wisp from participating in the Heavenly Competition. That was all, he didn''t give any other explanation. With the Dalin Universe management taking this instance, they could only let it go and turn their attention back to the competition itself. Anyway, it''s not because a wisp appeared that their objective changed. All that matters is the Five Slots to manage the Dalin Universe. The rest can be discussed later. 538 First Phase Krune didn''t know what was happening outside, but he did know that Wally would be there. After all, that''s what Krune had asked Wally back then in the Floor Number Zero of the Holy Land. He would need him to protect his back once he used his wisp form. Still, Hanan and Laka couldn''t help but ask. "Is it really okay for you to show your real form? I don''t think that the Dalin Universe management will take it lightly now that they can see what you are." Krune didn''t mind. "Don''t worry, no one will do anything to me. At least, not the Divinity Realm guys outside. I have long since prepared everything, so just focus on the competition itself and ignore the Dalin Universe Management outside. Besides, there are no rules saying that wisps can''t be representatives of their own Universe." Hanan and Laka nodded. It seemed like Krune already had a plan, so they didn''t ask anymore. "Anyway, how should we do this?" Krune laughed before saying. "Just follow me." Others couldn''t spread their Divine Sense more than a kilometer, but Krune''s Mental Energy could go as far as 80km! His advantage in this enormous maze was obvious. He soon saw all the possible passaged in all levels, up and down, including the dead ends. *Vup!* Krune dashed forward with Hanan and Laka right behind. It was easy to know the way to the Formation''s core, they just had to follow the flow of spiritual energy direction. The only question was which paths to chose. Krune seemed very confident in the directions he took, so Hanan couldn''t hold his curiosity. With a Divine Sense message, he asked. "Do you know this maze? Or perhaps, can you see more than others?" Although Krune didn''t reveal his Mental Energy, he at least confirmed Hanan suspicions. "Correct. I can really see much further than any of you. However, I don''t think I''m the only exception. There are over 20 thousand cultivators and demon beasts, so I guess quite a few also have their own methods to find their way to the core." Krune was correct. Although not many, there were indeed other groups who had a member that could perceive things much further away than the others with their Divine Senses. It''s just that they couldn''t compare to Krune. After all, none of the formations had any use against Mental Energy. One must remember that Mental Energy wasn''t supposed to even exist before Heavin completed his Soul Cultivation Technique. Krune made sure to avoid other groups. This time around, battles were unnecessary. In fact, battles probably wouldn''t start before five days later or so with just some exceptions. No one was willing to spend their already limited energy. If it was already this difficult for Krune, then one can only imagine how it was for the others. Still, Krune''s group quickly began to distinguish themselves. After half a day of traveling, his group was definitely the closest one to the Formations Core. It was to the point that Krune hadn''t found any other group in his Mental Energy range in the last three hours! That shows just how far ahead his group is compared to the other ones. Back in the Luvile Universe, the three Sacred Lands, Divine Path Sect, and Wang Clan were observing it together. It was easy to see the excitement on everyone''s faces. With Krune''s group at the forefront, all the attention was focused on them. The Sacred Lands, Divine Path Sect, and Wang Clan even had established a communication channel where they could talk to each other in real-time. In the Darkness Sacred land, Yamio Halas commented on that same channel. "Great! I was afraid that the wisp would already lose even before being able to show his power. But to think that he has a trump card that can allow him to find his way into the maze, really unexpected." Tika Tarkulie, the All Life Sect Sacred Land Master, nodded. "Wamie had pointed out Krune''s unbelievable achievements in the Dalin Universe time and time again. But it is going way better than I thought. With the strength that Erzato reported to us, his group would be fine even if they fought another one. But if they can pass the first phase without showing any of their abilities, then it is even better." The happiest one was obviously Lucio, though. "Hahaha! He is this old man''s disciple, after all. He was bound to be at least this good." The others looked at Lucio''s shameless expression. Something told them that Krune''s ability to find the right path hadn''t anything to do with Lucio at all. While the Sacred Lands had their suspicions, Wang Xin and Wang Milia were 100% sure about this, though. It was definitely nothing related to Lucio at all. The Frunkan Clan in their Universe, and the Clan Head in the Dalin Universe, both were also excited. After all, Hanan was joined in a group with Krune. Baren had his doubts when Hanan decided to ally with Krune and Laka, but he couldn''t be happier now. Last but not least, the Kizan Universe, the same one Laka came from, had several factions watching the show. Obviously, they were just as happy as Luvile Universe and Frunkan Clan. One day! What was supposed to take at least an entire week for the majority, only took one day for Krune''s group to achieve. Right now, Krune, Hanan, and Laka were stopped right in front of a Big Light Passage. They could also feel the presence of Spatial Laws coming from it. Krune''s Mental Energy Perception could also tell that there are a few more entrances like this nearby. He could picture a round shape when he put them together in a mental map. Without a doubt, those openings led to the Core of the Formation. "Well, this is it. Shall we enter or wait for someone else to try it first?" That''s was their doubt at the moment. What if it was a trap or something? They didn''t know what was on the other side. Krune pondered a bit and decided to try a different approach. Suddenly, a flying type Puppet appeared beside him. Heavin had made loads of puppets in the past years, and he sold most of them. Still, he kept some of the good ones and gave them to Krune and the rest. Although they wouldn''t be that strong for battle, they are indeed very convenient in situations like this. "Well, I guess you two don''t mind if I send a Puppet in, right?" Laka and Hanan smiled before nodding. Krune then gave the puppet an order, and it dashed inside the light passage. Krune also told it to return after checking the exit on the other side. A minute later, the Space Laws around the passage rippled, and Krune''s puppet reappeared. Krune quickly analyzed the recording of what it saw on the other side. "Errr... It seems like there is nothing dangerous on the other side. At least, nothing that could damage the puppet appeared. Anyway, I''m going in to check. What about you two? Do you want to wait for me to come back first?" Laka snorted after hearing that. "Being cautious is okay, but I''m not that scared. If the puppet is okay, then I go as well. If something really happens, it will be better to have the two of us to deal with it." Hanan also agreed with Laka. "I''m going too. My Frunkan Clan did a lot of waiting already." Krune smiled, and the three quickly passed through the light passage. Space laws engulfed the three, and with a flash of silver light, they disappeared. Back into the maze, the groups were still trying to find their ways into the Formation''s core. But it was easier said than done. They kept bumping into each other, but almost no battles happened. Just as Krune mentioned, no one was willing to spend their energy after just one day inside. However, there were exceptions. Boom! "Arrgh!" Suddenly, a corpse of a Heavenly Fragment Owner fell to the ground. The one who killed him then felt that the freezing effect of the Formation disappeared. "Phew... finally some time without this annoying cold." His companions couldn''t help but sigh, though. They found the guy alone, but they weren''t the ones to give the last blow. Because of this, they didn''t get free from the cold. Such situations happened every so often. After all, there were still cultivators and demon beasts who got separated during the teleport. As long as they didn''t have cultivation at the peak of the Divine Path Realm, they would usually become targets. 539 End of the First Phase Suddenly, everyone in the maze received a stream of information in their heads. "Number of participants who passed the first phase - 1." "Number of participants who passed the first phase - 2." "Number of participants who passed the first phase - 3." Everyone was taken aback. First, because they received such a message. No one was expecting to be informed about this. Second, it has only been one day! How did those guys reach the Formation''s Core so fast?! The reason why such information was released was pretty apparent, though. The Dain Universe wanted to increase the pressure over the participants. The closer the number got to 5000, the more restless the participants would become. Even though the participants understood this, they couldn''t help but still feel like that. Especially since a group already arrived at the Formation''s core after just a single day. Doesn''t that mean that they are too behind, and a lot of groups are far ahead? Of course, that wasn''t really the case; it''s just that Krune used his cheat. Outside, Norzulun looked at Wally suspiciously. ''Could it be that Wally guided Krune? The formations inside prevented any type of communication with the participants inside to happen. It could even be considered another Dimensional Realm altogether. However, Wally was an ascender. He might have his own ways to talk with Krune.'' Of course, he didn''t ask Wally directly. First, he had no evidence. Second, why would Wally say it in the first place? Wally, of course, understood what Norzulun was thinking. "Don''t worry. Even though you probably won''t believe me, the truth is that Krune found his way to the core by himself. I absolutely had nothing to do with it." Norzulun sighed and then kept looking into the competition. It was just the first phase. There were a lot of things to happen in the future stages. Inside the formation core, Krune, Hanan, and Laka looked around suspiciously. However, they noticed that there were several pools of white light covering the entire place. Other than that, there was nothing else. Hanan got close to one of them and touched. The surface then rippled as if it was made of water. But it was clearly not the case. "What are those things?" Krune and Laka shook their heads. Well, only Laka since Krune is in his wisp form. "No idea. But as far as I can see, it seems like there is a total of 5000 of them." Hanan agreed with them. His Divine Sense didn''t seem to be restricted in this place, so he could tell how many there were as well. Laka then looked at one of those pools and said. "Well, I don''t think a puppet will be enough this time. It was clearly made for the participants of the Heavenly Competition. That being said, there is only one way to test it out." However, just as his feet went a few centimeters inside, it stopped. "Hm?" Laka forced a little, but his feet could go more than 10 centimeters down. The weird thing was that Laka didn''t feel like there was anything blocking him. It was as if one of his feet was an air bubble, and the ''water'' inside was sending him back to the surface. "What a weird thing." Krune and Hanan tried as well, but the result was the same. Everyone then applied their full strength, trying to go down as much as possible. Unfortunately, the furthest they could go was only half a meter. In the end, they could only give up and leave the pool. After that, they tried several other pools, but the results were the same. "It seems like we will need to wait until the 5000 qualified participants appear. Otherwise, I don''t think we can figure out what is happening here." "What if the test is to figure out the trick? Wouldn''t we be losing time while waiting for the others?" Krune''s group then looked at each and jumped inside the pools again. Just like that, another day passed in a flash. Finally, the second group appeared inside the Formation''s Core. But when the newcomers looked at Krune and the others, they felt that something wasn''t right. "Why do they look so tired?" Well, they couldn''t be blamed, Krune''s group had literally tried everything possible and impossible. Still, everything was useless. In the end, they reached the same conclusion as before. They will need to wait for the first 5000 participants to arrive. Looking a little embarrassed, Krune''s group gathered in a corner to rest. The newcomers also didn''t do anything since they already passed the first phase as well. Each side kept their distances. However, Krune, Laka, and Hanan didn''t tell them what happened. ''We already suffered a lot trying to find a way to enter, now it is your time to do so.'' Sure enough, the new group began to investigate the pools as well. Even though they asked Krune''s group if they found anything, Krune and the others didn''t say a single word. Soon, four days had passed since the start of the first phase. "Number of participants who passed the first phase - 1268." "Number of participants who passed the first phase - 1269." "Number of participants who passed the first phase - 1270..." By now, the cultivators and demon beasts already began to feel the Freezing Energy effects in this place. Also, everywhere they went seemed the same, which gave an unsettling feeling. Last but not least, every time someone completed the first phase, it was as if a knife was cut through the hearts of those who didn''t. Killings also began to happen everywhere as well. There are still three days until the theoretical limit of everyone''s resistance. However, if they waited until the very last day to do battle, they might not even have the energy to fight anymore. So groups began to pounce at each other every time they thought their sides were much stronger. That wasn''t all. Betrayals also began to take place. No one wanted to freeze to death, and if it meant to kill the weakest member of your group, then so be it. Nevertheless, the last thing you will find in the Heavenly Competition are weaklings. That being said, even when entire groups ganged up on someone, they usually would end up escaping after paying some price. Thanks to that, from the 25k participants that entered the Ice maze, less than 1k died so far. On the sixth day, though. The numbers of cultivators and demon beasts dying and freezing to death began to escalate. And while all of that happened... "Number of participants who passed the first phase - 3897." "Number of participants who passed the first phase - 3920." "Number of participants who passed the first phase - 4023." The number of positions available to join in the second phase reduced faster and faster. Sure enough, more and more cultivators and demon beasts approached the Formation''s Core by the time. However, only the first ones to enter the place spent their time trying to do something with the pools. Those who arrived later noticed the earlier cultivators and demon beasts were resting beside a white light pool. Other than just casually touching it, they didn''t try anything else. Finally, on the eighth day, the 5000th participant entered the Formation''s Core. Everyone could see his happiness for being able to arrive at the very last moment. If not that there were many spectators in and out of the Protection Formation, he would have started jumping right there and then. At the same time that the last competitor appeared, all the survivors were instantly teleported outside of the Protection Formation. However, it was worth mentioning something here. Almost all the participants who entered the Formation''s Core were Heavenly Divine Soul Owners and at the peak of the Divine Path Realm. Not only that, but almost all the ''favorites'' were there as well. One probably thought that this was a competition where the majority had to strongly rely on luck. After all, it was a maze. But the fact is that it couldn''t be further from the truth. The powerful teams, who had the power to hold themselves against the majority, forced the weaker groups to share their ''maps.'' That''s correct. Everyone was lost in the maze, so the cultivators and demon beasts began to draw their own maps. That was the best way to avoid walking in circles. Those strong teams then used these maps from the other several weaker teams to find their way to the core. As one can expect, the Heavenly Competition might have luck involved, but strength is still the main factor. Without strength, most of the qualified participants wouldn''t be here now. In the end, of the 25k participants who entered the Ice maze, over 8k died. Yet, Norzulun and the Dalin Universe Management elders were quite impressed with this number. They were expecting that at least half would leave their lives behind. ''I guess that is the effect of the Holy Land. A lot of the participants had been there, so their strength increased by leaps and bounds. Thanks to that, they were able to resist the cold for much longer. With that, they didn''t have to start fighting against each other too early.'' Norzulun then shook his head. What matters is that the first 5000 were selected. There is no need to care about the losers anymore. After that, he connected his Divine Sense with the Formations Core. It was time to start the second part of the Heavenly Competition. 540 I Have Nothing to do With I "It seems like we got our first 5000 participants. Very well, I will now begin the second phase." Suddenly, all the White Light pools shined as some pods covered with several inscriptions came from inside. Each of them was around 3 meters tall. Krune and the others could see that there was something that looked like a door in front of each one too. Suddenly, all the doors opened, showing a small space inside of a person''s size. Obviously, it was made with the demon beasts in their human form''s taken into consideration. "For some reason, a few idiots were trying to enter the pool, but let''s forget about it." Krune''s group and quite a few cultivators and demon beasts felt embarrassed when they heard that. "Those are the Soul World Pods. Once you enter and the door closes, it will once more sink into the pool. After that, your Soul will be pulled out of your body and sent into the Soul World. At the same time, your body will be put into a hibernation state. Be aware, if you die inside, your Soul will be destroyed. Not only will your body die without a soul, but there will be no reincarnation to speak of." "In the Soul World, your Soul Power obviously count. Some might say that it wouldn''t be fair with demon beasts since they usually have a weaker soul. However, don''t forget that the Ice Maze was not fair with the cultivators either. Demon Beasts had an easier time resisting the freezing energy in their real forms. So as you can guess, there are quite a few more demon beasts than cultivators now. This round will more or less balance the sides. Of course, everything is possible. Maybe the ratio of demon beasts will be even higher after the end of the second phase." "Anyway, in the Soul World, you only have one objective. Survive! It will simulate an entire world where several Nightmare Demons will attack you incessantly. At the same time, your Soul Power will be drained by the Soul World formation. If you want to recover your soul power, it is very easy. Kill the Nightmare Beasts. Simply put, just running away is not enough, and you will probably be one of the first ones to die if you do so." "Inside the Soul World, you will have the same appearance as you have outside. Humans will be humans, and demon beasts will be demon beasts. All your weapons and skills will be there too, as long as you really have them in the real world, of course. It''s just that the power of the attacks you use against the Nightmare Demons will be affected by your Soul Power to a certain extent. The same could be said to your resistance against their attacks." "Last but not least, if you don''t want to die, you can give up anytime you wish. All you need to do is say, "I give up," and the formation will immediately pull your Soul out of the Soul World. Of course, that also means that you will be disqualified. Once your Soul returns to your body, it will then be teleported outside." "Well, that''s basically it. Make sure to put up a good show. Don''t forget there are thousands of Universes watching your performance." Krune couldn''t help but feel a little smug. After all, they are using the Soul Power as the main factor in this phase. With his Myriad Energies Technique and Heavin''s Soul Cultivation, he doubts that there is someone with a Soul stronger than his. However, Krune quickly shook his head after that. That wasn''t like him at all. Laka then looked at Krune and Hanan. "Well, I guess I''ll see you two later." Hanan smiled. "Maybe it won''t take that long. The guy said that we will be teleported to a Nightmare Demons'' Soul World. But he didn''t say that we will be alone in there. Chances are that all cultivators and demon beasts will be on the same planet. Who knows? We might meet each other not too long after." Krune then laughed before saying. "In that case, they are pretty shameless. That means we can kill other participants'' Souls so that the number goes down faster." Hanan and Laka had to admit that Krune was right. "In that case, wouldn''t it be better to look for each other?" Laka then shrugged his shoulders. "How?" Hanan then commented. "We are all at the Divine Path Realm at the moment, and we are pretty strong ones at that. Our souls should be more than strong enough to scan a planet with Divine Sense, no? It would be easy to find each other like that." Krune immediately shook his head. "I don''t believe they will leave such a flaw behind. That would be ridiculous. At most, they will allow Divine Senses to travel a hundred kilometers or so. Of course, those with stronger Soul will be able to see further than those with weaker ones. But the difference won''t be much bigger than that. There is even a chance that they will block it completely." Hahan then suggested. "We can simply use the cardinal directions. As soon as we arrive, we will all move to the extreme north of that planet. Sure we can eventually bump into each other there, no?" Krune then shook his head again. "There are several flaws in this plan. Maybe we won''t be able to distinguish which side is north. Maybe many participants also thought the same thing and will go there as well, which would make things more dangerous. We don''t even know if this world is a planet to start with. It might even be just a huge flat land that extends for tens of thousands of kilometers." Laka found all that conversation too annoying, so he simply asked. "Everything we have in the real world will be replicated outside. In that case, just take this." Laka then passed a small red pearl to each one of them. Immediately, Hanan and Krune felt a little embarrassed. That''s true, Norzulun really said that anything they have can be replicated inside. Locally speaking, you can obviously use tracking spiritual equipments as long as you have it. Laka''s three red beads could be used precisely for this purpose. "Cough, cough. In that case, I also have one here." Hanan looked away as he spoke. "I have one too..." They exchanged their own searching equipments and then entered the pod. As long as the distance between themselves isn''t higher than an average solar system, they will be able to find each other. If that doesn''t work... well, they will simply rely on themselves and make temporary groups with the cultivators and demon beasts they find. All the other groups did the same and entered the pods eventually. Once all the pods sank into the white light pool, their souls were dragged into the Soul world together... or so it was supposed to happen. For some reason, one of the pods was having some difficulty in bringing a certain wisp''s Soul out. Norzulun looked at the Formations Masters, puzzled. If Krune''s Soul is not dragged out, the second phase simply can''t start. The Soul World would only appear after all the competitors were ready to enter. The Formations Masters immediately checked what was happening. In the end, they could only smile bitterly. "There is nothing wrong with the Soul World Pods, it''s just that... his Soul is too strong. The pod doesn''t have enough ''strength'' to pull it out of his body." Wally, who had been observing on the side, couldn''t help but laugh out loud. "Hahaha! As expected of my little friend, he really is in another league altogether." Norzulun''s mouth twitched, but he didn''t answer Wally''s words. Instead, he looked at the Formations Masters and demanded. "Then do something! Increase the power of the formation or whatever. We can''t wait forever." The Formations Masters complied with the order and immediately dived into the Protection Formation. As for Krune, he was utterly puzzled. "Was it supposed to take this long to start?" The wisp... didn''t even notice that the pod already tried to take his Soul out. Although everyone felt that something was wrong, they could only wait. Norzulun said that they have run into a small problem, and the Formations Masters are working on getting it resolved. Fortunately, Krune was the only one in that situation, so the Formations Masters were able to work on it pretty fast. Only when the Krune''s Pod''s formation was strengthened for souls at the Initial Stages of the Semi-Divinity Level, did it finally pull Krune''s Soul into the Soul World Formation. However, none of the Dalin Management elders or Norzulun were happy about this. The pod was now working at a level where it could pull out an average 1st Stage Semi-Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast''s Soul! The participants were expected to have much stronger souls than average, that much they already expected. After all, the majority that reached this phase are all Heavenly Divine Soul owners. There are almost no Heavenly Fragment ones. That being said, their Souls were already expected to be at the Divine View Realm level. To make sure things would work well, the pods were made so that they could drag out even Late Stages Divine View Realm cultivators and demon beasts. They thought that it didn''t matter how strong the participants'' Souls were, they couldn''t possibly jump an entire realm in strength. Well, there was one wisp who did it. Krune''s Soul Power is equivalent to an average Peak Divine View Realm! Norzulun and the elders couldn''t help but look at Wally. ''What kind of monster did you create?'' However, Wally innocently looked away. "You guys are looking in the wrong direction, I have nothing to do with it." 541 Nightmare Demons When Krune came back to himself, he was already inside the Soul World. Sure enough, his Spatial Ring appeared close to him. Also, he was in his wisp form from the very start. After checking his Spatial Ring, he quickly found the searching Spiritual Equipments that his group shared between each other. Krune first took Laka''s red pearl and put his Spiritual Energy into it. Fortunately, it really did work as they predicted. Krune could now tell in which direction Laka and Hanan were located. As Krune began to move, he noticed that his Soul Power was weakening by the time. That was the Soul World Formation Norzulun talked about. ''At this rate, I would resist at most two days. The others will probably take even less.'' As he looked around, he noticed that this was a dark world. There was no sun to speak of. Not too surprisingly, Divine Sense was restricted here too. However, it could still go further than Krune''s Mental Energy. Krune''s Divine Sense could reach as far as almost 200km of distance. His mental energy, on the other hand, could only go the same 80km from before. Nevertheless, Krune decided to use both at the same time. There was no lack of Spiritual Equipment capable of hiding one from Divine Sense. But if those with such type of equipment appeared in his Mental Energy range, he would immediately notice it. Of course, Krune also did the same and covered his wisp body in a layer of Purple Tribulation Lightning. ''Phew... I was in doubt if I would be able to use Tribulation Lightning. It seems like it was also replicated inside. Probably, the formation uses the user''s memories for what can exist or not.'' However, Krune soon noticed that Laws could not be used here. That was to be expected. One must remember that this is a nonexistent world, a fake. So how could there be Laws in this place? That being said, everyone''s attack power was drastically reduced. Also, it would be impossible to deploy Domains since they are reliant on Laws. Although Krune couldn''t see very well, his Divine Sense was another story. He could tell that other than the lack of light in his range, the rest was pretty much like a regular land. He could see a few hills or mountains inside his Divine Sense. The weird thing is how many trees and plants are available as well. Since there was no sun, Krune expected that the planet would be barren, but that wasn''t the case. ''Well, this is a fake world to start with, so I guess that logic won''t serve much here.'' But just as Krune began to move, he noticed something weird happening. Some kind of dark energy started to conglomerate together into a single point around 50km away from him. The impressive thing is that his Divine Sense couldn''t pick it up. Only his Mental Energy noticed that happening. A few minutes later, that dark energy took the form of an enormous wolf, which immediately dashed in his direction. But Krune soon noticed that he didn''t need to worry. His divine sense couldn''t catch its presence, but the dark energy was easy to be felt. The reason was simple, though. The Nightmare Demons were also made of Soul Energy, so his Soul reacted to its presence. It''s just that they would be quite close by the time the Souls can feel it. ''It seems like it needs to be at least 10km away before my Soul can detect its presence. I wonder how strong they are.'' In only took a few seconds for the Nightmare Demon to arrive. It then immediately pounced at Krune. "Tribulation Lightning Movement." *Zap!* *Boom!* The Nightmare Demon''s attack hit the ground at full power, creating an enormous crater a hundred meters large. Krune was quite impressed since the demon did it with only the strength of its body. ''Impressive. Although it is made of Dark and Soul Energies, its physical body can still do so much damage. An ordinary peak Divine Path Realm cultivator or demon beast would definitely be severely injured if hit by it. However...'' Before the Nightmare Demon could attack Krune once more, it got assaulted by purple flame blades from all sides. "Tribulation Blazing Wind Blades!" That was a little gift Krune left behind the moment he dodged the demon. *Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish...* The blades hit its body head-on, cutting as deep as they could and exploding in the end. The demon seemed to be utterly shredded by Krune''s attack. However, it was not over. Dark energy began to surge from the surroundings, quickly entering its body. At speed visible with the naked eye, Krune could see its dark body growing back to its original form. ''It can heal itself as well. Also, the lack of Laws affects my strength by a lot. My Tribulation Blazing Winds Blades would have definitely cut through its body instead of stopping in the middle if I was in the real world. But they are simply too weak when I can''t use Wind, Fire, and Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws.'' As Krune observed the beast recovering, he also noticed another problem. ''When I attack, I use Soul Power as well. I need to finish it quickly.'' Krune didn''t hold back and immediately bombarded the Nightmare Demon Beast. Soon, he noticed a small Dark Core, which kept absorbing the surrounding energy. ''I see, destroying its body is useless, I need to get rid of the Core.'' "Purple Tribulation Line!" Before the demon''s body could reform again, the core was hit by Krune''s attack, which pierced right through it. The core then crumbled as a surge of Soul Energy rushed into Krune''s Wisp Core. ''Oh... There isn''t too much Soul Energy, but it is at least enough to recover the Soul Energy I used to destroy it. Seems like the Nightmare Demons are quite a good source of Soul Energy.'' It was good that the other participants didn''t hear Krune''s words. Only he with his heaven-defying Soul Power could destroy a Nightmare Demon Beast this easily. Norzulun had made it very clear before the second phase started. Soul Power would directly influence your attack and defense. Krune has the most powerful Soul between all competitors, that''s why it seemed okay for him. But for the others... Well, they also had the power to get rid of the Nightmare Demon Beasts, but the reward in Soul Energy was far from enough to recover what they used. Of course, everyone was still learning how to fight the Nightmare Demons, so they also spent more time and energy to find about the Nightmare Demon''s Core. Krune didn''t have much time to keep looking. It seems like the Nightmare Demon''s death had attracted other Demons nearby. Krune soon found a Nightmare Demon Cultivator and two Nightmare Demon Beasts rushing in his direction with his Mental Energy. ''They seem to be connected to each other. Once I kill one, I must move away immediately.'' Krune could most likely kill those three, but he decided to not spend too long in a single place. Those Nightmare Demons definitely had the power of Peak Divine Path Realm cultivators and demon beasts. If too many of then gathered together, even Krune would be helpless against them. "Tribulation Lightning Movement!" *Zap!* With a flash of purple lightning, Krune disappeared in the distance. The nearby Nightmare Demons noticed his presence and changed direction, but Krune was simply too fast. There was also a limit to how far they can sense the participants, so once Krune opened enough distance, they stopped the pursuit. Without a target, those Nightmare Demon beasts spread in several directions. They had only one objective, find the Heavenly Competition participants and get rid of them. The other participants don''t have Krune''s Mental Energy, so they only noticed more Nightmare Demon Beasts coming at them after they were already close. Some unlucky ones even got surrounded, which made things very difficult for them. Some were able to escape; others had no other choice and gave up before dying. Some simply couldn''t accept losing here and ended having their Souls destroyed. Laka was one of those who got surrounded. Fortunately for him, he had Krune''s Purple Flame Dragon Pearl, which vastly increased his strength. At first, he kept killing one Nightmare Demon after another. But even he understood that staying there would only lead to his death. With his sturdy Dragon Body and the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl, Laka broke through the encirclement and disappeared in the distance. "Sigh... these things never stop coming. Well, at least now I know I need to destroy the Cores instead of their bodies. As long as I found lonely ones, I can recover as much Soul Power as I use to kill them and still get some extra. This Purple Flame Dragon Pearl Really helps." Laka then checked the tracking spiritual equipment and could tell that both Krune and Hanan were coming in his direction. Hanan was a lot more cautious than Laka. He noticed that after killing the first Nightmare Demon, another two appeared a short moment after. Hanan quickly reached the conclusion that he can''t stay put in the same place. That being said, Hanan immediately retreated without even looking behind. ''Hum... Laka is the closest one, and Krune is rushing in his direction too. I better go there, as well.'' Just like that, the second phase started. 542 Saving Enegy As Krune and Hanan made their way to where Laka was, they had to fight quite a few Nightmare Beasts. There wasn''t a need to avoid all of them since they could destroy them quickly together, which helped recover their Soul Energy. It was especially useful for Laka, who had used quite a lot before. As mentioned before, the cultivators and demon beasts spent a lot more Soul Energy than the Nightmare Beasts gave them, but that was because they didn''t know how to deal with them at first. As they found out about the Nightmare Core and types of Nightmare Beasts, they got used to attack the right places. -Number of participants remaining: 4723.- -Number of participants remaining: 4719.- Just like in the first phase, the participants kept receiving information in real-time about those who were out. Laka could be said to be one with the worst recovery rate in their group. That''s because not only is he a Demon Beast, which usually has a weaker Soul than a cultivator, but he was also using the Purple Flame Dragon Peral too much. One must remember that Krune''s Dragon Pearl makes the consumption of Spiritual Energy increase by a lot. In the Soul World''s case, a lot more Soul Energy. The two of them went in Hanan''s direction, which took another four hours. With Krune''s Mental Energy Perception, they avoided battle with any cultivator and demon beast on the way. Hanan wasn''t so lucky, and he ended being pursued twice. However, he was definitely one of the stronger Heavenly Divine Soul Owners, which the Frunkan Clan invested more than any other in the past. Thanks to that, Hanan didn''t have much difficulty escaping. Of course, he only ran because he was pursued by groups who gathered together first. Individual cultivators and demon beasts wouldn''t try to spend their Soul Energy in a one vs. one fight. That would be suicide. Another five hours later, Krune''s group was finally whole. Things did not stop there, though. "Heaven''s Fall!" Boom! The body of a Nightmare Demon was destroyed, leaving only the Nightmare Core exposed. Laka didn''t give it a chance to reform. His Dragon Claw grabbed the Core before crushing it. *Crack! Shatter!* Soul Energy poured into Krune''s group Souls as it recovered their power. However, Krune looked at his own Soul Body as the energy leaked out. After that, he paid attention to the energy that he was receiving from that Nightmare Demon. "The rate that the Soul Energy being absorbed by the Nightmare World''s Formation is increasing as time passes. The amount of energy given by the Nightmare Demons, on the other hand, is still the same. However, their strength is getting bigger, which forces the cultivators and demon beasts to spend even more Soul Energy to kill them." Hanan nodded. Laka also added. "I feel like the rate that these Nightmare Demons were born is increasing as well. We found quite a few even though just one hour passed." Krune shook his head. "It is not that they are coming to life at higher speeds, but that the number that is being killed is smaller than the born rate to start with. Simply put, the participants are not killing as much as the amount appearing. Since that''s the case..." Krune then looked at Laka. Laka was a demon beast, just like Krune, so Laka understood what Krune meant with that. "You are right. We demon beasts have weaker souls, so our rate of consumption is higher. However, the number of demon beasts in the second phase is higher than the cultivators, so they will definitely change their way of thinking. If we, demon beasts, want to surpass this trial, we only have one choice. We need to kill the other participants before we run out of Soul Energy. Whether the enemy is a demon beast or not doesn''t matter, we simply have to make the numbers go down." Hanan then looked at Krune. "Fortunately, you are a wisp, which is considered a Soul Race to start with. From what I''ve seen in our battles against the Nightmare Demons, you definitely have the strongest Soul Power between us." Krune didn''t try to deny it. "That''s true. Even if I don''t do anything at all and only use my Tribulation Lightning movement to flee, I will probably pass the test anyway. In fact, I believe you could do the same." Laka sweated cold. "Come on, you need to give me some help too, no? Are you going to look as I just disappear?" Hanan and Krune laughed after that. "Don''t worry, we gonna give you a hand. Not to mention that if we are ambushed by another group, we would need your help anyway. That being said, we have to make sure to keep you in a peak state. For now, Nightmare Demons can still provide enough energy as long as we work together to destroy them. Also, try to not use your Dragon Pearl since it increases your Soul Energy comsuptiom." Laka smiled before nodding. "Yes, ancestor!" With Krune''s Mental Energy perception, his groups kept attacking lonely Nightmare Demons, destroying them in a flash. Thanks to that, their Soul Energy management got even better. Krune and Hanan let Laka take half of the Soul Energy as they shared the other half. Laka had used quite a bit it in the first hour when they arrived. Because of his passion for fights, he took too long to understand that he needed to run away. Now, he is finally recovering more than he is spending. Krune and Hanan, who have Stronger Souls, were not losing or gaining anything. The Soul Energy they are getting is basically leaving the two even with their consumption, which was enough for now. Suddenly, Krune''s Divine Sense, which could go as far as 200km, caught the sight of two groups in the middle of a fight. "Someone is fighting ahead." Hanan and Laka immediately stopped. Since they know that Krune had the strongest Soul Power, he obviously had the broadest Divine Sense too. He could see much further than the two of them. Krune paid attention from a distance and soon found out that he recognized one of them. "Hey, it''s that Iem Turo, the guy from the Dalin Universe everyone was talking about." As Krune observed the battle, the more impressed he got. That couldn''t really be considered a fight to start with. Iem Turo''s side was much stronger than the other group. "What a strong Soul. That Iem Turo only loses to me in Soul Power, but just by a little. He is definitely much stronger than you two. His other two team members aren''t weak either. They have Have around the same Soul Power as Hanan." Laka and Hanan were taken aback. "Shouldn''t we leave then?" Krune shook his head. "Don''t worry, we are inside my Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer, so Divine Senses can''t feel our presence. However, Iem can definitely tell that my Divine Sense is watching his group. After all, his own Soul Power is close to mine. Unfortunately for him, he can''t tell which side it is coming from." "Oh!" Hanan and Laka got curious. "What is it?" Suddenly... -Number of participants remaining: 4556.- The answer became obvious. Krune then narrowed his eyes before saying. "They just killed one of the other side cultivators. The rest of the enemy group then disappeared in thin air right after. It seems like the other two enemies knew that they wouldn''t be able to run. If they stayed, they would only die too, so they gave up. However..." As Krune observed Iem''s group, he noticed that their Soul Energy was recovering at high speeds. "Well, I can''t say I didn''t expect that to happen. It seems like once you kill another participant, the Soul Energy they leave behind is several times higher than any Nightmare Beasts we killed so far." Hanan and Laka weren''t surprised either. Any idiot could expect this much from the Heavenly Competition. "It''s okay. At the moment, we can keep our Soul Energy intact with Nightmare Demons alone. If we really need more, we can do the same thing as they did." Krune agreed with them. He didn''t like killing, but this is a competition with the Luvile Universe''s future at stake. He had decided long before coming here that he won''t take chances. If there is a need for a hunt, he will hunt. Everyone who joined the Heavenly Competition is well aware of the risks, so they can''t blame him or anyone else. Suddenly, Iem''s group disappeared from Krune''s Divine Sense. Sure enough, they also had their own way to hide from Divine Senses. They were at the edge of Krune''s Divine Sense, which is 200km. Because of that, Krune''s Mental Energy couldn''t do anything since it could only go 80km. "They left, so let''s go somewhere as well." The number kept dropping until it finally reached 4500. As soon as that number appeared, everyone received a message. -The Soul World range will now be reduced by half. Those at the edges, be careful. If you fall outside, your soul will be destroyed.- Krune''s group understood. It seems like they won''t be able to avoid a battle for long. Chapter 543: Failed Ambush It only took one hour for the entire world to lose half of its size. Sure enough, battles began to happen more constantly. There were two types of teams, those made before the Heavenly Competition, and the ones made on the spot. Nonetheless, it reached a point where it was hard to find someone alone. Still, half of the world existed. That meant that there was a lot of space between cultivators and demon beasts. With Krune''s Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer, Divine Sense, and Mental Energy, they could still avoid unnecessary battles. A good thing is that they got enough time to help Laka recover to his peak as well, so they were ready to battle at any time. Still, cultivators and demon beasts died or gave up everywhere. It took half the time for another 500 to be out of the Heavenly Competition. -Number of participants remaining: 4000.- -The Soul World range will now be reduced by half. Those at the edges, be careful. If you fall outside, your Soul will be destroyed.- Krune and the others heard that. "It seems like it will keep reducing by half every time. Also, have you noticed? The moment the announcement appeared, the rate of Soul Energy being absorbed by the Soul World''s Formation increased once more." Hanan nodded. "We won''t be able to rely on Nightmare Demons anymore. I think we should start hunting other groups. Otherwise, we might fall behind groups who have more energy. Not to mention that with the Nightmare Demon''s presence will increase even more. We need to secure more power." Krune nodded. "Yes, but not now. We are at the peak of our power with Soul Energy to Spare. Fighting now would be just a waste. At this rate, we can avoid a battle for another half a day before we need other participants'' energy." Laka''s eyes lit up! "So we are finally battling the others! Great!" Krune sighed but didn''t refuse. With Krune as the lead, they immediately departed. With Krune''s abilities, they avoided battles for half a day as planned. ; Still, half a day was far from enough to get to the last 1024 competitors. That being said, Krune''s group reached a point where they needed Soul Energy too, and Nightmare Demons wouldn''t do. Krune then stopped using his Tribulation Lightning Layer and simply waited for someone to notice them. Just like that, they were quickly found out. Krune noticed another group entering his Mental Energy range. Sure enough, this group was using something that could hide their presence from Divine Senses. Krune''s group had only one Heavenly Divine Soul Owner at the peak of the Divine Path Realm. Laka was in the 8th Stage, and Krune was on the 7th. That being said, they would definitely be targeted by other groups, which is what is happening now. Krune group then quickly thought about a plan while they pretended to not have noticed the enemy. The opponents didn''t take long to arrive. They knew that other groups might try to take their prey, so they had to act fast. As soon as Krune''s group entered in range, they attacked. Their leader, the 9th Stage Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, immediately pounced at Hanan. One of the 8th Stage Enemies attacked Laka. As for the last two at the 7th and 8th Stages of the Divine Path Realm, they went straight for Krune. With Krune''s 7th Stage of the Divine Path Realm cultivation, they thought it would be better to get rid of him first since he was the ''weakest.'' "World Sundering!" "Titan''s Nova." The two didn''t hold back and used their strongest attacks against Krune, who was supposed to be caught by surprise. However... "Tribulation Lightning Movement!" *Zap!* ; *Boom!* The fabric of space broke apart as the place Krune had been a second ago was decimated. However, those two knew that Krune had escaped in the last second. They tried to follow him, afraid that he would try to escape. Of course, Krune had no intention whatsoever of running. It''s just that he is a Longe Range Fighter, that''s all. "Tribulation Line!" "Tribulation Line!" The 8th and 7th Stage cultivators weren''t worried about Krune at first. But when they saw that Purple Lightning was coming their way, their faces paled! ''Too fast!'' They only had time to parry that attack with their weapons. But as they did it, Tribulation Clouds gathered above their head. Krune didn''t give them any change. "Heavens Fall!" "Heavens Fall!" Krune''s Heavens Fall took a little longer to come down, so they at least had time to raise their energy barriers while counter-attacking with their own skills. Still, with Krune''s Strength, the two Heavens Fall was anything but easy to block. *Boom!* *Boom!* The two shot back like cannonballs. But they weren''t heavily injured thanks to their timed defense. Immediately, they put away their disdain against the wisp and took it seriously. But just as they stabilized themselves and were about to attack Krune again. *Puch, Puch!* Something pierced through their Soul Bodies! Their eyes opened wide as they looked at the two enormous holes in their chests. "You should have paid attention to the place where you first attacked me." Immediately after, their Soul Bodies collapsed. They didn''t even have enough time to give up before their Souls dissipated. During that time, when Krune dodged their first attack, he had been preparing a Mental Energy attack, which he left behind. He then used his Tribulation Lightning movement to lure them close to that same place. Because of how messy Krune''s first position became, they didn''t notice the two almost transparent mental Energy needles hidden there. After that, Krune made them pay attention to his Purple Tribulation Lightning attacks. Sure enough, they didn''t have time to check anything else. When they finally succeed in defending against the power of Krune''s first attack, the Mental Energy Needles were already right behind their backs. Krune is in the 2nd Stage of the Soul Transformation Realm with Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique. Although he isn''t as good as Heavin when he was at the same level, he is definitely the second-best. Krune also knew that Mental Energy was extremely effective against Souls, so he did not hold back when using it. *Boom!* "Arggh!" Krune looked at the source of the scream just in time to see another guy smashed under Laka''s Dragon Claws. The guy''s Soul Body collapsed right after. First of all, that 8th Stage Divine Path Realm cultivator was only a Heavenly Fragment Owner, not a Heavenly Divine Soul one. Sure, Laka had the same cultivation as him. Even if Laka is a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, he shouldn''t have won so fast. However, not only was Laka a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, but he also had Krune''s Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. Laka might not have used it against Nightmare Demons to save energy. But fighting other cultivators and demon beasts was another story. You never know what the other side could do, so Laka didn''t hold back at all. With his Heavenly Divine Soul and Purple Flame Dragon Pearl, his combat power far surpassed his opponent. Thanks to that, he had taken the guy by surprise and finished him almost as fast as Krune. Krune and Laka looked at each other and immediately dashed in Hanan''s direction. "What?!" Hanan''s opponent had never expected that Laka and Krune were so strong, especially Krune. After all, Krune was a wisp, a race that everyone looked down upon. Worst of all, Hanan was stronger than him too! They were both Peak Divine Path Realm with Heavenly Divine Souls, but Hanan obviously had the advantage. Sure enough, since the Frunkan Clan needs this slot for their Dalin Blocking Plan, they couldn''t be negligent. Because of that, Hanan was the strongest Heavenly Divine Soul they had ever trained by pouring unlimited resources on him. It would be weird if he was at the same level as his opponent. They had much more at stake than merely acquiring a Dalin Slot. ''Flee!'' The guy turned around, preparing to leave this place straight away. As long as he survives, he still has a chance. However, it was too late! 38 Diamond Shields raised around the place where he and Hanan were batling. Purple Tribulation Lightning began to run around them, forming a barrier right in front of the enemy! If he was alone, he could have used his strength as a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner to breakthrough it. But Krune''s group was right behind him. He simply didn''t have time to accumulate enough energy to do it. Krune''s group quickly encircled him. Not only that, but all three proved to be stronger than himself. In just three exchanges, he was already pinned down, without any chances of escaping from Krune''s group claws. "I give up!" *Vup!* Suddenly, his body disappeared in thin air. He might be weaker than anyone in Krune''s group. But as a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, Krune and the others wouldn''t be able to instant kill him. Sure enough, he at least had enough time to give up. ; Laka could only shake his head in the end. "Sure enough, Heavenly Divine Soul Owners are not that easy to deal with. If this ''give up'' rule didn''t exist, his Soul Energy would definitely be ours." Hanan shrugged his shoulders. "There is nothing we can do. At least, we also have the power to do the same, so this place isn''t exactly dangerous for us, especially with Krune''s hidden way of fiding enemies without Divine Sense." Laka and Hanan had long since noticed Krune''s unique ability. Krune didn''t really try to hide it either, so they simply kept at that. It''s just that Krune didn''t tell the two how he did it. Mental Energy is something that shouldn''t exist, after all. "Let''s take the Soul Energy left behind by the other three. There are also two Nightmare Demons coming our way. Don''t kill them since other Nightmare Demons will notice their deaths. Just buy time while absorbing everything." Hanan and Laka nodded, quickly rushing back to where the Soul Bodies collapsed. They promptly absorbed the Soul Energy left behind while holding down the two Nightmare Demons. ; It was really an enormous amount of Soul Energy that was at least a 100 times more concentrated than a Nightmare Demon. Since they killed three opponents, they got enough Soul Energy to restore their powers to their peak! After that, Krune''s group didn''t even waste time killing those two Demon beasts. They simply turned around and left straight away. As they ran from that place, Krune''s looked at a particular direction behind his group. At the same time, he sent a Divine Sense message to Hanan and Laka. "It seems like the other group decided to not intervene." Hanan and Laka nodded. Krune had noticed with his Mental Energy that another group also got close to them after the battle started. After that, he immediately told Laka and Hanan about it. Hanan also looked in the direction that Krune appointed. "It seems like we finished the battle too fast, so they probably got in a dilemma. They didn''t know if they could fish in troubled waters or if they would become prey themselves. After all, we did show some strength back there." Laka didn''t care, though. "Who cares? Since they don''t even have the guts to attack us in that condition, then I have no interest in fighting them." Krune and Hanan agreed. The other group didn''t follow them, so they just ignored it. Their Soul Energy is full at the moment, so it is better to avoid another battle until they need more. Chapter 544: End of Second Phase The number of competitors kept plummeting faster and faster. The space available for everyone decreased as the Nightmare Demons got more packed as time went. The world boundaries shortened by half every time 500 competitors were eliminated. Without another choice, everyone rushed to the center of the Soul World, afraid of being swallowed by the boundaries of the shirking world. -Number of participants remaining: 1500.- -The Soul World range will now be reduced by half. Those at the edges, be careful. If you fall outside, your Soul will be destroyed.- Krune''s group wasn''t free anymore, either. It already passed the point where they could avoid Nightmare Demons. There were always one or two coming at them all times, and that''s because Krune could use his Mental Energy to feel their presence from up to 80km. Otherwise, there would be much more depending on the lucky. Because of that, they didn''t stay put at all. Also, because of how small the world had become, they encountered other groups frequently. Still, Krune, Hanan, and Laka would only fight when they needed energy. If not, Krune used his Mental Energy to chose a path where the pursues would be blocked by Nightmare Demons. Outside, everyone watched as the groups struggled to survive and not run out of Soul Energy. Not too surprisingly, a few groups caught the audiences'' attention. One of them was obviously Iem Turo''s group. They were far stronger than most of their opponents, so even if they couldn''t kill them, defeat was not an option. But the main highlight was definitely Krune''s group. Everyone agreed that Krune and Laka''s power far surpassed their cultivation by a lot. Every time Laka''s body released that purple hue, his combat power would soar! The Dragon Race real experts could tell that it was a Dragon Pearl, but they couldn''t understand what that Purple Hue was about. Not to mention that a Dragon Pearl wasn''t supposed to increase a dragon''s attack that much. But the main spot was definitely Krune. For one, he is a wisp. That alone was already shocking enough. However, he was as strong as Laka, a member of the Dragon Race. Also, he was not a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner. Last but not least, his Purple Tribulation Lightning was dreadful. Of course, while everyone was shocked, the Luvile Universe was ecstatic! The Sacred Lands were constantly watching Krune, that''s true. But they also watched the other competitors measure their power. At least in the Soul World, there was simply no one with a Soul as strong as Krune. Even the Dalin Universe guy was lacking a little in comparison. They are eager to see he fighting outside, where Laws and Domains will become available once more. -Number of participants remaining: 1420.- -Number of participants remaining: 1365.- -Number of participants remaining: 1213.- At this moment, Krune''s group had to enter another battle for Soul Energy. Fortunately, they found a group with similar cultivation as their own. With Krune, Laka, and Hanan above-average power, they were able to take them by surprise when the battle started. That''s because they one again pretended that they overlooked the enemy team hiding its presence from Divine Sense. They even began a fight against a Nightmare Demon that was close by to lure the opponent in. When the enemy attacked, Krune''s group retaliated at full power. "Heaven and Earth as one, World Destroyer!" "Dragon Blast!" "Tribulation Lightning Cannon!" *Boom! Boom! Boom!* Usually, Krune''s Tribulation Cannon would take time to charge. However, because they pretended to fight a Nightmare Demon seriously, he had the time to charge his Tribulation Cannon without raising the other part''s suspicion. Sure enough, he immediately turned around and fired it against the enemies. The result was expected. The weaker opponents died almost instantly as the Heavenly Divine Soul owner immediately gave up. Krune''s group then quickly absorbed the Soul Energies of the cultivator and demon beast who died. "Alright, that''s should be enough. Considering the rate of elimination, we shouldn''t have a need to fight anymore until the end. Of course, if the death and give up rate suddenly drops, we might have to fight again." Krune nodded. "You two come close to me. I''ll be using my Tribulation Lightning Layer to hide us from Divine Senses from now on. I have more Soul Power, so I should be able to resist while saving enough power for any emergency." Laka then said. "I told you before, I also have a treasure here that can hide us from Divine Sense." Hanan also added. "Me too. You don''t need to support the entire burden." Krune shook his head, though. "I''m not sacrificing myself here. It''s just the Tribulation Lightning Layer is an ability of mine, not a treasure. I''m much more comfortable using it than any other thing. I''m doing it for my own good too, so just bear with it." Krune wasn''t lying. He was really doing it for his own good. Sure, he would spend more Soul Energy than Laka and Hanan. However, would their Anti-Divine Sense treasures be better than Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning? Krune hardly believed so. That being said, he preferred to use his own method. As long as it increased both his and his group odds, why not? Laka and Hanan looked at each but didn''t say anything else. Since Krune insisted on doing that, then so be it. It is not like it is a bad deal for them, either. They will be able to save a lot more soul energy that they might need to use it the end. That was especially so for Laka himself. Of course, as much as they hid from Divine Sense, they couldn''t do so against Nightmare Demons. That being said, they kept running from them all the time while avoiding bumping into other groups. Just like that, the time continued to pass as more and more competitors died or gave up. It wouldn''t take long for it to finish. -Number of participants remaining: 1050.- When only 50 more eliminations were remaining, the rate of deaths suddenly dropped. But no one found it surprising. After all, attacking each other now would most likely not bring any results. Because of that, everyone began to rely on their remaining Soul Energy while they fled from Nightmare Demons. Surprisingly, it took two entire hours in an environment with almost countless Nightmare Demons for the last 50 to be gone. A common trait in those last 50 was that most of them died instead of giving up. They were so close to passing to the next phase, so they simply didn''t want to leave. -Number of participants remaining: 1000.- Suddenly, All the Nightmare Demons inside Krune''s Mental Energy Perception disappeared together as if they had never been there. A few seconds later, everyone''s vision blurred as they woke up back into their bodies. The pods then emerged from the Light Pools, and their doors opened. Krune''s group looked around with their Divine Sense and could tell that there was really a 1000 cultivators and demon beasts remaining. Sure enough, the advantage in numbers of demon beasts disappeared. Now, 539 were cultivators, while 461 demon beasts made up the rest. It was easy to count since Demon Beasts always had different auras from humans. Kruna, Laka, and Hanan looked at each other and then smiled. It was evident that they passed the test. In fact, it was easier than they thought. Well, the fact that all three were much stronger than most of those at their cultivation level also played its part. But the real main reason was Krune''s Mental Energy, which no one could have counted with. It was then that all the survivors received a Divine Sense message from Norzulun. "Congratulation! You all passed the Soul World test and are now qualified to take part in the third phase." A lot of the participants began to cheer when they heard that. Unlike Krune''s group, the majority was really on their wit''s end by the time the second phase was over. Now that it was confirmed, they couldn''t help but be happy. "Alright, the third phase will start in a week. Use this time to recover your bodies and souls. Of course, for us outside, it will be only one hour. There is a Time Formation under you all that will accelerate time, so use it as you see fit. Obviously, any fights during this time are forbidden. Anyway, that''s all for now." A few seconds later, everyone noticed that the Laws around them began to accelerate. It was evident that they entered a Time Formation. No one paid much attention to it, though. Instead, they sat down and took several healing pills that they had prepared for this competition. Some had body injuries from the Ice Maze while others had Soul ones form the Soul World. Nonetheless, there wasn''t a single participant unprepared for both situations. Whether in Soul or Body, Krune wasn''t injured, though. "Well, I guess I''ll make something to eat." Chapter 545: Fighting Yourself Soon, the smell of food began to spread around, which quickly caught everyone''s attention. Laka was the only one who didn''t think much about it. He stayed one year in the Wisp Main World, so he had seen and eaten Krune''s food lots of times. Obviously, everyone thought that they were seeing things. Who would dare to cook in a time like this? That also included Hanan, of course. Outside, the Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts had weird expressions. There might be a time accelerating formation where the participants are staying. But the speed that things happened inside didn''t bother them at all. That being said, they could see Krune''s actions clearly. Back in the Wisp Main World, Feifei''s group smiled after seeing that. The moment they heard Norzulum saying that the participants would have a week free, they immediately thought about this possibility. "Dad really doesn''t give a damn to what happens around him.'' "Your dad probably will never change in this aspect." At this moment, Feifei and Fie were embracing another girl, who felt quite helpless. "Still, don''t you get tired of cling on me like that?" Sure enough, she was Lala, the Female Scarlet Bear. After Krune left for the Heavenly Competition, Feifei contacted her asking to come to pay them a visit. At that time, Lala didn''t have much to do anyway, so she stopped by. Everyone also paused what they were doing to watch the Heavenly Competition broadcast. Since then, Feifei and Fie, and even Tiane, would cling on Lala''s warm body. Lala began to feel like she was a plush or something similar to that. Feifei and Fie then shook their heads before looking at Lala with a serious expression. "We will never get tired of it, don''t worry." Lala felt like crying already. You don''t, but I''ll do, okay?! Back in the Luvile Universe, the Sacred Lands'' members were feeling quite embarrassed too. Krune was representing their Universe, so how could he act like that in from of all the other Universes? Lucio, on the other hand, just laughed. "Hahaha! It''s good to see that he didn''t lose his touch. You better prepare a banket to your master when you come back." Wang Xin just shook his head and pretended that he didn''t know Lucio. Of course, for the ones outside, Krune''s feast only lasted a minute or so. After all, he was inside a Time Accelerating Formation. But inside, Krune took his sweet time to prepare everything to his taste. Laka was a shameless Dragon, just like Laex. That being said, he ignored everyone''s eyes and asked for some too. Krune then asked Hanan. "Don''t you want some?" Hanan''s mouth twitched a little. "I''m... fine..." The others felt it to be ridiculous. Everyone there had long since abstained from eating. Spiritual Energy was enough for them all to live and never feel hungry. Because of that, it had been years since any of them had put food in their mouths. However... Krune''s food smelled was just way too good! There were a total of 1000 participants remaining. Obviously, Laka was far from being the only shameless one in their midst. "Hey, brother. Would you mind sharing some?" "Me too, me too!" "Get behind, this grandfather arrived first!" Soon, another 10 or so demon beasts and cultivators appeared around the table that Krune prepared. However, the leaders of the Universes they came from were anything but happy. "What that idiot is doing? Is it time for you to eat." "Why my Universe has such a weird Heavenly Divine Soul Owner?" "If that beast survives, see how I''ll strip its fur when it comes back." "What if he poisoned the food, blockhead? If you want to eat, wait for the Heavenly Competition to be over! I''ll let you eat an entire planet if you want!" Of course, they could only curse from far away. None of their voices reached their Universes'' members. Krune looked at those guys and nodded in the end. "Sure, I was planning to keep some for later, but you can get it if you want." Poison his own food? Krune would rather die than do that. In the end, Hanan also joined their banket. Not that he was shameless, it''s just that since they were in the same group, it felt wrong to refuse when even the enemy accepted it. Besides... ''Delicious!'' Hanan had to admit that Krune was just way too good with it. On the second day, Krune prepared some food again. However, the number of cultivators and demon beasts increased this time. Krune didn''t mind much, though. He liked to cook and even more to see others enjoying it, so he made more. This time, around 30 cultivators and demon beasts gathered around. The problem came on the fourth day, though. Krune looked at the big queue by his table as his mouth twitched. ''This... I don''t know if I have enough ingredients for so many stomachs...'' What was supposed to be a week of silence with everyone glaring at each other, suddenly became some kind of party commanded by the wisp? The observers outside were speechless! Just what kind of bullshit is this? "Since when the Heavenly Competition became a food degustation event?" Wally, of course, laughed out loud when he saw that most of the participants ended dropping by Krune''s table. It was to the point that Krune was even having trouble cooking so much food at once. Norzulun was feeling like crying already. The higher-ups kept contacting him, asking what the hell was the scene. But he was utterly helpless about it. The rules had already been released to the others outside. So he couldn''t change it now even if he wanted. All that was specified was that the participants could not fight during their week of rest. There was no rule saying ''you can''t cook.'' In fact, others would find it ridiculous if such a rule was there. Who the hell would stop to cook during the Heavenly Competition? Well... here was a wisp who did so... Of course, Norzulun and the other elders checked if there wasn''t poison or anything like that with their Divine Senses. Still, Krune''s food proved to be nothing more than food, that''s all. Fortunately for Norzulun, the outside world only had to watch it for one hour, not an entire week. Back inside the Time Accelerating Formation, seven days passed in a flash. On the last day, Krune had a mixed feeling of happiness and gloominess. He was happy that so many of them enjoyed his food, but he was also sad that he had almost nothing left in his spatial ring. ''Oh well, I never use rare ingredients anyway. I can buy as much as I want once the Heavenly Competition is over.'' Suddenly, the speed that the laws acted around the Heavenly Competition participants reduced to normal levels. Right after, Norzulun contacted everyone once more. "Cough, cough. I hope you all recovered after a week. Anyway, the third phase will start now." At this moment, the land around them began to change. The walls around crumbled, and they could see the Ice Maze behind it disappearing. It only took a minute for the land to go back to the same Snow Field that it had been before. Suddenly, Krune felt space laws acting once more. However, when he, Laka, and Hanan tried to reach each other, some kind of barrier prevented them from doing so. It wasn''t only Krune''s group, everyone had been isolated from each other. Abruptly, everyone around Krune disappeared. The world around Krune also warped as the Space Laws continued to act. Only a few seconds later did his vision return back to normal. Sure enough, he was the only one around. ''Well, it seems like everyone is alone this time. Still, what is this place?'' The entire place looked like a giant mirror that extended as far as the eye could see. But other than that, there was nothing else. Above Krune, everything was white, providing light for the whole world. All Krune could see was his Human Form reflection below his feet. Krune then spread his Divine Sense. This time, it had nothing restraining it. That being said, Krune could see everything tens of thousands of kilometers around him. In this Heavenly Competition, no one had a Divine Sense that went as far as his one. Nonetheless, everything was still the same as the place he was at the moment. ''Nothing? What am I supposed to do?'' It was then that Krune noticed a few ripples coming from the mirror. It was as if he had thrown a stone in the middle of a calm lake. Those ripples intensified until suddenly, ten bodies began to emergy from those ripples. Every single one of them had the same shape as Krune himself. Right after, a Divine Sense message reached Krune''s mind. "Welcome to the Mirror World. As you can see, your enemy is also yourself. However, I would be careful while dealing with them. Your objective is simple, find your way out of this place. As for the clues to achieve that, they are within yourself." "Anyway, the first 256 participants to come outside will advance into the Heavenly Competition''s last phase. Good luck!" As soon as Norzulun finished his speech, Krune''s copies dashed at him. Yet, Krune couldn''t tell whether they were strong or not. "Tribulation Lightning Movement!" However... "Tribulation Lightning Movement!" Krune was surprised to see that. All ten copies used his own Tribulation Lightning Movement! But his surprise only lasted a second, Krune soon noticed that although they were very fast, they weren''t as good as himself. Thanks to that, Krune could barely avoid them. Still, Krune''s eyes narrowed. That''s because even though he dodged the copies, they were close enough to use other skills against him. But in the end, they didn''t do so. ''Something''s wrong.'' "Tribulation Line!" "Tribulation Line!" Krune aimed the attack at the closest copy. Sure enough, the copies did the same against him. Just as the enemies'' attacks were about to collide with Krune''s own, Krune controlled his Tribulation Line to make a curve and dodge the collision. The copies Tribulation Lines didn''t change direction as Krune''s one, though. ''As expected, they are not perfect copies.'' Krune then brought out his Diamond Shields, which he used to defend against the Tribulation Lines that came against him. The copy that Krune attacked also did the same thing as Krune. Nevertheless, Krune controlled his Tribulation Line once more, making it dodge the shields easily. Krune knows how he controls his shields better than anyone, so he is well aware of how to bypass them if necessary. However... *Zap!* "Arrgh!" The copy was hit by Krune''s attack, but the who took the damage was Krune himself! Chapter 546: You Cant Take It Yourself Krune almost lost control over his Dimond Shields, which would have turned things even worse. But he gritted his teeth and retreated with his Tribulation Lightning Movement. ''Fortunately, it was a probing attack. If I had attacked with a Heavens Fall, I might have killed myself. Let alone if I had time for a Tribulation Cannon.'' Some of the competitors were not so lucky. They used their own methods to avoid the copies defenses, striking them hard! As one can expect, they suffered even more than Krune. Krune, just like all the other competitors, were taken in a dilemma. They can''t defend forever, attacking their copies would also injure themselves. Also, they couldn''t see any exit at all. ''The tricky to escape this place is the words spoke by Norzulun earlier. ''The clues are within yourselves.'' But what did he mean with it? Should I try to attack myself?'' Krune then decided to return to his wisp form, where he had better control over his power. Sure enough, all the copies assumed a colored wisp form as well. Krune was expecting it, though. He was much better with his Tribulation Lightning movement than the copies, so he quickly opened distance from them. They might be ranged attackers like himself, but he knows his own patterns better than anyone else. Besides, they don''t attack with any skills unless you Krune uses it first. Just like when Krune used his Tribulation Line, they all used the same attack. ''Alright, let''s try a weak attack first.'' There was no need to attack himself with Tribulation Lightning, so he simply used a weak fireball, which was among the simplest skills. The difference was that he left his Wisp Core open for the attack, no protection at all. *Bang!* The fireball hit his wisp core, but it didn''t hurt that much. Nonetheless, it would be more than enough to notice changes in those wisp copies. However, all the wisps didn''t seem to suffer any damage at all. But it was then that he noticed, all those wisps summoned a fireball each and attacked themselves just like Krune. Ultimately, Krune felt the pain of being hit by eleven fireballs instead of one. Krune felt like crying because the damage they took was also reflected in him. ''Shit! Was I wrong?'' Suddenly... -Number of participants who exited the Mirror World: 01.- ''So, someone already found the way out.'' Krune felt it to be way too fast. Considering the power of his Divine Sense, the distance he could observe was enormous. Yet, there was no such thing as an exit. ''In that case, the participant who passed first would not have enough time to reach an exit outside the Divine Sense range. There was simply not enough time to move that far. Also, he definitely didn''t know which direction to go in the first place. That can only mean one thing, the exit is close by, and it has always been.'' -Number of participants who exited the Mirror World: 07.- As Krune kept his distance from his copies, he noticed one weird thing. ''Why would they keep madly rushing at me without using any attacks?'' ''Ah!'' Suddenly, Krune stopped. His shields were put away as he also stopped using any energy barrier. He was totally and completely vulnerable. ''Norzulun said that the clues are within ourselves, but he never said that we should be the ones to use it.'' It was a dangerous gamble, so Krune positioned himself in a place where one of the copies would arrive at him first. If anything went wrong, he would try to retreat once more. The copies seemed to become enraged, their speed increased even more as all of them rushed at Krune at high speeds. Because of the amount of Spiritual Energy leaving their bodies, it seemed more like they were ready to explode. Most of the participants would not be able to hold themselves and would immediately flee at that sight. However, Krune steeled his resolve and didn''t move at all. When the first copy arrived, spiritual energy blew like waves, making it quite difficult for Krune to stay in his position. If this copy really decided to explode at that moment, Krune would probably be done for. Even his first plan of running away after the first copy touched him would be hard to accomplish. Still, Krune made up his mind and did not move until the copy slammed into his body. However, instead of an explosion or anything like that, the spiritual energy waves rushed inside his body like a tide. The Wisp Copy also merged into him as if it was part of himself since the very beginning. ''So that''s how it is.'' Krune then let the other copies come to him one after another. Every single one added even more Spiritual Energy into his Wisp Core. Finally, when the last copy merged with his body, gathering the rest of the Spiritual Energy inside. "Go!" Krune felt like something within himself had been triggered. All the accumulated Spiritual Energy suddenly exploded outwards, destroying the fabric of space around Krune completely. But at the same time, it also opened a spatial gate that immediately swallowed Krune inside. Krune''s vision went blurry for a few seconds before finally returning to normal. When he looked around, he saw another 20 or so cultivators and demon beasts. At the same time, a message appeared in his mind. -Number of participants who exited the Mirror World: 24.- -Congratulations, you are qualified for the last phase of the Heavenly Competition.- Krune sighed in relief after that. ''In the end, there was a phase were strength meant nothing. What they tested was the cultivators and demon beasts capability of thinking out of the box. How many or how long would they take to understand that the clues within oneself were not for them to use? Quite an interesting exam. It has little to do with intelligence. In a certain way, one had to be a lot more ''daring'' to do what I did. There was also a question of fear. At that moment, when the copy was about to hit me, I almost fled from it. The amount of Spiritual Energy coming out from the fake wisp was really terrifying.'' Krune then returned to his human form and began to wait with the others. At some point... -Number of participants who exited the Mirror World: 39.- Laka appeared outside, which Krune immediately recognized. It was just that he was full of injuries on his body. Not too surprisingly, Laka probably attacked the copies using his full power at first, which causes those injuries. "Sure enough, if there was someone I thought to be ''daring'' in that place, it was definitely you." Laka looked at Krune as well and began to laugh out loud. "Hahaha! Your grandfather, Laka, can be anything but afraid!" Krune smiled and shook his head. Even with a body damaged like that, he still can find a chance to brag. Laka also returned to his human form and took a few healing pills out. He swallowed all of them and concentrated on recovering from his injuries. "Still, who was the one to think about this crazy idea? I almost killed myself in the first strike! I swear I''ll get it back ten folds!" Krune couldn''t help but laugh. Such a complex formation, it definitely wasn''t made by a single person or beast. Laka would need to hunt quite a lot of experts who worked on it. Time passed, and the number of participants who came out increased. -Number of participants who exited the Mirror World: 71.- Iem Turo from the Dalim Universe exited. Not only him, but other favorites for the five slots of the Dalin Universe kept coming out as well. -Number of participants who exited the Mirror World: 97.- A female cultivator called Karen Zetil, one of the favorites for the five slots and a representative of the Orchiv Universe, came out. The Orchiv Universe is one of the five actual Slots Owner. Obviously, the Orchiv Universe wanted to keep their slot, so they are participating as well. -Number of participants who exited the Mirror World: 130.- A demon beast that looked like a giant snake made of lava appeared. It was a Divine Beast called Burning Heaven Snake. This race was born in the molten lava at the center of the planets. In a certain way, this race looked like the wisps. That''s because their souls were also located inside their Lava Core and not inside a brain. The Burning Heaven Snake''s name was Tiango, a male demon beast of the Bondro Universe and another strong contestant for the five slots. -Number of participants who exited the Mirror World: 179.- Hanan finally came out of the Mirror World. His face was pale, and his Spiritual Energy was is chaos. Nonetheless, Krune could see his sigh of relief when he appeared outside. "Who the hell thought about such an absurd idea?!" Krune and Laka laughed out loud, too, after hearing those words. "Don''t worry, you have Laka to help you find the guys who built the formation in the future." Hanan sighed and sat down on the floor. He seemed to be in an even worse state than Laka. -Number of participants who exited the Mirror World: 195.- -Number of participants who exited the Mirror World: 206.- Cultivators and demon beasts appeared one after another. Between them, more and more famous figures could be seen too. From the number 100 onward, most of them seemed to have suffered severe injuries. Sure enough, it wasn''t easy to simply let their copies jump at them as if they were about to explode. It really needed a lot of courage. Finally... -Number of participants who exited the Mirror World: 256.- The last participant qualified for the final phase was decided! Chapter 547: Iem Turos Power The rest of the cultivators and demon beasts that were still in the Mirror World were instantly teleported out. However, they didn''t appear where Krune and the rest were staying. Instead, they were sent back to the side of their protectors, who came along with them. When they looked around and noticed that they were out, they couldn''t help but sigh. Some were angry, others sad. Nonetheless, they at least asked their protectors how exactly the others passed. Still, that was of no concern for Krune anymore. Suddenly, the entire protection formation covering the north of the please began to shrink. A few hundred kilometers away from Krune''s group, the ground started to transform. Suddenly, an enormous arena appeared, covering over a hundred kilometers! Krune and the rest of the participants didn''t find it strange. As many tests as there might be, the last five slots will be decided by direct confrontation in the end. Otherwise, the Universes that reached this far would definitely not be satisfied. Norzulun then stepped forward. In the next second, he was right above the center of the arena. Although he couldn''t see anything around him, he knew that everyone was watching him through the multi-universal broadcast. "Congratulations to everyone who got this far. We have been observing all the competitors, and we are proud to say that they all deserve to be here now. As you can imagine, we will conduct one vs. one battles from now on. First, we will use a bracket system until the top 8 are decided. After that, those last eight will fight each other once. The five with the most victories under their belt will get one of the Dalin Universe Slots." "It''s a very simple and straightforward method. It will also not leave any doubts about who are the ones who deserve to take one of the five seats in Dalin Universe''s Management. Of course, we have a good idea about each participants'' strength after observing them during the competition''s last three phases. So you don''t need to worry, we will use a seed system to separate them so that they will only encounter each other close to the end." "Obviously, there is a chance that some of the participants are still hiding a lot of their strength. If that is the case, you can only blame yourself if you are put inside a bracket with a seeded cultivator or demon beast. Still, the chances aren''t that big, and even if it happens, it won''t be more than two or three participants." "Anyway, I''ll now announce the name of 16 seeded participants that we think to have the highest abilities." "Iem Turo, Dalin Universe, first group." "Tarande, Enmatio Universe, secong group." "Waka Ulin, Ulin Universe, third group." "Tiango, Bondro Universe, fourth group." "Sara Qanze, Kaleu Universe..." "Laka, Kizan Universe, tenth group." Laka was the first surprise. That''s because different from previous ones, he wasn''t a Peak Divine Path Realm demon beast. Instead, he was still in the 8th Stage. "Karen Zetial, Orchiv Universe, eleventh group..." "Krune, Luvile Universe, thirteenth group..." Sure enough, after everything Krune showed in the multi-universal broadcast, no one would believe that he wasn''t a seeded participant. Still, everyone watching it couldn''t help but feel surprised to see a wisp in there. Not to mention that Krune was still in the 7th Stage of the Divine Path Realm. Everyone was curious about that Purple Tribulation Lightning of his too. Of course, now everyone knows about the Luvile Universe, so his home Universe would soon receive many visitors. "Hanan Frunkan, Frunkan Universe, Fifteenth group." Hanan was the only one in Krune''s group that didn''t raise any surprise. He is a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner while being at the peak of the Divine Path Realm. After what showed in the Soul World and Mirror World, it was quite acceptable for him to be there. "Mala, Rarcan Universe, sixteenth group." Norzulun then continued. "With this, we concluded the separation of the seeded participants. We will once again use another time accelerating formation so that everyone can recover to their peak state. We will start the last phase in one hour, so make sure to watch it to the end." Krune wasn''t that much injured to start with. However, he entered the time formation anyway. Why? Obviously, because he would be able to relax for longer, make some food, and think about what he would do. However, he did not share his food with the others this time. "You guys ate almost all my food, so I don''t have enough for you. Go look for someone else." Even Laka was rejected this time, much to his sadness. The week inside the Time Accelerating Formation quickly passed. With the Universes behind each of the competitors, they didn''t lack any pills to heal themselves. So a week was more than enough for everyone to recover to their peak. Norzulun once against called everyone over. "Time is over! Those who were not picked as seeded participants will now draw lots." All the remaining participants then went to the center of the arena. There was a formation that made it impossible for them to know which position they would take too. Some showed happy faces. Others showed ugly ones. Nonetheless, there was nothing that could be done anymore. Obviously, the first group began their fight first. Not only that, but the very first battle was between Iem Turo, from Dalin Universe, and a guy called Horune. Horune knew that he had taken one of the worst lots to be paired with Iem Turo. Still, he was also a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner at the Peak of the Divine Path Realm. That being said, he wasn''t afraid at all. He immediately drew out his weapon and dashed against Iem. Krune couldn''t help but smile after seeing that. That Horune was using one of his Purple Flame Weapons, a Greatsword. Horune''s energy entered the greatsword, and the purple flame began to come out. That was definitely Krune''s brand main trait. Without a doubt, that greatsword was genuine. Horune is a cultivator focused on earth laws primarily. He was almost as good as the Diamond Golem that Krune killed in the Holy Land. The only difference is that although he completed all Sub Laws of Earth, he hasn''t fused them into the Major Law of Earth yet. That made a big difference in the power of his earth laws. When he got close to Iem, he controlled gravity, trying to bring the opponent against himself. He is a pure melee cultivator, so the closer, the better. Iem felt the gravity acting on himself and snorted. "Cute!" Contrary to the others'' expectations, Iem didn''t try to fight against the gravity, but let it push him against Horune. Not only that, but he also didn''t bring out his weapon. "Is he crazy? That''s a Purple Flame Greatsword!" "Who knows? I don''t think that a seeded participant would be reckless." Horune and Iem arrived in front of each other in a blink of an eye. At the same time, Horune''s Domain spread, increasing his Earth Related powers even more. But then, Iem made something that no one expected. He literally punched against Horune''s Purple Flame Greatsword! Not only that, but he didn''t use any Domain either! Even Krune was taken aback by that. As the one who forged that Greatsword, he knows very well how strong it is. He is sure that with the Purple Flame''s power, his Greatsword surpassed the Stars Path level, being the same as a Stars View one. It was a crazy move to use one''s body to fight against it, especially when it was in the hands of a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner! However, what happened next was not a fist being cut in half as everyone thought. Instead, Iem''s fist changed in the last moment. It became transparent as if it was made of glass! *Bang!* Horune felt like his Purple Flame Greatsword was hit by a planet! Several kilometers, the space around the two shattered as several spatial storms could be seen inside. The stalemate lasted for half a second when suddenly, Horune''s Greatsword was sent flying! Horune''s eyes opened wide. He wasn''t only using gravity. He was using all the earth laws to increase the power of the Greatsword to the max! Earth laws are directly related to metals, so one can imagine how strong a weapon like a greatsword would be on Horune''s hands. He was also using an Earth Domain, which made it even more terrifying! Still, Horune lost in a direct confrontation against a fist! How ridiculous it sounded? That event made Horune lose focus for a moment, which was more than sufficient for Iem. *Puch!* Horune recovered his attention just in time to see Iem''s second fist passing through his chest! After that, some kind of weird energy made his Earth Sub-Laws dissipate as his Earth Domain crumbled. He only had enough strength to utter a few words. "How''s that possible?" Horune''s body then fell on the ground. The judge, who was watching, declared. "Iem Turo Wins!" Chapter 548: Lakas first battle. Iem Turo then turned around and made his way out of the arena. As he walked, he looked at his fist, which had struck Horune''s Greatsword. There, he could see a small cut that was healing at a fast pace due to his Spiritual Energy. It was only a tiny cut, something that couldn''t bother a cultivator or demon beast at all. However, Iem was anything but happy with that outcome. ''Just what is this Purple Flame Weapon? I heard about its power that surpasses weapons at the same level, but I never cared about it. However, it did pass through my crystallization. Just what was that Purple Flame? I need to research it after the Havenly Competition is over. Also...'' Iem looked at the Greatsword that fell far in the distance. The edge had bent back in the place he hit it, but the weapon was still pretty much good enough for use. ''What a though weapon. I attacked it with the intention of breaking it in half, but all I did was damage the edge a little. Is it also an effect of the Purple Flame?'' Iem then shook his head and left. Right after, Horune''s protector appeared by his side. Almost all the Heavenly Competition participants have Peak Divinity Realm protectors who came with them. That being said, Horune was also the same. His protector could tell that Horune hasn''t died yet. He used his powerful Spiritual Energy to seal Horune''s injury and drove the foreign energy out of his body. After that, he put a healing pill inside Horune''s mouth. Horune''s condition began to improve. Seeing that, his protector sighed in relief. Even if they don''t get a Dalin Universe slot, they definitely don''t want to lose their Heavenly Divine Soul Owner if possible. He enveloped Horune''s with his Spiritual Energy and quickly left. There were still other fights to come after this one. Outside the arena, Krune was really shocked that someone could take one of his Purple Flame Weapons with his body alone. He was also curious as to what was that change in Iem''s fists. He had never seen anything like that before. "The Heavenly Race. To think that Iem was part of the Heavenly Race." Krune turned to the other participant on his side and couldn''t help but ask. "The Heavenly Race? Does it have something to do with the Heavenly Divine Soul and Core?" The guy looked at Krune, noticing that it was the wisp who had shared food with him before, he decided to answer the question. "You aren''t entirely wrong to think that way. The Heavenly Race is a race loved by the Heavens, or that is what others say. They boast strong Souls, Cultivations, and Bodies. Their cultivation speed and talents are almost unparalleled. Even if someone is as good as them in one of those three fields, they would not be with all three like the Heavenly people." "It really makes one think about the Heavenly Core, which is part of the Heavens itself. However, their race doesn''t have it easy either. Their birth rate is extremely low. Divine Beasts have a hard time reproducing, but they are still far above the Heavenly Race''s birth rate. Because of that, their numbers are low, and you will rarely ever see a Heavenly Divine Race member. I would be impressed if the entire Dalin Universe had more than a few tens of thousands of them. They have also gone extinct in many Universes already; that''s how rare they are." Krune then asked. "Is that thing that happened to his fist related to the Heavenly Race?" The guy nodded. "The Heavenly Race''s Crystallisation Ability. I don''t know much about it either. But from what I read in the records of my clan, it is not like his body really transformed. Instead, the very laws that form their bodies can be changed in a very unique way. No one other than the Heavenly Race can do that. Don''t ask me how it works, though. I only know that they become almost indestructible at their cultivation realm with that. The guys in the first group are quite unlucky. No one there will be able to take Iem down." Krune nodded before thanking the guy. ''A tough opponent. Fortunately, I only need one of the Dalin Universes'' five slots. If it''s not necessary, I will simply avoid my battle against him.'' The battles in the first group continued. The fabric of space kept breaking apart as explosions and earthquakes happened in the arena. Sure enough, this wasn''t a kind of competition that you could allow to happen in the middle of a city. In the second group, Tarande won his battle as the majority expected. In the third group, Waka Ulin also passed easily through his opponent. The same happened for Tiango, the Burning Heaven Snake in the fourth group. As the battles continued, one thing became clear for everyone. Even between the Peak Divine Path Realm Heavenly Divine Soul Owners, there were those who are much stronger than others. Krune''s purple flame weapons also made a big difference in the battles. So far, Krune had seen seven participants used one of his creations. Three of them were even the seeded participants of their own group. "Tenth Group, Kizan Universe, Laka." "Tenth Group, Zantar Universe, Gunile Yukan." Laka was finally going up to the stage for the first time. He didn''t even bother to use his Human Form anymore and leaped on it in his Dragon and Phoenix form. As mentioned before, Laka was born from a Dragon and Phoenix. Still, his bloodline is not fused, so he can''t be considered a Dracophoenix. Gunile Yukan is a cultivator who focuses on Space laws. Before becoming a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, his was first a Space Heavenly Fragment one. Almost all his Space Laws reached culmination, and he was one step away from doing it with the last one, Connection. After that, he would only need to merge them together into the Major Law of Space. Laka, as a Dragon and Phoenix, obviously had his main focus on Fire Laws. Other than that, he was very good at Wind as well. All his Fire Laws already reached culmination and were just waiting for him to merge them into the Major Law of Fire. The Wind laws were a little behind, but they were mostly there to support his Fire Ones. Laka has no need to make blue flames, as Krune does. That''s because he is a Fire-Type Divine Beast, or even a two fire-related Divine Beasts in one if you prefer. His innate Dragon and Phoenix Fire are already powerful enough as they are. With his Fire Laws to complement them, they were best used without alterations. "Begin!" Laka''s Dragon Wings burnt with fierce fire as he pounced at Gunile. Simultaneously, everyone could see that his flames and even his entire body were covered in a faint Purple Hue color. "Dragon Dive!" Supported by the Wind Element, Laka was anything but slow. However, his opponent was still a Havenly Divine Soul owner who focused on Space Laws. "Space Contortion!" The Space around Gunile bent, which allowed him to cross several kilometers in a single step. BOOM! Laka smashed the place Gunile was a second ago. A mix of Dragon and Phoenix Fire exploded outwards, scourging the whole arena as the space shattered. The common Spatial Storms behind the broken space soon spread everywhere. That was also why no one dared to teleport since they might be caught by one of those. Still, Gunile''s Space bending ability was almost as good as a teleport. It was evident that his Contraction and Expansion Sub-Laws reached the highest level. Gunile was a long-ranged fighter, just like Krune, so he definitely wouldn''t get close to Laka either. Gunile didn''t stop there, though. "Lightning Warp!" Gunile''s second-best Laws and Elemental control were lightning-related. Not only he reached a high degree of proficiency, but he was also even able to fuse Space and Lightning attacks together. Powerful Arcs of Lightning entered the shattered space around him, disappearing inside. Just as Laka was about to pursue him once more, those Lightning Attacks came out from thin air as if they teleported there. Laka narrowed his eyes and began to spin his body. "Fire Tornado!" The bolts of Lightning that Laka wouldn''t be able to dodge hit the fire tornado, quickly scattering everywhere. Gunile couldn''t help but be impressed with that. He didn''t go all out just now, but his attacks were definitely strong enough to at least cause some injury. However, Laka scattered them all as if they were nothing. It didn''t stop there as the Fire Tornado came Directly at him. Gunile wasn''t afraid, though. He once more used his Space Contortion skill, quickly traveling several kilometers in a blink of an eye. once more ''So what if you can resist my attack? If you can''t get close to me, all is meaningless.'' The first attacks were just probation since neither side had released their Domains yet. However, Laka is not known for being patient, so he didn''t hold back anymore. "I''m the flames, and the flames are me. The World of Fire Domain!" Laka''s Domain spread out, making the temperature in the arena soar! Everyone was taken aback by Laka''s Domain since it was the first time in the competition he used it. Even in the Mirror World, he refrained from using it since his copies would probably do the same. His World of Fire Domain was simply enormous. However, such a thing would usually backlash at the user. With his Domain''s power so scattered, it wouldn''t affect his opponent that much. Gunile snorted and released his Domain as well. "Space Order Domain!" Chapter 549: Dragon Breath Gunile''s Domain was a lot more concentrated, which made it stronger. His Domain was literally based on the Space around him, make it follow his order. Everything inside his space domain would move according to his will. "I don''t know why you were selected as a seeded participant, but your journey is over here." Laka laughed out loud. "Is that so?" Laka once more rushed forward, his entire body burning like a volcano. Of course, the purple hue of his Purple Flame Dragon Pearl was still there. He quickly entered the range of Gunile''s Domain. His own Domain was already there, though. Since it was big enough to cover the entire arena, it would be weird if it wasn''t present. "Dragon Blast!" An explosion of dragon and phoenix fire went straight Gunile. Seeing that, Gunile felt like it was a joke. "Go away!" Suddenly, Laka''s Dragon Blast changed direction, passing far away from Gunile. No, to be more exact, Laka''s Dragon blast did not change direction at all. Instead, the space acted in a way that the path ''forward'' was not a straight line anymore. "Let''s get over with this." Gunile''s Space Laws and his Domain Order began to activate. Everything became blurry and distorted as if Gunile became a mirage. "World Separation!" Suddenly, the Space around Laka seemed to be split apart. It was totally different from when Space was shattered or cut through. Space had literally been divided in two! Not only that, but Laka was right in the middle. Suddenly, Laka''s body was split apart, too, just like Space itself! "Hmph! Just because you were a Dragon, you thought your body could take everything? Go repent your mistakes in the underworld." However... Laka''s body suddenly began to melt as if it was made of Lava! Seeing that, Gunile was taken aback. "Not good!" Right behind him, Laka''s Domain rippled as Laka''s Dragon Claws came slashing down! Gunile''s face went pale, and he immediately ordered the space to bend so that the attack would pass far away. At the same time, he used his Space Contortion Skill to open distance from Laka. Still, Laka''s Claws were utterly fused with all his Fire laws, so Gunile''s Space Laws had a hard time bending the space around it. *Slash!* In the next moment, Gunile appeared three kilometers away. However, he lost an arm while trying to defend against Laka''s attack. ''How''s that possible? Since when was he behind me? He shouldn''t be able to use teleport. But if it wasn''t a teleport, how did he appear there?'' Laka looked at his claws and then at Gunile in the distance. "You are quite fast. I was sure I would rip you apart just now. Impressive, impressive. However, how many times can you dodge?" As soon as Laka finished his words, several Flame Sparks separated from his body. 10... 20... 40... 100! Gunile couldn''t tell what those Fire Sparks were, but he could feel the conglomeration of Fire Laws and... Space laws? But what did it mean? Laka didn''t explain and immediately attacked Gunile once more. Gunile wouldn''t stay still, though. "World Separation!" Once again, Laka''s Dragon Body was divided in two. However, it melted right after like before. This time, Gunile noticed that several of Laka''s Fire Sparks had also entered his Space Order Domain. He didn''t take risks and used his Domain to bend space and prevent the Fire Sparks from getting close. However, each one of the Fire Sparks was a conglomeration of Fire Laws and Laka''s Domain. To bend space, Gunile had to use Space laws. In the end, his Space Laws had to first fight against Laka''s Fire Laws before changing their direction. That being said, his Space Order Domain couldn''t affect the Fire Spark completely. Laka''s Fire Domain rippled in the places where his Fire Sparks passed. From one of them, Laka came out, once again attacking Gunile. "Dragon Blast!" Gunile didn''t dare to be careless. ''I don''t know how you can teleport inside these Fire Sparks. Still, as long as I know it, you can forget taking me with my guard down.'' "Space Sundering!" "Space Contortion!" "Lightning Warp!" Two attacks while retreating at the same time. All of them showing high levels of Space laws behind them. However, Laka''s body once again melted away once hit by those attacks. ''Where are you?'' It was then that Gunile noticed. The number of Sparks around him kept increasing! Gunile changed his target and began to destroy the Flame Sparks one after another. Now and then, Laka would jump out of one of them to attack Gunile. Gunile had to continually prevent the sparks from getting close, pay attention when Laka attacked, and destroy the sparks at the same time. ''It''s his Domain. These sparks can only exist inside his Domain. That''s why he created such an enormous one.'' Space Shattered as more and more of Laka''s attacks came from those Flame Sparks. Once the attack was concluded, the spark would disappear. However, there was always another two or three to take its place. Gunile began to have difficulty to deal with so many at the same time. Not to mention that he was injured. His only advantage is that he used his Space and Lightning Laws as a means of attack, so the arm wasn''t so important. Still, it affected his body to a reasonable extent. ''An ability like this should cost a lot of Spiritual Energy, he definitely won''t be able to keep it for too long.'' Gunile was right! Not only this ability cost a massive amount of spiritual energy to be maintained, but Laka was also using Krune''s Purple Flame Dragon Pearl to the max. Laka''s Spiritual Energy reserve was plummeting at high speeds and wouldn''t last for long. However, Laka wasn''t the least bit concerned about it. At some point, Laka came out of one of the Flame Sparks once more and looked at everything. ''Should be enough.'' Gunile didn''t notice, but only the Flame Sparks close to him would move in his direction. The ones further away would not do so. Suddenly, all those far away Flame Sparks began to stop at several specific positions. At the same time, they all ignited! Fire Laws began to go crazy, and something like a fiery line connected all of them at once. Because of how weird the Fire Laws acted, Gunile immediately noticed the changes. He thought about moving away from this place with his Space Contortion, but he couldn''t find a location free of the Flame Sparks. He had a foreboding feeling as his attention increased. It was then that Laka flew in mid-air, totally ignoring Gunile''s presence. ''What is he doing?'' Fierce flames began to gather in Laka''s mouth, Spiritual Energy rushed inside like torrents. Even the space around Laka was affected just by the pure concentration of Fire Element and Laws. ''Not good, I have to stop him!'' Instead of retreating, Gunile Stepped forward for the first time. His Domain was not reaching the place where Laka was staying, so he had to go there first. Obviously, he used Space Contortion to appeared there almost instantly. "World Separation!" Gunile was sure that this was the real Laka, not a clone or anything like that. As long as he disrupted Laka''s attack, whatever he was preparing would not work. However, just as the Laws of Space began to act around Laka and tried to divide his body in two, they immediately scattered. At this moment, the Fire Laws were too erratic around Laka, so other laws had a hard time to act on it. Gunile''s heart sank, and he immediately changed his tactic. Several Lightning and Space Type Skill left his body at once, which attacked Laka''s body directly. However, it was too late. "The World of Fire, Ultimate Dragon Breath Domain!" Dragon Breath, the most iconic and famous Dragon-Type attack in all Universes, appeared before everyone. But it wasn''t merely a Dragon Breath. Several Flame Sparks were hit by it, but instead of being destroyed, they all absorbed the attack. Suddenly, all the Flame Sparks that covered the entire arena began to shine brightly with fiery red color. Right after, all the Flame Sarks released the same Dragon Breath that Laka had just used in all directions! Gunile smiled bitterly. There was simply nowhere to run. The dome that was the protection formation of the entire arena was filled with Laka''s Dragon Breath. It looked more like a bright sun that illuminated the whole north of the planet if you looked at it from far away. The most impressive thing was the fact that the attack''s power was not reduced because of the enormous arena of effect. If anything, it became even stronger after they were released all at once by those Flame Sparks. Gunile did his very best to defend against it. However, bending space would be meaningless since there wasn''t a single corner inside the arena''s protection formation free of Laka''s Dragon Breath Fire. Gunile''s protection soon shattered as the fire covered his entire body. However, just as Gunile was about to be burnt to a crisp, an old man appeared beside him. His spiritual energy covered Gunile as the fire on his body was driven away. A few moments later, Laka''s Dragon Breath disappeared as he landed on the ground. He then looked at the man who protected Gunile and smiled. "Seems like it''s my win?" The Judge, who was also there, nodded. He then looked at that man before saying. "Intervention is against the rules. Your participant lost." That man was Gunile''s protector. He looked at the Judge and then at Laka. "I know. Sorry for the interruption. But the outcome was clear, so I decided to save my Universe''s Heavenly Divine Soul Owner. I hope you guys don''t mind." Laka simply shrugged his shoulders. "So be it. As long as I win, that''s what matters." He then went outside the arena, not minding what happened at all. The important thing was that it was a thrilling battle, so he was quite satisfied. With that, Laka advanced in the competition. Chapter 550: Top 16 The competition continued. Surprisingly, the eleventh group''s seeded participant lost in the very first battle. The winner was a cultivator from Enan Universe, a relatively remote one that almost no one knew about. His name was Fabio Koltem, a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner at the peak of the Divine Path Realm. In the thirteenth Group, Krune first battle was about to happen. "Thirteenth Group, Luvile Universe, Krune." "Thirteenth Group, Lowaz Universe, Vasto." Krune''s first opponent turned out to be a demon beast as well. For the participants that had no access to the broadcast, none of them knew about Krune that much. They only knew that he was a wisp, but that was basically everything. Still, a wisp was selected as a seeded participant, so Vasto did not lower his guard. As much as Vasto might think low of wisps, he knows that the Dalin Universe wouldn''t select a wisp if he didn''t have the strength to back his position. Both Krune and Vasto returned to their original forms as soon as they went up in the arena. Vasto turned out to be a Dark Spiked Spider, a rare type of insect demon beast from the Lowaz Universe. Before becoming a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, he had a Death Heavenly Fragment and Major Divine Soul. As one can imagine, Vasto is proficient with Dark Laws. "Begin!" Vasto didn''t dare to be negligent and immediately released his Domain. "Dark Web Domain!" Immediately, the world around him turned dark, death energy could clearly be felt, and the Dark laws spread everywhere. Not only that, but one could also see very thin strings of Dark Colored Energy that spread inside his Domain like a real web. Suddenly, thousands of small spiders looking exactly like Vasto began to crawl on the webs inside his Domain. Krune looked at that and released his Domain as Well. "A fire domain it is." Krune released the very first Domain he had ever created, the Fire Domain. It''s just that he had never given it a name up to this day. The world around him went totally red. Different from the past, Krune''s Fire Laws were in another league altogether. With four fire sub-laws at culmination, it simply couldn''t be compared anymore. Krune hasn''t used his Tribulation Lightning Domain until now, let alone the Rainbow Domain. That being said, he decided to keep them hidden for fiercer battles in the future. Besides, his Fire Domain has the support of his Myriad Energies Technique, Soul Power higher than anyone else in this competition, and his master''s Element Regulation Technique. In strength alone, he would only lose to someone who already merged all the fire sub-laws into the Major Law of Fire. Both Domains clashed as Krune and Vasto began to launch their own attacks. As it turned out, the two were long-ranged attackers. Vasto''s Domain acted more like protection, which helped to keep others outside. Of course, it also supported Vasto''s attacks. Dark and Fire laws and elements clashed against each other without stop. Blades, Rays, Explosions, Decay, Shattered Space, you name it. In the end, Krune and Vasto entered in a battle of attrition. Of course, Krune hasn''t released a single Purple Tribulation Lightning attack so far. He only controlled his Shields, which were majorly covered with Light Laws/Elements, to defend against Vasto while using Fire Laws/Elements to counter-attack. It turned out that Krune and Vasto''s battle became the most prolonged, extending for over 20 minutes. Both Vasto and Krune reached the conclusion that they were very confident in their Spiritual Energy reserve, so they hoped that the other would run out of it first. Of course, for those who knew about the Elemental and Chaos Meridians, the result was evident the moment this attrition battle started. Finally, after the battle underwent for 33 minutes, Vasto''s Domain collapsed. He simply didn''t have more energy to keep it running. He looked at Krune''s Fire Domain, which was still shinning like a bright sun. "I give up." He knew that he had made the wrong call. He didn''t expect that a Wisp, especially one with lower cultivation, would have so much energy available. Krune''s Fire Domain and attacks all dispersed when he heard that. As one can imagine, he was still far from being exhausted. First of all, his Universe Foundation is incomparable in size to anyone else, so his pool of energy is indeed much bigger than Vasto''s. After all, Krune began its expansion when he was still in the Soul Forging Realm. The second part is that his Elemental and Chaos Meridians are both at their max capability of conversion, so Krune can get more energy than anyone else. If fact, thanks to the Tribulation Meridians, Krune went a step further, which increased the amount of Spiritual Energy that it could absorb for conversion at once. In a certain way, one could say that Krune''s absorption speed is basically on par with Cinty. As everyone knows, Cinty has a Blackhole Major Divine Soul, Krune doesn''t. For him to be on par with Cinty in absorption, he can only thank the extra Tribulation Lightning Meridians. With that, Krune''s first battle was over with his victory. In the Fifteenth group, Hanan also passed through his opponent without many problems, mostly since his first battle was against someone with lower cultivation. Sure enough, Krune and Laka weren''t the only ones under the 9th Stage of the Divine Path Realm. In the end, Fabio Koltem was the only one that defeated a seeded participant in the first round. Of course, the winners from battles without seeded fighters might have someone hiding their strength. So the spectators couldn''t throw away the idea of other seeded participants losing in the next few rounds. On the second round, Iem Turo was once again the first on the stage. His opponent was a demon beast this time. However, everyone could see that the demon beast didn''t seem that confident. The news about Iem Turo being a Heavenly Race member quickly spread between the competitors, so many thought that the first group''s winner has already been decided. In fact, even the seeded participant of the second group, Tirande, was feeling gloomy. After all, there are 16 seeded participants in 16 groups, but only the top 8 would advance into the next phase. That means Tirande will have to defeat Iem Turo as his last obstacle. Difficult, too difficult! That''s what Tirande felt. Most of the demon beasts are close-quarter fighters. Iem''s opponent this time was no different, so he pounced at Iem just like Horune did. He used all his laws and Domain from the very start. Iem, of course, took this head-on! The result was not surprising to anyone. Iem won once more. But the thing that people didn''t like was the fact that he only showed his physical prowess so far. As a Heavenly Race member, he definitely was much more than a melee fighter. Unfortunately for the others, no one was able to force him into doing something different. The rounds continued. Iem, Laka, Hanan, Krune, Fabio, and the others kept winning their battles one after another. In one Iem''s matches, he fought against a long-ranged cultivator. Thanks to that, others could finally see Iem''s skills. Well, the result was the same, nonetheless. It''s just that the battle persisted for a few minutes since Iem''s opponent was adept at running. But there was one thing that no one has seen yet, Iem''s Domain! He was basically the only participant that hasn''t used a Domain Yet. All the participants, especially Tirande, which that they could have seen it beforehand. As the winner of the Second Group, Tirande is the guy who will fight Iem Turo to see which one of them would enter the top 8. Well, in a certain way, Krune hasn''t shown his real Domain either. For each of the five battles, Krune used one of his Elemental Domains. Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Lightning. He didn''t use a Space, Time, Dark, or Light Domains, though. Between those four, the only one that Krune could possibly create a Domain was Space, but he wasn''t used to it. He hasn''t even tried before either. The spectators outside were still amazed, though. After all, Krune had five different types of Domain. Others could also create other Domains if they wanted, but they wouldn''t use the extra ones as proficient as Krune. But the majority already knew about the Myriad Wisps Technique. Not to mention that Krune is an Elemental Major Divine Soul Owner. His Major Divine Soul is perfect to get used to all the Elements, so they could at least accept his proficiency somehow. Each group had 32 participants. That being said, the winners of the 16 groups had been decided. The next battles would be between the strongest 16 to determine the top 8. Iem Turo vs. Tirande; Waka Ulin vs. Tiango; Sara Qanze vs. Karen Zetial; Romerio Botfue vs. Sule; Jovlare vs. Vork Hergando; Laka vs. Fabio Koltem; Krune vs. Unan Cesenlal; Hanan Frunkan vs. Mala. Chapter 551: Tirande vs. Iem Turo Thanks to the Time Formation, it was easy to have the competitors healing themselves. So when the time came for the first battle, both Iem Turo and Tirande were in top condition. "Dalin Universe, Iem Turo." "Enmatio Universe, Tirande." Both competitors entered the stage. Tirande was already in his True Form. Surprisingly, he wasn''t of any rare race, but quite a common one. Tirande was a Shadow Leopard, the same one Krune''s group encountered back in the Makui Planet. Seeing that, Krune couldn''t help but remember the time he fought against one of these. Nowadays, a simple thought could already trash those Shadow Leopards from the Makui Planet. Of course, as a seeded Demon Beast, Tirande was anything but weak. The judge looked at the two of them and nodded. "Begin!" Tirande''s fur stood up as Lightning began to run through his body. Suddenly, two shadows separated from his body and became perfect copies of the original one. It immediately caught everyone''s attention since it was the first time Tirande used this ability. The ones present were especially more so since they couldn''t see which one was real with their Divine Sense. Well, that was the case for those around Tirande''s level. The Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts outside could still see through it, but that didn''t matter at the moment. If there was a participant that could also identify the real one, that one was Krune. With his Soul Power equivalent to a peak Divine View Realm, his Divine Sense could barely see a few differences in the Shadow Leopards. However, Krune didn''t need to rely on that since everything was pretty much evident when he used Mental Energy instead. Iem had to admit that even he couldn''t tell the real from the false. But he didn''t care. He simply stepped forward and initiated his attack. Tirande also didn''t waste time and dashed forward as well. "Dark Lightning Domain!" When Tirande''s Domain spread, everyone saw Dark Lightning everywhere. They constantly danced as they entered and left Tirande and his two copies. ''He fused both Dark and Lightning Laws, impressive.'' When Iem and Tirande reached each other''s range, Tirande and his copies became streaks of Dark Lightning. His speeds simply exploded to the point that even Krune was taken aback. ''As expected of a seeded participant. I would only be faster if I went all out with my Tribulation Lightning Movement. Even so, I would be only slightly faster, not enough to make much of a difference.'' Krune looked curiously to see how Iem would deal against such speed. *Slash!* Suddenly, a tear appeared on Iem''s cloth. Or better, Dark Lightning passed at high speeds there and slashed it apart. Under his clothes, a small cut could be seen as well. It didn''t stop there, though. Be it Tirande or his two copies, it seemed like all three of them had the same attack power. That being said, Dark Lightning attacked Iem from all directions incessantly. Iem looked at his situation and couldn''t help but smile. ''Interesting.'' Suddenly, the Dark Lightning Domain that was covering Iem began to disappear as a much more powerful Domain started to take form. "Heavenly Domain!" As soon as Krune saw that, he was taken aback. ''He can also use all Primary Elements in a Domain! No, he can use all Elements. Light and Dark are also present inside!'' Krune was right. Iem''s Domain boasted all Seven Elements at once, different from his that had the five primary ones. Of course, Krune''s strongest Domain would have all five primary Elements and the Purple Tribulation Lightning Domain too. But that didn''t matter now since he wasn''t the one fighting Iem. Tirande had his highest speed while inside his Dark Lightning Domain, but once he got close to Iem, his speed would drop considerably. That''s because his Domain Laws would enter into conflict with Iem''s Heavenly Domain, so they couldn''t support him entirely. Not to mention that he could tell that his Dark Lightning Domain was weaker than Iem''s as well. When the next Dark Lightning entered Iem''s range, he counter-attacked. His leg suddenly crystallized, and it moved as fast as the Dark Lightning itself. Not only that, but Iem''s attack was covered, believe it or not, with Dark Lightning! "Impossible!" Boom! Both Dark Lightnings hit each other. The stalemate only lasted for half a second, though. It the next moment, one of the Shadow Leopard copies was sent flying like a cannonball! "Hahaha! What is impossible? You didn''t really think you were the only one capable of Fusing Dark and Lightning, did you? In that case, let me show you something even more interesting." Suddenly, Iem''s Dark Lightning changed completely. It was now a White Lightning instead. Anyone who saw that immediately understood, Iem was using Light instead of Dark Laws/Elements. The next second, Iem dashed forward in a streak of Light. Seeing that, Tirande smiled bitterly. Light Laws/Elements were the best counter of his Dark ones. Still, he gritted his teeth and counter-attacked. If Light is the bane of Dark, then Dark is also the bane of Light. He had nothing to fear. Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Dark and Light Lightning hit each other incessantly. It was really a splendid fight based on speed. At first, Iem and Tirande seemed to be evenly matched. While Iem was stronger, Tirande had his two Leopard Copies that weren''t any weaker than himself. "Hahaha! Great! That''s really amazing." While Tirande was giving his all, Iem seemed to be having a lot of fun. He couldn''t be blamed, though. As a Heavenly Race member and a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, fiding opponents at the same cultivation level with similar combat power was just too hard. However, everyone noticed something. Iem and Tirande are literally fighting a physical battle. However, Iem isn''t just a melee cultivator, but he is also an amazing long-ranged one. Still, he only played with Tirande with Physical Attacks. The stalemate didn''t last long, though. First of all, Iem''s Domain was much stronger than Tirandes, so Tirande was being suppressed the entire time. Also, with Iem''s Crystallization ability, Tirande could barely cause any damage at him. What others didn''t know is that Tirande wasn''t supposed to be fighting at this level. He could only put up such resistance because he was also consuming his Bloodline Power! Although a shadow leopard isn''t a rare demon beast, they still have their own bloodline. Since Tirande is a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner and a Divine Path Realm demon beast, his bloodline had improved by leaps and bounds. A common shadow leopard like the one Krune fought in the past simply couldn''t be compared. Still, his bloodline power was dropping at high speeds. Suddenly... *Boom!* Tirande showed an opening, which Iem used to deliver a heavy blow. This time, he hit the real Tirande, which made the shadow leopard vomit blood instantly. Tirande tried to get up as fast as he could, but Iem didn''t lose the opportunity. With a streak of White Lightning, he arrived in front of Tirande and attacked once more. *Bang!* Even Tirande''s copies couldn''t prevent the second hit. Immediately after, the fake leopards disappeared. Not only that, but Tirande''s Dark lightning Domain crumbled together. Iem''s second hit was really hard, and Tirande didn''t have enough time to put a defense. Seeing Tirande''s Dark Lightning Domain disappearing, Iem couldn''t help but sigh. "Is it over already? That''s a pity..." Iem then turned around and began to make his way out of the arena. Tirande, on the other hand, tried his best to stand up once more. Unfortunately, he already used too much of his bloodline power. Besides, he was really heavily injured. "I won''t give up!" However, the moment Tirande tried to move again, he noticed that his body couldn''t anymore. It was utterly locked by a powerful spiritual energy that didn''t allow him to take even a single step forward. "That''s enough, Tirande. You are not his match. At the moment, it is good enough that he doesn''t want to kill you." Tirande looked at the skies, just to see an old woman with fiery red hair staring at him. She was his protector, and also a Demon Beast of the same Universe. With her intervention, the judge announced. "Tirande''s protector intervened. Iem Turo is the winner and the first competitor in the top 8." Tirande gritted his teeth unwillingly. Still, he knew that it was over. "Sorry." The woman shook her head as she sighed. It seemed that the Dalin Universe slot had some other meaning for Tirande and herself as well. Still, there was nothing more they could do. "You are not to be blamed. It''s just that you were too unlucky to be paired against such a freak. If you had advanced into the top 8, I''m sure you would have taken one of the five slots." The woman then gave Tirande a Healing Pill and brought him away from the arena. Finally, the first fight was over with the not too surprising Iem''s victory. Chapter 552: Lakas Time The next battle was Waka Ulin vs. Tiango. As mentioned before, Tiango is a Divine Demon Beast, the Burning Heaven Snake. This race looked like a gigantic snake made of pure Magma. Just like the wisps, they also have their soul inside their Demon Core. However, different from the Wisps, the Burning Heaven Snake''s body is anything but weak. In a certain way, it is almost indestructible. That''s because their opponent would need to strike their core to do real damage. Of course, the Burning Heaven Snake''s Demon Core had its soul connected to the rest of its body, so it would still suffer a little once attacked. If it received thousand of attacks, cutting its body in thousands of parts without stopping, even it would be defeated. Surprisingly, Waka Ulin did exactly that. Waka is a High-Level Sword practitioner who has already surpassed the Sword Intent level, reaching the Sword Heart. Each and every single slash of his weapon was an art in itself. He already transformed the complex into simple and understood the concepts of hard and soft. One could say that Waka is a sword himself. The Burning Heaven Snake was strong, there was no doubt it. Still, it was attacked by Waka''s relentless slashes. Finally, it reached a point where even its Demon Core was exposed. If it continued, it would die for sure. Just as a sword attack was about to cut it in half, Waka and the rest heard its voice. "I give up!" The Burning Heaven Snake''s protector then appeared in front of it in a flash, shattering the deadly attack. Of course, the protector would not dare to lay a finger on Waka, that''s for sure. Waka, on the other hand, just turned around and began to make his way out. The Burning Heaven Snake was anything but weak, so he also received several injuries, primarily because of its Burning Heaven Domain. He had to focus on his recovery as soon as possible. The judge didn''t care. Since the winner was decided, then the rest didn''t matter. "Winner, Waka Ulin from Ulin Universe!" The next fight was Sara Qanze vs. Karen Zetial, two female cultivators. The battle ended with Sara''s victory, though. However, it was a very balanced fight were it wouldn''t be strange if either side won. Romerio Botfue vs. Sule''s fight ended with Sule as the final winner. Sule is a Wolf Demon Beast with half a bloodline of the Divine Silver Wolf, so he could be said to be a half Divine Beast himself. When Romerio saw that he was about to lose, he ended activating a forbidden technique of his clan, which immediately increased his combat power. Sule, without another choice, had to draw out his Silver Wolf Bloodline Power to win this fight. As one can imagine, Sule received the backlash of his action after the battle was over. Everyone saw him entering a Time Formation and eating several pills after that. Still, no one knows if he will be able to recover to his peak performance or not. Backlash due to Bloodline use is one of the most difficult and time consuming to heal. In the fight of Jovlare vs. Vork Hergando, Jovlare was the winner. With that, he was the second demon beast to enter the top 8. Surprisingly, Jovlare is an ocean demon beast, the Three Horned Golden Whale. Usually, one would think that this type of demon beast would be at a disadvantage outside water. After all, there was no such thing as an ocean around. The arena would need to move thousands of kilometers if Jovlare wanted to find the first one. However, that was only the case for low-level demon beasts. At Jovlare''s cultivation, he could almost summon a miniature ocean himself. But there wasn''t even a need for it since his Water and Ice Domain alone was more than enough. As long as he was inside his own Domain, it would be the same as being inside a real ocean. In the end, he was able to achieve victory after a fierce battle against Romerio. The next battle would be Laka vs. Fabio Koltem. Laka, already in his Dragon Phoenix form, immediately leaped on the stage. With the help of the Time Formation, he was able to completely recover to his peak condition. Fabio Koltem also appeared there in a flash. Everyone could tell that he was brimming with fight intent too. However, deep down, he understood that Laka was powerful. Mostly since he could reach this place while not being in the Peak of the Divine Path Realm. Until now, no one understood what that purple hue on his body meant. Fabio is a Spear User Cultivator. Obviously, it meant that he is also a melee one, just like Horune or Waka. However, different from Waka, his comprehension of the spear was only at the Spear Intent level. Waka can be said to be an anomaly to have reached the Sword Heart while still in the Divine Path Realm. Nonetheless, Fabio wouldn''t give up easily. Laka was very excited. Although he doesn''t care to fight long-ranged competitors, he still prefers a dispute at close quarters. Most of his bloodline is a Dragon, after all. "Begin." Laka released his Domain as he dashed forward. However, Laka''s Domain did not cover the entire arena this time. His opponent wasn''t someone who would try to flee everywhere, so there was no need to use so much Spiritual Energy to do that. Of course, his Domain was still enormous. Fabio took a deep breath and gripped his spear tightly. "Magma Domain!" That was Fabio''s Domain. A fusion of Earth and Fire Laws/Elements. He wasn''t the only one to have done that, though. Iem, Tirande, Jovlare, and Sara also had more than a single Element and Law type in their Domains. His Magma Domain was perfect for him. It increased his body defense while his strength soared. Usually, it would also act as deterrence for his enemy. However, Laka was a Divine Beast born from both Dragon and Phoenix, Fire Related Domains had little effect on him. Of course, the same could be said for Laka''s World of Fire Domain. Fabio had no need to fear it at all. The two quickly arrived in front of each other, not holding anything back. "Dragon Stomp!" "Mountain Piercer!" Boom! Space Shattered as the world burned at thousands of degrees. Laka and Fabio separated due to the shock, but their eyes lit up as they dashed forward once more. "Dragon Dive!" "Dragon Blast!" "Dragon Claws! ... "Thousand Stabs!" "Myriad Fire Spears!" "Core Penetration!" Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! There was no strategy, no tricks, no running. It was the most terrifying and straightforward physical combat. One was a member of a Divine beast race with one of the strongest bodies. The other was a proud spear user that believed to be able to pierce the heavens. Hundreds of different physical attacks were exchanged. The arena under them had already shattered to pieces. Both Laka and Fabio had injuries on their bodies. But they ignored it and stepped forward nonetheless. This stalemate continued for only a minute, though. Boom! "Argh!" Suddenly, a human''s body was sent flying like a cannonball! Obviously, that was none other than Fabio. He quickly controlled his body, trying to stabilize himself. However, Laka didn''t give him a chance. "Dragon Blast!" Dragon Energy exploded from all sides as Fabio was engulfed by it. Laka then came diving down in the middle fo explosion. However, in the last moment, Fabio recovered his balance and counter-attacked as well. Boom! Both sides separated once more as Fabio used Laka''s attack force to open some distance between them. Suddenly, his eyes went red, and the laws of the world raged around his spear. Chaos Energy flowed into it like torrents, making even space around contort due to the pressure. Laka looked at that from a distance and understood what Fabio meant. "Hahaha! Bring it on!" Laka then assumed an attack stance as Chaos Energy began to rage in his body. His Purple Flame Dragon Pearl made his body energies go rampant as if they were about to go out of control at any moment. It was evident that Laka and Fabio were intending to use the next exchange to decide this battle. In a second, both sides finished accumulating their energy. Suddenly, both man and dragon dashed against each other with everything they had. That was, without a doubt, the highest point and most thrilling moment of the battle. "Dragon''s Might!" "Quazar Spear!" Boom! The world seemed to go silent for a brief moment before an enormous shockwave of Chaos Energy and Fire Laws/Elements exploded outwards. An ordinary Peak Divine Path Realm cultivator or demon beast would probably die or get severely injured by just staying close to it. Of course, the two perpetrators suffered most of the impact. However, Laka''s Purple Flame Dragon Pearl showed its power at this moment. His energy grew once more to the point he almost damaged his Demon Core. The next instant, Fabio''s Speartip cracked. The crack spread like a web before the spear utterly shattered. As one can imagine, Fabio was sent flying like a cannonball by Laka''s attack. It was so fast that he only stopped when he hit the Protection Formations tens of kilometers away. He then fell on the ground and a broken doll. It was hard to say if he was dead or alive after the exchange without using Divine Sense to check The judge looked at him and nodded. "Laka from the Kizan Universe is the winner!" Chapter 553: Easy Victory Laka was exhausted when he came out of the arena. Nonetheless, he was delighted with such a battle. He lived for this kind of moment. Now, not only he had a lot of fun, he guaranteed his space in the top 8. The Factions back in the Kizan Universe were all jumping in happiness. They had never been so close to acquiring a Slot of the Dalin Universe before. Because of that, even the factions in opposition to Laka''s one couldn''t help but feel excited. A Dalin Universe Management Slot would give Laka''s faction a lot more power, but it would also help them tremendously. After all, everyone in the Universes managing it would have a free pass into Dalin until the next Heavenly Competition. That also included being able to cultivate until the peak of the Divinity Realm without having to leave. Laka didn''t know about anything like that, though. He immediately entered the time formation and took several healing pills. He still had to recover his lost Spiritual Energy and injuries, which were quite severe. Fabio''s Last attack was really powerful, so quite a few of his scales broke as he received some internal injuries. One must remember that he fought against the guy who defeated his own group''s seeded participant. As for Fabio, he didn''t really die. It wasn''t that Laka didn''t go all out, but because Fabio''s body was really tough. Right after the Judge announced his defeat, his protector immediately rescued him. However, considering his injuries, Fabio will probably take months to recover. The arena was quickly fixed by the formations under it. Right after, the Judge announced. "Luvile Universe, Krune." "Wavir Universe, Unan Cesenlal." Unan and Krune quickly entered the arena. Krune, of course, was already in his Wisp Form while Wally watched from outside. With Wally''s support, Krune had no need to fear for any ambush at all. Unan looked at the Rainbow Colored wisp on the other side of the arena. If it was the first fight, he would definitely look at him with contempt. But as Krune advanced between the fights, Unan''s expression and opinions about Krune changed. First, his almost unlimited Spiritual Energy supply. It was simply ridiculous high! Second, his control over the elements and laws were simply outstanding. Although Krune doesn''t have a fused Major Law, it didn''t seem like he was far away from it. Especially after seeing Krune releasing one type of Domain after another in each battle. Last but not least, Krune''s shield would lit up with different elements every time. But above all, they had that Purple Flame effect that everyone talked about. It was obvious that his Shields were made by the famous Jolk. In fact, Unan even suspected that Krune was Jolk himself already. Don''t forget that everyone knows that Jolk''s real identity is protected by the Wisp Protection Law. Also, Jolk''s equipment at the Stars Path Level was really hard to obtain, but Krune had a total of 38 shields made with the Purple Flame method. How could he not suspect something? Not only him, but the majority who knew a little bit more about the Purple Flame equipments had the same suspicion. Krune wasn''t thinking that much, though. The only thing he wanted was to advance into the last part of the competition. Still, this was the first seeded participant he would be fighting. The Judge looked at both and then nodded. "Begin!" Suddenly, Unan pulled a sword out of his Spatial Ring. When everyone looked at that, they were taken aback. It was one of Jolk''s Weapons! This was, in fact, the first time that Unan showed his Purple Flame Sword. It just happened that he got this one during the last auction back in the city. Unan then smiled at Krune before saying. "I don''t know if it was you who created the Purple Flame Equipments or if you are related to the creator. But that doesn''t matter since I''ll use it to advance into the Heavenly Competition. Don''t take it personally." Krune was also surprised to see such a thing. With Unan showing one of his Purple Flame Equipments, Krune now knew three participants that are still in the Heavenly Competition who are using his creations. The second one was obviously Laka and his Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. The last one was the female cultivator, Sara Qanze, and her pair of Purple Flame Flying Chakrams. Krune had to admit that Sara''s proficiency with this kind of weapon was very good. She probably wouldn''t have a problem controlling flying shields if she decided to change it in the future. Of course, the chances that it will happen are almost nonexistent. Until know, Krune hasn''t seen anyone who liked to used flying shields like him. Unan didn''t know, but Krune was pondering if he should use Unan''s Purple Flame Sword against him or not. Without giving time for Krune to think, Unan dashed forward. He was a Life Heavenly Fragment Owner before becoming a Heavenly Divine Soul one. That being said, he was better at Light Laws/Elements than any other. Surprisingly though, his Domain was a mix of Light and Dark Elements/Laws. "Chaos Domain!" This was also the first time Unan released a fused element Domain in the competition. Until now, he had only used a Light Type one. The Chaos Domain immediately surrounded Krune as the Light and Dark laws suppressed his cultivation and power. Unan then appeared in front of Krune in the next moment. He didn''t know why Krune wasn''t moving, nor did he care. He would finish it with his surprise Chaos Domain, not giving his opponent any chance. Too bad, though... ''Alright, I don''t know if there are more competitors with my Purple Flame Equipments hidden. But even if there are, it should be one or at most two. If not, it is only Laka and Sara. Since that''s the case, it''s time to show that one cannot use my weapons against me. Light and Dark Laws/Elements came slashing down against Krune as Chaos Energy raged out of Unan''s body. However... *Puchi!* Suddenly, Unan''s own Sword changed direction and pierced his own heart! It was just too sudden. The Sword Slash was basically in front of Krune; nothing should have stopped Unan at that point. So why did Unan suddenly auto-destroyed? No one could understand. Well, no one except for Krune and Unan. At that last moment, Unan felt a force coming from deep inside of the Sword. It felt like it gained sentience, completely escaping his control! No one could say that Unan was careless. In fact, he was keeping his attention at max! He really felt that something was fishy, but he had never considered the possibility of his weapon attacking himself. In the end, he was too cautious for his own good. Unan''s Domain quickly collapsed, and his concentrated laws dissipated. He fell his knees right after as he vomited a mouthful of blood! He slowly looked at Krune and then at the Sword on his chest. In the end, he smiled bitterly. "You can control your own Purple Flame Equipments..." Krune didn''t try to deny it. "Yeap. I''m the creator, so how could I allow others to use it against me?" Everyone''s expressions changed after that. Krune can control his equipments? But first of all, there is no way the Purple Flame Equipment owners wouldn''t check them. In fact, their Divinity Realm protectors examined the weapons for them, making sure that there was nothing inside that could be used against their participants. Just how did he do it then? Krune looked at the Judge before asking. "Is this the end?" The Judge quickly came back to himself and nodded. "Krune from Luvile Universe Wins!" No one could blame Krune for it. The fact that Unan had his weapon''s control taken over was his fault alone. There are no rules saying that you can''t control the opponent''s weapon to start with. Unan''s protector quickly appeared on his side. He then removed the Sword as he sealed Unan''s injury. Unan is already in the Paek Divine Path Realm. Having his heart being stabbed isn''t enough to kill him straight away. Of course, he had to be treated as soon as possible. Otherwise, he would indeed die. As Krune made his way out of the arena, he also commented. "There is no need to worry. I haven''t put anything inside my Purple Flame Equipments to make them act against their owner. It''s just that the power used to create them can''t act against the source. Simply put, other than against me, they won''t act like this against anyone else. Well, it is still up to you all whether you want to use them in other battles or not." Krune didn''t care if the cultivators and demon beasts everywhere would throw his Purple Flame Equipments away or keep them. He has already become pretty much self-sufficient, after all. He can totally provide for his own needs here and in the future. Besides, Krune isn''t afraid of not being able to sell more Purple Flame Equipments. Even if someone thought that it would be risky to have it turning against you, others would still think that as long as they aren''t close to Krune, that would be fine. What are the chances of bumping into Krune in an entire Universe? Or better, for those who bought his Purple Flame Equipments and left the Dalin Universe, would they ever encounter Krune in their lives? Difficult! Too Difficult! Just like that, Krune advanced in the competition. It was by far the easiest battle between all that happened until now. Chapter 554: Battle of Attrition The last fight was between Hanan Frunkan vs. Mala. Mala was a female Demon Beast of the Jio Universe. As one could expect, fighting a seeded participant was a lot more difficult for Hanan than the previous ones. The Female Demon Beast even used her bloodline power so that she could push the victory. Hanan, not having another choice, could only activate the Forbidden Technique that Baren Frunkan gave him before the competition. Once the fight was over, Hanan''s condition was anything but good. However, he didn''t regret it. Hanan had long decided that as long as he gets one of the five slots, he won''t mind even if he loses his life. Norzulun then stepped forward after Hanan''s battle finished. "Congratulation to the eight participants who advanced. As mentioned before, each of one you will have one battle against the other finalists once. That''s is the most straightforward way to decide the top five. As you can imagine, in case a tie happens, one last battle will occur to determine who takes the slots." "For others to not complain that the Dalin management is being unfair, we will wait until every single one of you recover to your peak condition. After all, some of you fought equally strong opponents, while others had it easier. If you need to recover, enter the Time Formation and take your time." Not only Hanan, but Sara, Waka, and Laka were also relived by those words. They had gone all out and were still not fully prepared. Without wasting time, they all entered the Time Formations. Hanan ended as the one who took the longest inside. Although just a few hours passed outside, Hanan had spent over three months in the Time Formation. No one complained about the hours they had to wait, though. Cultivators and Demon beasts can live for hundreds, if not thousands of years. A few hours meant nothing for them. Once Hanan came out, Norzulun nodded before continuing. "Very good. Keep in mind that this will be the last time we allow you to enter the Time Formation. The next battles will have to be done with whatever power you have now. That being said, you better know how to conserve your energy well." With a wave of his hand, a giant image appeared in front of everyone, showing the order of battles. The first battle to happen turned out to be Krune vs. Sara Qanze. As for Iem Turo, he would be Krune''s fifth opponent. Laka would be the third with Hanan being sixth. "Luvile Universe, Krune." "Kaleu Universe, Sara Qanze." Krune, already in his wisp form, stepped on the arena. Sara then took a deep breath and took out her Chakrams. She already knows that Krune was the one who forged them and that she can''t use it against him. Because of that, she called one of the Dalin Universe management guys and asked for him to keep it. This time, she had no other choice other than using her old ones. Of course, for a Universe Representative, Sara''s Chakrams were still a Peak Stars Path Equipment. Because Krune''s weapons were at the 8 Stars Path Level, her old Chakrams weren''t that much weaker. Krune didn''t mind it, though. No one would be idiot enough to use his weapons against him, so that was expected. As Sara looked at Krune, she couldn''t help but sigh. 38 Purple Flame Flying Shields were orbiting the rainbow wisp. Can she pass through his defense? She didn''t know. Still, Krune is at the 7th Stage of the Divine path Realm, so she has the advantage in cultivation at the very least. Krune also knew that Sara would be the strongest opponent he fought so far. Unan was obviously strong as well, but he didn''t have the chance to show his power. Noticing that both sides were ready, the judge nodded before saying. "Begin!" Sara''s Domain immediately appeared. At the same time, her Chakrams flew away from her body. This time, however, it wasn''t just two, but ten of them! "Decay of Time Domain!" That was her fused Domain of Dark and Time laws. It would use Dark Laws to corrode the opponent''s Spiritual Energy as the Time Laws accelerated the process several times. During that time, Sara would use her Chakrams, which also carried her Dark and Time laws, to harass the opponent. Of course, there was much more to it. Sara would frequently use her Time Laws to slow down the opponent while accelerating her own attacks. Those two Elements/Laws were really a very good combination. Krune had seen Sara using this Domain Before against Karen, and it had left a deep impression in him. Now that he was feeling it, he could imagine how difficult it was for Karen to fight Sara. Obviously, since she used Chakrams, there was no doubt that she was also a Long-Ranged cultivator. "Purple Tribulation Lightning Domain!" Instead of the Primary Elemental Domains, Krune opted to use his Purple Tribulation Lightning one from the start. The Laws of Dark and Time immediately got affected, losing more power the closer they got to Krune. The Chakrams, which were very fast due to the time laws accelerating it, seemed to slow down as they approached Krune. Of course, it was not that they got slow; it''s just that the time around them stopped passing so fast. The Laws of time that were slowing down Krune and the Darkness elements/laws also almost lost all effect close to him. Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang... The Chakrams hit Krune''s Purple Flame Diamond Shields head-on, but failed to pass through or cause any damage. Krune wasn''t idly just receiving the attacks either. At the same moment that the Chakrams arrived, his Skills began to bombard Sara in the distance. Tribulation Blazing Wind Blades, Tribulation Lines, Tribulation Lightning Water Dragons, all of Krune''s common and most used skills were in full display. This time, the difference was that all of them were supported by his Purple Tribulation Lightning or Purple Flames. Not to mention the Purple Tribulation Lightning Domain, which was eating Sara''s Domain without stop. It is worth to note that Krune''s Law Eating Sub-Law had advanced once more with Little Arty''s Godly Energy support. At the moment, it was already at the Advanced Stage, which allowed Krune to control its properties much better. That being said, his own Domain or Tribulation Lightning in his attacks barely had any effect on the other laws that he uses. Although Krune was holding back in terms of Domain, he wasn''t doing so with his Spiritual, Elemental, and Chaos Energies. The only thing he didn''t use were his strongest skills and Mental Energy attacks. First, he wasn''t battling only souls without Spiritual Energy like in the Soul World. Second, his Mental Energy attacks wouldn''t have the power to defeat the enemy since Chaos Energy could still protect against it to a certain extent. Krune is far from being as powerful as Heavin with these kinds of attacks, really far. Sara noticed the dire situation she was in. Krune''s attacks were too hard to defend, not to mention his annoying Purple Tribulation Lightning that kept eating away her Domain. Outside the arena, Iem Turo looked at Krune''s Purple Tribulation Lightning with great interest. It remembered him of his battle against Horune, who had a Purple Flame Greatsword. ''What kind of laws are those? How come I''ve never seen them before? Was it the reason that Greatsword passed through my crystalization so easily?'' Iem looked at his hand for a moment. Suddenly a small Black Flame Spark appeared for a second, quickly disappearing after. No one noticed that, though. ''Could it be...'' The battle on the arena continued. So far, Krune hadn''t used his strongest skills like Heaven''s Fall, Tribulation Cannon, or Heavens Storm. Those used a lot of Purple Tribulation Lightning, and Krune wanted to keep enough for later. Sara used her Chakrams and her own Long Ranged Skills nonstop. However, they were all barred by Krune''s Purple Diamond Shields, which were all filled with Purple Tribulation Lightning and usually the opposite element of her attacks. If necessary, Sara could increase her battle power even more. But there was a problem, Sara still has to win another two battles at the very least. And that is considering that she would defeat Krune in the end. Sara looked at the Rainbow Colored Wisp, who guarded against all her assaults in a leisurely way. Krune barely had to move, which showed that he wasn''t really showing what he could do. As for herself, she was running everywhere with the help of her Time Laws to defend against Krune. ''Is this a pretense? Would he be stronger than what he is showing now?'' Sara then thought about how Krune was able to use all the other Primary Elements as Domains. This Purple Tribulation Lightning one was the sixth Domain she saw him using. Still, Krune hasn''t shown a single Fused Domain so far. She quickly concluded that there was no way someone with such proficiency in Elements couldn''t use a fused Domain like her. He didn''t use a fused one simply because he didn''t see a need for it. She also considered that all the attacks Krune used until now were not his powerful ones. It was more like he was trying to drain all her Spiritual Energy pool. Lastly, she remembered Krune''s fight against Vasto, the Spider Demon Beast. "I give up!" Immediately, all the skills Krune had launched against her disappeared. His Domain retracted, and his Shields were put away. "So you noticed, uh?" Sara sighed while feeling the fatigue of the fight. "You were simply planning to make me run out of Spiritual Energy." Krune didn''t deny. "Yes. The thing I''m most confident about is my Spiritual Energy pool. For two long-ranged attackers like us, the best way was to show who would last longer. It''s good that you noticed so early. That way, you can keep your strength for the next battles." It would be of no use to tell Sara that he was planning to exhaust her. Why would someone believe the enemy in the first place? So the best way was to make her notice it by herself. The judge then raised his hand in Krune''s direction. "First Battle, Krune from Luvile Universe Wins!" Krune came down from the arena and took several Spirit Stones out of his Spatial Ring. The time formation might be out of use, but that didn''t mean he couldn''t recover without it. The battles continued after that. Laka''s first battle was surprisingly against Hanan. Laka knew how strong Hanan was, so he was very excited. But after just a few exchanges, Hanan gave up, much to Laka''s dissatisfaction. Laka complained without stop, but Hanan only smiled. His ultimate objective if one of the Five Slots. Laka is the type who would definitely fight to the bitter end, so it would be useless to waste his energy against him. Iem Turo''s opponent, Jovlare, immediately gave up. Lastly, Sule vs. Waka Ulin ended with Waka''s victory. In this battle, something incredible happened. Waka''s last attack, which gave him the victory, had simply disappeared! When it appeared again, it was already right in front of Sule. Krune was surprised with that because there were no Space Laws ripples around Waka''s attack, only his Sword Laws. ''If there were no space laws, then how did he do that?'' Unfortunately, Waka''s battle was already over. With that, the first round of battles was over. Chapter 555: Second Round Starts After the first round was over, there was no wait for the second. Norzulun warned everyone that there would be no rest. Iem was the first to fight against Sara. As the others expected, Sara gave up straight away as well. She knew that there was no chance of beating this Heavenly Race member. The Second battle of the second round was Sule and Hanan. Sule had a fierce fight against Waka, only giving up after many injuries and energy consumption. In Hanan''s case, however, he only battled Laka for a few seconds before giving up. Not to mention that he didn''t take that seriously at all. Hanan, of course, won the fight without any issues. Sule was far from being ready for a fight. Once Hanan showed his real strength, he knew that he would only make his condition even worse. Since that was the case, Sule decided to give up this fight as well and bet on the next five ones. Also, he would be the last one to fight in the next round, so he would have time to recover. The last phase was also a strategy game. You needed to play your cards right to not fall into a trap. Sule played it wrong, thinking that he could beat Waka, which turned out bad for his side. Hanan left the stage with a smile on his face. Baren Frunkan, who was observing from outside, also nodded in satisfaction. In his eyes, Hanan made the correct decision to give up battling against Laka. Now, Hanan only needed two more victories. Iem is out of the question, while Krune would be complicated. However, the other participants didn''t seem to be a problem. Not to mention that his Frunkan Clan Forbidden Technique was still available to be used. Krune knew that it was his time, so he went to the arena. Right after, Waka appeared there in a flash. Even though Waka had gone through a tough fight against Sule in the last round, it didn''t seem like he would give up. This was good for Krune, though. He really wanted to understand Waka''s last attack against Sule, and this was the best opportunity. He felt like he was close to finding something, but not quite there yet. The judge looked at both sides before saying. "Begin!" Waka''s body flashed as he went straight to Krune. "Sword Heart Domain!" Waka''s Domain had no color, just like Feifei''s one. However, it wasn''t invisible either. It looked like the area several kilometers around Waka became filled with Swords. Every single Sword was an exact copy of Waka''s one. Krune could tell that the Sword that Waka was using at the moment had some deeper meaning for him, too, probably. This was also the first time that Krune felt Sword Laws. In a certain way, they were a variation of Earth Laws, which were connected to all metals in existence. Before Waka even arrived, his Sword Domain plunged against him as if they wanted to split the world. "Tribulation Lightning Movement!" Arcs of Purple Lightning came out of Krune''s Wisp Core as his body flashed with a Purple Light. However, Waka''s Domain was full of swords everywhere. So unless Krune completely left its range, he would still be attacked by all sides. "Tribulation Lightning Domain!" Immediately, the world around Krune became purple, and currents of purple lightning appeared everywhere. The center of the Domain was obviously the place where most of the lightning currents ran around. Sure enough, the Swords that seemed to be real partially lost the support of Waka''s Sword Laws. Because of that, they seemed to become transparent to a certain extent. Yet, Krune could tell that Waka''s Domain was the one who suffered the least when clashing with his Purple Tribulation Lightning Domain. ''It probably has something to do with his Sword Heart that surpasses Sword Intent.'' Krune was right. Waka''s Sword laws really had a lot of support from his comprehension of the Sword. The Sword Heart is not a law, so Krune''s Purple Tribulation Lightning couldn''t affect it. Waka was really fast, almost on par with Tirande. That being said, he wasn''t too much slower than Krune with his Purple Tribulation Lightning. With his Sword Domain, which Krune had to be careful, he could make up for the disparity of speed. However, Krune had his Purple Flame Diamond Shields. Also, it was not like Krune wasn''t attacking either. "Tribulation Tornado!" "Gravity Field!" "Mountain Fall!" "Tribulation Blazing Wind Blades!" Waka wasn''t idle either. "Myriad Slashes!" "Single Stance!" "Thundering Sword!" Waka''s hands became mirages as he slashed through all Krune''s attacks while advancing nonstop. Even the gravity field had a hard time holding him back. However, Krune only sighed, seeing that. ''He was obviously injured after the battle against Sule. He can''t display even 70% of his previous power.'' For Waka, it seemed like retreat would never be an option. He looked a lot like Laka and, at the same time, not. Laka also wouldn''t retreat if the situation wasn''t dire, but it was because he had fun fighting. Waka, on the other hand, didn''t seem like he was having any fun at all. Waka also understood that the way things were going, he wouldn''t defeat Krune doesn''t matter what. Krune''s defense was watertight; it was simply too hard to breakthrough. His Diamond Shields were made with those Purple Flames and had Tribulation Lightning flashing all the time. His attacks would find significant interference even before hitting the shield itself. Suddenly, Waka stopped and raised his Sword. When Krune saw that, he immediately remembered Waka''s battle against Sule. This was the sword technique that Waka used to defeat Sule, who had a great defense like Krune. Krune didn''t try to stop him, though. ''I''ve been waiting to see it.'' Krune was very curious about that Sword Attack. He wanted very much to understand what the conceptions behind it were. This single attack had the power to disappear and reappear right in front of the enemy, not giving them the chance to dodge at all. Even Krune wouldn''t be able to do so with his Purple Tribulation Lightning. The weird thing was that there was no such thing as Space laws involved. First of all, the entire arena is riddled with Shattered Space. In Waka''s Battle against Sule, the arena was also similar to now. There should be no way for this Sword Attack to teleport directly at him, but it did. Waka was somewhat surprised that Krune stopped attacking him. He was ready to do his best even under pressure, but Krune just stayed in the distance, waiting for his attack. Waka wasn''t an idiot; everyone saw his attack in the last fight, so he knew that Krune definitely understood what was coming at him. Still, he decided to let him use it. ''He wants to understand it.'' Waka''s mouth curved in a faint smile, which surprised his protector. Waka wasn''t known for his happy expressions at all. Waka''s Sword Laws were supported by his Sword Heart, accumulating on his Sword without stop. His Sword began to shine with a white light when finally, Waka slashed it down. "Dimensional Severing!" The space in front of him didn''t shatter. Instead, it looked like it Waka''s attack disappeared inside a lake. It was then that Krune felt danger. However, he was excited at the same time. ''I see!'' Suddenly, a Purple Tribulation Lightning bolt came crashing down from the skies. It was Krune''s Heavens Fall! However, Krune''s Heavens Fall did not hit anything. Instead, it disappeared inside the space, just like Waka''s attack. It was then they everyone around the arena heard a muffled sound of an explosion. However, there was nothing around. Even though the sound was there, the arena and the world around was still the same. In the end, the others couldn''t tell whether the explosion really happened or not. Only some of the High-Level cultivators and demon beasts understood what happened. Krune then looked at Waka, who had a surprised expression. "It seems like you understood." Krune didn''t deny it. "Indeed. I have read a lot of things about the three dimensions and the fourth dimension. The three dimensions are easy to see. After all, they are right in front of you all the time. However, I didn''t expect that you could send a Sword attack through the Fourth Dimension. Obviously, no one would notice this attack coming. Divine Sense, Searching Techniques, Smell, Vision, none of those would be able to detect your attack. There was only one chance, you need ''see'' the Fourth Dimension too. Krune continued. "However, this is really hard to control. At least, I definitely can''t use it the way you do. I could only barely defend myself. It is impossible for me to send an attack through the Fourth Dimension. In the end, I only made my attack fall right in front of your sword slash, but I can''t control it inside the Fourth Dimension. If my defense failed, that Tribulation Lightning Bolt would become vagrant until it appeared somewhere completely different from what I planned." "If I''m not wrong, the reason you can control your attack is probably... your Sword Heart, right?" Waka smiled once more before sheathing his Sword. He then turned around and began to make his way out of the arena. "I give up." Waka didn''t answer Krune''s question, but there was no need for it in the first place. As for giving up, Waka wouldn''t retreat if he still had a tiny chance of winning. But now that Krune could at least defend against the Fourth Dimension, that chance disappeared. Continuing this fight would only make things worse. He was a resolute man, but not crazy. Chapter 556: Devil Flame God The Sacred Lands back in the Luvile Universe were jumping in happiness. If Krune acquires 3 victories, he is pretty much guaranteed to get a slot for the Dalin Universe. How could they not be excited? Krune won two in a row already! In the Divine Path Sect, other than Lucio, Krune''s friends, and even Lakin watched the combats. They had know Krune for the longest, so they weren''t so surprised to that extent. That wisp had always been a freak, after all. "Master doesn''t seem like having any issues." Shinja nodded. "Well, it looks like the Dalin Universe did wonders. I definitely wouldn''t be able to do anything to him at the moment. He really left me far behind." Ao shrugged his shoulders. "Not only you but all of us." He then looked at Lucio before commenting. "It probably won''t take too long before he beats sect master." Lucio''s mouth twitched. "Hmph! As if I would him give a chance." Back in the Dalin Universe, Laka and Jovlare fought the last battle of the second round. Both were melee demon beasts and Heavenly Divine Soul Owners. Jovlare''s cultivation was higher, but Laka had Krune''s Purple Flame Dragon Pearl. Considering that their cultivation was just a single stage of difference, Laka was able to suppress Jovlare without many complications. In part, it was thanks to the fact that Hanan gave up the first battle, so Laka was in his Peak Condition. Besides, Laka found Jovlare to be a little weaker than Fabio, who he fought before. The Third round started right after. Hanan and Iem Turo were the first ones to go up. Hanan then immediately gave up, just like Iem''s previous opponents. No one felt confident enough to take the Heavenly Race Member head-on. Waka Ulin and Sara Qanze were the next ones. Sara was a Long-Ranged attacker, while Waka was a melee one. Waka cut through everything in his path, quickly reaching Sara. He didn''t even need to use the Dimensional Severing to deal with her. From the very start, their difference in power was evident. Waka was just too strong. Even Sule, who was a demon beast who exceeded in defense, was cut by him, let alone Sara. Sara tried to keep her distance while harassing him. Now that Krune wasn''t present, she also used the Pair of Purple Flame Chakrams. But even that was not enough to stop Waka. In the end, Waka achieved victory without having to pay any high price. Sara, on the other hand, felt gloomy. This is already the third round, but she hasn''t got a single victory yet. Her Universe protector couldn''t help but shook his head too. She still had another 4 fights ahead, though. It wasn''t over. The third battle just so happened to be Krune and Laka! "Hahaha! I can finally fight you. No holding back, understood?" Krune laughed as well. "Well, if you are saying that I can''t hold back..." The very moment the battle started, Laka''s Purple Flame Dragon Pearl went out of control! Laka was alarmed by that, but he had already fused with if. It began to cause havoc inside Laka''s body, making him far from being able to do anything. In just a few exchanges, Krune completely trashed Laka. There was no helping it. Not only Laka couldn''t use the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl, but it also attacked him from inside instead. At that moment, he became as weak as a Heavenly Fragment Owner instead of a Heavenly Divine Soul one. "I give up!" As unwilling as Laka could be, he didn''t have another choice. This was not a fight to start with, but a single side massacre. Laka couldn''t help but blurt out. "Shameless! You controlled my Purple Flame Dragon Pearl!" Krune, on the other hand, laughed even more. "It was you who said that I shouldn''t hold back, so why are you complaining?" Laka couldn''t come with an excuse after hearing that. "Hmph!" He turned around and left the arena. Although Krune was laughing, he didn''t really cause Laka any serious injures. By the time he needs to fight again, he should be fully recovered. It was more like a lot of pain instead of any real damage. Krune liked Laka''s straightforward personality. That shameless mix of Dragon and Phoenix always put his heart on everything. Because of that, he hoped he could get a Dalin Universe slot. Of course, if the Frunkan Clan''s plan worked, his Universe won''t be able to enjoy it for long. No one from outside will. Sule and Jovlare, the two demon beasts, fought the last battle of the third round. In the end, Sule was the winner, achieving his first victory in the final phase. By now, the power rank was pretty much determined. Iem was considered the strongest, Krune was second, while Laka, Waka, and Hanan had similar strengths. Sara, Sule, and Jovlare were at the short end of the stick. In the fourth round, Laka and Jovlare fought first. Not too surprisingly for the spectators, Laka was the winner. In head-on combat, Laka''s Purple Flame Dragon Pearl was simply too much for the other part to resist. Iem Turo once again won his battle. This time, he fought against Sule. Sule still tried to see if he could fight against Iem with his Water and Ice Domain and his powerful defense, but it turned out that it was useless. Iem''s Heavenly Domain suppressed his own way too easily. Not to mention the crystalization ability, which could destroy his defense as if it was made of paper. Hanan went against Sara. Knowing her predicament, Sara decided to use a forbidden technique to bring Hanan down at all costs. Unfortunately, she was weaker than Hanan to start with. When she used her Forbidden Technique, Hanan did the same. In the end, the difference in power continued, and the battle was over with Hanan as the winner. With that, Hanan achieved his third victory, which also pretty much guaranteed the Frunkan Clan''s Universe a slot for Dalin. Krune once again trashed his opponent without regard. The combination of Purple Tribulation Lightning and Domain wasn''t something the others could fight against easily. Thanks to that, he now had 4 victories. The Fifth round started, and the first fight was Krune against Iem Turo! Krune was planning to give up all the fights from now on. The way things progressed, he simply doesn''t need any more victories. Even if he loses the next three battles, he would still get a Dalin Slot anyway. But just as he was about to follow this plan, Light Spirit stopped him. "Don''t give up, fight him." Krune was taken aback, so he immediately asked. "I already have four victories. Is there a reason you want me to fight Iem?" Light Spirit confirmed. "There is, but I''m not sure why. While you were fighting the other participants, I felt a strange power coming from him. It seemed like he was very focused on my Purple Tribulation Lightning too. I want to see what it is." Krune didn''t know why Light Spirit was interested in that, but he decided to agree with his request. "Well, if I''m going to fight the strongest participant, I might as well go all out." The judge saw that the two were ready. "Begin!" At the very start, a shocking scene appeared. Iem Turo had activated his Heavenly Domain straight away. Not only that, but his entire body also crystallized. His carefree expression was utterly gone, and powerful ripples of spiritual energy came out of his body. Anyone could tell, Iem Turo was planning to go all out from the very start! "Krune, right? Don''t you dare to give up! Everything you showed until now is far from being your real combat ability. I want you to show me everything." Krune laughed at that. Iem had really been paying a lot of attention to him. "Very well. I was indeed planning to give up since I don''t need any more victories. But because of a coincidence, I''m forced to fight you as well. Be careful, I won''t hold back either." Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Light, and Purple Tribulation Lightning. All Krune''s Domain came out one after another. Immediately, Iem Turo''s Heavenly Domain, which suppressed all others in the past, lost its imposing power. "Rainbow Domain!" Immediately, the entire audience went in an uproar. Everyone believed that Krune could use more than one Domain at the same time, but not all six of them. Doesn''t that mean that he is almost on par with Iem Turo? No, by the looks on it, Iem Turo''s Heavenly Domain seems to be losing to Krune''s Rainbow Domain! "Hahaha! Great! Your Domain can eat the opponent''s Domain''s laws to strengthen itself. Even my Heavenly Domain is being affected by it. You are the first one at the same level as me to force my Domain back. No! You are two Stages below me and still got a small advantage. Just how strong would you be if you were at the Peak of the Divine path Realm?" Iem Turo was beaming. "However, if you think that this is the limit of my Domain, you are underestimating me way too much." Suddenly, Iem''s Heavenly Domain was enshrouded by Black Flames. However, this was not a combination of Fire and Dark Laws/Elements. Far from that! As soon as that appeared, Light Spirit''s voice echoed in Krune''s mind. "The Devil Flame God!" Right after, Krune''s Domain lost its advantage. His Law Eating Sub-law of the Rainbow Domain was having a tough time doing it against Iem''s Domain. If anything, Krune''s Rainbow Domain was being slightly suppressed instead! Chapter 557: Harolds Idea Krune wanted to ask who the Devil Flame God was, but Iem Turo didn''t give him the time. Iem flew high on the arena as he extended his hands. Immediately, three sparks of Devil Flame appeared. One above his head and two on his sides. In just a second, those three sparks grew to the point they looked three miniature suns. Krune could feel the scorching heat, but at the same time, it looked different from the usual heat caused by the Fire Element. "Stop looking, do something!" Hearing Light Spirit''s alarmed voice, Krune came back to himself. Immediately, all his Diamond shields came out. Arcs Purple Tribulation Lightning surrounded them and Krune together. Right after, Tribulation Clouds accumulated above Iem. Iem looked at Krune and laughed. "Devil Flame Suns!" All the miniature suns were thrown in Krune''s direction. "Purple Tribulation Lightning Movement!" Krune wouldn''t stay there waiting for it to hit him. But right after Iem threw the suns, his body blinked away. The next moment, he was already in front of Krune''s escape route. Krune was alarmed by Iem''s Speed. It far surpassed the speed he showed against Tirande. "Hahaha! Going somewhere?" "Devil Flame Palm!" Even with attacks coming from both sides, Krune didn''t lose his calm. "Heavens Fall Calamity!" Several bolts of purple lightning came crashing down. As fast as the Devil Suns could be, they couldn''t be faster than lightning. Immediately, the two forces hit against each other. At the same time, Krune counter-attacked Iem''s offense. The wills that Krune always kept inside his Shields came out together. All of them, Krune included, using the same skill. "Purple Tribulation Spear!" A total of 39 Purple Lightning Spears appeared at the same time, hitting the Devil Flame palm that was coming against Krune. Explosions raised in the front and back, shattering space. Arcs of Purple Lightning and flares of black flame ran rampant. It was just the first moves, but the Wisp and the Heavenly Race Member''s attacks caused more destruction than any other fight. *Zap!* In a flash of Purple Lightning, Krune appeared outside the area of effect of the explosion. *Vup!* On the other side, Iem''s body, which was covered in black flames, appeared as well. Krune''s Wisp Core had a few small scorching black marks. His Ethereal Body was a little dimmer too. Purple Lightning acted over the marks, but it seemed that Luvile''s Purple Lightning was having a hard time to eliminate it. On Iem''s side, his crystalized body had a few cuts. If one looked closely, they would be able to see Purple Sparks coming out. Just like Krune, Iem''s Devil Flame couldn''t eliminate the Lightning Straightaway. Be it Krune or Iem, they were both surprised. They didn''t expect that the other''s attack could really cause them so much damage. Iem''s eyes lit up! Suddenly, the black flames around his body grew several times. In fact, it looked like his crystallized body turned somewhat darker as well. Even space couldn''t resist those black flames anymore as it contorted without stop around. As Krune looked at that, he asked Light Spirit. "Are those black flames made from laws that don''t exist in our Universe?" Light Spirit confirmed. "Yes. You saw how Sentoi and Wally called me, right?" "Purple Lightning God." "Exactly! Those Black Flames are the fruit of another god, the Devil Flame God. As you can see, he created his own laws as well, just like me. That''s why my Purple Tribulation Lightning is not stronger than it. We both have laws created in the Higher Realms. Careful, he''s coming!" Iem dashed at Krune as if he was a Spear of Black Fire. However, Krune could tell. Iem was using more Black Flames than his body could resist. That''s also why his crystallized body turned darker. It was definitely being damaged in exchange for a higher power. "Hmph!" "Purple Tribulation Lightning, 300%!" The Arcs of Purple Lightning around Krune immediately increased, and so did their power. Krune could use 200% without damaging his wisp core, but 300% definitely would. Still, without releasing enough Purple Tribulation Lightning, he wouldn''t be able to fight Iem. Nevertheless, Krune is a Long-Ranged attacker. As Iem approached him, Krune immediately used his Purple Tribulation Movement to widen the distance. Of course, Iem wouldn''t just look at Krune running away. "I''m good at both close and long-ranged attacks, so let''s play." Black Flames broke out of Iem''s body and assumed the shape of Black Flame Snakes. Immediately after, they pounced at Krune with speeds that surpassed Iem himself. However, Krune wasn''t idle either. Krune''s wills acted in conjunction with him to send several attacks without stopping. "Tribulation Trail Blaze!" "Purple Earth!" "Myriad Ice Thunder Dragons!" Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Explosions of Purple and Black Fire/Lightning happened everywhere in the arena. The ground of the stage was also in pieces, and even the formations below were having a hard time to hold those two. "What kind of power is that? Is it something that Divine Path Realm cultivators and demon beasts could do?" "With such power, they would be able to completely trash ordinary Divine View Realm cultivators and demon beasts. Perhaps even fight a 1st Stage Semi-Divinity head-on!" "This can''t be the power of the Heavenly Divine Soul alone. The records show nothing like these two monsters in the past one hundred or so Heavenly Competitions." Krune and Iem couldn''t care less about all the conversation outside. They were fully focused on their own world. Black Flame Wings expanded from Iem''s back as his speeds increased once again. Krune knew that Iem was trying to get close to him to push for a melee fight. He is not from the Heavenly Race, so he definitely won''t resist long if Iem gets close. Twelve Shields separated from Krune''s Shield Formations and formed something like two wings on his wisp core, six on each side. Purple Tribulation Lightning began to pass through them as Krune''s wills controlled the discharged power. "Tribulation Shield Wings!" This was the first time Krune used this method in combat. He didn''t like it much since it used a large amount of Purple Lightning to sustain. However, he is sure that Iem is using as much if not even more Black Flames as well. Once again, Tribulation Clouds began to form in the sky. However, they were a mix of Purple and Black clouds. Sure enough, the Black Flames also had a type of Tribulation Power, just like Light Spirit''s Lightning. "Devil Flame Tribulation!" "Heavens Fall Camality!" Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Although Krune and Iem used their Tribulation attacks, they did not come down. Instead, they attacked each other in the middle of the skies. The Explosion sounds were coming from there too. It was like the black and purple clouds were doing their best to eradicate their adversary in the air. As Iem battled Krune, he also talked with a certain someone in his body. "Flame God, is what you said true?" A voice then came into Iem''s mind. "Yes! If you two time it well, we can surely open the gate. With your crystallization ability and my presence, we can definitely go there now. But we need their help." Iem nodded. "Alright, you talk with the other guy then." Suddenly, a Divine Sense message reached Krune. Not only him but the existence in his foundation as well. "Purple Lightning God, Luvile!" Luvile wasn''t surprised to hear that voice. "Devil Flame God, Harold!" Krune was taken aback, though. "What is happening, who is it?" Light Spirit ignored Krune, though. "Harold, What are you doing here?" Harold laughed after hearing that. "What else could it be? Did you forget what happened all the way back? You and Cilia were not the only ones struck down. However, not in my wildest dreams would I have thought to meet you here." Luvile agreed with him. "Indeed, it''s almost as if someone planned for that. Anyway, what happened to your body? How come you are inside that brat''s foundation?" Harold answered right after. "That''s not of your concern. Anyway, I contacted you for another reason. I need your help to open the gate. Can you give me a hand?" As Luvile and Harold talked, the battle outside seemed to reach a stalemate. Neither side could really take the upper hand. It was by far the most thrilling battle of the entire competition. Those who haven''t fought Krune or Iem even hoped that those two destroyed themselves. Otherwise, they will have no choice other than surrender. However, from the moment Luvile and Harold began to talk, no more than a few seconds passed. All thanks to how fast Divine Sense messages are. "You want to send that kid over there? Are you crazy? He will be crushed straight away!" Harold denied, though. "If it was anyone else, then yes. However, with me here and his Crystallization Ability, Iem will be able to barely manage." Luvile pondered a bit before asking. "And why should I help you?" "Simple. Isn''t it several times better for you to be alone here? Would you really want me to stay? Do that, and I''ll be gone with my kid." Luvile immediately agreed. "Alright." Chapter 558: Lower and Higher Realms Krune, on the other hand, was still confused. "What gate? Where do you want to send him?" Light Spirit then said. "With the Devil Flame God and my power, we should be able to open a tiny temporary passage to the Godly Path Realm. This is a good deal for us since I don''t want to have to deal with this lunatic in the future when I try to take my body back." Krune was taken aback. Godly Path Realm? How come he never heard about it before? "Wasn''t supposed to be only the Higher Realms and the Lower Realms? Where did this Godly Path Realm come from?" Only then did Luvile remember that Krune didn''t know much about the Higher Realms. "Oh, it seems like you wrongly understood it. What do you think the words ''Higher Realms'' mean? Think about the words itself." The moment Luvile made that question, he understood what he meant. "I see... Higher Realms is just a way to talk about all the Realms above. But it doesn''t mean they are the same. From what you are saying, there is the Godly Path Realm between and then the Higher Realm, is that correct?" Luvile confirmed. "Correct. That''s also why we call this place we are in ''Lower Realms'' instead of ''Lower Realm.'' It is not composed of only the Universes around but the Underworlds as well. The Underworlds are an even Lower Realm. When you put the Underworlds below us and the Universes we are at the moment together, they form the ''Lower Realms.'' By the way, the highest Realm is called God Realm, just so you know." "In contrast, when you put the Godly Path Realm and God Realm together, you form the Higher Realms, which are the two superior realms above us. I believe that with your intelligence, you can guess why the two realms above and the two realms below are separated like that, right?" Krune pondered for a second before answering. "Godly Energy!" Luvile confirmed. "Exactly. The Godly Path Realm and the God Realm both have Godly Energy. The Underworld and the Universe we are at the moment don''t. Of course, there are a lot more rules and history behind it, but the main factor is still Godly Energy." Krune understood the logic. But it was then that a question popped in his mind. "Underworld, Godly Path Realm, and God Realm. In that case, what do you call the Universes we are in at the moment?" "Mortal Realm. Pretty lackluster, don''t you think?" Krune didn''t mind. In fact, he thought it to be a very fitting name for this place. "Do you find their names disappointing?" "Not really. I quite like how simple it was made. Anyway, be it the Godly Path Realm or God Realm, neither of them will have anything to do with me for the time being. You just want me to help them to open the gate to the Godly Path Realm, right?" "Correct." Krune didn''t really have a reason to deny Luvile''s proposal. He must have his reasons to want the Devil Flame God to be gone. "No problem." Krune then messaged Iem and the Devil Flame God in Iem''s foundation back. "I don''t mind helping to open this passage. We can decide a place to do that after the Heavenly Competition is over." However, the Devil Flame God immediately rejected that idea. "No can do, it has to be done now." Krune and Luvile were taken aback and waited for the Devil Flame God to continue. "After Iem unleashed my Devil Flames, my perception of the surroundings increased several times. At this very moment, there is an ascender watching our battle. That''s also why I offered to open the gate; I don''t want to risk being caught by that guy. Iem is too weak at the moment, so I better leave with him." Krune and Luvile Immediately understood. Who else could the Ascender be if not Wally? Krune had asked Wally to see his fights and prevent the Dalin Universe Management from playing any tricks. Should he explain that Wally will not do anything to them? No, first of all, would he believe him? It was then that Luvile said. "Don''t say anything, just help open the gate and let him go. If you say that Wally can be trusted, he might change his mind and stay. I really don''t want to risk it." Luvile''s world reminded Krune that he really wanted the Devil Flame God gone for some reason. "Very well, how should we do this?" Luvile then contacted the Devil Flame God. "I don''t know if there is really an ascender around us or not. But I definitely can''t go to the Godly Path Realm now. At the very least, my wisp here can''t resist, so I will stay. Besides, you might have said that there is an ascender just to force me to enter, so I would rather bet in staying here." The Devil Flame God didn''t mind. So what if Luvile is caught by the Ascender later? Whether he believed him or not, it is not his problem. "Very well, let''s start. Iem, Prepare your strongest attack, the more energy, the better." Luvile told Krune the same. "You as well. We are going to collide both Higher Realms'' Laws to open the passage to the Godly Path Realm, do your best." Although the conversation between the two parties was long, the fact is that just a few seconds passed outside. After all, everything was discussed through Divine Sense. They spent more time thinking about the answers and words that they would say back than hearing what the other wanted to say. Thanks to that, no one saw any anomaly between the balanced and highly destructive fight of Krune and Iem. Suddenly, Iem''s Black Flame Wings flapped, and he opened a distance from Krune. Krune, too, did the same. His Tribulation Wing Shields discharged some Purple Tribulation Lightning, opening distance from Iem. Krune''s Tribulation Wing Shields detached from his Wisp Core and gathered together with the rest of the shields, forming a sphere around him. Obviously, Krune was about to use his Tribulation Lightning Cannon, which took the longest to be charged. Of course, he kept his Divine Sense and Mental Energy focused on Iem in the distance. Purple Tribulation Lightning power began to increase inside the Shields'' Sphere. Suddenly, a small Purple Light exited Krune''s Core. That was none other than Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning Source! Because of the high concentration of Tribulation Lightning inside the sphere, no one saw that, though. As for Divine Sense, no one could perceive Luvile either. On Iem''s side, the Devil Flame Suns appeared once more. However, there weren''t only three, but ten of them! Not only that, but one of them enveloped Iem completely. Nine Devil Flame Suns and one extra at the center. Inside the central Sun, a small black flame came out as well. As one can imagine, that was the Black Flame Source of the Devil Flame God! The suns quickly increased in power and size. Soon, they surpassed the previous three suns that Iem used against Krune. Everyone looking at that was shocked. They could feel that crazily high amount of energy on both sides. This wasn''t a battle of the Divine Path or Divine View Realms anymore. It totally reached the Semi-Divinity Realm level! "They noticed that their fight wasn''t going anywhere, so they intend to finish everything with their strongest moves." "Yes, it is hard to say which side will win. Perhaps, both will lose and wipe out each other. It''s really a sight to behold." "I''m more impressed with the level of this fight. It definitely will be recorded as one of the most brutal for the next hundreds of Heavenly Competitions." Of course, the energies from Krune and Iem couldn''t really reach the Semi-Divinity Level. It was because Luvile and Harold were investing some of their Source Essence that it got this terrifying. If they didn''t come out, Krune and Iem''s fight would probably take a lot longer to finish. The Sphere of Purple Tribulation Lightning kept increasing as the Wills inside Krune''s shield did their best to kept it all concentrated. There was so much energy that even the super tough Purple Flame Diamond Shields were on the verge of breaking! Iem wasn''t much better. Even his Crystallized Body began to emit a few cracking sounds. The nine Devil Flame Suns around Iem had fused together with the central one, which increased its power to a terrifying degree. Suddenly, Luvile and Harold shouted in their minds. "Now!" Krune and Iem''s eyes lit up, and they released their attacks simultaneously. "Devil Flame Obliteration!" "Tribulation Lightning Cannon!" At the very moment the attacks were released, Luvile and Harold took control of them. The two attacks met each other, and the world went silent for a moment. However, the explosion that everyone was waiting for didn''t happen. Instead, the energies of both sides seemed to entangle and fuse. Others couldn''t see, but Luvile and Harold knew that the two Higher Realms Laws were attacking the same point, trying to create a passage to the Godly Path Realm. Suddenly, all the energy seemed to be sucked by some force. It was as if a hole had been made on a spaceship in the middle of the void. "Success!" Luvile told Krune to stay away and pretend that he was fighting against the pulling force. The attack had opened that hole much closer to Iem, and he also pretended to be resisting it. However, it was just a play as he was quickly dragged inside. Luvile sighed in relief when he saw that the Devil Flame God was finally gone. But it was at this moment that both Krune and Luvile received a Divine Sense message. "A channel that can avoid the detection of the guys in the Higher Realms, such a fortuitous encounter." Krune and Luvile immediately recognized that voice. It was Wally! Suddenly, Krune felt some kind of power entering his Wisp Core, acting as if it was some protection barrier. "Don''t lose this opportunity, you should go there and take a look. As for your family, you can leave them with me. Now go!" Krune and Luvile were alarmed. "Wait! It wasn''t a coincidence, we don''t wan-" Too late, that protective barrier that only Krune and Luvile could see immediately pulled them inside. Wally knew that Krune wouldn''t want to leave his family behind, so he simply thought that Krune would come up with a reason for not going. He truly believes that Krune shouldn''t lose this chance, that''s why he ignored Krune''s feelings and forced him in. Just like that, Krune and Luvile were gone as well. Chapter 559: Repercussions Everyone looked in bewilderment at the ''hole in space'' where Krune and Iem disappeared. No one knew what was happening since the laws used to open that were not from the Lower Realms. No one other than Wally could tell that that was a hole connecting to the Godly Path Realm. Still, he pretended to not know anything. "Where are they?" "Did they teleport outside?" "Are you kidding? The formations set up around the arena are the best ones possible. They definitely wouldn''t be able to teleport outside." "But the hole disappeared, and they are nowhere to be seen." "What you talking about? Did you feel any Space Laws? I didn''t at all!" Norzulun and Wally looked at each other. Norzulun had the feeling that Wally is involved. But if that is the case, why? He didn''t need to make such a scene. With Wally''s power, he could simply go there, take Krune, and go away. No one would be able to stop him. That being such, such a play would be meaningless. Norzulun thought that perhaps it had something to do with Iem Turo. But he immediately shook his head after. The same rule applied here. Wally could simply wait for the Heavenly Competition to be over and then contact or even kidnap Iem Turo by himself later. Once again, what would be the point of such a play? "Check the arena. See if those two are really gone or if they are hiding with some technique." The elders nodded, and together with the judge, they scanned the entire arena. However, even those who knew how to use the Fourth Dimension couldn''t find a single trace of Krune or Iem, much to their confusion. One hour passed, and Norzulun could only step forward to continue the competition. "We verified everything, but we can''t find any trace from Krune or Iem Turo. Still, the Heavenly Competition is ongoing. There had been several other weird events in past Heavenly Competitions. Nevertheless, we never canceled them, nor will we do it now. With Iem and Krune''s disappearance, we can''t decide who is the winner of their fight. That being said, both Iem and Krune are now considered to have lost their battle. If they do not come back for their remaining fights in the next rounds, it will be their automatic loss as well." That was the best that could be done. It is a rule that whatever happens, the Heavenly Competition must continue. Even if all the finalists disappeared, the Dalin Universe management would simply take those who failed to reach the top 8 and set it with them. The spectators didn''t know what to say. The two strongest competitors disappeared just like that, so they couldn''t help but feel like something was suspicious. However, they also thought that it made no sense. After all, both Krune and Iem already got 4 victories each. Even if they lose the last two fights by default, their results won''t change. A Dalin Universe Management Slot is already guaranteed for both of their Universes. The rule of the Heavenly Competition was that no one should intervene until a winner is found. If someone''s protector did it, their member would be disqualified, just like Tirande and Tiango. In that case, all their victories so far would be meaningless. That''s why Iem Turo''s Protector did not come forward. He was clenching his fists hard while Iem Turo was sucked into that ''hole in space.'' Still, he held himself back and didn''t step forward because he knew how many victories Iem had. Iem is definitely very important for Dalin Universe, but the Slot is even more so. He couldn''t risk losing Dalin Universe Management''s Slot no matter what. On Krune''s side, Erzato had a conflicted expression. It was because of the same reason that he didn''t step forward. With Krune''s four victories, Luvile Universe has already guaranteed their Dalin Universe Management Slot, so he simply couldn''t risk it. Still, Krune was already that strong even without being a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner. So wouldn''t he be a risk in the future as well? But then again, the sacred lands might have many uses for Krune''s power in the future. Back in the Luvile Universe, everyone was already commemorating even before Krune''s started his battle against Iem. After all, they knew that a slot is nows theirs. But they were still taken aback by Krune''s real power during his fight against Iem Turo. It obviously raised some alarms in their head. However, he suddenly disappeared in the middle of the final phase. They simply didn''t know what to think about it. Was it a good thing or a bad thing? The Sacred Lands couldn''t tell. In the Divine Path Sect, Lucio''s face was dark, and so was everyone else''s. Krune also guaranteed their Slot, but they were more concerned about Krune himself. In the wisp main world, Fie and Feifei were also worried. They didn''t know what happened at all. Was that an underhanded move of the Dalin Universe? Not likely. Krune would never step into the Heavenly Competition if he wasn''t confident that the Dalin Universe wouldn''t intervene. The same could be said for Cinty, Ruik, Laex, and the rest. If that is the case, then what happened just now? The battles continued. Hanan would be Krune''s next opponent on the 6th round, which he obviously won by default. Laka was also supposed to fight Iem Turo in the same round, so he ended winning by default too. As one can imagine, Laka was anything but happy. For someone like him, he totally wanted to try his chances against Iem. In the 7th round, the same thing happened again. Krune and Iem didn''t appear, losing by default once more. With that, the results of the competition were out. The Slots went to... Laka, Kizan Universe - 6 wins. Laka only lost his fight against Krune and no other. He would probably fail if Iem was still here, but he ended winning by default. Waka Ulin, Ulin Universe - 5 wins. He only lost a fight against Krune and Laka in the end. Laka proved to be a lot crazier than he expected. He used his body and the Purple Flame Dragon Pearl''s power to resist Waka''s attacks, achieving a narrow victory in the end. Even Waka''s Dimensional Slash was conquered through Laka''s recklessness. Hanan, Frunkan Universe - 4 wins. Hanan won his fight against Krune by default, so he knew that he already got a slot with that result. Besides, he had used his clan Forbidden Technique in the fight against Sara, so it was better to simply give up the last battle to prevent further injuries. Hanan didn''t mind dying if he could get a Dalin Universe Management Slot, but since he can live and still get it, then why not? Krune, Luvile Universe - 4 wins. Obviously, Krue would probably get more points, but he was nowhere to be seen. Nonetheless, he got enough victories. And finally, Iem Turo, Dalin Universe - 4 wins. Basically, the same reason as Krune. With that, the Heavenly Competition was over. Sara, Sule, and Jovlare didn''t get a slot in the end. At some point, Wally disappeared without leaving a trace. Norzulun only saw that he was gone after he finished announcing the results. He still felt that Wally probably had something to do with Krune and Iem''s disappearance, but there was nothing he could do. At the very least, he can''t prove that Wally intervened. Nonetheless, he was the main suspect. Back in the Wisp Main World, Feifei''s group saw that the broadcast ended. Feifei then looked at the others and said. "I need to go there. Krune can''t simply disappear like that. I need to find him!" Fie immediately agreed. "I''m going too. Dad might need our help at this very moment." Lala, on the other hand, disagreed with them. "You can''t go there. That place is guarded by several Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts. What do you expect to do there? Chances are that you will be immediately captured. At the very least, I''m sure that the Dalin Universe won''t allow you to get close to the place where the competition was held." Tiane agreed with Lala. "Lala is right. We need to think about another approach. By the way, is Krune''s Soul Flame still lit in the Wisp Main World?" Cinty nodded. "Yes. The moment Krune disappeared in that ''hole in space,'' I checked his Soul Flame. It is still there, and it doesn''t seem to be affected." Feifei didn''t care, though. "Even if you say so, I still need to go." Feifei was just about to move out when suddenly, a Divine Sense Message reached everyone''s minds. "Don''t worry, Krune is fine. He will be back soon too. You just need to wait." Everyone was taken aback. That was a voice that no one had heard before. Well, no one except for Heavin. "Wally!" One must remember that when Krune went to Floor Number Zero, only he, Luvile, and Heavin were present. "What? Did you say, Wally?" Suddenly, a colored wisp appeared right in the middle of the room. If not that Wally''s wisp core was much bigger than Krune''s, it would be hard to notice the difference. "Oh! Aren''t you that Parrot Puppet that Krune had on his shoulder? It seems like you were successful in separating yourself from Krune''s Divine Soul." Heavin immediately nodded. "Yes, I did. But we can talk about that later. What about Krune?" Wally then returned to his human form. After that, he explained what happened and where Krune had gone to. Chapter 560: Godly Path Realm Somewhere in a long prairie, a strange ''hole in space'' had been opened. It was quite weird since there were no Space Laws involved in the process. However, it caused quite a stir due to the amount of Spiritual Energy coming from it. Fortunately, the place was enormous, and there was no one around. Suddenly, a young man that seemed to be made of crystal was shot out of it like a cannonball. He fell on the ground and rolled for a few hundreds of meters. He tried to stabilize himself with his Spiritual, Elemental, and Chaos Energies. However, he noticed that none of those energies seemed to have any use in this place. In the end, he could only use his own body to stop himself. However, after the shook, he noticed some strange forced trying to smash his body flat! "Concentrate! This is Godly Energy. I''m using my Devil Flame to block most of it, but you will need to deal with the rest. Don''t forget, I won''t be able to do it for long, so you have to adapt as if your life depended on it. No, in fact, your life does depend on it." Obviously, the young man was Iem Turo, the Heavenly Race Member. Iem quickly sat down on the ground and focused on the Godly Energy. He had to go through the so-called transformation of the body if he wants to survive here. Harold, the Devil Flame God, looked around the place and at the ''hole in space'' that was almost closing. "Good, there is no one around, take your time to transf-" Suddenly, a rainbow-colored ball shot of the ''hole in space'' like a cannonball! Bam! The ball hit Iem''s body head-on! It was as if it was purposely targetting him. Iem, who had just begun to get used to the environment, was once against sent flying for another few hundred meters or so. For a moment, Harold and Iem thought that they had been attacked. But they quickly saw what the thing that struck them was. "..." "..." The Rainbow-Colored ball began to float again as it looked everything in a 360-degree radius. Who else could this be if not Krune and Luvile? Just as Harold was about to ask why they came, Krune''s Purple Tribulation Lightning activated. *Zap!* He went straight back tot he ''hole in space!'' Too bad, though. Just as he was amount to enter it again, the gap closed right in front of him. "..." "..." Krune felt like crying but had no tears. "Wally!!!!!!" Krune was fuming! "Who the hell would want to come here? What bullshit fortuitous encounter! We opened the gate on purpose for fucking sake! We didn''t want to come at all!" It was then that Luvile''s voice came out. "Silence! We are already here, so quickly focus on the Godly Energy. If you delay too much, your wisp core will be smashed by it." Krune soon noticed that Luvile was right. The Godly Energy in this place was hundreds if not thousands of times thicker than the highest floor in the Holy Land. But there was something strange... Krune didn''t feel pressured by it at all. Krune quickly calmed down before saying. "Alright. However, I don''t seem to be in danger. At least, I can''t feel the Godly Energy pressuring me." Luvile immediately explained. "Can''t you see the barrier that Wally cast on you before he sent us inside the gate? That''s why you can resist. However, it won''t last for long, so you need to transform your Wisp Core." Harold and Iem''s expressions were weird. Harold then told Iem to focus on the transformation while he talked with those two. "Luvile, did you and that wisp come here by mistake?" Luvile also noticed Harold and Iem in the distance. "Oh, so there you are. Yes, because of a misunderstanding, we were sent in against our will." Luvile was puzzled, though. "By the way, how did you fall so far from the gate?" Iem and Harold felt like they would vomit blood. Wasn''t your wisp who sent us flying?! "Cough, cough. That doesn''t matter. Anyway, we arrived in the Godly Path Realm, so let''s focus on the transformation first, and we can talk later." Luvile agreed with Harold. Krune finally calmed down. There was no point in losing his patience over what just happened. "Light Spirit, you said I need to transform my Wisp Core. Isn''t this the thing that all ascenders must do when they first arrive in the Higher Realms? I remember you said before that only a Peak Divinity Realm Body can resist the transformation. I''m only in the 7th Stage of the Divine Path Realm, won''t I be destroyed in the process." Luvile also had a headache. "I know that. Your first body transformation, or Wisp Core Transformation, was supposed to happen once you entered the Divinity Realm. That is the usual process. You would need a body at the Peak of the Divinity Realm to resist the transformation of Godly Energy. However, do you think you can jump all the way to the Peak fo the Divinity Realm now? I doubt so. That being said, you have no other choice other than transforming now." Krune had to admit that Light Spirit was right. "What do I do, then?" Luvile then explained. "I''m not entirely sure myself. Usually, the transformation would happen automatically. As you can probably feel, there is simply no Spiritual Energy in this place. Let alone Elemental or Chaos Energy. In the usual process, a human would get a Godly Human Body. As for the demon beasts, they would get a Godly Demon Beast one. However, you are a wisp, and have no body to start with." "I never cared about it much since once you reached the Peak of the Divinity Realm and ascended, your transformation would be carried automatically. Whatever methods the Higher Realms used to make it happen doesn''t matter. It simply happened. You must understand that it would be impossible to go through this transformation in the Lower Realms. Even if Arty released the same amount of Godly Energy as the Higher Realms back in the Wisp Main World, your body would still not transform." "You could say that it is thanks to the Higher Realms Laws that the ascenders'' bodies are transformed. If you concentrate, you can definitely feel the presence of those weird laws that are approaching you at this very moment. They want to initiate the transformation of your Wisp Core." Krune had to admit that Light Spirit was right. It was a bizarre feeling as if his Wisp Core wanted to become one with it. "That''s why I can only make a guess at the moment and hope that wisps follow the same process as everyone else." "In the normal process, Godly Energy would enter the body indiscriminately. It would not go you your foundation, but every cell of the body itself. Since that was the case, I can only tell you to let the Godly Energy act over the shell of your Wisp Core and the foundation inside. In theory, your Wisp Core is your body, so I believe that the Wisp Core itself is the thing that has to be transformed. It is different from the others, who would transform their bodies first." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Wait. The way you are saying it, it seems like the races with bodies would also transform their Dantian and Demon Cores after the body transformation. In that case, wouldn''t I be just jumping a step?" Light Spirit confirmed. "Yes, but it is precisely where the problem lies. You haven''t forgotten that the Dantians and Demon Cores are a lot more fragile than the body, right? That is also why you never stay close to others when you battle in your Wisp Form. That being said, the transformation of the Dantians and Demon Cores happens very slowly. If the Cultivators and Demon Beasts don''t block the excessive amount of Godly Energy with their new Godly Bodies, they would definitely shatter straight away. However, you don''t have the time that they have. You need to finish your transformation, which needs to be done without a Divinity Realm Wisp Core, before Wally''s protection barrier''s power runs out." Krune nodded as he asked another question. "What about Purple Tribulation Lightning? Can''t we rely on it to fend away the excess of Godly Energy?" "We can." Luvile said. "However, it won''t last forever. Anyway, I can understand what kind of protection Wally put on your Wisp Core. I will open a tiny gap and let the Godly Energy flow in. However, you must do your best to hold your Core together. At the same time, you will need to let your entire foundation, which is also your wisp core, bask in it." Krune took a deep breath again. "Alright." Light Spirit then controlled the energy within Wally Barrier and opened that tiny gap they talked about. What passed through it was really just a bit of Godly Energy. However, one must remember that the concentration of Godly Energy in the Higher Realms simply can''t be compared to the Lower Realms. When that little bit of Godly Energy touched his Wisp Core, Krune felt like the energy would tear it apart instantly. "Concentrate, ignore the pain in your soul, focus on the Godly Energy, and spread it through your foundation. Doesn''t matter what happens, you must not pass out. If that happens, you are doomed and most likely me too." Krune''s mind recovered after Light Spirit''s sudden call. He then activated both his Elemental and Chaos Meridians to guide that tiny amount of Godly Energy. However, it was at this moment that something happened. Chapter 561: Fusion Krune noticed that his Meridians seemed to absorb both the Godly Energy and that weird transformation law. In the Holy land, such a thing didn''t happen at all. As he paid more attention to it, he noticed that what came in first were the laws, and only then the Godly Energy. ''I see, without the support of the transformation laws, the Godly Energy can''t transform the meridians.'' Krune had only to think for a moment to understand why it was happening. ''I''m such an idiot. Of course, the meridians will transform. I already verified way back that the Myriad Energies Technique''s Meridians would become part of one''s body. Not only that, but they could even be passed down like a bloodline. Since they are part of my ''body,'' they will obviously transform first. Well, they are the only thing that can be considered as a ''part of a body'' in my case.'' Krune''s eyes lit up, and he controlled both the Elemental and Chaos Meridians to absorb even more Godly Energy. Different from his Wisp Core, he didn''t feel any pain while his Meridians transformed at all. Light Spirit was also taken aback. The speed which Krune was absorbing the super-concentrated Godly Energy far surpassed his expectations. "Did you find a way to accelerate the process?" Krune immediately replied. "Yes and no." He then explained his theory to Light Spirit. "I see, that really makes sense. Meridians are considered part of the body, not the Dantian or Demon Core. It is no surprise that you can transform it first. However, the fact that you don''t feel any pain while doing it is beyond my expectations. Are you sure your meridians aren''t on the verge of breaking down?" Krune shook his head. "There is nothing wrong with them. If anything, they seem quite excited about it. It''s just like when I first used Purple Tribulation Lightning to create the Spiritual Energy Meridians." Light Spirit was quite surprised by that. "Well, that''s good then. I''ll increase the amount of Godly Energy so that you can finish their transformation faster. Also, I''m quite curious to see what they will become." Krune nodded, and he concentrated on all the Godly Energy and Transformation Laws. Both types of meridians seemed like sharks who smelled blood. They absorbed the Godly Energy and Transformation Laws like twenty small black holes. "I wonder if all of them will become something like Godly Energy meridians. After all, the Elemental and Chaos Meridians were supposed to do two different types of jobs." Light Spirit also had the same doubt. "I don''t know. In theory, they will be different. After all, they are made differently." It was then that Light Spirit had an idea. "Wait. Suppose that the Elemental and Chaos Meridians are becoming the same thing or kind of, why don''t you try to fuse them? Until now, you had to first convert Spiritual Energy with the Elemental Meridians. Only then could you convert the Elemental Energy into Chaos Energy with the Chaos Meridians. But if they can link together, wouldn''t they be able to do both things simultaneously?" Krune pondered a bit before saying. "But the Godly Path Realm and God Realm only have Godly Energy. If I fuse my twenty meridians into ten, wouldn''t it be worse?" Light Spirit was taken aback. Indeed, doing such a fusion would only be beneficial in the Lower Realms, not in the Higher ones. "Hum... To be honest, I think you should still try it. If the Elemental and Chaos meridians can be fused into ten Godly Energy Meridians, they would be much bigger and more powerful. In theory, they wouldn''t lose to the twenty smaller ones. Besides, it is not like you won''t go back to the Lower Realm anymore, right?" Krune thought about the chances. For some reason, he felt that it was worth a try. "Alright, let me see what I can do." Krune Chaos meridians are different from each other. After all, each one of them represented one part of the Heavenly Laws in the Lower Realms. The tenth one was the only exception since it was made with Light Spirit''s Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws. But in that case, he can simply use the Purple Tribulation Lightning Elemental Meridian as a base. Surprisingly, Krune didn''t feel any deterrence when fusing the first Elemental Meridian with the Chaos Meridian. If anything, it seemed more like they were supposed to be together from the very start. "Light Spirit, the Chaos Meridians are the Fourth Form of the Myriad Energies Technique. In the past, I thought that the Fifth Form would be Divinity Energy Meridians. But now I''m starting to think that perhaps, the fifth form was the Godly Energy Meridians instead. Otherwise, the fusion shouldn''t be working so easily as this." Light Spirit then thought about a possibility. "That makes sense. Do you Remember? Wally''s disciples in the Elemental Path said that they had been trying to create the Fifth Form for who knows how many Chaos Cycles. However, only when you showed them the Purple Tribulation Meridians did they considered the Higher Realms'' laws. That being said, it has a direct relation with the Godly Energy and Transformation Laws of the Higher Realms." "First of all, who said that the Myriad Energies Technique Fifth Form had something to do with Divinity Energy? It''s just that you all saw it evolving into Spiritual Meridians, Elemental Meridians, and Chaos Meridians that you automatically thought about something like Divinity Meridians." "However, your meridians are making the fusion as if it was the most common thing in the world. Doesn''t that prove that such a thing as Divinity Meridians shouldn''t exist in the first place? Or better, it might really be possible to create the Divinity Meridians first, but who said that you must follow the proper order? Your Myriad Energies Technique is something wholly new and unexplored, so there is nothing wrong if you find new paths that no one discovered before." Krune had to admit that Light Spirit was right. "Alright, enough with the talk. Focus on the fusion and then the transformation." However, Krune came up with another idea. "Wait! Before that, didn''t you say the new ascenders need to first transform their bodies before slowly transform their Dantians and Demon Cores? In that case, wouldn''t my Meridians be considered my body in a certain way? If that is the case, I believe I can use my meridians to resist the Higher Realms Godly Energy and only then slowly transform my foundation and Wisp Core." Light Spirit was surprised to hear that. "I see... Then let me know when you finish the transformation and fusion of the Elemental and Chaos Meridians into Godly Meridians. We can test if you can use them to resist the Higher Realms Godly Energy on your own." Krune agreed with Light Spirit and focused on the transformation of his meridians. As time passed, Krune asked for more and more Godly Energy. Of course, Light Spirit made sure to not disperse the Energy Protection that Wally put around Krune''s Wisp Core. According to what Light Spirit could see, Wally''s protection would last an entire week. Back on Iem Turo''s side, he was suffering quite a lot. Even with his Crystallisation ability of the Heavenly Race and the Devil Flame God''s help, it was far from easy. Harold did his best to make Iem go to his limit. If he let even an extra iota of Godly Energy pass through his protection, Iem would definitely collapse. He knew that coming to this place was a risk with Iem''s level, but he simply couldn''t let the chance pass. Suddenly, he remembered about Krune and Luvile. When his perception extended to those two, he was taken aback. The amount of Godly Energy entering the Wisp''s body was at least five times higher than Iem Turo''s. He couldn''t believe it since Krune is just a wisp. How could he resist so much Godly Energy of the Higher Realms like that? "Luvile, is that really a wisp? How can he absorb so much Godly Energy?" Usually, Light Spirit wouldn''t need to answer if he didn''t want to. But he felt that Harold would not just let it go if he ignored him. So he came up with a good excuse. "It''s not like you didn''t hear, right?" Harold was puzzled. "Hear what?" Luvile then continued. "Were you in a cave during your time in the Lower Realms? I''m obviously talking about the new Myriad Wisps Technique, idiot. What else could allow him to do what he is doing now if not for that?" Harold was taken aback. Of course, he heard about it. The Myriad Wisps Technique that was on par with the best cultivation techniques of the strongest powers in all Universes. "That thing? But how is it related to Godly Energy? Wasn''t it just a Lower Realms Cultivation Technique?" Luvile snorted after hearing that. "Do you know who invented it? It was an ascender. To be more specific, the only Wisp to have ever ascended, Wally. Considering that you spent your time with this kid of the Dalin Universe, I''m sure you at least heard about him, right?" Harold finally understood what Luvile meant. "I see... I heard about Wally and the wisps'' situation indeed. I guess I just didn''t care much about it. Otherwise, I should have thought about this possibility. Sure enough, that Wisp stayed in the lower realms to create this new technique that is amazing both in the Lower and Higher Realms, quite impressive." Luvile agreed with him. "Now, don''t bother me anymore since I need to take care of this wisp here." Harold agreed with Luvile and also returned his attention to Iem. Just like that, three days went by. Chapter 562: Unexpected Contact Wally''s protection would last a week. Yet, Krune only took three days to finish the fusion and transformation of his Elemental and Chaos Meridians into ten Godly Energy Meridians. The process was a lot smoother than he thought, which significantly increased his confidence. Another good thing was that after the meridians fused, each of the Chaos Meridians properties was enhanced after the fusion with the Elemental ones. As mentioned before, each Chaos Meridians could improve according to the laws of each Heavenly Property that the owner had comprehended. For example, the Yin Chaos Meridian could absorb the laws related to Yin, like water laws and death laws. Now that it fused with one of the Elemental Meridians, its improvement because of the laws got even better. Krune could tell that his laws comprehension speed, which was already high due to the Godly Energy, got even faster. After the fusion was over, Krune began to control the ten new Godly Meridians to protect his Wisp Core. Thanks to his Wisp Core size, it wasn''t anything hard to do as long as he paid attention. "Light Spirit, let the Godly Energy come in, I want to see if my protection would work against it." Light Spirit then controlled the barrier and let a much more considerable amount of concentrated Godly Energy enter. He was also paying very close attention. If Krune showed any signs of losing control, he would immediately use his Purple Tribulation Lightning to get rid of the Godly Energy. At first, Krune felt quite pressured. One thing was the theory. The other was put it into practice. However, Krune did not collapse. By controlling the absorption and expelling of Godly Energy precisely, he could allow the right amount of Godly Energy to remain. The main problem before was how much Godly Energy was concentrated on the air. Even if Krune took just a wisp of it, the concentration was just frighteningly high. It caused too much damage. But after filtering it with his Godly Meridians and at the same time using the meridians to fend off the ambient''s Godly Energy, Krune finally found a balance. Of course, it would take a long time before Krune could finish transforming his entire foundation and wisp core into godly ones. One must remember that when someone ascends, they are at the peak of the Divinity Realm. Their body will transform at high speeds even if they don''t want to. However, it would still take at least one to two hours for them to finish this initial transformation. However, Krune is different. The problem is not only his cultivation. The main issue is that his ''body'' is both his Wisp Core and Foundation at the same time. He must transform both of them simultaneously, even if he doesn''t want to. One can''t forget that new ascenders first transform their bodies, which has their meridians. Only after it is done will they began to change their Dantians and Demon Cores into Godly Ones. That being said, let alone one or two hours, Krune will probably take an entire month to finish transforming his Wisp Core into a Godly Wisp Core. "Light Spirit, could it be that the transformation of Dantians and Demon Cores are related to their new cultivation realm?" Light Spirit couldn''t help but laugh. "Hahaha! Smart! It seems like you already noticed. You are correct; they are related. To be more specific, they are basically the same thing. The transformation of the Dantians and Demon Cores are divided into nine stages, just like the normal cultivation system." "Unfortunately for you, there is no way to improve your ''Godly'' cultivation at the moment. The best you can do is only reach the first stage, which will allow your wisp core to interact with the Godly Energy without being smashed. After that, you won''t be able to move even a single iota into the next stages of the Godly Wisp Core." Krune didn''t need to think much to understand why. "I see, it is basically a problem with my actual cultivation. Even though I''m in the Higher Realms, I''m still a 7th Stage Divine Path Realm wisp. Without the support of a Peak Divinity Realm cultivation, I can not advance into the next stages of the Godly Wisp Core Transformation." "Wait! In that case, the nine stages of the Dantian and Demon Core Transformation can not really be considered a Realm, right?" Light Spirit confirmed. "Correct! The transformation is really only that, a transformation. That is basically a transition where you change from the Spiritual Energy based system to Godly Energy based system. After you achieve the ninth stage, your Godly Wisp Core will finally have completed the entire transition. It indeed can''t be considered a cultivation realm per see." At this moment, Light Spirit dissipated Wally''s Energy Barrier completely. Right after, all the Godly Energy around covered Krune as if it was air. Krune, of course, felt his burden increase several times. However, he still held the Godly Energy back with his Godly Meridians. Light Spirit couldn''t help but give a mental nod. "Good. Although you can only barely hold it back, you can still survive in the Godly Path Realm on your own now." Light Spirit then continued the previous conversation while Krune tried to adapt to the ambient energy. "Now then, although the nine stages of the Dantian and Demon Core Transformations can''t be considered a Realm, they still carry a Realm''s name. Try to take a guess." If Krune wasn''t having a hard time at this moment, he would probably laugh now. "Trans- Transformation... Realm." Light Spirit laughed after that. "Hahaha! Impressive, you can already spare some energy to answer me. That''s correct, what name would be more fit if not Transformation Realm? Even though it can''t be considered a Realm, it is indeed a perfect name. Of course, when you start to use Godly Energy instead of Spiritual Energy-based ones, everything you do will be much stronger and more precise." Luvile then left Krune on his own for a few hours. The longer Krune spent using his new Godly Meridians, the better he became at controlling it. Obviously, the pressure given by the Godly Energy reduced as well. Finally, Krune could redirect some of his attention to other things, so he immediately began to ask further questions to Light Spirit. "There is one thing I''m concerned at the moment. The Divine Path, Divine View, Semi-Divinity, and Divinity Realms all need Spiritual Energy. Since that is the case, how exactly am I going to cultivate after I finish transforming my Wisp Core into the 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm? After all, the Godly Path and God Realms only have Godly Energy, right?" Luvile didn''t seem worried about it. "Don''t worry, it won''t be a problem. As long as you can finish reaching the 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm, you won''t lack spiritual energy at all." "How come?" Light Spirit continued. "Simple, you won''t need Spiritual Energy to start with. You can use Godly Energy straight away." Krune understood where Light Spirit was coming from. "So basically, because my Wisp Core and Foundation will be Godly Ones, I can use Godly Energy instead of Spiritual Energy-based ones. Before, such a thing was impossible since I couldn''t transform my Wisp Core in the Holy Land or later with Arty''s help. However, it is possible now, thanks to the Transformation Laws of the Higher Realms." Light Spirit confirmed. "Correct. In fact, I''m very eager to see what difference will be there now that such a low-level demon beast is transforming his Core. Just how much faster the Godly Wisp Core and Meridians will make your cultivation move?" Krune couldn''t help but feel excited as well. But now that he wasn''t at risk of dying because of the Godly Energy, he finally remembered his other problems back in the Mortal Realm. "How am I going back to the Lower Realms? I can''t let Feifei and Fie on their own there. I have to find a way to return as soon as possible." Krune then asked. "Right! Can''t you and that Devil Flame God open another channel to the Lower Realms? It would be the fastest way. Since you can open a passage to here, you can open a passage back there as well, no?" Light Spirit immediately cut off Krune''s expectations. "That''s impossible. We could only open a passage to the Higher Realms because the Lower Realms'' Space is hundreds of times more fragile. Not to mention that it was the combination of two new Major Laws from the Higher Realms that turned it possible." "Because the Laws of Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flame were part of the Higher Realms, the Lower Realms ''allowed'' the passage to be open. It was simply trying to send back our laws to where they belonged. However, the Higher Realms won''t allow us to go down since our Major Laws belong to this place. Why do you think that it is so difficult to descend? I told you before, the Lower Realms can''t accept the existence of ascenders. A high price must be paid if we wish to go down." Krune then said. "I don''t mind paying that supposed price, though." Light Spirit was already expecting it. "Unfortunately, you don''t have what it takes to open a passage to go down. Simply put, your cultivation is way too weak to go there. Believe me, if I could, I would go back down with you at this very moment. Don''t forget that my body is still there." Just as Krune was about to ask how much stronger he needed to be, Luvile and Krune heard a voice coming from Krune''s foundation''s depths. "Krune, can you hear me?" "Feifei!" Chapter 563: Communication Light Spirit and Krune were surprised and confused at the same time. They focused their attention on that part of Krune''s Universe Foundation. Finally, they found a small black energy ball floating there. However, both Krune and Light Spirit couldn''t recognize that energy. After taking a better look, they noticed that it was a tiny tower, no bigger than a finger, that was releasing that energy. "Feifei, is that you?" Back on the Wisp Main World, Feifei was also delighted to hear Krune''s voice. "So you can really hear me! Great! I''m in the Wisp Main World, and senior Wally is here too." Feifei reluctantly passed the small tower device, which released white-colored energy, to Wally. If one looked at them together, they would see that the two small towers were identical except for their colors. While Krune''s one was black, Wally''s one was white. "So, how is it? Do you like the Godly Path Realm?" Krune felt like crying. "Like your head! Why did you send us here? Did you forget my cultivation realm? if not be-" Wally cut Krune right there. "Because of the Elemental and Chaos Meridians, right?" Krune was taken aback. "Uh? You knew?" Wally nodded and shook his head right after. "It was just wild speculation. I wasn''t sure if such a thing would happen or not. Worst of all, I had no way to confirm it either since I couldn''t go back to the Higher Realms. But who could have thought that your fight with Iem Turo opened a ''clandestine'' passage to the Higher Realms? I couldn''t let the chance pass and immediately sent you two inside." Krune''s mouth twitched. "Then, you weren''t sure? Isn''t that the same as trying to kill me?" Wally laughed out loud after hearing it. "Don''t worry, if it really didn''t work, I would bring you back from there." This time, both Krune and Luvile were taken aback. "Is this about your ability to descend into the Lower Realms without paying any price?" Luvile asked. Wally didn''t try to deny. "Correct. It''s just that I would probably die after bringing you back. Fortunately, there was no need for that." Everyone looked at Wally. Just what could be this method of descending into the Lower Realms without paying any price? If there were no price, why would he die? "Anyway, forget it for now. I sent you up there because that would be the best place for you to train yourself. Once you get strong enough, you can open a passage and come down like everyone else. I will leave this small tower with Feifei so that you can talk now and then." Krune wasn''t satisfied, though. "I didn''t need it! I could totally cultivate until I reached the Peak of the Divinity Realm while in the Lower Realms. Once I ascended, I would be able to test this thing anyway, no?" Wally, however, shook his head. "And what if you died for the Ascencion Tribulation? Or what if you died before that because of something else?" Krune didn''t step back. "Even if that was the case, there would be others who have the Myriad Energies Technique who could try it later. Feifei, Fie, Liriu, Ruik, Tiane, Laex, and another big bunch of friends that I made in the past. The point is, you shouldn''t have sent me without considering my opinion first." Feifei and the others in the room nodded. Krune had a point in there. "Then, I will apologize. But I really didn''t want to waste such a big opportunity for both you and me. I''ll owe you one once you are back." In the end, Krune could only sigh. At the very least, Wally didn''t have evil intentions. "Whatever, what is done is done. Complaining more won''t change the fact that I can''t go back. At least not unless you sacrifice yourself to bring me. By the way, what is this thing about dying to pull me back into the Lower Realms?" Wally shook his head. "I can''t tell you about it now. It involves a lot of secrets that I would rather bring with me to my tomb. You can imagine what might happen if others found a way to descend into the Lower Realms without paying any price." "But wouldn''t you die if you did that? How come there is no price?" Wally then explained. "It is different. There is no price if I use it myself. But to bring someone who isn''t in the same realm is another story altogether. There were a lot more factors involved in such an attempt. There is also the fact that you are only in the Divine Path Realm. As you can imagine, the lower the cultivation, the easier it is to ignore the laws that control the passage between realms." Krune and Luvile agreed with wally. "What about the Heavenly Competition? What happened?" Feifei took the small tower from Wally before explaining. "Everything turned out fine. Luvile Universe has got one of the Dalin Slots. It is still too early, so it will take quite a few more days before the transfer is done. Wally also told me that you appointed your Grandmaster as the head management. Is that true?" Krune''s Grandmaster, Lani Gobel, is a peak Divinity Realm cultivator and one of the ancestors of the Divine Path Sect. "Yes. According to the Heavenly Competition''s Rules, the winners have the authority to select which power of their Universe will be responsible for the Dalin Universe management. I already talked with Erzato as well, and he accepted it on behalf of the Sacred Lands." Wally understood why. "That makes sense. None of the Sacred Lands of the Luvile Universe would allow the others to manage it. In the end, it would only bring problems. In that case, they might as well leave it for the Divine Path Realm since it is a tiny force that can''t be compared to them. Besides, the position in the Management Chair is more like a symbolic one. Everyone in the Luvile Universe will have the right to enter the Dalin Universe as long as they can open the passage. So it makes little difference for the Sacred Lands to leave this chair for your Grandmaster." Krune agreed with Wally. "Exactly. Anyway, you just need to leave it for my Grandmaster to take care of." Feifei then continued. "Your Grandmaster and a few representatives of the Sacred Lands and other powers will arrive in the Dalin Universe anytime soon. They will discuss all the rules that our Universe has to abide by. I believe it will take at least a month before the proper channels to enter Dalin are ready." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Are you going back to Luvile Universe?" Feifei shook her head. "It''s too risky. I''m too weak and have too many Heavenly Fragments with me. Even if Luvile Universe has got the Dalin Universe Slot, they don''t have a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner. It isn''t hard to imagine that the remaining Heavenly Fragment owners also want my ones. I''d rather wait until I''m strong enough to defend myself." Krune agreed with Feifei. "That''s good. If anything, you can simply call your parents to the Wisp Main World if you wish to see each other. With their level, it would be easy to visit you there." Ruik then intervened. "Tiane and I are going back, though. I want to talk with lakin and everyone there. Since we don''t have Heavenly Fragments, it won''t be much of a difference for us." Krune pondered a bit and had to admit that Ruik was right. Krune had many more things to talk about, but suddenly, his small black tower''s energy began to dim out. "What?! Is it broken?" Wally just laughed, though. "Don''t worry, it is just running out of energy. All you need to do is feed it with Godly Energy for a month, and you will be able to contact us on this side again." Krune then thought about something. "Now I know how you kept contact with Sentoi in the Higher Realms." Feifei and Fie then wished Krune good luck there and ended the connection. The energy that was coming out of the small black tower then disappeared. It now looked like a simple piece of chess, devoid of any power. Krune pondered a bit and moved his Godly Meridians close to the tower. Right after, he delivered the outside World''s Godly Energy to it. Sure enough, it began to frantically absorb it. "Well, I can only keep feeding it. There were a lot more things I wanted to ask, especially about the Godly Meridians. Anyway, I can do that next time." Luvile agreed with him. "As long as you have a way to communicate, you won''t need to get too worried. You can now focus on your task ahead, which is going back to the Lower Realms." Krune then returned to his human form and looked around. Soon, he noticed Iem Turo in the distance. He was still in his crystallization form while several black flames came out of his body. However, Krune could tell that those black flames seemed to be losing their effect. ''Is he running out of energy?'' If Krune could feel that, then let alone Luvile, who was at the Devil Flame God''s level. In the end, he couldn''t help but laugh out loud. "Hey, Harold, do you need the all mighty Purple Tribulation Lightning God''s help? If you ask it gently, I might spend a little bit of my power ''Superior Power'' giving you a hand." Harold almost vomited blood. "Fuck you! Who needs your help?!" Luvile didn''t mind, though. "Is that so, then if you excuse us." Krune didn''t care much about Iem or Harold, so he also turned around preparing to leave. However... "Wait!" Krune and Luvile heard Harold''s voice again. "Cough, cough... Let''s not be too harsh. We are both gods, right? What about you give me a hand for old time''s sake?" Luvile couldn''t remember the last time he felt so pleased like this. Sure enough, he could only feel a sense of accomplishment when experts of the same level were involved. Chapter 564: A Sight to Behold! It''s not like the Devil Flame God couldn''t hold anymore, but that he would need to use the essence of his Devil Flame Source. That would decrease his own power by a lot. Different from Luvile, Harold didn''t get extra essence from his body. In fact, he doesn''t even know if his body still exists or not. Luvile looked at Iem and the black flames before asking. "What''s the magic word?" Sure enough, Luvile wouldn''t lose this chance. If Harold had a body at this moment, he would be gritting his teeth hard. He even considered if it was better to consume his Devil Flame Essence instead. However, he gave up in the end. "P-Please..." "Hahahaha!" "Don''t worry, the all-mighty Luvile will give you a hand." Arcs of Purple Tribulation Lightning came out of Krune''s body and hit Iem Turo. However, instead of causing damage, they fended the Godly Energy from the outside. Harold finally felt relieved and retreated his Black Flames temporarily to recover. Krune then asked Light Spirit. "Should we really help them?" Luvile didn''t seem to mind, though. "I didn''t want Harold to be in the Lower Realms because my body is there too. But now that he is here, I don''t have to be concerned about it." Krune was puzzled. "What could he do to you or your body?" "I was considered a god, you know? For example, suppose he had taken my body, which has most of my Purple Tribulation Lightning Essence. In that case, he could slowly convert it into his own essence. In the end, he might even destroy it. Of course, I know that the chances of it happening would be low, but I would rather not risk. That''s why I agreed to help him to open a gate to the higher realms. I just didn''t expect that we would come together with him." "Anyway, now that we are here, we might as well follow the flow. Harold is not a threat to us in the higher realms to start with. I can tell that his essence is a lot smaller than mine too." Krune nodded. "In that case, why don''t we just leave? Why are you helping him?" Luvile agreed with Krune''s logic. "You aren''t wrong, I have no need to help him. However, it would be better to move together for the time being. Don''t forget that both you and Iem are at the Divine Path Realm at the moment. Simply put, you are too weak!" "The kids in the Godly Path and God Realms are already born with a Godly Body, so they can begin their cultivation using Godly Energy from the very start. I guess I don''t need to tell you just how much faster their cultivation is here, right?" Krune felt a chill on his back. The Holy Land last floor only had less than a hundredth of the Godly Energy in this place. Also, no one there had Godly Bodies or Meridians. Still, by mixing the little Godly Energy and Spiritual Energy together, everyone''s cultivation speed skyrocketed! If that is the case, just how fast is the cultivation speed of a cultivator or demon beast with a Godly Body and Meridians? Not to mention that they can directly cultivate with Godly Energy, which is at least a hundred times thicker than the Holy Land. One must remember that cultivation with Godly Energy does not make one''s foundation unstable. Also, Godly Energy makes laws several times easier to comprehend. Let alone in this place where the Godly Energy is so much more concentrated. Krune had already checked the World of Laws and could tell that this place was much better than the Holy Land for laws comprehension. Krune didn''t know if he really wanted to meet the people and beasts of this realm or not. Luvile then continued. "Anyway, just sit down and focus on transforming your core into a Godly Wisp Core. I''ll help Iem with his body transformation. With the Devil Flame God and me on your backs, we will be much safer." Krune nodded and did as Luvile said. Iem needed over a week to finish transforming his body into a Godly one. Compared with the Divinity Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts, it was indeed extremely slow. However, the fact that he did it while being in the Divine Path Realm and not dying is an amazing accomplishment. After all, he did not have Krune''s Myriad Energies Technique. Iem took a deep breath and stood up. Only now did he take a good look around to see the place they were at the moment. He also looked at Krune, who seemed to be cultivating. Although he didn''t say anything during this entire week, he heard everything. He knew that Krune only took three days to adapt to Godly Energy. As for him, even with his Crystallization Ability, he still used more than an entire week. Not only that, but Harold had to ask Luvile for help as well. Iem''s pride couldn''t help but be hurt a little. Harold then spoke with him through their own connection. ''Don''t overthink it, the same way you have your secrets, that wisp has his. What matters is yourself, not them. Now that we reached the Higher Realms, you have plenty of time to train.'' Krune then got up as well. He also took the opportunity to ask Luvile, Iem, and Harold. "I know that we are in the Higher Realms, but there are two things I''m confused about. First, how come we were able to come here without passing through the Ascencion Tribulation? Second, our Universes were supposed to try to hold back Iem''s Heavenly Core and my Heavenly Fragments. Still, I didn''t feel anything trying to take them." "Luvile told me in the past that the Heavenly Core and Fragment Owners have much harder Ascension Tribulations. That is how the Universes they came from try to take them back." Iem had to admit that Krune was right. He was also prepared to take the super dangerous Ascencion Tribulation once he reached the Peak of the Divinity Realm. But as it turned out, they came here a lot earlier than expected, and there was no tribulation to speak of. Luvile was the one to answer that question. "That''s because we used an unorthodox method. Do you remember what I said before? The gate to the Higher Realms was opened because the Dalin Universe was trying to send Harold and my Laws back to where they belong. However, the Universe doesn''t have sentience. How can it predict that we would use the same gate to enter the Higher Realms? Naturally, it couldn''t prepare an Ascencion Tribulation in advance." Harold agreed with Luvile. "You two brats should be thankful. If not for our coincidental encounter, we wouldn''t be able to open the gate. It was only after the clash and fusion of Luvile and my laws that we could force the Dalin Universe to ''send them back.'' Now you don''t need to worry about any tribulation whatsoever. Unless another two gods go back to the Lower Realm and do the same thing, no one will have this privilege that you did." At least at this point, Harold and Luvile were of the same mind. "I see... Anyway, what should we do now? Just sit here and cultivate?" Luvile and Harold couldn''t answer this question. It had been eons since the two of them had been to the Higher Realms. Besides, they were from the God Realm, not the Godly Path Realm. Of course, they had been to the Godly Path Realm before, but it was even longer ago than the God Realm. "We stayed in this place for over a week, but not a single living soul appeared. It seems like we fell into a very desolate place. If not for the concentration of Godly Energy, I would wonder if we really arrived at the Godly Realm at all." Harold agreed with Luvile. "Well, the Godly Realm has a lot of places like this anyway. We should first try to find some information. Although sitting and cultivating seems a good idea, I would rather understand where we are at the moment in case of an emergency. We don''t know if we are inside someone''s territory, either." Krune and Iem nodded. "So we are forming a temporary alliance, is everyone okay with it?" No one had anything against the idea. There was no point in attacking each other here. Besides, it is not like Iem and Krune, or Harold and Luvile had some feud between them to start with. Staying together would be a lot better. Krune then pondered a bit and chose a random direction. "Alright, since no one appeared in the last week, it probably means that we are quite far from any settlement or anything like that. Let''s first use a Spatial Gate to travel a few thousand kilometers before starting our search." Iem agreed with Krune. "That seems to be the best idea now." Krune and Iem then made a slashing motion with their hand while concentrating on their Space Laws, however... *Slash, slash, slash, slash, slash...* "It''s... not opening." Iem also tried several times to no avail. "What is wrong with this place? Are there no space laws here?" Harold and Luvile couldn''t help but laugh, though. "Hahaha! Such naive kids. Do you have any idea just how much more stable the Space in the Godly Path Realm is compared to the Mortal Realm? It is the same as comparing a sheet of paper with a steel wall. You should give up your dreams. You won''t be able to even shake the Space around you, let alone open a Spatial Gate." Krune and Iem sighed, but they understood that it made sense. This place was full of Godly Energy, after all. It would be weird if the Godly Realm wasn''t a lot more resistant to these kinds of things. "Well, seems like we can only fly now." Iem and Krune focused the little Godly Energy they could use with their foundations at the moment and tried to leave the ground. However, other than making their clothes move a little, they didn''t float even a single centimeter. Not only that, but the little bit of Godly Energy they gathered was also spent in a second! Iem and Krune''s mouths twitched. "Let me guess, we are too weak to fly at the moment, am I right?" Harold and Luvile laughed even more. There wasn''t even a need for an answer anymore. Krune and Iem looked at each other before sighing. "We can only run... I guess." There they were, the two Strongest Participants of the Heavenly Competition, beginning a who knows how far running marathon in the Higher Realms. That was really a sight to behold! Chapter 565: Gathering Information As they moved forward, Krune and Iem used their Divine Senses. However, as one can expect, the Godly Path''s Godly Energy restricted Divine Sense even more than the Holy Land. Krune, with his powerful Soul, couldn''t see more than 2000 or so meters. Iem, on the other hand, could only see things up to 1800 meters, which proved that his Soul Power was almost on par with Krune. Luvile took the chance to explain another thing. "That''s because your foundations haven''t changed into Godly Ones yet. Once you finish the change, your Divine Senses will expand a lot more due to the compatibility. Nevertheless, it will still be several times smaller. Back in the Mortal Realm, your Divine Senses could spread through thousands of kilometers, probably tens of thousands. However, here in the Godly Path Realm, even after you finish changing your Foundations, your Divine Sense will probably only reach double or triple the distance you can now." Krune and Iem were still shocked by it. Even after changing their Foundations into Godly Ones, they wouldn''t be able to see more than 4 to 6km away. Compared to their usual planetary size Divine Sense In the Mortal Realm, this was basically nothing! Of course, since Divine Sense was so restricted, Krune used his Mental Energy instead. Nevertheless, the Holy Land''s Godly Energy also affected Mental Energy, let anole the Godly Path Realm''s Godly Energy. Fortunately, it could go much further than his actual Divine Sense, reaching almost 5km. The problem wasn''t that, though. The main issue was demon beasts. The weakest ones were at least at the Soul Forging Realm or Void Breaking. Divine Path Realm Demon Beasts were extremely common too. However, one thing caught Krune and Iem''s attention. Even the Divine Path Realm Demon Beasts didn''t have sentience. They were ferocious and didn''t change into their Human Form. Noticing their confusion, Harold also explained. "It''s the restrictions of the Godly Realm. Demon Beasts born in this place will not get sentience before the Semi-Divinity Realm. It has always been like this, so there is no need to think much about it. Instead, this is a good thing. The Divine Path and View ones will not be able to pose much of a threat to you. You are geniuses that can fight an entire Cultivation Realm above your own, after all. Let alone when the enemy can''t even think. Of course, there is only a small problem..." Krune and Iem knew what problem Harold was talking about. Their combat power! Back in the Heavenly Competition, Krune and Iem could use attacks that destroyed everything several kilometers around them. It would shatter both the land and space. But here? Ha! It would be quite impressive if Krune could make a crater of 10 or so meters wide with his attacks! Everything was restricted to the maximum. Don''t misunderstand. It was not that the Godly Realm''s land was so hard that Krune and Iem''s power couldn''t break anything in it. The materials in this place are indeed stronger and more resistant than the Mortal Realm''s, but not to the point of suffering almost no damage from Krune and Iem. The problem was once again in the restrictions of the Godly Realm. The restrictions made it really hard for Krune and Iem to force out their Foundation''s energy. For example, suppose Krune is back in the Mortal Realm. Krune would need to use 1/1000 of his strength to force the necessary energy out of his Foundation to destroy a boulder. However, in the Godly Realm, Krune would need at least 100/1000 to 200/1000 of his power to force out the same amount of energy of his Foundation to destroy the same boulder. Krune and Iem didn''t suddenly become weak. They just couldn''t bring out as much energy as before. Because of that, they needed to use much more power than before to achieve the same effect. Sure enough, their energy pools, which can only be replenished with Godly Energy now, emptied much faster. Both Krune and Iem couldn''t help but feel like they returned to the time they began to cultivate as Qi Condensation beginners. The worst part is that their Foundations haven''t changed into Godly Ones yet, unlike the demon beasts, who had changed their Demon Cores into Godly Demon Cores a long time ago. Simply put, they were definitely much stronger than demon beasts at their level. Still, the amount of energy they have at their disposal is several times smaller. Any fight they involved in, they had to finish it in a few attacks, or they would be in trouble. Fortunately, this place seemed to be a gigantic prairie without end. The Demon Beasts that walked in groups or the lonely ones had massive gaps in distance between themselves. Thanks to Krune''s Mental Energy perception, and the privileged vision of the place, they could avoid most battles. Krune and Iem kept running without stop. Even though they can''t fly, their cultivation is more than enough to cover hundreds of kilometers a day. Of course, if they were not bound by the Godly Path Realm restrictions and could use their energy like in the Mortal Realm, they would be able to do thousands instead of hundreds. It turned out that Krune and Iem weren''t so far from others, though. Krune and Iem first noticed one cultivator hunting Demon Beasts. However, the guy left before they could approach to ask anything. Nevertheless, they continued on their way. Soon, they began to see more cultivators in the distance. Before long, they finally got to approach a group that had three members. Perhaps because they thought they had bigger numbers, they weren''t afraid of Krune and Iem. Of course, those guys were ready to fight at any given order since they didn''t know what Krune''s group intended. Before Krune approached them, Luvile released a small spark of Purple Tribulation Lightning that ran through Krune''s entire body. Krune and Iem noticed it and were puzzled. But a second later, Iem could feel that Krune''s Demon Beast aura disappeared completely. Krune, of course, noticed it too. "I see... I''m a Divine Path Realm Demon Beast, so I wasn''t supposed to have sentience in theory." Luvile confirmed. "Yes, so before you reach the Semi-Divinity Realm, I will conceal your aura. I don''t know if others would care whether you had sentience or not, but I would rather not take risks." Krune and Iem nodded. They also thought that Luvile was right in doing so. When Krune entered the Divine Sense range of the other group, they let out a sigh of relief. They could see that Krune and Iem were only Divine Path Realm cultivators. Their group has two Divine Views and one Divine Path Realm, so they have the advantage. Krune and Iem didn''t get too close either. Instead, they stayed 1km away from them just in case they needed to flee. After that, they used Divine Sense to communicate. "Sorry my friends. Would you mind telling us which direction we can find a City?" The three guys on the other side looked at Krune, puzzled. They didn''t understand a single word he said. That was obvious. This is another Realm altogether; it would be weird if they talked exactly the same language. Krune had already lost the count of how many different languages he used in the past. Suddenly, Krune and Iem also received a Divine Sense message in another dialect. Krune only needed a few seconds to remember which language from the several ones he memorized it was. Although there were a few differences, he could workaround. He also opened his communicator, which could work with nearby ones, to send Iem the language database he had in it. It was very helpful, so Krune had never deleted it and only increased the numbers with time. Sure enough, it proved very useful now. "They are speaking a language primarily used in the Sakamar Universe. You are also a Peak Divinity Realm cultivator with a Soul Power almost on par with me, so you should have no problem to memorize and learn it in a few hours. I will talk with them first." Krune then changed the words but asked the same thing as before. Finally, the other side understood what he asked before answering. "Are you knew in these parts?" Krune nodded. "We are on a training journey. But we are almost without supplies, so we need to find a place where we can restock." The three cultivators looked at each other and nodded. Since they didn''t come to cause trouble, that was good enough. It was never bad to be extra careful in this place. The leader of their group, a cultivator at the 5th Stage of the Divine View Realm, then pointed in a specific direction. "If you follow this direction, you should arrive in Immai City in a day or so. However, you better be careful. The Immal Prairies aren''t known for being a nice place to walk around. There are plenty of bandits who won''t care about risks and will try to kill you to take away your Spatial Rings. Of course, the majority isn''t like that, but you better keep an eye open and don''t approach others easily." Krune noticed that those guys also had devices similar to Communicators on their wrists. He was about to ask if they could share a map of this place but decided to not do so. Their communicators are most likely not compatible. Krune doesn''t even know if they are really communicators or not. In the end, he simply bowed. "Thank you for the information." Krune and Iem turned around and disappeared in the distance. Chapter 566: Free Labor After they left that previous group behind, they began to discuss what they heard. "From the looks of it, there is some danger on the way to Immal City. However, I also believe that once we get inside, it ill be the best place to rest. Not to mention we can get all the information necessary there." Iem and the others agreed with Krune. Without wasting any time, they made their way there. Same as always, Krune''s group avoided any unnecessary battle. However, they were still pursued by a few demon beasts now and then. Without another choice, they could only get rid of them. There was even an instance where a group of five bandits tried to caught their group. From what Krune could see with his Mental Energy, three were at the Divine View Realm while the other two were in the Divine Path. At Krune and Iem''s level, those ordinary bandits wouldn''t be a threat to them since the strongest one is only at the 4th Stage. Still, Krune and Iem couldn''t use much Godly Energy at the moment. In the end, they just released their Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flame to increase their speeds to the max. Those bandits looked in bewilderment at them. Krune and Iem were just way too fast! It only took a minute or so for the two of them to disappear in the distance, which forced the bandits to give up. Of course, if Krune and Iem battled using Luvile and Harold''s power, they would most likely win easily. However, they preferred to conserve the two gods'' energies as much as possible. Before they finish transforming their Dantian and Wisp Core into Godly Ones, they better exercise caution. The guy who pointed the direction to Krune and Iem wasn''t lying. Around a day of travel later, they were finally able to see a city''s walls in the distance. The number of Cultivators around them also increased a lot. There were even Demon Beasts at the Semi-Divinity Realm and above walking around as well. Obviously, those were demon beasts who already got sentience. Due to the number of cultivators and demon beasts closer to the city, Krune and Iem didn''t get attacked anymore. Starting a battle so close to the city and with many other groups looking would be idiotic. Thanks to that, Krune''s group arrived at the city''s gate without any issues. There were several big queues in front of it, and everyone had to wait before entering the city. From what Krune and Iem could see, even Divinity Realm experts were no exception. That was to be expected. After all, the guards at the gate were Divinity Realm Experts themselves! Krune couldn''t help but sigh while using a Divine Sense Message. ''Such a big difference. Divinity Realm Experts were at the top of the Mortal Realm''s food chain, but they can only be guards in the Godly Path Realm.'' Iem nodded. ''But this is good. Only in a place like this will my cultivation soar even faster.'' Krune agreed with him. He was also excited to begin his own training. Now and then, Krune and Iem would see a cultivator or a demon beast flying into the city. However, considering the sheer number of those who walked, they could only be regarded as rarities. Obviously, they were the city''s top experts and didn''t need to wait outside the City Gates. "Luvile, what level of cultivation we need to reach to be able to fly." Iem was also curious about it. "Well, since we need to wait for the queue to move forward, I might as well tell you the Cultivation Realms in this place." "The Nine Stages of the Dantian and Demon Core Transformations is called Transformation Realm. Of course, as I mentioned before, this Transformation isn''t really a Cultivation Realm; it only uses this name to make things simpler. You are just changing your foundation so that you can use Godly Energy instead of Spiritual Energy. Also, don''t forget that before you arrive at the Peak of the Divinity Realm, you can only reach the first Stage of the Transformation ''Realm.'' The next eight stages can only be achieved after that. Before it, you can only have a Godly Dantian or Demon Core at the first Stage. Almost everyone around you at the moment is in this Stage." Iem and Krune nodded. Luvile had already explained it to them a few days ago after they arrived at the Godly Path Realm. "After the Transformation Realm, you will enter the Mortal Rejection Realm. This time, it is really a Cultivation Realm. As you can imagine, it also has another nine stages, like all the cultivation levels below. Finally, you will reach the Godly Fusion Realm. Only in the Godly Fusion Realm will you be able to take flight." Krune sighed. "I see, we better not provoke those who can fly around." Iem then asked another thing. "I have an idea what the Godly Fusion Realm means, but what is this Mortal Rejection Realm about? Aren''t we immortal already?" Harold laughed our loud. "Immortal? Hahaha! You might be considered immortal in the Mortal Realm, but do you really think you are immortal? If that is the case, then let me ask you. If I cut your body in thousands of pieces, will you survive?" Krune and Iem were taken aback. "Does it mean that after we pass through the Mortal Rejection Realm, we can''t die anymore?" Luvile was the one to answer that question. "No, that''s not what Harold meant. You can still be killed. In fact, even experts at my or Harold''s level can be killed as well. What Harold wanted to say is that there is no such thing as real immortality. If the body is completely wiped out and the Soul totally pulverized, even gods will die." Iem couldn''t help but ask. "Then what is this Mortal Rejection Realm thing?" Luvile then continued. "Mortal Rejection Realm will strip you of your last connection with the Mortal World. Everyone is born ''Mortal'' in all Realms; even the wisps are no different. Because of that, you have a connection with the Mortal World that can''t be denied. If you wish to become a god, you have to discard your connection with the Mortal World. That''s what the Mortal Rejection Realm means." Krune immediately asked. "What will happen after we discard the Mortal Connection?" Luvile answered that question with a question of his own. "After you get a Godly Body, Godly Dantian/Core, and a Godly Foundation, are you completely ''Godly?''" Iem and Krune finally understood what Wally meant. "I see... The most important piece, the thing that makes us what we are, our Soul, is still mortal! So the Mortal Rejection Realm will transform the Soul into a Godly Soul, is that it?" Luvile confirmed. "That''s basically it. After the Soul finishes its Transformation, the only thing that can be considered mortal for you is the fact that you can die. Well, to be honest, I think that the only difference between you and a ''mortal'' will be the fact that you will be a being of Godly Energy. Still, a lot of cultivators and demon beasts like to think they are superior forms of life. In the end, it''s more like a personal choice." Harold agreed with Luvile. "Those who think they are superior are just a bunch of hypocrites. The only difference is that they are stronger or weaker than others, simple as that. Just how many ''gods'' died back then? Bah!" Luvile was shocked to hear such words from Harold. "Since when did you become so humble? The Harold that I knew would never admit such a thing." Harold snorted, though. "Are you the one to talk? You were as arrogant as anyone of us back then." "Cough, cough, cough... Let''s just say that my eyes were opened, just like yours." Luvile then continued. "Anyway, the Godly Fusion is pretty much evident. After your Body, Soul, Dantian/Core, and Foundation finish transforming, you need to fuse them into one entity. That''s the Godly Fusion Realm." Iem and Krune nodded. Finally, it was their time to pass through the gate. However, there was one thing that Harold and Luvile didn''t say. Not that they didn''t want to, but because they thought it to be unnecessary for Krune and Iem. So they didn''t even bother. The guard responsible for their queue approached the two before saying. "Two Divine Path Realm cultivators, the fee is Ten Godly Stones each." Krune and Iem slapped their heads. Of course, there would be a fee to enter. "Cough, cough... We are traveling while training. We spent most of our time outside, so we ran out of Godly Stones. Is there another way to pay for the entrance fee or something we can do in exchange?" The guard didn''t seem the least bit surprised or angry. He looked at them as if it was something that occurred quite often. He then pointed to the side of the gate, where there was a big building. "You can offer your services there." The guard quickly shooed Krune and Iem and called the next person. Iem and Krune looked at each other and went to the building the guard appointed. Inside, there were several counters where cultivators and demon beasts talked with the employees. Fortunately, there wasn''t any big queue this time since the majority outside had the Godly Stones to pay for the entrance fee. Around a minute later, it was already their time. "Hi there, we wish to enter the city, but we don''t have Godly Stones at the moment." The attendant nodded and passed a list to the two of them. "You can choose one of these jobs. You will work in a predetermined place inside the city for thirty days to pay for the Godly Stones." Krune and Iem nodded and took a look at the list. It seems like they will be doing free labor for some time. Chapter 567: Best Job There were jobs related to all side occupations like alchemy, blacksmith, formations, etc. Some jobs were not related to them like guards, help with experiments, store employees, and so on. There were even some weird jobs like being hosts and hostess or whatever that meant. After looking at it for some time, Iem selected to work in the Formations Guild Branch. From the looks of it, all the other side occupations seemed to be guilds as well. "You know formations?" Iem nodded. "I also know alchemy, but I''m better at formations. So will simply stay there for these thirty days. Besides, I might have a chance to study those God-Level Formations." Krune nodded and pondered if he should go to the Blacksmith Guild. But it was then that he noticed something different that made his eyes lit up! -Kitchen Helper in a Spiritual Food Restaurant- -Help with the cook of dishes made with rare ingredients. Anyone who applies for this has to have some knowledge about Spiritual Food and cooking. If you do apply, you must not have any aversion to any type of meat or plant, be it from Demon Beast or Humans.- Krune never cared about whether there were demon beasts or humans'' meat or plants. If humans can kill the demon beasts for their meat, then so can demon beasts. One must not forget, humans are also animals. It''s just that human meat usually isn''t so nutritious or tasty, so very few demon beasts ever asked for it, simple as that. Just like humans, demon beasts never asked for the meat of their own race, either. Krune''s choice reminded Iem from the time he cooked in the Heavenly Competition. Still, he found it weird that Krune would prefer to cook instead of selecting something to help with his training as he did. However, that was not his problem, so he didn''t intervene either. The employee quickly registered their names and passed a token to the two of them. "Put your Divine Sense inside of the token, it will bind it to you. For the next thirty days, you must not leave the Formation Guild or the Restaurant you will be working for unless you get permission from their supervisors. Once thirty days are over, these tokens will automatically crumble. After that, you are free to roam the city as long as you don''t cause any problem. However, if you leave the city and decide to return, you will need to pay the fee again." Iem and Krune nodded and left straight away. They took a different passage into the city where they presented their token. Their communicators are still linked to each other, as long as it is not too far away, they will be able to meet quickly. Just in case, they also agreed to meet again a month later in the City Center. The guard then looked at Krune and Iem''s tokens before saying. "Remember, fights and killing are strictly forbidden inside the city. Anyone who breaks the rules will be executed on the spot." Both of them nodded, not finding anything wrong with it. If anything, it made Iem and Krune feel safer. Krune then saw a kid coming running at him. The guard said a few things to him, and the kid nodded in response. The kid then turned back to Krune before saying. "You can come with me. I''ll show you were the Heavenly Tastes Restaurant is located." Krune found it weird since he only needed the location, and he would go there. Was there really a need for someone to guide him? But it was then that he remembered. It was more like a way to prevent him from running away to avoid the work. It''s just that Krune still found it weird to have a kid doing this job. What if the person or demon beast being guided simply knock the kid out or kill him without anyone noticing? The guard seemed to understand what Krune was thinking before snorting. "You better not have any foolish ideas. We have the record of your Divine Sense, so we can find you anywhere inside the city. If something happens to the guide, or you don''t appear to work, we will find it straight away too. Just be nice and finish your thirty days of work." Krune finally understood why they didn''t mind having kids acting as guiders. After the warning, the kid began to lead Krune to the restaurant. This was the first kid Krune found in the Godly Path Realm. Out of curiosity, he decided to check his cultivation. ''Really impressive, he probably isn''t more than 12 years old but is already in the 8th Stage of the Core Formation Realm.'' Krune talked a bit with him on the way and found out that the kids like to do this kind of job in exchange for Godly Stones. Half a month of work would be paid with one Godly Stone. For the kids, that was quite a good payment. From the looks of it, it wasn''t so hard to make Godly Stones. "Do you use your Godly Stones to cultivate?" The kid shook his head. "It''s not worth using them for it. The concentration of Godly Energy in the air is already very high, so it would be a waste in my level. I''m saving the Godly Stones to buy a cultivation technique later." Krune nodded. Don''t look down on the kid''s cultivation realm. He did reach this point without the help of any resources or cultivation technique. Feifei was older than this kid when she achieved the same cultivation level. One must not forget that Feifei had the full support of the Wang Clan at that time. It''s just that it was before she reunited with Krune and got the Myriad Energies Technique from him. If this kid, who obviously isn''t rich, is already at such a level, then what about the kids with significant backgrounds? Krune wouldn''t be impressed if he saw other kids at the Soul Forging or even the Void Breaking Realm. He also could understand why Wally wouldn''t tell anyone how to go down to the Lower Realms without paying any price. The disparate is way too huge between the two realms. "We are here." Krune looked up and saw the name Heavenly Tastes Restaurant. He could even feel the smell in the air, which made him feel excited. That''s a job made for him. Once inside, the kid quickly found one of the employees to explain the situation. A waiter who seemed to be around his twenties came forward after that. As expected, his cultivation was also very high, already in the 7th Stage fo the Soul Forging Realm. "Oh, it had been quite some time since someone opted for the restaurant. Usually, most of the travelers without money would select a side occupation or something easy like guards." Krune bowed to the guy. "Hello, my name is Krune. To be honest, I love cooking and eating, so I was delighted to see that such a job was available." The waiter nodded and passed a small token to the kid who brought Krune over. After that, the kid bid his farewell and returned to the gate. That token represented his task''s conclusion, so he had to present it to the guards there. "Alright, come with me. I''ll show you the kitchen and introduce the head chef." Krune was shocked by what he saw in the kitchen. Several chefs were working without stop preparing all types of dishes. But what caught Krune''s attention wasn''t that, it was the ingredients. Every single one of them brimmed with Godly Energy! He was sure that whoever ate them would get excellent benefits from it. Some of them seemed to be even better ones that made his eyes shine! Back in the Mortal Realm, no one paid much attention to food after a certain level of cultivation. It was more like a low-level cultivators and demon beasts thing. Because of that, no one used food to help with cultivation. Even Krune himself never made any food that could help with cultivation either. "Zano, who is this guy?" A middle-aged man came forward after he noticed the newcomer. From the looks of it, that man was already in the peak of the Divine View Realm! The waiter, Zano, immediately introduced Krune. "Head chef Oclo, this is Krune. The city guards had just sent him over. He applied for the thirty days of kitchen work to pay for the entrance fee." Oclo nodded as he looked at Krune. "Alright, it had been some time since someone chose to work in the kitchen restaurant. Since you selected this job, you must have read the requirement. I can''t have someone who doesn''t know anything about cooking, so just go around, take a few ingredients, and cook something for me to see. Just don''t touch the ingredients with yellow and red stripes on their packs. Those ones are very expensive, some cost more than 100 Godly Stones, so we can''t risk losing them." Krune''s eyes lit up. "Can I use anything other than that then? Great!" Krune didn''t even ask anything else and immediately put himself to work. For Krune, the kitchen might as well be called a paradise. Besides, he could see several other chefs preparing dishes with ingredients he had never seen before. How could he not feel happy? He would make sure to make the best of the time he spends here. Seeing Krune''s joyful expression made Oclo give a mental nod. He could at least see that Krune was a guy who loved cooking. Chapter 568: New Side Occupation Oclo couldn''t help but feel impressed by Krune. He could tell that Krune didn''t know those ingredients, but he still found his way to use them. Of course, Krune still failed a few times, but that was because he was trying to create something new. Krune could have done better, but he couldn''t control his Fire very well due to the difficulty of using Godly Energy. His foundation and wisp core are still far from reaching the first stage of the Transformation Realm, after all. Nevertheless, he did get it done. Oclo''s eyes lit up when he proved Krune new dish. It wasn''t as good as his or the other chefs, but it was far better than he expected. As long as he trains well, he shouldn''t take long to learn more. Besides, this was indeed a new dish that wasn''t on their menu, so they might use it later. "Very good. For now, you just need to help the others as you practice with your Fire. I can see that you are having difficulties to control it, but it should get better as time goes. Depending on the results, I don''t mind paying you a few Godly Stones instead of letting you work for free during these thirty days." Krune was delighted to hear that. He wasn''t intending to get anything other than learning new dishes, so it was a piece of well-timed news. That day, Krune helped the other chefs with whatever he could. His love for food was evident for everyone to see, so the other chefs quickly came to like him too. By the end of the first day, Krune could already go around on his own and make a few simple dishes up to the standard. Krune was impressed about something else, though. He was expecting that only the bottom level cultivators and demon beasts would come to eat. High-Level ones almost never care about food. However, he noticed that it was completely different in the Godly Path Realm. The Heavenly Tastes Restaurant received many Mortal Rejection and Godly Transformation Realm cultivators and demon beasts in human form. In fact, Oclo''s dishes seemed to be very famous between those with the highest cultivations. In the end, Krune couldn''t help but ask why that is. Oclo laughed after hearing that question, though. "Hahaha! Alright, wait for the Restaurant to close, and I''ll prepare one of my dishes for you." Without another choice, Krune could only do as Oclo said. For Krune, the day passed in a flash. Sure enough, time passes faster when you are doing something you like. Finally, the Restaurant closed. Oclo was pleased with Krune''s performance, so he selected some of the yellow tag packs to make a dish for him. "Have you never eaten Spiritual Food before?" Krune shook his head. "I have always used common ingredients." Oclo already expected for it. He then passed a bow with the dish he prepared. "This one here is called Golden Harcute Prawn Soup, try it out, and you will understand." Krune nodded and quickly proved the soup. He only dealt with common ingredients during the day and hasn''t eaten anything. So he still didn''t know how good of an effect those meals of the Higher Realms would have. Krune only needed one spoon to realize why Oclo''s dishes were so famous. A powerful Godly Energy rushed from his stomach into his Wisp Core. But at the same time, it was very gentle. Usually, Krune would have suffered to absorb so much Godly Energy at once, especially since his Wisp Core and Foundations are far from the 1st Stage of the Transformation. It should have taken a long time to process this amount of energy. However, such a thing didn''t happen at all! Not only that, but Krune felt that his Wisp Core and Foundation Transformations accelerated several times while he absorbed that energy. "Impressive. If I''m not wrong, such a thing would be impossible with Godly Stones, no?" Oclo smiled as he nodded. "Spiritual Food Chefs are rare. However, they are also considered a Side Occupation. That''s because we can transform the Godly Energy in our dishes so that anyone can absorb it easily. Simply put, a Spiritual Food Chef is highly regarded anywhere he goes. Sadly, this is an occupation that most of cultivators and demon beasts don''t like. That''s because it is very hard to become one." Krune immediately nodded. He could totally understand why. "If I''m not wrong, the ability to transform the Godly Energy of the ingredients into something like this is the main issue. It''s not only about the control of your energies, but the energies of the ingredients. Not to mention that the chef''s own senses are even more critical. Also, when I saw Head Chef Oclo cooking, I noticed that you also used your laws all the time, as if you were an alchemist." Oclo nodded. "Spiritual Chefs aren''t that much different from Alchemists. However, each side has its own advantages. Alchemists'' pills can be stored to be used at any given time. A Spiritual Chef''s food can''t. The longer you take to eat your food, the more of its energy will be wasted. It has to be consumed on the spot." "However, a Spiritual Chef''s food doesn''t have any side effects after eating. Not to mention that compared to pills, Spiritual Food has taste! Isn''t it infinitely better to eat Spiritual Food than a pill for cultivation? When we talk about benefits, Spiritual Food doesn''t lose to Alchemists'' Pills in any regard." "Of course, Spiritual Food is mostly used for cultivation. Very few dishes have any other use than that. In that case, Healing Pills, Breakthrough Pills, Forbidden Pills, etc., are still necessary and highly sought out. That''s also why Alchemists and Spiritual Chefs never had many problems with each other. Other than cultivation, our fields are quite different." Krune drank his soup as Oclo spoke. When the Godly Energy finished being absorbed, Krune noticed that he saved at least one day of the Transformation of his Wisp Core and Foundation. He was deeply awed by the power of Spiritual Food. Right after, his eyes shined as he asked Oclo. "Head Chef, how can I become a Spiritual Chef?" Oclo didn''t seem surprised by Krune''s question. As a Spiritual Chef himself, he could at least tell who had a talent for the field and who didn''t. All the Spiritual Food chefs agreed about one point. One can not become a Spiritual Chef is he or she doesn''t love cooking. In Oclo''s eyes, Krune''s passion wasn''t the least bit inferior to his own. "We obviously have a Spiritual Chef Guild branch in our city. You can go there and apply to become a member. However, the Spiritual Chef guild works differently from the other guilds. The chefs rarely stay there to cook anything. All of them are travelers or manage their own restaurants. Also, don''t expect to have anyone teaching you anything. A chef might use others'' dishes for learning, but they must ultimately create their own." "Furthermore, the categorization of our levels is different from the other guilds. To the other occupations, each level is separated by nine stars. So you often hear things like a Nine Stars Path Alchemist or Three Stars View Blacksmith, etc. However, Spiritual Chefs don''t have sub-levels like the Nine Stars. We only have the levels themselves. For example, I''m a Semi-Divinity Star Chef. If I go up one level, I''ll directly become a Divinity Star Chef." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Is the separation of a Spiritual Chef''s levels done through the level of the ingredients they can cook?" Oclo smiled and nodded. "Exactly. Although I''m at the Divine View Realm, I can cook dishes made of Semi-Divinity meat or plants. Obviously, I''m talking about Demon Beast, Humans, or Plants that reached the Semi-Divinity Level. I can only be considered a Divinity Star Chef after cooking a dish that uses at least one ingredient at the Divinity Level. To be considered successful, you must be able to transform at least 90% of the ingredients'' energies. Any less than that and the cultivators or demon beasts who eat it later might suffer side effects due to the remaining berserk energy." "To prove your Star Rank, you just need to cook one successful dish with an ingredient of that specific level in the Spiritual Chef Guild." Krune found it quite simple. But that was also good. "Great! I''ll put my all into it during the next month." However, Krune remembered one thing. "Oh, right! You said that we can''t have an aversion to any type of food. But how come I haven''t seen a single dish made with human ingredients?" Oclo shrugged his shoulders. "That''s because I''m a human myself. So it feels uncomfortable for me to cook my own race. In fact, any Spiritual Chef Demon Beast usually would not cook their own races either. Of course, this is not a life rule. If there comes a day where I need to do it, I will cook the best dish possible." "However, you won''t really find many places with human dishes. That''s because almost all demon beasts think that it tastes horrible! Humans are too skinny, and their bodies don''t gather as many nutrients as other demon beast races. Simply put, there isn''t much of a use to eat them." Krune nodded. Back in the Mortal Realm, everyone also followed the same logic. If humans can kill demon beasts for their meat, then so can demon beasts. Still, Krune rarely saw a restaurant back there selling it. Not that they couldn''t, but because it simply didn''t sell either. Even the demon beasts back there didn''t like it. "Well, whether you want to cook it or not, I won''t stop you." Krune shook his head. "I was just curious. I also haven''t cooked human meat before." His wife is human, so he never cooked one. In fact, Krune didn''t cook any meat of the same race as his friends either. Chapter 569: First Major Law Krune continued showing an excellent performance in the kitchen. Every day, Oclo would allow him to eat one or two Yellow Tag dishes to help with his cultivation too. There wasn''t anything wrong with it since the other employees were also allowed to do so. The Energy Krune got from them were fully utilized on the transformation of his Wisp Core and Foundation. Oclo also arranged a room for Krune to stay during the nights. Just like that, half a month went by. Krune was in his room when his Wisp Core and Foundation finally reached the 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm. Of course, as mentioned before, Krune will stay stuck at the 1st Stage until he reaches the Peak of the Divinity Realm. The changes made Krune delighted. Up to the last moment, Krune still had problems controlling and absorbing Godly Energy. But the very moment they finished their transformation, Krune felt like some kind of barrier was shattered. Godly Energy rushed inside to fill up his Universe Foundation like torrents. At the same time, Krune finally stopped using his Godly Meridians to fend off the Godly Energy on the surroundings. He simply let it cover his entire body and didn''t feel any discomfort from it. Krune was supposed to take at least a month to do that, but Oclo''s dishes cut half the time. Krune could feel his body and foundation brimming with power. Now, he wouldn''t have problems with long fights anymore. In fact, thanks to his Godly Meridians, he would definitely be above others in a battle of attrition. However, Krune didn''t care about any of that at the moment. "I can finally control my Fire Element and Laws during my cooking. Hahahaha!" Yeap, in the Godly Path Realm, nothing was more important for Krune than cooking. He couldn''t help but hope that the morning would arrive sooner. However, there were still over six hours before Oclo''s Restaurant opened again. That being said, Krune calmed himself and began to check the differences with the new powers. "Luvile, is there something I need to pay attention to now?" Luvile answered right after. "Not really. Now that you are here in the Godly Path Realm, you don''t need to transform energies anymore. If anything, your cultivation will be much easier. Godly Energy is several times better than any variation of Spiritual Energy, including Divinity One." Krune nodded and began to use Godly Energy for direct cultivation for the first time. The surround Godly Energy, which was at least a hundred times higher than Little Arty''s one, began to enter his Divine Soul and Foundation again. Krune cultivated for one hour. After he finished, his eyes lit up! "Impressive! My cultivation speed increased at least ten times. No wonder even kids had such high cultivations. I wonder how fast it will be if I get Godly Stones. No, forget Godly Stones. Instead, how fast will it be when I eat Oclo''s food tomorrow? If what he said is true, the Spiritual Food is much better than Godly Stones." Luvile didn''t seem to care, though. "You can try it tomorrow. For now, focus on your cultivation and laws. Don''t forget that you need at least one Major Law if you want to enter the Divine View Realm." Krune nodded. Luvile had told him that before. "Does it matter which law I should merge first? My Fire Sub-Laws already reached the Culmination; I just need to merge them now." "Not really. The Divine View Realm only needs the support of one Major Law. Otherwise, I would ask you to wait for my Purple Tribulation Lightning Major Law first." Keune nodded in relief. He was very eager to fuse his Major Law of Fire since he could use it for cooking too. Oclo used it in front of him while making his dishes, which made Krune quite jealous. "By the way, since I want to merge my Sub-Laws of Fire into the Major Law of Fire, how do I do that?" "It''s quite simple and complicated at the same time. It all comes to comprehension. You will need to find common ground between all the sub-laws. Basically, you need to be able to use all of them to the max of their power together. However, as you know already, everyone comprehends their laws in their own ways. Once you find this common ground, the merge will happen automatically. In a certain way, finding this common ground is the same as seeking acknowledgment from the Major Law of Fire." Krune nodded. He had the Yang Heavenly Fragment and the Elemental Heavenly Fragment/Divine Soul. He is also in the Godly Path Realm in the Higher Realms, where Godly Energy is at least a hundred times higher. As mentioned back then, Godly Energy makes it much easier to comprehend laws, especially in Krune''s case. Last but not least, Krune has the Myriad Energies Technique. First, Krune returned to his Wisp Form. The temperature inside Krune''s room then began to rise as Fire Element and Laws gathered around him. Right after, the Fire Laws began to dance around Krune as if they were excited. Some times, they would gather together, creating a small explosion in midair. Other times, calm flames would appear around Krune. Sparks could also be seen now and then. All those effects had one point in common, they harnessed all the Fire Sub-Laws in them. Luvile looked at Krune as he used his Purple Tribulation Lightning to prevent Krune from destroying the room. After all, it wouldn''t be a good idea to catch others'' attention. The room''s walls were also covered with a thin layer of Purple Tribulation Lightning, stopping anyone from prying inside with Divine Sense. That''s why Krune wasn''t afraid of using his real form. Time passed, and the events happening around Krune increased. More explosion, flames, sparks, heat, etc., appeared now and then. Luvile checked the Fire Laws in each one of those and couldn''t help but feel impressed. Krune might have all those advantages for Laws comprehension. Still, his talent alone was definitely responsible for at least half of his accomplishments. A few hours later, Krune''s wisp body was covered by furious flames. It looked more like a miniature sun. Luvile could feel that Krune was getting very close to the ''common ground'' he talked about. ''It should be anytime now.'' Five minutes later, that miniature sun collapsed inwards. Suddenly... Boom! An explosion that looked more like a mini supernova came out. Luvile was already expecting it, though. So the entire space around Krune was covered by thick arcs of Purple Lightning. When the explosion of Fire Elements and Laws touched the Lightning, they crumbled almost instantly. Nothing escaped Luvile''s Purple Lightning Field. However, someone still noticed something in the end. It was none other than Oclo, who was cultivating at the moment. ''Hm?'' He spread his Divine Sense to the direction he felt the anomaly, but in the end, his Divine Sense couldn''t see anything. However, it made him even more puzzled. That''s because Krune was supposed to be in his room, but his Divine Sense said there wasn''t anyone there. ''Whatever, I don''t think he would run from the job after so long. I''ll ask him tomorrow.'' Krune''s rainbow wisp body seemed to change to fiery red for a moment. Still, it came back to the standard rainbow color in a few seconds. After that, he held his clothes with Godly Energy as he changed back into his human form inside them. "Phew... It was harder than I thought." If Luvile had a mouth, it would have twitched at this moment. ''Harder your head! You only used four hours to merge all the Fire Sub-Law into the Major Law of Fire. Are you trying to humiliate everyone else?'' Of course, Luvile didn''t say that due to his pride. "How is it? Can you control it well?" Krune summoned a Fireball on his hand. It wasn''t a flame-shaped, but really a ball. It looked pretty much similar to his miniature sun a while ago. Inside that ball, Krune and Luvile could feel the presence of all Fire Laws and especially, the Major Law of Fire. There wasn''t any instability at all. Seeing that, Krune nodded. "Yes. It feels very comforting to use my fire laws now¡ªno wonder the Diamond Golem was so strong with his Major Law of Earth. The difference in power and control when you learn an entire Major Law is ridiculously high." Krune pondered a bit before releasing his Fire Domain. Of course, he limited its range to his room only. After feeling the fundamental difference that the Major Law of Fire made to it, Krune decided. "I will separate some on my mind splits to comprehend the other four primary Elemental Laws from now on. It might make my comprehension of the Purple Tribulation Lightning laws slower. Still, it will be much better for my overall strength." Luvile didn''t mind it. "No problem, your Purple Tribulation Lightning laws are already very advanced. However, the last sub-law, Lightning Formation, will probably take years for you to finish comprehending alone. And that is because you are in the Higher Realms. If you were in the Mortal Realm, I doubt you would finish it before a few hundred years had passed. That being said, it is better to finish comprehending the Primary Elemental Ones first." Krune nodded. He also thought the same thing. Krune then spent the rest of his night cultivating and getting used to his new Major Law. When the time came to open the restaurant, however, he was already there waiting. "Time to test my culinary skills!" Chapter 570: Star Path Chef Krune acted like he had transformed that day. Even Oclo wondered if that was the same Krune he knew. During the first fifteen days, Krune''s control of Fire Element and Godly Energy was relatively low. The only reason Oclo thought highly of him was his passion for food, which all Spiritual Chefs believed to be the most crucial point. But now, it was like he was in front of an unparalleled Spiritual Chef genius! ''I see, he mastered the Major Law of Fire. However, his improvement is way too drastic. We both can use the Major Law of Fire, but his control over it is several times better than me. Also, how come his Godly Energy control increased so much in a single day? It was definitely related to the fact that he left yesterday.'' Oclo pondered if he should ask what happened, but he decided to not do so. All in all, it was a good thing for Krune that he reached such a level so soon. The most important thing is that his passion as a chef didn''t disappear. If anything, Krune seemed to be even more concentrated on his job now. The other chefs also noticed Krune''s change, which left them shocked. Especially the Major Law of Fire. Even them could tell that Krune''s control over it was above Oclo himself. In the end, Oclo decided to teach Krune about the Spiritual Chef occupation. Krune, of course, accepted it gladly. "The key to subduing the ingredients'' berserk energies is to harmonize them with your laws. You will then use your laws to bring the energy under your control. It seems pretty much like when you use an elemental attack. During the attack, you will harmonize the Elemental Power, the Laws Power, and the Godly Energy Power as much as possible. It is the same thing for the Spiritual Chef. It''s just that instead of using only your Godly Energy, you will also harmonize the energy in the dish." Oclo then proceeded to show it in front of Krune. As time passed, Krune couldn''t help but feel impressed. Although the theory seemed simple, Krune could tell that it was anything but that. The Heavenly Tastes Restaurant has several chefs, but Oclo is the only Spiritual Chef. More orders for Oclo came in, and more dishes were prepared. Krune then began to help Oclo with whatever he could. Suddenly, they receive an order for a Star Path Dish, which was quite common. That meant it would need the Spiritual Chef to be able to harmonize the energies of ingredients at the Divine Path Realm level. Oclo then looked at Krune while pointing at the order. "You go ahead and try. This is a simple Grilled Star Bruk Kraktu. It should be a good place for you to start." Krune''s eyes lit up! He could finally try his first Spiritual Dish. He skillfully prepared the ingredients and lit up his Godly Fire. Soon, the cooking process started. The cooking part was pretty much the same as what any chef would do. However, a Spiritual Chef couldn''t let the Godly Energy escape while transforming it so that the customer could absorb it. At first, Krune was being quite cranky. Unlike the Mortal Realm, all the meat and plants from the God Path Realm were rich in Godly Energy. Still, Krune adapted to the changes as the cooking progressed. One must not forget the cooking itself either. You had to be finished with the change of the energy by the time the dish was ready. Otherwise, you might overcook it, which is not what the customer desired. Unfortunately, Krune failed his first attempt. Krune hates to waste food, so seeing the unedible dish in front made him quite sad. Oclo, on the other hand, was even more shocked by Krune''s first attempt. He was able to harmonize over 70% of the Bruk Kraktu Meat in his very first try! However, he could see that Krune didn''t seem the least bit happy. Of course, he understood very well why that is. As a Spiritual Chef, he also felt bad every time a dish was wasted. This is a common trait between all Spiritual Chefs. If anything, he was happy to see Krune being gloomy at the loss of food. "Hahaha! Don''t worry, don''t worry. Every single Spiritual Chef hates to waste food, but there is no helping it. If you want to prevent the wastage, just make sure to put your heart into the practice. The faster you learn, the less will be the amount of food lost. The order had just come a few minutes ago, so you still have time to try it again." Krune shook his head, though. "Please give me a few minutes. I need to ponder over what happened first. I don''t want to try before I''m sure I can show a better result than the last time." Oclo nodded. "Very well. The Grilled Bruk Kraktu has to be delivered in at most thirty minutes. I will wait until 25 minutes have passed. If you don''t finish by then, I will make it myself." Krune smiled and nodded. He then closed his eyes and reviewed the entire process in his mind. The Fire Laws, his control over his Godly Energy and the one in the meat, and the Fire Element control itself. Krune had spent 10 minutes in his first try, then he used another 7 or so minutes to rethink his approach. Finally, Krune opened his eyes once more. "Alright, it should be more or less like this." Krune quickly prepared another batch of ingredients and began cooking the Bruk Kraktu meat. Oclo looked at it closely and nodded his head as soon as Krune started. Every Spiritual Chef had their own approach. That''s because everyone has their own understanding of the Laws, so their cooking also variated. However, he could tell that Krune''s start was several times better than the first time. ''I thought he was only passionate and would need massive effort to become a Spiritual Chef. However, it seems like he is a genius between geniuses. His control over the Fire Major Law is really beautiful, I can''t compare at all.'' Around seven minutes later, Krune turned off his Godly Fire. Soon, the smell spread around him and Oclo, which made both of them nod satisfied. Oclo quickly called the waiter, who swiftly left to deliver Krune''s dish. "I don''t know what happened to you last night that made you improve so much all of a sudden. However, whatever it was, it was a good thing. You have now succeeded in cooking a Divine Path Realm Level ingredient, which means that you became a Star Path Chef. Congratulations." Krune couldn''t help but laugh. He also felt very gratified with his results. Fortunately, he didn''t waste too much food. Oclo then looked at the orders before saying. "I''ve been the only Spiritual Chef in my restaurant for a long time, so I guess it will be useful to have another one for a change. During the rest of your free working days, you will be responsible for the Star Path Dishes, understood?" Krune immediately nodded. "Leave to me, it will be great for my own training!" Oclo patted Krune''s shoulder and returned to his work. The few minutes he spent observing Krune was enough for the orders to accumulate. As an experienced Spiritual Chef, Oclo could cook several dishes at the same time. Of course, as long as they aren''t at the limit of his abilities. Otherwise, he needs to focus on them alone. Krune went in front of the orders'' list and quickly grabbed the ones at the Star Path level for himself. Every dish was different, so Krune wasn''t impervious to failures. Now and then, a new dish he had never tried to make before would go wrong. However, Krune would simply stop to analyze for a few minutes, and the next one would come out successful. Just like that, the day passed in a flash. Oclo could have dealt with all the Spiritual Chef orders on his own. However, having the Star Path ones taken made things a lot easier for him. In the end, Oclo made a special dish for Krune after the restaurant closed. "Here you go, a Semi-Divinity Star Chef dish. Also, this is my specialty at the moment, Seasoned Thunder Jackal." Krune''s eyes lit up after seeing that. "It''s one of the red-tagged ingredients in the kitchen." Oclo nodded. "You earned it with your work, so don''t hold back and eat it. See just how marvelous us, Spiritual Ches, are." The first piece quickly reached Krune''s stomach. Immediately after, a powerful wave of Godly Energy several times higher than the Golden Prawn Soup came forth. In fact, just the first mouth was enough to make up for the entire Golden Prawn Soup! ''As expected of a Semi-Divinity Beast meat, the amount of energy simply can''t be compared to the yellow tagged ones.'' At Krune''s level, such a huge amount of Spiritual Energy would take forever to convert and absorb. But thanks to the harmonization of the Spiritual Chef, it was simply too easy. Krune also has his Godly Meridians, wish made the process even smoother. Krune could feel his cultivation skyrocketing with every piece. By the time he finished half of the Seasoned Thunder Jackal... Boom! 8th Stage of Divine Path Realm reached! Oclo couldn''t help but chuckle. "Congratulations. Hahaha!" Krune smiled and quickly stabilized the energies in his Wisp Core. After that, he continued eating. He wouldn''t leave even a grain behind. Chapter 571: Free Work is Over Krune couldn''t feel more satisfied at the moment. "Thank you, Senior Oclo." Oclo nodded. "It''s nothing. The restaurant is already closed, so you can go to the Spiritual Chef Guild if you wish so. It shouldn''t be a problem for you to pass the Star Path Chef test." Krune shook his head, though. "That will be unnecessary. I don''t plan to stay as a Star Path Chef for long. I decided to take the Star View Chef test instead. I can tell that the Divine Path Realm level ingredients are far from my real capabilities. I will cook Star Path Dishes for the next ten or so days and then try a Star View one after. I wonder if Head Chef Oclo would mind it." Oclo laughed out loud. "Hahaha! No problem, no problem. Usually, I wouldn''t let anyone touch the ingredients for Spiritual Food, but you are different. You are just like me and my peers, someone who loves food. That being said, I have no reason to deny your request. Not to mention that all the work you have done is at least worth this much from me. Also, if I wasn''t confident about your abilities, I definitely wouldn''t let you do so, either." Krune quickly bowed and thanks Oclo. He couldn''t help but feel that this was one of the best choices he had ever made. He finished his Wisp Core and Foundation Transformation in half the expected time. Learned about the Spiritual Chef Occupation, and even made a breakthrough with a Semi-Divinity Star Meal. Where would he be so successful like this? Krune spent his night cultivating and understanding his laws. Godly Energy, obviously, could also be used to expand one''s foundation. Thanks to that, Krune''s Universe Foundation was getting bigger and bigger too. Solar Systems, Nebulas, even one or other Blackhole could already be found there. Still, he was really far to achieve the size of an entire galaxy. The next day, Krune returned to work. Once again, all the Star Path level and below Spiritual Dishes were handed to him to be cooked. It didn''t matter how low the level of the dish was, Krune cooked every single one to the best of his abilities, much to Oclo''s satisfaction. Real Spiritual Chefs will never look down on the level of the food they are preparing. Krune also introduced his own ideas on the second day, which Oclo approved as soon as he tasted. Oclo was true to his words, Spiritual Chefs can''t just follow others'' recipes; they have to have their own. On the third day after Krune began to make Spiritual Dishes, five of his own recipes were added to the menu. There are always those who want to try something new, so orders for the new dishes quickly arrived. Krune''s own work began to generate profit for Oclo''s restaurant. Oclo wanted to give Krune part of the gain since it was made on his dishes, but Krune refused. Instead, he asked Oclo for his Semi-Divinity meals. Oclo couldn''t help but laugh as he nodded. The amount of Godly Stones made by the restaurant was definitely more than enough to pay for those meals that Krune asked. However, Krune also noticed one thing. He couldn''t eat too much of those dishes with a lot of Godly Energy. That''s because even though those energies were gentle and easy to absorb, ultimately, they were not his energy. His Godly Meridian worked pretty much like the previous Chaos, Elemental, and Spiritual Meridians too. They also started at a level where Krune couldn''t transform the whole energy into his own. In fact, Krune couldn''t change even 10%. The rest had to be done by his foundation. Considering that Krune wasn''t supposed to come to the Higher Realms before being a Divinity Realm wisp, this rate of transformation by the Meridians will continue like this even after he reaches the peak of the Divinity Realm. That was to be expected. After all, Krune wasn''t supposed to have ascended yet. That being said, Krune''s own Godly Energy was being affected by the number of other types of Godly Energy in his foundation. As mentioned before, Godly Energy doesn''t affect one''s foundation, but that was only in the case you absorb the Heaven and Earth Godly Energy, which has no owner. The Godly Energies in the Semi-Divinity Meals definitely had previous owners, though. ''I will first reach the 9th Stage of the Divine Path Realm and then focus on making the foreign Godly Energies my own.'' During the next night, Krune decided to ask Luvile for something else. "Luvile, do you know what would it be to cultivate the Myriad Energies Technique from the start here in the Higher Realms?" Luvile got puzzled. "What do you mean?" Krune then explained. "The Myriad Energies Technique starts with Spiritual Energy, then it goes to Elemental Source Energy. Finally, it reaches the moment were I need Chaos Energy. However, suppose I begin cultivating it from the start in the Godly Path Realm. In that case, there will be no Spiritual Energy to talk about. Wouldn''t it be useless then?" Luvile finally understood what he meant. "I don''t think so. Like I said before, Godly Energy can substitute all the energies from the Lower Realms. That being said, you probably can use it for all the phases of the Myriad Energies Technique as well. Of course, you would need to try it out to be sure." Krune nodded. It was just a doubt he had. There is no one cultivating his Myriad Energies Technique in this place other than himself after all. Two days later... Boom! 9th Stage of the Divine Path Realm reached! Oclo wasn''t surprised during Krune''s last breakthrough. He simply thought that Krune was already close to it. But this time, he was really shocked. Krune only took twelve days to go from the 8th to the 9th Stage! This speed was simply frightening! Even his Semi-Divinity Star Dishes shouldn''t be this effective. "Are you really a human?" Krune wanted to say that he isn''t, but he remembered that Luvile is suppressing his Demon Beast aura. Obviously, since he isn''t in the Semi-Divinity Realm, Oclo believes that Krune is an out and out human. "That''s not exactly it. It''s just that my cultivation technique is a little better than others." Oclo''s mouth twitched. ''A little better? Why don''t you give me this ''little better'' cultivation technique of yours then?'' Of course, Oclo didn''t say that out loud. He also had his own pride. Besides, he is very close to entering the Semi-Divinity Realm already. "Whatever, just make sure to not exaggerate." Krune nodded, and they finished for the day. The next day, Krune decided to finally try a Star View dish. At some point, an order of this level arrived. Krune would try to prepare a Heavenly Dew Grass salad. This plant is a Star View Ingredient, so the energies inside still had to be properly harmonized. Oclo had quite some of it in stock, so he allowed Krune to try it without concern. As soon as Krune tried to harmonize the energy inside, he experienced the toughness of the plant. ''Sure enough, it wouldn''t be so easy. Since my cultivation isn''t in the Divine View Realm, it is hard to work with a Star View ingredient.'' Still, the resistance of the Heavenly Dew Grass only served to fuel Krune''s determination. Around ten minutes later, Krune''s first Star View Dish failure appeared. Krune once again felt gloomy as he looked at the wasted food, but didn''t give up. He closed his eyes once more and began to review the entire process. A few minutes later, he opened his eyes once more and began the preparation of the salad. Krune achieved 50% or so harmonization in the first try. As for the second, he failed with a rate of 80%! Once again, Krune replayed the process in his mind and worked around the parts where he went wrong. Finally, he was barely successful in the third attempt. The harmonization of the grass reached exactly 90%! "Phew... Not as good as I wished, but I finally did it! Still, I''m already at the 9th Stage of the Divine Path Realm; it could have been a little bit easier." Oclo sighed and shook his head after hearing that. Krune only needed three tries to make a dish above his cultivation level. Although he can do the same, it took him an entire month and hundreds of attempts to make his first one. The difference in talent was just too big! ''I better just ignore him from now on.'' Sure enough, Oclo reached the same conclusion as everyone who got involved with Krune. This was the only possible way to not go crazy. Oclo then allowed Krune to help him with the Star View Dishes of the day. Of course, those took longer and were harder to make, so Krune couldn''t make all of them alone. At least, that made Oclo feel a little more relaxed. Between success and failures, Krune''s proficiency with Star View Ingredients increased. On the last day of work in the Heavenly Taste Restaurant, Krune rarely failed while cooking Star View Dishes. Suddenly... *Crack... Shatter!* Krune looked at his token and saw it crumbling to pieces. That was the token he received after not having money to enter the city. To pay for the entrance fee, he had to work for free for a month or chose to not enter the city. Now that the token broke by itself, it meant that his thirty days of free work were over. Chapter 572: Staying Longer Oclo saw that and laughed. "Well, it seems like your duty days are over. You can leave anytime you want now." Krune nodded. "I''ll wait for the restaurant to close first. After that, I''m going to the Spiritual Chef Guild to take the test." Oclo then thought about something. "If you want, you can stay here for the time being. It would be good to keep another Spiritual Chef for help. After all, the only Spiritual Chef had been me so far." Krune pondered a bit about whether he should do that or not. But in the end, he decided that it was better to leave. He wasn''t here just for cooking, but for raising his cultivation as well. "I need to make Godly Stones fast, so I can''t stay here, sorry." Oclo looked at Krune with a puzzled expression. "Make Godly Stones? Then you might want to open your own restaurant for the time being. As a Star View Chef, there are definitely many cultivators and demon beasts willing to pay a lot for this. Each Star View option in the menu is worth between 300 to 400 Godly Stones, even the Star Path Dishes are worth at least 100, so why don''t you try?" Krune thought a bit before asking. "But would there be a market for me? I believe that there are quite a few restaurants with Spiritual Chefs around already, no?" Oclo shook his head. "I told you before, very few cultivators and demon beasts become Spiritual Chefs. If we compare with alchemists, we aren''t even 1/10 of their number. Let alone losing market, I can at least tell you that every city around our region is severely lacking in Spiritual Chefs. Have you ever checked my restaurant reserve list?" Krune shook his head. He was only interested in the kitchen and food, so he hasn''t paid much attention to any other things. Oclo then called one of his employees and asked him to show the reserve list. The guy opened his communicator and showed the number to Krune. The reserve list went as far as one year of waiting! Krune, of course, was shocked by what he saw. Noticing his expression, Oclo laughed out loud. "Simply put, Spiritual Chefs are too scarce since almost no one likes it. Everyone likes to eat Spiritual Chefs'' meals, but no one wants to become one due to the difficulty. That''s why I told you before, Spiritual Chefs are highly regarded wherever they go. As long as you show the Spiritual Chef Guild badge in front of your restaurant, the crowd will automatically flock in." Krune''s eyes lit up. He can keep cooking, which he loves to do. At the same time, he can also make a huge profit. Sure, he has his Purple Flame Pills and Equipments. If he uses it in alchemy and blacksmith, there is no doubt he can make huge profits too. However, since both can bring him huge profits, he might as well chose the one he likes the most. As for why he needs so many Godly Stones, the reason is pretty simple. Because his Spiritual Stones became useless here. Compared to the effects of the Godly Energy, it was several times better to use the Godly Energy in the air than the Spiritual Stones in his Spatial Ring. They simply couldn''t be put at the same level at all. Also, he can''t use his Spiritual Stones for anything here. No one will accept it as a way of payment at all. Whatever he wants to buy in the city, he will need Godly Stones. Also, Godly Stones have one advantage that Spiritual Food doesn''t. Their energies are ownerless, just like the Godly Energy in the air. That being said, there is no risk of affecting his foundation while using them. Krune''s plan was pretty simple. He would use his Spiritual Food as much as possible. When it starts to affect his foundation, he will stop with Spiritual Food and change to Godly Stones until he makes the foreign energies his own. After his foundation is completely stabilized, he would switch to Spiritual Food again. In fact, that''s what all Spiritual Chefs are used to do as well. "Great! Then I''m going to open a restaurant for myself." Oclo nodded, satisfied. He didn''t want to see such a talented Spiritual Chef cooking just once in a while. This would also dramatically benefit Krune''s own training. After the restaurant closed, Krune left for the City Center. Immai City is enormous to the point that Krune took almost three hours to reach there at the full speed of his legs. On the way, Krune used his Mental Energy to check all the stores around. Sure enough, there were quite a few restaurants. However, restaurants with a badge of the Spiritual Chef Guild were few and far between. Not to mention that any opened ones always had queues in front, just like Oclo''s. That made Krune even more confident that he wouldn''t go out of business. Suddenly, Krune''s communicator caught up a signal. "He''s here." Krune and Iem had set up their communicators to tell each one''s position. As long as they were in range, they would find the other''s location. The only problem is that their communicators are different from the Higher Realm''s ones, so they couldn''t use its network. Otherwise, they would be able to tell where the other is anywhere in the city. Soon, Krune found Iem. "Yo! How was your month in the restaurant?" It was then that Iem noticed Krune''s cultivation. "9th Stage?! You went from the 7th to the 9th Stage in just a month? How did you do that?" Krune laughed and then explained what happened during the past few days. "I see. I heard some of the Formations Masters talking about the Spiritual Chefs before. They seemed to love eating Spiritual Food. However, they often complained that it was hard to make the reserves. Seeing you now, no wonder everyone wants to eat their food. In that case, you must cook some Star View dishes for me. Hahaha!" Krune didn''t mind it. "Sure, I intend to open a restaurant here in the city for the time being. Oh, right! Have your Dantian and Foundation achieved the 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm?" Iem nodded. "It finished just three days ago. I have to admit, the difference in cultivating with Godly Energy is absurd. I feel like I don''t want to ever go back to the Lower Realms." Krune couldn''t blame him since he also knows the effects of the Higher Realms. It can''t be compared at all. "That''s good. I might cook something for you before you try a breakthrough into the Divine View Realm. Considering your realm and your race, I doubt you haven''t merged at least one law, right?" Iem snorted. "Who do you think I am? Before I became a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, I was a Life Fragment/Divine Soul one. So as you can imagine, I already comprehended all the Light Sub-Laws and merged them into the Major Law of Light. That''s more than enough for me to advance into the Divine View Realm." Krune nodded. "That''s good. I have finished the Major Law of Fire, so I will enter the Divine View Realm soon too. I''m just taking my time to accumulate enough energy and transforming the Spiritual Food energy that I got into my own." "By the way, how was your time in the Formations Guild?" Iem''s eyes lit up after hearing that question. "Great! You might not know this, but even the Formations at the Star Path or Star View levels use Godly Energy. In a certain way, they can also be considered God-Level Formations! Any formation I had studied in the past pales in comparison to the Higher Realm''s ones. Other than doing my work, I also got access to all the information available about formations. It was indeed an eye-opener." "You said you wanted to stay in the city for a while to run your restaurant, right? To be honest, I also intend to do the same because of the Formations. The more I learn about the Godly Path Realm Formations, the better it will be for the two of us in the future." Krune nodded in agreement. "Cool, but first, we have something else to do." Iem noticed what Krune meant. "Indeed, it is due time already." Soon, they entered an electronics shop. It was time to get communicators of the Higher Realms. At the same time, back in the Dalin Universe, a couple suddenly appeared near the Wisp Main World. The woman then sent a message over, and the couple soon got permission to enter the planet. The couple was none other than Feifei''s parents, Wang Milia and Xin. Soon, they arrived at Feifei''s courtyard, where Feifei had been waiting for them. Sure enough, mother and daughter didn''t hold themselves back and immediately hugged each other in tears. It had been over twenty years since they had seen each other, after all. "Mother!" "Feifei! How had you been doing? Are you fine?" As for a certain Wang Xin... well... he was utterly ignored... "Cough, cough. I''m also here, you know?" Feifei smiled as she wiped the tears on her eyes. After that, she also hugged her father. Finally, Wang Xin''s gloomy expression disappeared. Suddenly, another girl with Rainbow Hair and Irises entered the room. Obviously, that was Fie. Wang milia and Xin were taken aback. The girl was basically a copy of Feifei, but with different hair and eye colors. Sure enough, until this very moment, they still didn''t know that Feifei and Krune had a daughter. "This..." Milia then sent her Divine Sense into Feifei, and she immediately understood. Any female human who has had a child for the first time would have their bone structure changed. As a woman and a mother herself, she obviously could tell that Feifei also gave birth in the past. Seeing how identical Fie looked to Feifei, the girl''s identity became apparent. "Feifei, could this be." Fie seemed to be a little embarrassed. She could tell the Milia and Feifei looked a lot alike, so she looked like her grandmother a lot too. Feifei quickly grabbed Fie''s hand and brought her over. "Mother, this is your granddaughter, Wang Fie." Wang Milia''s eyes lit up, and she immediately hugged her. "Good! Good! I thought I couldn''t be happier today, but who could have thought that such a surprise was waiting for me." Wang Xin, on the other hand, had a dark expression. "How dare that wisp touch my daughter? He even had a daughter with her." Wang Milia''s expression immediately changed as she cast a death gaze at her husband. "What? Did you want my daughter to be childless for the rest of her life?" Xin felt a chill on his back and immediately shook his head. "Of course not, I''m happy to know I have a granddaughter now. Still... I''m a father. No father would feel happy knowing that his daughter was taken advantage of." There is no helping that. Everyone knows that it is a rule that the father will always hate the son in law who took their daughter away. "Shut up! If you say one more word, see if you won''t sleep alone for the next century!" Wang Xin was frightened by such an idea! A century without being able to touch his wife? He might as well die here! "My beloved wife, I''m just joking." He quickly came forward and patted Fie''s shoulder. "I might not like your father that much, but that is not the same in your case. If you need anything, you can ask me anytime. Hahaha!" Fie looked at Wang Milia and Feifei, just to see the two women shooking their heads helplessly. It was evident that they thought Wang Xin to be beyond help already. Suddenly, Feifei felt the Small White Tower that Wally left behind tremble. It came out of her Dantian and began to shine with white light. Right after, a voice came from inside. "Oh! It''s connected again. Feifei, can you hear me?" Sure enough, after an entire month recharging, the tower could once again connect with Krune on the other side. Chapter 573: At Ease Krune had enough god stones, thanks to Oclo''s help. Although Krune had said that he would be fine with the Semi-Divinity Star meals, Oclo still gave him some Godly Stones in the end. That''s why Krune didn''t have a problem buying a new communicator. He was even able to rent a small building, which he would use as his restaurant later. As for Iem, he went back to the Formations Guild to learn more. Now that his token crumbled as well, he could work there as a real member. Since he was already there, he also took the test for Formations Master. As a member of the Heavenly Race and a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner, it goes without saying that his talent for formations was also high. After just half a month there, he already knew enough to pass the test of a Stars Path Formations Master. Krune was now inside the building he rented when he noticed that the small tower could contact Feifei''s side again, so he didn''t waste time and called right away. Back on the Wisp Main World, everyone recognized Krune''s voice. "Dad!" "Krune!" "Oh! Fie, Feifei! How are you? Is everything okay on your side?" Wang Xin and Milia were taken aback. They had seen how Krune disappeared. After that, there was no more information about him. They didn''t know how to bring this issue forward, so they were reluctant to talk about it with Feifei. But who could have thought that Krune would appear out of nowhere when they arrived? Wang Xin then grabbed the small tower before saying. "You darn wisp! How dare you touch my daughter''s body?!" *Pah!* Xin received a slap on the back of his head from Milia. Feifei didn''t even know what to say. Krune, of course, immediately recognized Xin''s voice. "Aren''t you Feifei''s father? What is happening over there?" Feifei took the change where Milia was rebuking Xin and explained the situation to Krune. "Oh, I see..." Finally, Xin and Milia came back once more. But before Milia or Xin could say anything, Krune spoke. "Senior Xin, we indeed had sex, but you better know that the one who forced herself upon me first was Feifei. I''m innocent!" Wang Xin and milia''s mouths opened wide as they looked at Feifei. As for Feifei, she almost vomited blood! "What the hell are you even saying?!" Krune was puzzled on the other side. "I think I''m trying to gain your father''s trust, no?" Feifei wanted to die already. That wasn''t what she meant with her question at all! "Are you saying you regret it?" "Of course, not. Thanks to that, today we have Fie. How could I ever regret that? You and Fie are the most important things in my life." Feifei finally calmed a little. At least he recognizes this much. Krune could have stopped talking there... yes, he could... "However, it is a fact that your sexual desire is several times higher than mine, no? Although I do like the feeling of sex, you are definitely in another league. Of course, I have read a lot, and I know that in a couple''s life, the man has to make sure that his marital duties are accomplished. According to what I read, this is one of the main reasons for a long and durable relationship. So you don''t need to worry, I will definitely make up when we are separated when I come back. We can have sex as many times as you want." Wang Milia and Xin looked at their daughter with weird expressions. There is one thing that they know about Krune. That guy would always be 100% blunt with his words without care. That being said, what he just said is most likely the truth. Still, to say such a thing in front of Feifei''s own parents... It is evident that his EQ didn''t progress at all in the past years. However, Feifei still hasn''t received the last attack yet. Fie looked at her mother while putting a hand on her shoulder. "Don''t worry, mother. It''s thanks to your sexual desire that I was born, I''m very grateful for you to be a sex-driven person." Feifei almost passed out. ''Did you inherit your father''s EQ? It must be it, right? Right?!!!'' Wang Milia couldn''t stay silent anymore. "Cough, cough... Let''s leave my daughter''s... ''extreme needs''... aside for the moment." Wang Xin could only nod in agreement. "Yes, her... ''extreme needs''... are a problem between her and Krune. Instead, can anyone explain what is happening here? Where is Krune? Why can''t he come back now?" Feifei looked at her mother and father with teary eyes. What do you mean with extreme needs? I''m not a sexual beast, you know? Please, have some faith in your daughter! Kowing that dwelling on this would only bring her endless embarrassment, Feifei decided to change the topic. "Well... it goes like this." Feifei then explained what happened to Krune. "What?! He is in the Higher Realms?!" Wang Xin and Milia couldn''t believe Feifei''s words. "Feifei is telling the truth. I''m indeed in the Higher Realms. To be more specific, I''m in the Godly Path Realm at the moment. If I want to come back, I will need to increase my cultivation first. Although Wally sent me here against my will, he did that with my future in mind. Now that I''m here, I can only put my all into cultivation." Krune and the group on the Wisp Main World then talked for a while longer. Krune also asked the situation on their side. It seems like Ruik and Tiane already went back to the Luvile Universe. From the looks of it, Lakin immediately threw the Rainbow Wisp Country on his back without even blinking. According to what Wang Xin heard, the snake seems to be going through hell to learn everything he needed. Tiane, of course, accompanied him. Liriu did not go there, though. He preferred to stay in the Dalin Universe so that he could cultivate adequately. Besides, Little Arty is still here, so his Godly Energy provision was of paramount importance. It was the only source of Godly Energy in the Lower Realms at the moment. Dilo and Xankruan are also in Dalin but left to the Now Laws Zone to get some battle experience. Surprisingly, Heavin also followed the two. Heavin was now able to provide energy for himself, so he had no need to stay with Krune anymore. Heavin decided that he would try his own strength with his Phoenix Puppet. Besides, Heavin considered it an excellent chance to study how to create the next realm of his Soul Cultivation Technique. After all, he is already in the Soul Control Realm, the last realm available after creating his technique. If he wants to go any further, he has to create the new realms as well. Laex is still being pursued by the Dragon Clan, so he only stepped outside after changing his appearance. However, he didn''t seem to care much about it. He simply cultivated and went out whenever he felt like it. As long as he doesn''t reveal his identity, it would be hard for others to find him. Lala seemed to get really attached to Feifei and Fie during this time. She threw her Scarlet Bear pride away and followed her feelings. So Feifei, Fie, and Lala were almost always together. The only reason she didn''t appear when Feifei''s parents visited was that she didn''t feel it to be right. They were separated for decades, so Lala decided to give them some time alone first. Of course, she would come to know them before they leave the Wisp Main World. Last but not least, Cinty and Kiirion were still together. As the Wisp Queen, Cinty had been taking care of the Wisps. Because of the Myriad Wisps Technique, she had been quite busy recently. However, Krune heard from Feifei that Cinty and Kiirion began to try to have a child too. However, everyone knows how hard it will be. Finally, the small towers of both sides began to lose their power again. "Ah! It seems like the energy is almost depleted. Anyway, I''ll call you again next time it recharges." Feifei and the others nodded. "Alright, take care." With that, the communication was finished. Krune then took a deep breath and felt quite relaxed. Knowing that things were going well back in the Lower Realms put his mind at ease. Only like that would he be able to entirely focus on his training without concerns. Krune then got up and began to walk around the small building he rented. He intends to open a small Spiritual Food restaurant here, but there are a few things he still needs. "I will have to find a few people or demon beasts to work for me. Also, I only have so many tables, chairs, plates, etc. I need to go out and buy more of them. Not to mention that I still need to take the Spiritual Food Chef test." Krune pondered a bit and decided that the Spiritual Food Test should be his first priority. Without it, arranging the rest would be meaningless. Krune left his building and went straight to the Spiritual Food Guild. As a branch of one of the side occupations, it was always open for the public. However, after Krune arrived there, he could tell the difference between the Spiritual Food Guild and the others. There weren''t many cultivators and demon beasts walking inside. The number of attendants was relatively small too, considering how big Immai City is. ''Sure enough, Oclo was right. There were very few who wished to become Spiritual Chefs. Otherwise, the guild branch wouldn''t be so empty. Well, this is a good thing for my business.'' Krune then stepped forward. It was time to become a full-fledged Star View Chef. Chapter 574: Applications Krune approached the counter where one of the attendants was working. "Hi there. I would like to take the Spiritual Chef Test." The attendant looked at Krune and nodded while smiling. There were very few who wished to become Spiritual Chefs, so the Spiritual Chef Guild employees were told to treat any applicant to the best of their abilities. "No problem. I can see that you are in the Divine Path Realm. Should I apply for a Star Path Chef test?" Krune shook his head. "I want to take the test for a Star View Chef." The attendant was a little surprised to hear that. Still, there were quite a few Spiritual Chefs that could make Spiritual Meals one level above their cultivation. Because of that, his surprise didn''t last for long. "Very well. As you know, our Spiritual Chef Tests are very simple. You just need to go to one of our Kitchens and prepare a few dishes at the requested level. One of our members will be there to observe the process to guarantee that you aren''t cheating." Krune didn''t mind. "Very well, how much is it to take the test?" "For a Star View Chef, the price is 100 Godly Stones." Krune nodded and paid the amount. After that, he was guided into one of the kitchens where a member of the Spiritual Chef Guild was already waiting. From what Krune could see in his badge, the man was a Semi-Divinity Spiritual Chef, just like Oclo. "This is the kitchen. But if you want, you can use your own tools as well. I will only need to verify them beforehand." Krune nodded and took a few of his own utensils. He was more comfortable using his own, after all. The Chef beside Krune verified everything before nodding. "Everything is in order. You can start any time you want." He then passed a list to Krune. "Here are the ingredients available in our Guild at the moment. You can select any of the ones present. For Star View Chefs, we have quite a plethora of them." Krune quickly scanned the list and found one of the ingredients for one of the dishes he prepared in Oclo''s restaurant. It was also the very first Spiritual Food dish he had ever eat, the Golden Prawn Soup. Krune was very familiar with this Star View Dish, so it was relatively easy to cook it. In the end, his Golden Prawn Soup had a harmonization of over 95%, much to the judge''s satisfaction. "A very good level of harmonization considering your level. I can also feel the passion behind your moves, which is very important for us, Spiritual Chefs." The judge then brought forward more ingredients. From the looks of it, there was enough for Krune to make another two Golden Prawn Soups. "I will need you to remake the same dish again. Besides being able to cook something at the Star View Level, a Spiritual Chef also has to have at least a 40 to 50% rate of success. Otherwise, what will be the point if you can only cook a Star View dish once every ten or so times?" Krune nodded. "No problem. I will begin right away." Krune didn''t mind those rules since they made sense. Not to mention that he wouldn''t have any problem cooking the Golden Prawn Soup again. Sometime later, another two portions of Golden Praw Soup were completed in front of the judge. "Vey good, their harmonization rate is on par with your first dish as well, you pass." The chef then passed a token to Krune before saying. "Go to the office outside and give it to the employee there. He will create your badge and add you to our system. After that, you will be considered one of Star View Chefs." Krune smiled and then left. After passing the token for the employee responsible, he was guided into a particular room to wait. Around one hour later, he already received his badge. ''Good. With this, I can go after the other things I need.'' However, he quickly remembered something else. Krune returned to the counter before asking. "I will be opening a new restaurant. Do you guys perhaps know where I can find some employees? I won''t need more than five or six." The attendant nodded and pointed in the direction of a monitor on the other side of the room. "There are quite a lot of people with low cultivation that need some job to get Godly Stones. If all you want are some helpers and waiters, you can find them there. Some of them even worked as normal chefs before, so it is quite good." Krune smiled after hearing that. The Guild seems to be prepared to help the Spiritual Chefs with everything. Krune went beside the monitor and used the terminal to check the applicants. However, Krune noticed everyone he could afford the money to employ was very young. That made sense, though. Those who are older would already have cultivations high enough to earn Godly Stones in better ways. Only the poor who didn''t have backgrounds would need such regular jobs. One good example was that kid who guided Krune to the Heavenly Tastes Restaurant. As Krune checked the system, he noticed that the age of those he could employ variated between 15 and 25. There was a short description of themselves as well. Since they would work for him for some time, Krune took his time to read everyone''s conditions. Obviously, because of their age, all of them were humans. After all, only demon beasts at the Semi-Divinity Realm would have sentience. Naturally, demon beasts at this realm would have surpassed 25 years a long time ago. Krune also noticed that this system wasn''t exclusively for the Spiritual Chef Guild but for all city businesses. That being said, all other side occupation guilds and other companies also used it to employ others. After some time, Krune picked three candidates and only needed two more. It was then that he found a young girl''s application. Her name was Nina Lavaneg, sixteen years old. There wasn''t anything impressive about her. If anything, she was quite below average. Her cultivation was only at the 4th Stage of the Core Formation Realm, which is very low for her age. One must remember that the kid who guided Krune to Oclo''s restaurant was only twelve years old but already in the 8th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. For a sixteen years old girl to be only in the 4th Stage shows a severe lack of talent. Of course, if she was back in the Lower Realms, she would be considered a genius instead. Although she wouldn''t be at the very top like the best geniuses, she wouldn''t be too far from it. What caught Krune''s attention was the description she left in her application, though. ''My dream is to be a Spiritual Chef. However, due to the lack of resources, I''m accepting any job. Of course, I would be delighted if a restaurant can employ me. I won''t mind receiving less Godly Stones if I''m allowed to work in the kitchen. Another thing is...'' The description went on and on, and it was quite bigger than the normal ones. Krune couldn''t tell if what she said was true or not. Still, if someone who was already in that situation was willing to receive less to work in the kitchen, she probably really liked cooking. Krune had never cared about talent in his life. Several of his friends couldn''t be said to be talented either. Don''t forget that many of them only got to where they are thanks to Krune''s Myriad Energies Technique. Ao, Yusa, Dilo, Xankruan, Ruik, Tiane, etc., all of them couldn''t be considered geniuses at all once you took the Myriad Energies Technique away. After pondering a bit, Krune decided to take her application as well. As a Spiritual Chef and a food lover, he couldn''t pretend that he didn''t see it. As long as her heart was faithful to the words written in the application, Krune wouldn''t care about what kind of talent she might have. Besides, even without the discount that she mentioned, the payment she desired was relatively cheap. Or to be more specific, Nina was the cheapest applicant he took out. The last one of the five applications Krune was for a waiter. Another young boy at 15 years old. It was only to note down the orders and serve the customers, so there wasn''t much of a need for experience. After Krune sent the message and the number of his communicator over, he left to buy the things necessary for his first restaurant, like tables, chairs, etc. At the same time, Krune began to think about the menu. It would have regular food and Spiritual food. After all, not everyone can afford Spiritual Food. Not to mention that Krune wouldn''t simply forget about the typical dishes he loved so far. That would go against his beliefs as a chef. On the next day, Krune had finished put everything together. He also came up with a menu that didn''t have more than 30 dishes. They were 10 ordinary, 10 Star Path, and 10 Star View ones. After checking the time, he could see that it was about time for his candidates to arrive. It was then that he remembered something. "Oh, right!" He went in front of his restaurant and took a bunch of materials that he brought from the Lower Realm. As a Stars Path Blacksmith, it wasn''t hard for him to create a simple but nice board with his restaurant''s name with the picture of his Spiritual Chef Badge on the side. "Rainbow Restaurant." Luvile saw that and couldn''t help but say. "I didn''t think you would use that word yourself." Krune sighed. "If I didn''t chose it, you would definitely point it out, wouldn''t you?" Luvile laughed after hearing that. "Well, that''s true." After that, Krune went back inside and waited for the appointed time. Chapter 575: Fate Krune''s idea was quite simple. He would have three waiters taking care of the orders, one to care about payments, and one helping him in the kitchen. He did a serious interview with the first four low-level cultivators to guarantee that they knew what to do. After confirming that their information was as stated in their applications, he hired them. They were two females and two males. He then called Nina, who was the last one he needed to interview. He wanted to confirm her words first before allowing her to work in the kitchen with him. Truth be told, Krune''s restaurant was relatively small; there were no more than 20 tables total. That being said, he was more than confident enough to be able to cook all dishes on his own. After all, he could manipulate his Spiritual Energy and his Mind Splitting Technique to do several dishes simultaneously. If not that he read Nina''s application by coincidence, he wouldn''t have used anyone in the kitchen. "So, I took a look at your information, and I saw that you wanted to become a Spiritual Chef. Was that true, or was it just so that you could get a job? To be honest, your cultivation is really low compared even to the younger kids. It shows that you have no talent whatsoever." Nina dropped her head before saying. "It''s true. I really want to become a Spiritual Chef." "Why?" Krune noticed that Nina seemed a little reluctant to talk. "The kitchen is my heavens, the food my happiness. I won''t allow any half-assed cultivator to enter it just because they say they want to. That being said, I want an honest answer. Why you want to become a Spiritual Chef?" Nina then nervously replied. "Be-because..." Krune narrowed his eyes. "Last chance! Otherwise, you can go back from wherever you came from." Nina bit her lips and told the real reason. "Because I liked the look on my little brother''s face when he had eaten it for the first time." Krune brows raised a little. "That simple?" Nina was taken aback. She thought that Krune''s first reaction would be to throw her out straight away. Even she knows how screwed this reason looked like. Nina had said the same things before, but she was instantly ignored after that in previous interviews. "It''s... It''s not simple. Sir might not know this, but there are a lot of cultivators who have no family or background. For the majority, even reaching the Divine Path Realm is very hard before dying--" Krune cut Nina''s words right there. "Very hard? With the Godly Energy and the lifespan, unless you die or something serious happens, everyone would reach it sooner or later." Nina then looked at Krune as if he had said something unbelievable. It was then that Nina thought about a possibility. "Sir, it probably was very easy for you to reach the Divine Path Realm with your background. However, I''m talking about those who don''t have one. For us, reaching the Divine Path Realm before our lifespan ends is truly difficult." Krune was taken aback again. What lifespan is she talking about? If a 12 years old kid is already in the Core Formation Realm, lifespan should be the least of their problems. ''Wait! Could it be...'' It was then that an idea struck Krune''s mind. "Before the Divine Path Realm, what is the average lifespan of cultivators?" Nina was taken aback by that question. Her expression was obviously saying, ''you don''t know?''. Still, she composed herself before answering. "50 to 60 years." Krune was shocked! That''s is pitifully low. Even with Godly Energy, it would be hard to achieve the Divine Path Realm before the end of that time. First of all, what happened to the lengthening of lifespan with each breakthrough? Krune then spread his Mental Energy around, covering an entire 35 kilometers. Before, he had not paid attention since he wasn''t looking into this issue. However, he made sure to look into it this time. As the overall picture appeared in his mind, he could finally see that there were indeed many elderly people below the Divine Path Realm in the city. ''I''m such an idiot! How didn''t I notice it before? If their lifespan worked as the same as the lower realms, what would be the chances of seeing so many elderly people here? After all, with Godly Energy to cultivate, it made no sense that any of them would look that old if the lifespans were the same.'' Krune was right. In the Lower Realm, right from the Foundation Establishment Realm, the higher your cultivation, the slower your body ages. That being said, considering how incredible Godly Energy is for cultivation, there should be almost no ''elderly looking'' people below the Divine Path Realm. However, with just a simple Mental Energy Scam, Krune had seen tens of thousands of them! It was at this moment that another issue appeared in Krune''s mind, so he immediately asked Luvile. "Luvile, does the Divine Path Realm makes one ''immortal'' in the Higher Realms?" Luvile, who hadn''t been paying attention until now, answered as if it was nothing. "Of course, not. Here in the Higher Realms, you only gain ''lifespan immortality'' once you reach the Godly Fusion Realm. Before that, everyone has lifespans. That''s how the laws of the Higher Realms work. Oh, Right! Anyone below the Divine Path Realm will not have their lifespan increased with breakthroughs. Only after you reach the Divine Path Realm will it grow. Just like the Lower Realms, it will double at each breakthrough after that Realm." Krune''s mouth twitched. "Couldn''t you tell me earlier? Doesn''t that mean that my lifespan is running low at this very moment?" Luvile didn''t seem to care, though. "I simply thought that there was no point in saying it. With your talent, there is no way you will run out of lifespan. That being said, why should you care? It is a problem that has nothing to do with you." Krune couldn''t help but sigh. It''s true that with Godly Energy, he isn''t afraid of running out of it. Still, he preferred to know it beforehand. Krune then looked at Nina, who seemed to be puzzled by his expression. "Cough, cough... You can continue. You said that you wanted to become a Spiritual Chef because of your little brother, right?" Nina''s eyes shined when she thought about him. "Yes! I only have my little brother as a family. Anyway, before the Divine Path Realm, everyone needs to eat too." Krune was taken aback again. He didn''t know that they also couldn''t survive with Godly Energy alone before the Divine Path Realm. Nevertheless, he didn''t stop Nina this time and let her continue. "However, we were pretty poor, so we often starved. To be honest, people dying of starvation isn''t anything uncommon in our region. There was a time that we really got close to die as well. But just then, a man who was passing by offered us some food. Not only to us but to the other kids around as well." Nina''s memories of that time were still as clear as water. "That was the best food we had ever eaten in our lives. It was delicious, and above all, full of energy. Because of our low cultivation, it was enough to restore our bodies by the time we finished eating. I will never forget the eyes of my little brother and the other boys and girls around." Nina couldn''t help but laugh a bit at this point. "My little brother was only six that year, so he was quite naive. He looked at the man and asked. ''Are you a saint?'' The man, of course, laughed out loud after hearing that. He just patted my little brother''s head before answering. ''I''m just a low-level Spiritual Chef who happened to be passing through here. Since I had some food remaining, I simply decided to share it with you. It was much better than letting it go to waste.''" "Still, my admiration for what that man did, especially by the food he cooked, is vivid today. I had decided at that moment that I would definitely become a Spiritual Chef in the future." Krune nodded. Such an event would really fire up one''s determination. His own reason to become a chef wasn''t that dramatic. Still, he will never forget the head chef in the village beside Katiu Forest. Just like Nina, Krune deeply admired that man. He still remembers how he helped his son, Darten, with his foundation to pay for the recipe book. Krune was just about to take Nina in when someone knocked on his room''s door. Right after, a young man called Bai Lakkeu entered. He was one of the previously hired employees that Krune got. He was also the guy who would take care of the payments. "Sir, there is a boy outside who seems to be looking for this lady." "Ah!" Nina immediately got up and apologized. "Sorry, Sir. I told him that I would be doing an interview for a job today, so I also gave him the address to come after he finished his work. I didn''t expect him to come so early." Krune smiled and shook his head. "That''s not a problem. Bai, you can bring him in." Bai nodded and quickly went out. A minute later, the boy arrived in the room. When Krune saw the boy, he couldn''t help but feel surprised. After that, he laughed out loud. "Aren''t you the boy who guided me to the Heavenly Tastes Restaurant?" The boy was also surprised to see Krune again. There is no way he would forget that man''s rainbow-like hair and eyes. Nina quickly introduce him. "This is my little brother, Lino Lavaneg." Krune then looked at Nina and could tell that they indeed had similar features. ''I wonder if this is what others call fate.'' Chapter 576: Food Lovers Should Always Help Each Other The street Krune selected for his restaurant wasn''t that good. If anything, it was below average. However, due to the city''s size, there was still quite some movement in front every day. Krune''s restaurant stayed closed for five days. However, his board showed that it would be a Spiritual Chef one. Because of that, quite a few cultivators at the Divine Path Realm or above already took note of it. As mentioned before, any Spiritual Chef is highly regarded. That being said, Krune wouldn''t have problems finding customers even if it was located in this place. Back inside, the first thing Krune asked Nina was why her cultivation was so low. Even her little brother, Lino, who was four years younger, had cultivation higher than hers. Nina was still in the 3rd Stage of the Core Formation Realm while being sixteen years old. Her brother, on the other end, was already in the 8th Stage. Nina already expected such a question, so she simply answered with a bitter smile. "My Dantian is deformed. Because of that, it''s several times harder for me to retain Godly Energy than others." Krune was surprised to hear that. "And you want to become a Spiritual Chef like this?" Nina dropped her head once more while murmuring. "But I don''t want to give up..." Krune sighed and pressed his hand against Nina''s Dantian, which took her by surprise. "Don''t move, let me take a look." Of course, even if Nina wanted, she wouldn''t be able to escape Krune''s grasp with his cultivation level. That being said, she didn''t even try. Nonetheless, it still made her feel a little embarrassed. Krune couldn''t care less about her embarrassment, though. His Godly Energy rushed inside Nina''s body and enveloped her Dantian. After checking it for a few seconds, Krune couldn''t help but narrow his eyes. ''She wasn''t lying. Normal Dantians and Demon Cores are completely round. Although none of them are round to perfection, they aren''t that far from it. However, her Dantian looks more like an amoeba. How did it become like this?'' After retracting his hand, Krune decided to ask Luvile if he had seen something like that before. "Nope! However, I''m someone from a long time ago, so I''m not the best option if you want to look for information about it." Krune nodded and opened his communicator. Just like the Lower Realms, the Higher Realms had already adhered to technology too. After Krune bought his new communicator, he instantly got access to the network. Not only that, but the system of the higher Realms was also much better with a lot more information. The network covered the entire planet Krune was in, so it wasn''t too hard to find some information about it. From the looks of it, deformed Dantians come to be during a poor Foundation Establishment Breakthrough. Still, Krune wasn''t too alarmed because of this. That''s because the way to fix it was quite simple. Destroy the Dantian and have the cultivator start from zero again. As long as everything goes okay, the Dantian can be rebuilt with the right shape. "Why didn''t you destroy your foundation and started again?" Nina shook her head. "If I do that and start again, I wouldn''t be able to even get a job anymore. No one would employ someone with no cultivation. I can''t possibly rely on the Godly Stones my little brother gets by guiding people and demon beasts either. In the end, I had to grit my teeth and continue moving forward the way I am at the moment. At least, I can buy better resources for my little brother to cultivate by adding the supplements to his food." "Ah! Please don''t tell him what I just said. He doesn''t know that I''ve been using my Godly Stones like this. If you do, he will definitely rebuke me for three days and three nights straight." Nina didn''t know, but Krune was really impressed by her determination. When he looked at her Dantian just now, he could tell that she couldn''t keep even half of the absorbed Godly Energy. From what he could see, her rate was only 30% of what Lino could do. One must remember that Lino isn''t a genius, but just an ordinary boy. His slightly high cultivation was evidently due to his sister''s hidden help. Nevertheless, even though she can only absorb 30% of what her brother and others can do, she still reached the 3rd Stage of the Core Formation Realm. And that was without using the Godly Stones on herself. If this can''t be called determination, then Krune doesn''t know what determination is. ''Everything for the family and for a Dream...'' Krune didn''t think she was lying. Since she is still in the Core Formation Realm, all he needed was the good and old blood contract to verify whether she was telling the truth. Nina, of course, knew that as well. That''s why she could only tell the truth when the interview started. Suddenly, Krune pointed his finger at Nina''s Dantian, and a flash of Purple Lightning pierced through her Datian. Krune''s control over the Purple Tribulation Lightning reached a really high level. He completely pulverized Nina''s Dantian without leaving a single injury behind. Still, the pain of having one''s Dantian destroyed was definitely unavoidable. Nina fell on the ground and contorted in pain for a few minutes. Her eyes in tears as she thought about what she had done wrong. Eventually, a despairing feeling appeared in her mind. Her already low cultivation had been destroyed just like that. When she was finally able to barely bear the pain, she looked at Krune, frightened. She couldn''t help but think about what he planned to do with her. However, she noticed that she wasn''t in Krune''s Kitchen anymore, but inside a room. She didn''t even know when she was brought here. Her fear increased even more! However... *Vup* 30 Godly Stones appeared around her body. Krune isn''t a high-level Formations Master, but he still knows a little about it from back in the Makui Planet. That being said, he inscribed a simple Energy Gathering Formation on the ground. "Stop looking at me and sit straight. You won''t be able to become a Spiritual Chef with such a shit Dantian. Concentrate on the Godly Energy and start cultivating again." Krune doesn''t have many Godly Stones remaining. In his spatial ring, there are only 50 or so now. However, he didn''t care since he would start to earn more soon. Nina was taken aback. With their difference in cultivation, she had already resigned to her fate. Even though there are laws in the city, if it is done covertly, no one would be able to tell that Krune did something. Besides, except for her little brother, no one would care if someone like her disappeared. However, it didn''t seem like Krune intended to do her any harm. "This..." *Pah!* He slapped the back of her head before saying. "Stop wasting time. Even if you are still feeling pain because of your Destroyed Datian, I already put out the Godly Stones. If to don''t start absorbing the Godly Energy now, it will go to waste." Well, in fact, a lot of the energy would go to waste to regardless. Using Godly Stones for someone without any cultivation was bound to lose most of it. That was a very extravagant set up for someone with Nina''s background. She didn''t know whether Krune was trying to help or not, but she could only follow his orders for now. Nina concentrated as she gathered the Godly Energy to start cultivating again. Thirty minutes later, a small wave of Spiritual Energy rushed out of her body. 1st Stage of the Energy Gathering Realm achieved! Krune nodded, satisfied. ''She isn''t talentless. In fact, her talent isn''t bad at all. Although I can''t say she is a genius, she is definitely above average. At least, she is better than Lino, her little brother.'' Thirty minutes to achieve the 1st Stage of the Energy Gathering Realm seemed unbelievable fast. But in fact, it wasn''t anything impressive in the Higher Realms. Just like Krune said, with the setup he prepared, Nina could only be said to be above average. This is a place where Godly Energy Rules, after all. Krune looked at the Godly Energy Stones in the Formation before nodding. The energy would continue flowing at her for the next three to four hours. He employed her and the others for a 10 hours/day contract, so she would be done before her workday was over. "Stay here and cultivate properly. When the Godly Stones'' energy is over, come down, and I''ll start teaching you what you should do in the kitchen." Nina was at a loss of what to do. Her mind was blank, and she couldn''t tell left from right. The pain that was still present where her Dantian was located before didn''t help either. Yet, she could at least tell that Krune seemed to want to... help her build a new foundation? Why would he go that far for someone like her? That didn''t make sense in a place like the Immai City. As Krune went back to the kitchen, he heard Luvile''s voice. "Are you really going to waste your time helping the lass?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "It''s not like it will affect me much. Besides, food lovers should always help each other." Luvile sighed but didn''t say anything else. As long as cooking was involved, Krune would always go all out. Krune then checked the time in his communicator, and a smile appeared in his face. "Thirty minutes to open, it''s almost time to make some Godly Stones." Chapter 577: First Day While Nina spent her time cultivating, Krune already started to receive orders. Sure enough, it was, as Oclo said. The moment the restaurant opened, there were already a few customers waiting. Most of them were at the Divine Path Realm or Divine View Realm, which are perfect for the two types of Spiritual Food that Krune can make. That made sense since Krune couldn''t make Semi-Divinity Star Dishes yet. "Two bowls of Golden Prawn Soup." "Three servicings of Grilled Ice Sea Eel." "Mist Mountain Fog Mushroom Salad, three portions." The orders came at a regular pace. That''s because Krune''s restaurant wasn''t known yet, so the majority first came to check the quality. They had to find out whether Krune''s dishes were really worth the money on the menu. Krune did his best with every order, and he was genuinely enjoying the feeling of cooking as always. Soon, four hours went by, and Nina finally came down from the second floor. When she appeared in the kitchen, she was able to see Krune using his Godly Energy and Mind Splitting Technique to work with five dishes at the same time! Although Krune''s restaurant has only twenty tables, each table had six chairs. Not to mention that the groups that came in would make different orders. That being said, it was normal for Krune to receive several types of orders simultaneously. Krune glanced at Nana for a second before saying. "Good, seems like you used the time in the formation well. 3rd Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm is a good start. Of course, the further you go, the slower it will become. However, with your talent and experience from before, you should reach your brother''s level much faster than him. Anyway, I won''t help you for free, so be ready to work for the rest of the day." Nina''s eyes were a little teary, but this time, not because she was afraid. She finally confirmed that Krune had no malicious intentions towards her. He only destroyed her Dantian so that she could rebuild it again. Still, she quickly wiped her eyes and stepped forward. "Chef Krune, what do you need?" "Good! You can''t make Spiritual Food yet, but there is no problem with the side ingredients that aren''t high level. Take that pan and fill it with Suran Earth Flowers. After that, add 3/4 of chilling pond water. I use them together because the cold attribute of the chilling pond water can prevent the flowers'' properties from being lost. It will also help wit-" Krune began to give a stream of orders, which Nina did her best to follow. He also explained in great detail why he did that. Still, he warned her that those were his ideas or the ideas of other chefs in the past. So if she thought she could add anything to it, she could tell him. Since she wants to become a Spiritual Chef, she will need to have her own ideas too. Nina soon began to feel tired. There was no helping it. As ordinary as the ingredients she worked with could be, they still needed some Godly Energy to be used in the process. However, Krune was already expecting it. Or to be more specific, he wished for it to happen. The constant use of Godly Energy would help her to build a stronger foundation. Cultivating with Godly Energy alone doesn''t affect the Foundation. However, it doesn''t make it stronger either. Nina will have to put a lot more effort into it is she wants to build a sturdy one. Every time she depleted the little Godly Energy she had, Krune ordered her to go to the side and recover. This process happened at least twenty more times during the rest of the day. Suddenly, another wave of Spiritual Energy came out from Nina''s body. Seeing that, Krune nodded in satisfaction. Nina had broken through into the 4th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. Sure enough, the constant depletion and recovery of Godly Energy helped her a lot. But above all, she already passed through these stages before, so the experience made up for most of the speed. Finally, the restaurant closed for the day. "Alright, help me clean everything. Remember, a Spiritual Chef''s Kitchen is his/her heaven; it must always be immaculate." Nina didn''t complain at all as she did her best to follow Krune''s instructions. When they finally finished, only a few plates with dishes remained. Krune then went outside the kitchen with them. "Bai, Lunika, Wanva, Ralor, come here. There are a few dishes for us to eat." Those are the names of all Krune''s employees, three waiters, and one cashier. They were also finishing cleaning everything up when they heard Krune''s voice. Their eyes immediately lit up as they prepared a table for the six of them. When Nina sat there, she seemed quite embarrassed as she dropped her head. That''s because the dishes Krune prepared were made with her mistakes. In the end, they couldn''t be sent out for the customers since they weren''t at the level they paid for. However, Krune wouldn''t let the food go to waste, so he kept it for them to eat at the end of the day. The others were expecting some rich energy food, but it turned out to be quite ordinary. "I thought Spiritual Chef food to be different." "Wasn''t it supposed to be full of energy?" "It''s free, isn''t it? That''s good enough." Nina dropped her head even more after hearing those comments. Krune, on the other hand, simply kept eating his meal as if he didn''t hear anything. Finally, Nina gathered enough courage to open her mouth. "It... It was me who made those ones. They weren''t good enough to be sent to the customers, so Chef Krune asked me to keep them for us later." Finally, the others nodded in realization. Krune also nodded in satisfaction. This was also a test of his. "There is nothing wrong with feeling ashamed if your food tastes didn''t meet the expectations. Sometimes it is not even your fault since everyone''s preferences are different. However, you should never fear to admit that it was you who cooked something." After saying that, Krune finished his plate and went back to the kitchen. The others then looked at Nina before saying. "Well, you are quite lucky. It seems like Chef Krune thinks you have the potential to become a Spiritual Chef." "I don''t know anything about Spiritual Chefs, but it is a profession that pays quite well, so you should make sure to grasp this chance well." Nina nodded, and she finally had the chance to talk with everyone. Slowly, they came to know each other. They have several things in common, like the fact that they are all young and came from poor backgrounds, so they understood each others'' plights. They all have low cultivations too. Bai had the highest one, being at the 2nd Stage of the Divine Soul Realm. Considering that he is already 20 years old, that''s is viewed as a little below average. Of course, they noticed that Nina''s cultivation disappeared. Nina then explained about her past problem and that Krune had her rebuild it again. Still, they had to admit that there has to be quite a resolution to restart from zero. Well, Nina didn''t say that it wasn''t exactly her choice to start it again... Around thirty minutes later, Krune came back from the kitchen with another six plates of food. This time, there were real Spiritual Meals! "Now then, let''s start the real show, enjoy!" Everyone was delighted to see that, and they immediately dived in. With their income, they couldn''t possibly afford all of that, so they didn''t dare to leave even a single grain behind. That day, Krune made over five thousand Godly Stones! In fact, he did a lot more than that. However, he had to pay for the ingredients used as well. Of course, Krune wasn''t the least bit disappointed by that. Before everyone left, he gave each one of them a few extra Godly Stones. Bai and the rest were obviously ecstatic. Even if what Krune gave out meant little for him, it was a lot for the others. When Lino came to fetch his sister, he was alarmed. With his 8th Stage of the Core Formation Realm cultivation, he could easily tell that his sister lost her cultivation. Nina, of course, knew that it would happen. "Don''t worry. I simply decided to start cultivating from scratch again. You know very well that your sister had a deformed Dantian. If I want to become a Spiritual Chef, I will have to build a new foundation to fix that problem. Chef Krune is kind enough to help me with it." Understanding what was happening, Lino quickly bowed to Krune in gratitude. Still, he felt it to be weird. Why would Krune help his sister to this extent? It was then that an idea popped in his mind. "Thank you, senior Krune. However, I have no intention of giving my sister to you. I won''t allow you to marry that easy!" Nina immediately blushed. Her face was as red as a tomato! *Pah!* Krune immediately gave a slap on the back of Lino''s head. "Marrying your head! I''m already a married wis- cough, cough. I''m already a married man with a daughter. I have no love interest in your sister whatsoever. You can already drop this insane idea of yours." Lino rubbed his backhead but still felt relieved. As long as Krune doesn''t want to steal his sister, then that''s fine. However, Lino caught a hint of disappointment on Nina''s face for a moment. "Sister! Could it be that youMhmhmhnnhmhmm..." Before Lino could finish words, Nina already covered his mouth as she pulled him outside. "Che-Chef Krune. We are leaving ahead, have a good night." Krune nodded, not understanding very well what happened. "Errr... Sure... see you tomorrow." Just like that, the first day''s opening was a big success. Chapter 578: Asking Iem For Protection Time passed and a week went by. Krune''s restaurant proved to be up to the standards, and his clients increased. Finally, it reached the same point as Oclo''s restaurant, where there were no more tables available while it was open. Without another choice, Krune could only create a waiting list like everyone else. Krune could also increase the number of tables or look for a bigger place to rent. However, he preferred to not do so. Increasing his workload would bring no good. The way things are, he could always get the best results when cooking. He wasn''t willing to trade quality for quantity. Besides, it''s not like his income is low. Krune had been providing Nina with Godly Stones to cultivate every day. She would spend four hours in the Energy Gathering Formation, and the next six helping Krune in the kitchen. With her own past experience at those levels, she quickly reached the 8th Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. "Wrong! You missed the time to turn down the fire. Put it aside and start again." "Good! Can you feel the little bitter taste in the soup? That''s the idea behind this dish. Next time, try to repeat the same process." "Hum? I see... that''s not a bad idea at all. Note it down, and we can try it after the restaurant closes." Krune was both spartan and gentle while teaching Nina. Still, he was very satisfied with her progress. She learned fast and obviously liked to cook. It was easy to see her eyes shining when a new idea popped out in her head. Krune had to admit that he got quite a talented lass. Suddenly, Krune felt a ripple inside his Wisp Core. ''Good!'' After that, he called Bai over. "Bai, advise everyone who comes from now on that the restaurant won''t open for the next three days. I have something to do outside." Bai immediately acknowledged the order and left the kitchen to tell the waiters too. "Chef Krune, is something wrong?" Krune smiled and shook his head. "There is nothing wrong. In fact, it''s something good. I''ll let all know once I come back. While I''m out, make sure to not only cultivate. Working to build a strong foundation is also important. You still remember the instructions I gave you, right?" Nina nodded. "I have been following it at home. Also, thank you for helping to create a training schedule for my brother. I can see that his cultivation rate improved a lot after he began to follow your notes." Krune laughed after hearing that. "It wasn''t only you two. I also gave some help to Bai and the others. The better your cultivation progress, the better will be your work here. I just hope you guys don''t find another job so soon. It''s quite annoying to look for new employees." Nina immediately shook her head. "I can guarantee that none of us will leave. Not only you pay us better than other restaurants, you even give us some bonus every day. We are making at least four to five times more in your care than anywhere else. Especially me, who had been shamelessly wasting your Godly Stones." Krune didn''t mind. "Even though a lot of the Energy of the Godly Stones is lost due to your cultivation, it doesn''t change the fact that it improves your speed a lot. I need someone to help me in the kitchen, and the earlier you increase your level, the better it will be for me. You can consider it an investment." Still, Nina was extremely grateful to Krune. At the end of the day, Nina''s brother had come once more to fetch her up. However, ever since the third day, Krune felt like Lino had some grudge against him. It puzzled him very much since he couldn''t tell why he was like that. However, every time he asked, Lino would say that it was only Krune''s imagination. Lino''s sister insisted that she only felt admiration for Krune. But Lino didn''t feel like it was just that. His brotherly sixth sense kept busing alarms in his head. After everyone went back home, Krune closed everything and returned to his room. "Luvile, my foundation has finally reached the peak of the Divine Path Realm. I also finished transforming all the Spiritual Food energies into my own, so I''m going out of the city to make a breakthrough." Luvile felt puzzled by that, though. "Why would you go out?" Krune was even more puzzled than Luvile now after hearing his question. "Isn''t that obvious? If I breakthrough here, the Heavenly Tribulation will blast my restaurant away. The building isn''t even mine since I just rented it. I can''t possibly pass through it here, right?" Luvile finally understood what the problem was. "Hahaha! Don''t worry, there will be no Heavenly Tribulation. It only happens after you reach the Mortal Rejection Realm." Krune was surprised by that. "Why?" Luvile then explained. "Isn''t that obvious? Just how many Core Formation Realm and above breakthroughs happen in the Godly Path Realm compared to the Mortal Realm? If every single one receives heavenly tribulations, the realm will run out of energy in no time. There are way too many Cultivators and Demon Beasts before the Mortal Rejection Realm, after all." Krune nodded in realization. "I see... No wonder I haven''t seen a single Heavenly Tribulation so far. So that was the case. Well, since I won''t receive any Heavenly Tribulation, let''s start straight away." Suddenly, Luvile felt a chill in his mind when he heard those words. "WAIT!" Krune almost jumped after such a sudden shout. "Wh-What is it? Where is the enemy?" Luvile let out a sigh of relief before explaining. "There is no enemy... Let''s just... leave the city." Krune, obviously, was as puzzled as he could be. "Why...?" "Chances are that the city will be wiped out of the map if you make a breakthrough here. I just don''t know how you will do it." Krune''s mouth twitched. "Fuck you! Why would I do something like wiping the city out of the map? Are you messing with me?" "Messing with you?" Luvile then laughed out loud. "Hahaha! Tell me, how many of your breakthroughs had been ''normal?''" Krune''s heart skipped a bit as Luvile continued to speak. "Are you telling me that you REALLYYYY believe that nothing will happen? Alright then, go ahead." Krune rolled his eyes to the side. Luvile''s argument was simply undeniable! "Cough, cough... I think we should go out of the city, just to be safe." Luvile chuckled and didn''t say anything else. Krune then called Iem over. It was better to have someone to protect him too. However, when Krune saw Iem again, he found that the later had entered the Divine View Realm! "Congratulations on your breakthrough. Brother Iem''s cultivation is really fast." Iem''s mouth twitched, and he felt like Krune was pulling his leg. "You were only in the 7th Stage when we arrive. Now you are about to enter the same realm. Are you trying to humiliate me?" Krune immediately shook his head. "Of course not. It''s just that I was lucky." "Then give me some of that luck, I''m going to make good use of it." Knowing that dwelling about this would only make him more depressed, Iem decided to change the topic. "Anyway, why do you need my protection during the breakthrough? There are no Heavenly Tribulations before the Mortal Rejection Realm. Is someone trying to assassinate you?" Krune nodded. "You could say that... I guess." "Really? Who is it?" Krune pointed to the sky above before saying. "Probably Heavens..." Iem looked at Krune with a weird expression. "Is your head okay?" "Cough, cough... Anyway, I just need you to protect me during my breakthrough. If nothing happens, then it will be even better." Iem narrowed his eyes for a moment but nodded his head in the end. It''s not like Krune asked anything absurd anyway. Besides, he had indeed gone to his restaurant to eat Spiritual Food without having to care about queues. This can be considered as a repayment for the exclusive service. "Just so that you know, there is a place where people and beasts at the peak of the Transformation Realm go. It is also used by others at lower cultivation levels to test their abilities. As long as you pay the price, you can rent a space for yourself, and no one will touch you during that time." Krune''s eyes lit up. That''s what he needs at the moment exactly. "Great! Let''s go there then." Iem nodded, and the two departed straight away. At the center of the city, the Formations Guild had a building constructed for the use of Teleportation Formations alone. After taking one of those teleportations, Krune and Iem appeared inside another building a few thousand kilometers away from Immai City. The cultivators and demon beasts working there looked at them for a moment and continued doing whatever they were before. After going to the counter, Krune talked with one of the employees and rented a place for him and Iem. Inside the same building, there were several other small Teleport Formations. Krune checked the number of the area he rented and used the equivalent formation. "Alright. I doubt anyone will try anything in this place. You can start now." Krune nodded, and he returned to his Wisp Form. The place was concealed from the outside with formations, so he didn''t need to keep it secret. Finally, Krune brought out over a thousand Godly Stones and began his breakthrough. Chapter 579: Law of Disaster A Major Law is necessary to support the breakthrough. That''s because the body is approaching the Divine Realms. As one can imagine, Laws are deeply related to the heavens themselves, and it is this connection that allows one to make a breakthrough. However, without a full merged Law, this connection won''t be strong enough. As Krune made his breakthrough, the power of the Divine that he felt when he entered the Divine Path Realm increased. Finally, he felt like he could see that power, although he couldn''t touch it. That''s also why it is called the Divine View Realm. This is a Realm where one will begin to understand the power of the Divine. The next nine stages would be focused on its comprehension. As Krune''s cultivation increased, his Divine Soul transformed once more. It was stirred by the connection of Krune''s only Major Law, Fire, and the power of the Divine. It was a qualitative change that developed his relationship with the laws of the world even more. As the breakthrough progressed, Krune''s Godly Meridians absorbed the Godly Stones'' energy faster and faster to support the change. He could hear the Godly Stones around him, breaking one after another before turning into dust. Suddenly, Luvile felt a ripple of energy around the arena their group was staying. However, it lasted for only a fraction of a second, and it was almost imperceptible. If not for the fact that Luvile was in a full alert mode, he wouldn''t have noticed it at all. Luvile then spread his Divine Sense around, but he couldn''t see anything. "Am I imagining things?" Luvile asked Harold with a Divine Sense message if he had noticed any changes. Harold answered that he got nothing, though. Krune heard that and asked. "Is something wrong?" Luvile pondered a bit as he kept looking around. However, there was really no changes. "Nothing. I think I''m just too used to your luck that I''m starting to imagining things." Krune pretended that he didn''t hear that comment and continued his breakthrough. Finally, the breakthrough ended after most of the Godly Stones around were depleted. As soon as that happened, Krune and Luvile looked to the sky and to the surroundings. Krune''s Shields were orbiting around him as Arcs of Purple Lightning emerged from his body. Both Krune and Luvile were ready for anything. Seeing that, not only Iem, but even Harold looked at them like they were idiots. A few minutes later, the area around Krune continued silent. No Heavenly Tribulation or some weird phenomena appeared at all. "There is... nothing?" Luvile kept looking as he answered. "Seems like it." Finally, both of them relaxed. Krune''s Shields retreated as he returned to his human form. Of course, he was still alert to his surroundings just in case. Iem then turned to the two before asking. "Are you done?" Krune nodded after checking the area with his Divine Sense and Mental Energy once more. Contrary to Krune and Luvile''s expectations, the breakthrough was over just like that. "Well, we already had to go through two ascensions tribulations in the past two realms. Perhaps, the heavens took pity on us, allowing the breakthrough to go without a hitch." Luvile snorted after hearing that. "The last thing I expect is that the heavens would take pity on anyone. Whatever, as long as nothing happened, then that''s for the best." Krune and Iem then stepped on the teleport formation they came from and activated it to go back. The world around them warped, and they vanished with a flash of silver light. However... "Sure enough, something had to happen." Krune''s group appeared in a completely different place from what they were expecting. Instead of going back to the building where they paid for renting the land for a day, they arrived elsewhere. Not only that but the teleport formation they came from disappeared right after they arrived. Luvile couldn''t help but sigh. "How could we forget? It''s not like something wrong had to happen with the breakthrough itself. As long as you are involved, everything around us has potential risks after you advance to the next realm. This is kind of a Krune-law already." Krune''s mouth twitched. "What the hell is a Krune-law?" Luvile added. "You might want to call it the Krune''s Law of Disaster too. It''s quite fitting." Krune felt like crying but had no tears. He really didn''t do anything at all! Krune and Luvile''s conversation was only between themselves, so Iem and Harold didn''t hear. Iem''s eyes then narrowed as he looked at the land around them. "Where the hell is this place? Krune and Iem seemed to have arrived inside some kind of cave. They had to use their Godly Energy to cast some illumination skills, too, since the place was pitch black. Other than a few passages, the place was completely empty. As they looked around, they got the feeling that no one had come to this place in a very, very long time. The thick layers of dust on the walls or the ground were proof of that conjecture. "Did we take the wrong teleport formation?" Harold immediately discarded the idea. "What wrong teleport formation? There was only one teleport formation to start with, so how could we take the wrong one? It had obviously been altered so that we wouldn''t be sent back to the previous place. However, how come none of us noticed it being changed? For someone to do that behind our backs without Luvile or me noticing is quite impressive." Luvile agreed with Harold. "Indeed. However, our own power and perception are limited by the cultivation of our hosts. As long as the culprit''s realm was high enough, we wouldn''t notice him. Of course, there is also the fact that whoever did this did not try to scan us with Divine Sense. Otherwise, with our soul power, we would definitely have noticed." Of course, Luvile related this change to the ripple of energy he felt before, but he didn''t tell anyone. It was then that Iem remembered something. "Right! I remember that the Formations Master Guild''s seniors said that there are a few ways to make a formation to change by itself. Back in the Mortal Realm, I didn''t know any formations with this capability, though. Most likely, it has something to do with the Godly Energy used in the formations of the Higher Realms. Unfortunately, I haven''t tapped on this kind of formations yet." It was then that Krune noticed something. "Is it me or the flow of time here has been accelerated?" Luvile immediately checked before confirming that Krune was right. "The flow of time here is around a hundred times faster. Seems like there is a gigantic formation underground controlling it." Harold confirmed that Luvile was right. He could also feel the same. Krune then looked at Iem before asking. "Can you make a teleport formation to the outside or make the previous one reappear?" Iem shook his head. "Without knowing where we are, I can''t set up the coordinates. If we try to randomly teleport with a formation, chances are that we might be caught in a Spatial Storm. As for making the previous one reappear, that is even more impossible. Whoever created this place is far above me in Formation Skills." Krune nodded as he looked at the ceiling of the cave. "Anyway, let''s use our Earth Laws and go to the surface. It will be easier to tell where we are after we get out." Krune and Iem approached the cave wall, where they would quickly build a passage that would lead them up. After all, they couldn''t fly. However, as soon as their Earth Laws, Element, and Godly Energy touched the wall, they dispersed without a trace! Obviously, both Krune and Iem were taken aback by that. Until now, they couldn''t feel anything different from the walls. It looked like they were just like any other cave one. Unfortunately, that was evidently not the case. "The cave is also surrounded by restrictions..." Iem narrowed his eyes as his arm crystallized. He decided to use his Heavenly Race crystallization ability before punching the cave wall. *Boom!* With his Divine View Realm and his foundation in the first stage of the godly transformation, he could now control Godly Energy better than any ordinary Divine View Realm cultivator or demon beast. Of course, the strength behind that punch couldn''t get even close to what he could do back in the Mortal Realm. Nonetheless, it was fatal to most demon beasts and cultivators at his level. Yet, the cave wall all didn''t even change. Only the dust around was raised in the air after that. The sound of the punch echoed deep inside the passages too, which showed that they extended endlessly. Iem then retracted his crystallization ability and shook his head. "Should we try the Devil Flames and Purple Tribulation Lightning?" Harold and Luvile immediately refused the idea. "Our power can probably open a passage. However, due to its sturdiness, it will take forever before we can really reach the surface. Don''t forget that we are in the Higher Realms. It''s better to keep our powers for emergencies." Krune had already used his Divine Sense and Mental Energy scan. Not too surprisingly, they were even more restricted in this place. His Divine Sense could barely leave his body, going no further than 1km. As for his Mental Energy, which can also be affected by Godly Energy, could only go about 2km away. Iem was even worse since he only had Divine Sense. In either case, they couldn''t tell which direction they should go. *Geji, Geji, Geji, Geji, Geji...* Suddenly, a weird sound began to come from the passage behind them. Krune and Iem narrowed their eyes as they focused their attention there. The sound kept increasing as whatever was coming got closer and closer. Finally, Krune was able to get a picture in his mind of what it was. "Beetles?" It didn''t take long for Iem to see them as well. "Azure beetles?" What was strange was that Krune and Iem couldn''t feel any cultivation level from them. However, they were really fast. Krune then summoned several Fire Balls as Iem used rays of condensed Light. Even though they didn''t go all out with their attacks, they were still not something ordinary 1st Stage Divine View Realm cultivators or demon beasts could take. They thought that due to the lack of cultivation of those beetles, that would be enough to blast all of them in a single move. However, what happened in front of them left the two alarmed! The beetles hit by their attacks were merely pushed back a few meters before the resumed their charge! They then passed by the sea of flames and light that was left behind after the attack as if there was nothing there at all! Krune and Iem felt a chill on their backs as they nodded at each other. "Run!" Chapter 580: Paths Since the two of them didn''t know which passage to take, they simply selected a random one. Krune and Iem tried to use Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flame against the beetles. At first, it was really effective. They were able to kill a few of them. However, considering the sheer amount of Azure Beetles, it wasn''t enough to even be considered a change. Besides, they could hear the sound that came from far behind the beetles. They were sure that whatever they are seeing now is only the tip of the Iceberg. That being said, they cast away any idea of using Luvile and Harold''s powers to deal with the beetles. Doesn''t matter how much they have, it wouldn''t be enough to deal with all of them. "Just what are those beetles? Have you noticed anything about them?" Krune shook his head. "I don''t even know how they can be this strong. The beetles have no cultivation whatsoever. All I can tell is that they are indeed alive, but that''s all." Krune and Iem moved at full speed. Even so, the Azure Beetles were not much slower. The cave passages seemed to continue endlessly. Also, they often had to select different paths to the point that they don''t even know if they are running in circles. As they ran forward, Krune looked at the ground. Just like the entrance, everything was covered in dust. "It seems like it was our actions that invited them over. Look at all the dust. If those beetles passed through here frequently, there is no way it would be like this. Perhaps, they reacted to the sound of our attacks." Iem nodded. "Most likely, it was my last punch." It was then that Krune had an idea. "Wait! This cave had always been pitch black, no light whatsoever. Also, it is evident that no one passed through here for who knows how many years. That being said, there is no way that those beetles can see us. They are definitely adapted to the dark environment. Since that is the case, they are following us through other methods. One of them is definitely sound." Iem agreed with Krune. Coincidentally, they reached another set of paths to chose from. Krune then brought out two simple bird puppets that Heavin had created in the past. He imbued it with a sound wave technique, which would constantly release a loud noise. After that, he simply commanded them to follow two different passages and don''t stop. Iem did something similar with a technique of his. Two flame birds appeared on his hands before taking flight. Right after, they went into another two different passages while leaving loud bird cries. They wouldn''t resist as long as Krune''s puppets, but it also helped. Krune and Iem nodded at each other as they imbued their feet with Godly Energy. They did that to prevent themselves from making too much noise as they selected a different passage as well. A few seconds later, when the beetles arrived, they separated into five groups. Four of them followed the dummies while the last one went after Krune and Iem. Even though Krune and Iem didn''t get rid of the pursuit, they were delighted to see that most beetles followed other paths. "Alright. We are making almost no sound compared to the dummies, but a fifth of the group still followed us. That means they have another way of finding our location..." Iem nodded. "Take a look at their heads. Even though they are blind, they still have eyes. Perhaps, they evolved into a type of heating detector. After all, I can''t feel any Divine Sense passing through us." Krune had to admit that Iem was right. Right after, Krune and Iem enveloped their bodies with Godly Energy, sealing all the heat inside. As soon as that happened, the group of azure beetles behind them seemed to have lost their target. Therefore, they began to move in all directions at the same time as if searching for something. Krune and Iem were delighted to see that. Without making any noise, they kept moving forward. A few minutes later, they couldn''t see the beetles anymore. They slowly increased their speed after that. The last thing they need is to attract more of those things. Krune and Iem didn''t stop moving before five entire hours had gone by. Finally, they reduced their speed to save energy as they talked about the situation. "We probably run over 2000km already. Still, there is no sign showing that we are going anywhere. Besides, you saw what happened. After the beetles lost the target, they scrumble everywhere, looking for us. If they keep that behavior, they will reach us again sooner or later." Krune nodded. "So far, we took the passages that seemed to lead up. But they ended going up and down, not really making us move anywhere close to the surface. Also, although it looks like this place is abandoned, we can''t guarantee that no one is observing us through these restrictions." Iem narrowed his eyes and nodded. Soon, they arrived at another set of paths to chose from. However, they didn''t make a decision straight away. Instead, they began to think about all the passages they took so far. "Did you see any difference between the paths we took before?" Iem, Krune, Luvile, and Harold began to ponder about it. However, none of them noticed anything different. "The flow of Godly Energy was the same wherever we went. But it could also be because we haven''t chosen the right passage. Of course, it is also possible that we selected the right ones, and that''s why we haven''t reached a dead end yet. It''s just that the last option is a lot more unlikely." Krune pondered a bit as he opened his communicator. He then took a look at the path they had followed so far and drew a 3d map that showed the ups and downs they took as well. After checking the curvatures of the entire extension, Krune and Iem noticed something peculiar. "All the passages had ups and downs everywhere. Most of them ended not changing much how deep down we are. However, two of the routes we selected ended bring us even deeper by the time we reached another path selection." Iem then had an idea. "First of all, there was no rule saying that the way out was to go up, right?" Krune admitted that it was a possibility. At least, they didn''t have a better idea at the moment. "We might as well try it. Look at the patterns of the passages that sent us down by the end. They have something in common. If we check the passages in front of us and follow the one with a similar pattern, we might be able to always go down." They couldn''t help but feel happy to have the communicators. Without this device, they wouldn''t have noticed the patterns, let alone know that they ended going down instead of up. After all, each passage''s extension was enormous, and they couldn''t count on their Divine Sense or Mental Energy that much. Krune then entered each passage to check which one had a similar pattern. Once they walked 10 or so km in, it would be enough to determine if it was the right one or not. Once they found that it was the wrong pattern, they returned and selected another path. In the fifth passage, they finally found that pattern once more. Without hesitation, they proceeded forward. Sure enough, they ended in another selection of paths. After checking the 3d map, Krune and Iem smiled. They had indeed gone much deeper into the cave. Iem and Krune then repeated the same process as they kept selecting the routes that lead down. Just like that, an entire week passed! In the end, they also noticed another difference. While the normal passages would more or less end going forward, the ones that led down would always make a slight curve to the right. Krune then eliminated all the wrong selections of his 3d map and put only the right passages together. Sure enough, they noticed that the paths that lead down made a spiral pattern. It was then that an idea popped in Krune''s mind. "I see... The formations and restrictions in this place aren''t just to prevent us from breaking the walls to escape. No, to be more specific, they were made like that for protection. Their objective was to mislead the intruders. I''m pretty sure they also have spatial aspects." "What do you mean?" "I mean that the other paths would not bring us anywhere, but we would not reach a dead-end either. We would keep moving forward endlessly until finally, we ended at the same point again without notice." Iem felt a chill on his back. Doesn''t that mean that they would sooner or later reencounter those azure beetles? What if they were surrounded on both sides when that happens? Iem doesn''t even want to think about it. "Wait, what guarantees that we aren''t walking in a circle with the paths that lead us down, then?" Krune then pointed at the 3d map. "Can you see the curves to the right that our paths make? They are not identical. Even though the changes aren''t significant, they are still there. So far, we haven''t taken a single down path that was the same as the others. That being said, I doubt we are going back to the same point." Iem let out a sigh of relief. "Since that''s the case, let''s keep going. We should find something sooner or later." Krune and Iem kept following the same pattern for another two entire weeks. They were getting nervous that they might be making the wrong choice after so long too. However, while they were moving forward, the space around them warped suddenly. They were alarmed, and there was nothing they could do about it. Fortunately, nothing happened to them after space stabilized again. Nevertheless, they were shocked by what they saw. Right in front of them, there is an enormous underground city! Chapter 581: Cinna City Krune and Iem took a look around first to be sure that they weren''t in danger. However, so far, nothing happened after they arrived here. Only after that did they spare some time to look at the underground City in front of them. "What is this place?" Iem shook his head. "I have no idea, but it seems that the labyrinth before was made to protect this city. Or maybe it was some kind of trial to arrive here, like those of a sect." At the moment, Krune and Iem are at an advantaged position, so they could see part of the City behind the walls. The City was completely lit. It was also possible to see people inside the tall buildings too. Without a doubt, this isn''t a ghost city or anything like that. At the same time, Luvile informed them. "The time acceleration disappeared here. We are back to the normal flow." Krune and Iem nodded. They also noticed that their connection with the Laws were back to normal. "Could it be that this is just one more City on the planet we are staying, and we just so happened to use the wrong entrance? Like, we took some kind of ancient passage that isn''t used anymore?" Krune and Iem smiled bitterly. If that was really the case, then it would be too much of a bad joke. Why would anyone go to the extent of sending them through that trial then? Of course, that''s just an idea. They need to go there and check it first. Krune and Iem then moved in the City''s direction. But just as they started to walk, the ground below them began to tremble. Krune and Iem had kept their Divine Senses active all the time. Although it couldn''t go far, it still reached a 1km distance. That being said, they soon found the reason for the tremor below them. Without even thinking, Iem and Krune jumped to the sides, just in time to avoid being swallowed by what seemed to be a giant worm. Since it was close to them, they could at least see its cultivation... or so they thought. Just like the Azure Beetles, this worm had no cultivation what so ever. However, the might it displayed was definitely at the Divine View Realm for sure. Iem snorted as his body crystallized. Just as the worm tried to burrow back into the ground, Iem appeared at its side like a ghost. Bang! With a punch, the worm''s intention of escaping crumbled as it was sent flying! Still, Iem narrowed his eyes. He had used 70% of his strength just now, but the worm didn''t die. Not only that, it immediately took the inertia to turn its body and escape into the ground once more. This time, it succeeded. One must remember that be it Krune or Iem, ordinary Divine View Realm cultivators or demon beasts were just playthings. Soon, the ground stopped tremble as the worm disappeared from their senses. "Its attack power was only comparable to the Divine View Realm''s initial stages, but its defense was ridiculously high. I reckon that even an ordinary peak Divine View Realm would have a hard time to survive my attack." Krune nodded. He didn''t try to kill the worm since it was obviously only moving on instinct. There was no sentience behind its actions at all. It was simply looking for food just like any other low-level demon beast. "Still, we can''t see any cultivation realm. Could it be the same for the people inside the City?" Iem and Krune had no answer to that question. "Anyway, let go there to take a look." Krune pondered a bit before saying. "Take a look at the city gates and the area around. Even though the City seems enormous and full of life, there isn''t a single cultivator or demon beast outside. Usually, a City would have a lot of people and beasts coming and going. However, there isn''t a single living soul out." Iem had to admit that Krune was right. "I know what you mean. We are outsiders, and there isn''t anyone outside the city gates we can get information from. We still don''t know what their instance towards guests like us are. That being said, we should instead try to sneak inside, is that correct?" Krune nodded. "It would be for the best if no one can tell who we are. At least not before ascertaining the situation." Iem then looked at the City Walls before saying. "Then we have a problem. There is a formation covering the entire City. It goes all the way to the skies and enters the earth. I can only see one passage, which is the City Gate. If we don''t go there, how do you expect we enter it?" "Can''t you open a hole with your Formations Master Skills?" Iem immediately shook his head. "I''ve been in the Higher Realm for two months only. I spent half of it working for free in the Formations Guild, so I didn''t have much time to train. Even after I concluded my free labor time, I only had a few weeks to practice the new formations. How do you expect me to be proficient with such little time?" Krune had to admit that Iem was right. Iem then continued. "We have two choices at the moment. We wait for the City to open on its own and try to sneak inside. However, we don''t know if someone will come out or not. Who knows, we might spend years without a single shadow appearing. The other is to go straight there and find out what is this place straight away." Krune didn''t want to waste time here, much less did Iem. In the end, they decided to take the risk of being attacked and went there straight away. Luvile and Harold were also prepared to help the two of them in case something went wrong. Of course, Krune and Iem decided to change their appearances just in case. Once Krune and Iem got close to the City Gate, it slowly began to open. From inside, a cultivator with a black robe strode outside. Behind him, one could see another three cultivators. The leader of the group then looked at the two with an awful expression. "What the hell are you doing outside? Don''t you know that it''s the Rarin Giant Worms mating season? They are everywhere looking for food for their young. Consider yourselves lucky that you haven''t been eaten yet." The man looked at the two of them with some skepticism. Krune and Iem were using some weird clothes that he couldn''t recognize. However, the City was enormous, and there was no lack of eccentric people. Because of that, the man thought that they were one of those. Krune and Iem were taken aback. How the hell would they know something like this? They just arrived in this place, after all. Nevertheless, considering Iem and Krune''s power, those ''Rarin'' worms posed zero to close to none danger to the two of them. Fortunately, there was good news. The man''s language was the same used on the surface. It''s just that it had a strong accent compared to the people and beasts outside. As for thinking that Krune and Iem come from somewhere else, it seemed like that the man didn''t even consider such a possibility. Obviously, that made Krune and Iem a little puzzled. Could it be that they never get outsiders coming? Krune swept his Divine Sense over the man and let out a sigh of relief. He was able to see his cultivation. The man at the front was a Semi-Divinity Realm cultivator. It''s just that Krune couldn''t tell at which stage he is at the moment. Iem analyzed the man''s words and quickly reached a conclusion. He then sent Krune a Divine Sense message to leave the conversation to him. "Sorry, sir. But we really needed to go out to train and cultivate; we had no other choice." The man narrowed his eyes after hearing that. "So you are one of those lunatics. No wonder you weren''t afraid of leaving the City with such a low cultivation realm. I can see that you had just broken through into the Divine View Realm recently. Anyway, even if this trip allowed you to breakthrough into the next realm, Cinna City has its rules. The penalty for leaving the City without authorization is 100 Gold Coins. Since there are two of you, it is 200 Coins. I''m not going to give any discount either." Krune and Iem were taken aback. Gold? Why would cultivators use Gold? Only ordinary people who don''t cultivate would use this kind of currency. No, first of all, this was a currency in the Mortal Realm. Ever since Krune and Iem arrived here, they had never seen anyone using Gold, only Godly Stones. However, neither Krune nor Iem took Gold out. Krune had a lot of Gold in his spatial ring that he liked to use in restaurants managed by ordinary people back in the Mortal Realm. However, his Gold Coins would definitely have a different format and size than those used by this City, and so would Iem''s. One thing was the use of different clothes. After all, everyone has their own tastes. However, other Gold Coins would definitely be seen with suspicion. Still, there was something in their favor here. The man seemed to not care about their identities! Iem was just testing the waters to see if they could pass without revealing their background. Truth be told, he wasn''t harboring many hopes that it would work. The moment the man started making questions, Krune and Iem would definitely not be able to answer him. Fortunately, the man seemed to not care as long as they paid the price. Just from the looks of it, this Cinna City doesn''t seem to have that many rules. "Sorry, sir. We don''t have Gold with us at the moment. Is there another way to pay for the penalty?" Just as the man was about to talk, Krune put his hand on Iem''s shoulders before saying. "Don''t worry, brother. I have brought some gold with me. You can pay me back later after we return home." Iem was taken aback. He already told Krune that they couldn''t show a different Gold Coin from the Mortal Realm, so what was he planning to do? Krune ignored Iem''s surprised face and stepped forward. He then took out 200 Gold Coins and passed it to the man. After verifying that the Gold was legit, the man nodded his head and let them pass. At the same time, he gave them a piece of advice. "If I were you, I wouldn''t stay close to those lunatics of the Axel Gang. You were lucky to come back alive this time, but that most likely won''t happen again if you repeat it." Iem and Krune smiled and pretended that they agreed with him. "Thank you for your advice, Sir." Right after, Iem asked Krune through a Divine Sense Message. "How did you get those Gold Coins?" Krune laughed before saying. "The Formation that protects the City doesn''t block Divine Sense. I was lucky to spot someone making a payment with Gold Coins. After that, I just had to change the shape of the Gold that I have. At out cultivation level, using Godly Energy to shape the metal is a piece of cake." Iem opened his eyes in realization. "No wonder..." Finally, they entered the City. However, they soon noticed that it was far from what they expected. Chapter 582: Acquiring Information Be it the higher realms or lower realms, technology was something that appeared just a while ago. That''s also why it can barely make any difference for high-level cultivators. Usually, it was good for communication or for things like what Krune did in the labyrinth, the 3D map. Of course, there were several other real-life applications like illumination, displays, systems to organize each organization, etc. Simply put, technology was pretty convenient, even though it helped little with combat. That being said, it didn''t matter which City you went to, you would see technology everywhere. However, this underground City was utterly devoid of any type of electronic equipment. The illumination that would usually be done by various kinds of technological items like lamps were nowhere to be seen. Instead, the City used a primitive way of illuminating the things inside, Limunous Beads! Luminous Beads were still used by cultivators and demon beast when they need to explore things outside. However, cities would not use them since it was a lot more annoying to make. Not to mention that they needed someone to recharge them with Spiritual Energy, or Godly Energy in the Higher Realms'' case. As Krune and Iem moved forward, they would see one or another cultivator pouring their own Godly Energy into those beads. That was only one of the things that made Krune and Iem uncomfortable. As far as they could see, no building or live being around used anything electronic related. It was as if this City had been separated from the outside world for a long time. No, Krune and Iem reached the conclusion that it was most likely the case! Krune and Iem couldn''t help but talk through their Divine Senses. "It seems like this city has been sealed off completely." Iem nodded. "We already know that the cave walls have restrictions that make it impossible to break apart. At the very least, it would be impossible in the short term." Krune then pondered a bit before adding. "Although the cave walls do have restrictions, they aren''t entirely immune. As long as you keep attacking it, the wall will slowly crumble with time. Considering the time that it took for technology to appear, these people should have long since made their way up to the surface." Iem immediately denied that conjecture. "No, your proficiency in formations isn''t as good as mine, so it''s expected that you didn''t notice. Not only do the cave walls have restrictions, but they also have a recovering ability. The only reason we can use Luvile and Harold''s power to destroy them fast enough is because of the Laws of the Devil Flame and Purple Tribulation Lightning. These guys here probably can''t do the same." Krune was startled to hear that. However, since Iem said so, it was probably right. Iem and Krune stopped by a clothes store and bought a few similar robes for them to use. After all, they were catching way too much attention because of their attires. Krune also passed some gold to Iem so that he could use it for the time being. Their communicators still worked in this City, so they would be able to find each other as well. Just in case, they also set up a location to meet later. "Let''s separate and gather some information. We need to understand this place first." Iem nodded, and the two of them moved in different directions. Two days later, Krune and Iem met each other again. Iem was the first to talk. "So, here''s what I found. Godly Stones are extremely rare in this Underground City. That''s because there is no such thing as Godly Stone mines available. Because of that, the only way to make Godly Stones is by crafting them, which takes a lot of energy and time. Also, they are not as good as the real ones. That being said, we need to do our best to avoid showing the stones we have." Krune nodded. "Yes, I also understood it." Krune then continued. "I found out that there is no passage to the surface. In fact, some people here consider the surface to be a legend already. It had been tens of thousands of years since anyone went up there, or so say the people and records. It seems like the people here tried to open passage by brute force in the past. However, just like you said, the cave walls'' recovery ability made it impossible for them to progress too far. In the end, they had to give up." Iem also nodded as he knew that too. "As for the path that we took, it is called the No Return Maze. Once someone goes inside, they never come back. However, no one can say if the experts who went inside died or not. I found it a little weird since they could simply leave their Soul Flames behind for the others to check whether they are alive or not. So after I checked, it seems like there is something wrong with this place. The people around don''t even know what a Soul Flame is. I was afraid that they perhaps simply used another name for the same thing, so I gave an explanation of what I was talking about. Still, I reached the conclusion they really don''t know anything related to the Soul Flame." Krune narrowed his eyes. The Soul Flame is something easy to conjure and had been in use for who knows how many chaos cycles. From what Krune found in the Wisp Main World back in the Mortal Realm, Soul Flame related methods already existed even before Wally appeared. So how come no one here knows how to make a Soul Flame here? Iem looked at Krune and smiled. "Seems like you reached the same conclusion as me. But I already found the answer to why no one knows about the Soul Flames. You know how to cast a Soul Flame, right?" Krune nodded. "Of course, I left one in my Universe and another one back in the Wisp Main World." "In that case, try to cast another one." Krune did as Iem said and began to create another Soul Flame. The process wasn''t challenging. It is just that you need a tiny sliver of your soul, which was a little painful. Of course, this sliver of the soul could also be used to turn someone into a slave. Because of that, the cultivators and demon beasts would relinquish their mind connection with it first. Even if someone takes it later, they won''t be able to use it to harm the owner of that Soul Flame. Still, as part of the same soul, when the main one dies, the Soul Flame will die together with it. For Krune, taking a sliver of his soul wasn''t that big of a problem. He just needed to take one of his pills, and he would recover in no time, so he acted straight away. However, as soon as the Soul Flame appeared in the outside world... *Puf!* It extinguished instantly. It was as if someone threw a bucket of water on the Soul Flame. Krune, of course, was shocked by what he saw. "How''s that possible?!" Iem shrugged his shoulders. "Isn''t that obvious? It is also part of the gigantic formation that covers everything. Simply put, whoever created the No Return Maze didn''t want the others to know the fate of those who ventured inside. As to why that is, I don''t know." Krune nodded in realization. He then changed the topic. "I believe you noticed it already, but there are no such things as Demon Beasts in Human Form in this City. I''m basically the only one at the moment. The only Demon Beasts available are the ones we saw outside, like the Rarin Worm and the Azure Beetles. I asked around why we couldn''t check their cultivation, but it seems like no one knows." Krune continued. "However, at the same time that we can''t see their cultivation, it seems like they never come to gain sentience. There had never been a Demon Beast who could talk with the people of this City from what I heard." Iem admitted that he did notice that. "I have two conjectures why it happened. First, in exchange for their ability to hide their cultivation, they lost the chance to gain sentience. Or second, They aren''t real Demon Beasts. Thus, they can''t possibly gain sentience to start with." Krune narrowed his eyes as he thought about Luvile. "Harold, Luvile, Iem, I have a third conjecture about it." Harold and Luvile were surprised that Krune would call their names here, but they listened nonetheless. "What is it?" Krune looked to the cave ceiling before continuing. "Sentience is bestowed by the heavens. Then, could it be that this place has been hidden from the heavens?" Harold and the others were taken aback. Iem couldn''t help but comment. "This... It would indeed make sense if the Demon Beasts didn''t gain sentience. However, I find it hard to believe. After all, you can all feel the power of Laws in this place, and Laws are part of the Heavens. I don''t think it would be possible." However, Luvile and Harold immediately denied Iem''s words. "That''s not true. It''s right to say that Laws and Heavens are connected, but you understood one thing wrong. The heavens exist because of the laws, and not the other way around. So it wouldn''t be wrong to say that you can have Laws but stay hidden from the heavens." "Oh, right! There is a way to confirm it easily." Krune and Iem immediately paid attention. "It''s very simple. See if you can find a Mortal Rejection Realm Cultivator and ask if they received a Heavenly Tribulation." Krune and Iem''s eyes immediately lit up. Chapter 583: Same Trial Krune heard that idea and instead thought about an even simpler way. "Better than that, we just need to ask around whether anyone has ever seen a Heavenly Tribulation before. As long as people don''t know what we are talking about or think about it as a legend, then my theory will be confirmed." Iem agreed with Krune. "Very well, but even if it is hidden from the heavens, so what? We need to find a way out. I don''t want to spend the rest of my life here." Krune pondered a bit before saying. "If there is a way out, that is through the No Return Maze. However, we didn''t seem to have found any path that would lead us up. That being said, there might be a trick behind it." Krune''s group kept discussing until suddenly, he felt a jolt in his Foundation. To be more precise, it was in his fused Heavely Fragments. Immediately, he got up and looked in a specific direction, which puzzled the others. "What is it?" "Just now, I felt like something called me." Luvile had an even bigger reaction. "It''s the same energy!" Krune, Iem, and Harold got puzzled. "What energy?" Luvile then explained. "On the day Krune made a breakthrough, I felt a small ripple of energy on our surroundings. However, it was very subtle. Harold said that he didn''t feel anything when I asked him, so I thought it was just my imagination. However, now I felt it really clearly. It''s definitely the same energy from that day." Krune and the others were taken aback. No one here was an idiot. There was no doubt that the change in the teleport formation was made by this energy. However, Luvile immediately shook his head. "No, it''s not that the teleport formation that we used had been changed. You already thought about it, right? Why would someone change the teleport formation that we are using? Krune and Iem are just in the Divine View Realm 1st Stage; what would anyone gain from them? At that time, I accepted this answer since it was the most plausible one. However, I changed my mind. No one outside purposely changed our teleport formation. Instead, our teleport was intercepted and changed the destination that we should have arrived." Iem''s eyes lit up. "I see, I didn''t know such a thing was possible. Seems like I''m still far from being a real Formations Master. Anyway, what do we do now?" Krune pondered a bit before asking Iem. "Didn''t you feel anything? This call that I felt just now was done through the three Fused Heavenly Fragments in my Divine Soul. You already have a Heavenly Core with all fragments fused, so it should have been more explicit for you." Iem shook his head. "I didn''t feel anything. In that case, it might be exactly because I already have a full Heavenly Core formed that I didn''t notice this call that you talked about. Anyway, we should go out and check this place that called you." Krune nodded, and the two went out. On the way, they also took the opportunity to ask around about the Heavenly Tribulations. Sure enough, the majority had never heard about it before. A few more knowledgeable ones thought to have listened to some legend like that. But of course, they only felt that it was a fairy tale. However, Krune and Iem came to found a piece of even more impressive information. There seems to not be a single cultivator in the city above the Transformation Realm! That meant that there wasn''t a single Mortal Rejection Realm cultivator at the moment. That also meant that there was no such thing as immortal cultivators around! However, Krune''s group immediately understood the reason. Once someone enters the Mortal Rejection Realm, they receive the first tribulation of the Godly Path Realm. Because no one can take tribulation here, they also can''t breakthrough! There was one point they had ignored that they only understood now. The reason those cultivators entered the No Return Maze was most likely because they were at the end of their lifespan. Having been living in this underground city for so long, they couldn''t help but try their luck. After all, everyone has heard about the ''surface'' legend before. Still, it made Krune and Iem even more determined. Now that they know they can''t achieve immortality in this place, they definitely won''t stick around for long. Finally, they arrived at what seemed to be a gigantic building in the center of the city. It was a circular tower with at least a km of diameter. It extended all the way to the ceiling, only stopping a few meters before touching it. One must understand that this cave is really enormous, and the ceiling was around 10km high! There seemed to be several guards around, so Iem and Krune didn''t get to close. They used their Divine Sense, but it couldn''t enter the tower. Krune then used his Mental Energy instead. Sure enough, whatever restriction it had did not apply to Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique. Still, Krune could only see the base of the tower. His Mental Energy showed that there were just a few people inside. Krune and Iem wouldn''t just charge inside. After all, those guards were all at the Semi-Divinity Realm, at the very least. That being said, Krune and Iem decided to ask around what is this tower. People used a very simple name for it, Godly Tower. Turns out that this tower had always been here as far as people remember. It is also this tower that provided the underground city with abundant Godly Energy for cultivation. From what they heard, the people who resided inside where called ''chosen ones'' who passed the trials. The Godly Energy inside the tower is the most concentrated one, so anyone who lived there would have an easy cultivation path. Everyone, obviously, wanted to enter it. However, the city is enormous, with millions of people. There was no way everyone could cultivate inside. Afraid that the tower might get destroyed due to the sheer number of people trying to enter it, a rule had been established. Every year, a trial was made to allow 10 cultivators to enter. As one can imagine, only the 10 best ones will join the tower. As it seemed, anyone can participate in the trial. There is simply no cultivation restriction for it. After prying further into it, Krune and Iem found out that the next trial would be occurring just a week later. "Weird... were we really lucky enough to arrive here just in time for the trial? Why do I feel like our time arrival was planned from the very start?" Krune agreed with Iem. "Most likely, it was the same thing that called me earlier. Anyway, I don''t think that this ''thing'' can move at the moment. Otherwise, why would it call me? It could simply come out and see me straight away. That being said, I have no other choice other than entering and take a look inside." Iem nodded. "I agree with you. That''s the only clue we have to go out so far, so I''ll take part in this trial as well. Let''s go register for it so that we can find what it is about." It wasn''t hard for Krune and Iem to find the place to register. After all, everyone wanted to enter the Godly Tower. Without technology, things like identity check or whatever also didn''t exist in this place, which was pretty convenient for Krune''s group. Finally, they came to understand what the trial was about through the mouth of the attendant. "Are you messing with me? How come you don''t know?" Iem then said. "It''s just that we want to hear it from you as well. After all, you work with the registration for the trail. Who knows? You might know something that we don''t." The attendant narrowed his eyes but decided to speak in the end. "What is there to know more about? It''s merely a Godly Energy Recharging test. Everyone who is allowed to cultivate inside must be a genius in cultivation. That means they must be good at absorbing Godly Energy. Only like that will you be able to use your position in the tower to its fullest. All you need to do is touch the Godly Energy Orb and try to charge as much Godly Energy inside it as possible." Krune and Iem were taken aback. "This... wouldn''t it be unfair to the cultivators with at lower cultivation realms?" "What you talking about? Did you forget that the Godly Orbs adjust their level according to the trier''s cultivation? I wonder if someone had locked you during your entire life. How come you don''t even know this?" Because the Underground City had never received an outsider before, the guy didn''t suspect that Krune and Iem came from outside. Still, he felt these two''s question to be quite burdensome. Since everyone knows those things, he couldn''t help but think that Krune and Iem were really making fun of him. Iem quickly bowed after hearing that. "Thank you, brother. It seems like it is as we heard." Iem then threw a small pouch to the guy. When he opened it, his eyes lit up. Immediately, his stance changed. "Hahaha! It''s fine. Everyone wants to enter the Godly Tower. It''s only normal that you want to investigate a little more." Krune and Iem then finished their registration before leaving. After that, Krune commented. "It''s just like the Holy Land. There was a trial there that worked just like this one." Iem didn''t mind, though. "Well, who cares? Let''s just wait for the test." Krune nodded as they returned to their resting place. They could only wait now. Chapter 584: Broken Krune and Iem both had absorbed the Blackhole Heavenly Fragment already. In Iem''s case, he was a Heavenly Race Member too. As for Krune, he had the support of his Godly Meridians. As one can imagine, both of them were very confident in taking one of the 10 slots of every year. Krune and Iem would leave to walk around the city every day, trying to find more information. From what they found out, the city didn''t have any ruler. It seemed like everyone reached an implicit attitude. If any group tried to take power, everyone would gang up on this group. Because of this, the max they could find was a group or clan ruling a small territory, but none of them risked expansion. Still, the city as a whole needed some rules, so all the hundreds of clans, groups, etc., gathered together to set up those rules. The rule about not going out without permission was one of those. As one can imagine, the city was enormous, but it can only support so many people. However, the city had never suffered from an overflowing population. That''s because every few years, an underground beast horde would attack the city. Without any other choice, everyone could only put their lives at risk to fend them off. During those times, the city would lose a large number of lives. There was another thing. No one knew why, but the City''s Formation, which the Godly Tower provided, would also turn off during those times. That was the main reason why the city tried to prevent anyone from going outside. If they died you, it would mean one less cultivator to help defend the city in times of need. That''s also why there was no death penalty for those who sneak out and come back later. Krune and Iem were far from being the only ones from coming back. Of course, Krune and Iem had never left to start with. However, the underground beast horses were also the city''s lifeline. It was through the meat acquired from all the beasts that die during the invasion that everyone below the Divine Path Realm could eat. Just like that, the city has kept a fragile balance during the last thousands of years. The Godly Tower cultivators were deeply admired because of the beast horde as well. The high-level cultivators from there would be responsible for the high-level demon beasts. That''s also why the tower never got packed. After all, even if you allow only 10 new cultivators every year inside, thousands of years would have filled it a long time ago. But they also suffered casualties in the hand of the stronger enemies during the hordes. Finally, an entire week went by, and the Tower Trial finally started. Iem and Krune, obviously, were there as well. Although everyone wanted to enter the tower, the majority knows very well their own limits. So it wasn''t like every single person in the city participated. If anything, not even 1% of the residents wasted their time trying. Still, for a city with millions, each trial would gather tens of thousands of cultivators. Fortunately, there were hundreds of Godly Orbs available, so the test didn''t take that long to be concluded. Krune and Iem looked at the field where the Godly Orbs were present. Right at the center, there seemed to be a simple formation that displayed the top 10 cultivators'' names who had the best absorbing ability. Now and then, someone would enter that top 10 while someone would be kicked out. It was quite a simple and straightforward method. At the moment, the first place had charged the Godly Energy Orb with 86.10% of Godly Energy. As for the tenth, there wasn''t even a single entire unit of difference. The guy had 85.38%. Finally, Iem''s time arrived. He stepped forward and touched the Godly Energy Orb. As soon as he did, he noticed that the formation under himself changed. As a Formations Master, he immediately understood that the test had been adjusted to his 1st Stage of the Divine View Realm cultivation. Iem smirked after seeing that and didn''t pay more attention to it. Godly Energy began to enter his Godly Energy like torrents. Iem understood why no one could fill it completely. It seemed like a balloon. It''s just that it didn''t burst. The more you charged, the harder it was to put Godly Energy. Still, Iem''s name quickly appeared on the center formation. Iem didn''t want to catch too much attention, so he only charged the Godly Energy Orb up to 88.91%. However, that number still attracted everyone''s eyes. "More than 2% above the second best, that guy has guaranteed his slot." "Yea, he might not have the best number of all times, but he is probably close to the top 100. He''s bound to get famous." The Godly Tower elders also nodded, satisfied. "A good seed." "Yes, he will become a great help during the beast hordes." "Let''s hope he doesn''t die too soon." "We won''t let it happen if possible. Of course, he will still have to fight during the beast hordes." "The beast hordes will instead improve his cultivation even more. After all, combat experience is extremely important." "Well, that''s true. Let''s see what will happen in the future." Krune understood what Iem did and followed in his footsteps. He was just behind Iem before, so he is sure that Iem could have done much more than that. When Krune looked at the Godly Energy Orb closely, he noticed that this one was different from the Holy Land''s Light Pillar test. Still, Krune didn''t pay it much attention. He only had to pour enough Godly Energy inside, that''s all. He touched the orb and activated his Godly Meridians. Immediately, the Godly Orb shinned with bright light as the Godly Energy poured inside relentlessly. Krune also paid attention to the display formation in the center of the field, waiting for his name to appear. After that, he only needed to control his Godly Energy to match Iem''s result. Sure enough, his name appeared in the 10th position. Krune smiled as he reduced the amount of Godly Energy he was pouring inside. His number went all the way to 87.78%, which he thought to be enough. However, just as he was about to take his hands off, something weird happened. "Eh?" Krune tried to release his hand, but it didn''t budge! That wasn''t all. He found out that his Godly Energy began to flow inside even faster than before. "The hell?! Get off!" He used all his strength, but his hands didn''t move. The formations and Godly Energy Orbs were prepared by the Transformation Realm cultivators of the tower, so it was evident that a Divine View Realm like Krune couldn''t move or damage it. The number in the display formation began to climb again. 88%... 89%... 90%... Immediately, everyone''s eyes were attracted to his Godly Energy Orb. That''s because his one was shining brighter than anyone else. At the same time, he received a Divine Sense Message from Iem. "What the hell are you doing?! That''s enough, get out already! Don''t you know what low profile means? It''s fine to do like me and caught a little bit of attention, but you are going overboard!" Krune felt like crying but had no tears. "Do you think I want it?! My hands are glued on the orb, and it is sucking my Godly Energy without stop! I can''t get it off!" Iem was taken aback too. He then looked at Krune''s appearance. Krune looked like he was doing his best to take his hands away from it, but the orb simply didn''t budge, let alone his hands. In the end, Krune could only watch the numbers going up with a gloomy expression. Deep down in his heart, he already knew what was going to happen. 97%... 98%... 99%... 100%...! 101%...! 102%...! The expressions of the Godly Tower elders changed after seeing it. "Not good, turn it off! The Godly Orb will not resist!" Too late, though... *Boom!* The Godly Energy Orb exploded, sending a wave of Godly Energy around. Everyone below the Semi-Divinity Realm was sent flying! Krune, of course, was the first one to be blasted away like a ragdoll. Immediately, a 100 or so meters crater appeared where Krune''s Godly Orb had been. Fortunately, the Transformation Realm cultivators were fast enough to react as they shielded the other participants. Although quite a few got injured, no one died. Krune could be said to be in the worst state. But he quickly took one of his Purple Flame pills and swallowed it. Right after, his injuries began to recover. He slowly got up and looked at everyone around. As one can imagine, all eyes were centered on him. "Cough, cough... I think... the Godly Energy Orb was broken..." Everyone''s mouths twitched. Krune was really feeling helpless. He wasn''t lying. It really wasn''t his fault at all! Chapter 585: Godly Tower Seeing that no one was gravely injured, the elders sighed in relief. However, they were more interested in how Krune filled the Godly Energy Orb up past 100%. No one had reached 100% before, let alone pass it. Someone who seemed to be the leader of their group then stepped forward. "Well, can you tell me what happened?" Without another choice, Krune could only speak the truth. He didn''t lie and told how the Godly Energy Orb suddenly held his hands after he charged it up to 87%. Obviously, everyone was taken aback by what they heard. The Godly Energy Orbs had never acted like that before. "That''s strange. However, you said that you charged the Orb up to 87% on your own, is that correct?" Krune nodded. "Yes. I have no idea why it began to absorb my energy after that, though." The elder pondered a bit before saying. "Anyway, let me introduce myself first. My name is Huan Zinssian, one of the elders in charge of this test. I will need you to try it once more since I can''t guarantee that you really charged the Orb up to 87% on your own. This time, I''ll check it by myself." Krune nodded, not minding it much. He then went to another Orb pointed by elder Huan and began to charge the energy inside. In the end, the same scene played once again. Krune''s hands got stuck at the Godly Orb after he surpassed the 80% mark. However, the Orb didn''t explode this time. Elder Huan was controlling the formation, so he turned it off when he noticed that the Orb was going out of control again. "That''s indeed weird. It seems like you have some special aptitude towards Godly Energy that makes the Godly Orb go crazy. Still, I was able to access your cultivation talent before the Orb lost control. There is no doubt that you can charge the Orb to 87% on your own. In that case, I''ll put you in second place. Perhaps, this is a good thing." Krune sighed in relief as he went to a corner with the top 10 in the formation display. Arriving there, Iem immediately asked him what happened. Krune then pondered a bit about the sensation he felt and then explained through a Divine Sense Message. "When I got stuck, and the Orb began to absorb my energy on its own, I could feel my Heavenly Fragments stirring again. Without a doubt, these Godly Energy Orbs are connected to whatever is calling me from inside the tower. I noticed that it was slightly different from the ones of the Holy Land, so that should be the reason too." Iem nodded. "In that case, we can only wait to see what we can find there. Still, you better be careful. Since that Orb tried to suck you dry, the tower might pose some threat to you." Krune agreed with Iem as they waited for the tests that continued. In the end, the top 10 changed another 3 times. However, Iem and Krune positions didn''t budge. Just like that, the trial was finished. Elder Huan then returned to the platform at the center of the field. "Congratulations to those who passed the test. From now on, you are part of the Godly Tower. Cultivate hard so that you can help defend the city against the beast hordes. As for those who failed, we still expect you to not slack off. Every life in our town is essential to survive the attacks." Elder Huan then continued his speech for a while longer. After that, the crowd began to slowly disperse. At the same time, the elders came back for the 10 cultivators who passed the test. "Come with us, we are going to guide you into the tower." There were several cultivation realms between those who passed. The weakest one was a kid at the Initial Stages of the Core Formation Realm. There was also One Divine Soul Realm, One Soul Forging, One at the Void Breaking, Two at Divine Path, and finally, Three Divine View Realms. Krune and Iem, obviously, were part of the Divine View Realm ones. The Semi-Divinity Realm guards at the entrance opened the path for the elders. As Krune and Iem looked at the other participants, they could see the excitement on their faces. As soon as they entered the tower, Krune and Iem felt the overwhelming concentration of Godly Energy. They could tell that it was at least four to five times more intense. Without a doubt, it was a cultivation paradise! At the same time, Krune felt the presence of the thing that was calling him. From the looks, it was on the last floors of the tower. He looks up as if instinctively, but he obviously couldn''t see anything in there. At most, he could use his Mental Energy, but it definitely wouldn''t reach the last floor. From what Krune could see outside, he would need to be at least at the 13 or 14th floor if he wanted his Mental Energy to touch the last floor of the tower. Iem then sent him a Divine Sense Message. "As we know, Godly Energy in the city is provided by the tower. In that case, from where do you think this Godly Energy is being absorbed?" Krune understood what Iem meant. "You are saying that there is a formation or at least something that is connected to the outside. Whatever it is, it''s this connection that provides the Godly Energy for the tower, correct?" Iem nodded. "Exactly. It might as well be our only pass to freedom. If possible, I really don''t want to enter that maze again." Krune agreed with Iem. Those Azure Beetles were already enough to make them feel helpless. "Have you noticed that there is some kind of pressure here?" "Yes. However, it is very faint. It feels like the pressure given by higher cultivators. However, it seems to be avoiding us." Just as Krune and Iem were about to continue their conversation, everyone stopped. Elder Huan then looked at all the new cultivators of the Godly Tower before saying. "Each one of you will be assigned a room for cultivation. This floor where we are at the moment has the smalled concentration of Godly Energy. That being said, the higher you go, the more energy will be. The Godly Tower has a total of 15 floors, so the 15th obviously has the highest concentration. The floors where you can cultivate will depend on your cultivation level." "The first floor would be for Qi Condensation Realm, but you won''t find anyone at this realm since only babies would be around this level. We did get one or another very young kid at the Foundation Establishment before on the second floor, but those were also rare. At the moment, we don''t have any kid at this level in the tower, though. Finally, this kid at the Core Formation Realm, your room will be on the third floor." Krune and Iem immediately understood that they would be assigned a room on the 8th floor. The elders then began to guide those cultivators to each of their floors. Elder Huan, as the leader of the group, guided the Divine View Realm cultivators. Other than Krune and Iem, the other cultivator at the Divine View Realm was a female called Eata Sentef. She was in the 3rd Stage. On the way, Krune and Iem noticed that the pressure increased after every floor they passed through. In the end, Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Elder Huan. If each floor can only be accessed by a specific cultivation level, then what about the last floors? After all, the Transformation Realm would only allow one to enter the 11th floor. Is it because of this pressure that we are feeling?" Elder Huan seemed to already expect that question, so he didn''t mind answering it. "Exactly. The pressure after the 11th floor is too high, so it is hard to cultivate there. Because of that, we limited access to those who don''t have enough cultivation. After all, we can''t afford to lose our talents just because they decided to bite more than what they can chew." Krune and the others nodded. "I understand. I wonder how the last floor should be like. Have elder Huan ever been there before?" Elder Huan couldn''t help but laugh. "Hahaha! Only those who have a death wish would get close to that place. Let alone the 15th floor, I can barely withstand a few breaths on the 13th floor. The 15th floor had always been a mystery for us. No equipment or technique can help you fend off that pressure. Believe me, we tried." Krune and Iem looked at each other. That answer was more or less like they expected. However, there was one thing that Elder Huan didn''t know. For some reason, Krune and Iem didn''t feel like the pressure affected them at all. They knew it was there, but it was avoiding them both! Chapter 586: Beast Horde Elder Huan also explained other rules. Everyone from the Godly Tower is free to roam outside, but they can''t abuse their power. The Godly Tower is a neutral power that must not ally with any of the other groups. That''s because in case they do that, the other forces might rally together to attack the tower. That is not what everyone wants. Once you enter the tower, you are also relinquishing all power connections with your last background. Of course, you can still visit your family and interact with others. But you must absolutely not take any sides. At most, you might intervene to save your family if they are at the brink of extinction, but you are still not allowed to change the results that led to that. Otherwise, you will be expelled from the tower, and your cultivation will be destroyed. Thanks to that, all hundreds of small powers in the city had never touched the tower. At the same time, those who join the tower can build their own families. However, their families must never take a position of power in the city. At least not until they lose their Godly Tower members. Only when those families lose all connection to the tower may they try to vie for power in the city. Any resources given to the Tower Members must never be given to others outside; obviously, their families included. If a beast horde attacks, everyone at the Soul Forging Realm or above must help with it. You cannot flee or hide. The punishment for those who do so is the same. Last but not least, one must not enter the floors above their cultivation. However, the elders were used to the curious new members trying to take a look at the environment above from time to time. Besides, it''s not like it harms the tower''s interests, so the punishment is a lot milder. One would not receive any cultivation resources for one year. But they wouldn''t be expelled or have their cultivation destroyed. Krune and Iem understood a point. The tower didn''t really have many harsh rules when it came to the things that happened inside. Unless you killed or destroyed the cultivation of another tower member, the punishments weren''t too overbearing. The tower was only afraid of one thing, the city people distrust. The elders of the tower know better than anyone else that it is the tower that is helping to keep the fragile balance between beast hordes and the people. So they can''t allow anything to happen to it. Krune and Iem didn''t try to enter the next floors. Instead, they spent a week inside the tower, getting used to the environment. Another thing was that Krune was using his Mental Energy to investigate the next level. He was trying to see the best time to try to go up later. Iem only knew that Krune had a way to check the things around him without Divine Sense, but he didn''t know about the Mental Energy. Still, Krune had already proved to it worked, so he left it for him. Krune and Iem also confirmed that their unique trait wasn''t temporary. Even after an entire week, the pressure coming from above still avoided the two. They reached the conclusion that it had something to do with the fact that they came from outside. If not that, then it was definitely related to their Heavenly Core and Heavenly Fragments. After all, there didn''t seem to have any Heavenly Core or Fragment owners in this place other than themselves. As time passed, Krune couldn''t help but think about Feifei back in the Wisp Main World. His communication treasure in his foundation already got recharged. However, it seemed to not be able to connect to hers in this place. ''Most likely, it is because of how this area is hidden from the heavens.'' Another thing was his employees in Immai City. Especially Nina, since he was helping her recover her cultivation. He was supposed to be only three days out, but such a thing happened in the end. Krune then shook his head and threw those thoughts to the back of his mind. There was no point in thinking about it now. Another week passed, and Krune came to understand how the elders lived on the 9th floor. Finally, he and Iem began to make their moves. They enveloped themselves in their Purple Tribulation Lightning or Devil Flame. Just like Luvile, Harold also had his own way to hide from Divine Senses. In the first try, they went to the 9th floor. There, Krune used his Mental Energy to check the next one and make a mental picture of its appearance. After that, they returned. A few days later, Krune and Iem noticed some elders going out to do some errands. They took that opportunity to sneak into the 9th and then 10th floor. Once again, Krune used his Mental Energy to verify the 11th floor this time. Noticing that there were still a few elders in the 11th floor, Krune and Iem once again returned to their 8th floor to discuss their next action. Just like that, another month passed in a flash. Krune and Iem came to understand one thing. Several elders liked to stay on the 12th floor to cultivate. Although the pressure there was very high, it wasn''t like they couldn''t spend some time inside. They just couldn''t enter the 13th since it was beyond their limits. Another thing Krune found out with his Mental Energy was that the 12th floor was empty. There were no rooms or walls in the whole place. The only thing available was the stairs to the 11th and 13th floors. That obviously made things more complicated since it was impossible to pass by the elders without their notice. Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flame could hide their presences from Divine Sense. However, they were quite catchy to the naked eyes. Just when Krune and Iem were running out of options and thinking if they should simply try to charge through, they heard the sound of bells coming from outside. To be more specific, it was the sound of thousands of them! When the elders heard that, they immediately passed down the orders to the other tower members. "A beast horde is approaching! All cultivators at the Soul Forging Realm and above are to gather outside and wait for their assignments." Krune and Iem''s eyes lit up. That would be the best chance to enter the 13th floor and higher without anyone noticing. All the elders would participate in the battle, while just a few guards would stay to protect the tower. "Should we ignore the call and try to sneak into the higher floors?" Krune shook his head. "Better than that, we should participate as well. However, we will return to the tower before everyone else. I reckon that after the beast horde is over, the elders will most likely stay out to help with the aftermath. That would be our best chance to go up without anyone noticing. If we go now, the elders will definitely see that we disappeared. Besides, considering our combat power, we should face no risks since the elders will definitely assign us based on our cultivation. We can even fight ordinary Semi-Divine Realm cultivators and demon beasts, so let alone beasts at our level of cultivation." Iem pondered a bit and admitted that Krune was right. If things go well, they might even return to their own 8th floor before the elders come back. Of course, if they find a way out there, they will leave straight away. During the time Krune and Iem stayed in the tower, they advanced in cultivation again. Now, both of them are at the 2nd Stage of the Divine View Realm. The elders that recruited Krune and Iem during the last trial also noticed that. They all nodded at the two, satisfied. That''s the type of talent they need to protect the city. Seeing that everyone was already reunited, another elder that Krune and Iem didn''t know then stepped forward. "For those who don''t know me, my name is Tiau Somali. I''m the elder responsible for most of the tower''s affairs. Alright, time is of the essence. I will now assign each of you to your specific positions. You all have received the techniques and equipments of the tower, so your combat powers are definitely above average. Put that to good use, and don''t let a single Demon Beast enter our city!" "Yes!" The elder began to share the positions. After so many years, the tower had hundreds of members. Still, the number had stayed like this for a very long time after that. After all, a few would die in every beast horse while others would run out of lifespan. "Krune, Iem, Eata... you will guard the southeast. The one in command of your group is Elder Huan." Tiau continued to talk, and in just a few minutes, everyone had their own roles. Right after, they all departed to their own positions. Due to the size of the city and the lower cultivation of a few of their members, Krune''s group took almost an hour to reach there. They quickly leaped on the walls to look at the beast horde in the distance. They soon spotted countless Rarin Worms of various sizes with even a few different shaped ones. Still, the majority was the same type that Krune and Iem fought when they were outside the city. Other than that, some beasts looked like brown scorpions but had four pincers. Others were flying creatures like blood-red bats. There were quite a few differences in sizes between the beasts too. Obviously, that showed their difference in power. Elder Huan then shouted. "Listen up! Once the city''s protection barrier disappears, the beasts will charge straight away. Pay attention to your own positions and the beasts sizes. Don''t try to fight the ones beyond your ability. Now, assignments!" "Ramon, Feiun, Suanko... Blood Bats of 12 to 15 meters in length." "Amata, Lakoei, Pansin... Four Pincers'' Scorpions of 5 to 7 meters large." "Krune, Iem, Eata, Karel... Rarin Worms of 15 to 20 meters large." Elder Huan issued a string of commands, and everyone focused on their own targets. Sure enough, they used the size of the demon beasts to tell their strength. After all, it was not possible to feel the Demon Beasts'' cultivation level. Everyone''s nerves were tense. However, because the city received a beast horde every few years, most were already seasoned warriors. The protection barrier of the city blinked now and then, showing that it was about to disappear. Finally, with one last big flash, it disappeared completely. Without wasting time, the beast horde advanced! Chapter 587: Helping Out One thing made Krune puzzled, though. He then looked at Iem and asked through a Divine Sense Message. "Without sentience, those underground demon beasts can only move on instinct. In that case, how come they joined together for this assault? Not only that, but they are also separated in ranks, with the strongest ones being on the back. Also, what relation does it have with the protection barrier?" Iem pondered a bit before saying. "I don''t know about how they can organize like this. Perhaps it''s just instinct built after thousands of years of beast hordes. They came to slowly understand that this is the best way to advance after so many tries." Krune had to admit that Iem''s words had some credibility. Iem then continued. "As for the city''s protection disappearance, I have an idea. Most likely, it''s not that the demon beasts come when it is about to disappear. Instead, the barrier disappears after the beast horde comes. Look at the number of demon beasts outside. If all of that attacks the barrier together, it will sooner or later crumble. Suppose this protection formation is destroyed in that way. In that case, it will be very complicated to repair in a resourceless place like this Underground City. That being said, it is better to turn it off so that it can be used during the years that the beast hordes don''t appear." Krune agreed with Iem. "I see... That makes sense. In that case, whoever is controlling the barrier, and turning it off is most likely in the Godly Tower. It seems like we have one more reason to go there later." As Krune and Iem talked, the first waves arrived at the city''s wall. The first group of Soul Forging Realm cultivator engaged the Demon Beasts promptly. The higher level cultivators didn''t step forward since they had to save their energies for the stronger demon beasts. However, Krune didn''t like to see all those deaths, so he decided to give a hand from far away. Of course, Krune was talking about both sides. So he summoned arcs of lightning that struck the demon beasts, causing severe injuries and making them faint. Of course, it wasn''t Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning. Krune''s attack didn''t kill any of them but ended their time in the siege. Obviously, the cultivators close to where Krune was attacking rejoiced with that. Elder Huan looked at Krune and gave him a warning. "Save your energy for the time the 15 to 20 meters Rarin Worms come. If you tire yourself now, you will increase the chances of dying when your strength becomes necessary. It might look like you are saving our companions, but once you die, the stronger beasts that you could have fought against will cause even greater damage than what you prevented here." Krune smiled at Elder Huan before answering. "That''s why I''m not using much energy. These attacks I''m sending out are not enough to surpass my rate of recovery. I can continue like this for an entire month, and I won''t get tired." Elder Huan was taken aback. He then looked at the lightning flying at the demon beasts in the distance and narrowed his eyes. Krune''s attacks were really strong and seemed to use a lot of energy, so it was hard to believe Krune. "Are you sure you won''t run out of energy?" Krune nodded with a confident expression. "I''m really good at absorbing Godly Energy, elder Huan has no need to worry." Huan could only nod in the end. Still, he paid close attention to Krune. If he sees that Krune is starting to faltering, he will immediately stop him. Suddenly, a fireball''s shower began to strike another side of the wave. This time, the one who was doing it was Iem. Obviously, those fireballs were just normal ones. Iem didn''t use the Devil Flame God''s power. "You too?" Iem laughed out loud before saying. "Elder saw that how I finished the test. Don''t worry, I''m also using very little energy, so my recovery rate can keep with it." Iem began to help Krune with the attacks, further spreading the area of damage. The only difference was that Iem wasn''t trying to not kill the demon beasts. If they survived, so be it. If not, that''s okay with him too. Krune didn''t say anything since his method would still leave a higher number of survivors than leaving it up to the weak cultivators at the front. Of course, even though Krune and Iem were causing massive scale damage to the beast horde, it didn''t change the situation as a whole considering the number of enemies. It could be said that the Soul Forging Realm cultivators close to Krune and Iem won the lottery. As time passed, Elder Huan got more and more impressed with Krune and Iem. Those two seemed to have an unlimited supply of Godly Energy. It really seemed that their recovery rate surpassed the amount of Godly Energy they used. At dumb as the beasts might be, they still wouldn''t charge blindly into a barrage of lightning and fireballs. So after some time, they began to shift their positions, trying to avoid the places where Krune and Iem were acting. That obviously made the surroundings receive more demon beasts than they would initially. Immediately, the cultivators defending those positions paled at that sight. Too bad, though. Those demon beasts were acting on instinct, rage, and fear only. All Krune and Iem had to do were to change the direction of their barrage of lightning and fireballs. Not only that, because the demon beasts got more packed, the efficiency of their attacks increased even more. The sea of Soul Forging Realm cultivators at the front cheered at that sight. The other cultivators close to Krune and Iem couldn''t help but look at them with admiration. The city might be chaotic, but everyone united when the beast hordes came attacking. Anyone who could prevent a lot of deaths would definitely gain everyone''s respect. Elder Huan had been prying into Krune and Iem''s condition all this time. So far, neither of them showed the least bit of exhaustion. If anything, Iem would yawn now and then as if he was bored. In the end, Elder Huan couldn''t help but nod, satisfied. ''Those kids are the future of our Cinna City.'' The first wave lasted for over four hours. Finally, the bigger demon beasts on the back began to move as well. Obviously, it was time for the Void Breaking Realm cultivators to step forward. The Soul Forging Realm one didn''t retreat, though. Instead, they stayed there to give support to the Void breaking Realm ones fighting. Besides, the weaker demon beasts haven''t stopped coming, so they had to deal with those as well. The assault at the city now was a mix of Soul Forging and Void Breaking Realm level demon beasts. Krune and Iem didn''t mind that. The only difference was that they had to focus their attacks in smaller areas since the enemies were stronger. However, the demon beasts were just like the cultivators. The stronger they are, the shorter their numbers. So Krune and Iem''s attacks were still as effective in the situation as a whole as before. Just like that, an entire day passed in a flash. Well, because they are underground, no one could see the sun. Still, everyone had their ways to check the time. In the end, the beasts sieging the city began to retreat. That also concluded the first day of the assault, which went better than expected. No Demon Beasts at the Divine Path Realm level or higher joined this time, though. As one can expect, countless deaths were inflicted on both sides. However, because the demon beasts don''t have intelligence, the numbers on their side were much higher. The Nascent God cultivators who didn''t participate in the fight soon came forward to clean the battlefield. One must not forget that the meat from those Demon Beasts was what most of them will eat during th next years. Not too surprising, Krune and Iem''s position suffered the least amount of casualties. All the low-level cultivators there couldn''t help but feel delighted to have been dispatched to this place. Elder Huan even patted their shoulders with a smile, praising them for their efforts. The city seemed to be really used with the beast horde. In just six hours, all the demon beasts'' corpses that could be used were pulled into the city. As for the rest, they were quickly disposed of as well, leaving the battlefield in the best conditions for the cultivators to fight the next day. The injured ones were brought back into the city, while those who were tired retreated as well. From inside the town, a new batch of Soul Forging and Void Breaking Realm came out to take the place of those who fought the first day. Through this rotation system, the city could last even longer than if it deployed everyone at once. Krune was curious about one thing, though. "Elder Huan. You said that the Divine Path Realm and the above cultivators should save their energies for the stronger demon beasts. But during the first day, no demon beast of that level appeared. Wouldn''t it have been better if the Divine Path Realm and the above ones helped then? After all, they could use this resting time to recover their energy to their peak." Elder Huan bitterly smiled as he shook his head. "The reason is simple. We don''t know when the higher-level demon beasts will attack. They might attack the very first day or only in the last. Some times, there isn''t any resting time like this one you are seeing today. The siege might continue for several days straight if the demon beasts feel like it. That being said, we simply can''t risk it." Krune nodded. He had thought about this possibility but wanted to confirm first. Elder Huan then patted his shoulder once more before saying. "Rest well, the next attack might happen at any moment." Chapter 588: Rampage On the second day, things started the same way. However, just one hour after the start, the Void Breaking Realm level beast already advanced. Krune and Iem looked at that as they kept their barrage of ordinary attacks. Finally, four hours later, the Divine Path Realm level demon beasts also charged forward. Obviously, the Divine Path Realm cultivators also stepped forward to block them. Krune and Iem didn''t attack those stronger demon beasts, though. "If we want to inflict damage to them, we will need to use more Godly Energy than what we can recover. Let''s keep focusing on the weaker ones instead. It will free the Void Breaking Realm cultivators, who can then support those at the Divine Path Realm ones." Iem nodded. "I also thought the same. In any case, the 15 to 20 meters Rarin Worms will probably enter the fray soon. So we won''t be able to help them for long." Even though Iem said it, their help against the attacks had made things much easier for the city. Halfway into the day, the demon beasts at the Divine View Realm level began to move as well. Seeing that, all the Divine View Realm cultivators stepped forward. Obviously, Krune and Iem too. A Divine Path Realm female cultivator was fighting a four-pincers scorpion when suddenly, the ground under her began to tremble. Knowing what that meant, she immediately jumped back with all her might. Still, she was hit by the Rarin Worm that had just emerged from the ground. The Scorpion didn''t waste the opportunity and pounced at her. But just as she was about to be cut in half, a flash of lightning appeared beside the Scorpion. *Zap!* The Scorpion hissed in pain as it fell on the ground, not being able to move a single step anymore. The female cultivator only had enough time to see a rainbow-colored hair as it flashed away. The next time he appeared, he was already beside the Rarin Worm that knocked the female cultivator. Naturally, that flash of lightning was Krune in his human form. Krune was still using the five primary elements, not touching at the Purple Tribulation Lightning''s power at all. *chiiii...* Krune touched the Rarin Worm''s body but didn''t use lightning this time. This is an earth type demon beast, so it was innately resistant to it. Instead, the body of the Worm began to freeze at high speeds. Before the Rarin Worm could even react, it had already become an enormous frozen statue. Somewhere near Krune, Iem''s legs and arms looked just like crystalline sculptures. However, they moved just like a normal person''s limbs. Also, they were fused with the power of elements and laws. This time, Iem wasn''t only using his body, but Godly Power as well. That made him much stronger than when he fought his first Rarin Worm. *Bang, Bang, Bang!* With just a few punches and kicks, the Rarin Worm fell on the ground. Anyone could tell that it was as dead as it could be. Iem didn''t waste time as White Lightning appeared on his body, and he flashed beside the next one. Without a doubt, that new Rarin Worm would suffer the same outcome as the last one. Krune and Iem moved everywhere on their battlefield. The other Divine View Realm cultivators couldn''t compare to the two of them at all. Most of them had to go all out just to barely achieve victory, but those two made it look effortless. It''s a wonder how they would feel if they found out that Iem and Krune were far from showing their real power. As mentioned before, the higher the demon beast''s level, the smaller their numbers. The same was for the cultivators. That being said, there were just so many of them on the battlefield. With Iem and Krune''s rampage, these levels of Rarin Worms began to disappear after three hours of battle. The cultivators in the small region where Krune and Iem were dispatched could feel their burden greatly reduced. Seeing that their help wasn''t needed in this place anymore, Krune and Iem moved to another battlefield also in the southeast of the city. Elder Huan was still observing from far away, but he didn''t try to intervene. Those two would indeed be of more help somewhere else now that they almost cleaned that part. If anything, he was happy to see that. Krune and Iem''s reason for doing so much was pretty simple. When the battle finished, the two of them would say that they are too tired to help and would like to return to the Godly Tower to recover first. Seeing how the two of them had performed in the beast horde, the elders probably wouldn''t deny their request. Although they are helping people, they are also helping themselves. Last but not least, combat experience was also vital for cultivation, so this beast horde more than fulfilled this requirement. By the end of the day, Krune and Iem had helped five different battlefields in the southeast. As one can expect, their names began to spread around between the cultivators. They couldn''t care less about it, though. As long as they can complete their objective, that would be fine. This time, even though the day had already passed, the beast horde attack didn''t stop. It was just like Huan said, the beasts could continue if they felt like it. As easy as it might be for Krune and Iem to dispatch Divine View Realm level demon beasts, these many hours of battle are also making them tiring. Elder Huan noticed that and sent them a Divine Sense Message. "You two, retreat now and recover your powers. You already did more than enough for a day. Once you finish, I''ll call you out again. We have prepared Godly Energy Gathering Formations behind the city wall, too, so just go there." Iem and Krune smiled, and they immediately went back. Even if Huan hadn''t sent them a Divine Sense message, they would have retreated soon regardless. Once they arrived at the Godly Energy gathering formation, all the cultivators around looked at the two with respect. They opened a path and left the center the formation for the two of them to use. Krune felt a little awkward with the treatment. However, he really needed to recover his Godly Energy, so he didn''t refuse it. Iem didn''t care, though. In his eyes, with everything he had done, it was evident that he should be allocated the best place to recover. As they absorbed Godly Energy, Krune and Iem also exchanged Divine Sense messages. "How is it?" "Pretty much good. After analyzing the situation until now, I can tell that there is no chance of the city falling in this beast horde." Krune and Iem were afraid of one thing. Since Cinna City had not received cultivators from outside in the last thousands of years, they thought that perhaps their appearance would change something drastically. Maybe, this beast horde would be dangerous to the point where the city could even fall. However, the beast horde seemed to be far from being able to do so. Naturally, Iem and Krune felt relieved after confirming that. "In that case, let''s fight to our heart''s content. It is a good opportunity to get used to our Godly Energy manipulation and the restrictions of the Godly Path Realm. I can feel that the more I fight, the better I get at controlling it. Still, I''m far from perfection." Krune nodded. "That''s to be expected. People and beasts who are born here use Godly Energy from the very start. But in our case, we used Spiritual Energy, Elemental Energy, and Chaos Energy during our entire lives. We relied on three types of energy to battle before. Now we have Godly Energy, which can substitute all the Mortal Realm''s Energies. It would be impossible to get used to it in just two to three months." Krune and Iem then spent their next hours trading insights about cultivation. It was really good when you have someone with similar talents as yourself to talk. Finally, the two of them got up and returned to the wall six hours later. In fact, they had recovered a lot earlier. However, it would be too suspicious if they showed themselves so fast. They already got enough attention as they are at the moment, there wasn''t a reason to extrapolate. Once they looked at the battlefield, they noticed that even bigger demon beasts joined the fray. Sure enough, those were demon beasts at the Semi-Divinity and Divinity Realm levels. Krune and Iem noticed that elder Huan''s eyes were cold as he looked in a specific direction. After following his gaze, they noticed six underground demon beasts far behind the battle lines. Surprisingly, they weren''t that big. The Rarin Worm in their middle was even smaller than the Divine View Realm level ones Krune and Iem fought. However, they could tell that they were anything but simple, and it wasn''t just their different colors. Seeing how serious Elder Huan was taking those beasts, it wasn''t hard for Krune and Iem to guess that those were the Transformation Realm level ones. That is the highest level that both demon beasts and humans could achieve in this underground world. Krune''s Divine Sense and Mental Energy couldn''t go so far. Still, he could tell that the Godly Energy around their bodies moved restlessly. Krune was sure that he wouldn''t be a match to those beasts at all. If anything, even running from them would be something hard to accomplish. Chapter 589: Mysterious Woman Of course, Elder Huan wasn''t the only Transformation Realm expert watching them. Other elders and experts from outside the tower were also doing the same. Still, those beasts were nothing that either Krune or Iem could do something about, so they ignored those and joined the fray again. This time, they switched from fighting the Rarin Worms to the Four Pincers Scorpions at the Divine View Realm level. That''s because most of the Rarin Worms around the battlefields they were responsible for had been dealt with already. On the third day, bigger explosions and tremors began to happen around all the battlefields. From the looks of it, the Transformation Realm experts started their fights against the demon beasts as well. Krune and Iem, who had quite an easy time at their side, took the opportunity to take a look at a battle that is above the Divinity Realm. Still, it was a too high a difference for them to learn anything at this point. The battles continued until the start of the fourth day when the Demon Beasts finally began to retreat. Just as Krune and predicted, the forces that appeared during this beast horde were not enough to take the city down. Regardless, all the cultivators started to cheer when they saw that the enemies were leaving. Krune and Iem let out a sigh of relief; their part was finally over. As they returned to the city, the cultivators that fought with them all tried to talk with the two. After all, they had made a big difference in the southeast battlefield. Several cultivators tried to invite Krune and Iem to go celebrate, but the two refused, saying that they were exhausted. No one thought anything strange about that. After all, they really had fought and killed more demon beasts at their level than anyone else. A few minutes later, Elder Huan returned from the rear of the battlefield. Krune could see his messy hair and torn clothes. There were also a few injuries on his body. Still, it didn''t seem like he was severely injured. Well, in fact, Krune and Iem didn''t look much better. Not that they couldn''t have avoided look like that, but because they let it happen. It would be a lot easier to convince the others that they needed to return earlier. Krune then sent a Divine Sense message to Elder Huan. "Elder Huan, is that okay if the two of us return to the tower to recover?" Huan looked at them and nodded. He had also seen how much they contributed to the outcome of the southeast battlefield. It went a lot better for the lower level cultivators than he expected thanks to them. However, he didn''t seem happy. In fact, none of the Godly Tower members were. That''s because they received a notice from the other fields. They had lost more than 60 members of the tower. That included 13 Divinity Realm and 3 Transformation ones. That was quite a heavy blow considering that the tower only had 14 Transformation Realm before. Now, only 11 remained. It seemed like the North and West sides suffered heavy losses, and the attacks on those parts were a lot fiercer. Elder Huan sighed and couldn''t help but think. ''Fortunately, we also killed a lot of them this time. From the looks of it, we still got the advantage in the exchange. Still, it had been a long time since so many Transformation Realm elders died in a beast horse. I hope a few of our Divinity Realm members can reach the peak stage so that they can enter the next stages of the Transformation Realm soon. Well, perhaps I should increase the training and resources for cultivation.'' Elder Huan and the others would need to stay to take care of the things, so Krune and Iem bid their farewells. Of course, they weren''t the only ones going back to the tower. Several other members got injured or didn''t have the energy to take care of the things anymore too. Regardless, Krune and Iem made sure to return first so that they could go directly to the 12th floor. The guards didn''t stop them as they entered the tower. From there, they went to the 8th floor first and then used their Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flame to go up concealed. Sure enough, the tower was almost entirely empty. With one or another exception, the rest of the members were out taking care of the outcome of the beast horde. Krune arrived on the 11th floor in a blink of an eye. There, Krune used his Mental Energy to check the 12th floor. "Good, there are no elders present there, let''s go." They quickly ascended to the next level and felt how much the Godly Energy Concentration improved. Although it still couldn''t compare to use Godly Stones or eat Spiritual Food, the concentration was really high. Nonetheless, they didn''t waste time there and moved to the 13th floor straight away. In theory, the 11th floor was for the Transformation Realm. They only went to the 12th floor to cultivate because they could resist the pressure there for some time. Still, they had to return to the 11th floor every time they reached their limit. As for the 13th, the Transformation Realm cultivators of the tower simply couldn''t resist more than a few breaths, let alone the 14th. However, when Krune and Iem arrived on the 13th floor, they were taken aback. Right in the middle of the level, there was an old woman with her eyes closed. However, she didn''t seem like she was having a hard time resisting the pressure of the place. There were only two ways that could happen. First, the pressure of the tower is avoiding her, just like Krune and Iem. Or second, she is a cultivator in the Mortal Rejection Realm at the very least. Regardless of the reason, it wasn''t a good thing for Iem and Krune. They hadn''t left the stairs and only observed her from afar. "If she is a Mortal Rejection cultivator or higher, then she already achieved the cultivation necessary to have an unlimited lifespan. Or she has the same ability as us, which is also probable." Said Iem with a Divine Sense Message. Krune nodded. "Should we try to call her out? After all, it should be impossible to enter the Mortal Rejection Realm in a place hidden from the heavens. That being said, she should have been here ever since this Underground City was closed to the outside world. Of course, that is considering that she isn''t simply someone like us. Or the fact that she might decide to attack instead of talking since we shouldn''t be here." Iem shook his head. "I think it is too risky. If we can arrive at the last floor first and don''t find anything, then we might try this idea." Krune pondered a bit as he looked at her. "Well, maybe she isn''t using her Divine Sense at the moment. She seems to be meditating or is concentrated on cultivation. In that case, we might be able to pass by her if we don''t make any noise. What about stay close to the walls and sneak past?" Iem couldn''t help but feel like this was a childish idea. Unfortunately, he couldn''t see another way around either. They didn''t have much time, so they had to act now. "Sigh... I guess we can only try." Krune and Iem deactivated their Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flame concealing skills and left the stairs. However, as soon as they gave the first step into the 13th floor, the woman in the distance opened her eyes. Krune and Iem''s heart skipped a bit when that happens. At the same time, Harold and Luvile were prepared to go all out with Krune and Iem in case she decided to attack. Without a doubt, they would pay a healthy price, and there would be no guarantee of victory against such a difference in cultivation level. However, what happened next took them aback. Tears began to flow from her eyes as she looked at Krune''s group. She then kneeled in their direction before pledging. "Please, help us. Only you can give our freedom back." Krune and the others didn''t know what to do. From the various possible reactions they expected, this definitely wasn''t one of them. Krune and Iem didn''t let their guard down, though. "What do you mean?" The woman noticed that her emotions took the best of her. Obviously, Krune and Iem couldn''t possibly know why she said that. "Sorry, I''m getting ahead of myself." She then lifted her hands, and a wave of Godly Energy enveloped Krune and Iem. The two of them then started to float in her direction. Luvile and Harold immediately found out her level through that, though. "Godly Fusion Realm!" Krune and Iem grimaced. Even if Harold and Luvile helped them, it would still be impossible to escape from someone this strong. Chapter 590: Iridia Suien Although neither of them would be able to fight or flee from her, it didn''t seem she had malicious intentions. As soon as they got close to her, the Godly Energy holding Krune and Iem disappeared. Krune then bowed before asking. "Senior, what exactly is happening here?" She smiled at Krune. "First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Iridia Suien. I''m the last survivor from the time our city wasn''t locked down. As you probably already noticed, no one can enter the Mortal Rejection Realm, so an unlimited lifespan is impossible for the rest. But do you know why that is?" Krune nodded. "The city is hidden from the heavens." Iridia was surprised to hear that. "That''s impressive. I thought I would need to tell you myself. But you are right. The city has been hidden from the heavens since 50 thousand years ago. Because of that, demon beasts can''t attain sentience, and cultivators can''t enter the Mortal Rejection Realm." Iridia then took a deep breath before continuing. "However, don''t you think it''s weird that such a large city doesn''t have a single Mortal Rejection Realm or higher cultivator? Even if this city was locked later, sure there should be more of them, right?" Iem and Iem nodded. "We did think about it before. But we already thought about this. Considering the environment and that ''No Return Maze,'' this place was probably a trial grounds for a sect or something like that. Obviously, the ones who participated in the trials were young, which means they were people under the Mortal Rejection Realm. Most likely, there were sentient demon beasts too, but they had long since died of old age." Iridia was happy to hear that. "Seems like I don''t need to explain this part then. You are right again. This was the trial of the Umekran Sect. The cultivators and demon beasts had to find their way through the maze to enter the underground city. Here, they would need to make their way to the last floor of the tower and then make their way back to the surface through the maze once more. As you can imagine, calamity struck us during one of those trials. I was the elder in charge during that time too." "During the last trial, thousands of youngsters made their way here, trying to complete the task to enter our Sect. However, who could have thought that that thing would lose control?" Krune and Iem got puzzled. "What thing?" "Do you know about th Heavenly Fragments and Cores from the Lower Realms?" Krune and Iem nodded. They are prime examples of those things. "That makes things easier to explain then. Heavenly Fragments and Cores are one of the best items to make treasures in the Higher Realms. Not too surprisingly, people and beasts who have them would be hunted down for those. Because of their connection with the Heavens, these treasures become extremely powerful. So much that they can only be used by Nascent God Realm cultivators and demon beasts. Others can barely get close to it." Krune and Iem felt a chill on their backs. Good thing that they never revealed that they are such owners back on the surface. However, there was one thing that they were confused. What cultivation stage is the Nascent God Realm? Obviously, they could only ask it to Luvile and Harold. "Basically, it goes like this: Transformation Realm; Godly Fusion Realm; God Foundation Realm; God Core Realm; and finally, Nascent God Realm. Nascent God is obviously the strongest existence in the Godly Path Realm." Luvile and Harold used their connection with Krune and Iem''s Souls to tell that information, so it only took a second before they got the answer. Krune then nodded at Iridia. "I see... Then what we have in the floors above is a treasure made with one of those fragments or cores, correct?" Iridia nodded. "Correct. That is what is holding the entire cave. It''s a treasure that one of our ancestors got a long time ago, he then used it in this tower to test the juniors. However, no one could have predicted that the Heavenly Fragment that was used to make the treasure would gain sentience. The elders of the Sect obviously noticed that and tried to intervene." "Unfortunately, the treasure didn''t merely gain sentience and rebelled. Instead, it stayed quiet, waiting to learn more about its own situation. It only made a move at the worst moment possible, which was during the trials." "Several influent clans, prosperous organizations, etc., liked to send their offsprings to the Umekran Sect. The elders had to be careful when dealing with those descendants. So they couldn''t be harsh. The treasure took this opportunity to strike, trap all the test takers. The Sect Elders'' hesitation gave the sentience in the treasure enough time to lock down this place altogether." "As it has a piece of the Heavens inside itself, a Heavenly Fragment, it understood more about it than anyone else. To prevent any mishaps from happening, it also hid the underground city from the heavens itself. All connections with the outside were lost, and the place was separated from the dimension it was before. Simply put, no one could find this place anymore." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Does it mean that we are not on our planet anymore?" Iridia shook her head. "Not exactly. In a certain way, we are still there. However, there is no way out or in for those who live here." Iridia continued. "However, as long as we can re-establish the connection, the maze will be reopened, and the heavens will see us again. From there on, we can go to the surface through the Teleport Formation available in the tower." Iem pondered a bit before asking. "Why did the treasure keep hidden here all this time? Wouldn''t have it be better if it had left to live its own life?" Iridia sighed before answering. "You are underestimating the value of a Heavenly Fragment or Core Treasure. If one of those appears outside without an owner, the entire Godly Path Realm will come after it. Without a doubt, it would be captured sooner or later. At least here, it doesn''t need to care about such risk." Krune and Iem nodded. "In that case, why us?" Iridia laughed after hearing that question. "Because you are the only ones who can get close to it other than Nascent God Realm cultivators and demon beasts. Even I, the most I can do is stay on this 13th floor. I can resist the 14th floor for some time, but I definitely can''t resist the pressure on the 15th. Let alone do something against the treasure over there." "Other than the Nascent God Realm, only a Heavenly Fragment Owner or Core owner will be able to get close to another Heavenly Fragment or Core treasure and subdue it." Krune and Iem narrowed their eyes. However, they couldn''t deny her words since the simple fact that they are here proves that they have a Heavenly Fragment or Core. After all, there should be no way for two Divine View Realm cultivators to appear in this place. "I won''t deny that we have them. But if we really subdue that thing, what guarantee we have that you won''t attack us as soon as we succeed? You said it yourself, the entire Godly Path Realm would go crazy over us and the treasure we got." Iridia smiled before saying. "I''m willing to offer a sliver of my soul as a guarantee." This time, Krune and Iem were really shocked. After all, with that sliver of her soul, they could totally transform her into a slave. No one would do something like that unless they were in a desperate situation. "I don''t understand. Why don''t you use your own strength to threaten us first? We are absolutely not your match!" Iridia didn''t mind explaining. "Even though I just don''t want to do it, you probably wouldn''t believe me. So there is another reason why I won''t use my superior cultivation to force you. Simply put, I don''t have the power to do so. Back then, I tried to get out of the underground city by brute force. I thought that since the treasure sealed such an enormous space, the dimensional barrier would be quite sloppy. As long as I put enough effort, I would be able to leave on my own. Unfortunately, I couldn''t be wronger. I suffered a backlash that severely damaged my foundation. I can still do simple tricks like the one I used on you or resist the pressure. But I can''t force myself, or I would risk shattering my foundation completely. You can check my foundation with your Divine Senses if you want. I won''t use mine to block yours." Krune and Iem did exactly that. Sure enough, she wasn''t lying. Iridia''s foundation was holding by a thread. Both of them could tell that it would crumble if too much strength was used. "Why would you believe us?" This time, Iridia laughed out loud. "Do I have any other choice? How long do you think my foundation will last in this condition? If I''m not wrong, it won''t last more than twenty thousand years. It already took 50 for you to appear, so how long will it take for the next ones? I would rather take the risk." In the end, Krune and Iem accepted the idea. Still, the two had one more doubt. "Since this place is totally sealed, how exactly did we end down here?" Chapter 591: Zule Iridia shook her head. "I''m not sure. But if I were to guess, I would say that the Heavenly Fragment in the treasure felt your presence. After that, it brought you two inside through some method. After all, that is a spatial type of treasure. That''s also why I guessed that you had a Heavenly Fragment or Core other than the fact that you aren''t suppressed in this place with your cultivation levels." Krune and Iem reached a conclusion after that. Since the treasure above has spatial powers, the Heavenly Fragment inside can only be a Space Heavenly Fragment. After all, not only was this place sealed in another dimension, only a Heavenly Space Fragment would be able to intercept their teleportation back in the Zamaria Planet. Of course, the Blackhole Fragment would also be good with Space Laws. However, its ability would not reach a high enough level to intervene directly. At least, Krune doesn''t think so. A Blackhole Fragment would have its focus shared between Space and Time laws, after all. They also understood why treasures made with Heavenly Fragments and Cores were so rare. That''s because the Ascencion Tribulation of the Lower Realms is several times more dangerous than normal ones. As mentioned before, the higher difficulty in the Ascencion Tribulation for Heavenly Core and Fragment owners is because the Universes they originated in want to take them back. There are only nine Heavenly Fragments in each Universe in the Lower Realms. Otherwise, there is only a single Heavenly Core. Cultivators and Demon Beasts without Heavenly Fragments or Core only have around a 1% chance of succeeding in their Ascencion Tribulation. That being said, one can imagine how hard it is for the Heavenly Core or Fragment Owners to ascend since theirs are much harder. In that case, just how many Heavenly Fragments or Cores exist in the Godly Path Realm? Without a doubt, the number is pitifully low. "Alright. Now we wish to know what risks does it involve. After all, you said that only we can give your freedom back. Is there something wrong with the Heavenly Fragment above?" Iridia shook her head once more. "I don''t know. As I said, I can''t get close to it with my cultivation. But the Heavenly Fragment inside the treasure had been here for so long, this place is also sealed from the outside, so no one can enter. In that case, why would it summon you here? I''m afraid that it might want something from you. However, we really have no choice other than believing you." Iem pondered a bit before extending his hand. "First, let me take your Soul Sliver. After I have brought into my foundation, I will naturally know if everything you said was valid or not." Krune didn''t say anything. He, too, couldn''t afford to take risks. So it was better to have this Godly Fusion Realm expert under control first. Although it goes more or less against his personality, he knew what was more important at the moment. Iridia sighed before touching her forehead. After a few seconds, a faint light appeared there. She then retracted her hand, and a sliver of her Soul came out. Her face immediately went pale after that. She then pointed it at Iem, who grabbed it and put it inside his foundation. After that, he made sure that it was really her Soul Sliver before asking. "Is everything you said true?" Iridia nodded without any hesitation. "Yes, I have told you everything I know." "How many more people know about our Heavenly Fragment and Core?" "I''m the only one. Before you had appeared in front of me, I didn''t even know about your existence. That being said, I simply didn''t have any time to warn anyone. Of course, I noticed what you two were the moment you appeared here." Iem nodded, satisfied. Thorugh the connection with her Soul Sliver, he knew that every single word was true. She really is betting everything in the two of them. Iem and Krune then talked through Divine Sense Messages. "What do you think?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "What else can we do here? We are locked inside. Those who entered the No Return Maze in the past most likely died already too. After all, this dimension has been separated from the outside. We have no choice; we need to go up and see this treasure." Iem narrowed his eyes, but he knew that Krune was right. It was still better than stay locked in this place forever. "We still have the choice to cultivate until we get to the peak of the Transformation Realm before we try to go there." Krune immediately shook his head. "Let alone that I definitely can''t wait that long, it would be useless. If even a Peak Godly Fusion Realm cultivator like Iridia was powerless in front of it, let alone the two of us. Of course, if you think it is too dangerous, I don''t mind going alone with Luvile. I''m a lot more worried about the situation outside than you are." Iem pondered a bit and then sighed. "Very well, let''s go up. At least I will know if anything happens. As dangerous as it may be, I don''t think it would be safer down here either. Considering that the Space Heavenly Fragment was able to intercept our teleportation, it might be able to bring us there anytime it wants anyway." Krune had to admit that Iem''s words made sense. After making a few more questions to ascertain the situation from Iridia, Krune and Iem got up. "Alright, we are going ahead. Senior Iridia can wait here." Iridia smiled as hope showed in her eyes. "I''ll be waiting for your good news." Krune and Iem passed through the 14th floor, quickly arriving on the 15th. Sure enough, they didn''t find any obstacles on their way. As soon as they reached the end of the stairs, they noticed a Sphere of Silver Light right in the middle of the last floor. Not only that, but there were several God-Level Formations all around. Without a doubt, those formations are what the treasure used to control the entire Dimensional Realm. Right after, the light rippled as a projection of a kid appeared in front of the Silver Light Sphere. He looked happily at the two of them as if he had been awaiting this day for a long time. "Oh! You are here! You took 50 thousand years, why were you so late?!" Iem and Krune were obviously puzzled. "What do you mean with late? Do you know us?" The projection of the kid nodded. "Of course, I know. But first of all, my name is Zule. As for your names, I know already. After all, I can see the entire Dimensional Realm." Krune and Iem didn''t seem surprised by that. The kid then continued to talk. "Anyway, you are Heavenly Core and Fragments Owners! I''ve been long since waiting for you to appear. However, I didn''t expect that two of you would appear at the same time, though. After all, how rare are our existences in the Godly Path Realm? The chances of two Heaven-Related beings appearing together was almost non-existent." Sure enough, it was this little guy who brought them over. "We have been in the Zamaria Planet for a few months already. We also used a few teleport formations there before. Why did you wait for my breakthrough before trying to bring us here?" The kid smiled after hearing that. "Simple. I didn''t know you were a Heavenly Fragment Owner. Only during your breakthrough did I feel your presence. As for the guy called Iem, I didn''t know he was a Heavenly Core Owner until he entered my tower. At first, I only knew that you two were friends. That''s also the reason I decided to bring you two together instead of Krune alone." Krune and Iem nodded. They already expected that the answer would be something like that. "Alright, let''s talk about the reason for you to bring us here. What is happening? Considering the power you showed so far, you could have teleported us directly here. Why send us into the maze?" The kid shook his head. "It''s not that simple. Did you forget what this place was about? A trial grounds. I might have escaped the confinement of the old geezers of the Umekran Sect, but the directives left behind are still working. That being said, I can only make you arrive there, nowhere else. This restriction is quite annoying, and I was really afraid that you would die there. Fortunately, you passed the Maze Test without any problems." Iem and Krune didn''t know if that was true. But after seeing the number of formations connected to the Silver Light Sphere, they couldn''t help but think that the chances were high. Of course, it still doesn''t change the fact that neither Krune nor Iem were happy about being dragged into this situation. Chapter 592: Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher Suddenly, Krune felt that he understood something. "I see... Senior Iridia said that you gained sentience and escaped the control of the elders of the Emukran Sect. That much is true. However, something bothered me ever since I heard that you remained in this place. Senior Iridia said that it''s because this was the best hiding place for you, that no one would bother you here either. But that''s not true, right? After all, who would stay in this place hidden from heavens for 50 thousand years? Especially since you had just gained your sentience back then. Just how boring must it be for a newly born sentience to stay put like this?" Zule couldn''t help but laugh out loud. "Impressive. That''s correct. I''m not staying here because I want to hide from the dangers outside. No, I''m locked here, just like everyone else. I simply can''t leave even if I wanted to." Iem narrowed his eyes. "Mind explaining?" Zule nodded his little head. "The things that you heard that I used the disciples at that time as hostages to gain time to seal this place were true. Although I didn''t kill anyone, I condemned them to be locked with me for eternity. Well, eternity is not the right word since they couldn''t achieve an unlimited lifespan while in this place. They all left descendants behind and have long since perished." "To be honest, whether they died or not matters little to me. They were about to join the sect that wanted to keep me sealed in this place, so why should I feel sorry for them? I''m already being very benevolent for not killing them. Anyway, the initial plan was to lock this place down and then send everyone out. Even though I don''t care if they died or not, it would be better to not buy a fight with their backgrounds for no reason. After all, there were quite a few famous powers behind some of those kids." "After that, I would use my spatial powers to move this dimension away. As long as I carried this dimension, I would be able to go anywhere without anyone finding me. It was really a win-win situation. The kids and that elder would go back to their normal lives while I would gain my freedom. As to what the Emukran Sect would do after that, I couldn''t care less." "Unfortunately, someone intervened during the most critical conjuncture. During the time I was finishing separating this Dimension from Zamaria Planet, it was struck by a power beyond the capabilities of a Nascent God. Without a doubt, it must have been someone from the God Realm. That''s because I felt like I was being sucked away from the Godly Path Realm." Krune felt that something was wrong. "That doesn''t make sense. Beings of the God Realm are much stronger than any Nascent God Realm cultivator of the Godly Path Realm. If they could really reach the Godly Path Realm to take a Heavenly Fragment that was used in a Treasure, then they might as well find a Heavenly Core Equipment. Was there a need to select you? If anything, I would find treasures with a complete Heavenly Core a lot more enticing. Considering the power of a cultivator or demon beast of the God Realm, he or she shouldn''t have difficulty finding Heavenly Core Treasure owners here in the Godly Path Realm. Those people with such equipment would definitely be famous, after all." Iem was taken aback. Indeed, aiming for Zule didn''t make much sense. It would be a lot better to target those higher-level treasures with entire Heavenly Cores into them. Zule, on the other hand, couldn''t help but sigh. "It seems like you don''t know this. That''s to be expected, though. You just arrived in this Godly Path Realm, after all. The Heavenly Cores and Fragments that come in the Godly Path Realm can''t be taken away by the God Realm by force. Even if one of those treasure owners ascends, they must leave the Heavenly Fragment or Core Treasures behind too." Krune and Iem got confused. "Why is that?" Zule then answered. "That''s because if you try to bring it with you, your God Realm ascension tribulation will suffer the same effect as the Heavenly Fragment and Core owners. Their Tribulation will be several times stronger. I might as well tell you that the chances of ordinary cultivators and demon beasts ascending are around 1%. I believe that the lower realms are the same. 1% is already frightening enough. Let alone making it even harder by bringing that Heavenly Fragment and Core with you." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "There is something I don''t understand. The reason Heavenly Fragments and Cores'' owners have harder ascension tribulations is that the Universes those fragments and cores originated from are trying to prevent it from escaping to the higher realms. However, once you are here in the Godly Path Realm, you lose the connection with those Universes of the Lower Realms. Logically, your Tribulation shouldn''t be affected anymore. However, you are telling me that you also get harder ascension tribulations if you try to bring it to the God Realm. Why is that? Could it be that the Heavenly Fragments and Cores didn''t really get their connection with the Lower Realms cut?" Zule shook his head. "It''s nothing like that. The Mortal Realm Universes'' Heavens aren''t strong enough to intervene with the Heavens of a Higher Realm. Just like you said, they got their connection cut. However, Heavenly Fragments and Cores are still part of one of the Heavens. Since those Heavenly Fragments and Cores can''t connect with their previous Heavens anymore, what do you think they will do?" Krune understood where Zule was coming from. "So you are saying that the Heavenly Fragments and Cores are now connected to the Godly Path Realm Heavens, correct?" Zule nodded. "That''s basically it. To make things simple, in a certain way, those Fragments and Cores changed their allegiance. That also includes my Space Heavenly Fragment." Iem and Krune nodded. They really had no idea that such a thing was possible. But then again, they just arrived at this place, so how could they know it? "Alright. Since that''s the case, how come someone from the God Realm tried to grab you? Since these Heavenly Fragments and Cores are now attached to the Godly Path Realm Heavens, it should be impossible for them to forcefully dragging you away. No, the real question here is: Since they could do it with you, why didn''t they chose a Heavenly Core Equipment straight away?" Krune pondered a bit and immediately remembered something. "No, wait! Could it be..." Zule couldn''t help but feel happy with Krune. He could see all the intricacies of the matter easily. "Seems like you understood, right?" Krune nodded. As for Iem, he was as confused as ever. Krune then took a deep breath and said. "The issue is the fact that you tried to hide from the Heavens. Since this Dimensional Realm you are staying can''t be seen by it, then it is the best place to drag you up to the God Realm. The Godly Path Realm can''t see you, so how will it prevent someone from the God Realm from bringing you away? In the end, your plan of freeing yourself gave the guy up there a chance to get a Heavenly Fragment, something that would usually be impossible for him." Zule laughed out loud as he clapped his small hands. "Truly impressive. To think that someone who ascended just awhile ago and didn''t have much information to work with would understand everything on his own this easily. I''m sure that it wasn''t only talent and good fortune that brought you so far." Iem felt a little gloomy that Krune was praised so much while he was forgotten. However, he quickly put those thoughts behind. Whether Krune is smart or not has nothing to do with him. Krune didn''t finish his questions, though. "I''m glad that you are happy with that. But there is still one last problem. This underground dimension is completely hidden from the Heavens, isn''t it? Since that is the case, why didn''t that guy from the Higher Realms grab you? This should be the perfect moment for it. The heavens can''t see you, so the being in the God Realm should have nothing to worry." Zule nodded. "Simple. Because I wiped out his mark. Simply put, he can''t see where I am anymore." Krune was startled. "They left a mark on you?" Zule nodded once more. "Not only me. I reckon that every Heavenly Fragment or Core in the Godly Path Realm is market by unfathomable experts of the God Realm. Of course, I''m only talking about Heavenly Fragments and Cores that lost their Owners. You and Iem''s can''t be marked since you two are still alive. It has to do with the fact that they are inside your Divine Souls. Anyway, Since I''m sentience born from a Heavenly Fragment, I was able to detect that mark and wipe it out before I was pulled away." Krune and Iem nodded. "That''s good to hear. But at the same time, this attack from the God Realm also turned things to worse, and you ended locked in here. Now, you want us to help you regain your freedom, correct?" Zule nodded. "Yes. Do that, and I''ll take you back to the Zamaria Planet. Then we can pretend we have never seen each other. The people inside here will be free, and the Demon Beasts will be able to receive their sentience. After that, I''ll be gone." Krune then remembered that he forgot a crucial question. "Oh, right! What kind of equipment are you?" Zule was taken aback. After all, that question came a lot later than he thought. He talked so much that even he forgot about saying it. "To be honest, I''m a failed product. I''m a Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher." Chapter 593: Agreement Krune was surprised to hear that name, so he couldn''t help but ask. "Does it have something to do with opening a passage between realms?" Zule nodded. "That''s what it is exactly. Unfortunately or not, I became a failed product. Well, to be more specific, the guy who created me was already expecting that I would become a failure." "Why?" "That''s because the intention was to create something capable of opening a passage to the Lower Realms. However, my creator wanted to establish a safe path that would not require someone to pay the price once you go down. Obviously, such an experiment was bound to fail from the very start. No one can go against the Heavens'' Will. Let alone the fact that he wasn''t someone from the God Realm, so he lacked the power to start with." "Still, he insisted. After all, who could blame him for wishing to be able to go down without any price? Especially when he isn''t someone from the Realm above? When the day to try using me for the first time arrived, he was struck not only by the Lower Realm''s Heavens but by the Godly Path Realm Heavens as well. Poor guy was almost zapped in half by the two forces. Not too surprisingly, he died straight away. As for me, I was considered to be a failed product, obviously." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Wait! If he got zapped by the Lower Realm''s Heavens, does that mean the passage was open?" Zule nodded. "Yea, but what''s the point? It is 100 times better to force your way down with your own strength than using something like me. As you know, doing such a thing will require a price, possibly being your own life. However, at least you will have a chance of surviving if you do so. I believe you heard in the Lower Realms that several higher realms beings descended in the past after paying a heavy price, right?" Krune and Iem nodded. "That''s what I''m talking about. The normal way to go down using your own power is risky and can possibly kill you. However, you still have a good chance to survive. But if you use something like me, then you are dead without a doubt. That''s why I''m considered a failed product. However, I''m grateful that it failed. I''m not sure about it, but I believe that I only have a sentience today because of that event where my creator died. I was also struck by the Heavens of both sides at that time, after all." Luvile could totally understand what Krune was thinking. "Don''t start having weird ideas. Although I can''t tell whether Zule is lying or not, there was one point that is definitely true, the backlash from the Heavens. I also believe that a treasure that can create a safe passage to the Lower Realms will force the Heavens to strike the user with its full might. Without a doubt, it is several times worse than using the normal method." Krune understood this point, but this wasn''t the part that mattered. "Zule, this place here is hidden from the Heavens. What would happen if you open a passage through here? Would your user only be struck by the Lower Realms when the path connects? After all, the Heavens of the Godly Path Realm can''t see you here, right?" Zule laughed after hearing that. "Naive! If it was that easy, don''t you think others would have tried already? You are looking at it the wrong way. Sure, I''m hidden from Heavens here since this is my own Dimension. However, this Dimension is still inside the Godly Path Realm, just like any other. If you want to open a passage to the lower realms, you must pass through the Godly Path Realm barrier first. Simply put, there was no way to hide such a thing. You would only be killing yourself." "First of all, I would need to run the risk of being completely destroyed this time. So even if you wanted to give it a try, I would definitely not do so. Hahaha!" Krune''s head was working at an insane pace. He could feel that he was close to something, but he couldn''t exactly tell what. Suddenly, he finally understood what the problem with Zule''s words was. "Ah! That''s right! Didn''t you say that staying in this Dimensional Realm was the reason why that guy from the God Realm could avoid the Heavens? This is a contradiction! You said that you can''t open a passage to the Lower Realms without being detected by the Godly Path Realm Heavens. After all, you need to pass through the Godly Path Realm and its Heavens eyes to do so. But what about the day when the God Realm guy tried to take you away? If he wanted to drag you up to the God Realm, he had to open a passage that passes through the Godly Path Realm, too, just like you said. Shouldn''t that guy also suffer the rage of the Godly Path and God Realms together, just like your creator did? After all, he wouldn''t be able to hide you from both Heavens once you pass through the barrier between Realms. This is, without a doubt, a contradiction to what you said earlier." Iem couldn''t help but nod. What Krune said made a lot of sense. Zule narrowed his eyes while thinking. "I shouldn''t have to tell you this since it doesn''t have anything to do with our actual plight. But since I spoke so much already, I might as well finish it. However, this is just a conjecture of mine. I''m not sure if I''m right since I''m not someone from the God Realm." Zule Continued. "What you said wasn''t wrong. But there was a problem with that too. The path my creator tried to open was one that tried to ignore any price to be paid. As for the being in the God Realm, he used his own strength to do so, which means that he used the usual method of going down. However! He didn''t come down; he just tried to drag me up using his own power without coming in here after the path was open." "Usually, that would be impossible since he would still need to have me pass through the Godly Path Realm. However, I believe the trick was behind the fact that I was hidden from the Heavens at first. He used the standard method of opening a passage down. Also, the Heavens wouldn''t see me until the last moment, which would be when I had to leave the Dimensional Realm I''m in at the moment. Besides, he didn''t come down to start with, so the backlash would be reduced. He also didn''t try to create a priceless passage as my creator did, so he probably still paid the price for that path. Simply put, with all this combination of facts, he might just be able to resist the backlash." "Of course, as I said, this is all just a conjecture of mine. Whether I''m right or wrong, you will need to go up and try it yourselves to see." Krune finally nodded his head, satisfied. At the same time, he might just have found a way to go down earlier than he expected. However, he needed to ask Luvile something first. "Luvile, at what level of cultivation would I be able to open a passage to the Lower Realms to go down?" Luvile pondered about Krune and his own power for a moment before saying. "Usually, we would need to ascend to the God Realm first. Only with the power from that place would it be possible to open a passage. Cultivators and Demon Beasts of the Godly Path Realm shouldn''t even dream about doing such a thing. That''s also why Zule''s creator was zapped to death; he really was asking for it. However, if you consider both yours and my own power, we might just barely meet the conditions at the Nascent God Realm cultivation." Krune nodded and pondered a bit more about the method he thought. ''It''s too risky, and I would only avoid a few years of cultivation even if it worked. Besides, I don''t know how wally intends to bring me down later. His method should be foolproof, so I better ask him too. Also, Zule would need to go through the risk of having his sentience destroyed by the backlash once I tried my method. He would never accept such an idea.'' Krune shook his head after that. He then returned his attention to the task ahead. "Alright. So what do we need to do to get everyone free?" Zule''s eyes lit up after hearing that. "First, I need to talk about what caused me to be stuck here. When that God Realm guy struck me and tried to drag me over, I found his mark on my Space Heavenly Fragment. However, I didn''t have enough time to wipe it out straight away. Without another choice, I could only fuse with this Dimensional Realm. It is one thing to bring something of my size up there, but another to drag the entire Dimensional Realm with it." "Sure enough, the task of moving an entire Dimensional Realm full of cultivators and demon beasts up was too hard for that guy. In the end, he could only give up. However..." Krune and Iem nodded. "You can''t break the fusion on your own anymore. But why would you need us? Couldn''t you simply find someone strong enou-" "Ah!" Krune and Iem noticed the problem in their words. Someone strong enough to help Zule would need to be at the Nascent God Realm. How could Zule let someone that strong get close to him? He would only be captured, nothing more. "We understand now, you need someone who wasn''t strong enough to betray you. However, no one under the Nascent God Realm would be able to get close to you, so there was no point in calling those at the God Core Realm or below. In the end, there was only one choice. You needed someone with a Heavenly Fragment or Core. Only such a person or demon beast would be able to get close to you while having low cultivation." Zule didn''t deny that. "Correct. Anyway, we should be able to start now. As for whether you can believe me or not, that is up to you." Krune and Iem looked at each other and nodded. They would rather believe him than being stuck in this place for the rest of their lives. Besides, they can feel how strong Zule Is even though he is only a Treasure. He wasn''t something they could do anything against. Without another choice, they could only accept the idea and trust that everyone would be freed in the end. Chapter 594: Separation "Alright, what do we need to do?" Zule nodded before explaining. "I used the power of the formations to attach the treasure to the Dimensional Realm. Now, I''m connected to them. What I need to you do is to cut the source of the Formations'' power, which means Godly Energy." Krune and Iem looked around and felt like it wasn''t going to be easy. This place just had way too much Godly Energy. How can they cut the power? Zule understood what they were thinking. "I receive Godly Energy from outside directly here. Look at the aperture above me, can you see that small disk?" The looked up, and sure enough, there was an azure blue disk right above Zule. They got close to it so that their Divine Sense could check it. One must remember that this Tower blocks Divine Sense, so Krune and Iem couldn''t bring it far from their bodies. Finally, they were able to notice the amount of Godly Energy passing through that small disk. It was kind of bad luck for Zule. The disk didn''t seem to be hard to block, but he was utterly helpless even though it was this close. Zule had the power to control the space in the Dimensional Realm, but the Tower was built to prevent anyone outside from using Space Type skills on it. In the end, this power that protects the Tower also made Zule powerless to block the flow of Godly Energy too. As for destroying the Tower from outside, that was even more of an impossibility. The Tower was created to guard a Heavenly Fragment Treasure, so the residents of the city were far from being strong enough to cause any damage to it. Then it came the worst part. No one could ascend to the last floor because of the pressure left behind by Zule''s treasure itself. In the end, he had to wait for someone with a Heavenly Fragment or Core to appear on the planet his Dimensional Realm was located. Only then did he use his Spatial Powers to intercept Krune and Iem''s teleport, bringing them into the trial. Another thing was that Zule was limited by the formations of the Tower as well. That meant that he couldn''t intervene with what happened inside the city since those formations considered the residents as trial takers even today. "How do we stop the flow of Godly Energy?" Zule simply said. "Any Seal is okay. It doesn''t need to be a strong one, either. As long as it can stop the flow of Godly Energy for a day, the Formations will lose their power. That will be more than enough for me to get rid of this fusion with the formations of the Tower." Krune then looked at Iem. After all, he knew a lot more about formations than Krune. The Seal would be better if Iem was the one to make it. Iem also nodded and stepped forward. He then took several materials that he was using to practice Formations in the Formations Guild out. Still, this place was full of formations as well. Not to mention that the flow of Godly Energy was very high and kinda chaotic because of them. Without a doubt, Iem would need a lot of time before being able to create the Seal. While Iem occupied himself with that, Krune decided to ask something else to Zule. "While I was outside in the city, I felt like you were calling me. However, Iem didn''t seem like he was being called. Why is that?" Zule smiled. "That''s because you are a Heavenly Fragment Owner. This is something I only know because I''m a Sentience born from a Heavenly Fragment. I can tell that just like my own, your Heavenly Fragments also wish to find and fuse with the others. It''s kind of a natural instinct of the Heavenly Fragments. That''s why I could use it to call your Fragments as well." Krune nodded. That made some sense, after all. "What are you going to do after that? Are you going to bring the Dimensional Realm away to travel like you were planning before?" Zule shook his head. "I already know what I''m going to do, you will see." Krune and Zule kept talking about other things after that. Time passed, and soon, three days went by. Back in the lower floors, the elders and other members of the towers had already returned. Soon, they noticed that Krune and Iem were nowhere to be found. However, just as they were about to investigate, the elders saw Iridia coming down from the thirteenth floor for the first time in over a thousand years. "Elder Iridia!" They all bowed to her. The truth was that the oldest elders knew about what happened in the past. Iridia didn''t know when her foundation would crumble, so she made sure to pass their history on. However, this story stopped being shared outside. It all became legends there. Most didn''t even believe it anymore after so long. The elders didn''t make any effort to make everyone remember the truth either. That''s because it was a lot worse to know that there was a life outside these cave walls, but they could never have it. Iridia then nodded at the few elders who knew her and looked at the ones who saw her for the first time. Although the others had never seen her before, they at least knew about her existence. She was supposed to be someone who surpassed the Transformation Realm and had an unlimited lifespan. "There is no need for any of you to look for Krune or Iem. I passed a mission to them, so they should be working on it at the moment." Elder Huan, one of the Transformation Realm cultivators of the Tower, was taken aback by that. "Did something happen, Elder Iridia?" Iridia smiled as she looked up. "Not yet, but I hope it will." The other elders got confused after hearing those words, but Iridia didn''t explain. "Come, sit down and meditate with me. All you need to do is wait. Send someone to tell the members of the Tower to be ready. I believe we will get busy very soon too." Although no one understood what was happening, everyone nodded their heads and followed Iridia''s orders. Soon, eleven days passed. Suddenly... "Hum? Is this my imagination?" Elder Huan used his Divine Sense to feel the Godly Energy around him. He then looked at the other elders and asked. "Don''t you think that the Godly Energy concentration is lower than normal?" One of the elders looked at Elder Huan with surprise in his face. "Did you notice that too?" Soon all the elders noticed that the Concentration of Godly Energy began to drop. After one hour, it became very obvious for everyone on the 11th floor. Iridia didn''t know what was happening on the last floor, but she knew it had something to do with Krune and Iem. As time passed, the concentration dropped more and more. After half a day, the concentration of Godly Energy had already dropped by half. Outside in the city, the people began to feel the lack of Godly Energy too, which led to some problems. The leaders of families, clans, organizations, etc. began to gather outside the Godly Tower. After all, the Godly Energy was provided by none other than the later. If there isn''t Godly Energy, that means that something is happening in the Tower. The guards outside began to feel worried too since they wouldn''t be able to hold everyone in case all of them attacked. However, one of the Transformation Realm elders came outside to see it, which made the guards relieved. "Senior Fuiwan, what is happening with the tower?" Fuiwan, one of the Transformation Realm elders, shook his head. "We don''t know. The concentration of Godly Energy inside the Tower is dropping fast too." Everyone was taken aback. If they don''t get Godly Energy anymore, they won''t be able to cultivate. Obviously, everyone became preoccupied. There were even a few that thought that Fuiwan and Godly Tower were hiding something. They couldn''t be blamed since everyone considered Godly Energy extremely important. However, no one expected Fuiwan''s next words. "Guards, open the path. Let everyone who wishes to enter pass through." Fuiwan then looked at the rest of the people. "The leader of our Godly Tower stated that anyone who wanted to enter could do so. However, only those at the Transformation Realm will be able to follow me to where she is." Although the Transformation Realm cultivators of the Godly Tower were the strongest ones, they weren''t the only ones available in the city. In general, any big significant power in the city had one too. After all, the Tower Elders wouldn''t be enough to protect the city during Beast Hordes. Everyone with enough cultivation level then followed Fuiwan. For the majority, it was the first time seeing the interior of the Tower. As they went up, they understood why only those at the Transformation Realm would be able to follow Fuiwan. The pressure was too great for anyone without enough cultivation, after all. After they all arrived on the 11th floor, they saw Iridia''s figure. However, no one had ever seen her before. Iridia smiled and invited those Transformation Realm leaders to a chat. As for the Godly Energy issue, they were told that something is happening in the Last Floor of the Tower, but no one can go there. Without another choice, they could only wait with Iridia and the elders on the 11th floor. As everyone was at a loss, the time continued to pass. Finally, Godly Energy completely disappeared. But no one had the time to complain. That''s because, at the same time, the Tower began to tremble! Chapter 595: Going Back! The main reason for that to happen was because Zule was separating himself from the tower''s formations. He had been fused with them for thousands of years, so it would obviously cause some strain when he started. Back on the last floor, Zule''s silver light pulsed ferociously. Krune and Iem could feel the power of the Space Laws emanating with each pulse. Finally, Zule began to move from the center of the formations. As he floated away, strands of Godly Energy kept breaking apart as if they were some kind of chains. Finally, the last strand disappeared, and Zule left the formations. As soon as he did that, the pressure that emanated from him disappeared too. Everyone in the tower felt the moment it happened. "So, you can control the pressure of your aura." Zule nodded and then shook his head. "I could, but only after I left the formations. Before that, the formations had control over this feature of mine. Now that I''m out, I obviously can control it again." Krune and Iem nodded. "But was it okay for you to leave the center of the formations? Didn''t they need you to be there for everything to work?" Zule''s small projection shrugged his shoulders. "Those are basically the formations that control the trials and the No Return Maze. They have no control over the dimension itself, I have. Besides, now I don''t need to care about the rules of the trial anymore." Suddenly, the silver light that had been around Zule all the time disappeared, showing the real appearance of the treasure. It had the format of a nonagonal transparent pyramid. Inside, Krune and Iem could see a core fragment that pulsed with very faint silver light. Obviously, that was Zule''s Space Heavenly Fragment. "What do we do now? Can we leave?" Zule''s project smiled before nodding. "Of course, give me a second." The Pyramid began to shine with Silver Light again and pulled Krune and Iem together. Before they knew it, the space around them warped, and they appeared somewhere else outside the city. Still, they didn''t have enough time to ponder because Zule''s voice echoed in their heads. In fact, not only their heads but the heads of every single resident of the city. "The Seal has finally been broken. This Dimensional Realm will soon be revealed to the outside world. Once that happens, there will be no lack of individuals entering this place to see what this is about. I have opened several teleport formations everywhere inside and out of the city. Each one of them will teleport you to the previous location of the Emukran Sect." "It had been hard on you to be locked in this place for 50 thousand years, but today it is over. Those who wish to remain in this bleak cave may do so. Those who wish to leave just need to take the teleport formations. From today onwards, you are all free." Immediately, the entire city went on an uproar. Many people thought it to be some joke. Yet, the fact was that teleport formations really appeared everywhere. Obviously, there had been those who were warry of the formations. Others looked at it with their eyes shining. However, Zule couldn''t care less. He already did a lot by allowing everyone to exit anytime they wanted. Zule then looked at Krune and Iem before saying. "I will send you back to the same place you were supposed to have been teleported before." The two didn''t know what to say. Everything went a lot smoother than they thought. Although there were no rewards after they went through all of this, they would not complain. All they wanted was to get away from this place before they get locked again. Krune sighed before saying. "Very well, may we meet each other again someday." Zule nodded and let the two of them step on the teleport formation. They looked back at the city they stayed in the last few months. Although it was just a short adventure, they still had the chance to cultivate and get used to their power during the beast horde. All in all, it wasn''t really a complete waste of time as they thought a moment ago. Krune then remembered one thing. "Oh, right! Iem, leave senior Iridia''s Sliver of Soul free. Even though having someone at her level as subordinate seems good, I don''t want anyone using it to find our location." Iem pondered a bit and had to admit that Krune was right. They didn''t need to be afraid of their identities being found either since they used different appearances when they entered the city. Both Luvile and Harold also disguised their auras, so no one would be able to use it too. Iem then took that sliver of a soul from his foundation and made a seal with his hands. A few seconds later, it trembled before shooting into the distance. Obviously, it went straight back to where Iridia was staying. The teleport formation then shined before Krune and Iem disappeared in a flash of Silver Light. After they left, Zule looked behind at the city. Suddenly, a playful smile appeared in his tiny mouth''s projection as the Pyramid appeared on top of the formation as well. Just like Krune and Iem, it disappeared right after with another flash of silver light. Back in the Godly Tower, everyone was still bewildered by what they heard. Iridia was also startled by that. Just as she was thinking about what to do, she felt that her Sliver of Soul was freed. Obviously, her eyes lit up as she looked in a specific direction. Soon, a flash of light appeared in the room, quickly entering her head. As one can imagine, that was none other than her Soul Sliver. Together with that, there was a divine sense message left by Iem. "We have no need for you to be our slave, so I''m letting your Sliver of Soul go. We probably won''t meet again either. Use the teleport formations and guide everyone out. Don''t ask about the treasure. We were way too weak to deal with it anyway. If you want to find it, that''s your problem. That''s all, good luck." Iridia''s eyes began to tear up, but she quickly wiped them as she looked at the cultivators around her. They were still in doubt whether these teleport formations were real or not. After all, the majority thought that the surface was nothing but a legend. "Go back to your families and pack everything. These teleport formations are real. They can really send everyone out of this place. I''ll be going ahead first. If you guys want to stay, that is your problem." Elder Huan and a few others who knew Iridia immediately appeared on her side. They didn''t have families since they died of old age a long time ago. All their belongings were inside their Spatial Rings as well. Iridia smiled after seeing that and then stomped her foot on the ground. The teleport formation activated, and they disappeared right after. Soon, teleport formations in the entire city began to flash one after another. Even if it was just a legend, no one wanted to lose the opportunity of going out. As low as the chance might be, everyone decided to try it. Besides, news about Iridia, the unfathomable elder of the Godly Tower, quickly began to spread. The leaders of the big powers of the city saw her in person. After she left using the teleport formation, it gave even more credibility to that voice everyone heard. At the same time, somewhere in an empty field, a flash of silver light appeared. From it, elder Iridia and the elders who left with her came out. Iridia looked around with expectation, but the place had nothing. Soon after, several more flashes of silver light began to appear one after another. Without a doubt, those were the residents of the Underground City who used the Teleport Formations. They looked around and also noticed that the place was empty. However, none of them seemed dispirited, that''s because the so familiar cave ceiling and walls were nowhere to be seen! This was supposed to be an area controlled by the Emukran Sect. However, Iridia couldn''t see any of the buildings that existed here in the past, much less any disciple of the sect. What Iridia didn''t know was that the Emukran Sect didn''t exist anymore. The place had been cleaned up a long time ago. Sometime later, several figures appeared in the distance, flying in their direction at full speed. Those were cultivators and demon beasts in human form who noticed the ripples of space in this place. Of course, they were taken aback by what they saw. The area kept flashing with silver light nonstop. Elder Iridia and everyone else would have a lot to do now that they are back. However, this is a story for another time. Back in the Tribulation Fields of Immai City, one of the fields'' teleport formation flashed with silver light. From inside, Krune and Iem appeared right after. They looked around and immediately recognized the place. That''s where they had paid to use the field Krune made his breakthrough into the Divine View Realm! They quickly reverted their appearance back to what it was before anyone noticed them. Iem and Krune couldn''t help but feel excited after that! "We are back!" However, a voice echoed in their minds right after. "Great! Let''s go out to take a look." Krune and Iem almost jumped in fright! "Zule!" Chapter 596: Zules Needs Unfortunately, before Krune and Iem couldn''t make any question, an employee of the Tribulation Fields came in. "What are you doing here? Have you paid to use the tribulation field?" Krune and Iem smiled bitterly. Around half an hour later, the two of them teleported back to Immai City, a few hundred Godly Stones poorer, though. Krune''s restaurant was near, so he, Iem, and Zule went there to talk. Fortunately, Krune had rented the place for an entire year. Thanks to that, he was still able to use it. Once inside, Zule came out of his concealment. "So... how come you followed us?" Once again, a small projection of a kid appeared in from of the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher. "I''m not following the two of you. I''m only following Krune." Krune and Iem looked at each other, not understanding why anyway. Krune then looked back at Zule. "Why me?" Already expecting that obvious question, Zule began to explain. "Because I have no other choice. My ability to create a Dimensional Realm that could hide from Heavens was damaged. That Dimensional Realm was the last one I could make with that feature. However, now that I cut the connection between me and the formations, that Dimension Realm will appear under Heaven''s eyes once more. There was nothing I could do to prevent that. You could say that that was the price to get my freedom back." Krune was still confused. "But what does that have to do with me?" Zule smiled as the Space Heavenly Fragment began to pulse with silver light. At the same time, Krune noticed the same call from his Heavenly Fragments as he felt in the Underground city. However, it was completely different from before. It was as if they were attracting each other. But before he could ask what Zule was doing, the later already started talking. "As you know, without the power to hide from heavens, I''ll be hunted down soon. If I want to avoid being seen, I have only one choice. I need to stay close to another Heavenly Fragment that is still covered by a Major Divine Soul. By using the cover of a possible fusion, your own Heavenly Fragments will hide me from anything that could be used to locate me." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Shouldn''t it only be possible if you were a Heavenly Fragment who lost your Universe? I have fused with an ownerless Heavenly Fragment in the past, which had its own Universe destroyed. Only if such a thing happens can a Heavenly Fragment fuse with another Universe''s one, no?" Zule nodded and then shook his head. "But I am an ownerless Heavenly Fragment. However, there is a difference between me and the one you fused with. My Universe back on the Lower Realms probably still exists. That being said, why do you think I became an ownerless fragment?" Krune and Iem understood where Zule was coming from. "I see... The Godly Path Realm is another Realm. Obviously, the Heavenly Fragments and Cores have lost their connection with you. As long as the Divine Soul where they are in is destroyed, they will become ownerless since they can''t go back." Zule nodded while showing a happy expression. "It''s good that you know. From now on, I''ll be in your care. I already made a pseudo fusion with your Heavenly Fragments, and they accepted me. It''s just that I will not complete this fusion so that I can live separated from them. As long as I don''t go too far away, I should be fine." Krune''s mouth twitched. So that was the reason for the feeling he had earlier. It wasn''t just a call. It was his Heavenly Fragments concluding that pseudo fusion Zule talked about. No wonder he could feel both sides'' attraction. "So you are saying you won''t leave my side from now on, is that correct?" Zule shook his head. "Of course, not. This is just until I find a way of avoiding being tracked down. After I succeed, I will immediately leave your side." Krune narrowed his eyes. "And how long would it take?" Zule looked away as if he didn''t hear that question. "That''s quite a nice place you have here. What is it, a restaurant? I''ve never been inside one." Krune mouth twitched twice now. "Alright, get out! Who the hell would keep such a time bomb by their side? Now that your Dimensional Realm lost effect, I''m sure a lot of Nascent God Realm cultivators and demon beasts will come after you. I want to stay as far away from you as possible." Zule then showed a sad expression. "Look at me, I''m just a kid. Would you really leave me to fend by myself?" "Where have you ever seen a kid over 50 thousand years old?" "Cough, cough... Anyway, if I''m captured, do you think I would go down alone? What if I let my mouth slip and tell about you two? I already completed my pseudo fusion with your Fragments, so I definitely can tell where you are." Krune was taken aback. But just as he was about to ask Iem to give some help, he noticed the later sneaking out. The fusion was only made with Krune. Iem''s Heavenly Core had nothing to do with it. That being said, the best option was to get as far away from Krune as possible. Krune felt like crying after seeing that. So much for friendship, no? After what they passed through in the Underground City together, he still decided to abandon him as if nothing had happened. ''Is that how you play? Very well, then.'' Krune immediately grabbed Iem''s shoulders just as he was about to leave the building. "What you doing?" "Aren''t you running too fast?" "So what? That''s your problem, deal with it." "No problem, I''ll deal with it now." Krune then looked at Zule in the distance. "Hey, Zule! If you can make sure that you can also track Iem down wherever he goes in the Godly Path Realm, then I accept your idea." Iem''s eyes opened wide after hearing that. It was evident that Krune was planning to drag him down together in this shit situation. Zule, on the other hand, laughed out loud. "Don''t worry, I already did that a long time ago. After all, Iem knows about me. That being said, I had to keep track of him, so I already marked him down." Zule''s Space Heavenly Fragment then pulsed with silver light once more. Right after, Iem''s body seemed to react to that pulse, showing that something had been planted inside him. Iem''s expression went dark as he immediately contacted Harold. "Can you get rid of this mark?" Harold denied that idea straight away, though. "With the support of your cultivation, I''m nowhere near able to do it. I''ll need you to reach the Mortal Rejection Realm level at the very least. That''s also why I couldn''t even detect it was put in you." Iem then looked at Krune as if he wanted to eat him alive. Krune, of course, couldn''t care less. "Great, we can all be friends from now on. Hahaha!" He then went back inside in light steps. It was evident that Krune was feeling very pleased with himself. Iem could only sigh after that. In the end, he also walked back into the room with a dejected expression. "Since you are sticking around for some time, does that me that we can use your power to do battle if necessary?" Zule nodded. "Of course. The only problem is that I already completed my pseudo fusion with your Heavenly Fragments. Because of that, my combat power has declined to something close to your own level. Fortunately, I marked Iem before that, so he shouldn''t be able to get rid of his mark even though I''m weaker now." Iem smiled bitterly but declined to comment on it. Krune, on the other hand, nodded. "That makes sense. Anyway, just make sure you don''t appear in the open or leave my side. The last thing I need is some old monster feeling your presence. Since you are a Spatial Type Treasure, you should have no problem entering my Spatial Ring and staying there for the time being." Zule agreed with Krune. "Sure. By the way, when are we going to travel? Ever since I gained sentience, I had been in that damned tower. I want to see the world!" Krune immediately shook his head, though. "I''m not moving out anytime soon. Because of what you did, a lot of things got backtracked as well. I have to reopen my restaurant, call the guys back, cultivate, comprehend laws, digest the experiences I gained during the beast horde, etc..." Zule didn''t mind, though. "Hum... fine. But I want one of those communicators that you are using. This technology thing didn''t exist during my time, so I want to check it out. As long as you can provide me with those fun devices, I''ll stay quiet in the Spatial Ring." Iem then extended his hand in Krune''s direction, which puzzled him. "What is it?" "It was your fault we got dragged into the Underground City. Now I''m stuck here with you and the time bomb. You won''t make me pay for the electronics Zule asked as well, right?" Luvile immediately agreed with Iem. "He''s right. It''s thanks to your Law of Disaster that you got in this situation. I told you to stop practicing it." Krune''s expression sank. "Who the hell is practicing the Laws of Disaster? First of all, does such a thing even exist?!" In the end, Krune passed a few hundred Godly Stones for Iem to go buy those simple electronic devices. Chapter 597: The Employees Are Back After setting everything up, Krune contacted his employees back. He had said he would stay out for three days only, but this last excursion took over three months. He was feeling particularly worried about Nina. After all, he wanted to help her with her cultivation after destroying her foundation. However, considering her above average talent that Krune noticed, he believes that as long as she cultivated diligently, she probably improved quite a lot during this time he was out. Sure enough, everyone was taken aback when Krune''s message came in. He had been in Zule''s Dimensional Realm before, so he didn''t have the signal to contact them. Nina, especially, looked for him everywhere she could. But there was no news about him. After two months, the employees couldn''t wait anymore. So most of them had to find other jobs. The only exception was Nina. She had her cultivation destroyed so that it could be rebuilt again. But with her low cultivation, it was just too hard to find something. In Krune''s message, he said that anyone who was still interested could come back three days later. He would explain why he disappeared for the last three months as well. If they already have something else and don''t want to leave, there is no need for them to force themselves back. Lastly, he finished the message with an apology. Krune then took his small black tower from his foundation and activated it. As expected, Feifei and Fie immediately replied. Krune didn''t contact them back for three months straight, so mother and daughter were really worried about him. Krune had to hear their complaints during 30 minutes straight until the duo finally calmed down. Only then did he had the chance to explain everything that happened. Krune talked with Feifei and Fie for a long time until the small black tower ran out of energy once more. Since it wasn''t night yet, Krune went around his kitchen, cleaning everything. Three months had gathered quite some dust. Also, several of the ingredients that needed to be used in a few days were wasted. Krune couldn''t help but sigh after throwing all of that out. Finally, he went out to buy more food the next day. While Krune was out, he began to hear some news. "Did you know? A lot of people suddenly appeared around the Fingan Mountain Area. It seemed like they were all locked inside a Dimensional Realm for thousands of years and only now came out." "Your information is outdated. It seems like they were part of the extinct Emukran Sect. If you access the network and check the records, you will find out that they were part of a Sect Entrance Trial." "That''s not all. There are lots of powers flocking in that place now. From the looks of it, they are looking for a Treasure that has been lost inside that same Dimensional Realm over 50 thousand years ago. Some even say it might be a Heavenly Fragment Treasure!" "Heavenly Fragment Treasure? This is crazy! I can already see the Nascent Gods coming from all over. The Godly Path Realm definitely has a lot of Nascent God Realm cultivators and demon beasts. Still, not even 0.1% of them have this kind of heaven-defying treasure. Perhaps we are going to see a war breaking out." "That''s understandable. After all, which Nascent God would let the chance of acquiring a Heavenly Fragment Treasure slip by? Even if there are high risks, there are plenty of them who will dive right into it. The allure of such a piece of equipment is too high for most of them to ignore." Krune couldn''t help but sigh as he walked. It seemed like the events in the Underground City already spread outside. Well, he was already expecting it anyway. Zule was also hearing everything inside Krune''s Spatial Ring, but it seemed like he couldn''t care less. His attention was totally on his communicator. The wonders of the internet were really hard to ignore. Some of the vendors recognized Krune from the weeks that he worked. After asking where he went, Krune just said that he went out for his breakthrough. They quickly noticed that Krune was now in the Divine View Realm, so they congratulated him. Krune smiled and talked to everyone as he bought more food for his restaurant. On the way back, Iem passed a few more devices to Krune, who stuffed it all into his Spatial Ring. Zule, of course, was ecstatic to see all of that. Soon, three days went by. Surprisingly though, all Krune''s five employees appeared in front of his restaurant that morning, no exception. Krune, of course, was happy to see that they were back. He quickly invited everyone inside. Once he closed the door again, Nina couldn''t hold back and hugged him while crying. Bai, Lunika, Wanva, and Rarlo looked at each with knowing smiles. Nina was also taken aback by her own reaction. Her face went red when she noticed the situation she was in and quickly jumped back. After looking at the other employee''s smiles, she got even redder! Krune was surprised by what happened too. But in the end, he nodded, satisfied. He then patted her head while saying. "I didn''t expect that you missed our cooking lessons this much. Still, I''m delighted that it is so. Don''t worry, I''ll make sure to teach you well. Hahahaha!" Bai and the others almost vomited blood! ''Bro! You can''t really be this ignorant, can you? Sure, it is evident that she loves to cook. But the love in that hug was far from being the same love for cooking, you know?'' Of course, none of them said that loud. Krune noticed the weird look on everyone''s faces too. "Did something happen?" Nina immediately shook her head. "Nothing! Everything is fine! So, why did you disappear, master?" Krune felt like he was missing something, but decided to let it go in the end. "Well, I had a few complications. The reason I left was that I could make a breakthrough into the Divine View Realm. However, due to a chain of events, I got stuck into another issue until now. Sorry for not contacting you back, I just didn''t have enough time for it." Everyone was surprised to hear that. Immediately, Bai made a question. "But, were you successful in your breakthrough, Chef Krune?" Krune smiled and nodded. "Yes, everything ended fine, and I entered the Divine View Realm. We might add new dishes to our menus very soon. But regardless of what happened, the fact is that I left without warning you. That being said, I will not revoke my role as the restaurant owner." Krune then asked everyone to show their spatial rings. He touched each one of them and sent three months of payment inside for everyone. For Krune at the moment, it wasn''t that big of a price. Not to mention that he could recover it very fast with his restaurant income. But for Bai and the others, this was a huge amount! One must remember that Krune is already paying 4 to 5 times more than other restaurants to start with. Receiving three months of payment at once was obviously incredible. "Chef Krune, this..." Krune shook his head. "No complaints. I will not take the Godly Stones back either. Now, since you are back, you better work hard." Everyone nodded, excited. "Yes!" "Good, now clean up the restaurant. Nina, you come with me. I need to prepare a few things." Krune smiled and then went back to the kitchen with Nina. Sometime later, the two of them came back with a few plates of dishes. "Alright, prepare a table for us, let''s eat." Everyone''s eyes lit up, and they quickly organized everything. As expected, Krune had cooked Spiritual Food again, which would greatly help everyone''s cultivations. They ate, drunk, and talked for a few hours. In the end, Krune sent everyone back to their homes. He also passed a few extra Godly Stones to Nina and told her to go use the Energy Gathering Formation. Krune was very satisfied with Nina after he came back. Even though she lost his support of Godly Stones, it turned out that her talent really wasn''t bad. Three months was enough for her to go all the way up to the 8th Stage of the Foundation Establishment. And that was only using the heaven and earth Godly Energy in the air. Of course, part of her speed was due to the fact that she passed through those stages before as well. With her experiences, things became a lot easier to repeat. Now that Krune was back, she wouldn''t have a problem with Godly Stones anymore. After that, Krune went back to the kitchen. He didn''t cook anything in the last three months, so he wanted to practice a little. Besides, now that he was in the Divine View Realm, he wanted to try his hand on Semi-Divinity Realm ingredients. As he looked at everything in front of him, Krune smiled. "Let''s start." Chapter 598: Lack of Background Time passed, and Krune''s restaurant soon got busy again. The waiting list quickly filled after a few days. After all, Spiritual Chefs wouldn''t become obsolete after just a few months out. Krune also began to try his hand on Semi-Divinity Realm ingredients, which proved to be quite hard. Krune was successful in 40% of the tries, and they took quite some time to be finished. He deemed it not very suitable for the restaurant due to the number of dishes he had to make at the same time. Still, he wasn''t discouraged. Considering that he was still in the 2nd Stage of the Divine View Realm, that was already a good result. Nina had been helping him as much as she could. Krune also asked her to change her cultivation time. Before, she used 4 of her 10 hours of work to cultivate in the Energy Gathering Formation. But now, she spent the entire working day in the kitchen with Krune. Little by little, she got to understand how things worked. As for cultivation, Krune allowed her to stay in the restaurant for longer to use the formation. He also provided her with Godly Stones for cultivation. He didn''t think he was being too generous. After all, he really made Nina work hard every day. The extra Godly Stones used on her cultivation could be said to be the compensation for that. Besides, it was he who put her to cultivate again. Lino, Nina''s little brother, came to visit Krune after he came back. For some reason, he seemed even angrier than he was before. Still, Lino refused to tell the reason. Well, in fact, he would have already spilled the beans. But he Nina once again covered his mouth before he spoke too much. The reason he was angry was still the same. He was afraid that Krune would be taking his sister away. During the time Krune disappeared without any news, he saw how worried Nina turned out. It was evident that she was still thinking about the time she spent in Krune''s restaurant. How could he not get angry? Even though Krune didn''t use Semi-Divinity Dishes in his restaurant menu, he still went to the Spiritual Chefs Guild to take the test. As long as he proved that he had a good enough successful rate, he would be considered a Semi-Divinity Star Chef. Later that day, Krune exited the Guild with his new badge. He also changed the mark of his badge on his restaurant''s board to show his new level. Iem also spent most of his time in the Formations Guild. He began to take jobs for Formations Masters now and then to gain Godly Stones. It didn''t take long for the other Formations Masters at his level to take notice of him. After all, he was a Heavenly Race Member and a Heavenly Core Owner. Without a doubt, his talent was very high. Just like that, three years went by. --- By now, the Dimensional Realm where Krune and the others were before was already invaded. The demon beasts who reached the Semi-Divinity Realm at the very least got their sentience once the Heavens touched them again. As for the remaining citizens that were afraid of taking the teleport formations, they ended being guided out as well. However, the Heavenly Fragment Treasure, Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher, was nowhere to be found. The cultivators and demon beasts at the Nascent God Realm used all methods they knew to look for it, but it was as if it had never been there before. With time, the hype around the Trial Grounds'' reappearance of the old Emukran Sect cooled down. The war that others were expecting didn''t happen either. No one found it weird. That was supposed to be a fight for the Treasure. No treasure, no war. There were several people and beasts looking for Krune and Iem as well. But because they had their appearances and auras changed while they were in the city, no one could find them anywhere. However, few believed that they got it. That''s because both of them were only Divine View Realm cultivators, far from being enough to control the Treasure''s sentience. In the end, the search for them continued, but all the powerful cultivators and demon beasts left the planet after some time. --- Krune eventually moved his restaurant to a bigger building. The number of employees inside increased to 10, 3 of them being chef''s assistants. Nina, now 19, had been working with Krune until now, and she was seen as the most important member in the kitchen after Krune. The years of proper cultivation and learn were really good for her. That wasn''t all. Krune''s support did wonders for her cultivation. The 8th Stage Foundation Establishment Girl from 3 years ago was now at the peak of the Divine Soul Realm. She already talked with Krune and will be taking a few days off to make her breakthrough into the Soul Forging Realm. Her little brother, Lino, was now 15. His siscon behavior eventually calmed down, and he looked a lot more reliable now. Krune eventually hired him as well as one of the waiters. So now he also got enough Godly Stones for his own cultivation. At the moment, Lino was at the 7th Stage of the Soul Forging Realm. Bai and the others also kept working there as well. Krune also never minded giving everyone guidance in cultivation. As an Elemental Major Divine Soul and Elemental Eyes owner, few could match him in teachings. Not to mention that Krune was already used to guide others to start with. Thanks to all of that, the restaurant workers also improved in cultivation a lot faster than they would in the past. As one can imagine, no one wanted to leave Krune''s restaurant. They all put their best effort into their tasks, eventually making his restaurant one of the most sought ones for those at the Semi-Divinity Realm or below. Sure enough, Krune reached enough proficiency to include Semi-Divinity Star Dishes on the menu. As for Krune himself, his cultivation also improved by leaps and bounds. Surprisingly though, Iem was not left behind in cultivation speed. Iem could come to eat Spiritual Food without having to wait, which helped a lot, and made quite a few jealous. That was the advantage of being the chef''s friend. Of course, a great part of the reason was his Heavenly Race bloodline and his Heavenly Core/Divine Soul. As amazing as Krune''s Myriad Energy Technique might be, he isn''t a Heavenly Divine Soul/Core Owner, much less a Heavenly Race member. Iem was able to close the gap in their cultivation speed with those two advantages. Krune and Iem were now in the 8th Stage of the Divine View Realm, and both were close to having a breakthrough. One night, Iem and Krune were alone while discussing their next moves toward cultivation. "Are you sure about it? It''s not like we are doing too bad." Iem nodded. "I am. Although we have enough Godly Stones, we are lacking a lot of other resources. For example, I wanted to buy a Three Color Formation Core to use it during my practice. However, this was a controlled item that wasn''t available just to anyone. I would need to be a Mortal Rejection Realm cultivator if I wanted to buy that by myself." Krune pondered a bit. The fact was that they were discussing whether they should join one of the Sects or Organizations available in Zamaria Planet. It turns out that Zamaria is quite a big world, with a few powers which even have God Core Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts as their ancestors. In the past, Emukran Sect had a Nascent God Realm Ancestor, but this sect had long since gone extinct. Now, those with God Core Realm cultivators or demon beasts are the ruling groups of the world. Seeing that Krune didn''t refuse immediately, Iem added. "It''s not like you didn''t notice that, right? I''m sure that there were a few resources you had the Godly Stones to buy, but couldn''t since they were restricted for vagrant cultivators. Am I wrong?" Krune couldn''t help but nod. In a place with so much Godly Energy, natural and crafted wondrous treasures that could help with cultivation appeared everywhere. Krune had already tried to buy quite a few things that could help with his cultivation, skills, equipments, foundation, etc. However, quite a few were not available for those without a background. At least, that was the case in the Zamaria Planet. "Wouldn''t it be too dangerous? What if they find out that we are Heavenly Fragment and Core owners?" Iem the shrugged his shoulders. "And how exactly would they do that? It''s not like we are going to tell them. We only want their support. Of course, we probably are going to need to help them with some missions or tasks. After all, there is no free lunch in this world." "There is also another thing. It should be several times harder to find a Heavenly Fragment and Core owners in this Realm. Don''t forget that we only have Godly Energy here, no Spiritual Energy at all. That being said, I''m sure that there is no lack of geniuses who cultivate as fast as we do. Some of them might be even faster than us since they have better cultivation techniques specially designed for Godly Energy cultivators and demon beasts. Not to mention access to those resources we need so much." Krune admitted that Iem as right. "Luvile, what do you think?" Luvile was obviously hearing everything. "I believe he is right. There is only so much you can do alone here. As long as you are careful, it shouldn''t be a big problem." Krune took a deep breath and agreed in the end. "Very well. Do you have any background in mind?" Iem nodded. "Yes, we believe we should join the Sky Shifting Sect." Chapter 599: Decision Making "Sky Shifting Sect?" The only Sect Krune had ever been part of was the Divine Path Sect. He didn''t join any other during his time in Dalin Universe. Iem then explained his choice. "They are known for being quite an all-round Sect. There are no specializations that they focus on, or you could say that they focus on everything. This kind of Sect would be perfect for us since no one would pay much attention to our abilities. If anything, they will think that it''s just normal that weird guys wanted to join them." "They are definitely one of the strong forces of the Zamaria Planet, but at the same time, they don''t appear between the top ones. This status of being in the middle is also the best we could ask. They have the authority to buy what we need but don''t appear too much to have questions asked. Besides, there is one more reason why I selected them, check their information on the network." Krune nodded and opened his communicator. He then searched for information about this Sky Shifting Sect. This Sect seems to have been founded around 20 thousand years ago. At that time, they only had a Godly Fusion Realm Sect Master as their strongest member. They had also selected a region where other sects wouldn''t mind their presence. From what Krune could see, they were the cautious type that doesn''t like to appear too much. Little by little, they consolidated their forces as their top members cultivated slowly to their actual strength. At the moment, the Sect has two God Core Realm members, one cultivator, and one demon beast. The cultivator was the same person who founded the Sect, a woman called Franlia Katuas. The demon beast was a female one who joined the Sect around a thousand years after its foundation, Tosely. From the looks of it, those two girls were quite close to each other. In the next years, their Sky Shifting Sect went through a few conflicts, but it palled compared with other powers. It could be said that they were quite a calm sect. However, Krune found out that another two forces close by, the Three Peaks Sect and the Flower River Sect. From the looks of it, these three sects didn''t have much interaction with each other before, always keeping to themselves. However, as their territory expanded, they eventually reached the same place. If it was just a piece of land, the three sides could have done a few negotiations. Eventually, one of them would take it while paying something to the others. The three powers are similar in strength, so it wouldn''t do any good to go to war because of a small territory. However, they eventually found an enormous chain of Top Quality Godly Energy Veins hidden beneath a mountain range. If a proper formation was set up there, it would become one cultivation paradise for any of the three. That wasn''t all. Because of how long these Godly Energy Veins had been hidden, the area around them became a gigantic Godly Stone Mine. The number of Godly Stones that could be mined was probably over billions! Due to the quality of the Godly Energy Veins, the Godly Stones at the center of the Chain also reached High and even Top Quality levels. Without a doubt, that mountain range would be the perfect place to move their sects headquarters. The Godly Stones would provide enough income to keep any of their sects running for the next thousands of years too. Obviously, neither of the three forces would give up such a fat piece of meat. As one can expect, battles began to happen frequently in that place. No one knows what will be the end result of this three-sided conflict. Iem saw Krune''s expression changing and knew that he got all the information about the Sky Shifting Sect situation. "Do you understand now why I selected this one?" Krune nodded. "The Sky Shifting Sect doesn''t focus on any particular field, which is good for us. Thanks to that, we wouldn''t attract much attention. However, they won''t merely let us use their name to acquire the resources we need. We will need to do something for the Sect, and this three-sided war is the best opportunity to gain merits. Not to mention that it would be the best environment where we could acquire combat experience." "But above all, the fact that they are in a war would be the best concealment for us. The Sky Shifting Sect needs strength! They won''t bother about who joins them as much as they would before, nor will they try to investigate any abnormal strong new members. They only have one focus at the moment, acquire the Chain of Godly Energy Veins. Anything else can wait until the war is over. From the looks of it, this war will probably last several decades before a conclusion is reached. By that time, it is hard to say if we would still be there or not." Iem nodded. "Exactly! All three forces have tens of thousands of members, but they can''t possibly use it all in this war. After all, they aren''t the only ones who know about these Godly Energy Veins. If they use too much of their forces, someone stronger might jump in and take all three of them down. Thanks to that, they reached this balance where the war can''t be stopped, but can''t go all out either. For us, the longer this war lasts, the better. It will give us an unlimited stream of Sect Merits, which we can use to buy everything we need." "Of course, it will also be dangerous. Still, you should know very well that life and death experiences are part of the cultivation path. We can''t ignore such things." Krune nodded. "Very well. But how about our time management? I have my restaurant to run, after all." Iem shrugged his shoulders. "Did you forget, the Sky Sifting Sect has tens of thousands of members. Do you really think you would lack customers in there? Just close your restaurant here and open a new one close to the Sect. If anything, you should get even more affluent customers than before. You can open it every time you come back from the battlefronts. Besides, we won''t spend most of our time fighting, no one would. You can use all your free time to cook if you want. I also want you to keep doing your dishes. After all, they help both of our cultivations." "Don''t forget, our objective is to cultivate as fast as possible. My time in the Formations Guild and yours in the restaurant are just ways to achieve our aims." Krune couldn''t help but narrow his eyes. Moving the restaurant''s location wasn''t a problem. But what about his employees? Krune pondered a bit and then sighed in the end. Iem was right; he can''t lose focus on his objective. He wants to get strong enough to return to the Lower Realms as soon as possible. The most important thing wasn''t his restaurant, but his family that stayed behind. "Alright, let''s do it." Iem nodded, and they began to talk about how they would do it. After Iem left, Krune sent a message to all his employees to come to work one hour earlier. Since he was going to move, he had to at least let everyone know about it. The next morning, Krune was gathered with his employees in the lobby. Since the restaurant hasn''t opened yet, they were the only ones there at the moment. "I''ll join the Sky Shifting Sect. Because of that, I need to move the restaurant to another city close by. That means this restaurant here will be closed. However, you guys have been working for me for a long time, especially Bai''s group. So I''ll give you a choice. You can decide whether you want to move there with me or not. The city I''ll be moving to is called Capivari. That''s the closest one of the Sect." "However, do not accept it straight away. First, you will be coming by yourselves. I will pay you the same thing as before while you work for me, but I won''t help you settle yourselves there. Also, you must understand that the Sky Shifting Sect is in a war against two other Sects. As a sect member, I will need to participate in those battles. There is a chance that I might die one of those days. If that happens, the restaurant will obviously close forever." "Because of the war, the Sky Shifting Sect is recruiting new members every month, and the next recruitment will happen in two weeks. I will need at least a week to move everything there, so you have one week to think about it. You guys probably lived here in Immai City during all your lives, your family members should be here too. So don''t make this decision lightly. Very well, let''s start to organize everything to open the restaurant." However, Nina didn''t waste any time before raising her hand. "I''ll go with the chef!" Krune looked at Nina after hearing that. "You already rebuilt your foundation and even surpassed the level you would be in the past. You can already cultivate by yourself without my help too. With the experience you acquired, you should have no problem finding another restaurant to work as a chef. Are you sure you don''t want to give it some thought first?" Nina shook her head vigorously. "I don''t need to think, I''ll go too!" Her brother, Lino, sighed. "Since my sister already decided, then I''m going with her." Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Since you want to, I won''t say anything else." Krune then turned around and headed into the kitchen. At the same time, everyone gave Nina meaningful smiles. Sure enough, she noticed what she just did and got all red again. Chapter 600: Moving to a New City In the end, only four of Krune''s ten employees decided to move to Capivari City, Nina, Lino, Bai, and Jilin. Jilin was one of his newest employees, a chef that worked in the Kitchen with Krune and Luina. Krune gave everyone who decided to stay a bonus and introduced them to other Spiritual Food Restaurant owners to get acquainted in these years. One of these restaurants was Oclo''s. He was the person who introduced Spiritual Food to Krune, so they were quite good friends. In the last three years, Oclo had also successfully entered the Semi-Divinity Realm, much to Krune''s delight. "Oh, I don''t have enough space for everyone, but I can take two of the waiters you had." Krune smiled. "Thank you, Chef Oclo. They are very good waiters, I can guarantee that." After finishing dealing with all those problems, Krune went to the Spiritual Chef Guild. This one was just a branch he was registered, but now he was leaving. He has to change his branch to Capivari City''s ones. As a City close to a strong Sect, Capivari City was much bigger than Immai. Iem also did the same thing and changed his registration in the Formations Master Guild to Capivari City. After that, he went ahead first and told Krune where he would be staying once he arrived there. One week before the Sky Shifting Sect entrance exam, Krune closed his Immai City''s restaurant door for the last time. Behind him, Nina, Bai, Jilin, and Lino were waiting. Nina was quite the sentimental girl, so she couldn''t help but teary up a little when she saw Krune removing the restaurant''s board. Those last three years were the happiest she had in her life so far. Bai patted her head and laughed out loud. "Why the tears? We are just moving to another city, that''s all. We are going to open the restaurant there as well." Nina nodded at Bai with a smile. Krune then came down and looked at those four. "Are you sure you want to come with me? What about your families?" Jilin was the first to answer. "I''m an orphan. I have no family to start with. I''m relatively young, so I never thought about marrying or anything like that either. Besides a few friends here and there, I don''t have that much attachment to this city. Chef Krune pays me a lot more than any other job I did so far; therefore, I have no need to think twice." Bai also added his piece. "I do have a family, but I''m taking them with me there. I will only find a place to settle down, and then my wife and kid will come a few days later. The reason is the same as Jilin, Chef Krune pays me a lot more than what I got in other jobs before, so the choice was obvious for me." Nina and Lino just smiled. After all, Krune already knows their background story. There didn''t have parents either. It was relatively easy for them to move somewhere else since they didn''t have much to lose to start with. Besides, Nina really felt like she hasn''t repaid Krune enough for everything he did for her. Krune nodded after hearing their answers. "Very well, let''s go." --- Capivari City was at least four to five times bigger than Immai. That was the effect of having a famous sect nearby. The populace was at least over thirty million, making it a much better place for Krune to open his restaurant. The city also had all other side occupations'' branches, which were a lot busier than those in Immai City. The Sky Shifting Sect was more or less the owner of the city. It''s city lord just so happened to be one of the Sect''s elders too. Some even liked to think that the city was part of the Sect itself. Not too surprisingly, the side occupation branches'' supervisors were mostly occupied by Sky Shifting Sect members as well. Somewhere close to the Formations Master''s Guild Branch, there was an enormous chain of buildings. Each one of them had several teleport formations inside. Obviously, the Formations Master Guild controlled the flux of visitants to the city and its income. Suddenly, one of those formations began to flash with silver light. A second later, five figures appeared on it. Clearly, those were Krune and his restaurant employees. Just as he came out, the cultivator responsible for that formation came forward. "Hello, welcome to Capivari City. The entrance fee is 20 Godly Stones for each person or demon beast." Krune nodded and passed twenty Godly Stones over. He didn''t pay for the others, though. He already told them that he wouldn''t help with anything, only provide them with their jobs back. The others knew that as well, so even though the price was quite salty for them, they still paid it. Krune then asked something. "The Sky Shifting Sect entrance exam starts in one week, right?" The Formations Master Guild member quickly nodded. "Yes. If you wish to take part in it, you must be at the Divine Path Realm, at the very least. We have teleport formations here that can bring you directly to the Sect''s entrance as well. Of course, there is a fee for that. Otherwise, you can go there by yourself." Krune nodded and then left with his group. After checking the city''s map in his communicator, they made their way to the restaurant''s new building. Krune wouldn''t come without having everything ready. A few days ago, Krune had teleported here after his restaurant closed just to look for a good place. After talking with the owner of the site, he paid the first year of rent. All they needed to do was to go there and organize everything now. Just like in Immai City, Krune didn''t rent a place close to the city center. Instead, he preferred a calmer place, but that had enough movement. The new building was roughly the same size as his previous one. Once they entered, Krune passed Bai a Spatial Ring with a few hundred Godly Stones. "Use this to refurbish the place. There is no need for fancy things. I just want a good ambient where the customers can relax while they enjoy the food." Bai wasn''t surprised by that. He had been the one taking care of all payments related to the restaurant during the last three years. In a certain way, he was the manager, while Krune was the boss, so he was used to that. "Don''t worry, I''ll have everything ready by the end of the week. Lino, come and help me buy the things we need." Lino nodded, and the two of them left straight away. Krune then took another spatial ring out and tossed it at Nina and Jilin. "You two have been working with me in the kitchen for quite some time, so you should know how I like it. Most of the tools are inside the spatial ring, so go to the kitchen and set everything up. If you lack anything, use the Godly Stones in the Spatial Ring to buy." Nina and Jilin nodded and immediately left as well. After giving his orders, Krune took a look at the time. "I guess I''ll go find the rest of the employees I need." Just like before, Krune went to the Spiritual Chef Guild Branch. After confirming that his registration had been transferred to this one, he went to look into the employment system. He once again browsed through the list carefully, reading every single detail of the applications. A few hours later, he selected fifteen possible candidates. He only needed to interview them to find the six that he would take in. Krune quickly sent them a message with the specifics and left the Spiritual Chef Guild. Around one hour later, he arrived at the Formations Master Guild Branch. Soon, he saw Iem coming out from there. "Hey, you finally came." Krune nodded. "Everything went better than I thought. How''s your side?" Iem pondered a bit before saying. "It as I expected. Because this branch is bigger, they have a lot more Formations Masters and information of Formations. During the time we aren''t in the Sky Shifting Sect, I will have a lot to do here." "What about the recruitment exam?" Iem nodded. "I already checked it. In the past, the exam happened once every three years. The contents changed every single time too. But because of the war, they can''t take too long testing the candidates. So they made a standard test that had been in use ever since the war started." Krune already expected something like that. "I see, and what is it about?" Iem opened his communicator and sent the information over. Krune quickly opened his own and took a look. "As you can see, it''s not too complicated. First, the Sky Shifting Sect will check if you are at the Divine Path Realm at the very least. Obviously, we already cleared this one." "Second, they will check our strength. I don''t know precisely how the Sect does this. Still, I guess it would be something like an Illusion Formations or a short spar against another participant at the same level. Well, regardless, we are both several times stronger than those at our level, so it will be easy." "Those two are the standard tests. As long as we do well in them, we are most likely guaranteed entrance. There are other tests, but they have little to do with the war. Of course, make sure to fare well in them too just in case." Krune nodded. After that, they conversed for a little longer before they separated once more. All that was left was to wait for the exam to start. Chapter 601: Sky Shifting Sect Entrance Exam The Sky Shifting Sect was located three thousand kilometers from Capivari City. However, its territory was several times larger than that. Even so, they only control a tiny piece of land on the giant planet of Zamaria. Krune came to understand that the Godly Path Realm''s planets are generally tens if not hundreds or even thousands of times larger. Krune didn''t go there by himself since he couldn''t fly or open Spatial Gates anymore. He could have asked for Zule''s help, but using his power might attract some attention and reveal his location. That being said, he simply paid the fee to use the Formations Master Guild Teleport Formation. It teleported both him and Iem directly at the sect''s entrance. Krune and Iem couldn''t see the sect. That''s because it was surrounded by a protection formation that blocked their vision. Krune could use his Mental Energy, but considering how gigantic the place is, his Mental Energy wouldn''t be able to see even a 1/100 of the total. Still, there was another thing that caught Krune and Iem''s attention. As soon as they arrived there, they noticed a crowd with thousands of cultivators and demon beasts. The minimal required level is Divine Path Realm, but that doesn''t mean higher ones can''t come. As mentioned before, demon beasts gain sentience at the Semi-Divinity Realm. Obviously, all the demon beasts in this place are exactly in that realm or above. Of course, the majority were humans since they could come with lower cultivations. Nevertheless, Krune was surprised to see so many cultivators and demon beasts trying to enter the sect. "How come there are so many candidates? Don''t they know that the sect is in a war at the moment?" Iem couldn''t help but agree with krune. "Maybe the sect is offering some reward that makes them ignore the danger." One cultivator beside them heard their words and laughed. "Hahaha! Is it serious that you don''t know why?" Krune and Iem looked at him, surprised. Still, they shook their heads. "We don''t. Could this friend explain why this situation happened?" The guy didn''t mind before saying. "No problem. First, just so that you know, my name is Tulike. Alright, it''s not like it is a secret or anything. You were correct; there is a war going on at the moment. I believe you also know why this war is happening, right?" Krune and Iem nodded. "Because of the mountain range with the Chain of Top Quality Godly Energy Veins and the Godly Stone Mines around it." Tulike nodded. "The reason behind this crowd is exactly that mountain range. At the moment, the three sects are controlling one-third of the mountains'' area. As you can expect, battles keep happening on their borders on a daily bases. However, it doesn''t change the fact that that area is a cultivation paradise. The concentration and quality of the Godly Energy far surpass common regions." Tulike continued. "That being said, just staying there would double if not triple the cultivation speed of everyone. Not to mention that Godly Stones are abundant as well. All three sects have no time to care about the Godly Stones being taken, so everyone takes the chance to mine some for themselves. The sects are seeing it as a way of payment for their efforts during the war. As long as one of the sect takes full control of the mountain range, the little amount of Godly Stones lost will be meaningless." "You must understand that to mine all the Godly Stones available in that place, at least a few hundred years would be necessary. And that is considering that the mountain range has an owner and is in peace. Can you imagine how trifle the number of Godly Stones those war combatants are taking is? Neither of the three sects could care about this at the moment. They only need more strength to defend and attack." "Of course, not everyone can enter there, nor will you be free to do whatever you want. First, you have to pass the Sect Test. What use would be there if you were, let''s say, a Divinity Realm cultivator but couldn''t even fight a Semi-Divinity one? Divinity Realm people and beasts use a lot more energy and need more resources. Who would allow them to use their resources while they can''t even fight Semi-Divinity ones?" "Anyway, with so many rewards, who would care about a little bit of risk? Besides, it''s not like the sect can obligate you to fight to the death. If you see that the situation of a battle is dire, you can still choose to flee. Of course, there are always those who can''t flee in time or don''t want to. So deaths also happen every day. Nonetheless, I can guarantee you that the flux of cultivators and demon beasts coming to knock the three sects'' doors will not decrease for the next few years. If anything, it might get bigger and bigger instead." Krune and Iem finally understood the whole situation. "I see. Indeed, considering the advantages, no wonder so many want to join the sects. I just wonder how they treat spies and things like that." Tulike shrugged his shoulders. "It''s pretty apparent, in my opinion. All sides have spies inside their troops. There is nothing any of the sides can do about that. In the end, they can only send several groups to battle and hope that their side is stronger. After all, unless you sent trustworthy subordinates into sneak attacks, most of the big scale battles will happen out in the open. Each side will know very well where and when it will happen." Krune couldn''t help but comment. "Well, considering the area''s size, even if we have tens of thousands of allies, it will be far from enough to control the borders. So having scouts and spies infiltrated is to be expected." Time passed as Krune, Iem, and Tulike talked. Around one hour later, the sect protection formation opened. Only then did Iem and Krune take a look inside. Unfortunately, they won''t be able to fly before the Mortal Rejection Realm, so there was only so much they could see from the ground. Yet, the little they could see left them shocked. Although most of the building was like they expected, there were a few exceptions. Far, far in the distance, Krune and Iem were able to spot a few huge buildings shining with the color of Godly Stones! Yes, they were made out of Godly Stones! Just how lavish was it? However, most of the other cultivators and demon beasts didn''t seem impressed with that sight. Evidently, Krune and Iem were part of the few country bumpkins in this place. "Now I really believe they don''t care about the Godly Stones taken by everyone during the war. If they have enough to make entire buildings with them, why would they care about such a small amount?" Iem nodded his head vigorously. He was as amazed as Krune. Soon, several elders came flying from inside the sect. Without a doubt, every single one of them was at least at the Mortal Rejection Realm. They looked at all the candidates that came this month with cold eyes as if they were nothing more than dead meat. They knew that the majority only came to take advantage of the situation of the Mountain Range. Obviously, they hated them. Still, they needed their help, so they could only go forward with the sect test. "Listen up! We are now going to conduct the Sky Shifting Sect entrance exam. As you probably all know, the first will be a test of your cultivation level. The sect''s entrance has a formation that will block anyone at the Void Breaking Realm or below. Just go ahead and enter it. If you don''t meet the requirements, you will be automatically teleported back to Capivari City." The elders didn''t wait for the candidates to say anything and immediately returned to the sect. Without another choice, everyone could only step forward. Krune and Iem didn''t mind and moved ahead too. Surprisingly though, they were still able to see one or another flash of Silver Light around them. From the looks of it, those candidates were hiding their real cultivations. "It seems like the Top Quality Godly Energy Veins are very alluring. A lot of Void Breaking or below also want to go there despite the risks." Krune and Iem agree with Tulike. Soon, it was their time to pass through the formation. Krune and Iem were already at the Divine View Realm, so they obviously passed through it without any problems. Tulike didn''t encounter any trouble either. It only took a few minutes for the first test to be completed. Inside the sect, the elders that had appeared earlier were already waiting. They kept their cold looks as they surveyed everyone. "Alright. With part of the trash out of the way, we can start the second part. Usually, the sect would make some elaborate test to gauge everyone''s traits correctly. However, we don''t have time for it. At the moment, we need strength to help during the war." The elder waved his hand, and suddenly, a formation appeared under everyone''s feet. Space around flashed with Silver Light before everyone disappeared. Krune''s vision warped for a second before returning to normal. After his vision returned, he was in a separated field with Iem and a bunch of other cultivators. Tulike was also there. He noticed that a collar appeared around his neck as well. There were no demon beasts around this time, though. Krune didn''t take long to understand why that was the case. ''Everyone got separated accordingly to their cultivation levels. Demon Beasts only gain sentience at the Semi-Divinity Realm, so there is obviously not a single one here.'' Suddenly, everyone received a Divine Sense message. "Let''s cut to the chase. You will fight against each other. Your objective is to gather ten collars, including your own. As soon as you finish, you will pass the test and be teleported out. You will have one hour to complete the test. If you fail, you will also be teleported back to Capivari City. Alright, that''s all. You may start." Krune and Iem were quite surprised. The sect was really making things very simple. Still, that was good for both of them. Iem looked at Krune and laughed. "Well, see you once you complete the test." Krune laughed as well before nodding. "Very well." Tulike was surprised to see their confidence. However, it seemed like they ignored him and went after other targets. From the looks of it, his words back in the entrance made Krune and Iem unwilling to attack him. "Do they think I''m weak?" Tulike couldn''t help but laugh. He then started the test as well. Chapter 602: Joining the Sky Shifting Sect Krune and Iem didn''t show too much of their real power. Still, they moved around like fish in the water. At the same level, there weren''t many that could force them to show what they could really do. Of course, there were always exceptions. Three other cultivators were obviously not having much trouble during the battles. At some pointe, Krune, Iem, and those three noticed each other''s presence. However, they taciturnly ignored each others'' existence and went after weaker participants. There was no point in making things bigger than necessary since they only want to join the sect. Outside, the elders were looking into each of the fields. The one looking at the Divine View Realm area showed a surprised expression. "Oh! Take a look here. There are five good seeds this time. Do you think all of them have backgrounds already?" Another elder shifted his attention over and took a look at Krune and the others. "Hum... Hard to say. At least three or four of them should have one and only came for the Mountain Range with the Top Quality Godly Energy Veins. But if at least one is free, then that will be good. Oh, I remember the mark on the robes of three of them. They are from the Rermil Clan. We have been getting quite a few of their offsprings ever since the Godly Energy Veins were found, and the war started." The other elder nodded. "No wonder they are so much stronger than the others. Well, as long as they fight in the war, then we won''t mind they joining our forces. Too bad that they will probably leave once the war is concluded. Even if they stay, their loyalty will still be within their Clan." "There is nothing we can do about that. Those big clans have survived for so long because they didn''t let their own talents run astray. From what I heard, they even add soul seals to prevent any offspring from betraying the Clan. Well, that''s not our problem, though." "What about the other two?" The two elders looked at Krune and Iem, trying to figure out their identities. "I can''t recognize them. What about you?" "Nothing here, either." They passed Krune and Iem''s images to the other elders, but none of them could tell who they were. Their techniques didn''t have any particular trait of the powers who live close to the Sky Shifting Sect, either. The elder in charge, Galut Sivo, showed surprise in his eyes. "Keep a close look at those two. It will be a good thing if they aren''t part of any other power." Although the elders were surprised with Iem and Krune''s strength. It wasn''t like it was a rare thing. They had seen several youths who were also just as strong, or at least that were also hiding their real power. But the majority already had a background or were even spies of the other two sects. Unaffiliated talents were hard to find. That''s why Galut asked to keep an eye on them. Of course, Krune and Iem weren''t the only ones that caught the elders'' eyes. There were a few more in the other cultivation realms as well that the elders marked down. After just 15 minutes, Krune, Iem, and those three cultivators were already out of the battlefield. As expected, they took their ten collars without any mishaps. While the fights continued, one of the cultivators came forward to greet them. "Hey there, My name is Sudilo Rermil. I don''t remember to have seen your faces before." Krune smiled before saying. "We are just vagrant cultivators. It''s our first time trying to join an organization around this area. It''s no surprise that you can''t recognize us. My name is Krune." Iem also introduced himself. "You can call me Iem. I''m this guy''s friend." Sudilo nodded with a smile and introduced his other two clan members. First, she pointed at the woman on his left side. "This is my cousin, Ternia Rermil." Then he pointed at his right. "And this is a clan member of another branch, Iarlen Rermil." Krune and Iem nodded before complimenting them. "Is that okay for your Clan to let you join another power? Won''t the Sky Shifting Sect deny you entry if they find out too?" Sudilo laughed after hearing that question. "There is no problem. At the moment, the Sky Shifting Sect doesn''t have any other choice other than accepting any help they can. It''s a win-win situation. We help them defend and conquer the mountain range area while our cultivation speeds up. After everything is over, we can just leave, or perhaps they will send us away by themselves. Regardless, it will take several years before that happens. That''s more than enough time to enjoy that place. As for our Clan, it was our elders who asked us to come. After all, it''s an excellent opportunity to both cultivate and gain combat experience." Krune and Iem nodded. It seemed like neither side cared too much about it at the moment. The five of them conversed for a while as more and more participants teleported close to them. Obviously, those were the ones who passed the test. At some point, Tulike also appeared there. "Oh, there you are." Krune and Iem smiled at him. Finally, one hour went by, and everyone who was still inside the battlefields was sent back to Capivari City straight away. Not long after, Galut appeared in front of everyone once more. He then pointed at a particular building in the distance and started to talk. "It seems like you were the good ones this time around. I''ll give you two choices now. If you come just for the Top Quality Godly Energy Veins and Godly Stones, there will be no need to continue this test. You can simply register as a combatant and teleport there straight away. Just go to the registration office there. Once the war is over, you are free to leave if you want. Obviously, those won''t have many duties but won''t receive any help from the sect either. Well, it shouldn''t be a problem for most of you since you definitely believe your own strength." Right after elder Galut said those words, around 90% of the cultivators and demon beasts went straight to the place he mentioned before. Sure enough, most of them already have backgrounds and only came here for the chance to cultivate in the mountain range. The Rermil Clan''s group also did the same. Sudilo noticed that Krune and Iem weren''t moving and couldn''t help but ask. "Aren''t you going to the registration office?" "No. We want to hear what the second option is. We will decide what to do after that." Sudilo nodded and then went away with his group. Elder Galut wasn''t the least bit impressed by those cultivators and demon beasts who left. If anything, he was quite surprised that around 10% of them remained behind. It was more than he expected. "Very well. The second option is to join the Sky Shifting Sect as a real member. You will be able to use our name to acquire resources as long as you have the merit points for it. You will also be allowed to use our formations and get other advantages. As long as you perform well, your position in the sect will grow too." "However, although there are several advantages, there will also be several duties you must take. Since we are in a time of war, most of the missions will be related to it. Of course, your rewards will be much bigger than those who left earlier. You will receive a token that will be bound to your Divine Sense. You can use it to accumulate the merit points necessary for your needs." "Also, different from the others earlier, you won''t be able to refuse the sect''s missions. They will be a lot more dangerous too. Of course, the sect won''t simply send you to die. The missions during this wartime will be based on your cultivation level and strength." "Is there any question?" Krune raised his hand. "I don''t have a background as the majority. But I do have my own restaurant since I''m a Spiritual Chef. Will I be allowed to use my free time outside to carry it on, or must I stay in the sect all times? If yes, what is the length of free time between each mission?" Galut was surprised to hear that. Spiritual Chefs usually don''t like combat. However, he saw that Krune far surpassed those at the same level. That was quite a rare combination. But he was more interested in the prospect that Krune might really not have a background. "Don''t worry. The way you use your free time is up to you. As for the intervals between missions, you will have one year after you finish one. You can leave the sect during that time or cultivate here, we don''t care. As long as you don''t betray the sect, the sect won''t hold you down either. Of course, you can take another mission any time after you finish the previous one if you want. That way, you can accumulate merit points faster." Krune nodded and didn''t talk anymore. That''s all he needed to know. Other cultivators and demon beasts also made a few questions of their own. Galut and the other elders answered each one calmly, not hiding the pros and cons of anything. History showed that, generally, deceiving new members never led to good outcomes in the end. Hence, they made sure everyone understood what they were applying for. Some cultivators and demon beasts also decided to leave after their doubts were clear, but that had nothing to do with Krune and Iem. By the end of the conversation, they decided to join the Sky Shifting Sect. Of course, they still had to go through a few more tests after that. But with their levels, those tests were easy to pass. Chapter 603: Godly Path Realm Equipment Other than Krune and Iem, Tulike also joined the sect in the end. "Weren''t you here for the Top Quality Godly Energy Veins only?" Tulike shook his head. "What I said was the majority came here for that. I, on the other hand, really wanted to join the sect. Well, I won''t lie. I''m definitely gonna enjoy that place as well. However, I want to get more things than just that. To be honest, this was already my seventh time trying to enter the sect, so I didn''t want to lose this chance." Krune and Iem nodded. The Sky Shifting Sect has a high position in the Zamaria Planet, after all. Joining it would definitely bring lots of benefits. Besides, even if they lose the war for the Godly Energy Veins, it''s not like they will be destroyed. The chances that something like that can happen with a sect of this size is really low. At most, they will go into seclusion for a few hundred years to recover their strength. Surprisingly, Krune and the others already got some merit points after they finished the rest of the tests. It seemed like everyone who joined the sect was entitled to them. However, Krune decided to wait before he used them, and so did Iem. It was better to check what the sect had to offer before going around buying things with those. Krune and Iem departed from each other right after they got their Sect Tokens. Iem went to take a look around the sect while Krune decided to check their Blacksmith Hall. As for Tulike, he had disappeared at some point. No one knows where he went. The Blacksmith Hall in the sect was directly connected to the Blacksmith Guild outside. Its supervisor was both a member of the sect and the guild at the same time. Thanks to that, they had a stream of materials and information that helped with new crafts. That also gave them access to the Blacksmith Network, which was of paramount importance to blacksmiths for trading. When Krune entered the building, he quickly noticed that it was very busy. There were several queues to reach the counters, and the employees walked everywhere. Krune also identified a few blacksmiths talking with the sect members. From the looks of it, they were discussing what they wanted to be crafted. Others seemed to hold pieces of equipment that had been damaged, waiting to be repaired.g Krune was not a client, though. His intention was to learn about the Blacksmith Job in the Godly Path Realm. After all, different from the Mortal Realm, Krune won''t use Spiritual Energy and its derivations anymore. In the Godly Path Realm, you can only find Godly Energy, that''s all! He selected one of the queues and joined it. Sure enough, he had to wait a lot before his time finally come. He tried to access the Blacksmith network in the past, but just like the Mortal Realm, the system was only accessible for members. Finally, around two hours later, Krune reached the counter. "What equipment do you need? Or perhaps you have something you want to repair?" Krune shook his head. "I want to join the Blacksmith Guild. Can I do that here?" The employee nodded and asked for his Sect Token. After confirming his identity, he passed it back. "There is a 2000 Godly Stones fee. You will then be allocated a blacksmith workshop in the building where you can do your forging. How much experience do you have? I can see that you are in the Divine View Realm. Can you make Stars View level equipment?" Krune pondered a bit but decided to shook his head in the end. He can make Stars View Equipment, but that is when he uses Spiritual Energy. He obviously doesn''t have such a thing here, so he will need to learn first. "I can''t. However, I have some experience in forging. I just need access to the blacksmith network so that I can check the techniques available." The employee shook his head. "That won''t do. You probably know that some materials can''t be bought without having the background or high enough cultivation, right?" Krune nodded. That''s one of the main reasons he joined the Sky Shifting Sect. "That''s the problem. The rare materials available on the network are usually restricted. You will need to use your merit points of the Sky Shifting Sect if you want to buy them. Only having the Godly Stones isn''t enough. But that''s not the main problem. The issue is to allow someone who can''t use those materials to buy them. Using the sect''s name to buy those materials also impacts the sect itself. So to prevent anyone from buying them just to waste it later, we only allow real blacksmiths to get a pass. If you want access to the Blacksmith Network, you will need to take the Blacksmith Test first." Krune didn''t mind. "No problem. Is there a place where I can study the blacksmith techniques before I take the test? It''s been some time since I forged anything, so I need to train a little first. I believe the sect has common materials that can be used for training and the test, right?" The employee nodded. "Yes. I''ll register you in our Sky Shifting Sect Blacksmith Hall. It is separated from the Blacksmith Guild Network, but all the most common techniques and materials can be found there. You don''t need to be afraid of wasting them either. Of course, although those are common materials, you still need to pay for them. Anyway, that''s all." Krune nodded. "That''s perfect for me. When can I take the test?" "There is one test for new blacksmiths every month. However, we only accept Stars Path Level equipment or higher. Any Equipment under that level won''t be enough to make you a member of the Blacksmith Guild. Keep that in mind." Krune nodded and then left after paying the fees. Ever since Krune began to live in the Godly Path Realm, the equipments of this place impressed him. He still remembers when he was traveling with Iem after they arrived in this Realm. Some of the cultivators and demon beasts they saw on their way to Immai City were using them. The impressive thing was how strong those equipments were. Krune had seen a Divine Path Realm cultivator using a Sword that cleared was at the Star Path Level. At first, Krune didn''t find anything strange. A Divine Path Realm using a Stars Path equipment totally made sense. Still, he was curious about this realm equipments, so he approached the guy to ask a little about it. However, he found out that the guy''s equipment wasn''t a Stars Path, but a Diamond Stars Level one! One can only imagine how shocked Krune felt. A Diamond Stars equipment had the power of a Stars Path one. That is an entire realm above. Even his Purple Flame Equipments couldn''t go that far. Besides, how come an ordinary cultivator got his hands in such a piece of marvelous equipment? However, he soon came to understand that he was wrong. It was not that the guy''s equipment was impressive. In fact, his one could be said to be very common and even below average. Krune understood at that moment that the level of the equipments in the Godly Path Realm far, far surpassed the Mortal Realms ones to a ridiculous degree! Finally, he adjusted his mind and accepted the new rule. Equipments made with Godly Energy are simply several times superior to Spiritual Energy and derivated ones. After checking a few other equipments, Krune and Iem reached a conclusion. The level of equipments in the Godly Path Realm is one entire Realm above. What they thought to be a Stars Path would only be a Diamond Stars one. A Stars View was considered a Stars Path. Simply put, they had to think about it as always being a level lower of what they knew. Fortunately, Krune and Iem were already strong even without them. Unless they found a truly strong opponent, they wouldn''t need to help of equipments. So far, Krune hasn''t used his Diamond Shields even once! With all of that in mind, Krune opened his communicator and accessed the Blacksmith Hall Network. ''Guess I''ll save all the information and study it first.'' Krune then left and began to walk around the Sect as well. As expected, it had all the facilities for cultivation one could imagine. Cultivation Hall, Alchemy Hall, Runestones Hall, Puppets Hall, Formations Master Hall, you name it. There were also restricted areas he couldn''t enter like the elders'' one or where the sect master lived. Nonetheless, it seemed like he will get everything he needs here. After that, Krune left the Sect and returned to Capivari City. Now that he was a member of the Sky Shifting Sect, he would need to do the missions. One must remember that Missions are obligatory for the members. Fortunately, he had one year before he had to take his first one. Chapter 604: Blacksmith in the Godly Path Realm After Krune returned to his new restaurant, he helped Nina and Jilin to set up everything. He also bought a few new things he was going to use from now one. Soon, they started the preparation of some of the food. A few dishes in Krune''s restaurant needed more than just a day to be ready, so he had to have them done before it opened next week. He also took his time to teach Nina and Jilin about the food. It turned out that Jilin is also the type who loves food, so Krune quite liked the young man. As for Nina''s cultivation, Krune helped her one last time with her Soul Forging Realm breakthrough. After that, he told her that she would be on her own. Nina already surpassed the level she would be if she hasn''t got her Dantian destroyed in the past. Krune felt that with this, she would be able to take the next steps on her own. Of course, if she had doubts about cultivation, Krune wouldn''t mind talking to her about it. But resources support like Godly Stones would not come from his pocket anymore. Krune saw how Nina got sad when she heard that. However, the reason for her sadness was completely different from what Krune thought. During the time she was cultivating, she had more opportunities to stay close to him and talk about other things. But now she would need to leave the restaurant every time it closed just like everyone else. That also confirmed that Krune really had never seen her as a possible love relationship option, and she was right. In Krune''s eyes, there was none else other than Feifei. He made that clear quite a few times when someone asked about his wife. The others'' couldn''t be blamed for asking. After all, Krune had been their boss for over three years. Still, they had never seen or heard his wife even once. Another reason for the questions was that other than Krune, the rest of the people could see Nina''s feeling as clear as day. They couldn''t help but want to help her too. Even her brother felt quite helpless about Krune''s ignorance. Two days later, Krune finally held the interview with all the candidates for his restaurant. Of the fifteen that came, only six remained. Two entered the kitchen with him while the rest was left to Bai to take care of. Finally, Krune went outside and took his restaurant''s board from his Spatial Ring. He placed it high above the entrance. After coming down, he couldn''t help but nod in satisfaction. His rainbow restaurant had been going for quite some time already. The week quickly passed, and soon people noticed the new board. Krune already could cook Semi-Divinity Star meals, so Demon Beasts in human form also began to take notice of it. When Krune''s restaurant finally opened for the first time, there were already quite a few customers waiting outside. As mentioned before, Spiritual Chefs are rare. As long as a free restaurant with one appears, it is bound to receive a lot of customers. Just like in Immai City, Krune had to create a waiting list for the next few days or weeks. Others also noticed that the chef of the restaurant was a member of the Sky Shifting Sect, so a few disciples also stopped by. Krune came to get acquainted with them, which helped a lot in the sect. One special guest was Tulike. That guy loved to jump ahead the queue saying that he was Krune''s friend. Krune, of course, felt quite helpless with that behavior. Still, since he had joined the sect at the same time as him, he didn''t care too much and allowed him to eat first. It was just one single dishe between the several he made at the same time, so it wouldn''t change much anyway. Finally, one month went by, and Krune decided to change the opening schedule. He wanted to practice his Blacksmith Skills, so he wouldn''t be able to take care of the restaurant simultaneously. He gathered all the employees after the closure and told them the news. "Alright. The restaurant will now operate for a week and stay closed for another. I have many things to do in the Sky Shifting Sect that got delayed due to the new restaurant. But you don''t need to worry. Your income will not change. If anything, you will get a lot of free time." Nina and the others were surprised to hear that. But since Krune already made his decision, they wouldn''t go against it. The only problem was that they wouldn''t get any tips during the days off. Nina pondered a bit before asking. "Master. Would it be okay if Bai and I open the restaurant during the time you are in the sect? The only Spiritual Food ingredients that Jilin and I can use are at the Soul Forging Realm level. Nevertheless, they are still Spiritual Food. That would help us a lot with our Spiritual Chef training too. All we need to do is leave a notice saying that you would be a week in and another out. The customers during the time you are out will decrease a lot, but it would still be good for us. Bai and the other attendants could also get their tips as always." Everyone looked at Nina and couldn''t help but nod. Due to Krune''s food success, they received a lot of tips that they shared with everyone. It was almost to the point that they got a second income every month. They were quite reluctant to let those ones pass by. Krune pondered a bit and didn''t see any reason to refuse. As long as the customers were warned about the weeks he would be out, there should be no problem. Besides, Bai and Nina had his trust, so he wasn''t afraid of them doing anything wrong during the time he wasn''t there. They totally had the ability to control everything by themselves. "Very well, I will leave it for Bai and Nina to take care of when I''m not here. If you encounter problems, call my communicator. However, don''t call me unless it is really necessary. I will be focused on my training, so the fewer distractions, the better. Are you sure you can deal with it?" Bai and Nina nodded while showing expressions of confidence. Krune smiled after seeing that and passed the method to control the formations Iem set up in his restaurant to them. Besides, it was not like there was anything he would minding lose in there. Anything that Krune considered too important was in his Spatial Ring, just like everyone else. The first week came, and Krune returned to the Sky Shifting Sect. He went straight to the Blacksmith Hall and immediately entered the workshop. His restaurant wasn''t open all the time since it only worked 10 hours/day. The closed hours he used to cultivate, comprehend laws, practice his techniques, etc. Other than that, he studied the forging techniques used in the Godly Path Realm. ''Sure enough, the main reason for the increase in strength of the equipments was Godly Energy. It''s not only the Godly Energy used during the forging, but the materials used as well. These materials had been born and basked in Godly Energy during their entire existence. Obviously, they reached a degree of power that far surpasses materials of the Mortal Realm.'' ''The techniques of forging are also different. Back then, I had to think about the conversion of Spiritual Energy. I had to first go through Elemental Source Energy, and then Chaos Energy. Only then could I forge Diamond Level equipments and higher. Here, such a thing doesn''t exist. Everything is based on Godly Energy.'' ''However, the forging techniques in the Godly Path Realm are highly dependent on the purification of the Godly Energy used during the process. The higher one''s cultivation level, the purer can they make the Godly Energy during the forging. I believe that alchemy probably follows the same principle.'' ''The question here is whether I can use my Purple Flames in this process or not. In theory, Luvile''s Power should be even better when used with Godly Energy. However, it will also be much harder to control. No doubt, it will become much harder to forge. There is also the process of creating the Purple Flame through electrolysis. The fuel of the process is also Godly Energy, so I have to think about the Fire and Water Elements/Laws in the process.'' ''I also have to think about the elements and laws applied in the equipment while using the Godly Energy fueled Purple Flame. They will probably get heard to control as well. However, the effects I''ll get from them will without a doubt increase the level of the equipments even more. Only like that will I be able to achieve the same level of equipments of the Godly Path Realm. No, if my Purple Flame also works here, they will surpass that level as well.'' Krune pondered for a moment and then showed a smile. ''It looks fun!'' He quickly opened his communicator and accessed the Blacksmith Hall network. Soon, someone arrived in his workshop and delivered a bunch of common forging materials for him. After paying for them, the guy left. Krune checked everything one last that and nodded, satisfied. ''Alright, let''s start!'' Chapter 605: Nina and Linos Situation The fire raged in the forger while Krune looked at the temperature on display that kept increasing. After some time, it stabilized at a certain point. Krune kept looking inside and sending his Godly Energy to fuel the fire. Suddenly... *Crack* The sound of something breaking came from inside, and the saber he was crafting was lost. Still, Krune didn''t seem unhappy. ''I see... So the purity of the Godly Energy affects the forging to this point. I''m very close to finding my own limit with my cultivation. Fortunately, my Godly Energy Meridians are also very good for this kind of thing. Should I start using Purple Flames now?'' So far, Krune practiced without using his Purple Flames. After all, what good would it make if he couldn''t even create equipment with normal ones? Krune spent his last two months trying to find his own bottleneck with Godly Energy Forging. ''No, let''s just spend a few more days to be sure where I''m standing. After that, I can start the Purple Flame forging.'' Krune took some more materials and immediately restarted his forging. Three days later, Krune came out of his workshop. From the looks on his face, he seemed very satisfied with the results of his practice. He then went to the counter and asked to take the Blacksmith Test. Sometime later, Krune was asked to forge one equipment at the Stars Path Level or higher. The forging process went without any mishaps, and soon, a Three Stars Stars View Equipment appeared. Of course, it was just a piece of standard equipment made without Purple Flames. Still, that was more than enough to prove Krune''s level. Later that day, Krune received his Blacksmith Guild Badge as well as the access to the Blacksmith Network. He accessed it and went straight for the rare materials. At the moment, his Stars Path Shields are nothing more than Diamond Stars Level in the Godly Path Realm. He has to make new ones to use. Even if his Shields'' level was not affected, the fact is that they were still too weak for his actual Cultivation Level now. One must remember that he had created them at the Divine Path Realm cultivation. His cultivation has gone an entire Realm above now. Krune didn''t come back into the workshop. Instead, he went back to his restaurant since it was almost time to began another week of work. Back in the city, Krune arrived at his restaurant but noticed something weird. It was empty; no one was around, even his employees. It was supposed to be open at the moment, so he got confused. ''Perhaps they took a day off?'' He went outside the restaurant to take a look when suddenly, someone came running in his direction. "Chef Krune! You are finally back." Krune immediately recognized that person. "Oh, Its senior Kylie. Did something happen?" Kylie was the owner of the store in front of Krune''s restaurant. Ever since Krune''s business opened, his own business also improved. After all, it wasn''t easy for a Spiritual Food Chef to appear. Krune''s restaurant success obviously improved the movement in his store as well. "Two days ago, the City Guards came to take your employees away. Since it was the week that you were off, I thought that perhaps you didn''t know it." "What?!" Krune was taken aback. Why would the City Guards take his employees away? Everyone knows that he is a Sky Shifting Sect member; the City Lord is also an elder of the same sect. He couldn''t understand what could have happened for such a thing to happen. "Why didn''t they contact me?" Kylie shook his head. "I don''t know. Perhaps they didn''t want to give you trouble. Anyway, you should go to their headquarters and take a look." Krune nodded. "Very well. Thank you, senior Kylie." Krune didn''t waste time and dashed away. He also contacted Iem, but the later didn''t know anything about what was happening. As one can imagine, the City Guards Headquarters was located in the City Center. Krune only needed to take a teleport formation, and he arrived there quite fast. He entered the build and went straight to the counter. The attendant then looked at him before asking. "How can I help you?" "The employees of my restaurant had been taken away by the City Guards two days ago. I was in the sect practicing, so I only found out about it now." The guy checked about the incidents recently when his expression suddenly changed. "Please wait here a moment." Sometime later, a man with a golden badge representing the City Guards came to talk with Krune. "Sir Krune, would you mind following me?" Krune found the situation suspicious, but he nodded in the end. He was soon guided to a closed room in the building. There, he found Bai and his other employees. However, Nina and Lino were nowhere to be found. "Chef Krune!" Krune''s eyes narrowed, and he asked the man behind him. "What is happening here? Where are Nina and Lino? I heard you guys took them away as well. As far as I know, no one in my restaurant has ever broken any City Laws. Also, why was I not contacted straight away after what happened? I''m the owner of the restaurant, you know?" The man smiled and shook his head. "There were no problems with your restaurant. But we had to take your other employees away. From the looks of it, their background is quite complicated." "Complicated?" Krune looked at Bai, Jilin, and the others. Still, they all shook their heads, not knowing what was happening either. "We found out that they are spies of the Three Peaks Sect, so we head to apprehend them. I hope you can stay here for the time being to help with the investigation." Krune''s expression changed at that moment. "Bullshit! When Nina was under the Divine Soul Realm, I had her use a blood contract. The contract stated that she should not lie to me. After that, I asked a few questions to guarantee her story was true. The blood contract disappeared right after, showing that she was not lying." "Nina and Lino are orphans, they have no parents to speak of. First of all, if they were spies, why didn''t you come after me? I''m their employer and the restaurant''s owner. Apprehending me should have been your very first action! Are you messing with me?" The man shook his head. "There was no need for that. We found no proof that you were involved in this incident. But the two of them were different." "How different? Didn''t you hear what I said about the blood contract?" The guard shrugged his shoulders and continued. "Let''s leave aside whether you really used a blood contract or not. After all, there is no way to prove that now. However, Nina and Lino''s bloodline can not lie. There are descendants of the main lineage of the Three Peaks Sect Master, Agaran Dianol." "What?!" Not only Krune, everyone else in the room was taken aback by those words. "There must be a mistake there. How come two orphans who barely had something to eat during their early lives are descendants of the Three Peaks Sect Master? If that was true, they should have been receiving the highest treatment in their ancestor''s sect. Be it cultivation resources, techniques, training, everything would have been several times better than even me. First of all, how do you even know that they have that sect master bloodline?" The City Guard nodded and explained. "First, I will need to tell you a little about their Sect Master." "The Three Peaks Sect Master isn''t a human, but a Pure Blooded Earth-Dragon. However, he did marry a human in the end. Back then, the Three Peaks sect was, in fact, three different sects occupying the same region. As their territory increased, conflicts began to appear more and more. Unlike our Sky Shifting Sect or the Flower River Sect, those three sects were really near each other." "In the end, they noticed that if their conflict continued, they would all lose. Soon, their forces would be too debilitated to protect the three peaks. As you can imagine, the three peaks have very good Godly Energy Veins, so they would definitely be desired by other powers." Krune could more or less understand what happened after. "So they formed an alliance and fused together, forming the Three Peaks Sect, right?" The guard shook his head. "Not really. The problem here would be the chain of command. Who between them would be the Sect Master? There was only one way to tie the sides together, which they believed to be marriage. However, how will you make a marriage between three forces? In the end, two peaks joined forces against the weakest one and absorbed it. As you can imagine, those two had a secret marriage between their two top descendants, Agaran and Okalia." "Today, Agaran is the sect master, while Okalia is his wife. As for the third peak descendants, most of the upper echelon was killed while the talented young ones were offered to join the two other peaks. Well, that''s basically it. I believe you can guess the rest now." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Are you telling me that Nina and Lino have Earth-Dragon bloodlines, and you used that to ascertain their identities?" The man nodded. "Correct." Krune found it strange. "That doesn''t make sense. They are complete humans. There are no Dragon Features in their bodies. As you know, intermarriage of humans and demon beasts will give birth to a mixed-race. Wait, could it be..." Bai and the others got curious about Krune''s sudden pause. Krune then took a deep breath and continued. "I see... This marriage between Agaran and Okalia happened thousands of years ago. No doubt their offsprings married as well. This intermarriage probably continued for several generations. The purity of the Earth Dragon''s Bloodline dropped with each new offspring. Considering the pride of the Dragon Race, those mixed-blood offsprings were not allowed to marry other pure-blooded dragons. Agaran was only allowed to marry a human because it would bring a lot more benefits than problems." "In the end, the mixed dragon bloodline got more and more diluted as they married other humans. Obviously, their dragon features disappeared little by little until they didn''t have enough dragon bloodline to show any dragon traces anymore. However, as diluted as the bloodline might be, it is still there. That should be more or less it, no?" The guard nodded. "Yes. Agaran has fought our Sky Shifting Sect Master several times in the past. Obviously, we got some of his blood because of that. We used it to create a piece of Godly Equipment that can detect anyone with his bloodline. To our surprise, we found some of them, and they were Nina and Lino that you talked about." Krune couldn''t help but sigh. His intuition told him that the guard wasn''t lying. However, he also knew that Nina and Lino didn''t know about that either. ''What should I do?'' Chapter 606: Hidden Help "Is there a way to release them? I can vouch for their innocence. As long as they stay in the city and don''t come into the Sect, it shouldn''t be a problem, right?" The guard shook his head. "As descendants of the main bloodline, we can use them as leverage. As for your other employees, we should have released them already. However, we knew that you were a Sky Shifting Sect member, so we preferred to wait for you to come out so that we could explain." Krune felt that something was weird. "I can''t understand. There is nothing that proves that I''m not involved with Nina and Lino; how come I''m getting this special treatment? You speak as if I''m absolutely innocent, while my employees had to be investigated first. Something is wrong here." The guard shrugged his shoulder after hearing that. "Smart. You aren''t wrong. Even if there were no proof that you were involved with the Three Peaks Sect, the fact is that you employed their Sect Master''s descendants. That would have been enough for us to apprehend you without having to ask anything. But it seems like someone important in the Sky Shifting Sect is vouching for you too. As for who it is, that I don''t know." Krune was taken aback. He doesn''t know anyone important in the Sect, so how could be someone there vouching for him? The situation was becoming more and more strange. "Do you know anyone who can introduce to this person who vouched for me?" The guard shook his head. "I don''t know. It''s beyond my authority too." Krune nodded and asked something else. "At least, you won''t prevent me from talking to her, right? It''s not like a Soul Forging Realm girl would be able to escape under your nose. Besides, although she has the so-called Sect Master bloodline, she is completely powerless in this enemy territory." The guard pondered a bit and nodded. "That can be arranged, but you better not try anything funny. There is a limit for what others can do for you." Krune nodded before looking at his employes. "I''m going to talk with Nina and Lino. You guys wait here until I return." Krune passed through a few corridors until he was brought into a room sealed by a Formation. When he looked inside, he noticed Nina and Lino sat in a corner with their heads down. Obviously, their mood couldn''t be worse. The guard then told Krune. "You can call her, she will be able to hear your voice. However, Divine Senses can''t penetrate the formation, so you will need to use your voice. You have 30 minutes." The guard then went to a corner and sat there. Krune took a deep breath and then called Nina and Lino out. "Hey, how come you left my restaurant behind? Who will help me cooking or attend the customers now?" Nina and Lino looked at the direction of the voice and were surprised. "Chef Krune! Master!" Krune smiled and immediately sent a Mental Energy Message to both of them. Nina and Lino were shocked by Krune''s appearance in this place, so they were already showing surprised expressions. The moment that they received the Mental Energy message, it startled them at the same time as they were surprised by Krune''s appearance. Like that, no one would suspect that Krune had a way to communicate with them with the formation in place. ''Listen up. I''m using a special method to talk with you. However, the guards don''t know that I can do it. They think we can only communicate through our voices. The formation prevents your Divine Sense from leaving your body, but it is still there for you to use. Just use your Divine Sense inside your bodies, and I will be able to hear the messages inside. For now, pretend to talk with me about random things. Also, pay attention to your own reactions while we are talking. Understood?'' Nina and Lino received the entire message in a split of a second. After all, it worked pretty much like Divine Sense when one wanted to send information. Nina and Lino quickly approached the formation''s barrier as they talked. "Master, sorry for the problem we caused." Krune shook. "Don''t worry, it''s not your fault." Just like that, they began to talk with one another. But at the same time, Krune used his mental energy to convene his real words. ''Have they told you about your bloodline?'' Nina and Lino immediately used the Divine Sense message to answer. ''Yes. However, how is that possible? My brother and I had been orphans as far as we can remember. It must be a mistake.'' Krune didn''t think so. ''I doubt it. For them to target the two of you in the middle of so many experts walking around the city, it''s evident that they are very confident that they are right. However, Nina had used a blood contract to talk with me in the past before she reached the Divine Soul Realm, so I know you weren''t lying.'' ''Try to remember, is there nothing in your memories that could explain your appearance in Immai City?'' Lino and Nina pondered while they pretended to talk with Krune. But in the end, they really couldn''t remember anything. However, it was then that Nina noticed one thing. ''Wait. Now that I think about it, I don''t have any memories from before I was six years old? However, my brother definitely has a few from when he was four and five. Of course, he was only three in my longest memories, so he can''t possibly remember anything before that.'' Krune immediately understood what she meant. ''That''s to say that your memories until you were six were wiped out. Or it might be that they got sealed as well. Anyway, that pretty much confirms that something is wrong about your past. Still, how do you know Lino is your brother?'' Nina immediately replied. ''I don''t know. In my head, Lino had always been my brother. But I have no idea why I know this.'' Krune nodded. ''I see... By the way, you were too young to live by yourself. How did you survive if you had no parents or anyone to take care of you?'' Nina concentrated on their past and sighed in the end. ''We pretty much survive by joining forces with the other abandoned kids. Together, we were able to gather some food by robbing or through charity. It''s not wrong to say that we lived like beggars for a long time too.'' Krune had lived as a wisp before acquiring the Myriad Energies Technique. He knew very well how hard it was to live on his own, so he could more or less sympathize with them. After that, Krune made several other questions while pretending that he talked with the two. Soon, the thirty minutes were up, and he had to leave. But before doing that, he left them one last message. ''I will need to verify a few things first. I don''t have the power to take you out, but I''ll try to help as much as I can. Take care of each other.'' Krune then left with the guard. As for Nina and Lino, they could only go back and sit once again. He quickly returned to where his employees were gathered and said. "Alright, let''s go back to the restaurant." Everyone nodded as they left the City Guards Headquarters with Krune. On their way back, they couldn''t help but ask. "Are we really just leaving Nina and Lino like that? Chef Krune already confirmed that Nina and Lino have nothing to do with the Three Peaks Sect. There has to be something we can do about that." Krune agreed with them. "I know. However, Capivari City is under the Sky Shifting Sect''s command. All the authorities here are simply following the sect orders. If I want to help Nina, staying here will be of no help." Krune then turned to everyone once more. "You guys go back home. Bai, I need you to put a message in the restaurant saying that I might be gone for a while. I''m going back to the Sect and see if there is a way to help Nina and her Brother." Bai and the others accepted the orders and split right after. "Are you sure you wanna get involved?" That was Zule''s voice coming from his Spatial Ring. As a Spatial Type Treasure, hearing and seeing what is happening outside the Spatial Ring was easy. That being said, he knows very well what Krune is going through. "I have no other choice. Nina was captured because I brought her to this city. If I had left everyone back in Immai, such a thing wouldn''t have happened. I''m the type that can''t simply look into this situation without doing anything." Zule then made a suggestion. "It might be dangerous, but I doubt you will simply hear what I have to say. In that case, what about destroying their cultivation once more and use a blood contract. That way, they will be forced to tell the truth with a blood contract. As long as they don''t have anything to do with the Three Peaks Sect, the City Guards shouldn''t have a reason to hold the siblings, right? As for their foundation, they can simply cultivate again with your help." Krune shook his head. "The problem is their bloodline. The Sect already confirmed that they are descendants of the Three Peaks Sect Master. That alone is more than enough to keep her in custody, even if she is unaware of anything. I have to get the help of someone with enough authority in the Sect." Zule couldn''t help but say. "But you don''t know anyone like that. Who would help you?" Krune smiled before saying. "I have a faint idea, leave it to me. There is one point in this whole story that is still bugging me, so I will go there to confirm it." Zule was taken aback. Now, his interest was picked. Later that day, Krune was already back in the Sky Shifting Sect. He went to the registration office and got some information before leaving. Without wasting time, he used the Sect''s teleport and appeared in the area where the disciples lived. The majority of the disciples preferred to stay in the Sect during their free time. After all, Godly Energy in this place was a lot higher than outside. That''s because the Sky Shifting Sect was also built above a Godly Energy Vein. It''s just that it wasn''t as good as the Mountain Range Top Quality Veins. However, you could cultivate here without being worried about a battle starting at any moment. Krune ran between the buildings and quickly reached an unremarkable courtyard, just like all the others. ''It''s here.'' Chapter 607: The Real One As soon as Krune arrived, someone opened the courtyard and came out. "Hey, Krune! I saw you outside with my Divine Sense. Come in, come in!" It was none other than Tulike, the guy who had joined the Sky Shifting Sect with him and Iem. Krune nodded and entered the courtyard. Tulike then brought him to a living room where both could talk. When he arrived there, he noticed that the room was connected to the kitchen. Although he couldn''t see inside, he could tell by the noise that someone was cooking something. Tulike didn''t mind it and began to talk. "It''s the first time you came to visit me. Usually, it''s always me who goes to your restaurant to eat. Hahaha! Anyway, do you need anything?" Krune returned his attention to Tulike and went straight to the point. "It was you who sent the City Guards to check Nina and Lino, wasn''t it?" Tulike showed a puzzled expression. "What you mean?" Krune sighed and continued. "Those two siblings have the bloodline of the Earth Dragon Sect Master of the Three Peaks. However, it is way too diluted. Even if the Sky Shifting Sect has a way to find his descendants through their bloodlines, it is not like they can do a long-range search. Nina and Lino''s bloodline is diluted to the point that they don''t show any characteristics of the Earth Dragon Bloodline. Because of that, a test would need to be made very close to them. Simply put, unless the Sky Shifting Sect knew where to look, they shouldn''t have noticed those two presences." "Ever since I opened my restaurant, I received a lot of customers. I also got quite a few disciples of the Sky Shifting Sect. No doubt, Lino and Nina had been seen a few times by them. Still, no one noticed anything strange about the two. To be honest, even I didn''t know that they had an Earth-Dragon bloodline." "Between the disciples, you were the one who appeared most of the time. You even came into the kitchen a few times to talk, and I didn''t mind since we were friends. However, that also leads to the fact that the only one who could have told the Sect about her Earth Dragon Bloodline was you." Tulike showed a shocked expression. "That doesn''t make sense. Let alone that I didn''t know that Nina and Lino were descendants of the Earth Dragon Sect Master. I wasn''t the only one who saw them. You said it yourself. How come you are so sure that I was the one who did it? Maybe it even wasn''t a member of the Sky Shifting Sect, but some of the other customers instead." Krune smiled before saying. "Simple. Between everyone I know in the Sky Shifting Sect, you were the only one close enough to me to vouch for my innocence. Other than you, absolutely no one else would have risked covering someone involved with a descendant of the Earth Dragon Sect Master." "Tulike... You are not just a simple disciple of the Sect. Who are you?" Tulike kept showing a shocked expression for a few more seconds. It was as if he didn''t know what to say about that accusation. However, Krune''s expression was firm. He was absolutely sure that it all led to Tulike. At the very least, Tulike was connected to someone who would have such authority. In the end, Tulike''s shocked expression disappeared, and he sighed. "Well, I didn''t expect that you would notice this easy. Still, you know I could simply have denied everything and left you in the dark, right?" Krune nodded. "Yes. But this was my only clue. Everything pointed to you. If you still denied in the end, I would really be without choices anymore. By the way, how did you find out their Earth Dragon bloodline? As I said, it is way too diluted, no one noticed it at all. Even I, who had stayed with them for the longest, didn''t know." Tulike kept looking at Krune. But just as he was about to reply, a man came out of the kitchen with a few simple dishes. He served Krune and Tulike before returning to the kitchen once more. Krune looked at that and was quite impressed. Although the food was made with ordinary ingredients, they were really well prepared. Even he didn''t know if he could have done better. "You have quite a good chef serving you. I''m impressed." Tulike heard his words and couldn''t help but laugh out loud. "I know, right? He really is excellent." Tulike then went back to the previous topic. "Anyway, you asked me how I found out about the siblings'' bloodline. It was during one of the times I came into the kitchen. At that moment, you were teaching Nina directly. You told me to wait since it was a delicate moment, so I didn''t say anything while looking at her work. At some point, she cut herself, which drew some blood. Of course, that was barely enough to make a drop. However, it was at that moment that I noticed the Earth Dragon Bloodline in her." "The guys in the City Guards Headquarters told you about the Godly Equipment that we have to detect the bloodline, right?" Krune nodded once more. "Well, it just so happens that I have one of those." Tulike took out a small transparent bead. Inside, there was a droplet of blood. It was so small that it was hard to see at all. Still, Krune could guess that it was probably Agaran''s Blood in there. The guard who talked with Krune told him that the Sky Shifting Sect Master had acquired the Three Peak Sect''s Master blood in the past during their battles. That was obviously some of it. "The moment her blood came out, I felt a faint ripple from this bead. It only happens when a descendant of Agaran appears. At that moment, I knew who she really was. Since she had a brother, I didn''t need to overthink to understand that he was also the same." Krune couldn''t help but sigh. "So she was just unlucky to have bumped into you. Alright, that pretty much explains how she was found out. However, it doesn''t explain why you vouched for my innocence. Also, even if you did, a new disciple of the Sect shouldn''t have the authority to stop the Sect from capturing me. That brings the second question. Who are you?" Tulike laughed before saying. "I don''t have all that authority you talked about. I''m far from that. The one who has it is my mother." "Your mother?" Tulike nodded. "Yes. Her name is Franlia Katuas." This time, Krune was really shocked by what he heard. "The God Core Realm Sect Master?!" Tulike looked at Krune''s expression and laughed even more. "Hahaha! I knew you would be like that. It was worth waiting for so long." Krune came back to himself. "No, wait! I checked the information available on the network. It is said that Franlia has never had a child before, nor does she have a husband. How come you became her son out of nowhere?" Tulike shrugged his shoulders. "That''s what the outside world believes. However, my mother is the Sect Master and a God Core Realm cultivator. Do you think there are many cultivators and demon beasts out there that can spy on her affairs? I strongly doubt so. Hahaha!" Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Why did you tell me that? Wasn''t it supposed to be a secret? What if you become a target of the other sects?" This time, Tulike looked at Krune as if he was an idiot. "And who would believe you?" "Ah!" Krune had to admit that Tulike is right. He is just a puny Divine View Realm ''cultivator.'' He is someone who had just joined the Sect and without any background to speak of. Even if he goes outside announcing to everyone what he found out, no one will buy it. At most, others would think he is trying to trick them for their money or something like that. After all, the other sects like the Flower River and Three Peaks definitely have spies inside the Sky Shifting Sect. Until now, no one found out that the Sect Master has a child. Then why would Krune, a nobody, find about it that easily? Ha! What a joke! Tulike smiled before asking. "By the way, you wouldn''t tell anyone to start with, right?" Krune answered with another question. "Why do you think that?" Tulike shrugged his shoulders. "Because we are friends? You are not the type who would ever put your friends at risk. That much, I''m sure. At the very least, that''s the impression you gave me during this time we had interacted with each other." Krune''s eyes narrowed. "Indeed. I would rather take the hard path other than putting my friends at risk. However, are you a friend?" Krune continued. "I used a blood contract on Nina in the past before she reached the Divine Soul Realm. I can guarantee that she had no idea about her bloodline before. Since that is the case, would you release her? She is completely innocent in this situation. If you are my friend, you should at least help me with it." Tulike shook his head after hearing that. "I told you, I don''t have the authority to make that decision. As for Nina and her Brother, I had no choice but to report them. It was nothing personal. It was my duty as a Sky Shifting Sect Member." Krune knew that it was true. There is a war at the moment. If he was in Tulike''s place, he probably would have done the same. At this moment, the man who was in the kitchen came out once more. He began to clean the table where Krune and Tulike just ate. Krune smiled and then returned his attention to Tulike. "Would you mind talking with your mother once more? You already asked her to let me out of this. Could you do the same thing again? At least, let me see her and talk." Tulike nodded as he looked at the man cleaning the table. "Dad, do you think mon will come out for dinner today?" The man looked at Tulike. "She should be. Today we have Myriad Life Herbs Soup for dinner. You know how much she likes that, so she would come unless she had something important to do." Krune was shocked by what he heard. The servant was, in fact, Tulike''s father! If that''s the case, he is also the Sect Master''s hidden husband! Krune quickly spread his Divine Sense and promptly confirmed. He couldn''t see the man''s cultivation at all! Chapter 608: Memory Seal "Cough, cough... I didn''t know he was your father. Sorry if I offended you." The man shook his head. "There is no need to apologize. I''m just an old man who likes to cook, that''s all." Krune then thought about something. "Oh, right! I understand that Tulike somehow trusts me, but why would his mother? Could it be that it has something to do with senior being a Spiritual Chef too?" The old man''s brown raised a little. "Why you say that?" Krune then explained. "Well, as a Spiritual Chef myself, I can see a lot of the other chefs'' personalities through their dishes. That''s not something that only I can do either. Most of the Spiritual Chefs I interacted with, especially the one who showed me this path, could also more or less do it." The old man smiled. "The Spiritual Chefs'' most important trait, the love for food. This is the absolute requirement to become one. Obviously, we all can more or less judge a character through their cooking skills." Krune nodded. "Tulike didn''t always eat in my restaurant. Sometimes he would be in a hurry, so I would make Spiritual Food for him to bring it with him. I guess he brought some of it to senior, right?" The man laughed out loud and didn''t try to deny it. "You got me. Indeed, way before Tulike found about your employee''s bloodline, I had the chance of trying your food. That''s why I told him that you could be trusted. I can see this much in the way you prepared the food and the care for those who eat it. Such a person would never betray his friends. So it was indeed me who told Franlia to let you off the hook." "However, the thing about the Earth Dragon Bloodline is outside my reach. You will need to see if you can convince her by yourself. Well, you could say that you are already quite lucky that you even have a chance to talk with Franlia. It''s hard for others to get an audience with her in times of peace, let alone during the war." Krune nodded once more and bowed to thank the man. "By the way, how should I call you, senior?" "You can simply call me Rag. I have no status in the Sect, and only a handful knows about my existence to start with. I''m somewhat accomplished in cultivation, but I''m far from being a match to my wife. Hahaha!" Tulike shrugged his shoulder after that. "Well, that''s basically the truth. The one who really liked you was my father. After all, I know nothing about Spiritual Food other than eating it. However, I trust my father''s judgment, so I really consider you a friend." Krune talked with Tulike and Rag for some time before Rag returned to the kitchen. Krune had nothing to do, so he also accompanied Rag there, and they began to talk about their food ideas. Rag was a lot better at cooking Spiritual Food. After all, his rank was several times higher than Krune. Still, Rag was quite pleased with Krune''s ingenuity. Without a doubt, Krune and Rag were having quite some fun during their talk. As for Tulike, he went somewhere else since he couldn''t really understand much about Spiritual Food. It was better to leave those two foodies alone. Time passed in a flash, and without Krune or Rag noticing, night time came. It was then that Tulike entered the kitchen with a woman. However, neither Krune nor Rag saw the two coming inside. At that moment, they were looking at the food on a pan. Rag was concentrated in the harmonization time as Krune didn''t lose a single detail. That was an idea that popped out while they were talking. Only a few minutes later did Rag finally finish the dish. It was also at that moment that the two of them noticed Tulike and the woman. Krune didn''t need to think much to understand who she was. "Hello, senior, my name is Krune. Thanks for not locking me up as well." The woman was obviously Franlia Katuas, the Sect Master of the Sky Shifting Sect. "I only did that because Tulike and my husband vouched for you. Also, I believe you should know, everyone thinks I''m single. Don''t go around opening your mouth. Well, no one would believe you anyway, but just in case." Krune nodded. "I wouldn''t dare. The reason I came by was so that I could ask Sect Master to release my two employees. Nina and Lino might have Agaran''s bloodline, but they didn''t even know about that until the day they were caught. During the time Nina was below the Core Formation Realm, I used a blood contract on her, so I can guarantee that she isn''t lying." Franlia looked at Tulike and Rag with a weird expression. "Didn''t you tell him about that?" Tulike shrugged his shoulder before saying. "I thought it would be better for mother to be here too. I would give more credibility." Krune was confused. He had no idea what they were talking about. Franlia sighed in the end. "I don''t know this food character relation that my husband talked about. If it was me, I would just have killed you and your employees before locking those siblings. However, Rag kept nagging me about it, so I decided to take his word. Consider yourself lucky." "As for releasing Nina and Lino, that won''t happen. You didn''t need to use a Blood Contract to see if your employee had talked the truth or not. I''m 100% sure that she didn''t lie to you. Krune was taken aback. "Then, why? Is it so that you can use them as hostages?" Franlia heard that and laughed out loud. "Hostage? Although Nina and Lino will have some uses, being hostages is the last of them. The Three Peaks Sect wouldn''t give a damn whether they were captured or not. Why do you think it is?" Krune pondered a bit before saying. "The number of descendants. Their Sect Master got his wife thousands of years ago. Without a doubt, descendants are what he lacks the least. Am I correct?" Franlia smiled as she nodded her head. "It''s good that you understand. That being said, why do you think Nina and Lino appeared somewhere remote like Immai City, which is so far away from their Sect?" Krune could think about a single possibility. "I see... So it was really on purpose. Could it be some type of training?" Franlia confirmed. "Smart! That''s how the descendants that don''t have much talent are trained. It''s not only the Sect Master''s descendants, a lot of the Three Peaks Sect Elders like to do the same thing. The kid''s memories are sealed, and they are sent to several different corners of the planet. This is also done while they are very young, usually between three to eight years old. It depends a lot on their parents'' mood." "Once alone, they will need to struggle to survive. If they die in the process, it means they were too weak or unlucky. Since they didn''t have any worth talent to start with, it doesn''t matter if they are gone. However, if they win over the adversities and rise above the others, they will be called back into the Sect. At least, they proved that they were strong enough to be considered a real descendant of the Sect Master." Krune understood where she was coming from. "So as to say, that Seal on their memories will be released once they reach a certain level of cultivation. Is that what you mean?" "Correct. Usually, it happens when they reach the Divine Path Realm. All the sealed memories will come out. There is also the case of the children who didn''t have any memories before being sent away. Together with this Seal, there is a set of memories that will be released into their Divine Senses and enter their souls at that cultivation level. So even if they didn''t know about the Three Peaks Sect, they would still understand that they are part of them." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "What about their own decision? Would they simply go back to the Three Peaks Sect just because they found out from where they came? By that time, they would already have formed their own character and opinions, right?" Tulike scratched the back of his head as he explained that part. "Unfortunately, it isn''t that simple. That set of memories left behind on the Seal will take priority over the owners'' memories. It won''t wipe them out, but those descendants will instead think that they simply went through a test. After that, unless their previous memories were really important to them, they will simply go back to the Three Peaks Sect. Also, in case such memories were really that important, chances are that those descendants will try to bring it all back to the Sect with them." Krune narrowed his eyes after hearing that. He knew why this Seal was so effective. That was because it was set while the descendants were only babies. They had no real ''will'' at that point, so it was easy to force the Seal onto them. It then became a time bomb, just waiting for the right time. If they never reach the Divine Path Realm, they could live a normal life in case they don''t die. However, with the help Krune gave Nina and Lino, they will definitely reach that Realm sooner or later. Krune came back to himself and then asked what really mattered. "Is there a way to get rid of that Seal?" Chapter 609: Godly Veins Franlia shrugged her shoulder. "There is no safe method. You can only rip it apart by force. Of course, I might be wrong, and there is a safe method, but I don''t know any. The problem is that it is put on the Soul when they were babies. During the next few years, the Seal will completely attach itself to it." "However, once you rip it apart, chances are that you will damage or even destroy the Soul. You can think about it as if the Seal has been glued to the Soul. Once you take it out, it will inevitably pull some of it together. There is nothing I can do about it." Krune pondered a bit before asking. "What if they are fed with soul Healing Pills after the Seal is removed, would they recover?" Franlia nodded. "Well, if you can afford the resources for it, then it should be possible. Don''t expect me or the sect to pay for it, though. Also, be aware that they might lose some of their memories when you pull the Seal by force, which won''t be recovered even if the Soul is healed." Krune didn''t mind the price. He already knows a few recipes that can heal the Soul. Besides, he still has three Life Dew Pills, which can instantly recover one''s Soul as long as they aren''t above the Void Breaking Realm. His only doubt is if it would be as effective to beings of the Godly Path Realm. Krune then turned his attention to Luvile in his foundation. ''Even if the Life Dew Pill isn''t strong enough to fully heal those at the Void Breaking Realm and below, it should still have some effect. Nina and Lino are still in the Soul Forging Realm, so it should be even stronger on them. There is only one doubt. Maybe I could use the Purple Tribulation Lightning. What do you think?'' Luvile denied that notion. ''That''s a bad idea. My Purple Tribulation Lightning is a lot stronger in a world with Godly Energy. If you miss how much power to use by a little bit, chances are they you would pulverize those siblings'' souls.'' Krune narrowed his eyes. ''What about you? If I leave the Purple Tribulation Lightning for you to control, you should be able to destroy it without killing the Soul, right?'' Luvile confirmed that. ''That should be possible. However, I don''t know what kind of countermeasures was left behind in that Seal. Chances are that I might trigger some kind of restriction that will destroy their souls once I start. You need to think straight. Do you really think there would be nothing protecting that Seal? Franlia, on the other hand, probably knows a way around it. You will have a better chance if you ask her. If I''m not wrong, this is not the first descendant of the Dragon Guy that she found. She seems to be very knowledgeable about this situation.'' Krune had to admit that Luvile was right. He then returned his attention to Franlia before asking. "You said that it is possible to remove the Seal by brute force. However, I''m sure that the Seal has some kind of protection left behind too. Do you know about it?" Franlia smiled before nodding. "Correct. There are indeed restrictions left in the Seal that prevent it from being removed." Krune nodded. "In that case, I believe you probably know a way around it. Would Sect Master be willing to tell me about it?" Franlia didn''t mind. "The reason we know how to proceed is that we found quite a few of those descendants of Agaran or the other elders of the Three Peaks Sect before. So we have tried a few things before to remove the Seal without destroying the Soul. Just don''t ask why we did it. As you can imagine, most of them died in the tests, but we did figure out a way that won''t ruin the Soul. However, it is still risky and needs a lot of materials related to the Soul." Krune sighed in relief. As long as there was a way to help, he could work around it. "Good! Senior, please make a list of the materials that are needed. I''ll gather all of them." Everyone in the room began to laugh when they heard that, which puzzled Krune. "Sorry, sorry. It''s just that you said you would gather all the materials. I might as well tell you, someone at your cultivation level would not be able to do it. They are really expensive, and you will need an enormous amount of merit points if you want to buy them too." Krune was taken aback. They knew he was a Spiritual Chef, so it was evident that he can make quite some Godly Stones. Still, they said that it would be very expensive even for him. Just how costly would the materials be? Franlia knew what Krune was thinking, so she sent a Divine Sense message with all the items for the Seal Removal. When Krune looked at the names, his mouth twitched. He didn''t know more than half of them. But for the ones he knew, they were indeed extremely expensive. He would need to work in the restaurant for several years to afford all of that. Let alone the price of those he didn''t know about. "This..." Tulike couldn''t help but pat Krune''s shoulder. "Now you know why we wouldn''t pay for your employees. It is not worth our efforts to do so." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Is there really no other way to gather them?" Franlia simply shook her head. "That depends on you alone." Finally, she grew tired of the conversation and said. "Alright, where is my soup? I want to eat." Rag laughed and went back to finish preparing the food. Franlia also headed to the table when suddenly, Tulike gave her a suggestion. "Mother, what about the sealed spaces in the Godly Veins? We are in need of disciples to enter those places to claim the Top Grade Godly Stones, no? If you let him in and he gathers enough Top Grade Godly Stones, we could trade it by the materials you mentioned." Franlia immediately shook her head. "That''s out of the question. Those sealed spaces are too dangerous for someone of his level." Tulike insisted. "But we can''t send anyone above the Divinity Realm either since those sealed spaces would not support their strength. Krune is already in the 8th Stage of the Divine View Realm, and he is definitely much stronger than those in the same realm as him. The groups we always send in have three Divinity Realms'' leaders, with the rest being Semi-Divinity Realm ones. That was the rule set up in the agreement. I''m sure Krune is at least as strong as an average Semi-Divinity Realm." Franlia narrowed her eyes and began to ponder. As for Rag, he didn''t have anything to do with it, so he kept preparing the food. Krune couldn''t help but ask. "What are you talking about?" Tulike then explained. "Due to those Top Quality Godly Energy Veins, the areas around became giant Godly Stone Mines. Other than the extraordinary amount of Godly Energy present in the area, the Godly Stones are also of much higher quality. You know this much, right? Krune nodded and waited for Tulike to continue. "The thing you don''t know is that there are Top Quality Godly Stones available as well. However, those ones only appear in the sealed areas of the Mountain Range. It wasn''t us who sealed those places, but the Godly Veins themselves." "Those Godly Veins are the best there is. Their power of Godly Energy Generation is unmatched. However, due to the extreme amount of time and Godly Energy emanating from them, the space around has been affected. Those several Top Quality Godly Energy Veins ended creating their own sealed spaces, which are really chaotic and unstable due to the amount of Godly Energy available." "If we send anyone above the Divinity Realm in there, the space would collapse. If that happens, all the Top Quality Godly Stones would be destroyed. Not to mention that if you aren''t at least at the God Core Realm, you will die if you are inside. That being said, we can only send Divinity Realm and below cultivators and demon beasts." "Of course, you don''t need to be afraid of damaging the Godly Energy Vein itself. Even if space collapses, the Vein will remain unscathed. Still, we really can''t let those Top Quality Godly Stones go that easily." Krune understood what they meant. "So, If I go in and help acquire the Top Quality Godly Stones, you wouldn''t mind providing me the Materials for the Seal removal, right?" Tulike nodded and then warned Krune. "Correct. However, you must understand that it is very dangerous. Spatial tears appear everywhere in that place. That is only one of the problems. We can''t send people anytime we want. Most of the time, those spaces are too chaotic to be entered." "Still, once every year or so, the surrounding sealed space around the Godly Vein stabilizes enough for others to pass through the space barrier. It will continue like that for one week, and then it will return to the same craziness as before. Our disciples need to use this time to take the Top Quality Godly Stones." "Unfortunately, we aren''t the only ones keeping an eye at those sealed spaces. The other two sects also want those stones very much. For us to prevent the spaces from collapsing due to the excessive battles inside, the three sects reached an agreement. There can only be one group of each side entering together. The rest is decided by their skills." Krune got excited! That''s exactly what he and Iem needed. They wanted to have combat experience, which will definitely happen. At the same time, Krune can get the materials to help the siblings. Not to mention he will get merit points to buy the things he also needs. It was simply perfect. Chapter 610: Ridiculous Thoughts Franlia was still somewhat doubtful. "Are you really going this far just for some employees of your restaurant? I heard they worked for you for a few years, but it has nothing to do with you to start with." Krune sighed before saying. "I was me who brought the two of them to Capivari City, so I can''t just let it go. I understand that Sect Master must keep them locked due to the circumstances; I only ask to give me the chance of setting their Souls free. If the Seal in their souls is resolved, there shouldn''t be any problems." Tulike also gave Krune some help. "Mother, they are just two puny Soul Forging Realm cultivators, what risk would be there? For the Sect itself, it would make no difference. After all, the Three Peaks Sect wouldn''t care whether they lived or died. The Earth Dragon Bloodline in their bodies is also too thin, so it can''t be extracted for our use." Franlia narrowed her eyes as she looked at her son''s face. In the end, she just sighed and nodded. "Alright. But I won''t give Krune any help during it. If you die inside the Godly Vein Sealed Space, that is your problem. I''m only doing it because my husband and Tulike insisted, so don''t expect any more help after it." Krune immediately thanked her. After that, he also thanked Tulike, who was beside him. "Hahaha! There is no need to be this tense. How many times did you let me jump ahead of the queue to eat your Spiritual Food? Consider it my repayment for that. Besides, I haven''t made much. The real challenge comes later." Krune shook his head. "That is wrong. Your father is a much more experienced Spiritual Chef than me. You could have asked him for the food anytime you wanted." Rag, who was bringing the soup to the table, immediately shook his head. "That''s not true. I might not be known in the Sect, but I''m often busy. That being said, it is good that he can go out and find other Spiritual Chefs to eat." Krune smiled and didn''t try to say anything. Even though Tulike''s real identity is hidden, Krune is certain that he could get a personal Spiritual Chef if he really wanted. Let alone have somewhere else to eat. But since they don''t want to mention it, Krune won''t point it out either. He will simply remember this act of kindness in the future. Krune didn''t blame Tulike for telling the Sect about her bloodline. As the son of the Sky Shifting Sect Master, it was his duty to report such a thing. Krune would have been more concerned if he hadn''t done that instead. "Why are you so noisy? I''m hungry, so bring food!" Franlia ignored them and asked for the food. Rag laughed and quickly served her. Krune was also invited by him since he was Tulike''s friend. Franlia finished eating quite fast, though. As soon as she was done, she went out without saying anything. Krune understood why. She is, after all, the Sect Master. Not to mention, this is wartime. She couldn''t stay away from the Sect''s affairs for too long. Krune couldn''t help but think how lucky he was to have come right on the same day as she would be here. Later that Night, Krune left the Sect and went back to the place where Nina and Lino were being held. Thanks to Tulike, he wasn''t impeded from talking with them once more. "Master!" "Chef Krune!" Nina and Lino came close to the Formation as soon as they saw Krune. They were worried since Krune went to the Sect to help them. However, due to their status, it could instead have caused a lot of problems for Krune. After all, trying to help possible spies of the Sect they were in war with wouldn''t look very good. "Hahaha! Don''t worry, I''m fine. I only went there to talk with a friend, that''s all." He talked with them for a little while until suddenly, his expression changed. He then sent the siblings a Mental Energy Message. "I''ve found more about your situation. To be honest, it''s not very good. It goes like this..." Krune then explained everything about the Three Peaks Sect rules. How they were sent out with their memories sealed and how those memories would resurge after the Divine Path Realm. He also explained about the new memories that would impose their actual ones when the Seal was lifted. How it would make them think that they were always part of the Three Peaks Sect. Nina and Lino were taken aback when they heard it. "No wonder we were locked even though we don''t know anything. Even if they destroyed our cultivations and used blood contracts to force us to talk the truth, we wouldn''t be able to say anything. We have a time bomb placed in our Souls..." Krune nodded with a severe expression. "However, I found a way to help you two destroy this Seal. Still, you must understand that it will damage your souls. Chances are that you will lose quite a few memories too." Nina and Lino''s expression changed once more. "Would we forget about you or the fact that we are siblings?" Krune shook his head. "I don''t know. The soul is too complex for anyone to say what would happen. However, if you don''t want to become other people in the future, this is the only choice. I can heal your souls after, but the memories lost will not come back." Nina pondered about it. Her greatest fear was to forget her little brother and Krune. But in the end, she showed a determined expression and spoke. "If I try it, I might forget about you two. If I don''t, I will not forget you, but I won''t consider any of you as important anymore. For me, the second option is several times scarier. I want my Seal removed." Lino sighed before shrugging his shoulders. "Well, if my sister says so, then I''ll be doing the same." He looked at Krune and took the chance to ask something else. "By the way, how exactly will you remove the Seals on our souls?" Krune shook his head. "Unfortunately, I can''t tell you now. It has something to do with the Sect''s secrets, and I promised that I wouldn''t say anything. I''m sorry." Nina felt that something was wrong. "Master. You will not do anything dangerous just because of us, right? You already helped us too much that neither of us can thank you enough. We don''t want you to put your life at risk just because of something like that." "Don''t forget, as long as we don''t enter the Divine Path Realm, the Seal will not be lifted. Lino and I can still live a happy life until we run out of lifespan." Lino agreed with Nina. After all, their chances of ever reaching the Divine Path Realm was almost nonexistent before Krune appeared in their lives. They would simply go back to what they were, so they didn''t think it was a big deal. Krune smiled. Those two would rather stop cultivating and giving up their dreams than put him at risk. Especially Nina, who always wanted to become a Spiritual Chef so much. Wasn''t it a reason good enough to try even harder? At least for Krune, he didn''t need anything more than that. "Well, there are some risks, but you don''t need to worry." Nina and Lino were about to say something when Krune raised his hand and stopped them. "I''m not doing it for you alone. I''m also doing it for myself. The agreement I reached with the Sky Shifting Sect would both help you two and me at the same time. In fact, not only me, but it will also help Iem. Since I''m gaining some advantages while at it, then I had no reason to refuse." "But-" "No buts! I''ve already decided. Anyway, that''s all I had to say, I''ll come back another time. Make sure to take care of each other. Also, don''t worry, no one will do anything to you two while you are here." Before Nina or Lino could say anything, Krune turned around and left. Lino sighed and then looked at the teary eyes of his sister. He immediately understood. Her feelings for Krune would become even deeper now. ''What will I do when the time comes for her to confront those feelings?'' Lino had no idea. ''Chef Krune is married and obviously only has his wife in his head. He made this point very clear several times. Still, he goes this far for the others. If I was a woman, I probably would fall in love with him too.'' *pah!* Nina was startled by that sound and quickly turned around. I was then that she noticed her brother''s swollen face. Obviously, he hit himself pretty hard. "Why did you do that?" Lino shook his head. "Don''t worry, I just had some ridiculous thoughts." Chapter 611: Zules Request The Sealed Spaces around the Godly Energy Veins opened once every year or so. However, there were quite a few Godly Veins, so there were quite a few Sealed spaces. That being said, it wouldn''t take long for the next one to open. Krune talked with Tulike and told him that Iem was no weaker than himself, so he would like to have him coming. Tulike didn''t mind accepting it since he participated in the same Sect Entrance test with them. He knows that Krune is telling the truth. "Oh, right! Why did you participate in the exam if you are a member of the sect?" Tulike laughed before saying. "That''s because it is fun. I like to compete against the new disciples every time they appear. I can see several types of abilities and get a lot of experience from it too." Krune pondered a bit and had to admit it was true, especially now during the wartime. A good example were those members of the Rermil Clan, which came to enjoy the benefits. They were very strong, without a doubt. Later, Krune went to the Formations Master Guild and called Iem out. "What is it?" Krune then explained everything that happened. Iem''s eyes lit up when he heard that he would be able to enter the Godly Veins'' Sealed Spaces. That would be perfect for him since he could battle other stronger opponents with cultivation above his own. Not to mention the merit point he would acquire. However, he was in doubt about something. "Are you sure it is okay to believe them? It seems kinda fishy." Krune shrugged his shoulders. "What do you think an 8th Stage Divine View Realm ''cultivator'' could do if they wanted to catch me? But in the end, they didn''t, so I guess it is fine to trust their side. Besides, I can''t leave Nina and Lino like that. Don''t worry, as long as we don''t reveal our Heavenly Fragments or Core, we should be fine. If they suspected that we had such things, we wouldn''t be walking freely like now." Iem nodded in the end. "Hahaha! Great! Then I''m looking forward to the day the next Godly Vein opens." Krune nodded and was just about to leave when he remembered something else. "Oh, right! With the merit points we got when we joined the sect, we can buy a few things already. I''m going to use it to get some materials to forge new Purple Flame Shields. I already got used to their forging system and can make similarly strong equipment. You know the effect of my Purple Flame Equipments, do you want me to forge you anything?" Iem shook his head. "You should have understood already that my beast weapon is my crystalization ability. Your weapons are powerful, but I still prefer to rely on my body. Just concentrate on your own things." Krune nodded. "By the way, can you already draw equipment formations? My shields usually use Energy Transfering Formations, so I would like to have the same thing with my new ones." Iem patted his chest before saying. "Don''t worry. I might not have finished comprehending the God-Level formations completely, but I do know enough to make a few equipment formations. Just pass your shields to me, and I''ll draw the energy transfer formations on them." Krune was delighted to hear that. He could use his shields without those formations, but it wouldn''t be the same thing. He would need to keep track of how much energy they still had. Fortunately, Iem can do that for him. "Excellent! I''m going back to prepare everything. Oh, right! The sect will send information about when the next sealed space opens, so pay attention to your communicator." Iem nodded, and the two separated. Krune made his way back to his restaurant. Looking at the closed doors, he couldn''t help but sigh. Still, he quickly put those thoughts behind and entered, quickly making his way to his room. After that, he opened his communicator and accessed the Blacksmith Network. ''Let''s see, good conductor materials... I don''t know much about the metals available in the Godly Path Realm, so it will take some time to browse everything. Perhaps I can find Lightning Tribulation ores here too... No, that wouldn''t happen. Tribulations only occur at the Mortal Rejection Realm Breakthrough. That means that any Tribulation Ore would be at that level as well, I wouldn''t be able to use it.'' Krune then switched to ordinary lightning type materials and spent his next two days looking for it. Finally, he found something that caught his attention. -Hundred Years Myriad Lightning Ores.- ''Oh! This Lightning Metal is artificially made by the Thunderclap Sect. They use five types of lightings to nurture it for a hundred years, transforming into an ore highly compatible with various lightning abilities.'' Krune kept reading the description and couldn''t help but nod, satisfied. It wasn''t any heaven-defying material, but it was quite a good one. Besides, it could be acquired with the number of merit points he got from passing the Sect Entrance Exam. As for the Godly Stones, his years working as Spiritual Chef got him more than enough to pay for them. Krune quickly went back to the Blacksmith Hall in the sect and passed his badge over. The disciple there retracted his merit points and received the Godly Stones payment. "The Thunderclap Sect confirmed your order. They will send it via teleportation in an hour. You can wait in your workshop, and we will deliver it to you as soon as it arrives." Krune thanked the disciple and did as he said. After one hour or so, Krune got his new ores delivered in his room. He quickly closed the concealing formation after that and began his forging. Krune could already forge Stars View Equipment, which was also his own level. The Sky Shifting Sect workshop was also very good for the refinement of the ores. Krune was really having a good time while he prepared his new shields. In just half a day, Krune finished his first Myriad Lightning Shield. He raised it and infused Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning. ''Great! The Purple Tribulation Lightning can run unimpeded. Although it is not as good as a Tribulation Lightning-Type Ore, it is still more than enough for my level.'' Krune then filled it with his Spiritual Energy. Sure enough, ethereal purple flames appeared around it. Not only that, but his Purple Flames effect seemed a lot more potent than before. ''Is it because I made the shield using Godly Energy?'' Luvile understood what Krune was thinking. "Don''t forget, my Purple Tribulation Lightning and its Laws originated in the Higher Realms. Obviously, it is several times better with Godly Energy. You Purple Flames are made with it, so they obviously increased the power of the Purple Flames on the finished product." Krune nodded. "This is good enough already." Krune then put that Myriad Lightning Shield in his Spatial Ring and began to forge the next ones. While he was doing it, Zule looked trough the process. After Krune finished his fifth shield, Zule couldn''t hold his curiosity anymore and asked. "I''ve never seen this kind of effect in a piece of equipment before. Do you think you could use it to reforge the equipment I''m in?" Krune was taken aback. "Reforge your the treasure holding you? Aren''t you a Nascent God Level equipment? I don''t think I can do that. Besides, yours is a piece of broken equipment, no? Wouldn''t it be risky? I don''t know how it was forged, so chances are that I would completely break your pyramid treasure in the process. If that happens, you will lose most of your power to control space. Maybe even your sentience will be damaged or destroyed. You must understand that this Purple Flame is really tyrannical, so I''m not sure how much it could affect you." Zule didn''t seem to mind, though. "It''s okay. Since I''m the one inside, I obviously know very well how it was forged. Besides, I don''t think I''ll ever be able to conceal myself from the Nascent Gods if I keep the treasure broken. If you want me to be gone one day, I will have to get fixed." Krune narrowed his eyes and pondered a bit about it. "First, I want you to give me all the information about your forging process. Only then can I give you an answer on whether I can do it or not." Zule''s small projection eyes lit up. "Great! I''ll send everything through Divine Sense message." Krune nodded and closed his eyes. Right after, Zule''s Divine Sense spread as it passed Krune everything he needed to know. Krune couldn''t help but be impressed the more he committed that information to memory. The level of the person who forged it was far beyond his. He found out many things that he could also use in his forging in the future. Truly, it was a wonder! However, he soon narrowed his eyes. "I think I can reforge you, but we have two main issues." Krune took a deep breath and continued. "First, it is my cultivation and skill level. I definitely won''t be able to do such a thing as a Divine View Realm and Stars View Level Blacksmith. At the very least, the Divinity Realm Cultivation and Divinity Stars Blacksmith Level will be necessary." "Last and most important, the materials! Most of them can be found in the Blacksmith Network, but they are rare and expensive. However, the main issue is that one of those items is too hard to acquire. I doubt we will see it selling either. I will need a Condensed Space Fragment." Chapter 612: Zules Creator Space The only places possible to acquire Condensed Space Fragments are blackholes. Those are the most dangerous existences in the Universe, and the ones in the Godly Path Realm are even more so. Space and time around it are unpredictable, let alone the gravity pull. Even a Nascent God would be helpless if he fell inside one of those. A Condensed Space Fragment can be found once a Blackhole''s Quasar comes out. During that moment, Space warps so much that some of it condense. Once that happens, one must be fast and take it before the fragments fall inside the Blackhole itself. As one can imagine, it is extremely dangerous, and even Nascent Gods would probably die if they tried. That''s because those fragments appear way too close to the Blackhole itself. The gravitational pull is so intense that the Nascent Gods trying to get the fragments could instead be trapped by the Blackhole and die within. Not surprisingly, Condensed Space Fragments are incredibly scarce, not to mention that those willing to sell them are almost nonexistent. First of all, those willing to even try to acquire them are hard to find... Or at least, that''s what the information available on the Blacksmith Network said. "There is no way we will be able to find such a thing selling. Even if some appear, the prices that will be offered for them will far surpass what I could ever afford in the short term." Surprisingly, Zule didn''t seem sad. He had a pensive expression on his face instead. Obviously, that information gave him some ideas. "Condensed Space Fragment... If I could get this, would you be able to reforge me?" Krune was taken aback. "Do you know where to find one? I''ll tell you that you can forget about the blackholes themselves, I absolutely won''t get close to it just to fix you." Zule shook his head. "No, I''m talking about an already existing Condensed Space Fragment. You heard before that the ancestor of the Emukran Sect found me, right? He wasn''t the cultivator who created me." Krune nodded. He heard Iridia talking about it before. "What about that?" Zule then continued. "It just so happens that I have an idea about where we can find one or maybe even two or three of those¡ªmy creators'' personal Dimensional Realm. He died when he tried to open a passage to the Lower Realms without paying the price. However, his Dimensional Realm stayed behind. I also know that it is a hidden one, so chances are that it still exists. The only doubt is if someone had found about it already or not." Krune pondered a bit and nodded. "If that place really has the Condensed Space Fragments, then it might have the other materials I would need too. To be honest, I don''t think I would be able to gather the rest of the things anytime soon. They aren''t as hard as the fragments, but they aren''t something that someone at my level could get easily either." Zule nodded, excited. "Great! Then we can go there to take a look later. However, it will have to wait. Your cultivation is way too low to enter my creator''s Dimensional Realm. The restrictions, formations, traps, etc. there would kill you instantly." Krune didn''t think it to be strange. "He was expecting that he could go to the Lower Realm, so he definitely left it well protected. That much, I already expected." Zule agreed with Krune. "Correct. However, too many years have passed already, so those protections most likely lost a lot of the deadly power. Still, Divine View Realm cultivation is too low to get close." There wasn''t anything wrong with that. If there was no one to do manutention in those formations, they would be worn out sooner or later. Nothing can beat time. "What Cultivation Realm do you think I could go there?" Zule pondered about the time and then said. "Divinity Realm. Considering your combat power, you will need that at the very least." Krune sighed in relief. "If that''s the case, then I have a request for you as well. You want me to fix you and go through a lot of danger to do that. You won''t refuse it, right?" Zule nodded. "As long as it is within my abilities, I don''t mind helping you out. You are helping me, too, after all." Krune smiled and then said. "As you can see, my Purple Flames can increase the power of equipment by a lot. You are already a piece of equipment at the peak of the Nascent God Stars Level. If I fix you with Purple Flames, your power will increase even more, theoretically surpassing the limit of the Godly Path Realm. In that case, I want to try to open the Realm Barrier to the Lower Realms once more." Zule was taken aback. "Are you crazy? If I do that, I might have my sentience destroyed by the Godly Path Realm and Mortal Ream Heavens." Krune smiled and then replied. "As I said, you will probably surpass the limit of the realm, so I believe you won''t be at risk of being destroyed. At most, you will be damaged again. But even if that happens, I can fix you once more." Zule still shook his little head, though. "That''s just your conjecture, there is no way to know for sure." Krune then shrugged his shoulders. "Then, I have no need to fix you. I will just wait until I reach the Nascent God Realm and do everything on my own. Why would I go through such a dangerous attempt if I get nothing in return?" Zule narrowed his eyes after hearing that. "In that case, I can simply tell everyone that you are a Heavenly Fragment Owner. You wouldn''t be able to reach that level before you were caught." Krune didn''t mind those words, though. "That would simply allow them to take you as well. You can only keep connected with my Fragments, it won''t work with Iem since he already has a fully merged Heavenly Core. You would be sinking both yours and my boat like that." Zule felt helpless since he knew it was true. Where would he find another Heavenly Fragment''s Owner if he separated from Krune? Hard... way too hard... "There must be something else you want other than that." Krune shook his head. The thing he wanted the most was to go back to the Mortal Realm. Not only him but Luvile too. Wally knew a way to bring him back there, but he said he won''t tell it to Krune. Krune didn''t know if it was true since he needed to go back to take Luvile''s body. However, he is sure that Wally wouldn''t bring him back before his cultivation was much higher than merely Divinity Realm. His only chance was to rely on the ''possible'' Purple Flame Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher. "I don''t want anything else. If I were you, I would accept this idea. After all, once you surpass the limit of the Godly Path Realm with the Purple Flame effect, you might be able to hide straight away from the Heavens and Nascent Gods. It''s definitely a good deal." Zule fell in contemplation after hearing that. ''I could wait for him to fix my treasure and simply ignore this promise... No, he definitely thought about it already. If he offered this deal, that meant he has a way to force me to keep my word.'' Krune then said. "You don''t need to answer it now. I''m still quite far from the Divinity Realm, so you can take this time to think about it. Let me know when you reach a decision." Zule could only nod in the end. He had a lot to consider before making that decision. Krune then returned to his Shield Crafting and ignored everything else. This time, Krune gave up using only 38 Shields. Instead, he increased the number to 102. Not only that, but it was evident that his shields now were somewhat different from the ones he used in the past. At the very least, they definitely had other uses other than attacking and defending. That number wasn''t a problem for Krune to control anymore. With his soul power, he could even control ten times that value. Still, he didn''t want to get distracted while controlling everything, so he kept a safe quantity. As crucial as the shields might be, his own body was the top priority. He couldn''t afford to deviate too much attention from it. Krune got faster and faster as his experience making the new shields increased. At this rate, he would finish them way before he expected. Suddenly, his communicator flashed. Krune looked at the forging process of the next shield and then turned his attention to the message in the communicator. ''So the next Sealed Space began to stabilize. Tulike said that it be good to enter in three and a half weeks, uh?'' Krune returned his attention to his forging and smiled. ''I only need another four or five days to finish all the shields. The only doubt is whether Iem will be able to draw the formations on their backs in time. Still, even if he can''t, using my Myriad Lightning Shields in the old way won''t be that much worse.'' After pondering a bit, Krune put those thoughts behind and concentrated on the forging. Finally, four days later, Krune finished. He looked at all 102 shields and began to think about Feifei. ''I wonder what she would think if she knew what I''ve just done. Hahaha!'' Chapter 613: Preparations After finishing everything, Krune quickly stored the Shields and left the workshop. He went straight to the Formations Guild in the city where Iem had been practicing so far. However, he was surprised when he saw Iem again. "You broke through in the 9th Stage!" Iem couldn''t help but laugh out loud. "Hahaha! I, your grandfather, am obviously amazing. Yes, I broke through two days ago. I used the merit points I got after we joined the Sect to buy a few cultivation resources. With them, I was successful in my breakthrough." They had entered the Sky Shifting Sect so that they could have access to those resources exactly. Iem didn''t waste such a chance and bought them as soon as he could. Krune was happy for him too. So far, only Iem had been able to keep up with his cultivation speed. "Congratulations. It will make the exploration in the Godly Vein much safer. By the way, I brought my shields." Krune then took all the shields out of his Spatial Ring. "Do you think you can finish all 102 of them?" Iem nodded. "We still have three entire weeks, that''s more than enough time. However, these shields... other than the hexagonal shapes, they are very different from those you used when you fought me. Was it supposed to be like this?" Krune laughed. "You can tell, uh? Indeed, they are very different. They now have a new ability, you will see when the time to enter the Godly Vein Sealed Space comes." Iem laughed as well and put the shields away. "Don''t worry, I''ll deliver them back to you in two weeks. You will have another week to practice with them before the grand event. By the way, you said that each Sect can send one group inside of the Godly Vein Sealed Space. I also received the invitation for the next Top Quality Godly Stones exploring. However, I don''t know how the groups are made yet." Krune already expected that question, so he opened his communicator and sent Iem some information. Iem quickly took his one out and read about it. "I see, so we have a total of ten slots for each Sect. Three of them are reserved for Divinity Realm, and the rest can be used by Semi-Divinity Realm or below. Between the Divinity Realms, there can be only one in the late stages, which means between the 7th and 9th. Another one in the middle stages, which is between 4th and 6th. And finally, one in the initial stages, obviously between 1st and 3rd." "It seems there is no such thing as a restriction for how strong the rest are as long as they are below the Divinity Realm." Krune nodded. "Both you and I can fight at the level of ordinary Semi-Divinity Realm late stages. However, those who are going to be sent inside are definitely much stronger than ordinary ones. So chances are that we are weaker than them." Iem shrugged his shoulder. "That is only in case we don''t go all out. If we do, I doubt we will much weaker than them. I still think that it''s the best set up for combat for us. Besides, I very much want to get my hands on a few of these so-called Top Quality Godly Stones. Until today, I haven''t seen any Middle or High-Quality, let alone Top ones." Krune couldn''t help but warn Iem, worried. "Don''t forget that the objective of this mission is to collect these Top-Quality Godly Stones. If you try to hide them for yourself, I believe you will be screwed up once you come out." Iem shook his head. "I''m not that idiot. No doubt God Foundation and maybe even the God Core Realm Masters of those sects will be present to protect us at that time. However, it is said that we can take 1/10 of the Top-Quality Stones we find inside. As long as I get enough, I''ll be able to procure a few for myself." Krune sighed in relief after hearing that. "Then that''s good. Anyway, I''ll leave my shields with you. Call me when you finish them." Iem nodded, and they separated right after. Krune then returned to his Restaurant. He went straight to the kitchen and took a few Semi-Divinity Level Ingredients out. Soon, the smell of Spiritual Food spread in the empty building. Krune was planning to do the same thing as Iem, a breakthrough into the 9th Stage before going in. besides, cooking was very good when he wanted to relax. "Palia Bird Soup, done!" Krune hadn''t eaten Spiritual food in quite a few days, so he was quite pleased to have it again. As mentioned before, the Godly Energy in Spiritual Food can be consumed. Still, it isn''t ownerless like the Godly Energy in the air or Godly Stones. The advantage was that Spiritual Food had a lot more of it inside and was harmonized, speeding up the cultivation. On the other hand, the consumer would need some time to transform that energy into his own. Even Krune''s Goodly Energy Meridians couldn''t change it. Krune savored the soup with great gusto, not leaving anything behind. After finishing, he went back to the kitchen and cooked another Semi-Divinity Star dish. Krune wasn''t being harsh; he could really take that much at once. It''s just that some of the food''s energy will be lost. Still, he will need to spend some time to transform all that energy into his own. In the end, Krune returned to his room, satisfied. "Great! I should take around a week to finish transforming the Spiritual Food Energy. I''m already close to the 9th Stage to start with, so I should be ready to breakthrough after it." Luvile then suggested to Krune. "In that case, use this time to comprehend the laws. So far, you got three Elemental Primary Laws completed, Fire, Water, and obviously, Lightning. Still, you need to finish comprehending Earth and Wind. If you do that, the power of your Rainbow Domain will increase at least two folds. Of course, just a few weeks won''t make much of a difference, but it is better than doing nothing." Krune agreed with him. "Indeed. I already tested my Rainbow Domain in the beast horde back in the Underground City, and I only had a single Major Law at that time. Still, the power of my Domain increased quite a lot just because of that. I can''t help but feel excited about it when I finish all five." "Too bad that I''m stuck at the Law Eating Sub-Law Advanced Stage of your Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws. Otherwise, I believe it would get even better." Krune had achieved the Advanced Stage of the Law Eating Sub-Law over three years ago. But since then, he didn''t get a single step further. Not only that, but the Lightning Flow Sub-law was also stuck at the Intermediate Stage. Luvile didn''t seem to care, though. "Don''t worry about it. I was already expecting it to happen. If you are already feeling discouraged because of this, then I don''t wanna see when you begin the last Sub-Law, Lightning Formation. That one is the real challenge of my Purple Tribulation Lightning Sub-laws. Without a doubt, it will take longer than any other. Just keep trying, sooner or later you will find the missing piece." Krune smiled and nodded. He then separated his mind between cultivation, soul cultivation, laws, and his Master''s Elements Regulation Technique. Three years had been fruitful for Krune with that Elements Regulation Technique. Krune could already merge the elements up to 70%! Not only that, but he could use some of it in his attacks too. Still, Krune didn''t expect that reaching 100% was this hard. As mentioned before, the Elements Regulation Technique was related to the five primary elements. The Initial and Middle Stages are all about control, while the Advanced Stage was about fusion. Only when he gets a 100% will he be considered to be at the Advanced Stage of that technique. As for Krune''s Soul Cultivation Technique, he finally reached the 5th Stage of the Soul Transformation. One must not forget that Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique has only five stages in each Realm. Obviously, he was much slower than Heavin, who created it for Divine Souls. Still, that was an excellent growth. Krune was just waiting for his soul to be stable enough to try a breakthrough into the Soul Control Realm. The days passed in a flash, and soon, another week went by. Today, Krune finally finished transforming all the Spiritual Food Energy into his own. He quickly took out several Godly Stones and put them around his Energy Gathering Formation. Godly Energy came out of the Godly Stones like torrents, all entering Krune''s body crazily. His Divine Soul absorbed everything and kept growing in size. *Boom!* Suddenly, a burst of Spiritual Energy spread from Krune''s body, quickly going out. However, Luvile was already expecting that, so he stopped it from damaging anything. Krune then opened his eyes and took a deep breath. "Phew... 9th Stage achieved. Now I''m ready to enter the Sealed Space too." Luvile agreed with him. "That''s good. However, your foundation energy is a little chaotic at the moment because of the breakthrough. You still have two weeks, so use it to stabilize everything." After hearing that, Krune couldn''t help but think. ''I haven''t practiced alchemy in a while, so I''m still at the Diamond Level. Foundation Stabilizing pills of that level will not have any effect on me. I guess I will practice it once more after everything is done with.'' Krune quickly put those thoughts behind and began to stabilize his foundation once more. Chapter 614: The Group Soon, two weeks passed. Iem had already passed Krune his Shields Back. Krune then took some time to get used to the Godly Energy Consumption and control. After all, he had almost three times the amount he had before. Fortunately, his Soul Power was enough to use them all without losing the attention of his own condition. Krune and Iem gathered in the Sky Shifting Sect, where they took a Teleport Formation that sent them directly to the Godly Veins Mountain Range. They then followed the instructions in their communicators and quickly arrived on a certain encampment. There, they met with the other eight members who would be going inside the Sealed Space. No one knew about Krune''s relationship with Tulike and the Sect Master, so everyone was taken aback when they saw their cultivation. Obviously, no one other than Tulike and his Mother/Father knew about their real combat power either. That being said, they thought something went wrong when the selection for this mining exploration was made. One of the members of the group, a Semi-Divinity Realm demon beast called Sisan, immediately complained to the elder responsible. "Senior Luako, what is happening here? Those two are only at the 9th Stage of the Divine View Realm. Did someone get it wrong and thought they were at the 9th Stage of the Semi-Divinity?" Luako was obviously the name of the elder in charge at the moment. "There is nothing wrong. Krune and Iem are indeed joining your group in this mining exploration. I don''t know the details, but it seems like the orders came from above. I also complained to the higher-ups, but they couldn''t do anything." The Late Stage Divinity Realm member, a guy called Jimage Rancin, narrowed his eyes. "The Sealed Area has different levels of Chaotic Space. Some of them are too fragile even for Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts to enter. That''s why we bring Semi-Divinity Realm and below with us. They will be able to enter those areas and gather the Top Quality Godly Stones there. However, chances are that they will bump on the other Sects'' Semi-Divinity Realm forces. At that time, the ones inside will have no choice other than fight for the Stones." "However, those two are only in the Divine View Realm, an entire Realm below from what we need. Our group will be at a severe disadvantage if two members can''t help. The worst-case will be if we need to protect them while at it. I can''t help but disagree with this decision, elder Luako." The elder obviously expected for that. "I know, but you will have to cope with it. However, the orders passed was that you can abandon those two if they drag you down. They are not special or anything. Although I don''t know how they convinced the higher-ups to let them in, it doesn''t seem like the higher-ups care about their lives either." A woman with cultivation in the 3rd Stage of the Divinity Realm shook her head. Her name was Xanala Lacressen. "Even if that is the case, our number would still go down by two. We would only have five members instead of seven in the chaotic spaces that don''t accept Divinity Realm forces inside. What good would be even if we abandon them?" The others were also about to complain when Luako raised his hand. "I know what you are thinking, but it''s like I said. The higher-ups already made their decision. Besides, you all know how vital the Top-Quality Godly Stones are for the Sect. I doubt the Sect would send those two without a good reason, especially in wartimes. Anyway, stop complaining and get along. We are leaving for the Sealed Space in a few hours." The other group members didn''t like it, but they could only follow those orders. Iem and Krune heard all of that but didn''t say anything. Instead, they just conversed through Divine Sense message. ''It seems like they don''t like us. Hahaha!'' Krune shrugged his shoulders. ''It can''t be helped. If we were in their shoes, we probably wouldn''t like it either. Even if we say that we can fight late stages Semi-Divinity Realm enemies, they probably wouldn''t believe it. Even if they do, they would have doubts about our resistance in a battle of attrition. Anyway, it''s better to not say anything.'' Iem nodded. ''That''s true. However, I didn''t know that there were different levels of chaotic spaces inside the Sealed Godly Vein Areas. No wonder the agreement includes only three Divinity Realm cultivators or demon beasts per group. They need the Semi-Divinity and below ones to gather the Godly Stones of the more fragile spaces.'' Krune didn''t seem to care. ''That''s even better. If we were unlucky and got to fight a Divinity Realm enemy, even we would have some problem. Of course, it can still happen in the outer areas where the Divinity Realm ones can stay.'' Everyone quickly separated to prepare themselves. Iem and Krune took that chance to go talk with the elder in charge. They didn''t get much information so far. The fact that they only found out about the different levels of chaotic spaces proved it. It was better to check if they needed to know anything else. Luako noticed the two approaching him. "What is it?" Krune then stepped forward. "Elder Luako. We would like to know if there is anything else we should know about the Sealed Godly Vein Space. Can you tell us more about it?" Luako narrowed his eyes. He thought that since Krune and Iem got this special permission to enter, they would already have all the information necessary. But from the looks of it, he was wrong. "I really wonder how you got to convince the higher-ups. Anyway, I''ll tell you what I know since the lack of information could make your team be at an even worse position." Luako obviously wasn''t happy with this situation. Still, he began to explain. "As you heard, there are several levels of chaotic spaces, and some of them can''t even hold a Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast. However, those are the areas where you can find more Top-Quality Godly Stones. The reason for it is that the Godly Energy inside is much more concentrated, which gave birth to more stones but, at the same time, made the Space more fragile." "The other thing to pay attention to is the Spatial Tears. They can appear anywhere, and if you fall into it, no one will be able to save you. Make sure you are prepared for this kind of situation." Krune then asked. "I guess it is okay to say that the chaotic spaces where Divinity Realm can''t enter have even more Spatial Tears, right?" Elder Luako nodded. "Exactly." Luako then continued. "Next. You will obviously encounter enemies of other sects that will try to kill you for your Godly Stones. So I won''t talk about it. However, there are also Space Type Creatures inside that place. Those creatures can literally appear almost anywhere they want. They are not living beings, nor do they have intelligence. Still, they are even more dangerous since their numbers are higher. The only good thing is that their power is also limited to the limit of power that Space itself can hold. Make sure to keep your Divine Sense spread all times. Although you won''t be able to spread it more than a few hundred meters inside, that can save your lives." Iem was the one to ask a question this time. "Does that mean that we can detect these creatures with Divine Sense?" Luako nodded. "You can detect the fluctuation of Space, which happens when they appear. However, it is very feeble, so you better pay even more attention to it." "Other than that is the Top Quality Godly Stones themselves. They are attached to Godly Energy Nodes, and removing them can be quite troublesome. You need to be extremely careful when that time comes. Once you remove it, the Godly Energy Node might explode, which will shatter the Space around. Each Top Quality Godly Stone has one of the five primary elements, and so does the nodes. I hope your Elemental Control is good enough to do this job." Krune and Iem''s eyes lit up. If elemental control was what they needed, then they are confident that they will be fine. Krune has his Element Regulation Technique and Godly Meridians. Iem is a Heavenly Core Owner and a Heavenly Race member. Probably, none of the Semi-Divinity Realm members of their group would be better than them with this. "Alright, those are the main points you should pay attention to. Go back and prepare yourselves as well. We are leaving soon." Krune and Iem bowed to thank Luako and then left. ''What do you think?'' Iem smiled after hearing that question. ''It looks more and more interesting. I was afraid that we wouldn''t encounter many challenges with just the other two sects'' groups, but now I''m relieved.'' Krune couldn''t help but laugh. ''You really like to battle, don''t you?'' Iem didn''t deny it. ''Of course! That''s the best way to raise one''s cultivation. It''s during moments of life and death that you can break your limits. How can I not be happy with this mission? Hahaha!'' Krune shrugged his shoulders. ''Well, just make sure you don''t start a battle against me.'' ''Don''t worry, the other opponents seem fun as well.'' Krune and Iem kept talking about other matters from then on. Finally, the time for everyone to depart arrived. Chapter 615: Entering the Godly Vein Sealed Space After everyone gathered, elder Luako came forward to guide their group. "The Godly Vein Space stabilizing this time is the 13th one. We are going to move there and meet other elders of the Sect on the way. Tosely will be the one to help guard the exit this time, so there is no need to worry about being attacked before entering the Sealed Space." Everyone''s eyes lit up. Tosely was the other God Core Realm member of the Sect. As mentioned before, Tosely is a female Demon Beasts who is very close to the Sect Master. Sure enough, before leaving the Sect''s territory in the Mountain Range, several other elders joined the group to help protect them. One, in particular, seemed to receive much better treatment than everyone around. It was a lady who seemed to be getting close to her forties. Krune and Iem didn''t need to be geniuses to know that she was probably the God Core Realm female Demon Beast. The 13th Godly Vein Sealed Space was in the Flower River Sect side, so everyone was being very cautious while moving. At some point, they noticed that another group of high-level cultivators and demon beasts appeared in the distance. Those were the members of the Three Peaks Sect, who also came for the Godly Vein exploration. At the very front, an old man was guiding the group. He soon noticed Tosely before laughing. "Tosely, seems like you already recovered from our previous encounter. Didn''t your Sect Master come out this time?" Tosely smiled back. "I''m a demon beast, so I obviously have much better healing powers. As for you, your face seems to be quite pale. Did my Sect Master hit you too hard, Groman?" Obviously, that was the name of the old man. "Hahaha! Your Sect Master abilities are indeed too much for this old man to hold back. However, I still have a few tricks under my sleeve, so there is no need to worry." All the elders and disciples on both sides were utterly silent. No one would try to get in the way of two God Core Realms'' conversation. Still, it was apparent how sarcastic each side was. If not because they came for the 13th Godly Vein Sealed Space, they would have already engaged in a fierce battle. Around an hour later, everyone finally arrived at an enormous mountain. There, they could see that another group of elders and disciples were waiting. There was a woman who seemed to be around her thirties wearing a blue robe at the very front. Without a doubt, she was the God Core Realm member of the Flower River Sect. "Oh, I didn''t think the Flower River Sect Master would come personally. How have you been, Binmia?" Binmia also smiled back at Tosely and Groman. "I''m pretty much fine. I would be much better if you didn''t come, though." Groman laughed out loud after hearing that. "How could we lose such a good opportunity to get Top Quality Godly Stones? Sure Sect Master Binmia wasn''t really expecting we to give up, right?" Binmia just shrugged her shoulders before turning around and leaving. The Sky Shifting Sect and Three Peaks'' Sect groups also followed her straight away. Although it could be considered the Flower River Sect''s territory, that was because it was close to their Sect. Neither of the three sides had given up taking the entire mountain range for themselves yet. They soon arrived at a cave entrance and went straight inside. The place was really deep. They kept descending for over a thousand kilometers. Finally, they arrived in front of what seemed to be an enormous open space. The place remembered Krune and Iem from the Underground City. There wasn''t any City to speak of, though. It''s just that the area was just as big. It was possible to see a bright white root of several kilometers of diameter at the very center. It pierced both the roof and the ground, disappearing inside. The concentration of Godly Energy in the place was also enormous. Krune and Iem believed that cultivating here would be even better than using regular Godly Stones. Perhaps it could compare with the constant use of Middle-Quality ones! Without a doubt, that giant root was the 13th Top Quality Godly Vein of the Mountain Range. Krune and Iem couldn''t help but think. ''No wonder there is a war going on for these things. Just how much benefit would the Sects gain if they could permanently stay in these Mountain Ranges?'' However, Krune and Iem soon noticed something different. The entire extent of the Godly Vein seemed to be surrounded by an even bigger semi-transparent white barrier. The three Sect groups, including the God Core Realm members in each one, stopped ten or so kilometers away from it. Krune used his Mental Energy to touch the barrier, and he quickly understood. That barrier was the division between the Sealed Space and the outside world. Even though the Godly Vein seemed to be just a few tens of kilometers ahead, he knew that it was not the case. The Sealed Space was bound to be much bigger, and the image of the root in front of them wasn''t really that close. Still, it was the real one. That wasn''t all. Krune could feel how chaotic the Space was close to that barrier. ''That''s probably the thing they talked about. The Sealed Space inside wouldn''t be able to hold existences beyond the Divinity Realm.'' Iem nodded. ''They said that we could only enter when it was stable enough to pass through the barrier. It seems like it is about to happen soon too.'' Suddenly, elder Tosely called everyone over. From there, they circled the barrier and stopped somewhere far away from the Flower River Sect. Groman from the Three Peaks Sect did the same thing with his group. With this, all three Sects stayed on three different points. Tosely then looked at everyone in her group before saying. "The place you will be teleported in changes according to where you enter the barrier. You don''t need to worry about being attack by the other two groups straight away. Still, pay attention to the Spatial Tears and the Space Type Creatures inside. The last Godly Vein exploration team brought back 135 Top Quality Godly Stones, which was already a significant number. I hope you can do the same thing or better." Krune and Iem were taken aback. Their group has ten members, and they can get 1/10 of the Godly Stones as a reward. If the reward is shared later, Krune, Iem, and the other members would only get one each. Well, that is considering that everyone will leave the place alive, but still... ''They got so little each time, but they still take it so seriously. It seems like these Top Quality Godly Stones are a lot more important than we thought.'' Krune agreed with Iem. ''They are. I asked Tulike before we came here. It seems there is so much energy inside that it can even improve your chances of breaking through by a lot. Of course, the higher your realm, the smaller its effects. A single Top Quality Spirit Stone can pretty much guarantee the breakthrough into the Mortal Rejection Realm. A few tens of it can increase the chance of entering the God Foundation Realm by nearly 30%. A few hundred can increase the chance of entering the God Core Realm by 20% or so. Tulike wasn''t sure if they could improve the chances to enter the Nascent God Realm, though.'' Iem couldn''t help but feel impressed by it. He also thought about an idea. ''What about we use one stone for our breakthrough while we are still inside? We are far from the Mortal Rejection Realm, so we would make a breakthrough without a doubt.'' Krune shook his head. ''That would be suicidal. Those Top Quality Godly Stones are no joke. The amount of energy would probably make our foundations to explode. From what I heard, the problem is the fact that our foundations haven''t gone through the nine stages of the Transformation Realm. Simply put, there is no way they can hold that much Godly Energy. You better keep it for when we try to enter the Mortal Rejection Realm.'' Iem sighed in disappointment. Even as a member of the Heavenly Race and a Heavenly Core owner, he didn''t think he would be able to support so much energy. Still, it was as Krune mentioned. He can simply keep it for the Mortal Rejection Realm breakthrough. Time passed, and a few hours went by. Just as the information said, the Chaotic Space around the Godly Vein calmed down little by little. Finally, it reached the point that everyone had been waiting. Tosely quickly looked at their Sky Shifting Group before saying. "The Godly Vein Space is stable enough, so you can enter now. The other two sects'' elders and I will use our powers to keep it like this. However, we can only last for a week. If you are not back by then, we can only leave you behind. Alright, you know everything you need to do, go!" Krune, Iem, and the other eight members of the Sky Shifting Sect quickly dashed forward. They could also see the other Sects'' members moving in the direction of the barrier too. Soon, they began to disappear inside one by one. Krune''s vision warped with Silver and White light for a second before returning to normal. When everything came back to normal, he was already inside with everyone. Chapter 616: Spatial Tears Krune looked around and was taken aback by what he saw. He was totally expecting some kind of cave with lots of passages. However, let alone caves, there wasn''t a single wall around them. It looked like they were floating in the void. Still, Krune was sure that he wasn''t really in middle space. That''s because the amount of Godly Energy here was just as big as when he was outside. From what he knows, the void outside the planets has very sparse Godly Energy. Obviously, that wasn''t the case here. In the distance, it was possible to see something that shined like a sun. However, only if you considered its brightness. Its shape was nothing like a sphere of fire. Sure enough, it looked like a ridiculously enormous white root. From the looks of it, the root was situated right in the middle of this Sealed Space. Krune could tell that his group was really far away from it. Perhaps hundreds of thousands of kilometers, maybe more. Krune could also see several ''islands'' floating in space as well. Some were hundreds if not thousands of kilometers in size. Others were no bigger than a few hundred meters. Of course, those with just a few hundred meters could only be seen because they were very close to the group. If they were too far, they wouldn''t even see them. They could also see that the Giant White Root had several other small roots coming out of it in the distance. Those small roots connected to those bigger islands, holding them in place. As for the smaller ones, they seemed to be floating around as if orbiting the main root. Jimage Rancin, the leader of their group and their Peak Divinity Realm cultivator, looked at everyone before saying. "Alright, our objective is to reach those bigger islands as soon as possible. Only after we get close will we know if there are other chaotic areas on them. If there aren''t, the other two Divinity Realm members and I will help everyone to gather the Top Quality Godly Stones from the nodes. If there are, we will count the Semi-Divinity Realm members to enter and take it. Pay attention to Spatial Tears and the Space Creatures." Jimage then looked at Krune and Iem. "Elder Luako said that if you drag us down, we can leave you behind. That being said, don''t expect us to slow down just for the two of you. This is a race against time as well, so you better take care of yourselves." Krune and Iem smiled and nodded to Jimage. "We understand. Thank you, senior Jimage." Jimage and the others snorted but didn''t say anything else. Jimage then turned around and dashed away. Everyone else also followed him. Jimage didn''t want to waste time with Krune and Iem, so he kept increasing his speed as time passed. His plan was for the two of them to fall behind due to their lack of cultivation. Time passed as Jimage kept his attention on those two. He was quite impressed that Krune and Iem could keep up to the speed of the Semi-Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts. He wasn''t the only one, though. The Semi-Divinity Realm members noticed Jimage''s plan, so they were happy to follow it. Still, Krune and Iem followed them like maggots. Not only that, but those two didn''t seem the least bit tired. Jimage then increased his speed even more, however... "Senior Jimage, can you slow down a bit? We can''t keep up with your speed." Jimage was taken aback. His attention had been focused on Krune and Iem all the time. Since they didn''t seem to be getting tired, he kept increasing his speed. But he failed to notice that the Semi-Divinity Realm members were the ones got affected instead. That''s right, they began to fall behind while Krune and Iem seemed to follow him without a problem. Of course, Krune and Iem weren''t that much better. They simply didn''t show it on the surface. One must remember that all the Semi Divinity cultivators and demon beasts in the group were at the peak of that realm, the 9th stage. Krune and Iem were geniuses who could fight them on equal terms, but they definitely wouldn''t be much stronger. They were literally an entire Realm below them, after all. If Jimage increased his speed just a little more, they would have to use some techniques if they wanted to keep up. Fortunately, the other members also reached their limit. Jimage could only slow down when he saw that. "Oh, sorry..." Finally, the groups'' impression of Krune and Iem changed a little. At the very least, they seemed fast enough to follow them. Of course, they wouldn''t accept them that easily. They were just somewhat impressed. Some even thought that Iem and Krune were using some taxing ability do keep that speed while they were just moving forward normally. Suddenly, Jimage''s expression changed as he warned everyone. "Careful, Spatial Tears!" He lost his concentration for a moment when he noticed the situation of his group, so he was a little late to warn everyone. Spatial Tears began to surge around them one after another. They couldn''t go against the inertia so quickly, so they could only try to dodge. "Ahhh!" Everyone heard the scream and looked in its direction. A female cultivator could not stop in time and was taken by the suction power of the spatial tear close to her. "It''s Ramona!" She was using all her power to move away from it, but she wasn''t strong enough. Jimage''s expression changed, and he immediately tried to help her. However, he was too far ahead since he was guiding the group. The other Divinity Realm members were also close to him, so they couldn''t help either. As for the Semi-Divinity Realm members around, they immediately took distance from her. After all, if they were pulled together, they would be done for. Probably only Jimage would have enough strength to pull her out. Jimage''s greeted his teeth. Even with his full speed, he would be a second too late. However... *Zap! Boom!* A flash of Purple Lighting passed by Ramona and struck the Spatial Tear behind her, exploding right after. Ramona''s face went pale with that explosion. If it hit her, she would definitely be heavily injured since she was using her full power to counter the Spatial Tear''s suction power. She had no energy to spare for the explosion generated by that Purple Lightning. It was then that ten colored shields appeared between Ramona and the explosion. They connected together and formed a barrier, projecting Ramonas''s body. Simultaneously, the blast of Purple Lightning Power pushed the shields in the opposite direction of the Spatial Tear''s suction. Obviously, it also pushed Ramona''s body with them. *Zap, Zap! Boom, Boom!* Right after, another two Purple bolts of Lightning exploded behind Ramona again, pushing her even further while the shields protect her body from the explosions. Finally, Ramona and the shields got far enough from the Spatial Tear suction power. Ramona didn''t dare to waste the chance and immediately flew far away from it. The ten colored shields then separated and flew back to Krune, quickly disappearing inside his Spatial Ring. "Phew... Senior Ramona, you need to be more careful next time." Except for Iem, everyone looked at Krune with shocked expressions. They didn''t expect that anyone would be able to drag Ramona from there anymore. Even more than that was how Krune made it look something effortless. Of course, that wasn''t the case. He had to use quite some Purple Tribulation Lightning to get explosions strong enough to counter that suction power. Ramona then felt quite ashamed. Just like everyone else, she thought that Krune wouldn''t be more than a burden. But in the end, the burden turned out to be herself. Jimage wasn''t the only one paying attention to Krune and Iem''s speeds. The others were also doing the same, including her. It was her fault to not dodge the Spatial Tear in time. In the end, she could only sigh. "Thank you, Krune." Krune smiled and nodded. The others were relieved that Ramona didn''t die. After all, every single loss would make the battles much harder in the future. Jimage and everyone else couldn''t help but change their opinion about Krune. Considering how they treated him so far, there would be nothing wrong even if he had ignored that situation. Jimage quickly came back to himself and said. "Alright. Now that the danger is over, we need to keep going." He turned around and departed once more. Everyone looked at each other and nodded as well, quickly following him. The same was for Krune and Iem. This time, Jimage didn''t move so fast as before. After all, he at least could tell that Krune wouldn''t be that much of a burden. He saw the power of the explosions of his Purple Lightning. It was definitely as strong, no, even stronger than regular Semi-Divinity Realm attacks. No doubt, it reached the Divinity Realm level. That being said, trying to make him fall behind with speed wouldn''t work, nor did he want to do that anymore. In the end, all that matters is the Top Quality Godly Stones. If Krune can really contribute to gathering them, Jimage will have nothing against him. In fact, he already did contribute by saving Ramona''s life. Iem, on the other hand, couldn''t help but ask. ''Why did you help her?'' Krune shrugged his shoulders. ''It''s both for our own sakes. The more combat power, the more Godly Stones we get. It doesn''t matter if they like us or not.'' Iem shook his head but didn''t say anything in the end. Chapter 617: Space Creatures Their excursion continued forward. Finally, they arrived at one of the floating islands in the Sealed Space. This island was one of those connected by small roots from the main one too. Surprisingly, it looked like a forest, even though it is separated from the outside world. But other than the plants, no other types of life could be seen. As soon as they approached the island, they were forced to land. As mentioned before, only the Mortal Rejection Realm and above are able to fly. The only reason their group was ''flying'' was that they were in the middle of the void. There was nothing pulling them in any direction, so they could use their Godly Energy to keep moving forward. After they landed, Jimage looked around but didn''t see anyone. "It seems like no one is around. Still, the other teams might have come through the other side. Of course, they might have gone to other islands too. Anyway, let''s start our search. We can''t locate the node if we are too far away, so we need to keep close to the ground." Everyone nodded, and they began to move. This forest trees were really tall, each one was over a hundred meters in length. There was also the issue with the restrictions on one''s Divine Senses. The one with the furthest Divine Sense was obviously Jimage, who was able to spread it for over a kilometer. The other Semi-Divinity cultivators and demons bests couldn''t go more than 200 or so meters. In Iem''s case, his soul power isn''t any weaker than the Semi-Divinity members. In fact, he was even a little above, which allowed him to reach 250 meters more or less. Krune''s Soul Power was similar to Iem, so his Divine Sense was also spreading around the same distance. However, Krune was now in the 5th Stage of the Soul Transformation Realm, so his Mental Energy was much stronger. Even though Godly Energy also significantly restricted his Mental Energy Scan, it wasn''t as much as Divine Sense. Krune was able to see everything around him up to 3km, more than double of Jimage! Of course, he didn''t point it out. Their group then separated into a big line so that they could cover a bigger area. However, they made sure to keep the others on their sides inside their Divine Sense range. Jimage stayed in the center while the other two Divinity Realm members were on both his sides around a km away. Then you had the Semi-Divinity Realm members who further spread to the sides. Finally, you had Krune and Iem at the very end of both sides. Suddenly, Krune noticed an area appearing inside his Mental Energy range, which Godly Energy was far more chaotic. He quickly warned Jimage and the others, who came to take a look. Jimage looked at the chaotic space in front of him and extended his hand forward. He tried to feel how chaotic it was to see if they could enter with the Divinity Realm members or if they would need to send the Semi-Divinity ones. However, it was at this moment that Krune felt a feeble fluctuation in space close to Jimage. Suddenly, he saw some kind of semi-transparent claws coming directly at Jimage''s head. His expression quickly changed as his Shields flew out of his Spatial Ring. He also warned Jimage with his Divine Sense. "Careful!" Jimage was taken aback and jumped back almost instantly. However, the claws appeared too abruptly, so he didn''t have time to dodge. Still, because Krune was close to him and he used his Mental Energy perception, he was faster in reacting to that. Krune''s shields appeared in front of Jimage just in time to block the sneak attack. *Clang!* With just one strike, Krune''s shields were sent flying! Krune immediately understood that this was one of the Space Type Creatures that they were warned about. Not only that, the force that it sent his shields flying showed that it was a creature at the Divinity Realm level without a doubt. Fortunately, that split of a second was enough time for Jimage to react. He dodged the attack by a hair and appeared several meters away. His expression was as dark as it could be. He brought out his sword and immediately pounced at the beast before it could hide in space again. Sword Intent covered his sword as it hit the space perfectly at the point where the creature was. *Roar!* The creature didn''t have enough time to completely hide in space and was forced out by Jimage''s attack. Although it was at the Divinity Realm level, it could only be considered at the 4th or 5th stage at most. Jimages'' cultivation reached the peak of the Divinity Realm, so the beast obviously wasn''t a match for him. "Beast, you dare raise your hands against me?" "Hundred Sundering Swords!" Jimage slashed against the creature a hundred times in a single second, making a hundred sword energy beans filled with sword intent that targeted the beast from everywhere around it. Jimage wasn''t the only one. His two Divinity Realm companions, Xanala and Rui, also attacked as soon as they noticed what was happening. "Dragon Fire Spears!" "Myriad Formless Blades!" *Boom, boom, boom!* *Roar!* The creature couldn''t resist the attacks of three Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts at once, so it immediately tried to flee. However, Jimage was already expecting for that, so he blocked its escape route. "Die!" Finally, he cut the beast in half, putting an end to it. However, Krune''s expression changed once more. He could feel other feeble fluctuations in space with his Mental Energy. Not only him, but his group members also noticed it this time with their Divine Senses. It''s just that they only detected the ones close to them. Jimage quickly asserted the situation before saying. "There are two Divinity Realm level creatures and five at the Semi-Divinity Realm. They probably noticed the energy fluctuations of the last battle and came here. Still, this is easy to deal with. Xanala, you help the Semi-Divinity members get read of the Semi-Divinity Level creatures. Rui and I will hold the Divinity Level ones. Finish them fast so that you can give us support." Jimage seemed experienced in group battles, so he gave several other orders to everyone too. Right after, Rui and Jimage rushed at the Divinity Realm creatures. The good thing was that those ones were not at the Late Stages Divinity Realm level, so Jimage and Rui held the advantage from the start. Krune, Iem, Xalana, and everyone else then attacked the creatures at the Semi-Divinity Realm level. Half of Krune''s shields came out, and they orbited around the group. Although they had the numbers and power advantage, he wouldn''t risk letting the others being sneak attacked again. Fortunately, everything went fine. Xanala was at the Divinity Realm 3rd Stage, so her power alone was enough to kill one creature after another. When there was only one remaining, she told Krune''s side to deal with it and immediately rushed to Rui''s side to fight the Divinity Realm ones. Krune''s side finished the last beast in a few seconds. As for Jimage''s one, they took another minute or so since there were two Divinity Realm level creatures. After all the creatures were slain, Krune and Iem finally stopped to take a look at them. Their forms were bizarre. Their bodies were semi-transparent, and it seems like it was blending with the space around even after death. ''No, they were not alive to start with.'' Krune was right. A few moments after, their bodies began to transform into specs of silver light that disappeared in the air. From the looks of it, they really didn''t have any intelligence. Or maybe they had a little since the first one tried to use a sneak attack. Perhaps it was also part of their instinct. Jimage then took a deep breath and sheathed his sword. The others also put their weapons away and looked at the creatures disappearing. "So scary... It was my first time seeing these beasts. They really can sneak close to us without notice. Only when they start an attack can we detect their presences with our Divine Senses." Jimage nodded and then looked at Krune. "Nice job noticing that attack. I also noticed the fluctuation in space when that creature began to attack me. However, it was so subtle that I thought it was because of the chaotic space in front of me." Krune nodded. "It''s okay. I was just lucky enough to be looking in the creature''s direction when it came out. Otherwise, I would definitely have thought the same thing as you, Senior Jimage." Jimage smiled and nodded back. He didn''t doubt Krune. After all, with their difference in cultivation, only like that would Krune be able to react faster than him... or so he thought. Little did he know that Krune used his Mental Energy to do it. Nonetheless, Krune was able to shield him from the sneak attack. Although he had confidence that he wouldn''t die, there would still be an injury left behind. It was best if he didn''t have to spend time healing his body. Jimage then returned his attention to the chaotic space in front of the group and focused on it once more. After a minute or so, he retracted his hand. "Good! This space can hold Divinity Realm levels. Let''s all enter and locate the Godly Stone Node. Be careful, Spatial Tears and Space Creatures should be even more common in there." Everyone nodded, and they stepped inside with Jimage, quickly disappearing from sight. Chapter 618: Elemental Godly Stones Krune''s group was relatively fast. Still, they could be much faster than that. It''s just that they were paying attention to any Spatial Tears or Space Creatures. Sure enough, they encountered a few of them on the way. Compared to the outside, the numbers were much higher. Still, they were much more prepared now. They had understood their patterns a little and how to detect them. *Boom, boom, boom!* *Roar!* Suddenly, another Space Creature fell on the ground, quickly becoming specs of silver light right after. Krune''s shields then returned to him, but he didn''t store them inside the Spatial Ring. Instead, he had kept them orbiting around himself ever since they entered this place. Still, he only deployed half of the shields so far. Jimage looked around and couldn''t detect any space creature. "Alright, we should be very close to the center where the node is located. Pay attention to your surroundings." Everyone nodded as they continued. Sure enough, Jimage was right. They finally reached the center of the chaotic space. There, Krune, Iem, and everyone else could see a small cluster. It shined with intense blue light. Right below it, the group could also see a bright white root that looked the same as the root connected to the island. "That''s the node. Just as we imagined, it is a water type one with Water Element Top Quality Godly Stones. Xanala, you have the best water element control in our group. You go and take them out of the node. Be careful not to make the node''s energy go out of control, or you will probably be doomed." Xanala took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright, keep an eye around for Space Creatures and Spatial Tears." Jimage agreed, and he stopped somewhat close to the node. Rui, the 6th Stage Divinity Realm demon beast, stayed on the other side. The rest formed a perimetry around the node while keeping some distance from it. Xanala then gathered Water Element and Laws on her hands and touched the node. She could see a total of five Top Quality Godly Stones that could be acquired, but she didn''t dare to be hasty. The trick was to cut the Water Element''s connection between the Godly Stones and the node itself. However, the sheer amount of Godly Energy present made it quite difficult. That''s because she had to use her own Water Element and Laws to seal the hole left behind. That was a delicate process that had to be done little by little so that the Godly Energy wouldn''t burst out of the node. Xanala spent around thirty minutes to take all five Godly Stones. After ascertaining that she didn''t leave any flaws behind in the node, she quickly separated from it. She was sweating quite a lot, but not because she was tired. It''s just that she could die if the node exploded right in front of her, so she was obviously nervous during the process. Jimage nodded, satisfied. "Alright, let''s leave this place. There are several other islands to check after this one." The walked back through the same path as before, which was already more or less cleared from Space Creatures. They also knew where the Spatial Tears were located, making things even easier. Finally, they exited the chaotic space before giving a sigh of relief. "Good, we didn''t meet too many Space Creatures at once inside. Let''s hope the next nodes are the same. We are moving to the next island." Everyone agreed with Jimage, and they departed. To leave the island, they only had to jump from its borders using all their strength. Those islands didn''t have strong gravity to start with, so it was possible to escape their attraction force even though they can''t fly. They began to float in space once more, making their way to the nearest rooted island when suddenly, they felt strong Godly Energy Waves coming from somewhere far in the distance. There, they saw one of the floating islands crumbling until only the root that was holding it remained. That island was as big as their one, but it quickly broke apart nonetheless. Jimage and the others took a deep cold breath after seeing it. "Seems like one of the other groups made a mistake while extracting the Top Quality Godly Stones. In the end, the Godly Energy inside the node burst out, wiping out everything around. Most likely, the person or demon beast trying to remove the Godly Stones died. Even if not, he or she was definitely severely injured." Rui couldn''t help but ask. "Should we take the opportunity to attack? The other group should be in poor condition at the moment, so it''s a good chance." Jimage shook his head. "It would be detrimental for us. Instead, we should take this chance and gather even more Top Quality Godly Stones while they are out of the game. I reckon that they should need at least a day to recover. As for the one who tried to take the Top Quality Godly Stones, he or she will take at least three or four days if not dead." Everyone nodded. The only one somewhat disappointed was Iem, who thought he could finally fight against the other groups. Still, the sect''s orders were to follow Jimage''s command, so he couldn''t go there by himself or separate from the group. Their group only took another hour to reach the next floating island. This time, this one was only half as big. However, the sect already confirmed that the island''s size doesn''t matter as long as it has a white root attached to it. Once again, their group separated into a big line and searched for the node. Some nodes are not affected by any chaotic space, so they could reach them easily. In the end, that was the case on this island as well. The Godly Stones and the node were of the wind type, which was perfect for Rui, who mainly used Fire and Wind. There were only three Top Quality Godly Stones, though. Still, they didn''t feel unlucky since there had been minimal risk while acquiring this batch. After taking them away, they quickly left the place. However, a few minutes after they left, a blue light appeared nearby the area. It promptly revealed a woman''s shape, who looked at the direction that Jimage''s group went. The blue light then disappeared as if it had never been there. On another island nearby, a woman was sitting cross-legged. She had the same appearance as the blue light one before. Around her, there were another nine cultivators/demon beasts. If one looked at their clothes, they would immediately understand that they were members of the Flower River Sect. Suddenly, the woman opened her eyes and smiled at a man on her side. "How was it, did you take this island''s Godly Stones, senior Pharan?" That was obviously the man''s name. He had been here all the time, protecting her body. He was also the leader of this squad of the Flower River Sect. "Yes. The other disciples found six Fire Element Top Quality Godly Stones. How was on your side, Illia?" Illia nodded before saying. "I found the Sky Shifting Sect''s group. They will be heading to the island close to ours next. They seem to have got some Godly Stones already too. What you think?" Pharan pondered a bit and answered. "They had brought two Divine View Realm members with their group this time, which is quite suspicious. However, whatever the reason is, it is good news for us. After all, that Divine View Realm duo won''t be able to do much. That leaves the Sky Shifting Sect with only five members at the Semi-Divinity Level of strength." Illia understood where Pharan was coming from. "I already used my secret technique to appraise the chaotic space on the next island. The node there only accepts Semi-Divinity Realm cultivators/demon beasts or below. Divinity Realm ones will be blocked due to the fragile space inside. We should take the chance to go to the next island and send our own Semi-Divinity Realm members. We would have the advantage and could get rid of some of them. Maybe all at once. Especially since they don''t know about our presence here." "Also, the Three Peaks Sect had just suffered a set back an hour ago, so they should be in an even worse state after the explosion. That''s our chance to take control of the Top Quality Godly Stones this time." Pharan agreed with her. "That''s what I thought." Pharan then looked at everyone else and ordered. "We are moving to the next island and entering through the other side. Then Illia and the others in the Semi-Divinity Realm will enter the chaotic space together. Your objective is to get rid of the Sky Shifting Sect members inside. As for Jimage and the other two Divinity Realm cultivators, you can leave them to us." Everyone nodded, accepting the orders. Without wasting any time, they got up and departed straight away. At the same time, on Krune''s group side... Iem was talking with him through Divine Sense message. He seemed quite excited too. ''Are you sure you noticed someone spying on us?'' Krune nodded. ''Absolutely. You do know that I have an ability that is better for this kind of situation than Divine Sense, right? I''ve been using it all the time, that''s why I notice it. I can''t tell the others since it would be too suspicious. After all, even Jimage himself didn''t notice anything.'' Iem nodded. ''Don''t worry, it would only spoil the fun anyway.'' Chapter 619: There is no need Jimage led the group to the next island while dealing with the dangers on the way. As always, they also made a big line and started their search on it until they finally located the node. In the end, it was as Illia mentioned to the Flower River Sect members, the chaotic space around the node was sealed for those at the Divinity Realm. Jimage retracted his hand from the chaotic space and looked at everyone behind him. "Xanala, Rui, and I won''t be able to go with you this time. The space is too fragile, so it won''t allow our enter. However, we already expected something like this. You guys go ahead and retrieve the Godly Stones from the node. Remember, be extremely careful when you began to remove it. The others must make sure that the one pulling them out is not bothered either." Everyone nodded. "Good. You can go now. I will take a look around the place to see if everything is fine." With that said, Jimage immediately departed with the other two Divinity Realm members. Krune''s group also didn''t waste time and entered the chaotic space. Their visions warped once more, and they were greeted by a vast expanse full of rocks and boulders floating everywhere. Sisan, one of the Semi-Divinity Realm members, was appointed to lead their group inside. "Alright, let''s go." At the same time, on the other side of the island, the Flower River Sect was in front of the same chaotic space. Pharan was examining it and confirmed that it really only accepted Semi Divinity Realm or below. He then turned around before saying. "Illia, I''ll leave it in your hands to lead the group inside." Illia nodded. "Leave it with me, senior Pharan." She quickly called the other six Semi-Divinity Realm members and entered the space. After that, Pharan looked around and decided a direction. "Jimage and the other two should be watching around. Let''s go pay them a visit." The other two Divinity Realm members laughed and quickly followed Pharan. Time passed, and one hour went by. Although the chaotic space inside was ample, it wasn''t to the point they couldn''t explore fast enough. Finally, Krune''s group found the node with the Top Quality Godly Stones. Not too surprisingly, it was brimming with Godly Energy and Earth Element/Laws. They quickly approached the node and took a look at it from close. Until no one tried to remove the Godly Stones, it wouldn''t have a risk of explosion. "Alright, let''s decide who will remove the Godly Stones. The rest will guard around to prevent any mishaps from happening." While their group decided who was going to do it, no one noticed a feeble speck of dirt attached to one of the boulders in the distance. A few hundred meters away, the group of the Flower River Sect circled Illia, who was concentrated on that thing. She was using it to look at the group surrounding the node. The fact was that they were lucky. The place from where they entered the area was a little bit closer to the node than Krune''s group. Because of that, they arrived there a few minutes before them. However, they didn''t try to remove the Godly Stones. After all, there wasn''t enough time for it. Besides, their main objective was to get rid of the Sky Shifting Sect members. Illia decided that her group would first wait for them to began to remove the Top Quality Godly Stones. Because of that, one person from their group would not be able to help in the battle. The Sky Shifting Sect already has two Divine View Realm members, so they would be even more disadvantaged. Once you started to remove the Godly Stones, you couldn''t simply give it up. You had to finish the removal and the sealing of the hole, or you would be done for. That was the best opportunity to attack. Illia was now observing the Sky Shifting Sect from further away to prevent them from being found. "You guys be ready, as soon as they began to take the Godly Stones, we will initiate the attacks." Everyone nodded. Illia then kept looking at the enemy talking in the distance. "There are seven Top Quality Godly Stones in the Earth Elemental node. Barttin has the best control over Earth Element in our group, so he should do it." Barttin was obviously another member of Krune''s group. Sisan then shook his head. "No. Barttin has the best defense between us all. I would rather have him help to protect the node." Ramona, the one Krune saved before, also gave her opinion. "Zanatia is also an earth element/laws cultivator. What about her do this." Zanatia heard that and immediately shook her head. "I use them, but I''m not as proficient as I am with Fire. I still think that Barttin is the best choice." They kept discussing for a while, even Iem gave some of his opinions. However, Iem didn''t want to remove the stones since he knew that an attack could come at any moment. Of course, just like Krune asked, he didn''t tell it to anyone else. It was then that everyone noticed that Krune hasn''t said a single word so far. Ramona had grown some respect for him during this journey, so she decided to ask first. "Krune, don''t you have anything to say?" Krune looked at them and smiled. "There is no need." Romona nodded. She thought that Krune didn''t want to participate in the decision. "Okay." However, Krune''s ''no need'' had another meaning altogether. Just as she was about to continue to talk with everyone, the group noticed Krune putting his hands on the node! Obviously, everyone was given a fright when he did that. However, just as they were about to jump back, something unbelievable happened in front of their eyes. *Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack, clack.* In just a second, all seven Godly Stones detached from the node! Not only that, all the holes they left behind were sealed. Thus, concluding the removal of the Godly Stones. Krune finished a delicate process that a Divinity Realm would need more than half an hour just like that! Krune then quickly stored the Godly Stones and turned around just in time to see his group shocked expressions. Was there really a need to look at him like that just because he took some stones? "Errr... Did I do something wrong?" Everyone immediately woke up after that question. "What?!" "Impossible!" "How did you do that?!" "The node should have exploded on his face!" Krune got scared for a second. "Exploded?!" He quickly looked back at the node. He was sure he sealed everything correctly, how can it explode? But he soon noticed that there was nothing wrong with the node, though. He finally let out a sigh of relief. "Don''t scare me like that! For a second, I thought it would really explode. I removed everything very fast to prevent any mistakes from happening. Don''t worry, it was quite easy." Everyone felt like crying. ''We are talking exactly about that, idiot! How did you remove everything this easily without killing yourself? How come there isn''t even a hint of fear in your eyes after you did that?!'' Except for Iem, the rest of Krune''s group looked at him as if he was some kind of freak. Krune really didn''t think he did anything impressive. He simply used his Mental Energy to create a seal under the Godly Stones before removing them. He used that seal together with his own Earth Element and Laws. The mental energy present in the seal was now a type of Earth Seal that should last for a few hours, which is more than enough time for everyone to leave. Of course, only he thought that way. Krune''s group wasn''t the only only one showing expressions of disbelief. As soon as Krune touched the node, Illia told everyone to be ready. But just as she was about to give the order to attack, all the Godly Stones came out at once! How could she not be affected by that? "Impossible!" Everyone looked at Illia, puzzled. Illia noticed her group''s puzzled faces and quickly recovered. "Go, go, go! They already removed all the Godly Stones from the node. We need to attack now!" Everyone was taken aback. How could the Godly Stone be removed that easily? There are only Semi-Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts in this place. That process was supposed to take at least an hour in the best scenarios! Still, they didn''t think Illia would lie to them. Her shocked expression showed that she also had a hard time believing what she just said. "Let''s go!" Knowing that their sneak attack would be useless now, they immediately revealed themselves and charged at the Sky Shifting Sect group. Of course, Sisan and the others immediately noticed that. "It''s the Flower River Sect, prepare for battle!" Iem couldn''t help but laugh after seeing that. "Hahaha! Great! Finally, some real action!" Spiritual Energy burst out of his body as he charged forward. That obviously took both groups aback. The Divine View Realm guy was the first one to attack. Was he suicidal? Sisal gritted his teeth after seeing that. "Attack!" Ramona, Barttin, Zanatia, and everyone else also charged at the income enemy. Krune, on the other hand, simply shrugged his shoulders after seeing Iem''s charge. The battle immediately started, every member selecting an opponent to fight. Suddenly, a woman came flying at Krune. Surprisingly, she was Illia! After seeing Krune''s unbelievable ability to easily remove the Godly Stones, she immediately set him as her target. He had to die! Krune didn''t seem to care, though. In fact, he smiled at the income enemy. ''Time to test some things out.'' With that, Krune''s 102 Myriad Lightning Shields came out! Yes, this was the first time Krune released all his shields at once! Right after, they all appeared in specific places and began to rotate at high speeds. Tribulation Lightning expanded from each of the hexagonal shields six borders as if they were blades. "Tribulation Shields Slaughter Formation!" Chapter 620: Krune vs. Illia Illia didn''t care about the Shields around her at all. She could totally see Krune''s cultivation, so she didn''t think he could do anything to her. At most, he could only defend for some time. Still, she didn''t hold back. She didn''t want to let him escape, no matter what. "Blue Lotus Domain!" The world around Illia and Krune changed into light blue colors as a projection of an enormous blue lotus appeared on her head. Several petals made of Godly Energy, Water Element, and Laws spread. Illia''s domain could disrupt the Godly Energy and Divine Sense of her opponents, an exceptionally strong Domain. At the same time, she attacked Krune as well. "Blooming Lotus Rays!" The Blue Lotus on Illias'' head opened, releasing a blue like Godly Energy Ray that reflected on all the petals floating in her domain. Right after, all those rays shot at Krune from all sides! Krune looked at all of that with a calm expression, though. He kept his hand on his back, as if not caring much to the incoming attack. Suddenly, ten shields that had been spinning with Purple Lightning shot in his direction as well. However, the route they took would only pass close to his body, not hit it. Illia didn''t understand much what he was doing as the rays of Blue Godly Energy were about to pierce him. Her attacks came in completely random patterns, which made it almost unpredictable. However, almost doesn''t mean completely... *Clang!* Just as the first ray was about to pierce Krune''s body, a shield passed right in front of it, reflecting the attack away. The impressive thing was not that the shield blocked it, but that it didn''t stop at all to do it. The shield just passed by Krune at high speed while rotating. It then reflected the attack at the exact time is passed there. Just how good of a grasp must one have to calculate such a precise time? Still, that was only one of the rays of blue godly energy. There were hundreds of them reflecting in all blue petals that were coming at Krune''s direction. Illia thought that he was just lucky to block the first one. However... *Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang, clang...* Krune''s ten shields kept flying while rotating at high speeds around him. Every time they passed, they would block one or more of the rays perfectly. Krune just kept looking at Illia as he smiled. Illia didn''t stop her attack for even a second. Still, even after an entire minute, not a single ray of her blooming lotus attack was able to breakthrough Krune''s defense. What made Illia even more shocked was the fact that her Blue Lotus Domain could disrupt the enemy''s Godly Energy Control and Divine Sense. However, Krune didn''t seem to be affected by it at all! Noticing that it wasn''t going anywhere, Illia attack again. "Blue Lotus Blade!" Two other blue lotus flowers appeared on each of her sides, releasing several times more petals. However, they were not there to contribute to the domain but to attack. The petals had a little less power than the Blooming Lotus Attack, but their numbers simply couldn''t compare. All those blades came at Krune as well, while the Blooming Lotus Rays still attacked him from all sides. Krune finally showed a surprised expression and raised his hands. Immediately, another twenty shields that had been still so far came at him as well. With thirty shields working together, Illia''s attack was once again nullified. Not only that, everywhere the shields passed, their Purple Lightning Blades destroyed all of Illia''s Blue Lotus Blades. Krune looked at that and nodded, satisfied. The reason Krune wasn''t affected by the Blue Lotus Domain''s Divine Sense disruptive ability was that he used Mental Energy to control the shields. As for the Godly Energy Disruptive part, his shields have an Energy Transfer Formation made by Iem on each of them. Logically, he didn''t have to be afraid of missing the control since he can transfer the energy directly inside. ''I modified this Formation so that it could be suitable for both attack and defense. From the looks of it, the defensive part is working pretty well. That girl can attack from all sides, and the power behind those petals are nothing to scoff at. Still, the shields are having no problem keeping all of it away from me. I guess I can change the other 72 into attack mode.'' As soon as he thought that, all the other 72 Shields around the place began to spin even faster. Their Purple Tribulation Lightning Blades raised in size, making each one of them at least a meter in size. Still, since they were made or Purple Tribulation Lightning, the shields'' weight didn''t change at all, which didn''t make them hard to control. The shields then came flying at Illia from all directions. However, due to the power of the Formation, they acted as a team. There would be no disruption caused by each other''s attacks. Illia had noticed those shields around before and had kept an eye on them. The moment they began to move, she also began to act. "Hmph!" The enormous blue lotus projection on her head then descended, quickly enclosing her body. Right after, the lotus closed with Illia inside. Without a doubt, that was some kind of protection ability. Unfortunately, Illia underestimated the power of the Purple Tribulation Lightning Blades on the shields! *Rip!* As soon as the first wave of attacks hit her Blue Lotus Protection, quite a few petals were ripped apart! Illia''s complacent expression disappeared almost instantly after seeing it. "Impossible!" Illia is one of the top geniuses of the Flor River Sect. She had used her Blue Lotus protection hundreds of times in the past while fighting other Sect Disciples. There had been some who could sever one or two petals. Other geniuses at the same level as she could even cut three or four at once. However, no one in the Semi-Divinity Realm had ever cut so many petals at once! In one wave of attack, more than ten petals fell! How could she not be alarmed? She thought she wouldn''t need to give even a single step after her domain closed around Krune, but it was obviously not the case anymore. Krune is only three Sub-Laws away from mastering all Purple Tribulation Lightning Sub-Laws. Obviously, their attack power far surpassed anything from the past. Still, she didn''t have time to think. The shields'' attacks didn''t stop for even a second and kept coming from all sides. Illia immediately understood that staying put in this place would destroy her entire defense. She could feel that the shields'' Purple Lightning Blades weren''t just cutting her Blue Lotus Protection. Every time they passed by, the Laws of her Petals seemed to be eaten away even before the blades touched them. That''s why her Blue Lotus was falling soo easily. Of course, the Purple Tribulation Blades on the rotating shields were extremely powerful on their own right. "Blue Lotus Transition!" Several much bigger Blue Lotus Petals bloomed and separated from her. They spread around her domain in a flash and shinned with blue light. Just as another Shield Blades was about to cut a petal of Illia''s protection, Illia disappeared from her spot. The next second, she appeared in the place of one of the Big Blue Lotus Petals inside her domain. Krune couldn''t help but be impressed by that. ''Oh! It''s very similar to Laka''s fire sparks that allowed him to change places. Interesting!'' Krune spread his Mental Energy. Soon, all the Big Blue Lotus Petals appeared in his mind. He then used his Purple Tribulation Shields and began to cut all of them down. Illia''s expression immediately changed after seeing that. She really encountered the wrong opponent this time. Krune had over a hundred Flying Shields with Purple Lightning Blades, so he could control them to attack several Petals at the same time! Not only that, Krune used some of the shields to keep attacking Illia as well. Illia could create more of those Big Lotus Petals that she used to change positions, but they consumed a lot of Godly Energy when you made so many. She kept changing positions while attacking Krune, but the 30 shields that Krune reserved for his own protection didn''t let a single attack of hers to pass through. So far, Illia was the only one moving everywhere to protect herself. In contrast, Krune hasn''t moved a single step from his initial position. Krune had to admit that Illia was strong too. Although he has the advantage, he hasn''t caused any damage to Illia yet. So far, all he did was make her move around to protect herself, which she could do with ease. Of course, Krune had no idea about how much Godly Energy Illia had to consume to continue conjuring the Big Blue Lotus Petals. However, Krune was sure that it wasn''t all she could do. Krune was right. Illia knew that nothing good would come out of this exchange, so she decided to change her approach as well. She was shocked about how strong Krune was for his cultivation, but she definitely wasn''t afraid. However, just as she was about to do so, the space around the battlefield began to change abruptly. All the members of both groups noticed it as well. But before anyone could check what was happening, hundreds of Semi-Transparent Claws began to come out from everywhere. The battle had been going for too long, which caught all Spatial Creatures'' attention around the place. Obviously, they wouldn''t wait for a conclusion to happen between both parties before attacking. Chapter 621: Retreat! Thanks to the limitation of this chaotic space, the creatures couldn''t have combat power above Semi-Divinity Realm. Thanks to that, the cultivators and demon beasts were able to react in time. However, there were only fourteen of them counting both groups. On the other hand, it seemed like over a hundred of the Space Creatures came out together. Illia saw several of them coming inside her Blue Lotus Domain. She was already having a hard time dodging only Krune''s attacks, so it got even worse with the Space Creatures intervention. The good thing for her was that the creatures weren''t as strong as the purple blades from Krune''s shields. Krune also retracted another 10 shields to help protect himself. Now he had only 62 kept destroying the Big Blue Lotus Petals. Krune looked in the distance and could see the fights happening. Other than him and Illia, only Iem seemed to be still fighting his opponent. The rest had given up and were defending against the creatures'' attacks. Well, Iem seemed to be having a lot of fun in this situation, though. In the end, Illia gritted her teeth and issued the order. "Retreat!" She had other cards to play, but with the Space Creatures intervening, the attack wouldn''t have the same effect. Even if they are able to kill someone from Krune''s group, they might have to pay an even price for that. It was evident that the plan had utterly failed. ''No, the plan went out of the rails at the moment this guy took all Top Quality Godly Stones in just a few seconds. I do have other tricks to use, but it doesn''t seem like he played all his cards either. Besides, until now, this rainbow-haired guy hasn''t released his Domain even once. Although I''m very confident in my Domain''s power, I''m not sure if I could totally suppress his one. Not to mention that the disruptive abilities of my Domain seem to not have any effect on him.'' Illia then looked in the distance and could see that the other Divine View Realm guy was as strong as the one she was fighting. Not only that, but he didn''t stop attacking her team member even after the space creatures appeared. Without a doubt, those two guys are freaks! Their combat power is an entire realm above their cultivations. With Illia''s orders, everyone joined in a formation and repulsed the space creatures away. Illia also did the same and left Krune behind. Seeing the Flower River Sect retreating, Sisan didn''t dare to waste time with all the creatures here. The only reason they are still alive is that these creatures don''t have intelligence. Thanks to that, it was quite easy to predict their attacks, especially after they joined in a combat formation. "Let''s leave too." Iem looked at the enemy retreating in the distance and couldn''t help but sigh in disappointment. But he still followed Sisan''s orders and joined the combat formation too. He wasn''t the only one. Krune still hasn''t finished testing his Tribulation Shields Slaughter Formation. Unfortunately, Illia was an entire Realm above him. The difference in cultivation would have made it too hard for him to hold Illia back. ''I guess I can only test the rest next time.'' Sisan didn''t care about what happened at the moment. He took the center of the formation and shouted out. "Charge!" Everyone''s Godly Energies gathered together, and they broke through the creatures'' encirclement by force. The guys on the rear of the formation kept sending skills behind, delaying the enemies. The rest helped to fend off any frontal attacks and put the rest of their energy into speed. Finally, the space creatures began to fall behind, quickly disappearing in the distance. Both teams left from the same path they came from, so they obviously exited the chaotic space from two different sides. When Krune''s group left the chaotic space, they were greeted by Jimage, Rui, and Xanala. However, those three seemed to be quite tired too. It was evident that the battles didn''t happen only inside, but outside as well. "Senior Jimage, we found the Flower River Sect inside." Jimage nodded. "We fought their Divinity Realm members as well. They seemed to want to hold us back. Probably, it was to cover the retreat for their group." Jimage then looked at everyone and was relieved that they were all alive. Some of their members seemed to be injured, but it wouldn''t be too troublesome to heal with enough pills. "You came out a lot faster than I expected. The removal of Top Quality Godly Stones should have taken at least one hour, which obviously didn''t happen. It seems like we didn''t get any this time, right? Well, at least the Flower River Sect probably didn''t take it either." Sisan was taken aback, and only now did he remember what Krune did. "Well, about that..." Sisan glanced at Krune and then explained what happened in the chaotic space. Obviously, Jimage thought that Sisan was joking with him. How could a Divini View Realm take the Top Quality Godly Stones away that easily? However, when Krune brought out seven Godly Stones, Jimage could only believe him. "How''s that possible..." Krune scratched the back of his head when suddenly, an idea popped in his head. "Well, now you know why the Sect sent me with you even though I''m at the Divine View Realm." But that wasn''t all. Jimage noticed that neither Krune nor Iem seemed to be injured. Sisan then explained that they also fought against members of the Flower River Sect, but they didn''t fall at a disadvantage at all! In fact, they both held the upper hand in their fights! How much of a freak must those two be to do that? In the end, Jimage could only sigh. "Indeed... The sect wouldn''t do something as idiotic as sending dead weight in this exploration. I apologize for my behavior before. I should have trusted the sect elders'' decisions." Krune smiled bitterly after hearing that. He was obviously lying to Jimage. Even the Sect Master didn''t believe that Krune and Iem would be of much help inside. It was only because of Tulike that they were even able to approach this place. Of course, neither Krune nor Iem would tell the truth. Iem also understood what Krune was trying to do and laughed out loud. "It''s okay. We knew that telling you what we could do would be useless, so we just waited for an opportunity to show you first hand. Anyway, we should go. I doubt the Flower River Sect expected what happened, so they won''t attack us straight away." Jimage and everyone else agreed with Iem. It was evident that the Flower River Sect had set up a trap for them. Still, they failed miserably to accomplish their objective. One doesn''t need to be a genius to know that the enemy counted on Krune and Iem''s weak cultivation and the Godly Stones'' removal time. Too bad, though. It was all for nothing. They didn''t waste too much time talking and immediately left. At the same time, Iem looked behind to the chaotic space and smiled playfully. He then turned his gaze away and followed everyone. Back on the Flower River Sect Group side, Illia had already gathered with Pharan and the other two Divinity Realm members. However, as soon as they joined together, one member of Illia''s group coughed out black blood and fell on the ground, unconscious. "What?!" Everyone was taken aback by that, even Illia herself. Pharan quickly appeared on his side and sent his Godly Energy into his body. His Divine Sense also entered it and checked his companion''s condition. After looking at him for a while, Pharan''s expression turned dark. "There is some kind of black energy running through his body, destroying everything. Give me some healing pills." Pharan forced the pills down the guy''s throat and used his Godly Energy to disseminate the pill''s effect in his body. Due to his much higher cultivation, he was able to neutralize the black energy with the pills'' help, quickly driving it out. The guy then coughed several other mouthfuls of black blood after that. Pharan kept driving his Godly Energy inside the guy''s body for a while when finally, he woke up. However... "The danger is gone, Ralpha. However, your cultivation base has been damaged. Quite a few of your meridians got in the same situation." Ralpha quickly checked his body, and his complexion changed straight away. His Peak Semi-Divinity Realm cultivation has dropped to the 2nd Stage. The damaged meridians were in such bad shape that it will be hard to get them fully healed in the future too. Other than that, his Dantian seemed to have been scourged in a few places, making Godly Energy escape without stopping. At the moment, he could prevent his cultivation from dropping. Still, Ralpha definitely wouldn''t be able to fight anytime soon in that condition. If he did, he would need to use a lot of energy, which his body simply can''t recover with the damaged meridians and foundation. "Ralpha, wasn''t you fighting that Divine View Realm guy? How did you end in this state?" Ralpha remembered their fight and couldn''t help but feel a trace of fear. "That guy is a monster. His body seemed to be indestructible. He also had some kind of black flames all over his body. Remember, do not touch those black flames, or you will probably end up like me." Sure enough, Iem had left a small gift behind before the battle was over. Chapter 622: More Space? Illia took a deep breath and then explained how her battle went. Obviously, their group was shocked to know about the real power of the Sky Shifting Sect''s Divini View Realm duo. "Not only Ralpha ended like this, but the rainbow-colored guy could also keep Illia at bay. Not only that, but both of them hadn''t released their Domains at all, is that correct?" Illia and Ralpha nodded. Pharan narrowed his eyes. "Could it be that they are hiding their real cultivation? Ralpha is one thing, but I find it hard to believe that even Illia wasn''t able to do anything to him." Illia shook her head. "I don''t know, but I believe it is possible. You guys know what I''m capable of, but I still couldn''t do anything to him. Now that I think about it, maybe it was a trap from the get-go. We tried to take advantage of their weakness. Still, it turned out to be their strength¡ªespecially the Rainbow-Haired guy, who can remove the Top Quality Godly Stones in a matter of seconds." Pharan nodded. "The Sky Shifting Sect was quite cunning. Now, not only we did nothing to their Semi-Divinity Realm members, we lost one of our own. Fortunately, the Space Creatures appeared. If the things had continued like that, I believe our losses wouldn''t have been only Ralpha." Everyone nodded. Now, no one believed in the cultivation that they saw from Krune and Iem anymore. They think that Krune and Iem are definitely in the peak of the Divinity Realm, just like the others. As for how they disguised their cultivation, that didn''t matter anymore. "Senior Pharan, what should we do now?" Pharan pondered a bit before reaching a decision. "I have an idea." Back on Krune''s group side, they left the island and were making their way to the next one. "The guys from the Flower River Sect attacked us, shouldn''t we go after them as well?" Jimage shook his head. "It''s useless. We don''t know from which side they entered the chaotic space. Not only that, but their peak Divinity Realm member is very strong. Even if I go all out, I''m not sure if I could defeat him or not. I could tell that he didn''t show his real power during our last fight, either. Well, I didn''t too." Rui then added. "They seemed to know that we were there. From what Sisan said, they also seemed to be observing their group in the chaotic space. That means they can locate those nearby somehow. I agree with Jimage. We should stay far away and focus on the Top Quality Godly Stones only." Everyone nodded. Xanala then looked in Krune''s direction before asking. "Krune, are you an Earth Element user? You removed the Godly Stones pretty easily before, so we might use you for the next Earth Element nodes too." Krune pondered a bit before saying. "As long as it is part of the five primary elements, I should be pretty fine with any node." Everyone''s eyes lit up after hearing that. "Great! We are leaving it up to you then." Krune didn''t mind. In fact, it would be even better if it was the case. His contribution would be bigger, which he could use to acquire more items to remove the siblings'' Memory Seal. Somewhere else, the Three Peaks Sect group members wee hiding in a floating Island that was not connected to the White Root. Instead of ten members, they only had nine, and three of them seemed severely injured. Sure enough, the explosion they triggered last time killed one of their members. Their leader, Foltan Earko, was looking at the three members while they recovered. "How long will it take for them to recover?" One of his companions shook his head. "Even with the pills the elders gave us, they should still need another day. They were too slow to get away from the explosion, so they are lucky to have survived already." Foltan narrowed his eyes after hearing that. "Keep doing it. We will need them for the spaces where the Divinity Realm members can''t enter." Suddenly, Foltan expression changed. He looked in a certain direction before telling his group. "Stay here, I''ll be right back." Back on Krune''s side, their group changed their path and headed towards a small floating island not connected to the White Root. As for why they did that, it was because Krune asked. A few minutes ago, Zule used Divine Sense to communicate with Krune. "There is something different in that island over there." Krune was taken aback and looked in the direction Zule pointed at. The island seemed unremarkable, not to mention that the lack of a White Root made it somewhat useless for Top Quality Godly Stones collection. The nodes where the Godly Stones are mined are attached to those roots, so they needed to select those islands. "What is it? More Top Quality Godly Stones?" "No, it''s something different. It seems like some kind of Space Type... thing." Krune narrowed his eyes. Zule is, in fact, a Space Heavenly Fragment. The treasure he resides in is also a Space Type Artifact. Krune has no doubt that Zule''s space attainments are several times better than his own, so it shouldn''t be just a feeling. "Do you want us to go there, take a look?" Zule nodded. "Yes. Whatever it is, it should be impressive since it can catch my attention." Krune didn''t know whether to go there or not, so he decided to check with Jimage first. "Hum? Something on that island is catching your attention?" Of course, Krune didn''t say that it was Zule who told him. "Yes. I have a strange feeling about this place. I don''t know what is there, though. It''s up to senior Jimage to decide whether we should take a look or not." Jimage pondered a bit and looked at the others. "What you all think? It''s not exactly our mission, but the island isn''t that far away either. At most, we will lose one hour or so. However, there might also have dangers in that place, so I won''t decide it on my own." Everyone looked at the island that Krune pointed out, but they couldn''t feel anything strange. Of course, their Divine Senses is far from enough to reach there. "I don''t mind. Krune already saved us one hour in the last node. Not to mention that he will save a lot more time with the next ones if he can pull the same thing out." "I agree. Besides, it might be some treasure. This place is full of Godly Energy, much more than outside. It wouldn''t be strange if some kind of natural treasure appeared there." The others also agreed in the end, and their group changed direction. On the way, Iem asked Krune what was that about. "What did you find there?" Krune shook his head. "I don''t know, it was Zule who alerted me. He said that it is something Space-Related since it could catch his attention. Probably something impressive." Iem also found it weird but nodded in the end. Soon they arrived on the island. It wasn''t as big as the islands with White Roots connected, but it was a few tens of kilometers wide. Their group proceeded forward with caution, trying to avoid an ambush or something like that. It was then that the space around them fluctuated. As soon as that happened, everyone entered in combat mode. Every time it happened, they were assaulted by Space Type Creatures, so they already got used to the feeling. However, the fluctuations continued for a few minutes without a single creature appearing. Finally, Jimage and the others began to get confused at that scene. "Could it be that it isn''t the space creatures?" "The creatures have no intelligence. They wouldn''t spend their time trying to scare us. If they haven''t come until now, then it''s probably not them." "Then what is it? Should we retreat?" Once again, everyone looked at Jimage. He was the group leader, so it was his decision. However, just as he was about to say something, the fluctuations around the group stopped. Krune immediately took that chance to ask Zule inside his Spatial Ring. "Do you know what is happening?" Zule then answered. "I think I do, there is another sealed space, and the entrance is somewhere on this island." Krune was taken aback. "You mean, like the chaotic spaces we passed by before?" "No, it was not a natural thing. It was left behind by someone. However, it seems like it has existed for quite some time. The space inside is starting to waver, that''s why we saw those fluctuations before. If I''m not wrong, this sealed space is reaching the limit of its existence. That''s why I could feel its presence a while ago when we were passing by this island." Krune nodded. "Do you know where it is?" Zule scanned the area for a second before saying. "Obviously, that sealed space is separated from this one, so it is not really ''here.'' However, the entrance is indeed in this place. From what I can feel, it should be in the center of the island. There is probably a spatial gate or something like that there." Krune and Zule''s conversation only lasted two seconds through the Divine Sense message, so nothing much happened outside. Jimage was still pondering if they should go ahead or not. "Senior Jimage, I can feel it clearly now. Whatever it is, it is in the center of the island. However, we don''t need to look at it now. We might want to come back here later after gathering more Top Quality Godly Stones. Or maybe we don''t even need to come back at all. I''ll follow senior''s orders." Jimage nodded. "Okay, the fluctuations stopped, so let''s go take a look." Chapter 623: Impasse Krune''s group moved slowly to avoid being caught by surprise. Fortunately, they didn''t encounter anything until they reached the center of the island. Once they got there, they looked around, trying to see if there was anything there. Still, they couldn''t see anything that seemed important. Krune then sent his Divine Sense into his Spatial Ring and asked Zule. ''We are here. Where is this entrance you talked about?'' Zule spread his perception around, trying to analyze the space laws around. After a few moments, he pointed at a small hill''s direction. ''It''s under that hill over there. There seems to be a concealing formation preventing others from finding it. However, the laws of space can''t hide from me. I''m sure that is the place.'' The hill was a few kilometers away, so Krune''s Mental Energy couldn''t reach it. That''s why he didn''t see anything wrong with it. However, once the hill entered his Mental Energy Range, he immediately noticed the concealment formation inside. As mentioned before, formations are usually made to block Divine Sense, but Krune was obviously not using such a thing. Krune then turned around and shouted to the other members of his group. "I found something here." Jimage and the rest heard that and immediately rushed over. However, because they were using Divine Sense to scan the area, they couldn''t see anything different. "Are you sure?" Krune nodded. "It''s under this hill, I''m sure about that. I have a special method of detection that the concealment formation underground can''t hide from." Jimage and the others then looked at the hill, thinking about what to do. "Should we just blast it over?" Jimage shook his head. "We don''t know if it is just a concealment formation under there, let''s use our Godly Energy to slowly excavate." Krune and everyone agreed and began to work together. Because of the enormous amount of Godly Energy in this sealed space, everything inside was much more resistant to damage, so it was quite hard to open a passage. Finally, they seemed to hit a barrier that protected the place. Sure enough, they confirmed that Krune wasn''t imagining things. Jimage then stepped forward and touched the barrier. He sent some of his Godly Energy inside to test its resistance. The wall trembled a little, but that was all that happened. "It is a very sturdy protection. However, it seems like it has been operating for a very long time. I can sense that it is barely holding on its own at the moment. If we all attack together, we might be able to break it if we dedicate a few hours. The question is, would you be willing to leave the Top Quality Godly Stones behind? We only have a week before the sealed space goes too chaotic again, so every minute is important." Rui pondered a bit before saying. "Jimage, this is the first time the sect has encountered anything like this inside the Top Quality Godly Veins'' Sealed Spaces. It shows that someone had definitely been here before a long time ago. Chances are that whatever is inside will be even better than the Top Quality Godly Stones themselves. I vote for breaking it up. Besides, with Krune on our side, we definitely can make up for the time we spend here later." Jimage nodded and looked at the rest of the group members. "What about the rest of you?" The rest looked at each other and then nodded. They know that this might be a great fortune for them, so no one was willing to give it up. "Very well, let''s start." The group quickly used their power and enlarged the space around them. After all, they are inside a tunnel they themselves made. They needed space where they could attack without being worried about other things. Jimage also asked Xanala to go outside and set up an energy concealing formation. That was to prevent the Godly Energy waves that will come out of the bombardment from escaping. Iem took this change and went outside as well to help her. He, too, was a formations master. In just one hour, everything was ready. Jimage then looked at everyone and gave his order. "It''s time!" Godly Energy gathered around the attackers'' bodies, and they soon initiate their bombardment. *Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom...* Jimage wasn''t an idiot; he only kept three members attacking every time. The rest would be resting or keep watching outside for any changes. This island doesn''t have any White Root connected to it, but nothing guaranteed that the other sects'' groups would not come. Time passed, and the barrier dimmed more and more. For some reason, Spatial Tears and Space Type Creatures hadn''t appeared even once, much to everyone''s confusion. They didn''t know if it was really a good thing or not. After all, this place might be dangerous to the point that neither was necessary. Finally, the wall seemed to be about to collapse. Everyone stopped attacking after seeing that. "Alright, everyone will fall back. We will all attack it with long-ranged attacks at once. Be careful, something might happen as soon as it breaks. If anything strange happens, retreat straight away. We can slowly analyze the situation after that." Krune and everyone else went back all the way to the entrance. They looked at each other and nodded once more. Right after, the group used their best long-range attacks and sent it against the barrier. *Boom! Shatter!* The protection formation broke up like glass straight away. The next instant, they all felt an immense wave of Godly Energy coming from inside. It was evident that the formation had accumulated it for a long time. Still, other than that, nothing else happened. Jimage then took a deep breath and stepped forward. "Let''s go, time to see what was inside this place." They made their way past the place where the barrier was before, soon arrived at a big underground cave. Of course, it was situated inside the floating island, so it wasn''t that impressive. However, right at the center of the cave, there seemed to be a building. It had a red color and seemed to be made of some unique material. Right above the building''s entrance, one could see a written board. -Heaven Break- Krune and the other looked at each other. From everyone''s expression, it was easy to see that none of them knew anything about it. They approached the building and kept looking around, making sure that nothing was wrong. Everything was fine, and it didn''t seem like any kind of trap was left behind. Jimage then took a deep breath and used his Godly Energy to open the building''s door. The building wasn''t big to start with, and they soon noticed that the inside was completely open. There were no rooms, corridors, or anything like that. Of course, it wasn''t empty either. At the very center, one could see a big formation. Xanala and Iem looked at that and immediately identified. "This is a teleport formation. I can tell that it is the type that teleports to another dimension. No doubt, there is a Dimensional Realm on the other side of it. However, this formation is ancient and close to collapse. It would be very risky to use it like this." Jimage narrowed his eyes before asking. "Can you repair it or make it more stable?" Xanala pondered a bit. But just as she was about to answer... *Boom!* Everyone heard the sound of an explosion. However, this sound didn''t come from inside the cave, but outside! "Shit, someone is attacking the formation we built outside." Iem nodded. "It definitely won''t hold for more than a few seconds. We need to go out." Jimage and everyone else nodded, and they quickly rushed outside the building. But just as they stepped outside, they saw another two groups coming from the entrance in the distance. "Flower River and Three Peaks Sects." It turned out that Pharan went out to seek the Three Peaks Sect help. After all, both their groups already lost combatants, but the Sky Shifting Sect hasn''t. Of course, just that wouldn''t be enough to make the Three Peaks to join them. Only after they told about Krune''s ability to take Godly Stones that they finally agreed to join forces. However, when Illia used her technique to try to find Jimage''s group, she discovered that they had gathered on another small island without any White Root attached. It was then that they found out about Jimage''s group operation. Yet, they kept hiding their presence to see what was happening. Jimage''s group had even built a formation outside to prevent Godly Energy Waves from escaping. Obviously, they were trying to hide something. Pharan smiled at Jimage in the distance before saying. "Hey, Jimage. I didn''t expect to see you so soon. Hahaha!" Jimage narrowed his eyes as he looked at Foltan Earko, the leader of the Three Peaks Sect group. "What is it, did you decide to join hand to deal with us?" Foltan Earko looked around before saying. "That was indeed the case at first. However, the situation has cleared changed. How about you tell us what is this place?" Jimage shrugged his shoulders. "If I knew, I wouldn''t have let you find out so easily. We also just found this place by chance a few hours ago. As for whether you believe it or not, I couldn''t care less." The Flower River and Three Peaks were indeed intending to attack together. But now, things changed too much. In the end, the three groups reached an impasse. Chapter 624: Final Decision Pharan then stepped forward to ask. "First, how about you let us take a look at what is inside that building?" Jimage and the others narrowed their eyes. However, they weren''t surprised by this. With the situation having reached this point, there is no way that their group would be able to stop both the Flower River and the Three Peaks. In the end, Jimage shrugged his shoulders. "Let them pass. It''s not like we have found anything yet anyway." Krune and the rest nodded their head and quickly stepped aside. Pharan and Foltan nodded, satisfied. If the Sky Shifting Sect really tries to stop them, they could simply attack them together. However, they would rather avoid this until they make heads and tails of what is happening. Just like that, the three groups entered the building. Obviously, each team had at least one member who knew about formations, so the other two groups immediately understood what it was about. "What is Heaven Break?" Jimage shook his head. "No idea. It might be a cultivator or a demon beast. Maybe it is a Sect or some kind of ancient organization. Regardless of which one, I have no idea." Pharan and Foltan didn''t know whether it was true or not. However, their groups already confirmed that this teleport formation is indeed extremely old. Xanala, the other Divinity Realm member of Krune''s group, asked the other groups'' formations masters. "We can stabilize the formation to make it more secure. However, it would cost quite a few materials, which I don''t have enough. In a certain way, if you guys didn''t appear, we would not be able to fix it. Of course, we could have tried to use it as it is, but it would be too risky. So how about this. Let''s share the materials necessary and work on the formation together. I believe neither of you would have an issue with this arrangement, right?" Pharan and Foltan looked at their formations masters, and both sides nodded. They knew that this would be the best thing to do. After all, it would be dangerous to let just one of the groups to work on the formation. Pharan then looked at Foltan and sent a Divine Sense message. ''We could join our forces and take care of the Sky Shifting Sect first. Then we could go inside to take a look after.'' Foltan shook his head. ''We have the advantage in numbers, but considering the similarity in power, there is no way we can take care of all of them. If we were to enter the formation and they come back after to destroy it, we would be trapped inside. We don''t know what is there, so I don''t wanna risk losing our way back.'' Pharan pondered a bit and accessed the Sky Shifting Sect''s group. They could leave some people outside defending the formation. But that also would mean that their forces inside would be affected. That''s not all. If he were to guess who of the Sky Shifting Sect would be able to escape, that was probably Jimage and the other two Divinity Realm members. That meant that the ones who needed to stay outside protecting the formation were himself and Foltan. Pharan immediately cast that idea away. There is no way that he would stay out waiting. There was one more problem. Pharan couldn''t really trust the Three Peaks Sect''s group completely. Nothing guaranteed that they didn''t instead form an alliance with the Sky Shifting Group to take care of them. ''What about we deal with them after we enter the Dimensional Realm?'' Foltan pondered a bit and nodded. ''That is plausible.'' Jimage knew that they were talking in secret with Divine Sense, and he could also imagine what they were thinking. However, he simply smiled and didn''t mind that too much. A moment later, Pharan and Foltan turned their eyes back to the Sky Shifting Sect''s group. "Alright. We will fix the formation and enter it together." Jimage laughed. "Great! Now then..." Jimage took out an item and threw it at Kalen, one of the Peak Semi-Divinity Realm members of their group. When Pharan and Foltan saw that item, they were taken aback. "God Thunder Beads? What is the meaning of this?" Jimage smile was still as bright as ever. "Nothing much. As you know, God Thunder Beads can release an attack roughly at the Divinity Realm early stages of power. It''s quite expensive and easy to avoid, but it will serve the purpose I need it for. I will simply have one of my members wait outside with this thing. After all, formations can''t dodge." Jimage then threw another item to Kalen. This time it was half of a collar. "Kalen, I will bring the other half with me. If you see your half shattering, that means we were ambushed or perished. In that case, use the God Thunder Beads to destroy the formation." Pharan and Foltan''s expressions went dark after hearing that. It was evident that he was threatening them to not try playing any tricks. Jimage ignored their dark faces and continued. "Of course, your two can also leave someone outside to watch over the formation. If any of your teams dies inside, you can have them destroy it as well. Or maybe we will all die inside, who knows? Regardless, I recommend your two groups to not try anything weird. I''m not very good at controlling my strength. I might shatter the half of the collar in my possession by mistake. I don''t think either of you would want it, right?" Although Foltan and Pharan were displeased with it, they knew that Jimage would not change his mind about leaving a member of his group outside. Without a doubt, he will demand that all Divinity Realm members enter the formation, leaving only a Semi-Divinity one protecting it. This place also never got Space Creatures or Spatial Tears, so there was no risk to leave them here. The worst part was the God Thunder Beads. Jimage had given three of these to his group member. If he activated all three simultaneously, the other two who stayed outside wouldn''t be able to stop him from destroying the formation. However, it was also true that their own members could do the same thing. That guaranteed that neither side would be idiot enough to ally with another to get rid of one. Of course, Jimage knew what they were thinking. "However, I can also go away with my group and leave you guys on your own. To be honest, I''m still uncertain if it is better to collect more Top Quality Godly Stones instead of entering the Dimensional Realm. Not to mention that we only have a week to stay inside, so we might not have time to do anything there. If you agree with my idea, we can begin to repair the formation together and enter it. If not, I can totally leave and promise to not get close to this place anymore." Jimage wasn''t lying. He was really in doubt about which was the best course of action. If he leaves with his group, he can use Krune''s ability to acquire a large number of Top Quality Godly Stones. Obviously, the sect wouldn''t blame him even if they lose something important. In case there was nothing worthing a look inside, then he would have made the right decision. "Hmph! Who can guarantee that you really won''t come back? Very well, my Flower River Sect group agrees with your idea." Pharan then turned to one of his group members and threw him an item with a similar effect to Jimage''s two half collars. Also, he passed to him God Fire Beads, which basically had the same impact as Jimage''s God Thunder ones. "Sevodan, you stay outside. Destroy the formation if you see that something happened to us." Sevodan quickly received the items and nodded. Foltan pondered a bit and nodded in the end. "My Three Peaks Sect group will also do the same." He selected a member of his group and made similar arrangements with him. Just like that, the three groups were ready to start. "Alright. We have been inside the Sealed Space for half a day already. Let''s start the formation repair." Jimage then looked at Xalana and Iem before asking. "How long do you think it will take?" The two of them looked at the formation again for a few minutes before saying. "It isn''t anything complicated. The Dimensional Realm is situated inside this Sealed Space, so it is very close. It shouldn''t take us more than two hours if all three sides join hands to fix this thing." Pharan and Foltan''s groups also reached the same conclusion. "Very well. Everyone, bring out your items and see what we need to repair it." All three sides already knew more or less what they would need to repair it, so they quickly brought out one-third of the necessary materials each. They spent a few minutes talking about how they would fix and each one''s roles. Finally, they began their work. Time passed, and the formations masters paced back and forth above the formation. Thankfully, Iem was also a Formations Master, so things got even faster with his help too. Instead of two hours, they only took one and a half, which was already very good. After that, they stepped outside and tested it with some random items. With a flash of silver light, the items above the formation disappeared. "Alright, the formation seems stable enough. Everyone, let''s go." Chapter 625: Closing Except for Kalen and the other two Semi-Divinity Realm guys from the other two groups, everyone else stepped on the teleport formation. All the groups were separated while looking at each other. Finally, the ones that stayed outside activated the formation, making everyone over it disappear in a flash of silver light. Krune''s vision blurred and contorted for a second before coming back to normal. Because the teleport formation wasn''t in proper conditions, everyone felt some backlash from the space laws. Finally, the side-effects disappeared, allowing everyone to recover and relax after a few seconds. However, that sensation didn''t last long. As soon as they appeared on the other side, they noticed that they were far from being out of danger. That''s because the world around them seemed to be on the verge of collapsing at any time! They could see spatial tears everywhere, moving like they were dragged by the wind. There were also a few that appeared and disappeared like ghosts. It even made everyone think twice if they really wanted to explore this place or not. Also, they couldn''t see much far. That''s because they seemed to be inside some kind of cave. However, the passage there was very spacious. Suddenly, Zule''s Divine Sense message reached Krune. ''Don''t worry, this place is in bad shape, but it will take several years before it reaches the real breaking point. Unless something that can force it to break happens, there should be no risk of it collapsing in the next few days.'' Zule is a Spatial Type Treasure and a Space Heavenly Fragment. His senses for space-related things was several times better than anyone in this place. Krune let out a sigh of relief and then turned to the others. Krune''s group complexion wasn''t very good, though. Although that place seemed to be some kind of cave, they felt that it wasn''t the case. Also, they felt like a powerful aura was constantly assaulting them. However, they couldn''t tell where it was coming from. "Everyone, be careful. Something is not right about this place." Krune''s group wasn''t the only one like that, though. Foltan and Pharan''s groups were also feeling the same way. Suddenly... *Brrrrooommmmm!* The space around them began to tremble. Everyone was alarmed by that and quickly looked around. It was then that they noticed that the walls of the cave behind them began to close! It then quickly moved in their direction. Not only that, but the walls were closing at very high speeds. Everyone''s faces went pale! "Run!" All the groups immediately run away. They had the teleport formation under their feet. However, there was not enough time to activate it. They could only escape as fast as possible. The wall kept closing as everyone run ahead. The problem was that the place was full of spatial tears. Some even appeared and disappeared all the time. If you were moving slowly, you could pay more attention to the surroundings, avoiding most dangers. However, they simply had no time to do that now. It was then that a Spatial Tear appeared right in front of someone. "Arrrgh!" It was a member of the Flower River Sect. He didn''t even have time to dodge before he fell right into it. Pharan''s complexion turned ugly, but there was nothing he could do. There was simply not enough time for him to turn around and save the guy. All he and everyone in his group could do was ignore it and keep running. Suddenly, another scream could be heard. When the others looked in the direction it came from, it was a member of the Three Peaks Sect. Just like the previous guy, he fell directly inside the spatial tear without a chance to dodge. Pharan, Foltan, Jimage, and the other Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts could accelerate and leave the rest behind. After all, their cultivations were much higher. Not to mention that they had much stronger Divine Senses, so they had an easier time detecting the appearance of Spatial Tears. Still, they stayed with their group. After all, they couldn''t afford to lose all the Semi-Divinity Realm members. No one knows if they will need them to enter some chaotic space that they can''t later, just like outside. The problem was that the wall closing behind them wasn''t any slower than the Semi-Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts. However, it wasn''t that they couldn''t be faster. The issue was that it would be even harder to detect the Spatial Tears if they do that. They only run for a few minutes and already dodged several of them by a hair. It was obvious what would happen if they moved faster. It was at this moment that everyone received a Mental Energy Message from Krune. Of course, this Mental Energy Message only reached Krune''s group members. ''Listen to me. We need to move faster. I will check the surroundings for you all. Just make sure to follow my commands.'' Everyone was taken aback. That''s because they didn''t feel the presence of Divine Sense when they heard that. Obviously, it wasn''t a Divine Sense Message, but something else. Still, Jimage looked at Krune and asked with a Divine Sense message this time. ''Are you sure you can detect the Spatial Tears fast enough to warn the others? I''m barely doing it with my Divine Sense. But if everyone increases their speeds, I''m not confident I can prevent them from falling into the Spatial Tears in time.'' Krune looked back at Jimage and nodded. ''Trust me, I can definitely do it. Besides, did you notice? The speed that the walls are closing behind us is increasing by the time. Soon, it will surpass our max running speed.'' Jimage and the others narrowed their eyes. Their Divine Senses couldn''t go back far enough to check the walls closing. But they still noticed it by merely looking behind. Krune was right, the difference was minute, but the closure was becoming faster and faster. Everyone looked at each other and nodded. ''Alright, we will leave it to you. What do you need?'' Krune then pointed behind his back. ''Come where I am and don''t stay more than two meters away from each other. Make a queue and be sure to only step where I do. Follow every and all my movements.'' Everyone was taken aback. Krune''s group is keeping over a hundred meters of distance at the moment between each member. Not only them but all the other groups as well. After all, if someone was caught by a Spatial Tear, he or she wouldn''t go down with someone else. If they were this close, there would be no time for the rest to dodge. Obviously, they were a little reluctant. However, there was an exception, Iem! As soon as Krune said that, he appeared two meters behind him. Iem knows about Krune''s ability very well, so he is pretty sure that his chances will be much better if he follows him. The others also saw that. In the end, they gritted their teeth and moved behind Krune as well. Well, Jimage, Rui, and Xanala didn''t, though. With their Cultivations and Divine Senses, they were confident enough to move much faster without falling into Spatial Tears. Krune, of course, was more than happy that it was the case. The lesser the number of group members he had to guide, the faster he could be. As soon as they did that, Pharan and Foltan groups noticed the change. As one can imagine, they thought that the Sky Shifting Sect was up to something. However, they didn''t know what it was about. Krune ignored their eyes, though. He concentrated his Mental Energy on the surroundings. Everything then became much clearer, including the hidden Spatial Tears. Krune smiled faintly and instantly increased his speed. The others immediately followed him, too, keeping two meters of distance from each other. They began to run ahead more than three times the other two groups'' speed! Pharan and Foltan were taken aback. Not only them but everyone else. "Are they crazy?" "What if they encounter a Spatial Tear? They will all die together!" "Could it be that they are trying their luck? Maybe they think they can escape this situation first and begin looking for the rewards ahead of us." Pharan narrowed his eyes and looked at Krune in the distance. Suddenly, he heard a Divine Sense Message from Illia, who also came with them into the Dimensional Realm. ''I don''t think he is relying on luck. Those two Divine View Realm guys are too weird.'' Pharan looked at Illia and nodded his head in the end. Krune was moving much faster ahead, but he was also changing direction several times. Pharan believed that Krune was really able to see the Spatial Tears ahead of time. Illia couldn''t help but ask. ''What do we do? We can''t continue like this for long.'' Pharan narrowed his eyes. He then looked at his group and ordered. "We won''t fall behind. Everyone, increase your speeds. We don''t have much choice anyway since the walls behind are closing faster as time passes. If we take too long, we are going to be caught by it." Pharan wasn''t as confident as Krune, but he also told everyone to follow his steps. It''s just that he asked them to keep more distance from each other. Foltan, obviously, noticed the walls increase of speed as well. Without another choice, he also told everyone to increase their speed. As for how many would survive in the end, no one knows. Chapter 626: Not what it seems Although so many things were happening, only a few minutes went by. Still, the closing walls finally disappeared in the distance with their increase in speed. Krune kept guiding everyone at the Semi-Divinity Realm and below while Jimage and the other two followed closely. As time passed, their group''s tension reduced little by little. After all, it was evident that Krune could really detect the Spatial Tears. Jimage didn''t know how he was doing it with his Divine Sense level, but the important thing was that it was working. As for Foltan and Pharan''s group, they were following right behind. However, their Semi-Divinity Realm members did not have a good time. The only advantage was that they were close enough to receive timely help. It wasn''t perfect, and injuries by getting too close to Spatial Tears were happening, but those two could at least prevent more deaths. At some point, the trembling of the space began to decrease. They weren''t sure if this was because they had gone far away from the closing walls or if everything was stabilizing again, though. Of course, they wouldn''t go back to check if the walls there were really slowing down or not. Finally, the place stopped trembling completely. Space stabilized once more as the Spatial Tears recurrence slowed down. Everyone stopped moving forward and looked around, paying attention to see if anything was out of order. "In the end, it was useless to leave Kalen outside. The formation is now gone, destroyed under the cave all the way back. There is no way we can go back now." "No helping it, there was no time to turn and teleport back. The walls would have smashed us first. By the way, the walls were not collapsing but closing instead. It was so weird." Everyone nodded. They also noticed this. "Not only that, but I can still feel this oppressive aura coming from everywhere. Even after running so far, it is still present." Jimage pondered a bit before saying. "Anyway, we need to keep going. We only have six and a half days to find another exit and escape the Godly Vein Sealed Space. Otherwise, it will be too unstable for us to survive inside." Krune and the others nodded, quickly departing after that. Pharan and Foltan''s groups were in worse shape, but they didn''t stay put. They knew that they only had so much time to find an exit as well. As for attacking the other groups, they immediately put those thoughts behind their heads. The three groups were not moving as fast as before, but they still had quite a fast pace. Now and then, they would find several different passages for them to select. However, they always chose the same ones. It''s not that they wanted to stay together, but that they could feel the flux of Godly Energy in those passages. They were simply following the entrances where the flux was higher. The passages began to get bigger as time passed. Not only that, but the cave itself seemed to change too. At some point, the ground below became moisty. They continued forward, and they felt like they were entering a shallow underground river. It''s just that the liquid under them wasn''t water, but kind of silver. At first, they were afraid that this liquid could cause damage to their bodies. But after testing it out, it was evident that it wasn''t the case. If anything, the liquid seemed to be full of Godly Energy. However, they couldn''t store it. It was then that Krune noticed something strange. "Don''t you think that this liquid or silver water has quite a familiar feeling?" All the groups stopped and looked at Krune. "What do you mean?" Krune continued. "I believe you guys noticed the space laws inside it other than the Godly Energy, right?" Everyone nodded. "That''s what I''m talking about. Don''t you think that this silver water gives you the feeling of the Space Creatures?" Jimage, Pharan, Foltan, and everyone else were shocked by what they heard. They immediately sent their Divine Senses into the silver water after that. Sure enough, Krune was right. It really gave the same feeling as the Space Creatures. Their heart skipped a bit when they noticed such a thing. Doesn''t that mean that they are inside the place where the Space Creatures are born? So far, no one knows where the Creatures came from. The sects investigated the other Sealed Spaces, but they couldn''t find any clues even after entering several of them. All the islands where they god the Top Quality Godly Stones had no clues about it either. The sects thought that perhaps it was a mutation in those Top Quality Godly Veins that caused the creatures'' appearance. After all, the Godly Veins stayed hidden long enough to create their own Sealed Spaces. It wouldn''t be weird if the Creatures also appeared because of them. "What do we do? If they are born here, we might be moving into an army of them any time soon." "But it''s not like we have another choice. The passage back then was closed; we can''t go back now." Illia then thought about another possibility. "This might not be bad news." Obviously, everyone looked at her. "What do you mean?" Illia smiled and explained. "Don''t you see it? All the Sealed Spaces have Space Creatures. That means that this Dimensional Realm is connected to the other Godly Vein Sealed Spaces too. Most likely, other teleport formations can bring us outside as well." Rui couldn''t help but intervene. "That is still a problem. After all, the other Godly Vein Sealed Spaces are not open yet. If we teleport to them, we will be crushed by the chaotic space inside. In fact, it is bad news. We have no idea where the next teleport formations would take us. We have assumed that they would bring us outside, but what if we were sent to the other sealed spaces? We would just die instead." Xanala shook her head. "We still don''t know if the silver water is really the thing the gives birth to the Space Creatures. So far, we haven''t seen a single one, right? Maybe it is just a coincidence since this Dimensional Realm exists inside the Godly Vein Sealed Space. Maybe it means that this silver water changed because of it." Foltan shook his head. "I believe that there is a good chance that they are really born here. The reason we haven''t seen anyone yet is most likely because there isn''t enough silver water and Godly Energy in this place. Of course, we will need to go forward to confirm it." "Who knows? Perhaps there is a treasure ahead that is creating this silver water and the creatures too." Everyone then began to talk about this issue. Whether there were treasures or not, the majority was more concerned about how to go back. But it was then that Krune had an idea. "I think we don''t need to worry. All we need to do is use the same teleport formation we came to go back." No one understood what Krune meant. They all saw how the cave closed in it. The formation was most likely destroyed now, so how could they use the same one? Krune understood what they were thinking and quickly explained his theory. "Don''t you think it is weird? How long has this place existed? I always had a strange feeling regarding this aura that we have been feeling. It''s always present doesn''t matter where we go. It even clearer if we touch the walls. Besides, I believe everyone already noticed that the cave walls are not exactly rocks or anything like that, right?" Everyone nodded. "If I''m not wrong, it wasn''t the first time the cave walls closed like that. Most likely, it happens quite frequently in this place in all the passages. Simply put, it happens every time these ''walls'' detect some foreign existence. However, even to this day, the teleport formation was still there." Jimage understood what Krune meant. "You are saying that the teleport formation was made in a way that it can resist that phenomenon. As long as we go back, it will be there again. Is it?" Krune nodded. "Yes. Not only that, but I believe that the walls there will reopen eventually." All the groups looked at Krune with some suspicion in their eyes. "How can you be sure?" Krune smiled and approached the wall on the side. He touched it and could feel that oppressive aura even more clearly. After that, he turned back to everyone else and said. "That''s because I don''t believe this is a conjunct of caves. Nor is it any kind of old Dimensional Realm either. The silver water on the ground that has a similar feeling to the space creatures made me realize something." Krune looked at the silver water. Although they called this liquid like this, it was a lot denser than real water. He then looked around as he spread his Mental Energy inside the walls. If he got close enough, his Mental Energy was able to see several other passages behind them. It looked like everywhere around their groups was made of more and more passages. However, they all had the same pattern. From what krune had seen so far, they all led to the same place ahead. The only difference was that some had more flux of Godly Energy, while others not so much. Nonetheless, Krune believed that the Godly Energy of all passages had the same origin. Krune then took a deep breath and told them what he was thinking. "I believe we are not inside a mountain or underground. We are inside someone''s body." Chapter 627: Choose! Everyone was taken aback by what Krune said. "A body? Is that even possible? In that case, just how big this body is?" "If that is the case, it means we have been running inside its blood vessels all this time?" "I see, so the silver water is instead the body''s blood. No wonder it is so dense. Now that I think about it, the thickness is comparable with blood indeed." "However, how come we are only seeing this ''blood'' now? If these are all blood vessels, how come they are empty?" Krune heard all their questions and nodded. "You guys forgot an important point. How old was the teleport formation that brought us in? From the looks of it, this body had been here for countless years already. I also have another theory. The Top Quality Godly Veins, aren''t they the result of this body''s presence? I believe they only exist and stayed hidden for so long because of it." "As for which race it is, that is hard to say. Most likely, he is a demon beast. After all, a demon beast''s size increases as their cultivation get higher. Of course, he might as well be a cultivator or a mixed-blood." Jimage couldn''t help but comment. "I''ve never heard about a demon beast or whatever of this size before." Everyone nodded as well. But it was then that Iem pointed something else. "I think it is better to say that you have never seen a being of this size'' in the Godly Path Realm.'' What about the God Realm? I don''t think anyone here knows what kind of races are present there. Chances are that it is someone from that place." Everyone nodded after hearing that. It could also explain how such an enormous body had been hidden all this time. Krune then continued. "Of course, this is just a conjecture of mine. But I believe that the Space Creatures are born from its blood. First, these creatures are highly proficient in Space Laws. Second, they have none to almost no intelligence. Third, their Space Abilities is probably related to the race of this body." Krune then looked at Jimage before saying. "Senior Jimage, let''s keep moving. If this is really a body, the Godly Energy is definitely coming from its Dantian or Demon Core. Perhaps we can find something there." Jimage nodded, and their group swiftly departed. Whether Pharan and Foltan''s group followed or not wasn''t their problem. On the way, Jimage talked with everyone through Divine Sense. "There is one thing I can''t understand. If this is really a body, how come there are teleport formations to send us inside its body?" Xanala pondered a bit before saying. "Perhaps the body had been found by someone else in the past. However, this guy didn''t let anyone know about its existence." Rui nodded and added. "That makes sense. Still, I think the one who created the teleport formation isn''t around anymore. After all, the formation that brought us here was really ancient. Perhaps, that ''Heaven Break'' was the title of the cultivator or demon beast who had access to this place in the past." Iem agreed with Rui. He was a Formations Master, so he added another piece of information. "Indeed. Considering the time that the formation had been around, there are only two possibilities here. The one who created it already died to the ascension tribulation or is now in the God Realm. From the looks of it, that formation is several hundred chaos cycles old. It''s just that it was really excellently made, so it resisted until today." Xanala agreed with Iem. As a Formations Master herself, she could see how skilled its creator was. Krune then thought about something else. "If that is the case, then just how old is this body? The formation itself was also several hundred chaos cycles old, and I believe that this body was already dead by the time it was built." Jimage shook his head. "Did you see how the walls closed behind us before? Would you really say that it is dead?" Everyone was taken aback. "Indeed. If it was really a dead body, why would it react to our presence?" "That might not be the body''s reaction, but the person or beast who set the teleport formation in the past. After all, the one who did it had definitely spent a long time in this place. There is nothing wrong with leaving behind a few countermeasures." Sisan couldn''t help but comment. "What if it is not a trap? There is also a possibility that this is an inheritance left by the last person or beast who conquered this body. Since he already ascended or died to the ascension tribulation, it is expected that he decided to leave it for future generations. It''s not like you guys haven''t heard of dangerous inheritances before." Krune sighed after hearing that. "So many possibilities, but which one is real? We might find some answers after we reach the Dantian or Demon Core." Jimage then looked behind and noticed that Pharan and Foltan''s groups were also following them. "What do we do about those two other groups?" Iem pondered a bit before saying. "So far, he had been following the vessel with the highest flow of Godly Energy. However, Godly Energy usually passes through the meridians, right? What about we chose a different path and look for one of this body''s meridians? As long as we find one, it should be much easier to reach our destination. It would also give us the chance to separate from those two groups." Ramona agreed with Iem. "I think it is a good idea. As dangerous as this place might be, I think we will be at a much higher risk with those two groups following us. After all, both of them lost another member of their groups while we didn''t lose anyone so far. It won''t be any surprise if they decide to join forces again to reduce our numbers." Jimage heard everyone''s opinions and nodded. "Very well, we will follow another path in the next division ahead." Obviously, with the number of blood vessels of a body, it only took a few moments for them to reach the next divisions. Jimage''s group then stopped in front of it and didn''t move. Pharan and Foltan''s groups also did the same, waiting to see what Jimage''s group was going to do. Noticing that, Jimage looked at them and asked. "Why are you waiting for us? Just select a path and go ahead. There is no need to see us out." Pharan narrowed his eyes and looked at the different paths ahead. He thought that Jimage might have found something and was waiting for them to go away. He then laughed sarcastically before saying. "We will select a path, indeed. But we will first wait to see what you are up to." Foltan''s group members looked at each other and nodded. They also didn''t select any of the paths. Jimage then shrugged his shoulders before saying. "The reason we stopped here is pretty simple. We don''t want to follow the same path as the two of you. As long as you select a course, we will choose another one. It creeps me out, knowing that your groups are close to us like this, so I want to prevent being stabbed on the back." Foltan then asked with a cold voice. "Do you think I''ll believe that? Chances are that you are up to something, don''t you think? What if you found some clue and want to select a path that is much more beneficial than the ones we had been following so far?" Jimage nodded, totally expecting their answer. "Is that so? Then let''s do something like this. There are eleven different paths that we can select here. The biggest one is also the one with the highest flow of Godly Energy. Usually, we would follow it, so let''s leave this one aside for now." Jimage then pointed at the other ten paths. "You two, select one of the entrances. Whatever entrance you choose, we will follow it. If we really know a safer path, then there is a nine out of ten chance of you selecting the wrong one. That way, you will have no reason to complain, right? We just want to get away from each other. Also, I recommend that your groups do the same before you began to stab each other''s backs as well." Pharan snorted after hearing that. "And who will guarantee that you won''t simply come back later and select the right path?" Jimage heard that and laughed out loud. "Isn''t that simple? Just destroy the path so that we can''t come back. If you and Foltan join hands, I doubt you can''t do as much as making a blood vessel collapse." This time, Pharan and Foltan were taken aback. They were willing to have their own way back sealed just so that they don''t need to follow the same path! "Something is fishy. Why do you want to get away from us so much?" Jimage looked at Pharan as if he was looking at an idiot. "I thought that it would be pretty obvious at this point. Both your groups lost two members while my group is still whole. If the situation calls for it, I''m sure you will join your forces to attack my group. I want to avoid this scenario as much as possible. From here onwards, each group would be counting on their own luck. In my eyes, this is a much safer choice for me. Now, stop wasting my time and choose!" Chapter 628: Cant Divide However, Pharan immediately refused that idea. "No!" Jimage narrowed his eyes. "Why? It''s not like you will be losing anything." Pharan then explained. "The reason is simple. You were the first to find the teleport formation. So far, there is no proof that you really didn''t know about this place beforehand. What if you really know about its secrets. Letting you go away would instead be prejudicial to us. Perhaps only your group knows what is safe and what is not." Jimage snorted after hearing that. "If that is the case, we can also lead you into some traps and get rid of you easier. Maybe I only raised this subject to make you paranoid so that you would stick with my group at all costs. After that, I could simply guide you two to your deaths and be all alone in the Top Quality Godly Vein Sealed Space. Of course, I might be trying to deceive you with these words I just said too. If we keep thinking like this, it will have no end, nor will we go anywhere." Foltan, who had been hearing so far, finally intervened. "You were right. This kind of thought process will bring us nowhere. The time is passing as we talk too. That being said, I''ve decided what to do. My group will continue to follow you. The reason is simple, that''s because I believe that the dangers will be easier to avoid with your help. In my eyes, the possibility of an army of Space Creatures is a lot scarier than the chance of being stabbed in the back by any of you. If we stay together, it will be much safer to retaliate if we encounter something like that." "Besides, Pharan has a point there. It is still not confirmed whether you really know something about this place or not. But I will bet that you don''t. After all, such a thing didn''t happen during the previous Sealed Space openings. Considering the spies inside each sect, I doubt that no clues about this place wouldn''t have been found until this point." Jimage narrowed his eyes. He had to admit that Foltan was right, so his reason was valid. Still, that mattered not. Foltan already made his mind to follow them, so they can''t simply shake them off. After all, all three groups have Semi-Divinity Realm members. It''s not like Jimage could simply run ahead and leave the rest behind. Pharan laughed out loud after hearing that, though. "See? Let''s all be friends and keep going forward together. We already made this far anyway." Jimage then looked at his group and talked with everyone through Divine Sense. Unfortunately, no one had a good idea to get rid of their enemies. The reason was simple, Pharan and Foltan''s groups Divinity Realm members. Their numbers are still higher than theirs. "Sigh... fine." Knowing that forcing the issue could lead to a battle instead, Jimage gave up separating in the end. He and his group simply selected the same blood vessel with the highest flow of Godly Energy as always and kept moving forward. Pharan and Foltan, obviously, followed on the sides. "We said that following the blood vessels with the highest Godly Energy flow would bring us to the Dantian or Demon Core. However, my group had a different idea. What brings Godly Energy inside are the meridians, not the vessels. That being said, we might be moving to the heart instead." Pharan and Foltan didn''t feel surprised by what Jimage said. After all, everyone knows that meridians are necessary for cultivation. "Indeed. Also, look at the Silver Blood. At first, the amount on the ground was only enough to barely wet the sole of our feet. But now, it is already enough to cover our feet. I believe that we are really moving in the heart''s direction." Rui then warned everyone. "There is a chance that we will reach a point where there is enough Silver Blood to give birth to Space Creatures. Pay attention to the space fluctuations that they cause before the attacks. Otherwise, don''t blame the others if you die because you dropped your guard." Everyone nodded. "Well, that is considering that the blood is really the reason for the Creature to appear. As far as we know, the Creatures might not even exist here since we haven''t seen a single one so far." It was then that everyone felt some kind of power coming from ahead. However, it wasn''t oppressive like the aura coming from everywhere. Instead, they felt quite relaxed with that. "What is this?" "I have never felt this kind of power before." "It feels so good. My entire body feels relaxed. I feel like I could cultivate much faster if I did it now." Even though that was the case, no one rushed forward. They kept at a slow pace so that they wouldn''t fall into any trap. At some point, they reached a blocked passage that was protected by a membrane. However, it was so thin that it was possible to see the things inside. They looked inside and noticed that it was a kind of space with several tube-like threads everywhere. However, what caught everyone''s attention was the silver-like crystal that those tubes were connected to. It was the size of a human''s head and glowed with Silver Light. As everyone looked at it, they could feel the same power that they felt a moment ago, but much more clearer. "What is that thing? It seems incredible." "Can you feel it? The Godly Energy emanating from it is even pure than the Top Quality Godly Stones! However, it is obviously not a Godly Stone for sure. Maybe only the Godly Vein itself has a purer Godly Energy." "The sect will definitely reward us handsomely if we bring it back to them." "Bring to them? I want to use it!" Everyone had their eyes glued at that Silver Crystal, and even Krune wasn''t an exception. He could also feel that that crystal would be very beneficial for his own cultivation. However, it was at this moment that he received a Divine Sense Message from Zule. ''Space God Crystal!'' Krune was immediately taken aback by that name. ''Is that the Space God Crystal you talked about?'' Back when Krune got the list of materials necessary to fix Zule''s treasure pyramid, this item was included. Krune had found it for sale on the Blacksmith Network, but those were just a few broken tiny pieces with very little power. There wasn''t a single one whole. Not only that, but they were also too expensive for Krune at the moment. ''There is no doubt, that is the real deal! As long as we get just a piece of that crystal, we will not need to acquire more. In fact, it would be even possible to enhance the treasure with so much of it.'' Krune pondered a bit and shook his head. ''That won''t do. Instead, I would rather only use just enough to fix you and the rest I can sell to buy the rest of the items. What use will be there if we have a lot of it but can''t get you fixed?'' Zule agreed with Krune. ''That''s true. However, it won''t be easy to secure those crystals. Look around...'' Krune did that, and his expression went grim. All three groups were looking at each other warily. Obviously, no one wanted to give up those crystals to the others. Jimage then stepped forward. "Cough, cough... What about we split that crystal into three segments? Each group will get one-third of it and avoid a meaningless battle. After all, no one here wants to have a fall out when we don''t even know how to leave this place." Pharan and Foltan narrowed their eyes. At the moment, their biggest enemy would be the Sky Shifting Sect since they have more members. However, the crystal was important for both of them, and they didn''t want to share with the other. If they attack Jimage''s group, they will try to hold back so that their group would be the least affected. Also, there was no guarantee that one of them wouldn''t try to destroy the other during the process. In the end, they couldn''t help but seriously consider Jimage''s offer. However, Zule also heard what they said and snorted. ''Idiots! Do they think they can split the Space God Crystal? Naive! Even a Mortal Rejection Realm cultivator or demon beast would find it extremely hard to remove just a tiny piece of it. Cut it into three segments? Only in their Dreams!'' Krune and Iem were taken aback by that. Obviously, an amicable agreement is now impossible between the three teams. Even if they agree with it now, they will soon find out that dividing the crystal is impossible. Krune then sent a Divine Sense Message to Jimage, telling him that he just remembered that crystal. ''What, do you know that thing? How?'' Krune nodded. ''I''m a blacksmith. I saw it in the Blacksmith Network. That thing is God Crystal, and judging by its color, it is a Space Type one. Forget the proposal you just gave. It is simply impossible to break that God Crystal with our powers at the moment. We would need at least a Mortal Rejection Realm, and even so, it would be extremely hard.'' Jimage''s complexion went dark at that moment. Pharan and Foltan were obviously just about to agree with his idea, but it would be impossible now. They will find sooner or later that they can''t share the crystal between themselves. Chapter 629: Ambush Jimage understood how valuable that crystal was, so he wasn''t willing to give it up either. However, it was at this moment that he had an idea. ''Alright, keep it a secret. We will enter the place, but we won''t take the crystal. We will let Pharan or Foltan be the first ones to take it. As long as one of the two is holding th God Crystal, they definitely won''t ally against us. Besides, although we have higher numbers, the fact is that we only have two extra Semi-Divinity Realm members. The real fighting force here is the Divinity Realm ones. Two extra Semi-Divinity will not be enough to really make them feel threatened by us.'' Krune nodded. ''Alright, but what will we do after that? It''s not like we can attack the one with the crystal after he finds out he can''t split it.'' Jimage smiled before saying. ''Wrong, anyone with the crystal will become the other two''s target. Simply put, this will be a fight where there are no allies. As long as the other two don''t join forces against us, we have nothing to fear. If things go south, we can always retreat. After all, I doubt any of the two will pursue us while one of them is holding the crystal.'' Krune understood what he meant. ''Seems like a battle is inevitable now.'' Jimage shrugged his shoulders. ''This temporary ceasefire was a lie to start with. Since we will have a fallout, we might as well do it while the other two groups aren''t allied against us.'' Krune nodded. After that, Jimage sent a Divine Sense Message to everyone in the group. However, he warned them to now show any concern on their faces to not blow the cover. Still, everyone understood that things will get ugly anytime now. Well, Iem was quite excited about this outcome, though. "Alright, shall we enter?" Pharan and Foltan nodded. Right after, they approached the membrane to cut it. However, it proved to be a lot more resistant than they thought. "Let me try." Jimage took out his sword and slashed it. Still, just a small mark was left behind. "It''s quite hard. Let''s join forces and attack the same point." Pharan, Foltan, and Jimage then took some distance and readied their skills. Right after, they released it together. *Boom!* Once again, the membrane resisted the impact. However, it was now possible to see that it was damaged a little. Knowing that their attacks worked, the three leaders continued to attack. *Boom, boom, boom...* The membrane couldn''t withstand the attacks and gave in. As soon as a hole appeared on the surface, it spread very fast, opening a passage big enough for everyone to enter. "Alright, let''s go." Everyone entered the area. Just like outside, the ground had silver blood. However, it had much more than outside. As soon as they entered, half of their bodies were covered by it. It was evident that the silver blood pool was much more profound. Still, they ignored the silver blood and moved slowly. However, it was then that the situation changed. *Vup!* Suddenly, the membrane behind them closed. Now only that, the silver blood on the ground began to ripple. "Not good!" Space fluctuation began to come from all sides. Right after, lots of semi-transparent claws came at the groups from everywhere. Obviously, those were the Space Creatures. *Clang!* Ramona defended the first attack, but she was forced to retreat several steps. "So strong!" Jimage, Foltan, and Pharan''s expressions turned dark. "It''s a trap. They had been waiting for us to enter this place. We need to open then membrane behind us, now!" However, Pharan gritted his teeth and dashed forward. His objective was the God Crystal on the back of the room. Folta and Jimage noticed that and also pounced at the crystal. The situation was bad, but not out of control yet. Pharan noticed Jimage and Foltan coming after the crystal as well. "Why are you following me? Open the damn membrane!" Foltan laughed after hearing that. "Hahaha! Don''t worry, Pharan. I will take care of the crystal. You can go back and open the membrane for us." Jimage also added. "We are sharing it, aren''t we? So it doesn''t matter who takes it now. In that case, why don''t you two go back and let me have it? I promise that I will share later." Of course, Jimage was lying. He is just pretending that he wants to be the one taking it. That was the plan before, and it is still now. He will pretend that he wants to take the crystal as well but let Pharan or Foltan take it first instead. Pharan and Foltan, obviously, fell for the trick straight away. In their eyes, Jimage was really trying to take the crystal as well. "Hmph! Then let''s see who has the ability to hold it." Back on Krune''s side, his 102 Myriad Lightning Shields already spread around, forming his Tribulation Shields Slaughter Formation! However, he wasn''t using it to attack but to give support to the members of his group against the Space Creatures. Xanala and Rui, the two Divinity Realm members of his group, were fighting at least three Space Creatures with strength compared to their own. Krune looked at the situation and could tell that it wasn''t good. That''s because there wasn''t anyone trying to break the membrane that closed behind them. Everyone was doing their best to defend and kill the Space Creatures. However, the silver blood on the ground continued to ripple without stop. With Krune''s Mental Energy, he could see several silver blood points around where Godly Energy accumulated. Not only that, they seemed to be protected by some kind of barrier too. ''Not good, more Space Creatures are being born.'' Krune immediately sent all three groups a Divine Sense message after seeing it. "We were right. The silver blood can give birth to the Space Creatures. There are more of them being created by the minute. We need to join forces and destroy the places where Godly Energy is gathering." Everyone''s expression went dark. "We don''t have time to attack anything. We are already on our backfoot while just defending against the existent ones." Suddenly, half of Krune''s Myriad Lightning Shields appeared around Xanala. She is a 3rd Stage Divinity Realm cultivator, but she was locked down by three Space Creatures of similar strength. However, as soon as Krune''s shields appeared, the burden on her side decreased a lot. "Senior Xalana, I will hold two of them down. Take this chance and attack the places I point at." Xanala was taken aback. "Can you hold them?" Krune nodded. "I''m definitely not strong enough to kill these creatures. But as long as they are inside my Tribulation Shields Slaughter Formation, I should be barely able to hold two for a short time." Although she didn''t know if Krune could really do that or not, Xanala knew that it wasn''t time to doubt him. "Alright, tell me the locations." Krune then used his Mental Energy to pass the exact locations that she needed to attack. Right after, Xanala retreated, which immediately enraged the Space Creatures. The three of them tried to follow her, but two were blocked by Krune''s Shields. Obviously, those two wouldn''t just stay there doing nothing. They immediately began to attack Krune''s shields as if they were also living enemies. Sure enough, they don''t have intelligence. The creatures only care about destroying everything. *Clang, clang, clang...* Even at this moment, Krune still hasn''t released his Rainbow Domain. Not only him, but Iem didn''t release his Domain either. Still, the two were doing a lot more than any of the Semi-Divinity Realm members. "Iem, try to kills as many as you can to reduce the numbers." "Senior Xanala, the first point is 200 meters at your eleven o''clock. Don''t hold back. Make sure you blast that area in a single go." Xanala nodded and gathered her Godly Energy while defending against the last Space Creature. Krune could only hold two of the three, so she still had to pay attention to the last one. Still, as long as it was only one, she was confident that she wouldn''t be caught. "Fire Obliteration!" *Boom!* A crater thirty meters wide soon appeared in the place Krune mentioned. However, now it was possible to see a silver light spot shinning in that place. Xanala didn''t need to think much to understand that it was the thing that gave birth to the Space Creatures. "Not good, that thing didn''t suffer any damage after receiving my attack. I can''t destroy it!" But it was at this moment that she heard the sound of something cutting through the air. Right after, Xanala saw a rotating shield with six Purple Lightning Blades cutting right through the Silver Light spot. It went through it so easily that it didn''t seem that it was there at all. "What the heck?" However, she didn''t have time to think too much about it. "Senior Xanala, the next one is 356 meters at your 5 o''clock direction. Leave the Silver Lights to me. What I need is for you to destroy the barriers protecting them just like you did with the last one." Xanala nodded and immediately moved to the next one. This time, however, she paid attention to her own attack. Sure enough, there was really some kind of barrier around it. If she didn''t attack will full force, she wouldn''t be able to destroy it. Krune could destroy the Silver Lights, but he was powerless against the barrier at his cultivation level. Once again, another Purple Lightning Blade slashed the Silver Light in half, making it disappear right after. ''Those lights are nothing more a thick agglomeration of Space Laws. With the Purple Tribulation Lightning power, destroying it is really easy.'' Just like that, Xanala and Krune began to destroy one silver light after another. Chapter 630: God Crystal Attack Jimage, Pharan, and Foltan weren''t having an easy time either. As expected, the strongest Space Creatures noticed their power and decided to attack them instead of the others. Especially since they were aiming for the crystal. Each one of them was fighting at least four of five of those creatures. Still, they didn''t forget the God Crystal on the other side of the area. *Boom, boom, boom!* As they fought against the Space Creatures, they approached the God Crystal little by little. However, the three of them were messing up with the other two on purpose. Otherwise, even with so many Space Creatures, they would have arrived at the crystal already. Both Pharan and Foltan had dark expressions. They were doing what they could while trying to save as much energy as possible. As for Jimage, he also looked angry, but it was just a facade in his case. Not only that, but he was quite behind the other two. That''s because he was holding back a lot more than the other two. He doesn''t want to take the crystal first, so it was to be expected. "Get out of my way. If we stay like this, we won''t have the energy to break out of here." "Ha! In that case, why don''t you go back and open the passage?" "Right! I''m more than enough to take the crystal, so you two can go back now." Finally, Pharan and Foltan arrived at the crystal. They both extended their hands and tried to grab the crystal at the same time. However, it was at this moment that a sword slash came from behind. It wasn''t aiming Pharan and Foltan, but the crystal itself. Obviously, Jimage, who was ''late,'' tried to stop the two from taking it. Foltan then gritted his teeth. Suddenly, a golden light appeared on his body, enveloping him completely. "Diamond Glow!" Foltan was specialized in Earth Laws. Obviously, his first Major Law was Earth too. Pharan and Jimage were not impressed by it. After all, the Three Peaks Sect Master is an Earth Dragon. Pharan, who was also close to the crystal, immediately spread his Domain. Suddenly, his skin turned blue like water. "Color of the River!" After that, he also sped forward, trying to grab the crystal. Jimage saw that and narrowed his eyes. However, deep inside, he was delighted with that outcome. Those two were willing to take his attack just for the crystal. Everything was going according to the plan. He knew that it would probably happen, so he made sure to put his all in the sword attack. Without a doubt, both of them will receive quite some injuries if they want to bear the grunt. Not only that, but they were also ignoring the Space Creatures attacking them from behind too. However, just as Pharan and Foltan were about to reach the crystal, it began to glow with an even brighter Silver Light! Right after, an enormous Godly Energy Shockwave fused with Space Laws came out of it. It happened at the same time as Jimage''s Sword Slash arrived as well. *Boom!* Both Pharan and Foltan were thrown back lag cannonballs, quickly hitting the cave wall on both sides. Right after, the two of them vomited blood. Without a doubt, the crystal''s attack hit them hard! Jimage was luckier. His sword slash helped to block some of the wave power. Not to mention that he was further away than Pharan and Foltan at that moment. He was also knocked back by it but didn''t suffer much. Still, Jimage was taken aback too. It was a good thing that Pharan and Foltan received such severe injuries, but it was not because of his sword slash. Suddenly, the Space God Crystal began to exude a powerful aura. The tubes connected to it broke one after another too. It was as if the God Crystal was trying to leave by itself. The wall where it was attached to began to tremble violently, and cracks began to spread on it. *thump thump, thump thump, thump thump...* Everyone heard that sound. It pulsed just like a heart. At the same time, the aura that the God Crystal emanated increased more and more. Not long after, it was already at the same level as Jimage, Pharan, and Foltan. However, it continued to grow! "Not good! This thing is alive!" Jimage completely gave up his idea of harassing Foltan and Pharan. For some reason, that God Crystal gave him a dreadful feeling. He turned around and went all out to break through the Space Creatures encirclement. He wasn''t the only one, though. Pharan and Foltan also noticed the danger from it. They used their Godly Energy to suppress their internal injures and immediately run away as well. Back on Krune''s side, his cooperation with Xanala and Iem brought the situation under control. The number of Space Creatures dying was bigger than the number of those being born. However, he also noticed the danger in the distance when the God Crystal began to react. ''Zule, do you know what is happening? How come that God Crystal is moving on its own? What about the aura coming from it too?'' Zule immediately replied. ''I don''t know. A God Crystal wasn''t supposed to be sentient or even alive. However, this thing had been inside this superior being''s body for a long time. Perhaps the Silver Blood that it absorbed changed something in it.'' Krune couldn''t help but ask. ''So, it is not really alive?'' Zule nodded. ''Yes. I don''t think it is. It is most likely acting the same way as the Space Creatures¡ªno intelligence, just the desire to destroy anything that shouldn''t be in this place. Look at the Space Creatures that are close to it. They are ignoring its existence, and so is the crystal itself. They probably consider themselves the same thing.'' Krune narrowed his eyes. That meant that this crystal will come after them at all costs, just like the Creatures. Krune and Zule exchanged quite a few messages, but it was all done through Divine Sense, so it was done in just a moment. Jimage quickly arrived back where the three groups were staying but didn''t stop. That God Crystal''s aura is much stronger than anyone in here, so they need to flee before it separates itself from the wall. That being said, Jimage aimed for the closed membrane straight away. This time, he didn''t hold anything back and attacked it with all his might. Right after, Pharan and Foltan arrived as well. They seemed to be in bad shape, but they ignored their injuries and attacked the membrane as well. Explosions of Godly Energy came from the membrane, which made it tremble fiercely. However, it seemed a lot more resistant than when they came inside. Suddenly, everyone heard an explosion coming from the back. They all looked at that just in time to see the God Crystal getting itself free! Right after, it shot forward, coming at everyone group. Everyone went pale at that moment. However, no one noticed Krune and Iem on the side. At some point, the two of them began to prepare their strongest skills. They saw from the very start that Jimage and the other Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts wouldn''t be able to open the membrane. Without another choice, they would need to use Luvile and Harold''s powers. Iem and Krune aren''t as strong as the Peak Divinity Realm ones, but their God Powers would at least be able to get through the membrane. Luvile''s Law Eating Sub-Law from his Purple Tribulation Lightning and Harold''s Law Scourging Sub-Law from his Devil Flame. With those two combined, they might be able to open a hole in the membrane for them to pass. "Tribulation Lightning Cannon!" "Devil Flame Obliteration!" This was the second time that Krune and Iem used these skills at the same time. The first time it opened a hole that brought the two of them to the Godly Path Realm. Now they were trying to open another hole to escape this situation. Luvile and Harold also helped the two to increase the power even more. Thanks to that, it easily surpassed the Semi-Divinity level! *Boom!* The two God Powers hit the membrane at the same time. The membrane resisted the attack at first, but both Luvile and Harold''s Laws weren''t that easy to be contained. Soon, the laws around were eradicated together with the membrane itself. The blast went through it, opening a hole that burnt with Black Flames and sparked with Purple Lightning. Jimage, Pharan, Foltan, and everyone else were taken aback by that. They thought they were doomed now that they are locked in this place, but the two Divine View Realm weaklings succeeded! How could they not be shocked? However, they simply didn''t have time to think about it. That God Crystal was almost over them, so they needed to leave straight away. "Go!" Two black flame wings appeared on Iem''s back, increasing his speed by a lot more than what he had displayed so far. Iem like to fight, but he knows that confronting that God Crystal would be nothing more than suicide. Krune didn''t fall back. 18 of his shields formed two shield wings on his back as well. Tribulation Lightning spread around them as Krune''s wills controlled the output. With a flash of Purple Lightning, Krune rushed into the exit. Obviously, his speed at the moment surpassed any of the Semi-Divinity Realm guys and girls around too. The rest was didn''t wait to see what would happen either. Everyone rushed outside the membrane, ignored everything inside. Still, three of them were too late because of the Space Creatures, who were still attacking. The God Crystal stopped for a second and released another Godly Energy Fused with Space Laws shock wave. Space contorted, and the Godly Energy increased the destruction power even more. Those unlucky members didn''t even have the chance to scream before being obliterated. Without a doubt, the God Crystal was even stronger now that it got itself free. It then turned in the direction that everyone departed and shot forward once more. At this moment, Jimage sent a Divine Sense message to everyone who appeared outside. "Don''t waste your time forming group. It''s useless. Chose a direction and run! I''m not able to protect my own life against that thing, let alone protect yours. You all have our Sect''s Vibrant Beads. As long as we use it, we can find each other later. Now go!" Pharan and Foltan Groups seemed to receive similar messages as well. Just like that, everyone spread in all directions ignoring everything. They knew that this was a sacrifice strategy. Some of them would definitely be caught by that thing, but they had no other choice at the moment. It was much better than dying altogether. Chapter 631: Possible Trade Krune and Iem ended flying in the same direction as a few other members. However, as the number of passages to choose from increased, the numbers around them decreased. The two of them made sure to see in which direction Pharan and Foltan went to as well. That''s because they were the only ones that Krune and Iem were no match. Now and then, they heard explosions coming from behind, showing that the God Crystal caught up to some other members. Krune and Iem had the advantage in speed compared to the Semi-Divinity Realm ones. Obviously, they got further away faster than the others. However, Krune and Iem soon noticed that the Silver Blood on the ground began to increase. One must remember that the room where the God Crystal was present was a lot deeper. The outside silver blood on the floor was much more shallow. However, the amount is increasing overtime now. "Soon, there will be enough Silver Blood to give birth to those Space Creatures as well." Krune nodded. "I know. However, the amount of silver blood also determines the Space Creatures'' strength. When I was guiding Xalana to destroy the Silver Lights, I was also checking the power of the creatures that came out of them. The higher the concentration, the stronger the creatures that were formed by it. Also, the stronger they were, the longer they took to form." Iem understood what Krune meant. "So you are saying that the first creatures that we will find ahead are the weakest ones. But the further we go, the stronger they will be unless the amount of silver blood doesn''t increase." Krune nodded once more. "Correct. However, we shouldn''t follow the blood vessels. Everyone in our group already knows about the meridians. However, Pharan and Foltan''s group were right behind us, so we couldn''t search for them. Now that everyone went on separate ways, there will be no one that prevents us from finding it." Iem pondered a bit before saying. "However, considering the distance we traveled already, weren''t we supposed to have seen a meridian passage already? After all, be it humans or demon beasts, both have over hundreds of meridians in their body." Krune agreed with Iem. "We did. We passed by two meridians before. One of them was when all the groups were together, so we couldn''t enter it without being followed. The second one was when we were fleeing just now. I noticed that it was very close to the place where we fought the space creatures. Unfortunately, we didn''t have time to enter it since it was behind the blood vessel''s wall. Stopping to open the passage would definitely invite that God Crystal over, so I could only give up." Iem couldn''t help but feel more and more impressed by Krune''s special scanning ability. He knew it existed, but Krune had never told him about what it was. All he knew was that Krune could see things way further than him. Well, the one who invented it wasn''t Krune, though. "That''s great! Now then, what should we do?" Krune pondered a bit. They had moved pretty far, which was also impressive since it showed how enormous this body was. "We have the Vibrant Beads. Do you think we should gather with the others?" It was at this moment that Iem and Krune heard Zule''s voice. "No, we should go back and take the God Crystal." "What?!" Krune and Iem were taken aback by Zule''s idea. "Are you crazy? Didn''t you see how powerful that thing was? Even Jimage, Pharan, and Foltan together wouldn''t be its match." Iem agreed with Krune. "I think it would be easier to survive against those three Peak Divinity Realm guys than against that thing. I definitely am not going back to throw my life away." Zule''s projection then appeared outside Krune''s Spatial Ring and shook his head. "Don''t worry, the sentience inside the God Crystal should be on the verge of extinguishing. Well, it wasn''t actually sentience since it didn''t really have intelligence to start with. Maybe ''pseudo-sentience'' would be better." Krune and Iem got confused. "What do you mean?" Zule looked in the direction they came from before explaining. "I thought it to be weird. God Crystals were not supposed to be moving alone. However, it took me this long to understand what was happening. The God Crystal could indeed move now, but the ''pseudo-sentience'' inside that allowed the movement can''t resist God Crystal''s power for too long. Only after I thought about it, I understood. That ''pseudo-sentience'' wasn''t there before. I''m at least 95% sure that that ''pseudo-conscience'' was born in the God Crystal after we entered the room." "Ah!" Krune suddenly thought about a possibility. "I see! When we entered that space, those Silver Light spots were not there before." Iem then asked. "Are you talking about those agglomerations of Space Laws that gave birth to the Space Creatures?" Krune nodded. "Yes. Did you forget? I have my detection ability. However, those Silver Lights appeared only after the membrane behind us closed. That means that they weren''t there before. If I''m not wrong, Zule is talking about those silver lights exactly." Zule smiled before nodding his little head. "Correct! At that moment, I didn''t pay attention to it due to the situation. Still, I did feel a similar power to those Silver Lights appearing inside the Space God Crystal. Don''t forget, I''m a Space Heavenly Fragment Sentience, and I''m inside a Space Type Treasure. I''m confident that even Nascent God Realm cultivators and Demon beasts aren''t as perceptive about Space Laws as I am." "Now that I had enough time to think about it, that Space God Crystal was connected to the Silver Blood and this enormous body at the same time, absorbing their power. I''m talking about those tube-like things attached to the Crystal itself. Not to mention that the Crystal was attached to the ''wall'' as well. It was because of those connections that one of those agglomerations of Space Laws, or Silver Light, appeared inside the God Crystal. However, the God Crystal has separated itself from the Silver Blood and the wall to pursue us. That being said, the ''pseudo-sentience'' can''t sustain itself for long." Krune understood what it meant. "Indeed. Those agglomerations only appeared inside the Silver Blood. There wasn''t a single one outside it." Iem couldn''t help but ask, though. "Can''t the God Crystal simply dive into the Silver Blood? Like that, it will be able to continue absorbing the Silver Blood''s power." Zule shook his head. "It isn''t that simple. Simply diving into the blood isn''t the same as when it was connected to the body itself. Do you remember how the entire room trembled as the God Crystal broke all connections to the wall and the tubes? That''s how deeply connected it was to this ridiculous giant body. At most, the ''pseudo-sentience'' inside the God Crystal can slow down its deterioration by diving into the Silver Blood. However, it definitely can''t stop it." "Why?" "Because the power of the God Crystal is too big. The God Crystal is a Space Type one, and so is the Silver Light that gives birth to the Space Creatures. However, their ''pureness'' difference in Space Laws is like the difference between Heaven and Earth. They simply can''t be compared. If that Silver Light could exist for a few Chaos Cycles, then it might be able to do that. Still, as I said, it was born just a few moments after we entered the room. I''m absolutely sure it will be destroyed by the God Crystal''s power itself." Krune then asked. "You said before that you were 95% sure. What about the other 5%?" Zule shrugged his shoulder. "That is in case it can connect itself with this body once more. If it does that, then the Silver Light inside can resist the God Crystal''s power. But then again, if it really does that, it won''t be able to pursue us. However, I find it extremely unlikely. After all, it would need to be intelligent enough to think about it. Do you think that it had any intelligence whatsoever?" Krune and Iem immediately shook their heads. As soon as they saw the God Crystal attacking, they noticed it only knew how to release explosions of Godly Energy and Space Laws. It was basically discharging all the power in a very brute way. Iem nodded in the end. "Alright, I don''t mind going back to help. However, what will I gain from it? After all, we will still need to fight the Space Creatures. Although the Space Creatures scattered everywhere in pursuit of the others, some definitely fell behind with the God Crystal. The worst-case will be if we encounter one of those Space Creatures that could fight Jimage, Pharan, and Foltan. Those things can fight at the peak of the Divinity Realm." Krune pondered a bit. "I do have a few Fire Crystals from back in the Mortal Realm." Krune had acquired those fire crystals when he entered the Elemental Path Realm. He used a few to buy a few things, but he still has some left. "Fire Crystals? What will I use it for? Laws? I''m a Heavenly Race member and a Heavenly Divine Soul Owner. I don''t need these Crystal''s help to comprehend laws. Besides, I''m already very close to understanding the entire Major Law of Fire." "What about my Purple Flame Equipments? Is there anything you want?" Iem shook his head. "I rely a lot more on my Crystallization Ability than any weapon, so your Purple Flame Equipments are useless for me." "Then, what you want?" Iem smiled before pointing at Krune. "The special method that you use to scan things further and clearer than Divine Sense." Obviously, Iem was referring to Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique that could give birth to Mental Energy." Chapter 632: The deal Krune was taken aback. That was Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique! Krune already understood that even in the Godly Path Realm, no one knew about Mental Energy. That shows just how rare such a cultivation technique is. "This..." The God Crystal was precious. With so much of it, he might be able to sell some later to buy the rest of the materials to fix Zule''s Spatial Treasure Form. If he does that, it will be much simpler to get Zule to open a passage back to the Mortal Realm for him. One must remember how much Krune wants to go back to his family. However, the Mental Energy secret was no joke. At least, Krune considers it almost as precious as the Myriad Energies Technique. Iem noticed Krune hesitation. However, it wasn''t like he refused straight away. "You are afraid that I will spread this technique around, right? I can tell how incredible it is since it can scan further than Divine Senses of higher realm cultivators. I''ve never seen anything like this before. Naturally, you don''t want to share it with others. Not to mention that you are planning to go back to the Mortal Realm, so you won''t know what I could do with it. Am I right?" Krune nodded. "You are correct. But there is one more reason behind it. I wasn''t the one who created it, so I don''t know if I should really share it without its creator''s consent." Iem nodded. He believes that some powerful cultivator or demon of the Mortal Realm created it. That being said, it was normal that Krune couldn''t share it easily. Obviously, his first suspect was Wally, the wisp that the entire Mortal Realm feared. That also meant that Krune''s technique was something from the God Realm, which could explain its heaven-defying ability. Of course, he was totally wrong since it was Heavin who created it. "I understand. However, we have no way to contact the Mortal Realm at the moment. So what about this? I''ll help you acquire the God Crystal and, at the same time, give you something that will be of great help to you. Also, I will promise you that I will never spread this technique to anyone. Even if I build a family in the future, I will still not pass it to my descendants either. How about that?" Krune''s attention was immediately picked. From the looks of it, Iem was very confident about his own offer. "Hum... What is it that you can offer me? As you know, my cultivation speed and Laws perception aren''t any worse than yours. Could it be those cultivation resources that we couldn''t buy without backgrounds? I''m sorry, but I''ll be able to get them sooner or later." Iem laughed while showing a confident expression. He then reached his own Spatial Ring and brought three objects outside. As soon as Krune and Zule saw them, their Heavenly Fragments immediately reacted! "Heavenly Fragments!" Iem laughed out loud and nodded his head. "Yes. These are Heavenly Fragments that had their Universes destroyed. Obviously, they are ownerless ones." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Why do you have three of them?" However, Iem didn''t answer Krune''s question. Instead, he noticed something different. "Oh, it seems like you saw Ownerless Heavenly Fragments before." Krune was taken aback but nodded in the end. "Do you remember the auction that happened before the Heavenly Competition back on the Mortal Realm? They had an Ownerless Heavenly Fragment for sale at that time. It just so happens that I was the one to acquire it. It was an Ownerless Blackhole Heavenly Fragment." Iem nodded. "So that''s why you seem familiar with it. That''s good. I don''t need to waste my time explaining what Ownerless Heavenly Fragments are. As for why I have them, the reason is pretty simple. My Sect back on Mortal Realm had acquired them for me. However, you do know that Heavenly Fragments of the same type can''t be absorbed, right? Also, before you try to absorb them, there is no way to know which type of Heavenly Fragment it is. It just so happens that these Heavenly Fragments were the types that I had already absorbed. The good thing was that I can tell which type they are since I tried it before." Krune''s attention was totally focused on Iem''s words, waiting for him to continue. "The left one is a Yin Heavenly Fragment, and the middle one is a Time Heavenly Fragment. As for the right one, it is a Life Heavenly Fragment." Krune''s eyes lit up! He didn''t have any of them. At the moment, Krune has the Blackhole, Yang, and obviously, the Elemental one. Krune wasn''t the only one interested in them, though. "Hey, can I have one?" Obviously, it was Zule. He is a sentient Heavenly Fragment, so he was obviously interested in an Ownerless Heavenly Fragment as well. If he fused his one with another, his power was definitely going to increase a lot. However, Krune cut him short straight away. "Keep dreaming! Did you forget what kind of treasure your Heavenly Fragment is residing in? It''s a Spatial Type one! If you fuse of another Heavenly Fragment that has nothing to do with it, chances are that the treasure will break apart. Also, even if you decide to give up the treasure, there is a chance that your sentience will be damaged or even destroyed if you do it. I don''t have the power to control a treasure at your level. If your sentience is destroyed, who will use it to open a passage for me to go back to the Mortal Realm?" Zule staggered a bit when he heard that his treasure would probably break. However, it was the risk of having his sentience wiped out that made Zule give up the idea straight away. "Cough, cough... I was just joking. I have no need for more heavenly Fragments. I''m pretty happy the way I am at the moment, yes, definitely." Krune then returned his attention to Iem. "Are you sure you want to make such a trade? You know very well how incredible Heavenly Fragments are in the Godly Path and God Realms, no? Zule''s Space Heavenly Fragment is a very good example of it." Iem laughed before nodding. "Don''t worry, I''m very willing to do so." He took all his three ones out because he wanted to make an offer that Krune definitely couldn''t refuse. Iem still believes that this was a God Realm''s technique, so it definitely didn''t lose to his Heavenly Fragments in value. Well, Heavin''s technique is definitely worth just as much, or probably even more, though. Luvile, who had been observing so far, decided to help as well. "I think it''s worth it. Don''t forget that our main objective is to go back to the Mortal Realm. Both your family and my body are still there, so going back is of paramount importance. That God Crystal will be of immense help towards this objective. Not to mention that you will be getting three Heavenly Fragments on top of that." "Besides, I refuse to believe that Heavin would mind it. You helped him so much until the day you two separated. There is nothing wrong with you using his technique to help yourself now. Heavin would definitely tell you to accept the offer too." Krune took a deep breath and nodded. "Alright, I accept the deal!" Iem''s eyes lit up. "Great!" Immediately, he threw the three Heavenly Fragments at Krune. The two of them had been interacting together for over three years, so Iem understands Krune''s personality very well. He would definitely not go back on his words. Sure enough, Krune put the Heavenly Fragments inside his Spatial Ring and transmitted the Soul Cultivation Technique to Iem right after. Since he was using Divine Sense, he only took a few moments to pass the entire content. "Hum...? This..." Iem was shocked by what he received. "This is a Cultivation Technique for the Soul!!! It even has realms like our normal cultivation system. How is that possible? No wait, is it me, or the number of realms doesn''t match? Could it be that you don''t have the full cultivation technique?" Krune shook his head. "My friend created this technique, so he was only able to think up to the Soul Control Realm. It''s not that I don''t have the rest of the technique, but that the creator still hasn''t figured out the next realms yet." Iem couldn''t help but ask. "Wasn''t it Wally who gave you this?" Krune was taken aback. "Wally? Where did you get this idea? The guy who created it is even younger than me. In fact, wally doesn''t have this technique to start with. Still, this is the technique that allows me to make a further scan than Divine Sense. That''s because this technique allows you to use Mental Energy. Well, in fact, Divine Sense can go much further. However, Divine Sense is deeply affected by Godly Energy, while Mental Energy isn''t as much." Iem felt like he was tricked. He thought he was getting a technique from the God Realm, but it turned out that it was created in the Mortal Realm instead. However, the one who got the wrong idea was himself, so he couldn''t call off the trade. "Sigh... Anyway, what is this Mental Energy you talked about." Krune smiled and then extended his hand. Suddenly a semi-transparent blade appeared on it. Iem''s interest was immediately picked. He simply couldn''t recognize the type of energy inside it. "Protect yourself." *Vup!* Krune then threw the blade at him. Iem knew that Krune was only showing it the thing, so he didn''t try to dodge. He simply created a Godly Energy barrier and waited to block it. Too bad, though. Godly Energy is indeed better against Mental Energy than Spiritual Energy. However, it was still far from being able to block it completely. Sure enough, the blade ignored the Godly Energy and immediately rushed at Iem''s body. Iem was frightened by that. However, before the blade hit his body, he used his crystallization to block the attack. However, Mental Energy was even more efficient against physical abilities! The blade entered his body and went straight to his dantian. Iem finally panicked and summoned all his Godly Energy to block his Dantian''s outer shell. Finally, there was Godly Energy enough to stop the blade in its tracks. After that, the blade used the rest of its energy and disappeared. Iem couldn''t help but let out a sigh of relief after that. He then looked back at Krune with an excited expression. Krune, on the other hand, was laughing at Iem''s sweating face. Iem didn''t mind, though. "This was indeed a great deal!" Krune nodded. "This is not the extent of Mental Energy abilities. But I''ll keep it a secret until you manage to summon Mental Energy yourself least I spoil the fun." Chapter 633: Cant Move Iem laughed after that. "Very well. Anyway, shall we get a God Crystal now?" Krune nodded and then asked Zule. "Zule, are you sure that the God Crystal''s pseudo sentience is on the verge of perishing?" Zule confirmed. "Yes, I can guarantee that much." Krune and Iem looked at each other and nodded. "Let''s go!" The three of them began to make their way back. "Another good thing is that we might be able to use the Meridian passage that I saw there." Iem agreed with Krune. "That would be good." "By the way, the Space Creatures at the Divinity Realm Level were definitely faster than the others. That being said, they definitely pursued the other members of the group for much longer, especially the ones who could fight at Jimage''s level. If we go all out, we might be able to hold back or even fight those at the Middle Divinity Realm level. However, what will we do if we encounter a Space Creature at the Peak of the Divinity Realm level?" Krune pondered a bit before saying. "Our advantage is that they don''t have intelligence. Also, I have my Mental Energy, which can spread up to 3km in this place. We can try to use a baiting plan when I see one of them. After all, they will pursue anything that is not part of this body." Iem couldn''t help but ask. "But what can we use to bait them away? It would need to be something just as fast, but do we have such a thing?" Krune shook his head. "We don''t, but there is no need to have anyway. We can create a few bodies of energy and send them away. Those creatures don''t know area attacks. They only come at us with their claws, trying to rip us apart. All we need to do is summon lots of dummies and send them out in the same direction all at once. The Space Creatures at Jimage''s level will start destroying them one by one. When they finally finish, they will have left the place behind already." Iem had to admit that it was a good plan. However, there was a problem. "But how will you find the Creatures in the first place? Don''t forget that when they aren''t attacking, they keep hidden in space. Only when they attack, they show themselves." Krune knew that as well. "Isn''t that simple? The same bait plan is enough." Krune then used his Godly Energy and some of his Purple Lightning power to summon a few Energy Birds. He then gave an order, and those dummies flew ahead until they reached 3km of distance. There, they began to fly at the same speed as Krune and Iem were running. "I see. You are using your Mental Energy to control them from that distance." Krune nodded. "My Divine Sense can''t go too far, so chances are that the Space Creatures will see us as well when they come out to attack the birds. That''s why I''m using Mental Energy to control them instead. After all, we can keep ourselves out of vision during that time. We can also judge the power of the space creatures ahead and decide whether to bait them away or destroy them." Iem was happy to see such a thing. Just like that, the two of them kept moving forward. After they reached halfway back, Space Creatures finally began to appear. Three of them came of out space and attacked the birds of energy, quickly ripping them apart. "A few of them appeared. They are all at the Semi-Divinity Level of power." Iem''s body immediately crystalized, and he shot forward. Krune''s body also flashed with Purple Lightning, quickly following. They have already decided that they will kill as much of them on the way as possible. After all, if they need to flee, it will be better if there are no obstacles on the way. "Tribulation Thunder Line!" "Devil Flame Obliteration!" *Boom, boom, boom!* Semi-Divinity Level creatures were still a realm above Kruen and Iem. That begin said, they didn''t hold back when fighting them. Otherwise, the fight would continue for too long and might attract even more attention. "Alright, let''s continue!" "Zule, can you tell in each direction the God Crystal went? If we don''t know which vessels it entered, we will spend way too much time looking for it." Zule nodded. "Don''t worry, I remember its spatial signature very well. As long as we pass by one of the areas it passed through, I will sense it. We can simply follow the trail after that." Krune and Iem nodded as they battled more Space Creatures. Suddenly, Krune''s Godly Energy Birds were destroyed by a stronger Space Creature. "There is one at the Divinity Level ahead. However, it is at Xanala''s level." Iem smiled after hearing that. "Great! Let''s get rid of it too." Krune agreed with Iem. If they join forces, they definitely can take care of one at the 3rd Stage of the Divinity Realm Level. As soon as they approached the area, the Space Creature noticed them. It didn''t waste time and immediately pounced at Krune and Iem. Not only that, but a few more Space Creatures that stuck together with this stronger one attacked them as well. "Tribulation Shields Slaughter Formation!" "Rainbow Domain!" "Devil Flame Sun!" "Myriad Devil Flame Domain!" Krune and Iem released their powers from the very start. Both Domain descended on the Divinity Realm Level enemy, vastly reducing its combat power. Both the Rainbow and Myriad Devil Flame Domains have some kind of Law destroying ability. When working together, they were frightening! Not to mention that both Krune and Iem''s Domains were, in fact, a fusion of several Elemental Domains at once! In just a moment, all the Space Creatures became powerless in front of the two. The only one that could still do something was the Divinity Realm Level one. However, with Krune and Iem''s Domains stacked, it made no difference. The Space Laws infused in its attacks lost all effect before it could even reach Krune or Iem''s positions. The creature tried its best, but it couldn''t do anything against those two. It soon noticed that it couldn''t win and tried to flee. Even though it had no intelligence, it seemed to still have self-preservation instincts. Too bad, though. It might have tried to escape, but it didn''t know how to do it correctly. It simply turned its back to Krune and Iem and tried to run away. That opening was fatal! "Heaven''s Fall!" "Hell Flame!" *Boom!* Ten seconds! Krune and Iem''s duo attack only took ten seconds to destroy all the Semi-Divinity and the Divinity Realms Level Space Creatures. "Phew... so that''s the power of a Divinity Ream Level creature. It''s a good thing that it is as dumb as a door. It can only crudely use Space Laws to hide or attack. It has no Domain and basically relies on the power of its body." Krune nodded. "That''s true. If that''s the power of a 3rd Stage Divinity Realm Level Space Creature, we should be able to bring a battle against a 6th Stage one to a standstill. It would be the ones at Rui''s level." Iem then asked. "If we find one at Rui''s level, should we bait it away as well?" Krune pondered a bit before saying. "I''m not using my wisp form and over-discharging Purple Tribulation Lightning, nor you are using your Devil Flame Body together with your Crystallization Ability. Those are our strongest combat states. Do you think we can kill one of those if we do that? I will rather kill them than leave a hidden danger if we need to flee back using the same path." Iem thought about their chances. "Hum... The problem is that such states damage both our bodies. However, I have to say that I''m eager to try it out. After all, only such a battle will give us the experience necessary. So far, we haven''t fought anyone that could really pose a great risk. That was part of the plan when we came here, right?" Krune admitted that Iem was right. "That''s true. I want to get things to help Nina and her brother. But I also want to use this chance to see where I''m standing." In the end, they reached the same conclusion. "Alright, if we find one at the Middle Stages of the Divinity Realm Level, we will fight it." Krune then summoned a few more dummy birds and sent them flying. After they reached 3km of distance, Krune and Iem began to move forward again. Somewhere else, the God Crystal was lying down inside a pool of Silver Blood. Back then, it had killed a total of seven cultivators and demon beasts. However, just when it was about to kill the eighth one, its target disappeared. The God Crystal circled the area a few times after that but couldn''t find anything. Not only that, but all the other cultivators and demon beasts had already left the range of its sense. Without a target, it simply let itself sink into the Silver Blood under it. That eighth target that disappeared was, in fact, Illia, a member of Pharan''s group and the same one who fought Krune. She didn''t really disappear. Instead, she used a secret technique of the Flower River Sect to hide her presence. She didn''t know if it was going to work, but it was her only choice in that desperate situation. Surprisingly, it really did. However, the technique required one to stay still, not moving a single muscle. When the God Crystal sank into the Silver Blood, it also stopped just a few meters on her side. Illia couldn''t help but curse her luck after that. After all, it didn''t seem that the crystal would move away anytime soon. In fact, it didn''t look like it would ever move! ''Fuck!'' Chapter 634: Forms! Krune and Iem continued to move forward while killing the Space Creatures on the way. However, they didn''t find others at the Divinity Realm Level anymore. That was to be expected, though. After all, the Divinity Realm ones were faster, so they pursued the group members for much longer. Obviously, they went much further away from the original path than the Semi-Divinity Realm level creatures. "Found it!" Suddenly, Krune and Iem heard Zule''s voice. "Did you get its trail?" "Yes. In the next division, take the third right entrance. The Spatial signature is following that path." Krune and Iem nodded and quickly changed direction. "Be careful, we are now moving in the same as some of the groups'' members fled. That means we will find those Divinity Realm Level creatures who pursued them further away." The two of them already knew it, but there was nothing wrong in giving a warning. At first, Krune and Iem found the other Semi-Divinity Realm creatures that had fallen behind. After quickly getting rid of them, they pressed forward. However, they soon found another one around Xanala''s level. Just like the last time, they released their domain and used their best attacks. The creature tried to escape but was killed when it turned around to flee. That wasn''t the only one, though. Krune and Iem encountered another two of them on the way. After dispatching the last one, they decided to stop and rest a little. After all, they already used a lot of Godly Energy ever since their escapade from the God Crystal and hadn''t stopped until now. "The way things are going, we will definitely find one Space Creature at Rui''s level soon." Iem nodded. "That''s to be expected. Just make sure that there is only one before we fight them." They rested for one hour until they recovered to their peak state. The Sky Shifting Sect had given everyone quite a few High-Quality Godly Stones, so they didn''t have a problem to gather Godly Energy. After that, they stood up once more and continued following the path that Zule indicated. Krune''s Godly Energy Dummies were flying three kilometers ahead when suddenly, the space fluctuated beside them as a Semi-Transparent claw destroyed one of the birds in a single strike. Krune raised his hand to warn Iem, and the two immediately stopped. That creature didn''t destroy all the Godly Energy Birds at once, so Krune had the rest dash forward straight away. His plan was to try to drag out any other Space Creature in the nearby area. Sure enough, a few Semi-Divinity Realm Level ones also appeared. However, Krune and Iem didn''t mind that level of Space Creatures. "Alright, it seems that there is only one creature at the Divinity Realm Level. Also, it is definitely stronger than the ones we fought before. It seems like we found one at Rui''s level, one 6th Stage of Divinity Realm equivalent." It was at this moment that Zule''s voice came out. "Hey, I can feel it. The God Crystal in just ahead too!" "What?!" Krune and Iem immediately put up their guards. If the God Crystal still had its ''pseudo-conscience'' intact, they would need to flee straight away. However, even after all the Dummy Birds were destroyed by the Space Creatures, the God Crystal still didn''t appear. Seeing that, Zule immediately felt excited! "Great! The God Crystal would definitely not leave those dummies flying around. It would have attacked them just like those Space Creatures. Since it didn''t come out, it can only mean that God Crystal''s power has already destroyed the pseudo-sentience inside!" Krune and Iem got excited after hearing that. "That means we only have the Space Creature at Rui''s Level to deal with." Iem nodded as his eyes lit up. "Great! Let''s go!" His body immediately crystallized as he dashed forward. Krune didn''t waste time either and quickly followed. As long as they kill that Space Creature, they could retrieve the God Crystal! *Roar* The creature was just about to conceal itself in space once more when Krune and Iem appeared in its vision. Without wasting any time, it dashed forward to strike the due. "Fast!" That''s what Krune and Iem felt as soon as it came at them. The two of them didn''t dare be negligent, so they promptly released all their cards. Both their Domains came out, reducing quite some of the attack power of the creature. However, the difference in cultivation was really too high. Both the Rainbow and Myriad Devil Flame Domains only reduced around 10% of the creature''s power. Seeing that, Krune returned to his Wisp Form for the first time since he entered the Godly Path Realm. Iem also used his Devil Flame and Crystallization Body combination from the get-go. "I''ll be the vanguard. You give me support." Krune agreed with Iem''s idea without even thinking. The difference in bodily resistance between him and Iem was like the difference between Heaven and Earth. Krune simply couldn''t compare with Iem when it comes to body defense. "Devil Flame Armor!" "Devil Flame Blades!" Iem''s body got covered in Black Flames. At the same time, two Black Flame Blades appeared around his to arms. His body was his best weapon, so he used his own arms to create those blades. Right after, both the Creature and Iem clashed head-on! *Clang!* Iem''s body was then sent flying like a cannonball! The difference in cultivation was even more apparent now. The creature rapidly took the chance to send another attack against Iem. However, over thirty Myriad Lightning Shields covered in Purple Tribulation Lightning formed a barrier between the creature and him. *Boom!* Still, the creature was powerful. All Krune''s shields were sent flying just like Iem''s body. "Hahaha!" However, Iem only laughed out loud after that outcome. He quickly got up and attacked the creature once more. "Devil Lightning Flame Blades!" Iem''s Black Flame Arms began to exert Arcs of Black Lightning. This time, the Lightning wasn''t a fusion of Dark and Lightning Elements like he did in the Heavenly Competition. Instead, it was a fusion of Devil Flame and Lightning! At the same time, Iem controlled his Elements and Laws to cast one skill after another while still in a melee fight. "Devil Flame Purgatory!" "Yin Yang Blast!" "Myriad Devil Elemental Blades!" *Clang, Clang, Clang!* *Boom, Boom, Boom!* Iem seemed like an enraged beast. His attacks were relentless to the point that even the creature had to stop to defend. But that wasn''t the only reason. "Heaven''s Fall!" "Tribulation Ice Dragons!" "Tribulation Blazing Winds Blades!" Krune also offered support to the sides, increasing the number of attacks even more. In his wisp form, Krune''s control over the Elements and Tribulation Lightning was ever higher. At the same time, Krune used his Myriad Lightning Shields to keep the Semi-Divinity Realm Level Space Creatures at bay. After all, it would make things difficult if Iem couldn''t totally focus on hold the real enemy. However, the Divinity Realm Level Creature was still able to hold its ground with just its body and Space Laws infused attacks. "Iem, let''s start!" "Gotcha!" Iem''s body then began to release even more Black Flames, just like back in the Heavenly Competition! The crystallization turned somewhat dark, showing that he was infusing the Devil Flames into it. Krune also went all out and began to use 300% of Tribulation Lightning Power! "Krune, get rid of the Semi-Divinity Realm creatures. I''ll hold this guy alone for a little. Make sure you are fast!" Krune agreed with Iem, and the Shields that were close to him departed promptly. Right after, they began to spin at high speeds as Purple Tribulation Lightning Blades appeared on each of their six edges. Not only that, but those blades released purple flames too! Now, all Krune''s 102 Myriad Lightning Shields seemed more like big Purple Flame and Lightning Stars! "Tribulation Shields Slaughter Formation, Second Form, Tribulation Stars!" Suddenly, Krune''s shields increased their speed of rotation and movement by at least two times! Not only that, but the blades coming out of the shields were at least two times bigger too! Not to mention that they were made of both Purple Tribulation Lightning and Purple Flames. One must remember that Krune''s Sheilds were made with Purple Flames to start with, so the compatibility made them even more dreadful! "Severe!" The Semi-Divinity Realm Level Creatures were immediately put on the defensive. Too bad, though. Their bodies were far from enough to resist Krune''s Slaughter Formation Second Form. This form drained a lot of Krune''s Godly Energy and Purple Tribulation Lightning. Also, it could only be used when going above the safe amount of Purple Tribulation Lightning discharge. It means that Krune was damaging his Wisp Core in exchange for even more power! One Space Creature at the Semi-Divinity Realm level after another got cut in half by those Purple Lightning Flame Stars. Krune wasn''t the only one. The Infusion of Devil Flames into his body also damaged Iem considerably. However, this allowed him to hold the Divinity Realm Level Creature back while Krune got rid of the annoyances. There were quite a few weaker Space Creatures, so Krune still took over a minute to slaughter them. After all, each and every single one of them was an entire cultivation level above his own. It is already heaven-defying enough that he was able to get rid of them this fast. "Iem, I''m done! Let''s finish this guy!" Iem laughed after hearing that. "Hahaha! It was even faster than I thought. Alright, I already accumulated enough Devil Flame in my body. Hold it back just for a second. I''ll finish it in my next attack!" "Alright!" While the two of them were in the middle of an unprecedented battle, they didn''t notice a certain someone looking at everything that happened close to where the God Crystal was lying down. She was quite surprised when she saw Krune''s real form. Obviously, that was Illia. She had been stuck here, afraid of moving out because of the God Crystal. However, to her surprise, the God Crystal didn''t move even after Krune and Iem appeared. As the battle continued, she finally noticed that something was wrong with the God Crystal. That being said, she decided to use that chance to escape as soon as Krune and Iem were about to die. She thought that only at those moments of life and death would they release their full potential, which would give her enough time to escape the Space Creature that they were fighting against. However, as the battle continued, her body began to sweat cold! Not only did Iem and Krune not fall at a disadvantage, but they were also gaining ground over it! Illia is a genius of the Flower River Sect. At the peak of the Semi-Divinity Realm, she could definitely fight against 2nd and even 3rd Stage ordinary Divinity Realm opponents. However, that Space Creature and Iem and Krune were fighting was equivalent to a 6th Stage one! Even if there were five of her, she wouldn''t be confident of pulling something like that out! ''I don''t accept it! I refuse to believe that you are really at the Divine View Realm! You are definitely hiding your cultivations!'' Of course, she didn''t say that aloud. She completely gave up her initial plan and decided to stay hidden there until Krune and Iem finally decided to leave. As for the God Crystal fallen close to her, she didn''t dare try to take it and run. The Space Creature is dumb, but Iem and Krune definitely aren''t. Just their Domains alone already made her feel chills on her back. Although she is confident in her ability to run away, she wasn''t sure if it would work on Iem and Krune. ''I''ll stay here and tell Pharan later about those two. Perhaps they didn''t even notice the God Crystal under the silver blood either.'' Back on the battle side, Krune''s Purple Shield Stars did what Iem asked and held the Space Creature for a moment. Iem then spread his two blade arms as all the Black Lightning Flames of his entire body entered the two blades. The power of the Devil Flame God increased by several times on them, showing that the next attack would be overwhelming! After that, Iem''s Black Flame Wings flapped with full power, and he launched himself against the Space Creature! "God Slaughtering Slash!" The Space Creature didn''t have intelligence, but it still felt fear at the income attack. It could tell that it was at a far higher level than anything it contended until now. Immediately, it tried to turn around and flee. Since it was a Creature equivalent to the 6th Stage of the Divinity Realm, it definitely had enough speed to do so. However, Krune would definitely not sit behind and do nothing. "Tribulation Shields Slaughtering Formation, Third Form, Cage!" "Restrain!" All 102 Purple Lightning Flame Star Shields formed a cage around Iem and the Creature, preventing it from going anywhere! It could definitely use its power to breakthrough, but it needed time! Obviously, time wasn''t something it had at the moment. Iem then appeared in front of the Space Creature in a flash. "Obliterate!" The creature tried to protect its body with its claws, infusing it with as much Godly Energy and Space Laws as possible. Unfortunately, it was too late. *Swish!* Iem''s two blades went through all defenses, instantly cutting that creature in half! Just like that, a Space Creature equivalent to a 6th Stage Divinity Realm perished. Like all other Space Creatures, its body began to drift away in specs of Silver Light, quickly disappearing. Chapter 635: True Spirit Krune''s Shields Cage separated once more when Iem killed the Space Creature. Right after, Krune''s 300% of Tribulation Lighting output returned to its normal 200%. In wisp form, that''s how much Krune can use without causing damage to his wisp core. The dark shade on Iem''s Crystallization ability disappeared right after too. After all, the forceful infusion of Devil Flames in his body was also detrimental to Iem. He only kept the Devil Flame armor active in case something happened. Although Krune and Iem came back from their strongest states, they didn''t drop their guard. They didn''t forget that a lot of Godly Energy waves were released during this last combat. There would be nothing wrong if they ended attracting more Space Creatures. However, even after waiting for a few minutes, nothing happened. Space Creatures didn''t have intelligence. That being said, they wouldn''t keep hiding and waiting for an opportunity to attack. Instead, they would come at them straight away if they saw Krune and Iem. "Seems like that was all." Iem nodded. "The thing I was most afraid was that a Space Creature at Jimage''s level would come at us. But from the looks of it, those strongest creatures really went after Jimage, Foltan, and Pharan." Krune returned to his Human Form before agreeing with Iem. "There was no helping in that. Those creatures are attracted by those who have the more Godly Energy Powers. It is understandable that they went through other routes after Jimage and the others. Anyway, let''s retrieve the God Crystal. If it didn''t come out to attack us until now, then it definitely had its ''pseudo-sentience'' destroyed." Illia couldn''t hear what they were saying since Krune and Iem wouldn''t discuss things without Divine Sense. Still, she knew that it probably had something to do with the God Crystal. Sure enough, Krune and Iem began to make their way to where she was. After all, the God Crystal was just a few meters away from her body. "Oh! I can see the God Crystal with my Mental Energy. It is really here." Iem smiled before nodding. He wouldn''t take the Space God Crystal, so that didn''t matter much for him. However, after Krune walked a few more meters ahead, he suddenly stopped. His eyes narrowed, and his Mental Energy Scan picked something nearby the Crystal. After that, he quickly alerted Iem, who was immediately put on guard. "Go!" Krune''s shields were still hovering around him after the battle finished. It''s just that the Purple Tribulation Lightning power stopped coming from them. However, as soon as Krune gave the order, all of them released the Purple Tribulation Lightning Blades and surrounded the place where he noticed that presence. Iem''s body released black flames as well as he pounced forward. Neither Krune nor Iem were in their strongest combat forms. However, they are still strong enough to contend against a Divinity Realm level enemy. Of course, they are far from their peak at the moment since they just finished a tough fight against that Space Creature. Illia''s eyes opened wide when she noticed their movements. She was extremely confident in her secret concealment technique. As long as she didn''t move, no one under the Transformation Realm was supposed to be able to notice her. However, it was evident that they found out where she was. Illia''s face immediately paled when she saw Krune and Iem attacking the area where she was. She knew she wasn''t their match even in a one vs. one, let alone two vs. one. "Wait! I surrender!" Krune and Iem''s skills were just about to descend all at once when they suddenly stopped. They had indeed heard the voice coming from that place. Krune knew that there was something there, but he didn''t know what. Even with his Mental Energy, he could only barely perceive that ''something'' was present in that place. In fact, he thought that it was another hidden Space Creature instead of a cultivator. However, Space Creatures obviously can''t talk, much less would they surrender. Iem was even more surprised since his Divine Sense couldn''t see anything at all. If not because of Krune''s Mental Energy, they would approach the God Crystal and might have been ambushed right there and then. It was then that the space warped, and a blue lotus manifested out of thin air. Right after, it morphed into the form of a young woman. Obviously, Iem and Krune immediately recognized her as Illia, the girl who fought Krune in the Chaotic Space when they were after Top Quality Godly Stones. If Illia knew that they could find her presence, she would have escaped as soon as they finished the battle against the Space Creature. However, she was too confident in her hiding skills. It would definitely have been better if Krune and Iem didn''t notice her presence so that she could leave later. Unfortunately, now that Krune''s shields were surrounding her, she had no way to escape. After Illia appeared, Krune couldn''t help but comment. "What a strong concealment technique. I almost didn''t notice Illia''s presence at all!" Illia shook her head after hearing that. "I''m a lot more impressed with your detection ability than you are with my technique. No one below the Transformation Realm was supposed to be able to see through it." Iem cut them right there. "Yea, yea, both sides are very impressed. Anyway, what should we do with you? As far as I remember, you tried to use your group to kill us in the chaotic space. That being said, what makes you think that we will let you leave? Besides, you saw my friend''s true form, which shouldn''t be known by anyone. After all, he is still in the Divine View Realm." Krune nodded. He isn''t the type that likes to kill. Krune only destroyed so many Space Creatures because they were not really alive to start with. Otherwise, he probably would leave them alive after just destroying their cultivations or something similar. However, Illia''s group was obviously coming for the kill, and his wisp form was seen. For good or for worse, he also agreed that leaving her alive would only spell disaster. One must remember that Demon Beasts shouldn''t gain intelligence before Semi-Divinity Realm. However, he is only in the Divine View Realm. He wasn''t supposed to be sentient yet. Nevertheless, Illia''s next words surprised both Iem and Krune. "What do you mean with ''after all, he is in the Divine View Realm?'' Is there something wrong with a True Spirit being at this cultivation level? Besides, do you really think that I believe that you are in the Divine View Realm? There is no way that you can fight so many levels above your own." Krune and Iem were taken aback. Not because she doubted their cultivation level, but because of the name that appeared before. "True Spirit?" Neither Krune nor Iem had ever heard about this name before. Illia noticed the puzzled faces of Iem and Krune, so she decided to ask Krune directly. "Could it be that you don''t know what a True Spirit is even though you are one of them? Although True Spirits are extremely rare, you should have heard about them once you entered the Sky Shifting Sect, no?" Krune and Iem immediately shook their heads. Iem then stepped forward and created a story on the spot. "We only joined the sect a few months ago. Before that, we had been traveling everywhere and had no background to speak off. The only thing we know is that Demon Beasts shouldn''t be sentient before the Semi-Divinity Realm. That''s why my friend had been hiding his true form until now. After all, he does have intelligence even though he isn''t in the Semi-Divinity Realm." Illia still didn''t believe that they were only in the Divine View Realm. However, she had to admit that information about True Spirits isn''t exactly that easy to find. In fact, this was the first time she saw a ''member'' of the True Spirit race in her life. That shows just how rare they are. "I see... If you really had just joined the Sky Shifting Sect and had been afraid of showing his true form, then it makes sense. What about this? I''ll tell you everything I know about the True Spirits as long as you let me go." Iem immediately shook his head. "Let''s pretend that you are telling the truth. From what I heard from you so far, it seems like True Spirits can gain intelligence way before the Semi-Divinity Realm. That being said, it doesn''t seem like exposing his true form is something of concern. However..." Iem sank his hand into the Silver Blood and pulled a silver-like object out of it. "What about this Space God Crystal? Are you telling me that you won''t inform anyone that we acquired it? You probably know how valuable this thing is, don''t you?" Illia was taken aback. "I know that this item is rare, but I didn''t know that it was called Space God Crystal." Iem narrowed his eyes. "Anyway, it doesn''t matter whether you know or not. The problem is that you know we got it." Krune agreed with Iem as he raised his hand. Immediately, all the Myriad Lightning Shields began to approach Illia from all sides. Iem''s body also erupted with Devil Flames, and he formed another two Devil Flame Blades on his arms. Illia''s mind worked as fast as never before. Finally, she gritted her teeth before saying. "I know a way to return to the outside world. If you let me go, I can tell you about that." Sure enough, those words were enough to stop Iem and Krune''s attacks on their tracks. Chapter 636: Restriction Krune and Iem looked deeply at Illia before asking. "What way?" However, she immediately shook her head. "I will die right after if I tell you, won''t why? I''m not an idiot." Iem shrugged his shoulders. "But if you don''t tell us, you will die regardless. Or do you think we will simply believe your words and let you go?" Illia knew that was true, so she could only use her last option. "I''m willing to let you put Godly Restrictions on my Soul." Krune got puzzled. "Godly Restrictions?" That was the first time Krune heard that name. However, Iem immediately understood. He then turned to Krune and explained through a Divine Sense Message. "It''s similar to formations, but they are drawn on the body instead of the ground or equipments. Depending on the type, you can even set up a restriction on the Soul that will activate and destroy it if the conditions are met. Back in the Mortal Realm, such a thing wasn''t possible. That''s because Spiritual Energy and its derivations were too weak for this kind of thing. But with Godly Energy, those restrictions turned feasible. That''s why they call Godly Restrictions. The only way to break free of them is to have cultivation far above the realm of the person who set it up at that point in time. However, this is not the same as acquiring a slave. The host of the restrictions is free to do anything it wants as long as they don''t break the agreement. They still have their free will to do whatever they want as long as the rules are followed. It is an alternative for blood contracts, but much more dangerous." Krune was quite surprised by such a thing. "Can you set up such a thing? She is in the Semi-Divinity Realm, but with our real power, I don''t think she can get rid of this." Iem pondered a bit and then looked at Illia. "I can set the restrictions, but I''m not that good with it since it isn''t precisely a formation. You will have to open your Soul completely for it to work. Also, I''ll be honest here, there is a good chance that I might damage your Soul in the process. Are you really okay with it?" Illia immediately nodded. "I am. After all, it is only a risk. If I don''t accept this, I will only die in your hands." Iem smiled after hearing that. "It''s good that you know." He then approached Illia while saying. "I''ll set three conditions to this Godly Restriction: You shall never attack or make any plot against us. However, you are not our slave, so you don''t need to sacrifice your life for us either. You will die if what you said about bringing us out is a lie or if you try to leave our sides without permission. You shall never talk about anything you saw here. Are you okay with these conditions?" Illia nodded. Those conditions wouldn''t restrict her movement or stop her from defending herself, so that was enough to preserve her life. She wasn''t lying about bringing them out, so she wasn''t afraid of the restriction activating because of the second condition either. "I accept. However, I will only guide you out with me. I will not tell you how I will do it." Iem and Krune were satisfied enough with that. Illia then opened her Soul completely so that Iem could put the restrictions. Because Illia wasn''t resisting the technique, there was no side effect during the process. However, Iem told the truth when he said that he wasn''t good with this type of thing. That being said, it was quite a painful time for Illia. Still, Iem eventually finished setting the restriction in her Soul without causing any lasting damage. "Very good. With this, we have concluded our deal." Illia sighed in relief before asking. "So, do you want me to bring you out now?" Krune and Iem immediately shook their heads. "We had been in this body for just a day. There are a lot of places to investigate still." The duo then sat down and began to recover their energies. Iem retracted his Devil Flames and Crystallization skill. As for Krune, his Shields were still hovering around him, but there was almost no Godly Energy being used. Not to mention that he completely stopped pouring Tribulation Lightning Energy. Illia then took that chance to ask. "Where are you going after this?" Krune and Iem simply answered. "Our objective didn''t change. We are still trying to go to the Dantian or Demon Core. We already found something as precious as the God Crystal, so who knows what more this body has? We also intend to go to its head to take a look around. With blood vessels this big, there is bound to be some that will bring us there." It was then that Krune remembered something. "Oh, right. How long do you need to bring us out? We can''t forget that we only have six days to leave the Sealed Space." Illia pondered a bit before saying. "The main issue will be Godly Energy. As long as there is enough, I should be able to bring us out in at most one hour." Krune and Iem nodded. It meant that they had to finish exploring this place and find the other group members in at most five days and a half. They will use the rest of the time to escape this giant body and leave the Sealed Space. The fact that Illia told them that she could bring them out and the restriction didn''t activate proved that she wasn''t lying about that too. "That''s good then. You seem to be quite tired, so sit down and recover your energy." Illia nodded and sat some distance away from them. Just like that, the three continued to recover their energies. Meanwhile, in other areas of the body, the rest of the cultivators and demon beasts were looking where they should go. Jimage was one of them. At that moment, he was holding his Vibrant Bead, which pointed him in the direction of the closest member of his group. "Hum... I need to go down. Too bad that the bead doesn''t show the right path. Should I try to break through the blood vessels'' walls?" After pondering a bit, Jimage gave up the idea. "That won''t do. Let alone how strong these walls are, I don''t know how many I would need to destroy to reach the closest member of my group. Chances are that I will attract Space Creatures over with all the commotion. I guess I can only try to find a way down." He was just about to move again when he thought about something. "No, wait. It will be much easier if I just try to reach the Dantian or Demon Core. After all, that''s the place everyone was planning to go to start with. Instead, I should try to find the Meridians we were talking about before. Krune seems to have some kind of special detection ability, so he most likely will be there too." Having reached this decision, Jimage immediately paid attention to the Flow of Godly Energy and followed its path. He wasn''t the only one thinking about it, though. The rest of his group did the same thing, so they were also looking for a meridian that they could enter. Pharan''s group, on the other hand, had decided that they wanted to go to the heart first, so they were talking a different path from Jimage''s one. Well, his entire group except for Illia, who was stuck with Krune and Iem. Last but not least, there was Foltan''s group from the Three Peaks Sect. In their case, they decided to go to the Dantian or Demon Core as well. No one knew if this body was really a Demon Beasts'' one or not. Which meant that they can''t be sure if what they will find is a Dantian or Core. Sure, demon beasts have different auras than humans. However, this one is dead! Because of that, other than the pressure given by it, they can''t tell which one it is. Of course, chances were that it was a demon beast. After all, it was too big to be human. Not to mention that it has silver blood. Time passed, and another hour went by. Finally, Krune and Iem got up again. Illia noticed that and got up too. "Are we leaving?" Krune and Iem confirmed. "Yes, you just need to follow us." Illia nodded. But then she decided to ask something that was puzzling her. "Why the God Crystal stopped moving all of a sudden?" Krune smiled back at her before saying. "That''s a secret." Krune and Iem didn''t know if they would find another one of these God Crystals. It would be better to not tell that sentiences can''t live inside a God Crystal for long. It might come in hand in the future. Illia narrowed her eyes but did not insist. Instead, she asked something else. "Why are we going back through the same path? Wouldn''t it be bad if we find more of the Space Creatures who left that room where the God Crystal was before?" Krune nodded. "That''s true. However, we need to go there if we want to reach the Dantian or Demon Core as fast as possible. After all, that''s the closest Meridian I found so far." Illia was taken aback. "You found a Meridian there? How come no one in my group noticed anything?" This time, it was Iem who laughed. "That''s also a secret." Illia felt like giving those two a beating. But in the end, she could only swallow her anger and keep following them. Chapter 637: Learning About True Spirits On their way back, Krune decided to ask what were those True Spirits that Illia talked about. "Oh! That''s right, you didn''t know you were part of the True Spirits." Illia continued. "True Spirits are born from Godly Energy itself. Well, that much you probably already know since you are a True Spirit yourself. Other than that, they have an enormous affinity with Godly Energy. Any organization of the Godly Path Realm would love to have them in their ranks. Alas, they are just too, too rare. For example, other than yourself, I only know about a single True Spirit in our Zamaria Planet. His name is Reril, the Sect Master of the Energy Sect, one of our planet''s strongest powers." Krune was taken aback. However, something told him that the True Spirits aren''t the same as the Mortal Realm Wisps. That''s because wisps are formed of Spiritual Energy while True Spirits are formed of Godly Energy. Krune believes that both sides probably have their differences. For example, back in the Mortal Realm, Wisps were extremely common. However, True Spirits are extremely rare in this place. It shows that the formation of a True Spirit Core is very different from the formation of a Wisp one. Another noticeable difference is the True Spirit''s cultivation speed. From what Illia spoke so far, True Spirits seem to have a very easy time cultivating. As for the Wisps, if not for his Myriad Energies Technique, Krune might have died out of lifespan already. No, he most likely would have. "You said that there is nothing wrong with me having intelligence before the Semi-Divinity Realm. Does that mean that it is normal for True Spirits like me to be intelligent before that?" Illia nodded. "Correct. True Spirits are brilliant. From what I found, they can reach the level of an adult''s mind by the age of two or three. They are the only existences other than humans to not need cultivation to be sentient. Oh, right! You should stop calling yourself Demon Beast. True Spirits are categorized as a third type of existence. That being said, the Godly Path Realm has Humans, Demon Beasts, and True spirits." Krune was taken aback by that. But after thinking about it for a moment, he felt that it made sense. First of all, Krune always noticed the Wisps'' Cores were utterly different from demon beasts. But because they were different from humans too, wisps were put together with Demon Beasts. In this aspect, True Spirits seem to be very similar to wisps. But it was at this moment that Iem remembered something. "Wait! Krune''s True Spirit Form is Rainbow-Colored. Are all the True Spirits Rainbow-Colored as well? After all, you didn''t point out his colors after seeing his forms." Illia understood what Iem meant. "It seems like you got the wrong idea about True Spirits. It''s completely normal for True Spirits to be different. Their race comes in several different colors and shapes of ethereal bodies. For example, Krune here looked like a Rainbow-Colored Ball of Energy that also released Rainbow-Colored Ethereal Flame. From what I know, the Sect Master of the Energy Sect has a Blade Shaped Ethereal Body around his True Spirit Core. In the past, there was another True Spirit that had a Rock Ethereal Shape. Anyway, True Spirits are usually different from each other." Krune was taken aback. That confirmed his suspicions that Trues Spirits are definitely not the same as Wisps. However, that didn''t matter. That''s because their different forms are good news for Krune. In the past, when Krune saw Feifei for the first time, he played with her by changing his Ethereal Body''s form. That was something extremely easy to do even when he was in the Qi Condensation Realm, let alone now. As long as he changes his shape to something else other than the Wisp Form, he can totally pretend to be a True Spirit. Of course, Krune will need further investigation once he comes out. "What else you know about them?" Illia pondered a bit before saying. "Hum... It''s said that they have a high comprehension of laws, cultivate really fast, and their lifespans before the Divine Path Realm is a lot higher." "Higher Life Spans?" "Yes. Ordinary people have around 60 years to live before the Divine Path Realm. But True Spirits can live over 200 years. It''s quite hateful since they have a lot longer to reach the Divine Path Realm while already being faster with cultivation. As you know, life span doubles when you reach the Divine Path Realm, so while humans would have 120 years to live after the Divine Path, True Spirits would have 400!" Krune couldn''t help but be impressed with the difference in this aspect. True Spirits are basically to pole opposite of Wisps. They have everything that the Wisps ever dreamed about. The only thing that Wisps are better is that their numbers are tens of thousands of times higher. There are probably a million wisps for every True Spirit, maybe even more. Well, their intelligence seems to be similar, too, though. "Oh, right. Let me ask you this. Do True Spirits have Meridians?" Illia looked at Krune, puzzled. "You should know this better than anyone else." Krune nodded. "I know, but I want to know if we are all the same in this aspect." "Oh, so that''s why. Don''t worry, from what I know, True Spirits are all the same in relation to Meridians. None of them have it. Just like you, they have an extremely high affinity with Godly Energy, so they simply don''t need meridians to start with. Just their natural Godly Energy Absorption Power is more than enough to make everyone jealous of their Cultivation Speed. Even cultivation techniques are basically useless for them." Krune couldn''t help but sign. Wisps can also absorb Spiritual Energy without meridians. However, their cultivation speed is far from enough for them to win against their own life spans. Only now that Krune spread the Myriad Wisps Technique did they began to stand a chance. But even then, chances are that the majority will die. After all, not all wisps had Krune''s luck of having an Elemental Divine Soul or a Luvile on his side. "Is there anything else?" Illia pondered a bit before shrugging her shoulders. "Sorry, this is the limit of my knowledge. I only took a look at the True Spirits information before because my master insisted. He said that any living True Spirit would most likely have some fearsome background. That being said, I should at least know about them so that I wouldn''t offend someone I can''t afford to. If you want to learn more about it, you should go look for another True Spirit yourself." Krune nodded and didn''t insist. This was enough information for the time being. Krune''s group battled their way back to where Krune found the Meridian entrance. Fortunately, the place was still somewhat far from where the God Crystal was found, so it didn''t have that many Space Creatures. Suddenly, Krune stopped moving and looked at a corner. "It''s behind this blood vessel wall." Illia couldn''t help but ask. "The meridian''s walls are definitely much stronger than blood vessels. How exactly do you plan to break through it? I''ll tell you in advance that I have no confidence whatsoever." Krune and Iem laughed after hearing that but gave no explanation. Instead, they both summoned their Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flames. As expected, their two Gods'' Powers can destroy laws or eat them. Although the meridians'' walls are strong, as long as they keep infusing it with Luvile and Harold''s powers, they will eventually breakthrough. Krune and Iem then touched the wall and began to open the way. However, they did not attack the walls with skills. Instead, they slowly poured the energy inside. That was to prevent too many commotions from happening. Besides, there was another reason. "Back then, the blood vessels walls closed on us after we entered. That being said, such a thing might happen again if we cause too much damage at once. It''s better to do it slowly to prevent that from happening." Iem nodded. "That''s true. Also, as long as we do it at this pace, we can keep replenishing our powers at the same time." Illia was surprised to see that the blood vessel wall was really breaking apart. Not that she couldn''t cause any damage, but that Krune and Iem didn''t seem to be using that much power at all. She then used her Divine Sense to check the place where they were breaking through, and sure enough, the laws that composed the walls were being destroyed or eaten without stopping. It was the same thing when Krune and Iem''s Domains touched her when she was hidden. ''What kind of abilities are those? I''ve never seen skills that could eat or destroy other laws. I better investigate if I succeed in escaping later. Too bad that I won''t be able to tell anyone before I improve my cultivation by two realms at the very least. Otherwise, it would be much easier.'' One of the conditions of the restrictions on her Soul was to never talk about anything related to Krune and Iem''s secrets, after all. Iem and Krune took just fifteen minutes to reach the Meridian Wall. But after that, it took them almost an entire hour to break that. That shows just how much stronger Meridians are in comparison to the rest of the body. It wasn''t only that one, but all other races as well. The only exceptions might be the wisps and those True Spirits Krune heard about. Chapter 638: Clusters As soon as Krune and Iem broke through the Meridian wall, they felt a strong wave of Godly Energy. It was so intense that they were pulled back by its force. However, they quickly stabilized themself as they looked at it. "So much Godly Energy. Too bad, we can''t waste our time cultivating in this place." Iem nodded. "That''s true. Anyway, if the meridian is already this full of Godly Energy, then you can imagine how much there is in the Dantian or Demon Core." Illia, who was only looking, was also impressed with all that Godly Energy. "The meridians will be a very good place if we want to go out later. Make sure to remember where they are located so that I can use them to bring us out when the time comes." Krune and Iem nodded before looking back at the hole. "Alright, let''s go!" Krune''s group then jumped inside the meridian. After confirming which direction the Godly Energy was coming from, they immediately departed. There was no Silver Blood inside the meridians. Because of that, they didn''t find any Space Creature on their way. Of course, just to make sure, Krune used his same strategy of dummy birds. After all, there was no rule saying that the Space Creatures could only appear where there was Silver Blood. As time passed, they increased their pace until they began to run at Illia''s max speed. At some point, the passage began to enlarge. It was an indicator that they were getting close to their objective. Finally, they exited the meridian and appeared in an enormous space where they could see several hundreds of similar passages from all sides. At the very center, they saw an immense silver sphere that shined with silver light. The amount of Godly Energy coming from it was simply huge. "So much Godly Energy! It feels like there is more Godly Energy in that Silver Sphere than the Top Quality Godly Vein we saw outside." Iem nodded. "That''s to be expected. After all, our theory is that the Godly Veins appeared in the Mountain Range because of this body, right? If this thing wasn''t stronger the Top Quality Godly Veins, then it wouldn''t be able to give birth to them." Krune agreed with Iem. "Well, at least now I''m sure this is a Demon Beast. This thing is absolutely a Demon Core. Although this body died a long time ago, now that I''m this close to the Core, I can feel a small amount demonic aura." Illia couldn''t help but say. "As you know, our foundations increase in size as we cultivate. Someone at this demon beast''s level would have a foundation of the size of several galaxies. Also, it is obvious that this demon beast is deeply related to Space Laws. Chances are that we would be dragged somewhere we won''t be able to ever leave again. Of course, this body has been dead for a long time, so the space inside might have disappeared already." Krune''s eyes narrowed. "Well, entering it doesn''t seem very hard. Look at that." Everyone followed Krune''s finger direction with their eyes and soon noticed something. The shell of the giant Demon Core had a huge crack. It was possible to see an aperture big enough to fit a house at the very center too. However, compared to the Demon Core''s size itself, the crack didn''t seem that big. That wasn''t all. After Krune''s group looked around, they noticed that several other cracks of smaller and bigger sizes could be seen around the Demon Core. From inside the cracks, they could see specks of Silver Light flowing out continuously. Krune approached some of those specks and used his Mental Energy to check them. "Space Laws mixed with something else. I can''t tell what, though." Iem then pointed at somewhere else. "Hey, look!" Krune and Illia''s eyes followed Iem''s finger and noticed several clusters on the walls of the Silver Sphere. After paying a little more attention, they soon noticed several shinning objects protruding out of those clusters. "Top Quality Godly Stones! Hundreds of them!" Krune and Iem couldn''t help but laugh out loud! "Hahaha! This trip was indeed worth it!" "Let''s take them!" However, just as they were about to step forward, they heard an explosion coming from one of the Meridians'' entrances. Soon, more and more of those sounds began to come from there until suddenly, a man rushed out at high speeds. "Senior Jimage!" Jimage''s hair was messy, and his clothes were quite torn. There were also a few injuries on his body, but they didn''t seem too serious. Jimage heard his name being called and quickly looked in Krune''s direction. "You are also here?!" As soon as he finished saying those words, another three figures came out of the same meridian''s passage. Krune and Iem immediately recognized them. They were Foltan and his other two Divinity Realm group members. Obviously, the three of them joined hands to hunt Jimage at some point. Foltan looked at Krune and Iem before narrowing his eyes. Krune and Iem didn''t waste time and appeared beside Jimage in a flash. Illia also did the same thing since she couldn''t go far away from the duo without their permission. Jimage didn''t understand why a member of the Flower River Sect was together with Krune and Iem, but it seemed like she wouldn''t attack him either. Since that was the case, he decided to put those thoughts behind and warned the enemy. "Foltan, I advise you to stop this bullshit. If I really die, Kalen will destroy the Teleport Formation outside. If that happens, you will be locked in this place with everyone else." Foltan snorted, though. "As long as your group has at least half of its members alive, I doubt he will do so." However, Iem began to laugh after hearing that. "Too bad, you can''t attack us anymore." Foltan was taken aback by Iem''s words. Not only him but Jimage as well. "Yea? Why?" Iem then pointed at the clusters attached to the Demon Core. Obviously, Foltan and Jimage looked at the direction Iem pointed at and were taken aback. "Top Quality Godly Stones, so many!" Iem nodded. "Well then, look at how many clusters are present there too. I wonder, what will happen if the energy inside all those clusters were to go out of control together?" Jimage''s eyes lit up. "Hahaha! Iem, you are good." Foltan, on the other hand, smiled bitterly. He is confident that with his numbers of Divinity Realm members, he could kill them all. However, there are hundreds of clusters filled to the brin with Godly Energy. If they did as much as sending a single strong attack against those clusters, they would all be doomed! The power of the explosion of so many clusters wouldn''t allow a single one of them to escape alive. In the end, Foltan could only put his weapon back in his spatial ring and give up the attack. "What do you propose?" Jimage nodded, satisfied. "There is no need for us to be this hostile to each other, right? There are hundreds of Top Quality Godly Stones there. We can simply share them." Foltan shook his head. "My group has the advantage in power. Why should we give half of it to you?" Jimage shrugged his shoulders. "We can make a competition of ability. We will keep the ones we get. How about it?" Foltan snorted. "Do you think I don''t know about your rainbow-colored friend''s special ability? If I really do that, I wonder if we could bring even 10% of them back with us." Pharan''s group had told Foltan before about Krune''s ability to remove the Top Quality Godly Stones in just a few seconds. However, Foltan''s members would need several minutes for each one of them. It was then that Illia finally spoke. "Are you all not forgetting something much more important? What about the Demon Core itself? There are hundreds of Top Quality Godly Stones outside, so what exactly can be found inside?" Jimage and Foltan were taken aback. However, they were not idiots. They know as well as anyone else that all foundations have their own space inside. Just how big would be the foundation of a monster like this Demon Beast''s body? The only doubt was if the space/foundation inside the Demon Core still existed after so long or not. If it didn''t, then the insides most likely had things even more valuable. "Girl, are you trying to lure me inside to get lost in the Foundation?" Illia smiled before shrugging her shoulders. "Does that mean that Senior Foltan''s group will give up entering the Demon Core?" Foltan narrowed his eyes. Obviously, they wouldn''t do leave without first confirming if it was possible to enter the Demon Core or not. "What do you have in mind?" Before Illia answered, Jimage moved beside a big cluster with several other clusters attached to it and sat down. "I''m definitely not entering. Someone has to stay outside to detonate these clusters in case your team tries something against my own. I''ll stay right here, waiting for you to decide." Foltan couldn''t help but say. "If you are staying, then so do I. I can''t leave you alone in this place, or my group would be doomed as well." Jimage then suggested. "It is evident that both of our teams thought about the same thing. If we wait here for a few more hours, our other team members will most likely arrive here. How about we wait and let them enter to check?" Foltan didn''t like to lose his advantage in power, but he knew that Jimage wouldn''t go anywhere far from those clusters anytime soon. That being said, he could only accept the idea. "Very well. However, I will only wait for a single day." Jimage smiled and nodded. "One day it is." Krune and Iem then sent Jimage a request through Divine Sense. "What, you two want to breakthrough now?" The two of them immediately nodded. "With this amount of Top Quality Godly Stones, our sect definitely won''t complain if we use some for our breakthrough." Jimage pondered a bit and had to admit that they were right. Even after sharing everything, they would still be the recordist with the highest number of Top Quality Godly Stones brought out. No one in their sect would complain about their breakthrough since they are still in the Divine View Realm. Krune then sent Jimage one last piece of information. After hearing that, Jimage''s eyes opened wide as he looked at Illia. Right after, he looked back at Krune and asked with a Divine Sense message as well. "Are you sure?" Krune nodded. "Absolutely." Jimage then looked at Illia closely, which made her feel uncomfortable. Suddenly, a thought passed through Jimage''s mind. He then smiled and sent a Divine Sense message to Illia, Krune, and Iem at the same time. "Hello, Bianka. It''s my pleasure to meet the Flower River Sect''s Sect Master''s daughter." Illia''s expression changed drastically after hearing that. Chapter 639: Im Ready! Krune and Iem were taken aback by what they heard. Illia, or better, Bianka, looked at Jimage as if she was looking at a ghost. After that, she also used a Divine Sense Message to ask. "How did you find out?" Jimage shrugged his shoulders. "Quite simple. You have a method to leave this place, right? Considering how hard it is even for me, you are bound to have some spatial treasure or something like that that can allow you to achieve that. However, such a treasure is definitely not something disciples at the Semi-Divinity, or Divinity Realm like us should have. That being said, you probably have a strong backer in the Flower River Sect." "I already found it weird after Krune told me about your battle. From his description, you seemed to be way stronger than the other Semi-Divinity Realm guys as well. From what I know, it seemed like it is also you who had been tracking our group in the past. After putting all of that together, it was easy to think that you were definitely important for the Flower River. After that, I only had to think about the information we have from the Flower River Sect Master. She has a daughter who was supposed to be in the Semi-Divinity Realm." "Last but not least, the one who came to watch over the Top Quality Godly Vein Sealed Space was the Sect Master herself instead of one of her elders. That was the last point that confirmed your real identity. Without a doubt, you changed your appearance too. After all, you look different from the reports." Knowing that there would be no point in hiding anymore, Bianka could only sigh. "Indeed, I''m Bianka. So what, are you going to use me against my mother? I might as well tell you that although my mother and I are close, she wouldn''t trade the sect''s well being for my life." Jimage nodded. "I know. Don''t worry. As long as you can really bring us out of this body, I don''t mind letting you go later. It is one thing to kill a disciple of your Flower River Sect, but another to kill the Sect Master''s daughter. Also, leaving this place alive is our top priority after acquiring the advantages of this place. If anything, I''m happy that you were with us during this exploration." Krune and Iem didn''t say anything in the end. Jimage is the leader of their exploration group, so he had the final saying about those things. That being said, they decided to ignore that fact and change the topic. "Senior Jimage, we are going to make a breakthrough then." Jimage nodded and asked them to do it close to where he was staying. Krune and Iem then took out a few Top Quality Godly Stones. In fact, at their level, only one would be enough to supply enough energy to breakthrough if they were at the peak of their stage. However, the fact is that they entered the 9th stage not too long ago. Because of that, they also had to accumulate the energy first. Krune and Iem didn''t want to make a breakthrough so fast before since they hadn''t had the chance to get used to their power. However, after so many battles against Space Creatures and even the other cultivators, such a problem disappeared. Another thing is that Krune and Iem didn''t take any of the Top Quality Godly Stones from the clusters behind Jimage. After all, Foltan and his companions were paying attention so that Krune wouldn''t start to take everything without them noticing. One must remember that Krune is several times faster than anyone else in this place thanks to his Mental Energy. To prevent misunderstandings during the breakthrough, Krune and Iem took out Top Quality Godly Stones that they acquired from outside. Another good thing was that neither Iem nor Krune cared about the element of the Godly Stones. Both of them are skilled with all five primary ones, which allowed them to use any of those with ease. Iem is a Formations Master, so he quickly set up a relatively good Energy Gathering Formation to help them extract the Godly Energy of those stones even faster. After that, they put the Godly Stones in the positions and sat down in the middle of the formation. Foltan and his companions noticed that, but since that was only a simple formation and they did not touch the Godly Stones in the clusters, he refrained from making a move. After all, he could see Jimage paying very close attention to his movements. Krune and Iem''s cultivation began to increase at alarming speeds. However, no one could see it since Iem made sure to also put a concealing formation to hide the effects. Otherwise, everyone there would be frightened by that. Although Foltan could tell that there were a few simple formations there, he didn''t know what Krune and Iem were doing. One must remember that both Krune and Iem had absorbed the Blackhole Heavenly Fragments already. In Iem''s case, he is also a Heavenly Race member and a Heavenly Core Owner. As for Krune, he obviously had his Godly Energy Meridians. Of course, even at such speeds and with the use of Top Quality Godly Stones, they couldn''t accumulate the necessary energy in just a moment. It was only because Foltan and Jimage agreed to wait for a day that they decided to do it now. As time passed, more cultivators from both groups began to arrive. The first one was Rui, the 6th Stage Divinity Realm member of the Sky Shifting Sect. Foltan''s expression obviously wasn''t good when he saw that it was Rui who appeared. Jimage wasn''t surprised by that, though. With their Vibrant Beads as beacons and their ideas about the Meridians of this giant body, Rui would have definitely appeared sooner or later. After all, he is the strongest one after Jimage. A few minutes later, a member of Foltan''s Three Peaks Sect came out of another Meridian entrance as well. However, since his Divinity Realm members were already gathered with him, only the Semi-Divinity Realm ones remained. Obviously, this was one of them. Time passed, and another five figures appeared¡ªtwo from the Three Peaks Sect, and three from Sky Shifting. Yet, Jimage''s eyes narrowed. That''s because Xanala, their last Divinity Realm member, did not appear until now. Rui also noticed that, so he could only assume through a Divine Sense. "A few people and beasts definitely died for that God Crystal. However, because we separated straight away, we don''t know who perished. Since Xalana hasn''t appeared until now, chances are that she was one of the victims. With her power, she should have arrived already considering our Vibrant Beads." Jimage could only sigh after hearing that. Rui simply confirmed what he was already afraid of. Still, with Rui here, they won''t be at much disadvantage if Foltan decides to turn on them. Still, there was one thing that was making Jimage and Foltan puzzled. Until now, no one from the Flower River Sect appeared. The only exception was Bianka, who was obviously not there because she wanted. Of course, for Jimage and Foltan, that was good news. Back inside the Energy Gathering Formation, Krune and Iem had been absorbing Godly Energy for eighteen hours straight. Finally, Iem took a deep breath as he looked at Krune. "I''m ready to breakthrough. How far are you from the peak of the Divine View Realm?" Krune opened his eyes before saying. "I wasn''t that much later than you when I broke through into the 9th stage. With the Top Quality Spirit Stones'' power, I should reach the peak in another 30 minutes or so." Iem nodded and then asked with a concerned expression. "Just to be sure, you won''t summon another calamity just because you are making a breakthrough, right?" Krune''s mouth twitched. "Do you think I''m doing that on purpose? First of all, it was Zule''s fault that we were brought away last time, not mine!" Zule rebuked back. "I had no choice, okay? Who told you to come to the planet where my Dimensional Realm was located at? If I didn''t bring you, I would still be stuck inside that dammed tower!" Luvile, who had been hearing so far, added his piece. "Whatever. Zule is here with us, so he won''t play something like that again. Let''s hope that the Demon Core of this giant body won''t explode during Krune''s breakthrough." Iem and Zule nodded vigorously. Krune, on the other hand, felt helpless at how poor was their image of him. Still, knew that complaining would bring him nowhere, so he just ignored them. "Hmph!" Iem was the first one to initiate his breakthrough. As mentioned in the past, the Semi-Divinity Realm is the time when a cultivator or demon beast becomes able to use Divinity Energy. However, in the Godly Path Realm and above, it is possible to change it to Godly Energy instead. Divinity Energy was basically what Mortal Realm beings found to keep cultivating to higher realms. Now that Godly Energy was available, there was simply no need to convert Spiritual Energy into Elemental Source, Chaos, and finally Divinity Energy. Another good thing was that Iem''s talent is almost unmatched thanks to his advantages. Only Krune and a few others would be on par with him. That being said, such a breakthrough went very smooth for him. All the annoying process of energies conversion was skipped with Godly Energy. Suddenly, an explosion of Godly Energy came out of Iem''s body. His cultivation rose at alarming rates. Finally, the Semi-Divinity Realm bottleneck was broken, allowing Iem to step into the Semi-Divinity Realm in just a few minutes. Of course, more than 90% of the reason for this to be so easy was the Top Quality Godly Stones in the formation. The energy coming from those stones was so pure and concentrated that it made Iem feel like he used a cannonball to break a thin glass window. Obviously, the glass window was his cultivation bottleneck. After that, he quickly calmed down and controlled the chaotic Godly Energy inside his foundation. "Phew... No wonder all the three sects want these Top Quality Godly Stones so badly. This thing is better than any pill I can think of." Krune smiled at Iem. "That''s good. Alright, I''m ready." Iem''s expression changed abruptly after hearing that. Right after, he rushed out of the Energy Gathering and Concealing Formations like a scared cat. Finally, Krune heard his voice from far, far away outside. "Great! You can start now." Krune was speechless after seeing that. But the fatal strike came from Luvile. "I''m so jealous. I wish I could run away, as well." "Fuck you all!" Chapter 640: Boring... Still, Krune quickly calmed down and focused on his own breakthrough this time. Just like Iem, he accumulated the energy of the Top Quality Godly Stones and attacked the bottleneck of his cultivation. Krune''s talent isn''t any worse than Iem, not to mention that he has his Godly Meridians. That being said, the barrier between realms broke just as easily. Krune''s cultivation then began to increase at high speeds, quickly reaching a whole new level. His control over Godly Energy improved as his Wisp Core became able to hold even more Godly Energy than before. Finally, another burst of Godly Energy came out of Krune''s wisp core, which proved that he went through his Realm bottleneck. Just like Harold and Iem''s breakthrough, Luvile also benefited a lot from this increase of Godly Energy in Krune''s foundation. After all, Purple Tribulation Lightning was created with Godly Energy in mind. His Tribulation Lightning Source became able to absorb more of it, which in turn increased his own soul rate of recovery. After the breakthrough, Krune quickly controlled his foundation to calm down the chaotic energy inside. His process took more or less the same time as Iem, around thirty minutes. In the end, nothing strange happened during it. Of course, Krune kept looking everywhere to see if a ''one in a million times something'' that shouldn''t happen happened. Seeing that everything seemed normal, Krune let out a sigh of relief. "Se-see?! Nothing happened! Hahaha!" Luvile, on the other hand, just said. "Indeed, so boring..." Krune''s mouth twitched. "Boring your head! In fact, let it be boring! Boring is good! Boring is great! I love boring! I live for the sake of the word boring! May all my breakthroughs be boring from now and ever on!" Luvile couldn''t help but laugh after hearing that. "Hahaha! As if such a thing would be possible with you. Perhaps it''s because you are inside this higher realm being''s body that you escaped your usual calamity." Krune didn''t mind, though. "Great! Then I''ll come here next time I need to enter the Divinity Realm." After a few more minutes of getting used to his breakthrough, Krune left the Energy Gathering and Concealing Formations. With that, both Krune and Iem were now in the Semi-Divinity Realm. At the same time, Krune couldn''t help but remember something else. ''Considering my actual combat power, I guess I can already beat my Master black and blue! Master, you just wait! I''m definitely coming back for you. Hahaha!'' Back in the Luvile Universe, Lucio suddenly felt a chill on his back. He quickly looked around, but there was nothing in the area. ''Was it my imagination?'' He then closed his eyes and began to cultivate once more. After Krune stepped out of the formations, Foltan and the others immediately checked him. Sure enough, they noticed that Krune also made a breakthrough, just like Iem. ''Were those two really hiding their cultivation? How come it looks like they just entered the Semi-Divinity Realm?'' However, he quickly shook his head. He still doesn''t believe that Iem and Krune were really just in the 1st Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm. Jimage, on the other hand, was happy to see that. Those two were already as strong as Semi-Divinity Realm geniuses of their sects before, let alone now that they advanced. "Congratulations, you two. It seems like you were already at the very peak of the Divine View Realm for your breakthrough to go this smoothly." Krune and Iem smiled but refrained from commenting about Jimage''s words. "Oh! I can see that Seniors Rui, Liu, Glorin, and Sisan are also here." Rui nodded. "That''s true. Unfortunately, it seems that this is it for us. We can''t feel any other Vibrant Beads other than the seven in this place at the moment. Most likely, they were destroyed. Otherwise, we would have been able to feel them as long as they were inside the same space." Krune couldn''t help but sigh. "That means Senior Xanala and Ramona probably died. Kalen is still outside, guarding the teleport formation, so we obviously can''t feel his presence." Jimage confirmed Krune''s words. "Indeed. However, there is no need to feel sorry for them. Everyone joined this exploration mission being well aware of the risks. On the other hand, Foltan also seems to have reached the limit of his group members. At the very least, no other member of his group appeared for hours." Krune looked at Foltan and could see that his group had a total of six members now. However, they had one more Divinity Realm than his group. Of course, Krune and Iem didn''t mind it. Either of them can definitely take that 3rd Stage Divinity Realm guy on their own. In a certain way, Jimage''s group held the absolute advantage in power. It''s just that no one other the Iem, Krune, and Bianka knew about it. The rest of the day quickly passed, but no one else appeared in the end. That being said, Foltan and Jimage gathered once more to discuss the next step. "Alright, seems like this is it for both of us? Shall we send our group members to check the insides of the Demon Core?" Jimage nodded. "That''s was the agreement, after all. How will it be? Are we only sending the Semi-Divinity Realm ones, or will we send everyone other than the two of us?" Foltan immediately answered. "You have more Semi-Divinity Realm members than me, so we would definitely be at a disadvantage here. If we are really sending only the Semi-Divinity Realms, I want the numbers to be identical." Jimage shook his head, though. "Two of our Semi-Divinity Realm members had just made a breakthrough. That means we only have two Semi-Divinity Realm at the peak of that Realm. The other two are only at the 1st stage." Foltan snorted after hearing that. "Do you think I''m an idiot? I already heard from Pharan how strong these two members of yours are. Besides, did you forget their special skills that opened a passage back in the God Crystal Room? Those Black Flames and Purple Lightning were really frightening. In fact, I don''t believe that they are just 1st Stage Divinity Realm cultivators at all!" Krune then sent Jimage a Divine Sense message. ''Senior Jimage, accept his conditions. Iem and I can definitely deal with any of their Semi-Divinity Realm members.'' Iem decided to accepted Krune''s words. After all, he knows Krune and Iem''s real powers. With their last breakthrough, they are definitely even stronger now. Of course, he pretended to be having a hard time making that decision. In the end, he ''sighed'' and looked at Krune and Iem with a ''dejected'' expression. "I can only count on your special abilities. Otherwise, there will be no end to this argument." Iem played along. "Don''t worry, Senior Jimage. No one knows what will happen inside the Demon Core. In the end, we might not even see each other. Even if we do, Krune and I are very confident in our combat power. At the very least, we can guarantee that we are strong enough to escape." Jimage smiled and nodded. After finishing the ''play,'' he turned back in Foltan''s direction. "Very well. You have three Semi-Divinity Realm members, so I will send three from my side as well. They are Krune, Iem, and Sisan" Foltan was taken aback. "Are you not sending the other Peak Semi-Divinity Realm of your group?" Foltan was obviously talking about Glorin, who was there as well. In theory, Jimage should have selected the two peak Semi-Divinity Realm members, Sisan and Glorin. After that, the last slot should have gone to either Krune or Iem. Jimage didn''t give an answer, though. "Whoever I select is my problem. Or could it be that you have an issue with those two?" Foltan smiled and shook his head. Although he believes that Krune and Iem are hiding their cultivation, he is at least sure that they are not in the Divinity Realm. That''s because Krune and Iem had entered the chaotic space where they battled the Flower River Sect members. One must remember that that chaotic space couldn''t hold Divinity Realm cultivators and Demon beasts. That being said, there is no way that either Krune or Iem were at the Divinity Realm Level. "Not at all. Then these six members it shall be. By the way, what about this Flower River Sect member that had been with you so far?" Jimage shrugged his shoulders. "She was just unlucky to have been injured by the Space Creatures when we fled from that God Crystal Room. Krune and Iem found her later. Because she didn''t have the power to retaliate, she agreed to have a restriction put on her Soul. Anyway, I know that you had figured this much already. At the very least, you definitely thought about something similar. Or could it be that you think our Sky Shifting Sect joined forces with the Flower River?" Foltan shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? There is nothing wrong with confirming it. However, if you had really joined forces, I believe you wouldn''t have shown this girl to us. That being said, the restriction story is a lot more plausible. Anyway, let''s not waste any more time and have them enter the Demon Core. However, Jimage shook his head. "Before that, let''s take the Top Quality Godly Stones. After all, we don''t know when the situation might change." Foltan pondered a bit and agreed with Jimage. "Very well, let''s do it." Obviously, Jimage had Krune be the one to take their half since it was a lot easier for him. As for Foltan and his companions, they had to spend quite some time gathering it. Only several hours later did Foltan''s group finish getting their own share. With that out of the way, both groups prepared to enter the Demon Core. Chapter 641: Protected Planet To make sure things wouldn''t get complicated from the start, both groups selected different cracks to enter the Demon Core. However, their members didn''t get inside straight away. First, they decided to try checking if the Demon Core still had the entire foundation space. Krune then summoned another dummy bird made of Godly Energy and sent it through the crack. Immediately, the space warped around it, and the bird disappeared. That was enough proof that there was still a foundation space inside the Demon Core. Jimage didn''t say anything and let Krune, Iem, and Sisan decide if they wanted to enter anyway. After all, the space inside a foundation of a being of this caliber is bound to be huge! They weren''t the only ones, though. Foltan''s group also seemed to have reached the same conclusion on their side, so their group didn''t enter either. While Sisan seemed to be thinking about something, Krune and Iem were talking with Zule through Divine Sense. ''How was it, Zule? Did you get a good reading?'' Zule shook his head. ''No, it was too fast for me to pry inside. Send a few more of those dummy birds for me to take a better look. If possible, keep a constant flow of it.'' Iem and Krune nodded. They began to summon one dummy made of Godly Energy after another, sending all of them through the crack. Sisan, Jimage, and the others got puzzled at that sight. However, they thought that Krune and Iem were trying to check something, so they didn''t stop them. ''That''s enough.'' Krune and Iem heard Zule''s voice and stopped sending the dummies. ''How was it? Can you tell us how the conditions are inside?'' The space of a foundation is also like that due to space laws. Otherwise, no one''s foundation would be that big. As a Space Heavenly Fragment and a Peak Nascent Stars Spatial Treasure, Zule is the best one at sensing those things. Naturally, what he was doing was trying to gauge the extension of the space inside of the Demon Core''s foundation. The body had been dead for countless years, so its foundation was bound to break apart. It was just that it would take a very long time. Zule used the ripples in space created by the godly energy dummy birds Krune and Iem sent to check its state. Finally, Zule began to explain. ''The space inside was definitely huge in the past, but more than 99% of it has already collapsed. However, this is good news for us. That means that the last ''less than 1%'' is the most sturdy and stable part of this demon beast''s foundation, which means it is the center of it. Obviously, that is where the Divine God Soul resided in the past.'' Krune couldn''t help but ask. ''Divine God Soul? What''s that?'' The one to answer it was Luvile instead. ''A Divine God Soul is what your actual Divine Soul will evolve into once you ascend to the God Realm.'' Zule nodded. ''Luvile is right. Anyway, that means that we won''t need to worry about falling inside anywhere too far from the foundation''s space border. Of course, even though there is only less than a single % remaining, the area is still huge considering the original size. Well, that''s all I can tell about it.'' Krune and Iem nodded. After that, they simply told the rest of their group that they believe that the remaining space inside isn''t that big. However, they aren''t too sure about that. Jimage nodded and asked them. "What will you do, then? Partial knowledge is better than none. However, if you decide that you don''t want to enter in the end, I won''t force you." Krune and Iem immediately replied. "We are definitely going in. After all, I believe that the rewards are worth the risks." Sisan saw that and sighed in the end. "Fine, I''m going in too." Jimage accepted their choice before warning them. "We have five days left. However, I can only wait four days and a half since we need to use the other half to escape the Top Quality Godly Vein Sealed Space. If you are not back by then, we will need to leave you behind." Krune''s group nodded. "We understand." "Good! I wish you good luck. I''ll wait here as long as possible." After that, Krune, Iem, and Sisan approached their crack. They also held each other''s arms to prevent being separated by the transition. Finally, space warped around them, and they disappeared from Jimage''s sight. As for Bianka, Iem and Krune ordered her to wait outside four and a half days like Jimage. If they were not back by then, she should bring Jimage out instead. Due to the restrictions on her soul, Bianka could only nod and accept the orders. Foltan''s group also saw that Krune and the other two entered the crack in the end. That being said, the Semi-Divinity Realm members on his side gritted their teeth and jumped inside. Krune''s group vision went blurry for a second and quickly returned to normal. When they recovered, they noticed that they were on the ground. However, they were immediately taken aback by what they saw. Considering that less than 1% of the foundation remained, Krune was already expecting that his group would have a place to step on. After all, this was supposed to be the place where the Divine God Soul was nurtured. For example, Krune''s Divine Soul resided inside the first planet that Krune had ever created in his foundation. Obviously, that was the center of his Universe. However, his group was expecting this place to be a chaotic space full of spatial tears and totally barren. That''s how a Foundation that was close to disappearing should look like. Yet, this place was the total opposite. They landed right on the top of a mountain. Everywhere they looked, they could see trees. Obviously, they were in the middle of a very alive forest. That wasn''t all. Krune''s group immediately noticed that their Divine Senses weren''t as restricted in this place as it was outside. Even Sisan could spread his Divine Sense for over a 100km! As for Iem and Krune, their soul power was already stronger than Sisan before their breakthrough. Let alone now that they are in the Semi-Divinity Realm. Both of their Divine Senses could go past 300km! It was even further than Krune''s Mental Energy. Mental Energy was a lot more resistant against Godly Energy than Divine Sense. Still, it couldn''t compare to Divine Sense when it came to perception range. The only reason Mental Energy was going further was that Divine Sense was being suppressed by Godly Energy several times more than Mental Energy. At the moment, Krune''s Mental Energy was only able to reach as far as 120km. Of course, Krune wouldn''t call back his Mental Energy. Although it''s perception range was smaller, the power of the perception was much higher. Krune could detect a lot more things with his Mental Energy than Divine Sense. One could think about it as having a double-layered perception skill made of both Divine Sense and Mental Energy. After a few moments, Sisan was the first to voice his doubts. "What is happening here? Wasn''t this foundation supposed to be breaking apart? How come space is this calm? I can even see several low-level demon beasts in this forest with my Divine Sense." Krune also added. "That''s not all. The fact that our Divine Senses can go this far means that the concentration of Godly Energy in this place is a lot lower than outside. In fact, it is even lower than any ordinary site in our Zamaria Planet. It''s the first time my Divine Sense spread so far in the Godly Path Realm." Iem understood where Krune was coming from. "Indeed. That doesn''t make any sense. We are inside the Demon Core. When we were outside, the Godly Energy escaping from that Silver Core was even more potent than the Top Quality Godly Veins by far! Since we are inside now, the Godly Energy was supposed to be even stronger." Krune and Sisan nodded. That was definitely strange. "Hey, look up at the sky!" Krune and Iem immediately did as Sisan said. Finally, they saw what he was talking about. "Is that... a protection formation?" Iem immediately nodded. "Not just any protection formation. From the looks of it, this formation is massive! I''m not sure if we are on a planet at the moment. Still, considering my experience with formations, this one could definitely cover an entire world. However, that''s not the most impressive thing. Pay attention behind the formation." The formation wasn''t totally blocking their view of the space outside. Thanks to that, Krune and Sisan could see a little bit of what was there. Finally, they noticed the several spatial tears that appeared everywhere. That''s what they were expecting to see in this place in the first place. But it was evident that the formation was preventing the space inside from turning chaotic as outside. "Truly impressive. To think that there is a formation like that inside the foundation of a Demon Core." It was then that Luvile and Harold''s voices entered Krune and Iem''s ears. "The time here is passing very fast. It is at least 10 times higher than outside." Krune and Iem were surprised by that news. "It seems like we have a lot more than just four and a half days to explore." Iem nodded. "That''s good. Considering this place''s size, the more time we have, the better." Chapter 642: You Can Leave Now Sisan didn''t take long to notice the difference in the speed of time either. After all, he was someone who comprehended Time Laws. Of course, he hasn''t got all of them merged into the Major Law of Time. To enter the Divine View Realm, he used the Major Law of Fire instead. Still, he knew more than enough for him to perceive it. The only thing was that he couldn''t tell that it was ten times faster like Luvile and Harold. Suddenly, Krune thought about a possibility and immediately tested it. Right after, his body began to rise in the air. "Hey, look! I can fly!" Iem and Sisan were surprised when they looked at Krune. Seeing that, the two of them tried to control their Godly Energy to bring their bodies above the ground. Sure enough, they also began to keep themselves midair. In Sisan''s case, he couldn''t help but feel excited. After all, he had never had the power to fly on his own before. "It''s the low concentration of Godly Energy. It is not enough to force us to stay down." Iem and Sisan agreed with Krune about that. "Anyway, this is good news. Where should we go first?" Sisan heard those words and found it weird the lack of enthusiasm from Krune and Iem. After all, no one could fly before the Mortal Rejection Realm. However, here are they, flying... Still, neither of them seemed to care much about it. ''Could it be that I''m too childish?'' Iem and Krune didn''t notice Sisan''s thoughts, though. "There isn''t much of a point discussing it. After all, we don''t know anything about this place. We might as well select any direction and see what we can find." The three immediately nodded and decided to go west. Just like that, Krune''s group began their journey. At first, Krune and Iem thought that they would encounter some intelligent Demon Beasts sooner or later. However, even after flying for an entire day, the highest cultivation they found was Void Breaking Realm. It was far from enough for a demon beast to gain sentience. One must remember that Demon Beasts only gain sentience once they reach the Semi-Divinity Realm in the Godly Path Realm. They even began to think that perhaps this planet only had low-level demon beasts. Of course, they soon discarded such an idea since there was a protection formation protecting this planet. For it to protect this planet that well, it had to receive maintenance constantly. Obviously, demon beasts without intelligence wouldn''t be able to do it. The situation changed on the second day. From a certain point onward, the cultivation of those beasts began to increase. They even saw a Demon Beast at the 3rd Stage of the Divine View Realm on that second day. "Did you notice? Even after flying for two days straight, we still haven''t left this forest. Not only that, but the cultivation of the demon beasts is increasing. It most likely means we are getting further and further inside the forest. Just how giant is this planet?" Iem nodded. "Indeed. However, this is a good thing. As long as we can find one Semi-Divinity Realm Demon Beast, we will be able to gather some information." They kept traveling for a few more hours until suddenly, they felt waves of Godly Energy coming from far away. Considering the intensity, it was evident that a battle was going on. Krune''s group didn''t waste time and immediately dashed forward. A few minutes later, they finally saw what was happening. A group of three cultivators was fighting against an eagle-like demon beast. The eagle had a cultivation at the 5th stage of Semi-Divinity Realm while the cultivators were between the 5th and 7th stages. It was then that they heard the voice of that demon beast. "Damn your Heavenly Protection Sect. Do you think you can take my Demon Core that easily?" The leader of the cultivators snorted. "With the three of us here, you have nowhere to escape. We already marked your body, so just give up and give us your demon core. I''m planning to refine a new supporting treasure, so your Green Talon Eagle Race''s wind attribute Core is just perfect for it." The eagle got enraged after hearing that. However, it was at a disadvantage in both numbers and cultivation. The cultivators had also formed a net, which prevented it from escaping. But it was then that both sides noticed Krune''s group appearing in the distance. Their Divine Senses immediately covered those three and found out that Krune and Iem were only at the first stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm. However, they also noticed that Sisan was at the peak of the same Realm, the 9th stage. The eagle finally saw a light of hope when it noticed that they weren''t wearing the same clothes as the Heavenly Protection Sect. Obviously, it thought that Krune''s group wasn''t part of the enemies'' organization. "The friends over there. If you help me get rid of these three, I''m willing to contribute some of my race''s Wind Essence." Krune was surprised to hear that the eagle spoke a language that he knew. He then immediately told Iem and Sisan which language it was. At the same time, he furtively sent Sisan his languages'' database through their communicators. Iem already had it from the last time in the underground city, though. Hearing that, the three cultivators narrowed their eyes. Krune and Iem were one thing. But Sisan''s 9th Stage cultivation made them somewhat wary. Of course, if they knew just how much stronger Krune and Iem were compared to their cultivation, they would have completely ignored Sisan. Too bad, they didn''t. In the end, they could only issue a warning. "I ask these three friends over there to not meddle in our Heavenly Protection Sect''s affairs. Our Sect Master is Walto Darikan, a 5th Stage Divinity Realm cultivator." Krune and Iem didn''t really care about that. Now that they entered the Semi-Divinity Realm, their power increased by a lot. Ordinary 5th Stage Divinity Realm might be hard to deal with. Still, as long as they combine their powers, they can definitely fight back. One must remember that the Space Creature that Iem and Krune fought had a combat power equivalent to a 6th Stage Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast. However, that creature had no intelligence! Obviously, that made things several times easier for them to deal with. This Sect Master called Walto might be one stage below in power. Still, he would definitely be much harder to deal with since he does have intelligence. It''s exactly because Krune and Iem entered the Semi-Divinity Realm that they weren''t too concerned. Otherwise, they would rather not find a problem with someone like that. Of course, it didn''t mean that they will help the eagle either. Krune immediately stepped forward to talk for their group. After all, Sisan and Iem couldn''t possibly learn a new language in just a few seconds. Not even Krune could do such a thing. "Sorry, I don''t know what is happening here. We just lost our way, so we would like to know where is the closest city." The eagle''s expression darkened as the Heavenly Protection Sect members let out a sigh of relief instead. Still, the eagle couldn''t help but ask. "Are you really not interested in my race''s Wind Essence?" Krune smiled and shook his head. They are new to this place, so his group better not get in a fight from the get-go. Although Krune didn''t like the fact that the cultivators were ganging up on the eagle, the truth is that Krune didn''t know the eagle either. Who said that it was a demon beast worth saving? "Sorry, your offer is very tempting, but we would rather not buy a fight against these other friends'' sect." Well, the fact was that Krune had no idea what that wind essence was to start with. The leader of the cultivators then laughed out loud before saying. "That''s the correct decision. Anyway, the nearest city is also our Sect''s home. It is three days of flight to the south-east of here. As long as you follow this direction, you will eventually start to find more cultivators of lower levels. Just use their information to correct any mistake in the route." Krune smiled and then bowed. Right after, he told Iem and Sisan what they discussed through a Divine Sense message. Of course, Harold and luvile heard that as well. Finally, they turned in the south-east direction and prepared to leave. However, just as they were about to do so, Krune received a Divine Sense Message from Luvile. "Are you sure you don''t want that Wind Essence?" Luvile took this long to talk because he also didn''t understand those guys'' language. Only when Krune explained everything did he comprehend what was going on. Luvile''s words obviously caught Krune''s attention. "Is it of any use?" "Definitely. Wind Essence can naturally attract wind laws. It''s quite a good thing, even in the God Realm. You can use it for many things like forging equipments, laws comprehension, law merging, or simply as a trade item. It might not have many uses for you now, but it would definitely be good if you want to trade with the Sky Shifting Sect Master. She definitely will accept it in exchange for the items to free your two employees of the Memory Seal." Krune''s eyes lit up at the moment. He then turned at Iem to see if he had anything against it. "Don''t look at me. If you want to help the eagle with it, then go ahead. Besides, it''s not like either of us is afraid of a 5th Stage Divinity Realm cultivator." Krune smiled and then explained the things to Sisan as well. "Are you sure? If that Sect Leader they talked about comes after us, things might get complicated." Krune smiled and nodded. Obviously, Sisan didn''t know just how powerful he and Iem are. "Don''t worry, we will be fine." Sisan then shrugged his shoulders and stepped back. "Alright, but you will need to deal with it yourself." Iem laughed and did the same thing. "Give us a good show." Krune didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. They didn''t try to stop him, but they didn''t want to help either. ''Oh well, it''s not like it will be a big problem.'' Krune then turned in the direction of the eagle and asked. "Can you guarantee the Wind Essence?" The eagle, who was just about to put its life on the line, opened its eyes wide. How come Krune changed his mind so fast? Just a second ago, he didn''t show any interest in the Wind Essence at all. Still, it didn''t have much time to think about it now. "Yes! As long as you can save me from this predicament, that is." Krune nodded and then turned to the three cultivators. "Alright then, you three can leave now." Chapter 643: Essences The cultivators of the Heavenly Protection Sect were taken aback. "Are you making fun of us?" Krune shook his head. "No, I just decided to take that Wind Essence payment. Don''t worry, I will not do anything to you as long as you leave. That''s the best scenario for everyone." The leader of the group narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure you want to make our Heavenly Protection Sect your enemy?" Krune shook his head once more. "I don''t want to make any enemies, but I need that Wind Essence. As long as your sect ignore us, we will also not make things difficult for you. Anyway, are you leaving or not? Otherwise, I will need to beat you first." The guy then looked at Iem and Sisan in the distance. From the looks of it, those two were not going to intervene. "Let''s do like this. You and I will have a quick match while my companions hold the Net so that the Eagle doesn''t escape. If you can defeat me, we will leave." The other two were taken aback. However, they smiled right after. Considering Krune''s 1st Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm, their group leader definitely had the advantage. After all, he was in the 7th Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm. The only doubt was if Krune would really accept such a bad deal. However, contrary to their expectations, Krune immediately nodded. "Great! I thought I would have to beat the three of you together. If it is just one, then it''ll be much easier. Don''t worry, I won''t kill or cripple you. As long as you admit defeat, I''ll stop my attacks." The guys were taken aback. He talked as if he could defeat all three of them alone! "Hmph! I''ll admit that you have guts, at least. By the way, my name is Caio Lavilan, one of the elders of the Heavenly Protection Sect." Krune smiled and nodded. "Krune." The Eagle was taken aback by that as well. It could see the difference in cultivation, so it also thought that Krune would lose this exchange. Just as it began to consider if it should take this chance to break away from the Net, it received a Divine Sense Message from Krune. ''Don''t worry, I''ll release you in the next few seconds. If you try to break the Net with your injuries, your body will get much worse. It''s better to avoid it.'' The Eagle got surprised by Krune''s confidence. It thought that perhaps Krune had an idea. However, it didn''t have time to ask what Krune was planning to do. That''s because Krune''s battle started right after that message. Caio then brought out a spear and immediately charged at Krune. His Domain descended, his spear shined, and Godly Energy ran through his body incessantly. He was totally planning to finish Krune in one move! The phantom of an even bigger spear appeared around Caio''s weapon. His Fire Laws burned everything around as the power of his Domain locked Krune in place. "Heaven''s Might Spear!" Krune looked at that for a moment and then released his own Fire Domain. Immediately, Caio''s Domain got suppressed. Right after, Lightning flashed around Krune''s body as he disappeared from his spot. Caio was taken aback by that development. His Domain was definitely much weaker, not to mention that he couldn''t even follow Krune with his eyes. Only his Divine Sense could more or less tell where Krune had gone. Well, in fact, Krune didn''t use his Purple Tribulation Lightning, only normal lightning elements and laws. Still, at his level of power, that was more than enough to deal with Caio. Right after, Krune appeared behind Caio, who immediately turned back, trying to redirect his Heaven''s Might Spear at him. Too bad, though. Caio wasn''t nearly as fast as he needed. "Chain Lightning!" *Zap!* "Arrrgh!" Lightning hit Caio''s body just as he was about to finish turning back. He knew he wouldn''t be able to do that in time, so he had released all his Godly Energy to form a barrier to block Krune''s attack. Unfortunately for him, Krune had fused that Lightning attack with his Mental Energy! Yes, this was something that Krune had thought about after he removed the Top Quality Godly Stones of the clusters attached to the Giant Silver Demon Core. He noticed that he could use his Elemental Control to infuse Mental Energy into his Elemental attacks. Of course, that was just a theory. This was the first time he had really tried it out. ''Very good! It is definitely much better than relying on Elements and Laws alone. Thanks to that, the attacks have a much easier time piercing through Godly Energy, just like regular Mental Energy attacks. Of course, because Mental Energy is now fused with the Elemental Attack, the Godly Energy has an easier time blocking it. Still, the increase in damage is totally worth this exchange. I''ll try it with my Purple Tribulation Lightning later. The best will be if I can do that to my Shields as well.'' Poor Caio ended being used as a testing subject without even knowing. Fortunately for him, Krune held back just now. Caio then plummeted from the skies, almost losing his consciousness. Only a few seconds later did he regain his bearings and stopped his fall. However, he quickly understood one thing. If Krune wanted, he could have used that chance to finish him off. It was evident just how big the difference in combat power between the two of them was. It was then that Caio looked at Sisan, the 9th Stage Semi-Divinity Realm cultivator in Krune''s group. If Krune is already this strong in the 1st stage, then just how strong would Sisan be? Maybe Sisan can fight Divinity Realm opponents several stages above his cultivation! Little did Caio know that Sisan was just as shocked as himself. The power and speed that Krune showed just a moment ago are definitely above his own. Sisan was one of the geniuses of the Sky Shifting Sect, and he could fight against ordinary 1st and even 2nd Stage Divinity Realm opponents. However, he wasn''t even close to being as strong as Caio thought he was. Sisan then looked at Iem, who didn''t seem to be the least bit impressed by that. ''Just where did our sect find these two? They are way too heaven-defying!'' Of course, he was happy that Krune and Iem were on his side. Caio then quickly flew back to where he was before and sighed. "As promised, we will leave this place. Thanks for holding back just now." Krune smiled and nodded. "It''s okay. I wish everyone was as understanding as you." Caio then called his two companions over. They quickly released the Net that was holding the Eagle and left straight away. "Caio, are we really leaving just like that?" Caio nodded. "We are. Didn''t you see how powerful that guy was? What if that 9th Stage Semi-Divinity Realm decides to attack as well? Be grateful that they aren''t the type who kills anything that bothers them. Let''s go back to the sect and report it to the Sect Master. There is a chance that they will appear in our city, after all." The other two nodded, and they quickly sped away. Back on Krune''s side, Iem and Sisan joined with him and went to check the Eagle. "How are your injuries? Are you okay to fly?" The Eagle immediately nodded. "I''m fine. You arrived before things got really nasty. By the way, you can call me Jilan." Krune and the others nodded. "I''m Krune, and these two here are Iem and Sisan." The Eagle quickly greeted them. After that, Godly Energy began to gather on the Eagle''s body, and it quickly returned to its human form. Surprisingly, it turned out that it was a female demon beast. Of course, she quickly put on some clothes after finishing her transformation. "I''m not going back on my promise. Come with me. I will get you some of my race''s accumulated Wind Essence." Krune''s group nodded, and they began to follow Jilan. On the way, Krune kept his mental Energy Spread. It was then that he noticed something strange coming out of Jilan. ''A... thread?'' Even with his Mental Energy, it was very hard to notice it. If not because he kept using his Mental Energy all the time, he wouldn''t have eventually noticed it. ''Weird, the thread is coming out of her head, but it is not connected anywhere. The other end of it simply disappears in mid-air. No, to be more specific, it is connected to her Soul. Just what is it?'' Krune tried to touch it, but his hand passed through that thread as if it wasn''t even there. Jilan noticed Krune''s actions and couldn''t help but ask. "Is there anything wrong?" It was evident that even Jilan herself couldn''t see that thread. "No, it''s nothing." Krune then stopped using his Mental Energy and concentrate on the Divine Sense alone. Sure enough, as soon as his Mental Energy disappeared, that thread disappeared right after. Only when he activated his Mental Energy again was he able to see the thread. ''Oh, well. It is probably a special trait to the beings in this place. Forget it, those threads have nothing to do with me.'' Just like that, they continued their journey. Krune then thought about something else and decided to ask. "I heard that Wind Essence is very rare. It has the power to naturally gather Wind Laws and is used for several things. How come your race got to accumulate it?" Jilan looked at Krune with a surprised expression. But then she remembered something thing. "Oh, right! You said that you were lost. Usually, everyone would know that answer. It seems like you really came from far away." Krune smiled after hearing that but gave no answer. He was also using his Divine Sense to translate everything he talked with Jilan to Iem and Sisan. "Anyway, our Green Talon Eagle Race owns a natural Wind Essence Vein. That''s why we can get Wind Essence." Krune understood. "I see. Does that mean that this forest has other Essence Veins?" Jilan nodded. "There are a few others. For example, the Searing Alligators'' Volcano has a Fire Essence Vein. The Water Lightning Eels have a Water Essence Vein in their lake. Of course, there are more races and veins as well." Iem then asked something for Krune to translate. "What about the cultivators? Don''t they have any interest in those Veins?" Jilan shrugged her shoulder. "Of course they have. However, Humans have to take care of their own as well. It''s not like they are stronger than us, Demon Beasts, so the division of Essence Veins was completed a long time ago. Rarely does an Essence Vein change owners." However, one thing was puzzling Krune, so he decided to ask Luvile. "Didn''t you say that Elemental Essences were rare even in the God Realm? It doesn''t seem that rare in this place." Luvile was as surprised as Krune. "Let''s wait and see. I''m also finding it weird." Chapter 644: Elder Melio Krune''s group followed Jilan for three hours until finally, they noticed an enormous mountain in the distance. Even though there were far away, it was possible to see several bird demon beasts flying above it. All of them had similar appearances to Jilan when she was in her real form, so they were obviously Green Talon Eagles. "We arrived. That''s our Race''s Mountain. Most of the Green Talon Eagles live in this mountain, as you can see." Krune''s group used their Divine Sense to check the mountain. They soon found out that the biggest majority of the Eagles were under the Semi-Divinity Realm. There were a few hundred at the Semi-Divinity Realm but very little Divinity Realm ones. From what Krune see, there were only 5 Divinity Realm Demon Beasts there. Two in the second Stage, one at the third, one at the fourth, and the strongest at the fifth. Seeing that, Sisan couldn''t help but ask Krune and Iem through Divine Sense. "Are we really entering their territory? If they gang up on us, we will be in a dire situation." Krune nodded. "I know, but it is still worth it. Wind Essence will definitely increase the rewards we will get from the Sect. Besides, as long as we go all out, I still believe we can escape." Sisan didn''t know where that confidence came from, but he decided to keep following Jilan nonetheless. As soon as they approached the mountain, another three Green Talon Eagles came flying from it. All three of them were at the 9th Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm, just like Sisan. "Jilan, what is the meaning of this? Why did you bring outsiders to our mountain?" Jilan used a Divine Sense message to explain what happened a few hours ago. The three Green Talon Eagles then looked at Krune deeply, not believing he defeated someone with cultivation so much higher than him that easily. "Are you sure you were not tricked? It is not our place to say what you can do with your Wind Essence. However, it might all be a plan to steal your share of it. Have you not considered that?" Jilan didn''t blame them for saying that. After all, they didn''t see Krune in action. "Don''t worry, I have already decided. I''m sure I was not tricked." Those three Green Talon Eagles then looked at each other and nodded. "Very well. However, they can not enter our mountain. You will have to go and acquire the Wind Essence by yourself and then bring it back here. We will keep an eye on them to guarantee that they won''t try anything funny." Jilan nodded. "Alright. Make sure to not mistreat them. They saved my life, after all." After that, Jilan rushed up to the mountain, quickly disappearing in the distance. Krune noticed with his Mental Energy that all those eagles also had the same threads connected to their souls. Not only that, but all the other eagles and even the low-level demon beasts he watched on the way had these same threads. ''It seems like everyone on this planet have them...'' Once Jilan was finally gone, another Green Talon Eagle arrived shortly after. This one was a lot bigger and had a much stronger aura than those Semi-Divinity Realm ones. When those Eagles saw him, they immediately came forward. "Elder Melio! Welcome back from your travel." That Green Talon Eagle nodded and then looked at Krune and the others. "What is happening here?" That Semi-Divinity Realm Eagle then immediately explained everything with a Divine Sense message. "What?! He trashed a 7th Stage Semi-Divinity Realm with his 1st Stage cultivation, you say? Jilan is obviously being tricked, can''t you see?" The Eagle immediately nodded. "Yes. We also thought the same thing, but Jilan insisted that it wasn''t the case. Since our Green Talon Eagles can do whatever they want with their Wind Essence share, we didn''t try to stop her." Melio narrowed his eyes and then looked at Krune''s group. His aura then came out and pressed them. Obviously, Melio was testing them out. He was one of the five Divinity Realm Green Talon Eagles that Krune''s group noticed with their Divine Sense. In Melio''s case, he was the one at the 4th Stage of the Divinity Realm. Sisan felt somewhat uncomfortable with that aura. But he still could resist it. However, Krune and Iem seemed to not care about it that much. It was as if Melio wasn''t doing anything to start with. Melio was surprised by what he saw. It was within his expectations that Sisan would be able to resist the pressure. After all, Sisan was at the 9th Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm. However, Krune and Iem were still in the 1st Stage. The difference in cultivation between them was over an entire Realm! The most impressive part was that he could tell that Sisan felt bad with his pressure, but Iem and Krune didn''t even flinch. Suddenly, Melio had an idea. He turned to one of the Semi-Divinity Realm guards and said. "Wilten, I want your group to test those three." Wilten was taken aback. Still, Melio was an elder of their Race, so he had to comply. Melio didn''t hide his voice, so Krune, Sisan, and Iem obviously heard what he said too. Melio then looked at the three and said. "If you are really as strong as Jilan said, then you won''t have a problem to at least put up a fight against Wilten''s group. If not, then I''ll simply kill you three right here for daring to trick one of our members." Iem, Sisan, and Krune looked at each other then back at Elder Melio. "Sure, but what if we win?" Melio didn''t expect that answer. He thought they wouldn''t show so much confidence in the face of three peak Semi-Divinity Realm Green Talon Eagles. "Hmph! If you really win this fight, I''ll give you twice the amount of Wind Essence that Jilan promised you." Krune''s group was ecstatic. "Great! We accept." Melio nodded and then flew high in the sky. Krune and Wilten''s groups quickly followed. Once they reached a high enough altitude, Melio gave the order to start. What he wanted to test wasn''t Sisan, but Krune and Iem. Still, it wouldn''t be fair to have three peak Semi-Divinity Realm Eagles to fight against two 1st stage ones. So he also included Sisan in this test just for convenience. The battle soon started, and it also caught the attention of all the other Semi-Divinity Realm and above eagles. Suddenly, hundreds of Divine Senses fell on the group in the sky. Iem, Krune, and Sisan then attacked one Green Talon Eagle each. It was evident that they had no intention to form a group. Seeing that, the Eagles also didn''t form a team and attacked Krune''s group separately. After all, neither of them believed that Krune and Iem were as strong as Jilan mentioned. Jilan, of course, also noticed the commotion and used her Divine Sense to check. When she saw what was happening, she could only sigh. ''Elder Melio isn''t bad, but he is always short-tempered. Even though he had nothing to do with it, he still meddled in my affairs. Well, I guess you reap what you sow.'' She then returned her attention to the collection of Wind Essence and ignored what was happening outside. In Jilan''s eyes, Wilten''s group simply had no chance whatsoever. Sure enough, the battle was over around a minute later. In fact, it could have finished a lot earlier, but Krune and Iem purposely held back so that they wouldn''t hurt those Eagles too badly. Sisan wasn''t as much of a monster as Krune and Iem, but he was still a genius of the Sky Shifting Sect. As mentioned before, he could totally fight an ordinary 1st or 2nd Stage Divinity Realm opponent. Let alone a peak Semi-Divinity Realm Demon beast. Melio was shocked by what he saw. He considered the possibility of Sisan winning his battle. After all, he had the same cultivation as the Eagle he was fighting against. However, Krune and Iem turned out to be even stronger than Sisan. In fact, he could tell that both Krune and Iem held back just now. Otherwise, even killing these Eagles would have been an easy task! A few moments later, Jilan finally arrived back on the scene. First, she bowed to Elder Melio. One must remember that he was still an elder of their Race. "Welcome Back, Elder Melio." Melio could only nod absent-mindedly. After that, Jilan passed a vial that brimmed with a green light to Krune. "Here is the Wind Essence I promised to you." Krune smiled and accepted the vial. Immediately after, Luvile used his Divine Sense to check it. "I see... no wonder they have so much Elemental Essence Veins in this place." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Did you find anything? Could it be that this Wind Essence is fake?" "No. This is the real deal. However, its power is very weak. I believe that it only has around 1/10 of the Wind Essence concentration you find in the God Realm. However, this trade was still worth it. For the people and beasts of the Godly Path Realm, such a degree of purity is well worth using. You can still use it to trade for the items to help those siblings. It''s just that the value decreased a lot." Krune sighed in relief and smiled back at Jilan. "Our deal is concluded then." Krune, Iem, and Sisan then looked at Elder Melio. After all, they won the fight. Melio quickly came back to himself after being stared at by Krune''s group. However, he didn''t seem angry or sad that the eagles lost the battles. Instead, he seemed quite excited. "You three, come with me. I''ll fetch another vial of Wind Essence as I promised. Also, there is one thing I wish to discuss with you. Jilan, you were the one who brought these friends here, so you can come as well." Krune''s group was surprised by that sudden change of attitude. Nevertheless, they nodded and followed Elder Melio. It was also an excellent opportunity to make more inquires about this place. Chapter 645: Better Wind Essence Krune''s group was then brought up to the mountain. Melio entered a cave with them right after. Through their Divine Senses, they could tell that another Divinity Realm Green Talen Eagle was inside too. Suddenly, they heard a voice coming from the end of a room inside that cave. "Melio, why did you bring those cultivators here?" Melio immediately stepped forward before saying. "Gavei, you also saw their battle outside, didn''t you? If you did, I believe you know why I did this." It was then that another Green Eagle made its way out of the back. Krune''s group could tell that Gavie''s aura was stronger than Melio, which meant that this was the 5th Stage Eagle they sensed before. Gavei then looked at Iem and Krune before saying. "They are not part of our Green Talon Eagle Race. Chances are that the other powers won''t accept it." Melio shook his head. "They will. There had been a few times when they used external help for other matters, so why would they stop us from doing so? It would be the same as telling everyone that they won''t be able to use outsiders anymore. You know very well that they wouldn''t do such a thing. In fact, I''m pretty sure that some of them will also employ external help." Gavei narrowed his eyes after hearing that. Still, Krune''s group had no idea what was happening. "What are you even talking about?" Gavei pondered a bit and then sighed. Finally, he began to explain the situation. "I saw your power and speed outside. You are obviously much stronger than any common Semi-Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast. I would like to ask your help with a matter of our race. Of course, I''m willing to pay well for it too." Krune''s group looked at each other and then back at Gavei. "It depends. What is it that you need our help for?" Melio answered that question. "You heard about the Wind Essence Vein in our mountain from Jilan, right?" Krune, Iem, and Sisan nodded. "The thing we need your help with is related to it. I don''t know if the place you came from is like our side, but all the Elemental Essence Veins here are basically occupied already. Not only that but rarely there is a change in those controlling it. However, our race is close to losing ours." Let alone Krune''s group, even Jilan didn''t know that. "Elder Melio, what do you mean with that? Why would our race lose our Wind Essence Vein?" Melio sighed as well and then continued. "I believe you know that already. In the past few decades, our race members received quite a few attacks from the other powers. You were a good example of it. The Heavenly Protection Sect attacked you just a while ago, right? Don''t you think they were quite bold to do that so close to our territory?" Jilan was taken aback. Still, she had to admit that other than herself, she heard that several other members of her race were attacked or killed too. Noticing that Jilan understood his meaning, Elder Melio then proceeded with his explanation. "The reason for our race to receive so many attacks like that is because we fell in power. Around 200 years ago, we still had at least twenty elders in the Divinity Realm. However, look at it now. We only have five remaining. All the others already perished or ran out of lifespan." "Because of our decline, the other powers began to aim for our Wind Essence Vein¡ªespecially the powers without Essence Veins of themselves. We are already reaching our limit. Soon, those other powers with a similar number of Divinity Realm in their ranks will raid our mountain." Krune''s group immediately understood the situation. Still, they waited for Melio to finish his words. "Still, there was a line of hope remaining. The fact is that the powers who are aiming at us have similar powers to us. Only if they band together would they be able to take us down. However, a problem would remain after that. Who should be the ones to take the Wind Essence Vein? It was then that they came to us with a proposal." "Instead of starting a war between all the powers that want the Wind Essence Vein, why not decide it in a way that neither side will suffer much? Thus, they came up with the Wind Essence Vein competition. Each power who wishes to take the Wind Essence Vein would send a cultivator or a demon beast below the Divinity Realm to vie for it. The winner takes all while the others will agree to not touch the Wind Essence Vein for the next 200 years." Krune''s group nodded. It was exactly as they thought. "So you need one of us to beat all the other competitors. Because the Green Talon Eagle Race is still similar in strength with the others, you obviously can participate as well. That also means that you at least have a chance of keeping the Wind Essence Vein and still guarantee another 200 years of peace." Melio nodded. "Yes. However, it will not be a direct confrontation. All the powers that have a use for the Wind Essence Vein are obviously specialized in Wind Elements and Laws. That being said, what do you think they are best at?" Everyone immediately answered. "Speed and swiftness." Melio nodded once more. "Correct. The competition will be largely focused on these aspects. Simply put, it will be a race with obstacles." Immediately, Krune and Iem looked at each other. It was a lot simpler than they thought. Still, Krune had to ask. "Does that mean the competitors can''t attack each other?" Gavei, who was listening until now, shook his head. "Of course not. You can still attack your opponents if you think it will help you reach the end ahead of the others. Consider the other competitors as part of the obstacles on the way." Krune''s group nodded. "Very well, and what kind of reward will be in there for us if we win?" Gavei smiled before saying. "The vials of Wind Essence you got are not the best ones. We are also able to gather much purer Wind Essence. It''s just that it takes a very long time to form. Usually, we would keep it to help those who want to enter the Divinity Realm. As Wind Related Demon Beasts, this kind of pure Wind Essence is very beneficial and increases the chance of breakthrough by at least 20%. Anyway, we are willing to give you three vials of it." Luvile heard that as well and asked Krune. "Tell him to show you the Wind Essence first. I can check its purity and see if it is worth the effort." Krune nodded and did as Luvile said. Gavei didn''t mind and took a vial of Wind Essence from his spatial ring. He opened it and allowed Krune''s group to take a look. Obviously, Luvile used his own Divine Sense to check it as well. "Oh, it''s not bad. The vials you got before were only 1/10 as good as the God Realm ones. However, this one has almost half of the purity. Although it can''t compare with the God Realm Elemental Essences, it is still valuable in this Godly Path Realm. I think it is worth a try." Krune remembered something after hearing it. "Do these Elemental Essences have anything to do with your Purple Tribulation Lightning Essence?" Luvile answered after pondered a bit. "I won''t say they are totally unrelated. However, mine and Harold''s are created by ourselves, while these Eagle''s ones are natural. Anyway, it doesn''t matter much." Krune smiled and then told Iem and Sisan that he would like to give it a try through a Divine Sense message. At the very least, these three vials of Wind Essence would be much better to acquire rewards than the ones they got from Jilan and Melio. Neither Sisan and Iem had anything against it. After all, they entered the Silver Demon Core for the sake of treasures to trade for rewards outside. Since this one was this valuable, they were obviously going to take it. After reaching a decision, they told Gavei. "We accept. However, how long do we need to wait? Just so that you know, we can''t stay more than one week here since we have more things to do." Gavei couldn''t help but laugh out loud. "Don''t worry. The fact is that we could have started anytime already. However, our race kept finding excuses to delay it. We were already reaching our limit of excuses anyway. Now that you are here, we can simply contact the others and have the competition prepared straight away." Krune and the others nodded. After that, they began to discuss who would take part in it. Sisan, obviously, already understood that both Iem and Krune were much stronger and faster than him, so he immediately stepped out. Surprisingly though, Iem also gave up the opportunity. "Aren''t you the type who loves to fight?" Iem nodded and explained through Divine Sense. "I do. However, this is not a battle. It''s a race. I can attack others, but ultimately, my opponents will try to escape to win the run. I don''t have much interest in those who don''t want to fight me head-on. Besides, your God Power is a Lightning Based type. At our current level, you are probably slightly faster than me if we go all out in speed. Krune nodded. He is quite confident as long as it is only related to running. But it was then that he remembered something. "Oh, right! Although this is a competition based on the main use of Wind Element, it doesn''t mean we can''t use other elements, too, right?" Gavei nodded. "Of course. After all, the majority isn''t only good at Wind Element but other elements and laws too." Krune couldn''t help but smile. "In that case, leave it to me." Chapter 646: Celestial Organizations After they finished talking about the competition, Elder Given ordered Jilan to take care of all of Krune''s group needs. After all, she already knows the two of them. However, before leaving, Krune''s group decided to ask a few questions about this world first. "Elder Gavei, we came from quite far away. There are a few things that we can see here in this place that we can''t there. Would you mind answering a few questions? Of course, if it is an over sensitive topic, you can remain silent too." Gavei nodded. "Sure, go ahead." Krune then started with the most important one. "From the place we came from, the elders don''t like to talk about that formation in the skies. That''s also one of the reasons we came from so far away. Could you tell us more about it and the space outside?" Gavei was taken aback. "Why would they keep that secret?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "If I knew, I wouldn''t be asking it here." Gavei thought it to be a little fishy. Still, he didn''t have a reason to not tell Krune. "Well, at least here where we live, everyone knows about it. That is the Celestial Protection Formation. As you can tell, this formation protects us from the dangers from outside. As far as everyone remembers, it has always been maintained by the four Celestial Organizations." Krune immediately asked after hearing that. "What are those four Celestial Organisations?" Gavei was surprised that they didn''t even know about that. "Well, they are the supreme existences of our Qanton Planet. Each one of them controls one of the four cores that maintain the formation that you see outside. Also, they are their protectors. From what I heard, it seems that it is possible to advance past the Divinity Realm once you are part of them." Krune was taken aback. Why would they need to go to such a place to surpass the Divinity Realm? Couldn''t they do it anywhere else? However, just as he was about to ask, Luvile answered that question for him. "It''s the concentration of Godly Energy. Can''t you see? There is so little that you were even able to fly in this place. Obviously, there is no way you can accumulate enough Godly Energy in a single place to overcome the 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm Bottleneck." "But what about Godly Stones? Couldn''t they simply use-" It was then that Krune noticed something. Until now, he hasn''t seen anyone using Godly Stones at all! Immediately, he sent a Divine Sense Message to Iem and Sisan. "Unless you are in a dire situation, do not take Godly Stones out. At the very least, make sure that no one sees you using them." Sisan and Iem looked at Krune, surprised. "Why is that?" Krune then explained that the reason that they couldn''t enter the 2nd Stage of the Transformation Realm was that they didn''t have enough Godly Energy. Obviously, that meant that they also didn''t have access to Godly Stones. That''s what Krune believed. If they brought Godly Energy Stones out, they might become everyone''s target, especially the Top Quality Godly ones. After all, anyone would be able to tell just how much Godly Energy their stones harnessed. Sisan and Iem promptly agreed with Krune. They might be overthinking, but there was nothing wrong with preventing unnecessary risks. Krune then returned his attention to Gavei. "Could it be that it is because those Celestial Organizations have a lot more Godly Energy?" Gavei nodded. "Well, that''s what I heard, at least." "Why don''t you guys try to join one of the Celestial organizations?" Gavei laughed out loud after hearing that. "Hahaha! If just it was that easy... The Celestial Organizations seldom recruit anyone from outside. The last time they did it was over 500 years ago. Not only that, but they also recruited only twelve members. One of the previous elders of our race had gone there just to watch. He told me that he had never seen so many cultivators and demon beasts gathered in the same place." Krune had an idea of why they rarely recruited anyone. First of all, since they have enough Godly Energy to advance to the 2nd Stage of the Transformation Realm, they probably can reach the Mortal Rejection Realm too. That means that they would acquire immortality. No one outside the Celestial Organizations can surpass the 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm after reaching the Peak of the Divinity Realm. That being said, they simply didn''t have any enemies who could put them in danger. After all, a single Mortal Rejection Realm would be enough to get rid of several Peak Divinity Realms with ease. Not to mention those who already advanced to the God Foundation and above Realms. Their only enemies would probably be the other Celestial Organization. However, from the looks of it, they are not willing to bother the others. At least, they don''t do it on the surface since Gavei hasn''t said anything about wars between them. There was also the most obvious part. Without enemies at the same level and their unlimited lifespans, not many died inside. Considering that they have their own families and offsprings to replace any possible deaths, it is no surprise that these organizations seldom recruited anyone. It was even possible that they only recruited just because there were a few jobs that they don''t want to do. Krune also had another theory. This place is inside the Silver Demon Core. However, they didn''t have much Goldy Energy in this place. That meant that the Celestial Organizations were using the Godly Energy to keep the formation that protects the planet. Still, there is also a chance that the protection formation doesn''t need all that Godly Energy. If that was the case, they were purposely stopping the Godly Energy from escaping outside. They were probably afraid that they would lose their position of power if everyone started to advance past the 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm. Of course, these were all speculations. At the moment, Krune doesn''t have any proof. Not to mention that he really didn''t have much of a reason to go find answers either. "Very well. That''s basically everything we wanted to ask. Senior Gavei can already set up this ''race'' for the Wind Essence Vein. Oh, right! Are you sure no one of the other powers participating will intervene to help their competitors?" Gavei nodded. "Don''t worry. There are quite a few participating. Everyone will be watching each other. Simply put, it''s not worth the risk. You must remember that this Wind Essence Vein is very important for everyone taking part in it. If someone is caught cheating, his organization/clan/sect will be targeted by all the others together. It is one thing if they don''t get the Wind Essence Vein, but another completely different one if they get themselves destroyed." Krune had to admit that Gavei was right. In fact, all the powers other than the Celestial Organizations don''t have anyone above the 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm. That being said, Krune is pretty confident that he can at least notice if something wrong is happening. "I understand. Another thing, why are you trusting us this much? We barely know each other. Don''t you think that we might be some spies or something like that?" Elder Melio on Gavei''s side sighed after hearing it. "I did think that, and so did Gavei. However, we don''t have much choice. Another Divinity Realm Elder and I have been investigating the Semi-Divinity Realm competitors of the other races. Although I won''t say that our side is weak, we are not strong enough to guarantee that we could defeat their best ones. In the end, our chances are bleak. Not to mention that I believe some of the weaker ones are definitely inviting outsiders that we don''t know about as well." It was then that Jilan remembered something. "Wait. Elder Melio, you had just come back from a trip. Could it be..." Melio smilled before nodding. "Exactly. I went out to see if I could find someone who could take part in this competition for us. Unfortunately, I didn''t find anyone. I was planning to go to other regions and see if I could find something there. Still, who could have thought that Krune''s group would knock on my door? After seeing their power and speed while fighting Wilten''s group, I''ve decided that it was worth a try." Krune finally understood their situation. "Well, then I can only tell that you don''t need to worry about me being a spy or anything like that. My group had really come from very far away, so we knew nothing about this competition of yours. That being said, I''ll do my best for those Wind Essence Vials." Gavei and Melio smiled, satisfied. After that, Gavei looked at Jilan and passed an order. "Jilan, you were the one who found those friends, so I''ll leave it for you to attend to their needs while they stay in our Mountain. Let me know if they need anything. For now, bring them to the second peak; they can stay there for the time being. Jilan immediately accepted it. "Yes, elder Gavei." Jilan then asked Krune and the others to follow her. Once they left, Melio and Gavei looked at each other. "What do you think?" Gavei pondered a bit and said. "I''m not sure. Only the end result will show if we were right or not. Still, I doubt we would find anyone as fast and as strong as him." Melio nodded. After that, Gavei immediately left to inform the other powers. Chapter 647: Young Master Erven A day later, in the Heavenly Protection Sect, the three Semi-Divinity Realm cultivators had just returned. Caio, the one who fought Krune, went straight to Walto Darikan to report about what happened while they were attacking Jilan. As mentioned before, Walto is the Sect Master of his Heavenly Protection Sect. Caio quickly arrived at the room where the Sect Master stayed. However, he soon noticed that there was some movement inside. As one of the elders in the sect, he was guaranteed passage, though. Of course, with his 7th Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm, he was only a low ranked elder. Once inside, he noticed that Walton was acting extremely respectful. The reason for that was a group of youths at the center of the room. Caio quickly approached another elder he was acquainted with to ask what was happening. "Oh, you won''t believe it. Those kids over there are members of the Celestial Organization of our territory." Caio was taken aback. "For real?! What people like them are doing in our sect?" The elder then replied. "It happened a week ago while you were out preparing that trap of yours. It seems like he was passing through our city with his own group. Sect master heard about it and went out to welcome them. From the looks of it, his group is out to gain experience." Caio understood. Beings of the Celestial Organizations are rarely seen. However, it is true that their young ones would usually go out. Caio obviously decided to wait for them to finish talking before reporting his issue. "Young Master Erven, would you really do that for us? Wouldn''t your Celestial Sky Organization be angry if you intervened in our affairs?" Walton received a message from Gavei of the Green Talon Eagle Race while he was entertaining these youths. Erven heard that, so he offered his help. Now, it just so happened that Caio arrived while they were discussing it. Erven then shook his head. "As I said before, we are out to gain experience. That being said, our elders want us to get involved in the things that happen in our territory. Only those above the Divinity Realm are prohibited from messing with you guys. Since such a good opportunity just appeared, I might as well participate." Erven was at the 8th Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm. However, Walto was able to see his training with his Sect Members. Even their strongest Semi-Divinity Realm couldn''t hold more than a few moves. Not to mention that Erven was obviously holding back. Also, the Celestial Sky Organization was mainly focused on Wind Elements and Laws, just like them. Having said that, Walton was more than happy to accept such an offer. Suddenly, a member of Erven''s group stepped forward. "Erven, that is not fair. We also want to participate in this race." Erven narrowed his eyes after hearing that. "Pordol, there is only a single vacancy for each power trying to enter this race." Pordol, the guy who complained, immediately shook his head. "Didn''t Walton say that several powers are taking part in it? The rest of us just need to ask those powers. If they have any doubt about our speed and powers, we can simply beat their best competitors. With our Celestial Sky Badge, none of them will refuse our offers after showing how much better we are." Erven pondered a bit and then nodded. "Very well. However, don''t expect me to hold back during this race. As the leader of this group, I have to show the example." Pordol and the rest of the group laughed. "That''s great. We are not planning to hold back on you, either. As for the other competitors, they aren''t worth our attention anyway." Erven nodded and then looked at the rest of his group. "Pordol, Trando, Xoen, and Larks. I will see you on the day of the competition then." These other Celestial Sky Organization members were all in the 7th or 8th Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm. Not to mention that they were all similar in strength compared to Erven. That''s why Erven was pretty excited to participate in this run against them. It was an excellent opportunity to show his power to the lower world and gain experience. Of course, Walton was sad to hear that the other members would also help the other powers. However, that still meant that he had a one in a five chance of being victorious. Well, in fact, he felt like his chance was higher since their leader was helping his Heavenly Protection Sect. Walton and Erven then discussed a few more things. After that, Walton told them which other organizations were taking part in it. Obviously, the other members of Erven''s group immediately departed after hearing it. An hour later, Erven also left and went back to the room that the Heavenly Protection Sect provided him. Only then did Caio come forward to report what happened. "Hahaha! Who cares if you lost the Green Talon Eagle? First of all, that was only one of the attacks that we did to force their race to start the competition. However, Gavei already contacted us, telling us that we can start it anytime." "I couldn''t be more thankful to Gavei. It was just because he insisted that the competition needed to start in at most seven days that young master Erven decided to help. Otherwise, these members of the Celestial Sky Organization would definitely leave before it. Oh, right. I''m going now to talk with the other powers'' leaders who will participate in this." Caio couldn''t help but ask. "But Sect master, don''t you think that this seven days limit is too coincidental? It happened right after we were defeated by that guy called Krune. Chances are that they formed an alliance with the Green Talon Eagle Race and will appear in this competition." Walton didn''t mind, though. "Hmph! So what? Are they members of the Celestial Organizations? First of all, even if they are, we also have our own Celestial Organization Member in our group. That being said, we still have a higher chance of getting this Wind Essence Vein than we did in the past." Caio had to admit that Walton was right. "In that case, should we warn young master Erven? After all, there is a small chance that Krune and his friends are really hidden members of another Celestial Organization. Otherwise, I can''t think about another reason for a 1st Stage Semi-Divinity Realm to trounce me." Walton narrowed his eyes and pondered a bit. "No, don''t say anything. There might be a chance that young master Erven will give up this competition if he knows he is against another Celestial Organization disciple. After all, the four Celestial Organizations never clash against each other as far as we know. If he finds about it during the competition, we can just say that we didn''t know about it. Not to mention that we don''t know if this Krune''s group is really part of the Celestial Organizations or not. It will be the most foolish thing if young master Erven decides to not participate because of a mistake from our part." Caio nodded. Losing a Celestial Organization ally at this point would definitely put them in a bad spot against the other powers that are after the Wind Essence Vein. "Alright, I''ll warn the other members of our group about it." Walton nodded and let Caio leave. After that, he also left his sect to join the meeting between the powers that will run for the Wind Essence Vein. Gavei, obviously, also went there. Meanwhile, Krune was having a discussion with Iem and Sisan. "Alright. Now we know that we are on a planet. Most likely, this Demon Beast had a Universe Foundation before. However, only this planet remained in the end." Iem and Sisan nodded. After that, Sisan asked something that was bothering him. "To go back outside the Silver Demon Core, we need to approach the Spatial Barrier of this foundation. However, this Celestial Protection Formation is covering the entire planet. How are we going to leave now?" Krune smiled before saying. "Don''t worry, I already have a plan. It''s just that I can''t tell you about it since it is related to some of my own secret techniques." Sisan finally let out a sigh of relief. As for what secret technique it was, he couldn''t care less. As long as they can leave in forty days, he is more than satisfied. "No wonder you two didn''t seem worried about our situation." Krune and Iem nodded. The fact was that it wasn''t Krune who had a plan, but Zule. He had already verified the Space around and told Krune that he could use his treasure power to open a passage that connects to the outside. Krune, of course, was surprised to hear that, so he asked how it was possible since Zule''s treasure was still broken. At that time, Zule simply said that it was because the Space inside the Silver Demon Core is very fragile. So much that even his broken treasure would be enough to open the passage. Besides, he still remembers the spatial signature that the clusters attached to the Silver Demon Core outside have. He could use it as a beacon to open a passage directly there. Of course, he could not do such a thing outside the Silver Core, only here. That being said, Krune''s group could spend their time looking for things worth bringing back to the Sky Shifting Sect. Suddenly, Jilan appeared in their room. "Krune, Elder Gavei is calling you over. He said that the local of the competition has already been decided." Finally, they would know what to expect during the race. Chapter 648: Lavagator Races Territory Krune''s group quickly arrived at Gavei''s place. Obviously, Melio was there too. "Oh! You are here. Come in." Krune and the others entered. "So, how will it be?" Gavei nodded. "The competition will happen in the Lavagator Race''s Territory. This race is controlling a Fire Essence Vein of their own. Not to mention that they are even stronger than us when we were at our peak. At the moment, they have more than thirty Divinity Realm elders, and some speculate that they might have a few more hidden." "With their deterrence, none of the other races will think about forcing them to help someone else. Also, we gathered together to pay for the use of their territory for the competition, so bribing will be out of the question too." Gavei continued. "Inside their territory, there is a place called the Fire Hell. It is also the place where their strong members like to go for training. That area has thousands of active volcanos that erupt without stop. Since this run is also a competition of strength of some sort, everyone agreed in using that place." "Krune, you better be careful in there. The place is full of chaotic Fire Element. If you are caught by one of the eruptions, I''ll guarantee that you won''t leave unscratched. You might even die, depending on the volcano. Also, you need to constantly keep your Godly Energy running to fend off the heat. The visibility is awful too. Not only that, but the ashes in the air greatly affects one''s Divinise Sense due to the high concentration of Fire Element and Laws." "The distance of the competition has a total of two thousand kilometers. According to the rules, it is prohibited to fly higher than 10 meters above the ground. To make sure the rules are followed, the Lavagator Race''s elders will be stationed during the entire extent of the run. Not to mention that there will be several monitoring formations that everyone can use to see the competitors." "Anyway, it''s like I mentioned before. This is a race with obstacles. The one who reaches the end first is the winner, nothing more, nothing less." Krune nodded. "It seems like everyone put a lot of thought on it." Gavei laughed out loud after hearing that. "But of course! None of the powers participating wish to lose because the others found a way to break the rules. That also includes ourselves." Krune then asked something else. "How many competitors will be there. Also, which ones should I pay attention to?" Gavei pondered a bit before saying. "There will be 143 runners this time around. However, I can''t really tell you which one to pay attention to. That''s because many of those races participating in this competition called for external help, just like Melio predicted. Still, the same goes for us. No one knows about your existence yet, so you are our trump card during this race." "That''s true. By the way, when is it starting?" Gavei nodded before saying. "Five days later. That''s the time the Lavagator Race''s elders will need to prepare the area. If you have anything you need, you might as well ask for it now." Krune shook his head. "No, I''m okay. Just be sure to pay me the Wind Essence when it is over." "Of course, as long as you win, that is." Gavei then seemed to hesitate a bit as he looked at Krune''s group. Iem noticed that and told Krune to ask if there was something wrong. "Elder Gavei, do you want to say something?" Gavei finally nodded as he looked at Sisan. "Isn''t it better to have your friend who is at the 9th Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm to participate instead? I''m not saying that you aren''t strong or fast enough. It''s just that this competition is too important for our Green Talon Eagle Race." Obviously, he was talking about the difference in cultivation between Krune and Sisan. He couldn''t be blamed. After all, Sisan was indeed eight stages above Krune''s level. Not to mention that he doesn''t know that Krune is, in fact, faster and stronger. "Hahaha! Don''t worry, elder Gavei. The reason that we decided to use me is that when it comes to speed, I''m indeed the best one here. I know it is hard to believe due to our difference in cultivation, but we are definitely not lying." Gavei sighed after hearing that. Obviously, he still had his doubts. However, since Sisan didn''t want to participate, there was nothing he could do. "Very well. I''ll go to your residence three days later to bring you to the Lavagator Race''s Territory." Krune nodded before leaving with Iem and Sisan. During the entire conversation, those two didn''t say anything. Well, that''s because they will still need a few more days before they finish understand the language pack that Krune passed to them. After they left, Melio looked at Gavei. "Is it okay to not tell them about that?" Gavei sighed. He heard a rumor during the meeting of the powers participating in the competition. It was said that some of them will receive the help of the Celestial Sky Organization in their territory. That''s also why he preferred to have Sisan, who had the highest cultivation between them, to participate. "What''s the point in saying that? It might instead make them give up on helping us at all. Since that''s the case, I better keep what we already have." Melio nodded and didn''t say anything else. Time passed in a flash, and soon, three days went by. Gavei then came to Krune''s residence to get them. A few moments later, they all flew away from the Mountain. On their way out, Krune saw another two elders coming out of the Mountain to join them. After checking their cultivation, he immediately understood that they were two other elders of the Green Talon Eagle Race. One of them was in the 2nd Stage while the other was in the 3rd. Elder Melio would not come with them. That''s because he is the second strongest of their race, so he had to stay to guard the fort. After all, you never know if something might happen while Gavei is out. "Let me introduce them. These two are Nue and Vatio. They are another two elders in our race." Krune and the others quickly bowed. "Anyway, let''s increase the pace. The lavagator territory is quite far, so we might get late if we continue at this speed." No one rejected the idea, quickly speeding up after that. On the way, Gavei kept increasing the speed to check the limits of Krune''s group. He knew that they were definitely faster than ordinary Peak Semi-Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beast. He just wanted to know how much. Surprisingly though, the first one to find it challenging to keep up with his speed was not Iem or Krune, who were in the 1st Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm. Instead, it was Nue, the elder at the 2nd Stage of the Divinity Realm! Gavei then felt a sense of happiness and embarrassment at the same time. Happy that Krune was obviously faster than that and embarrassed that his Divinity Realm elder was losing to a Semi-Divinity Realm. Krune and the others noticed what Gavei was doing and smiled. Still, they didn''t say anything. Around a day later, they finally approached the Lavagator Race''s Territory. Yet, when they finally arrived at the competition site, Krune''s group was taken aback. "Wasn''t there supposed to be only 143 competitors?" Krune, Iemm, and Sisan could see at least a few tens of thousands Semi-Divinity and Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts. It was easy to see that many of them were not related to the competition since there were too many races there. Gavei heard that and laughed once more. "Of course. However, such a territory changing competition doesn''t happen all the time. Obviously, many other races that are not related to the event came to check it out. That''s good, though. It will make things even harder for anyone who wishes to break the rules with so many observers." Krune and to admit that Gavei was right. Suddenly, their group heard a voice coming from somewhere nearby. "Oh! Look who is here. I''m impressed that you really came to participate in this competition, Gavei. I thought you would simply wait for it to be over and pass your race''s Wind Essence Vein over to the winner." Gavei''s complexion turned dark as he looked at the newcomer. "Ralo, your Twin-Tail Hawk Race has always been under our Green Talon Eagle''s. Do you think that just because our strength declined, you can act as you wish? First of all, even if we lose this competition, I doubt your race will fare much better." Krune couldn''t help but ask Nue about it with a Divine Sense Message. ''Oh! The Twin-Tail Hawk Race had always been slightly weaker than us. Not to mention that their territory is quite close too. When our strength began to decline, they were among the first to rally the other races against us. Obviously, the grudge that was already quite bad turned even worse.'' Krune immediately understood. ''Well, I guess it has nothing to do with me.'' Ralo''s smile didn''t disappear as he said. "I wouldn''t be so sure. It just so happens that we got quite lucky when looking for a helping hand. Who knows, it might not be long before we force you out of that Mountain of yours." Gavei narrowed his eyes as he looked behind Ralo. There, he saw a cultivator who didn''t seem to care about anything that was happening. ''Could he be...'' Chapter 649: Just... Why... Ralo smiled and then turned around. However, just as he was about to introduce the man behind him, the same guy left on his own as if he didn''t even see him. Ralo''s mouth twitched, but he didn''t say anything and quickly followed. Still, for Gavei, that was already enough to prove his thoughts. ''Ralo wouldn''t let just any Semi-Divinity Realm ignore him and say nothing, much less follow the same one who did that. That guy is probably one of those Celestial Sky Organization members the rumors talked about.'' Gavei then shook his head and guided Krune''s group to where the others were staying. He then talked with some other elders of other races while they waited for the Lavagators to finish preparing everything. A few hours later, the elders of the Lavagator Race finally appeared. "The track is ready to receive the competitors. Please, bring your competitors out so that our race members can guide them to the start line. As for the rest, you can stay here and use the monitoring formations to check the progress of all the participants." Krune heard that as well and stepped forward. Together with him, another 142 competitors came out of the crowd. They quickly arrived beside the Lavagator Race members, who guided them to the right area. However, everyone who saw the group was taken aback. That''s because they found out that there was one competitor at the 1st Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm! Obviously, that was Krune. "Who sent that guy there?" "I saw him. That was the participant that was beside Gavei." "Gavei? He is about to lose his race''s Wind Essence Vein, so maybe he gave up and just sent anyone to participate in this competition?" "Hahaha! You were probably right. After all, what a 1st Stage Semi-Divinity Realm can do against so many peak ones?" The elders and observes weren''t the only ones to notice that. The participants around Krune were even more so. One of them even approached Krune to make fun of him. "Hey, did the Green Talon Race send you to die here?" Immediately, everyone laughed out loud. After all, the majority didn''t think that a 1st Stage Semi-Divinity Realm could possibly pose any threat. Krune couldn''t help but sigh, though. ''It doesn''t matter if I do something crazy or if I don''t do anything at all, for some reason, I always catch a lot of attention... Just why...? Why can''t everyone simply ignore me?'' However, in the middle of the competitors, there were some who didn''t see anything funny about Krune. One of them just so happened to be Erven. ''Weird... I can''t tell whether he is a Demon Beast or a Cultivator. His aura is completely concealed. Is that even possible?'' Obviously, that was because of Luvile''s intervention. Until now, he still hasn''t retracted his ability to conceal Krune''s Wisp Aura. He had done it in the past since they believed Krune to be a demon beast under the Semi-Divinity Realm. Even after they found out about the True Spirits, he still decided to keep it concealed just in case. In a different way, Krune caught the attention of one of the worst possible participants. On the way, the sky began to turn dark. But it wasn''t because the night was coming. Instead, it was the ashes and the dark clouds gathered in the skies that made everything get dark. Obviously, it was a side effect of the thousands of volcanos that continuously erupted in this place. At the same time, everyone noticed that the temperature of the ambient began to escalate. Soon, they all began to use their Godly Energy to fend off the heat. Of course, there were a few exceptions. Krune just so happened to be one of them. After all, he has both the Yang and Elemental Heavenly Fragments and Elemental Divine Soul. Not to mention that fire was his first Major Law comprehended. Seeing how Krune, who they thought to be of no threat, moving so leisurely in this ambient, made some of the participants somewhat displeased. Still, no one tried anything since they didn''t want to invite problems for themselves. It took them around three hours to arrive at the starting line. After that, three elders at the Divinity Realm of the Lavagator Race appeared in front of everyone. They looked at everyone, but their eyes paused on the Celestial Sky Organization members for a second. It didn''t take long for them to find out the truth about it with their race''s power. However, they didn''t try to change anything in the competition. Instead, their race opted for feigning ignorance. That was the safest route when dealing with one of the Celestial Organizations. After that, the elder at the front waved his hand, and 143 yellow beads came out of his Spatial Ring. They quickly flew at the hands of the competitors too. "As you can see, the visibility in this place is horrible. Not to mention that Divine Sense is deeply affected. That being said, we prepared these beads for you all. As long as you pour your Godly Energy inside, it will tell you the direction you should move. Remember, no one can fly above 10 meters of the ground, or you will be disqualified. Also, anyone who tries to deviate from the route will receive the same penalty, disqualification." "Those are basically the only two rules that you should care about. Everything else is allowed. We don''t care if you attack or kill the other competitors. As long as you can arrive first on the finishing line, you can do anything that doesn''t break those two rules." "Be careful. Other than the environmental dangers, we also prepared several other obstacles for you to pass through. Of course, we won''t tell you anything about it. We hope you guys like the surprises." "Alright, if you have any questions, ask it now." Everyone kept silent, though. "Very well." The elder then summoned a sphere of Godly Energy and left it hovering in the air. "This sphere will disappear in a few seconds. The competition will start as soon as that happens. Good luck." Right after, the three elders disappeared from everyone''s vision. The tension increased as everyone looked attentively at the sphere of light. Suddenly, it burst apart in hundreds of specks of light. Erven''s group was the first one to react. They all used their own movement techniques and dashed forward, quickly leave the majority behind. Of course, no one gave up just because of that. After all, no one knew what to expect from this race. However, there were a few exceptions who were able to fly at the same speed as Erven''s group. Krune, of course, was one of them. ''They are quite fast. Not to mention that they are not using their full speed yet. Should I use my Lightning Shield Wings?'' Krune pondered a bit and decided to refrain from doing it. Instead, he let Erven and the rest to dash ahead until they reached a certain distance. Because of the environment, Krune''s Divine Sense couldn''t surpass 5km. Obviously, the others'' Divine Senses were even worse. However, what hindered everyone''s Divine Sense wasn''t the Godly Energy like outside the Silver Demon Core. Instead, it was the chaotic Fire Elements, Laws, and the environment. That being said, Krune''s Mental Energy Perception was not affected at all! Until now, the only thing Krune found that could hinder his Mental Energy was Godly Energy. Of course, there was also Luvile and Harold''s powers, but those two were previous gods, so Krune didn''t count them. At the moment, Krune''s Mental Energy Range was still able to see everything over a hundred kilometers of distance! With this kind of advantage, Krune decided to stay out of the leaders'' Divine Sense perception range. ''I''ll stay behind them during the first 1800 kilometers. If they increase their speed, I can use my Lightning Shield Wings to keep up. When the last 200 kilometers arrive, I will speed up and finish this race in the first place.'' With that plan in mind, Krune opened 10km of distance from the leaders. Obviously, the leaders turned out to be Erven and his Celestial Sky Organization. Not only that, but they were also having quite a heated competition there. Outside, everyone was looking at how Erven''s group acted. Their power and techniques were better than anyone so far. However, a hundred kilometers into the run, the first obstacle other than the environment appeared. As soon as Erven''s group got close to it, they received a Divine Sense message. "This is a repulsive formation. Use your own power to force your way through. Whatever methods are valid, even destroying the formation itself. Good luck." Erven and his group finally stopped attacking each other and looked at the barrier in front. "Let''s see who can reach the other side of the barrier first!" "Agreed!" *Bam!* All five of them slammed the barrier and began to use their own power to force their way through. The barrier trembled as Erven''s group advanced little by little into the repulsive energy. At the same time, 10km behind, Krune looked at everything that was happening with his Mental Energy while hovering in the air. Surprisingly the barrier was quite strong, so they would need quite a few minutes to pass through. Because of that, the other participants began to catch up as well. ''Oh, since everyone is arriving there, I can use them as cover to pass the barrier without catching much attention.'' Krune smiled and then flew in the direction of the barrier. As soon as he arrived there, Erven finished passing through it. A few seconds later, the rest of his group also forced their way through as well. As for the other who arrived later, it was evident that they would take a lot longer to overcome the barrier. Krune then waited a minute before trying himself. ''Alright, they opened enough distance. I better pass it fast before they run too far ahead.'' Purple Lightning began to run around Krune''s body as he charged at the barrier like an arrow! Too bad that no one counted with Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning. Not to mention that Krune was afraid that he would be held there for too long, so he was quite serious when he attacked the barrier too. His objective was to simply open a hole for him to pass. That was all... yes, that was supposed to be the plan... *Zap!* Krune''s Purple Lightning Pierced through the barrier as if it was made of butter! Cracks began to appear right behind the hole that Krune made. With the Purple Lightning''s Power left behind, the damage quickly spread. In just a few seconds, it covered the whole repulsive formation until suddenly... *Boom! Shatter!* The repulsive formation... was gone for good... Obviously, everyone around looked at Krune with their eyes wide open. Not only them, but everyone outside felt like they were seeing a ghost through the monitoring formations. As for Krune, it was possible to see tears coming out of his eyes if one focused hard enough. ''Just... Why...'' Chapter 650: Newcomers Krune knew that he would gather a lot of attention when he wins the race, but that was supposed to happens around the last 100 to 200km of the track. Now, however, everyone noticed his existence. Back where Gavei was watching the competition, everyone around looked directly at him. Gavei, obviously, was even more shocked than anyone else. However, he didn''t show it on his face. His Green Talon Eagle Race had been on a decline for so long, so how couldn''t he lose his chance to brag. "Hmph! What are you looking at? Did you forget how long my Green Talon Eagle Race has existed? We obviously still have our own trump cards. You just wait and see; this race is far from over!" Although some felt that there was something else behind his words, the majority couldn''t help but believe it. After all, it is true that the Green Talon Eagle Race had been quite big in the past. It wouldn''t be all that strange if they had some contacts that helped them find Krune. Of course, Gavei, more than anyone else, knew just how ridiculous that notion was. ''Holy Shit! He pulverized the Repulsive Formation! If he is already this strong, then how strong is that Sisan guy at the 9th Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm? They must be disciples of other Celestial Organizations from outside our territory. Otherwise, how could he be so heaven-defying?!'' Of course, that thought only passed through Gavei''s mind. He didn''t say it aloud. Back in the race, all the eyes paused on Krune for a few moments. Those who made fun of him in the past were even a little happy that they didn''t try to pull any trick against him. However, that silence only lasted a few seconds. With the Repulsive Formation gone, everyone quickly came back to themselves. "The formation is gone. Let''s go!" Immediately after, everyone dashed forward once more. As for Krune, he only sighed and continued on his way as well. Erven''s group was too far ahead, so they didn''t see what happened. After all, both Divine Sense and naked vision were incredibly limited in this place. Nevertheless, they only opened another 10 or so km of distance. With Krune''s Mental Energy Perception Range, they were far from escaping it. Krune kept moving together with the back group while keeping the 10km distance from Even''s group. It''s just that this time, no one had any intention of touching him. Suddenly... *Boom!* One of the volcanos on the way erupted. It was so sudden that three of the surrounding competitors didn''t have time to move away. In the end, they were reduced to ashes. "It was not me!" The others who were around looked at Krune, puzzled. It was just an eruption. They all knew that such things happened all the time in this place. Obviously, it wasn''t Krune''s fault. Krune noticed what he had done and instantly felt embarrassed. Poor Krune was so traumatized that he automatically tried to defend himself when he heard an explosion. "Cough, cough... Just joking." Purple Lightning covered his body, and he disappeared ahead in a flash of purple light. He was too ashamed to stay there anymore. The Lavagator Race has put an obstacle every 100km. So now and then, Krune''s party would catch up with Erven''s group. After all, They would always be the first ones who needed to find out how to surpass it. By the time the rest arrived, they would more or less know what to do already. Erven''s group didn''t mind, though. In their eyes, if someone tried to pass ahead of them, they could simply try to get rid of them. Krune was also a lot more careful during the next ones. He refrained from using his Purple Tribulation Lightning, trying to overcome those formations with his other elements. Turns out that he was really overthinking in the past. With his other elements alone, it was enough to succeed, especially when he already knew how to do it by observing Erven''s group. Just like that, the first 1000km was gone. However, Krune soon noticed that Erven''s group completely stopped a little after the 1000km obstacle. Obviously, the other competitors also noticed it when they got closer there. The reason Erven''s group stopped wasn''t because of a formation or anything like that, but a natural barrier. At this very moment, several volcanos were in the middle of eruptions. The area inside was a death zone. Worst of all, the range of the outbursts went further than the path provided for the competitors to use. If they tried to go around, they would deviate too much from it. As the elders of the Lavagator Race mentioned before, those who left the path would be disqualified. Thus, Erven''s group and the rest were now stuck at this place. The problem was, it didn''t seem like the eruptions would stop anytime soon! Krune looked at that scene ahead and shook his head. "This was definitely made on purpose. The route selected will force us to pass through that death zone. If I''m not wrong, we should receive a message anytime now." Luvile agreed with Krune. "The others probably can tell that as well. Still, we have nothing to worry about. As long as you use your shields and my Purple Tribulation Lightning for protection, you can definitely overcome this obstacle. Not to mention that heat has little effect on you with your perks." Krune, of course, knew that. However, others didn''t. Suddenly, everyone in the competition received a Divine Sense massage. "For those waiting in front of the eruptions. It will not stop anytime soon. According to what our Lavagator Race knows, this kind of phenomenon lasts at least three months. At the moment, only three weeks had gone by, which means you will have to wait at least another two months to proceed. Of course, the competition will not last that long. That being said, those who wish to win this race will have to enter this zone. Otherwise, you might as well give up here. Anyway, that''s all. Good Luck." Sure enough, it was as Krune and a few others already expected. Not too surprisingly, Erven''s group also had the confidence of being able to pass it. However, they didn''t go ahead. That obviously puzzled Krune. But not only him, the powers outside that knew that Erven''s group was part of the Celestial Sky Organization were also feeling the same. "Why is Erven not going through it?" "What about Trando? Is something wrong with him?" "Xoen, Pordol, and Larks seem to be having the same issue." "There must be a reason for it other than the eruptions." As Erven''s group waited, some of the cultivators and demon beasts saw a chance in it. If they could pass that region now, they would pull far ahead of those who were afraid of entering. Not to mention that some of them were also proficient with Fire Element and Laws, so they immediately rushed inside. It was then that another group with five cultivators/demon beasts arrived in front of the Death Zone. Seeing that, Erven''s group finally showed some reaction. "Oh, Wagando! I wondered how long you would make me wait." Those who knew about Erven were taken aback. They had seen this new group entering the competition, but no one paid much attention to them. Wagando, who had just arrived, couldn''t help but shrug his shoulders. "So you noticed me in the end, uh?" Erven snorted after hearing that. "Did you even try to hide it? Your Sword Intent was overflowing from the very start. As expected of the Celestial Weapons Organization, you guys are really masters of weapons." Wagando laughed out loud. "I can''t deny that. Haha!" "We wanted to give your group a sense of victory and smash you at the end, but it seems like our plan won''t work anymore." Erven nodded. "It wouldn''t work to start with. Anyway, what are you doing here? You are quite far from your Celestial Weapons Organization territory, you know?" Wagando nodded. "Indeed. We got tired of roaming inside our territory, so we decided to take a look outside. It was then that we received some information that you guys decided to participate in some secular world competition. We thought that it would be fun to give you a surprise, so here we are. Of course, whether you believe it or not, that''s up to you." Erven didn''t totally believe what he said indeed. Still, he ignored it and then looked at the eruptions zone ahead. At the moment, he was more interested in what was going to happen during this race. "Mind if we start the real competition now? It had been too dull so far, so I''m looking forward to seeing what your group can do." Knowing that trying to hide would make no difference from this point onwards, Wagando accepted Erven''s idea. "Very well. Let''s do it!" Suddenly, Sword Qi began to dance around his body as if forming a protective barrier. Right after, Wagando rushed inside the eruptions zone as if nothing was happening there. His companions also took their weapons out and used their own techniques to protect themselves. Then, they followed Wagando inside. Of course, Erven and his group didn''t fall behind. They, too, activated their own abilities and stepped inside the death zone. As for the people watching outside who knew Erven, they were all confused. They didn''t know what Erven was talking to that other group since they used Divine Sense messages. Still, for a member of the Celestial Sky Organization to be that affected, they at least had an idea of who those newcomers might be. Krune, on the other hand, didn''t know anything. ''Oh, everyone is finally entering. Seems like I can enter too then.'' Chapter 651: Just Watch the Show Wagando and Erven''s groups didn''t simply pass through the death zone. They also kept attacking each other, trying to delay the other side. Now and then, they would bump into some cultivators or demon beasts who entered it before them. If they were far, their groups would ignore. If not, they attacked those guys as well. The only rules were to not fly over 10 meters or leave the path agreed beforehand. Anything else was valid, including killing others. So far, from the 143 competitors, 38 already perished. Not too surprisingly, half of it was in this death zone alone. Suddenly, Erven''s group formed a joint attack and targeted one of Wagando''s group members. The guy was taken aback and was hit by all their attacks at once. Not only that, he was even thrown right inside one of the volcanos'' eruption range. However, just as he was about to die, a token under his robe shined with bright light. A powerful Sword Intent then came out, slashing everything around him. For a few moments, the entire area one hundred meters around became voided of all mater! Although the guys didn''t die, Wagando was still enraged. "Erven, are you trying to break the pact and kill someone of our Celestial Weapons Organization?" Yet, Erven didn''t mind Wagando''s temper at all! "Hahaha! Who are you trying to deceive here? It''s impossible that your ancestors in the Celestial Weapons Organization didn''t leave some means of protection to you all. I just scared him a little, nothing more." Wagando narrowed his eyes but didn''t say anything else in the end. He just decided that he would pay it back. Ten kilometers behind, Krune was also making his way through the death zone. If one looked around him, they would see several of his Myriad Lightning Shields hovering while spinning around him. All of them had Arcs of Purple Lightning coming from them as well. Thanks to that, nothing in the environment could get close to Krune. As for the heat, it didn''t bother Krune to stat with. Krune was still observing Erven and Wagando''s group fighting in the distance. At first, he didn''t mind their bickering. However, he was quite shocked by the power that token that saved Wagando''s friend. "Luvile, did you see that?" Luvile understood what Krune meant. "Yes. The powers participating in this race shouldn''t be able to bring out something like that. After all, they all only have 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm Members at most. But that token''s power far surpassed it. Also, considering how those two groups reacted after seeing what happened, it was evident that they weren''t at all surprised by it. Without a doubt, those brats there are members of the so-called Celestial Organizations." Krune narrowed his eyes. "What do you think about it?" Luvile pondered a bit and continued. "Considering the power of that token, we can assume that these Celestial Organizations definitely have members at the God Foundation Realm at the very least. I wouldn''t be surprised if some of them reached the God Core Realm, either." Krune agreed with him. "Indeed. However, why are they staying in this place? Did they never consider the possibility of going outside? After all, the Universe around this planet is collapsing." Luvile immediately denied that notion. "They can''t. Everyone born in this place is linked to the demon beast''s silver core. This is that Demon Beast''s Foundation. Do you think it would let anything born in here have the ability to leave anytime they wanted? If that happened, the demon beast''s foundation would be affected. If it was you, would you let them leave either?" Once again, it reminded Krune of the threads that he could see attached to everyone other than Sisan and Iem. ''That is probably the Link that Luvile talked about.'' Still, Krune answered Luvile''s question first. "I would. I can''t picture myself holding so many lives in my foundation against their will. However, I understand what you meant. The majority wouldn''t risk losing even an iota of their power by allowing them to leave." Luvile didn''t feel surprised by Krune''s words. "Well, I already expected that answer from you. Anyway, they are all linked to this foundation. That''s why they had no other choice other than creating this planetary protection formation to stop the collapsing effect from reaching their world." "However, it is a good thing that those at the God Foundation and above can''t go out. If they did, they would be found by the Godly Path Realm''s Heavens. It would then send all of their Heavenly Tribulations at once. Not only that, the power would increase several times due to the time it took for the Heavens to find them. Simply put, anyone above the God Foundation Realm would be zapped in half, with no chance of survival." Hearing those words made Krune remember the Ascencion Tribulations he went through. Those moments really scare the shit out of him. "However, this Celestial Protection Formation can''t hold forever, no?" Luvile nodded once more. "Naturally. I''m already very impressed that it even exists to start with. Unfortunately, the demon beast outside is dead. Its Silver Demon Core is full of cracks as well. Sooner or later, the formation will reach its limit and break apart. When that happens, everyone on this planet will be doomed. In fact, that will also be the moment that the Silver Core outside will collapse for good, becoming nothing more than an empty shell." "How long do you think it will take?" "Hard to say. At the moment, the Celestial Protection Formation is very sturdy. Not to mention that these Celestial Organizations seem to be taking excellent care of it. If I were to guess, I would say at least a few more chaos cycles. Of course, the time here passes ten times faster than outside, so it might not take an entire chaos cycle there." Krune couldn''t help but sigh. When that moment comes, billions, if not trillions of lives, will perish in a single moment. "Don''t overthink it. You should instead pay attention to how lucky they are. If this demon beast didn''t exist in the past, the lives here would have never been born. It''s just that their fortune would come to an end eventually. Don''t forget that even in the Mortal Realm, an entire Universe being destroyed isn''t anything that rare. What is happening here can already be considered relatively small in scale." Krune nodded in the end. "Right! Anyway, what should I do if I try to win, and they use those tokens against me?" "Don''t worry, that won''t happen." Krune was taken aback by that answer. "How do you know?" Luvile then chuckled before saying. "If all of them have the same kind of token as that guy, then they can''t activate it by themselves. I can totally tell that those are protection amulets. Unless their own owners'' lives are in danger, they will not show their power. Besides, they are very hard to make. I don''t think they would waste one of these in such a low-level competition." Krune understood where Luvile came from. "Oh, so these two groups are probably from two different Celestial Organizations. After all, they forced that guy''s token to activate." Luvile nodded. "Exactly. Anyway, just follow the initial plan. In the last 200 kilometers, activate your Purple Lightning Shield Wings and leave them behind. I want to see what they can do about it." Krune nodded and continued to follow those guys from a distance. The death zone with the eruptions continued for a total of 650km straight. On the way, they also found even more of those obstacles created by the Lavagator Race. Still, as time passed, those two Celestial Organization Groups began to pull apart from the rest of the competitors. By the time they exited the death zone, there wasn''t a single other cultivator or demon beast close to them anymore. Well, everyone except for a certain wisp. Back where Gavei and Iem''s group was staying, everyone was accompanying those ten Celestial Organization Members. Obviously, there wasn''t anyone that hasn''t noticed their real identities by now. Thus, those who had ordinary members participating in the competition already gave up the idea of acquiring the Wind Essence Vein. However, everyone noticed a little Purple dot that seemed attached to those two groups all the way to this place. It always kept a distance of 10km, never letting go. Obviously, the purple maggot was none other than Krune. What really impressed everyone was how Krune always kept exactly 10km of distance. Every time Erven and Wagando''s groups stopped to deal with one of the obstacles, Krune would stop at the same time. It was as if he could see the groups ahead even though Divine Sense shouldn''t go so far at his level. It didn''t take long for everyone to understand that Krune was playing the fisherman on troubled waters. He was letting the two groups ahead destroy themselves while he kept his energy for a final sprint. Sure enough, the powers that had allowed those Celestial Organization members to take the slots for the competition began to feel uneasy. Unfortunately, there was nothing they could do to warn Erven and Wagando''s groups. Iem, on the other hand, was laughing all the time. Not only him, but Gavei also had a smile that went from ear to ear. Krune''s actions spelled a single word to him, hope! He then turned in Iem and Sisan''s direction and asked with a Divine Sense message. ''What do you think are his chances of victory?'' Sisan didn''t know much about Krune, so he didn''t answer. However, Iem simply gave Gavei a thumbs up. ''Don''t worry, old man. Just watch the show.'' Finally, the last 200km arrived. Chapter 652: Im Just Passing Through "Hahaha! Wagando, just one-tenth of the way remaining. From now on, I won''t hold back anymore!" Wind Element and Laws gathered around Erven before he suddenly accelerated even more! "Hey, Erven, are you forgetting your own fellow disciples?" Trando and the other members of Erven''s group also laughed and released their best movements technique. Sure enough, they also speed up. Wagando''s group wasn''t the least bit surprised, though. "Hmph! Is that all you can do?" Suddenly, a powerful Sword Intent came out of Wagando''s body. Then, it changed into an even more pure Sword Power. Krune was observing them with his Mental Energy, so he also identified it. Wagando began to use the power of the Sword Heart. Wagando seemed like he became a sword himself. He cut through the air at a speed that far surpassed his previous one. Wagando''s group members weren''t any slower either. They all had their own movement techniques, which they used all at once. Just like that, the last part of the competition got even more exciting. Back in the observes place, Gavei felt somewhat nervous. After all, he saw how much faster the two leading groups became. Not to mention that Krune was still 10km behind. He then looked at Iem, who seemed somewhat surprised, so he immediately sent a Divine Sense Message. ''Wh-What is it? Is something wrong?'' Suddenly, Iem began to laugh once more. ''Hahaha! No, it''s just that I didn''t expect them to be this fast. It seems like Krune won''t be able to hide his real speed as he probably was planning to. Otherwise, it will be hard for him to cover the 10km of difference between them.'' Gavei was taken aback by Iem''s words. Right after, he looked back at the monitoring formation just in time to see Krune making his move as well. Back on Krune''s side, he was also surprised by Erven and Wagando''s groups'' speeds. Iem was right; Krune wasn''t planning to show what he could do. But now, he had no choice. Krune''s Shields then positioned themselves behind him as if they were wings. Purple Lightning began to run through them like currents. Right after, Krune''s body began to release Arcs of Purple Lightning as well. Krune was planning to use only part of the Purple Lightning Shield Wings'' power, but now he used all that he could. Of course, there was still a step higher. That was when Krune changes back into his wisp form and goes above his Purple Tribulation Lightning safe output. However, he wasn''t planning to go that far just yet. Suddenly, Krune shot forward in a flash of Purple Light. *Brummm!* Everyone was already surprised when they saw the two leading groups'' real speed. However, the moment Krune released his Shield Wings, they only showed expressions of disbelief. The distance between Krune and the leaders then began to go down at a fast pace. 190km to the finishing line, 9km of the distance between Krune and the leaders; 170km to the finishing line, 8km of distance; 150km to the finishing line, 7km of distance; Gavei looked at that with delight. However, considering Krune''s approaching speed and the finishing line, it seemed he would only catch up with the rest in the last few kilometers. However, at the 100km mark, the last obstacle made by the Lavagator Race appeared. "Look, it''s another formation." "That''s the last one. What does it do?" One of the Lavagator Race''s elders didn''t see a reason to conceal it anymore, so he explained. "It''s the most common one, and at the same time, the most gaming changing. It''s a protection formation. However, it''s not a formation that everyone can attack together. Instead, it was modified to create a protection formation for each individual. It means that each of them will need to break their own protection formation if they wish to continue." Everyone was taken aback. To think that the last obstacle would not have anything to do with speed, but power alone. Right after, everyone glued their eyes in the monitoring formation once more. Sure enough, Erven and Wagando''s group encountered the formations blocking their way. Without wasting any time, they began to release their best skills. "Piercing the World!" "Severing Heart!" "Life Vanquisher!" "Titan''s... Their own protection formations began to tremble without stopping. In just twenty seconds, Erven and Wagando broke through their own. The others quickly followed a few seconds later too. However, those few seconds were enough for Krune to finally arrive at the Protection Formation as well. Divine Sense in this place was greatly restricted, with very few being able to see more than 3 or 4km. Erven''s group was obviously better, so they could even reach somewhere close to 5km. Clearly, they immediately noticed Krune''s approach as soon as they finished breaking their formations. Above all, they noticed how fast he was. Erven, of course, remembered him. "It''s the guy without aura! But... what is he doing?..." Wagando was also impressed. "I remember him. He destroyed the repulsive formation at the start of the race... still..." As mentioned before, Wagando''s group was purposely delaying behind at first. Because of that, they had seen Krune destroying the formation at the first 100km mark. However, he began to fall back after that, so they didn''t pay attention anymore. Krune knew that he wouldn''t be able to hide anymore, nor did he wish to. He saw with his Mental Energy that he would need to break the protection formation by brute force, so he didn''t hold back. When he was still 5km away from the formation, Krune controlled the shields that weren''t part of his Shield Wings to form the cannon shape. At the moment, Krune looked like a bizarre flying cannon! By the time he approached the protection formation, he had already finished charging it with his Purple Tribulation Lightning! "Tribulation Cannon!" *BOOM!* Seconds? What is that? Krune''s protection formation didn''t even show signs of holding the attack at all! The Tribulation Cannon destroyed it like a cannonball shot against a glass window! It shattered into thousands of translucent pieces in a blink of an eye! Let alone the spectators, even Erven and Wagando''s groups were frightened by the power that Krune just showed! "The hell? Is that even possible?!" However, they didn''t have time to think. That''s because Krune''s speed didn''t drop at all! The protection formation was destroyed by his Tribulation Cannon before he even reached it! Naturally, he didn''t have to stop and then accelerate anymore! Erven gritted his teeth and began to release all his power at once. Obviously, he noticed that he would lose to Krune if he didn''t surpass the speed he was moving at the moment. Wagando had the same idea, too, as his Sword Heart Power reached the limit! Both of them weren''t willing to lose this race to some unnamed guy. Worst of all, an unnamed guy with cultivation far below their own! "Everyone, stop that guy! Our Celestial Sky Organization can''t lose to just anyone." Wagando passed the same order to his group. "You guys too, do whatever it takes to hold him back!" Both groups were unwilling to do so. After all, they also wanted to win this race. However, it would indeed be humiliating to their Celestial Organizations if they lose a secular world''s competition. Of course, they also knew how shameless that move of theirs was. But it was still much better than losing. Krune immediately noticed everyone except Wagando and Erven stopping in their tracks and coming at him. That made him narrow his eyes. One must remember that although they are all in the Semi-Divinity Realm, those guys of the Celestial Organizations can totally fight at the Divinity Realm level. "Tribulation Shields Slaughter Formation, Third Form, Twister!" Other than the Shields used for his Purple Lightning Shield Wings, all the others took position around Krune. Suddenly, they all began to rotate around Krune at high speeds. Different from how Krune usually used them, none of the Shields were used to attack this time. Instead, they created a Twister of Purple Tribulation Lightning around him, creating an impenetrable barrier. It was an all and all protection form. Of course, they still had tremendous killing potential. Anyone who entered the twister range would be sliced to pieces by the Purple Tribulation Blades'' power on the Shields. Krune didn''t stop and rushed right inside the barrage of attacks from both groups. *Boom, boom, boom, boom...* Of course, Krune wasn''t invincible or anything like that. With so many attacks at the Divinity Level power, Krune''s Twister began to lose power extremely fast. However, it didn''t matter. That''s because Krune was much faster than any of them. Not to mention that they had to stop to unleash their own attacks to stop Krune. In a span of just a few seconds, Krune broke through their defense with brute force without being delayed at all! "Impossible!" Erven and Wagando saw all of that with their Divine Senses. Even they had no confidence whatsoever in being able to breakthrough like that. Let alone if they were in the same 1st Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm as krune. Only if their ancestor''s token activated would they risk it. It was still 50km away from the finishing line. However, Krune was already beside Wagando and Erven. Krune wasn''t going to say anything. But since they used their two entire groups to stop him, he decided that he couldn''t just let it go. He then paused on their sides before saying with a smile on his face. "Hey there. Don''t mind me. I''m just passing through. Hahaha!" Right after, he accelerated again. *Brumm!* Just like that, Krune disappeared ahead in a flash of Purple Light. Wagando and Erven almost vomited blood at that moment. Chapter 653: They Appeared Without any surprises, Krune crossed the finishing line first. As for the rest... well... This wasn''t a race that gave prizes for those who were second or below, so it didn''t matter anymore. Back in the spectators'' place, Gavei was laughing out loud. "Hahaha! It seems like the heavens are still on my Green Talon Eagle Race''s side. Don''t forget, everyone. For the next two hundred years, I don''t want any of you bothering us about our Wind Essence Vein. Hahaha!" Everyone who participated in this race had ugly expressions. However, there was nothing they could do. After all, they were the ones who came up with this idea to start with. The ones with the worst expressions were obviously the powers who had Celestial Organization Members participating in it. Of course, considering Krune''s cultivation and his real power, they all thought that Krune was also a Celestial Organization Member. It''s just that he was probably part of another one different from Wagando and Erven''s ones. In fact, this was the same thought Wagando and Erven were having after they finished the race exactly. "Wagando, have you heard about any new rising start in the other two Celestial Organizations?" Wagando immediately shook his head. "No. However, there is still a chance that he is part of one of ours as well. After all, it is not uncommon to have secrets even inside our own homes. You should know that better than anyone else. Also, since he appeared here in your Celestial Sky Organization territory, he might be someone from your turf." Erven wanted to deny that, but he knew that Wagando was talking the truth. The fact was that the Celestial Organizations'' insides aren''t as united as the secular world believed. It was common to have strifes between them. Some hidden members that no one knew about appearing here and there wasn''t anything rare at all in their histories. "That makes things complicated. Still, Krune is only at the 1st Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm, but he is faster than us. Not to mention his Purple Lightning. I''ve never seen anyone using such power before. I don''t want to admit it, but he is probably stronger than us as well. How come we didn''t receive any information about such a freak?" Wagando nodded. "He isn''t using any of the Celestial Organizations'' identification methods. Could it be that he isn''t part of any of the four?" Erven immediately denied that notion. "Impossible. We all keep a tight watch over our own territories. Although I didn''t know that you were coming, I''m sure that the watchers noticed your presence as soon as you appeared. If someone like Krune appeared in the wild, we would have caught him a long time ago. He wouldn''t even need to pass through any selection. Our organizations would bring him in through the back door straight away." In the end, they reached the conclusion that Krune must be part of one of the four Celestial Organizations. Later, back in the place where the spectators were staying, Krune and the surviving participants were brought back. Gavei then came forward to receive him. "Hahaha! Well done, Krune. With this, one of the favors is paid." Krune smiled after hearing that. This was basically something that they came up with for Krune''s sudden appearance. "It''s okay, senior Gavei. But don''t forget, you only have another two favors remaining. Be careful about what you will use them in the future." Everyone heard that and nodded to themselves. They knew that the Green Talon Eagle Race didn''t have anyone of Krune''s caliber. That being said, he had to have come from some other big power or even a Celestial Organization. They all thought that Gavei had done something for Krune''s background, which allowed him to bring Krune to the competition. Of course, that also reinforced Wagando and Erven''s beliefs that Krune also had the same kind of background as themselves. Still, that didn''t mean they believed everything Gavei and Krune said. After all, they didn''t need to say those words aloud. Instead, they could have used Divine Sense Messages. The fact that they didn''t was obviously because they wanted the rest to hear. Gavei then talked with Krune a little more and returned to the crowd to speak with the others. As mentioned before, it wasn''t only the participating powers that came to this race. Instead, there were several times more powers that came here just to watch the show. Gavei was taking that opportunity to make a few friends too. As the leader of the Green Talon Eagle Race, he couldn''t let such opportunities pass by. While he was gone, Iem and Sisan came to talk with Krune as well. However, they used Divine Sense Messages instead of their voices. "You did notice that those two groups over there are not ordinary, right?" Krune nodded. "Yes. I''m sure they are part of those so-called Celestial Organizations. However, they probably think that we are part of one of those as well. After all, no one will believe if we say that we came from outside the planet." Iem nodded. "That''s a good thing. However, they will investigate us sooner or later. After we get our Wind Essence Vials, we should leave straight away." Krune and Sisan agreed with Iem. However, that will happen after this gathering is over. That being said, Erven and Wagando would definitely approach them before it. Sure enough, halfway through the post-race gathering, Wagando and Erven came to talk with Krune''s group. "I have to admit, you really surprised us back there. Anyway, my name is Erven Cante." Wagando also said his piece. "Indeed. Those shields were especially impressive. You can call me Wagando." Krune bowed to them. "Hi there. You can call me Krune." Erven didn''t want to waste much time, so he went straight into the topic. "Krune, from which Celestial Organization are you from?" Krune shook his head after hearing that. "You should know this already. I can''t say anything about me, at least not until the elders allow me to do so. That''s why I''m not using anything that could expose my identity." Of course, that was all bullshit. "I see... Probably not even your name is real, right? As for your faces, I doubt that they are the real ones even more." Krune shrugged his shoulders as if confirming their words. Still, he didn''t deny nor agree with what Erven said. "Is there anything else you wish to know?" Wagando immediately nodded his head. "Yes. What is this Purple Lightning of yours? I''ve never heard about it before. It has some kind of weird powers that I can''t identify at all." The power Wagando was talking about is the Tribulation one. It is expected that they don''t know about it. After all, this world doesn''t have such things as Heavenly Tribulations. Naturally, they can''t possibly have felt it before. "All I can tell you is that this is a new technique that has been in development for a long time in secret. As for how it was created, or which of our organizations is doing it, I can''t say. Still, it probably won''t be long before it is revealed to everyone. Also, I can at least tell you that my side isn''t the only one researching something like this. Anyway, you could say that I''m just a testing subject." Krune didn''t say much, but there were many hidden meanings in his words that Erven and Wagando understood. Too bad that it was all bullshit as well. Of course, it didn''t mean that they believed everything Krune said. Only an idiot would do so. Erven then nodded his head. "It''s okay. I was already expecting a similar answer from you. By the way, how long will you stay around?" Krune pondered a bit before saying. "I''ll be returning to the Green Talon Eagle Race''s territory with Gavei. After that... well, we''ll see." After that, the three of them talked for a while longer before finally separating. Time passed in a flash, and soon, the gathering was over. Krune''s group then left with Gavei and his elders. As for Erven and Wagando, they also left. Of course, they went in different directions. After flying for a few kilometers, Erven took a token from his Spatial Ring and poured Godly Energy inside. Right after, he said a few things close to it. The token then shined for a few seconds before returning to normal. Pordol saw that and couldn''t help but ask. "Did you decide to investigate Krune''s group?" Erven nodded. "Something just doesn''t feel right. Krune''s story indeed does match what we thought it was, especially that Purple Lightning. It wasn''t something that just anyone could create, so a Celestial Organization must be behind this. Still, I can''t help but feel that we are missing something of extreme importance." Pordol and the others looked at each other before nodding. After that, they continued their journey. Wagando''s group wasn''t much different. They also contacted their own background. However, Wagando''s Celestial Weapons Organization did not have authority in this place, so it would be a lot more difficult for them to investigate anything. Nonetheless, he did his part in reporting what happened in that secular world competition. Back on Krune''s side, they flew all the way back to the Green Talon Eagle Race''s mountain. However, they didn''t waste too much time on that. After acquiring the three vials promised to them, Krune''s group left straight away. They kept flying for a few hundreds of kilometers when suddenly, Luvile warned Krune. "A Divine Sense just scanned our area. It was definitely much stronger than anyone at the 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm." Krune nodded. "Sure enough, they appeared." Chapter 654: Gotas City Krune then asked Luvile. "Do you know how far this Divine Sense Owner is?" "At least ten thousand kilometers. However, considering the owner''s cultivation, it won''t take him or her more than a minute to arrive here. Also, you must not forget that the space on this planet is quite fragile. I believe it won''t be hard for anyone at the Mortal Rejection Realm or above to open a Spatial Gate around." Krune nodded. "It''s okay. The owner of this Divine Sense is more than far enough. Also, Spatial Gates don''t open instantly. We have a lot of time. Not to mention that whoever it is, he or she is probably not intending to get close. If you consider the gap between our cultivations, the other side probably thinks we didn''t notice anything." Luvile agreed with Krune. Iem and Harold were also having a similar type of conversation and reached the same conclusion. Krune then looked at Sisan and Iem before saying. "You two, get close to me." Iem knew what Krune wanted to do. As for Sisan, Krune simply said that he wanted to use a technique to conceal their presence while leaving. Right after, Krune''s Purple Tribulation Lighting came out of his body and formed a layer of protection around the three of them. Iem could make something similar with his Harold''s Devil Flames, but he simply decided to use Krune''s one. With that done, the three of them changed direction and disappeared in the distance at full speed. In fact, Krune and Iem weren''t that worried. That''s because they had Zule beside them. If there was really a need, Zule already guaranteed that he could open the spatial gate connecting outside at any time. Of course, they will try to delay that as much as possible so that they can explore this place. Ten thousand kilometers away, a woman was using her Divine Sense to check the three. At the same time, she made sure to keep that distance so that she wouldn''t catch their attention. Her name was Clara Magnok, an elder of the Celestial Sky Organization. Also, a God Foundation Realm cultivator! She received the report from Erven sometime ago. After reading through it, she was quite surprised by the contents. She then went to talk with the higher-ups of the Organization, but no one knew anything about Krune or his type of power. In the end, she was dispatched to verify what was all this about. However, because they thought that Krune''s group was part of another Celestial Organization, they couldn''t touch them due to the pact they had. That being said, she decided to watch them from afar before deciding what to do. However, just a few moments after she found them with her Divine Sense, they suddenly disappeared! "What?!" Clara was taken aback when she found that they evaporated in thin air right inside her Divine Sense range. She made a slashing motion with her hands without wasting any time, which quickly opened a Spatial Gate in front. This was also how she arrived in this place so fast. After passing through it, she appeared right in the place Krune''s group vanished. However, even after looking all around with both her vision and Divine Sense, she couldn''t find a single clue about their positions. ''They have a treasure that can even hide from a Divine Sense of much higher level than themselves. That''s not all; they disappeared right after I found them with my Divine Sense, which means they also have something capable of detecting it. Seems like Erven was right; they are definitely part of one of the other three Celestial Organizations. But what are they doing so far from their home?'' Clara then shook her head and selected a random direction to fly. Of course, she knew her chances of finding them now were almost inexistent, but it was still better than nothing. Back on Krune''s group side, they kept flying close to the ground while covered by Luvile''s Purple Lightning Layer. After all, the Purple Lightning was quite catchy when using naked eyes. That way, they could use the terrain to conceal it as much as possible. Krune''s group received a map from Gavei back in the Green Talon Eagle Race Mountain, so they now knew where they were going, at least. "Take these pills and swallow them. They will change our appearances temporarily." Krune then passed the pills to Iem and Sisan, who immediately ate them. Krune, of course, did the same thing. Right after, their body structures and appearance changed, making them look three completely different people. "Alright. We are five days away from Gotas City at this speed. From what we heard from Gavei, that is one of the largest cities in the Celestial Sky Organization Territory. We can check if there is anything good for us to take from there." Iem and Sisan nodded. "The Wind Essence Vials we got so far is already worth a lot in the Godly Path Realm. What else can we take from this place?" The three of them began to ponder. "The best thing would be if we could enter a Celestial Organization and see what resources they have there. However, we simply don''t have enough time. Besides, they seldom recruit new members. Not to mention that their tests can take weeks to be concluded. We don''t have that long." Sisan also added. "That''s not all. We can''t select the Celestial Sky Organization since they are also looking for us. Not to mention the risks involved in getting close to any of the others too. It would be better if we could find something else not related to them." Iem shook his head. "It will be hard. Other than them, the rest live in a world where the 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm and Divinity Peak Realm are the limits. Other than the Elemental Essences, would there be anything else of value?" Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Should we try to get more of the other Elemental Essences? Different from outside, they don''t seem to be that rare in this world." Iem couldn''t help but wonder. "Usually, we would take missions in the sect when we want to get new resources. Don''t you think that this planet also has some kind of Missions or Mercenary Guild? We could check Gotas City for it. If there is anything worth taking notice of, we probably can find it there. Even if we don''t find anything different from the Elemental Essences, there are bound to be some jobs that have them as rewards too." Krune and Sisan immediately nodded. "Indeed, that''s a very good idea." "Very well, let''s increase the speed so that we can save some time. We already spent ten of the forty days available to us." With that said, Krune''s group once again increased their speed. The travel that was supposed to last five days ended consuming four days in the end. Finally, Krune''s group noticed the increase of cultivators and demon beasts around. Not too long after, they sited Gotas City''s Wall in the distance. Of course, Krune had already stopped using the Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer by now. "We are finally here. Let''s go to the city gate and ask the guards." Everyone nodded as they quickly approached the city. After getting close, they noticed that the city was covered by a protection formation too. There was quite an enormous queue for the cultivators and demon beasts who wanted to enter it at the gate. Every time someone entered the city, they paid the guards at the gate with some kind of black stone. As mentioned before, Godly Stones are not available for the people and beasts of this planet. That being said, they used another type of currency called Migan Stones. These stones could be mined around the entire planet and were mostly found close to Elemental Essence Veins. That was another reason for the powers to want those Veins so much. Obviously, the Green Talon Eagle Race had a lot of them. Thanks to that, Krune''s group was able to fork quite a fair amount from Gavei when they stayed in the mountain. Krune''s group examined those stones and could tell that they had some Godly Energy inside. However, they couldn''t compare to the most common Godly Stones from the outside world. Still, they were perfect for being used as currency due to their rarity. Krune''s group waited in line until it was their time. However, to avoid suspicion, they were not close to each other. They decided to take different positions in the queue and enter one by one. Once inside, they could use their communicators to find each other as long as they don''t go too far from the entrance. This is another thing from this planet. The technology was nonexistent. This world operated pretty much on the old Godly Energy-based systems. Well, not that it bothered Krune''s group too much. The only problem was that they didn''t have instant access to a lot of information like on the outside. In fact, they heard from Jilan that information is quite expensive. There was even a group that worked by providing information, the Watchers Guild. Some thought that if you don''t find what you want to know there, then you won''t find anywhere else. Of course, because of their efficiency, their prices were also exceptionally high. Krune''s group thought about paying a visit to them in case they don''t find anything good at first. Once inside the city, Krune waited for Iem and Sisan to arrive, which didn''t take too long. "Alright, I already asked the guard about it. There is indeed an organization like the Missions Hall here. Let''s go there first." Chapter 655: Chaotic Pathway They quickly arrived at their destination. From the looks of it, what they had here was a Mercenary Organization. However, this one was a lot more ''open'' than the ones Krune had seen in the past. That''s because they literally accepted everything¡ªthe only thing not included was requests related to the Celestial Organizations. Other than that, even assassinations were not a problem as long as the reward was good enough. Krune''s group didn''t find it surprising, though. After all, this is a world without technology. Logically, their social organization was a lot lacking. They really operated on medieval methods. Once inside, Krune and the others went to the counter straight away. Of course, they had to wait in the queue there before being attended. "Hi there. Is there anything you would like to post?" Krune shook his head. "We are looking for a few good missions. Do you have a list of the available jobs or something like that?" The attendant nodded before passing a jade slip to Krune. Sure enough, they still used this type of item instead of electronic memory devices. "All the available jobs for Semi-Divinity Realm and below are inside. You can take a look and come back later once you have selected one." Krune took the jade slip and then asked something else. "Would you mind passing me the Divinity Realm level requests too?" The attendant looked at Krune''s group and then noticed Sisan''s 9th Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm. However, he couldn''t see anyone at a higher level. "You don''t have any Divinity Realm in your group. Are you sure you want it?" Krune nodded. The guy behind the counter then shrugged his shoulders and passed another Jade Slip to Krune. He had no reason to deny their request to start with. The Mercenary Guild only receives and gives the jobs. As long as they received their payment, they didn''t care about the level of those who take them. The guy only warned Krune''s group out of courtesy. Krune, Iem, and Sisan then left the queue and went to a corner where they could read the content of the missions available. They didn''t waste time with the Semi-Divinity Realm missions and below, though. At their level, only Divinity Realm level jobs would catch their attention. "Sure enough, there are quite a few jobs that offer Elemental Essences as payment." "Indeed. However, there are a lot more items that I don''t know about too. Elemental Essences are from the God Realm, which proves that the Demon Beast outside came from there. In that case, I wouldn''t be surprised if these unknown rewards are also things from the God Realm." Iem and Krune then began to show these items to Harold and Luvile. Even though they were gods from ancient times, they had been in the God Realm before. There was a chance that they could recognize a few of them. Of course, Sisan had no idea about what they were doing. Suddenly, Harold noticed something. "Oh! That''s interesting." Iem immediately paused after hearing that. "Did you find something valuable?" Harold didn''t answer Iem, though. "Luvile, look at the 1437th mission reward. There is an image there. Do you think it''s that thing?" Luvile heard that Divine Sense message and immediately looked at the reward Harold spoke about. "Hm...? Indeed, it seems like it. However, it is using a different name now." Harold nodded. "That''s to be expected. Just how long have we been gone? A few names changing isn''t anything unexpected. I just wanted to confirm if I was correct." Krune and Iem couldn''t help but urge them. "Just what are you talking about?" Harold then explained. "This... ''Bazuric Nectar'' had another name in the past. However, it matters little now. What you need to know is that it can enhance one''s bloodline to a new level. Even in the God Realm, it was quite rare. However, I don''t know if it is still the case at the moment. After all, too much time has passed since Luvile and I ''perished.''" "Anyway, it is an excellent item that I doubted for a second if I was seeing the right thing. Even top bloodlines like Dragons and Phoenixes can benefit greatly from this. That Demon Beast at the God Core Realm from your Sky Shifting Sect... errr... Tosely, right? Whatever. I believe it would be pleased if it could put its hands on this nectar. The best thing will be if Tosely waits until it reaches the Peak of the God Core Realm. If it takes this nectar at that moment, it would pretty much guarantee its breakthrough into the Nascent God Realm. Not to mention the permanent enhancement of bloodline that it will receive." "However, it has to be concocted into a pill first using a special method. If it is consumed directly, it will lose all of its bloodline effects. Also, other items are necessary for the concoction as well. Still, the rest of the items aren''t that rare. You probably can find it in the Godly Path Realm if you put enough effort into it." Krune and Iem were surprised by what they heard. Sure enough, they found something even more valuable than the Elemental Essences in this place. "Wait. If it is this good, how come some Divinity Realm mission is providing it as a reward? This is a huge waste. Could it be that the contractor is trying to fool us?" Krune agreed with Iem. It was way too suspicious. Harold and Luvile then pondered a bit about the situation. After all, they also thought that it shouldn''t be on display this easily. "Most likely, what they don''t know about is that it can be concocted into a bloodline enhancement pill. After all, it would be too risky to put such a thing in the open like this. This item would definitely catch the Celestial Organizations'' eyes if they knew what it does. I doubt that this contractor would do such a thing if he and the Celestial Organizations knew about it." Krune then suggested. "Well, let''s look around the stores in the city. There is bound to be someone who knows something about this Bazuric Nectar, right? We can find what they use it for." Iem nodded. "Indeed. However, what about the mission itself?" Krune then looked at it to see the contents of the job. "Hum? It''s a search mission. The contractor wants an item called Chaotic Demon Flower. Now look at that, would you believe it? This flower has the power to further purify a demon beast''s bloodline. That''s really an irony. I wonder what this demon beast who posted the mission would do if it knew what the Bazuric Nectar could really do. From the looks of it, this flower can only be found in a place called Chaotic Pathway. Hum... it doesn''t say where we can find it inside that place, though." Krune and Iem looked at each other. Although the reward was excellent, the mission''s content gave them no guarantee since they didn''t know where to find that flower. In the end, they might waste their time there. Not to mention the dangers of the task itself. After all, this was a mission that was supposed to be accepted by Divinity Realm Cultivators and Demon Beasts. "Anyway, let''s ask around about this Bazuric Nectar first." Iem nodded, and they immediately left the Mercenary Guild while dragging the puzzled Sisan. Obviously, Sisan had no idea about Luvile and Harold''s existence, so he didn''t hear their Divine Sense conversation. Sure enough, Bazuric Nectar was a rare item well worth a Divinity Realm''s help. However, they used it for something completely different than bloodline enhancement pills. Instead, it was really consumed directly. The power in the nectar was sought out by those who wanted to make breakthroughs. Seeing that, Harold understood what was happening here. "What a waste, truly a waste of such a wonderful resource. They are using it for Divinity Realm cultivation. Although most of the nectar''s power is lost when consumed like this, it still has enough to help during a stage breakthrough. They probably think that this is the best use of this item. It also explains why the Celestial Organizations don''t care too much about it." Krune shook his head, though. "Maybe that''s not the case. Don''t forget that as big as this planet might be, it is only a planet. They most likely don''t have the rest of the items necessary to create the bloodline enhancement pill. Since they are not available, no one found the real use for the nectar. In the end, they could only use it this way." Harold had to admit that Krune was right. "Anyway, we now know that it is a safe item and probably not a trap. However, we need to find more about this Chaotic Pathway before we decide to go in." Iem shrugged his shoulders. "This is easy to find about. Let''s go to the Watchers Guild and get the information. I doubt they don''t know what to expect in that place." Once again, Iem and Krune left while dragging poor and puzzled Sisan. Well, at least they explained to him that they wanted that Bazuric Nectar and that it was extremely valuable. Around an hour later, Krune''s group arrived in front of the Watchers Guild building. Without wasting time, they quickly entered inside. There, they could see several small passages that seemed to connect to private rooms. That made sense, though. After all, information was what the Watchers Guild lived from. The fewer people who knew, the higher the price. Soon, an agent from the guild stepped inside their room. "Hello. May I ask what kind of information these sirs require?" Krune nodded. "We want all the information available about the Chaotic Pathway." Chapter 656: Captured The agent nodded. "Sure, if you want everything we know about the place, it will cost you 3530 Migan Stones." The price was quite high. However, it was worth it if they could find that Chaotic Demon Flower and bring it out to trade. Krune then took out the Migan Stones and passed it over. The agent smiled after seeing that. "Wait here a minute. I''ll be right back." Sure enough, the agent came back with a jade slip not too long after. After passing it to Krune''s group, he closed the door and left. Seeing that, the three of them poured their Divine Senses inside to check the contents. The Chaotic Pathway is a place at the south pole of the planet. From the looks of it, that is the weakest point of the Celestial Protection Formation. It''s not that the Protection Formation is breaking down, but that it is the furthest point from the four cores that keep it running. Thanks to that, the effects of the Chaotic Space from the outside can affect the surrounding area. Simply put, that Chaotic Pathway became quite similar to the world outside of the Silver Core. It''s just that there is no such thing as Space Creatures there. After all, there is no Silver Blood on this planet. "Seems reliable. There is also a teleport formation we can take that bring us close there." It turned out that it wasn''t as dangerous as they thought. However, that''s because of Krune''s Mental Energy Perception, which could perceive Spatial Tears way easier than anyone else. While everyone would be afraid of being caught by them, Krune didn''t have that problem. Not to mention that Zule was also there. "Alright, let''s go back to the Mercenary Guild and take this mission." The three then immediately went back there. Although the attendant of the Mercenary Guild felt like they were being suicidal, he still passed the contractor''s contact. According to the mission, anyone could accept it. However, only those with the Chaotic Demon Flower would receive the Bazuric Nectar. After confirming that the contractor still hasn''t got the flower, Krune''s group went to the teleport formation. With a flash of silver light, the three disappeared. If everything goes well, Krune believes that they won''t take more than a few days to come back. Meanwhile, three Peak Semi-Divinity Realm cultivators/demon beasts had just been captured by the Celestial Soul Organization. As one can imagine, this was another one of the Four Celestial Organizations that protects one of the Four Cores of the Celestial Protection Formation. Those three Paek Semi-Divinity Realm just so happen to be Foltan''s subordinates. Just like Krune''s group, they also appeared inside this planet. However, they soon realized an enormous issue. They can''t leave! At first, they were as excited as Krune, Iem, and Sisan. They soon found the Elemental Essences and other rare items that would be worth a lot even to their sect master. Not to mention that they could take a few for themselves. How good could that be? However, different from Krune, this group doesn''t have Zule to open a spatial gate for themselves. If they want to leave the Silver Core, they will need to go out of the Planet''s Protection Formation first. After that, they can approach the end of the space and use the Spatial Barrier to be teleported outside. Unfortunately, they don''t have the power necessary to pass through the Protection Formation. Of course, since they can fly, they went high in the skies and tried to break through the barrier themselves. Unfortunately for them, things didn''t go well, and they gave up. They knew that they had limited time before the Sealed Godly Vein Space goes out of control again. Without another choice, they could only approach the Celestial Soul Organization to find a way out. With the superior combat techniques that allowed them to fight at the Divinity Realm level, they soon found a way through the backdoor. After all, geniuses at their level were very rare to be found. However, the Celestial Soul Organization wasn''t made of idiots. They noticed something wrong about these guys. First, how come they had never heard of such geniuses before? As one can imagine, their first thought was that they might be spies of the other Celestial Organizations. But there was something weird about those three while they performed their duties in the organization. They didn''t seem to be looking for any secrets of their Celestial Soul Organization. Instead, they were trying to find a way out of the Protection Formation. That didn''t make sense. After all, if they were members of other Celestial Organizations, why would they come here to look for such a thing? Were they trying to make the investigators look in the wrong direction? But as it turned out, they really wanted to simply go out. The Celestial Organizations had several teams that had to go out periodically. After all, they had to continually check the Celestial Protection Formation''s integrity, making repairs anytime it was necessary. However, nothing could be done to harm their organization on the outside, which puzzled the investigators even more. That being said, they decided to let them join the groups that checked their organization''s formation. Foltan''s group noticed that the time in this place passed faster. However, different from Luvile and Harold, they couldn''t tell how faster it was. They were afraid that if they waited too long, they would lose their chance to escape. Because of that, they took the first opportunity to go away from the Celestial Protection Formation. They already got a few rare items while on the planet, so they weren''t going back empty-handed anyway. It only took them a day to reach the barrier between this Silver Core Space and outside. However, just as they touched the border and began the process of teleporting out, a powerful pressure locked them in place. Right after, an old man appeared beside them. "Dolmen, Hames, and Siciwo... am I right? Just like Krune''s group, they didn''t bother hiding their names since no one should know about their existence here to start with. "At least, that''s the names you used when you joined our Celestial Soul Organization. Oh, right! My name is Gamadol Furkive, an elder of the Celestial Soul Organization." "Anyway, we have been watching you for quite a few days, trying to figure out what your objective was here. However, you didn''t try to do anything out of the line and only tried to join the repairing teams. We let you do that to find out what you really wanted. But when I saw you leaving your position and rushing into outer space, you really made me puzzled. If you were members of the other Celestial Organizations, you had no need to come to us for such a thing. You could simply ask your own powers to allow you to do so." "Still, I followed you to see what you were up to. You can''t imagine how surprised I was when you touched this Spatial Barrier. If I hadn''t intervened, you would definitely have been teleported out of here. All our four Celestial Organizations checked the Spatial Barriers of our Universe hundreds of thousands of times during our existence. Unfortunately, it didn''t matter what we did. The barrier had never shown any reaction whatsoever." "But just now, you were just a step away from doing so. I really can''t understand how you did that. Unless... you guys were not born in this place." Dolmen''s group was sweating cold. Even though they wanted to move, the pressure completely sealed their movements. That showed just how many realms above that elder in front of them was. He was simply someone they couldn''t even dream of fighting against. "Anyway, I''ll bring you three back so that we can have a close chat. Our Celestial Organizations dreamed about the world outside for who knows how long, so I can''t just let you leave this easy. I hope you will collaborate too. After all, you should know how good our Celestial Soul Organization is with the matters of Soul." Right after, Gamadol opened a spatial gate, quickly entering it with the three members of Foltan''s group. A day later, all four Celestial Organizations were caught in an uproar! It was the first time they had received visitors from outside. From Dolmen''s group, they came to know about the Zamaria Planet, the fact that they were inside a Demon''s Core, the Top Quality Godly Veins Event, etc... Obviously, with the Celestial Soul Organization taking care of the interrogatory, Dolmen''s group wasn''t able to hide anything. However, one thing deeply puzzled them in the end. Why could Dolmen''s group leave this place while they couldn''t? They obviously went to the place where Gamadol captured Dolmen and the others to check the Spatial Barrier. However, as always, no reaction happened at all. For that, even Dolmen''s group had no answer. In their minds, anyone who wanted to leave should be able to do so. Of course, Dolmen''s group doesn''t know anything about the God Realm, so they also don''t know that anyone born in a Foundation is linked to it. It''s not that there is no way out, but the demon beast had to agree with it. Obviously, that would be impossible since the demon beast outside is already dead. However, they also revealed another piece of news. "We came with another group as well. We don''t know how to bring you out, but they might do." Sure enough, Dolmen''s group decided to try to sell Krune''s group out. Chapter 657: Unexpected Finding The Celestial Sky Organization wasn''t that dumb. As soon as they heard that there were another three outsiders on the planet, they immediately remembered the report that Erven sent a while ago. Not to mention how Clara lost their track out of nowhere. Ever since that day, they had been looking for them, but no traces were found. Once the information arrived, members of the Celestial Sky Sect were sent to the Green Talon Eagle Race''s Mountain straight away. However, be it Gavei, Melio, or Jilan, none of them knew where Krune went. Of course, the investigators already expected that much. Why would the outsiders tell them what they planned to do? However, it was not like they didn''t have any leads at all. Just like Dolmen''s group, Krune''s one was looking for treasures to bring out. That being said, they began to look for groups of three that had been searching for high rewards. That included all the races who had Elemental Essence Veins, Mission from the Mercenary Guilds, etc... At first, the number of possible suspects was enormous. However, when they looked for lower-level cultivators and demon beasts taking higher-level assignments for their level, the number instantly plummeted. Soon, they found a few possible missions, tasks, etc., that met the conditions. Sure enough, a certain group of three had looked into a mission in the Chaotic Pathway. They even asked for the contact of the owner of the Bazuric Nectar. Too bad, though. This world has no technology, so investigations take a long time. Especially when you expand your search over an entire territory. The Celestial Sky Organization took a total of five days to finally lock into that lead. Not to mention the extra day they took to receive the information about Dolmen''s group and his confession. By the time they went to look for that Demon Beast that was trading the Bazuric Nectar, he already entered seclusion to absorb the Chaotic Demon Flower that Krune''s group found for him. Of course, the Celestial Sky Organization couldn''t care less if he was in seclusion or not. They immediately barged in and asked whatever they wanted. Unfortunately for them, Krune''s group had already departed with the Bazuric Nectar just two days prior. As for where they had gone, the guy had no idea. Krune''s group was still blind about the long scale search about them, though. However, at the same time, they didn''t return to the Mercenary Guild to look for more missions. That''s because when they were in the Chaotic Pathway, they found something very interesting... "We are here." If one looked around, they would see several Spatial Tears appearing and disappearing. Not to mention the invisible ones that were what made the Divinity Realm cultivators of this planet fearful. Right below Krune''s group, there was a chasm that expanded for hundreds of kilometers. While searching for the so-called Chaotic Demon Flower, Krune and the other two entered it too. As one can expect, the Chaotic Pathway also hinders Divine Sense, so it couldn''t compare to Krune''s Mental Energy Scan at all. It was true his Mental Energy that Krune coincidentally bumped on that Fire Essence Vein. Not only that, but the Chaotic Demon Flower was also nearby, using the Vein''s power to feed itself. The three days of uninterrupted search had finally paid off, and much more than they expected. First, they took the Demon Flower and left to deliver it. Right after, they immediately returned to this place. Little did they know that so many cultivators and demon beasts were looking for them outside the Chaotic Pathway. Krune''s group immediately dived into the chasm until they reached the place closest to the Vein. After that, they began to use their Earth Element to open a passage to it. Krune''s Mental Energy could reach up to 100km in this place, and the Vein was 90km deep in the ground. That being said, they will take quite some time to reach it. Clara Magnok, the one who had lost Krune and his friends, was leading one of the groups that were looking for them. It had been a day since they heard the Demon Beast''s report with the Chaotic Demon Flower, so they restarted their search from there. Suddenly, a member of their organization appeared right beside Clara. "Senior Clara, we found the teleport formation they used. It took us quite some time because they didn''t use it together, but at separated intervals. They also had different faces when they did it. Anyway, after delivering the Chaotic Demon Flower to that Demon Beast, they took the Bazuric Nectar and returned to the same place again." Clara was taken aback. "You mean they went back to Chaotic City?" Because of the Chaotic Pathway, the nearest city to it received the same name. Those who wanted to explore that place would usually teleport there first. However, other than the Chaotic Pathway, the region didn''t have much to offer. "Could it be that they returned to the Chaotic Pathway? But why? There is no way they can break the Celestial Protection Formation even if they are at the weakest point." The subordinate then suggested. "Maybe they found out about our search, so they went there to hide." Clara narrowed her eyes. "But if that was the case, they will be locked in our planet as well. They need to come to one of the Celestial Organizations if they want to step outside the planet. At least, that''s what the group we captured said. No, wait! First of all, who said that the only way to leave was by going out of the protection formation? That Dolmen''s group told us that they were enemies with this other group and were from different powers. There is no guarantee that they don''t have a way to leave on their own." The more Clara thought about it, the more she believed it to be true. The longer Krune''s group stayed away from the Celestial Organizations, the less time they would have. After all, they would need time to infiltrate one of the Celestial Organizations so that they could enter outer space. Clara knew about their limited time to stay in here before they got locked in the Sealed Godly Energy Vein Space. Since they weren''t caring about it, they must have another way out that has nothing to do with them. "Pass my orders, bring everyone at the Mortal Rejection Realm level or above to the Chaotic Pathway. We need to find their group as soon as possible." The subordinate accepted the orders and immediately contacted the other groups. As long as one reaches the Mortal Rejection Realm, they would be able to open Spatial Gates on this planet. That being said, it didn''t take long for several Spatial Gates to appear in the Chaotic Pathway vicinity. However, none of them dared to open a Spatial Gate directly inside. Due to how chaotic space is there, chances are that they would fall into a Spatial Storm and be ripped to shreds. The Celestial Sky Organization was really big. In total, over a hundred Mortal Rejection Realm cultivators and demon beasts appeared here. God Foundation alone was more than ten, Clara included. But that wasn''t all since they also sent two God Core Realm High Elders! This is the highest cultivation available on the planet. They had no Nascent God Realm cultivator or Demon Beasts here. The reason for that was not the lack of Godly Energy, though. Krune was right about one thing. The four Celestial Organizations were really controlling the flow of Godly Energy on the planet with the Celestial Protection Formation. Inside their turfs, they would have as much Godly Energy as a Top Quality Godly Energy Vein. They definitely didn''t lack it. However, the Nascent God Realm was directly linked to the Heavens itself. Since this place can''t touch the Heavens outside, one can not make the breakthrough into the Nascent God Realm. Clara and all the other elders quickly paid their respects to these two God Core Realm High Elders. "You guys can stop with it already. Our priority is to find that group that entered the Chaotic Pathway. Let''s go!" The two elders took the lead, and all the others quickly followed them inside. As for Krune, Iem, and Sisan, they were happily collecting Fire Essence from the Fire Essence Vein they found. But that wasn''t all. Fire Essence could also be used for cultivation as long as one understood how to use Fire Laws and Elements proficiently. Iem and Krune were obviously at ease. They are basically good with all five primary elements. However, the truly lucky one was Sisan. He had used the Fire Laws to enter the Divine View Realm, having achieved the Major Law of Fire. Krune also did the same, but he was only in the 1st Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm. Sisan, on the other hand, was at the Peak! One of the reasons he came into the Godly Energy Vein Sealed Space was so that he could find an opportunity to breakthrough. His initial idea was to help the team gather enough Top Quality Godly Energy Stones so that he would receive one to use himself. But now, with this amount of Fire Essence, he immediately changed his mind. "So you want to break through into the Divinity Realm? No problem! We will guard you, go ahead, and make your breakthrough. Hahaha!" Iem didn''t care while Krune was happy for him. Besides, it''s not like the two of them were not using the Fire Essence to cultivate as well. With that, Sisan sat on the ground and began his breakthrough. Chapter 658: Not Enough Time to Escape Krune and Iem kept watching as Sisan made his breakthrough. Different from the other Divinity Realm cultivators outside, Sisan definitely had enough Godly Energy to use. After all, even if he doesn''t use Top Quality Godly Energy Stones, he still has High-Quality Ones. Of course, he decided to use the High-Quality ones in this case since the abundance in Fire Essence would be more than enough for his breakthrough. Not to mention that almost all Top Quality ones were in Jimage''s hands. Seeing that Sisan didn''t seem to be having any problems, Krune and Iem returned to their Fire Essence collection. "Too bad that without these special vials, Fire Essence can''t be stored. Otherwise, we might have found an entire pool of it here." Krune shook his head after hearing that. "However, that was a good thing. It was because the essence was escaping outwards that the Chaotic Demon Flower could flourish. If that didn''t happen, I wouldn''t have descended further into the chasm to collect it. In that case, I wouldn''t have noticed the Fire Essence Vein either. We should be happy that we were this lucky." Iem nodded. "Well, that''s true. The good thing is that the Fire Essence that we are collecting here is as pure as the Wind Essence one Gavei gave us after winning the race. Still, it is only close to half as good as the God Realm ones." "By the way, how long do we still have?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "It''s okay. When we left the Green Talon Eagle Mountain, ten days had passed. We also used another five to get to Gotas City. As for the Chaotic Demon Flower trade, it took us another five days. Last, we already spent three days here collecting Fire Essence. So far, we have spent 23 days on the planet already. We still have another 17 days, thanks to the difference in time speed. If we use these 17 days to keep collecting Fire Essence, we should get at least 10 to 15 vials full of it." Iem nodded with a satisfied expression. They also had the Bazuric Nectar, so their rewards will be plenty once they are out. Not to mention that they intend to keep some of the Fire Essence for themselves and use in cultivation. Time continued to pass until suddenly, a burst of Godly Energy came out of Sisan''s body. Right after, his cultivation began to increase at an alarming rate. Obviously, Sisan did not encounter any problems during his Divinity Realm breakthrough. Finally, the energy increase stopped as Sisan entered the 1st Stage of the Divinity Realm. "Phew..." Sisan then opened his eyes, which obviously showed how delighted he was. "Hahaha! Finally, a perfect breakthrough. It was worth waiting all this time to enter the next realm." Krune smiled at him before saying. "That''s good and all, but you should focus on stabilizing the Chaotic Energy inside your body first. Once you are done, you can help us with the Fire Essence collection." Sisan laughed once more and nodded. He then calmed himself and began to do as Krune mentioned. Just like that, another 5 days went by. Far above, on the surface, the Chaotic Pathway was full of Mortal Rejection Realm and higher-level cultivators and demon beasts. The Celestial Sky Organization had already confirmed that Krune''s group really entered this place. That being said, they closed all entrances. However, they looked for them but didn''t find anything. Afraid that Krune''s group might escape, they also contacted the other three Celestial Organizations to help in the search. After all, the Chaotic Pathway restricts Divine Sense. Not to mention that the place was enormous! Obviously, the other Celestial Organizations came in a flash after opening several Spatial Gates. Nonetheless, they still haven''t found a single clue after 5 days went by. By now, it had already been 28 days since Krune''s group entered their planet, so they began to think that they might have left already. Eason, a Demon Beast at the God Core Realm of the Celestial Sky Organization, was in charge of half of their group. The other half was under the second God Core Realm cultivator. "Haven''t you found anything yet?" Another demon beast at the God Foundation Realm beside him shook his head. "No, sir. None of the Celestial Organizations found a single clue until now. However, the Chaotic Pathway is enormous. Even with the extra help of the other Celestial Organizations, it will take several more days before we finish verifying the full extension." Eason narrowed his eyes. Even though they haven''t verified everything yet, he doesn''t believe that three Semi-Divinity Realm would have gone this far away. "Keep our searching team in this area. Ask them to make a search close to the ground from now on. Something tells me that they are still around here. As for the other places, leave it to the other groups." The subordinate quickly nodded his head and left. Eason then went to help with the search himself. He is at the God Core Realm, so even with the Divine Sense restriction in this area, his own is powerful enough to cover over a thousand kilometers. Another three days went by just like that when suddenly, Eason received a Divine Sense message from one of his subordinates. "High Elder, we found a tunnel leading deep into the ground!" "What?! Did you enter it?" "Not yet. We decided to tell you about it first." "Good! I''m on my way. Don''t get too close, or you might scare them." Eason then used his full speed to arrive at the place. Finally, he understood why it took so long to find this tunnel. That''s because the first 10km was closed. The tunnel only started after that distance. If he didn''t give the order to make the search close to the ground, his subordinates would definitely not have found it. Deep inside the cave, Krune, Iem, and Sisan didn''t know anything. They kept collecting Fire Essence while cultivating with some of it. Abruptly, Harold and Luvile''s voice entered Krune and Iem''s minds. "Not good! Someone found this place." Both of them just noticed a powerful Divine Sense sweeping underground. Without a doubt, it was even stronger than the one they escaped from before. "What?!" *BAM!* Suddenly, the entrance of the tunnel above was blasted away. At the same time, Krune''s group felt an immense pressure locking on their bodies. Krune ignored everything else at the moment. "Zule, can you take us out?!" However, Zule immediately answered. "In your dreams! The guy is too close and strong. He will definitely stop the generation of the Spatial Gate." Krune and Iem expression changed. However, there was nothing they could do at the moment. Just a bit later, Eason appeared inside the area with the Fire Essence Vein. He then looked at Krune, Iem, and Sisan. "No wonder you didn''t leave this place. You found a Fire Essence Vein all for yourselves. Obviously, you had no need to come out anymore." Eason then pulled them together and removed their Spatial Rings using brute force. Krune, of course, got even more nervous. After all, Zule was inside Krune''s one. However, Zule''s voice entered Krune''s mind a moment later. "Don''t worry, I hid together with your Heavenly Fragments. Not even god will find me here." Krune was taken aback. He then verified his own Divine Soul just to see a miniature pyramid hovering around the other fused Heavenly Fragments Krune had. ''Since when he can do it?!'' However, that was a good thing for them. "Great! At least we still have a chance at escaping. Too bad that he got the Space God Crystal and my Ownerless Heavenly Fragments, though." Zule calmed Krune after hearing that too. "Not, he didn''t. I put them inside my own Spatial Pocket Dimension before hiding inside your Divine Soul. I also brought the majority of the Fire Essence Vials with me. Of course, I left a few inside the Spatial Ring so that he doesn''t suspect anything." Sure enough, Eason saw a lot of Godly Stones. Not only that, but there were also Spiritual Stones and other items from the Mortal Realm that Krune had kept with him. Still, the Top-Quality Godly Stones were mostly on Jimage''s hands. Not to mention that Godly Stones were only important for the people and beasts outside the Celestial Organizations. For those who are inside, they were not that significant. As for Sisan and Iem''s Spatial Rings, Krune didn''t know what was inside. Eason then put the Spatial Rings he obtained away and dashed outside the Fire Essence Vein area. After all, Elemental Essences could be easily obtained by the Celestial Organizations. "Pass the message to everyone that the three of them were already captured. We are returning to the Celestial Sky Organization Headquarters." Soon, the news about Krune''s group capture spread in the Chaotic Pathway. Eason quickly brought Krune, Iem, and Sisan out of there. Once he reached a place with stable space, he opened a Spatial Gate and entered it with them. As one can imagine, they arrived in the Celestial Sky Organization in an instant. When Krune''s group looked at it, they saw an enormous torrent of energy rushing into the skies and entering the Celestial Protection Formation. Clearly, that was because of one of the four Formation Cores that was present in this place. "Welcome to the Celestial Sky Organization, outsiders. You can consider it your home until we get what we need from you." Krune''s group smiled bitterly. ''Indeed, they really found out about us.'' Chapter 659: Dropping a Bomb Krune''s group then was brought into a sealed room where they could be watched all the time. There were several formations around that could prevent the use of Godly Energy, block Divine Sense, etc. Inside that room, they were separated into three different positions with locking formations. Other than their voice, nothing else could go out. "You can wait here. Someone from the Celestial Soul Organization will come shortly. Also, you can drop any idea about escaping this place." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "How did you find about us?" Eason smiled after hearing that question. "You were not the only ones to come to this place, remember?" Sure enough, it was as Krune imagine. Eason seemed very confident that they were outsiders, so they must have received information from someone. Other than his group, the only ones remaining were obviously Foltan''s group. Iem shrugged his shoulders. "Does that mean we are gonna be killed?" Eason laughed after hearing that. "Killed? You are our ticket out of this damned planet. Why would we kill you? If you play your cards correctly, you might be heavily compensated instead. Anyway, just wait here." Eason left right after as the formation closed right behind him. As mentioned a moment ago, this room prevents the use of Divine Sense, so Divine Sense conversation should be impossible. Too bad that it is useless to Krune and his Mental Energy. But first, he had another thing to ask someone else. "Zule, would you be able to open a spatial gate here?" Zule immediately answered. "I can pretty much open it anywhere on this planet. However, I''ll need godly energy and time to do it." Krune nodded. If those were the only conditions, a chance is bound to appear sooner or later. After that, he sent a Mental Energy Message to Iem and Sisan. "Alright, you two. Our escape route is still secured. However, don''t do anything that could make them suspicious. As for our Spatial Rings, I''m not sure if we can convince them to give it back to us. Of course, we can try since we still have 12 days left." Iem was already expecting it. However, Sisan was surprised that he could hear Krune in his mind even though Divine Sense was restricted. Of course, he wouldn''t be idiot enough to reveal that on his face. "Anyway, Divine Sense can''t leave your bodies, but it still exists inside yourself. As long as you focus on it with the intention of communicating with me, I''ll be able to hear it." Sisan sighed in relief and immediately did as Krune said. "I did have some personal things that were quite important for me in my Spatial Ring. However, they weren''t critical to the point we must take it back. The problem is that the Fire Essence I collected is still inside. If we escape like this, I won''t have anything to offer to the sect." Iem also said his piece. "The most valuable things I had were those Heavenly Fragments I traded with you. A lot of the items could be considered of high value or even priceless in the Mortal Realm, but they weren''t anything impressive here in the Godly Path Realm. As for the rest, they were basically Godly Stones and Formations Materials. Of course, I would love to get them back. Not to mention that the Fire Essence Vials are still there." Of course, Sisan couldn''t hear Iem, and the same was for the opposite side. The messages would need to pass through Krune if they wanted to talk to the other. That''s why Iem didn''t mind saying so much. Sisan then asked something else. "By the way, what do you mean with our escape route is still secure? Can we really escape with all these guys looking at us?" Krune sighed. "All I can say is that we need Godly Energy and Time. With these two, I can definitely open a Spatial Gate leading us out. That''s why I said the escape route is still secure. However, we will need to gather together again for that." Sisan nodded. As long as it is still possible to open a passage to the outside, they can take their time to figure the rest out. Iem also asked another thing after that. "By the way, can your Mental Energy check the outside?" Krune nodded. He had already spread his Mental Energy to check the surroundings. It''s just that other than this room, the Godly Energy out of this place was very thick. It was comparable to the Top Quality Godly Vein. Because of that, even his Mental Energy got severely hindered once it escaped the formation. Krune could only see up to 2km outside the room. "I can''t see too far, but I can tell you that we are surrounded. There are twenty-three cultivators and demon beasts around our room, all of them with cultivations at the Mortal Rejection Realm at the very least. That guy who captured us is also there, looking straight at us. From the looks of it, he can see the things inside while we can''t do the opposite. I guess he is waiting for us to start to talk with each other to see if we will say something important." That being said, Iem, Sisan, and Krune really started to talk with each other. Of course, they only spoke things that one would expect in this situation. That was only to make the ones outside to drop their guard. They even went to the extent of looking ''nervous'' with their situation. But at the same time, they had calm conversations through Krune''s Mental Energy. "Luvile, do you think the Purple Tribulation Lightning can open a passage for us to leave?" Luvile pondered a bit before saying. "These formations seem very sturdy. However, you know what my Purple Tribulation special traits are. Given enough time for constant use, it can definitely open a hole in the end. Harold''s Devil Flame can most likely do the same thing. However, it will be better if you can convince those guys outside to drop their guards and give you some degree of freedom by themselves." Krune nodded. On Iem''s side, Harold had told him basically the same thing. Time passed, and around an hour later, someone from the Celestial Soul Organization arrived with a few other subordinates. Not only that, there were representatives of the other Celestial Organizations with him too. After all, this was a situation that concerned all four powers. Considering that there was a chance of leaving this place, neither side bothered with any disputes. They were all united for the sake of escaping. "How was it? Did they say anything relevant?" Eason bitterly smiled when he heard that. "They did." Going back a few minutes, Krune''s group ''argued'' about their situation. "It was your idea that we should spend a few decades here while cultivating in the Fire Essence Vein. Now, look at what happened. We should have looked for an escape route from the very start." Sisan ''snorted.'' "Hmph! You two agreed with it, didn''t you? All we needed to do was to cultivate until the peak of the Divinity Realm. We brought loads of High Quality Godly Stones, so we definitely had enough Godly Energy to do it. We just needed to wait for the next time when the Top Quality Godly Energy Vein Sealed Space stabilized again to go out. We would have both collected lots of resources and improved our cultivations by leaps and bounds. Don''t try to put all the blame on me." With Foltan''s group captured, it was evident that all th information outside was leaked already. That being said, they first had to convince the outside group that they had no other way out. In the end, they came up with this story where they decided to stay on this planet for the next few decades instead of having a way out. Sure enough, when the others heard Eason saying that, their complexions turned dark. After all, it meant that Krune''s group could only do the same thing as Foltan''s group. If that was the case, then they would be of no help to them either. The guy from the Celestial Soul Organization was called Falo Jacind, a God Core Realm expert. Obviously, he wasn''t pleased to hear that either. "They might be trying to mislead us." Eason nodded. "That is possible. However, finding out the truth is your job." Falo then stepped forward and entered the room. Of course, Krune''s group noticed his presence straight away. "My name is Falo Jacind, an elder of the Celestial Soul Organization. I''ll be the one carrying out the questions from now on. As you know, we have tried to leave this planet for countless years. However, we simply can''t step out. Do you know about any method that could help us with it? Our Celestial Organizations would definitely reward you generously in that case." As Falo talked, an invisible Soul Power spread out of his mind, enveloping Krune and the others. Right after, Luvile and Harold''s warning came out. "This guy is using a technique to check the ripples of your soul. It probably has something to do with a lie detector or similar use. Make sure you control have full control over it before giving any answer." Hearing that, Krune and Iem immediately focused on their own souls. At the same time, Krune warned Sisan with his Mental Energy. Only then did Krune answer the elder''s question. "So it was true, you guys really want to leave this place. I''m sorry to disappoint you, but such a thing is impossible for those born in this place." From the very start, Krune dropped a bomb at everyone watching! Chapter 660: Interrogation Iem opened his eyes wide! "Why did you tell them? Now it will be even harder for them to let us go!" Indeed, the expressions of everyone watching turned even worse after hearing that. Of course, Krune understood what it meant to tell that straight in their faces. However, Krune had a reason for that, so he just shook his head. "It would be pointless to hide it from them." Krune then looked at Falo and asked. "You probably can imagine the reason already, right? After all, Foltan''s group definitely told you that you are inside a dead Deamon Beast''s Foundation." Falo narrowed his eyes. "We know that, so what?" Krune sighed after hearing that question. He didn''t know if they really had no idea or were just trying to look away from the truth. "Since you want me to explain, then so be it. Let me ask you, what kind of Foundation did you building when you entered the Foundation Establishment Realm?" Falo didn''t see a reason to hide it, so he immediately replied. "I used the Celestial Protection Formation as a base." Falo was born in the Celestial Organizations and was part of one of the strong families there. That being said, he did have access to the information regarding how the Formation worked. As mentioned all the way back, one must understand the Foundation they are building. Otherwise, the breakthrough into the Foundation Establishment Realm will fail. Krune nodded after hearing that. "Very well. Suppose that one of the Four Formation Cores of the Formation gains conscience and wants to leave your Foundation. Would you allow it to do that?" "This..." Krune didn''t wait for his answer, though. "That''s why I said that it is impossible for you to leave. The dead demon beast''s Foundation would be affected if the lives that were born inside decided to leave its Foundation. That being said, it definitely took precautions to prevent you from doing so. Simply put, your lives are connected to this place. That''s also why we can use the Spatial Barrier at the end of the Foundation to be teleported outside, but you can''t. The Foundation won''t let you do so. To be honest, I believe that Spatial Barrier won''t even react whether you try to do something with it or not." "The only way out is to have the Demon Beast itself to allow it. However, the owner of this Foundation, which is the demon beast outside, is dead already. How do you expect to ask for permission? Let alone that if it was alive, we definitely wouldn''t be able to enter this place." "As I said, you probably knew this already. Even if you, Falo, didn''t, I''m sure there are a few that already considered this possibility in your Celestial Organizations." Falo wanted to retort Krune''s reasoning. However, his Soul Technique told him that Krune wasn''t lying. At the very least, Krune''s Soul didn''t show any signs of it being a lie. "Is there really no way out? The Celestial Protection Formation won''t last forever. Sooner or later, it will collapse as the Foundation deteriorates." Krune shook his head. "There isn''t... However, it is not completely hopeless, either." Finally, everyone''s attention was caught. They were feeling quite helpless at first since Krune''s logic made a lot of sense. At the moment, any ray of hope was more than welcome. "What do you mean?" Krune''s expression wasn''t very good, though. "Don''t raise your expectations just yet. I''m sure you won''t like what I''ll say now. Besides, this is another thing that you would sooner or later think about. After all, you now know you are inside someone''s Foundation." Krune took a deep breath and then looked deeply at Falo. "Since you can''t escape the Foundation, you can only wait for it to disappear. That means, give up the Celestial Protection Formation and let the Foundation collapse for good. If you can somehow resist the collapse of the space, you will naturally appear outside. However, the chances of surviving such a thing..." The hope on Falo and the spectators'' faces outside immediately disappeared after that. Sure enough, some of them had already thought about this possibility. However, surviving the collapse of space is easier said than done. One can already imagine how destructive that event will be. Essentially, you just need to think about how much Godly Energy this Foundation still harnessed to reach this conclusion. Even those at the Peak of the God Core Realm didn''t have the least bit of confidence in surviving such a thing. However, Krune didn''t finish it there. "That''s not everything. As I said, those born here are linked with the Foundation itself. Before you even think about whether or not you can survive the collapse, there is a high chance of you dying before that even happens. I''m not sure about it, but I believe that your lives are also connected to the Foundation Itself. If it breaks, it might bring you down with it by using this connection." Obviously, that made Krune remember those threads that he can see with his Mental Energy. Even now, he can see it on everyone other than Iem and Sisan. The dark complexion on everyone''s face became even worse now. Once again, Krune''s theory seemed very likely to become a reality. However, there was one thing that Krune didn''t talk about. It was Zule! This guy is a Peak Nascent God Level Spatial Equipment. Not to mention that Zule wasn''t going to teleport Krune''s outside like Foltan''s group. Instead, he was going to open a Spatial Gate for them to pass through. Krune wasn''t sure, but he believed that Zule''s Spatial Gate had a high chance of working against the rules. After all, Zule''s Spatial Equipment Pyramid was fueled by none other than his own Heavenly Space Fragment, a piece of Heavens itself. Of course, Krune wouldn''t tell anyone about that even if he thought it was a possibility. After all, he had no reason to do so. Not to mention that there was a chance of him being killed straight away so that they could take Zule from him. Thankfully, Krune''s control over his own Soul was superb, so not a single sign appeared on it that he might be lying. That was to be expected since he has Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique, the Myriad Energies Technique, and tempered his Soul with Tribulation Lightning who knows how many times. As for Iem and Sisan, they didn''t know about his possibility to start with. Obviously, Falo wouldn''t be able to catch anything from their soul ripples either. Falo then looked at Krune''s two friends. "Is everything he said true?" Of course, his Soul Power was still covering the three of them. Iem then shrugged his shoulders. "The part of you being connected to the Foundation is true. Of course, there is a tiny chance that, for some reason, the demon beast outside didn''t link you to its Foundation. However, the fact that you can''t leave even after touching the Spatial Barrier probably means that you are linked to it. Otherwise, I can''t think about a reason for you to not being able to leave." "As for the part about waiting for the Foundation collapsing, I can''t be 100% sure about that. You must understand that I''ve never seen anything like this before. However, Krune''s words made a lot of sense, and he is a very intelligent guy. I''m at least 90% sure that what he said will most likely happen." Sisan also nodded his head. "I also can''t be 100% sure about everything for the same reason as Iem. However, I think that Krune''s theory makes a lot of sense." This wasn''t a lie, so Iem and Sisan weren''t afraid of being caught by the elder''s probation. Falo''s Soul Technique was telling him that neither Iem nor Sisan were lying too. "Very well. The next thing I want to know is if you have a way out of this planet other than going to the Spatial Barrier at the end of the Foundation Space." That was the question the three of them were waiting for and the one they should focus on the most. Krune and Iem were very confident about their own Soul Control, so they weren''t afraid of being found out. They were only concerned about Sisan since they didn''t know him well. Krune was the first one to answer. "If we could do such a thing, do you think we would still be here?" Iem laughed and answered, as well. "To be honest, our plan was to join your Celestial Organizations and find a way out of the Celestial Protection Formation after we finished cultivating. Too bad, though. Those idiots from Fontan''s group just had to be captured by you guys." Last but not least, it was Sisan. In his case, he was very brief. "Not that I know." Falo narrowed his eyes as he checked their Souls. Still, none of them showed any signs of lying. "You guys are being very cooperative, aren''t you?" Krune mentally sighed in relief and then nodded his head at Falo. "We are not enemies. At the very least, I don''t remember building any grudge with your Celestial Organizations. Besides, if I had lied about your connection with the Foundation, things might have become even worse when you figured it out. The best we can do at the moment is to cooperate so that you won''t kill us for no reason. Am I wrong?" Falo nodded. It was true that Krune''s group didn''t have any grudges with their Celestial Organizations. At most, he made some kids feel embarrassed in that race for the Wind Essence Vein. However, for the Celestial Organizations, that meant nothing. Besides, his Soul Technique still told Falo that they were not lying. "Very well, I still have several other questions for you three." Just like that, Falo continued his inquiries. Chapter 661: Crushing Everyones Hope "Another thing. What is the Purple Lightning of yours? Is it a technique from outside? From what I read in the reports, there seems to be some kind of unidentified power in it?" It was at this moment that Krune remembered something. "Fuck!" Iem, Sisan, Falo, and the others outside were taken aback. "What is it? Is that some kind of secret you can''t talk about?" Krune looked at Falo with a bitter smile. "Sorry, it has nothing to do with that. It''s just that your last question reminded me of a huge problem. Unfortunately, resisting the collapse of the Foundation Space is the least of your problems." Those words immediately cast a shadow on everyone''s minds. "What could it be more problematic than that?" Krune sighed before explaining. "This ''unidentified power'' you talked about is called Tribulation Power. Outside this place, it is quite rare to find people or beasts who can use similar ones. However, as long as you have the means, you can find one or another around. Still, that is not the issue here. The problem is what a Tribulation Power is." Iem immediately understood what Krune meant. "Ah! That''s true; how did we forget that?" Krune nodded as he looked at Falo. "The thing is. Are you, the Mortal Rejection or above cultivators and demon beasts, willing to sacrifice yourselves just so that the others at lower levels can survive?" Falo got puzzled at that question. "Since the collapse is inevitable, we will try to save as many as possible. After all, we can simply use Spatial Equipments that can hold life. Of course, there are way too many lives here, so we won''t be able to carry more than 1 or 2% of the total." "However, we are doing it because carrying these spatial equipments isn''t something that will bother us. Since that is the case, why should we sacrifice ourselves? We can both try to bring the others out while protecting ourselves against the collapse." Krune couldn''t help but sigh. "Your problem will not be surviving the collapse. The real issue comes after it. Have you ever heard about the Heavenly Tribulations?" Falo and everyone watching outside got puzzled again. This place couldn''t be seen by the Heavens. Obviously, none of them had ever heard o seen it before. "What is a Heavenly Tribulation?" Krune nodded, already expecting that answer. "Heavenly Tribulations are kind of ''punishment'' that the Heavens uses. We often say outside that cultivation is the act of going against the Heavens, and for a good reason. It appears after every cultivation breakthrough from the Mortal Rejection Realm onwards. However, the Heavens can''t see you here. Obviously, you guys had never received a single Heavenly Tribulation." Krune then explained how the Heavenly Tribulations looked, their attributes, etc. Falo didn''t need to think much to understand what Krune wanted to say. "Could it mean..." Krune nodded once more. "Yes. As soon as you appear under the Heavens, it will immediately sense your presence... and your cultivation. Once that happens, it will send down the Heavenly Tribulations that you have escaped from until now. The higher your Realm after the Mortal Rejection, the more tribulations you will receive at once." "I believe you are at the God Core Realm, right? In that case, you will receive the Mortal Rejection, God Foundation, and God Core Realm tribulations at once." Falo began to swat cold. "How strong are those Heavenly Tribulations?" "Very strong. Heavenly Tribulations are not there to test you. No, not at all. They are there to kill you! Whether you resist it or not depends totally on yourself. There is no such thing as failing and receiving punishment in exchange. If you fail, you die." "Also, Heavenly Tribulations can only be taken by the person or beast itself. If someone tries to intervene, the Heavenly Tribulation will get even more dangerous. For example, suppose a God Core Realm expert tries to protect a Mortal Rejection against his or her tribulation. That tribulation will then increase in power to the point where it will be even stronger than a God Core Realm Heavenly Tribulation. Not only will you not save that Mortal Rejection Realm friend, but you will probably kill yourself with as well." Falo and everyone outside had extremely ugly faces. However, Krune hasn''t finished yet. "That''s not all. The main problem is that those at the Mortal Rejection Realm and above had been hidden for way too long. I know it was not your fault. However, the Heavens won''t care about it. In the eyes of Heavens, you will be seen as cultivators and demon beasts who tried to escape its watch. Naturally, the moment your Heavenly Tribulations come down, they will be even more powerful than those who confront it normally." "Not to mention that it will happen as soon as you step outside. You already have to resist the collapse of this Foundation Space. If you manage to survive, you will probably be wholly spent and full of injuries. Your chances of survival were already nearly impossible even if you were at your peaks. Let alone if you have no power to fight back anymore." Krune took a deep breath before finishing his explanation. "In the end, you will become sacrifices to save those with lower cultivation. I''m sorry, but I really don''t believe you have any chance of survival against Heavenly Tribulations of this scale. All will come to whether you are willing to sacrifice your lives for the weaklings around." The room became silent after that. The outside was even more so. Falo then took out some kind of equipment and sent a Divine Sense message into it. The collapse was already bad enough, with minimal chances of survival. The Heavenly Tribulations only made it worse. Not to mention that his Soul Technique was still telling him that Krune wasn''t lying. In fact, Krune really wasn''t. Everything he said was the truth, so there wasn''t even a need to keep his soul in check while saying those words. The message Falo sent out was to the guys watching Foltan''s group back in the Celestial Soul Organization. He ordered his people to go and ask if the things about the Heavenly Tribulations were true. The Celestial Soul Organization members watching Foltan''s group were all at the Mortal Rejection Realm or above too. As one can imagine, they felt like a bucket of cold water was thrown on their heads once they heard the questions'' content. Still, Falo urged them to stop wasting time and go make the inquires. Foltan''s group, of course, was taken aback by that question. However, they also smiled bitterly and confirmed it. It''s not that they tried to hide this information. It''s just that they are all Semi-Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts. Heavenly Tribulations are still far ahead in their future, so they completely forgot about this issue. A few minutes later, Falo received a message back on his equipment. Sure enough, Foltan''s group also confirmed the veracity of the facts. Falo''s expression wasn''t very good. He even forgot to ask the next questions that he had prepared. Instead, he turned around before saying. "I need to go out to discuss this issue with the other Celestial Organizations'' Leaders. Still, I have to at least thank you for not hiding this information. At the very least, we won''t be taken with our guards down when the moment comes." Krune nodded and looked as Falo left the room. With his Mental Energy, he could see Falo talking with the others outside for a few moments. After that, he turned around and disappeared in a flash. As for the rest, they stayed there watching him and his group. Iem then asked with a Divine Sense message. "Was it really good to crush their hopes like that? They still had the thought that if they protected themselves well, they might have a chance. However, even that final line is now gone." Sisan also thought the same thing. "I agree with Iem. After all, we just told them that all the Celestial Organizations'' leaders and powerful members are bound to die on the day of the collapse. Since they are already dead, there would be no point in keeping us alive." Krune shook his head. "I think the opposite. At the moment, we became the only connection with the powers outside the Sealed Top Quality Godly Energy Vein Space. If they want a place for their descendants to stay, they will need to have a conversation with the leaders outside first." Iem couldn''t help but say. "Even if they want to use us to make negotiations for their low-level members, they will definitely keep some of us behind as hostage. They might even put restrictions on our bodies to make sure we won''t just forget them as soon as we leave." Krune nodded. "Yes. But that will only happen on the day they let us go out. Before that, I don''t believe they won''t allow us some degree of freedom. After all, they need to win us over, right? I think we also have a good chance of getting our Spatial Rings back. As long as we get just a small window, that will be enough." Sisan and Iem''s eyes lit up! Sure enough, they don''t need to wait for a supposed promised day. Now that Krune acted soo committed to their cause, there is a good chance of them finding a breach to escape. All they need is Godly Energy and some time. "Let''s hope this plan will work." Chapter 662: A Message Time passed, and a week later, Falo returned to the room where Krune''s group was staying. However, he wasn''t alone. Together with him, they could see another three elders. Right after, the formations locking Krune, Iem, and Sisan down were lifted, allowing them to move once more. "First, let me introduce them. Their names are Jamot, Suelen, and Varkin, the leaders of the Celestial Sky, Weapons, and Energy Organizations." Krune''s group looked at each other and then back at the group. "Hello, I''m Krune." "Iem here." "Seniors can call me Sisan." Falo nodded. "Good. First, let''s get out of here. This isn''t the best place to talk." Krune''s group smiled as they agreed with Falo. As soon as they stepped out of the room, they all felt the intense concentration of Godly Energy. Before, Eason was shielding them from it as a precaution. But now, they could finally see where all the Planet''s Godly Energy was being kept. "Impressive, the Godly Energy here is so concentrated that it might be on par with the Top Quality Godly Energy Vein." Falo didn''t know the Godly Energy Vein, but he agreed that it was a lot as well. "You probably guessed it already. We used the four Celestial Protection Formation''s Cores to also seal most of the Godly Energy of the planet inside the Celestial Organizations. Obviously, Godly Energy in those four places is very thick." Sisan couldn''t help but ask. "Why did you do that? The others outside can''t surpass the 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm after arriving at the Peak of the Divinity Realm anymore because of that." Iem also added. "Could it be that you were afraid of losing your positions of power?" Suelen, the leader of the Celestial Energy Organization, smiled after hearing that. "Sure enough, that''s what most would think when they heard about that. In fact, I believe that there are indeed many between us who think that way too. However, that was not the only reason behind this action." "First, we need to make sure that there is enough Godly Energy to keep the Celestial Protection Formation running. If we let the Godly Energy Spread evenly, there will not be enough Godly Energy in the surroundings of the Cores. We need to keep it focused in a single place to assure its smooth work." Iem immediately shook his head. "All you needed to do was to change the Formation so that it would absorb Godly Energy on its entire extent. The cores would still be necessary, but you wouldn''t need to keep all Godly Energy locked in the four organizations." Varkin agreed with Iem. "That''s true. However, how will you do that?" "This..." Sure enough, even Iem didn''t know how to do it. This Formation was far above what he could touch at the moment. "Since you built this Formation, you should be able to change it as well, no?" Varkin nodded and shook his head right after. "This Formation has been working for a very long time. At the moment, other than the repairing methods that have been in use for so long, no one knows how it works 100%. Sure, we have Formations Masters that could attempt to change it the way you just said. After all, we still have most of the blueprints. However, what if they fail in the modification and the Formation Breaks?" Iem had to admit that it was true. Changing planetary formations is easier said than done. As skilled as the Formations Masters might be, there is no guarantee that they would be successful. The problem comes from ''what if they fail and break it?'' Naturally, no one in the Celestial Organizations was willing to risk it out. However, it was at this moment that Jamot laughed out loud. "They aren''t lying that no one wishes to risk it. However, it is also true that half of the reason is that neither of our Organizations wishes for other powers to emerge. We are in a very comfortable position as we are now, and none of the influent clans inside the Celestial Organizations want to lose it. Don''t get fooled, kids. We are also being selfish here." No one in Krune''s group seemed impressed by those words, though. In fact, Krune, Sisan, and Iem felt a lot better now that they admitted this much. They didn''t believe that the Celestial Organizations were just being good samaritans. "Alright, we arrived." Krune''s group was brought into a big room where several other elders of the Celestial Organizations were present. However, other than them, there was also the group from the Three Peaks Sect, Dolmen''s group. Immediately, Krune''s group expression changed. After all, they were only captured because these guys told the Celestial Organizations about them. If not for that, they would still be happily collecting Fire Essence and would leave a few days later in a breeze. Right after, Iem couldn''t help but ask. "Would you mind if I killed them?" Dolmen snorted after hearing that. Obviously, he didn''t know Iem''s real strength. "Do you think you have what it takes to defeat me?" "I do. It won''t take more than a few instants before you drop dead." "Then why don''t you try?" Just as these two were about to attack each other, someone else intervened. "Enough!" A powerful pressure then came down, locking those two in place. In front of God Core Realm experts, they weren''t anything at all. The one who did that was Jamot, the leader of th Celestial Sky Organization. "We didn''t bring both of you here so that you could resolve your issues. It is true that we only found Krune''s group because Dolmen''s one opened their mouths. However, don''t come at me and say that Krune''s group wouldn''t do the same in their place. After all, it is evident that your two sides are enemies outside." Iem and Dolmen then calmed down and sat on two different sides of the room with their groups. "We already asked everything we wanted to know about the conditions outside to you. We also paired both your pieces of information together to make sure that they would match. I''m happy to say that we are quite satisfied with the results. Now, let''s enter the main problem." Jamot''s expression then turned serious. "The thing is, we will probably die even if we resist the collapse of the Foundation Space. After all, the Heavens outside will not spare us. However, our Celestial Protection Formation will definitely last a few more Chaos Cycles, so we don''t really know what we should do at the moment. Should we make an agreement with the powers outside so that they can receive the cultivators and demon beasts of our planet? Or should we just forget it and wait for the next chaos cycles in peace? As you can imagine, we cultivated for a very long time, so we don''t want to simply give up our lives either." Krune shook his head. "The others below the Mortal Rejection Realm still have a chance if you help them resist the Space Collapse. However, I''ll repeat it again, I don''t think anyone above that level has a chance of survival. Of course, you might be so strong that you can ward off both the Space Collapse and the supper stacked Heavenly Tribulations one after another. Still, I deeply doubt that." Jamot nodded. "We know. Anyway, at the moment, the Celestial Organizations are divided into two different groups. The first one is the group that wants to let the Foundation Space Collapse and protect their offsprings so that they can escape outside. Obviously, the second group is the one where the high-level cultivators and demon beasts don''t want to die doesn''t matter what. Because of that, they would rather keep staying here and live until the day the Celestial Protection Formations can''t stand the pressure anymore, trying to find ways of keeping it running forever." Neither Krune nor Dolmen''s group was surprised by that news. After all, some considered family more significant, while others considered their lives more important than anything else. Obviously, in organizations of this size, such problems were bound to emerge now that the truth is out. Iem thought that something was strange, though. "Then, what are we doing here? Shouldn''t you first decide what to do between yourselves before calling us out?" Krune, Dolmen, and the rest all nodded. Jamot, on the other hand, couldn''t help but sigh. "The problem is that a peaceful outcome is simply impossible. The ones present in this room at the moment are those who are in favor of letting the Protection Formation Collapse. Do you understand what that means?" Krune was taken aback by that. "Could it be that you will turn off the Celestial Protection Formation by force? Wouldn''t that completely divide both sides, initiating a war between fellow members?" Suelen continued from there. "We know that. However, this is not something we are planning to do any time soon, so you don''t need to worry about it at the moment." Sisan was the one to ask a question now. "That''s good and all. However, what does all of that have to do with us?" Suelen then explained. "We brought you here to tell you that we decided to let you go." Krune and Dolmen''s group immediately thought about a possibility after hearing that. "I see... you intend to put some restrictions on us so that we can do something for you outside, right?" However, to their surprise, Suelen immediately shook her head before giving them a smile. "No. All we need you to do... is to deliver a message to your leaders." Chapter 663: Striking a Deal However, right at this moment, Luvile''s voice resounded in his mind. "Hehe! They sure know how to hide their intentions. Just now, they put a deadly mark inside all your bodies. They even went to the extent where they worked together with their higher cultivations to not let you, Iem, or Sisan notice anything." Sure enough, Harold told Iem the same thing. However, both Krune and Iem pretended that they didn''t feel anything to not alert them. "Can it be eliminated?" Luvile confirmed. "It can, but they immediately notice once I use my Purple Tribulation Lightning to strike it. If they activate it during that time, I''m not sure if I''ll be able to protect you. The difference in cultivation is just too big." Krune nodded. "Alright, leave it. Let''s follow the flow for a while." Krune also talked with Iem through Mental Energy so that they would be in synch. Finally, Krune and Dolmen''s group asked the obvious question. "What kind of message?" Suelen nodded and continued. "We are willing to offer the Cores of the Celestial Protection Formation to them." "The cores? Why would they want that?" Iem asked. He wasn''t wrong. The Sky Shifting Sect could get formation cores by themselves if they needed it. "That''s not your standard type of Formation Core. The ones that control the Celestial Protection Formation are made of some strange material that continuously generates Godly Energy. Why do you think we can keep most of the Godly Energy inside the Celestial Organizations? Don''t you think it would be way too annoying to make the Godly Energy of a Planet of this size to converge in four points?" Iem thought for a bit and had to admit that she was right. He is a formations master, so he knows the implications of those words. "Are you telling me that all the Godly Energy you have here is coming from the Formation Core itself? That doesn''t make sense. We are inside the Foundation Space of a Demon Beast''s Core. The Godly Energy in this place was supposed to be coming from everywhere around the planet." Suelen nodded her head. "It is. All the space outside is full of Godly Energy. In fact, an enormous part of the Godly Energy used by the Celestial Protection Formation comes from absorbing the Godly Energy in the chaotic space outside. However, that Godly Energy doesn''t go through the Celestial Protection Formation. Anyway, what you need to know is that this Formation Core is responsible for all the Godly Energy in the four Celestial Organizations." Krune and the others understood what she meant. They already told them what a Top Quality Godly Energy Vein is, and this place just so happens to have Godly Energy on par with that. However, these Formation Cores can be moved! In the Top Quality Godly Energy Vein''s case, it has to stay still. Otherwise, the three sects would have taken those veins and brought back to their own Sects a long time ago. ''Four Formations Cores that can generate as much Godly Energy as a Top Quality Godly Energy Vein... I guess only Little Arty, who can connect directly to the God Realm, would be able to match these cores efficiency and still can be moved around.'' Everyone understood just how extraordinary such cores would be for any of their sects. They would definitely stand above the Top Quality Godly Energy Veins'' in importance just because they can be moved. "Alright, this is indeed enticing enough for our sects to accept almost any condition. In that case, what is it that you want in excha-" "Wait!" Suddenly, Krune stopped everyone''s talking. Obviously, they all looked at him at the same time. "From what you are saying, these Four Cores can be brought outside, right?" The four leaders of the Celestial Organizations looked at each other before nodding. "Well, theoretically speaking, that should be possible." Krune''s eyes lit up as he asked. "Would you mind showing me one of those Cores?" Everyone got even more puzzled, including Iem and Sisan. Jamot, the leader of the Celestial Sky Organization, then said. "As you can imagine, the cores as inside several protection formations and are guarded 24/7. The importance they have for us is far too great. Unless you give me a good reason, I can''t simply bring you there." It was then that Krune used a Divine Sense Message to tell Jamot what he was thinking. They kept looking at each other for sometime. However, everyone knew that they were talking through Divine Sense. Finally, Jamot let a scream out. "What?! Are you sure?" Krune shook his head. "I''m not. After all, it is just a theory. However, I believe it is worth at least letting me see it, right?" Everyone noticed how stirred Jamot became, and they got curious. "Jamot, what is that?" Jamot then sent the other three leaders and Eason, a member of his Organization, a Divine Sense message. Obviously, they were taken aback by what they heard. They talked for a while more through Divine Sense until they finally seemed to reach a decision. "Anyway, I''m bringing him there to confirm it. If something happens, do as we agreed." Varkin, Suelen, and Gamadol nodded at him. Jamot then used his Spiritual Energy to grab Krune and disappeared in a flash. The members of the Celestial Sky Sect could at least tell that he flew in the Formations'' Core direction. Still, they did not pursue since that was the Organization''s leader. As the Celestial Sky Organization leader, Jamot didn''t have many problems to approach the Formation''s Core. Krune, of course, was brought with him as well. Finally, after a set of procedures that they had to take, they arrived beside it. The Godly Energy outside was already surprisingly thick. But now that he is standing beside the Core, Krune is even feeling somewhat affected by the sheer amount of it. Suddenly, Luvile''s voice entered Krune''s head. "He wasn''t lying. This Formation''s Core is indeed generating Godly Energy constantly. But I know why that is. It is because this Core is made with parts of the Silver Demon Core as the base. The only thing that makes me curious is how exactly Godly Energy can be created by it." "What you mean?" Luvile then continued. "I always thought that the Godly Energy we felt outside was a result of the remaining Godly Energy in the Silver Core itself. Due to how big the Foundation Space inside was, its Godly Energy hadn''t run out yet. However, now I can see that Godly Energy is being created instead. As far as I remember, no race in the God Realm has cores that can create Godly Energy. Since that''s the case, here''s the question. Just what was this Demon Beast?" Krune pondered a bit before saying. "You perished just way too long ago. There were definitely tens of thousands of new races that appeared after that. Chances are that this is simply a new race that didn''t exist while you were alive in the God Realm." Luvile had to admit that Krune was right. "Well, that''s true. It has been tens of thousands of Chaos Cycles, after all. Anyway, we can search for it if we ascend to God Realm someday." Although they spoke all of that, just a split of a second passed in the real world. Jamot then looked at Krune. "Well? How is it?" Krune nodded and put his hand on the Formation''s Core. In fact, he didn''t need to do that anymore since Luvile already confirmed his suspicion. Still, it was better to play the role. "As expected, this Formation''s Core is indeed made of the same material as the Silver Demon Core outside. That is most likely the reason why it can generate Godly Energy. However, it is not considered as part of the Foundation anymore. Which is good since we can really bring it outside. Nevertheless, the connection between the two is still present. This is great! The plan might really work." Jamot nodded and let Krune do as he pleased. With their difference in cultivation, he wasn''t afraid of Krune trying anything against him or the Core. Krune then summoned his Godly Energy Meridians and connected them to Jamot and the Formation''s Core. After that, he spread his Mental Energy as if looking for something. ''Found you!'' Obviously, what could it be if not the ''link'' that he had always been able to see on everyone''s souls on this planet? Krune then looked at Jamot. "I''ll start now." Jamot couldn''t see what Krune was making. After all, Krune was using Mental Energy, which only another cultivator of Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique could do. Krune knew that everyone born in this Foundation was linked to the Foundation itself. Not only that, but his Mental Energy could even see it. Since he could see, can''t temper with it as well? That was a crazy idea that Krune had before. However, Krune was afraid of trying to do anything to these links. After all, if it is cut out, the one linked to it might die straight away. In this situation where Krune is captured, if he killed someone, things would become even direr. Not to mention that he isn''t sure if he can really cut it or not. The idea popped in his mind once the Celestial Organizations Leaders said that the Formation''s Cores were made of some strange material. Not to mention that they said it could generate Godly Energy. At that moment, Krune knew that this Core was most likely made of the same material as the Silver Core outside. He asked to see it so that he could confirm his theory. Fortunately, Luvile confirmed to him straight away that he was right. The best part is that this ''Demon Core Piece'' can be dragged around. Since it can be separated from the Silver Core, but it is still part of it, can he connect those ''Links'' to the Formation''s Core instead? If that worked, he might be able to bring the Core and the person or beast connected to it outside! That was the main reason why using spatial equipments that could hold life would be meaningless. Otherwise, Krune and Dolmen''s groups could simply put everyone inside and go out. But because of the link, it wouldn''t let it escape this Foundation Space. Of course, he had to first try it out. Also, the only person who could get close to this Formation''s Core was obviously the leader of the Celestial Sky Organization. That being said, Krune offered a deal to Jamot through a Divine Sense message. Back then, when Krune was talking with Jamot through Divine Sense... "I believe I can change the link you have with the Foundation Space to the Formation''s Core instead. In that case, the one connected to it can most likely step outside together with the Core." Jamot was obviously excited to hear that. However, he wasn''t an idiot. "If you do that, nothing can stop me from killing you once we step outside to prevent the news of the Formation Core from spreading. I believe you know that too. In that case, what do you want?" Chapter 664: Transfering "That''s where you are wrong. Since I can change this link to the core, I can also leave something behind to protect myself. Hahaha! However, the fact is that you won''t be able to take the core out straight away. Even if I connect you to it, will the rest of the sect simply let you go? I doubt so. Not to mention that you also need to prepare a lot of things before trying to step out." Jamot narrowed his eyes. "But if I go out while you tempered with the Formation''s Core and the link, what stops you from using it to get me killed during the Heavenly Tribulation? If that happens, you would get rid of me and still get a Formation''s Core." Krune nodded. "That''s true. However, it is still a lot better to bet on it than simply asking us to deliver a message, isn''t it?" Jamot had to admit that it was true. Their initial plan was to have them strike a deal with the powers outside so that they would take care of their low-level members. In exchange, they would protect the Formation''s Cores during the collapse and give them away. However, if a God Core Realm like Jamot is able to survive and take care of everyone and the core, that would be infinitely better. Those Deadly Marks were only there to ensure that Krune and Dolmen''s groups would accomplish their objectives if the transfer option didn''t work. "However, it means that your sect won''t be able to take the core since I''ll definitely keep it. Or could it be that you plan to use this restriction to force me to join your sect?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "No, you can do whatever you want. All I need is for you to let everyone in my group leave." Jamot narrowed his eyes. "We were already letting you leave, so what''s the point here?" However, Krune laughed out loud after hearing that. "Oh, is that so?" Suddenly, Krune used his Purple Tribulation Lightning to strike the Mark that Luvile pointed out. Of course, he didn''t try to eliminate it. He only attacked it so that Jamot would notice it straight away. "You! How did you find it?!" Krune shook his head. "How I found it matters not. What I want to know is whether you are willing to let us go without those marks. Don''t worry, Dolmen''s group is an enemy of my sect, so I won''t tell them about it. You can still use their lives to do whatever you want." Jamot smiled bitterly. "We first need to confirm that this Link transfer thing really works." Krune didn''t mind. "That''s why I asked if you could let me see the Formation''s Core. Just bring someone with you as well so that I can try to make it." However, Jamot refused that. "No, you should try it on me first. After all, can you guarantee that you can put more of those links in the same Formation''s Core?" "This..." Krune didn''t even know if it was going to work, let alone if more than a single one could be attached to it. "But if I fail, you might die." Jamot shook his head, though. "So what? I was already preparing to let the Protection Formation collapse and die while protecting our low-level members. It will make no difference if I die while carrying the hope of being able to survive with my cultivation outside." Krune still insisted. "However, if you die here, wouldn''t I be crucified by your Celestial Organization?" Jamot shook his head. "I already discussed things with the other three leaders and Eason. They agreed to let me try it first. Now, stop complaining." Still, Krune found it weird. "Are you not gonna ask how I can do it?" Jamot snorted, though. "Would you tell me?" Krune immediately shook his head. "Then, there is no point in asking. Forcing it would instead be counterproductive. After all, it is bound to be a dangerous attempt. The last thing I want is you holding grudges while at it." As mentioned before, Jamot had then brought Krune to the Formation''s Core location after they finished this previous conversation. Now, Krune was in the middle of trying to transfer that Link with his Mental Energy. ''These links must be made of some kind of energy. If I can feel it with my Godly Meridians, I might be able to create a replacement with Mental Energy help.'' While looking at the ''thread'' with his Mental Energy, Krune used his Godly Meridian to feel it. He also used his Mental Energy directly into the Godly Meridians to help with its sensibility. Time passed, and half an hour went by. Finally, Krune''s eyes lit up! ''That''s it!'' Right after, Krune began to use his Mental Energy, Elements, Godly Energy, and Laws to try to replicate that weird connection. Of course, it was easier said than done. Krune failed many times, spending several hours into it. Fortunately, he had similar experiences before. That''s right, it was very similar to the time when he first created his Spiritual Energy Meridians. It''s just that there were many more things involved in this process. On the other hand, just how many times better Krune was now than when he was in the Qi Condensation Realm? Both Krunes simply couldn''t be compared anymore. Suddenly, Jamot felt like his soul was pulled by something. He couldn''t quite understand what that was. However, he at least could tell that it was this so-called Link Transfer effect. Right after, he felt a piercing pain in his soul, as if it was going to be ripped apart. It was so intense that Jamot feared his soul would be destroyed in the next second. He felt like the entire world was trying to break it. Yet, a second was all the time it took for the pain to disappear. "This... what happened?" Krune smiled as he sweated cold. "Sorry for the pain. It''s just that I had to first cut your connection with the Foundation before connecting it to the Formations'' Core. Obviously, losing the link would have you killed. However, I was able to mend your link with the new one I created myself. Now, your connection is with the Foundation''s Core. Of course, because of this core, the Foundation Space still thinks that you are connected to it, while, in fact, you aren''t. That''s why the Foundation gave up killing you after I cut the connection with it." Jamot couldn''t help but feel excited. "So it worked?! Great!" Krune nodded. "Also, I left a little gift behind in the link. For your own good, I hope you will keep your promise." Jamot''s happiness immediately disappeared after that. "Hmph! Don''t look down on me, kid. Since you did your part, I will obviously do mine." Krune laughed. "Then that''s good." Jamot then took Krune and rushed out of the Formation''s Core room. Krune was right about it. It was one thing to get close to the Formation''s Core, but another completely different to bring it away. Jamot would have a lot more stuff to prepare before he could attempt to take it away. However, Jamot was stopped by another three elders of the Celestial Sky Organization on the way out. Although Krune couldn''t tell what they were talking about, he could imagine that they were asking what Krune and Jamot were doing inside. As for what Jamot said, Krune had no idea. He only knew that at some point, those elders let them go. "Were those guys part of the group that wishes to keep the Celestial Protection Formation running?" Jamot nodded. "Yes, but this is nothing for you to care about." Soon, they arrived at the room where the rest was waiting. Eason and the three other leaders of the Celestial Organizations immediately looked at them too. Seeing that Jamot was back, they were filled with hope. Jamot then smiled at everyone as he told the news about the success of their attempt. At the same time, Krune went to Sisan and touched his shoulder. "Don''t move." Suddenly, Purple Tribulation Lightning entered Sisan''s body. Sisan was quite frightened by that sight, though. Fortunately, there was no pain during the process, which puzzled him. It was then that he felt that that lightning had struck something inside his body. The surprising part was that he didn''t know it was there at all! As one can imagine, that is the deadly mark left behind by those elders. At the same time, Krune also attacked the mark inside his own body. Iem, of course, did the same thing with his Devil Flames. The elders who worked together to put those marks frowned since they could feel they were removing them. Nevertheless, Jamot had already explained before he departed with Krune about their deal, so they didn''t intervene. Obviously, they didn''t try to put another one since Krune''s group could feel it. While all of that happened, Dolmen''s group watched on the side. They didn''t know what happened, just that Krune seemed to have reached some agreement with those guys. Still, there was nothing they could do except for waiting. Krune then explained to Sisan about the mark in his body through the Divine Sense message. Once he was finished, Jamot brought Krune''s group away. Gamadol, Suelen, and Varkin followed them too. As for Dolmen''s group, they were simply sent back to their place as well. After they were alone, Jamot talked with everyone. "Alright. There are still Varkin, Suelen, and Gamadol. Krune, we will need to go with them and transfer their links to their organizations'' cores." Krune nodded. "No problem. The sooner, the better." Like that, Varkin was the first to open a Spatial Gate, which everyone used to teleport to his Celestial Weapons Organization. Chapter 665: Finally Out The good thing about all of this was that all the leaders themselves were united for the same cause. Even if their elders are divided, with the leaders on their side, it wasn''t that hard for Krune to finish transferring all the leaders'' links into their own Organizations'' Cores. Of course, they also asked Krune to transfer more of their members into the same core so that they could go out together. However, Krune blatantly rejected the idea. "Out of the question. Our Planet outside has no Nascent Soul Realm expert. If I make it possible for all your God Core Realm experts to leave this place unscratched, what will happen to the powers outside? There are enough God Core Realms here to take control of any big power there. I will make it so that the four of you can leave. However, no other God Core Realm will receive this treatment. Even if you kill me, I will still not do it." Krune''s instance was adamant. Besides, he had control over the leaders'' links at the moment. They would definitely die if they tried something to him. Of course, they also tried to negotiate more treasures in exchange for more members being linked, but Krune still refused it regardless. "If you want exchanges, you can talk with the powers outside and reach an agreement with them. For now, I only want our Spatial Rings back, intact!" It was then that Jamot offered. "Link one more God Foundation for each one of us, and we will give your Spatial Rings back." Krune narrowed before saying. "One Mortal Rejection for each one, that''s my last offer." In the end, the four of them agreed and selected a trusted subordinate each. Of course, they all got someone at the Peak of the Mortal Rejection Realm so that he could breakthrough into the God Foundation Realm anytime. With that finished, Krune''s group got their Spatial Rings back. Of course, they immediately checked to see if everything was still there. Seeing that all was fine, Krune nodded, satisfied. "Our trade here is done. Now, we need to leave since we are almost out of time. Soon, our companions, waiting outside, will leave without us if we take too long." Krune wasn''t all these events took them almost 40 days. Thankfully, time runs 10 times faster in this place. Otherwise, Jimage would have left a long time ago. Jamot and the other three looked at each other. They were obviously somewhat hesitating if they should let Krune''s group go just like that. However, Krune still had control over their links with the foundation. Before the foundation collapses for good, it will be his trump card. "Very well, we will send you out with the other group. However, we still want you to deliver your elders outside a message. Of course, the Four Formation Cores are not part of the deal anymore." Krune didn''t mind that. "That''s not a problem. However, we are just lowly members of our sects. Whatever the sect decides will be up to them. I won''t lie. They might even try to set up a trap to get your Formations'' Cores from you. Well, it is not like you haven''t considered this possibility yet." All four leaders nodded. They are not idiots. They obviously thought about that and many other scenarios. Still, they had confidence in their own power. "Tell them that we would gladly exchange any other items like the Elemental Essences available on this planet. We will try to gather as much as possible for future trades. If they are willing to cooperate, we can consider them as the first option to trade those items. As for the things we need, well, as big organizations themselves, they probably know what it is already." Krune nodded, already expecting it to be something like that. "Alright, can we go then?" At the moment, they were at the Celestial Soul Organization. That being said, they used this organization''s passage to go outside the Celestial Protection Formation. It was quite surprising that, in the end, they did not use Zule to go out of the Silver Core''s Foundation Space. ''Well, that''s a good thing since it reduces the chances of someone find about Zule''s existence.'' They soon arrived at the Foundation Space border, where the Spatial barrier was present. Just to test things out, Jamot decided to try to get close to it. Sure enough, the Spatial Barrier reacted to him, trying to teleport Jamot out of the Foundation Space. Of course, Jamot immediately canceled the Spatial Power and retreated. He had a lot more things to do before leaving this place. The other leaders also tried the same thing and got the same result. It was easy to see just how delighted they were when that happened. For countless years, the barrier had stayed still, not changing regardless of what they tried. But now, they can finally step out. How good is that? "Alright, out you go. I hope we can meet outside again someday. Don''t forget our message to your sects." Krune''s group nodded as they also approached the Spatial Barrier. It soon began to react as Spatial Power converged around them. Right after, they disappeared with a flash of Silver Light. Seeing that, Jamot and the other three sighed. "There are many uncertainties regarding those three, but this has been the best shot we''ve ever had so far." Suelen agreed. "However, if we can use the Formations'' Core to resist that so-called Heavenly Tribulation and are successful, the outcome of our descendants here will be much better once Space Collapses. This is a bet would take as many times as you want." Everyone agreed with Suelen too. "Now, we only have to deal with those idiots who still intend to stay here forever." A cold glint passed appeared on their eyes for a second before disappearing. The next few years are bound to be quite bloodied ones in the Celestial Organizations. They soon opened a Spatial Gate each and returned to their own places. As for what happens next, Krune would only know in the future. Back outside the Silver Core, it had been almost four days since Jimage and Foltan''s groups entered the Silver Core space. Both of them already began to consider whether they should give up their member and leave this place. After all, the day that the Sealed Space would get out too chaotic again was close. Rui, who was beside Jimage, couldn''t help but ask. "Do you think they died inside?" Jimage sighed after hearing that. "First of all, we don''t even know how big the space inside is. Before considering if they died or not, we need to consider if they are not lost somewhere in the Foundation Space. Still, either option is no good for us. I can only wait three to four more hours. After that, we need to leave." Of course, he only waited until now because he has Bianca on his side. She had a way out of the Demon Beast''s body. Otherwise, he would have left to look for an exit a long time ago. However, what surprised him was that Foltan''s group was still there as well. That was almost proof that Foltan or someone in his group also had a way to leave this place straight away. Foltan, of course, thought the same thing about Jimage and his group. Still, they kept their distance since no one wanted the other to activate the clusters'' energy. As for Bianca, she was still under the formation restriction that Iem put on her Soul. Whether she wanted or not, she had to follow their orders until she goes out. There was also another thing that both Foltan and Jimage were puzzled about. The fact that Pharan''s group hasn''t appeared until this point. Bianca told them that their initial objective wasn''t the core, but the head instead. As for what happened there or if it was true or not, that they didn''t know. Suddenly, one of the cracks on the Silver Core began to shine. Immediately, Jimage and Foltan''s groups looked at that. Both of them were concerned about which group it was related to. Suddenly, a Flash of Silver Light came out. Right after, three figures appeared in front of everyone. Foltan saw that and couldn''t help but laughed out loud. Turns out that the first group to step outside was his own! Back in the Silver Core Space, Foltan''s group was led into a room where Gamadol''s subordinates passed them a message. It was basically the same one that Krune''s group received. Obviously, there were some differences. For example, they were told about the Deadly Marks left in their bodies and that it would take their lives if they didn''t follow the orders. After that, they were released into outer space so that they could go back. Because Krune still had to transfer the other leaders'' links, he had to stay inside for longer. That ended having Foltan''s group appearing outside before his own. "Hahaha! Great! You guys are finally out." Foltan then looked at Jimage with a smug face. "Well then, you guys can stay here and wait as long as you want. I''ll take my group and leave the damned place." Dolmen''s group didn''t say anything and joined Foltan''s side. Everything else could be discussed after they are safe once again. Foltan didn''t try to do anything to Jimage since he was beside the clusters. If he decided to attack it, all of them would die. His first concern was to get as far as possible from the Silver Core. Anything else could wait. Jimage bitterly smiled as he saw Foltan''s group leaving his field of vision. He also began to consider if he should just go straight away too. However, a minute later, another Crack began to shine. Soon after, one more Flash of Silver Light came out, soon showing another three figures. Sure enough, it was Krune, Iem, and Sisan! "Phew... we are finally out." Chapter 666: Meeting with Tosely Krune soon noticed Jimage in the distance together with Rui, Bianca, and the rest. "Oh, senior Jimage." Jimage also smiled as he approached them. "Good! How was it? Were your harvests big enough?" Krune, Iem, and Sisan nodded. Although they were stopped by the Celestial Organizations, they still got enough Elemental Essences that are bound to be worth a lot outside. "We did. However, we can talk about that another time. If I''m not wrong, we only have around a day before the Sealed Space goes chaotic again, right?" Jimage''s smile disappeared as he nodded. "Right!" Jimage''s group then looked at Bianca, waiting for her to show them the way out. "Don''t worry, we can leave straight away. But first, let''s get away from these clusters of energy. Their existence makes me feel like I''m going to explode at any second." No one was against that idea as they immediately selected one of the meridians'' paths to enter. Around an hour later, they thought that they were far enough. "Just to confirm, you guys don''t want anything else from this place, right?" "Right. It will be too dangerous to stay around for longer. Let''s go straight back to the exit after taking Kalen with us." Krune warned after hearing that. "Then, we better be fast since Foltan will most likely go there to take his member back too." However, Bianca shook her head after hearing that. "That won''t be possible. What I promised you was a way out. When I said out, I really meant it. Once I open a passage, we will be sent straight back to where your elders and my mother are staying. Of course, you might choose to enter the Top Quality Sealed Vein Sealed Space again once we are out. However, that will be your problem, not mine." Krune and the others narrowed their eyes. "Doesn''t that mean we still have one more day to explore this place?" However, Jimage shook his head after hearing it. "I don''t want to risk what we already got. As for Kalen, you don''t need to worry." Jimage took another piece of equipment of his Spatial Ring after hearing that. It looked like a half purple blade that shined with a faint light. Jimage applied pressure on it until suddenly, it broke apart. "The other half of the blade is with Kalen. It is different from the equipment we used for him to monitor our lives. This one basically means that he should leave straight away and ignore everything else. I don''t know if he can survive the trip back, but it is better than let him waiting there and force him to leave in the last moments in a hurry." Krune and the others pondered a bit and agreed with Jimage. Seeing that, Bianca nodded and also took out something from her Spatial Ring. It looked like a Sky Blue Altar that had several inscriptions on it. "Everyone, step on the altar with me." They did as she said. After that, Bianca made a cut on her wrist and let her blood come out. The altar then absorbed her blood for some time until it finally began to shine with red and sky blue lights. Outside of the Top Quality Godly Energy Vein Sealed Space, Binmia, Bianca''s mother, and the Flower River Sect Master, immediately noticed that. She then sent a message to the elders around her. "All elders, it''s Bianca." Right after, Binmia took out another Sky Blue Pillar that looked identical to Bianca''s one. The Three peaks sect and Sky Shifting noticed their movements and narrowed their eyes. After all, the agreement said that they shouldn''t intervene with the Sealed Space. That being said, both of them went there to ask what they were doing. Binmia noticed the two elders of the other two sects getting close, too, so she sent them a Divine Sense message. "Don''t worry, this is just a piece of recalling equipment that will bring my members out of there. It will not make anything to your subordinates." Tosely didn''t completely trust that, though. "Hmph! If that is the case, you won''t mind if I take a close look, right? If all it does is to bring your members out, then I won''t do anything. However..." Groman didn''t say anything, but seeing he getting close showed that he had the same thoughts as Tosely. "Very well. Just watch as much as you want." Binmia didn''t mind since she wasn''t lying. This is a piece of equipment to be used only if extremely necessary. It only had the power to do what Binmia said it could. The elders helped Binmia to pour Spiritual Energy into the altar. After some time, Binmia made a cut on her wrist too and fed blood to it. Suddenly, the altar shot a ray of light several meters above in the air where it stopped. It had the same red and sky blue colors as the one that Bianca was using in the Demon Beast''s body. Back on Krune''s group side, the altar Bianca activated performed the same action, shooting another ray of red and sky blue light above it. As expected, that ray of light also converged above the altar. Both altars then began to resonate as the light above increased in size. Suddenly, a bloodline power began to attract the altar that Bianca and Krune''s group were on. At the same time, Space Laws of extremely high level began to act on it. It was then that the red and sky blue light above Bianca and Krune''s group descended over them. Right after, the spatial powers around increased several times until the altar and everyone on it began to look distorted. A few seconds later, the light on them burst out, and a rift was opened. Everything on the altar was then dragged inside the rift before it closed straight away. Back on Binmia''s side, the light above the altar intensified as the same rift opened there as well. It was then that an identical Altar came out of the rift together with everyone on it. However, everyone was taken aback by what they saw. They were expecting Bianca to be there, but definitely not Krune''s group. Not only that, Bianca was alone while her entire group was gone. Seeing that, Tosely immediately took action and shielded Krune and his other sect members. Binmia, of course, did the same thing with her daughter. Only when both sides retreated with their own members did they take their time to ask what was happening. Seeing that they were out and safe, Jimage used his Divine Sense to recount everything that happened. He had long since prepared his report during the days he spent waiting for Krune''s group to be back, so it only took him a second to send everything. Of course, Tosely and the other elders of the Sky Shifting Sect took a lot longer to process the information. On Binmia''s side, Bianca also explained everything she could. Of course, she was forced to hide the events around Krune and Iem since it was part of the restriction. That restriction was put on her while Iem was in the Peak of the Divine View Realm. Because of that, she would need to at least reach the Mortal Rejection Realm before being able to remove it herself. That gave Krune and Iem more than time enough to do whatever they wanted without being found out. The only ones without a clue of what was happening were Groman and his Three Peaks Sect members. However, he wasn''t idiot enough to think that either side would explain anything to him. In the end, all that happened was that some of the participants came out of the sealed space. "Let''s go back to our position and wait for the others." As for Tosely and the elders of the Sky Shifting Sect, they were shocked by what they heard. A gigantic demon beast corpse. So big that they could even travel inside of it for days. The Silver Core, the Spatial Top Quality Godly Energy Stones. Not to mention Space inside the Silver Core. Immediately after, Tosely looked at Iem, Krune, and Sisan. After all, they were the ones who entered the Silver Core Space. The three of them smiled at Tosely before saying with a Divine Sense message. "The harvests were plenty, elder Tosely." The three of them took that chance to explain everything they passed through. Of course, they also gave the message that the leaders of the Celestial Organizations told them to. Tosely and the elders couldn''t help but feel excited. After putting everything together, the harvests were higher than all the other expeditions in the other Sealed Spaces together! "Good! We will stay here until the sealed space closes to see if Kalen comes out. We will leave once he appears or if the space goes chaotic again." Bianca couldn''t tell binmia about Krune''s Space God Crystal, but she could tell about the rest. For a second, Binmia thought about asking Groman to join forces with her to see what Krune''s group acquired in there. However, she also heard that Groman''s group came out of the Silver Core even before Krune''s one. That being said, it would be useless. It might instead make the two groups join forces against her since she didn''t get anyone inside the Silver Core Space. As for why they came out using Bianca''s altar, Bianca simply said that she was separated from her group after the God Crystal''s attack. In the end, she was captured. She only survived because she told them that she could bring them out and that she was Binmia''s daughter. She will need to wait until she has the restriction removed before saying anything else. ''It''s okay. Pharan and the rest decided to go to the head of that demon beast''s corpse. Since they didn''t appear by the Silver Core until the end, their harvest might turn out to be even higher than what Tosely and Groman acquired. I just need to wait.'' Chapter 667: Talking about the events Fortunately, Kalen received the message ahead of time, so he rushed straight out of the room with the teleport formation and made his way back. He didn''t pass close to any of the floating islands to avoid the Space Creatures as much as possible. Of course, there were Space Creatures in outer space too, but their numbers were smaller. Although he did bump in one or another, they weren''t out of his league. Not to mention that he didn''t fight but fled instead. Finally, he stepped out of the chaotic space and was greeted by Jimage and everyone else. Seeing that the last member gathered, Tosely didn''t waste any more time. "Let''s go back." Tosely, the other elders, and Jimage''s group were the first ones to leave the range of the Top Quality Godly Energy Vein Space. As for what will happen with Binmia and Groman''s group? No one in their party cared about it. With elder Tosely leading the group, their journey back was quite safe. Binmia made sure that none of the groups participating in the war would try to block them. After all, trying to stop a God Core Realm Demon Beast would be suicide without someone with similar power. Finally, the elders returned to their own posts as Tosely grabbed the remained members of the group and went back to the Sect. There, she immediately went to talk with the Sect Master, Franlia Katuas. Obviously, Jimage''s group was brought together. Once there, Franlia was already waiting with some of the Sect''s most influential and trustworthy elders. "...and that''s everything that happened." Jimage, Krune, and everyone else who survived finished their reports to Franlia. Of course, Iem and Krune excluded the Space God Crystal since they would need it later. After that, everyone took out several hundreds of Top Quality Godly Stones, the Wind and Fire Essence Vials, the Bazuric Nectar, and other things they acquired during the expedition. When Franlia and the others saw all of that, their eyes lit up. Tosely was especially excited to hear about the Bazuric Nectar. As expected, she knew about this item. However, it would be nearly impossible for her to obtain it in the Godly Path Realm. But as long as she has it, the rest of the items to create the bloodline pill can be acquired with enough effort. Franlia knew about what Tosely was thinking about and nodded at her. "You are one of the pillars of our Sect, so you obviously get priority in this Bazuric Nectar. Make sure to wait until you reach the Peak of the God Core Realm before using, though. I hope you will be the first Nascent God Realm in a very, very long time on our planet." Tosely smiled and immediately put the Bazuric Nectar away. "Don''t worry, Franlia. We have been together this far. Have I ever disappointed you?" Franlia laughed and nodded right after. At the moment, she is the strongest member of the Sky Shifting Sect. However, it might change in the future if Tosely is successful in her breakthrough. Well, with the Bazuric Nectar, it is unlikely that she will fail to enter the Nascent God Realm. Franlia then returned her attention to the Elemental Essences. "You all did an excellent job during this expedition. That being said, I will double your reward while still giving you the same share of the things obtained." Krune, of course, knew what he wanted from Franlia already. It was then that he received a Divine Sense message from her. "I didn''t expect that you would get enough to pay for everything necessary for the Memory Seal Removal. It seems like my son has a better insight than this old woman. Still, the total value surpasses what you need for the items to help your friends. Is there anything else you want?" Krune already expected that, so he knew what to ask. "I hope Elder Franlia can allow Nina and Lino to stay instead of sending them away because of their bloodline." Franlia was surprised that Krune would make such a simple request. With the Memory Seal gone, those two wouldn''t pose any threat to their Sect to start with. Of course, she wouldn''t allow them to join the Sect, either. "Are you sure that''s all you want? You can be a little more selfish, you know?" Krune smiled and shook his head. In fact, he was already being quite selfish since he is keeping an entire God Space Crystal for himself. Obviously, Franlia and the others checked Krune and the other members'' Spatial Rings to see if they were not hiding anything. However, Zule was residing inside his Divine Soul with the Heavenly Fragments and the God Crystal. Obviously, no one could find them. "Very well, I''ll immediately prepare everything once this meeting is over. But for now, let''s go back to the topic at hand." Franlia finished her Divine Sense Message and looked at everyone in the room. "Now, we need to talk about the Demon Beast''s Corpse, the Foundation Space, and the so-called Celestial organizations. Krune, Iem, Sisan, tell us more about them." The three of them nodded and began to go through the events inside the Foundation Space. Obviously, the main point was how those Celestial Organizations had several times more God Core Realms experts than the three Sects together. One of the elders couldn''t help but comment. "If all of them come out together, our Zamaria Planet would definitely fall in their hands." Franlia shook her had, though. "It is not possible. Chances are they will all die once they step out. Didn''t you hear what Krune said? That place is hidden from the Heavens. Until now, they didn''t get a single Heavenly Tribulation. The moment they step out, they will be zapped to powder by all the tribulations together. Only those that had just reached the Mortal Rejection Realm and below will be able to avoid Heaven''s rage." Another elder then added. "However, Krune was able to link their leaders to those Formation Cores, right? They can probably use those cores'' powers to resist their own Heavenly Tribulation from what he said. Not to mention that they can come out at any time now. Krune shouldn''t have done that." Before Krune could defend himself, Franlia intervened. "And then he wouldn''t be able to remove those marks that could kill his group at any time. Let''s all be honest here. If our lives were in the line, we would also do the same as long as we could get rid of those deadly marks. That''s the truth of the matter. At the moment, the Three Peaks Sect''s members who received those marks are probably under their control. It is already good enough that we learned about it beforehand. Krune did an excellent job of having only four of them free to leave. If they are all that they have, we don''t need to fear them that much." Franlia continued. "Anyway, they also asked them to deliver this message about having negotiations. What do you think about that? The other two sects will also receive the same message from them sooner or later. As you all know, everything Jimage''s group brought back pales compared to what is available on the planet inside the Foundation Space." Tosely narrowed her eyes. "That is hard to decide. They probably think we can build a trap for them when they step outside. However, the chaotic space inside prevents anyone above the Divinity Realm from entering. Otherwise, space will collapse. In that case, we have two choices. Not build the trap and negotiate. Or let the Top Quality Godly Vein Space collapse, lose all the Top Quality Godly Stones inside, and then build the trap. However, can we even find the entrance to that Demon Beast''s corpse space after the Godly Vein Space collapses?" Krune then gave his opinion. "I think elders should negotiate." Everyone then looked at Krune. Usually, the elders and the Sect Master wouldn''t waste their time hearing a 1st Stage Semi-Divinity Realm''s opinion. However, since he was one of those who entered that Foundation Space, he might have some good reason for it. "Speak." Krune then explained his reasons. "It''s quite simple. If elders build the trap, you won''t get anything in return. At most, you will prevent the danger of having four new God Core Realm experts from appearing, but that is all." Krune continued. "Don''t forget, the Foundation Space will definitely collapse. Once that happens, everything inside it will be lost. It doesn''t matter how much you desire it, you won''t get anything. Your only chance is to have those leaders of the Celestial Organizations to bring out the things you want." "If you build the trap, they can totally destroy their spatial rings before you can get anything. In any case, everything would be lost in the end. Also, if they aren''t completely dumb, I doubt any of us will be able to enter that planet without being noticed straight away. They have several more God Core Realm experts there. Anyone we send in will also be trapped by the Celestial Protection Formation. Even if Sect Master and Elder Tosely go in together, you would simply be trashed by their sheer number advantage. Not to mention that they don''t lack Peak God Core Realm experts. Simply put, entering the planet to harvest things in secret is now out of the question." "If you really want the best that the Foundation Espace has to offer, then you have to negotiate. Besides, what if those leaders survive the trap and escape? Are you all really willing to make an enemy of four Peak God Core Realm experts that will lurk in the shadows looking for revenge?" Franlia and everyone else felt a chill on their backs after hearing that. Chapter 668: Dinner With Franlia They had to admit Krune was right about that point. "Besides, there is another detail you haven''t considered. What if they leave the Foundation Space before we even decide to build a trap? Also, who said that they will leave through the Godly Energy Vein Sealed Space we used? They are God Core Realm experts. They can simply open a Spatial Gate and go somewhere else. Anyway, I believe the best-case scenario is to negotiate with them." The elders and Franlia then began to discuss their views with Divine Sense Messages. It wasn''t before a few minutes later that they finally reached a decision. "Very well. We will make negotiations with them. The only problem is that we will need to wait for the next time the Chaotic Space stabilizes before sending anyone inside. We also have to discuss the issue of the other two sects as well. After all, we don''t know what instances they will take." Krune nodded and refrained from commenting. The problems about the other sects can only be resolved by the higher-ups of his own. He would not take part in it. "Now, let''s go back to the Demon Beast''s corpse. You guys said that the board on the building that had the Teleport Formation had ''Heaven Break'' written on it, right?" Krune, Jimage, and all the others nodded. "Does Sect Master know anything about it? We thought that it had something to do with someone who had been inside the Demon Beast''s Corpse in the past." Franlia pondered a bit but shook her head in the end. "Heaven Break isn''t exactly an uncommon name. If we go deep into it, we probably can find tens of thousands of powers that use this name in the entire Godly Path Realm. However, something tells me that none of them would be involved in it." "Why is that?" "That''s because this Demon Beast''s Secret is not something that any power would let pass. From what you told me, that build is probably several times older than my Sky Shifting Sect, which has only around fifty thousand years. Still, I don''t know about any power of the past called Heaven Break to have ever resided this place. That is weird since that Demon Beast''s Corpse is a treasure trove that could make any power soar in the heavens if used correctly. That being said, this Heaven Break is probably related to a single individual or at most a group of people/beasts." Everyone heard the Sect Master''s analysis and thought that she was probably correct. Tosely then added her piece. "The problem here is the fact Krune''s group told us that this building with the Teleport Formations was almost crumbling apart. They even had to fork out their own resources to fix the super old Teleport Formation. Since someone knew about this place before, why hasn''t he or she or the group come back?" Jimage then explained what they thought about it. "While we were inside, we didn''t find any traces of someone being there recently. We have two theories on our side. The first is that whoever was inside before died in there, never coming out. As for the second, it might be that the person or beast or group that had been there before, already died or ascended. After all, Iem said that the teleport formation was ancient." Iem nodded. "I''m a Formations Master. That teleport formation was of very high quality. Considering that the space around it was protected, it definitely could exist for several chaos cycles. Still, it was on the verge of crumbling apart of old age. It wouldn''t be surprising if the one who found it in the past had already ascended or died trying. Of course, there is also a chance that whoever was there before died outside because of other reasons, never telling about the Demon Beast''s Corpse existence." All three theories seemed valid. Still, it did not give them an answer. "Alright, I will have the elders go out and search the records on this planet. Maybe there was someone or some power called Heaven Break far in the past. Let''s continue." After that, they began to talk about other things related to the share of rewards, the next group to explore the next Sealed Vein, etc. Finally, Franlia called the end of that meeting, and everyone left to do their own jobs. Just as Krune was leaving, he received a Divine Sense message from her too. "Meet me at my son''s house this night. There are a few other things I want to ask you about. Also, bring that friend of yours called Iem." Krune wasn''t surprised by that. After all, he and Iem did a lot of ridiculous things during the expedition. Not to mention their own heaven-defying powers that could jump over an entire realm to fight. The fact that none of the elders asked anything probably was because Franlia told them to do not so. ''Seems like I will have to wait a little more before I can absorb the Heavenly Fragments. Talking about Heavenly Fragments...'' "Hey, Zule, how long will you stay there? Go back to the Spatial Ring. Knowing that you are swimming inside my Divine Soul gives me the creeps." Zule laughed as he suddenly reappeared inside the Spatial Ring. "Don''t worry. I don''t intend to do anything to you or the Heavenly Fragments. After all, I need you to fix myself. Also, don''t forget that it is because of this ability of mine that your things were not stolen back in the Celestial Organizations." Krune sighed. "Fine. Anyway, I need to prepare for tonight, so let''s go to our room first." Krune then sent a Divine Sense message to Iem to tell about the meeting before leaving. As a disciple of the Sky Shifting Sect, Krune obviously had a room in the Sect for himself too. It''s just that he spent most of his time in the restaurant. The night quickly arrived, and Krune met with Iem in front of Tulike''s house. Iem, of course, wouldn''t dare to not come since he knows who called them here. After that, they touched the protection formation on the house. "Hahaha! Krune, you are back. Iem is here too, great! Mother already told me that you were coming, so let''s go inside. Father is preparing the meal as well." As mentioned in the past, Krune had already explained what happened when he got the Sealed Space slots. That being said, Iem wasn''t surprised to see the Sect Master there. Still, Tulike''s father seemed a lot stronger than he thought. He couldn''t see his cultivation, but something told him that he wasn''t any weaker than Franlia herself. "Oh, you two are here. Take a seat. I''m almost done with the dinner''s preparation." Rag then went back to the kitchen to continue his cooking. As for Franlia, she waited at the table with Krune, Iem, and Tulike. "Now then, what are you exactly? You can feel things that others can''t. You can jump over an entire realm to fight. Not to mention these Tribulation powers the both of you have. Why did you come to my Sky Shifting Sect?" Krune then looked at Iem, and the two nodded at each other. After that, Krune began to transform as he returned to his Wisp Form. Well, to be more specific, Krune changed his Ethereal Body into the shape a little so that he wouldn''t look exactly like a wisp. Even though there are no wisps in the Godly Path Realm, it was better to not risk it out. "You! You are a True Spirit! I see... no wonder you are as powerful as Jimage and Sisan mentioned. The Energy Sect''s Master, Reril, is a freak who reached the God Core Realm in less than a thousand years. Thanks to him, his Sect became one of the strongest ones on our planet in a flash. Not to mention that his combat power far surpasses his Realm. If you are a True Spirit as well, I can accept why you are this strong." "Still, where did you get this Purple Lightning with Tribulation Power of yours? That is not something True Spirits are born with." Krune then returned to his Human Form already inside his clothes. After that, he shrugged his shoulders. "All I can tell Sect Master is that my friend here and I found a certain inheritance. Other than that, we can''t tell you much. However, Sect Master has no need to worry. Both Iem and I had never been part of any other power before. The Sky Shifting Sect is the first one we ever joined in the Godly Path Realm." Before Franlia could say anything, Tulike already jumped ahead. "Impressive! To think that I''m a friend with a True Spirit. Hahaha! Mother, this is a stroke of incredible luck for our Sky Shifting Sect!" "Shut up!" Franlia narrowed her eyes as she looked at Iem. "What about you? Krune is both a True Spirit and has his Purple Lightning with that Tribulation Powers inside. You, on the other hand, have these Black Flames that also have Tribulation Powers. But this is not the source of all your talent, is it?" Iem laughed as he said. "Well, I''m a Heavenly Race Member, after all." Franlia''s eyes widened even more as she thought. ''Is such a thing possible? A True Spirit and a Heavenly Race Member joining my Sect at the same time? Not only that, but they are friends too. Did I perhaps save the Entire Godly Path Realm in my previous life?'' Chapter 669: Calling Back Thanks to telling her what ''race'' they are from, Krune and Iem didn''t have to say anything about the true origin of the Devil Flames and Purple Tribulation Lightning. Still, Franlia quickly calmed down. After all, what are the chances of two of the most powerful races appearing in her sect at once? That seemed extremely unlikely. Too bad, though. Krune and Iem really joined the Sky Shifting Sect by coincidence. They needed a place where they could get the items they needed, that''s all. "How come you two got to become friends and joined my sect at the same time? Don''t tell me that you were some kind of childhood friends or anything like that. I don''t believe it." Iem couldn''t help but laugh. "Hahaha! Of course not. We met each other, much, much later. In fact, it was during a battle that we came to know each other. As to why we are together, that''s because of certain circumstances that we can''t talk about. Still, the fact that we have never joined any power in the Godly Path Realm is true." Franlia finally caught the meaning behind their words. '' They keep saying they never joined any power in the Godly path Realm... Could it be that they came from outside? In that case, we have the Mortal Realm below and the God Realm above, but which one?'' "Then, what is your objective in staying in my Sky Shifting Sect? I''ll tell in advance that if I find that you pose risks to my sect, I''ll get rid of you two straight away." Krune shook his head after hearing that. "There is no need to worry about that. Joining Sect Master''s Sect was nothing more than a coincidence. We needed someplace that would give us the background necessary to buy rare items. As Sect Master knows, the market for those with low-level cultivation and without power behind them is extremely restricted. It was then that Iem did some research and ultimately chose the Sky Shifting Sect for us to join." Iem nodded. "Exactly. As to why I selected the Sky Shifting Sect, it was because it didn''t specialize at anything. It is a Sect that accepts all types of cultivators and demon beasts. It was perfect since Krune and I are good at practically anything. Of course, as a True Spirit, Krune is not as good as me with close combat." Krune didn''t even make an effort to deny that. After all, it was true that he is a lot weaker at close quarters. Some of his best abilities are made just so that he can keep his distance from others. Franlia, of course, had a hard time believing that. Still, it was true that their presence had brought great rewards to her sect just a moment ago. If not for those two, her teams would definitely not have found about the Demon Beast''s corpse. Not to mention that such two super geniuses being part of her sect might bring great things in the future. That being said, Franlia was conflicted about what she should do. It was then that Rag touched her shoulder and used Divine Sense Message. "I told you, didn''t I? I can judge a cooker''s character through their food. I''m not sure about that Iem boy, but Krune is definitely not the type who brings misfortune to others on purpose." He wasn''t wrong. Krune was really a nice guy... It''s just that his own existence attracts misfortune... Still, not on purpose. Franlia then sighed and nodded. "Very well. I''ll believe you two for the time being. So, how long do you intend to stay in the Sky Shifting Sect?" That was the part where Krune and Iem differed from each other. Iem had no intention of leaving the Godly Path Realm while Krune did. In Iem''s case, the Sky Shifting Sect provides all his needs and will still do so for the next Realms, so he said. "In my case, I probably won''t go anywhere before the God Foundation Realm unless something happens. Of course, I will constantly leave the sect to do some explorations, missions, and things like that. But ultimately, I''m fine with you guys." Franlia nodded, not finding it all that surprising. Her Sky Shifting Sect is a God Core Realm power. With Iem''s Heavenly Race bloodline, he could definitely join a Nascent Soul Power in the future. They would be able to give him much better resources and knowledge, after all. "What about Krune?" Krune pondered a bit before saying. "At the moment, I''m not sure how long I''ll stay. I have been working on a few things that might lead to my leave. However, I will probably stay here until the Divinity Realm level at the very least." Tulike couldn''t help but ask. "Why only Divinity Realm? Our Sky Shifting Sect might not be as good as a Nascent God Realm power, but we should be able to provide you everything you need until the Mortal Rejection Realm. Besides, we already know a lot of you but decided to not pry into it any further. Isn''t it better to stay with us?" Krune shook his head. "As I said, I''m not sure yet. If my plans don''t go as expected, then I''m obviously staying. Don''t worry, I''m not leaving so that I can join another power in the Godly Path Realm. I have my own reasons. Still, I will tell you if I really need to leave or not in the future. At the moment, I''m not sure of anything." Krune still had to go to Zule''s Creator''s Space to get the Condensed Space Fragment. He can only enter that place after reaching the Divinity Realm as well. However, he still isn''t sure if he will go there as soon as he enters the Divinity Realm or not. It might be better to wait until he reaches the middle or late stages of it first. Franlia nodded as she could see that Krune had a lot of doubts himself. "Very well. Anyway, let''s eat. Otherwise, my husband will get mad at us." Rag laughed but didn''t deny that. Later that night, Franlia told Krune that she would need a week until she got all the items to remove the Memory Seals from Nina and Lino. Krune was happy to hear that, so he went to pay a visit to those two in the city again. "Yo, you two seem quite bored." Nina and Lino immediately noticed his presence. "Master!" "Chef Krune!" They approached the protection formation to get a close look at him. "Master, are you alright? You disappeared for a whole week. You didn''t try to do anything dangerous just because of us, right?!" Nina had been concerned about Krune all this while. After all, what would be necessary to take them out of this place? Krune said that what he was going to do involved some risks, so she couldn''t be blamed. Not to mention that she likes Krune as more than just being a Master. "Hahaha! Well, it was quite dangerous. Still, your Master here is a strong fellow. Anyway, the fact is that I accomplished the Sect''s Mission and got the necessary items to remove your Memory Seals. Now, everything will be fine. You just need to wait a week while all the procedures are prepared." "Master..." Nina''s eyes got teary once more. Still, she quickly wiped them away. "Thank you, Master. I will definitely repay this favor one day." Lino quickly bowed as well. "Me too, Chef Krune. I''ll be there for your every call from now on." Krune scratched the back of his head as he waved his other hand at them. "Alright, alright. You can stop with that already. Nina is still okay, but seeing the rebellious Lino action like that towards me is kinda weird." Lino''s mouth twitched as Nina burst out in laugher. "Hahaha! It''s so true!" Lino then looked away and pretended he didn''t care. ''Hmph! I still think you are not worthy of my sister.'' Krune then talked with them for a while longer and then returned to his restaurant. After that, he made sure everything was closed and went to his room. There, Luvile released his Put Tribulation Lightning Layer, making sure that no one in the Godly Path Realm would be able to spy on them. Only then did Krune return to his Wisp Form once more. "Phew... finally some time for myself." Luvile nodded. "You have been running everywhere recently. First, let your body... errr... Wisp Core relax. Just lay down and let your foundation lose. It is better if you don''t do anything for the next day. There is no need to think about anything complex, either. Tomorrow, you can start contemplating such things again." Krune agreed with Luvile. Wisps don''t need to sleep. However, Krune was indeed quite mentally exhausted. To help alleviate his tension, he decided to take out the small tower of his foundation. Sure enough, it had already recharged all its energy and could connect to the Mortal Realm once more. Krune was then able to contact Feifei on the other side. "Krune!" "Yo, Feifei, is everything okay?" Feifei let out a sigh of relief as she complained. "Okay your head! You took a lot longer than a month to call this time. I thought something had happened to you." Krune laughed after hearing her concerns. "Hahaha! Don''t worry, I was just busy with a few missions of the sect. I told you that it could happen before, didn''t I?" Feifei couldn''t help but nod. "Yes... Still..." Krune smiled as he stopped her there. "Relax, I''m fine. So, how is everyone?" Just like that, the two love doves began a long talk. Chapter 670: Dalin and Everyone Else At some point, Fie also appeared to talk. Too bad that there were no images, though. Still, Krune was able to relax as he chatted with the two girls. Finally, the energy in the small tower ran out again, and they had to end it there. Back on the Mortal Realm, Fie looked at the small tower without energy in Feifei''s hand. After that, she couldn''t help but look at her mother''s expression. "Mom, I know Wally asked to not say anything, but is that really okay?" If one looked at Fie and Feifei at the moment, one would clearly notice that although their appearance didn''t change much, they had a much more mature air around them. It was only when Krune called that those two would change back into their energetic selves. There was one thing that no one told Krune so far. There is a time discrepancy between the Lower and Higher Realms. Basically, it was an effect of the much more stable Spacetime laws in the Godly Path Realm. Time passed ten times faster in the Lower Realms than it did in the realms above. Krune had been gone for four years... or so he thought. However, the fact was that around 40 years had gone by in the Lower Realms already. The reason Wally told them to not tell Krune about it was that Krune might try something way too dangerous to try to come back even faster. He explained that descending was an extremely dangerous process, and it had to be prepared with calm. In the end, Feifei decided to keep it a secret from Krune for his sake. Back then, when Wally sent Krune into the Gate to the Godly Path Realm, Wally sent a Divine Sense message to Luvile just as they were about to pass through it. He advised Luvile that it was best to keep the truth hidden until the day he comes back by himself. Luvile didn''t have time to reply to Wally since they entered the Gate right after. Still, Luvile had to admit that Krune would rush things if he knew, so he kept silent even though he wanted to beat Wally black and blue. Every time that the tower connected, the time around it would decrease by ten times as well. That''s because it was the only way to match both connections and voices. It was a simple modification that wasn''t anything complicated for Wally. The time around Feifei and Fie then accelerated once more as Feifei sighed. "It''s okay. Considering our lifespans, the time your father will stay out is nothing much. Your father''s progress is still as frightening as ever. Even though we have Little Arty and ten times his time speed, our cultivation speed is not that much faster than his." Feifei might have said that. But the fact is that she already spent the other half of her life without seeing Krune. After all, she wasn''t that old back when Krune entered the Godly Path Realm. That''s also why every time Krune took more than ''one month'' to call, Feifei would feel restless. After all, one month was already ten months for her. Fie then embraced Feifei. "But of course! The Godly Path Realm is the real thing, after all. Besides, Father was able to evolve his meridians into the Godly Energy ones. Not to mention that all resources born in that place are bound to be much better. Father is the most talented existence we know, so it is not surprising that he is not falling that much behind us even with the disadvantage in time speed." Feifei smiled as she nodded. "That''s true. Only with the difference in time did we surpass his cultivation speed. However, if we relax even for a moment, he will probably overtake us again. What face will I show him when he finds out that I had so much more time and still had lower cultivation?" That was the truth. Even with all the advantages in the Godly Path Realm, Krune perks still couldn''t make up for the difference in time speed. Feifei and the rest had been lying to him about their real cultivation progress. At the moment, Feifei was already in the 4th Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm! The others didn''t stay still either. Fie, as the child of the couple, inherited most of their talents. Thanks to that, Fie was even faster than Feifei when it came to cultivation. If not for the fact that she was a lot younger, she probably would be ahead of Feifei already. At the moment, Fie was in the 1st Stage of the Semi Divinity Realm and quickly approaching Feifei. However, the most impressive one was the still hidden Dracophoenix, Liriu. His bloodline power might make him even more talented than a Heavenly Race member. He had already entered the 6th Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm! At the moment, he surpassed everyone from Krune''s group except for Cinty. After all, Cinty was a real Blackhole Divine Soul Owner and had much higher cultivation than anyone else to start with. Cinty was already a Divine View Realm wisp back when Krune was still in the Mortal Realm. With Little Art''s help in keeping the area full of Godly Energy for everyone, it is no wonder that she soared in cultivation speed. At the moment, the Queen of the Wisps has already reached the Divinity Realm! During the last forty years, the Luvile Universe had finally taken control over its temporary position in the Dalin Universe. Thanks to that, there was a constant flux of talents flowing inside it from there. Taking advantage of that connection, several of Krune''s old friends also came to the Wisp Main World, where they began to cultivate in the area prepared by Cinty and Little Arty. Obviously, Krune''s friends'' cultivation also began to surge because of that. However, Feifei and the others knew that it was the calm before the storm. One must remember that forty years had passed already. That meant that the Frunkan Clan''s plan had been progressing all this while. Of course, it was still a secret for everyone in Dalin except for Feifei''s little group and the Frunkan Clan itself. The other who arrived later in the Wisp World were kept in the Dark. Heavin did as he promised and modified his Soul Cultivation Technique so that Little Aty could use it. Since then, Little Arty had been cultivating it. The only problem was that Little Arty was a Spiritual Equipment Spirit. Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique wasn''t as beneficial to him as it was to Krune''s group, let alone Heavin himself. Still, it worked, so he had been making his way to the Soul Control Realm ever since. As mentioned in the past, the idea was to have Little Arty''s soul leave the God Equipment and give it to the Frunkan Clan so that they could completely seal Dalin. Of course, as predicted in the past, this plan would definitely take more than a hundred years before it could be put into practice. Not to mention that the Frunkan Clan had to prove to Little Arty that they could definitely achieve it before he gave up his ''home.'' As for Heavin himself, he had already reached the 5th Stage of the Soul Control Realm. As mentioned in the past, his Soul Cultivation technique only has five stages in each realm. He reached that level just 10 years ago, and since then, he had been working on creating the next realms. Don''t forget that the Soul Cultivation Technique was created up to the Soul Control Realm only. If Heavin wanted to progress in cultivation, he must design the next realms first. Obviously, that was easier said than done. After all, he already spent ten years on it and still hasn''t finished. Another thing that happened in the last forty years was the emergence of the Divine Path Sect and the Wang Clan. After all, this was Krune''s Sect, so they used his achievements to the best of their abilities. As for the Wang Clan, obviously, they had Feifei, who was Krune''s wife. Well... Krune and Feifei still hadn''t had a marriage ceremony, though. Lucio even began to frequent the Wisp Main World at some point to use the Godly Energy himself. He also got to practice the Myriad Energies technique and used the Elemental Path Realm to evolve them to the last form possible in the Mortal Realm. At the moment, the Dalin Universe was a lot more important to the Divine Path Sect than Luvile. It was so much that they opened a new branch in the solar system near the Wisps'' one. This branch also had as much importance as the main sect back in Luvile. The people who knew Lucio and Krune''s real relationship would often hear from Lucio''s mouth too. "Hmph! Let''s see who will beat who when you are back, brat!" It was so much that one could say that it had become Lucio''s motto. That was his driving power to cultivate like crazy every time he wasn''t performing his Sect Master Duties. Lucio was already a 9th Stage Semi-Divinity Realm when Krune left Dalin. Not to mention that he had the same type of Divine Soul as Krune, the Elemental one. With the Godly Energy provided by Little Arty and the Myriad Energies Technique, Lucio successfully stepped inside the Divinity Realm. Not only that, but he was even able to progress up to the 4th Stage! Of course, many more things are happening that will shock Krune when he comes back. Chapter 671: Name Back on the Godly Path Realm, Krune passed the rest of his day doing other simple things. He cooked, played, organized his restaurant, and did other things that had nothing related to cultivation. Just like that, his day passed in a breeze. Finally, the next one arrived as Krune closed himself once more. Of course, Luvile made sure to hide the room. "So, are you going to absorb them now?" Krune nodded after hearing that. "I still have another six days before Sect Master finishes gathering the items to help Lino and Nina, so I''m basically free during this time. I will take a look at how to trade the Space God Crystal after I''m finished with it." It was then that Zule appeared outside as well. "Well, the stronger you are, the better it is for us. Here, take them." Suddenly, three Heavenly Fragments appeared in mid-air. Those were the three Heavenly Fragments Zule kept with himself while Krune got his Spatial Rings verified. "Yin, Time, and Life Heavenly Fragments. Let''s start with the Yin one since I already have its counterpart." Krune then began to absorb the Ownerless Yin Heavenly Fragment as he did with the Blackhole one. Just like before, the new Heavenly Fragment tried to resist the fusion. After all, it wasn''t really a Heavenly Fragment from the Luvile Universe. However, because it did not have a Universe of its own anymore, it couldn''t resist forever. Sure enough, it finally lost its ground and began to fuse with the others. The bigger fragment that represented Krune''s three ones and the smaller Yin Fragment then changed into a liquid form. After that, they mixed together. Once that was done, one couldn''t tell the difference anymore except that there seemed to be more ''liquid'' now. Finally, that liquid solidified once more in the form of a bigger cracked core. As soon as that was done with, Krune felt the wave of Spiritual Energy coming into his Wisp Core. That made sense since that Yin Fragment was from the Mortal Realm, where Godly Energy didn''t exist. As mentioned in the past, its previous owner''s cultivation would be added to the new owner''s one. Too bad, though. First, the original owner was a lot weaker than Krune to start with. Besides, Spiritual Energy had little use for Krune now that he had Godly Energy. In the end, that Yin Heavenly Fragment was not enough for even a single Stage of Cultivation to increase. Several hours later, Krune finished the process. Nevertheless, Krune wasn''t sad. That was not the main reason for absorbing the Heavenly Fragments, but the other perks that came with it. Now, Elements related to Yin would be easier to be controlled. Understanding their laws even more so. Not to mention that each different fragment had an impact on the power of Krune''s Elemental Divine Soul too. "Phew... done with one of them. Let''s continue." Krune then took out the Life Heavenly Fragment and restarted the process once more. Just like that, Krune absorbed the remaining two Heavenly Fragments. The good thing was that the three of them together was still enough for him to jump into the 2nd Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm. However, the real difference was that Krune''s combat power definitely went further than just a single stage. Too bad that Krune didn''t know where his limit was at the moment. "Are you done with it?" Krune then returned to his human form and nodded. "Yes. How long did I spend absorbing them?" "A day and a half. It seems like the previous owners of your fragments didn''t have strong cultivations. That''s why it was this fast. Anyway, now you are lacking only three Heavenly Fragments. Destiny, Space, and Death. Oh, right. You already have a Space Type one right beside you." Zule''s small projection mouth twitched. "Fuck you! Who will be giving his Space Heavenly Fragment? As long as I''m here, you can forget about ever absorbing it. I can totally fight the fusion process as many times as I want. Hmph!" Krune and Luvile laughed after seeing him like that. "Alright, stop bullying him. Even if, for some reason, I got Zule''s Space Fragment, I have no other way to find the Destiny and Death Fragments. We will need to see it once we are back to the Mortal Realms." Meanwhile, in the Flower River Sect, Binmia had already noticed that Bianca was under some restrictions that impeded her from talking certain things. Still, she wasn''t that much worried since she could at least tell that Bianca would be able to get rid of it once she reached the Mortal Rejection Realm. With the Flower River Sect resources and the fact that she is the daughter of the Sect Master, that wouldn''t be difficult for her. Bianca only needed time. Binmia was concerned about another thing, though. The other members of Bianca''s group had returned from the expedition. Not only that, but they brought back something they found in that Demon Beast''s Head. Surprisingly, it was the fragment of a broken soul! Everyone believed that the Demon Beast was dead already. In a certain way, they were not wrong. The proof was that its foundation was already on the verge of collapse. If it was really alive, it would never let such a thing happen. Another problem was that this fragment of a soul was quite fragile. Not to mention that most of its memories were lost. To make things easier for that Soul, Binmia found a weak body for it to possess. After all, it would be hard to communicate if it couldn''t at least talk to them. A soul search was absolutely out of the question. After all, the fragment was way too damaged. Any attempt to tamper with it would most likely make it dissipate. It is already a miracle that it has survived for this long. "So, you are saying that you can''t remember where you came from or what happened to you." Binmia put that soul inside of a dead kid''s body, which was easier to take control of. The kid then nodded his head at Binmia. "That is correct. However, I do remember I suffered a fatal injury that brought me into this state." "What can you tell us about you?" The kid began to ponder as if it was a very difficult question. He wasn''t trying to pretend, though. The damage on his soul was severe to the point where the few pieces of memory he still had couldn''t exactly be put together. "Hum... I can remember that I was very good at Space-related things like laws. Also, I''m sure I''ve never heard about Godly Path or God Realm before. Of course, I can''t tell if it is because I completely forgot about those two or if I came from somewhere else." "Let me see... I seemed to have been at the Beyond Existence Realm... or something like that." Binmia and the others looked at the kid with puzzled expressions. "Beyond Existence? What kind of Realm is that? Does it even exist?" No one had the answer to that question, not even the kid himself. "Perhaps, the categorization of Realms between you and me were different. My Beyond Existence might have something to do with some of your realms too." Binmia nodded. "That makes more sense. However, we already reached the conclusion that you definitely came from another Realm. After all, your body back there is far more powerful than a Nascent God of our Godly Path Realm could be. If it were still alive, the Godly Path Realm would definitely have sent you to the next Realm already." Binmia had already explained to the kid how the ascensions work. "Indeed. You showed me your God Core Realm power and told how much stronger a Nascent God is. I have no doubt that I was several times stronger than a Nascent Soul could possibly be. Too bad that I''m in this state now." Binmia couldn''t help but ask. "Do you want to get revenge? Or better, do you even remember who gave you that fatal injury. Oh well, that is considering if someone really attacked you to start with. Your injury might have been caused by something totally different too." The kid nodded. "That''s true. I only know about the injury I suffered, but I can''t remember how I got it. Naturally, I can''t feel like getting revenge on someone." Binmia then asked something else. "What about your body? Can''t you control it anymore?" The kid immediately shook his head. "I forced myself into slumber so that this fragment wouldn''t disappear. However, I still remember that I tried to control my body. Unfortunately, my body was way too strong for me to control with just this fragment of a soul. If I had forced myself, I would spend the rest of the soul power that I had and disappeared." Binmia couldn''t help but feel weird. "You seem very cooperative, don''t you think? Aren''t you afraid of us taking advantage of you?" "I don''t have much choice, do I? Look at me. My soul has none of my previous life power. This kid''s body does have some cultivation, but I can''t even remember this cultivation realm''s name. I can only tell that it is weak to a disgusting level. If I want to recover, I can only cooperate with you." The body of the kid he possessed was only at the Foundation Establishment Realm. Binmia and the other elders in the room then began to discuss with Divine Sense messages. It was then that Binmia remembered something. "Oh, right. Do you at least remember your name?" The kid was taken aback for a second. He then began to ponder a bit until finally, he nodded his head. "Oh, I do! My name is Zule." Chapter 672: Confusion Back on Krune''s side, a week passed quite fast. He finished getting used to his control of the new Heavenly Fragments too. Krune also called his employees back, and they opened the restaurant for two days. Still, because no one was expecting it to open, Krune didn''t get as many customers as he usually did. Finally, the day for the Memory Seals to be removed from the siblings arrived. They were brought into the Sect, where Franlia had prepared a secret place to do the procedure. Other than Franlia and Krune, there was also Iem, Tulike, Tosely, Franlia''s husband, and other elders. "Alright, brats. Go and step on the formation in the center." Nina and Lino looked at Krune, who warned them one last time. "Are you sure you want it? If you stop cultivating altogether, the Memory Seal will not activate, and you can keep living like that until you pass away. If you go ahead with it, chances are that you will lose some of your memories." Nina smiled as she turned around and headed to the center of the formation. She didn''t want to simply live until she was around 60 and die, especially after everything Krune went through to get everything for their Memory Seal removal. After working for Krune for over four years, she could already tell that Krune probably blamed himself for them to have ended in that situation. That was not how she wished things to be over. Lino could more or less tell what his sister was thinking and sighed. He also turned around and entered the center of the formation. He couldn''t simply stay behind and let his sister pull ahead of him like that either. Franlia then looked at the others, and they initiated the formation. This time around, she called only those she trusted completely. After all, this formation would be reaping apart the Memory Seal from Soul. This was a very delicate operation that needed both skill and power. Of course, the formation was formed with the items that krune paid for with his efforts in the Foundation Space. The formation activated, quickly enshrouding Nina and Lino with some kind of white fog. "You two, don''t oppose the pull on your soul. It will be painful, but it will be even worse if you try to resist." Nina and Lino then held each other''s hands. Right after, their souls partially came out of their body, revealing themselves to the experts around. Franlia, who was operating the core of the formation, then used it to expose the Memory Seals. Krune was accompanying everything with his Mental Energy. He saw the moment th Memory Seals appeared. They looked like two red maggots that were attached to both Nina and Lino''s souls. From them, Krune was able to see with his Mental Energy a few red threads that penetrated deep into their souls. Immediately, he understood why it was so hard to remove the Seals. They were just way too attached to the souls. "Alright, I''ll start to use the Nisek Beast Soul Liquid. Make sure you all control the input of Godly Energy correctly." Krune had heard about it from Franlia. Nisek is a Soul Type Demon Beast from another part of the Godly Path Realm. Zamaria Planet might not have Nascent God Experts, but God Core Experts are still more than enough to play some whole out of their own planets. That''s why Franlia and her Sky Shifting Sect still had the means to acquire it. Some type of gray energy then began to come out of the formation and enter those ''maggot-like'' Memory Seals. Slowly, the Memory Seal began to turn into the same color as the gray energy. At the same time, the threads that entered Nina and Lino''s souls began to retract slowly. However, Krune''s expression turned dark, seeing it. That''s because not only were they returning to the Seals, they were pulling some of the souls together with them. Sure enough, their maggot-like appearances were really fit. Krune could also see that both Nina and Lino were in a lot of pain. Unfortunately, there wasn''t much he could do. Finally, those threads retracted completely, leaving only the Seals behind. "Good! Send all your Godly Energy to the formation''s core. I''m going to take the Seals out in a single go." Tosely and the others nodded. Immediately, their Godly Energy rushed like a torrent into the formation, powering it even more. Franlia then controlled the formation and struck both the seals. With Franlia''s cultivation, the Seals simply couldn''t resist and were pulled out straight away. Of course, Nina and Lino''s soul suffered the biggest shock at that very moment. After all, that was the moment they took the most severe damage. The siblings couldn''t resist the pain and fainted right after. Fortunately, that was the last part of the remotion process. As soon as they passed out, the formation deactivated as well. "It''s done." Tosely, Rag, and the others who helped finally let out a sigh of relief and stepped out of the formation. Krune heard that too and immediately rushed at the two siblings before they fell on the ground. He held them with his Godly Energy and pulled them back with him. Right after, Krune brought out two of his Life Dew Pills and fed one to each of the siblings. At his level, the Life Dew Pill isn''t that effective anymore. However, it was completely different in Nina and Lino''s case. As soon as they took it, their souls began to heal at incredible speeds, completely replenishing the missing parts. Finally, Krune let out a sigh of relief too as he looked at Franlia. "Thank you, Sect Master. How was it?" Franlia shrugged her shoulders. "Everything worked as expected. The Seals are gone, and they won''t suffer the risk of being taken by the Three Peaks Sect anymore in the future. Of course, they can still decide to go back there on their own volution. In that case, there is nothing I can do." Franlia continued. "Still, you, Iem, and Sisan really brought a lot of useful things back from the Space Foundation. Because of that, I got quite a few high-quality items for this attempt. I don''t know how much their memories were affected, though. You will need to wait for them to wake up to test it out." Krune nodded and then lifted both of them. "I''m going back to my restaurant." However, Franlia stopped him. "Before that, I want you and Iem to know that I would like to have you two coming into the next Sealed Godly Vein Spaces. After all, there are a lot of Top Quality Godly Energy Stones that we can get. Not to mention that you two definitely surpass the power of any of the other two Sect''s Semi-Divinity Realm members. Once you enter a chaotic space inside the Godly Vein One, none of the other Semi-Divinity Realms will be a match for you two. Besides, you can remove those stones several times faster than anyone." One must remember that the last Top Quality Godly Energy Sealed Space was not the only one. There were several others that opened every now and then. Krune then pondered a bit before asking. "It depends. When will be the next one? I would like to spend the next few days with the siblings to check on their condition." If Krune doesn''t count the God Space Crystal, he didn''t get many rewards during the last expedition that he brought out. It would be perfect to get in there and acquire as many Top Quality Godly Stones as he could. Iem, for example, got quite a few. He preferred to have more of those stones than those elemental essences. After all, they were more useful for the high-level cultivators and demon beast. For Iem, Top Quality Godly Stones would be much better if one considers his talent. Krune, of course, was the same thing. "Don''t worry. The space around the next Top Quality Godly Energy Vein will only open next month. You have plenty of time to take care of them. Still, it is very helpful that you will help out." Krune nodded. "Very well. I''ll tell Iem as well since I believe he wants to gather as many Top Quality Godly Energy Stones as possible for his own cultivation." Franlia nodded and left together with Krune. After that, she went in another direction with Tosely and Rag as Krune returned to his restaurant in the city. He quickly arranged space for Nina and Lino and rested them down next to each other. However, just as he was about to leave the room to let them rest, he heard them move a little. He looked back and could see that Lino slowly got up while putting one of his hands on his head. "What a terrible headache." He then looked at Krune and couldn''t help but be delighted. "Hahaha! Chef Krune, I still remember you." Lino then looked at his side and noticed Nina there. His expression immediately turned gentler after that. "Obviously, I can remember my sister t--- ouch! My head really hurts. Hehe, as long as I don''t forget her, I''m fine with it." Krune smiled and began to talk with Lino. A moment after, Nina seemed to hear the voices and opened her eyes too. As one can imagine, her headache was as bad as Lino''s. Still, she couldn''t help but smile as she looked at him. "Seems like it worked." Krune then put his hands on their shoulders before asking. "Is there any gaps in your memories or something bothering you two?" Lino pondered a bit and shook his head. "Not at the moment, but I feel like I''m missing a few things. Of course, since those were lost memories, I won''t remember anyway." While Lino continued to think a little more, Nina looked at Krune with a puzzled expression. "I''m sorry, do I know you?" Chapter 673: Linos Reaction Krune and Lino were taken aback by that. "You can''t remember me?" Nina continued to look at Krune with a puzzled face. As far as they could see, it didn''t seem that Nina was pretending. Lino was even more sure since he knew that his sister would never fake such a thing. Lino then held Nina''s hand and asked, concerned. "Sister, can''t you remember that Chef Krune was the reason why we could get the Memory Seal removed? He went to great lengths to help us with it." Nina then began to ponder, but there was nothing else other than shadows and gaps. "I do remember a few things about that memory Seal, but... what was that about? I just remember that it was something bad. By the way, why did I say that I was happy that it worked? I can''t even remember what all of this was about." However, before Lino could explain, Nina looked at Krune and said with a smile. "Anyway, if my brother is saying that you were the one responsible for eliminating the Memory Seal, I''m really thankful. I''ll definitely repay this favor." Lino couldn''t help but feel somewhat melancholic. After all, he knows very well how much his sister loves... loved Krune. However, he was surprised to see that Krune didn''t seem that affected. At most, there was a hint of sadness on his face. Krune then showed a smile before saying. "I see... It''s okay. In a certain way, the one who put you in this situation was me as well. Anyway, the important thing here is not your memories of me. To be honest, there isn''t much merit in knowing who I am. The most important thing is your memories from your brother, and secondly, your Spiritual Chef skills. Those are the ones you need to have and are really significant. After all, I won''t stay here forever." Krune wasn''t lying. He never thought of himself as someone important anyway. He knew that many things depended on him in the past and even now. Still, he came from a three years life as one of the weakest life forms in the Luvile Universe. He knew the struggle of the weak races and how bad stronger ones treated them. He would never use his superior talent and power that he acquired with so much effort in something like that. However, for some reason, Lino felt extremely angry when he heard those words from Krune. He then stepped forward and grabbed Krune''s shirt. "Fuck those cooking memories! How can you say that those were the most important ones? Sure, it is great that she remembers me. However, was the time you spent with my sister really that useless?!" Nina was shocked by her brother''s reaction and immediately tried to stop him. She still had her cultivation. However, she couldn''t see Krune''s one at all. It was proof that he was several times stronger than them. She couldn''t remember Krune, so she didn''t know what kind of temperament he had either. "Lino, stop! You can''t be disrespectful to him! He helped us, so let him go!" Krune, of course, was as puzzled as ever. "Well... it does make me sad that she forgot who I am. Still, it''s like I said, I don''t think I''m someone that important to start with. There really isn''t much of a reason to feel this mad, right? Don''t worry. If you are afraid that I will abandon you two now, that won''t happen. Even if I need to teach your sister about being a Spiritual Chef again, I will take care of it. As for memories about me, well, there will be new ones in the future anyway." Lino got even angrier. Even though he knew that Krune only had eyes for that supposed wife of his, Lino still felt that it was not right for everything to be over like this. "That''s not it! That''s not it at all!" Too bad, though. Krune didn''t have any idea what Lino was angry about at all. In fact, even Lino couldn''t tell why he was angry. First, Krune''s EQ wasn''t developed enough to read the underlines. Everyone knew that. Also, since his sister never had a chance, wouldn''t it be better now that she forgot him? ''Still...'' Finally, Lino calmed down since he knew that he was being unreasonable with Krune. Especially after everything he did for them. Nina quickly tried to apologize to Krune. However, Krune simply patted both siblings'' heads and laughed. "It''s okay. I''m not angry to start with. If anything, I''m happy that you two didn''t forget each other. What about your skills as a Spiritual Chef? Do you remember them?" Nina couldn''t help but feel that touch familiar somehow. It made her feel secure even though she couldn''t remember anything about Krune. Still, she quickly put those thoughts behind and pondered about what Krune asked. In the end, Nina shook her head at him. "Sorry, Chef Krune. I do remember that I always wanted to be a Spiritual Chef. Still, I can''t remember ever trying working as one." It couldn''t be helped. Nina''s cooking memories were deeply related to Krune himself. Since she forgot Krune, the cooking teachings that she received from him were gone too. In fact, she couldn''t even remember the other members of the restaurant either. Krune sighed after hearing that. He seemed a lot sadder about her lost cooking memories than his own. Well, that''s Krune for you. Cooking memories were more important than ones about himself. "Well, even though you can''t remember, I know what you are capable of. This time, it will be several times faster to teach you again. Not to mention that your cultivation is much higher than when you started in the past. Just leave it with me. Hahaha!" Suddenly, Lino felt like he was seeing a Deja Vu. His sister''s eyes began to shine the same way they did when Krune first took her as an apprentice. ''Well... so be it...'' Krune then told the two to stay there and rest for the rest of the day. Lino nodded without minding it much, but Nina still felt somewhat restless about the situation. Only after her brother told her that it was normal between them that Nina agreed with it. Chapter 674: Alliance All the sects then gathered beside the next Sealed Space, just like before. This time though, Krune and Iem didn''t see Bianca on the Flower River''s side. Still, Pharan was there with some of the old members too. As for the Three Peaks, Foltan was leading it once more. From the looks on his face, he seemed to be quite in a good mood. That was to be expected. That''s because Dolmen''s group, the one that entered the Foundation Space, was still allowed to bring back some good things. It couldn''t compare to Krune''s group, but the higher-ups of the Three Peaks Sect were pleased nonetheless. Besides, the message that Dolmen''s group brought back about the powers of the Foundation Space was of great help. They, too, intend to negotiate with the guys in there. Krune doesn''t know, but the Three Peaks already contacted the Sky Shifting Sect to talk about this issue for when that Sealed Space opens again. It is just that it won''t happen anytime soon. Suddenly, someone from the Flower River Sect came to talk with them. "Oh, it''s been some time since I''ve seen you, Sect Master Franlia." The one who came forward just so happened to be the Flower River Sect Master. She came forward with a smile as if a war wasn''t going on at all. Franlia smiled too and complimented back. "Indeed. Usually, I only send Tosely to take care of these deals. However, we have some shining stars on our side, so I had to come to make sure everything would be fine. I hope Sect Master Binmia doesn''t mind it." Binmia shook her had. "Of course not. As long as the agreement is kept, I don''t mind how many comes. Just remember that only three Divinity Realm cultivator/demon beasts can participate in it." "Don''t worry, my Sky Shifting Sect will keep its side of the agreement as long as the other two sects do so." Binmia nodded, satisfied. A moment after, a man with several scales on his body approached the two of them. Just like Binmia and Franlia, he was also a Sect Master. To be more specific, the Three Peaks Sect Master, Aragan Dianol. It was the pure-blooded Earth Dragon. "Well, well. It seems like us man won''t be on the top for long. Three Sects at war and the Sect Masters of two of them are women. It is really rare to see the two of you together, isn''t it?" Binmia and Franlia then greeted Aragan and talked about trivial things for a few minutes. Seeing that scene would make one wonder whether these three sects were really at odds or not. Finally, Aragan decided to enter into the real subject that brought him to this trip. "I already talked with Sect Master Franlia about it. Now, only Sect Master Binmia is remaining. I believe you already know about the Foundation Space, which is full of resources that our three sects need, right?" Binmia nodded. However, she didn''t hear about it from her daughter, as Franlia and Aragan believed, but from the kid called ''Zule'' instead. Of course, she wouldn''t say anything about the Soul Fragment that they got in the Demon Beast''s head. "Yes. I got to know about it, and I''m also very interested. However, the only ones who entered were your two sects'' groups, not mine. That being said, I''m a little lost about this topic." Aragan and Franlia already expected those words. "There isn''t much to be said. You just need to know that it will be extremely beneficial for us three. Franlia and I already reached an agreement, and we would like Sect Master Binmia to agree with it too." Binmia then pondered a bit before saying. "If I''m not wrong, you want to have a cease-fire for the war until we have harvested everything from the Foundation Space, is that correct?" Aragan smiled after hearing that. "That''s indeed correct. It goes without saying that the things we can get from there might even surpass the total value of all Top Quality Godly Energy Veins together. After all, there is a chance that these Godly Veins appeared precisely because of the Demon Beast. At the moment, we were able to hold the news and prevent anyone from finding it. That''s also why I came out to talk with you this time. If we play things correctly, we won''t have to be afraid of being found by any of the other powers in Zamaria." Binmia immediately nodded. "I agree with your thoughts. If we call them out, the rewards will be even further split. In fact, if it reaches the ears of any of those Nascent God Monsters from outside, then all powers in our Zamaria Planet will be cast aside. I don''t want such a thing to happen at all." For Binmia, it wasn''t just the Foundation Space, but the entire Demon Beast itself. With that Fragment of a soul, they have a great chance of reaping more rewards than anyone. Of course, Binmia will need to play her cards correctly for that to happen. "It''s good to see that everyone is on the same page." Aragan then turned around before calling someone out. "Saitik, come forward." One of the God Foundation Realm members of the Three Peaks Sect immediately appeared. "Yes, Sect Master." Aragan nodded and ordered right after. "Go to the front lines and spread the news. Our three sects have reached an agreement about the Top Quality Godly Energy Veins. The war will now be put on hold during the negotiations. Tell everyone to cease any attacks." Saitik nodded without asking anything before leaving straight away. Binmia and Franlia then did the same thing and sent their own representatives to have the war stopped. As for all the outsiders participating in it, they would be put on hold as well. "What about the rest of the Sealed Spaces? There are still a lot of Top Quality Godly Stones inside them." Binmia laughed as she said. "What is there to be said? Let''s just keep the original arrangement. The only exception will be the Sealed Space with the Teleport Formation that leads into the Demon Beast''s corpse. What do you say?" Aragan and Franlia nodded. The remaining Top Quality Godly Stones were still a great attraction for all three sects. Not to mention that the special arrangement of competition for it had been working quite well too. "It seems good. However, there is one thing that I don''t understand." Aragan looked at Franlia before asking. "Sect Master Franlia, how did you know that the teleport formation was there?" Franlia had long since expected that question. One must remember that it was her group who first went to that floating island, after all. "If you are asking if we did know about that place before, the answer is no. It was due to a coincidence that my sect''s group found that place. However, don''t expect me to tell you how that happened. To be honest, I don''t think there are other entrances to the demon beast''s body anyway. As for whether you believe or not, that will be up to you." Aranga shrugged his shoulder after hearing that. If he was in her place, he would have said exactly the same thing. Who would be idiotic enough to expose their own secrets? Binmia, however, didn''t seem to care too much about it. "Alright, the sealed space chaotic barrier is almost stable enough. Everyone, let''s go to our own positions and wait for it to open." Just like that, she put an end to those questions and went with her group to their side. Aragan was a little puzzled as to why Binmia let this topic die this easily, but there was nothing he could do if she didn''t want to pursue it. Without another choice, he brought his group to their position as well. Franlia smiled and did the same thing. A few hours later, the chaotic barrier was finally ready for everyone to enter. "It''s the same rules as before. Get as many Top Quality Godly Energy Stones as possible. The element doesn''t matter. If you don''t come out in a week, then you will be left behind. As for the other groups, get rid of them if it is beneficial. If not, leave them and focus on the Stones. Now go!" Krune''s group then passed through the barrier with the other two, quickly disappearing inside. Chapter 675: Dont Mess With Them After Krune left the room, Nina began to ask a lot more questions. How did her Dantian get fixed? After all, she knew that it was deformed. How did she cultivate all the way to the Soul Forging Realm? How come someone as strong as Krune took her as a disciple? Lino, of course, answered all of them as well as he could. However, Nina finally asked the thing that was puzzling her the most. "Why did you get so angry? That senior didn''t mind that I forgot about him, so why did you?" "This..." He wanted to tell her how the real reason. Yet, he shook his head in the end. "That was a mistake, don''t worry." Nina knew her brother. She was sure he was hiding something. Still, since it seemed something like a difficult topic for him, Nina decided to not ask anymore. Besides, she can''t remember anyway, so it wouldn''t change anything. Time passed, and two weeks went by in a flash. In the end, Krune was right. Nina didn''t remember the lessons about cooking, but her real skills were still there. She learned everything again several times faster than before. Another point worth mentioning was how much she began to admire the Rainbow-Colored chef... again. Of course, she also came to know the other employees of the restaurant once more. They heard from Krune about what happened, so they helped her too. They told several stories about their past with her during the various years working for Krune. Still, Nina felt like they were refraining from saying something; she just couldn''t tell what it was. The truth was that Lino told everyone to keep the fact that she liked Krune before a secret. After all, they all knew that Krune was completely oblivious to this kind of thing and only had eyes for his wife that no one had ever seen. Since there was no future for Nina, it was better if she didn''t know about it. Krune''s restaurant began to make success again. During that month, it got full once more with waiting lists. However, the list went just until the moment he had to leave for the next Sealed Space. He refused to take any reserves for later since he would never know how long he would really stay out. Jilin, one of the chefs that worked in the kitchen with Krune and Nina, decided to take the same offer as before. While Krune was gone, they would open the restaurant but only make Spiritual Dishes of their level. Krune didn''t have a reason to refuse it, so he let them do as they pleased. Besides, it would be a good opportunity for Nina to redevelop her skills as well. Finally, the day for the next expedition into the Sealed Spaces arrived. This time, the Top Quality Godly Energy Vein was inside the Three Peaks Sect territory, so the Sky Shifting and Flower River went there. Surprisingly though, both Tosely and Franlia acted as protectors for this travel. The reason for that was quite apparent. Everyone already knows about Krune''s ability to retrieve Top Quality Godly Energy Stones. That being said, there might be a chance of the other two sects joining forces to somehow get rid of him. Franlia, of course, wouldn''t let the golden egg''s duck be killed this easily. As for who would protect the sect while they were out, Franlia wasn''t worried. After all, her husband, another expert at the God Core Realm, was still there. It''s just that no one knows about him. If someone really decided to attack, he could hold the fort. "Are you all ready?" Krune and his companions nodded. Another thing that happened was that most of Krune''s members were the same as in the past. Jimage and Rui were the Divinity Realm members, being at the 9th and 6th Stages, respectively. Instead of using the Top Quality Godly Stones they got for breakthroughs, they preferred to hold onto them. After all, they could tell that Krune and Iem would most likely be called to the next exploration. Knowing that both of them could fight at the Divinity Realm level, their group would have a huge advantage. Not to mention Krune''s perception ability far surpassed their own. Going into the Sealed Space with those two was bound to give them many more Top Quality Godly Energy Stones as rewards. As mentioned before, Xanala, the 3rd Stage Divinity Realm from the previous group, did not make it out. In the end, she could only be replaced by someone else, a demon beast called Kava. To be more specific, he was a plant demon of the Dark Willow race. Although the species wasn''t anything that impressive, they were still relatively rare. Well, plant demons are already quite rare to start with. Other than Xanala, Ramona and another Semi-Divinity Realm of their group also perished during the last journey. Still, that couldn''t be helped since everyone knows the circumstances they were in. In a certain way, it was already a great achievement that only three out of ten died in the end. The other sects didn''t do much better. The Flower River lost four members as the Three Peaks lost three. As one can imagine, the new members looked at Krune and Iem with interesting expressions. But they were even more puzzled by the fact that the other members didn''t seem to mind their cultivations. Both Krune and Iem were at the 2nd Stage of the Divine View Realm. Krune used the Heavenly Fragments to get to that level. As for Iem, he didn''t have anything to do with Nina and Lino, so he received his full rewards. He got lots of Top Quality Godly Stones, which he used for cultivation, allowing him to reach the same level as Krun in that month. That shows just how much better those Stones were compared to lower-level ones. Jimage, of course, could tell what was on their heads, so he warned them with a Divine Sense message. "Don''t mess with those two. Other than Rui and me, none of you are their match. Also, they are the most important members of our group at the moment. If I were you, I wouldn''t try to buy a fight because of their cultivation. Of course, if you wish to humiliate yourself, by all means, go ahead." Kava and the other new Peak Semi-Divinity Realms were taken aback by those words. Still, since even the Peak Divinity Realm was that wary, they decided to not try their luck. Chapter 676: Not Running Jimage led the group through the Sealed Space like before. It''s just that he relied not only on his Divine Sense but Krune''s perception as well. He asked Krune that if he noticed anything, he should tell him with a Divine Sense message. Still, Jimage was also quite used to it after his first expedition, so there were rare moments where he had to hear Krune''s warning before acting himself. Kava would also receive the same warning from both Krune and Jimage in alternate times, which made him feel quite weird. There had been almost no instances where he noticed dangers before the two. It was one thing in Jimage''s case, but Kava was worse than the 2nd Stage Semi-Divinity Realm rainbow-haired guy. Krune didn''t know what Kava was thinking, nor did he care. Instead, he was busier talking with Zule. ''What do you mean you felt a familiar power?'' Zule didn''t know the answer to that question either. ''I can''t really explain. I just know that I felt some kind of familiar energy coming from the guys of the Flower River Sect, especially that Pharan. It was a bizarre sensation.'' Krune narrowed his eyes. ''Maybe it is some kind of Spatial Treasure similar to yours. Since we entered the Sealed Space, they might have brought something that can bring them out. Wait, you aren''t telling me that this is another Heavenly Fragment with sentience, right?'' Zule immediately shook his head. Although the theory made sense, Zule felt like it wasn''t exactly the issue. ''No, it''s nothing like that. If it was another Heavenly Fragment, I believe I would at least feel its presence. Anyway, Pharan''s group went somewhere else, so let''s forget it for the moment.'' Krune agreed with Zule. After all, Pharan''s group entered the Sealed Space through another side. They probably will find him at some point, but there is no need to care about it now. First of all, it is not like Pharan''s things had anything to do with them. Just like the last Sealed Space, Krune''s group went from one node to another. Thanks to his ability to remove Top Quality Godly Energy Stones faster than anyone else, the group rarely spent more than a few minutes in each of the floating islands. Kava and the other two new Peak Semi-Divinity Realm members finally came to understand how important Krune was to the group. That wasn''t all, though. Iem and Krune were just too strong! They joined the fight every time a Divinity Realm Level Space Creature appeared. Kava even felt somewhat weaker since he couldn''t get rid of the Space Creatures around his level as fast as those two. Of course, for their group, this was excellent news. The stronger they are, the more Godly Stones they will get. It was that simple. The only doubt was just where the limit of their strength was. Finally, they found the first chaotic space. As one can imagine, all the Semi-Divinity Realm members entered it. Still, with Krune and Iem being as strong as Divinity Realm members, the Space Creatures posed no threat to them all the way to the cluster. Once again, Krune quickly removed the Top Quality Godly Energy Stones and departed with everyone. Things were just going too great for their group. Jimage even felt like they might get more Top Quality Godly Stones than the last time just by going from island to island. After all, they had an entire week to do that. Back on the Silver Core, he had to wait until Krune came out, so he could only get the Top Quality Godly Energy Stones that were attached to it. However, not everything continued that well. They were bound to bump into one of the other two teams sooner or later with their speed... and so they did. In one of the floating islands close to the Godly Vein, they finally encountered another group, Foltan''s one. Of course, no one on the two sides was afraid. "Foltan, what about we ignore each other? I''ll do you a favor and leave this island to you. Different from your group, we don''t need to have every island Godly Stone anymore. Since I''m feeling generous, I will pretend I didn''t see you at all." Jimage was mocking them, but he wasn''t lying. With Krune''s Godly Energy Stone removal speed, it was worth a lot more to prevent battles and go somewhere else than initiate a fight here. In the end, most of the Godly Energy Stones this time around will still be theirs anyway. However, Foltan also knew that. There were just so many Top Quality Godly Energy Stones in the Sealed Spaces. That''s because those clusters would need time to generate more of them in the future. Once all the islands were swept up, the place will become empty. At that point, they will need to try the islands that are not connected to the Godly Vein. However, those islands are all lotteries. Chances are that you won''t find anything at all. Not to mention that they might only encounter even more fights with the Space Creatures too. If Foltan let Jimage''s group leave now, just how many more Godly Stones will they get than themselves? "Hmph! It is not impossible for our group to ignore each other. Just leave that rainbow-haired guy with us, and the rest is free to go. I promise I''ll give him back to you once we are out of this Sealed Space." Too bad, though. Be it Pharan and Foltan''s group, neither side had seen how strong Iem and Krune really were. Back inside the Foundation Space, Dolmen and his companions had only seen Krune when they were already captured by the Celestial Organizations. Obviously, they knew nothing about Iem and Krune, either. At the moment, even Jimage didn''t realize just how stronger they became after all that happened. The only one who knew about what they could do was Bianc... partially. She was the same girl who couldn''t talk because of the restriction on her soul. Of course, she had only seen they fighting when they were at the peak of the Divine View Realm, not the Semi-Divinity one. Jimage shrugged his shoulder and sighed. "Well, if you wanna fight, my group won''t mind it." But it was at this moment that both sides heard a laugh coming from the distance. "Hahaha! Now, look at that, doesn''t it seem like you guys are having fun?" Foltan and Jimage narrowed their eyes. Who else could it be if now Pharan''s group? Not only that, but Pharan was coming from the opposite side of Fotlan''s group, which put Jimage''s group right in the center of the two. In the end, Foltan couldn''t help but smile and make an offer. "Hey, you also know about the rainbow guy''s ability, right? Why don''t we join forces to get rid of him? If we don''t take care of this issue, most of the Godly Stones available this time will fall on the Sky Shifting Sect''s hands." Pharan smiled as he nodded. In fact, he was ordered to kill Krune if a chance presented itself. Since Foltan was also here, that would make things even easier. "Very well. However, there is no need to push Jimage and the other two Divinity Realm to dire straights. Otherwise, they might ignore everything to bring us down with them. Let''s just hold them back while the others kill the rainbow guy and the rest of their Semi-Divinity Realm members. After that, they won''t pose any more threat to us." Jimage''s group tension began to rise. Foltan and Pharan were so confident that they didn''t even bother using Divine Sense messages. If Jimage, Rui, and Kava went all out, they could definitely escape. However, the same thing couldn''t be said about the rest of the Semi-Divinity Realm members. Well, Jimage was pretty sure Krune and Iem could escape too, though. But what about the rest? They were already surrounded by both sides, so it would be very difficult to help the weaker members. However, both Foltan and Pharan''s groups failed to consider one point. They failed to consider that the ones to attack first would not be them, but Krune and Iem instead. Krune just didn''t want to leave his group members behind. As for Iem... well... one can already imagine how excited he is with the premise of this fight. Suddenly Iem and Krune released their Domains at the same time. "Rainbow Domain!" "Myriad Devil Flame Domain!" In less than a second, they had already initiated their attacks. At the same time, they entered their strongest combat form. Krune returned to his Wisp Form as Iem''s body completely crystallized. Krune then used his Tribulation Lightning at 300%, and Iem fused the black flames into his body. "Tribulation Shields Slaughter Formation, Second Form, Tribulation Stars!" "Heaven''s Fall Calamity!" "Devil Flame Suns!" "Devil Lightning and Flame Shadows!" Krune and Iem were not at the Divine View Realm anymore. At that time, they could already surpass the entire Semi-Divinity Realm and fight around the Divinity 4th or 5th Stage. If they joined forces, holding a 6th Stage one wouldn''t be too difficult. However, they are now in the Semi-Divinity Realm and at the 2nd Stage on top of that. Iem already began to practice Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique, while Krune absorbed another three Ownerless Heavenly Fragments. Even Jimage had greatly underestimated the enormous jump in combat power that they achieved since that time. Who said that they were at a disadvantage? In Krune and Iem''s eyes, the winners and losers of this fight were still far from being decided. Chapter 677: Turning Tables Since Foltan was ahead and Pharan was behind, they thought that Jimage''s group would escape through the sides. Because of that, both of them had more or less positioned themselves to cover those escape routes. Also, they kept their full attention on Jimage and Rui, who had the highest cultivations on Jimage''s group. As for the rest of their groups, they kept their positions to prevent them from easily escaping through them as well. However, they were really taken aback when they saw Krune and Iem attack each of the groups on their own! It was so unexpected that Pharan and Foltan didn''t even react. Yet, they were not too afraid of Krune and Iem doing much anyway. That''s because the two 3rd and 6th Stages Divinity Realm members of their groups were still there with the others. Considering Krune and Iem''s 2nd Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm, there was simply no reason for them to go help. If anything, they were happy that those two threw themselves into the lion''s den. "Courting Death!" Those guys immediately stepped forward and attacked Krune and Iem as well. However, Krune and Iem only laughed at that scene. Both sides quickly reached each other''s range. It was then that those two Divinity Realms on both sides understood where they put themselves into. That''s because only now they entered Krune and Iem''s Domains! Immediately, their Laws were affected together with their own skills. Their own domains also couldn''t even get close to Krune and Iem. On Krune''s side, all his Tribulation Star Shields took that opportunity to launch themselves at the enemies. On Iem''s one, his Black Lightning and Flame Shadows did the same thing. That wasn''t all. Krune''s Heaven''s Fall Camality and Iem''s Devil Suns descended with their attacks, giving the enemies no chance of retaliating whatsoever. *Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom...* "Arrrgh!" In the very first encounter, the two 6th Stage Divinity Realm members were sent flying! Of course, it didn''t mean they were weak, but that they completely underestimated Iem and Krune''s powers. That was, without a doubt, their biggest mistake during this exchange. With just that one strike, they were already severely injured to the point where they wouldn''t be any threat in this fight anymore. Even Jimage couldn''t blame them. After all, who would expect that two 2nd Stage Semi-Divinity Realms would be this strong? As for the 3rd Stage ones, they also committed the same mistake. However, Krune and Iem were already much stronger than them to start with. Let alone when they weren''t even taking the duo''s attacks seriously. Unfortunately for them, they didn''t have the strength to resist. Krune''s ''Tribulation Lightning Flame Blades'' on the shields slashed his opponent''s protection as if it was made of butter. The outcome of the guy wasn''t any better, though. There was simply no chance of survival. He was cut into hundreds of pieces, which were immediately pulverized by Krune''s Heaven''s Fall Calamity''s bolts. Even his soul didn''t escape. Iem''s Devil Lightning and Flame Shadows also showed no mercy to the 3rd Stage enemy on his side. Not to mention that the Devil Suns had already shattered any defense he could possibly have had. Just like that, two Divinity Realm enemies perished while another two were out of combat. Foltan and Pharan''s eyes opened wide! Be it them or all the others, they were all shocked by what they had just seen. Since when 2nd Stage Semi-Divinity Realms were that strong? But it as then that Foltan and Pharan thought about something. ''Wait, that form! That Rainbow Guy is a True Spirit!'' As for Iem, they couldn''t tell which race he was from. However, he wasn''t any weaker than Krune, so he was bound to be from a powerful one. Krune and Iem completely ignored the two 6th Stage Divinity Realm guys who were sent flying. Instead, they immediately dived into the Semi-Divinity Realm members of both groups. Pharan and Foltan, of course, wouldn''t just stay still and let them do as they pleased. With the power they showed, it would become a slaughterhouse. Too bad, though. Jimage wasn''t going to let them have their way. Since the tables turned so well to their side, how could he not give a helping hand then? "Hey, can''t you see that they are having fun? What about you make me some company instead? Let''s have a long and heartful talk. Hahaha!" *Bang!* Foltan and Jimage immediately clashed right after. "Get out of my way!" "No problem! Just turn around and leave. I''ll make sure to not do anything. Hahaha!" "You! Then die!" "As if!" The two were at the peak of the Divinity Realm and had similar strength. That was more than enough for Jimage to keep Foltan company. A battle between the two would take a very long time to finish since Jimage was only defending. As for Pharan, Rui and Kava joined hands to make up for the disparate of cultivation. "Since the two weaklings want to die, I''ll grant your wish." Rui wasn''t the least bit concerned, though. "You can try. But I''m sure the two of us can keep you company for quite some time. Hahaha!" Just like that, the two Peak Divinity Realm of the Three Peaks and Flower River sects were stopped, not being able to provide any support to their groups at all. Of course, there was also the Semi-Divinity Realm members of Jimage''s group. Since Jimage, Rui, and Kava were holding Foltan and Pharan back, they might also help Krune and Iem end things even faster. Sisan then turned in Krune''s direction and gave the orders. "Two of you go help Iem. The rest will follow me and get rid of the enemies on Krune''s side." "Yes!" The outcome was obvious for everyone to see. The Semi Divinity Realm enemies tried to escape, but they were simply not as fast as Krune and Iem. Especially when they are using their full power. Krune summoned his Tribulation Wing Shields as Iem used the Devil Flame ones. It was a one-sided battle. There was nothing they could do to save themselves. Foltan and Pharan noticed that and greeted their teeth. However, they immediately gave up any more struggle and fled straight away. Once Krune and Iem join hands with Rui, Kava, and Jimage, they will be in great danger themselves. Jimage and Rui didn''t try to stop them, though. If possible, don''t try to force a cornered dog''s hand. It was basically the same thing as Pharan spoke earlier. They didn''t want to try to kill Jimage and Rui since things could get really dangerous if the other side disregarded everything to bring both of them down. "Alright, that''s enough. Pharan and Foltan won''t dare to get close to us during the rest of the week. We have basically the entire Sealed Space only for us now." Krune''s Tribulation Lightning retracted as Iem''s Devil Flames stopped entering his Cyrstalized body. Right after, Krune''s form changed back into his human shape. Iem''s body also returned to normal, of course. "Well, that''s good enough for me." Jimage smiled and asked the question he was curious about. "Now then, from which races are you? I had seen Iem''s crystalization ability before, but I didn''t expect it to be this strong. Only now I could tell that it was not something he learned, but a bloodline-related ability. As for Krune, this is indeed the first time I see him in his true form. In fact, I was never able to feel his aura before but always thought he was a human. Of course, I can tell now that it is not the case. If I''m not wrong, you are a True Spirit, right?" Iem was in quite a good mood. This assault just now was exhilarating for him. It looked quite simple. However, that was because the two Divinity Realm from each side underestimated them. If they had been taken seriously from the very start, the end results would be hard to predict. "Senior Jimage is right. Although I do look like a human, I''m, in fact, a member of the Heavenly Race. Of course, the Havenly Race is still a branch of the Human Race, so we are not Demon Beasts." Iem agreed with Jimage on that point. Hiding it now that Foltan and Pharan left would be useless. The news would reach the other two sects outside, whether they wanted it or not. However, it was much better than having let their two groups ganging upon them. "I see... I heard about the Heavenly Race before. However, they are as rare as True Spirits. You are the first one I had ever seen. I didn''t even know that this crystalization thing of yours was part of their abilities. Only that they excelled at everything, body, energy, and soul." Krune was the next one. "Well, senior Jimage already found out my real identity. I''m indeed a member of the True Spirit Race. That''s why I can do so much at this level. As for any question about my Purple Lightning or my perception ability, you will have to ask Sect Master''s permission for me to talk." Turns out that Franlia became their best way out of such situations for the two of them. They could simply pile up everything on her back. It was quite convenient. Jimage then shrugged his shoulders after hearing that. "Well, as long as you are not an enemy, I''m fine with it. Hahahaha!" "Alright, it''s harvest time. Let''s go!" After that, the week passed without any other significant issues. Chapter 678: Free Godly Stones Well, Pharan and Foltan were still alive with the other two 6th Stage Divinity Realm companions. That being said, it was not like they didn''t do anything else after being defeated. They both went their own ways and began to gather Top Quality Godly Energy Stones. Of course, they simply couldn''t compare with Jimage''s group anymore. Well, they already couldn''t, but now it was even worse since they lost most of their group. Finally, the time to leave that Sealed Space arrived. Each group then left through the way they came from. In the end, Krune''s group got over 500 Top Quality Godly Energy Stones in this expedition. They could have got even more, but there was simply no more island attached to the Godly Vein. In the end, they had to go to the smaller islands that might or might not have them. Another thing was that everyone kept an eye open for another Teleport Formation into the Demon Beast''s corpse. However, they didn''t find anything like that. Krune relied on Zule for this search too, but Zule couldn''t feel the presence of another one of those teleport formations either. One must remember that the one who had found it in the past was Zule, not Krune. As one can imagine, both the Flower River and Three Peaks Sects were taken aback when they saw their only two members. But the really shocking thing was when they heard the reports about Iem and Krune. Immediately, Binmia and Aragan looked at Krune''s group that exited through the Sky Shifting Sect''s side. Franlia received the same report from Jimage. After hearing all of that, she was shocked too. Of course, she couldn''t help but show a smile finding out the outcome. Tosely wasn''t so polite, though. As a demon beast, she wasn''t used to keeping her emotions hidden when it was not necessary. "Great! I want to see what the other two sects will do from now on during the next Sealed Spaces aperture. Perhaps, they will flee as soon as they spot our Sect''s group from now on. Hahaha!" Franlia shrugged her shoulders after hearing that. She knew Tosely very well, after all. However, even though she was happy with this expedition''s outcome, she more or less could imagine what would happen next. Suddenly, Binmia and Aragan began to come in their direction. From the looks on their faces, it definitely wasn''t anything good. Tosely and Franlia could see their dark faces as they looked at Iem and Krune''s direction. Immediately, the two girls stepped forward and stayed between the two sides. Aragan expected that already. After all, he would try to protect such geniuses if they were on his side instead. Nevertheless, it was not the case, so he had to do something. To make things easier, he also exchanged Divine Sense messages with Binmia before he came here. "Franlia, that won''t work. We can''t have these two boys participating in the Sealed Spaces anymore." Binmia came right after and agreed with Aragan. "He is right. The difference in power is way too big. I don''t know what miracle you pulled out to get a True Spirit and a Heavenly Race member to your side. However, if e keep things like this, our teams will have no chance of competing for the Top Quality Godly Energy Stones anymore." Franlia didn''t care, though. "If you are bothered about that, you can go out and find your own True Spirits or Heavenly Race members to participate as well. I definitely won''t stop you." Agaran shook his head after hearing that. "Are you kidding me? If it was that easy to find disciples like them, all the powers in the Godly Path Realm wouldn''t be crazily looking for them." "So? Just because I found two of them, I should not make use? I''m not violating the agreement¡ªthree Divinity Realms and the rest at the Semi-Divinity Realm or below. I''m sure you remember it since you were also there when we decided it." Binmia and Aragan couldn''t help but feel somewhat embarrassed. It was true, they were there. Not to mention that Franlia was really not breaking any rules at the moment. "In that case, let''s change the rules again. Otherwise, I will definitely not allow things to continue like that." Franlia smiled after hearing that. "Is that so? Then what can you offer me in exchange for accepting new rules?" "This..." Binmia immediately intervened. "Aren''t you pushing it too far? All we are asking is for fair competition, nothing else." Franlia didn''t care. "Fair competition? You talk like you wouldn''t use them if they were on your side. Don''t make me look down on you. No, wait! I already do that anyway. Still, try to not make it worse." Aragan''s face went dark. Still, he had no words to refute Franlia. Binmia, of course, couldn''t do that either. "Fine! What do you want?" Franlia''s eyes lit up. "Oh, don''t worry. I''m not that greed. What about 50% of all Top Quality Godly Energy Stones your teams get in the Sealed Space from now on? Seems quite reasonable, right?" Binmia and Aragan almost exploded in rage. "Not greed your head! If that is not greed, then no one in this realm is! We might as well pretend that evil doesn''t exist in the world." Franlia smiled, though. "What are you complaining about? If they go in, you won''t have the chance to even get that much. Asking for 50% is not unreasonable at all." Franlia wasn''t the least bit afraid of them coming together at her Sky Shifting Sect. After all, she could simply threaten them with the Demon Beast''s corpse. If the powers outside Zamaria Planet with Nascent God Realm experts find about it, all of them will lose everything. Of course, she knew that she had asked for a high value. But it was better to start high so that the final deal would be high too. Binmia understood what Franlia was trying to do, so she decided to go straight to the point. "30%! That is as high as I go. If you really insist on taking more than that, then we might as well let everyone know about the Demon Beast''s Corpse." Aragan then took a deep breath and nodded. "Same thing for me. I''ll give 30% of the Top Quality Godly Stones we get in the Sealed Spaces from now on. However, those two brats can not participate in the expeditions anymore." Franlia was quite pleased with that final number. "Alright, I accept 30% from each one of you. However, the Sealed Space, where the teleport formation is located, will not be included. Are you okay with that?" Binmia and Aragan looked at each other before nodding as well. "We accept." With the new agreement in place, Krune and Iem were now out of the next explorations. Franlia then finished discussing the details with the other two Sect Leaders and returned to her group with Tosely to tell the news. Iem, of course, couldn''t help but get angry. "That''s shit! We were depending on these explorations to get the Top Quality Godly Energy Stones. What do we do now?" There was also the part where he simply wanted to fight the other Sects. Still, Krune stopped him from saying that, or else others might think he is also a battle maniac for being this guy''s friend. Of course, Krune was also disappointed with that outcome. Still, he felt like Franlia had more to say. Franlia expected that answer from them. Also, Krune was right. She wasn''t over with only that. "Don''t worry, we are now guaranteed to get 30% of their gains just because of you two. That being said, half of it will be given as a reward to you two as well. After all, such an agreement where we get free Godly Stones wouldn''t happen if not for your powers. Simply put, you will get what you deserve without having to make any efforts for it." Krune smiled after hearing that. One must remember that he wasn''t Iem. Unless he wanted to test his cultivation and combat power, he wouldn''t mind going without battling anyone. Iem couldn''t help but look somewhat gloomy, though. After finishing organizing everything, Franlia and Tosely guided their group out of the Three Peaks Sect territory back to the Sky Shifting Sect. Soon, everyone got their own share of Godly Stones. After making sure everything was okay, Franlia let everyone go. However, Franlia sent Krune and Iem a Divine Sense message before they left. "The Sealed Space with the teleport formation will only open after a few years, so you are pretty much free now. However, since you have nothing else to do, I have something you might be interested in. Come to see me when you find some free time. Of course, if you are busy, you can simply ignore it." Krune and Iem looked at each other and nodded. "Alright, it won''t hurt to hear what Sect Master has to say. We will come by when possible." Krune and Iem left the Sect right after. Krune went back to his restaurant to check how everyone was doing. As for Iem, he returned to the Formations Guild to keep his own practice. However, Franlia was still worried about those two now that the other two sects know about them. "Tosely, get a few God Foundation you can trust and have them watch Krune and Iem. I want to prevent any accidents from happening." Tosely nodded and left straight away to arrange it. She knows that Franlia wouldn''t ask such a thing if not necessary. Chapter 679: Another Entrance Krune returned to his restaurant just in time to see it closing its doors for the day. As always, Bai was the one who held the keys, so he was the last one out. "Hey, Bai." Bai didn''t even need to turn around to know who it was. "Chef Krune! Welcome back. How was the trip this time?" Krune smiled. "Everything went fine. If nothing happens, I should have quite some free time for the next month, so I''ll be in the Kitchen from tomorrow onwards." Bai was obviously happy to hear that. "Oh, that''s great! You will be happy to know that Nina has been doing very well in recovering her skills. Jilin, of course, helped a lot during this time too. If Chef Krune wants, I can call them back. We just closed the restaurant, so they shouldn''t have gone too far." Krune shook his head. "There is no need. I can talk with everyone tomorrow if necessary. You can go as well. Leave the closure with me." Bai nodded and bid farewell to Krune before leaving. Krune then finished everything on his side and went back to his room. There, Luvile used the Tribulation Lightning Layer to conceal any Divine Sense probation. Right after, Krune pulled the Space God Crystal and began to ponder about it. "Hum... Zule, how much of it you think I would need to improve your equipment?" Zule''s projection appeared outside and looked at the Space God Crystal. "Well, adding the Space God Crystal wasn''t part of the plan to start with. However, it will indeed increase the power of my Spatial Equipment if you do so. Still, this God Crystal is too big." Zule then began to probe the God Crystal, which took quite a few minutes. "Considering the level of my equipment and your ability, I would say that 15% of it should be necessary. However, you better keep double in case something goes wrong." Krune nodded. "Alright. Luvile, Tribulation Lightning can cut it, right?" Back then, Zule told them how even a Mortal Rejection Realm would have a hard time dividing the God Crystal. Let alone a Semi-Divinity Realm like him or Iem. However, Tribulation Lightning can eat the very laws that the materials are made of. Obviously, the God Crystal is no exception. "Yes. However, considering your cultivation, it might need quite some time." Krune didn''t mind, though. "Well, if there is something we have now, it is time. Guess we can focus on selling the rest of the God Crystal and cultivate for the next few years. With my experience as a Spiritual Chef, neither Iem nor I will lack Godly Energy. Let alone if we pair it with the Top Quality Godly Energy Stones that we will get from now on." Zule couldn''t help but ask, though. "But what about Franlia''s invitation?" "Oh! That''s true. Well, I''ll go check it in a month or two." Right after, Krune used his Tribulation Lightning and began to cut the Space God Crystal. First, he wanted to separate the 30% that he will use to improve Zule''s equipment while fixing it. Once that is finished, Krune will cut the rest into several much smaller parts for selling. Krune''s plan was quite simple, he will sell the God Crystal parts separated and under different names. The Blacksmith Network had thought about it a long time ago. To protect lone sellers, they don''t stop members from doing such things. The only thing is that you need to be a real member, but your identity is protected when you use this method. Of course, this wasn''t a single day work. The next day quickly arrived, but Krune couldn''t cut even half of the first part. That shows just how much he lacks in cultivation when it comes to dividing the Crystal. Without Luvile''s power, it wouldn''t be more than a dream to cut it. Just like that, the days began to pass. Soon, weeks went by, then a month. During this time, both Luvile and Harold warned Krune and Iem that a few Divine Senses had continuously watched the two. Of course, neither Krune and Iem were idiots. They only needed to think for a moment to know that the one who put those guys there was Franlia. Well, that wasn''t a big problem since every time they wanted to hide what they were doing, Luvile and Harold''s power was more than enough to do it. Of course, those God Foundation Realm experts that kept spying on them would feel shocked every time Krune and Iem disappeared from their Divine Senses. They even secretly entered Krune''s restaurant and the Formations Guild to see what was happening. After all, what if someone had taken the two away? Nevertheless, they soon found out that Krune and Iem were using some kind of unique concealment method. Tosely only told them to confirm that Krune and Iem were alright. They were warned that some weird things might happen around the two. However, they should simply ignore it if the two were fine. Finally, two months later, Krune and Iem decided to go back to the Sky Shifting Sect to check what Franlia wanted to tell them. Well, it was not like they had much more things to do anyway. Soon, they received a message that they would meet again in Tulike''s house at night as always. Tulike talked to them for a while until the night came by too. "Do you know what it is that Sect Master Franlia wants to talk about?" Tulike pondered a bit but couldn''t think about anything. "No. I didn''t even know why you two were coming by before you told me that it was mother who called you here." In the end, they could only wait. Finally, Franlia arrived and invited them to dinner one more time. During it, she decided to go straight to the point. "There is something I would like you two to do for me. These tribulation powers of yours, it can somehow get rid of laws, right?" Krune and Iem looked at each other before nodding. "They can indeed." Franlia then continued. "Good! What if I say that I might have a way into the Dimensional Space where that Demon Beast''s corpse is?" Krune and Iem were surprised to hear that. But it was then that Krune thought about something. "From what I heard before, it is not that higher level cultivators and demon beasts can''t enter the Top Quality Godly Energy Veins'' Sealed Spaces. Instead, entering it would destroy the Sealed Spaces themselves since they can''t support the existence of your cultivations." "Once that happens, all the Clusters that create those Top Quality Godly Energy Stones will be destroyed as well. That''s why you never sent anyone above the peak of the Divinity Realm. However, even if the Sealed Space is destroyed, the Godly Vein itself will not suffer anything. Could it be that you are planning the have it destroyed to search for the other Dimensional Realm within that has the Demon Beast''s corpse?" Although Krune came up with this theory, he knew about the several fatal flaws in it. Still, he didn''t point them out since he believes Franlia knew it too. Sure enough, Franlia shook her head right after. "No. If we do such a thing, both the Flower River and the Three Peaks Sect will find out immediately. We all agreed to leave our scouts watching around and keep sending us constant reports. Not to mention that Tosely and I often pay a visit to it just to make sure that everything is fine." "Also, if we do such a thing, the teleport formation that is inside that Sealed Space would be destroyed as well, right? Your approach might be feasible but wouldn''t bring any advantages to us. First of all, if it was a better choice, the three sects would have decided on doing that already. After all, losing the Clusters is much better than waiting this long for the Chaotic Barrier of the Sealed Space to stabilize. The fact is that we can''t guarantee that we can find another entrance to the Demon Beast''s corpse once the teleport formation disappears. That''s why we agreed to wait until the space inside stabilizes again." Iem heard everything until now, but he was puzzled about another thing, though. "Let''s suppose that Sect Master really can find another path into the Dimensional Realm that keeps the Demon Beast Corpse. Wouldn''t it be completely chaotic anyway? After all, it is inside the same Dimensional Realm as th-" "Ah!" Suddenly, Iem remembered a critical point. "I''m such an idiot. How could I not think about it before?" Krune and Tulike looked at Iem with interest. However, Franlia just smiled. She knew that Iem was a Formations Master. "Seems like you already know what I''m talking about." Iem nodded. "Yes. If the Demon Beast Corpse''s Dimensional Realm was really inside the Sealed Space, there would be no need for a teleport formation to start with. An ordinary Spatial Gate formation would be several times better. Still, there was such a complicated Teleport Formation that could resist the test of time for who knows how many years. Obviously, the Dimensional Realm that the Demon Beast Corpse is inside most likely is not affected by the Godly Veins Chaotic Space Effect." Krune didn''t know much about formations, so he didn''t think about such a possibility before. "I see... However, how exactly do you intend to find where that Dimensional Space is located? After all, it is not supposed to be in the same Space-Time location, right?" Franlia nodded. "It isn''t. But I do have a way to find it." It was then that she brought out a yellow bead. As soon as Krune and Iem saw that, they immediately understood what she was planning to do. "Vibrant Beads!" Chapter 680: To Open Back then, Jimage''s group used the Vibrant Beads to find each other in the Demon Beast''s corpse. Unfortunately, there were members who didn''t make it after the attack of the Space God Crystal. However, even if the God Crystal and the Space creatures killed them, their Vibrant Beads should still be intact inside. That''s exactly what Franlia was going to use to pinpoint the Space-Time location of that Dimensional Realm. "Don''t the other two sects have a similar way to find the Dimensional Relm?" Franlia shook her head. "It doesn''t matter. Even if they do have a way to find the exact location, they can''t enter it. In fact, I wouldn''t be able either, however..." Krune and Iem nodded. "That''s where our Tribulation Powers would come into play, right? You plan to use it to open a hole that leads inside with our help. Indeed, if we use our Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flames, we can break the Spatial Barrier Laws." Franlia nodded. "That''s exactly it. However, I don''t know what could happen or if it will work at all. It''s up to you guys if you want to participate in it or not. Otherwise, we can simply wait for the next time the Sealed Space stabilizes and go inside the normal way." Krune and Iem immediately accepted Franlia''s idea. "Let''s do it! It will be several times better if we can get a head start. Even if the other two sects find about it later, they won''t do anything, afraid that we might reveal the truth about the Demon Beast''s Corpse. They can only grit their teeth and bear with the loss." Franlia was happy that they thought like that. "That''s great! Anyway, using the Vibrant Beads to find the location of the Dimensional Realm will take some time. After all, the signal is too weak to pinpoint it precisely. Still, it will be faster than waiting for the next time the Sealed Space opens. Also, we won''t have a limited time to act as we usually do. Once we open a passage directly there, we can keep it for as long as we want." Krune and Iem nodded. "Alright. By the way, how long will it take to find the right location in Space-Time?" Franlia pondered a bit before saying. "Due to how weak the signal is, I believe that we will take around a year or two to find the right place." That was indeed faster than waiting for the Sealed Space to stabilizes again. Also, they understood why Franlia wasn''t in a hurry when she said they could come to see her when they were free. After all, it would take this long to find the right location. "Alright. That''s all for now. You can simply go back to do your own things while my Sect takes care of the rest. Once we have found the right place, I''ll send someone to call you over." Krune and Iem nodded and left after they finished Rag''s dinner. Meanwhile, in the Flower River Sect, Binmia was discussing a similar thing with ''Zule.'' "What use will be there if you can''t help us with this much? Can''t you use your connection with your body to find another passage?" Zule shook his head. "The Dimension where my body is lying has been strengthened by my body''s power to a great extent. Even if I can tell you exactly where the location is, you won''t be able to open a passage. You will need to use the teleport formation or bring someone much stronger than you. From what you told me, a few Peak Nascent God Realm cultivators and demon beasts might have enough power if they act together." Binmia immediately refused that idea. They are already trying to keep the secret hidden. If Nascent God Level power comes to open the Dimensional Space, they will be the last ones to get anything from there. "That''s out of the question." Zule shrugged his shoulders. "Then, we can only wait for the moment the Sealed Space opens to use that teleport formation." "What will happen if the other two sects find a way around?" Zule shook his head. "That shouldn''t be possible. However, if another passage is really opened into that place, I''ll be able to tell you straight away. If you are concerned, I can show you the exact Space-Time location of the Dimensional Realm. Anyone who wishes to enter will have to come to that place. Of course, even if I tell you this location, it is quite huge, so it might be somewhat difficult to watch all the extension of it." Binmia nodded. "That''s good enough." "Great! Now, let''s discuss my payment. Don''t forget, there is no free lunch in this world. I want a hundred Top Quality Godly Energy Stones in exchange for the information." "One hundred?! Are you crazy?! This is a fortune!" Zule didn''t mind, though. "Fortune? Fortune is what you can find in the Foundation Space of my Demon Core. What can a few Top Quality Godly Energy Stones do compared to all that wealth? Alright, I''ll add another gift too." Suddenly, ''Zule''s'' Godly Energy condensed in front of Binmia, quickly forming a seal. It gently landed on her hands right after. As the Sect Master of the Flower River Sect, Binmia had seen tens of thousands of seals before. She could use a lot of them too. However, she had never seen one like this. In fact, she was surprised that Zule could create a seal of this level with his miser Core Formation Realm. "What is this?" Zule smiled before explaining. "It is a Seal that can partially control the power of my body. Of course, at my level, it can''t do something like control the entire thing. At most, you will be able to manipulate the energy a few kilometers around the seal for a minute or so. Obviously, this would be nothing more than a very small fraction of the entire body''s power. Still, that can guarantee a boost in power for the user of this seal. I guess you wouldn''t mind having such an advantage once in there, right?" Binmia''s eyes lit up as she looked at the seal. If used correctly, she might be able to get rid of any competition at that point in time. "Very well, show me the Space-Time Location of the Dimensional Realm." Time began to pass as Krune and Iem proceeded with their own things. Soon, a year went by. Iem finally reached the same level as Formations master as he was in the Mortal Realm. He already had the basics to start with. He only had to adapt to this Realm''s type of formations. After that, he decided to go for alchemy once more since that was his second side-occupation. Krune also thought about doing the same thing, but he gave up in the end. He felt it was better to keep his focus on Blacksmith and Spiritual Chef occupations. If he added a third one to his table, he would have too many things to deal with. Besides, Iem had also developed his own variation of fire for the concoction. "That''s to be expected. You are using my Purple Tribulation Lightning to create the Purple Fire. However, Harold''s power is a real fire-type one with his power focus exactly on it. Iem''s pills might be even better than yours, depending on how he uses it." Krune had to admit that Luvile was right about it. Another thing that happened during this time is that Krune began to make Divinity Star Level Spiritual Dishes. No one thought it to be strange since he was already in the Semi-Divinity Realm. As for cultivation, Iem and Krune had basically relied on Krune''s Spiritual Dishes. They indeed had quite a lot Top Quality Godly Energy Stones. However, they concluded that it was too much of a waste to use them at their level. After they reached the 3rd Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm, they stopped using it to gather energy. Instead, they only used those stones the moment they made a breakthrough into the next Stage. In Krune''s case, he even wanted to bring some of them for Feifei to use. On the restaurant''s side, Nina had already recovered her abilities. Thanks to that, both her and Jilin advanced in their cooking skills without a problem. As for cultivation, they had already reached the late stages of the Soul Forging Realm. Krune believes that they wouldn''t take more than a month or two to try the Void Breaking Realm breakthrough. The same goes for Nina''s brother. Krune was quite happy with their developments. It was so good that he felt that the old Nina was back too. The way she acted towards him changed from stiff to the same friendly and energetic way as before she lost her memories. There was a dinner that everyone in the restaurant had together after work, where he even pointed it out. "Hahaha! You see? I told you that she only needed to make new memories. Look at Nina now. I can''t even feel any difference between this one and the one before the memory loss." Nina heard that and couldn''t help but feel embarrassed. "I''m just being too meddlesome." "Of course not. It is thanks to this love for cooking that you recovered your skills this fast. Just keep going like that. As yours and Jilin''s Master, I''m very happy with both your progress." Nina dropped her head without being able to look at Krune. Except for Krune, everyone couldn''t help but feel like history was repeating itself. Lino also noticed that and sighed. ''It is so obvious... To think she could fall in love with the same person twice... and that this person still hasn''t a clue about it...'' Chapter 681: Scouts During this year, Krune and Iem were pretty much cultivating at the same pace. They went from the 2nd Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm all the way to the 6th Stage. It was basically a breakthrough every three months. This speed would have been impossible in the Mortal Realm. Of course, Krune still had no idea that the time in the Mortal Realm flowed much faster. Still, that wasn''t all. Krune made sure to use that year to hone his skills too. For example, he reached the Semi-Divinity Stars Level as Blacksmith. It was to be expected, though. Krune finished cutting the Space God Crystal and already sold the extra 70%. With that, he was able to acquire many high-level materials for his practice. It would be weird if he couldn''t progress. Some time ago, he changed the material in his shields to Thousand Year Myriad Lightning Metal from the Myriad Lightning Sect. Not to mention it upgraded his Shields to the Semi-Divinity Stars Level. Considering the Purple Flame Effect, Krune''s shields were as strong as Peak Semi-Divinity Stars ones. Of course, the fact that he used Purple Tribulation Lightning and his Shields Formation only made them even more terrifying. There was another thing that happened during this year. Just as Franlia predicted, the Three Peaks and Flower River sect really sent some people to try to deal with Krune and Iem. However, Franlia had created a protection perimeter around those two, so all the attempts failed. In the end, the two sects dropped the idea. They will need to wait for those two to leave the city or sect first before trying anything. Krune and Iem kept waiting for Franlia''s call about the Dimensional Realm where the Demon Beast''s Corpse was located. A month later, they finally receive some news through their communicators. "Come to Tulike''s house this night. There have been some problems." They canceled whatever they had planned for that night and went straight there. During this last year, they didn''t go out to train even once. That''s not because they were afraid of being found by the Three Peaks or the Flower River, but because they didn''t need to. It was better to cultivate and jump a few levels first. Besides, there will probably be no lack of fights when they find the Demon Beast Corpse Dimensional Realm. The night quickly arrived, and the two paid a visit to Tulike''s house. There, Franlia and Rag were already waiting. "Oh, you are here." "Did Sect Master find the place where the Dimensional Realm was located?" Franlia nodded. "I did. However, there is a problem. There are several members of the Flower River Sect around the area. Not only them, but we found a few scouts of the Three Peaks Sect too. It seems like they also know that the Dimensional Realm is there." Krune and Iem narrowed their eyes. "To be honest, I don''t think that this is too surprising. There should be no way inside the Dimensional Realm. However, they also lost members inside the Demon Beast''s Corpse, so they might have used similar methods to encounter the place. They know it is not possible to open a passage, but what about their enemies? With that idea in mind, they stationed themselves there just in case someone trying to pull their leg." In the Flower River Sect case, it was ''Zule'' who told them the exact location of the Dimensional Realm. However, the Three Peaks had really done what Krune just mentioned. Of course, the Flower River Sect was the first one to arrive in the area due to their privileged information. But in the end, they also couldn''t open a passage. Let alone the Three Peaks Sect that arrived later. Franlia then nodded after hearing Krune''s words. "Indeed. I was also expecting that they would appear there. That being said, I spent a lot of resources and time trying to find that place before any of them. However, it seems like I still underestimated their abilities. I don''t know if they spent a lot more than me or not, but the fact is that they are an obstacle now. Also, nothing can guarantee that they don''t have a way in either. It''s only my speculation that it should be impossible with their strength." Iem then asked. "Still, a Dimensional Realm capable of holding such a big body is bound to be enormous. How big is the area that we can use to access the Dimensional Realm?" Franlia pondered a bit before saying. "I believe it should be around thirteen thousand kilometers. It looks big. However, it is located in outer space. Also, Tosely found out that a God Core Realm Elder of each sect was watching over it. With their Divine Sense, there is no way we can hide anything in that place." It was then that Krune thought about something. "Wait! If that is the case, I''m sure both of them built some residences so that they could spend their time there too, right?" Franlia nodded. "They did." Krune then continued. "In that case, why don''t we just make the same thing and use a Formation to block any Divine Sense probation?" Franlia sighed after hearing that. "It''s not gonna work. Neither of them is using this kind of formation there. That''s because it would make the other side think that you might be planning something. Before we even arrived there, the two Sects had already agreed that no one can hide anything inside that area. I could only reluctantly agree about it with them as well. After all, if I insisted, it would be the same as saying that I can enter while they can''t. Do you think they would let us stay hidden there as if we were doing nothing?" "What about making something outside their perception range and then getting inside with it?" "That''s too difficult. Both of them have several disciples patrolling the entire extension of the place." Things got quite complicated because of that. The Flower River and Three Peaks made sure to prevent any gaps from appearing in their watching. Franlia, of course, also left her own scouts and Tosely there to watch as well. First, it was to watch the other two sects. Second, it was to pretend that they also did not have a way in and were just observing. "Is there really no other way?" Franlia sighed and shook her head. The reason she called the two of them here was that they might have a way to do it. Krune and Iem had Luvile and Harold''s power. They could hide from any Divine Sense. However, the process of opening a gap into the Dimensional Realm is anything but simple. The commotion that it would generate is far from what Krune and Iem could cover alone. Even if possible, one must remember that Purple Tribulation lightning and Devil Flames are quite catchy. It would be way too easy to spot in outer space where there are no places to hide. Just as they were about to give up, Zule''s voice echoed in Krune and Iem''s head. ''If you know the Space-Time location, then I have a way to get us in without having to be there. However, I will still need your tribulation powers to open a hole in the Dimensional Realm barrier.'' Krune was taken aback. ''Really? No, wait! Wouldn''t it reveal your existence to others instead? Don''t forget that no one can know about you. Otherwise, we are fucked!'' Zule then explained. ''Don''t worry, we just need to be somewhat close to the place. I can go inside your Divine Soul and use my power from there. To be more specific, I will lend you my power for your own use. That way, others will think that it is you who is doing that, not me.'' Krune and Iem''s eyes lit up. ''Great! How does it work?'' ''To be honest, it isn''t that hard. As you probably know, Godly Energy in outer space is quite scarce. That makes the opening of Spatial Gates much easier. What I''m going to have you do is to make something similar. Instead of opening a Spatial Gate that connects two points in the same space, you will open a Spatial Gate that will connect to the barrier of that Dimensional Realm. Think about it as an underground tunnel to avoid the eyes of those on the surface.'' Krune and Iem understood. ''Alright. How close do we need to be?'' ''That will depend on how much risk you want to take. As I said, I need to open a tunnel that connects to the barrier of the Dimensional Realm. The closer we are, the smaller the tunnel. Obviously, the smaller the tunnel, the harder it will be for others to notice the changes in the Space Laws in the area. The further we are, the bigger the tunnel. As you can imagine, it will be easier to notice.'' Krune nodded and then asked. ''How close do we have to be for it to be safe?'' ''No more than ten thousand km.'' Krune then looked at Franlia and explained everything to her. "What?! How can you do such a thing?!" Krune smiled before coming up with an excuse. "It''s basically a fusion of mine and Iem''s Tribulation Powers. However, we can''t be more than ten thousand kilometers away from the Dimensional Realm. Does sect master think that it is possible to hide in this range?" Franlia understood that Krune and Iem wouldn''t speak more than that. However, it mattered little since what mattered was that they could do it. "Hmph! If it was inside the searching area, it would be very difficult. However, since you gave me an extra ten thousand km radius, then I can definitely make it work. Stay in the sect for now. I will arrange everything." A few days later, Franlia took Krune and Iem outside Zamaria Plannet without anyone noticing. Chapter 682: The Barrier The Divine Sense of a God Core Realm cultivator or demon beast can easily cover an entire Solar System. Still, one must not have the wrong idea that this is too big. Back in the Mortal Realm, a Peak Divinity Realm was able to cover entire galaxies! Obviously, using Divine Sense in the Mortal Realm and the Godly Path Realm is completely different. Another big difference is that Spiritual Energy doesn''t hinder Divine Sense. That means that you can use Divine Sense to observe an entire planet as long as there are no formations preventing your Divine Sense from viewing things. However, in the Godly Path Realm, the closer you are to a planet, the more hindered your Divine Sense gets. That being said, while a God Core Realm can use Divine Sense to watch an entire Solar System, he won''t be able to see what is happening on the planets themselves. After all, there is too much Godly Energy, especially in places like the Mountain Range, where the Top Quality Godly Veins are present. On Zamaria Planet, a God Core Realm would usually be able to see a few tens of thousands of kilometers, but no more than that. The difference is really enormous from what they can do in outer space. If a God Core Realm cultivator or demon beast went to the Mortal Realm without being restrained, his or her Divine Sense would easily cover hundreds of galaxies at once! However, the location of the Dimensional Space is indeed in outer space. So one can imagine that it is effortless to watch an extension of just a 13000 km radius. Still, a God Core Realm wouldn''t keep their Divine Senses spread in the entire Solar System. After all, you never know if you might offend someone. Zamaria Planet might have no Nascent God Realm cultivators or demon beasts, but the Solar System where it was located definitely had. Because of that, all three sects'' God Core Realms refrained from expanding their Divine Sense further than a hundred thousand kilometers or so. They were trying to limit the area of coverage so that they wouldn''t catch anyone''s attention. At the moment, only the God Core Realm cultivators and demon beasts knew about the Dimensional Realm hidden in this place. The disciples and lower elders that kept patrolling the area didn''t really know what they were looking for or protecting at all. They were only told to warn their higher-ups if they see the other two sects doing some suspicious movements. Yet, even though they had a lot of disciples and elders patrolling, thirteen thousand kilometers radius was still a huge area to cover. As one can imagine, the patrolling made outside this range was very scarce. Not to mention that everyone there was relying more on the three God Core Realm elders'' Divine Senses of each sect than their own perceptions. Still, that gave Franlia an opening more than big enough to create a concealed area close to the ten thousand kilometers mark that Krune required. As long as someone at the God Foundation Realm or higher don''t get too close, it would be very hard to find it. Of course, it would be almost impossible to do it if she was inside the 13k km radius area that everyone was paying attention to. --- Somewhere far away from the watching area, a Spatial Gate suddenly appeared. As one can imagine, that was Franlia and Krune''s group. Rag, as always, stayed back in the sect to hold the fort. Together with the three of them, there were also seven God Foundation Realm elders, which Franlia handpicked for this mission. They were already waiting for Franlia there, making sure that the concealment formation kept running smoothly. "How''s everything?" An elder called Dudo stepped forward and bowed to Franlia. "Everything is working as planned. No one noticed when we brought this concealment formation to this place. After we arrived here, we fixed the formation and increased its power. Unless we are too unlucky and someone enters this place by mistake, we shouldn''t have any problems with intruders any time soon." Franlia nodded, satisfied. "Well done." Franlia then looked at Krune and Iem before asking. "Alright. Do you need anything else? Tell me now so I can be prepared. Otherwise, we will start straight away." Krune shook his head. "We can start anytime." "Very well." Krune then talked with Zule inside his Divine Soul and took control of his power. Under his guidance, he began to control the Spatial Powers of the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher. Right after, Krune and Iem summoned their Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flames, creating a Dark and Purple Energy Sphere. Of course, that was only a play. It was to prevent anyone from seeing what was happening inside. Even Franlia''s Divine Sense couldn''t penetrate it. "Sect Master, pour your Godly Energy inside. We don''t have enough cultivation to create this tunnel through the entire distance." Franlia nodded and began to fill the Purple and Drak Sphere with her Godly Energy. This part of the process was not a lie. With Krune and Iem''s cultivation, they would run out of energy before they could even gather half of the Godly Energy necessary. The Sect Master''s Godly Energy then began to enter Zule''s Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher like torrents. The pyramid-like Spatial Equipment began to spin as it shined with Silver Light. The Spin then increased in speed as the Space Laws converged around it. Finally, a burst of Silver Light came out of the pyramid''s top, piercing through the fabric of Space-Time. "There we go!" Right after, the Sphere of Purple and Dark Lights increased by at least ten times. Still, no one could see what was happening inside. The only thing others could tell was that all of Sect Master''s Godly Energy got absorbed without leaving a single drop out. "Krune, that''s enough. Recall my power back." Krune nodded and immediately stopped using Zule''s Spatial Equipment. At the same time, Krune gave Iem a sign, and the two of them retracted Luvile and Harold''s powers. Only then did Franlia and the other seven elders see the Spatial Gate inside. Krune ignored that for the moment, though. Instead, he sent a question to Zule in his Divine Soul. ''Are you alright? Using this amount of power while your Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher is broken might have worsened the equipment condition.'' Zule immediately answered. ''Don''t worry. Although I did use the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher, the tunnel created by it is just a few thousand kilometers in length. You can''t really compare it to trying to open a passage to the Lower Realms. Even if it is broken, this kind of effort will not change anything in the actual damage.'' Krune nodded and didn''t ask anything else. As for Franlia, she couldn''t help but smile when she looked at the Spatial Gate in front of her. "I don''t know how, nor do I care. I''m just happy that it really worked." Franlia then looked at Dudo and asked. "Any news from Tosely? Did she see any movements from the other two sects?" Dudo shook his head. "Elder Tosely confirmed that the other God Core Realms from the Flower River and Three Peaks Sects haven''t made any moves yet." That was what she wanted to hear. "Good!" Franlia then looked at the Spatial Gate in front of her and could see the Spatial Barrier of the Dimensional Realm on the other side. She extended her hands inside to check, and she was able to even touch it. "This is indeed a Dimensional Realm barrier. The Vibrant Beads also got a bigger reaction just now. We are definitely in the right place." Franlia then gathered her Godly Energy once more and injected it in the Spatial Gate. Right after, the Godly Energy covered a small area of on the Spatial Barrier, as if trying to isolate it from the rest. Only then she looked at Krune and Iem to ask. "Alright, I stabilized the Spatial Gate and sealed the area around that part of the Dimensional Realm Barrier. You can work on opening the Hole in it while I prevent any Spatial Ripples from coming out." Krune and Iem nodded. "Alright." Krune and Iem''s Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flames then gathered over the Dimensional Barrier. Right after, their Laws Eating and Destruction began to act on the Spatial Laws that kept the barrier whole. Still, the Dimensional Barrier was just too resistant. As the other ''Zule'' mentioned in the past, the Demon Beast''s Corpse strengthened the Dimensional Realm with its Silver Blood. Thus, the Spatial Laws that the Barrier was made of were much higher than common ones. "This is gonna take some time..." Franlia could see that the Laws of the Spatial Barrier were indeed being dealt with. Still, the process was quite slow. "There is no helping it. I can tell that it is basically because of your cultivation level. However, there is no need to worry. We have a lot of time since no one knows what is happening here." At the same time, Zule couldn''t help but think. ''Again... I can feel some kind of weird connection with this place. Why is that?'' Still, he didn''t tell Krune or Iem anything. Krune and Iem nodded and continued their work. However... Back in the Flower River Sect, inside a sealed chamber, ''Zule'' suddenly opened his eyes and looked in a certain direction. ''Interesting... Someone is trying to open a hole in the Dimensional Realm Barrier. However, the ones trying to open it are not using brute force.'' ''Zule'' then began to ponder. ''What should I do with this information...'' Chapter 683: Conditions Have Changed During this year that Zule had been confined, he used the Top Quality Godly Stones to raise his cultivation. The surprising thing about it was that usually, a lot of the God Stone''s energy would be lost if used by low-level cultivators or demon beasts. Let alone that ''Zule,'' who was still in the Core Formation Realm. Someone at that level would definitely waste more than 90% of it. However, Binmia didn''t know how, but ''Zule'' didn''t let even a drop of Godly Energy go to waste. That was something that even Krune and Iem couldn''t achieve. Also, it seemed like the element of the Top Quality Godly Stone didn''t matter either. This ''Zule'' used those hundred Top Quality Godly Stones to the fullest. In the end, he went from the Core Formation Realm all the way to the Divine Path. Binmia and the other elders who knew about ''Zule'' were shocked by his speed. It was simply heaven-defyingly fast. No one they knew would be able to do such a thing even if they had an unlimited supply of Top Quality Godly Stones. From the looks of it, ''Zule''s'' cultivation only stopped increasing because he sucked all those hundred stones dry. In the end, they decided that they definitely wouldn''t give him any more of those Stones unless absolutely necessary. ''Zule,'' of course, wasn''t surprised by that reaction. Still, he now has some power. He only needs a chance now. ''Zule'' smiled and then turned to one of the guards in the chamber before asking. "Tell Binmia that a passage will soon be open to the Dimensional Realm where my body is." As one can imagine, Binmia rushed back to where ''Zule'' was as fast as possible. "What do you mean a passage will open? Didn''t you say that only the gathering of several Nascent God Realm cultivators and demon beasts could force an opening?" ''Zule'' nodded. "That was supposed to be the case, but it seems like I was wrong. Anyway, this is not a bad thing. I can use this to bring you guys inside. What do you think?" Binmia narrowed her eyes. "Are you telling me to bring you together? Don''t be ridiculous! That is your body. If I get you there, who knows what will happen. Tell me where the entrance is, and we will deal with it." ''Zule'' laughed, already expecting that answer. "Three hundred Top Quality Godly Energy Stones." "What?!" Binmia almost vomited blood when she heard that. "There is no way in hell I''ll give you this amount of stones. If you know what is good for you, you better be obedient and tell where it is now." ''Zule'' shrugged his shoulders. "Well, whether others get inside my body or not will make no difference for me. Good luck while others leave you behind." Binmia then released her Godly Energy and locked ''Zule'' in place. "Now that I think about it, your cultivation has improved a lot recently. Certainly, your Soul has recovered a lot too. I wonder if it can already resist a Soul Search." ''Zule'' smiled before nodding. "There is no need to wonder. My Soul at the moment can definitely resist a Soul Search. Too bad, though. No one in this Godly Path Realm will ever be able to break through my defenses. Well, I welcome you to try. Hahaha!" Binmia narrowed her eyes. "It seems like you are not afraid of being destroyed here, uh?" ''Zule'' looked at Binmia with a puzzled expression. "Destroyed? What are you talking about? There is no way you will destroy me. It would be way too bad for your own plans. I know way too much for you to give up. Hahaha!" Binmia slimed after hearing that. "Is that so? Well, I can still put a soul-destroying seal that I can activate anytime I wish. Even if you were at the same level as me, it would still kill you instantly." ''Zule'' shook his head, though. "Why are you pretending? You had already done it a long time ago. Do you really think that the seal you left in my Soul Fragment before I woke up was that well hidden? You overestimate your puny existence." Binmia narrowed her eyes again. "As expected, you knew about it. Anyway, I won''t give you even a single extra stone anymore. It will be too risky if I let your cultivation improve any further than that." ''Zule'' didn''t mind. "Then come back again when you change your mind. Just remember that the conditions might not be the same when that happens. By the way, the passage will open in three days or so. You can either give me the Godly Stones or bring me with you. Well, you have this soul-destroying seal in my Soul, don''t you? Then there should be no problem for you to bring me inside either. It''s up to you which option you will select." Binmia then turned around and left. On the same day, the Flower River Sect''s disciples and elders began an extensive search in the area where the Dimensional Realm was located. The Three Peaks and Sky Shifting Sects obviously noticed the change and probed their intentions. However, the elders of the Flower River Sect refrained from commenting. Tosely then contacted Franlia, who was inside the Concealing Formation. "Understood. I''ll have the elders here reinforce the concealment formation. Just stay there and pretend to keep investigating. There is a good chance that they know something is happening to the Spatial Barrier. However, they don''t know where or who is doing it. Or, to be more specific, they are not sure about it. Otherwise, Binmia would definitely have called Aragan and me out already. The fact she didn''t mean she is not sure of whatever it is happening." Tosely nodded. "Alright. Fortunately, this extensive search is being done in the area inside the Dimensional Realm range. They won''t find anything in there. However, she will probably increase the range of the search, so Sect Master better be careful." Franlia then ended the communication and looked at Krune and Iem. "It seems like the Flower River Sect is suspicious of something. How long until the hole is finished?" Krune then asked the same question to Zule, who was inside his Divine Soul. A moment later, he answered. "We believe that it will take at least another two days. This barrier is way too resistant. We also have to keep the output of Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flames. If we stop for even a second, the barrier will start to heal straight away. Because of that, we can''t go all out either. We need to keep a balance between recovery and output." Franlia nodded her head. "That should be fast enough. It will take much longer to investigate further enough to reach our location." With that said, Franlia continued to help hide the Spatial Fluctuations as the elders maintained the concealment formation. Soon, a day and a half passed. Still, Binmia''s subordinates couldn''t find any clue inside the area where the Dimensional Realm was located. She tried to increase the range of search, but that only made things even slower. Every minute that she didn''t find this so-called entrance, the more nervous she became. ''Is there really an entrance being opened?'' Finally, she lost her patience and returned to where ''Zule'' was staying. "Alright. I''ll give you 300 Godly Stones if you can tell me where the entrance is." ''Zule'' laughed out loud as he shook his head. "That was the price two days ago. Now, the conditions have changed." Binmia''s killing intent increased after hearing that. However, she quickly calmed herself before asking. "What is it?" ''Zule'' then got up and stretched his back before saying. "Well, it is time to pay a visit to my old body. That being said, bring me together." Binmia immediately shook her head. "Do you take me for a fool?" ''Zule'' nodded without even thinking. "I do. Otherwise, you would have accepted my first offer before. Now, you only have one choice, bring me with you. If you don''t want it, then you can simply leave me here, as you always did. Either way, it is not like I''m losing anything." Binmia gritted her teeth. Reason told her that bringing this guy back to where his body was would be a terrible idea. However, the risk of the other sects entering the Demon Beast''s body without her was just as bad. ''Zule'' noticed Binmia''s dilemma. "Why are you so afraid? Didn''t you put a Soul-Destroying Seal on me? If I really do something, you can simply wipe me out." Binmia snorted. "Since that is the case, why would you want to go there? Do you want me to believe you are just going sightseeing?" ''Zule'' immediately shook his head. "Of course not. Only an idiot would believe something like that. I''m going there to acquire some of my blood to help recover my Soul Power. The Top Quality Godly Stones are far from enough to have a good effect. There, are you happy now?" Binmia didn''t seem the least bit happier. Still, she decided that she might as well go with these conditions since this ''Zulke'' definitely wasn''t afraid of dying. "Fine, but I will put another restriction in your body. If your distance from me gets higher than a hundred meters, the Soul-Destroying Seal will immediately activate. At that point, even I won''t be able to stop it." ''Zule'' pondered a bit and nodded. "You are quite the scared cat, aren''t you? Well, that makes you look quite cute, though. Alright, a restriction it is." Chapter 684: No Way Around After putting the restriction on ''Zule''s'' body, Binmia took him to the Dimensional Realm''s location. "Alright, where is it?" ''Zule'' smiled before saying. "No need to rush. If you want to get in, we will need to wait for them to open the hole first." "I don''t care. I want to know where it is happening. My team looked through the entire area but couldn''t find anything. If you don''t show where it is, we will be going back straight away." ''Zule'' sighed. "Alright. But it is up to you how you will deal with them. Still, it will be better if you don''t stop them. After all, there is no other way to enter the Dimensional Realm where my body is at the moment. Unless you call for the Nascent God Realm cultivators and demon beasts, of course." Binmia nodded. "Don''t worry. I know it is much better than waiting for that Sealed Space to open again. After all, I can''t send anyone above the Divinity Realm inside, or it will collapse. It is much better if I can see it with my own eyes." As Krune and Iem kept using Harold and Luvile''s power to open the hole on the Dimensional Realm, ''Zule'' used his connection with his body to locate where it was being created. Finally, Binmia was able to tell that it was closer to where the Sky Shifting Sect was staying. Of course, the right place was still almost 10k km away from the searching area. "Hmph! No wonder we couldn''t find it. They found a way to connect to the Dimensional Realm even though they aren''t inside the area where it is located." Binmia then turned to one of her subordinates. "Contact the Three Peaks Sect and tell them that I need to see Aragan." To guarantee that nothing would go wrong, Binmia preferred to use a stronger hand to force Franlia''s side. Aragan had received a message from Groman that the Flower River Sect was acting strangely, sending several more scouts everywhere. Still, he didn''t expect that Binmia would call him out of nowhere. Of course, since she did, that meant something was happening. Once he encountered Binmia and noticed that no one of the Sky Shifting Sect was present, he immediately understood that it was related to Franlia''s group again. "What is it this time?" Binmia then explained. "I believe the Sky Shifting Sect found a way into the Demon Beast''s Corpse Dimensional Realm. It seems like they are creating an opening into there at this very moment." "What?!" Aragan tried to use brute force to open the Dimensional Realm before, just like Binmia did at first. But he understood that it was simply too difficult. Even when he and Groman joined forces, the Dimensional barrier didn''t even tremble. "First, they found the teleport formation, now this. It seems like they know a lot more about this Deamon Beast''s than we thought." Binmia almost couldn''t hold her laugh. The truth was that she probably knew more than Franlia since she had a Fragment of that Demon Beast''s Soul. Still, it was a good thing that Aragan thought like that. "Indeed, but we better act now since I don''t know if they succeed already or not. However, don''t force them too much. Since they have a way to open the Dimensional Realm, it means we don''t need to care about the cultivation limit. I would prefer that they still open it so that everyone can enter. After that, it will all be up to everyone''s ability." Aragan couldn''t agree more. As a pure-blooded Earth Dragon, talking with his fists was the thing he liked the most. Franlia was working on keeping the Spatial Gate stable and concealing the Spatial Fluctuations when suddenly, she received a message from Tosely. "Franlia, they found you! Aragan and Binmia are moving two entire teams in your direction." Franlia narrowed her eyes but didn''t panic. "Weird, how did they found this place? My team hasn''t found anyone passing close to our location even once." Tosely answered. "I don''t know. The only thing I can tell is that I saw Aragan and his Sect Members going to where Binmia was staying. After a while, they began to make their way to you." Franlia nodded and stopped trying to conceal the Spatial Fluctuations. Of course, that made Krune and Iem puzzled as they looked at her. "There is no point in concealing it anymore. We were found out. However, just keep opening the hole on the Dimensional Barrier. I''ll go out to deal with it." Krune and Iem nodded. "Since Sect Master already has a plan, then we will follow your arrangements." Franlia nodded and looked at the God Foundation Realm elders that were keeping the concealment formation. "Dudo, Mala, come here and keep the Spatial Gate stable. The rest of you, turn off the Formation. We have a few guests." Dudo and Mala also received the same message from Tosely, so they did as the Sect Master ordered. Outside, Binmia and Aragan were getting close. Well, at their cultivation realm, they could have arrived in just a second with a Spatial Gate. However, they wanted to show Franlia that they knew where she was. Before starting any battle, they would prefer that she opened the passage first. Suddenly, they began to feel the Spatial Fluctuations that Krune and Iem''s work was causing. After a few moments, a place where there was nothing but empty space began to distort. In just a second, the empty void revealed several figures and a big Spatial Gate that seemed to be connected to a silver barrier. Franlia wasn''t the type who would react to the circumstances. She had long thought about what she would do if they were found out. "Sigh... And here was I, thinking that I could avoid your perception." Aragan snorted, though. "You were too full of yourself. It was obvious that we wouldn''t let such a thing pass by without doing anything." Franlia smiled and answered Aragan''s provocation. "Let''s be honest here. You didn''t know anything until a few minutes ago, right?" Before Aragan could even answer, Franlia turned in Franlia''s direction. "I''m impressed. I had worked quite hard to conceal this place. However, you found it even though no clue was left out. I also didn''t detect anyone getting near us during the work." "Say, Binmia... What was it that your team found in the Demon Beast''s head that allowed you to notice the moment I began to open an entrance? Something tells me that whatever it is, it is even more interesting than the Foundation Space that we are all after." Binmia''s expression changed for a moment and returned to normal right after. However, that was enough for both Franlia, Tosely, Groman, and Aragan to notice. There aren''t many things that could make their emotions fluctuate at their cultivation level. That small display was enough to tell that Franlia had nailed her assumption. Aragan immediately felt that he was being made a fool. Even if Binmia denied, he wouldn''t be idiot enough to believe it now. However, it wasn''t Binmia that made him angry. Instead, it was the fact that he seemed to be the only one to know nothing about anything. "Good! Good! Franlia knew about the Teleport Formation and even had a way to open a hole into the Dimensional Realm that the Demon Beast''s Corpse is located. Binmia seems to have found something that can pry into the Dimensional Realm even though she can''t enter herself. Am I the only know that knows nothing? You two better open your mouths right now before I lose my patience and tell the entire Godly Path Realm about this place." Franlia smiled before nodding. "Very well, look over there." Binmia and Aragan looked at the Spatial Gate direction and found two small figures. One was using Purple Lightning, while the other seemed to be using Dark Flames. Franlia knew that trying to hide this would be impossible now, so she might as well make good use of this chance. "It''s those two brats again!" Franlia nodded. "It is thanks to them that my Sky Shifting Sect found the Teleport Formation. They are also the reason why I can open a passage into the Dimensional Realm. You probably already noticed that they are not simple. I will admit, there is no way my Sky Shifting Sect could get ahold of two geniuses of their caliber. Let alone the fact that they know a lot and can do so much. However, that is as far as I can tell. Because of an agreement, I can''t talk about their backgrounds." "Still, there is good news. Well, that will depend on whether you believe me or not, but it doesn''t matter since I can''t give you any proof. Anyway, you don''t need to worry about a fourth group appearing. They will be the only ones that can participate in this exploration. Yes, they can open a passage for us to enter the Dimensional Realm. That will allow us to avoid the Sealed Space and the cultivation limit. That''s why you took so long to arrive and refrained from attacking, right? You also want to use this passage." "Now then, I told exactly what you two wanted to hear, especially Aragan. You can ask more questions if you wish to, but I will not comment on those two backgrounds. However, before that, I want to hear more about Binmia''s special findings." Aragan obviously didn''t believe Franlia completely. Still, what she said was well within his expectations. He had long since thought that her Sky Shifting Sect couldn''t get disciples like Krune and Iem. What he wanted to know now was what Binmia had to say. Chapter 685: Finally Open "You two are imagining things. I only found out about it because of a secret technique of my Sect. However, it was not that reliable. That''s why I took this long to find Franlia''s location." Aragan snorted before saying. "Is that so? Alright. Show us this marvelous technique that was better than my and Groman''s Divine Sense." Binmia glared at him and asked. "What part of the ''secret'' didn''t you understand?" Franlia laughed after hearing that. "The same way you didn''t believe that Iem and Krune were real members of my Sect, I don''t believe you have this Secret technique of yours." Binmia didn''t care, though. "So what? Don''t try to change the focus of the conversation here. The fact was that you were trying to leave us behind and enter the Dimensional Realm alone." Franlia immediately nodded. "Exactly! I just did the same thing you two would have done in my place. Or could it be that I''m wrong?" Neither Binmia nor Aragan denied Franlia''s words. Even if they did, only an idiot would believe that. "What about the powers from where Krune and Iem came from? How can we really take chances when you say that no 4th group will appear." Franlia knew that Binmia was trying her best to bring the topic away from what she had first asked. However, she decided to let it go. It was evident that Aragan was a lot warier of Binmia now. That was already a good outcome. "Simple. If I had such a thing as a strong power behind my back, I wouldn''t need to play with you. After all, any Nascent God would be enough to wipe you two out without raising any alarms. I will simply repeat myself. No fourth part will appear, but I can''t comment on their background due to the agreement with their elders. That''s all." Aragan saw that it wasn''t going anywhere. "Enough! What about the passage? Can it be open or not?" Franlia nodded. "It can, but it will take sometime before they finish it." Aragan and Franlia looked at Iem and Krune in the distance. It was evident that they considered the duo a great threat. After all, with such talent, the Sky Shifting Sect would have two frightening elders in the future if they decided to stay. Franlia could tell what they were thinking, so she added one last piece of information. "On, right! I would really think twice before trying something against the two of them. Don''t say I didn''t warn you two later." She was obviously implying that Krune and Iem''s real background was not something they should mess with. However, there was no way to confirm if such a problem really existed or not. In the end, no one could tell if Aragan or Binmia had taken the advice to heart or not. Franlia then returned to where Iem and Krune were opening the passage into the Dimensional Realm. Right after, Aragan, Groman, Binmia, Gamka, and Tosely appeared there as well. Each Sect and their own God Core Realm elder was now waiting for Krune and Iem to finish. Franlia then sent a Divine Sense message to the two of them to explain the situation. "... and that''s what happened. After the hole is open, I recommend you to not come with us. Instead, you two should go back to the Sect and wait for our news. After all, your cultivations are too low." Krune and Iem looked at each other as they exchanged Divine Sense messages. ''What do you think?'' ''Franlia is right. Loom around. Each Sect has brought two God Core Realms are here. They all brought several of their God Foundation Elders too. Not to mention the Mortal Rejection ones that are everywhere around us. Every single one of them is far above what we can deal with.'' Iem couldn''t help but comment. ''There is a lot of Transformation and Divinity Realm levels too. I can even see a little guy at the Divine Path Realm.'' Krune still shook his head, though. ''Those are just cannon fodder. We shouldn''t push our luck. After all, the other two Sects seem to be quite focused on us. This trip might instead become a lot more dangerous because of that.'' Iem agreed with Krune. He loved to battle, but this was not the level of battle he could meddle with. ''You were right. Let''s finish this hole and return to the Sect. Besides, Franlia will probably reward us a lot for having opened this place.'' However, just as they were about to agree with Franlia, Zule''s voice entered their minds. ''Don''t go back. Let''s enter!'' Krune and Iem got puzzled and immediately asked back. ''What do you mean? Is there something you want inside? We can ask Sect Master to try to take it for you.'' Zule then replied. ''That''s not it. I can''t tell why exactly. Still, there is something strange about this body. I need to check it once more. ''Are you talking about those things you felt during the last time we were here?'' Zule nodded. ''Yes. That familiar sensation has been increasing recently. However, that isn''t all.'' Krune and Iem had heard about it the first time they entered the Demon Beast''s Corpse. However, nothing happened in the end. They left the corpse, and Zule didn''t comment on it anymore. ''Did something different happen this time?'' Zule nodded. ''Yes. It is very faint, but I can feel a presence that is quite familiar to my own. It''s just that I can''t tell where it is coming from or what relation it has with me.'' This time, Iem and Krune were finally surprised. ''Are you talking about another Heavenly Fragment?'' Zule shook his head, though. ''No. I can''t explain it very well. But I can tell that it is definitely something related to the Demon Beast''s Corpse. I feel like I will lose something extremely important if I don''t go in this time.'' Krune and Iem then began to ponder about it. Finally, Krune looked at Iem and said. ''Well, I''ll go in to take a look. After all, I need Zule''s help to open a passage to the Mortal Realm for me later. You can go back since there isn''t really a reason for you to risk yourself with me in there.'' Iem narrowed his eyes. ''And lose all the fun? At first, I thought it would be a simple struggle for the Foundation Space resources between the Sect Masters. To be honest, I don''t have much interest in it since I can''t participate in a battle of their level. However, it seems like something even more impressive is about to happen now. How can I stay behind? Hahaha!'' Krune sighed but didn''t try to stop him. ''So be it. Even if I tell you to give up, I know you won''t. Don''t come at me later saying that I didn''t warn you.'' Iem smiled and nodded. The duo then turned to Franlia. "We wish to go in as well, Sect Master. Also, we would like to move inside independently." Franlia was taken aback by such a request. "Why?" Krune and Iem simply replied. "That''s because we wish to check a few other places while there¡ªfor example, the Demon Beast''s Head. We didn''t have this time before because of the time limit in the Sealed Space. As for why we will move independently, that''s because we are too weak. We would be of no help to you and the others with our cultivation level. It is better if we stay away while the negotiations with the Foundation Space Powers are ongoing." Franlia didn''t like the idea. However, it was true that they couldn''t change much when it came to the Foundation Space situation. "Alright. However, the insides are still too dangerous for you two." Franlia then sent a Divine Sense Message to two elders close to her. "Dudo, Mala, you two will follow Krune and Iem into the Demon Beast''s Corpse. Make sure you protect their lives as if they were yours." Dudo and Mala were two of Franlia''s most trusted elders in the Sect. Not only that, but they also had cultivations at the Peak of the God Foundation Realm. Unless Krune and Iem get targeted by God Core Realm enemies, Dudo and Mala should be able to keep them safe. "Yes, Sect Master." Neither Krune nor Iem had really a reason to deny that help. After all, they were only going in to help Zule check what was happening. Any extra help would be welcome. "Thank you, Sect Master." After that, Krune and Iem continued to use their Purple Lightning and Black Flames to open the passage. Still, Zule was not the only one to feel that similar presence. Meanwhile, there was a kid who didn''t leave Binmia''s side. Obviously, that was the second ''Zule.'' Franlia and Aragan had noticed his presence and felt quite puzzled. They weren''t idiots and could tell that Binmia must have a reason to bring that kid inside. Still, they also had some low-level cultivators and demon beasts in their groups, so they didn''t bother too much. ''Zule'' then looked around and smiled. ''It seems like I''m not the only one around. Still, that''s good. I need as many as possible so that I can recover my Soul Power. Perhaps, I can get some of my memories back as well.'' Since there was no hurry anymore, Krune and Iem took their time to finish opening the hole safely. Finally, around a day later, the entrance into the Demon Beast''s Corpse was open. Chapter 686: Primordial Demon Beast As soon as it opened, a burst of highly concentrated Godly Energy came out. That was to be expected. The last time when Krune''s group entered the Dimeisonal Realm, the Godly Energy was at the same level or even higher than the Sealed Space. At the moment, they are in outer space where Godly Energy concentration is minimal. Naturally, the Godly Energy inside began to flow out like a deflating balloon. "Salo, Nimva, Drafker. You three stay outside and make sure to keep the passage open." Aragan and Binmia saw Franlia passing those orders and called a few of their God Foundation members to do the same. After all, neither of them wanted to get locked in that place. "Alright, let''s go." Franlia entered with Krune, Iem, and the rest of her members one after another. Of course, Aragan and Bunmia didn''t waste time and followed her closely. They quickly arrived on the other side and were finally able to see how things looked like. Right in front of them, it was possible to see the body of a Demon Beast. Even for Krune and Iem, it was the first time seeing it from outside. After all, they were teleported right inside when they were here before. However, no one in the three groups could identify what kind of Demon Beast it was. Well, no one with two exceptions. ''Harold, is that what I think it is?'' Harold received Luvile''s message and answered straight away. ''I don''t know since even during our time, we only had records of it. However, it does fit the description.'' Luvile agreed with Harold. ''Indeed. Maybe it can explain why its Silver Core could generate Godly Energy. After all, it came from outside... or so say the records.'' Harold nodded. ''It could also explain why its body has been kept in such a good condition after so long. Krune and Iem got more curious as those two discussed it. ''Would the two gods mind to tell us what exactly is this?'' Only then did Luvile remember Krune and Iem. ''If we are not wrong, this is a Primordial Kun-Peng. Its fish-like silver body, bird wings, and silver feathers are very similar to what we knew before Harold and I perished. According to what we know, this creature had to power to alter the very foundations of Space Laws. No, in a certain way, you could say that Space Laws and Kun-Peng were the one and the same.'' Krune and Iem were obviously startled that such a creature existed. They had never heard about something being able to alter the foundations of laws itself. ''How does it compare to your Purple Tribulation Lightning or Harold''s Devil Flames?'' Luvile laughed after hearing that. ''Hahaha! You shouldn''t even try to compare. Neither Harold nor I can alter the foundations on which our own Laws are made. For example. My Purple Tribulation Lightning used several Lightning laws and other laws as a base to create my new ones. However, that doesn''t mean I changed anything. The power to change the foundation of laws is far from what we could do.'' Harold agreed with Luvile. ''We are simply not in the same league. Even if Luvile and I were at our peak and fought together, I wonder if we could hold more than a few seconds against this guy.'' This time, Krune and Iem were really shocked! Krune knew just how prideful Luvile and Harold are. For them to tell that they would be helpless against it show just how powerful that guy was in the past. However, the moment Zule heard that name, he felt like something had awakened in his soul. ''Kun-Peng... Kun-Peng... This is a Primordial Kun-Peng, and a male one at that.'' Krune''s group immediately paid attention to Zule. That also included Harold and Luvile. ''How do you know it is a Male? Harold and I only found a few records from the past. Still, there was nothing there telling how to differentiate Male from Female. Or better, we didn''t even know if they had different genders.'' Zule was also taken aback by his own remark. ''This... I don''t know. But the moment I heard this Demon Beast''s name, I knew it was a Male. For some reason, I''m absolutely sure that it is a male. Not only that. Now that I found out its name, I feel like there is some kind of connection between me and it.'' Krune and the others couldn''t help but ask. ''Aren''t you the sentience of a Heavenly Space Fragment? This connection is most likely because of it. If the Kun-Peng really is as connected to Space Laws as it is said, it shouldn''t be weird that you can feel some familiarity with it too.'' Zule had to admit that Krune was right. ''Perhaps, you are right.'' Still, he felt that it wasn''t that simple. Unfortunately, he doesn''t have a better theory, either. ''By the way, what do you mean with the Primordial Kun-Peng came from outside?'' Luvile was taken aback for a second. ''Hum... this would be connected to the reason Harold and I perished in the past. So, as you already know, we can''t talk about it. Wait for the day you arrive at the God Realm. Once there, I''ll tell you everything.'' Krune couldn''t help but sigh. However, he knew that Luvile would not say anything. Although this conversation seemed to have taken a long time, it was all made through Divine Sense. That being said, just a few seconds passed since they entered this place. Franlia looked at the body of the Primordial Kun-Peng and couldn''t help but comment. "I was already expecting this. Still, what a gigantic Demon Beast! It is even bigger than some small planets..." Binmia and Aragan seemed to have finally reached a mutual agreement with Franlia. "Indeed. This is definitely not something from the Godly Path Realm. Otherwise, it would definitely be far above all the other races. If it wanted, we could only be its slaves. I doubt that even the Nascent God Realm cultivators and demon beasts would be able to do anything to it." Binmia chuckled. "Slaves? I don''t think we would have the right to call ourselves with such a revered status. Calling ourselves ants would probably be more fitting." At the same time, Binmia sent ''Zule'' a Divine Sense Message. ''Did you remember anything?'' However, ''Zule'' seemed to be a little absent-minded as he looked at the body. Only after Binmia touched his shoulder did he finally notice her. ''Ah! Sorry, I was just a little emotional now that I can see my body.'' Binmia didn''t care about that, though. ''So, do you know what race you were from now?'' ''Zule'' glanced at Binmia for a second before saying. ''Not really. But I can tell you that I was really good at Space Laws.'' Binmia''s expression went dark. Any idiot here would be able to tell this much after looking at the body. ''You better not try anything funny, or I will detonate your soul even if it means losing all the advantages.'' ''Zule'' smiled before nodding. ''I know my limits. So, are we entering our are we waiting outside?'' Chapter 687: You Have Seen Them Binmia, Aragan, and Franlia looked at the body far in the distance. "Take a look at its chest. There is an enormous hole that goes through it." "The energy coming from it is also different from the Demon Beast itself. It''s impressive that the enemy''s energy is still lingering on the body after so long. Just how strong must one be to pierce right through a monster like this?" "Who cares? Let''s use this hole to enter the Demon Beast''s Corpse. We need to reach the Silver Core, where the Foundation Space is located. There, we can use the low-level cultivators to enter and call out the powers residing inside." "Are we really negotiating with them?" "Of course! Otherwise, how do you expect us to get the resources inside? Don''t forget that we can''t enter that place since there are many more God Core Realm cultivators and demon beasts there. Not to mention that the so-called Celestial Protection Formation would trap us inside the planet. We would basically be lambs waiting to be slaughtered." As the three leaders talked with each other, Krune''s group also had their own conversation. ''Luvile, you called it Primordial Kun-Peng. Does that Primordial mean something?'' Luvile nodded. ''Yes. It is said that those demon beasts appeared when the realms first formed.'' Krune nodded. ''I see, so they should be quite rare.'' However, Luvile shook his head. ''Not really. In fact, you have seen a lot of them already.'' Krune and Iem were taken aback. ''What do you mean? We didn''t see anything as strong as this thing at all.'' ''Oh, I expressed myself wrongly. What I mean is that you have seen a lot of their descendants. For example, the Dragon and Phoenix Races. They are all descendants of Primordial Demon Beasts... or so say the records. That means there were Primordial Phoenixes and Dragons before. Of course, those two had also disappeared way before Harold or I was born. I don''t know if their bodies are preserved somewhere else like this Kun-Peng. Or perhaps, they are still alive and simply left...'' Iem couldn''t help but ask. ''How many more Primordial Demon Beasts were there?'' Harold was the one to answer that question. ''It''s hard to say. The records were too limited. As far as we know, there was the Primordial Phoenix, Dragon, Kun-Peng, Kirin, Ox, Griffin, Yggdrasil, Heaven Turtle, and finally, Nine-Tailed Golden Fox. However, we believe that there was more of them. Too bad that those were beasts from the primeval era. We know very little from their origins and abilities. For example, we had no idea that Kun-Peng could generate Godly Energy.'' Krune then thought about something else. ''There are Dragons and Phoenixes descendants, but how come I''ve never seen a Kun-Peng Descendant?'' ''No idea. Zule said that this Kun-Peng was a male. Perhaps there were no females, so it couldn''t reproduce. Of course, this is just a baseless assumption.'' Thanks to the help of the High-Level cultivators and demon-beasts, Krune''s group arrived at the Kun-Peng''s body quite fast. Of course, they encountered lots of Space Creatures and Spatial Tears on the way. However, the Space Creatures were at most at the Peak of Divinity Realm in strength. In front of the Sect Leaders'' groups, they were just ants. One wave of any of them and those Space Creatures were destroyed straight away. As for the Spatial Tears, they were far from being a risk to those at the Mortal Rejection Realm and above. Finally, they arrived beside the corpse. They looked at the injury on the body and could see the other side through it. It was also easy for everyone to perceive the energy left by the attack that created this damage. Suddenly, Zule felt his sea of consciousness hurting. ''Argh!'' Krune, who had him inside his Divine Soul, immediately noticed the change. ''Are you alright?'' ''My spirit hurts... The energy around the injury seems to be causing it. I feel like I''m about to remember something, but at the same time, I can''t quite grasp it.'' Zuke then concentrated on his spirit and stabilized it. ''Anyway, let''s part ways with the main group here and go to the head.'' Krune and Iem nodded. They were already intending to do so to start with. The injury went through the entire Kun-Peng''s body, which meant that there was no lack of entrances. Krune took that opportunity and sent Franlia a Divine Sense Message. ''We are going to leave here.'' Franlia nodded and then called Dudo and Mala. ''You two, go with them. Make sure to protect those two with your lives.'' Right after, Franlia turned to the other groups. "I''ll see Sect Master Binmia and Aragan at the Silver Core. Of course, if you decide to not come, it will be even better." She didn''t even wait for Aragan or Binmia to reply and led her group into one of the Meridians. With such a big hole, there were obviously a few meridians that were pierced through. It made things a lot easier than having to enter a Blood Vessel to look for one. Aragan and Binmia looked at each for a second and also separated. They had to arrive at the Silver Core, but no one said that they had to stay together. They also had their own plans and different teams that they will send to explore other areas. After Franlia''s group disappeared from Aragan and Binmia''s sight, Krune, Iem, Dudo, and Mala finally separated from Franlia as well. ''Good luck to you four.'' ''Thank you, Sect Master.'' Krune''s group then made a turn and entered a blood vessel. Right after, Krune released his Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer, which immediately hid his group from any Divine Sense. "Elder Dudo and Mala, I''ll rely on your strength to deal with the Space Creatures." It would be a lot better than having Iem and himself doing it. After all, they could wipe out that level of enemies in a single strike. Dudo and Mala didn''t mind. "Don''t worry, Sect Master''s orders were to protect you two. We will do it even if it cost our lives." Meanwhile, on Binmia''s side, ''Zule'' suddenly showed a faint smile. ''This should be far enough.'' Chapter 688: The rest can fuck off already Suddenly, the Seal that ''Zule'' had created for Binmia back then came to life. Around a year ago, ''Zule'' said that the Seal would allow Binmia to control the surrounding power up to a few kilometers inside Kun-Peng''s body. Binmia, of course, had kept the Seal close to her until now in her Spatial Ring. Little did she know that ''Zule''s'' plan had already started at that point. That Seal was, in fact, connected to his own Fragmented Soul. In a certain way, it was a safety measure in case he got restricted by something. Obviously, it was the Soul-Destruction Mark left behind by Binmia. Right after, the surrounding environment began to shine with Silver Light, reacting to the Seal. Binmia, of course, immediately stopped and looked at ''Zule.'' "It is definitely you! What are you doing?!" Simultaneously, she summoned the Soul Destruction Mark, read to detonate ''Zule''s'' Soul at any time. However, ''Zule'' seemed to not care about that thing at all. Binmia then clenched the Seal mark on her hand, activating it straight away. Too bad, though. The moment she did it, the Seal that ''Zule'' had given her back then activated as well. It shot out of Binmia''s Spatial Ring and intercepted the Mark on her hand. "Not good." Binmia immediately understood that she was tricked and gave up trying to detonate ''Zule''s'' Fragmented Soul. She quickly grabbed that Seal and used her Godly Energy to lock its power too. But it wasn''t over. She summoned the surrounding Godly Energy and her Laws, activating her Domain while at it. Right after, she attacked. "Raging Sea Domain!" "Recess of the Ranging Sea!" Water Laws and Element converged around ''Zule'' in a split of a second. Binmia didn''t hold back and attacked with her full strength. "Hehe. It''s a little too late now." It was at that moment that ''Zule''s'' body changed into Silver Blood, quickly fusing with the Silver Blood on the ground. *Boom!* The world trembled with Binmia''s attack power, creating a crater of several kilometers deep into the Demon Beast''s body. Several Blood Vessels were destroyed together with the Meridian Wall in front. This attack alone showed just how big the difference between Krune and Binmia was. Even with Krune''s strongest attack, he could barely do any damage to the blood vessels. Especially the meridians wall. I stark contrast to Binmia''s God Core Level power. Of course, considering the Kun-Peng''s size, this was nothing more than a scratch. Unfortunately... "Hahaha! Well then, Sect Master Binmia. Thank you very much for bringing my Soul out of my body in the past, not to mention the Top Quality Godly Energy Stones you provided me later. Back then, I was too weak to do anything. Thanks to the fact that my Soul Fragment was brought outside, I was finally able to recover some of its power. Now I can finally go back and do what I''m supposed to." Binmia''s expression was dark. "Is that how you thank me? By leaving me behind? First of all, why don''t you show yourself so that we can have a good chat, uh?" ''Zule'' didn''t mind the remark, though. "Oh, don''t worry. It''s not like I''m leaving without giving you anything. That Seal in your hand, I wasn''t lying about its power. You can really use it to gather the power of my body up to a few kilometers around you. It''s just that I left another trick on it so that I could neutralize your Soul-Destroying Mark. Now that I''m free, you can use it once again to do exactly that." "As for why I can''t appear in front of you, that''s because I''m a little too weak at the moment. But don''t you worry. Because of your critical help, I will be able to recover soon enough. This kid''s body you provided me to possess was of great help too. Oh, right. I would be fast if I were you. Once I recover control of my body, it won''t be so easy to leave this place." After that, ''Zule''s'' voice disappeared. Binmia then looked at the Seal that she kept locked in her hands. She felt like destroying it straight away. However, she couldn''t ignore the possibility that ''Zule'' was talking the truth this time. If that was so, she would probably need it in the future. "Sect Master, I think we should leave straight away. We don''t know what that Fragmented Soul can do while we are not looking at it." Binmia''seyes narrowed as she pondered about the issue. In the end, she shook her head as she looked at the Meridian passage in front of her. "We can''t leave yet. As ''Zule'' said, he is too weak at the moment. I refuse to believe that he can recover his control over this body anytime soon. After all, it is simply too big. The Soul Power necessary to do such a thing is far above what he has at the moment. In fact, even my Soul as a God Core Realm expert is not enough either. We should use this chance to try to get as many resources as possible from this body before leaving." Binmia was obviously talking about the Foundation Space inside the Silver Core. "Besides, according to the reports we received, this demon beast''s Demon Core is severely damaged. It should take even longer to recover something like that. Don''t worry, we should still have a lot of time before ''Zule'' can pose any threat to us. Otherwise, he wouldn''t have left without doing anything. The proof was that he was waiting for the other Sect Masters to leave first before making his move. He was afraid that he would fail if too many experts were close to him." The other elders looked at each other and then accepted Binmia''s orders. "Alright, we will keep following the plan. Send the teams of Mortal Rejection Realm cultivators and demon beasts into other passages. It will be good if they can find more resources on the way. As for the rest of us, we are going to the Silver Core. Anyway, let''s go!" --- Back on Krune''s side, half a day had passed already. During this time, they had been moving forward while using the Vibrant Beads to tell which direction Franlia was located. While Franlia''s team moved to the Silver Core, Krune''s group moved in the opposite direction. That was an easy way to know that they were moving in the head''s direction even though they are inside this blood vessels'' maze. On the way, Dudo and Mala wiped out any Space Creature that appeared in front of them. However, what left them impressed was the fact that Krune never guided the group to a dead-end. It was as if he could see everything in front of him. Obviously, Krune was used his Mental Energy Scan, which is not as restricted by Godly Energy as Divine Sense is. "Hum... with Elder Dudo and Mala''s help, we are moving very fast. We are probably halfway through." "That''s good. Fortunately, the Space Creature''s level is all the same. Otherwise, it wouldn''t be this easy." "What about that God Crystal from the Past?" "I don''t know. It was definitely much stronger than Peak Divinity Realm cultivators. However, I don''t know if it would be a match for two God Foundation Realms like elder Dudo and Mala." "Well, we will only know if we find something like that again." A few hours later, they seemed to arrive at some kind of division. However, it was not like there were different passages for them to take. It''s just that the environment around them began to change a little. "This should be the point where the head starts. It feels so weird to travel inside a body. If not for the Silver Blood everywhere, it would be quite hard to tell the difference from outside." "From what Sect Master Franlia said, Binmia''s exploration group had come to this place in the past instead of going to the Silver Core. They were also able to return safe and sound. That being said, the level of danger should still be similar to the rest of the body." Nevertheless, they decided to move with more caution, reducing the speed by more than half. They had a lot of time to explore the body. Not to mention that even if Dimensional Realm closes, Krune and Iem would be able to open a passage again. After all, they now know the exact position where they should do it. Everything was going okay when suddenly... "Oh! You are finally here." Everyone was taken back by that voice, including Krune. Even his Mental Energy Scan couldn''t detect anything. Right after, the wall and the Silver Blood began to shine, just like it did with Binmia back then. ''It''s him! It''s the familiar presence I told you about at the entrance, the one that is similar to me!'' Only Krune and Iem heard Zule''s voice, so Dudo and Mala kept looking around, not knowing what was happening. "Come out!" ''Zule'' laughed and did precisely that. "Here I am. So, what will you do?" Dudo and Mala recognized him. After all, that was the same kid they had seen beside Binmia before entering the Dimensional Realm. Still, for some reason, their Divine Senses told them that there was nothing in front. They were only able to see the kid with their naked eye. "You are Sect Master Binmia''s subordinate." ''Zule'' shook his head, though. "No way! I would never fall so low to become that ant''s subordinate." ''Zule'' then looked in Krune''s direction. "Anyway, my business here is with you. The rest can fuck off already." Chapter 689: Zule vs. Zule Dudo wouldn''t just do what he said without giving two hoots about it, though. "Aren''t you being a little cocky, little boy?" He gathered a bit of his power and sent a wave of Godly Energy at the kid. To be honest, it wasn''t a skill or anything of the sort. It was just pure Godly Energy, and nothing more than that. Still, with him being at the God Foundation Realm, it would be enough to severely injure someone at Krune and Iem''s level. However, the wave passed right through the kid, hitting the wall behind him. It was as if the kid didn''t even exist. "Illusion?" ''Zule'' smiled before replying. "Not exactly. I''m just warping space to create a projection of my being. It is quite different from your illusion formations. Anyway, let''s get over with it." ''Zule'' then disappeared. Not long after, he appeared right beside Krune. The Zule inside Krune''s foundation immediately warned. ''Careful, this guy is using Kun-Peng''s Spatial Powers! This isn''t just a simple illusion; it''s his Soul!'' Unfortunately, it was too late. Before Krune could even react, ''Zule''s'' Soul entered his body, diving directly inside his foundation! Krune was frightened by that. How could someone move inside his foundation without his consent? He immediately began to control the Godly Energy in there, trying to stop ''Zule'' from moving. However, it was as if that ''Zule'' could control Spatial Power where even Krune was helpless against it. Dudo and Mala looked at that and were at a loss on what they needed to do. They didn''t even know how that kid entered Krune''s Foundation to start with. Without much options, they could only touch Krune and send their Godly Energy inside his body as a way to help him out. Unfortunately, in just a few seconds, ''Zule'' arrived at Krune''s Planet Foundation, where his Divine Soul and own Soul were present. "Oh, there you are, my little brother." Suddenly, the Zule inside Krune''s Divine Soul felt like he was being pulled out. Krune tried to stop that, but alas, he was helpless against that weird power. He could tell that it was Spatial Powers, but it was just at a completely different level. However, ''Zule'' soon noticed that he was having some difficulty dragging the other Zule out of there. "Oh! It seems like you got shelter inside that Fragment. But what is it exactly? I can feel the power of the Heavens from it. Not only that, but I can also feel the same kind of power from the bigger Fragment on your side. It didn''t exist during my time, that''s for sure." Krune then used more of his power to stop that other ''Zule.'' ''Zule'' didn''t mind, though. "If you were one of those God Foundation or God Core Realm ants, you would be able to stop me. However, with this puny Semi-Divinity Realm cultivation of yours, there is nothing you can do." As he said that, ''Zule'' increased his Spatial Suction Power. Outside, the walls and the silver blood on the ground began to glisten, giving the ''Zule'' inside Krune''s foundation even more strength. He finally saw Zule being pulled out of Krune''s Divine Soul together with his Space Heavenly Fragment and began to laugh. "Hahaha! Come, little brother, be one with me. With your help, I will be able to take care of the rest." However, just as Zule was about to be pulled out, Krune''s group acted. "Now!" Luvile had hidden his Purple Tribulation Lightning Source the moment that ''Zule'' entered Krune''s Foundation. Only when that ''Zule'' focused all his strength into dragging the Zule inside Krune''s Divine Soul did Luvile appear. But that wasn''t all. Krune had also been holding back all this time. The moment Luvile appeared, he summoned his Godly Energy Meridians. He connected it to Luvile, giving him full control over his Goldy Energy and the Godly Energy provided by Dudo and Mala. Right after that, Krune focused all his attention on locking his Planet Core. Luvile''s Lightning Source then burst with Purple Light and Lightning Arcs, completely surrounding ''Zule.'' ''Zule,'' of course, was shocked by that development. He was confident that he had a great advantage. Still, he didn''t expect an existence like Luvile to be residing in Krune''s Foundation. "Little guy, you are far from being at the Kun-Peng''s level. You can''t even touch the Foundation of Space Laws as it could, let alone change it to your liking. Although the Kun-Peng''s Body is strengthening your Spatial Power greatly, it is still just Spatial Laws. As long as that doesn''t change, you are simply no match for my Purple Tribulation Lightning Law Eating Power. Thanks for the meal." The arcs of Purple Lightning then enclosed ''Zule,'' eating all the Spatial Powers that came from outside and from ''Zule'' himself. After that, it began to attack that Soul with all his power. Krune''s Planet trembled as Luvile went all out. "Arrrrrgh!" ''Zule''s'' Soul was rapidly losing strength as the Purple Tribulation Lightning destroyed everything. "Don''t you even think that this is all I can do!" ''Zule''s'' Soul then began to exude Silver Light, just like the environment outside. Suddenly, several Space Creatures began to emerge from everywhere. But that wasn''t all. Their power was far beyond the Peak Divinity Realm. It was the first time that such strong Space Creatures ever appeared. "Elder Dudo, Elder Mala, I''ll leave these guys to you. Don''t let them bother me!" Dudo and Mala were as puzzled as ever, but they knew it was not the right time to ask questions. They immediately focused their power and began their attack against the Space Creatures. "Three Heavens Domain!" "World Heart Domain!" "Heaven Flipper!" "Rage of the Earth!" *Boom, boom, boom...* The Space Creatures that appeared were indeed more powerful than the Peak Divinity Realm ones. However, Dudo and Mala were at the Peak of the God Foundation Realm. It wouldn''t be easy to take them down at all. The problem was that they were not providing Krune with any Godly Energy anymore. Obviously, Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning lost some of its strength. "Hmph! As long as those two are busy outside, I can leave!" Zule then concentrated his power into a single point and tried to breakthrough Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning Cage. However... "Haha! Aren''t you forgetting someone? Oh, right! You didn''t know I was here to start with." Suddenly, the Cage of Purple Tribulation Lightning was covered by Black Flames! In an instant, two God Powers worked together to hold ''Zule'' in place. The one who asked for assistance was Luvile himself. The moment ''Zule'' entered Krune''s foundation that easily, Luvile knew that this guy wouldn''t be easy to deal with. To guarantee their success, he told Krune to let Harold''s Power enter his foundation as well. One must remember that ''Zule'' took a few seconds to arrive at Krune''s Planet Foundation, where his Divine Soul was. That was more than enough to exchange several Divine Sense messages between all the parties involved. That was all that Krune, Iem, Luvile, and Harold needed to formulate this plan. "You! Do you know who you are attacking, ants?" Harold couldn''t care less. "I don''t, nor do I care as to who you are. I can tell that you have some connection to Kun-Peng, but you must be suicidal if you thought that you could act in front of two Gods as you please." Luvile then focused his power together with Harold. "Don''t let him escape! Destroy him!" However... "Wait! Open a passage and let me inside too!" Zule suddenly made that request. "What?! You were just about to be dragged out by this guy. Are you trying to kill yourself?" Zule immediately replied. "No! I''ll be the one who will absorb him this time. Since he could do it, then so can I. In fact, something tells me that this is how things are supposed to be. It might look crazy, but I believe he is part of me. At first, I was not his match because of his connection with the Kun-Peng''s Body. But now that he is focusing all his strength on survival, he won''t be able to stop me." Luvile and Harold pondered about that for a moment until suddenly, Krune voiced his agreement. "Let him do it. If you see that things are out of control, I''ll use the Heavenly Fragments'' connection to pull him back." Since Krune had a contingency plan, Harold and Luvile didn''t waste their time and opened a passage for Zule to enter the Purple Lightning and Devil Flames'' cage. ''Zule,'' of course, noticed it straight away. "Do you think I don''t know what you want to do? Let''s see whose will is stronger then!" Zule didn''t mind the other ''Zule''s'' words, though. "I don''t know how things turned out like this, but I can finally tell that we are the same. It seems like I''m wrong about my own origins, but I will have a lot of time to look into it after I get you. Also, with my friends attacking your Soul, I want to see if you have spare time to take care of me." The Heavenly Space Fragment Zule''s Soul then came out and attacked the other ''Zule.'' As soon as the two Souls touched each other, it seemed like they immediately fused. Krune and the others could tell that the two Soul Powers were really very similar to each other. However, Krune and Iem were still able to see the difference due to the Heavenly Space Fragment power. "Luvile, Harold, attack the places I tell you from now on. Let''s help Zule absorb this guy." Chapter 690: The Winning Side Krune looked at the two Souls revolving around each other. However, it was evident that their Zule was losing. It couldn''t be helped since the other ''Zule'' seemed to be a lot more experienced in these kinds of things than their Zule. Still, Krune didn''t seem concerned. "Luvile, in half a second, attack the top left corner, seven degrees to my Divine Soul''s Side." Soon after that, a Purple Tribulation Lightning Bolt descended at the exact point Krune mentioned. It was perfectly timed that some of ''Zule''s'' Soul showed himself. "Arrgh!" Immediately, the advantage that ''Zule'' had over their Zule seemed to disappear. That wasn''t over, though. "Harold, three seconds, attack the position 102 degrees to the right. Use my Divine Soul''s location to guide yourself." Once again, an attack came at the right moment the enemy ''Zule'' appeared once more. Zule and ''Zule'' were too tangled with each other. But thanks to their Zule''s Heavenly Space Fragment connection and power, Krune could quickly tell the difference between the two. "Luvile, 35 degrees on the bottom right corner, two and a half seconds." "Harold, the top of the souls, 7 degrees to the left, a bit back, one second." "Luvile..." And just like that, Krune guided Harold and Luvile to keep attacking ''Zule''s'' soul nonstop. Every time they hit the target, the enemy ''Zule'' would lose some of his concentration. On the other hand, their Zule would absorb a significant portion of his Fragmented Soul. "You! You!" ''Zule'' noticed that things were not going according to his plan. The advantage that he had in the start was utterly gone, while Krune''s Zule had turned the tables. At this moment, Krune''s Zule had already absorbed the enemy ''Zule'' by more than 40%. Soon, ''Zule'' would not be able to keep going anymore, eventually being assimilated by Zule from Krune''s group. However, ''Zule'' wouldn''t just let himself disappear like that. "Ants! I will not let you leave my body alive!" All of a sudden, the silver light coming from the enemy ''Zule'' intensified several times. Right after that, Krune''s group Zule sent them a message. "He''s burning his own Soul to gather enough power to escape!" Luvile and Harold immediately intensified the Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flames'' powers, further increasing the cage''s resistance. Nevertheless, the enemy ''Zule'' didn''t stop and burned even more of his remaining Fragmented Soul. Suddenly, he separated himself from Krune''s Zule and shot himself like an arrow against Luvile and Harold''s wall of Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flames. "Since you dare turn your back to me, I might as well take some more." Zule''s soul suddenly changed into the shape of an enormous mouth, devouring a big chunk of the enemy ''Zule''s'' remaining soul. Obviously, that deeply affected him. Still, the part of his soul that had been burnt was gone already. The power gathered was also there as well. ''Zule'' crashed against the wall with immense power. Not only that, but that increase in power also allowed him to use more of Kun-Peng''s body power. Eventually, he broke through Luvile and Harold''s power, dashing out. "I swear that I will make sure all of you are done for! As for that Fragment of a Soul who refused to merge with me, I''ll make sure that you will suffer tremendous pain when I absorb you again." Luvile and Harold grimaced as ''Zule''s'' soul escaped their trap. Even they felt that he was too strong for them to hold it back. However, it was at this moment that Krune''s voice appeared once more. "Aren''t you too confident of yourself? You took a few seconds to arrived at my Planet Foundation''s Core. Obviously, you will also take some time to escape it. I wonder, do you have enough power to go all the way out?" Suddenly, the Godly Meridians that Krune had connected to Luvile separated once more. Soon after, they began to follow the enemy ''Zule''s'' soul while absorbing all of the power emanating from him! "What?! Stop it!" Krune only laughed in response. "Hahaha! Do you think I will really stop? Since you came into my Foundation Space, you might as well stay here forever!" Krune then used his control over his Foundation Space and teleported their group''s Zule right beside the enemy''s. Seeing that development, Zule also laughed with Krune. "Hahaha! Thanks for the meal!" Without wasting time, he launched himself against ''Zule.'' Naturally, he was taking one chunk of his soul after another. Krune also did the same thing to Harold and Luvile''s powers, teleporting them in front of the enemy''s ''Zule.'' Thanks to that, they began to form several Purple Tribulation Lighting and Devil Flame walls, reducing ''Zule''s'' speed even more. "No! No! No! No! No!!!" ''Zule'' had no other choice than to burn even more of his remaining soul to make up for the lost power, with his situation becoming worse as time passed. Although he only needed a few seconds to make his way out of Krune''s Foundation Space, it felt like an eternity for him. His only comfort was that Krune wasn''t strong enough to use his Foundation Space to control him. However, even that wouldn''t last for long if he kept weakening like that. It was at this moment that Krune''s past experiences helped the most. If it was the Foundation Space of any other Semi-Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast, it would be several times smaller than his Universe one. The enemy ''Zule'' would have escaped from inside it a long ago. Too bad that Krune had been increasing his Foundation Space size ever since he was in the Soul Forging Realm. Finally, ''Zule'' saw the division between the Foundation Space and the outside world in front of him. At this point, he only had around 30% of his Fragmented Soul left. Even though that was the case, he sighed in relief. ''As long as I escape, I can use my body''s Silver Blood to recover my Soul Power once more. Although I won''t be ready before they leave, there will definitely be a chance in the future.'' ''Zule'' approached the barrier in a flash, ready to strike it and run away when suddenly... *Snap!* Krune''s group Zule ate another chunk of his soul. At first, the enemy ''Zule'' ignored the pain and loss. He was entirely focused on escaping Krune''s Foundation Space. Unfortunately, that was what Krune was waiting for. "Lock!" *Zup!* As soon as Krune voiced those words, the enemy ''Zule''s'' soul froze right in front of the Foundation Space Barrier. "What?! Impossible!" Krune finally sighed in relief after seeing that. ''So close... If Zule hadn''t taken that last bite, I wouldn''t have enough power to stop him.'' That was correct. Krune had been trying to control his Foundation Space to stop ''Zule'' all this time. However, the power of the Kun-Peng''s body had been powering him. It was only in the last moment that the enemy grew weak enough for him to stop his movements. "Teleport!" Right after, ''Zule''s'' soul was sent straight to the center of Krune''s Foundation Space once more. ''Zule'' noticed where he had been sent to and felt immense despair. *Vup!* Not long later, Krune and Zule appeared there as well. On top of that, Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flames immediately created another cage around him. To make things worse, the power the enemy ''Zule'' got from burning his soul began to dim at an insanely hasty rate. He had finally reached the limit of what he could do. If he burnt even a little bit more of his soul, his Fragmented Soul would definitely crumble. Obviously, that meant instant death. "Alright! Alright! You won! I''ll do whatever you want. Let''s stop it here, okay?" Krune snorted after hearing that, though. "Weren''t you saying you were going to destroy us? Too bad... I don''t want to leave things up to chance. After all, you can somehow control the power of the Kun-Peng. More than answers, I would prefer to guarantee my safety." Luvile, Harold, Iem, and Zule agreed with Krune. This guy''s presence was too strange. They already thought about the possibility that he was part of the Kun-Peng''s soul, especially after he kept saying ''my body'' several times. Zule then launched himself against that enemy ''Zule'' and began to absorb him again. "Ahhhh! Stop! I can tell you several secrets! I can make you strong enough to dominate all the realms!" Krune and the others completely ignored him, though. "Just disappear already!" ''Zule'' finally understood that he had no chance of escaping anymore. "Since that''s the case, die with me!" ''Zule'' then tried to burn the rest of his Soul Power to detonate himself. Unfortunately for him, things didn''t work out as he wanted it to. "This... What did you do?!" Krune smiled as he explained. "Isn''t that obvious? Now that you lost the power to fight against my Foundation Space Control, you can''t do anything without my consent anymore. Obviously, self-detonation is out of the question as well. If you had done it from the start, it would have been extremely dangerous for me. Fortunately, you didn''t." Zule then kept absorbing the Soul Power. The enemy ''Zule'' tried to fight back by absorbing him as well. However, Krune was still there. With Luvile and Harold''s power giving Zule support, he was not able to resist. Finally, ''Zule'' began to lose his consciousness as the soul decreased in size. "Hehe... I wonder if you will... still be you... in the end..." ''Zule''s'' remaining soul finally crumbled and was entirely absorbed by the Krune''s group Zule. However, Krune didn''t drop his guard yet. After all, he didn''t know what would happen to the Zule in his group now that it was all over. Chapter 691: Get Revenge Suddenly, all those Space Creatures stopped coming. Seeing that, Dudo and Mala finally let out a sigh of relief. Those creatures might not have been as strong as them, but they never stopped coming. Each of them had the power of someone at the high-level Transformation Realm or perhaps even at the Early Stages of Mortal Rejection. "Seems like they dealt with whatever that thing was." Mala nodded. "Let''s check up on Krune." They quickly returned to Krune and Iem''s side and paid attention to Krune''s behavior. "How is it?" Krune couldn''t talk about Zule, Luvile, or Harold, so he could only give a simple account. "Iem and I joined forces and used our Purple Lightning and Black Flames to attack the Soul inside me. Fortunately, it didn''t expect that we could destroy laws with our power. We trapped it inside my Foundation Space and slowly wore it down. My Foundation Space is a lot bigger than other cultivators and demon beasts at the same level, so I used it to my advantage. Finally, it couldn''t resist my attacks anymore and was destroyed." Dudo and Mala already knew about Krune''s unique abilities and Iem''s skills, so they didn''t think there was anything wrong with that explanation. "By the way, it said that it came for you. Why?" Krune shrugged his shoulders in response, not knowing the reason himself. "Beats me! If I knew, I wouldn''t have been so desperate to eliminate it. However, it seemed to be aiming for my Divine Soul. If I were to guess, probably it is because I''m a True Spirit. I''m different from you all since my True Form is made of Energy. Maybe it wanted to absorb me or whatever." Dudo nodded. "That makes sense. However, it was obvious that that kid could control the power of this Demon Beast''s body. That kid came with Sect Master Binmia from the Flower River Sect. We should go back and warn her about it straight away." Krune shook his head, contrary to what they wanted to do. "Did you forget that Sect Master already suspected that Binmia found something in the Demon Beast''s head? She is a very cautious person who considers things far ahead. I''m sure she''s on guard already, so warning her won''t be of much help. Besides, did you forget what that kid said? He said that he would never work for an ''ant.'' Most likely, the kid and Binmia were not allied to start with. I think we should keep going forward since I want to check what I can get in the head." Dudo and Mala looked at each other and nodded in response. "Alright. But if there is another one similar to that kid''s Soul, we will retreat straight away." Krune nodded. Right after, their group began to move forward once more. However, Krune wasn''t relieved yet. After all, there was still Zule''s issue. He didn''t know what would happen to him now that he absorbed the other guy. By now, everyone in their group already understood that Zule is probably not a sentient spirit born from the Heavenly Fragment as they thought. "Zule, how are things on your side?" Zule already absorbed the other Soul. Right now, he was assimilating it, making it his own. "I see... so that''s what''s happening here." Zule''s memories began to awaken one after the other. Not to mention, the other ''Zule''s'' memories were being added to his own as well. In the end, he sighed as he looked at the Heavenly Space Fragment where his Spirit resided. Seeing that reaction, Krune couldn''t help but query. "Is everything okay?" Zule''s attention then returned to Krune. "Don''t worry, I won''t lose myself and become someone else. There was one thing that the other ''Zule'' didn''t count for, the Heavenly Space Fragment." "Other ''Zule?''" Obviously, Krune and the others still didn''t know the name of the kid''s Soul. Zule nodded. "You probably guessed already. We are both parts of the same Soul. Or, to be more specific, we are both the Kun-Peng''s Soul. Anyway, now I remember a lot of things. First, I was a Soul Fragment locked in the Kun-Peng''s body like many others. But 50 thousand years ago, I finally gathered enough energy to escape." Zule continued. "However, that was a gamble. Just like the other ''Zule,'' it is not possible to recover in this place. Our Soul Fragments were way too damaged; we had to go out to find a way to heal it. The other ''Zule'' used Binmia to get the resources he needed to do so. In my case, I detected the appearance of the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher. No, to be more specific, I noticed the presence of the Heavenly Space Fragment inside it." "The Space Power exuded by it really surprised me when I came out. Without thinking twice, I dived right inside it. But who could have thought that the Heavenly Fragment counterattacked? It tried to destroy the intruder that was trying to take possession of it." "As you can imagine, I was quite fragile after escaping my... no, Kun-Peng''s body. I didn''t have a chance against the Heavenly Space Fragment at all. In my despair, I could only use my last option. I let the Heavenly Fragment absorb me instead. During the process, the Kun-Peng''s conscience, known as Zule, was wiped away. It is not wrong to say that I was kind of reborn at that moment. I still used my original name, but it is wrong to say that I''m Kun-Peng." "But that was not the end. In exchange, I received all of the Heavenly Fragments Memories. Yes, the Heavenly Fragments record everything around them all the time until the day they return to the Universe where they originated or are destroyed. I thought those were my own memories instead. That''s why I know how to fix the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher, how to use its power, its creator space location, etc." Iem was also hearing everything together with Harold and Luvile. "It was at that moment that everyone thought the Heavenly Fragment had acquired a Sentience. You then completely closed the Underground City and trapped yourself inside in the process. It was only after 50 thousand years that you detected my Heavenly Fragments and used your Spatial Powers to send Iem and me there to help you get free." Zule confirmed Krune''s words. "Exactly. However, although ''Kun-Peng Zule''s'' consciousness was wiped out, the memories themselves were not lost. Somehow, they got locked deep inside my Soul. When I absorbed the other ''Zule''s'' Soul, those memories finally resurged." "Too bad, though. My Soul Fragment spent an entire 50 thousand years inside the Heavenly Fragment. Thanks to it, my Soul Fragment was completely healed. Of course, what I mean is that the Soul Fragment changed into a completely new Soul. Even if I now have my own and the other Zule''s memories, they will not make me turn in the Kun-Peng''s Soul anymore. I am me, Zule, the Heavenly Space Fragment''s Sentient Spirit." Krune and the others sighed in relief. It would be quite a problem if Zule started to use the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher to attack Krune from inside. But it seems like that won''t be the case anymore. Luvile then began to formulate his own questions, asking them soon after. "Alright, that is good and all. However, can you tell us just what this Kun-Peng is? Did it really come from the outside?" Zule''s projection immediately shook his head. "Sorry, even though I recovered a few memories, it is far from being able to answer these kinds of questions. I will need to absorb other Soul Fragments if I want to recover more of my memories." Luvile nodded, already expecting this kind of answer. "Then, what do you remember at the moment?" Zule pondered a bit before saying. "Just a few gaps here and there. The Kun-Peng''s name was really Zule. He was attacked by someone close, which brought him into this state. I don''t remember who or why, though. Of course, only another Primordial Demon Beast or someone of equivalent power would be able to do this to Kun-Peng Zule. That is certain." "During the last moments before he was ''killed,'' he used some secret technique of the Kun-Peng Race that allowed his body to escape with a fragmented soul." "I do have a few more pieces of my memory from the past, but they aren''t of much use." Krune then asked a question after that. "What do you plan to do now? Since you already recovered some of your memories, we can turn back and leave this place if you want. The reason we came inside was you, after all." Zule shook his head, though. "No. Let''s go to the center of the head. All the other Space Fragments that hadn''t escaped are definitely there, hibernating. I can take this chance to take them in as well." "By the way, it was also the reason why the other ''Zule'' came for me first. He didn''t have enough power to absorb those Fragmented Souls, which were being protected by Kun-Peng''s body power. He needed to assimilate me first before trying to do it with the others. In the end, I absorbed him instead. I also got the memories of how to properly do such a thing. With Luvile and Harold''s Power, I can definitely take the rest." Harold couldn''t help but inquire. "So... why do you want to absorb them?" Zule immediately answered. "Because they all have the same plan as the ''Zule'' I absorbed. Get revenge!" Chapter 692: Befriending Laws "Revenge?" Zule nodded. "That''s the strongest memory present in my past, and also in the other ''Zule'' I just absorbed. We both wished for revenge more than anything else." Luvile was puzzled after hearing that. "But what does this revenge have to do with us? Let them have it. There is no need for us to get involved." Zule shook his head. "Terrible idea. I don''t know why Kun-Peng wants revenge, nor who he wants revenge against. However, part of the revenge consists of destroying all the Realms." Krune''s group were shocked to hear such a thing. "Are you sure? First of all, can Kun-Peng really destroy all the Realms?" Harold was the one to answer that question. "This is just what I think. But if the power of the Primordial Demon Beasts are really as the records describe, it just might be possible." Zule nodded after hearing that. "I can''t really be sure of how strong I was, but Kun-Peng was definitely stronger than anyone in the Godly Path Realm. In fact, I doubt anyone in the God Realm could pose a threat to Kun-Peng at its peak either." Zule then continued. "Still, there is one thing we can infer from this piece of memory." Krune understood where Zule was coming from. "Indeed. Part of the Kun-Peng''s revenge is to destroy the Realms. That being said, he is connected to the beings who originated from our Realm in the first place. This is just a theory, but I believe our Realms came to be because of the Primordial Demon Beasts. Luvile, I also believe that this is part of the information that you don''t want to talk about, correct?" Luvile sighed but agreed with Krune in the end. "That''s true." Krune smiled and then continued. "Now I understand what you meant by ''coming from the outside.'' Finally, things are starting to make some sense." Krune began to understand a little about the overall situation. Not only about Zule, but about what happened to Luvile and Harold in the past. Still, he decided that he would talk about it with Luvile later. "Anyway, now we know about Kun-Peng''s real power and its connection to the creation of all realms. There is also a big chance that he was involved in their creations directly. After all, Kun-Peng''s Space-Related powers are simply above anyone in all realms... or so you guys say." "Now, the question is, can THIS Kun-Peng really recover from its injuries and do what Zule said?" Zule shook his head once more. "Hard to say. However, if a Soul Fragment can recover and absorb the rest, there is a big chance that it will regain control over its body. Even if it is injured to this extent, there is no doubt about the power that it can muster. Also, that is considering that it can''t recover after." Iem narrowed his eyes. "And what will you do if you absorb all of them?" Obviously, Iem was afraid that Zule might attack them once he finishes absorbing everything. If a single Fragment could already control Kun-Peng''s power to that extent, what will Zule be able to do once he absorbs all the others? Iem was not wrong in being suspicious. Zule smiled after hearing Iem speak. "I don''t know. At the very least, I have no intention of destroying anything. That was Kun-Peng''s desire, not mine. I told you before, I''m not Kun-Peng anymore." Krune intervened. "Let''s stop it here. We have been with Zule for quite some time, so let''s give him a vote of confidence. I don''t think he intends to turn his back on us. I might as well tell you that the connection between his Space Heavenly Fragment and my own fragments is still there. Somehow, I can tell that this is still the same Zule as always." Iem sighed in the end. "Alright, then let''s see how things go." Although Krune was happy that Iem trusted him that quickly, he couldn''t help but ask. "You accepted my opinion on such a dangerous thing quite hastily, don''t you think?" Krune was prepared to go into a long-term argument with Iem until he finally convinced him. Iem giving up that fast was out of his expectations. Iem shrugged his shoulders in response though. "After all these years, every time you told me to believe someone, you were always right. I don''t know what it is, but you seem to have some special ability to always befriend those who are really worth doing so." It was then that Iem thought about something. "Ah! Don''t others say that there are always two sides to each coin? Perhaps, that''s heaven''s compensation for your high comprehension of the Calamity Laws. It''s the omnipotent Befriending Laws!" Krune''s mouth twitched. "How many times I have to say that I''m not comprehending anything called Calamity Laws? ... But I do like the sound of Befriending Laws, though." Iem laughed out loud. "Hahaha! Right?!" Dudo and Mala looked at Iem, who started to laugh for no reason and got confused. Still, they simply ignored it in the end. If he was laughing, it was probably nothing important. Zule sighed in relief. At least, they still trust him. He was also afraid that they might think he was trying to pull their leg to help take the other Soul Fragments. It would be a lie if he said he didn''t want to. After all, he also wanted to know more about the past as much as Luvile and Harold do. However, it wasn''t a lie that he was also doing it to prevent a calamity in the Four Realms. The Revenge Memory is definitely not something he invented. The problem was that there was really no way to tell Krune and the others about it without making them suspicious of him. Krune then asked Zule. "Do you know the best path to reach the place with those Soul Fragments?" Zule pondered a bit and nodded. "Yes, follow the path I''ll tell you from now on." Krune nodded and began to follow Zule''s instructions. Dudo, Mala, and Iem followed right behind him as well. Back on Franlia''s side, she had been following the Meridian''s Godly Energy the same way as Krune''s group did in the past. However, the fact was that the Injury she used to find the Meridians was a lot further away. It was at least four times further than the teleportation formation Krune and the other used in the past. Fortunately, all meridians always ended in the dantian or demon beast. That being said, Franlia knew she would arrive there sooner or later. On top of that, she was a lot faster than Krune and his group. All of a sudden, the Godly Energy concentration began to increase. "It''s just as Jimage described. The Silver Core is close. Let''s increase the pace!" The God Foundation Realm experts accepted the order before using their Godly Energy to grab all those at the Mortal Rejection Realm and below. Soon after, they increased their speed together with Franlia. Sure enough, Franlia wasn''t wrong. "Here we are!" In front of them, a gigantic Silver Core with cracks everywhere appeared. Just like in the past, they could see the clusters that usually held Godly Stones. Well, Krune and Foltan''s group took all the Top Quality Godly Stones in the past, so there was nothing substantial now. It would take some time until those clusters can produce more of them. "Hahaha! Look who''s here. If it isn''t Sect Master Franlia and Tosely." Franlia and Tosely narrowed their eyes in response to those words before looking in the direction of one of the Meridians Entrances. Surprisingly, the first one to arrive at the Silver Core was Aragan, the Three Peaks Sect Master, and a Pure-Blooded Earth-Dragon. "That''s pretty unexpected. Sect Master Aragan is more proficient in defense and strength than speed. I didn''t think I would lose to you in this race." Aragan smiled after hearing that. "Sect Master Franlia overestimates me too much. I was just lucky to find a shortcut, that''s all." Of course, Franlia didn''t believe his words that easily. "Anyway, I believe you already sent some of your subordinates to call those leaders of the Celestial Organizations, right?" Aragan nodded. "But of course. However, it has only been a few minutes since I did so. Sect Master Franlia might as well send some from your side too. Who knows? Perhaps they can find the Celestial Organizations first." Franlia snorted after hearing that. The Planet inside the Foundation Space has very scarce Godly Energy. That means one''s Divine Sense can go several times further. As long as Aragan sent a God Foundation Realm expert inside, he could use his Divine Sense to find the Celestial Organizations in a second. Still, she had to send someone to prevent Aragan from making some early deals without her knowing. "Volsen, you go. You know what to do." Volsen was a 6th Stage God Foundation Realm elder of the Sky Shifting Sect. "Yes, Sect Master." Volsen immediately dashed forward and entered one of the Silver Cores. He had to be fast. After all, the time inside the Silver Core ran ten times faster. Volsen quickly disappeared in the Silver Core as Franlia and Aragan continued to wait. Around 30 minutes later, another group came out of another Meridian Passage. As one can imagine, that was Binmia and her group. She was already feeling gloomy that ''Zule'' had escaped. Let alone now that she found out that she was the last one to arrive. However, just as she was going to send someone inside as well, one of the Cracks on the Silver Core began to shine. Chapter 693: Negotiation and Arrival "Someone is coming out." Indeed, the power of Space gathered around the crack when all of a sudden, four figures appeared outside. However, they were not the four leaders of the Celestial Organizations. Instead, they were the four Mortal Rejection Realm cultivators and demon beasts that Krune linked to the Celestial Formation Cores. As soon as they appeared, Franlia and the others noticed their cultivation. Obviously, they were not the leaders of the Celestial Organizations. However, those four didn''t seem to care about Franlia and the others. Instead, they looked beyond them as if searching for something. Aragan wasn''t that much of a patient Earth Dragon, so he was the first to talk. "Hey, you four. Where are your Organizations'' Masters?" The four Mortal Rejection Realm finally looked at the Sect Leaders and bowed. "Sorry for our misbehavior, Sect Leaders and friends. It''s just that we have never left the Foundation Space before in our lives. From what we heard, we would receive a Heavenly Tribulation as soon as we stepped here. That''s why we looked around apprehensively." Finally, Franlia and the others remembered this issue. "Oh, that''s right! Krune said there was no such thing as Heavenly Tribulations inside the Silver Core. Once they stepped outside, the heavens were supposed to find them and send the Heavenly Tribulations down straight away." Binmia and Aragan heard that and began to look around with their sect members. Still, there was no such thing as Heavenly Tribulation Clouds gathering. "It seems like that it wasn''t only the Silver Core that was hidden from the Heavens'' Eyes. Those guys are obviously in the Mortal Rejection Realm 9th Stage, but nothing is happening at all. Most likely, this entire Dimension is hidden as well." Franlia nodded, not finding it too hard to believe. "That makes sense. After all, this Demon Beast''s body definitely has a power above the Nascent God Realm. Still, the Heavens hasn''t done anything to it until now. It''s not that it couldn''t, but that it didn''t know it was here." Binmia, Aragan, and the others nodded. That could be the only explanation. Hearing that, the four Mortal Rejection Realm cultivators and demon beasts from the Celestial Organizations sighed in relief. Since that was the case, they could go back and report it to their leaders. With that, those four would be able to step out as well. "That''s a good thing to hear. The initial plan was to have us resist the Heavenly Tribulation with our leaders'' treasures and then negotiate with you all. After that, we would be going in and out while the conversations progressed. However, it is obviously not necessary anymore. Please give us a moment. We will tell our leaders so that they can come out to negotiate with you all on their own." The four of them then turned around and dashed inside the Silver Core Crack that they came from. Franlia and the others didn''t try to stop them. After all, they really needed to negotiate with those leaders in the end. Around an hour later, another Silver Core crack began to shine once more. Right after, ten figures appeared with a flash of silver light. Four of them were the Peak God Core Realm Celestial Organizations'' Leaders. The other four were their Peak Mortal Rejection Realm subordinates. Lastly, the remaining were Aragan and Franlia''s assistants, who they sent in to send the message. Of course, those Four God Core Realm leaders immediately assumed a defensive stance while they looked around. After all, there was a chance that a Heavenly Tribulation didn''t come because of their subordinates'' low-level cultivation. There was also a chance that it was because of some trick played by Franlia and the other Sect Leaders to lure them out. Surprisingly, the four leaders had a Formation Core on their hands. Those were the four Cores that kept the Celestial Protection Formations running on the Planet inside the Foundation Space. As mentioned before, it was possible to use them as equipment to help resist the Heavenly Tribulations. The fact that they brought those Four Formation Cores outside shows that they already took control over their own Celestial Organizations. During Krune''s stay in the Foundation Space, he came to know that there was a lot of opposition against the escaping plan. There were the Celestial Organization Leaders, who wanted to leave at all costs. On the other hand, the other elders wished to keep the Formation running forever. Of course, they knew that it would be impossible for the Formation to run for all eternity. Then again, they were still too afraid of death. Not to mention that the plan of using their lives to protect the low-level members against the collapse seemed ridiculous. Why would powerful and mighty God Core Realm cultivators and demon beasts like them sacrifice their lives to save some ants? Because of that, none of the Celestial Organization Leaders took the Formations'' Cores out. At most, they could check them out. In the following years, an internal war happened inside the Celestial Organizations between both parties. Fortunately, the leaders'' sides won, which allowed them to also make use of the Formations'' Cores like now. The good thing was that the Formation inside could still run without the cores for some time, making use of the Godly Energy already present in the Formation. It''s just that Suelen and the others would need to go back in at most a few days. The thing they were most afraid of was to lose these Formations'' Cores. Still, if they died outside, things would be even more helpless for those living inside the Foundation Space. In the end, they reached the conclusion that they would take the risk and go out with the Core Formations to try and resist any possible Tribulation or ambush. Well, nothing happened in the end, exceeding their expectations. "It seems like... everything is fine." Gamadol, Suelen, Jamot, and Varkin sighed in relief. The most dangerous part was finally over, which was the moment they stepped outside. Since there was no Heavenly Tribulation and those Sect Masters didn''t attack, it meant that they would be able to negotiate. The Four Leaders then came close and initiated their own negotiation. "Welcome, Sect Masters. We are the leaders of the Four Celestial Organizations. My name is Jamot, the leader of the Celestial Sky Organization." "I''m from the Celestial Energy Organization. You can call me Suelen." "Gamadol, leader of the Celestial Soul Organization." "And finally me, Varkin. I''m the leader of the Celestial Weapons Organization." Franlia and the others looked at them. Still, what really caught their attention were the four Formations'' Cores floating by their side. They could obviously see how much energy emanated from those things. Without a doubt, those things were incredibly dangerous even for them. "I''m Franlia, the Sect Master of the Sky Shifting Sect. This one beside me is Tosely, an elder of my Sect." After that, Binmia and Aragan came forward and introduced themselves as well. Seeing that neither side seemed intent on starting a battle, everyone relaxed a bit. Finally, Jamot took the front and entered the main point. "As mentioned in the messages we sent out, we are willing to negotiate the resources present in the Silver Core. As a token of friendship, we brought a few things to offer as gifts to you. At the same time, it also shows a little of what we have in there." Jamor then sent three Spatial Rings toward Franlia, Aragan, and Binmia''s direction. Those three sect leaders quickly looked at the contents inside, making their eyes lit up. Elemental Essences were just the start. Several materials inside would be nearly impossible to acquire in the Godly Path Realm. In fact, some of them didn''t even exist. However, what made them really excited was that Jamot told them that this was just a little bit of what they could find in there. Just how many more resources would be present on that Planet? They were quite eager to see. "Indeed, it seems like negotiations are the best outcome for both parties." Jamot and the others smiled after hearing that. "That''s good to hear. Well then, shall we start?" Meanwhile, on Krune''s side... "Is this the right place, Zule?" Zule, who was still inside Krune''s Divine Soul, nodded. "Yes. We are approaching the very center of Kun-Peng''s brain. That is where most of the Soul Fragments are hibernating, trying to save or gather energy. However, we better be careful. By now, all those Soul Fragments might have developed their own consciousness. Of course, those are still Kun-Peng''s, just separated in several parts. If they fuse together, they will become the same entity, different from what would have happened if I was absorbed by that last Zule." Krune nodded as he used that chance to warn Dudo and Mala as well. Finally, they seemed to reach a fissure where the walls'' color changed into a deeper silver. However, they could easily see that this wasn''t a standard passage like the ones before. Instead, it seemed more like a tear made by a powerful attack. Krune and the others saw the injury outside, so they immediately thought this was done by the same attacker. "You''re wrong. This cut was not done by the one who attacked Kun-Peng in the past. Instead, it''s a collateral effect of the secret technique that Kun-Peng used to escape to this place." "You can remember?" Zule nodded. "Just barely. After all, that was the most painful experience in Kun-Peng''s life. Logically, this memory was preserved better than anything else." Dudo and Mala then noticed something in the front. "What are those things?" Chapter 694: Absorption In front of the group, there was a large open space. There, they could see hundreds of Silver Roots extending from the walls. Each root had what seemed to be a Silver Flame at their ends. Some flames were bigger, while others were smaller. Nevertheless, they were all similar to each other. Zule looked at the flames and immediately identified what they were. ''Those are the Soul Fragments of Kun-Peng. Can you see this open space? It was not naturally formed. This place was where Kun-Peng''s Soul was located before.'' Krune and the others nodded in response. ''So, are you going to try and absorb them? No, to be more specific, will those Soul Fragments let you absorb them?'' Zule shook his head. ''Of course not. Even though these Soul Fragments are hibernating, they will immediately resist any attempt to do so. However, we have an advantage, Luvile and Harold''s power. The other ''Zule''s'' Soul Power had recovered more than these guys, but we still succeeded. These Soul Fragments here aren''t even half as strong. Besides, the more I absorb, the stronger I will become myself. It''s just that...'' Krune, Iem, and the others noticed that pause. ''Just what?'' Zule then continued. ''It''s just that these aren''t all of them. From the looks of it, a few Soul Fragments are missing.'' Krune then asked. ''Are you saying they escaped as well?'' Zule shook his head in response. ''I''m not entirely sure. I believe that most of the missing Soul Fragments had just run out of energy, disappearing completely. However, do you remember that Heaven Break building that had the teleportation formation? I think there is a chance that teleportation formation was built by a Soul Fragment that escaped this place in the past.'' Iem then pondered over something else. ''If that''s the case, why didn''t it absorb these Soul Fragments?'' Zule shrugged his shoulders. It was evident that he did not know the answer. ''Who knows? Chances are that it tried to fuse with someone else''s Soul, making it impossible to absorb the others. Or perhaps it didn''t even remember there were other Soul Fragments here. Anyway, there is no way to find the truth. However, I do have a vague feeling that the name Heaven Break is present in Kun-Peng''s memories.'' Dudo and Mala noticed Krune and Iem''s silence and asked. "Do you know what those things are?" Krune then answered. "I have a faint idea. Anyway, I will need Elder Dudo and Mala to watch out for me while I try to take them." Dudo and Mala nodded. It was their mission to protect Iem and Krune anyway. Krune and Iem then approached one of the smaller Silver Flames. Right after, Purple Lightning and Dark Flames appeared, enveloping the Silver Flame. Of course, that was just a cover so that Zule could come out to take the Soul Fragment without Dudo and Mala being able to see it. Without wasting any time, Zule immediately launched his own Soul against the Silver Flame. The moment both Souls touched each other, the opponent''s Soul awakened. "What?! You! What are you doing!" Zule ignored the Soul''s words. "Don''t mind me. I''m just trying to prevent Kun-Peng from destroying the Four Realms, that''s all. You can simply stay still and let me absorb you. Your thirst for revenge will be gone soon." Of course, the Soul Fragment''s sentience wouldn''t simply accept it. "You are the same as me! How can you say that you want to stop our revenge?! No, you are not me anymore. If you were, you would never say something like that! I won''t let you take me that easily." Zule couldn''t help but sigh in response. "You say that, but you don''t even know why you want to get revenge, right? What will you gain by destroying the Four Realms? All you can remember is that it has some connection to our downfall. What''s the point in that?" The Soul Fragment didn''t accept Zule''s words. "Shut up! What do you know? Can''t you feel the hatred? So what if we can''t remember what we want revenge against? That is because we are broken! Once we fuse together once more, we will naturally remember everything! So what if the Four Realms are destroyed? As long as we can make the betrayer pay, everything will be worth it!" The Soul Fragment kept resisting, but with Krune and Iem''s help, Zule was quickly absorbing it. It wouldn''t take long before it was over. "Worth it? I can also remember that our condition ended like this because someone we believed betrayed us, even though I can''t remember who or how. Still, do you know how many lives will perish if you destroy all Four Realms? Then again, I agree with you on something. We need to get our revenge. However, it can''t be at the cost of everyone else." "No! Everyone has to die! Only by annihilating the Four Realms and all lives in it will that existence that betrayed us feel the pain we felt! I also can''t remember who that existence was or why it betrayed us. However, there is a good chance that if we start destroying everything, it will appear to stop us. That will be the perfect moment to counterattack!" Zule shook his head once more. "You''re wrong. With the injury that our body suffered, I doubt we would have a chance. It would only lead us to our demise even faster! Trust me, I will remember everything, and I will get revenge for us, but not like this." "N-no... I... can''t... accept..." The Soul Fragment tried to self explode as well, just like the last ''Zule.'' However, Krune and Iem were well prepared this time. To self-explode, the Soul Fragment would need to gather the Godly Energy in the surroundings. Unfortunately, the duo completely sealed the space around it. No Godly Energy would come at all. Eventually, that Soul Fragment understood that it wouldn''t last. "Will you... really..." Before it could finish its words, the Soul Fragment crumbled, being quickly absorbed by Zule once again. Still, Zule knew what it wanted to ask. "Don''t worry, I will remember everything, and I will get revenge for us." Zule''s Soul Power increased again after absorbing that Soul Fragment, but he didn''t look the least bit happy. Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Are you sure you are fine?" "Sigh... While I was absorbing him, I once again felt the hatred he talked about. I feel like my memories were a bit more stimulated now... Anyway, let''s continue." Zule then returned inside Krune''s Divine Soul for a moment while Krune and Iem went to the next Soul Fragment. After covering it with Purple Lightning and Dark Flames again, Zule stepped out once more as a similar scene played in front of them. Just like that, they began to help Zule absorb one Soul Fragment after another. --- Time passed, and several days went by. During this time, Jamot''s group returned to their Celestial Organizations to use the Formation Cores to keep the Celestial Protection Formation running. After making sure that the Formation could run for a few more days without the cores, they once again exited the Foundation Space with them and continued their negotiation. Finally, it seemed like the three sects'' side and the celestial organizations were coming to an agreement. "So, what you all want are places where you can build your Celestial Organizations once more. It''s not my place to ask this, but... why are you not joining forces to create a single stronger force? Four Peak God Core Realm cultivators and Demon beasts would immediately become one of the strongest forces in our Zamaria Planet." Jamot and the others immediately shook their heads. "We all have our own differences and focus on our different paths. Making the four Celestial Organizations join forces would be the same as starting an internal war once again. We can''t let that happen since we will only have Transformation Realm and below members available after the collapse is over." Franlia, Binmi, and Aragan nodded. For them, it was obviously good news that these Four God Core Realms won''t work together. "Very well. According to our agreement, you will provide 60% of the resources available to our three sects. The other 40% will be shared between your four Celestial Organizations. In exchange, we will help you consolidate your forces in Zamaria Planet. In this agreement, we will also put restrictions on each other''s souls, stating that neither side will touch each other during the next 10 thousand years. On top of that, these resources might bring calamity to either one of us, so we will form a temporary alliance during the duration of this agreement. Of course, this is also part of the restrictions." Binmia, Jamot, Aragan, Franlia, and all the other God Core Realm experts agreed with the arrangement. They all knew very well that the resources inside the Foundation Space were a lot more valuable than the Top Quality Godly Veins. Obviously, continuing their war before securing everything would be incredibly idiotic. "So, should we follow with the next part now?" There was one thing remaining for everything to work. These God Core Realm leaders of the Celestial Organizations had to leave this Dimensional Realm to fight the Heavenly Tribulation. That''s also why they had the Formations Cores with them. They were made with parts of the Silver Core itself, so they harnessed a tremendous amount of energy. Not to mention, they could create Godly Energy on their own. As mentioned in the past, they had never received any Heavenly Tribulation since the Silver Core Foundation Space was hidden from the Heavens. However, the moment they would appear outside, the Heavens would surely strike them down with the power of all tribulations they should have received so far together. Not to mention that as punishment for hiding for so long, the power of those tribulations will increase as well. "Very well, let us guide you four to the exit." Jamot and the other three nodded as everyone began to make their way out. However, no one noticed, but Binmia was now holding a Seal in her hands. The previous ''Zule''s'' Seal! ''Should I try it?'' Chapter 695: Coming Out That Seal would allow her to control the power of Kun-Peng''s body within a range of a few kilometers... or at least, that''s what ''Zule'' said to her. Although the negotiations had been going well, the truth was that everyone wanted a larger portion. There was nothing Binmia could do to the Celestial Organization Leaders. After all, she would be powerless if she entered the Silver Core. However, that''s not the case for Franlia and Aragan. If she took the other two sects out of the picture, her share of resources would obviously be much higher. Still, she was hesitating. First of all, this was a Seal made by that ''Zule,'' who deceived her and escaped. Could she really trust it? Also, will the power from it be enough to deal with Franlia and Aragan''s group? Last but not least, would those Celestial Organization Leaders intervene? The best thing would be her convincing them to join forces with her. However, there was also the chance that they would turn on her after hearing her plan. In the end, Binmia thought about her daughter, Bianca. She sighed and put the Seal away. ''The risks are way too great, with no guarantee of success. If anything goes wrong, let alone getting a bigger share, even the 20% entitled to me will disappear. There is even a chance that they will all join forces to get rid of me and my sect.'' Because of how big Kun-Peng''s body was, the group took some time to arrive where the injury was located. Surprisingly though, Krune, Iem, Dudo, and Mala were already there, waiting for Franlia. "Oh! You are all back. How was it? Did you find what you were looking for?" Dudo and Mala then looked at Krune. After all, they didn''t know what they did to those Silver Flames back in Kun-Peng''s Head. "Before that, I can see that Sect Master already got in contact with the four leaders of the Celestial Organizations. Did they not go through the Heavenly Tribulations?" Franlia shook her head. "It seems like not only the Silver Core but this entire Dimensional Realm is hidden from the Heavens. They will only receive their Tribulations once we exit this place. That''s pretty much what we are going to do now. We reached an agreement already. Once they succeed in their tribulations, we will start our exchanges." Krune and Iem nodded. It was not like they didn''t expect that the entire Dimensional Realm was hidden from the Heavens. One must remember that even Zule had hidden the Underground City from the Heavens before, let alone Kun-Peng. On their way out, Krune and Iem started to recount what happened during their travel to Kun-Peng''s head. Of course, Dudo and Mala also sent a Divine Sense Message to Franlia, telling her everything that happened. "So... that kid that Binmia was together had something to do with Kun-Peng''s body. I knew she was hiding something. She also took longer to arrive at the Silver Core than Aragan and me, so that kid''s betrayal was probably the reason. Still, it''s a good thing that you and Iem were able to use your power to destroy it." Franlia then continued. "By the way, those Silver Flames that you and Iem collected. What were they for?" No doubt, the thing that interested her the most were those Silver Flames. In her eyes, they might be even more important than the resources in the Space Foundation. Krune and Iem smiled as they looked at Kun-Peng''s body. "Sect Master will see it soon." Franlia was taken aback and looked behind. *Tremble!* Suddenly, the entire Dimensional Realm began to shake! "What is happening?!" Everyone put their guards up, looking around themselves. After all, they felt tense, afraid that some ambush made by the other party might happen. However, after seeing that everyone had the same reactions, they noticed that it probably had nothing to do with anyone there. The Spatial Laws began to activate as thousands of Spatial Tears appeared everywhere in there. It was as if the entire Dimensional Realm was about to collapse. "Look! The Demon Beast''s Body!" Hearing that, Jamot''s group immediately looked back. At first, it was hard to notice. But soon, they saw the enormous Demon Beast''s body shining with silver light! Spatial Laws and power that neither of them could fathom began to converge around it. Suddenly, the large injury that went from one side of the Demon Beast''s body to the other started to close. But that was not what really caught everyone''s attention. Instead, it was what happened in its head. The Demon Beast''s eyes... opened! "It... It''s alive!" Everyone was instantly frightened by that sight! If that thing decided to attack them, they would all be dead! Even though they were already quite far from it, the immeasurable power that emanated from its body was already enough to put tremendous pressure on everyone. They couldn''t help but wonder. ''If we were still inside, this power alone would have crushed all of us.'' Finally, the sect leaders came back to themselves. "To the exit, now!" Franlia, Aragan, Binmia, and all the other cultivators and demon beast immediately turned around to flee. For some reason, they couldn''t open Spatial Gates in this place, so they could only fly. However, the Demon Beast''s body suddenly turned in their direction. The shocking point was that its simple movement was enough to stir all the Laws and Godly Energy inside the Dimensional Realm. That showed just how much power, as well as how big the body was. Franlia and the others almost lost their balance because of that. The God Core Realm experts had to give their all to protect the lower-level members. "This is ridiculous! It didn''t do anything at all. It merely turned its body in our direction. How can such a powerful being exist?" It was then that an idea appeared in Franlia''s mind. She looked at Krune and Iem and noticed that they also looked surprised. However, different from the others, she couldn''t feel any fear coming from them. ''Was it them who awakened the Demon Beast?'' Franlia was right on point! --- Going back in time, Krune and Iem kept helping Zule absorb the Silver Flames. The more he did it, the more of his memories he awakened. Suddenly, Krune felt like Zule was about to cry, so they stopped for a moment. "What is it, Zule?" Zule bitterly smiled as he answered. "No wonder Kun-Peng''s hatred goes so deep! Betrayal was the least of the problems... He fell into a trap made by his own kind. It would be one thing if he was the only one caught in it. However, his own family was also used as a sacrifice during that time." Luvile and Harold were the most curious ones. "His kind? His family? Are you saying that there are more Primordial Kun-Pengs?" Zule nodded as he remembered the past. "There are. Primordial Demon Beasts... they are not as rare as you think." That came as a great shock for everyone hearing. After all, no Primordial Demon Beast had appeared for countless Chaos Cycles. How come they are not rare? Even Luvile and Harold were startled by that news. They heard from Zule before that he was betrayed. However, they thought that it was the action of some other Primordial Demon Beast. "Why have we never seen one, then? Just where have they gone? Could it be that they never cared about the Four Realms?" Zule shook his head in response. "I still lack a lot of my memories. I only remember the part where my family and I were used as a sacrifice because this was a powerful memory." "Sacrifice for what?" "I don''t... remember." Luvile then urged Krune and Iem. "Go, go, go! Let''s help him recover the rest of the Silver Flames." However, Krune didn''t move straight away. "Zule, are you sure you want to continue? Is there not a chance that this revenge feeling will overtake your soul as well? I know that you said that you aren''t the same Kun-Peng anymore, but still..." Zule sighed as he shook his head. "Don''t worry. I''m not Kun-Peng anymore, but I''m him at the same time. It''s not wrong to say that I experienced a rebirth after being absorbed by the Space Heavenly Fragment. I have full control over my own soul. Those other Soul Fragments can''t force me to do anything. Instead, you should have noticed already. Whenever they are about to be completely absorbed by me, they can link their feelings with my own. Because of that, they know that I will get revenge for us. It''s just that I won''t destroy the Four Realms as we initially intended. I''m soothing their urges with my own way of doing things." Iem then asked. "So, the ones you want to get revenge against are the members of your own Primordial Kun-Peng Race?" Zule pondered a bit and then replied. "I''m not sure. However, I don''t think that getting revenge in the entire race is right. After all, chances are that the majority don''t even know what happened. Why would I get revenge against clueless Kun-Pengs? Anyway, I need to recover more of my memories to get a feeling of what I should do next." Krune nodded. "Alright, but if you feel that you are losing control over those Soul Fragments, you must tell me straight away. The last thing we need is to have a Kun-Peng attacking us. That would be terrifying for sure." Zule nodded. "Don''t worry, I can do it. Let''s continue." Chapter 696: Talking about the past Finally, Krune and Iem helped Zule absorb all the Soul Fragments present in that place. During the entire time, not a single Space Creature or Spatial Tear appeared. It was as if this space was completely sealed from the outside world. Inside the Purple Lightning and Black Flames, Zule had a blank face. It was apparent that he was thinking about a lot of things at that moment. Nevertheless, Luvile was too curious, so he didn''t hesitate to ask him. "How is it? Do you remember anything else?" Harold was as curious as Luvile. "Quick, tell us!" Zule finally snapped out of his trance. The expression of his projection seemed to have changed somehow. It was not because he now had a different appearance, but it was because he looked a lot more... mature in a way. His eyes were brimming with knowledge. "Luvile and Harold... What happened to Zafran and Kastia?" After hearing those names, Luvile and Harold felt like they were struck by lightning! "Y-You! How do you know those names?!" Zule smiled in response. However, it didn''t look like he was happy. It was more like a smile filled with melancholy. "They told me how much you two fought each other ever since you were kids. Too bad my Soul was already on the verge of collapsing that time, so I couldn''t see what happened to you two after that. But from the looks of it, you two tried to leave. Your parents should have warned you what would happen if you tried that, but you did it anyway." Luvile and Harold felt their souls tremble after that. It was evident that Zule knew exactly what they did to end up like that. Krune and Iem were perplexed in comparison, though. "Wait a minute! Wasn''t Kun-Peng a Primordial Demon Beast from a time way before Luvile and Harold were born? How come you have memories about their parents?" Zule shook his head. "It is true that I... or Kun-Peng... came to this place way before these two were born. However, I remember a lot more things now. My Soul collapsed due to my... Kun-Peng''s... Secret Technique. However, that was not something that happened instantly. Even though I couldn''t stop it, it still took a long time. At first, the Secret Technique shouldn''t have made my Soul shatter into pieces. However, because of that fatal injury, it ended up like that." Zule then shook his head. "Let''s leave it aside. The fact is, I received a lot of help from your parents and a few others. Otherwise, my Soul would have collapsed a lot earlier. It was thanks to them that I was able to be put to rest in this place. Their efforts were paid in the end. My body was not found by my race, and my Soul Fragments were mostly preserved." "However, there is a sad thing about it. After my Soul collapsed, the hatred generated by the betrayal went out of control. My Soul Fragments couldn''t reign on their feelings, and all of them changed into vengeful spirits. If it wasn''t because I was caught by the Space Heavenly Fragment, I would be the same as all of them." Iem was a lot more curious about something else though, even while listening to Zule''s words. "Wait! You keep saying ''their parents.'' Are you telling me that Harold and Luvile are... brothers?" Zule couldn''t help but laugh as he responded. "Hahaha! That''s right. These two brothers hate each other so much that they even refuse to tell the truth. Or perhaps...they''re just too embarrassed to admit it." Luvile couldn''t hold himself back. "Shut up! Who is this guy''s brother? I will never admit it." Harold wasn''t any better. "Hmph! You took the words right out of my mouth. Who would want to be brothers with someone like you?" Krune and Iem didn''t know what to say. They knew that these two knew each other for a long time, but they didn''t expect them to be blood-related. Zule didn''t mind their antics, though. He just looked at it as if they were two kids bickering. Luvile then changed the topic. "Anyway, how come our parents never said anything about it?" Zule nodded after hearing that. "Simple. I put a restriction on them that made it impossible for them to ever talk about my existence with anyone else. Anyway, this is not something that will make any difference for you two. In any case, are they still alive?" Luvile and Harold shook their heads. "Those two died way before the gods joined forces to leave." Zule nodded. "But they told you to not do that, didn''t they?" Luvile and Harold went silent for a moment. However, that was the same as confirming it to Zule. "I see... you two ignored their warnings and tried to leave anyway. No wonder you two ended up in this state. Well, it''s already a miracle that you were not completely wiped out." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Luvile, does it have something to do with that talk you had with Sentoi back in the Holy Land?" Iem and Harold were puzzled. Then again, it was to be expected since Krune and Luvile never talked about that event with the others. Besides, Sentoi and Wally were born after Luvile and Harold perished, so there was no way Harold could know about him. "What is it? Were you hiding something from me?" Luvile sighed and then replied. "I guess there is no point in hiding it anymore." Luvile continued. "Sentoi is someone from the God Realm. However, during that time in the Holy Land, he and Wally, the Wisp God, contacted me. They asked for my help because the actual Gods of the God Realm are planning to leave again." Harold didn''t expect that. "IDIOTS! What are they trying to do, destroy the Four Realms?! Wasn''t the lesson from back then enough for them to understand?!" However, Luvile only sighed. He had the same reaction as Harold, but he also remembered what Sentoi told him right after. "It can''t be helped. You and I were gods before. Why did we try to leave? Wasn''t it because we were fed up with everything? We lived for so long, we were invincible, our cultivations simply couldn''t progress anymore. We reached the apex of the Four Realms and even created our own laws. Our lives had become bleak, with nothing else to do anymore. The new gods of the God Realm probably reached the same situation. There is nothing more they can do. Their only hope is to leave this place. Otherwise, they will probably go mad. So what if they might die? So what if the Four Realms might be destroyed? Their lives already have no meaning anymore, just like ours didn''t have any back then." Harold immediately became silent. As much as he wanted to refute it, he knew that Luvile was telling the truth since he was also like that. Krune and Iem were listening to everything. It was the first time that Luvile or Harold talked so much about their own pasts. However, they couldn''t understand Luvile and Harold''s feelings. After all, they had been alive for just so long. There were a lot of things that they had not seen or experienced yet. Zule could not help but sigh in response. "I guess I can''t blame you. There is no such thing as a limit outside. You probably heard this saying before, right? The cultivation path is never-ending. This saying is not wrong. Unfortunately, as long as you are trapped in these Four Realms, you will reach a limit." Harold and Luvile''s interest was immediately piqued. That''s right, that''s what they have been searching for all this time. A way out! "Zule, do you have an idea on how we could leave?" Zule looked in their direction. Even though they were both inside Krune and Iem''s foundations and only existed inside their own sources, it was as if Zule could see their faces. "You already know where the exit is, don''t you?" Harold and Luvile didn''t seem that surprised to hear that. "Well... we do. But you do know very well what happened after we tried to use it, right? We nearly made the Four Realms collapse, and it killed a lot of gods in the process. In the end, no one succeeded in leaving this place. What we want to know is if there is any other way out." Zule shook his head in response. "Not with the Cultivation Limit of the God Realm, there isn''t." Krune was finally hearing about the events that brought Luvile to him. The same ones he refused to talk about until now. "Alright, so I finally understand that what happened to you. Simply put, there is an exit, but it is dangerous. Also, trying to use it can possibly even destroy the Four Realms. Something went wrong when the Gods of the God Realm joined forces to escape the Four Realms. Most of them died while Luvile and Harold somehow escaped to the Mortal Realm. This and that happened, and they ended inside Iem and my foundations. Am I right to say that?" Luvile agreed. "Well, this is a very crude way of putting it, but you are not wrong." Zule nodded as well. "That is basically their only choice. Too bad that it is an impossible task to start with." Luvile and Harold immediately asked. "Why? Is there no other way?" Zule then explained. "You don''t understand the circumstances behind the Four Realms'' creation. Let me tell you something that you don''t know. The Four Realms'' exit was not supposed to exist in the first place." Luvile, Harold, and Iem were taken aback once more. However, the Wisp''s IQ showed its bright side at this very moment. "I see... so that''s what it meant with the sacrifice of Kun-Peng''s family, sacrifice, and his escape." Krune then looked deeply at Zule and asked. "It was because you escaped with your Secret Technique that the exit exists at the moment. If your enemies were successful, the Four Realms would have never had an exit to start with, right?" Zule smiled after hearing that. "As expected of the wisp race. You are exactly right." Chapter 697: Leave? Zule then continued. "The idea was for the Four Realms to be a closed space. Neither Luvile nor Harold should have known the existence of an exit since it was not supposed to be there in the first place. Anyway, I don''t want to talk much about it. You just need to know that the failure during the sacrifice attempt left a gap to the outside, which you call the ''exit.''" Luvile couldn''t help but ask in response. "Alright. I understand that this place had to be completely closed. Why is that? Also, from the way you''re speaking, it seems like your Primordial Kun-Peng race was involved in the creation of the Four Realms. Is that right?" Zule nodded. "It''s correct. The primordial Demon Beasts were involved in the creation of the Four Realms. Underworld, Mortal Realm, Godly Path Realm, God Realm, all of them were created with our help." "As for your first question, I can''t answer it right now. It''s not that I don''t want to, but it''s because I can''t remember. As I said before, several Soul Fragments of mine have already disappeared for so long. Even though I absorbed the rest, there are still gaps here and there." Krune then said. "To be very honest, this situation makes me feel very unsettled." Harold asked in response. "Are you talking about the Kun-Pengs'' sacrifices?" Krune shook his head. "Yes and no. The Kun-Pengs'' sacrifice was related to it, but that''s Zule''s revenge, so I''ll leave it to him. My concern is about something else. Something far more vital that all of you are forgetting." Krune once again looked at Zule''s projection. "Why exactly did you create the Four Realms? Of course, I''m delighted that you did. Otherwise, none of us would have been here today. Still, there has to be a reason for it, right?" Krune then continued. "The reason I feel unsettled is that I don''t think the Four Realms were created on a whim. Something tells me that the Four Realm''s very existence is a lot more intricate than the Kun-Pengs'' sacrifice." Iem narrowed his eyes. "What do you want to say?" Krune scratched the back of his head. "Can''t you see it? The creation of the Four Realms was part of a bigger plan. There was definitely a reason for it. For example, what if the Four Realms were created to be used as a sacrifice as well? They created the Four Realms, they left, and never showed their faces ever again. Only some vague records were left behind about the Primordial Demon Beasts'' existence. Also, was it only the Primordial Demon Beasts who helped create the Four Realms? Was there no other race other than them?" "I can''t shake off this feeling that we are in more danger than we had ever been before." Luvile, Harold, and Iem felt a chill behind their backs. "This... seems plausible." They all looked at Zule, waiting for his answer. Zule, too, narrowed his eyes and began to ponder about it. "Krune is right. Let me see if there are any memories related to it." Zule continued to search through all the memories he recovered from the Soul Fragments. There were a few flashes and gaps that he tried to put together. However, just as he was about to finally get some answer, something happened. "Arrrghh!" Out of nowhere, Zule''s Soul began to tremble inside Krune''s Divine Soul. It started to show cracks as if it was about to collapse. Zule''s projection that was outside also disappeared straight away. Krune was alarmed by that and immediately used his Godly Energy to give Zule support. He used everything he had, trying to prevent the soul from breaking apart. Finally, Zule''s soul began to mend once more as it absorbed all the Godly Energy Krune sent to it. "What happened?" Zule didn''t answer for quite some time. Just as Krune was about to check once more, Zule''s projection appeared once again. However, it was a lot dimmer than before. Also, Zule seemed to be in a bit of pain now. "That scared the shit out of me..." Krune and the others still looked at him, not knowing what to say. Zule then calmed down and explained. "I have to thank the fact that I''m not exactly Kun-Peng''s Soul anymore. Perhaps, having my Soul Fragment being absorbed by the Space Heavenly Fragment was the best thing that could have happ¨¦ned to me." "Just now, I tried to access the memories related to the reason the Four Realms were created. However, there was a powerful Seal on them that almost destroyed my soul. Fortunately, the Space Heavenly Fragment and Krune''s Godly Energy helped me suppress it at the last moment. That was really dangerous." Krune and the others felt even more disturbed after hearing that. "This is definitely not good news. Zule''s soul is connected to the Space Heavenly Fragment, and the Space Heavenly Fragment is connected to my own Heavenly Fragments. He''s not lying. His soul was really just a hair''s breadth away from crumbling." Iem couldn''t help but wonder. "Just what could be so important that a Seal which could destroy a Primordial Demon Beast''s Soul in an instant was left behind?" Zule shook his head in response to Iem''s words, saying. "That''s not how Memory Seals work. This Seal was supposed to only activate if someone tried to forcefully read Kun-Peng''s memories." Krune understood where Zule was coming from. "I see... You can still be considered Kun-Peng''s Soul and, at the same time, not. That was the side-effect of being absorbed by the Heavenly Fragment. The Seal thought that you weren''t Kun-Peng and tried to activate it." Zule nodded. "Yes. Fortunately, I''m still more or less Kun-Peng''s soul. That and the Space Heavenly Fragment''s power allowed me to stop the Seal from activating. However... that also means I can''t look into the information related to the creation of the Four Realms. Well, to be more specific, I can''t look into the reason for their creation." Luvile and the others didn''t think he was lying. After all, having one''s own soul reaching near destruction just to pretend was very idiotic. One mistake, and he would be gone forever. Besides, the Zule at the moment could probably kill all of them if he wanted to. One must remember that he now had all of the remaining Kun-Peng Soul Fragments and his memories. That means he could control everything around them as he wished. Why would he try to hide the truth by almost killing himself if he could simply kill everyone in here? That would make no sense. "What do we do now?" Zule pondered for a bit and tried to see if there were any other memories that could help him out. "It''s useless. There are no Primordial Demon Beasts in this place anymore. Only they might be able to answer the questions." Harold then went back to the previous topic. "Alright. In that case, can you remember anything about a way to leave the Four Realms? You said that there is only one exit, but you do know what will happen if we try to use it." Zule nodded and began to search in his memories once more. "There is only the exit you tried to use before. If I''m not wrong, you tried to barge your way through by force, correct?" Luvile and Harold nodded. "That was the only way we found." Zule then continued. "You did it wrong. The exit was sealed with several doors. Of course, I''m not talking about standard doors that you can open with your hands. If you try to destroy them by force, the foundations of the Four Realms will suffer the consequences. That being said, it will immediately retaliate. Even if you were Gods with your own created laws, you can''t possibly believe that you can fight the Four Realms, right?" Luvile and Harold immediately grew silent. Obviously, the two of them understood it better than anyone else. "However, forcing the Four Realms to defend itself is also extremely detrimental for the Four Realms themselves. The Four Realms are not sentient beings, so they don''t know how they should really act. With their self-preservation instincts, the Four Realms drained their own foundations'' powers to counter-attack. You really got very close to destroying the Four Realms yourselves back then." Luvile and Harold knew what Zule was talking about. "Yes. That''s why I intended to stop the new Gods in the God Realm from trying the same idiotic thing once again. It doesn''t matter how many Gods are present. It will make no difference. In the end, those idiots will simply perish while damaging the Four Realms. Worst case scenario, they will still die while the Four Realms will follow in their footsteps." Zule then explained. "As I said, the Four Realms were sealed with several doors. To be more specific, four of them. The Seals were put by none other than the Primordial Demon Beasts and the other existences that helped create the Four Realms. Their use is self-explanatory, which is to prevent anyone from escaping." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Why didn''t they try to hide the exit instead?" Luvile and Harold chuckled after hearing that. "Because it is impossible. Anyway, you will understand when you arrive at the God Realm one day." Zule nodded. "They are right. Something like that is not something even a Universal Formation like that Dalin one you talked about can hide. Sealing it was their only choice. Of course, I don''t think they expected the Four Realms'' residents to grow strong enough to challenge it one day. That was a mistake on their part." Iem felt like they were deviating from the main topic. "In the end, what were the Gods supposed to do to exit?" Chapter 698: Keys Zule then went back to the main topic. "As I said, there are four ''doors'' that are connected to the foundations of the Four Realms. To open them, you will need to cut this connection with the Foundation. Do that, and the doors will open." Luvile and the others showed puzzled expressions in response. "The Foundations of the Four Realms. The Underworld, Mortal Realm, Godly Path Realm, and God Realm. First of all, where can we find the Foundations? Each and every single one of them is ridiculously enormous. You don''t expect us to search every Universe inside them, right?" Zule smiled as he shook his head. "There is no need. After all, there is no need to look for the Foundations. They are present everywhere." This time, Luvile and Harold were dumbfounded. "Everywhere? How come we have never seen them before? Let alone see them, neither Harold nor I have ever felt their presence." Harold agreed with Luvile. "That''s true. Before we tried to escape the Four Realms in the past, all the gods looked for a way to open the doors you talked about. However, it doesn''t matter what we did. We simply found no clue whatsoever." Zule didn''t find it strange. "That''s to be expected. After all, the Foundations are present everywhere in each of the Four Realms. However, they have been hidden by none other than me... or Kun-Peng''s power, to be more specific." Only now did Luvile and the others understand. "I see... according to the records, Kun-Peng has the power to alter the very foundations of Space Laws. If you, or Kun-Peng, used your power to hide the Foundations, then I can believe that even all gods together wouldn''t be able to find them. The proof of it is that you said that the Foundations of the Four Realms are everywhere, but we didn''t know about it until now." Zule nodded. "That''s obvious. Anyway, I don''t intend to keep playing the game that the guys who put me in this situation any longer, so I won''t stop you from going out. To get access to the Four Foundations, you will need four keys. Those keys are Spatial Keys that I created from my own essence blood all the way back before being ambushed. Those keys are connected to the Four Realms, so they can''t be brought outside. That being said, the Keys definitely exist." Krune then asked the obvious question. "So, where can we find the keys?" "Give me a minute." Zule then stopped talking and concentrated on Kun-Peng''s power. Without anyone noticing anything, Zule used Kun-Peng''s power to spread his Divine Sense through the entire Four Realms! Even the heavens of each realm didn''t notice anything. The Keys were made from Kun-Peng''s own essence blood, so it was not hard to find them. "Now, that''s surprising..." Luvile and others'' attention was immediately caught. "What is it? Did you find them?" Zule nodded. "Yes. It seems like the Gods present in the God Realm at the moment aren''t idiots. They already have two of the four keys." Zule then looked at Krune and laughed. "You might not believe it, but one of those keys was on Wally''s hands until a few years ago." Krune was taken aback. "How do you know about Wally?" Krune had never mentioned Wally to Zule before. Iem and Harold didn''t have much reason to talk about him either, so Zule shouldn''t have known about his existence. However, Zule simply shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows? Anyway, that is not the issue here. The fact is that he delivered his key to the Gods of the God Realm, so it''s not in his hands anymore. I can see the Godly Path Realm and the Underworld Realm Keys with them. Both Keys are in the hands of a God called Neto." Back then, Wally used the Dalin Universe communication formation to contact the God Realm. The one he talked to just so happened to be Neto himself. Wally used the key and ''something else'' as an exchange for the Wisp Race''s freedom. That''s why all prejudices against the Wisp Race stopped in the Mortal Realm. Still, Luvile and the others had no idea who this guy called Neto is. "This must be a God that appeared after Harold and I perished. At least, I''ve never heard about him before. By the way, how did they find the truth about the keys?" Zule shook his head in response, being in the dark as well. "That I don''t know. But if I were to guess, they still have an idea of what happened the last time the Gods tried to escape. That being said, they know that trying to force their way out will not work, so they started to look for another way again. Perhaps, they bumped into one of my keys during this time, which allowed them to understand what they needed to do. Of course, this is just a theory." Krune then thought about something else. "Back then, Sentoi asked you to help stop the Gods. But if they are looking for the keys, is there really a point in stopping them?" Luvile went silent for a second. "Well, perhaps Sentoi had no idea that the Gods were looking for the keys, so he was afraid of them trying to destroy the doors by force once more." Zule had another idea, instantly telling them about it. "I don''t know who that Sentoi is, but anyway, that might not be the case." "What do you mean?" Zule sighed and explained. "Well... I think it''s already a miracle that they found those two keys. I was the one who hid them, you know? I can guarantee that it won''t be easy to find the other two. That being said, Sentoi might know about the keys. However, the Gods in the God Realm might not be willing to wait until they find the other two. Maybe they think that having two is already enough." Luvile and the others went silent for a second. "That is a possibility. However, there should be no reason for Sentoi to not tell me about that back in the Holy Land." Iem couldn''t help but ask. "Well, it doesn''t matter anymore, right? Zule can control his... Kun-Peng''s power once more. He can simply tell us where the keys are now. No, even better than that, can''t he use his power to simply open the doors? After all, he is at a realm far above the Gods. Perhaps, he can bring everyone out without even needing to use the exit at all. Zule said it before, didn''t he? If we wanted to leave the Four Realms without using the exit, we would need to have cultivations far above the Gods in the God Realm. That''s exactly what he is at right now." Luvile, Harold, and Krune couldn''t help but admit that Iem was right. However, Zule immediately shook his head. "At most, I can tell you where the other two keys can be found. Other than that, there is nothing much I can do." Obviously, that statement took them by surprise. "Could it be that you can''t control Kun-Peng''s body?" Zule shook his head. "No, I can control my... his body. Gah, fuck it! It''s becoming annoying to separate me from Kun-Peng every time I talk. It''s not wrong to say that I''m also Kun-Peng, so let''s just roll it." "Anyway, I can control my body and use its power. It''s also not wrong to say that I''m far above any of the Gods in the God Realm in cultivation. However, I can''t intervene in these things. At the moment, my body is in a hibernating state, so its power is not affecting the Four Realms. However, the moment I decide to awaken it, I must leave straight away." Krune understood where Zule was coming from. "I see. It is the same thing as the cultivation restriction when we enter a fragile Dimensional Realm. Some of those Realms can''t support the existence of high-level cultivators and demon beasts. Obviously, the Four Realms can''t support Kun-Peng''s cultivation once it awakes." But it was then that Krune remembered something. "Wait. During the time that Luvile and Harold''s parents were alive, you were not sleeping. In fact, once you arrived here, you probably weren''t at your limit yet. Since that''s the case, how come the Four Realms could hold your existence? No, not only that but Luvile and Harold said that there are records of the existence of other Primordial Demon Beasts in the past inside the Four Realms. Also, didn''t you say that the Four Realms were created by you and the other Primordial Demon Beasts and some other helpers? Why were the Four Realms capable of holding all of your existences before but can''t do it anym- ah!" Only then did Krune notice where the issue lay. Zule smiled at Krune''s realization. "It seems like you understand why it happened." Zule''s projection then looked at both Krune and Iem. No, to be more specific, it was as if his eyes could pierce through them and look directly at Luvile and Harold. "Ohhhh~~ It''s so baddd~~ If some ''CERTAIN'' Gods didn''t try to escape by force before, almost destroying the Four Realms'' foundations, I wouldn''t be in this predicament. But noooooo~~ they wanted to leave, so they tried it. Those ''CERTAIN'' Gods made the Four Realms'' foundations a lot more fragile than it was in the past. Such a pity, such a pity~~..." If Luvile and Harold had bodies at the moment, even their stats as Gods wouldn''t be able to cover their red faces. "Ahem... we won''t do that anymore..." Zule nodded before saying. "Well said, kids." Chapter 699: The Process It was the first time Krune saw Luvile being reprimanded like a kid. Well, that''s to be expected. After all, how many cultivators or demon beasts were older than him? "Zule, you said you would need to leave straight away. What if you bring others with you?" Zule shook his head. "Do you remember the Foundation Space in my Demon Core? Can the people and beasts there leave?" Krune shook his head and thought about another issue. "I understand what you mean. We can''t exit since we are connected to the Four Realms. However, there is a problem here. If we can''t leave because of this connection, what''s the point in opening the Four Doors that lead outside?" Zule then explained. "Don''t worry. As long as your cultivation reaches the level of a god, that link can''t do anything to you." Luvile then asked Zule. "Does that mean you could bring Harold and me out with you?" Zule shook his head. "For me to do that, you two would need to recover your full power again. Obviously, that would take a very long time." Luvile wasn''t surprised by that answer. He only asked that out of curiosity. "I see. However, something tells me that you have no intention of waiting here for us to recover or for Krune and Iem to reach the God level." Zule nodded. "I can''t wait anymore. Do you remember what Krune said? There is a reason for the existence of the Four Realms. I feel like this is not something good. I need to go out and find out what it is. Otherwise, it might be too late by the time you guys reach a level high enough to do step out." Zule then sighed as he thought. "I can already see the hurdles ahead. My Silver Core is almost destroyed, and I lost a big part of my own Soul. I wonder how long it will take for me to recover." It was then that Iem thought about something else. "What will happen to the cultivators and demon beasts in the Foundation Space? They are also part of your Foundation, so letting them exit would affect you as well." Zule agreed with Iem. "That''s true. However, there is no need to worry. The reason they want to escape is that my Foundation will eventually collapse if it is kept unattended. However, once I wake up and take the reins, I will immediately stabilize and start to recover it. Obviously, no one inside will need to be afraid of dying because of the collapse anymore." Krune couldn''t help but say in response. "I still don''t like the idea of keeping everyone inside trapped like that. If they didn''t know that there was an outside world, it wouldn''t be that bad. But since they know..." Zule shrugged his shoulders. "I really can''t do much about it. My Foundation is already in that state that you saw. If I allow everyone to leave as well, it will be affected even further." Krune sighed and nodded. "Alright. However, Franlia helped us quite a lot to reach this point. You must at least leave something for her and the Sky Shifting Sect." Zule didn''t mind and replied. "That''s not a problem. Living beings leaving my Foundation will affect me more gravely than resources." Zule then focused his mind on Kun-Peng''s body. To be more specific, it was his Foundation Space. Without anyone noticing, several resources that were extremely rare in the outside world disappeared from the Foundation Space. "I used one of your Spatial Rings. Check it." Krune was surprised to hear that. He immediately took out the Spatial Ring Zule mentioned and took a look inside. "This..." There were so many resources inside that it would make any of the three sects cry out of happiness. "Just give it to Franlia. This should help her build her Sect''s strength for the next thousands of years or so. As long as she plays her cards right, she will eventually overcome the other two sects." Krune smiled after hearing that. "Hey, what about Krune and me?" Obviously, the one who asked was Iem. However... "Weren''t you the guy who tried to run away from me before? How come you''re asking for something now?" Back then, Iem didn''t want to have anything to do with Zule since he was a Peak Nascent Stars Level Equipment. He even tried to escape without Krune and Zule noticing. In the end, Zule had to put a marker on him and threaten to tell others about his Heavenly Core. Only then did Iem accept his fate and stuck together. "Ahem... Ancestor Zule, this lowly one was wrong. Such a benevolent Kun-Peng like you wouldn''t really take it to heart, right? An ant-like me is not worthy of your contempt." Shameless! That''s what everyone thought after seeing that scene. "Alright, stop that. You''re making me want to puke." Zule then focused on Kun-Peng''s body once more before retrieving a few more things from it. "For a wisp and a cultivator at your level, the best resource would definitely be Top Quality Spirit Stones. I just gave you all of the ones that grew around my body during these years while I''ve been hibernating." Krune and Iem''s eyes lit up as they checked their Spatial Rings. There, they found around five thousand Top Quality Spirit Stones! For lone cultivators like them, that number was astronomical. More than enough to bring them all the way to the peak of the Nascent God Realm! Even Krune couldn''t help but follow Iem''s words. Krune and Iem kneeled together and said in unison. "Oh great Zule, these lowly ones shall forever be grateful." Zule''s mouth twitched. "Fuck you! Do you want me to take the Spirit Stones back?" Krune and Iem were not inside the sphere of Purple Lightning and Black Flames. That being said, Dudo and Mala could still see them. "What are they kneeling for?" "Shush! Just pretend you didn''t see anything." In the end, Krune laughed out loud and continued to talk with his Divine Sense. "Hahaha! That''s the Zule I know. You have been acting like some old sage ever since you recovered your memories. However, this Zule is a lot better." Iem agreed. "Indeed. That serious Zule was giving me goosebumps." Zule was taken aback for a second. Indeed, these two guys'' actions had made him forget about all the shit happening around for a moment. He couldn''t help but feel a little moved. "Ahem... alright, let''s stop it here. Is there anything else you would like to ask? If not, then it is time for me to say goodbye." Luvile immediately interjected. "You still haven''t told us where we can find the other two keys. Also, you need to explain to us how to use them." Zule nodded. "The remaining hidden keys are the God Realm and Mortal Realm ones. The first one is in a Universe called Lokrathos in the Mortal Realm. It''s inside a hidden Dimensional Realm near the supermassive black hole at the center of that universe. However, the power of a Divinity Realm is far from enough to open it. You will need at least the power of a Mortal Rejection Realm if you want to break into it." Krune nodded. "As long as I reach the Peak of the Divinity Realm, I should be able to bring out a power similar to a Mortal Rejection Realm wisp." Krune didn''t say how since there were a few things that Zule, Iem, and Harold didn''t know. For example, he had never talked to them about the real Myriad Energies Technique. One should remember that Krune''s Meridians had evolved into Godly Ones. With that kind of advantage and Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning, Krune would be able to do that. Zule knew that Krune wouldn''t say something like this if he wasn''t confident. "Very well." Right after, he used his Divine Sense to send the exact location of that Dimensional Realm to Krune and the others. Seeing that, Harold then commented. "Luvile. Since you are going back with the wisp back to the Mortal Realm, I''ll leave the collection of that Key up to you." Luvile and Harold might not like each other very much. However, their desire to exit the Four Realms was the same. "Alright." Krune then asked something else. "Should I be careful with anything about that Dimensional Realm?" Zule pondered a bit before shaking his head. "There shouldn''t be anything other than the anti-detection measures I left behind. However, that Dimensional Realm is still close to the supermassive black hole, so you better be careful." Krune nodded and went into the next part. "What about the second remaining key?" Zule then sent the location straight away. "As Luvile and Harold know, the God Realm is different from the other Realms. It is not filled with several universes. Instead, it has the format of a dome. Of course, this dome is ridiculously massive. At the very top of the dome is where you can find the exit. As for the last Key, it is hidden near the final door." Krune and the others looked into the information of that Divine Sense message and immediately understood everything. "Quite smart. Without you saying, no one would think about looking for the Key in that place." Zule smiled after hearing that. "Right? Anyway, there is an invisible protective barrier in that place as well. However... I can''t remember how to open that place. This is one of the gaps in my memory thanks to the Soul Fragments that have already perished. You will need to rely on yourselves to open that." Krune and the others nodded. In any case, that was something for them to care about far in the future. Still, Zule noticed that Krune seemed to be thinking about something. "Do you want to ask me something?" Krune nodded. "Why didn''t you tell the old gods about the keys? I mean, you knew Luvile and Harold''s parents, right? You also had a lot more subordinates during that time. How come they didn''t try to escape?" Luvile and Harold''s attention were immediately piqued. Indeed, why would he only say it now? Chapter 700: Final Gift Zule didn''t even think before answering. "That''s because I didn''t want to let anyone leave. This is something from before my soul broke into thousands of fragments. I wanted to one day go out and investigate what happened. However, if cultivators and demon beasts started to appear outside, my plans could be jeopardized. That being said, I''ve never told anyone about the keys." "Of course, don''t forget that my Soul Fragment was absorbed by the Space Heavenly Fragment. Although I''m indeed Kun-Peng, I''m not exactly the same one anymore. That''s why I don''t intend to keep anyone inside. In fact, you guys going out might instead be a good thing." Iem then asked something else. "In that case, wouldn''t it be better if you told the living gods of the God Realm where the keys are instead of telling us? We are just too weak compared to them. Even if we don''t die, it will take us who knows how many years before we reach the level of a god." Krune, Luvile, and Harold agreed with Iem''s sentiments. This didn''t seem like the best course of action. However, Zule''s small projection simply shrugged his shoulders. "I don''t even know them, so why should I give them help? I''m doing it for you because of everything you did for me. If not for your help, I would have been completely absorbed by the other ''Zule.'' Krune, Iem, Harold, Luvile, it was thanks to your powers that I''m the winner standing here today. I couldn''t care less about the other gods." Krune and the others were taken aback by those words. Still, that reason was more than good enough for them. Zule continued to talk. "Anyway, I have already given you enough resources. Make sure to pass the rewards for Franlia and her Sky Shifting Sect, okay? I could have given you two more stuff, but that would just be more detrimental for your cultivation path than beneficial." "That being said, I have nothing else to do here anymore, so I''ll be leaving." Krune immediately stopped him. "Wait! About the help you were going to give me to go back to the Mortal Realm? You didn''t forget that, right?" Zule shook his head. "Of course not. Give me some time." Zule''s projection then took one last peek at the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher, where the Space Heavenly Fragment resided and sighed. "I have a lot to thank for because of this little guy." Suddenly, the Space Heavenly Fragment began to shine with Silver Light inside Krune''s Divine Soul. Right after, the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher exited Krune''s Divine Soul and teleported somewhere empty inside Krune''s Foundation. *Crack~~... Shatter!* Krune watched as the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher burst apart into thousands of small pieces, revealing the Space Heavenly Fragment inside. "Ah! You destroyed it!" Zule laughed. "Hahaha! Don''t worry. Do you really think I still need it to open a passage to the Mortal Realms for you? I was the one who built the Space Laws that reign over the Four Realms. Don''t worry, I have a way to send you down without having to pay any price. Also, it is 100% success guaranteed." Iem immediately asked. "Then, can you send me up to the God Realm?" Harold was the one to answer that. "It doesn''t matter. You should not go up now. There is no problem in avoiding the Tribulation of the Mortal Realm, but you shouldn''t do the same with the Godly Path one. The Tribulations of Godly Energy can temper one''s body and soul. But if you go up, you won''t receive any tribulation before you surpass the Nascent God Realm. Stay here and take your time to train and cultivate." Iem sighed but nodded his head in the end. Zule smiled and agreed with Harold. After that, he used his power to collect all of the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher''s pieces before reforming the small pyramid. Still, Krune could tell that it had lost most of its powers now that the Space Heavenly Fragment was gone. Following it, Zule created some kind of Seal and put it inside the pyramid exactly where his Space Heavenly Fragment was before. As soon as he did that, the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher began to absorb Godly Energy on its own. "I rebuilt the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher for a single-time use. It will accumulate the Godly Energy necessary until it is ready. Once that happens, you can use your Divine Sense to bring it out and activate. The Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher will then use all of its power to open a passage directly to the Dalin Universe''s Wisp Main World." Krune was ecstatic to hear that. "So I don''t need to go after your... ops, that''s incorrect. I don''t need to go into the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher''s creator''s space to get the material to fix it anymore, right?" Zule nodded. "However, it will take around five years for the Seal to absorb enough energy. Well, that''s still a lot faster than what you were planning before." "Can''t I simply use Godly Stones to accelerate the process?" Zule shook his head. "No, the problem is not the energy accumulated, but the fusion with both Realms'' Spatial Laws. Accumulating Godly Energy is just a secondary problem." Zule continued. "You''re probably thinking, why can''t I just open a passage with my power straight away? That''s because I will need to awaken my body to do so. However, as I mentioned before, I can''t stay here anymore when that happens. If I waste time to open a passage for you, chances are that the Realms will collapse. Anyway, it''s just five years. Use this time to wrap everything up in this place and cultivate." Krune didn''t mind as he controlled his Foundation Space to teleport the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher right inside the planet where his soul stayed. That''s the place where he sent most of the absorbed Godly Energy anyway, so it was better for it to stay there. "Although you don''t need to go into the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher''s Creator''s space anymore, you should still pay a visit to it in the future. There should be quite a few good things there. Of course, be careful since the place is full of protection formations and other defensive measures." Zule then sent Krune a Divine Sense message with the exact location of that Dimensional Realm. "Okay. I''ll pass by once I ascend to the Godly Path Realm once more." Iem laughed after hearing that. "Don''t forget to tell me when you arrive. We can go there together." Krune smiled and nodded. After that, Zule used his control over the Spatial Power to conceal the four of them without Dudo and Mala noticing. Right after, he teleported them outside of the room so that they would have some space. Krune and Iem noticed what he had done, though. "Don''t worry. Dudo and Mala are just outside at the entrance. However, they don''t know it and still think they are here with us. Once we are done here, you can simply gather with them and leave this place." After saying that, Zule''s Space Heavenly Fragment teleported once more. This time, it appeared outside Krune''s body and stayed at the very center of the space. Soon after, Krune and Iem felt the Spatial Laws converging into it. "Time to say goodbye to this Space Heavenly Fragment." As soon as Zule said that, his soul began to separate from the Space Heavenly Fragment. It was the Heavenly Fragment who absorbed Zule''s Soul Fragment in the past. However, the Zule who absorbed all the other Soul Fragments was not the same anymore. The Space Heavenly Fragment simply couldn''t compare to Zule''s own Spatial Law comprehension. Naturally, it couldn''t hold Zule''s Soul even if it wanted. It was possible to see that the Space Heavenly Fragment was struggling. Unfortunately for the fragment, Zule gathered a little bit of his body''s power and forced his way out. Once that happened, the silver light on the Heavenly Fragment disappeared as if nothing had happened. Zule''s soul floated in mid-air for a moment until finally, he began to fuse himself with his body once more. The brown walls on the sides began to create ramifications that grew in the direction of Zule''s Soul. Silver Blood also began to fill the entire area. "Alright, I''ll teleport you two to where Dudo and Mala are waiting. As you can see, this place inside my head was created because of an injury, so I''m healing it right now. Soon, it will completely disappear as I fuse my soul back with my body. However, I have one last gift for you, Krune." The Space Heavenly Fragment, which had lost its color, then landed on Krune''s hand. "This Heavenly Fragment is ownerless, just like the ones Iem gave you. You were lacking a Space Heavenly Fragment for your Heavenly Core, right? I don''t need it anymore, so you can have it." Krune wasn''t surprised to receive that. The moment he saw Zule''s Soul separating from the Space Heavenly Fragment, he instantly knew that Zule was going to give it to him. "Thank you. I''ll make sure to make good use of it." With that, Krune now had the Elemental, Yin, Yang, Time, Space, Life, and Blackhole Fragments. He only needed the Destiny and Death Heavenly Fragments to complete all nine. "Alright, out you go." Iem and Krune were then teleported outside of the space, where they gathered with Dudo and Mala. "Seniors, we finished everything. We can leave now." Dudo and Mala nodded and didn''t ask anything. "Is that so? Then, let''s go out." Chapter 701: Leaving Back to the present time, everyone looked astonished at the giant Kun-Peng awakening while trying to escape. However, the enormous body of Kun-Peng suddenly began to shrink at high speeds. At the same time, the effects caused by its body in the Dimensional Realm were also reduced. In just a few seconds, the giant Kun-Peng disappeared, in its place, a naked man''s body. Considering Zule''s real cultivation, changing back into his human form wasn''t really that hard to do. Zule looked in the distance and noticed the various groups. Then, with a wave of his hand, the Spatial Laws around them froze, locking every single member in place. Even the God Core Realm cultivators and demon beasts were utterly helpless under it. He then examined the groups and found what he was looking for. The Seal that the other ''Zule'' gave to Binmia left her spatial ring on its own, heading right back to Zule. It then entered his body, completely disappearing. Binmia was frightened by that. After all, she thought that the Zule in front of her was the same one who had escaped before. Of course, this Zule absorbed the previous ''Zule,'' so he had all of his memories about his time with Binmia. He then pondered for a split of a second if he should do something to Binmia but eventually decided to not do anything. Once that was done, Zule looked at the four Celestial Organization Leaders and their four subordinates. Immediately, they felt a chill on their back, afraid of what Zule might try to do with them. After all, they left his Foundation Space without permission. Zule didn''t know the effect that those four coming out could have, so he immediately took them back. Spatial Laws converged around the four Celestial Organization Leaders and their subordinates. Soon after, they were once more teleported back into Zule''s foundation. The four leaders looked around with their Divine Senses and were taken aback. "We''re back?" "Wait! Where are the Formations'' Cores?!" It was then that they noticed that the cores were nowhere to be found. That was to be expected, though. Those Cores were made with a part of Zule''s, or Kun-Peng''s Silver Core. Naturally, Zule fused them back to his Core. Nevertheless, Jamot and the others didn''t see what was really happening inside the Planet''s Core. There, the power of a Soul ignited like a phoenix rebirthing through flames! That one wasn''t Zule''s Soul. Every cultivator or demon beast in the Divine Soul Realm or above had a Divine Soul. For those at the God Realm, they would evolve it into Godly Divine Souls. However, the one inside Zule''s Planet Core was definitely much more powerful than any of those. Even Luvile''s Godly Divine Soul at its peak would be akin to a flickering firefly in front of it. The moment that Soul awakened, the chaotic Foundation Space outside the Planet immediately stabilized. The same Foundation Space that was very close to collapsing completely. Only the size of a Solar System remained after so many years. However, together with the new Soul, the Foundation Space began to expand at a frightening speed! With that Soul now alive, Zule was able to start recovering his Foundation Space. But that wasn''t everything that happened. Suddenly, everyone inside Zule''s Foundation Space heard his voice. "There is no need for the Celestial Protection Formation anymore. I''ll be taking it away." As soon as he said that, the Celestial Protection Formation that protected the Planet for countless years shattered! Obviously, the entire population of the Planet was frightened by that. However, the chaotic space that the formation protected against didn''t exist anymore, so nothing happened. Well, there was something that happened. *Shuwa!* Immediately, the Godly Energy present in outer space descended on the entire Planet. Until now, the Celestial Organizations had been controlling the amount of Godly Energy present in the Planet with the Celestial Protection Formation. Thanks to that, no one outside the Celestial Organization could go over the 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm. However, it seemed like that won''t be the case anymore. Right after that, Zule''s voice resounded once more. "With that, everyone will have a chance to cultivate correctly. I better not see the Celestial Organizations trying to block everyone''s Godly Energy anymore." And with that said, Zule''s voice disappeared. No one knew what would happen there from now on. Back in the outside world, things were not so calm. Suddenly, cracks spanning several hundred kilometers began to appear in space-time. Those were not Spatial Tears but something much worse. Even Gods like Luvile or Harold felt a chill in their souls when they saw that. Zule couldn''t help but sigh when he saw that. He then looked at Krune''s group and sent them a Divine Sense message. ''The Four Realms can''t hold the power of my existence for much longer... it''s time to leave.'' Krune and Iem nodded slightly. They knew that this would be the outcome, after all. ''May we meet once again outside the Four Realms.'' Zule smiled and waved his hand once more. In front of him, another Spatial Gate seemed to have the same power as the Spatial Cracks around it appeared. Zule didn''t mind and immediately entered it. The Spatial Gate then closed on his back, making him disappear from everyone''s sight. As soon as Zule left, the space-time cracks began to heal themselves, disappearing in just a few minutes. Franlia, Binamia, Aragan, and everyone else felt their frozen bodies being freed after that. "This... the demon beast... left?" "The Celestial Organization Leaders also disappeared." "What should we do? Should we try to look for it?" "Look for it? Are you crazy? If that guy wanted it, he could have crushed us all with a single finger!" Suddenly, the Dimensional Realm around them began to destabilize. "Not good. That demon beast''s body was the thing that held the Dimensional Realm. Now that it''s gone, the Dimensional Realm is beginning to collapse. Let''s go!" Without wasting any time, the God Core Realm cultivators and demon beasts used their Godly Energy and grabbed everyone. After that, they sped up to head to the exit that was still open. Soon, they all appeared outside of the Dimensional Realm. "Let''s get out of here. The Dimensional Realm will affect this entire area after it goes down." Several Spatial Gates then opened, which everyone used to leave that region. A few minutes after, a Spatial Storm hit the place where the Dimensional Realm was located, turning the place into a deadly zone. It would take several years before the region would turn back to normal. Back in the Sky Shifting Sect, several Spatial Gates appeared, which everyone used to go back. Krune and Iem, obviously, were there as well. However, Franlia and Tosely did not appear. That''s because they agreed with Binmia and Aragan to meet in another place to discuss what happened. Somewhere in a place close to each of the three sects'' borders, six Spatial Gates suddenly appeared. From inside, Franlia, Tosely, Aragan came out with the other elders. Soon after, Aragan and Franlia looked at Binmia. Aragan was the first one to talk. "Binmia, what was that thing that the Demon Beast got from you? Was it you who helped it awaken?" Franlia, of course, knew that it had something to do with Krune and Iem. However, she was more than happy to play along with Aragan''s mistake. "Now that I think about it, you were the last one to appear at the Silver Core sighting. Also, that kid that was with you disappeared as well. What is the meaning of this?" Binmia had a dark expression on her face. Obviously, she didn''t want to remember how ''Zule'' betrayed her. Well, Zule was basically being held as a hostage, so he couldn''t be considered an ally to start with. "That''s something my disciples brought back from the first expedition into the Demon Beast''s body. However, it has nothing to do with the Demon Beast''s awakening. Besides, who can guarantee that it wasn''t one of you two? Franlia, those two kids with the Purple Lightning and Black Flames were not present in the Silver Core sighting either, right? Where did they go? How come they''re already waiting outside when we left the Demon Beast''s Body?" Franlia snorted in response. "Hmph! Everyone here had sent their own exploration groups around to check other places in the Demon Beast''s corpse. Obviously, I had the two of them do the same thing. Only when we began to go back did we finally reunite with them, no? The only one here that seemed to have something to do with that Demon Beast was you and that thing it took from you." Aragan already lost his patience. "Enough! This is not going anywhere. The fact is that the Demon Beast left and took those elders with it. I want to know what we will do from now on." Suddenly, Franlia, Aragan, and Binmia received a message on their communicators. "What?! The Sealed Spaces around the Top-Quality Godly Energy Veins collapsed as well?" Those were the spaces that all three sects were exploring to acquire Godly Energy Stones. However, other than the Godly Vein, the other thing that kept them whole was Kun-Peng''s body presence. Now that Zule left, it obviously couldn''t stay intact anymore. "There are no Top Quality Godly Stones anymore. Also, our alliance was due to the Demon Beast''s corpse''s existence. Now that it disappeared, we have no reason to keep this farce either." Binmia agreed with Aragan. Because of the Seal that Zule got from her, she felt like she was the most suspicious between the three of them. She wanted to put an end to this as soon as possible. "We should be grateful that we at least got those Spatial Rings with some of the Celestial Organizations'' resources." Franlia also wanted to leave straight away. After all, she had to ask Krune and Iem about what happened back there. Of course, she knew that there was another problem. "Before that, we need to decide what to do if someone asks. After all, the Spatial Storm in the place where the Demon Beast''s Dimensional Realm existed will attract a lot of attention. We most likely will receive a few visits from the other powers of our and other planets. Maybe even the Nascent God from Jersave Planet in our Solar System might send someone to see what is happening. In my opinion, we shouldn''t disband this alliance yet. Instead, we should stay close to each other for the next few years, just in case." Binmia and Aragan narrowed their eyes. They knew that Franlia was talking the truth. No, what she said would most likely happen. "Very well. The Godly Veins'' Sealed Spaces were destroyed. Still, the Godly Veins themselves are intact and ready for use. Since there are twelve of them, each of us will get the four closest to their sects. What do you think?" Everyone nodded and decided to follow this plan. After that, they discussed a few more issues and left. As soon as Franlia came back to the Sect, she immediately contacted Krune and Iem. However, there wasn''t a need for that. Krune and Iem were already waiting for her at Tulike''s house. Chapter 702: Resources Obviously, Rag was there as well. When Franlia arrived, he and Krune were once again talking about food while cooking. As for Iem, he was in another room talking with Tulike about other topics. Later, Rag served the food as Franlia took the chance to finally ask about what happened back there. "Everyone was frightened when they saw that Demon Beast moving or changing into human form, let alone when it acted against those four Celestial Organization members. However, it was not the case for the two of you. It was as if you already expected that." "Also, Dudo and Mala told me what you did with those Silver Flames. You absorbed all of them one after another, right? It definitely has something to do with the Demon Beast''s awakening." Iem and Krune nodded. "Yes. Those Silver Flames were, in fact, Soul Fragments of the Demon Beast. What we did was help one of those Soul Fragments fuse back together with all of them. Only then did that Soul have enough power to awaken again." There was not much of a point trying to hide it since anyone in Franlia''s position wouldn''t believe it. "Don''t worry, I won''t do anything to you since I don''t know where that demon beast went. It definitely has the power to destroy this entire planet if it wished to, let alone a small sect like mine. The last thing I need is to become enemies with it." That''s why Krune and Iem were not afraid of admitting anything. No one other than them knew that Zule left the Four Realms. Anyone who knew as much of the situation as Franlia would never try to attack them. Franlia then continued. "Still, couldn''t you wait for some time before doing that? In just a few days, we would start the trading with the Foundation Space cultivators and demon beasts. Now, that demon beast took the leaders of the Celestial Organizations back and left. Also, all the Sealed Spaces around the Top-Quality Godly Energy Veins collapsed. I can''t help but feel like it was a waste." Krune smiled and then took a Spatial Ring out, which he gave to Franlia right after. "That Demon Beast''s name was Zule. Just like you, we wouldn''t want to be on his bad side. That being said, he asked us to give Sect Master Franlia this Spatial Ring as thanks for the blind help you gave him so far." Franlia was taken aback as she looked at that Spatial Ring. She and Rag then looked at each other before looking at the contents inside the Spatial Ring. The moment their Divine Senses checked, their hearts almost stopped! There were so many rare resources, if not extinct ones, inside that Franlia and Rag didn''t even know where to start. Rag began to sweat profusely. "This... what can we do with all these resources?" Franlia was as shocked as Rag. "There is a lot of Elemental Essences, Extinct Herbs for pills, Cultivation Resources, and more! Not to mention the ones that I don''t know what they are used for. If used correctly, our sect won''t suffer from a shortage of resources for thousands of years! No, with all these things, we won''t take long for Nascent God Realm members to appear between us." Krune smiled when he heard that. He didn''t look into that Spatial Ring before but already knew that it would be a frightening fortune. "With this, I guess Sect Master Franlia will have no issues with the Demon Beast''s disappearance and the loss of the trades. I wonder if you would be able to get as much as you got now if those trades happened." Franlia shook her head. "I doubt so. So what if the demon beast left. As far as I''m concerned, it can be gone forever now. The only thing I feel bad about is that I had no chance to thank him for this." Iem then warned Franlia. "Sect Master, be careful while using these things. If others find about it, even Nascent God powers will disregard anything to get this Spatial Ring." Franlia and Rag immediately calmed down after hearing Iem''s words. "Don''t worry. I know how I''m going to use this from now on. I''ll select a few trusted members and raise them with these resources in secret. The same would go for me, Rag, and Tosely. We will try to break through to the Nascent God Realm before showing ourselves again. Once that happens, few will think about trying something funny." Franlia then took out a spare Spatial Ring and threw a bunch of those resources inside. Not long after, she passed them to Rag. "The first one to do that has to be my husband. No one knows about his existence outside of the sect. Let alone that he is also at the Late Stage of the God Core Realm." Rag took the Spatial Ring and nodded. The two of them were married to each other. There was no need to be polite around each other in their eyes. "Above everything else, we first need at least one Nascent God Realm cultivator or demon beast as soon as possible. Only then will I feel at ease to start using the rest." Rag then smiled at Krune and Iem before saying. "I need to go into seclusion. We won''t see each other again anytime soon, so let me thank you for this. I hope your own objectives can be fulfilled as long as it doesn''t put our sect at risk. I''m sure that Franlia will try to give you two as much support as possible." Rag then took a book from his spatial ring. It was quite weird in this age of technology where one could keep everything inside their communicators. He then passed the book on to Krune. "These are most of my recipes that I created so far as a Spiritual Chef. If it is you, I know you will make good use of them." Krune couldn''t help but feel a little moved. For him, this book was even more important than all of the Top-Quality Godly Stones he got from Zule for his cultivation. Soon after, Krune also took out a book of his own. Just like Rag, he also liked to keep his recipes in a book instead of his communicator. "Since that''s the case, I also want Senior Rag to accept mine. The dishes there are up to the Divinity Stars'' level Spiritual Food only. It can''t compare to your recipe book at all. Still, I put my heart into their creation, and I''m sure they will be of some help to you in the future." Rag laughed as he sent the recipe book into his spatial ring. "Very well. With that, I''ll take my leave." Franlia, Tulike, and Iem couldn''t really understand these Spiritual Chefs, so they didn''t say anything after seeing that. In the next second, Rag already teleported away to the place where he would go into seclusion. With that over, Franlia looked at Krune and Iem. "I won''t be going into seclusion anytime soon. At least not until the waters calm down after what happened in outer space. If you need anything, just send me a message on my communicator. I''ll definitely not forget this favor." "By the way, what do you two plan to do from now on?" Iem shrugged his shoulders. "What else? I''m going to keep practicing my alchemy and formation skills as I cultivate. I want to ascend to the God Realm one day, after all. Still, I will stay with your Sky Shifting Sect for the moment since I doubt I will get more benefits anywhere else." Iem was right. Franlia''s sect wasn''t at the same level as the Nascent God ones. However, that would definitely change in the future now that she obtained Zule''s gift. As part of the reason for that to have happened, he knew that this was the best place for him to stay in the near future. As for Krune, he pondered a bit before responding. "I''ll be leaving the sect five years from now." Franlia didn''t mind. Krune had told her that he might leave the sect at some point. "I see. Well, five years for us cultivators pass in the blink of an eye. By the way, where are you pretending to go?" Krune smiled and simply said. "Back to my family." Franlia was surprised to hear that. She didn''t know that Krune had a family. Tulike, on the other hand, already heard about it when he visited Krune''s restaurant a few times in the past. "Is it about that Feifei that you frequently talk about?" Krune nodded. "I''ve been out for way too long already. I''ll spend my next five years cultivating and only go out for a few missions to test my abilities. During this time, I''ll prepare everything in my restaurant and other things so that no problem remains." Franlia shook her head in response, saying. "Even if some problem appears, you can leave it to me to deal with. Anyway, I have a lot of things to do now that I got these resources. I''ll leave you with Tulike for now." With that, Franlia also disappeared from the room in a flash. Tulike then shrugged his shoulders as he sighed. "I say... I never expected that some friends I made during the sect entrance exam would make so many crazy things happen. I feel like I''ve been nothing more than an extra until now." Iem and Krune laughed as they heard those words. "Well, there is the fact that you rarely leave the sect to experience the outside world. You should think more about it in the future." Tulike nodded. In fact, he had been thinking about it recently. "I know. I guess it''s time for me to do exactly that." The three friends then talked for a long time before they finally parted ways. Chapter 703: Back to the Restaurant Krune returned to his restaurant, which so happened to be open. As he passed by the customers, he was complimented by the regulars here and there. Obviously, seeing that the real spiritual chef was back, they immediately asked for his dishes. Krune was happy to hear that and decided to head directly to the kitchen. Nina and Jilin were preparing the dishes when they saw Krune appearing. Nina, of course, was delighted to see him. "Master!" Krune laughed as he patted her head. "I''m back. It seems like you already have gotten used to being a Spiritual Chef again, uh? This Spiritual Calon smells great. I can see that you harmonized the energy inside very well." Nina blushed as she nodded. "It''s because Master taught me well." Krune then turned around and checked Jilin''s work. "This seems great too. Nice work with the finalization!" Jilin also accepted Krune''s compliment. "Thanks, Master. Are you going to cook now?" Krune nodded. "But of course. A lot of the regulars outside saw me and already made some requests. Today is going to be busy, so let''s do our best. Oh! Tonight, don''t go home straight away. I have a few things to talk about with you two and the others. I already told Bai outside about it." Bai could be said to be the second-in-command already. When Krune was not around, he was basically the one who took care of everything. He had joined Krune''s restaurant with Nina back in Immai City. Nina and Jilin noticed that it seemed to be something important. Still, since he asked to wait for the restaurant to close, they would need to wait for work to be over. The day passed in a flash as the dishes kept coming and going. Eventually, it was time to shut the doors. Krune didn''t even do that anymore. Bai always took care of it. It''s just that today, the waiters and the two chef apprentices didn''t go home. Lino had been working as a waiter as well, so he was obviously there too. Everyone gathered in the Hall as Krune stayed in the kitchen to cook. As always, he liked to make his own High-Level dishes for the others to eat as well. Not to mention that they were beneficial for his own cultivation. Krune then served everyone the dishes, and they began to eat. While at eat, he started to talk. "It''s still too early, but I want you all to know that I''ll be leaving the City in more or less five years from now. I''ve been away from home for way too long, so I feel like it''s a good time to go back." Everyone was taken aback by that. "Did something happen?" Krune nodded. "The only reason I''ve been staying for so long was that I couldn''t go back. For a particular reason, the passage to send me back was blocked. However, I finally found a way to open it again, so I can finally get back. Still, it is like I said. It won''t happen before five years are gone, so there is no need to worry too much about it before that." Nina suddenly stood up from her seat and said. "If Chef Krune is going, I''m going too!" Krune was happy to hear that. Well... he thought that she said that because she wanted to learn more about cooking with him, though. But just as he was going to talk, Lino looked at Krune and asked. "You are going back to your wife, right?" Although he asked that to Krune, his real intention was for Nina to hear it. He really felt helpless about the situation. Not only once, but his sister fell in love with the same guy twice! As always, the only one who didn''t notice anything was Krune himself. By now, everyone already understood just how dense he could be. Lino hoped that Nina would wake up after hearing Krune''s answer. Krune, of course, nodded straight away. "Isn''t that obvious? I haven''t seen my wife and daughter for almost nine years already. Although I can still talk to them through the communicator, it is not the same as touching them. I know I''m not that good with feelings, but I also miss them, you know?" The light on Nina''s eyes dimmed as she heard how Krune talked about that girl she had never seen before. Krune then looked at Nina and tried to change her mind. "I know you want to learn more about cooking from me. Jilin is the same as you too. However, there is no need to worry. I''ll do my best to teach you two all I know during these next five years. By the time I need to leave, you two will definitely be full-fledged Spiritual Chefs who can assume the restaurant''s command." Nina almost screamed in her mind. ''No, that''s not why I want to go with you!'' Unfortunately, the shadow of the woman she had never seen before made the words she wanted to vocalize become stuck in her throat. Krune then continued. "Oh, that''s right. This restaurant itself isn''t worth much. What makes it valuable are the dishes we prepare here. That being said, I see no problem in leaving this building to you guys. Bai will be in command as always. After all, it''s all thanks to him that the restaurant has been working smoothly. He is the best when it comes to its management." "As for how you guys want to share the income, I''ll leave that up to you. Of course, since Jilin and Nina will be the Spiritual Chefs, they will get the biggest cut, just like I do. After all, a Spiritual Dishes restaurant can not exist without Spiritual Chefs." Bai looked at Nina''s gloomy face and sighed. Still, he thought that it was for the best too. It was evident for him and everyone else how much Krune loved this wife that no one saw before. "Don''t worry, Chef Krune. I''ll do my best to keep the restaurant running until you come back." Krune narrowed his eyes after hearing that. "To be honest, I don''t know if I will ever come back. The place I''m going is just too far away. It''s not like you can take a few long-distance teleportation formations and arrive. No teleportation formation can send you there. Obviously, no teleportation formation can bring me back here either." Nina''s expression became even worse after hearing that. Jilin then put a hand on her shoulder and smiled. "Don''t worry, Chef Krune. With Nina and me here, your restaurant will always be open. Right, Nina? As for you, Nina, there is no need to show such a sad expression. Don''t forget, this is something that will only happen in five years. You still have a lot of time to ''wrap things up'' with Chef Krune." He was trying to help her. Sure enough, Nina understood the meaning behind his words, and so did everyone else. Well, everyone else except for a certain wisp. Poor Nina couldn''t help but get red once more. Still, she agreed in her heart that Jilin was right. "Alright! I will do my best." Krune, as clueless as ever, nodded his head in satisfaction. "I''m glad to hear that. You two better be prepared. For the next five years, I will help you as much as I can with your cultivation and Spiritual Chef Skills. Of course, there will be a few times where I need to go out to hone my skills. After all, I''m also a cultivator." "Anyway, our dishes'' Spiritual Energy is escaping. Let''s finish our dinner first, shall we?" Everyone nodded, and they began to eat once more. Later that night, Krune returned to his room. As always, Luvile used his Tribulation Lightning and sealed it so that no Divine Sense could see what they were doing. "Luvile, what do you think?" Luvile knew what Krune was talking about. "Sigh... It''s like I said, there was no point in telling you about what happened in the past. So yes, the gods from that time tried to force their way out through the exit, including me. This is a piece of information that would only make any sense after you reached the level of a god yourself." "However, I don''t think that calling ourselves gods is the correct term anymore. After feeling Zule''s power, even if just for a few moments, I noticed just how much of an ant I am." "Still. I''ve never thought that the situation was that complicated. A Primordial Kun-Peng was ambushed with his family and was used as a sacrifice? He was part of the group who created our Four Realms? The Four Realms'' creation had a reason, and Zule almost got his Soul destroyed when he tried to remember what this reason was. We might be walking on tenterhooks at this very moment, and we don''t even know it. Also, the god up in the God Realm already found two of the keys to use in the exit. Even I think that this is too much information at once." Krune agreed with him. "That''s true. Anyway, I think our first move is to go get your body back as soon as possible. With my Godly Energy Meridians and actual cultivation, I probably can contend against Peak Divine Realm cultivators and demon beasts of the Mortal Realm. We should go to Luvile''s universe to check it out." Luvile shook his head in response. "Not yet. Leave my body there for the time being." Krune was taken aback. "Why is that?" "Simply put, my Soul hasn''t recovered enough to take control of it yet. I''m basically in the same situation as Zule when he was just a Soul Fragment. I don''t have enough power for it." Krune understood and reached a decision. "In that case, what do you need to increase your recovery speed? I''ll do my best to help." Chapter 704: Sworn Brother Luvile then explained. "Actually, it''s quite straightforward. I just need Purple Tribulation Lightning Essence. As I mentioned before, I''m using Spiritual Energy, or Godly Energy in the Godly Path Realm''s case, to recover it. However, a faster way to do it is to absorb Lightning Heavenly Tribulations. Before, we couldn''t use this method since it would attract too much attention. Someone appearing to steal people and beasts'' tribulations? That sounds ridiculous. Besides, only tribulations of the Divinity Realm breakthrough would make any difference. Obviously, you couldn''t resist such a thing." "However, you''re right. At your level at the moment, the Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts of the Mortal Realm aren''t that much of a threat. We can go back to the Luvile Universe and absorb all the tribulations we can find. Of course, it might be somewhat complicated to find them due to the scarceness of Divinity Realm Breakthroughs." Krune shook his head. "As you know, the Tribulation would continue to increase in power if we tried to intervene on someone''s behalf. Fortunately, the Luvile Universe''s Heavenly Tribulation always target us on its own. Otherwise, it would be seen as someone trying to protect the target of the Tribulation. That being said, we can simply spread some news." Luvile got puzzled. "News?" Krune then explained. "None of the Divinity Realm cultivators or demon beasts wish to take the Heavenly Tribulation if possible. After all, different from people and beasts at our level, it is a terrifying moment for them. We just need to say that we have a way to help them avoid their Heavenly Tribulation without the risk of increasing the Tribulation''s Power. I''m sure that we will not lack candidates." Luvile pondered a bit about that plan and had to admit that Krune was right. "That sounds like a good plan, indeed. Alright, let''s do as you say." Krune smiled and nodded. "Good! Now, time to absorb the Space Heavenly Fragment." Without wasting any time, Krune changed into his wisp form. He then took out the Space Heavenly Fragment left behind by Zule and immediately began the absorption process. As Zule mentioned before, it was an ownerless one. It tried to resist the others'' forced absorption, but without its own Universe existence, it didn''t have much power to do so. Finally, it lost the battle and transformed into some kind of silver liquid. Krune''s Heavenly Fragments that were already fused in the form of a cracked core also transformed into a liquid, but with several colors. The silver liquid then joined the others before they once again assumed the form of a cracked Heavenly Core. Of course, it was ''more complete'' this time. "Phew... everything went alright." However... *Brummmmmmm* "What?!" Immediately after the fusion was complete, a terrifying amount of Godly Energy began to come out of the Heavenly Fragment and fed Krune''s Divine Soul! "Ah! That''s right! Part of the previous owner''s cultivation will be added to my own. How could I forget about that?" Luvile also forgot about that detail. "That''s right! Also, don''t forget that Zule was the Kun-Peng''s Primordial Demon Beast''s Soul Fragment. He stayed in the Space Heavenly Fragment for 50 thousand years as well. Last but not least, he fused with Kun-Peng''s body at the very end. You better brace yourself. The amount of Godly Energy in this thing would definitely not be small." Krune nodded and concentrated on absorbing all of that energy. The good thing about it was that the Godly Energy was considered already his. His Divine Soul accepted all of it without having to care about any conversion or adaptation. Not to mention that the energy flow was ridiculously high! As for instabilities and things like that, none of it existed when receiving a Heavenly Fragment''s energy. Semi Divinity Realm 7th Stage Breakthrough... Semi Divinity Realm 8th Stage Breakthrough... Semi Divinity Realm 9th Stage Breakthrough... Finally, Krune''s cultivation stopped increasing after he reached the peak of the 9th Stage of the Divinity Realm. However, it was not because the Heavenly Fragment ran out of energy. No, not at all! This kind of thing happened once in the past when Krune absorbed his first Heavenly Fragment. It was just that Krune''s cultivation couldn''t progress from that point onwards. Once Krune finished his breakthrough into the Divinity Realm, his Space Heavenly Fragment would release the rest of the accumulated energy into his Divine Soul once more. "This... this is too much energy! Just how strong was the owner of this Heavenly Fragment before he died?!" Luvile immediately explained. "Did you forget? This is a Heavenly Fragment that you found in the Godly Path Realm! It means that its previous owner had to at least reach the Peak of the Divinity Realm before ascending from the Mortal Realm. Even if he died straight away after arriving at this place, he still had that level of cultivation." Krune agreed with Luvile. "Thanks to the fact that this is the energy of a Heavenly Fragment, it left no side effects whatsoever behind. I''ll go out to make my breakthrough again." Luvile immediately felt a chill in his soul once he heard that. "Ahem... let''s not rush things, right? You still need to open your restaurant tomorrow and tell the others you are going out." Krune immediately shook his head. "That can''t do. Look at my Heavenly Fragments. They are brimming with energy! I''m afraid that if I leave them like this, something bad might happen." Luvile wanted to cry. ''I''m afraid that something bad might happen if you breakthrough instead, idiot!'' Still, Luvile knew that he couldn''t prevent Krune from breaking through forever. Otherwise, he would never recover his soul either. Krune then remembered something and brought his communicator out before calling Iem. After selecting his contact ID, Iem appeared on the other side of the call. "What is it?" "It goes like this." Krune then explained the situation about the energy inside the heavenly Fragment. "What?! Fuck! Why am I not this lucky?! No, that''s not the worst part. You have surpassed my cultivation realm as well! Don''t get too complacent. I''ll definitely catch up to you again!" Krune sighed after hearing that. As always, Iem''s super competitive personality showed itself. "Alright, alright. The reason I''m calling you is not to report it. My Space Heavenly Fragment is still full of energy. Yet, my cultivation can''t improve anymore because I reached the peak of the Semi Divinity Realm. I''m going out to make a breakthrough into the Divinity Realm. Would you mind to come with me to loo-" Suddenly, a message appeared on the communicator. -Signal Lost- Krune''s mouth twitched after reading that. He then tried to call Iem back several times, but the call simply didn''t connect. Luvile, who was observing everything, immediately understood what was happening. "He''s trying to escape your calamity laws! Go, go, go! To the Formations Guild! We can''t let them disappear! Like hell would I take this calamity alone!" Krune felt like crying. Still, he really wanted to have Iem helping him during the breakthrough. After all, Harold was there in his foundation. "Can''t you guys be a little more mindful of my feelings?" "Feelings your head! No feelings can make up for this frightening perk you have. Stop wasting time, and let''s catch him." Krune returned to his human form and immediately dashed out of the restaurant. At his speed, it only took him a few minutes to arrive at the Formations Guild. However, the guys there said that Iem suddenly left in a hurry without telling anyone where he was going. "Oh, you think you can run away from me? Hmph! I still have Zule''s special mark that he used on you as well. Even if you go to the other side of the planet, I can still find you!" It''s not that Iem forgot. It''s just that now that Zule was gone, he thought that Krune wouldn''t be able to find him anymore through that. Turns out that Iem went back to Immai City, where he still had his previous residence. However, he had never told Krune about this one, so he felt that he would be fine there. There, Iem activated the protection formation of the house and sighed in relief. "Alright. I''ll look for Krune again in a year or two. By then, he would have finished his breakthrough and dealt with whatever happened during that time. Well, that''s considering he isn''t dead by that point." Suddenly, he heard a voice entering his mind. "Oh, don''t worry. If I die because of this, I''ll be sure to bring you with me as well." "Ah!" Iem immediately spread his Divine Sense and found the wisp right in front of his house with a dark expression. "You! You can use that mark, can''t you?!" Knowing that there was no point in hiding anymore, Iem turned off his house''s protection formation and came out. "Regardless, I''m not going! Who knows what could happen once you enter the Divinity Realm. I wouldn''t be surprised even if a primordial Demon Beast appeared to destroy the Four Realms. Your calamity magnetic field is too strong! Krune''s mouth twitched once more. "Fuck you! Who the hell has a calamity magnetic field? I was just going to ask for you to keep a lookout for any changes." Iem snorted in response. "The last time I did that, we ended up inside an underground world, found a Primordial Demon Beast''s Fragmented Soul, and summoned the great Kun-Peng. Do you still think I''m being paranoid?" Luvile and Harold couldn''t help but mentally nod. In the end, all the previous events were linked to Krune''s breakthrough. As far as they could see, Krune''s breakthrough''s calamities were increasing in power as time passed. Krune then remembered one thing and smiled. "Oh, so you don''t want to come, uh? That''s so bad~~... Just when I was thinking about giving you something as good as the Soul Cultivation Technique. Oh well... I guess that can''t be helped. Such a pity, such a pity..." Iem''s complexion immediately changed into a completely different one. Krune turned around and was just about to leave when suddenly, a hand appeared on his shoulder. "Come on, Krune. We are already as close as sworn brothers, aren''t we? It was all a joke, you see? How could the Great Iem leave my sworn brother to deal with something this dangerous alone? Don''t worry, your brother here will keep a lookout for you." Shameless! Can this guy be any more shameless than that? Krune finds it hard to believe. "Alright. HOWEVER! You will have to help me not only with this breakthrough but the future ones as well." Iem was taken aback. "This... but I might really die..." Krune narrowed his eyes before asking. "So it is okay if you leave your sworn brother to die alone?" Iem nodded without even thinking. "Yes!" Krune was really tearing up now. "Sworn brother, your ass!" Chapter 705: Do you really believe that? "Anyway, are you coming or not? If not, then forget it. I''ll go back to the sect and ask Tulike to do it for me." Iem pondered a bit and then asked. "Is that new technique really as good as you said?" Krune nodded. "How do you think I can cultivate at this speed without a full Heavenly Core like yours? Stop doubting me, and let''s go to the tribulation field again." Iem scratched the back of his head and gave up. "Fine. However, aren''t you going back to the Mortal Realm? How do you expect me to watch over for your next breakthroughs?" Krune shrugged his shoulders as he replied. "I don''t know. I know I will have to ascend once again. However, I have no idea where I will end up to. Chances are that I will land in a completely different Universe. After all, only the God Realm is not divided by several universes. Still, I will get a cultivation level big enough to travel between universes sooner or later. Once that time arrives, I''ll come to pay you a visit. Besides, I already got all of the Universal Maps available in the Sky Shifting Sect. I should be able to understand where I am with them." Iem''s eyes lit up in response. "Good! That means I won''t have to do it before you get strong enough to make this travel. I''ll be able to avoid a few of the calamity breakthroughs." "Can you stop saying calamity all the time? During my breakthrough into the Semi-Divinity Realm, nothing happened, right? The previous situations were just coincidences. It shouldn''t happen again." Iem didn''t believe it, though. "Then why are you bringing me with you? If nothing is going to happen, then there is no need for me to be close. Wait! That means that you yourself don''t believe that nothing will happen, right?!" Krune looked away after hearing that as he said. "Hey, look. It''s getting late. Let''s move before night comes." Iem felt like kicking Krune. It was still morning... The two of them quickly arrived at the tribulation field once again and paid for an empty space. As mentioned in the past, Franlia left a few God Foundation Experts looking over the two of them. Obviously, they also came to the tribulation field and watched them with their Divine Senses. ''Why did they come here? They are still far from the Mortal Rejection Realm.'' ''Who knows? Many cultivators and demon beasts like to use this place to test their new skills as well. It might be something related to it.'' ''Doesn''t matter. Our mission is to protect those two, so keep your eyes on them.'' Of course, Krune and Iem already knew about it. Still, Krune preferred to have Iem around since they were in the same boat. No one knew that they had Heavenly Fragments or Core. Krune then reverted back to his ''True Spirit'' form since it was a lot easier for him like that. Well, that was obviously just his Wisp Form in a different shape controlled by himself. Usually, Krune would take a lot of Godly Stones to go through the breakthrough. However, his Space Heavenly Fragments that was fused with the others still had a lot of energy remaining. There was no need to use any Godly Stones whatsoever. As mentioned in the past, to enter the Divinity Realm is to become Divine. However, Krune''s Ethereal Body and Foundation were already at the 1st Stage of the Transformation Realm. That means it was already transformed into a Godly Energy Compatible type, much better than the Divine Body of a Divinity Realm. That was also why it was a lot easier to enter the Divinity Realm in the Godly Path Realm than in the Mortal Realm. Of course, for someone like Krune, breaking through the Divinity Realm in the Mortal Realm wouldn''t be much of a problem anyway. Krune immediately started the breakthrough as his Divine Soul absorbed the Heavenly Fragment energy like a black hole. It then began to strengthen at a breakneck pace that would be hard to achieve with Godly Stones alone. That Heavenly Fragment was really a blessing for Krune''s cultivation. Finally, Krune''s Divine Soul reached the limit of energy as his foundation expanded once more. His Wisp Core also increased a little in size as it always did in every new Realm. He was still far from having a Wisp Core as big as Wally, but he was definitely on the right path. As soon as that happened, Krune''s cultivation began to increase at an alarming rate. More and more energy kept being absorbed by Krune''s Divine Soul until finally, he stepped into the Divinity Realm 1st Stage. Of course, things didn''t stop there. Now that Krune had space for improvement again, the remaining Spiritual Energy of the Space Heavenly Fragment immediately started to come out on its own. However, the Divinity Realm Stages need a lot more Godly Energy for each breakthrough than the Semi-Divinity Realm. Not to mention that Krune''s Universe Foundation was already a very consuming one due to its larger size than others of the same level. Divinity Realm 2nd Stage... Divinity Realm 3rd Stage... Finally, Krune''s Heavenly Fragment ran out of Godly Energy when he reached halfway through the 3rd Stage. Of course, having enough energy to jump six stages at once was already heaven-defying enough. Not to mention that the stages broken were Semi-Divinity and Divinity Realm Stages. Just how many would have such an opportunity like that? However, Iem couldn''t care less about any of that. Instead, Iem kept looking everywhere, waiting to see if nothing would happen for real. Still, everything was as quiet as when they arrived in this place. Krune then finished stabilizing his foundation under control and returned to his human form. He also looked around the same way as Iem did, looking for any changes. Still, even his Mental Energy Scan couldn''t see any difference. Obviously, he was as scared about his own breakthrough as Iem. "Hehe! Hahaha! See?! I told you it was fine. All those things that happened in the past were just unfortunate coincidences!" A vein popped on Iem''s head, though. "Fuck you! Who are you trying to deceive here? Do you think I can''t see how relieved you are? You were totally expecting a calamity to come! Am I wrong?" Krune smiled. "Ahem... of course... not. I''m just... errr... relieved that nothing happened because of the amount of energy the Heavenly Fragment had." "Liar!" Krune could only try to change the topic at this point. "Anyway, let''s go back. There is no point in staying in this place." However, just as Krune was about to use the teleportation formation, Iem put a hand on his shoulder. "Do you really want to try using a teleportation formation again?" Krune felt a chill on his back as he looked at the teleportation formation in front of him. It was supposed to just send them back to the building where they rented this Tribulation Field. However, this thing had sent them into an underground world hidden from Heaven''s Eyes in the past. "Cough, cough... What do you think about running a little? You see, it''s a good thing to do some exercises." Iem couldn''t agree more. "What a coincidence, I just had the same idea." However, just as they were about to leave, the light on Krune and Iem''s communicator began to shine. That was the sign that a call was incoming... right after Krune finished his breakthrough. "Ahem... I think our communicators broke because of the energy of my breakthrough." Iem nodded vigorously. "Yes, we are definitely not seeing any ''new call'' light coming from it at all. Definitely!" *Crack!* Suddenly, both Krune and Iem''s communicators fell on the ground in pieces. "Such a pity... they received a huge hit. It seems like we need to buy new ones later. Well, I guess it can''t be helped." It was Krune''s turn to nod his head with conviction. "It''s totally normal for communicators to break into several pieces after a breakthrough." "By the way, have you thought about going on a trip somewhere? We''ve been staying in the Sky Shifting Sect territory for so long, we need to stretch our wings a little." Iem nodded once again. "What a coincidence, I was thinking about the same thing." The two of them looked at each other from the corner of their eyes for a second. Suddenly, the Purple Tribulation Wing Shields and Black Flames Wings appeared on their backs. In the next second, the two of them sped into the distance, ignoring everything behind. Who cares about who called? It doesn''t matter. They didn''t want to know! Krune and Iem might be extremely fast for their cultivation, but their protectors were people and beasts at the God Foundation Realm. The difference in cultivation was simply too big! Suddenly, three figures appeared in front of Krune and Iem, stopping them in their tracks. Without another choice, Krune and Iem could only smile bitterly. One of the figures then stepped ahead and bowed to the two. "Sorry for interrupting you two. Sect Master Franlia asked to bring you two back to the sect as fast as possible. It seems like something important is happening, and she needs your presence there." Iem then glared a Krune before saying. "I hope this reward you will give me is really, reallyyyyyyyyy good!" Krune felt like crying. "Just because they came to take us, it doesn''t mean that it''s something bad, right?" Iem snorted in response. "Do you really believe that?" "..." "No..." Chapter 706: Kalame Sect Back in the Sky Shifting Sect, Franlia was already waiting for the two of them. Other than her, there was another man Iem and Krune had never seen before. The surprising part was that Franlia didn''t have her usual calm expression. Well, Krune and Iem''s faces weren''t that much better either. "Good, good. You came. This person beside me is Latam Zanca. He is from the Liva Planet, which is also part of our Solar System. He wanted to meet you two, so I had to call you over in a hurry." However, it was at this moment that Franlia noticed Krune''s Divinity Realm 3rd Stage cultivation. Obviously, she was shocked by that. One of the God Foundation Realm cultivators and demon beasts with Krune and Iem then sent Franlia a Divine Sense Message telling what had happened. Of course, they just said that Krune had made a breakthrough into the Divinity Realm, and then his cultivation began to grow right after, stopping at that point. Still, Franlia refrained from asking anything at the moment. There were bigger issues to deal with now. Krune and Iem didn''t know who the man was. But to make Franlia become like that, he definitely wasn''t anyone simple. The guy then looked directly at Krune and Iem before asking. "I''m a Sect Elder from the Kalame Sect. Our Sect Master found out about the collapse of that Dimensional Realm in outer space, so he sent me to investigate. According to what we found, it was thanks to your help that the Dimensional Realm was open in the first place, correct?" Krune and Iem looked at Franlia, who immediately shook her head and sent them a Divine Sense message. ''It wasn''t anyone from our Sky Shifting Sect. Still, it seems like he only knows that you helped open the Dimensional Realm. He has no idea about what was inside, so I haven''t said anything about the Demon Beast''s corpse. I simply told him what Binmia, Aragan, and I decided beforehand. That it was the remains of a ruin. As for who told them about the fact that you opened the Dimensional Realm, that I don''t know. Of course, if I were to guess, it would have been Binmia.'' Iem and Krune heard that and returned their attention to Latam. "We did help open it, indeed." Latam nodded and then continued. "We analyzed the spatial storm created by that realm''s collapse. In the end, we reached the conclusion that only the effort of several Nascent God Realm cultivators and demon beasts could possibly have a chance of forcing an aperture. Not only that, but they would need to use brute force too. However, with your Divinity and Semi-Dinivity Realm cultivations, the two of you were able to create a hole into it. How was that possible?" Krune shrugged his shoulder before saying. "That''s a secret. We have no reason to answer that." Iem, obviously, agreed with Krune. Who would go around telling others about their own secrets? Latam snorted in response. "You can tell me now, or I can bring you back and force the answer out of you." Krune and Iem narrowed their eyes. Even though this guy said those words, Franlia only showed a bitter smile. It was apparent that this Latam''s background was a lot scarier than they thought. Still, she tried to give them some help. "Ahem... Elder Latam, there is no need to be this angry with two juniors, alright? They are just doing what any other cultivator or demon beast would, protecting their own secrets. Elder Latam definitely has his own secrets that you don''t want others to know too." Latam narrowed his eyes and nodded in the end. "Very well. I don''t really care what method you used anyway. Our Sect Master noticed a gap in the laws of that collapsed Dimensional Realm. He believes that that specific place is where you opened a passage into the Dimensional Realm. From what he said, the laws around that point had been destroyed. All I need to know is if you really have the power to destroy laws." "Also, I heard before coming here that you two might have a much stronger background than the Sky Shifting Sect. Franlia was unwilling to tell which one, afraid that she would be implicated. To be honest, my Kalame Sect doesn''t give a damn either. All you need to know is that my Kalame Sect is also a Nascent God Realm power. We have no need to be afraid of others. Using your background to frighten me will be useless." Krune and Iem felt like laughing for a second. What background? They had nothing like that. Still, they were happy that Franlia still stood her ground and made it look like they really had a more powerful force behind. Considering that the opponent was a Nascent God Realm Power, she already did a lot by refusing to tell the truth about their lack of any stronger organization to protect them. Still, she can''t buy a fight with a Nascent God Realm at this point. She needed time for Rag to make his breakthrough first. Krune then looked at Iem and let him come up with what to say. Iem was a lot better than him at finding excuses. "Don''t worry, Elder Latam. We also have no intention of using our backgrounds to start a fight. First of all, our elders would probably not began a war just because of the two of us. It''s just that due to the restrictions in our bodies, we can''t say anything about them either. It''s part of our training. Anyway, both of us have indeed inherited skills capable of destroying laws. Why do you ask?" Latam nodded, a lot more satisfied with that answer. He also believed that Krune and Iem really had a Nascent God Realm power behind them. Let alone when they were True Spirit and Heavenly Race members. After all, this kind of talent shouldn''t appear in a place like this. It''s just that his Kalame Sect didn''t care. "Good! That''s more like it." "You don''t need to worry about us trying to steal your kills. I know very well that you definitely have restrictions put on those memories. Otherwise, your elders would be real idiots, especially when their disciples are a True Spirit and a Heavenly Race member." Krune and Iem weren''t surprised that Latam knew about their real races. After all, he already found out about the Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flames. "Anyway, the reason I need you two is the same as Franlia''s. My Sect Master has a use for those law destroying abilities of yours. As for whatever was located inside that Dimensional Realm, my Kalame Sect will not inquire." Iem pondered a bit and nodded. "What is it that you need us to do?" Latam shook his head. "It''s not something to be discussed here. Besides, it is too early anyway. I''ll come to fetch you two in two years. Be sure to be ready by them." After saying that, Latam got up and decided to leave. Krune couldn''t help but ask, though. "Aren''t you afraid that we will escape back to our home? Or perhaps, that we will call our elders over?" Latam laughed out loud. "Hahaha! You can try if you want. My Kalame Sect isn''t so useless that we would lose sight of two kids like you. Besides, I more than welcome your elders. They are bound to be a lot more proficient with your skills than yourselves. There is nothing that we can''t do to reach an agreement. Our Sect Master is very much willing to negotiate with them in exchange for their help." Krune sighed. "No wonder Senior Latam doesn''t seem that worried. You had no intention of creating enemies to start with." Latam nodded. "This issue is too important for our Sect. We will try to avoid any unnecessary conflict as much as possible. Anyway, just make sure you don''t try to leave the Solar System during the next two years. As for anything else, I don''t care." Right after, Latam disappeared from the room. Krune and Iem then looked at Franlia. "Well, things developed in a way that none of us predicted." Franlia sighed as she nodded her head. "We were ready to drag the issue of the Demon Beast Dimensional Realm as much as possible. I was expecting many questions about the Dimensional Realm, its contents, origins, what we got, etc. I even had an excuse to use to tell how we got inside. But it was out of my calculation that they would need your law destroying abilities instead. The Kalame Sect Master seems to have no interest whatsoever in the Dimensional Realm itself. That shows just how important your abilities are to him and his Sect." Krune and Iem nodded. In the end, they would need to wait to see what would happen in the future. Escaping was not an option since they didn''t really have a background that they could rely on. The Sky Shifting Sect was still far from it. "Leaving that aside, how the hell did you jump from the 6th Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm all the way to the 3rd Stage of the Divinity Realm?" Krune laughed in response but didn''t answer, which made Franlia feel quite helpless. "Well... I''m already kinda used to your oddness anyway. By the way, why didn''t you answer my call?" Krune and Iem looked away after hearing that question. "Ahem... we broke the communicators by mistake during my breakthrough into the Divinity Realm." Franlia found it hard to believe. Those were not pieces of equipment that would fall apart that easily. Still, she ignored that fact and sent them back. They could simply buy new ones, and that''s it. Chapter 707: Passing the Technique On their way back, Krune and Iem discussed what happened. "What do you think?" "Hum... It might be because they also want to open a hidden dimensional realm." "But they are a Nascent God Realm power, right? Also, how many Dimensional Realms exist where a Nascent God can''t force their way in? It''s not like there are Dimensional Realms made by Primordial Demon Beasts everywhere." Iem admitted that Krune was right. If it was really the case of opening a Dimensional Realm, this Kalame Sect could have forced their way in. "In that case, there is something that is being protected by laws that they need to get rid of." "Maybe it isn''t exactly laws, but a physical barrier. However, because we can eat or destroy laws, we can also open a hole in those things." Krune and Iem understood that speculating wouldn''t bring them anywhere. "Whatever. Let''s just wait and see what happens." Iem nodded and then changed the topic. "By the way, I want my payment! I more than deserve it because of your calamity laws." At this moment, Krune couldn''t even bring himself to complain about these ''calamity laws'' anymore. Perhaps he was really comprehending it without even knowing. "Fine, let''s go back to my restaurant." After that, Krune and Iem directly went there. When Krune arrived back in his restaurant, Bai was already opening the doors to start another day. "Oh! Chef Krune, welcome back." Krune smiled and headed inside while saying. "Tell Nina and Jilin that I''ll be off today. I just had a breakthrough and need to check a few things with Iem here." Bai was happy to hear that. "Congratulations. I''ll let Nina and Jilin know once they come back." Krune nodded and went straight to his room. There, Luvile and Harold used their own Tribulation Powers to seal the room and prevent any Divine Senses from entering. As one could imagine, what Krune wanted to pass to Iem was his Myriad Energies Technique. After going through so many things with him, Krune had to admit that he trusted the battle maniac. However, what really made him reach this decision was knowing that Harold was, in fact, Luvile''s brother. He always thought that Harold and Luvile''s relationship was kinda weird. It was evident that they didn''t like each other, but there was never any hatred. Only now that he found out the truth did he understand that their antics were really like the ones among brothers. "The technique I''m going to pass you is called the Myriad Energies Technique." Iem, of course, had heard about that name. "Are you kidding me? Why would I want such a common technique?" Krune smiled after hearing that. "Say that after you learn its contents." Krune then began to transmit everything about the real Myriad Energies Technique to Iem. As one could imagine, Iem became more and more shocked while hearing it. Krune didn''t send everything at once. He took his time to pass the technique piece by piece and explain every part of it. "This... Is that even possible? No, wait! I got a copy of that Myriad Wisps Technique when we were still in the Mortal Realm. Aren''t the two basically the same?" Krune laughed as he nodded. "Hahaha! Of course! After all, I created the Myriad Wisps Technique using the Myriad Energies one as a base. Although the Myriad Wisps Technique can only be used by wisps, it is indeed very similar to the real one. Of course, it is still somewhat worse than my Myriad Energies Technique." Iem still didn''t believe all that, so he immediately began to practice it. Back then, Uncle Feng only took two hours to create all Nine Spiritual Meridians and evolve them into Elemental Ones. Uncle Feng was in the Semi-Divinity Realm, just like Iem. However, Iem was a Heavenly Race member, a Heavenly Core Owner, and a genius among geniuses. A genius even in the middle of the Heavenly Race. What Uncle Feng took two hours to complete, Iem took twenty minutes! Not to mention that Godly Energy was even better for the job. Sure enough, Iem finished opening all ten Spiritual Meridians, which immediately evolved into Elemental Ones. Just like Krune''s ones, Iem''s Meridians were all colorful due to his affinity with all of the elements. "It''s true... no wonder you are so fast at cultivating. I always thought that you were using the Myriad Wisps Technique instead. Turns out that you had something even better. But... how am I going to evolve these meridians into Chaos Ones? I can''t go back to that Elemental Path you talked about to connect with the halos." Krune nodded. "Don''t worry. I''ve known about the halo issue for a long time and had been thinking about it. Unfortunately, I was never able to find a solution while I was in the Mortal Realm. However, things changed when I came to the Godly Realm." "It turns out that Godly Energy is best for this kind of transformation. You only need to care about the location, and that will be fine... or so I think. You were the first one I passed my Myriad Energies Technique here in the Godly Path Realm, so I''m not sure." Iem couldn''t help but ask. "What do you mean with locations?" Krune then continued. "As you know, everything in the Godly Path Realm is a lot more potent due to the Godly Energy, which is the same for the Nine Energies necessary for the Chaos Meridians. For example, if you want to create the Yang Chaos Meridian, just go to a place where Yang Energy is abundant. Thanks to Godly Energy, Yang Energy will have the same effect as the Elemental Path''s Yang Halo. Or maybe it will be even better!" "If you need Death Energy, go to a place where Death is constant. If it''s Space Energy, well, outer space is your best choice. Anyway, I guess you understand what I mean, right?" Iem nodded. "Alright. In that case, I''ll take my leave now. By the way, what about a black hole?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "What do you think? Anyway, just have a strong cultivator or demon beast bring you close to one. I''m pretty sure Franlia wouldn''t mind giving you some help in this regard. With her or Tosely''s God Core Realm cultivation, they should get close enough to one for you to feel its energy. Just be careful to not fall into it." Iem sighed but nodded in the end. There wasn''t much that could be done in this regard. First, Iem decided that he would deal with the Meridians that can be opened on his own. After talking about a few more things with Iem, he left. Luvile then asked Krune. "I''m quite surprised that you passed your Myriad Energies Technique to Iem but not Nina and Jilin. You trust those two as well, no?" Krune answered that question with another question. "Are you not going to ask why I gave it to Iem?" Luvile didn''t seem to mind, though. "As must as I hate to admit, I''m sure Harold wouldn''t be idiotic enough to allow Iem to spread that technique around. It should be pretty much safe. Not to mention that we will need their help in the future once we enter the God Realm and try to open the doors to leave." Krune was happy to hear that. "Hahaha! That''s good then. Well, there is no point in caring about something that will happen so far ahead." "As for why I didn''t give it to Nina, Jilin, or even Bai or Lino, that''s because they don''t need it. Giving this technique to them might prove to be more of a burden than a generous act. They don''t really have any background, and much less an excuse for their cultivation to grow so fast all of a sudden. It''s better if they cultivate slowly and stay behind to live their own lives." Luvile agreed with Krune on that point. "It''s good that you think like that." "Anyway, we are done with it now." Krune nodded. "Yes, let''s go to the next part." As always, Luvile controlled his Purple Tribulation Lightning to seal the room as Krune returned to his wisp form. Krune had just made a breakthrough into the Divinity Realm 3rd Stage but had no time to digest the changes. The first thing Krune wanted to verify was how much slower his cultivation became. During the last breakthrough, his Universe Foundation had expanded to a ridiculous degree. Not to mention that the higher the cultivation, the more energy one needed. If not because Krune came to the Godly Path Realm, he wouldn''t be at this level at all. Still, Zule gave him and Iem thousands of Top Quality Spirit Stones, so it shouldn''t be too bad... or so he thought. After an entire day of cultivation, Krune finally reached a conclusion. "This... Isn''t it way too slow?!" Luvile heard his words and asked. "What do you mean?" Krune then explained. "Even after cultivating with the Top Quality Spirit Stones for an entire day, my cultivation barely moved at all. At this rate, I doubt I can even reach the 4th Stage of the Divinity Realm before an entire year! Not to mention that I''m already halfway through the 3rd stage." Luvile felt helpless. "You better not say such a thing outside, lest everyone would gather to beat you up. Of course, it would take much longer. The Semi-Divinity and Divinity Realm are vastly different in the amount of energy consumption. Also, don''t forget just how much bigger your Universe Foundation is in comparison to others. Last but not least, you are also feeding Zule''s Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher. With all of this together, I think you are extremely fast already." Krune could only nod in the end. Chapter 708: Our Masters Krune didn''t have much to do after that, so he could only pass his days cultivating or cooking in the restaurant. At the moment, the Godly Stones he got in the restaurant would probably be used in the Mortal Realm by others. That was to be expected since he has so many Top Quality Godly Stones now. There was no way he could receive the same quality of stones as payment for his dishes. Perhaps, Nascent God Star Level dishes might have people or beasts willing to pay for that much. Obviously, Krune was just too far from that. Just as Franlia expected, several sects and other powers appeared in her Sky Shifting Sect to ask about what happened in the Other Space. Different from the Kalame Sect, they were only interested in what was inside. Fortunately, she wasn''t the only one. The Three Peaks and Flower River Sects also kept receiving the same thing. In the end, the agreement of keeping the demon beast corpse information secret came in hand. All they got were a few excuses that Franlia, Aragan, and Binmia agreed beforehand. In the end, the only ones interested in Krune and Iem were the members of the Kalame Sect. Nothing much happened during the two years that Krune and Iem were supposed to wait. Iem would spend most of his time in the Formations or Alchemist Guild other than cultivating. As for Krune, he used his time for cooking and blacksmithing other than cultivating. Of course, every now and then, Krune and Iem would go out to test their strength in a few missions. A cultivation realm like the Semi-Divinity and Divinity Realm still wasn''t enough for a need to leave the Zamaria Planet to arrive. There were plenty of missions for their average cultivation level and above here. During this time, Iem went from the 6th Stage of the Semi-Divinity Realm all the way to the 1st Stage of the Divinity Realm. However, he had the same barrier as Krune and all the other Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts. The amount of energy necessary in the Divinity Realm was frightening high. Even with Top Quality Godly Stones, Iem was only able to reach the Peak of the 1st Stage. The impressive thing was that of the two years, Iem used one year to reach the Divinity Realm, but spent the entire other year in the same 1st Stage of the Divinity Realm. The energy necessary for Divinity Realm cultivations was really no joke! As for the Chaos Meridians, they weren''t that hard for Iem to open in the end. Just as Krune had mentioned, Godly Energy made the presence of the Nine Energies easier to detect and absorb. Such a thing would have been impossible in the Mortal Realm. The meridian that took the longest to open was the Blackhole Meridian. He had to ask for Franlia''s help and form an agreement with the Kalame Sect to go out. After all, where would they find a black hole in their solar system? If such a thing existed here, there would be no planets or sun around to start with. After that, transforming the Chaos Meridians into Godly Meridians was an easy thing to do. He just had to follow the same process as Krune, and the meridians fused and evolved by themselves. Nevertheless, even with his Godly Meridians, Heavenly Core, and Heavenly Race bloodline, he just matched Krune''s cultivation speed. At the moment, Krune was feeding the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher, which slowed his cultivation quite a lot. Otherwise, he would definitely be faster now that he got so many Heavenly Fragments. Not to mention that he had ten Godly Meridians instead of nine. It couldn''t be helped. As talented as a Heavenly Race might be, they are not beings of energy like wisps. It''s like Wally, and his disciples said in the past, the Myriad Energies Technique was created with the wisps in mind. No other race should dream of achieving the same results as the wisps. That was also the reason why Iem failed in creating a 10th Meridian with Harold''s Laws. As for Krune, these two years were quite fruitful for him. He caught up to his cultivation level in blacksmithing. He used the chance to upgrade his Myriad Lightning Shields with older Myriad Lightning Metals from the Lightning Sect. Now, his shields were at the Divinity Stars grade and could even reach a level above his cultivation, thanks to the Purple Flame''s effect. Krune''s Spiritual Dishes also went a step further. He could now use Peak Divinity Realm Ingredients to prepare them. However, different from the past, he couldn''t go one level above his cultivation realm to prepare dishes. After all, after the Divinity Realm, came the Mortal Rejection Realm. One must not misunderstand the Transformation Realm that is between the Divinity and Mortal Rejection Realms. As mentioned in the past, the Transformation Realm is not really a cultivation realm. It doesn''t matter which of the nine stages of the Transformation Realm you are. You are still considered a Peak Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast. Krune would need to reach the Peak of the Divinity Realm first before thinking about creating a Mortal Rejection Stars Dish. Other than that, Krune''s cultivation proceeded as he had imagined. After two whole years, he only had a single breakthrough into the 4th Stage of the Divinity Realm. Not to mention that the amount of energy necessary increased once more, so he would take even longer to reach the 5th Stage. According to his and Luvile''s calculation, the next three years before the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher gets fueled would still not be enough to enter the 5th Stage. Finally, the Kalame Sect contacted Franlia, Krune, and Iem. Inside the Sect Master''s Hall in the Sky Shifting Sect, Latam Zanca was already waiting for Krune and Iem. He was the same one who came to inform the two about their need for the duo. "You two are finally here. Are you ready to go?" Krune and Iem looked at each other before telling Latam. "Yes, but our Masters want to talk with your Sect Master once we arrive in the Kalame Sect." Latam wasn''t surprised by that. He already thought that the ''background'' behind Krune and Iem would eventually contact them. However, he didn''t notice''s Franlia change in expression. She knew very well that Krune and Iem don''t really have a background, so who could be those masters? Latam then nodded his head. "Very well, I''ll tell my sect master once we arrive. In fact, you would meet with him anyway. Let''s go." Without another choice, Franlia could only let Krune and Iem leave with Latam without being able to offer much support. ''I hope they know what they are doing.'' Latam then enveloped Krune and Iem with his Godly Energy and shot into the skies. Not too long after, he was already in outer space. There, he spread his Divine Sense to find where his Planet was located in their Solar System. As mentioned before, Godly Energy could block Divine Sense. Latam had to first come into outer space, where Godly Energy is scarce, so that he could spread his Divine Sense far enough to reach his Planet. Without wasting any time, he soon opened a Spatial Gate and entered it with Iem and Krune. It only took a few seconds for Krune and Iem to appear beside the Kalame Sect''s Planet. From there, things were a lot easier. Latam was able to open another Spatial Gate directly inside the Kalame Sect itself. "We are here." As expected, the Kalame Sect was enormous. Even with Krune and Iem''s Divine Sense or Mental Energy spread to the max, they couldn''t see the end of it. "Don''t bother looking into it. Our Kalame Sect occupies an entire country. Your Divine Senses won''t be able to cover it all at your levels." Krune and Iem nodded. It was not like they were impressed anyway. Back in the Mortal Realm, their powers were able to occupy an entire planet, after all. The Divine Path Sect, where Krune''s master was presiding, is an excellent example of it. Latam then brought Krune and Iem inside. On the way, they passed through several rooms and elders of the Kalame Sect who looked at them with puzzled faces. From the looks of it, those people and demon beasts had no idea about their visit. Finally, Latam brought Krune and Iem into a secluded Hall in the Kalame Sect where a man was busy cultivating alone. "Sect Master, I''ve brought them." The man slowly opened his eyes and looked at Krune and Iem. This was the first Nascent God Realm cultivator that Krune and Iem had seen face to face. Still, they kept their composure as if nothing was happening at all. "So you have come. My name is Zuitou Kalame, Kalame Sect''s Sect Master. Anyway, before anything else, Latam told me that your Masters want to talk with me first, is it?" Krune and Iem nodded. "Indeed. They are here already, so you can talk to them." Zuitou and Latam were taken aback by those words. They spread their Divine Senses, but couldn''t feel anything at all. How come they were here? Suddenly, Krune and Iem''s bodies emitted Purple and Black Lights. Soon after, a wisp of Black Flames and a small Sphere of Purple Lightning came out of them. It was then that those two began to expand and take the form of a man covered in black flames and another with Purple Lightning. Latam was very calm at first. However, the moment he felt the aura coming from those two, he began to sweat coldly. He couldn''t feel their cultivation since they were not here, but the two''s auras were more than enough for him to understand. He was nothing more than an ant in front of them. In fact, he felt like even his Sect Master''s aura wasn''t as frightening as them. In fact, even Zuitou, who was calm at first, felt some pressure from their appearance. Those two were definitely far above the level he imagined them to be. Luvile and Harold might have no cultivation at the moment, but their auras were still very much present. They didn''t want to do such a thing if possible, but it was necessary to keep Krune and Iem safe. In the end, they could only go with this play to scare the other side. Chapter 709: Chamber Luvile then looked at Krune before asking. "Is that the guy who called you over? How the hell did you get the attention of a Nascent God Realm cultivator?" Krune immediately bowed with an embarrassed expression. "Sorry, Master. We didn''t calculate it properly, so they found out about our Law Destroying ability." Harold only laughed in response. "Hahaha! Isn''t it just a puny 3rd Stage Nascent God? What''s there to worry about? I can get rid of him with a finger. There is no need to be this concerned with your disciple." Harold then looked in a specific direction and snorted. "I''m a lot more interested in the idiot looking over us from the outside. He seems a lot more interesting." Luvile nodded as he looked in the same direction as Harold. Suddenly, the space in front of Zuitou trembled for a second until, all of a sudden, a Spatial Gate opened. From inside, a woman wearing black attire stepped out gracefully. Luvile narrowed his eyes after seeing that. "7th Stage of the Nascent God Realm. Am I right to say that you are the real Sect Master of this place?" The woman sighed after hearing that. Even though Luvile was ''not present'' in this place at the moment, he only needed a glance to tell her cultivation realm. In the end, the woman''s guard increased as she said. "Senior is mistaken. I gave up the position of Sect Master a long time ago. Zuitou is the actual Sect Master of the Kalame Sect. My name is Lila Kalame. At the moment, I''m only acting as an ancestor of the Sect that seldom intervenes in sect affairs." Zuitou began to sweat after hearing that. For even his Sect Ancestor to call that projection senior, it was evident that he had miscalculated the power behind Krune and Iem. Luvile nodded slightly before returning his attention to Zuitou in the front. "Because of certain circumstances, I don''t want to leave my seclusion at this moment. Speak, what do you want with my disciple?" Zuitou immediately bowed to Harold and Luvile before saying. "I''m terribly sorry for disturbing the rest of the two seniors. It''s just that my Kalame Sect has something which their Law Destroying abilities are needed for. I guarantee in my Kalame''s Sect name that I have no intention of harming neither of them." Luvile narrowed his eyes after hearing that. "Something that needs Law Destroying Abilities? What is it? A Dimensional Realm? A closed formation? You better give me a good explanation." Zuitou nodded in a hurry. The pressure that Luvile and Harold''s auras were giving him was no joke. However, Lila raised her hand before saying. "You already have enough problems by inviting them here. Let me do the talking from now on." "Yes, Ancestor." Lila then turned her attention back to Luvile and Harold before explaining. "First, I will need the two seniors'' words that you won''t try to take anything from us. Also, the contents of this conversation can not be disclosed outside, either." Harold couldn''t help but feel interested. "Oh... Is this something that could force even a 7th Stage Nascent God like you to act like that?" Luvile had to admit that he, too, felt a little like that. "And what makes you believe that we will keep our words?" Lila sighed and continued. "Both seniors are not just Peak Nascent Gods, right? I''ve met other Peak Nascent Gods during my life. However, not a single one of them had an aura as terrifying as yours. If I''m not wrong, you two are not really in the Godly Path Realm, but in the God Realm. Besides, I''ve never heard about a power capable of destroying Laws in our Godly Path Realm. I refuse to believe that beings that there were able to cultivate to the point where they can even manifest projections in the Godly Path Realm would go back on their words." Harold and Luvile were taken aback by those words. Still, Harold snorted right after. "I''m really impressed that you can tell this much. However, you better not think that we can''t do anything to you. There is no lack of Peak Nascent God Realm cultivators and beasts in this place. All we need to do is to offer them some rewards for when they come up in exchange for wiping out your puny Sect. Do you believe me if I say that I could gather at least a hundred of them?" Luvile shook his head in response. "Stop it, Harold. She is not trying to pick a fight here." "Hmph!" Harold''s words made Lila nervous for a second. Fortunately, Luvile seemed a lot more composed. "Very well. You have our word that we won''t disclose anything or try to rob it from you as long as it causes no harm to our disciples. At the moment, they are a lot more important than any treasure that the Godly Path Realm could produce. I''ll also take your word of never telling any living being about our disciples'' true identity." Luvile then averted his attention to Zuitou and especially Latam, who was close to him. Lila immediately understood Luvile''s intention and looked at Latam. "Open your soul. I will put a restriction on you." "This..." Obviously, Latam had no intention of leaving his soul open for others to temper. However, he understood the situation he was in. Lila could trust Zuitou since they were family. Still, even though he was an essential elder of the Sect, she didn''t totally believe that he wouldn''t open his mouth, even if by mistake. Luvile and Harold were even more distrusting than her. If he did not do that, only his death awaited. "Y-Yes... Ancestor." Without any other choice, he could only allow Lila to put the restriction on his mind. After that, Lila looked at Zuitou, her intention obvious. "D-Don''t worry, Grandaunt. I''ll never utter a single word." Lila nodded with a satisfied expression. "You better keep it that way." Lila then returned her attention to Luvile and Harold, waiting for their confirmation. In the end, they nodded. "Very well. Speak. What is it that you need our disciples for?" Lila sighed in relief before stating explaining. "Our Kalame Sect was built in this place for a reason, a secret chamber that an Ancestor of my Sect found. That ancestor of mine tried everything he could. Still, nothing worked. Even when he tried to attack with all his power of a Peak Nascent God Realm cultivator, he could not leave as much as a single scratch behind." Luvile narrowed his eyes. "And where is this ancestor of yours now?" "Dead! He failed to overcome his Ascension Tribulation." "I see... continue." Lila nodded before doing what she was told. "In the end, he could only build the Sect in this place, hoping that one day he would find a way to open the chamber. Perhaps, even after he ascended, he could still find out what was inside if the chance presented itself. Of course, since he failed the Ascension Tribulation, he won''t be able to see it anymore." "We, the Kalame Lineage, have been guarding this chamber under the pretest of running the Sect for all these years. In fact, not even that Latam over there knew about it. Still, since I already put a restriction on his soul, there are no issues in letting him know now." Lila wasn''t lying. Latam really didn''t know about that secret chamber up to this point. All he knew was that his Sect Master had a crucial issue where the Law Destroying Ability was needed at all costs. By now, he already began to imagine just what they could find inside that chamber. Harold couldn''t help but find it weird. "A chamber that even a Peak Nascent God Realm couldn''t open? Could it be something left behind by a God that descended in the past?" As mentioned before, the cultivators and demon beasts of the God Realm can descend into other worlds. However, they need to pay the price and can''t stay for long. That''s why Harold found that this possibility was high. A great example of it was the Holy Land made by Sentoi in the Mortal Realm. He made that during the time he was there but had to return to the God Realm eventually. Lila shook her head after hearing that. "I don''t know. Since we haven''t opened it until now, we don''t know what we could find inside. Who knows? It might be completely empty." Luvile and Harold understood what she needed Krune and Iem for. As long as their Law Destroying Abilities were in place, anything in the Godly Path Realm would eventually succumb. Even the Kun-Peng Dimensional Realm barrier was no exception. All they needed was to focus on a single spot and keep fueling the Purple Tribulation Lightning or Devil Flames without stop. Depending on how resistant the material is, the longer it would take. Still, there was no doubt that they will open a passage sooner or later. "We don''t mind opening the chamber for you. However, what will our disciples get from it? They will stay in this Godly Path Realm for quite sometime before they ascend. It wouldn''t be bad if they could get some advantages as well." Lila already expected those words. "That is a matter of course, seniors. What would you like from my Kalame Sect? In fact, I''ll try to ascend one day as well. I''m more than willing to negotiate for some advantages like Senior Harold mentioned." Luvile shook his head in response. "I''ll leave you with the first pick in this chamber of yours. But the second and third pick has to be our disciples''. Once they get whatever they want with those two picks, everything that remains shall be your Sect''s." Lila pondered a bit before asking. "What if there is not enough to be picked?" Luvile and Harold looked at each other and nodded before returning their attention to Lila. "If that happens, we will consider it our disciples'' bad luck. Anyway, whatever might be inside there won''t be of much help once they ascend to the God Realm. So there is no need to overthink it." Lila sighed in relief before showing a bright smile. "In that case, we have a deal, seniors." Chapter 710: Opening a Hole With that, their negotiation was done with. Luvile and Harold''s bodies then returned to their previous forms before entering Krune and Iem''s bodies once again. The pressure in the room then quickly disappeared, making everything go back to normal. Only then did Lila and Zuitou let out a sigh of relief. They felt like they were walking on the edge of a blade all the time. Lila then looked at Krune and Iem before showing a smile. "I''m happy that your Masters are such reasonable cultivators. You don''t need to worry. We will keep our side of the deal. As long as you open that chamber, the second and third picks are yours to take. Also, I can guarantee that not a single word will get out regarding this trade or whatever you got there. Of course, I hope that neither of you say anything about what you see there. After all, this is directly connected to the safety of our Kalame Sect." Iem and Krune didn''t mind as they nodded. "Don''t worry. If we did that, you could spread the news about our masters. If that happens, we would be in bigger danger than your Sect is." Lila agreed with them. "Very well. If you don''t have anything else to do, we can go to that chamber right away." Krune and Iem looked at each other before looking back at Lila. "It''s okay. We have nothing else to do at the moment anyway." Lila then looked at Zuitou before saying. "You will come as well. As the sect master, you need to know what is in there. One day, I will ascend or die trying, so it will be your job to decide what to do with that place." Zuitou nodded and looked at Latam. "You can go back. If anyone asks anything, you know what to do." "Yes, Sect Master." After Latam left, Lila made a slashing movement with her hand in mid-air. That movement had then parted space in half, opening a Spatial Gate right after. "Come with me." As the Ancestor of the Kalame Sect, Lila had access to all the sealed places. None of the Sect''s Protection Formations would stop her from going anywhere she wanted. That being said, she connected that Spatial Gate directly to the place where the chamber was located. Krune and Iem passed through it with Zuitou, appearing on the other side in just a second. Lila followed them from behind. As soon as they appeared on the other side, Krune and Iem were taken aback. They were expecting something enormous, a giant building or something like that. However, it turned out that it was relatively small. No bigger than a standard room you''d find in a city of low-level cultivators. If you tried to fit several people inside, it wouldn''t allow more than 15 people or so to squeeze in there. Krune tried to use his Divine Sense to check it, but it was blocked. Of course, Krune already expected this. That being said, he switched to his Mental Energy scan. As a different power from Divine Sense, perhaps the chamber would not be able to block it. At least, Divine Sense blocking formations were not able to do so. Unfortunately, he came to understand that his Mental Energy couldn''t go in either. However, it was not the formations on the chamber that blocked his Mental Energy, but the chamber materials instead. The thing that the room was made of seemed to be immune to Mental Energy scans. Of course, that left Krune very surprised. That was the first time he had encountered anything other than Godly Energy itself that could completely block Mental Energy. Well, there was Luvile and Harold''s power too, but that probably had something to do with their Law Destroying or Eating properties. That chamber shone with the color of gold. Also, Krune and Iem could tell just how many formations were present in this thing. The weird part was that although the formations seemed to be working at full power, there was no Godly Energy entering it from outside. Lila knew what Krune and Iem were thinking, so she explained. "We tried to cut any access that it had to Godly Energy before and then attack it, trying to spend its energy. However, it didn''t matter how many times we attack. The formations and materials making up the whole thing didn''t even budge. We finally reached the conclusion that whatever is generating Godly Energy to these formations must be inside." Those words immediately made Krune and Iem think about Kun-peng''s Silver Core. That thing didn''t need the outside world''s Godly Energy. Instead, it created Godly Energy by itself. Of course, Luvile and Harold, who were inside their foundations, heard that as well. ''Don''t overthink it. Did you forget Little Arty? He could provide you guys as much Godly Energy as you needed. However, he couldn''t produce it himself. Instead, he was directly connected to the God Realm. Chances are that this is the same case.'' After hearing that message, Krune and Iem nodded. That indeed made a lot more sense than finding Primordial Demon Beasts'' cores at every corner they go. Lila then looked at the chamber and back at the duo. "Well, I''ll leave it to you two now. However, be careful. This thing had never retaliated before. But we have never been able to inflict any damage to it either. Perhaps there is some formation in the middle that can counter-attack if it feels a threat. Of course, Zuitou and I will stay beside you 24/7, ready to act as soon as we feel anything strange." Although Krune and Iem knew that she was talking the truth, they also knew it wasn''t the whole reason. She probably was afraid of them trying to pull her leg while at it. They couldn''t blame her since they would do the same. Not to mention that they really preferred that layer of protection. "Alright, let''s start." Krune and Iem touched the chamber and immediately summoned that Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flames. As always, Luvile''s Power ate the laws while Harold''s destroyed them. Just like that, time began to pass. Soon, three days went by in a flash. It turned out that the protection on the chamber was extremely powerful. Not only did it protect the chamber, but it also recovered itself from the damage. Fortunately, the same power of self-healing was also based on the laws of the universe. So it couldn''t show its full power with the Purple Tribulation Lightning and Devil Flames in place. Nonetheless, Krune and Iem''s three days of effort hadn''t done anything else other than a tiny scratch on the surface. Let''s not even mention opening a hole to check what was inside. Lila, on the other hand, seemed delighted. "Great! Although somewhat slow, it is evident that it is working. Are you two holding well with Godly Energy? If necessary, I can even arrange for Top Quality Godly Stones to be brought here. Although they are quite expensive, I don''t mind prices at this point anymore." Krune and Iem shook their head, saying. "Don''t worry. We are keeping a balance between energy expenditure and recovery. Besides, Godly Energy can''t be instantly converted into our powers anyway. We need time for the conversion." Lila nodded, not minding it too much. She already waited this long anyway. Time continued to pass in a flash. At some point, Krune and Iem had to use their communicators to call Franlia back to tell her everything was fine. After all, they would probably spend a very long time in this place. Sure enough, the bigger the hole on the chamber wall, the slower the work became. It''s just that with a more significant gap, Krune and Iem had to spread Luvile and Harold''s power more around it. Naturally, the law destroying and eating abilities had to be spread as well. There was a good thing, though. Iem and Krune could still cultivate during it. It was not like their time was being completely wasted in there. Soon, days became weeks, weeks became months, but Krune and Iem''s work continued. It was only three months after they initiated their job that they were finally able to open a tiny hole. Of course, it was way too small for them to be able to do anything at this point. However, it was more than enough to verify what was inside with their Divine Senses. In Krune''s case, he decided to use Mental Energy instead. Unfortunately, Lila and the other''s Divine Sense couldn''t sense anything inside. Not that it was empty, but that they felt like their Divine Senses fell into an abyss without end. It was a completely different sensation from when Divine Sense is used in outer space, though. However, the moment Krune''s Mental Energy Scan entered the chamber, he felt a jolt in his Soul. That jolt made Krune retrieve his Mental Energy almost instantly due to the pain it caused. If he had not been on his guard, he would probably have lost control over the Purple Tribulation Lightning as well. Luvile noticed Krune''s fluctuation and immediately asked. ''Are you okay? Did you find anything?'' Krune answered. ''It was weird. I felt like my Mental Energy was being ripped apart. I didn''t even know that damage could be caused through Mental Energy before. How can I say it... Oh! It''s as if whatever is inside tried to eat my Mental Energy away.'' Luvile didn''t know what to say about it. First of all, Mental Energy was something new for him. Probably, only Heavin would be able to come up with anything related to it. Chapter 711: Opening the Chamber Obviously, Krune didn''t tell Lila or Kalame since Mental Energy was supposed to be a secret. But Krune told Iem since he also had the Soul Cultivation Technique. It''s just that he wasn''t at a high enough level to use Mental Energy yet. ''Hum? This thing can eat Mental Energy? What does that mean?'' Krune shook his head. ''I have no idea. First of all, this thing is a new cultivation system that wasn''t supposed to exist. But now I''m in doubt if this really is the case. Of course, it might be just a coincidence that whatever is inside happens to react to Mental Energy.'' Iem nodded. ''I understand. However, our Divine Sense also can''t tell what is happening in there. Mental Energy will be eaten if you try to use it too. We don''t have another choice. Let''s enlarge the hole so that we can look inside.'' Krune then looked at Lila before asking. "Did Senior Lila find anything through this gap? Iem and I only fell into deep darkness when we tried to check with our Divine Sense. However, Senior Lila''s Divine Sense is definitely several times stronger, so you might have noticed something." Lila shook her head in response. "Nothing. I also fell into that darkness you talked about. I feel like it has nothing to do with its strength or how far the Divine Sense can go. At the moment, I can''t even tell whether there is some kind of Sealed Space inside or if the chamber''s size is really just that." Krune already expected that answer. "Alright, then. We already opened a tiny hole, so we just need to enlarge it now. Of course, it will also take a long time to do so." Lila didn''t mind. "Take as long as you need. A few years makes no difference to someone at my or Zuitou''s level." Krune and Iem nodded. "Very well, we will continue then." The work continued after that. As the hole became bigger, the slower it became to spread the aperture. In the blink of an eye, another year went by. It has now been a year and three months that they initiated this job. The hole finally got large enough so that they could use other methods to check the contents. Zuitou left for a few minutes and then returned. This time, he had a small camera attached to a cable. Since Divine Sense didn''t work, they thought about using physical objects and technology. Even if the camera broke, the Kalame Sect wouldn''t mind. If not, they might be able to take a look behind that darkness. "Alright, I''m sending it in." Krune and Iem kept the hole stabilized as the camera passed through. Zuitou was also careful to not touch the Purple Lightning and Black Flames on the surroundings, using his own Godly Energy to ''coat'' the camera. The cable connected to the outside had the link to transmit what they could see and a small gap around the electrical part for Zuitou to use his Godly Energy. Like that, he could keep the camera afloat inside. Everyone paid attention to the monitor as the camera passed by that black wall. There was no problem with the link as the camera transmitted all the images from inside. Zuitou then turned the light on the camera, but everything was still dark. It was as if there wasn''t a wall on the other side of the chamber. "Does it mean that there is really a sealed space inside? Otherwise, the camera should have illuminated the walls there." "That might be the case. But it is also easy to check. Zuitou, there is a lot of cable remaining. More than enough to send the camera all the way to the other side of the chamber and touch the wall there. Try to make it fly straight ahead. If you run out of cable, then we know it is a sealed space." "Yes, Ancestor." Without wasting any time, Zuitou controlled his Godly Energy to send the camera further. Sure enough, they were right. Zuitou ran out of cable while flying the camera straight forward, but the camera did not reach the end of the chamber. That meant that the space inside was much larger than it looked from outside. "So it''s a sealed space. The only doubt is how big it is. There is no other choice. We need to send someone in to check it for us. Zuitou, I''ll leave the arrangements to you." "Certainly. However, we will need to hole to be a little bit larger. At least enough to fit a fist. In that case, I can send a reasonably strong demon beast to check." "Which kind of demon beast?" "A snake type, of course. We have a few demon beasts in our sect that can control their size at will in their real forms. Still, there is a limit to how small they can become. As you know, a demon beast''s real form size increases as his cultivation progress, so it also affects how small they can become. If I want to send one at least in the Mortal Rejection Realm, a fist-size hole is a must." "Can''t you simply send a Semi-Divinity Realm one?" "Well, I can. But Semi-Divinity and Divinity Realm ones can''t even fly. I still prefer to have one that can at least explore the space inside fast enough." Lila agreed with Zuitou. "Indeed, that''s the best case. Alright, just continue to increase the size of the hole. As I said, time is not an issue." Krune and Iem didn''t mind as they continued to work. The hole was already almost at the right size anyway, so it wouldn''t be a problem. It would only take a little longer. Just like that, Krune and Iem spent another nine months working on it. In the end, they took a total of two years to open the hole to a size big enough for the demon beast. Although Krune kept cultivating during his time, his cultivation stayed in the same 4th Stage. Krune wasn''t surprised by that. As mentioned before, he had already calculated that speed. Only Iem had some progress. When he arrived in this place two years ago, he was already at the peak of the 1st Stage, so he successfully entered the 2nd. Zuitou, of course, already found someone for the job. Just as he mentioned before, he ended taking someone at the Mortal Rejection Realm. It was a Karanun Python called Vorin. Karanun Pythons had originated in the Godly Path Realm, so it was the first time Krune saw one. The chamber was a secret, so the guy didn''t know anything until he was finally brought to this place. Only then did Zuitou explain to him what they wanted him to do. Of course, he also offered rewards, etc. To be safe, Lila also put a restriction in his soul so that he wouldn''t tell anyone else about it. The guy wasn''t anyone important in the Kalame Sect to start with, so not only he wasn''t afraid, he faced the situation as a huge opportunity. "Don''t worry, Sect Master! I''ll do my best to check everything inside." Zuitou nodded, satisfied. Krune then looked at them before saying. "This hole is already at the size you asked. Vorin can enter anytime he wishes." Lila, Zuitou, and Vorin nodded. Before entering, he also activated a Soul Flame so that Lila and the others would know if he was alive or dead. Vorin then returned to his Karanun Python form and controlled his Godly Energy to reduce his own size. He kept going until he reached a limit that was around the same size as the hole. Still, he had to squeeze himself with a lot of difficulties to pass through that. He even left a lot of his scales back in the process. He then turned around and looked at the Sect Master and the others before saying. "Well, then. I''m going." Lila and everyone nodded. Vorin once again turned in the direction of the black wall and touched it carefully. Only then did Krune and the other noticed that the surface of that thing looked like a black liquid. Once Vorin touched it, the surface rippled as if a stone was thrown into a calm lake. Vorin then took a deep breath and entered, disappearing inside. Lila and everyone else''s Divine Senses also lost contact with him after he entered it. Vorin already knew what to do. He was to enter and not spend more than 10 minutes inside. Regardless of what he found, he should first go back to tell what he saw. But in the end, there wasn''t even a need to wait for ten minutes. That''s because the chamber began to react not long after. Several lines began to appear around it, making the chamber look like it was made of several cubes. Those lines then shone with golden light that intensified as time passed. Lila and Zuitou immediately touched Iem and Krune, protecting them with their own Godly Energy. They didn''t want Krune and Iem to stop using their power to prevent the hole from closing. But if things turned sour, they would bring the two of them out of there straight away. It was then that they all began to hear... *clack, clack, clack, clack...* It sounded like several locks were being opened one after another. Finally, the chamber began to dismantle itself. Turns out that the chamber was really made of square-shaped cubes. They all began to float away from each other, finally revealing what was inside. Chapter 712: Dark Water Globe Krune and the others retreated as the cubes approached. Finally, what was supporting the cubes in the air disappeared, and they fell to the ground. It was only possible to hear metallic sounds as they hit each other. However, Krune''s group didn''t pay attention to it at all. What mattered was the thing in front of them at the moment. It was a giant globe of... dark water? At least, that''s what it looked like. It floated there instead of falling or changing location. Still, it was possible to see the ripples on the water due to the movement outside. Suddenly... *Splash!* Vorin darted out of the Dark Globe in his Karanun Python form. Lila immediately grabbed him with her Godly Energy, afraid that something was wrong with him. However, he quickly started to change back into his human form before putting his clothes on again. "Seems like you are fine." Vorin quickly bowed. "Yes, Sect Master, Ancestor." Lila checked him with her Divine Sense for a moment and then nodded. She then released him and asked the question in everyone''s minds. "So, what did you find inside?" Vorin scratched the back of his head while showing an awkward expression. "In fact, the space inside is very small, no more than a kilometer or so. I was able to reach the other side in just a few moments. If I moved at full speed, I wouldn''t need even a second. Anyway, I couldn''t find anything inside. It''s empty and dark. If not for the darkness, I would really think that I fell inside a lake." Zuitou couldn''t help but ask. "But why did the chamber open, then? Did you do anything inside?" Vorin seemed as puzzled as everyone else. "I don''t really know. Other than using my Godly Energy to move around, I don''t think I did anything at all." Lila and the others became puzzled. How come there is nothing at all? Then what is keeping this globe of water afloat? Also, what exactly did those formations around the chamber use to keep working? There was supposed to be Godly Energy inside to feed them, after all. Krune, of course, immediately thought about Mental Energy. But can Mental Energy be used in place of Godly Energy to feed formations? Krune wasn''t sure. Also, he wasn''t sure if this globe of water had Mental Energy to start with. All that happened was that it ''ate'' his Mental Energy as soon as it touched the water. "Should we take a look inside as well?" Seeing how Vorin seemed to be completely fine, they decided that they might as well do it. With that, Lila, Zuitou, Krune, and Iem jumped inside the globe together with Vorin once more. Sure enough, everything was dark inside. Their Divine Senses were also useless since it made it look like they fell into a bottomless abyss. Still, other than that, they couldn''t feel anything. First, they moved forward to see if they could really reach the other side. In the end, Vorin was right. Around a kilometer ahead, they popped their heads out of the Globe of Dark Water. They looked at each other again and turned around once more. This time, they ''swam'' everywhere inside the globe, trying to see if they could find anything. Nonetheless, there wasn''t a single item in there. Krune tried to spread his Mental Energy once more. However, the same thing happened again. His Mental Energy was consumed by the water inside straight away. Finally, everyone gave up and stepped out of the water once more. One thing interesting about this water was the fact that it didn''t wet their bodies. As soon as they stepped outside, every single drop on their bodies would float back to that globe, leaving them as dry as they could be. "So... did anyone find anything?" Krune and the others shook their heads. There wasn''t anything at all. "Well, then we know what the content of the chamber was. It was obviously this Dark Water. It''s just that we have no idea what it can be used for. Divine Senses disappear as if the space inside is infinite. However, it only has a kilometer if we try to pass through it. Perhaps its uses are related to Divine Sense itself." Zuitou pondered a bit before saying. "Let''s have someone drink it. No one tried to see the effects it could have once it was absorbed by the body yet." Lila nodded. "Alright. But don''t bring anyone yet. Instead, get some demon beasts without sentience first. It will be safer." Zuitou nodded as he disappeared from the area. A few minutes later, he was already back with a few mammals and birds. None of them had cultivations higher than Core Formation Realm. In the Godly Path Realm, that was far from enough to achieve sentience. Zuitou then tried to use Godly Energy to grab some of the Dark Water, but it proved useless. The Dark Water also seemed immune to Godly Energy. Without another choice, he could only force those demon beasts to drink the water themselves. Unfortunately, nothing happened again. No, to be more specific, nothing could happen at all. That''s because the Demon Beasts'' bodies couldn''t absorb the dark water. It stayed independently inside their stomachs, showing no reaction what so ever. Well, something did happen. The water inside the demon beasts'' stomachs floated in the direction of the giant globe of dark water. It''s just that it couldn''t leave since it was trapped inside. Still, that information was of no use for anyone there. "Is it possible to bring the water away?" The one who asked was Krune. After all, the deal they made was still valid. If this water could be separated, then they could take some for themselves. Lila pondered a little before saying. "I can try. Let me see." She then grabbed a small recipient and put some of the Dark Water inside. After that, she opened a Spatial Gate to somewhere else and entered it. The Spatial Gate quickly closed behind her as she arrived in outer space. She then looked at the Dark Water that was still inside the small recipient. Although most of it gathered in the direction of the main Globe of Water, it didn''t show too much resistance when she tried to bring it out. She then opened another spatial gate, this time moving several Solar Systems away. At her level, using a Spatial Gate to move out of the galaxy wasn''t anything hard at all. Nonetheless, the recipient''s dark water still seemed to know the rest of the dark water''s direction back in the Kalame Sect. Soon after, Lila opened another Spatial Gate and moved straight back. "It can be brought away. However, it seems like this water has some kind of connection. I tried to go somewhere far away, but it still knew the direction of this main body of dark water." Krune nodded, satisfied. "Let me try." He also took a recipient out of his Spatial Ring and collected some water. After that, he sent it straight back into the Spatial Ring. "At least, the Spatial Laws of the Spatial Rings still works. Well, there is only one thing remaining now." Lila and the others looked at Krune, puzzled. "What is it?" Krune then pointed at the cubes that were used to keep the chamber whole. "The materials of these cubes seem to be extremely rare. As a blacksmith myself, I can tell that they are of very high quality. I would like to bring some of them with me." Lila and Zuitou nodded. The chamber was quite big, so there were a lot of those cubes around now. Although they lost most of their protective effects now that the formations disappeared, there is no doubt that they were outstanding. "By the way, what kind of metal is it?" Krune shook his head. "That I don''t know. It has a golden color, but it is definitely not gold. First of all, gold is a terrible material to forge pieces of equipment like weapons and armor. However, these guys are totally different. I will need to see if I can work with them now that the formations disappeared, but I''m very excited to try." Iem then asked something else. "Can you at least tell what level these materials are? Nascent Stars Level? Maybe higher?" Krune pondered a bit about that question. "Hum... I would say that it is definitely above the Nascent Stars level. However, I''m far from being able to work with this level of material, so I can''t be 100% sure. The weird thing is that I think I can work with this one." "Why so?" Krune then lifted one of the cubes and poured his Godly Energy and Purple Lightning inside. Surprisingly, it moved very smoothly without any resistance whatsoever. "You see? It can keep its resistance but still circulate one''s Godly Energy and abilities this easy. Even my Divinity Realm cultivation can flow through it without a problem. Perhaps the greatest treasure we found in this chamber were the building blocks that made it." Lila and Zuitou also took a cube each and used their Godly Energy and Laws. Sure enough, it was as Krune said. "Good stuff!" Even Lila had to admit that she felt much more comfortable using this golden metal cube than using one of her equipment. "Alright. The deal is for you to have the second and third picks, so what do you want?" Krune and Iem discussed through a Divine Sense message before reaching a decision. "We will use our picks to get some of these cubes and the Dark Water. Will that be a problem?" Lila smiled and shook her head. She still wanted to build a good relationship with the gods'' disciples. "As long as you don''t reveal where you got them, I don''t mind it. What about 5% of both things. It should be quite a big amount for the two of you alone." Krune and Iem were also satisfied with that offer. As mentioned before, the chamber was vast, so 5% of the cubes and the water was indeed a considerable amount. "Thank you very much, Senior Lila." Chapter 713: One Year Remaining Lila nodded, not minding too much. "Anyway, stay here for the next few days while we do some more tests. If nothing happens in the end, I''ll deliver you two back to the Sky Shifting Sect, or you can stay with my Kalame Sect as well. I can guarantee that the resources, missions, and the treatment here will be even better than there." Krune and Iem shook their heads in response. "Sect Master Franlia had helped us a lot in the past. Besides, she already provides us with more resources than we need. We want to stay there to properly pay the favor." Lila sighed after hearing that. ''Well, they will be staying in the Sky Shifting Sect anyway. It will be easier to track them down if necessary.'' As mentioned before, the Sky Shifting Sect was located in the same Solar System as the Kalame Sect. In the point of view of a Nascent God cultivator like Lila, one might say that the Sky Shifting Sect was her neighbor. After that, Lila, Krune, Iem, and Zuitou spent the next few days testing the Floating Dark Water Globe nonstop. Unfortunately, there was simply no reaction. At the moment, the only thing that they could use it for was for localization. Lila tried to go as far as possible, using her Spatial Abilities. But even though she had gone several galaxies away, the Dark Water she brought with her still slowly moved in the main body of water''s direction. They even set up a concealing formation around the thing. Still, it was useless against the connection between the two dark water bodies. Of course, Krune knew the reason for that. This thing was related to Mental Energy. Concealing Formations never had any effect on his Mental Energy. Naturally, it was useless against the Dark Water. Still, they couldn''t figure out why the Chamber even opened in the first place. Lila had verified Vorin several times, but there was simply nothing wrong with him. That being said, there shouldn''t have been a reason for the Chamber to entirely open anyway. ''Perhaps the condition for its opening was for someone to enter it.'' She thought... Finally, Lila and everyone else gave up trying. Unless they could find another use for it, this was just some strange water. As for Krune and his Dark Water, he decided to bring it back to Heavin in the Mortal Realm for testing. No one knew more about Mental Energy than him, after all. He might even have some uses for it. On the next day, Zuitou had personally brought Krune and Iem back to the Sky Shifting Sect. Franlia was there to receive him as well. After all, Zuitou was a Nascent God Realm cultivator and the Kalame Sect Master. However, she was quite intrigued by his behavior. He was acting a little... too polite. Obviously, Krune and Iem had something to do with it. She even thought that they might have used that ridiculous powerful demon beast to threaten them. After talking for some time, Zuitou left, leaving Franlia with Krune and Iem. "So... how did things go?" Krune shrugged his shoulders before saying. "It was better than I expected. We got a few good things and even nurtured a good relationship with Kalame Sect''s Ancestor. All in all, it was good." Franlia was shocked for a moment. She didn''t even know that the Kalame Sect had an Ancestor hiding in there. Their Sect Master was already in the Nascent God Realm, so their Ancestor must be even stronger in that same Realm. "You two keep bringing me surprises one after another. Oh well, I will not ask what it is that you did there. From the looks of it, the Kalame Sect wants to keep it a secret, and I''m not in the mood to make an enemy of them. All I need to know is if it will impact my Sky Shifting Sect in any way or not?" Iem pondered a bit and nodded. "Well, if by ''impact'' you mean getting an ally if things go south, then yes. I believe that if I ask them to give your Sky Shifting Sect some help in a complicated situation in the future, they probably will do it." Franlia''s interest was immediately piqued. "Why?" "Well, let''s just say that they also want me and Krune to owe them some favors." Franlia wasn''t very satisfied with that ambiguous answer. Still, if what Iem said was true, then it was a good outcome nonetheless. "Sigh... fine. As long as you are okay, then my sect hasn''t let down the help you gave it." Krune then asked something else. "What about the problem with the Demon Beast''s Dimensional Realm?" Franlia understood what Krune meant. "During the time you were out, we did receive quite a few visits related to the Demon Beast''s Dimensional Realm. However, Nascent God Powers were not included in between them. Most of the visits were done by the Sects or other organizations of our own planet. However, because of our alliance with Flower River and Three Peaks'' Sects, none of them tried to be too forceful. At the moment, we are quite safe. After all, it is not like their own sides don''t have their own secrets. It''s as simple as that." That was a relief for Iem and Krune. At least, that meant the others didn''t pay attention to how the Dimensional Realm was open or maybe didn''t even notice it. After that, Krune and Iem talked with Franlia for some time longer. At some point, Tulike also appeared there. His cultivation had improved by three stages since two years ago, showing that he took Iem and Krune''s advice to adventure outside. Finally, they bid their farewells and left the sect together. On their way back to the city, Krune couldn''t help but comment. "See? In the end, there was nothing wrong with my breakthrough! Not only that, but we even got quite a few good things. I don''t know much about this Dark Water, but these Golden Metal Cubes are more than worth it already." Iem''s mouth twitched. "Nothing wrong your head! If Harold and Luvile didn''t come out to pretend to be Gods of the God Realm, what do you think they would do to us? Or worse. What if Lila didn''t believe in them? I''ll tell you what would happen. We would be locked down straight away. They would try to get Luvile and Harold''s power away from us. Last but not least, we would have been killed to keep the Chamber''s secret. This was by far the worst calamity you had ever brought upon us!" Luvile and Harold mentally nodded inside Krune and Iem''s foundations. They couldn''t have agreed more with Iem''s words. Krune scratched his head while looking away. "Well, at least the rewards were on pair with the risks. I''m looking forward to the day I make my breakthrough into the Mortal Rejection Realm. It''s reassuring to know that you will be there too." Iem felt a chill on his back after hearing that. However, Krune''s condition to pass his Myriad Energies Technique to Iem was precisely that. For Iem to be with him when he went to make a Breakthrough. Iem began to wonder whether that had been the right choice or not. The Myriad Energies Technique was really, really good. But was it good enough to follow this walking calamity? He wasn''t sure. "Sigh... whatever. I''m going back to the Alchemy Guild. I''m still quite far from being able to match my skills to my cultivation level." Krune nodded. "I''m going back to my restaurant. It will be only a single more year before Zule''s Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher finishes charging. I don''t want to go out anymore during this time. Instead, I will properly train Jilin and Nina as Spiritual Chefs so that they can work on their own once I''m gone. Iem nodded as he said. "Suit yourself. I''ll appear there now and then to eat for free, so be sure to have your best dishes ready." Krune felt helpless with Iem''s shamelessness. Still, he liked to cook anyway, so he didn''t mind. Soon after, the two of them separated once more. Not too long after, Krune arrived back in his restaurant. His initial plan was to use the remaining five years to help Nina and Jilin, but the thing with the Kalame Sect cut two years out of it. He decided that he would make up for that time during the last year while cultivating. It was midday, so his restaurant was already open with quite a lot of customers inside. That vision always made him happy. A lot of people and beasts means that his disciples'' dishes were successful. He quickly entered through the front door just for everyone to go on an uproar. "Oh! Chef Krune, you are finally back!" "Chef Krune, why did you disappear for two years? Well, whatever. I want Seraan Python Soup. Only you know how to make it the way I like." "Hey, you arrived here after me, so go back into the queue. Chef Krune, two plates of Dark Blood Tortoise Meat, please!" Krune laughed as he approached the counter. Bai, as always, was taking care of the cashier. "Welcome back, Chef Krune. You really like to disappear a lot, don''t you?" Krune scratched the back of his head helplessly. It was not like he wanted that to happen. Things just came in his way, things that he had no control over. "Hehe... Anyway, I''m in a good mood now that I''m back. Grab everyone''s orders. I''m going to make everyone''s dishes." Soon after, Krune entered the kitchen to meet Jilin and Nina once more. However, he was surprised to see a new face working there. He didn''t remember having contacted anyone else, after all. Chapter 714: No One Can Save It "Master!" Jilin immediately recognized Krune as soon as he entered the kitchen. Nina even looked like she was about to cry. Well, it had been two years out, after all. "Hey, I called you guys once or twice per month, didn''t I? Is there a need to be this emotional? Hahaha!" Krune then looked at the new figure beside Nina before asking. "And this is?" Jilin then pulled the guy ahead. "His name is Jalo, a 16-year-old kid that came begging for a job half a year ago. Bai took pity on him and decided to give him a job." Krune nodded. He had given Bai full authority over these issues a long time ago. So far, he hadn''t let him down, so Krune wasn''t really worried or anything. As the restaurant got older, it got more customers as well. At some point, new waiters and workers had to be employed. Still, the kitchen always had only Nina, Jilin, and Krune as chefs. That''s why he was a little taken aback. "I see... But why did you put him to work in the kitchen?" Nina answered this time. "After Master left, things got quite hard to manage on our own. We needed someone to work in here to help with the side preparations that didn''t need skills. Since Bai didn''t really need anyone inside the hall, we asked him to give this kid to us. It was like this that he came to work inside." Krune nodded. If there was a lack of working power, then employing more was the only choice. He didn''t blame them for that at all. "So... 16 years old, 8th Stage of the Core Formation Realm. You seem to be doing fine by yourself." Jalo scratched the back of his head, embarrassed. "Well, my cultivation wasn''t this high when I started. It was because Chef Nina and Jilin decided to help me by providing extra Godly Stones for cultivation." Nina smiled as she nodded. "I don''t remember it, but I heard from Lino that Master also did the same with me in the past without asking anything in return. It was because of you that my deformed Dantian was destroyed and a new one created. I felt like Jalo was quite in a similar situation to me, so I wanted to help." Krune laughed after hearing that. "Hahaha! That''s fine. However, you and Jilin know very well what''s the main condition to become a chef in my kitchen, right?" Jilin and Nina nodded but didn''t say anything. They just looked at Jalo. "I-I also love to cook. I will show it to Chef Krune with my own work." Krune smiled as he put a hand on the young man''s shoulder. "Good! Anyway, I believe in Jilin and Nina. If they let you enter the kitchen, that''s because they already confirmed your feelings for food. By the way, which one of them is your Master?" Jalo pointed at Nina and Jilin. "Both of them had been teaching me so far, so I consider them to be my Masters." Krune laughed once more before saying. "Good! In that case, it makes me your grandmaster. Well, I''m quite an absent grandmaster, though." ''Not that I wanted it, but...'' "Ahem... Anyway, I will still stick around for another year before I return home. Since you are already here, I might as well teach you too. Well, Nina and Jilin can pretty much improve by themselves from now on, so there isn''t much I have to show them anyway. I don''t need to keep glued to those two anymore." As soon as Krune said that, Nina immediately shouted. "I want Master to continue teaching me closely!" That was quite a loud shout that caught not only Jilin and Jalo''s attention, even the customers outside heard that loud and clear. Any idiot could understand the meaning behind those words too. Bai and the other waiters heard that and sighed helplessly as the rest of the customers laughed. Lino, Nina''s brother, was also a waiter working there now, so he felt more helpless than anyone else. Lino and the others then looked at Bai, who pointed at the kitchen, his meaning very clear. ''Let''s go take a look!'' A second later, Nina''s face became as red as a tomato as she looked down. Krune pondered a bit before asking. "Nina, could it be that you..." Nina trembled a little hearing those words, but she took her courage and slightly nodded her head. Jilin also looked at Krune with his eyes wide open. ''Did he finally understand?!'' Krune then sighed before saying. "So you are still not confident enough in your cooking skills. Very well, I will help you as much as I can." "Uh?!" Jilin almost vomited blood! ''You can''t be serious, right? Right?!'' Jalo, who looked at all of that happening in front of him, murmured close to Jilin''s ears. ''Is Chef Krune an idiot?'' Jilin smiled bitterly after hearing that. Even Jalo, who had seen those two together for the first time, could read the mood in the air, but Krune still didn''t notice a single thing! Bai and the others, who were looking through the door, almost fainted as well! Lino even felt the urge to get inside and kick Krune''s ass! Unfortunately, Bai held him back. Nina, too, felt like a deflating balloon. They once again were made clear of a simple fact. Don''t ever, ever underestimate Krune''s EQ! His denseness is capable of putting even the most resistant heavenly materials in the Universes to shame! "Don''t worry. Although it is just a year, it is also an entire year. I''ll be sure to take care of you three properly." Krune said with a solemn expression, sure that he had understood Nina''s intentions correctly. He was even feeling incredibly proud inside. ''I''m getting even better at understanding the human''s emotions. Feifei would probably be very happy if she saw me today.'' Well, Feifei would probably send him flying with a kick. Sadly, she wasn''t here at the moment. "Alright! Let''s go back to work. Bai is collecting everyone''s orders for me. Now that they saw I''m back, there is definitely a lot coming our way." Bai and the others also felt disappointed, not knowing what to say to Nina. It was evident that expecting anything from Krune would be a lost cause. Jilin shook his head as he put his hand on Nina''s shoulder. He then murmured on her ears. "I''m telling ya, there is only one thing that would work with Chef Krune, a very straightforward and clear action. These words with hidden meanings will not bring you anywhere." Nina got red once more. She felt helpless about how everyone seemed to know what she wanted except Krune himself. Finally, she made a decision. Since everyone already knows, what''s the point in continuing to hide her feelings like this? Her body filled with determination as she once again looked at Krune. "Chef Krune!" Krune, who was about to go wash his hands, looked back at Nina, puzzled. "Yes?" Nina then took a deep breath before saying. "I love you!" Jilin and Jalo froze in place. Bai and the others at the door, who were just about to go back to work, immediately turned around as fast as lightning. ''It''s here!'' But the most surprising thing was still to come. Krune looked straight at Nina before nodding his head. "I know. I love you too." *Boom!* Everyone''s heads exploded! Well, not literally. But still, they felt like that. They never thought that Krune also had feelings for Nina. He hid it just way too well! Nina also didn''t know what to do. She had never expected that her confession would go this well! She kept avoiding Krune''s eyes as her entire body felt hot with excitement. But it was then that Bai, Krune''s oldest employee, felt that something wasn''t right. ''Wasn''t that answer way too... bland?'' He looked around as he noticed everyone''s eager eyes too. In the end, as the oldest employee and the second in command, he had to put his body on the line to confirm the situation. "Ahem... Chef Krune..." Krune looked at Bai, puzzled. "Oh, you are here. Did you finish taking the orders?" Bai narrowed his eyes after hearing that. ''Is it really the time for you to care about the order?'' As his doubts increased, he decided to act. "Cough, cough... I haven''t. But I have another question..." "Do you love me too?" Everyone almost passed out! Bai, don''t you have a wife and kid already? Since when did you become gay?! However, they soon understood what Bai was trying to do. Sure enough, Krune nodded his head. "Of course! I love everyone here. You are all very important to me." *Bang!* Everyone fell with their faces on the floor... kind of feeling. Finally, Nina and the others comprehended Bai''s actions. ''That''s not the kind of love Nina is talking about at all!'' In all the four realms, no one can save the wisp''s EQ! Chapter 715: Nina Wants To Remember Jilin, who was by the side, felt quite bad for Nina. He was the one who said that she should be direct and take action. Could Nina be even more direct than this? He doubted that. He looked at Nina, expecting her to be tearful, but was taken aback right after. She didn''t look sad at all. She looked... angry? He couldn''t remember seeing Nina angry. Nina then stopped right in front of Krune and said. "Master, stay still for a moment!" Krune looked at her, puzzled. Still, she was his disciple. She must have a reason for asking that, right? "Sure." As fast as lightning, Nina held Krune''s head and acted! Everyone was taken aback. Nina was trying to steal a kiss from Krune! ''That''s it! Nothing can be more direct than this! If the idiot doesn''t understand it now, then Nina will really be helpless! Go, Nina!'' That''s the thoughts in everyone''s hearts. However, just as Nina''s mouth touched Krune''s, her head passed right through it... Everyone was taken aback once again. "What happened?!" A second later, Krune''s body became transparent and disappeared. In its place, a rainbow-colored wisp appeared as Krune''s clothes fell to the ground. "Ahh!" Nina was frightened by that and immediately jumped back! "M-Master! I-is that your true form?!" Everyone knew that Krune wasn''t a human. After all, nonhumans'' auras were very easy to identify. It''s just that Krune had never talked or shown his real form to anyone in the restaurant. Krune confirmed. "Indeed. I''m part of the True Spirit Race. Still, you really frightened me just now. If I had been just a half a second late, we would have kissed, you know? What were you trying to do here?" Nina quickly recovered as she looked at Krune''s form. Obviously, it was impossible to kiss a floating energy core in the mouth since there was no mouth to start with. Of course, Nina had long since accepted the fact that she wouldn''t mind which race Krune was from. She was just scared because of Krune''s sudden change in front of herself. "I was really trying to kiss you." Krune was taken aback. "Is this some kind of human habits in this place? I thought only those who had feelings for each other liked to do it. It seems like I need to do more research once again." ''Human habits your head! This isn''t a lack of EQ anymore. This is just denying reality already.'' Or so must the spectators have thought. Unfortunately for them, Krune really thought he was right. Nina shook her head as she came back and stopped in front of Krune. "Master, you are extremely intelligent. But when it comes to people''s feelings, you are worse than a kid. I did try to kiss you because I do really love you. Not as a friend nor as a master. I love you as someone I want to get married to. I love you as someone I want to have kids with. But alas, you''ve never noticed my real feelings. That''s why I tried to be direct. Why can''t you understand?" Krune didn''t know what to say. "This... errr... are you sure?" Nina almost vomited blood. "I''m sure. I couldn''t be more sure! I''m so sure that I couldn''t hold anymore and tried to take you for myself. That''s how sure I am at the moment!" *Wow!* Everyone watched the show in the kitchen. At some point, the customers in the restaurant also noticed the commotion. They stopped in front of the kitchen''s door while they heard everything. "Go, go, Nina!" "We are rooting for you!" "You can do it!" "You finally got into the action!" "I was wondering how long it would take. Well done!" Finally, Nina noticed the whole audience watching on the sides. Immediately, her face became red. How come it looked like the entire city knew about her feelings except for Krune himself? It was then that she received a Spiritual Sense message from her brother. ''Since it has already reached this point, you might as well go all in. There is no turning back now. Don''t worry. Whatever the outcome is, I doubt Chef Krune will cast you aside. Just put your feelings on the line and get over with it. It''s better to make things clear than living in an illusion.'' Nina nodded while trying to keep her composure. Krune didn''t know what to do with all of that. In the end, he used his Godly Energy to lift his clothes once more, got inside them, and started to change into his human form. This was a trick Krune learned a long time ago to not appear naked as soon as he finished transforming. Not that he cared, but he had long since understood that humans became very annoying when it came to naked bodies. "Alright. I understand what you mean. I''m also happy that you considered someone like me in that way. However, I can''t do it. I already have Feifei. Not only that, but we even have a daughter. Besides, I do really love them." Nina didn''t give up, though. "I don''t believe it! This wife of yours has never appeared even once, nor did your so-called daughter. I have never heard even a single word from them either. Isn''t Master doing that just to keep me away?" Krune shook his head. "I told you before. I can''t go to them at the moment, nor can they come to where I am. The thing that separates us can''t be overcome with simple teleport formations. Still, I also told you that I found a way to go back. I''ll be leaving in one year, and they are the reason I''m going back." Nina gritted her teeth after hearing that. "Then, don''t go back! I can be your wife instead!" Krune felt a chill on his back after hearing that. Feifei would definitely break his core into a thousand pieces if he did as much as bring up such a possibility. "Stop it! I don''t wanna die yet. I do love you, but not the same way as I love Feifei. It doesn''t matter what you say. I will never take another wife in my life. That''s something I can guarantee you." Everyone sighed after that. They all could hear the determination behind Krune''s voice. It looked like this Feifei that none of them had ever seen was far more important to Krune than they thought. Some of the female customers and the waitresses even felt a little jealous of Feifei. It''s very hard to find someone that determined to stay with them for life. If the spectators could tell that much, then let alone Nina. She dropped her head as tears finally began to appear in her eyes. "Then... then... give me something to remember you!" Krune and everyone else became puzzled. Something to remember him, why would she want that? Still, Krune answered anyway. "I gave you something already, no? Your chef skills. They should be something for you to remember as much as you want. Still, I don''t think it is a good thing for you to dwell on it. You should find someone else who also loves you as much as I love Feifei. I''m not good at reading others'' feelings, but I can at least tell this much." Nina stomped her feet on the ground after hearing that. "I want something more concrete!" "More concrete?" Krune pondered a bit, and an idea appeared on his mind. He then reached inside his Spatial Ring before bringing a wok out. "This is my baby. I love it very much and have been using it for many years. But since you are my disciple, I don''t mind leaving it with you. I know you will take good care of it." Nina and everyone else felt like crying. Who would give a used wok in this situation? Come on! "That''s not it! I want... I want... I want your child!" *Boom!* The entire place went into an uproar once again. "What?!" "Is she for real?!" "She''s crazy! She must be!" "She''s not! She''s fighting for her happiness! Why can''t you understand that?" "By stealing someone else''s husband?" "So what? In love and war, everything is valid!" Krune immediately took tens of steps back. "You''re crazy! Even if you kill me, I won''t do ''that'' with you! You hear me? Leave that for when you find a husband, not me. Let alone the fact that I would never leave a child behind. Even if I decided to do so, there is a massive issue with what you just asked! Just give up already!" Krune wasn''t lying. He seriously didn''t have that kind of feeling for Nina. He was more perplexed about how it turned out like this. Weren''t they supposed to be just Master and Disciple? What is happening with all these crazy requests? Nina had already thrown any dignity she had to the wind, so she really was going all out here. "I don''t have any issues. I promise I will raise it well. Since I can''t have Master''s unconditional love, I can at least have your child. Master is going to a really far away place, right? Chances are that you might never come back too! Don''t worry, you don''t need to tell your wife about it. As for that ''massive issue,'' I can overcome whatever it is!" Krune felt like crying already. "Out of the question. First, I would not try to do it for whatever reason you might bring up. But leaving that aside, I might as well tell you what this massive issue is." "My race has a huge problem with reproduction! If we try to reproduce between ourselves, then that is fine. However, a hybrid of us and some other race is nearly impossible! That means we would have to have sex tens, if not hundreds of thousands of times, for us to have just a small chance of getting one. Can you imagine that?" Everyone didn''t know what to say about this situation anymore. Still, Nina proved to be more obstinate than they thought. "I... I... I don''t mind!" *Wow!* ''Such resolve!'' Thought all the women present. Krune just wanted to die already. "I do mind! I do mind a lot! Even if I put all the days of my life until now on the table, I wouldn''t even get close to those numbers." Nina continued. "I might be lucky!" "Give up already!" "I won''t give up!" "Neither will I. If one doesn''t want it, two can do that." "I just need to change Master''s opinion." "Not gonna happen!" "How can you be sure?!" "Because I am!" "That''s not an answer!" It wouldn''t be before an entire hour later that they finally finished that argument... Chapter 716: The Time Has Arrived Krune''s obstinacy was heavier than heavens! Even if it resulted in his death, he would not betray Feifei. That obviously made Nina totally helpless. "Master, is there really, really, no other way?" Krune nodded with conviction. "Absolutely none! I will never betray my wife. But if there is something else I can do for you, then you can let me know. As your Master, I''ll do what I can to help you." Nina shook her head with a dejected expression. "But I want you." Krune sighed as he patted her head. "Try to put yourself in my wife''s position. Would you like me to do such a thing? I truly doubt so." Nina then took a deep breath and nodded in the end. However, she didn''t look so gloomy anymore. Instead, there was a relieved smile on her face. She then looked at her brother on the outside before saying. "I did my best..." Lino nodded as he entered the kitchen. "I know. At least you closed this page of your life properly." The waiters, Bai, and the customers looking at that also felt bad for her. Still, Krune''s loyalty to his wife wasn''t something that none of them had to right to complain about either. The females were even crying already. "Well done, Nina!" "I''m sure you will definitely find some even better!" "That was a good fight, girl!" Krune, on the other hand, looked at all of that, puzzled. "By the way, why are there so many people and beasts here? Oh, right! The dishes! Don''t worry, everyone, I''ll start cooking right away!" Everyone almost vomited blood! ''Sure, we were waiting for your dishes, but don''t you think you have something more important to take care of?'' "Hahahaha~!" Nina couldn''t help but laugh out loud. Sure enough, that was the True Spirit she fell in love with. "Master, I''ll help you prepare everything." Krune looked at her and nodded as if nothing had happened at all. That could be said to be one of Krune''s best traits and one of his worst defects simultaneously. Anyone else would feel awkward in Krune''s place if they still had to work with Nina after all of that. But for Krune, he simply didn''t see any logic in it, so he didn''t feel like there was a reason to feel bad. He would still treat his important disciple as he always did. Bai shrugged his shoulders with a smile as he turned around and told everyone else. "Alright, everybody. The show is over. If you are a customer, go back to your seats. If a worker, then back to your positions. The dishes will start to come out soon." Everyone watching from outside then moved back as Krune started to get himself busy. Still, he didn''t forget about his grand disciple. "Jalo, come with me. I want to see your work." Jalo was taken aback for a moment. "Ah! Right! Going." Sometime later, the dishes started to come out once more, and the restaurant returned to normal. Well, the customers inside still talked about what happened for several days, which flustered Nina every time she heard it. Once Krune returned to his room that night, Luvile closed the room with a Tribulation Lightning Layer. "That was quite a show, no?" Krune felt helpless. "I don''t understand what she could possibly have seen in me. I look very different, even in my human form. Have you seen any other rainbow-colored hair users in this place before? I certainly haven''t. Now that I think about it, I had a similar problem with Lofa in the past. Oh well, whatever. Now everything is resolved, so that''s fine." Luvile nodded. "What will you do now? Focus on cultivation?" Krune pondered a bit. "I think I will. There is only a single year left before the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher finishes gathering the necessary energy. Unless something ridiculous happens, I will stay in the restaurant to help my disciples and cultivate. As for the Golden Metal Cubes or the Dark Water, I''ll think about it later. My 1000 years Myriad Lightning Shields have just been upgraded to the Divinity Stars level not long ago, so I don''t need new ones. The Dark Water will be better in Heavins'' hands as well, so I''ll keep it with me until I arrive back in Dalin." Luvile agreed with Krune once more. "Very well." Just like that, the time began to pass once more. As mentioned before, Krune''s cultivation speed reduced a lot now that he entered the Divinity Realm. He knew that even an entire year would not be enough for him to get to the 5th Stage. Krune made sure to leave everything prepared for his departure. He helped Nina and Jilin with both cultivation and Spiritual Chef training. He even included Jalo in the mix as well. With his own Spiritual Dishes and what he knew about cultivation, the cultivations of the three soared. Of course, compared to him or Iem at that level, the three were still very slow. Nonetheless, their path would be a smooth one. Nina and Jilin finally entered the Divine Path Realm, which gave them their first increase in lifespan for those staying in the Godly Path Realm. Krune helped Bai and his most old employees with their cultivation as well. Bai was older than Nina, and his talent was not as great, so he would take some time to reach that level. Still, Krune set a good foundation for him. That would help him reach that level in a few more years for sure. Lino, Nina''s brother, had talent just slightly worse than his sister. However, he did not have his cultivation destroyed in the past like her. Because of that and Krune''s help, he also reached the Divine Path Realm. For him, who lived in the streets before, that was a dream come true. Another thing that happened during this time was related to Krune''s Soul Cultivation Technique. Krune had finally arrived at the 5th Stage of the Soul Control Realm. That was the limit of what Heavin''s cultivation technique allowed one to go. There were no other realms further than that. If he wanted to advance, he would have to ask Heavin if he had developed any realm already. As for Iem, he also hasn''t advanced any stage in the Divinity Realm during the last year. However, his Soul Cultivation was progressing very well. By now, he had already reached the Soul Enhancement Realm, which was the third one out of five available. There was also his Formations and Alchemy skills. Iem was working on formations for much longer, so it was the first one to achieve the Divinity Stars Level. As for alchemy, he would need a few more years for that. One year later, Krune was working in the kitchen when suddenly, he felt a pulse of Spatial Laws and Godly Energy coming out of his Foundation. That immediately attracted his and Luvile''s attention. "This... could it be?" Luvile nodded. "It''s the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher. It has finally finished charging." Krune then tried to send his Divine Sense into it. Sure enough, a lot of information appeared in his mind, information left there by Zule. It explained the procedures to activate the equipment, how long it would be active, what one could bring together, etc... After seeing all of that, Krune''s eyes lit up. "Hahaha! Finally, it''s here!" Nina, Jilin, and Jalo looked at Krune, puzzled. He simply started to laugh for no reason. "Oh! Sorry, sorry. Jalo, go to the hall and tell Bai to ask everyone to stay behind after today''s work. I have to talk with you all." Jalo nodded and did as Krune said. Jilin was still curious, so had couldn''t help but ask. "Master, what is it about?" Krune smiled but shook his head in the end. "You will know later." Krune then opened his communicator and sent Iem a message, telling him to come by as well. The day quickly passed, and the restaurant closed for the day. Everyone then gathered around the table in the hall as Krune brought his dishes out. He seemed to be in a very jolly mood as well. "It''s good that everyone is here. The passage back to my home is finally open, so I''ll be leaving in the next few days. From today onwards, I''ll leave this restaurant for Bai, Nina, and Jilin." Everyone was taken aback. "Master!" Iem wasn''t surprised since he already expected it. "Well, we all knew about it already. After all, Krune had told us that he would be going back in a year." Krune nodded. "There is no need to be worried. I talked with the Sky Shifting Sect, and they agreed to help keep this restaurant safe. I also purchased this land, so you don''t need to be worried about rent either. Oh, right! If any of you wish to enter the Sky Shifting Sect, I can arrange it for you. Just be aware that you won''t get any special treatment. Putting you inside is as far as I can go." Nina didn''t care about any of that. "Can''t Master stay for a little longer?" Krune shook his head. "I''ve been far from my family for way too long. I''m worried about what might be happening back in my home." Jilin then asked something else. "Is it possible for us to go visit you?" Krune shook his head. "It''s not. The passage back there can only be opened once. But don''t worry, the opposite is not the same. I will be coming back to the Godly Path Realm eventually. You just need to wait for me. Well, I''m looking forward to seeing how you guys turned out when I see you again." Chapter 717: Back to Dalin Krune also talked with Franlia and asked her to look after the guys in the restaurant after he left. As for Franlia, it was the same as doing nothing since she could simply give an order, and her subordinates would take care of it. Quickly, the days passed, and the time for Krune to leave finally came. He went to the place where he and Iem first appeared in the Godly Path Realm. Of course, Iem and a few others came to see him out too. "Well then, I''ll see you guys sometime later." Iem simply nodded, knowing that it wouldn''t be too long before Krune was back. As for the others, they felt a bit more sentimental, especially Nina. Krune, of course, was happy to see all of that. "Alright, alright. That''s more than enough for now." Krune turned around and sent his Divine Sense into the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher. Krune had received all the instructions from it after it finished recharging, so he knew how to proceed. Krune had to use the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher near the area he arrived. That would guarantee that the connected destination would also be near the place he and Iem came from. Simply put, Dalin. As for operating it, there wasn''t really a need for that. Once Krune gave the orders, the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher would automatically open the passage for him. Krune did exactly that. As soon as the order was received, the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher disappeared from Krune''s foundation and reappeared outside. Krune wasn''t afraid of someone recognizing it. After all, Iem had already used his Devil Flame to seal it, just like Luvile could. The pyramid-like equipment then began to spin at high speeds. At its tip, Spatial Laws of a level far above Krune and Iem''s began to gather. Suddenly, the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher shot some kind of silver ray forward. However, that ray didn''t go far. Just a few meters in front of them, that ray of silver light pierced through the fabric of space-time, disappearing inside. Not long after, a burst of Spiritual and Godly Energies came out of it. Yes, Spiritual Energy, the energy present in the Mortal Realm! From around the Silver Ray, a tunnel began to form as the energy at its border spun just like the pyramid. It quickly increased in size until it finally stabilized at around 6 meters in diameter. Only then did the silver ray coming from the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher disappear. *Crack, crack, crack...* *Shatter!* Suddenly, the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher burst apart into thousands of tiny pieces. Those pieces then turned into dust, which was quickly swept away by the wind. Sure enough, Zule wasn''t lying. The Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher could only be used once. As soon as the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher was destroyed, the portal it had created began to slowly close as well. Krune looked at everyone with a smile but didn''t say anything. Instead, he turned around a second later and shot inside the Spatial Gate. Right behind him, Nina had a conflicted expression. Suddenly, she gritted her teeth once more and dashed in the direction of the portal as well. Everyone sighed, seeing that. "That girl really doesn''t know when to give up." Nina ignored them and pressed forward. Unfortunately for her, just as Nina was about to enter the Spatial Gate, her body was suddenly locked in place. "Little girl, that''s not a place you belong to. Sorry, but you will have to stay." Turned out that the one who stopped was Iem. Lino had told Iem that Nina might try something like that, so he asked Iem to stop her if necessary. Sure enough, it was what happened. "Let go!" Iem smiled as he shook his head. "Not gonna happen." The portal quickly reduced in size until finally, it was gone. Only then did Iem release Nina from his Godly Energy Grasp. "I hate you!" Iem shrugged his shoulders in response. "Actually, you don''t. But yeah, I can see you are angry, at least. Anyway, the show is over. Let''s go back, everyone." This place was quite far away from Immai City, so Iem was also acting as a guardian of this travel group. Lino and the others comforted Nina as they all began to make their way back to the city. They knew Nina very well. This girl couldn''t really hate someone that easily. Once her anger disappeared, she would eventually forgive Iem as well. Well, it''s not like Iem cared if she does it or not. --- Dalin Universe, close to planet Caskin Planet... That was the planet where Krune and Iem had their battle, the same one where the portal to the Godly Path Realm opened. Right in outer space, a Spatial Gate began to open. Surprisingly, that Spatial Gate seemed quite ordinary. Other than the fact that the surrounding Spiritual Energy entered it, there was nothing different. Soon after, a rainbow-haired man stepped out. He looked to be in quite a bad shape, though. Thanks to Zule, Krune didn''t have to pay any price to come down to the Mortal Realm. However, it didn''t mean that travel would be pleasant. The Spatial Laws in the tunnel were terrifying! If not because Zule''s Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher kept more than 99% of it out of the path, Krune would definitely have died inside. Nonetheless, Krune was hit by them quite a few times. Of course, those were just external issues. Krune''s Wisp Core and Foundation were perfectly fine. He quickly took out one of Iem''s Healing Pills and swallowed it. Not too long after, Krune''s Human Form was healed once more. "Sigh... what a scary place that Spatial Gate is." Luvile agreed. "I know, right? I''ve seen even worse. After all, a Spatial Gate from the God Realm and the Mortal Realm needs a much longer connection." Krune could only imagine that. "Anyway, look ahead. It''s Caskin Planet!" As soon as Krune said that, his Divine Sense spread out. *Shwaaa!* In just a second, his Divine Sense spread through several galaxies. It was the first time Krune was able to see so many things at once. If he tried to pay attention to each detail, he would need a lifetime to finish checking it all. Sure enough, without Godly Energy to block one''s Divine Sense, the Mortal Realm was a Holy Land for High-Level cultivators and Demon Beasts. Krune''s Soul Power far surpassed those at his level. In fact, at this moment in Dalin Universe, Krune probably had the most powerful soul... with one exception, Heavin! Heavin was the creator of the Soul Cultivation Technique, after all. It was a lot more compatible with him than Krune or anyone else. Both he and Krune were at the same Soul Control Realm 5th Stage. However, it was much better in his case than Krune. As Krune''s Divine Sense spread, he noticed something wrong... Wars! Wars everywhere! At that very moment, there was one happening right outside Caskin Planet in outer space. Several thousands of Void Breaking Realm and above cultivators and demon beasts were locked in a battle. There were even a few Divinity Realm members on each side. However, neither of them were moving and only looked at the development of that battle. Still, this one could only be said to be a small scale fight. In Krune''s Divine Sense, he saw a few battles with tens of thousands of enemies on each side. Krune had only left for a bit more than a decade. How did things turn out like this? Also, why didn''t Feifei tell him anything? Krune was just about to open a Spatial Gate leading to the Wisp World when suddenly, one of the Divinity Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts in that battle in Caskin approached him. "Stop right there!" Krune turned back after hearing that. "I don''t have time. What do you want?" The guy narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean what I want? You appeared on our side of the battlefield. Who are you, what side are you fighting for?" Krune then showed a puzzled expression. Side? I just arrived in Dalin. I don''t even know what is happening here. How could I have a side? Still, Krune wasn''t in the mood to wait, so he decided to leave. "It doesn''t matter since I''m leaving. You guys can continue whatever you are doing." Krune then turned around once more and tried to open a Spatial Gate. Unfortunately, the guy didn''t let things be over like that. As soon as Krune ignored him, he attacked. Whatever reason Krune had to appear here would need to be answered after he captured him. Krune was at the 4th Stage of the Divinity Realm, while that guy was at the 7th. He believed that he had the advantage against Krune. "Why don''t you stay here for some more time? I still have a lot of questions for you." Suddenly, an attack filled with Space Laws came crashing in Krune''s direction. The Space in the Mortal Realm was who knows how many times more fragile than the Godly Path Realm one. Because of that, Krune''s enemy attack broke the balance of space around the entire region. Naturally, opening a safe Spatial Gate now would be impossible. Unfortunately, that only served to anger Krune. Purple Lightning spread out of Krune''s body and shot against the guy''s attack. *Boom!* But it didn''t stop there. The Purple Lightning didn''t lose any power as it shot in the enemy''s direction. This guy was really unlucky. Krune had combat power capable of surpassing an entire realm. And that was while he was in the Godly Path Realm, where the enemies were naturally stronger due to Godly Energy. Someone who cultivated with Spiritual Energy would be even more helpless. Chapter 718: Dalins Situation "What?!" The guy tried to use his Space Laws to run, but it proved to be even more useless. Krune''s Purple Tribulation Lightning ate away those laws, and it continued its pursuit. Finally, he was hit head-on! "Graarrgghhh!" Well, although he was unlucky to provoke Krune, he was also at the same time lucky that it was Krune. He became heavily injured, but Krune didn''t kill or destroyed his cultivation. As long as he spent some time healing, he would come back to normal. His companions who were looking with their Divine Senses were taken aback by that. Immediately, they shot forward, trying to stop Krune. Well, there wasn''t really a need for that since Krune didn''t pursue the guy anyway. Still, they were nervous. Krune just defeated one of them with a single move. Not to mention that the one who attacked Krune was the strongest between them. "Who are you? Are you with our Home Alliance or the Retaking one?" Krune showed a puzzled expression. "Retaking Alliance? Home Alliance? What are those?" As soon as he asked that, another group of Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts appeared. They were the ones fighting on the opposite side. "Hahaha! We finally got reinforcements! Thank you, friend. Let''s get rid of them while they are at a disadvantage." The guys from the Home Alliance grimaced as the enemies took the chance to strike. With Krune on their side, they simply stood no chance whatsoever. However, just as they were about to flee, something unexpected happened. *Zap!* *Boom!* This time, Krune attacked the so-called Retaking Alliance''s strongest member, a 7th Stage Divinity Realm Demon Beast. "Arrgh!" Just like the Home Alliance guy, this one did not have the ability to fight anymore. Well, Krune left him in the same state as the first one, though. As soon as that happened, the Retaking Alliance stopped their attack as well. "Fuck! Isn''t he on our side? Why is he attacking us as well?" Both groups then maintain their distance from Krune. No one dared to attack someone who could defeat their leaders with a single move. Krune scratched the back of his head before saying. "Sorry. It seemed like I affected the balance of this battle. Since I have no idea who is wrong or right, I might as well return the equilibrium. Anyway, I was planning to leave without getting involved in this thing. But now that things reached this point, why don''t you tell me what is happening here?" Everyone was taken aback by those words. How come there was a Divinity Realm Demon Beast who doesn''t know about the recent events? It was then that one of the guys finally recognized that rainbow hair and face. "Wait! I know you! You are that wisp from the last Heavenly Competition! Krune, right? I saw you in the multi-universal transmission of the event." Everyone else felt like being hit by lightning! Almost no Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast lost the last Heavenly Competition transmission. Obviously, they immediately remembered Krune''s face once that guy mentioned it. After all, It had been only around 150 years since Krune disappeared. Still, how did he cultivate all the way to the Divinity Realm so fast? Also, how did he become so strong like that? "Oh! You know me? Then things will be faster since I don''t need to identify myself. I''m with the wisp race. I just came back a few seconds ago and got attacked by this guy for whatever reason. I can see with my Divine Sense that wars are happening everywhere. Why is that?" They finally understood that Krune really seemed to not know anything. It was also a fact that Krune and Iem had really disappeared during that time. Well, if not because Krune was that strong, they would simply capture him. In the end, one guy of the Retaking Alliance stepped forward to explain. "Well, it started 11 years ago. The Dalin Protection Formation core was attacked by an unknown group. At first, everyone thought that they were crazy. After all, that was the same as buying a fight against all the Universes that control Dalin. Not to mention that the Dalin Protection Formation wouldn''t be able to keep the other universes outside if they joined hands to destroy the formation. The formation had always been there just to prevent illegal entrance. It wasn''t omnipotent or anything like that." "However, no one knew what they did to the Core of the Formation that it suddenly increased the power of the Dalin Protection Formation by a ridiculous degree. Even after using their full power, the Divinity Realm Experts outside couldn''t even budge the formation, let alone open it to enter." "Later on, we found out that it had always been a plan from a clan called Frunkan. We don''t know how, but they gathered almost all the experts born in the Dalin Universe and even got rid of the Soul Mark. Now, a war started between the remnant forces and the home ones. As you can imagine, the Retaking Alliance and the Home Alliance." Krune immediately found a problem with this story. He knew very well how the Protection Formation got strong enough to prevent the outside experts from entering anymore. That was definitely because the Formation Core was changed into the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere, Little Art''s God-Level Equipment. However, according to what he knew, Little Arty would take several decades or most likely over a hundred years to move his soul out of the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere. Yet, Krune had only been out of the Mortal Realm for 15 years. That would mean that Little Arty succeeded in the Soul Cultivation Technique in just four years. Is that really possible? Other than his EQ, Krune had never been an idiot. He only needed to think to this point to notice the main issue, time! ''Luvile. Is there a difference in time flow between the Mortal Realm and Godly Path Realm?'' Luvile sighed before answering. ''There is, time in the Mortal Realm passes ten times faster.'' Even though he was right, Krune still got shocked by that information. ''What?! Why didn''t you tell me? Doesn''t that mean that more than 150 years passed here since I left?'' Luvile then replied. ''So what? Nothing would change even if I told you. In fact, because you would be in a hurry, chances are that you would do some idiotic things to try to increase your level as fast as possible. You might have even died in the process. Don''t say that I''m wrong since even your wife, daughter, and friends refrained from telling you the truth.'' ''This... Still...'' Krune couldn''t see a flaw in Luvile''s argument. Luvile then continued. ''It''s okay. Think about it this way. Feifei and the others didn''t report anything wrong happening with them. If they were in danger, they would definitely have told you so. That means that Wally is still most likely keeping them safe, just as he said he would.'' Krune wasn''t the type to get angry to start with. He had always been logical, so he understood Luvile''s points. ''Alright. However, you know that I''m not idiotic enough to rush things. It would have been fine even if you had told me.'' Luvile didn''t mind. ''Still, I preferred to guarantee that. Just consider it as me trying to lessen the dangers that Feifei''s husband and Fie''s father would pass in the Godly Path Realm. That''s a very honorable reason, right?'' Krune''s couldn''t help but ask. ''Did you really think about something that noble?'' Luvile answered almost instantly. ''Not really, but it sounds a lot nicer!'' Krune''s mouth twitched. ''Fuck you!'' Luvile ignored the curse and returned to the topic at hand. ''Anyway, this is not the time for it. Shouldn''t you be dealing with the guys outside first? I don''t think they will keep waiting for much longer.'' Krune nodded before turning his attention to the two groups again. "Well then, can any of you tell me what the Wisp Race''s stance on this topic was? As far as I could see with my Divine Sense, almost no wisps were participating in those battles. Why is that?" Both sides looked at each other before saying. "Well, the fact is that they couldn''t take any side to start with. The Wisp Race doesn''t have any experts at the Semi-Divinity or Divinity Realm other than their queen. Or at least, that''s as far as we know. Well, now they have you, I guess? Still, they wouldn''t be able to contribute much to any side, so no one bothered to go ask for their help. You could say that they are simply a weak neutral force that no one wants to mess with because of Wally. The wisps you saw in those battles were probably low-level ones that joined for some other personal reason, not because the Wisp Queen said so." Krune nodded, satisfied. That explains why Feifei and the others would be safe since they stayed with the Wisp Race. As for the wisps fighting, there wasn''t much he could do about it anyway, so he let them do as they wished. "Well, that''s enough for now. I can ask the rest in the Wisp Main World. You guys can continue whatever you were doing. Oh, and sorry for intervening. I''m going home, see ya!" Krune then moved away from the chaotic space area and opened another Spatial Gate, quickly disappearing inside. He already knew where he was, so it would be simple to return home from here. Chapter 719: Its Good to be Back As soon as Krune disappeared, the Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts immediately returned to their sides. With each of their leaders injured, the battle returned to the same state as before. However, they also spread their own Divine Sense and opened their communicators to spread the news. Krune, the Wisp that disappeared over a hundred years ago, was back. He was now in the 4th Stage of the Divinity Realm as well. But above all, he could defeat Divinity Realm opponents with cultivations higher than himself in a single move. It''s a mystery where the limit of his strength reached. Outside the Wisp Main World, a Spatial Gate opened. From inside, a rainbow-colored guy stepped out. Naturally, it was Krune who had just returned. "Sigh... I''m finally here." Krune still had his special access to the planet, so it did not stop his entrance. In just a second, he disappeared from the outside and teleported directly above his home. The moment he appeared, he spread his Divine Sense and found Feifei and the others. He faintly smiled before disappearing again. Feifei was cultivating in a secluded room. Krune had told her and the others about the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher and that he would eventually come back. However, she knew that Krune didn''t know about the flow of time difference in this place before. Besides, Krune didn''t tell her that the Realm Barrier Dimensional Slasher had finished recharging. That being said, there was still another three months before Krune contacted her through the small tower device Wally gave them. She had her eyes closed and sat on the bed while Godly Energy flowed into her Chaos Meridians. Before Little Arty left the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere, he had worked with Feifei to create a link inside the ''Holy Land'' inside the Dimensional Sphere and the Wisp Main World. The Dimensional Realm inside the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere was connected to the God Realm. Thanks to that, even though the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere was gone, the Wisp Main World still received Godly Energy from there. Feifei continued to cultivate without noticing anything. Just in front of her, on the same bed, someone she had been waiting for a long time had just sat down to look at her. Krune didn''t create as much as a single ripple in the surrounding energy. It was as if he was part of the environment itself. Krune didn''t say anything and just looked at his wife for a long time. The total amount of time Krune stayed out was 157 years. Feifei, who was already older than him, seemed to have gotten a more mature air around her. However, as a cultivator with an unlimited lifespan, her appearance didn''t change since Krune left. Krune analyzed her body with his Divine Sense and was surprised to see that she had entered the Divinity Realm, now being in the 3rd Stage. Still, he soon understood that it was a matter of course. So many more years passed in the Mortal Realm. She and everyone else had ten times more time to cultivate than him. If not because Zule''s Space Heavenly Fragment had a ridiculous amount of Godly Energy, Krune would be behind Feifei at the moment. Krune stayed there for several hours, and so did Feifei. He didn''t get tired of that situation at all. Cultivation was an important moment. Being stopped in the middle of the process might affect the comprehension of laws, Godly Energy flow, etc. Just like that, two days passed in a flash. Finally, Feifei took a deep breath as the Godly Energy stopped flowing into her body. However, when she opened her eyes, a rainbow-haired guy was sitting in front of her. "Ah!" She almost jumped in fright as her heart skipped. For someone to appear right in front of Feifei without her noticing anything, that''s something that she didn''t think to be possible anymore. If there was, she thought it could only be Wally. Of course, she only took a second to come back to herself and recognize the figure ahead. "Hahaha! Feifei, I''ve been here for two entire days, you know?" Feifei''s eyes became tearful as she ignored everything and threw herself into Krune''s embrace. All one could hear in the room was the sound of a girl crying. What 3rd Stage of Divinity Realm? At the moment, Feifei was nothing more than a simple girl, just like any other one. "Idiot! Why did you take so long?!" Said the crying girl in the middle of her sobs. Krune patted her hair with a smile. "Hey, your Wisp worked very hard, you know? It took 15 years to go from the Divine Path Realm to the Divinity Realm and come back. You should be proud of me." Feifei vigorously nodded while she hugged him tightly. She was indeed very proud of him. Even without knowing the difference of time flow, he still came back after just 15 years of cultivation in a Higher Realm. First of all, someone like him shouldn''t have been able to come down to start with. The fact that he succeeded was already heaven-defying enough. Still, 157 years was a lot of time for her. And keeping the secret while acting as if nothing was wrong had been very hard, especially since she tried to stay strong in front of everyone else too. It wasn''t after several minutes later that she finally let him go. Still, her eyes were a bit red as she showed a bright smile. She quickly gave him a passionate kiss before leaving the bed. "Come, our daughter missed you as much as I did. Let''s not keep her waiting." Krune nodded as the two of them teleported away from the room. Somewhere else in the Wisp Main World, Fie was inside a Dimensional Realm, fighting against Liriu. Explosions, Laws, Elements, Broken Space. The place was as chaotic as it could be. "Dracophoenix Supernova!" "Elemental Convergence Explosion!" *Boom!* Fie and Liriu''s attack hit each other head-on, creating several more cracks in space and destroying the Dimensional Realm''s land even further. However, one could see a small figure being sent flying like a cannonball from the middle of the explosion. As one can imagine, that one was Fie. *Bang!* She hit the ground several hundreds of kilometers away, creating an enormous crate in there. However, Fie was in the Divinity Realm as well. Not only that, but she even surpassed Feifei after so long, now being in the 4th Stage. Although she did get injured in the attack just now, it wasn''t too serious. "I hate this Supernova of yours. It''s too overpowered!" Liriu, who was in his Dracophoenix Form, laughed out loud. "Hahaha! No complaining. I suppressed my cultivation to the same Stage as you asked. If I was using my full power, you wouldn''t have gotten away with just a few small injuries." Fie was still angry, though. "Even if your cultivation is suppressed to the same level as mine, your Dracophoenix Bloodline makes you too strong nonetheless." "Are you giving up then? You said that if you couldn''t block my Supernova at least once, you would lose our bet." Fie snorted. "Hmph! I will definitely succeed in blocking it. Just now, I got really close to doing so." Fie quickly got up and shot forward once more. All the elements gathered around her as the power of the Divinity Energy spread. Liriu smiled as he prepared to attack as well. "That''s more like it! Come!" Tribulation Fire, Fire Laws, and Fire Element converged around Liriu as he shot forward as well. His body shone like a sun, accumulating a terrifying amount of energy. "Dracophoenix Supernova!" "Elemental Convergence Explosion!" The two of them used their two most powerful attacks once again. They had the Myriad Energies Technique''s Meridians, Soul Cultivation Technique, and Godly Energy Support. Liriu might be suppressing his cultivation to the same 4th Stage as Fie. Still, their attacks reached the level of a Peak Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast. Space fabric was torn to pieces as the two attacks approached each other. However, just as they were about to clash, a particular rainbow-haired guy appeared right in the middle. Liriu and Fie were taken aback. It was just too sudden for them. They couldn''t stop their attacks at the very last second. Anyone hit by the two attacks from both sides would experience a power that even surpassed the Peak Divinity Realm. Still, the guy simply smiled as he extended his two hands towards the two skills. Suddenly, some kind of energy came out of them, creating some sort of dark barrier. Of course, that guy was none other than Krune. He had appeared there on purpose so he could feel just how strong those two had become after so long. As for the dark energy, that was the result of Krune''s several years of training, the Elemental Regulation Technique Advanced Stage! A fusion of all five main elements and laws! That was the first technique that Lucio, Krune''s Master, had taught him when he was still in the Core Formation Realm. Only after the Divinity Realm had he finally mastered it. Liriu and Fie''s attacks hit Krune''s Dark Energy when they suddenly began to change direction. They only had time to hear Krune uttering a single word. "Down." *Vup!* The Dracophoenix Supernova and the Elemental Convergence Explosion then changed direction completely and went straight to the ground. *Boom!* Just like that, Krune had stopped both of their attacks as if he didn''t do anything. All the remained was the two enormous craters created by those skills with a Dracophoenix and a Hybrid Wisp-Human inside. "Hahaha! Very good, you two. Those attacks had a lot of power." Fie and Liriu finally had time to process what happened as they looked at the reason for their failed attacks. "Dad!" "Uncle Krune!" Chapter 720: Many News Fie got up from the ground and also jumped into Krune''s embrace. "Hahaha! What took you so long?" Krune smiled as he patted his much older than himself daughter. "Aren''t you already over 170 years old? How come you''re acting like this?" Fie couldn''t care less, though. "I don''t mind it!" Liriu also came forward to greet him after returning to his human form. "Uncle Krune, welcome back." Krune smiled as he looked at him. "It seems like you were the one to have the most significant advancement after so long. Already in the 7th Stage of the Divinity Realm. Dracophoenixes are really impressive." Liriu scratched the back of his head as he replied. "That''s just the advantage of my bloodline. Still, I wouldn''t be able to do what Uncle Krune did just now. You made it look so easy to redirect both our attacks, and I''m sure you didn''t even use your Purple Tribulation Lightning there. I might be able to do it if I don''t suppress my cultivation, but it definitely wouldn''t be so easy as you made it look like." Krune nodded. "There is no helping it. I''ve been cultivating in the Godly Path Realm, after all. Everything there is much better for both cultivation and law comprehension. I was even able to reach the advanced stage of the Elements Regulation Technique much faster than I expected." Fie then showed an angry expression as she heard all of that. "What are you all complaining about? I wouldn''t be able to do that even if I did my best. At most, I could only try to resist head-on. Can you stop bragging about your abilities? Besides, why are we talking about battles and cultivation at this moment?" Feifei also got close as she nodded. "Fie is right. Forget about cultivation for now." Fie then asked. "Wait! Dad, you found out about the time difference between the Realms?" Krune sighed as he nodded. "Of course, I did. Especially after seeing all those wars happening around. It seems like the Frunkan Clan convinced Little Arty to leave his Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere behind. They also succeeded in completely blocking the Dalin Universe as it seems." "I didn''t expect that so many years would have passed down here. Wally should better give me an excellent explanation later." Feifei shook her head. "Senior Wally only did what he did because he truly believed it was the best thing for you." "Anyway, we can talk about that later. Fie, where are Darten, Tuan, and Asla?" Krune showed a puzzled expression. "Darten, Tuan, and Asla? I don''t remember anyone with these names. No, wait, I do remember one person called Darten. But Tuan and Asla are new." Fie''s expression softened as she said. "They should be cultivating in their homes as well. Dad, let''s go back home. I''ll ask them to come by. Besides, it has been a long time since I ate your food." Krune nodded absent-mindedly. Everyone left the Dimensional Realm as they headed to another place. At the same time, Fie spread her Divine Sense and contacted Tuan and Asla to come to Feifei''s house. Feifei did the same thing but called the other people and beasts that Krune knew instead. At the moment, only Ruik, Tiane, Cinty, Kiirion, Xankruna, and Dilo were present. The rest received the information from the Frunkan Clan about the start of the Dalin Universe blockage operation. Because of that, they all left Dalin Universe before it was closed down. That included Krune''s Master, Lucio, his other friends that had stayed here for some time, etc. Krune didn''t feel that they were wrong. After all, there was no guarantee about when he would come back. Even if he did, would he be able to leave Dalin? No one could guarantee. The only one who seemed to have no problem entering and leaving Dalin at the moment was Wally. With his cultivation, it would be weird if the Dalin Universe Protection Formation could hold him, after all. However, as mentioned before, Wally stayed most of the time inside a time deceleration formation. Because of his condition, he was trying to stay alive for as long as possible. Unless extremely necessary, he simply wouldn''t leave it at all. Krune arrived at his home and saw that quite most of the others were there already. Ruik was the first one to step forward. "Hahaha! So the idiot wisp is back. You certainly took your time, didn''t you?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "That''s weird. Shouldn''t you have been sent to the Wisp World in the Luvile Universe to take the position as the Rainbow Sect Master?" Ruik''s expression stiffed for a moment. "Ahem... I... lost my chance to go out." *Pah!* Tiane slapped the back of his head in anger. "Lost your head! Krune, you better give this guy a good lesson. Lakin had come here before after Luvile Universe joined the Dalin administration. However, this guy ran away and refused to take the position at all. Without any other choice, Lakin had to go back and continued to take care of it. It makes me feel quite sad since Lakin is refraining from starting a family of his own because of the workload." Krune narrowed his eyes. "Is that so?" Ruik didn''t relent. "So what? I''m still less than 200 years old. Once I go back and take the position, I will need to stay there for who knows how many years. Let me enjoy it for a while longer." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Why do I feel like that your ''enjoy'' has something to do with sleeping as much as you can?" Tiane and Liriu immediately nodded vigorously. Sure enough, Krune still knew Ruik way too well. "Shut up, you three! I''m comprehending Dream Laws, okay? Sleep is a good thing for me. Just leave me alone. Besides, it''s not like we have a way of going out of Dalin anyway. After all, we can''t ask Senior Wally to leave the time deceleration formation." Krune snorted, though. "Oh! So that''s the problem, uh? Very well. We don''t need Senior Wally to come. I can do it myself. In fact, I can do it right now. What about it, should I send you to Luvile Universe?" Ruik felt a chill on his back as soon as he heard that. For some reason, he totally believed that Krune had a way to send him through the Dalin Universe Protection Formation at this very moment. "Cough.. cough... There is no need. I still have to prepare my heart." Krune sighed and shook his head. "Fine. Lakin will indeed make you work until only your bones remain once you go there. I''ll give you... a few days to prepare." "What? Only a few days?!" Krune then looked at Tiane and Liriu. "What do you think? Are a few days enough?" Tiane nodded almost instantly. "Definitely." Liriu even added. "In fact, a day should be more than enough for wrapping everything for dad. I can even help if Uncle Krune wishes so." "You! You! How can you betray your husband and father that easily?" Tiane shrugged her shoulder. "You only know how to sleep. It''s time for you to start doing something else." Even Liriu already got tired of seeing Ruik sleeping most of the time. "That''s for your own good, dad. Who knows, you might even find something else you like other than putting your head on a pillow." Tears fell from Ruik''s eyes, and he headed to a corner. His family''s betrayal had really taken a toll on him. Krune and everyone else couldn''t help but laugh out loud, though. Right after, a man came forward and complimented Krune. "Krune, it has really been a very long time." Krune looked at him and felt like he had seen the man before. A second later, Krune finally remembered who he was. "Darten! Wait, how come you''re here?" Fie had told Krune she would bring him to meet Asla, Tuan, and Darten. Krune had never heard about any Asla and Tuan. Still, he did have a vague memory about a person called Darten. Darten was the son of the first chef Krune had ever met in his life. During that time, Krune had just discovered the joy of eating and cooking when he entered to test the food in a restaurant. That same day, he asked the restaurant''s chef to teach him to cook. In the end, that chef got moved by Krune''s passion for food and decided to give him his recipe book. That was the first recipe book Krune had touched in his life as well. In exchange, the chef asked Krune to help his son with his Foundation. That son just so happened to be Darten. Krune had then opened his Foundation for Darten to take a look and tried to answer all the doubts Darten had at that time. That had been the only interaction Krune had ever had with Darten in his life. He would have never expected to see the chef''s son in this place. Not only that, but he was already in the Divine View Realm too. It might not be much compared to Fie and the others, but it was already enough to give him unlimited lifespan in the Mortal Realm. Fie smiled as she and Darten held each other''s hand. "Dad. Darten and I are married. Besides, you are now a grandfather. Tuan, Asla, come here." A girl and man, twins, then stepped forward as well. This was the first time they had seen the wisp that turned into a legend in the Wisp Main World. "Nice to meet you, grandfather." Krune''s head spun. Just how did it turn out like this? Chapter 721: Grandchildren "Grandfather?" Krune was really surprised by that. However, he was the most curious as to how Darten came to Wisp Main World. Also, how did he marry Fie as well? "Errr... Sure, it''s good to meet you... I guess?" Noticing her father''s puzzled expression, Fie laughed as she began to explain. "Dad, I went to the planet you were born before the Dalin Locking Down plan started. Mom wanted to show me the place where you met. While I was there, I hid my cultivation as I traveled around. I ended up in the mercenary guild of Kaley City. It was there that I met Darten." Krune nodded. He had met Darten in the village beside Katiu Forest. Kaley City also just so happened to be the closest city to there. Considering that Darten was already preparing to enter Foundation Establishment at that time, it was understandable that he went to Kaley after that. Darten began to talk from this point. "I have always wanted to meet you again, Krune. The help you gave me back then was the changing point in my life. I was able to create a good foundation, which helped with my cultivation progress. However, when I arrived at the Mercenary Guild of Kaley City, I came to know that you had long since left. Not only that, but by the time I appeared, you had become a legend there and was selected to join the Divine Path Sect." "I was quite confused at that time. For someone from a small village like me, I simply had no idea what that Divine Path Sect name meant. Only after searching for a while, I came to understand just how small Kaley City was. To think that by the point I came out, you had already left the planet itself." "Still, I continued to cultivate hard. I couldn''t possibly compare myself to you, but I was also dead set on the path of cultivation. My efforts paid me back, and I finally reached the Core Formation Realm several years later. Of course, I didn''t stop there. I continued to cultivate while staying in Kaley City. After all, Katiu Forest was a good training ground for Core Formation Realm cultivators too." "It was then that I came back from a mission and met Fie. I won''t lie, the moment I saw her rainbow-colored hair, the first thing I thought was about you. Of course, it was just a passing thought. Even in my most ridiculous dreams, I wouldn''t believe that she had some relation with you." "Still, I just so happened to hear that Fie was looking for information about you. Hahaha! The funny thing was that I thought that Fie was your fan. After all, the Mercenary Guild of the Makui Planet often advertised how you became a Divine Path Sect member with your friends. You are the guild''s pride in there. Naturally, there were pictures of you in the guild''s system available for everyone to see." "Because of that, it was not too rare for someone to also dye their hair rainbow-colored. Still, since Fie was your ''fan'' and I was deeply grateful for what you did, I decided to help her too." Fie held Darten''s hand and continued from that point. "Darten then began to talk about Dad''s stories. He even told me things that were not available in the Mercenary Guild''s system. For example, how you try to take your clothes in front of everyone to show that you were angry. Hahahaha!" Krune scratched the back of his head after hearing this old story. He was only a three-year-old wisp at that time. Not to mention that he lived inside Katiu Forest most of his time. "Cough, cough. That was a minor misinterpretation, nothing worth talking about." Fie and the others laughed before she continued to tell the story. "Well, as I said, I was hiding my cultivation, so Darten thought I was only a Foundation Establishment girl at that time. He decided to help me around, and we would often meet. One thing led to another until he suddenly confessed to me one day. By then, I also already had grown some feelings for him. So what if his cultivation was several times worse than mine? I simply didn''t care about it at that time." Krune nodded, satisfied. He had never judged anyone by their cultivation level. He was happy that Fie grew to be a female capable of doing the same thing. "After that, you told him the truth and brought him with you?" Darten laughed out loud. "As if! Fie seemed to have a lot of problems at that time, so she didn''t stay for long after that. She left the planet after staying with me for a few weeks." Krune was taken aback. "Then...?" Fie sighed before continuing. "I had the things about the wisp race, Little Art''s Soul transfer, Dalin Universe, and all of that to take care of. The reason I was in Makui was basically to relax a bit after being occupied by so many things. Although I did like Darten, we were separated by universes worth of distance. I thought that bringing him together would instead be unfair, especially since he wouldn''t be able to go back once Dalin closed, so I left." Krune couldn''t blame Fie for that. After all, she was the Little Art''s Master. One must remember that the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere was the core of the plan to lock Dalin Down. Feifei would definitely wait for Krune to come back to Dalin. After all, Krune would have done the same thing for her. Fie, obviously, wouldn''t stay behind in Luvile Universe and leave her mother alone. "I understand. Still, isn''t Darten here now? How did that happen?" Darten scratched the back of his head, looking somewhat embarrassed. However, Fie was indeed Krune''s daughter. What might look like an embarrassing topic for others, for her, was just logical. "Hahaha! Well, it turned out that when I left Makui Planet, Darten had already made me pregnant. I found out around a month and a half later when my period didn''t come." Sure enough, Krune felt nothing strange about it. "I see. It wouldn''t be right to hide it from Darten, so you came back to tell him the truth. Still, I thought that you would have difficulty getting pregnant as a hybrid between wisp and human." Fie nodded. "I thought so too, so I didn''t really try to stop it. Besides, my libido is as big as mom''s, so during the little time we stayed together, we had a lot of sex." Feifei almost vomited blood! "Can you shut the fuck up?! Who the hell has a strong libido?" Suddenly, everyone in the room looked at her. Well, at least, everyone who had known her before Krune was sent to the Godly Path Realm. Obviously, that made Feifei even more helpless. Why did Fie have to inherit this kind of personality from her father? "Hmph! You simply can''t understand a woman in heat." Darten noticed the route this conversation was going and decided to help Feifei. "Ahem... shouldn''t you continue the story, Fie?" Feifei looked at Darten, who winked at her. Her eyes couldn''t help but tear a bit. ''Such a good son in law!'' Sure enough, Fie and Krune nodded almost instantly, as if they didn''t talk about anything strange at all. "Anyway, mom found out about it and came with me to Makui Planet. There, she spanked Darten for some reason before giving him only one choice, come with us to Dalin." Darten couldn''t help but sigh. "That was really terrifying, but I deserved to get beat. After all, I did impregnate your daughter before even meeting her parents." Darten was an ordinary human, so he also considered marriage and things like that important. He did really feel guilty that things turned out like that. Of course, even if Feifei didn''t say anything, he had already decided that he wouldn''t leave his children alone. That''s how he was brought with Fie to Dalin. Here, he received a much better environment for cultivation than ever before. Naturally, his cultivation speed skyrocketed. Although he can''t compare to Feifei and the others, he still reached a high realm. Krune didn''t seem to care that much about it. "Hum... Well, as long as Fie likes you, I don''t mind it. Besides, Fie looks a lot like her mother. From what I know, this kind of appearance is very arousing for humans. It makes sense that you wanted to have sex and reproduce with her. Children being born was just the logical path. Since she also loves sex like her mother, then even more so." Feifei didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. It was good that Krune considered her very arousing. Which woman would not like to be desired by their husband? Still, did he have to add the last part? "Enough about reproducing and sex, alright? Just finish the rest already." Fie nodded as she looked at Asla and Tuan with a smile. The twins then came forward while feeling somewhat embarrassed. They didn''t inherit their mother''s and grandfather''s lack of EQ, so they felt the same way as Feifei and Darten. "Cough, cough. Well, that''s how the two of us came to be..." Krune laughed as he patted their shoulders. It''s been over 150 years since he had left, so even his grandchildren were adults already. He couldn''t treat them like kids. "How old are you two?" Asla then answered. "We are 34 years old, grandfather." Krune nodded. "Well, at least I''m still older than you two." Chapter 722: Meal Krune examined their bodies with his Divine Sense and immediately recognized the Myriad Energies Technique. "As I thought. Because Darten didn''t practice the Myriad Energies Technique when he impregnated Fie, there was only a chance of you two being born with the Myriad Energies Meridians. Seems like it did not happen." Asla and Tuan nodded. "Indeed. We had to take the cultivation technique and read it before practicing." Krune then talked with them a bit more before looking at Cinty this time. "I see that Senior Cinty has reached the Divinity Realm as well." Cinty nodded. "Yes. However, Liriu''s Dracophoenix Bloodline is too overpowered. In the end, he surpassed even me." Cinty was in the 6th Stage of the Divinity Realm, while Liriu had already reached the 7th. The combination of bloodline, Soul Cultivation Technique, Natural Myriad Energies Meridians, and Godly Energy made him the fastest cultivator in Krune''s group. "I know what you want to ask, but there is no need to talk about that now. We can do that tomorrow." Naturally, Krune wanted to ask about this war situation in Dalin Universe. However, the Wisp Main World seemed to be out of this dispute, so there wasn''t really a need to be worried now. Krune then looked at the phoenix-like puppet in front on the side. Heavin wasn''t the only puppet, though. There was another one on his side that was in the form of a metallic orb. However, Krune could tell that it was a very high-quality one. Obviously, that was the Puppet that Little Art used to transfer his soul. Only then did the Frunkan Clan take the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere away. "You seem very... shiny, Little Art." Little Art laughed, not minding Krune''s weird expression at all. "I tried to use other types of puppets before, but I couldn''t get used to them. My outside appearance had always been a sphere, so I felt uncomfortable when residing inside something different. Heavin then worked very hard to create this Semi-Divinity Stars Sphere Puppet." Krune nodded. "My only concern was whether the puppets made with the Mortal Realm materials could hold the Artifact Spirit of a God Level Equipment. Seems like that concern was unnecessary." Little Art agreed with Krune. "Indeed. Heavin also had the same concern, so we made several tests before proceeding with a permanent ''body'' change. Well, Dalin is now being taken back thanks to the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere, so I''m quite happy with the result. I believe that my first master, Sentoi Havan, will be pleased once he finds out about it." Krune nodded and then looked at Heavin. Immediately, the Dark Water that can eat away Mental Energy appeared in his mind. He had kept it in his Spatial Ring and brought it with him. "Heavin, have you found a way to create the next realm of the Soul Cultivation Technique?" Heavin sighed after hearing that. "No... I have tried everything you can imagine, but I simply can''t find a bridge that could bring the Soul to a higher realm. Anyway, did you bring that thing you told me around a year ago? That Dark Water or whatever?" Krune nodded as he threw a Spatial Ring to Heavin. "It''s inside. Bring it out. It won''t escape, evaporate, or anything like that." Heavin nodded as he made a few liters of Dark Water appear in front of him. He tried to hold it with his Spiritual Energy but noticed that the water floated by itself. Gravity seemed to have no meaning to it. However, he noticed that the water began to slowly move in a particular direction. It''s just that even walking would be faster. "Hum? Where is it trying to go?" Krune then explained. "It''s the thing I told you before. This Dark Water is always trying to gather with the rest. It seems like that even after bringing it to another realm, this thing can still tell where the main body of water is located." Heavin nodded and then used his Mental Energy instead of Divine Sense to check it. Unfortunately, it was like Krune had told him exactly. The moment his Mental Energy touched the dark water, it was immediately swallowed clean. It was as if the dark water fed itself of Mental Energy. "Have you tried to keep feeding your Mental Energy without stopping?" Krune shook his head. "There was only a year remaining before I had to come back to the Mortal Realm, so I didn''t want to try anything new. I thought it would be better to leave it for you since you created the Soul Cultivation Technique. At least you will have much better ideas while working around this thing." Heavin''s eyes lit up as he nodded. "Very well. However, now that we found this dark water, I might not have been the first to create the Soul Cultivation Technique. At the very least, I believe that my Soul Cultivation Technique was not the first thing to generate Mental Energy. Of course, it might be just a coincidence that this water swallows Mental Energy. Anyway, I''ll make sure to take a good look at it." Krune nodded, not minding it at all. The Soul Cultivation Technique was great. Still, his cultivation at 5th Stage of the Soul Control was already good enough, especially here in the Mortal Realm. At the moment, it would be hard to find something capable of putting Krune in danger. "Alright, that''s enough of this topic¡ªtime for me to start cooking." Krune then went to the kitchen and immediately began to prepare everything. Of course, he brought many ingredients from the Godly Path Realm, so he cooked a Spiritual Dish straight away. Besides, this place had Godly Energy thanks to Feifei and Little Art''s Formation. That was all Krune needed to have them prepared. Sure enough, when everyone ate the Spiritual Dishes, they were shocked by what they felt. Krune''s description simply couldn''t compare to trying the dishes themselves. The Godly Energy inside was extremely easy to absorb. It was so much that everyone felt like they cultivated for several weeks in the duration of a single meal. "This..." "Dad, this is amazing!" "Indeed. No wonder you cultivated so fast. With dishes like this, it''s like you were cheating." Krune laughed before saying. "It''s indeed very beneficial. However, you will soon notice that this energy is quite impure. It will save you a lot of time for cultivation. However, you still need time to process the Godly Energy impurities inside it. After all, the Godly Energy in the dishes is not yours before, but from demon beasts or plants. As harmonized as I might be able to make them, it is impossible to reach perfection." Fie immediately asked. "How long will it take to process those impurities?" Krune pondered a bit before saying. "It depends on the individual, I think. Still, you shouldn''t eat more of these Spiritual Dishes during the next month. Of course, you can cultivate with usual Godly Energy during that time. All in all, it really saves between weeks to several months of cultivation, depending on what you ate and your level." Everyone was delighted to hear that. Not to mention that the food was really delicious! "Dad, what about the employees you left in your restaurant?" Krune nodded. "I have quite a few trusted ones who I left there. I gave the restaurant to them since I would not come back anytime soon. Well, to be honest, the restaurant itself isn''t worth much. It''s the chefs that make the Spiritual Dishes that do. In the end, I trained two disciples and one grand disciple." Fie nodded. "Jilin, Nina, and Jalo, right?" Krune confirmed. "Yep. Oh, right. Now that I think about it, Nina seemed to like me." Everyone was taken aback by that. However, they also knew how Krune''s EQ works, so they had to ask. Except, of course, for Asla, Tuan, and Darten. They even found it weird how no one seemed to have cared about that information, not even Fie or Feifei. "What do you mean by like you?" Krune, not noticing anything strange in the air, then explained. "The day I came back from the Kalame Sect, Nina suddenly confessed her love to me." Feifei, not seeming too worried, then simply asked. "What did you do?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "What else? I simply refused." Sure enough, everyone''s suspicions were confirmed. "What happened after? Did you fire her? Oh well, I doubt you would do so." Krune nodded. "But of course! Feelings aside, the fact is that she was also one of my disciples. The only problem was that she insisted on having a child with me." Initially, no one thought much about the confession since they knew Krune would never betray Feifei. However, they didn''t expect that the girl would be bold enough to ask for a child. Ruik immediately looked at Krune after hearing that. "Now that''s interesting. Why did she ask for a child?" "She said that she wanted to at least have something to remember me or something like that. I refused that as well, so it doesn''t matter much." Feifei sighed as she thought about the girl. She was angry that someone tried to take her husband. But at the same time, she couldn''t help but feel sympathetic. As someone who also loves the idiot wisp, he could at least understand the girl''s feelings. "Alright. Nina will eventually find someone, just like Lofa." Krune''s interest was piqued. "Lofa found someone?" Everyone looked at Krune as if he was an idiot, but then they remembered who they were talking about. Yes, he was an idiot. "Who else could it be if not Tasier?" "Oh..." Chapter 723: Dalin Universe Wars Situation After over 150 years, Tasier finally succeeded in conquering the girl, so the two ended up together. It''s just that they didn''t have kids. It couldn''t be helped. Different races always had problems reproducing. Ao''s kid was simply a coincidence, just like Krune. As for Fie, she was a half-human while Darten was a full human himself. Everyone enjoyed the food as they talked about things not related to serious issues. It was a very nice dinner for them all. At the end of the day, Krune''s friends began to leave one by one, leaving only Feifei, Fie, and Krune behind. Even Darten, Asla, and Tuan left as well. "Sigh... 157 years since I left, who could have imagined that?" Fie hugged Krune. "It''s okay, dad. Mom and I worked very hard during this time, so next time you go out, we will be able to go with you." Feifei also did the same as she nodded. "I won''t let you disappear that easily again, trust me." Krune smiled as he nodded. The three then spent some family time together, talking about other things. Finally, Fie got up once again before looking at Feifei. "Alright, mom. I know you have been holding yourself back for a long time already. Senior Cinty said that she would come by tomorrow to talk about the changes during this time. However, I''ll talk to her so that you can have a few more days with dad. I doubt a single day in bed would be enough to vent 150 years of solitude." Feifei''s expression darkened. "You brat! What the hell are you talking about? Don''t think about unnecessary things." Krune then looked at Feifei, puzzled. "Does it mean that a single day is enough? I don''t think you would be satisfied with that." The impressive thing was how Krune talked about that as if he was talking about breakfast. The worst part was that Fie also thought the same way as him. Naturally, Feifei felt helpless in such a situation. In the end, she gritted her teeth before saying. "Fine! I admit a single day is not enough. Make sure no one will come to bother us for a week!" Even Krune was taken aback this time. "A week?! I thought two or three days would be enough." Fie shook her head. "Dad, mom is already in the Divinity Realm. Her body is a lot stronger now as well. How could two or three days be enough? I hope your human form can be as resistant as her." Krune nodded. "Don''t worry, I''ll survive." *Pah, Pah!* Feifei slapped both Krune and Fie''s back head. "Shut up! Now, get out, Fie. Your parents have things to do." Fie and Krune laughed, not minding that very much. Fie then approached the room exit before saying. "Oh, right! I would love to have a brother or a sister, so work hard, dad!" Krune nodded. "You can count on my hardness!" Feifei almost vomited blood. These two are simply beyond salvation. Well, Fie kept her promise. She talked with the others, making sure no one approached Feifei and Krune''s house for a whole week. The next time they saw Feifei again, she looked a lot more ''relaxed'' than she had ever been in over a century. As for Krune, he looked a little pale, though. "Dad, are you okay?" Krune looked at Feifei with some fear in his eyes. "Terrifying! Remember me to never allow your mom to go without sex for more than a year again, okay?" Fie nodded. "Alright." Feifei''s face then became red as a tomato. However, she already gave up trying to fix those two. "Hmph! So what? I''m a very healthy woman, that''s all." Krune nodded without even thinking. "That''s for sure. Maybe a little too much healthy, I would say." Fie then asked. "What about my brother or sister?" Krune felt helpless. "Do you think it is this easy to impregnate a human when you are a wisp? You were a miracle already, you know? Things wouldn''t be that easy." Cinty, as a wisp herself, didn''t see anything wrong either. "Krune''s right. Kiirion and I had been trying during all this time but haven''t succeeded even once. As long as we are not cultivating in seclusion, we try it every single day. We might have had sex at least 20 thousand times or more during these last 157 years. Well, I don''t intend to give up, though." Kiirion, as a human as well, understood Feifei''s feelings very well. How could wisps talk about their sexual lives as if it was just like any other topic? He couldn''t understand. The weird point was that they could feel embarrassed by other things that should be way less revealing. "Ahem... Shouldn''t we move into the important topic?" Feifei felt like an angel descended from the heavens when she heard those words. "Definitely! Krune, Fie, you too." Fie showed a grim expression, though. "But my brother or sister..." Darten also heped Feifei as much as he could. "That''s fine. I''m sure your parents will work... hard... from now on. Anyway, let''s talk about the other thing, okay?" Asla and Tuan, who didn''t inherit the wisp''s EQ, also agreed with Darten. "Yes, mom. Otherwise, grandfather won''t be able to hear anything until night comes." Fie smiled as she nodded. Krune then looked at Cinty to hear her opinion. "So, what are all these things about this war?" Cinty took a deep breath and started to explain. "Well, what you heard before is somewhat true. Other than Wally and me, the wisp race didn''t have any other wisp in the Divinity Realm. Compared to the powers in the Dalin Universe, we really couldn''t offer any significant help to any side." Cinty continued. "Of course, considering that releasing Dalin from the grasp of the other power was what Little Arty wanted, we wouldn''t join the retaking alliance. However, even though the Dalin Protection Formation couldn''t be traversed anymore, it didn''t mean that there was no way of talking to the other side." "To prevent turning the wisps'' bad situation outside, I would not join the Home Alliance either. After all, it would give the powers there reason to start hunting the wisps too. All in all, it was quite convenient that neither the Retaking nor the Home Alliances asked for our help. At the moment, we are considered a weak neutral power. This state is the best we could wish for." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "What about Lakin and the others? Are they not at the Divinity Realm? After all, they do have the Myriad Energies Technique." Cinty shook her head. "They might have reached the Divinity Realm if they had stayed in the wisp main world all the time. However, they had a lot of things to take care of in the Luvile Universe. Naturally, they didn''t have access to Godly Energy there. Talking about Divinity Realm, your master stayed here for a few decades. He was already close to the Divinity Realm when you left, so he obviously succeeded in his breakthrough. Especially since he had the Myriad Energies Technique as well." Krune smiled playfully. He can''t wait to meet his master once again... and give him a good beating for old times'' sake. This had been one of his greatest dreams ever since he was forcefully taken as a disciple back in the Divine Path Sect. ''So what if you entered the Divinity Realm. You definitely won''t escape.'' Or so Krune thought. Somewhere in a particular universe, a certain master felt a chill on his back, not knowing why that happened. Back on the wisp main world, Cinty continued. "Well, the Frunkan Clan really succeeded in taking control over the Dalin Protection Formation. Not only that, but they even found a way of blocking the Soul Mark that Dalin Universe people and beasts receive when they are born." "Well, it was mostly because the outside Universe Powers were too complacent. They thought that even if the Dalin Protection Formation was taken, they could retake it with sheer numbers and strength. They never thought that the Frunkan Clan would change the Formation into a God Level one, completely blocking everyone outside." "Now, things are as you see. The Dalin Universe''s remaining outsiders are fighting the Home Alliance, trying to take the Dalin Universe Formation Core back. Only like that will they have a chance of escaping this situation. Otherwise, they will be slowly engulfed by the Home Alliance as time passes." Krune nodded. "I understand this part already. What about the chances? Who do you think will end winning this war? The Home Alliance or the Retaking one?" Everyone then looked at Little Art. Because he was still the Artifact Spirit of the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere, he still had a connection to it. Thanks to that, the Frunkan Clan never thought about trying anything funny and always kept him up to date. "So far, it seems like the Retaking Alliance has a higher chance of winning. The issue was that there are too many experts in the Dalin Universe by the time it was closed. There was nothing the Frunkan Clan could do about it since that number never goes down. After all, it is a lot easier to cultivate and comprehend laws here than outside. Experts of all levels staying here for training was way too common." "Does it mean that they will eventually take control over the Dalin Protection Formation again?" Little Arty confirmed. "That seems like it. It shouldn''t take more than 10 years or so until the Dalin Universe Home Alliance runs out of strength to defend the Formation." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "What do you want to do?" Chapter 724: Formation Plates Little Arty let out a sigh before saying. "What can I do? The fact is that there aren''t enough reinforcements to help them. In fact, I''m already very impressed with the Frunkan Clan. They had already reached this point and made their plans work this well. At first, I thought they wouldn''t be able to succeed, but they did." Krune pondered for a bit before saying. "Do you want me to help? You have done a lot for Feifei and the others during this time. You even went as far as creating a formation capable of sharing the Godly Energy of the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere after giving it up. Otherwise, Feifei and the others definitely wouldn''t have reached their current cultivation levels." Little Art was happy to hear that Krune wanted to help, but he shook his head in the end as he replied. "It''s okay. I gave the Frunkan Clan what they wanted, a chance. Even if you join their side, what could you do on your own? I admit that you are strong, but can you fight all of the Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts of the Retaking Alliance?" Krune nodded, as if he was stating a fact. "It''s highly likely that I can, to be honest." The entire room went silent to the point where one could hear a needle dropping. Feifei then returned to her senses before saying. "Stop saying bullshit. I might believe it if you were at the Peak of the Divinity Realm. But you''re telling me you can do it at the 4th Stage? That''s just tantamount to killing yourself." Everyone nodded, thinking the same thing as Feifei. Krune showed his strength when he blocked Liriu and Fie''s attack, but that was in a controlled environment. It was totally different from being attacked by hundreds, if not thousands of Divinity Realm enemies. Krune scratched the back of his head, not knowing what to say. "You know it was just a joke, right? I can indeed battle a few Divinity Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts at once, but there''s no way I can fight all of them alone. That would just be suicidal." Cinty couldn''t care less, saying. "I don''t care if you can or cannot. We can''t have a wisp joining the Retaking Side. Don''t forget, they might not be able to leave, and the others might not be able to enter. However, they can still communicate. If we have the wisp race joining the Home Alliance, the wisps outside will suffer. The Wisp Hunt might even start again." Krune felt helpless. That was really just a joke, but they all took it seriously. "Ahem... then forget it." Krune pondered a bit until finally, he had an idea. "Oh! The main issue here is that the Home Alliance won''t be able to hold the Formation Core, where the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere is located, right? What if I say that no one will be able to approach it? Would that be enough?" Little Arty was surprised to hear that. "Can you do that?" Krune nodded. "Yes. I have a few things with me that I got from Iem back in the Godly Path Realm. I doubt anyone would be able to access the Dimensional Sphere once I''m done tinkering with it." Little Arty was happy to hear those words. "That''s great! The problem is that Dalin doesn''t have enough time to wait for their own forces to grow. Many powers still aren''t convinced that the Frunkan Clan can really hold the Retaking Alliance back. As long as something can downright stop them from taking control over the Dalin Universe Formation Core, that will force the others'' stances to change." Krune nodded. He wouldn''t intervene in the battles that will happen, but he can at least guarantee that Little Arty would have his wishes fulfilled. As for the war, deaths, and things like that, Krune didn''t mind it too much. If the Dalin residents wanted to take the universe back and be free, sacrifices would be necessary. There was no other way around it. Little Arty couldn''t hold his curiosity in the end. "How are you going to do it?" Krune nodded. "As I mentioned during our meal last time, Iem and I went through a lot of things together in the Godly Path Realm. Before I left, he passed me a Spatial Ring with several formations that he got from the Formation Guild of the Godly Path Realm. They''re just like the formation plates that we use here in the Mortal Realm. There is no need for me to create them. I just need to position the plates in the right places." Feifei''s interest immediately got piqued. "Are those God-Level Formation Plates?" Krune laughed when he saw Feifei''s bright eyes. Sure enough, a Formation Master like her would be excited with something like this. "That''s correct. Don''t worry, Iem left a few more different ones inside as well." Krune then transferred the formation plates he was going to use to another spatial ring and gave the rest to Feifei. "These are all God-Level Formation Plates. They are above the Divinity Stars Level. You can research them as much as you want. Just try not to break them. After all, we won''t be able to find replacements or fix them here in the Mortal Realm." Feifei glared at Krune. "Shut up! I''m also a Formation Master. I wouldn''t do such a thing." Krune shrugged his shoulders and let Feifei enjoy the contents in the Spatial Ring. "Little Arty, Iem gave me these Formation Plates for me to use together with the Godly Energy Stones I brought with me. However, your Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere can already generate it on its own. You can simply create a similar connection formation to charge them, just like this one here in the Wisp World." Litle Arty agreed with Krune. "Don''t worry. The hardest part was to create one, which is already done. Feifei and I can simply create another receptor of Godly Energy that will charge your plates. However, how big is the protection that these plates can create? As you could probably imagine, a Formation Core that can hold a Universe Protection Formation is anything but small. The Dalin Protection Formation Core occupies an entire solar system at the center of the universe." Krune simply laughed after hearing that. "Don''t worry. Different from the Godly Path Realm, the Mortal Realm doesn''t have Godly Energy. Spiritual Energy only has a slight hindering effect on the spread of the Formation. Because of that, the plates can be spread even further. The amount in the Spatial Ring should be enough to create a big enough barrier." Krune then warned Little Arty. "However! This is not a formation created to last. It was made to be used on certain occasions in different places. Because of that, there is a limit on how long it can operate. Iem told me that the plates would wear out eventually the more they are used. It''s basically related to the quality of the materials used to create the plates. At most, the protection given by these plates will last 150 to 200 years, tops. During this time, the Frunkan Clan will have to convince the rest of the powers about their abilities." Little Arty wasn''t surprised by that. After all, he had several God-Level Formations built inside the Godly Energy Dimensional Realm. He knew how they worked. "That''s more than enough. This is already a second chance that we would be giving the Dalin Universe to take back what is theirs. If they can''t grasp this opportunity, then I can only say that they were destined to fail from the very start." Krune nodded and didn''t say anything else. He simply left it all for Little Arty to deal with. Little Arty didn''t waste time. He immediately contacted the Frunkan Clan, telling them about the extra help he found. Naturally, the Frunkan Clan head was delighted to hear that. It only took a few minutes for a Spatial Gate to appear outside the Wisp Main World, where someone appeared to take Little Arty. Krune had already explained to him how to operate the plates through a Divine Sense message, so Little Arty didn''t need to wait. With these issues resolved, Krune was left in the room with the rest. "Is it okay for Little Arty to go by himself with the Frunkan Clan?" Fie nodded. "Little Arty still controls the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere thanks to the Formation he and Mom created. The Frunkan Clan would have to be incredibly idiotic to try something against him since he could simply turn the Dalin Universe Protection Formation off. Once that happens, the Frunkan Clan would be done for." Krune was satisfied to hear that. They had left a way to protect themselves after giving the Godly Energy Dimensional Sphere away. To talk about the Dalin Universe war, only Cinty, Fie, and Darten came this time. In Darten''s case, he simply came to accompany his wife. Cinty was the first one to leave after confirming that Krune wouldn''t intervene in that war. But before that, she warned him that both alliances would eventually contact him to ask about his disappearance. Krune was already expecting that since he did appear in the middle of that battle before. Then, Fie was just about to leave with Darten as well when Krune asked Darten to stay. Feifei smiled as she brought Fie away, leaving only the two behind. Darten, of course, was a little surprised by that. Still, he complied. "Tell me, how is your father?" Darten''s expression then turned a little gloomy as he said. "Father passed away 17 years after you met him. He wasn''t a cultivator, so his lifespan wasn''t big to start with." Krune''s face also turned sad as he remembered the man who introduced him to the cooking world. "Well, that''s how things are." After that, Krune entered the main topic. Obviously, it was his daughter, Fie. Chapter 725: Wallys Request Krune then spent some time talking with Darten. In fact, it was kind of late to talk about those things, but he still wanted to hear more about Darten and his life with Fie. After all, he only knew Darten for a brief moment in the past. Later on, Darten left Krune''s house and went back home. Feifei then entered the room and embraced Krune before asking. "He''s not a bad kid, don''t you think?" Krune smile as he nodded. "Well, I already expected that. His father was a great man, after all." Krune and Feifei then sat together, enjoying each other''s company for a while. Finally, Feifei decided to ask. "What do you intend to do from now on?" Krune pondered a bit. "I will basically observe what will happen with the Dalin Universe. Although I said I won''t intervene, I want to make sure everything will work out well for Little Arty. After all, he did a lot for everyone during this time." Feifei wasn''t surprised by Krune''s decision. "That''s a lot like you. What about Luvile Universe, Luvile''s body, and that so-called Key you talked about?" Sure enough, Krune didn''t hide anything from Feifei. He told her everything regarding Zule, the Primordial Kun-Peng, the ''outside,'' etc. "Once Little Arty activates the Formation Plates, the Formation Core of the Dalin Universe Protection Formation should be safe for the next century at the very least. During that time, I intend to go to the Luvile Universe to check things out, visit and beat Master, Lakin, and the others. Then after that, I''ll head to the place where Luvile''s body is being held." Feifei couldn''t help but giggle when she heard Krune talk about him beating Lucio. It''s been his dream for a long time already. Krune then looked at Feifei. "Talking about the Formation Core, shouldn''t you be helping Little Arty build another Godly Energy receptor for the plates?" Feifei smiled before nodding. "I will, but not now. Little Arty will send me a message once the things are ready. Besides, we already have the blueprints and knowhow to do it, so it will be quick to repeat the process. He just needs to secure the surroundings and guarantee that the plates will be set in the best positions." Krune smiled. "That''s good, then." "As for the Key to open the exit, that''s something I won''t be able to go after for now. According to Zule, I will need to have a cultivation level at the Peak of the Divinity Realm if I want to have a chance at acquiring it. And that''s because I''m much stronger than ordinary cultivators at my level. I will need Luvile''s Power, my Godly Meridians, Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique, etc. Only after joining all that together will I be able to retrieve the Key." Feifei couldn''t help but say. "Well, we''re talking about something far in the future. How long will it take for you to reach the God Realm? Not only that, but reach a level where you can contend against those gods? Not too much of a point in being worried right now. I just feel like the further your cultivation goes, the bigger the mess you get involved with." Krune sighed. "Luvile often says that I''m a practitioner of Calamity Laws. Sometimes even I think that he might be right." Feifei laughed. "Hahaha! Indeed, that would be very fitting of you." Krune scratched his head in helplessness, but it was then that she held his hands and said. "However, I''ll be there every time calamity strikes, so make sure to not disappear without me again." Krune kissed Feifei and nodded. "I definitely won''t go alone. Unless another Wally comes out of nowhere and throws me inside another Realm again." Feifei couldn''t help but laugh out loud. "Hahaha! Don''t worry. I''ll kick Wally''s ass if he does that again." "Oh, right! Have you talked with him already?" Krune shook his head. "I wonder if he even knows that I''m here." Suddenly, a Divine Sense message reached Feifei and Krune at the same time. "I''ve noticed. I felt your presence in the Dalin Universe the moment you reappeared." Feifei glared in a certain direction before saying. "Don''t you feel ashamed to be spying on us while we''re alone?" Wally didn''t seem to care, though. "Does it matter? I made sure to keep silent for the past few days until you and Krune could have your time... By the way, girl. I''ve seen several different races copulating in the past with my Divine Sense, but I have to admit, you are quite savage." Feifei almost exploded with embarrassment right there. "You were watching?! Fuck you!" Wally laughed at her answer, though. "Hahaha! Alright, alright. I''m joking. I just heard the part where Kruen said that it was terrifying. I left you two alone once I noticed you couldn''t hold your urges anymore." Feifei''s mouth twitched. ''Couldn''t he say it more nicely? What bullshit does he mean by me not holding my urges anymore?'' ... ''Well, I really couldn''t, though.'' Of course, Feifei didn''t admit it out loud. Wally then focused on Krune. "I''m keeping myself inside a Time Formation, reducing the time flow inside. I won''t be able to leave unless necessary, so how about you come and see me?" Krune didn''t mind. "Sure. Where are you at the moment? Are you in Dalin?" "No. I''m in Luvile Universe at the moment." Sure enough, for someone at Luvile''s God Level, the distance between the Mortal Realm universes didn''t mean that much when communicating. Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "How will Krune leave Dalin then? Even that teleport formation that Mohie Larks left in Dalin doesn''t work anymore because of the change in the Protection Formation. It can''t pierce through the barrier anymore. Also, the hidden point that Krune and I used to enter Dalin was fixed now that the Formation had become a God-Level one." Krune answered that question instead. "Don''t worry, I don''t need Wally''s help to pierce through the Dalin Protection Formation. I''m more than capable of doing it alone. My comprehension of the Purple Tribulation Lightning laws increased a lot in the Godly Path Realm. That will be more than enough to create a small hole without damaging the Formation." Wally was already expecting to hear that. "Alright. I''ll leave you two alone. Come see me at this location once you arrive. There is no need to hurry, though. Take your time." Soon after, Wally''s Divine Sense disappeared. Feifei then looked at Krune before saying. "I''m going as well. It''s been years since the Dalin Protection Formation has changed. I want to see my parents again." Krune didn''t mind. "We might as well bring the others. Besides, there''s a certain double-headed snake who won''t be able to flee anymore." Feifei chuckled as she kept embracing Krune. Krune then changed the topic. "Oh, right! What about Liriu''s situation? Did the Dragon and Phoenix Clan find him in the end?" Feifei nodded. "Not really. Liriu had appeared by himself while outside, but that''s because he didn''t want to leave hiding forever. He went to talk with the Dragon and Phoenix Clan once his power had reached the level where he could take care of himself." Krune''s interest was immediately piqued. "Oh! And what happened?" Feifei continued. "Well, there wasn''t much that the Phoenixes and Dragons could do since Liriu was already strong enough to force his control over them. However, Liriu made it very clear. He had no intention whatsoever of controlling anyone. He had made a few appearances in other places, doing precisely the same thing." "Laka and Laex also stepped forward to help. The situation between Liriu and the two races is quite ambiguous now. If they could kill Liriu easily, they would prefer to do so. However, trying it now might generate another Calamity instead. Besides, Liriu kept his promise and didn''t take control over anyone of them. That being said, they have no reason to really request a full-force attack on him." Krune nodded, already quite satisfied with that result. "This will continue like that for a long time. There will always be that fear of ''what if Liriu changes his mind one day'' in their heads. But as more time passes, the lesser their worries will become. All Liriu has to do is keep himself safe and not give them a reason to think otherwise." Feifei nodded. That was what Liriu was exactly doing. Krune then remembered two missing people. "By the way, where has Dilo and Xankruan gone to?" "You know that the Frunkan Clan found a way to get rid of the Soul Marks that everyone who is born in Dalin has, right? The two of them had their marks removed as well and left Dalin after that. They wanted to go explore the Universes on their own. I don''t even know where they are at the moment." Krune nodded, not minding too much. It was up to them what they wanted to do. "And Wamie? Did she stay in her sect in the Luvile Universe?" Feifei nodded. "She did. She helped a lot during the transition of the slot of Dalin to our Luvile Universe too. The transition took quite some time since the Luvile Universe didn''t have a multi-universal Spatial Gate before. After that was completed, she used it to start to investigate who killed her protector during the Holy Land event. She had been gone since then. But I believe if you ask the All Life Sect Sacred Land, you can probably find her location." Krune nodded. That was Wamie''s problem, and he believes she probably wouldn''t ask for help to start with. That being said, he had no intention of intervening. With that issue resolved, Krune asked another thing from the past. "You and I are already in the Divinity Realm. Do you intend to go take Xanio''s Soul back from the Luvile Universe Underworld?" Xanio was the person who told Feifei about the pursuit of the Sacred Lands for the first time, which was also the reason why they decided to go to Dalin. (Chapter 206) Feifei nodded. "I do. However, I achieved the Divinity Realm in Dalin, so I haven''t had the chance yet. Besides, I reached the Divinity Realm several times faster than Xanio could possibly have expected. That being said, his memories should still be fine in there." Krune agreed with that thought. "That''s good, then. I will not leave immediately, but stay here for a few months. I don''t want to think about cultivation and everything else from now on. It''s time for me to give myself some rest as well." Feifei was more than happy to hear that. "Then, I will gladly join you. Hahaha!" Krune also laughed before saying. "Perhaps, Fie will really get a brother or a sister." Feifei chuckled. "Idiot." "Anyway, where do you want to go first?" Krune pondered a bit before saying. "I will pay Wally''s disciples a visit in the Elemental Dimensional Realm." Chapter 726: Visits Krune stayed for a few days in the Wisp Main World. Sure enough, several experts from the Dalin Universe began to appear there. After all, Krune had disappeared a long time ago with Iem. Now that he reappeared, he was already in the Divinity Realm and had a strength that far surpassed those at his level. The first one was the Dalin Management Supervisor, which was part of the Retaking Alliance. Obviously, he was also trapped inside because of Dalin''s sudden closure. Krune didn''t mind it and went to see him. Cinty, as the Wisp Queen, did the same thing. "Norzulun Odgas, I didn''t expect you to see us after so many years." Norzulun could feel the sarcasm in Cinty''s voice. He didn''t find it strange, though. One must remember that they had once tried to kill Cinty by using the Stellar Needle. "You know very well why I came here. It was for Krune." Krune shrugged his shoulders before saying. "Shouldn''t you be more worried about the war instead? Our Wisp Race has decided to not join any side, nor will we." Norzulun nodded. "Then that''s good. I''m here because I received the message about your return and especially your power. Although you can''t affect anything on a large scale alone, it would still disrupt the balance if you, Cinty, Liriu, and the rest of the Divinity Realm cultivators of the Wisp World joined too." Krune shook his head, not minding it too much. "Well, if that''s all you''re afraid about, then there is no need to worry. However, one thing is puzzling me. As far as I know, neither side talked to us because we didn''t have the power to make any difference. What makes you think that all of us together would make a difference now?" Norzulun simply pointed at Krune. "You, of course. You disappeared and then came back during the war. I can''t help but think that you want to intervene. Cinty and the others don''t scare me as much as you. Especially if you suddenly decide to make Purple Flames Equipment for the Home Alliance." Krune understood. Indeed, if he began to make Purple Flame Equipment of the Divinity Stars Level, that would be enough to disrupt their advantage. After all, Little Arty told him that the Retaking Alliance was on the winning side at the moment. "Don''t worry. I won''t make any Purple Flame equipment for anyone. I have no intention of putting the Wisp Race in the middle of this mess. If you win, the Wisp World will continue to be part of your Dalin. If you lose, the Wisp World will simply be another part of the new Dalin. Simple as that." Norzulun nodded, satisfied. "If that''s the case, then I''m relieved. I''ll take my leave now. Oh, right! Would you mind telling me where you have been since you disappeared? Or, to be more specific, did you really disappear, or was it Wally who hid you?" Sure enough, everyone still thought that what happened had something to do with Wally. Krune then smiled as he shrugged his shoulders. "I''ll leave it up to your imagination." Norzulun narrowed his eyes but didn''t ask anything else. He already confirmed what he wanted to know. As long as the Wisp World, or Krune, didn''t join the Home Alliance, that would be enough. "Oh, right! We don''t want you to join the Home Alliance, but our Retaking Alliance would be incredibly pleased to have you and your Purple Flame Equipment. We can even offer several advantages once we win this war." Cinty was the one to shake her head. "Even though you guys are on the winning side, it isn''t that big of an advantage. If we really join you and lose in the end, the new administration will get rid of our Wisp World. We will not take risks. Our Wisp Race will remain neutral until the end of this war. Well, we have always been neutral about everything anyway." Norzulun wasn''t surprised by that. It''s just that it didn''t hurt to try. After Norzulun left, another group arrived at the Wisp Main World. It was the Turo Clan, Iem Turo''s own Sect. One could already imagine why they came to see Krune this time around. The Turo Sect and Norzulun''s forces met outside the Wisp World. One was part of the Retaking Alliance, while the other was from the Home Alliance. However, the Wisp Territory was considered a neutral field. No battle could happen there. "Hmph! Let''s go." Norzulun then opened a Spatial Gate and left without a word. What they had to say was said a long time ago when the war started. There was no point in a conversation now. The Turo Sect didn''t mind that and returned their focus to the Wisp Main World. They soon came down and met with Krune and Cinty once again. "Hello, Krune. I''m Malaze Turo, the Turo Sect Head." Krune nodded with a smile. "Welcome to the Wisp World, Senior Malaze. Did you come to ask about Iem?" Malaze nodded his head. That was basically the only reason for their visit. "Yes. Iem is our Dalin Universe''s Heavenly Core Owner, after all. We''ve obtained no news from him ever since his disappearance. However, now that I look at you, I''m quite relieved. Would you mind telling us where you two have been sent? Also, why didn''t he come back with you?" Krune then began to explain what happened. Not that he wanted to, but because Iem himself requested him to do so. It seemed like Iem had a few people in the Turo Sect that he still cared about. Of course, Krune left outside things that shouldn''t be mentioned. "What, you two were sent to the realm above? This..." "But how did you come down? Wasn''t it supposed to be impossible? Wait, did you use the same method as Wally? Does it mean that Wisps can really come down without paying any price?" Krune couldn''t help but laugh out loud. "Hahaha! There is no way that it could be true, don''t you think? You are committing a big mistake here. What cultivation do I have now?" Malaze immediately replied. "4th Stage of the Divinity Realm." Krune nodded. "Exactly. I did not surpass the limit of the Mortal Realm. That''s why I didn''t receive any backlash. Even so, the travel back to the Mortal Realm was really terrifying, with a very high chance of death. However, I had my whole family down here, so I had to try. Besides, the method I used to do it can''t be used by any other person or demon beast anymore. That also includes other wisps. It was a one time chance that I got." "To be honest, I didn''t want to talk about it to you at all. However, it was Iem''s personal request to tell you about it." Krune then took a medallion from his Spatial Ring and passed it to Malaze. "The Ancestor''s Medallion. Iem had received it when he became one of the Heavenly Fragment owners." Krune nodded. "With this medallion, I can make one request to the Turo Sect." Malaze then took the medallion back and sighed. "Yes. As long as it is within the Turo Sect''s power, we will fulfill this request." Krune nodded, satisfied. He could see how serious this medallion''s existence was for the Turo Sect. ''It seems like Iem wasn''t lying about the power of this Medallion.'' "The reason I agreed to tell you the truth was because of this medallion. My request is one and only one. Today''s conversation will not leave this room. You should not tell anyone about the Higher Realms and the fact that I came from there. It would be very annoying if word spread." Malaze and the elders on his side nodded with resolute expressions. "Yes. With that, our debt is paid." Krune then continued. "Very well, let me tell you more about the things we went through together up there." After a few hours, Krune finally finished telling the whole story to the point where he came back to the Mortal Realm. Malaze and the others were shocked but excited at the same time. Iem had reached the 2nd Stage of the Divinity Realm by the time Krune came back. That was great news for them. "I can tell why he doesn''t want to come back. With such a heavenly place to cultivate, I wouldn''t come back either. That child is a battle maniac who''s always training, so the Godly Path Realm is perfect for him." Krune then asked. "I couldn''t do anything about his decisions. He was dead set on staying in that place. However, won''t it be bad for you if he doesn''t come back?" Malaze shrugged his shoulders. "Well, what can we do about that? Anyway, if we ascend one day, we might go to the Sky Shifting Sect and ask him to give us shelter. So it isn''t all that bad that he stayed." Krune smiled after hearing that. No wonder Iem still cared about his clan. It seemed to be a perfect place during his growth. "What about Iem''s parents?" Malaze shook his head. "They died a long time ago. It was before Iem became a Heavenly Core Owner. At the moment, there are only us here." Krune nodded, not asking further questions about that topic. "Very well, then. Take this with you." Krune threw a Purple Token to Malaze. "This is?" Krune explained. "I can''t bring Iem back, but I can offer some help in the future. If a day comes that you need help, you can do that here in the Wisp World. We might only have measly power compared to others, but we will do what we can." Malaze nodded as he put the token in his Spatial Ring. He already found out about Krune''s power from the reports, so this token might really come in handy in the future. "Alright then, we will take our leave." Krune nodded and saw them off. These kinds of visits continued for a few days until finally, everyone understood that the wisp race would not take any side. "Time to go to the Elemental Dimensional Realm." Chapter 727: More Fragments Krune and Feifei left after a few days when they stopped getting visits. Like in the past, they used the same method to open a passage directly into the Elemental Dimensional Realm, where Wally''s disciples stayed. Well, where their souls stayed, to be more exact. Krune didn''t have a real reason to stop here. He just wanted to see how they were doing. Then again, he also took the chance to tell them that there was no need to create the halos for the Chaos Meridians in the Godly Path Realm. As long as one went to a place with a lot of the specific power, Godly Energy would make it possible to get enough of it. After that, the Godly Energy Meridians would come naturally thanks to the Higher Realm laws. Krune then asked how their Wisp Core reconstruction was going, and it seemed to be as slow as ever. Before leaving, Krune brought out a few Top Quality Godly Energy Stones and gave those stones to them. Perhaps, Godly Energy will be the key for them to restore their bodies. After talking for a few hours, Krune and Feifei left the Elemental Dimensional Realm. A few days later, in the Wisp Main World, Feifei received a call from Little Arty. Soon after, she left to help him build the receptor formations between the Holy Land and the Formation Plates. Little Arty had already prepared everything. Positions, best arrangement, where to build the Receptor Formation, etc. Besides, the Frunkan Clan, with Baren Frunkan overseeing it closely, arranged all the materials the two of them needed. A few days later, Feifei returned to the Wisp Main World with Little Arty. From the looks of it, the Formation Set up was a success, but she was also exhausted. Sure enough, some news began to spread on both sides of the war. A new Protection Formation had been set up around the Formation Core. It seemed to be as sturdy as the Dalin Universe one, or maybe even a bit stronger. Immediately, the Home and Retaking Alliances'' balance began to shake once more. If the Retaking Alliance couldn''t breakthrough the new Formation protecting the Formation Core, they would never get reinforcements. After all, they can''t open Dalin Universe''s Protection Formation. The several powers that were still in a neutral state slowly began to bend to the Home Alliance''s side, increasing the balance. With more and more cultivators being born and maturing in Dalin Universe, the Retaking Alliance would be overwhelmed by numbers sooner or later. Krune ignored all of that, though. With Iem''s God Level Formation Plate in place, no one would be able to break it in the Dalin Universe. It was all up to the Frunkan Clan and their forces from now on. Instead, he focused on his travel back to the Luvile Universe. However, there was one more thing that Krune had been looking into. "Senior Cinty, did you find any available in the Dalin Universe?" Cinty nodded her head. "Yes. Although they might be scarce, the last Heavenly Competition had brought a few to Dalin. However, most of them left already, so I can only tell you the powers and the Universes they''re located in." Krune was more than happy with that already. "Great! I have the resources necessary to trade for them. I just need to know their locations." Feifei, who was in the room, couldn''t help but ask. "What are you talking about?" Krune smiled before saying. "I told you before, right? I only need two more Heavenly Fragments to finish my own Heavenly Major Core. In the past, I didn''t have the power to seek Ownerless Fragments. However, I now have the ability to do so. I will try to buy the Death and Destiny Heavely Fragments that I''m lacking at the moment." Feifei then asked. "What will you use in exchange?" "Hahaha! What else? I''ll use my Divinity Stars'' Purple Flame Equipment. Besides, I brought a lot of items from the Godly Path Realm used for forging. I doubt any of them will resist it." "But aren''t Ownerless Fragments impossible to differentiate unless you try to absorb them?" Krune nodded. "Indeed, so I can only try one by one. As for the ones that don''t work, I will give them to you." Feifei was taken aback a second, but she showed a bright smile right after. She wasn''t happy because Krune would give her the Heavenly Fragments, but because the Heavenly Fragments would make her cultivation much faster. Krune''s cultivation speed with Godly Meridians was too fast. Her fear was that Krune would ascend earlier and that she wouldn''t be able to follow him again. With the Heavenly Fragments, especially a Blackhole one, she would be able to catch up in speed as long as Krune refrained from cultivating every now and then. Feifei then immediately embraced Krune. "That''s great! I won''t let you go alone again! Who knows? I might be the one to ascend first, and you will have to follow me." Krune laughed out loud. "Hahaha! I would gladly follow you everywhere you want." Cinty shook her head helplessly as she opened her communicator. "Alright, Kiirion isn''t here at the moment, so you''re making me jealous. I''ll send you the Universes and the powers that have Ownerless Heavenly Fragments in their hands. As for negotiation, that''s up to you." Krune nodded, not minding that at all. After that, he gave Feifei a kiss before offering. "So, what about going back to Luvile Universe with me?" Feifei nodded straight away. "We can go right now if you want." Cinty then asked something. "How long would you intend to be out?" Krune pondered a bit before saying. "I''m not sure, to be honest. I believe it will take a few years since I also have to take a look into Luvile''s problems." Cinty and Krune''s closest ones knew about Luvile already, so they knew what Krune had to do in Luvile Universe. "Very well, have a safe travel." Chapter 728: On The Way Other than Krune and Feifei, Fie, Darten, Asla, Tuan, Lirio, Tiane, and one bound Ruik were going as well. They all had their own ideas of what to do in the Luvile Universe. Tiane and Ruik would be going to the country where Lakin receives Wisps of the entire Luvile Universe. In fact, as time passed, more Wisps began to appear, which forced Lakin to increase the country''s size. That meant a lot more work, which also explained why Ruik tried to flee. Fie and Darten would go meet Wang Milia and Xin, Feifei''s parents. They still haven''t had the opportunity to meet the twins as grand grandparents. Not to mention that Krune was sent to the Godly Path Realm before Milia and Xin visited Feifei in the Dalin Universe. Naturally, Feifei and Krune would be going there as well. Liriu would just go because he wanted to stay with his parents. As for Cinty, she would stay to take care of the Wisp World. Well, she wasn''t someone born in the Luvile Universe to start with. Not to mention that as the Wisp Queen, she had to show herself every now and then since there was no need to hide her cultivation anymore. Another point was that she could contact Krune to tell how the Dalin War was going. Heavin and Little Arty decided to stay as well. In Heavin''s case, Krune was even having difficulty talking with that guy. Ever since he brought the strange Dark Water from Kalame Sect, Heavin has been engrossed in his research. On the other hand, Little Arty wanted to accompany the development of the war together with Cinty. For him, Dalin recovering its freedom had a special meaning since it was his creator''s birthplace. After the mysterious Protection Formation appeared, the Retaking Alliance immediately thought about Krune. After all, it appeared there not long after Krune returned. However, the wisp himself didn''t appear anywhere. Simply put, there was no proof whatsoever that he was involved with it. Finally, Krune''s group left the Wisp Main World and opened a Spatial Gate. On the other side, they reappeared close to the new Dalin Universe Protection Formation. "So, can Luvile''s power open it?" Krune nodded, confident. "Don''t worry. Luvile already confirmed that his Law Eating Sub-Law can do the job, especially now that I have reached a culmination in this sub-law comprehension." Krune wasn''t lying at all. The Law-Eating Sub-Law was the second to last sub-law contained in the Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws. He finished comprehending it during his last year in the Godly Path Realm. By far, this was the sub-law that took Krune the longest to comprehend. Krune then touched the Dalin Universe Formation and released his Purple Tribulation Lightning. He didn''t attack the barrier but kept it concentrated on a single point. Gradually, the laws around that point on the Dalin Universe Formation began to get eaten away. After just a few minutes, the hole was already created. "Alright, let''s go to the other side." Everyone quickly left Dalin. Krune didn''t even look behind after that. Now that the Purple Lightning Power disappeared, the Dalin Universe Formation would repair itself. "Where are we at the moment?" "This should be the Terkol Universe. There should be a formal Spatial Gate like the ones Dalin had before here." Feifei then asked. "Wouldn''t it be easier to simply open a Spatial Gate directly there? Just like the Wang Clan Ancestor and your grand teacher did in the past?" Krune shook his head. "It''s possible, but we are not using a hidden passage like the one Cinia indicated in the past. We would be seen as we were illegally passing through several universes at once. I prefer to avoid those kinds of problems." Fie then asked something else. "Wouldn''t we be recognized by the powers who want to enter Dalin?" Krune shrugged his shoulders, not minding it too much. "So what? All I need to say is that we asked Senior Wally to bring us out. It''s no secret that we are all involved with the Wisp World, so there is nothing they can or dare do. Besides, it''s not like we need to be afraid of them. Hahaha!" Indeed. Everyone believed that the only one who could break through the Dalin Universe Protection Formation would be Wally. The powers that once controlled Dalin from outside tried to ask the gods to descend again and open it. However, the Gods in the God Realm seemed to not care much about what was happening in the Mortal Realm at the moment. Well, the reason was quite simple. They already began their preparations to try and leave through the exit. They all knew how dangerous it could be since they have the records of what happened in Luvile''s time. How could they pay attention to a simple Mortal Realm dispute? Besides, no one was willing to pay the price to come down either. "Besides, even if they don''t believe, it''s not like we''re afraid of them either. It should be pretty safe, anyway. Otherwise, they would have done something with Luvile Universe that is our house a long time ago." Everyone nodded, agreeing with Krune. However, Feifei couldn''t help but feel that something didn''t feel right. She just couldn''t tell what it was. Krune''s group didn''t take long to find the Spatial Gates connecting directly to further away Universes. Since a few ones in his group had Divinity Realm cultivations, the process for them to pass through was a lot easier. However, what Fie said did really happen. It wasn''t long before the Universes'' Powerhouses outside Dalin discovered that Krune and his group stepped out. They knew from which Universe Krune came from, so a few of their experts mobilized to intercept him in the middle of their travel. They only needed to take three multi-universal Spatial Gates to reach Dalin Universe. Before, Dalin did not have such a Spatial Gate, but it was built after Krune won one of the slots to control Dalin. Even though it had no use at the moment because of Dalin''s situation, the Spatial Gate still existed there. However, after exiting the second Spatial gate and preparing to use the last one, the members of the Galec Universe, Thakulo Universe, and Uline Universe appeared there. "Are you Krune?" Krune smiled as he looked at the Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts. There were eleven of them here, all with cultivations at the 8th or 9th Stage. "That''s me. What can I do for all of you?" A man then stepped forward. His name was Caxin, a Divinity Realm expert of Thakulo Universe. "We received reports from inside Dalin that you had returned there. That made us really surprised. However, just sometime later, we suddenly received another report saying that you came out. Obviously, we came straight away to see you. Sure enough, you really made your way out of Dalin. May I ask how you did that?" Krune nodded as if it wasn''t anything important. "I asked Senior Wally to send us out. I wanted to go visit my master in Luvile Universe with my family and friends, so he made an exception for us." Caxin and the other experts looked at each other. They weren''t idiots. They already expected that the answer would probably be related to Wally. However, they didn''t come all the way here just to ask that. "Krune. To be honest, we came here to ask for your help. Do you think you can ask Senior Wally to help us reopen the Dalin Universe Protection Formation?" Krune immediately shook his head. "Our Wisp Race''s stance in this matter is the same as before. We are neutral. We won''t gain anything from the side that wins since we didn''t help, but we won''t lose anything either. Don''t forget that the Wisp race didn''t have much until not long ago, so we are not very interested in what we could gain from it." Caxin narrowed his eyes before saying. "Are you telling me then that you had nothing to do with the recently added Protection Formation around the Formation Core?" Krune''s expression didn''t even change. He was already expecting such a question to start with. "That''s correct. I guess you''re just looking for someone to blame. Have you ever thought that if they can modify the Dalin Universe Protection Formation, then why couldn''t they create a similar level one around the Formation Core?" Caxin was tongue-tied. What Krune said was correct. Besides, they modified the Dalin Universe Formation way after Krune disappeared with Iem. Krune wasn''t in the mood to wait anymore, so he simply uttered. "Anyway, if you need anything not related to this war of yours, come to Luvile Universe and let me know." Krune then turned to the side and went to the next Spatial Gate with his family. Chapter 729: Not The Real You As they moved closer to the Spatial Gate, Feifei couldn''t help but feel strange. Something about the way Krune talked with those cultivators and demon beasts felt off. No, it started ever since he began to talk about serious things after coming back. The event just now seemed to have intensified that feeling. Just as they were about to use the Spatial Gate, she finally understood what was bothering her. Immediately, she sent Krune a Divine Sense message. ''Wait, Krune.'' Krune stopped for a moment and looked at Feifei with a puzzled expression as he asked. ''Is there anything wrong?'' Feifei nodded as she looked deeply at him. ''You... Aren''t you being way too overconfident ever since you came back to the Mortal Realm?'' Krune was taken aback by those words. He? Overconfident? Since when? Krune quickly reviewed his own actions since he arrived in the Dalin Universe. It was then that he noticed. ''Ah!'' Indeed, he had been acting a lot different since he arrived in Dalin. For example, just as they entered this Universe, Krune said that there was no need to be afraid of the other Universes'' Powerhouses. That definitely wasn''t something that Krune would have said in the past. He was the type who placed security as the top priority on everything he does... well, it didn''t always work, though... The usual Krune would have chosen to go through every Universe while keeping hidden to attract as little attention as possible. ''What''s wrong with me?'' Luvile snorted after hearing that question, though. ''Pretty simple. There are indeed only a few who could present a threat to you in the Mortal Realm at your current level. This overconfidence was simply the fruit of your own strength. It seems like even wisps can''t escape this outcome.'' Suddenly, Krune controlled the Purple Lightning in his foundation, striking his own Soul with it. It wasn''t just simple lightning as he used to temper his Soul in the past. He really used a strong bolt that made him almost faint. Luvile was a little surprised by that action, but he quickly understood why Krune did that. ''Do you feel like you woke up now?'' Krune nodded. ''Yes. Luvile, if I start to act like that again, just strike my Soul and make me wake up again.'' It was then that Krune noticed something. ''Wait! You knew that I was acting overconfident before, right? Why didn''t you warn me?'' Luvile replied as if it was nothing. ''Simple. I really think that you have the strength to be arrogant. That being said, why should I stop you? Perhaps, it would bring you some benefits in the future.'' Krune sighed before requesting once again. ''Please, don''t just ignore it. We are already falling into a lot of dangerous situations. Well, I will pay attention to not let it happen again anyway.'' Luvile didn''t seem to mind. ''Well, if you say so.'' Feifei noticed that Krune''s face went pale all of a sudden. However, just as she was about to ask what was happening, he looked at her again with a smile. ''Indeed, my wife knows me the best. Don''t worry, I won''t let it happen again.'' Feifei sighed in relief as she smiled back. ''Then that''s good.'' Fie and the others were behind the two, not knowing what was happening. "Mom, Dad, why did we stop in front of the Spatial Gate?" Krune shook his head. "It''s nothing. Your mother just reminded me of something. Let''s go." Krune then moved in the direction of the Multi-Universal Spatial Gate with everyone else. Even though he had come back to normal, the fact was that the Universes'' Powerhouses already knew that he was using the Spatial Gates. That being said, there would be no point in trying to go back to Luvile Universe while hiding now. Krune''s group quickly passed through the Spatial Gate, leaving only those Divinity Realm experts behind. "Caxin, what should we do?" Caxin shook his head. "How would I know? If Wally is really the one who let him out, we can''t do anything since he already made it clear that he wouldn''t intervene. Buying a fight against the only existence above the Divinity Realm in the Mortal Realm is a terrible decision." Caxin then looked at the Spatial Gate, where Krune''s group disappeared. "Still, there is nothing wrong with playing safe. Go find a few spies to keep an eye on that wisp. If anything different happens, make sure to warn us." The cultivator on Caxin''s side nodded before disappearing inside another Spatial Gate. Back in the Luvile Universe, the Multi-Universal Spatial Gate flashed. From inside, several figures stepped out in an orderly manner. As soon as that happened, three Divinity Realm cultivators and two Divinity Realm demon beasts stopped in front of them. "This is the Luvile Universe, one of the Universes responsible for managing Dalin. What''s the purpose of your visit?" Usually, those guys wouldn''t come out themselves. After all, Divinity Realm experts can''t really act like gatekeepers. However, because several members in Krune''s group were in the Divinity Realm, they had to step forward. Feifei was the one to come forward before saying. "I''m Wang Feifei, a member of the Wang Clan. My father is Wang Xin. We came to the Luvile Universe to visit my family." The guys were taken aback. "Oh, so you are the girl who stayed in Dalin Universe. How come you''re here? Wasn''t Dalin completely on lockdown at the moment?" Feifei nodded. "And it still is. However, it should be no secret to you that I''m married to a wisp. My husband simply asked the Wisp God, Wally, to help us pass through the barrier. That''s why we are here at the moment." Just as those guys were about to ask more questions, a Spatial Gate appeared nearby. From inside, a few Semi-Divinity and Divinity Realm experts stepped out. "Father!" Feifei was surprised by that and immediately rushed at the man at the front. The man then laughed as he hugged her. "Hahaha! So you finally found a way to come visit your family, huh?" Obviously, that was Wang Xin, Feifei''s father. Wang Xin then looked at the other newcomers when all of a sudden, his eyes stopped on the rainbow-haired guy. "Krune!" The Divinity Realm cultivators close to the gate were shocked when they heard that name. "Wait! You mean the wisp that got us the Dalin Universe slot? That Krune?" Krune felt a little embarrassed with all the attention but nodded nonetheless. "Well, you could say so." Immediately, one of them opened his communicator and sent a message out. From the looks of it, Krune''s return to the Luvile Universe was a much bigger issue than he expected. "Errr... is there something wrong?" Wang Xin then approached Krune''s group with Feifei before saying. "Well, not exactly an issue. Still, the Sacred Land heads definitely want to talk to you. After all, you are the reason why we got a slot for Dalin." Wang Xin couldn''t help but sigh after saying that. "Too bad it has been closed now. It was such a huge help for our Luvile Universe, but it is now out of reach." Krune scratched the back of his head. He already knew it was going to happen, but he didn''t regret helping Little Arty. Nonetheless, there was bound to be others who would hate it¡ªespecially Luvile Universe, which was considered quite a weak one out there. Chapter 730: Time for beating Wang Xin then turned around and opened a Spatial Gate, leading them to the Wang Clan territory. Krune and everyone else passed through it before it closed behind them. In the Wang Clan, Feifei went to see Milia straight away while Wang Xin stayed behind with the rest. It was then that Wang Xin looked at Asla and Tuan. "Fie, are these my grand grandchildren?" Fie nodded with a smile. "Yes, this girl is Asla, and the man is Tuan." Asla and Tuan quickly bowed to Wang Xin after the introduction. "Nice to meet you, grand grandfather." Wang Xin laughed as he replied. "This honorific is too long. Just use grandpa. That''s more than enough." Krune immediately intervened, though. "If you are grandpa, what am I then?" Xin shrugged his shoulders as he replied. "You are the man, or the wisp I hate the most. There is no need to address you in any way." "What?! Why?!" Xin snorted. "Hmph! There is no such thing as a father who likes his son in law. They are all enemies! So what if you obtained a slot of Dalin for our Luvile Universe? It will never change the fact that my little girl was taken away by you." Krune felt helpless. "But I really love Feifei..." Xin didn''t care. "Not as much as I do." *Pah!* Suddenly, a woman appeared behind Wang Xin, slapping his backhead. "Can you shut up? Can''t you see that you are making him uncomfortable?" Who else could it be if not Wang Milia? She had just come back with Feifei attached to her arm. Xin finally let it go after that. However, there was still one thing he had to do. "Feifei, Krune, we will have a marriage ceremony for you two." Feifei and Krune were taken aback. "Why would we do that? We have been together for almost 200 years, you know?" This time, Milia also agreed with Xin. "Your father is right. You two went to Dalin Universe while hiding. At that time, we couldn''t hold a marriage ceremony since no one knew about your location. Besides, when the Dalin Universe was finally open for us to go and come, Krune decided to go pay a visit to the Godly Path Realm. How unlucky was that?" Krune''s mouth twitched. Who the hell went to pay a visit? It was all Wally''s fault, okay?! Wang Xin and Milia had the same opinion and had no intention of letting it go, though. "Anyway, this marriage will definitely happen, or I''m not called Wang Xin. Or could it be that you don''t want to marry my daughter? To be honest, that would be perfect. I want nothing more than taking Feifei away from you." Krune immediately nodded without even thinking. "I''ll marry. I''ll marry Feifei as many times as you need!" Feifei''s checks couldn''t help but turn a little red. "Mon, dad, that''s enough. He would obviously do it if I wanted to." Wang Milia smiled as she nodded. As for Wang Xin... "Hmph! Of course, he would. I want to see who would dare say otherwise." It was at this moment that a voice appeared in the room. "Oh, yea? And what if this old man says otherwise? What will you do?" Suddenly, another group of people entered the room. Wang Xin and the man who just spoke looked at each other. One could even see sparks flying in the air due to the intention in their gazes. Any idiot could tell how much those two didn''t like each other. "Master!" Only one person could make Wang Xin have such a dark expression. Obviously, it was Krune''s Master, Lucio. "However, I also think it is the right thing to hold a proper marriage ceremony for those two. You are quite lucky, Xin. I will allow it since I''m a benevolent person, different from you." A vein popped on Xin''s head. "Benevolent, your ass! No one in this universe can be more unreasonable than you!" Except for the first-timers, the rest could only sigh. Wang Xin and Lucio had been rivals for a very long time. One must not forget that both of them loved the same woman, but Xin was the one to conquer Milia in the end. As a result, Lucio had never married in his life. Lucio completely ignored Xin and looked at Krune. "Hey, idiot disciple. You finally decided to come back to the Luvile Universe, and the first thing you do is come see that guy over there? Where is your respect for your master?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Wasn''t it you who forced me to become your disciple in the first place? Old man, you better be prepared. Don''t think that I forgot the beating you owe me." Lucio snorted in response. "Hmph! Do you think you have what it takes to beat this old man?" "Wanna try me?" "Sure! Let''s do it!" Krune and Lucio then stepped outside the room. Fie looked at Feifei and couldn''t help but ask. "Is it really okay to let those two fight?" Feifei sighed before saying. "Let them. Those two had been waiting for this moment for a long time already. That''s their own way to show that the other matter to them." Wang Xin didn''t let the opportunity go. "Hey, you two. Go to this coordinate. It is a completely empty space where you can go all out without being afraid of impacting others." Sure enough, he wanted to see the two men he hates fighting until they can''t stand up anymore. Everyone could totally see his intentions, including Krune and Lucio. Still, this fight would happen here or anywhere else. That being said, they simply ignored Feifei''s shameless father. A spatial gate appeared, and everyone entered. They all wanted to see how it would turn out. Well, to be honest, most of the spectators thought that Krune would easily win this fight. Lucio was just one stage higher than Krune in cultivation, being at the 5th Stage of the Divinity Realm. He could have cultivated more, but he had to leave Dalin Universe before it closed. Naturally, he lost his source of Godly Energy and returned to the common Divinity Energy cultivation. Krune could already trash almost any Peak Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast while he was still in the Godly Path Realm. Let alone now that he returned to the Mortal Realm. In fact, they didn''t know where Lucio''s confidence was coming from or if he was just an idiot. Krune then separated and flew far into outer space. Feifei and the others were only able to watch them through Divine Sense now. After all, they didn''t want to make those two hold back because of their presence. "Idiot disciple, this is a fight between us where I will teach how to respect your master. In any case, no external power can be used, only your own, do you agree?" Krune understood what Lucio meant and was trying to do. His Purple Tribulation Lightning was still Luvile''s power, after all. If he agreed, that meant he wouldn''t be able to use it during their fight. However, Krune simply didn''t want Lucio saying later that he only won because of that. That would not be satisfying enough. "Hmph! Master is still as shameless as ever! But there is no problem. I''m still very confident in my combat power even without using Luvile''s power. Bring it on. Today I will finally take revenge for all my grievances." Lucio laughed out loud after hearing that. "Hahaha! Too bad! You won''t be able to. As long as Luvile''s power is not there to pump your power further, this old man can still skin you alive." "Enough bullshit, come!" Krune immediately released his Domain as soon as Lucio said that. "Rainbow Domain!" He didn''t hold back at all. However, he didn''t include Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws into his Rainbow Domain since that was the agreement. Still, this was a Domain containing all five primary laws at culmination! "You''re dead, old geezer!" Krune''s shields spread out on the battlefield. He used his Advanced Stage of the Elements Regulation Technique to infuse them with all elements simultaneously. "Tribulation Shields Slaughter Formation, Second Form, Tribulation Stars!" Although Krune still called his attack Tribulation Stars, he only used the common Lightning Element this time. The impressive thing was that the Lightning in the shields had a black color. That''s because of Krune''s Advanced Stage of the Elements Regulation Technique. After all, one must remember that the total fusion of elements changed their primary colors. Lucio looked at that but didn''t seem to care at all. All of Krune''s 102 Shields then shot at Lucio at a speed faster than most Divinity Realm cultivators, and demon beasts could react. However... "Elements Regulation Technique, uh? Too bad... it doesn''t work with me." Lucio''s Elemental Irises suddenly became completely black. The moment that happened, all of Krune''s Shields and even his Domain stopped. "What?!" *Vup!* Lucio then flashed like Black Lightning, shooting in Krune''s direction. Even more frightening was that none of Krune''s Shields obeyed his commands. Even his Rainbow Domain was creating a gap where it didn''t touch Lucio. Krune was taken aback for a moment, but he quickly recovered. "Lightning Movement!" Krune immediately used his movement technique to avoid Lucio... or so he tried. Unfortunately, he felt like he had fallen into a swamp. He could barely move at all. It wasn''t Spatial laws, but something completely different! *Bam!* Lucio then kicked Krune''s body, sending him flying in the distance. "Idiot disciple, you are ten thousand years too early. Come back when your Elements Regulation Technique reaches culmination." What happened after was not a fight but a one-sided slaughter. Krune... began to get beaten black and blue by his master, just like in the past. Chapter 731: Elements Regulation Technique Krune was taken aback. All his elemental attacks were based on the Elements Regulation Technique. He had just recently arrived at the Advanced Stage after decades of training in it. Sure, he was several times faster than Lucio in doing it. However, how many thousands of years had Lucio lived already? Because of his trip to the Godly Path Realm, Krune hasn''t lived for even a century yet. Lucio simply had way too much time to train it. The problem here was that Lucio knew the fused form of the Elements Regulation Technique much better than Krune. That being said, the elements'' fused power through the Elements Regulation Technique didn''t work on him. The worst thing for Krune was that he had been using the Elements Regulation Technique since he was just at Core Formation Realm. Although he couldn''t fuse the Elements like now, he still used it to have better control over them. If it was anyone else, Lucio definitely wouldn''t be having such an easy time. It''s because Krune and the same Elements Regulation Technique have this advantage over him. Of course, Lucio also stopped Krune from using Luvile''s power since it wasn''t part of the technique. Even Lucio didn''t think he had a chance against that thing. "Old Geezer! You tricked me!" Lucio laughed out loud. "Tricked? Of course not! The Elements Regulation Technique is definitely an amazing technique that can increase your power. The proof of it is that even in the higher realms, you still never stopped practicing it. How come you are blaming me for your lack of comprehension of it? Now, stay still while your master teaches you a good and painful lesson." Krune gritted his teeth and immediately returned to his wisp form. "So what if I''m not used to the five primary elements without the Elements Regulation Technique support? I still have Space, Time, Light, and Darkness Elements and Laws. Old Geezer, you better be prepared!" Lucio didn''t care. "Bring it on, idiot wisp!" Finally, Krune recovered, and the two began to fight in an even manner. One must not forget that Lucio was given the Myriad Energies Technique in the past and already concluded their evolution to Chaos Meridians. This was just one form behind the Godly Ones. Other than that, as Krune''s Master, Lucio received Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique as well. After 157 years of training, Lucio also reached the 5th Stage of the Soul Control Realm. The Soul Cultivation Technique was different from standard cultivation. Being in the Godly Path Realm or the Mortal Realm didn''t change its progress much. With ten times the time available to train, not only Lucio but everyone Krune knew was able to at least reach the Soul Control Realm. They simply had a lot more time to do it. In a certain way, Lucio was even better than Krune in using Mental Energy in his attacks since he had a lot more time to train. Last but not least, one couldn''t forget that Lucio also had an Elemental Divine Soul. Now the two were in a situation where Krune can''t use the five best elements while Lucio can. One must not forget that all Krune''s strongest attacks other than the Tribulation Lightning related ones used the five primary elements. He could use Dark, Light, Time, and Space, but he was nowhere near as proficient as the five primary ones. Now that Krune switched to the other elements and powers like Space and Time, he finally regained his bearings, and the two started to trade blows. Feifei and the others saw how both master and disciple fought for over an hour until they finally began to run out of stamina. In the end, neither side left unscratched. Krune''s Wisp Ethereal Body was quite dim, and one could see several marks on his Wisp Core. "Old geezer, you are despicable!" Lucio, who wasn''t any better with his several injuries and ragged clothes, laughed without caring. "Thank you for the compliment." Feifei then appeared in the middle of those two idiots. "Alright, you two had your fun already. Let''s stop it here." Lucio nodded. "Hmph! Your master will give your wife some face." "Ha! It''s because of Feifei that Master can leave this place with just this many injuries. Just you wait! The day I fully master the Elements Regulation Technique is the day you fall." Feifei shook her head as she signed. ''Who are those idiots trying to fool? Both sides can barely move already.'' Krune then took his clothes and returned to his human form inside them. With that, they returned to where everyone was. Wang Xin then looked at those two and sighed in disappointment. "And here I was, thinking that you two would kill each other. I guess I can''t be that lucky. Well, seeing you two like that feels pretty nice already." Lucio snorted. "Said the guy who can''t withstand a blow from me." Xin narrowed his eyes. "Wanna try me?" Lucio shrugged his shoulders. "Look at that, everyone. I''m this injured and spent. Only in a moment like this, only then does he dare say such words. So shameless..." Xin gritted his teeth. "Who the hell needs that advantage? Good, I''ll give you the healings pills and as soon as you reco-" *Pah!* Suddenly, Millia slapped Xin''s backhead. "Enough of this bullshit already. I want to prepare for Feifei''s marriage ceremony." Xin bitterly smiled, but nodded in the end. After that, they went back into the Wang Clan territory. Krune and Lucio then sat down in the room to recover. After some time, the two were talking as if nothing had happened at all. "So that''s what happened so far, uh?" Krune nodded. "I was also surprised that such a thing like a Primordial Kun-Peng existed. Thanks to that Space Heavenly Fragment, I was able to make so many breakthroughs at once. Otherwise, I would still be in the First Stage of the Divinity Realm at most." Lucio nodded. "No wonder your attacks seemed a little unbalanced. You increased your cultivation way too fast, so you were not able to keep up with the changes." Krune nodded, not denying it at all. "Indeed. There was also that time in the Kalame Sect, where I spent two years to open that chamber. In that state, I did not have the chance to go out to practice even once. Well, I''m planning to slowly cultivate her in the Mortal Realm from now on. I don''t see a reason to rush anymore." Lucio couldn''t help but ask. "What about the God Realm''s situation? Shouldn''t you cultivate fast to arrive there as soon as possible?" Krune shook his head. "Did you forget, master? The time on the Godly Path Realm passes ten times slower. After I found about it from Luvile, I asked about the God Realm. The Space-Time there is even more stable than the Godly Path Realm. Because of that, they experience time one hundred times slower than us. Besides, I doubt that Sentoi expected my actual cultivation speed. Still, he said he could hold the gods'' horses until Luvile comes back. We should have more than enough time for it." Lucio nodded. His Divine Path Sect didn''t have any connection to the Higher Realms like those Universe Powerhouses. Obviously, he had no idea that the time up there passed faster. Cinia, the hidden protector in the sect, also never talked about it with him. "Anyway, your Elements Regulation Technique reached the advanced stage really fast. If you continue like this, I believe you won''t need more than a hundred or so years to achieve Culmination." It was then that Krune thought. "Oh, right! Why did my elemental attacks become useless against you, master? Even if your Elements Regulation Technique was a stage higher, can it really block my own?" Lucio nodded. "Hahaha! Too bad it only works between users of this technique. Yes, it can since we are all people from the same branch. Do you remember what you told me about Liriu? How his Dracophoenix Race makes weaker Dragons and Phoenix simply helpless against his control? You can think about the Elements Regulation Technique in the same way. I''m the Dracophoenix while you are the weaker Dragons and Phoenixes. Your attacks and Domains simply can''t go against this natural order." Krune nodded. "No wonder Grandmaster and Master had never passed it to anyone else. Still, you could have told me about that before." Lucio snorted in response. "As if! Where would be the fun in that?" Krune''s mouth twitched, but he didn''t complain. "Anyway, what''s the difference between the Advanced Stage and the Culmination? The sliver of will that Master left behind inside your token only knew how to guide me until the Advanced Stage. It didn''t have the memories of the fully mastered version." Lucio nodded. "The Advanced Stage Allows you to fuse the Elements and Laws. When you reach Culmination, it will allow you to shape the element accordingly." Krune became puzzled, prompting him to ask. "What you mean?" Lucio then extended his hand and summoned all five elements in a fused manner, which looked dark. "This is what you can do, right? Try to touch it." Krune nodded and did as his master said. Krune then felt the power of the fused five elements attacking his hand. Without a doubt, that was the same as his own fused five elements. "There is nothing different." Lucio nodded. "Yes." Suddenly, that black energy trembled for a split of a second. However, it still looked exactly the same. "Touch again." Krune nodded. The moment his hand touched the Dark Element, Lightning attacked his hand instead. However, its power was several times stronger than before. He also could feel the other four elements in there. "This... I see... You can still fuse the Five Elements in the culmination stage but choose a primary element to be the main power. At the same time, the other four will just support it." Lucio smiled. "Correct. I guess I don''t need to tell you just how much better it is, right?" Krune agreed with Lucio. "Yes. I can target specific elements against their weaknesses." Lucio laughed. "It''s quite funny, isn''t it? You go all the way through the difficulty of fusing the elements and laws just to return to the basics in the end. Even before we started using the Elements Regulation Technique, both you and I already used each situation''s best elements. Water against fire, Earth against Lightning, etc. What I''m doing now is the same. The only difference is the enormous support that the other fused elements give to the element you choose as the main power." Lucio smiled as he continued. "This is what we call ''return to the roots.'' In the last stage of the Elements Regulation Technique, we are making the complex return to simplicity." Krune was really surprised by that. However, something came up in his mind. "Master, how come even in the Godly Path Realm I didn''t find such a powerful Elemental Technique? Where did you get this thing?" Lucio was taken aback for a moment. "To be honest, I don''t know either. It was my Master who passed it to me, after all. You will need to ask him." Chapter 732: Everyone Arriving Krune got even more curious after hearing that. He quickly spread his Divine Sense, trying to find Lani Gobel''s location. However, it was hard to do so since the Wang Clan was too far away from the Divine Path Sect. "Well, I''ll ask him when I pass by the Divine Path Sect next time." Lucio nodded. "What about Luvile''s body? Are you going there now?" Krune shook his head. "I don''t want to take chances, so I''ll go buy the Ownerless Heavenly Fragments first. Only after I form my Heavenly Core will I go there to check. After all, the Sacred Lands seem to know about its existence." In actuality, Krune really wanted to go check Luvile''s body first. However, that was because he was still being overconfident. After Feifei opened his eyes, he immediately dropped the idea. Since he could increase his power with a Heavenly Core, why should he go there before doing so? Lucio agreed that it would be better as well. The stronger Krune was, the safer it would be. "Well, then. We just need to wait for your marriage first. Knowing how the Wang Clan works, they probably will invite all the forces in the Big Four to attend it." "Is there a need for so many people?" Lucio shook his head. "Not really, but the Wang Clan is different from sects. These kinds of events are incredibly significant to them. If it was in the Divine Path Sect, we would at most invite a few elders and your close friends. Of course, the news about your marriage would still spread, so quite a few more would appear in the end. It''s just that we would not force or invite anyone on our own." Krune had to admit that he would have preferred the Divine Path Sect''s way. However, he didn''t have parents or anything like that. Feifei, on the other hand, did have them. In that case, it wouldn''t hurt following their arrangements. Krune''s friends arrived on the Wang Clan planet one after another. After so long, all of them had improved by leaps and bounds. Of course, without the help of Godly Energy from the Wisp Main World, they weren''t a match for Feifei and the others. Still, most of them had reached at least the Divine View Realm. "Ao!" Krune immediately spotted the man in the distance. Ula and Ewan were also with him. "Krune! Hahaha!" Ao had advanced all the way to the Divine View Realm 7th Stage. With that, he already had an infinite lifespan as long as he doesn''t ascend or get killed. Ula was better than him, though. She was already in the Semi-Divinity Realm 2nd Stage. Well, that was to be expected since she had higher talent than Ao to start with. Besides, she received the Myriad Energies Technique later on as well. Both of them could have gone much further if they were in the Dalin Universe, but they preferred to stay like most of Krune''s friends. The surprising thing was Ewan. Krune only needed one glance to tell that he definitely had a connection to Ao. Except for his furry snow-white wolf ears and tail, he basically hadAo''s face. Since both Ao and Ula had cultivated the Myriad Energies Technique, their child received the natural Elemental Meridians. Ao then sent a question to Krune through Divine Sense. ''I heard it in the communicator. You went to the Higher Realms and came back. Is that true?'' Krune smiled as he nodded. ''Yes, but I was lucky enough to find my way back without having to pay any price. Too bad that I can''t use the same method again.'' Ao didn''t seem to mind. ''You don''t really need to come back anymore anyway. Once you reach the peak of the Divinity Realm, you will ascend in the right way. Just make sure to not leave Feifei behind.'' Krune agreed with him. Krune, Feifei, and the others then talked with Ao, Ula, and Ewan. Ewan was still in the Divine Path Realm, but that''s because he wasn''t from Dalin and didn''t have Godly Energy. Besides, he was also younger than Fie and Liriu. Still, for the Luvile Universe''s standard, that was already a frightening cultivation speed. More of Krune''s friends arrived one after the other. Shinja, Yusa, and Lofa arrived together with Tasier and Arlan. Of course, Arlan''s wife was there too. Unsurprisingly, Lofa and Tasier had really ended up together. "Yo! Long time no see." Lofa couldn''t help but remember the time she fell in love with Krune. In a certain way, she was worried if she should come or not. However, Tasier was very direct with her. "What are you even afraid of? Have you forgotten who we''re talking about? It''s Krune! Let alone the feeling of awkwardness, he simply won''t even care about what happened before. It''s in moments like this that his low EQ can be of some use. Don''t worry, he will treat you just like he treats all his friends." Lofa was still not convinced. "But what about Feifei? She knew that I liked him in the past. Also, why are you not jealous? We are talking about my first love, you know?" Tasier looked at Lofa with a puzzled expression and asked. "Are you planning to leave me to try and get him again?" "Of course not!" Tasier laughed. "Then why should I feel jealous? I''m 100% sure that Krune won''t change Feifei for anyone else either. As for the situation Feifei has, she has a Destiny Divine Soul and Heavenly Fragment. If there was any danger to her marriage, she would be the first one to notice it. Since she isn''t asking you to stay away, then it''s obvious that she isn''t afraid of anything either." Lofa sighed and nodded her head in the end. Only then did this newest couple come see Krune in the Wang Clan and participate in the marriage. Well, Krune already had a daughter, so it was more like a formality. Shinja and Yusa were still single. In Shinja''s case, she was using her virginity to help cultivate her Pure Yin Body. That''s why she never bothered to look for a partner. As for Yusa... Well, no man out there was brave enough to try something with her. This money-grubber would probably die alone. Eventually, Lakin and Cassy arrived there with Dier and the other wisps. However, as soon as that happened, a particular snake disappeared from sight... or so it tried. "Ruik! If you dare to run away once again, I will cut one of your two heads off!" After hearing Krune''s warning, Ruik immediately stopped in his steps. "You are despicable!" Lakin snorted in response. "Ha! Said the snake that has been hiding for over a hundred years. I told you before, I wouldn''t leave everything in your hands. I, Cassy, and Dier would stay there too to help you. Why do you keep running? Most of the older wisps from the Rainbow Sect really miss you, you know?" Ruik couldn''t help but remember the wisps Lakin talked about. Indeed, during the time he took care of the Rainbow Sect, he often interacted with those wisps. "Sigh... Fine! But I''m not a wisp, so don''t expect much." Lakin nodded, satisfied. Chapter 733: Refusing Sure enough, the Wang Clan made this marriage a huge deal. As time passed, more guests arrived one after another. The Big Four heads and old people they were familiar with had arrived as well. Krune still thought it to be a great exaggeration, but Feifei was happy, so he didn''t say anything. Four days before the big ceremony, the Sacred Lands heads also arrived. Usually, the head of each Sacred Land wouldn''t show their face for something like this. However, it was Krune who got them the slot to Dalin. Besides, they wanted to hear more about Dalin''s blockage, how he came out, and to make a request. Krune wasn''t very happy to see them. After all, all these three wanted to kill him and Feifei for their Heavenly Fragments in the past. However, this kind of situation was the same in all Universes. The Fragments'' Owners would sooner or later fight and probably kill themselves for the chance of acquiring a Heavenly Core. It wasn''t anything personal against Krune and Feifei. That being said, Krune decided to not talk about it. "Hello, seniors. Please come inside." Krune then led these leaders to a private room where they could talk. Lue Barcou from the Extreme Yin Yang palace, Tika Tarkulie from the All Life Sect, and Yamio Halas from the Darkness Land. Surprisingly, Wamie was also there with Tika. Krune still remembered Feifei''s words about how Wamie was going out to look for those who killed her protector back in the Holy Land. However, he didn''t ask about it since it was her personal problem. "What can I do for you, seniors?" The heads were really shocked to see Krune and the other members'' cultivation. After all, it hasn''t been even two hundred years that Krune''s group left to Dalin Universe, but they were all in the Divinity Realm already while they spent at least a few thousands of years to arrive at the same level. Well, Dalin itself, the Godly Energy, and especially the Myriad Energies Technique made a huge difference. Tika was the first one to come back to herself before starting to ask. "Well, we have a lot of questions. First, where did you go after our disappearance back in Dalin?" Krune shook his head. "That''s a secret. To be honest, there isn''t much of a point to tell you about it either. You can simply think about it as a trick that Wisp God Wally did." Tika nodded, not surprised with those words. Between those who didn''t know the truth, the general thought was that it was Wally''s doing that Krune and Iem disappeared. Well, they were 50% correct. She only asked to see if she could get anything else out of it. "Alright, I guess it is correct to say that you were helped by Wally to come out of Dalin, right? After all, that Protection Formation shouldn''t be able to hold someone from a Higher Realm like him." Krune nodded. It would be too annoying if he said that he was the one who left with Luvile''s help. "Indeed. After I returned to Dalin after a long training period, I decided that it was already time to visit Luvile again. This is my home universe, after all. I asked Senior Wally to open a temporary passage for me to leave. The Sacred Land Leaders are welcome to participate in my wedding with Feifei, too, if you wish. It''s just that this is more like a formality since we have been together all this time already." Tika, Lue, and Yamio looked at each other before nodding. "We would like to ask you something. Is there a way to convince Wisp God Wally to reopen Dalin Universe? This is something vital for our Luvile Universe. We had just started to send our geniuses there to begin their training when all of a sudden, that event happened. We are willing to pay for anything as long as it is possible. He doesn''t even need to participate in the Universe Retaking. Just opening the barrier is enough." Krune immediately shook his head. First of all, he was one of those who helped Little Arty in closing that place. How could he help them open it now? "That can''t happen. Let alone that Senior Wally isn''t someone I can freely make requests anytime I want, I also know that he doesn''t want to have anything to do with the Dalin situation. As long as the Wisp Race isn''t affected, he doesn''t care." Tika and the others didn''t come here out of their own volution. They were also sent to this place to talk to Krune on behalf of the other Universes that control Dalin. They all received the information about the Formation Core gaining another God-Level Protection Formation. If things continued like that, the Home Alliance would definitely win in the end. Once that happened, Dalin would be out of their reach forever. However, that wasn''t all. One must remember that Dalin was conquered out of fear. Because of its much superior cultivation environment, the Universe Powerhouses were afraid of them growing too strong. That would lead to their own power being affected. That''s why that Universe was taken from its owners. If they left like this, Dalin would one day achieve that level they feared so much and might come out for revenge on those who conquered it. Tika then sighed before saying. "What I''m going to say now is a message passed by the Universes that have permanent seats in Dalin. So don''t think that it is our Sacred Lands who are against you." "They all know that Wally doesn''t want to intervene because he cares about the Wisp Race. That being said, Galec, Thakulo, Uline, and all the other Universes will restart the wisp hunt. If Senior Wally really cares about the Wisp Race, he should open the barrier for us to retake Dalin." Krune''s face didn''t even change when he heard that. "Hehe! They seem to be really desperate to get their hands on the Dalin Universe back." Krune then looked at those three before saying. "Unfortunately, that''s useless. Wally will not help. I can tell you that much." Chapter 734: Blackhole The leaders of the Sacred Lands were taken aback by that declaration. "Even if they decide to restart the Wisp Hunt?" Krune nodded. "The Myriad Wisps Technique has already reached the other universes. It can''t be stopped anymore. Besides, just how many universes really know about the wisps'' condition? The majority would still not take it seriously. The Wisp Race will rise up, which is already inevitable. Restarting a Wisp Hunt right now would do nothing more than irritate the Wisp Race." "Also, don''t forget that the wisps have already lived in quite a poor state in the past. Many still do now. A wisp hunt would simply put them back into the environment they were already used to. Senior Wally will not move because of this. Only if you threaten the Wisp Worlds in the Dalin Universe would he really make a move. Well, if it is just the wisps in the Dalin Universe, he alone is more than enough to protect them against any power. In any case, it''s not like the Universe Powerhouses can do anything to those worlds anymore." Lue Barcor, the Extreme Yin Yang Palace Master, couldn''t help but ask. "Is there really no other way? This is just way too important for our Luvile Universe." One couldn''t blame them. The dream of having access to Dalin during the next several Chaos Cycles was just too enticing. They had just barely tasted it, but Dalin already closed. Nonetheless, Krune shook his head. "I told you before, there is no way I can help you. I''m not that close to Senior Wally as you all think. Don''t forget, he is a God Level expert, while I''m just a Divinity Realm cultivator. We are in two different dimensions." Tika sighed in response. "Very well. All I can say is that I''ll pass your message over as you said. As for what the other Universe Powerhouses will do will depend on themselves." However, that wasn''t the only reason they came to visit Krune. "Now, let''s enter the second topic." Krune looked at them with a puzzled expression as he asked. "Is there something else?" The three leaders nodded. "We want to discuss the Heavenly Core. At the moment, you have the Yang and Elemental Fragments. I even heard that you bought an Ownerless Blackhole Fragment during the auction before the Heavenly Competition. We want to know if you intend to become the Luvile Universe''s Heavenly Core Representative." Krune was surprised to hear that. "Wouldn''t it go against what you just said? If a Wisp Hunt starts again, I would be one of the targets, you know?" Yamio Ralaz, the head of the Darkness Sacred Land, shook his head. "This hunt would be focused on low-level wisps. I doubt they would come after you since you are related to Senior Wally." Lue nodded. "Exactly. You probably know already. The Heavenly Core owner helps resolve their Universes'' issues when they have conflicts with other Universes. We will obviously need one in the future too." Krune shook his head. "Unfortunately, I won''t be doing it. As you can see, I''m already in the 4th Stage of the Divinity Realm. I don''t intend to stop cultivating now so I can stay in the Lower Realms for longer. You will need to find someone else." The leaders of the Sacred Land narrowed their eyes. "That will be way too complicated. Once you leave with the Heavenly Fragments, we won''t be able to complete the Heavenly Core anymore. It will make things very difficult for us if we need to wait until the next Heavenly Fragments appear several Chaos Cycles in the future." Krune shrugged his shoulders. "That would happen nonetheless. After all, my Feifei has the Destiny, Yin, and Death Heavenly Fragments. To get these fragments, you would need to destroy her cultivation. It''s even worse for me. After all, you would need to destroy my Wisp Core entirely. However..." Everyone''s attention got piqued. "However, what?" Krune then uttered. "You could try to raise a Heavenly Fragment Owner instead. I heard that if a Universe doesn''t have a Heavenly Core owner, they can use other experts. Why don''t you try it?" Tika shook her head. "That wouldn''t work. A Heavenly Fragment Owner couldn''t possibly defeat a Heavenly Core one." Lue and Yamio nodded. They also believed the same thing. Still, Krune didn''t seem preoccupied. "Don''t worry, they can definitely become just as strong. I already have someone in mind, so the Sacred Lands don''t need to be that worried." "A Heavenly Fragment Owner can be just as strong? How?" Krune shook his head. "That''s a secret. In any case, the Luvile Universe won''t miss a representative. You just need to wait." "Who is the person you have in mind?" Krune smiled after hearing that. "For now, you don''t need to know. Once the time comes for me to ascend, I''ll introduce this Heavenly Fragment Owner to you all." Yamio couldn''t help but ask. The Sacred Land Leaders could see Krune''s confidence. Because of that, they thought that it had something to do with Wally. After all, the Wisp God came from the Higher Realms. However, what they didn''t know was that Krune only did it to prevent problems. Suppose he ascends, and no one was left behind to protect the Divine Path Sect and Wang Clan. In that case, they might get destroyed as revenge since he and Feifei brought the Heavenly Fragments away. If he left someone capable of fighting the Heavenly Core Owners of the other Universes, this issue would be resolved. After all, this Heavenly Fragment Owner would be allied with his sect and Feifei''s clan. The Sacred Lands would not touch them. Yamio couldn''t help but ask. "Can''t it be our Space Heavenly Fragment Owner?" Tika immediately narrowed her eyes. "Forget what Yamio said, Krune. Use our Wamie. She has the Life Heavenly Fragment, and she is also a friend of yours, right?" Lue Barcou, Yamio, and Tika then looked at each other as if they were about to fight. One must remember that the relationship of the Sacred Lands wasn''t that good to start with. Unfortunately for them, Krune had no intention of selecting any of them. "I told you, I have someone in mind already. For now, you just need to know that it''s the Blackhole Heavenly Fragment Owner of our Luvile Universe." Chapter 735: Back to Divine Path Sect Krune was obviously talking about Lia, the Mountain that gained sentience. She had been found by Ao and Ula. After that, she was brought back to the Divine Path Realm secretly and had been living inside its territory until now. Obviously, Trata stayed with her as well. However, none of the leaders of the Sacred Lands liked the idea. "That won''t do. What if this Blackhole Fragment Owner decides to rebel against us?" Krune laughed after hearing that. "Hahaha! Your Sacred Lands got Heavenly Core Owners in the past. However, neither one of you ever had the chance to conquer the other two just because of it. Let alone when you three are together. In any case, that''s my decision. If you don''t like it, I can simply not do anything. However, I still believe the best option would be to accept my idea." Tika and the others still didn''t like it. Unfortunately, Krune had no intention of continuing this conversation. "I''ll go back now. If you think this is a bad idea, just send me a message. See you during the marriage." Krune then got up and left the room. Tika, Yamio, and Lue looked at each other before sighing. The answer to that question was already apparent. It would be a lot better to have someone capable of fighting Heavenly Core Owners than not have it. It''s just that they were all used to have the Heavenly Core Owner as a member of their Sacred Lands, so it pained in their minds to have to depend on an outsider. They quickly got up and left the room. As Tika, Yamio, and Lue mentioned before, they had to report it to the Universe Powerhouses. As to what they would do, that was not their issue. Luvile Universe was just too weak to meddle with that kind of power. The days quickly passed. More and more cultivators and demon beasts appeared for the ceremony. Krune also saw a few familiar faces from Makui Planet like the Mercenary Guild Head and others. Eventually, the ceremony day arrived. There was a giant hall where the event would take place. Inside, it could fit thousands of guests. Several formations were placed everywhere so that others far away could see what was happening. In the end, Feifei and Krune''s ceremony happened quite smoothly. The Wang Clan had their own type of formal engagement, which Krune followed step by step. Because of the event''s size, it took over an entire day to be over. Well, the ceremony where Krune and Feifei got officially married only took around one hour, though. The rest of the time was spent entertaining guests. Krune had to admit that it was quite a pain in the ass. Last but not least, there was the night after the marriage. Sure enough, Feifei made sure that Krune would not be able to think about anything else. Perhaps, Fie would really get a brother or a sister. After all, Feifei was incredibly ''energetic'' and ''happy'' due to finally getting married. Time continued to pass. After a month, Krune and Feifei finally left the Wang Clan territory with Lucio and a few others. They were now going to the Divine Path Realm to resolve a few things there. Lakin didn''t go with his Master, though. He returned to the planet where the wisp country was located with Ruik, Tiane, and Liriu. There were a lot of things he had to teach Ruik, after all. Krune said that he would visit them in this new Wisp Country once he finished taking care of stuff in the Divine Path Sect. Of course, it didn''t take that long to arrive in the Divine Path Realm. After all, they just had to open a Spatial Gate and enter it. As soon as Krune appeared, he spread his Divine Sense. There, he saw a scene that made him quite happy. The planet where the Divine Path Sect was located now had many wisps living with the disciples. Although the other races were numerous, the wisps were also considered part of the new young force that joined the sect as time passed. Lucio looked at Krune and immediately understood what he was thinking. "What? Isn''t that obvious? Only the top cultivation techniques of the top Universes can match the Myriad Wisps Technique. After the Universes'' Powerhouses released those cultivation techniques for everyone to use, the status between wisps and others grew to an even level. I won''t say that everyone accepts it. However, the wisps'' situation is definitely much better than what it was when you left." Krune smiled as he looked at his Master. "Still, I doubt that the other powers are so accepting of wisps as the Divine Path Sect. Thank you, Master." Krune then bowed to Lucio to express his thanks. However... "Disgusting! Shoo, shoo! You are giving me goosebumps." Krune''s mouth twitched. "Fuck you, old geezer! Can''t you at least act like a proper master for once in your life?" Lucio snorted in response. "Said the disciple who wanted to beat his master so badly." "That''s because you forced me to become your disciple!" "And you should feel grateful for that. What are you complaining about?" Feifei and the others shook their heads before moving into the planet. They completely ignored those two idiots and left them arguing there in outer space. Only a few minutes later did those two come down after running out of curses. "Forget it. You are getting too old, so I should not argue with you. Otherwise, you might have a heart attack and die in front of me. I don''t want this burden." "Hmph! Those are my words. Considering the wisp''s lifespan, you will get older than me in no time." Seeing that the two finished, Feifei finally asked. "So, what did you want to do here first?" Krune nodded. "In fact, it''s not me but Luvile who wanted to come. He wants to talk with Cilia." Cilia was the protector and also another god who fell back then. At the moment, only her soul remained inside a tower in a secret Dimensional Realm. Luvile wanted to talk with her. Chapter 736: Cilia and Luvile Not everyone was allowed inside the dimensional realm where Cilia lived. Besides, Luvile also wanted to have a conversation with her without too many eyes. This was not a show, after all. In the end, only Krune, Feifei, and Lucio came into the Dimensional Realm while the rest stayed outside. They quickly arrived at the tower where Cilia''s soul stayed. However, Cilia didn''t seem to have noticed their presence. All of a sudden, Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning came out of Krune''s body on its own. Soon after, it assumed the form of a man. Obviously, this was the same thing he did back in the Kalame Clan. "Cilia seems to be sleeping. Let me see if I can wake her up." Purple Tribulation Lightning came out of Luvile''s hands and quickly entered the tower. A few moments later, they finally heard a voice coming from inside. "So it was really you, Luvile? I heard you went to the Godly Path Realm." Luvile nodded. "Indeed. I just came but not too long ago." Cilia then asked the obvious. "How did you come down without paying any price?" Luvile smiled before sending her a Spiritual Sense message with everything about what happened so far. Cilia was Luvile''s Dao Companion before the calamity. Naturally, he had no problems trusting her. "This... The Primordial Demon Beasts, Kun Peng, and the Outside. To think that so many things happened in the past. No wonder we failed when we tried to go out. We didn''t even have a key to start with. Not only that, but the gods are now trying to go out one more time. However, they already know about the keys. But then again, they don''t have all four." Cilia couldn''t help but sigh after hearing all of that. "So, what do you intend to do now? Stop them? Help them?" Luvile nodded. "I will get the other key that is present in this Universe and then ascend after recovering my body." Luvile then fixed his eyes on the tower before offering. "Cilia, don''t you want to come too? I''m pretty sure I can carry you too once I get my body back. We can finally escape the Four Realms and see what is outside." Cilia had to admit that she was curious. "Indeed, it would be great to see everything with my own eyes... or so was what I thought in the past. However, after we lost our kid, I lost my wish of escaping as well." Krune already knew about it since he was here the last time Cilia and Luvile talked. However, this was the first time Feifei and Lucio heard about that. They didn''t know that Cilia and Luvile were a couple before. Luvile couldn''t help but sigh. "What happened back then was tragic. It was also the two of us who led Taliu into that. However, I don''t think he would want you to stay confined here forever. Come with me, will you?" Cilia went silent for a moment. However, before she could say anything, Feifei decided to give her opinion. "Senior Cilia, there are so many wondrous things that can be done in the cultivation universe. We can even enter the Underworld to recover a Soul of a deceased person. Of course, there is no way you don''t know that, so I guess his soul was destroyed during what happened back in your time." Cilia couldn''t help but get angry. "Brat! Don''t talk about something you don''t know." Feifei shook her head, though. "I obviously can''t talk about something like that since I''ve never lost a child. However, did you really lose your child?" Cilia and Luvile were taken aback. "What do you mean? Luvile saw his soul being destroyed back then. Or could it be that Luvile lied to me last time we talked?" Luvile immediately shook his head. "Of course not! Why would I lie to you about something like that? This is ridiculous! Feifei, what are you trying to say?" Feifei then approached the tower before touching it. "Senior Cilia. Since we can do so much in the cultivation world, couldn''t it be that outside of the Four Realms, there is a way of bringing your child back? After all, we are talking about an existence from before the start of time in our Four Realms. They were also the ones who created the system that gave life to all of us. Can''t they really recover a long lost soul? Even if the chances are meager, isn''t it good enough if it was your child?" Luvile and Cilia were shocked by what Feifei said. "This... How did I not think about it before? That''s right! Those guys outside were responsible for our creation. There might really be a way to revive or recover Taliu''s soul outside the Four Realms!" Cilia became excited as she said. "Yes! That''s right! There might really be someone out there capable of helping Taliu!" Cilia then looked at Feifei. "Feifei, right? Thank you." Feifei shook her head in response. "I didn''t do anything. Sooner or later, Senior Cilia or Luvile would reach this conclusion. I just helped accelerate the thought process." Cilia was still thankful nevertheless. "It doesn''t matter. I, Cilia, owe you a debt of gratitude from today onwards." Feifei shrugged her shoulders before going back to Krune''s side. Krune then held her hand and nodded. He could tell that Feifei''s words had even made Luvile excited. In fact, he had never felt such a strong reaction from Luvile before. Naturally, he was happy for him and his Dao Companion. Cilia then paid attention to Luvile once again. "Very well, I''ll be going with you. No! You must bring me together at any cost." Luvile nodded, satisfied. After that, he looked at Krune. As soon as Krune saw Luvile''s expression, he understood what Luvile wanted. "Hahaha! Luvile, just go ahead and do it. There is no need to ask me. If anything, just pay Heavin later." Luvile nodded before sending the Soul Cultivation Technique from Heavin to Cilia. "Go ahead and practice this technique. In fact, I will also start practicing it from today onwards. When the time comes, I will return to take you back. You are mine and always will be with me." Cilia had lived as long as Luvile. There were very few things capable of moving her. But at this moment, even in her Soul Form, she couldn''t help but feel a little embarrassed to hear those words. Or perhaps, that was happiness. "H-Hmph! You didn''t change at all." Chapter 737: Underworld Barrier The reason Luvile said that he could move Cilia''s Soul was obviously because of Heavin''s Soul Cultivation Technique. Once someone reaches the Soul Control level, you can even move your conscience to a specific part of your Soul, let alone moving the Soul itself. "This Soul Cultivation Technique... Does it really work?" Luvile nodded. "It does. However, it will be quite slow if you try to cultivate using Spiritual Energy." The Soul Cultivation Technique could not escape that path. If one wanted to move to higher realms, one would need energy. It was that simple. Naturally, Godly Energy could be used as well. The good thing was that it wouldn''t be a problem for Cilia since her Soul was still a God-Level Soul. "To make things faster, I''ll leave a few Godly Energy Stones with you." Krune didn''t complain about passing Luvile those Godly Stones. After all, it was thanks to Luvile''s power that he had made it this far too. Luvile more than deserved those Godly Energy Stones and even more. As for moving Cilia back to Dalin Universe to use Little Arty''s Artifact, that wouldn''t be possible. Cilia''s Soul was locked in this tower and, consequently, the Secret Dimensional Realm. Unless extremely necessary, she wouldn''t come out. "Oh! These are some good stuff. Even in the God Realm, it''s quite hard to find this quality of Godly Energy Stones. As for the Elements they have, it doesn''t matter much to me." Suddenly, a mighty suction power came out of the tower and began to absorb energy from one of the Top Quality Godly Stones. In just a bit more than a minute, that stone turned into dust. Krune was shocked by that vision. Even he, with all his perks, couldn''t absorb a Godly Energy Stone that fast. "That was really something." Cilia knew what Krune was thinking, though. "Oh! I didn''t really absorb all of that every at once. I only made it available around so that I could take it easier later. However, from what I can see in this Soul Cultivation Technique, it won''t take long for me to reach the Soul Control Realm." Luvile didn''t find it weird. "That makes sense. After all, Cilia was a god before. Naturally, her Soul is very compatible with Godly Energy. Using it together with the Soul Cultivation Technique will be much faster than any of you can do. What took you several decades should only take a few years for Cilia." Cilia agreed with Luvile. "That''s correct. Alright, I want to focus on cultivating this technique. All of you can leave already." Luvile''s Purple Lightning Projection disappeared as he talked to Krune and the others through Divine Sense. "There is no need to worry about her. Let''s get out." Krune, Feifei, and Lucio nodded. Not too long after, the group was already back in the Divine Path Sect. Lucio then looked at Krune before saying. "Try to pay a visit to the elders when you find some time. As for what you want to do, that''s up to you." Krune nodded. "I basically just came to bring everyone who lived here back. After I finish paying a visit to the elders, I''ll be leaving again." "Where are you going?" Krune then looked at Feifei, waiting for her to tell. "We are going to the Underworld. There is a Soul in there that I need to recover." Obviously, Feifei was talking about Xansio''s Soul, the same person who helped her with her Destiny Divine Soul and Fragment in the past. Now she had the power to enter the Underworld, so it was time to pay her promise from back then. However, Lucio narrowed his eyes. "You want to bring a Soul back? I''m afraid that won''t be possible. At least, not here in our Luvile Universe." Krune and Feifei were taken aback. "Why is that?" Lucio shook his head in response. "No one really knows the details, but our Universe''s Underworld Realm is sealed. We simply can''t enter it even if we wanted to." As soon as Krune heard that, he tried to connect to the Underworld of the Luvile Universe. After all, it wasn''t hard to do so with his Divinity Realm cultivation. However, he soon found out that something seemed to be blocking his perception from passing through the barrier between realms. That was quite weird since Krune didn''t have a problem doing that outside Luvile''s Universe. Still, he felt some familiar energy when he did so. "This... Luvile, isn''t that the same power as the Purple Tribulation Lightning?" Through the connection of their Souls, Luvile could also feel what Krune did. "Yes. It seems like my body was not used only as a Tribulation Energy Source but to lock down the Underworld as well. I wonder why..." Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "Does it mean you can pass through it? This is Luvile''s power, right?" "No. The power blocking the entrance is much higher than what Krune can manage to pass through. We will need to recover my body first so that this barrier can lose its energy source. Don''t forget, my body might not be in its best condition, but it is still a top god from the God Realm. It''s not something that anyone from the Mortal Realm can do anything about." Lucio found it strange, though. "In that case, wouldn''t it be impossible for you to recover it as well?" Luvile understood Lucio''s concern. "Don''t worry. The power of Purple Tribulation Lightning has no danger towards Krune or me. We just can''t open the barrier to enter the Underworld, that''s all. Once Krune reaches the Peak of the Divinity Realm, my Soul will reach the same stage as a cultivator in that realm. Not to mention that my Soul is also a God-Level Soul. That should be more than enough to take control of my body back." Krune knew that it wasn''t everything. After all, who was the one who put Luvile''s body there and used his power? However, he didn''t mention it to not worry the others. Luvile, of course, knew that Krune understands it too. ''Once we reach the Peak of the Divinity Realm, we can go there and check it closely.'' Krune nodded. He was looking forward to understanding more about the situation regarding Luvile''s body. Chapter 738: Another Idiot "Since we can''t enter the Underworld, should we go after the other Heavenly Fragments for now?" Krune shook his head. "I have to go talk with Wally first, remember?" "Oh! That''s right. We can do it after that, then." "Yep. That should be fine." Feifei still didn''t know where the fragments were located, though. "By the way, where is the first Universe with an Ownerless Fragment?" Krune opened his communicator and took a look inside. "The closest one would be the Isen Sect of the Caxtin Universe. From what it is saying here, this is also a Universe dominated by different powers instead of only one." Lucio then said. "Oh, I know that one. It''s a Universe where the Tribulations are of the Water Element. It seems like it can even affect the blood in one''s body during it." Krune and Feifei didn''t seem to care, though. "Well, we are far from reaching the Peak of the Divinity Realm, let alone receiving our Ascension Tribulation. In any case, let''s go there first after I settle the things here in Luvile Universe." Feifei agreed with Krune. After that, Lucio remembered Krune about something else. "Don''t forget that you wanted to talk with Master about the Elements Regulation Technique." "Ah! That''s right! Feifei, I''m going to talk with Grandmaster before going out to find Wally." Feifei smiled and nodded before leaving. Not long after, Krune and Lucio went to see Lani Gobel. Soon, they arrived in a secluded garden full of flowers and trees. The only building around seemed to be a hut in the middle. Lucio then approached the house and knocked on the door. "Master, are you there?" Immediately, a voice came from inside. "Enter." Krune and Lucio entered the hut. There, they found Lani brewing some tea for his own consumption. However, as a Spiritual Chef, Krune couldn''t help but analyze the pot with his Divine Sense. "Grandmaster, this tea can become even better. Would you like to learn how to do it?" Lani looked at Krune, surprised. "Oh! That''s right, you are a chef. Alright, go ahead and show me." Krune smiled and began to brew the tea while explaining to Lani the tricks he learned before. Sure enough, the already fragrant tea became even more fragrant than before. Krune then served Lani and Lucio before serving a cup for himself. "Try it out. I''m sure you will like it." As soon as Lani drank the tea, his eyes lit up. "This is really good! Do I need to simply follow those steps?" Krune nodded. "Yes. It''s not like you are working on Spiritual Food anyway." "Spiritual Food? You mean food with lots of Spiritual Energy?" Krune shook his head and explained to Lani about the Spiritual Chef side occupation from the Godly Path Realm. "Oh! Is there such a thing? Interesting." Lani quickly finished his cup of tea and then looked at Krune. "Lucio told me about your doubt. You want to know more about the Elements Regulation Technique, is that correct?" Krune nodded. "Yes. Well, it''s nothing of significant importance, to be honest. It''s just that the Elements Regulation Technique that Grandmaster uses is just too good. Even in the Godly Path Realm, I didn''t find anything at this level." Lani was surprised to hear so much about his Elements Regulation Technique. "Is that so? Well, that makes me quite happy. The one who passed me this technique was my master as well. Unfortunately, he died a long time ago after failing his Ascension Tribulation." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Does Grandmaster know anything about the origins of this Technique?" Lani pondered a bit and nodded. "I did ask my master about it before. This technique had been with the Divine Path Sect for several generations of Sect Masters. According to what he heard, this technique was found in another Universe. There had been a huge battle in a secret inheritance back then where many Divinity Realm cultivators participated. It seems like many powerhouses died during that time as well." Lani laughed a bit after saying that. "Hehe... The funny fact was that all those powerhouses fought for nothing. This technique, which was indeed a great treasure of that place, was not in the core regions where all those powerhouses went. Instead, the ancestor who went there found it in the outer areas. Not only that, there was no protection or anything like that. It was right in the open, ready for anyone to take. Our ancestor just lucked out in his search, that''s all." Krune and Lucio were taken aback by that. "Didn''t anyone come after our ancestor after that?" Lani shrugged his shoulders as he said. "Why would they? Our sect''s ancestor stayed in the outer regions. After that, he came out before the powerhouses even started their battle in the core areas. He was also in the Divinity Realm at that time, so no one would really try to stop him for no reason. Not to mention that many other cultivators and demon beasts also entered and left the inheritance''s sight during that time." "Considering the time he spent inside, anyone could tell that he didn''t go to the core region. In the end, without making anyone feel suspicious, he returned to our sect. He then passed it to the next sect master. From there on, it was passed down to the sect master''s disciples, one by one." "You just so happen to be Lucio''s disciple, so you also got this technique. It''s simple as that." Krune nodded. That was really a stroke of ridiculous luck. "By the way, where was this technique found?" Lani pondered a bit more and answered. "Hum... I seemed to have been found in a place called Soren Ruins in the Palom Universe. However, it''s better if you don''t go there. It''s quite a dangerous place where even the Peak Divinity Realm experts can easily die. Besides, our other sect masters had gone there before after making sure to pass the technique to their disciples. The ones who came back alive didn''t find anything of interest." However, it was at this moment that Luvile''s voice appeared in their mind. "Hehe. I think I know who Soren is." Chapter 739: Soren Krune and Lani were taken aback. Lani already knew about Luvile, so there wasn''t really a reason for Luvile to hide his presence. "You know? Then, who is he? Someone from the God Realm?" Luvile confirmed. "Exactly. To be more specific, Soren was also a God from back then." Somehow, Krune wasn''t that surprised. After all, everyone Luvile seemed to have some relation with was always some kind of god. "So... do you know anything about the Elements Regulation Technique? Or perhaps more information about Soren?" "Not really." Luvile then explained. "Although the number of Gods wasn''t that big back then, you could still get a sizeable number when you put all of them together. Obviously, that time when we tried to escape the Four Realms, most of the gods participated. Soren just so happened to be one of them." "However, Soren and I barely knew each other''s names. It''s not like just because the other side was a God that I know them all. First of all, all Gods used to stay alone, so it was quite rare for us to meet one another." "That being said, I don''t know much about what kind of power he used. However, now that you talked about this Soren Ruins, it reminded me that his abilities seemed to be some kind of Dark Energy. It just so happens that the Advanced and Culmination Stage of your Elements Regulation Technique also carries this dark aspect." "Of course, I might be wrong, and these Soren Ruins have nothing to do with the Soren that I saw in the past. Still, I think it would be worth it to pass by there and take a look. Perhaps there is something that only a God like myself would be able to find." Krune nodded and then looked at Lani. By the way, how long has it been since a Sect Master entered the Soren Ruins? Or better yet, does it still exists?" Lani nodded. "It still exists. As for the last one, it was the sect master from 17 generations ago. We have long concluded that there was nothing else there, so we gave up trying to explore the place. To be honest, I wouldn''t go there if I were you. Even today, that place is as dangerous as ever." Krune pondered a bit before saying. "Hum... I have to admit that I''m quite curious. Oh well, if I have the time, I''ll go take a look. There might really be something good there that Luvile might be able to find. Soren was a god, after all." Lani shrugged his shoulder. "Well, if you say so..." After that, Lani changed the topic. "Now then, I want to discuss another problem on our side." Krune and Lucio looked at Lani with a puzzled expression. "What would that be?" Lani smiled. "The next sect master issue, of course." "Ah!" Only now, Lucio noticed a problem. Krune''s cultivation speed! "That''s right, the successor of the Sect Master position! If Krune continues to cultivate at this speed, he will probably ascend before me. Even if he doesn''t, it would only be a few years before that happens." Lani nodded. "His presence really disturbed all the balance of time. Now all the Universe Powerhouses made their own top cultivation techniques public. Because of that, everyone is cultivating tens of times faster. However, Krune is still much faster than that, as you can see. Obviously, it would be useless to make him the Sect Master if he can''t stay for long." Krune was quite surprised by that, though. "Wait, wait, wait! You wanted me to be the next Sect Master? How come I''ve never heard about it?" Lucio sighed after hearing that. "The Elements Regulation Technique is only passed to the next Sect Master. Obviously, it would be you. Well, that doesn''t matter anymore since you can''t take the position." Krune felt quite helpless, but it was certain that he wouldn''t stay in the Mortal Realm for much longer. "In that case... you need to find a new disciple?" Lucio looked at Krune as if he looked at an idiot. "Me? A new disciple? Why would I do that? You are the next one in the line, so it''s your problem to find the next successor." "Ah?!" Lani agreed with Lucio. "Exactly. Be sure to make a good choice. The future of the Divine Path Sect depends on it." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Aren''t you two taking it too lightly? You should give it more thought before passing the decision onto me." Lani seemed to not hear Krune''s voice, though. "Now that this is resolved, I have one last thing to discuss with you two." Krune''s mouth twitched. He''s sure they were doing it on purpose! "I''ve been at the peak of the Divinity Realm for a long time already. Obviously, I did not cultivate so that I could delay my Ascension Tribulation. However, I''m very close to my limit. That being said, I should go through this tribulation in the next two or three years at most." Lucio was surprised to hear that. "So, it''s finally time, Master? Are you going to be fine?" Lani nodded. "Yes. Anyway, I got the Myriad Energy Technique from Krune, so the small chance I had in the past is now quite big. I''m very confident as well." Krune finally gave up talking about this successor. It''s was not like he didn''t have a few ideas. "If you want, I can make a weapon or armor with Purple Flames. With the Myriad Energies Technique and my equipment, I''m pretty sure you can fend off the Ascension Tribulation." Lani was happy to hear that. "Sure thing!" Lani then reached inside his Spatial Ring and brought a staff out. "I''m quite a rare staff user. Do you think you can make something similar to this one?" Krune quickly analyzed the staff. It was at the Seven Divinity Stars Level. "I can. I brought a lot of material from the Godly Path Realm, so I have something perfect for it. This size, weight, and properties are okay for the new one, right?" Lani nodded. "Yes. I''m used to this one already, so anything close to it will be perfect." Krune smiled before saying. "Leave it to me. I''m going to forge it for you before leaving the sect." After that, Krune, Lucio, and Lani discussed a few more things before calling it a day. Chapter 740: Meeting Wally Again Krune then spent the next few days forging the Purple Flame Staff for Lani. To make sure things would go well, he also asked Lani to accompany the process to test it as Krune worked on it. Finally, Krune was able to forge a Purple Flame Staff at the Divinity Stars Level. With the Purple Flame''s effect, the staff was much better than any peak Divinity Stars Equipment available, including Lani''s old one. Lani also decided to test Krune''s skills in a secret Dimensional Realm. However, he didn''t lock Krune''s Elements as Lucio did. Because of that, Krune won the fight without that much difficulty. Of course, he didn''t use his Purple Tribulation Lightning in the battle. "Phew... You really reached a ridiculous level, Krune. Even though I''m five stages above you in cultivation, I could barely hold on my own." Krune smiled after hearing that. "I have one extra Meridian in the Myriad Energies Technique. Besides, they have all evolved to the Godly Meridians level. Grandmaster Lani will pass through the same process once you succeed ascending." After they were done with it, Krune went out and met with Feifei. "Are you done?" Krune nodded. "Yep. We can leave anytime. What about the others?" "Fie and Darten went back to Makui Planet to visit a few of their friends there. As for Tuan and Asla, they went together with Fie. As you already know, Tiane, Ruik, and Liriu went to the Wisp Country that Lakin had been managing so far. In the end, only the two of us remained." Krune smiled as he held Feifei''s hand. "Then let''s see what Wally wants from me." Feifei nodded. "Sure." Krune then bid his Master and Grandmaster farewell before finally leaving the Divine Path Sect. Once outside the Planet, Krune opened a Spatial Gate where he and Feifei entered. Somewhere else, who knows how many galaxies away, an inhabited dead planet orbited a white dwarf. Fortunately, it was far enough for the gravity to not damage the planet itself. Close to the core of that planet, there was a hidden chamber that no one knew existed. Suddenly, a Spatial Gate appeared inside that chamber. Just a moment later, Feifei and Krune stepped out. Krune didn''t know about this place, of course. It was after he contacted Wally that he gave Krune the exact location. Krune quickly scanned his surroundings with Feifei. The chamber was enormous, no less than a few hundred kilometers in diameter. At the very center, there was also a massive formation. It didn''t take Krune and Feifei too long to find Wally floating inside that. However, the ethereal flames of his body seemed to be frozen, not moving at all. Of course, that wasn''t really the case. The couple knew that Wally was living inside a Time Slowing Formation. That formation reduced the flow of time by at least a few thousand times. Naturally, anyone seeing it from outside would feel like Wally was not moving at all. However, that wasn''t a problem when Divine Senses were included. After all, the entire content of the message could be passed in one go. ''Oh! Here you are. I know that I said you could take your time, but you really made me wait, no?'' Krune and Feifei''s mouth twitched. Wally''s time is moving so slowly that he probably only experienced a few hours at most since he talked to them back in Dalin. ''Ahem... Anyway, I''m here now, right? So, what is it that you needed to talk with me?'' Wally then began to explain. ''It''s about the gods in the Higher Realms. Did Luvile already explain to you what happened back then? Why they were almost all killed?'' Krune nodded. ''Yes.'' Wally then continued. ''Good. Then I need to tell you something that they didn''t know. To leave the Four Realm, you will need a few keys. I just s-'' Krune and Feifei looked at each other with weird expressions as Wally began to explain the things from the past. Well, Krune couldn''t blame Wally. After all, he still didn''t have a chance to tell Wally what happened while he was in the Godly Path Realm. Krune then asked Feifei on his side. ''Didn''t you tell him what I told you through the Small Tower we used for communication?'' Feifei shook her head. ''How could I? He basically disappeared during all the time you had been out. Cinty also insisted that we could only contact him if there was an emergency, so I couldn''t tell him anything.'' Krune sighed and finally cut Wally''s story. ''Errr... Senior Wally, we already know all of that.'' ''Alright, but let me finis-'' ''...'' ''What did you say?'' ''We already know all of that, including the part that you had one of the four keys.'' Wally was taken aback by that. ''How? Luvile and the other gods in the past shouldn''t know about it. The actual Gods only found about it recently. That''s why they decided to try it again.'' Krune scratched the back of his head before compiling the full storyline of his adventures for Wally to check. Wally then received that massive pile of information, which took him quite some time to organize them all in his head. Finally, he understood what was happening. ''Not only you knew about the keys, you even found many more secrets than we had so far. Kun-Peng race, betrayal, Zule, the location of the last two keys, the Primordial Demon Beasts, a reason for our Four Realms'' creation. To think that so many things happened back when the Four Realms were created.'' Wally then went silent for a moment. Of course, this moment was extremely fast for Krune and Feifei since they were outside the Time Slowing Formation. ''I understand. You were correct. I had one of the Keys. However, I traded it for the Wisps'' safety. It''s because of that that the Wisp Hunt didn''t happen even after the Myriad Wisps Technique appeared.'' Krune nodded. ''That''s not a problem. The problem is that the gods shouldn''t try to open the exit without all the keys. Otherwise, they might damage or even destroy the Four Realms'' Foundation. That would definitely bring doom to all of us.'' Wally nodded. ''I had a few ideas on how to help stop them. However, it doesn''t seem necessary anymore.'' Chapter 741: Wallys Dying Reason "As you already know, they have two keys at the moment. One is the key I had. The other one was found by themselves. At the moment, there is still a need for two keys. Fortunately, you already know where those two keys are located." Krune nodded. "Yes. Zule told me their locations. I intend to go take the Mortal Realm key once I finish my Heavenly Core. After that, I''ll go check out Luvile''s body as well." Wally nodded. "At first, I was counting on Luvile to help deal with the situation in the God Realm. However, as long as you get the Four Keys, there should be no risk to the Four Realms'' foundation. You know that Sentoi is a friend of mine in the God Realm. Since he said he could hold their exploration until you and Luvile arrived there, then he can definitely do so." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "You called me here to help stop the gods with your plans?" Wally nodded. "Yes. Anyway, let me continue. Now that you have a way to get the keys back, the best solution is to obviously open the Four Realms. That being said, I think I''ll return to the God Realm to prepare everything." Krune was taken aback. "You will return? Can you do that?" Wally nodded. "I can. I just didn''t do it because of the risks." "By the way, do you want me to go there and take the Mortal Realm key?" Krune immediately shook his head. "I know very well how much staying in the Mortal Realm is affecting you. It reached a point where you need to linger in a time slowing formation to reduce your power''s deterioration rate. If I let you do that, how much would it advance?" Wally was happy to hear that Krune cared that much. "Alright then. I believe you will be able to do it. After all, I doubt this Zule would have told you that if he thought it wasn''t possible. However, the fact that I''m going to eventually die can''t be changed. If I return to the God Realm, it can be delayed quite a lot, though." Krune pondered a bit before asking. "Can you explain to me in detail what it really is? Back in the Holy Land, you told me that it was because of an injury you got when you fought the other ascenders in Dalin. What kind of injury is that?" Wally thought that there wasn''t much of a point in hiding it from Krune anymore, so he began to explain. "It was a cultivator who created his own version of the Death Laws." Luvile was surprised to hear that. "What?! Is that true?" Wally nodded. "It is. It seems like Purple Lightning God knows something about it, no?" Luvile confirmed. "Yes. If the one you are talking about is the same as the one in my head, then it''ll be very annoying. Does it mean that he also didn''t die back then?" Krune and Feifei became puzzled. "Who is this guy?" Wally then answered Luvile''s question first. "Don''t worry. Wassan did die back then. At the very least, he disappeared after the last time you all tried to leave the Four Realms, but I''m pretty sure he is dead. After all, just how many gods can be as lucky as you, Cilia, or Harold? I already think it''s a miracle that you three are alive." Wally then looked at Krune and Feifei. "I''m not the best one to talk. You better ask Luvile about who Wassan is. Instead, I can talk about his successor¡ªa woman called Galia." Luvile immediately intervened after hearing that. "Wait? Successor? Wassan was a maniac who didn''t trust anyone. How could he have left a disciple behind? I''ve never heard about it." Wally didn''t find it strange. It''s natural that you didn''t. Galia only appeared before everyone after she reached God Level. Before that, she had hidden in the shadows without anyone knowing. You know how long it takes for one to achieve the cultivation of a god, right? That shows just how scary her patience is. The reason I know she was Wassan''s disciple was because she said it herself. At first, no one believed. But after she used her Absolute Death Laws, the rest had to trust whether they wanted or not." Luvile narrowed his eyes. He might not know many of the past gods very well, but he definitely knew Wassan. Luvile then looked at Krune and Feifei. "Wassan was a God who created his own Laws. His Laws were known as the Absolute Death Laws. Anyone hit by his attacks would absolutely die, no exception. You could suppress the effects of his Absolute Death Laws, but it would eventually kill you nonetheless. If Wally was really hit by that, then he can only wait for death." Krune and Feifei were shocked. "This... Isn''t it way too overpowered? That would make Wassan and his female disciple invincible." Luvile snorted in response. "Do you think it''s that easy? There is a huge price to pay to use the Absolute Death Laws, your cultivation! That is a heaven-defying ability, so a heaven-defying exchange was also necessary. To leave a Death Mark capable of killing another god is obviously incredibly hard. If I''m not wrong, Galia lost all her cultivation or almost all of it to succeed in using it against Wally. Can you imagine sacrificing your God-Level cultivation to guarantee one single kill?" "That''s why Wassan would usually not use this final trump card unless it was extremely necessary. At the same time, no one dared to force Wassan to a dead end since none of them would be able to escape a final struggle where he would bring them down together with him. Of course, he still used his Absolute Death Laws, but not to the extent that it could affect his cultivation. At the same time, it couldn''t really bring absolute death to his opponents either." Krune and Feifei nodded. Sure enough, it wasn''t so easy. However... Galia made such a sacrifice against Wally. "That makes things difficult..." Chapter 742: We can! Wally nodded after hearing all of that. "Luvile''s right. When Galia came to the Mortal Realm and used the Absolute Death Laws, she lost all her cultivation. However, I was able to suppress the Death Mark to continue fighting. Luvile probably knows the reason why I''m still alive." Luvile confirmed. "The difference in cultivation. If I''m not wrong, Wally''s cultivation was higher than Galia. Otherwise, the Death Mark would have taken his life already." Wally nodded once more. "If not because I was in a bad state when I thought of the others, it wouldn''t have worked on me." Krune was surprised by that, though. "I thought that Galia was several times older than you. How come your cultivation was higher?" Wally didn''t know that answer. "Perhaps her cultivation speed was very slow. Or maybe she used the Absolute Death Laws in the past and lost all of it. Well, it''s not like it really matters that much at the moment." Feifei decided to return to the topic at hand, though. "So, is there no way to save you? Senior Wally did help us a lot in the past, after all. I don''t want to simply give up like that." Wally shook his head in response. "None that I know about. Anyway, once I return to the God Realm, I will still be able to live for some time, so don''t worry. With Sentoi''s help, I''ll make sure to resist until the day you guys open the Four Realm''s Exits. To be honest, I''m very curious about what I can find there as well. Hahaha!" Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Luvile, can''t your Purple Tribulation Lightning break the Death Mark? It can eat all laws, can''t it?" Luvile shook his head. "It can eat all natural laws. The Absolute Death Laws are not part of the Four Realms. They were created. Obviously, they aren''t natural. Not to mention that they are at the same level as my laws." Krune and Feifei couldn''t help but sigh. "What is all that gloominess for? I''m not dead yet, okay?" It was then that Krune remembered. "Oh, right! Wouldn''t the Gods in the God Realm hunt you down once you go there? You had been staying here because of them until now, right?" Wally didn''t deny that. "That''s true. However, I made a deal with the gods when I gave them my key." "Deal?" Wally then explained. Back then, Wally and Neto reached an agreement that prevented the start of the Wisp Hunt. There were two terms in the deal. One of them was obviously the Key that Wally passed over. As for the other, no one knew what it was. "What is this second deal?" Wally smiled before saying. "I told them that I would help with the next expedition into the exit of the Four Realms." Krune and Feifei were taken aback. "Wait! You know that it could affect the Four Realms'' Foundation. Wouldn''t it be bad if you helped?" Wally laughed. "That''s why I said I was going to help. There is no way to stop them from trying, so I might as well go all out. At least, I might be able to find a way to keep the Foundations from being destroyed. They value my power very highly, so they were more than happy to accept my deal." "Anyway, I''m not afraid of being hunted down once I ascend back there." Feifei narrowed her eyes in response. "What if they were lying? They might have said that to make you come back and prepared a trap." Luvile and Krune had the same question in mind. However, Wally didn''t seem to be worried. "Don''t worry. Neto will not go back on his word. I can guarantee you that much." Krune and Feifei looked at each other and then back at Wally. In the end, they decided to not ask further. Since Wally was that confident, then he should have his means. "Now, the last thing. What will happen to the Lower Realms if it is found that you left?" "Oh, that? Well, there isn''t much that I can do about it. All I can say is that the wisps will have to rely on themselves from now on. However, it shouldn''t take long before the wisps reach a position like the phoenixes and dragons with the Myriad Wisps Technique. At most, the Universes can only delay such a thing." Feifei and Krune couldn''t help but think about the conversation they had with the Sacred Lands'' Leaders. At that time, Krune had said exactly the same thing to them. However, he was simply bluffing. He didn''t expect that Wally really thought like that. "Can we really do that?" Wally laughed once more. "We can! Besides, the wisps already have a few members who can fight independently¡ªfor example, you, Cinty, and my nine disciples." Krune was puzzled, though. "Your nine disciples? Weren''t their Wisp Cores destroyed in the past? I know that they are trying to rebuild them, but can they do it?" Wally confirmed. "They can. My nine disciples had been working on it for a very long time, so they are very close to success. It won''t be long before they can come out of the Elemental Dimensional Realm, especially after you left those Godly Energy Stones with them." "Oh! So they told you that, huh?" "Of course! Why would they hide it? Even though those Godly Stones were not Top-Quality Ones, they are incredibly helpful." Krune had a lot of Top-Quality Godly Stones. However, they were for his and his wife''s cultivation. He gave some to Fie while Luvile also took a few more for Cilia. Still, most of it would be used by him and Feifei only. After all, he had to reach the God Realm as fast as possible. It''s just that he wouldn''t leave Feifei behind this time. Of course, the other levels of Godly Stones were still extremely useful for everyone in the Mortal Realm. "Sigh... I just hope the wisps can really hold on their own." Wally didn''t seem worried. "We can! I''m sure of it. Don''t forget. We are also wisps!" Chapter 743: Wally Left Krune then asked something else. "By the way. You said that part of the agreement was to help them when the time comes. Since that''s the case, why are you still here?" "I said I was going back, but I didn''t say when. It was Neto''s stupidity for not verifying this part. Hahahaha!" Feifei and Krune''s mouth twitched. That was quite a lousy excuse. Somewhere in the God Realm... *Achoo!* Neto rubbed his nose as his eyes narrowed. ''Where the hell is that annoying wisp? I knew I should have opted for leaving him to die!'' Back on Krune''s side... "Alright. Is there anything you want to say? If not, I''ll go after the Heavenly Fragments to complete my Heavenly Core." Wally agreed with Krune. "No problem. After you leave, I will ascend straight away. Sentoi already knows where to find me up there, so I won''t be in any danger. Oh, right! How many Heavenly Fragments do you still need?" Krune lifted one finger. "Only two, the Death and Destiny Heavenly Fragments." "I see. The one that Feifei got from Uer and her own. In that case, there is nothing much I can do. If it was the Time and Space Heavenly Fragments, I could tell who their owners are and where to find them." Krune and Feifei shook their heads. "There is no need. It''s not like we have anything against those owners to start with. Besides, I doubt they could offer any risk to us at the moment." Wally didn''t mind. "Alright. Anyway, I think this is all I wanted to talk about. At least, everything that I thought to be important." Krune and Feifei nodded, and soon, the three began to talk about other things. Krune also took the chance to ask about Soren, but Wally didn''t seem to know anything about the guy. A few hours later, Krune and Feifei finally left the dead planet. As soon as they did that, they were taken aback. That''s because a rainbow-colored gate suddenly appeared right above the planet. Not too long after, the gate expanded to the size of the planet before engulfing it entirely. However, Krune and Feifei received a Divine Sense Message before the planet completely disappeared. "If you need to talk to me, combine the two small towers I gave you. Their fused form can be used to contact me in the God Realm." The gate disappeared right after they heard it. Krune and Feifei then looked at each other and took out their small towers. They had kept them even after Krune came back. Still, they didn''t expect that they had this kind of use. As soon as they approached both pieces of equipment, they began to attract each other. They quickly released the two small towers right after. Sure enough, the two towers touched before fusing. In the end, Krune''s Black Tower and Feifei''s White tower chanced into a bigger one with mixed Black and White colors. "Guess this is what Wally was talking about." Feifei nodded. "Well, it probably needs an entire month to charge up." Krune then put the small tower in his Spatial Ring before heading in another direction. "Well, time to go visit Lakin in the Wisp Country." The couple quickly opened a Spatial Gate and entered it. The region then became silent. No one knew what happened there or that it had a planet in this place before. Back in the Divine Path Sect Territory, a new Spatial Gate appeared. As one could imagine, Feifei and Krune came out of it. Krune then spread his Divine Sense and quickly found the planet Lakin was talking about. Well, it wasn''t anything hard due to the large number of wisps present. Feifei and Krune then used another Spatial Gate and reappeared right above the Wisp Country''s Capital. "Oh, it looks quite lively." Feifei nodded. "Lakin has been doing a good job." The Wisp Country couldn''t compare to the Wisp Planets in the Wisp Solar System of the Dalin Universe. Still, most of the wisps were at least in the Foundation Establishment Realm. Krune and Feifei quickly descended on the capital. However, they didn''t catch much attention. Although the majority were wisps, there were also many other races living there, humans included. "Hmm? What''s that?" The couple then looked at a junction of the street and saw several displays aligned. Surprisingly, all of them showed the contents of the Myriad Wisp Technique. There were even a few new wisps who stop by to look at it to memorize the contents. Krune then spread his Divine Sense again and quickly found out that almost the entire country had similar displays. "Oh! That''s quite nice. Lakin made sure that every single wisp who arrives in the Wisp Country will have access to the Myriad Wisps Technique." Feifei nodded. "That''s not all. Although Lakin called this place a Wisp Country, nearly the entire planet is occupied by wisps. No doubt the Divine Path Sect arranged this planet for the wisps'' use." Krune and Feifei then began to walk in the capital of the wisp country. Everywhere they went, wisps were doing several types of jobs. Many of those used their human forms as well. None of the other races seemed to have an issue with it. Of course, not everything was all sunshine and rainbows. There were fights and other problems here and there. Still, the numbers were quite small if you considered the size of the planet. Soon, they arrived at a gigantic building at the center of the capital. Without a doubt, the highest concentration of wisps could be found there. Krune then asked a passer-by out of curiosity. "What is this place?" The guy was also a wisp in human form. He seemed to be in a hurry, so he gave a simple answer. "That''s the wisp registration office. If you come from outside the planet, you need to register there so that the country can arrange a place for you." Soon after, the guy disappeared in the distance. "So Lakin went this far. No wonder there were so many teleport formations in the surroundings." Feifei smiled before pointing at the registration office. She couldn''t help but laugh a little. "We haven''t registered yet. What about doing it now?" Krune laughed as well. "Sure! Let''s go." Chapter 744: Perfect Timing As soon as they entered, they saw several queues of wisps waiting to be registered. The Wisp Country had spread many teleport formations in the Divine Path Sect territory that allowed wisps to arrive in the Wisp Country. That helped many wisps come straight away to live in this place. Of course, this was still far from enough since each Universe was just too massive. Nonetheless, that was already a great start. However, wisps weren''t the only race in the queues. The Wisp registration office didn''t mind any race as long as they followed the rules. Because of that, it was possible to see some other cultivators or demon beasts waiting to register. Krune and Feifei just so happened to be one of them. The attendants were quite fast, so the couple didn''t have to wait for long. Once their time arrived, a wisp in human form behind the counter began to talk. "Hello there. Are you planning to live in the Wisp Country?" Feifei and Krune shook their heads. "We are staying temporarily. Still, we thought it would be better to at least register first." The attendant nodded his head. "Indeed. With an ID, you have access to many facilities that otherwise would be impossible to use. Anyway, I can tell that the lady is a human, but what about you, friend?" Krune smiled before saying. "I''m also a wisp. I came here out of curiosity about this Wisp Country." The attendant didn''t seem surprised. Well, wisps could already take human form at the Foundation Establishment Realm. That being said, there was no lack of wisps that could do so anymore. "That makes sense. I can''t see your cultivation, so you''re probably at a high level, no? I can tell it since I''m already in the Nascent Soul Realm." "Anyway, I need your names." "Wang Feifei." "Krune." The attendant couldn''t help but laugh a little when he heard their names. "Hehe! You two just so happen to have the founder and his wife''s names. Are you perhaps their fans?" Krune and Feifei got puzzled. "You know... Krune and Feifei?" The attendant nodded. "Of course. Senior Lakin made sure that everyone knows the name of the Wisp who created the Myriad Wisps Technique. His wife''s name was also included in there." Krune and Feifei felt like laughing. "Well, that''s quite funny. Anyway, you can simply register us under those names." The guy nodded and quickly finished preparing the IDs for Krune and Feifei. "Here you go." Krune and Feifei then received their IDs'' information in their communication devices. But just as they were about to leave the registration office, all the monitors around began to show something. "I ask all the wisps and other residents to pay attention to this new information." Everyone looked at the screens and immediately recognized the man there. "Oh! It''s Lakin!" "Senior Lakin rarely appears on TV." "It must be something important." Krune and Feifei also noticed that and decided to wait to see what Lakin was going to say. "As everyone knows, the country was also known as the Rainbow Sect in the past. However, we joined the Divine Path Sect at some point and decided to create a country for us instead. This country increased in size as more and more wisps arrived. Finally, we ended up making several deals with the previous inhabitants and transformed it into a planet for wisps to live in. Of course, any other race is also welcome as long as they follow the rules." "Anyway, I''ve never lied to you when I said that I wasn''t our race''s leader. I was only a representative of my Master, who had left a long time ago. Also, the Rainbow Sect did really have a Sect Master, which just so happened to not be a wisp. Funny, right? The Sect Master was a Two-Headed Snake that followed my Master when he left to train. He would one day come back and assume the position once again. All this information was already available for everyone to see, so most of you knew about it already." "Today, I bring good news to you all. My Master has finally returned to the Luvile Universe. Together with him, the Sect Master also arrived. Well, he isn''t a Sect Master anymore since the Rainbow Sect also ceased from existing a long time ago." "Welcome the new Sect Master, Ruik!" Ruik, who didn''t seem very willing to be in that program, then stepped in front of the cameras. "Errrr... Well, I was indeed the Sect Master of the Rainbow Sect in the past. Now that I''m back, I will take care of the new Wisp Country... or Planet. In any case, just keep doing what you did so far. Also, don''t come looking for me unless it is really necessa-." *Bang!* Suddenly, someone kicked Ruik on the side, sending him out of the camera''s view. The spectators looked at that scene in dismay. Right after, Lakin appeared in front of the camera again and continued. "What Senior Ruik wanted to say is that he is open to hearing everyone''s concerns and will do his best to help the wisps as much as possible. His schedule is completely filled for the next ten years, so expect to see him many times. Don''t worry, although he really, really, reallyyyyyyyyyy doesn''t look like it, he was a very good Sect Master in the past. I''m sure you will all love him." Finally, Ruik returned to the camera''s focus while rubbing the part where he was kicked. Sure enough, Tiane was the one who sent him flying just a second ago. "Ahem... Lakin exaggerated a little in his words. Still, I''m going to keep the good work he had been doing so far. Lakin will also stay by my side to help me catch up to everything I missed in the past hundred years or so. You don''t need to worry about him disappearing anytime soon." Ruik then changed his topic. "Anyway. As we mentioned, the Wisp Ancestor of the old Rainbow Sect came to Luvile Universe as well. Here''s a picture of him and his wife in case you want to compliment him." Krune''s human form and Feifei''s picture then appeared on display. "Make sure to give him a lot of love. Hahaha!" Right after, the display turned back to the previous programs. However, no one cared about it in the registration office. Instead, all their attention was on a particular rainbow-colored guy holding hands with a girl. Krune and Feifei bitterly smiled after seeing that. "Now, that''s what I call perfect timing." Chapter 745: Answering Questions In an instant, the attendant and all the wisps around looked at Krune and Feifei. "It''s Ancestor Krune!" "The real one!" "For real?!" Many wisps and a few of the other races immediately came forward to compliment him. For the wisps, the Myriad Wisps Technique was of unprecedented value. It was even more important than the Wisp Planet that they got to live on. Krune and Feifei laughed and began to talk with everyone. Divine Sense could allow instant communication. With Krune and Feifei''s level, it wasn''t hard to answer and hear many messages at once. For Krune, the main questions were things like how he came up with the Myriad Energies Technique. Others just took their communicators out and took photos or made short recordings with him. Of course, all those wisps went back to their Human Form so that they could be distinguished. Otherwise, it would be hard to convince others if they stayed in Wisp Form. As for Feifei, she was assaulted by all the Female Wisps who already got their human form. One must remember that a Wisp''s personality determines which gender a wisp will have once they enter the Foundation Establishment Realm. Naturally, all those female wisps passed through this transformation. As one could imagine, most of the questions directed at Feifei by the Female Wisps was how she got to marry Krune. How did their so and so go. About the difficulty of having offsprings when you are from a different race, etc. When they heard from Feifei that they already had a daughter, all the Female Wisps went in an uproar. "Really?!" "How many times did you have sex?" "Was there a special method of insemination?" "There must be. It is too hard to fecundate an ovule with a Male Wisp''s sperm." "How did you do that?" "Perhaps Krune had a bigger penis that went deeper. That would have helped assault Lady''s Feifei ovule easier." Feifei felt a headache when she heard all those questions. Sure enough, wisps only care about the logical part. They didn''t give a damn as to how embarrassing a topic might be. Female Wisps were absolutely no different from that. ''Well, it''s not like I''m not used to it anyway.'' The Male Wisps heard that and couldn''t help but ask Krune. "Is it true? Do you have a bigger penis?" "Does it make it easier to impregnate other races?" "How much bigger does it need to be?" Obviously, the majority of the wisps didn''t have another race partner. Still, Wisps had always been an innately curious race. The topic just integrated them too much. Krune, of course, didn''t see anything wrong with those questions either. "Hum... Considering the anatomy of all wisps with a human form I''ve seen, I guess my penis is pretty much normal. Well, at least if you don''t count the fact that my pubic hair also became multi-colored. However, it has nothing to do with the chances of having a child." Sure enough, Krune answered the question truthfully. Other than Feifei, there were only three more humans present in the Registration Office at that moment. That being said, the rest was all Demon Beasts. In the end, all of them heard everything with a lot of interest. "Oh! So it''s normal size." "Well, if you had read the articles about human form anatomy, you would have found out that the size doesn''t change the chances that much." "Can you show it so that we can compare?" Krune nodded and was just about to take his little friend out when all of a sudden. *Pah!* Feifei hit the back of his head. "If you take off your clothes here, see if I don''t ignore you for the next one hundred years." Krune rubbed the back of his head gloomily. Still, he did what Feifei said. "Sorry, guys. Although I can''t show you, I can at least tell how big it is erect. As I said, it is pretty normal, around only 17 centimeters." Feifei felt helpless. As much as she was used to that, it didn''t mean she was immune. The fact that all the wisps and the demon beasts around accepted that information as a given only made it worse. "Oh... I see. I guess it makes no difference then. Still, from what I found out, the average size was supposed to be 15 or centimeters. Yours is still a little bit above it." "It doesn''t matter. The difference is too small to be considered a factor for impregnating other races. Perhaps they were only lucky indeed." "Wait, they still haven''t answered how many times they had sex until Lady Feifei got pregnant." Feifei sighed and simply gave a straight answer. "Ahem... It was during our first time. And we didn''t do anything out of the ordinary. I guess we were simply lucky." *WOW!* Both Female and Male Wisps were shocked to hear that. A lot of wisps were curious about it exactly because Feifei and the Wisp Ancestor were married. So they knew about the chances of having offsprings between wisps and other races. Simply put, it was because both the Wisps'' sperms and ovules were just too weak to both fecundate or resist being fecundated. "As expected of the Ancestor! Such a mighty sperm!" Feifei almost couldn''t hold her laughter. This was the first time she heard something like that. The Female Wisps were also excited. "Ancestor Krune''s Sperm is indeed impressive. But Lady Feifei''s Ovule also did a good job to accept it. Congratulations!" Feifei''s smile froze for a moment. That''s right, everyone was still talking about her and Krune''s sexual life. "Ahem... Can we talk about something else other than sex and reproduction?" The wisps stopped for a moment and looked at each other. Soon after, they all nodded and began to ask many other things. They changed the topic as easily as they had started it. Also, they didn''t seem to care about it at all! ''Well, at least their denseness is useful in moments like this...'' Chapter 746: Wisps for Sure Naturally, Feifei and Krune could have left anytime they wanted. With the difference in cultivation, there wasn''t really anyone who could hold them back. Still, Krune stayed there for longer so that he could talk more with the new Wisps. Feifei understood that Krune regarded it with importance. That''s why she stayed there and helped him with it as well. It wasn''t before a few hours and thousands of questions later that Krune and Feifei finally left the Wisp Registration Office. They used their understanding of the Space Laws to simply teleport away. When they reappeared, they were already several kilometers away. "Sorry, Feifei. I held us there for way longer than I should have." Feifei tilted her head in confusion before shaking it as she replied. "What you are talking about? Talking with that many curious wisps, especially the ones who turned females, was quite funny. I didn''t mind it at all." ''Well, at least I didn''t mind talking about the things that were not related to my sexual life...'' "Ahem... In any case, we are not in a hurry. Let''s go visit Lakin and Cassy. Now that Ruik is finally taking over control, I believe those two will finally have their deserved time together. They had been holding back for a long time, after all." Krune looked at Feifei, puzzled. "Holding back? Was there something the two of them wanted?" Feifei nodded. "I told you I came to pay a visit to everyone in Dalin before Dalin got closed, right?" Krune nodded and waited for Feifei to continue. "At that time, I had the chance to talk a lot with everyone. I also spent some time here and could talk with Cassy alone. Lakin and Cassy were quite envious of me and you or Ao and Ula. They had been waiting to have a child for a long time. However, because Lakin had always been busy with the Wisp Country... or Planet, they postponed this decision." "The initial plan was to have Ruik come earlier. But the lazy snake escaped and hid just before Dalin closed, so they had to once again delay their plans. After Ruik reappeared, Tiane and I gave him an incredibly thorough punishment. Still, it was too late since Dalin was closed already. It didn''t feel right to call Senior Wally just to send Ruik back either due to his condition." Krune was surprised to hear that. "I see. No wonder Lakin looked at Fie, Ewan, and Liriu like that." "Oh! Did you notice? That probably was because he knew that they were our children. That over a hundred years'' couple had been very eager to start their own family as well." Krune nodded. "Very well, let''s go there then. I need to make sure that Ruik will not try to run away." Krune then opened a Spatial Gate before the two of them entered it. When they reappeared, they were already above an enormous building somewhere else on this Planet controlled by wisps. "Master!" Suddenly, Lakin''s voice came from inside the building. Not long after, he appeared above it with Cassy. Tiane and Liriu just so happened to be there too, so they came out. "Yo! Didn''t I say I would come and visit you? Here I am. Hahaha!" Feifei then went forward and hugged Cassy. The two became quite good friends after the last time she came to Luvile Universe. "Alright, you guys go and talk whatever you want. Cassy, Tiane, and I have a few things to talk about." Feifei then opened another Spatial Gate before she and Tiane dragged Cassy away. Lakin looked at that, puzzled. Still, it was Feifei that they were talking about, so he wasn''t the least bit worried. "Where did they go?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Feifei said something about ''women talk.'' I don''t really understand that, though." Lakin nodded. "Hum... Women do have a different constitution, after all. Perhaps it has something to do with it." Sure enough, once wisps, always wisps... "By the way, where is the lazy snake?" Lakin then pointed down. "He''s working. I''m making sure he understands everything that is needed." Krune and Lakin then teleported directly inside the building. Krune soon noticed many wisps, humans, and some other races walking everywhere. From what it looked like, this place wasn''t just Lakin''s residence, but also some kind of office that controlled most of the crucial things in the wisp planet. "He''s right inside." Lakin then opened a door. There, Ruik sat behind a table where he read many documents in a roll. The surprising thing was that he didn''t seem bored as one would expect. Instead, Ruik seemed to be taking his job very seriously. "Hum... You seem very busy, Ruik." Ruik looked at Krune for a moment before returning his attention to the documents. "Krune, huh? I''m busy right now, so can we talk later?" Lakin couldn''t help but feel a little emotional when seeing Ruik now. Other than the time on the TV, he had been doing his job pretty well. He didn''t even have to care about chasing the snake down. Krune smiled before turning to Lakin. "How long has he been like that?" Lakin then looked at Krune before pondering a bit. "He was always like this ever since he was brought here. I''m quite happy to see that he finally decided to do his part." Krune couldn''t help but laugh. "Hahaha! Doing his part, huh?" Krune then walked behind the table. Ruik glanced at him for a moment but ignored him in the end. ''Hehe. So that''s what is happening.'' Suddenly, the space around Ruik froze. Soon after, Krune hit his head with a punch. *Bang!* *Ouch!* It was quite a strong impact. Fortunately, Krune had sealed the space around Ruik, so both the building and room didn''t suffer any damage at all. However, Ruik felt tons of pain. "You dammed wisp! What the hell are you doing?!" Krune snorted in response. "Hmph! You might be able to trick others. But do you think you can trick me?" Ruik looked at Krune with shock before quickly looking away. "I don''t know what you''re talking about." Lakin and the other workers in the office looked at that with dismay. Just what was happening there? Krune then pointed at Ruik before saying. "This idiot was sleeping. He was using his Dream Laws to keep himself in a semi-aware state. This way, he could sleep while his body kind of automatically did all the job." "What?!" Everyone looked at Ruik. Ruik, of course, felt helpless. Krune continued. "The reason why he changed during the TV time was that that wasn''t part of the rules set up in his semi-aware soul. That being said, his soul woke up when you said that he had a TV appearance. Now that he came back to the same job as before, his brain can more or less do everything." Lakin was shocked! "But, can a semi-aware mind deal with the many issues that a planet goes through? So far, all his job had been done really well." Krune nodded. "Probably. If not, he wouldn''t try something like that. I''m quite impressed, though. Even I have no confidence whatsoever of pulling something like this off." Ruik couldn''t help but say. "So what?! Am I not doing everything correctly? If there is really a need, I can simply wake up again. Instead, it is even better this way. After all, I can both cultivate my Dream Laws and do my job at the same time. It''s a win-win situation!" Krune shrugged his shoulders as he said. "That''s not my problem. The only thing that bothered me was that Lakin seemed to not know what was happening here." Ruik then scratched the back of his head as he looked at Lakin. "Well, that''s how it is. Amazing, right? I can do my job perfectly while sleeping. You don''t need to worry about me running away from my job anymore. Hahaha!" Lakin''s mouth twitched. "I feel like beating you black and blue. However..." Lakin looked at the piles of documents that have already been dealt with and nodded, satisfied. "It''s true that your job is excellent. Very well. As long as it doesn''t affect our wisp planet, the wisps, and the other races living here, then I won''t bother with it." Ruik smiled while showing a confident expression. "You don''t need to worry. I worked very hard so that I could laze around. Trust in all the effort I put into my capability of sleeping." Krune and Lakin couldn''t help but feel that those words were somewhat wrong. Well, in fact, they were very wrong. It''s just that it only looked something good when used by Ruik and this new ability of his. "Anyway. It seems like I don''t need to put Plan B in practice." "Plan B?" Ruik and Lakin looked at Krune, puzzled. It was then that Krune looked at Ruik as some sparks of Purple Lightning came out of his body. "Oh, don''t worry. It was just some countermeasures to prevent you from fleeing. Don''t worry, it wouldn''t kill you." Ruik felt a chill on his back. He couldn''t be happier that his semi-aware ability worked so well. Without a doubt, whatever Krune planned was definitely not something he would like to see. "Ahem... Don''t worry, this method is definitely foolproof. Don''t underestimate my efforts to keep my sleeping schedule." Lakin then shrugged his shoulders. "Well, whatever. Just go back to your semi-whatever state and start to work." Ruik smiled and was just about to do it when all of a sudden, Feifei, Tiane, and Cassy teleported directly inside the room. Lakin then looked at them before asking. "Isn''t your day off today, Cassy?" Cassy nodded. "It is. I just came to take you out." "Take me out?" Cassy nodded. "It''s time for us to make a child." Lakin pondered a bit before nodding. "Okay." Feifei, Tiane, Ruik, and the human workers looked at that in dismay. ''Wisps for sure...'' Chapter 747: Warning Feifei finally came back to herself before saying. "Ahem... I heard something about Ruik being able to work well on his own now, right? Then leave him dealing with everything. Besides, you have many more workers here who already know the job. They will be able to provide Ruik with the right support." Ruik then went back to the table. "Alright. Let''s continue. Lakin can go already and leave everything to me. Hahaha!" Lakin looked at the other workers and saw them nodding at him with smiles on their faces. Soon after, he held Cassy''s hand before opening a Spatial Gate. "Shall we go, then?" Cassy nodded with an excited expression. "Sure!" They entered the Spatial Gate, which disappeared a few seconds later. Seeing that, Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "Will they be okay?" Krune nodded. "Of course! They''re both wisps, so the problem with reproduction between races won''t happen to them. Their chances of having a little wisp are just like any other human couple." Feifei was happy to hear that. "Alright. I already talked with Tiane and Liriu, so we can go anytime you want." Krune nodded once again and looked at Ruik. "Good! Ruik, I''m leaving the Luvile Universe for some time. See you and the others later." Ruik simply shook his hands in response. "You already took too long to leave. Shoo, shoo! I can''t concentrate on sleeping knowing that you are here." Everyone couldn''t help but wonder if it was really the right thing to leave Ruik on his own. Oh well, it''s not like Lakin would be gone forever. Feifei and Krune then bid their farewells to Tiane and Liriu. Following that, another Spatial Gate appeared. Feifei and Krune used it to go to the Luvile Universe''s Multi-Universal Spatial Gate. It was already no secret that they were in the Luvile Universe, so they might as well use it. "The closest Universe is Caxton. It''s just that we don''t know which Heavenly Fragment they have there." "It doesn''t matter. We can try one by one. I doubt that none of them have the Heavenly Fragments we need." Feifei and Krune nodded and moved in the direction of the Spatial Gate. However, just as they were about to register their destination, someone appeared to talk with them. "Krune, wait!" Krune and Feifei looked at the newcomer. However, only Krune recognized the person. "Oh! Aren''t you Joty Marcat?" Joty was one of the people who joined the Divine Path Sect together with Krune. He was also one of the few that was selected by one of the elders as a personal disciple. From what Krune heard, it seemed like he had a special eye bloodline, which was the same one as his Master. It''s just that he had never asked what it was about. Joty sighed in relief when he saw that he arrived in time. "Sorry for not appearing at your marriage." Krune laughed, not minding it too much. "It''s okay. Still, for you to come here in such a hurry, did something happen?" Joty nodded. "You do remember that I was brought away by my Master after the Divine Path Sect exam, right?" Krune confirmed. "Yes. The old geezer told me about that." Joty then continued. "Good. As you probably heard, I have a special type of bloodline, just like my Master. This ability of mine allows me to perceive luck." Krune and Feifei were taken aback. "Perceive luck?" Joty nodded. "Yes. Do you remember during our time in the Divine Path Sect Exam? For some reason, I always selected the right path. Got the weakest opponents. You know very well that I should have failed with that kind of power I had. At that time, it seemed like I already used this power of mine subconsciously. Well, a big reason for my success was also your help. Without it, even my ability wouldn''t have been enough, I think." Krune couldn''t help but admit that Joty was telling the truth. "Now that you talked about it, I was really impressed when I saw that you also concluded the exam with that level. So that''s why you succeeded." Joty then changed the topic. "Anyway. I wasn''t planning to come to see you since I''ve been busy cultivating. However, I have something important to tell you." However, just as Joty was about to say something, another Spatial Gate appeared. From inside, someone shouted through a Divine Sense message. "Joty! You better shut up right now!" "Shit! It''s my own old geezer." Krune and Feifei looked at the old man who appeared. Once again, only Krune recognized him. "I believe this is the first time we see each other, Elder Amilio Tirac." That''s the name of the elder who took Joty as a disciple. "You are Lucio''s disciple, right?" Krune nodded. "Exactly. Is something happening here?" Joty immediately nodded. "Yes. It''s about your-" *Pah!* Suddenly, Amilio slapped the back of Joty''s head. "Shut up, idiot! Are you trying to sever karma?" Feifei and Krune became even more puzzled. "But... If I don''t say anything, what will happen to them?" Amilio shook his head as he said. "That''s how the Four Realms work. It''s not up to you to change it." Krune and Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "Karma? Luck? Are they related to each other? Is something wrong with our own?" Joty looked helpless. "They are indeed connected. It''s not wrong to say that they''re the same thing. What people think to be luck is nothing more than the results of their karma. Or better, their action. My eye bloodline just so happens to be able to see this karma." Amilio nodded. "What he said. It''s not the same as Lady Feifei''s Divination. After all, she is calculating the possible futures through the reading of Destiny Energy. Karma goes much deeper. For example, if we cut the karma you have with the world, everyone would forget that you ever existed. We can also use the karma to tell whether or not you are choosing the right path." "Of course, Lady Feifei''s Divination has its own use. Karma reading can''t tell what will happen. Divination, on the other hand, can. It''s just that it would give her several possibilities." Feifei got quite interested in it. It was really different from her Divination Ability. "I understand that. However, why can''t Joty say anything?" Joty scratched the back of his head. "That''s because it would mean changing the Karma results you have accumulated so far. I don''t know how you did that, but the Karma around you two is ridiculously intricated. It took me a very long time to read it. You have no idea how tiring it was." "Anyway, if I tell you what path not to choose, this karma balance around your bodies will fall into chaos. Still..." Amilio stopped Joty there. "There no ''still.'' You might only worsen the things if you talk now. I told you before, don''t dive into too many changes of Karma. That''s why we keep ourselves most of the time secluded. We are trying to cut the karma related to us as much as possible. That way, we can change our own karma without big consequences. However, Krune and Feifei''s karma is far beyond what you or I can handle. Once you do something, you will receive the backlash of the Universe. Give up already." Krune and Feifei began to get worried. "Is our karma that bad?" Amilio narrowed his eyes. "There are a few black threads there indeed. Unfortunately, I can''t tell you which ones they are and where they are connected to. Chances are that I would die instead. The heavens are only harsh to those who use Divination Abilities. But it is merciless to those who change Karma." Joty looked at his Master, who was adamant about not letting him say anything. Nonetheless, Joty didn''t give up. "Fuck it! You shouldn''t approach the Soren Ruins." Amilio almost vomited blood! "Yo-You! How could yo-" Before he could even finish his words, the world around them began to change. *Brummmmmm!* At the same time, the dark karma thread connected to Krune and Feifei weakened a lot. All of a sudden, Tribulation Lightning began to congregate above Joty''s body. But it wasn''t just any tribulation. In an instant, the range of the Lightning Congregation surpassed ten thousand kilometers! The worst part is that it didn''t seem to want to stop. "Fool!" Joty bitterly smiled but didn''t feel any regret. It was thanks to both his ability and Krune that he succeeded in entering the Divine Path Sect. He owed Krune for that. Now, that debt is finally paid. "It''s okay, Master. I did very well until now, so don''t worry. Maybe we can meet again if I reincarnate. Hahaha!" Even Feifei, who was already in the 4th Stage of the Divinity Realm, felt deep fear as she looked at that amount of Purple Lightning. She didn''t expect that the backlash of the Universe for intervening with karma could reach such a proportion. ''Even if I was at the peak of the Divinity Realm, I wouldn''t stand a chance against this thing.'' Amilio didn''t want to give up, though. Amilio took way too long to finally find a disciple with the same bloodline as him. "Shut and focus. Here, take these." Immediately, Amilio threw a few defensive treasures to Joty. "Bound them with your Divine Sense. That way, the Tribulation will consider it part of your own strength. Don''t give up just yet." Joty smiled. Too bad that he knew that it wouldn''t be enough at all. Still, he took them. After all, there was nothing wrong with just trying. However... "Ahem... Is the Tribulation the issue here?" Suddenly, Krune lifted his hand in the air. From there, a Bolt of Purple Tribulation Lightning came out and struck the Purple Lightning above Joty. It was then that something ridiculous happened. As if acting as a conductor, Krune''s Purple Lightning guided the Tribulation to him! Under everyone''s eyes, the Tribulation Lightning completely discharged on Krune''s body. It wasn''t only Joty, Amilio, and Feifei observing. The Multi-Universal Spatial Gate also had several protectors. Obviously, they all saw what happened as well. In just a few minutes, the space above Joty came back to normal as if nothing had happened at all! As for Krune. Other than the fact that his clothes burned down, leaving him naked once more, he was pretty much fine... "This..." "Shouldn''t the Tribulation become even stronger if someone intervened against it?" Everyone was puzzled at that. Suddenly, Luvile''s voice echoed in Krune and Feifei''s mind. ''Thanks for the meal.'' Krune laughed. "Hahaha! You forgot an important point here. This Tribulation wasn''t related to a Breakthrough. That''s why it didn''t get bigger when I decided to absorb it. It''s that simple." Except for Feifei, who knew about Luvile''s existence, everyone else thought the same thing. That''s not the issue, idiot! How the hell did you not die?! What kind of monster are you? Chapter 748: Phantom Blade Krune noticed everyone looking at him and scratched the back of his head. "Ahem... Anyway, Was that the problem about the karma.... errr... thread?" Joty finally came back to himself as he looked at Krune with his eyes wide open. "You can stop something like that?! Holy shit!" Amilio was also shocked by Krune''s display. "Doesn''t that mean you only need this wisp close to you, and you can intervene in anyone''s karma?" Krune couldn''t help but say. "That... would be a little difficult." Feifei finally lost her patience, though. "How long are you going to take to put on some clothes?!" "Ah!" Only then did Krune notice that he was really naked. He quickly took another set of clothes from his Spatial Ring right after. "My bad, my bad." Joty calmed down a little as well. "Ahem... In any case, that''s what I had to tell you two. Do not get close to that place since there is a huge calamity waiting for you there... or that''s what I can read from your karma. At least, don''t go there in the near future. As time passes, changes happen too. Perhaps it won''t be a problem a few years in the future." Krune and Feifei looked at each other before nodding. "Very well. We did want to go there to investigate the place, but I guess there is no need to be this harsh." Amilio sighed before slapping the back of Joty''s head. "How long are you going to hold my treasures? Give them back!" Joty felt a little embarrassed and immediately complied with his master''s orders. "Sorry, Master." Krune took that chance to ask another thing. "By the way, can you see anything dangerous on my or Feifei''s karma? Are there more of those dark threads?" Joty shook his head. "No. After I warned you, the color of the thread point at Soren Ruins changed into a gray color. It means it''s still dangerous, but not one that would warrant certain death. As for the others, I can''t see them well since there are way too many." Joty then looked at Amilio. "What about you, Master?" Amilio shook his head as well. "There are way too many karma threads connected to the two of you. Even I can''t make them out the way it is. In fact, I''ve never seen the dark karma thread connected to Krune. It was because of Joty''s connection with you that it was more clear to him. My Eye Bloodline is more evolved than Joty''s, but not enough to deal with such intricacy." Krune and Feifei could only nod. In the end, neither Joty nor Amilio could tell them if they should be careful with anything else. Joty couldn''t help but comment. "Still, how the hell did you get this many connections? I''ve never seen someone with as many karma threads as you. It feels like calamity is following you on its own." Luvile''s voice immediately appeared in Krune''s mind. ''See? I told you to stop comprehending the Calamity Laws.'' Krune''s mouth twitched. ''Calamity Laws, your head! Can you stop bringing this name all the time?'' It was then that Krune had one idea. "Oh, right! Joty, do you know if there is a way to reduce the number of karma threads for Feifei and me?" Joty nodded. "That''s, in fact, quite simple. You just need to end all relations with whatever is keeping the karma thread there. For example, if you completely give up on the Soren Ruins, the thread connected to that place will eventually disappear on its own." Krune felt helpless. End relations with everything? If he does that, the foundations of the Four Realms might be destroyed. If he does that, he might die. If he doesn''t, he might die anyway. The only difference is that not doing anything would put him in a passive position where he could only wait for the results. In that case, he might as well not change anything. Feifei then thought about something else. "By the way, how do you know about the Soren Ruins? Only Krune and the Sect Masters of the Divine Path Sect should know about such a thing." Feifei only knew about that because Krune had told her. Otherwise, even she wouldn''t have any idea about what Joty was talking about. Amilio was the one who answered that. "This is something related to the previous owners of our Eye Bloodline. Obviously, I wasn''t the only one. My Master was also part of the Divine Path Sect, just like the others before him. The Sect Masters had used our ability in the past. One of those occasions was to look into the karma related to Soren. It''s just that I don''t know what the Sect Masters of the past wanted there." Krune nodded. The Elements Regulation Technique was found in the Soren Ruins. Though, only the Sect Masters and their disciples know about it. "But wouldn''t it be bad if the previous cultivators with your eye bloodline looked into this? If I wasn''t here, Joty would be dead already." Amilio shook his head. "It''s not that simple. Your case was special since it was a pure dark thread. The karma of the previous Sect Masters to the Soren Ruins might not have been that bad, so my bloodline ancestors could face the backlash power. In any case, those were things that happened before I was born, so I don''t know how it went. Naturally, I also informed Joty about it in case Lucio ever asked something about that to him." Krune and Feifei understood. "Anyway, Joty. Thanks for coming here. You saved us from a huge problem. I''ve been in so many shitty situations that it was good to know that I can at least avoid one now." Joty smiled, not minding it at all. "No problem. However, don''t expect me to do this kind of crazy thing again. Even if you can block the Universe''s backlash, I would rather not risk it. That was frightening as hell." At some point, the guards of the Multi-Universal Spatial Gate came to talk with Krune''s group. Well, that was to be expected after what Krune did in front of them. Krune then simply gave some excuses. Since he didn''t break anything and no one got hurt, there wasn''t a need to care about it too much. Unfortunately, it wasn''t that simple. The guards sent the news to the Sacred Lands. With such a massive phenomenon, they made sure to record everything in great detail and from many angles. As one could imagine, the leaders of the Sacred Lands were shocked by what they saw as well. After that, they sent news outside, showing what Krune had just done. The problem here was the place Krune selected to block the Tribulation. It was right in front of the Spatial Gate, so everyone considered that as Krune showcasing his power. After all, they had threatened him of restarting the Wisp Hunt. In everyone''s eyes, Krune was saying that he welcomed anyone who wanted to hunt him. Poor Krune really didn''t mean that at all, though. In the end, they could only meet to discuss the information they got from the Sacred Lands. "What do we do now? If that was not some illusion, he''s already above the Peak Divinity Realm in power." Said Lidmir Jiadem from Galec Universe. "What else? That was obviously a threat directed at us. Should we just swallow it down without taking action? Before he becomes even more of a problem, we should just gather some of our forces and take him down." Added the representative of the Hara Universe. However, Olave Merfil narrowed his eyes. He was the same guy whose daughter''s soul was saved by Krune''s Purple Flame Pill. "We shouldn''t make an enemy of someone who doesn''t want to fight us. I believe that is his way of saying to not try anything. Otherwise, if we had really gathered a group of experts to attack him, they would have probably died. Isn''t it a good thing that we didn''t take action?" Another leader also mentioned. "Don''t forget that he''s related to Wally. If we really kill him, wouldn''t Wally come after our heads? Wally even appeared in the Heavenly Competition to guarantee his safety. Can any of you stop that Wisp God if he comes after us for revenge?" "Exactly! Did you forget? We have been trying to get help for the Higher Realms, but they are completely ignoring the situation down here." Of course, there were those that felt that they should take action now. "So what? Can Wally go around destroying everything? If he does that, I refuse to believe that the Higher Realms will stay put as you said. Think about his cultivation. He is still in the 4th Stage of the Divinity Realm. Just how much stronger will he get once he reaches the peak?" It was then that Sara Lue from Uline Universe suggested. "There is a way to do that without fearing Wally doing anything." Everyone''s attention was immediately piqued as they waited for Sara to continue. "Did you forget? Krune was the representative of the Luvile Universe. That means that he''s also the one responsible for Luvile Universe''s decisions on combat. We can simply initiate some random dispute with any random Universe against the Luvile Universe. That way, he will need to participate." Everyone''s eyes lit up. "Wait! Do we have any Heavenly Core owner capable of fighting him?" Sara shook her head. "We don''t. Most of the Heavenly Core Owners are far behind in cultivation. We can only use someone else." As soon as she said that, everyone looked at a particular person in the room. He was the representative of the Thakulo Universe, Jojle Carsul. "Jojle, we have to bother you to call Senior Phantom Blade." Chapter 749: First Deal As the Universe Powerhouses prepared their part, Krune and Feifei arrived in the Caxton Universe. Of course, they arrived there while keeping themselves hidden inside the Purple Tribulation Lightning from Krune. That assured that they wouldn''t be found out while passing by the other Universes. From Cinty''s information, the Hure Clan had one Ownerless Heavenly Fragment that hadn''t been claimed yet. However, they didn''t seem willing to sell it since they were expected to give it to a future Heavenly Fragment Owner. The Hure Clan was one of the strongest forces in this Universe. However, their own Heavenly Fragment Owner died to the other power''s owner before it had the chance to take this Fragment. In the end, they sealed it until the next Heavenly Core fights start again. "Do you think they will sell it to us? It seems pretty important to them. It would give their next Heavenly Fragment Owner a good boost when he or she appears. Even though Heavenly Fragment Owners appear randomly, with this Clan''s Power in the Caxton Universe, I doubt they can''t find at least one of them." Krune nodded, not minding too much. "Don''t worry. Even if they refuse the Purple Flame Equipment, I have a few items that I brought from the Godly Path Realm that they will definitely accept." Feifei nodded as they spread their Divine Senses. Soon, they found a planet with a relatively large amount of cultivators living in it. They opened a normal Spatial Gate and quickly went there. The Waqiop Planet was the lair of the Sinclion Sect. At the moment, this Sect was in the middle of a secret meeting with another Sect of the same planet. From the conversation they were having, it seemed like they were planning an attack against a common enemy that appeared recently. "Your Gbel Sect can really crack open their Protection Formation, right?" "Don''t worry. We have a few insiders that will play this part for us. When the moment comes, it will open. What about your Sinclion Sect? Will you use the Thundergod Spear Formation?" "Yes. We are ready to activate it at any time. It consumes a massive amount of Spirit Stones, but we couldn''t care less at the moment. If we don''t stop them, we will have to eventually share the resources of the planet. Now that the Universe Powerhouses released all those top cultivation techniques, resources are more important than never." Suddenly, a voice came from above the table where they were discussing. "If I were you, I wouldn''t attack the Lestral Sect." Everyone felt fear as they immediately retreated in a flash. "Who are you?" "It doesn''t matter! We can''t let anyone know about this, or our plan will fail. Attack!" Both sides immediately used their best skills, aiming all of them at the Rainbow-Haired Figure and the woman beside him. Unfortunately, Purple Space warped around the two, making all the attacks miss their mark. Not only that, but the defense was so good that it also prevented those attacks from causing any damage to the room itself. "This..." Seeing how their attacks were utterly useless, the people inside the room couldn''t help but feel fear. Only then did they notice that neither of them could see the newcomers'' cultivations. Obviously, they were far above any of their members. The Gbel Sect Leader could only change his stance in the end. "Se-Senior, sorry for offending you." Obviously, those figures were Krune and Feifei. The highest cultivation on this planet was only the Divine Path Realm. Naturally, these people couldn''t do anything to someone like Krune or Feifei. "It''s okay. I only came here to ask for some information. It was then that I heard your conversation by mistake. Anyway, the Lestral Sect is aware of your alliance and has already prepared a trap for you two. Why don''t you make a cease-fire deal instead? Resources are important, but your sect members are even more important than that." Everyone looked at Krune in dismay. Well, they were at least relieved that Krune didn''t seem to hold a grudge against them after the attacks. "Ahem... thank you for the advice, Senior. What kind of information do you require from us?" Feifei then asked in Krune''s instead. "We came to the Caxton Universe to talk with the Hure Clan. Do you know in which part of the Universe we can find them?" Immediately, everyone nodded. The Hure Clan was enormous. Even though their planet wasn''t inside their territory, they at least knew where to find it. The Sect Master of the Gbel Sect then got Krune''s communicator signal and passed the chart of the Universe to him. There, it was possible to find most of the well-known places. Naturally, the Hure Clan''s location was there as well. "Oh, that helps a lot. Anyway, I already prevented your two clans from falling into the trap, so that can be considered my payment. See ya, everyone." Krune and Feifei then disappeared from the room as if they had never been there. "What do we do? Can you trust him?" "Are you an idiot? With that guy''s cultivation, he could wipe out our sects on his own. Why would he waste his time lying to us? It''s almost certain that there is indeed a trap waiting for us." "Sigh... If the Lestral Sect rally knows about our meeting already, then they''re definitely waiting for our attack. It won''t do if we simply disband as if nothing has happened." "What are you implying?" "We can pretend that we met to discuss a possible alliance. That would take them by surprise, no? Well, neither of us really want this. However, I definitely don''t want to do the opposite of what that senior mentioned. What if he is still observing us?" Everyone felt a chill on their backs. Just like that, they came out of their secret meeting and called the Lestral Sect. In the future, those three sects would merge together and form a new force that would quickly grow to the same size as the controlling powers of the Caxton Universe. However, that''s part of another story. Krune and Feifei didn''t know about anything. They simply opened a Spatial Gate and moved to the Hure Clan''s Territory. There, they finally spotted their main planet with their Divine Senses and used one more Spatial Gate to arrive. The Hure Clan obviously had their own Divinity Realm experts. That being said, they noticed Krune and Feifei outside their planet straight away. However, their Clan Leader was taken aback when he saw Krune''s appearance. As long as it was a dominating power, there was no way they wouldn''t recognize Krune. After all, his fight against Iem was transmitted to all the Universes related to the Heavenly Competition. "Aren''t you that wisp who disappeared?" Krune laughed after hearing that. "Well, that was me indeed. I just came back, so I decided to pay a visit to your Hure Clan." Their Leader''s name was Sopil Hure, a 7th Stage Divinity Realm cultivator. Of course, the Hure Clan had their own Peak Divinity Realm that kept themselves hidden. Nonetheless, Krune and Feifei could feel their Divine Senses paying attention to the two. Hure was shocked when he saw Krune''s cultivation. After all, it had been just 157 years since he was in the Heavenly Competition. How come he already cultivated to that stage? The name ''Wally'' immediately came to his mind since everyone believed it was Wally''s fault that Krune and Iem disappeared. "Hahaha! Welcome, welcome! I''ve never thought that one of the Heavenly Competition Slot Winners would appear in our humble clan. This beautiful lady there should be your wife, correct? I''ve heard that you were a married wisp. Anyway, please come inside." Krune and Feifei smiled before accepting Sopil''s offer. They were invited to the main hall, where a few of the clan elders were also present. All of them wanted to see this wisp. After all, he was linked to the Wisp God, an expert from the Higher Realms. "Well then, Krune. I can see that you improved by leaps and bounds in your cultivation since the Heavenly Competition. This makes this old man almost die green from envy. Hahaha! Would you mind sharing the secret behind it?" Krune laughed before shaking his head. "Sorry. But Senior Wally made me promise that I wouldn''t say it." Sopil didn''t get angry or anything. Who would really tell others such a thing? He was just asking that without any expectation. "Anyway, what can our Hure Clan do for you? At your level, I doubt there is much we can do anyway." Krune smiled before saying. "I heard that your Hure Clan has kept an Ownerless Heavenly Fragment. I would like to know if you were willing to sell it." In an instant, Sopil''s expression changed. "I''m sorry. But we are keeping it for the next Heavenly Fragment Owners'' appearance. We can''t give them up." Krune wasn''t the least bit surprised by that. He then looked at Feifei and let her do the talk. "Now, now, Clan Leader Sopil. I understand your position. First of all, let us make something clear. We have no intention whatsoever of using Senior Wally to threaten your clan. You can be at ease." Everyone was taken aback. Indeed, everyone watching the meeting had thought about that possibility. Still, the Heavenly Fragment was just too important for the Hure Clan. Feifei continued. "Now that we made it clear, could senior Sopil at least hear our offer? I''m sure you will be pleased by it. Even if you don''t accept in the end, we will simply leave without making things difficult for the Hure Clan." Sopil narrowed his eyes and looked at the elders. It was obvious that they were talking through Divine Sense messages. In the end, Sopil nodded his head. "Very well. There is nothing wrong with hearing what you have to offer." Feifei and Krune smiled. As long as they were willing to at least hear their offer, Krune and Feifei were sure that they would reach a deal. Chapter 750: First Fragment Krune then made the first offer. "You''ve probably heard of my Purple Flame Equipment. I can craft them for your clan. I''m sure that having weapons capable of displaying a power above others would greatly help in the future." Sopil nodded. "Indeed. I''ve heard about your Purple Flame Equipment. However, there is a problem here. Tell me, what should we do with maintenance? You are the only one capable of creating them. Unfortunately, you are the only one capable of repairing them as well." Krune was taken aback. This was the first time he heard someone talking about repairing his Purple Flame Equipment. However, he understood why. Before he left the Mortal Realm, he had only created equipment for the Divine Stars Level. Those cultivators knew that they would cultivate to higher levels, and Krune''s equipment would eventually fall behind their own level. That being said, they didn''t mind not repairing them. However, the Divinity Realm cultivators of the Hure Clan were different. They would take a very long time to cultivate, and many of them would delay their ascension on purpose for even longer. Naturally, they would use Krune''s Purple Flame Equipment for a much, much longer time. Chances are that they would indeed break at some point. However, without Krune to use his Purple Flame to repair them, they would be just scraps once that happened. Immediately, Krune understood that his Purple Flame Equipment might not have as high of a value as he imagined at first. Lani didn''t complain about it since he did say that he would ascend soon. The Staff Krune crafted for him would be more than enough for him until then. "This... What if I make a lot of them? If one breaks, you can use the next one." Sopil smiled but shook his head. "You are a blacksmith, so don''t tell me that you don''t know. There is no such thing as identical equipment. Especially once you reach our cultivation. The commitment you put on it is not the same if you change later. I''m sorry. Your Purple Flame equipment is indeed great, but it''s not to the point where we would trade our Heavenly Fragment." Krune sighed but didn''t blame them. After all, he knew that Sopil was telling the truth. Krune had made 102 Flying Shields that looked identical, but he, more than anyone else, could tell how different they are. Feifei then smiled at Krune as if she was already expecting something like that. ''The Destiny Divine Soul and Heavenly Fragment, huh?'' Krune then gave up offering his Purple Flame Equipment and switched to the Godly Path Realm items. "In that case, would you like to trade them for Godly Stones?" Sopil, who had been smiling so far, suddenly froze in place. "What did you say?" "Godly Stones. Other than my Purple Flame Equipment, I can only think about giving these things." Of course, Krune also had other things, but he preferred to use the most abundant one he had. "This... how many are we talking about? No, first of all, how did you get them? I heard that you can find those in the Holy Land, but no one should be able to bring them out. Could it be..." Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Who else other than Wally could have them? He''s someone from the Higher Realms, after all. He has no use for these stones, so he gave me a lot of them. Since Clan Leader Sopil has no interest in my Purple Flame Equipment, I can only use these things instead." Sopil and the other elders around him couldn''t help but feel excited. Godly Stones were definitely another matter in itself. Not only could they keep some for the next Heavenly Fragment Owner, but they could also use the rest for themselves. It could also be used for other things like trading in the future if necessary. In any case, depending on the number of Godly Stones, it would be worth more than their Heavenly Fragment Alone. Just as he was pondering, Sopil received a Divine Sense Message. ''Clan Leader, what about we join hands to attack this wisp? He definitely has a lot more Godly Stones than he will offer us. Besides, we would also be able to keep the Heavenly Fragment if we succeed.'' Sure enough, quite a few of them became greedy once they heard that offer. Sopil had to admit that the idea enticed him. Krune was only in the 4th Stage of the Divinity Realm while they even had Peak Ones guarding the clan. If they attacked together, they could most likely take everything away from Krune. However, Sopil came back to himself and shook his head in the end. ''Out of the question. Did you not hear who gave those Godly Stones to Krune? What if Wally himself comes to take revenge for him?'' ''But didn''t they say that Wally wouldn''t intervene?'' ''Idiot! They said that they wouldn''t use Wally''s name to force us to deliver the Heavenly Fragment. They never said anything about not asking for help in case they were in danger.'' ''But... We can simply cover the truth and get rid of their bodies. If Wally really appears and can''t find anything, he won''t be able to act due to the past agreement, no?'' Sopil snorted after hearing that. ''Are you willing to bet the clan''s existence in this bet?'' Immediately, all the elders shut their mouths. Indeed, they got blinded by greed way too much that they forgot the most important point, the clan. Eventually, Sopil returned his attention to Krune before smiling once more. "So, my little wisp friend. How many Godly Stones are we talking about here?" Krune pondered a bit before saying. "I''m not sure about the price. How about Clan Leader Sopil gives his offer instead? If it''s reasonable, I might just accept directly." Sopil then looked at the other elders, and they immediately began to discuss the issue. In the past, some of them had also entered the Holy Land after paying the Dalin Universe Alliance''s price. Naturally, they had at least seen or even used a Godly Stone. What they didn''t know was that those Godly Stones in the Holy Land were of the worst type. Fortunately, many of Krune''s dishes accepted them as payment, so he really got a lot during his time working as a Spiritual Chef. Krune could use his higher quality ones, but he decided that it would be better to keep them hidden unless he had no other choice. "What about 1000 Godly Stones? Don''t say that we are asking for too much. After all, Godly Stones are consumables. As for the Heavenly Fragment, it is eternal as long as its owners survive. Besides, we don''t have the Holy Land to give support either." Feifei immediately intervened before Krune could answer. "It''s too much. Make it 500." Even though Krune had mountains of those ordinary Godly Stones, there was no need to let others know. By doing a bit of bargaining, it would look like Krune wasn''t as rich as he really is. That could already save them from a lot of problems. "500 is too little as well. 900!" Feifei shrugged her shoulders. "I can see where it is going already. In the end, we will just reach a middle term. Alright, 750 Godly Stones, but we won''t add even a single stone after that. If you don''t accept, then Krune and I will just leave. As mentioned before, we won''t use Wally''s name to threaten you, so don''t worry." Sopil smiled before nodding. In fact, he would have accepted 500. However, he would definitely bargain for as much as possible. Getting 750 was already more than welcome. "Deal! However, I want to make one thing clear. Other than the people in this room, I don''t want anyone else to know about the Godly Stones we got. We aren''t afraid of anyone, but we don''t want to have trouble knocking on our door either." Krune immediately nodded. "No problem. I also would have asked for the same thing since Ownerless Heavenly Fragments are just too hard to find." Krune didn''t waste time and took out a spare Spatial Ring. Soon after, he transferred 750 of the common Godly Stones inside before throwing them to Sopil. Sopil then checked the ring as his eyes lit up. "Very good! Please wait here. We were expecting to use that Heavenly Fragment far, far in the future, so we put many restrictions on it so that no mishaps would happen until there. It will take some time to remove them all." Krune and Feifei didn''t mind and simply nodded. As Sopil was gone, Krune and Feifei talked about their next destination. ''Where can we find more Ownerless Heavenly Fragments?'' Krune checked the information Cinty gave him in the communicator before saying. ''The next one is located in the Sufrot Universe. Different from Caxton, Sufrot is controlled by a single power alone. What do you think? Will they try to attack us for the Godly Stones?'' Feifei shook her head. ''I don''t know. Did you forget that Divination on Heavenly Fragment Owners is useless? I can only use it on nearby objects and people to see the side effects. I''ll give it a try once we visit Sufrot later.'' Krune nodded as he held Feifei''s hand. In the end, it took an entire day for Sopil to come back with the Heavenly Fragment. That showed just how powerful the restriction put over it was. "Here you go. We don''t know which type this Fragment is, so you will need to test it by yourself." Krune nodded before taking it. Soon after, he started the absorption process. Whether it was a Heavenly Fragment he had or not, he would know straight away. Chapter 751: Sufrot Religion Krune could have waited until he was somewhere else. But Feifei asked him to absorb it here in case there was a problem with the Heavenly Fragment. Krune''s Heavenly Fragments, which had already fused together, felt the presence of the new Fragment. Immediately, both sides began to resonate with each other. As always, the Ownerless Heavenly Fragment tried to resist. But because it didn''t have support from its own Universe anymore, it couldn''t fight against Krune''s Fragments. However, the liquefication that Krune was expecting didn''t happen. Usually, his own fragments and the new one would turn into some kind of liquid before fusing together. After that, they would solidify in the form of a core. It''s just that the core would have a crack since it wasn''t complete. However, it didn''t matter how long Krune waited. In the end, neither side turned into that. Eventually, when the two sides were about to touch each other, part of Krune''s cracked Heavenly Core shone with a black light, which repulsed the new Fragment away. ''I see, so that''s how it works when you try to absorb a Fragment that you already possess.'' Krune then looked at Feifei as he pulled that Fragment out of his Foundation. "Feifei, this is a Blackhole Heavenly Fragment. I already have it, so you can have this one." Feifei was surprised that from all the fragments available, she would get the Blackhole one. After all, the Blackhole Fragment would help a lot with cultivation speed. Krune was the living proof of that. "Alright." Feifei quickly sat down as Krune passed her the Blackhole Fragment. Just like Krune, she sent it inside her Foundation and inside her Destiny Divine Soul where her own Fragments were located. Sure enough, the fusion process started almost instantly. Feifei''s Yin, Destiny, and Death Heavenly Fragments liquefied together with the Blackhole Fragment. Once again, the Blackhole tried to resist, but it was fruitless. In the end, Feifei''s Fragments, which still had the support of their own Universe, won the battle and forced the Blackhole Fragment to join them. The liquid-like form then increased in size before it began to assume the shape of a cracked core. In the end, it solidified once more like a partial Heavenly Core. Immediately, Feifei felt the surge of Spiritual Energy that was present in the Blackhole Fragment. As always, part of the Spiritual Energy of the previous owner was immediately added to her cultivation. Unfortunately, the previous owner''s cultivation was quite low. The total amount of Spiritual Energy was far from enough for Feifei to have a breakthrough. Nonetheless, Feifei could feel the Spiritual Energy around rushing into her much faster than usual. "The Blackhole Heavenly Fragment is really amazing. Even without doing anything, I can still feel my cultivation going much faster than before." Sopil, who had been watching so far, nodded. "So little wisp friend Krune already had the Blackhole Heavenly Fragment, huh? Fortunately, your wife still needed it. What are you going to do now?" Krune shrugged his shoulders before saying. "I want to complete my Heavenly Core. That being said, I can only go to the next Universe and try again." Sopil smiled after hearing that. "Well, with those Godly Stones, I''m pretty sure you will be successful. Anyway, why don''t you stay in our clan for a while? I still haven''t played my role as the host well." Krune and Feifei shook their heads. "It''s fine. We don''t want to waste the Clan Leader''s time. Besides, we are quite in a hurry as well." Sopil nodded and didn''t insist. "Very well. Then, I''ll see you out." Sopil accompanied the couple outside before they opened a Spatial Gate and disappeared. Sopil then returned to the hall and ordered. "Remember! No one knows what we did here! These Godly Stones are too important for the clan''s future, so anyone who breaks the secret will be executed." "Yes, Clan Leader!" All the elder nodded in unison. Back on Krune and Feifei''s side, they decided to not use the Multi-Universal Spatial Gate this time. Instead, Krune used Luvile''s power to eat away the barrier between Universes. As Divinity Realm cultivators, Krune and Feifei could break the barrier normally. However, that would catch everyone''s attention on the other side. If they could enter in silence and leave in silence, that would be the best. It only took Feifei and Krune one week to arrive in the Sufrot Universe. As mentioned before, this Universe only had a single dominant power. It was a religious entity called the Sufrot. The Universe carried the same name for obvious reasons. Krune didn''t know much about religions since they weren''t exactly common in most Universes. Still, he had no intention of getting involved either. As the only high commanding power, it wasn''t hard to find where the higher-ups of the Universe could be localized. Planet of the Holy Sufrot. There, Krune and Feifei finally came to see the people in command of this enormous power capable of controlling the entire Sufrot Universe for so long. They were quite lucky as well. Usually, it wasn''t just anyone who could see their leader. Still, the Heavenly Competition and Wally''s name made that happen. "Welcome, Krune and Feifei. I''m the Sufrot Universe''s Holy Seer. I''ve heard about your reappearance in the Dalin Universe." Feifei smiled before saying. "It''s quite a suitable position for you. I can tell that you also have a Destiny Divine Soul, just like mine." Krune laughed before asking. "By the way, what should I call you?" The Holy Seer shook his head. "I''ve abandoned my name when I first joined the Sufrot Religion when I was a kid. Even I can''t remember it anymore. Everyone just calls me the Holy Seer, so you can do the same." Krune nodded. "Then, Holy Seer, it is. Sir Holy Seer, we came here because we heard you have an Ownerless Heavenly Fragment in your possession." The Holy Seer stopped for a second as he looked at Krune. "As I thought. I couldn''t think about any other reason for you to appear in our Holy Land other than that. After all, we have never had any interactions. Even our Heavenly Core Representative had never met you during the Holy Land or Heavenly Competition." "However, the Ownerless Fragment came from a friend of our Universe. We are just keeping it safe until she resolves to come to get it back." Krune and Feifei were taken aback. "Would someone leave a Heavenly Fragment behind just like this?" The Holy Seer''s eyes narrowed. "You talk as if our Sufrot Religion members would steal it from its owner. I''m receiving you two here with open arms, but we will not tolerate any offense that could damage our Dao Hearts." Krune and Feifei were taken aback. "We are sorry, Holy Seer. We didn''t say that with bad intentions." The Holy Seer finally seemed to calm down a bit before nodding. "Very well. It''s your first time in our Sufrot Universe, so I can''t blame you for doubting. After all, it''s normal for other Universes'' Powers to always expect to be deceived. However, our Sufrot Religion preaches equality and honesty. So we are quite an oddity in the middle of so many disputes." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Wouldn''t it put your Universe under risk?" The Holy Seer shook his head. "Our Universe has a united front. If the others want to befriend us, we will receive them with a sincere smile. But if they try to do anything against us... Well, the Gole and Japol Universes are good examples of what can happen to those who underestimate our way of life." Krune and Feifei didn''t need to search those names to understand that those two Universes were probably destroyed or had their controlling powers wiped out. Sure enough, you couldn''t look down on a Universe where a single power could control everything. "That''s quite a problem. If the owner of this Heavenly Fragment isn''t here, we can''t negotiate." The Holy Seer nodded. "That friend of ours had provided a huge help to our Sufrot Religion in the past, so we won''t do such a thing as trading her items away without her permission. I''m sorry." Still, Feifei decided to give it a try. She then used her Divine Sense to send an offer to the Holy Seer. ''Sir. What about Godly Stones? Would you consider making this trade? I''m sure that Godly Stones would be of much more help to your friend, so you wouldn''t be betraying her.'' The Holy Seer opened his eyes wide as he looked at Krune and Feifei. "Could it be, the Wisp God?" Sure enough, he also thought about Wally when Feifei talked about Godly Stones. Krune and Feifei nodded. "Yes. But you don''t need to worry. I have no intention of using his name to force your Sufrot Religion." The Holy Seer nodded. "Everyone saw how Krune disappeared during the Heavenly Competition. So it was Wally''s doing, right? No wonder you can offer such a thing." Still, the Holy Seer shook his head. "Nonetheless, I have to apologize. It doesn''t matter how much of it you give me. We will not trade it out." Krune and Feifei were surprised to hear that. They knew very well how alluring Godly Stones could be in the Lower Realms, after all. "However, you can try to negotiate with the owner itself. It''s just that she has gone somewhere to explore. That''s also why she left the Fragment with us." Krune and Feifei''s attentions were immediately piqued. "Great! Where did she go?" The Holy Seer then passed Krune and Feifei the location in their communicators. "It has been quite a few years. So far, she hasn''t returned yet. Still, her Soul Flame is lit and fine, so she''s definitely alive. You can try to find her in the Soren Ruins." Chapter 752: Soren Ruins Changes Krune and Feifei were taken aback by the mention of that place''s name. ''No wonder Joty told us about the dark thread connected on us.'' Feifei nodded. ''Since we were going to come here to negotiate for the Ownerless Heavenly Fragment, the mentioning of the Soren Ruins was bound to appear.'' ''Indeed. In any other circumstances, we might really have gone to Soren to check things out. After all, we could both check the thing about my Master''s Element Regulation Technique and also find this Heavenly Fragment''s owner.'' ''However, we now know that we shouldn''t get close to that place. At least, not at this point in time.'' In the end, Feifei and Krune nodded at each other before looking back at the Holy Seer. "Thank you for the information, Holy Seer. But we don''t have the time to pass by the Soren Ruins at the moment. I''ll leave a way for you to contact me, so let me know if the owner of the Fragment comes back." The Holy Seer didn''t seem to mind and simply nodded. "Very well. I won''t entertain you two anymore, so you might leave on your own. Of course, our Sufrot Universe welcomes you to stay if you wish so. As long as you follow the rules, you are welcome." Feifei and Krune nodded but shook their heads. "Maybe another time. Farewell, Senior Holy Seer." Krune and Feifei then held each other''s hands before opening a Spatial Gate. Soon after, the two disappeared from the Holy Seer''s sight. "Sigh... Sorry, Fura. I tried to give you some help, but it didn''t work. Our Sufrot Universe can''t spend any forces to find you. I hope you can come back on your own." The Holy Seer then turned around and returned to his seclusion. Somewhere close to the Universe Barrier of the Sufrot Universe, a Spatial Gate appeared. Following that, Krune and Feifei came out before the Spatial Gate closed behind them. "Do you think they had a plan against us?" Feifei shook her head. "I don''t know. The Holy Seer didn''t try to hold us back or insist that we should go to the Soren Ruins, so it''s hard to say." Feifei then looked at the Universe Barrier before smiling. "Anyway, we are not going there, so let''s focus on the next fragment. Where is the next Heavenly Fragment Located?" Krune quickly accessed the information he got from Cinty. "The next stop is the Vintei Universe. Surprisingly, there are two powers there that have Ownerless Heavenly Fragments. However, those two seem to be at odds with each other." Feifei shrugged her shoulders. "Well, it''s pretty much like how the Sacred Lands of our Luvile Universe act. It''s nothing new." Krune laughed and nodded. Feifei couldn''t be more correct. "Alright, let''s go!" Meanwhile, in the Soren Ruins. This was not a separated Dimensional Realm. Still, it was not on a planet either. Instead, it was found right in outer space. There was a difference, though. The Soren Ruins was located outside of the galaxies'' range. There was no such thing as planets or suns anywhere close to it. The only light source was the stars from galaxies who knew how many millions of light-years away they were. Still, it was a place visited quite often by Divinity Realm cultivators, especially those close to their Ascension Tribulation. They usually came to this place to find treasures that could help them surpass their Tribulation. As mentioned before, Soren Ruins was very dangerous even to those levels of cultivators and demon beasts. Nonetheless, it wasn''t as difficult as the ascension tribulation. One must remember that the average number of cultivators and demon beasts that succeed in it is just around 1%! It was many times worth venturing in the Soren Ruins. After all, you might find some treasure that will drastically improve your chances of crossing your Tribulation. Fura Tuvio just so happened to be one of those cultivators and demon beasts. She was already in the Peak of the Divinity Realm and held her cultivation back to prepare for the Tribulation. In the end, she did find a few treasures during her life that would improve her chances. Still, it was far from enough, in her opinion. That''s why she entered the Soren Ruins. The Soren Ruins was really a gigantic place. It had the size of several Solar Systems alone. The most incredible part was that it was full of ruins. They all floated in mid-space and were held together by some kind of force that no one knew about. Until today, the full extension of the area hasn''t been investigated yet, especially in the Core Region. However, some time ago, the Soren Ruins began to show some signs that something was happening inside. That attracted the attention of many cultivators and demon beasts. Because of that, the number of people and beasts coming here increased several times. Fura wasn''t one of those, though. She had entered this place many years before this started to happen. That''s why the Holy Seer wanted to have someone to check it. Unfortunately, the Divinity Realm cultivators he sent also didn''t come back, so he gave up and tried to lead Krune inside. He wasn''t lying, though. Fura was indeed the owner of the Ownerless Heavenly Fragment. Not to mention that he really wouldn''t trade it without her permission. That was just his way of trying to get some help for her now that they can''t risk sending more Divinity Realm forces inside. There wasn''t really an entrance for the Soren Ruins. One could approach it through almost any side. So there wasn''t really a good way of locking it down either. Besides, if the Palom Universe tried to keep it only for themselves, they would incur the rage of many other cultivators and demon beasts from outside, so they kept it open. Somewhere outside this Soren Ruins, a Spatial Gate suddenly appeared. From inside, a phoenix-like puppet came out together with a young man. The puppet looked in the direction of the Soren Ruins and then into a small glass tube in front of him. "Liriu, it seems like this is the place." The puppet just so happened to be Heavin! After Krune opened a hole in the Dalin Universe Protection Formation, that hole kept open for a few days due to Luvile''s Power. Still, since no one knew that it was opened, no one found it in the end. However, Heavin used that same hole to go out before it closed. Back when Heavin was analyzing the Dark Water Krune gave him, he wasn''t making much progress. However, just as Krune opened the Dalin Universe Protection Formation hole, Heavin noticed that the direction the water moved changed. One must remember that the Dark Water always tried to move to the place with the most concentration of Dark Water. Distance made no difference as long as it is in the same realm. Heavin didn''t know why, but Dalin''s Protection Formation seemed to have been blocking that connection. That''s why the change only appeared once Krune opened the hole in the barrier to leave. Heavin, obviously, told the others that he would be going out to investigate. The Soul Cultivation Technique was his creation, so the others knew that it was important for him. That being said, no one tried to stop him. Not to mention that the Soul Control Realm was already more than strong enough to allow one to control Spiritual Energy and Space Laws to move around. After Heavin came out of Dalin, he didn''t contact Krune. That''s because he knew that Krune would be busy with his marriage and other things. Heavin decided that he might as well investigate things on his own first. It''s just that Heavin took way too long until finally finding the source of the attraction. Naturally, it was the Soren Ruins. After that, he went to the Luvile Universe but found out that Feifei and Krune had already left to look for the Heavenly Fragments. Still, Liriu and the others remained there to pass their time. After pondering a bit, he decided to not bother Krune and Feifei before inviting Liriu instead. Other than Krune, Liriu was definitely the strongest in Krune''s group thanks to his Dracophoenix Bloodline. Liriu, of course, was more than happy to go out to explore. Fie''s family was paying a visit to the Makui Planet, so Liriu didn''t bother them either. He only told Tiane and Ruik that he would be going out to help Heavin. Liriu was more than strong enough to defend himself, so Tiane and Ruik didn''t mind and let him go. They would then tell Krune and Feifei about it when they came back. Liriu then looked at Heavin before asking. "Are you sure you want to enter without telling Krune? He doesn''t even know you left Dalin, right?" Heavin shrugged his Phoenix Putter shoulders. "Why bother them? Those two had been separated for a very long time. Let them enjoy each other for a while. Could it be that the Dracophoenix is afraid of this place?" Liriu laughed in response to that question. "Hahaha! Of course not. Still, your information said that this place is dangerous even to Peak Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts, right?" Heavin nodded. "Yeah. However, that is only considering ordinary Divinity Realm cultivators. Other than Krune, do you think there is anyone who can beat you in a one-on-one fight?" Heavin shook his head. "I don''t know. I''m not arrogant enough to claim that I''m invincible under Krune''s level. However, even if there are, the number of those who can beat me is few and far between." Heavin nodded. "There you go. Anyway, time to go check what is inside. Something tells me that my breakthrough in Mental Energy cultivation lies inside." Liriu sighed but nodded in the end. Just like that, the two entered the Soren Ruins together. Chapter 753: Another Deal Vintei Universe was quite far away. Besides, Krune and Feifei gave up using the Multi-Universal Spatial Gates, so they had to traverse the Universes. Still, thanks to the Tribulation Lighting from Luvile, no one detected them. A week later, the two finally reached their destination. The first power they visited was the closest one to the point where they entered the Vintei Universe, the Xia Clan. As mentioned before, the two powers who dominated the Vintei Universe were at odds. Because of that, Krune and Feifei didn''t know if they would be able to convince one part to trade the fragment. The Xia Clan leader soon found out about Krune''s presence and came out to see him. "So you are the so-called rainbow wisp, huh? I''ve always been quite curious about you." Krune sighed as he nodded. Sure enough, the rainbow shall follow him for life. "Hello, Senior Xia Jingxue. It''s good that you already recognize me." Jingxue just so happened to be a female cultivator. "Anyway, that one beside you should be your wife. Come inside, you two. Although this isn''t one of the best times to receive a visit, I will at least entertain the wisp related to the Wisp God for a while." Krune and Feifei nodded as they followed Jingxue. "So, what brought you two to my Vintei Universe?" Krune didn''t waste time and explained everything. "I see... Well, I already expected that. Other than the Ownerless Heavenly Fragment, why would someone like you come to this place? It''s not like our Vintei Universe is a big power or anything. Very well, you know how valuable an Ownerless Heavenly Fragment is. So, let''s negotiate." Krune and Feifei were taken aback. They didn''t expect that Jingxue would accept it that easily. However, they understood right after why she did that. "If you want our Heavenly Fragment, help us against the Tuverk Sect. As long as you manage to kill at least twenty Divinity Realm cultivators or demon beasts there, the fragment is yours." "This..." Krune and Feifei didn''t intend to start any battle in this place. However, Krune decided to offer what he had as well. "How about this? Senior Jingxue should have heard about my Purple Flame Equipment. I can craft quite a few for your Divinity Realm members. Sure, it will be hard to repair them in the future since I won''t be around. However, this war against the Tuverk Sect is happening right now. With my equipment, you should get quite an advantage." Jingxue began to laugh out loud after hearing that. "Hahaha! Do you take me for a fool? Sure, your weapons would be a big help during this war of ours. However, the Tuverk Sect also has an Ownerless Heavenly Fragment. Since you know we have this one, you obviously know about theirs as well. Am I wrong to say that after here, you will go to their Sect and offer the same deal?" "Not only that, but the Turvek Sect will be forced to accept your deal. After all, they would fall behind us in power, which is much worse. I have to say, little wisp, you are quite a sly one." Feifei and Krune were taken aback by Jingxue''s words. It was true that they would go to the Tuverk Sect after here, but they overlooked that point. Indeed, anyone who saw it from outside would think that Krune and Feifei were trying to use the situation to their favor in exchange for a lot more damage between the two enemies. Krune then looked at Feifei before asking. ''What do you think? Should we trade with one of the two only?'' Feifei shook her head. ''Even if you say that you will not trade with the other part, will they believe it?'' Krune had to admit that Feifei was right. If he was in Jingxue''s feet, he wouldn''t believe such words either. Jingxue then continued. "If you want, you can go to the Tuverk Sect. However, I''m pretty sure they will say the same thing as me." Feifei and Krune nodded. ''Should we offer the Godly Stones?'' ''I don''t think it is a good idea. Unlike the Sufrot Holy Seer and the Hure Clan, I don''t think the Xia Clan and Tuverk Sect will keep them hidden. They are in the middle of a war, so they would use it straight away. It would be quite annoying if others begin to target us for the Godly Stones after the information spreads.'' Krune then pondered a bit before asking Jingxue. "Is there no other way for this trade to work out? I really don''t want to get involved in this fight between the two sides." Jingxue smiled after hearing that question. "Well, it''s not like there''s no other way." Suddenly, someone entered the room while carrying a silver metal box. As soon as Krune and Feifei saw it, they noticed the Spatial Laws around it. Without a doubt, there was a dimensional realm inside. Not only that, but they could tell that it was huge! "Could it be that you want me to enter the Dimensional Realm inside this Spatial Box?" Krune definitely wouldn''t do such a thing. Who knows what could happen to him or the box while he was there. Feifei, obviously, wouldn''t either. However, Jingxue shook her head. "No. Inside this Dimeisonal Realm, we have many people and demon beasts who are part of our Xia Clan. What I want you to do is to bring this box back to the Dalin universe with you." Krune and Feifei were taken aback. "This... why would you ask such a thing? You do know the situation in the Dalin Universe at the moment, no? The Wisp Race is taking a completely neutral position in this issue." Jingxue laughed before saying. "Hahaha! Don''t worry. You can check the level of the members inside in this Dimensional Realm by yourself. The highest cultivation inside is the Divine View Realm. Do you think they would make any difference in a war of that scale?" Krune and Feifei couldn''t help but send their Divine Senses inside the Dimensional Realm. As big as that Dimensional Realm could be, it definitely was far from being too big to check with their level. However, just to make sure, Krune also used his Mental Energy to do the same thing. If there was some formation tricking his Divine Sense inside, it wouldn''t work against his Mental Energy. However, it turned out that Jingxue wasn''t lying. The cultivators and demon beasts with the highest cultivation inside were only at the Divine View Realm. His Mental Energy also didn''t find anything any hidden weapon or anything like that. "Could it be that Senior Jingxue is afraid of losing this war?" Jingxue didn''t deny it. "Both our Xia Clan and the Tuverk Sect reached a point of no return. If one of the two sides doesn''t perish, this war won''t be over. We thought about sending our geniuses outside to other universes. However, they would still be considered outsiders. That being said, it wouldn''t be too hard to find them once the Tuverk Clan put in the effort." Feifei couldn''t help but sigh. "Eliminate everything, including the roots, right?" Jingxue replied. "Exactly. I won''t play innocent here. If we win this war, we will do the same thing to them. We will go to any universe necessary to get rid of their offsprings to prevent any more troubles in the future." A cold light flashed inside Jingxue''s eyes as she said that. Still, Krune had to ask. "Aren''t you afraid of us delivering this box to the Tuverk Sect instead? They might even repay me with their Heavenly Fragment." Jingxue laughed. "Hahaha! Don''t worry. After all, you will have to first deliver our people in the Dalin Universe before we can give you the Heavenly Fragment. I know that you left the Dalin Universe with Wally''s help. This is a piece of information that has already spread everywhere. Little wisp, you are just too famous. Anyway, you sure can go back with Wally''s help again, right?" Krune narrowed his eyes. "How will you confirm that I left the box there?" Feifei was then one to answer that question, though. "It''s not too hard. Did you forget that although the Dalin Universe is closed, communication with the outside is still possible?" "Ah!" Indeed, Krune had already forgotten that part. When he reappeared in the Dalin Universe, everyone outside was warned about his presence. Even the Dalin Universe''s management supervisor came to the Wisp Main World and told him that. Jingxue, obviously, knew that as well. "There you go. So, will you take this deal? Don''t worry. You can simply leave the Spatial Box with someone you trust in there. If we don''t give you the Heavenly Fragment, you can just tell them to eliminate everyone inside." Krune then added. "They will not be able to come back if the Retaking Alliance loses that war." Jingxue nodded. "That''s good enough. Dalin Universe is the best place to cultivate. It''s not a bad deal to have a guarantee there. As for the problem with their outsider status, I''m sure you can do something about it if the Retaking Alliance loses, right?" Krune sighed. From the looks of it, Jingxue had already considered everything. Of course, Krune could take the Heavenly Fragment and destroy the Dimensional Realm Box after. However, Krune simply couldn''t go back on his own word. Jingxue didn''t know that, but she was still willing to bet on it. "Very well. Feifei and I should be back in a few weeks." Jingxue then took a deep breath as she looked at the Dimensional Realm box with tender eyes. Anyone could tell that she had clan members who she loved in there. She then gave Krune a sincere bow before saying. "Please, take care of them." Krune nodded before he and Feifei opened a Spatial Gate and disappeared with the box in hand. Chapter 754: Delivering Krune and Feifei left the Vintei Universe on the same day. "Are you sure that there isn''t anything inside? You did check if there wasn''t any tracking on you or the box, right?" Krune nodded. "You have Mental Energy too, so you should know about it. If there was something or someone hidden in there, we would know straight away." Feifei sighed. "Well, although it will take some time, at least we will conclude this deal without losing almost nothing. We just need to find some random planet to leave these guys." Krune agreed with Feifei. "Cinty should know quite a few good ones where the war hasn''t reached yet. Whatever they decide to do from here on out was their problem." Just like that, time passed. Because they weren''t using any of the Multi-Universal Spatial Gates, they had to cross universe by universe. Finally, they arrived at the barrier protecting the Dalin Universe. Without any issues, Krune opened a hole in it again before entering. Of course, they always used the Purple Lightning Layer so no one would find them passing by. It didn''t take long to arrive at the Wisp Main World after that. Cinty, of course, immediately noticed Krune''s presence when he appeared there. She then came out and looked at him, puzzled. "Didn''t you say you would be some time out? How come you came back so early?" Krune smiled as he explained the situation to Cinty. "I see... Well, you can leave this Spatial Box with the Dimeisonal Realm with me. I''ll see that the people and beasts inside will be released on a good planet. A universe is still a huge place, so there are plenty of worlds that have not been involved in this war." Krune then delivered the box to Cinty. Cinty then quickly arranged for someone to take it before looking back at Krune and Feifei. "By the way, did Heavin find what he was looking for?" Krune and Feifei looked back at Cinty, puzzled. "Heavin? How would we know? We just arrived here." Cinty was taken aback. "Didn''t you meet him in the Luvile Universe? He left just a few hours after you. He even used the same hole you made in the Dalin Universe Protection Formation to go out." Krune and Feifei looked at each other before looking back at Cinty. In the end, they just shook their heads. "We didn''t know about it. Could it be that a problem happened?" "I don''t think so. Heavin also has a Soul Flame left here, so his soul is definitely fine. How long have you two been looking for the Heavenly Fragments alone?" Krune pondered a bit before answering. "One month and a half." Cinty nodded. "In that case, you should go back to Luvile Universe and check the people there. Heavin might have appeared after you two left." Krune and Feifei admitted that it was possible. "Very well." The couple then bid their farewells to Cinty before opening a spatial gate to the Dalin Universe Barrier once more. The small hole Krune made would still be open for a few days, so they simply used the same one again. "Where should we go first?" Feifei thought about it for a moment before saying. "Heavin''s Phoenix Puppet is very strong, and he knows how to care for himself. He did very well without you while you were in the Godly Path Realm, so he should be fine. His Soul Flame proved that he was fine as well. In that case, let''s take our Heavenly Fragment back in the Vintei Universe first." Krune nodded as a layer of Purple Tribulation Lightning appeared around him and Feifei. Right after, they began their journey back to the Vintei Universe. Meanwhile, inside the Soren Ruins. "Dracophoenix Supernova!" *Boom!* *Roar!* Suddenly, a crystal-like demon beast was blasted away by Heavin''s Dracophoenix Ability. Sadly, it didn''t die. The demon beast quickly recovered its balance as it pounced at Heavin once again. Unfortunately... "Mental Pierce!" A Phoenix Puppet appeared where the demon beast had just been thrown at with perfect precision. Obviously, that was Heavin''s Puppet where his Divine Soul was located. Heavin''s beak was made with God Level Equipment from the Higher Realms. Not only that, but it was a God Level material from above the Godly Path Realm, the God Realm. Naturally, it was even more powerful. Heavin''s beak also brimmed with Mental Energy. As the creator of the Soul Cultivation Technique, he was simply unbeatable in this regard. Krune was at the same Soul Cultivation Level as Heavin. Still, Heavin''s Mental Energy would definitely destroy Krune''s if they clashed against each other. That was the difference between having something made exclusively for you instead of using a modified version. Not to mention that Heavin''s talent for Soul Cultivation was also above anyone else. The crystal demon beast had incredibly intrepid defense. Even Heavin''s Dracophoenix Supernova failed to break through it in one go. Still, in front of Mental Energy and the God Level beak, it was as fragile as paper. Heavin''s puppet pierced through the demon beast, destroying the crystal demon core it had. Soon after, the rest of the demon beast''s body crumbled as if it was just a gathering of crystals in the first place. However, this wasn''t the only demon beast that ended up like this. If one looked around, they would see many other crystals floating in midair. They were all demon beasts as well. Thankfully, Heavin''s power was far above any ordinary Peak Divinity Realm cultivator. His body alone was able to bear the brunt of attacks while creating opportunities for Heavin to give finishing blows. "Phew... It seems like it''s finally over. I''m almost sapped dry of Spiritual Energy." Heavin flashed beside Liriu''s side before nodding. "I was really starting to run out of Mental Energy too." Heavin then looked at all those ''corpses'' before asking. "By the way, what are these demon beasts? They have Divinity Realm level power but have no intelligence whatsoever. If it was some common cultivator or demon beast duo, they might have even died from this attack." Heavin shook his head. "I have no idea. Well, it''s not like we''ve never heard of creatures without intelligence but are insanely strong before. Krune told us about the Spatial type creatures in the Godly Path Realm too." As Heavin said that, several Spirit Stones appeared around him, which he used to recover his energies. Liriu didn''t waste time and did the same thing. Heavin then commented while recovering. "However, their Demon Cores are very weird. They were made of crystal, just like the demon beast''s bodies themselves. Perhaps they are being controlled by some kind of Formation. After all, we are still inside these ruins." Liriu then looked around as he saw the several walls and buildings floating. There was no sense of up and down here since the ruins were located in outer space. Liriu could see many of them in the distance placed in several different positions. All around them was the same. "What about the Dark Water? Have there been any changes so far?" Heavin then took the Dark Water out of his Spital Ring. Ever since they entered the Soren Ruins, it began to behave strangely. Usually, it would be gathered all together without moving at all. When Krune opened the Dalin Universe Protection Formation''s hole, the only change was that the water began to be attracted to the Soren Ruins'' direction. However, after they entered the ruin, the water now gathered in the form of a sphere that rippled nonstop. It was as if someone had a music box right beside a bow with water. Every time the box made some sound, the water rippled. It was the same effect. However, there was no such thing as sound in this place. After all, this was outer space. There was no air. Naturally, there was no sound either. "No. It has been acting in the same way until now. From the information we gathered from other cultivators and demon beasts in this place, we are still quite far from the Core Region." With the changes happening in the Soren Ruins, many cultivators and demon beasts came to see what is happening. Heavin and Liriu just happened to find a few while they explored. Between those, some had come here before and knew a little about the place. "If these crystal demon beasts are already this annoying here, inside there might be quite problematic." Heavin nodded. "That''s true¡ªhowever, no pain, no gain. We can only keep moving forward if we want to find anything worthwhile." Liriu agreed with Heavin. They continued to recover their Spiritual and Mental Energies for some time. After a while, they went back to their peak states and resumed their journey. Krune and Feifei returned to the Vintei Universe. It also seemed like Jingxue already knew that they completed their part of the deal. Without wasting any time, she immediately gave the Heavenly Fragment to Krune, which he found to be the Life Heavenly Fragment. Obviously, he gave it to Feifei since he only needed the Destiny and Death ones. Krune and Feifei pondered if they should try to get the Heavenly Fragment from the Tuverk Sect. However, they thought it might take a long time for the same reason as the Xia Clan. That being said, they decided to go back to the Luvile Universe first. The war between the two powers wouldn''t be over anytime soon, after all. Besides, they wanted to know if Heavin had appeared there or not. Chapter 755: What do I do now? Krune and Feifei then returned to the Luvile Universe as planned. However, they didn''t even need to contact the others when they arrived there. As soon as they appeared, they received a message from Tiane, telling them to go see her. Krune and Feifei opened a Spatial Gate and went straight to the Wisp World in the Divine Path Sect. "Tiane, did Heavin really come?" Tiane nodded as she looked at the semi-sleeping Ruik on the desk. As always, he used the same technique as before to keep doing his job. "He did. He said that he found a reaction with that weird Dark Water of yours coming from outside Dalin. That''s why he used your hole on the Dalin Protection Formation to come out. After that, he invited Liriu since he was the strongest one after you between us to go explore with him." Krune nodded. "Oh! That''s a good decision. I tested Liriu''s power back in the Wisp Main World when he wasn''t holding back. He was really powerful. If he was at the Peak of the Divinity Realm, I don''t know if I could win against him without Luvile''s assistance." Feifei and Tiane agreed with Krune. "With Liriu''s raw power and Heavin''s expertise in Mental Energy, those two should be able to overcome most of the difficulties on their own. Well, not that it''s guaranteed that they will find anything dangerous to start with." Krune couldn''t help but say. "I know that. Still, because it''s related to that weird Dark Water that can suck in Mental Energy, I would like to go take a look-see as well." Feifei giggled. "You''re just curious as to what that water could be, right?" Krune scratched the back of his head but didn''t try to deny it. How could he not be curious? "Ahem... By the way, do you know where they went?" Tiane nodded. "Heavin said he found the place the Dark Water was pointing to. That''s why he came back to ask Liriu''s help. It''s located in the Palom Universe. The area is called the Soren Ruins." Feifei and Krune''s expressions froze when they heard that name. "Cough, cough... What did you say?" Tiane noticed their complexions and couldn''t help but feel a little worried about Liriu. Still, she answered their question again. "Palom Universe, Soren Ruins. Is there something wrong?" Krune and Feifei looked at each other with weird faces. Krune then woke Ruik up from his trance before explaining what happened between them and Joty just before they left Luvile Universe. "What?! Was there such a thing?" "Joty... That guy disappeared after the Divine Path Sect Entrance Exam. To think he would appear again in such a way." Tiane then immediately made a decision. "I have to go there. What if Liriu''s in danger?" Ruik nodded. "Certainly. Let''s go there straight away." However, Krune immediately cut them. "Out of the question. Let alone help them, with your cultivations, you two would become nothing more than a burden. In the end, Liriu and Heavin would be the ones who need to save you two." Both Tiane and Ruik were still in the Semi-Divinity Realm. In the and, they simply didn''t have the same talent as Krune, Feifei, or Liriu, so they fell behind. Of course, their cultivation speed was already heaven-defying to anyone outside Krune''s group. After all, they were able to keep using Godly Energy until now. "But..." Feifei then calmed the two, especially Tiane. "Don''t worry. What Joty said was that the Dark Thread was attached to Krune and me. It doesn''t mean that Liriu and Heavin are in the same danger as we are. Just the fact that we are having this kind of conversation already altered the future anyway." Krune nodded and added. "Besides, Joty noted that once he told us that, it changed into a gray color instead. It means that it isn''t an almost certain death situation anymore. We confirmed with Cinty back in the Wisp World, and Heavin''s Soul Flame was pretty much fine." Ruik wasn''t satisfied. "However, I can''t just stay here and pretend that I know nothing. You two can''t enter because of that gray karma thread you have. But what if Liriu and Heavin have a pure dark karma thread instead? We can''t confirm that since Joty never looked at them." Krune sighed before nodding. "Fine... I''ll go there take a look." Feifei held his hand before saying. "Obviously, I''m going as well. Don''t underestimate a Destiny Heavenly Fragment owner." Krune shrugged his shoulders. He did promise he wouldn''t leave her behind, after all. Krune then looked at Tiane and Ruik. "Alright, you two. It''s decided then. Don''t tell Lakin, Fie, and the others. Otherwise, they might have some crazy ideas about following us." Tiane couldn''t help but feel even more worried. After all, Krune and Feifei''s karma threads were still gray. She also cared about them a lot, especially Feifei. "Then... How about I go inside a Dimensional Spatial Box. That way, I won''t drag you two down." Ruik liked the idea. "That''s good. I can do that too." Feifei shook her head and hugged Tiane. "Nope. If you two disappear all of a sudden, it will be a big problem. Don''t worry, Krune and I will be fine. Now that we know about how dangerous the place is, we will be extra careful. Be a good Demon Crow and stay here." Tiane''s eyes became a little teary. "You didn''t call me this ever since I first gained sentience." Feifei laughed after hearing that. "In fact, I also treated you like that before you even got that." Krune then turned serious as he said. "Alright. I don''t want to stay here for much longer. Ruik should keep doing his job as if nothing happened. That will not alarm Lakin and Cassy if the two come back. Tiane should be careful as well to not show too much." Ruik and Tiane and decided to leave it in Krune and Feifei''s hands. As much as they hated the idea, they knew that there was nothing they could do at their level. Krune and Feifei then left the room and went to outer space. However, just as they were about to open a Spatial Gate, another appeared close to them. Following that, a male demon beast in human form came out. "Oh! So the information was true. You really came back." Krune and Feifei looked at each other, puzzled. None of them knew who this guy was. "Who are you?" The demon beast nodded his head as he opened his communicator. Right after, he sent Feifei and Krune his identification. -Suiton Universe- Tura, Representative of the Kapin Sect. Designated as the one responsible for the Multi-Universal Trade Route issue between the Luvile and Suiton Universe. "Ahem... then, let me go straight to the point." "Krune, as the representative of the Luvile Universe in the Heavenly Competition, you are also the Luvile Universe''s representative for all external issues. The Luvile and Suiton Universes have a dispute to be resolved in the trade route that passes between both of them. It has been decided that a fight between each Universe''s Representative will be realized since a formal accord hasn''t been reached." "The winner of the fight shall hold the rights to control the Multi-Universal Trade route for the next Chaos Cycle. The fight will happen in the area sent to your communicator. Now that both sides are aware of the dispute, you two have one week to prepare. If one of the sides fail to appear, their Universe will automatically lose the rights for that trade route." Krune and Feifei were taken aback by that. They knew very well about those disputes and how they could be resolved by each Universe''s Heavenly Core Owner or similar representative. When Krune joined the Heavenly Competition, he knew that such conflicts would fall on his lap if they really happened. Tura then smiled before saying. "Phew... It was tough to locate you. It seems like it was a good idea to keep some people watching this place. My task as the Suiton Universe representative has been completed. Your Dalin Universe Representative has already contacted our Suiton Universe Representative as well. Anyway, that''s all. See you during the fighting day." The guy then opened a Spatial Gate and left as fast as he arrived. "This... They really couldn''t have chosen a worse moment to do such a thing." "Do you think they did it on purpose to stop us?" "No. Who other than you, me, Tiane, and Ruik, knows that we''re going to Soren Ruins? From what I can see, this dispute had been decided while we were out buying Heavenly Fragments." Feifei couldn''t help but say. "Let''s ignore it. So what if the trade route is lost or not? We need to go check what is happening with Liriu and Heavin in the Soren Ruins." Krune nodded. In any case, Luvile could select someone else if their main choice wasn''t available at the moment. However, it was then that a few other Spatial Gates began to appear where Krune and Feifei were staying. Lucio came out of the very first one of them. "Oh! So you really did come back. Because I didn''t know which Universe you were in, I couldn''t contact you. Anyway, did you receive the challenge dispute already?" Krune was taken aback by that. Even his Master knew about it. "I... did?" Lucio nodded. "Great! Make sure you give the Suiton Universe guy a good beating. Our Divine Path Sect also uses that route a lot, so we can''t lose it now." Krune bitterly smiled. His Master obviously didn''t know anything about Liriu and Heavin. That''s why he asked that. It was also possible to see how much importance he put on that trade route. Lucio wasn''t the only one there. Representatives from the other Sacred Clans also came out from those Spatial Gates. They, too, requested the same thing from Krune. ''What do I do now?'' Chapter 756: Lanis Hands Lucio noticed Krune''s expression after his request, so he sent him a Divine Sense Message. ''What''s wrong? Do you think you would lose?'' Krune shook his head. ''That''s not it.'' After that, Krune went through the entire situation for Lucio to hear. ''To think such a thing happened... However, you''re right about one thing. They didn''t challenge you because they knew that Liriu and Heavin entered the Soren Ruins. It was most likely just a coincidence. Still, the fight itself isn''t a coincidence. You know that, right?'' Krune nodded. ''Yes. This trade route dispute started so that they can test my strength. After all, I did show off a little when I defended Joty against the Tribulation. They also selected this trade route since it would affect the Divine Path Sect. It was to make sure I wouldn''t refuse.'' Lucio agreed with Krune. ''Exactly. I also know your real combat power, so I know it wouldn''t be a problem for you. That''s why I came here to ask you to accept. But now, perhaps it will be better for you to refuse and go help Liriu and Heavin. The Sacred Lands will have to send someone else as their representative.'' Krune couldn''t help but ask. ''But would it be okay? That''s quite an important route, right? What if they lose?'' Lucio shrugged his shoulders as he replied. ''It''s important, but it''s not like it will last forever. Our Divine Path Sect has existed for much longer than one Chaos Cycle. Back then, such a trade route didn''t exist, but we were still strong. I refuse to believe that our sect would collapse just because we lost it. Besides, this trade route affects everyone in the big four, so the other powers would definitely join together with us to overcome this problem.'' Krune couldn''t help but sigh. His Master and the Divine Path Sect had done a lot for him in the past. Unfortunately, he can''t wait here for that thing. The Sacred Lands'' representatives also kept asking him to participate in this fight. After all, Krune was still the main representative in this matter. ''Krune, leave it to me. You and Feifei can go.'' Suddenly, another Spatial Gate appeared as an old man stepped out. ''Master!'' ''Grandmaster!'' Turns out, it was Lani. ''Grandmaster, are you sure? You''re pretty close to your Ascension Tribulation. Would it really be okay?'' ''Krune is right, Master. You should focus on preparing for the Tribulation.'' Lani shook his head in response. ''Don''t worry, I know what I''m doing. Although I don''t have a Heavenly Fragment, I do have a major Divine Soul, just like you and Lucio. Other than that, my Elements Regulation Technique reached culmination a long time ago, and I''m even better than Lucio at that. I also have the Myriad Energies Techquine and the Chaos Meridians. Last but not least, this is the perfect opportunity to test the Purple Flame Staff Krune made for me.'' Lani''s expression then turned serious as he spoke. ''This is your Grandmaster and Master''s orders. Go do whatever you have to do. Lucio will also go with you. As for the fight, you don''t need to care about whether we win or not.'' Krune and Lucio were taken aback by Lani''s attitude. At least for Krune, it was the first time he saw his Grandmaster acting that domineering, not leaving any room for discussion. Suddenly, Luvile''s voice entered Krune''s mind. ''Don''t underestimate him. Now that he has all these perks on his side, his real power is not something anyone can defend against.'' Krune was surprised by Luvile''s comment. Still, since Luvile also vouched for his Grandmaster, then he would believe it. Krune and Lucio then bowed to Lani. ''Yes, Master!'' ''Yes, Grandmaster!'' Krune then looked at Feifei, who had been waiting on the side. She knew that it was a hard decision for Krune, so she didn''t want to intervene. "Feifei, let''s go!" Feifei was taken aback, so she immediately asked with a Divine Sense Message. ''Is everything okay?'' Krune nodded. ''Don''t worry, my Grandmaster will take care of everything. Oh, and one more thing. My Master will be coming with us.'' Feifei was surprised to hear that but smiled in the end. Looking at how confident Lucio and Krune''s expressions were, she thought they had a reason to believe Lani. ''Alright, let''s go to the Soren Ruins.'' Krune then opened a Spatial Gate and entered it with Feifei and Lucio. "Wait!" The representatives of the Sacred Lands didn''t know what to do, so they could only follow. After all, they were told that they must convince their Luvile Universe Heavenly Competitor to participate. However, Lani immediately stopped them in their tracks. "There is no need for you lot to follow them. They have something much more important to do, so Krune can''t participate. But there is no need to worry. This old man will take the burden." The guys were taken aback. In the end, they could only contact their Sacred Lands and see what they should do. The Sacred Lands were also lost. After all, it was the Universes'' powerhouses that controlled Dalin until a few years ago that asked for it. Without any other choice, they also contacted them. "What?! Krune''s Grandmaster, the Ancestor of the Divine Path Sect? What the hell are you doing? We have no interest in this fry." "Wait! This might be a good opportunity. Since he''s Krune''s Grandmaster, we can use him." "Indeed. We already succeeded in calling Senior Phantom Blade out. Just have him crush this Lani or whatever, and Krune will eventually appear. At that time, Wally won''t be able to do anything since it wasn''t us who went after Krune." "Hum... That might work indeed." "Very well, just tell the Sacred Lands in the Luvile Universe to accept this Lani''s idea." "He''s just a simple old man at the Peak Divinity Realm from a small sect in the corner of the alliance. What can he do anyway? I also say to let him battle." "Does everyone agree with this?" The Leaders of all Universes'' powerhouses nodded. "Yes!" Sure enough, the Sacred Lands accepted Lani''s participation as Luvile''s Universe representative in the fight for the Trade Route between the two Universes. Lani, on the other hand, wasn''t surprised by that. ''Hmph! So you really only wanted to test Krune. Otherwise, the Sacred Lands would definitely not let me fight in his place since they think I''m weak.'' Lani''s combat intent soared as he laughed. ''Hehehe! Good! Let''s see what you can do against the new me now.'' Krune, Feifei, and Lucio didn''t know what was happening, but they trusted that Lani could deal with it. That being said, Krune enveloped everyone with his Purple Tribulation Lightning as they broke into another Universe. That way, no one would be able to detect their presence while they traveled to the Soren Ruins. Sure enough, Luvile''s Tribulation Lightning Layer was perfect for this kind of thing. During the entire travel, Krune''s group hasn''t been stopped even once by each Universe''s powers. Suddenly, a new Spatial Gate appeared several thousands of kilometers away from the Soren Ruins. From inside, three figures appeared surrounded by Purple Lightning. Naturally, they were Krune, Feifei, and Lucio. Following that, the Purple Lighting Layer disappeared. Krune''s group then used their Divine Sense to envelop the region. Only then did they understand just how huge this place was. "Holy shit! Even though it''s all ruins floating in outer space, it still has enough area to fit several solar systems inside." Lucio agreed with Krune. "Indeed. I''ve heard of this place before, but seeing with my own eyes is totally different." Fefiei also commented. "That''s not all. Our Divine Senses can envelop its extension, but it can''t penetrate it. There is some kind of barrier preventing our Divine Senses from getting closer." "Well, this was supposed to be a forbidden zone where even Peak Divinity Realm Cultivators and Demon Beasts can die, right? It''s definitely bound to be anything but simple." Lucio then commented something else. "However, it wasn''t supposed to look like this..." Krune''s group looked as the ruins themselves shone like waves. It gave them the feeling that it was somewhat alive. However, it had never happened before. "There are a lot of cultivators and demon beasts outside as well. No, this number should mean nothing. The ones that already entered are definitely many times higher." "It can''t be helped. Everyone knows that the Soren Ruins still hides many wonders. Now that it has started to act like this, it obviously attracted many eyes¡ªespecially those who came to look for better opportunities to cross their own Ascension Tribulation." "In that case, we should expect a lot of Peak Divinity Realm old monsters in there." Krune then showed a determined expression. "Anyway, nothing will happen if we wait here. Let''s go inside." Feifei and Lucio nodded. "We can enter from any side you wish. The Soren Ruins doesn''t have anything like one main entrance. Any point you choose will have similar levels of danger... or so says the record that I read about the Soren Ruins." With that said, Krune''s group flashed there. The other cultivators and demon beasts waiting outside saw them passing, but no one tried to stop them. Many were there only to recover their energies before entering again. Some just couldn''t make their minds to enter, while others were waiting for their companions or things like that. Krune''s group quickly found a passage for themselves. However, as soon as they entered, Krune noticed something. "Hmm? Is this...?" Chapter 757: The Dangers Krune then looked into his Spatial Ring and brought out a small vial of Dark Water. He had given most of it to Heavin to investigate. Though, he still saved a little bit of it for himself, just in case. That was also the reason why he didn''t notice anything happening to it when he came out. There was just too little of it. However, even that little bit of Dark Water had a substantial reaction now that he had entered the Soren Ruins. Just like Heavin''s share, it gathered in a spherical form that rippled on the surface nonstop. Feifei immediately noticed that as well, saying. "Isn''t that the Dark Water you gave to Heavin?" Lucio was puzzled as he asked. "What are you talking about?" Krune then explained everything to Lucio through a Divine Sense Message. "Oh... What a weird thing. It''s reasonable to believe that Heavin and Liriu also got the same reaction then." "Indeed. In any case, it isn''t showing a path or anything like that. I was counting on it to guide me in the direction of the two, but for now, it seems quite impossible." "Anyway, if this was what happened to Heavin''s water, then they also didn''t know where to go. That being said, they should have selected the most logical location. Obviously, that would be the Core Region." Krune and Lucio agreed with Feifei on that. "Let''s go." Like Heavin and Liriu, Krune''s group also saw how the ruins looked inside. There were indeed many old buildings, statues, etc., as one would expect from a place like this. However, they were all pulsating with faint blue light. It wasn''t just the vision from outside. Other than that, there wasn''t anything like above and below them. Naturally, all those things were floating in mid-space in several different positions. Excluding the ruins, Krune''s group soon found many faint blue crystals everywhere. Unexpectedly, they also pulsated with the same blue light. "Master, did your information about the ruins say anything about these crystals?" Lucio shook his head as he replied. "No. As far as I know, such things shouldn''t be here." Feifei got a bit curious and got a bit close to one of those crystals. There were a lot of them with different sizes. Some were as small as a pebble, while others were as big as a house. Feifei chose one that was a size in between those two types. However, as soon as she touched it, the crystal seemed to come back to life. Without any warning, the crystal protruded a spike out, just like a porcupine. "What?!" Feifei immediately used her comprehension of space laws to retreat. However, those crystals seemed to pierce through the fabric of space, not even giving Feifei the chance to escape. Without any other choice, Feifei brought out her swords from her Swords Formations to block the spikes. *Clang, clang, clang, clang...* Fortunately, it wasn''t hard for her to predict their routes with her Destiny Divine Soul. Lucio and Krune arrived beside Feifei as they defended from the spikes as well. "What is that thing?" "It''s not over yet! Look!" Indeed, that cluster that shot the spikes at Feifei only used its outer crystals. The internal crystals were still there. However, they suddenly began to change as an enormous amount of Spiritual Energy came out of the ruins'' walls and entered it. Unfortunately, that wasn''t all. Krune''s group looked around and saw more clusters shooting their outer layer of crystals at them. "Tribulation Shields Formation!" Krune''s 102 Myriad Lightning Shields came out of his Spatial Ring almost instantly before positioning themselves to block most of the spikes. As for the rest, Feifei and Lucio took care of them. Feifei used her own Swords Formations, which had Purple Flame Swords that Krune himself forged. Lucio also brought his own swords out and swung them around, blocking the crystals coming at him with ease. Not long after, all those crystals started to change as well, assuming the form of several types of demon beasts. *Roar!* Krune''s group was surprised to see that all of them now had cultivations after those beasts took form. "Every single one of them is at least in the Initial Stages of the Divinity Realm. Is that even possible?" "Should be, considering the ridiculous amount of Spiritual Energy that they absorbed just now." "No more chitchat. They''re coming." The demon beasts pounced at Krune, Feifei, and Lucio. In an instant, Krune and the others formed a defensive perimeter around themselves and began to fight it. "Rainbow Domain!" "Tribulation Shields Slaughter Formation, Second Form, Tribulation Stars!" "Illusion of Destiny Domain!" "Myriad Elements Sword Formation, Slaughtering Form!" "All Attributes Domain!" "Thousand Colors Strike!" Feifei, Lucio, and Krune immediately released their domains and their own crowd control abilities. With their Myriad Energies Technique and Major Divine Souls, the beasts immediately noticed that they weren''t a match for them. However... *Clang, Clang, Clang...* "What''s with their insane defense? Even my Swords Formation is having to attack the same spot several times to break their core." "They have crystal-like bodies, so it makes sense that their defense is high." "Don''t just use Elemental Attacks. Fuse your power with Mental Energy!" "Alright!" Be it Lucio or Feifei, they also had over a hundred years in the lower realms to practice the Soul Cultivation Technique. Besides, Dalin only closed recently. Before that, Lucio had been in the Wisp Main World cultivating with Godly Energy as well. It went without saying that cultivating the Soul Technique was even faster with that. In the end, almost everyone in Krune''s group had at least reached the Soul Control Realm. *Bang! Crack! Shatter!* "It works!" "Not only does it work. They''re also ridiculously weak against Mental Energy fused attacks." "Hahaha! This will be easy!" However, it was then that Feifei noticed a problem. "Senior Lucio, the Soren Ruins was already considered a dangerous place for Divinity Realm experts even without these weird crystals. So what exactly was the thing that threatened them?" Lucio and Krune were taken aback for a second. All of a sudden, newcomers entered their Divine and Mental Energy range. Lucio couldn''t help but bitterly smile after seeing those creatures. "Ghosts!" *OWOOOWWWWooo* Hundreds of human and demon beast-like creatures charged at Krune''s group at full speed. However, they were different from the Crystal Demon beasts. Krune''s group couldn''t see their cultivation at all. "Careful, these are the original dangers of the Soren Ruins, the ghosts. Anyone who dies in the Soren Ruins won''t have a chance at reincarnating. Instead, their soul will be pulled inside by the ruins and become Yin Energy Ghosts in the future." "Also, they can be defeated but never destroyed. Their Soul Energy will simply dissipate and gather somewhere else until a new ghost will be formed." Krune narrowed his eyes. "Let me try something. Hold the Crystal Demon Beasts for a bit." Feifei and Lucio nodded. "Alright." Krune then pointed at one of the ghosts in the distance. "Purple Lightning Shot!" *Zap!* Luvile''s Tribulation Lightning passed through the ghost just like a hot knife through butter. It didn''t stop and passed through several more ghosts before disappearing in the distance. However, the holes in the ghosts suddenly began to close. From the looks of it, even Luvile''s Law-eating Law wasn''t enough to kill those things in a single strike. Krune was surprised to see that. He then took several of his Tribulation Stars and sent them against the ghost. Sure enough, his Myriad Lighting Shields cut the ghosts in half, one after the other. However, the same faint blue light came out of the Soren Ruins and fed the ghosts, which they used to recover their bodies. Lucio narrowed his eyes after seeing that. "The Soren Ruins is a lot more dangerous now. Usually, after you did enough damage to these ghosts, they would dissipate. It would take a long time for them to gather together and form a new ghost. However, the Soren Ruins seems to be making it almost instantaneously." Feifei nodded. "They aren''t exactly strong. But they can very well wait for our Spiritual Energies to run out. And I''m sure it will definitely happen if we continue like this. Still, to think that even Luvile''s power can''t kill them straight away." Luvile''s voice entered their minds through a Divine Sense message after he heard that. "These ruins are connected to Soren, one of the gods of the past. It''s not easy for gods to eliminate each others'' power." Krune also thought the same thing. "Let me try something a bit stronger." Purple Tribulation Lightning then gathered above Krune''s head before he used his skill. "Heaven''s Fall!" *Zap! Boom!* Immediately, tens of ghosts were pulverized by Krune''s ability. Krune''s Heaven''s Fall wasn''t made of only Purple Tribulation Lightning. It also carried the fused five elements of the Elements Regulation Technique with a focus on Lightning Power. That made all of Krune''s attacks even more terrifying. Sure enough, the ghosts didn''t recover after that. Not only that, but the yin energy they were made of didn''t return to the Soren Ruins either. Krune had literally eliminated them for good. However, Lucio shook his head. "This isn''t good enough. Let''s retreat for now. There are way too many ghosts for you to eliminate them all like that." Krune and Feifei nodded. "Tribulation Wings!" Krune immediately activated his movement skill. At the same time, Feifei and Lucio each stepped on one of Krune''s shields. *Swish!* With Feifei''s Illusion of Destiny Domain, it was easy to predict all of their enemies'' attacks. Besides, Krune''s group was already much stronger than ordinary Divinity Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts, so they were a lot faster. In the end, it wasn''t anything hard to leave the battlefield. Of course, they didn''t return to the outside. Instead, they headed in the Core Region''s direction. Chapter 758: Lanis Battle Meanwhile, somewhere outside the Luvile Universe, Lani and a lot of cultivators and demon beasts had gathered. Obviously, they were all from the Luvile and Suiton Universe. As for the place, it was the trade route that both universes claimed to be theirs. It was then that a Spatial Gate appeared nearby. From inside, an old man came out. He looked around until he finally spotted everyone gathered there. "Oh! Seems like this is the right place. So, who''s gonna be my opponent?" Everyone looked at the newcomer. There were only Divinity Realm experts present, so they could tell the guy''s cultivation. Just like Lani, he was also at the Peak of the Divinity Realm. The representative of the Suiton Universe then came out to receive the man. "Senior Phantom Blade, thank you for helping us this time around." The man sighed as he shook his head. "Just call me by my name, Tixan Loume." Lani looked at the guy and had no idea who it was. However, he didn''t think that it was strange since each Universe was just too big. Besides, it''s not like he ventured outside the Luvile Universe that much. Lani then stepped forward as he brought his staff out. "I''ll be your opponent this time. As per the agreement, the losing side will give up the trade route for the next Chaos Cycle. Is everyone clear with that?" Taxin and the Suiton Universe members nodded. Obviously, the Luvile Universe''s members did the same thing. Right after, one member of each side came out to preside over the battle. "The battlefield is everywhere up to 10 thousand kilometers from where we are at the moment. If any of the two sides leave this range, they would be declared the loser. No one other than the two fighters can intervene in this battle." "That''s all. Everything else is valid." Lani and Taxin nodded and waited for the guys who spoke the rules to give the order. Lani had a serious expression on his face as he looked at Taxin. However, Taxin himself seemed to be quite bored with the current situation. Lani found one thing strange, though. They called the guy Phantom Blade, but Lani couldn''t see any sword, saber, or anything like that on the man''s hands. "Very well. The battle starts... now!" The moment the guy gave the order, Taxin slowly moved his hands. No, that was only an illusion due to the laws interacting with his movements. In fact, Taxin was just way too fast. He was so fast that almost no one could tell how he moved it. Without even leaving the place he was in, Taxin initiated the first attack. For a moment, the battlefield seemed to stop in time. ''It''s over.'' *Clang!* However, contrary to Taxin''s expectations, Lani raised his staff in the same leisurely manner as Taxin. Before anyone knew it, a shockwave of Spiritual Energy and Laws hit Lani''s staff before parting into two. Even the Peak Divinity Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts were shocked by what they saw. They knew that Taxin attacked Lani, but they couldn''t tell how he did that at all. Worse than that, they also had no idea how Lani reacted fast enough to stop it. If it was any one of them, they would have been cleaved in half already! Lani then looked at Taxin as his complexion turned even more grave. "Impressive. I''ve never seen someone use Sword Laws with only their hands. Not only that, but there was something in the power of your attack that far surpassed the Sword Heart Level." As mentioned back in the Heavenly Competition, one must first understand the Sword Intent. After that, there was the Sword Heart. One doesn''t need to think much to understand that it was several times harder to comprehend and achieve mastery with this one. Waka Ulin of the Ulin Universe was someone who had just reached the Sword Heart Level. By no means had he achieved mastery on it. Still, that was enough for him to get one of Dalin''s five slots in the Heavenly Competition. Taxin''s bored face finally showed some surprise. It was already unexpected that Lani could even react fast enough to stop his attack, but he could also tell what he did. "I was told that some weakling from a forgotten Universe would be my opponent. But who could have thought that you defended against my first attack? Praise, praise..." Lani just smiled on the surface. However, he was really shocked by what he just saw. ''What kind of freak did they send here? Is this really the guy I was supposed to fight instead for Krune? If I didn''t open the Chaos Meridians and my mental energy wasn''t spread, I probably wouldn''t have defended against that attack in time. And that was just an attack using his hands.'' Suddenly, Lani''s expression changed as he brandished his staff twice in two different directions. *Clang, clang!* Lani succeeded in defending against two more invisible sword attacks. Seeing that, Taxin became even more interested in Lani. "My Sword Laws have indeed surpassed the Sword Heart Level. Did you know? No one seems to have reached this level in the Lower Realms. At the very least, no one who is still alive did. I couldn''t find any information whatsoever even though I was part of one of the Universes'' Powerhouses. Because of that, I didn''t even know what to call the next level of Sword Arts. I was forced to pay a significant price to contact the Higher Realms to find out what it was called." *Clang, Clang, Clang!* "Only then did I find out that it was called Sword Assimilation. One''s entire body would be considered a sword. Every attack would have the power of the Sword Laws." It was then that... *Vup!* Lani disappeared from his position using Spatial Laws before appearing right behind Taxin. "Is that so?" Lani''s Staff transformed into hundreds of afterimages as all of them hit Taxin simultaneously. *Bang!* However, Taxin didn''t even move. He just looked back at Lani with a smile as if Lani hasn''t done anything at all. "Impressive movement technique. You are faster than most of the opponents I''ve seen in the past. Unfortunately, it''s also possible to use Sword Laws to protect oneself. As for someone who has reached Sword Assimilation, it also becomes something instinctive." *Za!* Suddenly, Taxin moved as he attacked Lani as well. Immediately, Lani and Taxin exchanged thousands of attacks in a single moment. *Boom!* The exchange was over as fast as it started. In the end, Lani was forced to retreat as several parts of his robe seemed to have been slashed. However, that was all. Although it was possible to see his skin under the cuts on the robe, there were no injuries. Still, Lani couldn''t help but praise his opponent. "Really impressive. I was only barely able to avoid your attacks. The really frightening thing is how impossible it is to perceive it with either Divine Sense or the naked eye." However, Taxin was even more surprised than Lani. "The real impressive one here is you. I thought I wouldn''t find anyone capable of contending against me in the Lower Realms anymore. Oh, right! What''s your name?" "Lani Gobel." Taxin nodded. "Lani Gobel. It''s not that my Sword Arts is invisible. It''s just that they have surpassed the level of what can be displayed in the Lower Realms. That''s why it looks like they are invisible. It''s also the same reason why people started to call me Phantom Blade. If we were in the Godly Path Realm, you would definitely be able to see it with your Divine Sense. Still, you''re obviously seeing them here. How?" Lani smiled before saying. "Unfortunately, that''s a little secret." There is no way Lani would talk about the Soul Cultivation Technique. He knew very well just how problematic it would be if others found about it. Taxin didn''t seem to care, though. Everyone had their own secrets. That was normal. "It''s okay. It has been a long time since I had this much fun. Make sure to not hold back because I''ll increase my speed and power now." Right after seeing that, Taxin flashed in Lani''s direction. Sure enough, he was at least twice as fast now. However... *Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang...* *Crash!* The one who was sent back retreating this time wasn''t Lani, but Taxin instead. Everyone watching the battle opened their eyes wide. They couldn''t even see Taxin''s movements at all. However, not only did Lani see it, but he even won the exchange just now. It was then that they noticed something different about Lani this time. His entire body was covered in pitch-black energy. When their Divine Senses touched it, all they could tell was that they could feel the presence of all primary elements in that. Elements Regulation Technique, Culmination! Lani fused the laws and elements together, which obviously created that black color. Krune also had the same result when he did it. However, Krune would only need one glance to tell that Lani''s proficiency was heads and tails above his own. Well, Krune was still in the Advanced Stage of the technique while Lani had already fully comprehended it. As mentioned before, you can fuse all five primary elements and laws together. At the same time, you can select which element and laws will have priority in that fusion. Lani had just used the Lightning Element and Laws to achieve a speed even greater than Taxin. Of course, he wouldn''t be able to be this fast in the past. It was all thanks to the Chaos Meridians and Mental Energy perception that he was able to reach this level. Just the Elements Regulation Technique wouldn''t be enough to deal with Taxin. "Only twice as much your original speed and strength? That''s far from enough." Taxin''s eyes shone after seeing that. "Hahaha! Just where the hell have you been all this time? No, forget it! Let''s enjoy this moment!" And just like that, Lani and Taxin began to get serious. Chapter 759: Ghosts and Crystal Demon Beasts Back in the Soren Ruins, Krune''s group finally left the mob behind. However, everywhere they went had more of those faint blue crystals. "Don''t touch them. We don''t need more of these things awakening." Everyone nodded as they carefully made their way through these labyrinthine ruins. The only thing that allowed them to tell that they were heading to the Core Region was all thanks to the flow of Spiritual Energy. But even so, they often ended in some dead end and had to go back again. "I wonder where Heavin and Liriu had gone..." At the same time, somewhere around the borders of the Core Region, Heavin and Liriu had been traveling in the Soren Ruins for quite some time. Until now, the Dark Water in Heavin''s hands hadn''t shown any different reaction after he entered this place. They had encountered groups of cultivators and demon beasts along the way. Some even offered to join their group. However, Heavin and Liriu preferred to be on their own. After all, if they really found some treasure, they would need to share it. No one tried to attack them, though. The entire ruins were covered by those crystals, not to mention that the ghosts seemed to have increased their activity in this place. The last thing anyone wanted was more problems. Nevertheless, be it Heavin and Liriu or the other groups, they still fell into a few skirmishes every now and then. The ghosts didn''t always move in groups. Some of them wandered alone. At first, they avoided the crystals. However, when they found the cultivators and demon beast teams, they used some kind of signal that awakened all the Crystal Demon Beasts around. Because of that, everyone had to always be vigilant. If possible, they would use their best abilities to get rid of the ghost before they could call and awaken the demon beasts. Unfortunately, the ghosts had become a lot more resilient ever since the ruins began to release faint blue light. That was why it was quite hard to achieve that. Heavin had also noticed something different. "The Crystal Demon Beasts have a strong defense against any kind of Spiritual Energy Skills. However, they die easily to attacks fused with Mental Energy. The ghosts are the opposite." Liriu nodded. "The ghosts are just like the Dark Water. When our Mental Energy touches them, it feels like the Mental Energy disappears inside their bodies. Only Spiritual Energy Skills are effective against them." Heavin couldn''t help but say. "It''s obvious that the Dark Water and the ghosts are related somehow. There is no doubt that the ghosts were made with the help of Mental Energy too." Liriu then asked him. "That means you were not the first one to create a Soul Cultivation Technique, right?" "Correct, but I don''t mind it. Seeing these ghosts, I am now certain that a higher realm of Soul Cultivation exists. I definitely can''t create something like the Dark Water and the ghosts, so it must be something made by someone with a stronger Mental Energy." "However, that''s not all. Even though my Mental Energy disappears inside the Ghosts, it''s not as effective as the Dark Water. Thanks to that, I can finally see a little bit of the composition of the ghosts. Perhaps, the Dark Water is made of the same thing, but just far purer and concentrated." Liriu''s curiosity was piqued after hearing that. "So, what did you find out?" "Elements! I can feel all the elements and their laws inside those ghosts. Other than that, there''s a lot of Yin Energy as well. Think about it, we''ve definitely seen something very similar before Dalin Universe was closed down." Liriu began to ponder about it for a moment before finally remembering what it was. "Ah! Senior Lucio''s Skills!" Heavin nodded, satisfied. "Exactly. It''s that Elements Regulation Technique of his. He told us that he reached a culmination with that to fuse all of the elements and laws together. When he does that, it becomes that black energy that he uses in his attacks. These ghosts are very similar to it. It''s just that they also have the Mental Energy swallowing trait that Lucio doesn''t have." Liriu finally understood, prompting him to say. "I see. Senior Lucio said that although he fused the five elements and laws together, he can still select a specific element as the major force. For example, he can make that black energy act mostly like Lightning if he desired. In that case, his Lightning Skills become Black Lightning. If he uses Fire, it obviously transforms into Black Fire." Heavin then added. "That''s most likely what gives these ghosts that Yin Energy feeling. They are prioritizing the element of Yin Energy above all the elements fused inside them. Of course, this is all a theory, but I''m pretty sure that the two are related somehow." Liriu couldn''t help but say. "The ghosts were rich in Yin Energy while having all the elements fused into them. In that case, doesn''t that make the Crystal Demon Beasts the opposite? Unless the ghosts find an enemy, they just wander around without doing anything. However, the Crystal Demon Beasts are very active even if they lose sight of us. All that activity does feel like what you would expect from a Yang Energy existence." Heavin had to admit that Liriu was right. "That''s true. You are much better at Yang Energy and Fire Laws than I am. Next time we battle those Crystal Demon Beasts, pay attention to see if you can feel the Yang Energy in their bodies." Liriu shrugged his shoulders as he replied. "There are a lot of these crystals everywhere. I can just feel one now." "But that might wake up the beasts again." "It''s fine. It''s not like we can''t deal with them. In the worst case, we can just dash away. Besides, it''s better to test it out while they haven''t transformed yet since it would give us more time to decide what to do." Heavin pondered for a bit and nodded, responding. "Alright, try it out." Liriu then approached the first crystal big enough to transform into those beasts. He then used his perception and focused entirely on the Crystal Core inside. Sure enough, the Crystal Demon Beasts seemed to feel something and began to transform. It immediately shot many crystal spikes as its body changed. Nevertheless, that was enough for Liriu. "I was right. I didn''t notice it before because I was only paying attention to the movements of these things with my Divine Sense. However, I''m definitely certain. The Crystal Core inside is a huge aggregation of Yang Energy." Liriu then began to retreat with Heavin. They wouldn''t stay there and wait for the other Crystal Demon Beasts to wake up either. As they did that, Heavin also commented. "Indeed. It''s basically the same as the ghosts. The Core of these things is full of that black energy, while the major forces are Yang Elements like Fire and Lightning. The Ghosts and the Crystal Demon Beasts are really the opposite in every possible way. Yin and Yang, Body and Soul, Strong and Weak against Mental Energy or Spiritual Energy." Heavin''s eyes lit up. "I can''t shake this feeling that I''m getting close to finding the answer. We need to find the source of all of this. But even if we don''t, this trip here was already worth it." Liriu grinned. "Alright, alright. Let''s speed it up. I don''t want to catch the attention of others." Heavin nodded as the two disappeared in the distance. By the time the first Crystal Demon Beasts finished transforming, Liriu and Heavin were practically outside its perception range. *Roar!* Still, since it noticed them, it began its pursuit. The other crystal demon beasts that had been awakened by this one also joined the hunt straight away. However, just as the two were about to finish their escape, Heavin noticed something with his Mental Energy. "Hmm?" He looked above him and saw a building floating in space, just like many others in the Soren Ruins. Liriu noticed Heavin''s change in expression. "What is it? Something wrong?" Heavin nodded. "There''s something inside that building over there. My Mental Energy is reacting to it." Liriu then used his Mental Energy to check it out as well. The strength and range of his Mental Energy was several times worse than Heavin, but it was still possible to use. "Hmm... I can''t feel anything at all. My mental energy is passing right through it as it does with everything else." Heavin narrowed his eyes. Behind them, many Crystal Demon Beasts were approaching them. However, this was the first clue Heavin found other than the creatures in this place. "Change of plans, let''s go inside." Heavin then accessed his Spatial Collar before another puppet similar to his current one appeared. Right after, he took out a Concealment Formation Runestone and activated it. This formation was incredibly high level to the point that even Divinity Realm enemies would have difficulty seeing through if they didn''t pay attention. Following that, the new puppet''s wings lit up, and it shot out of the formation in the distance. This puppet wasn''t strong in any case. At Heavin''s Puppetry level, he could make quite a few of it as long as he had the materials. But Heavin had designed it for one purpose, speed! He kept it in reserve just in case he had to flee. Because he is also a puppet, the enemies won''t feel any difference between him and the puppet unless the enemy saw the moment he changed. Sure enough, the puppet got the Crystal Demon Beasts'' attention, and they immediately changed target. As for Heavin and Liriu, they simply looked as the Crystal Demon Beasts passed by. "Alright, they''re gone. Let''s go." Chapter 760: Verifying From the outside, the building seemed just like any other building. Heavin and Liriu had entered a few before to check what was inside, but they didn''t find anything significant. These buildings had several types of furniture and things like that, though there were a few that Heavin and Liriu did not know what they were used for. Nonetheless, everything was broken or didn''t serve any purpose for them. Those buildings also had clear marks that they had been visited before. It wasn''t strange since those were the outer region buildings. They were lucky to find a few untouched ones in the Inner Region, but those ones didn''t have anything they wanted either. However, once Heavin and Liriu entered the building that Heavin mentioned, they immediately could tell that this was completely different. All the walls were covered with the same crystals as the Demon Beasts. However, they were way too small for them to transform. Nonetheless, Heavin and Liriu could feel the power radiating from them. "What is this place?" Suddenly, Heavin felt a reaction coming from his Spatial Collar. He then took out his Dark Water. As soon as it appeared, it tried to break the glass to escape deep inside the building. If Heavin didn''t reinforce the glass with Spiritual Energy, the Dark Water would definitely have broken through. Liriu and Heavin then looked in the direction the Dark Water was trying to move and then nodded at each other. Liriu took the front while Heavin followed right behind. And just like that, they went deeper inside. Meanwhile, in the outer region, Krune''s group had just finished getting rid of a small group of ghosts and crystal demon beasts. They were a lot fewer of them this time, so they didn''t try to escape. Krune also took the chance to wear down one of the Crystal Demon Beasts before destroying its outer shell. Although the beast had a nigh impenetrable defense, it was still possible to break it with their combat power. Eventually, Krune took the demon core into his hands. "Old geezer, can you feel it?" Lucio nodded as he responded. "I can. As we thought, the power inside these Crystal Demon Beasts is incredibly similar to our fused elements... Which is not really all that surprising. After all, it was from here that that Divine Path Sect Master from the past got the Elements Regulation Technique." Feifei also added. "That''s not all. Those ghosts seem to be made of the same thing. Well, you two have been practicing this technique, so I guess you can tell that already." Krune and Lucio nodded. The problem was that the ghosts didn''t have a core. They were agglomerations of Soul Power and Fused Elements. Once they defeated them, they would dissipate. If they didn''t, they would keep regenerating forever, so they couldn''t capture one that easily. "Other than the Elements Regulation Technique, there''s also Mental Energy. Both the Demon Beasts and the Ghosts have some relation to it, surprisingly." Lucio then looked in the direction of the Core Region before saying. "We need to increase our pace. Otherwise, we will keep battling these things all the time." Lucio then looked back at Krune before asking. "How is it? Can you feel Heavin''s presence already?" Krune then closed his eyes and focused on his Divine Soul. Heavin''s soul was made with part of his own Divine Soul. Because of that, they shared a faint connection with each other. This type of connection couldn''t be stopped by formations or any other barrier. The only problem was that there was a limit to it in terms of distance. Suddenly, Krune felt a subtle ripple in his Divine Soul. He opened his eyes right after as he looked in a particular direction. "I can feel him, but he is quite far away. However, there is bad news." Feifei could already imagine what it was. "We don''t know from which side Heavin and Liriu entered the Soren Ruins. That being said, there''s a chance that we entered through the opposite side. Am I correct?" Krune bitterly smiled as he nodded his head. "Yes... If we keep going straight, we will have to pass through the Core Region first. Should we go around the Inner Region to meet them?" Lucio immediately shook his head. "Heavin and Liriu are going to the Core Region to start with. By the time we arrive at the place they are now, they would have entered the Core Region a long time ago. Since they are going there, we might as well enter through our side and meet them somewhere inside." Feifei and Krune nodded. Heavin and Liriu had a considerable advantage in terms of time. There was no way they could stop those two from entering the Core Region. "Alright, let''s go." Krune''s group immediately accelerated to the Core Region. Back at Heavin and Liriu''s side, they arrived in front of a giant closed door. Just like the walls, this door was also covered in faint blue crystals. Fortunately, they didn''t meet any ghosts or Crystal Demon Beasts. The place seemed completely empty so far. But there was another thing they noticed as they made their way here. The building inside was several times bigger than what it looked from outside. "There''s definitely some sort of expansion formation acting in this place." Liriu nodded. "Maybe. However, we might have fallen into an illusion as well. That would explain this situation as well." Heavin narrowed his eyes. It didn''t feel like there was an illusion in place, at least. In the end, he shook his head as he looked at the door. They had entered several other rooms on their way here, but all of them were open and empty. This was the only closed one. Besides, none of the other doors in the building was this big. "Let''s forget about that for the moment and open this thing. The Dark Water keeps trying to escape in this direction anyway." "Did it show any other reaction other than trying to move on its own?" Heavin shook his head. "No." "Alright. This thing is quite resistant, so I will have to use some strength. I will also transform since I don''t know what''s inside, so step back a bit." Heavin nodded as he distanced himself from Liriu and the door. Soon after, Liriu''s appearance changed into his Fiery Quetzalcoatl form, which was, in fact, his Dracophoenix body. His defense was many times higher in that form, so it was good for dangerous situations. At Liriu''s cultivation, controlling his Demon Beasts'' body size wasn''t a problem either. Well, he had to do it since demon beasts grew in size with every breakthrough. His real size at the Divinity Realm definitely wouldn''t fit inside this place. A fireball appeared inside Heavin''s mouth and quickly increased in size. It was also fused with Heavin''s Major Law of Fire and Tribulation Fire. Still, Heavin held back so that he wouldn''t blast the entire thing away. He then shot it against the crystal-covered door. *Boom!* A lot of blue crystals flew everywhere together with the furniture around. Heavin and Liriu didn''t care, though. They only looked directly at the door. "That''s quite a resistant door, don''t you think?" In the end, the door barely moved as the crystals covering it was still there. Nonetheless, they could see some small damage on the crystals. "Let me try again." "Wait." Heavin then stopped Liriu as he approached the door. "Since the door is made of blue crystals, perhaps..." Heavin''s Mental Energy then gathered in mid-space as many Mental Energy Blades took form. "Go!" *Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish...* Immediately, many chunks of blue crystal were removed from the door. The damage caused to the crystals was a lot higher than Liriu''s attack. "Sure enough, everything made with these blue crystals is susceptible to Mental Energy. Use yours as well, and let''s tear it down together." Liriu nodded as he also formed many Mental Energy Blades. His energy wasn''t as good as Heavin''s, but it helped either way. In just a few minutes, they got rid of the crystal on the door. Only then were they able to open it. "Alright, let me go first again." Liriu took the front once more as he used his Spiritual Energy to push it open. The door didn''t show any resistance this time. However, as soon as it opened, a burst of black energy came out of it. Liriu immediately covered Heavin as the two stepped back at full speed. Unfortunately, they didn''t have enough space to flee, so they were still hit by it. "Wait, it''s not an attack." Both of them examined the sight as the black energy passed. Although they could tell that the black energy was also similar to Lucio and Krune''s Fused Elements, it wasn''t causing any damage. The black energy kept coming from inside the door for a few moments before it finally began to dissipate. "Well, Lucio could use his fused elements and laws for other things than attacking, so I guess this energy was the same thing. It was not being kept there for the sake of attacking anyone." Heavin agreed with Liriu. "Most likely, this door had been sealed for a long time. That''s why so much of this fused Elemental Energy was accumulated inside. Anyway, nothing will change if we keep waiting here. Let''s go there." The two once again made their way to the door while keeping their guards up. Because of the remaining black energy of the fused elements, they couldn''t see that well from the entrance. In the end, they nodded at each other and went inside to check. Chapter 761: Unknown Knowledge Heavin and Liriu could tell that the room was quite big, even with their low field of vision. However, the door to the room was still open, so the fused elemental energy continued to escape outside. Thanks to that, their fields of vision began to expand quite quickly. The room also had a lot of the faint blue crystal that radiated light, which helped them out. However, Heavin and Liriu soon had to stop walking. Not because there was something barring them, but because of what appeared in the center of the room. "There''s a crystal large enough to transform into a crystal demon beast, be careful." Heavin shook his head in response as he said. "No, this one is different. It barely has any crystal spikes. It looks more like a sphere." "Look at its bottom." The base seemed to be supporting the crystal sphere in the middle of the room. As the room got clearer and clearer for the two of them, Heavin and Liriu noticed that the Sphere seemed to be constantly absorbing Spiritual Energy from the surroundings. In exchange, it was releasing the fused elemental energy. "Is this thing alive like those Crystal Demon Beasts?" "Probably. Take a look at the base with your Mental Energy. The five primary elements are passing through them and entering the crystal sphere. The sphere is also absorbing the Spiritual Energy from the surroundings. I think it''s using Spiritual Energy to fuse the elements together, just like what Senior Lucio does." Liriu noticed a problem, though. "That may be the case. However, the amount of fused elemental energy that it releases doesn''t match how much it''s absorbing. Could it be..." Heavin understood where Liriu was coming from. "Yes. It''s absorbing using the rest of the fused elements on itself. What we see coming out of the sphere is probably not up to the standard to be used." Heavin then approached the crystal sphere. He tried to use his Divine Sense and Mental Energy on it before, but neither energies could see what was inside. He could only try and view it with his naked eye. Fortunately, the crystal was semi-transparent, so he could finally see after getting close enough. However... "This... Is that what I think it is?" Liriu became puzzled as he got close. Since there were no dangers around, he took the chance to return to his human form. Sure enough, he was taken aback. "A female human?" Their sight became even better as more fused elements escaped the room. Soon, they confirmed that it was really a human. Inside, a naked female body could be seen. Other than that, they could see that she was holding some kind of pitch-black sphere. In the end, what was absorbing the elements and Spiritual Energy from the surroundings was the sphere, not the woman. Instead, the woman seemed to be trapped inside for some reason. Heavin pondered for a bit and then took his Dark Water out of the Spatial Ring. Sure enough, it immediately tried to break free from the glass and rush into the crystal where the black orb was located. Of course, Heavin held it back just like before. "Hum... what should I do?" Liriu then mentioned. "Why don''t we try to break her free from the crystal first? There''s no point ogling at her forever, right?" Heavin agreed with Liriu. He quickly put the Dark Water inside his Spatial Ring and used his Mental Energy to create several blades. Heavin did the same thing as the two of them began to slash the crystal sphere. However, they only had the chance to do it once. As soon as the first cut appeared in the crystal sphere, it began to shine with a powerful light. Heavin and Liriu immediately retreated as they looked at what was happening. *Crack, crack, crack...* Several cracks began to appear on the surface. Soon, it spread through the entire crystal sphere. *Shatter!* Before they could do anything, the sphere shattered into thousands of pieces. Heavin and Liriu used their Spiritual Energy to hold the crystals back. The woman then floated in the middle of the room, not moving at all. If the Soren Ruins wasn''t in the middle of outer space, she would have already fallen to the ground. Heavin and Liriu looked at each other and nodded. Slowly, they approached the woman while keeping their guards high. However, nothing happened in the end. Liriu then helped her down as Heavin checked her body with Mental Energy. "She seems to be unconscious. However, she''s definitely alive." Heavin then tried to take the Black Orb from her hands, but the woman seemed to be glued to it. It didn''t matter how much he forced it. She didn''t let it go. Heavin kept shaking the black orb until Liriu called his attention. "Wait! She seems to be awakening." Heavin immediately stopped as he looked at the girl. She opened her eyes slowly as her vision came back to her. "I... Where am I?" Suddenly, her dizzy eyes opened wide as she immediately tried to increase her distance from Heavin and Liriu. However, she immediately noticed that her cultivation was sealed. "Hmph! Do you think that just because you sealed my cultivation, I won''t be able to do anything to you?" All of a sudden, a powerful Mental Energy spread in the room as several Mental Attacks came at Liriu and Heavin. The two, obviously, were shocked to see that. However... "Shatter!" Heavin used a far stronger Mental Energy wave and shattered the woman''s Mental Energy in a single go! "Yo-You! Who are you?! How can you use Soul Manifestation?!" Liriu and Heavin were as lost as the woman. "Soul Manifestation, what''s that? Are you talking about my Mental Energy?" "Mental Energy?" Liriu then looked at the woman, who was still being held by him. Heavin''s Mental Energy was a lot more refined than her, so he wasn''t afraid of her using it against him. "Listen, woman. We have just arrived here. Also, it was us who saved you from that crystal sphere. I have no idea how your cultivation got sealed, but that wasn''t us." The woman narrowed her eyes as she looked at the two. "Crystal sphere? What are you talking about?" Heavin then compiled the entire event into a Divine Sense Message and sent it to her. The woman quickly paid attention to it and finally understood the situation she was in. "This... Are you being serious?" Heavin and Liriu nodded. "Yes. Could it be that you don''t remember being locked inside it?" The woman shook her head. "No... The last thing I can remember is the time when I grabbed this Black Sphere... Ah!" She immediately let go of the Black Sphere as soon as she thought about it. Heavin, of course, didn''t let the chance slip and grabbed it with his Spiritual Energy. "Can you explain what this thing is? This Black Sphere was what was absorbing the Elements and Spiritual Energy from the surroundings while creating the fused elemental energy." The woman didn''t know what to think about the two. However, she was indeed powerless against them. If she didn''t answer their questions, she might really die here. "I found this Black Sphere here by coincidence. However, as soon as I touched it, I lost my consciousness. The next thing I knew, you two were in front of me. Trust me, I''m not hiding anything from you two." Heavin nodded. He didn''t completely trust her, but he didn''t have a reason to doubt her either. The entire situation was just that weird. "Also, how come you can use Mental Energy? This is something that I made myself. I''m sure that it was not spread around without my permission either." In fact, Heavin was shocked by the woman''s Mental Energy power. That''s because her own Mental Energy was a lot stronger than his own. The reason why he could overwhelm her was that he was simply a lot more experienced with it. ''The way she used it was just like when I first discovered Mental Energy. It''s obvious that she got this power not long ago. Otherwise, I wouldn''t be able to shatter her attack that easily.'' The woman pondered for a bit about the question when all of a sudden, her eyes opened wide. "Wait! How''s that possible...?" Heavin and Liriu became puzzled as they looked at her shocked face. "Is something wrong?" The woman nodded. "I can''t understand. I know how to use Soul Manifestat- Oh, right. You call it Mental Energy. Anyway, I know how to use Mental Energy. However, I''m sure I didn''t even know about its existence before finding the Black Orb. It''s as if the knowledge suddenly appeared in my mind out of nowhere." Heavin was taken aback after hearing that. "Wait! You have a higher level of Soul Cultivation than me, and you don''t even know how you got it?" "Soul Cultivation?" The woman pondered for a bit before nodding. "I don''t remember having cultivated anything. However, I can feel a new power inside my mind. It is just like the power in my dantian. Is it related to my Soul Cultivation Realm then?" "Ah! That''s why my cultivation is sealed. No, that''s not the right way to put it. It''s just that I shouldn''t use Spiritual Energy the same way as before. Wait, how come I know that as well?" Liriu noticed that this situation was going to take some time to resolve, so he offered. "What about an introduction first? We can discuss it more after knowing each other. My name is Liriu." Heavin nodded and followed. "That''s true. I''m called Heavin." The woman looked at the two. Her cultivation was sealed, and her Mental Energy was useless against them, so she could only comply with their wishes. "I''m Fura Mian." Chapter 762: Only Knowledge? Fura then gave a few details about herself. "I came from the Wastkim Universe. My cultivation had already reached the peak of the Divinity Realm, but I wasn''t confident of my chances of going through the Ascencion Tribulation. That''s why I entered the Soren Ruins. I wanted to find something that could increase those chances. It''s not rare to hear about cultivators and demon beasts who found treasures or other kinds of items that helped them with it." Liriu was curious about something else, though. "I see... Just one thing. You said that it''s not that your cultivation is sealed, but that you used it in the wrong way. So... why haven''t you tried to escape yet?" "Ah!" In an instant, Spiritual Energy began to circulate around Fura''s body. Heavin and Liriu looked at that but didn''t try to do anything. Soon after, Fura opened some distance from Heavin and Liriu. However, she didn''t try to escape this time. After all, Heavin and Liriu could have attacked her before she did anything but refrained from doing so. Something told her that they really had no bad intentions towards her. Of course, Heavin didn''t give the Black Sphere back to her. "Thank you for helping me with the crystal sphere thing. Anyway, I already told you a little about me, shouldn''t you tell me who you are as well? After all, I want to know more about how you got to use Soul Ma- Ahem, Mental Energy." Heavin didn''t see a reason to lie about this point. After all, she was also a user of Mental Energy right now. Besides, he wanted to improve their relationship so that they could help each other. "It is as I mentioned before. The Soul Cultivation Technique was something I created myself. You can see that I''m a puppet with a Soul, right? However, I''m not just a soul, but a Divine Soul that gained sentience. I couldn''t cultivate like everyone else, so I created the Soul Cultivation Technique. However, mental energy wasn''t part of my plans. It really came as a surprise that this power appeared in my mind when I used it. Later on, I modified it so that my close friends could use it as well. In the end, they weren''t as good as me, but they could still use it." Fura was surprised with how detailed Heavin was about the issue. But what really shocked her was something else. "Wait! You said you''re a Divine Soul? Then what happened to your owner?" Heavin shrugged his puppet shoulders. "He''s fine and kicking. I only used a small part of the Divine Soul to separate myself from him. He then used his own ways to heal that gap later." Fura found it hard to believe. However, would they create such a ridiculous excuse? Not to mention that she could feel something different with Heavin''s Soul thanks to her own Mental Energy. Fura then pondered for a bit before asking. "What are you planning to do now?" Heavin pointed outside. "We are planning to go to the Core Region to understand what this is all about. We won''t try anything against you since we aren''t enemies or anything. However, would you mind telling me a little bit more about your power? Just now, when you drove your Spiritual Energy, I noticed that your Mental Energy also acted together. What was that about?" Fura looked deeply at the two of them. In the end, she sighed as she began to explain. "Well, you did save me, after all. As I said, all this knowledge appeared inside my mind out of nowhere, so I will continue from here. By the way, I will use Mental Energy as the term to make things easier to understand." She then continued. "Just like skills, you also need Spiritual Energy to generate Mental Energy. However, I seem to have reached a stage where my Spiritual Energy needs to work in unison with my Mental Energy. Without the support of Mental Energy, my Spiritual Energy doesn''t circulate anymore. All I can do is just absorb it." Suddenly, Fura extended her hand as a ball of Black Energy appeared on it. "This... It''s the fused five elements and laws form! You can use it?" Fura looked at Heavin and Liriu. "You can tell? I couldn''t use it before, but right now, it is simply natural to me. However, I''ve never seen anything like this either. All I can tell is that my Dantian is full of it." Heavin nodded. "We did see it." Liriu then asked Heavin through a Divine Sense Message. ''Is it okay to talk about the Elements Regulation Technique? After all, only the Sect Masters of the Divine Path Realm can receive it, no?'' Heavin shook his head. ''Don''t worry. Krune, Senior Lucio, and Senior Lani use it in their attacks all the time. It''s just that they never passed the technique to anyone else.'' Heavin then explained. "There is a skill called the Elements Regulation Technique that can achieve the same result as what you are doing. No, to be honest, I feel that yours is different." Fura nodded. "I think I know why. It''s because they create it using the technique while with mine, it happens naturally in my Dantian. It''s so weird. It feels like it has always been a part of me. It''s definitely related to the Black Sphere you have." Heavin agreed with her. "Definitely. However, I''m sorry, but I have no intention of giving it back. I have been stuck in the same Soul Cultivation Realm for a very long time. So far, this is the first clue I got about how to create the next Realm." Fura nodded, not finding it surprising. "That''s understandable. If I was in your place, I would have done the same thing." Heavin then asked something else. "By the way, what is your Soul Cultivation Realm at the moment? Or better yet, is your Soul Cultivation really a cultivation technique? Could it be that this is some kind of evolution you went through?" Fura looked into the knowledge she received from the Black Orb and then nodded. "I do have Realms... or at least I think I do. From what I can understand from this new knowledge, I''m in the Energy Fusion Realm. This is a realm where my soul can assimilate any kind of energy and transform it into this black energy that you just saw. My soul then uses this black energy to power my Mental Energy." Heavin''s eyes lit up after hearing that. At the very least, he hadn''t reached a similar level. Still, he could see some light at the end of the tunnel. "I understand. However, I don''t know what this name represents. Can you tell me which position this Energy Fusion is in the path of Soul Cultivation?" Fura pondered for a bit more and then nodded. "It''s the sixth realm." "I knew it." Liriu and Fura were taken aback. "What are you talking about?" Heavin smiled as he explained. "Oh! It''s nothing much. Remember that I was able to shatter your Mental Energy attack? That''s because I''m several times more experienced with it than you are. However, I''m still in the Fifth Realm. Against absolute power, there is little that experience can do. If you were too far ahead of me in Soul Cultivation, then I would have been powerless. Since I won, then you weren''t that far ahead from me." Fura had to admit that Heavin was right. ''Well, that'' considering that he''s telling the truth, though.'' Heavin continued as he took the Dark Water outside of his Spatial Ring. Of course, he made sure it wouldn''t touch the Black Sphere. "Does your knowledge have anything to tell about this thing?" Fura looked at the Dark Water for a moment before saying. "Can''t you tell? This is also the Fused Elements." Heavin and Liriu were taken aback. "Are you sure? This thing swallows Mental Energy like a black hole! Neither your or our friends'' Fused Elements have this power." Fura shook her head as she said. "I see... It''s most likely because my Soul Cultivation Realm is higher than yours. Or perhaps because it is different. In any case, this Black Water is definitely Fused Elements. However, this is on a completely different level. As I mentioned before, my Fused Elements is made with Mental Energy. This Black Water is definitely the same thing. The previous owner''s Mental Energy is still inside, and it''s that same Mental Energy that is swallowing yours. It''s like an automatic defense mechanism." Heavin narrowed his eyes as he muttered. "Mental Energy..." Suddenly, an idea popped into Heavin''s mind. "Oh! Could it be..." He then took a bit of the Dark Water out and allowed it to be absorbed by the Black Sphere. As expected, the Black Sphere took it all inside. "What are you trying to do?" asked Liriu and Fura with a puzzled expression. Even with the new knowledge, Fura also didn''t know what the Black Sphere was. Heavin then smiled as he said. "Send your own strands of Mental Energy inside, and you will understand." Liriu and Fura did that when they finally saw what was there. "Are those... memories?" Heavin nodded. "Now you know where the knowledge Fura got came from. However, this Black Sphere had some other purpose as well." "Purpose, what kind of purpose?" Heavin then looked at Fura before saying. "Was it really only giving you knowledge? Or was it trying to make you do something else? If we haven''t arrived in this place, would you continue to receive more ''knowledge?'' In the end, would you still be you?" Fura felt a chill on her back when she heard that question. Chapter 763: Wisp Contamination Fura then touched her head while thinking about what Heavin mentioned. "That... makes sense." Heavin nodded and then asked. "It seems like we cut the process in the middle, but it doesn''t change the fact that you already obtain some of the knowledge¡ªfor example, the way to use Mental Energy. Hell, you even surpassed me, the creator. Oh, right. I''m not the creator anymore." Heavin''s expression then turned solemn as he continued. "If I''m not wrong, a trap was left behind to lock whoever comes to this place. It would then be used as a way of getting ''help.'' That''s why you got sealed while the Black Sphere transformed you into that ''help.'' Fura, other than the knowledge about the Soul Cultivation Technique and the way to fuse the elements, are there any additional memories? To be more specific, any knowledge about what you were supposed to do?" Fura closed her eyes and began to think. After some time, she finally opened it again. "The Core Region. I can''t tell what I was supposed to do there, but it was inside the Core Region." Heavin and Liriu nodded. "So that''s how it is. The key to this event is definitely inside there." Liriu then asked something else. "But why did it happen right now? Is it because of the changes in the Soren Ruins?" "Probably. At the very least, we haven''t heard about a situation like this before. Well, maybe we just didn''t ask the right people." Fura shook her head in response. "No, this definitely hasn''t happened before. Unlike you two, I did a thorough investigation on the Soren Ruins before entering it. Even if this place didn''t act like this, I would still come inside. I can almost guarantee that no one passed through what I did." Heavin didn''t find it hard to believe. "I see..." Heavin then pondered about the time of the things as they went. "The Soren Ruins began to act like this around 11 years ago, right? Fura nodded and waited for Heavin to continue. However, Heavin went silent after that. It was obvious that he was thinking about something. ''It''s definitely not a coincidence. The Godly Path Realm''s time goes ten times faster. Krune opened that chamber in the Kalame Sect around one year before he departed from there. Obviously, more than ten years have passed here. I don''t know how, but it was his action in the Godly Path Realm that awakened the ruins.'' Heavin then took his Dark Water again and looked at it as it tried to enter the Black Sphere. ''What happens to the Dark Water that enters this thing? Is it some exchange device? The more it receives, the more knowledge it will give. However, the Black Sphere itself didn''t change in size after the Dark Water entered it. Where did it go? Was it the Core Region?'' Obviously, Heavin wouldn''t talk about what happened to Krune with Fura without Krune''s permission. In the end, he asked something else to Fura. "Fura? Would you pass the Cultivation Technique forward?" Fura found that question weird. "Why are you asking for it?" "Don''t misunderstand my intentions. With this Black Sphere, I don''t really need you to tell me how you cultivated. I''m not asking it for myself. What I''m talking about is if you are going to give it to someone else." Heavin then continued. "I believe you yourself know very well just how frightening this technique is. If others find out about it, you will probably be doomed unless you decide to spread it everywhere. I made sure to keep this technique hidden until now, but you are not part of my group. I don''t know what you intend to do with it. However, your decision will have a great repercussion on my side." Fura pondered for a bit and understood from where Heavin was coming from. "I know that this is a dangerous technique. I still don''t know how it will affect me after all the time I spent inside that crystal sphere. For now, I would not pass it ahead since I don''t know if others might get involved in some way by the creator of this thing." Heavin nodded and said in response. "That''s true. Different from me, who created this technique on my own, you received it from someone else. This memory manipulation might be part of the technique itself. Alright, then. That''s all I wanted to know. Let me just give you a piece of advice. If you really intend to give it to someone else in the future, make sure you trust them to not spread it around." Fura nodded. "Obviously." Liriu then took the chance to ask Heavin with a Divine Sense Message. ''Now that you have this Black Sphere, you can study it and develop your own Soul Cultivation Technique''s 6th Realm. That''s why we came here, no? That being said, are you going back now?'' Heavin had to admit that Liriu was right. However, after pondering a bit, Heavin shook his head. ''No. I want to go to the Core Region to confirm some things.'' ''Confirm some things? What things exactly?'' Heavin then explained. ''We don''t know if this Black Sphere is the only one. Chances are that places like this activated or appeared all over Soren Ruins. Some might have been caught by it for even longer than Fura. I want to know what is inside the Core Region that needed to use such a way of getting reinforcements.'' ''Besides, there''s also the Elements Regulation Technique that Krune, Senior Lucio, and Senior Lani use. From the looks of it, their technique is also involved with it. If there''s something good, I would like to give it to them after all the help they gave us.'' Liriu pondered for a bit and nodded in the end. ''Very well, then let''s go to the Core Region.'' Heavin and Liriu turned in Fura''s direction. "Alright, we''re leaving now. Since you know the Soren Ruins better than us, you can definitely leave on your own. May we meet again in the future, Senior Fura." Fura was taken aback by those words. She was still vigilant all this time, afraid that the two would try something. "Are you going to leave me just like that? You still have the advantage in Mental Energy and attack power, you know?" Liriu shook his head. "We aren''t the same as others." Heavin let out a chuckle in response to Liriu''s words before saying. "We have been contaminated by a certain wisp who hates killing. I guess we are helpless here." Liriu heard that and laughed as well. "If Uncle Krune heard that, it would definitely hurt him." Heavin agreed with him. After that, the two turned around and prepared to leave. Heavin had no intention of asking Fura to come together. After all, she already got a great harvest if one considered her current power. All she needed to do is to get used to it. Asking her to go through more unnecessary danger is not something they wanted to do. Fura looked as the two disappeared through the door and left a few moments later. Finally, she reappeared outside the building and recognized that she was still in the same place as in the past. Her Mental Energy then saw Heavin and Liriu flying in the Core Region as she looked at the exit side. Sure enough, she also thought she already got a good harvest with this trip. If she went out now and trained well, these new techniques she got can most likely guarantee her safe ascension. ''Well, they got the Black Sphere in exchange for saving me, so I don''t own them anything anymore.'' With that, she drove her Spiritual and Mental Energy as she rushed in the direction of the exit. However... Her speed began to drop more and more when all of a sudden, she scratched her head in rage. "Ah, for fuck''s sake!" Immediately, she spread her Mental Energy and contacted Liriu and Heavin, who were about to disappear in the distance. ''Wait!'' The duo heard that Mental Energy message and stopped in their tracks. A few moments later, Fura caught up to the two, but to their confusion. "Did you forget something?" Fura nodded. "I''m going with you two." Heavin and Liriu became puzzled. "Why would you do that? You do know that your memories got somewhat messed up, right? Although I believe we did save you in time, there is still a chance that something will happen to your mind once we go there. If you are doing it to get the Black Sphere back, you better give up the idea." Fura shook her head. "I don''t need the Black Sphere. I''m going there because I want to see what is happening as well, that''s all." Well, that was a lie. Fura just felt like she still owned Liriu and Heavin. Sure, they took the Black Sphere. However, they didn''t try to kill her when they had the chance. They also made her realize how close she was to becoming a puppet herself. Fura was feeling quite annoyed because she was wrong about them. However, Liriu shook his head. "Even if that''s the case, it''s not like we trust you. Why should we let you come with us? What if you suddenly attack us from behind during a dangerous moment?" "This..." Fura wanted to curse Heavin, but she couldn''t since she realized that she would have the same thoughts as Heavin. Indeed, why should they believe her? It''s not like she trusted them completely either. "Forget what I said, I''ll leave now. Have a safe jour-" "Alright, you can come." Fura''s face almost hit the ground after hearing that. Luckily, she was floating in outer space. ''Didn''t you just say you don''t trust me, hey?!'' Liriu then looked at Heavin and laughed. "Is that another side effect of the Wisp Contamination?" Heavin shrugged his shoulders as he said. "Pretty much." Chapter 764: Necessary Heavin allowed Fura to come together with them basically because she gave up too quickly. She didn''t try to insist or anything like that. That''s why he thought it was worth a shot. Although they would keep their guards up against the old woman, they were willing to trust her to some extent as well. Besides, it''s not like extra help was a bad thing. While Heavin and Krune''s groups made their way to the Core Region, Lani was in a heated battle against Taxin. *Boom!* Another wave of energy came between the two as weaponized energy came out of their weapons. Since there was Sword Intent and Sword Heart, then there was surely Staff Intent and Heart. Of course, Taxin had already surpassed the Sword Heart level and entered a new realm where it wasn''t recognizable in the Mortal Realm. Nevertheless, Lani''s Staff Heart helped a lot even though it was weaker by one realm. "Great stuff! Now, let''s see how you will deal with this, Lani!" As soon as Taxin said that, Lani felt a chill on his back. The world around him didn''t change at all. However, he could tell with his Mental Energy that a powerful threat had just appeared. "Myriad Swords Domain!" Sure enough, it was a sword-related domain. Because it also used the Sword Assimilation Level, the domain seemed to be invisible to both eye and Divine Sense. Lani wasn''t any slower, though. Different from Taxin, his Laws were still within the Realm of this plane. That being said, it immediately turned visible to everyone¡ªthe world alone Lani became colorful, pretty similar to Krune''s domain. As an Element Divine Soul Owner, Lani obviously specialized in the five primary elements. However, the colorful domain only stayed like that for a second. Not long after, the colors began to mix until they turned pitch black! "Elements Regulation Domain!" Sure enough, Lani reached a level where he could also fuse his Elemental Domains together. Lani had comprehended all the five primary elements and laws a long time ago. Merging them was no problem either. Naturally, his domain benefited from that. Both Taxin and Lani''s domain clashed against each other. Several severing slashes appeared in Lani''s domain nonstop. At the same time, Lani could tell that his domain was weakening Tixan''s at a similar level with his Mental Energy. As the two domains clashed, the fabric of space shattered everywhere. The Mortal Realm space couldn''t withstand the power of common Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts, let alone Lani and Tixan''s powers. It looked like even the space laws themselves were being affected by their domains. "The All Sword!" Taxin flashed in Lani''s direction as his body shone with Spiritual Energy. Every movement of his hands and legs, even his fingers and toes, were followed by peak level Sword Laws. "Myriad Staff Refractions!" Lani also didn''t stay still and headed directly for Taxin. Taxin was far above Lani in weapon realm comprehension, but Lani had all the perks from Krune, Heavin, and his own Elements Regulation Technique to make up for it. *Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom, Boom!* All of a sudden, Lani''s body was slashed in half. However, it disappeared right after as Taxin''s head was smashed by a staff. Unfortunately, that was also an afterimage. "Real World Severing!" Taxin''s body burst with the power of Sword Assimilation as even space itself became part of his swords. Lani was taken aback by that attack, forcing him to stop his attack. His staff left thousands of afterimages as his body rotated several times. Black energy came out of it, which increased the countering potential of his attack. All of that happened in just a fraction of a second, but it was still a little bit slow as several cuts appeared on Lani''s body. Lani immediately controlled his Spiritual, Elemental, and Mental Energies to head towards those places. They then immediately destroyed the rampaging Sword Assimilation energy that tried to enter his body. However, it wasn''t over. Taxin used that moment to attack Lani, not giving him time to prepare. "Extreme Piercing!" Although it sounded like an attack made for a spear, it was true that swords can also pierce. Piercing was a very sword-like law. Taxin''s hand moved at incredible speeds, aiming for an unprotected area on Lani''s body. However, Lani wasn''t an idiot. He knew that his opponents definitely wouldn''t let the opportunity slip. Out of nowhere, the Fused Elements on Lani''s staff intensified as his staff speed increased even more! Just as Taxin''s Extreme Piercing was about to hit Lani''s body, Lani''s staff appeared right in front of it. It didn''t only defend but aimed to counterattack as well. "Mountain''s Descent!" Earth Element took priority in Lani''s Fused Five Elements as his staff increased several times in power. Lani was literally trying to make Taxin lose his arm in this attack. *Bang!* Soon, hand and staff hit each other. However, things didn''t go as both sides had expected. Lani''s staff failed to injure Taxin''s hand while Taxin''s attack was unable to leave even a mark on Lani''s Staff. Both Taxin and Lani''s bodies were then pushed away by the massive shockwave from their Spiritual Energy and Laws. Space several kilometers around them broke apart as spatial storms appeared everywhere. However, both Lani and Taxin didn''t care about the environment. The two didn''t believe that their attacks failed to cause any change. Taxin then looked at Lani''s staff before asking. "What kind of weapon is that? Even a Peak Divinity Realm Equipment wouldn''t be unscathed after receiving my Extreme Piercing attack." Obviously, that was Krune''s Purple Flame Staff. Although Krune had made it to be at the Peak Divinity Stars level, he had used a few of the Godly Path Realm materials to forge it. Naturally, it was several times more resistant when compared to weapons made with materials of the Mortal Realm. Not to mention that the Purple Flame Effect increased its power even more. Lani looked at the staff on his hand before smiling. "This was a gift from my grand disciple. It seems like he put a lot of effort in forging this." Lani then looked back at Taxin''s Hand that didn''t have any damage. "Still, how come your hand is fine? I swear I used enough power to blast it apart." Tixan also answered Lani''s question. "I focused the entire power of Sword Assimilation in my hand during that attack. If you had aimed for some other part of my body, I would have been severely injured. Well, if you really did that, then you would have no heart anymore." Lani knew that Taxin wasn''t kidding. That attack really aimed directly at his heart, and his Spiritual Energy Barrier definitely wouldn''t have been able to block it. Fortunately, he had Krune''s new staff. After saying that, Taxin began to ponder a bit. "Hmm... I didn''t want to use that in the Mortal Realm anymore. Still, I didn''t expect to find someone like you here. What to do, what to do..." Lani narrowed his eyes. "It seems like I''m not worth enough for you to show it. Well, why don''t you leave then? You are not from here, right? Just leave this trade route that has nothing to do with you for our Luvile Universe." Taxin then looked at Lani and shook his head. "No. You are definitely worthy of it. Sorry, it seems like I''ve said something stupid. It''s just that I also didn''t want to finish it this quickly. However, we are not going anywhere now that even my Extreme Piercing has failed to break through your defense." Suddenly, Taxin touched his Spatial Ring. Not long after, an old sword appeared in his hand. However, Lani narrowed his eyes when he saw that. His Divine Sense and Mental Energy told him that that thing was nothing more than a simple ordinary sword. Let alone rare materials, it looked more like it was made with low-quality iron and nothing else. However, at the very moment that sword was grasped by Taxin, his aura had completely changed! Tixan was already the most dangerous person Lani had ever met, but his level of threat had just increased several times. "What is this sword? How can it make you change this much." Taxin then gently stroked that sword as a sincere smile appeared on his face. "There is nothing worth paying attention to it. This is a simple sword used by a nameless kid from a rural area off a planet that almost no one knows. That kid''s father had quite some difficulty paying for it. Still, it was the kid''s birthday, so he wanted to give him a surprise. Since then, this Sword has never left that kid''s side. See? It''s pretty useless, isn''t it? The quality is poor, the handle is terrible, the sharpness is a laughingstock. To be honest, I believe that that father was fooled to pay way more than it was worth. Truly, a piece of scrap metal." Lani didn''t need to think too much to understand that the kid in the story was Taxin himself. "Although you say that, it doesn''t seem like your heart agrees with it." Taxin laughed. "Hahaha! Indeed. In the eyes of anyone else, this is nothing more than trash. However, this is my most precious treasure. Something as important as my life." Tixan raised his sword. As he did that, it looked as if the whole universe was at the mercy of his blade. What looked like scrap metal a moment ago now looked like a divine existence. "Lani, it was fun." Lani bitterly smiled as he dropped his staff. "I''m not like you. I prefer a calm life and only do battle if truly necessary. However, it seems like this is one of those necessary moments. *Kabrummm!* Suddenly, arcs of Purple Lightning began to run around Lani''s body. Together with that, his combat power also increased. That''s the reason Luvile told Krune that he didn''t need to worry. That''s because Lani was just like Ula, someone who had acquired his Purple Lightning Source in the past as well. Chapter 765: Energy Blast Krune''s group had been making their way to the Core Region without finding too much problems. Well, it was not that the Soren Ruins weren''t dangerous, but because their own group was far above the general level. Eventually, they were able to reach the division between the two areas. "Is this some kind of barrier?" There was some kind of force field in front of them that didn''t allow them to enter. Lucio couldn''t help but comment. "Hmm... I don''t think it was supposed to be here. After all, how long have the Soren Ruins existed? Still, I''ve never heard of a barrier impeding cultivators and demon beasts from entering the Core Region." Krune could feel the enormous amount of Spiritual Energy inside that thing. ''Well, I can just use Luvile''s power to slowly make an opening for myself. However, if Heavin and Liriu find the same thing on the other side, perhaps they won''t enter. Maybe I should consider going around to see if I can meet them.'' However, when he touched the barrier, his hands passed right through it! "What?! How come there''s so much energy, but it doesn''t offer protection at all?" Feifei and Lucio also touched the barrier, and sure enough, their hands went through as well. "This... Perhaps this thing is not protecting against outsiders?" "It might be here not to prevent something from entering but leaving instead." "Well, there''s a chance that this really is a protection barrier, but what it protects against is not what we think." Krune, Feifei, and Lucio were just about to discuss this issue when all of a sudden... "Not good! Fall back!" Feifei''s voice echoed in their minds. Because Krune and Feifei received that warning from Joty back in the Luvile Universe, the three of them had been at full alert all the time. Feifei, Lucio, and Krune had long decided that whatever warning they received from others, they would act first and ask later. Feifei even kept her Destiny Divine Soul working at full time, calculating everything in her surroundings. Thanks to that, she saw something terrible happening to the environment just a second before the event took place. *Boom!* As soon as the three flashed away, the Energy Barrier in front of them exploded with terrifying might! All the ruins around were turned to dust, something that even Krune wouldn''t be able to do. If that hit them, they didn''t think they would be able to survive. The energy shockwave quickly spread as the three fled back as fast as possible. However, the energy was so powerful that it disrupted the space around them, so they couldn''t teleport away. With only time to think, Krune brought out his shields. However, they simply wouldn''t be able to block the shockwave in time. But still, Krune''s reaction was insanely swift. In a normal situation, he would have been able to pull that off. Still, the incoming danger was faster than he imagined. Fortunately, he wasn''t alone. Feifei and Lucio also understood that their only chance would be to have Krune''s Purple Lightning and Shields block the energy behind. That being said, they immediately used the best skill they could think of since they also didn''t have time to bring out their weapons. "Destiny Reversal!" "Elemental Chaos!" Feifei''s ability defied the way of destiny as it acted on the energy blast right in front of them. For a moment, Krune and Lucio saw an illusion of the three of them being hit by the shock wave. However, that illusion quickly shattered, and the attack continued. However, Lucio''s Elemental Chaos came right behind. He fused the elements around into Black Energy, including part of the elements in the shockwave right in front of them. The energy shockwave was already pure chaos itself, so it made Lucio''s skill easier to activate. *Boom!* Once again, the incoming blast was delayed for a small moment. However, that wasn''t enough for Krune''s shield to be charged with Purple Lightning. Feifei and Lucio knew what Krune was going to do. Hence, as they used their own attacks, they immediately used the counterforce to appear beside Krune. All the shields appeared around Krune, Feifei, and Lucio as they connected themselves with Purple Lightning. Not even a gap was left behind. "Purple Tribulation Lightning, 200%!" "Tribulation Shields Slaughtering Formation, Third Form, Cage!" The Energy Blast hit the shield as Krune''s group was sent flying with it. Krune didn''t hold back at all with his Spiritual Energy and Purple Lightning Resource. Luvile also supported him as much as possible, making it easier for manipulation. The cage of lightning trembled from all sides, threatening to break apart. Fortunately, Luvile''s power was a god''s power. Also, Krune''s Lightning Shields were made with materials from the Godly Path Realm. Thanks to that, they were even more resistant than the ruins themselves. All of that took some time to explain, but no more than three seconds had passed. Fortunately, three seconds was the limit of the energy blast''s threat. As soon as those endless three seconds were over, Krune''s shields got the upper hand as the energy outside began to dissipate. Eventually, the shockwave lost most of its power before disappearing completely. Krune then released his cage skill and was greeted with an empty space. All the decrepit buildings in an area thousands of kilometers around them turned into dust or rubble as they flew further back. In front of them, nothing remained at all. Krune, Feifei, and Lucio finally sighed in relief. "No wonder we had a black karma thread connected to these ruins. If not for Joty''s warning, we wouldn''t have been this ready for this attack. Besides, Master wouldn''t be here to give support either." Feifei nodded. "Indeed. We wouldn''t even see it before the energy blast turned the two of us into dust. But now I can also understand why our karma threads chanced into gray instead of going back to normal. There was still a good chance that we might have died." Lucio agreed with the two. "True. We definitely almost died just a second ago. It''s too bad that Joty isn''t here. Otherwise, I would ask him to see if your threads had gone back to normal. At least, I do think this event just now was enough to be a gray thread." As mentioned in the past, those with Joty''s bloodline worked with the Divine Path Sect. Naturally, as the Sect Master, Lucio was well aware of Joty and his master''s power. "Still, why did it happen? Was it because we touched the barrier?" Krune nodded. "It has to be. Also, it''s probably something directed at us." Feifei and Lucio understood what Krune meant. "Indeed. If it had happened recently, we would have heard something from the other groups we found on the way here. Still, none of them knew anything about it. Then again, why would it target just us?" Krune pondered for a bit and took two items out of his Spatial Ring. "I can only think about these two things." One of them was the small bottle with the Black Water. At the moment, Krune still didn''t know that it was the same as his and Lucio''s Fused Elemental Energy. The second item was the piece of metal Krune got from the chamber. He wanted to make a new set of shields with it. However, he refrained from doing so since he wanted to increase his Blacksmith Level. Making Peak Divinity Stars Shields with them would be too much of a waste. Krune then looked at the barrier far ahead and noticed that it was very dim. Almost all the energy that it had was used in the last blast. Even though it was thousands of kilometers away, it wasn''t anything hard to look through with his cultivation as long as nothing was blocking his vision. With the previous event, the entire way ahead was clean. Krune then separated a drop of Black Water and put it in another bottle. Soon after, he threw it at the barrier in the distance. Space laws gathered around it as it broke through the fabric of space and appeared in front of the dim wall in a flash. However, the moment it touched the barrier, not only did another explosion not happen, but the bottle broke apart as the barrier absorbed the Black Water instead. "It seems like this barrier has something to do with the Black Water as well." Krune narrowed his eyes but didn''t pay too much attention to it for now. He then cut a tiny piece of the Chamber Metal and threw it at the barrier as well. *Boom!* Sure enough, the moment the metal touched the barrier, it reacted and released all its energy once again. It''s just that the barrier had almost nothing left after the last blast, so the explosion it released wasn''t anything dangerous, even if Krune''s group was near it. "So that''s what happened. Because the metal was inside my Spatial Ring before, the barrier took a few moments to notice the metal''s presence. However, now that I threw the metal directly at it, the explosion immediately took place." Lucio then added. "You said that the chamber holding the black water was made with this metal of yours. It seems like the one who made the chamber and the one who made the black water are two different existences. Not only that, but it doesn''t seem they like each other that much." Until now, Krune thought that the chamber was made to protect the black water. However, now he was more inclined to believe that it was made to seal the thing instead. "Anyway, let''s go. The barrier''s energy is too small for its counterattack to pose a threat to us. We can enter it unscathed even if it explodes right on our faces." Lucio and Feifei nodded as they immediately departed for the Core Region of the Soren Ruins. Chapter 766: New Area Heavin''s group didn''t have the same issue as Krune since he didn''t have that metal. Of course, they saw the barrier ahead, but when they checked, nothing happened to them. Since they didn''t understand why it was there, they ignored it for now. They quickly passed through it and appeared inside the Core Region. From that point onward, the environment changed. The buildings were not faint blue in color, but instead took on a deeper tone. Fura looked at that, feeling that the presence of the fused five elements and laws was quite strong within those walls. The same happened for the crystal demon beasts. All the clusters were darker as well, so it was possible to feel a lot more energy inside than those outside. Seeing that, Heavin immediately warned her. ''Try your best to restrain your power. We don''t want to wake these things up.'' Fura and Liriu nodded as the three got closer to each other and moved onward, staying as far as possible from the dark crystals. Every now and then, Heavin''s group would notice some ghosts coming. At least the ghosts seemed to be the same, though. Nevertheless, their group avoided being seen by them. After all, you only needed a single ghost to wake up all of the crystal demon beasts in the surroundings. At first, their journey went well. Unfortunately, that didn''t last for long. *Roar!* Suddenly, they heard the sound of one of the Crystal Demon Beasts from slightly afar. It used Spiritual Energy to spread its call since there was no air to transmit sound. Besides, it was several times faster to reach the other crystal demon beasts that haven''t transformed yet through it. ''What happened? Did any of you wake it up?'' ''No, it wasn''t us.'' They quickly looked in the direction from where the sound came from. Fortunately, they were just in time to see a group of cultivators and demon beasts running in their direction. Sure enough, it was another group that woke up the Crystal Demon Beasts. That group also noticed Heavin''s team in the direction they were heading. Behind them, a massive mob of Crystal Demon Beasts and Ghosts were in pursuit. However, they didn''t have any other choice other than to keep going in that direction. After all, going back was simply suicide. Heavin and the others quickly noticed that the previous roar started a chain reaction that woke up all of the crystal demon beasts around them. Not only that but the nearby ghosts that haven''t noticed their presence previously immediately rushed in the commotion''s direction. "All of you, run!" There was no need to ask twice. Heavin, Liriu, and Fura immediately turned around and flashed away while using their own Spatial Laws to increase their speed. The group that came behind followed right after. Unfortunately, their previous thoughts were right. These darker Crystal Demon Beasts were a lot stronger and faster than those in the Inner Region or further out. The ghosts didn''t look any different in appearance, but it turns out that they were just as fast as the crystal beasts. "Fuck! How the hell did you wake them up?" "Do you think we wanted it? It was an accident. First of all, how would we know that your group was here?" "Look at the mob you gathered. If we get caught, we''re done for." "We need to do something. The further we go, the more crystal demon beasts and ghosts will gather." Liriu then looked at Heavin. "Can you use the same trick as before?" Heavin shook his head. "There''s just too much of them. Once I activate the Runestone, we''ll need to move very slowly. If any of the demon beasts in that mob pass close by us, it will immediately notice our presence. There''s still the possibility that their perceptions are bound to be much higher." The leader of the other fleeing group then said. "Look! There''s one of those enormous buildings ahead. Let''s enter it." "Are you crazy? Those guys will trample on the building in a single wave. If there isn''t an exit on the other side, we''re done for." "Do you have a better idea, then? If you won''t enter, then fine. Our group will go there." The guys and his two companions immediately rushed into one of the ruins. They have been running for even longer than Heavin''s group, so they understood that there would be no end to this thing. "Oh, for fuck''s sake! Let''s go." Fura, Liriu, and Heavin immediately changed their directions to enter the same building as the other group. As soon as they did that, they spread their Mental Energy to find the best route. Obviously, they ended up going in the same direction as their new ''friends.'' *Boom!* A shockwave of Spiritual Energy appeared right behind their group not long after. One or two crystal demon beasts wouldn''t be able to do much to the building entrance. However, when thousands of them tried to enter all at once, there obviously wasn''t enough space for them to use. Because of that, the majority hit the walls on the sides. The building couldn''t hold the pressure and immediately collapsed. With that, more and more ghosts and crystal demon beasts rushed into the building as they decimated all of the obstacles in their way. Fortunately, they still had an advantage. The smaller Crytal Demon Beasts were at least five times the size of a human. With the small corridors and other passages inside, they had to destroy everything to be able to pass through. Seeing that, both groups sighed in relief, and they rushed further inside the building ruins. "What do we do if there isn''t an exit at the end?" "What else? Since those Crystal Demon Beasts can destroy these building ruins with brute force, then so can we. Let''s gather everyone''s power and attack a single point in the walls. I refuse to believe that so many Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts can''t do anything to it." "But that will attract the attention of any other crystal demon beast or ghost on the other side as well." "It''s still better than being trapped here. At the very least, the number of crystal demon beasts and ghosts pursuing us will drop drastically." "Alright, let''s do it as you say." With their Divinity Realm cultivation levels, the two groups only took a minute or so to pass through the entire building. Nevertheless, it still showed how enormous it was. After all, the speed of Divinity Realm cultivators was nothing to scoff at. "Look, an exit!" Everyone''s eyes immediately lit up, and soon, they increased their speed. Even though the Crystal Demon Beasts stayed behind, the same didn''t happen with the ghosts. They could pass through the demon beasts'' bodies, so there weren''t any obstructions for them. Nonetheless, one thing didn''t change. The ghosts couldn''t pass through any of the Soren Ruins'' walls. That being said, the pack behind their group was quite small now. "Liriu, go!" Liriu nodded and immediately transformed back into his Dracophoenix Form. He then turned around and stopped for a moment. As soon as Heavin and the other opened up some distance from him, he went ahead and used his skill. "Dracophoenix Supernova!" *BOOM!* The wall collapsed around him as his body flashed away. The passage they were using wasn''t that big, so Liriu''s attack power was enough to at least block that bit. The other group saw that with their Divine Senses and were shocked. Liriu''s power just now was ridiculously high. Still, Liriu didn''t care about their reactions. "How can these Soren Ruins be so resistant? My supernova couldn''t even do more than just collapse an ordinary corridor." "Doesn''t matter. The point is that you blocked the ghosts from passing through. Once we pass through the exit, those ghosts behind us won''t be able to wake up more Crystal Demon Beasts and call for more ghosts." Everyone nodded, including the newly arrived group. Eventually, they rushed through the exit without even waiting to see what could be on the other side first. However, when they saw what it looked like on the other side, they felt incredibly shocked! "What?! This doesn''t make sense." "Indeed. This place is nothing like the Soren Ruins." "That''s not all. I could tell the length of the building ruins behind us with my Divine Sense. The other side of it definitely didn''t have anything like this." The sun shone amidst the blue sky. A few white clouds could be seen here and there as well. There were mountains, a river, vegetation, animals... Simply put, it was a miraculous sight to behold! "Wait! Where''s the exit?" In an instant, everyone turned around as their expressions turned grim. The gate they just passed through had utterly disappeared. The sounds of the Crystal Demon Beasts destroying the building weren''t there anymore either. It was as if everything that happened until now was nothing more than just a dream. "Have we been teleported to some planet outside the Soren Ruins?" That was everyone''s first thought. After all, everyone knew that the Soren Ruins wasn''t located inside any galaxy. No sun could be found in hundreds of thousands of light-years of distance, let alone a planet. Naturally, they could only think that they were teleported somewhere outside the ruins. "Wait! I can''t spread my Divine Sense." As soon as they heard that, everyone tried to do it. However, it was true. Their Divine Senses couldn''t go anywhere. It wasn''t just a restriction, though. Their Divine Senses couldn''t even leave their bodies to start with. Heavin, Liriu, and Fura then changed to Mental Energy. Fortunately, Mental Energy could still be used. However, it was restricted to a certain level, not being able to spread it for even a hundred meters. They looked at each other in the air, not knowing what to do. However, things weren''t over. Before they could even start talking, their flying capabilities were affected as they slowly descended. When they finally touched the ground, they couldn''t fly anymore. "This... Just what is happening here?" Chapter 767: New Planet They weren''t the only ones in a similar situation. Many cultivators and demon beasts ended up in this area after passing through some of the ruins'' buildings. The doors that sent them here didn''t show it at first. When they looked at the other side of the exits, they could see the same Soren Ruins as always. Only after crossing it did their world change into what they were seeing right now. Here, you couldn''t spread both your Divine Sense or Mental Energy. On top of that, you couldn''t fly either. But above all... "Hey, my cultivation!" As soon as Liriu''s voice resounded, everyone had a foreboding feeling. They immediately checked their own cultivation and noticed that it was being suppressed at high speeds. Divinity Realm, Semi-Divinity, Divine View, Divine Path, Void Breaking, Soul Forging, Divine Soul, and eventually, the Core Formation Realm. Only at the Core Formation Realm did everyone''s cultivation stabilize. Liriu then looked at Heavin. After all, Heavin used a puppet controlled through Spiritual and Mental Energy. In theory, his Phoenix Puppet shouldn''t have been affected that much. Heavin understood what Liriu was thinking, so he confirmed through a Mental Energy Message. ''My puppet wasn''t affected. However, I mainly use Mental Energy to control it. I think I can display a level of power around the Divine Soul Realm late stage. Liriu nodded. That was already much better than him and the others. ''My cultivation is also locked at the Core Formation Realm. If I take my Dracophoenix Body into account, I could probably fight at the Divine Soul Realm or maybe at the early Soul Forging Realm stage.'' One really couldn''t deny the strength of a Dracophoenix. Heavin then looked at Fura and asked. ''You said that your mental energy was fused with your Spiritual Energy. That''s how you can use your cultivation in the next Realm of the Soul Cultivation Technique. If I''m not wrong, you should be able to display quite a strong fighting power, no?'' Fura wasn''t surprised that Heavin noticed that. After all, she knew just how much more experienced with Mental Energy he was. ''Hehe! Indeed. I cannot use my Divinity Realm power, but I can definitely display the strength of a Void Breaking Realm cultivator if I go all out. You do know what that means, right?'' Fura then looked deeply at Heavin and his Spatial Collar. However, Heavin simply shrugged his shoulders as he replied. ''That''s good. We will be safer with you around.'' Fura was taken aback by that. ''No, that means I''m stronger than you, idiot! If I wanted to, I could take my Black Orb back.'' Liriu and Heavin didn''t seem that concerned, though. ''Nope. If we thought you would do such a thing, we wouldn''t have let you come with us, to begin with.'' Heavin then looked in the distance. "Now then, what should we do?" Liriu pondered for a bit before saying. "Let''s try to understand the flow of Spiritual Energy in this place. If we find the origin of energy, we might discover what this place is about." "That''s a good idea." Fura didn''t know what to do. Where the hell did her confidence come from all of a sudden? However, she was considered a friend of the Suffrot Religion''s Holy Seer. That alone spoke a lot of her character. "Hmph! You two are lucky that I know how to repay favors." Heavin and Liriu just smiled but didn''t answer. The other group that came with them looked in their direction after that. Their leader then came forward and introduced himself. "My name is Jio Gi. As much as the situation that brought us together was terrible, we really didn''t do it on purpose. You should have seen that we simply had no other direction to flee once we bumped into you. In any case, I hope we won''t get into a conflict now that we are here." Surprisingly, Heavin and Liriu nodded as if they didn''t mind. "That''s fine." Fine? Aren''t you going to complain? Demand compensation and things like that? First of all, why don''t you look angry at all? In fact, even Fura was puzzled. That was not how cultivators and demon beasts usually acted, especially since they were definitely more powerful than this bunch in this new environment. Considering that their Mental Energy gave them a substantial advantage, it wouldn''t have been strange if Heavin and Liriu killed that group in a fit of rage. "In any case, you guys are on your own. Fura, let''s go." "Eh? Uh... alright..." Liriu and Heavin left straight away, not even bothering to ask anything else from those people. Of course, Fura couldn''t help but ask them with a Mental Energy Message. ''How come you let them go that easily?'' Heavin looked at Fura and replied. ''Because they apologized.'' Fura didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. ''Are you for real? If it was another group with the same advantage in strength that we have, those guys there would probably be dead already.'' Liriu then shrugged his shoulders as he said. ''Yep. That probably would have been the case.'' ''Then, why didn''t you do anything?'' Heavin and Liriu smiled before saying. ''Wisp contamination.'' Seeing Fura''s lost expression, Heavin and Liriu laughed out loud. Krune was just like that. For him, an apology was more than enough to resolve most of these situations. This belief of his ended up contaminating those around him quite badly. Since it was obvious that the previous group didn''t do that on purpose, an apology was more than enough for Heavin and Liriu. First of all, they wouldn''t even start a fight even if they weren''t sorry. In the end, Fura shook her head and decided to ignore it. The other group also looked as Heavin, Liriu, and Fura left in the distance. At first, they thought that they might join forces to explore this place. However, Heavin''s group didn''t seem to be in the mood to do such a thing, so they could only ignore it and go on their own. After that group disappeared, Heavin looked at the skies before opening and flapping his wings. Within seconds, his body detached from the group and flew. "You can fly?" "Of course! I''m a Phoenix Puppet, after all. Usually, I use my Mental and Spiritual Energy to keep myself afloat. However, such a thing is not possible in this place. Naturally, I can only go back to the basics like any other bird. Look around. There are a few birds here and there that can normally fly. If they can do it, then why can''t I?" Hearing that explanation, Liriu also opened his wings and flapped them. Sure enough, it wasn''t long before he began to fly high in the skies as well. "Hey, you two! I don''t have wings, okay? Are you really going to leave me walking down here?" Liriu laughed and immediately came down. He then changed the size of his Dracophoenix Body so that it wouldn''t matter much for him to carry someone else. "Come up!" Fura nodded and immediately jumped on Liriu''s back. After that, he took flight once more and caught up to Heavin in the skies. "Can you fly out of the planet? It would be better if we can at least see what kind of environment there is outside." Heavin and Liriu nodded as they immediately flew even higher. However, the higher they went, the less air there was. If one wanted to fly like a bird, an atmosphere is necessary. Otherwise, flapping their wings would have no use if there wasn''t air under it. Naturally, their ascension became slower and slower. Still, it was just enough to at least see beyond the blue skies. "There is indeed a sun. It''s not an illusion." Liriu nodded. "Yes. However, look around. There are no other stars." Fura agreed with Liriu. "I''m pretty sure that this is a Dimensional Realm separated from the outside." However, Heavin narrowed his eyes after hearing that. "Is this really a dimensional realm?" Liriu and Fura looked at him curiously. "What do you mean?" Heavin then explained. "Although our laws are restricted here because of our cultivation, it doesn''t mean we can''t feel it, right? Pay attention to the Spatial Laws around. Dimensional Realms are usually easy to identify due to the way the Spatial Laws work to keep this dimensional realm whole. However, I can''t feel anything indicating that this place is a Dimensional Realm." Liriu and Fura immediately concentrated, and sure enough, they also couldn''t see any difference from the outside space. "If there are no stars, then we have been teleported really, really far away. Probably outside the Universe." "I don''t think so. The reason we can''t see any other stars might, in fact, be the same reason why we couldn''t see this sun before." Liriu and Fura''s interests were piqued. "How so?" "It means that something is blocking any source of light from going in or out. Or, to be more specific, a certain fused elemental black energy." Immediately, Liriu and Fura recalled the barrier outside the Core Region. That thing was mainly made out of the fused five elements and laws. Because of that, it was impossible to see what was on the other side. If this sun and planet were being surrounded by it, then it made sense that they couldn''t see the light of any other stars. It would also explain why this was not a Dimensional Realm. "Let''s go down. There isn''t enough air for us to detach from the planet''s gravity. Even if we could, making our way to the black energy barrier without being able to use spatial laws would take a ridiculous amount of time." And with that, Heavin''s group once again entered the planet''s atmosphere. Chapter 768: Finding Where to Go In the meantime, Krune''s group was making their way to the center of the Core Region. Just like Heavin''s group, they also found the darker Crystal Demon Beasts and the stronger ghosts. However, it was hard to imagine someone faster when it came to speed when Krune was using his Purple Tribulation Lightning. Let alone when Feifei was there to predict the best route. At first, Krune, Feifei, and Lucio weren''t exactly going to the center. Instead, they would pass quite far from it on their way to meet up with Heavin and the others. That''s because Krune''s connection with Heavin wasn''t pointing in that direction to start with. However, that suddenly changed a while ago. Once Krune told them what happened, everyone had grim expressions. It was no secret that the closer to the center you went, the harder it got, even while passing around it. Krune and the others noticed that the number of Crystal Demon Beasts and Ghost gradually increased as they continued their journey. "So, what should we do now?" "I don''t know. Heavin suddenly teleported from one point to another. I also can''t feel him moving as fast as he was at first. Unless he purposely reduced his traveling speed, his movements are probably being restrained. Of course, he and Liriu might have found something and aren''t leaving because of that." Lucio couldn''t help but warn them. "I''m not saying that we should give up. However, as far as I know, no one has successfully gotten to the very center of the Soren Ruins and came back from there. At some point, everyone gave up on that and only entered the Core Region to search the area close to the border. Not to mention that almost no one did that to start with. Of course, there weren''t any crystal demon beasts in the past either." Krune and Feifei nodded. "Still, we need to go if we want to see what''s happening. What about this? You two hold onto me, and I will use my Purple Tribulation Lightning to move at full speed. Even if the ghosts or crystal demon beasts notice us, they won''t have enough time to react due to the speed difference." Lucio pondered for a bit and nodded in the end. "All those who tried to go to the center and died probably moved slowly. In that case, we might as well try to use speed to our advantage." Feifei agreed with that as well. "I''ll keep calculating the best route while you go. That should help us avoid most of the dead ends while giving us some degree of safety." However, Lucio asked a question in contrast to Feifei''s proposal. "But what if we find out that we have no way to keep going forward? What will you do in that case? Of course, we will try to find other routes. But what if there isn''t any in the first place?" Krune narrowed his eyes as he replied. "In that case, we can only go to the place where Heavin''s connection suddenly teleported away. I can tell more or less where it is, so we can do a blanket search." Lucio and Feifei nodded before Krune used his Tribulation Wings. Lucio and Feifei quickly held on to him after that. Not long after, with a flash of purple light, Krune, Feifei, and Lucio disappeared in the distance. Sure enough, even though the ghosts and crystal demon beasts noticed their presence, they were simply too fast. "How long until we reach the center?" "If we don''t find any impediment, it should take at most three days. I''m moving quite fast, but we can''t open Spatial Gates in this place, which delays us quite a lot." "These Ruins are truly enormous." Meanwhile, on the heaven-like planet, Heavin, Liriu, and Fura were still deciding on where they would go. "Did you feel any difference in Spiritual Energy?" Heavin and Liriu shook their heads. "Not really. However, I was able to see a few other groups in the distance from high in the skies. The changes in the Soren Ruins really attracted a lot of people and beasts." "What about the Black Orb? Were there any changes to it?" "I don''t know. Let me see." Heavin quickly pulled the Black Orb out of his Spatial Ring. However, as soon as he did that, it reacted to the environment. Following that, a stream of information flowed into his mind. "Oh! It''s showing us a path." Fura and Liriu were taken aback. "A path? Where?" Heavin then looked at Fura before saying. "It was probably the place it wanted you to go once it finished modifying your mind. Anyway, let''s go there and see what we can find." Fura and Liriu nodded as they immediately departed. The planet they were on was enormous. Besides, their cultivations were restricted. Although Fura could display a Void Breaking Realm cultivator''s level of power, she couldn''t use Spatial Laws to open Spatial Gates. Not to mention that she couldn''t fly like Heavin and Liriul, so the two of them were still faster than her. That being said, they had to fly for almost two days. On the way, they found even more cultivators and demon beasts. At some point, all of them seemed to be moving in the same direction as them. They even found a few flying demon beasts that bumped into them on the way. Naturally, they were also flying with their wings instead of Spiritual Energy. Some of them offered to join Heavin''s group in the travel, which Heavin decided to accept. The other reason was that they were flying in the same direction as his group as well. When he asked why they were going there, they told him that some information was spreading around. Heavin then pretended that he got here for the same reason and didn''t talk about the Black Orb. As for the risks of being attacked, Fura was here with them. Not to mention that he and Liriu can also fight above the Core Formation Realm thanks to their Mental Energies and Liriu''s Dracophoenix body. Those guys'' cultivations were locked in the Core Formation Realm, so they weren''t afraid at all. Well, everyone was at a loss on what to do on this planet, so no one tried to initiate a fight with the others. The treasures they came after, especially the Peak Divinity Realm ones, were nowhere to be found. What would be the point in putting their lives at risk without benefits? However, it was then that they found a member of the Phoenix Race also trapped in this planet. As soon as that guy saw Liriu, he shrieked! "You! You''re the Dracophoenix!" As mentioned before, Liriu had gone out to meet a few of the Dragon and Phoenix Race members on his own. He told them that he had no intention of using his Dracophoenix Power to put anyone under his control. Obviously, the other two groups still tried to capture him. Unfortunately for them, Liriu was already tons of times stronger than them at that point. Liriu''s Dracophoenix Form was recorded and shown to most Dragons and Phoenix races in all the Universes possible. For this Phoenix to be in a place like this, it obviously was at least at the Divinity Realm. Someone with that kind of cultivation definitely got the information on Liriu. The rest of the groups then looked at that, shocked. "So that is the Dracophoenix everyone was talking about?" "Wait, wasn''t the Dracophoenix a friend of that wisp who returned recently?" "Yes! I do remember to have seen the reports about it from the Universes'' powerhouses." Liriu didn''t seem to care much about it as he laughed. "Oh! You know me? Don''t worry. I made it very clear in my statements that I won''t use my special Dracophoenix ability against Dragons and Phoenixes. Of course, as long as you don''t corner me. In that case, I will do whatever it takes to escape alive." There was only one way to prove his stance, and that was to keep his word. From the moment he came to the Soren Ruins, he also considered the fact that he might be identified. Heavin then looked at the groups following them before saying. "We are not forcing anyone to come with us. If you have a problem with my friend here, you are free to go anywhere you want, especially this Phoenix who had just arrived." Everyone looked at each other. Liriu''s power only worked on Dragons and Phoenixes. However, how many of those were present here at the moment? This Phoenix was the very first one to appear so far. Besides, a Dracophoenix was bound to be stronger... or so the stories say, right? It would give them an extra layer of protection. The Phoenix narrowed his eyes for a second before shaking his head. "Forget it. Your ability can really take control of other Dragons and Phoenixes. Still, it has a limit depending on the other side''s cultivation. Besides, I did see in the reports of the Phoenix Race that you mentioned your unwillingness to take control of anyone. That would be a good opportunity to see it with my own eyes." Liriu smiled. "Suit yourself. By the way, what''s your name?" "Zuran." It was then that someone else asked. "Wait, what about the wisp?" Heavin shrugged his Phoenix Puppet shoulders as he replied. "What about him? He''s not here at the moment, so it''s useless to ask." Fura, who had been listening so far, asked them with a Mental Energy Message. ''So you two had such a background. Even I heard about the Dracophoenix and the wisp that disappeared during the Heavenly Competition.'' Heavin didn''t seem to care. ''Krune is Krune, we are we. At least you now know where the wisp contamination came from. Hahaha!'' Chapter 769: One-Time Event Talking about Krune and his group, they made it further than others into the Soren Ruins'' Core Region''s deep parts. Why? That was mainly because of Krune''s movement speed being far beyond the limits of the Mortal Realm. Any other cultivator or demon beast would have attracted way too many ghosts, making it impossible to continue forward. Not to mention that Feifei''s calculations which helped in selecting the best routes. Well, that''s not considering all the cultivators that had been teleported to the weird planet. After all, they didn''t go there by moving in that direction. Still, it was not as if the ghosts and the crystal demon beasts didn''t notice Krune. The path behind them got more and more lively as the number of ghosts and crystal demon beast noticed their presence. However, it didn''t last forever. All of a sudden, Krune''s group felt like they had passed through some kind of barrier. It was different from the one that almost killed them, though. Perhaps it was best to say that it was a division between fields. Nevertheless, the moment they did that, all the Crystal Demon Beasts and Ghosts who tried to follow Krune''s group stopped right in front of it. It was as if they were afraid of entering that territory. After seeing that, Krune''s movement skill immediately stopped as the Purple Lighting disappeared. "Did you feel it when we entered this zone?" Feifei and Lucio nodded. "We did pass through something, and it''s blocking those ghosts and beasts there." "Is this the place where Heavin is located?" Krune concentrated on their connection but shook his head. "No. Heavin is still quite far." The three of them looked around and only saw the same darker ruins as before. As always, they pulsed with a faint light, so they couldn''t see anything different. "Let''s proceed with caution from now on. If even those ghosts and beasts don''t dare to enter this place, it might be even more dangerous than fighting them." Lucio and Feifei nodded as they began to fly ahead on their own. However, it wasn''t long before their path was blocked. It was not because it was a dead-end, but because something appeared there. It looked like a cultivator, but it was possible to see a ton of dark crystals on its body. They couldn''t tell whether it was alive or not. "Another Crystal Demon Beast?" "No, it''s something different." "All the Crystal Demon Beasts were berserk, but this one isn''t doing anything." Suddenly, the three received a Divine Sense Message. "What relation do you have with Zugen?" Krune''s group was taken aback. It was obviously that guy ahead of them who asked that. Still, they didn''t know what he was talking about. "Zugen? Who is Zugen?" The man snorted after hearing that. "Hehe. Do you think you can hide his Soul Manifestation Energy?" Krune''s group became even more puzzled. "Soul Manifestation Energy? Just what are you talking about?" The man narrowed his eyes. Suddenly, his body flashed like a streak of black light as he attacked Krune. Krune''s group had been on high alert from the very start, so they reacted properly. Krune''s Shields immediately appeared in front of him, blocking the man''s punch. *Boom!* However, a powerful Mental Energy passed through the shield and assaulted Krune, Feifei, and Lucio''s minds. "Argh!" They were shocked by what they just felt. It was Mental Energy! "Hmph! If you didn''t know Zugen, then how do you know how to use Soul Manifestation? You would be dead already if not for your Soul Cultivation level. Not only that, but the two of you can even use it to fuse the five elements. Still, you are way too naive if you think you can do something to me with just this much power." However... *Kabrum!* Purple Tribulation Lightning spread around Krune''s body, completely blocking all of the Mental Energy assault from the man in front of him. One must remember that Heavin had tested his Mental Energy against Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning in the past, but couldn''t do anything against it. Krune''s Purple Lightning also enveloped Feifei and Lucio, helping them resist the man''s attack. Lucio immediately contacted Krune. ''He can also use the Elements Regulation Technique. You better be careful.'' Krune nodded. ''Yes. The black energy in his body is definitely the fused five elements. However, Master, his fused elements seem to be far purer than yours.'' Lucio didn''t try to deny it. He could tell that this man was even better at it than Lani as well. The man didn''t continue his assault, though. "You! This Purple Lightning of yours... I feel like I saw it before. Just who are you?" Krune felt helpless. "We didn''t want to fight to start with. It was you who attacked us out of nowhere. First of all, how come you can use Mental Energy? This was a technique invented by my friend. No, that''s wrong. I''m already in the 5th Stage of the Soul Control Realm. Still, your Mental Energy just now was several times stronger than mine. There should have been no other realms above the Soul Control Realm yet. However, you are obviously above it." The man was as confused as Krune. "Mental Energy? What the hell are you talking about? This techniques'' name is Soul Manifestation. And what the heck is Soul Control? You are obviously in the Consciousness Separation Realm. What the hell did that traitor Zugen teach you? I can''t believe he was shameless enough to even change the names of my Soul Cultivation Technique''s Realms." Feifei took that chance to explain. "Wait, Senior! There is obviously something wrong here. Can you at least hear our side?" The man narrowed his eyes as he looked at Krune''s group. He had to admit that this situation was incredibly weird at the moment. "I''ll give you one chance. Speak!" Lucio and Krune then looked at Feifei so that she could resume everything. In the end, she did just that. She made a full explanation and sent it through Divine Sense Message. The man then checked the explanation. The more he got, the more surprised he was. "Divine Soul gaining sentience? Heavin created the Soul Cultivation Technique? You call it Mental Energy? Also, the fused elements you got were due to a technique your ancestors found in these ruins and not because of the Soul Cultivation Technique?" Krune, Feifei, and Lucio nodded. "We really, really don''t know who Zugen is. This is the very first time we heard this name in our lives." The man narrowed his eyes as he looked at Krune. "I can still feel Zugen''s energy in you, though. The same energy that he used to seal most of my Soul Manifestation... oh right, you call it Mental Energy. Whatever, I''ll call it Mental Energy to make things easier. I can feel the same energy that sealed my Mental Energy Source in the past. Are you going to deny it?" Krune had a puzzled expression as he asked. "Seal your Mental Energy Source?" It was then that Krune remembered something. "Ah!" Immediately, he took out the metal used to seal the Black Water back in the Kalame Sect. "Senior, are you talking about this?" The man''s expression became darker when he saw that. "Heaven Soul Metal, the only thing other than other gods'' powers that could block Mental Energy." Krune then explained how he got those metals. "Kalame Sect? I''ve never heard about it. However, my Mental Energy Source was indeed sealed by it." Krune then pondered for a bit before taking out a small bottle with a little bit of the Black Water. As soon as the man saw that, his eyes shone. "You! Give it to me! It''s my Mental Energy Source!" Krune narrowed his eyes before saying. "This thing was inside the chamber made with this metal. I took some of it with me while the rest was left in the Kalame Sect in the Godly Path Realm. However, can you prove that it was really yours?" The man snorted. "I don''t need to prove it. You just need to look at it. Isn''t the mental energy source inside these fused elements trying to come to me on its own?" Krune, Feifei, and Lucio looked at the bottle, and sure enough, the water was attached to the glass, heading towards the man''s direction. "If I give it back to you, will you at least hear our side? If not, then we will fight with our lives on the line." The man narrowed his eyes. But in the end, Black Energy began to leave his body as he said. "Whether everything you said was true or not, it doesn''t matter. Killing you and getting my Mental Energy Source back is the most foolproof method. As for the rest of my Energy Source''s location, I can later drag it out of your soul." All of a sudden, a powerful wave of mental energy came out of the man''s body. It was several times stronger than when the man attacked the first time. Even Krune''s Purple Tribulation Lightning was having a hard time blocking it. Lucio, Feifei, and Krune immediately assumed a combat stance. Their domain spread out, and they were ready to go all out against this guy. However, it was at this moment that Luvile''s voice came out. "Enough, Soren! They have nothing to do with the guy you''re looking for. Besides, do you think you can win with this borrowed body?" The man was taken aback for a second before looking in Krune''s direction. "I knew I''ve seen your power before. If I''m not wrong, your name is Luvile, right? We met during the time we tried to escape the Four Realms." A manifestation of Purple Lightning then took form in front of Krune. "Indeed. I was also there when we tried to leave the Four Realms. However, we never interacted before that. Good thing you still remember that one-time event." Chapter 770: Sorens Past Soren''s killing intent disappeared as he looked at Luvile''s projection. "Very well, let''s hear what you have to say, then. As for whether I can win or not, you won''t know if you don''t try. You said it yourself. This is just a borrowed body. I don''t care, even if it''s destroyed in the end. Speak, why are you here?" Krune and the others weren''t surprised by that. From the very start, they didn''t feel as if that was a living body. "We came inside because of a companion of ours. He came to investigate this Mental Energy." Luvile then explained the same thing as Feifei did. He also added that Heavin was stuck at the Soul Control Realm and came to see if he could get inspiration to create the next stages. "So the guy really created the Soul Cultivation Technique on his own, huh? If that is true, then that''s really impressive. I was only able to come up with it back in the God Realm." Krune, Feifei, and Lucio felt helpless. When they explained it, that guy didn''t accept it at all. But now that Luvile said that, he took it in so easily... Soren then looked at Luvile before asking something else. "What happened to you in the passage to the outside?" Luvile shrugged his shoulders as he replied. "What else? I ''died,'' just like you. From the looks of it, your fate was pretty much similar to mine and Cynia. Only your soul remained. However, since you''re a god, there are a few things you need to know as well." Luvile then went over the entire situation about the truth behind the exit. Well, he hid a few things that shouldn''t be told. "Four gates, four keys... The gods are trying to leave again. However, they have found two keys so far. You said that you know where the other two keys are located. How do you know that?" Luvile shook his head as he responded. "That''s a secret only I know. You only need to keep in mind that there''s a real chance of escaping the Four Realms without risking its foundations'' destruction." "Now then. I was the only one giving information to you so far. How about you start talking about what this is all about? Who''s Zugen? What does he have to do with your Mental Energy? Also, the fused five elements and laws that you use. Was it you who created the Elements Regulation Technique? I advise you to tell as much as you can. Perhaps this god here can give you a hand." Soren seemed to fall into deep thought before nodding his head. "If I tell you everything, you have to help me take my Soul Mani- Ahem... Mental Energy Source back. In exchange, I''ll help you get your friend back and take him as a disciple. Someone who could come up with a Soul Cultivation Technique on his own is definitely worth of my tutelage." "That will depend on the risks." Soren nodded. "Everything started way before we tried to escape the Four Realms..." It turns out that Zugen was a friend of Soren. However, Zugen wasn''t a god, even though he was close to that. Unfortunately for him, he had a cultivation defect that made it impossible for him to ever reach Soren and Luvile''s level. His only choice was to completely destroy his cultivation and start from the very bottom again. Naturally, someone who had reached such heights couldn''t simply give up on everything. Just how many years would it take for him to cultivate everything again? He did have the experience to make everything much faster, but it would take another lifetime''s worth of time nonetheless. It was then that Soren offered him his Soul Cultivation Technique. Soren was quite a reclused god, rarely ever appearing in the outside world. There were various gods that Luvile didn''t know about, but Soren was still considered a nearly non-existent one. It was to the point he had only seen him during the time they tried to escape the Four Realms. That being said, almost no one knew what kind of power Soren had. There was a rule to become a god, which was to create your own type of laws. Luvile had his Purple Tribulation Lightning, Harold had his Devil Flames, etc... However, Soren was different. He didn''t create a new type of law, but an entirely new type of cultivation system, which was Soul Cultivation. Almost no one knew, but Soren had never reached the God Level through the conventional method. His God Level was achieved with Soul Cultivation instead. It was that Soul Cultivation Technique that he passed to one of his almost non-existent friends, Zugen. That way, Zugen could start cultivating again without losing his actual cultivation. The Elements Regulation Technique was also created by Soren. However, the one Lucio and Krune were using was just a sub-product. The fact was that the fused elements were part of the next realm of the Soul Cultivation Technique. Later on, Soren created a technique where one didn''t need Mental Energy to fuse the five primary elements. That was the technique that the Divine Path Sect''s Ancestor found. Krune, Lucio, and Feifei were surprised to hear that. They finally understood why the Elements Regulation Technique and Mental Energy were related. Krune and Lucio also understood why it was so easy to fuse their Mental Energy with the Fused Elements. It was because they were supposed to work together to start with. Soren even said that you will need to create your own Mental Energy Source for you to enter the next Soul Cultivation Realm. For that, you needed both Mental Energy and the fused elements and laws. That Black Water Krune was curious about was exactly that, a Mental Energy Source. Well... a tiny part of it. Going back to Zugen, the guy cultivated the Soul Cultivation Technique at frightening speeds. He was a quasi-god and had Soren''s experience to help, after all. Soren was also happy that his friend would reach the God Level he always dreamed of. Sure enough, Zugen became a God. And it was just a few years before the so-called escapade happened. "No wonder I don''t know this Zugen guy. His time as a god was too small for me to hear about him." Soren nodded. "Not only that, but I also asked him to not spread the technique. If possible, he shouldn''t use it in front of others as well. After all, I didn''t want others to know about this new cultivation system." Luvile nodded. "I understand now. Heavin also kept this as a secret, knowing how big of a problem it would be if others found about it." Soren agreed with that. At first, everything seemed fine. However, when Soren was invited to try to escape the Four Realms, even Soren couldn''t hold his curiosity. Just what lied beyond the exit of the Four Realms? The God Realm was the highest level in the Four Realms. In Soren''s case, he said that it would be the Soul God Realm. However, Zugen immediately rejected the idea of trying to escape the Four Realms. He had just become a god. He didn''t have the time to enjoy being a god at all. Why should he try such a risky thing? Not only that, he even scolded Soren for trying to do such a thing. After all, his Mental Energy Source might get uncovered. How could Zugen understand Soren? One had just acquired the power of a god, while the other had been one for an eternity. Zugen couldn''t understand the other gods'' feelings of having nothing else to do anymore. To be trapped in that limit of cultivation. Zugen would spend several chaos cycles before he could relate to Soren and to other gods. There were a few gods that knew that Soren was a God. It was one of them that invited him for the expedition. Still, they thought that his abilities were due to the laws he created himself and not a new cultivation system. In the end, Soren and Zugen cut ties, just like that. But who could have thought that Zugen didn''t give up? Since Soren didn''t want to listen, Zugen decided that a Single Soul God was more than enough. That''s where the Heaven Soul Metal came in. Zugen had unlimited time, so he made many things with the help of Mental Energy, which included a type of metal that worked against it. Zugen then prepared a trap for Soren so that he could get rid of him and keep the secret of Mental Energy for himself. Still, Luvile couldn''t help but point out. "Wait! But I saw you outside the Four Realms'' exit." Soren nodded as he said. "Yep. I was there. However, Zugen was there as well." "Ah!" As mentioned before, there were many gods Luvile didn''t know about who participated in that event. Zugen was obviously one of them. "Zugen pretended that he decided to follow us to the outside, so I was glad to have him back. After all, we had been friends for way too long. However, he used the dangers inside the exit to act against me. You do remember when the foundations began to get unstable, and everything went out of control, right?" Luvile nodded. How could he forget about that? It was because they almost destroyed it that everyone perished. "I tried to cover Zugen at that time, going all out to keep ourselves alive. But who could have thought that it was at that moment that he acted? He aimed at my Mental Energy Source when I was most vulnerable and sealed it." Chapter 771: Fine Luvile narrowed his eyes as he asked. "But how did you get here after that?" Soren shrugged his shoulders, responding. "How else? I tried to force my escape. But with the surrounding space-time laws in chaos, I couldn''t aim to a specific point. When I opened a Spatial Gate, I accidentally connected to the Mortal Realm." Zugen immediately tried to catch Soren, so he entered the same Spatial Gate. But as everyone knew, coming down from the God Realm to the Mortal Realm had a high price to be paid. The two of them were assaulted by the Mortal Realms'' laws, which struck both of them together. Be it Soren or Zugen, both of them had it worse. They came down without any preparation, so there was nothing to help with the side effects. In the end, Soren''s body was destroyed while Zugen got his own Mental Energy Source damaged. In the middle of the Mortal Realms'' spatial storm, they almost lost everything, including most of their spatial rings and things like that. Soren simply had no idea where his Mental Energy source had gone to since it was sealed. Zugen wasn''t any better as he fell into the Mortal Realm almost dead as well. Krune finally understood how the chamber ended in the Kalame Sect. It was simply dragged there through the Spatial Storms. Soren also understood that fact. "There is one thing I don''t understand. What are these Ruins about?" Soren nodded. "Zugen didn''t give up on trying to finish the job, so he clutched onto me until the very end. Because of that, both of us fell into this Solar System together. However, my Mental Energy Source was sealed while his Source was badly damaged." "Wait? Solar System? These Ruins are not located inside any galaxy. We can''t see any sun here." Soren shook his head. "There is a sun, but it''s hidden by a barrier of fused elements and mental energy that Zugen created. The Ruins you are seeing are surrounding, or better yet, protecting that solar system. Well, there''s nothing more than a single planet there, but it''s still considered a Solar System." "That doesn''t make sense. How did this sun end here? And these Ruins? The total amount of materials necessary to create all of this is definitely several times above what a single planet can give." Soren shook his head. "Do you remember what I said? We lost ''almost'' everything. But Zugen still had a spatial ring left. That one had nothing else other than his own territory that he always brought with him." Krune''s group was taken aback as they looked at Luvile. Still, Luvile didn''t find it strange. "How long do you think we lived? The God Realm was enormous, and gods were way too influential. Some simply liked to stay hidden, not caring about anything. Others preferred to do big things like building enormous forces. Zugen wasn''t a god, but he was a quasi-god. That level was enough for him to create his own force." "In the God Realm, the level of Spatial Rings are several times higher as well, so it wasn''t anything hard for a god to bring his territory with himself. Well, that rarely happened, though. After all, moving an entire place into the spatial ring required too many preparations. After all, you had to deal with the living beings inside as well." Soren agreed with Luvile. "We were about to try something crazy as escaping the Four Realms. He thought that perhaps we would really end outside even though he didn''t want to. If that really happened, he might not be able to come back anymore, so he brought his territory with him." "Well, you can see what happened. We didn''t go outside, and he used his territory to surround the only sun he had there. I believe it''s not too hard to guess why." Krune and the others nodded. "To protect himself while he recovers." Soren nodded. "That''s basically the gist of it." Feifei then asked. "Then, why are you here? Did you two give up on attacking each other to recover your injures together?" Soren snorted. "Ha! As if! Different than him, I never cared about building my own force. That being said, I didn''t need to move an entire territory with me to start with. Still, that doesn''t matter now. Do you remember what I said? My Mental Energy Source got sealed away while his was severely damaged." Krune immediately understood where he was coming from. "I see... Because it was sealed, it wasn''t attacked by the Mortal Realm Laws when you two came down. In a certain way, you were lucky that Zugen did that since it protected your soul too." Soren was surprised to hear that from Krune. "Smart! Indeed, with just a sliver of my Mental Energy Source left in my soul, it wasn''t targeted. Only my body, which was still a quasi-god''s body, got destroyed in the process." One must remember that Soren was a god through the Soul Cultivation System, not the Spiritual Energy System. "Zugen wasn''t so lucky, so he immediately used his own territory to protect himself and recover. I simply can''t enter that shit at all." "Why didn''t you ask for the help of others? You could have gone out and gathered a force to deal with it." Soren snorted. "Mortal Realm forces? For what? I''m several times stronger than any Peak Divinity Realm cultivator, and I''m completely powerless against his territory''s protection. What could the people and beasts of the Mortal Realm do about it?" He then continued. "Anyway, I''ve been living in these Ruins since then, accumulating energy to slowly recover my own Mental Energy Source. I only took this one body. Since I only had a sliver of my Mental Energy Source left, it would be idiotic to separate it." Lucio then asked. "So, the Elements Regulation Technique that my ancestor found in the past was made by you, right? Why did you leave it in the outer region?" Soren shook his head as he replied. "I didn''t. You were simply lucky. When my spatial rings broke and were lost in the spatial storms, the technique was probably dragged there since it was close to the point where we separated." Feifei also had questions. "What are there Crystal Demon Beasts? They didn''t exist before, right? Also, what about the ghosts?" Soren then explained. "The Crystal Demon Beasts did exist, but they were sealed before. As for the ghosts, they are mostly made of the experts'' souls that lived in Zugen''s territory. Although he didn''t lose his spatial ring with the territory, the Spatial Laws inside were affected. Why do you think everything looks ruined?" Krune nodded. "If coming down to the Mortal Realm is already such a dangerous task for gods, let alone for those below that level. They simply all died." Soren nodded as he said. "Correct. Well, the number of ghosts you are seeing is quite small since the majority died both in body and soul. Anyway, Zugen used his Mental Energy and Fused Elements to transform the rest of the ghosts into scouts that roam around in his ruins." Lucio couldn''t help but ask. "The Crystal Demon Beasts were sealed before? Why?" "Because they use a lot of energy. Ghosts can live on their own with the power of the soul of the deceased expert. Unfortunately, the Crystal Demon Beasts can''t. Well, those crystal demon beasts are nothing more than fused elements in another form. They are controlled by the will left by Zugen in the Ruins." It was then that Soren noticed something. "Oh! He probably unsealed them because of you. I see, I see... So that''s what that explosion I heard earlier was about. It was the barrier protection system..." Krune asked. "Was it because of the Heaven Soul Metal I brought with me?" Soren nodded. "Exactly. Now I understand why a new energy barrier appeared. Zugen knows that I''m close to his Solar System, waiting for a chance to enter and rip him to shreds. These pieces of Heaven Soul Metal you have are connected to his own Mental Energy. Although his Mental Energy Source was severely damaged, it''s still whole. The moment the metal appeared in the Mortal Realm, he probably felt it." "That means that my Mental Energy Source came back to the Mortal Realm as well. This was his way to prevent me from getting my Mental Energy Source back. By the way, I felt the power of the explosion just now. How did you survive that?" Krune''s group felt a chill on their backs when they recalled that event. "Well..." Krune then gave Soren a quick explanation. "Oh! A Destiny Divine Soul Owner. You''re seriously lucky. The combination of your strengths was what saved your lives." Luvile took the chance to ask something else. "How come Soren noticed his Heaven Soul Metal, while you didn''t notice your own Mental Energy Source?" Soren shrugged his shoulders as he said. "Simple. I have way too little of it left to feel a reaction. Don''t forget, although it''s severely damaged, Zugen''s Mental Energy Source is still whole. There''s a big difference there." "Have you never thought of going back to the Higher Realms?" Soren shook his head. "If I knew where my Mental Energy Source was, I would have definitely left a long time ago. However, the only clue I had was Zugen himself. How can I leave? Well, now that you appeared, it seems like I can consider this option." "By the way, did you bring my entire Mental Energy Source with you?" Krune then asked. "Can I finally consider that you''ve given up on attacking us?" Soren then looked at Luvile before saying. "Fine. After I went through my own story and saw Luvile with you, I understood that you are most likely not related to Zugen." Chapter 772: Plans Krune then threw the small bottle with the fused element and Soren''s Mental Energy Source. While doing so, Soren couldn''t help but ask. "Where''s the rest?" "This is all I have. Heavin has most of my share from my time in the Kalame Sect. As for the rest, it''s in the Godly Path Realm." Soren nodded before asking another question. "You said that this Heavin and Liriu came to the Soren Ruins. Where are they right now? I need to stop them before they reach the center." Krune narrowed his eyes as he answered. "Well, that''s a problem. My connection with Heavin says that he was teleported to the very center of the Soren Ruins." "What?! Teleported? He must have found one of those hidden entrances..." Soren then had an incredibly pessimistic thought. "Fuck! We need to go there as soon as possible. Otherwise, Zugen might use my Mental Energy Source to help heal his own injuries instead of slowly doing it with other bodies." Krune''s group was taken aback as they asked. "What do you mean by other bodies?" Without answering their questions, Soren flashed away. Since their question was left unanswered, Krune, Feifei, and Lucio could only follow him. Soren then took the fused elements with his Mental Energy Source out and absorbed them on the way. Simultaneously, he explained to Krune and the others what he meant a while ago. "From what I discovered so far, the only way for him to heal himself is to force other people to generate mental energy sources for him. I wasn''t kidding when I said his own Mental Energy Soul was seriously damaged. He had been doing it all this time." "However, this method is excruciatingly slow. After all, this realm''s limitations make it impossible for you to surpass the 6th realm of the Soul Cultivation Technique. The 6th realm is also the realm where you create your Mental Energy Source for the first time. It''s not wrong to call it the 1st Mental Energy Source Realm if you want to. Think of it as you cracking the shell and finally being born. In other words, you''re a newborn." "In contrast, the Soul God Realm is like a planet-sized dragon. Can you see the difference? Using the Mental Energy Source of a baby to heal a dragon''s Mental Energy Source of that size is like pouring a drop of water in the ocean. Besides, those Mental Energy Sources aren''t his to start with, so he can only use very little of it." "However, my own Mental Energy Source is at the Soul God Level. Although it will take some time, it can definitely heal his wound several times faster. I can''t let that happen." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Can''t we use those entrances to teleport there then?" "Impossible. Zugen knows I''m lurking around. Once my body''s energy gets even a bit close to the entrances, it will scan the targets and only teleport if I''m not there." Feifei then mentioned. "Well, then what about us? Can''t you just tell us where it is, and we''ll use that entrance?" By now, Luvile had already returned to Krune''s Foundation, so he couldn''t be seen anymore. "If I did that, you will fall into a trap. His solar system will seal all of your cultivation. You won''t be able to display more than a Core Formation Realm cultivator''s power. Mental Energy is less restricted, so you might be able to fight at the Divine Soul Level or maybe Soul Forging. Do you really want to go there like that? It would be a terrible idea." Lucio then took the chance to ask. "Does it mean that if we use your method, our cultivation won''t be sealed?" Soren nodded. "That''s because you are close to me. I might have just a sliver of my Soul God Mental Energy Source right now. Still, it''s more than enough to cancel the effects of his territorial restriction." It was then that Krune had an idea. "Wait! Do you know where we can find one of these entrances?" Soren looked at Krune before nodding. "I do. Why?" Not long after, a layer of Tribulation Lightning spread out of his body and covered their entire group. "Simple. I can use Luvile''s power to mask your presence. That way, we can use the teleport formation to head there directly. It should work, no?" Soren narrowed his eyes as he pondered about the issue. "Zugen was also a god, so he should be able to detect your presence even with Luvile''s power. However, that is in a normal situation where he doesn''t have a damaged Mental Energy Source. I was planning to use Luvile''s power to force an opening into his Solar System, but that would take quite some time." Soren finally decided. "Alright. It''s worth a shot. Come with me!" Soren suddenly changed direction and sped up once again. It was then that Krune and the others felt a source of Mental Energy coming from his body. Just now, Soren had become even stronger. "Don''t worry. I just finished absorbing the Mental Energy Source you gave me back. Even if it was just a little bit, that was still a Soul God''s Mental Energy Source." Krune couldn''t tell if he would be able to beat Soren at his current level. Fortunately, it didn''t seem like he wanted to do anything to them at the moment. Meanwhile, deep inside the planet where Heavin''s group is located, an old man opened his eyes as he looked at several black orbs in the distance. Several of them seemed to be brimming with the fused elements of black energy. After that, he shook his head as he thought. "My Heaven Soul Metal has appeared in the Mortal Realm, but I wonder if Soren will notice it. I deployed my Crystal Demon Beasts and even put a protective barrier inside the Core Region to annihilate anyone who might bring it here. Soren is definitely waiting for an opportunity to enter my Solar System, so that''s all I can do to keep him away from his Mental Energy Source. It would be perfect if I could get it instead." However, it was then that he noticed a difference in one of those orbs'' black energy. "This..." He made a grabbing motion with his hand, and it did not take long for that black orb to fly into his grasp. He quickly checked it and his eyes immediately shone! "This is a Soul God-level Mental Energy Source! It must be Soren''s! How is this possible? Did someone really bring it here into the Ruins?" Zugen then spread his Divine Sense out. Unlike others, his own Divine Sense wasn''t blocked by his Solar System. "I have a lot of visitors this time. Well, that''s to be expected. After all, my Crystal Demon Beasts'' release definitely caught the ants of the Mortal Realm''s attention. However, would Soren''s Mental Energy Source be with any of them? Or could it be that Soren has already gotten it back? No, wait. If that was the case, then there shouldn''t be any of it in one of my orbs." Zugen pondered for a bit before deciding. "Let''s first use this source. Although it''s just a little, it''s more than enough to make up for most of the Mental Energy Sources I obtained up to now. It should allow me to recover a bit more." "As for the people and beasts outside, their cultivations are sealed anyway. I could capture them now, but I don''t know if this is a trap from Soren. I better finish absorbing this source first so that I can recover a bit more of my power. Besides, they will move into the trap on their own sooner or later." At the same time, on the planet''s surface, Heavin''s group had snowballed to a considerable size as they went to the same place. Finally, they arrived at what seemed to be another ruin. It had the same structure as the ruins surrounding this Solar System. It''s just that they weren''t floating in the air but were held to the ground by gravity. However, everyone narrowed their eyes as they looked at it. That''s because they knew about the ghosts and crystal demon beasts. If they encountered such things inside with their cultivation sealed, they would be dead for sure. However, Heavin''s group ignored that and moved straight in. "What''s the point in waiting here? We can''t do anything with our cultivations sealed, so let''s move in already." The others could not help but grit their teeth and followed Heavin and company. Whether there were Crystal Demon Beasts and Ghosts or not, they didn''t have any other choice. After all, they were trapped on this planet as long as they couldn''t use their cultivation. They needed to find a way out. However, there was one problem. There were quite a few of them here. "Should we keep together or separate to cover a bigger area?" "I think we should stick close to one another. It will be easier to deal with the dangers." "I disagree. If we really find one of those ghosts or beasts, we will simply die together due to the power difference. If we separate, at least a few of us might have a chance of finding a way out." "Well, that''s considering that there''s a way out in these ruins, to begin with." Liriu looked at Heavin and Fura before saying. "Let''s just go. Whether they wish to follow or not will be their problem." Heavin and Fura agreed with Liriu and quickly followed him. The Phoenix soon noticed their group moving ahead and narrowed its eyes. Still, it decided to stay close to them nevertheless. The groups were quickly divided between those who wanted to move alone or move as a bigger group. And just like that, they all headed deeper into the new ruins. Chapter 773: Ghosts and Crystal Demon Beasts Meanwhile, Krune''s group arrived at one of the hidden entrances, just like the one that teleported Heavin over. "It''s inside this building. If Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning succeeds in hiding my energy, the portal should not be closed when we check it." Krune''s group nodded as they quickly entered the building. Because there weren''t any crystal demon beasts and ghosts around, they were able to make their way in without being disturbed. Eventually, they arrived at what was supposed to be another exit of the building. However... "Hum? It seems like even Luvile''s power wasn''t able to hide your Mental Energy Presence. There is no portal to speak of, just another exit." Soren shook his head in response. "Not exactly. One of you, go out of the Tribulation Layer." Lucio accepted the task and quickly exited. As soon as he did that, some kind of field immediately expanded from that gate outwards. Krune''s group couldn''t tell what it was exactly. In fact, they couldn''t even see it. It''s just that they felt a small ripple in their Mental Energy when that happened. They knew that the area they were in was enveloped by something. Soren could tell what they were thinking and said. "This is the thing that won''t allow me to get close to the gates. You were only able to feel it spreading because you were right beside the gate when it appeared. If we were not inside Luvile''s Tribulation Lightning Layer, you wouldn''t feel anything due to how discrete it is." Still, Krune couldn''t help but ask. "So, Luvile''s Tribulation Lightning Layer is working as intended. However, how come the gate is only showing the outside of the building? I can''t see any spatial entrance at all." "That''s because it was made to be like that. Believe me, it''s right there. We just need to cross it." "Lucio, you go in front so that the gate can think you will enter. We will be following you right behind." Lucio nodded and immediately dashed forward. Krune and the others followed right behind. *Blub...* As soon as Lucio passed through the gate, space rippled as if a stone was thrown into a calm lake. Krune''s group didn''t waste time and passed right through it as well. The moment they did it, the world around them blurred as Spatial Laws acted on their body. To prevent the gate from having problems, Krune deactivated his Tribulation Layer as well. After all, Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning could eat laws. Now that they were already in the Spatial Gate, it would be meaningless to close it again. Just a second later, the world around them returned to normal as they could see the new region they arrived in. It was the same as Heavin, a paradisiacal planet with life everywhere. However, they quickly noticed their cultivations being suppressed at high speeds. "Our cultivations!" However... "Hmph!" Soren''s Mental Energy spread around and immediately canceled whatever was suppressing the cultivation of Krune''s group. Krune and the others felt their cultivations increasing again until they stopped in the Divinity Realm once more. "With me here, I want to see how you will stop us." Krune''s group was delighted to hear that. "Great! However, where should we go now?" Soren then pointed in a particular direction before saying. "This way. I''ve been to Zugen''s territory before, so I know very well where to find him." Sure enough, Krune''s group began to move in the ruins'' direction that Heavin and Liriu had entered before. Well, Krune could still feel Heavin''s presence, so they would have gone there even if Soren didn''t say anything. Also, Krune didn''t know if their presence had been noticed already, so he used the Purple Tribulation Layer to hide their presence once more. However... "Argh!" Krune and the others looked at Soren, shocked. Out of nowhere, Soren screamed out in pain. "Senior Soren! What happened?!" Soren immediately sat down and concentrated. Seeing that he couldn''t talk at the moment, Krune''s group stayed there with him. Soren then opened his eyes again a few minutes later. "Zugen has just absorbed part of my Mental Energy Source." "What?! Does it mean he took Heavin and Liriu?" Soren shook his head in response. "No. The amount Zugen took away was even smaller than the amount you gave me. From what you said, Heavin has a lot more of my Mental Energy Source than you had, so it doesn''t make sense that Zugen took away just this bit." Obviously, that was the small amount that Heavin used in the Black Orb. Of course, Krune''s group had no idea about it. "Let''s increase our speed. If Zugen takes the rest, I''ll receive huge damage while his condition will improve to the point where we will be helpless against him." Krune, Feifei, and Lucio nodded as they sped away with Soren. Back at the ruins, Heavin and the other cultivators proceeded with caution. So far, they didn''t find any of the crystal demon beasts, let alone ghosts. However, they didn''t find anything else either. It was more like they had entered a labyrinth. Liriu tried to open a way forward with brute strength, but it turned out that these ruins were even more resistant than those outside. If he decided to spend time doing it, he would be able to break through the walls. However, it would use a lot of time and energy. That being said, everyone preferred to follow the paths available. While they were trying to find more clues, Zugen finally finished absorbing the sliver of Mental Energy Source from Soren. "Indeed. A source from a Soul God is just too good. However, where can I find the rest? Or better yet, is there more available, to begin with?" Zugen then spread his Divine Sense, which quickly enveloped the entire planet. He then found the various groups that had entered his maze. "Oh, the ants are here already. That''s good, then. Perhaps it was one of them that got the Mental Energy Source from Soren." Sure enough, Zugen was unable to find Krune''s group since they were enveloped by the Purple Tribulation Lightning. Zugen then got up as he looked in Heavin and the other groups'' direction. "Still, was this a trap that Soren made for me? I refuse to believe I was lucky enough for his Mental Energy Source to simply appear here. If I really go out to capture these ants, will I fall for his trap?" Zugen knew that Soren was stronger than him since he was the one to create the Soul Cultivation Technique. Because of that, he was afraid that Soren had developed another method to get rid of him. One couldn''t blame Zugen for being cautious since his archenemy had been lurking around for so long. He pondered for a bit and finally decided. His Divine Sense then expanded beyond the closed Solar System, connecting him with all the nearby crystal demon beasts and Ghosts. Not long after, these creatures rushed into the locations of the hidden Spatial Gates. One by one, they entered the gates before appearing on his planet. Zugen didn''t hold back and used a lot more energy to directly connect the Spatial Gates inside the ruins. However, both ghosts and crystal demon beasts were affected by this in terms of their combat power. That''s why you couldn''t find any of them on Zugen''s planet. It was completely sealed so that only Zugen can move without restraint. First of all, the crystal demon beasts and ghosts were not his to start with. They were made with the souls of the deceased lives of his territory in the past. They still followed his orders, but each one of them was a completely different being. Nonetheless, both ghosts and crystal demon beasts had their abnormous advantages. The crystal demon beasts'' bodies still gave them enough power to fight at the Divine Soul Realm level. The ghosts were even better since they were beings made with Mental Energy. As shown by Heavin, Liriu, and Fura, Mental Energy can display a lot more strength in this place than normal cultivation. As soon as Zugen finished transferring them, he passed a new order. "Beat them all to the point where they can''t retaliate anymore. However, don''t kill anyone. I have a few questions to ask." Sure enough, he was still hoping to find Soren''s Mental Energy even though he thought the chances were meager. *Roar!* Both ghosts and crystal demon beasts began to spread around the ruins. As a ruin situated on this planet only, it was obviously much smaller than the ruins outside. That being said, it would be much faster to cover more areas. Not long after, the first group of crystal demon beasts and ghosts found a group of cultivators. Immediately, the faces of the group paled since their cultivation was still sealed at the Core Formation Realm. "Run!" They turned around and dashed away. However, they soon noticed something strange. "Wait! They aren''t as fast as before." If the ghosts and demon beasts were still at the Divinity Realm level, they should have been killed almost instantly. "Who cares! They''re still faster than us, and their numbers are much higher. There''s no doubt they are above the Core Formation Realm level of strength. We can''t fight back. Just focus on running." Unfortunately... *Roar!* Another group of ghosts and crystal demon beasts appeared in front of that group. The cultivators could only curse out loud as they unleashed their best techniques. They had to force their way through, or they would definitely die here. Of course, they weren''t the only ones trapped between those beings... Chapter 774: Different League "Dracophoenix Breath!" "Mental Piercing!" "Phoenix Dive!" "Time Converge!" "Limitless Wave..." *Boom, boom, boom, boom...* Heavin''s group, as well as the other cultivators and demon beasts who followed them, were in the middle of a battle against the crystal demon beasts and ghosts. Even though the others weren''t as strong as Heavin''s group because of their lack of Mental Energy, they still had the advantage in numbers, so they were able to provide support as well. Of course, the strongest one was Fura, who could display a power equivalent to the Void Breaking Realm. She alone was dealing with almost half of the enemies. The others couldn''t help but feel alarmed at her strength. After all, if they really found a treasure or something like that, would they be able to compete against her with their cultivation sealed in the Divinity Realm? However, they quickly abandoned those thoughts. What they wanted to do at the moment was to find an exit since their lives were more important. That being said, Fura''s strength was more than welcome. "The crystal demon beasts and ghosts are a lot weaker than those outside." "That''s because they''re probably being affected by the same thing as us." "Still, their strength is higher than others with their cultivation sealed at the Core Formation Realm." "There is nothing we can do about it. The three of us are already taking care of more than half of the enemies. They can only rely on themselves." Zuran, who was also fighting, then shouted. "This won''t do. Let''s charge forward before the numbers become too big for us to deal with alone. Some will probably die on the way, but it''s still better than all dying in the same place." All the cultivators and demon beasts noticed that it was really the case, so they agreed, including Heavin''s group. Fura then took the front and used a powerful skill to open a passage in the middle of the enemies'' ranks. At the same time, Heavin, Liriu, and the others released their own skills to detach from the battle before following the path opened by Fura. One thing that didn''t change after their cultivations were suppressed was their total amount of energy available. They might only be able to use power at the Core Formation Realm, but that also allowed their energy to be near unlimited. After all, using all the energy available for a Divinity Realm cultivator with Core Formation Realm-level attacks is like using a drop of water from an entire ocean. Meanwhile, Zugen watched as the cultivators fought against his crystal demon beasts and ghosts. When he saw Heavin, Liriu, and Fura''s power, he immediately noticed their Mental Energies. However, it only made him warier. After all, no one other than him and Soren should be able to use Mental Energy. The people he captured with his Black Orbs should be able to use Mental Energy as well. However, they have all been brought back to the planet, where they were sucked dry. He could accept that maybe one of them escaped, but not three. Let alone three who were obviously friends. He was also sure that Soren would never pass his Soul Cultivation Technique forward unless extremely necessary. ''Chances are that Soren gave these guys his Soul Cultivation Technique. The best thing to do is to stay far away from those three for now. However, they are obviously too strong for the crystal demon beasts and ghosts to do anything. Should I wait for them to exhaust their energies first? However, such a thing will take forever due to their true foundation energy pool.'' Zugen narrowed his eyes as he looked at Heavin. ''That puppet''s Soul Cultivation is quite low, but his proficiency is terrifying. He can definitely fight someone a Soul Realm above himself, probably even two. He''s far better than me when I was at his level. This puppet is definitely a genius. However, who''s controlling it? Could it be Soren himself? That''s the most plausible explanation.'' Zugen continued to ponder before finally deciding. "Come." All of a sudden, three figures came out from the shadows and kneeled in front of Zugen. If one looked at them, they were very similar to the body that Soren was using. There were a few dark crystals on their bodies while there seemed to be no life in their eyes. "Head there and capture those three." The three figures then disappeared without saying a single word. Still, Zugen didn''t care. Those were cultivators that had been captured by his Black Orbs in the past, just like Fura. The difference was that they were fully converted and brought back to the planet. Zugen had done this kind of thing many, many times. He always absorbed their Mental Source, which led to their deaths soon after. However, he also kept some of the strong ones for his own use. Although it made him feel like it was a waste to not absorb such strong users, he knew that they might have some use in the future. Sure enough, the time to use them was finally here. ''Just in case, I will go there as well and observe from far away. If it turns out that they aren''t that big of a risk, I might try to capture them. That sliver of Mental Energy from Soren also helped me recover a little bit. I should be able to escape if something really happens.'' Zugen''s body flickered as he disappeared from the room. Meanwhile, Krune''s group had finally arrived in front of the ruins that Heavin''s group entered earlier. "So far, so good. It doesn''t seem like Zugen noticed our presence after we entered his Solar System." Soren nodded. "It was thanks to Luvile''s God Power and Zugen''s Damaged Mental Energy Source. Still, we don''t know what might happen, so let''s increase our speed." "No problem. I can tell Heavin''s direction through our connection, so it will be easier to find him. However, I can feel that his speed increased a lot a moment ago. It seems like he''s fleeing from something." Feifei, Lucio, and Soren narrowed their eyes. "There''s no point speculating. Let''s go!" With Luvile''s Tribulation Lightning Layer around them, their group immediately rushed inside the ruins. Heavin''s group charged forward for quite some time. Eventually, they left most of the crystal demon beasts and ghosts behind during that escape. In the end, a few cultivators and demon beasts truly died in the chaos, but there was nothing they could do about it. Fura then looked at Heavin before whispering to him. "We might as well separate from these people. Their speed is holding us down." Heavin shook his head as he replied. "We could have charged out earlier if we didn''t wait for them. However, it was also thanks to them that the battle out of the enemies'' encirclement went this smoothly. We better stay together. Besides, I''m not the type to simply leave others behind because they''re weaker. If this was some kind of competition, then sure. But that isn''t the case here. Of course, as I''ve always said, you really don''t need to feel in debt to Liriu and me. If you think you should leave, by all means, go ahead." "Hmph! Are you looking down on me? I might not care about those guys, but I won''t go back on my word with you two. Since you saved me before, I will definitely stick together until I pay this debt." Heavin smiled but didn''t complain. Obviously, it would be much better if Fura stuck with them. After some time, they stopped somewhere else where no crystal demon beasts and ghosts could be seen. Zuran and the others then gathered with Heavin''s group. "What should we do now? It''s just a matter of time before those things find us again." "What else can we do? We have only two choices. One, we go back and try to leave the ruins. Of course, there''s no guarantee that the enemy won''t follow us outside. The second is to keep looking for clues in this place like a Teleport Formation, for example." "Don''t you think it''s too weird? The ruins were empty from the start. Although the ruins are worn out, there wasn''t any sign that a battle had happened for a long, long time. It feels like they only appeared after we entered the ruins as well." The guy who talked was a cultivator called Gon Buo. Heavin and the others narrowed their eyes. In fact, some of them had noticed that as well, but they just didn''t want to bring it out. "Anyway, we need to decide right now. Are we going deeper, or are we going back?" Yet, just as they were about to decide, Heavin and Fura noticed some newcomers inside their Mental Energy Scan. "We have company!" Immediately, everyone was on their guard, waiting for the crystal demon beasts and ghosts to come. However, what came out of the shadows was neither of them. Instead, it was three dark humanoid figures with a few dark crystals on their bodies. Heavin, Liriu, and Fura were taken aback when they saw those guys. That''s because they could feel energy similar to what Fura released before they rescued her. "Careful. There''s a high chance they can also use Mental Energy ." "We know." One of the cultivators at the front felt the danger of those newcomers. So he decided to probe them by using a long-ranged attack. "Light Piercer!" A ray of light came from his hand, aiming straight at the enemy''s head. However, the target suddenly disappeared. *Boom!* Before anyone could notice anything, the head of the cultivator who attacked was destroyed instead. Sure enough, these guys were in a completely different league. Chapter 775: Heavins Improvement "Not good! Assume formation!" With their cultivation locked at the Core Formation Realm, they knew that their individual strength wasn''t anything impressive. Because of that, they had long since decided to use a combat formation to increase their power against strong enemies. Of course, the two other beings didn''t wait for them to react as they struck straight away. *Bang, bang!* However, Fura blocked one of them while Heavin and Liriu attacked the second one. Fura was still taken aback as she lost in strength. As for Heavin and Liriu, the two were sent flying instantly. The only good thing was that both Heavin''s Phoenix Puppet and Liriu''s Dracophoenix Body had strong defense. Otherwise, they would have been seriously injured just now. "Strong! Zuran, we won''t be able to give you support with that one." Heavin quickly came back and used his Mental Energy to assault the guy''s soul. Liriu didn''t waste time and charged forward in his Dracophoenix Form as well. "Mental Chaos!" "Dracophoenix Charge!" Mental Energy converged before aiming at the guy''s head. At the same time, Liriu used his body once more to physically attack the enemy. However, Heavin''s Mental Energy encountered a powerful Mental Energy Barrier. At the same time, that guy punched out against Liriu''s attack. *Boom!* This time, Liriu didn''t hold back, so both he and the guy separated due to the shockwave. Also, Heavin''s Mental Energy might have been blocked, but it wasn''t totally useless. It had some effect. However, the enemy suddenly screamed as a powerful Mental Energy assault came from him as well. Heavin and Liriu''s mind immediately understood that his Soul Cultivation Realm was much higher, so they protected their souls as well as they could. *Bang, bang!* *Argh!* Liriu grunted in pain. Heavin, on the other hand, was able to block it successfully. That was to be expected since Heavin always had the most powerful Mental Energy among all their friends. Following that, he covered Liriu with his own Mental Energy, helping him fend off the enemy''s Mental Energy attack. "I''ll give support against the Mental Energy. You focus on Spiritual Energy and physical attacks!" "Alright!" Liriu quickly recovered as he charged forward once more. "Dracophoenix Supernova!" At the same time, Heavin''s wings began to shine purple as Tribulation Lightning ran through it. One must remember that Heavin''s puppet could already store Purple Tribulation Lightning in the past before Krune left. Let alone now that his puppet was at a much higher level. He made sure to get a lot of it before Krune and Feifei went out of Dalin. "Tribulation Lightning Movement!" The restrictions of this planet had little use against Heavin to start with since he was a puppet. With Purple Tribulation Lightning, it was even more useless. The enemy also used his own skill. Several black fireballs appeared around him, making it look a lot like Iem''s Devil Sun attack. However, they were black because of the Fused Elements instead. *Boom!* Liriu and the enemy''s attack hit each other. However, Liriu was obviously at a disadvantage this time, so he was sent flying back once more until his body hit the ruins'' walls. Nonetheless, that was the chance Heavin needed. His Phoenix Beak was still made with that God-Level Material from back then, so it was much stronger than any weapon in the Mortal Realm. Heavin also used his own Mental Energy at it as he flashed in the enemy''s direction. At the moment, Heavin was as fast as an Early Divine Path Realm cultivator or demon beast. That made him even faster than Fura. The enemy quickly turned around and used a part of his body with the dark crystals to defend. *Bang!* Unfortunately for the enemy, Heavin''s fused mental and physical attack passed right through his defense and hit his body. The enemy was then sent flying back, just like Liriu. It was now possible to see a big hole on the left of his chest. That showed how superior God-Level material was for the attack. After all, he was the first one to really damage one of the enemies. "Still, what tyrannical defense. He has both the mental and physical abilities of ghosts and crystal demon beasts." Liriu quickly arrived by his side before saying. "Nevertheless, it is working. It doesn''t seem like these guys have intelligence. They looked even more like a puppet than you do." Heavin nodded as they charged forward once more. Meanwhile, Fura was having a heated battle against her own opponent. "Divine Tide!" Water Element and Laws gathered around Fura. They turned black due to the fusion with the other four elements as she attacked the enemy. Mental Energy also spread forward, fusing with her assault. The enemy wasn''t any slower and used a Lightning-type attack. Just like Fura, it also used fused elements and Mental Energy together. *Zap! Shuwa!* Mental Energy and Fused Elements hit each other, creating a wave of destruction around them. Sadly, Fura didn''t get the upper hand. Both of their attacks were evenly matched. It was then that Fura''s Divine Tide attack made a sudden turn, going behind the enemy and hitting its back. Surprisingly, it worked as the enemy''s body was knocked down. ''Indeed, they have no intelligence. Any other cultivator or demon beast would have counter-attacked or dodged that. But this guy didn''t even see it coming.'' Heavin, Liriu, and Fura''s battle was still going relatively well, but the same couldn''t be said for the rest. Even with the combat formation, their enemy was just several times stronger. All they could do was hold its attacks back. Besides, the enemy kept assaulting their minds with Mental Energy, which made them grunt in pain every time. Their souls simply wouldn''t last long like that. While all of that happened, Zugen observed it from far away through his Divine Sense. ''Sure enough, they are definitely related to Soren. That Puppet''s Soul Manifestation Energy is especially refined. Even though those three bodies have a higher realm in Soul Cultivation, he can still deal with it. However, it won''t be that easy.'' *Roar!* Suddenly, Heavin''s group and the others heard a Spiritual Wave Sound that they didn''t want to hear at all. The ghost and crystal demon beasts finally caught up to them and were approaching at high speeds. "Fuck! There''s no choice. We need to retreat again." "How? These guys are much stronger and undoubtedly several times faster than us. If we turn our backs to them, we will surely be slaughtered." "If we stay, we will die regardless. We might as well spread in several directions and count on our luck!" Heavin narrowed his eyes as he looked at the incoming mob. "That won''t work." He quickly scanned his surroundings as he looked at the passages. He soon found the smallest one and made his decision. "Everyone! Retreat that way! Liriu, hold this guy for a second. I''ll go all out." Liriu knew what Heavin was going to do and nodded. "Alright!" Liriu once more charged against the enemy with his Dracophoenix Body. After Heavin''s successful attack, the enemy''s power dropped considerably. Still, it seemed to be a lot warier of Heavin, which made it difficult to land another attack like the one that injured it. As soon as Heavin arrived in front of the enemy, he opened his Dracophoenix Mouth. "Tribulation Dragon Breath!" Liriu connected to his Tribulation Fire Source and used one of the Dragon Race''s signature attacks. The enemy didn''t just stay there either. It charged against Liriu as it also used its own strongest attack. However, it still kept Heavin''s presence in its Mental Energy Perception out of fear. It didn''t want to be taken by surprise anymore. It might not be very intelligent, but it still feared death. Nonetheless, it didn''t matter anymore. Heavin''s Phoenix Puppet flashed in the enemy''s direction with his Purple Tribulation Lightning Movement once again. The guy, who was facing Liriu''s Dragon Breath, immediately gave up the exchange and retreated... or so it tried. Heavin''s Mental Energy spread like tides. The world around him changed as the Mental Energy took on a murky composition, enveloping everyone close. The enemy was obviously caught by it. "Mental World Domain!" Zugen, who was calmly watching from a distance, suddenly had a change of expression. "What?! Impossible!" As Zugen refused to believe what he was seeing, Heavin''s Mental World Domain took effect against the enemy. Immediately, the Mental Energy inside the enemy went into chaos. That black figure couldn''t control its own Mental Energy at all, which immediately decreased its combat power even further. A Mental Energy Domain was created to deal with Mental Energy. Heavin never thought he would need to use it so soon since only his friends were supposed to know about it. Still, he predicted that the Soul Cultivation Technique wouldn''t be hidden forever, so he came up with his own Domain-type. If others wanted to counter-attack his Mental Energy Domain, they would have to use a Mental Energy Domain of their own. It was extremely effective against other Mental Energy users. Of course, that wasn''t the only thing it was good at. As mentioned in the past, Mental Energy was a different type of Energy where Spiritual Energy had a hard time defending against. Naturally, it also affected the Spiritual Energy Flow of one''s body. Heavin''s enemy didn''t have a chance to protect himself before Heavin''s Puppet arrived once again. "Mental Phoenix Pierce!" This time, Heavin hit the black guy''s head. It broke through the paltry amount of defense the enemy could muster like a hot knife through butter. Its head was then hit by both Heavin''s Mental Energy and God-Level Beak straight on. As one could imagine, it didn''t last even a fraction of a second before Heavin''s attack passed right through it. Chapter 776: I Dont Regret Zugen looked at that with his own Divine Sense and Mental Energy, murmuring in the process. "A Soul Manifestation Domain. He''s still two entire realms below me compared to when I first succeeded in spreading one. Just who is the guy controlling that puppet? No, I need to get him. If I force him to enter the next realm to generate a Mental Energy Domain, it will be a lot more beneficial to my recovery when I absorb it." Of course, the fact that everyone else had their powers restricted made Heavin look a lot stronger than he really was. After all, he was still at the Soul Control Realm. The reason he could put up a fight against Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts was his Phoenix Puppet, which also had its powers restricted but not as much as the others. With both of them free, Liriu and Heavin immediately pounced at the second black figure attacking the Core Formation Realm cultivators and demon beasts. Although a few of them died in the process, their joint combat formation was still able to hold long enough. However, their group didn''t have the time to deal with the other two black figures since the crystal demon beasts and ghosts were right above them. "Retreat! Liriu, Fura, and I will hold the attacks of the two back while you guys run away. Don''t break your formation!" Zuran and the others didn''t even need to think twice before following Heavin''s orders. Fura was weaker in terms of Mental Energy. However, she wasn''t a mindless body, so she could contend against it by using her intelligence instead. However, just as they were about to break free from the crystal demon beasts and ghosts, a much stronger enemy appeared in front of them. "I''m sorry, but I need your Mental Energy Source." Obviously, Zugen used that chance to appear. Although he wasn''t sure if this was a trap prepared by Soren or not, he simply couldn''t hold himself back after seeing Heavin''s Mental Energy Domain. Zugen''s Mental Energy spread out, which immediately locked Heavin and the others in place. Zugen was the master of this place, so he obviously didn''t have a problem with restriction. It''s just that he was far from his peak due to his injury on his Mental Energy Source. Everyone''s bodies immediately got locked in place. At the same time, Zugen paid close attention to Heavin, Liriu, and Fura, ready for any possible change. Heavin and the others were frightened by Zugen. They could tell that they were simply not a match to the man with their cultivations sealed. Even Heavin, with his Dracophoenix Body, couldn''t get rid of that. At the same time Zugen locked everyone down, the crystal demon beasts and ghosts stopped in their tracks. The two remaining human-like figures similar to Soren''s body also didn''t attack anymore. Heavin and the others couldn''t help but ask after seeing all of that. "Who are you?" Zugen narrowed his eyes. "You don''t know?" Seeing the lost expression on those three Mental Energy users, Zugen began to wonder whether they were really related to Soren or not. Of course, he also thought that they could be only pretending. "Whatever. I only need to extract your souls, and I will eventually find out." Zugen made a grabbing motion with his hands. As soon as that happened, everyone felt like their souls were being ripped apart. The first ones to succumb were the cultivators and demon beasts without any Soul Cultivation. Only those with strong souls, like Zuran, were still able to hold. Heavin, Liriu, and Fura were obviously having it easier. However, the pulling force continued to gradually increase. Just as the guys with strong souls were about to have their souls dragged out, Liriu and Heavin spread their own Mental Energy, trying to protect them. Zugen began to relax a little. Even after things reached this point, none of them had tried anything. Besides, the first souls he extracted before didn''t contain any information on Soren whatsoever. "Hehe! Do you really have the time to protect others?" Zugen increased his power on Heavin, Liriu, and Fura''s souls, making it even harder to resist. Heavin and Liriu were having it even harder since they decided to protect the rest. Heavin tried to use his Mental Energy Domain to affect Zugen''s Mental Energy control. Unfortunately, Zugen''s own domain was completely suppressing his own. Well, Heavin''s group was special for Zugen. Different from the others, he was only doing that to break them down. After that, he would take control of Heavin''s Soul and wait for him to enter the next realm in soul cultivation. It didn''t take long for Heavin and the others to reach their limits. However, just as they were about to have their own souls pulled out or pass out due to the pain, a voice appeared beside Zugen''s ear. "So we finally meet again." Zugen felt a chill on his back when he heard that. In less than an instant, he forgot about Heavin and everyone else as he retreated as fast as possible. Unfortunately, the ruins'' walls on his side suddenly exploded as another human figure with dark crystals all over his body came out. Naturally, that was Soren! "Energy is composed of Laws. Laws are composed of Energy. Laws and Energy are the manifestations of the Soul. Come forth, Soul Manifestation Energy Spear!" A black spear made with Fused Elements and Mental Energy appeared in Soren''s hands as he attacked with his strongest skill right from the start. "Soul Spear Annihilation!" Zugen didn''t have time to dodge, so his Mental Energy immediately created a barrier between him and Soren. At the same time, he also called his own Soul Weapon. "Energy is composed of Laws. Laws are composed of Energy. Laws and Energy are the manifestations of the Soul. Come forth, Soul Manifestation Energy Sword!" Unfortunately, his Soul Manifestation Energy Sword didn''t even have enough time to finish materializing before Soren''s Spear broke through his barrier and pierced through his body! *Boom!* A burst of Mental Energy spread out as half of Zugen''s body was immediately obliterated. However, at Zugen''s cultivation and soul level, that wasn''t enough to kill him. His body was sent flying. Soon after, he used that chance to turn around to escape. ''How did that happen? I covered the entire planet with my Mental Energy and Divine Sense when I came out of my chamber. Soren was simply nowhere to be found. How did he appear on my side all of a sudden?'' Soren saw Zugen trying to escape before snorting. "Can you really escape?" Suddenly, several Myriad Lightning Shields with Purple Tribulation Lightning running through them appeared ahead of him. Right behind, a Rainbow-Colored Wisp came out as well. "Tribulation Shields Slaughtering Formation, Third Form, Cage!" Zugen was shocked by that. However, his Soul was much stronger than anyone other than Soren. That being said, he immediately gave up his body and fled with his Soul alone. His speed then increased several times, which he used to force his way out before Krune could close the Cage. However, Krune''s Shields suddenly moved in a strange pattern, making it impossible for him to pass through the gaps. It was as if Krune knew what direction he exactly wanted to take. Sure enough, Feifei was there as well, divining the directions that Zugen could possibly take to escape. However, the Soul Form of Zugen was still way too swift. In the end, it still found a gap that Feifei took too long to predict and tried to escape through there. "Master!" "I''m here." It was at this moment that another human figure appeared in front of Zugen''s Soul. He held a sword in his hands as it slashed down with Black Energy. Obviously, that was Lucio''s own attack while using the Fused Elements and Mental Energy. Without any other choice, Zugen could only retreat, or his Soul would be cut in half. That would mean certain death for sure. *Clang!* Finally, Krune''s 102 Myriad Lightning Shields completely closed, creating a cage of Purple Tribulation Lightning for Zugen. However, Zugen wasn''t the only one there. It was then that Zugen looked behind and saw Soren''s figure standing in front of him. "We haven''t talked for so long. Why are you leaving so soon? Let''s have some fun, shall we? For example, how about I absorb your Mental Energy Source to make up for a little of my own that you sealed away?" Zugen didn''t even care. His Mental Energy gathered into a single point as he charged into Krune''s Myriad Lightning Shields. He wouldn''t be idiotic enough to stay there with Soren. However... *Bang, Bzzzz!* Zugen''s Mental Energy attack was immediately repelled back. "Impossible! How come there''s another god here?!" Sure enough, he immediately understood that the Tribulation Lightning Power was not simple. It definitely had the power of created laws, just like the gods of the God Realm. Soren laughed before saying. "Hahaha! You did your best to keep me out. There was even an extra barrier preventing anyone from reaching the place I was staying. Still, I don''t know if it was destiny or not, but I ended up meeting these guys out there. Believe it or not, one of them had a god''s Soul inside his foundation. Did you think that such a thing could ever happen after you betrayed me and we fell into the Mortal Realm?" Zugen then looked at Soren. His planet''s territory had no use on him since he was also a Soul God. Obviously, he was using his power to prevent others from suffering the effects of his restrictions. "Hehe! I only have one thing to tell you. I don''t regret what I did." Chapter 777: Did You Forget? Soren looked at Zugen''s Soul. "Even after all this time, you still think like that." Zugen didn''t care. "The Soul Cultivation Technique is marvelous. With that, we could rule the God Realm. As long as we become gods with both systems of cultivation, our power would surpass any other god. However, you just had to think about leaving the Four Realms. That was ridiculous! What''s so impressive about the outside? We already have an unlimited lifespan. If you go outside, you might be nothing more than ants there." Soren shook his head as he replied. "There was a time where I was also satisfied with my accomplishments. But in the end, I have lived way longer than you have. The same could be said for the other gods, so that''s why we tried to leave. You said it yourself. We might have been nothing more than ants outside. That''s what we exactly wanted, to be honest¡ªthe thrill of being at the bottom¡ªthe emotion of fighting our way to the top. To feel alive again." Luvile heard the conversation outside and couldn''t help but sigh. Soren exactly hit the mark. Their life had been just too... dull. Only a god could contend against a god. But none of the gods wanted to fight others just because they could. After all, killing another god was just too hard. You would probably need to group a few gods together to pull that off. Still, what would be the point in ganging up against another god? Also, doing that for no reason? No one wished to do that. They didn''t care about being considered weak outside. No, that was heaven for them! "You got stuck in your cultivation and couldn''t reach the God Realm. When you finally did so as a Soul God, it had only been a few years. Obviously, you would never understand how we felt. However, I can guarantee you this much. In the end, you would have reached the same conclusion as us. The Four Realms are too boring." Zugen snorted as he said. "Even if that happened, how many years in the future would it be? Forget it. Let''s end this farce." Zugen''s Soul began to light up like a sun as he charged at Soren. "Since I can''t escape, I might as well bring you with me." Soren sighed after seeing that. One thing had always been true. Soren was just more powerful than Zugen when it came to the Soul Technique. Even if his power was relatively lower at the moment, he could still beat Zugen black and blue. Just like what Heavin did to Fura with her higher Soul Cultivation. Soren extended his hands as the fused elements gathered with his Mental Energy. Suddenly, a powerful suction power came out and absorbed all the Mental Energy accumulated to form the explosion. Zugen was taken aback by that sight. "You! How can you stop my Soul Detonation? You have never used such a technique before!" Soren nodded. "Indeed. After all, it only works on Souls with Soul Manifestation Energy. You and I were the only ones capable of using it in the past, so I obviously didn''t use it on others. The only problem is that the soul must be outside its shell that is the body." Zugen''s Mental Energy kept shining as his Mental Energy Source began to show signs of dissipating. "Soren!" Zugen didn''t want to give up, so he began to attack Soren with Mental Energy skills nonstop. However, who was Soren? The creator of the Soul Cultivation Technique itself! Whatever kind of Mental Energy attack that Zugen thought of, Soren had already mastered a long time ago. Everything Zugen did inside the cage was useless against him. "Soren! You won''t be able to leave! Even if you guys try again, there is no way out! Don''t do this! We can still recover and conquer the God Realm together!" Soren shook his head as he sent a stream of information into Zugen''s Soul. There, he explained everything about the keys and how it was not really impossible to leave. "This... Lies! Those are lies!" Soren didn''t care. "Whether you believe it or not, that''s not my problem. Anyway, let''s get over with it." Soren increased the absorption rate even more, quickly making Zugen''s Mental Energy Source reach a critical point. Eventually, it couldn''t form a solid shape anymore and collapsed. "Ahhh!" The moment his Mental Energy Source broke apart, Zugen''s Soul immediately dissipated. It didn''t reincarnate, though. It was gone for good. Krune, Feifei, Lucio, Heavin, and Liriu looked at that with surprise. Talking about Heavin and Liriu, they were battling the crystal demon beasts and ghosts before. Zugen ordered them to go all out so that they could have a chance at escaping, so the fight continued. However, Lucio came out and immediately changed the situation. After all, he didn''t have his cultivation restricted. For him, these ghosts and crystal demon beasts were just too weak after they got their power was affected by Zugen''s territory. In the end, their battle was over even faster than Zugen''s struggle. ''Could that be the end for Mental Energy users?'' Soren could tell what they were thinking, so he explained. "Even I am not so sure myself. After all, only Zugen and I had ever cultivated the Soul Cultivation Technique before. However, my theory was that a soul with a Mental Energy Source is different than a normal soul. Once you die, the Four Realms wouldn''t be able to take it back and let you reincarnate. In the end, we might be the only ones who can really embrace the true meaning of death." Krune''s group went silent for a moment. However, Krune quickly recovered. "Oh well. As long as I don''t die, then that''s fine. Besides, we don''t know if the same thing applies outside the Four Realms." Heavin finally took the chance to ask. "So... how come you''re all here? Of course, I''m happy that you appeared. Still..." Krune sighed. "What else? We came here to rescue you. The Soren Ruins are too dangerous, so we couldn''t leave you two behind." "Well, who could have expected something like that guy just now? I called Liriu to come with me because I knew that almost no one would be able to contend against him. In theory, this travel shouldn''t have been this dangerous to start with." Liriu agreed with Heavin. "I also thought of the same thing. Otherwise, I wouldn''t have come." Krune and the others couldn''t really blame Heavin and Liriu for that. First of all, the two of them were already over a hundred years old. They were more than capable of making their own decisions. Also, they were a cultivator and a demon beast. Expecting them to only go out when they were absolutely sure that it was safe would be ridiculous. Trials were what made one improve. "Fine..." As Krune''s group talked, Soren came back. Even though he absorbed Zugen''s Mental Energy Source, it wasn''t his own to start with. Besides, he said it before. His Mental Energy Source wasn''t damaged, just sealed. Because of that, he couldn''t use Zugen''s to heal his source since there wasn''t anything to be cured. The only thing he got was the minuscule Mental Energy Source that Zugen had consumed because of Heavin. However, just as he was about to talk, the other cultivators and demon beasts also came out. Obviously, Fura appeared there as well. "Err... Do any of you know where the exit is?" Heavin and Liriu looked at each other and laughed out loud. Soren sighed before saying. "Now that Zugen is dead, his territory should lose the barrier protecting it. Once that happens, your cultivations will be released once more. Just go outside and open a Spatial Gate after that. There should be no restrictions anymore preventing you from connecting directly outside of the Soren Ruins." Zuran, the member of the Phoenix Clan, couldn''t help but talk. "Are you perhaps, Soren?" Krune''s group looked at Zuran with some surprise. However, Soren didn''t have the same reaction. "I am him." "I see..." Zuran then looked at Liriu with some mixed feelings. It was obvious that Krune''s group could wipe them out right now, but none of them had done it. Let alone having Liriu trying to control him. "Are you really not going to use your Dracophoenix ability?" Liriu narrowed his eyes. "Annoying! I don''t want any slaves. I don''t even like the concept of slaves to start with. Shoo, shoo! This Dracophoenix here is more than capable of taking care of himself alone. Besides, I feel way too lazy to do such a thing." Krune''s group smiled after hearing that. In the end, what happened to Liriu in the past was due to his upbringing and the environment he grew in. Tiane and Ruik wouldn''t make the same mistake, especially when his father was the reason for his own laziness. Blood was still blood. Another cultivator asked something else. "What about the crystal demon beasts and ghosts in this ruin? If we really try to go out now, we will probably bump on them. It''ll be too hard to deal with without our cultivation." Soren shook his head as he said. "Don''t worry about that. Zugen was their leader and the one who had always controlled their actions. With him gone, they will soon disappear." The reason for that was that both creatures were being held together with Zugen''s Mental Energy. Without him to keep their form, they couldn''t exist for much longer. Sure enough, everyone in the Soren Ruins saw the crystal demon beasts begin to crumble apart as the ghosts dissipated one after another. No one knew what was happening, though. Krune looked at Zuran for a second before asking. "By the way, how come you know Soren?" Zuran looked back at Krune and laughed a bit as he asked. "Did you forget the name of these ruins?" Chapter 778: Master They immediately understood. "Right! These ruins are called the Soren Ruins." Zuran then explained. "It''s said that if you get lost in the Core Region of the Ruins, you might obtain help to get out. From what I know, the one who helped others was called Soren. With time, the number of cultivators and demon beasts who got his help increased. In the end, the Ruins ended up having his name attached to it since it didn''t have one before." Krune and the others looked at Soren. "What? I couldn''t leave anyway, so I might as well use some of my free time to send the idiots who came inside outside. In any case, it will be over today since I''m finally leaving these ruins." Zuran then looked at Soren and finally decided to ask. "By the way, who''s Zugen?" Soren didn''t seem to want to answer that question. "That''s not your problem." Zuran bitterly smiled but didn''t insist. Everyone could tell just how much stronger he was compared to anyone in this place. Who wanted to offend such a monster? Sometime later, Zuran and the other cultivators began to move out of the ruins. As Soren mentioned, the crystal demon beasts and ghosts began to disappear. Although they found a few on the way out, they didn''t seem to care about them anymore. Some tried to capture them, but they quickly broke apart or dissipated. There was nothing left to be brought back. Of course, there were a few who decided to move deeper into the ruins to see if they could find more treasures. In fact, they probably would have since no one had been able to escape his place before. Leaving that aside, Krune''s group stayed behind with Soren. Fura, however, was the most confused person regarding everything that was happening. After all of that, Krune''s group explained what they knew to Heavin and Liriu straight away with Divine Sense Messages. "Errr... So, should I leave as well?" Heavin looked at her and laughed. "It''s fine. As a Mental Energy user, you have the right to know a few things." Soren looked at Fura and could tell what happened to her. "Come here." Fura felt nervous for a moment but nodded nonetheless. She wouldn''t be able to escape from someone like Soren to start with. Soren then touched her forehead. After a few moments, Fura grunted in pain as a black wisp was extracted from her mind. Following that, Soren crushed the black wisp, making it disappear for good. "You''re quite lucky. If this thing was in your head for a bit longer, you would have turned like those puppets over there." Everyone then looked at the two remaining black figures. With Zugen''s death, they froze in place and didn''t do anything else. Calling them puppets was quite a fitting term indeed. Fura felt a chill on her back as she quickly bowed to Soren. "Thank you, senior." Soren nodded, not minding it too much. Finally, Heavin also sent her a Divine Sense message, telling her what could be said. Of course, she left things like Luvile''s existence, the fact that Soren was a Soul God of the God Realm, and so on out. "I see... So am I going to be a Mental Energy Cultivator or Spiritual Energy Cultivator? Am I both of them at the same time now?" Soren nodded. "In short, yes. You can cultivate both at the same time and should, in fact, do so. You are already in the sixth realm of the Soul Cultivation Technique. That means you have a Mental Energy Source connected to your Soul that can''t be separated anymore. This Mental Energy Source needs the help of the fused five primary elements and laws to grow stronger." "Is it really okay for me to cultivate it? It seems quite an important thing." Soren shook his head. "Just now, when I removed the issue in your mind, I also blocked your capabilities of sharing it." Fura was taken aback after hearing that. Soon after, she tried to talk about the cultivation technique. But it didn''t matter what she did. The words simply didn''t come out. It was as if a barrier had appeared around the knowledge of the technique. It was simply impossible for her to remove it. Well, she was happy with this development already. After all, it would have been a lot faster to simply kill her to keep the secret. Krune then took the chance to talk with her. "Are you perhaps the same Fura as the one who left a Heavenly Fragment with the Holy Seer of the Jafrot Religion?" Fura was once again taken aback as she looked at Krune. "How do you know that?" Feifei smiled and explained the situation to Fura through a Divine Sense Message. "I see... So you went there to negotiate about the Heavenly Fragment. Well, the Holy Seer would never sell something that wasn''t his. That''s why I entrusted that fragment to him instead of carrying that bomb around. Anyway, it''s thanks to Heavin that I escaped the fate of becoming a puppet. That being said, I''ll give you that fragment once we leave here for free. That should help pay for the help I''ve received." Heavin didn''t mind since he knew that Krune needed those fragments. He came here for another reason, after all. "Senior Soren. I''ve been stuck in the Soul Control Realm until now and couldn''t figure a way to enter the next realm. Would you help me out with it?" Soren looked at Heavin and responded. "Soul Control Realm? Ah, right! You gave different names for the Soul Cultivation Technique. Let me take a look at the ones you created." Heavin didn''t mind and quickly passed the entire thing to Soren. Soren analyzed it for a few minutes before saying. "Truly surprising. There are even a few parts that are more refined than my own version. At first, I was in doubt whether you really created it or if you obtained this from me through some other method. However, I can tell that this is definitely not something I created." Soren then looked at Heavin as his eyes shone. "A Divine Soul that has acquired sentience, how amusing. Perhaps because you were a soul being from the start, you have excellent compatibility with this technique. You even made changes to the cultivation technique so that it could be used by your friends of other races." "This old man has never had a disciple in his life. Zugen used my cultivation technique, but he wasn''t a disciple. How about it? Would you accept me as your Master?" Krune and the others were surprised to hear that, especially Heavin. Heavin then quickly nodded his Phoenix Puppet head as he shouted. "Definitely!" Soren laughed before turning around and opening a Spatial Gate. "Let''s get out of this place first. There are a lot of good things here, but leave it for the fated ones." None of them complained as they traversed the gate. At the very next instant, the place became empty as if nothing had ever happened there. Outside, Soren looked at Krune''s group before passing them a Jade Slip. Soren was from a time when there was no technology, so he still used those things instead of communicators. "These are the first seven realms of the Soul Cultivation Technique." Fura commented. "That''s the extent of my knowledge as well. I only have knowledge up to the 7th realm." Soren then pondered for a bit before saying. "Hmm... You guys have been using different names for the realms and the Soul Manifestation Energy so far. Alright, let''s change the name of the realms as well." "What?! Is that really okay, Senior Soren?" Soren nodded, not minding it too much. "They''re just names. Besides, I''m considering it as a turning point in my life. It would be nice to get a new view of everything." Heavin quickly gave his opinion. "Then, let''s call the sixth realm the Soul Source Realm. After all, this is when we first create our Mental Energy Source." "As for the seventh... What happens in the seventh realm, Master?" Soren nodded as he explained. "In the sixth realm, you need to learn to fuse the elements to then create Mental Energy by fusing them with part of your own Soul. I''ll give you a warning here. You guys haven''t created a Mental Energy Source yet. That means you can still give up this technique to reincarnate once you die. But once you enter the Soul Source Realm, there''s no coming back anymore." Krune and the others couldn''t help but ponder about this issue. "Anyway, think about it as much as you want. Now, let''s get back to the main topic. The seventh realm is not something you can achieve in the Mortal Realms. As soon as you reach the peak of the Soul Source Realm, you will receive an Ascension Tribulation. Only in the Godly Path Realm or above can you break through to the seventh realm." Heavin immediately understood. "So, this is the equivalent of the Mortal Rejection Realm for the Mental Energy Source." Soren nodded with a smile. "Correct. In the Mortal Rejection Realm, you will transform the last part of your body into a godly one, the Soul. As for the Soul Cultivation Technique, it is the moment where your Mental Energy Source becomes a godly source." Krune nodded as he suggested. "Then, what about keeping it simple? Just call it the Godly Soul Source Realm." Feifei and the others had to admit that, although simple, it described the realm perfectly. Heavin and Soren didn''t find any issue with it either. "Alright. The Godly Soul Source Realm it is." Chapter 779: Changes in the Soren Ruins Heavin asked about the further ones. "What comes after the Godly Soul Source Realm?" Soren nodded as he explained. "As you can see, there are fewer Soul Cultivation Realms than there are Spiritual and Godly Energy Realms. While there are ten realms of Spiritual Energy Cultivation in the Mortal Realm, there are only six for Soul Cultivation." "The same thing happens in the Godly Path Realm. Once you ascend, you will go through six realms: Transformation, Mortal Rejection, Godly Fusion, God Foundation, God Core, and Nascent God. In total, it''s six Godly Energy Realms. As for Soul Cultivation, there are only three. Also, they only have five stages each. The Godly Soul Source Realm is the first one there." "The second realm is basically the increase of your Mental Energy Source. During the five stages of the 8th realm, your Mental Energy Source will increase at least 10 times in size. In short, it''s creating a foundation for the next realm." Feifei and the others nodded. That was indeed a simple explanation but well-defined enough to understand. "So... Should we call it something like Godly Soul Foundation Realm? Heavin''s cultivation technique already has the Soul Foundation Realm near the start, after all." Soren didn''t seem to mind. "Well, it is very fit for the job. Even my own name was similar, Godly Soul Foundation Manifestation. Let''s just go with your idea. In any case, it''s just a few names, so it''s that important." Everyone nodded before Soren explained the next realm. "The ninth realm would be what I call the Nascent Soul Manifestation Realm." Heavin immediately asked. "Is this a realm equivalent to the Nascent God level?" Soren nodded. "Yes. Well, just select a different name for this as well." "Since we already have the Nascent God Realm, we might as well stick with Nascent Soul God." No one complained about that. "That''s settled, then. Unlike the Godly Energy Cultivation Path, there is no need for a Core in the Mental Energy Realm. Naturally, we don''t have something like the God Core Realm. The Nascent Soul God Realm will use the foundation created during the Godly Soul Foundation Realm to strengthen itself. Before, the Mental Energy Source didn''t have any space to improve anymore, but now it does." "It''s like a cup of water. The cup was small, so it has already reached a limit of how much water it could hold. However, you obtained a much bigger cup during the Godly Soul Foundation Realm, so the Nascent Soul God Realm will simply fill it again. During this process, the Mental Energy Source will be purified as well." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "However, the jade slip you gave us only has the first seven realms. The Godly Soul Foundation and Nascent Soul God Realms aren''t available." Soren already expected that question. "That''s because I''ve gotten a few ideas after seeing Heavin''s own version of my Soul Cultivation Technique. He was able to make modifications to make it work better for each race. I want to revise it with him after we head to the Godly Path Realm. I''ll have him give you guys a copy after we finish it. Well, it''ll take a long time before that happens." "Remember, it isn''t because there are only three realms in the Soul Cultivation Technique that it''s easier. I''ll be honest with you all. You will probably reach the Peak of the Nascent God Realm before you do the same with the Nascent Soul God Realm. The Soul Cultivation Technique becomes excruciatingly difficult from the 7th realm and above." Krune and the others didn''t mind. It was good as long as they could use it. Of course, they had to think about whether they would create a Mental Energy Source or not. After all, they wouldn''t be able to reincarnate once that happens. "What do you guys want to do now?" Heavin and Soren looked at each other in response. Not long after, Soren said. "I''ll bring Heavin with me for now. He still needs to reach the 5th Stage of the Soul Source Realm before he can ascend, after all. I will use this time to work on the Soul Source Realm with him since he''s only a Divine Soul. He is different from the rest of you." "As for you all, you can simply use the Soul Source Realm cultivation technique I gave you. It is already enough for you to progress in it. As I can see, you are all in the Soul Control Realm 5th Stage already. Your Mental Energy might not be as strong and pure as Heavin, but yours aren''t that bad either." Fura then raised her hand. "What about me? I''m already in the Soul Source Realm, and I''m also at the peak of the Divinity Realm." Soren shrugged his shoulders as he replied. "You can now use the fused elements and laws together with Mental Energy. The only problem is that you were forced to break through to the Soul Source Realm way too quickly. As you probably noticed, you are absolutely no match for Heavin in terms of Mental Energy combat even though he''s an entire realm below you." "If I were you, I would use your cultivation to call the Ascension Tribulation. Once you arrive in the Godly Path Realm, use Godly Energy to reinforce your Mental Energy Source. Don''t try to break through to the Godly Soul Source Realm straight away. Wait a few years before doing that." Fura nodded before saying. "Thank you, Senior Soren." "No problem. As for Krune''s group, you can already break through to the Soul Source Realm if you want. I can see that all of you have been in the Soul Control Realm for a long time, so there isn''t much to be done anymore. Of course, only do it if you really want to give up your chance to reincarnate in the Four Realms." It was already too late for Fura, so she could only press forward now. Krune''s group could still decide to step back. "Well, I''m already at this point, so I''ll press forward. If I stop now, it will be like I''m missing something." Feifei, Lucio, and Liriu nodded their heads. They also felt the same way. Besides, when you reincarnate, you lose your memories if you don''t brand them ahead of time. In the end, they couldn''t tell if their next reincarnation would really be them or not. Since that''s the case, why should they care? "Hahaha! Good! Then I''m looking forward to what you can do. In Heavin''s case, he isn''t a normal soul but a Divine Soul. That being said, he wouldn''t be able to reincarnate to start with. He can only follow this path from now on." Heavin wasn''t surprised by those words. He had already thought of this possibility a long time ago. Soren basically confirmed his suspicions, that''s all. "Alright. Krune told me that he has a special connection with Heavin since he was his Divine Soul before. That being said, I''m bringing him away with me for now. If you need to talk with him, just come and find him by yourself." Soren then turned around and opened a Spatial Gate. Soon after, he and Heavin disappeared from that place. "Well, there they go." Fura took that chance to talk as well. "I need to prepare for my ascension. Even though it should be easy with my new Mental Energy abilities, I don''t want to take any chances. But before that, let''s visit the Holy Seer of the Sufrot Religion. I''ll give you my Heavenly Fragment, as I mentioned before." Krune and Feifei nodded, satisfied. "Great! Thank you." Lucio and Liriu didn''t want to go, though. "In that case, we''re heading back to Luvile Universe. I''m also worried as to what happened to your grandmaster." Liriu nodded. "I also want to go check on my parents. They''re probably worried sick." Krune finally remembered Lani''s battle for the trade route. "Master, should I go as well?" Lucio shook his head as he said. "There''s no need. You have no idea how strong your grandmaster is. If anything happens, I''ll contact you." Seeing his master''s confident expression, Krune could only nod. "Very well. See you all another time." With that, they departed in different directions. While they were gone, many changes were happening in Soren Ruins. First, the ruins stopped pulsating with energy and returned to their previous state back then. That immediately caught all the cultivators and demon beasts'' attention. Following that, the crystal demon beasts and ghosts inside the ruins began to crumble apart and dissipate. Thanks to that, anyone could go into the Core Region without having to deal with any dangers. Well, any danger related to the Soren Ruins, of course. There were still the cultivators and demon beasts who might attack you in the end. However, there were three events that took up most of their attention. First, it was now possible to open Spatial Gates inside the Soren Ruins. Because of that, most of the forces inside began to teleport straight to the Core Region to look for treasures. The second one was the discovery of the planet and sun that no one knew about. The news quickly spread, and that place became crowded. Just like Soren mentioned, many good things stayed behind. Because of that, battles began to occur everywhere. The third event was how the ruins acted. Before, there was some kind of energy that kept the ruins together. However, that energy had now disappeared, which caused a chain reaction. Little by little, the ruins began to drift apart in outer space. Such changes took the Universe Powerhouses'' attention, who sent many of their members to check it. As one could imagine, it didn''t take long before the survivors of Zugen''s attack were found and began to open their mouths. Chapter 780: Tea "It has been confirmed. The Dracophoenix and the wisp were there in the Soren Ruins. We''ve also confirmed that the Divine Path Sect Master from the Luvile Universe and Krune''s wife was there as well. Last but not least, there was that shadow-like figure that those who survived the Core Region commented about in the past. The so-called Soren." The people inside the room listened to the man''s report as they pondered on what was happening. Not long after, another man entered the room and bowed to those Universe Powerhouses'' representatives. "This demon beast is the phoenix who happened to follow the Dracophoenix into the Ruins, Zuran." Zuran was in his human form when he came inside. "Hello, everyone." Lidmir Jiadem, the leader of the Galec Universe, was the first one to ask. "So, tell us what you saw during this trip into the ruins on that planet." "Yes." Zuran then explained everything he had seen. How they were about to die when Krune''s group appeared. How they were not affected by the restriction of the planet, etc... Sure enough, the one that got most of their attention was Soren, who seemed to be the center of everything. Of course, the fact that Krune was there with his wife and master cast a shadow on their hearts as well. Just what were they trying to do in that place? Who was the guy they killed? "What do you all think?" Olave Merfil, the leader of the Zenfin Sect of the Larael Universe, shook his head. He was also the same person who got Krune to concoct the pill that saved his daughter''s soul. "I said it before, and I''ll say it however many times it takes. I don''t think it''s a good idea to get involved in his affairs anymore. Can''t you see? Zuran and the others had their cultivations sealed. They were absolutely no match for Krune''s group in that place. If they wanted to, Zuran and the others would have been wiped out. That means we wouldn''t have gotten our hands on this information to start with." Zuran agreed with Olave. "They also had the Dracophoenix. Although I''m confident in my ability to resist his control ability, that''s only when I''m at my peak. At that moment in time, Liriu could have taken control of me since my cultivation was sealed. Still, he once again said the same things as he told our Phoenix and Dragon races before. He had no intention whatsoever of taking control of anyone." The Mohie Clan Head, who controlled the Hara Universe, then added. "Krune and the Dracophoenix aren''t the only ones we should be careful about anymore. We now have this Soren, who seemed to be far stronger than the two. Last but not least, you also received the report about what happened between Senior Phantom Blade and Lani Gobel, right?" He was obviously talking about the fight for the trade route close to the Luvile Universe. Going back several days in time, Lani had just activated his Purple Tribulation Lightning as Tixan Loume (Phantom Blade) brought out his sword. Tixan''s sword was just some crappy iron sword that anyone could buy with just a few coins. However, Lani knew that in Tixan''s hands, that was far from being harmless. Suddenly, Tixan''s sword moved in a slashing motion against Lani. As it did, all the laws, elements, space, and anything else in its way was cleaved apart. Even with his Tribulation Lightning, Lani almost failed to react in time. *Clang!* Lani was frightened by that single strike. This was very similar to the first attack Lani received from Tixan when they first began to fight. However, now that a real sword was on Tixan''s hands, it was several times stronger, faster, and of course, sharper. *Clack...* Suddenly, a chip fell off from Lani''s staff. Lani looked at his Purple Tribulation Staff and became even more shocked. It was the first time that Krune''s staff had received a bit of damage. One must remember that Krune''s staff could display a power far above normal Divinity Star Weapons thanks to the Purple Flame effect. Also, it was made with materials from the Godly Path Realm, which were much more sturdy. Nonetheless, Tixan''s first strike had already chipped it, and it was even a direct clash. "Hahaha! Very good, Lani! Let''s continue." Lani didn''t have time to think as Tixan charged at him. Tixan had really gone through a complete qualitative change now that his iron sword was in his hands. Just his speed alone had more than doubled! However, Lani wouldn''t just stay still and do nothing. Purple Tribulation Lightning extended into his staff as well and mixed with the Purple Flame. Following that, his speed also increased as he counter-attacked. *Clang, clang, clang, clang...* Sword Qi and Staff Power clashed and broke apart the fabric of space around them. The Spatial Storm, which was already aggressive in the first phase of their battle, became even more terrifying. While that was happening, Lani and Tixan''s Domain clashed against each other, trying to get the upper hand. "Great!" *Clang!* All of a sudden, Tixan and Lani exchanged more powerful attacks as both of them were forced back by the shockwave of Spiritual Energy. However, the moment that happened, Tixan sheathed his sword as his body assumed an attacking stance. Even though his sword was sheathed, Lani felt like the next attack wouldn''t be as simple as the previous ones. Sword Laws gathered all around Tixan''s sword as the invisible Sword Assimilation power had increased multiple times in an instant. Lani wasn''t any slower either. Purple Tribulation Lightning burst forward as he gave up trying to save any of it. He held his staff with one hand on his left side as his right hand extended in Tixan''s direction. Obviously, he also entered an attacking stance, ready to go all out. Time seemed to stop for a moment as the two sides'' combat powers increased to their limits. Suddenly... *Vup!* The two charged at each other with a speed that surpassed all boundaries of what they had ever displayed before. "One Sword to Conquer All!" "Staff Hit-Point!" Surprisingly, both their attacks were quite crude. One of them was basically a sword draw, while the other was simply brandishing his staff. However, only Lani and Tixan knew just how terrifying their opponent''s next attack would be. As experts liked to say, they already made the complex into simple, but that ''simple'' was more powerful than any other complicated attack they could pull off. *Boom!* For hundreds of kilometers, space completely collapsed. Not only that, but even the spatial storms were cleaved or smashed. It was to the point that the Mortal Realm couldn''t display that level of power correctly anymore, so everything fell apart. The onlookers outside were frightened by those attacks. There was no lack of Peak Divinity Realm cultivators here, but neither of them would dare to offend either Lani or Tixan for the rest of their lives. They were simply not at the same level. They understood very well that even if they joined hands, they would still be trashed in just a moment. The broken space around the epicenter finally began to repair itself with much difficulty¡ªlittle by little, the result of the exchange was presented in front of everyone. Tixan was holding his iron sword while standing on one side of the field in outer space. Lani, however, had a very deep gash on his chest. Blood flowed out as he coughed even more of it. Lani then looked at the Purple Flame Staff in his hand... or it was better to call it two now? Krune''s staff had been split in two! Seeing that happen made Lani''s heart hurt more than the injury on his body. After some time, he looked back at Tixan and how he didn''t seem to have suffered anything at all. "Hehe! To think that I told my disciple that I would be able to deal with this situation on my own. What a joke." Tixan narrowed his eyes as he looked at his iron sword. *Clack...* Suddenly, a chip fell off of it as well. Normally, you would expect it from such a weak sword. However, in his hands, that worn-out sword hadn''t received any further damage for countless years. With his level of understanding at Sword Assimilation, no one had the power to do that... until today. "Impressive. I really didn''t expect that I would damage my sword in the Mortal Realm anymore. However, it was worth it." Lani bitterly smiled. "I have nothing to say. The victor is the king, that''s all. If you want revenge for your dad''s sword, I''m right here." Tixan laughed as he put his sword back into his Spatial Ring. "Hahaha! Revenge? What bullshit are you talking about? I believe my long-deceased dad would have been thrilled to see it happen. He asked me to throw it away many times, but I insisted on keeping it. Did you know? After I grew up into an adult, I bought many other swords. This garbage iron sword was kept inside my Spatial Ring as a simple memento. After all, the other ones I got were much stronger and beautiful." "But in the end, I ended up coming back to this iron sword. It doesn''t matter how good the other swords are; they simply can''t surpass the power of this iron sword. Do you know why?" Lani nodded straight away as he used his Spiritual Energy to stabilize his injury. "Commitment." Tixan smiled in response. "Exactly. No other sword can obtain the same commitment from me as this trash sword. My full power can only be displayed while holding it. Too bad that it is reaching its limits." Tixan then looked at Lani again. "Anyway, this was a good fight. I''m obviously the victor, so the trade route is ours. Do you have any issues?" Lani shook his head. "Very well. Let''s settle the rest of the arrangements for those ants over there. Come, let''s drink some tea." Chapter 781: What to Say That''s pretty much what happened to Lani during that day. He lost the battle and the trade route, but he gained... a new friend? Even Jojle Carsul, the representative of Thakulo Universe from where Tixan was from, didn''t know what to say. They received the recordings of the battle and were taken aback by Lani''s power. He lost to Phantom Blade in the end, but none of them had any confidence to force Tixan to use even half of the power they saw. The weird thing was that Tixan seemed to have a liking for Lani, so the two left together after the battle was over. "Krune, Lani, Liriu... All of them were far above in power than any common cultivator or demon beast. The worst thing is that neither Krune nor Liriu is at the Peak of the Divinity Realm yet, so their power will increase even more." Olave nodded. "That''s why I think we shouldn''t get involved. Besides, there''s one main point you''re all forgetting about." Olave''s words caught everyone''s interest. "What would that be?" Olave shrugged his shoulders before saying. "Didn''t you notice the speed they''re cultivating at? It''s obvious that they aren''t holding back at all. What does that mean? It means that be it Krune or Liriu, it won''t be long before they ascend. Not only them but their friends as well. Once they go to the Godly Path Realm, will there be a need to worry so much about it?" Everyone was taken aback. He was right. If they ascended, what would be there to worry about? "But what if they decide to take matters into their own hands before they ascend?" "Well, we can only retaliate if that happens. However, with the speed of their cultivation, they won''t stay for that long. Do you think they can do so much with just this amount of time remaining? I don''t think so. First of all, I think they''re more interested in ascending than our Mortal Realm." "Last but not least, the Wisp God has their backs. Now that the plan with Phantom Blade failed, we better not force the issue." Someone else shook his head as he asked. "What about the Soren Ruins?" "What about that? Do you think it would be weird for the Wisp God to know that illusion-like existence everyone calls Soren? Chances are that the Wisp God himself sent Krune''s group to meet up with him there. Once again, it turns into a topic that we better not get involved in." Olave then looked in a particular direction. His gaze seemed to pierce through the walls of the hall as he watched something far in the distance. "Instead, we should be a lot more worried about what we will do with Dalin. Getting the Wisp God''s help has become impossible. Krune and the others won''t help much either. Right now, the Retaking Alliance is being pressed back after that new protection formation appeared. They simply can''t do anything to it at all. I think we should focus on it." Slowly, each one of the leaders present began to nod their heads. They had invested too much time in Krune''s group already. Not to mention that Olave was right about that point. With the cultivation speed of Krune''s group, they would be heading to the next realm soon, so they better leave it aside for the moment. "Very well. Send some people to keep an eye on Krune and the others for the time being, just in case. Let''s get back to the topic of Dalin." While the Universe Powerhouses discussed the other issues they had, Krune arrived in the Suffrot Religion''s Main Planet with Fura and Feifei. Fura quickly came down, and it didn''t take long for the Holy Seer to appear. "Oh! Fura! I''m glad to see that you are well." Fura smiled and gave a hug to the Holy Seer. It was obvious that these two had known each other for quite a while. The Holy Seer then looked at Krune and Feifei before smiling. "It seems like I need to apologize to you two. The truth is, I wanted you to go to the Soren Ruins to look for Fura. That''s why I told you about her location. Although you two are back safely with her, it was still a selfish thought of mine. I''m sorry." Krune and Feifei looked at each other. Sure enough, they were right in the past. The Holy Seer was really trying to bring them into that place. "Sigh... In any case, you didn''t force us or anything. The final decision of whether we should go or not was still up to the two of us. Besides, it wasn''t only because you said those things that we went there. A friend of ours also entered the ruins later, so we had to go there to help him. In fact, it wasn''t even us who first rescued Fura, but our friend instead." The Holy Seer was surprised to hear that. "Destiny is really a weird thing. To think that instead of you, your friend was the one to find her." Fura smiled in response. "They are being too modest. It''s true that Heavin and Liriu saved me at first, but Krune''s group also saved me in the end. I ended up owing too much of a debt. Senior Holy Seer, please bring my Heavenly Fragment out." The Holy Seer nodded, already expecting that to be the case. A few minutes later, one of his subordinates came out with a box in his hands. Fura then took a look inside to confirm it was the right thing. "Here you go. I don''t know which kind of Heavenly Fragment it is, but it''s yours now." Feifei then looked at Krune. "You try it first." Krune didn''t refuse and quickly sat down to begin absorbing the fragment. The Holy Seer and Fura didn''t mind and simply kept close watch with Feifei. The fragment quickly approached Krune''s cracked core as the fusion started. The previous fragments ended up being repelled due to the existence of a similar one within Krune. However, this time that didn''t happen. The fusion continued until finally, Krune identified the type of Heavenly Fragment. "It''s an Ownerless Death Heavenly Fragment." Feifei''s eyes shone as she smiled at Krune. That was one of the two remaining Heavenly Fragments that Krune need to complete all nine. "Great!" Krune continued the process. The fragment liquified together with his own cracked Heavenly Core. As always, it tried to resist the fusion, but without the Home Universe''s support, it couldn''t fight against it for long. Finally, the two liquids fused together before the whole thing assumed the form of a core once again. Now, Krune''s core only had a small chip on the surface, which was obviously the space for the last Heavenly Fragment, Destiny. Immediately, Krune felt the Death Laws and Dark Element much easier than before, a side-effect of his new Death Heavenly Fragment. "Phew... It''s over." Krune quickly got up once again as he smiled at Feifei and the others. "Thank you very much." Fura shook her head as she replied. "I should be the one to thank you instead. What I got from this trip is worth more than a Heavenly Core, let alone a Fragment." The Holy Seer couldn''t help but feel curious. "What are you talking about?" Fura laughed in response. "Hahaha! Holy Seer, I''ll explain it to you later. Oh, right! Please help me prepare for the Ascension Tribulation. It''s time for me to leave." The Holy Seer nodded. "It seems like you found something capable of helping you with the tribulation. That''s good, then. I''ll have my fellow priests prepare an empty planet where no one will bother you. However, I still want to hear the whole story." "Sure." Krune and Feifei smiled as they said. "Well, our deal is over. Fura, I hope to see you in the Higher Realms someday." Fura nodded. "With your power, you should have no problem passing through the Ascension Tribulation. I''m sure I will hear from you two again in the future." Krune and Feifei then talked a little bit more with Fura and the Holy Seer before they departed. However, Fura asked Krune to pass Heavin and Liriu her contact, which she had forgotten. Krune didn''t mind and also gave her Heavin and Liriu''s contact that he had in his communicator. After they entered outer space, Feifei looked at Krune before saying. "I''m worried about Senior Lani. Let''s go back and check on him." Krune nodded with a serious expression. "Me too. Let''s go." They quickly opened a Spatial Gate and disappeared from there. Back in the Luvile Universe, Liriu and Lucio finally made their way back. Liriu then went to the Wisp World in the Divine Path Sect''s territory, while Lucio went to see Lani instead. He already got information that his Master lost the battle, which left him concerned. Lucio quickly arrived at his Master''s hut, the same one where he and Krune talked to Lani. "Master, are you there?" "Enter." Lucio sighed in relief after hearing Lani''s voice and made his way inside. However, he quickly noticed that he wasn''t the only visitor there. "Hmm...? Who is this brat?" At the moment, Lani and Tixan were playing some kind of board game while they drank tea. "Errr... is everything okay, Master?" Lani nodded. "Tixan, this is my disciple, Lucio. Lucio, this is Tixan Loume, the person I fought against in the trade route event." Lucio was taken aback. Doesn''t that mean that they were enemies? Why the hell were they drinking tea and playing like best buddies? Lucio didn''t know what to say. Chapter 782: Ascend Together "Errr... Master... What about the trade route?" Lani sighed as he pointed at his chest. Lucio used his Divine Sense to look where his master was pointing and finally saw the deep gash that Tixan left behind during their last clash. Of course, it already looked much better since Lani had been healing it until now. It''s just that the Sword Assimilation Power left behind by Tixan made it quite difficult to heal. "This... Are you okay, Master?" Lani nodded as he replied. "I''m fine, but I still lost in the end. Pretty badly at that." Tixan laughed in response. "Hahaha! Well, you did fight against me, after all. However, you didn''t lose as badly as you mentioned. Don''t forget, you were the first one to force me to use my sword since I reached the Sword Assimilation level." Lani shrugged his shoulders but didn''t say anything. Lucio, on the other hand, became puzzled. "Sword Assimilation? What''s that?" Tixan looked at Lucio and felt the power of the Sword Heart coming from his body. "It seems like you''re also a sword user." Lucio nodded, not trying to deny it. Lani then used a Divine Sense Message to explain everything to Lucio. Only then did Lucio understand what it meant to reach the Sword Assmililation Level. "This... Senior Tixan is really terrifying..." Well, that didn''t clear up one thing. "Then again, why are you two drinking tea after such a battle?" Lani pointed at Tixan. "Ask him. He was the one who forced this new friendship thing." Tixan narrowed his eyes as he asked. "What? Are you saying I''m not worthy?" Lani shook his head in response. "Of course not. It''s just that I also find it weird that you would want to be friends with your enemy." "Oh! So that''s why. It''s simple. You are the strongest cultivator I found in this Mortal Realm, so I obviously need to be acquainted with you. I don''t think I can find someone like you anytime soon. Oh, I heard about the Dracophoenix, though." Lani couldn''t help but ask. "Are you going to challenge Liriu as well?" Tixan shook his head. "Why should I? It''s not like we have any grudge or anything like that. I''m happy that I fought you, but that only happened because it was a request made by that brat Jojle. He''s the one at the top of the Thakulo Universe, after all. He knows my strength, so he always made things the way I liked. I had to come and pay the favor since I don''t like owing anyone." It was then that Tixan remembered something. "Oh, right! Wasn''t I supposed to fight against a wisp?" Lani nodded. "It''s Krune. Were the Universe Powerhouses trying to test his power out?" Tixan shrugged his shoulders this time. "They just asked me to fight the guy defending the Luvile Universe in the trade route issue. If possible, kill him as well. Oh well, I''m not the type who would hold back to start with, so he probably would have died." Lucio was taken aback. "Why?" "Who knows? I don''t care as long as I finish my job." Lani nodded. "However, the one who appeared was me. Does that mean you don''t need to go after him anymore?" Tixan nodded. "I only agreed to win that dispute for the trade route. Now that I won, I have nothing to do with you or this Krune anymore. Well, you were lucky that you were that strong. After all, I truly attacked you, intending to kill you from the very start. If it was anyone else, only a corpse would have remained." Lani sighed as he said. "Well, that''s good for me, then. By the way, you still haven''t told me why you''re still here." Tixan then looked deeply at Lucio before asking. "You''re planning to ascend, right?" Lani nodded, not trying to deny it. He should be going through the ascension tribulation very soon. "How about we ascend together? You might not know this, but if two cultivators ascend at the same time in the same universe, they will be sent to the same place. I don''t know what kind of place the Godly Path Realm is. All I know is that there are definitely many cultivators and demon beasts stronger than me. I was planning to ascend soon as well, so your appearance was quite convenient." Lani was surprised by that offer. "I''m still quite weaker than you, you know?" "Weaker? You are the strongest existence I know after myself. That should be quite good for both of us, don''t you think?" Lani pondered for a bit and nodded in the end. Once they ascended to the Godly Path Realm, everything in the Mortal Realm wouldn''t be their problem anymore. Except for Krune''s unique situation and the Wisp God, no one could come down that easily. Lani was sure that he probably wouldn''t see the Mortal Realm anymore once he went away. "Seems feasible. Having a partner to train would be very good as well." Tixan smiled. "Then it''s decided." Lucio, who had been listening so far, finally asked something else. "Will these Universe Powerhouses come after Krune again?" Tixan shook his head. "I don''t think so. After my battle with Lani, they should have understood that things weren''t that easy. Since the Wisp Race is not taking a side in whatever is happening in Dalin, they really can''t complain that much about anything else." Tixan then smiled before saying. "Well, the fact that a Godly Protection Formation appeared around Dalin''s Universe Formation Core just a few days after Krune came back is quite suspicious, though." Lani and Lucio''s expression didn''t even change from that comment. It was obvious that everyone would link that to Krune''s appearance. However, since they didn''t have a way to prove it, it was useless. "What does Senior Tixan think about Dalin?" "Me? Hmm... I went there when I was younger to cultivate, just like many others. That''s indeed a great place for it. Laws are easier to understand, and Spiritual Energy is abundant. However, it was a long time ago already. Nowadays, I don''t really care that much. You might not know this, but I''m lonely. I have never married or joined other sects or clans. The fact that others can''t enter the Dalin Universe doesn''t really mean much for me. I''m already at the peak of the Divinity Realm, so I have nothing to gain from there anymore either." Lucio couldn''t help but think how carefree this person was. Oh, well. Lucio knew his master''s real strength. Since Tixan, who can still defeat Lani, doesn''t care, then that''s a good thing. Tixan, Lani, and Lucio then changed the topic as they drank tea. Lani also asked Lucio about what happened in the Soren Ruins with a Divine Sense Message. After listening to the whole explanation, Lucio passed the Soul Cultivation Technique''s sixth and seventh realms to Lani. Lani was taken aback after hearing that their Elements Regulation Skill was just a sub-product of the Soul Cultivation Technique. But he also understood why it was so easy to fuse the Mental Energy into their Fused Elements and Law abilities. In the end, they made up their minds to both enter the Soul Source Realm. Meanwhile, Liriu had finally arrived back in the Wisp Main World. "Liriu!" Tiane came flying at him, hugging Liriu straight away. "You idiot! Krune told me just how dangerous the place you went was!" Liriu smiled in response. "Well, Heavin and I had no idea about it before. Nevertheless, we''re fine, see? We met up with Uncle Krune in the end as well." Ruik quickly arrived. "Oh! So you''re finally back. Don''t make your mother worry that much anymore." Tiane glanced at Ruik before saying. "As if you were not worse off. Who was the one who couldn''t enter the sleeping work state anymore?" Ruik was taken aback. "Ahem... leaving that aside, what happened in the Soren Ruins? No, wait! Where''s Heavin and that idiotic wisp?" Liriu nodded and used a Divine Sense message to explain everything that happened. "Another god?! Just how many gods have we been dealing with already? Harold, Luvile, Soren, Zugen, Cinnia, Wally... Isn''t that way too many of them? What kind of luck is that?" Liriu shrugged his shoulders. "What else could it be? Everyone knows that wherever Uncle Krune goes, calamity follows. This was just another side effect of his abilities." Ruik and Tiane nodded as if that made a lot of sense. Somewhere else, Krune and Feifei were making their way back to the Luvile Universe. *Achoo!* Feifei looked at Krune, surprised. "Can you still sneeze at your level of cultivation?" Krune didn''t know what to say either. "I''m as surprised as you are." Sure enough, Krune and Feifei arrived back at the Luvile Universe a few days later. Krune then went straight to Lani, just to find out the same outcome as Lucio. However, Tixan wasn''t there anymore when he arrived. The guys had already gone back to the Thakulo Universe, where he said he would prepare his things for the Ascension Tribulation. "Anyway, it''s good to see that you''re fine, grandmaster. As for the trade route, Luvile Universe can try that again after a chaos cycle passes. The big four saw how you fought there, so they should know that none of them would be able to do better." Krune was still surprised to know that Lani had a Purple Tribulation Lightning Source. Unlike Ula, Lani hid it very well. Only Luvile noticed that in the end. "Well, the trade route will affect the sect''s income, but we can deal with it. By the way, I will have to shamelessly ask you for another staff." Krune didn''t mind. "It''s fine. Though, I didn''t expect that anyone in the Mortal Realm could damage it, let alone cut it in half." Lani understood his thought process. "Believe it or not, he used a simple iron sword. You should take a look next time." Krune was even more shocked now. "I definitely will." Chapter 783: Silver Lining Krune received Lani''s staff back, which had been split in half. Although it was broken, he could still use its material for the new one. After that, he went ahead and reforged it for Lani. Back in the Thakulo Uniserve, Tixan went to talk with Jojle. "I got that trade route you asked, so we''re even now." Jojle nodded with a smile. "Sorry for troubling you, Senior Phantom Blade. I already prepared a banquet for you. Please come with me." Tixan shook his head in response. "There''s no need. I went to my home first to take all my things. I''m just passing by to tell you that I''m finally leaving." Jojle was taken aback as he responded. "Le-leaving?! Where? Was there something that you disliked here? I can definitely fix it up for you." Tixan shook his head as he said. "No. You know that I''ve been in the Peak of the Divinity Realm for some time, right? I''ve decided to ascend to the Godly Path Realm. Well, even if I held my cultivation back, I wouldn''t be able to stay for more than 1000 years or so. Considering our lifespan, this is simply no time at all." Jojle couldn''t help but insist. "But we''re in a delicate balance at the moment. We still don''t know what would happen to Dalin. We truly might need senior''s help to recover it in case we find a way through the Dalin Universe Protection Formation." Tixan shook his head. "That won''t do. I already agreed to ascend together with that guy I battled before. He''s also at the limit of time at which he can stay here, so I will take this chance to go as well. Besides, the Mortal Realm has been quite boring for some time already." "Wait! Lani? Are you going to ascend with the guy you beat during that trade route dispute? Why?" Tixan laughed in response. "Because he was the only one who was able to force me to use my sword. His strength will make things easier for me in the next realm since I don''t know where we''ll be sent. Well, this isn''t a bad thing for you either. You might not have me around anymore, but Lani is also leaving. I''m sure you like this idea." Of course, Jojle liked it. After all, Lani was related to Krune and the Wisp God. It''s good news that he was leaving. However, Jojle didn''t think it was worth losing Tixan over it. "Senior. Is there really no way to make you reconsider it?" Tixan shook his head. "It''s already decided. Alright, if you succeed in your ascension tribulation, I''ll see you in the Godly Path Realm in the future." Tixan didn''t wait for Jojle to answer back before disappearing from the room. Before he knew it, Tixan already opened a Spatial Gate and left his Divine Sense range. Jojle''s regret from sending Tixan to that dispute over a useless trade route was all that was left. A few days later, Krune finished Lani''s new Purple Flame Staff. This time, he made it even more resistant while keeping its ability to bend. "Alright, grandmaster. Try it out." Lani already finished healing his body by now, so he gladly accepted the new staff. After using a few skills in a closed dimensional realm, he nodded. "Excellent!" However... "Indeed, it looks excellent." Krune and Lani were taken aback by that voice. Suddenly, a hole in the Dimensional Realm appeared, which was used by Tixan to come inside. Lani looked at that and couldn''t help but sigh. "Couldn''t you at least inform the others that you were coming? Wait! This Dimensional Realm was supposed to be locked inside the Sect''s Protection Formation. Could it be..." Tixan nodded as he replied. "Oh! That eggshell outside? I cut through it." Lani then spread his Divine Sense outside the Dimensional Realm. Sure enough, the entire sect was in chaos due to the sudden appearance of that hole. He quickly informed Lucio why that happened. Only then did the elders and the rest calm down. "Don''t break other''s protection formations! They''re expensive!" Tixan laughed in response. "Hehe. Sorry, sorry." Tixan then looked at Krune, who was looking at him with curious eyes. "Are you the wisp I was supposed to fight before?" Krune nodded. "Yes. But I had other things to do, so my grandmaster took my place." Tixan nodded as he came down. "I see. Well, nice to meet you." It was then that Lani remembered something. "Oh, right! Tixan, show your sword to Krune." Tixan narrowed his eyes. "You should know that I don''t show my sword that easily, right?" Lani shook his head. "That''s not it. Show it to Krune since I think he can help you fix it." "Fix it? I tried it before. My sword is too old at this point. None of the Divinity Stars Blacksmiths could find a way of making it good again without changing the structure. However, it would become another sword entirely, so I can''t allow that to happen." Krune heard from Lani about Tixan''s sword and how it was just a simple iron sword. As well as the fact that what made it terrifying was the commitment Tixan had for it. "Senior, let me take a look. As you can see in the Staff my Grandmaster is using, my forging process is unlike others." Tixan pondered for a bit but nodded in the end. Soon after, a worn-out iron sword with cracks and chips everywhere had appeared. It was truly a trash sword through and through. However, it looked completely different in Krune''s eyes. "Mind if I hold it, senior?" Tixan nodded. "Sure. But if you break it, I''ll kill you." Krune bitterly smiled but received the sword nonetheless. His Mental Energy then entered it together with his Divine Sense. "Truly impressive. I can feel the power of the sword laws everywhere on this sword. It''s the purest one I have ever felt so far." Tixan raised his eyebrow in surprise. "You can tell?" Krune nodded. Following that, Krune sat on the floor and put the sword on his lap. His hands then touched it as he summoned some of his Purple Flames. With his advancement in Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws, he could use it without damaging anything. Tixan narrowed his eyes as he saw those flames enter the cracks of the sword. He was just about to stop Krune when suddenly, Lani put a hand on his shoulders. "Give him a chance." Tixan was in a dilemma. However, he quickly noticed that although those flames enveloped his Iron Sword, it was as if they weren''t even there. The sword structure suffered no changes at all. "That''s quite impressive." Krune ignored Lani and Tixan as he concentrated on the issues of the sword. A few minutes later, his Purple Flame receded as he got up once again. "The issue is that the material is truly too common and weak." Tixan was taken aback. "Wait a second. You talked as if you had a way to fix it without changing the sword." Krune nodded. "I do have a way to do so. However, there''s still a risk involved since I''ve never used it before." Krune then passed Tixan''s sword back to him before saying. "Senior should think things through before deciding whether you wanna try it or not." Tixan looked at Krune. "What are the chances here?" Krune pondered for a bit. "I would say something around 40 to 45 percent chance of success." Tixan took a deep breath before saying. "Explain to me what you plan to do." "This..." Krune looked at Lani, who understood his meaning. "Just say it. Tixan won''t tell anyone. Anyone who reached such a level of sword laws must have a very sharp mind." Krune nodded. "Alright. I''m going to transform the sword''s iron into Godly Iron. For that, I will need to use Godly Energy. However, I''m not sure how much Godly Energy simple iron can withstand. Also, I will have to use my Purple Flames to forge it, which will change the weapon into a Purple Flame-type weapon, just like grandmaster''s staff." "Purple Flame? Is it that specific effect of raising the weapon''s attack power that others talked about?" Krune nodded. "Indeed. However, in your hands, the sword will still look just like the same. The only difference is that it would have a purple hue on it. Nonetheless, I won''t remove any of the sword''s iron at all. That way, it isn''t wrong to say that this will still be your Iron Sword." "Just one thing, though. I would need to feel the gaps in the cracks with another metal. Naturally, the sword''s heaviness will be affected due to the new material. I don''t know if senior''s ''commitment'' would be affected by that or not." Tixan immediately shook his head. "My commitment for the sword is due to the fact that my father gave it to me. As long as it is still my father''s sword, adding a little bit of other material wouldn''t matter. However, it has to be my iron sword in the end. However... what do you mean by changing it into Godly Iron? Do you have Godly Energy available?" Krune nodded, quickly using the same excuse as always. "Senior Wally gave me quite a few Godly Energy Stones. The fact that this is just simple iron is bad due to its quality. However, it''s also a good thing since it will be easier to transform. It will accept a new type of energy much easier." Tixan nodded. If it was the Wisp God, then it made sense that Krune had Godly Energy Stones. Tixan then pondered about it. After all, it was a 40% to 45% success rate. If Krune fails, he might lose his sword straight away. "Fuck it! My sword has already reached this point. Whether I try to fix it or not, it will break sooner than later. Since that''s the case, I might as well grab this chance." Chapter 784: A New Sword Krune smiled before saying. "Very well. Senior Tixan can come with me to watch the process if you wish to. It''s also good since my understanding of this sword will never reach your own. That being said, we might increase the success rate if you participate." Tixan nodded. Even if Krune didn''t ask, he wouldn''t leave his sword''s side either way. It was just too important to him. It was then that Tixan thought about something else. "Oh, right! What do you want as payment?" Krune laughed, not minding it too much. "It''s fine. Since you''re my grandmaster''s friend, I can do it for free. It''s not like I lack Spirit Stones anyway." Tixan narrowed his eyes in response. "No can do. It will go against my own personality." Tixan then checked Krune with his Divine Sense before saying. "It seems like you aren''t a Heavenly Core Owner yet, right? I can get you an Ownerless Heavenly Fragment. How about that?" Krune was surprised to hear that. "Are you sure? These things are just too hard to find. I have no doubt that they''ll be super expensive." Tixan shook his head as he said. "Don''t worry. With this old man''s power, I want to see who will refuse to negotiate with me. Hahaha!" Krune couldn''t help but feel sorry for the power behind the Heavenly Fragment he would get from Tixan. After he found about Tixan''s real power, he was certain about one thing. He really wasn''t sure if he could defeat Tixan at his actual level. If it was any ordinary Peak Divinity Realm cultivator or Demon Beasts, Krune wouldn''t care much. His time in the Godly Path Realm made him that much stronger. However, Tixan was obviously in a completely different league of his own. ''It''s good that we aren''t enemies.'' Lani didn''t have much to do at the moment, so he also followed the two. During the next few days, Krune worked with Tixan to analyze that iron sword through and through. It turned out that Tixan''s knowledge of his own sword truly helped him. He found points that even his Mental Energy failed to detect, all thanks to Tixan''s commitment to that single sword. After making sure that he couldn''t obtain any more knowledge from it, Krune finally began the process of changing the iron sword into a Godly Iron type. He didn''t hold back and used Top Quality Godly Energy Stones from the very start. Tixan wasn''t really focused on any specific primary element, so Krune used the Godly Energy Stones he got from Kun-Peng''s body. Those ones were full of Space Laws and Energy, so they could be considered to be neutral. Tixan was impressed by the energy inside those stones. ''As expected of the Wisp God. The things he got from the God Realm are incredibly impressive.'' Of course, he was also happy to see that his Iron Sword got to use those specific ones. It''s just that he didn''t know how much better those Godly Energy Stones were compared to the ones he would find in the Godly Path Realm. Krune didn''t tell him about it either. During the transformation process, the swords almost succumbed to the pressure of Godly Energy. If not because Krune was there to control the change, it would have definitely broken apart a long time ago. Fortunately, Tixan was even faster at noticing the issues with his iron sword, so he was able to warn Krune in advance. Eventually, the excruciatingly time-consuming process was over three weeks later. Even with his cultivation, Krune felt quite tired. Nonetheless, he was pleased with the end result. "Great! It was really a good thing that this sword was made from such a simple material. Otherwise, the process wouldn''t have been this smooth." Tixan''s eyes lit up as he looked at his sword. He could tell that it was still the same but much more powerful than it had ever been. "Just how good is the metal now compared to the Divinity Stars level materials in the Mortal Realm?" Krune pondered for a bit before saying. "Although it has become Godly Iron, it doesn''t change the fact that it is still iron. Rare Divinity Stars Materials would still be stronger than it. That''s just to show how common the material of Senior Tixan''s sword is. However, it should have no problem comparing to a Semi-Divinity Stars level sword." Tixan was more than delighted to hear that. "Hahaha! That''s great! Before, it wasn''t anything other than a trashy iron sword, after all. Such a change would be enough for the sword to cleave through everything in the Mortal Realm. After all, it''s my Sword Assimilation Power that provides it with the attack power and defense it showed in my battle against Lani." Krune smiled after hearing that. "However, this is just the result of the transformation. It''s time to fill the cracks and use my Purple Flames to reforge the sword. Don''t worry, Senior Tixan. The sword will still be the same one you always knew, but stronger. Oh, right!" Krune then looked at Tixan before asking. "Do you still have the pieces of this sword that broke during your usage?" Tixan immediately nodded as he said. "But of course! There was even a time when I went battling for ten days nonstop. In the end, a few chips fell from it everywhere. Believe it or not, I spent years looking for those broken pieces. Too bad I couldn''t find two of them in the end." Tixan then took a small bag from his Spatial Ring. Inside were the pieces that the sword lost until now. "Great! You don''t mind if I use them to make an alloy to fill up the cracks, right? If everything goes well, these pieces should fuse together with the sword again since they were part of it before. In the end, no flaws would be left behind." Tixan pondered for a bit. "As long as you don''t take away anything from the actual sword, then that''s fine." Krune didn''t waste time and immediately began to work on it. This time, however, the process was several times easier. Godly Iron was one of the easiest metals to work with in the Godly Path Realm, so there weren''t many secrets in its usage. The only difference was that the alloy created with those pieces used more God-Level materials, just like Lani''s staff. A few hours later, Krune held the sword in his hands, checking it with his Divine Sense and Mental Energy. "It''s not perfect, but it definitely can''t be compared to its previous form." Following that, he passed the sword to Tixan, who received it with trembling hands. "Let me check." Tixan then sat on the floor and put the sword on his lap, just like Krune had done before. His consciousness dove into it, trying to find that feeling that only his iron sword gave him. Krune and Lani observed it with some tension. The process worked as Krune wanted. However, he wasn''t sure if Tixan would consider it to be the same as before. A few minutes later, Tixan opened his eyes again. Following that, tears began to flow down, much to Krune and Lani''s shock. "Senior Tixan, did I fail?" Tixan shook his head as he got up with his iron sword. "No. It''s definitely my sword. I can feel the power it has now, but it''s still the same sword my father gave me back them. I can only imagine how happy he would be if he saw how it turned out today. He definitely wouldn''t tell me to throw it away again." Following that, Tixan bowed to Krune to express his gratitude. "This debt is as important as my own life. I will owe you for life." Krune quickly stopped Tixan, though. "That''s too much, too much! I don''t want it at all. Just make sure to treat it well as you always did." Tixan nodded. "Of course." Right after, Tixan turned around and opened a Spatial Gate. "Stay here in the Divine Path Sect. I''ll go out and fetch that Ownerless Heavenly Fragment I told you. I''m not sure if it will be the one you need, though." Krune laughed after hearing that. "It''s fine. I also know where to find a few others anyway. In any case, I''ll stay here just as you say, senior." Tixan nodded and immediately passed through the Spatial Gate. This time, he didn''t have to break through the Divine Path Sect''s Planet Protection Formation. Lani made sure to add him to the list of those who could enter. Not that he wanted it, but because it would be useless against Tixan''s power. After Tixan was gone, Lani couldn''t help but comment. "No wonder his power increases so much when he''s using that sword. It''s quite obvious just how important it is for him." Krune nodded. "This is good as well. With this sword and his Sword Assimilation Power, I doubt anyone in the Godly Path Realm will be his match at the same level. That''s a good thing for grandmaster and him. After all, I don''t know where you will be sent to when you arrive there. I dare say that Senior Tixan might be able to fight Mortal Rejection Realm cultivators and demon beasts from the very start." Lani asked something else. "I showed you my memories of that battle against him. In your opinion, who''s stronger? You or Tixan?" Krune pondered for a bit before saying. "If it was with his normal Iron Sword, I would say that I have a 30% chance of winning. But with that new sword I made for him, I doubt I have a chance more than 10%. Senior Tixan is just that ridiculously strong." Lani nodded. In any case, Krune was still 5 stages behind in his cultivation. Once he reached the Peak of the Divinity Realm, things might not be so simple. Chapter 785: Time to Go Krune passed the next few days in the Divine Path Sect with Feifei. At some point, Feifei''s parents also came to visit before leaving again. Eventually, a new Spatial Gate appeared outside the Divine Path Sect''s planet, and Tixan came out. At the very next moment, h already teleported down into the sect where Lani was staying. "Alright, I''m back." Lani sighed before saying. "Can''t you at least announce your presence? How can you just go entering other people''s houses like that? That''s not right." Tixan shrugged his shoulders as he looked around. "Leaving that aside, where''s the wisp? I brought his Ownerless Heavenly Fragment." Lani spread his Divine Sense around the sect and quickly found Krune cultivating with Feifei in his room. ''Krune, Tixan is calling you over.'' Krune opened his eyes and nodded. After telling Feifei what happened, he teleported beside Lani''s hut. "Grandmaster, I''m here." "Enter." As Krune entered the hut, Lani looked at Tixan. "See? That''s how you do it." Not understanding anything, Krune looked at Tixan and Lani. "Ahem... here are your Ownerless Heavenly Fragments." Krune and Lani were taken aback. "Fragments? There''s more than one?" Tixan laughed in response. "Hahaha! I told you I have a huge debt to pay, didn''t I? I decided that I might as well get more than one. Here, take these three. I hope they''re enough for you. It''s just that I don''t know which type they are, so I can''t tell if they''ll fit yours." Krune took a deep breath and held all three fragments in his hands. Even if they weren''t good for him, they might still be useful for Feifei. Even if Feifei already had them, he can also offer the fragments to Lia, the Mountain girl. "Try it out. You just need the Destiny Fragment now." Krune nodded and quickly sat down before trying to absorb the very first one. The process went smooth until finally, the fragment was repelled away by the Space Fragment inside Krune''s Foundation. "I already have this one. It''s a Space Heavenly Fragment." Krune then tried the next one, which turned out to be a Yang Heavenly Fragment. Krune wasn''t sad, though. That''s because Feifei needed both fragments. With that, she would only need the Elemental and Time Heavenly Fragments to complete her own Heavenly Core. Krune quickly put those Heavenly Fragments away and went for the last one. Once again, the entire process went smoothly. However, it was at this moment that Tixan smiled. "Congratulations. You now have a Heavenly Core." Krune was taken aback. Didn''t he say he didn''t know which Heavenly Fragments these were? However, Krune didn''t have time to ask that as the Heavenly Fragment turned out to be a Destiny Havenly Fragment, the very last one he needed. The fragment fought back as always, trying to reject Krune''s Fragments. However, it also lost the battle since it didn''t have its Universe''s support anymore. The Heavenly Fragments turned into a liquid as they fused together. At the very moment that happened, Krune''s Element Divine Soul shone brightly. At that moment, everyone at the Divinity Realm in Luvile Universe felt the shift in the Laws. The Universe recognized the appearance of a new Heavenly Core as the laws flowed into the Divine Path Sect''s planet. The Sacred Lands'' leaders immediately understood what was happening since they had old records of previous Heavenly Fragment Owners. "From the direction it''s originating, it''s the Divine Path Sect." "Sigh... With the Wisp God''s support, it''s no wonder he could do that." "I wonder just how much he paid to get the Ownerless Heavenly Fragments." There were a few other people who also noticed the appearance of a new Heavenly Core in the Luvile Universe, the other Heavenly Fragment Owners. Lia, Feifei, and Askol. All three of them looked in the direction where Krune was located. Even without anyone telling them, they subconsciously knew what happened. Feifei smiled as she got up and teleported away. She wanted to see that change with her own eyes. Soon, Feifei and a few other elders at the Divinity Realm arrived outside Lani''s hut. However, only Lucio and Feifei entered it as the rest stayed outside. At the moment, Krune was in a trance as his new Heavenly Core accepted the intervention of the Luvile Universe. All laws rushed into his Wisp Core, quickly entering his Divine Soul and Heavenly Core. Other than that, Krune''s cultivation also began to go up. The process took almost an hour to be over. In the end, the laws went back to normal, as if nothing had happened before. However, other than the new Heavenly Core, Krune had also advanced one stage, now in the 5th Stage of the Divinity Realm. "Phew... It''s finally over." It was then that he noticed Feifei and Lucio were there as well. Feifei quickly came forward before giving him a kiss. "Congratulations." He smiled as he looked at her. After that, he looked at his Master and Grandmaster, who were also smiling at him. Finally, he looked at Tixan before he asked. "Senior Tixan, didn''t you say you didn''t know which types these Heavenly Fragments were?" Tixan laughed in response as he said. "I lied. I wanted to see your surprise when you found out I got the exact fragment you needed." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "In that case, wouldn''t it be better if you brought the Destiny Heavenly Fragment alone?" Tixan nodded. "True. The problem was that I got the previous two before finding out about the third one. By the time the guy told me it was a Destiny Heavenly Fragment, I already paid for the others, so I could only bring them with me." "I see... If senior desires, I can pay for these two other fragments. My wife still needs them." Feifei was surprised to hear that. "Aren''t they repelled ones?" Krune shook his head in response. "No, they''re Space and Yang Heavenly Fragments. You still need both of them, right?" Feifei nodded happily. Tixan, on the other hand, simply shook his head. "It''s fine. This isn''t even close to paying the debt I owe you for fixing my sword." Krune didn''t insist. "If you say so." Lucio also asked something. "How does it feel to have a full Heavenly Core?" Krune pondered for a bit about that question. "Well, it isn''t too different from having an Elemental Divine Soul. You know how it makes it easier for us to comprehend the five primary laws, right? It''s basically the same thing. I can now feel the presence of all laws of the worlds really easily." "However, there''s a difference. The way I could interact with the laws before and now is totally different. Before, I manipulated the laws to work in my favor. Now, the laws move as I wish. It feels like second nature to me. It''s incredibly fascinating." Krune then extended his hand and called forth the five primary elements and laws. They immediately fused, turning into the Black Fused Element. However, Lani and Lucio could immediately tell. That wasn''t the Advanced Stage of the Elements Regulation Technique anymore, but the culmination! "This... Did the Heavenly Core allow you to finish comprehending the Elements Regulation Technique?" Krune nodded. "It helped me to understand the last step I needed for it. If not for the Heavenly Core formation, I would take many years to do it. Of course, there''s one more reason that I''m sure you understand." Obviously, Krune was talking about Soren''s Soul Cultivation Technique. Part of the requirements to enter the Soul Source Realm was to perfectly fuse the five elements and laws. Thanks to that, it was even easier for Krune to reach this step. Now he only needed to use Mental Energy and Fused Element to create his own Mental Energy Source. Once that happened, he would be officially in the next Soul Realm. Lucio, Lani, and Feifei nodded. In Lucio and Lani''s case, they could try and create a Mental Energy Source already. Even though they followed a different path, it was true that they can also perfectly fuse the five elements. The only reason they haven''t tried it yet is that it also meant giving up reincarnation. They weren''t sure if they would go to the next step or not. Seeing that Krune was fine, Lani sent a Divine Sense message to the elders outside, telling them to prepare. "Alright, it''s time." Tixan looked at Lani and nodded. "Indeed. With this, I don''t have anything else to deal with in the Mortal Realm anymore." Krune, Feifei, and Lucio were taken aback. "Master, are you going to ascend now?" Lani nodded. "There''s no need for me to stay in the Mortal Realm anymore either. I spent thousands of years here. However, the elders, Krune, and you are more than enough to take care of it." Krune and Lucio sighed but nodded nonetheless. With the way the Divine Path Sect was growing, they could already stand on their own without Lani holding the fort. "Have a safe trip, Master." "Have a safe trip, Grandmaster." Feifei wasn''t part of the Divine Path Sect, so she didn''t say anything and only sent Lani off. "Have a safe trip, Senior Lani." The elders quickly sent a Divine Sense message to the entire sect, telling that their Ancestor was now going through his Ascension Tribulation. They also disclosed the place where Lani would pass through it. Of course, only those capable of opening Spatial Gates would be able to come and see. Somewhere else in the Divine Path Sect territory, many Spatial Gates opened one after another. Naturally, Lani''s group was one of them. It was time to go. Chapter 786: Gone Everyone kept themselves far away from Tixan and Lani so they wouldn''t get involved in the Tribulation. Of course, Lani and Tixan stayed far away from each other as well to not make things difficult. As long as they ascended from the same place, that would be fine for them. The two then concentrated on their cultivations and finally made the last push. With that, their cultivation had reached the highest point it could possibly reach in the Mortal Realm, which naturally called forth the tribulation clouds. As everyone knew, Luvile Universe''s Tribulation was Purple Lightning. However, it mattered not for the ascension tribulation. After all, this specific Tribulation would call forth all elements instead of a single one. Back then, Krune had a difficult time passing through it. It was only thanks to Luvile that he succeeded in the end. However, that was also his last breakthrough in the Mortal Realm. The next ones happened in the Godly Path Realm. Sure enough, the Water Tribulation was the first one. Lani used his fused elements with spiritual energy to keep it at bay. Tixan seemed to be having an even easier time as his Sword Laws alone were enough to keep it away. In fact, he seemed somewhat bored. Soon after was the Earth Tribulation, which tried to solidify their bodies. Unfortunately, it couldn''t surpass Lani and Tixan''s recovery speed. Krune couldn''t help but feel somewhat wronged. It had been so hard for him when he went through it before. The Wind Tribulation came next, and Lani increased his spiritual energy usage. In the end, what was supposed to be the hardest Tribulation of all, with only a 1% chance of passing through, seemed to be nothing but a walk in the park for those two. Well, Tixan was an anomaly to start with. As for Lani, he had way too many perks under his belt. Chaos Meridians, Mental Energy, Purple Tribulation Lightning Source, Purple Flame Weapon, Fused Elements... It would be hard for the Ascension Tribulation to do anything to him like that. The next one after that was the Fire Tribulation, which quickly joined the other three. Tixan finally began to use his Spiritual Energy to increase his Sword Laws and Sword Assimilation Power. Other than that, he seemed to be fine. Lani was using more Spiritual Energy, but Krune and the others could tell that he was far from his limit. Sure enough, the first four tribulations weren''t that dangerous to them. Finally, the last elemental Tribulation arrived, Lightning. However, this was the Luvile Universe, after all. That being said, what came down were Purple Tribulation Lightning bolts! Lani didn''t dare to risk his chance, so he used his own Purple Tribulation Lightning to fend the attacks with the help of his Purple Flame Staff. Tixan found it funny, so he kept using his body to act like a sword to cleave through the lightning bolts. As always, there were nine Tribulation Lightning Bolts, with the last one being the most powerful. When that time came, Lani used a skill to strike it back. Tixan, on the other hand, just took his sword out. He understood that the last Lightning would be quite powerful. This was a great chance for him to test his fixed sword. *Boom!* *Boom!* Purple Tribulation Lightning spread everywhere after it was hit by Lani''s strike. Even some of those far away had to dodge to not get hit. In Tixan''s case, the last Purple Tribulation Lightning was once again cut through. Not only that, but his sword slash attack went all the way back to the Tribulation Clouds, opening a huge gap in the middle. Sure enough, ordinary ascension tribulations were of no use against these two. The Tribulation Clouds began to dissipate right after, leaving Lani and Tixan behind. Neither of the two seemed to have exerted themselves too much. "Well, it''s done." Tixan then looked in Krune''s direction. "Krune, you did a great job! Although it''s still the same sword, it''s now countless times stronger. Hell, I feel like I can cleave my way into the Godly Path Realm on my own." For some reason, Krune didn''t doubt that. Lani looked at the dissipating clouds and couldn''t help but sigh. "So this is it, huh? I always thought I would probably die during this Tribulation. To think that I passed it so easily." Lucio, Krune, and the others then came closer. "How is it, Master?" Lani looked around and nodded. "You probably can feel it as well. The Space Laws of the Luvile Universe are gathering around Tixan and me." Tixan confirmed as he said. "Indeed. We will be sent over anytime now." Lani then spoke a few more things with Lucio, Krune, and the other elders. Tixan just stayed by the side, waiting for the time of ascension. Finally, the Space Laws finished gathering the power as Tixan and Luvile began to be dragged into a Spatial Gate. Everyone could tell that this Spatial Gate was different from the ones they usually used. The Spatial Storms inside were terrifyingly more powerful than anything they could create on their own. Even Lani and Tixan''s battle didn''t create something like that. However, it was all being held by the power of the Universe. However, if anyone tried to enter it, they would definitely die almost instantly. Even the Divinity Realm ones like Lucio and Krune would be no exception. Not long after, Lani and Tixan were enveloped by the same power, creating a protective barrier around them. "Lucio, Krune, take care of the sect. Also, Krune, make sure you find the next Sect Master before you ascend." Tixan also said his piece. "Krune, I still owe you for the sword. I''ll pay this debt on the other side." With those last messages, Tixan and Lani were dragged into the Spatial Gate before it closed. The two had finally ascended to the Godly Path Realm. Lucio kept looking at the place where his Master disappeared and couldn''t help but sigh. "Well, it seems that I need to try harder to go there as well." Krune nodded. "We all need to." Feifei then put a hand on Krune''s shoulder. "Do you want to stay for a few more days?" Krune shook his head. "No. We can go already." Krune then looked at Lucio and the others before saying. "Feifei and I have already stayed here for too long. We''re going to keep looking for more Ownerless Heavenly Fragments." "Oh! You also want Feifei to obtain a Heavenly Core, right?" Krune nodded before saying through a Divine Sense Message. ''Yes. With a Heavenly Core, we can both cultivate much faster. Then, we can wait until we reach the peak of the Divinity Realm to head to the Lokrathos Universe.'' Lucio knew what Krune was talking about, responding. ''The Key of the Mortal Realm is located there according to Zule, right?'' ''Yes. I don''t want to risk getting close to it before we reach the peak of the Divinity Realm. Of course, before that, we''ll head to the Luvile Universe''s center. After all, we want to get his body back first. But it doesn''t matter which one it is. We first need to increase our cultivation.'' Lucio nodded. ''In that case, come back after you get Feifei''s Heavenly Core first. Use the time to reach the peak of the Divinity Realm to help Lia. She''s the one who you want to be the next Sect Leader, after all.'' Krune agreed with Lucio. ''That''s a good plan. Chances are that some of the Heavenly Fragments will be repelled ones. I can give her those fragments when Feifei and I get back.'' ''Very well. I''ll stay here to deal with things while you do that.'' Krune then talked with the other elders for a while before he and Feifei finally left the Luvile Universe once more. Krune was surprised when Tixan brought back three Heavenly Fragments, so he took that opportunity to ask for more information about them. It turns out that Tixan was actually a member of one of the Universe Powerhouses. His contacts were several times better than Cinty in the Dalin Universe. He passed him several Universe Powers that had one or more Ownerless Heavenly Fragments. That would make things several times easier for him and Feifei. However, he also told them that those were really far away and didn''t have Multi-Universal Spatial Gates connecting to them. That being said, it would take quite some time to visit all of them and then come back. At least that also explained why Krune didn''t find out about them before. Universes without Multi-Universal Spatial Gates was quite hard to get information from. Even their Luvile Universe just recently got one for themselves. Krune and Feifei then passed by Lakin''s place to talk with everyone. They also visited Makui Planet, where Fie was spending her time with her family. Only then did Krune and Feifei open a Spatial Gate and left. Back at the Universe Powerhouses. They got confirmation that Lani and Tixan had finally ascended. Thakhulo Universe''s representative couldn''t help but bitterly smile. Tixan was a huge asset of their Universe, but he was now gone. Nonetheless, they already decided to leave Krune on his own for now, so they kept their focus on Dalin. As for Dalin, the Godly Protection Formation Krune gave to Little Arty was holding the fort without any issues. With that, the Home Alliance was getting more powerful by the day as the neutral powers began to shift to their side. From the looks of it, it wouldn''t take that long before they defeated the Retaking Alliance. And just like that, a few years passed in a blink of an eye. Chapter 787: Dole Universe Dole Universe. This one had recently gone through an all-out war against its neighbor, the Maqem Universe. Although it was a pyrrhic victory, the ones who ended up having their Universe destroyed were the Maqem people and demon beasts. Of course, the Dole Universe was also deeply affected, still being in a state of recovery. Fortunately, the other ''nearby'' Universes didn''t have an interest in Dole after how it turned out after the war. Besides, the Dole experts were at their wit''s end, so the others didn''t want to make them use desperate measures. Of course, such a thing wasn''t that rare in the grand scheme of things. Dole was just one more of these nigh uncountable number of Universes out there in the Mortal Realm. Naturally, there were others who passed through the same issue. All of a sudden, a hole in the Universe Barrier opened as two figures stepped out from it. Obviously, they were Krune and Feifei. They had been looking for Ownerless Heavenly Fragments, trading them for Godly Energy Stones. However, it turned out that it wasn''t easy to get others to trade with them. There were even some who didn''t have anything to do with the Universe Powerhouses, Dalin Universe, or anything like that. That being said, they had no idea who Krune was, let alone Wally. In the end, they were attacked by those powers which were trying to obtain their Godly Stones from them. It was their bad luck, though. Krune and Feifei might not be able to fight all the experts of a Universe alone. However, that was never the case. Those powers only looked at Feifei and Krune''s cultivation, not knowing what their real strength was. When the attacks happened, it would usually have one or two Peak Divinity Realm cultivators or demon beasts at most. Other times they were attacked by enemies who were not even at the peak of the Divinity Realm, just having slightly higher cultivations. As one could imagine, Krune and Feifei simply steamrolled over them. Of course, they didn''t stay behind to ask for anything else after that. Although they won easily, that was because the enemy underestimated their strength. The next time a group appeared, it would have many times the number of Divinity Realm cultivators and Demon Beasts. Naturally, Krune and Feifei left those Universes straight away before anyone could react. Well, with Krune''s Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer, no one would be able to find them with their Divine Senses anyway. From the Universes they had been so far, only five of them accepted trading their Heavenly Fragments for Godly Energy Stones. None wanted his Purple Flame Equipment, so he gave up offering them. Fortunately, one of the five Heavenly Fragments they got was the Elemental one. Feifei only needed the Time Heavenly Fragment now that she absorbed that one. As for the rest, they were repelled Heavenly Fragments that Feifei got already. Krune decided to give them to Lia when they came back to the Luvile Universe. "This Dole Universe is quite far." "There''s no helping it. None of the Universes around has a Multi-Universal Teleport Formation. Unlike when our ancestors opened a Spatial Gate for us to enter Dalin, we didn''t have the precise location of this one. We could only pass through each Universe one by one to get here." "Well, at least we know that there is more than one Ownerless Heavenly Fragment in this place." Krune and Feifei then spread their Divine Senses as they looked at the situation of the Universe. Well, at least the parts where their Divine Senses could reach. "Seems like it''s true. Most of the planets with cultivators seem to be quite damaged, with just a few exceptions." "So that''s how it looks like after two Universes of similar powers go all-out in a war. I wonder if Dalin will turn out like this." "I don''t think so. The main purpose of the internal war in Dalin is to take it back. If they destroy it, what''s the point? If any side, be it the Retaking or Home Alliance, tried to aim for destruction, all the neutral powers will join against it." "That''s good, then." Suddenly, a few Spatial Gates appeared close to where Krune and Feifei were staying. However, the couple didn''t seem surprised by that. First of all, Krune wasn''t even using his Purple Tribulation Lightning to hide them. When they spread their Divine Senses, they were already expecting that someone with similar cultivation or higher would come. Following that, a few Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts came out. However, not a single one of them was at the Peak of the Divinity Realm. Not only that, but the couple could see that a few of them seemed to be injured as well. It was evident that the scars of war still remained. The demon beast, who seemed to be the leader of this group, then asked Feifei and Krune. "Who are you? Why did you open a hole in our Dole Universe''s barrier?" Sure enough, this was another one of those Universes that didn''t know who Krune was. Krune and Feifei quickly bowed to the man before saying. "My name is Krune, and this is my wife, Feifei. We came to the Dole Universe because we heard you just finished a war against Maqem Universe. We want to make a deal with the power controlling Dole Universe." Feifei added. "We have no intention of attacking or forcing anything. If your leaders don''t want to make a deal with us, we will simply leave." The demon beast narrowed his eyes. "What is this deal about?" Feifei shook her head. "This is a secret that we can only disclose to the Dole Universe''s controlling power. Oh, right! I forgot to ask. Is there just a single power controlling Dole, or is it more than one?" "You don''t know?" Feifei and Krune shook their heads. "We really had never been here before. We came exclusively for this deal of ours. We probably won''t ever step on this Universe again after we leave." The demon beast looked at the others as they nodded. They also didn''t want to start a battle against anyone in their current situation. After pondering for a bit, the demon beast finally nodded. "Very well. I''m Kuge, the one in charge of this region of the Dole Universe. Dole has more than a single controlling power, five of them to be more exact. If you want to talk with them, I can send a message." Krune and Feifei couldn''t help but sigh. Usually, things were a lot harder when a Universe was controlled by more than a single power. Still, they had to give it a try. "Thank you." Kuge quickly arranged for someone to go leave as he opened a new Spatial Gate. "Come with me. I''ll have you wait somewhere else. As you can probably see, we''re in a constant state of alert, so I can''t be far from my headquarters for long." Feifei and Krune nodded, not minding it too much. Somewhere else in the Dole Universe, the two finally came out of Kuge''s Spatial Gate. Under them, they could see a medium-sized planet with a thin atmosphere. Krune and Feifei could tell that the sun that illuminated it had been quite damaged recently as well. "As this region of the Universe''s headquarters, we suffered quite a few attacks here. Obviously, the sun was affected as well. Just ignore it since we''ll be moving out in a few years. Anyway, come down to the planet with me." Feifei looked down at the planet and could tell that a powerful formation protected it. However, she just smiled as she went down with Krune. That kind of formation might have been good against others, but Krune and Feifei were different. Feifei''s Divination abilities and Krune''s Purple Tribulation Lightning made it easy to find the right place to blast a hole through it if they wanted to leave. Kuge looked as Feifei and Krune passed through an opening in the planet''s protection formation before it closed. Surprisingly, they didn''t complain or ask anything about it. ''Well, seems like they really came without any malicious intentions. Otherwise, no one would enter our planet''s protection formation and get trapped inside.'' Kuge quickly brought Krune and Feifei to a building somewhat close to their headquarters. "Alright, please wait here for a moment. I''ll stay here with you until we get an answer from the five powers." Krune and Feifei nodded. "How long will it take?" "I believe it should be a few hours until we manage to get them together." Krune then used that chance to ask. "Oh! In that case, do you have a kitchen here?" "Ki-kitchen?" Krune nodded. "I want to make some food while we''re waiting." Kuge was taken aback. ''Is this some trick? Since when did Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts need to eat?'' "Errr... Sure, we do have one... I guess?" Although he didn''t need to eat, the headquarters had many low-level cultivation subordinates who did. Kuge then asked one of them to guide Krune to the kitchen, where Krune really began to cook something. Krune''s Spiritual Chef ability only got better as time passed. Not to mention that he made sure to bring enough ingredients from the Godly Path Realm for him and the others to eat for years. Soon, his food began to leave a fragrant smell. The kitchen was quite far from the living room. However, it was so strong that even Feifei, Kuge, and two more Divinity Realm subordinates who were present with him could feel it. Feifei just smiled as she felt that. As for Kuge and the other two, they heard their stomachs making a sound that they hadn''t heard for many, many years. *Ghrooow...* "This..." Feifei laughed at that sight. "Hahaha! Don''t worry. This is a normal reaction for those who have smelled my husband''s food. Just wait a bit longer. I''m sure he will prepare enough for everyone." Chapter 788: How Many of Them? Krune then came out of the kitchen with a few of the workers there, carrying the meals. "We have been traveling for so long that we barely had time to eat. It''s good that we can finally have a proper meal now. Kuge and... errr... I haven''t asked the name of your two subordinates yet." Kuge, who had his eyes fixated on the food, immediately answered. "They are Juse and Polik." "Oh! Kuge, Juse, and Polik then. Go ahead and help yourselves. I made enough for everyone. Lilive, Suita, and Gonf can have some as well." Those names were the low-level cultivators who worked there. Naturally, they didn''t expect that a Divinity Realm expert would invite them as well for the meal. In the end, they could only look at Kuge. Well, the fact was that Kuge didn''t even know those workers'' names up to this point. "Ahem... Since this guest is inviting you, go ahead and grab some for yourselves." The three immediately thanked Kuge and Krune before sitting to eat as well. Kuge and his subordinates just looked while Krune and Feifei ate, though. "Hum? Are you not going to eat?" Kuge then thought about how they were inside the planet''s protection formation. If Krune had really done something to the food, he wouldn''t be able to escape after. "Alright." Kuge, Juse, and Polik immediately sat down and took some food for themselves. They thought that it was simply food with a delicious taste. However, the moment they put the first piece in their mouths, their eyes opened wide! Divinity Energy immediately rushed into their energy cores, quickly adding to their own cultivation. They had never felt something like that before. After the first bite, they simply couldn''t hold themselves back anymore as they devoured everything. They finally understood why Krune made so much food. With something like this, how could just one or two plates be enough? Suddenly, a burst of Spiritual Energy came from the guy called Lilive. He was in the second stage of the Core Formation Realm, but just now, he had entered the third stage. He wasn''t the only one, though. By the time everyone finished eating Krune''s meal, all three workers had broken through at least two stages of cultivation. That just showed how powerful Krune''s food was. However, Krune warned them after they finished. "The energy present in the food isn''t completely yours, so don''t try to cultivate straight away. First, take your time to convert the food''s energy into your own. In any case, it should have been quite good for your future." Lilive, Suita, and Gonf immediately nodded. "Thank you, Senior Krune!" Krune nodded as he passed them three sealed boxes. "There are a few desserts sealed with my Spatial Laws inside. They should still be good to eat even after an entire year. Eat them after you finished converting all the energy and stabilizing your cultivations. This is my thanks for helping me with the meal preparation." The three almost cried out of happiness as they held those boxes. Not long after, they bowed back to Krune and Feifei to thank them once more. Krune and Feifei just laughed, not minding it too much. There were few things in the four realms that made Krune happier than those who appreciate his food. "Oh, right. These ones are for you." Krune then passed three more boxes to Kuge and company. "You three don''t really need to wait to eat those since you''re already in the Divinity Realm. The food just now should have helped you save at most a year or two of cultivation, which isn''t much at your levels. That being said, you can eat these desserts straight away." Krune talked as if it wasn''t a big deal. However, for Kuge, Juse, and Polik, that was heaven-defying. In a single meal, they saved a year or two of cultivation? That''s just ridiculously overpowered. However, they could tell themselves that Krune wasn''t lying. Not only was his food delicious, but the effects were also incredibly marvelous. "Just... what did you do to make food become like this?" Krune shrugged his shoulders as he said. "That''s a secret." The Spiritual Chef side occupation didn''t exist in the Mortal Realm, so he couldn''t really talk about it. Nonetheless, Kuge''s impression of Krune had improved countless times after this meal. At the very least, he could see why Krune would do such a thing for them if he didn''t have good intentions. After they finished their desserts, the energy inside was also applied to their cultivation. In the end, Kuge, Juse, and Palik did something they thought they would never do in their lives. They helped Krune and Feifei wash the utensils. No one would believe if it was told that a regional supervisor was put to use a sink, but there he was. After they finished, Krune put his things back into his spatial ring and returned to the living room with Feifei. Kuge also accompanied them with Juse and Polik. However, this time they weren''t acting as guards, but more like friends as they talked with each other. Their previous behavior couldn''t be blamed since they had been on their wit''s end for quite some time. Kuge couldn''t even remember the last time he relaxed like this. Krune and Feifei were able to hear more about the war against Maqem. Sure enough, it was truly a last-ditch victory. More than 70% of their Peak Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts died from the war. The couple and the group continued to talk for some time until finally, Kuge got up and said. "Alright, come with me. It''s time for you to talk with the leaders of our Dole Universe." "Oh! Indeed, it has been a few hours since we''ve arrived." Kuge then led Krune and Feifei out of the living room. However, they found something strange. Instead of leaving the building, they simply entered another bigger living room. There, a woman was drinking some tea as she read some documents. "We''ve arrived. This person is lady Huana. She''s the actual representative of the five powers in our Dole Universe." Krune and Feifei were taken aback. They thought they would need to go to several different planets before finding anyone with such authority. "Errr... Ahem... Has Lady Huana been here all this time?" Huana smiled before putting the documents down. "Indeed, I have. Sorry for lying to you two. It''s just that we wanted to ascertain your intentions first. Also, I watched everything that happened in the living room with my Divine Sense." Krune and Feifei obviously perceived her Divine Sense before. However, Huana was far from being the only one using her Divine Sense to watch the room. They thought it was normal for them to be watched since they were outsiders. "I see... Well, nice to meet you, Lady Huana. I''m Krune." Feifei also introduced herself. "And I''m his wife, Wang Feifei. Nice to meet you." Huana couldn''t help but ask. "You two are a couple even though one is human and the other is a demon beast?" Krune and Feifei nodded. Mixed race couples were still rare, after all. "Indeed. Is lady Huana curious about it?" Huana was taken aback for a second. Indeed, she seemed to be curious about them. Well, most people would be. "To be honest, I am. But let''s leave this conversation for another time. You''re probably asking yourselves why the five powers selected a single representative, right?" Krune and Feifei nodded, not trying to hide it at all. "That''s because we needed someone to help with their merge. After this last war, it became pretty clear that a Universe with so many different powers controlling made it quite weaker. So, in the future, there won''t be five powers anymore, just one. I''m the first leader of this new power that will emerge here." Krune and Feifei nodded. Even the Luvile Universe didn''t have that many controlling powers. It has always been just the three Sacred Lands. "Well, this isn''t a problem for guests like you to worry about. All you need to know is that I can listen and decide whether or not this so-called deal will be accepted or not. So, why don''t you tell me more about what you came here for?" Feifei looked at the others in the room before saying. "It''s quite a sensitive topic. Can we really talk in front of them?" Huana nodded. "Kuge, Juse, and Polik can be trusted. Don''t worry." Feifei nodded as she asked. "In that case, we wish to buy the Ownerless Heavenly Fragments you got from Maqem after it was destroyed. We got information that your Dole Universe has at least two of them." Huana immediately shook her head as she replied. "They aren''t for sale. We intend to use them on our own Heavenly Fragment Owners. It''s just that it hasn''t been decided on who will take them yet." Feifei smiled, already expecting that answer. In fact, most of the negative answers they got were for the same reason. Feifei then passed a Spatial Ring to Huana. "Take a look inside. We can get you quite a few of those. I believe it will be several times more useful than the Ownerless Heavenly Fragments themselves, especially after this war." Krune and Feifei were quite expectant in this trade since the Dole Universe''s situation was in their favor. "This... how did you get them?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "That is also a secret. But if you are willing to trade, we are more than happy to give you a lot more. Of course, we don''t have all of them here, just these samples you''re seeing." Huana couldn''t help but sweat a little. "How... many of them... are we talking about?" Feifei and Krune smiled. That''s exactly the answer they wanted to hear. Chapter 789: I was right Huana thought about the possibility that Krune and Feifei might have more of those Godly Energy Stones with them. However, she wasn''t certain. Other than that, it was a fact that their Universe had just gone through a war a while ago. She had to consider many things because of that. First, who would she be offending if she tried to attack and take the stones by force? Considering how Feifei and Krune didn''t seem the least bit afraid of entering the planet''s protection formation, it was apparent that they had a way out. Even if that wasn''t the case, they might be confident because of their backgrounds instead. In any case, she would be making more enemies during a moment where their Dole Universe really can''t take more of them. Even if she succeeded in obtaining them by force, she would definitely consider the after-effects of that action. After pondering for a bit, she nodded at them and said. "Very well. If you really have more of them, this trade might be possible. I''ll need to talk with each of the five powers to obtain their consent, but it shouldn''t take long." Krune shrugged his shoulders as he asked. "How much of it does Lady Huana think for it to be a fair price?" Huana didn''t expect that Krune would allow her to give a price herself. She then looked at the Godly Energy Stones in the spatial ring and how they could use them before saying. "We have two Ownerless Heavenly Fragments, as you probably know. I think a fair price would be about 1000 Godly Energy Stones for each." That was more than double the price of the first Heavenly Fragment Feifei and Krune got. However, Krune decided to accept the offer since those, to him, were just common Godly Energy Stones. He really had way too many of them. The main reason was that he saw how the Universe was faring at the moment, so that would be his way of giving them some help. "Very well. When can we expect to receive the Heavenly Fragments?" Huana sighed in relief, thinking that she might have asked too much. Still, she quickly recovered. "Just wait for a few more hours while I talk with the others. I''ll give you an answer soon." Krune and Feifei nodded before they went back to the previous living room. Huana then contacted the other five powers'' leaders and explained the situation to them. Sure enough, they mentioned attacking Krune and Feifei and taking everything they had at some point. Yet, that idea quickly disappeared when they were warned about their own conditions at the moment. After all, they wouldn''t receive any Godly Energy Stones and even obtain a new formidable enemy if things went south. The Dole Universe definitely didn''t need such a burden at this point. Besides, 2000 Godly Energy Stones would still mean 400 for each of the five powers. That was truly a lot in a place like the Mortal Realm. The process went smoothly after that. At some point, Krune and Feifei were invited into Huana''s office once more. "I got the two Heavenly Fragments. So, you said that you don''t have more of it at the moment. When can we go through this trade?" Krune then pointed upwards. "There should be a puppet outside the protection formation, waiting for an opening to appear." Sure enough, Huana received a message at that very moment about the weird bird-like puppet outside. That was obviously one of Heavin''s works. Huana couldn''t help but ask. "Isn''t it too risky to leave the stones with a puppet just like that?" Feifei laughed as she replied. "Before you accepted the trade, you didn''t even know it existed, right? So it''s safe." "I can still take it by force and not give you the Havenly Fragments." Krune and Feifei didn''t seem the least bit concerned. "We really wouldn''t recommend such an action if we were you." That''s all they said. Still, Huana felt a foreboding feeling as if she was the one in danger at the moment. Still, it was already decided that the trade would be conducted fairly, so she calmed herself. "I''m just joking. In any case, I already authorized the entrance of the puppet." Sometime later, the puppet was brought into the room, where Krune took a Spatial Ring from inside. Well, that was just a pretense. The fact was that the Godly Energy Stones had always been with him from start to finish. Krune then passed the amount into the same spatial ring he gave Huana before so she could check. After confirming that it really had 2000 Godly Energy Stones inside, she nodded. "It''s indeed 2000 Godly Energy Stones." She then took two boxes from her own Spatial Ring and passed them to Krune and Feifei. Naturally, they had the Heavenly Fragments inside. Krune didn''t even look as he passed his own box to Feifei. Feifei then opened each of them and confirmed that they were the real deal. After that, she closed the boxes again before putting both into her Spatial Ring. "Thank you very much, Senior Huana." Deep down, Feifei was relieved. She was confident that she and Krune could escape this place any time they wanted, just like they did in other Universes in the past. However, one couldn''t always be sure. Besides, that would also mean they wouldn''t get any Heavenly Fragments once again. Huana smiled before offering. "Alright. What about we have dinner together to celebrate this successful trade?" Of course, Huana only asked that out of courtesy. Anyone in this situation would want to leave as soon as possible. However... "Oh, that''s a great idea! By the way, I''ll be the one cooking." Huana''s smile froze for a moment as she looked at Krune''s carefreeness. ''Hey, hey, hey! Shouldn''t you be more concerned? What if we prepare a trap for you or something like that? Can''t you follow the script and use some sloppy excuse that you need to leave? Come on!'' Or so she wanted to say. However, as the one who offered that, she could only accept it. "O-Oh! That''s great, then. I saw that Kuge, Juse, and Polik liked your food very much before, so I want to taste it as well." Kuge''s group was still in the room, so their eyes immediately lit up. Sure enough, they couldn''t forget Krune''s food even if they wanted to. Feifei didn''t mind it much either. Now that the Heavenly Fragments were in her hands, they won''t go anywhere anymore. Later that day, Krune prepared a real big banquet for everyone. He even invited the workers there, to whom no one usually paid real attention. Once again, there was a show of breakthroughs because of the very low cultivation those workers had. Nonetheless, Huana was also taken aback by Krune''s food. Let alone how incredulously delicious it was, just the energy provided to her cultivation alone was amazing. Obviously, she accepted Krune''s deserts without even pretending to not need them anymore. Once they all finished cleaning things up, Krune and Feifei finally decided to depart from Dole Universe. "Well then, Lady Huana, Kuge, we''re leaving now. Thanks for the hospitality." Huana and Kuge nodded. "I''m just sad that we didn''t have more Ownerless Heavely Fragments. Unfortunately, the others had been fused together by a single person during the war. As you probably know, Heavenly Fragments that have been fused can''t be separated anymore, so they''re useless for everyone else." Krune knew that. That''s why they usually only found one or at most two Ownerless Heavenly Fragments each time. "It''s fine. Maybe these are the ones we really need. Well, I hope we meet again someday, Lady Huana." Huana nodded. Krune then opened a Spatial Gate before he and Feifei entered it. However, just as the Spatial Gate was about to disappear completely, Huana received a Divine Sense message from Krune. ''By the way, I left something extra for you in that box with the deserts. What you want to do with it is your own problem.'' Huana was taken aback and quickly looked around. However, it seemed that she was the only one who heard that message. After that, she gave everyone a few orders and returned to the Planet. She then took that Spatial Ring with the Godly Energy Stones. Huana separated them into five equal portions before sending them to the five powers. Only when the leaders confirmed the delivery did she finally settle down. ''Something extra in my dessert box?'' Huana couldn''t hold her curiosity anymore and pulled the dessert box from a drawer. She planned to eat the desserts inside slowly since she didn''t know if she would have something like them again. Like the ones that Kuge''s group got, this box was also sealed with Spatial Laws to keep the desserts'' integrity for a very long time. She spread her Divine Sense inside but couldn''t see anything other than the desserts at first. Only after examining it very carefully did she finally see an inconspicuous point sealed with an even higher level of Spatial Laws. However, the moment she touched that thing, it seemed to have sensed her as it opened like a lock. Inside, there was another Spatial Ring. She quickly sent her Divine Sense inside and was taken aback. There, another 2000 Godly Energy Stones were present, much to her dismay. ''This... why?'' She didn''t know, but Feifei and Krune were using Mental Energy to watch all her moves. Anti-Divine Sense formations were useless against it. Obviously, Huana didn''t know that, so she thought she was safe. They then saw how she tried to convince the leaders of the other powers that attacking them wouldn''t be a good idea. She really didn''t want to do so either. Krune then decided to leave these extra Godly Energy Stones as a gift for her efforts. Well, he really had a lot of those common ones, to begin with. ''Well... It seems like I really was right.'' Chapter 790: Decision to Make Krune and Feifei didn''t wait to return to the Luvile Universe. Krune simply used his Purple Tribulation Lightning to cover themselves from Spiritual Senses and headed straight back to the Luvile Universe. After all, if the real one appeared, she would pass through the same process as Krune. Everyone at the Divinity Realm would notice the birth of a new Heavenly Core, just like what happened to Krune. After they headed back, Feifei took the two fragments out to try absorbing them. The first one turned out to be a Yin Heavenly Fragment, which she already had. Fortunately, she lucked out in the second one as it was the Time Heavenly Fragment she sorely needed. Feifei''s cracked core turned into a liquid together with the Time Heavenly Fragment before fusing together not long after. All the laws of the Luvile Universe also rushed into Feifei as a new Heavenly Core Owner appeared. Naturally, all the Sacred Lands'' leaders grimaced at that event, afraid that Krune and Feifei would now try to take control over the Luvile Universe. Well, Krune and Feifei had no interest in that. At most, the Divine Path Sect might reach the same size and importance as the three Sacred Lands, but it won''t substitute their places. Feifei soon finished her absorption and understood how Krune felt when he completed his Heavenly Core. She never felt the laws to be so easy to control as it was now. Other than that, her cultivation also went up a stage, now being in the 5th Stage of the Divinity Realm. With that, Krune and Feifei''s journey to find Heavenly Fragments was finally over. From now on, they would focus on their cultivation until they reached the peak of the Divinity Realm. Once they do so, only then would they go after Luvile''s body, the key in the Lokrathos Universe, and make a trip to the Luvile Universe''s underworld. Knowing that, Lucio decided to ask. "So, what do you intend to do until then other than cultivating?" Krune and Feifei pondered for a bit. Surprisingly, Feifei was the first one to answer. "In my case, I''ll focus on formations so I can reach the peak of the Divinity Stars level. Krune brought a lot of materials used in formations from the Godly Path Realm, so I want to have the ability to use them. I''ll have to thank Iem once we ascend as well." Krune answered soon after her. "For both me and Feifei, it would be better if we go back to Dalin, where the cultivation environment is better. Other than that, I will bring Lia and Trata with me as well. After all, I need someone to become the next Sect Master, and she''s quite a good choice. Perhaps it''s because she had been a mountain for a very long time, and that''s why she has a very calm spirit. That''s an excellent trait for a Sect Leader." Lucio could not help but agree with Krune. He had heard about his idea a long time ago. In fact, Lucio had known Lia for far longer than Krune since it was Ao who brought her to the Divine Path Sect. Krune was still in the Godly Path Realm when she appeared for the first time in Lucio''s case. "That''s good. I would like to go to Dalin with you to use the Godly Energy in the Wisp World. However, I have to take care of the sect during this tumultuous moment. Dalin is being retaken, so there are many issues right now since we were supposed to have the ability to go there." Krune bitterly smiled. That''s something that couldn''t be helped. If he followed through with his initial plans with Little Arty, the Luvile Universe would lose access to Dalin. In the end, he opted to help Little Arty. "Sorry, Master." *Bang!* Suddenly, Lucio kicked Krune''s butt. Krune wasn''t expecting that action, so he was caught off guard. "Old Geezer, is that how you should accept my apology?" Lucio didn''t care as he replied. "Shut up! Hearing you say sorry gives me goosebumps." Krune''s mouth twitched as he said. "I take back what I said. I hope you suffer a lot during this Dalin issue." Lucio nodded as he said. "Yep. That''s a lot more like you, you idiotic disciple." Krune was taken aback for a second before sighing. "Whatever. I''ll let you go this time since I''m in a good mood." Feifei couldn''t help but giggle a little as she thought. ''Those two really love each other... in their own way.'' It was then that Feifei thought about something else. "Oh, right. Ask the others and see if they don''t want to come to Dalin for a while as well. It will be much better for them to cultivate there while we''re still in the Mortal Realm." Krune pondered for a bit and nodded. "That sounds like a good idea." And so, on that day, Krune called out Ao, Yusa, Shinja, Lakin, and everyone else. After hearing his offer, some decided to go, while others decided to stay. There was only one guy who wanted to go but was denied. "Ruik, you go back to work." "Then, why the hell did you ask?!" "I didn''t ask you. You came together because Liriu came as well." "Sigh..." Ruik accepted his working fate as he dropped his head, much to Tiane, Liriu, and everyone else''s amusement. Liriu then looked at Krune before saying. "Thank you, Uncle Krune. But I think I''ll stay behind with my parents. Chances are that I will ascend way earlier than them, so I want to spend more time with them." Krune didn''t see anything wrong with that. "Not a problem at all. How about the rest?" Other than Liriu, Ruik, and Tiane, only Lakin and Cassy decided to stay. Lakin was already used to taking care of the wisps, and he still felt concerned to leave everything in Ruik''s hands... with a good reason at that. Krune nodded and couldn''t help but smile as he looked at the baby girl in Cassy''s arms. Her name was Miuna. Sure enough, a wisp couple didn''t have any issues having their own kid. The impressive thing that no one expected was that Cassy''s baby was already born in human form. She could switch between the two forms anytime she wanted, but she ultimately stayed in her human form. The wisp race was a weird race to start with. Before reaching the Foundation Establishment and gaining their human form, they were basically a floating core of energy. They couldn''t reproduce, nor did they have a gender to start with. Krune, Lakin, and Cassy thought that the reason Miuna was already in her human form was that Cassy had to keep her human form during pregnancy as well. Fortunately, they had a lot more examples available because of the Myriad Wisps Technique. Any wisp couple''s child that appeared during Lakin''s government turned out to be the same. All their wisp kids were born already with genders and were capable of turning into their human and wisp forms at will. They were not limited by their cultivation like Krune, Lakin, and Cassy were. Of course, they also thought that the Myriad Wisps Technique might have something to do with it but weren''t sure. The reason was that there was a huge difference between the Myriad Wisps and Myriad Energies Technique when it came to reproduction. A baby born from parents with the Myriad Energies Technique would already have the Elemental Meridians right from the start. Fie, Liriu, Ewan, and now Miuna were perfect examples of it. However, newborn wisps from a wisp couple with the Myriad Wisps Technique didn''t have any Spiritual or Element Meridians at all. Well, the most important thing was that they could reproduce, so that was fine. That will just simply be one more weird thing about this weird race called wisps. "Alright. Those who want to come have a week to prepare. Remember that once we go to Dalin, we will stay there for a very long time. My plans are to only leave Dalin Universe after I have reached the Peak of the Divinity Realm together with Feifei." Krune then looked at Lia and Trata before calling them out. "You two, come with me. As for the rest, I''ll see you in a week''s time." Krune then went to a different room with Lia and Trata. Feifei and Lucio were also there, so they followed since they knew what it was about. Lia then bowed to Krune. They had met before a few times, but their interactions were quite limited, so she was quite reserved towards him. After all, Krune was already considered a legend in the Luvile Universe, especially in the Divine Path Sect''s territory. "Is there something you need from me?" Krune smiled as he nodded. "I heard a lot of you from Ao, Ula, and from my Master here. I''ll be straight with you. I was supposed to be the next Sect Master of the Divine Path Realm when my Master retired. However, my cultivation is progressing a bit too quickly, so I will probably ascend before he does. That being said, I need to find a successor for the position, and I was thinking that you were a good fit for it." Lia and Trata were taken aback. That was the first time they heard about it. "This... Is that really okay? I mean, we barely know each other. Besides, I''ve never been in a position of leadership before. I spent most of my time cultivating with Trata and traveling around." Lia looked at Trata, but he refrained from commenting since this was really not his decision. "It''s all up to you. I''ll be there with you anyway." Krune smiled and continued. "Don''t worry. I trust Ao''s judgment. To give you some extra help, I will also give you the extra Ownerless Heavenly Fragments we''ve obtained." Lia understood that she had to make a somewhat difficult decision. Chapter 791: Good News Fortunately, she decided to take up the job after pondering over it for a bit more. "Alright. The Divine Path Sect has been helping me a lot during the past hundred years or so. I don''t know if I can be a good Sect Master, but I can at least try to be one." Lucio shrugged his shoulders as he said. "No one is born a Sect Master. Every single one of them has made many mistakes in their time, myself included. Well, at least you''re better than this idiotic wisp who won''t even try becoming one." Krune snorted as he replied. "That''s because a certain old geezer is so slow in his cultivation that his disciple had surpassed him. What a useless master." Once again, the two began to argue with each other. "Ahem... We''re not here to watch your play, you know? Lia''s still waiting for your next words." Krune and Lucio quickly came back to themselves after hearing Feifei''s voice. "Feifei''s right. Lia, for your own good, I''ll bring you with me to the Dalin Universe so that you can cultivate there for a while." However, Lia immediately shook her head. "There''s no need. Senior Lucio is staying, right?" Lucio nodded. "I have to take care of the Sect, after all." "Then I''ll stay with Senior Lucio to learn more about the sect. I''m not in a hurry to cultivate, nor do I want to ascend anytime soon. That being said, I don''t want to hasten my cultivation progress. I think it will be better to calmly learn every aspect of Senior Lucio''s job instead." A tear almost came out of Lucio''s eyes as he could not help but say. "Such a good girl. Alright, it''s decided. You''re my new disciple from now on. As for the idiotic wisp, I''ll just forget that he exists." Krune''s mouth twitched as he uttered. "Fuck you, old geezer! Is that how you thank me for everything I did so far?" Lucio shrugged his shoulders as he asked. "Hmm? What are you talking about? I can''t remember." Lia and Feifei couldn''t help but sigh. How do these two get into fights that easily? After some difficulty, Krune finally finished talking with Lia and Lucio. In the end, he left Lia with Lucio to take care of. He also passed the repelled Ownerless Heavenly Fragments that he and Feifei got so far for her to use. It''s just that he didn''t intend to look for the rest. Well, Lia didn''t mind it either. In the future, she might as well go after the rest by herself. With that situation resolved, Krune and Feifei passed the next week together while waiting for those who would go back to Dalin with them. Well, they had been running between universes nonstop for years, so Feifei made sure to enjoy this free time ''a lot.'' In the end, Krune didn''t know if he got to relax during this week or if he became even more tired. When the day came, and everyone gathered around, Krune looked quite worn out. "Dad... you don''t seem to be doing good." "Uh? Oh... Dad just has to help your mom with her needs, that''s all." Darten couldn''t help but look at Feifei. "Now I know why Fie is so ''active.'' It seems like it''s in her blood." Krune''s eyes lit up as he put his hand on Darten''s shoulder. "So you understand my plight!" "I do! I really do!" The wisp and man then hugged each other. Tears soon came dripping from their eyes. It was so good to know that they were not suffering alone. Their father-in-law and son-in-law relationship had never been so close before. Fie and Feifei''s mouth twitched after seeing that scene. Are they really that needy? Wasn''t that supposed to be the man''s issue? As for the other people in the room, they all laughed. Well, it''s not like they had never heard about Feifei and Fie''s above-average drive. *Pah!* Fie and Feifei then slapped the back of the two guys'' heads. "Enough, dad! Let''s go!" "Fie is right. How long are you going to talk about these things in front of others? Besides, it''s not as if you two don''t like it too, right?" Krune and Darten nodded. "Well, that''s true." Krune then looked at the rest before saying. "Ahem... Anyway, everyone is here, right?" "Yes!" The group that was going to Dalin was Krune''s family, Darten, Ao, Ula, Ewan, Shinja, Yusa, Tasier, Lofa, Arlan''s family, and a few more cultivators and demon beasts that Lucio asked Krune to bring with him. "Alright! Let''s go." Krune then opened a Spatial Gate, and everyone entered it. This time, however, he didn''t need to go to the Dalin Universes'' realm barrier to enter. Instead, he simply used the hidden passage that Cinia knew about. It was the same passage that Lani and Wang Mei had opened for them many years ago. Sure enough, they arrived in Dalin without raising any alarms. From there, Krune''s group opened another Spatial Gate and went straight to the Wisp World. Cinty was cultivating in a room with Kiirion when all of a sudden, she looked in a particular direction outside. Immediately, a smile appeared on her face as she stood up. "What''s up?" "Krune and the others are back. It seems like he brought a few familiar faces back as well." Kiirion was surprised to hear that and quickly got up as well. "In that case, let''s go out and receive them." Cinty nodded before a Spatial Gate appeared. Kiirion then held her hand, and the two soon stepped inside. The next moment, a new spatial gate appeared outside the Wisp World where Krune had just arrived. "Oh! Cinty, Kiirion! It''s been a few years." "Indeed. Anyway, let''s go down." Krune would normally have entered the Wisp World straight away. However, there was a new protection formation around it that no one in his group knew about. Because of that, he had used his Mental Energy to call Cinty from the planet. They quickly arrived at Krune and Feifei''s house and gathered in the living room. Only then did Feifei ask. "Why is there a new Protection Formation on the planet? That one should have surely cost a fortune." Cinty nodded as she explained. "The war between the retaking alliance and the home alliance is reaching its climax. After Krune''s protection formation began to protect the Universe''s Formation Core, the retaking alliance''s situation is getting worse by the day." "However, both sides tried to come and ask for the wisp race''s help, which I obviously refused. I thought that the situation was a little too chaotic, so I had to put that new layer of protection, just in case." Ao, who hadn''t come to Dalin in quite some time, immediately understood why. "Long time no see, Senior Cinty. Anyway, if I''m not wrong, you''re afraid of one of the sides using the Wisp World as an excuse, pretending to be allied with the wisps. That would force the other force to attack the Wisp Main World to prevent further complications, correct?" Cinty nodded as she replied. "That''s correct. Of course, the ones who might try to do it are the retaking alliance. After all, we''ve helped the home alliance in secret a few times already. Besides, we still have Little Arty. If the home alliance tried something like that, Little Arty would definitely turn off the Dalin Universe''s Protection Formation." "In any case, nothing happened to us so far, which is good. I don''t intend to help any side anymore. I would prefer to keep an eye on the situation and see what happens." Krune and the others nodded in response. "Anyway, let''s leave the war aside. Feifei and I came back to cultivate, and I brought my friends since they couldn''t enter Dalin without my help." Cinty smiled before saying. "That''s fine. All of them had been here in the past to cultivate before Dalin was closed down. I know everyone already." Cinty then looked at Ewan, who was Ao and Ula''s child. A hybrid of human and moon wolf. "You grew up quite quickly, Ewan." Ewan scratched the back of his head as he smiled. "Alright. Everyone here already knows that the Wisp Main World has a connection with Little Arty''s Spiritual Treasure. Because of that, we have a constant flow of Godly Energy that''s controlled by Feifei''s formation. Remember, only this region on the Wisp Main World has access to it. Don''t let this information leak since it would be incredibly problematic. You can all take your own rooms from back then. They should be clean." Everyone soon thanked Cinty. After that, Krune went to the kitchen once again with some of his friends and prepared a meal for everyone. They all enjoyed the free time together, ignoring all the issues outside. Eventually, the day was over. However, everyone took the chance to ask Cinty''s opinion about the places with Godly Energy. They had been out for quite some time, so it might be better for them to go to places where Godly Energy was more concentrated now. They could have asked Feifei, but she seemed to be talking about something with Krune, so they didn''t want to intervene. "Oh, I see... Let me check everyone''s condition first. Sit down and try to cultivate with the Godly Energy present in this room. There''s just a little here, but that should be enough for me to have a decent idea." Cinty soon spread her Divine Sense and examined everyone''s body. "Ao and Ula seem to have improved a lot, so you can use a house closer to the Godly Energy Source. Yusa and Shinja seem to have done the same thing, so just follow their example. Ewan, it''s best for you to go back to the same place and get a little more used to Godly Energy. Tasier, same thing. Don''t try to move any closer for now because your foundation is still a little lacking." Everyone nodded one after another. "As for Lofa, you ca- uh?! This..." Suddenly, a surprised expression appeared on Cinty''s face, which caught everyone''s attention. Even Krune and Feifei, who sat a little far away, noticed that. Lofa, on the other hand, became nervous. "Is something wrong with me?" Cinty then laughed out loud before saying. "Well, I guess I need to give you my congratulations." Everyone became puzzled by those words. Feifei couldn''t help but ask in the end. "Congratulations? For what? Did you have some major breakthrough, Lofa?" Lofa immediately shook her head as she replied. "Not that I know, at least. Perhaps there was a change in my cultivation that I didn''t notice?" Only then did Cinty understand. "Oh! So you didn''t notice it yet? Well, let me give you a clue. This congratulation I''m giving is not only for you but for Tasier as well." They all understood almost instantly. Obviously, the most shocked one was Tasier and Lofa. "Eh?!" In the next second, everyone''s Divine Senses and Mental Energies covered Lofa''s body. Sure enough, she deserved congratulations. Lofa was, indeed, pregnant. Chapter 792: Essence of Life Lofa''s face immediately turned red as a tomato. How come she didn''t notice it? Tasier, on the other hand, laughed out loud as he immediately hugged Lofa. "Hahaha! That''s great! That''s really great!" Still, the others were quite puzzled. "You two had always been on the wall, not deciding whether you would get together or not. How come you got pregnant all of a sudden? When did you finally decide to get together?" Lofa dropped her head in embarrassment. It was true. She only got together with Tasier just recently. It was the result of many, many years of effort from Tasier''s side. However, she didn''t want anyone to know that yet. After all, she had refused to wield for so long. Wouldn''t it be strange for her to give up when Krune was also back? Well, Krune and Feifei didn''t care the slightest bit about it. They were genuinely happy for the two. "S-Sorry for keeping it a secret from everyone. It was also I who asked Tasier to keep quiet for a while. Well, it seems like it''s impossible to hide it now." Cinty was taken aback. "Wait! I always thought you were just pretending to not be together. After all, you always went for missions and did other things together." Some of the people present nodded their heads. In the end, Lofa could only sigh. "It took this long because I couldn''t sort out my feelings. I''m very sorry for Tasier because of that." Tasier shook his head as he replied. "We are cultivators who have passed the Divine Path Realm. Our lifespans are unlimited. Even if it had taken another ten thousand years, I wouldn''t mind waiting." Lofa''s expression became redder after that. Sure enough, demon beasts never cared about showing their feelings right in the open. Krune and Ula were great examples of it. Ao laughed after hearing that. "Hahaha! Aren''t you quite the smooth talker for a demon beast? Oh well, I guess that''s the advantage of having a demon beast''s mind." Shinja then took Lofa away from Tasier''s embrace before saying. "How long are you going to keep her suffocated? That''s bad for the baby." Yusa nodded. "''Yeah, this is a kid between a human and a Thunder Hawk. It has to be taken care of very carefully due to the possible complications that might pop up because of the different bloodlines." Kiirion couldn''t help but sigh. "I''m so jealous. Kids between different races have an extremely low chance of happening. Wisps with other races are particularly more complicated. Now, look at you, already hitting the jackpot on your first try. Cinty and I have been trying ever since we got together, but we''ve got no luck at all." Cinty nodded. Only the two of them knew how much ''effort'' they''ve been putting into it. However, it was at this moment that Krune said. "Oh! I already have Fie, so I completely forgot about this issue." He immediately opened his communicator and passed a few files to Cinty and Kiirion''s communicators. "Hmm? What is it?" Krune then explained. "I found it while browsing the network in the Godly Path Realm. They also have the same issues with reproduction between races up there. Because of that, a Sect called Yin Yang Conviction created a technique that solely focuses on it. It''s called the Essence of Life Technique. Well, that Sect has already ceased to exist many chaos cycles ago. However, their technique became widespread ever since it came out." "This technique will force the Yin and Yang of the egg and sperm to fuse together. However, you two must be careful. Both of you will lose most of your energy by the time you''re done having sex. That''s because the Yin and Yang necessary for this procedure will be taken out of your own bodies. From what the records say, it will seriously tear you into shreds." "Anyway, you just need to focus on recovery for a few days after you finish fertilizing the egg." Not only Cinty and Kiirion, everyone in the room was taken aback by those words. "Is that true?" Krune nodded. "It is. Of course, it doesn''t mean it''ll work straight away. The chances are probably worse for wisps who receive the sperm of other races. However, the average success rate of the technique is around 50%. I believe that wisps, as bad as they might be, would still have a 5 to 10% chance. In any case, it would be thousands of times better than the actual chances since you two would need to have sex millions of times before getting lucky. That''s how good it is." Kiirion and Cinty were the most moved by it. They were amazed that such a technique existed. However, Krune would never lie to them about such a thing. He was the type who always tried to get the most information possible about everything, a trait that all wisps shared. No doubt he went very deep into this thing before bringing it back. If he said it works, then it definitely works. Seeing that, Lofa came forward and said. "I hope our kids grow up together as Fie and Liriu did." Kiirion was just about to thank Lofa for her words when all of a sudden, Cinty grabbed his hand and pulled him inside a Spatial Gate. In the next second, the two were already gone. Feifei couldn''t help but comment with a weird tone. "That''s... quite the drive." Ao, Shinja, Lofa, and Yusa agreed with her. However, the demon beasts only nodded their heads. "That''s normal. A demon beast has to be direct." Krune, Ula, Tasier, and the other demon beasts in the room agreed with those words as well. Sure enough, the difference between humans'' and demon beasts'' train of thought was very obvious in moments like these. Feifei quickly put that aside and grabbed Lofa''s arm. With her, Shinja, Yusa, Fie, and the other women also came close. "Now then, let''s go to another place where we can talk, shall we?" "No objection!" Lofa was taken aback by that. "Eh?! What''s this about?" "Isn''t that obvious? We want to hear the details about how you two got together. What are we waiting for? Let''s go!" Before Lofa could even agree, Feifei had already opened a Spatial Gate and pulled her with the other girls inside. Only Krune and the guys stayed in the living room after that. Nevertheless, Ao noticed that Krune became quite sad. "Are you alright?" Krune nodded as he looked at his food. "Sigh... they totally forgot the meal I prepared for them. Oh well, I''ll just preserve it for later." Tasier laughed after hearing that. "Why preserve? Now that I found out that I''m going to be a father, I suddenly feel famished. You won''t complain if I eat more, right?" Krune smiled as he nodded. "Of course not! If that''s the case, I shall accompany you." All the men in the room nodded their heads as they went straight for the food and drinks. As they ate the food, Tasier couldn''t help but comment. "Say, Krune. Why don''t you share this technique on the Universe Network? Couples of different races are very hard to come by. However, considering the size of each Universe, there are a lot of them out there. All of them are most likely having the same issues as Cinty and Kiirion. They wish to have a family, but lady luck is not helping them. I''m sure you can make a fortune if you sell it as well." Krune pondered for a bit and nodded. "That''s true. No! Instead of selling it, I''m going to spread the technique for free. I don''t want those couples, who are already having difficulties starting their families, to be barred because of something like price." Ao and the others nodded. First of all, Spirit Stones were something that Krune absolutely didn''t lack. They would be pretty much useless to him anyway. That being said, he might as well give the technique for free to others. It''s just a technique to help women get pregnant, so why should he bother? That same day, Krune opened a Spatial Gate and left. His initial plan was to stay in Dalin until he got to the Peak of the Divinity Realm. However, he couldn''t help but want to spread that technique as soon as possible. Especially since there was another couple that he knew that would love to have it. However, he also didn''t want to alarm anyone, so he covered himself in Purple Tribulation Lightning before leaving unnoticed. Back on Makui Planet in the Luvile Universe, Bary was taking care of a few documents on the Mercenary Guild. Mile, the White Demon Fox, was there as well, helping him out. Of course, a few other workers and elders of the guild were there as well. It was just another day in the mercenary guild, so everything worked smoothly. Mile''s efforts paid out in the end. She finally got to conquer the man she liked after another half a century''s worth of effort. At the moment, the two had been together for over another half a century. Everyone in the guild felt that it was weird to have a guild leader married to a demon beast. Quite a few opposed that as well. However, after so many years, everyone simply got used to it. Nowadays, no one thought too much about it. Suddenly, a Spatial Gate appeared right in the middle of the room, which made everyone shocked. Spatial Gates could only be opened by those at the Void Breaking Realm and above, which was the level of a god for those in the Makui Planet. However, Bary and Mile immediately identified the guy with rainbow-colored hair who came out of it. "Krune!" Chapter 793: Decisions "Yo! Long time no see." Bary and Mile, as well as the others present, were really shocked to see Krune again. "This... Indeed. It has been a very long time." Krune smiled as he said. "I heard that Fie came to visit you a few times." "Indeed. I''ve met your daughter. I was quite surprised to see that you''ve succeeded in leaving a descendant. Really impressive. She''s now married to Darten, which is even more of a surprise. Not only that, but you also have grandchildren now. How envious." Bary then looked at the rest of the people in the room before saying. "Let''s end our work here. As you can see, we have quite an important guest." Krune shook his head as he said. "There''s no need. In fact, I only came here to give you and Mile something. After that, I''m heading straight back to Dalin. I probably won''t come back anytime soon after that." Mile and Bary became puzzled. "Something for us? You do know that your connection with the Divine Path Sect has helped us tremendously already, right? There''s really no need for you to give us anything else. Our country''s Mercenary Guild even became the most powerful in Makui Planet. How could we ask for anything else?" Krune shook his head again. "No. It has nothing to do with increasing your power or resources." Krune then opened his communicator and passed the same technique to Mile and Bary. "There you go. I''ll also leave it on the Divine Path Sect''s public network, so it should spread around soon. However, I wanted to give it to you two first." Mile and Bary looked at each other before looking at the new files they got. As soon as they did, they were shocked once more. "This... Is this real?" Mile and Bary looked at Krune... or so they tried. However, when they took their attention away from the files on their communicator, Krune was nowhere to be seen. "Where did he go?" One of the subordinates around them soon said. "He simply disappeared in midair." Mile and Bary understood that Krune had teleported away. "Sigh... We keep creating more debts with him every time we see him." Mile agreed with him. "Indeed. To think that the thing we have been worrying about for so long would be resolved just like this." Bary closed his communicator after that. "Alright. Let''s finish our job, and then we ca-" *Grab!* "Fuck the work. We''re leaving!" "Wait! We still haven-!" *Swish!* Before he could finish talking, Mile pulled him away, much to the confusion of the others. "Just what was it that they received from Krune for Mile to be that desperate?" "It''s probably a new technique." "What kind?" "How would I know? However, you heard Senior Krune, right? The technique will soon spread around. We will know of it sooner or later." Bary and Mile disappeared for an entire month after that. No one knew what they were doing. However, because it had a connection with Krune, everyone kept doing their best at their job, waiting for Bary and Mile to come back. Well, the couple did really return after that. It''s just that Mile was pregnant by that time. Anyway, that was a story for the future. Krune had passed by the Divine Path Sect real quickly before leaving the technique with his master. After that, he went straight back to Dalin. Other than Lucio and Bary''s group, no one knew that Krune had passed by again. Back in the Dalin Universe, Krune didn''t know what happened to Bary and Mile. Well, he didn''t need to know since he could already imagine. Feifei noticed that Krune had returned and couldn''t help but ask. "Where did you go?" Krune smiled and explained what he went to do. "Oh! That''s nice. It seems like many mixed-race couples will have a lot of fun during the next few years." "Hahaha! Indeed. They definitely will." Krune then sat on the sofa with Feifei to relax. "Well, it seems we can spend our time cultivating calmly from now on." Feifei nodded. "We do. It will take many years for us to reach the peak of the Divinity Realm anyway. Of course, we can use Top Quality Godly Energy Stones to speed up the process." Krune agreed with her. "Indeed. However, I was already considering that part. In any case, your cultivation will be slower than mine since you didn''t get in contact with the Laws of the Godly Path Realm. Because of that, your body and foundation aren''t at the Godly level yet. That being said, I will use lower quality stones so that we can maintain the same speed." Feifei knew why Krune was doing that. He didn''t want to go out without her anymore. He felt guilty that he made her wait for over a hundred years. "Thanks. I''ll make sure to do my best to not delay you." Feifei then dropped her head a little before continuing. "Say... Shouldn''t we join the mixed-race couples who are going to be busy for the next years?" Krune was taken aback by those words. "You... could it mean?" Feifei nodded slightly. "I want another one." "Wouldn''t that be bad timing? We''ll be leaving to do other things later on." Feifei shook her head in response. "It''s fine. I don''t think I can reach the Peak of the Divinity Realm in less than 20 to 30 years, and that''s already considering your Top Quality Godly Energy Stones. Our kid would already be an adult, maybe even a married one when that happens. Besides, I want this new kid of ours to experience the mortal realm as well. If he or she is born in the Godly Path Realm, they would never know what our home was." Krune closed his eyes as he pondered about it. Truth be told, Fie wasn''t a planned child. Due to how hard it would be for Feifei to get pregnant, they thought such a thing wouldn''t happen. Who could have thought that they hit the jackpot on their very first time in bed? If not for that, Krune and Feifei would still be childless by now. Feifei then looked at Krune with a playful smile. "Pleeease...?" Finally, Krune scratched the back of his head helplessly. "Fine! I still remember Fie saying that she wanted a sibling several times, so let''s make her wish come true." Suddenly, Krune pounced at Feifei. *kya!* Even Feifei was taken aback by that move. Krune had never been this active before. Soon after, he grabbed her and pulled the girl to the room. As for what happened next, anyone could tell. Around two months later, Cinty called everyone to spread the news. "I''m finally pregnant!" Lofa, whose belly already began to bulge, and everyone else, immediately congratulated the couple. "Very nice!" "That''s great!" "I''m sure he or she will be amazing." "Cinty, don''t forget. You can''t go back to your wisp form before the pregnancy is over. Otherwise, it might kill the baby since he or she isn''t part of your own body." Cinty already thought about that possibility. The baby was another being altogether, so the child might truly fall out of her human form womb if she reverted to her wisp form. She would rather not risk it. "Ahem... Since we''re already at it, I also have an announcement." Everyone then looked at the origin of the voice and soon noticed Feifei and Krune. Finally, Feifei took a deep breath and said. "I''m also pregnant." "What?!" Fie was the most surprised out of them. "Mom! Dad! Is that for real?!" Krune and Feifei nodded with a smile. "That''s a decision we reached two months ago. We will be staying in Dalin for quite some time, so we wanted to try once more. Fortunately, the Essence of Life Technique is just that great, so we succeeded." Fie immediately hugged her mother. "That''s great! A little brother! No, a little sister! No, maybe a brother will be better. No, but, but..." Feifei and everyone else laughed out loud at Fie''s reaction. The girl couldn''t decide what she wanted at all. "Whether it''s a brother or a sister, the important is that they will have you as a sibling. I''m counting on you to take care of either one." Fie nodded her head vigorously. Asla and Tuan, Fie''s children, couldn''t help but look at their father, Darten. "Dad, was Mom like that with us?" Darten scratched the back of his head as he nodded. "The first time she noticed that she was pregnant with you two, she was 100 times worse. It took a long time to calm your mom down." Lofa, Cinty, and Feifei then got together as the three talked about the kids that would come. Everyone else also supported them the best they could. Truly, this was a peaceful time that rarely happened in their lives. Things continued just like that for the next several months as the girls'' bellies increased in size. Cinty and Feifei were basically the same. Both were having a kid of mixed bloodline between human and wisp. It''s just that the couple''s race was different, with Cinty being the wisp and Kiirion the human. Nonetheless, their pregnancy lasted about the same as it did before with Krune and Feifei, ten months. Lofa, on the other hand, seemed to take much longer. Lofa, Feifei, and Cinty agreed that they would not check their babies until they were born to keep the surprise. Feifei even drew three formations on their bellies and her own to prevent Divine Senses from checking it by mistake. As for Mental Energy, no one outside their group could use it, so they all compromised to not use it. Finally, the ten months went by. It was such a coincidence that Feifei and Cinty began their labor on the same day. The newborns were finally going to show their faces. Chapter 794: Leave it to me Cinty was the first one to finish her labor. Well, with her Divinity Realm cultivation, it wasn''t really a complicated thing. It turned out that the baby was a girl who seemed to have the same traits as Fie. Sure enough, even though the genders of the parents'' race had changed, the end result was the same. However, the real surprise came from Feifei, who gave birth to twins! One boy and one girl. Even Krune couldn''t help but feel shocked by that. After all, a mix of wisp and another race had the hardest time in leaving offsprings. It was only thanks to the Essence of Life Technique that he had a good chance there. The fact that twins came out was beyond anyone''s expectations. Cinty, later on, came to see Feifei with her own girl and Kiirion. "I''ve heard the news. It seems like you got luckier than me again." Feifei laughed as she held the two little babies. "What are you talking about? This means double the work, you know?" Cinty smiled at that answer. "You don''t seem unhappy with that, though." "Well, that''s true." Feifei then looked at the little girl Cinty was holding. Obviously, Cinty was having the same issue as she had when she got Fie. Well, she was also having the same problem now. Both Cinty and Feifei were not holding the babies so that they wouldn''t fall. No, they were holding them in a way so that they wouldn''t float away instead. "Hahaha! I''ll give you a piece of advice. Make sure to tie her down." Cinty laughed as well. "Don''t worry, I will." Krune then asked Cinty. "So, have you decided on a name already?" Cinty and Kiirion nodded. "Her name is Ary." "Ary?" Kiirion nodded. "Cinty asked my opinion, so I thought about my long-deceased grandmother. Her name was Ary, so I thought it was a beautiful name. After asking Cinty, she also accepted that." Cinty agreed with him. "As you know, natural wisps like you and me don''t have parents, Krune. So I don''t think it''s a bad idea to tie her to an ancestor that did really exist." Krune and Feifei smiled as they nodded. "That is a very good name." Cinty then looked at the little girl and boy in Feifei''s arms. "Now, then. What names have you given the two?" "Well, We were thinking about using Fio if it was a boy to match up with Fie. In case it was a girl, we would think about something else. However, we never expected to get both genders at the same time. That being said, we thought about something else for the two." "Oh! So what is it?" "Luo and Lua. It''s easy to pronounce, remember, and it sounds good as well. Some might think that it lacks originality, but we don''t really mind it. We decided that those are the best match for the two. Besides, Fie''s name also has three letters, so it kinda matches her up." Cinty nodded, satisfied. "Luo and Lua, I like it." It was then that there was a knock on Feifei''s door. Soon after, Lofa came inside with Tasier, Fie, and Darten. Lofa''s belly was quite big already, but not as big as Feifei and Cinty''s when they were still at the end of their pregnancy. "Sigh... You two got pregnant two months after me, but your kids are already born. Here I am, still waiting for it." Everyone laughed at those words. "Don''t worry. Your kid has a half Thunder-Hawk bloodline. It''s completely understandable that you''re taking this long since demon beasts usually do take that long of a time. Still, you probably won''t take more than three months to see the face of your kid. Remember, as a half Thunder-Hawk, your kid will have some Thunder-Hawk traits, just like Ula and Ao''s child, Ewan." Lofa nodded, not minding it at all. If the problem was a perfect human form, she would just need to wait until her kid obtained a high enough cultivation. By then, he or she would be able to change into a complete human form nonetheless. Of course, just like real demon beasts, that human form wouldn''t be his real one. Fie went straight to play with Feifei and Cinty''s kids as everyone chatted happily. Time continued to pass, and sure enough, Lofa''s kid was born around three months later. It was quite easy to see the places where the feathers would grow later. Still, the kid, who turned out to be a boy, had a humanoid figure. It''s just that the Thunder-Hawk traits were there as well. Lofa and Tasier called him Zuan. Everything turned out well for the two new parents and Feifei. And just like that, time began to pass even faster as the kids grew up. All of them were born with natural elemental meridians, so their cultivation was not an issue. Krune and the others rarely ever left the Wisp Wold. After all, it was still an entire planet. There wasn''t much of a need to go out in the kids'' case. They all interacted a lot with the wisps in the Wisp Main World as well. Obviously, as the main hub of wisps in the entire Dalin Universe, there were many, many wisp couples there, especially after the Myriad Wisp Technique appeared. It became quite common for wisps to get to the Foundation Establishment Realm after that if they didn''t die during the breakthrough. Soon, seven years went by. With the help of Top Quality Godly Energy Stones, Feifei and Krune broke through the 6th Stage of the Divinity Realm and were almost in the 7th. Just like they thought, it would take around 20 to 30 years for them to reach the peak of the Divinity Realm. Out of nowhere, Cinty got a piece of information from outside. "Oh! That''s interesting." Cinty immediately stopped her cultivation and went to see Krune and the others. Soon, everyone gathered at Krune''s house to hear what she had to say. "Everyone. It seems like the Retaking Alliance is about to lose the war." Krune and everyone else were taken aback. They heard from Little Arty how the Retaking Alliance refused to give up and kept prolonging the war. There were even two times where their leader came to the Wisp Main World asking for help and promising many benefits. Of course, Cinty refused all of their offers. The Retaking Alliance had never seen a single wisp related to the Wisp Main World in battle from start to now. There were a few of them here and there who had participated in the war. But that was not considered as the Wisp Race taking part in it. It was only a few detached wisps trying to earn merit points to exchange for resources. They could very well appear on the Home or the Retaking Alliance''s side. "So it has finally reached this point." "What do you mean by finally? This is a Universe War. The fact that it only lasted a few decades is incredibly fast." Feifei agreed with Cinty. "I got some information about other Universe Wars in the past. Usually, these things could last thousands, if not tens of thousands of years. The fact that the Dalin Universe Home Alliance can reach a conclusion in just a few decades is truly impressive." "But it''s not over yet, right?" Cinty nodded. "Yes. Although many of the Retaking Alliance experts died or gave up, there are still a few who are insisting on it. However, their numbers are now far from enough to cause any stir. The only way for them to have a come back is to deactivate the Dalin Universe Protection Formation." Krune shook his head. "That won''t happen. The core of the Formation is controlled by Little Arty. Not to mention that he can do it from pretty much anywhere in Dalin. Am I right, Little Arty?" Everyone then looked at the puppet in the room. Sure enough, Little Arty was there with them. "Yep. Of course, there''s also the possibility of destroying the formation that gathers the energy from the Dimensional Sphere. However, that is not a job that only one or two Peak Divinity Realm cultivators or demon beasts can do. Even if it starts to happen, it will take an insanely long time. Not to mention that I would notice it straight away. With the actual remaining forces of the Retaking Alliance, the chances of it happening are basically nil." Fie couldn''t help but ask. "What will happen with the experts from outside who surrendered? I know that you got quite a few of them over time, right?" Little Arty nodded. "Yes. It''s not a problem, though. We already have a way of sending them out of Dalin without the risk of creating a flaw in the Protection Formation. In fact, most of the Divinity Realm experts who surrendered were already sent out of Dalin. That guarantees that they won''t become a problem in the future even if we didn''t kill them." Ao took the chance to ask. "What will happen to Dalin after the war is concluded? How are the forces going to be shared?" Cinty answered that question. "Dalin won''t lack territories after the outsiders are removed. Besides, Dalin''s special trait is that it is good for cultivation and law comprehension almost anywhere in the Universe. I don''t believe the remaining forces will have an issue with that. Especially since many of the participants already control a certain region, so they''ll just stick to that." Krune sighed after hearing that. "So this war is finally reaching an end. Seems like Little Arty''s wish is finally being realized." Little Arty nodded. "I can only thank you all for that. I''m sure my old master will be happy to hear that once I go back to the God Realm." Little Arty then looked at Fie before saying. "I''m counting on you to bring me to him." Fie, as Little Arty''s Master, nodded with a confident expression. "Leave it to me." Chapter 795: Breakthrough A few months later, the Home Alliance had finally emerged victorious in the war. The Dalin Home Alliance winning the war wasn''t that unexpected. After all, they simply had no way of breaking through the Godly Plate Formations that Krune gave Little Arty to use. Little Arty also ensured that no one he didn''t trust would enter the formation''s perimeter, so spies wouldn''t even pass through. Of course, it was a Universe War, so the Retaking Alliance had many experts. Even though the Home Alliance won, there was no lack of enemies hidden in the various corners of the Dalin Universe. The Dalin people and beasts would need to pay very good attention to the situation for the next thousands of years to ensure none of those hidden dangers would turn off the formation. Especially since Krune''s Godly Plates only had a little more than one hundred years of use time before breaking down. A few things, of course, happened here and there. Sometimes Cinty had to go out and discuss the new regime with the Dalin members and the like. Although many of them didn''t like that the Wisp Race was neutral, the top higher-ups knew the truth behind it. It was exactly the Wisp race that provided them the Formation Plates. That alone was what allowed them to have a great advantage during the war. Still, there was nothing much other than that. The time everyone spent in the Wisp World while cultivating was pretty much peaceful. Feifei, Lofa, and Cinty had a lot of time to cuddle their kids as much as they wanted. With the resources available to them, it went without saying that their cultivation had improved smoothly. And just like that, multiple years had passed, and soon, three decades and a few years had gone by in a flash. By now, the Dalin Universe''s situation had pretty much stabilized, with very few uprisings among the remaining Retaking Alliance members. Even the Universe Powerhouses outside understood that taking Dalin down was an almost impossible mission with the Universe''s Godly Protection Formation present. Back in the Wisp Main World, Krune was cultivating inside a chamber with a few Top Quality Godly Stones around him. On his side, Feifei did the same thing. She had even prepared formations so that none of the energy would be wasted. After some time, Feifei felt a ripple inside her Dantian. Immediately, she opened her eyes in delight. "It''s finally here." Krune heard her voice, prompting him to ask. "Oh! So you got there before me?" Feifei giggled when she heard that. "What do you mean before you? If you didn''t hold back, you would definitely have arrived at his point first." Krune shook his head in response. "It''s not a bad thing. Because I was in the Godly Path Realm, my cultivation progressed too quickly. Although I have no issues with my foundation, I had no time to get used to it. It was totally different from you, who had over a hundred years of extra time compared to me. I think that holding myself back was, in fact, a good thing." Krune then raised his hand as Purple Tribulation Lightning began to course through his hand. However, there was a difference this time. He was able to do that with a single thought¡ªno need for any kind of help from his Godly Meridians or Luvile''s. Sure enough, Krune had reached a culmination in the last sub-law of the Purple Tribulation Lightning and merged all the sub-laws together. "It isn''t as good as it was in the Godly Path Realm, but this extra time also helped me put my thoughts together and reach this level." Luvile''s voice then echoed in the room. "That''s true. You got stuck at the last law for a very long time because of you rushing back in the Godly Path Realm. This time you spent idling was beneficial for you." Feifei heard that and felt helpless for him. "Alright, alright. Now, then. Let me do it." Feifei took another few Top Quality Godly Energy Stones from her Spatial Ring and put them around her. Soon after, she began to gather the energy and attack the bottleneck of the 9th Stage of the Divinity Realm! With the Myriad Energies Technique to support her, she was very confident in her chances. Krune just stayed by the side, watching as the girl made her breakthrough with a smile. He wasn''t the least bit worried that Feifei would fail. Sure enough, a burst of Godly and Spiritual Energy came from Feifei''s Foundation as her cultivation increased very quickly. In just a few minutes, it went up and stabilized in the 9th Stage. Feifei had finally reached their objective. "Phew... I wanted to say that it really took some time. However, my ancestor would probably break my head if she heard that. Hahaha!" Their ancestors took thousands of years to reach the 9th Stage of the Divinity Realm, after all. Feifei and anyone in Krune''s group really had nothing to complain about since they only had to cultivate a few hundred years to reach that point. Krune laughed as well before saying. "It''s fine. They also have the Myriad Energies Technique now, so they are pretty happy with it. Talking about your Wang Clan ancestor, wasn''t she in the Peak of the Divinity Realm already? Is she holding her cultivation back to not ascend?" Feifei nodded. "Yes. She was never confident in her chances of passing the Ascension Tribulation at her level. Only after she got the Myriad Energies Technique from you did she began to prepare for it. Still, Ancestor Wang Mei is too important for the Wang Clan, so she would need many years to prepare everything for her departure. A clan operates in a different way than a sect, after all. We only leave the position of leaders to our own blood." Krune could imagine that. "Well, it shouldn''t take long for her now. Anyway, since you got your breakthrough into the 9th Stage, I guess it''s time for me to do so as well." Feifei was taken aback as she looked at Krune. "You...! So you really had been holding back all this time!" Krune smiled. "Yes and no. Didn''t you hear Luvile? Holding back was a good thing for me, so I benefited a lot from that. However, it is true that I didn''t want to make you hurry just because I was ahead, so I was doing it for the both of us." Feifei couldn''t help but sigh. Still, she was happy inside. That just showed how much importance Krune gave to her well-being. He might be a little dense... well, a lot dense... but she loved that part of him as well. "Fine! Go ahead and make your breakthrough. After that, we''re going to be finally ready to go after the Mortal Realm Key." Krune nodded and concentrated on his cultivation. Several Top Quality Godly Energy Stones quickly appeared around him. Not long after, he began to absorb all of the energy inside the stones into his Wisp Core like a raging torrent. It was obviously many times faster than Feifei since he had the Godly Energy Meridians. He controlled that energy and used it to attack the 9th stage barrier. If the breakthrough was easy for Feifei, then nothing else could be said for him. A few minutes later, another burst of Godly and Spiritual Energy came from Krune''s Wisp Core as it spread outwards. His breakthrough was quite strong, so a few of his friends outside noticed it straight away. Cinty, who was talking with Ary, immediately looked in the direction of Krune''s house as she smiled. "What is it, mom?" Cinty then looked at the lady in front of her, who was taking care of another kid. Ary had grown up into a beautiful woman and had even married already. Well, she was already over forty years old, so there was nothing wrong with that. "Oh, it''s just your Uncle Krune and Aunt Feifei. It seems like they''ve finally reached the 9th Stage of the Divinity Realm." Suddenly, a man''s voice came from the door. "What?! Mom and Dad succeeded?! Let''s go see them!" The man was none other than Krune and Feifei''s only male child, Luo. He quickly held Ary''s hand as the two left in a hurry with their kid. Cinty sighed and used her Divine Sense to tell everyone about it before leaving the house calmly. Kiirion soon appeared by her side as he looked at Ary and Luo flying away. "They''re already over forty. Can''t they be a little more composed?" Cinty shrugged her shoulders as she said. "For cultivators and demon beasts, forty years is still young." It turned out that Ary and Luo fell in love with each other, so they got married. Cinty, Krune, and Feifei were more than happy for them since each side knew that they could trust their kids'' choice. Krune was just a little surprised about their child, though. That''s because the two decided to give his name to him. Cinty and Kiirion didn''t mind it. In fact, many wisp couples in the Wisp Solar System used Krune''s name in their offsprings as well. That''s just how famous Krune had become in the Wisp Race. His existence wasn''t any worse than the Wisp Queen, Cinty. Back where Krune and Feifei had their breakthroughs, they quickly noticed the crowd heading their way. "Well, it seems like everyone knows already." Feifei smiled as she got up. "Let''s go out and see them." Not everyone was present. Lofa and Tasier had gone somewhere else with Zuan. Lua, Krune''s second daughter, went on a trip with Fie and Darten''s family. For some reason, Yusa went with them as well. Nonetheless, they were still in Dalin, so it was quite easy to contact them through the Universe Network. Chapter 796: I Can Take Them All Down! Krune and Feifei quickly came out to talk with everyone. They all congratulated the couple happily. Krune then went to prepare food for everyone since it was a joyous occasion. Just like that, everyone enjoyed the news. While they were eating, Cinty decided to ask something else. "Now that you two have reached the 9th Stage, are you planning to leave?" Krune and Feifei nodded. "We have been here for many years already. It is due time for us to go out and explore. The key of the Mortal Realm is an excellent starting point for us. We don''t know what to expect there. That''s why we waited until we got to the Peak of the Divinity Realm." Feifei agreed with Krune. "That''s correct. However, we need to go somewhere first to grab something back." Everyone looked at the two, puzzled. "Take something back?" It was then that Luvile''s voice echoed in everyone''s minds. "It''s good that you didn''t forget it. Indeed, Krune would need a very long time to get any stronger than he is in the Mortal Realm. There''s no point in waiting anymore. It''s the perfect time to go take my body back." Everyone immediately understood. That was something very important for Krune and Luvile, so it made sense. Cinty then asked. "Do you need my help?" Cinty reached the 9th Stage of the Divinity Realm before everyone else. When Krune was in the 4th Stage, she was already in the 7th. She was much older as well. It went without saying that she would be the first one. Of course, Krune might have passed her if he had gone all out. However, it wouldn''t be a good thing for him to rush, just like Luvile had mentioned some time ago. Well, there was also Liriu, who caught up with her. However, he stayed back in the Luvile Universe with his parents, so he couldn''t use Little Arty''s Godly Energy. "No. The Wisp Queen should stay with the Wisps of the Wisp World. That would be for the best." Cinty nodded and didn''t say anything else. She had never gone out on adventures with Krune to start with. She was already used to being the wisp queen. Luo took the opportunity to inquire about something else. "Then, when are you leaving, grandfather?" Krune and Feifei smiled before saying. "We are leaving straight away." The others were taken aback. "Eh? What about Fie and the others? Aren''t you going to meet them first?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "We have been here for over thirty years, you know? What else is there to be said? Our farewells? It''s not like we''re leaving forever. I already sent her a message through the communicator as well. She didn''t seem to mind." Shinja asked something else. "Who are you planning to bring with you for these events?" Krune and Feifei answered straight away. "Only Heavin and his Master, Soren. Too many people and demon beasts might not be a good thing." Shinja was a little disappointed by that, but she understood that her own strength lacked compared to them. It wasn''t just a problem of cultivation. Be it Ao, Yusa, or herself, neither of them could display even a portion of Krune and Feifei''s power. They might become burdens in this expedition. "Alright, then. Let''s finish eating first." They quickly finished the meal. Krune and Feifei then bid farewell to those present before opening a Spatial Gate. And just like that, they left the Wisp World behind once again. Krune and Feifei arrived at the Protection Formation of the Dalin Universe quite quickly. Soon after, Krune used Luvile''s power to open a small hole and pass through both the formation and the Universe''s natural barrier. Days passed in a flash before Krune and Feifei arrived in a universe called Tankren. The reason they came here was obvious. Soren had brought Heavin here to train. There wasn''t anything special about the place. Soren simply selected this one on a whim. Soren also left behind a way to communicate with Krune if needed. A few hours after arriving in the Tankren Universe, Krune met with Soren and Heavin. "Yo! Long time no see." Soren nodded as he looked at Krune and Feifei. "It seems like you two decided to continue using the Soul Cultivation Technique. I can see that you''re already in the 2nd Stage of the Soul Source Realm. Did the creation of your Mental Energy Source go well?" Indeed, Krune and Feifei knew that it could take away their chance of reincarnation. However, they decided that they might as well do it. After all, they were planning to leave the Four Realms one day, so they wouldn''t be able to reincarnate here anyway. Krune laughed in response as he said. "We did, indeed. I hope senior can teach us more about it in the future." Soren nodded, not minding much. Feifei then looked at Heavin, who was beside Soren. "What about Heavin? I can''t tell what level his Mental Energy Cultivation has reached." Heavin then slapped on his Phoenix Puppet''s chest as he showed a proud expression. "I''m the best Mental Energy User of all time. I, your grandfather, have already reached the 5th Stage of the Soul Source Realm." Kruen and Feifei were shocked by those words. "Wait! Doesn''t that mean you can already ascend to the Godly Path Realm, then?" Heavin nodded while keeping his proud expression. "But of course... or so I wanted to say. The truth is that I can''t do that just yet. That''s because I just recently made this breakthrough." Soren nodded. "Soul Cultivation is very similar to normal cultivation in this regard. Even though you reached the 9th Stage of the Divinity Realm, you can''t ascend straight away. You must first go from early 9th Stage all the way to the peak. Otherwise, everyone would be forced to ascend as soon as they made the breakthrough." "Soul cultivation is the same. Heavin needs to cultivate to the peak of the 5th Stage first. Only then can he call forth the Ascension Tribulation. Still, I have to admit, his talent in Soul Cultivation is even higher than mine, the creator. He shouldn''t take more than six or seven years to get there." Krune and Feifei were happy to hear those words. That meant he would reach the peak of the Soul Source Realm more or less at the same time as them reaching the Peak of the Divinity Realm. They would be able to ascend together once that happens. "That''s great!" "I''m happy for you, Heavin." After that, Soren changed the topic. "Now, leaving that aside, you didn''t come here just to check how we were doing, right?" Krune nodded. However, he wasn''t the one that was going to do the talking. Instead, Luvile began to talk through a Divine Sense message. ''We are going back to the Luvile Universe first to take my body back. I came here to ask for your help since I''m not sure about the difficulty it poses. After that, the idea is to go take the Mortal Realm Key before ascending.'' Soren''s eyes lit up when he heard about the Key of the Mortal Realm. "So it''s finally time. Very well, I''m going with you, then." Heavin immediately looked at his Soren. "Master. I''m going as well." "Obviously! You need to keep training your usage of Mental Energy. You would come even if you didn''t want to." Heavin nodded, satisfied. "Well, then. You already know the entire situation, so let''s leave." Soren nodded before he and Heavin joined the group and left the Tankren Universe. Krune''s group finally arrived in the Luvile Universe a few days later. First, they went to talk with Lucio since there was a problem with taking Luvile''s body back. "Luvile, the Luvile Universe Tribulations are being carried with your body''s Tribulation Lightning. Do you know if something will happen to the Universe if we take it back?" "I''m not sure. I''m still clueless about how I was sealed into that place." Lucio gave his opinion. "You told me before that your body''s Tribulation Lightning was being used to save energy, right?" Luvile confirmed and waited for Lucio to continue. "In that case, what was the saved energy being used for?" "This..." Everyone went silent. Indeed, what could it be? Who was using that energy? Or better yet, was there anyone using that energy to start with? It was then that Feifei remembered something. "We can''t enter the Luvile Universe''s Underworld. Could it be that the energy is being used to seal the passage?" Krune and the others nodded. "That''s a possibility. However, we confirmed that there was also Purple Tribulation Lightning preventing us from doing so." Everyone felt like there was something else to this situation. Lucio mentioned right after. "I guess your only choice is to ask the Sacred Lands. However, I don''t think they''ll talk about it willingly." Everyone nodded. The problem was that the Sacred Lands knew about Luvile''s body in the center of the Luvile Universe. Since they didn''t try to take it, there might be a reason. Or perhaps they tried but failed. In any case, there was no guarantee that they would simply let them take the body, especially if they knew the reason for it to be there. Soren then snorted. "Hmph! So what if they don''t want us to take it? Have you guys forgotten about my strength? It won''t matter who comes. I can take them all down." No one doubted that. In fact, Soren could be even stronger. However, he didn''t absorb the rest of the Mental Energy Source that Krune brought to the Mortal Realm. Otherwise, he would be forced to ascend as well. Chapter 797: Speak! At the center of the Luvile Universe, there was a massive black hole. Close to that place was where one could find the sealed space where Luvile''s body was located. Luvile found his body''s location during the time the Purple Tribulation Lightning Essence escaped his body and went to Dalin Universe. Just a few thousands of kilometers away from there, a Spatial Gate suddenly appeared. However, the Spatial Gate had a hard time staying intact because of the effect of the black hole. Fortunately, Krune had already comprehended and merged all Space Laws, so he had enough control to keep it open. Krune, Feifei, Heavin, and Soren then came out from inside it. Naturally, they immediately felt the powerful gravitational pull coming from the massive black hole. Without any other choice, they had to use their Spiritual Energy to stabilize their position there. "So this is a black hole. It''s the first time I''ve gotten close to one." "In fact, we aren''t really seeing it. All we can see is the light that runs around it before shooting back at us. At the center, there is just that black void that we really can''t distinguish." Krune, Feifei, and Heavin used their Divine Senses to check the thing, but even that was ripped apart by the black hole. Soren understood what they tried to do, so he explained. "Around a black hole, Gravity, Space, and Time are all warped. Because of that, even Divine Sense can''t pass through. There is one more thing you should pay attention to. At the moment, I''m using my Time Laws to keep us in the right flow of time. If left, who knows how much time would have passed once we leave this place. A minute here might very well mean years outside this place." Soren then smiled before saying. "However, Mental Energy is a whole other story. It won''t be affected by the black hole at all. You can use it to check this thing if you want." Krune''s group didn''t waste time and used their Mental Energy to scan the blackhole. However, their expression became weird when they did that. Luvile and Soren knew very well why that happened, though. "Hahaha! Pretty boring, isn''t it?" "I can''t blame them. The first time I had the chance to check one from a close distance, I also expected to see something incredible." Indeed. Krune, Feifei, and Heavin were quite disappointed. There was so much romance behind the black hole¡ªthings like wormholes or passages into other universes or even planes. Unfortunately, they were able to identify that they were nothing more than just an agglomeration of mass. A black hole was exactly what it was expected to be. Just a lot of matter condensed tightly enough to become a black hole. "Alright, forget the black hole for now. Just make sure you don''t get too close. Even with your cultivation, it would be unsightly if you get caught by its gravitational pull. However, we don''t know what might happen here. If you see you can''t escape the black hole for some reason, immediately open a Spatial Gate and enter it. You won''t know where you will be sent to since the black hole''s spatial power won''t let you choose a destination. Still, with cultivation, we can find our way back after gathering some information." Everyone nodded before they looked at Krune. Well, to be more specific, they were waiting for Luvile. Suddenly, Purple Lightning came out of Krune''s body before it took the form of a man. Luvile then concentrated on his connection with his body and found the location. "It''s here." Luvile then used a Divine Sense Message to show the exact location of his body. Soren and the others nodded and went to the place Luvile showed them. It turned out that Luvile''s body was on the other side of the black hole. However, just as they were about to get close to the sealed space, several other Spatial Gates appeared around the massive black hole. Soon after, multiple Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts came out of it. Krune''s group didn''t need to think too hard to know who they were. Without a doubt, those were members of the Sacred Lands. It seemed like all three lands came as well. Krune''s group wasn''t very concerned about that. They simply stopped and waited for them to come. Lue Barcou, the Palace Master of the Extreme Yin Yang Palace, was the first one to approach. Right behind him were Tika Tarkulie and Hule Aforein, the All Life Sect and Darkness Land''s leaders, respectively. Lue and the others were taken aback when their Divine Senses touched Krune and Feifei. After all, it only took a few decades for Krune to reach the 9th Stage of the Divinity Realm. How could they not be shocked? However, they quickly came back to themselves. Krune''s cultivation was not the issue at the moment. "Krune, what are you doing here?" Krune smiled before saying. "There''s a body I need to retrieve in this place." Lue, Tika, and Hule were not surprised by that. If not for Luvile''s body, what else would this group be doing here? The fact was that the Sacred Lands had always kept an eye on this place. The moment a Spatial Gate formed close to it, all of them were informed about the news. "Do you know what you''re saying? That is the source of the energy of our Luvile Universe''s Tribulations." Soren snorted after hearing that. "Idiots." Lue and the others narrowed their eyes. If it was anyone else, they wouldn''t accept such a thing. However, they already knew that Krune had a Heavenly Core. Without a doubt, he was much stronger than them now that he was in the 9th Stage of the Divinity Realm together with Feifei. Besides, anyone who followed Krune around was bound to not be simple. "Friend, what do you mean with that word?" Soren didn''t show the least bit of respect. "I meant what I said. You''re all idiots." Still, he gave them an explanation. "What bullshit source of energy? Each Universe is more than capable enough of providing the energy for its own Tribulations. There had never been a need to use that body''s energy for it." Soren then smiled at the Sacred Lands'' leaders. "That''s quite convenient. I wanted to go after all of you before coming here. However, Krune said he didn''t want to start any problems, so I ignored it. Anyway, I got lucky. You all came on your own." He continued. "I heard that the body''s energy was being used to save energy for the Luvile Universe. Now, then. How about you brats open your mouths and tell me what the Luvile Universe is saving energy for? If your answer pleases me, perhaps I can let you go with just a warning." Lue Barcou and the other leaders'' expressions turned dark. Krune was indeed strong. However, they came here with almost all their Divinity Realm experts. Does that guy think that their group can fight against them all alone? "We were being polite here. However, we won''t simply ignore your words that easily, old man." Krune, Feifei, and Heavin couldn''t help but show a look of pity. Even Krune was absolutely no match to Soren, let alone those Sacred Lands'' leaders. Sure enough, Soren released his Mental Energy Power outwards. In an instant, it covered everyone present there. "Kneel!" Without being able to control their own bodies or Spiritual Energy, all Sacred Lands'' experts kneeled in mid-outer space. They couldn''t tell what was happening, only the fact that Soren was definitely the one who did it. Soren then looked at the massive black hole behind him and snorted again. "I guess I don''t need to do anything. I just need to prevent you from doing anything until you fall into that little guy over there. Well, then. Shall we watch the show?" Without being able to control their Spiritual Energies, the Sacred Lands experts were immediately pulled by the gravitational pull. Obviously, they were all frightened by that. Just how could that guy whose name was unknown to them be that strong? Not long after, the Sacred Lands'' leaders received a Divine Sense message from Krune. ''Just so you know, Senior Soren here is several times stronger than me. I don''t think it''s a good idea to get on his bad side. Well, whatever you decide to do is up to you.'' Lue, Tika, and Hule let out cold sweat when they heard that. They thought Krune was the leader of this group, but it seemed like they were completely wrong. In front of absolute power, everything was meaningless. "Senior Soren, please wait! We didn''t know who we were talking to. We will tell everything we know about the corpse." Soren''s expression finally improved as a smile appeared on his face. "Now, that''s more like it." Finally, he stopped using his Mental Energy, which immediately freed the Sacred Lands'' cultivators and demon beasts. They all took control of their Spiritual Energies once again, stopping their descent into the black hole. They quickly returned to their positions right after. Soren didn''t try to hurry them up and simply waited. Tika, Lue, and Hule seemed to discuss something through Divine Sense. After that, Tika came forward to talk. "Ahem... Sorry for our behavior just then. What does Senior Soren want to know?" Soren nodded before repeating the same thing. "I already told you. I want to know why the Luvile Universe needs to save energy? What does it need energy for? Or...maybe there''s someone who needs it? Speak!" Chapter 798: Evil Spirit Tika nodded in response. "It has something more to do with a legend passed down in our Sacred Lands. Back then, a terrible evil spirit was assaulting universe after universe. No one knew what to do with it since it was much stronger than any peak Divinity Realm cultivator or demon beast. The story said that even after the Universes'' main powers gathered, they were still unable to kill it. At most, they could only force the evil spirit to flee." "However, it was then that a body was found. No one could tell if it was alive or dead, but that didn''t matter. That''s because they soon noticed something different in it. The body had an unlimited source of energy, pretty much similar to Tribulation Lightning." "The powerhouses of that time had devised a plan. Since killing the evil spirit was impossible, they should try to seal it. They tried to do so several times. But even if the plan worked, the evil spirit was just too strong. The seals wouldn''t last more than a year or so before it escaped and caused even more destruction." "You can probably imagine the rest already. For the sealing plan to work, they needed a seal strong enough to hold it there forever. The problem was that they didn''t have an energy source good enough for it. That''s when that body came into place." "To create a seal strong enough, they would need the power of an entire Universe. However, if you use the energy of an entire universe to seal the evil spirit, the universe itself will collapse in a short time. Fortunately, that body had the necessary energy for it." Soren couldn''t help but ask. "Then why didn''t you use the body''s energy to seal it? Wouldn''t it be much better than using the Universe''s power?" Krune was the one to answer that question. "It wouldn''t work. The Purple Tribulation Lightning is several times harder to control than normal Tribulation Lightning. If I''m not wrong, it was much easier to guide the Purple Tribulation Lightning to become the new Luvile Universe''s Tribulation than using it on a seal. Chances are that the Purple Tribulation Lightning would destroy the seal instead." Tika was surprised by Krune''s answer. "That''s correct. The Universe Powerhouses then joined hands once more to seal the evil spirit. As for why they chose this Universe, that was basically because this was one of the closest ones to the place where the evil spirit was staying." Feifei then asked something else. "Tell me one thing. Why is this Universe called the Luvile Universe?" Tika nodded. "I''m not sure if this part''s true. However, it''s said that the name was written on a few belongings of the body. Since they were using it to seal the evil spirit, they might as well use the guy''s name to honor his sacrifice." Luvile didn''t doubt that. After all, he really had many things with his name on back when the calamity happened. However, he snorted when he heard the sacrifice part. He was completely unconscious because of the injuries to both his soul and body. It was so bad that Luvile''s soul took who knows how many chaos cycles to finally wake up again. Simply put, his body and Purple Tribulation Lightning Source were used without his consent. Finally, everyone understood just how Luvile got sealed in this place. Tika then continued. "Anyway. The Universe Powerhouses didn''t have the strength to kill the evil spirit but could force it to flee. After completing the seal, they guided the evil spirit into the Luvile Universe. Of course, it was after making sure that the Universe''s Tribulations had been swapped by the body''s Purple Tribulation Lightning." "They then used the Universe''s own source of energy and sealed the evil spirit in its underworld. Not only that, but they were even able to use a little bit of the body''s Purple Tribulation Lightning to strengthen the seal without making it lose control. That''s how it happened." Heavin then mentioned one thing. "I can''t understand. If this Universe is such a big deal, how come it has become a forgotten place that most universes out there don''t even know about? Shouldn''t it have been tightly guarded to make sure nothing wrong happens?" Tika, Lue, and Hule nodded. "We agree with you on that point. However, we already told you, this is just a legend from a very, very long time ago." Tika also added. "I might as well be honest with you. We don''t really believe this legend. Our Sacred Lands even tried to obtain the body for ourselves several times. Unfortunately, it was impossible to break the seal around it." Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "Arent you afraid that the evil spirit could still be alive?" Krune didn''t need Tika and the others to answer since he already understood the Sacred Lands'' train of thought. "They don''t need to be afraid at all." Soren, Heavin, and Feifei looked at Krune, puzzled. "Why?" Krune shrugged his shoulder before explaining. "That''s quite simple. Once someone reaches the Divine Path Realm, they gain unlimited lifespan, right?" Everyone nodded and waited for Krune to continue. "Considering his strength, the evil spirit definitely surpassed the Divine Path Realm. Well, we don''t even know if it was a spirit or not, just that it was alive. Anyway, the point is that everyone will continue to cultivate whether they want to or not." "Now then, we already heard about how the Heavenly Core Owners stop cultivating so they can stay and protect their Universes for as long as possible. Still, it would usually take around twenty chaos cycles until they reach the Peak of the Divinity Realm while holding their cultivation back." "Tell me, just how many chaos cycles has it been since the so-called ''Evil Spirit'' was sealed? Tens of thousands! It doesn''t matter how slow the evil spirit''s cultivation was or how much it held back its own cultivation. Only two things were left to him." "The first one, it survived the ascension tribulation and went to the Godly Path Realm. Or two, it didn''t survive the ascension tribulation and died." Feifei found something strange while listening to Krune''s words. "Wait a second. Can someone ascend from the underworld directly to the Godly Path Realm?" Soren was the one to answer that question. "I think you have a misconception here, little lady. Although we use the term ''ascension,'' it doesn''t really mean we are going ''up.'' That''s not how the Four Realms work. First of all, have you heard about any rule saying that you can only ascend from the Mortal Realm to the Godly Path Realm?" Feifei felt a little embarrassed but nodded in the end. Indeed. No one ever said anything like that. She simply assumed that it was the case. Krune patted Feifei''s head with a smile, making Feifei feel like he was treating her like a kid. Well... she did like it... Krune then continued. "If I''m not wrong, that is the same reason why the Universe Powerhouses of that time left. There''s no way that the evil spirit would be in the underworld anymore, so why should they protect this place? Luvile Universe was already considered to be a distant universe, so none of those powerhouses wanted to stay here. Naturally, it became a forgotten universe once again as time passed." Tika, Lue, and Hule nodded their heads. "Krune''s right. That''s why we also tried to take the body several times." Heavin then asked something else. "In that case, why did the Universe Powerhouses leave Luvile''s body behind? It had an unlimited amount of Purple Tribulation Lightning, right? Would they really leave it be just like that?" Tika and the others shook their heads. "We are not sure about the answer to that. However, we do have a theory. The Sacred Lands tried to take the body for our benefit many, many times. Unfortunately, it''s just too hard. If we are not wrong, it was not that the Universe Powerhouses left it behind, but rather, they couldn''t take it. The seal turned out to be so strong that they couldn''t undo it anymore. Without any other choice, they were forced to leave." Everyone nodded. That made sense since it had to be strong enough to seal the evil spirit. They couldn''t risk making it weak enough so that they could retrieve the body later. If they did, there would be a chance that the evil spirit would escape. They simply couldn''t risk that. Soren finally nodded, satisfied. That basically answered all his questions. "Very well, your answers are satisfactory. With that, you can leave. We need to retrieve this body now." Tika and the others were a little unwilling to do so. If Soren could really break the seal, wouldn''t they be losing the body they wished to have after so long? Soren saw that those Sacred Lands were static and narrowed his eyes. "What? Do you want it as well? Forget it. Unlike you guys, I have a real use for it. I''ll give you ten seconds to leave this place. You should know what will happen to all of you if I get upset." Tika and the others felt a chill on their back. Without saying anything else, they immediately turned around and left. After going far enough, they opened their own Spatial Gates before leaving. Feifei and the others could already imagine what the Sacred Lands would do. "They''re probably going to tell the Universe Powerhouses about it." Soren didn''t care, though. "Forget those ants. Let''s go." Chapter 799: Changes to the Tribulations Luvile could feel his body''s exact location, so it didn''t take long for them to arrive in the sealed space where it was. However, the problem was the seal itself. "Will Purple Tribulation Lightning be enough to open it? After all, this seal has been keeping your body locked all this time." Luvile''s projection shook his head as he replied. "I don''t know. However, there''s a good chance that it might work since you will be controlling it. It''s different from the random discharges from the Purple Tribulation Lightning Source inside my body. In any case, give it a try." Krune nodded before he touched the sealed space. Following that, he began to release his Purple Tribulation Lightning in a single point. Feifei and Heavin looked at that as they waited. If even the Universe Powerhouses'' combined effort couldn''t break the seal, they wouldn''t be able to do much either. As for Soren, he simply decided to wait for Luvile to try it first. Time passed as Krune used his Law-Eating Law of the Purple Tribulation Lightning to eat away the barrier in front of him. However, it turned out to be like he thought. He really couldn''t pass the barrier. "It''s not working." Luvile nodded. "Indeed. In fact, it''s not that it isn''t working. It''s just that the Universe Power from which the seal is made from is too strong. Because of that, the seal barrier can recover the eaten laws much faster than the Purple Tribulation Lightning can eat them." Krune agreed with Luvile on that point. "What should we do, then? Usually, we always use the Purple Tribulation Lightning''s Law-Eating property to open whatever we need." It was then that Soren came forward. "You''re basically lacking the power to destroy the laws fast enough, right? I can help with this problem." Krune immediately looked at Soren. "Really? What should I do then?" Soren laughed before saying. "Hahaha! Did you forget? I''m also a god myself. It''s just that I use Mental Energy. Anyway, I also have my own way of getting rid of the laws themselves. Although it''s far from what I could do at my peak, it''s still quite good for the Mortal Realm. Let''s join hands and open a hole in this thing." Luvile couldn''t help but say. "That''s not everything, right? If you simply focus on the same point as us, the seal probably has enough power to recover it much faster." Soren smiled in response. "Indeed." Soon after, his mental energy spread out of his body and attached to the seal barrier in front of them. Following that, Soren''s Fused Elements and Laws flowed through his Mental Energy, entering the barrier as well. In an instant, Krune, Heavin, and Feifei understood what he was doing. He was using his Fused Elements'' Laws to disrupt the Seal''s Laws. That wouldn''t damage the seal but would make its recovery much slower. If they really joined hands to destroy the laws in that specific area, it might really work. "Master, let me help you as well." "Same here. I''m not as good as you three, but I can at least achieve a similar result." Heavin and Feifei immediately stepped forward and spread their Mental Energy and Fused Elements. Sure enough, compared to what Soren could do, the efforts were quite pitiful. However, it was a fact that it increased the power of disruption. The trick behind it was Mental Energy. Without it, they wouldn''t be able to drive their Fused Elements and Laws into the Seal Barrier. Otherwise, the Universe Powerhouses of the past would definitely have tried. Krune smiled before returning his concentration to the Purple Tribulation Lightning. However, he didn''t try it alone. Luvile also took control of his Purple Tribulation Lightning Source to help Krune. Immediately, the power of the Law-Eating Law increased. Soren shrugged his shoulders after seeing that. Soon after, he began to control his mental energy once more. For the first time, Krune, Feifei, and Heavin saw a different type of Mental Energy. It was still semi-transparent, just like when they materialize it into other forms. However, it had a darker color. Following that, Soren created a flow of that kind of Mental Energy that hit the barrier at the same point as Krune''s Purple Tribulation Lightning. Krune''s group could feel it with their Divine Senses and Mental Energies. Soren''s Mental Energy was also destroying the Laws that made up the seal. Not only that, but he was even faster than Krune and Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning. Heavin couldn''t help but ask after that. "Master, how are you doing that?" Soren laughed before saying. "This is something you will be able to do once you reach the Nascent Soul God Realm. No, your talent in Mental Energy is higher than mine, so you might be able to achieve that before it. However, this is too early for you. Let alone Krune and Feifei." Heavin wasn''t disappointed by that. In fact, he became more motivated to cultivate harder. "I''ll definitely achieve that level." Krune and Feifei smiled as they continued to do their part. Sure enough, with Soren''s help, the speed that the Laws recovered was below what Krune and Soren could destroy or eat. Nevertheless, the process was quite slow. "As expected of a seal made with the power of an entire universe. Even though I only have a small part of my power, this is still impressive. No wonder none of the Universe Powerhouses from the past were able to destroy it to take Luvile''s body back." Krune agreed with him. "At this speed, we will probably take several days until we finally finish open a hole in it. Well, I spent two years in the past to do a similar thing in the Kalame Sect, so I guess a few days aren''t a big deal." Krune then looked at Feifei and Heavin before asking. "Are you two able to hold?" Feifei and Heavin nodded. "Of course. If need be, we can simply use some of the Godly Energy Stones to recover our energy faster." Soren and Krune were satisfied with that. "Very well." Time passed as the hole on the seal increased in size day by day. Surprisingly, Krune could feel that Luvile was getting excited that he would be able to get his body back. It wasn''t every day that Luvile showed a lot of emotion. Finally, eleven days or so later, the hole they were creating reached the other side. It was nothing more than a very tiny gap. They still needed to work a bit more before it got big enough for Krune to pass. However, the moment that gap appeared, the power of Purple Tribulation Lightning soon blasted out. "Hmph!" Before Krune could even react, Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning Source left his body and appeared in front of him. The Purple Tribulation Lightning Power hit Luvile''s source head-on. However, it didn''t cause Luvile the least bit of damage. Instead, Luvile began to absorb it as if it was the greatest delicacy in the world. Krune, Feifei, and Heavin looked at that with their eyes wide open. The power behind that energy was enough to obliterate any of the three, but Luvile was tanking it so easily. It was even several times stronger than the Purple Tribulation Lightning that hit the Wisp Main World in Dalin in the past. "What are you looking so surprised about? That''s his power to start with," said Soren with a bored expression. Only then did Krune and the others come back to themselves while feeling a little embarrassed. "Ahem... Well, as long as he''s fine. It''s just..." Krune then looked at himself. Because Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning Source left his body, he lost his Purple Tribulation Lightning as well. That being said, he couldn''t keep using it to widen the gap on the sealed space barrier. "Don''t worry. My power is more than enough to just keep it as it is while Luvile absorbs the Purple Tribulation Lightning." Krune nodded before he looked at Luvile. "Luvile, is this an attack from your body?" "No. This is just the accumulated energy that got trapped inside the sealed space. The seal is using it to send the tribulation all over the Luvile Universe. Now that you opened a gap on the barrier, the trapped energy found a breach to escape. That''s why it happened. Well, I was already expecting that. That''s why I acted before it could hit you or Soren." Krune nodded before asking something else. "I can see how the seal absorbs the Purple Tribulation Lightning and sends it elsewhere. However, what will happen if you take all the energy?" Soren was the one to answer that. "The universe has no conscience. It will simply use what is available to it. If the seal that forced it to use Luvile''s Tribulation Lightning doesn''t have any more energy, the universe will use its own power to send the tribulations. That''s how it was supposed to be from the start anyway." Sure enough, Soren was right. A universe was simply ridiculously enormous. Naturally, the number of breakthroughs that called forth a tribulation was up to the tens of thousands per second. The moment the Luvile Universe noticed it couldn''t absorb the sealed space''s energy anymore, it began to send down normal Lightning Tribulations. All over the Luvile Universe, people and beasts saw how the Purple Tribulation Lightnings they all knew about became blue ones instead. As one could imagine, surpassing a normal Lightning Tribulation turned out to be much easier than Luvile''s ones. Well, Luvile didn''t care about that. He only focused on taking all the energy before continuing to open the gap. Chapter 800: Good Bye, Purple Tribulation Lightning Eventually, all the energy rampaging inside the sealed space was absorbed by Luvile. His body was still generating Purple Tribulation Lightning due to its source. However, it would take some time before it filled the sealed space with enough energy to blast through the gap again. Luvile then returned to Krune''s foundation right after. "You can continue." Krune smiled and joined hands with Soren to keep opening the gap. However, he immediately noticed that his Purple Tribulation Lightning had become stronger. "Was there Purple Tribulation Lightning Essence inside the energy you absorbed?" Luvile confirmed. "Yes. However, it was a lot less than the amount that escaped to the Dalin Universe in the past. Because of that, the difference isn''t that much." Krune didn''t mind. The good thing was that the speed that he and Soren opened the hole had increased a lot. Since there was already a small gap, they had to just widen it. Finally, a day later, the gap was big enough for Krune to enter the sealed space. Soren, Feifei, and Heavin then looked at Krune. "We will hold the hole open. Go ahead and take the body back. After that, we''re going after the Key of the Mortal Realm." Krune smiled and entered the Sealed Space. As soon as he appeared inside, he understood that it was enormous. However, it was easy to find his way since Luvile could show him the way. Krune moved in the direction Luvile pointed at for over one hour. He could have gone faster, but the power of the Purple Tribul?ation Lightning of Luvile''s body could easily obliterate him. That being said, he moved slowly just in case. Suddenly, he noticed a small purple point far in the distance. The closer he got, the bigger it became. At some point, Krune understood that it was a sphere of Purple Tribulation Lightning. However, he was still pretty far from it. When he finally got close to it, he noticed that the sphere was as big as a planet. "This... What should I do now?" Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Source then came out of Krune''s foundation and stopped right in front of him. "Just follow me." Krune nodded and followed the small ball of Purple Tribulation Lightning that was Luvile. The moment Luvile touched the planet-sized thing, a tunnel began to open in front of him. Krune took a deep breath and followed him inside. Right behind him, the tunnel closed. All he could see now was Purple Tribulation Lightning all around him. Luvile was pretty calm, though. Instead, he felt like he was at home. The lightning around him answered his every command, opening the passage as they moved forward. At their speed, moving to the center of the Purple Tribulation Lightning sphere only took a few minutes. "We''re here." Krune narrowed his eyes as he looked ahead, but all he could see was the same Purple Lightning everywhere. However, the tunnel suddenly opened, showing an empty space inside. That space wasn''t more than a few hundred meters wide, but it was indeed free of Lightning. At the very center, Krune finally saw a body that seemed to be frozen in time. However, it only lasted for a second before Purple Tribulation Lightning came out of it and hit the walls of energy on the sides. It was then absorbed by the sphere of Purple Lightning, joining the thing. "Let''s go." "Are you sure? That Purple Tribulation Lightning that it just released was really frightening." Luvile confirmed. "It''s fine. I just need you to be close since I''m attached to your foundation. Come. I will stop any Lightning that might come your way." "Alright." Sure enough, the body released a few more bolts of Purple Tribulation Lightning. Some even came in Krune''s direction. However, Luvile took them all inside his source. The thing was that the closer they got to Luvile''s body, the more Purple Tribulation Lightning it released in their direction. Each discharge was more powerful than the last, making Krune''s strongest attacks look like a joke. "Why is your body attacking us?" Luvile heard that and laughed. "Attacking us? Hahahaha! It''s not attacking anyone. It has a connection with me, so you could say that the Purple Tribulation Lightning Source inside it is excited with my present source. It''s more like a welcome back greeting." Krune bitterly smiled. "Now, that''s quite a frightening greeting." However, that didn''t last for long. When Luvile finally arrived beside his body, the Purple Tribulation Lightning Source inside it calmed down. Krune couldn''t help but sigh in relief when that happened. Luvile then looked back at Krune before saying. "This is where we separate from each other. Well, it''s not like I''m going anywhere. Whatever, you understand what I mean." Krune nodded. "Yep, I understand. It''s time for me to say goodbye to my Purple Tribulation Lightning Power as well. Then again, it was good while it lasted. The laws I comprehended from it will definitely be of great use for me in the future." Luvile nodded. "To be honest, I could leave this source I''m in with you so that you could continue using it. However, I don''t want you to do that. Do you know why?" Krune nodded as he said. "I know. In fact, I don''t want you to leave it with me either. If you do, I will keep depending on this power. There''s no doubt that it is powerful. It saved my life many times. However, ultimately, this power isn''t mine. These laws aren''t mine. This source isn''t mine." Luvile was happy that Krune understood. "Correct. Usually, only when you ascend to the God Realm would you start thinking about your own laws. However, you already experienced real God-created laws that are not natural. I''m sure you have what it takes for you to create something for yourself. I''m taking my Purple Tribulation Lightning back with me so that it won''t get in the way of your own creation. That''s how things should be." "Of course, if you wish to create a new lightning-based law, you are more than welcome to ask me for advice." Krune smiled as he felt the connection between his foundation and Luvile disappearing. It would be a lie if he said he wasn''t sad. They had been together like that for centuries, after all. Krune then remembered one thing. "Oh, right! Your body had been sealed with your soul inside before you escaped through a Tribulation. If you enter your body now, won''t you get trapped again?" "No. What was trapping me inside was the sealed space. However, it needs to be whole for it to work. Soren, Feifei, Heavin, and you opened a hole in the Sealed Space. As small as it might be compared to the Sealed Space''s total size, it is no longer whole. Without that, it can''t trap me inside anymore." "Well, I would be trapped here forever if I haven''t escaped since only after joining hands with Soren were you able to open that hole. Others tried to open it many times, as the Sacred Lands mentioned. But it was obvious that they failed miserably and wouldn''t succeed any time soon. In the end, escaping was the best choice." Krune nodded. "I see... That''s good, then. Go ahead." Finally, the connection between the two was completely severed. Following that, Luvile''s Lightning Source entered his body. Luvile''s body was quite the muscular one. Although it was withered due to how long it had been here, Krune could still tell that Luvile was more of a melee fighter. It also had silver hair and a mustache, which looked quite weird. However, that withered appearance didn''t last for long. Purple Tribulation began to run through Luvile''s body, returning it to its healthy color. Others might have suffered severe damage or even died because of that. However, for Luvile, Purple Tribulation Lightning was like a heavenly tonic. Luvile''s silver hair suddenly began to change color, becoming purple, just like his Purple Tribulation Lightning. At the same time, Krune looked at his hand as Purple Tribulation Lightning ran around it. However, it became dimmer and dimmer the longer Luvile was gone. Finally, Krune lost his ability and source completely. He sighed before murmuring. "Goodbye, Purple Tribulation Lightning." Alongside that, multiple runes began to appear on Luvile''s body as if trying to holding it in place. Those were the sealed space''s runes that were locking Luvile''s soul and body in place. Unfortunately, they couldn''t work well due to the hole in the Sealed Space that Krune''s group created. The power of Purple Tribulation Lightning began to rampage over those runes without stopping. Finally, the runes began to shatter one after the other. The more they broke, the faster the process became. *Shatter, shatter, shatter...* At the same time, the sealed space itself began to tremble. It was made to seal Luvile''s body and used its energy. Now that the body was leaving its control, the Sealed Space was losing its purpose. It wasn''t wrong to say that Luvile''s body was the foundation of it. Suddenly, Luvile''s eyes opened as he shouted. "Get the fuck out of my body!" Purple Tribulation Lightning raged as all the remaining runes shattered at once! Luvile was finally free from the Seal. He looked at all the Purple Tribulation Lightning in the surroundings before extending his hand. As if he was a black hole, all the Purple Tribulation Lightning rushed into his body once again. Soon, the planet-sized sphere of Purple Tribulation Lightning disappeared without a trace. "Hahaha! This god is finally back! Oh, right!" Krune smiled at Luvile. "Congratulations." Chapter 801: Barlo Luvile was really happy to regain his body. However, the sealed space continued to collapse. That being said, they had to leave it before they were swallowed up by it. Well, with Luvile and Krune''s power, they would at most be swept by the Spatial Storm and then thrown somewhere else. There wasn''t really any risk of dying unless they were unlucky enough to fall into a black hole, which was nearly impossible considering the usual size of a Universe. Of course, the best plan was for them to not need to find their way back, so they immediately left. Luvile quickly enveloped Krune in his Purple Tribulation Lightning before pulling him alongside. With Luvile''s level of control, he could use Purple Tribulation Lightning without being afraid of injuring anyone. Soon enough, they arrived at the entrance of the sealed space. However, just as they were about to leave, they noticed that the entrance gradually began to close. Not only that, but they couldn''t find any trace of Soren, Feifei, or Heavin''s power at the closing hole. "Something''s not right. Let''s go." The gap was too small for them to pass right now. However, Luvile did not think too much about it, snorting in response. Purple Tribulation Lightning burst out of his body before it struck the gap that was about to close. In an instant, the Sealed Space barrier was blasted away, not being able to offer any meaningful resistance. Luvile''s own body was the foundation of the Sealed Space before. With that in mind, it was much weaker right now. Besides, he was controlling the Purple Tribulation Lightning instead of his body releasing its power randomly. Outside the Sealed Space Barrier, purple light suddenly flashed before a ray of Purple Tribulation Lightning shot through it. Not long after, Krune and Luvile exited the Sealed Space. However, the very moment they stepped outside, a sudden attack came in their direction. "Courting death!" Luvile''s body exploded with the power of Purple Tribulation Lightning as he counter-attacked. "Tribulation Blast!" *Boom!* An enormous shockwave of energy followed, forcing Krune to bring out his shields to protect himself. Luvile''s attack was far above what he could do with Purple Tribulation Lightning in the past, hence the shockwave alone was already very dangerous. Even with the Myriad Lightning Shields protecting him, Krune was still sent flying back several kilometers before he finally could stabilize himself. He quickly spread his Mental Energy to check the current situation and found out what had happened. *Boom, boom, boom!* Feifei and Heavin were nowhere to be found. As for Soren, he was in the middle of an intense fight against some kind of black fog. The moment he and Luvile came out, that black fog noticed their presence and attacked. That''s why Luvile attacked back. Following that, Krune received a Mental Energy Message from Soren. ''Krune, I sent Heavin and Feifei into my Spatial Dimension, so they''re fine. However, this battle is far above your level. Get away from here.'' At the same time, Soren talked with Luvile. ''Help me deal with this guy. I alone am not enough.'' Luvile nodded. ''Gotcha! Krune, step back.'' Purple Tribulation Lightning burst out of Luvile''s body as he shot in the black fog''s direction. "Purple Extremity!" Luvile''s attack surpassed the barrier of laws, destroying everything in its path, even space. Seeing Luvile''s offensive coming at him, the black fog immediately stopped its attack at Soren before changing its target. "I recognize this power. You were that fucking piece of shit that locked me down there! Die!" "Rampaging Darkness!" The black fog expanded several times before it all concentrated into a single point that shot at Luvile''s attack. "Hmph! Your guts are huge to ignore this god!" Soren, obviously, wouldn''t just gawk as the enemy did what he wanted. Mental Energy with Fused Elements and Laws gathered around Soren. It turned into hundreds of thousands of small needle-like weapons that shone with black light in a fraction of a second. "Soul Manifestation, Meteor Shower!" Although Soren had changed the names of his cultivation realms, his own skills were still the same. Soren didn''t hold back as he attacked the being inside the black fog. All the Mental Needles came down at frightening speeds, aiming directly at it. Luvile took the chance to discharge even more Purple Tribulation Lightning, increasing the power of Purple Extremity even more. Whoever was inside that black fog understood that it was at severe risk. It immediately calmed down its anger and focused on defending against both attacks. The Dark Element attack that it used then divided into two. One kept charging at Luvile while the second went against Soren''s Meteor Shower. *Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom...* Space shattered everywhere for tens of thousands of kilometers as their attacks collided. Not only that, but the damage caused to space itself was far beyond anything the Luvile Universe had seen before. Because of that, the Luvile Universe itself began to be damaged. Amidst the fight, a figure shot out of the area of destruction. This time, there was no black fog surrounding it, allowing them to finally see its appearance. It had a humanoid form. However, there were several black scales all over its body. As far as Krune could tell, it seemed to be a hybrid between humans and black dragons. It''s just that it had several injuries over its body. Some of them flashed with Purple Lightning, while the others had Soren''s needles attached to them. Sure enough, the person couldn''t take the power of two gods on its own without any damage. Luvile and Soren quickly came out as well. Unlike the dragon guy, Luvile and Soren were pretty much fine. Of course, they knew that they won that clash because they joined hands. Although they both restricted their power to not surpass the Mortal Realm''s limit, they were still gods. The fact that the dragon guy could survive a pincer attack from them with only injuries was extraordinary. "Is he another god? At least his power is similar to one." Soren shook his head. "I have no idea. He suddenly appeared and began to attack us for no reason. Before you appeared, we were fighting on even grounds. He definitely has a power level similar to gods at the very least. However, I don''t remember any god that looks like him." Luvile and Soren looked at the guy before asking. "Who the hell are you? Why are you attacking us? Are you perhaps a subordinate of the Universe Powerhouses sent to deal with Krune?" The dragon guy snorted after hearing that question. At the same time, he used his power of darkness to heal his injuries and eliminate Luvile and Soren''s rampaging powers in his body. "Ha! Universe Powerhouses? After so long, you still have something like that? Very well, I shall destroy all of them first as payment for keeping me locked down there for so long." Luvile couldn''t help but ask. "Wait! Could it be that you''re the so-called Evil Spirit sealed in this Universe''s Underworld?" The dragon guy laughed out loud when he heard that. "Hahaha! Are you pretending to be dumb? There''s no way you don''t know me. After all, your Purple Lightning has been sealing my powers down there for countless Chaos Cycles." Luvile snorted after hearing that. "Hmph! This god would never waste his time sealing a Mortal Realm piece of shit like you. If not because my body and power were sealed against my will, do you think I would care about you? Don''t get ahead of yourself, brat! This god here has just got his body back, so I couldn''t care less about what happened to you. However, if you want to fight, this god will make sure to send you back to the underworld. However, only your soul will be making that travel." The dragon guy narrowed his eyes as he said. "Let me see if I got it correctly. You got your body sealed, and then its power was used to seal me?" The expression on Luvile and the dragon guy''s faces suddenly turned weird. For some reason, this sounded quite comical. Soren sighed before saying. "Alright. We can agree here that both you and Luvile here got sealed by the same cultivators and demon beasts back then. Luvile just got his body back, so the thing that has sealed your powers has also disappeared. Now, the two of you are free to go wherever you want. Let''s start with...why the hell did you attack me? No, first of all, what''s your name?" The dragon guy couldn''t tell whether Soren was telling the truth or not. However, he could tell that Luvile and Soren''s real power was definitely not just at this level. It was apparent that they were doing the same thing as him. They were restricting their powers so that they won''t be forced to ascend. Of course, that didn''t mean he trusted Luvile and Soren. "You can call me Barlo. At least that''s what others called me back then. As for why I attacked you, isn''t that obvious? The moment the seal broke, I immediately left and came after the thing that locked me down there. You just so happened to be here, so I thought you were part of whatever power that was keeping me down there. Why should I let you live after everything you''ve made me pass through?" Soren and Luvile nodded. Now things have become clearer. "You''re wrong. Neither Luvile nor I want anything to do with you." Luvile then decided to skim through what had happened so far until this point. From the moment his soul was trapped, to when he escaped with his soul alone, to the point where he recovered his body. Of course, he didn''t talk about things he shouldn''t. Eventually, Barlo''s hostility subsided a little. It seemed like they could finally talk things through. Chapter 802: Past Events Barlo began to ponder over the story. The thing that made the story believable was the fact that Soren and Luvile were definitely strong. Each one of them was definitely a match for himself, let alone when they were together. The injuries he just received were proof of that. That being said, they didn''t need to fear or come up with excuses since they had the advantage. "So, you were sealed a little before me. However, how can someone with a level of power like yours be caught that easily? If your power had not been used, I would''ve definitely haven''t been caught. You''re probably as strong or maybe even stronger than me." Luvile and Soren sighed in response. Why else would that be? It was because of what happened back then in the God Realm, of course. "Didn''t I just explain to you that I took a long time to wake up my consciousness? Obviously, my body was free for anyone to take advantage of its power." Barlo nodded in response. "That''s true." Seeing that things had calmed down, Krune decided to return to Luvile''s side. He had been listening to the conversation through his Mental Energy Scan. Heavin and Feifei were also taken outside and were told what happened so far through a Mental Energy Message. Of course, Soren and Luvile stayed close to them in case Barlo decided to attack once more. Krune then began to ask. "There''s one thing I don''t understand. You''ve been sealed for way too many chaos cycles. Anyone else would have reached the Peak of the Divinity Realm and ascended or had died from the Ascension Tribulation. How come you''re still down there?" However, it was then that Krune noticed a problem. "Wait! I see... You''re just like Luvile and Soren. You aren''t someone from the lower realms to start with. People and beasts who cultivate up to the Peak of the Divinity Realm would be forced to ascend. However, if you become strong enough in the higher realms, you can descend to the Mortal Realm after paying the price and stay here. You... Could it be that you also came from the God Realm?" Luvile and Soren were taken aback. Indeed, that thought explained everything. If he hadn''t at least reached a level power to go to the God Realm, he definitely couldn''t come back down. It wasn''t as if everyone could use Wally''s method or had a friend like Primordial Kun-Peng to open a safe passage for themselves like Krune. Only through such a method would he be able to stay in the Mortal Realm for as long as he wanted as long as he suppressed his own power. Luvile then looked deeply at Barlo. "I haven''t told you this yet, but the fact is, Soren and I came from the God Realm. However, I lived there for a very long time before the accident that sent me down here. Even then, I can''t remember meeting you or hearing your name at all." Soren nodded as he said. "I''m the same. I also haven''t seen or heard of you. Could it be that you''re even older than the two of us?" Barlo wasn''t surprised to hear that Luvile and Soren were from the God Realm. Otherwise, he refused to believe that they would be as strong as himself. "You''re correct. I really came from the God Realm. I also paid the price when I came down and had been injured for a very long time before finally recovering. The difference is that I didn''t come here because of an accident. I came here because I wanted to. However, I didn''t reach the God Level, so it isn''t strange that you haven''t heard about me. For gods like you, I was just one of the countless ants that lived in the God Realm." Soren and Luvile were taken aback by that answer. "You''re incredibly crazy. Even for Gods like us, the chances are high that we would die once we tried to come down. For someone who wasn''t even at the God-Level, the chances of succeeding are so small it wouldn''t reach one in a hundred million. No one would try that unless they were desperate." Barlo couldn''t help but laugh out loud as he asked. "Desperation. Yes... that''s exactly what I felt back then. Have you ever heard of a Universe called Unigan?" Krune''s eyes immediately lit up in response. He obtained access to many records about the Universe Powerhouses back in Dalin. Between those stories, there were documents talking about Universes that had been conquered or destroyed by those powerhouses. And it wasn''t just a few of them. Considering the history behind the Universe Powerhouses, tens of thousands of Universes passed through the same situation under the hands of the Powerhouses. Between those Universes, there was indeed a Universe called Unigan from a very long time ago. "From what I''ve read, the Unigan Universe began to grow stronger as time passed. The universe didn''t have anything special to it, but it did have multiple talents being born. No one could tell whether it was lucky or something else. Because of that, the Universe Powerhouses began to fear that a new powerhouse would be born. To make things worse, the Unigan Universe was close to the territory of one of those powerhouses, the Makrit Universe." Barlo''s expression went dark the very moment he heard that name. Dark Element gathered around him even though he wasn''t doing anything. It was obvious how much he hated that name. However, Luvile couldn''t help but ask. "Makrit Universe? But the actual Universe Powerhouses don''t have a Universe called Makrit." In an instant, Barlo''s expression shifted. "Wait...what?! There''s no Universe Powerhouse called Makrit? What do you mean by that?" Krune couldn''t help but sigh in response. He already understood the entire thing. "I''m getting close to that point. Let me continue the story. According to the records, the Makrit Universe was afraid that the Unigan Universe would try to take its territory if they grew any stronger. Any Universe Powerhouse had thousands, if not tens of thousands of Universes under their control. Naturally, that also counted as the Universe Powerhouse''s forces. There was no way that the Makrit Universe would stay still and see its territory being taken away." "As you could already imagine, the Makrit Universe gathered its forces to attack Unigan. However, the Unigan Universe had already grown quite strong. Even if the Makrit Universe won the war, its own forces would have been severely depleted. Obviously, someone else would take the change to kick them out of their position. They couldn''t let that happen." Krune then continued. "It was then that the alliance of the Universe Powerhouses of that time came to be. Makrit promised many rewards to the ones who helped them get rid of the Unigan Universe. In the end, two other Universe Powerhouses accepted their offer: the Kavan Universe and the Waskil Universe." Luvile became even more confused. "Wait. There are no Universe Powerhouses nowadays called Kavan and Waskil Universe either." Soren couldn''t help but say. "I feel like there''s a connection between all of this." The one most affected by this was none other than Barlo. "Kavan, Waskil, Makrit, those were my main targets back then. What do you mean by there are none of them anymore? You''re kidding, right?" Krune shook his head as he responded. "Luvile''s right. There are no Universe Powerhouses called Kavan, Waskil, or Makrit nowadays. They ceased to exist a long time ago." "Anyway, these three Universes joined hands to get rid of Unigan Universe. Unigan was strong. However, its strength wasn''t at the level of a single Universe Powerhouse, just infinitesimally close to it. Let alone having the strength to match three Universe Powerhouses at once. In the end, the Unigan Universe was taken down." Feifei also understood where Krune was coming from. "I see what''s happening here. Senior Barlo received a distress signal from his Unigan Universe about what was happening. He obviously cared about his home universe very much, so he decided to take the risk to come down even if it could take his life. However, lo and behold, he succeeded." Krune nodded. "He really did. That also explains why he was trying to take revenge on those three Universes Powerhouses and why they had to seal him. He came from the God Realm, so the most they could do was force him to flee. However, there''s one thing I don''t understand. In all the records I read, there was nothing written about Senior Barlo at all. Why is that?" Barlo was still affected by the fact that those three Universes didn''t exist anymore, so he failed to answer Krune''s question before Luvile answered it for him. "Hmph! Why else? He wasn''t even at the God-Level and tried to come down to the Mortal Realm. It''s already a miracle he succeeded. Obviously, he suffered injuries that might have been even worse than mine. I''m pretty sure that he couldn''t even battle a chicken by the time he arrived down here, so how could he help his Unigan Universe? If anything, his soul was probably damaged, and he was unconscious for a very long time before he finally came back to himself. Chances were that everything had already happened by the time he recovered enough to be of any help." Barlo gritted his teeth after hearing Luvile''s words as he said. "That''s right. There was no Unigan Universe anymore when I finally recovered. That''s why I started to plan my revenge. Since they destroyed my home, I would destroy theirs as well." Barlo then tried to calm down as he looked at Krune and asked. "What happened to those three Universes? Why don''t they exist anymore? Speak!" Chapter 803: Barlo Left Krune nodded in response. "Believe it or not, they were attacked by the other remaining Universe Powerhouses of that time. Unlike today, there were twelve Universe Powerhouses during that period. All other nine Universes joined hands to destroy those three." Everyone was taken aback, especially Barlo. "Why?" Krune shrugged his shoulders as he said. "Well, there isn''t much information about it. As you''ve seen, I just told you the general information that could be obtained by anyone. The real reasons behind everything are quite clouded. However, if Senior Barlo doesn''t mind, I do have a theory in mind." Barlo knew that Krune was most likely not lying about the things he said. After all, Luvile and Soren were strong but not strong enough to keep him here. He could totally escape, and with his power, he wouldn''t have much of an issue to find the truth himself. "Very well, go ahead." Krune smiled before he continued. "If I''m not wrong, the reason they were attacked is most likely related to you, senior." Barlo narrowed his eyes. However, he more or less expected that since it was way too much of a coincidence. Still, he waited for Krune to finish before saying anything. "From what we heard from the sacred lands of the Luvile Universe, it wasn''t just the three Universes who went after you back then, right?" Barlo nodded before responding. "At first, the Kavan, Waskil, and Makrit Universes came after me, but the others also joined them later to stop me." Krune already expected that. "And because of that, you ended up fleeing to other Universes that were part of the other Universe Powerhouses'' territories and destroyed many of them, right?" Barlo confirmed. "Hmph! It was their fault for meddling in something that had nothing to do with themselves. They should be thankful that I only held a grudge against those three who destroyed my home universe up to now. The universes of their territories that ended up being destroyed was only because they forced my hand." Krune couldn''t help but sigh. This guy really didn''t care about anyone else. But then again, even Krune didn''t know how he would act if his Luvile Universe was destroyed as well. Would he embark on a path of revenge at any cost? He can''t tell for sure. "Anyway, the records only say that the remaining nine universes blamed Kavan, Waskil, and Makrit for ''something'' that happened. I''m guessing that this ''something'' is none other than you rampaging inside their territories. Because of that, they joined hands to destroy those three. It was because they destroyed Unigan Universe that they got someone like you on their tracks. Of course, this is just my theory, but I believe there''s a good chance that I''m right. After all, it''s way too much of a coincidence." Luvile, Soren, Barlo, Feifei, and Heavin couldn''t find any flaws within Krune''s theory. There might be another reason behind those three being destroyed. For example, maybe the other nine Universe Powerhouses only used Barlo''s rampage as an excuse to get rid of them. It''s not like the damage was really that high to force something like that. But in any case, Barlo''s existence was definitely linked to that. Barlo went silent for some time after listening to Krune''s words. The problem was that he was now lost. His targets for revenge had vanished. Of course, that was a good thing for him since he was planning to do that. But now that it was over, he didn''t know what to do next. "Are there any Universe Powerhouses that survived from that time?" Krune nodded. "There are two that still exist: the Galec Universe and the Uline Universe. The other seven have also been replaced by someone or simply got eliminated for some other reason. However, there won''t be much of a point in going after those two right now." "Why?" "That''s because you''ve been sealed down there for way too long. Every single living being from that time couldn''t possibly still be there. Senior probably knows that the chances of surpassing the ascension tribulation are less than 1%, right? And that''s considering those who survive all the way to the peak of the Divinity Realm. Simply put, the number of survivors from that epoch is infinitesimally small, and they definitely aren''t in the Mortal Realm anymore." "Then, we have the Godly Path Realm. Senior also had to pass through the Godly Path Realm before arriving in the God Realm. You should know that it isn''t any easier to ascend from the Godly Path to the God Realm at all. Once again, you had been locked down there for way too long. Anyone who succeeded in ascending to the Godly Path Realm must have ascended to the God Realm by now. However, the chances of ascending to the God Realm aren''t any better than ascending to the Godly Path Realm. And that''s considering that they didn''t die along the way and reached the Peak of the Nascent God Realm." "Simply put, the chances of you ever finding anyone from your time alive are truly small. Just to search for them would be a huge undertaking that most likely won''t end with anything meaningful. The people and beasts that live in the Galec and Uline Universe at the moment don''t have any idea about who you are or what you and their Universe have done in the past. Well, the same thing could be said regarding the old Kavan, Waskil, and Makrit Universes, but those ones don''t even exist to start with." Barlo understood that Krune was trying to prevent him from getting revenge against those two remaining universes. Still, his words were very effective. Everything he said was true, and he couldn''t find a way to refuse it. Besides, neither Galec nor Uline was his real target to start with. The ones he really hated simply didn''t exist anymore. "With all of that said, Senior Barlo, what do you plan to do now?" Barlo, who seemed to be lost in thought, looked at Krune''s group. "I don''t know. I guess I''ll go back to the God Realm. At the very least, it''s easy to go back up. Guess I''ll just start cultivating again. Who knows, I might really reach the level of a god one day." No one said anything about that. Ultimately, that was his decision. As for making him pay for the Universes that he destroyed in the past, no one was really willing to do that. First, Barlo was really strong. Second, that''s something that happened way too long ago. The ones who could enact revenge on him are long dead or in the god realm by now. There''s simply nothing left for him in the Mortal Realm anymore. "If senior has any doubt of what I said, you can go and search the answer by yourself. Who knows, maybe the things I read in the past are not entirely true. I wouldn''t be surprised if many of the things I saw were forged." Barlo shook his head. "It''s pointless. Something might have been modified, but the destruction of Universe Powerhouses is out of the question. You can''t fake that since the Universes won''t simply disappear into thin air." Barlo pondered for a bit before saying. "I''ll go visit the place where my Unigan Universe once was. Perhaps I''ll pass by where Kavan, Waskil, and Makrit were once located as well, just to be sure." Krune smiled before taking something out of his Spatial Ring. He then threw it to Barlo on the other side. "What''s this?" Krune then explained. "It''s a communicator. It''s something that didn''t exist back in your time. I have a few of these in reserve, so you can use that one. Trust me, it''s very convenient nowadays in all realms. There''s a manual that explains how to use it when you first turn it on, so you should take some time to learn it." Barlo could see that Krune and the others also had something similar with them, so he nodded. "Thank you. Also..." Barlo looked at Feifei, Heavin, and Soren. "Sorry for my actions earlier." Surprisingly, Barlo seemed to be very calm after he found out about everything. Perhaps that''s because he had no real objective in mind anymore. Feifei and Heavin didn''t mind. "It''s fine, senior. We hope you can find something you want to do in the future other than revenge." Barlo bitterly smiled but nodded in the end. "Perhaps I will." He then turned around and opened a spatial gate before disappearing inside. In the end, only Krune''s group was left behind. Everyone sighed. Still, they quickly recovered. It was already good that it didn''t turn into anything worse. Feifei and Heavin then looked at Luvile. Other than Soren, it was everyone''s first time seeing Luvile''s actual appearance. They smiled at him after that. "Congratulations on recovering your body, Senior Luvile." Luvile was taken aback for a second before he laughed. "Hahaha! That''s true. This sudden battle against that guy made me forget that I just got my body back." However, Heavin soon noticed something different from Krune through their Divine Soul connection. "This... Why can''t I feel any Purple Tribulation Lightning from you anymore, Krune?" Feifei was taken aback by those words before Krune laughed. "Luvile was the one who had the Purple Tribulation Lightning Source. Now that he''s gone from my foundation, I obviously can''t use it anymore." Krune then explained the things that he and Luvile discussed before Luvile got his body back. Only then did Heavin and Feifei understand that it was a good thing for him. "Anyway, we can discuss it later. Let''s go back to the Divine Path Sect." Chapter 804: Visit Back in the Divine Path Sect, Lucio saw Luvile''s actual appearance for the first time. "Senior Luvile, congratulations." Luvile nodded as he looked in a particular direction. "I''m going to see Cinnia. I''ll be back later." After that, Luvile disappeared from the room. Krune and the others smiled and didn''t say anything. Well, Soren still asked, though. "Cinnia? The goddess that was with Luvile back then?" Krune nodded as he replied. "The one and the same. Well, unlike Luvile, she doesn''t have her body anymore. She''s only a soul. Oh, right! Senior Soren, Cinnia is also using the Soul Cultivation technique." Soren didn''t seem surprised. "It''s fine. Those were decisions you guys took while you didn''t know who I was. In any case, I don''t believe the Soul Cultivation Technique can be hidden forever. Whether we want it or not, there are quite a few users already. Who knows, it wouldn''t be too bad to be known by everyone as the Soul Cultivation Technique''s creator. It would be a farewell to my ''low-profile'' that I''ve kept for so long." Everyone nodded. If Soren himself didn''t mind it, then they had nothing to say. Krune''s group knew that Luvile would need some time with Cinnia, so they went to some other things. Heavin and Soren went somewhere to keep training and would be back a few days later. Feifei went to visit her family in the Wang Clan territory. As for Krune, he finally decided to take a look at Lia to see her progress. The days passed without any changes for Krune''s group. However, the Luvile Universe was another story. The Purple Tribulation Lightning found in the tribulations changed into the normal blue one. Because of that, it became a lot easier to surpass the tribulations. One could say that the Luvile Universe was considered one of the weaker ones because of the Purple Tribulation Lightnings. After all, many experts died for the tribulations. But now that the power had decreased considerably, things might change in the future. Yet, even though the majority was happy to see their paths becoming easier, the Sacred Lands were not the same. After a few days, they went back to where Luvile''s body was locked. Alongside them, there were a few members of the Universe Powerhouses that they called over. "So Krune and Soren really took the body back..." "Indeed. The Sealed Space is gone. Let alone the body." "What do we do, then? That body''s energy source is tremendous. However, because it had been locked here for so long, even we didn''t know it existed anymore. I had to go into the records to understand what the Luvile Universe''s Sacred Lands were talking about." "It had the power to seal the Evil Spirit from the past and completely lock down the Underworld. It''s undoubtedly a body from the higher realms, most likely a god of the God Realm. We need to check it out." "What about Soren? We all know that we shouldn''t get on their bad sides now. That''s what we decided back in the last meeting. From what the Sacred Lands told us, Soren was really powerful. They don''t know what he did, but he immobilized all their forces in a second. If he hadn''t shown mercy, all of them would have died." "It''s fine. If there is one thing we know, it''s that Krune is a soft guy. He''s the type who hates killing as long as others don''t force his hand. We aren''t going there to find trouble, just to understand more about the situation. If we are afraid of doing even that, then can we still be called the Universe Powerhouses?" All of them nodded and decided to pay Krune a visit. Krune wasn''t trying to hide or anything, so they knew he was in the Divine Path Sect at that moment. Most likely, Soren was there as well. Krune was training Lia and Trata when all of a sudden, he received a message from Lucio. "Krune, there are a few guys here to see you." Krune nodded, already expecting it to happen at some point. He quickly left the dimensional realm he was and went to the hall. "Oh, I believe this is the first time I''m seeing you, seniors. Are you perhaps members of the Universe Powerhouses?" The leader of the group nodded. Also, he was relieved as to how Krune received them. It was obvious that Krune also didn''t want any trouble with them. "We are. My name is Fosto Mangan. I''m from the Thakulo Universe. As for these people with me, they are from the other Universe Powerhouses like Galec, Hara, and Larael Universes." Krune nodded with a smile. "Welcome, welcome. Master, would it be okay if I bring some tea for our friends here?" Lucio shrugged his shoulders and said. "You just want an excuse to cook, right? Oh, well. Whatever. I''ll leave them in your hands. I also have other things to do, so I''ll take my leave now." Krune nodded before looking at Fosto''s group. "Please come with me." Everyone followed Krune to a different room. After that, Krune left for a moment to prepare some snacks for the visits before returning. "Well, then. What can I help you with, seniors?" Fosto scratched the back of his head before asking. "We were told by the Sacred Lands that you recovered the body that sealed the Evil Spirit in the Underworld. Of course, we know that the Evil Spirit should not be there anymore since it has been way too long. Still, we wish to know more about that." Krune smiled, not minding it at all. As Feifei mentioned before, the sacred lands really went out to tell the Universe Powerhouses about it. "Oh, that? Yes, we recovered the body. To be more specific, the body''s owner got his body back." Fosto and the other were taken aback. The body''s owner? "How''s that possible?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Why do you think the body has been generating Purple Tribulation Lightning even up to this day? That''s because the owner of the body is still alive. If his soul had disappeared, the Purple Tribulation Source of the body would have disappeared a long time ago as well. Anyway, I met with its owner and helped him get his body back. That''s basically it." Fosto''s group didn''t know what to say. However, they all knew about Krune''s Tribulation Lightning Power that dwarfed anyone else''s. There was no lack of people and beasts who created their Purple Tribulation Lightning Source after their tribulation when considering the entire Luvile Universe. However, Krune''s Source was simply ridiculously powerful! He could jump over an entire realm to fight others with that alone. If he knew the body''s owner, then it all made sense. Fosto took a deep breath before asking. "Can we talk with that god?" "Oh! So you noticed that he was a god?" Fosto nodded. "We don''t believe any other being would have such strength." Krune nodded. However, he knew that Luvile was spending some time with Cinnia, so he had to refuse. However, just as he was about to do so, Luvile''s voice echoed in the room. "You want to meet this god? Very well. I''ll grant your wish." Suddenly, Luvile appeared in the room in a flash. Luvile didn''t display his power. However, Fosto''s group felt a chill on their back when they saw Luvile. Their instincts screamed danger all over. It was more like an elephant had appeared in front of a few ants. No, perhaps calling them ants was overestimating them way too much. Fosto quickly recovered before he bowed to Luvile. "Hello, senior. May I ask if your name is Luvile?" Luvile nodded. "Seems like you at least know that the Universe was named after my own. Indeed, my name is Luvile. What do you want?" Luvile had no need to hide his presence anymore. Although he was far from his peak and would have to cultivate again, he had all the experience necessary for it. Besides, in the mortal realm, even other gods would only be at his level at most. "It is an honor to meet a god of the God Realm in person. I probably won''t see another one in my lifetime. Senior, we would like to ask for a favor. In exchange, we will pay anything we can." Luvile narrowed his eyes. "If you are talking about Dalin, then you can forget it. You might not know this, but I know who the Godly Energy Owner sealing Dalin is. I''m not afraid of him, but I don''t want to get on his bad side either. I believe that Soren is of the same mind as myself as well." Luvile was obviously talking about Sentoi Havan, Little Arty''s creator. Well, that was only an excuse since, in fact, he didn''t really care about the Dalin situation. "This..." Fosto couldn''t help but be taken aback. It was the first time they heard that the Godly Energy used in Dalin had an owner. Not only that, but a god just said that he didn''t want to get on his bad side. Doesn''t that mean that behind Dalin''s lockdown, there was another god? Krune sighed before saying. "Seniors, I wasn''t supposed to talk about it. However, since Luvile has already said this much, I''ll tell you what I know. The owner of the Godly Energy Equipment bringing Godly Energy from the God Realm is a former Dalin Universe resident. That is his home. From the very start, you didn''t have much of a chance of winning it back." Krune was half lying. After all, Sentoi probably didn''t even know what was happening. Chapter 805: What is Happening Here? After hearing what Krune and Luvile said, Fosto''s group understood why another Godly Formation appeared in the Dalin Universe around its core. Of course, they also considered that Krune might be lying. However, Luvile himself didn''t want to have problems with the guy. Although it might be a lie as well, they couldn''t confirm it. Besides, they definitely didn''t have the power to force Luvile. Soren was in the same boat. "I see... Is there really no way to reopen Dalin for us?" Luvile shook his head as he replied. "I have the power to do so, but nothing you can offer me in the Mortal Realm will interest me. Anyway, that''s all I have to say." Before Fosto could ask anything else, Luvile left the room. Krune couldn''t help but scratch the back of his head as he looked at Fosto''s group. "Well, Senior Fosto is welcome to stay here in the Divine Path Sect for as long as you wish. I also have a few things to do, so I''m going to take my leave." Fosto shook his head. Now that they knew that a god was behind Dalin''s lockdown, they had to go back and report it. Even up to this moment, the Universe Powerhouses haven''t given up trying to break the Dalin Universe''s Protection Formation. "It''s fine. Thank you for all your time, Krune. We are leaving as well." Krune smiled as he accompanied the guys outside. After Fosto''s group left, Krune went to see Luvile again. "Did you finish talking with Cinnia?" Luvile nodded. "She''s cultivating the Soul Cultivation Technique as fast as she can. She has a God Soul, so she understands it much better than the majority. Cinnia might not be as fast as Heavin or Soren. Nevertheless, she can definitely do as much as you, especially because she doesn''t need to care about normal cultivation." Krune was happy to hear that. "In that case, how long until she reaches the Soul Control Realm? Only then will she be able to move her soul away from that tower." "What are you talking about? I''m right here already." All of a sudden, a blue pendant that Luvile was using rose in the air. "This... Senior Cinnia? You already arrived at the Soul Control Realm?" "Obviously. Did you forget? You left me many Top Quality Godly Energy Stones for cultivation. You have been out for over thirty years as well. It''s no surprise that I at least reached the Soul Control Realm by now." Krune had to admit that it was true. Top Quality Godly Energy Stones might be hard to use by him and the others. However, Cinnia was already a goddess back in Luvile''s time. Naturally, she could use Godly Energy to perfection. It''s only right that she got to the Soul Control Realm after all this time. "Well, I''m only in the 1st Stage of the Soul Control Realm, though. Still, that''s enough to move my soul into this pendant that Luvile''s using." Krune nodded. "What about a body? Wouldn''t it have been better to get a puppet made for you? I''m sure Heavin can make a Peak Divinity Stars Puppet for you to use." Cinnia didn''t want that, though. "There''s no need. Staying close to Luvile will be the safest place for me. Besides, once we go back to the God Realm, I''ll be able to construct a new body for myself." "Construct a new body? What happened to your own?" Cinnia sighed in response as she explained. "I wasn''t as lucky as Luvile. Although I was able to save my soul, my body was another story. It was utterly destroyed by the transition to the Mortal Realm. I have no choice other than to make a new one. The only problem is that I will need to start cultivating from zero again." Luvile didn''t seem the least bit concerned. "It''s fine. Unlike the others, you already know what you need to reach the Goddess Level. All you need is energy, nothing more. Once we reach the God Realm, that will be the least of our concerns." Cinnia agreed with Luvile. She already had her own self-made laws, just like Luvile. Krune then asked something else. "By the way, Luvile. What about your cultivation? Senior Soren is still far from his peak. He needs to first get his Mental Energy Source back before anything. Is your cultivation still intact?" Luvile shook his head. "I would love to say that it was. Unfortunately, my foundation was also damaged during the passage to the Mortal Realm. After so many years, I lost most of my cultivation due to that." "Then, what''s your cultivation level right now?" "I''m suppressing my cultivation so that I won''t be forced to ascend. Of course, I''m only considered a simple Mortal Rejection Realm cultivator even if I release my full power. Of course, with my experience and Purple Tribulation Lightning, I can definitely thrash anyone in the Godly Fusion Realm and have a good fight against some early Godly Foundation enemies." Krune didn''t doubt that. His control had never been as good as Luvile''s when fighting with the Purple Tribulation Lightning. Still, that already helped him jump an entire realm. Let alone Luvile himself. "That''s good, then. What about the Myriad Energy Technique? Have you already started to cultivate it?" Luvile nodded. "Not only that, but I''m also cultivating the Soul Cultivation Technique as well. I''m even better than you when it comes to splitting my mind into several parts, so I can cultivate both at the same time without any problems. It was quite easy to obtain the Elemental Meridians. I could go to the Elemental Dimensional Realm where Wally''s disciples are located to make the Chaos Meridians, but I decided to leave it aside. I can do that once we reach the Godly Path Realm instead." Unlike the Mortal Realm, one didn''t need the nine halos to create the Chaos Meridians in the Godly Path Realm. Iem was able to create them without any issues as well. Luvile then looked at Krune before saying. "By the way, how is your tenth meridian, the Purple Tribulation Lightning one?" Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Believe it or not, it simply disappeared after a few days. Well, that''s obvious since its foundation, the Purple Tribulation Lightning, wasn''t there anymore. Still, I already have the experience of creating a tenth meridian. Once I figure out my own Major Law, I''ll be able to make a new tenth one." Luvile nodded, satisfied. "Alright. Now, then. Cinnia and I are basically ready to go to the Lokrathos Universe to retrieve the Mortal Realm key. What about the rest?" "Oh, let me check in with them." Everyone was in the Luvile Universe at the moment, so it wasn''t a problem to reach them through the communicators. Luvile already got one for himself as well, so he received the same group message from Krune. After a few minutes, Soren, Heavin, and Feifei answered the message. They would be back in the Divine Path Sect in at most three days. "Well, that''s it, then. I''ll use this time to cultivate a little. Let me know when everyone arrives." Krune nodded. "Alright. I''m going back to train Trata and Lia." As mentioned before, everyone gathered three days later. This was the strongest group one could have in the Mortal Realm if you discarded Liriu and Barlo. Krune, Feifei, Heavin, Soren, and Luvile. Of course, Soren and Luvile were in another league of their own. There was also Cinnia, but she wouldn''t be of much help in her Soul Form. "Alright, let''s go to the Lokrathos Universe." Krune''s group then told the rest about their departure and left the Luvile Universe on the same day. Around a week later, a hole in the Lokrathos Universe''s barrier was opened with Purple Tribulation Lightning. Soon a group of five came inside while surrounded by a Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer. Naturally, that was Luvile''s group. He was using the Light Layer to prevent anyone from finding their location. "Where is it?" Krune then looked into the information given by Zule. "It''s at the center of the universe. Coincidently, it is also near a massive black hole, just like your body was." Luvile nodded as he spread his Divine Sense. Soon, he was able to determine the direction before he opened a Spatial Gate. Krune and everyone else quickly entered it, disappearing from the Universe''s border. However, they were taken aback by the time they arrived in the region where the massive black hole was located. A massive black hole''s pull was too great. Unless you were in the Divinity Realm, you wouldn''t be able to get too close to it. Not to mention the problem with the time flow and spatial laws. Without precise control over both laws, it wouldn''t be weird if a hundred years passed outside while just a few minutes passed inside. That being said, no one ever constructed anything near them. However, Lokrathos Universe was completely different. As soon as they stepped out of the Spatial Gate, they saw hundreds of thousands of structures surrounding the massive black hole. It''s not like it was an impossible feat. With the right formations, you could work around a Blackhole''s problems as long as you were not way too close to it. It''s just that the energy necessary to keep those formations up and running constantly would be ridiculously high. For example, to keep the sealed space where Luvile''s body was located, the part of the entire Luvile Universe''s power was used other than to keep the Underworld''s seal. Not to mention that Luvile''s sealed space was extremely small if compared to the black hole area. Yet, the structure here literally surrounded its entire dimension. "What''s happening here?" Chapter 806: Spacetime God Feifei looked in the distance before saying. "We''re going to find out very soon." Everyone looked at Feifei. As a Destiny Major Divine Soul, she could see more things than others. Sure enough, a few more Spatial Gates appeared around the group even though they were inside Luvile''s Tribulation Lightning Layer. From the looks of it, Luvile''s Anti-Divine Sense wasn''t enough to hide their presence. They could also see that those hundreds of spatial gates were opened by Peak Divinity Realm cultivators and demon beasts. Such strength definitely put this Universe in the higher end of the ranks. Well, it''s not like Luvile and the others were worried about being discovered anyway. The fact that they were surrounded didn''t mean much at all either. A woman, who seemed to be the leader of that group, then approached Krune and the others. "Who are you? This is the Heavenly Spatial Land. Outsiders are prohibited from getting close." Krune''s group became perplexed. "Heavenly Spatial Land? is it because of the black hole''s effects?" "That''s none of your business. I don''t know which Universe you came from, nor do I care. First and last warning, leave at once. Otherwise, we will force you to do so." Luvile and Soren couldn''t help but find that funny. Who in the Mortal Realm could really force them to leave? That was ridiculous. Krune then came forward before saying. "Sorry, senior. I don''t know what is happening here either. However, we were sent here to retrieve a certain thing, so we can''t leave. To be honest, we are as surprised as you all. After all, this place was supposed to be empty due to the black hole." The woman narrowed her eyes. "Once again, I don''t care. Leave now." Luvile and Soren snorted in response. "And how exactly do you expect to force us?" Soon after, they released their Spiritual and Mental Energy pressure. In less than an instant, everyone around was locked down into their own places. None of them could move at all! Probably only Barlo could really pose a threat to Luvile and Soren in the Mortal Realm. Sure enough, even the woman was taken aback. She couldn''t believe that such strength existed in the Mortal Realm. They haven''t even attacked yet, but her entire group was already out of commission. However, she quickly calmed down as she looked at Krune''s group. "Don''t say I didn''t warn you." Suddenly, the black hole behind her began to act strangely. All the structures around it began to shine with black light as well. Soon after, what seemed to be a gigantic formation activated before attacking Krune''s group. The power of spacetime came crashing down on Krune''s group. That power far surpassed anyone at the Peak of the Divinity Realm. Even Luvile and Soren were taken aback by how strong the spacetime attack coming at them was. Still, they didn''t panic. Instead, Luvile and Soren''s expressions turned serious as they countered the formations'' attack. "Extreme Tribulation Blast!" "Soul Manifestation Chaos!" *Boom!* Everyone was immediately sent flying by the shockwave of the clash. Space crumbled as spatial storms appeared everywhere. However, the effects seemed to be blocked when it reached the structures around the black hole ahead. Following that, all the broken space and spatial storms generated disappeared as if they had never happened. Even Luvile and Soren were surprised by that outcome. "I admit, that''s quite a formidable formation." Soren shook his head as he said. "It''s not just the formation. There''s something wrong with that black hole as well. It''s as if it has a mind of its own." Krune narrowed his eyes as he looked at the black hole as well. Just now, he had felt a very familiar presence. The woman, who had been confident until a moment ago, now looked at Luvile and Soren as if they were monsters. ''What kind of monsters are those two? No, they definitely aren''t from the Mortal Realm. There''s no way the Mortal Realm could give birth to such strength.'' Nonetheless, she didn''t lose her calm. The first attack was just probation to see if Krune''s group would leave or not. Now that she understood how powerful the enemy was, she decided to not hold back anymore. "Everyone, step back. I''m going to use the Heavenly Spatial Land''s full power." Luvile and Soren narrowed their eyes. Their Spiritual and Mental Energy pressure was still spread. Still, it seemed to have lost all effect on that woman and her subordinates. Once again, the black hole and the formation around the structures began to activate. This time, the attack that would come in their direction would not be as simple as the last one. The power behind it made even Luvile and Soren vigilant. If it was only one of them here, they would have probably retreated after seeing it. However, they were still confident that they could perform to the same level as the black hole formation behind the enemy. It only took a second for the woman to gather the energy of the black hole into the formation. "Don''t think that we''re afraid of your strength. If it was anywhere, ascenders like you two would have been invincible. However, you selected the wrong place to display your power." Finally, she pointed at the two gods and made her move. "Primordial Spacetime Destruction Formation!" Luvile and Soren didn''t hold back either. "You dare think you can stop us gods? See how we break this entire formation into billions of pieces!" However, just as the two sides were about to clash, someone appeared in front of the formation''s attack. When Luvile and Soren saw that, they were taken aback. The rainbow hair was impossible to mistake as well. It was none other than Krune! "Are you trying to kill yourself?" The woman also didn''t understand why Krune would appear right in front of her attack. Still, she didn''t care. If he wasn''t a god like the two behind him, then only death awaited. However, it was then that Krune released his aura before saying. "Zule! Stop with this farce right now!" The very moment Krune said those words, the entire black hole and the formation seemed to go through a transformation. The whole attack coming towards Krune''s direction suddenly disappeared as the formation around the structures deactivated. And just like that, the black hole went back to normal, with the two sides going back to what they were. However, the woman was terrified by what she just saw. How could someone have the power to turn off the Primordial Spacetime Destruction Formation? She had never heard about something like that happening in the past. However, it was at that moment that she recalled what Krune said. ''Wait! Did he just say Zule? How does he know that name?'' Suddenly, a Divine Sense spread out from the black hole as it covered Krune. Not long after, a Spiritual Energy voice came from inside it. "You have Master''s power inside your body. Who are you?" Everyone was shocked by those words. "Spacetime God!" Krune was also surprised to hear what the black hole said. "Master? Oh! I see... You''re a will left behind by Zule, right?" The black hole went silent for a few seconds before it spoke again. "Arminia, bring the guests inside. They aren''t enemies." Arminia was obviously the woman''s voice. As soon as she heard those words, she bowed in the black hole direction. "Yes, Spacetime God." She then took a deep breath... well, there was no air in outer space... before she looked at Krune''s group. "I apologize for my behavior earlier. I didn''t know that these friends were acquainted with the Spacetime God. I hope you can forgive my rudeness. Please, follow me." Luvile, Feifei, Soren, Heavin, and Krune nodded. They quickly gathered together and then followed Arminia. However, they also took the chance to ask Krune what just happened. Feifei, especially, was quite angry that Krune did something that risky. ''Why the hell did you do that? What if the attack didn''t stop? That thing had enough strength to even make Senior Luvile and Soren go all out, you know?'' Luvile and Soren didn''t deny Feifei''s words. They were ready to put all their strength into the battle that was about to start. However, Krune just laughed after hearing that. ''Hahaha! Don''t worry. I was absolutely sure that Zule, or his ''will'' to be more specific, would stop the assault. As long as I showed that I still have some of Zule''s own lingering power, the other side would definitely recognize it.'' Feifei narrowed her eyes. ''Was there a reason to communicate with Zule by appearing in front of the formation''s attack, though? You could have done that from the sidelines, at least.'' Luvile and Soren agreed with her. ''That''s true. That was an unnecessary risk you took there, especially now that you don''t have the Purple Tribulation Lightning anymore.'' Krune scratched the back of his head after hearing that. ''Ahem... sorry, sorry. I was just a little excited when I felt Zule''s power coming from the black hole. It has been a long time since I last saw him, after all.'' Feifei sighed before saying. ''Alright, just don''t do something like that again. It''s bad for my heart.'' Krune nodded with a smile. Everyone was then brought inside of one of the structures by Arminia, where she guided them into a big hall. Still, there was one thing Krune''s group didn''t understand. What are all these people and demon beasts doing here? Also, what''s with this Spacetime God thing? They had many questions to ask. Chapter 807: Foundation Connection There were a few people and beasts inside the hall. Some were in higher seats than others, showing their position. However, what caught their attention was the center of the hall, where you could see a spatial distortion. It was then that a voice came from inside that distortion. "Long time no see, Krune. Also, congratulations on taking your body back, Luvile." Krune and Luvile could feel the familiar presence of Zule''s power coming from that spatial distortion. However, Krune was puzzled about something. "I can tell that you''re Zule. But how come you know who we are? If you were a will left behind, you shouldn''t have the memories about us, no?" Zule confirmed. "In a normal situation, that would be the case. However, when I got my real body back, I spread my Divine Sense through all realms. It was then that I told you where the other keys could be found, remember? That day, I also took the chance to leave my will behind in this place. The black hole just so happened to be the perfect vessel due to its spatial power." Krune''s group soon understood the reason. "I see... Let me ask something. I thought you only left the key behind. Still, it''s nice to know that you thought ahead about this issue. By the way... can you communicate with your real body outside?" "Unfortunately, I can''t. The memories I have about my real body stops at the moment it left." Soren looked at Krune and Luvile before asking. "Is this that Primordial Kun-Peng you told me about?" "He is. Well, only his will anyway." Luvile then looked at the space distortion and then at the people around. "By the way, what is happening here? What are all these people and beasts doing?" Zule then explained. "Arminia, come forward." "Yes." Arminia then approached the group before Zule explained. "Krune, Luvile, you spent most of your time with me. Can you feel anything different from her?" Krune and Luvile became puzzled. They could tell that Arminia wasn''t a human, but they didn''t care too much about it. Soon after, they used their Divine Senses and Mental Energy to examine Arminia''s body. It was then that they noticed something. "This... Luvile, can you feel the same power from her bloodline as me?" Luvile nodded. "There''s no doubt. It''s extremely thin, but Arminia has a direct connection with the Primordial Kun-Peng''s bloodline. However, the Primordial Kun-Peng was sealed for way too long. How come she has a bloodline connection with Zule?" Krune also added. "Besides, Zule, wasn''t your whole family killed back then? You shouldn''t have any descendants as far as I know." Zule agreed with Krune. "I was also surprised when I found her. Not only her. You probably can see that there are a few humans here as well. However, they aren''t 100% humans. At some point in time, their ancestors also had a bloodline connection with me, so they have some of my bloodline inside as well." Krune then looked at Arminia before asking. "So... do you know anything about it?" Arminia nodded. However, she looked at the spatial distortion in the middle of the hall before saying anything. She was obviously waiting for Zule''s approval. "It''s fine. I don''t know the girl, the puppet, and the gloomy-looking guy, but I do know Krune and Luvile. You can trust them." Arminia then took a deep breath before she started talking. "All I can tell you is the legend passed through our people. It is said that back then, an existence that defied all the natural laws appeared in our Thakulo Universe. However, that existence was severely injured to the point it could barely move at all. The name of that existence was Kalo." Krune''s group became puzzled. "Kalo? Who''s that?" Zule answered that question. "Kalo was my son." "What?! Wasn''t your family supposed to be all dead?" Zule nodded. "I thought so as well. So you can probably understand how surprised I felt when I noticed Arminia and the others'' extremely thin bloodline. I also thought everyone was dead. Unfortunately, Kalo is nowhere to be found anymore." Krune understood why. "Kalo was also from the same race as you. That being said, the four realms couldn''t support his own existence, so he had to leave. Am I right?" Zule confirmed. "Correct. However, it only happened way later along the line. Because of Kalo''s severe injuries, his power wasn''t even a thousandth of it should be. Thanks to that, his existence could be supported by the Four Realms. That was when he met someone and left his offsprings behind... or so I heard." Arminia nodded. "Everyone here can feel our connection through our bloodline. It doesn''t matter how thin it becomes. We can always tell when we were related to each other at some point down the line. The twenty-two humans and beasts you see in this room are all the ones who still have some bloodline left in their bodies." "Because of ancestor''s bloodline, we all have very high affinity with Space-related laws. By the time we reach the Divine View Realm, we would have already fused all Space Sub-Laws into the Major Law of Space." Krune''s group was really surprised by that. Even a Space Major Divine Soul Owner would have a hard time doing such a thing. That showed how much of a heaven-defying existence the Primordial Kun-Peng was. Just a little bit of its bloodline was enough to bring out such a change. "Well, that''s good news, right? It means your son is still alive somewhere. I hope you can find him now that you''ve left the Four Realms." Zule didn''t seem confident. "I''m not sure if I will. After all, by the time I left with my real body, I didn''t know about these descendants'' existence. The outside me doesn''t know that my son is still alive." Krune laughed after hearing that. "Don''t worry. Once we get out, I''ll make sure to tell you when I find your real body." Heavin was still puzzled about something. "By the way, Arminia. How did you know that Zule is your ancestor? After all, I don''t think you would simply believe it if Zule came to you and said that." Arminia nodded before explaining. "Ancestor Zule is directly connected to us. Even though our bloodline is extremely thin, he can still use it to let us know about our connection with him. How can I say it... We just know that his presence is far above ours. It''s a connection that we can''t deny. Anyway, it''s kinda hard to explain." Krune''s group didn''t find it strange. "That''s bloodline connection for you. I just didn''t expect it would last as long as this. I mean, even a dragon or phoenix descendant wouldn''t last that long if they mix with other races along the line. Kalo was the only Primordial Kun-Peng, so he obviously didn''t have another one to give birth to more of them. I guess that proves just how powerful a Primordial Demon Beast''s bloodline is." Zule agreed with him. "Indeed. I''m quite happy anyway. I just hope my enemies didn''t find my son once he left. Oh well, that''s something for my real self to worry about. In any case, It''s nice to know that he found someone he liked when he was here." The group then talked a little bit more about those things. Finally, Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "By the way, where is the key? Is it okay for us to take it back now?" Krune, Soren, Heavin, and Luvile nodded. That''s the real reason they came here in the first place. The fact that Zule''s will was left here would also help them a lot. However... "We won''t allow you to take it." Immediately, Krune''s group looked at Arminia. She had a dark expression as she looked at them. Not only her, but everyone in the hall had the same expression. "This... What is happening here?" Zule bitterly laughed after hearing that. "Arminia, calm down. Without me, none of you are Luvile or Soren''s match. If they want to take it by force, they can do it. In fact, even if I intervene, I''m only using the black hole''s power to match them. If it was anyone else, that would have been enough. However, that''s a different case for two gods like them." Arminia nodded and calmed down as requested. "Sorry. I was too harsh." Krune then looked at Zule... or the spatial distortion in the center of the room to be more specific. "Does the key have some important sentimental connection with them? No, wait!" It was then that Krune noticed something. "You said that Kalo came to this Universe. Isn''t that too much of a coincidence that he arrived exactly in the same place as the key?" Zule confirmed. "It''s good that you noticed it. Indeed, the reason Kalo came here was not a coincidence. Well, at least I don''t think it was since I wasn''t here to ask him, so I can''t be 100% sure. If I''m not wrong, he used the power inside the key, that was fused with my blood and spatial laws, to arrive in this place when he escaped back then." Luvile then thought about a possibility. "I''ve been feeling a strange thing ever since I arrived in this place. It''s as if this location has some special connection with the Lokrathos Universe itself. Could that be the reason?" Zule was surprised that Luvile noticed it. "Very sensitive. As expected of a god. You''re right. This place has a special connection with its own Universe. Simply put, the key you need is now part of the Lokrathos Universe''s foundation." Immediately, the expressions on the faces of Krune''s group turned ugly. Chapter 808: The Idea Zule sighed before explaining. "As one of the necessary keys to open the four doors, the key has tremendous power. Back then, it was the key''s power that guided my own son to this place. However, the Mortal Realm Universes aren''t as stable and resistant when compared to the two upper realms. Because of that, the Universe it fell into, the Lokrathos Universe, received a great blow due to its arrival." "From what I understand, my son used his bloodline connection with me to revert the power of the key into the almost collapsing Lokrathos Universe foundation. I checked it as well. The foundation is being held by the key''s power alone. Of course, that made the Lokrathos Universe''s foundation stronger than any run-of-the-mill Universe out there. However, if the key is removed, the Lokrathos Universe wouldn''t last even a day." Luvile didn''t seem to care too much about it. "Then the answer is simple. Move everyone out of the Universe and take the key after that. With Soren and me working together, it wouldn''t take more than a month or so to do it. If these descendants of yours help as well, it will be even faster." Unsurprisingly, Arminia''s group felt like killing Luvile. "You want to destroy everyone''s ancestral grounds, their history, their lives, just like that? Do you think any of us will permit that?" Luvile snorted at those words. "I couldn''t care less about any of that. You should be happy that I''m even willing to bring all sentient lives out before doing it. That''s already very benevolent on my part." The killing intent surrounding Arminia''s group increased as all of them gathered. Even if they had to fight to the death, they wouldn''t allow Luvile''s group to take the key. Feifei then looked at Zule before asking. "Zule. Didn''t you tell them why we need the key?" "I haven''t. In fact, I wouldn''t even tell them that the thing was a key if they didn''t know about it already. When I left my will within the key those years ago, my original body left an order behind. I should not talk about this issue with anyone other than Krune. That was to prevent any mishaps from happening." Arminia didn''t seem to care, though. "Even if Spacetime God had told us about the use of the key, we wouldn''t allow anyone to take it anyway. There''s nothing worse than losing our home forever." Krune shook his head before explaining. "I''m not like the others. I never had too much of an attachment with a place before, even the Universe I was born in. I won''t blame you for doing so, though. However, there''s a big issue here. If we don''t take the key, you will still lose your Lokrathos Universe either way." Arminia''s group was taken aback. "Do you think we will believe that?" With Zule here, the order where he could only talk in Krune''s presence was achieved. That said, he could finally explain everything to his descendants. "Krune''s not lying. If they take the key, the Lokrathos Universe will collapse. If they don''t take the key...all Four Realms will collapse, Lokrathos included." "What?!" Krune then looked at ''Zule.'' "Is it okay if I tell them everything?" "Yes, go ahead." Krune nodded. "It goes like this..." Krune then explained the entire situation. How the doors to go out of the Four Realms are connected to the Four Realms'' foundations. How the gods of the God Realm were planning to break through it even if it means the Four Realms'' collapse. How it would be impossible to stop all of them. Krune explained that they needed the key to open the four doors and prevent the four realms from disappearing in the process. "Without the Mortal Realm Key, the Mortal Realm would be destroyed together with the rest. As terrible as the idea of destroying the Lokrathos Universe might seem, the loss of all Four Realms far exceeds the importance of a single Universe. Please understand. We really don''t want to force anything." Arminia''s group felt terrible. "Spacetime God, no... Ancestor Zule. Is it really true?" Zule confirmed. "Yes. That''s the absolute truth. Whether you want to believe it or not won''t change anything. Also, I''m the owner of the key to start with, so I''ve been waiting for Krune to arrive ever since. There''s no point in you defending it since I would use my own power to take the key out of the foundation." "This..." Arminia''s group felt even worse. That basically settled everything. Whatever they did, the Lokrathos Universe would fall either way. Well, it''s not like they had much of a chance with Luvile and Soren here. Even Krune, Feifei, and Heavin would already be very hard to deal with. After all, without Zule''s help to use the black hole''s power, they weren''t much stronger than ordinary cultivators and demon beasts. Heavin looked at their gloomy faces and couldn''t help but ask. "Zule, is there no way of taking the key without impacting the Lokrathos Universe?" "If I had my true body here, it could be done. However, not only can''t I contact it, you know very well that the Four Realms can''t withstand its existence. There would be a need for a power strong enough to substitute a Universe''s Foundation. Unfortunately, you definitely won''t find it in the Mortal Realm or the Godly Path Realm either." "The God Realm might have some products with such power, but I can guarantee that you won''t be able to send it down to the Mortal Realm either. First of all, the Mortal Realm would definitely reject such a thing. Trust me, I''ve been thinking up of a solution ever since I arrived, but there''s simply nothing." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Can we at least take a look at the foundation where the key is present?" "No problem." That distortion of space in the middle of the hall began to change. Suddenly, it increased several times before a Spatial Gate appeared inside it. It was directly connected to the foundation of the Lokrathos Universe, so everyone could see the other side. It was the first time Krune, Feifei, and Heavin had seen one, so they were really surprised by the view. The Universe Foundation looked more like a gigantic spiderweb. It extended to all corners of the Universe, keeping everything together. Of course, it wasn''t easy to see it. It was because Zule was here that it became this simple. That''s because all Universe Foundations were located in a different plane of the same size as their own Universes. It wasn''t wrong to think about the foundation as a mirror image of the Universe itself. Of course, there were no such things as planets, suns, galaxies, etc. Only the foundation and the core. Zule had opened a passage directly to that same core of the foundation. Krune''s group then came inside of that plane, where Zule''s will was actually located. Arminia and a few of the elders also followed, just in case. They could see something that looked more like a translucent rainbow crystal at the very center of the core. Its size was enormous, larger than an entire planet. Of course, considering the scale of a Universe, this was very small. Nonetheless, Krune''s group could feel just how powerful the energy inside was. Luvile couldn''t help but comment. "Even when I was at the peak of my strength, I wasn''t as powerful as this thing." Soren nodded. "Indeed. Saying that we''re fireflies in front of the moon is already be an overestimation of our powers. This is truly impressive." Krune agreed with them. "That''s incredible. However, Luvile should know one thing that has surpassed this thing''s power." Luvile bitterly smiled. He was there with Krune when Zule''s Primordial Kun-Peng body awoke. Sure enough, this gigantic crystal still paled in comparison with Zule''s real self. Krune then sighed as he looked at Arminia and the elders on her side. "I''m sorry. I wanted to take a look to see if I could think of a way to take it out without damaging the Universe Foundation. However, I really can''t think of anything capable of taking its place. The crystal is completely fused with the foundation, which makes things even worse for your Lokrathos Universe." Arminia sighed as she looked at it. Even she had only seen the crystal a few times. Still, she knew that Krune wasn''t lying. Where the hell would you find something like this to replace the crystal? First of all, even if you did, how would you expect to move it? No Spatial Ring in existence would ever be able to hold such a thing inside. Its power alone wouldn''t make it possible to push it through a Spatial Gate either. It was really a dead end. Feifei pondered for a bit before asking Krune through a Divine Sense message. ''We can''t prevent the Lokrathos Universe from collapsing, but we can at least help their people and beasts. They are not part of the Universe Powerhouses'' alliance. That being said, wouldn''t it be okay if we delivered everyone to Dalin? At the very least, that would be a much better place to start again.'' Krune was taken aback by Feifei''s idea. However, he had to admit that she was right. Due to Dalin''s special traits, it was several times bigger than common Universes. Holding a single Lokrathos Universe population wouldn''t make too much of a change to it. ''That could work. However, we would need to make sure that no one knows what we''re doing.'' Feifei nodded as the couple looked at the crystal. They really liked the idea. Chapter 809: Moving the Universes Lives Krune then called Arminia and told her that he had a secret plan. Arminia nodded in response before starting a meeting with a few of her most trusted elders and Krune''s group. Arminia already understood that without this key, the Universe wouldn''t last long. However, the Lokrathos Universe would still be wiped out later when the gods try to break the Four Realms'' foundation when they attacked the second door. The only difference in this was that the Lokrathos Universe would either be destroyed alone or destroyed together with the entirety of the Four Realms. Of course, it took several days of discussion to get everyone to understand that there was no other way. Not to mention that Zule himself would be giving Krune''s group the key whether they wanted it or not. Besides, Luvile and Soren were more than capable enough of taking care of everyone even if they refuse. However, what weighed more than anything else was Feifei''s proposal. After making sure that no word would come out of the meeting room, she told them that they could transfer everyone to Dalin Universe. There was basically no Universe that did not know about Dalin, even if they weren''t part of the Universe Powerhouses'' alliance. Knowing that they would be able to live in the best Universe that had been discovered was huge. They also knew how Dalin had been completely locked down, so the Universe Powerhouses couldn''t intervene with it anymore. Since their Lokrathos Universe would seize to exist, they might as well move to the best place possible, the Dalin Universe. Arminia''s group had also considered the force that controlled the Lokrathos Universe. That being said, it was a lot easier to deal with everything as long as they agreed with the plan. Later, Arminia called every leader of Lokrathos Universe''s main powers for a meeting. There, she ''explained'' that their Universe Foundation had a problem and that it would collapse not too long after. Of course, everyone was taken aback by that news. Many began to inquire if that was really true and things like that. Fortunately, Zule''s will was inside the key in the Universe''s Foundation. Thanks to that, he had no problem making the foundation look unstable when Arminia brought everyone to see it. They were all Divinity Realm forces, so they were able to ''confirm'' that the foundation truly seemed to be falling apart. It would take at most a year before the entire Lokrathos Universe disappeared if things continued like that. Of course, they all tried to give ideas to stop it, and Arminia didn''t try to stop them. She even had her elders go and ''help'' them with the issue. Unfortunately, after two months of useless trials, everyone understood that it would be impossible to stop it from happening. It was then that Arminia came up with the moving out of the universe plan. Obviously, everyone understood that it was the only option they had. However, the place where they would be going was the question in all of their minds. "Don''t worry. I''ve already prepared a place for us. However, moving all the living beings of a Universe isn''t anything easy. Besides, there are multiple repercussions to this decision regarding the power controlling our new home. Because of that, I can''t tell you where we''re going." Someone couldn''t help but ask. "Why can''t you tell us?" Arminia sighed before saying. "Isn''t that obvious? If we move the forces of an entire Universe to another, that new home''s power will increase at an alarming rate. It''s as if it suddenly became twice as strong as before. If the other Universes around it find out, they might start using preventive measures to stop that Universe from getting too strong." "Naturally, this move has to be done in secret. We will have to appear there like a ghost and expand as fast as possible. Only then would everyone have enough time to prevent mishaps. For the sake of security, I won''t be able to tell you where it is. After all, there should be no lack of spies or cultivator and demon beasts who want to profit from this information." As unhappy as everyone might be, they had to admit that Arminia was right. "But, are we going to become subordinates of the new home''s power?" Arminia shrugged her shoulders as she replied. "Do you think we have another choice? If it were you, would you receive everyone and give your own Universe''s control to the newcomers? Don''t be ridiculous. It''s already great that I got a place for ourselves. You can''t be delusional to think that the ones controlling this new home would give up their home for us, right?" Of course, there were some who opposed it. "In that case, let''s attack another Universe and take it for ourselves. Then, we can move there on our own." However... "Are you really that dumb? We have less than a year! Even one of those Universe Powerhouses wouldn''t be able to conquer another Universe in a year, let alone us. Just to prepare for the battle alone would take longer than that!" Sure enough, there were many arguments regarding this idea. But in the end, Arminia''s group was the power controlling Lokrathos Universe. The others had to follow their orders even if they didn''t want to. Otherwise, they were more than welcome to take all their own forces and leave Lokrathos on their own. Obviously, such a choice would be even worse since they would have no place to establish themselves. Meanwhile, Krune had spent his time forging Peak Divinity Stars Spatial Boxes nonstop. He even included a little bit of Godly Path Realm materials into the mix, making them several times bigger and resistant compared to any other Mortal Realm Spatial Box. The reason he made Spatial Boxes was that they could hold much bigger dimensions inside as well. Krune wasn''t planning to move only the living beings. No, he was planning to move all the planets as well! Feifei, Heavin, and Luvile helped as much as they could with this. By the time Arminia had convinced everyone to move out, Krune''s group had already crafted over a million of those things. Of course, that was thanks to a Time Decelerating Formation that Feifei set down. While two months passed outside, over 20 years passed inside Feifei''s formation. Well, for cultivators like them who were already hundreds of years old, twenty years didn''t seem like much anymore. Let alone Luvile and Soren, who have already lived for who knows how many chaos cycles. In their case, twenty years might as well be considered the blink of an eye. Each one of those Spatial Boxes had a Dimensional Realm capable of holding an entire Solar System, maybe even two if they weren''t too big. "We made a lot of them, but would it be enough to hold everyone?" Krune smiled before nodding. "I know what you mean. A Universe can easily have between billions to trillions of galaxies, let alone Solar Systems. However, we aren''t moving entire galaxies to start with. We are only moving the planets with living beings and putting a single sun to provide them with energy. Of course, it''s a lot more complicated than that, but that''s the general concept." "Don''t forget, more than 99.99% of a Universe is completely void of life. In general, only one in a million suns have planets around it. Let''s not even talk about suns with planets that have life on them. Dalin is just an exception because of its traits. Way too many people and beasts moved into there for cultivating and things like that. They even moved their own planets and stabilized them there." "Basically, we don''t need to care about the majority of the Universe at all. We made a little more than a million Spatial Boxes, which we will use to store a single sun and many planets around its orbit. Obviously, only planets that have life will be put in the orbit of each of those suns. As for things like what''s the best distance for each planet to be from the sun, that''s something the Lokrathos Universe forces will have to care about, not us. We will be only moving and giving them the tools necessary for that." "In any case, we have more than enough space to move everyone out. As for the rest, it''s said that it will all be destroyed. Of course, I''m sure that due to the Universe''s size, many will be forgotten. But we can''t do anything about that. Some planets where life just began to appear will not even be considered to start with. Nevertheless, it''s a lot better than risk losing all Four Realms." Feifei couldn''t help but sigh. "We are always traveling from one power to another, always surrounded by people and beasts. However, only in a moment like this do you really understand how cold a Universe really is." Krune nodded as he said. "We did what we could." In the third month, hundreds of millions of Divine Path Realm and above cultivators were given a Spatial Box. Of course, there were only a million and something boxes. The reason many more cultivators and demon beasts gathered was that each group would have enough strength to deal with most of the situations. That also helped prevent wrongdoings due to the number of spectators. Sure enough, everyone followed Arminia''s orders and began to move suitable suns before putting the planets with life into them. As for the details, it would all be decided by the Lokrathos Universe''s people and beasts. This situation continued for eight months when finally, Arminia received the report that at least 99% of the Lokrathos Universe''s lives were moved into the Spatial Boxes. Chapter 810: Moved Out So far, the only ones that knew of the presence of Krune''s group in the Lokrathos Universe were Arminia and the elders that had participated in the meeting that day. Krune and the others might attract the Universe Powerhouses'' attention, so it was better to keep it that way. After all, Lokrathos was moving everyone out, so it was too much of a coincidence for them to be here at the same time. At some point, Arminia called Krune''s group over to talk about the travel. "We got around 99% of everyone inside the Spatial Boxes already." Krune nodded before asking. "I understand. What about the last 1%?" Arminia shook her head as she said. "There are many complications regarding this last bunch. Some didn''t want to leave, others didn''t believe us, there were those planets that we don''t know that have life in them. There are also things like secluded experts who have hidden themselves to cultivate and wouldn''t come out for who knows how many years. Still, putting those cases altogether, it is only 1% of the total population." Krune sighed before nodding. They couldn''t do anything about those people and beasts, so they could only leave them behind. This wasn''t a plan that would be perfect to start with. Arminia then asked something else. "What about Dalin Universe? Have you made the preparations for our arrival?" Krune nodded as he replied. "I went there some time ago to talk with the actual powers controlling it. They owe me big-time, so they were happy to let everyone stay inside. I just had to explain a little of what was happening. In any case, the number of living beings moving into Dalin couldn''t even be considered 1% of Dalin''s total population, so it''s nothing for them." Arminia was relieved to hear that. "That''s great news, then. Just remember that the leaders of the sectors of our Universe refuse to stay in the Spatial Boxes. They wanted to stay outside to protect their own people and beasts. You''ll have to move tens of thousands of experts without telling them where we''re going." Luvile was there as well. "Hmph! Just a bunch of ants. Don''t worry about that. Once Soren and I make a move, not even a single one of them will be able to leave our side. They wouldn''t have any chance to contact anyone outside unless they decide to stay behind. And if someone thinks they can follow us by using any method, they''re overestimating themselves." Arminia nodded, saying in response. "That''s good to know. I''m sure that we have many spies from the surrounding universes who want to know where we''re going. But since you''re this confident, I won''t say anything. By the way, the preparations to move out will be done in one day. We can move tomorrow." Krune looked at Feifei after hearing that. "How is it? Can you see any problems with the move?" After they finished crafting the Spatial Boxes, Feifei kept using her Destiny Divine Soul with divination, trying to find any issues along the way. "I can''t possibly verify everyone. However, I''ve checked the most important characters and things like that. So far, there''s no problem. Oh, well. It''s not like we would have problems with Luvile and Soren here anyway." Luvile obviously agreed with her words. "Alright. We''re moving out tomorrow, then." Arminia nodded in response to the news and left to tell everyone. Sure enough, the area where the cultivators and demon beasts were guarding the Spatial Boxes became lively after that. Most of them were nervous since they didn''t know where they were going. However, they could already see the Universe''s ''instability'' happening everywhere. Arminia asked Zule to keep the portal open to anyone who wanted to verify the foundation''s status. Seeing it degrading day by day, they could only accept that they must move out. The other Universes around them had also received the reports and made sure to alert their spies and experts to follow the Lokrathos Universe''s members. Since the foundation was open for everyone to see, they all knew about Lokrathos'' imminent destruction. The next day quickly arrived as all the Lokrathos Universe experts who stayed out gathered in a single location with the Spatial Boxes. Arminia was also there, managing everything and making sure nothing wrong happened. With everything double-checked, the time to move out had finally arrived. "Everyone! Take a good look around since this will be the last time you''ll see it. If you have anything to say, say it now." The surroundings were silent. Everything has been said already. They only wanted to see where they were going. "Very well. Seniors, it''s your time." "Alright." Out of nowhere, two figures appeared in the middle of the Lokrathos Universe experts like ghosts. Naturally, they were Soren and Luvile. However, before anyone could say anything, Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning began to expand at frightening speeds. Of course, there was no damage to anyone. The next time they saw it, their entire surroundings were enclosed by a barrier of Purple Lightning. Soren then used his Mental Energy and immediately sealed everyone''s cultivation, much to their alarm. They couldn''t understand how Soren had done that at all. The only ones that could more or less move were the Late and Peak Stage Divinity Realm experts. But even they couldn''t do much. "Don''t worry, everyone. I''m only doing it to prevent any mishaps during the travel. Alright, let''s go." Whether the people and beasts believed it or not didn''t matter. It was at this moment that Luvile showed what a god could really do. With Soren making his move, his Purple Tribulation Lighting was enveloped in Spatial Laws before it struck the fabric of space. Right in front of everyone, a gigantic Spatial Gate appeared, more than big enough to swallow them. But the frightening thing wasn''t the Spatial Gate itself. Instead, it was the place it was connected to. Now that Luvile knew both the start and endpoint, he was able to open a Spatial Gate that connected directly to one of the Universes bordering Dalin in a single go! Such a thing was only possible when using the Multi-Universal Teleport Formations, which are extremely expensive and hard to build. But here was Luvile, doing it with his power alone! Thanks to the Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer, everyone observing the even outside with their Divine Sense found out that the people of the Lokrathos Universe had suddenly disappeared. Not only that, but when they tried to open a spatial gate to get closer to that place, they found out that they couldn''t connect to it at all! Naturally, Luvile and Soren had disrupted the Spatial Laws in the surrounding area, so no one could open a Spatial Gate there if they weren''t as strong as the two. Soon after, Soren used his power and pulled everyone inside together with Luvile. Just like that, almost all the living beings of the Lokrathos Universe disappeared in a flash. The gate quickly closed behind, leaving nothing for the others to see. Another thing that closed was the portal into the Lokrathos Universe''s Foundation. Well, Zule was watching everything, so he knew that there was no reason to keep it open anymore. He just had to wait for Krune to come back. Once again, no one noticed the arrival of Luvile''s group since they entered that Universe with the Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer active. Without wasting any time, Luvile controlled his Purple Tribulation Lightning to open a hole in the Dalin Universe''s Protection Formation before quickly passing through with everyone. Luvile''s control was so much better than Krune that the hole he created had repaired itself in just a few seconds after the passing. "Alright. It seems like everything had gone smoothly." Krune nodded. "Let''s go to the sector separated for them. It''s just an open space without anything at the moment. Still, it will become a small galaxy with over a million stars in it very soon." Luvile nodded before opening another spatial gate. Finally, they arrived at what would be their new home in the Dalin Universe. Soren then released everyone from his control as Luvile turned off his Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer. Immediately, all the Lokrathos Universe experts looked around, puzzled. "Have we arrived?" "Wait! That''s not possible. How long did it take?" "It didn''t take even ten minutes! There''s no way we have arrived already." "Could it be that we were brought to one of our neighboring Universes?" Arminia immediately shook her head as she said. "No! We are far, far away from Lokrathos Universe." Everyone then looked at Arminia, who seemed to be quite excited. "Can''t you feel the Spiritual Energy in this place? Does it look like any Universe you have been in before?" Immediately, everyone was taken aback. The concentration of Spiritual Energy in this place was simply much higher than any place they had ever been in. "This..." "How come there''s a place with so much Spiritual Energy?" "That''s not all. Try to look into the laws!" "The laws! They''re... They''re so... Clear! How''s that possible?!" As they were still in shock at the density of Spiritual Energy, a rainbow-haired guy appeared in front of everyone as he laughed. "Hahaha! Everyone, welcome to the Dalin Universe!" *Boom!* In less than an instant, everyone went in an uproar! Dalin Universe! The Dalin Universe! How could they not know what Universe it was? "I know that guy! It''s the rainbow wisp we saw in the last heavenly Competition!" Sure enough, Krune was well known among the high-level experts. Everyone saw him during the last Heavenly Competition, especially when he battled Iem. Suddenly, many spatial gates appeared around as members of the Dalin Universe''s controlling powers came out. One of them just so happened to be Baren Frunkan, the Dalin Universe''s Retaking plan leader. "Krune, are these the ones you talked about?" Krune nodded as he replied. "Yes. There are around a million suns with many planets orbiting them in those Spatial Boxes'' Dimensional Realms. That''s almost the entire population of the Lokrathos Universe." Baren nodded. "Very well. As discussed before, we will need to verify everyone." Krune didn''t mind. "No problem." Krune then looked at Arminia. "Senior Arminia, I''ll leave the rest up to you. Our debt with your group has now been paid." Arminia nodded with a smile. "Very well paid indeed. Thank you." Everyone was taken aback. They finally understood that Arminia seemed to have struck some deal with Krune. Just when did that happen? How did she do that? Well, that didn''t matter anymore. After all, they arrived at the Universe of their dreams. So what if they weren''t the controlling power anymore? It was totally worth it! Of course, they would prefer to not lose their Universe. Unfortunately, it was going to disappear, and they couldn''t do anything about that. With that, Krune''s group had finalized the moving plan. Luvile then shrugged his shoulders before saying. "We''re finally done with this. Let''s go back and take the key." Krune, Feifei, Heavin, and Soren nodded in response before they departed from Dalin once more. As for what would happen with the Lokrathos Universe''s population, that''s for another story. Chapter 811: The First Key Several people and beasts of other Universes remained in the Lokrathos Universe to see what they could take from this abandoned Universe. However, the population wouldn''t leave their best things behind, so there wasn''t much to be found, to begin with. In this same Universe, Krune''s group had appeared once again. Because Luvile knew where it was, they could head back straight to it. "Let''s go see Zule." It didn''t take long before they arrived at the massive black hole once more. The buildings were still there together with the formation. However, it had been turned off and began to gradually fall apart little by little. There were a few cultivators and demon beasts from other Universes checking it, with Krune''s group looking like it was just one more. Of course, Arminia made sure to not leave anything they needed behind. The others ignored Krune''s group since they thought they came here for the same reason. Krune and the others eventually arrived at the hall after that. There were two more cultivators talking there, with them noticing when they arrived. "You arrived late. We didn''t find any clue about where the Lokrathos people and beasts went, nor was there anything left behind." Krune smiled, not minding it at all. "It''s fine." Following that, Krune stopped in the middle of the hall before saying. "Zule, we''re here." Suddenly, a distortion in space appeared before it engulfed Krune and the others. Before those two guys could say anything, Krune''s group disappeared together with the distortion. "What?!" "Where did they go?" They used their Divine Senses to check the room before them, but there was nothing there. In the end, they could only look puzzled at each other, not knowing what to do. Back at Krune''s side, everyone appeared in front of the Lokrathos Universe''s Foundation, where Zule was waiting. "Have you finished everything?" Luvile nodded. "We sent them all to Dalin already." "What about the rest who remained?" Zule sighed as he said. "There''s nothing we can do for them. A Universe is still a Universe. It would take ages to find every single one of them and force them out. We can only hope they understand the risks and leave it before Lokrathos collapses. As for those who don''t have the cultivators to go, I''ll give them a little help with the key''s power and send them straight into planets of other Universes. It would be impossible with the entire population, but the little that remains won''t be that hard." Krune and Feifei were happy to hear that. They thought they would need to leave them behind to die along with the Universe. Of course, many of those who stayed did that because they didn''t want to leave. However, Krune and Feifei didn''t just want to leave them off to die. "Krune, Luvile, this is the last time I''ll be talking with you. Once the key is removed, my will wouldn''t be able to stay." Krune was taken aback. "Really?" "Yes. There''s nothing I can do about it. However, don''t worry. This is just my will. My real body and soul is still out there, waiting for the day you all come and pay me a visit." Krune and Luvile nodded. Soon, Krune said "Very well, we will get there." Zule was satisfied with the answer. "Well, then..." Not long after, the planet-sized crystal began to shine brightly. Together with it, the entire Universe Foundation started to tremble nonstop. After some time, several cracks appeared on the roots of the foundation attached to the giant crystal. At some point, the crystal released a tremendous amount of Spatial and Spiritual Energy that followed its connection to the entire Universe. Those powers traveled all around in the background of the Universe in a matter of seconds due to the Spatial Laws in it. Outside the Universe Foundation, all the cultivators and demon beasts at the Divinity Realm from other Universes noticed this change. The fabric of space began to crack all around them, giving the feeling that space itself would break apart. "It''s here! The Universe is really coming to its end." "Let''s get out, quickly! No one can survive a Universe''s destruction!" "Fuck! I still didn''t find anything valuable!" However, these were the only types who had the power to leave the Universe on their own. In their case, Zule completely ignored their existence. Instead, he focused on all the other lives that refused to leave the Universe, the ones who were not found, and those who didn''t have the power to do so. In places where many were gathered, small Spatial Gates began to appear and swallow everyone against their own will before closing. Before they knew it, they were already on the surface of some foreign planet in one of the surrounding universes. The same thing happened all around the Universe as the energy of the giant crystal escaped the foundation every time it found signs of life. After an hour''s worth of effort, the only ones remaining in the Lokrathos Universe were Krune''s group. The rest had fled on their own or was sent out by Zule. "Alright, there''s only you guys. The Universe will collapse as soon as I remove the key, so get ready to leave straight away." Luvile nodded. "It''s fine. I can open a Spatial Gate straight out of here. We just need the key." "Very well. Until another time." As soon as Zule said that, he used his will to act on the planet-sized crystal. It then shone several times brighter than before. Following that, Krune''s group heard the cracking sound as the crystal detached itself from the Universe''s paths. Eventually, it was completely separated from it. All around them, the foundation began to collapse together with space itself. As for the planet-sized crystal, it started to shrink at high speeds. All the power was compressed until the crystal assumed the form of a small pearl. It then stopped right in front of Krune and Luvile. "Luvile, it''ll be much safer in your hands, right?" Luvile nodded as he said. "Indeed. I''ll keep it until the day we use it in the God Realm." Luvile grabbed the key and immediately put it in his Spatial Ring. There was no Spatial Ring in the Mortal Realm that could contain the key''s power. However, Krune didn''t lack materials and Godly Energy from the Godly Path Realm to start with. That being said, he had long since prepared the best Spatial Ring he could. Only then was Luvile able to put the key away. Not long after, Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning ran through the Spatial Ring, completely sealing it with his power. Unless another god paid special attention to it, they wouldn''t be able to find anything strange with it. *Rumble...* "There''s not much time. Let''s get out of here." Luvile and Soren nodded as they used their power to open a Spatial Gate in the middle of the chaotic space. After that, they passed through it before disappearing from the Lokrathos Universe. The other Universes surrounding it observed as Lokrathos collapsed little by little. Not long after, explosions of ridiculous magnitudes could be felt through the flow of Spiritual Energy. Soon enough, Lokrathos Universe lost its entire foundation. With that, the whole Universe began to collapse on itself. The chaotic Spatial Laws made it progress even faster as the energy accumulated at the very center of the Universe. Little by little, everything was swallowed into a single tiny point of energy until suddenly... *Boom!* An explosion that surpassed the level of power that any Divinity Realm expert of the Mortal Realm could unleash occurred. Everyone surrounding the Lokrathos Universe watched through their own methods as a new Universe was now taking form in place of the last one. It wouldn''t be suitable for living or even cultivating for the next several tens of millions of years at the very least. It would probably take billions of years until it stabilized enough for new life forms to appear. Still, it was definitely a sight to behold. What would it be called next? How would the powers of the Universe be when the first cultivators and demon beasts go inside or are born from it? No one knows. They only knew that it would happen at some point. Valan was one of its neighboring Universes. At this moment, Krune''s group was there, watching as all of that happened. "So that''s how a Universe dies. It doesn''t disappear forever but becomes the source of a new one." Luvile and Soren nodded. "Yes. It has always been like that. However, the new Universe will not be like the last anymore. There''s even a chance that it might become a new Dalin. You never know..." Feifei couldn''t help but ask. "What was there before the first Universe appeared?" Luvile and Soren shook their heads. "We don''t know. Did you forget? It was guys like Zule, who live outside the Four Realms, that created it. The primordial demon beasts are the ones you should ask regarding that question." Heavin pondered a bit before saying. "I wonder what the Four Realms were created for." "We''ll have to ask Zule once we leave." Krune sighed as he looked at Luvile. "Well, there''s only one thing left for us to do in the Mortal Realm. After that, we can focus on our ascension to the Godly Path Realm." Feifei nodded. "Indeed, let''s go back to Luvile Universe so that I can fulfill my promise with Xanio." "Oh, the guy who told you about the Heavenly Fragments back then?" Feifei nodded. "I promised to take his soul back in exchange for his help. It''s time to do it." Krune and the others nodded before Luvile opened a Spatial Gate. They quickly entered it before disappearing from Valan. With that, they now had the first key. Chapter 812: Can I Help You? Back in the Luvile Universe, Soren and Heavin decided to leave once more so that Soren can focus on training Heavin. If they wanted to ascend in the next few years, Heavin would need to put more effort into it. Since what remained was only the travel to Luvile Universe''s underworld, they thought that there would be no need for Soren''s help either. "Alright, then. You already know how to contact me. Of course, unless it''s something really important, try to not bother Heavin''s training." Krune, Feifei, and Luvile nodded, with the latter responding. "Alright." Soren then opened another Spatial Gate for him and Heavin before the two disappeared inside. Luvile then looked at Krune and Feifei. "Since Barlo isn''t sealed in the underworld anymore, there should be no problem for you in there anymore. I can''t cultivate before reaching the Godly Path Realm anyway, so I''ll go somewhere else with Cinnia. Just make sure you two don''t die." Feifei and Krune laughed as Krune said. "It''s fine. Nothing will happen." Luvile shook his head in response, saying. "When it comes to you, anything can happen." Feifei couldn''t agree more. "The most dangerous moments are usually when he has a breakthrough. He''s already in the Peak of the Divinity Realm. However, I''ll make sure to use my Destiny Divine Soul to its fullest to suppress the Calamity Laws." Krune''s mouth twitched as he asked. "You''re doing it on purpose, right? Right?!" Luvile and Feifei had a serious expression on their faces. There''s no way in hell they would joke about it. Facts have proved that it was the right thing to be ready for it. It was then that Feifei thought about something. "Wait, Senior Luvile. Are you leaving now because you want to escape?" Immediately, the room became silent. Suddenly, Luvile''s body flashed away as he left a message behind. "I''ll see you when the time for ascension arrives. Goodbye!" Feifei felt like crying before looking at Krune. "See what happens when you practice Calamity Laws? Everyone wants to stay far away from you." Even Krune, who was usually always calm, began to feel somewhat angry. "Hmph! You know what? I''ll do some research into this topic. If there is really something like that, I''ll make sure to train it next time." "Do you even need to do that?" Krune scratched the back of his head, not finding a good excuse. "Anyway, let''s go to the Underworld." Now that Luvile''s body was gone, the Universe lost the free energy for the tribulations. Because of that, the seal that blocked the Underworld lost its power as well. Krune and Feifei had only to concentrate a bit to find the connection to the Underworld. However, Feifei was the one who had a connection with Xanio, so she was able to use her Divine Sense to locate his soul. "I can see him." Not long after, she opened a Spatial Gate before the two of them entered it. The Underworld wasn''t as dark as many might think. Although Death Energy was everywhere, the dead souls waiting for reincarnation generated enough energy to illuminate everything. Of course, you won''t find much green in a place like this, with a few exceptions, like the tree''s dew Krune used in the past. Well, that tree only became green once every thousand years. Krune looked around and could see all the souls moving in the same direction. After paying attention to where they were moving, he saw what seemed to be a gigantic swirl in the sky. All the souls were moving to the center of that thing. However, the Underworld was enormous. As far as his Divine Sense went, he wasn''t able to reach the center of the swirl. Considering the speed that these souls were moving, it would take tens, if not hundreds of years, before they finally arrived at the center. Another thing that Krune noticed was that there were a few souls that didn''t move. Instead, they stayed still in a few corners, as if they were seeing the others pass by them. However, their numbers were low compared to others. Krune''s Divine Sense could cover many galaxies at once as long as he was in the Mortal Realm. Still, he couldn''t see more than a thousand or so of those still Souls. ''Those should be the high-level cultivators who branded their souls to not lose their memories. Most likely, they''re waiting for the right moment to reincarnate even though they have no will anymore.'' Krune then ignored all of that as he looked at Feifei. "Is this the right place? We''re quite far from the Reincarnation Path Entrance." Feifei nodded as she said. "It is. I can feel my connection with Xanio''s soul. He''s definitely close." Xanio had several problems with the Sacred Lands in the past. That said, he made sure that before his death, he branded his soul in a way where it would be hard to find. Of course, he had no idea that the Underworld was sealed and that the Sacred Lands couldn''t even enter. Feifei had seen his soul before passing through the Spatial Gate, though. She was certain it was somewhere around this place. Suddenly, she felt some familiar energy coming from a specific direction. Immediately, her eyes lit up. "Found it!" Feifei immediately rushed in the energy''s direction before spotting a feeble soul buried in a corner. The soul also noticed the connection with Feifei and subconsciously moved in her direction. "Is this Xanio''s soul?" Feifei nodded as she said. "It is. Xanio asked me to bring his soul back from the Underworld. However, he would need to take someone''s body or enter a puppet just like Heavin did. It would make sense in the past when we couldn''t do anything to the Sacred Lands. However, that''s not the case anymore." Krune nodded. "True. We can rebrand Xanio''s soul to make sure that the memories from his past life won''t be lost. Then, we throw him into the Reincarnation Path and wait for him to revive outside. It shouldn''t take more than a month or so once he''s already inside the reincarnation path. Once he reaches the Divine Soul Realm, his memories will awake once again." Feifei nodded with a smile. That was her idea as well. "Let''s do it." The two of them branded Xanio''s soul, just like they mentioned. After that, Krune and Feifei marked the soul so that they would feel the moment he reincarnated in the Mortal Realm. With that, they could go after Xanio''s new parents and take him to the Divine Path Sect, where he would have all the support necessary to reach the Divine Soul Realm with ease. As soon as they finished that, Feifei opened a Spatial Gate. The couple then entered it with Xanio''s soul in their hands before disappearing inside. They didn''t know the Underworld well, so they had to use quite a few Spatial Gates until finally reaching the center where the path was located. Feifei and Krune couldn''t help but gasp at the gigantic dark hole in the sky. Naturally, that was the eye of the swirl. All the souls that reached the bottom of that would start to be sucked into it. As they looked around, they could see the tens of thousands of souls making their way up. It was quite a show of soul lights. As Feifei looked in her hands, she could see that Xanio''s Soul was also trying to get free so that it could enter the path as well. "Well, then. I''ll see you back in the Luvile Universe." Krune and Feifei let the soul loose. They accompanied it with their eyes as it got close to the entrance of the Reincarnation Path. Finally, it reached a point where it got too mixed between the other souls that they couldn''t tell which one was Xanio''s Soul anymore. As for Divine Sense and Mental Energy, it seemed like the swirl had some kind of protection that blocked both types of scans from passing through. "Well, that''s it. Let''s go back home." Feifei smiled as the two opened a Spatial Gate back to the Luvile Universe. Xanio''s rescue was almost a pointless thing in the end. After all, there had never been a risk of his soul being caught by the Sacred Lands as he thought. His fear of getting close to the reincarnation path and getting captured should have never existed. "I wonder how he''ll feel once he finds out the truth." Krune laughed. "That''s something worth waiting for to see. Unfortunately, it would take many years, even with the best resources, for Xanio to reach the Divine Soul Realm. We would have ascended by that time already." Feifei nodded. "That''s true. Anyway, let''s wait for his soul to appear. I''m going to visit my parents in the Wang Clan. What about you?" Krune pondered a bit. "I''ll go visit Lakin and Ruik''s family. Let''s meet again once Xanio''s Soul reincarnates." "Fine by me." Feifei then gave Krune a kiss before opening a Spatial Gate and entering it. After she left, Krune didn''t open a Spatial Gate for himself, though. Instead, he looked in a particular direction before saying. "Ahem... Senior Barlo, is there something I can help you with?" "What?!" Suddenly, space began to retract as a man appeared out of nowhere. "How did you know I was here?" Krune scratched the back of his head before saying. "Every since I got the Heavenly Core, I''m quite sensitive to all the elements. Senior Barlo''s Darkness Element Manipulation and Laws are far above anyone I''ve seen in the Mortal Realm so far. Because of that, I could tell it was you who came here." Barlo was quite surprised with Krune. He didn''t think that a mere Heavenly Core would be enough to reveal his existence. Well, in fact, it wasn''t. Krune was able to do that because of Mental Energy instead. Of course, he wouldn''t tell Barlo about that. "Oh, well. Whatever. I need to talk with you." Chapter 813: What to do with it Barlo then looked at Krune before throwing something in his direction. Krune extended his hand and grabbed it. It was a runestone. Krune rarely ever used them, especially after reaching his level. Nevertheless, he could recognize it straight away. However, he could sense a tremendous amount of power coming from inside it. ''No, it isn''t just power. There are also Spatial Laws present on it. It''s just that these Spatial Laws... Aren''t they too similar to Zule''s? What is this thing?'' Krune looked at Barlo with a puzzled expression. "Senior Barlo, what''s this for?" Barlo then explained. "This is something I got back in the God Realm. Has Luvile ever told you about the gigantic phenomenon in the sky of the God Realm?" Krune nodded. Of course, he knew of it. That was the only way out of the Four Realms. It was also why the Lokrathos Universe was destroyed since its foundation had one of its exit keys. The fact was that Krune probably knew more about it than Barlo himself. "I know. What about it?" Barlo continued. "That makes things faster. I found this runestone close to it. I thought I was quite lucky back then to find this treasure. However, I just couldn''t figure out what it was even after researching it for many years. It was then that the Unigan Universe called me in the God Realm. Without any choice, I had to go down once again. Well, you know the story. I lost conscience, and when I woke up again, everything was already over." "However, it was just a little bit after I woke up that I found that this stone was no treasure. Well, at least it wasn''t a treasure for anyone in the God Realm." Krune became puzzled. "What''s this, then?" Barlo smiled before saying. "This runestone is directly connected to the God Realm''s Spatial Laws somehow. Simply put, it can open a passage directly to the God Realm without the need of having the necessary cultivation to ascend." Krune felt like he was struck by lightning when he heard that. However, he didn''t doubt Barlo''s words. After all, he could indeed feel Zule''s Primordial Kun-Peng''s Spatial Powers inside. He just didn''t expect that this runestone had such power. "This... Why are you giving me this?" Barlo sighed as he answered. "That''s because I went to see the place where the Unigan Universe was before. As you know, once a Universe is destroyed, its remnants become the base of a new Universe. However, that Universe there wasn''t Unigan anymore. It has been so long that the new Universe has already stabilized and even has its own living beings all around." "That said, I simply have nothing more to do in this Mortal Realm. I decided that I''m going back to the God Realm after I finish talking with you." Krune still didn''t understand. "That doesn''t explain why you''re giving me this." Barlos scratched the back of his head. "Can''t you understand? This is my way of saying thank you." "Thank you? But I didn''t do anything." "Of course you did! It was because of you that I was finally free from the seal in the Luvile Universe. If you didn''t help Luvile all the way, who knows how much longer I would have to wait. Maybe I would really stay there forever, never knowing as to what happened outside." Barlo continued. "When I first got out, I didn''t have a head to think about anything else. But this last year made me think about a lot of things. In any case, I understood that I never got to thank you for the help you gave me, even if it wasn''t your intention. That being said, I remembered this runestone I got in the God Realm. It''s useless for anyone in the God Realm. After all, we don''t need it to ascend again. Still, it''s a huge treasure for those below, so just take it. It''s not like I''m losing anything from this. If you still think you can''t accept it, then just take it as payment for the communicator you gave me." Krune couldn''t help but swallow a bit of saliva. Just how much effort would this runestone save him? Of course, he had to prepare many things before using the runestone. For example, other than him, Luvile, and Soren, the others would be crushed by the extremely high concentration of Godly Energy of that place. He would need to discuss it with Luvile and the others first. "Senior, I will accept this gift. It''s quite important for me." Barlo nodded, not minding it too much. "Oh, right! This runestone can only be used one more time. It had two charges before, but I used one to test it out. That was quite a waste." Finally, he decided to leave. "Well, then. I guess I''m going back now. May we meet again in the God Realm someday." Before Krune could even say anything, Barlo released his suppressed cultivation in a single go. Immediately, the pressure around Krune had increased several times, and that was while Barlo wasn''t doing anything at all. That was just the cultivation''s pressure of someone from the God Realm. The moment that happened, the Luvile Universe seemed to awake from a long slumber as a roar echoed in everyone''s mind. Not a single being in the Luvile Universe couldn''t hear it. Naturally, the Sacred Lands and the rest of the Universe were alarmed by that, not knowing what was happening. Krune then saw how the space around Barlo began to crack and break apart on its own. As expected, the Luvile Universe couldn''t hold that existence. It was too powerful for its lacking foundation. The roar everyone heard was basically the heavens of the Luvile Universe screaming in pain. Soon after, Spatial Laws began to gather around Barlo as an enormous suction power pulled him over. Following that, something that looked like a Spatial Gate appeared. It''s just that Krune didn''t feel Spiritual Energy from it, but Godly Energy instead. It was Godly Energy that far surpassed the Godly Path Realm''s energy by far. ''Senior Barlo''s cultivation is still at the level of the God Realm, so he''s being sent straight there.'' Barlo didn''t try to resist it, not because he wouldn''t be able to do so. Soon, Barlo disappeared inside the Spatial Gate. Krune didn''t try to get close. He knew that anyone uninvited would be smashed by the God Realm''s Laws. Finally, Barlo was gone, and so was the gate. Only then did the Luvile Universe''s heavens calm down once again. Krune then looked at the runestone in his hand with an excited expression. It was an unexpected reward to him. Without wasting time, he opened a Spatial Gate and left the area. It wouldn''t be long before others came to investigate what happened. Back in the Divine Path Sect, Krune immediately sent a message to Luvile and Soren. Soren told him to not bother him unless it was really important. However, Krune couldn''t think about anything more important than this right now. Of course, he also called Feifei and Heavin. As one could imagine, everyone was puzzled by Krune''s sudden urgency, so they came back as fast as they could. Krune also invited his master so that he could give his opinion. Not too long after, the six of them were gathered. Well, seven if you consider Cinnia''s Soul inside Luvile''s pendant. Soren, obviously, was the last one to arrive since he wasn''t even in the Luvile Universe anymore when he received the message. As one could imagine, he had a dark expression. Soren just told Krune and Feifei some time ago to not contact him unless extremely necessary. But there he was, stopping Heavin''s training once again. Worst of all, it didn''t look like Krune was in any danger whatsoever. "You better have a good reason to call us back. Otherwise, don''t think you''ll escape with just a beating." Krune couldn''t help but sweat a little. Soren totally had the power to fulfill his words. "Ahem... Don''t worry, Senior Soren. I''m sure you will find this reason satisfactory enough." Luvile was also curious and a little afraid since Krune was close to his breakthrough. "Could it be that the Mortal Realm is going to explode?" "Fuck you! There''s nothing here that''s going to explode." Feifei and Heavin couldn''t hold their curiosity anymore. "Just tell us already. You''re killing us with all this suspense." Krune nodded as he brought out the runestone Barlo gave him. Soren, Heavin, Feifei, and Cinnia didn''t find anything strange with it other than the enormous power inside. However, Luvile immediately recognized the energy of the Spatial Laws on it. "This... Is it something related to Zule?" Krune smiled before nodding. "Yes. Senior Barlo gave it to me before he left the Luvile Universe for the God Realm." Cinnia then understood. "Oh! So that''s why the Luvile Universe suddenly acted like that. Barlo released his cultivation to be sent back to the God Realm." "Exactly." Krune continued. "In any case, he gave me this runestone, as for what it can do..." Krune then explained what Barlo told him about the runestone. Sure enough, everyone in the room was taken aback. That was a runestone that could open a passage directly to the God Realm without the need to cultivate or undergo an ascension tribulation. "Are you sure it can do that?" Krune shook his head as he replied. "I''m not. But I don''t think Senior Barlo has a reason to lie either. Besides, Zule''s power is indeed inside this thing." Luvile agreed with Krune. "My thoughts are the same. The question now is what we''re going to do with it." Chapter 814: Need to Pass By Feifei immediately brought up the main issue as she said. "There''s no doubt that heading straight to the God Realm would increase our cultivation speed several times. However, the issue here is whether Krune, I, and Heavin can even resist that Realm''s Godly Energy. From what Krune told me in the past, resisting the Godly Path Realm''s Godly Energy was already a difficult task even for those at the Peak of the Divinity Realm." Soren nodded. "There''s another problem as well. My Mental Energy Source is in the Godly Path Realm, so I can''t head straight to the God Realm. I must pass by the Kalame Sect and take it back before thinking about the God Realm. Naturally, Heavin would need to come with me so that I can watch over his training." Cinnia, who was inside Luvile''s Pendant, then gave an idea. "The main issue is to transform one''s dantian and body into Godly ones. That happens as soon as someone reaches the Godly Path Realm. The best action would be to first ascend to the Godly Path Realm and have Feifei and Heavin''s dantians transformed. No, wait! Heavin''s just a Divine Soul." Luvile nodded. "Usually, one''s dantian and body change into Godly ones when you first arrive in the Godly Path Realm. To be more specific, you enter the first stage of the Transformation Realm. Well, in Krune''s case, he first changed his meridians instead of his Wisp Core. But that''s a special characteristic of the Myriad Energies Technique." Luvile continued. "Anyway, the Realm where you change your Soul into a Godly One is the Mortal Rejection Realm that comes after the Transformation Realm. The normal method is to have the body become godly after you ascend and use it to protect the Soul until you start changing it in the Mortal Rejection Realm. However, Heavin doesn''t have a body per se. First of all, he doesn''t even follow the normal system." Soren nodded. "Even I went through the Transformation Realm and the Mortal Rejection Realm. I only came up with the Soul Cultivation Technique when I was in the God Realm, not before it. However, there''s no need to worry about it at all." Heavin continued from there. "Master''s right. That''s because I''m already in the Soul Source Realm. In the Soul Cultivation Technique, the Soul transforms into a Godly Soul at the Godly Soul Source Realm, which is already the next Realm. Simply put, I''ll be ready to transform my Soul as soon as I arrive in the Godly Path Realm. You are the ones who will need to go through the Transformation Realm since you have bodies or, in Krune''s case, a Wisp Core. I have no need for that." Luvile and the others couldn''t help but say. "That''s a little unfair, isn''t it?" Soren couldn''t care less. "That just shows how amazing my Soul Cultivation Technique is. Hahaha!" Cinnia ignored Soren''s laugh and continued. "Alright, so Heavin has no problem about ascending. In that case, we just need to wait for Feifei and Krune to reach the 9th Stage of the Transformation Realm. That''s when their Wisp Core or Body and Dantian will have finalized their transformation. The question here is, is the Transformation Realm enough to resist the pressure of the Godly Energy of the God Realm?" Luvile pondered for a bit before saying. "Both the Godly Path Realm and the God Realm have Godly Energy as a means of cultivating. The difference is how pure and dense it is." Krune and Luvile looked at each other before nodding. "Let''s use the same method as we did when I arrived there." "Indeed. I will use my Purple Tribulation Lightning to fend off most of the Godly Energy while you and your wife can use the rest to make your bodies get used to it. I can increase the amount little by little until you can resist it by yourselves." Krune nodded. "Not to mention that it''s possible to use the Godly Energy Meridians to help fend off the Godly Energy. That''s what I did back then. However, this time, we will both have a body at the 9th Stage of the Transformation Realm and the Godly Energy Meridians. I refuse to believe it''s not enough to deal with the God Realm''s Energy." Feifei and Heavin asked what Krune and Luvile were talking about. Krune then explained how he survived his arrival at the Godly Path Realm. Only then did they understand. Well, it didn''t have much to do with Heavin anyway. "I see... so such a thing is possible. That makes things much easier." Soren couldn''t help but comment. "In any case, we will need to pass by the Godly Path Realm. Feifei and Krune will need to reach the Transformation Realm''s 9th Stage, and Heavin needs to enter the Godly Soul Source Realm. As for me, I need to go to the Kalame Sect and take my Mental Energy Source back." Krune also thought about another thing. "I will take this chance to find Iem and Luvile''s beloved brother." Luvile''s mouth as he said. "Who the hell is my beloved brother? Do you want a beating? I shall let you remember that you have no chance of escaping me the way I am now." The others laughed out loud, except Soren. "What are you talking about?" Krune then explained that the Devil Flame God was, in fact, Luvile''s blood brother. It''s just that the two never got along ever since young. Cinnia also giggled a little before saying. "To think that your brother would survive as well. Aren''t you happy?" Luvile felt helpless. "As if!" Lucio, who had only been listening to the entire conversation so far, finally decided to ask something. "In that case, you''re going to ascend soon, I suppose? What about everyone else? In Krune and Feifei''s case, you even have your kids here." Krune and Feifei simply smiled. "Fie is already a Divinity Realm expert. She''s more than able to take care of herself. Well, she can even take care of her family, including her husband. As for Luo and Lua, they are much younger but over thirty years old already. Besides, they''re cultivating diligently back in Dalin. We already raised them as well as we could. They don''t need our protection anymore, and neither should we try to protect them forever." Seeing how they talked made the other understand how proud Krune and Feifei were about their children. Cinnia even felt somewhat sad as she remembered her own son who died. Luvile understood Cinnia''s feelings, so he quickly changed the topic. "Since you''re that confident, so be it. However, won''t Fie or Lirio want to come with you two? You too, Lucio. You aren''t that far from the Peak of the Divinity Realm, either." Lucio laughed after hearing that. "Hahaha! Even though I''m in the 7th Stage of the Divinity Realm, it will take me many more years than it took for Feifei and Krune. Of course, such an amount of time isn''t anything for cultivators like us. However, the earlier you get to the God Realm, the easier it will be for you to reach the level necessary to stop the other gods. You shouldn''t delay behind just because of me. That said, I''m staying back to cultivate at my own pace. As for Fie and Liriu, you will need to ask them yourselves." Lucio then looked at Krune. "Just remember to train Lia well so that she can take the position of Sect Master. Heavin will only take another few years to ascend, which is much faster than me. You don''t have as much time as you think." Krune nodded. "Leave her to me, Master. She already decided that she will take the position, so all she needs is effort. Besides, she already has Trata to help her." Soren then got up as he looked at Heavin. "Alright, then. This was indeed a good reason to call me back for this discussion. Now that the conversation''s over, I''m bringing Heavin away with me to finish his training and Soul Cultivation. We should be back in five to seven years at most. Whatever you have to do, use this time for that." Soren then left the room with Heavin. Before long, they were already out of the Divine Path Sect''s Planet. Luvile also got up and left with Cinnia once again, leaving Krune and Feifei behind with Lucio. "Master, are you sure you don''t want us to wait? You could go to the God Realm straight away with us as well." Lucio shook his head. "I don''t have any dream of leaving the Four Realms. I want to travel around the Godly Path Realm without having to concern myself with sect matters. Besides, I think I''ll join my Master in his travels there." One must remember that Lani had already ascended back then. Krune nodded. "Alright." The three of them talked for a bit more before Feifei left. She went back to the Wang Clan once again. As for Krune, he went to see Lia and Trata, who was cultivating in the Divine Path Sect. "...and that''s what happened, so I will only be staying in the Mortal Realm for a few more years." Lia didn''t seem to care much, though. "That''s fine. I''ll take care of the Divine Path Sect after you and Grandmaster Lucio leave. Once I decide to ascend, I''ll leave behind a successor as well." Krune laughed as he replied. "That''s great. Now, then. Let''s continue your training, shall we? Trata, you will be joining as well, so make sure to protect Lia." Trata scratched the back of his head. Protect her? He was several times weaker than her, so she had to protect him instead. And just like that, time began to pass... Chapter 815: Gone During the next few years, Krune helped train Lia and visited a few places in the Dalin and Luvile Universe with Feifei. They also took this opportunity to tell others that they would be ascending soon. As to whether someone wished to come with them or not, they couldn''t do anything about it. After all, it was only possible to ascend once one reached the peak of the Divinity Realm. The only ones who had a chance at it were Fie and Liriu. Of course, there was Cinty as well, but she had no wish to leave the Dalin Universe anytime soon. However, both Fie and Liriu had already decided that they wouldn''t be going. They were basically like Lucio. They didn''t really have a big interest in this so-called ''Beyond the Four Realms.'' Liriu didn''t want to leave his parents behind, so he decided to stop cultivating and wait for them to reach the peak of the Divinity Realm as well. As for Fie, it was even more obvious since her husband was far from her cultivation. She wanted to do it like Feifei and Krune and only ascend with the person she loved. Neither Krune nor Feifei complained about that at all. As for the rest of Krune''s friends, none of them would reach the Peak of the Divinity Realm anytime soon. Logically, they wouldn''t be able to ascend with him even if they wanted to. Another thing that Krune and Feifei did was find where Xanio was. As expected, they felt the moment he was born in the Luvile Universe and brought him to the Divine Path Sect. Now, he only needed to cultivate up to the Divine Soul Realm to recover his memories. Well, that would be an easy task with the sect''s resources. One day, Krune was having a meal with Feifei and Lucio when all of a sudden, his communicator activated. Not only his but Feifei''s as well. As they looked at that, they received a message from Soren. "Oh! Soren''s coming back with Heavin!" Feifei smiled as she said. "That''s great! Heavin has reached the peak of the Soul Source Realm." "Let''s finish eating and go meet up with them." "Don''t forget to tell the others since we''ll also be ascending soon." Feifei nodded with a happy expression and immediately contacted everyone in Luvile Universe. A few days later, everyone gathered to see Krune, Feifei, and Heavin off. Everyone was already aware that it would happen anyway, so there wasn''t any surprise on their faces, only a hint of sadness. After all, many of them wanted to go with Krune and Feifei. Unfortunately, they didn''t have the cultivation for that. Ao then looked at Krune before saying. "Krune, make sure to leave the door connection outside the Four Realms open. I''ll be passing by it someday as well." Krune nodded. "Sure, I won''t close it if I don''t need to. However, I can''t promise anything." Fie and Lua were hugging Feifei while crying, which made Feifei''s eyes teary as well. Krune and Luo couldn''t help but laugh a little. Luo was Krune''s only male child. "Luo, make sure you protect your sisters well." Luo scratched the back of his head as he looked at them. "I might be able to help in Lua''s case, but there''s no way I can do anything for Fie. Her realm is just too high. Chances are that she will have to protect me instead." Krune shrugged his shoulders as he replied. "Well, you never know what to expect. I just mean that you should give them your full support." Luo nodded. "Then, I''ll do that. By the way, dad. Will I see you again?" Krune shook his head as he answered. "I don''t know. However, you three are grown-ups already. Perhaps there will come a day when all of you ascend to the God Realm and leave the Four Realms. If that happens, I''ll be waiting for you outside." Luvile, who was beside them, couldn''t help but snort. "That''s considering you''ll survive until then, right? Don''t get overconfident. Don''t lie either. They need to know that there''s a chance that we will die when we attempt to go out. Or maybe we''ll die by the time we are out." Luvile then looked at Luo as he said. "In any case, just remember that they might die someday. Understood?" Luo immediately replied. "Yes, Senior Luvile!" Luvile nodded, satisfied. Krune then looked at the puppet on Heavin''s side. "Little Arty, don''t you want to go with us? We''ll reach the God Realm much faster, so you''ll be able to see Sentoi again." Little Arty shook his head as he replied. "Fie is my Master, so I will take my time and stay with her. I believe she will eventually arrive in the God Realm one day." "What if Sentoi leaves the Four Realms with us before that?" "Then I just need to wait until Fie leaves the Four Realms as well. Hahaha!" Krune shrugged his shoulders and didn''t insist. It was evident that Fie was as important to Little Arty as Sentoi was. Sometime later, the three crying girls somehow became eight. Lofa, Shinja, Yusa, and City, and Ary joined the group. Krune then left them alone and went to make some food for everyone. This would be the last time cooking for them in a long time, so he used the best ingredients available to him. Everyone enjoyed it for several hours that day. Naturally, the time came for Krune''s group to leave. There was no need to send Cinty back to the Dalin Universe since they still knew about the secret passage. Well, only Lucio and Cinty knew the exact coordinates. The lesser the number of people that knew it, the better it was. In any case, they could go back to Dalin whenever they wanted to without anyone noticing. Fie then couldn''t help but ask. "Dad, Mom. Don''t you have the small black and white towers you used to communicate between realms before?" Krune sighed before shaking his head. "We don''t. That thing worked with Wally''s power. Now that Wally''s back at the God Realm, they disappeared with him. I might find Wally in the God Realm again, but it''ll take some time." Ao remembered something as he asked. "Wait! Doesn''t Wally have a way to come back to the Mortal Realm without paying the price?" Krune, Luvile, and Feifei smiled bitterly. "We asked him many, many times. However, he refuses to tell anyone about it. He''s intending to bring this secret to his grave as far as we can tell. So don''t hope too much that we''re coming back anytime soon unless Wally suddenly has a change of mind." Soren finally became impatient before saying. "How long are you going to make me wait? I want to go get my Mental Energy Source back." Heavin looked at Soren with a puzzled expression. "But Master, the Kalame Sect has two Nascent Soul Gods presiding over it. Do you have enough power to demand it back from them?" Soren snorted before he took the ''black water'' out of his Spatial Ring. That was the same water that Krune brought back from the Godly Path Realm. "This is far from enough for me to reach my Soul God Level. However, there''s more than enough for me to trash any Nascent God Realm of the Godly Path Realm. I''m just waiting to ascend before consuming it. Soon after that, I''m going straight to this Kalame Sect and retrieve the rest of my Mental Energy Source." Krune and the others nodded, not doubting it at all. "Alright, everyone. Give them space. It''s time for everyone to depart." Somewhere else, the Sacred Lands observed that through their Divine Senses. For them, it was great that Krune''s group was finally leaving, especially since they were bringing those gods together with them. Of course, they wouldn''t be idiotic enough to try anything against the Divine Path Sect anytime soon since they were still afraid of Wally. Besides, Liriu and the others were also powerful beings. "Sigh... Perhaps things will go back to normal after this." "Don''t relax so quickly. We don''t have a passage into Dalin anymore, so it is not like our strength has changed much." "Well, let''s see what the future holds for us." Back at Krune''s side, Krune, Feifei, and Heavin took several Godly Energy Stones out and pressed for the limit. A few minutes later, they reach the threshold, which immediately called forth the Ascension Tribulation Clouds. As mentioned before, Heavenly Core Owners received Ascension Tribulations that were much stronger than normal ones! After all, the Universes didn''t want to lose part of themselves, which were the Heavenly Cores and Fragments. However, Krune and Feifei were anything but normal. They had their Mental Energy and Myriad Energy Techniques. Besides, Luvile also left some of his Purple Tribulation Power within them for their use. Soren did the same thing for Heavin, just in case. The ordeals raged down, bringing out all five elemental tribulations. Each tribulation was stronger than any common one, making everyone around feel fear as they watched. However, it was all useless in front of Luvile and Soren''s power, as well as Krune and Feifei''s own strength. The Luvile Universe roared madly in seething rage, but there was nothing it could do. The ordeal continued for over one hour, which showed just how much difficult it was. Unfortunately for the universe, the Tribulation Clouds eventually ran out of energy just as the Tribulation Bolts came down. With that, the Tribulation was over. Heavin, obviously, had the easiest time between the three. However, the Luvile Universe wasn''t finished yet. Now that the tribulation was over, it had to send Krune''s group up. Spatial Laws gathered around Krune''s group as the Spatial Gate that only ascenders could enter opened for them. Luvile and Soren also stopped suppressing their cultivations at that point, which immediately made the Luvile Universe take notice of them. Sure enough, it took the chance of the Spatial Gate being open and grabbed the two of them as well. Before long, Krune''s group disappeared in the spatial gate. They had finally ascended. Chapter 816: Lets go Because the five ascended together, they were sent to the same place. Of course, it was vastly different from the planet Krune first arrived back then. After all, he ascended from Dalin last time. This time around, he ascended in the Luvile Universe. As soon as they appeared, they felt extreme cold from the snowstorm that was happening around them. It was quite surprising since even Krune, with his Peak Divinity Realm cultivation, couldn''t block it completely, let alone Feifei. As for Heavin, he was a Divine Soul, so he couldn''t feel cold to start with. However, Feifei and Heavin had more serious matters to worry about, unlike Luvile, Soren, and Krune. That''s because they still hadn''t passed through the first Transformation. Naturally, they felt the same pressure as Krune and Iem did back them. It''s just that it was a lot easier for them due to their much higher cultivation. Krune immediately used his Godly Energy Meridians to gather Godly Energy and blocked the storm for Feifei and Heavin. The two then took a deep breath and began to concentrate on the Transformation. Soren looked at Heavin and began to give him instructions on how to go about his breakthrough. "Accept the Godly Energy directly into your Mental Energy Source and Soul. Use the fused five elements to keep them locked and the cultivation technique to initiate the conversion. It might sting a little bit, but this is a one-time event. You need to endure. Once you reach the limit, aim to breakthrough." "Yes, Master!" Soren looked at Krune and Feifei before saying. "You two should remember this as well for the day you reach the Godly Soul Sorce Realm." Krune nodded. As for Feifei, she heard that but didn''t have time to think about it. Krune already told her everything she should do, so she was concentrated on entering the First Stage of the Transformation Realm. As mentioned before, the Transformation Realm wasn''t really a realm per se. It''s just an adaptation of the body and dantian (or demon core) to live in the Godly Path Realm. It used the Transformation Laws present in the Godly Path Realm to achieve this result. The Transformation had nine stages, but Feifei would still be considered a Divinity Realm cultivator even if she was at the peak of the Transformation Realm. The same went for Krune and everyone who was born in the Godly Path Realm. Krune, for example, had been in the Transformation Realm first stage ever since the time he arrived in the Godly Path Realm the first time. Unfortunately, only those at the Peak of the Divinity Realm could advance in the Transformation Realm. Krune would basically start in the First Stage, just like Feifei. Last but not least, Feifei used the opportunity to transform her Chaos Meridians into Godly Energy Meridians. In fact, this part would be much faster, and it was what Krune used to resist the Godly Energy pressure of the Godly Path Realm back then. Around an hour had passed when finally, Feifei''s meridians finished the Transformation. With Krune''s experience from the last time, it was easy for him to tell Feifei how she should proceed. From there on, she pressed for the Transformation Realm''s First Stage. Luvile and Soren used their Divine Senses to check around. However, the Godly Path Realm''s Godly Energy severely blocked it. Mental Energy had an easier time piercing through, though. Then again, the Mental Energy scan always had a much smaller range than Divine Senses to start with. In the end, it wasn''t that much different. In the end, Feifei was the first one to finish her Transformation. "Phew... I''m finally done. How''s Heavin?" Soren shook his head as he replied. "Unlike you, he needs to break through into a new realm while changing his Soul and Mental Energy Source into Godly ones. You can consider it the equivalent to entering the Mortal Rejection Realm. It should take at least another ten or so hours for him to finish. Well, his talent with Soul Cultivation is higher than mine, so he might finish much faster than that." Surprisingly, Soren was right. Instead of taking ten hours, Heavin had done it within six hours. In an instant, Krune''s group felt the presence of the Tribulation Power gathering above them. It''s just that they couldn''t see it due to the storm. Nonetheless, they weren''t surprised. "Sure enough, just like the Mortal Rejection Realm, the Godly Soul Source Realm is also where you get a Tribulation." Heavin looked in the sky''s direction, prepared to receive the test. "Don''t worry, Master. I can definitely overcome it." Soren nodded. "Obviously. It would be a joke if you died from the weakest tribulation of the Godly Path Realm." As mentioned before, The Tribulation in the Godly Path Realm didn''t start at the Core Formation Realm. Instead, it only started at the Mortal Rejection Realm. That''s because the Godly Path Realm had way more living beings than the Mortal Realm. Besides, the Godly Path Realm wasn''t divided by Universes. It was a massive whole. Well, it was still as big as the Universes of the Mortal Realm combined, though. Tribulation Lightning rained down on Heavin''s Phoenix Puppet. Fortunately, Krune provided him with Godly Path Realm Materials in the past to upgrade it. Thanks to that, it was quite resistant to the power of the Tribulation. *boom, boom, boom...* After some, the final tribulation lightning came down, even stopping the storm for a moment, allowing them to see the sky. But soon, the snowstorm engulfed the open space, covering their vision once more. Heavin''s Phoenix Puppet was charred black. The only part that remained was the beak made with God Realm material, the Stellar Needle. However, his Divine Soul was more or less fine. If anything, it was tempered by the Tribulation Lightning instead. It pretty much looked like what Krune did in the past with his own Soul. "Sigh... I liked this Phoenix Puppet so much..." "Don''t you have any other puppet?" "Of course I do!" Heavin''s Spatial Neck later flashed with silver light for a moment. Soon after, another Phoenix Puppet that looked pretty much the same as the one he used had appeared. It''s just that it didn''t have a beak. Heavin then brought his Soul out of his body and entered the new puppet. Following that, he used his control over Godly Energy to remove the broken puppet''s beak and attach it to the new one. "You can move parts that easily?" Heavin shook his head. "I can only do this for the beak. That''s because this beak is the most important part, so I didn''t want to lose it just because my puppet''s body broke apart. That being said, I''ve always made puppets that could receive the beak at any time." Krune and the others nodded in response. After that, they finally took a look around in the storm. "Feifei and I can''t fly, so we can''t head up to check." Luvile nodded. "Wait here for a bit. I''m going up." Simultaneously, Soren brought the rest of the Black Water out of his Spatial Ring. One must remember that Soren only took a tiny part of it. Now he would be taking the rest all at once. The Black Water quickly entered Soren''s body and headed straight to his Soul before merging with his Mental Energy Source. As that happened, Soren''s strength began to rise at an alarming rate, quickly reaching the level of a Nascent Soul God in power. After all, he was already a Soul God, so it would be wrong to say that he broke through to the Nascent Soul God Realm. As he did it, Luvile reached outer space as he looked around. Unfortunately, his foundation had just been fixed recently. His cultivation was still in the Mortal Rejection Realm level because of that. That being said, his range of Divine Sense wasn''t even able to cover a tenth of the planet they were in. "Sigh... I better leave it for Soren to take a look." "Hehe. It''s good that you can recognize your limitations." Suddenly, Soren appeared by his side with a smug face. Soren''s cultivation wasn''t any better than Luvile. In fact, it was a lot worse since this was a body he got in the Mortal Realm. Its cultivation wasn''t any higher than the Divinity Realm. However, it mattered little for Soren since he never relied on that to start with. "Hmph! Just wait until this god recovers. I don''t need to care about breakthroughs since I''ve passed through them already. All I need is a lot of energy." Soren could not help but laugh in response. "I don''t even need that much. Hahaha!" Soren then focused his Mental Energy and spread it outwards. His power could already be considered at the very peak of the Nascent Soul God Realm. That said, his Mental Energy Scan could cover thousands of Solar Systems at once. Well, if it was the Mortal Realm where Godly Energy doesn''t exist, this level of Mental Energy might be able to cover an entire Universe. That''s how much difference Godly Energy made to one''s perception. Nonetheless, it was more than enough for Soren to find a planet where he could get information. "Oh! For a moment, I thought we had been sent to a lifeless planet. However, there are still a few cultivation cities here." Luvile nodded in response, saying. "That makes sense. After all, this is where those from the Luvile Universe are sent when they ascend. Although there are very few in the Luvile Universe who succeed in their ascension tribulation, too much time has passed already. It''s only a matter of time for cultivators and demon beasts to band together and form settlements." Soren nodded as the two went back into the planet to tell Krune and the others. "Alright, I found something. Let''s go." Chapter 817: Recovering As Luvile had mentioned, the few cities available in this place came to be after many chaos cycles. Then again, Luvile Universe''s ascension spot was even more remote than Luvile Universe itself. Fortunately, it had teleport formations to the outside world. This was also a good and relatively safe place for those who practiced Water Element skills. Soren brought everyone to a city called Hastol, where they immediately obtained information about which part of the Godly Path Realm they were at the moment. Everything went as they had expected, and they finally could tell where they were. "Alright, I know where we can go now. If you guys have nothing to do here, we''re going to leave straight away." Krune and the others nodded at Soren''s words. He was the only one with a power equivalent to a Nascent God, so they needed him to open the Spatial Gates. After that, Soren opened the passage, and they left the planet. The next time they appeared again, they were somewhere close to the middle of the Godly Path Realm. Back where they ascended, no one knew where the Kalame Sect or Sky Shifting Sect was located. That being said, they could only go where they could find more information. Fortunately, things became a lot easier from that point onwards. As the center of the Godly Path Realm, this place was packed with cultivators and demon beasts of all levels. Naturally, there was no lack of places to buy and sell information. Krune still had many Godly Energy Stones, so it made things faster. "Okay. There are a total of 349 sects called Kalame." "That many?" Krune shrugged his shoulders as he said. "It''s because the Godly Path Realm isn''t divided into many Universes. That means the information they have here encompasses everything. But that''s fine. I already know which one is the real one. I just had to match the Kalame Sects'' locations with the Sky Shifting Sect. In the end, there''s only a single Kalame Sect located close to a Sky Shifting Sect. That must be the right one." "Where are we heading first, then? The Kalame Sect or the Sky Shifting Sect?" Soren snorted in response. "To the Kalame Sect, of course. That friend of yours has the Devil Flame God with him, right? I''m sure he''s fine. I don''t want to wait to retrieve my Mental Energy Source. After all, I don''t know what the Kalame Sect intends to do with it." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Senior Soren, can''t you feel the presence of your Mental Energy Source from here? After all, the ''black water'' always pointed in the direction of the rest." Soren shook his head as he replied. "Whoever has my Mental Energy Source has probably put it in a Spatial Ring. As long as it isn''t brought out, my Mental Energy Source is considered to be in another dimension. That being said, I can''t feel its presence unless I''m close enough. When you did that test of yours, my Mental Energy Source wasn''t inside a Spatial Ring, right?" Krune nodded. "That''s true." Luvile didn''t want to waste any more time, though. "Enough with the shit chat, let''s go take his Mental Energy back and visit the Sky Shifting Sect after." Soren agreed with Luvile and immediately opened another Spatial Gate. This time, in the direction of the Kalame Sect. Sure enough, as soon as Soren came out of the Spatial Gate, he immediately felt the presence of his Mental Energy Source. That connection showed the direction he should take. Krune also recognized the place they were in when they saw the planet in the distance. "Oh! It''s the Kalame Sect''s Planet!" Soren nodded. "My Mental Energy Source is there as well." He quickly spread his Mental Energy Scan and located Lila Kalame, the 7th Stage Nascent God Realm ancestor of their sect. Soren could tell that his Mental Energy Source was inside her Spatial Ring. That said, Soren immediately took action. However, he didn''t want to waste time with pleasantries or anything, so he opened a Spatial Gate right in front of Lila. As one could imagine, the protection formations on the planet were useless in front of Mental Energy. "What?!" Lila was shocked to see a Spatial Gate appear in front of her and immediately stepped back. Following that, she activated all the seals in her palace, ready to attack at any moment. However, she was taken aback when she saw who came out of the Spatial Gate. Naturally, she recognized Krune at first glance. Still, she kept her guard up since they shouldn''t have been able to open a Spatial Gate into her quarters. "Krune, what''s the meaning of this?" Krune bitterly smiled before saying. "Sorry, Senior Lila. We need that Black Water back." Lila narrowed her eyes as she looked at Soren. Somehow, she felt a big threat while looking at him. "We had a deal, didn''t we? This Black Water was supposed to be mine. However, I don''t mind negotiating over it if the price is good enough." Soren snorted as he released his power. In an instant, all the seals in the room were made useless as Lila was locked in place. Lila''s expression then turned from suspicion to dread. It was obvious just how large of a power gap she had in relation to that person in front of her. She could just barely open her mouth as she asked. "T-This... A-Are you a g-god?" Soren smiled and nodded. "I am. Also, the Black Water you have in your Spatial Ring. That thing is mine to start with." Lila wasn''t an idiot. Without the power to fight back, it would be suicidal to defy this person. She was absolutely sure. No one she knew of could contend against this guy. "So-Sorry for my impertinence, senior. I''ll g-give you the Black Water s-s-straight away." Finally, Soren nodded with a satisfied expression. "That''s more like it." He stopped using his Mental Energy to suppress Lila, leaving her free to do whatever she wanted. Of course, Lila didn''t waste time and brought out the rest of the Black Water, which was Soren''s Mental Energy Source. The entire thing then moved in Soren''s direction before entering his head. It was quite a weird sight since the amount of ''Black Water'' was several times the size of Soren''s head. Nevertheless, all of it disappeared inside as if Soren''s head was a black hole. Seeing that, Heavin couldn''t help but ask. "Master, is it okay to absorb it now? Won''t you be forced to ascend to the God Realm because of that?" Soren shook his head as he replied. "It''s fine. Now that I have much higher control over my Mental Energy Source, I can suppress the absorption entirely." Feifei then asked something else. "Does that mean that you''ve recovered your full power now, Senior Soren?" Soren shook his head as he said. "No. Some of my Mental Energy Source was lost over time. Fortunately, the seal that kept my Mental Energy Source inside has slowed down this process. Otherwise, it would have been much worse. Then again, I have the power of a weak god now, which is already a good start." "The good thing is that I now have more than 50% of my Mental Energy Source back. With that, I now have the ability to remake the rest of it. Of course, it''ll take a long time before I finish." Krune, Feifei, and Heavin were happy for him. "Congratulations, Senior Soren/Master." Soren faintly smiled as he looked at Luvile. "What about you? Where are my congratulations?" Luvile''s expression turned dark. "Fuck you!" Soren laughed out loud, gladly accepting Luvile''s indignation. Lila, on the other hand, couldn''t help but feel like she had been forgotten. ''What should I do now?'' Of course, Soren and the others knew that she was still there. With that, Soren looked in her direction with a solemn expression. "Well, even though you wanted to negotiate something that was already mine, it is a fact that you''ve helped me. After all, if you haven''t called Krune and Iem back then, my Mental Energy Source would never be released, and I would still be in the Mortal Realm." Lila was taken aback for a moment but smiled in the end. "It''s my pleasure to help a god like you, senior. I''m probably one of the very few cultivators or demon beasts in the Godly Path Realm who has talked with three real gods already." Soren didn''t care whether she was telling the truth or not. After that, he looked at Krune before sending him a message through Mental Energy. Krune then pondered for a moment and nodded in the end. "Sure. We aren''t losing anything with that anyway. I also don''t feel like it''s right to take the Black Water from Senior Lila without giving anything back." Lila had a puzzled expression on her face as they talked about her. However, she wouldn''t dare to intervene. Finally, Soren looked in her direction before offering. "You''re already in the 7th Stage of the Nascent God Realm, so it should be more than enough for you to easily resist the Godly Energy in the God Realm. As thanks for helping me recover my Mental Energy Source, I''ll bring you to the God Realm. You don''t have to be afraid of the God Ascension Tribulation." Lila was taken aback for a moment before she began to feel excited. The ascension tribulation of the Godly Path Realm wasn''t any easier than the Mortal Realm one. It also had the same chances for those who could pass it, being less than 1 percent. Naturally, no treasure in the Godly Path Realm could be more tempting than what Soren had just offered her. "Thank you, Senior. This humble one will be eternally grateful." Soren nodded, not minding it too much. "However. Be aware that once we arrive there, you''ll be on your own. Alright, I''m leaving now. I''ll come back to take you once the time comes." Lila nodded and fervently replied. "Yes, Senior!" Chapter 818: Meeting Iem Again With that said, Krune''s group then departed from the Kalame Sect Planet. Unsurprisingly, they headed straight to the Sky Shifting Sect after that. Franlia was quite surprised to see Krune so soon. After all, it had only been a few years since he left. One must remember that the Godly Path Realm''s Space-Time structure was more stable than the Mortal Realm. Because of that, time passed ten times slower here. The four decades or so that Krune spent in the Mortal Realm was nothing more than four or so years in this place. "It''s good to see you back. Who''s this girl?" Soren and Heavin were not there with Krune. Instead, they left as soon as they arrived in the Sky Shifting Sect with Krune. Soren brought Heavin away to oversee his Soul Cultivation Training. After all, they wouldn''t be able to leave before Feifei and Krune had reached the Transformation Realm''s 9th stage. That was bound to take them quite a few years. "I mentioned her before. She''s my wife, Feifei." Feifei smiled before greeting Franlia. "Hello, senior." Franlia nodded. "So that''s the wife everyone thought to be just your imagination." Krune laughed after hearing that. Sure enough, everyone heard him talk about Feifei before. But because Krune never showed her, everyone thought it was him hallucinating. Feifei didn''t seem to mind, though. "Due to a few circumstances with my family, I couldn''t leave my home place. But now I''m free to travel around with Krune again. I was wondering if I could stay in the Sky Shifting Sect for the time being." Franlia nodded as she replied with a smile. "Of course! Krune had helped us a lot in the past, so we owe him this much." Feifei was only a Peak Divinity Realm cultivator at the first Stage of the Transformation Realm. There wasn''t much of a risk by letting her stay in the sect to start with. Besides, it was true that the sect owed Krune. Franlia then looked at the man with purple hair beside Krune. For some reason, she felt that he was somewhat familiar. "And you are?" Luvile shook his head in response. "I''m not anyone important. I''m just accompanying Krune." Krune sighed before explaining. "He''s also a friend who came with me from my hometown. I hope Sect Master won''t complain about him staying here as well." Franlia narrowed her eyes from those words but nodded her head in the end. "Very well. Since you don''t want to talk about him, I won''t ask much either. Feel free to do whatever you want as long as you follow the sect''s rules." Krune smiled, satisfied. Franlia was being quite considerate. After that, he asked something else. "By the way, where''s Iem? Is he still around?" "He should be in his room cultivating. Well, you already know where it is, so you can just directly head there. In any case, you can stay as long as you want. If you need anything, let me know." Krune thanked Franlia before leaving with Feifei and Luvile. "You seem to be quite famous in this sect." Krune shrugged his shoulders as he answered. "Many things happened, after all. The Sky Shifting Sect ended up receiving a huge reward from Zule. Obviously, they''re in a great mood. In any case, this is a great place for us to cultivate the nine stages of the Transformation Realm." Feifei agreed with him, saying. "That''s true. Anyway, let''s go see this Iem. I''ve only seen him once during the broadcast of the Heavenly Competition." Krune and Feifei then darted in the direction of Iem''s house. There, Krune touched the protection formation of the house before it turned off on its own. In an instant, a voice came from inside the house. "Who''s there?" A Mental Energy Scan came from inside, quickly covering Feifei and Krune. "Ah!" In the next second, a man appeared outside while laughing. "Hahaha! It''s you, Krune! Good to see you ag-" Before Iem could finish his words, another voice came from inside Iem''s foundation. "Luvile! You got your body back?!" Sure enough, Devil Flame God, Harold, noticed Luvile''s presence straight away. "Hahaha! I was a little lucky. Don''t worry, I''m sure you''ll get your body back soon. No, wait! I forgot your body got destroyed. Sorry, sorry. Your much more powerful brother should have been more considerate of you. Forget that I said anything." Harold felt like someone had stepped on his head. "Are you that eager to die?" Luvile snorted in response. "Die? How do you intend to kill this god? No, wait! You can''t! You''re too weak. You don''t even have a B-O-D-Y! Hahaha!" "You...You!" Black flames began to emanate out of Iem''s body. "Lend me your body, Iem. I''ll teach this piece of shit a lesson. I''ll make sure he won''t have a body anymore after I''m finished with him." Krune and Iem bitterly smiled in response. Those two really hate each other to the bone. Luvile didn''t step back from the fight as Purple Tribulation Lightning came out of his body. "Ha! I very much want to see if you can do that. Let''s see if my body gets destroyed or if Iem''s body will succumb first." Just as the two were about to get serious, an angry voice came from Luvile''s pendant. "Shut up, you two! You better stop it right now, or don''t blame me for getting nasty later." Harold''s Devil Flames instantly disappeared as soon as he heard that voice. "Ci-Cinnia!" Luvile narrowed his eyes, but he also calmed down. Cinnia saw that the two of them stopped using their powers. "For fuck''s sake! How much time has passed already? You two are still at it even up to now. What would your parents think if they saw you two like that? Harold, are you planning to get your host destroyed? Luvile, are you that dissatisfied with your body that you don''t care what happens to it?" Luvile and Harold instantly went silent, much to Krune, Feifei, and Iem''s surprise. For some reason, those two didn''t even dare refute Cinnia''s words. Eventually, Harold obtained some courage and said. "Ahem... It was him who started it, not me." Luvile immediately answered. "What does that have to do with me if you get triggered so easily? You clearly have some mental issues." Cinnia finally lost her patience. "I see... So you two insist on continuing this play, huh? Very well, how about we reminisce a few things from the past in front of our friends here? Let me see... Oh, right! Let''s talk about that day when Luvile and Harold went to a Hellish Water Canyon." Luvile and Harold felt like a bomb had gone off in their heads the very moment they heard her mention that name. Without wasting time, Luvile stepped back in his actions. "Ahem... my beloved Cinnia. I was wrong. I won''t argue with Harold any more. I believe Harold is more than willing to get along with me as well, right?" Harold couldn''t agree more. "Yes, yes! Sister-in-law, this little dispute between us is just how we show our brotherly love for each other. We aren''t angry at all! Am I right, my beloved brother Luvile?" Luvile nodded his head vigorously, not minding Harold''s words at all. "Definitely! We couldn''t be happier to see each other once again. I was truly worried about him." Krune, Feifei, and Iem''s mouths twitched as they listened to their words. Just what the hell happened in the Hellish Water Canyon? They were almost dying to know. In any case, Cinnia was satisfied with their answer. "Is that so? Well, I guess I can pretend I didn''t see anything. You don''t really hate each other, right?" "Right!" "Of course!" "That''s good, then. Now, let''s get back to the main topic. By the way, are we going to stay here outside?" Iem quickly came back to himself before laughing. "Hahaha! Of course not! Please. Come in, come in." Feifei and Krune looked at each other for a bit before entering Iem''s house in the sect. Luvile also did the same while showing a bright smiling face. If Harold had a body right now, he would be smiling as much as Luvile. At least, he would do so in front of Cinnia. Iem then looked at Krune''s cultivation and said. "It seems like your cultivation didn''t lag behind just because you were in the Mortal Realm. Also, I can see that you and this lady here have Heavenly Cores now." Krune nodded. "Indeed. But first, let me introduce you. This is my wife, Feifei." Feifei shook hands with Iem. "Nice to meet you. Krune told me a lot of things about you." Iem laughed as he replied. "Hehe! Well, we did go through many things together here in the Godly Path Realm." After that, Krune explained. "As you mentioned, we did get to complete our Heavenly Cores. It wasn''t that difficult with our actual power and the Godly Stones available for trade." Iem already imagined as much. "That''s true. Now, then. Congratulations on getting your body back, Senior Luvile." Luvile nodded as he perfunctorily replied. "Thanks." After that, both parties began to talk about what happened while they were out. Well, most of the things happened on Krune''s side since very little time passed in the Godly Path Realm. Eventually, Krune told Iem about the Runestone he got from Barlo back in the Mortal Realm. "What?! We can head straight to the God Realm?! That''s great!" Even Harold was surprised by that. "As expected of a Primordial Demon Beast, I guess?" Iem became even more eager to cultivate now. "I''m already in the 2nd Stage of the Transformation Realm. Naturally, I''m going with you when the time comes. I can''t wait to see what kind of place the God Realm is." Krune''s group nodded in response. Soon, Krune said with an eager smile. "Of course! That''s why we came here to talk. Let''s focus on our cultivation from now on." Chapter 819: Good Luck At some point in the conversation, Luvile left with Cinnia, leaving only Krune, Feifei, and Iem behind. Krune then prepared a meal for them, which they ate while continuing to talk. It was then that Feifei decided to ask something else. "By the way, Krune. Isn''t this the place where that girl confessed her love for you?" *Prhhhhssss!* *Cough, cough, cough...* Iem immediately spit out the drink he was drinking when he heard that, instantly catching Krune''s attention. "Don''t waste food!" Iem then looked at Krune with a weird expression. ''Brother, are you supposed to be caring about food at the moment?'' However, Krune didn''t seem to care about Feifei''s question at all. It was as if it would have made no difference whether Feifei had asked that or not. Sure enough, Krune looked at Feifei before nodding his head. "Indeed, it''s the city on the sect''s side. My restaurant, which I left for my apprentices at that time, is where she''s probably living right now. Let''s go pay a visit to everyone later." Iem couldn''t help but praise Krune''s courage. Was there any other man capable of inviting his wife to meet another woman who loved him? Iem found it hard to believe. Feifei then narrowed her eyes as she looked at Krune. However, she sighed in the end when she thought about what kind of husband she had. This kind of situation would never bother him, that''s for sure. "Fine. I also want to see who had the guts to steal my husband from me." Iem then tried to change the topic for the rest of the meal. Eventually, they had finished eating, so Feifei and Krune left the Sky Shifting Sect and headed to the city. As one could expect, Iem was right behind them. "Do you really need to come as well?" Iem nodded as he replied. "I haven''t seen the people there in a while, so I might as well pay them a visit." That was a pure and blatant lie. Iem would pass by the city every now and then to go to the Formations Guild. Because of that, he usually took the chance to take a look at the restaurant. He just wanted to see what would happen. ''There''s no way I would miss this show.'' It didn''t take long for Krune''s group to arrive at the front of the restaurant. Even if Krune didn''t say anything, Feifei would have recognized it. After all, it''s not every day that you''d see one called Rainbow Restaurant. As Krune made his way inside, the customer immediately recognized him. "Hey, it''s Krune!" "The chef is back!" "Krune! It''s good to see you again!" Sure enough, it was hard to forget Krune in just a few years. As soon as those words appeared, Bai looked in his direction from over the counter. As always, he was the one who took care of the restaurant finances. "Chef Krune!" The waiters and waitresses also noticed him. Some were new, while others were from the time Krune was still here. "Chef Krune!" A few seconds later, two people came storming out of the kitchen. Both of them wore the usual chef''s attire, which had a few stains on it due to work. Naturally, they were both Jilin and Nina, Krune''s first chef apprentices. "Master!" Jilin and Nina came running in Krune''s direction, ignoring the people around. Quite a few regular customers still remembered the event where Nina confessed to her in the past. With that, they wanted to see what would happen too. Jilin then stopped right in front of Krune as Nina jumped into Krune''s embrace... or so she tried. *Bam!* Before she could tell what happened, she bumped her head on someone else who suddenly appeared between her and Krune. "Ouch, my head." Nina then looked at the person in front of her with an angry expression. "Who are you? Can''t you see that I want to talk with my Master?" Well, it went without saying that the person in front of her was none other than Feifei. Hearing Nina''s words, she snorted as she said. "Hmph! Who am I?" Feifei then looked at Krune, who seemed to be at a loss for words from that scene. "Krune, tell this little brat who I am." Krune nodded, not minding it too much. After all, he was going to do that soon after anyway. As for the tension in the air, Krune didn''t notice it at all. "Sure. Everyone, this is my wife, Feifei. I told you all about her many times in the past, didn''t I? I was finally able to bring her with me this time around, so treat her nicely." Nina''s expression immediately froze at that instant, just like everyone else who was listening. Unsurprisingly, Feifei was extremely satisfied with the introduction. Krune told everyone who she was without any pause or hesitation. Well, Feifei knew that it was mainly because this kind of situation was useless when Krune''s EQ was included. Of course, others didn''t need to know that. "M-Master''s wife?" Feifei smiled as she approached her face to Nina''s. "That''s correct. I''m Wang Feifei, Krune''s wife and mother of his three children. Speaking of which, we had some fun and ended up having a pair of twins when he came back home. We couldn''t bring our children with us this time around, but I made sure to stay by his side this time. Isn''t that right, Krune?" Krune nodded once more. "Indeed. I just don''t know what''s with the many details, but that''s fine, I guess?" Feifei didn''t care. "Wrong! At this moment, the more details, the better! You don''t need to understand why, though." Krune shrugged his shoulders as he said. "Well, so be it." Following that, Krune went to Feifei''s side and then patted Jilin and Nina''s heads. "It''s good to see you two again. How are your cooking skills so far?" Jilin glanced at Nina, who didn''t seem to be in the mood to talk at the moment before saying. "Ahem... Of course, Nina and I have been practicing a lot ever since Chef Krune left. We are both in the Diamond Stars level now. It''s just that we had just recently advanced to the Void Breaking Realm, so it would take us a long time to try making any Divine Stars food." Krune nodded, satisfied. "Great! I''ll be checking your progress today. Let''s go to the kitchen!" Everyone could feel the heavy air around Nina. ''Will she really be able to cook anything at all?'' Out of nowhere, Nina began to murmur. Feifei, who was paying close attention to Nina, noticed her lips were moving. "Hmm? Did you say something?" After some time, Nina raised her head and pointed at Feifei with a serious expression. "I don''t accept this! I challenge you to a cooking match. If you lose, give me my Master back!" Everyone''s expression turned weird after that. This time, even Krune was at a loss for words. However, he quickly recovered. "Denied! Feifei isn''t a Spiritual Chef. Unlike you and me, she doesn''t focus on this side occupation. Naturally, there''s no way she can fight against you on even grounds." Nina became even more stubborn when she heard that. At that moment, she looked at Feifei. "What? You really had the gall to marry my Master while you can''t even cook? In that case, you should leave him straight away. I''m obviously much better suited for him. As for your children, I promise I''ll treat them well." Feifei''s mouth twitched after hearing that. "Oh? Is that so? When Krune was out battling, my combat and divination abilities helped him out on many occasions. Are you able to do that? Are you able to jump several stages or even an entire realm to help him in combat?" "This..." Nina was several times younger than Feifei. Naturally, her cultivation was much lower. "So what if I can''t battle? I can at least do everything else!" Feifei snorted as she answered by copying Nina''s words. "So what if I can''t cook? I can at least do everything else!" The two women then began an argument right there and then. Iem then looked at Krune, who seemed to be lost in his thoughts. He became curious and sent Krune a Divine Sense Message. ''Is it okay to leave them like that?'' Krune shrugged his shoulders. ''It''s fine. I feel like Feifei is having a lot of fun at the moment.'' Iem was taken aback. Having fun? Feifei''s expression looked anything but happy. ''Could it be that she''s pretending?'' Krune nodded. ''She definitely is.'' ''How do you know?'' Krune then looked at Feifei as he smiled. ''Because she knows I would never betray her like how I know she would never betray me.'' Iem was surprised to hear that. However, he didn''t have the right to deny Krune''s words. Sure enough, Krune was right. Feifei was indeed finding this situation very funny. After all, Krune was... Well, Krune was Krune. She never had to prevent other women from taking him away from her. Seeing one of them finally appearing in front of her was something she enjoyed very much, even though she didn''t show it on the surface. Besides, Krune was also right when he said that Feifei totally trusted his loyalty. Another reason was her Destiny Divine Soul, which was enhanced thanks to her Heavenly Core. Also, Nina and Feifei''s cultivation were worlds apart. Because of that, Feifei could see quite a bit of Nina''s future. There was indeed a man there, but that person definitely wasn''t Krune. Eventually, the two girls became tired and stopped their arguments, much to the audience''s disappointment. Everyone was loving the show so far. Krune then patted Nina and Jilin''s shoulders before saying. "Alright. That''s enough for now. Let''s go check how much your cooking skills have improved." Nina reluctantly nodded and went back to the kitchen. Jilin couldn''t help but sigh as he followed the fuming Nina and Krune to the kitchen. As for Feifei, she faintly smiled as she looked at Jilin from the corner of her eyes. ''It''s still not determined. Then again, good luck, boy.'' Chapter 820: Dont Stand a Chance Not long after Krune went to the kitchen, he asked Bai to take the customers'' orders and list new ones. With that, the higher level Spiritual Dishes had finally come back to the Rainbow Restaurant once more, immediately causing an uproar. Those who knew Krune didn''t waste time and asked for their dishes nonstop. As for those who didn''t, they soon heard from the others about him. "Let''s go. Let''s make everything for everyone. Hahahaha!" Krune delightedly worked as he also watched Nina and Jilin work. Every now and then, he would give the two his opinions and point out their mistakes. However, Jilin and Nina had improved a lot since he was gone, so they were also able to give Krune quite a few new ideas. Feifei just watched all of that from the corner of the kitchen. Nina thought she was there so she wouldn''t try anything against Krune. However, Feifei was purely enjoying seeing everyone. After all, it''s not every day that she and Krune got to relax like this. Iem took the chance of him being already there and asked for a few dishes as well. A few hours later, Krune''s restaurant was jampacked with customers. Sure enough, the word that he had come back quickly spread, bringing all of his old customers back. It wasn''t before night time that Bai finally closed the doors, not allowing anyone to enter anymore. The customers waiting outside hated that, but Bai didn''t care at all. "We also need to rest, you know? Go home and come back tomorrow. That''s all." The customers who were still inside finished their dishes one after the other. As time passed, their numbers decreased until eventually, the last customer left, leaving only Krune''s group behind. All the waiters couldn''t help but finally sit and rest a little. Jilin, Nina, Jalo, and the others also did the same. "Such a busy day..." "That''s the prestige of Chef Krune for you." "Well, our wage is based on the sales. So the more, the better." "That''s true." Krune smiled before returning to the kitchen. Thirty or so minutes later, he had prepared a bunch of Divinity Stars dishes for everyone in the restaurant. The old employees had already expected that. As for the new ones, they were delighted to see that. Feifei and Iem also joined the group. "Thank you, Chef Krune!" Krune nodded, not minding it at all. "It''s fine. Let''s eat." Everyone nodded. "So, tell me, how have things been during the years I was out?" Bai, Nina, and Jilin then began to recount the things they went through. Not everything was sunshine and rainbows. Problems also came and went. Sometimes it was the restaurant, other times, it was the dishes. There were a few customers causing trouble from time to time as well. Nevertheless, it wasn''t anything they couldn''t deal with. Hearing everything, Krune nodded, satisfied. "It seems like my presence here is completely unnecessary already. Hahaha!" Nina and Jilin immediately shook their heads. "Definitely not! We would like for Chef Krune to stay with us forever!" Krune shook his head in response. "That won''t happen. At some point, I''ll need to leave again. Then again, I''ll probably stay around during the next few years, so you better be ready to cope with me." Lino, Nina''s brother, couldn''t help but ask. "Where are you going after this, Krune?" "I can''t tell you that." Nina then asked something else. "Can I go as well? Please?" Feifei laughed after hearing that. "Keep dreaming, little girl. Do you think I would let you stay close to my Krune for that long?" Of course, Feifei was just pouring oil in the fire since she found it funny. It''s just that Nina couldn''t tell that it was the case. "Hmph! That''s not for you to decide. Right, Master?" Krune shrugged his shoulders as he replied. "You can go wherever you want to go. However, you won''t be able to follow me. Simply put, you don''t have the cultivation necessary for that. Besides, there are many dangers in our path. You''re not someone used to battle, let alone killing. That being said, I can''t allow you to come with us." Nina didn''t give up. "What if I focus completely on cultivation?" Iem was the one to shook his head. "It''s not that simple. Your cultivation speed will never match Krune, Feifei, or mine. Considering your pace at the moment, you would take over two hundred years at the very least to just reach the Peak of the Divinity Realm. Let alone the Peak of the Transformation Realm, which is the level that Krune, Feifei, and I need." Nina felt dejected, but there was nothing she could do about that. It was simply a problem of talent. Also, she didn''t have a Heavenly Core or a Major Divine Soul like Krune''s group. Nina was, after all, just an ordinary girl. Lino looked at that and asked. "Then, how long will you take to reach the Peak of the Transformation Realm?" Krune and Feifei then looked at Iem, who was already in the second stage. He would have a better idea about the time necessary since he also had a Heavenly Core and used the Myriad Energies Technique. Not to mention the Soul Cultivation Technique and the fact that he was a Heavenly Race member. "Hmm... I would say that it would take at least twenty years for us to reach that level." Feifei couldn''t help but exclaim. "That quick?! Krune and I took much longer than that to reach the peak of the Divinity Realm." Krune understood why and told Feifei through a Divine Sense Message. ''It''s because this is the Godly Path Realm. Even though we used up a lot of Godly Stones since we had that much in the Mortal Realm, that was still a Spiritual Energy-inclined place. It can never compare to what we can do in the realms above.'' Feifei then calmed down and nodded. ''I understand.'' Lino and the others noticed that Feifei and Krune were talking secretively but didn''t say anything. Everyone had their secrets, and perhaps that topic had something they couldn''t tell in the open. The problem was that Krune had mentioned the Mortal Realm. No one knew that Krune went down in the past. Even Nina and Jilin only saw Krune leaving through that portal. They didn''t know where it sent him. Krune then looked at the stairs that connected to the next floor before asking. "Nina, Jilin, is anyone living in the restaurant at the moment?" Nina scratched the back of her head before saying. "After Chef Krune left, I moved with my brother up there. However, there''s no need to worry. The two of us will leave immediately." Krune smiled before shaking his head. "It''s fine, it''s fine. I just need to build a new floor." "Build a new floor? Don''t you need the City Management''s approval to change the structures of the building in the commercial area?" Krune was taken aback. "You need something like that?" Nina and Jilin nodded as one of them replied. "You do. Otherwise, everyone would go overboard, making the city look too chaotic." Iem and Feifei laughed after hearing that. "That''s fine. All we need to do is create a separate dimension connected to the stairs. That way, we can have a lot of space without changing the outside structure." Iem nodded. "The Formations Guild use this kind of set up everywhere in their building." Feifei''s eyes lit up as she looked at Iem. "Iem, I''ll have you bring me to that guild later. I won''t accept a refusal." Iem didn''t mind, of course. "Sure. However, let''s take care of the extra dimension first." Feifei and Iem then got up and moved to the next floor. As for Krune, he just stayed at the table with everyone else. "Is it fine to let them do whatever they want? Shouldn''t you be looking at it as well, Chef Krune?" Krune shrugged his shoulders as he said. "I''ll just get in their way. I had only practiced formations for a very limited time when I was very young. However, I didn''t have the time to do it anymore, so I stopped. However, Feifei and Iem had focused on it the majority of their lives, so they''re more than capable enough of making it work. I trust them on it." Jilin then thought about a problem. "But what about the Godly Energy necessary to keep the formations working?" Krune laughed. "I''m even less worried about that. Considering that it''s those two, they''ll definitely make something that can work with the surrounding Godly Energy alone." Everyone looked at Krune and then nodded. Since Krune was that certain, they didn''t say anything else. Around one hour later, everyone finished their dishes and helped clean the restaurant before leaving. In the end, only Krune, Feifei, Iem, Nina, and Lino stayed behind. Not too long after that, Feifei and Iem came down from the stairs, talking with one another. "Iem, that method of expanding the dimensional realm is amazing. I didn''t think Godly Energy could be used like that." Iem nodded. "I didn''t know either. I only learned about it after I arrived here. Don''t worry, you''re very skilled yourself. You will get used to it after you visit the Formations Guild here in the city." Krune smiled at the two before asking. "I guess the expansion formation worked pretty well, right?" Feifei confirmed. "It did. If nothing wrong happens, it should sustain itself for a few hundred years on its own." Iem then stretched his body a bit before saying. "Alright, I''m going back to the sect. If you need something, let me know." Krune and the others nodded. "Let us head out as well. See you tomorrow, Nina." Krune and Feifei then left for the new spatial area of the building, leaving Nina and Lino alone. "Sister, it''s quite hard for me to say it, but... I don''t think you stand a chance at all." Nina sighed and didn''t say anything before she also went upstairs with Lino. Chapter 821: Teasing Back in the expanded room, Feifei couldn''t help but laugh as she commented. "That''s really a funny girl." Krune laughed as well, saying. "She is. Nina''s also very determined. She reached her dream level faster than I thought, both in cooking and cultivation. I''m really proud of her as my disciple. Of course, I''m proud of Jilin as well." Feifei nodded as she said. "Still, to think that she would be that stubborn. Now I truly believe that she really asked you to have your kid." Krune shrugged his shoulders as he replied. "I''m not very good with others'' feelings, as you know. I only found out about Nina''s love for me at the very last moment before ascending. However, I have the feeling that what she has for me isn''t exactly love. It''s more like... admiration... maybe? Can''t really explain it very well." Feifei agreed with him. "She just doesn''t want to give her Master to anyone else. Oh well. Let''s leave it aside for now." Feifei then smiled before she sat on the bed and took out several Godly Energy Stones. Krune did the same thing as he sat beside her. "Let''s start cultivating since that''s the main reason we came here." It was then that Feifei remembered something. "Oh, right! Where did Senior Luvile go?" "He went to the Godly Veins where we found Zule before. The Godly Veins are still there, so they''re great for cultivation. I don''t have Top Quality Godly Energy stones for everyone, so he decided to not use them but the vein instead." "I see. As long as it works, then that''s fine." Krune and Feifei then focused on cultivating for quite some time after that. The next day, Krune helped in the restaurant once more. Because the word spread, it was now fully packed. There was even a long queue outside. Well, may it be for the restaurant or for those working there, it was more or less a good thing. During the time the restaurant was closed, Krune and Feifei would cultivate together. And just like that, two weeks went by. Finally, Krune finished teaching and checking everything he wanted from Jilin, Nina, and Jalo. "Alright. I''ll be leaving the restaurant in your hands again. Just continue the good work." Bai and the others were taken aback. "You''re leaving again? Weren''t you supposed to stay here for a few years?" Krune nodded as he cleared things up. "I am indeed staying here for a few years. However, my main objective at the moment is cultivation. I''m spending half of my daily time in the restaurant, so I don''t have as much time for cultivation as I need. That being said, I won''t be able to stay in the restaurant all the time." Nina couldn''t help but look at Feifei and ask. "It''s because of you that Master is saying that, right?" Krune was just about to say that it had nothing to do with Feifei before he received a Divine Sense message from her. ''Let her think that this is the case.'' ''Why?'' ''Because it''s funnier that way.'' Krune''s mouth twitched in response, but he didn''t say anything else. Of course, Feifei immediately agreed with Nina. "Oh, definitely. It''s because of me that he''s taking more time to cultivate. We''ve decided before coming here that we would only stay until we''ve reached the Peak of the Transformation Realm. However, I don''t like you, so I''ll make him cultivate faster in order for us to leave earlier." Everyone was left at a loss for words after hearing that. Doesn''t that mean that Feifei''s afraid that Nina would steal Krune from her? Then again, Nina wouldn''t even have the chance if Krune didn''t even appear anymore. "You''re too shameless! Fight with me on even grounds!" Feifei shrugged her shoulders as she said. "Why should I do that? I''m his wife, you know. It''s my right to protect my husband from other women. Could it be that I''m wrong?" "This..." Even Nina couldn''t deny Feifei''s words, let alone Bai and the others. Besides, she probably would have done something similar in Feifei''s shoes. "Little girl, I won''t give my Krune to anyone else." Krune looked at Feifei''s expression. Others might be seeing an angry Feifei. However, he knew her long enough to know that she was truly enjoying teasing Nina to no end. ''Is it really that fun?'' Feifei glanced at Krune and replied. ''Of course! She''s getting angrier and angrier by the second. However, she''s still a good girl after all. Nina simply can''t hate me even though she thinks she does. Don''t you find it very amusing?'' Krune sighed before he sat back and watched the show. In the end, it didn''t matter what Nina said. Krune''s absence was already set in stone. Eventually, everyone retired for the day. Back in Nina''s room, she kept stomping her foot on the ground, fuming! "Ahhhh! That shameless woman! So what if you''re his wife?! You can''t even cook! You''re so afraid that you''re even stopping Master from coming to the restaurant. Just you wait, woman! I won''t give up!" Nino, her brother, didn''t even know what to say anymore. "Uhh... Sister..." "What?!" Nino was taken aback by that answer. Still, he couldn''t help but find it peculiar. After all, it was the first time he had ever seen Nina become genuinely angry. "Cough, cough... Nothing, nothing... Forget I said anything." At the same time, he thought. ''Perhaps this is a good thing. Unlike whenever she''s in front of Chef Krune, she isn''t used to releasing her emotions anywhere else. She''s the type to keep everything inside all the time. This is really the first time she let everything gush out.'' Nino then let the night pass amidst Nina''s complaints, much to his amusement. Sure enough, Krune stopped coming from the next day onwards. As for Nina, her anger made her forget her usual restrained self. Everyone was now seeing a completely different Chef Nina in the kitchen from what they were used to in the past. Well, even if Krune didn''t appear, Feifei surely did. Out of nowhere, Feifei appeared in the kitchen while Nina worked with Jilin and the others. Naturally, Nina''s expression had turned grim. However, since Krune wasn''t there, she tried to restrain herself. "This is the kitchen. You can''t stay here. Please leave." Jilin and Jalo looked at each other with weird expressions but didn''t say anything. Feifei, on the other hand, just snorted as she retorted. "Why should I? This is my husband''s restaurant, after all. I can come and go as much as I want. Now then, Nina. Be a good chef and prepare my meal." At this point, Feifei was enjoying what she was doing way too much. Without hesitation, Jilin and Jalo took a few steps back. They didn''t want to be caught up in the firefight. "You... You! Weren''t you supposed to be cultivating as well? Didn''t you say that you wanted to level up faster to leave this place with Master?" Feifei nodded as she said with a smile. "But I am! Look!" It was then that they saw Feifei holding several Godly Energy Stones as she absorbed their energy. She was indeed cultivating as she talked. Of course, this method wasn''t as efficient as it would be if she only focused on it. However, Feifei didn''t plan to spend more than a few minutes in the kitchen before returning to cultivate anyway. She was only here to tease Nina a little more, much to Nina''s despair. "See? I am cultivating. It''s just that I''m a bit peckish, so I came here to ask for some food." Nina tried to calm down as much as possible as she looked at Jilin. "You go and cook something for her. I''m busy." Jilin bitterly smiled in response. The restaurant was quite full at the moment, so wasn''t he busy as well? However, when he looked at the fire in Nina''s eyes, he could only nod, afraid of being swallowed in the storm too. However... "What are you talking about? I don''t want his food. I want yours! My beloved husband told me that you were his first disciple in this place. Naturally, I want to check out if your skills are that good. Come on, girl. Show your Master''s wife how good you are at cooking. As someone who has been eating Krune''s food for years, I''ll be the judge of your dish''s quality." Jilin didn''t even wait for Nina''s answer before he retreated while saying. "You heard her. I''m out!" He ran away... By now, a few veins began to appear on Nina''s head. Her face was as red as a tomato as she tried to hold herself back. Feifei didn''t seem to notice it at all, though. After some time, Nina reigned on her emotions and began to cook something. A few minutes later, she gave Feifei a simple dish. "There you go, now get out." Feifei smiled as she took a bite of the food. Surprisingly, the food was really good. Nina truly did an excellent job with the dish just now. "Oh! This is amazing! And here I thought you would purposely make a bad dish for me." Nina glared at her before saying. "If I did that, I would be letting Master down. I hate you, not the food." Feifei laughed as she ate the meal. "Come on. You don''t hate me at all. You just don''t like me." Nina didn''t say anything as she returned to her station, completely ignoring Feifei. Eventually, Feifei felt satisfied before she returned to the room where Krune was. "Where did you go?" Feifei smiled before saying. "I was a little hungry, so I went to ask for some food in the kitchen." Krune nodded, not finding anything weird with it at all. As always, the wisp couldn''t find the hidden meanings in these kinds of situations. Then again, Feifei liked that wisp the way he was. Chapter 822: Reril Although Krune spent most of his time cultivating together with Feifei, he also appeared in the kitchen every once in a while. After all, he also loved eating and cooking. Naturally, Nina tried to make her moves on Krune, only to be blocked by Feifei, who seemed to predict her every move. Well, she did have the ability to predict them, though... And just like that, three years went by in a flash. Thanks to the Godly Path Realm''s laws, Krune and Feifei zoomed through the various levels of the Transformation Realm. In just three years, they were already in the 3rd stage. Of course, the higher they got, the longer it took. That''s why Krune said he expected it to take around 20 years to reach the peak of the Transformation Realm. Of course, Krune, Feifei, and Iem didn''t just stay in the restaurant cultivating. They also went out to the war zone between the sects in the Top Quality Godly Energy Veins. Although Zule had left the place, the veins were still there. As one could imagine, the fight between the three sects to vie control over the veins continued during these past few years. Fortunately for the Sky Shifting Sect, Zule''s departing gift had helped the sect a lot, so they had constantly been gaining the upper hand. Before, the region was more or less shared between the three, barely undergoing any change. Now, the Sky Shifting Sect had occupied almost half of the Godly Veins while the other two shared the rest. However, the Sky Shifting Sect''s glory days stopped there. Seeing that they were being pushed back, the Three Peaks and the Flower River Sects joined hands to defend their positions. With that, the two sides reached a stalemate. Feifei, Krune, and Iem used this fight between sects to battle as well. After all, only cultivating isn''t really beneficial in the long run since you had to control your power. Of course, Luvile was an exception. He already knew his power very well, so he could just cultivate without any breaks. In fact, he was several times faster than Feifei, Krune, and Iem due to him already knowing every step in his cultivation path. One must remember that the Dimensional Realms around the Top Quality Godly Veins disappeared after Zule left, so anyone could get close to it now. That made things much easier. However, this stalemate between the three sects wouldn''t last long... Out of nowhere, Tribulation Clouds began to gather above the Sky Shifting Sect. In less than an instant, everyone noticed the changes happening there. That''s because those Tribulation Clouds extended for thousands of kilometers. Not only did everyone in the Sky Shifting Sect witness it, but even the two other sects also obtained information regarding the clouds straight away. "What? Tribulation Clouds expanding for thousands of kilometers?! Are you sure?" "That can''t be! This is many times bigger than the tribulation clouds brought by the God Core Realm!" "Investigate! No, forget it. I''m going out to check it by myself." The Sky Shifting Sect''s plan had worked out in the end. They kept the fact that they got those resources a secret, leaving Rag, the Sect Master''s husband, assiduously cultivating on his own. He was already at the Peak of the God Core Realm back then. After receiving the resources left behind by Zule, he had finally reached the point where he could achieve a breakthrough. The leaders of the Three Peaks and their other God Core Realm elders immediately went to the Sky Shifting Sect. Of course, Franlia and Tosely came out to receive them. "Oh, if it isn''t the Flower River and the Three Peaks Sects'' Masters. I don''t think it''s a good idea to pay a visit to us since we''re supposed to be in a war against each other, right?" Aragan narrowed his eyes as he replied. "Wait a second... If Franlia and Tosely are here, then who''s undergoing a breakthrough?" Sure enough, no one knew about Rag. Franlia had always kept him as a hidden weapon, which seemed to be working out for him. However, it would be basically impossible to do that anymore. That being said, Franlia smiled at them before saying. "Oh! Don''t worry, that''s just my husband. He encountered a bit of luck some time ago, and he''s now going through his Nascent God Tribulation." Aragan and Binmia were taken aback. "Husband? What husband? You''re not even married." Franlia and Tosely could not help but laugh out loud after hearing that. "Wrong! I do have a husband. I just never told anyone about it. Just so you know, I even have a son. Of course, I made sure that you wouldn''t find out about it either. Now, be good little sect masters and head back. There''s nothing for you to do here." Binmia''s expression turned grim after hearing that. Their planet didn''t have any Nascent God Realm cultivator or demon beast. If one suddenly appeared, it would break the power balance. The Sky Shifting Sect wasn''t the strongest sect on the planet at the moment. It was only average at best. However, once a Nascent God Realm cultivator appeared in it, then the tables would immediately change. ''Aragan, we need to stop it! We have to kill that guy while he''s being targeted by the Tribulation!'' Aragan nodded, replying. ''I know! There''s no time to waste. Let''s go!'' Binmia, Aragan, and their two God Core Realm elders didn''t waste time with words, immediately attacking. However, Franlia and Tosely were already expecting that to happen. "Activate the formation!" *Tzzzzzzzz...* *Bang, boom, boom...* Within the very next moment, a translucent barrier had covered the entire sect. Obviously, Binmia and Aragan''s attacks were stopped by it. "No need to rush. Just keep us company a little more, and everything will be over. What do you think?" Binmia looked at the barrier in front of them before saying. "Do you think your barrier can stop the relentless attack of four God Core Realm cultivators and demon beasts?" Franlia and Tosely shook their heads as Franlia replied. "Of course not. However, we don''t need to stop you. Just holding you back here is enough." *Kabrum!* Just as she was finished speaking, the first Tribulation Lightning came crashing down, hitting something at the back of the sect. The power of the bolt was so great that it made Binmia and Aragan tremble in fear for a moment. However, that was good news for them. ''Continue attacking. As long as we intervene in that Tribulation, that guy will most likely die. As for the rest, we can think about it later.'' Aragan and Binmia nodded in response and immediately restarted their attacks against the formation barrier. However, it was at this moment that Tosely and Franlia left the formation and attacked as well. It was a 4 vs. 2, so Binmia, Aragan, and the other two elders didn''t think they would come out at the top. "You''re courting death!" However, Franlia and Tosely didn''t try to engage in all-out combat. Instead, they immediately retreated as soon as they attacked. They weren''t idiotic enough to seriously fight when they were at such a disadvantage. Their objective was to simply hold their enemies back. Binmia and Aragan''s group were fuming with rage after realizing that. Sure enough, if they focused their attacks on the formation barrier, Franlia and Tosely would come out and target their weak spots. They couldn''t target all four at once, but holding back two of them was more than enough. "Fuck!" *Kabrum, kabrum, kabrum!* Tribulation Lightning Bolts fell down one after the other while that fight in front of the sect happened. Eventually, Binmia and Aragan noticed that they wouldn''t make it in time. No, they wouldn''t even be able to destroy the formation before the Tribulation was over. Unfortunately, they had already run out of options. They were already using their strongest attacks every time they found a gap in Franlia and Tosely''s harassment. However, it just wasn''t enough. After some time, a Tribulation Lightning stronger than any other so far came down after a long pause. That was the last bolt, which was always much stronger than any previous bolt. Everything went silent after that. Did Franlia''s husband succeed? Did he die? They weren''t able to intervene in the Tribulation, but that didn''t mean that the guy would successfully overcome it. However, the answer came out just a few seconds later. Godly Energy began to gather around the Sky Shifting Sect like a torrential storm. All of it rushed into the same point as a bright light came down from the heavens. Binmia and Aragan''s forces bitterly smiled at that sight. They would be stupid to not understand what was happening. Besides, they could feel the enormous power that was coming from that direction. It wasn''t the type of power that a God Core Realm cultivator or demon beast could exert. "Let''s leave." Binmia and Aragan immediately turned around and dashed away with their elders. However... "Since you''ve come, why don''t you stay for a cup of tea? This old man here is quite skilled when it comes to Spiritual Food." Binmia and Aragan couldn''t even go further than a few hundred meters before a man they had never seen before appeared in front of them. Although his tone was relaxed, his appearance was far from that. His clothes were torn and burnt everywhere, leaving him almost naked. His hair was disheveled, with many injuries all over his body. However, that didn''t make Binmia and Aragan feel any better. The power emanating from him made them understand that they were not his match even in that condition. Of course, that didn''t mean they would surrender. "Since it has come to this, I might as well go all out." "Indeed. It''s better than just waiting for death. If we still stand a chance, it''s at this moment where he''s severely injured." "Once he recovers, as the only Nascent God Realm cultivator of the planet, it won''t be long before everyone has to follow the Sky Shifting Sect''s rules. We can''t allow that." Binmia, Aragan, and the other two God Core elders began to release their Energy and even burn some of their life essence. They were truly ready to die in this place. However, Rag looked at them with a puzzled expression. "The only Nascent God Realm of this planet? What are you talking about? There is another one as well, you know?" "What?!" Everyone was taken aback. Even Franlia and Tosely were left at a loss for words. Another one? How come they didn''t know about it? Rag then waved his hands, showing that he had no intention to fight whatsoever. "Alright, let''s finish it here. We''re making a fool of ourselves in front of our guest, you know?" Binmia and Aragan''s forces wondered if Rag was just trying to buy time to recover. After all, the longer they waited, the worse it will become. However, as soon as Rag said those words, a laugh came from somewhere in mid-air. Soon after that, space was torn apart as a figure came out of there. "So you noticed me, huh? Guess it can''t be helped since we are at the same level." In an instant, everyone recognized that man. "Reril!" It was Reril, the Energy Sect''s Sect Master. On top of that, a True Spirit. Chapter 823: Alliance to Hide the Real Reason Back inside Zule''s body, Krune and Iem heard about Reril and True Spirits. Unlike Wisps, True Spirits were considered extremely rare and talented. Every single force in the Godly Path Realm would like to have one in their ranks. However, no one heard about Reril entering the Nascent God Realm at all. After all, no reports were made about any tribulation clouds in the Energy Sect. "Nice to meet you, Reril. I''ve never seen you in person... or in True Spirit Form, I guess. My name is Rag, just a humble person who likes to cook." Reril smiled in response as he replied. "Nice to meet you too, Rag. It''s good to see that someone else other than me has finally achieved the Nascent God Realm on our planet. To be honest, I''ve never heard about a Peak God Core Realm cultivator going by your name before. It seems like the Sky Shifting Sect has kept you well hidden." Rag laughed after hearing that. "Hahaha! It''s not that I was hiding on purpose, but it''s just that I was never the least bit interested in the power struggle. You see, I''m a Spiritual Chef, so I only care about improving my cooking skills. I still don''t know what my beloved wife saw in a simple man like me." Franlia couldn''t help but show a rare tinge of red on her face. ''It''s exactly because you don''t care about these things that I like you, idiot!'' Of course, she didn''t say those words out loud. However, she quickly came back to herself and asked. "How come no one knew about your cultivation, Reril?" Reril shrugged his shoulders as he responded. "That''s because I went somewhere else to have my breakthrough. You see, I have a few connections, so I got a safe place to pass through it. After that, I came back and resumed my duties as the Energy Sect Leader. That''s all." Reril then looked at Binmia, Aragan, and the two other elders of the Three Peaks and Flower River Sects. However, he ignored them before returning his attention to Rag. "Well, I just came here because I was curious about who the Nascent God was. Now that my curiosity has been satisfied, it''s time to go back. Until we meet again." Reril then opened a Spatial Gate and left before anyone could say anything. Of course, the situation wasn''t over just because of that. Rag looked at Binmia''s group as well and began to speak. "You see? There''s no way I can take control of the planet just because I''m a Nascent God. Reril''s also there, so such a thing is not possible. Then again, I don''t think I''m Reril''s match at all. Even if he was still in the Peak of the God Core Realm, I''m pretty sure I would lose in a battle against him anyway. It''s not like you guys don''t know how terrifying True Spirits can be. They aren''t called Heaven''s Miracle for nothing." Aragan narrowed his eyes as he said. "Then, what do you want? Are you telling us that you will just let us be now that you have the upper hand? Once you recover from your breakthrough, we will be at your mercy, so we might as well end it now." Rag shook his head as he looked at Franlia. Understanding his meaning, Franlia came out of the Sect''s Protection Formation. "We don''t intend to end your sects. Truth be told, our planet has quite a few Peak God Core Realm cultivators and demon beasts. It''s just a matter of time until more of them begin to appear. Even you two, Binmia and Aragan, are already at the peak as well. Everyone just needs their own spark to pass the threshold." "That being said, it would be idiotic to start conquering other sects or clans. After all, you will only make their high-level God Core forces run and bide their time before they come back. Once that happens, no one knows what could happen, other than the fact that you would have many unnecessary enemies. Don''t think we don''t know you have your own methods to run away if we force your hands. That''s not what we want." Binmia knew that Franlia''s logic was correct. Nevertheless, would one really give up increasing their power and influence just because of that? Breaking through the Nascent God Realm was easier said than done. One could see it from just looking at the hundreds of Peak God Core Realm cultivators that existed on this planet, but only two Nascent Gods had appeared so far. Franlia then smiled. "Of course, we won''t let you off the hook for free." Aragan and Binmia bitterly smiled. ''There it comes. What do they want from us? Ownership of the entire Top Quality Godly Energy Veins?'' Franlia continued. "At the moment, our Sky Shifting Sect has control over 50% of the Godly Energy Veins. From now on, your two sides are prohibited from trying to take over our territory. That being said, we will keep that 50% while you two share the other 50. What do you think?" Binmia and Aragan were taken aback after hearing that. Judging by the actual state of the situation, that was a very, very straightforward conclusion. "Don''t say that I''m ripping you off. Although we won''t be able to eliminate your forces with Rag''s power, we can definitely take over the entire Top Quality Godly Energy Veins. In exchange, we can make that fake alliance of ours a real one. What I''m planning is to be prepared for the future. Of course, our Sky Shifting Sect will be the alliance''s leader. We will also take the most advantages from it." For Binmia and Aragan, it really hurt to hear that they would be under the Sky Shifting Sect''s lead. However, it was true that this was the best outcome they could expect from the current situation. Franlia was obviously taking most of the benefits. Though, quite a few lifelines were left for the two. Of course, they usually wouldn''t accept such terms. However, the Sky Shifting Sect now had the power to get rid of them with time. That was something they must avoid at all costs, even if it meant becoming a vassal of the other. "What guarantees are there that you won''t come after us later?" Franlia snorted after hearing that. "Guarantee? I don''t need to give you anything like that. It''s up to you to believe me or not. Of course, you''re free to come to my Sky Shifting Sect if you want. I more than welcome it." Rag heard all of that and couldn''t help but sigh. ''Indeed, power struggles are not something I like at all.'' Binmia and Aragan then talked with each other through Divine Sense for a moment before they gave Franlia an answer. "Alright. We accept your terms." Franlia smiled, satisfied. "That''s good, then. Oh! One more thing. At the moment, we''re still fighting each other for control over the Top Quality Godly Energy Veins. However, I don''t want to stop it. Besides, I guess you two don''t want it to stop as well. That has been a very good training place for all our forces. Although there are deaths here and there, those are things that can''t be avoided in the path of cultivation. The only difference from now on is that no more territories will be taken from each other." Binmia and Aragan agreed with that. "That''s indeed a good thing." "Good! Now then, you two can go back from where you came. I''ll send a few representatives of my Sky Shifting Sect later to sort out the details. Is that fine with you two?" As much as they didn''t like it, Aragan and Binmia could only nod. After that, the two opened a Spatial Gate each and left. Rag then looked at Franlia and Tosely before asking. "Is it really okay to leave them be like this?" Franlia sighed as she said in response. "It''s not like we have a choice. Don''t forget that this is all a facade. What will really bring our Sky Shifting Sect high up in the future is the gift left by Zule. This alliance is just a way of concealing the reason for the sudden increase in our sect''s forces." Tosely agreed with Franlia. "If we get too strong without a motive, the other powers will focus their eyes on us. Having a Nascent God Realm cultivator is good, but it doesn''t mean we can fight everyone on our own. It''s better to prevent that through this alliance and use it as the reason behind everything." Rag shrugged his shoulders after hearing that. "Well, if that''s the case, then so be it. You two know very well that I don''t butt my head into these matters. I''ll leave everything in your hands unless you really need my help with something. Of course, the less you need me, the better. Anyway, I don''t want to stay like this forever, so I''m going back to change and heal my injuries. The tribulation power is still running through my body, and it hurts quite a lot." Franlia and Tosely nodded before they all went back to the sect. Sure enough, the news about a new Nascent God Realm cultivator appearing on their planet spread like wildfire. Not only that, but everyone came to know that not only one but two Nascent Gods now lived in there. After all, Reril already showed his presence. Following that, the Sky Shifting Sect allied with the Flower River and Three Peaks, becoming the alliance''s leader. In the others'' eyes, that was basically the Sky Shifting Sect taking control over them. The planet was truly undergoing multiple changes in a short amount of time. Chapter 824: Cultivation Time Krune''s group didn''t find anything strange with that. After all, they knew about the resources Zule left behind. Then again, it was Krune and Iem who delivered it, to begin with. Feifei then looked at Krune before asking. "Do you think it''ll work out?" Krune shrugged his shoulders as he replied. "Who knows? I just find Reril''s sudden appearance a bit off, as well as his actions. It''s known that Reril is stronger than those at his level. He could have forced Senior Rag into submission easily. That way, this planet would basically be under his own rule. However, he didn''t do that. Not only that, he was already a Nascent God Realm True Spirit, but only appeared just now. I wonder what''s going on in his head." Iem didn''t seem to care, saying. "Don''t think too deeply into it. Whatever it may be, it won''t affect our plans. Things regarding Nascent Gods and shifting of powers usually take a very long time to happen. By the time something changes in this planet for real, we''ll probably be long gone." Krune and Feifei nodded, with Krune muttering. "Well, that''s true." Iem then looked in the distance as a smile appeared on his face. "Oh! It seems like we have company again. Truly, I have to take my hat off for Sect Master Franlia. Her proposal to keep combat in this place is quite splendid. That way, we can keep our training in real battle situations. Truly convenient." Feifei also added. "That''s not all. By keeping this combat zone, you will always have people and beasts of the three sects roaming around. In a certain way, you can keep the area monitored 24/7. It would be somewhat challenging for others to make a move in this place without anyone noticing anything different." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Can you see something?" "Of course! However, the options are way too numerous. There are thousands of possibilities at the moment, so it won''t matter much whether I talk about it or not. It''ll take a very long time until I can see anything more conclusive, considering all the possibilities involved." Krune and Iem nodded. "Alright, let''s go!" Krune''s group, together with a few Sky Shifting Sect members with various cultivation levels, immediately began a battle against the Three Peaks Sect''s forces. In the end, Iem was right. For the next several years, all the powers of the planet were more or less silent. There were a few disagreements and battles here and there between the planet''s main forces, but nothing out of the norm. If there was anything truly noticeable, it was the fact that the Sky Shifting and the Energy Sects began to increase in size very fast. However, the others couldn''t do anything against it since both sects had a Nascent God in their ranks. Krune''s group ignored all of that, though. They only paid attention to their own cultivation and skills. For example, Krune finally surpassed the Divinity Stars level in both Blacksmith and Cooking. Although he didn''t have Purple Tribulation Lightning to create Purple Flame equipment, it didn''t mean he couldn''t forge anything. Besides, Luvile was there as well. That being said, he only had to ask for Luvile''s help, and he would be able to make them. Feifei began to attend the Formations Guild more often than not. However, she didn''t go above the Divinity Stars level in her proficiency. It was not that she couldn''t, but because she had to change her skills. Spiritual Energy and Godly Energy Formations worked very differently. Naturally, she had to study all of those things from the very basics, just like Iem did. Nevertheless, after a long time, she could be said to have finalized her transition. The good thing was that Formations of the Godly Path Realm would also be useful in the God Realm. After all, both realms were flooded with Godly Energy. During this time, there were a few things that Franlia asked Krune and the others to help with. That''s basically because of his connection with Zule, of course. In her eyes, Iem and Krune were very important because of that. Little did she know that Zule wouldn''t return anymore. Of course, Iem and Krune didn''t mention that. As for the restaurant, well... Nina really put a hell of a fight against Feifei. Unfortunately for her, Krune was oblivious to most of it. Even when he did notice her intentions, his eyes were still on Feifei. Jilin, without any other choice, began to comfort her every now and then, as well as trying to help when possible. With that, the two became somewhat closer than usual, much to Feifei''s delight. Things were going as she could exactly see. Because Krune still appeared in the restaurant every now and then, the employees decided to make a calendar with the days he would be available there. During those days, the restaurants would have all of their reservations filled for the entire day. It wasn''t anything unexpected, though. Any Spiritual Chef at Krune''s level received that kind of treatment. Oclo was a great example of that. He was the first Spiritual Chef Krune had ever met and the one who taught him about it. Oclo''s restaurant wasn''t any worse than Krune''s. It just wasn''t any bigger because Oclo was the only Spiritual Chef of his level there. Krune, obviously, often paid visits to Oclo since he owed the man a lot. Another thing that happened during the years was the group''s improvement in Laws. Iem, Krune, and Feifei had already finished comprehending and merging all Elemental Laws, including Light and Darkness. The only thing that remained were their own advanced laws like Time, Space, and Destiny. As expected, those were and would always be the hardest laws to comprehend between the main trending ones, even in the Godly Path Realm. Of course, there were other Laws that might or might not be more difficult than those. For example, there was Ruik''s Dream Laws or Uer''s Death Laws. But in that case, it depended a lot on the individual. Besides, Feifei, Krune, and Iem didn''t practice any off-stream laws... Well, Krune had his hidden Calamity Laws, but let''s not rub salt on his already open wounds... In that fashion, twenty years went by in a flash. Sure enough, with the Top Quality Godly Energy Veins and Godly Energy Stones, the cultivation levels of Krune''s group soared. The first one to reach the Peak of the Transformation Realm was obviously Iem, who was already in the Second Stage by the time Krune and Feifei had arrived in the Godly Path Realm. "Hahaha! Without that tenth meridian of yours, I''m definitely faster. Don''t underestimate the power of a Heavenly Race Member!" Krune and Feifei shrugged their shoulders after hearing that. They didn''t think they would be faster than Iem anyway. The Heavenly Race wasn''t called that for nothing. Not to mention that a Heavenly Core was simply way too suited for his race. Still, they weren''t much behind. Without his Tenth Meridians to help with cultivation, Krune and Feifei''s cultivation pace became nearly identical. Krune only had a small advantage since the Myriad Energies Technique was made with Wisps in mind, after all. Three years later, Krune had also reached the Peak of the Transformation Realm. He was quickly followed by Feifei, who got there just two years after him. In total, Krune''s group spent 25 years to finish changing their bodies into Godly variants. Of course, part of that speed was thanks to having a place where they could battle against other cultivators. By the time Krune''s group had reached the 8th Stage of the Transformation Realm, they could already fight ordinary late-stage Mortal Rejection Realm cultivators with ease. They even became quite famous in the battleground of the three sects. With Feifei''s last breakthrough, Krune took the chance to send Luvile, Soren, and Heavin a message. Luvile had been close to them to start with. It''s just that he didn''t need to battle anyone to cultivate. Of course, his cultivation soared the fastest by far since he was just recovering his cultivation. By the time Krune, Feifei and Iem had reached the Peak of the Transformation Realm, Luvile went from Mortal Rejection all the way to God Foundation. Indeed, Luvile had cultivated two entire realms by simply absorbing Godly Energy. Not to mention that he was already in the 6th Stage of the God Foundation Realm. Another thing was that Luvile had cultivated his soul all the way to the 1st Stage of the Soul Source Realm. That was some truly breakneck cultivation speed considering that he started later than anyone else. In Krune''s case, he had reached the 5th Stage of the same Soul Cultivation Realm. It''s just that he had just arrived at that stage, so it would take a long time before he would be ready to enter the Godly Soul Source Realm. One must remember that the Soul Cultivation Technique only had five stages between each realm. Iem, as a Heavenly Race member, caught up to Feifei, who was in the 3rd stage. Soren and Heavin arrived a few days later. However, Krune''s group was shocked to see Heavin''s improvement. "What...! You''re already in the 5th Stage of the Godly Soul Source Realm?" That was an entire realm above Krune! One must not forget that each new realm of the Soul Cultivation System was much harder than each new realm in normal cultivation. In a certain way, Heavin''s speed could be said to be similar to Luvile''s in the Normal Cultivation System, even though he only went up a single realm. "Hahaha! Who do you think I am? I''m a genius!" Soren agreed with that. "He isn''t wrong. I doubt I''ll ever find someone as suited for my Soul Cultivation System as him in my life." Cinnia, who was in the 2nd Stage of the Soul Source Realm inside Luvile''s Pendant, then said. "Alright, alright. That''s enough for now. So, are we going up or not? I want to rebuild my body, you know?" Harold immediately agreed with her. "Exactly! I can''t stand Purple Idiot''s smug expression anymore. I need a body as well." Luvile laughed delightedly in response. The angrier Harold got, the happier he would feel. "Very well. Let us prepare." Chapter 825: To the God Realm! Even though Luvile said that, Krune couldn''t help but ask. "Wouldn''t it be better to breakthrough into the Mortal Rejection Realm here first?" Luvile and Soren immediately shook their heads as they let out a bit of cold sweat. "It''s several times easier to do so in the God Realm due to its stabler cultivation environment. Besides, you won''t need to go through a Lightning Tribulation if you do it there." Iem immediately agreed with them. "Yes! Let''s go up first. It''ll be for the best." Krune narrowed his eyes when he heard that. "Why do I feel like you guys are afraid of something?" The three of them looked away as one of them replied with a light cough. "Ahem... It''s just your imagination." Krune sighed at that. "Oh, well... whatever. Let''s just tell everyone we''re leaving." Everyone agreed with that. Iem and Krune went to the sect and talked with Franlia, who was surprised by that news. She expected that Krune and Iem would become the Sky Shifting Sect''s support in the future, but it seemed like that won''t happen. "I see... Well, you already did way too much for my Sect. If there''s anything I can help you with, let me know." After that, Krune went back to the restaurant while Feifei and Iem went to the Formations Guild. There were also other places like Oclo''s restaurant and the Blacksmith Guild that Krune was part of. Obviously, Nina was shocked by Krune''s words even though she knew it would happen. However, she seemed to have come to terms after so many years of failed attempts. "Master, do you really need to go? Can''t you normally cultivate here and then ascend after?" Krune shook his head as he replied. "That won''t do. We are in a race against time here, so I can''t stay here any longer than necessary. However, it''s not like we will never see each other again. Who knows, you might one day ascend as well." Nina was still sad, though. Jilin and Bai also didn''t like it. "In any case, Chef Krune. It was good while it lasted. Oh, right. What about the restaurant?" Krune shrugged his shoulders as he answered. "What else is there to be done? Obviously, it is now yours once again. Bai, you already know how to take care of it as if it was another part of yourself. As for Jilin and Nina, they''re more than capable enough of being its Spiritual Chefs. Besides, you can ask the Sky Shifting Sect for help if needed. Everything will all be fine." Jilin and Bai nodded as they let out a sigh. Sometime later, Iem and Feifei came back from the Formations Guild. Luvile, Soren, and Heavin were already waiting since they didn''t become acquaintances with anyone during these years in the Godly Path Realm. All they focused on was cultivation. Even Soren was no exception. The difference was that he didn''t focus on Soul Cultivation but the Energy one. After all, he had his own as well. Soren didn''t want any problems to arise during their travel, so he brought Krune''s group away from the planet. Of course, they first stopped at the Kalame Sect since Soren had promised to bring Lila together. Lila was cultivating in her chamber when out of nowhere, a Spatial Gate appeared right in front of her. Be it the last time years ago or now, she couldn''t help but jolt at that. After all, the Sect''s Formations should prevent such a thing from happening. However, she quickly calmed down since she knew who was coming. Not only that, she even felt a little excited. Sure enough, Soren came out of it with the rest. "You better be ready. I don''t want to wait for much longer." Lila took a deep breath as she tried to reign over her emotions. A 100% guaranteed ascension! How could she not be excited? "Yes, Senior." Lila quickly spread her Divine Sense before calling Zuitou Kalame, the actual Sect Master of the Kalame Sect. Zuitou quickly reached the chamber as he looked at Krune and Iem. "Oh. It''s been some time since I last saw you two." Krune and Iem smiled as they simultaneously greeted him. "Long time no see, Sect Master Zuitou." Lila then interrupted Zuitou from greeting back. "Enough with it. Senior Soren here is in a hurry. As I mentioned before, I''ll be ascending to the God Realm with them. I believe all the preparations have been made already, yes?" Zuitou took a deep breath before he nodded. "Yes. Ancestor can ascend without worries. The Kalame Sect will be fine as long as I''m the Sect Master." Lila nodded, satisfied. "Good! Guomer owes me a favor, so you can go ask his help if things become complicated. Also, I exchanged most of my stuff for another favor from the Juto Sect, so you can also rely on them. I''m leaving you with these two lifelines." "Thank you, Ancestor." Lila then looked at Soren. "Everything''s ready on my side, senior. We can depart any time you want." Soren immediately opened a Spatial Gate once again, much to Zuitou''s surprise. After all, he knew about the formations in place in the Kalame Sect. That just went to show how much stronger Soren was compared to other Nascent God Realm cultivators or demon beasts. "Let''s go." Everyone quickly entered the Spatial Gate, leaving Zuitou behind. However, just as the Spatial Gate was about to completely close, a small black bead fell from it. "Hum?" Zuitou looked at the bead curiously before grabbing it. As soon as he did so, a Divine Sense message echoed in his mind. "Senior Zuitou. You also helped Iem and me a lot in the past. This bead here has the power to ward off 50% of the power from an Ascension Tribulation. With that said, make sure to keep it guarded well. All you need to do is pour your Godly Energy into it, and the bead will naturally activate. Remember, this is a one-time use item, so make sure to use it at the right time. May we meet again someday." Zuitou felt like he was struck by lightning! "50%!!!" Zuitou quickly looked around and immediately put that bead in his Spatial Ring. Soon after, his blood began to boil in excitement. That didn''t mean he would have a guaranteed chance of success in the Ascension Tribulation in the future, but he definitely had a much higher chance than anyone else! "That won''t do. I''ll immediately step down from my Sect Master position and take the ancestor''s place. Even if you kill me, I definitely won''t buy any fight with anyone until the day I need to ascend. Low profile, low profile..." Zuitou quickly left and made arrangements after that. Somewhere else in the Godly Path Realm, a Spatial Gate appeared before everyone came out of it. Naturally, it was Krune''s group and Lila. "Where is this place?" "This is nowhere. I brought us to a secluded corner where no one will mind us. Alright, Krune. Go ahead with it." Krune nodded as he brought the Runestone out of his Spatial Ring. Barlo had already explained to Krune how to use it, so he had made the arrangements. Soon after, Krune brought hundreds of Top Quality Godly Energy Stones out before placing them beside the Runestone. After that, he sent his Divine Sense inside and activated the inscription. Not long after, space began to tremble as the Godly Path Realm roared. It was as if something was cutting right through it. The Godly Path Realm tried to stop whatever it was. Unfortunately, it was completely powerless against the Runestone''s power. Well, that was Zule''s power, so it made sense. The Godly Energy Stones were quickly consumed as Spatial Laws of a much higher level accumulated around the Runestone. Everyone couldn''t help but feel nervous about it. After all, they only had Barlo''s words as assurance. However, their doubts didn''t last long. The Runestone began to shine with silver light as a black Spatial Gate started to take shape. Krune, Feifei, Heavin, and Lila couldn''t tell if it was the real thing. However, Luvile, Soren, and Cinnia immediately identified the power coming from it. "It''s really the God Realm''s power!" "Hahaha! Great! Let''s go, everyone." Soren and Luvile covered everyone with their powers before pulling everyone inside the Black Spatial Gate. As soon as they did that, the Runestone broke apart. As for the Black Spatial Gate, it disappeared almost instantly since the Godly Path Realm was trying to close it all the time. A few high-level cultivators and demon beasts had come to this place later, though, unfortunately for them, there wasn''t anything else there anymore. Krune''s group felt like their bodies were being ripped apart. The strength of the Spatial Laws guiding them into the God Realm wasn''t a joke. Fortunately, the Runestone''s power made up for it, protecting everyone inside. They only stayed in that Spatial Gate''s path for a few seconds. However, it seemed like it took forever. Eventually, they were able to see the light of the other side. Their visions blurred once again, and when it came back to normal, they were standing above a lush field. Wind caressed on their faces as the sun shone in the sky... or so they thought. "Wait! That''s not the sun!" Luvile and Soren nodded. "Correct. However, you shouldn''t care about it for now. We''re going to release our barrier. Once we do that, all of you will be assaulted with the Godly Path Realm''s Godly Energy. Get ready since it will sting quite a bit." Krune and the others took a deep breath before nodding. They were already aware of it before. They had to get their bodies used to the God Realm''s power before anything. Chapter 826: God Realm... Alone! As mentioned before, the God Realm''s Godly Energy was much stronger, concentrated, and pure. It''s not wrong to say that the Godly Path Realm''s energy was ''dirty.'' Not only that, but the laws that made up the God Realm were much clearer. Back then, Luvile mentioned the Transformation Laws of the Godly Path Realm. The God Realm just so happened to have the same thing. Little by little, Krune, Feifei, Heavin, Iem, and Lila''s bodies began to change accordingly. Fortunately, it was not as hard as it was for Krune when he arrived in the Godly Path Realm for the first time. Of course, the one having the easiest time among them was Lila. After all, she was already a 7th Stage Nascent God. That being said, Lila was the first one to finish adapting her body to the God Realm. Soren then looked at her before saying. "Alright. From now on, you''re on your own. You can leave now." Lila took a deep breath as she nodded. "Thank you, Senior Soren. If there''s ever something I can help you with, please don''t hesitate to call me out." Soren nodded, not minding it too much. Soon after, Lila turned around and tried to fly away... or at least, she tried. All she did was jump in the air before falling to the ground again. "Eh?!" Luvile snorted after seeing that. "Keep dreaming! This is the God Realm. You need to have cultivation greater than something like the puny Nascent God Realm to be able to fly. Anyway, that''s all I have to tell you. Find the rest out by yourself." Lila bitterly smiled as she scratched the back of her head, embarrassed. How would she know that a Nascent God wouldn''t be able to fly? Without any other choice, Lila spread her Divine Sense and tried to find a direction to go. Unfortunately, her lips twitched once she tried to do that. "One and a half kilometers..." Yes, that was as far as her Divine Sense could go. In the Godly Path Realm, her Divine Sense could literally cover an entire galaxy! But now... Seeing that, Soren sighed before pointing out. "You can probably find a city if you go in that direction. Good luck." Lila immediately bowed in Soren''s direction with her face now tomato red. "Thank you once again, seniors." After that, she shot forward and disappeared into the distance. Who knew when they would ever see her again. Soren and Luvile looked at Krune, Iem, Feifei, and Heavin after that. The next one to finish going through that process was obviously Heavin. After all, he only had his Divine Soul to go through it. "Phew... Such high-quality Godly Energy. It''s at the same level as Krune''s Top Quality Godly Energy Stones. Really impressive." Soren nodded. "That''s why coming to this place as fast as possible was the best choice." Iem, Feifei, and Krune finished their own transformation around an hour later. "I guess we can take the chance to break through into the Mortal Rejection Realm now, right?" Everyone immediately took a few steps back away from Krune when they heard that. Even his wife, Feifei, seemed to be afraid of it. Poor Krune, truly betrayed without mercy. "Fuck all of you! Can you stop thinking that something bad will happen? Oh, I see! It''s not that something bad will happen because of me. It''s because you all believe that it will occur that it comes. Just think that everything will be fine, and we should be okay." Everyone shook their heads, prompting Krune to ask. "You don''t really believe that this is the case, right?" Krune felt like crying already. "So what do you want me to do? Never breakthrough again?" Soren then took a deep breath before saying. "Wait a minute. Let me absorb my Mental Energy Source first." He heard all the stories from Luvile and Heavin about Krune''s breakthrough calamities. Although he didn''t fully believe them, it was better to be safe than sorry. That being said, he wanted to recover his God Powers before anything. He quickly brought out all the Black Water from his spatial ring. Following that, it began to enter his forehead at high speeds. Luvile could feel that as more of it got there, the stronger the pressure Soren gave them. Because he was now cultivating the Soul Cultivation Technique, he could feel it even more clearly now. Sure enough, Soren was right about his prediction. Some of his Mental Energy Source had been lost as time passed. Because of that, he was only capable of recovering to the weakest Soul God level. Well, that was already a pinnacle in the God Realm anyway. "Sigh... At least for now, my Mental Energy Source is big enough for me to recreate the missing amount. Then again, it will take quite a lot of years." Heavin still was happy for him. "Congratulations, Master." Luvile asked something else, though. "Is it enough to traverse the God Realm?" Soren nodded. "Yes. We can go anywhere as long as it is not blocked by powerful formations. Of course, Mental Energy can bypass most formations, but I would rather not alarm anyone about our return. At least not until the two of us have recovered to our peaks." Luvile and Soren nodded. Harold and Cinnia then spoke. "We also need to reconstruct our bodies, you know?" Soren then looked at Luvile as the two seem to have reached a tacit understanding. "I''ll leave Harold in Mount Devil Flame. That was your residence in the past, so you should have the materials to process a new body for yourself there, right?" Harold agreed with Soren. "Yes. Even though I think that place has been raided down and occupied, I still have a secret dimensional realm that I doubt anyone has found. Just leave me nearby, and I''ll come out of Iem''s Foundation. I can do the rest by myself from there. With the amount of Godly Energy in the God Realm, my soul will not dissipate even if I''m without a vessel." Of course, Iem found it strange. What would he do then? He thought they would stay together for a while longer. Soren didn''t mind it, though. "As for Cinnia and Luvile, where should I leave you two?" Cinnia immediately answered. "Go to the Fanli Sect. I have a way to get the materials necessary for my own there." Luvile, of course, would stay with her. "Very well." Soren then used his Mental Energy and immediately enveloped everyone before taking flight... except Krune! "Eh?! Hey! Aren''t you forgetting someone?" Feifei, Iem, and Heavin were also taken aback. They didn''t know anything about it at all. However, Luvile immediately shook his head. "We''re not. I''ll leave Feifei somewhere else. The same thing will happen with Iem. That''s the best thing for all of you. If I kept you together, you would all feel relaxed and wouldn''t put as much effort." Krune and Feifei were really shocked when they heard that. How come they didn''t hear anything about it. Feifei was the first one to complain. "I came to the God Realm with Krune so we could stay together! You can''t separate us like that!" Krune agreed with Feifei. "Exactly! Do you know how terrifying she can be when she goes without sex for so many years?!" Feifei almost vomited blood! "What the hell are you talking about?! Should you say ''I can''t live without her'' or something like that?" Krune nodded. "Oh! That too!" Feifei felt like sending the wisp flying... As for Iem, well... He didn''t really mind either way. Perhaps it would be funnier to be on his own indeed. Luvile didn''t know what to say about this couple. "Ahem... In any case, this is for your own good. Remember, you three will be on your own from this point onwards. Soren will let you out in different points of the God Realm. That''s all. Soren, let''s go! We need to leave before he tries to breakthrough." "On it!" Soren used his Spatial Power and immediately opened two different Spatial Gates. He threw Feifei into one of them before she couldn''t say anything before leaving through the other one with Heavin, Luvile, and Iem. Finally, Krune was left all alone in that place. *whoosh...* Krune looked at the place where everyone disappeared as the wind blew on his face. After some time, he couldn''t help but get angry. "Fuck you, Luvile, Soren! Just you wait! I''ll definitely have my revenge!" The wind continued to blow as if he hadn''t said anything, though... "Sigh... And here I thought I would have an easy time with all those gods supporting me. Why do things have to be this complicated?" At this moment, Krune felt something he hadn''t ever since he was in the Matiu Forest. As if something was missing. He couldn''t be blamed. After all, Luvile had always been with him after that Lightning Tribulation. After Luvile woke up, there had not been a single day where he was alone again. It''s not wrong to say that someone was there with Krune for more than 99% of his life. "It''s so... quiet." However, Krune quickly got ahold of himself. As a wisp, he rarely spent too much time on these kinds of feelings. "Anyway, this place seems safe enough. It''s a good time to enter the Mortal Rejection Realm." Krune sat down as he brought his Top Quality Godly Energy Stones out. Although they were at the same purity as the Godly Energy in the air, a lot more of it was concentrated inside. It was still a good help. Krune then took a deep breath and made the last push to start his breakthrough. Chapter 827: Balance As mentioned in the past, the Mortal Rejection Realm was when one transformed the remaining part of their body into a Godly variant, the Soul! Godly Energy quickly fused with Krune''s Soul as it began to slowly change its own properties. Unlike what others thought, it wasn''t that painful. Not to mention that Krune was a wisp, which was also considered a Soul Race. Of course, that made things far easier for him. Time passed as his Soul continued to change. If not because of the Godly Energy entering his body nonstop, it would be quite a silent breakthrough. That just showed how smooth it worked. Eventually, the last strand of Krune''s Soul changed as his cultivation began to rise. His foundation space increased in size, making his Universe Foundation even bigger. It was then that a burst of Godly Energy came out of Krune''s body, spreading everywhere around him. Krune had finally reached the Mortal Rejection Realm. "Phew... It was easier than I thought. Now I have to increase my Soul strength during the next Nine Stages of the Mortal Rejection Realm." Krune then faintly smiled as he raised his finger. Right above it, there was a dark cloud that revolved around it nonstop. It carried some kind of energy and law that others would have a hard time recognizing. It was not the fused five elements, though. Well, to be more exact, it did have the five elements, but as well as the other elements and laws. Space, Time, Destiny, Light, Darkness, Yin, and even Yang. They were all there, and at the same time, they were not. "Calamity Laws, huh...? I finally got you! Once again, you tried to make things go south for me after my breakthrough. What is it? Do you like making my life that hard? Hmph! It seems like your luck is finally over." Krune looked at that as he tried to comprehend it better. However, it was easier said than done. He could see everything, and at the same time, he couldn''t see anything at all. Krune had to be struck by the Calamity Laws during most of his breakthroughs to eventually obtain an incredibly basic understanding of it. "Strong, yet at the same time not. Easy to comprehend yet hard at the same time. Rather than calling it the Calamity Laws, Quantum Laws would probably be a better fit. Two states at the same time. It''s very fitting indeed. However..." Krune lifted his other hand as he summoned the Fused Elements. Of course, it didn''t stop there. Soon, Light and Dark Element also joined that elemental fusion. What was surprising was that Krune didn''t seem to have any issues doing it. Eventually, Krune tried to put in even more things. Time, Space, Destiny, Yin, and Yang. Those powers also emerged from Krune''s body as they joined the Fused Elements. To give support to that fusion, Krune made sure to use his Mental Energy. After all, the real nature of the five fused elements had always been the Soul Cultivation Technique. Unfortunately... *Bzzzzzzz...* *Boom!* An explosion of energy and laws came from Krune''s hand. Fortunately, he was already expecting it, though. That being said, he protected himself before that happened. Well, to be honest, Krune was surprised at just how weak that explosion was. Could it even be called an explosion? Even if he didn''t protect himself, he would at most suffer a few small cuts or something like that. "That''s quite far away. Still, to think I would notice the Calamity Laws'' presence when I tried to fuse all the elements and the three major laws together with Yin and Yang. I was doing it to get a gist of what would be my own laws. However, the sudden appearance of the Calamity Laws threw my ideas in disarray..." Krune then looked at the Calamity Laws above his finger on the other hand. Unlike the fusion he tried to make, this one was somewhat stable. He could keep its form for some time. "The trick is behind the two ideas. I feel like I''m very close to something, but what is it? Now that I''ve entered the Mortal Rejection Realm, I can also control Mental Energy easier. That makes the fusion of everything a lot simpler as well. Fusion, Elements, Laws, Chaos... Put them together, and you have the Calamity Laws. Take them away, and you still have the Calamity Laws, just not in a tangible form." And with that, an idea popped into Krune''s mind. "Ah! Maybe..." Krune then gathered the Calamity Laws in his hand once again. It was a very basic form, far from what it could really become. Still, it was definitely the Calamity Laws. Krune then smiled as he... did the opposite! Instead of gathering everything to create Calamity Laws, Krune decided to unmake it, breaking the Calamity Laws apart! Little by little, the dark cloud seemed to separate into many elements and laws. Following that, these laws and elements dissipated into the world. No, to be more precise, they fused back into the world once more. Krune couldn''t help but feel impressed with just how normal it looked. There were no ripples, no rejection, nothing. It was as if the Calamity Laws'' properties had returned back to what they should have been from the very start. At that instant, Krune''s eyes lit up! "That''s it! I finally have an idea of what kind of Laws I will create. The Calamity Laws screwed me up many times. But it was also thanks to it that I got to where I am today. They are ''chaos,'' and at the same time, they are ''order.''" Krune then took a deep breath as he concentrated his senses. Both Godly Energy and Mental Energy gathered around his body before moving to his arms. Once again, the Calamity Laws appeared on his hands. However, it was completely different this time. There seemed to be some order to all the chaos of laws, elements, and energies inside. Everything was there, and everything could be used. "Through nothing, I will have everything. Through everything, I will get nothing. I shall call it the Balance Laws." Krune couldn''t help but feel excited about his discovery. Just how powerful would it be when he fused it into his own attacks. No, its potential wasn''t just in combat. It was everywhere and in everything. The prospect was limitless. However... *Boom!* Just a second after Krune created the Balance Laws, it broke apart in an explosion of Godly and Mental Energies once more. This time, however, Krune felt the shock. It was still nothing compared to something that could really hurt him, but it was definitely more robust than the previous one. "Well, I guess it was to be expected. I''m putting the horses in front of the cart. I tried to use the Balance Laws without even coming up with their own Sub-Laws. I don''t have the necessary structure to hold everything together, so it broke apart. Obviously, let alone using it. Chances are that I might even get killed by it if I''m not careful in the future." Krune then smiled once again. "However, I know exactly where to start. To achieve balance, I need cooperation. I first have to make everything work together as I wish. That being said, I can already tell which sub-laws I shall create." "First, the Elemental Cooperation Sub-Law. This one is basically making all the elements work together. It''s not a fusion but a coexistence." "Second, the Energy Cooperation Sub-Laws. Godly Energy, Spiritual Energy, Mental Energy, Yin Energy, Yang Energy... I need to make all of them cooperate with one another as well." "Finally, the most difficult out of all of them, the Law Cooperation Sub-Law. Without a doubt, making all of these energy and elemental laws work together will be the hardest. I can''t even figure out how I''m going to do that yet." "After that, I will need to merge everything together. Only then will I achieve balance. However, this last part is surprisingly the easiest one..., or so I think. I''ll need to see how it turns out when I get there." Krune then looked in the direction where Soren pointed out before. He told Lila that a city could be found there. Naturally, that would be Krune''s first stop. At the very least, it was better than wandering without a destination. Krune quickly got up and began to run... just to fall on his feet a few kilometers ahead, tired! *gasp, gasp...* "Th-This... Wh-Why am I s-so tired all of a su-sudden?" Poor Krune had truly underestimated the God Realm. He knew that he wouldn''t be able to fly, but who could have imagined he wouldn''t even be able to run? Krune then reached the conclusion that it would be better to simply walk than run. Slowly but surely, Krune made his way to the city. Fortunately for him, Soren knew where they had arrived. That being said, he also knew that Krune wouldn''t find any dangers as he made his way to the city. Of course, Soren didn''t tell Krune about the difficulties of the God Realm. The fact he couldn''t even run much was one of them. "This is ridiculous! If that''s the case, how about my attacks?" Krune then used his Godly Energy to summon a blade of wind before firing it at the grass. *Swish!* Krune''s mouth twitched when he saw the outcome. He had cut the grass... or to be more specific, three blades of grass before the blade of wind lost its power. "Since when did I become so weak? Can''t I even cut grass anymore?" "Lightning Fall!" *Tzzzzz!* A bolt of lightning hit the ground... and burnt a few more blades of grass. "Last time I remember feeling so weak was before I met Feifei..." Krune couldn''t help but sigh. Chapter 828: Problems "What do I do? I barely have any power at all. If I push myself to the limit, perhaps I can create something that can injure someone. Of course, that would be my limit. No, that won''t work. I must head to the City first." Without any other choice, Krune kept heading towards the City. However, instead of trying to run at full speed, he simply jogged. At least that way, he wouldn''t use all his Godly Energy at once. He thought about going back to his Wisp Form. However, he already heard a lot to know better than showing his Wisp Form in a place like the God Realm. Krune didn''t know yet, but he really had to thank the Myriad Energies Technique at the moment. Otherwise, he wouldn''t even be able to do anything other than absorb Godly Energy for cultivation. Using Godly Energy to create attacks? That would be a joke without it. Fortunately for Krune, he had his Mental Energy. That one was a lot easier to use in the God Realm. It''s just that Mental Energy was also affected by Godly Energy, but not as much as Divine Sense. Nevertheless, Krune couldn''t tell just how effective it would be when he needed to defend himself with it. Back when they arrived in the God Realm, Lila Kalame tried to use her Divine Sense at the 7th Stage of the Nascent God Realm. Even though that was the case, it went just as far as a kilometer and a half. As for Krune and his 1st Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm cultivation ''Not even 20 meters... No wonder you can only ascend after you reach the Peak of the Nascent God Realm. The Mortal Rejection Realm is just ridiculously weak. As for Mental Energy, I guess I have to be thankful it can reach 50 meters.'' Well, Krune also thought about the positive side of the story. ''At least I finally comprehended the Calamity Laws. Thanks to that, I was able to prevent it from intervening in my life after my breakthrough. Then again... why did it attach to me every time I tried a breakthrough? I just don''t understand.'' Krune didn''t just jog, though. He still has his Mind Splitting Technique. Thanks to that, he also cultivated and tried to grasp more of the Calamity Laws on his way. The more he could understand it, the easier it would be to create the Balance Laws. It took Krune no less than two weeks before he finally saw the first cultivator. It was just a man taking care of a few beasts. To be honest, he didn''t seem to be a cultivator at all. Nonetheless, Krune took the chance to ask the guy. "Hello. Would you mind telling me which side the City is?" The man looked at Krune and couldn''t help but feel impressed. "It seems like life wasn''t much good for you, huh? Sigh... anyway, just keep running in the same direction you were running just now. You should start seeing more people and demon beasts in human form as time passes. It wouldn''t be hard to find it." Krune was puzzled, though. "What did you mean by your first words?" The man was puzzled by Krune''s question. "Isn''t that obvious? You''re obviously an adult Demon Beast already. However, ever since you were born, you haven''t left the 1st Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm. You don''t need to hide it. You were most likely born with some defects in your Demon Core, right?" Krune felt a chill on his back when he heard those words. He might not have any EQ, but his IQ definitely wasn''t an issue. "Ahem... could you mean that everyone who''s born in the God Realm is already at the 1st Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm?" The man was even more puzzled as he replied. "Isn''t that obvious? There is no lower realm than Mortal Rejection. Naturally, they have to be born in it. Ah! I understand what you mean. Well, that can''t be helped since you have a problem with your foundation. After all, any race would be born at the 9th Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm already. Only when their bodies just started to get a form in their mother''s bellies or in their eggshells would they be in the 1st Stage. As they grow inside, their cultivation also increases. It''s normal for babies and demon beasts to reach the 9th Stage even before being born." Krune felt like he was struck by lightning. Just now, he had understood that he was the weakest existence in the God Realm. "Th-Thank you... Hehe... Yea... I have a problem. That''s why I''m at this level. Hehehe..." Krune then turned around and continued on his way. As the man saw that, he could only give Krune some encouraging words. "Don''t give up, young one. Being alive is already a miracle. Just focus on this thought and forget everything else. So what if you''re weak? Strength isn''t everything in life." Krune bitterly smiled and nodded. ''So weak, huh? Sigh... there''s no point in being sad about it anymore. I have to cultivate quickly and reach the Godly Fusion Realm.'' ''Still, to think that everyone is already born in the 9th Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm. That''s truly unexpected. Well, I guess it makes sense. This is the God Realm. The concentration of Godly Energy here is so high that it can totally kill a Transformation Realm cultivator or demon beast. If they weren''t in the Mortal Rejection Realm, the humans and demon beasts'' babies would die before they could even start growing in their mothers'' bellies or eggshells.'' ''That also explains why my abilities are so limited just now. It wouldn''t make any sense to generate powerful Godly Energy Attacks when you have the power of a newborn. If newborns had the same power as Mortal Rejection Realm cultivators and demon beasts in the Godly Path Realm, chances are high that they would destroy everything by mistake. They wouldn''t have any idea about what it means to control one''s power. Even if they were a little older, having kids with such power definitely wouldn''t be a good idea.'' Only like that could Krune come into terms with his actual power... or the sheer lack of it. ''Oh, well. Let''s think about this as if I''m back at the 1st Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm. Now that I think about it, I only started using the Myriad Energies Technique at the 3rd Stage. Before that, I just naturally accumulated energy.'' Krune quickly shook his head and put those thoughts at the back of his head. On the way, Krune caught quite a little bit of attention. After all, no one expected to see an adult 1st Stage Mortal Rejection Realm cultivator. Of course, no one was interested in finding trouble for Krune either. Rob him? What could such a weakling even have? All that would be left was a bad taste in their mouth. If they weren''t careful, they might even kill Krune while they were playing. Because of that, although many people and demon beasts laughed, that was just about it. Krune also came to understand another thing. In the God Realm, all demon beasts were born with sentience. He had seen a few young demon beasts, definitely no more than four to five years old, who could already talk like any human kid could. There were quite a few species of those too. ''At least no one would find it weird to see a 1st Stage Mortal Rejection Realm Demon Beast with sentience.'' Finally, Krune spotted the City in the distance. Krune arrived at the gate a few minutes later and, once again, grabbed some attention. The guard, surprised by Krune''s cultivation, couldn''t help but find it funny. "Now, that''s something I''ve never seen before. Just what did you do to have your cultivation drop to the 1st Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm?" Krune bitterly smiled as he explained. "I was born with a problem in my foundation. Because of that, I''ve always been in this realm." Another guard then appeared in front of him before saying. "Stop making fun of him. It''s not like either of us are strong or anything." "Well, that''s true." After that, they allowed Krune to pass. "Go ahead, brother. Just try to stay out of trouble." Krune couldn''t help but ask, though. "I just arrived in this City. Would you mind telling me where I can find some information about it?" "Information? Just ask the people or demon beasts in human form around. Sunkan City is quite small, with no more than a hundred thousand inhabitants. Most of us will be able to tell you anything you want to know about it." Krune smiled after hearing that. "Thank you." Krune felt that he was quite lucky. This would be a perfect type of City for him to spend his time cultivating. Calm and safe. He was also happy that there were no entrance fees. Before anything else, Krune decided to find a place for him to stay. After asking around, he found a normal inn before heading inside. However, he didn''t ask for a room straight away. Instead, he waited for someone else to come and pay for a room first. Why? Because he didn''t know how much his Godly Energy Stones were worth. Suppose he suddenly brought out a Top Quality Godly Energy Stone. In that case, he might attract many enemies while he wouldn''t be able to protect himself at all. Krune was just that weak. However... "Two weeks will cost you 300 Rank One God Stones." "Alright. Here you go." Someone finally decided to pay for a room, so Krune took a good look at the God Stones with his Mental Energy. It was then that Krune almost cried. ''Top Quality Godly Energy Stones! They''re calling it Rank One God Stone! Rank One!!! The lowest possible rank! In that case, is there any use for the other Godly Stones I have in my Spatial Ring at all?'' At that moment, Krune noticed another problem he hadn''t felt in a very, very long time. He was poor! Chapter 829: New Side Occupation At some point, the guy at the counter noticed Krune at the other side of the room. "Hey! Do you want anything? If not, don''t block the entrance." "Ah!" The dejected Krune was taken aback for a moment before quickly heading into the inn. "Sorry, sorry. I want a room. How much is it to rent a room for a month?" Since Krune was very close, the guy could see Krune''s cultivation with his Divine Sense. "1st Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm? Holy shit! How did you become so weak?" Krune didn''t know what to say anymore. "Ahem... Does it matter? I just want a room to stay." The attendant at the counter quickly came back to himself and replied. "Ah! Sorry. We have discounts for those who stay for several days. What kind of room do you desire?" "The cheapest one, please." The guy nodded before answering. "In that case, it would be 400 Rank One God Stones." Krune took those 400 ''Top Quality Godly Energy Stones'' and passed them to the attendant with a painful expression. The guy noticed that and sighed in the end. "Fine... I can''t really expect someone like you to have that many God Stones. I''ll do 300 God Stones for you during the first month. But only the first month, understood? Don''t show such a dejected expression anymore. Being poor isn''t exactly a defect. At least, no one will bother to rob you." Krune wanted to say that he wasn''t poor... or at least not in the Godly Path Realm. Unfortunately, he was a genuine poor guy in this place. "Th-thank you..." Well, the guy didn''t say that on purpose. He really thought that Krune was passing through difficulties, so Krune couldn''t really get angry because of him. Krune went to his room, which was obviously small because it was cheap. "Wait! It doesn''t need to be this small! I still have a few of my Dimensional Realm Spatial Boxes from the time I transported the Lokrathos Universe people and beasts to the Dalin Universe. I can simply use that while keeping it in this room for safety." Krune quickly took out the Spatial Box and was about to enter it when... there was nothing to enter anymore. "What?! Where''s the Dimensional Realm?!" Krune then took another Spatial Box, but the result was the same. There was no Dimensional Realm inside anymore. "This..." Krune then took the others one by one. Nonetheless, all Dimensional Realms inside had already collapsed. Not a single one remained. In the end, Krune could only shed tears for them. "Sigh... Well, I can understand why at least. The level of the Dimensional Realms in these boxes is just way too low. The Space-Time in the God Realm basically crushed them down. I guess I should be happy that my Spatial Ring didn''t turn out the same way. It probably is because it''s very small and lacks many of the Dimensional Realms'' features... I think." Krune quickly shook his head and put those thoughts behind as he said to himself. "Since I can''t use it, then so be it." He looked around and checked the formations in the room. Surprisingly, they weren''t bad. There was one Anti-Divine Sense Formation and a Godly Energy Gathering one. "That should suffice. First, I must enter the Godly Fusion Realm. The rest can wait." Krune immediately took his Godly Energy Stones, even those below Rank One, and spread it out in the room. With the help of the formation, it increased the Godly Energy available in the room for his own use. Krune decided that there wasn''t much of a reason to save them since they weren''t worth anything here. And just like that, Krune began his cultivation in the God Realm... only to break through into the 2nd Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm two weeks later. "This... How can it be so easy? I thought I would take at least six or seven years to break through, let alone two weeks." But it was at this moment that Krune noticed a problem. "Now that I think about it, the first guy I talked to said that a baby was already at the First Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm when it just started to take form. During the gestation period, it will increase its cultivation all the way to the 9th Stage independently from the race. If we take humans as an example, they only use nine months to gestate a baby. That means the baby goes from the First Stage all the way to the Ninth Stage in just that amount of time." A baby that hasn''t even been born yet could cultivate tens if not hundreds of times faster than anyone in the Godly Path Realm. Wasn''t that a little ridiculous? "So that''s how it is. It''s the laws of the God Realm. Here, I should consider the Mortal Rejection Realm the same as the Qi Condensation Realm in the Mortal Realm. This is the very first cultivation realm in the God Realm. Naturally, it''s very fast." Krune couldn''t help but feel excited. In the end, coming to the God Realm was indeed the right choice. Without wasting time, Krune resumed his cultivation. Of course, Krune didn''t just focus on cultivating. He also went out to gather more information about the God Realm. Of course, the God Realm also had electronics, which helped a lot in Krune''s research. Only then did he understand a little bit more about his situation. ''So that''s what it''s all about. First of all, that thing in the sky isn''t the sun, but a ridiculously enormous Spatial Convergence. Unfortunately, there wasn''t much information online about it other than that it could be seen from the entire God Realm. It was this thing that acted as the sun that illuminated the God Realm. Well, if I consider everything I learned so far, I guess that''s the so-called Exit of the Four Realms. I''ll fact check it with Luvile and Soren when I encounter them again.'' ''Another thing is that the concept of a Universe doesn''t exist in the God Realm. Not only that, there are no such things as planets. There is only one single land that extends almost infinitely. Even if I put the land of all planets in the Dalin Universe together, it wouldn''t make up for even 1% of the total land of the God Realm. I guess you could think about it as an enormous platform floating in outer space.'' ''I also found out the Cultivation Realms after the Nascent God Soul. Surprisingly, there are only five after that.'' ''We have the Semi-God Realm, the God Trial Realm, the Elementary God Realm, the Primal God Realm, and well... The God Realm. I believe this is the level Luvile and Cinnia were at back then. It makes sense that it shares the same name as this place.'' Krune then sighed as he thought. ''Oh, well. I''m still in the Mortal Rejection Realm, so it matters little to me at the moment.'' Krune also went to a blacksmith to check the level of the equipment there. Sure enough, the weakest ones were already at the Godly Fusion Stars Rank. Not to mention that those were the cheapest. As for Krune''s Myriad Lightning Shields, they basically had very little use now. ''Well, I can''t spend money with new equipment at the moment, so I might as well keep them with me.'' Another point Krune had to investigate was how to make more God Stones. At the moment, he still had many of them. However, according to his calculation, it should be enough to raise him to the Godly Fusion Realm at most. After all, he shared them with his friends in the past. ''Should I head back to alchemy? Well, there''s also a Mercenary Guild in this place, which might be good for train combat. No, I better not get into anything dangerous for the moment. Everyone is born at the Ninth Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm, so the ones who join the Mercenary Guild are already in the God Foundation Realm at the very least.'' The more Krune thought about it, the more he felt that alchemy would suit him more. Back when he started to make money, he began with alchemy. Since he had the experience, he should be able to use it once again. ''But... It''s so boring to repeat the same thing over and over again... Though, I could try becoming a Spiritual Chef again. Unfortunately, it seems like only Spiritual Chefs at the God Foundation Stars level can get any customers whatsoever. The God Realm has way too much Godly Energy, so there''s no need for God Stones or Spiritual Food before the God Foundation Realm anyway. I can''t possibly wait until that time to start making money.'' At some point, Krune finally decided. ''I guess I''ll try this new occupation, Spirit Awakener.'' This was a side occupation that didn''t exist in Luvile or Little Arty''s time. As mentioned way back in the past, some things can give birth to a spirit depending on the conditions. Little Arty was an excellent example of it. However, this practice had been studied and perfected as the chaos cycles went by. Finally, someone found a way to awaken the spirit of things. Of course, it was easier said than done. One could see that by simply checking Little Arty. Back in his time, awakened spirits were extremely rare, even in the God Realm. Today, very few could become Spirit Awakeners, and they would often fail many times more than succeed in it. Still, Krune found it interesting, so he decided to give it a try. Chapter 830: Preparations Of course, other than just trying it out because it seemed interesting, Krune was doing it because of the payment. Awakening a Spirit was extremely expensive, not to mention incredibly hard to achieve. Because of that, any Spirit Awakener obtained a lot of God Stones. Usually, it was used to awaken the Spirit of equipment. After all, paying to awaken a Spirit of something useless didn''t have that much use. ''Still, what about the Spirits themselves? I understand that a piece of equipment with a Spirit is definitely much stronger than one without it. However, Spirits will gain sentience as well. What would happen if the Spirit doesn''t want to fight alongside you? What if it simply decides to go away now that it can think like everyone else?'' To resolve those questions, Krune would need to head to the Spirit Awakener Guild. However, it was still too early. He had just broken through to the 2nd Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm. Obviously, the guild would kick him out if he tried to join like that. ''Well, I better go back to the inn and continue cultivating.'' And with that, Krune spent his next seven months cultivating, trying the God Realm''s food, and thinking about his next steps. Of course, he made sure to keep part of his mind continuing to ponder over the Sub-Laws of the Balance Laws. However, these things would take a very, very long time to be completed. In any case, Krune had eventually reached the peak of the Mortal Rejection Realm and went for the breakthrough. As mentioned before, the Godly Fusion Realm was the moment when one began to fuse all three Godly Parts of one''s body¡ªDantian or Demon Core, Body, and Soul. In Krune''s case, his Body and Demon Core could be said to be the same thing, though. That being said, his current breakthrough was far easier than his previous one. Once again, Krune had a small dark cloud above his hand. ''And here you are, trying to intervene in my Karma and Destiny once again. Just why is the Calamity Law aiming at me every time I make a breakthrough? Sigh... It''s not like someone will come out and answer my question.'' Krune then let go of the dark cloud and checked his foundation now that he had entered the Godly Fusion Realm. ''So good. There''s no instability whatsoever, even though I only took seven months to do it. Godly Energy is truly convenient in this regard. The 1st Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm has just started fusing my Wisp Core and my Soul. Nevertheless, I can barely feel any difference. I guess it can''t be helped since my soul and wisp core had always been connected to each other. Now I just need to go through the nine stages to finish the process.'' Krune got up and returned to his human form before exiting the room. It was already time to pay rent again, so he headed straight to the counter. Naturally, the attendant noticed the difference in Krune''s cultivation. "Congratulations, brother. It seems like you finally recovered a bit of your cultivation." Krune smiled, not bothering to tell the guy that he had never been in the Godly Fusion Realm before. "Thanks. Well, here''s the payment for the next month." Krune then took the God Stones out and passed it over. "Very well. Your stay has been increased by another month now. However, are you okay with God Stones? I haven''t seen you go out that often. Do you still have enough to not work?" Krune nodded as he replied. "Indeed. I''m running out of the stuff. However, I wanted to reach the Godly Fusion Realm before trying to find something to do. Otherwise, it would be too hard." The attendant agreed with Krune as he said. "That''s true. However, the Godly Fusion Realm is the first breakthrough that naturally happens while you''re still a baby growing up. You won''t even remember when you did it by the time you grow big enough to retain permanent memories. I still think it''ll be hard for you out there at your current level." Krune laughed when he heard that. "Hahaha! Indeed, even babies might be stronger than me. However, the 1st Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm is the minimum requirement when you want to join a guild. Now that I''m at it, I''ll try entering a guild." The attendant looked at Krune with a weird expression after hearing that. "The reason the guilds accept participants at the Godly Fusion Realm is that they wish to nurture talents from the time they''re still kids. I don''t think you''ll have a good chance of passing the tests considering your age. You should try finding a normal job first. After all, the examinations cost God Stones as well." Krune knew that the attendant was trying to help him, so he simply nodded. "I know. However, it won''t hurt to try at least once. If I fail, then I''ll go find something else to do. There''s one kind of job that I''m pretty much sure I can get, so I''m not that worried." "Oh! In that case, it''ll be a good experience for you. Well, good luck out there." Krune then left the inn and headed straight for the Spirit Awakeners'' Guild. He had passed here before to collect a few materials for study. Fortunately, the basics of the profession were available for anyone who wanted to try it. That made sense since cultivators and demon beasts that could become one were rare. That being said, the guild had to do its best to find as many as possible. One of the ways the guild had done that was to have all the information about becoming a Spirit Awakener available to the public. Krune quickly headed to the counter where the attendants were located. However, he had to wait in line first. Because Spirit Awakeners were rare, there was more demand than supply. Because of that, the Spirit Awakener Guild was always packed with customers. Eventually, Krune''s time arrived. "Hello. I would like to apply for the Spirit Awakener Test." The attendant nodded in response. Many cultivators and demon beasts wanted to become one, after all. People wishing to take the test keep appearing every day. "Sure. The test costs 500 Rank One God Stones. We have many candidates every day, so we have one test happening per week. Have you already gotten the study materials?" Krune nodded as he answered. "I came here a few months ago and took the files into my communicator. I feel like it''s worth giving it a try now." The attendant nodded, saying. "Very well. Let me see... Ah! Wait, you''re only at the 1st Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm?!" In an instant, everyone in the queue looked in Krune''s direction. It was extremely rare to see someone with a level of cultivation as small as Krune''s. "Wow! This guy is really at the 1st Stage!" "Hey, bro. How did you become so weak?" "Hahaha! Man, you want to become a Spirit Awakener with your current cultivation level?" "Brother, you''re just wasting your God Stones. Why don''t you give them to me instead?" Krune shrugged his shoulders while ignoring everyone else. "The limit to try the test is the Godly Fusion Realm, isn''t it? Since I paid it, you should have no issues with it." The attendant sighed as he shook his head. He also thought that Krune was just throwing his God Stones for naught. "Are you sure? After you pay, there''s no coming back. We won''t return the God Stones to you." Krune didn''t mind. "It''s fine, it''s fine. Even if I fail, I''ll take it as an experience." "Very well." The attendant then prepared an electronic token for Krune. "The test will happen two days from now. Independent from age or cultivation, everyone has to awaken the Spirit of a One-Star Godly Fusion Equipment. However, the higher your cultivation, the easier it is to control the process, so you''ll be at a great disadvantage with your cultivation." Krune nodded. "Alright. I''ll come back two days later, then." As the people and beasts around Krune laughed, he went ahead left the guild. Soon after, he headed straight to the Blacksmith Guild. Krune could pass by without being able to make pills. However, he truly didn''t want to have someone else forging his shields. That being said, he also intended to take the Blacksmith Test so he could have access to materials and information. Fortunately, he was already at the Peak Divinity Stars Level, so he only needed a little push to reach the next level. ''I got the study materials of the Blacksmith Guild a few months ago as well. Sure enough, the God Realm''s forging process was even more refined than the realms below. It wasn''t hard for me to reach the Mortal Rejection Stars Level. After all that training, I should be able to even forge a Godly Fusion Stars Equipment now.'' Once again, Krune asked to take the test. The attendant and those close to him found it funny that Krune wanted to do that at his level. Nevertheless, since he paid, the attendant allowed him to do so. The good thing was that the Blacksmith Test was on the same day, so Krune stayed there to take it. By the end of the day, Krune left the Blacksmith Guild with his Blacksmith ID. It was far from being a problem for Krune to forge a piece of equipment at the Godly Fusion Stars since he was also at the Godly Fusion Realm. Then again, no one thought much about it since that was the lowest level a Blacksmith could reach in the God Realm. Eventually, two days went by, and the Spirit Awakener Test was about to begin. Chapter 831: Understand Spirits Krune returned to the Spirit Awakener Guild, where he gathered together with quite a few candidates. In the end, the attendant wasn''t lying. Even in a small city like this one, a Spirit Awakener was still a famous profession. That being said, there were over a hundred candidates with cultivations ranging from God Foundation to the God Core Realm. He was pretty much the only Godly Fusion Realm participant here. ''Such a big difference. None of them seem to be more than 30 or 40 years old. Nevertheless, they''re already in the God Core Realm. I wonder how Lila felt with her 7th Stage of the Nascent God Realm cultivation since she spent several chaos cycles to get there.'' Sometime later, an elder of the Spirit Awakener Guild came out to receive the candidates. "Hello. My name is Roben Suan, the one responsible for today''s test." Not even an instant later, Roben''s sword came partially out of its scabbard before it spoke with everyone through Divine Sense. "And I''m his Sword Spirit, Zap. I''ll be helping out in judging those with talent for the Spirit Awakener profession. As an Awakened Spirit myself, I have a stronger sense when it comes to other Spirits. Even if you fail in awakening the Spirit of the equipment given to you, you might still get some reaction. As long as that happens, it means you aren''t completely helpless. That''s why I''m here, to try and feel that." Roben Suan nodded as he said. "I was the one who awoke Zap. Naturally, I became his Master as well. Anyway, if you guys have any doubts, go ahead and ask me now." Krune immediately lifted his hand as he asked. "I''m sorry to bother you, senior. However, how do you know that the Spirit will accept you or your client as a Master? What if they refuse to serve that person or demon beast?" Sure enough, Krune had to understand that little at the very least. He didn''t find the answer in the study materials he had read so far. However, Roben simply shrugged his shoulders as he replied. "I don''t know. Whether the Spirit will accept that person or demon beast as a Master is their problem. However, you seem to not know much about Awakened Spirits, so I''m going to explain it to you. Awakened Spirits are just like babies. They aren''t born knowing everything. That being said, you can take your time to teach them and gain their trust. Usually, as long as you treat them well, they will accept you once they become old enough to understand what it means to accept a Master." Krune was taken aback as he asked in response. "If that''s the case, can''t their owners just trick them into accepting them as masters while they''re lacking in intellect? A child-level intellect shouldn''t be that big of an issue to trick, no?" Zap agreed with Krune as he explained. "You are right. In fact, many of the Awoken Spirits'' owners do exactly that. After all, a kid will trust the ones they''ve been with longer more than anyone else. They feel protected by them as if they were their parents. Naturally, it''s very easy to have an Awoken Spirit accept a Master after a few years of nurturing." Roben continued. "However, most owners will still treat their weapons or other types of equipment Spirits well. After all, an Awoken Spirit will work much better if he trusts his Master instead of someone who''s being forced to hear orders. For example, an Awoken Spirit who''s being forced to follow orders won''t do anything unless he''s ordered. In that case, let''s suppose that its Master was in danger, but the Master didn''t notice it. The Spirit doesn''t like the Master, so it obviously won''t take the initiative to help its Master." Zap nodded as it continued. "However, a Spirit who trusts its Master will try to protect him even if his Master didn''t order him to do so. That being said, there are very few Spirits serving Masters that they don''t like. Of course, after the Spirit grows up and understands that he was tricked into accepting a Master, he might hate him or her. In the end, it''s all up to how the masters treated their Spirits." Krune nodded as he said. "I understand. It seems Spirit Awakeners can only give the initial push. The rest is up to the two of them." Zap confirmed as he replied. "Exactly. However, Spirits have a strong reason to forgive their masters even if they understand they were tricked." Krune''s interest was piqued. "Why is that?" Roben smiled before saying. "What else would it be? If not because a Spirit Awakener brought them to life, they would never have the chance to even think about it. It was thanks to them or the price their Masters paid that they can now think, feel, and talk. If not for that, they would be nothing more than a cold piece of equipment that had no will." Zap agreed with Roben. "Indeed. Whatever the reason might be, most Awakened Spirits are still grateful to be brought to life. Besides, if their Master allowed it, they can be released to live on their own. In the future, you might find one or another weapon that has been released and is now cultivating by itself. Well, those types are rare, though." Krune couldn''t help but feel impressed by that. He didn''t even know that Spirits could cultivate. From the looks of it, the cultivation techniques that Spirits can use only appeared after Little Arty was sent to the Mortal World. "Thank you, seniors. Your explanations have opened my eyes." Roben and Zap didn''t mind replying. Finding new Spirit Awakeners was too hard, so they made sure to not try and scare any of the candidates away. "Very well, is there any other question?" Someone else raised his hand. "Is the Spirit Awakener''s level determined by the level of the equipment he can awaken? Also, since Spirits can cultivate now, wouldn''t it be better to simply awaken some low-level equipment and let the Spirit cultivate to increase their level?" Zap laughed after hearing the last question. "Hahaha! Sorry, but it isn''t that simple. For example, you can indeed awaken the Spirit of one low-level piece of equipment and have it cultivate to get stronger. However, it will be forever limited by the materials it''s made of. In the end, it couldn''t possibly match a piece of equipment at the same cultivation level but was made up of rare materials. In fact, if the level difference between the pieces of equipment is too big, a Spirit with low cultivation can trash a high-level one just because of its higher quality." Roben nodded. "As for your first question. Yes, the Spirit Awakener''s level is determined by the level of equipment where they could awaken a Spirit. The higher the equipment level, the more energy and rare materials it has. Naturally, its structure becomes more complex and harder to understand. All of that makes awakening its Spirit harder." Krune pondered for a bit before asking. "You said that a few Spirits have been released by their masters and are cultivating normally on their own now. In that case, how strong are Spirits without Masters? Also, can they take human form?" Roben then explained. "As mentioned before, a Spirit''s power is determined by its cultivation and the level of the equipment he was awakened into. There are a few Spirits out there who have been awoken in powerful equipment. Naturally, they''re very strong because of that. However, they have a big flaw. That''s the fact that they can''t move to another equipment." Zap agreed with Roben as it continued. "Exactly. So, unless a Spirit is awakened inside the highest level of equipment, he would never match a cultivator or demon beast of the same level. That being said, they will always need to be a cultivation realm or higher to match others. Last but not least, Equipment Spirits can''t take human form. Because of that, they can''t hold other equipment to help them in battle like humans and demon beasts can. In the end, an Equipment Spirit is better matched with a Master. An Equipment Spirit will never win against that combination alone." Krune couldn''t help but think about Little Arty. Because of the Soul Cultivation Technique, Little Arty was able to leave his equipment and enter a puppet. ''It seems like the cultivation system of the Spirits is different from the Soul Cultivation Technique. At the very least, their cultivation techniques don''t include the option to move away from your actual bodies.'' Roben then looked at the group once again. "Any other question?" A female cultivator narrowed her eyes before asking. "Suppose the Spirit still decides to not accept its owner as a Master even though it''s still a kid. What would happen then? Can the owner wipe out that Spirit and ask for a new one to be awakened?" Hearing that made Zap''s mood turn gloomy. Roben noticed that but answered anyway. There would be no point in hiding this fact, after all. "Exactly. If the Equipment Spirit refuses to accept a Master, the equipment owner can ask a Spirit Awakener to destroy it." Immediately, the opinions of the people and beasts in the room became divided. "Isn''t that too wicked?" "What are you talking about? If the owner of the equipment doesn''t do that, he will lose his or her equipment!" "That''s what I call wicked! Is that a reason to simply kill a Spirit?" "Ha! Of course, it is! What if you spent a fortune on that equipment? Will you simply let it go away and sulk over your lost money? I definitely wouldn''t do that." "I wouldn''t have the heart to do such a thing." "You''re naive, that''s all." The discussion began to heat up when out of nowhere, Roben called everyone''s attention. "Enough! We''re not here to discuss what is right or wrong. This kind of argument has already been going for a very, very long time, and no one has gotten to a conclusion yet. You definitely won''t find an answer here today. If you don''t have any more questions, let us start the test." In the end, everyone could only stop and nod their heads. Chapter 832: Chaos is the Key Krune sighed as everyone followed Roben to the testing room. There, they could find many weapons and armors at the Godly Fusion One Star Rank. That was the lowest level of Equipment in the God Realm, so it was also the easiest type of equipment where one could awaken a Spirit. Roben then looked at everyone before saying. "Alright. I believe all of you have studied the files of the Spirit Awakener Guild and have an idea of how to proceed. Nevertheless, I''ll still give a small explanation just in case." "Back then, the first Spirit Awakener, Zale Occon, also the progenitor of our occupation, noticed a peculiarity when his equipment gained a Spirit. Of course, he wasn''t a Spirit Aakener by that time." "It turned out that Spirits have an invisible core that can''t be seen by the eye or by the Divine Sense. That core takes form when the right conditions are achieved, and they take on a myriad of shapes. It all depends on the equipment user and the equipment itself. There''s no such thing as identical demon beasts or humans in this world. The same could be said for Spirits." "That being said, Zale began to work on the conditions that gave origin to the invisible core of Spirits. However, the real breakthrough only came after his own equipment''s Spirit became intelligent enough to help him. Just like Zap mentioned, it was a lot easier for him to notice when an Equipment was close to awakening a Spirit. That was how Zale and his Equipment Spirit found the right conditions behind a Spirit Awakening." "In the end, it was also because of the laws of the world. Nothing can escape the laws, and finding the right combination at the right moment could indeed give birth to an Equipment Spirit." Krune nodded while listening. He found Spirit Awakening to be very similar to the birth of a wisp. The difference was that wisps didn''t need equipment for that. They could manifest themselves with nothing more than the Elements and Laws. Together with that, the laws of heaven and earth created a core for themselves. "However, there are also different factors that can be considered during the awakening of a Spirit. For example, emotions can also help during a Spirit Awakening. However, even though it''s countless times rarer, a Spirit can also awaken without the help of a Spirit Awakener. In that case, emotions have little use. In the end, the conditions are different for every piece of equipment. Even that pebble you see on the side of the road could awaken a Spirit." "The Spirit Awakener''s job is to find what conditions are necessary to awaken the Spirit of whatever equipment they get. As to how one could do that, it will depend on each person or demon beast. Use your minds, use your laws, use your emotions, use your environment. I don''t care how. Just put it all inside the equipment and try to bring forth life." That was why it was so hard to find Spirit Awakeners. That''s because there was no such thing as a ''correct method'' in this profession. The reason a test was necessary was that the Spirit Awakener Guild could use its own ways to at least tell if someone had that specific talent. In that case, Zap would tell if any of the candidates could show even the slightest hint of awakening a Spirit, which the candidates themselves wouldn''t be able to tell. "Senior Roben, for a fully-fledged Spirit Awakener, what''s the average success rate of awakening a Spirit? Also, how many times can one try it?" Roben pondered for a bit before saying. "Spirit Awakening is very tiring and energy-consuming. Even I can''t try more than once every three days or so. As for the success rate, it''s pitifully low. In my case, I only awakened 47 Spirits in my 50 years of career. With that, you can get an idea as to why Equipment Spirits are so rare." Everyone narrowed their eyes after hearing that. Even someone like Roben had this kind of issue, then what about them? Of course, that was another issue since the world had so few Spirit Awakeners. "Alright, that should be enough for you all. Go ahead and select one of these pieces of equipment. I''m not expecting any of you to succeed. I''ll be more than happy if at least one of you can show the slightest hint of a Spirit Awakening. Make sure you don''t leave this room when trying to do it so Zap can feel if you get to that point." Everyone then looked around for the equipment they wanted to use. Because these were the lowest level of equipment, the guild could get as many of them as they wanted. After all, they were very cheap. It also meant that they had almost everything you could think of, may it be weapons or armor. Sure enough, more than half of the candidates ended up selecting swords. That was the king of weapons and the most used one. It would also be the one to get the most orders if they became Spirit Awakeners. Of course, it was only a little more than half. The rest of the participants selected something else. Some grabbed spears, others grabbed sabers, a few also selected armors instead of weapons. As one could imagine, Krune picked a shield since that was the piece of equipment that he was most familiar with. Surprisingly though, Krune wasn''t the only one to select a shield. There was also another female demon beast who grabbed the same type of equipment as him. "Oh! You also like shields? Could it be because your cultivation is this low?" Krune smiled as he nodded. "You could say that. I''ve always used shields, so I might as well try to awaken their Spirits." The girl laughed a little before nodding. "Well, there''s no shame in admitting you''re weak. My cultivation is higher than yours, but I''m still considered weak between those of my age, so I kinda understand how you feel. By the way, you can call me Alanda." Krune laughed as well and shook hands with the girl. "You can call me Krune. It''s good to see that I''m not the only one." Seeing that everyone had selected their equipment, Roben began to speak. "Alright. Come forward and start. Zap and I will keep a close eye on you during the process. Good luck." Krune then took a deep breath as he thought about the conditions that Roben talked about earlier. ''The conditions to awaken a Spirit are different for each person or demon beast. Some of them might give birth to fierce Spirits, while others can awaken gentle ones. The emotions, environment, and everything else can affect the end result and which type of Spirit one will get.'' As he thought about it, Krune''s eyes lit up. ''In the end, chaos is the key. Emotions have no use for me. I know better than anyone else that I''m far from being good with other beings'' feelings. That being said, let''s give up using any emotion for this thing. Instead, pure chaos will give me a much better result. Fortunately, I have been comprehending the Calamity Laws while creating my own Balance Laws. The Calamity Law just so happens to have all the chaos I need.'' With that said, Krune began to focus on the Initial Stage of the Calamity Laws that he had comprehended so far. No, to be more specific, Krune hadn''t even reached the Initial Stage of it yet. He knew almost nothing about it. Still, that could also be considered as more chaos. ''Keep the chaos stirring and wait for the right conditions to be born from it. Spirits that awakened on their own used this method to do so. That being said, I can also do the same. The only difference is that those Spirits probably had to wait countless years for the small changes in their surroundings to give them the right opportunity. However, it''s different for me. I don''t need to wait that long. I can use the Calamity Laws to force those changes to happen nonstop, countless times!'' After some time, a dark cloud appeared around the shield Krune was holding as he concentrated on controlling it. Even though his comprehension of it was lacking, he can still keep its existence. That was more than enough for this project. Alanda, who was beside Krune, was the first one to notice that. ''What''s he doing? I''ve never seen something like this before.'' Nevertheless, she ignored that and concentrated on her own shield. She didn''t have time to care about Krune. However, Zap and Roben soon noticed Krune as well. Unlike Alanda, they did have the time to pay attention to him. ''Zap, can you tell what he''s doing?'' ''No... It''s so weird. It''s as if I can feel everything and nothing at the same time. Just what is that?'' ''Is he trying to awaken his Equipment Spirit with that?'' ''He should be, right? This is the Spirit Awakener Guild''s test, after all.'' ''Oh, well. Leave him be. As you know, there''s no correct method to awaken a Spirit. If it works for him, then so be it.'' Zap agreed with Roben before they returned their attention to the other candidates as well. Krune wasn''t the only one participating, after all. The guild knew how hard it is to awaken a Spirit, so the test would take an entire day. The candidates only needed to show a hint of success to pass. However, Roben and Zap had little hope of seeing any of them doing that. However... ''Hmm?'' More than half a day had passed until out of nowhere, Zap''s Spirit jolted for a brief moment before he looked in a certain direction. There, he saw a female demon beast holding a shield. ''Oh! Finally, we have someone with the right traits.'' Chapter 833: It Was Alive! However, there was a problem. Zap soon noticed that other candidates around Alanda began to show signs of awakening an Equipment Spirit. Sword, spear, armor, you name it. At least 20 or so equipment held by the candidates seemed to be awakening. ''This... How is that possible?'' Zap quickly called Roben over. Well, the fact was that even Roben had already noticed those changes. It was so obvious that Zap''s perception wasn''t necessary. ''What the hell is happening there?'' Of course, their eyes soon stopped on Krune and the dark cloud over his shield. After using their Divine Senses, they noticed that whatever he was doing was spreading around. It was because of that that the other pieces of equipment began to show signs of awakening. As for Krune''s own shield, it wasn''t possible to check because that dark cloud was too thick. ''Roben, have you ever seen something like that? I noticed that dark cloud around his equipment before, but I couldn''t tell what it was.'' Roben shook his head as he said. ''No. Still, how could it give birth to so many equipment spirits just like that?'' Zap and Roben focused their attention on Krune and the others around him. Because the Spirits hadn''t awakened yet, only Roben and Zap noticed the changes happening there. However, that situation didn''t last for long. Alanda and the others soon noticed that something was happening to their equipment. It was as if they wanted to leave their hands. They had to hold them down so that they wouldn''t head in Krune''s direction. With all of that, the candidates began to pay attention to Krune. As for Krune, he still had his eyes closed while controlling the Calamity Laws. All his attention was on his shield and nothing else. The situation continued like that for a few more minutes until all of a sudden, everyone heard several cries from all the equipment around Krune, including his own. To be more specific, those were the cries of a baby. Obviously, Krune snapped out of his trance as he looked at the shield in his hand. Immediately, he smiled as the shield moved on its own in his hand. "Oh! It worked!" Krune was just about to check his shield when out of nowhere, several pieces of equipment came flying in his direction... and knocked him down to the ground. *Ouch!* There were several weapons there, so one could imagine how dangerous it was. If Krune hadn''t protected himself at the last moment, his body would be ridden with holes now. Following that, all the equipment began to jump around Krune as they cried, asking for his attention. "What the hell?! Why is this happening?" That was the question that Zap, Roben, and all the other candidates had. Of course, they weren''t idiots. They could tell that all those equipment had awakened their Spirits. A total of twenty-three pieces of equipment came to life! *clang, clang, clang...* Their sound continued to reverberate in the room as they jumped around Krune, ready to charge at him again. Krune didn''t care, though. He quickly grabbed his shield and ran away. However, all the just-born Equipment Spirits shot in his direction, once again threatening his life. "Senior Roben, help me!" With that, Roben and Zap came back to themselves and shot forward as well. Those were just Baby Spirits who weren''t old enough to think. They just wanted to be close to the guy who awakened them. However, they were putting Krune''s life in danger like that. Zap and Roben only needed a few seconds to put all the equipment under control. After all, these Spirits didn''t have any cultivation and were born into the lowest level of equipment. Seeing that Roben and Zap had stopped the assault, Krune finally let out a sigh of relief. Soon after, he looked at the owners of those pieces of equipment with an angry expression. "Just because my cultivation is this low, all of you are trying to kill me? Why? Did I do anything to you? Is it that funny to bully the weak? Fuck you!" Roben, Zap, and everyone else felt like crying. It was all your fault, idiot! Roben then tried to calm himself while he held those pieces of equipment with his Godly Energy. "Ahem... Krune, it was not their fault." Krune was taken aback by that. "Not their fault? Then... why did they try to kill me?" Roben''s mouth twitched before explaining. "They didn''t. It was all your fault instead. You have just awakened all of their Equipment Spirits. No, it''s wrong to say that you have awakened them. The only Equipment Spirit that has really awakened so far is the shield in your hands. These guys here are just close to that stage but are not completely awakened yet." "This... Then, why are they attacking me?" Roben pondered for a bit before saying. "They aren''t attacking you. Their own instincts told them that the source of their Awakening was you. Because of that, they all shot in your direction after you finished awakening your shield''s Spirit. An Equipment Spirit that doesn''t fully awaken will fade with time. These Spirits'' instincts are trying to survive by getting close to you. They want to fully awake even though they can''t really think yet." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "What are you talking about? I didn''t do anything to them. I only focused on my own shield." Everyone didn''t know what to say anymore. This demon beast tried to awaken his own Equipment Spirit and ended up awakening all the others'' equipment around him. However, just as Roben was about to continue to talk... *Rumble!* The entire building began to shake nonstop. It was as if the building would come down at any second. "We''re under attack!" "Bullshit! Who would attack the Spirit Awakener Guild?!" "Look at the window. The buildings outside are calm. Only the Spirit Awakener Guild Building is trembling. If it isn''t being attacked, then what?" "This... I don''t know." All the people and demon beasts quickly rushed out of the Spirit Awakener Guild, including Krune and his shield. They could deal with Krune''s situation after they understand what was happening here. However, the moment Krune stepped outside of the building, it began to tremble even more. Suddenly, its base began to leave the earth until... it created legs and ran in Krune''s direction as well. "WHAT THE HELL? SOMEONE, SAVE ME!!!" Krune, Roben, and the rest of the group that was together with Krune ran even faster. Right behind them, the entire Spirit Awakener Guild followed, wreaking havoc everywhere it passed. It didn''t take long for Roben and Zap to understand what was happening. There was one thing that was closer to Krune than other people and demon beasts'' equipment. And that... was the building''s floor right under him. That meant other than Krune''s shield, the one piece of equipment that was closest to awakening its Spirit entirely was the Awakener Guild''s Building! Its instinct wanted to awaken more than anyone else, so it obviously came running at Krune with more ferocity than any other equipment so far. The only good thing was that the build was enormous, so everyone could tell it was running. Because of that, everyone was able to escape from its path of destruction without dying. Of course, it was hard to say how long it would continue if they didn''t stop it. "Fuck! Since you brought this problem up, go ahead and resolve it!" Out of nowhere, Roben grabbed Krune''s clothes before heading back in the building''s direction. "Ahhh! Are you trying to kill us?" "Kill us your ass! I''m trying to save you and everyone else." Just as they were about to be smashed by Awakener''s Guild Building, Roben jumped right inside the building''s door, falling inside the entrance hall. As soon as they entered the Awakener''s Guild, the construction stopped running. However, it then began to jump around its position, causing the buildings around it to tremble and fall due to the earthquake. Krune and Roben, of course, were being tossed right and left inside the building as well. "Do something!" Krune felt like crying as he said. "Do what? I don''t even know what I did!" "Talk to it! That''s the Spirit you almost awakened. It wants to hear you." "What? Did I awaken the entire building''s Spirit? Is that even possible?" "Impossible or not, you just fucking did it! Just do something already!" Krune''s expression turned even uglier. Just what did he expect him to do? It was then that Krune thought about a possibility. ''Wait! All these problems started once I finished awakening my shield''s Spirit. That meant it was in the moment I receded my Calamity Laws. Maybe...'' While being tossed everywhere, Krune tried to concentrate as he gathered the Calamity Laws once more. As soon as he did that, the building stopped jumping and sat down on the earth again... It''s just that it was nowhere near where it should have been. This time, Krune focused on the Spirit Awakening of the building itself instead of his shield. Although his shield''s voice echoed in his mind with the sound of a baby crying, it didn''t try to do anything. It was really akin to a newborn baby, barely moving at all. ''If that''s the case, the building should calm itself down if I fully awaken it.'' Sure enough, Krune was right. The building was the closest one to awaken a Spirit other than his shield. That being said, it didn''t take long for Krune to finish fully awakening it. Only then did the building completely calm down as a baby cry with a different tone echoed in everyone''s minds. The building was alive! Chapter 834: Putting Back *Boom!* As soon as that happened, the building fell to the ground. The Spirit Awakener Guild had finally stopped. However, the calamity it caused on the city wouldn''t be cleared up anytime soon. First of all, they needed to send it back to where it came from. It couldn''t be left in the middle of the city like this. "Phew... It''s over." Krune then looked at Roben before asking. "Putting that aside, I finished awakening my shield. I should be considered a Spirit Awakener now, right?" Roben''s mouth twitched in response. How can this guy talk as if he hasn''t done anything at all? "Passed your head! How do you expect to pay for all the damage you''ve caused?" Krune was puzzled by those worlds. "I caused? No one told me that the building would suddenly awaken a Spirit. That was your fault for not considering this possibility. If even your Spirit Awakener Guild couldn''t predict such a thing, how do you expect someone like me to do so?" Roben wanted nothing more than to send that guy flying with a kick. Unfortunately, he couldn''t come up with an answer. Krune was just 1st Stage Godly Fusion Realm cultivator. That was his first Spirit Awakening Test, so he obviously didn''t know anything about it before. However, even the Spirit Awakener Guild didn''t expect such a thing either. They had never seen someone trying to awaken one Spirit before ending up awakening everything on the surroundings either. *Bang!* Suddenly, the gate of the building was kicked open as several figures entered the building. However, they were all on their guards since they could feel that the building was still alive. It''s just that it wasn''t moving at the moment. Eventually, they noticed Krune and Roben on the other side. Roben was taken aback for a moment before quickly getting back up on his feet. Following that, he bowed to the man at the front of the group. "Guild Master Dima." Dima narrowed his eyes as he looked at the two and asked. "Care to explain what the hell just happened? How did our Spirit Awakener Guild suddenly awaken a Spirit?" "This..." Roben then glanced at Krune, who didn''t seem to be very worried. It was obvious that the wisp didn''t think that it was his fault at all. Dima saw how Roben looked at Krune before asking. "Are you the one who awoken the Guild''s Spirit?" Krune nodded as he replied. "Yes. However, I didn''t know such a thing was possible. It was all an accident." Dima had a lot more things to say. However, he decided to put that aside for now. "Forget it. I''ll talk about it with you later. For now, we need to think about a way to put the building back in its place to help with the chaos outside. The other guilds and the city lord are all there, waiting for us to do something about this." An elder on Dima''s side then mentioned. "Can''t Guild Leader do that with your Semi-God Realm cultivation? Or could it be that it''s too big?" Dima shook his head as he replied. "I can''t. Did you forget? Other than just the building, there are quite a decent amount of formations that would prevent my powers from working. Besides, it is as you said. This building is too big. Chances are that I will drop it and further increase the chaos." Krune pondered for a bit before suggesting. "Oh! I think I know one way." Krune then got up and moved outside the building, followed by everyone from the Spirit Awakener Guild. There, they met up with the City Lord and the other Guild Masters. "Dima, you need to do something about this. Also, you better understand that the price to repair everything will be shouldered by your Awakener Guild." Dima shrugged his shoulders as he said in response. "Do you think my Spirit Awakener Guild can''t pay it? Don''t worry, we''ll pay for the damage to the city. Fortunately, no one died, so the rest can be fixed." The City Lord and the rest nodded. They knew very well how much God Stones a Spirit Awakener could make with a single Spirit Awakening, so they didn''t doubt Dima''s words. "By the way, how are you going to move it back?" Dima then looked at Krune, who was moving behind the building, which was also the direction it came from. Krune just said that he could do it but didn''t tell them how. But then, Krune began to talk. "Little Guildy, come with Papa. It''s time to go home. Come, come!" In an instant, everyone''s mouths twitched. ''Is this guy making fun of our faces?'' The guild trembled a little but didn''t do anything other than that. "Is he an idiot? There''s no way it would follow him now that it has awakened." Krune didn''t seem to care about what the others were saying, though. Instead, he smiled and turned around before walking away. "Is he trying to escape?" "Escape? With his First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm cultivation? Ha! Ridiculous!" "That shouldn''t be it. Who would escape without even trying to run? He''s just walking." "Should we stop him?" Dima pondered for a bit before saying. "Just wait a bit. Let''s see what he''s trying to do. He can''t really escape from us, after all." "But he isn''t trying to do anything either." Krune then glanced behind at the guild as he threatened. "Are you sure you wanna stay? Alright, you can stay alone there." Suddenly... *Rumble!* The building seemed to answer Krune''s words as it began to lift itself from the ground again. *Ah, ah, ah, ah..* Just like a child, the building felt frightened to be left alone without its parent. This gigantic building that could smash most people and demon beasts of the city was afraid of being left behind. *bam, bam, bam...* It immediately began to clumsily walk as it followed Krune from behind. "Good girl. Papa will give you a reward after we go back." After hearing that, everyone thought simultaneously. ''It''s... a girl?'' And just like that, a ''baby'' building went back to where the Awakener Guild''s building previously was. Krune had some difficulty explaining to it how it should sit down again. However, after several failures, the building finally rested on its position once again. Well, it''s just that the entire area was full of cracks and broken things. Krune finally let out a sigh of relief as he said. "Phew... Good girl. Now stay there and don''t leave unless I say it." Krune began to ponder what he should give as a reward for a... building... However, he didn''t have time to do that. As soon as the Spirit Awakener Guild stopped, Dima and the other elders of the guild rushed inside before touching the floor. Following that, they used their power to connect to the Building''s Spirit. "Now!" *Ahhhh!* The building then let out a scream of pain as it trembled all over. However, that only lasted one second before it went completely silent once more. "This..." Krune was shocked by what he saw. He didn''t even have time to react at all. The Guild Master and the elders had moved too fast. "They killed the Building''s Spirit." Even so, Krune didn''t get angry. He knew that they simply couldn''t let the building act on its own again since it could cause havoc in the city. As much as he didn''t like to see the Spirit he awakened dying, he couldn''t do anything about it. Once again, it came to that discussion about whether it was right or wrong to kill Equipment Spirits. Unfortunately, it would stay without an answer. Last but not least, Krune knew of another problem. The building''s Spirit was bound to die in the next one to two days. The same could be said for the other pieces of equipment that wanted Krune to finish waking them up. "Sigh... Sorry, little girl. There was nothing I could do for you." Inside the building, Dima sighed in relief. "It''s finally over." Following that, he gave everyone a few orders. "Have the accountants calculate all the damage in the city. Have the guild employees start fixing the guild. The elders should go out and apologize to the other guilds and the City Lord as well. Tell them that I will hear their requests after everything is settled down." "Yes, Guild Master." Soon after, he looked at Krune and Roben before saying. "You two, come with me. Bring Zap as well." Krune and Roben nodded, quickly following Dima. Inside Dima''s room, the whole place was upside down. His desk and other furniture had broken apart or were out of place. Documents could be seen everywhere too. However, Dima quickly using his Godly Energy and grabbed all of that. He put the broken furniture in his Spatial Ring and reorganized the rest. Not too long after, the room was organized again. It''s just that it lacked a few things that he would buy later. Finally, he returned his attention to Krune, Roben, and Zap. As for the other Equipment Spirits that Krune almost woke up, they already began to lose consciousness. He hasn''t finished awakening them, so they would return to be just a few pieces of equipment. "Now then, explain to me what happened." Roben nodded and recounted everything that happened. "So it was true... I saw the other equipment outside that had their spirits partially awakened. If not because of this incident, I would be more shocked by that instead." Dima then paid attention to Krune. "Just how did you do that? Spirit Awakening should have been the hardest profession out there. I''ve never heard about someone awakening more than one Spirit, let alone so many of them. Can you show me that black cloud Roben and Zap talked about?" Krune nodded, not minding it too much. Immediately, he concentrated on the Calamity Laws. The dark cloud then appeared on his hand a few moments later. After seeing that, Dima''s eyes lit up. "Interesting." Chapter 835: Not As Good As You Think Dima then asked Krune. "The condition to wake up Spirits is random. The Spirit Awakener has to feel it himself and work from there. However, it seems like you''re simply throwing countless amounts of different combinations, am I right?" Krune was surprised that Dima could tell it with a single glance. With that, he responded. "That''s correct. However, there seems to be another point you''re missing. I''m actually throwing random conditions and laws. Even though that''s the case, every time part of a condition is right, the equipment appears to retain it. The equipment will then accumulate those parts as they pass by, ultimately gathering everything necessary to awake. You could say that this is a brute force awakening method. I just didn''t expect that the other equipment and even the building itself would take advantage of the escaping energy." Dima nodded as he said. "I understand. To be honest, other people and demon beasts tried this method in the past. However, they didn''t even get close to forming as many random conditions as you. Just what is this Dark Cloud of yours? I can feel all elements and laws inside. At the same time, it''s as if they aren''t there at all." Krune didn''t try to lie since everyone had seen it already. "This is a law or an accumulation of it, I guess? It doesn''t have only Laws and Elements. It has everything, including destiny and karma. I call it the Calamity Laws." Dima and Roben narrowed their eyes, with Dima asking. "Calamity Laws? Is there such a law in the God Realm?" Krune shrugged his shoulders as he replied. "How would I know? It''s something I comprehended by myself. I have no idea whether other people or beasts can use it or not." "Alright, keep these Calamity Laws of yours gathered. Let me see if I can comprehend it in any way." Krune knew that Dima wanted to see if he could use it as well. Unfortunately for Dima, Krune was certain that he wouldn''t be able to. "It won''t work. For you to comprehend the Calamity Laws, you need to be targeted by it." Roben and Dima were taken aback. "Targetted by it? Since when did Laws target others on their own?" Krune shook his head as he said. "I don''t know. I just know that it''s like that. Of course, I can keep it gathered for you, but I don''t think it''ll go anywhere." Dima pondered for a bit before nodding. "Let me call the other elders who are free and then try it out. If it doesn''t work, then so be it." Krune didn''t mind and waited for Dima to bring the elders to the room. After that, Krune kept the Calamity Laws gathered in his hand for an entire day. Eventually, everyone gave up. "Forget it! It''s impossible." "I can''t comprehend it at all. I can feel that it''s there. However, every time I try to comprehend it, it disappears." "I know, right? When it disappears, I try to feel it again, and then it''s there." "I don''t understand this thing. How could it be there and not be there at the same time?" Dima understood what Krune meant with needing to be targeted by it. "Most likely, if you aren''t this laws'' target, it will look hidden to you." Krune agreed with Dima. "That''s correct." Krune wanted to say that he was targeted by the Laws every time he broke through and that it had been happening for hundreds of years. However, he decided to not go that far. First of all, everyone was born at the Peak of the Mortal Rejection Realm in the God Realm. If he said that, it would be obvious that he came from the Lower Realms. The problem is, everyone knew that ascenders should only come when they were in the Peak of the Nascent God Soul Realm. Krune, obviously, was far, far behind that. "Krune, how did you become its target? Also, what does it mean to be targeted by it?" Krune shrugged his shoulders as he answered. "Do you think I know? When I noticed, it was already there. I have no idea whatsoever why it selected me. As for the effects, it will make your life very, very complicated. Because it even has karma and destiny involved, it can mess up your future really bad. I''m very lucky to be alive at the moment. Fortunately, after I''ve obtained a basic understanding of it, the Calamity Laws lost their power to affect my future." Roben couldn''t help but ask. "Wait, your comprehension of it is just at the basic level? What do you mean?" Krune then explained. "It means exactly that. As you know, Laws have their own sub-laws. Each sub-law have their four states of comprehension. Initial, Intermediate, Advanced, and Culmination. However, my understanding of it is so shallow that I don''t even know what the sub-laws of this thing are." Krune pondered for a bit and continued. "No, I guess this is the wrong way to put it. Calamity Laws have all the laws. There''s a good chance that the Calamity Laws don''t have sub-laws to start with. If I were to think about sub-laws, I guess it would be each customary law''s sub-laws instead. Errr... I guess I made it somewhat difficult to understand. However, that''s how I feel it to be. In any case, my comprehension of this thing is extremely poor. I just know enough to prevent it from affecting my future." Dima nodded and then looked at the other elders. "You guys can leave already. I need to talk with Krune alone." The elder nodded and left, leaving Krune and Dima behind. "Krune, I''ll be very honest. This thing of yours is too dangerous. The way you put it, it seems like you can wake up any level of equipment spirit without any issues. Th other Spirit Awakeners won''t like it at all. After all, the Spirit Awakener is supposed to be the hardest profession." Krune immediately shook his head as he said. "That''s wrong. It was easy to awaken all those Spirits because all the equipment was at the lowest level possible. As for the building, it wasn''t a piece of equipment to start with. If you give me a Two Godly Fusion Stars Equipment, it will take a lot longer to do the same thing." "Is that so? However, you can still do that as long as you keep going for it, no? Let''s use the two stars equipment you mentioned as an example. You would need two days to awaken that Spirit instead of one or something like that, right?" Krune shook his head as he explained. "No. The reason is simple. I''m far too lacking in comprehension to do that. For example, do you remember those other pieces of equipment who wanted to finish waking up and came after me?" Dima nodded and waited for Krune to continue. "They were bound to die in at most one or two days even if I finished waking them up. In fact, even if you didn''t kill the building''s Spirit, it would die in the next few days as well. The only equipment that would stay alive is my shield, that''s all." Dima was taken aback. He was sure that the building had fully woken up. "Why is that?" Krune then explained. "That''s because it''s impossible to focus on more than a single piece of equipment at once. As I mentioned, I used the Calamity Laws to find all the right conditions as I threw them inside my shield. However, the conditions picked by the building and those other pieces of equipment had nothing to do with me. You could say that their Spirit was completely flawed and would collapse sooner or later." "This... I didn''t know such a thing could happen with this method." Krune nodded. "It''s this problematic. There are just way too many random conditions happening at once. It''s impossible for me to focus on more than one piece of equipment at once. Even if my cultivation increases and my comprehension of the Calamity Laws becomes better, this point won''t change. One piece of equipment, that''s my limit." Dima nodded before asking. "However, you still didn''t answer my question. You can wake up any level of equipment even if it''s only one each time, no?" Krune laughed after hearing that. "Of course not! Hahaha! You should know it better than anyone else in this city. The higher the level of the equipment, the more complex they are. That being said, the more strict the conditions to wake up a Spirit is. Naturally, it also applies to my method. At my cultivation level, I guess I can do that to a Three or, at most, Four Godly Fusion Stars Equipment." Krune then continued. "Also, you''re forgetting one thing here. I was lucky!" "What do you mean?" Krune shrugged his shoulders as he said. "Did you forget? I''m throwing in countless random conditions into the equipment to wake up their Spirit. Do you think I can be successful every single time? That''s ridiculous! I was really lucky to succeed in waking up my shield''s Spirit. I kind of feel bad about it." "You... feel bad?" Krune nodded, saying. "That''s because I will probably wake up Spirits that are bound to die in the next few days. Waking up a good enough Spirit that won''t die is just too hard. I really don''t like this feeling." Dima nodded. Although he killed the Building Spirit, it was not as if he liked to do that. "In that case, you can simply stop before that happens. You should be able to feel if the Spirit you are awakening will survive or not the closer you get to completion." Krune pondered over it for a bit and nodded. "Well, that''s true." Dima then asked something else. "Even if you say that you can''t wake up Spirits with a 100% success rate, you still have it several times easier than others, right?" Krune pondered over the question before asking. "What is the success rate of a Spirit Awakener?" "About 0.05 to 0.1%." Krune nodded. Roben told how he only woke up just so many Spirits in his career, so he expected the chances to be small. "I''m not sure about what my success rate is since I tried it only once. However, I do know that I was seriously lucky with my shield." Dima nodded as he offered. "In that case, you can stay in the guild and try it out for the time being. Fortunately, your ability isn''t as heaven-defying as I thought. That would really be a huge problem. However, if your rate of success is just a little higher than others, then that''s fine. It would be profitable for you and easy to deal with in the guild." Krune couldn''t help but smile. "Does that mean I''m a Spirit Awakener of the guild now?" Dima nodded as he laughed. "Hahaha! But of course! In fact, I wouldn''t let you escape to start with. After all, who do you think will pay for all the damage in the city? Good luck!" Krune''s smile froze at that moment. He just found out that not only was he poor, but he was also in debt! "Well fuck!" Chapter 836: First Day of Work The crying Krune then returned to his hotel room as he sighed. However, he quickly put those thoughts behind and focused on cultivation once again. As for his shield, that was a piece of equipment of the Spirit Awakener Guild to start with. Naturally, he had to give it back. From the looks of it, the just born Spirit in his shield could still be worth something if someone decided to raise it. Back in the Spirit Awakener Guild, Dima took his time to tell everyone about Krune''s true ability. Although they couldn''t confirm that Krune was telling the truth, they would find out about it sooner or later. As for all the damage caused by the Spirit Awakener Guild''s Spirit, Dima had to open the guild''s coffers and pay for it. Nevertheless, he wasn''t worried. It was now guaranteed that Krune could awaken Spirits. Considering how much a Spirit Awakener profited, Krune would be able to pay it sooner or later. The only problem was that Krune was in the 1st Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. That being said, he could only wake up low-level equipment spirits. It would take some time until he could get real valuable jobs. Of course, that didn''t mean that Krune wouldn''t work on it. A few days later, Krune returned to the guild and began to take on Godly Fusion Stars Equipment jobs. It was also a good way to check out his success rate. In the end, Roben was told to take care of Krune''s needs during his adaptation period. Roben didn''t mind since he was also curious about how good the Calamity Law Awakening method was. Yes, that''s what they decided to call Krune''s method. "Here you go. We''ve received five pieces of Low-Level Godly Fusion Stars Equipment to try and awaken their Spirits. This will be your first job to try to pay your debt." Krune nodded. "That''s fine. However, how many God Stones am I getting for each piece of equipment?" "Does it matter? The God Stones won''t be yours anyway." Krune immediately shook his head as he explained. "That won''t do. If I don''t get God Stones, how am I suppose to cultivate faster? Sure, you can at least let me get 20 or 30% of the God Stones. If you do so, my cultivation will improve quicker. Naturally, I will be able to awaken higher-level equipment spirits, which will be more valuable." Roben pondered for a bit and had to admit that Krune was right. "Very well, I''ll let you have 30% of the profit from the Spirit of these pieces of equipment." Krune was happy to hear that. "By the way, do we get paid for awakened equipment or for trying to awaken them?" Roben then began to explain. "As you know, it''s just too hard to awaken a piece of equipment''s Spirit. It can definitely take days just to most likely fail in the end. If we didn''t receive anything for the trials, no one would even try to be a Spirit Awakener. That said, we''re paid for the days of work. Also, if we succeed in awakening the spirits, the equipment owner has to pay for it again." Krune was surprised to hear that. "And the cultivators and demon beasts accept such a deal?" Roben nodded. "They have no other choice. A Spirit Awakener''s time is precious. A lot more than you think it can be. If they don''t pay for it, others will. Remember, a weapon or an armor with a Spirit is just way much better than one without it. Not to mention that its power increases with the Spirits'' cultivation. It''s not wrong to say that every cultivator and demon beasts'' dream weapon is a Spirit Weapon." Well, Krune was happy that it was the case. "Still, why would someone want to awaken a Spirit of a Godly Fusion Stars equipment? There are even seven here. Wouldn''t it be a waste?" Roben shook his head. "Of course not. As you know, a person or demon beasts'' cultivation determines the level of equipment they can use. A 1st Stage Godly Fusion Realm cultivator like you wouldn''t use a God Foundation Stars Equipment. I believe you could push to use a Four or Five Stars Godly Fusion One. More than that would be dangerous for you." Krune nodded. At least this point was the same as the realms below. Krune had never used flying shields above his own cultivation realm for this exact reason. He simply couldn''t even if he wanted to. Roben then continued. "That being said, some parents with a lot of money like to prepare a few low-level weapons for their own children. They will help them raise their level for when their children get old enough to start cultivating. Of course, this was only one of its uses. Anyway, low-level equipment spirit awakening is the cheapest one, so it''s worth doing that." Krune agreed that it was a good deal. "Alright. Now, how much are we getting paid for it?" Roben then opened his communicator and passed Krune a price list. It seemed like all the Spirit Awakener Guilds were linked to the same network. Because of that, the price was the same everywhere. -Godly Fusion Stars Equipment- 1 Star: 100 Rank One God Stones per day of work, 1000 Rank One God Stones in case of successful Spirit Awakening; 2 Stars: 200 Rank One God Stones per day of work, 2000 Rank One God Stones in case of successful Spirit Awakening; 3 Stars: 300 Rank One God Stones per day of work, 3000 Rank One God Stones in case of successful Spirit Awakening; 4 Stars: 400... -God Foundation Stars Equipment- 1 Star: 100 Rank Two God Stones per day of work, 1000 Rank Two God Stones in case of successful Spirit Awakening; 2 Stars: 200 Rank Two God Stones per day of work, 2000 Rank Two God Stones in case of successful Spirit Awakening; 3 Stars: 300 Rank Two God Stones per day of work, 3000 Rank Two God Stones in case of successful Spirit Awakening; 4 Stars: 400... This kind of pattern continued as the weapons'' ranks went up. It was very simple and left no room for complaints. "100 God Stones just for a single day of work on One Star Equipment? That''s quite good since this is the lowest level possible." Roben agreed with Krune. "I told you, didn''t I? The Spirit Awakeners'' time is precious. There are just so many of them out there, so it has to be worth their job. Also, although it says ''day of work,'' it doesn''t mean that you have to try and awaken it for an entire day. However, there is a minimal amount of time you have to work on it, which is 12 hours. You have to spend at least this every day, trying to awaken the Equipment Spirit. That''s why the job is done here in the guild instead of outside. That way, we can keep track of your work. That is necessary to keep the customer''s trust in our work." Krune didn''t mind. If he was a customer, he would also want a guarantee that the work was truly being carried out. Krune then looked at the pieces of equipment that Roben gave him. "Two swords, one pair of dual daggers, and one piece of armor. The swords are at the Two Godly Fusion Stars level while the rest is at One Star." Roben nodded. "Seems like you know something about equipment." Krune smiled in response. "I am a blacksmith, after all. Well, I''m just a One Godly Fusion Stars Blacksmith, though. I will need to practice more to raise my rank in the future." Roben shrugged his shoulders as he said. "As long as you don''t slack, I don''t mind what you do. You do have 12 hours free each day, after all." Krune then took the pair of Dual Daggers. Sure enough, because they were still considered two pieces of equipment, Krune would receive double for his work on them. He decided to go with them first since they were at the One Godly Fusion Star level. "Alright, I will start now." Roben saw Krune gathering the Calamity Laws or the ''dark clouds'' around the first dagger. "Are you sure you won''t awaken another Building Spirit?" Krune nodded. "I now know why it happened, so I can limit the space of the interaction of the Calamity Laws to the dagger only. It''s just that it robs me of some concentration, so I won''t be able to work on it as fast as before." Roben didn''t mind. "That''s fine. We don''t want another incident like before." Seeing Krune putting his attention on the dagger, Roben decided to leave the room and leave Krune working. The room had a monitoring system, so he would be informed by the other employees if Krune stopped working. And just like that, time began to pass. The Dark Clouds generated countless random conditions while Krune tried to find the right ones to give the weapon a spirit. 12 hours later, Krune put the daggers down as he sighed. "Sure enough, I was seriously lucky with that shield of mine. There was a glimpse of a Spirit Awakening in the dagger, but I had to stop in the end. Its Soul was too flawed, so it would die not long after I fully awakened it. Since that was the case, I might as well cut the process and start over. It''s better than watching it being born just to see it dying right after." Krune then got up and left the room. He would return to continue his work the next day. Chapter 837: Life Fails Krune basically cultivated for the remainder of the day before returning to the guild once again for the next 12 hours of work. Roben, of course, was there as well. He had to check Krune''s progress to see how he would fare. Seeing that, Krune decided to ask something he forgot the day prior. "Senior Roben, how long would I have to work to pay my debt?" Roben pondered for a bit before saying. "Considering an average Spirit Awakener''s ability and your level, I would say that you''ll probably need around 200 or so years." Krune''s eyes immediately widened at the answer! 200 years? He had been alive for more or less that amount of time. Doesn''t that mean that by the time he reached 400, he would have spent half of his life paying the debt? "That won''t do! That''s way too long!" Roben shrugged his shoulders as he said. "Of course it is! In fact, I doubt you can even live that long unless you reach the God Core Realm." Only then did Krune realize he had another problem. Each realm had a different cultivation level where one could achieve immortality. For example, the Mortal Realm had the Divine Path Realm, while the Godly Path Realm had the God Foundation Realm. As for the God Realm, Krune would need to reach the God Core Realm if he didn''t want to die of old age. The only doubt was how much lifespan he had as a Wisp. Even he didn''t know that much. ''Well, I don''t feel like I''m getting old that quickly, so I should have enough time. Fortunately, it''s very easy for me to reach the Godly Fusion Realm thanks to my Myriad Energies Technique and Heavenly Core. I should be able to cultivate fast enough to avoid the lifespan issue.'' However, the time necessary to pay his debt was still an issue. "Isn''t there a way to pay the debt faster?" Roben nodded as he replied. "Increase your cultivation so you can awaken higher-level Spirits. Naturally, you will gain more and pay for things faster. This 200 years I talked about was in case you stayed at the 1st Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm for the rest of your life." Krune sighed in relief after hearing that. That was true. He just needed to increase his cultivation. "Alright, then. Let me go back to work." Seeing that Krune began once again, Roben soon left the room. This kind of process continued for several days in a row. During this time, Krune had achieved the same result, partially awakening a flawed Spirit, which wouldn''t work. After two months, Krune had finally achieved success, awakening a spirit that wouldn''t die through the random condition method. The same sound of a baby crying echoed in his mind as he sighed in relief. "Good boy. Seems like you were the lucky one between all the others from before." Krune then sent his Godly Energy inside the dagger, which somehow calmed down the newborn Spirit. Following that, Krune called Roben over. "Senior Roben, I''m finally done with this dagger." Roben then asked his sword, Zap, to take a look at it. "How is it? Does this Spirit have any problem?" Zap''s Spirit examinated the Spirit in the dagger before confirming. "This little boy is fine. That''s definitely a success." Roben smiled after hearing that. "Great! Krune, how many times did you try to awaken this dagger''s Spirit?" Krune pondered for a bit before responding. "89 times. I partially awakened Flawed Spirits in the previous attempts, so I had to stop midway." Roben and Zap nodded. "It''s still too early to say it, but it seems like your method is highly likely a lot more successful than ours. If it turns out to be like that, then your chances of success are ten times higher than a Spirit Awakener at your cultivation level. That is unbelievably high." Krune smiled in response after hearing that. "That''s good, then. However, don''t send this dagger away yet. It is part of a dual dagger set, so I have to awaken the Spirit of the other dagger before sending it back to its owner." Roben didn''t mind it. "Very well. Then again, even if you could only awaken a single dagger''s Spirit, it''s still worth the price of an awakening. Anyway, I''m looking forward to what you can do during the next two months." Krune smiled and immediately put the dagger aside before taking the other one into his hand. The dark clouds of the Calamity Laws then gathered around that dagger as Krune initiated the process of awakening once again. Another month went by in a flash. During the month, Krune had finally reached the 2nd Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. After breaking through into the Godly Fusion Realm, Krune''s cultivation speed had decreased by a lot. He still used his mind-splitting technique to cultivate and comprehend the laws while working. However, the amount of energy necessary had increased by a lot. Before, Krune only took around a month to go from the 8th to the 9th Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm, but now Krune took three months to go from the 1st to the 2nd Stage. ''Well, I doubt it would continue to be that simple anyway. However, if it already takes three months to do it here in the God Realm, I don''t want to even think how long it would take in the Godly Path Realm. At the very least, it would be ten times longer.'' However, Krune also understood why he couldn''t cultivate faster. ''I need higher level Spirit Stones. However, I''m still stuck at the lowest level of equipment. Once I become good enough to awaken God Foundation Stars Equipment, the God Stones I receive from them will help out a lot.'' That was the plan Krune had formulated in his mind. With that said, he once again focused on awakening the Spirit of the second dagger, which he took another month to reach success. Naturally, he called Roben over once more. "Oh! So you took around the same time to awaken this one." Krune nodded. "Yes. This time, however, I failed 92 times." Zap, who was there to examine the dagger''s Spirit, found it very good already. "What are you complaining about? This pretty much guarantees that you have an average success rate of a little bit over 1%. Do you have any idea how jealous any of the other Spirit Awakeners are once they find out? There will definitely be a lot of Spirit Awakener Guild Officials coming over to see you after this." "Officials?" Roben nodded as he said. "Yes. Your special case had to be reported to our Spirit Awakener Guild''s Sector Headquarters. After all, our City''s Guild Master, Senior Dima, couldn''t simply open the City Guild''s coffer and pay your debt without reporting to them first. From that point onwards, they kept an eye on you to see just how good your method is." Zap then continued. "However, it''s still too early to decide how good you are with it. After all, you might have just been lucky with these two daggers. Once you finish awakening the Spirits of other equipment, we will have a better understanding of your ability." Krune nodded. This was a lot more attention than he wanted, but he already grew used to his life of low-profile fails. "Is there something I should worry about if my success rate is confirmed?" Roben shook his head as he replied. "Not that I know. I''m sure they will try to attempt and emulate your methods. However, Guild Master, I, Zap, and the other elders already tried to do it. They''ll eventually understand that simply copying you isn''t possible. Of course, they might have other methods that we don''t know, but I find it hard to believe they can work around it." "What happens if they can''t copy my methods?" Roben shrugged his shoulders, saying. "That I don''t know. Anything might happen as far as I know. It all depends on how they will respond to it." Krune sighed in response but nodded in the end. He knew that escaping wasn''t an option. There was no lack of Divine Senses locked on him. Of course, he couldn''t feel them due to the cultivation difference. However, Krune had never lacked IQ, so he could imagine this much. If he wanted to leave without anyone seeing, he would need to use something like Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning Layer. Unfortunately, he didn''t have that anymore. "Well, whatever happens, happens." He thought about purposely failing the Spirit Awakening from now on. But there was a problem with that. If he did that, he wouldn''t receive any payment. Naturally, he won''t have God Stones to cultivate anymore. The God Stones he was receiving now aren''t even close to satiate his Godly Energy Meridians. Let alone if he stopped receiving anything. ''Perhaps I should give up and focus on alchemy again? However, I can''t create the Purple Flames anymore. Besides, I''m really far behind in alchemy than I am in blacksmithing and Spirit Awakening. It''ll take way too long to bring that back to a profitable level.'' Krune shook his head in the end. He decided that it was better to continue on as a Spirit Awakener. Both daggers were at the One Godly Fusion Star level. Because of that, Krune was paid 2000 Rank One God Stones. Of course, he could only retain 30% of it while the rest of it was taken away because of his debt. "600 Rank One God Stones... Well, better than nothing." Krune then focused on the armor, which was the last One Star Equipment. The two swords were at the Two Stars Level, so Krune decided to leave them aside for now. "Well, then. Back to work." Chapter 838: The Zamuria Continent Krune continued like that until he awakened the armor around three months later. This time, he was far more unlucky, failing to bring up a Spirit that could stay alive after 120 attempts. Nevertheless, his average success rate was still around 1% with that result, which was outstanding when compared to others. Krune then started to work on the Two Godly Fusion Stars Swords. By the time he finished waking up the two swords'' Spirits, another five months had gone by, with Krune reaching the 3rd Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. However, Krune still kept the same 1% or so success chance due to his cultivation increasing and his better comprehension of the Calamity Laws. Dima was very satisfied with that. "It seems like your cultivation and comprehension are going up together with the level of the equipment. The higher the Stars of the equipment, the harder it is to awaken a Spirit. But you''re compensating it with your own progress. It seems like you''ll be able to keep that 1% or so success rate if you continue like that." Krune agreed with Dima as he said. "Because I need to use the Calamity Laws to awaken them, it also helps me practice and comprehend more of its intricacies." While saying that, he also thought to himself. ''It''s also helping me build up my first Sub-Law. It won''t be long before I get a full picture of what the Elements Cooperation Sub-Law should be like.'' Dima didn''t know what Krune was thinking, though. "Anyway, I believe Roben talked with you about this before. Our Sector''s Spirit Awakener Guild Headquarters will be sending a few people and demon beasts to check on you. After all, someone who can keep a 1% success rate while others are at 0.1% is definitely big news in the world of Spirit Awakening." Krune nodded, not minding it too much. "That''s fine. I have a Three Godly Fusion Stars Staff to work on. I also broke through to the 3rd Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm three months ago, so it''s a perfect match. They can watch while I go through the process of awakening it." It was then that Dima asked. "I know that when someone''s cultivation is low, they can cultivate quite fast. However, aren''t you cultivating way too fast? It has been just eleven months since I saw you at the 1st Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm, but you''re already in the 3rd Stage. Even some of the genius kids in the city can barely match you." Krune shook his head as he responded. "You can''t really compare a bunch of kids that can''t even concentrate on cultivation with me, right? Besides, you should have noticed that it''s too strange for my cultivation to be at the 1st Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm even though I''m already an adult. A kid would breakthrough from the 9th Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm to the 1st Stage of the Godly Fusion without even cultivating. Just their first years of being alive are enough for them to naturally accumulate energy for that breakthrough. They don''t even need to try to break through since it happens naturally." There was another thing that Krune noticed in the God Realm. Here, everyone could feel the laws and comprehend them from a very young age. As soon as a kid was old enough to have rational thoughts, they could already focus on understanding them. That put the newborns of the God Realm even further ahead of any other kid from the realms below. For the people and demon beasts of the God Realm, comprehending laws was as natural as growing up. Dima nodded as he said. "I was supposed to ask you about that, but I thought it was a sensitive topic. Still, since you brought it up yourself, I''ll ask away. Could it be that your cultivation was much higher in the past and was damaged due to an incident? Or perhaps..." Krune bitterly smiled as he answered. "It seems like you slightly understand my problems. My cultivation was flawed... or blocked, to be more specific. I believe it was because of the Calamity Laws targeting me. I have lived my entire life up to now without being able to have a single breakthrough. Just so that you know, I was stuck at the 1st Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm until less than two years ago. Can you imagine how my life was up to that point? However, that ''barrier'' disappeared once I finally gained control over the Calamity Laws." Well, Krune had become very good at lying. Dima sighed after hearing that. Krune had told him before that he decided to join the Spirit Awakener Guild after he finally comprehended a little of the Calamity Laws and entered the Godly Fusion Realm. "Hmm... I admit that a grown-up would be able to concentrate a lot more on cultivation than an impatient kid. To be honest, a few of these geniuses have wealthy backgrounds. Because of that, they have much better resources than you. Those kids can indeed cultivate much faster than you are at the moment." Krune was surprised to hear that. After all, he did have the Myriad Energies Technique''s Godly Energy Meridians and Heavenly Core. Not to mention his Elemental Godly Divine Soul. However, there were kids capable of being faster than him in cultivation. From the looks of it, they were a lot faster on top of that. ''Well, it''s most likely because of their age and resources. Kids will always cultivate much faster. Besides, the God Stones I get are not even close to being enough to keep cultivating all the time.'' However, Krune didn''t say that out loud. As long as other people could cultivate faster than him, that would help take some of the attention away from him. He could focus on increasing his cultivation without fear of being discovered to be someone from the Lower Realms. Well, not that it would be easy for someone to make that connection anyway. ''Still, I''m surprised by the difficult increase of cultivation. It''s far worse than I previously thought. It took me three months and something to go from the 1st to the 2nd Stage. However, it took me five months to go to the 3rd Stage. I already spent three months in the 3rd Stage, but I''m not even halfway to breaking through. Sure enough, reaching the God Realm won''t be easy... unless I obtain better resources.'' Krune already had an idea, though. Roben told him that he should be able to awaken equipment''s Spirits three of four stars higher than his current cultivation level. That said, Krune was planning to awaken a One God Foundation Star Equipment once he reached the 6th Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. With that, he should start getting Rank Two God Stones. ''Rank One God Stones aren''t really great since the concentration of Godly Energy in the air is similar. If I go all out, I can definitely siphon a thousand of them dry in a single day and won''t be of much help. However, I''ve traded a few Rank One Godly Stones for Rank Two ones. Only then did I feel my speed increasing. Unfortunately, the amount of Rank One Spirit Stones necessary to buy Rank Two Stones is not worth it. In the end, using Rank One Stones is better just because of the higher quantity. That''s why I need to earn them directly instead of trading for them.'' Dima, who was still in the room, then said. "Anyway, the representatives of our Sector''s Spirit Awakener Guild will arrive in a few days. I''ll tell you when they get here so that you can show your Awakening Method to them." Krune nodded. "By the way, can you tell me a little more about our Sector? I''ve never cared about it before, but it seems I need to pay some attention to it now." Dima was surprised that Krune didn''t know about it. "Where have you been living? Under a rock?" Krune scratched the back of his head. "Well, kind of.." Dima sighed and then nodded. "Alright. To talk about our Sector, we need to start with our Zamuria Continent. Our Zamuria Continent has been controlled by the Zamuria Imperial Family for who knows how many years, thus its name. It was the Zamuria Imperial Family that divided their territory into Sectors. Our Sector is called Wavan, located in the southeast of the Empire. As for our Imaril Country, it''s located on the southwest side of our Sector. That''s where our Sunkan City is located. We''re a relatively average populated city here." "Anyway, our continent has a total of seventeen Sectors¡ª four Sectors for each ordinal direction and one Sector at the center. Our Wavan Sector is the most southeast located one. That being said, our Wavan Sector''s Spirit Awakener Guild Headquarters is the one sending Spirit Awakeners to check on you." Krune pondered for a bit before asking. "How big is our Zamuria Continent compared to the size of the God Realm?" Dima looked at Krune with a weird expression when out of nowhere, he burst out in laugher. "Hahaha! How the hell would I know that? The God Realm is ridiculously enormous! I could probably tell you the name of a thousand different continents, and it wouldn''t be even 0.01% of the total size. Perhaps, only the gods truly know how big it is." Krune was really impressed by that. ''No wonder Luvile told me that the God Realm was even bigger than a Universe. However, to think that this total size isn''t empty space with planets, but a single cohesive piece of land. Truly incredible.'' Krune then smiled at Dima. "Thank you for telling me that, Guild Master Dima. It seems I''m truly a frog in a well." Dima nodded, not minding it at all. "That''s fine. Anyone would feel like that when they first hear it." Chapter 839: Consideration Time continued to pass when sometime later, the representatives of the Spirit Awakener Guild had arrived in Sunkan City. Krune just so happened to be working on the staff at that moment, so they headed straight to where he was. Of course, Dima also accompanied them. "Krune, these people and demon beasts are here to see you. They came from the Spirit Awakener Guild Sector''s Headquarters." There was a total of seven members, three demon beasts in human form and four humans. The one who looked to be their leader then stepped forward and introduced himself. "Hello. I''m Taran Loki, an elder of the headquarters and a Semi-God Stars Spirit Awakener. I believe you''re already aware of why we''ve come here. We will stay here for the next few months so that we can watch how your method works." Krune nodded, already expecting that as he responded. "That''s fine. I''m already working on this Staff, so you can observe as much as you want. It''s just that I don''t think there will be any use in doing that, but oh well." Taran shook his head as he said in response. "That is something for us to decide. However, can you first give an explanation as to how your method works?" Krune then looked at Dima and asked. "Didn''t the Guild Master tell you already?" Dima smiled as he answered. "I did. However, they want to hear it directly from you." Krune didn''t mind, so he began to explain what he knew. Krune told them how he was targeted by the Calamity Laws, which became a barrier in his cultivation. Of course, that part was a lie. He then explained how he forced countless different conditions into the equipment and picked the ones that seemed to be linked to its future Spirit. Also, he explained that the majority of the Spirits he awakened were flawed because of this method, so he had to stop halfway through and try again. In the end, his success rate was around 1% or so. Once that was all said, he told them that it was impossible for him to concentrate on more than a single Spirit at once. Taran and the others asked several questions, which Krune answered to the best of his ability. Only after one hour or so of continuous conversation did they finally finish. "Very well. Now, then. Let''s see these Calamity Laws of yours in action. I hope you don''t mind us looking at it." Krune nodded, saying. "It''s fine. Senior Dima and the others have already observed it in action many times, so it won''t matter if you do so." Krune soon focused his attention on the Staff after that and gathered the Calamity Laws around it. As always, his comprehension of the laws was just way too shallow, so he could barely control it. Of course, compared to what it was at first, he definitely improved a little. Time passed as Taran and the other elder''s faces began to sweat. They observed Krune''s work with their Divine Sense nonstop. However, Dima wasn''t lying when he told them about this thing. They could tell that the Calamity Laws were there. However, every time they tried to comprehend it, it was as if it disappeared. But then, when they retracted their comprehension, it was there once again. This state of existing and not existing was truly a first for everyone there. "Is such a thing really possible? I can''t get it at all." "It seems like it''s truly impossible to see through this issue." "Could it be that he''s doing it on purpose?" "No, we are trying to comprehend what he''s doing at our own pace. We reach the state of comprehension at different times, which is when these laws become elusive. There''s no way he can time each of our moments of comprehension so perfectly. I believe even a God wouldn''t be able to do so." "What should we do, then?" "It''s too early to give up. We''ll observe Krune''s work on his Spirit Awakening for the next few months, so let''s keep trying. Who knows, there might be a chance of seeing something." Krune didn''t mind their conversation and continued to work on the Staff. This time though, he was luckier, spending a little less than two months to give birth to a good enough Spirit for the Staff. "Phew... 89 fails. I guess it wasn''t too bad." The elders of the headquarters then took the Staff away and examined it. Sure enough, it was a perfect Spirit, which could now be raised. After that, they passed it to an employee of the guild, who called the Staff''s owners to pay for the item. Obviously, Krune got his 30% cut from it. "It seems like it really is around a 1% success rate. Let''s keep looking at his work to confirm it." Krune then grabbed another Three Godly Fusion Stars Equipment to work on. As mentioned before, Krune could probably select a piece of equipment up to three or four Stars higher than his current level. However, Krune kept it at his own level since it helped him comprehend his Calamity Laws better. And just like that, several months went by as Krune awakened one Spirit after another. In the end, the Spirit Awakeners from the headquarters decided to stay longer than what was initially intended. Because of that, eleven months passed in a flash. As always, he kept a 1% average rate of success, which was already heaven-defying for the Spirit Awakeners. Krune''s cultivation had also increased during this time. He broke through to the 4th Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm four months later. With the increase in God Stones that he obtained from higher-level equipment Spirits, Krune''s cultivation speed had also increased. Thanks to that, he was able to break through into the 5th Stage seven months after that. Eventually, one year had passed since the elders came to the guild. But now, they weren''t the only ones observing. They contacted the headquarters to talk about Krune''s progress and methods. Because of that, more Spirit Awakeners from other places came to see him. Krune''s awakening sessions now seemed to look like some kind of show for the public. Unfortunately for the other Spirit Awakeners, they simply couldn''t copy Krune''s method at all. Krune also said that he had no idea why the Calamity Laws targeted him. Hence, it was impossible to teach it to others. This part wasn''t a lie. Leaving the fact that none of them could understand or copy Krune''s method. The fact still stood that he truly had a 1% average success rate, which was ten times better than an average Spirit Awakener. Naturally, Krune gradually became quite famous in the industry, bringing more people and demon beasts to observe his work. Of course, they were all Spirit Awakeners with some status. Otherwise, you wouldn''t be able to simply enter the guild and watch Krune as you wanted. That wasn''t all. That success rate also made those who wanted to awaken their weapons and armors'' Spirits come and ask for Krune to work on it. They couldn''t be blamed since it was a lot cheaper to have Krune doing it. One must remember that the number of days a Spirit Awakener worked on a Spirit was also paid. Since Krune took a tenth of the time to awaken a Spirit, people and beasts could save a lot of God Stones. Well, there was a problem, though. Krune was only one person. He took two to three months to awaken each Spirit. Because of that, there was no way he could attend to everyone''s requests. That being said, the guild gave the customers an option. They could pay more to have their equipment worked on first. However, everyone wanted to choose Krune to save on God Stones. If they had to pay more, it would be useless. Krune also felt helpless about it. In the end, the payment method reached a balance. The customers who paid for Krune''s service paid only the equivalent to what they would spend on a normal Spirit Awakener''s job. That being said, Krune started to receive the equivalent of ten times the worktime since he could work ten times faster. Of course, that was totally worth it for both Krune and the customers. Krune obtained more God Stones from each awakening. As for the customers who paid for his job, they received their equipment with awakened Spirits ten times faster than usual for more or less the same price. Once again, time flew by. It had now been two years since Krune entered the Spirit Awakener Guild. By now, Taran had already confirmed that Krune''s success rate didn''t go up or down. Also, even with so many Spirit Awakeners watching Krune''s work, no one could get even close to copying his methods. That was a good thing for Krune, to be honest. He might be ten times faster than a normal Spirit Awakener, but he was only one person. It wouldn''t affect the other Spirit Awakeners at all since there was never a lack of requests for them. Of course, Krune''s cultivation had advanced once again in this meantime. Last time, he took seven months to reach the 5th Stage. Now he used ten months to get to the 6th. That was really fast but not to the point where he would catch too much attention. In fact, Krune was supposed to be a lot slower than that. However, with ten times as many God Stones entering his pocket as usual, he was able to pull it off. Taran had only one thing to think about Krune now. How should he deal with Krune? His success rate was definitely a selling point, so he considered bringing Krune with him to the headquarters. There, they could focus on his cultivation to help him awaken higher-level pieces of equipment''s Spirits sooner. After all, the 1% was an excellent bargain for the guild. "I need to talk with him." Chapter 840: Condition The reason Taran thought that it was a good bargain was that the guild could use this ability. Krune can awaken a Spirit ten times faster than anyone. Depending on the situation, they can have him awaken some big shot''s equipment who really wanted to have a Spirit awakened. In exchange, they could obtain some benefits here and there. Besides, they could continue to study his method and might be able to copy it in the future. ''Of course, Krune''s actual cultivation level is too low, so he can only awaken low-level Equipment Spirits right now. We will need to invest more resources in him to get his cultivation going faster. His cultivation speed is already quite great too. Perhaps it was because it had been blocked by the Calamity Laws for so long that it got lost now. Maybe in a hundred or two hundred years from now, he''ll already be in the God Core Realm.'' With that said, Taran got in contact with the headquarters and passed his idea. Sure enough, it was a good investment, so the headquarters also gave its consent for him to offer Krune that plan. Without wasting any time, Taran went to see Krune in his working room. Krune was working on a Six Godly Fusion Stars Needle, quite a rare type of weapon. Still, it mattered little to him what it was. Of course, quite a few Spirit Awakeners were looking at him, trying to figure out the Calamity Laws. Taran then pondered for a bit and decided to call his attention nonetheless. "Krune, we need to talk." In an instant, the Calamity Laws around the Needle disappeared as everyone looked with unsatisfied expressions at Taran. Well, Taran was an elder of the headquarters, so they didn''t complain. "Oh, Senior Taran. Is there something you need from me?" Taran nodded as he replied. "Yes, come with me." Krune nodded in response as he followed Taran to another room where they could talk privately. "Are you willing to work for our Spirit Awakener Guild?" Krune was puzzled by that question, asking in response. "But I''m already doing just that, no?" "No, that''s not it. Our Spirit Awakener Guild Headquarters wants to become your backer. In exchange, you will work on the pieces of equipment we tell you to do so. This is an incredibly lucrative opportunity for you. That''s because the headquarters is willing to support your cultivation to the best of our abilities. After all, once your cultivation becomes high enough, you will be able to awaken much higher-level Equipment Spirits. The fact that you can keep a 1% success rate will be of great help for us as well." Krune was surprised to hear that. Full support towards his cultivation. That meant he wouldn''t need to be afraid of running out of God Stones anytime soon. However, not everything was perfect. "It is indeed a good offer. However, I won''t be able to accept. I intend to travel around the God Realm at some point, so being confined in the Spirit Awakener Guild''s Headquarters won''t work for me." Taran was taken aback by that. "Travel around the God Realm? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? Not every continent is as peaceful as our continent. Some places won''t allow any outsiders and kill them straight away. There are other zones where everything seems fine, but it might just be a figment of your imagination. You won''t be able to tell that you got into a life-and-death situation until it''s too late. Even so, this is just the tip of the iceberg. I strongly recommend that you don''t leave the Zamuria Continent anytime soon. At least not before you can at least fly." Krune didn''t expect the situation to be that serious. "Is it that bad?" Taran nodded in response. He wasn''t trying to trick Krune into staying. "If you don''t believe me, you can wait until you can go to the Zamuria Empire''s Capital and buy information there. They have quite a good deal of information available there regarding the hundred or so closest continents and the sea races'' territories. From these hundred, at least half of them would be difficult for you to survive in." Krune couldn''t help but ask. "But isn''t that necessary as well? After all, you can''t just cultivate throughout your whole life. Without battles, how can you get used to your power, cultivation, and laws? Your cultivation will become stagnant at some point if you only do that." Taran noticed that he had spoken wrongly, rephrasing his words as he said. "Oh, you misunderstand. I''m not saying that our Zamuria Continent is completely safe. What I meant was that Zamuria is quite peaceful if you compare it to most of the continents around. We still have our own danger zones, bandits, sect battles, clan fights, wars, demon beast regions, etc. There''s no lack of places for you to go out and get the experience you need. It''s just that you at least know where most of the problematic areas are located, so you can avoid them if you wish to do so." Krune had to admit that it was good. That was basically the same as the Makui Planet where he was born. There, there were several danger zones and similar places that everyone knew where they were located. It was then that Krune thought about something. "Wait! Demon beast regions? All demon beasts are just as intelligent as any human, no? They can even take their human form at any moment they desire. Why would demon beast regions be dangerous?" Krune was right. In the God Realm, a demon beast could already take its human form as long as it was old enough to think about it. Their intelligence was also the same as humans, born with baby-like intellect, becoming smarter as they got older. After all, everyone in the God Realm was already born in the 9th Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm. Taran was told that Krune didn''t know much about the God Realm from Dima before, so he didn''t find it weird that Krune didn''t know this much. They thought that because Krune had spent most of his life at the 1st Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm, he was afraid of going out to know more. Of course, that was a lie that Krune came up with and that they didn''t doubt. After all, no one should be able to ascend while being in the Mortal Rejection Realm. Naturally, such a thought never passed by Dima and Taran''s mind. ''Probably that''s why he wants to travel the God Realm right now. He had always been confined due to his cultivation. Now that he can cultivate, he wants to see everything for himself. However, this is naive, too naive.'' Taran then explained. "Of course, demon beasts are as intelligent as any human. Well, some take much longer or much less to grow up. However, it matters little. It''s not because they have similar intelligence to humans that they want to live with us. There''s no lack of races who prefer to adhere to their culture and keep themselves isolated in their territories. You can even find a few demon beast cities where only demon beasts are allowed entry. Well, there are also human cities that only allow humans, so we really can''t say anything." "In any case, those who are more territorial won''t allow anyone else inside their region, even other species of demon beasts. You can check these things later if you want to." "That''s not all. Everyone knows that battles are necessary if you want to cultivate faster. That being said, there are some regions where you can go and fight. Feel free to use those places as you like." Taran then took in a deep breath as he continued. "Anyway, you have everything you need to cultivate here in the Zamuria Continent. In fact, you don''t even need to leave our Sector for that. For example, just 23 thousand kilometers from here, you have the Four Sectors'' border trade routes where many merchants and travelers pass through. That region is enormous, so it''s almost impossible for the Four Sectors to watch over that area." "That being said, bandits who want to earn quick money are stationed everywhere there. It''s quite common for caravans to be attacked there if they don''t have enough warriors to defend. You could go there and follow smaller caravans. Although the chances of being attacked by bandits are low due to the size of the area, you will eventually find some of them. Some cultivators and demon beasts like to go there to fight against the bandits for the sake of training. Or perhaps they prefer to enter the bandits'' groups for the same reason." Krune pondered for a bit before asking. "Wouldn''t allowing me to go to such a place be risky for your Spirit Awakener Guild Headquarters? After all, I might die there, you know? If that happens, all your investment will go to the drain." Taran shrugged his shoulders as he replied. "Obviously, we will give you some life-saving treasures before you go out. Then again, even if you die, it won''t be that big of a deal. Sure, your 1% average success rate is amazing. However, you''re far from enough to shake the Spirit Awakener Guild''s foundation. At most, we would have lost some resources. The situation will simply go back to what it was, which isn''t bad either. Remember, you''re just a single Spirit Awakener. There''s a limit to what you can do, even if you''re ten or more times faster." "Of course, we can''t allow you to go to other continents while you work for us since we need your abilities. So, what do you say?" Krune pondered for a bit before saying. "I have a condition." Chapter 841: The Deal "What is it?" Krune then answered. "It can''t be something permanent. I will leave at some point, so the deal has to be finished before that." Taran narrowed his eyes in response. There was an issue with Krune''s request. "The problem is that you would only be truly valuable once you''re at a high cultivation level. Before that, even if you can awaken Spirits ten or more times faster, the level of the weapons and armors'' Spirits you can awaken isn''t enough for it to be worth it. If you decide to leave once you get to that point, all the work put on you will go to the drain." Krune had to admit that it was true. It''s not the Krune at the moment that the Spirit Awakener Guild wanted, but the Krune in the future. "That''s complicated since I want to leave. How should we do this?" Taran shook his head as he said. "I can''t think of a way for this to work. I told you before that leaving before being able to fly is too dangerous. For you to get to that step, you need to reach the Semi-God Realm. However, it is only at the Semi-God Realm that your high success rate will be of real use to the Spirit Awakener Guild." Krune nodded, making a decision after hearing those words as he said. "I understand. In that case, I must refuse your offer. In any case, I''m pretty confident that I can provide for myself the way I am at the moment. I guess it''s better for me to not tie myself down, after all." Taran sighed after hearing that but nodded in the end. "Alright. In that case, let''s do it like this. We will have exclusivity of your skills from the God Foundation Realm and above. However, you will not be tied down to the Spirit Awakener Guild. We can use teleport formations to send and receive the equipment for awakening." Krune was puzzled after hearing that offer, though. "But wouldn''t that be too expensive? After all, the further away the Teleport Formation is, the more God Stones you will need to use." Taran shrugged his shoulders as he answered. "It''s not as expensive as the price that your God Foundation Stars and above equipment would cost. Don''t forget that people and beasts are already willing to pay ten times more to have their equipment delivered ten times faster. It will only get out of hand if you decide to travel several continents away. However, I don''t think you''ll do that anytime soon since that would be tantamount to suicide." Krune had to admit that he also didn''t want to go out too soon after he heard more about the God Realm. "Still, didn''t you say that only when I reached the Semi-God Realm would I become useful? Are Nascent God Stars Equipment and below worth this deal?" Taran nodded, saying in response. "It is since we won''t be spending much on you. What we''ll do is find you much better deals. For example, you''re getting ten times more to get the Equipment Spirits to awaken earlier. Our Spirit Awakener Guild has a lot of connections, so we definitely have people and demon beasts willing to pay much more for whatever reasons." Krune didn''t mind as he summed things up, saying. "I understand. Even though my level wouldn''t be that high, we could still form a partnership for the future. Is that right?" Taran was happy that Krune understood. "That''s right." Krune then asked back. "What do I get from it?" Taran pondered over the question for a bit. "Although you can''t compare to the top geniuses of our Empire, your cultivation speed isn''t that much slower. Not only that, but you''re also able to maintain your 1% or so success rate while awakening Spirits even when you increase in cultivation. That said, it probably won''t take more than fifteen to twenty years for you to finish paying your debt with the city." "How about this? We will remove your debt in exchange for this deal. That way, we''ll receive our money back faster, and you''ll be free to go anywhere. I believe you know you''re being watched to not flee before finishing paying it up, right?" Krune''s eyes lit up after hearing that. Indeed, he knew that even if he couldn''t feel the other''s Divine Senses. "That''s great! Then, we have a deal. As long as I''m close enough to the Zamuria Empire, I will only awaken the Equipment Spirits you send me. However, I can''t go without a job, so you have to keep them coming so that I can earn my God Stones for cultivation. If you suddenly stop sending me equipment, I will have to take other jobs." For Krune, that was more than a good enough deal. After all, 70% of his God Stones were being taken away to pay for the damage from the past. If he could keep them all, his cultivation speed would definitely speed up by 10 to 15%. One must remember that he was still receiving Rank One God Stones, which were being used like candies. Taran was more than satisfied with that deal. "That''s good, then. I will contact the Spirit Awakener Guild Headquarters of our sector and have your debt cleared." Krune then asked something else. "Aren''t you afraid that I might disappear after this?" Taran shook his head as he laughed. "Hahaha! You might as well try. I don''t think you can do that, though." Krune was taken aback by his words. From the looks of it, they were very confident in tracking him down. ''Oh well, whatever. I have no intention of going back on my word to start with. Since they''re fine with it, then so be it.'' On that same day, Dima received news that the headquarters of their sector had cleared Krune''s debt. He didn''t find it strange since he would definitely try to rope in someone like Krune. That was an obvious choice. Krune then continued to work on the equipment Spirits for the time being. After all, he didn''t intend to leave Sunkan City before reaching the God Foundation Realm. Now that he was receiving the full payment, he was even more unwilling to do so. Eventually, Krune reached the 7th Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm another eight months later. So far, he had always used the same level of equipment as his Realm to practice his Calamity Laws. But now, he could try his hand on the God Foundation Stars ones. If he succeeded, he would be paid with Rank Two God Stones from now on. Taran, who stayed in the city with many other Spirit Awakeners, immediately contacted the headquarters and told them to send the God Foundation Stars Equipment. It turns out that many of the Spirit Awakeners haven''t given up learning Krune''s method yet. Hence, they kept observing and studying it. The Sector''s Headquarters of the Spirit Awakener Guild was really well-prepared. From the moment Krune decided to try his hand on God Foundation Stars equipment, they already had some people and demon beasts in line to pay for it. It couldn''t be considered much, but it was a start. Krune then received a saber at the One God Foundation Star level. Krune didn''t dare to try anything higher than that since he knew it would be a waste of time. In fact, he didn''t even know how he would fare with a piece of equipment many levels higher than his cultivation Realm. ''Sure enough, it''s a lot harder to grasp the right conditions when the equipment''s level is higher than my cultivation. I might be able to succeed with a Two Stars one, but it would take so long that it''s not worth it. I even have my doubts whether this One God Foundation Star Saber will prove to be beneficial or not.'' Krune continued to work on the Saber, already with a plan in mind. ''If I take too long, I''ll wait until I reach the 8th Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm before trying again.'' As expected, Krune took much longer to partially wake up a spirit so that he could check if it was flawed or not. Naturally, most of the tries turned out to be defective Spirits, so he didn''t wake them fully since they would die shortly after. In the end, Krune took a total of six months instead of the two months he spent with equipment of his level. Also, his success rate had decreased. Krune had failed a total of 194 times before finally grasping all the right conditions to awaken a flawless Saber Spirit. Of course, Taran and the Spirit Awakener Guild was more than happy to see that. Even if he took half a year, it was still more than three times faster than an average Spirit Awakener. The client who owned the Saber would definitely be satisfied as well. Taran then approached Krune and took the Saber before asking. "How is it? Do you think it''s worth keeping up awakening Spirits on God Foundation Stars Equipment?" Krune shook his head as he replied. "No. Even though the trading rate is terrible, it''s more worth getting the Rank One Godly Stones and exchanging them for Rank Two ones than gaining them directly. In the end, it takes way too long to awaken a Spirit of this level." Taran pondered for a bit before saying. "Maybe it''s because this was your first one. It might turn out much better in the next try." Krune shook his head again, instantly rejecting all advances. "No can do. The time taken and the number of failures I underwent aren''t the main reasons. To be honest, the speed at which I''ve been comprehending the Calamity Laws has gotten worse. I already think I was extremely lucky to awaken this Spirit in just six months." Krune also thought. ''It also delayed my own creation of the Elements Cooperation Sub-Law. I need to wait for the 8th... no, it will only be worth it once I reach the 9th Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. Only then am I confident that awakening God Foundation Stars Equipment Spirits will be worth it.'' Chapter 842: Sentience Fortunately for Krune, he didn''t have to care about paying off his debt anymore. With that said, he focused on awakening the Spirits of equipment at his level and cultivating. With that, Krune broke through the 8th Stage ten months later. Following that, he broke through to the 9th Stage a year after. By now, most of the Spirit Awakeners had already left, giving up trying to understand his Calamity Laws. However, it didn''t matter for Krune. He only cared about the fact that he could now try awakening God Foundation Stars Equipment Spirits. He could already do so in the past, but it wasn''t worth it. Taran wasn''t there anymore either. Instead, the headquarters left it for Dima to pass the equipment to Krune once he decided to start awakening God Foundation Stars Equipment again. Sure enough, Krune went to talk to him, and Dima contacted the headquarters, who immediately sent the first piece to him after a few days. "Here you go. It''s good that you want to do it with the headquarters since they can receive much better deals due to your speed. This one, for example, will let you receive twice as much than you were getting." Krune nodded with a smile, responding. "I know. Because I can do it ten times faster or more, I was already receiving ten times more God Stones. Now the headquarters are even doubling it. How could I not be happy?" Dima laughed as he said. "Hahaha! You might be making more God Stones right now, but don''t think the headquarters aren''t also getting their own benefits from this deal. They spread the news that they could awaken a God Foundation Stars Equipment''s Spirit ten times faster, so they''ve received quite a few influential calls. This Sword in your hand, for example, will be given as a gift of the Haersin City Lord to someone else. He was struggling to give something good until he heard about it. In exchange, the local Spirit Awakener Guild in that area will receive a few benefits. From now on, you will keep getting these kinds of work." Krune was even happier to hear that. It meant that he won''t be running out of work and much less God Stones for the time being. Besides, he would receive Rank Two Stones thanks to the equipment level. Krune then took the Sword back to his own room and began to work on it. Sure enough, the extra one year and ten months helped him become a little better at his Calamity Laws. Other than that, his additional two stages of cultivation made it even better. In the end, Krune took almost three months to succeed in awakening that Sword''s Spirit. He also kept up his average 1% success rate, having failed 97 times before awakening a flawless Spirit. ''It still took around a month more to awaken this Spirit compared to a piece of equipment at my level. However, the reward I''m getting from it now is definitely worth it. Besides, there''s little difference in my comprehension of the Calamity Laws, especially while creating my Elements Cooperation Sub-Law. I shall continue with these ones from now on.'' After passing the Sword back to Dima, Krune received his next equipment. This one was also in the One God Foundation Star Level. Things continued like that for Krune during the following year. With the increase in the level of the God Stones available for him, Krune''s cultivation had sped up once again. This time, he took exactly one year to reach the peak of the Godly Foundation Realm''s 9th Stage, the same time he took to go from the 8th to the 9th Stage. This showed the difference in the quality of God Stones. However, Krune wasn''t just happy that he could breakthrough. He was delighted that he could finally go out of the city for training. ''I''ve been stuck here for way too long. It''s about time for me to go out. I couldn''t do it before since the power I could exert with Godly Fusion Realm cultivation was way too low. Even in the 9th Stage, I could just barely make my shields fly. But the power boost in the God Foundation Realm should make it usable.'' Krune then finished awakening the Spirit he was working on and told Dima that he was going to make a breakthrough. "I see... As expected, your cultivation speed is still quite impressive. It seems like you''ve become even faster after you began to use Rank Two God Stones. I know only a few people and demon beasts faster than you in our city. However, all of them have wealthy backgrounds, so it is to be expected. Do you need help with your breakthrough?" Krune nodded as he asked. "Sure. Can Guild Master watch over it to make sure no one will bother me? The God Foundation Realm breakthrough takes quite some time, after all. We can do it at my house, and I''ll treat you to a meal after I''m done." Dima nodded, not minding it too much. Krune was quite important for the Spirit Awakener Guild Headquarters, after all. Still, Dima didn''t think too much about his breakthrough. As fast as Krune''s cultivation speed was, the fact was that he was far behind others when one compared age and cultivation level. Once again, they believed that Krune had spent his life without being able to cultivate. An average Demon Beast or human would get to the God Foundation Realm around the age of 12 to 15. The geniuses and those with wealthy backgrounds would definitely reach that before 10 years old. As for Krune, Dima could tell that he was much, much older than that. That being said, it made sense that he didn''t think much about it. Krune arrived at his house, which he had rented after his financial situation became better. ''Still, it''s quite weird not to have Luvile around to talk before a breakthrough. Oh well... He probably wouldn''t want to stay close to me during this moment anyway.'' Krune then put those thoughts behind and focused on his breakthrough. Dima also invited Roben and Zap to take a look. Who knows, they might understand something about his Calamity Laws during his breakthrough. As mentioned before, the Godly Fusion Realm was the realm where one fused one''s Godly Dantian or Godly Demon Core together with one''s Godly Body and Godly Soul. For Krune, this process was even easier since his Wisp Core was also his body. Not to mention that his Soul was located inside to start with. However, after he entered the God Foundation Realm, his Wisp Core will be him as a whole. His Soul had always habited the first planet he created in his Universe Foundation. From now on, his Soul would be everywhere. It wouldn''t be wrong to say that Krune''s foundation would also be his Soul. Krune immediately took hundreds of Rank Two God Stones out of his Spatial Ring and laid them around him. After that, he made the final push in his foundation. His Soul, which was on his first planet, suddenly began to expand and become dimmer. It wasn''t because it was disappearing, but because it was fusing with everything else. Even his Elemental Divine Soul merged a little of Krune''s own Soul with itself. Planets, suns, nebulas, black holes, you name it. If it existed inside Krune''s Foundation, then a part of his Soul could be found there. As he did that, the Rank Two God Stones around him shattered one after another. Krune''s breakthrough definitely needed much, much more Godly Energy than most since his foundation was ridiculously enormous. Still, Krune didn''t mind as he simply brought more God Stones out. This was a slow process that would take a long time to be completed. Fortunately, Krune didn''t need to be afraid of Tribulations here in the God Realm. Only at the Semi-God Realm would the first Tribulation come down... or so said Luvile, Soren, and all the records he had read on the network. However... ''This...'' Immediately, Krune felt that familiar power that struck him back in the Makui Planet and during all his next breakthroughs in the Mortal Realm. The Tribulation Power. Such a thing shouldn''t be possible. He wasn''t the only one that felt shocked. Dima and Roben''s expression immediately warped when they felt that. Dima was at the Semi-God Realm, so he received his own Tribulation already. That being said, he could totally tell what was coming for Krune. "Impossible! It doesn''t make any sense! Why is a Heavenly Tribulation coming for him?!" Outside, tribulation clouds began to gather above Krune''s house, which immediately caught everyone''s attention. This was in the middle of the city. No one would try a breakthrough that can call a Heavenly Tribulation in this place. Dima, for example, went to a remote region where no one would be affected during his time. However, Krune''s mouth twitched right after. He totally understood why a tribulation was coming for him. That''s because other than the Tribulation Clouds, Krune could feel another type of law inside there. In the end, he couldn''t hold back as he cursed. "Damn you, Calamity Laws! You knew that trying to target me or my Karma and Destiny wouldn''t work anymore. You knew that I would stop you if you came for me! Since you couldn''t act directly on me, you influenced the God Realm''s Heavens instead to send me a Tribulation, didn''t you?" Dima, Roben, and Zap were taken aback. Following that, they spread their Divine Senses into the clouds, and sure enough, they could feel a familiar presence. It was the same black clouds that Krune used while Awakening Equipment Spirits. Of course, even though Krune said all of that, it was not like the Calamity Laws would answer him... or so they all thought. "Oh?! Did you notice? Anyway, enjoy your Tribulation! Hahaha!" Krune almost vomited blood after hearing that! The Calamity Laws... had sentience! "FUCK YOU!!!" Chapter 843: Tribulation Roben, Dima, and Zap felt like they had heard a ghost. Laws with sentience? Was such a thing possible? "Di-Did you already know that the Calamity Laws had sentience, Krune?" Krune was already crying as he replied. "Obviously not! I only cursed out loud to release my anger! I never expected it to answer! First of all, I didn''t know it could answer!" Dima then put those thoughts behind. They could think about that later. The problem now was that Krune was having a Tribulation while still in the middle of the city. "Anyway, you can''t have your Tribulation here. All tribulations will only come down once the target has finished his breakthrough. That being said, I''m moving you out of the city with me." Krune nodded in response. The last thing he needed was to acquire more debt. Dima then held Krune, Roben, and Zap with his God Energy before flying away from Sunkan City in a flash. Krune was quite lucky at this point since Dima was already in the Semi-God Realm, so he was able to fly. Sure enough, the moment Krune began to leave the city, the Tribulation Clouds followed hot in pursuit. Dima didn''t go too far, though. He was afraid that Krune''s breakthrough would finish at any moment. If that happened, he would be considered as someone trying to stop it. Everyone knew that any intervention would only increase the power of the tribulations. A few tens of kilometers away from the city, Dima dropped Krune on top of a small hill. A few cultivators and demon beasts were around since it was close to the city, but they all ran away when they saw the Tribulation Clouds above. Krune then brought a few more God Stones out and continued the process. He already started, so he couldn''t stop anymore. Otherwise, he would receive a backlash. Eventually, his Soul fused with his Foundation and Wisp Core completely, completing his breakthrough. The moment that happened, his cultivation began to increase at breakneck speeds. Only when he achieved the 1st Stage of the God Foundation Realm did it stabilize. Of course, Krune wasn''t happy with that. He quickly looked at the skies and could tell that the Tribulation was coming for him. He didn''t forge any equipment, so he could only use his Myriad Lightning Shields from back in the Godly Path Realm. Of course, it was better than nothing. Krune did have an advantage, though. Tribulations were made to match the cultivator''s power. That being said, Dima could tell that Krune''s Tribulation was several times weaker than his own. If it was him in Krune''s place, he could fend it off with a single hand. ''Well, if it was me, it would be much stronger as well.'' Roben then looked at Dima and asked. "Guild Master. Is there a way to help him? I don''t think he can fight against a Tribulation at his level." Dima shook his head as he replied. "There''s nothing we can do. The moment any of us intervene, the Tribulation will power up to match our cultivation. That will only kill Krune faster." They could only pray that Krune had what it took for it. While they were talking, Krune''s 102 shields flew out of his Spatial Ring and created a barrier above his head. That sight surprised Dima''s group. After all, controlling this amount of equipment was anything but easy. Not only that, but Krune seemed to be extremely proficient with it. ''Has he been training with them?'' Of course, Krune lived his life with the shields, so it wasn''t a problem for him anymore. ''Time to test it out.'' Krune didn''t try to use the Calamity Laws since that thing might try to mess with him again. Instead, he tried to use his Balance Laws for the first time since he came up with the idea. His God Energy and Soul Power, both necessary to control it, quickly spread around his shields as Krune tried to create them. ''I only barely created the Initial Stage of the Elements Cooperation Sub-Law. I won''t be able to use it for more than a second or two, nor can it be used in attacks. However, it should give my shields a big boost in defense, even if just for that long.'' However, it was then that Krune noticed something surprising. The Calamity Laws had a dark color when gathered. The Fused Elements of the Soul Cultivation Technique and the Mental Energy Source were also dark in color. However, his Balance Laws were... "Rainbow?" "So colorful..." "Now I understand why he likes to use that colored hair of his." Krune wanted to cry once again. ''Who the hell likes to use colored hair? It''s all a coincidence, okay? Trust me, I''m not doing it on purpose at all! Fuck, could you be, I don''t know, white? No, even if you had kept the same dark theme, I wouldn''t mind. Why must you always be rainbow? What kind of destiny is that where everything I do has to be rainbow colored?'' Unfortunately, Krune didn''t have much time to keep cursing at his destiny. That''s because a lightning bolt came crashing down on him. ''Fuck it!'' Krune then used all his power to increase the Balance Laws'' power. *Boom!* In the end, Krune couldn''t keep his Balance Laws going for more than two seconds. That''s why he only used it at the very moment the lightning bolt came down. However, the result far surpassed his and everyone else''s expectations. Not only did the Tribulation Lightning not break through his shields'' defense, but it also didn''t leave a single scratch behind. "So resistant!" "What the hell is this rainbow power?" "It feels a bit like the Calamity Laws." Of course, the Balance Laws disappeared not long after the lightning bolt struck. However, Krune didn''t relax as he kept looking at the tribulation clouds. He had to be ready for the moment the lightning bolts came down to gather his Balance Laws in time. And so, the Tribulation continued just like that. *Boom, boom, boom...* In less than a minute, all eight Tribulation Lightning Bolts came down. Fortunately, Krune was getting used to it and could defend in time. Of course, he didn''t relax at all. One must remember that the last Lightning Bolt was always the most powerful one. Sure enough, the constant lightning bolts stopped as the Tribulation Clouds began to gather all of their remaining energy to send down the final strike. "This..." Dima was taken aback by that. From what he could feel, the last Tribulation Lightning far surpassed the level of power it should normally be at. Out of nowhere, the Calamity Laws'' voice echoed in their minds once again. "Hahaha! Look what you''ve done. Tribulation Lightning is made to match the cultivator or demon beasts'' level. However, you fended it so easily that the heavens themselves got angry. Let''s see what you can do about it." Krune wanted to cry even more. Unfortunately, he had already spent all his tears as he shouted in response... "That''s all your fault!" "Are you sure you want to spend your time cursing me? You better look after your ass first." After that, the Calamity Laws'' voice disappeared once again. Krune gritted his teeth after that. He might have had it easy until now. However, he could tell that he wouldn''t be able to resist that last lightning bolt in his actual condition. There was only one chance for him, and that was to go back to his Wisp Form. Krune didn''t want to do that, though. After all, Wally''s actions made sure that all gods didn''t want to see any wisp in the God Realm. Unfortunately, Krune didn''t have much choice. Immediately, his body began to disappear, and the Wisp Core and the Ethereal Flame took place. Naturally, Krune''s control over elements, laws, and mental energy had further increased in that state. Dima and Roben knew that Krune was a demon beast. After all, it was just way too easy to identify them due to their aura. However, they had never seen his species before. Roben and Zap couldn''t help but ask. "What kind of demon beast is he?" Dima pondered for a bit before nodding. "I have never seen one in front of me in the past. However, I believe that Krune is a True Spirit." Roben and Zap were taken aback by Dima''s words. "So this is a True Spirit? No wonder his cultivation speed is quite high even though he began to cultivate very late in his life." Krune couldn''t help but sigh in relief when he heard the words of Dima''s group. Sure enough, True Spirits also existed in the God Realm. As long as they didn''t know that he was a wisp, that would be for the best. Still, he put those thoughts behind and concentrated on the Tribulation Clouds. Eventually, the energy stopped gathering, and the life-ending lightning bolt came down. "Bring it!" *Boom!* Krune''s transformation had increased the power of his Balance Laws for a brief moment. However, the lightning bolt still broke through them and hit his shields for the first time. Krune''s layers of defense formed by his shields were then pulverized one after another. Finally, the lightning bolt destroyed Krune''s last Myriad Lightning Shield before heading for his Wisp Core. "I''m not done yet!" Krune''s Godly Energy Meridians materialized out of Krune''s body and were hit by the Lightning. Immediately, the meridians began to redirect all the remaining power of the Lightning into Krune''s Universe Foundation. "Hmph! I did it once before, so I can definitely do it again!" After some time, the entire lightning bolt disappeared completely. Of course, Krune still had to deal with it inside his foundation. The problem was that his entire foundation was also his soul. So the more the lightning bolt rampaged inside, the worst it became. "Hmm... I haven''t tempered my soul with Tribulation Lightning for a very long time. I guess this is a good opportunity." Chapter 844: Talking with a Law Krune then looked at the Tribulation Clouds disappearing before thinking. ''Since you sent this thing to me, I might as well use it for my own benefit.'' Krune then controlled his foundation so that the Tribulation Lightning inside was spread in every direction. Of course, a Universe Foundation was enormous. He couldn''t reach every corner of the foundation with just that. However, Krune was now in the God Foundation Realm. With that, he could still control his soul as he wished. That being said, he gathered most of it around the area where the Tribulation Lightning was located and began to use it to temper his soul. Of course, it was anything but pleasurable. That made Krune remember his time in Makui Planet when he entered the Mohie Sect. ''Now that I think about it, maybe Mohie Zarks reached this place. I wonder if I can find him one day.'' Krune then put those thoughts behind and continued his Soul Tempering, which lasted several hours. There was some damage every now and then, but with his Mental Energy from the Soul Cultivation Technique, he separated the damaged area to be healed. Eventually, the last wisp of the Tribulation Lightning disappeared. However, Krune took that chance to make another breakthrough. ''Godly Soul Source 1st Stage!'' Krune had been accumulating energy for this breakthrough for quite some time already. With this last tempering, he felt like it had become strong enough for the breakthrough. Sure enough, it worked. Krune then got up as he looked at Dima''s group. "Sigh... Don''t look at me like that. Even I didn''t know that the Calamity Laws had sentience, okay? In fact, this is something you guys should know, not me." Dima''s mouth twitched as he said. "We didn''t even know that it existed before. We found out about it once you appeared in the guild with this thing. That said, how could we know that it had sentience? No, forget about that. This is a huge thing." Roben and Zap agreed with Dima. "Exactly. Krune''s Calamity Laws have sentience. Of course, Laws are omnipresent. It''s just that it only decided to talk with Krune for some reason. Does that mean that it likes Krune? Can laws like someone? Well, it was laughing, so I guess it does have emotions as well." Krune bitterly smiled as he said. "Liked me? That thing sent down a fucking tribulation that almost killed me! Do you try to kill someone you like? I doubt that." Dima narrowed his eyes as he responded. "But... I''ve never heard about laws having sentience. If it decided to talk to you, it at least thinks of you as special. The question is... why?" Zap pondered for a bit before asking. "Krune, can you contact the Calamity Laws on your own?" Krune shrugged his shoulders as he said. "Did you forget? Laws are omnipresent. If that really is the case, it''s definitely listening to our conversation right now. Go ahead, Calamity Laws, talk with us." *Whoosh...* Sure enough, not a single word could be heard. "Maybe... Laws are not omnipresent." Krune nodded. "That makes sense. Calamity Laws are something that only I can use as far as I know. Oh, I know, I was the one who gave birth to Calamity Laws. This thing is my child. Hahaha!" As soon as Krune said that, an enraged voice echoed in their minds. "Your ass! Who the hell is your child?" Immediately, that dark cloud of laws gathered in front of them as it continued to talk. "I''m even older than the Four Realms, alright? If anything, you are my child. After all, your race is born from chaos. Also, stop calling me Calamity Laws. Fuck that! Why do I have such a terrible name?" Everyone''s mouth twitched after hearing that. Something unbelievable was happening right in front of Krune and the others. They... were talking with a Law... Krune then quickly recovered before asking. "Ahem... I called it Calamity Laws because... because... Oh, right. Because that was how my wife and friends called it." Wife and friends? Dima''s group didn''t even know Krune was married. Still, it was true. The ones who came up with this name were Luvile and the others. That how they tried to make sense of Krune''s ability to fall into problems every time he had a breakthrough. "I don''t like it." Dima then took a deep breath before asking. "Then, how should we call you, sir? Errr... should I call you sir in the first place? Wait, do you even have a gender?" The dark cloud of laws and elements then approached Dima. "I''m a law, or a gathering of them to be more specific. How the hell would I have a gender? Anyway, you can call me... errr... I''ve never thought about a name before." Krune nodded as he suggested. "Then let''s call you Little Cally!" As always, Krune''s naming sense was out of the charts. Everyone almost vomited blood from that. Just... Where the hell did you get that name from? First of all, how can Krune act so relaxed while talking with a Law? That''s a law, you know? Shouldn''t you show some more respect? "Oh! I like that." Dima''s group didn''t know whether to laugh or cry anymore after that. ''You like it? Bro, are you for real? You''re a freaking law!'' Krune ignored... no, he simply didn''t notice the others'' feelings as he continued. "Alright, Little Cally Laws it is. Now, then. Why the hell are you targeting me? Now that I think about it, you have probably been following me ever since I was at Makui." Dima narrowed his eyes as he thought. ''Makui? Is that the name of a territory? I don''t remember any area nearby being called like that.'' Little Cally didn''t deny that. "Well, that''s true. Your journey so far has been really funny." Krune''s expression was dark. "Funny, your ass! You still haven''t told me why you''re targetting me." Cally didn''t care about Krune''s feelings, though. "Because it''s funny." Even Dima thought that reason to be bullshit, let alone Krune. "Fuck you! Just go away already. Leave me alone!" Little Cally laughed as it replied. "Hahaha! There''s no way in hell I will do that. Especially now that you''re trying to create something better than me." Krune was taken aback. "Are you talking about my..." "Yes! I''m talking about your Rainbow Laws." Krune finally exploded as he yelled. "Rainbow Laws your ass! It''s Balance Laws! B-A-L-A-N-C-E!!! There''s no rainbow in the name at all!" Cally looked at Dima''s group before asking. "Which one do you think is better? Balance or Rainbow?" Dime, Roben, and Zap didn''t know what to say. "Errr... Are you talking about that colored power similar to Krune''s hair? Is that a new type of law?" They obviously noticed that during Krune''s Tribulation since he used that to defend himself. They felt like it was very similar to the Calamity Laws but different at the same time. However, Dima and the others wouldn''t dare go against the Law of the Four Realms. "Rainbow Laws are perfect!" "What a creative name!" "Such a nice idea. I couldn''t have thought about anything better." Little Cally laughed after hearing that. "I know, right? There''s no way the great me would come up with a bad name." Tears flowed down from Krune''s eyes. "Go to hell! You''re doing it on purpose since you know how much it bothers me!" Krune finally thought he got away from the rainbow name. He gave it up when he spent his time with his family and friends since they always brought this name back. However, he was alone now! He could have turned a new leaf! He could leave the rainbow behind and think about it as a black spot to be buried in the past... or so he thought. Little Cally didn''t deny that. "Yep." Krune finally lost his patience. "I''m out! So what if you have sentience? I couldn''t care less. I''ve had my fair share of old monsters already. One more or one less will make no difference." Somewhere else in the God Realm... *Achoo!* Luvile looked around with a puzzled expression. "Is anyone talking about me?" Back at Krune''s side, he went back to his human form and put on his clothes. Following that, he began to make his way back to the city. However, Little Cally immediately called his attention. "Are you sure? Because you''ve got some control over my properties, I can''t directly affect you. However, I can still affect the world around you. Are you sure you want more tribulations coming down? Oh! What about this? I''ll send a tribulation every time you break through a stage instead of a realm." "Shameless!" Dima''s group looked at each other. This was not how they thought this situation would develop. A law of the realms was having such a ridiculous argument with Krune. ''Should it be more... you know... disciplined?'' Roben agreed with Dima. ''I thought so as well. It looks more like a quarrel between two kids.'' Zap then added. ''However, we better not get on the bad side of the Calamity Laws. Don''t intervene.'' Dima and Roben nodded. Eventually, Krune took a deep breath before asking. "Just what the hell do you want with me? You have never talked before. If you had stayed silent, I wouldn''t even know you existed." Little Cally agreed with him, replying. "True. But that matters little. It''s not like anything would change even if everyone knows I have sentience. First of all, you''re not the first one I played with and won''t be the last either." Litle Cally continued. "Anyway, I''ll tell you what I want some other day. Just make sure to keep giving me a good show." Little Cally then looked at Dima and the others. "For your own good, others are better to never know what happened here. Remember, I''m omnipresent. Hahaha!" Before Krune and the others could say anything, the dark cloud disappeared. Chapter 845: New Shields "Well, even though it disappeared, it can definitely hear our voice, right?" Krune nodded. "That''s what it said." In the end, Dima had many questions. However, he can''t simply force the law to talk to him. "Let''s head back first." Roben then asked. "What will we do with this information?" Dima shrugged his shoulders as he replied. "You heard what the Calamity Laws said, right? Do you really want to get into its bad side? Don''t forget that Krune wasn''t able to cultivate for a very long time because of it. At least I don''t want to get my cultivation stuck." Krune scratched the back of his head after hearing that. His cultivation had never gotten stuck. Well, he wasn''t about to tell them that. Soon after, Krune tried to gather the Calamity Laws once again. Sure enough, it still worked pretty fine even after everything that happened. It seemed like Little Cally had no intention to stop Krune. ''It probably wants to see how my Balance Laws will turn out. Hmph! So be it! After I finish creating my own laws, I will never touch you again.'' Krune and the others then made their way back to Sunkan City, where others came to see them. After all, everyone saw how the Tribulation Clouds appeared over the city. Fortunately, no one knew that it was related to Krune, nor would they even consider it. One must remember that no Tribulation was supposed to come down before the Semi-God Realm, which Krune was really far from. "Guild Master!" "Who was the guy that broke through?" "It was you who brought that person away from the City, right?" Dima nodded before saying. "It was a friend of mine who came asking for help with his breakthrough. Just to be safe, I started it in the city since I believed he would fail. However, lady luck smiled at him, and he succeeded. Following that, I brought him away. He passed his tribulation without any issues, so it''s all fine now." Everyone nodded. "By the way, where is this new Semi-God?" Dima shook his head. "This friend of mine has quite a sensitive status, so I can''t talk about him. He already left the city and went somewhere else. I hope you won''t keep inquiring more about it." Everyone was still curious. Why would it be a secret? However, that''s what a secret was supposed to be, right? Dima wouldn''t tell them, so they couldn''t do anything. After that, Dima, Krune, Zap, and Roben went back to Dima''s office to talk. "Alright, Krune. As you know, we can''t say anything about what happens, or things might become pretty bad for us. Especially, Roben, Zap, and me since we can''t control Calamity Laws. The last thing any of us want is to not be able to cultivate anymore." Krune nodded, not minding it too much. He also had no intention to spread this news to start with. Dima continued. "That said, can you tell us a little more about you? After everything I''ve heard, I feel like there''s a lot more about you that I don''t know. The way you talked with... errr... Little Cally, it seemed like it knew you for a very, very long time. I''ve never asked it before, but just how old are you?" Krune sighed as he pondered about whether she should talk or not. "Well, I can''t really talk about my origin. However, I guess it isn''t a problem to talk about my age. I''m already over 200 years old." Roben was taken aback. "200?! How''s that possible?! You should have run out of lifespan a long time ago." However, Dima didn''t seem that surprised. "I see... I really felt that you weren''t as naive as the others thought. No wonder, no wonder... Could it be that all True Spirits have very long lifespans?" Krune shook his head as he responded. "How would I know that? In all my life, I''ve only seen a single other True Spirit. However, our encounter was very brief, and I didn''t ask how old he was. I have no idea how long other True Spirits can live." That wasn''t a lie. Krune only saw Reril once, and he didn''t even come to see him, but Rag instead. They didn''t even talk to each other. Also, Krune had never looked into how long a True Spirit''s lifespan could be. Dima nodded, not minding too much. True Spirits were also a very rare race in the God Realm, so he knew very little about them. They talked for a while longer after that before Krune finally decided to enter the next topic. "Guild Master, I''ll be going out to travel after this to test my cultivation. I''m already feeling like my cultivation is getting stagnant after breaking through two entire realms. I haven''t had the chance to try my strength ever since I''ve arrived in the city." Dima nodded after that. He already heard about it from Taran that Krune didn''t want to get tied down to the guild that much. "Very well, I will arrange someone to go with you so that you won''t fall into danger." "This... is that really necessary?" Dima nodded. "That was the deal with Taran, right? It''s also to make sure that you won''t suddenly disappear before you can compensate for the debt we lifted for you. Besides, your protector will be responsible for passing the equipment from the headquarters for you to wake up their Spirits. Otherwise, how do you expect to make as much God Stones as you are doing right now?" Krune sighed even though he already expected that. Well, as long as he can go out to try his own cultivation, that was fine. Besides, he could still spend half of his days awakening Spirits to make God Stones. Now that he broke through into the God Foundation Realm, his foundation had become even hungrier. He can definitely do with those extra God Stones that the headquarters'' deals would bring him. "By the way, when are you planning to leave?" Krune pondered a bit as he recalled how his Myriad Lightning Shields were pulverized by the Tribulation Lightning. Naturally, he had to remake his shields again. "It will take some time since I need to reforge my shields once again. Fortunately, I also kept up my blacksmith skills during my free time. I''m going to spend my next few weeks forging my shields, cultivating, and awakening the next equipment Spirit. I''ll let you know when I''m ready." Dima nodded and looked at Roben. "Roben, see that Krune gets the next God Foundation Stars Equipment. The headquarters shouldn''t take long to find a good deal for him." Roben nodded, and he left the room with Krune. Dima then laid back on his chair as his mind wandered away. ''Maybe I can ask... Little Cally... to allow me to comprehend the Calamity Laws. Would he let me do it? I''ll wait for the next time it appears.'' Sure enough, the headquarters only took two days to get a new deal. They sent Krune another One God Foundation Star weapon, ready to pay him two times the value again. In the end, Krune''s ability to awaken Spirit ten or more times faster was just way too good. However, Krune was having a small issue at the moment. Not with the Spirit Awakener Guild, but the Blacksmith one. ''What kind of metal should I use? I''ve always used Lightning-type ores to make my shields since I had Luvile''s Tribulation Lightning. However, I don''t have any need to use Lightning-based ores anymore.'' Krune then gathered the Balance Laws on his hand, which he could only sustain for a second or so before disappearing. After that, he gathered the fused elements, the dark one. This was the type he could fully control. Even though they had different colors, the two things were very similar since they both had the five main elements and laws. Of course, the Balance Laws went much further and gathered everything else. ''I guess shields made with neutral ore would be the best choice then? Or perhaps I might as well make an alloy of several elemental ores and see how it turns out. After all, I don''t have an elemental preference anymore. Whatever it comes with, I can use.'' Krune browsed into the Blacksmith Network''s materials, trying to find something that matched his needs. It was then that he found something interesting. ''Hmm?'' -Myriad Purpose Ore- -Made by the Lua Sect on demand. This is an alloy made of several types of elemental ores. Good for most young cultivators and demon beasts who haven''t found their affinity yet.- The metal wasn''t anything impressive. If anything, it ranked quite down on the list of God Foundation Stars'' materials list for its inability to cope with anything at a high level. It was truly a multi-purpose ore for those who didn''t know what they wanted to focus on yet. One must remember that the humans and demon beasts of the God Realm would achieve the God Foundation Realm very early in their lives. Geniuses would arrive there even before reaching ten years of age. That being said, it was pretty common that they would still be testing what they wanted or not. Finding something you''re good with wasn''t as easy as it seemed. That''s why this kind of alloy was created. In fact, Krune also found a few other types similar to the Myriad Purpose Ore in the low ranks of the Blacksmith Network. However, the Myriad Purpose was the most mixed one, which served his purpose. ''Well, although it''s ranked quite low, it should be enough for me. Let''s buy it.'' Chapter 846: The Problem with Many Shields As one of the low-ranked God Foundation Stars Materials, it wasn''t anything expensive. Considering Krune''s actual income, he was able to buy more than enough for his 102 shields. Well, he would use the remaining material for repairs later on. Krune then focused on forging his first shield, which didn''t have the effects of the Purple Flame. After he was done with it, he sent his God Energy and Divine Sense inside it to control its flight. The shield then floated around, moving as Krune wished. ''Hmm... Indeed, the blockage in Divine Sense is really strong here in the God Realm. My Divine Sense can''t go more than a few tens of meters away, limiting my ability to use flying shields. Well, at least I''m already used to them, so I should be able to control all 102 simultaneously, even with this limited range.'' After some time, Krune''s shields stopped flying and fell to the ground before Krune picked it up. ''I''ll need to go to the Formations Guild so that they can inscribe an Energy Transferring Formation on each one of them. Usually, Feifei would do it for me, but she isn''t here right now, nor is Iem.'' Krune then poured more God Energy into the shield and continued to control it, trying to get used to this new piece of equipment. Only after a few hours did he reach a conclusion. ''Indeed, controlling a shield without Lightning Affinity Materials is totally different. There are the restrictions of the God Realm that make it even slower. However, even without that, it''s different how my energy moves inside. I''m using the normal black fused elements and laws together with my Mental Energy. So far, the metal''s several elements have a pretty good affinity with it. Let''s try my Balance Laws now.'' Suddenly, the black fused elements on the shield disappeared before rainbow-colored energy manifested on it. Krune still couldn''t keep it going for more than a second or two, but that was enough for him to get an idea. He kept repeating this process for some time before he nodded, satisfied. ''Great! The Balance Laws are so much better. Once I finish creating my Elements Cooperation Sub-Law, I should be able to sustain its form for much longer. Fortunately, I already know how the Initial Stage of this Sub-Law will be. I just need time to work on it now.'' It turned out that Krune''s Shield moved much faster, became much sturdier, and allowed his God Energy to circulate several times easier. It wasn''t just by a bit, but an increase of multiple times. Using Soren''s Fused Elements and Laws simply couldn''t be compared. Time passed as Krune awakened the Spirits for profit and forged his shields. Just like that, four months went by in a flash. It couldn''t be helped since every single shield took a lot of time to forge. One must remember that Krune couldn''t use the Purple Flame anymore, so it took a lot longer to do it. Besides, he was forging shields at the limit of his actual blacksmith skills. "Finally! 102 shields completed!" During this time, Krune kept passing by the Formations Guild in Sunkan City to deliver his shields. After all, he needed the God Level Formations for the transfer of God Energy between him and the flying shields without touching them. Without that, Krune''s shields couldn''t fly for more than a few tens of seconds. That was way too little. "Let''s go to the Formations Guild to deliver this last one." Krune then exited the forging room before bumping into the Blacksmith Guild''s supervisor. After being part of the guild for so long, he became quite well known. It wasn''t because of his blacksmith level but because of how fast his blacksmith skills were improving. One must remember that Krune started with a single Godly Fusion Star level. Nevertheless, he was already a God Foundation Star Blacksmith after just this little time. "Oh, Krune. I haven''t seen you in the last few weeks." Krune smiled as he greeted back. "Hello, Guild Master Juno. I was just on my way out to the Formations Guild." Juno nodded. "We have a partnership with them for Equipment Formations, so it''s good that you are using them. How was it? Did you finish all your shields?" Krune nodded before passing his last forged shield to Juno. Juno then sent his Divine Sense inside and analyzed the craftsmanship. "It''s truly a sight to behold. Just how can you make such a piece of high-quality equipment with so little experience? It''s quite a shame that you decided to use a low-level material like Multi-Purpose Metal." Krune shook his head as he replied. "I have no other choice. Unlike others, I''m specialized in all the five main elements and the two higher ones. Using a metal only good for one of them would be detrimental even if its quality is much higher." Juno nodded as he said. "Well, it''s up to you in the end. Still, are you sure you don''t want to work for the blacksmith guild? Your forging ability is really good, so you would get quite a few customers." Krune shook his head as he responded. "I''m already too busy with the Spirit Awakener Guild. Besides, they''re paying me much more than what I would make here." Juno didn''t deny that. Everyone knew that the top-earning sub-occupation was Spirit Awakening. His blacksmithing wouldn''t be able to match that, so there was nothing he could do. "Well, if you ever get bored of the Spirit Awakener Guild, we have a place for you here." Juno then continued to analyze Krune''s shield before asking. "By the way, you''re not planning to awaken your shields'' Spirits, right?" Krune had puzzlement on his face as he asked. "Why wouldn''t I?" Juno then explained. "It''s because you will spend way too long to do it. I know that you have a special method that allows you to awaken a Spirit every two or so months. However, 102 shields are way too many. By the time you finish awakening all of them, your own cultivation would have advanced. It will possibly be the time to change your shields for higher-level ones. I won''t say that there aren''t methods of transferring one Spirit to another vessel. However, the Spirit will never reach the same potential as a Spirit born there." Krune understood where Juno was coming from. "I didn''t know you could transfer Spirits between pieces of equipment." Well, that wasn''t completely true. Krune knew that as long as a Spirit cultivated Soren''s Soul Cultivation Technique, he would be able to move it out. However, Soren''s cultivation technique wasn''t available for everyone to use. Juno nodded. "It would be better for you to ask it in the Spirit Awakener Guild. However, it''s common sense that a Spirit will lose most of its strength if transferred to another vessel. It doesn''t matter how similar they are. There''s no such thing as identical equipment in this world. Everyone is unique, and so are equipment spirits and their born equipment." Krune planned to use Soren''s Soul Cultivation Technique to eventually move his Shield Spirits to higher level shields later. However, it seemed like he would need to give it further thought. After all, once he awakened their Spirits, Krune would have to raise them from the start. One must remember that Equipment Spirits were just like newborn babies. They would take a long time to ''grow up.'' By the time they''ve become old enough to understand things and start cultivating, Krune would already need a new set of higher-level shields. ''This is the kind of problem that only those who cultivate as fast as I can have. Normal cultivators and demon beasts will spend several times longer to increase their cultivations. In their case, awakening Spirits and raising them is still worth it due to how long they will use them.'' Krune reached the conclusion that awakening God Foundation Stars Equipment Spirits wouldn''t be a good idea. ''Well, Soren''s Soul Cultivation Technique is nothing like the Spirit Cultivation Techniques of the God Realm. Unfortunately, I lost my chance to ask Little Arty if he got weaker after moving out of his equipment. I can''t use Heavin as an example since he isn''t an equipment spirit, but part of my Divine Soul.'' Krune pondered if he should try it out or not. However, he shook his head in the end. If he tried, he would only awaken a single Shield Spirit. After that, he would need to wait years for it to grow up and start cultivating Soren''s Soul Cultivation Technique. Not to mention that the Spirit would need to reach the Soul Control Realm before being able to move to another vessel. The time necessary for all of that was way too long. ''It''s much more worth it to simply wait until I''m at a higher cultivation level. At that time, my cultivation speed will have dropped by hundreds of times, making me spend several years or maybe even decades before going from one Stage to another. Only then will it be worth it to raise the Shields'' Spirits.'' However, Krune still decided to awaken one Shield Spirit. ''I will use this one Spirit to analyze their power and development. Later on, I can simply let it go and live its own life after I craft higher level shields.'' Juno smiled, seeing Krune deep in thought. That was a very common sight when it came to raising Equipment Spirits. "Oh, by the way. I know it will take some time, but let me know when you reach the God Core Stars Level as Blacksmith. I think I know the perfect metal for you to make your new shields after that." Krune''s eyes lit up as he thanked him. "Alright. Thank you, Guild Master." Chapter 847: You Cant Be Serious! Krune then spent his next few days training with his shields and awakening Equipment Spirits in the Spirit Awakener Guild. Only when he was confident in his control over the shields did he finally decide to leave. Of course, he had long since thought about his destination. "So, you''re planning to take mission jobs in the Mercenary Guild, huh?" Krune nodded, saying. "I''ve thought a lot about it. But in the end, I can''t really decide on a place to try out my abilities. There are just way too many options available. Since that''s the case, I might as well use the Mercenary Guild''s mission to go around it." Krune decided to do this because that was how he started his cultivation back in Makui Planet. After he reached the Foundation Establishment Realm, he left the forest and joined the Mercenary Guild. Only then did he begin to travel everywhere. Dima didn''t think it was a bad idea. "That''s good enough. The situation in our Zamuria Empire is quite peaceful. That said, most of the missions will take place inside demon beast territories or areas where the Empire''s laws don''t mean anything. Fortunately, there''s plenty of places like that. The most common ones are trade routes between cities. I believe you''ve heard that just 23000 kilometers from here, you have the four sectors'' trade route. That''s one where you should try your missions out." Krune nodded after hearing that. That was one of the reasons he decided to take the Mercenary Guild''s missions as he did in the past. Taran had talked with him about this place. As always, Krune wouldn''t go out of his way to battle others on his own without reason. However, if others attacked him first, then that was another story. A few moments later, someone knocked on the door to Dima''s office. "Come in." Krune looked behind him and saw a man come inside. He looked to be around his forties. Well, that wasn''t considering his cultivation level and lifespan, of course. "Krune, this is the protector I arranged for you. As I mentioned, we can''t allow anything to happen to you, so he will follow you for the time being. Also, he will give you the God Foundation Star Equipment for awakening during your time out." Krune already expected that. "Hello there. I''m Krune." The man nodded at Krune as he introduced himself. "You can call me Yulian. I already heard about your situation. That being said, I will follow you, but I will not intervene unless your death is certain. Otherwise, this training of yours will make no sense." Dima was satisfied with that. "Good. Yulian is at the 9th Stage of the God Core Realm. That is more than enough to protect you against most things that your missions might bring to you. But above all, he is there to watch you and make sure you won''t stop the Spirit Awakenings while you''re at it." Krune didn''t mind. "That''s fine by me. Well, then. Shall we head off?" Krune then bid farewell to Dima and left the room with Yulian. The first place he passed by was the market, where he bought many food ingredients. Sure enough, more important than his training was his food. "Why do you need all of this? You should be able to live without food after the God Foundation Realm." Krune shook his head as he replied. "I''m also a Spiritual Chef. Naturally, I can use the food for cultivation." Other than Blacksmithing and Spirit Awakening, there was one side occupation that Krune never relaxed in his training, being a Spiritual Chef. Well, anyone who knew Krune would know that he put a lot more importance on it than any other thing. Yulian was surprised, though. "Spiritual Chef? Not only are you a Spirit Awakener, but a Spiritual Chef as well?" Even in the God Realm, being a Spiritual Chef was hard. Not to mention that there weren''t many who wanted to become one to start with. However, it was no problem for Krune, who loved food. "Hahaha! There''s nothing impressive about it. It''s just that I love cooking and food more than anything. Even if I wasn''t a Spiritual Chef, I would still bring food with me. Well, you can look forward to many days of good food and drinks. Besides, although I''m only a God Foundation Stars Chef, it should still help you a little with your cultivation as well." Yulian thought that his days following Krune would be quite a waste. If the payment wasn''t high, he wouldn''t tag along. However, his opinion already began to change. After all, Spiritual Food was also expensive in the God Realm. Once again, that was because there were way too few Spiritual Chefs. Krune then bought a lot of meat and other ingredients at the God Foundation Stars level. In the end, they were quite expensive, but Krune didn''t care. The return for his cultivation... well, who was he fooling here? It had nothing to do with his cultivation. He simply wanted to cook high-level Spiritual Food. The cultivation improvement was only a side effect. After he was done with that, Krune finally went to the Mercenary Guild. Yulian, of course, tagged along. The building was also located in the center of the city, so Krune and Yulian didn''t have to walk for much longer. This was Krune''s first time in the mercenary guild, so he went to the counter to ask more about it. "Hi, I would like to take a few Mercenary Missions." The attendant checked Krune''s cultivation with his Divine Sense and narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure? You''re just in the First Stage of the God Foundation Realm. Chances are that you will die pretty fast. Just so that you know, if you get in a dangerous situation, no one will come out to save you." Yulian wasn''t by Krune''s side since he wasn''t going to take any mission. He simply waited at the guild''s entrance. Naturally, the attendant thought Krune was alone. "Yes, I''m sure. Even if I die, I wouldn''t mind." Well, no one knew that Krune was strong enough to fight an entire realm above his cultivation level. If he still had Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning, he would be even stronger. The attendant sighed as he shook his head. However, it wasn''t his place to stop others. "Very well. You will need to pass the test first. It would be useless to have a mercenary who can''t even fight to start with." Krune already expected as much. He was then sent to another area of the guild, where he found a few other people and demon beasts. From the looks of it, he wasn''t the only one talking about the test today either. The guild was quite busy, so they held one test every day, which was good for Krune. Of course, Krune found other God Foundation Realm participants there. It''s just that the lowest level between them was 5th Stage, while he was in the first. Also, all of them looked a lot younger than Krune. There were even three participants at the 1st Stage of the God Core Realm, who also looked younger than Krune. As anyone could imagine, Krune''s cultivation caught a lot of attention. Not that Krune wanted it, of course. Yulian then came along but didn''t join the group of participants. He was only there in case the test presented some danger for his client. Not long after, the guild''s elder came forward to start the test. "Alright, my name is Goken. All you need to know is that I will judge your trials. As you know, the guild has one test every day, so you should know how it will work. Still, in case you are new here, I''ll give everyone a quick explanation." Goken continued. "We can''t afford to pay for combat puppets due to how many participants we have every day. That said, we will have you fight against each other. The rule is simple, win three battles, and you will become a mercenary. That being said, one-fourth of you will pass while the rest can try another day again." Goken then showed a serious expression as he continued. "However, we don''t want half-assed mercenaries here. That being said, you are allowed to fight each other to the full extent of your abilities. If the other side dies, it was his fault for being too weak. Just make sure that you keep enough energy for the next two battles." Krune then raised his hand to ask. "How do we decide who we will fight against?" "By drawing lots. I don''t care about the cultivation difference between the participants. Besides, luck is also part of one''s strength." "Another thing. You can admit defeat if you want. In that case, the battle will be won by your opponent. If you think you have no chance, just do that." "Last but not least, no defeats are allowed. That said, if you admit defeat even once, you are out. Come back tomorrow." It was very straightforward and far from being fair. However, that was the Mercenary Guild. There was nothing fair here to start with. Missions had never been fair. You might be attacked by groups several times your numbers during a task, and it won''t mean anything to your enemies if you tell them that it isn''t fair. The whole idea about that is that it wasn''t fair. That said, the Mercenary Guild''s Test doesn''t want to be fair either. The participants then quickly took their lots, which had a Formation to prevent anyone from using Divine Sense to cheat. However, just as Krune was about to take his one, his mouth twitched. Just now, he felt the presence of the Calamity Laws the moment he was going to draw his number. ''You can''t be serious!'' Chapter 848: Still Water Krune then took in a deep breath. So what if you appeared? I can feel you, you know? Krune quickly gave up taking that lot and moved his hand to grab the next one. However, the Calamity Laws also moved away, now acting on the lot he was about to take. Veins began to appear on Krune''s head as his expression turned dark. He ran his hands right and left, moving between the lots. Unfortunately, the Calamity Laws, or Little Cally, moved together with him, making sure that it was on the lot he wanted to draw. "You''re too despicable!" Goken''s mouth, who was holding the lots, twitched in response. Despicable? Sure, the test wasn''t fair, but why was he being cursed out of nowhere? Goken then grabbed Krune''s head as his face burned with anger. "Do you want to die?" The others looked at Krune with their eyes wide open after hearing his words. This guy sure had guts! To go out there and say such a thing to the supervisor right in front of his face. Even those at the 1st Stage of the God Core Realm wouldn''t dare to say such a thing. Krune really felt like dying right now. I''m not talking about you at all! It''s Little Cally! He''s the culprit! Of course, it would be hard to convince anyone to think that way. "Ahem... my apologies, Senior Goken. I misspoke. I definitely wasn''t talking about you." Krune''s head worked quickly as he thought up an excuse. "It''s just that drawing lots reminded me of a certain someone I''m not on good terms with. In the end, I couldn''t hold my emotions and spoke such disrespectful words. I hope this senior here can forgive this weak little one. I truly had no intention of offending you. After all, who would be idiotic enough to do such a thing here?" As Krune said that, a familiar voice echoed in his mind... ''Hahahaha! This is too damn funny. You really are the best!'' Krune truly wanted to curse out loud again. However, he knew that he might die if he did so. He could only endure the boiling rage inside him and take a deep breath. Goken narrowed his eyes and eventually let Krune go. In the end, Krune''s argument made sense. He would truly have to be an idiot to curse him in such a place like that. "Hmph! Consider yourself lucky. I''m in a good mood today, so I''ll let you go. Now, stop wasting my time and grab a lot already." Krune nodded, thanking the man in front of him. "Thank you, Senior Goken." Without any other choice, Krune pulled one of the lots, which Little Cally obviously altered somehow. ''Ignore it. Ignore it. Pretend Little Cally doesn''t exist. He will get bored at some point and leave.'' The other participants were surprised that Krune still escaped a beating. However, that was just about it. They put those thoughts behind their heads and went to take their lots as well. After some, everyone had finished taking their lots. Goken nodded after that before he activated another formation. Suddenly, everyone''s lots began to shine as some numbers appeared on them. Following that, a screen lit up on the wall, showing everyone''s three opponents for the test. If they wanted to pass it, they had to win all three battles. At first, everyone only paid attention to their own opponents. However, once they finished looking at their own, they also looked at the other battles that would happen. It was then that they noticed something off. "That guy... is going to fight three God Core Realm participants?" In an instant, everyone looked at Krune, the only 1st Stage God Foundation Realm participant this time around. In fact, everyone wished to take him as an opponent. However, none of them thought that the three strongest participants would end up fighting the weakest one. Krune''s mouth twitched as he looked at the result. Out of nowhere, someone patted Krune''s shoulder, showing some pity on his eyes as he said. "Brother, how are you so unlucky? Well, I guess you can also consider it as another form of luck." Another one nodded, saying. "That''s destiny telling you not to become a mercenary with your current cultivation." "The gods must have done it. It''s a sign, trying to make you give up the battles before they start." "In a certain way, this is the God Realm thinking of his wellbeing. Just admit defeat when your battles start, brother." Krune''s expression became darker the more everyone talked. ''What destiny? What fate? Fuck all of that. It''s all Little Cally''s fault! He was the one who did it! Everyone''s doing it for my wellbeing? There''s no way in hell that Little Cally wished that!'' Of course, Krune didn''t say that out loud. ''Stay calm. Pretend you didn''t hear anything. If I really leave today, Little Cally will come and bother me again tomorrow. Krune, you won''t let that perverted law bother you. Your mind is still. Your body is water. You are still water! Nothing can bother you! Litle Cally simply doesn''t exist. Yes, let''s go with that. There is no such thing as sentient laws. That''s perfect!'' As Krune tried his hardest to maintain a state of ''still water,'' the battles started. Naturally, those three God Core Realm participants were quite pleased. Their main concern was to fight against each other. But in the end, they only got those in the God Foundation Realm as opponents. They were even more pleased that one of them was Krune. Without much issues, the first God Core Realm guy won in the fight against his opponent, and so did the second one. Eventually, Krune''s turn for battle arrived. "Krune vs. Lotaro. Come forward." Lotaro snorted as he stood on one side of the arena. "Hey, idiot. Just leave the arena already. I won''t gain anything even if I beat you out of here." Krune arrived right after. However, it was as if he didn''t hear Lotaro at all. Well, that was the truth. At the moment, he was just thinking about himself. ''Still water... still water... you are still water.'' At first, everyone didn''t pay much attention to this battle. They all thought Krune would admit defeat straight away. After all, we''re talking about an entire realm of difference here. However, their predictions didn''t become a reality. "Is he... ignoring Lotaro?" "That can''t be... right?" "Is he suicidal or something?" "Perhaps...? There are crazy people and beasts for everything." Goken''s eyebrows raised a bit, noticing that Krune didn''t leave the arena. However, that was about it. Whatever happened to Krune wouldn''t be his problem. "Start!" Lotaro narrowed his eyes as he looked at Krune. Even up to now, Krune didn''t look at him at all. It was as if Lotaro wasn''t even there. Naturally, that displeased Lotaro a lot. "Hey, beast. Are you listening to me?" Nothing... However, another vein popped out of Krune''s head. ''Still water... ignore the noise, still water...'' Lotaro''s patience was already running thin by now. "You dare ignore me?" Lotaro''s God Energy began to overflow as he dashed in Krune''s direction. Each step made the ground tremble with his power. Well, he wasn''t the only one losing his temper. "Shut up! Can''t you see I''m trying to maintain a state of still water?" Huh? That was the thought inside everyone''s minds. Still water? What the hell was he talking about? Lotaro was taken aback for a second. But soon after, he finally exploded in rage. A puny 1st Stage God Foundation Realm cultivator was treating him like air in front of everyone. How could he bear that? "Fuck you, you piece of shit. You asked for it!" With that, Lotaro pounced forward as he brought his weapon forward, an enormous hammer. His momentum increased as the Earth Element and laws gathered around his body. The arena trembled even more before he arrived right in front of Krune. "Die!!!" Eventually, Krune''s temper exploded as well. God Energy burst out of his body together with all the elements and laws. Krune didn''t retreat from the attack at all. Instead, one of his new shields came out of his Spatial Ring, stopping right in front of his fist. "I told you... to SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Soon after, Krune punched out with his shield. At first, everyone thought that Krune had gone mad. Yulian even made his way to the arena, ready to break into the protection formation to save Krune. However, the unbelievable happened after that. They all expected the shield to break apart or to be sent back, smashing Krune''s arm and body together. In their eyes, Krune was already dead. Unfortunately for them, that didn''t happen. Instead, Krune''s shield flashed with a rainbow light for a second. They didn''t know what it was, but they all saw how Lotaro''s hammer crumbled in front of Krune''s Shield Punch! Krune''s momentum didn''t stop as he hit Lotaro''s body right after. *Bang!* Not long after, Lotaro shot like a cannonball back from where he came. *Bang! Shatter!* He hit the protection formation of the arena, which couldn''t bear the power of the impact and shattered as well. Eventually, Lotaro collided with the wall all the way back, leaving a human-shaped indent on it before he slowly slid down. "Phew... That feels a lot better. Still water. I am still water. Nothing can anger me. Yes, definitely. I''m totally calm." Krune then took in a deep breath before looking at Goken, who had his mouth agape. He then asked. "Senior Goken, when does my first battle start?" *Bang!* Everyone fell with their faces on the ground. Brother! You can''t be serious, right? Was Lotaro''s existence not that substantial to you? Goken quickly recovered before asking. "Are you making fun of me? Didn''t you just send your opponent flying right now?" Krune was taken aback. Eventually, he realized what Goken was talking about. "Ah! But... I just attacked him because he didn''t shut up. Was that considered the first battle?" Goken''s mouth twitched in response, trying his best to maintain his calm. "Why the hell do you think I called you then? Can''t you see where you are? This is the testing arena! Why did you come up?" Krune scratched the back of his head as he responded. "I wasn''t paying attention. My body moved by itself when I heard my name." No one knew whether they should laugh or cry. Doesn''t that mean that Krune wasn''t showing his full power at all? If one was this strong when one wasn''t paying attention, then just how strong can one be if one took it seriously? Krune couldn''t help but sigh, eventually asking. "Then... Can I fight the other two already?" As soon as he said those words... "I admit defeat!" "I admit defeat!" The other two God Core Realm guys admitted defeat straight away. Are you kidding? Lotaro was already half-dead! Lotaro wasn''t much stronger or weaker than themselves to start with. If they went up to the arena, they would definitely end up in an even worse state. There was always tomorrow''s test. They could try again by then. Krune, of course, didn''t know how to react, scratching his head as he asked with an awkward chuckle. "Errr... Ahem... Does that mean I passed the test?" Goken''s mouth twitched again before saying. "If you didn''t pass, then who would?" Chapter 849: Alright Then Yulian looked at Krune as if he was a monster. That was an entire cultivation realm''s worth of difference, you know? Of course, he wasn''t the only one. Everyone in the room couldn''t help but feel like idiots for their previous thoughts about Krune. If anything, they were the true pieces of trash here. Their cultivations were higher than Krune, but most of them didn''t have any confidence whatsoever in defeating a God Core Realm opponent. Krune sighed as he went down from the arena. However, his expression was terrible. That expression puzzled everyone since they thought he should be happy with his easy victory. Little did they know that a certain law was laughing into his ears. "Hahaha! So much for still water. Hahahaha! Oh, by the way, nice use of the Rainbow Laws! Hahaha!" "Balance! It''s Balance!" Krune wanted to die already. The worst thing was that he was powerless against Little Cally. How the hell can one even beat a law? That''s not possible. Well, Little Cally was more of an aggregation of all laws, to be more precise. Nonetheless, there was no way to deal with him. After that, Krune stayed in the room as the other participants went through their fights. In the end, less than one-fifth of them passed. After all, one had to win three times. Unsurprisingly, that condition gave a lot of room for failure. The worst part was when one had to fight the others when one lost their previous one. That person wouldn''t get anything, but the test had to be finished. Eventually, Goken called all the successful participants to come with him to register for the Mercenary Guild. As the winners left, the ones who stayed behind began to talk about Krune''s combat power. Not to mention those who were not participating but just watching. To them, his combat prowess was just way too heaven-defying. And just like that, word of Krune''s strength began to spread in the entire guild. Not only that, the recording of his fight began to be shared everywhere in the network. All the mercenaries present in the guild seemed to be looking into their communicators at this new hot topic. Back at Krune''s side, he and the other participants had to make new IDs and things like that. The process didn''t take that long, though. After one hour or so, everyone left the room with their Mercenary Badges. However, the moment Krune stepped out of the room, everyone in the Mercenary Hall looked in his direction. Krune might not have been that well-known before. However, his performance definitely fixed that problem. "Could it be that he''s one of those big clans'' geniuses?" "He must be, right? Otherwise, how can he bridge that one realm gap?" "Still, isn''t that way too much? Lotaro must have dropped his guard." "Ha! So, are you saying that dropping your guard is enough for you to beat someone an entire realm above you in a single strike?" "This..." Krune heard all the comments going around and felt helpless once again. Without any choice, he could only make his way out of the guild as fast as possible. Suddenly, a small group approached him. "Hello there, brother. I''m Lucida Zian, those two on my side are Hulio and Kava. We''re looking for new members for our hunting group. What do you think? Are you interested in joining us? Hulio and Kava are in the 8th and 9th Stages of the God Foundation Realm. As for me, I''m in the 3rd Stage of the God Core Realm. Someone with your strength would be very welcome." He wasn''t the only one, though. "Hey, hey, hey! Forget what this guy said. Join my group, bro. We have two God Core Realm members. By the way, I''m Falin. Nice to meet you." "Why would he join such weak teams like yours? You''re all in the F Rank at the moment, so to him, it would just be a waste. Brother Krune, we have just been promoted to the E Rank even though we only have a single God Core Realm member, me. The other two are in the God Foundation Realm, just like you. How about you join us? Even though my cultivation is the highest, we''ll still share all the rewards equally." Krune became puzzled as he listened to their offers. "F Rank? E Rank? What''s all of that about?" Yulian, who was beside him, explained soon after. "You can create Mercenary Teams and go out on missions together. Look at the Mercenary Network. You will notice that there are tasks marked as Team Missions and Single ones. Many use it to increase their own individual rank in the Mercenary Guild." Krune remembered that the Mercenary Guild he entered back in Makui Planet also had a ranking system for the mercenaries themselves. "Does that mean I can become a One God Foundation Stars Mercenary and things like that?" Yulian shook his head as he cleared it up. "No. The individual rankings are the same as the team rankings. For example, you just joined the guild, so you''re an F Rank mercenary. However, as long as you do three Rank E Missions, you will be promoted to Rank E as well." "However, completing Rank E Tasks are easier if you do it in groups. It''s just that you will need to finish a lot more Rank E Missions to be individually promoted to Rank E. That''s what these guys are doing. As long as more than 50% of your team members become Rank E Mercenaries, your team will also be considered a Rank E Team." The others then looked at Yulian, feeling somewhat apprehensive. That''s because the ones at the God Core Realm could tell that Yulian was at the 9th Stage of the same Realm, far above them. Not only that, but Yulian was also well-known in the Mercenary Guild since he was a Rank D Mercenary. Rank D Mercenaries were usually in the Nascent God Realm. You could still become a Rank D Mercenary if you went on missions with a good enough team. However, Yulian did that alone, which showed that he was far stronger than his realm dictated. That was also one of the reasons why he was chosen to protect Krune. The payment was good, and he was known for his high rate of success during his missions. "Brother Yulian, are you thinking of creating a team?" Yulian looked at the guy before shaking his head, replying. "If you want to invite him to your team, go ahead. I have nothing to do with it. I''m just here by coincidence." Everyone sighed in relief after that. That meant that Krune was still free. "In that case, join my group, Brother Krune." "No, join mine! We have greater potential!" "Ha! What a joke! Forget them, Brother Krune. You definitely want to join mine since we''re already a Rank E Team." Krune scratched the back of his head in helplessness. He wasn''t planning to join any group to start with. Instead, he was going to take a few protection missions in the borders of the sectors, just as Taran mentioned. He would purposely join a few smaller caravans, expecting to find some bandits here and there to try his strength out. It was then that Yulian sent him a Divine Sense message. ''You should really consider entering a team. Even though you''re much stronger than your cultivation shows, none of the possible clients know about that. That being said, they will only look at your 1st Stage God Foundation Realm cultivation. Just so you know, contractors can refuse applicants if they think they aren''t up to the task. However, if you join a team, especially a Rank E one, they will ignore your presence and accept the team since the rest are strong enough.'' Krune was taken aback for a moment. Indeed. With his cultivation, he would only be accepted for very simple tasks. That would be far from enough to test his own power since he was much stronger than those at his level. ''But... How should I choose a team? There are way too many inviting me right now.'' Yulian then explained. ''Well... First, you can limit your choices based on what you want to do and the rank of the team you wish to join. Do you want to take Rank E missions or Rank F? Where do you want to take your missions? This alone should make your choice a lot easier. Other than that, it''s completely up to you.'' Krune was happy to see Yulian helping him this much. After some time, he looked at the teams before saying. "Ahem... I don''t mind joining one of the teams. However, I have a clear target of what I wish to do at the moment. My plan is to head to the four sector''s borders and help travelers, merchants, or whatever group fend off bandits. Don''t ask me why I want to do it. Just know that this is what I''m going to do. If your teams don''t intend to do the same thing, then there''s no need for you to invite me." Suddenly, everyone''s expressions changed, with one of them asking Krune. "Brother... are you sure you want to do such a thing?" "Krune, you shouldn''t let your strength cloud your decisions. The Mercenary Jobs in that place are all Rank D and above." "Exactly. After all, many goods are transported in those regions. It''s very dangerous even if you join a Rank E Team. Even so, those Rank E Teams must be really short on money if they decide to take on such jobs." Krune was surprised to hear that. He didn''t expect that the four sectors'' borders were that dangerous. However, that definitely suited his wishes. If he wanted to test his limits, that would be a good place. It was then that a couple came out. "The four sectors'' borders? In this case, join us, brother. We''re only two people. If you join, we can finally have three members." Everyone snorted when they heard that. This couple was only at the 7th and 8th Stage of the God Foundation Realm. First of all, they weren''t even a team since you needed three members to register. Krune would need to be an idiot to join such a weak group with so many better options around him. However... "Oh! Alright, then." *Bang!* Everyone fell with their faces on the ground. Brother, you must be joking, right? Chapter 850: That Makes Me Sick! The others weren''t the only ones thinking that they had heard something wrong. The couple who invited Krune thought of the same thing. First of all, they only tried to ask Krune out of curiosity. Not even for a second did they expect Krune to accept their offer. "Are you... for real?" Krune nodded as he replied. "You two should do it. You''re not a team yet, right? You need three members to make a group, or you can''t get registered as one. That being said, I might as well join you and form a team." Someone else couldn''t help but intervene, asking. "Wait, wait, wait! I don''t understand. Why would you select them instead of us here? With your strength, you could choose much better options." Sure enough, the couple and everyone else were curious about Krune''s reason. However, Krune looked at them with a puzzled expression, saying. "Isn''t that obvious? You guys have already formed your teams. Even if I don''t join, your team won''t cease to exist. However, this couple still needs one more member. If I don''t join, they can''t create a group. I''m obviously more needed on their side." Immediately, everyone had the same thought. ''What kind of bullshit reason is that? You ignored many benefits just because you wanted to help them? Who the hell does that with a talent like yours?'' In fact, even the couple felt like Krune was doing something idiotic. After Krune was finished explaining his reasons, Yulian sent him a Divine Sense Message. ''You will only be a Rank F Team if you do that.'' Krune nodded as he responded back. ''That''s fine. I don''t mind starting from the bottom. Besides, they were the only ones who didn''t seem to care about going to the Four Sectors'' Borders.'' Krune then laughed. "Hahaha! Come on, guys. You don''t need to treat them like that just because their cultivation is low. Who knows? They might become some big shots in the future. In any case, have you not heard? They are the only ones who seem to want to go to the Four Sectors'' Borders. How about you guys? You seem to be too afraid of it to accept my idea." Everyone''s expressions were definitely that of puzzlement. They still found Krune''s reasoning way too naive. The man then scratched the back of his head as he said. "Errr... That''s great, brother. By the way, my name is Vardin. I''m... a Silver Winged Mouse." The woman also introduced herself. "You can call me Diana. I''m... a Silver Winged Mouse as well." Everyone felt even more helpless now. Silver Winged Mouses! In their eyes, Krune''s choice couldn''t have become worse. They could be found almost everywhere in the nearby empires, and probably far beyond that as well. Even though they had the phrase ''Silver Winged'' in the name of their species, the fact was that they couldn''t fly. They do have Silver Wings, but they''re way too small to lift their body weight. If they wanted to fly, they would need to reach the Semi-God Realm. Simply put, this was a very weak demon beast race. Besides... "I can''t believe he joined such an ugly couple of Silver Winged Mouses." "Krune''s also a Demon Beast. Could it be that he''s a Silver Winged Mouse as well?" "Of course not! No Silver Winged Mouse could hope to have such talent. Not only are they ugly as hell, but their abilities are also just as bad." These kinds of comments began to come from everywhere, not minding that Vardin and Diana could hear them at all. However, Vardin and Diana didn''t seem to be surprised by that, nor did they seem to have the need to retort them either. It was as if they also agreed with what the others were saying about them. Krune then looked at Yulian before asking through a Divine Sense Message. Naturally, he found that reaction weird... and quite familiar. ''Is there something wrong with Silver Winged Mouses?'' Yulian pondered over the question for a bit before answering. ''It''s not that there''s something wrong about them. However, this isn''t exactly a race that others think highly of. They have very high fertility, so they reproduce really fast. In a certain way, people and other beasts don''t like them because there are just too many. Well, there''s also their appearance. Those two are in their human forms, so you can''t see them. However, I have to admit that their race is quite ugly.'' Yulian then continued. ''It''s a weird, wrong mix of mammals and birds that doesn''t make that much sense. Personally, I don''t really care whether a race looks good or not. But as you can see, most still don''t like it. I guess the only reason they told you their race straight away was that you wouldn''t feel like you were fooled into creating a team with them. Otherwise, I doubt they would have told what race they were from to avoid such scenes.'' Krune''s expression became ugly as he asked something else right after. ''So it''s not like that they''re some evil race or anything like that, right?'' Yulian nodded. ''You can put it like that. If you look deep into their race''s role in the demon beast regions, they aren''t as bad as the humans and other demon beasts put them. For example, demon beast regions are ruled by the law of the jungle. There, it is common to hunt other demon beasts for food. Thanks to their stupidly high fertility, other races prey on the Silver Winged Mouses a lot. It''s not wrong to say that the Silver Winged Mouses help keep the balance between other races with their own lives. When you look at them like that, their existence is quite good in many places.'' ''Well, the thing is that the majority didn''t care about these things, so...'' Krune nodded. He was a Spiritual Chef, so he wouldn''t say something like it was wrong to hunt demon beasts for eating. Krune himself has cooked many types of beasts in the past, including humans, for his Spiritual Chef Test. He always adhered to the rule that if you can eat others, others can eat you as well. Simple as that. Silver Winged Mouses needed to eat as well, so there''s no doubt that they killed and ate their own share of living beings to survive in demon beast regions. ''If that''s the case, why are they being treated like that? They do play a very important role even if they''re preyed on. Can''t they see how significant Silver Winged Mouses are?'' Yulian shrugged his shoulders. ''Don''t say that to me. It''s just as I told you before. I don''t care whether they''re ugly or not. I couldn''t care less whether the Silver Winged Mouse race can keep their role as prey, hunters, balancers, or whatever. As long as they don''t bother me or continue to do their work, I''m fine with it. If you want to complain, go ahead and complain to the people and beasts around you.'' After that, Yulian gave Krune a piece of advice, though it was more of his opinion. ''I would advise you to not form a team with them, though. Also, I''m not saying it because I have some bias against them. However, one thing is undeniable about the Silver Winged Mouses, they''re a very weak race. Any of the other teams around you are several times better in case you can convince them to go to the Four Sectors'' Region.'' However, Krune''s eyes narrowed. How could he not understand how they felt? He definitely didn''t choose Diana and Vardin because of their races. It was just that they didn''t mind heading to the Four Sectors'' Border Region. Besides, he wasn''t lying when he said that he just wanted to help them complete a team since they had the cultivation necessary for his needs. First of all, he didn''t even know what a Silver Winged Mouse was since it wasn''t a race from the realms below. Still, he knew way too well how bad it was to be treated like that because of your race. However, Diana and Vardin had gotten the wrong idea. They saw how Krune''s expression turned dark after hearing that they were Silver Winged Mouses. In their eyes, Krune was disappointed with their race, so they decided to leave without causing more trouble. Of course, the last thing Krune cared about was that. His dark expression was because of how the others treated the couple. Krune then noticed the couple leaving and quickly caught up with them. "Wait, where are you going?" Vardin scratched the back of his head with a bitter smile before saying. "It''s fine, brother. I can tell that you don''t seem very pleased, so we''re just leaving. In any case, thank you for accepting the offer a moment back. It was fun to hear that. Hahaha!" Everyone nodded. "At least they know what''s good for them." "Well, Krune showing that annoying expression was to be expected." "Hahaha! They had no other choice but to tell what race they were from." "Exactly. If Krune found about it later and felt like he was fooled by them, they would be dead since he was several times stronger." "Why did they even offer Krune to create a team with them?" "Isn''t that obvious? Silver Winged Mouses always cause trouble. This is just one more of those incidents." Krune showed a puzzled expression after hearing Vardin''s words, though. "What are you talking about? Indeed, I''m not pleased. Why the hell would these idiots judge your potential because of your race? That makes me sick!" Krune then put his arms around Diana and Vardin''s shoulders before dragging them along. "Come, let''s create our team. Hahaha!" Chapter 851: Thats Not the Name! "B-Brother, are you serious?" Vardin couldn''t believe his ears, glancing at Diana to see that she also had the same expression on her face. They stared at each other, watching Krune''s hands hang over their shoulders. Krune laughed in response as he said, "Of course. Someone''s potential cannot be judged by their race. Among the humans and the many demon beasts, there are both the strong and the weak." Diana smiled wryly as she said in response, "There isn''t any race that likes us Silver Winged Mouses. I''m afraid we''ll just drag you down." "Wasn''t it the two of you that invited me? We share the same destination, so we might as well head there as a team." Krune shrugged his shoulders. "Besides, it''s my choice to join you as a team. I don''t care about the opinions of some idiots I''ve never seen before. Come, let''s register ourselves at the guild now." "Thank you, brother." Vardin smiled after hearing that, showing a grateful expression. This was the first time he and Diana weren''t discriminated against because of their race. They followed Krune into the Mercenary Guild and headed straight to the counter. "Hello, we would like to form a team." The attendant knew about Krune after his shocking performance in the mercenary tests, so he didn''t say anything against him. Though, at the very moment he noticed the couple standing behind Krune, the attendant spoke without caring if his words would hurt them. "Forming a team with Silver Winged Mouses will endanger your life. They are unreliable in battles. You may be strong, but you''re only in the First Stage of the God Foundation Realm. Team missions are usually more dangerous than individual missions. You would be putting your life at risk leaving your backs to them." ''Again with that crap. This is starting to piss me off.'' Krune spoke without mincing his words, "Just as I said before, even if I die, I wouldn''t mind. I decide how to lead my life." "Fine, don''t say I didn''t warn you." The attendant snorted in response. He wasn''t patient enough to care about the lives of the mercenaries. If they survived, they earned the rewards of the missions. If they died, then it was their fault. Mercenaries joined and died too often for him to care about. He was already being polite with his warning. He had already done his job. Beyond that was the fate the mercenaries wished to plunge into. "State your names." "Krune." "Vardin." "Diana." "Your three have formed an F Rank Mercenary Team. Do you have a team name? Who among you shall be the team leader?" The attendant looked at Krune, deciding beforehand that he was going to be its leader. Krune had defeated an opponent in the God Core Realm with a single hit, ignoring an entire realm between them. He was definitely a genius in terms of fighting. On top of that, his cultivation was only at First Stage God Foundation Realm when he achieved that feat. On the other hand, even though the Silver Winged Mouses were in the Seventh and Eighth Stage of the God Foundation Realm, they were weaker than an average cultivator in their respective stages. So, it was given that the strongest among them, Krune, would be the leader. Krune was annoyed by the attendant''s behavior. But when he saw the couple back away from the task, he sighed and chose to become the leader. "I''ll be its leader. As for the name¡­" Krune gave it some real thought this time. Unlike the incident with Little Cally, he wanted to give the name of his team some serious thought. He wanted to move and fight as a team for the time being. Fighting as a team and fighting alone were different things. He wished to explore both forms and temper himself. That way, his cultivation wouldn''t stagnate. Teaming up with someone who shared the same destination was difficult in the vast God Realm, and it was through a stroke of luck that the couple found him. To appreciate the effort, he wished to give the team name some serious consideration. "You can change it later if you want. Most teams change their team names once they move up to E Rank." The attendant yawned as he uttered, feeling bored. He just wished someone else would give him work so that he could push them aside while using that as an excuse. Unfortunately for him, luck wasn''t on his side. Krune''s eyes lit up soon after, having thought up of a really good name. "We''ll call ourselves the Winged Wisps." His naming sense had long surpassed the God Realm. "Alright, Winged Wasps it is." A cough from the back caused him to mishear it as the attendant noted it wrong, seeping his Godly Energy into a Nine Stars God Foundation Equipment that was shaped like an ink pad. The ink on it swished as it converged into a sphere, elongating into a rectangular slab to which three tokens were attached. "It''s Winged Wisps, not Winged Wasps." Krune retorted in a hurry, lamenting as he saw the tokens form. "Pfft, Winged Wasps. I like that name. More like winged¡­gasps." It was unknown who was the first one that laughed, but the guild soon resounded with raucous laughter. "Sorry¡­" Diana muttered under her breath, ashamed of herself. Vardin was about to apologize to Krune when he saw the latter seem unconcerned about the mockery. Seeing their expressions, Krune offered them advice, "It doesn''t matter. My plan stays the same. What about the two of you?" "Yes, we have to go to the Four Sectors'' Border Region no matter what," Diana resolutely said, gripping her hand into a fist. "Then, it''s decided," Krune grabbed hold of the three tokens before saying, "Winged Wisps or Winged Wasps, it doesn''t matter." "Each token is for a member. Your name and the team you belong to are displayed on it and registered in our database." The attendant then pointed at the mission board. "You can choose the Mercenary Missions from them. But remember that even if you pick a mission, if the client refuses to accept your service, the guild will ask you to pick another one." Krune and the couple arrived before the mission board, looking through the missions listed on it. -Search for the missing prince -Act as an escort for the xxx Sect Elder -Search for the clues of the Predominated Fruit The first mission had caught his eye. Krune noticed that the destination of the mission was the Four Sectors'' Border Region. But upon seeing the mission was listed as a D Rank Mission, he gave up on it. It wasn''t that he wasn''t willing to pick up the mission. Instead, his Mercenary Rank prevented him from doing so. Even if he picked it up, the client wouldn''t accept him. Instead of that, it was better to find something within his range. Escort missions for caravans were those he preferred. They were fairly targeted by the bandits in the Four Sectors'' Border Region. Guarding it gave him a lot of opportunities to hone his skills and temper himself in battle. He wasn''t the type to seek battle, but if the battle was brought to his doorsteps, then he didn''t have any intention of avoiding it. -Guard the Pitlook Merchant Caravan until Hworn City. Reward: 1000 Rank One God Stones per F Rank Mercenary. "This is perfect for us." Krune picked up the F Rank mission poster and looked at the couple, seeing them nod to show their approval. He then presented it to the attendant who worked with it, contacted the buyer, and gave them the go-ahead. "The client accepts your Mercenary Team of three. You can meet him in the nearby inn. His name is Trivar." Krune smiled after hearing that. "Thank you." He felt that he was quite lucky. Despite it being his first mission or the first mission of his team, the client had accepted it so quickly. The reward wasn''t much, but he wasn''t in it for the rewards anyway. He had the highest rewarding sub-profession to help him in that regard. Without further ado, their team of three, the Winged Wasps, headed to the inn. They soon met up with Trivar, the head of Pitlook Merchant Caravan. "I''m Trivar," The demon beast in human form introduced himself. He was a middle-aged man slightly gaining in on his years. His wrinkled face smiled as he looked at Krune, saying, "I heard of your shocking battle from a friend of mine, so I accepted your Mercenary Team immediately." "It''s my pleasure." Krune smiled, getting a good feeling of the other party based on his courtesy. Well, it wasn''t as if he needed to be concerned about the client too much. But working with someone amicable still felt good. At least, he didn''t have to worry about guarding a caravan of thugs. "The caravan will set off in two days. So, it would be for the best if you arrive then. We''ll provide you with food and a place to stay during the journey. You''ll only have to make a move when the caravan is attacked. There would be three other teams like yours. And once you have completed the mission successfully, you can claim the mission rewards from the Hworn City''s Mercenary Guild." "That''s fine by me." Krune nodded in response before asking with curiosity, "How long will the journey take?" "Sir, have you been through the Four Sectors'' Border Region before?" Trivar asked in surprise. Those who headed towards the Four Sectors'' Border Region without knowing much about it were usually people desperate for God Stones. For a moment, he was afraid if he had chosen the wrong team in his hurry. Well, it wasn''t as if his worries were without cause. Merchant caravans transported a lot of goods with high value, usually items of deficit in the destination city. So, they held a lot of commercial value, which was why bandits usually raided them. There had been desperados who even risked losing their Mercenary Token just to steal the transported wares. "This would be my first," Krune replied frankly. Vardin and Diana, too, echoed his response. ''The remaining two in his team don''t look that strong. And despite the power he had shown, he''s still a One Stage God Foundation Realm cultivator. He cannot sustain himself in a drawn-out battle. The other teams are many times stronger than them, and I have worked with them a couple of times. However, Krune is part of the Spirit Awakener''s Guild, so there shouldn''t be any problems with that.'' After coming to a logical conclusion, Trivar flashed a businessman''s smile as he began explaining the inner workings of the Four Sectors'' Border Region. Chapter 852: Skewed Sense of Money "The Four Sectors'' Border Region is a vast canyon surrounded by steep cliffs, forming a complex labyrinth. Unless you have a route map, you''re more or less likely to be lost in it. The location also makes it simple for bandits to move around, hence why it is dangerous," Trivar explained with a smile. "Of course, we''ve also come across numerous skeletons of bandits in the past that had taken a wrong path after looting merchant caravans in a hurry. Unsurprisingly, they aimlessly roamed the canyon until they eventually died." "If the canyon is that risky, why can''t they just fly over it? If they employ demon beasts capable of flight, surely the journey would be simple, right?" Krune was confused. In the God Realm, one could only take flight at the Semi-God Stage. But that didn''t mean that flying itself was impossible. Any species with wings powerful enough to lift their bodies were able to soar through the skies. Also, it wasn''t an act that depended on their cultivation realm, but on the innate strength of their muscles obtained through their races. Hence, it made no sense why no one tried to fly above it. If they were able to look at the area from above, they would have been able to map out the entire canyon, making the journey easy. On top of that, taming the beasts to fly over it would have been easy. The Beast Tamer profession wasn''t that rare after all. "If only that was possible," Trivar let out a helpless sigh as he said. "At the top of the canyon grows a mysterious vine that we haven''t been able to understand even to this day. That vine numbers in the billions and covers the entire region. Whenever any cultivator gets close to it, the vines would instantly latch on the cultivator and devour them whole. Most of the time, they only target those cultivators flying in midair. That''s why no one has tried to cross the Four Sectors'' Border Region through the air." "How tall are they? If we can fly at an incredibly high altitude, surely avoiding them would be possible," Diana stated her opinion, sneaking a quick glance at Krune. "That''s not possible either." Trivar shook his head. "The top of the canyon is a place dominated by the Restriction Law. With that, most of the other laws are restricted there. Of course, that also includes flight. You cannot fly above a certain altitude once you enter the Four Sectors'' Border Region. Even Semi-God Realm cultivators are no exception. Also, this height is well within the range of the Predominated Vines." "The Restriction Law." Krune frowned, having never heard of a law that could restrict other laws. There were places where some laws were dominant. But that was only because they were used by the majority. The fact that a law could restrict other laws despite being at the same level was a first for him as well. "I''ve never heard that something like this was possible." "The God Realm is incredibly vast, so vast that even someone at the Primal God Realm cannot hope to explore every nook and cranny even after they expend their entire lifespan. There might be more mystical places out there like the Four Sectors'' Border Region." Krune then felt the true scale of the God Realm as Trivar talked, realizing just how insignificant his existence was in the grand scale of things. "Then, what is a Predominated Fruit?" Vardin asked, expressing his doubt. "So, you must have seen that mission as well. That''s posted in the Mercenary Guild of every city on our continent." Trivar waved his hand as he explained, "There have been cases where a Predominated Vine, once matured, produces a single fruit. If left alone, the Predominated Fruit would melt and evaporate. And when it does, it strengthens the Restriction Law in the region. But¡­" Trivar trailed forth, sensing their cultivation bases as he chuckled. "But when a cultivator in the God Foundation Realm consumes it, all their laws would be absorbed into the fruit''s essence and instantly condense their Spiritual Incarnation." "Spiritual Incarnation!" Diana involuntarily shouted in shock. "Yes." Trivar nodded at her. "Creating a Spiritual Incarnation is tremendously difficult and has to be completed when one is in the God Foundation Realm. If they fail to create it, then their cultivation would stagnate in that realm for the entirety of their lives. To avoid such a risk, most cultivators ignore it and directly head to the God Core Realm." "But." His expression turned serious, almost zealous as he spoke with a tone of worship, "A cultivator who completes their Spiritual Incarnation is almost unkillable by those at the same realm and even those at a realm higher." "Spiritual Incarnation." Krune felt his heart thump all of a sudden, feeling that something in him had resonated with the term. ''So, what I was planning to do all along would form a Spiritual Incarnation?'' It gave him a clearer perspective. Instead of using the laws in their empirical form, combining them and structuring them into a collective whole would give him a far more stable power. Based on what Trivar said, that would result in a Spiritual Incarnation. But he also realized their difficulty and why most cultivators just avoided them and proceeded to the God Core Realm. At present, Krune was only able to maintain his Balance Laws for two seconds. They were unstable. He didn''t even know what he should do to proceed in order to create his Spiritual Incarnation. "How do we create our Spiritual Incarnations?" Diana asked, slightly curious. "I have no idea. Only a select few families possess the method to condense one. All I know is the fact that we have to combine all our laws into it." Trivar shook his head as he gave a vague answer. "This is why the Predominated Fruit is incredibly important. Consuming it would make the process of creating your Spiritual Incarnation automatic. Naturally, you still need to comprehend a sufficient number of laws to create a cohesive Spiritual Incarnation. If you don''t have enough laws, your Spiritual Incarnation would be incomplete even if you consume the fruit." Trivar sighed. "Nevertheless, obtaining a Predominated Fruit is a D Rank mission. So, you have a general idea on how hard it is to actually get one." ''Why was it never mentioned to me before?'' Krune thought about his friends, shaking his head soon after as he realized it wouldn''t have made any difference. As long as he didn''t live under a rock and explored the God Realm, he was bound to come across the term. Also, since it was something that could only be completed in the God Foundation Realm, his friends probably forgot to tell him. When they split, he was only in the Transformation Realm after all. "How¡­long will we be traveling? How many teams, including us, will be accompanying the caravan?" Vardin took the chance to ask. "There will be four teams, including yours. Three are F Rank teams, while the last is an E Rank team," Trivar responded succinctly. It wasn''t some sort of secret information anyway. The Mercenary Guild had them, and the teams that joined were bound to meet up when they departed. Besides, most of Trivar''s trust in Krune came from the fact that he was affiliated with the Spirit Awakener Guild. He frowned a bit as he looked at the two Silver-Winged Mouses but didn''t show a drastic change in emotion on his face. He was a merchant. Money was what dictated his emotions and decisions. He made eye contact with Vardin, speaking with the same tone he used towards Krune, "The Demon Beasts used by our Pitlook Merchant Caravan can trek for long distances without rest. They can even take flight for a short duration. We use that to navigate around dangerous terrain and reduce our time of travel." Speaking about his Demon Beasts brought a look of pride on his face, showing that he valued them greatly. "With that, despite the treacherous terrain in our route, we would arrive at the Four Sectors'' Border Region within six months. Then again, passing through the canyon would take anywhere from 6-10 months. It would depend on the factors such as the environment, bandits, and the movement of the Predominated Vines." "That''s quite a long journey," Krune commented, thinking if it would be faster had he traveled on his own. After realizing that he neither had a map of the terrain nor a route to move through the Four Sectors'' Border Region, he decided that it was better for him to stay with the caravan. After all, he was in it for the experience and not the destination. Trivar nodded, misunderstanding that Krune meant that the pay wasn''t enough for the journey. He knew that Spirit Awakeners earned a lot. If it wasn''t for the fact that he was informed by the Spirit Awakener Guild about the reasons for Krune''s travel, he would have rejected his application on the spot, despite the strength Krune displayed. The life of a Spirit Awakener was valuable. After all, the demand to awaken a weapon''s spirit surpassed the supply. If a Spirit Awakener joined his caravan and died along the journey, he wouldn''t be able to shoulder the blame. Naturally, he also secretly made arrangements for Yulian to stay within the caravan while not hindering Krune''s journey. "That''s why we will be providing you food and a place to stay throughout the journey. The mission conditions only state that you have to take action when the caravan is in danger," Trivar said. "That''s fine by me." Krune got up from his seat. "We''ll be there on time when the journey starts." "Here''s to a fruitful journey." Krune, Diana, and Vardin then left the inn, wandering the streets as Krune asked them, "Do you know anything about Spiritual Incarnations?" "The Silver Winged Mouses don''t have any Spiritual Incarnations. That''s why we''re weak." Diana bowed her head, muttering with a soft voice. "Why¡­are you heading to the Four Sectors'' Border Region in the first place? Aren''t you two putting your lives at risk?" Krune wondered. "We''re after the mission reward," Diana said as she thought about all that God Stones. "We have something to do in the Four Sectors'' Border Region. But traveling there on our own would cost a lot." Vardin smiled bitterly as he continued, "A place to stay, food to eat, and a reward of 1000 Rank One God Stones upon completing the mission. We cannot ask for anything better." Seeing their happy smiles at the mere mention of 1000 Rank One God Stones, Krune had realized for the first time in the God Realm that... His sense of money was already skewed. Chapter 853: We Cannot Guard This Caravan "Is this place good enough?" Vardin gazed around at the calm meadow situated on top of a hill. It was covered by trees on all sides, preventing anyone from seeing their actions. It was a secluded spot outside the city. Coincidentally, it was also the same spot where Krune underwent through his ''Tribulation.'' "We won''t be disturbed here," Krune nodded as he responded, mentally sighing in relief as Little Cally didn''t come out. As long as it was content by watching everything from afar, he would be happy. Well, better if Little Cally never appeared again, though. Since they had just formed a team, they were unsure of each other''s abilities. If they fought with bandits or anyone else in such a situation, their cooperation wouldn''t be good. They might even hinder or prevent each other from showing their full power while fighting. To prevent such a mess, it was better to fight and understand their respective abilities. It was why Krune proposed to fight once they left the inn. Seeing the Silver-Winged Mouses agree without hesitation, Krune nodded in satisfaction. He was afraid that they would refuse due to a lack of confidence in themselves. That would have been annoying. "How shall we fight?" Diana stood a distance away from Vardin, speaking as she caressed the trunk of a tree. "One-on-one battles should probably be for the best," Krune replied. He was intrigued by her actions, but attributing it to a habit of the Silver-Winged Mouses, he didn''t press forth. Krune then summoned six shields from his spatial ring first, making eye contact with Vardin as he said, "Let''s fight!" Vardin unsheathed his sword and entered a stance. His focused eyes resembled a battle-hardened warrior as the sword shone with silver radiance. "Here I come!" "Alright," Krune just replied when he saw the figure of Vardin flash right before him, shocking him. His shields flew forward, erecting three defensive layers as a sword slash ripped them apart like paper. "What?" Krune was shocked at the might Vardin had displayed. Silver-Winged Mouses were supposed to be weaker than the average cultivator. On the other hand, Krune had defeated a cultivator in the God Core Realm with a single hit. But just now, a single clash had already put him at a disadvantage. Krune took out more shields from his spatial ring, letting go of the ones that had been cut. His shields spun in a defensive circle as he looked at Vardin''s face through the revolving gaps, intending to attack when he noticed the six intact shields on the ground. ''Weren''t they cleaved into two?'' The thought echoed in his mind just as Vardin pierced his sword through a gap in the shields, heading straight for Krune. His shields shone with seven lights like a rainbow as the sword disappeared. The silver radiance from the sword got stuck on the shields like glue when Vardin retracted his sword in reflex. His sword returned to normal as he looked at Krune in astonishment, "What is that law?" Two seconds soon passed as the rainbow color vanished from the shields. The silver radiance stuck to them flowed back to Vardin before disappearing. It wasn''t affected in any way whatsoever. "Balance Laws," Krune replied, returning with a question of his own, "What is your Law called?" Krune thought about the times when he used the Balance Laws, getting a better understanding of them now. ''When I used them against the God Core Realm cultivator, he only attacked me using Godly Energy. With that, my shields sent him flying. No, it was more like he was repelled by it. But when Vardin used a law against me, it was stuck on my shields.'' ''The Law Cooperation Sub-Law. This should be it.'' Krune thought, getting the feeling that using the Balance Laws in battle allowed him to perceive it from a different perspective, hence comprehending it faster. There was still a lot more for him to research about the Balance Laws, but at least, he was improving in his usage of it. "We don''t know its official name, but our Clan calls it the Radiance Law." Vardin sheathed his sword, seeing that Krune was no longer in a battle-ready state. "This law governs sight, including divine sense. It makes the target misperceive our actions." He then said with a wry smile, "Since the Silver-Winged Mouses are always hunted by others, we eventually comprehended this law while trying to hide from them." Krune nodded as he responded, "As for my Balance Laws, it''s a culmination of all my laws. It doesn''t have many uses other than to make my defense stronger. I haven''t comprehended it that much yet." He then expressed his surprise, "Considering the strength you displayed, the Silver-Winged Mouses aren''t weak at all. If so, why are you called a weak race?" "The Radiance Law isn''t battle-oriented. It allows us to deceive enemies or run away from a battle. In other words, our true strength is the weakest. We also cannot comprehend other laws as fast as the other races." Diana walked towards them, unsheathing her blade. "Is it my turn to fight now?" "Sure," Krune smiled as Vardin retreated. Without speaking another word, Diana sent a fireball flying in his direction. It was almost as big as him while the heat began to burn the grass on the ground. Krune''s shields flew around and defended against the attack, dispersing the power behind the fireball using the 102 shields. Seeing Diana stick to normal attacks using Godly Energy, he summoned all his shields. The shields revolved around him, spinning faster and faster as three shields flew towards Diana. At the very moment they moved beyond the range of his mental energy, the shields dropped to the ground, causing him to shout in surprise. "Ah¡­" Krune soon sent another three shields flying her way, this time accelerating them to the limit when they left the range of his mental energy. The force behind them sent the shields flying towards Diana with imposing momentum. Diana wielded her blade, evading while slashing the sides of the shields, causing them to tilt and avoid her. With a quick leap, she arrived above Krune, allowing her blade to slash down when five shields blocked her attack. A metallic sound resounded as the grass on the ground swayed. Her attack failed to make a dent on his shields. As they weren''t using any laws and only made use of Godly Energy, Krune had a clear upper hand from the start. He didn''t use any specialized techniques and solely stuck to moving his shields to fight. Without the purple lightning, his strongest attacks couldn''t be invoked. On top of that, as he lived in the God Realm, Krune found out a shocking fact. Thanks to the higher quality laws in the God Realm, his abilities had different effects now. To increase their power output to the level he had displayed in the Godly Path Realm, he had to modify them according to his cultivation base and the laws he was comprehending. ''It would be for the best if I use a technique of the God Realm as a reference to make my own.'' Krune then sent ten shields flying towards Diana, slamming her repeatedly until she fell to the ground. Before she got up, twenty shields covered her on all sides, causing her to surrender. "You''re strong." She sighed, raising her hand in defeat. Vardin was shocked, thinking to himself, ''102 shields. He used 102 shields without batting an eye. How is this possible? He looks older than us, but he doesn''t seem that old. Even if he started practicing with them in his mother''s belly, he still wouldn''t have such a level of expertise. Moreover, all his shields are at the One Star God Foundation Realm. Just how rich is he?'' While Vardin was shocked at his wealth and expertise in using the shields, Diana was surprised at Krune''s fighting ability. Vardin was the most gifted fighter in their Clan. Even if he was a Silver-Winged Mouse, he was still stronger than the average cultivator when he used the Radiance Law. But despite everything, he didn''t even manage to close in on Krune. Krune''s Balance Law interfered with his Radiance Law. It grabbed ahold of his Radiance Law and prevented him from using it for a moment. That was why he stopped using the law and retracted it. Since they were already inferior in a contest of laws, Diana tried to gauge Krune''s base strength only to see him fight against her with ease. She noticed that even if ten of her fought him, considering the 102 shields he used freely, she would still end up as the loser. The couple sighed after coming to that conclusion. When they had killed some cultivators that were a minor realm higher than them, they obtained some hope that maybe they, the Silver-Winged Mouses, could become strong. "We have to find that in the Four Sectors'' Border Region no matter what. Only with that can our race grow strong." The couple transmitted to each other simultaneously. Noticing even their thoughts were on the same page, they chuckled, cupping their hands at Krune. "Thank you for your advice." "It''s fine." Krune laughed it off. "You don''t need to be that formal with me. It was just a small exchange." After making promises that they would meet up before their mission began, they soon went their separate ways. Krune returned to his inn, noticing Yulian standing beside the entrance. "I won''t interfere with what you plan to do in your journey. When the caravan passes by a city, I''ll use their teleportation service to bring you a One Star God Foundation Realm equipment to awaken." Yulian waved his hand and walked away. "Unless your life is threatened, I won''t even come in your sight. Have a safe trip." "Thank you." Krune''s impression of Yulian had improved immediately. He didn''t like anyone restricting his actions. Thankfully, Yulian didn''t seem like such an individual. As long as his life wasn''t in any danger, Krune wouldn''t even see Yulian. He liked such a condition. "I guess I can look forward to this trip¡­I mean mission." Krune smiled and entered the inn, beginning to prepare for the journey. He had to buy some ingredients for cooking. His title as a Spiritual Chef wasn''t for decoration. A day later, Krune, Diana, and Vardin met at the entrance of the city. They moved as a team, arriving before the caravan as they greeted Trivar. Seeing the size of the caravan, even Krune was shocked, as four mercenary teams were just too little to guard a caravan of such size. Krune muttered aloud, "That will be quite dangerous. We cannot guard such a large caravan." Chapter 854: Prelude to the Journey "We can''t guard such a large caravan." Krune''s words caused the lively atmosphere to freeze up. Numerous glances shot his way, with some of them concealing a hint of killing intent. Krune didn''t react to these responses, silently noting the directions where the killing intent came. He then looked around, mentally counting the number of carriages and the people that were part of the caravan. "120 carriages and almost 2000 people. How can four teams guard so many people against harm?" "Are you scared?" A feminine voice resounded soon after as a tall lady arrived. Her every step caused the ground to slightly tremble in response, for she had a giant stature, surpassing 3 meters. "You can drop out if you''re scared." "Look." Krune made eye contact with the lady, craning his neck high. "I don''t mean to be rude, but four teams can''t defend so many people while protecting the goods from damage." "I understand your concern, Sir Krune." Seeing that the situation was about to turn volatile if he delayed any longer, Trivar stepped in immediately. "But, this is the number of mercenaries we hire during every travel, just so you know." "How do you even defend yourself from danger, then?" Krune was confused as he asked, unable to understand why they were behaving as if it was normal. If they were moving as a traveling troupe, then only having four mercenary teams for protection would be far from enough. After all, as long as the people huddled at the center, the teams could somehow cover them all. But that wasn''t the case here. There were 2000 people each going about their tasks in the caravan. They comprised cultivators and demon beasts in human form, most of which were at the peak of the Godly Fusion Realm. There were 120 carriages. Each carriage was 20 meters long and 10 meters wide, so it was apparent the length the caravan could reach. Ideally speaking, having one mercenary to guard a carriage was the best. If one stretched it out, at least one mercenary per three carriages was the minimum requirement. After all, their mission requirement wasn''t protecting the people alone. They also had to safeguard the goods that were being transported. This was the reason for Krune''s outburst. "Actually." Trivar smiled wryly in response, pointing at the demon beasts. "They''re precisely the reason why we hired so few mercenary teams. The moment we spot a bandit group, unless we have no other choice, we would usually take flight." He chuckled awkwardly after that, waving his hands to reduce the tension in the atmosphere. "Most of the times, we would fly away from danger. And in cases where the bandits could still catch up even if we flew away, we''ll just abandon a carriage. They always stop after that." "Wouldn''t you be making a loss in that case?" Krune frowned as he thought about it. "Not really." Trivar shook his head. "They''re what we call dummy carriages. They''re filled with counterfeit goods. Only an experienced merchant can tell them apart from the others. The bandits wouldn''t have someone like them in their ranks. Even if they did, it would take time to inspect and verify whether they''re actually real or counterfeit. During the time they do that, we would have long escaped." "So, you won''t engage with the bandits." Krune nodded. "Yes." Trivar smiled. "Fights would cause the goods to be damaged. But in cases we can''t avoid such fights, our mercenary teams are strong enough." He then said with pride, introducing the man with a bulky frame that walked in, carrying a battle axe. "This is Yuric, the leader of the mercenary team, Ink Sword. He''s at the Fourth Stage God Core Realm while his deputy is at the Second Stage God Core Realm. The remaining 8 team members are at the Ninth Stage God Foundation Realm. Even among E Rank mercenary teams, they''re the cream of the crop." "Nice to meet you, Krune." Yuric smiled after that, treating him as an equal. "Having a third cultivator in the God Core Realm is reassuring in this trip. It makes my job easier, haha." His words shocked the tall lady, causing her to inspect Krune''s cultivation base with her divine sense. She then saw that he was only in the First Stage God Foundation Realm, retorting immediately, "Enough with your nonsense, Yuric. He''s only at the first Stage God Foundation Realm." "I''m only in the God Foundation Realm, Yuric." Krune let out a wry smile. Even though the tall lady had made a bad impression on him, he wasn''t the type to lie. Yuric gazed at the tall lady before saying, "Xula, I told you many times to not judge a person''s strength based on their cultivation base. There are numerous ways to become strong than just relying on your cultivation. Krune here defeated Lotaro in a single hit. That makes his battle strength equivalent to a God Core Realm cultivator." "He defeated¡­Lotaro?" The tall lady frowned as she asked, "Who''s¡­Lotaro?" "He''s a new mercenary at the God Core Realm that recently joined." Yuric sighed as he continued, "You should at least know the new faces that would become E Rank mercenaries soon." "He must have cultivated like a pig to be weak enough to be defeated by a God Foundation Realm cultivator," Xula glared at Yuric as she spoke. "And, what do you mean by three God Core Realm cultivators? Since you judge based on Krune''s strength, shouldn''t it be four God Core Realm cultivators? Come, let''s fight. I''ll beat the crap out of you this time." Seeing Xula''s still-raging fighting spirit, Trivar had to step in once again. "Please, we''re going to depart now. You can fight to your heart''s contents once you reach Hworn City." "Hmph." Xula snorted after that and began to walk towards the carriage in the end. She met up with her team of four and began discussing their preparations. Once again, the place resumed its lively activities as cultivators rushed to and fro, carrying goods safely before packing them within the carriages to ensure they wouldn''t be damaged. Items that Krune had never seen before moved one after another into the carriages that his head spun a couple of seconds later. "Please follow me." Trivar looked at Krune and the Silver-Winged Mouse couple, beckoning them to follow him as he trailed through the long line of carriages. Along the way, they saw a stable of sorts where a certain group of demon beasts was being fed and cared for. Cultivators bathed them, inspected their health, and attached reins to them at the end. They also made the demon beasts wear specially made soles, a One-Star God Foundation Realm equipment. It seemed to help with long-distance running. They then attached headgear covering their mouths, preventing them from biting on an unsuspecting traveler. After that, they would place over the reins an armor that covered their vital areas. "Wow, so many preparations," Diana remarked as her eyes glistened. "These demon beasts are called the Zenith Pluggers. They''re what every merchant desires to have. Upon maturity, they reach the Ninth Stage God Foundation Realm. They can even fight pretty well. Also, among all the demon beasts in our continent, the Zenith Plugger is the best at defending itself from harm. They''re also easy to maintain and cannot be tamed a second time." Trivar laughed boisterously, showing off his accumulations. It was the same as men showing off their luxury cars on earth. The Zenith Plugger was 12 meters tall and 19 meters long on average. It had a large snout and a short but flexible neck. Its curvy body was streamlined to allow faster movement while its four legs were strong and stable. Its frame was also quite wide, so even if someone hit it on its sides, most likely nine times out of ten, it wouldn''t lose balance. Seeing Krune checking it out, the Zenith Plugger exhaled a powerful gust of air that caused mud to fly and cover the clothes of the working people. They unanimously shot looks at Krune, with some of them on the verge of crying. "It''s awkward, brother," the Zenith Plugger spoke with a gruntled voice. "I cannot assume human form until this trip ends." Sure enough, it also had sentience, like all demon beasts in the God Realm. ''Bro, I had just taken a bath.'' One of the workers wiped his tears as he saw the mud reach his knees. His clothes looked like they had experienced an apocalypse. He slapped his pocket, watching muddy water pump out from it. Sulking, he walked away to take a bath. "They don''t like it when you look at their eyes. Their bestial nature increases when in their demon beast form." Trivar then led them to a carriage. "This is carriage number 80. There are rooms within for you and your team to stay. It''s not much, but we have made sure to make it comfortable. Your task is to defend carriage number 40 to 79 from danger." Krune and the other two in his team nodded and entered the carriage, noticing that it was wide within. There was a meter-wide path in the center for walking, acting as a corridor of sorts while four rooms were on either side. The first room on the left had Krune''s name stuck on the door, while the first and second rooms on the right had Diana and Vardin''s names, respectively. Krune entered his room, noticing a foldable bed placed on the right. If he wished to, he could fold it into the wall, giving him more space within. The room was three meters in length and two meters in width. It was more than enough space considering they were on a journey. Krune extended his divine sense, noting that it was blocked by the formation installed in this place. He then used his mental energy scan to check the other rooms, noticing that at least three people were within a room. Bunk beds were installed for them to rest. Krune sighed after that, realizing that they were treated better since they were mercenaries and were commissioned to protect the caravan. The end of his room had another door that, upon opening, led to a balcony of sorts. A table and chair were placed there, allowing him to stare at the surroundings while traveling. It was also installed for the mercenaries to rush out of the carriage immediately upon detecting danger. Trivar''s shout resounded throughout the area as the demon beasts were harnessed to their respective carriages, causing them to tremble once. "Here''s to a profitable journey!" "Yeah!" Everyone among the caravan shouted after that in high spirits. "It''s starting." Even Krune felt excited as the carriage started to move. This was his first journey in the God Realm. He was anticipating what he would be witnessing from now on. Chapter 855: Rainbow Calamity The caravan moved slowly at first but picked up its pace soon after as the rhythmic sounds of Zenith Pluggers stomping the ground resounded throughout the area. Krune saw the walls of Sunkan City gradually move farther and farther away as he felt a sense of melancholy. It was the first city he stayed at in the God Realm. With that, he would be lying if he said he wasn''t attached to it. He had only been at the First Stage of Mortal Rejection Realm when he visited the city. Now, he was already at the First Stage of God Foundation Realm. Even though his progress was thanks to his talents and abilities, Sunkan City was still a haven where he could obtain God Stones without having to risk his life. Just look at the Silver-Winged Mouse couple, for example. To earn 1000 Rank One God Stones, they were risking their lives in this long journey. In Krune''s case, all he had to do was work on One-Star Godly Fusion equipment, and he would get 100 Rank One God Stones every day. And, when he awakened its spirit, he would get 1000 Rank One God Stones, which was what the mission reward entailed. Considering his current cultivation, he would earn the mission reward within a day once he started awakening One Star God Foundation equipment. Such was the difference. On top of that, even while he was on his journey, the Spirit Awakener Guild would constantly give him a job. That way, he wouldn''t ever be short on God Stones. All sorts of emotions danced in his mind as the silhouette of Sunkan City disappeared from view. The caravan had picked up its pace now. Krune was seated on the balcony of his room, gazing at the surroundings. Sitting in the room was boring, especially since he had nothing to do. As the journey had just started, he didn''t wish to begin cultivating immediately. That would have just been tedious. Just when he thought as such, Yulian jumped down from above, landing before him. He held two items in his hand, a brooch and a sword. "The reward is the same as before for this sword. When you finish awakening its spirit, I''ll collect it from you. We''ll only come across a city after three months, so time is ample." He then placed the sword on the table. It was a piece of One Star God Foundation equipment. It wasn''t anything special, other than the fact its hilt gleamed a faint green. "This sword looks different from the ones I have handled till now." Krune inspected it as he muttered, noticing how the quality of the blade and the hilt differed. Seeing that he had already figured it out, Yulian smiled as he explained, "It''s part of the City Lord''s collection. The hilt is made from a mysterious material, while the blade is made from standard materials. The blade can be swapped with numerous others in his collection. The task this time is to awaken the spirit of the blade. As for the hilt, the Spirit Awakener Guild told me to tell you not to care about it." "Alright." Krune nodded, directing his gaze to the brooch. "This is for you." Yulian then threw something else towards Krune. "It can help you withstand a single, full-powered attack from a Semi-God Realm cultivator. Until it reaches that threshold, it wouldn''t shatter." "Thank you." Krune strapped the brooch on his shirt, liking how its design complemented his aesthetics. "Dima, the Spirit Awakener Guild Master laughed as he gave me this brooch." Yulian disappeared as the remainder of his sentence resounded in Krune''s mind. "He called it the Rainbow Calamity." "¡­" Veins popped on his forehead as Krune cursed, "Fuck that name!" "I''ll just name you Little Rainy." Krune grabbed ahold of the brooch as he stared at it. However, he noticed something amiss as he gazed at its back, soon seeing the name ''Rainbow Calamity'' carved into it. "Fuck!" He never thought Guild Master Dima would pull off such a stunt on him. After a moment, Krune realized something, "It was you, right, Little Cally?" There was no response, but Krune felt a faint fluctuation in the Calamity Laws that vanished immediately after. This proved that it was Little Cally''s prank on him, once again. Since Dima knew of its identity, he wouldn''t have been able to refuse its orders. ''What the hell is it planning to do now that I have this shield with me?'' Krune frowned as he thought about it. Eventually, he decided to place it at the back of his mind as he got ready to work. He planned to awaken the spirit of the sword first. Once he was done with that, he planned to take a break from another task while he concentrated on the brooch. It was a treasure that would save his life, so he wished to strengthen it further by awakening its spirit. When he activated the brooch by pouring in his Godly Energy, it erected a barrier around him. Using his Mental Energy, he could alter the shape of the barrier as he pleased. It was a type of one-off protection equipment that would shatter once the damage received by the equipment reached the maximum it could bear. But to make that a reality, it would have to defend against a full-powered attack from a Semi-God Realm cultivator or countless attacks from weaker cultivators until the total was achieved. So, until it accumulated damage of that level, it was an impenetrable shield. Moreover, Krune realized that he could use it as a regular shield until then. All he needed to do was pour his Godly Energy into the brooch and mend its damage once he was done battling, bringing the damage count to zero once more. That way, he could use it again and again without trouble. As someone well-versed in the field of smithing, a simple inspection was all it took for him to realize its inner workings and come up with a plan to abuse its usage. Well, all it needed to mend itself was Godly Energy, after all. As a Spirit Awakener, he earned a lot of God Stones. So, he never lacked Godly Energy. But just when he was about to head into his room, Krune sensed the presence of Vardin on the roof of the carriage. He was talking with someone else. When he was finished talking, Vardin noticed Krune sitting on the balcony of his room. With a jump, he landed in the area, saying, "I was just told about our travel route." Seeing Krune nod in response, he continued, "We''ll be going through 2 cities, 3 demon beast habitats, and 5 danger zones. Based on what I was told, the Pitlook Merchant Caravan has some arrangements in this route as they frequent it. As for the specifics of the habitats, I wasn''t told anything. The worker seemed to be tight-lipped about that." "I''ll ask about it later with Trivar when the caravan stops to rest." Krune nodded as he said, judging that it wasn''t a problem. Maybe Trivar didn''t wish to leak the information of his route beforehand to prevent any troubles. Or maybe he just thought that it wasn''t needed. After all, mercenaries were supposed to be knowledgeable about the land since they traveled a lot to complete various missions. With that, the mercenaries should be able to judge the terrain the caravan was proceeding into based on the route or any landmark they came across and prepare accordingly. It was their job description. Of course, Krune didn''t know anything about the terrain since this was his first exploration in the God Realm. He knew that demon beast habitats were exclusive territories where the demon beasts roamed around in their true form and allowed their bestial natures to be out in the open. It was risky venturing into such places without enough strength to protect oneself. Krune then thought, asking, "But, what are danger zones? It''s the first time I''m heading into one of them." '' Well, that''s not counting danger zones of the realms below.'' Thought Krune... "You mean... You''ve never come across them?" Vardin''s eyes widened as he looked at Krune in shock. "Have you been living under a rock till now, brother?" "Pretty much." Krune laughed before asked, "Are they common?" "Yes." Vardin sighed as he started to explain, "They''re one of the reasons traveling beyond the city is dangerous for most cultivators. A danger zone is a place where the laws of nature are active. Also, depending on the quality and quantity of the laws active in the region, it becomes dangerous for everyone below a certain cultivation base. Almost no beings inhabit any danger zones, except for the low-level danger zones that are only dangerous to those in the Godly Fusion Stage." Just when he was about to explain further, their carriage jerked violently. Krune got up in alarm as he looked around, failing to find anything dangerous. He then noticed the caravan moving over an unbeaten path. The irregularity of the ground was what caused the violent jerk. "What happened to the roads?" Krune was shocked. "There are no roads beyond 200 kilometers of any city." Vardin sighed as he answered. "If we extend it any further, they would be destroyed by the numerous demon beast groups living around. Most of the demon beasts love to live freely in their natural forms. If they wanted anything, they would enter a nearby city in human form. But beyond that, they don''t like seeing the existence of roads spanning through their territory." "Will this caravan be okay, then?" Krune looked around, noticing the figures of cultivators flash atop the carriages from time to time as they relayed messages and proceeded about their tasks. "I hope so." Vardin nodded. "From what I heard, all Zenith Pluggers are managed by Trivar''s daughter. She''s a Beast Tamer. So, the caravan should move at a controlled pace." Krune recalled the information of this profession from what he had learned in Sunkan City. Every being in God Realm had sentience. But that didn''t mean all demon beasts could behave like humans. They could only behave like humans while in their human forms. But when they entered their demon beast forms, their bestial instincts would surface. They were still sentient but at times acted on their instincts. To prevent these demon beasts from wreaking havoc when spurred by their bestial nature, the Beast Tamer profession had appeared. A Beast Tamer placated a demon beast and allowed it to maintain the same level of intelligence it had when it was in its human form. Demon beasts were stronger in their original forms but were smarter while in their human forms. Beast Tamers brought out the best of both worlds, becoming a favorable profession. "But even then, controlling one or two demon beasts is a person''s limit," Vardin said as his eyes sparkled. "But here, Trivar''s daughter manages all 120 Zenith Pluggers without problems. She''s the top genius of Sunkan City and beyond in the Beast Tamer profession." Chapter 856: The Law in the Hilt After chatting with Vardin for some time and staring off at the surroundings until he got bored, Krune soon returned to his room, planning to start working. He wasn''t someone who liked to waste time. Krune grabbed the sword, inspecting it once to see that its design was the same as any sword sold in the market. The hilt gleamed a faint green, making it look a bit special, but other than that, it didn''t have anything else going for it. When he went ahead and checked the conditions of the materials used using his divine sense, he noticed that a formation was embedded within the sword. But unlike those carved on the exterior, this seemed to be forged into its interior. The texture of the blade formed a natural formation wherein Godly Energy could flow and emit the desired effect. Every piece of equipment, when forged, had a circuit in them through which Godly Energy could flow. That was how they were wielded by the cultivators. This was precisely the reason cultivators couldn''t use equipment four minor realms above their cultivation base. The internal circuits would siphon their Godly Energy dry and possibly even damage their cultivation base. This was a special effect of the weapons in the God Realm that Krune learned about once he joined the Blacksmith Guild here. There had been cases where a cultivator used a powerful weapon¡ªmany stages above his cultivation base. Once that cultivator unleashed the attack using it, he instantly turned into a cripple. Then again, in his case, he was able to unleash the attack. But most times, the equipment would fail to activate, rendering the cultivator''s sacrifice meaningless. In the God Realm filled to the brim with dangers and threats to one''s life, situations where cultivators were forced into a corner where they had to rely on powerful equipment were just too many. This was also the reason why Krune''s cultivation base at the First Stage of Mortal Rejection Realm back then wasn''t an oddity. Well, to be honest, others thought he was born with a defect instead of thinking that he came from a lower realm. First Stage Mortal Rejection Realm. This was the cultivation stage a baby would be in while still being inside their mother''s womb. In other words, this was the lowest cultivation stage in the entire God Realm. Therefore, when one became a cripple, in this case, losing all their cultivation, they would fall back to the First Stage of Mortal Rejection Realm. This was why everyone Krune had met when he had just arrived in the God Realm asked the same things. "Just what did you do to have your cultivation fall back to the First Stage of Mortal Rejection Realm?" "First Stage of Mortal Rejection Realm? Holy shit! How did you become so weak?" Krune recalled the words he had heard during his first encounter with the people from the God Realm. Despite the shock they displayed, they weren''t too concerned about it. After all, they might have come across cultivators who had lost their cultivation bases before. Everything was all due to using equipment beyond what they were supposed to wield. Krune noted how the formation forged within the blade elevated the weapon to a level beyond its stage. Nevertheless, it wasn''t anything out of the ordinary. After all, the field of formation was also vast. A blacksmith who had also dabbled in the field of formations was capable of crafting something like this. Of course, if Krune classified the blades he had witnessed, the normal-looking blade in front of him was the finest of them all. "I should start awakening this," Krune muttered to himself as he activated his Calamity Laws, watching the dark cloud manifest before him once again. But this time, it was slightly different from before. The dark cloud was more condensed than before, with lightning flashing from time to time while flame tongues swirled within. Krune also detected other elements that he had either comprehended or come into contact with before, present within the dark cloud in a state of chaos. His comprehension of the Calamity Laws had improved now that he was in the God Foundation Realm. The higher one''s cultivation base, the greater they were able to look into the laws of the God Realm and comprehend them. The chaotic state of the Calamity Laws had created numerous environmental factors in and around the blade. Whenever a condition suitable to awakening its spirit appeared, the blade would absorb it. But for some reason, it wasn''t even five minutes into the awakening process when Krune noticed something off¡­the blade''s spirit had awakened. He wasn''t even able to react when the green light covering the hilt had condensed and...destroyed the newly awakened spirit. "¡­" Krune looked at it, stupefied. "What the heck just happened?" His first try succeeded in awakening a spirit. A startling success rate of 100 percent in contrast to his usual one percent. But Krune couldn''t even register the thought in his mind before the hilt destroyed the awakened spirit. "Let me check out what''s causing this." Krune tried it once again, condensing his Calamity Laws once more as he added more and more random conditions. While doing so, he could not help but notice that out of all the conditions he created, the blade absorbed more than half of them. Ten minutes later, it formed a spirit once again. And, without any disturbance, the green light from the hilt destroyed the spirit. "What the hell is wrong with this weapon?" Krune stopped using his Calamity Laws, allowing his divine sense to peer into the hilt, only to find that it was blocked. He then used his Mental Energy, noticing that it was also blocked to a certain extent. All he was able to perceive from both cases was a Law in the purest form, contained within the hilt. It seemed to have been chained to the material, preventing it from being awakened. But before Krune could probe deeper, his Mental Energy was expelled from it. After a few more attempts, despite his efforts, even his Mental Energy failed to penetrate its defenses. "Why would it even do something like this?" Krune was unable to determine the cause. He wondered why the hilt destroyed the spirit that formed on the blade and why any condition was suitable to awaken the blade''s spirit. "Just what were they expecting when they sent this to me?" Krune frowned, having a strange feeling that he was getting himself involved in the murky waters of the God Realm. He then recalled the shenanigan Little Cally had pulled before, sighing as he massaged his forehead. "This is definitely going to go south very quickly." Krune decisively set the sword aside and took out the brooch he had obtained from Yulian. Instead of wasting his time butting heads with the sword, it was better to safeguard himself first. The Calamity Laws manifested as the dark cloud once more, immediately throwing numerous conditions at the brooch. The brooch occasionally came across the right conditions to awaken its spirit, instinctively absorbing them. After spending 10 hours, a spirit showed signs of awakening inside the equipment. Krune inspected it, determining that it would die soon after, prompting him to retract his Calamity Laws. He planned to wait until the brooch returned to its original state before trying it once more. The materials making it up were of supreme quality, probably the ones used to forge equipment at the peak of God Core Realm and beyond. But for this brooch, they had been haphazardly used just to make sure that the result was something Krune would be able to use without danger. Nevertheless, the materials forming it was of the highest quality Krune had ever come across in the God Realm, excluding those forming the hilt¡ªthat he couldn''t determine the materials of. With that, Krune realized that he would need a lot of time before he could awaken its spirit. "Forging could actually be done in this manner, despite its waste of materials," Krune nodded as he committed this realization to memory. His perspective was widened once more, realizing just how vast and complex things in the God Realm truly were. Usually, when a blacksmith forged a piece of equipment, they tried their best to bring out the properties of the materials used to great prominence. They always delved into techniques that allowed the materials to interact with one another, forming a synergy between them. The resulting harmony would then elevate the equipment''s power to a staggering level that the base materials couldn''t ever hope to achieve. This was how it usually went. But here, it was the reverse. They used superior materials to craft a piece of inferior equipment while keeping in mind that it had to be used by someone at the First Stage of the God Foundation Realm. That was why it would shatter once the damage it received had reached the equivalent of a Semi-God Realm cultivator''s full-powered attack. If it was properly forged using the usual smithing techniques, the brooch would have become a shield capable of defending against a Semi-God Realm cultivator''s attacks without worries. One could undoubtedly say that it was a waste of materials, but it did have its uses. If it was adequately produced, only a Semi-God Realm cultivator would have been able to use it, rendering it useless to everyone below. If they tried to use it despite that, their cultivation would be crippled as a result. In retrospect, the defensive strength of any shields in the First Stage God Foundation Realm couldn''t ever hope to defend against a cultivator in the God Core Realm, not to mention someone in the Semi-God Realm. This was probably why such a smithing technique was invented in the first place. Krune felt his comprehension of blacksmithing improve once again thanks to his probing of the brooch. "I guess I better start cultivating and comprehend my laws." Krune sighed, taking out a few Rank Two God Stones. Payment for his work on the sword would only arrive when they reached the next city. So, he had to wait until then without expending his reserve of God Stones. He had to save some for emergencies. Krune soon started to cultivate after that, taking breaks every once in a while where he used his Calamity Laws on the sword and the brooch. While doing so, his comprehension of the law increased at a slow but steady pace. He was also gaining more insight into the world of blacksmithing thanks to the ingenious crafting process of the two pieces of equipment. After all, the hilt contained the essence of a law. That was undoubtedly the peak of blacksmithing. After all, laws existed in the God Realm, a massive piece of land that extended without end. Containing a law within an item was a first. Moreover, if he didn''t have his Mental Energy, he wouldn''t have ever come to know of such an item. "Maybe even the Sunkan City Lord is unaware of this." Chapter 857: Falling Boulders Precipice Days passed in this routine as Krune spent his time cultivating and attempting to awaken the brooch''s spirit. Whenever he felt bored, he would attempt awakening a spirit on the sword, only to see that the spirit that he had awakened within minutes would be killed immediately by the hilt. Normally, awakening a spirit was a tedious process, even for Krune. It took anywhere from half a day to an entire day to form a spirit that was close to awakening. But, most of the time, it would be something that would die within a couple of days. Therefore, once the equipment had returned to its original state, he would have to begin the process anew. Hence, it would usually take him anywhere from a month to three months to awaken a spirit successfully. As for the brooch, considering the quality of the materials involved, he would need to spend a far longer time to awaken its spirit. The only thing that did not fall into that norm was the blade of that sword he had received. It took him anywhere from a minute to 30 minutes to awaken its spirit. But alas, all of them were killed by the glowing green hilt. Nevertheless, Krune kept up with it, trying to figure out its mysteries while deepening the comprehension of his Calamity Laws. It was a training of sorts, after all. His cultivation was also progressing at a steady pace. Thanks to the Rank Two God Stones, he was quite close to breaking through. He had a feeling that after a week or two, he would achieve the second stage of the God Foundation Realm. "Krune!" Just as he was in the midst of his cultivation, Vardin''s voice resounded as the carriage intensely rumbled. Unsurprisingly, Krune stopped cultivating as he kept the sword in his storage time before heading out through the balcony. It was at times like these that he appreciated the caravan for installing the balcony to his room. All he had to do was jump off of it, and he would soon land on the ground. But at the very moment he arrived at the balcony, Vardin peeked from the roof and said, "Come up! Hurry!" Hearing that, Krune jumped and landed on the roof of the carriage, finding the action slightly difficult. The laws of the God Realm had completely suppressed his abilities. If he was still in the Godly Path Realm, he wouldn''t even have to lift a finger to achieve something of this caliber. "What happened?" Krune had a serious expression while asking upon noticing the expressions of Vardin and Diana. "We''re approaching the first danger zone. We''ll enter it any minute now," Diana turned solemn as she replied, entering a battle-ready state. She looked like she was ready to pit herself in a life-and-death battle. "It''s the Falling Boulders Precipice," Vardin replied, determining the danger zone they were entering based on the terrain. Krune immediately looked at the very front of the caravan, watching a long line of mountains stream before them appear closer and closer as the caravan moved towards them. It was a series of mountains, with each leading into a range of its own. Clouds covered everything beyond their middle points, preventing them from gazing beyond. There was a narrow passage in between the mountains with a height of less than a kilometer. Below that was the ground, and above were the clouds. The rumbling of the caravan grew more and more intense as they proceeded through a beaten path. Then again, the beaten path was only relatively better compared to the ground covered in rocky spikes. Krune looked beyond the mountains, noticing a path trail through the precipice among one of the mountain ranges. It was barely 10 meters wide in some places, while narrower at others. There were also numerous twists and turns where the path just disappeared out of nowhere. Nevertheless, what shocked him the most was the current scene in front of him. Rocks of varying sizes fell through the clouds like rain. Big boulders larger than a small house in size fell every once in a while. He even noticed a boulder crash into a section of the path, collapsing it soon after. This was definitely a danger zone. "We''re really traveling through there? There?!" Krune shouted with a hint of disbelief, pointing at the place as he looked at Diana and Vardin. Unfortunately for him, they nodded at his question with a helpless expression. Diana responded, "I think Trivar has a valid reason to choose this route." Before she could say anything else, Trivar''s shout resounded throughout the caravan. "All mercenaries, take your positions! As for the caravans, those who are assigned to this task should head up to the roof immediately!." His shout then relayed the positions everyone had to take up. "Winged Wasps, protect carriages 76-90, five per each member! Block the largest boulders, leave the rest to the caravan members!" "Five for each one of us. I hope we can do it," Krune sighed as he muttered to himself, looking at Diana and Vardin. "I''ll take the ones from carriage 86." "I''ll take the ones in the middle, then," Vardin soon replied. They were on carriage number 80. Krune arrived at the edge of his carriage, looking at the Zenith Plugger trailing right behind, pulling carriage number 81. The Zenith Plugger slightly lowered its head as it said, "You can traverse on my back during this duration." Krune nodded, watching Vardin jump first as he landed on its head before leaping again. He then landed on its back as he made his final leap just as he was at the edge of its tail. The tail moved up as he used the height to leap once again, arriving atop carriage number 81. Krune then turned around, making a sweep over the caravan as he noticed that there were 22 mercenaries in total protecting the caravan, including himself. Obviously, those 22 made up the four teams that were contracted this time. They were moving back and forth through the carriages, positioning themselves accordingly to defend them. The caravan members naturally followed suit, numbering four per carriage. They were expertly trained for this situation, carrying large shields on their backs, some being bigger than their bodies. Some also held whips to coil around the boulders and throw them using good old centripetal force. ''Hmm... I can''t move efficiently like this.'' Krune thought for a moment, coming up with an idea as all his 102 shields appeared not long after, forming a multi-layered protective sphere around him. They spun around him like a vortex, causing everyone to look in his direction, shocked at his deft control. Krune then leaped upwards, sending a shield forward as he controlled its actions through his Mental Energy, landing on it as he used it as his foothold. Before the shield moved down under his weight, Krune then activated his Balance Laws, controlling its output. He emitted Godly Energy from his leg, changing its inherent structure to make it seem like it was emitted from a foreign cultivator, causing the shield to repel him. At the same time, Krune angled the force emitted by the shield, allowing him to dart forward using the repulsion. The very moment his body shot forth, he deactivated the Balance Laws and dragged the shield with him, traveling over six carriages as he approached the 87th carriage. It seemed like he would cross it and hit the face of the Zenith Plugger pulling the 88th carriage. A shield soon shot forward after that, shining with myriad colors as it positioned itself against his path. At the moment of contact, Krune decreased the concentration of the Balance Laws on the shield, reducing the repulsion as his other shields collided with it. The repulsive force sent him flying towards the 87th carriage as his shields surrounded him, cushioning his fall as he rolled on the top of the carriage, coming to a stop as he got up. The shields continued to revolve around him as Krune smiled, happy that his idea had worked. His actions were sloppy, but he was satisfied. He was making use of the short duration he could keep his Balance Laws up to move around. As the Balance Laws used all laws, Krune was making use of the Gravity Sub-Law, which was part of the Earth Major Laws. The repulsive force it gave to Godly Energy and the attractive force it had towards all laws, these properties allowed him to achieve this feat. Though he knew that it was only possible thanks to the God Realm. ''The laws are clearer and more defined in the God Realm. So, their uses are grander.'' He thought to himself, noticing a lot of eyes trail after him. He didn''t have time to bother about their shocked and surprised expressions, getting ready to defend the five carriages under his protection. He was feeling somewhat excited. Even though it was against nature and not a living opponent, this would be his first real battle in the God Realm. "We''re about to pass through the Falling Boulder Precipice! If there are no mishaps, we should be able to cross it in a couple of days!" Trivar''s shout soon resounded as the caravan moved along a path on the precipice, steadily gaining altitude from the ground. They moved closer and closer towards the clouds as the path lead them. "We have to defend for 2 days?!" Krune''s expression crumbled in an instant, unable to hear any replies as the surroundings were filled with the sounds of falling boulders. It was undoubtedly loud since some of the boulders crashed into the slope of the mountain during their fall. Sometimes they would roll, sometimes fly for a bit, etc. Some boulders even fell from the clouds like rain. They had to defend against attacks from the top and the sides facing the mountain. Krune looked at the other side, noticing the precipice had become deadlier by the second the height of the cliff increased steadily. In the God Realm, a fall from such a height meant death. The sound of boulders colliding resounded throughout the area, forming a synchronous cacophony as the caravan entered the Falling Boulders Precipice. "Get ready!" A muffled shout from Trivar resounded as Krune readied his shields, keeping an eye on a large boulder heading his way. His shields instantly shot forward, forming an inclined slope for the boulder to roll over the carriage, ending up on the other side. "Heavy!" Krune grunted as the boulder crashed into his shields, causing his Mental Energy to instantly be reduced by a chunk. The formation he had erected using the shields almost caved in when the boulder collided with it, carrying it beyond the precipice. It continued to freefall after that, disappearing beyond where he could see. Krune hadn''t even reoriented himself when another boulder crashed on his shields, causing him to grunt in response and throw it off. The caravan members on his carriage worked on repelling the smaller stones. While looking at them, Krune then saw two boulders heading towards caravan number 86 and 89 at the same time. "Oh, come on!" he cursed, stomping on a shield to dart towards the boulders while it was covered by his Balance Laws. This time, he stopped using only his Mental Energy to control his shields and returned to controlling them with his Divine Sense and Godly Energy. He was using Mental Energy so he could train his Soul, but the situation didn''t allow him to. Chapter 858: I Can Sense Her Krune manipulated his shields to circle around him as he crashed into the boulder, using the momentum to send it flying for a bit. His crash only sent the boulder flying for five meters along the width of the path, not enough to send it flying over what spanned probably ten meters. One of his shields slammed onto his feet while radiating a rainbow light as he emitted Godly Energy once again, using the same technique as before to fly forward. The built-up momentum caused him to slam into the boulder. He had to repeat the move a third time to send it flying out of bounds. He couldn''t relax just yet, though. Another boulder was heading towards carriage number 89. Stepping on his shields, Krune shot forward, closing the gap as fast as possible before slamming into a boulder once more, feeling like he hit a mountain as his internals trembled. Blood gushed into his mouth as he controlled himself, sensing that this particular boulder was ten times heavier than the rest. There wasn''t much time for him to send it flying over the path. At this rate, it was bound to crash into the carriage and crush it, perhaps even crashing against the path. His mind spun to its limits as his Mental Energy was consumed to think faster. Not even an instant later, Krune took out a junk material from his storage ring and slapped it onto the boulder. He poured his Godly Energy into it like crazy, changing its structure not to resemble his. After that, he kicked the boulder with his legs, moving back as he slammed a rainbow-colored shield at the junk material. "Argh!" The massive consumption of Godly Energy caused him to shout as he activated his Balance Laws to the limit, slamming the shield as hard as he could towards the material. The Balance Laws interacted with the Godly Energy in the junk material, repelling it with great difficulty, for the boulder was just too heavy for the quantity of his law to affect. The boulder creaked in response, moving as it crashed into the edge of the path before falling over. "Phew!" Krune crash-landed on carriage number 89 as all his shields plopped beside him. He was panting in exhaustion as he thought to himself, ''I have to keep this up for two days?'' For a moment, hopelessness and despair almost struck him, making him realize his early days where he was insignificantly weak. "Krune, are you alright?" Vardin shouted while asking, slashing a medium-sized boulder into two before kicking the halves over the path. His shout barely reached Krune amid the sounds of the falling, crashing boulders. "I''m fine!" Krune shouted back. "The last rock was too heavy, that''s all!" He continued to gasp for air as his eyes focused on the clouds, watching numerous boulders pierce through it as they fell without stopping. Krune took control of his shields once more, flying them in his range as he swatted the rocks without rest. The four caravan members on carriage number 89 were working non-stop. Their task was to focus on the smaller rocks. So, they didn''t target the bigger ones that were beyond their power, leaving them up to Krune. Krune had to dart to and fro between the five carriages and block the boulders one after another. On top of that, many rocks were not like their appearances, making the area more dangerous than it already was. His legs hurt after stepping on and getting repelled by the shields all the time to travel. His body was getting damaged from overexertion. He was doing a lot of work. Everything would have been easy if the range of his divine sense could encompass all five carriages. Each carriage spanned the length of 20 meters while the Zenith Plugger pulling it was almost another 20 meters in length. So, defending five carriages meant that he had to protect a length of 200 meters. His divine sense only spanned a range of 20 meters at present. In the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm, a typical cultivator''s divine sense was only a meter in radius. It increased by a meter for every increase in Stage. As for the Mortal Rejection Realm, none possessed divine sense since, in the God Realm, it was a realm for newborns and children. Krune was an exception since he wasn''t born in the God Realm. Though, if he had been born in the God Realm, he too wouldn''t have been any different. It was because of the laws. After all, it might take even more than ten thousand years, depending on one''s talent, to progress a stage through the Mortal Rejection Realm in the Godly Path Realm. But in the God Realm, even a fetus was at this level and progressed through those stages while in the uterus. It wasn''t even fair when comparing the Realms, but everything worked in a relative perspective. In the Godly Path Realm, being in the Mortal Rejection Realm was a symbol of power. But in the God Realm, any random baby probably surpassed that. In the Godly Foundation Realm, the divine sense increased by 10 meters or so every Stage. In short, an average cultivator at Krune''s cultivation base could sense 19 meters around them in radius. As for Krune, it was slightly higher, at 20 meters. He didn''t know the exact reason, but he attributed it to his Balance Laws. The length Krune had to defend was ten times the range of his Divine Sense. It was truly a difficult feat. With that, he had to shuttle a lot between them. As his running speed was clearly insufficient, he had to rely on the repulsion brought about by his Balance Laws, or to be more exact, the Gravity Sub-Law part of his laws. This way, he placed a greater burden on his body. Time passed in such a manner as Krune was getting more and more exhausted. He turned around to see that the other mercenaries were more or less the same as him. Only three individuals were completely alright. The first two were part of the Mercenary Team, Ink Sword. They were both at the God Core Realm and had plenty of strength to spare. The last one was the tall woman, the leader of the Mercenary Team, Plotted Heels. But, none had any attention to spare for the others, desperately defending their allotted carriages. The caravan members defending each carriage had long become exhausted and dropped like flies. Thankfully, they were saved by the next group that came to replace them. Thanks to this, they could hold on without giving in. "We''re about to enter more dangerous territory! Just a little bit longer!" Trivar shouted, transmitting his voice to every member. Krune felt a faint fluctuation in the air after hearing that. It seemed to be Godly Energy but was inherently different from everything he had sensed to date. In response to the fluctuation, all the Zenith Pluggers snorted as they bellowed, stomping the ground with all their strength. Their stomp caused the path to crack and collapse. It seemed as if their caravan was planning to commit suicide as Krune was ready to use his shields and escape. Surprisingly, the caravan didn''t fall. Instead, it maintained the same height as before. The ends of each carriage were also strapped to the Zenith Plugger trailing behind. So, when they took off to the air, the carriages didn''t tilt downward and were maintained at the same level without any violent jerks. The caravan then moved through the air. Krune noticed the path traverse through the right and make a massive semi-circular loop before returning to their straight path 20 kilometers away. So, instead of making the long unnecessary run through the risks, they preferred to fly straight and land on the other side. It was a wise decision, to be honest. If it were Krune manning the caravan, he too would have done the same. But there was one thing he was unsure about. It was suspicious for the Zenith Pluggers to act the way they did. They destroyed the path while taking off. Thanks to the power behind their stomp, a large section of the path had caved in while an even larger portion had become brittle thanks to their previous run. So, at the very moment a mid-sized boulder crashed into the path, it caved in. Krune wasn''t able to see it clearly before since he wasn''t at the end of the caravan. Nevertheless, he still noticed the oddity. Now that the caravan took off to the air, he clearly saw their actions. It seemed as if they didn''t wish to leave their path of traversal undamaged. "Damn it," Krune cursed, disliking his train of thought as he defended against the falling boulders. It was relatively easier now that they were in the air. Both sides were now open to push the boulders over, so Krune was able to defend with half as much effort as before. The entire caravan spanned a length of approximately five kilometers. It was a lot of space to be suspicious over. So, even if he had his doubts, he couldn''t do anything for the time being. He had to wait until it was all over. Even if he had only joined the mission to train himself, it didn''t mean he would do his tasks half-heartedly when it mattered. Moreover, if he didn''t complete his end of the deal, his Mercenary token would be revoked. Plus, he would be blacklisted on all the Mercenary Guilds. That wasn''t something Krune wished to see. The Zamuria Continent alone was massive, but that didn''t mean he could underestimate their information network. They couldn''t have established any semblance of order if it wasn''t for that. ''I have a bad feeling.'' Krune frowned as he thought to himself, noticing the size of the boulders had increased steadily until the house-sized boulders from before became the norm. He didn''t have enough Godly Energy to sustain for long and immediately substituted it with his Mental Energy. He took out ten Rank Two God Stones and piled them up in his pocket, activating his Mind Splitting Technique as he began to absorb the Godly Energy in them. This way, he wouldn''t dry up and become helpless. After all, it hadn''t even been half a day since they had entered the Falling Boulders Precipice. At the entrance of the Falling Boulders Precipice was a group of demon beasts in human form. One of them crouched until his face touched the ground, extending his tongue as he licked the soil, muttering with his voice that sounded like a cacophony of beast roars, "I can sense her presence here." "Good." Another voice that seemed like a mixture of every human and demon beast resounded, "With her, we shall surpass our racial limitations." --- Author''s note: Leave your opinion about this new writing style. Is it good? Is it bad? What do you think compared to the previous one? Chapter 859: What Have I Gotten Myself Into? "Once I devour her, I''ll be able to control us all while we''re in demon beast form. That''s when our race shall truly become the overlords of the God Realm!" That voice resounded with laughter. "This realm shall tremble just from the mere mention of Spirit Aberrations after that!" Spirit Aberrations were a mysterious demon beast race that hardly ever interacted with other demon beasts. Then again, although their interactions with people could be counted on one hand, they were recorded in the history of the entire region and beyond. After all, every meeting resulted in an unprecedented disaster. They were more or less breathing, living calamities. They weren''t called the strongest demon beast race with the greatest room for growth in the God Realm for nothing. The God Realm was incredibly vast that no one even knew all of the mysterious races in existence. Even though that was the case, the fame of the Spirit Aberrations still traveled far and wide. Alas, a flaw in their demon beast cores prevented them from ever ascending to the Semi-God Realm, not even mentioning beyond that. If not for that, they would have decimated the God Realm long ago. Moreover, the flaw in their cores was truly severe. Their human form was even weaker than Silver-Winged Mouses, for they were unable to use any laws in this form. Moreover, the very moment they swapped to their demon beast forms, they would lose all semblance of intelligence and sentience, turning into mindless monsters that devoured everything in sight. Every interaction of them was recorded as such. They raged on throughout the lands until powerful Semi-God Realm cultivators stepped in to eradicate them. Unsurprisingly, decimating the lower realm Spirit Aberrations was no easy feat. They had to work together in groups. A group of Semi-God Realm cultivators grouping up to deal with a lone demon beast with a lower cultivation realm. It was a laughing matter if anyone came to know about it. But in retrospect, it showed the terrifying strength of the Spirit Aberrations. If it wasn''t for the fact that they became mindless monsters in their demon beast forms, they would have ruled every place they visited. As their human forms were pitifully weak, they constantly struggled to survive. To overcome their fate, they were in search of Beast Tamers. Beast Tamers allowed a demon beast to maintain the same sentience and intelligence it possessed while in human form. This was what the Spirit Aberrations desired. Unfortunately for them, every Beast Tamer they had found failed to live up to their expectations. The Beast Tamers were unable to control them as their mind shattered. And every time that happened, one of their brethren had to remain in their demon beast form and thrash about until it was discovered by the cultivators and eventually killed. Once they took on their demon beast forms, they had no way of returning to their human forms ever again. Even while giving birth, they had to take a lot of precautions to prevent the one giving birth from going back to their demon beast form. To add to that, the moment the baby was born, they used all their techniques to forcefully make it take a human form. Considering all the difficulties, their population had dwindled since then. The Spirit Aberrations were one of the oldest races living on the God Realm. Their history dated back to the first chaos cycle when the God Realm was still forming. The chaotic laws and the ever-present disorder in it were what birthed the Spirit Aberrations. Spirit Aberrations were numerous back then. But once the God Realm stabilized, no new Spirit Aberrations were naturally formed. Thanks to their racial limitations, their population steadily dwindled up to the present day, where they now numbered in the double digits. "This is the first time a cultivator with such divine abilities in the Beast Tamer profession exists." The demon beast in human form stood up, talking with a tone akin to a chorus. "She''s the one we have been searching for since time immemorial." "The God Realm has finally given us the hope we need," the one that seemed to be their leader spoke. "The moment I consume her, I shall become a Heavenly Aberration." "Heavenly Aberration!" Everyone echoed in joy. A Spirit Aberration was called a Land Aberration the moment it attained the Godly Fusion Stage. They were known by this name until the peak of the Nascent God Realm. They were called as such since when they assumed their demon beast form, they would take root in the land. And once that had been done, they wouldn''t be able to move from that place ever. The only way for them to move away would be to assume human form and walk away. But since they lost all sanity upon assuming demon beast forms, they were permanently fixed to the region. This was the only reason they could be killed, despite their outstanding strength. The cultivators battling it would just spam attacks from a long distance away and slowly whittle it down until it died. The reason why it was feared was that by consuming a cultivator, it would instantly gain the comprehension of all the laws the respective cultivator had comprehended. It was a demon beast that became stronger the more it ate. Of course, knowing all the ordinary laws like the elemental ones and time, space, and destiny wasn''t rare in the God Realm. Once above the Semi-God Realm, a cultivator and demon best would most likely have comprehended them all already. Nevertheless, time was needed. Being able to comprehend everything by just eating someone was truly shocking. However, if one of them consumed Krune, it would instantly gain comprehension of his Calamity Laws, Balance Laws, their respective sub-laws, and all the other laws he had comprehended. It would become overpowered soon after. After all, it could consume more cultivators at a later date once it finished digesting Krune. "Let''s chase after her," the leader said before jumping on a Zenith Plugger. After numerous attempts before this, they had finally managed to tame one. Though, since none of them were from the Beast Tamer profession, the Zenith Plugger fully expressed its beastly desires. The Zenith Plugger opened its mouth, trying to bite a Spirit Aberration in human form. The leader pulled its reins, barely managing to keep it under control as another Spirit Aberration opened a large bag of meat and tossed it into the Zenith Plugger''s mouth. "Charge!" The leader shouted the very moment everyone had mounted on its back, watching the Zenith Plugger snort and remain unmoving. "Charge!" He soon kicked its head, watching it wail a bit before starting to run. It crashed and tumbled along the way, failing to heed his commands spontaneously. It then shook its head and continued to sprint, occasionally jumping over sections of the path that caved in. "I see Trivar has noticed our approach," the leader muttered, seeing the damaged path that spanned before him. Then again, he was unconcerned about it as he spent most of his attention on controlling the Zenith Plugger. "Damn it, just run straight." ¡­ The moment he activated the Mind Splitting Technique, Krune felt that his task had become easier. A steady stream of Godly Energy gushed out of the Rank Two God Stones and entered his body, alleviating his expenditure. The influx was a tad greater than his expenditure, so the Godly Energy in his body continued to increase at a steady pace. ''This mission is not profitable at all for the other mercenaries.'' Krune looked at the figures of Vardin and Diana, noticing that they were now exhausted, barely scrapping by somehow as they tumbled their way through the defense. They were close to running out of Godly Energy and didn''t seem to possess any supplementary sources like his mental energy. Krune stopped supplementing his attacks using Mental Energy, solely sticking to his Godly Energy and Divine Sense. Even though the situation was dangerous, he planned to keep his Mental Energy in reserve for when the situation called for it. In his current condition, he was only able to recover his Godly Energy. Recovering his Mental Energy was a time-consuming process, especially since he was in the midst of battle. Mixing his Mental Energy into his Godly Energy would make his attacks stronger, so he was saving it up. After all, the more he observed, the more peculiar the current situation felt. The caravan was speeding through the air right now, resisting house-sized boulders that were tremendously heavy. Every mercenary was struggling to keep up with the boulders. At the same time, all the caravan members also helped out to share the burden. Unsurprisingly, they were steadily losing their ground. But despite everything, Trivar didn''t take any action. Krune had inspected Trivar''s cultivation base while meeting him at the inn before using his Divine Sense, slightly surprised when it was blocked. But, when he used his Mental Energy, he was able to penetrate his defenses easily. Krune was shocked because Trivar wasn''t anyone weak, despite being a merchant geared to earning money. Rather, it was not wrong to say that he was the strongest in the caravan. First Stage Nascent God! If he wished to, he could share the load of the entire caravan for an hour while all the mercenaries rested and recovered their Godly Energy. But Trivar didn''t do anything of the sort. "Kyah!" Diana shouted, watching the activation of her technique fail as she ran out of Godly Energy, failing to stop a boulder that crashed into the carriage under her. "No!" The caravan members on the carriage roof shouted in alarm as the boulder crashed into them, forming a massive hole through the carriage. Diana barely avoided the impact as Vardin arrived beside her, helping her as they moved over to another carriage. Krune noticed how the reins connecting the Zenith Plugger and the beams connecting them to the carriage remained intact while the remainder of the carriage fell off. With a quick glance, he determined that they were at least Nine Stars God Foundation in grade. Such instances like this continued to occur as the mercenaries ran out of Godly Energy one after another. The boulders crashed into the carriages they were protecting and destroyed them, spilling out all the goods in them. The mercenaries barely avoided dying and congregated around their team leaders, trying their best to recover their energy. The Zenith Pluggers were fine, since four caravan members were on the backs of each to protect them from harm. Moreover, they were capable of defending themselves. Whenever a boulder flew towards them, the air would faintly fluctuate before the boulders would tilt a bit and avoid the Zenith Pluggers. They were demon beasts that were experts at manipulating air. So, even though the carriages were destroyed, the respective Zenith Pluggers pulling them were unharmed. Moreover, the caravan members on its back immediately disconnected the harness and reconnected it to the nearest intact carriage. ''There''s gonna be a lot of losses here.'' Krune thought when he noticed how they changed the harness without any hesitation. The moment he saw the contents spill out of a broken carriage, Krune frowned as he noticed that they weren''t the same items he saw at the beginning of the caravan. They were just normal decorative items that weren''t worth anything. Not only that, but Krune activated his Mental Energy scan as he was suspicious, extending it to the bottom of his carriage as he noticed numerous hooks in place. Surprisingly, hung upside down from the hooks were bird-type demon beasts. Judging by their aura, they were the caravan members he thought were crushed by the boulders and were sent flying into the bottomless chasm below. As it turned out, they had taken flight immediately and were hiding underneath the carriages. It was as if they were waiting something. "Just¡­what the hell have I gotten myself into?" Chapter 860: It Makes No Sense ''Ah, right. They should have stored the items in storage rings. A caravan makes no sense since a merchant can opt to travel alone while carrying everything in one storage ring.'' Krune realized something as he noticed how every object falling out from the broken carriages was worthless. ''My assumptions are correct. The caravan is made to transport people and not goods. They still need people for the logistics portion in Hworn City. How did I even miss out on this simple fact?'' Krune wondered as he thought to himself. Spatial storage rings weren''t expensive. Their prices varied based on the size of the space inside them, but any merchant that traded goods and earned profits usually possessed a large storage ring. Hence, from the start, once the goods were transported into the carriages, they were placed within storage rings. In contrast, useless items were placed inside the carriages to fill up space. He had just thought of this, only for him to be shocked. Perceiving through his Mental Energy Scan was something he hadn''t ever expected to see at all. Among the bird-type demon beasts, one of them fished out a storage ring and created a spatial gate. In less than an instant, all the bird-type demon beasts flew into it, vanishing from the scene. As Krune had ample experience with various storage spaces, Krune knew that the spatial gate wasn''t meant to transport people from one place to another. But instead, it was a gateway to a world within the ring. It had to be noted that to achieve something of that level, the level of such a storage ring should be pretty high. Among the storage rings he had brought with him to the God Realm, only the basic ones had remained. All the high-quality rings he had were destroyed by the laws of the God Realm. They were of superior quality in the Godly Path Realm. In the God Realm though, the laws making up their storage spaces were of inferior quality, so it was no surprise that they collapsed. The bird-type demon beasts were active underneath their carriage. That was because of two reasons. One, they had the lowest cultivation of all the mercenaries, so the range of their Divine Sense was pretty small. Two, they were exhausted, so their Divine Sense couldn''t detect their activities, even out in the open. It was the reason why they didn''t move under any other carriage for the time being. Since Divine Sense was blocked by the formation on top of the carriage, they weren''t concerned that someone would snoop in on their activities. As for Krune, his Mental Energy Scan witnessed everything without their notice. Doors opened underneath every carriage as bird-type demon beasts flew out, flying into the spatial gate one after another. A small fraction of them entered the carriages, only to drop corpses of demon beasts in human form. They looked like the caravan members based on their clothes, but Krune knew that they weren''t the caravan members. They seemed to be regular cultivators that had been killed and dressed up as the caravan members. Whenever a boulder crashed into a carriage, their crushed bodies flew out along with the damaged items, making it seem as if the caravan members staying within the carriage had died. In reality, they had already flown into the spatial gate. After some time, there were no more caravan members within any carriage. Everything was empty. Even the ones that had been on top of the carriages¡ªdefending the carriages¡ªacted as if they had run out of Godly Energy and fainted. As the caravan moved through the air with numerous jerks, thanks to the boulders crashing into them one after another, the fainted caravan members used this chance to intentionally slip from the roof and fall into the chasm below. In actuality, the moment they fell a certain height, they returned to their demon beast forms, flapping their wings as they flew into the spatial gate. Since they were located farther away, the other mercenary teams were unable to witness this. Then again, there was obviously one extra person who noticed it, Yulian! However, he already made things clear to Krune. Unless Krune was about to die, he wouldn''t move a finger. The attention of the other mercenaries was on the boulders above. Also, considering the environment of the Falling Boulder Precipice, the mercenaries were assured that there was no threat from the bottom. It was why they didn''t focus on the happenings below the caravan and solely focused on the falling boulders. It was a calculated scheme by the caravan members. The only remaining members were those on top of the Zenith Pluggers. They couldn''t leave them defenseless, so they stayed behind to protect them from harm. ''What the hell is Trivar planning?'' Krune frowned as he pondered over it, watching the demon beast with the spatial ring fly towards the first carriage where Trivar was supposedly staying. The first flight route spanned 20 kilometers, after which they landed on the path once again and continued forth. But, it seemed the path had numerous instances where they had to take off into the air. So, whenever that happened, some of the caravan members turned into their demon beast forms and retreated into the spatial gate while their respective carriage was shattered. By the time they had crossed the third location where the caravan had to take flight, all the carriages were now empty. There were still a lot of carriages that were lucky and had survived, albeit with some damage. With that, the length of the caravan was still quite long. Krune didn''t like their sneakiness, frowning as the strength he put behind his attacks gradually lessened over time. He was saving up his strength, trying to replenish his Godly Energy faster. Vardin and Diana landed beside him sometime later, telling him, "We''re exhausted." "I can still last for some time. Recover your energies immediately." Krune said in response, tossing them some Rank Two God Stones. "B-But, we can''t use something this expensive." Vardin stuttered as he held the Rank Two God Stones. It was wealth he hadn''t ever held even once. Krune transmitted his message to their mind, telling both of them, "Are those stones worth more than your lives? Shut up and recover your Godly Energy. Something''s off with this caravan." The couple was shocked as they stared at his back, linking some detail in their head as their expressions collapsed. They silently heeded his words and began to replenish their Godly Energy. Even though they had only met Krune a few days ago, they could feel that he was someone they could trust. Since the Silver-Winged Mouses were constantly on the run or were hunted in the demon beast habitats, they learned to grasp a person''s character. That was how they guaranteed their survival. A person''s choice of words, their actions, their expressions at various instances, and so on, all attributed to their character and trustworthiness. After all, trust was a relative concept. It varied from person to person. A person trusting of someone would be willing to betray another. With that, they had to grasp what a person''s character was towards them. Only then would they be able to trust them. The Silver-Winged Mouse couple perceived a rather strange fact about Krune: as long as they didn''t scheme against him, he wouldn''t even raise his voice against them. On top of that, the only instances he would raise his voice were whether they were making fun of each other or whether their lives were at risk. That''s why they didn''t retort Krune''s words and obediently used the Rank Two God Stones he threw at them. Once they had recovered their Godly Energy, they returned to defend the carriages they were assigned to. After all, that was their job. It was also to make it seem like they hadn''t noticed anything amiss. But all along, they were constantly on guard and returned beside Krune to recover the moment their Godly Energy dropped by half. The number of carriages had reduced to 30 by the time they had approached the end of the Falling Boulders Precipice. Krune and the couple were fully exhausted now, having been battling all along. But in actuality, they were brimming with enough strength to retaliate when necessary. The Silver-Winged Mouses were experts at hiding themselves, so they acted as if they were like air. Krune was also an expert at controlling himself, so he put on an act that he was exhausted. Krune gazed at his right, noticing Xula stare at him from her position far away. The moment they made eye contact, she nodded at him before soon shifting her gaze. There were large sections in their caravan where the Zenith Pluggers trailed one after another. That was because their respective carriages had been destroyed, while the caravan members on their back detached the carriage and attached it to the intact ones. Thankfully, none of them were harmed and were still brimming with the energy to run. The only place that seemed exhausted in them was their wings, having flown for so long. They weren''t a species designed for long-distance flight. Unsurprisingly, their wings were trembling from time to time, looking like they needed to rest. A faint fluctuation of Godly Energy washed past them the moment they crossed the Falling Boulders Precipice. All the Zenith Pluggers started to slow down as the caravan neared a hill, stopping at its foot. Large spikes protruded out of the ground nearby, acting as a cover for them to stop temporarily. Trivar''s voice resounded throughout the caravan once again, "We''ll stop here for the day and set off tomorrow." Krune let out a sigh in relief, motioning the Silver-Winged Mouse couple to follow him as he jumped from the roof, landing on the ground. He made a beeline towards the first carriage, intending to interrogate Trivar, only for Yuric to interrupt him. "Move, Yuric. I have to ask Trivar something," Krune said. "If you wish to ask why he picked this route, I suggest you forget about it," Yuric said with an irritated expression, "A mercenary should only focus on his task and leave the rest to his employer. In our case, our task is to protect the caravan from harm, nothing more, nothing less." "People died!" Krune shouted in anger, acting as if he hadn''t noticed everything that had transpired along the route. "This was why I said we needed at least one mercenary per carriage! Now, look at what happened! From the initial 120 carriages, we''re down to just 30!" "That''s just how it is." Xula, the tall woman from before, walked in, looking pissed herself. "Still." She looked at Yuric before saying, "Move aside, Yuric. I need to see Trivar. I don''t usually question my employer, but I don''t wish to stain my track record due to the foolishness of my employer." "Xula!" Yuric shouted, emitting a wave of Godly Energy to pressure her. "What? Are you telling me you formed a connection with them after being employed for so long?" Xula sneered, unaffected by the pressure. "I see how it is. You fell for that crazy wench." Chapter 861: Trivar’s Change in Attitude "Talk shit about her one more time, and I swear on my life that your head would roll on the ground," Yuric snarled, placing his hand on his sword as he entered a stance. The air around him trembled as a projection seemed to manifest around him. Krune''s eyes widened at the scene, noticing the semi-corporeal projection surrounding Yuric. ''Spiritual Incarnation! So that''s why Trivar trusts Yuric that much.'' Cultivators with a Spiritual Incarnation were supposed to be super rare, so Krune was surprised to have come across one. He was also confused as to why such an expert would be a mercenary. After all, the mercenary occupation wasn''t the most rewarding out of all battle-related occupations. Plus, an expert with a Spiritual Incarnation like Yuric could join any organization and be welcomed with open arms. One should take into consideration that even Dima didn''t possess a Spiritual Incarnation, despite being a powerhouse at the Semi-God Realm. Just that alone displayed how rare and overbearing a cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation turned out to be. Yuric didn''t actually manifest his Spiritual Incarnation, only emitting his Godly Energy with a base layer of his laws. But even then, it looked like the surroundings would change into a terrain advantageous to him the moment he acted upon it. ''So that''s what a Spiritual Incarnation does. It changes the terrain to where the user would benefit. That would give them the home ground advantage anywhere in the God Realm.'' Krune comprehended that property based on the short time the projection flashed behind Yuric. It was vastly different from the Domains he had used in the Realms below. "What? You think I''m afraid of you?" Xula scowled in response to Yuric''s showcase of might, unsheathing her axe from its holster. She seemed unafraid of Yuric, giving off the feeling that she had enough tricks up her sleeve to protect herself and even best her opponent. Even Yuric seemed to be a bit hesitant to fight her, despite the fierce expression he displayed. Then again, he wasn''t willing to lose face, getting ready to engage with her when Trivar landed between the two. "Alright, stop fighting." "Tell me what''s wrong with your head first," Xula retorted in response to Trivar''s words, remaining in her battle stance. "Are you telling me you know of a safer route?" Trivar frowned as he replied, "Such losses are frequent in our merchant life. Don''t tell me you''ve already forgotten our previous trips?" "We barely lost 2-3 carriages in all those trips," Xula frowned as she responded before pointing at the numerous Zenith Pluggers without their respective carriages. "And you''re telling me that''s similar to losing 90 carriages?" "Defending them from harm was supposed to be your job description," Trivar snapped. "22 mercenaries for a total of 120 carriages. I believe I''ve said my piece at the start. Also, Trivar, you were the one who said this was enough," Krune spoke from the side. "Yes, I did." Trivar nodded. "As the owner of this caravan, I didn''t complain at this loss. So, let me ask you. Why are you behaving like this?" "People died for crying out loud!" Krune controlled himself from shouting like before. "The lives of people are different from losing materials! As a merchant, you would easily be able to reclaim material losses, but would you be able to reclaim losses of living beings that easily as well?" "They signed up while knowing the risks." Trivar then looked at Xula and said, "I''m surprised you haven''t heard the recent news. All the safer paths are infested with bandit groups now. They''ve cropped up from the nearby continent thanks to the ongoing continental war. So, relatively speaking, this is by far the safest route. We have no other choice if we wish to deliver our goods like usual." He adjusted his clothes before continuing, "Afraid of the bandit groups, most merchants refrained from journeying this year. Profits are at stake here. And¡­" He glared before saying, "A merchant runs after profits, despite the dangers and risks." "I never knew you were such an individual." Xula snorted after saying her piece before turning around, intending to leave. "Also, this is the last time my Mercenary Team would work with you." "As long as you complete this mission, I''m fine with that." Trivar shrugged in response. Xula looked at Yuric, saying before leaving, "I hope you''re satisfied with the choice you made." She then walked away, her pace slower when compared to before, her brows furrowed. Her eyelids trembled as her eyes glazed over. After that, she took in a deep breath as her expression turned placid, her gait returning to the same imposing manner as before. "Let''s go." Krune didn''t say anything else, motioning for the Silver-Winged Mouses to follow him as they returned to their respective carriage. Seeing their retreating backs, Yuric transmitted a message to Trivar, "What shall we do with them, Master?" "Just leave them alone. The Silver-Winged Mouse couple is useless. As for Krune, if need be, we''ll use him as our shield. He''s supported by the Spirit Awakener Guild. With that, he should have some life-saving treasures on him. There''s also Yulian to account for." "Shall I kill Yulian?" Yuric asked. "Leave him be for now. It won''t be easy to kill him without manifesting your Spiritual Incarnation. But doing so would leave too many traces for our trackers. If we play our cards right, we can make use of the Spirit Awakener Guild''s strength to deal with our enemies." Trivar smiled as he replied. "That''s why I included Krune in this mission in the first place." "What shall we do now, brother?" Vardin transmitted the message to Krune''s mind. He was hesitant to continue the mission any longer. They were willing to risk their lives for their objective. Though, after seeing Trivar''s attitude, they didn''t wish to continue the mission any longer, even if it meant that they would lose the mission reward and would be stranded in the middle of nowhere, having to find their way back to some city. "Did you know about the bandit groups occupying the safer routes?" Krune replied with a question of his own. Everything was communicated through their mind to prevent a third party from listening in on their conversation. "Yes." Vardin nodded as he elaborated. "It was posted in the Mercenary Guild on the day we set off. It seems to be a thing of recent. I''m surprised Trivar was able to get hold of the information beforehand and prepare a route accordingly." "Alright." Krune sighed. "We''ll just stick to our mission. In any case, if it looks like our lives are at risk, we''ll abandon this caravan and escape. Are your demon beast forms fast enough to run away from the Zenith Pluggers?" "Yes." Vardin nodded. "For a short time, we can outrun them easily. We can also burrow into the ground and completely erase our tracks." "That''s for the best, then." Krune nodded, slightly satisfied with the response. "My demon beast form is inconvenient in such cases, so I''ll be relying on you to escape. Leave the defense to me. As long as I put my mind to it, they won''t be able to breach it that easily." The place the caravan had halted wasn''t anything unique. After some rest and some inspection on the conditions of the Zenith Pluggers, the caravan set off on the next day. This time, their arrangements were slightly different. Two Zenith Pluggers were attached to one carriage that seemed to be heavier than before. Also, for some reason, the carriages seemed to have changed in size. They were 20 meters in length and 10 meters in width before. But now, they were 30 meters in length and 20 meters in width. Krune wasn''t paying attention to them since he was busy making plans with the Silver Winged Mouse couple, so he hadn''t noticed when they had made the changes. Though, upon entering their respective carriages, Krune noticed a certain formation glowing. It seemed to be a formation that altered the size of the caravan. The alteration wasn''t limitless and was only possible by designing the carriage accordingly for expansion and contraction. With just a single touch, Krune realized that the carriage was thinner than before. To increase in volume, it had simply expanded. In exchange, the thickness of the walls had reduced. With a bigger carriage, came a bigger balcony. Unwilling to be caught off guard alone, Krune and the Silver-Winged Mouse couple sat in the same balcony, meditating as they conversed through their minds. A week passed in such a manner as Krune made a breakthrough to the Second Stage of the God Foundation Realm. Immediately after that, he stopped cultivating since he was running out of Rank Two God Stones. He didn''t have a lot of them at the start. Plus, after the current cultivation session where he also shared a bit with the Silver-Winged Mouse couple, he didn''t have enough to sustain a breakthrough to the Third Stage of the God Foundation Realm. And so, he decisively stopped. He had shared some with his teammates because if they became stronger, they would help him out when things turned awry. Besides, it wasn''t as if earning Rank Two God Stones was anything difficult for him. He was, after all, a Spirit Awakener. "This!" Vardin let out a gasp of shock as he stared into the surroundings. What appeared at the far end of his vision was a large plain that looked as if a deity had bit off a large part of the land. It was situated 10 meters below ground level and continued to proceed deeper and deeper into the ground. Rock pillars were occasionally scattered across the land while the bones of humans and demon beasts filled the area. As they were closing in on the region, Krune felt a restriction of sorts placed on his cultivation base, making him feel weaker all of a sudden. "W-What is this place?" Krune was shocked to see that his cultivation had regressed to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. He had regressed by an entire realm. He looked at the Silver-Winged Mouse couple to see if they too were at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. "Trivar''s crazy!" Diana bellowed in her mind, transmitting the content to Vardin and Krune. "Why the hell is he entering the Immortal Severance Zone?" "Immortal Severance Zone? Is this place related to what''s happening to our cultivation bases?" Krune frowned as he asked. "Yes, it is." Diana nodded as she explained, "Everyone below a certain cultivation base would be suppressed to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm here. That''s why this is one of the most dangerous places since lower realm cultivators target higher realm cultivators to snatch their belongings. This happens here all the time. Only those short on time choose this path since there''s no natural danger in this region except for a drop in cultivation. Also¡­" Her expression collapsed as she continued, "The longer we stay here, the slower our cultivation bases would recover once we escape. Moreover, if we remain here beyond a certain duration, our cultivation would stagnate at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm forever." Chapter 862: What is He Thinking? "Careful... Steady!" The leader of the Spirit Aberrations shouted as he pulled the reins of the Zenith Plugger, making it take flight at every interval to fly over the paths that had caved in. The Zenith Plugger wasn''t making use of its body as efficiently, making a lot of mistakes that exhausted it faster than usual. Its wings were already trembling after quite some time, giving off the feeling that they wouldn''t last any longer. Nevertheless, the leader of the Spirit Aberrations controlled it, forcing it to run without stopping. The Zenith Plugger limped at times due to its foot being injured. Unfortunately, the Spirit Aberrations in human form on its back were unable to defend against all the falling boulders, even though all of them were huddled in the same place. That showed just how weak they were in their human forms. "Once I devour her, our situation will definitely improve drastically," The Spirit Aberration leader snorted as it said, making the Zenith Plugger run nonstop. At times, the Zenith Plugger would wail in pain, but despite everything, it had no choice but to run, even if it meant crippling itself. Though they were weak, they weren''t helpless. They had accumulated a lot of abilities to help out in their situation. Otherwise, they wouldn''t have been able to live for so long in the dangerous God Realm where old races would die, and new races would emerge constantly. "Those items are from Trivar''s caravan. Pick up some of them." The leader motioned at some items scattered across the path. In response, one of the Spirit Aberrations landed on the path before running forward at speeds greater than the Zenith Plugger. It then grabbed the items before returning to its back, handing them over to a Spirit Aberration that was tracking Trivar''s caravan. "This would help us locate them faster." He smiled as he said before continuing his chase. ¡­ The Pitlook Merchant Caravan headed into a large flat pit on the ground¡ªone situated 10 meters underground¡ªand proceeded to travel without breaks, officially entering the Immortal Severance Zone. At the very moment they entered, everyone in the caravan, including Krune, let out a grunt, feeling the limitation imposed on them become stronger. Right now, unless they left the place, their cultivation would be limited to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. Not only that, but Krune noticed that the range of his Divine Sense, Godly Energy reserves, and physical body strength had changed as well. All had regressed to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. The most shocking fact was regarding the Godly Energy flowing in his Godly Meridians. He thought that even if his cultivation was suppressed, the Godly Energy in his body would remain the same. But as it turned out, even its quantity was suppressed to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. This was pretty alarming. On top of that, another frightful matter was how his Mental Energy Scan had become slower in the area. It wasn''t adversely suppressed like Godly Energy. Its range and functionality remained the same as before. But compared to before entering the area, it felt like a tortoise. ''Maybe it''s because the concentration of the Suppression Law here is so dense that it can even affect my Mental Energy. I see... it just suppresses everything, regardless of whatever it is. Mental Energy is no different. It''s probably because it''s unique and something the laws of the God Realm hadn''t probably encountered before. That''s why the suppression effect on it is minimal.'' Krune thought to himself, offering a hypothesis to the situation that he felt made sense. He then noticed how the speed of the caravan had slowed down considerably as the Zenith Pluggers were feeling some difficulty in pulling them. Thankfully, two of them were attached to each carriage, reducing the burden on each Zenith Plugger. That was why they could continue pulling their respective carriages. The ground was plain, barely layered with thin topsoil. It was mostly flat, hardened ground, allowing an easier travel. The depth of the pit from the ground level steadily increased as the surroundings grew darker. The caravan passed by some rock pillars along the way, unhindered as they numbered few and far between. Among them was a series of rock pillars, placed parallel to one another, separated by a distance of 100 meters. The caravan soon entered this section, continuing to move past as the mercenaries were on high alert, including Xula, who was dissatisfied with the entire situation. Once the caravan had disappeared from view, a large crowd emerged from a rock pillar at the front. They huddled at the top of the rock pillar, eerily gazing at the back of the caravan. Their cultivation, just like the ones on the caravan, was also at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm, but their auras reeked with a bloodthirsty scent. Their figures were of all sizes, mostly emitting the auras of various demon beasts in human form. Among them, a stout man appeared atop the rock pillar, holding a great sword using his mouth as he gazed at the caravan that had moved a fair distance away. "Are they loaded?" "When they entered the Immortal Severance Zone, the suppression effect caused the formation on their carriages to fluctuate. I inspected them using that chance¡­" answered a demon beast in human form, looking no different from a human baby in appearance, currently seated on the man''s shoulder. "Boss, they''re loaded. The carriages are filled with useless goods, but the ones in their storage rings are probably the real deal. They''re superior quality." "Boss Whack, please spare me. I already gave you all my belongings." The pleading voice of a cultivator resounded from behind as his pummelled figure landed on the ground. He wriggled, trying to get up, only for him to fail as his limbs had been twisted beyond measure. He was just gritting through sheer desire to live. "Sure." Whack smiled in response, motioning for his underlings to set the cultivator free. Unfortunately, it was of no use. His limbs were twisted. He also lacked Godly Energy to use, having been drained of everything in his previous conflict. He was placed at the foot of the rock pillar, unharmed as the bandit group moved away. Upon seeing their backs, the cultivator was relieved that he was alive, and they hadn''t gone back on their words. But this thought soon disappeared as he felt utter despair. He was unable to move, nor did he have any belongings with him. He was left to starve to death in the place he was in. It was even more cruel and vicious than going back on their words and killing him. The cultivator cursed the bandit boss, Whack, for a long time until his voice turned hoarse, gradually becoming faint. The sounds of sobbing continued after that. "Boss Whack, we''re ready to ambush. They would have to stop at the blockade we''ve set up. Before they finish making a path, we would arrive at that area," one of the bandit underlings uttered, turning into a four-legged demon beast. It looked like a mix between a horse and a reptile, suitable for a person to ride on its back. The baby cultivator on Whack''s shoulder cackled as it replied, "It''s been a long time since we''ve gotten such nice prey. Ahh, that time when I ripped and devoured the flesh of a God Trial Realm cultivator, that was pure ecstasy. I need some high-quality prey! I need it! I need it!" "Let''s make do with what we have now, Hack." Whack patted the baby''s head, seating himself on the four-legged demon beast, motioning for it to give chase. Whack then shouted, "We''ve got another prey, idiots!" "Yeah!" Hundreds of bandits then followed after Whack on their respective demon beasts, their appearances similar to the one Whack rode on. The ground thumped at their rhythmic running as the bandit group moved. Peering through a telescope was a tall lady, looking like she was from the same demon beast race as Xula. She noticed the movements of Whack''s bandit group, shouting at her group in response, "It seems Whack has managed to find some really good prey this time. Let''s grab them first before they can." "Yeah!" Followed by raucous cheers, her bandit groups too gave chase. Seated in the carriage''s balcony, Krune felt his heart thump faster and faster all of a sudden as he felt a trace of the Calamity Laws for an instant. With that, he sprang to his feet in shock, alerting the Silver-Winged Mouse couple. Krune looked around, failing to find anything apart from the rock pillars that occasionally appeared. The place was eerily quiet, except for the sounds of the Zenith Pluggers running. Krune was unable to see any signs of activity, but he could feel the thumping of his heart intensify. "Get ready, guys. Something bad is about to happen," Krune frowned as he warned them. He then climbed up the carriage with a bit of help from Vardin before dashing towards the end of the caravan, jumping on the balcony of the carriage where Xula was staying with her team. The four mercenary teams were arranged in sequential order. The strongest of the Mercenary Teams, the E Rank Mercenary Team, Ink Sword, was stationed next to the first carriage where Trivar stayed. Ink Sword had a total of 10 mercenaries, two of which were in the God Core Realm while the rest were in the Eighth and Ninth Stage of the God Foundation Realm. It was followed by the F Rank Mercenary Team, Razor Claw that had four mercenaries. Their leader, Zactuc, was in the Ninth Stage of the God Foundation Realm, while the rest of his members ranged from Seventh to Eighth Stage of the God Foundation Realm. The third one was Krune''s Mercenary Team, Winged Wasps, while the last team was Xula''s Mercenary team, Plotted Heels. They consisted of five members, all of which were at the Ninth Stage of the God Foundation Realm. "Krune?" Xula frowned, slightly surprised as she noticed Krune jump into her balcony. She had no reason to despise him now, especially after seeing his competence in the Falling Boulders Precipice. The five carriages he protected remained unharmed until the end. Sure, it did suffer some damage, but it wasn''t beyond repair. Just that alone made him worthy of respect in her mind. Xula gazed at Krune, seeing his team members jump into the balcony after him before asking, "Did something happen?" "Don''t scatter, no matter the reason," Krune nodded as he warned her. "I have a feeling that something terrible''s going to happen. My senses are sharper than the rest, so I can feel it in advance. It''s best to stay as a group and act accordingly." He then transmitted a message to her mind, "Seeing Trivar''s expression at the loss of goods, they shouldn''t have been expensive. No merchant would behave so nonchalant at losing three-fourths of his goods. I think most of the carriages are filled with dummy goods." "So, you feel the same, then," Xula nodded as she said in response. "To be honest with you, I also felt something was off from the start. I don''t understand what Trivar''s even planning at this point." Chapter 863: I’ll See You Try That "Hahaha, welcome to the area, fellow merchants." Hack''s voice resounded with a cackle when the Pitlook Merchant Caravan slowed down before stopping. In front of it was a row of rock pillars, situated 10 meters from each other. There was one place where there was a gap that spanned 50 meters, which was also the only path they could use to traverse further. But as of the moment, a rope of some sort was coiled between the two, blocking the caravan from passing any further. It wouldn''t be possible for the Zenith Pluggers to fly past them without risks as the rope spanned up to a height of 100 meters. On top of that, their cultivations were suppressed. With a quick glance, Trivar realized that each strand of rope was at the Nine Stars God Foundation level. It wasn''t something they could cut through in a short amount of time. After all, their current cultivation bases were restricted to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. To make matters worse, before he could even come up with a plan, droves of bandits walked out from behind the pillars, numbering more than 300. His attention immediately fell on the man standing at the very center, exuding a powerful presence. Trivar unconsciously shuddered when he saw Whack, feeling the murderous intent emanating from him. On top of that, unlike everyone, Whack seemed to have lived in the Immortal Severance Zone long enough to completely restrict his cultivation base. With that, he had completely adapted to the region, taking pleasure in reaping the lives of strong cultivators that passed through it. Normally speaking, even if a cultivator had suppressed his cultivation to a lower realm, they would still be stronger than a regular cultivator at that cultivation base. After all, they had lived longer and had accumulated greater experience. Moreover, the variety of techniques in their arsenal would also be greater. Hence, a cultivator that was naturally at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm wouldn''t be able to kill a stronger cultivator whose cultivation had been suppressed to that level. Then again, that was in the case they had differing cultivations. If both cultivators had the same cultivation base, and one had suppressed their cultivation for a longer time, they would have more time to adapt to the changes. After all, a cultivator in the Semi-God Realm was able to fly. So, their first instinct was to fly and engage with an enemy in midair. When they were suppressed in the Immortal Severance Zone, they would need some time to adapt to the suppression and alter their mindset to move on the ground. After all, old habits die hard. This was where the advantages of Whack and other bandits could be seen. They had long since given up on returning to the world beyond, choosing to stay within the Immortal Severance Zone, completely giving up on progressing further in their cultivation. This way, they had a lot of time to slowly adapt to the environment and become the region''s fishes, or in this case, sharks. They were basically throwing away the prospect of longevity thanks to this decision. In their eyes though, longevity meant nothing. Only when a cultivator reached the Semi-God Realm would they attain longevity anyway. Then again, reaching that stage meant needing to survive through a heavenly tribulation. Most cultivators had zero hope in succeeding that. Even among the wealthy families who had been gearing up for the heavenly tribulation, most of them failed to survive, turning everything they invested into waste. On top of that, most people lead hard lives, struggling to procure God Stones to cultivate or buy their necessities in life. There were also constant battles waged in numerous places. Every demon beast habitat was a dangerous place to venture into. All in all, cultivators died early most of the time. Even those that attained immortality didn''t live long since they fought stronger opponents for cultivation resources and succumbed to one or the other. Instead of dealing through them all for the slim chance of attaining immortality, it was better to enjoy their life to the fullest. After all, most of the cultivators pursuing immortality cultivated nonstop, with cultivation making up their life. They didn''t do anything else. To these bandits, that was boring. So, instead of spending all their lives cultivating, only to lose their lives in a heavenly tribulation, it was better to enjoy it by doing whatever they wanted. That was why they gave up on cultivation and entered the Immortal Severance Zone. The Immortal Severance Zone was tremendously big. It was one of the largest danger zones in the Zamuria Continent. So, one way or another, cultivators entered it for all sorts of reasons. This allowed the bandits to have a steady influx of entertainment. As the Immortal Severance Zone was the only place in the Zamuria continent where the Suppression Law was in greatest concentration, high-level cultivators also frequented the place. It was in hopes of comprehending the law. After all, the Suppression Law had numerous tangible uses and benefits. This made the place a hot spot filled with powerful cultivators. With that, the bandits never lacked prey. This was why bandit groups were plenty in the region. Of course, there were cases where the bandit groups were annihilated instead. But that was always caused by a miscalculation on their part where their prey had greater numbers than them. Trivar looked at the whole situation, sighing as he cupped his fists. "Boss Bandit, we''ll pay the toll for passing through. Please be magnanimous. Our merchant group has to use this route frequently in the future." Trivar instantly displayed his cunning. He first showed his willingness to pay the price. After that, he hinted at how his group had to frequent the route. This meant two things. If the bandit group stole them dry this time, it was natural they would obtain a lot of wealth. But that would be it. But, if they only took a portion of the goods, then it was as if they had established a trade deal. Every time the Pitlook Merchant Group used the route, they would pay homage to the bandits. This meant that the bandits would have a steady influx of resources. Trivar''s words had opened two routes for Whack, either rob them dry for a measly one-time profit or accumulate a fortune through a long-time deal. "Fine," Whack laughed as he replied. "Since you seem like a capable person, I won''t rob you too much. Please use this route as much as you please in the future. We''ll only take a small toll." "Thank you." Trivar cupped his fists, intending to motion the caravan members to move out a carriage when Hack cackled as his appearance slightly warped. Seated on Whack''s shoulder, he pointed at the caravan before saying, "The 60 Zenith Pluggers that you aren''t using, give them to us, and we''ll allow you passage." "Nicely said, Hack," Whack patted his head while saying. Hack cackled, squirming as he smiled bashfully, using his appearance to his advantage. "I was just stating your thoughts, Boss Whack." "Such a fat prey has landed. I''m sure you can''t gobble that up alone. Let me help you, Whack." A feminine voice resounded as a tall woman arrived at the back of the caravan, leading her bandit group of 400. The situation had turned volatile immediately as Whack frowned. "We just formed a deal with this merchant group, Zuna. You won''t get any share here." "I don''t care," Zuna shrugged as she replied. "I''ll just kill the lot of you and take everything for myself. Why should I limit my options?" "Sigh...fine." After a moment of thought, Whack scratched his head, sighing as he gazed at Trivar. "Sucks to be you. I guess we''ll have to annihilate you." "You go try and do that," a feminine voice resounded in response to Whack''s words as the door on the first carriage opened. Krune immediately felt a dense fluctuation of Godly Energy that seemed intent to penetrate his head and control his mind. Krune grunted for a moment, using his mental energy to alleviate the effect instantly, extending it into a cocoon as well to wrap around the Silver-Winged Mouse couple. In an instant, the grunting couple returned to normal as an expression of fear suffused their faces. Vardin looked at his hand, watching it tremble in fear as he muttered, "For a moment there, I had almost pledged my eternal loyalty to her¡­" "Her¡­?" Krune frowned as he speculated, "You mean¡­ Trivar''s daughter?" "Yes." Diana nodded, gazing at the first carriage as she noticed the door being opened. Xula and her team too saw the scene while Xula clenched her teeth in anger upon gazing at her appearance, muttering under her breath, "Wench." A rotund figure stepped out of the first carriage, breaking the door upon her exit. Despite her round figure, she was charming for some reason, causing Whack to stare at her in a daze. "I guess this is the first time I am seeing someone be this beautiful despite being fat. That''s a first, even for me." Whack laughed as he said. Though, his laugh stopped all of a sudden as he noticed the four-legged demon beast he was sitting on neigh and bow its head towards Trivar''s daughter. "Lady Tina, the current situation is risky." Yuric stood behind her with a respectful pose. "Please allow me to clean them up." "Alright, do as you see fit." Tina nodded as she replied, intending to return to her carriage. Before she entered, she shot a glance towards the end of the caravan, noticing Krune stare at her in return, unaffected by her ability. "So, you''re Krune," she smiled as she muttered, returning to her carriage as Yuric began to walk towards Whack. Trailing behind him was Hwalian, another God Core Realm expert from his Mercenary Team. The remainder of Ink Sword formed a protective circle around the first carriage. Trivar then sent a message to all the other mercenaries, "Ink Sword will handle the bandit group in the front. Please handle the one at the back." The remaining 500 caravan members then took up arms after that. There were four caravan members per Zenith Plugger, taking care of it. Adding onto the remainder that stayed in the carriages, they numbered 500. At present, the cultivation bases of everyone remained the same, so they weren''t disadvantaged that much in a contest of numbers. "Only retaliate when attacked," Krune said to Vardin and Diana when he shuddered involuntarily, sensing a powerful fluctuation of Godly Energy. Yuric calmly walked forward and stood 10 meters before Whack as he taunted him, "You said you would annihilate us all. I presume you have the capability to do that?" "Oh, I do." Whack laughed. "I''ve seen a lot of arrogant cultivators like you. But alas, all that happened was them ending up in our bellies." His bandit group roared in laughter soon after that, fueling them with the energy needed for them to fight. Chapter 864: Land Incarnation! Yuric stared at Whack, intending to unsheathe his sword as his right hand held the hilt. He had only unsheathed it halfway when a hilt hit the back of his hand, stopping him from fully unsheathing his sword. The speed and expertise behind the action shocked him for a moment as Yuric lifted his head, staring at the greatsword Whack held. Whack used its hilt to stop Yuric from fully unsheathing his sword. "Fine." Not even a second had passed as Yuric''s right leg shot forth, arcing as it aimed to hit Whack''s head. Unfortunately for him, it didn''t land on the target, being stopped by Hack instead. He had only used one hand to stop Yuric''s attack. "Being arrogant always leads to an early demise," Hack cackled as he said, hastily increasing the strength in his hand as his fingers dug into Yuric''s leg, drawing out some blood. "My turn." Whack laughed, sending a straight punch right at Yuric''s face, noticing that his attack only hit the air. Yuric made use of Hack''s hold over his leg to lift his body up and twist himself, using the spin to unsheathe his sword and slash out at Whack. "You''re quite strong," Whack mocked, using his gauntlet to shield himself from the sword slash. "But that''s all." Hack soon opened his mouth and spat out a fireball that slammed into Yuric, throwing his body back. Hack didn''t let go of his hold over Yuric''s leg, watching the fireball push his upper body forward, causing slight strain in his joints as the impact stretched him. Not long after, he then spat out another fireball towards Yuric when Whack swung his greatsword, severing Yuric''s right leg. The momentum from the fireball impact sent him flying for more than 10 meters, resulting in Yuric''s body being charred black. "And with that..." Whack smirked. "Your strongest fighter just died. He wasn''t anything special, just like everyone that died to date." He then directed his gaze towards Hwalian before taunting him. "Aren''t you the second strongest in this caravan? Fight me if you dare." Hwalian stared at him without responding, slowly unsheathing his blade. He then entered a battle-ready stance. "That''s it?" Krune was shocked, wondering if he had missed something. Yuric went down way too fast. Krune was unable to detect any signs of life in Yuric''s charred corpse. He frowned, inquiring Xula, "What¡­just happened?" Xula didn''t reply to him, gazing at the Boss Bandit before them¡ªZuna. She stared at her as her eyes widened in shock, though it soon morphed into that of sadness as she muttered, "¡­Zuna." "It''s a surprise seeing you here, Xula." Zuna smiled, a stark contrast from Xula. She motioned for her followers to begin attacking. Followed by raucous cheers, the 400 bandits behind her rushed towards the caravan members, immediately engaging in a fight. "Why¡­did you leave our clan?" Xula frowned as she asked. "You were close to becoming an immortal." The two tall ladies faced each other. The emotions between them were quite complicated. Zuna sighed as she replied, "The clan elders were pressuring me too much. I didn''t have confidence in surviving the heavenly tribulation. I just¡­had too many lingering attachments. Plus, I wasn''t well-prepared yet." "But..." Xula shouted in response, "You were at the peak of the Nascent God Stage. Even if you didn''t become an immortal, you were still a powerhouse. Why leave your authority and enter this place? You can no longer be one of the strong now even if you leave this place." "I don''t have a plan to leave this place, though," Zuna smiled as she responded. "Even powerful immortals are no different from us here." "Also¡­" Her eyes emitted tremendous hatred as she continued, "I''ve killed quite a few immortals that our clan revered. Without their cultivation, they aren''t anything impressive. They''re just fat pigs that have consumed a country''s worth of resources to get to that point." Zuna took a quick glance at the group behind Xula, saying after a light sigh, "Just leave this place. Your caravan doesn''t have enough strength to face us. I promise we won''t pursue you." Xula hesitated for a bit, taking a quick look at the ongoing fight behind her as she noticed the caravan members putting up an even fight against the bandits. There didn''t seem to be much of a difference between the two parties. Then again, as long as nothing changed, the situation would become worse for the caravan members. After all, they only numbered 500, while the two bandit groups consisted of 700 cultivators. This difference was enough to grind away at them. As Xula pondered over her decision, a blade flew towards her. Just when it was about to slam into her, a shield blocked it as Krune shouted, "Don''t you notice? She''s been lying to you all this time!" Xula''s eyes widened as she gazed at Zuna, surprised to notice her expression of ridicule. "You¡­were lying?" "I didn''t lie, to be honest with you," Zuna inched closer, pulling out a hammer from her storage ring, "Though I wasn''t telling you the entire truth either." "What¡­do you mean?" "I just escaped from my clan," she laughed as she replied. "Because it was suffocating to cultivate all day. I''ve been doing that ever since I was young and got fed up with it. Also, to the clan that restricted me this long, I bear no good feelings towards them. That includes you as well." "Fine, then," Xula''s expression hardened as she attacked immediately, sending Zuna flying. She then leaped into the air, expressing her fury as she hacked a bandit into two. Her sword was as tall as her, spanning 3 meters. It made her wide swings brim with enough power to cleave her opponents into two. Zuna got up and dusted herself, uttering, "You''re quite strong. But, something of this level is not enough to defeat me." The two tall ladies then clashed with each other, exchanging numerous attacks that always targeted the vitals of the other. Xula''s team soon engaged with the bandits, forming a protective circle to prevent them from sneaking up behind Xula. "Krune, should we stay here in the meantime?" Vardin transmitted the message into Krune''s head. "Hmm..." Krune frowned as he pondered, hesitating whether to abandon ship or not. As long as the caravan had a chance of making it through, he didn''t wish to leave it. After all, he didn''t know the route. With that, he didn''t want to get lost in the Immortal Severance Zone long enough to the point his cultivation was permanently stuck at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. On top of that, even after escaping from here, if they came across another bandit group, their situation would become something impossible to escape from. They had limited strength and stamina at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. It went without saying that they couldn''t fight for long before they exhausted themselves. Krune had to be wise with his decisions. At present, Krune only held two shields in his hands, flailing them around to defend against the bandits. He didn''t wish to expend any Godly Energy for the time being. In other words, he was passively defending. "Bro, we''re just poor mercenaries who were hired for minimum wage. We have no worth." While fighting, Krune transmitted such messages to the bandits, causing some of them to show looks of pity at him before targeting someone else. As for the Silver-Winged Mouse couple, they were even better than Krune in acting pitiful. In their case, some of the bandits actually gave them a couple of Rank One God Stones and patted them on the shoulder before moving onto a different target. Krune then noticed a faint fluctuation of Godly Energy permeate through the air. At first, he thought it was a result of all the clashes between the bandits and the caravan members. But as he concentrated on it, he soon noticed a faint issue. The Godly Energy had disguised itself as the excess emissions from all the abilities the warring cultivators had used. But, in actuality, the moment he probed it, Krune noticed the similarity. It was an energy he had felt for the second time. The culprit was Tina, Trivar''s daughter. "Just stay beside me. Tina''s attempting something." The moment he conveyed the message, Vardin and Diana stuck to him like glue. Krune used his Mental Energy to wrap around the three of them, shielding themselves from the Godly Energy. The moment he did so, Krune then sensed something strange. He had actually been thinking about staying behind all along. He wasn''t someone reckless, and since he had already formulated an escape plan with the Silver-Winged Mouse couple, it was strange that they hadn''t left as is. The situation was already pretty dangerous. Plus, at the very moment a third bandit group arrived, their lives were pretty much done for. All this time, his thoughts were subtly influenced by Tina. Vardin and Diana, as well, realized the changes in their thought process. In that instant, cold sweat drenched their backs. "Aaaaa!" Hack''s bloodthirsty scream resounded as his body melted, starting from the hand that had been holding Yuric''s leg and his stomach. It seemed that he had been unable to resist devouring Yuric''s leg after severing it. But at the very moment he did so, he felt his entire body burning up. Hack stared in fear at the charred corpse of Yuric as he stammered, "Y-You aren''t a normal cultivator! You have...have a¡­Spiritual Incarnation!" Without hesitation, Whack grabbed hold of Hack''s head and threw him far away. The moment Hack slammed into the ground, his body dissolved into a puddle. "Bastard!" Whack cursed, watching Yuric''s charred body slowly get up. Then, as if nothing had happened, his appearance returned to normal. Yuric smiled as he asked, "Shall we start with round two?" "Don''t worry, I won''t use my Spiritual Incarnation against you," Yuric laughed as he uttered, imitating Hack''s laughter. "Only against you, that is." "Land Incarnation!" he shouted, causing his body to shine with a murky green radiance. A fluctuation of Godly Energy wafted from him before the land changed. The hard ground melted and turned into a swamp. Hot fumes arose as bubbles formed and burst along its surface continuously. The rock pillars melted and slowly sunk into the swamp. The same went for the bandits that had been fighting against the caravan members. As for the caravan members, the ground hardened anywhere they stepped foot upon, allowing them to move without suffering from any damage. "Let''s see..." Yuric looked around before saying, "You have 300 bandits under your command, right? I''ll give you 30 seconds, then. For every second, I''ll kill 10 of them. If you don''t wish to see them dead, you''ll have to kill me." "Now, come!" Yuric unsheathed his sword, winking at Whack as a massive jaw emerged from the swamp and clamped upon exactly 10 bandits before retreating into the ground. Chapter 865: Your Laws Aren’t Absolute Far from where the fight was happening, one could see a group of 10 people, all of them injured. Their injuries were at varying degrees of severity. Some only had surface wounds, while some had severe ones. But what was the same for all of them was that none of them were in a near-death state. "Well, well, well. What do we have here? It seems we''ve come across a group of fat and juicy pigs from the Spirit Awakener Guild." Standing before them was a handsome man with a majestic bearing, each of his actions containing the regal grace of a king. In contrast, the words he uttered were anything but such. He wore a crown on his head that emanated a suffocating feeling. He arrived before a kneeling man, picking up his storage ring as he began to go through the things inside it. The defensive formation inside the ring was instantly broken by the man. Even the same went for the equipment spirit that was ordered to erase all sensitive data and items when worse came to worst. Unfortunately, before it could do so, the man paralyzed it and did something that made it swear loyalty to him immediately. He then smirked at the ten injured people that stared at him with expressions of shock. Their expressions were as if they were struck by lightning. Seeing their gazes, the man laughed. "The Spirit Awakeners of the Zamuria Continent are pretty backward. You''ve left your equipment spirits so defenseless." "Master, they are indeed pretty stupid." The storage ring''s equipment spirit fawned over the man with the crown, saying not long after, "Let me tell you everything they were up to, Master." "You¡­" The storage ring''s previous owner stared at it in anger. Though, he was unable to do anything since he was tied up. The rope that was binding him was a piece of Nine Stars God Foundation equipment. So, it wasn''t something people at their current cultivation level could damage easily. As they were bound, their methods were restricted to a certain extent. On top of that, they were also constantly watched by more than twenty beings? Adding on to that, the chances of them pulling one over their enemies in an injured state was pretty much next to nothing since they hadn''t even accomplished anything when they were at their peak condition. "Who¡­are you people?" The leader of the ten people spoke through gritted teeth, finally accepting what had just happened. The man with a crown didn''t say anything, silently looking at the ring spirit, smiling when it talked. "Master, these people are guards of the Spirit Awakener Guild. They''re currently tasked with the protection of a certain individual the guild has placed considerable attention on." "Hoh?" The man with a crown smiled in interest. He looked at the ring spirit before saying, "Continue." "So, Master," the ring spirit fawned. "He''s someone who has a one percent success rate at awakening the equipment spirits. Other than that, after being indoors for a long time, he decided to venture out to gain some experience. The Spirit Awakener Guild has dispatched them to tail after him and protect him in secret." "How interesting," the man with a crown said before picking up another storage ring. This time, he picked up the ring from the leader of the group. The moment he picked it up, formless energy entered it, shattering its formation while modifying something within in a mystical fashion. In the next moment, its ring spirit had also appeared and bowed in front of the man, saying, "Please allow me to continue the rest, Master." "Oh, sure." The man nodded in response, amused by the entire situation. "His name is Krune. As for his demon beast identity, it''s unknown. All we know is the fact that he uses a strange law called the Calamity Laws to awaken Artifact Spirits. Not to mention, among those in the Spirit Awakener Guild in Zamuria Continent, his speed is the fastest for his cultivation base." "Alright, you may return now," the man with the crown said as he waved his hand, watching the two ring spirits retreat into their storage rings. The storage rings then flew into his pouch before dropping with a clinking sound. With that, it was apparent he had hundreds of them in it. The man with the golden crown then smiled before taking away all the equipment the team had. He stored the ones with equipment spirits while discarding the rest. "The cultivators from the Spirit Awakener Guild are always loaded. I knew this trip to Zamuria Continent would be rewarding." For a moment, he behaved like a kid that got his favorite toy from a store for free. He then gazed at the team in front of him as he asked them, "Do you have anything else to say?" "You''ll definitely regret going against the Spirit Awakener Guild," the leader spat out, only for his mouth to be gagged. "Alright, I''ve heard enough," the man with a crown said in response with a smile, giving a gentle push to the leader before watching him fall over the rock pillar''s edge and fall to the bottom. He then kicked the remaining nine members down the rock pillars as well, turning around after hearing a faint plop from each of them. The man with the crown held a device in his hand, sensing something through it before letting out a light chuckle. "So, they had one more person guarding him from up close. What''s his name?" "Yulian, Master." "Right, we''ll deal with him next." He laughed. "Krune, such an interesting person. He''ll be a nice¡­companion. Right, fellas?" "Yes!" The collective voice of hundreds resounded from his pouch as the man descended the rock pillar. Seated within the carriage was Yulian, present in a battle-ready position as he gazed at Krune, ready to reinforce him. Though, he didn''t get a chance to do because of Krune''s acting. He and the Silver-Winged Mouse couple made a compatible trio to the point that their actions made the bandits avoid them altogether for some time. ''Not only is he strong, but he''s also able to act accordingly to the situation. His survival strategies are impressive,'' Yulian thought to himself, keeping an eye on Krune, only for him to sense something amiss. He quickly picked up the device used to contact the people tailing them from the Spirit Awakener Guild, failing to get any response. He then switched over to a second device, obtaining the same result once again. He repeated it with the third and the final device, noticing how all of them failed to connect to the other party. Even though they didn''t display it openly, the Spirit Awakener Guild placed great importance on Krune. If it wasn''t for that, they wouldn''t have agreed to his terms in the first place and give him loose, rewarding conditions. It was all for Krune to reach a higher cultivation base and awaken the spirits of stronger equipment for the guild with his one percent success rate. After they started to invest resources into nurturing him, if Krune went and died in some random ditch, all their efforts would be wasted. It went without saying that they weren''t reassured by just sending a single mercenary to protect him. After all, despite Yulian being an E Rank mercenary who had achieved it all by himself, he was only at the peak of the God Core Realm. In the grand scheme of things, his strength wasn''t enough for them to feel at ease. That''s why they sent four powerful teams to secretly tail Krune and arrive at his rescue when necessary. The leaders of the first three teams were at the peak of the God Core Realm. As for the final team, their team leader was at the First Stage of the Nascent God Realm. The strength they packed was more than enough to face any situation that Krune might come to face. As someone in the Nascent God Realm himself, Trivar had long sensed their group. But upon realizing that they were meant to protect Krune from harm, he decided to pit them against the group that was pursuing his daughter. It was a sound plan, though plans couldn''t keep up with changes. The appearance of the man with the crown messed it all up. "Something happened to them." Yulian shuddered as he muttered, sprinting out of the carriage as he made a beeline towards Krune. He then transmitted a message through Divine Sense, "Krune, something''s weird is going on. I advise we retreat immediately." "But I don''t know the path," Krune replied, immediately putting a solemn face the moment he saw Yulian rush out. He clearly remembered Yulian''s condition. Unless Krune''s life was in danger, he wouldn''t take action. "I know the routes of this region," Yulian responded back. He lived in the Zamuria Empire as well and even reached his level here. Naturally, he had passed by this region before. He didn''t know as much as the merchants who ventured here before, but he could at least lead them to the exit. "Alright, then." Krune nodded as he looked at Vardin and Diana before saying, "It''s time to make our escape." Krune then glanced towards the battlefield, noticing a jawed beast emerge from the swamp eat exactly 10 cultivators at regular intervals. He then noticed the battle between Yuric and Whack, dazed as he noticed that¡­both were tied. In fact, Yuric was gradually being pushed back as Whack was gaining the upper hand. Whack''s attacks barely did any damage to Yuric. And in the cases where it did damage him, he recovered back to normal like it was nothing. Though, every time he did that, it seemed like it took a toll on him. On the other hand, Whack seemed like he could continue doing it for a long time, brimming with energy. Krune then heard Whack''s boastful shout that resounded throughout the battlefield. "Did you seriously think I wouldn''t have any cards up my sleeve? I''ve killed a God Trial Realm cultivator once. You think he didn''t possess numerous life-saving treasures or hadn''t made enough preparations before entering the Immortal Severance Zone? Do you think I hadn''t come across dangerous cultivators that lived just to battle and slaughter bandits?" "Also..." he roared. "Did you seriously think I did nothing after looting them dry? I''ve been in the Immortal Severance Zone for 78 years. I''ve hunted, killed, and looted a nigh uncountable number of cultivators, both strong and weak. On top of that, the number of techniques, abilities, resources, and other things they''ve carried with them, what do you think I did with those?" He then struck Yuric with his greatsword, slashing him in half. But this time, Yuric''s face was filled with shock, not because Whack damaged him. Up till now, Yuric hadn''t sustained any real damage. Unless the laws making up his Land Incarnation were erased and he was slashed into numerous pieces, he wouldn''t die. In fact, he could easily recondense his body using the laws he had terraformed the land with. Such was the might of the Spiritual Incarnation. In actuality, the reason he was shocked because he felt Whack becoming stronger and stronger by the second. It didn''t make sense to him. Not only that, but his cultivation also rose slowly. Eventually, it broke through and reached... Second Stage Godly Fusion! Whack smiled at Yuric as he said, "You can be arrogant because you possess a Spiritual Incarnation. Had this been in the outside world, I wouldn''t have been able to fight you. But, you seem to have forgotten something¡­." "The Immortal Severance Zone is an incomplete Spiritual Incarnation of a Primal God. Your laws aren''t absolute here." One thing must be mentioned. Spiritual Incarnations below the Semi-God Realm were called ''Land Incarnations'' since they were capable of altering the land itself. Once they went above the Semi-God Realm, they became ''Heavenly Incarnations.'' At that level, they would become capable of condensing the laws themselves like... the Immortal Severance Zone! Chapter 866: Eradicate Those Bandits Second Stage Godly Fusion Realm! Whack laughed as he boasted, "Many prepared cultivators from before had brought numerous powerful equipment that someone at the First Stage Godly Fusion Realm can use. All of them have allowed me to attain combat strength surpassing the Godly Fusion Realm. After that¡­" He stared at Yuric as he continued, "I started comprehending the Suppression Laws here. Not gonna lie, I''ve obtained some advantages thanks to it. I can use my understanding of the Suppression Law to reduce the suppression on my cultivation base. The best part about it is that the Godly Energy I currently have has already reached the God Foundation Realm. If it wasn''t for that, how else do you think I''ve managed to live this long as the boss of a bandit group?" It seemed like Whack was revealing his secrets to his enemies. In actuality, he was doing this to mentally suppress Yuric. He wanted to affect Yuric''s rationality and reduce his will to fight. At present, he already showed his nigh inextinguishable energy, at least through Yuric''s efforts alone. So, as time passed in such a fashion, Whack would look invincible in Yuric''s eyes as thoughts of surrender would gradually appear in his mind. It would create a vicious loop whenever he failed to damage the other party, eventually making him lose his will to fight. "Stop wasting time, Yuric," Tina''s voice soon resounded from the first carriage. Followed by it was a tremendous wave of godly energy, causing the demon beasts to cry out. Their collective roar resounded throughout the area and even spanned beyond. "Zuna!" Whack shouted. "She''s too dangerous! Come help me kill this guy first!" "Fine, whatever." Zuna spat out a sphere of energy on the injured figure of Xula, sending her flying. Soon after, her cultivation base increased to the Second Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm as she crushed the rest of Xula''s teammates into pulp before sprinting towards Whack. "I''ll kill you!" Xula roared as she could only watch her teammates die under Zuna''s hands. Her face twisted in rage as she saw Zuna turn around and smirk as she ran past. "Now!" Krune shouted, prompting the Silver-Winged Mouse couple to take action as he used his Mental Energy to wield his shields. His Divine Sense could only extend a meter away from him due to the Suppression Law. With that, he stuck to using Mental Energy for the moment, creating a barrier that shielded him, the Silver-Winged Mouse couple, and Yulian. Zuna passed by the shield dome Krune had erected, hesitating for a moment whether or not she should take action. Though, it did not take long for her to realize that the opponents inside were dangerous. Also, upon seeing that their intention was only to escape, she didn''t take any action to hinder them. Instead, she transmitted a message through her divine sense to Krune, saying, "Today, I didn''t pursue you. Remember that if we ever meet in the future." Saying her piece, she continued running, soon joining hands with Whack as they fought against Yuric. Following a spike in Godly Energy, her cultivation base increased by another stage, reaching the Third Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. Her methods seemed to be far more numerous than Whack. The same went for her strength. That was probably why Xula was unable to win against her. "Damn it all!" Xula kneeled in front of her smashed teammates as she cursed out. She stored their belongings and crushed corpses in her storage ring, intending to give them a proper funeral later. Her teammates had been stronger than the average cultivator. Unfortunately, after fighting against the droves of bandits that tried to sneak attack Xula, they were exhausted. And in the end, they were unable to defend against Zuna''s powerful attacks. Xula swung her sword once in a fury, sending a beam of Godly Energy that lacerated tens of bandits in one attack. She was tremendously strong even at her suppressed cultivation. It was just because she was fighting against Zuna that she suffered a loss. She then arrived beside the shield dome Krune had erected, pausing as she hesitated. At this point, she could not help but look at the strength Zuna displayed, watching her go toe-to-toe with Yuric, who was already at the peak of his strength. ''The strength of his Spiritual Incarnation is suppressed by the Suppression Law of this Immortal Severance Zone.'' For a moment, she wished to help him. But upon sensing a faint fluctuation of Godly Energy that made every demon beast roar uncontrollably, she refrained from doing so. Her face convulsed as she used a strange technique to shield herself from the Godly Energy''s influence, cursing to himself, "Wench!" Sadly, it seemed like her technique was incapable of lasting long against Tina. With that, Xula knocked one of the shields as she said, "Krune, it''s me. Allow me to accompany your escape." "Fine." Followed by a muffled voice, the shields subtly moved, opening enough space for someone of her tall stature to move in. Xula noticed Krune and Yulian standing beside a massive hole. There was no mud beside the hole. Everything was stored in the storage rings of the Silver-Winged Mouses that dug through the ground. "How deep have you gone?" Krune peered through the hole, seeing that it was dark inside. He was already using his Mental Energy to wield the shields and create a barrier around the area they were in to prevent the Godly Energy of Tina from affecting their minds. It seemed that Tina had strong control over the minds of demon beasts. Even Krune had no confidence in resisting her if not for his Mental Energy. With that in mind, he didn''t wish to strain himself to inspect something that he could learn through simpler means. "Around 10 meters. Give us a bit more time. We''re making enough room to stand here. Once that''s done, we can block the entrance and get going," Vardin''s voice soon resounded from within. "They are¡­Silver-Winged Mouses?" Xula frowned as she could not help but mutter, sensing the demon beast''s aura. "You can leave if you have a problem with their race," Krune replied immediately. "I don''t have a problem. It''s just that¡­" Xula muttered, sighing as she didn''t seem to have the energy to continue. "Nevermind, I guess it doesn''t matter anyway." Krune didn''t seem to mind her words. It was all because he had a favorable opinion of Xula that he helped her in the first place. Though he had a bad first impression of her, he came to realize that she was someone that was incredibly focused on her work as a mercenary and wished to complete it without fail. On top of that, she was someone that only despised cowards or weak-willed cultivators. Not to mention, when she accompanied him to question Trivar before, his opinion of her was elevated. He would be lying if he said he trusted her, though. Then again, that wasn''t something that could be gained that easily. Even for the Silver-Winged Mouse couple, he only had the guarantee that they could work together without problems. He also believed that he could show his back to them if it was in a time of need. But to establish a sense of trust in them would take time. After all, to avoid any betrayals, one must establish trust after careful consideration. "Alright, you all can jump in." Vardin''s voice echoed out after some time. After nodding once, Yulian was the first to jump in, followed by Xula. Krune pondered over something for a moment before creating a field of mist to cover the sight of the bandits as he retracted the shields. He didn''t do anything else since he knew Vardin would take care of the coverup process. They had already detailed everything in their escape plan. Normally, even if he were to create a layer of earth, some traces would still be left behind. But, when Vardin did it, no traces would be left. The Silver-Winged Mouses were experts in this field since they were constantly on the run. Before jumping into the hole, Krune felt Little Cally appear for an instant before disappearing. He immediately felt a gaze from afar that caused goosebumps to appear on his skin. He felt a sense of urgency as he thought to himself, ''I should escape far away from this place.'' The moment Krune jumped into the hole, he saw a shadow flash by. It was Vardin in his demon beast form. Vardin and Diana had been extremely careful when showing their demon beast forms, layering their bodies with the Radiance Law. This made it so people that perceived them would fail to see their actual appearance. They told Krune that it was a habit of theirs to not reveal their true forms. Seeing that it didn''t affect him, he was okay with it. As for Yulian, his task was only to protect Krune''s life, so he didn''t interfere with his decisions. Vardin then appeared at the top of the hole, causing the soil stored in his storage ring to gush out. He layered it on the topsoil with dextrous expertise, quickly covering up the hole. His methods ensured there was practically no difference between it and the surrounding ground. Vardin continued to fill up the hole, starting from the surface. From the way he filled it, it seemed as if the ground hadn''t been dug in the first place. Eventually, he reached a spot ten meters below the ground surface, filling the vertical hole completely as he entered the side tunnel. Now, there was no hole connecting to the surface anymore. This was also in the case something heavy fell from the hole''s entrance. As there was no cavity in its cylindrical column, there was nothing to cave in. All it would show was the damage due to the object''s weight, no different from any other place on the ground. "Now, then. Where should we go?" Krune said with a questioning tone, watching Yulian point in a certain direction as the latter replied, "If we proceed two kilometers in this direction and tunnel straight up, we would appear in a narrow path. From there, I know of a secluded route that would take us out of the Immortal Severance Zone." "Alright." Vardin nodded in response before joining hands with Diana as they began to dig. They were pretty fast, digging through 10 meters of ground a minute. It was to be noted that they did this while still at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. It was super-fast. Above ground, Zuna and Whack looked around in shock as all the demon beasts in the area had turned against them. The numbers on both sides had changed now. The bandits now only had 300 strong remaining on their side, while the merchant caravan now had almost 600. A portion of it was the demon beasts among the bandits that had converted to their side. Standing atop a carriage, Trivar looked afar, failing to find any signs of the Spirit Awakener Guild''s guards tailing them. ''So, the groups tailing Krune met their end?'' The moment he noticed Yulian running away with Krune, Trivar knew something had happened to them. ''Well, I guess there''s no use in having Krune here.'' Trivar sighed after that, gazing at the corpses of Razor Claw, one of the four Mercenary Teams he had hired. The Winged Wasps had escaped, and the only one that had survived among the Plotted Heels had also escaped with them. Since Razor Claw had been annihilated, the Ink Sword Mercenary Team was the only one left protecting his caravan. ''I would have killed them sooner or later anyway. I''ll just consider it fate that they were able to escape. It''s a pity I couldn''t use the Spirit Awakener Guild against the Spirit Aberrations, though.'' Trivar sighed as he thought to himself. ''Though, if my senses aren''t wrong, there should be someone strong or a massive bandit group heading this way after killing those from the Spirit Awakener Guild. I should wrap this up as soon as possible.'' With that, he opened up the gate to his storage ring, letting out hundreds of demon beasts as he ordered, "Eradicate those bandits." Chapter 867: Just a Simple Fat Cultivator "Hahaha!" Trivar cackled with joy as hundreds of demon beasts flew out from his spatial ring. They were the forces he had stored inside while the caravan was passing through the Falling Boulders Precipice. He actually had a reason for storing them in the ring as they would be useful to him later. Unfortunately, he had to use them earlier than expected because of the threat Trivar felt from afar. The demon beasts flew out and attacked the bandits, ganging up on each one before shredding them apart. At least five demon beasts targeted one bandit, killing them after 10 to 15 consecutive blows. Whack and Zuna''s expressions crumbled as the bandit group they had nurtured through the years was being torn to pieces like paper. Unfortunately for them, they couldn''t move away from their spots and help them out. Yuric stopped them using his Spiritual Incarnation. All this time, Whack and Zuna were making sure that they didn''t step on the swamp Yuric had created. It was to avoid being melted by the acid mixed in it. That was why they were incredibly vigilant. It wasn''t a single effect that they could find a counter to. Instead, it was a fusion of laws, the mixture of which varied according to Yuric''s comprehension of each law, the base laws he had established, and the foundation using the other laws he built upon. It was why a Spiritual Incarnation was feared and revered upon. Not only did it make its user nigh-invincible against those at the same level, but it was also impossible to counter. Unless one spent a long time sensing the laws to make up a Spiritual Incarnation, found the right combination, and comprehended the respective laws to a level surpassing the person that had comprehended the same laws, it wasn''t possible to counter against. Only a Spiritual Incarnation could contend against another Spiritual Incarnation. The only reason why Whack and Zuna were able to fight against Yuric without being at much of a disadvantage was thanks to the environment. In the Immortal Severance Zone, the Suppression Laws were in the majority. They suppressed the power other laws could wield in the place. It was similar to a natural habitat. A Fire Law would be completely suppressed in the ocean where the Water Law was dominant. The case here was similar. Due to the trait of the Suppression Law, it suppressed everything in nature within the zone it was active. The Immortal Suppression Zone was the only place in the Zamuria Continent where the Suppression Law was present in such massive quantities. After all, it was the incomplete Spiritual Incarnation of a Primal God. The Suppression Law was only the base that formed the Spiritual Incarnation. There were other laws forming it as well, weaving a complex structure. That was why people were left with no other choice but to helplessly watch their cultivation bases be suppressed in the region. As for the bandits, since they have lived a long time in the region and had adapted to it, they began to comprehend the laws active and in abundance in the region. Once their comprehension had attained a qualitative change, they were able to loosen the suppression placed on them. It was similar to how Krune prevented the Calamity Laws from manipulating his karma after understanding it to a certain extent. In Whack''s case, he was able to increase his cultivation base to the Second Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. In terms of the amount of Godly Energy flowing in his body, he had already lifted the suppression enough to possess an amount of Godly Energy equivalent to a God Foundation Realm cultivator. This was the advantage he used to become the boss of a large bandit group. He also had numerous pieces of equipment that he had stolen and were priceless treasures in the Immortal Severance Zone. After all, equipment that could be wielded by a First Stage Godly Fusion Realm cultivator and display powers surpassing the Realm was a rarity. It was akin to Krune''s brooch. Whack was equipped with a lot of similar items and had also learned techniques suitable to use in the place. It was looted from the powerful cultivators that had created such techniques to give them an advantage in the region, only to fall under his hands. After all, despite the powers of techniques, the physical strength and amount of Godly Energy of such cultivators were limited and were defeated under the human wave tactics typically used by the bandits. Zuna was similar and was even stronger than Whack. After all, when she arrived at the Immortal Severance Zone, she was already at the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm, only a step away from facing her heavenly tribulation. With that, she had greater experience and better insight into the laws of the world. That''s why once she adapted to the region, she began to comprehend the Suppression Laws at a faster pace and managed to elevate her cultivation base to the Third Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. She also obtained other benefits, hence why her bandit group was stronger than Whack''s. But right now, the two of them stared at the wonder displayed by Tina as she controlled hundreds of demon beasts to fight against them. In the beginning, the demon beasts had resisted her control. After all, they were still in their human forms. But as time passed, spurred by an indignant feeling that sprouted in their hearts, they transformed into their demon beast forms. It was in an effort to break free of the thing that tried to control them. After all, they were many times stronger in their demon beast forms. Sadly, they hadn''t known that such an act was one of foolishness. The moment they transformed into their demon beast forms, Tina''s control over them had solidified, putting them under her beck and call. "Who¡­the heck are you?" Zuna asked as she stared with hatred, watching the remaining bandits fall prey to the demon beasts. She then noticed faint fluctuations in her surroundings, watching how Yuric''s Spiritual Incarnation seemed to have been doused by it. Her eyes widened in shock as she eventually understood something, finally sighing in resignation. "Oh, you know. Just a simple fat cultivator," Tina smirked as she replied, watching the demon beast group swarm Whack and Zuna, overwhelming them until they were eventually killed. She didn''t seem to care about the number of demon beasts that she had wasted to kill the two bandit bosses. It seemed that all the demon beasts that were a part of their caravan were those Tina had put under her control. A number surpassing two thousand. A Beast Tamer could at most control one or two demon beasts. But she, on the other hand, had long since surpassed the common sense of the world. "Beast Tamer Spiritual Incarnation," Yuric looked around and sighed as he muttered. It was the name he had given to Tina''s Spiritual Incarnation. Even he had no idea what laws formed the core of her Spiritual Incarnation and what method she had used to condense it. Though, he did know of its final effect. It was to tame demon beasts. On top of that, as long as a single tamed demon beast lived, she could revive through it. Yuric wasn''t even sure if Tina''s current appearance was her true self. The concept of life and death no longer existed for those with a Spiritual Incarnation. As long as their laws existed, their body would more or less be undying. Even if they died of old age, they could rebirth with a new body soon after. Though, this usually implied they had to cultivate from scratch. Then again, as they revived through their Spiritual Incarnations, they weren''t easy to kill. It was why danger zones existed all over the four realms. Usually, when powerful figures with Spiritual Incarnations died, they scattered it all over the land. Sometimes, the Spiritual Incarnation fragments slipped through the God Realm and fell into the three realms below, forming the danger zones in them. After that, as thousands of years passed, they would eventually recondense themselves into a cultivator of the lower realms and embark on a journey to find the remaining fragments of their Spiritual Incarnation. And once they complete it, they would return to the God Realm through the traditional way¡ªas a Nascent God. It was why cultivators with Spiritual Incarnation were both revered and feared. Yuric mentally sighed after looking at the chaos done by Tina, feeling restricted as he glanced at Hwalian and the other mercenaries from his Mercenary Team. He was the only one among them that hadn''t fallen prey to Tina. It was all thanks to his Spiritual Incarnation. Unless Tina spent tremendous effort to subdue him, she couldn''t control him. Moreover, even after that, as long as Yuric fought against her using his Spiritual Incarnation, he would slowly break out of her control. That was why she hadn''t bothered to waste her time and energy on him. After all, she didn''t need to control him directly. She had better alternatives, which was controlling his Mercenary Team. Plus, unless he didn''t abide by her terms, she would kill his team members. If it was anyone else, Yuric might just grit his teeth and escape. After all, he had his pride as a cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation. But Hwalian, the only other God Core Realm expert in his Mercenary Team, was his sworn brother. He couldn''t leave him alone. It was why he had no other choice but to submit to Tina''s wishes. ''Thankfully, Xula escaped.'' Yuric sighed as he thought this. Even though he acted otherwise, he was happy when Xula and Krune showed dissatisfaction towards Trivar. It meant Xula would eventually extricate herself from the mission, especially from Tina. After all, she was also a demon beast, one originating from a powerful race at that. Moreover, she was close to completing her Spiritual Incarnation. It was the only reason why Tina hadn''t acted on her. Even after taking control of the others in Xula''s mercenary team, she didn''t display it openly, waiting for the day Xula completed her Spiritual Incarnation. That way, she would obtain a second expert on her side. Yuric mentally smirked as he inwardly muttered to himself, ''Unfortunately for Tina, Zuna foiled her plans. Surprisingly, she was able to detect it so quickly and act upon it, killing Xula''s teammates without hesitation. Now, Tina lost her chance to take control of Xula in the future.'' "What are you wasting time for, Yuric? Let''s go," Trivar spoke from atop the carriage. "Also, bring in the storage rings of those two bandit bosses." "Understood." Yuric nodded, making a hand motion as two rings flew out from the swamp before landing on his palms. He then presented them to Trivar with a mild bow. Trivar then shattered the formations on the rings before gazing inside, only to scowl with anger, "Those bastards dare play a prank on me even after their deaths?!" Contained within each ring was a single slip of paper that stated the same thing. "To the one that steals from this bandit boss, know that you will end up getting nothing. Hahaha! Did you really think I would stash all my precious treasures inside my ring? They''re hidden somewhere you don''t even have a clue to begin searching of. Well, sucks to be as dumb as you." Chapter 868: Multiple Reasons "Hurry up," Trivar spoke with a sense of urgency, commanding all the demon beasts to return into the storage ring. He then looked at the Zenith Pluggers, watching them all enter the storage ring with their respective carriages. At this point, only two Zenith Pluggers remained, pulling the carriage where Trivar, Tina, Yuric, and the mercenaries from Yuric''s Mercenary Team rested. Two demon beasts in human form acted as the caravan members and sat on the backs of each Zenith Plugger, controlling it. Trivar had destroyed the bodies of the bandits by throwing them on the swamp, spraying their blood everywhere to destroy the traces left by Tina''s Spiritual Incarnation. He didn''t want the Spirit Aberrations to get a clue from it. That''s why he acted that way, always commanding the demon beasts to do all the work. Even then, he wasn''t assured since it wasn''t easy to destroy the traces left behind by a Spiritual Incarnation. Only a stronger Spiritual Incarnation could completely remove all trace. Unfortunately, Yuric''s Spiritual Incarnation didn''t seem to be as strong as Tina''s. With that, Trivar was helpless. If there was more time, he would have spent time excavating the entire land that was affected by Tina''s Spiritual Incarnation and store it in his storage ring. That would have been the optimal solution in his mind. Sadly, he couldn''t do that as Trivar felt an intense sense of danger approaching them from afar. He knew that if they fought against whoever the approaching foe might be, their losses would be disastrous. ''It would be unwise to engage at this point and become helpless by the time we reach the Four Sectors'' Border Region. A lot of powerful cultivators would be arriving there to obtain ''that'' this time.'' Trivar thought to himself as he watched the Zenith Pluggers begin pulling their carriage. They swiftly left the area and proceeded into a deeper route to throw off the trail of their chasers. The corpses of the bandits had been looted dry of their weapons. It might not have been much, but they were still equipment at the Godly Fusion Realm. Some of them were useful or even had expensive materials used in them. They could be reused later. After all, he was getting them for free. As a merchant, Trivar had never failed to look away from such a profitable deal. All he had lost in this encounter were expendable demon beasts Tina had captured from somewhere else. "Tina, are you able to control some more demon beasts?" Trivar asked after pondering in silence for a bit, looking at the figure of his daughter that seemed slightly tired. "Eh?" Tina looked at him with slight confusion as she blinked her large eyes. Not long after, she replied, "Don''t worry about something like that. The entire environment within the storage ring is my Land Incarnation. In other words, I''m not spending much energy to control them in there. After all, I''m not actively controlling their actions. I''m just making them follow certain commands while having absolute loyalty towards me." "I can still subdue a lot more of them if need be," Tina added as she waved her hands, patting her stomach as she looked at Trivar with a tear-struck expression. "Dad, I''m feeling hungry again. Let''s have lunch." "You''ll become fatter at this rate," Trivar sighed as he responded. "Try to have some self-discipline on your eating habits, will you?" "Nope." Tina laughed in response, flexing her flabby muscles. "I created a technique just for this. It can convert my fat into Godly Energy whenever I want. It''ll be helpful in times of need. Sounds awesome, right?" "Fine, fine. I can''t argue with that." Trivar sighed. "Just, don''t be careless." "The more I eat, the stronger I become, dad," Tina said with a smile, beaming in joy when she saw Trivar take out some ingredients to cook. Back at the swampy area that had been left behind from Yuric''s Spiritual Incarnation, two figures popped out of the swamp, grunting as they gasped for air. "I almost died!" Zuna groaned as she crawled towards a normal piece of earth. "Yuric definitely didn''t pull his punches." "If he acted any weaker than that, he would have surely looked suspicious. I must say, Yuric''s acting was top-notch." Whack laughed in response as he lay on the ground before looking at the sky. He sniffed the bloody scent in the air, sighing as he said, "We lost everyone from our bandit groups. This is quite the loss." "It''s not like you were emotionally attached to them or anything. It''s either use or be used in this region," Zuna rolled her eyes as she responded. "Well, you''re not wrong about that," Whack laughed as he glanced around, noticing that all the corpses had been stripped bare of their equipment. "That Trivar bastard didn''t even leave behind the damaged weapons." "Remember, we have to be thankful to Yuric that none of our accumulations have been stolen," Zuna said, rubbing the storage ring on her left hand''s ring finger. It was the ring that contained every item of importance she had stolen during her stay in the Immortal Suppression Zone. "You''re definitely right on that one." Whack smiled, gazing at the scroll he held. "We profited from this deal immensely." "Sacrificing our bandit groups to create a scenario where Xula could escape. And in return, we obtain Yuric''s method to condense a Spiritual Incarnation. This deal is the best I''ve come across in decades." Zuna smiled as she said. "Though, I never knew he liked Xula to the extent he would pay such a heavy price. The method to condense a Spiritual Incarnation. If this was made public, numerous cities would cause a bloodbath to just get ahold of it." "Alright, what do you plan to do now, Zuna?" Whack inquired, getting up as the two of them vacated the area immediately, unwilling to linger there and encounter someone dangerous. Everything they had done before was an act to fool Tina. Yuric had used his swamp to hide the two of them from her while using the condensation of his laws to create two figures resembling them. That was also an ability he possessed. As for the demon beasts that swarmed them at the end, killed them, and devoured their bodies, well, in actuality, they only consumed part of his swamp that he had disguised as such. It would remain in their bodies. And in the future, Yuric would only need one thought to melt their bodies from within. It was a scheme he was slowly but steadily weaving. After all, he had no plans to be used forever by Tina. Right now, Tina was a lot stronger than him. That''s why he had no other choice but to obey her. Otherwise, he could have killed her through a sneak attack and suppress her Spiritual Incarnation using his own, preventing her from reviving while trying to come up with a method to free Hwalian from her control. People always schemed. As long as they didn''t cultivate like mindless pigs, every strong cultivator was gifted in the field of cunning and intelligence, especially for experts like Yuric, who possessed a Spiritual Incarnation. He wouldn''t submit that easily. He had his own methods and managed to contact Whack and Zuna secretly before their caravan''s departure, creating a plan of action. "Before entering here, I had reached the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm. It was then that I realized something. My path of cultivation was wrong. Even if I were to survive the heavenly tribulation and become an immortal, I would turn out to be the weakest of the bunch. In my playing field, I would become the easiest prey. I didn''t wish to see that, but my clansmen were adamant," Zuna spoke her true thoughts. She sighed as she continued, "No matter what, they wanted an immortal to govern them. As I was the only one among them who had enough talent to reach the Semi-God Realm, they heavily invested in me. But I wasn''t content with that. I have a lot of confidence in passing through my heavenly tribulation. Nevertheless, I wanted to become a true powerhouse when I become an immortal. Otherwise, what''s the point of immortality?" "So, I guess you started to search for a method to condense a Spiritual Incarnation and ended up here," Whack nodded while he uttered. "Indeed." Zuna smiled wryly. "Every clan that has a method to condense a Spiritual Incarnation are powerhouses among powerhouses, having tens of cultivators in the Semi-God Realm. Stealing from them is truly impossible. But, if I roam here, there''s a non-zero chance I might come across a cultivator possessing one." She laughed with joy as she added, "And well, my conjecture proved out to be correct. Even though it was something I got through a deal, I still completed my objective." "Anyways..." She gazed at the sky, sighing once. "I''ll start cultivating from scratch once again. I''ll comprehend the Suppression Law and the remainder of the Primal God''s Spiritual Incarnation before slowly lifting the restrictions on me to the Godly Foundation Realm. Once I reach that point, I can finish condensing my Spiritual Incarnation." She laughed as she continued, "After that, I''ll leave this place, find a secluded corner, and commit suicide. I''ll revive through my Spiritual Incarnation and cultivate from scratch once again without any restrictions. Having hunted here as a bandit, I''ve accumulated more than enough resources to reach the Semi-God Realm." One must remember that the Suppression Laws remained forever. Just comprehending it enough to re-reach the God Foundation Realm was already an enormous job that would take a very long time. Let alone go further than that. That''s why suicide and revival through the Spiritual Incarnation was the only option. After all, the restrictions were only applied to the body, not the soul. If a new body was made, it logically wouldn''t be affected by this region''s laws. "My plan''s the same as yours," Whack said, placing the scroll within his storage ring. He then swallowed the storage ring, using a mystical technique to erase its presence. From this moment onward, no one would be able to find his storage ring even if they were to kill him and search through his internals. "I''ve been here for a long time already. I''m getting bored of the same routine. It''s time to proceed into the world beyond once again." Not long after, Zuna had also used a technique to swallow her storage ring, ensuring no one would ever detect it. At this moment, she was the same as Whack, only wearing the equipment that they used in their fights. The techniques they used here may or may not be effective in the outside world, but it was foolproof in the Immortal Severance Zone. That was the confidence they had after living in the region for so long and having encountered numerous geniuses and powerful cultivators one after another. They had perfected it through experience and had verified it innumerable times to be assured of its functions. Sometime after they had left the swampy area, a figure gently landed on the ground. It was the man with the crown. He was currently alone, crouching low as he inspected the condition of the swamp and commenting after a long time of observation. "I guess, whether it''s a backward region or not, cultivators with Spiritual Incarnations are just as strong as anywhere else." "It would make the treasure hunt just that much more exciting." He smiled as he looked around at the scene of carnage, asking his rings, "Can you trace the presence of Krune?" A voice resounded from his pouch, responding, "I can feel it everywhere here, but it has been cut off abruptly. The Spiritual Incarnations are affecting my senses. They''re just¡­too strong." "Well, they are Spiritual Incarnations." The man with the crown nodded, unaffected by the result. He continued to travel through the area by¡­walking at a slow pace. Chapter 869: The Entity of Conflicting Contrasts Diana and Vardin took turns digging through the ground, extending the tunnel as a massive network was formed. When Diana dug at the front, Vardin would fill up their tunnel from behind. And when Vardin dug, Diana would fill up the other end. This way, they moved forward in a small chamber. It was to ensure that no one would be able to track or stumble into their path. It was better to be cautious than to risk it all. After all, numerous bandit groups were still prowling about in the area. "Sorry to spend this much of your Rank Two God Stones," Vardin apologized as he grabbed another handful of Rank Two God Stones from Krune. "Don''t worry about it. Getting out safe is our main priority here," Krune smiled as he responded, not feeling it was a waste to allow Vardin to use it. They were constantly expending Godly Energy to dig through the ground. Since they were in a sensitive area where they had to prevent barging into an underwater reservoir, nest, and so on, only the Silver-Winged Mouse couple were digging. Only they had the innate racial instincts necessary to dig through without setting off any alarms and prevent the tunnel from caving in. As the rest of the group didn''t have any work to do, Krune subsisted in helping them with his God Stones. Rank Two God Stones had greater efficiency when used compared to Rank One God Stones. As they were pressed on time, he didn''t skimp out on spending them. He didn''t know how long it would take for his cultivation base to be permanently suppressed to the First Stage Godly Fusion Realm. With that, he didn''t wish to take any chances. Yulian neither interacted with them nor pitched in any God Stones, acting like it wasn''t his problem. Then again, it seemed like he, too, had his concerns as he stared into a device from time to time, trying to see if it would work. "I can''t contact the guild," Yulian sighed while saying. "Is that usually the case in the Immortal Severance Zone?" Krune wondered. "Indeed." Xula took the chance to reply since she had nothing else to do after recovering from her injuries. "Communications fail beyond a certain range in this region. That''s why people act as relay stations here to transmit the messages to other relay stations and get the message across. Though, they''re usually hunted by the bandits at first sight. So, they''re usually in hiding. Only powerful organizations have the means to employ their services." After a moment of thought, Yulian sighed as he looked at Krune and said, "Krune, if possible, I didn''t wish to say this to you. But since the situation is currently beyond my understanding, I''ll break my professionalism and tell it to you." "What happened?" Krune asked in response, surprised at the fact that Yulian decided to speak it aloud rather than transmitting the message through his Divine Sense. Yulian replied, "The Spirit Awakener Guild dispatched four teams to secretly tail you. Their task was to arrive at your rescue when your life was at risk. We were keeping in touch as I relayed your status to them at regular intervals. They were tailing 10 kilometers behind us." "But..." He sighed before continuing, "Just some time ago, all communications were cut off with them. The four teams operated individually, but all of a sudden, I lost contact with all four." He then showed the device in his hands as he explained, "This is a special piece of equipment made by the Spirit Awakener Guild capable of relaying the life force of an individual. We used this to keep track of the other party''s condition. If in the chance I get injured or died, they would immediately know it and would move to reinforce you. Right now, all their life signatures have disappeared." "How could they die just like that?" Krune frowned as he asked, "Did their life signature fluctuate before then?" "It fluctuated for less than a minute," Yulian nodded as he replied. "But then again, the fluctuation was normal. It only seemed like they had sustained mild injuries from a small skirmish. So, I thought they had run into a minor bandit group and made quick work of it." "So, it''s not wrong to assume that they were quickly suppressed and annihilated at the same time," Krune nodded as he voiced out his speculations, sighing at the loss of lives. They had died trying to protect him. But other than that, Krune didn''t feel anything. After all, he hadn''t even met them before, so the thought of their deaths didn''t register in his mind enough to affect his emotions. "With that..." Yulian sighed. "Just know that I''m the only one that would reinforce you in times of necessity." "I have no problem with that." Krune nodded as he said, "Until now, I moved with the thought that you were the only person who would guard me. So, it''s the same either way." "Also¡­" Krune was just about to speak when his head shot upward, shouting hastily, "Stop!" Diana and Vardin stopped digging immediately, looking at Krune, only to see him frowning. Krune looked at Yulian, pointing upward as he asked, "The place with a path towards the exit you talked about before is right above us, right?" "Around 100 meters forward from here," Yulian replied. "Why? What happened?" "It''s for the best if we don''t stop here and tunnel further. The place above ground seems to be a resting spot for a large bandit group. I don''t know their exact numbers." As to how Krune was able to detect them from such distance in the Immortal Suppression Zone, no one asked him. They respected his secrets, not prying any further. They were around 20 meters deep underground. As for how Krune could sense the surface, it was obviously through his Mental Energy scan. His cultivation base in the outside world was at the Second Stage of the God Foundation Realm. So, the range of his Divine Sense alone was around 30 meters. The range of his Mental Energy scan was far larger and depended on his focus. If he fully concentrated on it, Krune was able to spread it to a radius of 60 meters, double the range of his Divine Sense. It was an advantage he obtained thanks to tempering his Universe Foundation using Tribulation Lightning. Krune had been keeping an eye on the surface continuously to ensure they wouldn''t end up in danger. Now that he spotted danger, he advised the Silver-Winged Mouse couple to dig further while providing them with enough God Stones to sustain the operation. At first, they had planned to travel a distance of 2 kilometers, which was something they should have traversed in and around three hours. But now, with every fork and turn they took underground, Krune sensed one danger after another, advising them to continue further. Eventually, after twenty hours had passed in such a fashion, the Silver-Winged Mouse couple panted in exhaustion, no longer able to move. They rested for four hours as Krune concluded their current position was safe. He looked at Yulian and asked, "Can you still identify this place and point us towards the exit?" "I can still grasp the general direction, so no worries," Yulian nodded as he replied. "I''m also well-versed with many places in the Immortal Severance Zone. I at least know a method to select the route that would lead us towards the exit," Xula chipped in. "Then, it''s time for us to go up." Krune looked at the Silver-Winged Mouse couple, motioning them to start. They nodded in return and began to dig through the ground, soon tunneling to the surface. The moment they peered out of the ground, the Silver-Winged Mouse couple gazed in a daze at the figure before them. Krune followed them out swiftly, sensing something amiss as he eventually noticed the figure before them. He was shocked at the fact that his Mental Energy scan failed to sense the other party. The figure seemed to be an old man while also being a child at the same time. He resembled a man upon first look but looked like a woman upon the second look. He first appeared like a giant but then looked like a dwarf. He was a conflicting source of contrasts. The moment he saw Krune''s group, he smiled and said, "Oh, we have some guests. Welcome!" Despite his warm tone, neither Krune nor anyone in his group was able to reply, only staring at the entity before them in shock. For a moment, Krune saw his Universe Foundation in the figure of the entity before him. The image of the figure had never registered in his mind, irrespective of what he tried. It seemed to be a fleeting memory that wasn''t of any importance. Of course, Krune knew that it wasn''t like that. After all, in the Immortal Suppression Zone, where even immortals were suppressed to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm, the entity before them was¡­floating in midair. He was casually seated cross-legged, gazing at them with an amicable smile. He soon said, "Normally, people are unable to even reach here. Since you came despite that, our meeting must be fated. Each of you gets to ask a question. I''ll answer it without fail." Diana was the first to muster her courage and asked, "Sir, which stage of cultivation are you at?" "Haha, starting with that from the start. I like you." The man winked. "I''m at the Ninth Stage of the Primal God Realm." "Primal God!" Krune and the others inhaled a sharp breath of air. No wonder they felt that way. Their current cultivation bases were at the start of the cultivation journey in the God Realm, while the entity before them was only a step below the peak. After Diana was done, Vardin glanced around, taking in a deep breath as he asked, "Sir, about our¡­" "You already have the answer to that," the man smiled as he responded. "You''re on the right path. Continue with it." As Vardin bowed with gratitude, Yulian then questioned the man, "How can I become stronger than my peers with the same cultivation base?" "Attack, defense, evasion, healing, perception, and information transfer. You need to improve on all those fronts and combine them into a coherent system to affect yourself, your foes, and the surroundings. Master it, and you would be invincible in your Realm. The factors that affect them are Godly energy, your race''s traits, your physique, and the number of laws you comprehended, and the depth of your comprehension of each," the man replied matter-of-factly. Xula took in a deep breath before asking the only question she wished to hear the answer of. "What are you doing in this place?" Chapter 870: Trashcan The man smiled as he replied, "I''m currently guarding my friend from harm. This idiot was badly injured by a Heavenly Tribulation and collapsed in this area. I''m keeping his Spiritual Incarnation from getting damaged any further." He then chuckled as he gazed at Krune, saying, "You''re the last." Krune nodded as his expression turned solemn before asking, "How do I condense my Spiritual Incarnation?" "Hahaha!" The man soon broke into a laugh that seemed like he was crying a second later. His current expression switched between someone that died a long time ago and that of a newborn baby as he spoke, "Well, it''s not a secret anyway. Every clan or organization treats them with value and follows them religiously. Then again, they fail to produce a cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation despite that. At most, they would produce one in a generation." "Well..." His figure resembled a stone in their eyes as his voice resounded like the tides. "That''s because the laws they comprehended are at different levels when compared to what is specified in the method possessed by the respective clan or organization. In the end, it''s still many times easier to condense a Spiritual Incarnation by using a method than butting heads in the dark." "Have you seen trash cans?" The man asked while he gave a knowing smile as he looked at Krune. Seeing Krune nod in return, he continued, "That''s pretty much what a Spiritual Incarnation is. Everything you have, you throw into the trashcan until its limit is reached. When it''s done, you just close its lid." Their eyelids twitched in response as they didn''t know whether to laugh or cry at the analogy. The Primal God didn''t seem to mind their reactions as he started to explain, "There are three things you need to make a note of here. First, the trash can should be filled to the brim. Second, every law you''ve comprehended, no matter how low your comprehension is, you should dump it in that trash can. Last, you must be able to close the lid once you''re done with the first two things I''ve mentioned." "If you fail even on just one step, then you can say goodbye to condensing a Spiritual Incarnation ever again. Also, you can say goodbye to your cultivation since you would never progress beyond that point ever again." "A trash can, huh." Krune muttered, mumbling to himself before he asked, "But, what would that trash can be?" "That would be your body," The Primal God implied. "In the Godly Fusion Realm, you fuse your Godly Core with your Godly Energy and Godly Soul. In the end, you become a singular entity. In the God Foundation Realm, your body is the trashcan that you fill up to the brim with all your laws as you condense your Spiritual Incarnation. To those that just skip this step, achieving the Semi-God Realm would be their limit. Even though they''re strong, they would just be stuck at the first stage. After all, their cultivation is flawed." "With that..." He looked at everyone before continuing, "To condense your Spiritual Incarnation, all you have to do is manifest your laws and insert them into your body. It''s pretty simple. There are no dedicated steps to it. Just throw them all in, and when you succeed, you''ll get your Spiritual Incarnation. Everything else will happen naturally." "Now that I mention it..." The Primal God smiled as he asked, "Do you know why condensing a Spiritual Incarnation is important?" "Isn''t it so we could become strong?" Diana frowned as she replied. "Fighting is something people do, but it doesn''t mean cultivation revolves around that," the Primal God shook his head as he replied, causing fierce gales to flow. They formed around Krune and his group before proceeding radially, destroying a large area. The grunt of someone resounded in the area as the Primal God apologized, "Sorry, bud. Let me heal you back." He then snapped his finger, returning the area to its pristine state as if it hadn''t been destroyed in the first place. The groaning sound soon disappeared as the Primal God continued, pausing for a dramatic effect as his body floated a meter upward. "It is a necessary step in preparation to become a God." "Become a God?" Krune expressed his doubt. "Don''t we have to create a new law for that to happen?" "What nonsense," the Primal God laughed as he replied. "How will you create something that isn''t recognized by the God Realm? Also, even if you bring a foreign law with you into the God Realm, the existing laws here would simply eradicate it. Not to mention, even if you derive something based on existing laws, it doesn''t count as a new law. After all, the branch of a tree is still part of the same tree as its roots." Seeing how they were even more confused, the Primal God pondered for a moment before trying to simplify his words. "Creating a new law isn''t easy. Or to be more exact, even if you conceptualize one, the laws of the God Realm would hinder your thoughts and prevent it from getting created¡­unless you do it at a certain time." The Primal God brought a finger before his mouth as he gazed at the sky, a solemn expression on his face. He then acted nonchalantly, as if everything was fine as he continued, "So basically, once you reach the Ninth Stage of the Primal God Realm, you will have to prepare yourself for the¡­last tribulation." "The last tribulation¡­" everyone muttered that phrase. "Yes." The Primal God smiled like a girl that just obtained her first toy. "When you face that tribulation, you will pit your Spiritual Incarnation against the Heavenly Tribulation. You will use the Heavenly Tribulation to melt all the laws forming your Spiritual Incarnation and die." "Die¡­?" "Yes, you will have to die." The Primal God nodded before clarifying what he meant. "What happens here is when all your laws are melted, they''re melding with you. They condense and turn into a brand-new law by fusing everything with the tribulation power, turning the law into you and you into the law. In this manner, the laws of the God Realm accept you while you become the very law itself. After that, you would be reborn as a God. That''s how a new law is created. Until that happens, any law that you might assume as a brand-new law is just a cluster of laws whose roots you are unable to identify." ''The Calamity Law is just a chaotic mixture of all laws in existence. My Balance Law is the same, having all the laws in it. So, in theory, they''re both a mixture of laws and aren''t entirely new laws.'' Krune nodded as he thought to himself, finding out that he had learned a lot today. In fact, he had comprehended Luvile''s Purple Tribulation Lightning Laws in the past. Back then, Luvile told him that he also used other laws to come up with his own Purple Tribulation Lightning Sub-Laws. Krune finally understood why. "The Spiritual Incarnation solely exists to condense your entire existence into a new law during the last tribulation. Everything happens naturally after that. You don''t have to search for mysterious techniques or the likes of secret inheritances to obtain that. Become the entirety of what you are. Let nature run its course after that." The Primal God waved his hands after he finished speaking, motioning for them to walk away. As their minds resounded with his words, Krune and his group followed a path that probably led to the exit of the Immortal Severance Zone. ''So, I don''t even need to work to create a new law. When the time comes, it would naturally happen. This is different from everything else I have witnessed till today.'' Krune sighed, feeling a headache coming. He then failed to remember the image of the Primal God or even the Primal God''s voice. Though, everything the Primal God uttered remained in his head. It was an odd feeling. As Krune looked back, intending to see the figure of the Primal God, only the image of a rock pillar appeared before him. It was as if everything he had seen before was a mirage. "Just¡­what happened?" Krune muttered to himself in slight disbelief. "This is the first time I''ve felt something like this," Yulian sighed as he said. "That''s someone almost at the peak of this realm." Vardin gazed at the sky as he muttered, longing for the day he would reach such heights. "We have to move this way¡­?" Xula frowned after a moment. "I have¡­never seen this place." "Same." Yulian had also noticed the issue at hand. "I could still recognize the place where we met the¡­Primal God. But this place seems different. I have no recollection of such a place." "Have we been teleported by him to somewhere else?" Krune riled up his Godly Energy, sensing that his cultivation was still suppressed. So, that meant they were still in the Immortal Severance Zone. "It''s a possibility." Diana returned to her human form, pointing at a nearby rock pillar. "I think it would be better to climb this rock pillar and look from a high vantage point." "Sounds like a good idea," Vardin returned to his human form, stating his willingness to volunteer. "I think it would be better for me to go alone. I can remain hidden to a fair extent." "The Silver-Winged Mouses wouldn''t have been the prey of numerous demon beast races if their stealth was that good," Xula shook her head as she said in response. "It''s risky to send you alone." "Let''s move as a group, then. We can resolve any issues that crop up after that," Krune suggested, gazing at the massive rock pillar positioned a kilometer in front of him. It was so big it almost reached the clouds. He expressed his doubt as he asked, "How come no one knows of this area? That rock pillar is so massive that everyone should have known about it." "I think this is the issue." Yulian touched a thin film, passing his hand through it as he inspected the film''s effect on himself. "This is a natural formation that makes people shy away from getting close to this region. It''s a very weak formation that only affects cultivators below the God Foundation Realm. But here, it''s almost foolproof." "Let''s climb up the rock pillar, then." Krune nodded and led the group as they sprinted. They didn''t wish to waste time dilly-dallying. After all, if they delayed and had their cultivation base stuck to the First Stage Godly Fusion Realm permanently, they would have no one to blame but themselves. In the place they had been in until now, the Primal God sat as he smiled, asking, "Are you awake, my friend?" A small blob formed on the ground as something ethereal condensed, slowly forming into a mouth that shouted, "Damn bastard, for how long do you plan to torment me?" "Then, do you realize what you''ve done?" The Primal God spoke with an amicable face that soon morphed into an angry granny. "I only slept with your daughter once. The two of us were into it before we even realized it. I already said I would take responsibility, didn''t I?" The ethereal blob said in response, taking on a tone of immense annoyance. "I don''t care whether you take responsibility or not." The Primal God soon turned into a blade of grass that made a shrugging action as he continued, "She dumped you anyway." "¡­What?! SHE DUMPED ME?!" "Well¡­" The Primal God coughed. "Who do you think would wait for someone who had disappeared for a thousand years?" "It''s already been a thousand years?" the blob shouted in shock. "No, I mean¡­" The Primal God scratched his cheek as he said, "I don''t remember how long ago when it was still a thousand years. Even your son is stronger than you now." "When the heck did that happen? I have a son? How long ago was he born that he has already surpassed me?" the blob groaned. "If that''s the case, let me revive already. Why are you still tormenting me?" "Eh¡­I forgot the reason long ago." Chapter 871: The Place atop The Tallest Pillar "This rock pillar is quite hard," Krune expressed his shock, knocking the base of the rock pillar. It seemed to be completely made out of a type of rock that was so hard that he wasn''t even able to dent it by using all his strength. The case was the same for everyone else. The rock pillar spanned at least a couple of kilometers in radius. So, calling it a rock pillar was definitely not correct. It was a hill or even a mountain based on what the standards one used to differentiate between the two of them were. Its height surpassed a kilometer, so it was definitely a massive structure. The walls were almost smooth, save for small indents at discrete locations that existed for namesake. They weren''t big enough to be used as footholds to climb up, though. It was a big area that they were confident of scaling around to find a better path. Nevertheless, they were still running out of time. "Say, Yulian." Krune looked at Yulian and asked, "How long does it take for our cultivation to be completely suppressed?" "I''m not so sure," Yulian shook his head as he replied. "The time when it happens is always different for every individual. It''s one of the reasons why this region is mysterious. Then again, there''s one thing I can say for sure." His expression turned solemn as he continued, "When your suppression becomes permanent, you would be able to feel it. For bandits, it''s a cause for celebration. But for normal cultivators like us, it''s a cause for despair." "If we try to climb normally, we might waste a lot of time," Krune frowned as he said. "I don''t plan on being here until that happens," Xula scowled, sighing a second later. "But, how do we know our way out without being able to see far away?" "We can''t. Climbing up is our only option," Vardin said as he gazed up, feeling the surface of the rock pillar with his hands. "It would be difficult, but I can still move upwards using the small indents. My wings aren''t big enough to take flight, but they would stabilize my climb and prevent me from losing my grip. And, in the case I fall, I can use them to reduce the speed of descent to a fair extent and survive the impact." "Do the two of you have any ideas?" Krune looked at Xula and Yulian as he asked. "I''m human," Yulian replied. "I cannot climb up fast or even reach the top in my state." "My demon beast form is big and heavy. I cannot climb up in that form. As for my human form, I''m no different from Yulian," Xula replied after Yulian was finished talking. "Then, we only have one option." Krune stuffed his pockets with Rank Two God stones, gazing at Vardin and Diana before asking, "How quickly can the two of you scale up the pillar?" "Let me check." Diana soon turned into her demon beast form before starting to scale up the rock pillar. Although she was still able to traverse it using the tiny indents, it took her a lot of time. She was also getting exhausted with every step, making her wonder if she would even have enough stamina to reach the top. After all, she and Vardin had constantly been digging through the ground for more than 20 hours straight. "Alright, then." Krune nodded, taking out five shields as he laid them on the ground in a straight line. He then motioned for the others to look at him as he jumped on the shield at the center. The shield then radiated with a rainbow color as his legs spewed out Godly Energy. He changed the structure of his Godly Energy to that of a foreign entity before his feet landed on the shield. Krune then accumulated strength in his legs as he crouched, feeling a powerful force push him as he also jumped using it as the foothold, speeding high up in the air. He traveled for 20 meters before the momentum fuelling him vanished. As Krune began to fall, he took out another shield, stepping on it at times to reduce his momentum, using the same tactic that sent him into the air in the first place. Krune soon landed on the ground, feeling his heart thump intensely at the action as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. "We can use this method to travel to the top. Descending is also easy." As he spoke, Godly Energy gushed out from the Rank Two God Stones and replenished his reserves, keeping it at the maximum. Krune then calculated the energy expenditure he would need to traverse to the top of the rock pillar. He also calculated the time of flight and the intervals at which he would need to activate his Balance Laws. He was still only able to sustain his Balance Laws for a couple of seconds at most. Also, he needed some time between each activation. So, Krune had to time his activation and calculate the concentration of the Balance Laws he had to layer over the shields. On top of that, he also had to calculate the amount of Godly Energy he had to expel out of his feet. He also had to calculate the amount of Godly Energy the other four would have to emit to ensure that all of them traveled the same height. Otherwise, he wouldn''t be able to match the pace of everyone while they were scaling upward. After all, each had different body weights. "When I say jump, condense some Godly Energy on your feet as you jump on the shields," Krune said, watching the other four nod in response. He then layered a decent amount of the Balance Laws on the shields before shouting, "Now!" Krune observed with focus, taking into account the amount of Godly Energy everyone was expelling, watching them all shoot up into the air with tremendous speeds. It seemed that Yulian had expelled the greatest amount, judging by his faster speed than the rest. On the other hand, Diana had emitted the least Godly Energy, only flying up by five meters. He then saw her return to her demon beast form as she reduced the speed of her descent, landing on the ground gracefully as she reverted to her human form. The height reached by Vardin and Xula was in the middle of the two, reaching 8 and 14 meters respectively. Krune then controlled the shields, safely helping them land as he spoke, "I think this would give you an idea of the force you''d have to produce. We''ll keep 20 meters as the goal and would seek to achieve that with every jump." He then motioned them to jump once again. "Let''s fix that right now, shall we?" "Sure." Yulian was the first to nod as he jumped on the shield, shooting forth to an exact height of 20 meters. Xula was next, performing the same thing, followed by Vardin and Diana. All of them perfectly calculated the distance and only emitted the necessary amount of Godly Energy. Once they landed using his shields as footholds, all of them recovered their Godly Energy, intending to stay in an optimal state. After all, it was a long distance. "Will you two be okay?" Krune looked at Vardin, expressing his worry, "The two of you have been working all this time." "We have rested enough," Vardin replied. "Besides, recovering using the Rank Two God Stones has rejuvenated us a lot." "If you say so." Krune nodded, placing the five shields a meter away from each other as he controlled them with his Mental Energy, motioning everyone to be ready. He double-checked to see if the Rank Two God Stones in his pockets was more than enough to complete the journey as he activated his Mind Splitting Technique. Just using Mental Energy alone wasn''t enough to give him the power he needed. So, Krune had to control his Godly Energy into two channels. One was to control the shields in conjunction with his Mental Energy to give it a greater boost in strength. The other was to change its inherent nature and make it resemble the Godly Energy of someone else. After all, his own Godly Energy would experience any repulsion from the Balance Laws. He also had to ensure that the shields would move in time with their movements and react to any changes while keeping up with his teammates. Honestly speaking, it was incredibly taxing for the average cultivator. Thankfully, he had a habit of always using 102 shields. So, he was already trained in this regard. "On the count of three." Krune took in a deep breath as he closed his eyes for a moment, beginning to count. He then shot his eyes open, marking their beginning, "Three!" Without any errors, all five of them jumped on the shields that shone like a rainbow, getting repelled as the force sent them flying into the air. The moment they were sent flying, the rainbow light on the shields vanished as they shot up into the air, following them close behind. The moment they reached 20 meters, lost all their momentum, and were just about to fall, the shields slammed into them once again as they radiated a rainbow light. The five cultivators made sure to time their actions, keeping track of their progress while also focusing on the shields below, making sure they were moving in sync. It seemed as if they had been a team forever, judging by how they were in sync with each other. Krune was surprised to see Vardin and Diana keep up with dextrous expertise, making him recall that they were stronger than the average cultivator, despite hailing from the Silver-Winged Mouses. To be honest, he hadn''t ever seen them being weak against any situation. They always seemed ready with a plan of action and possessed a decisive nature. The only exception was that their mindset wasn''t of someone that never cared about money like Krune. But, that was all because they had lived differing lives. In the case of Krune, he was only poor for a short duration. For the rest of his two hundred-plus years, he had more than enough wealth to spend without care. "We''re close to the top," Krune shouted after a while. His eyes were red while his body reeked with sweat. The others, too, were no different since the moves they''ve been doing were pretty taxing on their bodies. If it was them with their usual cultivation, they would have had a far easier time and wouldn''t have even broken a sweat. "One more push!" Krune shouted as all of them landed on the shields, flying forward with the fastest speed since all of them didn''t wish to take another step. They all shot forward, noticing the sides of the rock pillar change into artificial walls as they moved up, soon crossing the tip as they came face to face with a team of soldiers standing atop the walls, smiling as they looked their way. "What?!" Krune and his group had flown 5-6 meters above the walls as they noticed a massive facility below them. It seemed that the top of the rock pillar had been converted into an establishment of some sort. Though, seeing the huge numbers of soldiers, he had a bad premonition. Krune hastily pulled in his shields, intending to send him and his group flying back in an effort to retreat from whatever the settlement was, only to realize that he had fallen into a trap. What seemed to be a natural formation had trapped him and his teammates into a sphere of formless energy. Fierce gales emanated from them that prevented his shields from closing in on them. Xula, Yulian, Vardin, and Diana''s attacks failed to land on the energy sphere as they were sealed completely by the blowing winds. "Damn it!" Krune cursed as he was unable to even move his limbs. The power behind the winds was at the peak of the God Foundation Stage, way beyond what he was capable of handling. Moreover, the power manning it seemed to be without limit. Chapter 872: Zamurian Prison Krune stared at them in anger since irrespective of what he did, he was unable to move his limbs. The five shields he was controlling were immobilized by the wind. When he tried to take out more shields from his spatial ring, Krune was shocked to see that they didn''t appear. "No spatial rings work here." A soldier atop the walls smirked as he watched the sphere binding Krune and his team slowly move over the settlement as it descended, landing on the floor. They were split into five different directions and made them lay down. The wind pressed them against the floor. Krune grunted as he saw hundreds of soldiers stream towards him from all directions before circling him. The same happened for the others in his group as each one of them was encircled separately. In an instant, barricaded walls emerged from the ground and caged him and his group. It formed a rectangular cell in which he was trapped. The wind also carried his shield and storage ring outside. Krune was unable to even shout, only able to move once the wind disappeared with all his belongings. "Now, I wouldn''t advise you to resist," a bold voice said as a man of a large stature appeared. The soldiers parted way as he walked forward, holding a short sword in his hand. His discerning trait was his box-faced facial structure and a mustache long enough to reach his hip. It dangled in the wind as he took his steps. He had a wide-body frame, emphasizing the muscles covering his arms that were wider than Krune''s torso. The moment he appeared, a soldier gave him a formal salute as he said, "Warden Drake, they don''t seem to be the targets we were expecting." "Hoh." Warden Drake smiled in amusement, glancing at the faces of five, pausing on Xula as he asked, "Are you the leader of this group?" Xula snorted, not replying to him as she stared at him with anger, looking intent to break out of the cage. The air around her faintly fluctuated as she seemed ready to manifest something. "I suggest you refrain from doing that." The air around Warden Drake too trembled similarly to her as he continued, "The moment you break out of this cage, I''ll retaliate with all my might." Seeing his actions, Xula frowned, snorting after a moment as she turned her body sideways. Warden Drake looked around, noticing the direction of Yulian''s gaze for a split second. He then looked at Krune and said, "Let me ask you first." Krune was able to move normally now. The wind constricting him had disappeared. Though, if he wished to fight, he didn''t have any equipment. Moreover, there were just too many people surrounding him now. In his current state, he had no guarantee of surviving if he retaliated. Leaving the soldiers aside, Krune had zero confidence in winning against the individual named Warden Drake. That was because when he and Xula had a small exchange, Krune realized that Warden Drake was a cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation. ''They were supposed to be super rare, but I already came across two of them in such a short amount of time.'' Krune looked at Warden Drake, waiting for the other party to ask. He was currently a captor, so it wasn''t his place to ask questions. If it could be settled with some words, Krune wished to do so and avoid a clash. "Alright." Warden Drake smiled, seeing Krune comply with him. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" "We are travelers. We got lost on our way and planned to scout our surroundings from the peak of this rock pillar," Krune replied. "That''s impossible." Warden Drake shook his head as he glared at him, replying, "The natural formation in this place prevents anyone from even approaching here. Only if you know of this place beforehand and are mentally driven to enter here would you be able to reach here. Otherwise, you would reroute long before and head into some other path." He emitted a tinge of killing intent as he asked once more, "So, who are you? And, what''s your goal in coming here?" Krune was shocked when his hands trembled uncontrollably the moment he made eye contact with Warden Drake. He then took in a deep breath, calming his mind as he spoke, "I am Krune, affiliated to the Spirit Awakener Guild. I don''t even know the name of this place. So, I have no reason to visit here. And besides, if I had any intention of sneaking here, I wouldn''t have come with my group in such an obvious fashion." "Affiliated to the Spirit Awakener Guild¡­" Warden Drake frowned before asking, "Which branch?" "Sunkan City Branch," Krune replied. Warden Drake stared at Krune, making eye contact, staring for a couple of minutes as one of his soldiers arrived beside him, whispering after a salute. Warden Drake then smiled as he said, "So, you were telling the truth about your identity. But, that still doesn''t change the fact that you have trespassed here." Krune sighed as he answered, "If the formation you spoke of works as you have specified, then indeed, there''s no chance of us being able to reach here. But¡­" He trailed off, "We were there in a different place and chanced upon a meditating Primal God. He had transported us here." "A Primal God? Here?" Warden Drake laughed as his tone turned cold. "Are you pulling my leg? Why would such a being be here?" "He said he''s guarding his friend." Krune said as a matter of fact, "And, by his friend, he meant the Immortal Severance Zone or rather the Spiritual Incarnation that resulted in this." "How did he look?" After a moment of thought, Warden Drake asked. "His appearance continued to change¡­I think. Based on what I remember, it seemed like I was looking at a different individual every second. But when I think about it now, I can neither recall his appearance nor his voice," Krune said as he tried to recall. "Did he want you to send any message to me?" Warden Drake frowned while asking. "No." Krune shook his head. "He just waved at us to walk away. And, the moment we did so, we arrived at a spot a kilometer from this rock pillar. When we looked back, the terrain had already changed." "And¡­how did you meet him in the first place?" Warden Drake made eye contact with Krune as he continued to question him. "We tunneled through the ground," Krune replied, not stating the means they had used to achieve that. "Fine." Warden Drake then looked at a soldier that had appeared. The soldier glanced at Krune and the other as he spoke, "Warden Drake, we already investigated their backgrounds. They don''t have any criminal records. They had been hired as mercenaries for the Pitlook Merchant Caravan. It seems they have abandoned the merchant caravan for some reason and decided to travel alone." "Well, let the Mercenary Guild decide their punishment. It''s of no concern to us, then." Warden Drake then waved his hands as he ordered, "Release them." The five cages retreated into the floor as Krune and his group were able to walk free. Warden Drake looked at them, motioning with a tilt of his head. "Follow me." Krune looked at Yulian, communicating with his Divine Sense, "What is this place?" "I have no idea either. But, one thing''s for sure. This Warden Drake is strong, probably the strongest I''ve ever seen. His strength is way beyond that of Yuric. I think he can even defeat Yuric in one hit," Yulian replied. ''So, he''s that strong.'' Krune nodded, making sure to not show shock on his face as he followed Warden Drake. They moved past a building, coming across an armory where a lot of weapons were stored. There was an open space between two buildings that were used as a training ground for the soldiers. Currently, two soldiers were sparring, using spears. Each of the blows they traded was powerful, carrying with it a lot of weight. Krune saw how they had layered a faint layer of Godly energy on their bodies and weapons, using it as a medium to enhance their physique. Moreover, the enhancement seemed beyond what he had ever witnessed. He was also astonished at the pristine quality of Godly energy they wielded. It seemed like the energy flowing was incredibly pure, unlike what other cultivators usually possessed. It stemmed from the way their manipulated and wielded Godly Energy. Krune saw the workings of the Godly Energy in their forms and immediately comprehended the Energies Cooperation Sub-law to a deeper level than before. Warden Drake glanced at Krune subtly, noticing how his comprehension deepened with every passing second. He then looked at the sparring soldiers, motioning for them to stop for the time being. He didn''t wish to give any benefits to the trespassers. "Alright, if you head straight from this route, you would exit the Immortal Severance Zone. Our soldiers would accompany you, but to ensure you don''t recognize this path in the future, we would have to blind you," Warden Drake said as a team of soldiers arrived with blindfolds. Krune and his group were standing at the edge of the settlement walls, staring at a narrow path that proceeded into a mist that blocked them from gazing beyond. The path was only a meter wide. Moreover, it was steep. On top of that, Krune noticed how the depth seemed to be beyond the height of the rock pillar. Due to the layout of the land, light failed to reach its bottom. So, beyond a depth of 600 meters, everything was dark, preventing him from seeing further below. "This would lead us to the exit?" Krune frowned as he asked, unable to trust his words. "We''ll only blindfold you once you cross the mist. So, don''t worry." Warden Drake smiled as he said, "One way in, one way out. Ten thousand guards...and ten of this continent''s worst criminals." "This place is¡­?" Xula finally opened her mouth, gazing around as she seemed able to hear faint screaming sounds. "The Zamuria Prison." Warden Drake smiled as he replied, "It''s a place where Zamuria Continent''s worst criminals are tortured until the end of their lives. Oh, all the prisoners had once been powerful immortals. Only such figures are locked here." ''Those with a Spiritual Incarnation, I mean.'' He smirked, leaving out the last part. He then motioned for them to leave as he continued, "If you wish to visit here in the future, become an immortal and commit harm to Zamuria Empire. We''ll definitely come for you. We can spend a lot of quality time after that." "Don''t worry." Krune shook his head as he turned around to walk while saying, "I have no interest in becoming a criminal." Chapter 873: I’ll Get an Inheritor Warden Drake gazed at the back of the five figures that were escorted by a team of guards. He then looked at a soldier standing beside him and asked, "Any news on those we''re actually expecting?" "Based on the report from the scouts, those people have encountered a problem. A jailbreak wouldn''t be happening anytime soon," the soldier replied while saluting. "It''s better to be alert. Tell the soldiers to remain on standby," Warden Drake ordered as he glanced at Krune for a moment before turning around. "I''ll inspect the inmates." "Warden Drake," the soldier hesitated to speak, glancing at Krune''s group. Though, after some time, he mustered his courage to ask, "Is it okay to let those people walk free just like that? Even if it''s an accident, they still trespassed the prison grounds." "It''s just¡­not worth the effort." Warden Drake waved his hands as he said, walking away. "We have more important things to do." He then entered a building and descended through a long spiral staircase that went deep into the pitch-black darkness. The sounds of his footsteps echoed through the place that seemed to possess no walls thanks to the darkness. At the end of the flight of stairs was a small platform on which a small, slideable plate could be seen. Warden Drake gently nudged the plate aside as he took a step back, watching a column of fire escape from it as it instantly illuminated the entire place. It was a narrow cylindrical path, only left with enough space for one person to descend through the flight of stairs. The column of fire blasted off and hit the flight of stairs, causing a thin layer of ash to form on it. Warden Drake rubbed it with his hands, dusting it off to reveal the pristine state of the stairs underneath. "How are the cells?" he laughed as he asked, making a couple of knocking sounds using his legs. "I hope they''re to your luxury." A wheezing sound resounded from within the small, open section as it replied with intense fury, "I''ll kill you and destroy your damn country when I escape from this place." "But¡­" Warden Drake laughed as he responded to the voice. "You were never able to defeat me before, not to mention when we''re here. Your cultivation base has been fully suppressed to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. Even if you were to escape from here, what can you do? I''ll capture you before you can revive and lock you up in here once again." "Damn¡­you!" the voice from within cursed before breaking into a coughing fit. "Thanks to your Spiritual Incarnation, you would revive without a problem. But now, your Spiritual Incarnation is slowly getting eaten by the laws of the Immortal Severance Zone. Let''s see how long you can still last until your Spiritual Incarnation is completely destroyed." Warden Drake smiled as he peered into the hole, gazing at the sludge that burned without rest. It was akin to lava that twisted and turned, trying to condense a humanoid figure. Though, every time it tried to get up, it collapsed into lava once again. On top of that, every time this happened, the lava forming it reduced in volume by a tiny fraction. "I''ll¡­kill you! Bastard! I''ll raze down everything once I escape!" His erratic voice resounded as Warden Drake stood up and smiled at him from above. "Well, sweet dreams." he knocked the floor once as he said in response, emitting a gentle radiance. In the next moment, something metallic crept up from the cage floors and pounced on the lava, damaging it further. Hearing the intermittent roars mixed with the wailing screams of the inmate, Warden Drake laughed soon after before closing the plate above the hole. He then retreated, entering another building before reaching the end of its flight of stairs. This time, he opened the tiny plate to peer at the face of a man situated 20 meters below. His figure was wholly intact, save for faint traces of a gelatinous liquid that leaked out of his face, which looked like melting wax. Every time a drop of the gelatinous solution dripped from the man''s face, it was destroyed by the metallic substance on the floor. And every time this happened, the figure of the man gradually became more unstable. "Are you here to laugh at me?" The man stared at Warden Drake with a smile as he asked, "Did you think I would humiliate myself by screaming like that other dude you just visited? I already killed the ones that annoyed me. There''s nothing you''ve accomplished by imprisoning me here. You haven''t saved any lives by locking me up, haha." "Tsk." Warden Drake increased the restrictive power of the cell as he stared at the face of the man that had more of the gelatinous substance drip more. His foundation was readily crumbling, but he neither grunted in pain nor showed any expression on his face. A second later, he smiled as he said, "Do whatever you want, bruh." "This guy always irritates me," Warden Drake slammed the plate shut as he cursed, sighing as he inspected the condition of the other inmates. Regular criminals were killed then and there, saving the trouble. Unfortunately, it wasn''t easy to kill someone with a Spiritual Incarnation. As long as even a fragment of their Spiritual Incarnation existed, they would revive and eventually recondense their entire Spiritual Incarnation. Once that happened, they would cultivate and return to exact vengeance, causing lots and lots of headaches for the Zamuria Empire. So, instead of that, they made use of the Immortal Suppression Zone. In this place, the cultivation bases of everyone below the Primal God Realm were suppressed to the First Stage Godly Fusion Realm. Even their Spiritual Incarnations were suppressed to this realm. That was why it was easier to control them. This prison was established to make use of this trait and imprison the powerful cultivators to wear them down over time using the laws that made up the Immortal Suppression Zone. After all, only a Spiritual Incarnation could deal with another Spiritual Incarnation. The moment they were imprisoned, Warden Drake would kill the captives. This caused them to return to their state of being a Land Incarnation. The moment this happened, the laws of the Immortal Severance Zone conflicted with the laws forming their Spiritual Incarnation, eating away at it little by little. Warden Drake also used his Spiritual Incarnation from time to time to further whittle down their strength. This way, they were able to contain and destroy the captives. Warden Drake had precisely decided to spend the rest of his life in the Immortal Severance Zone. It was because of his devotion to his Empire. Since he was only a mortal in the Immortal Suppression Zone, he would eventually reach the end of his lifespan. When this happened, he would exit the place, head into the world beyond, and commit suicide. He would swiftly revive and return. After all, he would already be at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm upon reviving. It was the stage he was at when he was given birth. If he wished to, he could cultivate and swiftly breeze through the ranks. Then again, as he planned to return to the Immortal Severance Zone, he never bothered to cultivate. After looking at the nine inmates, Warden Drake sighed as he arrived within a large room. There were more than 10 containers here, storing something within them. The moment he arrived at the room, a chaotic voice resounded from all ten containers, each uttering one syllable in order that soon formed a sentence. "H.O.W M.A.N.Y T.I.M.E.S H.A.S T.H.I.S B.E.E.N?" Warden Drake frowned as he replied with a question, "Can''t you speak from one room? I can barely understand what you say." "¡­Fuck you." "That''s better," Warden Drake chuckled as he responded, though his expression was anything but happy. He was vigilant, intending to react the moment something turned amiss. That was because the individual trapped in front of him was tremendously dangerous. First Stage Primal God Realm! A tremendously powerful cultivator that once caused irreversible damage to the Zamuria Empire. The emperor had to personally come and kill him, though he ended up paying a tremendous price to do so. Eventually, when he was killed, the emperor split his Spiritual Incarnation into ten parts. Warden Drake then resigned from his post and volunteered to oversee his sealing. "You will never live to see the light of day ever again." Warden Drake said, hearing a cacophony of laughter from all ten containers. "The force I left behind will grow to become strong enough to storm this place and break me free. And¡­" Followed by the sounds of laughter, the captive spoke, "I''ll soon get an inheritor, hahaha. He or she would become the spark that crumbles your puny Empire. I''ll see how long the Zamuria Empire can watch the ongoing continental war from the fence." "How¡­did you know?" Warden Drake asked with a frown as his eyes widened in shock. He then realized something as he uttered through gritted teeth, "You still have some fragments in the outside world." "Of course, haha. Also, they''re so small that none of you can sense their presence. But, they''re enough for me to know everything that happens in and around the Zamuria Continent." His voice resounded from all ten containers once again. "S.O.O.N!" ¡­ "We''ll have to blindfold you from this point onward," a soldier spoke as he faced Krune. He also returned his belongings. "Fine," he replied, wearing his storage ring as he placed all five shields inside. He then inspected it to see that it wasn''t tampered with, neither were any of his items stolen. ''Even if they push me out of this path, I can still use my shields to escape,'' Krune thought to himself, allowing the soldier to blindfold him. He made sure to keep an eye on the soldier''s actions through his Mental Energy Scan, ensuring the others were also safe. They then walked forward, crossing the film of mist before continuing to walk further. Krune noticed the path stretch for another two kilometers as they walked, soon reaching the ground. They then boarded a carriage that had been waiting in place. A building had been built here, acting as a fort of sorts to prevent anyone from crossing the path undetected. Moreover, it was fully walled on all sides. So, the only way to walk on the path was to enter from the fort. Around 100 soldiers stood to watch in the area, allowing their carriage to exit the fort. Krune kept watching on everything that had transpired through his Mental Energy Scan. As their Divine Sense could only extend for a meter, the soldiers didn''t use anything to inhibit it. After all, there wasn''t much one could see through a meter. Throughout their travel, they were kept blindfolded. A day''s journey later, Krune suddenly sensed a restriction placed on him being lifted. His cultivation was still in the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm, but he was assured it would recover as time passed. It meant that they had left the Immortal Suppression Zone. They journeyed for some more time before the carriage stopped. "You can get down now," a soldier said, watching Krune and the others remove their blindfolds as they alighted from the carriage. "Have a safe journey." Saying their piece, the soldiers that had accompanied them entered the carriage and drove off, quickly returning to the Immortal Suppression Zone. Chapter 874: Run Back where Krune met that Primal God... "This is the first time I''m seeing a junior cultivator be this arrogant in front of me." An ethereal blob said as it squirmed on the ground. Floating above it was the Primal God Krune and his group had encountered. "How come I''m arrogant when I''m bowing to you?" Standing opposite the blob was the man with the crown, displaying a look of confusion as he asked. "You clearly realized this was a place I''m resting in, yet you still dared to disturb me," the blob replied. "Senior." The man with the crown pointed at the hole in the ground he dug out from before continuing, "I was tracking someone and ended up here." "And..." He pointed the finger at himself as he added, "How am I supposed to even know of your existence? Look at me. I''m just a measly cultivator at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm." "Fine, fine." The Primal God smiled as he said, "It''s also fate that you met me. Ask me one question. I''ll answer it." "That''s great." The man with a crown laughed in response before deciding to ask his question. "The item carried by that cultivator named Krune, what exactly is it?" "It''s a law in its purest form. Through some mystical means, it has been stored inside the hilt." The Primal God smiled as he continued, "Though, as to what you are seeking, I cannot say if it''s possible. Yes, Krune can awaken its equipment spirit, but only for the blade alone. Not only that but the spirit would be instantly annihilated by the hilt. If you''re talking about awakening the spirit of the hilt, then Krune isn''t capable of doing so." "No, what I meant was..." The man with the crown smiled as he clarified himself, "At what cultivation stage would I be able to awaken the spirit of that hilt?" "Hmm, even I cannot predict that." The Primal God resembled a na?ve young boy as he shook his head. "After all, that law is the remainder of a God." "Alright, thank you." The man with the crown nodded as he thanked the Primal God, turning around as he intended to walk away. "Wait a minute," the Primal God said after a moment of thought, taking out a kettle from his spatial ring as he unleashed its equipment spirit before asking, "Can you subdue this?" The man with the crown gazed at the figure of the equipment as he smiled soon after, walking away as he transmitted his voice. "I can." "Curse this arrogant punk. I hate him." The ethereal blob snorted as he muttered, "I should just suppress his cultivation permanently to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm." "He can just die and revive once he leaves this place, you know," the Primal God said in response. "Besides, all you would do is annoy him. What if he vows to exact revenge on you in the future?" "Bah, I''m a Primal God. Even after recovering his cultivation, he''s only a brat in the God Core Realm. I can sniff him to dust instantly," the ethereal slob mocked. "You won''t get the chance, though." The Primal God smiled menacingly as he said in response, "I am not planning to allow you to revive." "Damned are the heavens. Just why am I fated to this life?" the ethereal blob wailed. ¡­ "Where shall we proceed from this point onwards?" Krune looked at Xula and Yulian, asking for their expertise. "If we want to get to the nearest city, then we have to pass through the Lawless Plains. It would be dangerous to cross it with our current cultivation bases, though," Yulian replied to Krune''s question, looking at Xula to see her nod in confirmation of his views. "What are your plans?" Vardin took the lead to ask Krune a question. "I was planning to head to the Four Sectors'' Border Region to train. I would have to stop by a city during the journey to replenish my God Stone reserves," Krune responded soon after. "Do you have any reasons for it? Or are you pressed for time?" Vardin pressed forth in his queries. "Not really." Krune shook his head as he replied, "I''m only in it for the battle experience. It''s all to prevent my cultivation from stagnating." "Hmm...I think it would be best for you to wait here until you recover your cultivation base," Vardin nodded as he replied, looking at Diana to see her nod in response. Soon after, a serious expression appeared on their faces as they looked in a certain direction. "Are you planning to visit ''that place'' because of that rumor?" Xula frowned after she noticed their change in expression, gazing at where they were looking at. From the faint fluctuation in their eyelids, she determined she had hit the truth. "I, too, am heading there. Time is running out. If we traveled using the caravan, we would have barely made it on time. But now, every minute counts." "We can journey as a group, then," Vardin nodded in response to Xula''s words, looking at Krune as he put on an apologetic tone, saying, "Sorry, brother. It seems we have to part ways here." "It was nice while it lasted." Krune didn''t offer any protest, smiling as he bode farewell. After all, it seemed like the Silver-Winged Mouse couple had to fulfill an agenda of sorts in the Four Sectors'' Border Region with a set deadline. The same thing could be said for Xula. As for him, he had no such thing on his mind. All he had set out to accomplish was to harden himself through battle. But that didn''t mean he wished to plunge himself into needless risks. Just the name of the Lawless Plains was enough for him to realize just how terrible the place would be. Unless he recovered his cultivation base, he didn''t wish to take another step from the place. As long as he put his mind to it, he would be able to hide from danger. Besides, if someone tried to ambush him, he could always run back to the Immortal Severance Zone. That way, he would be able to fight his enemies on equal grounds and use his advantages to kill them easily. The Immortal Severance Zone was less than a kilometer away from him. So, it was easy to make a break for it. All he needed to do was to use his Balance Laws and shields so he could send himself flying towards it. "If we meet in the future, let''s team up once again," Xula said her piece as she accompanied the Silver-Winged mouse couple. They then broke into a sprint before eventually disappeared from view. Krune didn''t try to stop them from leaving. Even though he and the Silver-Winged Mouse couple were part of a Mercenary Team, it didn''t mean much after they had abandoned their mission. Moreover, judging from his tone, Vardin seemed hellbent on rushing towards his objective. As for Krune, he didn''t wish to do so. He had a rather good impression of the Silver-Winged Mouse couple and would also move in to save them in times of need. But whether he would voluntarily risk his life for them for no reason, Krune wasn''t inclined to do that yet. Besides, if Vardin had asked for his help, then Krune would have still decided to accompany them. After all, he was their team leader, and his objective was to gather experience. So, he would just consider it a reason to involve himself in their matter. But since neither Vardin nor Diana had asked for his help, he judged that it was something they didn''t wish to involve him in. So, he decided to not poke his nose in a place he didn''t belong. As they had respected his secrets before, he too decided to respect their secrets and choices. "I guess it''s just you and me for the time being, Yulian." Krune sighed as he stretched his limbs, feeling his cultivation gradually return to its previous level. He judged that he would recover a stage in cultivation every 4-5 hours. It was a lot slower, but at least he wasn''t suppressed to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm for all his life. He didn''t even have a Spiritual Incarnation to commit suicide and easily revive later. He only had one chance in life. ''I guess that''s another reason I should obtain that Predominated Fruit,'' Krune thought to himself, accompanying Yulian as they moved to a more hidden location. Half a day passed as Krune was preparing a dish, planning to show off his skills as a Spiritual Chef. Yulian, on the other hand, was above a rock, staring off into the distance while acting as the lookout. He hadn''t managed to spot any other cultivators in their vicinity. Krune used a rather flat stone as a chopping block as he diced the ingredients, infusing his Godly Energy into them in the process. He was immersed in the act of cooking, feeling all his tension wash away. It was a feeling of zen that he hadn''t experienced for a long time. After a series of tense situations, he was finally at some momentary peace without any sense of urgency. "Oh no, you don''t! He''s coming! Gotta run before he catches you~" A playful voice resounded in his ears as Krune''s enjoyment was stopped midway. He immediately slashed his knife in the air as he said, "Materialize if you dare, Little Cally. I''ll chop you into a million pieces and make soup out of you!" "Ahh, I love the God Realm. I have a lot of variables to use to pull your leg. On top of that, everything works at a low-cost, low-effort scheme. It''s a lot of fun, haha," Little Cally''s amused voice soon resounded. Nevertheless, Krune''s focus wasn''t on its words. To be more exact, he no longer had the mood to cook. Krune felt his heart speed up, thumping in an agitated state as he could hear the heartbeats in his ear. ''Something''s definitely up.'' Ever since his understanding of the Calamity Laws had deepened, he was able to sense the approach of danger¡­that Little Cally had obviously concocted. So, Krune immediately realized that if he wasted any more time, his life would be in danger. "Yulian! We have to leave!" Krune shouted at the top of his lungs, "Something feels off!" Without even bothering to place the ingredients he had taken out back into his storage ring, Krune dashed forth immediately. While on the run, he took out some Rank One God Stones and piled them up in his pocket, activating the Mind Splitting Technique as he concentrated on siphoning a thin stream of Godly Energy into himself. This way, he ensured his expenditure wouldn''t become unsustainable as he used the Godly Energy to recover from his fatigue. Without delay, Yulian chased after Krune instantly, soon catching up to him. They sprinted at their maximum pace. As for Yulian, he didn''t know the reason, deciding to just trust in Krune''s instincts. Besides, his job description was just to protect Krune''s life. With that, the moment Krune began to run, he had to chase after him whether he liked it or not. --- Author''s note: I released a new project called The Ascension Age, check it out if you like this type of work. Chapter 875: War Indeed Brings Out the Beast in Us "Do you sense something?" Yulian asked as he continued to sprint while gasping for air. Unlike Krune, he was unable to use any techniques to recover his Godly Energy. With that, the more he ran, the more tired he became. "It''s more like an extension of my senses thanks to a special law I comprehended," Krune replied, soaked with sweat as they jumped over small boulders along the way. "I have a feeling someone dangerous is trailing us." "Do you have any plans? We can''t just keep running forever, you know," Yulian frowned as he replied, feeling his exhaustion being lifted by a degree as his cultivation recovered to the Third Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. He felt somewhat better now. Then again, it still wasn''t enough considering the situation they were in. He was bound to become tired sooner or later. "Hmm..." Krune pondered for a bit with a frown as he took out all his shields, stomping on the ground using their sides. He wrote something on the ground as they sprinted past. At every interval, he left some words on the ground. "Do you think this would work?" Yulian frowned as he asked, feeling tired once again. His legs hurt while his lungs felt like they were on fire. Nevertheless, he continued to run since Krune still hadn''t stopped. He immediately took out a device that he used to contact the Spirit Awakener Guild, frowning when he later received a certain message. "Damn it! Why does this have to happen now?" Yulian cursed in a mutter, thinking for a moment if it would be better to abandon Krune. He then gritted his teeth soon after, continuing to run. His ego and pride wouldn''t allow him to leave his mission. He took pride in the fact that his pride was unwavering, a reason why he was highly valued in the field of work he chose. "I can only hope this would slow down whoever is pursuing us," Krune spoke with a helpless gaze, gazing at Yulian''s crumbling expression before asking, "What happened?" "I thought we can seek refuge in the city once we cross the Lawless Plains. After all, the Spirit Awakener Guild would help us out. But it seems that''s no longer the case," Yulian cursed. "Did something happen to the guild?" Krune felt a sense of foreboding that his situation had just taken another turn for the worse. He only wanted to obtain some battle experience. "The Spirit Awakener Guild branch of every city has been called to the Zamuria Empire''s capital. They''re preparing for a war against the other two continents that are currently fighting each other. The royalty plans to use the power of the Spirit Awakeners to elevate the overall level of their equipment and nurture a massive army." Yulian quickly recounted the state of affairs that had happened while they were in the Immortal Severance Zone. Two days after Krune left for his journey, a sudden statement from the royal capital caused the entire continent to instantly be in a state of unrest. Every Guild related to war was summoned to the capital. Alongside their summons were the evacuation of every organization in power, causing the military power of each city to be at an all-time low. It resulted in the lords of respective cities migrating towards the capital with their citizens, leaving the cities behind them barren. The cause for everything was the ongoing war between the two continents that neighboured the Zamuria Continent. It was always the case where three parties existed in one room. When two of them fought against each other, pitting all their forces against one another while suffering losses through both victory and defeat, it was always the third party that put an end to their war¡­by swiping in at the last minute and subduing both, becoming the eventual victor that swallowed up all the gains. Therefore, the moment the royalty of both continents realized the war was going to progress further, they didn''t wish to see the bystander¡ªZamuria Empire¡ªprofit in the end. And so, the best way to do this was simple, which was to bring the war to their doorsteps. This would make the war phase from a frontal confrontation to a three-way deadlock. With that, there would be profit and loss for all three empires, preventing anyone from reaping benefits that easily. The only way to obtain those benefits was to annihilate the two other competitors. As they realized the essence of this issue, despite the Zamuria Empire being unwilling to participate in the war, they had no choice but to do so. Naturally, with such a big empire, the people were their foundation. Though, since they were currently dispersed over the massive Zamuria Continent, they became easy pickings for the enemies. Unwilling to see this, the royalty summoned forth everyone in an effort to concentrate all their power and foundation in one place. Unsurprisingly, this wasn''t an easy task to accomplish, not to mention having to transport every resource of value. Even then, each city had its teleportation portals, allowing travel to every city. Using those and the storage rings that could store massive volumes in a tiny object, they were transporting everything of value, including the very cities themselves. "Wait, you''re telling me that we won''t even have a place to stay and relax during our journey? You mean the two cities on our way themselves are already gone?" Krune was shocked to hear that. Each city was massive. Plus, transporting something of that caliber wasn''t possible unless the storage rings were of superior quality. ''But that means it should have a stable subspace inside with laws that aren''t inferior to the God Realm. But then, any one of those should be priceless treasures.'' Krune then thought about how each of the cities had existed for a long time. So, they must have accumulated enough resources to create a storage ring of such caliber. "There''s a small chance the second city might still be there," Yulian said as he gasped for breath. "After all, it''s only a minor city formed by a coalition of merchants who remain in the place because of the countless treasures that could be mined from the Four Sector''s Border Region." "Also..." he said after a moment of thought. "Considering Vardin''s reaction, something huge must be happening there right now. So, Huken City must still be there." He was just speaking when Yulian tripped and crashed into the ground. Krune immediately helped him up, noticing how he was out of breath. Krune was still fine since he was using the Mind Splitting Technique to siphon a steady stream of Godly Energy into himself while he ran. In other words, he was steadily replenishing his stamina. He was still able to continue traveling for some more time. "We''re here." Yulian looked forward as his eyes widened in surprise, muttering in disbelief, "This¡­is the Lawless Plains?" Krune shot his gaze forward as he was left speechless since the description of the area was different than the scene that lay before him. Stretching before him was a vast plain where large patches of grass covered the land while the rest were barren. The weird thing was how the grass was colored red, thanks to the blood that had been shed. Corpses of demon beasts were scattered all around the area, littering the land. Those that were alive still were evacuating, partially injured, ignoring their injuries as they flew around, carrying their alive brethren as they roared into the skies. One after another, they left the place. Krune found an injured demon beast lying at the entrance of the Lawless Plains, quickly approaching it as he asked it, "What happened here?" The demon beast shot a glance at Krune, noticing his demon beast aura. It grunted as it spat out blood, wheezing as it talked, "Those bastards from the Zamuria Empire, they came with their army and slaughtered us." "Why? Why would they do that?" Krune felt anger at the indiscriminate slaughter that had happened before him, feeling rage boil in him. He wasn''t the type to care about people beyond necessary. He didn''t like fighting, but if someone aimed for his life, then he didn''t hesitate to kill them in return. Though, indiscriminate slaughter also didn''t sit well with him. After all, just by hearing the recount, he realized the army probably didn''t have any good reason to do so. The demon beast struggled to get up, looking at its blood that flowed out without stopping, sighing as it resigned itself to its fate. "The Zamuria Empire sent us a message this morning to take on our human forms and head towards the capital. It''s so the empire could prevent the enemy empires from using our strength. The Lawless Plains was exactly the place where we lived in our true forms and did whatever we pleased. So, of course, we didn''t comply. Who would have thought that the army would immediately appear and start massacring everyone?" "The strongest of our demon beasts were swiftly killed by their generals while the army eradicated the remainder of the strong. They came suddenly and vanished just as sudden." The demon beast craned its head, pointing at the fleeing demon beasts as it continued, "They were only lucky to survive because the army seemed to be lacking time. Otherwise¡­" Krune sighed as the demon beast soon lost all signs of life. He looked at how its heart had been torn to shreds. It was a wonder it even managed to live this long while bearing such an injury. He gently closed its eyes shut, looking at Yulian to see his eyes were red. After a moment, Yulian muttered, "War indeed brings out the beast in us." "Let''s move," Krune muttered as they began to run once again. In that short time, Yulian had recovered enough to run for a short distance. It seemed that he possessed a technique that prolonged his stamina. The only hindrance in using it to its full potential was his current cultivation base. "Did you cause this, Little Cally?" Krune muttered as his eyes became bloodthirsty with rage, watching the gruesome scenes of demon beasts slaughtered with indifferent techniques. It was like a meat grinder had plowed through the place. "Let me be honest, Krune." Little Cally''s voice resounded, seemingly affected by his emotions. "Even if I do mess with you every once in a while, this isn''t something I would do. This isn''t fun, even for me." Chapter 876: The Lifeforce Way back where Krune''s group had passed through... "Once upon a time, long long ago." The man with the crown paused as he saw these words on the ground, reading it aloud. "Interesting," he smirked while muttering, watching how the font used to engrave the words on the ground conveyed the feeling that the person who wrote it had been pressed for time. The man with the crown then skipped over the words and continued to jog over the path, unconcerned if he could catch up to the people he was chasing after. "There lived a man fatter than fat and a woman thinner than thin." He read aloud the next sentence, smirking as it seemed strange. He wished to understand why his target had written such words. A kilometer later, the man with the crown came upon two arrow marks and another set of words, reading them aloud, "Follow the arrow on the left if you wish to read the fat man''s fat tale. Follow the arrow on the right for the thin woman''s thin tale." The man with the crown paused after seeing that and actually contemplated over his choice, eventually deciding to follow the arrow on the right. He proceeded in the direction it had pointed towards, returning an hour later as his eyebrows twitched by the time he came back. He then walked in the direction pointed by the left arrow, similarly returning after an hour had passed, grunting as he kicked the ground, erasing the set of words engraved on it. He soon muttered to himself, "I had hoped for a story. It would have made the journey better." The man with the crown continued to jog further, trailing after the path Krune had traversed on. A voice from the pouch dangling on his right would remind him from time to time, pointing him in the right direction. Soon, he came across another set of words on the path, skipping it without a glance. Though, once he passed it by a bit, curiosity got the best of him, prompting him to return to the spot and read the set of words on the ground. "The following is a story about the prodigy demon beast grown by the fat man and the thin woman. Their fat and thin tale combined resulted in the prodigy demon beast''s peerlessness. If you want to see their story instead, follow the respective arrows for 10 kilometers." "¡­Damn, this guy is cunning." The man with the crown was shocked, pausing as he continued forward, muttering something along the way. A couple of hours later, he returned to the area, grumbling, "The story actually continues further in this path. I should read the stories of the other two first." Saying so, the man with the crown backtracked until he reached the previous set of words, frowning as he noticed his earlier kick had erased all the words. He then looked around, retracing the path of the fat man based on his memory before traversing in the respective direction. "It''s probably Krune''s effort to waste your time. Don''t follow them." A voice from the pouch hung on his hip resounded. Its tone was one of caution. "I''m quite curious to know the full story, though," the man with the crown said in response. "Besides, we can always catch up to Krune when we need to. He''s traveling on foot while I have you guys to give me a ride." "In that case, use us to travel, then. Don''t waste your time on foot," another voice resounded from the pouch. "I don''t wanna." The man with the crown chuckled. "This is fun. I don''t want to catch up to Krune that soon. It seems he has sensed my approach. With that, I just plan to pressure him like this¡­for a month or two." "¡­" All the voices that wished to speak next from the pouch turned silent. The man with the crown continued to jog his way, returning after four hours had passed as he plopped on the ground. "There''s no story further in that direction." "We told you. Krune''s getting farther away from you as we speak. He wouldn''t have the time to run everywhere without reason just to what¡­set up a story for you to read? This is probably just his attempt to delay you from catching up, without any guarantee of its result," the voice from before rambled on and on until the man with the crown shut it up. He then faced the other direction, the one that apparently led to the story of the thin lady, before muttering to himself, "I better check that out." "Oh god!" "No!" The voices from the pouch groaned and cursed in protest as the man with the crown began to jog once again. ¡­ Krune and Yulian continued to run through the Lawless Plains, passing through the massive carcasses of demon beasts scattered everywhere. The ones that survived had escaped long ago. So, all Krune and Yulian came across were scenes of death everywhere. "That actually worked?" Krune was surprised for a moment when he felt the looming threat on him decrease. As he was sensing it through the Calamity Laws, he was able to determine whether the one pursuing him had closed in or moved farther away. In any case, he was surprised when the chaser moved away. It meant that the set of words he had placed actually worked. ''That''s quite surprising.'' It was something he randomly did. Krune didn''t even expect it to have any effect on the pursuer. It was surprising to know that it did. This allowed him to get an idea about the person that was pursuing him. Since it was something Little Cally orchestrated, Krune realized that the other party was probably someone that became interested in him through one coincidence or another. Since it was only on the level of interest, he wouldn''t chase after Krune with the intent to kill. Nevertheless, since Krune felt a threat from the other party, he did not delay and slow down at all. That was because the interest of the other party could be anything. If his interest was to eat Krune''s heart, then it was no different from a death sentence to Krune. "Can you continue, Yulian?" Krune asked after seeing Yulian pant once again. He had become too tired before and was only able to continue when his cultivation base had recovered by another stage. "I''ll manage somehow." Yulian gasped as the strength in his legs increased all of a sudden. His cultivation recovered by another stage, placing him at the Fifth Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. He instantly recovered his stamina, now able to maintain his speed for longer durations. As he had trained his body immensely, Yulian had great stamina in the first place. That was why he was able to sprint for hours without taking breaks. As for Krune, his cultivation was recovering at a slightly slower pace than Yulian. An hour later, he also entered the Fifth Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. Krune felt a bit better while using his Mind Splitting Technique thanks to that. The quantity of Godly Energy he could siphon from the Rank One God Stones had somewhat increased. His godly meridians processed the Godly Energy faster, allowing him to run better. He was also able to use Godly Energy to reinforce his body, keeping up the pace. The greatest benefit he obtained from recovering his cultivation base was the replenishment of Godly energy. So, every time this happened, their Godly Energy was at the maximum. Krune and Yulian had a better time running as this happened, soon getting another boost when their cultivation bases recovered by another stage. "Stop!" Krune suddenly shouted as he leaned his ears towards his surroundings, trying to listen to something. He relied on his other senses as well, trying to understand the oddity he felt. He looked around, feeling a hint of someone''s presence, or rather their lifeforce. Normally, he would have been unable to feel something like this. Then again, in the current scenario where he was surrounded by death on all sides, the tinge of life energy was vividly registered in his senses. Krune used his Mental Energy Scan to search through his surroundings, keeping his eyes closed as he probed through the feeling, moving in the direction it called for him. "¡­" Yulian frowned for a moment, soon picking up the same feeling Krune felt. Without speaking anything else, he followed Krune, walking past a few massive carcasses of demon beasts. The demon beasts around them were of all races, but their sizes were massive. Krune and Yulian had reached the center of the Lawless Plains. They climbed above the figure of a demon beast that resembled a hill, crossing it as they traveled in search of the lifeforce''s source. Since the distance between him and his chaser had widened, Krune didn''t have as much need to hurry up as before. This allowed him to look around and search for the source of the life force he felt. "Damn it," Krune cursed aloud when he came across a massive eye staring at him. The eye was bigger than his body. Plus, with it being so close, the impact it made on his mind was greater. After a moment, when he realized he was staring into a corpse, Krune calmed down as he muttered to himself, "Just how strong had this demon beast been when it was alive?" "I think this demon beast was the ruler of the Lawless Plains." Yulian frowned as he soon asked, "But¡­where is its Spiritual Incarnation?" He then looked around, failing to find any traces of a Spiritual Incarnation being used. "Have you heard about this demon beast in the past?" Krune inquired. "Yeah, I heard about it from my fellow mercenaries." Yulian nodded as he frowned once again. "But, it was supposed to have a Spiritual Incarnation. There used to be around three demon beasts here that possessed a Spiritual Incarnation. They were usually called the three rulers of the Lawless Plains." He sighed as he continued, "They were actually at the God-Trial Realm. So, I don''t even understand how this is possible." "Maybe it''s because this isn''t one of them." Krune sensed using his Mental Energy Scan. "This demon beast''s cultivation base is only at the First Stage of the Semi-God Realm." "You can sense the cultivation of someone from their carcass alone?" Yulian was surprised once again as he asked. "Can''t everyone do that?" Krune was shocked as he soon questioned. "The bodies of demon beasts alone should reveal the strength they possessed when alive, right?" "Hmm, maybe it''s something only demon beasts can sense." Yulian shook his head. "I can''t do that. I mostly mingle around human mercenaries. I guess that''s why I haven''t been able to notice this. After all, I never had the habit of looking through the corpses of demon beasts when I slay them." ''Well, as a Spiritual Chef, I¡­handled bodies a lot.'' Krune didn''t say it aloud, focusing as his Mental Energy Scan picked up the source of the lifeforce. It was coming from somewhere around the demon beast''s stomach. Krune and Yulian made eye contact as they made an incision on the demon beast''s stomach, fishing out a cracked egg from within. Chapter 877: The Typhoon of Godly Energy Unfortunately, the egg didn''t hatch naturally but forcefully cracked from external pressure. Krune gazed at its inside, tearing up as he looked at the figure of a demon beast baby that was squirming inside it on the verge of death. If left alone, it would die. After all, it still needed time to be nurtured within the egg before it grew enough to hatch. "Too bad there''s nothing we could do to save it." Yulian sighed in slight disappointment, feeling helpless as he sensed the lifeforce of the demon beast baby gradually fade away. "What''s the use of cultivating if we fail to save a single child. Dying before being able to see this vast world, isn''t that cruel?" Krune said in response, gently touching the demon beast baby. "Gue..." The demon beast baby''s hand gently touched Krune''s, making the latter sigh as he decided to help the little guy. Myriad Energies Technique! Calamity Laws! Balance Laws! Mental Energy! Krune activated all of them as he focused every technique he activated on the demon beast baby, using the laws concerning life and healing on the baby. As both laws were composed of all laws, Krune made use of this to help the demon beast baby. The demon beast baby wasn''t injured, though. Rather, it was dying because it hadn''t finished forming. Unless Krune did something about it, he wouldn''t be able to save it. Elements Cooperation Sub-law! Krune ensured every element forming the demon beast baby functioned perfectly. After all, anybody, whether human or demon beast, was a mixture of numerous elements in a certain ratio that were birthed using life energy. Such a thought appeared in his head as Krune immediately focused on the aspect, keeping all the bodily functions in the demon beast baby in harmony as he made the laws related to healing treat its potential growth as a form of recovery and something to be attained. This way, its present state was considered as an injury as the healing effect became a nurturing effect on its growth. Laws Cooperation Sub-law! The innumerous laws unleashed by the Calamity and Balance Laws were forced together into harmony based on his thoughts, focusing on what he wished to achieve. The laws that were unrelated to the task immediately suppressed themselves while those related to the task were magnified, cooperating with each other as they seemingly gained sentience, changing their ratio to suit the needs. Krune felt Little Cally appear for an instant before disappearing. The Calamity Laws soon experienced a change after that, subtly overlaying themselves on the demon beast baby. Krune felt that it was subtly changing the effect of the laws to temper the demon beast baby''s body so it could prolong its life until it completed its nurturing. Nevertheless, it still wasn''t enough. After all, what he was doing was a process of nature at the end of which life would be birthed. Energies Cooperation Sub-law! Krune poured in his Godly Energy into the demon beast baby, trying to circulate it into itself. After all, the baby was already at the Ninth Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm. If it had grown fully in its mother, it would have reached the Godly Fusion Realm by birth. At present, the Godly Energy failed to circulate in the demon beast baby''s body. It was struggling to do so as the meridians in it were beginning to fail. Krune also noticed that its heartbeat began to become slower and weaker. "Am I going to fail?" Krune sighed as he asked, watching everything he did fail to save it. He was unable to give it the effect that allowed the natural growth within its mother''s uterus. He then saw that a tinge of his Godly Energy moved into its meridians and circulated a little, eventually getting converted into the lifeforce that nurtured it. Unfortunately, this speed was insanely slow, almost negligible considering the rate at which the baby was losing lifeforce. There was no helping it since Krune had just started to create the Balance Law''s first sub-law. It was this loss in lifeforce that allowed Krune to sense its presence from afar in the field of death. Krune used his Mind Splitting Technique, causing thoughts to collide in his head as he grasped every tiny detail to find another way. He then looked at himself, thinking as he took out all the God Stones from his storage ring, including those he accumulated from the realms below. Even though their quality wasn''t the greatest, their quantity would still give some benefit. After all, they were enough to make a small hill. Krune didn''t look away from the demon beast baby, transmitting his voice to Yulian, "Yulian, please leave me alone here for now. I don''t wish for anyone to see what I''m about to do next. Also, please prevent anything from disturbing me." "Alright." Yulian found it strange but decided to follow Krune''s words. He disappeared from the scene right after, landing atop the carcass of a demon beast far away as he stood guard. He was a professional, so when he complied, he ensured there wouldn''t even be a chance he might glance at Krune by mistake. It was the sense of professionalism he lived and abided by. "Hah!" Krune shouted as his human form crumbled. Soon, his flesh disappeared, becoming a mass of pure energy. It was energy in the purest form, condensing into a sentient entity. A wisp! Krune returned to his true form as his manipulation abilities spiked in prowess. He used his Godly Energy to imbue the Myriad Energies Technique in the demon beast baby, artificially engraving the godly meridians in its body. Since its meridians were failing, he resorted to this. Moreover, as long as Godly Energy circulated in its body, it would eventually survive. At least, that was what he hoped. But when he was just about to start, Krune noticed a faint rejection from the demon beast baby''s body. It hadn''t even been born, so such changes were too much for it to bear. ''Beings born from heaven and earth, condensed by the energy flowing through the air, the land, the people, and so on. In a land rich with energy, a being of nature would be birthed, the purest form of energy with sentience, a Wisp.'' Krune thought to himself, ''Since your fleshly body is failing, I''ll give you an energy body. Or at least, I''ll try to. There''s nothing else I can do if this doesn''t work.'' Krune then used his ethereal wisp flames to envelop the demon beast in it. As mentioned all the way back, Krune could change the shape of his ethereal form as he wished, and so he did. The moment he saw the demon beast baby''s lifeforce stabilize, he sighed in relief. Like an insatiable vortex, Krune absorbed Godly Energy from the air and all the surrounding God Stones. A massive phenomenon soon appeared as a result of this. A typhoon had been created, causing all the Godly Energy in the environment to be pulled over to Krune. Heaven and Earth were condensing energy into one place, the same phenomenon that occurred when a Wisp was born. The energy flowed into Krune, turning it into his lifeforce before being infused in the demon beast baby. Its body slowly turned transparent as the fleshly part of it absorbed a tremendous amount of energy as it was being converted into an energy form. Then again, as Wisps were beings of energy that were naturally unable to cultivate, the demon beast baby''s meridians collapsed, causing its situation to take a turn for the worse. Without Godly Energy circulating in its meridians, its lifeforce began to slip away. Krune actively infused his Godly Energy into its body while his Balance Laws prevented its situation from deteriorating further. If it wasn''t for his Balance Laws, it would have died long ago. As for the Calamity Laws, what it was doing now was similar to when Krune used it to awaken equipment. It threw in conditions to help the baby stabilize its condition, treating it as a piece of equipment. Every condition that could help its survival was automatically absorbed by the baby. Krune steadily formed the godly meridians in its body, engraving it one after another to create the circuit. He had his own circuit to reference, so he did just that. He didn''t change anything upon seeing the demon beast become more and more like him. A harmony of sorts was established between them as they synchronized. "What the...?" Yulian trembled in shock as he looked up, watching the typhoon of Godly Energy rush towards the place Krune was at. Since it was covered by the carcass of a massive demon beast, Yulian was unable to see what was happening. It was the reason he had arrived at such a place. Even in the case he was shocked and turned over to look, he wouldn''t be able to see what Krune was doing. Yulian controlled his curiosity from getting the best of him as he stayed put, gazing at the broiling energy in astonishment. Hundreds of kilometers away, the man with the crown noticed the phenomenon, stopping as he gawked while asking, "Where is Krune right now?" "¡­At¡­the center of it." An astonishing voice resounded from the pouch hung on his hip. "Hahaha, amazing, just amazing!" The man with the crown laughed, taking out a ring from the pouch. He activated it, summoning its ring spirit. The ring spirit was shaped like a demon beast with wings, large enough to carry him. He hopped onto it as it took off to the air, ordering, "Let''s head there! Quick! Before it finishes!" He wore the ring on his ring finger as the equipment spirit sped through the skies. "Ugh..." Krune grunted as his godly meridians creaked under pressure. If it had been anything other than the godly meridians, it would have long exploded under the pressure of Godly Energy flowing into it. Under that pressure, the amount of Godly Energy inside Krune spiked all of a sudden as his cultivation base had instantly returned to the Second Stage of the God Foundation Realm. The Suppression Law that had been suppressing his cultivation was absorbed into the baby automatically. "What the¡­fuck?" Krune heard Little Cally''s shocked voice full of disbelief as it was also sucked into the baby. It was followed by the Balance Laws, and every other law Krune had comprehended or came across. The laws he had only come across were recorded in the Calamity Laws. As both the Calamity and Balance Laws were composed of all the laws in existence, the moment they were sucked into the baby, Krune was deprived of all his laws. Moreover, he had been using all of them, whether actively or passively, to aid the situation. The moment they all disappeared, the condition of the baby worsened. "Aaargh!" Krune bellowed as all the God Stones were sucked dry of Godly Energy as a massive pillar formed in the sky, a beam of Godly Energy that impacted him. His godly meridians cracked further under the pressure as Krune finished engraving the godly meridians in the baby. The moment he did so, all the Godly Energy flowed and circulated in it. The laws also seemed to have stabilized and condensed within it. Krune gasped for air after that, feeling weak as a protective instinct of sorts wrapped him. He looked overwhelmed with joy as the baby''s condition not only stabilized, but it had succeeded in becoming someone similar to him, a Wisp. However, it was also a demon beast at the same time. In a certain way, it was very similar to Fie, his daughter. But instead of wisp and human, it was a wisp and...well, Krune didn''t know what race this demon beast was. There was a big difference, though. Although it kept its demon beast form, it didn''t have a flesh and blood body. Its demon beast form...was ethereal, just like Krune''s. ''Should I call it a demon wisp?'' thought Krune for a second. Its right hand trembled for an instant before its mouth weakly opened, emitting a voice that was transmitted using some Godly Energy as it asked, "¡­Dad?" Chapter 878: I’ll Call You Little Krune "¡­Dad?" the voice asked through sending Godly Energy. Though, before Krune could feel joy at saving the demon beast baby, he noticed something odd about their connection. It felt¡­way too close. Moreover, the baby''s voice resounded non-stop after that. "Mom? Brother? Sister? Only Krune?" "What the¡­" Krune stared as the baby completed his sentence. "¡­heck?" It was then that he noticed the issue, recalling the words of the Primal God from before. While he was saving the demon beast baby, he placed its body in his ethereal form, treating it as a cocoon that would help nurture the baby and prevent it from dying. In this case, due to numerous reasons where he had kept every law he had ever comprehended active, that established the first condition. Even though the laws he had kept active were just the Calamity and Balance Law, since they were a collection of every law in existence, as long as he kept them active, it meant he was using all the laws¡ªhis laws. The second was the fact that all of them were directed at the baby. And, when it absorbed all his laws, he had achieved the second condition. As for the final condition, it was achieved when the baby''s body transformed into an energy form as it synchronized with himself. Normally, this was bound to be done in his body. But, Wisps had no body, only a core. So, through an uncountable number of factors at play, most of which he was unsure about, the baby had become part of his body in a way as a result, finally achieving through sheer luck what he had set out to achieve since long ago. Spiritual Incarnation! The baby was his Spiritual Incarnation. Normally speaking, Spiritual Incarnations were a concept derived from a collection of laws the cultivator had comprehended and were meshed together in a certain way. But in Krune''s case, not only was his Spiritual Incarnation not part of him, it was also sentient. His Spiritual Incarnation was alive. Irrespective of who it might be, none of them possessed a Spiritual Incarnation like him, an incarnation that had its own sentience. Krune and the baby were two in one. The only difference was the fact the baby looked like him, but younger with all his memories and experiences. They had shared thoughts, but the difference was in their emotional maturity. Krune was at his usual self while the baby had the emotional maturity of a baby. That was the only difference. The moment it was formed, the baby fused with his Wisp Core and made the core a part of itself. Now, even if his Wisp Core was shattered, Krune wouldn''t die. He would easily revive later thanks to the laws forming his Spiritual Incarnation. The more he thought about it, the more he began to learn the functions of the Spiritual Incarnation. It was a strange feeling. It seemed like he was encountering it for the first time, but it also seemed like he had known of it from the start. This was the first time Krune felt as close with himself. The baby first had a demon beast form, the same that it had when it possessed a fleshly body. Then, it changed itself to match a baby version of his human form, though just in shape. It was ethereal in nature. The moment the baby fused into his Wisp Core, Krune grasped the basics of what his Spiritual Incarnation allowed him to do. It was related to the Wisps. The baby Krune was basically a Wisp, another him. He now possessed two minds to think and operate. As they shared thoughts, they were perfectly in sync. This was different from the Mind Splitting Technique. There, his total thinking capacity was still at the same level. He was only splitting his focus into multiple places and maintained them without losing concentration. Now, he had two actual minds to think and brood over stuff. On top of that, he could use the Mind Splitting Technique on both minds. This was the same as attaching wings to a tiger. The baby Krune was also able to cultivate, just like him. The only thing that hindered its cultivation was his own cultivation base. The maximum cultivation it could reach was Krune''s current cultivation base. Once Krune improved his cultivation, he would be able to cultivate once again. So, this gave Krune twice the amount of Godly Energy he normally possessed. It was a major advantage, the likes that would give him an edge over others when he visited places like the Immortal Suppression Zone once again. This was just the base advantage the baby Krune gave him. As for the actual effects, it left Krune at a loss for words, making him wonder just how it was possible. In the case he unleashes his Land Incarnation, a certain area around him would transform and be shaped by the laws he had unleashed. These laws would alter the land while pushing out all the other laws active in the surroundings. Not only that, but once his Land Incarnation became active, it would absorb energy from Heaven and Earth to produce Pseudo-Wisps. In other words, copies of himself. Therefore, the moment Krune unleashed his Land Incarnation, he would be able to create Pseudo-Wisps en masse. They weren''t wisps in the actual sense but were sacks of energy modeled after him. Surprisingly, they possessed his Godly Meridians and were also able to cultivate. Then again, Wisps were a topic of taboo in the God Realm, whether they were real or fake. So, creating Wisps like this was a death sentence. Moreover, it wasn''t in his character to create Wisps...in the case where he was actually able to do so. Though, this was where another of his Spiritual Incarnation''s abilities surfaced. His Spiritual Incarnation was created by fusing all the laws into it, so the inherent effect they created allowed Krune to change the body structure of the Pseudo-Wisps he produced. In other words, he could disguise them as equipment spirits easily. But in essence, they were still Pseudo-Wisps, lifeless copies of himself. The collection of laws they were comprised of prevented people from sensing their true forms. They were Wisps in nature, but if Krune wished to make them resemble humans, demon beasts, or any other living being there was, it was doable. Moreover, all these Pseudo-Wisps were capable of cultivating. As long as Krune had enough Godly Energy, he could create an army of Pseudo-Wisps disguised as equipment spirits or even True Spirits. He realized the laws concerning the field of Spirit Awakeners formed a base structure in his Spiritual Incarnation, making him capable of achieving this with ease. The spatial laws and the variations to these laws condensed in his Wisp Core to form an incredibly stable subspace. In this place, Krune was able to store all the Pseudo-Wisps he would create in the future. Moreover, the environment within would become more and more habitable as he comprehended the laws further. As his understanding of the laws increase, the subspace in him would grow bigger and turn into a self-sustainable world. At the moment, the space within was only less than a cubic meter. This was the volume he could currently achieve with his comprehension of the spatial laws in the God Realm. His Land Incarnation, when unleashed, absorbed massive quantities of Godly Energy from the surroundings to create the Pseudo-Wisps. Even if it took some time to do so and needed to absorb a lot of Godly Energy from the surroundings, their functions outweighed their downsides by large. Their function here was to act as packets of energy to be used for cultivation. As they were copies of himself, copies that had his internal body structure, as a Wisp, Krune was easily able to absorb them to cultivate. On top of that, this process was faster than just using God Stones to cultivate. Moreover, it was free. The natural energy in the God Realm was equivalent to a Rank One God Stone. Normally, cultivating using Rank One God Stones was inefficient when compared to higher quality God Stones. But for Krune, it meant a free supply of Godly Energy for his use. Even his copies were capable of cultivation. As long as he allowed them to cultivate for a long enough time, the quality of Godly Energy amassed in them would eventually surpass a Rank One God Stone and go beyond. Also, the longer the time the copies cultivated, the higher the quality of Godly Energy stored in them. Moreover, Krune could just store them in his subspace. When he needed to replenish his energy, he could just absorb one of them. Since they would be stored in his subspace, a place where he had the highest control and was within his Wisp Core, he could replenish his energy by absorbing them instantaneously. He didn''t even need to take out anything and expose his cards. Moreover, Krune realized that as long as he changed their structure to resemble an equipment spirit, the respective equipment spirit could also absorb the Pseudo-Wisp to cultivate. This saved Krune all the costs in supporting an equipment spirit''s cultivation in the future when he obtained some. ''I guess¡­'' Krune gazed at the sky, sighing as he thought to himself, ''From now on, money has no value to me anymore.'' Krune soon changed into his human form, closing his eyes as he sensed the changes in his body. He was currently brimming with power. At present, he was only in the Second Stage of the God Foundation Realm. Though in reality, no cultivator in the God Core Realm was his opponent anymore. Also, unlike Yuric''s Spiritual Incarnation that was effect-based, Krune''s incarnation was accumulation-based. Therefore, the longer he spent time accumulating his strength, the more terrifying he would become. "In other words..." He unleashed a long breath as all the tension in him flowed away. "I''ll eventually turn into a one-man army." "I guess I''ll just call you Little Krune for now." Krune sensed the baby Krune sleeping within his Wisp Core. From now on, no damage to his body or even Wisp Core mattered. Even death was of no consequence. After all, if even a fragment of Little Krune remained, Krune would be able to revive eventually. Of course, the cultivators and demon beasts of the God Realm with Spiritual Incarnations had similar advantages. That being said, they also had their own way of dealing with this issue. The prison just before was one of them. The injury to his Godly Meridians he had received while saving the baby was healed in an instant. Healing it took him zero effort. Such was the might of a cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation. Krune realized another shocking fact that excited him. Little Krune could basically split itself into numerous portions and inhabit his copies. This way, all his copies would be able to fight or do other tasks. Then again, this action had a lot of limits and was dependent on his cultivation base. Nevertheless, it meant that as he became stronger, he could control numerous copies of himself to multi-task. When one also considered their shared thoughts, their teamwork would be flawless. Krune wished to create copies of himself to absorb and store some Godly Energy. But unfortunately, he sensed that the threat from before was about to reach him. He didn''t have enough time. Also, for some reason, Krune was no longer able to sense the presence of Little Cally. He got up, dusted himself, and jumped onto the carcass of a demon beast nearby as he said, "I guess we have no other choice but to greet our friend." Yulian landed beside him, acting the moment Krune appeared in his line of sight. He then noticed Krune gaze towards a certain direction with a smile, following it as he noticed a figure of the man with a crown flying towards them. Chapter 879: Welcome to the World of the Strong "Hello there, my friend," Krune said as he smiled, greeting the person that landed 10 meters before him. "Friend¡­?" The man with a crown was perplexed for a bit before waving back with a light chuckle, responding with, "Nice to meet you, pal." Krune smiled after that, feeling that there was no threat emanating from the other party. After all, the one that probably caused numerous coincidences to occur, which led him to chase after Krune, was Little Cally. Now that Little Cally had disappeared, the feeling of threat had also vanished. Krune realized that the other party was purely interested in him, or to be more exact, his abilities. That was what he was able to sense until an ethereal lady charged towards him out of nowhere, brandishing a pair of knives as she closed in on him. Krune readily took out his shields as he defended against the pair of knives, manipulating the shields with his Godly Energy. When compared to before, his Godly Energy now flowed smoothly, as if he was back in the lower realms. Before, when he used Godly Energy, he had to will it to function. But now, the Godly Energy flowed through him and acted against all threats naturally. Krune didn''t even have to exert a ton of effort. Everything was automatic. Energies Cooperation Sub-law! Back then, he had to activate this sub-law while using his Balance Laws. It came with a lot of restrictions, which meant he had to concentrate on it a lot. It was more or less why he was unable to use the Balance Laws'' sub-laws for more than a couple of seconds. First of all, his comprehension of it was lacking, and second, he had to consume a lot of brainpower to activate it. After all, the Balance Laws was an agglomeration of all laws. Activating it meant that he had to think of all the laws that function in it. He didn''t have to actively think about them, but activating the Balance Laws'' sub-laws meant that all the related information flowed through his mind. This put a bit of strain in his mind, preventing him from doing anything much other than this. But now, Krune didn''t have to do anything. After all, the Energies Cooperation Sub-law had now become a part of him. It was like one of his organs, similar to the heart that thumped by itself voluntarily without rest. Every law that formed his Spiritual Incarnation had become something akin to an organ to him. Among them were multiple laws similar to the Energies Cooperation Sub-law, Elements Cooperation Sub-law, and most importantly, the Law Cooperation Sub-law. They all worked together as a cohesive unit, forming a body, in other words, him, that functioned based on their work. Therefore, Krune didn''t even have to actively control Godly Energy to use the shields. Godly Energy flowed naturally through him, manipulating the shields without much effort. All he had to do was think about where he had to move them next. It was like he had automated most of the things he used to do manually. This wasn''t the case for a normal cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation since their bodies were a result of the laws they had comprehended. On top of that, it could only result in changes brought about by their respective collection of laws. As for Krune, since he had only comprehended the Balance Law''s first sub-law on a superficial level, that meant he had comprehended all the sub-laws in it at a superficial level as well. Therefore, all of them became a part of him while forming his Spiritual Incarnation. In the future, when he comprehended each sub-law to a deeper degree, his power would just become greater. Moreover, it wasn''t just Godly Energy flowing through his body without worries. Even his Mental Energy saw no problems moving around. His Universe Foundation had changed, becoming a law that occupied a part of his body. It synchronized with the rest of the laws forming his body. Therefore, any attacks he did were made using both Godly Energy and Mental Energy. Back then, he was fusing them to increase the power of the attacks he could unleash. Right now, though, that wasn''t the case anymore. Depending on the situation, his Mental Energy and Godly Energy would fuse at various ratios, giving rise to various energy types that could unleash a numerous amount of properties. When Krune wished to defend using the shields, the resulting energy flowing in his body changed its property to one that boosted the shields'' defense to the maximum. Krune didn''t even need to think or change the inherent structure of his Godly Energy, Mental Energy, how they melded, or anything for that matter. Everything happened naturally, as if it was just him breathing. Krune stared in shock as the lady with the knives attacked him nonstop but failed to even make a dent on his shields. It was shocking because the shockwaves from each attack caused dust to fly. Nevertheless, his current defense felt like tiny mountains covering every angle one could attack from. Each of his shields seemed like they weighed hundreds of tons, not budging or even trembling under the powerful attacks of the lady. This was why he was confident that no one in and under the God Core Realm had the ability to inflict harm to him. His confidence wasn''t baseless. ''Everything is all thanks to the Balance Laws. If I didn''t think of them or allocated some time for them, my strength wouldn''t have become this cohesive,'' Krune thought to himself. Cohesive. This was the word he focused on. The laws in his body acted as one as it unleashed effects using the two forms of energy, giving rise to effects he never knew were possible. ''Just¡­how strong have I become?'' Krune wondered, not even bothering to concentrate on his fight. Yulian, on the other hand, was left with his mouth agape in shock as he saw the exchange. ''He¡­no longer needs my protection.'' Yulian sighed as he muttered, realizing that Krune had already surpassed him in strength. Now, he didn''t even know why he accompanied Krune anymore. After all, he was incapable of guarding Krune against anyone capable of bringing him harm. This was the first time he had experienced this feeling. Yulian was at the Ninth Stage of the God Core Realm. Moreover, he was stronger than the average cultivator and was even able to defeat some cultivators in the Nascent God Realm. But now, he felt that Krune was on his level. Moreover, it didn''t seem like he had reached his full potential yet. Yulian wondered just how strong Krune would become when he utilized his full potential. He then gazed at the face of the man with the crown, noticing that the other side didn''t show any hint of hostility. He then looked at Krune, who no longer showed any sense of urgency. By now, he understood that it was the man in the crown that they were trying to escape from earlier. Yulian recalled the words the Primal God had told him before, sighing as he thought to himself, ''Only with a Spiritual Incarnation can one become a powerhouse. Without that, even if I follow all his words, I would still fail to kill a cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation. Only if I follow his words after obtaining a Spiritual Incarnation would I become truly strong.'' Yulian could sense from the changes that Krune had managed to condense his Spiritual Incarnation. He knew that Krune hadn''t even prepared for the task. Though, thanks to the coincidences that happened in the situation while trying to save that demon beast baby, he ended up condensing a Spiritual Incarnation. ''I too know the method to condense one, thanks to the Primal God.'' Yulian gazed in the direction they had traversed, feeling conflicted as he looked at Krune, alternating between the two as he could not make up his mind. Having noticed it, Krune stared at Yulian''s facial expressions for a while, eventually saying after he had gotten an idea of what was going on, "It''s fine, Yulian." "Thank you." Yulian bowed deeply to show his gratitude. He then pulled out a parchment from his storage ring before infusing his Godly Energy in it, creating a detailed map. He then rolled it and threw it towards Krune as he said, "This contains all the routes I know from Sunkan City to Hworn City. Farewell." "Thank you for accompanying me till now." Krune expressed his gratitude as he saw Yulian turn around and walk in the direction that led him towards the Immortal Severance Zone. He immediately realized Yulian''s plan. Yulian was giving up on his cultivation. Though, it wasn''t for the reason of wasting his life. Rather, it was to grow stronger in the future. Having seen Whack and Zuna, he knew that as long as a cultivator spent enough time in the Immortal Severance Zone comprehending the Suppression Law, they were able to loosen the suppression on them. This was what Yulian was aiming for. After all, he was already at the Ninth Stage of the God Core Realm. He had already gone past the stage of condensing a Spiritual Incarnation. Only at the God Foundation Realm was a cultivator able to condense their Spiritual Incarnation. With that, he planned to return to the Immortal Severance Zone and suppress his cultivation to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. From there, he planned to work his way up the stages until he reached the First Stage of the God Foundation Realm once more before condensing his Spiritual Incarnation. Once he achieved that, he would leave the zone and commit suicide. He would then revive shortly after as a newborn and properly cultivate from the start. That way, he would become a true powerhouse in the future thanks to his Spiritual Incarnation. Yulian soon disappeared from view as Krune noticed how the attacks against him had stopped. The lady with the pair of knives harrumphed as her body dissolved into Godly Energy before disappearing. The man with the crown smiled as he said, "Congratulations on condensing your Spiritual Incarnation. Welcome to the world of the strong." "Thank you." Krune smiled in response as he retracted his shields, asking after a moment of thought, "What was the reason you were pursuing me?" "Two reasons." The man with the crown smiled nonchalantly as he answered, "First, I came to know about your one percent success rate in awakening an equipment spirit. Second, I''m quite curious of that sword in your possession." "That sword isn''t mine, though." Krune could not help but frown as he said, "If you wish to buy it, you will have to approach the City Lord of Sunkan City." "Well, let me tell you something interesting I found out about that sword." The man with the crown pulled out the ring worn on his finger and placed it within the pouch on his hip. The equipment spirit he used to ride on vanished as he said, "Contained in its hilt is a Law in its purest form. Do you know what that means?" Chapter 880: Strongest Equipment Spirits "Contained in its hilt is a Law in its purest form. Do you know what that means?" the man with the crown asked with a tone that implied that there was more to it than initially thought. "Not really," Krune shrugged as he replied. "Even if it was something amazing, it''s not mine. In short, I don''t really care." Well, that was just how he was. Throughout his journey, he had come across numerous treasures at the peak of the realm he was in. However, if he said he would go back on his word for something like that, then he would be lying. Krune wasn''t someone like that. That''s why even if the Law in the hilt was something amazing and was a peerless treasure even sought by beings at the peak, he couldn''t care less. It wasn''t his, so he didn''t even have an ounce of greed towards it. Maybe if it was free game, then Krune might have snatched it before others could have. Well, that was the only time he would do something like that. Besides, his Spiritual Incarnation consisted of all the laws in existence in the God Realm. So, the Law in the hilt would most probably be in him as well. As long as he comprehended it later, he would eventually obtain the same effect. Seeing Krune''s lackadaisical expression, the man with the crown broke into a fit of laughter before saying, "You''re an interesting lad. I don''t have an ounce of desire towards it if that''s what you''re thinking." "Then, what is it exactly?" Krune frowned as he asked, thinking that the man with the crown was somewhat annoying "Do you know that a Law is the essence of a concept that exists? Also, did you know it can fade between the state of ethereal and corporeal?" the man with the crown asked. He then noticed Krune''s confusion soon after, shaking his head as he continued to explain, "Suppose you consider the Law of Fire. In its empirical form, it looks like a reddish-orange ribbon. You won''t feel anything when you touch it. After all, you can''t physically interact with a law when it''s in such a state. But, when it activates, it manifests itself into a celestial body¡­" "¡­the sun," Krune finished the man''s sentence. His eyes widened in surprise as he felt that his horizons were broadened. "So you know of the sun, huh?" The man with the crown nodded as he asked, "I''m surprised you know of something that doesn''t exist in the Zamuria Continent. Are you from a different continent, perhaps?" One must remember that the God Realm didn''t have a sun, only...the exit. "I''m from¡­somewhere far away." Krune made sure to look as natural as possible before asking, "How did the sun you saw look like?" "It''s a massive ball of fire. Then again, the one I saw wasn''t a real sun. It was made up of the laws of fire, gravity, light, earth, and so on." The man with the crown then smiled as he said, "So, what I''m trying to say is that the Law in that hilt is in its empirical form. It''s ethereal in nature. Well, there''s one good thing about it when it''s in such a form." His smile deepened as he said, "After you unleash your Spiritual Incarnation, you can integrate this Law in your body and obtain a massive boost in power and even derive new abilities. It''s the best shortcut you can obtain to become strong." "Foolish." Krune shook his head, knowing that it wasn''t a wise decision, something even he, with his limited understanding, could guess. "Without any comprehension of the Law, taking it in your Spiritual Incarnation is tantamount to suicide. It would just end up devouring your Laws and severely cripple you." "That''s true, but..." the man with the crown smiled as he replied. "It''s not as if you need to take it this instant. You can comprehend it a bit before fusing it into yourself." "Hmm..." After a moment of thought, Krune fished out the sword from his storage ring and threw it to the man with the crown, saying, "See if you can sense it." The man with the crown was left aghast as he caught the sword. They had just met. And, until now, he had actually been chasing after Krune. The fact that Krune handed such a priceless item over without any hesitation, not to mention the fact he did so without any pressure, made the man with the crown feel like it was harder to perceive Krune''s true character. He let out a sigh soon after before looking into the sword using his senses, frowning when he was unable to sense anything. All he knew was the fact that there existed a Law in the hilt of the sword. Well, that was all thanks to his Spiritual Incarnation. However, he was unable to sense anything other than that. The man with the crown looked at Krune and asked, "Can I try and awaken its equipment spirit?" "Sure, go ahead," Krune nodded as he answered the man''s question. "It''s the reason why I was given the sword in the first place." The man with the crown expressed his gratitude as he covered the sword with his Godly Energy. Krune noticed how his Godly Energy had a unique signature of its own. It was just like Tina''s Godly Energy, a form of energy unique to the individual. ''So, one way or another, their Spiritual Incarnations affect their Godly Energy and shape it into something according to the laws in them.'' Krune had finally understood. It was as if every Spiritual Incarnation was a circuit, while the Godly Energy was a canvas that flowed through the circuit, being molded and shaped based on every Law that existed in the circuit, resulting in a finished canvas that was unique to the individual. He realized that even if two people possessed the same laws and had comprehended them to the same extent, their respective Godly Energy would be different. It was because the laws in their Spiritual Incarnations were arranged in different orders. Not to mention that there existed a subtle difference between the Godly Energy of normal cultivators. Therefore, it was no surprise that the Godly Energy of two parties would clash with one another. If not for this fact, cultivators would have been able to absorb Godly Energy from other cultivators and not depend on God Stones or the Godly Energy in nature for cultivation. The world would have become an even more vicious place if that was the case. The man''s Godly Energy seeped into the sword as it unleashed numerous effects, forcefully infusing them into it. Krune noticed that the way they approached the issue was different. For Krune, he used his Calamity Laws to unleash numerous conditions that the equipment absorbed naturally based on what it desired. All he did was blindly vary all the conditions and wait until the equipment absorbed enough to awaken. On the other hand, the man with the crown forced those changes into the equipment and tried to brute force his way through. "Wouldn''t the equipment spirit die if you use this method?" Krune was unable to endure without speaking out his thoughts. "It might seem like I''m forcing the conditions onto the equipment, but in actuality, I''m giving it better conditions than what it would have chosen on its own," the man with the crown smiled as he replied. "The equipment instinctively absorbs any conditions suitable to it. But, through this method, the conditions are in a jumbled manner. Even though this process eventually creates an equipment spirit, the resulting equipment spirit wouldn''t be as strong as mine." He laughed as he continued, "What I''m doing here is giving conditions to it in a certain order that would birth the strongest equipment spirit that can be housed in this equipment. This way, its growth potential would reach its maximum." "There''s such a thing?" Krune was surprised. "Yes." The man with the crown nodded as he said, "The Spirit Awakener Guild in Zamuria Continent isn''t advanced enough yet to figure out this fact. But then again, it''s not as if the Spirit Awakener Guilds in other continents are better either. Some of them have figured this out but are unable to implement it practically." He smirked as he added, "After all, most people thank the heavens upon being able to awaken an equipment spirit. However, their success rate would be near non-existent if they tried to awaken the strongest equipment spirit for a piece of equipment. No one can afford to spend so much time and energy on something that might not be worth the effort." "Then, why are you doing it¡­?" Krune paused as he noticed the blade birth an equipment spirit. This time though, it didn''t die immediately. The hilt emitted the green radiance once again in an effort to annihilate it. But this time, the equipment spirit was actually able to resist the radiance. Then again, it didn''t seem like it could last for long at this rate since the green radiance was slowly but surely damaging it. The man with the crown smirked with an arrogant expression as his Godly Energy seeped into the equipment spirit, easily healing it from the damage. With their combined efforts, they resisted the green radiance emitted from the hilt. After some time passed in such a manner, the man with the crown sighed as he retracted his Godly Energy, watching the equipment spirit wail in despair as it was slowly destroyed by the green radiance. With that, he soon muttered, "This doesn''t seem that simple." "Indeed." Krune nodded, catching the sword that was thrown back at him. "I tried to awaken it many times, but all the equipment spirits were destroyed by the green radiance." He then looked with confusion as he asked, "Why didn''t you try to awaken the hilt? The problem stems from it, right?" "I would need to research over it," the man with the crown smiled as he responded. "Without that, I cannot have any hope of success. There''s something about the hilt that''s causing the blade to awaken a spirit within a couple of minutes. Normally, the process isn''t this fast. A normal cultivator takes between one to three years to awaken an equipment spirit." "Alright, I''m becoming more and more interested in this sword." The man with the crown took out a certain device from his storage ring and infused his Godly Energy into it. Krune noticed how the device looked familiar, prompting him to ask, "What¡­is this device?" "Oh, this?" The man with the crown pointed at the device as he replied, "I took it from some guards belonging to the Spirit Awakener Guild. I''m using this to contact their guild right now." "¡­" Chapter 881: A Swift Bargain ''Weren''t they the ones who were supposed to be guarding?'' Krune''s eyelids twitched while thinking as the man with the crown fiddled with the device. After a while, the man infused a bit of his Godly Energy on the ground to create a stone table before placing the device on it. He spent some time synchronizing it as he tried to pick up a response. His actions implied that he was an expert in this field or was used to doing it. After some time passed in such a manner, followed by a faint fluctuation, the image of an old man appeared. The old man was relaxing on a chair, eating some fruits as he listened to some instrumental music. Upon noticing the fluctuation of Godly Energy, he turned around, looking in the direction of the device while frowning as he asked, "Who are you?" "Are you the Sunkan City Lord?" the man with the crown replied with a question. His confident posture and arrogant expression made the Sunkan City Lord ponder over his next string of words. Among those that had been dispatched to protect Krune, some of them possessed a means to contact the Sunkan City Lord. After all, he didn''t wish anything to happen to the sword he had handed out for the spirit awakening. "Yes," the Sunkan City Lord nodded as he replied in a mildly respectful tone. "May I know who you are?" "I''m just a loose cultivator," the man with the crown smiled while replying. "I came across the sword you had given out for the spirit awakening by chance. I captured Krune, and as for the rest, well...they died." The Sunkan City Lord could not help but frown as his expression turned solemn. His eyes were filled to the brim with killing intent as he was about to unleash a form of threat, the same threat that people usually did in a conversation with someone they didn''t like. "I see you''ve misunderstood me." The man with the crown could not help but laugh upon seeing the city lord''s reaction. "Actually, I had killed them by mistake. Well, the reason I contacted you isn''t for that." "Then¡­" The Sunkan City Lord asked with mild confusion. The man with the crown laughed as he replied, "Actually, I''m quite interested in your sword. Tell me your price, and I''ll buy it from you. I don''t like thieving, you see." "That sword is my family heirloom¡­" The Sunkan City Lord just began to speak when the man with the crown cut him off, saying¡­ "Name your price." "Why¡­?" The Sunkan City Lord expressed his confusion as he asked, "Why do you want to buy that sword? It isn''t anything special." "Hahaha!" The man with the crown laughed as he said in response, "There''s nothing special about it, but you definitely know how every spirit awakened in it dies immediately, right?" "Yes." The Sunkan City Lord nodded in response. "I have hired a lot of Spirit Awakeners in the past to try and awaken it. Unfortunately, all of them had failed." "The reason behind that is because of a flaw in the sword," the man with the crown smiled as he replied, having fun as he looked at the various expressions on the other side''s face. "There are some materials in it that are¡­what do you call it...err...spirit defects?" "Spirit defects?" The Sunkan City Lord frowned as he asked, "What are they?" "There are some items that are so in tune with nature that they awaken spirits on their own. On top of that, when they live long enough, their connection with their equipment deepens beyond the normal extent. Though, when these spirits are killed for reasons unknown, they turn out into what is known as spirit defects. When these materials are used to make equipment, no matter what you do, the awakened spirit will die instantly," the man with the crown explained. He then smiled, waving his hand as he continued with his explanation, "Those spirit defects are the source of the green energy destroying the awakened spirit. Then again, if the creator wishes to screw someone over, they add this spirit defect into the equipment while forging it. But in actuality, the material with the spirit defect is better than most materials. The only downside is the fact they would prevent the awakening of an equipment spirit." The Sunkan City Lord frowned with a gaze of disbelief as he muttered, "Impossible! The one who made this sword was a trusted member of my family¡­" The man with the crown shrugged as he replied, "I laid the facts before you. Anyway, I need the spirit defects in it. They''re of the highest concentration I have ever seen. In any case, name your price." Before the Sunkan City Lord could say anything, the man with the crown emphasized, "Truthfully speaking, I could have just skedaddled with the sword. After all, it is in my possession. Nevertheless, I still wish to do a fair deal as I feel that you still have sentiments to this. I believe I''ve already shown my honesty through this." "Fine." The Sunkan City Lord sighed in defeat. He had no choice but to compromise. After all, the item was already in the hands of the other party. It was already a good thing for him to gain something for it. After all, in the current situation, he was unable to dispatch anyone to snatch it back from the man with the crown. He had relocated his city to the capital of the Zamuria Empire. So, there were a lot of things he had to do. He had to meet the emperor, fight for a suitable position in the capital, obtain a favorable place to erect his city, allocate resources that he had taken with him from the previous place, and so on. He was short on manpower since everyone was busy with the relocation, as well as arming themselves. Truthfully speaking, the Sunkan City Lord didn''t have the attention span to care about the man with the crown. Even in his current situation, his body looked like it was relaxing, but his mind was working on overdrive. He was making use of his Divine Sense to do all the work. After a while, the Sunkan City Lord replied to the man''s words, "You contacted me to express your honesty. With that, just name the price you''re willing to give me." "Alright, that''s a wise decision." The man with the crown smiled as he lifted his right hand, flashing four fingers as he asked, "How does 400 Rank 4 God Stones sound?" "Fine." The Sunkan City Lord sighed with a shrug. The blade wasn''t anything special and was something even Krune could wield. Nevertheless, the hilt was a piece of equipment in the Semi-God Realm. In short, the price proposed by the man with the crown was unfair. It was a loss. Unfortunately, the Sunkan City Lord had no other choice but to agree to it. After all, he was at least able to obtain compensation for it. It was better than the sword getting stolen. Besides, he had never used the sword in battle since it was unwieldable. Only the hilt was of enough quality for him. As for the blade, it was something that would shatter from a single touch if he wielded it. It was something he had made for ornamental purposes. The reason he wished to awaken its equipment spirit was just to create something the younger generation of his family could use to train and sharpen their sword-playing skills. "Tell me your coordinates," the man with the crown said as he took out a small plate from his spatial ring. It was something that was able to teleport items over long distances. The ones used to transport people were massive and required a lot of Godly Energy to operate. But the one before him was small and had a weight, volume, and distance limit. Once the Sunkan City Lord relayed the coordinates of his place, the man with the crown input them into the plate before placing a pouch on it. He poured 400 Rank 4 God Stones into it, counting twice to make sure he didn''t put anything extra. He then infused his Godly Energy into the plate, watching the spatial laws in it activate before teleporting the bag. The bag appeared beside the Sunkan City Lord, who inspected it with his Divine Sense to ensure that not even a single stone was lacking. He then stared at the man with the crown, saying, "Farewell, then." "Alright." The man with the crown nodded as he deactivated the device, stretching his right hand towards Krune. "Fine." Krune took out the sword from his spatial ring before throwing it towards the man with the crown. He then asked, "Were those spirit defects the reason for this?" "Not really." The man with the crown smiled as he said, "There''s no such thing as spirit defects. It''s something I made up to convince him. Everything I said was a big fat lie." ''Of course,'' Krune sighed as he thought to himself. He then watched the other party fiddle with the sword for a bit before finally asking after some time had passed. "What''s your name?" "You¡­never knew?" The man with the crown stared at Krune in shock as if he had been told the world wasn''t round but was actually flat. "You never said it to me," Krune shrugged as he replied. "I could only sense you chasing me back then. It''s not like I can obtain your information, too, you know." "Well..." The man with the crown walked closer until he stood two meters away from Krune before responding, "My name is¡­Cultivator." "Your name is¡­Cultivator?" Krune stared with a frown as he clarified his doubts, "Or, is that the alias you''re going by?" "That''s my name," Cultivator replied with a wry smile. "My father was illiterate and wasn''t exactly what you''d call sane. This was the only word he heard everywhere, so he named me this. From what he told me, my mother fled from the house a few months after giving birth to me. So, I guess this name stuck onto me since then." "Is your mother in the Zamuria Continent? Are you on this journey to meet her?" Krune asked, somewhat becoming interested in the story behind Cultivator. This was because he could feel that they shared similarities¡­at least in some parts. "Pretty much." Cultivator nodded as he spoke, "After my dad died, she''s my only remaining family. I''ve been tracing her trails all over the Rumria and Guria Continents. Eventually, I obtained some clues that she had ended up in Zamuria Continent. Since all three continents were on the brink of war with each other, I wish to find her as soon as possible." "The entirety of the population in the Zamuria Continent is currently headed towards the capital. Maybe we can find your mother there," Krune soon replied. He didn''t have anything much to do, so he decided that it was better to tag along with Cultivator. Besides, Krune realized that he didn''t have any hatred towards Cultivator either. He didn''t even put in his eyes the fact that Cultivator had chased after him before. Their personalities seemed¡­somewhat similar. It was as if they had faced similar encounters in their life and had molded their personalities accordingly. "I plan to head towards the Four Sectors'' Border Region first. Something interesting is currently happening there. So, a lot of powerful cultivators would probably appear there. Maybe if I''m lucky, my mother might also be there?" Cultivator said not long after. Chapter 882: Rainbow Series: Rainbow Disco "There''s still time for the event that would happen in the Four Sector''s Border Region. It would be nice if we arrive there after five months, not before," Cultivator said. "I have an equipment spirit that can carry us all the way there within a week." "Won''t it get tired?" Krune frowned as he asked. Based on what he knew, even equipment spirits became tired after a while. Though, their tiredness was different from humans, demon beasts, and demon beasts in human forms. Their tiredness was exhibited by the sluggishness of the flow of Godly Energy in their meridians. The more they worked, the slower the flow of Godly Energy in their meridians. Once they got enough rest, it would return back to normal. That was why cultivators only unleashed their equipment spirits in times of need. Other than that, the equipment spirit would rest inside the equipment. "I have¡­quite a few of such equipment spirits. So, no worries." Cultivator smiled as he took out a ring from his pouch before wore it on his finger, activating it. Within a short time, its ring spirit appeared. Its body was more or less similar to a Zenith Plugger, but it had a smaller stature and was leaner. Its wingspan was twice the Zenith Plugger''s, so it was capable of long-distance flights. Then again, considering its lean stature, it wasn''t able to carry more than four people at a time. Krune observed the ring spirit as the laws forming its body fluctuated. A three-dimensional image of the ring spirit soon appeared in his mind, turning into a blueprint he could use in the future. His mind worked at full power, immediately glancing at the figure of the massive demon beast they stood upon. The laws in his body similarly did its job as a three-dimensional image of the demon beast appeared in his mind. ''This would be helpful in the future,'' Krune thought to himself, glancing at Cultivator. Not long after, an image of his human form formed in his mind. He then thought while asking, "So, it''s better to depart after four months, right? Otherwise, we''ll probably arrive there way too early." "Yes." Cultivator smiled as he replied, "It''s good that I have some company, haha. Traveling alone was boring, to be honest." "It''s fine." Krune smiled in return, responding, "It''s not as if I have anything much to do now. Besides, it seems whatever is happening there is going to be quite fun." "Alright, then. Since you seemed interested in it, I can bring you too. We''ll meet here after four months have passed. I''ll be roaming these plains until then to see if I can find anything interesting. I''ll experiment with the sword until then," Cultivator said as he boarded the ring spirit before taking off to the skies, eventually disappearing from view. "Guess I''m alone now." Krune heaved a deep sigh as he looked around, noticing the carcasses of various demon beasts. After a moment of thought, he began to store the carcasses in his storage ring. They were tremendously powerful demon beasts and would prove as valuable ingredients for his dishes. Krune didn''t wish to waste their parts now that they had been killed. He also registered their images in his mind as he decided to store the demon beast carcasses. He spent an entire week in this pursuit, storing a lot of demon beast carcasses in his storage rings. When the rings he had ran out of space, he forged new ones. Even though his limited understanding of the spatial laws, with respect to the God Realm, prevented him from creating storage rings with a large space, he was able to produce a lot of them in a short time. Eventually, he stored all of the demon beast carcasses at the God Core Realm and above. As for the rest, he left them as is, unwilling to take them. If he tried to do so, then no amount of storage rings would be enough. After all, the demon beast territory, Lawless Plains, was a big place. It would take him too much time to cover it all. With that, he only focused on the ones that proved useful to him. Then again, he still went through the plains to record the images of every demon beast in his mind. Since he was passively able to do so, Krune didn''t wish to miss out on these blueprints. After all, he could change the forms of his Pseudo-Wisps into other beings as long as he had their blueprint. That''s why Krune roamed about collecting them. The more blueprints he obtained, the more versatile his Pseudo Wisps would become. Consider the ring spirit Cultivator had shown, for example. Even though the laws of the God Realm prevented any being from taking flight before they were in the Semi-God Realm, demon beasts with wings were still able to fly. It was because they were naturally making use of the laws in the God Realm to fly. Flying by using wings to flap around was allowed by the laws of the God Realm. That''s why demon beasts that were capable of flying were heavily valued. It was also a reason why the Zenith Pluggers were something every merchant desired to have. They were capable of short-distance flights, but most importantly, they were able to carry a lot of weight on them. It was why they were the number one demon beast every merchant desired to possess. That''s why possessing the blueprints of different demon beasts gave him a greater advantage. Moreover, he wouldn''t obtain such an opportunity to come across countless demon beasts. Krune also noticed bizarre demon beasts among the carcasses, ones that were grotesque, alien, and so on. Krune collected a couple of their carcasses as a sample, intending to see if they had any beneficial properties in them that he could exploit. After that, he returned to the center of the Lawless Plains, stopping at the place where he had come across the demon beast baby. Krune then extended his Divine Sense, unable to find anything until his Mental Energy mixed into it, expanding his range while allowing him to perceive things that he was unable to before. This level of penetration was superior when compared to simply using his Mental Energy scan alone. He soon noticed that a massive formation was just below him. It was situated fifty meters underground and was covered by numerous formations that prevented even the Divine Senses of immortals from detecting them. It was only thanks to his Mental Energy that Krune was able to easily detect them without any troubles. He tried to understand it, noticing that the formation was just a simple energy-gathering array. He was familiar with such types. Though, there was one difference between this formation and the usual energy gathering formations. The concentration of Godly Energy in the air was only equivalent to a Rank One God Stone. And, all an energy gathering formation did was slightly increase its concentration. Depending on the quality of the energy-gathering formation, the resulting quality of Godly Energy would be different. The concentration would steadily climb up until they reached a Rank Two God Stone and beyond. Then again, it took a lot of time to achieve this. Also, depending on the quality of Godly Energy at the end, the amount of time it took to accumulate a considerable amount varied. It was why most energy-gathering formations were vacant for years at a stretch. Only when they had accumulated a certain density and quantity of Godly Energy would a cultivator cultivate in it. And well, it seemed that the energy-gathering formation below him had been built for the same purpose. Nevertheless, most energy gathering formations encompassed a small place, usually the size of a room or a cultivation chamber. The shocking thing here was the fact that this energy-gathering formation had no end. After a moment of thought, Krune tried to scale it up as he moved around the Lawless Plains, noticing that it encompassed almost the entire Lawless Plains. On top of that, it had been gathering the energy for a long duration, at least for a couple of years. "All this Godly Energy¡­" Krune muttered, sighing as he noticed how the quality of energy in the formation had already reached the level of a Rank Three God Stone. Rank Three God Stones were those typically used by God Core Realm cultivators to cultivate. Rank One God Stones were for Godly Fusion Realm cultivators, Rank Two God Stones were for God Foundation Realm cultivators, and so on and so forth. ''I shouldn''t waste this opportunity,'' Krune thought to himself, arriving before a certain patch of the land as he made a slight tweak in the formation, opening a passage that took him underground. He had some understanding of formations. In any case, this was one of the most common formations, so he was clear of its abilities. The only thing shocking about this energy-gathering formation was its sheer scale and not its complexity. It was only layered with numerous formations to prevent other cultivators from detecting it. Since his Mental Energy was capable of bypassing that, Krune was able to make use of the formation with ease. He then proceeded underground, noticing the hole he made on the ground vanish magically. He walked through a tunnel and ended up in a dome-shaped chamber where the Godly Energy was akin to a sea thanks to its sheer quantity. ''It seems like they were probably preparing for someone''s Heavenly Tribulation. Only for that would they need so much Godly Energy. Not only that, but this isn''t even the final product. When it finishes accumulating enough energy, it should reach the peak of a Rank Four God Stone in quality alone, perhaps even higher,'' Krune determined it based on the functions of the formation as he pondered, arriving at the center of the dome-shaped chamber. He sighed, taking in a deep breath as he felt revitalized. His body shuddered as it began to shine with the resplendent hue of a rainbow. The rainbow light flashed as its respective colors interchanged positions, flickered, made shapes, and danced across his body. It was akin to a rainbow disco. Krune frowned as he looked around, thanking the fact that there was no one else to witness this. He didn''t want to obtain another annoying nickname related to rainbows. Land Incarnation! Krune soon unleashed his Spiritual Incarnation as he noticed faint ethereal laws appear in the land around him, taking up most of the ground space in the dome-shaped chamber. The Godly Energy immediately formed numerous vortexes as they converged at many spots around him, beginning to condense into tiny spheres. "Alright, let me see how you function," Krune laughed in excitement. Chapter 883: Impressive Clone(s) There was a total of six vortexes that formed around him. As Krune intensified his concentration, the number of vortexes in the surroundings increased to twenty. He decided to stop at this number until he learned more about them and became more proficient in the process. A tremendous quantity of Godly Energy was sucked into each vortex, forming smaller vortexes of their own as they began to condense into spheres of Godly Energy. While that was happening, Krune noticed how they resembled his Wisp Core. He left most of them to continue about the process while he focused on three spheres at the end, causing them to change their structures slightly. Instead of Wisp Cores, they transformed into equipment. Besides those pieces of equipment, some vortexes took on another form, taking on the appearance of equipment spirits. Krune then focused on another Wisp Core, changing it into a beating heart that soon developed into a human. He also experimented with other vortexes, changing them into demon beasts. ''So, I can change their structures without even having to make sure a small part of them resembles the Wisp Cores. Well, that saves me a lot of trouble,'' Krune thought to himself as he watched the Godly Energy swirl into each figure and condense their forms¡ªhumans, equipment spirits, and demon beasts. It took about five minutes before they finished condensing. It was a long process, considering he was in an environment with dense Godly Energy whose quality alone was equivalent to a Rank Three God Stone. In other words, if he tried it in a regular environment, it would take even longer to condense them. Nevertheless, Krune was still satisfied with the result. After all, his incarnation wasn''t based on instant effects but that of accumulation. Therefore, as long as it was possible, he would be able to create them and store them. At the very moment they finished forming, Krune noticed how the energy in each of them was at the level of a First Stage Godly Fusion Realm cultivator. With one thought, they began to pull in Godly Energy, accumulating energy as their cultivation bases gradually increased with time. They were cultivating, but it wasn''t as if they had any cultivation bases. Krune was just attributing the energy in them to the respective cultivation base. They were just sacks of energy, after all. Within a few hours, the quantity of energy in them had eventually reached the Second Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. But while he was watching the process, Krune noticed a stark difference between them. The Pseudo-Wisps who were in his Wisp form reached this level the fastest, followed by the equipment spirits, demon beasts, with humans being the last. Not only that, but this difference was by a lot, almost an hour between the Wisp form and Human form. ''So that means, the closer they are to my true appearance, the greater their efficiency,'' Krune nodded as he understood what was happening, turning the appearance of every Pseudo-Wisps into Wisps. This was a secluded place anyway, so there was no danger of a third party stumbling upon them. Besides, normal people were unable to recognize a Wisp. It must be noted how even Dima failed to recognize his true appearance and assumed he was a True Spirit. After all, none of them might have come across a Wisp or a True Spirit in all their lives. With that, they were just guessing. When even the Guild Master of Sunkan City''s Spirit Awakener Guild, a Semi-God Realm cultivator failed to guess his race, there was almost zero possibility of the regular populace being able to guess it correctly. Even then, he had no reason to show them his true appearance. It was only because the current place was secluded did he relax a bit. To pursue greater efficiency, Krune turned all the Pseudo-Wisps into his original form, the Wisp form. The moment he did so, the vortex of Godly Energy being siphoned into them increased. Then again, Krune noticed how he hadn''t even made a dent in the amount of Godly Energy available in the dome. After all, it had been collecting energy from the entirety of the Lawless Plains for at least a couple of years. With that, it went without saying that the quantity of energy it had accumulated was massive. The cultivation stages of the Pseudo-Wisps increased by one stage every few hours. After all, even when cultivating using Rank One God Stones, Krune broke through the stages of the Godly Fusion Realm in a matter of days. Now, in the presence of Godly Energy, whose quality was akin to a Rank Three God Stone, their cultivation speeds were staggering. ''Let''s check my other abilities,'' Krune thought as Little Krune took action, exiting his Wisp Core. It burrowed into a Pseudo Wisp, taking control of it. Thanks to the shared thoughts, Krune felt as if he had two bodies right now. The only defect of the Pseudo-Wisps was the fact that they didn''t have any sentience. Now, with a fragment of Little Krune taking control of one of them, it became no different from an actual Wisp. It wasn''t a different individual per se but Krune himself. That was the sole difference. In any case, it was just a clone of himself that he could actively control. Passively, Krune was able to control the Pseudo-Wisps to move and execute a couple of orders. But that was his limit. Even for this, he had to concentrate a lot of attention on each one. Nevertheless, when Little Krune took control of a Pseudo-Wisp, it became no different from his actual self. Krune took out some of his shields and threw them towards the clone. When inhabited by Little Krune, he decided to call them clones to avoid confusion. He also noticed how Little Krune was unable to fragment itself. He attributed it to his cultivation base. Though, upon deeper inspection, he determined that it wasn''t because of his cultivation base but rather Little Krune''s. Once it reached the God Foundation Realm, it would definitely be able to fragment itself. Naturally, as its cultivation base increased, it would be able to fragment itself more and more. The clone grabbed hold of the shield and manipulated it with experience not inferior to his own. It also controlled the shields by wielding both Godly Energy and Mental Energy. Though, there was one difference here. Mental Energy existed in Krune thanks to his Universe Foundation. Even after his Universe Foundation was converted into a set of laws, it still continued to generate Mental Energy. But in the case of the clone, it had to convert some of its Godly Energy into Mental Energy before being able to use it. It wasn''t a problem, though, other than the fact that its actions were somewhat slower than Krune''s. Then again, the difference was minute. The clone manipulated the shield and played with it. It then took on his human appearance before subtly changing its Godly Energy signature while activating the Balance Laws on the shield. Using this, it hopped on the shield and made a wide leap due to the repulsion force generated by the shield on its legs. The clone was able to do everything he was capable of. It was slightly weaker and slower than him, but that was more or less it. Other than that, it was the same as Krune in every aspect. ''I can do a lot just using this alone.'' Krune smiled as he assumed his original form, watching his abilities improve drastically. He then began cultivating, wishing to increase his cultivation base as much as possible. Little Krune returned to its spot inside his core and began cultivating. Basically, it was absorbing the energy he pulled into himself to cultivate. It did slow his overall cultivation speed, but considering the rich Godly Energy around him, Krune wasn''t really bothered by it. He closed his eyes and focused, deepening the concentration of his Land Incarnation as it encompassed the entire dome-shaped chamber. The number of Pseudo-Wisps being produced rose in number, hitting one hundred when he stopped. He could sense that this was his current limit. Only when he reached the God Core Realm would this limit increase. If he forced himself to create more Pseudo Wisps, his mind wouldn''t be able to handle the load and would shatter. His body would then collapse soon after, resulting in his death. All the Pseudo-Wisps would also collapse and merge into the Land Incarnation, causing him to revive shortly after. Once he recovered and built his body, Krune would have to start from scratch once again. That''s why he stopped at this limit and continued to cultivate. He wished to make use of all the energy available in the place. Mind Splitting Technique! Both Krune and Little Krune activated it simultaneously, beginning to focus on comprehending the laws that made up their body in detail. After all, cultivating didn''t take them much effort. They could blindly do it without any troubles, as they had been doing the same for two centuries now. So, Krune wished to use this time to deepen his comprehension of all the laws that formed his body. That way, he would become stronger. Moreover, Krune''s goal was to increase the size of his subspace. With that, he would be able to store a lot more things inside. Besides, he liked the idea of a space where he could mine minerals and harvest precious herbs to use for his blacksmithing and cooking respectively. It would be an incredible feeling for sure. Since he already possessed the means to do so, it would be a waste not to focus on it. Both Krune and Little Krune separately comprehended the spatial laws and other derivatives of it to help expand the subspace. They both had shared thoughts, so they were tackling the issue from two different perspectives. The results weren''t simple addition, but something grander. The moment Krune encountered a problem, the perspective of Little Krune allowed him to derive the result and understand the concept presented by the law. Similarly, when Little Krune encountered a problem, Krune''s perspective helped it tackle the issue and comprehend the part. Also, since they were the same individual, their comprehension of the laws increased as a whole in both cases. With that, this further boosted their ability to comprehend the laws uniformly. Krune felt joy as he noticed how his comprehension of the laws proceeded at speeds he never imagined was possible. But here he was, making it a reality. The size of the subspace was steadily increasing with time. Just comprehending the laws alone wasn''t enough to expand its size. After all, the laws only formed the foundation that the subspace worked on. To expand the subspace, a lot of Godly Energy was required. Thankfully, there was a lot here. Within a couple of days, the volume of the subspace had increased from one cubic meter to two units of the same. The volume was the same as two cubes¡ªof each possessing a cubic meter in volume¡ªplaced side by side. Chapter 884: Impressive Inside the dome-shaped chamber, 100 swirling vortexes that were absorbing Godly Energy nonstop could be seen. Also, at the very center of those vortexes was a vortex that was at least thrice their size. This vortex was actually Krune, creating an opening to his subspace as he siphoned Godly Energy into it. Based on his understanding, the subspace was a small dot in reality situated inside his Wisp Core. Then again, regardless of how big it was, it would still exist as a dot in reality. In short, the entrance to it was actually just a pinhole. Krune used his understanding of spatial laws to create a portal that connected to the pinhole. This acted as a doorway for the Godly Energy to flow into the subspace at a faster pace. Krune and Little Krune cultivated as they simultaneously comprehended every law that made up the subspace, intending to increase its size. The laws making up the subspace worked like the framework of a cage, something capable of housing things within. When Godly Energy was added to the subspace, the laws would absorb them and manifest their respective effects. The laws related to fire would create heat and flames upon absorbing Godly Energy. The laws related to earth would form land, the laws related to gravity would allow items and beings in the subspace to have their own weight, while the laws of water and life would give rise to vitality. All these laws slowly but surely made the subspace resemble an actual, stable world. Adding the fact that the foundation of the subspace was the Balance and Calamity Law, laws that comprised of all laws, the subspace resembled the God Realm in structural integrity and development. Then again, if he wished to create something on the scale of the God Realm, even reaching the peak of cultivation would be insufficient. With that in mind, it made him wonder how Zule was able to pull it off, given how he was one of the beings that created the realms. Krune continued to comprehend the laws as he cultivated, slowly feeling that his cultivation base was about to increase once again. Little Krune, on the other hand, was breezing through the stages of cultivation. Well, it would happen sooner or later, given how there was an abundance of Godly Energy with the purity of Rank Three God Stones. Surprisingly, while cultivating, Krune realized that the energy gathering formation was still gathering Godly Energy. Not only that, but it was actually becoming more and more condensed. After all, it encompassed just too wide of an area. So, even though it was only siphoning a small fraction of the Godly Energy from the surroundings to ensure no cultivator would be able to detect that Godly Energy was being absorbed, the quantity being absorbed was still tremendous. After all, Krune, Little Krune, the absorption of the Godly Energy by the subspace, and even his 100 Pseudo-Wisps combined, were unable to absorb enough Godly Energy to balance it out. So, as time passed, the quantity and quality of Godly Energy within the dome-shaped structure was still increasing. ''Just how awesome is this place?'' Krune sighed in wonder, for it was just too amazing. Even at full strength, Krune was unable to make a dent in its Godly Energy. The energy gathering formation was just that vast. Within a few hours, Little Krune had broken through another stage in the Godly Fusion Realm. After that, it headed for the peak of the Godly Fusion Realm before breaking through into the First Stage God Foundation Realm. Its speed became a tad slower after this. Krune took a bit more than a month of cultivating using Rank Two God Stones to go from the First Stage to the Second Stage of the God Foundation Realm. Considering the quality of Godly Energy in the area, his current cultivation speed was at least six times faster than when he used Rank Two God Stones. Moreover, the dense Godly Energy pressured him as it pressed down from all sides. So, the moment it noticed an outlet, it would pour into it. This sheer density caused another spike in his cultivation speed. Surprisingly, Krune had to block the influx of Godly Energy since it was too much for him to handle at times, despite him possessing the Godly Meridians. Then again, it was more of a good problem rather than a bad one. Since his cultivation base progressed through the ranks, Krune''s Godly Meridians would become stronger as well, allowing it to support a greater flow of Godly Energy. Two weeks later, Krune had reached the Third Stage of the God Foundation Realm. It was incomparably fast. As for Little Krune, it had already reached the Second Stage of the God Foundation Realm by now. The moment it did so, Krune realized that his earlier conjecture was actually correct. Little Krune was able to fragment itself into two now. Of course, after splitting up for a while, it went ahead and fused itself back into one whole. After all, the moment it fragmented itself, it wouldn''t be able to raise its cultivation. Only when it was whole was it capable of doing so. When fragmented, it was able to control the other Pseudo-Wisps and make them work, but that was it. This small limitation was the reason Krune was unable to multitask when cultivating. The only multitasking he was able to do while cultivating was comprehending the laws. Nevertheless, it was still a tremendous advantage, the likes of which no other cultivator might possess. At least, based on what he had seen till now. All the Pseudo-Wisps had reached the First Stage of the God Foundation Realm by now in terms of quantity and quality of Godly Energy. In fact, they were getting close to reaching the Second Stage of the God Foundation Realm. As he expanded his senses, Krune noticed how the Godly Energy was still increasing without any problem. As their cultivation bases increased, the rate at which they siphoned Godly Energy also increased. Nevertheless, they still failed to make a dent in the Godly Energy pulled in by the energy gathering formation. "I presume this was most likely made for a cultivator at the Ninth Stage Nascent God Realm to prepare for their heavenly tribulation. Even then, this formation is going overboard. Or maybe the demon beasts in the Lawless Plains had other plans in motion. Well, unfortunately for them, before they could see it come to fruition, they were all slaughtered by the Zamuria Empire''s army," Krune muttered as he focused on the energy-gathering formation. The laws in his body fluctuated as subtle changes happened in his Land Incarnation, causing it to mimic an energy gathering formation. Moreover, this wasn''t a formation that could be activated or deactivated upon will, but something unleashed by a Land Incarnation. This was the difference between a domain and a Land Incarnation. A domain just unleashed a concept around a cultivator. When they retracted their domain, it would vanish. As for Land Incarnations, it was different. A Land Incarnation carved the laws of their spiritual incarnation on the land surrounding them by pushing the native laws away. So, unless they were actively attacked by another cultivator using their Spiritual Incarnation, the piece of land would function according to the effect of the Land Incarnation¡­permanently. All the danger zones were, one way or another, Land Incarnations. Most of them appeared when a cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation was killed in the area. They then unleashed their Land Incarnation/Heavenly Incarnation in hopes of reviving one day. Thanks to the subtle change in Krune''s Land Incarnation, the laws in the area turned into something resembling an energy gathering formation. This immediately increased the rate of Godly Energy being siphoned. For a moment, Krune was slightly afraid that the commotion would alert any individual moving above ground. After all, the one who had set up this energy gathering formation had taken great measures to ensure the rate of energy being siphoned wouldn''t be obvious to any cultivator moving above ground, even if they were at the Semi-God Realm or higher. With an increase in the rate of energy being siphoned, it would gradually become obvious. Cultivators would realize that something was up in the area, even if they were unable to sense the energy-gathering formation. And, if they investigated, there was a chance they would stumble upon the dome-shaped chamber. Thankfully for Krune, the command from the Zamuria Empire made everyone head towards the capital. So, there wasn''t a chance anyone would be roaming the desolate wilds and put themselves at risk. After all, it was a time of war. And unless they were idiots, they would be in hiding, cultivating while hoping they don''t get dragged into the war. In short, the chances of someone stumbling upon the chamber were almost non-existent. Nevertheless, Krune didn''t want to risk anything. As he inspected his Land Incarnation, he heaved a sigh of relief. He was able to deactivate the energy-gathering effect. Well, it would take him quite a long time to do so. After all, he had to erase it. Even then, traces of it would still be left. At least, he was able to ensure the rate of Godly Energy being siphoned wouldn''t increase. It took him an entire day of manipulation before Krune was able to do so, heaving a sigh of relief when the influx of Godly Energy had returned to normal. He also took out the brooch that was gifted to him by the Spirit Awakener Guild before beginning to work on awakening its spirit. Despite using the Mind Splitting Technique, it was difficult to work on three different things, each of which were complex concepts on their own. His mind was unable to bear such a load. Thankfully for him, Little Krune shared half of the load as they worked together in conjunction to awaken the spirit of the brooch. This way, Krune was steadily able to increase his strength. Time passed in such a fashion. Before long, four months had passed. Krune reached the Sixth Stage of the God Foundation Realm and was close to reaching the Seventh Stage. Little Krune was also at the Sixth Stage of the God Foundation Realm and was only a couple of days behind Krune from reaching the Seventh Stage of the God Foundation Realm. ''We''ll have to depart soon,'' Krune thought as he reached the Seventh Stage God Foundation Realm. A couple of days later, Little Krune had reached the same stage. His subspace now had a volume slightly surpassing four cubic meters. "I can''t leave such a useful area behind," Krune smiled while muttering as he took out his blacksmithing tools from his storage space, setting it up for something he wished to build next. It wasn''t something he was able to create four months ago. But now, he had the confidence to do so. Chapter 885: Anticipation Krune eventually exited the dome-shaped chamber as he placed a lot of materials on the ground, basically emptying his entire reserve of materials. What he was planning to do right now was more or less a massive project, the likes of which he hadn''t attempted in the God Realm yet. Little Krune inhabited a Pseudo-Wisp, taking control of its body as it moved alongside Krune. Both of them stood before the large pile of materials, beginning to process them immediately. The other 99 Pseudo-Wisps were still in the dome-shaped chamber, still immersed in cultivation. They were still able to cultivate for some more time. After all, Krune and Little Krune were already in the Seventh Stage God Foundation Realm. As for them, the quality of energy inside them only conformed to the Fifth Stage of the God Foundation Realm. That difference in cultivation was due to the fact that they cultivated passively. As for Krune, he was actively siphoning the Godly Energy into him. This naturally increased his speed of cultivation. On top of that, he also made use of the vortex generated by opening his subspace to force him to absorb more Godly Energy, increasing his cultivation speed even further. Then again, as both he and Little Krune were cultivating simultaneously, the suction force they generated against the Godly Energy caused a massive funnel in the area that the Godly Energy was unable to prevent itself from gushing in like a torrent. Moreover, the Pseudo-Wisps were just sacks of energy. They didn''t possess a cultivation base to regulate the energy stored in their bodies. This, in turn, reduced their cultivation speed. This was why, despite cultivating together, the cultivation bases of Krune and Little Krune increased faster than the Pseudo-Wisps. Krune took a hammer he had forged in the past as he began to process the materials. Since the Mind Splitting Technique was activated, he was able to use one hand to generate flames to process the materials while he used the other to work with them. "Hmm..." He frowned as he looked at the results of his work, feeling that the amount of work he could do at the moment was far less than he had expected. With that, six Pseudo-Wisps left the chamber before taking on a human form. To ensure they wouldn''t look off, Krune changed their body structures a little, assuming varying ages and gender. After that, Little Krune split itself into seven fragments and burrowed into each Pseudo-Wisp, now controlling seven clones in total. With its cultivation base at the Seventh Stage God Foundation Realm, it was able to fragment itself into seven. Unsurprisingly, the work efficiency increased. Krune was working on processing the materials using brute force while the clones controlled the flames. Unlike before, they didn''t use normal flames. The clones activated different laws, changing the inherent color of the flames as their properties continued to change with time. They did the changes according to the material being processed. This way, the efficiency of production was higher while ensuring higher quality output. Each material had a respective use in the overall picture, so Krune was careful in his creation. Even though he had excess materials to use, failure would cause him to run out of them. He didn''t have enough for a second attempt. With that, Krune had to tread with caution and care. Krune condensed a bowl using some of the materials he had processed, putting the molten substance of another material inside it. This way, it was stored perfectly without being damaged. One of the clones constantly emitted heat that would maintain its molten state. It took four days before they finished processing all the materials and removing all the impurities inside them. At this moment, three clones were activating all sorts of laws as they maintained the conditions of the molten materials. Not once did they rest in the entire duration, always being in a state of tension as their minds constantly whirred, double-checking over all the details that were necessary to create what they wished to make. They were constantly butting heads, canceling their previous thought process upon hitting a dead-end before brainstorming a new idea. Unfortunately, a lot of materials were wasted due to this, but there was nothing to be done about that. This was Krune''s first time doing something like this. What he wished to create was a simple teleportation formation. It was the same as the ones available in the cities. But, what he wished to achieve had a few differences. A normal teleportation formation could be accessed as long as someone knew of its coordinates. It was the same as how Cultivator was able to send the bag of Rank Four God Stones to the Sunkan City Lord directly upon knowing the latter''s coordinates. So, possessing a teleportation formation had both advantages and disadvantages. The advantages consisted of the fact that one was able to transport goods over massive distances instantly. Moreover, with advanced teleportation formations, they were even capable of transporting powerful cultivators. Then again, it was also a disadvantage. Suppose someone had enmity towards the Sunkan City Lord. With that in mind, as long he knew of the other party''s coordinates, he could activate the teleportation formation on his side and emerge from the Sunkan City Lord''s. This would give him a perfect chance to initiate a sneak attack. That was why all the teleportation formations were closely guarded by a group of cultivators. Nevertheless, the root cause of the risk remained. Possessing something like that was tantamount to suicide for someone like Krune. Even though he hadn''t been able to sense Little Cally lately, possessing such a teleportation formation would give it the perfect recipe to make his life a living hell. Random people would pop out of it from time to time and make his life more miserable than ever before. It was incredibly simple for Little Cally to take advantage out of something like this. That was why Krune changed the entire design. Of course, he wasn''t ignorant about the spatial laws. He had seen them at work before. Heck, even when he came to the God Realm, that was how his wife and friends escaped...well, moved out to different places on the God Realm. Not to mention that once he obtained his Spiritual Incarnation, he witnessed the tiny teleportation formation used by Cultivator. This gave him valuable referential data. Using that and building upon his insight into developing his subspace, Krune had formulated an idea of his own teleportation formation. Compared to other teleportation formations, he wanted his teleportation formation to be exclusive to him alone. It would only function between two points and would never be accessed by a foreign teleportation formation. This way, he wouldn''t have to worry about a third party barging in on him at unexpected times. Nevertheless, activating any teleportation formation required a tremendous amount of Godly Energy, not to mention that it needed to be charged for a certain duration before it could be activated. On top of that, the greater the distance, the greater the amount of Godly Energy for the teleport to happen. Thankfully, he had a means of convenience right below him¡ªthe energy-gathering formation. That was why Krune decided to build a teleportation formation in the first place. Once they finished processing all the materials, Krune and three clones worked as a team while the remaining four clones worked as another team. The two teams simultaneously began to create a platform respectively, arranging all the materials into it as they forged it. They worked in sync and kept both the platforms synchronized from the start. Teleportation would only be done from one platform to another and vice-versa, nothing more and nothing less. Krune was slightly in a hurry, intending to finish this before Cultivator returned. He didn''t wish to show his secrets to the other party just yet. There was also the fact that he still needed time to test some things and work them out before giving it the finishing touch. As they were constantly working, they were running out of Godly Energy. Thankfully for them, they had a lot of energy to use that also recovered their physical and mental states to optimal levels. Whenever Krune or a clone was close to running out of Godly Energy, a Pseudo-Wisp would come out and be absorbed into them. This way, their Godly Energy would recover to the peak. Krune would then cause the Land Incarnation he unleashed below to create another Pseudo Wisp. It would then start cultivating from scratch once again. This was something he realized. His Land Incarnation was a part of him. But since they were a congregation of laws, as long as such laws existed in the God Realm, Krune could use such laws as a medium to control his Land Incarnation. Of course, the control was limited compared to him being inside the Land Incarnation directly. So, irrespective of the distance between them, he would still be able to sense his Land Incarnation. Well, this wasn''t unique to him alone. Every cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation was capable of this. Fortunately, as the number of laws making up his Spiritual Incarnation consisted of all the laws in God Realm, Krune would be able to sense his Land Incarnations clearly from any part of the God Realm. Six more days later, Krune nodded in satisfaction as he looked at the two teleportation formations before him. One of the clones transformed into a Zenith Plugger before carrying a teleportation formation on its back and running away. Krune placed the other teleportation formation in the dome-shaped chamber, activating it as a Pseudo-Wisp entered it, appearing on the formation platform carried by the Zenith Plugger. It then returned as a clone took the next trip, noticing that there were no problems with the teleportation formation. As the Zenith Plugger continue to run, Krune noticed the energy being sucked by the teleportation continued to steadily increase. ''It''s¡­good enough.'' He nodded in satisfaction. Thanks to their shared thoughts, the Zenith Plugger turned around and began to return. When it arrived, Krune carried the teleportation formation into the dome-shaped chamber, placing both side-by-side. As he didn''t wish to transfer too many people at a single time, and since he was constrained by the materials, Krune didn''t make the teleportation formations too big. Each one was cylindrical in shape, possessing a height of one meter while occupying a two-meter radius. ''I can barely stuff it in my subspace.'' Krune thought to himself with a smile, maximizing the use of his choices. He then created a portal, one that was wide enough to show the entirety of the subspace outside. His subspace was four meters long on all sides. So, the teleportation formation occupied one-fourth of the space inside. It was also heavy to boot, but thankfully, he had a lot of manpower to spare. The Pseudo-Wisps carried the teleportation formation into his subspace, carefully aligning it in the center. There was barely any gap between it and the boundary of the subspace. The boundary was like a thick bubble that couldn''t be broken down easily, condensed by the laws that formed its structural makeup. Once it was placed, Krune adjusted the other teleportation formation at the center of the dome-shaped chamber, taking in a deep breath as his heart thumped in anticipation, muttering, "Please work." Chapter 886: Conceptualization of his Theory All the Pseudo-Wisps stopped cultivating as they surrounded the teleportation formation in the center of the dome-shaped structure. Soon after, Little Krune became whole again as he returned to Krune''s Wisp Core. After that, Krune took in a deep breath, calming his mind as he inhaled and exhaled the Godly Energy. With what he was doing, he wanted to be in the best state possible. He then observed the two teleportation formations, going over the formations carved in them, watching how they made use of all the materials forming the platform to create a teleportation formation. Eventually, after a couple of hours had passed, Krune looked at two Pseudo-Wisps, telling them to come closer to him. At the very moment they did, he grabbed hold of them, slowly concentrating as he changed the appearance of their bodies. Their ethereal Wisp forms crumbled as they gradually turned into a blob of jelly, trying to condense into a cylindrical platform as something sparked within them, causing them to shatter into specks of light. Unsurprisingly, that light was none other than Godly Energy. The blast of Godly Energy sent Krune flying for a couple of meters before he could catch himself. Thanks to the density of the Godly Energy, the blast wasn''t able to travel far with a lot of power. If it had been outside, he would have definitely been sent flying far away, not to mention with multiple injuries. Then again, no injury mattered to the current him. After all, thanks to his Spiritual Incarnation, Krune was able to recover from any injury easily within a couple of seconds. That''s why he was unbothered by getting hurt, continuing with his experiment. "They can only turn into other living beings. Becoming inanimate objects is not possible¡­I think," Krune muttered as he looked at himself, noticing the Wisp Core at the center of his ethereal form. As he stared at it for a long time, Krune realized that his earlier train of thought was wrong. He wanted to make the Pseudo-Wisps resemble the teleportation formations so he could have a mobile teleportation formation anywhere he went. Sadly, as it turned out, such a thing wasn''t possible. It seemed the Pseudo-Wisps could only take the form of something that had life in it. As the teleportation formation was just an inanimate object, Krune was unable to imitate it using his Pseudo-Wisps. "Well, that experiment is a failure," Krune sighed as he muttered, feeling it was somewhat disappointing that he wasn''t able to do it. Then again, it was just an experiment, so he wasn''t too disappointed. What he had wished to create was something else. Krune looked at the teleportation formation before him as Little Krune took control of a Pseudo-Wisp. It then entered the portal to his subspace and hovered above the teleportation formation in it. Similarly, Krune hovered above the teleportation formation in the center of the dome-shaped chamber. Both were in their Wisp forms, which meant that they could fly. Well, to be more exact, it would be better to call it hovering slightly off the ground. Though, if the ground caved in, they would also fall. Krune and Little Krune were both in their Wisp forms, each hovering above a teleportation formation. Ten Pseudo-Wisps soon entered Krune''s subspace, surrounding Little Krune. At this moment, they were in full sync. Any distractions, unnecessary thoughts, and so on were discarded in order to achieve this state of full synchronization. Surprisingly, their bodies started to melt, dripping on the teleportation formation like wax melted from a candle. The moment they fell on the teleportation formation, they infused themselves into it, immediately disappearing. Krune could no longer think or even feel anything. He lost his sense of self, his ego, or what it meant to be Krune. At present, he was just a cluster of laws that were acting based on previous mental cues. Little Krune, too, felt the same. Its body began to melt like wax and dripped onto the teleportation formation below. Slowly but surely, their ethereal forms turned into the radiance of a rainbow as each respective color slowly melted away. It started with red, dripping onto the teleportation formation like it was blood. If anyone were to see this, they would assume something was placed in the center that was dripping blood. Drip Drop¡­Drip Drop! The substances from their Wisp forms continued to cover the formations. Their bodies were no more, completely melting away as they formed into a cluster that continued to drip. The subspace in Krune''s Wisp Core turned shaky, slightly trembling as faint cracks started to form in its borders. Unsurprisingly, what Krune was doing made his Wisp Core unstable. This experiment he was doing was causing harm to himself and even putting his life at risk. If it failed, he didn''t even have a guarantee just how many years, decades, or even centuries after he would revive. Nevertheless, he had planned enough. Also, he believed in the saying that when presented with the opportunity, one must grab it. Otherwise, the opportunity would pass away, leaving one to regret his indecision in the future. That was why Krune acted promptly. As the subspace began to destabilize, the remaining Pseudo-Wisps in the chamber collapsed one after another, turning into a stream of Godly Energy to reinforce the bubble and mend the cracks. This way, the subspace was prevented from being completely destroyed. One Pseudo-Wisp¡ªin the subspace¡ªdissolved into Godly Energy and seeped into the teleportation formation, powering it up. Similarly, in the dome-shaped chamber, a Pseudo-Wisp dissolved into Godly Energy and powered the teleportation formation, activating it. Once it was activated, the teleportation formation began to absorb the Godly Energy from the surroundings, increasing the power of its activation. The spatial laws in the area gradually solidified as all the related laws from his Land Incarnation converged into it. While the two were continuing to drip, some of their drops coursed through the teleportation formation, replacing the original in the parts, completing them in one fluid motion as they became part of the formation. The laws forming the formation turned into the respective laws that were part of Krune''s Spiritual Incarnation. The dot representing the subspace gleamed with a resplendent hue as the Wisp Core radiated every color that could be found on a rainbow. The Wisp Core began to spin, rotating faster and faster as the rainbow lights it emitted turned white to the eyes of the onlookers. And if one looked closely, present within the white light was a jet-black dot, forming a swirling mass as it resonated with the teleportation formation below. They were like celestial bodies, causing a stream of black energy to arc out of them before returning to their centers. After a few more waves of energy were emitted, a black line was created from the jet-black dot as it clashed into the teleportation formation, causing it to melt. The laws in the area were in a state of frenzy as everything became chaotic. Godly Energy was consumed at tremendous speeds, forming a vortex at the center. The jet-black dot began to fall as Krune''s Wisp Core shattered and vanished. With that, the jet-black dot crashed into the teleportation formation, turning its surface into liquid as it penetrated through the formation''s surface, like a rock moving inside water. The teleportation formation turned into liquid as it spread on the ground for a fair distance until its volume was stretched thin. At this point, Krune''s ethereal form was no longer in the air. It had completely melted and disappeared. The liquid spread over the ground and seeped into it, causing something to be pushed away as it occupied the region, becoming the controller of the place. Land Incarnation! What Krune attempted here was something similar to the Immortal Severance Zone. Normally, even after using a Land Incarnation, the native laws of the area wouldn''t be completely pushed away. Traces of it would still remain. Then again, that was unless the Land Incarnation was something unleashed when one died. In such a case, it was the most potent. Such Land Incarnations would completely push away all native laws, solely becoming the dominant laws in the affected area. That''s why Krune attempted this, to obtain the greatest effect he had desired. Godly Energy flowed into the area as faint specks of rainbow light gushed out, condensing into a sphere at the center that began to revolve, radiating with white light. Its speed began to slow down as the rainbow lights became apparent once again. Soon, the sphere stopped rotating. It was Krune''s Wisp Core. Inside it was a small dot depicting his subspace. It was filled with cracks right now, while all the Pseudo-Wisps within had vanished. Even the clone controlled by Little Krune had disappeared. They had been consumed to mend the damage. That''s why it still existed without completely breaking apart. As for Little Krune, it was present, resting in his Wisp Core. After absorbing some Godly Energy, the Wisp Core condensed its ethereal form around it as Krune gradually regained consciousness. At the very instant he regained full consciousness, he peered into his subspace, noticing that it was empty. The teleportation formation within had disappeared. The walls were on the verge of shattering as he opened a tiny hole, afraid to increase it any wider in fear that it would completely shatter. He then watched the Godly Energy enter through the hole, controlling the rate at which it flowed to a level he was safe with, using it to mend the cracks in the subspace. It took a lot of time, especially since he couldn''t use much force here as it would destroy his subspace. Thankfully, as he continued to mend the cracks, the size of the hole he could safely open increased, gradually increasing the amount of Godly Energy entering the subspace within a certain amount of time. Ten days passed in such a fashion before Krune finished completely mending it, now taking the time to inspect the change in laws within. Immediately, a sense of euphoria washed over him as Krune shouted at the top of his lungs, "Success!" Chapter 887: Two Monsters After the euphoria, he felt a feeling of ease, stemming from the fact that his gamble had paid off. He observed his subspace, noticing some of the spatial laws form a platform at the bottom, outlining the shape of the teleportation formation from before. While doing so, he also noticed that the laws in the land had changed. Krune closed his eyes as he sensed the laws operating in the place, unconsciously smiling as it went just the way he had expected and hoped for. He then looked at the dome-shaped chamber, noticing that the quality of Godly Energy around him had fallen to a level equivalent to a Rank Two God Stone. It seemed that his revival had consumed a tremendous quantity of Godly Energy. ''I see, so that''s why the danger zones exist everywhere. I''m only at the Seventh Stage of the God Foundation Realm, but even my revival had consumed such a huge amount of Godly Energy. With that, it''s no wonder they take centuries or even many millennia to revive. With a higher cultivation base, the longer the revival takes.'' Even though the Godly Energy around him had taken such a massive dip in quality, Krune wasn''t disappointed at all. After all, he had achieved his objective. On top of that, the formation was still intact, which meant that it would recover to its previous level sooner or later. Around 88 Pseudo-Wisps were still present and had begun cultivating once again. Krune soon recovered his cultivation base to the Seventh Stage of the God Foundation Realm. The revival hadn''t caused his cultivation base to fall since he hadn''t really been injured in any way. If he had been severely injured, his cultivation base would fall. Or if he wanted to, he could have revived sooner at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. But usually, most cultivators with a Spiritual Incarnation never wished to revive prematurely. After all, cultivating from scratch required a ton of resources. On top of that, there were dangers lurking everywhere, which would be amplified because of a lower cultivation base. If they die from that at a lower cultivation base, that would just make them weaker. So, instead of reviving at the lowest cultivation level, they would spend more time in order to revive at their maximum cultivation level so they wouldn''t be a lost cause. As this was his first revival, Krune didn''t have much control over the revival process. Nevertheless, it was still a valuable experience for him. As the place he was visiting next probably contained a lot of danger, it was better to be prepared to revive, just in case. Moreover, Krune didn''t just put his life at risk to check the revival process. In fact, he had achieved three of his goals with the experiment. The first goal was checking his revival process and understanding it better. As for the second, Krune smiled as he watched Little Krune inhabit the body of a Pseudo-Wisp. He then exited the dome-shaped chamber and proceeded to walk on the surface, even going to the extent of whistling as a nonchalant expression appeared on his face. But all along, he felt immense anticipation as he knew what was happening through their shared thoughts. Two Pseudo-Wisps soon hovered in the center of the dome-shaped chamber as the clone controlled by Little Krune stood a couple of meters away from them, thinking of something as its body radiated with rainbow light. Not long after, in the center of the dome-shaped chamber, a circle with a radius of two meters shone with rainbow light as Godly Energy was sucked into it, activating the spatial laws put into place as the two Pseudo-Wisps disappeared. "Hahaha!" Krune could not help but let out a cackle as the two Pseudo-Wisps appeared in his subspace, hovering above a similar circular platform with a radius of two meters. This was what he had been attempting to achieve all along. A Teleportation Formation! Of course, it wasn''t just any teleportation formation activated using a piece of equipment, but a teleportation formation activated using his laws. Normally, when he unleashed his Land Incarnation, the laws would form a certain circuit that would create an environment suitable to birth more Pseudo-Wisps. But, Krune didn''t wish for that in this case. With that, he first forged the teleportation formation. Then, he committed suicide after activating his Spiritual Incarnation, making it crumble as he enveloped the teleportation formation with his Land Incarnation. As his Spiritual Incarnation consisted of all the laws in God Realm, it wouldn''t have appeared that different from a normal plot of land, except for faint differences. That''s why the laws in his Land Incarnation seeped into the teleportation formation and ate away at it. With that, it was replacing the laws in the area, making the place, including the teleportation formation¡ªhis. Due to that move, the teleportation formation was now actually part of his Land Incarnation. Through that method, he had created a portal exclusive to his use that couldn''t be activated or raided by a third party. On top of that, it was his Land Incarnation. With that, he could sense it from anywhere in the God Realm. And besides, it was situated within the energy-gathering formation. In other words, that meant Krune could abuse the plentiful energy in the place as much as he wanted to. If he had normally activated his Land Incarnation, he wouldn''t have been able to achieve this teleportation effect, despite him possessing all the laws necessary to achieve it. This was the third objective he had achieved¡ªthe creation of a permanent teleportation formation. He had basically changed the laws of the land to achieve this. Moreover, it was only a radius of two meters in the center of the dome-shaped structure. Plus, as his Land Incarnation consisted of all the laws of the God Realm, as long as Krune erased its ability to produce Pseudo-Wisps, it wouldn''t look odd. Well, it was just a minor difference. After all, his process of creating Pseudo-Wisps was closely mimicking the world''s process of birthing Wisps. Again, there were just minor differences. So, normal people wouldn''t even realize that he had placed his Land Incarnation in the place. It gave him the perfect opportunity. As long as he didn''t activate the teleportation formation, no one would even be able to sense its existence in the area. This gave him the perfect excuse to siphon energy from the area without alerting any people. After all, if the survivors of the Lawless Plains were to return one day and inspect the energy-gathering formation, they wouldn''t be able to sense his arrangements in the area. Moreover, since it was a place that was gathering energy, with his Land Incarnation already being placed there, Krune was able to use it to revive. In short, the chamber had become a secret spot for him, a contingency measure for his future revival if he ever came across harm. After all, reviving required a tremendous quantity of Godly Energy to do so. With so much Godly Energy in this space, it was definitely the perfect revival spot. Little Krune stayed behind in the dome-shaped chamber as more Pseudo-Wisps were created in the place upon a thought from it. They numbered one hundred once again. Krune moved ten kilometers away as he was able to sense his Land Incarnation, smiling as he activated it on his core. Although there was some slight difficulty, the teleportation formation still activated. ''I guess my cultivation base should be higher if I wish to activate it on my own,'' Krune thought as he focused on the next phase of his plans. He gave some commands to a Pseudo-Wisp, intending to see how it would activate it. The Pseudo-Wisps weren''t sentient as they lacked a mind of their own to think. Then again, they were just Krune''s clones, so all their actions had to be actively controlled by Krune. As Krune gave it some tasks, Mental Energy was generated in it after consuming some of the Godly Energy stored in its body. This Mental Energy carried his commands, executing them upon the time of need. Krune determined that while he could make it execute his commands in such a manner, it could only be simple commands. Grinning, he gave it one command, telling it to execute it after a certain duration had passed. Time was the only factor he could imbue in it. After all, they didn''t have shared thoughts like with Little Krune. Also, beyond a certain distance, Krune was unable to command them. As for this limit, it was the range of his Divine Sense. At present, he had given the Pseudo-Wisp the commands through Little Krune, who was currently controlling a clone. Once the commands had been given, Little Krune activated the teleportation formation and arrived inside his subspace, closing the teleportation channel. Krune continued to walk, soon crossing twenty kilometers as he sensed the teleportation formation in his subspace activate as a couple of Pseudo-Wisps appeared inside. After the duration of time he had specified had passed, the respective Pseudo-Wisp activated the teleportation formation. This way, Krune was able to create a channel even when Little Krune wasn''t at the scene. ''I can do a lot using this.'' Krune smiled as Little Krune returned to the dome-shaped chamber using the open teleportation channel. Just in case he needed a reserve of energy, Krune kept ten Pseudo-Wisps in his subspace. He could still keep more of them, but Krune decided not to. They were enough for the time being and were only for emergencies. After all, Little Krune was still in the dome-shaped chamber. So, when he needed energy, it would activate the teleportation formation immediately. After all, their connection and shared thoughts wouldn''t be cut off anywhere in the God Realm, or even the four realms, for that matter. ''I should comprehend my laws further and increase the size of my subspace. That way, I can create enough space to house another teleportation formation,'' Krune thought to himself. ''Hmm...if I can find a secluded location to place another energy-gathering formation and teleportation formation, I would feel even safer.'' Of course, they were just plans for the future. Krune had no intentions to rush it. He had obtained enough benefits from this one experiment already. For now, he planned to first use them before branching out in other directions. Mind Splitting Technique! Krune absorbed a Pseudo-Wisp as he began cultivating once again. He was slowly walking over the Lawless Plains in search of Cultivator. After all, it was time to head to their next destination. Little Krune, on the other hand, was cultivating while focusing entirely on comprehending the laws of his subspace, intending to increase its size. They had split their workload and were reaping benefits accordingly. A day later, Krune finally spotted Cultivator. "Were you waiting for long?" Cultivator shouted as he landed before Krune, storing the equipment spirit that he used to fly around. "No worries, I just arrived," Krune smiled as he replied, feeling his heart thump vigorously as he instinctually sensed that Cultivator had also grown significantly stronger. He was already unfathomable before, but now¡­ Controlling himself from sweating buckets under stress, Krune smiled as he asked, "Shall we get going now?" "To the Four Sectors'' Border Region, that is." Chapter 888: The Barren Wastelands "Yeah, it''s time to depart," Cultivator responded as he looked around, noticing that the massive demon beast carcasses in the area had disappeared. "Have you finished your preparations?" "Well¡­" Krune thought about what he wanted to say. "Truthfully speaking, no. I still have a lot more to do. Then again, preparing for those are never always done. I''ll always find something new to prepare for." "That''s true." Cultivator nodded as he took out a ring from his pouch and wore it on his finger, immediately summoning its ring spirit. The ring spirit was the bird-type demon beast he had used before, possessing a massive wingspan that was able to fly for long distances at considerable speed. He also took out a leash and harnessed it onto the ring spirit, creating a grip to stay steady while riding on its back. He then climbed aboard it and looked at Krune, saying, "Climb up." "Sure." Followed by a jump, Krune landed beside Cultivator, asking after a moment as he expressed his curiosity, "How did you obtain so many ring spirits? Hardly anyone tries to awaken the spirit of a ring, after all." "Rings are easier to carry with me, so I reforged the equipment I obtained into rings. It''s pretty easy for me." Cultivator smiled as he continued, "Plus, I like the fact that I can wear ten of them on me at the same time. It makes things a lot more convenient." "That''s amazing," Krune expressed his shock. "I never knew you can reforge a piece of equipment while still maintaining its equipment spirit." "It''s pretty easy for me. Though, I hardly ever do it. Most of the time, I just extract the best materials from a piece of equipment and forge it into a ring. After that, I will awaken its spirit. After all, the ones I awaken are many times stronger and have a greater growth potential compared to normal equipment spirits." ''His Spiritual Incarnation is most probably related to equipment spirits. That''s most likely the case,'' Krune thought to himself, only to remember the fact that the mysterious sword was in the hands of Cultivator now. His mental state shuddered as he wondered just how strong the equipment spirit of the hilt would be. After all, inside it was a law in its purest form. It was something related to the realm of a God. Without a doubt, it would definitely be incredibly scary. This was also why Krune didn''t finish awakening the brooch given to him by the Spirit Awakener Guild. That''s because once its equipment spirit was awakened, there was a good chance it would submit to Cultivator. Krune had a feeling that it was a possibility. Hence, the reason why he stopped working on it, intending to just use it as is. After all, he did possess more methods of survival now. So, he wasn''t entirely reliant on the brooch for his safety. The ring spirit soon took off to the air and began flying at tremendous speeds, flying past large swathes of the plains in a matter of minutes. Krune was shocked at the speed it exhibited, feeling excitement as he possessed a model of the spirit in his mind. As for Cultivator, he didn''t seem bothered to ask more about Krune. Instead, he gave him a knowing smile from time to time, as if he had an idea of his abilities. Nevertheless, not much was shared between the two. After all, they were still strangers. All they knew about each other was their names, nothing else. Krune then noticed how they flew past the Lawless Plains within a couple of hours, amazed at the flight speed of the ring spirit. He then asked after thinking for a moment, "Do you know what exactly is happening in the Four Sectors'' Border Region? Why''s everyone heading there right now?" "You never knew?" Cultivator was shocked for a moment before he burst out laughing. "Right, you were living under a rock all your life. That''s what you''re going to say, right?" ''How did you know about that?'' Krune mentally frowned but didn''t express it on his face. He then stared at the other party, watching him continue to speak. Cultivator stopped laughing as he responded, "Based on what I''ve heard, something incredible is happening there. An ancient Sub-Realm will open up there, filled to the brim with countless treasures. On top of that, there are also countless secret techniques, knowledge of ancient races, and even their respective inheritances, perhaps even more. Anything you can imagine would be there. And anything you can''t even imagine would also be there." "Hmm, if it''s as good as you say it is, then why are the continents waging war on each other? Shouldn''t they be fighting to claim benefits from this Sub-Realm?" Krune frowned as he asked, finding the claim somewhat unbelievable. If it had really been something that incredible, probably every cultivator from the Zamuria Continent would have flocked there. So, it made no sense for him not to learn about it beforehand. After all, news traveled fast, not to mention for something as hyped as this. So, he couldn''t help but feel suspicious about this fact. "Hasn''t the Zamuria Empire summoned everyone to their capital?" Cultivator smiled after posing a question of his own. Seeing Krune nod in response, he continued, "Based on the news I got, they conducted a massive tournament to decide the people they would transport to the Four Sector''s Border Region. I don''t know what you''ve been doing for the past few months, but news of the Sub-Realm has traveled everywhere by now." "I see." Krune nodded before asking, "Then, is the entire Zamuria Empire at the region?" "Not actually." Cultivator shook his head as he replied, "There''s a restriction placed at the entry to the Sub-Realm. Only cultivators below the Semi-God Realm stage could enter. So basically, immortals are barred from entering it. Also¡­" He sighed, feeling it was a loss as he continued, "Another Sub-Realm has appeared between the Rumria and Guria continents. Not to mention that this Sub-Realm is said to contain a lot of resources for one to become a God. This was the reason both continents waged war against each other, to claim sole ownership over the Sub-Realm. Seeing as how they were unable to annihilate the other party, they dragged the Zamuria Continent into it as well to even out the playing field." "And both of them are about to open up?" Krune frowned as he muttered with a hint of doubt, "Does no one think it''s a bit suspicious?" "Not really." Cultivator laughed as he answered, "Maybe it''s a coincidence, or maybe it''s a trap. Who cares? The rewards are alluring enough to cause everyone to flock towards the place." "Also..." His expression turned solemn as he added, "Only the Gods themselves are capable of creating Sub-Realms. Even if they were bored, they wouldn''t do something that would cause harm to people. If they made it for their entertainment, they would have placed enough treasures accordingly to the risk. With high risk comes high rewards. So, cultivators would struggle to obtain them and cause a source of entertainment to those beings that sit at the top of the Four Realms." ''Four Realms?'' Krune''s expression morphed at the word. He focused on the fact that Cultivator had said ''Four Realms'' and not the ''God Realm.'' A normal cultivator didn''t even know of the existence of anything beyond the God Realm. After all, the God Realm itself was ridiculously vast. Even though it was a finite plane, to average cultivators, it might as well be infinite. Plus, those appearing from the lower realms usually arrived when they were at the Nascent God Realm. After that, they would break through to the Semi-God Realm to become immortals or died trying. So, information about the lower Realms wasn''t circulated through the masses. And now, the fact that Cultivator was actually privy to it was shocking to him. Moreover, Krune was aware of the fact that Cultivator didn''t say it with any hidden intent. He just said what was on his mind. "You know about the Four Realms?" Krune genuinely expressed his shock, thinking that it was better to be truthful about it and learn some information. After all, he was largely ignorant about too many things. Besides, Krune instinctively guessed that Cultivator didn''t mean any actual harm towards him. This instinct of his stemmed from his Balance Laws, so Krune didn''t doubt it. "To think I was right. You''re indeed knowledgeable about many things. You only suck at general knowledge." Cultivator laughed as he said, "There are three lower realms below our God Realm. Well, there''s nothing impressive about them. Even the newborn here is considered a god there. In any case, these Sub-Realms would contain significant danger, but the rewards accompanying them would be accordingly priceless." "Understandable." Krune nodded, thinking it would be a good experience to temper himself. He then thought about the Silver-Winged Mouse couple and Xula, wondering how they were doing. After all, they were also heading towards the same place. They then arrived at the place where a city was supposed to be. Krune looked around at the desolate place, gazing at the ground that seemed to have been gouged out by a massive being. Moreover, the surrounding areas had also been completely drilled or deprived of their resources. Even the Godly Energy in the place was dry and faint. It was barely anything to speak of. By spreading his Divine Sense, Krune calculated the remaining Godly Energy left in the place, totaling it as he arrived at a shocking number. "The remaining Godly Energy here only adds up to 10 Rank One God Stones. It''s¡­pitiful." "Every vein, ore, grass, and rock with use has been excavated and transported to the capital. I think a similar situation is happening in the other two continents as well since all three are gearing up for a massive long-lasting war." Cultivator landed on the ground as he scooped some mud, sighing at the lack of vitality in it as he dropped it not long after. "Let''s continue moving." Following his words, the two of them boarded the ring spirit and flew away. Chapter 889: Sadness Accompanies Disasters They flew over the excavated city as Krune decided to ponder over everything. He didn''t like scenes of desolation, even if planned evacuation was its cause. Even then, the act of uprooting all the essence of nature in an entire region didn''t feel right to him. The earth veins, Godly Energy veins, mineral veins, everything was interconnected and nurtured one another to create the environment of the region. But now, the city that existed in the place had vanished after taking away everything of value from the place. Such an act ticked him off since Krune didn''t like the act of plundering. Of course, he knew that it was done by the people for survival, but they went overboard by crippling the environment they had depended on for thousands of years for survival. "At least, they didn''t sacrifice the people," Cultivator said after a bit of thought as his ring spirit flew past the entire region. The density of Godly Energy in the air soon recovered to normal as they traveled farther away from the area. After that, they spent three days flying nonstop, treading through three danger zones. Eventually, they arrived at the demon beast territory, the Fruitless Swamp. In contrast to their expectations, the demon beast territory had entirely vanished. The only thing that remained behind was a tiny sludge at one corner of the region that had been entirely excavated. Upon seeing the scene, Krune sighed as he muttered, "Here as well, huh. At the very least, the demon beasts here hadn''t been slaughtered." "Probably." Cultivator nodded as they flew past the region, feeling that the atmosphere in the area was somewhat gloomy. Demon beast territories ought to have been like what they were advertised, places where demon beasts roamed in their true forms and the law of the jungle was followed. But right now, when forced to choose between death and their lifestyles, the demon beasts chose the latter and escaped with their region, leaving behind a barren wasteland. Krune used his Divine Sense on the area, noticing how the laws were in total disarray. Although it was in disarray, it wasn''t permanent. Krune noticed how the laws in the adjacent areas converged into the barren wastelands in an effort to heal the damaged region. They reformed the balance of laws in the area and began to pump in Godly Energy from other places. Slowly but surely, they were mending the damage. Though, Krune was unable to guess just how millennia it would take for the place to recover to its previous state. Moreover, he was unsure if it would even recover to its previous state. After all, the laws in the area had changed a lot. "The next place is something I''m quite anticipating to check out," Cultivator said as his heart lightly thumped, feeling trepidation based on the desolate scenes the two had been flying across. "What''s the specialty of that place?" Krune expressed his curiosity, feeling that it would be better to talk and take his mind off the gloomy scenes. "It''s a massive lake. Surprisingly, the lake water is always still there. On top of that, neither wind nor any demon beasts are within the water," he smiled as he replied, recalling the description he had read about. "The demon beasts there don''t live in the water?" Krune was surprised to hear that. He soon asked, "If they aren''t water-based creatures, then why are they living near that lake in the first place?" "It''s because of a mysterious phenomenon that happens in the lake." Cultivator smiled as he started to explain the peculiarity of the area. "Every day, for a certain duration that is always random, bubbles appear from the lake water and transform into all shapes of demon beasts. Surprisingly, those faux demon beasts are rich in Godly Energy. If a demon beast swallows a bubble that looks similar to it, its cultivation base would experience a slight increase." "On top of that, this increase is equivalent to a week''s worth of painstaking cultivation." Cultivator sighed as he expressed his admiration. "So, a lot of demon beasts live in this area to cultivate faster. Plus, since the bubbles fly away pretty fast and only exist for less than a minute before bursting, it''s always a festival in the area. Demon beasts always compete against each other for the bubbles." "That sounds like a fun place," Krune nodded as he responded. "Indeed," Cultivator laughed as he continued. "Moreover, the stillness of the lake is mysterious since the surface acts like gelatin, allowing us to walk over it. It''s kind of like a spring and inhibits a demon beast''s violence, so it adds more fun to the place." "Man, I kind of want to participate in that, haha." Krune laughed as he was gradually looking forward to it. "Also, this place isn''t something that could be excavated. If it was possible, they wouldn''t have left such a treasure as is for all these years," Cultivator said as his expression soon changed. The ring spirit traveled for another day before arriving above the demon beast territory, Windless Lake. And, as they had expected, the Windless Lake was a mysterious location that couldn''t be excavated. In other words, it was still present in the area. Though surprisingly, it was heavily damaged. Cultivator frowned as the air around him trembled. Krune immediately heard numerous voices of concern emit from the pouch as Cultivator took in a deep breath. This was the first time Krune had seen Cultivator beget genuinely angry at something. Of course, he could relate with him as he was also getting angry upon looking at the landscape. More than three immortals had unleashed their Land Incarnations and messed up the laws in the area, causing irreparable damage to the Windless Lake. Right now, it was just a swampy mush that emitted pungent bubbles that burst within a couple of seconds. Not only that but the concentration of Godly Energy in it was pitiful, far inferior even when compared to the other places. Moreover, faint poison circulated within the bubbles, turning them dangerous to be swallowed by cultivators. Cultivator jumped from the ring spirit and landed on the ground with a thud. He arrived before the swampy mush as he dipped his hand into it, seeing the poison in it creep up his arm. He emitted a faint green light before dispelling the poison, noticing the fairly concentrated Godly Energy that remained behind. After a sigh of relief, he commented, "Phew. They actually didn''t cripple this place. They only ensured to keep this place damaged for a set duration." He then sensed the area using his Divine Sense as he went around, inspecting the region for a couple of hours before relaying his conjecture, "Based on my guess, this place would start recovering after a century and would return to its pristine condition within two to three centuries. In other words, it''s not permanently damaged." "Good play, Zamuria." Cultivator laughed as he said, "You just saved yourself from getting destroyed by me." Unwilling to damage the place any further, Cultivator controlled himself as he took in deep breaths. After some time passed, he jumped and landed on the ring spirit, making it fly once again. "Sorry about that," Cultivator said after some time had passed, expressing his apology. "I appraised the place, only to make you see this." "It''s fine. I thought something like this might happen," Krune sighed with a hint of melancholy as he replied. "This is a valuable resource point, after all. Enemy troops would be able to rest and recover their Godly Energy using this place. So, it''s no wonder the Zamuria Empire did this." "I can understand their situation," Cultivator said as he patted his pouch, causing the voices from within to die down. "Though, that doesn''t mean I can relate to their actions." "Let''s¡­just focus on reaching Huken City, then," Krune said as he looked over, noticing even the terrain below had been considerably damaged. Anything of value was already taken. In the end, there was nothing they could do at the moment. At the very least, the area would recover by itself after. The leftovers were things whose value wasn''t worth spending their time upon. Thus, the army hadn''t bothered to disturb them. Then again, everything was relative. So, even the rock with the least value was still valuable to weak soldiers in the army, so they looted it in turn. As it wasn''t of much value, the higher-ups let it slide, allowing the soldiers to pocket them. This way, the soldiers were happy, and the higher-ups let it slide since it increased their army morale. The end result of that was what lay before Krune. After a couple of days, they came across a mountain, and situated atop it was a small city. Surprisingly, it was still there as the terrain was steep and treacherous. There only existed one way to enter and leave the city. As the ring spirit flew over, they noticed people in the city were in a rush. Most of the shops were being closed as the shopkeepers stuffed all their goods in their respective storage rings. When they were a certain height away, Cultivator retracted the ring spirit, causing the two of them to fall towards the ground. Thanks to their constitutions, they landed safely. Unsurprisingly, the loud thud caused by their fall startled the merchants, who looked their way immediately. Banking on their imposing entry, Cultivator looked at a nearby merchant and asked, "Why are you guys leaving all of a sudden?" "Sir¡­are you¡­" Krune understood the issue at hand and eased the merchant''s worries, "We''re part of this continent." "Thank heavens." The merchant heaved a sigh of relief as he pointed at a massive crater in the center of their city, soon explaining, "Recently, too many cultivators have been coming to the Four Sector''s Border Region because of the Sub-Realm. We judged it was still a good time to maintain our business. After all, we still had some more time to flee before the massive war erupts." "But..." His tone turned sad as he continued, "Some foreign cultivators appeared here, killed our entire band of guards, and even looted all our precious goods. When they left, another batch came and stole many other goods." "And finally..." He shivered in fear as he stammered, "The third group looted us of all our God Stones. If we stay any longer, even going into debt wouldn''t allow us to make a living anymore." After saying his piece, the merchant began to bawl like a baby. Hearing his cries, the other merchants also shed tears of injustice. But no matter what, they set their feelings aside and packed their belongings, forced to vacate the city they had built from scratch. Chapter 890: Princess Zamuria Huken City was the closest settlement to the Four Sectors'' Border Region. It had been established and built from scratch by a group of merchants that thought that profit could be made from the place. The Four Sector''s Border Region was the most chaotic place in Zamuria Continent. It was incredibly vast and had unusual terrain. Moreover, thanks to the Restriction Law in the region, flying was impossible beyond a certain height. On top of that, thanks to the Predominated Vine, traveling wasn''t easy through the region. Then again, due to the massive area it covered, the Four Sectors'' Border Region basically became a main region of travel if one wished to go from one sector to another in the Zamuria Continent. Thanks to this, bandits were rampant in the area. Well, they wouldn''t be rampant if it weren''t goods from the entire Continent circulating in the region. Unsurprisingly, the merchants thought there was something to gain here. That was why they formed a group and jointly created Huken City. But now, powerful experts beyond their capabilities trashed their city and stole all their goods and resources. Most of the merchants had no way to recover from this setback, which was akin to crippling them permanently. Even the big merchant groups that were the backbone of Huken City were in shambles, barely able to sustain themselves. They still possessed a few resources they had stashed away. But other than that, their finances were already in the red. If they didn''t do anything to save that, then their merchant organizations would eventually crumble. Krune noticed how all the merchants were gearing up for battle as they packed their belongings. He went to a nearby merchant and asked him, "What are you guys planning to do?" "What else can we do but risk our lives?" the merchant snapped back, crying immediately as he spoke. "We no longer have enough resources to sustain ourselves. The only method left for us to recover is the Sub-Realm. We can only hope to obtain something there that would help us." "That''s an incredibly risky choice you''re doing." Krune frowned as he looked at the merchant, noticing how he was only in the Fourth Stage God Foundation Realm. He then said with good intentions, "With your strength, death is guaranteed." "All our guards have been killed." Another merchant appeared as he spoke, "On top of that, we no longer have anything to sustain ourselves with. No items, no equipment, no pills, nothing. We can''t even protect ourselves anymore." His face seemed to have aged a decade as the merchant spoke, trying his best to control the waterworks. "In these turbulent times, we would be abused by the strong. Our lives would turn miserable. So, instead of that, why not die trying to make our lives better?" Krune looked around and suggested, "Instead of risking your lives, can''t you set up an energy-gathering formation in a secluded location and cultivate there peacefully? As long as your strengths increase, you can make a comeback." "Our energy-gathering formation was destroyed by those bastards," a tall demon beast in human form said as he appeared, each of his steps causing a mild tremor. "Boss!" All the merchants shouted with a tone of respect. It seemed that he was their emotional pillar. The boss arrived before Krune, possessing an imposing momentum. He stared at Krune for a moment, realizing that he was unable to see through the other party''s strength. His tone became respectful as he continued, "Just a simple energy-gathering formation cannot solve our issue. We wouldn''t have become merchants if we were gifted in the path of cultivation." Krune noticed how this boss was at the Second Stage of the Nascent God Realm. Though, it seemed that he was the only person in this cultivation realm. The rest were either in the God Core or the God Foundation Realm. They weren''t strong, weaker than what their cultivation bases stated. Krune was confident he could take on everyone in the area and still emerge victoriously. After all, the people before him only cultivated to maintain a healthy physique. Plus, they did so by consuming expensive tonic, pills, and other cultivation resources. After all, they weren''t gifted in the field of cultivation. That''s why a simple energy-gathering formation that would have helped most cultivators was almost useless to them. Shaking his head, Krune walked away. He didn''t have much of a solution to their problems and left them to their devices. Seeing him walk away all of a sudden, the boss sighed, feeling mildly disappointed. He then resolved himself as he rallied up all the merchants to depart to the Four Sectors'' Border Region, intending to head into the Sub-Realm. After all, they were situated quite close to it. It would be a waste not to use that to their advantage. "Unless you wish to waste your time and forge equipment here nonstop, you can''t help their situation. And besides, they probably don''t even have enough materials to forge good equipment," Cultivator said with an apathetic expression. "Best to leave them to their fate. They haven''t asked us for help anyway." Cultivator didn''t seem bothered about their struggles. He didn''t seem to care. In retrospect, he seemed to be more worried about the damage to the city. He soon went around the city, inspecting the changes in the surroundings, expressing his relief when he noticed the foundation of the city remained. ''So, he''s that type of character,'' Krune thought to himself as he nodded in understanding. Cultivator was an odd individual. Also, it seemed like his mind was wired differently from a regular person. It functioned differently at times, placing greater importance on something worth less than something worthwhile. The bullshit story Krune made up on the spot worked on garnering his intention. So, that showed Cultivator''s tendencies. Moreover, he had also pestered Krune for the remainder of the story. Though, only after Krune made up something to satisfy his curiosity did he relent. After the city was fully vacated, Krune and Cultivator roamed in it for a couple of hours before they set forth on the ring spirit that flew past the treacherous terrain. They were less than a hundred kilometers away before they would reach the Four Sector''s Border Region. So, after two hours, they arrived at their destination, landing on the ground as Cultivator retracted his ring spirit. He looked at the scenery before him, asking Krune, "Remarkable, right?" "Indeed," Krune replied with his mouth agape, looking at the scene of vines that stood ramrod straight in the air like blades of grass. They stretched over his entire field of vision. The only difference was the fact that they were hundreds of meters long. Not only that, but he felt like they could also extend in length if necessary. The ground was filled with canyons they had to traverse into. It was a maze, spanning a massive area, the likes of which even traversing by flight would take at least a week, if not more. "I don''t know if you know about them or not, but let me warn you just in case," Cultivator warned after pointing towards the vines that reached the sky. "If you touch them, whether physically or through Divine Sense, they would attack you and devour you. So, don''t use your Divine Sense when you are in this place. Even if you have to, keep it as close to yourself. Also, no matter what, make sure your attacks don''t even graze them." He shuddered for a moment at the thought as he continued, "If you do that, hundreds of vines would latch onto you and consume you whole. Even your Spiritual Incarnation wouldn''t save you since these vines would slowly digest it over centuries. The moment you''re killed, it''s best if you forget about reviving here." Predominated Vine! This was the reason that made the Four Sectors'' Border Region dangerous and made it the place with the highest death rate in the entire Zamuria Continent. Moreover, they rapidly multiplied and increased the concentration of the Restriction Law in the region using the Predominated Fruits they grew. Moreover, it was because of this that the Four Sectors'' Border Region was slowly but surely expanding in size. Krune recalled some information he had obtained from Trivar before their journey had begun. It stated how the Four Sectors'' Border Region barely spanned 100 square kilometers, 20,000 years ago. But thanks to the growth propelled by the Predominated Vines, the region continuously grew until it became the massive stretch of land today. "Understood." Krune nodded as he neared a Predominated Vine, holding a couple of shields as he planned to back away the moment something happened. Slowly, he extended his Mental Energy Scan, making it touch a vine, sighing in relief after a couple of seconds when nothing happened. He then looked at Cultivator with a smile as he asked, "Shall we get going, then?" "Alright." Cultivator didn''t comment on his actions, smiling as he accompanied Krune. The two of them stepped foot into the canyon and began their journey. The path was narrow, so they couldn''t ride a demon beast. To avoid running into strong enemies and risk turning the Predominated Vines into enemies, they proceeded through the narrow paths. Even though it might take them a lot of time this way, they still had a month before the Sub-Realm opened. So, they were confident in making it there. They had officially entered¡­ The Four Sectors'' Border Region! ¡­ Zamuria Imperial Palace. Seated on the throne was the current generation Emperor of the Zamuria Empire. He was one of the powerhouses of the Continent, an immortal that had been in power for a millennium. Kneeling on the ground before him were eight people, six of which formed the back row while two people, a man and a woman, formed the front row. Of them, the woman looked slightly older for her age but still retained her youthful beauty. The man, on the other hand, had a hardened expression on his stoic face. His lean physique and slender body frame made him seem like someone who hadn''t practiced martial arts since young. Though, the sheer imposing presence emanating from him dictated otherwise. Even the Godly Energy in the air around him seemed to be submitting to his presence, moving up and down according to his breaths. The Emperor looked at the woman kneeling at the front and uttered, "What you did 30 years ago was a disgraceful act. But as I am magnanimous, there''s a chance to redeem yourself and reclaim your honor. I believe you won''t miss this chance." "The spawn you have abandoned has arrived at our doorsteps. And now, you have an opportunity to get rid of it¡­." "Princess Zamuria." Chapter 891: The Seamstress The Four Sectors'' Border Region. Inside a relatively wider path in the maze-like canyon was a certain individual. She had the appearance of a woman in her sixties, sporting grey, braided hair. Her face was slightly wrinkled, though she still retained her glamour. Moreover, her face seemed accentuated by a regal beauty that only the wisdom and maturity of age could give. Each of her actions were lithe and graceful. Moreover, she exuded a sense of peace, making the entire atmosphere around her similar to her aura. Two men, seemingly in their twenties, were kneeling on all fours side by side, acting as the chair she was seated on. On top of that, they didn''t seem troubled by this. Instead, they were in bliss to serve her. Their faces were slightly flushed as waves of giddy feelings emanated from their heart upon every subtle action of the old lady. The old lady was wearing a robe that covered her entire body from head to toe, save for a portion that didn''t cover her eyes. The dress was of mild blue hue and was made using a color tone that caused one to feel tranquility the moment one looked at her. Whether it was her eyes, her graceful figure, or her manners, all captivated one to leave everything behind and embrace the peaceful atmosphere. The situation was the same for the 200 people seated before her in a meditating pose. Though, judging by their getup and their messy appearances, they didn''t seem to be people that followed her. Rather, they were one of the bandit groups that roamed through the region in a hunt for rich prey. At this moment, they all were obediently meditating, as if it was how they naturally moved. Their usual vulgar expressions were non-existent, as if they had been upright individuals from birth. "Violence begets sadness. Non-violence is the path to happiness." Her melodious voice resounded, echoing in the place as every listener nodded automatically, looking as if her words enlightened them. "All your attacking abilities are now unnecessary." Saying so, she opened her mouth, causing a mild swirl of Godly Energy in the area. The Godly Energy flowed into the bandits and exited their bodies soon after, carrying lights of all colors with them. "Heok!" "Ugh!" "Gah!" The bandits grunted in a variety of ways as something within them seemed to have been stolen permanently. One of the bandits seated at the front inspected himself, murmuring after a second in a tone of calm, "I lost all my offensive abilities, even the ones I spent my lifetime training." All the colorful lights converged into a sphere in front of the old lady before beginning to spin rapidly. Slowly, they mixed, mashed, fused, dispersed, disintegrated, and integrated themselves into a whole. The old lady soon smiled as she lifted her hand, infusing blue-colored Godly Energy into the sphere, causing it to condense and continue to shrink continuously. A couple of hours later, the sphere then turned into a pair of ribbons. The old lady blew into them while unleashing her Godly Energy, causing the pair of ribbons to multiply into two hundred and scatter towards the bandits. Like a flock of birds, the ribbons approached the bandits. Soon, the bandit at the front watched as a pair of blue ribbons floated before his face, gently being absorbed into his body, causing him to convulse for a couple of seconds. "Ugh!" He grunted in pain before a feeling of warmth coursed throughout his body. This feeling of warmth circulated, subtly changing his appearance. The rough features that made him seem like a true bandit mellowed out, imbuing in him an innately kinder appearance. His appearance was still the same as before, albeit with subtle changes. All they did was give him an overall first impression of someone gentle. His muscular structure had also experienced some changes, becoming smoothened out a little. From his bulky stature, he became mildly thinner as his muscles became more streamlined, increasing the versatility of his strength. His skin tone had also improved, becoming slightly smoother, looking like someone that hadn''t experienced the harshness of the environment too much. Any toxic substances in his body seeped out through his pores as some of his Godly Energy was consumed, washing over his entire body as it removed everything dirty about him before vaporizing, not leaving behind any traces. Every ability he possessed¡ªexcluding the attack-based abilities that had already been taken out by the old lady¡ªwas absorbed by the pair of ribbons, experiencing a subtle change. "I feel¡­stronger?" The bandit was confused as he looked at the old lady in shock. Stemming from him was zealous admiration at the selfless being before him. He then focused on the pair of ribbons inside him, comprehending their uses as he summoned them. They were the same blue ribbons as before, but faint designs seemed to have been carved onto them. When he looked at them, he could sense his abilities had been inscribed. Also, despite the changes, he sensed that he could still use those abilities, albeit they had to be executed in a manner different from what he was used to. The pair of ribbons had become his main method of use for some reason. "Even if one wished to remain in peace, the world is still a scary place. Warmongers would come knocking on your doorsteps even if you have zero intentions to fight. With that, you must still have a means of protecting yourselves," the old lady spoke, watching all the bandits slowly get up as they thumped their chests. They retained all their experiences as bandits. But now, they seemed like honorable warriors nurtured by a respectable family, judging by their demeanor. "To a typical battle maniac, the best way to fend them off is to annoy them as much as possible until they''re repulsed by the very notion of fighting. That is our way of protecting ourselves and maintaining peace." As if it was a response to her words, the ex-bandits slammed their chests once again. The bandit at the front exuded unwavering resolve as if he had been trained for this very day. One of his pairs of ribbons shone as it coiled around his body, wrapping every nook and cranny as their sides and ends merged, turning into a cohesive armor that covered him from head to toe. The part of his armor above his eyes shone with a blue light as his presence changed. The other ribbon formed a knot on his head. And with just a single thought, it moved forward, taking on many shapes: shields, ropes, cages, etc. All the other bandits had also executed the same thing in their armored forms. "Change." Upon her command, all the ex-bandits connected one of their ribbons to each other, creating a massive formation, one that manifested a massive shield capable of defending against the strongest of attacks in their respective realm and even a realm beyond without suffering from a single scratch. "Great." She nodded and proclaimed, "From today onwards, you will be reborn as the Ribbon Sect. When you die, your children will inherit your pair of ribbons, carrying your legacy of bringing peace to the world." "Yes!" All of the armored ex-bandits shouted. Their shout thundered across a vast area, causing the listeners that had been traveling towards the Sub-Realm to become scared. "Let''s move towards the Sub-Realm, then." The old lady smiled, "Also, address me as the Seamstress." "Yes, Lady Seamstress!" All of them shouted in return. The row of cultivators were clad in blue armor that glistened with blue light, possessing an imposing appearance. One of them walked forward and kneeled on the ground, causing the old lady to look in surprise. He thumped his hand on his chest, speaking, "I have never revealed my demon beast form to others because I had been afraid they would abuse me. But, I finally have the guts to do so now that I am wearing this ribbon armor." "Go ahead." She nodded, anticipating the next because this was something she hadn''t come across before. "Yes." The man nodded as his body bulged, causing his armor to collapse into a blue ribbon that coiled around his hip region. His arms turned into sharp blades, capable of piercing through anything, while his legs turned into tough stumps, dense enough to stomp on anything. They then segmented into three, turning into flexible legs with spring-shaped musculature capable of making massive leaps. The arms turned into aerodynamic blades that maximized their ability to cut through the air. Its face turned into a cute creature that normal people couldn''t resist. Such was the charm of its face. Upon seeing his demon beast form, exclaims of surprise and shock resounded from everyone. Even the old lady was surprised, for the demon beast race before her was infamous for scamming people. And, the worse part of it was the fact that even if they knew about them, people would still get scammed by them from time to time. Also, thanks to their tremendous jumping ability capable of leaping kilometers with each leap, traversing them in a second, they couldn''t ever be captured. And because of their repeated scams, their race garnered a lot of infamies. Rooked Famer! This was what their race called themselves. Even in human forms, they were still able to scam people to a considerable extent. Moreover, they were capable of subtly morphing their facial features while in human form. This was how they changed locations from time to time in search of new prey to scam. So, the moment someone knew there was a Rooked Famer among themselves, they would immediately try to harm or even kill them. Though, they would always fail as Rooked Famers were the fastest demon beast race on land and would always escape from any situation easily by leaping from the scene. The fact that a Rooked Famer voluntarily revealed his true identity did surprise everyone. Surprisingly, no one tried to attack him. "Why did you reveal yourself like this?" The old lady gently smiled as she inquired. Making a light bow with its head, the Rooked Famer replied, "I wish to serve as your mount. That way, no matter how dangerous the situation becomes, I can bring you out of it." "Yes, Lady Seamstress. He''s the perfect choice as your mount. With him, you don''t have to worry about your safety." The others too chimed in. "Fine." The Seamstress smiled as she watched the Rooked Famer manipulate its ribbon and cover itself, fully armoring itself, turning into a blue creature. With that, it now looked like an entirely different demon beast. Moreover, the part of the ribbon forming the armor on its back changed, turning into a comfortable seat for the Seamstress to be seated. The Seamstress climbed aboard and felt that it was perfect for her, nodding in acknowledgment, causing the Rooked Famer to roar in joy. Followed by her cue, they all started to march through the path. Chapter 892: Diapers are Cool Ten kilometers away from where the Ribbon Sect incident happened was a group of people led by a man wearing armored spikes. He was a bulky giant, even in his human form, spanning a height of four meters. He had an imposing presence. The air he breathed out contained a feeling of dominance, something only one who had been in power for a considerable time would possess. He had a small team with him, only numbering four. Though, that was more than enough battle strength for them. After all, all five of them possessed Spiritual Incarnations. They were a group of staggeringly imposing powerhouses. The man wearing the armored spikes heard the collective shout of the Ribbon Sect, snorting in disdain as he said, "Those guys are at it again. Strength in numbers is useless against us." "It should be the Seamstress. We shouldn''t underestimate her," the man standing right behind him said. "If we do, we''ll have our asses handed to us by her, just like last time." "Did you just retort me?" The man wearing the armored spikes turned around as veins popped on his forehead as he asked, "You dare?" Before the other man could say anything, the man wearing the armored spikes punched the other man in the gut, causing it to bleed. The blood flowed out nonstop and formed a pool on the ground, turning him into a withered husk. Unable to endure having all his essence sucked away, the man''s body crumbled into dust. "That''s what you get for trying to retort me." He snorted in disdain, looking as if the dust on the ground was beneath all the other dust in the region. He then swerved his gaze at the other three standing beside him as he told them, "It''s a warning for you three as well. Don''t get on my nerves." Unfortunately for him, the three people didn''t seem to care as they simultaneously turned their heads to gaze at the dirt on the ground. As the man wearing the armored spikes followed their line of sight, he ended up gazing at the dust on the ground, only to realize his vision had turned black the next second. A fist had exited the dust and slammed right in the dead center of his face, sending him flying straight towards a Predominated Vine. Though, before he collided with the vines, one of the three that had been standing beside him appeared behind him and grabbed hold of him, returning him to their prior spot. She then dumped him on the ground before returning to her spot. The man wearing the armored spikes then had his face planted in the ground, right on the dust. "It stinks!" he cursed out as he lifted his head, slapping his nose with his hands in a flurry as his face turned pale. His expression morphed into one of despair as he saw the dust on the ground condense into a pair of butt cheeks before being covered by a piece of cloth. Soon, the figure of the man who retorted him climbed out from it and recondensed his dust figure into his human self before saying, "Your edgelord play sucks. The next time you do it to me, you''ll experience something even worse." "Fuck you! I''ll do it no matter what." the man wearing the armored spikes cursed in return as he exhaled air from his nose as much as he could in an effort to expel the stench from his nostrils. He wailed around for a minute before recovering from the setback, teary-eyed as he glared at the man standing before him, saying, "I''m a Prince. You should treat me with the respect my dignity deserves." "You lost all your dignity the day you walked around wearing diapers," the man snapped back. "Just be happy that I''m still accompanying you with your cringe-worthy performances." "Fuck you! Diapers are cool!" the man wearing the armored spikes cursed once again as he looked at the other three that had been silent from the start and asked, "Right?" They just swerved their heads in other directions, treating as if the question wasn''t directed at them. "¡­fine, let''s get going then." The man wearing the armored spikes gave up in the end, turning around as he began to walk through the path. The man behind him pointed at the group of bandits that had been bound beside them all along and asked, "What do you want to do with them?" "Hmm?" The man wearing the armored spikes turned around to see more than one hundred bandits tied up and constricted on the ground. A formless energy of sorts seemed to be suppressing them from moving, so all they could do was remain like statues. Eventually, he gave his verdict with a wave of his hands, "We''ve already looted them dry. They serve no purpose to me. You can do whatever you want with them, or you can throw them at the Predominated Vines and see what happens. At the very least, that would be a good show to watch." "I''ll do that, then." The lady that saved him before then took action, causing a change in the suppression as she changed the structure of her Godly Energy to resemble each and every bandit while lifting them. Followed by a light grunt, she threw them in batches towards the Predominated Vines that were growing atop the canyon walls. Followed by a small arc, a bandit soon collided into a Predominated Vine. The Godly Energy covering him was similar to the godly energy circulating in his body, so the Predominated Vine misunderstood it to be his, immediately latching onto him. The vine acted like a feeler of a gelatinous organism as it touched the bandit, causing his body to become stuck to it. It then coiled around his body until fully wrapping him within itself. Its edges then joined together to form a cocoon. There was a fear-inducing scream for a couple of seconds before the size of the cocoon reduced as the bulge disappeared. The Predominated Vine returned to its previous appearance soon after as if the bandit it had eaten wasn''t even considered a snack. "It''s dangerous to instigate them like this." The man behind the one wearing armored spikes sighed as the lady finished throwing the bandits in any random direction she wished. The ground trembled as if an earthquake had occurred. The cause was the stirring up of the vines that had taken action to eat the bandits. It was a horrifying scene, even the lady that had caused it gulped in tension since the strength posed by the vines was beyond her expectations. "It''s stronger than the reports." The man wearing the armored spike frowned as he took a step back involuntarily. He watched as the vines danced in the air, wriggling around like leeches that had smelled blood. Thanks to their movements, the vines in the surroundings also moved, resulting in the earthquake becoming stronger. After a couple of minutes had passed, they stopped, finally allowing the ground to relax. "Don''t do something that stupid again," the man cursed as he slammed the head of the man wearing the armored spikes. "If you wish to seek death, do so on your own. Don''t act like a na?ve hero." "¡­I''m a villain, though." The man wearing the armored spikes massaged his head, trying to ease the pain. It looked like they were screwing around, but in actuality, they just murdered one hundred people without batting an eye. They were just villains with character. ¡­ "Has father taken action already?" a girl in her teens asked, expressing her curiosity as she looked around from her carriage, a disappointed look on her face as all she could see was the canyon walls. "There''s nothing he can do here. Or more like, there''s nothing for him to do here. He''s probably just keeping watch over the surroundings," the voice of an annoyed boy replied to her question. "How else do you think he can find a Predominated Fruit for you?" "I see." The girl bowed her head before saying, "Sorry, brother. It''s just...I feel bored." "There''s nothing else we can do about it. Just focus on comprehending your laws further so that you won''t end up with a weak Spiritual Incarnation." The boy said before closing his eyes, cultivating once more. Both of them were at the Ninth Stage God Foundation Realm, despite being in their teens. They were at the final stage where they could condense a Spiritual Incarnation. But, since they were too young, they didn''t have the experience necessary to do so. Also, considering their talents, they would automatically reach the God Core Realm before long, not giving them enough time to condense their Spiritual Incarnations naturally. And so, they were in search of a Predominated Fruit. After all, having a Spiritual Incarnation is what differentiates a strong immortal from a run-of-the-mill one. It would allow them to condense their Spiritual Incarnations easily and solve their issue, allowing them to explore the Sub-Realm with relative ease. "Dad said that if he fails to find a Predominated Fruit, we can''t enter the Sub-Realm," the boy said, startling the girl. "So, let''s hope he finds them." ¡­ "Run!" Cultivator shouted as he picked up the pace, watching Krune barely keep up pace with him. "What the hell are these demon beasts? It''s the first time I''ve seen them," Krune shouted in a fluster as he ran. "I never heard the Four Sectors'' Border Region having such a demon beast race native to them." "Do you know what they are?" Cultivator took out a certain ring from his pouch and shouted at it. "Don''t shout." A stern voice resounded as a tiny humanoid-shaped ring spirit flew out. It had a pair of wings on the back of its short, chubby form. It yawned and landed on Cultivator''s shoulder, not caring about his tensed state as it seemed relaxed. It then looked at the chasing demon beasts and said, "They have always been native to this region. It''s just that they only existed in one small area. Usually, no one ventured into that area, so hardly anyone ever encountered them. Hence, information about them hasn''t spread. But, it seems something has happened for them to start moving." The ring spirit thought as she spoke her thoughts, "It seems the appearance of the Sub-Realm has caused their population to explode to the extent their home could no longer sustain their numbers. With that, they spilled out." "So, what are they?" Cultivator shouted as he asked, turning around as his complexion turned pale. It wasn''t because of the chasing demon beasts, but because of the vines that were getting stirred up thanks to their actions. Chapter 893: Mashed Serpents and Predominated Fruits "They''re called Mashed Serpents," the ring spirit explained as she played with Cultivator''s earlobe. After seeing how soft his earlobe was, it drooled a bit and bit on it, munching on it as it seemed distracted. Cultivator removed his earlobe from her hold as he asked with a sense of urgency, "What''s with the stupid name? Tell me more about them as quickly as you can. Also, why are they chasing after us? Why have the vines been stirred up?" "I made up that name." The ring spirit pouted, disinclined to talk anymore as it sulked. It then used his earlobe as a crutch to shed tears. "Fine, fine." Cultivator relented as he spoke, "That''s actually a pretty good name. Now that I take another look at them, your name makes a lot of sense." "Right?" The ring spirit squealed as she talked nonstop, "The Mashed Serpents live off eating the sediments produced by the Predominated Vines. Also, they''re the only demon beast race the vines don''t attack. Normally, a Predominated Vine only attacks the living beings that make contact with it. Surprisingly, the Mashed Serpents act as beacons for them to actively target prey." "With that..." She nibbled on his earlobe once again, spreading her saliva all over as she continued, "Thanks to the Mashed Serpents, the Predominated Vines are now able to sense your existence. Therefore, they are moving to eat you. If you don''t want to become vine food, then keep running." "Well, that''s easier said than done." Cultivator frowned as he looked at Krune and asked, "Young man, do you have any solutions?" "Let me try." Krune summoned a Pseudo-Wisp after making it resemble Whack, even making sure its Godly Energy felt like Whack''s. This way, even if it was attacked, the vines wouldn''t target Krune. Mind Splitting Technique! Krune soon activated it as he split a part of his focus to control the Pseudo-Wisp resembling Whack. After that, Whack immediately sprinted towards the Mashed Serpents, a demon beast race resembling soggy noodles. They weren''t even designed to slither on the ground smoothly. Their wriggly actions and their non-uniformity would make all other serpent demon beast races shy away in embarrassment. Such was the way they moved. Whack soon pounced upon them as he unleashed a sea of flames, beginning to burn through all the Mashed Serpents. For some reason, all the Mashed Serpents were in the Ninth Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. With that, they were unable to resist the sea of flames unleashed by Whack, whose energy quantity and quality resembled the Fifth Stage of the God Foundation Realm. This caused the sea of fire emitted by Whack to turn into an area of danger for the Mashed Serpents. A significant portion of them instantly melted when a Predominated Vine hit Whack, popping his body like a balloon. "Damn." Krune winced as he saw Whack crushed into oblivion with a single hit. "Just how strong is one vine?" "At least the Nascent God Realm," the ring spirit said as she looked around, pointing in a certain direction. "Head this way. We should be able to escape their pursuit." "That would take us straight into a sea of vines," Krune shouted in response, looking at the direction that was pointed as he could only see the Predominated Vines stretch as far as his Divine Sense could see. Moreover, they fully covered the place, preventing anyone from even entering. There wasn''t even any gap wide enough to fit them through. "Don''t worry about that," Cultivator said as he wore another ring, summoning its ring spirit. It was a lady this time, the same person that fought with Krune the first time he met Cultivator. The lady spirit leaped, displaying superior agility as she ran at least ten times their running pace, soon approaching a spot between two Predominated Vines. She then waited, slowly taking a position as she watched Krune and Cultivator get closer to her. "Haah!" Followed by a loud yell, she placed her hands within the gap, facing the palms towards each Predominated Vine respectively. She then exerted strength in her hands as she pushed them away, bending their stalk to create a wide enough gap. In the very next second, before the two Predominated Vines could react, her figure disappeared as Cultivator jumped through the gap, followed by Krune. Seeing how the energy signature that touched them had vanished, the two Predominated Vines stopped moving. Rolling on the ground a couple of times to negate his momentum, Krune got up as he soon noticed they were inside a crater. What appeared to be the roots of the Predominated Vines filled the crater. With that, he found out the vines didn''t have any senses on their roots as they didn''t react when the two of them stepped on them. The gap they had entered through closed immediately as the two Predominated Vines adjusted themselves, returning to their original positions. The ring spirit spoke, "We can rest here for the time being. Without any gaps, the Mashed Serpents cannot enter. So, we''re safe here. Besides¡­" She pointed at a Predominated Vine that was present in the center and shouted, "Jackpot!" Only now did Krune and Cultivator look at the center of the crater, trailing along with the figure of the lone Predominated Vine that stood at the center. They then looked at its top, exclaiming in shock. "Are those¡­?" Krune stared in disbelief. "What the hell? Can one vine even form that many?" Even Cultivator expressed a rare feeling of shock. Their reactions were justified since the thing hanging at the top of the Predominated Vine was a Predominated Fruit. Not one, not two, but a total of six. It was truly a surprising amount. It must be noted how a single Predominated Fruit was enough to condense a cultivator''s Spiritual Incarnation, turning one from an average cultivator into an undying powerhouse. With that, every Predominated Fruit was a priceless treasure. Irrespective of how valuable a piece of equipment or a mystical treasure was, its value was incomparable to a Predominated Fruit. After all, just the ability to revive upon death was priceless. Krune put on a solemn tone as he sang, "Half for you, half for me. Divide it into two, and we are left with three." "And it''s even free," Cultivator finished his sentence, showing a thumbs up as the two started to laugh. "What will you do with them?" Krune expressed his curiosity as he asked, "Do you have someone that can use them?" "Not really." Cultivator shook his head as he gazed at Krune, asking, "What about you?" "I can give them to my family," Krune smiled as he replied. "Wait, you have a family?" Cultivator expressed his shock as he looked at Krune from head to toe. His expression made it clear that he had assumed Krune to be someone that would die single. Krune was offended at the gaze directed at him as he retorted, "I have a beautiful wife and a bunch of kids¡­bunch." "Show off." Cultivator rolled his eyes and was about to start talking trash when the ring spirit pulled on his earlobe. She then leaned forward until she was right before his ears before shouting at the top of her voice, "The fruits will bloom within a couple of minutes. If you delay, you''ll be stuck here forever." "Ugh." Cultivator clamped his ears as a ringing sound resounded in his mind. He then shook his head until the ringing sound disappeared as he glared at the ring spirit, watching it begin to suck on his earlobe once again, acting innocent. "So..." He let out a sigh as he asked, "How do you propose we steal them?" "Just pluck them out directly." The ring spirit pointed at the Predominated Vine in the center of the crater. "In such a situation, its senses wouldn''t work. So, even if you climb over it, it wouldn''t be able to react. Of course, you have to store them in your spatial ring immediately after plucking them. Otherwise, all the surrounding Predominated Vines would come after us. Moreover, the moment you pluck them out, the Predominated Vine would be able to react and would target the one that plucked its fruits." "That''s easy." Krune summoned a Pseudo-Wisp after making it resemble a flying demon beast. He then asked for Cultivator''s spatial ring. The moment Cultivator gave his spatial ring, the flying demon beast carried two spatial rings as it flew towards the Predominated Vine in the center. Then, followed by a slash using its claws, it perfectly severed the thin strands of vine connecting the six Predominated Fruits to the Predominated Vine. In that instant, it stored three in each spatial ring respectively and threw them towards the respective owner. But before it could return, the Predominated Vine in the center coiled around it and digested it in a matter of seconds. ''I lost two Pseudo-Wisps so quickly.'' Krune winced at the loss but didn''t do anything else. After all, Little Krune had already created two more Pseudo-Wisps in the Lawless Plains, activated the teleportation formation, and sent in two Pseudo-Wisps that managed to cultivate to their current cultivation stage of Seventh Stage God Foundation Realm. So, Krune didn''t suffer any significant losses. Moreover, he cashed in three Predominated Fruits. So, it was definitely a tremendous gain to him. ''I can give it to Feifei once I reunite with her,'' Krune thought as he smiled involuntarily. Just the fact that all his family members could possess a Spiritual Incarnation brought a smile to his face. It meant that as long as even a fragment of them remained, they wouldn''t die. It would make him less worried about them. After all, no father wished to see his family suffer. So, it did help him when they possessed a Spiritual Incarnation. ''I should reunite with them once I reach the Semi-God Realm. That way, I can travel long distances by flying and even be able to make a pathway to the lower Realms.'' Krune grinned like an idiot before soon controlling himself. He then coughed once to see Cultivator busy talking with his ring spirit. Soon, Cultivator sighed in relief as he said to Krune, "Thankfully, the Mashed Serpents have begun to move away from this place. So, we can move out pretty soon." He then thought about something as he asked his ring spirit, "Can you search for other places with the Predominated Fruit?" "Don''t be greedy." She rolled her eyes as mockery was apparent in her tone. "Let''s see if you can first find someone to give those three Predominated Fruits. Do it, and I''ll point the way to a couple others." "Look." He pointed at Krune and said, "If even he can snag a beautiful wife, I can too." ''This guy¡­'' Veins popped on Krune''s forehead as he heard that. Chapter 894: You Dare Look Down On Me? "Hmm?" The tiny ring spirit frowned as she looked around, flapping her wings as she flew from one place to another, swirling in the air for a couple of rounds before she returned on Cultivator''s shoulder. She then iterated her result, pointing in a certain direction as she told him, "Once we escape in this direction, followed by a couple of turns, we''ll arrive at a wider path. There might be some traffic in it since it''s frequented by a lot of people." "I don''t really wish to mingle with other people for now." Cultivator frowned. "Is there any narrow paths that would take us straight to the Sub-Realm?" "You wish." She rolled her eyes as she replied, "There are some, but you need to travel at least 10 kilometers in this main path before you encounter one. Just you bulldoze your way through the main path. It''s not as if anyone here can pose a threat to you." Seeing how confidently the ring spirit proclaimed it, Krune felt an intense thumping in his heart. It meant what he had sensed earlier was indeed true. Cultivator had truly reached an unimaginable level in strength. He was assured because the tiny ring spirit seemed to be geared around the field of investigation since she used mysterious means to probe around their surroundings. This was the first time Krune came to witness an investigative approach apart from Divine Sense and one that didn''t even leave out any traces of energy, not that one could sense them if it existed. It was the same as his Mental Energy Scan. This time, he had discovered another similar one that no one else apart from the user knew and took advantage of. So, in the end, the ring spirit possessed a lot of knowledge. Plus, if it said no one in the region could face against Cultivator, then there might be truth to the statement. "Until the day arrives when I can take on ten cultivators with Spiritual Incarnations and win the fight, I won''t call myself strong." Cultivator smiled as he looked at the ring spirit and said, "Fine, we''ll move through the main path for the time being." "Great, head through this route, then." The ring spirit pointed towards the tiny gap between a couple of Predominated Vines. The gap wasn''t even enough for one to see through the other side. The gap was just apparent thanks to the curvature of the vines. The lady from before appeared at the scene, snorting as she looked at Krune before dashing towards the couple of Predominated Vines that was her target. She stood right before them, turning around to beckon for the two people to start running. "Let''s run and jump through like before," Cultivator said while facing Krune, beginning to sprint the moment the other party nodded. The two sprinted at their maximum speed as the lady spirit clamped her hands on the sides of the two Predominated Vines, exerting all her strength as she pushed them aside wide enough for a person to leap through. Her figure vanished when Cultivator''s figure flashed through her position, followed by Krune. Their collective leap took less than a second as they exited the crater. Upon noticing how the source of the Godly Energy disturbing them had vanished, the Predominated Vines didn''t take any action and just readjusted themselves to their original position. It seemed like they were vines that acted solely based on instinct. Also, their senses could only feel Godly Energy and physical touch. It was why they depended on the Mashed Serpents from time to time to locate their prey. Otherwise, they would just remain still for all their lives. The moment they exited the crater, Krune anticipated the ground, only to not see anything that resembled it. It was entirely dark below. He quickly activated his Mental Energy Scan, probing around to see the depth of the canyon. They were on a narrow path, one that was barely a meter wide. The canyon walls were at least 200 meters high from his current position. Krune extended his arms and applied pressure on the canyon walls on either side, using it to slowly reduce the momentum of his fall. Seeing how inefficient it was, he took out a pair of shields and slammed them into the walls, obtaining the ability to quickly reduce his downward momentum to a minimum. He then retracted them as he landed on the bottom, causing a faint splash as his feet met water. There was a thin brook flowing at the bottom, barely possessing a width of 40 centimeters and a depth of 20 centimeters. It wasn''t even big enough to be called a brook or a canal. It was just a trickling stream of water. Krune gazed up to see Cultivator slamming onto the sides of the walls with his foot as he zigzagged his way to the bottom, muttering as he gazed up, "Damn, the walls are at least 350 meters high. We''re getting deeper into the canyon. It would reach a couple of kilometers by the time we reach its depths." "Where exactly is this Sub-Realm located? At the center?" Krune inquired. Cultivator didn''t say anything, directly looking at his ring spirit as he motioned her to speak. The ring spirit fanned her face as she took in a deep breath, saying, "It''s not in the center of the Four Sectors'' Border Region, geographically speaking. Though, it is the center of its origin. The Sub-Realm is located in the place the first Predominated Vine appeared." "I see." Krune nodded, then remembered the map Yulian had given him. He then took it out and gave it to the ring spirit, asking, "Will this be helpful to you?" The ring spirit glanced at the map once she made a note of the details. "Thanks, that was helpful. I can guess the correct route, more or less. But this made it a bit easier for me." "Travelling through this route would be a pain," Cultivator muttered as he began to walk, occasionally touching the walls as he was careful in getting his feet wet. Though, after taking five steps, his feet plunged into murky mud that looked dry in the first place. His foot sank in it a little, dirtying his shoes and allowing the mud to reach his knees. Cultivator looked at the ring spirit and said, "You should have told me this path would be wonky like this." "This is just some minor inconvenience. You can easily clean it off with a single emission of your Godly Energy." The ring spirit rolled her eyes. "There''s nothing that can threaten you in this path, so I didn''t bother warning." She then yawned as the Godly Energy flow in her body turned a tad sluggish. The ring spirit immediately pointed at the front and made a couple of hand actions. "If you go two kilometers, you''ll come across a crossroads. Take a right, then after one kilometer, take another right and travel in that direction for three kilometers. You''ll reach the main path. You can then head in the direction other people are traveling in." Saying her piece, she then disappeared. "There she goes again." Cultivator sighed as he wiped his earlobe on his sleeve, wiping off all the saliva the ring spirit had drooled on it as he continued to walk. The two then began to walk through the muddy path, taking a couple of hours as they walked slowly, finally reaching the main path. Followed by a faint emission of Godly Energy, both of them cleaned themselves, returning to their pristine conditions. "Finally, I''m out of that yucky place." Cultivator stretched his hands as he relaxed. He then wore a ring as he summoned its ring spirit. It was a Zenith Plugger or a ring spirit that looked similar to one. The two then boarded it and began to ride it through the path, watching the figures of cultivators that streamed through the path from time to time. As he looked at their silhouettes, Krune used his Mental Energy Scan to judge their cultivation bases. Most of them were at the late stages of the God Foundation Realm, followed by some God Core Stage Realm experts. Though, that was only among the individual people traveling through the path. As for those traveling in groups, they were more or less at the God Core Realm. As they proceeded forward, having traveled past nine kilometers now, they noticed a crowd before them. And, it seemed most of the people traveling through the path had been blocked by someone at the front. Using the height advantage of the Zenith Plugger, Krune noticed the figures of five people stationed at the front, present in relaxed states. They were the culprits that had blocked the path, preventing anyone from traversing past. On top of that, they had picked a rather perfect location to block people. It was at a fair away place in the main path, so even if someone wished to avoid trouble, the amount of distance they had to backtrack was tremendous. Not only that, but they had to venture forth into narrow paths whose routes they didn''t know about. It might very well make them miss the opening of the Sub-Realm. Once the duration passed, the entrance would close, and they wouldn''t be able to enter it, making their travel a lost opportunity. And, if they wished to pass through the main path, they had to do whatever the five people at the front said. If they wished to break through using brute force, they had to be sufficiently strong. But, judging by the number of corpses that lay under their feet, it was apparent no one was successful in defeating them. Moreover, the five people had piled up the corpses and used them as a seat to be seated upon, increasing the brutality of the scene they displayed. This caused most of the crowd to have pensive expressions. At the front of the group of five sat a man wearing armored spikes, sporting a cold and arrogant look, looking at others with a gaze that treated them as dust. With a sweeping gaze at the crown, he spoke, "The rules are simple. Kill three people, and you may pass. You will probably be fighting to the death for resources in the Sub-Realm anyway, so considering this as a chance to whittle down your competitors." Seeing the terrified and hesitant expressions of the people before him, the man wearing armored spikes was just about to speak when he saw a massive figure walk towards him. It was the Zenith Plugger look-alike ring spirit Krune and Cultivator were traveling upon. He frowned, using his Divine Sense to inspect their cultivation bases as his face morphed into one of disdain, tinged with anger, "Mere God Foundation Realm and God Core Realm trashes dare to look down on me?" He then pointed at the two, motioning the crowd to act on them. "The rules have changed now. Kill those two, and you are free to pass." Chapter 895: Three Versus One "The rules have changed. Kill those two, and you''ll be able to pass," the man with the armored spikes said as he pointed at Krune and Cultivator. The people then turned around as the gaze in their eyes subtly changed from that of hesitation to that of determination. Waves of Godly Energy emanated from them as all the cultivators in the area probed their cultivation bases using their Divine Senses. Not long after, multiple smiles could be seen on their faces as they soon found out their cultivation bases. Seventh Stage God Foundation Realm! Fourth Stage God Core Realm! On top of that, to the eyes of the onlookers, Krune and Cultivator didn''t seem like anyone strong. It was attributed to the fact that their Spiritual Incarnations were accumulation-based and didn''t give any pronounced effect like the others that were activation-based. "Hahaha!" Cultivator laughed as he teared up, pointing at the man with the armored spike as he shouted, "This is the first time I''m looking at a clown acting like a villain." "What the heck did you just call me?" The man with the armored spikes frowned as veins popped all over his forehead. "What? You think you''d look scary just because you''re sitting atop a pile of carcasses?" Cultivator retorted. He then looked at the surrounding crowd and said, "Just act as the peanut gallery as you are and move to the side. I''m stronger than those five weaklings." There wasn''t any change in Cultivator''s expression or demeanor. He was still in the same relaxed state as usual. Krune didn''t even bother doing anything as he sat cross-legged atop the ring spirit, looking at Cultivator and asked, "Can you handle them all? They are strong." "Well, I can always try. If the situation turns awry, support me. We can still run away easily from them anytime." Cultivator smiled as he made a leap, gently landing on the ground. He then calmly and confidently walked towards the pile of corpses, looking at the man with the armored spikes and said, "So, shall I just call you a clown? Or do you actually have a name?" "Curse this bastard. I''m¡­" "On second thought," Cultivator interjected as he drilled his finger into his ear, acting disinterested. "I''ll just call you Clown. That''s the best name for you. Isn''t that right?" "Exactly." The lady spirit appeared and landed a kick right on the face of the man with the armored spikes, sending him flying. A shockwave resounded from the clash as she retracted her leg. Though, before she could move, she noticed all the blood in her body was being pulled out, causing her form to become unstable before she collapsed into a pool of Godly Energy. Cultivator retracted her as he healed her, summoning her once again to launch another attack. She had just taken a step forward when a lady from the group of five flashed before her and pierced a sword right through the lady spirit''s chest. Though, she had just done that when she failed to receive the feedback of her sword cutting through something solid. She then noticed her sword had changed shape, morphing the blade into a spherical dumbbell. The reduction in length caused its top to hover a couple of centimeters before the lady spirit. "Surprise!" The lady spirit smiled as she flashed her pair of knives, severing her head. Though, her opponent''s image flickered before she reappeared in her original spot, clutching her neck that had a gaping wound. Her flesh squirmed as her laws reconstructed her body. She had just prepared to engage in round two when the air behind her churned as the ambient light in the surroundings turned crimson. A volatile presence erupted, causing even some of the Predominated Vines in the surroundings to be sucked into it. The vines struggled to escape as all the moisture, energy, and essence that formed their very foundation was sucked right out of them. All the siphoned essence converged into one place, the source being the crimson hue that reverberated throughout the surroundings. "Damn you! BASTARD! I''ll kill you!" the man with the armored spikes cursed aloud, expressing genuine anger as he exited from the mud walls. The lady spirit''s attack had sent him flying into it until he was burrowed a couple of meters deep. As he walked out, his face convulsed a bit before recovering to normalcy. It seemed that the strength in the lady spirit''s kick was tremendous, dealing enough damage to even cave in his head. A normal cultivator would have lost his life then and there. "There he goes." a bulky bearded man, the same one that had retorted the man with the armored spikes before, muttered, intending to support him when he noticed the Predominated Vines in the surroundings become active. One after another, new vines stood up from the ground, gradually getting bigger and scarier. Slowly, all of them turned around to face in the direction of the man with the armored spikes. Upon seeing the scene, the bulky, bearded man looked at the others, noticing how they were all on the same page. "I''ll deal with him." He then looked at the lady that finished healing the injury on her neck. "Prepare to teleport us out of this area, Ruana. We''ll head straight to the Sub-Realm." "Don''t stop me, Rinrish. I''ll kill him. I won''t be able to calm down otherwise," the man with the armored spikes said as he began to run through the path, heading straight towards Cultivator. "Fine." Rinrish, the bearded man with a bulky frame, sighed. "Just make it quick. In the meantime, I''ll try to stall the Predominated Vines from attacking you. Your actions have garnered their attention, Hrook." "Thank you," the man with the armored spikes, Hrook, said through gritted teeth, despite the fact the nerves on his forehead looked on the verge of bursting. Rinrish and the last lady in their group of five worked together to stall the Predominated Vines, while the remaining three swooned in on Cultivator, intending to snap his life out of existence. "Well, this is pretty imposing of you." Cultivator smiled as he wore a ring on his finger, summoning its ring spirit. This time, the ring spirit wasn''t a humanoid or a demon beast in shape but shaped like a flat Morningstar, without any spikes. Soon, with an infusion of Godly Energy from him, it began to glow bright yellow, causing the moisture content in the air to drop down all of a sudden. The ground cracked as if it hadn''t been watered for many years. Even the Predominated Vines that were coming over were slightly affected. Though, they were swiftly able to recover and negate the damage. After all, they weren''t the target of the attack. "Take this love tap of mine." Cultivator slammed his weapon into Hrook, causing his body to splatter into a sea of blood from the impact. Then again, the force of the impact hadn''t even traveled to the rest of his body as he turned into a fluid, swept over the weapon, and spiked towards Cultivator''s face. Unfortunately for Hrook, before the attack could hit him, a shield flashed into existence before him, cracking a little as it defended against the attack. Moreover, it seemed imbued with a freezing property as the blood spike began to freeze over. Then again, this freezing property seemed to have been boosted by the law of ice, making it stronger and harder to eradicate. By this time, another one among the five, a lean man with sharp features, rained down arrows of corrosive fluid with poisonous properties. He aimed them all on Cultivator not long after, intending to turn his body into a puddle of unrecognizable goo. Another shield appeared above Cultivator, shielding himself from all the poisonous substances. Moreover, this shield actively moved around while changing shapes, defending him on all sides. All of them were ring spirits that Cultivator had summoned. In the meantime, Ruana, the lady that had teleported the previous few times to save Hrook, was having a standoff against the lady spirit. Though now, there were actually ten lady spirits. On top of that, all of them were at the Nascent God Realm. "How does he have so many equipment spirits at the Nascent God Realm?" Ruana cursed as she flashed in and around the lady spirits, attacking them while slowly whittling down their bodies. The moment she got a chance, she closed in on a lady spirit and slammed her sword...well, more like a dumbbell, on her head. But, what she had expected didn''t occur as her dumbbell turned into a flat plate. So, at the moment of impact, it was pierced through like a piece of paper. Ruana could see the sneer of the lady spirit she had attacked as a pair of knives flashed. All she could do was retreat and clutch her neck once again, coughing out blood as she began to heal herself. She noticed how her opponent hadn''t even used the full power of his Spiritual Incarnation yet, not to mention laying down his Land Incarnation. ''Who the heck is this guy? Just where did he come from?'' ''He''s not using anything new. All along, Cultivator has only used the abilities that he has shown me before. This isn''t even the true extent of his powers. All he''s doing is making the equipment spirits fight for him, nothing else.'' Krune thought to himself as he observed the fight. He wished to understand more about Cultivator''s strength this way. Though, it seemed his wishes wouldn''t get fulfilled. Krune was still thinking of watching the interesting fight when he felt an intense sense of danger from far away. In the same instant, a voice from Cultivator''s pouch resounded in his ear. The two of them simultaneously turned their heads to look far away, noticing a certain Predominated Vine get up from the ground. It didn''t seem all that different from the others appearance-wise. But when the two of them saw it, Krune and Cultivator made eye contact, confirming that the sense of threat they felt was real. Without any hesitation, his 102 shields shot forth as Krune activated his Balance Laws, causing them to shine with rainbow light. The moment they did so, they sucked the sea of blood from in and around Cultivator, causing Hrook to look towards him with absolute shock and ask, "What the fuck are the two of you?" Chapter 896: Just How Many Did We Court? "What the fuck are the two of you?" Hrook stared with absolute shock as the laws that formed his Spiritual Incarnation were sucked towards the shield. They were still under his control but were pulled towards the shield at a strength beyond he could muster. ''I''m a Nascent God. How can a mere God Foundation Realm dreg do this to me?'' Hrook thought to himself, cooling down his head as he was just about to activate his Spiritual Incarnation fully when Krune spoke. Followed by a chuckle, Krune smiled. "Look around you. If we stay here any longer, we would be besieged by the Predominated Vines. If you still wish to receive a beating, feel free to come at us in the Sub-Realm." Only now did Hrook look around, watching Rinrish and another of his companions struggle as they tried their best to stall the vines from creeping towards them. Unfortunately, they were quickly losing ground as the vines lashed onto the shield they had erected. "Wash your necks and be ready," Hrook shouted through gritted teeth as he waved his hand, sucking in all the crimson he had unleashed, including the portion sucked in by Krune''s shield, displaying a fraction of his real strength. Ruana then landed beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder, teleporting him to the group as all of them vanished from the spot. Cultivator had already taken action by the time he noticed their intention to retreat. He took out a ring and wore it, summoning a ring spirit that resembled a bird-type demon beast. It was different from the one they used to reach the Four Sector''s Border Region from the Lawless Plains. He then noticed Krune standing still on the ring spirit resembling a Zenith Plugger. His body was staggered as the Godly Energy circulating in him turned sluggish. Krune barely managed to store his shields as Cultivator pulled him onto the bird-type ring spirit and retracted the other. Without any pause in his actions, the bird-type ring spirit flapped its wings and flashed through the main path, speeding along as Cultivator looked at the Predominated Vines that flashed, lashing out at their previous position. The vines seemed to target them, as they had caused a massive commotion. Also, it seemed that the Godly Energy from their exchange of attacks had coursed through the air until it reached them, triggering the lot of them into taking action. They crashed into the path, elongating through it as the sea of vines trailed right after them. It seemed that they were the target of the vines. Most of the other people who had been in the area were fine for the most part, except for some unfortunate soul who mistakenly touched a vine. He was quickly absorbed into the vine and digested until nothing of him remained behind. "What happened to you, Krune?" Cultivator shouted as he saw Krune turn less responsive than usual. "Just¡­give me a couple of seconds." Krune barely managed to utter those words as he circulated the Myriad Energies Technique with great haste, alleviating the sluggishness in his body. It had been brought about because he had used the Balance Laws for a greater duration than what he was allowed to. His comprehension of them was insufficient. After all, unlike the regular laws, the Balance Laws was a cluster containing all the laws of the God Realm. Activating it meant activating all the laws in him. After obtaining his Spiritual Incarnation, it meant activating every part of his body. Sadly, his comprehension of them was still insufficient. He couldn''t maintain them for more than five seconds. And, to make a massive impression on his foes and prevent them from prolonging the fight, he had exceeded the duration. Nevertheless, it wasn''t a problem since he was only using what was his. Still, it was basically akin to overstraining himself. So, as Krune rested and continued circulating his Godly Energy, he quickly recovered. If he had maintained his Balance Laws for a greater duration, then the damage would have become greater as well. He wouldn''t have died, but his strength would have been suppressed for a long time. The duration of suppression would vary based on the amount of time he exceeded in maintaining the Balance Laws. The moment he recovered, Krune looked around, paling as he saw the Predominated Vines crash into their travel path like a tsunami from all sides. Cultivator was solemn, trying his best to weave through them as he summoned the tiny ring spirit that resembled a fairy. She continued to guide him, helping him avoid maneuvering through riskier places as the bird-type ring spirit moved through the gaps in the vines. "How are they able to track us this much?" Krune thought aloud as he looked through the vines, occasionally noticing the silhouettes of some Mashed Serpents wriggling within. They were the cause that made this possible. After thinking for a moment, Krune unleashed his Mental Energy, condensing it into a sphere that wrapped around them as a whole, including the bird-type ring spirit. For a moment, the ring spirit that looked like a fairy glanced at Krune, wondering the reason for a change in his stance. She then noticed the Predominated Vines were suddenly unable to sense their location as clearly as before. Their aim was becoming wonkier as time passed. This allowed the bird-type ring spirit enough gap to fly through the vines. "Thanks." Cultivator gazed at Krune as he heaved a sigh of relief. "That was too risky." "That thing is still onto us," Krune said as his forehead was covered in sweat. He could feel a sharp gaze right on him, making him shudder. He didn''t know what it was, but he dared not confront it. Cultivator, too, seemed to share the same opinion as him. They were just strong individuals. They weren''t peerless powerhouses that could shake the God Realm with their power. They could only face off against normal Nascent God Realm cultivators, and probably cultivators in the same realm but with Spiritual Incarnations. Even though they just fought against that group of five with Spiritual Incarnations and where all of them had been at the Nascent God Realm, none of them had gone all out. Moreover, they hadn''t even fully activated their Spiritual Incarnations. So, it wouldn''t be a measure of their real strength. Even otherwise, in case Krune and Cultivator only faced normal cultivators in the Nascent God Realm, even though they could mow down through a lot of them, they would fall eventually. Not to mention that all the Predominated Vines were at least at this level. There was also the fact they were equipped with the ability to even digest Spiritual Incarnations, making them the worst enemy to face. In this sea of vines, it would be foolish if they stopped to fight. That was why Cultivator didn''t delay and quickly began to make escape plans. "Hold tight," Cultivator said as he watched Krune follow his command immediately. The both of them held a protrusion along the back of the bird-type ring spirit. The tiny fairy-like ring spirit went into Cultivator''s robe as it took safety, knowing beforehand of what would happen next. "Can you do it now?" he looked at the bird-type ring spirit and asked. "Yes, but I can only sustain it for ten seconds. My form would collapse immediately after." The bird-type ring spirit replied as its body subtly changed. Its tail curled up to morph into a head as its wings elongated. Now, it seemed two of them had been cut along their middle and attached to one another. Two heads were replacing the tails of one another. Cultivator had chosen this ring spirit because, despite its lower duration of flight, it could take sharp turns in the air. Moreover, the second reason was this¡­ The head that had popped out of its tail-end opened its mouth as it condensed a multitude of laws within, consisting of the law of flames, wind, gravity, and so on. All the Godly Energy it had amassed flowed into it, fueling them into activation. Slowly, a miniature sun formed in its mouth, turning from bright yellow to white with a mild tint of blue. The miniature sun began to rotate at massive speeds in its mouth as tongues of fires arched out from time to time. Even its head was slightly melting from the heat it itself had generated. Followed by a mild spark, it unleashed a fire jet, causing a massive trail of compressed fire behind them. Immediately, the speed of the bird-type ring spirit exploded as the air around them quaked, forming ripples and vapor cones. Using the fairy-like ring spirit''s help, Cultivator had already jotted down the path and relayed the information to the bird-type ring spirit. The moment its speed skyrocketed, it flashed through the Predominated Vines. Even the trail of fire it left behind in the air caused them to latch onto a fire. Their staggering speeds were beyond what they could react to. After all, they were sensing by using the Mashed Serpents as beacons. By the time they came to know about it, the targets had vanished from the scene. "Whaaaaaaaaaattttt?" Krune''s words were stretched taut as his facial muscles danced like the cloth in the wind. He was unable to even see anything as his limbs felt like they would come apart. The force was just too much, rocketing his insides, causing blood to clash everywhere in his body. The winds were like knives that slammed into him. Intense heat also coiled around him, burning him up. Ten seconds later, the bird-type ring spirit abruptly collapsed into specks of Godly Energy, causing them to make a beeline at the tremendous speeds they were traveling at. They were like meteors. Both Cultivator and Krune had long since fully activated their Spiritual Incarnations as they crashed into the path and made a massive trench through it, spanning at least 200 meters long. It was apparent as to the momentum they were carrying with them. Their massive speeds had caused them to travel more than twenty kilometers from the scene, making them escape the pursuit. Though, there weren''t any sounds from the two trenches. It was completely silent in the area. A couple of travelers were startled at the impactful sound and the massive trench that split the path into three. Feeling curious, one of them appeared at the end of the trench and peered into it, noticing a squirmy blob of gelatinous fluid that swished within. A bit of the Godly Energy in the air was consumed as the squirmy mess meshed itself into a humanoid figure, slowly turning into the appearance of Cultivator. He had taken almost ten minutes to do so. A couple more minutes later, followed by a groan, Krune climbed from his trench, laying flat on the ground the moment he came up. He looked at the clear sky and at the surrounding Predominated Vines that were still, sighing as he muttered, "Just how many deaths did we court in that short time?" Chapter 897: Hovering Above All Krune took a step forward and lost balance in his legs, panting as the Godly Energy in his body turned sluggish. Even though he had finished reconstructing his body, the laws in him hadn''t finished reorienting themselves into their previous positions yet. With that, he was unable to even circulate Godly Energy or walk for the time being. As Krune sat cross-legged on the ground, the flesh on his face squirmed from time to time. Even though he had a fleshly body, their actual makeup had become infused with the laws that made up his Spiritual Incarnation. So, the functions in his body had turned incredibly complex. The organs had become a cluster of laws that formed a circuit to execute the same function as the respective organ while also resembling it. So, if Krune said he was a physical being right now, it was only partially true. Without any Godly Energy, he was just a cluster of ethereal laws forming a circuit. Only by fuelling them with Godly Energy and activating all the laws would his physical body appear. It was like creating earth by infusing Godly Energy into the laws of earth. That was why Krune was patiently waiting as he sensed the laws slowly return to their original positions. It did take some time since he couldn''t just brute force and short-circuit himself. As the cluster of laws in his body moved to their respective places, the flow of Godly Energy in his body soon returning, coming from the place it had accumulated within and flowing back into his Wisp Core. After that, it gushed out once again, traveling through the channel set up by the Godly Meridians that began to form once again. Slowly, after an hour had passed, Krune managed to finish one circulation of his Godly Energy, heaving a sigh of relief as he got up. He had fully recovered now. Krune didn''t even remember the number of times he had died in the short travel. Thankfully for him, none of the attacks that injured him were law-based. So, as long as he reined in his law cluster, he quickly revived by consuming some Godly Energy...or, in other words, the Pseudo-Wisps in his subspace. If the attacks contained some laws, these laws would get lodged in his body, blocking the circuit his Spiritual Incarnation had formed. It would hinder the operations of his body, adversely affecting him by collapsing the balance in his body. This was the reason only a cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation could take one another of his kind. Once he had fully recovered, Krune turned around to see Cultivator relaxing on the ground as he fiddled with a ring, gazing at the sky through it. Upon noticing the gaze, he sighed as he got up, saying, "Sorry, that was risky." "It''s fine. I was prepared to face it," Krune nodded as he replied. "As long as I don''t die, the experience would make me stronger. That was the reason I set off on this journey in the first place. Don''t worry too much about something like that." "That''s good, then." Cultivator nodded, summoning the ring spirit that looked similar to a Zenith Plugger."Well, let''s get going. We''ll have to reach the Sub-Realm soon. There''s still a lot of distance for us to traverse." "Alright." Krune nodded as he jumped and took a seat on the ring spirit''s back, watching it begin to run once again. Upon seeing the massive demon beast run through the path, the people that were traveling through it moved to the side immediately. Along the way, Krune did come across some merchant caravans that were moving through it. But after hearing the news, they were no longer going towards the next city, Hworn City. They had changed their course to the Sub-Realm. After all, in a place that possessed numerous treasures, probably no one would want to avoid it. Plus, dangers were accompanied everywhere in the God Realm, so they weren''t worried about that. Their focus was primarily on the treasures they would obtain inside it. As the Zenith Plugger lookalike ring spirit moved through the path, it didn''t encounter any obstruction. It seemed as they approached closer and closer to the Sub-Realm, the intention of people to fight and rob continued to reduce. After all, instead of fighting for some chump change in the hands of the cultivators, they could preserve their strength and use it to harvest a ton of treasures in the Sub-Realm. That was what went on in the minds of everyone in the region, bandits included. It was the first time since its appearance had the fights and bloodshed in the Four Sectors'' Border Region turned non-existent, almost none to the extent it could be mistaken for a utopia of peace. Seeing as how they had nothing else to do, Krune started to cultivate, absorbing the bodies of the Pseudo-Wisps to do so. By absorbing a Pseudo-Wisp, his cultivation base increased by a tenth. After all, the Pseudo-Wisps were also in the same realm as him energy quantity and quality-wise. So, they increased the efficiency of his cultivation. The moment he absorbed them into his body, the Godly Energy directly coursed through his Godly Meridians, settling within immediately as it flowed into his Wisp Core, elevating his cultivation base a little. On the other side, Little Krune was cultivating as it comprehended the laws that made up his subspace, slowly but surely increasing its size. Moreover, every time Krune absorbed a Pseudo-Wisp to fuel his cultivation, it created a new one and made it cultivate. The supply exceeded demand, so Krune didn''t have to worry about running out of Pseudo-Wisps to cultivate. After all, it took him at least 4-5 days to absorb and digest one completely. And, as there were one hundred Pseudo-Wisps in total, a significant portion of them had already reached his maximum cultivation base. As they couldn''t proceed beyond that level, they were only waiting, having nothing else to do. Once Little Krune caught up with his cultivation, it waited, unwilling to waste its time cultivating, for its speed of cultivation was faster than Krune. After all, Krune was using the Pseudo-Wisps to cultivate. Little Krune, on the other hand, had access to the tremendous reserve of Godly Energy in the energy-gathering formation. So, it could easily cultivate faster and catch up to him whenever it needed. It fragmented itself into seven, the maximum it could accomplish at the moment. All of them inhabited a Pseudo-Wisp each, turning them into clones. One clone remained behind in the energy-gathering formation to assist Krune constantly. The clone''s tasks ranged from sending him Pseudo-Wisps to cultivate, comprehend the laws of the subspace, and so on. The remaining six clones exited the formation and went in six different directions in search of resources to mine. After all, Krune was in dire need of good equipment. His shields were already proving to be insufficient for him. So, in order to forge him new shields, it needed resources to do so. And, to obtain it, they had to move very far. After all, the Zamuria Empire had basically looted every grass and stone with any worth in almost every area covering the continent. Moreover, Krune also wanted to find a spot to put down another Land Incarnation, a second contingency measure to revive. He also planned to set up the energy-gathering formation using the laws of his Land Incarnation. So that way, it would be accumulating a lot of energy, allowing him to quickly revive when needed. So, he planned to find a discrete location without any people or demon beasts for that. And to do it, Krune wished to head towards any of the smaller islands beyond the Zamuria Continent. There ought to be some that had been inhabited. Sunkan City was one of the outermost cities in the Zamuria Continent. So, after transforming into a flight-type demon beast, all the six clones flew in slightly different directions, keeping their goal to exit Zamuria Continent first before finding a suitable place. After all, as long as he laid down the Land Incarnation, recalling the sent fragments were easy. They would just commit suicide in that place while plopping the Land Incarnation. After that, the remaining clone in the Lawless Plains would consume a lot of Godly Energy from its surroundings and recondense all the fragments back. Even if all the fragments were destroyed, Little Krune could easily revive through the Land Incarnation. So, Krune had zero concerns. Moreover, he did plan to have six clones with him. After all, they might come in handy during his fights. He only decided to leave one clone in the energy-gathering formation. After all, with one fragment, reviving would become easier for him. It was just in case the Sub-Realm proved to be too treacherous. Moreover, he had a hunch that all teleportation abilities would be blocked between the Sub-Realm and the outside world of the God Realm. So, he planned to be prepared before then. If possible, he wished to reach the Eighth Stage of the God Foundation Realm before that happened. Though, based on his speed of progression, Krune realized that he wouldn''t make it on time. Sighing, he could only continue cultivating, comprehending his subspace on the side in an effort to increase its size as much as possible. He wished to stuff as many Pseudo-Wisps as he could in it. Though, once he thought about it, Krune realized he could already stuff all one hundred in it if he needed to. All he had to do was make them take on their true forms and reduce the size of their ethereal forms. After all, only their Wisp Cores were their true body. It was easy to stuff one hundred Wisp Cores in his subspace. Time passed in such a fashion as Krune and Cultivator hardly talked with each other. They were busy cultivating, intending to make themselves as strong as possible by the time they entered the Sub-Realm. After all, as they closed in on their destination, they could feel blasts of powerful aura, enough to cause them to shudder from time to time. There were quite a few of them, causing the two to slow down their approach to appear less imposing. Followed by a sigh, Krune opened his eyes, looking around to see the canyon walls span a height of two kilometers. On top of that, trailing above them were the Predominated Vines, insanely sized and more powerful when compared to before. Not long after, his eyes widened in shock. Cultivator noticed the issue as he too looked in the same direction, frowning as he could feel a vast shadow cast over them as the ring spirit moved. Hovering in the densest place, at the heart of the Four Sectors'' Border Region, positioned right above the Predominated Vines without being affected, was a giant mountain-sized demon beast overlooking everything. Neither the region''s Suppression Law nor the Predominated Vines did anything to it. Chapter 898: Traversing the Border Having turned into a bird-type demon beast, one of the clones flew straight towards the end of the Zamuria Continent. As it approached closer and closer to its borders, through their shared thoughts, Krune realized that his earlier thoughts were wrong. He thought the continents would at most be separated by a stream of water. After all, the entire God Realm was a massive stretch of land extending past tremendously long distances, spanning countless light-years. But now, as the clone approached the border, Krune was left at a loss for words. Spanning beyond the border of the continent was a chaotic mist forming a wall of swirling tornadoes that completely lined up along the border. The sheer intensity of the wind was beyond what any cultivator below the Semi-God Realm could endure. On top of that, there weren''t even any gaps that could allow one to proceed beyond it. Moreover, the wall of swirling tornadoes was sharp, not leaving any trailing winds behind that flowed into the continent. The clone flapped its wings, hovering 10 meters before the swirling wall of tornadoes, occasionally spotting a couple of shadows move past. It was unknown as to what they were. Though, as it began to fly while trying to search for a gap to go through, out of nowhere, from within the wall of wind appeared a massive shadow. Its whole body was formless, completely made up of shadows as its gaping maw clamped on the clone, shredding it apart, rendering it useless before proceeding to digest it. One of the six clones had already died. In the Lawless Plains, the destroyed fragment of Little Krune began to slowly take shape upon absorbing the dense Godly Energy in the area. Another clone had also approached the border by this time. But, in its area, the border was a stretch of mountains forming a range, with their height beyond what one could see. They were like a wall of earth blocking everything, preventing anyone from moving beyond. This was the southernmost part of the Zamuria Continent. The clone had been making use of the Mind Splitting Technique to cultivate, basically absorbing Godly Energy while flying through the air. This way, the amount of Godly Energy it had was always at its peak. That''s why it managed to cover such a massive distance so quickly. The clone flew around in the air while making use of its Mental Energy Scan to scout the surroundings and inside the rock forming the mountain range. It tried to scale up the mountain, giving up halfway when it failed to see the tip even after traveling for two days. For some reason, the walls seemed to span till infinity based on what it saw. Even though Krune knew that was impossible since it should have finite limits, the limit seemed beyond what the bird-type demon beast could traverse. After all, the higher up it went, the lower the density of Godly Energy it could draw upon from the air. So, it made recovering energy much harder. But after a moment of thought, the clone flew higher and higher up, planning to see just how far it could proceed. Another clone soon joined it before the two proceeded high up, intending to support one another as they went. As the two pulled in Godly Energy simultaneously, they used the same technique allowing the suction force of Godly Energy to be beyond twice the amount they could pull in individually, alleviating their problems a little. "There''s a cave in this place," one of the clones muttered as it took on Krune''s human form, landing on a rock protrusion. The other clone morphed into a bird-type demon beast that Krune and Cultivator had used to escape from the Predominated Vines. As this form had the greatest evasive maneuverability in the air, it allowed it to escape from any danger. And, just as the two had expected, as if it had sensed them approaching, a demon beast drilled out from the cave and zoomed in on the clone resembling Krune''s human form. Without any hesitation, the human form clone raised its hand, sending a gust of wind that was also boosted by the laws of gravity. The force it unleashed caused the demon beast''s approach to slow down to a crawl. The demon beast was shaped like an earthworm, lacking any eyes while its body was covered by scales all over. It had a tough hide and spanned a length of 15 meters and a diameter of a meter. It was a massive serpentine demon beast. Moreover, it seemed to have been in the demon beast form all its life and hadn''t interacted with any other living thing, so its intelligence was the least among all the demon beasts Krune had encountered in the God Realm. It was in the Nascent God Realm, the Ninth Stage at that. But, the two clones weren''t flustered. Followed by a grunt, the human form clone unleashed its Land Incarnation, causing the Godly Energy in the area to converge into it. Followed by a massive influx, possibly all the Godly Energy in the area, two Pseudo-Wisps were produced. As Krune had just consumed one to cultivate while a clone had been killed just now, they could condense a couple of Pseudo-Wisps to take action. The Pseudo Wisps were only at the Godly Fusion Realm and weren''t something that could even affect the tide of battle in the place. But, that was in the case they were used normally. As the human form Krune continued to generate wind that constricted its movement, the other clone used the laws of gravity to fully suppress the earthworm-type demon beast. Even though it retaliated, it seemed it hadn''t even fought any opponents all its life, for it was unable to even make use of its Godly Energy to unleash any attacks. "Strange." The human form clone frowned as it muttered, "How the heck was it able to cultivate to such a level here then? The quality of Godly Energy here is way too inferior for even gifted geniuses to reach the Nascent God Realm before they die of natural death." Simultaneously, the two clones looked at each other, beaming with a wide smile as they smirked simultaneously, saying, "Jackpot!" Of course, they didn''t take any action, solely focusing on constricting the earthworm-type demon beast, unwilling to kill it unnecessarily. They didn''t want to kill it before understanding the whole situation. Moreover, if there existed more of it inside, or if they wished to make a path, this demon beast would prove to be useful. So, that''s why the two clones had created a Pseudo-Wisp each. The human form controlled its Pseudo-Wisp to gently touch the head of the bounded demon beast. Its hands then turned a shade of white as dense chillness emanated from it. This caused a layer of ice to form on the demon beast''s head. And, as time passed, it could feel the effect, beginning to thrash around in an effort to escape. Unfortunately, it was tightly bound by the mixture of wind and gravity, unable to escape as it could sense the chillness pervade its body. As the cause was a being in the Godly Fusion Realm, the seepage of the chillness was slow, too slow to even sting it normally. But now, it was unable to treat itself, so the seepage of the chill caused it to feel dread for the first time in its unthreatened life. At this time, the other Pseudo-Wisp turned to resemble it as it coiled around the latter, gently unleashing warm energy that healed itself. One Pseudo-Wisp tried to freeze it while the other healed it. But as the one that healed it looked similar to it, the demon beast lost all animosity towards it. As time passed in such a fashion, it noticed it no longer felt cold in his head, turning around to see the enemy wasn''t at the scene. Instead, there were only two demon beasts that resembled it, only a bit inferior in size. And, both of them were unleashing that gentle energy that healed it. The earthworm-type demon beast sensed a feeling of kin from them as it was delighted to see them, playing around as the three demon beasts moved into the cave. The Pseudo-Wisps dissipated naturally, returning the concentration of Godly Energy in the area back to normal as all traces of the Land Incarnation vanished. The two clones had accompanied the earthworm-type demon beast into its cave. Even though they played around, it was primarily to not cause it to feel suspicious. Besides, the moment they entered, they thanked themselves for not killing it. For, inside the cave was a maze. Hundreds of tunnels spanned forth without end, moving roundabout as they sometimes entered older tunnels or branched out into newer tunnels. They seemed to ignore the earthworm demon beast''s handiwork to curb its boredom. The two clones didn''t take any lead, playing around as they followed the demon beast through whatever path it took, coiling around so much they felt they were lost. But thankfully, they were able to memorize the route. It was thanks to leaving behind some traces of Mental Energy in the route they traversed in. This trail was subtle and couldn''t be sensed by anyone other than someone who could wield Mental Energy. A couple of days later, when they were getting tired, the earthworm-type demon beast took them through another tunnel, but one that was straight this time. And, as they slithered through it for more than 20 kilometers, they reached a dome. The moment they entered it, the same thought echoed in the minds of both. ''Jackpot.'' In the center of the dome grew tiny herbs. And, these herbs seemed to be what the demon beast had been feeding upon all its life. That had been the cause that made it reach its current cultivation. By sensing through their Mental Energy Scan, they found out how there was a vein of Godly Energy trailing beneath the area the herbs grew upon. The roots of the herbs had taken root within the Godly Energy vine. With that, they grew to become precious herbs. After that, the attention of the two was drawn to the tunnel that traversed from the back of the dome, seeming as if it would take them to the other side of the mountain range. Chapter 899: The Terrifying Shadow Demon Beast The two clones sensed the herbs growing in the area, communicating using their shared thoughts. ''Thankfully, we didn''t kill it.'' ''Indeed, that would have collapsed this entire place. There is some kind of synergy between it and the environment.'' The two clones broke out in cold sweat, thanking their developed intelligence since they acted cautiously and didn''t just do whatever they pleased because they were the stronger party. In the end, it proved that they were right. The Godly Energy vein in the area was something that was newly forming. It spanned thousands of years in its growth already. Then again, talking based on the sheer scale of the God Realm''s duration of existence, it was quite new. This Godly Energy vein had been growing through the mountain range, enriching it while also bringing forth vitality into the surroundings. Even the tinge of Godly Energy in the area was thanks to this vein. Unfortunately, it was unstable, lacking any means to release the Godly Energy into the air. After all, in most places on the God Realm, there existed natural habitats that made use of the Godly Energy veins to circulate Godly Energy into the surroundings like the Windless Lake. Such habitats absorbed the Godly Energy in the veins, converted it into suitable forms in the habitat, and caused a cycle of supply and demand. This way, more and more Godly Energy was drawn from the Godly Energy veins in a systematic form, creating a holistic cycle. On top of that, this cycle further boosted the Godly Energy vein to grow and mature. It was just how they operated. After all, they were brittle but powerful nodes of Godly Energy that acted as the land''s life force. Currently, there didn''t exist any habitat for the Godly Energy to be consumed or circulated, causing the Godly Energy in the Godly Energy veins to be accumulated without any sign of growth. This was where the herbs and the earthworm-type demon beast came into the picture. By rooting themselves on the Godly Energy veins, the herbs grew into precious herbs that consuming them would elevate one''s cultivation to a certain extent. These herbs were then consumed by the earthworm-type demon beast. After consuming the herbs, it roamed around in the mountain range, drilling new paths from the dome with the herbs. And in this way, it expended Godly Energy. Moreover, this expended Godly Energy settled on the tunnels, causing the rocks to drink the Godly Energy and become materials allowing its flow. In this way, new channels were created to circulate Godly Energy throughout the mountain range. As the Godly Energy circulated through the range in this manner, it drew upon more and more Godly Energy from the Godly Energy vein, causing it to progress and branch out in new directions, elevating the condition of the place as a whole. They had formed a delicate balance. If the two clones had killed the earthworm-type demon beast, then it would have simply collapsed the structure in the place, even causing the Godly Energy vein to explode once it accumulated too much energy. Since just eating the herbs or drawing forth the energy from the Godly Energy vein wasn''t a solution, the two clones didn''t lay down their Land Incarnation in the place, unwilling to disturb nature''s delicate work at play. One of them played with the demon beast, distracting it, while the other used the chance to sneak out and traverse through the tunnel spanning on the other side of the dome with the herbs. It was a narrow tunnel, only wide enough for the earthworm-type demon beast to move through had it been younger. It seemed it had dug this many years ago when its body was a lot smaller. At present, its massive body wouldn''t fit into it. Thankfully for the clone, its body was a lot smaller and could easily fit through the gap, proceeding to slither through the tunnel. The tunnel was indeed pretty long, spanning tens of kilometers. After traveling for an entire day, the clone could finally sense some mellow light in the dark tunnel. Surprisingly, it didn''t hurry. Rather, it slowed down as it cautiously slithered forth, soon reaching the end of the tunnel as it peeked out. Within an instant, it retracted itself in fear, trembling within the tunnel. ''What the hell is that?'' The clone trembled without stop as if it had gone into fits. As what he saw swimming beyond on the other side was a massive demon beast or something that was probably a demon beast. Though, unlike normal demon beasts, its entire body was composed of shadows. On top of that, the shadows seemed to be like a fluid, dripping past its wings as it moved up and down. Upon a closer look, there were hundreds of individual shadows in the wings of the massive shadow. Moreover, they seemed to be sentient, at least based on their reactions as they struggled and squirmed. Though, upon a second glance, they seemed to be in a permanent state of suffering. And for some reason, the feeling of dread filled up the clone the moment it gazed at the massive shadow demon beast. At present, the massive shadow beast was just laying flat, partially submerged into a misty bottom that also seemed to be condensed by shadows. As far as the clone could see, there was only a vast stretch of shadows. There were also some floating islands in the midst, housing tiny hills upon each. There seemed to be some native races living on some of them, ones that were large enough to resemble a mini continent. Krune was surprised to see them living in the same place as those shadow demon beasts. Unexpectedly, all the residents there were weak, barely at the God Foundation Realm. Their numbers were few as well, only numbering in the thousands. The clone could spot at least ten such floating islands in its range of vision. ''I need to check them out,'' the clone thought, immediately acting based on the thought. After all, it was just a fragment of Little Krune. Even with its death, nothing would happen. Moreover, everything it witnessed would be relayed to all the other fragments and Krune in real-time. So, there was zero concern about being unable to transmit the discovered information. Having been unable to find any resources in the land that had been emptied by the Zamuria Empire and being unable to find any paths of exit to the continent, all the other clones flew towards the mountain range. They intended to approach the same spot and see if they could obtain anything from the floating islands. The clone looked at the shadow beast, gazing at it for a long time as its image registered in its mind. Now, it was able to transform into it, albeit only appearance-wise. Its functionality couldn''t be imitated. But thankfully, for Krune, his Spiritual Incarnation was comprised of all the laws in the God Realm. So, albeit difficult, the transformations were somewhat able to execute the same actions as the original. Though, to improve upon such actions, they had to comprehend the respective laws at play to a deeper extent. Slowly but surely, the earthworm-type demon beast form of the clone morphed as its body turned into a fluid, resembling shadows as it grew a pair of wings, flipping them once to splash forth some droplets of shadow on the tunnel floor. The shadows instantly vaporized as if they didn''t belong on the ground. Moreover, the shadow beast''s form was rapidly growing weaker in strength. It seemed it couldn''t exist anywhere beyond its shadow habitat. The clone flapped its wings and took a dive of faith, exiting the tunnel as it made a beeline into the sea of shadows. But, before it could touch the sea of shadows, it began to recover. Moreover, it felt a sense of threat from inside, swiftly steering clear from it as it began to fly up. Soon, it reached the first floating island, one that was barely a kilometer in diameter. Upon landing on the island, the clone made a sweep using its Mental Energy Scan, unwilling to use any Godly Energy in fear the massive shadow beast would be woken up. Of course, it could still feel a great number of gazes on it, directed from the wings of the massive shadow beast. The shadows on it were squirming all over its wings, at times trying to escape it and head towards the clone. Sadly, something seemed to have kept them bound to the wings, preventing them from roaming free. The entire place gave it the chills. Unwilling to waste any time, the clone finished inspecting the island. There was barely any Godly Energy in it. Moreover, the minerals were too widespread. There were barely any mineral deposits that it could mine. It then flew forward, flying for a long time before it reached a massive island, one that was at least 10 kilometers in radius. The native population there seemed to be humanoid, but they weren''t humans. They seemed to be a mixture between humans and the shadows as they were draped by tatters of the shadow that acted as their dress. Moreover, parts of their body were solely made of shadow and varied from person to person. For some, it was their teeth. For some, it was one or more of their limbs. For some, it was one of their eyes or ears. But there were also cases where their entire heads were made from the shadows. All in all, they seemed to be a weird humanoid race that had adapted to the region. As the clone flew over it, the indigenous race immediately prostrated on the ground, hailing praises in their language. As to what they were saying, the clone was unable to understand. But judging by their actions, it could sense they were hailing praises. It then landed on the island, making a sweep using its Mental Energy Scan to find traces of Godly Energy settled in some parts of the island. From what it could see, it didn''t seem to have a definite source. Rather, it seemed to be the areas of deposit that the island itself had absorbed over the years. It wasn''t a great amount. Rather, Krune could completely use it up within a month''s worth of cultivation. Sighing, the clone left the island, unaware of what transpired after its departure. The indigenous people ripped out the shadows, forming their bodies as they combined them together, molding it like clay as they finished creating a figure resembling the clone. Then, they placed it on a pedestal and began to pray towards it. And at the same time, something budded in the wings of the clone. Chapter 900: Horrifying Region The shadow beast form clone immediately sensed something amiss as it looked at its wing, noticing that a bump had formed on it. It was strange since it didn''t notice the bump''s appearance before. Only after it felt some oddity did it notice its existence. The shadow bump was sentient, squirming in the wing as it seemed bound to it. Moreover, it was struggling, stretching whatever shadow that bound it taut as it moved out, making the scene look like what one would see from a horror movie. The clone immediately ripped it off from its wing and threw it away. Though, after flying for some distance, the shadow bump dissolved into specks of shadow and vanished. A second later, the bump reappeared on the wing, startling the clone. Moreover, this time, a string of words resounded in its mind. With that, using their shared thoughts, it resounded in the minds of all the clones, including Krune. "Give us more land." "Give us more power." "Increase our numbers." "Give me an heir." "Help us." "Please protect us." "Become our land''s guardian." As the voices echoed in their minds, all the clones were unable to concentrate as the voices started to become a cacophony, resounding all at the time same time, proceeding on about in a loop. The clone immediately unleashed its Mental Energy, forming a barrier around the bump, heaving a sigh of relief once the voices in its head disappeared. It then felt relieved at the fact its Mental Energy was useful in this situation. As Mental Energy was related to the mind and the soul, it proved of help here. With that, building upon that line of thought, the clone used Mental Energy to eradicate the bump. Unfortunately, the Mental Energy just passed through the shadow bump without affecting it in the slightest. Sighing, the clone continued to fly, intending to first find a safe place to bank upon. In the meantime, the remaining four clones had also arrived at the scene. They too changed into the shadow beast form and took off to the air, unaffected by the shadow environment now that their forms were suitable to the habitat. Among them, one of the clones flew straight, intending to reach the other side of the shadow area. The remaining clones each headed to one of the floating islands. Their objective hadn''t changed yet, intending to find a place either rich in mineral deposits or a place with an abundance of Godly Energy that could be drawn upon. The clone with a shadow bump on its wing had been flying for a considerable duration, now having reached the deepest part of the shadow region. The shadow region seemed to be the stretch dividing two or more continents. This created a natural chasm that prevented the populace from the continents from interacting with the others. On top of that, the sole functioning paths seemed to have been under the control of the Empires of the respective continent that barred entry to outsiders. This way, they fully monopolized their respective continents to their use and ruled over them for tens of thousands of years. Without any visitors, the mentality of the people in each continent was dictated by the rulers. In such a manner, they were ruling their respective continent without any threat. Moreover, the borders were too powerful for anyone below the level of an immortal to even dare try and pass through. ''How did Cultivator and the other strong people arrive in Zamuria Continent in the first place?'' Krune wondered as the clones continued to fly. The clone with the shadow bump on its wings soon approached the biggest floating island of the entire region. It was massive, spanning a radius of 30 kilometers. It was a massive piece of land that was floating in the region of the shadow. Also, unlike most of the floating islands the clones had come across, this place was rich with Godly Energy. Moreover, the number of indigenous people on the land was also the highest here. They also seemed to have been considerably developed to the extent there were even a couple of cultivators in the Nascent God Realm. On top of that, unlike the other natives, the ones living on this island seemed to have integrated with the shadows the most. Albeit their eyes, the remainder of their bodies were fully composed of the shadows. This shadow seemed free, like fluid as they were able to change their forms as they pleased. Another strange fact to take note of was how they didn''t prostrate on the ground the moment they witnessed the clone. Rather, they just looked at it with calm, eerily so. More and more of them came out of their homes to stand outside. The housing structures were similar to those in the Zamuria Continent, ranging from single-story buildings to even multi-story ones. The only difference was its style as there didn''t exist any door while the roofs were smooth, allowing for the unhindered flow of fluid as if it was designed for constant rain. The clone noticed how there was a statue in the center of the floating island. It was almost 30 meters tall and resembled the massive shadow beast it had seen at the entrance. The island was different from the other floating islands due to the fact that a thin stream of shadow exited the island like a waterfall and connected with the sea of shadow on the bottom. Surprisingly, the flow was in reverse here, moving against gravity, heading from the ground and into the floating island. The place was also dark, faintly glistening with a crimson hue that barely illuminated the surroundings, creating a bleak atmosphere. Thus, upon seeing the activities that spanned below, even though it wished to bank on the dense Godly Energy in the place that seemed to be replenished with a Godly Energy vein, it was apprehensive about doing so. After all, the shadow bump on its wings had increased from one to two by now. Moreover, as it concentrated on the second bump, it could hear numerous voices, the source of which seemed to have been the people on the island below it. As the number of indigenous people appearing on the outside increased, the number of shadow bumps on its wings increased as well. Thanks to their shared thoughts, all the other clones immediately vacated the area, speeding towards the opposite side to find a path of escape. After all, something worse was happening to the clone on whose wings, bumps continued to form. The people continued to appear and unanimously stared at the clone. A couple of seconds later, when the bumps on its wings hit the double digits, a formless strength seeped into it, making the clone feel as if it could harness an intangible strength and become a powerhouse. A second later, it was drunk on its newfound power that seemed inexhaustible. For some reason, it flew forward and landed on the ground, causing the native population to rip parts of their bodies and create a massive pedestal over which it perched itself. As time passed, its body size continued to increase while the bumps on its wings reached three digits. "Fuck!" Krune cursed as he massaged his forehead, alleviating the pain as tens of thousands of voices whispered in his mind. He had cut off the connection with that particular clone when he realized¡­it was no longer a part of him anymore. The voices overwhelmed the clone''s mind and destroyed its sense of self, turning it into an instrument that was a receptor of the wishes of the populace, turning into a wish-granting object. From a clone of Krune, it had become an entirely different entity, no longer a part of him. "Kaawhheeee!" The shadow beast that had once been his clone raised its beak and let out an ear-piercing cry, causing the indigenous populace to roar in response. A couple hundred thousand humanoid beings were outside now, only now prostrating on the ground as they silently revered the being in the center. The other clones had flown far away by now, reaching the other side as they began to search for an exit, soon finding a tunnel in a hill that peeked into the wall of tornadoes that formed the border in the place. Upon entering it, they changed forms, only now heaving a sigh of relief before proceeding into it. After traveling for a long time, they drilled their way out, appearing in what seemed to be a stretch of water. Surprisingly, this ocean stretched for as long as one could see, with no sign of any major landmass. The four remaining clones split up and flew away after turning into a bird-type demon beast. Eventually, one of the clones appeared at what seemed to be a volcanic crater. It was a lone volcano in the middle of the ocean. What was surprising was the fact that the clone sensed a Godly Energy vein in it. Moreover, whenever the energy in the Godly Energy vein exceeded a certain extent, it would cause a spike in the energy levels within, causing the lava to churn and spill out. With that, it was a good place since every time it erupted, it spewed forth numerous ores and minerals. That would be enough to get ahold of a variety of materials for his forging. The clone also noticed how the size of the volcano was steadily increasing as it developed. Moreover, the fact that there wasn''t any sign of human or demon beast activity or any landmass in the vicinity made this the perfect location for Krune to reap benefits. As there wasn''t enough time to mine, forge, and transport the equipment to Krune before he entered the Sub-Realm, the clone just picked a suitable spot and committed suicide, unleashing its Land Incarnation. Moreover, this Land Incarnation was slightly modified to make the laws in it act as an energy-gathering formation. A tinge of it touched the Godly Energy vein, pulling forth energy from it as it was stored in the energy-gathering formation. Krune planned to later revive a fragment of Little Krune from this Land Incarnation for his later explorations. As the other clones didn''t manage to find anything significant, all of them too appeared near the volcano and committed suicide in the same place, increasing the strength of the Land Incarnation. With the connection to that particular clone cut off, Krune''s mental state no longer took damage. Thankfully, all the fragments revived in the Lawless Plains. It seemed a connection cut off was similar to death, and hence, the fragment revived soon after in the Lawless Plains. After leaving behind one fragment in the area, the remaining six fragments combined into Little Krune as the teleportation formation was activated. All of them, including 90 Pseudo-Wisps, arrived in the subspace. Followed by a deep sigh, Krune opened his eyes, gazing at the streaming crowd before him and muttered, "Well, that was a wild ride." Chapter 901: Entering the Sub-Realm The Zenith Plugger lookalike ring spirit vanished as Krune and Cultivator landed on the ground, mixing with the other cultivators as they moved through the crowd. From time to time, they would look at the sky, looking at the mountainous demon beast that calmly hovered in the air. Its eyes were clones, seemingly in a state of meditation. At times, its body felt no different from the air, as if it was nothing but a mere illusion. Then again, at other times, it exuded enough pressure to flatten their minds into oblivion. Even walking seemed to consume too must energy as everyone panted. Among the panting crowd, Krune and Cultivator were relatively better, only breaking out in cold sweat. Moreover, the mental pressure worked independently of their cultivation bases. Krune noticed how some God Foundation Realm cultivators fared better than even some of the God Core Realm cultivators. It seemed to be a test of their minds. ''Is that demon beast related to the Sub-Realm? Just what is its current cultivation base?'' Krune thought to himself as he walked. It was shocking at first glance, but as he thought about it, Krune realized how the entire Sub-Realm was probably created by a God for their entertainment. So, of course, they would dispatch someone to oversee it. The mountainous demon beast should be that very delegate dispatched by the God that had created the Sub-Realm. That was probably why the Predominated Vines didn''t do anything to harm it. Or rather, they were unable to affect it. Krune took a deeper look, noticing the strongest of the Predominated Vines in the area were trembling, struggling to close in on the mountainous demon beast. Unfortunately, all the while them doing so, their efforts were futile as something formless seemed to be suppressing their actions. Moreover, this formless substance also seemed to be suppressing the Restriction Law prominent in the region. Suppressing an entire region alone, it displayed the mountainous demon beast''s unfathomable power. Currently, they were walking through a path that spanned a kilometer wide. They were approaching the heart of the Four Sectors'' Border Region. Krune looked around, noticing how the Predominated Vines in their surroundings seemed a lot older and mature compared to the ones he saw at the entrance. Moreover, their strength was also incomparably vast, being at the peak of the Nascent God Realm. Every Predominated Vine in the surrounding was at this stage, baffling Krune. After all, that was a lot of power at their disposal. If the Predominated Vines were to target someone, even if they were immortal, they would eventually fall in this place. Beyond a certain limit, just sheer numbers bring about a qualitative change. ''They would have to face a heavenly tribulation if they wish to exceed their current realm. Is that why they remained in this same stage all this time? Moreover, how long is their lifespan?'' Krune thought when he saw they were nearing the end of the path. Though not long after, as if it was a wave originating from the center, waves of shock and exclaim resounded through the moving crowd. Krune looked forward, taking in a deep breath as he also felt shock. In front of them was a cylindrical column formed by the Predominated Vines that stood up, reaching straight into the sky. Moreover, unlike the other Predominated Vines, these were qualitatively different. Semi-God Realm! All of the Predominated Vines forming the cylindrical column were in the immortal realms, beyond the reach of mortals. Just this fact alone meant they had endured a heavenly tribulation and survived to break through into a higher realm. Two Predominated Vines facing the path had slightly curved the base of their stalks, creating a wide entrance for them to pass through. And, as time passed in such a fashion, Krune and Cultivator entered through the entrance, looking around to witness a massive plain. Nothing grew on the ground here, barren as if vegetation hadn''t ever grown in the place for a long time. Though upon closer inspection, the soil in the ground was suffused with dense tribulation laws. The tribulation lightning had impacted the place so many times the tribulation laws had been inscribed in the soil. It was incredibly precious. Sadly, despite its value, none dared to pocket it. After all, doing so might incur the wrath of the heavens. And, none were foolish enough to take such a risk for no reason. The flat ground was a perfect circle, spanning a radius of 30 kilometers. It was a massive place. And currently, it was almost filled. Upon entry, just like the ones before them, the gazes of Krune and Cultivator were drawn to the Predominated Vine growing in the center. Unlike all the other vines, this was curled up into a bundle at the top. On top of that, the bundle was shaped like a ring while the tip of the vine exited from its bottom and touched the ground, acting as a bridge. Time passed in such a fashion as hours turned into days. Two days later, the entire plains were completely jam-packed with cultivators. At this moment, the two Predominated Vines that had moved their bases to form the entrance wriggled and closed the entrance, joining their bases, cutting off all the cultivators in the plains from the rest of the world. For a moment, those inside were pensive, fearing the Predominated Vines would just lash them and devour them whole. Though soon after, their worries were unfounded as the mountainous demon beast moved a little. It shot its eyes open, causing fierce gales as a result. It then transmitted the message into the minds of everyone using its Divine Sense. "There isn''t anything much you have to think or worry about. The Sub-Realm before you is incredibly vast and has rich resources. It also has suitable dangers accompanying it, so you have been warned. All of you would be randomly transported to various places in the Sub-Realm." "Don''t worry too much as your starting locations would all be safe." Its voice then turned a tad serious as it continued, "But, upon entry, you will have to stay a decade in the Sub Realm. After that, you''ll have to fight for exit tickets. Only with them can you exit the Sub-Realm. If you don''t obtain them, you''ll be permanently bound to it for all your life." The Predominated Vines near the path opened, creating the entrance once again as the mountainous demon beast said, "If anyone wishes to leave, I''ll give you an hour to do so." Not a single cultivator budged an inch. Rather, they all seemed excited at the prospect of getting to stay in the Sub-Realm. After all, the three continents were on the brink of war, so all of them wished to avoid it if possible. The populace in the plains was comprised of cultivators from all three continents. They had either bought, sneaked, or even smuggled their way through the continent paths and arrived at the area. So, they were resolved to evade the continental war no matter the means. Most of the cultivators had even appeared with their entire families, deciding to settle within the Sub-Realm. After all, despite the risks, it was an entirely new world. So, there was a chance they could obtain riches and forge their way to the top of that world. Such was the thought echoing in the minds of everyone. So, none stepped forth to leave the place. After an hour passed, the mountainous demon beast smiled for the first time. "I commend your bravery. Now, let me tell you the rules that would function in the Sub-Realm. More than rules, it''s the laws the Sub-Realm operates on." There was a gentle grunt from the mountainous demon beast as the Godly Energy in the air swirled, even absorbing some of the tribulation laws from the soil to condense into hundreds of thousands of tablets. A tablet hovered before each cultivator as the mountainous demon beast said, "Add a drop of your blood to forge a bond with it." Even though a lot were apprehensive of doing so, the situation didn''t allow them to hesitate too much. Thanks to peer pressure, all the cultivators dripped a drop of their blood on the tablets, causing them to shine and seep into the bodies of the respective cultivator. Krune sensed its position, thanks to his body being comprised of laws. The tablet had turned into a certain dot and was lodged in his glabella. If he so wished, he could summon it out and inspect it whenever necessary. "There are a variety of functions in the tablet. I''ll let you explore them in the Sub-Realm. It wouldn''t be fun if I said everything." Followed by a chuckle, the mountainous demon beast continued, "If you perform certain actions, you''ll be rewarded Godly Points. And, you can use those Godly Points to buy a variety of things and treasures. Moreover, they''re a must if you wish to travel from one region to another." "Did I mention how there are hundreds of regions in the Sub-Realm? Each region has a different environment and a native muddled race. These native races don''t have any sentience or intelligence, but the prime advantage they have is their sheer numbers." The mountainous demon beast then looked below as a ray of light shot from its forehead and landed on the bundle created by the Predominated Vine in the center of the plains. The bundle lit up as Godly Energy swirled in the ring formed in its center. Soon, faint ripples formed on it as a variety of images constantly floated past it. The mountainous demon beast spoke again, "That''s all I''ll be saying. You''ll have to figure out the rest. Don''t forget that luck is also a form of strength. Now, get going." The cultivators at the center gulped once before they began to scale up the Predominated Vine''s body that acted as a staircase. They were afraid it would gobble them up, but upon seeing how it didn''t react, they slowly scaled it up until appearing before the portal to the Sub-Realm. The first cultivator gently placed his hand on the rippling surface of the portal when his body disappeared like a flash of light. The ones standing right behind him noticed how his figure appeared in the center of the image that had flashed, realizing that it was functional. The images on the portal screen constantly changed with every touch as they transported people to different locations. A couple of days later, Krune and Cultivator arrived before it. "Here''s to an interesting journey," Cultivator said with a smile as his figure disappeared. "Here''s to hoping," Krune said as he shook his head, his figure vanishing soon after. Chapter 902: The Immediate Surroundings of a Spawn Area "Where am I?" a man in his forties muttered as he massaged his forehead, easing the pain. He looked around his surroundings, eventually finding himself to be within a forest. There weren''t any trees in his immediate vicinity, surrounding him by a radius of five meters. On the other hand, beyond that point, a thick forest covered him on all sides. Moreover, the trees seemed to steadily grow in height the further one went deeper into the forest. For a couple of seconds, the man remained standing in place, unwilling to take any rash decisions that would cost him his life. He then unleashed his Divine Sense, making a sweep of the area to double-check if the trees were just regular trees. There wasn''t anything suspicious in the area, except for some animal bones that he noticed at some places. He called them animal bones since they were just too small to be labeled demon beast bones. Upon failing to find anything that could threaten his life in the forest, he then entered the stretch of trees, moving through their gaps. The tree barks were rough as they made grating sounds whenever they scraped past his armor. He had been completely prepared for this trip, donning a set of armor and carrying a variety of weapons in his storage ring. He then took out a sphere and placed it in his mouth. It seemed to be a special item he had prepared as it was filled with Godly Energy, a rather dense concentration at that even. He seemed to have prepared it extensively, precisely for his use in the Sub-Realm. Through his Divine Sense, he noticed how there were no traces of Godly Energy in the surroundings, frowning as he moved forth cautiously. Without any Godly Energy in his surroundings, he had to be cautious in his approach to anything. After all, once expended, he couldn''t recover his Godly Energy reserves naturally. Moreover, he had to use up the precious God Stones he had saved up. ''Thankfully, this item can last me for a year,'' he thought as he swallowed the sphere in his mouth. Once the sphere entered his stomach, it began to emit a gentle stream of Godly Energy that flowed through his body, constantly replenishing his reserves. He could not help but frown as he moved forward, having noticed something amiss through his Divine Sense. He could feel something flashing past in and out of his range of Divine Sense. On top of that, it was fast, too fast for him to even make sense of it. "Hah!" Followed by a long exhale, the man increased his focus, strengthening his Divine Sense using an innate technique of his race, now able to perceive everything clearly. He saw the entity flashing in and out of his Divine Sense. It was tiny, only the size of his fist. Nevertheless, it had a needle on its mouth that was twice the length of his body. Moreover, it exuded a pungent thirst for blood, making it seem as if it lived just to feast on the blood of others. Currently, it had been flashing in and out of his Divine Sense because every time it entered the range, it used its legs to grab a tiny wisp of the Godly Energy that made up the Divine Sense. It then seemed to be using the Godly Energy for something, after which it returned to take away some more. The Godly Energy it had taken away was in minuscule amounts that he hadn''t even noticed the first few times. Only through his heightened senses did he sense it. He could now sense the creature''s cultivation base, which was only at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. With a thought, he unleashed a flaming tongue that lashed out on the creature, causing it to pop into a pool of blood. He immediately frowned as it popped way too easily. His attack should have swatted it away before continuing to burn it into a crisp. Unfortunately, the reaction seemed different. He immediately became vigilant as he could smell a whiff of a bloody tang in the air. In an instant, something seemed to have changed in the surroundings as faint buzzing sounds resounded, followed by the swaying of the trees and the falling of the leaves. His face turned pale as the man immediately unleashed a torrent of flames and wrapped them around himself, increasing its size and range as much as he could. A dark cloud flew through the gap in the trees as it headed straight towards the man, slamming into the tornado of flames he had surrounded himself with. Upon the slightest touch, they splashed into a pool of blood, slamming into the tornado of flames and began to douse it. From the top, from the sides, and even from the bottom, the cloud swerved into the fire and continuously doused it. The man had no choice but to absorb a greater stream of Godly Energy from the item in his stomach and increase the intensity of the flames he unleashed. Some of the creatures managed to penetrate the flames and land on his body, piercing their needle through his armor before penetrating his skin. "Aaargh!" The intermittent screams of a man resounded throughout the forest as it was enveloped in a sea of flames. ¡­ "Ouch!" Cultivator grunted as his face kissed the ground. He tried to get up soon after but felt that his body had become heavy, incredibly so. Moreover, a thin stream of blood leaked out of his nose that had been smashed on the hard floor upon his impact. He grunted as the flowing blood paused before moving in reverse, returning into his nose before all traces of it vanished. Cultivator slammed his hands on the ground and craned strength in them, causing them to bulge as the veins popped. "Argh!" Followed by a grunt that was akin to a bellow, he lifted himself, entering a seated position as he panted as he felt pain all over his body. His head felt heavy, straining his neck to the extent he felt that it would snap. His eyes darted around as his mouth opened, muttering through gritted teeth, "So...this is a field with increased gravity, huh." The gravity was definitely increased, but the shocking thing was the existence of a couple of floating islands before him. On top of that, unlike the floating islands he had come across before, these floating islands were miniatures, spanning dimensions in the mere tens of meters. There was a floating island positioned 20 meters away from him as Cultivator barely managed to get up, watching how he was able to see the entirety of the floating island''s surface now. It hovered 10 centimeters from the ground and had a height of 1 meter. On its center were a couple of mountains, each spanning a meter each. So overall, Cultivator was able to see their entirety. It was then he noticed something squirming on the floating islands, like ants. He unleashed his Divine Sense, feeling that it was also a bit sluggish in the area. Through his Divine Sense, he noticed how the ants were actually humanoid beings, possessing numerous horns on their heads as if they had been haphazardly stacked upon each other. The height of the tallest among them was only one millimeter. They were too small to see for the naked eye. All he could make out was a cluster of dots moving about from 20 meters away. And it was only through his Divine Sense he was able to sense their figures. Cultivator was curious about them, wondering how such small beings could exist and even cultivate. After all, he noticed how their cultivation bases were mostly in the God Foundation Realm. There were even hundreds in the God Core Realm and some tens in the Nascent God Realm. Moreover, at the peak of the two mountains¡ªwith respect to their body size¡ªwere a miniature figure each. Both of them were at the Semi-God Realm. ''How can their tiny bodies even store enough Godly Energy?'' Cultivator was curious as he took a step forward, grunting at the gravity that made him struggle to even take a single step. Moreover, when his foot landed on the ground, a heavy noise akin to a massive boulder being dropped on a rock from atop a hill resounded. The intense sound startled Cultivator, who then noticed the populace on the floating island getting stirred up. Then, like a waterfall, they spilled out of the floating island and slowly touched the ground. It seemed that their sizes did come with their respective advantages, for they were unaffected by the gravity, at least based on their gait. They all then closed in on Cultivator, taking almost a couple of hours to reach him. In the meantime, the two Semi-God Realm cultivators on the floating island had taken off to the air, flying through it as they arrived before Cultivator, taking almost a minute to do so. The two of them stopped right before Cultivator''s eyes, gazing into one each. Then immediately took out their weapons and began attacking his eyes. "Ouch!" Cultivator instantly closed his eyes. But, the force from the action of his eyelids moving to shield his eyes caused a violent gale that sent the two immortals flying far away. It took them more than five seconds to return to their previous spots. They then began to accumulate energy for a second attack. Even though Cultivator wasn''t affected by their attacks, he felt something was strange. After all, his body felt a tad heavier than before. Moreover, his line of sight seemed to have subtly shrunk. The difference was so minute that only a thorough verification using his Divine Sense displayed it. Upon discovering that, Cultivator''s expression turned serious, realizing that the tiny insignificant dots before him were dangerous. ¡­ "Ugh..." Krune kneeled on the ground, reeling from the effect of the teleportation. It was slightly weird as he felt nauseous. A couple of seconds later, Krune returned to normal, looking around to see he was within a cave. Surprisingly, it was so hot as if he was inside an oven. The cave was only big enough for him to lay flat within. After taking a couple of steps forward, Krune peered out, gazing at bubbling lava for as far as his eyes could see. He then quickly retracted his head, watching a column of lava move past, blocking out the cave''s entrance. Chapter 903: No Sense to Rely Upon "We were supposed to land in safe zones, right?" Krune muttered in confusion, retreating deep into the cave as he groaned. He then blinked a couple of times, looking around him as he soon realized something. He then recalled the contents said by the mountainous demon beast, realizing how there was a certain twist to it. He immediately cursed upon noticing the wordplay he used. "Oh, for fuck''s sake. So the place we spawn is safe. But anything beyond that isn''t." Krune immediately understood that only a small area, spanning a circle with a radius of a couple of meters, was a safe zone, undisturbed by any danger. And, when they arrived, nothing would happen to them. It was a temporary safe zone. But that was it. Eventually, they would have to move away from the place if they didn''t wish to be subjected to danger. Then again, as long as they move, they would have to face danger. After all, they were most probably dropped in the heart of a dangerous place. Upon seeing the wall of lava that had been raging forth for a couple of minutes now blocking the cave entrance, Krune realized that this was the case. His cave was the only safe zone. But that was only temporary. If he didn''t wish to become a puddle of lava, then he had to swiftly move away. Krune was just about to use his Divine Sense to probe around when the Calamity Laws that formed a part of him flashed, warning him. From the name itself, they were the best at detecting calamities. Surprisingly, this calamity was a relative substance. If the situation was something Krune considered calamitous, the Calamity Laws would give him a subtle warning. At first, the Calamity Laws were the ones that made his life hell. After he comprehended it to a surface extent, it was no longer able to manipulate his karma. Nevertheless, it still made his breakthroughs incredibly life-threatening. Moreover, the Calamity Laws were also able to manipulate scenarios and lead a bunch of people into having a conflict with Krune. Even Cultivator had been manipulated through numerous coincidences to garner interest in Krune. But with the creation of his Spiritual Incarnation, Krune had swallowed and digested the Calamity Laws, turning them into a part of him. After this, the Calamity Laws were no longer able to affect him, at least, based on what he had experienced so far. After all, Little Cally hadn''t appeared after that. Based on his understanding of the Calamity Laws that was a part of him, Little Cally was no longer able to make his life a mess without it taking damage as well. After all, as Krune continued to grow and develop, he would comprehend the Calamity Laws more and more. This meant that he was taking control of the laws from Little Cally, with Little Cally ending up in a passive situation. After all, despite having sentience, it was still a law. Laws could be comprehended and gained control over. On top of that, each God had become an existence that was one with their respective law. They were the law, and the law was their existence. So, when Krune reached such a realm, Little Cally would be destroyed while Krune would turn into the Calamity Law himself. So, to ensure his growth wouldn''t encroach on its existence, Little Cally was most probably not willing to appear and risk him comprehending it more. After all, it could no longer scheme without him being notified of it. They both had the same laws now. Moreover, as long as it waited, it would regain control over its Calamity Laws. After all, the core of Krune''s Spiritual Incarnation wasn''t the Calamity Laws, but the Balance Laws. So, when he reaches the phase where he would turn into a God, he would become an entirely new law and not interfere with Little Cally. That was what he could vaguely guess based on his understanding of the Calamity Laws. Since they were a part of his body, he could obtain such information through meditation. Now that the Calamity Laws had warned him, Krune refrained from using his Divine Sense. He immediately noticed how there wasn''t even a speck of Godly Energy in the surroundings, neither in the air nor in the ground around him. The place seemed void of all traces of Godly Energy and even other forms of energy for that matter. Only the simplest forms of energy in nature, like thermal energy, were present in the area. "There''s a good chance that something unexpected might get triggered the moment I use any Godly Energy. I should probably refrain from using any techniques." Krune frowned as he muttered, feeling that the level of difficulty had increased right from the start. He then thought about how he would escape from the place. After all, the wall of lava hadn''t receded yet. Moreover, the temperature was melting the edge of the walls forming his cave. Not only that, but as it melted, its shape was changing, no longer acting as streamlined redirectors of fluid flow. This caused the lava to steadily seep into the cave, beginning to flood towards Krune. The lava seemed toxic, causing Krune to begin coughing immediately. He coughed out blood as his eyes turned red while his nose cracked. A second later, he recovered from the damage, maintaining an unaffected state. After a moment of thought, he summoned a Pseudo-Wisp, heaving a sigh of relief when no Godly Energy was leaked out in this process. He then used his Mental Energy stealthily, feeling his heart thump with raging momentum as he steadily expanded its radius, finally about to touch the ground. Unfortunately, the Calamity Laws warned him immediately, causing him to retract his Mental Energy Scan as well. For a moment, Krune was flabbergasted since this was the first time he was unable to rely on his Mental Energy Scan. It was truly shocking for him since mental energy was something not part of the God Realm''s laws. So, it couldn''t be countered. "How could they prepare against an energy that they didn''t even know existed?" Krune frowned as he questioned himself, then realizing that there were laws related to cause and effect established in place. The Cause and Effect Laws were special since they were different from the rest of the laws. After all, one could only begin to use them when they reached the peak of the God Realm. On top of that, these two laws were part of a whole and were incredibly mysterious. It was what the Gods used to create foolproof schemes. After all, if there was an effect, there ought to be its cause. Because of this, even his Mental Energy could be countered. After all, the effect here was him sensing through the ground. While the reason would be his Mental Energy. As the place was something that would react to all forms of energy, the law of cause and effect acted based on it, leading to the current situation. "Little Cally, are you the one informing me of all this?" Krune asked while frowning at how his thought process trailed off, arriving at a conclusion that even he couldn''t refute. For a moment, he suspected that it was Little Cally transmitting the information to him. After all, it was something that was a product from beyond the Four Realms. So, it ought to know about the laws of cause and effect. So, Krune was almost assured it was the cause he was deriving a conclusion based on knowledge he didn''t possess before. But, upon seeing how Little Cally didn''t respond, he left it as is, worrying about how he would escape. After all, a thin stream of lava had already reached his legs. Krune just relied on his brute strength to plunge his hand into the wall, piercing it as he used it to support himself in the air. Unsurprisingly, he winced in pain. It seemed the rocks forming the cave were tremendously tough as Krune sensed how his arm had completely fractured in multiple places. A couple of seconds later, it turned normal, allowing him to grab on the wall like a wall hanger. This was the reason Krune was reckless in straining his body. As long as it wasn''t an injury inflicted by a law, he would recover back to his original state in a matter of seconds. The Pseudo-Wisp he had summoned was mimicking the earthworm-type demon beast from before. It coiled around his body before opening its mouth to bite into the sidewalls, burrowing a hole into it as it slithered in. Slowly but surely, it created a wide enough path for him to crawl into. Moreover, it made the path incline upward to prevent the lava from just flowing into it as he moved through it. Krune wasn''t controlling it. He didn''t wish to split his attention in such a situation and risk it. After all, he had to use his Divine Sense to control the Pseudo-Wisp, which was dangerous in the current situation. Besides, he had better alternatives. Little Krune used one of its present six fragments to control the Pseudo-Wisp. Their shared thoughts were mysterious and didn''t depend on any form of energy to work. The earthworm-type demon beast clone made a path as Krune summoned three others of the same. He made them dig through other paths while blocking the one he had slithered into. This way, he wished to find a way out while preventing the lava from flooding him. The earthworm-type demon beast clones soon added more than twenty meters of rocks in the path. As the lava flowed through them, they melted and solidified soon after, turning into a tough layer that prevented the lava from moving beyond. It was an impressive use of the landscape. In any case, Krune didn''t have to worry about the lava anymore. Of course, that didn''t mean he could be careless. With that, he created a chamber in the rocks, one that was a meter in radius, spanning a cylinder whose height was twice his own. Krune calmly stood in the place as his breathing rate slowed down to a crawl, unwilling to expend all the oxygen in place before his objective was reached. All paths to the chamber had been closed by at least a layer of rocks worth a thickness of 20 meters. After that, the clones branched out in four different directions, intending to find a path of safety. Moreover, even if they were to stumble upon an area flooded by the lava that ends up killing them, it would be unable to reach him and harm him. As long as he had enough Pseudo-Wisps, Krune could sustain the losses and expenditure easily. With such a plan, he started his exploration in the Sub-Realm, one where he couldn''t rely on his senses. Chapter 904: Scary, Too Scary The earthworm-type demon beast clones dug through the rocky layer, mostly filling up the path they made behind them as they proceeded forward. This was to ensure the column they dug wouldn''t collapse when they encountered something amiss. Moreover, if a clone died after digging into a field of lava, it would cause the lava to flow through the tunnel it had dug, allowing it to flow through the entire rock section. That would restrict the paths Krune could move through during his escape. There was also the possibility that if a similar thing constantly happened, before he could realize what was happening, he would be surrounded by tunnels of lava. After that, chances of him making a successful escape would become slim. That was why all the clones were careful in their movements, tunneling through while filling up the parts they had dug immediately. This slowed down their exploration speed tremendously, but it was the safest approach. Nevertheless, Krune wasn''t pressed for time. He was in here for the experience, to better temper himself through all sorts of situations. Therefore, even the current situation was just a means to train himself. Well, he also had to stay in the Sub-Realm for ten whole years. That was a lot of time to consider. Therefore, he wasn''t in a hurry. Of course, that didn''t mean he could take his sweet time exploring. He didn''t know when the surroundings would turn volatile. Besides, Krune couldn''t relax after sensing two warnings from the Calamity Laws. That meant that there was something dangerous, incredibly so, in the rocks that were capable of threatening his life. With that, he had to be careful. Krune then sensed the dot in his glabella, trying to comprehend the details in it. Though, upon realizing the fact that activating it would release Godly Energy in the surroundings, he refrained from looking at it for the time being, cursing mentally. ''The one who made this is cunning. If I didn''t have the Calamity Laws to warn me, I would have pulled out the tablet and triggered whatever danger that rests in this place.'' He could feel his heart thump in long intervals as if it was strained. The beats were intermittent, but some were stronger than the rest. And with every strong beat, he shuddered. It was fear, something he had forgotten long ago. His back was drenched with sweat while all the hair on his arms stood ramrod straight. The pores on his skin opened while his primitive senses were at full sensitivity. Even the slightest vibration in the rocks caused him to shudder. The feeling of fear was brought about by many reasons, one of which was because his senses were cut off. Until now, even if his Divine Sense had been restricted or blocked, Krune always relied on his Mental Energy Scan to pull through. Sadly, he couldn''t rely on his Mental Energy Scan in this place. Therefore, he felt like he had become blind and was unable to make sense of his surroundings. Emotions that he never knew he was capable of experiencing emanated from him. His brows trembled as his breathing grew labored. Unwilling to watch his mental state deteriorate further, Krune closed his eyes, taking in deep breaths as he continued to circulate Godly Energy through his godly meridians. Of course, this was just a means of calming himself down. Out of the seven fragments Little Krune could split itself into, four were currently inhabiting their own Pseudo-Wisps, exploring through the rocky layer. Two were in his subspace, idle, while the final one was in the Lawless Plains. At present, it was comprehending the essence of the energy-gathering formation to see if it could obtain something new from it. It was also comprehending the laws related to his subspace to increase its size. Through their shared thoughts, Krune tried to activate the teleportation formation to see if it worked. Unfortunately, when the Little Krune fragment activated the teleportation formation in the Lawless Plains, followed by a spark, it deactivated. This meant that the spatial bridge between them was cut off. So, Krune couldn''t rely on it to send in Pseudo-Wisps from time to time and replenish his reserves. With that, he only had the 90 Pseudo-Wisps he had brought over with him. ''At least I brought quite a lot. The Godly Energy in them would last me for a long time unless I encounter something overpowered,'' Krune thought as he saw from the perspectives of the other four clones. He couldn''t see through their eyes or hear through their senses. That wasn''t possible. Though, thanks to their shared thoughts, everything the clones experienced, he felt them as well. On top of that, there wasn''t even a fraction of a second''s delay. Among the clones, one proceeded vertically upward while the other proceeded vertically downward. This was in hopes of seeing the ends of the rock layer. Moreover, Krune had a faint hunch that what he saw before wasn''t the whole situation. And just as he had expected, three hours later, the clone that had proceeded vertically up bit through the last stretch of rock in its way, coming face to face with a sea of lava that gushed into it. It seemed that the top of the layer of rock was covered by lava. Instinctively, the clone used Godly Energy to save itself. Godly Energy gushed out of its body and turned cold, slamming into the lava. The laws of gravity were also used to push the lava away until it was cooled enough to solidify. Unfortunately, a couple of seconds after it had used Godly Energy, the rocks surrounding it broke into tiny fragments. Surprisingly, they weren''t crumbling. Rather, having absorbed the Godly Energy, the rock fragments had gained sentience. They were tiny organisms that were similar to viruses and would come alive when in contact with Godly Energy. The clone immediately increased the freezing energy in an effort to freeze them all. But instead, something strange happened. Even after they were frozen, the Godly Energy in the ice was constantly absorbed by the frozen rocks as they grew in size. Eventually, the ice shattered when it lost most of the Godly Energy that formed its foundation, while the rock it had frozen turned big enough to shatter it from inside. This way, the attacks it used were just fuelling their growth. Eventually, a piece of rock grew a pair of limbs as it hopped through the tunnel and latched onto the clone, greedily absorbing its Godly Energy before it was swatted away. The clone began to pant, having lost a lot of Godly Energy in the process as the space in the tunnel was reducing at an alarming rate. The rocks were growing in size as they absorbed its Godly Energy and became sentient. They then began to attack it, lunging straight at it to absorb its Godly Energy. The clone immediately changed elements, switching to poison, corrosion, wind, acoustic, and so on. But no matter what, the Godly Energy in the attacks was absorbed by the rocks to grow stronger. After all, no matter what element the clone used, the rocks existed in one of the states of matter. As long as it wasn''t something that disintegrated matter itself, no attacks harmed them. After all, when the clone used the law of fire to melt them, only their form had changed. They weren''t killed. And, as lava, they absorbed the Godly Energy in the fire to increase in volume. The lava then moved towards the clone and attacked its tail, burning through the flesh. Seeing how the clone was almost a goner, Krune thought of another way to experiment. The clone instantly increased the volume of flames it spewed forth, melting through the rocks as it entered the sea of lava. It erected a barrier of Godly Energy around itself and moved through it. His expression paled as Krune noticed how the lava was the same as the rocks. Well, they were indeed the same, only their states of matter were different. The lava absorbed the Godly Energy from the barrier. As it was in a fluid state, Krune couldn''t determine if it increased in volume or not. After all, being unable to use either Divine Sense or Mental Energy, Krune was unable to determine that. The clone burst with all its speed as it moved through the sea of lava, expending Godly Energy at a passive pace. Every second, the energy expended equaled to the amount of a First Stage Godly Fusion Realm cultivator. The expenditure was massive. Seeing how its speed wasn''t optimal, the clone thought and immediately changed form, turning into a massive whale-type demon beast. Moreover, the barrier of Godly Energy shrunk until it formed a thin layer over its body. This way, it would maintain its streamlined shape and swim better through the lava. The clone didn''t turn into a smaller fish because the density of lava was beyond the likes of water. On top of that, it needed enough muscle strength and flappable area to move through that. Each flap of the whale-type demon beast clone caused faint ripples as it moved forward at speeds faster than before. Unfortunately, the expenditure was also greater than before. After all, with a bigger body, the surface area in contact with the lava had increased. This meant that the area where its Godly Energy was being siphoned from was also higher. But overall, the efficiency of travel was greater than before. That was why the clone took this form. Time passed in such a fashion with the clone already exhausted. Unfortunately, the resistance it faced had increased to the extent it could hardly move forward. To survive, the clone created a platform of godly energy under its tail. It used a tremendous quantity of Godly Energy to make the platform last a couple of seconds before it was completely absorbed by the lava. Its body then shone with rainbow light as its tail slapped on the Godly Energy platform, resulting in a tremendous repulsive force. This force sent the clone flying forward as it seemed to have torn through a membrane of sorts, noticing how all resistance had vanished. What it saw now was hollowness, without anything of substance, including air. It was like one was within space, but the gravity here was tremendous as the clone''s body instantly accelerated. Chapter 905: Spheres of Law Clusters It was a massive stretch of hollowness, with something that looked like a cluster of dots at the very center of it. Though, as the clone began to fall towards them, Krune soon realized they were spheres. Not only that, but these spheres took on a variety of colors. They were all revolving around a black sphere that was the source of the immense gravitational pull. As the clone closed in towards them, its body began to vaporize. After all, one of the spheres in the cluster emitted blinding radiation. Within a couple of seconds, the clone was fully vaporized. Nevertheless, Krune wasn''t disheartened. Rather, he was surprised. Surprisingly, the spheres were laws, rather pure ones at that. On top of that, they were in an intangible state, influencing the region based on it. If Krune obtained them, he could comprehend those respective laws faster, way faster than him comprehending the respective laws normally. It was the same thought process regarding what he and Cultivator had talked about before while discussing the law in the hilt. Though, unlike the one in the hilt, the spheres were just a cluster of laws. The law in the hilt was in its purest form, which meant it was a product of a God. The difference between them was like heaven and earth. Then again, that also meant that the spheres posed less risk for him. He could comprehend them without getting killed. After all, he would be able to defend against them while using the chance to understand them better. ''But, I first need to find an exit,'' Krune thought as he stood in silence, digesting everything the clone had experienced. He then shot his eyes open, muttering with a smile, "The gravity I feel is thanks to that sphere of gravity in the center. It seems that the direction I thought of as up was actually pointed towards the center." He sensed how the lava had formed a ring around the vacuum and how the various spheres revolved around the black sphere. In the vacuum, the gravity was directed towards the center. But in the region of lava, it was pointed in the opposite direction. He didn''t know how something like that was possible, deciding to attribute it to one of the laws in the numerous spheres. He only managed to determine the sphere of fire and gravity before his clone vaporized. "Hmm...if I proceed in this direction, I''ll reach the exit," Krune thought out loud as the clone proceeding vertically downward sped forth, eventually coming face to face with a sea of lava again. Though, Krune wasn''t flustered this time. Rather, the clone protected itself using a Godly Energy barrier and took on the form of a whale-type demon beast, quickly proceeding through the lava as its Godly Energy was siphoned off at a tremendous rate. Along the way, the clone came across numerous rocks of various sizes floating on the surface. It looked around, noticing the place Krune was in was a massive rock. There were similar-sized rocks in the sea of lava. Moreover, it seemed that the sea of lava the other clone had encountered was something that existed within the rock Krune was in. The moment he realized that, Krune was stunned for a moment before laughing. "I see, I see, so these are the treasures accompanied with risks." Within the sea of lava stretching as far as the eye could see, there existed rocks¡ªthe size of small continents¡ªscattered all over it, submerged at varying depths. And then, the center of the rocks was another sea of lava. Finally, at its dead center was a space of vacuum, wherein its center had spheres formed by a cluster of laws. These spheres were the treasures. Anyone who obtained them would experience a massive boost in strength. Unfortunately, the task was difficult as the entire lava seemed to be organisms similar to viruses. The moment they absorbed Godly Energy, they would come to life and attack the Godly Energy source to steal more Godly Energy from it. Even with tremendous preparations, one might still end up losing all Godly Energy before ending up as a withered husk. After that, they would either be melted by the lava or be trapped in between the rocks for all eternity. As long as they weren''t immortal, they would quickly die in such a state. Time passed in this manner as the clone began to run out of Godly Energy. It was constantly using the Balance Laws to propel itself forward at tremendous speeds. Its body had taken considerable damage. Though, in order to conserve the Godly Energy that would be consumed to heal itself, the clone pressed forth in its injured state. Fortunately, it could see the end after quite some time. Though, just when its head peeked out of the sea of lava, it had expended all its Godly Energy. Its barrier disappeared as it caught up with fire, quickly burning out. But in the one second it managed to look out, Krune determined that it was indeed safe beyond that since he could see quite a few floating islands in the air. As long as he could reach the floating islands, he would be able to take some rest. "This place is incredibly dangerous. If I didn''t possess a Spiritual Incarnation, I would have died. Wouldn''t everyone else die straight up?" Krune frowned as he muttered to himself, wondering if the God who had created the Sub-Realm was someone who took enjoyment at the death of others. He then thought that it might not be the case. As a God, he would have been alive for way too long. Even if he had been a bloodthirsty individual, after witnessing the same thing countless times, he might have lost all interest in the act of killing. So, the cause shouldn''t be that. Krune had a hunch everyone was dropped in a dangerous area depending on their ability to handle them. Those with a Spiritual Incarnation were dropped at incredibly dangerous places to offset their advantages. After all, something dangerous to a normal cultivator wouldn''t even be a threat to a cultivator possessing a Spiritual Incarnation. That might have been the reason Krune was transported to a place as dangerous as this. After confirming this, the remaining two clones returned to the chamber as Krune hatched a plan. As for the two fragments that had been controlling the clones that were killed, they mysteriously reappeared in his subspace. Unsurprisingly, he had the laws of space form a part of his Spiritual Incarnation due to the laws he had chosen encompassing all laws in existence. As for Little Krune, he was a mysterious existence, something that was real but not at the same time. Since he was part of Krune''s Spiritual Incarnation, it couldn''t die. It simply revived in his subspace. Moreover, it didn''t even need any Godly Energy to do so. Krune thought for a moment, focusing on the subspace as he willed, watching it disappear from his Wisp Core. It then appeared in the Wisp Core of one of the clones. It hadn''t suffered any damage in doing so. It seemed that when he wished to transport the subspace, it turned intangible, just like the laws in their empirical form. It would then vanish from his Wisp Core and appear in the same place, but in the body of a clone. With a thought, it vanished from it and appeared in the Wisp Core of another clone. It followed the same principle as to how Little Krune''s fragments moved. After all, when Krune revived, he revived with his subspace. He had been wondering about that all along. Because in his death, the subspace should have been destroyed. And when he revived, the subspace should have been a dot, a blank space, the same as the one that appeared when he first formed it. But that didn''t happen. The subspace was still there with the same items he had placed in them, in the exact positions. It hadn''t experienced any changes, as if the only one that had died was only him. As his Spiritual Incarnation hadn''t been damaged, it wasn''t damaged either. Upon noticing the Laws of Cause and Effect, Krune began to think through this line of thought, wondering if it was possible. And now that he had confirmed it, Krune was a lot more confident than usual. He then thought of an idea, wondering if it would be possible to send the subspace to the Little Krune fragment in the Lawless Plains. Sadly, the Calamity Laws instantly warned him of the danger in such an action. As he closed his eyes to ponder on it, Krune realized the cause was the powerful spatial barrier shrouding the Sub-Realm. Trying to transport past it would damage his Spiritual Incarnation to a crippling level. There was almost a guaranteed chance his subspace would be destroyed completely by it. His understanding of the laws of space and his authority over it hadn''t exceeded the creator of the Sub-Realm. Only when he was on the same level as the other party would Krune be able to achieve something like that. Krune then thought about the method to steal those spheres. Moreover, he wondered as to how he would store them, in the likelihood he did manage to get them. To experiment, he sent a clone towards the space of vacuum once again. But this time, it was carrying the subspace with it. Realizing how he could switch places of the subspace in an instant, just like his shared thoughts, Krune wasn''t afraid it would be damaged. Every now and then, a Pseudo-Wisp exited the subspace whenever necessary and completely refilled the Godly Energy reserves of the clone. With that, it easily managed to reach the vacuum, beginning to head towards the center where the spheres were. The Godly Energy expenditure was tremendous as the clone had to resist damage from the sphere of fire in the center. Unwilling to be hasty, the clone used its own version of the laws of gravity, reducing its falling speed towards the center. This way, Krune had enough time to determine which laws were among the spheres. He planned to formulate a plan to take them accordingly. First, he tried to see if he could store them in a storage ring. If that failed, he wanted to see if storing them in his subspace was possible. There were numerous risks in this plan, but this was the only way he knew where he could understand more about his abilities. With that, Krune was eager to try it out. Chapter 906: The Region Absorbs Godly Energy And Births Monstrosities The clone moving through the vacuum soon erected a barrier of Godly Energy around itself, defending against the Laws of Fire and Gravity. Through the shared thoughts, Krune figured out the laws in each sphere. "Gravity, Fire, Earth, Force, Movement, Restraint, Light, and Sound." Krune made sure that those laws were in those spheres, muttering in the end, "There''s quite a lot of them. Then again, only the Laws of Gravity and Fire are the most concentrated. The rest aren''t as great." The sphere formed by the Law of Gravity was positioned in the center of all the spheres. Because of that, it was the biggest. It was then followed by the Law of Fire and Earth. Beyond that, the remaining law clusters weren''t so pure. Unsurprisingly, they were tiny and, at times, interacted with the others. With that, Krune was only interested in the laws of Fire, Gravity, and Earth. As for the rest, he didn''t wish to take them since they served no practical use to him. Only as pure clusters would they complement his comprehension speed of the respective laws. As the clone moved towards the center, its Godly Energy expenditure became massive as some of the radiation began to pierce through its defenses and damage its body. Thankfully, it could recover by expending some Godly Energy. After all, the goal was to reach the spheres and grab them. If it was destroyed before that, then all his efforts would have been for naught. With that in mind, Krune wasn''t bothered too much about the Godly Energy expenditure. The clone soon arrived at the center as it fished out a storage ring. Having taken on his human form, it reached out towards the sphere of fire with its hand, having covered it with enough Godly Energy after activating the Laws of Fire and Ice. The ice protected the insides, while the fire formed the outermost layer, using the dissipation of heat to counter the radiation slamming onto it. This way, it could resist the temperatures and prevent itself from collapsing. The hand with the ring soon arrived before the sphere of fire as it was activated, causing a formless activation of the laws of space. The sphere of fire was wrapped around by the Laws of Space in an effort to drag it into the storage ring. This was the first time Krune felt so much resistance from an item. Usually, putting an object in a storage space and taking it out took only a single thought. But now, it was as if he was physically carrying a heavy boulder, trying to stuff it through a narrow window. It wasn''t fitting. No matter how much the clone activated the storage ring, the sphere of fire failed to budge. All it did was tremble in place a couple of times before becoming still. The clone then focused on the tiny law spheres, trying to store them, only to find out that they behaved the same. They didn''t budge from their spots at all. The clone then focused on the sphere of gravity, realizing that it was the culprit that prevented it from storing the other spheres of law. After all, the Laws of Gravity could affect the Laws of Space. So, they were inter-connected. The clone then tried to pull in the sphere of gravity, feeling even more difficulty in doing so. The Laws of Space in the storage ring were too inferior to affect it. Fortunately, Krune realized the issue immediately. All the storage rings he had were of inferior quality. Most of them were those he had haphazardly forged without much experience in the God Realm. Therefore, they couldn''t pull in objects with tremendous ''spatial weight'' like the spheres of law clusters. ''There''s only one place with enough laws of space,'' Krune thought to himself as he gulped, feeling somewhat nervous thinking that he was going to use his subspace as an experiment. It was definitely bound to be incredibly risky, not to mention scary. After all, all the Pseudo-Wisps were currently inside it. A single misstep would kill them all, leading to him becoming stranded in the rock, no longer able to escape. As long as the Godly Energy in the Pseudo-Wisps didn''t escape from his subspace, he could still use them. Then again, that didn''t mean the risks weren''t there. If the spheres of law clusters absorbed all the Godly Energy, then they would cause a fiery hell in his subspace. That would prevent him from making use of it until he figured out a way to salvage the situation. Just when the clone was about to act on the sphere of gravity using the subspace, it stopped. Krune had backed out, unable to come up with a good plan. He didn''t want to risk his life so soon. Besides, he had no reason to do so. After all, neither his life was threatened, nor was he pressed for time to grow stronger. He was only here for the experience. Embarking on something that would definitely destroy his accumulation wasn''t something he desired. "I can return here whenever I please and retrieve them," Krune muttered sometime later, followed by a sigh, "After all, I only need to expend a Pseudo-Wisp''s worth of Godly Energy to reach the center from the surface of the sea of lava." To be honest, it was a wise decision. Krune couldn''t determine the extent of the damage he would have to suffer by taking in the spheres of law clusters. He had to pursue efficiency. After all, in order to improve, if he destroyed all his current accumulation, the backlash would send his progress backward. By the time he managed to recover from it, the reason he had tried to obtain it in the first place would seem pointless. As long as he comprehended it normally, it might even surpass the extent achieved by going through all the danger. And besides, if he was stronger and his subspace was more robust, he could handle the aftermath. "I will be here for 10 years anyway. In the latter half of my journey, I should be strong enough to handle this." Krune shook his head as the clone retreated from the hollow area, arriving before the chamber he was in. After gathering his bearings, Krune looked at the clone that had turned into the earthworm-type demon beast from before. Moreover, its size had become a tad larger, the limit for its current cultivation. At present, there was only Krune and the clone in the area. The clone opened its mouth and swallowed Krune, settling him within its belly. It then wriggled a couple of times to adjust its body, allowing it to travel with ease while not damaging Krune too much. Krune had shielded himself with a thick layer of Godly Energy to not be affected by the earthworm-type clone''s stomach acids. Besides, he wasn''t a fan of being covered in goo. That was a big no for him. As he protected himself and adjusted well within the clone''s stomach, it soon began to slither, heading vertically downward from the chamber. And just like before, once it arrived before the sea of lava, it changed shape into the whale-type demon beast. It then swam through the sea of lava, shielding itself from the lava while its Godly Energy was constantly siphoned. Krune noticed how the lava was churning more violently as compared to before. Since after it absorbed Godly Energy from the clone, parts of the lava had become sentient. It was attributed to the fact how streams of lava slammed onto the clone from time to time, intending to shred its protection apart and devour all the Godly Energy inside it. Thankfully, Krune could deal with it. All he did was summon a Pseudo-Wisp and cause it to dissipate, making the Godly Energy inside the Pseudo-Wisp stream into the clone, replenishing its reserves to full capacity. He also ensured to make the Pseudo-Wisp resemble the clone in terms of body structure and meridian structure so that the clone could absorb all the Godly Energy instantly. This was possible because, at the end of the day, all of them were just clones of himself. Streams of lava did slam onto the clone from time to time, sending it reeling away in an effort to make it stay within the sea of lava for a longer duration. Unfortunately for the lava, Krune didn''t relent, continuing to focus as the clone swam through all obstacles, eventually reaching the surface. It then turned into a heavy demon beast with wings, one that had a lot of lift but wasn''t able to sustain flight for long. Using this form, the clone barely managed to escape from the sea of lava. Tongues of lava exited as flames while some of it churned, exiting like ribbons as they slammed onto the clone, latching onto it to drag it back within the lava. The clone unleashed a powerful gust of wind and gravity, pushing away the ribbons of lava in an instant. It then emitted a dense stream of freezing energy, barely hardening part of the lava''s surface layer. Using the chance it gave itself, it took flight as it increased its altitude before the hardened surface melted. The lava splashed as what seemed similar to a tentacle exited from it, heading straight towards the clone. The clone''s body shone with the rainbow light as it erected numerous platforms of Godly Energy underneath its wings and claws, changing its inherent structure to resemble a foreign cultivator. Every time it slammed into the platforms, the repulsive force sent it reeling up, accelerating it greatly at the expense of its body''s structural integrity. It was getting destroyed with every hit, but its momentum continued to increase rapidly, barely managing to escape the reach of the lava tentacle. It was really a fight against time there. The lava tentacle failed to grab hold of it as it crashed back into the sea of lava, causing a splash before the entire place returned to normalcy. The clone changed form once again before increasing the speed of its flight, soon reaching the floating island as it observed it from atop. The entire floating island was barren and filled with rocks. To experiment, Krune intended to extend his Divine Sense until it encompassed the floating island. Sadly, the Calamity Laws warned him immediately, making him curse as he looked around, "Damn it. So you''re telling me all the rocks in this region are the same." He couldn''t help but curse out loud. Krune noticed the numerous floating islands in the region, paling as he felt restricted, no longer able to use any Godly Energy in fear it would birth even more monstrosities from the land. Chapter 907: The Tablet Every physical part or object in the region was the same. They acted akin to viruses, ones that looked no different from a regular part of the land. Though at the very moment they came into contact with Godly Energy, they become sentient, absorbing the Godly Energy as they grew in size. Then, they would turn into monstrosities that attacked any and every source of Godly Energy. In this case, the sources were the cultivators. After all, there was not even an ounce of Godly Energy in the region. It was completely devoid of it. Therefore, any hint of Godly Energy would seem like the sun in the middle of the night. Therefore, if Krune wished to remain alive, he couldn''t use any Godly Energy. Even the barest minimum of action would emit some Godly Energy. A regular cultivator wouldn''t even realize it. After all, there was usually a considerable concentration of Godly Energy in the God Realm, at least equivalent to a Rank One God Stone in quality. With that, they wouldn''t be able to sense the tinge of Godly Energy they emit through their activities, even by breathing. Now that Krune was aware of everything, he realized that he definitely made a close call. After all, if he had been in the chamber any longer, the rocks surrounding him would have gained sentience sooner or later. After all, despite it being almost negligible, he was still emitting some Godly Energy into the surroundings. As the surroundings rocks absorbed it, they were indeed developing. If they were given some more hours, they would have gained sentience and would have latched onto Krune to absorb all the Godly Energy in him. Thankfully, Krune luckily managed to escape before that happened. Now, Krune didn''t dare come out, staying within the belly of the clone as he pondered over something, focusing on the dot in his glabella. The dot was the tablet they were all given before entering the Sub-Realm. Krune hadn''t managed to take a look at it yet. As he was within the clone''s stomach, even if the action of summoning the tablet would expel some Godly Energy into the surroundings, it would only be within the clone. This way, he could avoid awakening even more rocks. As the clone would be absorbing all the Godly Energy, he could more or less rest assured. With a thought, the dot on his glabella flashed as it emitted a gentle white light, turning into a ray of light before condensing into a rectangular slab before him. It spanned a meter in length and half a meter in width. It was currently blank, save for the image of Krune inscribed on its surface. It was a realistic inscription as if his face had been slammed into it to create the image. As he looked at it, Krune realized that nothing changed in the tablet. He tried to comprehend the laws used in it, immediately getting a headache as he muttered helplessly, "I almost forgot it was made using some of the Tribulation Laws. I can''t comprehend it." Tribulation Laws were the absolute pinnacle of the God Realm. It was the only law that no cultivator could comprehend. After all, it was a product of the God Realm, something the will of the realm, or typically addressed as the Heaven''s Will wielded. Therefore, it couldn''t be comprehended by the cultivators. Moreover, if someone dared to do so, they would experience intense headaches while their Godly Energy would go haywire. If they persisted with the effort, their meridians would explode, killing them. Even cultivators with Spiritual Incarnation would take damage. After all, the one that caused the damage was the Tribulation Law. So, as a law, it could damage their laws, causing them problems and preventing them from reviving easily. Even for Krune, it wasn''t wise to comprehend the Tribulation Law. After all, it was the sole law that wasn''t a part of his Spiritual Incarnation. If anything, if it had become a part of him, then Krune would have to suffer from heaven''s wrath constantly until he was completely annihilated from the God Realm. ''Maybe the situation would have turned out different if I still had Luvile''s purple lightning,'' Krune thought, wondering the strength of that. It seemed to be a derivative of the Tribulation Laws and hence, had unrivaled power. It made him wonder just what sort of existence Luvile was to wield the strength of the Tribulation Law without suffering the wrath of the heavens. Then again, it made him realize that might have been the reason Luvile had to depend on Krune to reach the God Realm once again, entering Krune using a tribulation. Maybe as a prior God, Luvile had managed to obtain a way to harness the power of the Tribulation Law. Or maybe it was something else he derived from his experience in trying to leave the Four Realms. Krune stopped moping about as he focused on the tablet before him, trying to see if he could control it using his thoughts. With one thought, the tablet collapsed into a dot of light and retreated to his glabella. Upon another thought, it recondensed into the tablet once again. As Krune continued to do it, he kept thinking about other things, from one substance to another, in an effort to activate the tablet to display something other than the inscription of his face. As time passed, he hallucinated as if the inscription of him on it was laughing at his foolishness, making a mockery out of him. Soon, Krune lost his patience, getting pissed off as he slammed a punch at it, causing a loud gong sound. Following suit was a ripple along the surface of the tablet as his inscription merged into the surface like it was water. Soon, followed by another ripple, a set of words appeared on it. [Region: Epic Hell] [Number of cultivators: 74] [Total Score: 12 Godly Points] [Highest Score: 10 Godly Points] [Rankings] "Epic Hell, what the hell is up with this weird name? And the scores¡­" Krune frowned as he muttered. "How were they able to accumulate Godly Points?" Based on what the mountainous demon beast had said, they could perform certain tasks to receive Godly Points. Soon, Krune realized upon seeing the data that everything that was displayed was only concerning his region, Epic Hell. This meant there were a couple of cultivators that had managed to earn some Godly Points even in this ridiculous environment. They had only recently appeared in the Sub-Realm, so it was pretty quick of them to do so. As for Krune, he still had no idea as to how he could earn some Godly Points. There was no information concerning that on the tablet. Rather, all he could see was the data that appeared on it through sheer coincidence. Krune then tapped on the tablet a couple of times, nudged it, scratched it, scribbled on it, rubbed it, and punched it quite a few times to relieve his frustration. But ultimately, nothing changed. Sighing, he retrieved it, watching the tablet condense into a dot and return to his glabella once again. "Wait a second¡­" Suddenly, he thought of something as Krune''s attention shifted. The clone immediately flapped its wings in a hurry and accelerated, heading towards a floating island before looking at its surface. "It wasn''t here. It was somewhere else." Krune closed his eyes, relying on his shared thoughts to witness everything the clone saw. The clone then flew over a couple more floating islands, eventually hovering above what seemed to be one of the largest floating islands in the immediate vicinity. There was some water in the center, forming a pond. Surrounding it were what seemed to be sand, coarse and wet. On one end of the floating island was a hill, rather steep with jagged rocks. Moreover, the entire ground of the floating island was covered by rocks resembling sharp blades. Surprisingly, half-buried in the sand was what he had glanced over once during the flight but had glossed over. Now that he had interacted with the tablet, Krune could immediately recognize it. Half-buried in the sand and gently washed by the waves of the pond from time to time was a tablet just like his, possessing the same dimensions. Though, that was the only thing present in the place. The owner of the tablet seemed to have gone missing. Krune had some suspicions, hovering in the air as the clone looked at the tablet, focusing on the pond beside. The waves on its surface seemed unnatural. After all, there wasn''t any wind in the place. Rather, the entire region was devoid of any wind, despite it being a place where the surface was covered by churning lava. The clone opened its mouth as another clone flew out. Unlike the previous clone, this was shaped as a bird-type demon beast that excelled in speed and maneuverability in the air. It was mimicking the ring spirit Cultivator had used to help them escape the sea of Predominated Vines. With such a form, its evasive abilities were guaranteed. The bird-type demon beast clone flapped its wings in a hurry as it sped towards the pond, intending to make an instantaneous sweep of the tablet and the surrounding area with its Divine Sense. This was to understand the details of the area while not giving it an opportunity to birth something because of the energy in the Divine Sense. The clone morphed its shape, causing another head to form in the place of its tail. This head opened its mouth, causing a spiral of the laws of fire, wind, and gravity to form in it. A second later, it unleashed a column of fire, rocketing towards the target area as it flashed past instantly, quickly changing forms as it flapped in the air and slowly returned to the clone within whose stomach Krune was hiding. As it disappeared, Krune frowned, shuddering for a moment as he felt a chill wash over his body. Unexpectedly, a massive hand shot forth from the pond, swiping past the area the bird-type demon beast clone had flown past. Thanks to the difference in their speeds, its reaction had been late. Nevertheless, its appearance confirmed Krune''s conjecture. "So, a cultivator had appeared on this floating island, mistakenly used his Godly Energy, and ended up creating a strong monstrosity that ended up killing him and sucking his Godly Energy dry. Through this, it grew even more powerful." "At the end, only the cultivator''s tablet remained behind." Krune sighed as he recalled the face of the individual inscribed on the respective tablet. His Divine Sense sweep gave him all the information he needed, realizing that the body of the monstrosity birthed by that cultivator was¡­rather huge. After all, this cultivator was at the Seventh Stage of the God Core Realm. Including all the preparations he had made, which were stored in his spatial ring, it resulted in the birth of a terrifying figure. Chapter 908: Regional Border The clone immediately began to fly away as Krune witnessed the hand that had emerged from the pond fully extend until a head peaked out. The head seemed to be a mixture of water and rocks, taking on the appearance of a coagulated giant. Then again, just its head alone was 20 meters long. It was humanoid in shape, extending its hand to grab hold of the flying clone. Moreover, a faint suction force was generated from it as the column of fire that had been unleashed by the bird-type clone before was absorbed towards it. As it closed in on it, the flames and other effects in it died out as the remaining Godly Energy in it was sucked into the giant. In the meantime, the clone containing Krune managed to distance itself enough from the giant. Krune''s heart thumped in fear as he peeked out through the clone''s mouth, making eye contact with the giant. The giant seemed intent to devour him whole. From the looks of it, it seemed to be able to sense the tremendous reserve of Godly Energy in him. Just when he thought he had escaped, followed by a rumble, the giant fully peaked out up to its hips. With that, it was now a tremendously huge behemoth. Just its sheer size caused Krune to sweat in tension as it was the worst opponent he could face. Attacks imbued with Godly Energy were practically useless against it. Unless the attacks could disintegrate its body, they wouldn''t be able to destroy it. Instead, the Godly Energy in them would further fuel the giant and cause it to grow even bigger. So, the only option to destroy it would be physical attacks. But even then, Krune had no idea if getting ground to dust would stop it. Nevertheless, doing so was immensely difficult. After all, he didn''t have the necessary physical might to damage the massive giant. Its internals was full of rocks, forming a rigid defensive structure thanks to the weight and structural integrity of the forming rocks. Moreover, the water acted as a fluid that absorbed all the unnecessary shock transmitted within them while moving. All along, they seemed like one individual. The water and the rocks were sentient and formed the massive giant. Krune could guess the giant was just a patch of rock that contained a bit of water within it initially. When the unfortunate cultivator used his Godly Energy, it absorbed them all and had grown to such an extent. It was scary because this was just a single piece of rock. So, as long as enough Godly Energy was supplied, any piece of rock could grow without any limits. Krune shuddered when he wondered just what would happen if a piece of rock was sent to the God Realm. By absorbing all the abundant Godly Energy in the air, wouldn''t it grow and transform into a calamitous entity in no time? ''I don''t even have appropriate tools to deal physical damage to it,'' Krune thought to himself as the clone continued to fly forward, escaping the reach of the giant. ''102 shields¡­it''s time I change my tactics.'' He shook his head, not having the time to do anything he sought at present. Though, just when he thought he had escaped from its range of action, the floating island it was on rumbled. Then, as if it was a living entity, it started to move, startling Krune. With that, the clone changed forms in an instant, becoming a bird-type demon beast with the best maneuverability in the air. It was the very same one they had boarded to escape the sea of Predominated Vines. "I''ll just call you the Escapist," Krune muttered as he nodded from inside its stomach as the bird-type demon beast clone, Escapist, flapped its wings and shot forward at tremendous speeds. The floating island also accelerated accordingly, staying right on its track. The giant didn''t just stare at the flying clone. Rather, it poised its index finger towards the clone, resounding a faint hum before unleashing a sphere of water. The sphere of water was only a centimeter in radius. Its size wasn''t even threatening. All it possessed was the speed thanks to its launch. Nevertheless, Krune dared not take it lightly. The tail of Escapist morphed into its head, keeping an eye on the giant and the approaching floating island. It then noticed the tiny sphere of water launched at it. The Escapist swerved in the air and dodged the attack. Krune''s heart thumped with increasing intensity. He immediately guessed the thoughts of the giant. The size of water it unleashed wasn''t threatening. But even so, that was a part of its body. In other words, when it fell on the Escapist, it would begin absorbing Godly Energy from it, growing in size. Soon, it would become big enough to suck the clone dry of all Godly Energy. Moreover, it was in a state of liquid. It wasn''t easy to get rid of something in that state through physical means alone. The moment they used any Godly Energy to fend it off, it would be fuelling its growth. Moreover, the giant didn''t suffer any loss from launching it. After all, its body was colossal. It could shoot tens of thousands of such spheres and still wouldn''t notice any difference in its size. The giant calmly rested its hands on the hill at the end of the floating island, using it as a stand to prop itself. It then relaxed its ten fingers, pointing them towards the Escapist as it shot forth spheres of water at the same time. Its fingers had become guns that launched attacks towards the escaping figures. The hail of bullets was getting increasingly close and was encroaching upon its space of flight. Within a minute, the Escapist would suffer from numerous hits. Even though it was already flying at its maximum speed, the floating island was still able to keep up. By the looks of it, there was no use in swerving through the air to throw off their enemy. After all, their enemy was a massive floating island. It occupied a large space. So, even taking large turns didn''t give them an advantage. Rather, they gave the floating island more time to close in on them. Therefore, they had no other option but to fly in a straight line to maximize their speed. Though, once the attacks started, the Escapist had no other choice but to swerve in the air and dodge the attacks. This caused it to fly more distance for a shorter travel line. Slowly but surely, this reduced the distance between the two. Because of this, the rain of attacks became more and more crowded. Soon enough, it seemed that the Escapist was soon about to enter the giant''s range of physical reach. Without any hesitation, Krune summoned a Pseudo-Wisp, making it ready to be absorbed into the Escapist. As everything happened within its stomach, there wasn''t any external emission of Godly Energy. The head-on its back opened its mouth, condensing the sphere of fire once again. The laws of fire, light, wind, and gravity mixed to create a powerful vortex increasing in pressure with every passing second. "Even though this would further boost its growth. I have no other choice if I wish to escape from it." Upon his thought, the Escapist unleashed a massive column of fire that caused a tremendous thrust. The Escapist rocketed forth with tremendous speeds, disappearing from the giant''s view in a couple of seconds, causing it to stop chasing. The floating island stopped moving as the giant retreated into it, turning into a pond once again. The tablet of the dead cultivator lay on its shore, getting washed by the waves along the pond at times. Surprisingly, a steady stream of Godly Energy flowed into it, enriching it and seemingly making it even scarier than before. The Godly Energy formed a trail as it flowed into the pond, getting fully absorbed after a couple of minutes. It meant the escapers had stopped using the column of fire to thrust themselves out of place. Five seconds after it unleashed the column of fire, the Escapist stopped rocketing itself using the flames as the momentum it had built up carried it forth. It didn''t even flap its wings now, making a beeline as it was a blur to the eyes of others in the region. The Pseudo-Wisp Krune had prepared merged into its body, directly overlaying its godly meridians as the Godly Energy circulating through it spiked. This Godly Energy healed the damage it had taken from the rocketing thrust. After all, ten seconds was its limit, beyond which it would dissipate into specks of godly energy. So, moving at that speed for half the duration still crippled it heavily. Therefore, this influx in Godly Energy healed it. Thankfully, it didn''t have to flap its wings or make any turns, allowing itself enough time to heal. The momentum from before carried it forward as long as it maintained its extended wings. More than a couple of minutes later, its speeds had slowed down to its regular flight speed as the Escapist began to flap its wings once again, moving around as Krune witnessed everything through their shared thoughts. Soon, the Escapist had to stop since they could see a wall before them that spanned from the ground and reached the peak. It seemed to be a wall that barricaded the entire space in the Sub-Realm. It was a regional border, one that prevented the cultivators from heading into the other region. Krune gazed at the wall, noticing that it was transparent, allowing him to see the other side. The region beyond seemed to be a forest, rather peaceful in fact. Of course, he didn''t take it at face value. After all, in his region, there didn''t seem to be any dangers other than the lava flowing on the ground. But, reality proved otherwise. Everything turned out to be like viruses that became sentient when in contact with Godly Energy and actively hunted him. After inspecting his surroundings, noticing the lack of any floating islands in his vicinity, Krune intended to use his Divine Sense to sweep around. When he didn''t receive any warnings from the Calamity Laws, he heaved a sigh of relief, using his Divine Sense to touch the regional border. Immediately, a set of information was transmitted to him as the dot on his glabella was activated. It quickly condensed into the tablet as the row of the information displayed on it changed. Chapter 909: Pestle and Mortar [Region: Epic Hell] [Entry Cost for the Region, Magnificent Forest: 100 Godly Points] Upon noticing the change, Krune read the words displayed on the tablet, focusing on the cost necessary to leave the region and enter the next one, the one covered by the forest. Upon seeing its brilliantly horrible naming scheme, Krune realized the next region would be no different from his current place, Epic Hell. "It needs 100 Godly Points," Krune frowned as he muttered, still unable to determine a method to obtain Godly Points. He then punched the tablet once, watching the contents displayed on its change. [Region: Epic Hell] [Number of cultivators: 71] [Total Score: 16 Godly Points] [Highest Score: 12 Godly Points] [Rankings] "These guys are still accumulating Godly Points," Krune muttered, looking at the last row as he sighed. "Surprisingly, another one is added to the list. How are they accumulating Godly Points?" Krune could not help but feel a bit troubled. Even though he still retained vast reserves of Godly Energy, it wasn''t infinite. He was bound to run out of it sooner or later. He had hoped the Sub-Realm would be rich in Godly Energy so he could cultivate faster and improve his cultivation base. Unfortunately, reality proved otherwise. There wasn''t even an ounce of Godly Energy in the place. Rather, if it had been just that, then it would have been fine. Sadly, every speck of dust in his region was capable of growing into a giant by absorbing Godly Energy. With that, if he got trapped, he would be wrung dry. Plus, since there was no Godly Energy, even if he were to lay down his Land Incarnation in the place, nothing would happen. He wouldn''t be able to revive. In other words, it was almost a lost cause unless he determined the method to obtain Godly Points and leave the region towards another place. Krune soon took out a shield, activated the Balance Laws on it before slamming it into the regional barrier. He watched the rainbow light coating the shield slam into the region barrier, trying to pull out something from within it. Unsurprisingly, a second later, the Balance Laws he had unleashed were fully expended. Krune looked at the minute crack on the regional barrier, sighing when he noticed it heal almost instantly. This was enough for him to determine that the level of the laws used in the regional barrier was way too high a level. So, despite using his full strength, all he was able to do to it was just disrupt it a little. Otherwise, he could have drawn all the laws forming the regional barrier towards the shield and made a large enough hole to pass through. Now that he found out it wasn''t possible, Krune thought of something, unleashing a clone as it turned into a bird. It then carried a shield using its claws and flew closer to the ground, focusing on a certain rock on the ground, one that was barely a couple of centimeters wide. It then opened its mouth and shot out a tiny fireball. The fireball was exactly the size of the rock, landing on the rock and melting it. A couple of seconds later, the melted rock slowly wriggled and formed into a humanoid shape. It was still a wriggly form of lava, but having absorbed the remaining Godly Energy from the fireball, it had become a figure that was four centimeters in height. Just when it had oriented itself, the bird landed on the ground with a tremendous force, slamming the shield onto the lava figure, causing it to splatter from the force. It had turned into drops of lava that splattered all over the ground. Thanks to the splatter, more of its form was exposed to the cooler air, causing its body to turn solid. A couple of minutes later, all the splattered droplets had become solid. They then wriggled, slowly branching each part with new tendrils as they moved on the ground, inching towards a relatively bigger shard. As time passed, they joined with one another, becoming the four-centimeter-high figure once again. Though, the moment it finished doing so, the bird landed on it again, slamming with the shield. To avoid any of its Godly Energy from being siphoned from contact, the bird only made the shield touch the figure. The force from the impact lodged it deep into the ground, cracking it all apart. Moreover, it was flattened, causing the joined shards to break apart once again. Thanks to the force behind the impact, each shard was covered by cracks, seemingly on the verge of completely shattering apart. As it began to gather together once again, Krune thought of something. Safely tucked within the stomach of the Escapist, he took out a shield, breaking it into two pieces as he unleashed the Laws of Fire, Force, and Gravity. He then used the laws on the two pieces like a hammer, turning them into a mortar and pestle. Moreover, he changed the design of the mortar to ensure the contents within wouldn''t spill out while being ground by the pestle. As it was something he had prepared to use at the First Stage of the God Foundation Realm, the shields were pretty weak. Moreover, his current strength was enough to easily tear it apart. With that, Krune was able to swiftly reforge it into a piece of different equipment. The rock figure just managed to put itself together once again when the bird hovered above it and began to flap its wings, causing fierce winds. It was just using its ability to draft the wind to lift the rock figure. It was pretty tiny and was easy to lift. Even then, the bird was careful to not touch it or emit any Godly Energy. The mental pressure of being in the region was making Krune conscious of the Godly Energy flowing in him. Because of that, he was making a note of the ways and the causes that he was emitting a trace of Godly Energy into the surroundings. Because of this, he was slowly but steadily improving his methods to retract his Godly Energy, reducing his emissions. The rock figure was lifted using the flowing wind and dumped inside the mortar, causing a metallic sound. The entrance was then blocked by the pestle that slammed on it, repeating the process as the bird used its two claws to play with it. The rock figure was repeatedly broken as it consumed the Godly Energy it had amassed to re-join itself. The process of recovering and shattering continued repeatedly before the rock figure failed to form anymore. It had completely expended all the Godly Energy it had stored in itself and had returned to its prior inactive state. Upon seeing it, Krune realized something, heaving a sigh of relief as he muttered, "Physical attacks are useful. And since they''re rocks, the best bet against them is a¡­hammer." He then looked at his shields stored within his storage rings, thinking for a moment before he took out a couple of others. After a moment of thought, Krune felt bold, making the bird bring in the pestle and mortar. The rock figure was fully ground into the finest of particles within it. It was a soft soil now. The first thing Krune did was to fix the pestle into the mortar permanently. After that, he slowly unleashed numerous fires, dumping the myriad laws in his arsenal into the fire. This way, the properties of the fire constantly changed, refining the mortar-pestle combo. The material forming it melted, mixing into the power stored within. The influx of Godly Energy immediately caused the powder to begin growing. Though, before it could fully grow, he first melted it, turning it into lava. Using his Mental Energy, Krune controlled the specks of lava, allowing it to seep into the pestle and mortar combo. This way, he fused the material into the item, creating a whole new product. As the mental energy wasn''t a product of the God Realm, even though the effect of the law of Cause and Effect acted on it, it was still absorbed at a pace slower than Godly Energy. Therefore, it allowed Krune enough time to manipulate the lava and fully mix it with the pestle-mortar combo, turning it into a single item. He hadn''t even finished reforging it when Krune activated the Calamity Laws, immediately imbuing numerous conditions on it. As he had already fused the lava into the item, they had become one. With that, when he used some Godly Energy, the item absorbed it and expanded in size. Nevertheless, thanks to his actions, the substance of the rock figure in it could no longer act based on its wishes. It was imprisoned into the item completely. Moreover, it was so finely distributed and fused into the other particles in the item that its traits were carried over to everything. So, the entire item absorbed the energy to grow in size. Even though that was the case, it retained the same appearance. If Krune had tried to make the rock in the region into an item, it would gain sentience the moment it absorbed some Godly Energy. After that, it would be able to fragment itself and fuse itself into any shape it desired. It would be able to move and attack Krune. But now, Krune''s quick thinking had prevented that possibility from ever happening. Then again, if he didn''t move fast, it was bound to grow beyond a tolerable state. Time passed in such a fashion as the Escapist morphed into a different bird-type demon beast, one that was the biggest of the flight-based demon beasts Krune had seen in the Lawless Plains. And in its stomach lay an item that was currently 20 meters in length, weighing tens of tons. 64 days had already passed as Krune had gone through 64 failed attempts. Finally, when the weight of the item was about to increase beyond the capacity of the demon beast clone''s ability to handle it, Krune teared up, relaxing as he could see a faint glow forming on the item. He had awakened the equipment spirit of the item he was working on all along. The very moment it appeared, it absorbed all the Godly Energy in the item to raise its cultivation, slowly shrinking the item''s size back to normal. Matter and energy were being exchanged right before Krune, making the process seem absurdly simple. Chapter 910: Pestlor The item spirit was shaped like a humanoid rock figure. It was a meter in height, holding the forged item in its hand. The finished version was only 50 centimeters in length and barely weighed a kilogram. With that, it was pretty easy to handle. The item spirit held it and waved it a couple of times, causing faint winds to emanate. At the very moment he saw its actions, Krune smiled. Surprisingly, it didn''t release any Godly Energy while moving. Instead, it seemed to have the same trait as the item. So, any traces of Godly Energy around it was automatically absorbed into itself, including its emissions. This way, it didn''t emit any Godly Energy, the perfect accomplice in the region. As he gazed at it, Krune couldn''t help but break into laughter. After all, the moment he looked at it, the laws in his body stirred up as the 3D model of the item spirit appeared in his mind. With it, he could make his Pseudo-Wisps assume the item spirit''s appearance. This way, he was better prepared to fight in the region. The item spirit was shaped like a rock giant. Even though that was the case, it did have a pair of wings attached to it, ones that seemed to have been formed by a film of water or something resembling water. The wings did seem delicate, but they were also capable of lifting it enough for a short distance flight. It was quite impressive. The item spirit disappeared as Krune held the item in his hand, unleashing some Godly Energy. Being infused with Godly Energy, the item increased in size immediately. Though, it didn''t have any mechanism to give the Godly Energy back to him. With that, the only option was for the ring spirit to absorb the Godly Energy and shrink the item back to its original size. After a moment of thought, Krune communicated with the item spirit, making it expend its Godly Energy to increase the size of the item. It worked the same, albeit a tad slower than if he had used his Godly Energy. On top of that, it had a limit since it was a newly formed item spirit and was only in the Godly Fusion Realm cultivation-wise. So, the amount of Godly Energy it could give was limited. Though, upon a command from Krune, the item spirit absorbed all the Godly Energy from the item, causing it to shrink back to its original size. As he repeated the same thing a couple of times, Krune observed all the details about it, nodding in delight as he thought, ''It can increase in size while its weight and material strength also increase accordingly. In short, the bigger it is, the fewer chances for it to be damaged.'' Krune wielded it as he swung it a couple of times, feeling that it was rather convenient to use. The handle was the pestle, while the mortar was the attacking zone. It was a blunt weapon. Considering his character and the fact that he had been using shields all his life, this blunt weapon was preferable compared to sharp weapons like swords, spears, etc. Plus, its design did suit his tendencies. The pestle and mortar were attached to create the ridiculous-looking item in his hands. Nevertheless, its might was guaranteed. Even though the materials making it up weren''t anything great, they would do for now. As long as he wielded it while making it as big as possible, it wouldn''t be damaged as easily. That was one advantage that came with the item. As he used it for a couple of minutes, Krune said with a tone of praise, "Since I created this by attaching the pestle and mortar together, I''ll call this the Pestlor. Hmm, not to praise myself, but my naming sense has improved a lot recently, right guys?" He looked around, looking at the wriggling stomach muscles of the clone, chuckling embarrassedly. After all, all of them were himself. There wouldn''t be any difference in opinion. If he thought the name was cool, the same implied to all the clones inhabited by fragments of Little Krune. Now that its equipment spirit was created, the Pestlor was under his control. Otherwise, it would only be growing in size by absorbing Godly Energy. This was the reason he worked furiously to awaken it all along. Now that his plan worked, Krune was just about to begin working on a similar armor when another thought struck him, making him recall the teleportation formation in his subspace. "Right, no matter what, this item''s base materials are inferior. If I''m not careful, it''ll shatter one day or another. So¡­" Divine Sense! Mental Energy Scan! Krune focused the entirety of his sensory abilities on the Pestlor, making the weapon spirit absorb all the excess energy and prevent the weapon from expanding in size. Through this, his senses swerved throughout it, making a note of all the laws in place. Most of them were tiny fragments present in the base materials. The remainder were those forming the rocks in the region, Epic Hell. He couldn''t comprehend them outside since doing so would awaken them. But now, he could sense the laws in them. After all, the weapon spirit was already under his control. It seemed rather pleased to be with Krune thanks to his zealous efforts in awakening it. So, it was adamant in helping Krune. Besides, it could also sense the passion in his gaze, realizing his ardent wish to elevate its potential. With that, it helped him understand everything there was to know about itself and the weapon it was birthed from. Krune spent another month meditating, comprehending everything about Pestlor. The base laws from the materials were already well within his comprehension levels. So, what Krune had been focusing on was the laws in the rock that he had fused into the Pestlor. ''Thankfully, all the related laws are in my Spiritual Incarnation, and I have surface-level comprehension of them all,'' Krune smiled as he thought, feeling a bit shocked at the fact such simple laws could result in such an outstanding effect. Though, as he comprehended more of it, he realized the cause for the soil, rocks, and lava in Epic Hell to act as viruses wasn''t because of these laws. Rather, it seemed to be some specific arrangement done in the Sub-Realm itself. So, even when the piece of rock is taken out of the Sub-Realm, it wouldn''t act as a virus. Rather, it would lose that mysterious property and turn into a regular rock. After understanding it, Krune began to seriously comprehend all the laws in it, ignoring everything else, for that matter. He knew his priorities. Even if he were to make a move now, he didn''t have any means against the terrain. So, he was bound to simply waste his Godly Energy and suffer losses one after another. Instead of that, he was rather interested in seeing the development of his current project. After all, he was in this for the experience. He did have interest in the treasures, but based on his thoughts, Krune determined that if what he had thought of succeeded, he would have considerable gains. With that in mind, he was willing to spend enough time and effort on that. Even if it didn''t succeed, he was learning a lot in the unique environment. That, too, was beneficial for his growth. So, Krune was neither worried nor in a hurry. He took his time to go through his thoughts. "Something in this region is making everything here behave like viruses. So, this must be the only place where such a phenomenon is effective," Krune muttered as he retracted his gaze, having finished comprehending everything there was to know about the Pestlor. He had spent a total of three months comprehending alone. This was considering the fact he was aided by all the Little Krune fragments, except for the one that was controlling the clone¡ªthe colossal bird-type demon beast in whose stomach he was present. Now that he was ready, Krune summoned the weapon spirit, making it hover right next to him as he clutched the Pestlor. He then took in a deep breath as a Pseudo-Wisp flew out from the subspace and dissolved into his godly meridians, giving him a major boost in his Godly Energy reserves. Five clones then appeared beside him, surrounding the Pestlor. All of them kept their hand on it, grabbing hold of it at various places. At the same time, all their hands melted as the weapon spirit emitted some Godly Energy, activating the effects of the weapon in its entirety. Multi-Land Incarnation! Accompanied by the Godly Energy that was being absorbed into the Pestlor, the related laws suitable to it were also being absorbed from their Land Incarnation. All the laws suitable to it flowed into the Pestlor, subtly changing its insides, raising the concentration of the laws inside it. Before, the laws were of inferior quality and quantity. Moreover, they were mostly fragmented since the materials forming the shields he used made up the Pestlor. Now, similar laws congregated all over the Pestlor, raising its quality as a whole. As it absorbed the Godly Energy he supplied, the weapon''s property was activated, becoming bigger in size. It absorbed the Godly Energy and created matter. And, as the concentration of the laws inside had increased, the quality of matter it created increased as well. Immediately, the weapon spirit converted the matter back into energy. But this time, it focused on the parts of the weapon that were made by the fragmented laws, breaking them down into Godly Energy. As it absorbed them, Krune infused even more Godly Energy into it, seeping in the necessary laws to fill in the void. What he was doing here was an advanced mode of forging, replacing inferior particles with their respective superior versions. He had obtained insight into it after seeing Cultivator awaken the equipment spirit of that special hilt. After a month had passed in such a fashion, Krune stopped as he sighed. His melted body reformed itself back into his humanoid form. The other clones, too, soon returned to his subspace. Heaving a sigh of relief, Krune laughed boisterously, feeling excited at the improvement in his blacksmithing abilities. In his hands was an entirely upgraded Pestlor, one that was suitable to be wielded by the current him. Thanks to its property, he could always upgrade it similarly whenever he wished. Even though he had consumed ten Pseudo-Wisps and a period of six months in total from forging to completion, Krune was completely satisfied. "Now, I have a weapon suitable to use in this region. My hunt starts now." He chuckled once, feeling the higher quality of the Pestlor. Chapter 911: Sheer Physical Might Krune then swung the Pestlor, watching it hum as it produced faint gales. The satisfaction of wielding it was immediate as he could feel the sheer power imbued in it. The fact that all the laws making it up were part of his Spiritual Incarnation further increased this feeling of satisfaction. Thanks to this, the control he had over it was absolute. It felt like it was an extension of his body. For a normal weapon master, they would have to train decades or even centuries to attain a state where they would become one with their weapon or where every thought of theirs would cause their weapon to react accordingly. But in his case, the weapon had become a part of himself in the first place. It was like another arm that he wielded. After all, forming it was a part of his body. And because of this, Krune could understand the property that was in effect over the region, making it act like a virus. Whatever it was, their base form existed in his Spiritual Incarnation and had now become a part of the Pestlor. Even though Krune hadn''t comprehended the source, that didn''t mean he couldn''t use it. After all, he could use the sole advantage of his Spiritual Incarnation¡ªthe fact that it was made up of all laws in the God Realm¡ªto imbue them in an item and control it, just like the teleportation formation in his subspace and the Lawless Plains. If he thought about it, the greater fraction of laws making up his Spiritual Incarnation were those he barely had any knowledge of. All his knowledge stemmed from the fact that they were a part of him. If Krune wished to recreate an effect similar to the one in Epic Hell, he had to comprehend the respective laws to a great extent. Nevertheless, wielding Pestlor was different. As he observed it, Krune felt joy, not for the fact the weapon was suitable to be used in the region, but at the fact that he could also use it in the God Realm. It was because everything of substance making up the Pestlor had been converted. From the law fragments in the materials and the rocks used, even those present in his Spiritual Incarnation were converted. Because of this, the restriction placed on the items of Epic Hell wouldn''t work on it. After all, it now functioned using the laws of Krune, the laws making up his Spiritual Incarnation. "A solid weapon to use even outside this place," Krune laughed as he said. "Despite the difficulty, I like this Sub-Realm already." Treasures weren''t always placed as a prize at someplace that one had to survive through heaps of disasters to attain. Rather, as long as one could make use of it, anything could become a treasure for them. The best example was right now. He used the mysterious property of the region and made a weapon out of it. With that, he had obtained a treasure already, a significantly useful one at that. After all, he could easily use the Pestlor for all his life. As his cultivation improved, he could upgrade it easily through his Spiritual Incarnation. For someone who improved by leaps and bounds through cultivation in every session, this was an optimal weapon for him. Krune intended to create a set of armor in a similar manner, only to pause as he mulled over his thoughts soon after. ''By making the Pestlor big, I can smash my enemies harder. But, making my armor bigger serves no practical purpose. It would just constrict my movements. If I just have to use something as a shield, the Pestlor is more than enough. If I make it large enough, I can block any attacks. On top of that, I consumed ten Pseudo-Wisps and six months to make this. An armor¡­just isn''t worth the effort now that I think about it.'' After thinking it through, Krune stopped this train of thought, deciding against making armor. He didn''t make a second Pestlor as well. After all, using one was enough. Anything more wouldn''t serve its purpose. Plus, he would be expending a lot of Godly Energy in the process. As he didn''t even know whether he could replenish his Godly Energy reserves, Krune had no intention to spend any more of it. At times, being over-prepared was also foolish. One had to observe the time, place, and scenario to plan accordingly. In his present condition, one Pestlor was more than enough. And besides, he was only in the first region of the Sub-Realm. If he headed to another region, maybe he would find something more suitable for other purposes? With that, Krune decided that it was the right time for him to make a move. And what better way to test its effectiveness than against an opponent? The clone carrying him changed forms, becoming the Escapist once again. This time, it just flapped its wings and continued to fly, heading back in the same direction he had escaped. For a moment, he was tempted to increase the size of the Pestlor to the limit by seeping in enough Godly Energy equivalent to his current cultivation and use the massive weapon to smash into the regional barrier. He was tempted to see the extent of the damage he could do on the regional barrier. But on second thought, Krune decided otherwise. It wasn''t wise to stir up the attention of the mountainous demon beast that oversaw the Sub-Realm. It was better to stay put and accumulate advantages. If his actions caught the eye of the mountainous demon beast that decided to investigate him further, wouldn''t it bode death for him if it discovered his identity as a Wisp? After all, it was representing the God it served. So, anything odd it discovered would be relayed to the God. In other words, that would mean death for him. At present, Krune didn''t even have the confidence to survive an encounter with an immortal, not to mention an entity that stood at the peak of the God Realm. He wasn''t someone driven by suicidal tendencies, so he decided to just focus on his tasks. The Escapist flew for a considerable time before the floating island was visible in Krune''s line of sight. To not take any risks, Krune didn''t directly head into the open. In his place, he sent a clone. The clone carried the Pestlor and sat on the back of the Escapist. If the situation turned amiss, using the subspace, he could retrieve the Pestlor easily. In any case, all he would lose would be one Pseudo-Wisp since the Little Krune fragment would reappear in his subspace without suffering any damage. At first, the clone was in his human form. But a second later, it took on the form of Pestlor''s weapon spirit, turning into a humanoid rock figure. But, unlike the weapon spirit, it had a height of two meters. It seemed the weapon spirit also grew in size as its cultivation base increased. As Little Krune was in the Seventh Stage of the God Foundation Realm, the size of the clone reflected it. The Escapist hovered at a position beyond the attacking range of the giant in the floating island. The clone then flapped its water-film wings and took off to the air, making a beeline towards the floating island. The subspace was within it now, ready to supply it with Godly Energy whenever necessary. The clone held the Pestlor using both hands, swinging it forward with all its might. Though, as the mortar part of the Pestlor came down, it infused a tremendous quantity of Godly Energy into it, causing it to expand in size accordingly. With the increase in size came an appropriate increase in weight. To bear its own weight, its structural integrity had intensified accordingly, making it tremendously sturdy. Intense gales were stirred up as a result of its motion as the entire floating island was covered by the shadow it cast. The momentum was so large that it surpassed the clone''s ability to control. As the Pestlor fell towards the floating island, the pond on it wriggled as the rock giant appeared once again. This time, its body was a tad larger than before. It had grown after absorbing some of the Godly Energy unleashed by Krune before. Upon seeing the scale of the attack, the giant was alarmed as it raised its arms. All the water forming its body condensed over its palms as it intended to block the attack by making the water absorb the shock first. Sadly, the size of the Pestlor was too big for that. Its length matched the floating island. Adding onto the momentum of the swing that was blown out of proportion when it was expanded in size, the outcome was obvious. For a moment, the entire surroundings turned silent as if frozen in time. Followed by it was a massive shockwave as a rumbling sound akin to thunder ruptured from the point of contact. The water it used to defend splashed everywhere, barely managing to absorb part of the momentum. The remainder of the attack slammed into its arms, cracking them apart before bashing its head into pieces. The impact force sent the rock fragments, each the size of a boulder, flying everywhere as the Pestlor landed on the floating island, creating a massive crater on it. The sheer force from the impact caused the floating island to fall for one hundred meters before it stabilized its footing. A dense stream of Godly Energy flowed out of the smashed rock fragments and streamed into the Pestlor. The clone appeared in the area, sucking in all the Godly Energy using the trait of its form. In the meantime, the weapon spirit absorbed all the Godly Energy in the Pestlor, shrinking it back to normal after a couple of seconds. The clone grabbed it and retreated from the area, leaving behind the final dregs of Godly Energy as the rock fragments rumbled, starting to join together. The weapon spirit was completely strained as it had absorbed too much Godly Energy, exceeding its limit by many times. If not for the Pestlor''s potential, it would have burst already. Nevertheless, it still wasn''t able to handle the excess Godly Energy. The size of the Pestlor continued to increase once again as the clone barely managed to carry it towards the Escapist. Immediately, without wasting another second, they escaped from the scene. Chapter 912: Four Layers The Pestlor continued to balloon in size as the weapon spirit became unable to hold in all the Godly Energy it had absorbed. After traveling for 20 kilometers, Krune noticed a floating island, prompting him to approach it immediately as he dropped the Pestlor on it. The Pestlor had already grown to a length of 20 meters now. In any case, the weapon spirit was unable to endure any longer, releasing all the energy back into the Pestlor, causing its size to reach a kilometer in length. Everything was because of the tremendous quantity of Godly Energy it had stolen from the rock giant. Nevertheless, thanks to its property, the Pestlor didn''t emit any Godly Energy. In other words, the soil in the floating island didn''t react. As it hadn''t come into contact with Godly Energy before, it was completely dead. With that, there was no reaction as the Pestlor''s size surpassed the length of the floating island. Most of the floating islands were small, at most spanning a kilometer in diameter. With that, the current Pestlor was an oddity, surpassing the floating island''s size and weighing it down. The floating island faintly rumbled from time to time, unable to remain afloat any longer as the Pestlor continued to grow bigger. After all, inside it was Godly Energy equivalent to three Pseudo-Wisps the clone had used before. It was how the attack had become that destructive. But now, the reason it was still growing in size was thanks to the fact it had absorbed a lot of Godly Energy from the rock giant. When it was smashed into pieces, the rock giant had emitted a significant amount of Godly Energy in the process. If nothing unexpected happened, it would have reabsorbed the Godly Energy and recovered to its peak condition, albeit a tad smaller than before. But before that happened, both the Pestlor and the clone swooped in and stole most of the emitted Godly Energy. Since they escaped immediately after, that resulted in the rock giant lacking enough Godly Energy to become as big as before. Hidden away from its line of sight, Krune set up base on a larger floating island after crossing a few smaller islands. The Pestlor was then dropped vertically. At present, its mortar portion was a little lodged into the ground, making it stand up vertically. Thanks to its design, it wouldn''t fall that easily. The Escapist perched on its top. This was because it was still emitting a faint flux of Godly Energy every time it moved. If it landed on the ground, the soil there would soon birth the rock figures and cause it trouble. And so, instead of that, remaining atop the Pestlor was better. Anything it emitted, the Pestlor would absorb it automatically. For a moment, Krune thought of using his Land Incarnation atop the Pestlor and consume the energy in it to create some Pseudo-Wisps. That way, he can reduce the burden faced by the weapon spirit and also replenish his Pseudo-Wisp count. But after noticing how this might damage the Pestlor, he refrained from doing so. With that, all he could do was to wait patiently. Krune imparted a suitable cultivation technique to the weapon spirit, one haphazardly derived from his Myriad Energies Technique. As it wasn''t a Wisp, it couldn''t use the technique as is. Without much choice, Krune modified some parts accordingly to suit its physique. Since the Pestlor was a part of his body, the connection he shared with its weapon spirit was deep. Thanks to this, he could derive a cultivation technique easily. It was also because he was someone that had lived past two centuries. So, doing something like this was simple. Besides, all he did was a crude modification. He planned to tweak it later. At present, Krune wished to make the weapon spirit cultivate as soon as possible and increase its cultivation base. That way, it could absorb all the excess energy in the Pestlor. On top of that, as its cultivation increased, he didn''t have to support it by expending his Godly Energy. Its own Godly Energy influx would be fast enough to expand and contract the Pestlor. That would save him a lot of hassle in future battles. Without any delay, the weapon spirit began to cultivate by absorbing the energy in the Pestlor. As it was only at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm, it breezed through the cultivation stages. A month later, it was already in the Second Stage God Foundation Realm. Krune wasn''t wasting time either. He and Little Krune were immersed in comprehending the laws of his subspace, increasing its volume little by little. Considering his current comprehension speed, he was able to increase its volume by a cubic meter every month. It was pretty fast, considering how the increase in volume meant he was creating a world inside himself, albeit at a slow pace. After all, what he was making wasn''t some equipment but a living, breathing world. When thinking with that line of thought, the speed was definitely shocking. One must not mistake it for Krune''s Universe Foundation. It wasn''t real, and other than himself, there weren''t living beings there, nor would there be any. He then took out the tablet upon sensing something, noticing a row of words flash on it automatically. This time, he was surprised by the content. [Announcement: Treasure hunt in Layer Four will end in 30 days. Get ready to head into Layer Three and exchange your Godly Points for life-saving treasures.] "What the¡­?" Krune was shocked, muttering, "There are four layers?" He frowned after reading the text, realizing how the concept used was similar to the four realms. As the lowermost Layer, it seemed to follow the concept of the mortal realm, lacking any energy. There were many differences, but the general concept seemed to have been derived from the four realms. "That means Layer Three will be even more troublesome. But I still have yet to figure out a way to accumulate Godly Points," Krune muttered as he punched the tablet once, causing it to show the stats of the region. [Region: Epic Hell] [Total Godly Points: 96 Godly Points] [Highest Godly Point: 52 Godly Points] [Rankings: ¡­] Upon seeing the total Godly Points and the score of the three people displayed, Krune frowned as he said, "Only three people have managed to obtain any Godly Points. I never knew it was this difficult." "I need to find a method to obtain them, quickly at that," Krune muttered as he focused on his subspace, causing one of the Pseudo-Wisps to release some of the Godly Energy stored inside it. Immediately, using the released energy, a Pseudo-Wisp was birthed. It was only at the Godly Fusion Realm. The Pseudo-Wisp turned into the Pestlor''s weapon spirit form, exiting the Escapist through its mouth before landing on the top of Pestlor''s handle. It was then positioned right next to the Escapist''s claws. Immediately, it began to siphon godly energy from the Pestlor. Of course, this only worked because the Pestlor''s weapon spirit was working in tandem. The weapon spirit released the energy so that it could absorb it. Surprisingly, it only did this at the place where the Pseudo-Wisp was standing, allowing it to absorb the entirety of the remaining Godly Energy. As the weapon spirit''s cultivation base was too low before, it was unable to do it until now. That was why Krune took action the moment it was able to do this. The weapon spirit then siphoned energy from the Pestlor at a faster rate, half for itself to cultivate and the other half to release into the open for the Pseudo-Wisp to absorb. This way, the rate at which the Pestlor shrunk increased. At first, he planned to make the weapon spirit cultivate using all the Godly Energy. But now that he was pressed for time, Krune took matters into his own hands. Soon, he created 20 more Pseudo-Wisps, making them all siphon energy from the Pestlor. Within 10 days, the Pestlor had returned to its original size. Krune had reached the limit to the number of Pseudo-Wisps he could create. And, all of the new ones he created had reached the First Stage of the God Foundation Realm, energy quality-wise. It was because the Godly Energy they had stolen from the rock giant was tremendous. Once they were ready, all the Pseudo-Wisps retreated into the subspace as Krune was the only one left in the Escapist''s stomach. The Escapist began to fly immediately. Krune frowned, feeling that it was indeed a bit of a waste that he was always hiding within its stomach. This did cause it to fly cautiously in fear its stomach muscles might crush him into mush. So, after a moment of thought, he sent the subspace to reside in the Escapist''s body, opening a portal for him to head inside. Now, there was enough space for him to remain seated inside. It was thanks to his recent comprehension session. That, too, was a reason he spent so much time. In the end, he wasn''t wasting time. Surrounding Krune were the Pseudo-Wisps in their natural form. At present, they had shrunk their ethereal bodies to the limit, only existing as Wisp Cores. The inside of the subspace was fairly illuminated. Whenever he so wished, there would be a breeze, warmth, etc. After all, Krune had a fairly deep degree of comprehension concerning the basic elemental laws. With that, the inside of the subspace had an environment suitable to live within. At present, Krune held the Pestlor in his hand and smiled. The entrance to the subspace disappeared as there was no longer anything within the Escapist''s stomach. Thanks to their shared thoughts, it was as if Krune was flying out. Without anything to worry about for now, the Escapist flapped its wings and sped through the air, accelerating to its natural limit immediately. As it flashed around, it had encountered a couple of cultivators. They seemed to be seated atop a floating island, currently exhausted. Just a glance at their faces showed they were even more clueless than Krune. With that, the Escapist didn''t waste any time, flying past them as it sped forth. Krune intended to move through the entirety of the region, Epic Hell. In this way, he might find clues as to how to obtain Godly Points. Otherwise, he would get an idea that he could use in the next Layer. Once he could understand the concept at play in the Sub-Realm, he would be able to prepare accordingly. All along, Krune kept watching on the tablet. Once he determined that it functioned based on the laws already established in the Sub-Realm and wasn''t something actively monitored by the mountainous demon beast, Krune dared to summon the tablet while within the subspace. The Escapist flew for two more days, finally noticing something as it paused in shock. Far away in its eyes was a crumbling floating island as something from within was drilled out in the process. Chapter 913: Finally Obtaining the Method Rock fragments of the floating island soon fell off like a landslide, falling into the lava streaming on the ground below. It was as if the floating island was collapsing from the inside. But in actuality, it was getting destroyed by something, working its way through the interior of the floating island to break its structure apart. On top of that, everything seemed to be done manually, without any aid from Godly Energy. That was why the floating island couldn''t retaliate. All the particles forming it were dead at present. Thanks to the exceptional eyesight of the Escapist, Krune was able to notice everything that occurred in the place from far away. There was a demon beast currently rampaging within the floating island. Surprisingly, it seemed to be exceptionally good at digging, considering the rate at which it moved through the tough rocky layers of the floating island. Followed by blinding light of orange and red, droplets of lava soon splashed out. It seemed that there existed lava at the core of the floating island, protecting something within. The Escapist flew accordingly in the air, positioning itself above a certain tunnel the perpetrator had dug. Through this, it managed to see everything that was happening inside. Claws shaped like a mole, a body of a serpent, the whiskers of a cat, and the scales of a lizard, at first glance, one might assume it to be a dragon. But upon closer look, it didn''t have the elegance nor the absolute might and authority of one. It was a type of demon beast Krune hadn''t heard of before. Currently, the demon beast had latched onto the lava within the floating island, striking it with its claws. The lava splashed out as something within seemed to be moving. From time to time, the fins of something peaked out of the lava before swiftly disappearing. The demon beast seemed to be aiming for it from the start. It couldn''t directly enter the lava, for that would damage itself. So instead, it grabbed hold of the surrounding rocks, ones that had been facing the heat of the lava for ages, and adapted accordingly. Using such rocks, it attacked the lava, causing it to spill out. The demon beast was in a hurry, but its actions were anything but hurried. It continuously attacked the lava, spilling it out, forming ripples that disturbed its flow, causing the entity within to appear on the surface from time to time. Every time this happened, the demon beast would try to snatch it but would always fail. Hours passed in such a fashion as finally, the entity within peaked out more than usual, thanks to a change in the rippling of the lava. The abrupt jerk caused it to miscalculate, making it come out of the lava surface to an extent greater than before. The demon beast naturally didn''t miss the opportunity, flailing a large piece of rock it had shaped into a spoon. It inserted it timely into the lava and made a fierce scoop to the top, hitting the entity along the way. The entity lost its grip on the lava and was sent flying out from the attack. The moment it appeared, Krune was surprised. For some reason, it wasn''t a living entity. Instead, it was a rock figure, but wasn''t shaped like a humanoid this time. It was shaped more like a serpent. Moreover, condensed in its center was a cluster of rocks that faintly glowed. They seemed different from the rest. The rock cluster was shaped into a sphere, outlining a faint design. But, thanks to his vantage point, Krune could immediately guess what the design was. It was the diagram of the floating island. Just that alone was enough for him to guess that the rock cluster sphere was the core of the floating island or the reason why it was floating in the first place. All along, he was intensely staring at the tablet while observing the actions of the demon beast. The demon beast then ripped out the rock cluster sphere and stored it in its storage ring, immediately causing the floating island to destabilize. It then began to collapse as boulders of rock fell into the sea of lava below, causing loud splashes. "So you''re Grancey," Krune muttered as he chuckled, understanding the method to amass Godly Points. Without making any contact, the Escapist soon turned around and flew away. After obtaining the core of the floating island, the demon beast jumped and escaped the falling rocks, shrugging off some that were leaching Godly Energy from its body. By returning to its human form, Grancey used the difference in size to escape from getting attached to the rocks. She had been operating on the floating island for quite some time already. So, the faint Godly Energy emissions she was releasing while moving had already caused some of the soil around her to turn alive. They immediately latched onto her demon beast form and began to suck out her Godly Energy. But as she was concentrating on taking the floating island core, she couldn''t distract herself. That was why, the moment she obtained it, she returned to her human form and flew away, watching the tiny sentient rock figures flail in vain as they plummeted into the sea of lava. Attached on her back was what seemed to be a piece of equipment, one specifically designed for flight. It was similar to a pair of wings but seemed to be lodged into her flesh and was connected to her meridians. This way, they allowed her to fly without emitting any Godly Energy. Then again, there were considerable emissions whenever she moved. It wasn''t the perfect solution to the place, but it was enough. Grancey swerved her head, immediately noticing a demon beast flying away from her. She frowned as she muttered to herself, "Was it spying on my actions all along?" For a moment, she wanted to chase and corner the opponent. But, upon seeing the flight speed of the other party, she frowned, soon saying, "Leave it, I can''t waste that much time and energy. Besides¡­" She summoned her tablet, looking at her score as she soon said to herself, "Matternock and Stockpil, just how are they able to obtain these so fast? Especially this Matternock guy, he''s quite the fearsome individual." "She didn''t give chase." Krune smiled as the head, formed by morphing the Escapist''s tail, reverted to its original appearance as a tail. It had morphed to look at the actions of the other party. "Now that I know what to do." Krune chuckled, playing catch with the Pestlor before saying, "I still have 18 days." "Time to earn some Godly Points." ¡­ There was a certain floating island, rather tiny, spanning 300 meters in radius. It was peacefully floating, devoid of any signs of life. On its surface was a small hill, almost considered a mound. It was only 60 meters in height. Suddenly, a large shadow cast on it as a massive pillar slammed into it from above. The cause of that shadow was none other than Krune. After flying up as far as he could, reaching a height of one kilometer from the floating island, Krune soon took out the Pestlor. The weapon spirit immediately took action, infusing all its Godly Energy into it, expanding it to a length of 80 meters. It was the current limit for its cultivation base. Nevertheless, even though it was tremendously massive, the weight it possessed was beyond what the weapon spirit, Krune, and all his clones combined could handle. So they just dropped it, watching the Pestlor fall in a straight line. Since its front was the mortar, it was incredibly heavy. With that, it made a beeline towards the target, unwavering even the slightest. There was a distance of a kilometer, so it accelerated to a tremendous extent. A clone trailed along by grabbing onto its end, intending to act after the Pestlor made contact. As for the weapon spirit, it retreated into the weapon. The Pestlor was aimed towards one side of the floating island. At the very moment the Pestlor crashed into it, the force of the impact caused cracks to form all along its surface while the impacted section broke down completely and fell like a waterfall into the lava below. The Pestlor also slid off and began to fall towards the sea of lava when the weapon spirit rapidly absorbed all the Godly Energy in it, shrinking it quickly. Even then, it took almost four seconds, which was also by the time it had almost reached the sea of lava. The clone began to pull it up the moment its weight began to decrease. This was the reason the Pestlor hadn''t plunged into the lava yet. The moment it became small enough, the subspace appeared inside the clone. The clone stored the Pestlor inside it as the subspace disappeared, reappearing inside Krune. Krune took it out as the weapon spirit expanded it to the limit once again, dropping it towards the floating island. Another clone accompanied its fall while the first clone began to fly up. They had basically formed an assembly line of carnage. As the Pestlor fell, Krune positioned himself above the next place of attack. In this manner, he slowly chipped out large blocks of the floating island, soon only leaving behind the sphere of lava. He had completely chipped out all the rocks surrounding it. A clone¡ªhaving transformed into the Pestlor''s weapon spirit¡ªcarried the Pestlor and expanded it to a length of 8 meters. This was a size that it could control to a fair extent. The clone then swung it, splashing some of the lava along the edges. The splash caused the lava to spill out of the sphere. Once it did so, it was acted upon by gravity and fell to the bottom, plunging into the sea of lava. The clone looked at Pestlor, swinging it in the air a couple of times to rid of all the lava covering its end. It then noticed that though the Pestlor did take some material damage, it wasn''t much. A minute influx of Godly Energy repaired all the damage instantly. Also, thanks to its properties, not even a tinge of Godly Energy was emitted in the process. Then, as if spurred by adrenaline, the clone jabbed the sides of the lava sphere with the Pestlor, nicking it little by little, soon reducing it to the extent that a portion of the entity''s body in the center was visible. Chapter 914: Krune Takes Action The clone jabbed a couple more times before shrinking the lava sphere to a certain extent. More than half of the entity''s body within was peaking out now. But out of nowhere, before it could react, the entity curled its body and leaped out, falling straight towards the sea of lava below. It seemed intent to enter the sea of lava and build itself slowly over time, just like what it had done at the start. In any case, it didn''t have any methods to accelerate itself. All it could do was freefall towards its destination. Unfortunately for it, Krune had a lot of methods under his disposal. The clone flew and caught up to it, using its hand to grab hold of the entity. Fortunately, the entity lacked the strength to resist. It seemed it was only able to maintain the floating island and didn''t have any other abilities. Krune stared at it for some time through the shared thoughts with the clone. Eventually, he decided to carefully cut out the rock cluster sphere embedded in the center of its body. Though, the moment the clone did so, the entity stopped moving, no longer behaving like something alive. It froze up, now no different from rigid rock. The moment Krune grabbed hold of the rock cluster sphere from the clone, he sensed the dot on his glabella stirring up. He then summoned the tablet and noticed the string of words that appeared on it. [Obtained 1 Floating Island Core] [Reward: 1 Godly Point] Krune then punched the tablet, looking at the stats to see his name appear on the fourth row, right under Grancey as he muttered to himself, "I''m the fourth person to obtain a Godly Point here." He calculated the time taken from the start to the end, chuckling, "Only 16 hours. Alright, then. Let''s get rolling." Krune then stared at the body of the entity that remained behind, thinking for a moment as his clone held it. It then seeped in a bit of Godly Energy into it, noticing how there wasn''t any reaction. In fact, the rock wasn''t even capable of absorbing Godly Energy. Krune tried to attach the floating island core to the rock entity, failing to do so. After trying for a couple of minutes, he left it as is, storing both in his storage ring. "I''ll think about them later." After everyone retreated into the subspace, the Escapist flapped its wings and sped towards the nearest floating island it could spot. Followed by it was the thunderous rumble of the Pestlor slamming into the floating island. The advantage he had coped up allowed him to execute the process with ease. With that, Krune was just chilling on the side while three of his clones did all the work. If not for the fact there was only one Pestlor, he would have employed the other clones as well for the task. After all, he had six of them to use. Unfortunately, he was pressed for time and wasn''t able to make another one. Moreover, now that he was wielding Pestlor, Krune also noticed something, realizing that his previous conjecture was slightly wrong. The rocks in the region, Epic Hell, would lose their property the moment they left the region. They wouldn''t lose their inherent quality, though, but just that they would remain in a deactivated state. And suppose Krune returned to Epic Hell, their property would become active once again. When he left the Sub-Realm, they would turn into normal rocks. Upon realizing that, Krune sighed, shaking his head in pity. Even then, one of the clones stored a large-sized boulder in a storage ring prepared exclusively to store it. It was just in case he obtained another idea. It would be regretful if he didn''t have the necessary materials by then. Days passed in such a manner as Krune''s score increased rapidly. Soon, he tied with the one at third place, Grancey, causing three individuals in the region, Epic Hell, to be shocked. "That demon beast I saw before, was it Krune?" Clutching a floating island core in her hands, Grancey frowned. She regained third place immediately upon obtaining the recent floating island core. But she wasn''t satisfied with that. At the speed Krune was accumulating Godly Points, it was certain for him to overtake her soon enough. "Thankfully, there isn''t even a day left. He has just obtained a Godly Point. Considering his speed over the past 17 days, he needs around 15-18 hours per Godly Point." Currently, Krune had 25 Godly Points while Grancey had 26. They were neck and deep against one another. In order to stay ahead, Grancey immediately pounced upon a floating island she had been eyeing all along. It was the smallest out of all the floating islands she had encountered. It barely had a radius of thirty meters. With that, she had enough confidence in obtaining one more Godly Point before their stay in the region ended. That would fortify her third position. After all, even if Krune obtained an easy floating island, he would still need two points to draw with her. Thankfully for her, Krune wasn''t focused on getting Godly Points any longer. After obtaining 25 Godly Points, his priority changed as Krune arrived before a certain floating island once again. This floating island had a radius of one kilometer. It was one of the biggest in the area. There was one hill on its end while a large pond covered its surface. Surprisingly, situated on the shores of the pond was a tablet, gently washed by the waves on the pond. Arriving right above it was the Escapist. The moment it arrived, the pond water stirred as it rose like a tsunami. The water and a large pile of rocks condensed together into the rock giant once again. This time, it was small than before. Nevertheless, it still had an imposing presence. The moment it appeared, the rock giant began to shoot out tiny water spheres towards the Escapist. The Escapist had attained maximum altitude already. This distance allowed it to calmly dodge all the water spheres with ease. After all, by the time the water spheres reached such a height, they had already lost all the momentum in them. After making an arc, they fell into the lava flowing on the ground. Standing atop the Escapist was Krune, currently controlling a shield using both Godly Energy and Mental Energy. A clone carried the Pestlor and positioned itself right under the shield. Then, followed by a bellow, Krune activated the maximum limit of the Balance Laws on the shield, causing it to hum with a sonorous sound as it radiated with the rainbow light. The clone, on the other hand, changed its Godly Energy signature and slammed all its Godly Energy into the shield, experiencing enough repulsion that it was almost crushed. Thankfully, it was alive, having transmitted all the repulsive force to the Pestlor. The Pestlor shot forth with a tremendous speed, heading straight towards the rock giant as it began to expand in size. The increase in weight further accelerated it, making it suffuse with deadly momentum, enough to make the rock giant shiver. It was similar to shooting a bullet from a gun. But during its travel, the bullet transformed into the size of a truck. At the same speed, its weight increased exponentially. Therefore, the momentum it contained became terrifying. From a length of 60 centimeters to a length of 80 meters, the increase was too much, causing a piercing sound through the air as it cracked. The Pestlor slammed into the rock giant with all its might. Due to how fast Krune launched it, the floating island wasn''t even able to move to evade the attack. All it could do was lean on the rock giant to tank the attack. Upon seeing the approaching attack though, even it didn''t have the guarantee to survive. Just as it had expected, the force from the impact and the heat it had built up from the friction directly vaporized all the water on it, fully expending the Godly Energy contained within. The rock giant completely collapsed as the Pestlor slammed into the ground, rupturing the land from the impact as the entire floating island broke down into ten pieces. All the energy from the poor cultivator it had absorbed to grow was released in the process. Having timed it right, the subspace appeared in the clone, summoning twenty Pseudo-Wisps around it. All of them resembled the Pestlor weapon spirit. They immediately began to siphon all the Godly Energy in the area, having activated the Myriad Energies Technique. The Godly Energy formed a vortex and directly gushed into them. Even their godly meridians cracked under the pressure as all the Pseudo-Wisps haphazardly absorbed the Godly Energy without even bothering to circulate it once. Followed by the intense cracking, the Godly Energy meridians in all the Pseudo-Wisps were about to rupture within a couple of seconds. Nevertheless, Krune didn''t care, stuffing all the Pseudo-Wisps with Godly Energy to the limit before storing the shrunken Pestlor into the subspace. He swiftly retreated from the scene as a hurriedly formed hand of the rock giant flailed past him. 8th Stage God Foundation Realm! Even Krune had taken part in absorbing the godly energy. Upon his increase in cultivation stage, it meant that all his Pseudo-Wisps were able to absorb some more Godly Energy. He immediately unleashed them all and activated the Myriad Energies Technique. For a moment, there was no effect. But an instant later, all the free Godly Energy in the place was stirred up like a violent storm as it turned into a tornado and headed straight towards Krune. The flailing giant had to stop its actions and resist the suction effect. It wasn''t even able to reform its body, only left with the hand it had formed. Krune opened the entrance to his subspace as all Pseudo-Wisps entered it one by one, pulling in the Godly Energy tornado along with them. As it was a place he had absolute control over, Krune placed a filter in the entrance, preventing even a dust particle in the region from entering. The massive tornado of godly energy entered his subspace and saturated the environment inside. The five clones inside struggled to control the chaos, trying their best to subdue the violent Godly Energy that had been stirred up by the group activation of the Myriad Energies Technique. All the Pseudo-Wisps soon began cultivating, absorbing the Godly Energy, eventually turning the environment inside the subspace tranquil. Seated on the back of the Escapist, Krune heaved a sigh of relief as he muttered, "I have replenished my Godly Energy reserves to a significant extent. My losses sustained in this region have almost been negated." As he muttered, formless energy wrapped around him and the Escapist, causing them to disappear from the place. The only thing that remained behind was the gruntled roars of the rock giant that had shrunken to a height of three meters now. It almost seemed to be wailing at the loss it had suffered, not to mention that its floating island was only a patch of rock spanning 10 meters now. Chapter 915: Double Seas At the entrance to the Sub-Realm, one could see the hovering mountainous demon beast, the sole individual in the region at present. All it did was keep its eyes closed while seemingly in deep thought. Though, once one looked at it closely, one would actually notice that it was...sleeping. The overseer of the Sub-Realm wasn''t monitoring the conditions within but was instead taking a peaceful nap. Suddenly, it was startled for a moment, shooting up in alarm upon seeing the clouds above condense rapidly and darken instantly. Bolts of lightning flickered around as the cloud was building up power. Then, followed by a flash, a bolt of lightning struck down, coming to a stop before the mountainous demon beast''s face. It lacked the power and grandeur of a normal lightning bolt. Nevertheless, the mountainous demon beast took on its most respectful posture, acting subserviently. It, a grand and mighty Primal God, was acting humble before the tiny lightning bolt. There was silence in the area as the two entities remained in the same posture for a couple of days. Eventually, the lightning bolt morphed into a human figure, speaking with such a slow pace that it took an hour to utter a word. "The cultivators with Spiritual Incarnation had subpar performance until now." The mountainous demon beast also replied as slowly as the other party, taking an hour to utter every word. "They have been moving cautiously all along. But I''m certain that they''ll be going all-out from here onwards. In any case, the real fun begins when they reach the first layer." "Overall, I''m quite enjoying this. It was a worthwhile investment. I''m entertained." Saying its piece, the bolt of lightning soon disappeared. The mountainous demon beast bowed with a smile as he responded, "It is my honor that this Sub-Realm hasn''t bored you." ¡­ "What the¡­NONSENSE is this, ghridhsyrnfhi!" Krune screamed as he collapsed into an ocean, drowning immediately. He instantly used his Divine Sense, relaxing when the Calamity Laws didn''t give him any warning. Unfortunately, the intended response didn''t happen. His Divine Sense didn''t even activate. Surprisingly, he couldn''t even summon his Godly Energy. Krune flailed his hands as he regained his posture in the ocean. His earlier outburst caused the water to gush into his mouth, almost suffocating him. At present, he was no different from¡­ A mortal! Krune was unable to swim, having lost his breath as he was steadily sinking deeper and deeper into the ocean. Right at this moment, a tail shot forth in the water and arrived before him. Instinctively, Krune grabbed hold of the end of the tail, watching his body being pulled up immediately. "Guah!" He surfaced, hoarsely coughing as he felt mild pain in his stomach. He then saw the Escapist, the one that had saved him. It seemed that its streamlined flat body allowed it to float on the water. Krune barely managed to climb aboard it and lay flat, coughing a couple of times as he muttered in confusion, "Just¡­what happened?" What he and the Escapist had experienced were the same. But now, both of them realized a certain fact¡­ They could no longer use Godly Energy. Krune tried to use his Mental Energy, immediately suffering from an intense headache that seemed like it would split his mind apart. He instantly stopped using it soon after, realizing that the Law of Cause and Effect he had observed before was in greater concentration here. With that, even using Mental Energy was no longer possible. Krune was still able to sense his subspace and the clones within. His shared thoughts with Little Krune weren''t affected. But at the moment, Krune was unable to even sense his godly meridians. It was as if he had become a human, a mortal human in the truest sense of words, one that wasn''t even able to cultivate. It wasn''t something he had ever experienced. But now, it seemed as if the concept had become a reality. Krune soon clenched his fist, feeling incredibly weak. His current strength had regressed to the same level as a human mortal, one that was in their late teens. It was incomparable to his superhuman physique, one that was further enhanced after obtaining his Spiritual Incarnation. ''Hmm, does my Spiritual Incarnation still work in this case?'' Krune thought to himself, frowning as he wasn''t able to sense anything related to his body. Though, he soon realized a shocking detail. The reason he was able to sense the subspace wasn''t because it was a part of him. Instead, all he could perceive in it was the shared thoughts of the five Little Krune fragments inside. Therefore, he wasn''t able to sense his subspace either. At present, all Krune was capable of sensing was more or less what an ordinary teenager was capable of. ''This is completely horrible.'' Krune mentally cursed. Even the Immortal Severance Zone was thousands of times better than this. After all, in that danger zone, he was still able to use his Godly Energy and Mental Energy. That gave him enough of an advantage to stand above his peers and protect himself. But now, every advantage Krune had accumulated so far was perfectly suppressed. At present, Krune wasn''t even sure if he would revive upon death. He didn''t know how much of a suppression now had on him. ''Right, the tablet,'' Krune thought as he tried to summon the tablet. Sadly, nothing happened. There wasn''t any reaction from the dot in his glabella either. Well, to be honest, he couldn''t even sense it now. Thinking for a moment, Krune tapped his glabella once, noticing that nothing happened. Frowning, he double-tapped it, sighing in relief as something condensed before him, turning into the tablet a second later. [Layer 3: Double Ocean] [Total Participants: 341,533] "That''s¡­" Krune frowned, recalling the crowd in the plains when the entrance to the Sub-Realm opened. Estimating the losses that might have happened in Layer 4, the current number displayed on the tablet should be the total people in the Sub-Realm. "Wait¡­Double Ocean¡­ don''t tell me." Recalling the odd feeling he had been having since the start, Krune looked up immediately, cursing aloud, "Fuck!" After all, just above him was another layer of water, one that expanded as far and wide as the one he was currently floating on. An ocean on the bottom, and an ocean above him. There was only a gap of three meters between the two ocean surfaces. It was barely anything, making him feel like the sky was pressing down on him. Moreover, it seemed that gravity was reversed from the mid-point, about 150 centimeters from the ocean surface of either side. Krune then stood up on the Escapist''s back as his head and shoulder crossed the mid-point of the air layer, immediately feeling the pull on his body change. From below his shoulder, he was acted upon by his weight, pulling him down. But above that, he was being pulled up. The sensation his head felt was as if he was standing upside down, a perfect contrast to what his body currently felt. If Krune made a jump now and more than half his body weight crossed to the other side, he would surely plunge into the ocean above. On top of that, his perspective would be reversed. The ocean above would look normal, while the one he was currently in would look like the sky was covered by water. In the mid-point of the air layer, someone kept a mirror and made a mirror image of the ocean below. With that, it created two regions. If Krune wasn''t careful while moving and jumped by mistake, he would crash into the ocean flowing overhead. It was a simple layout but established a complex dynamic. A lot had to be considered before one took any action. "Just like before, I have no idea as to how to obtain any Godly Points. I don''t even know how I can use the Godly Points I have accumulated here," Krune sighed as he muttered, scratching his head as he looked at the tablet. It was already unresponsive back then when he was able to use Godly Energy. But now, he couldn''t even control it using his thought. Krune eventually double-tapped its surface, watching it turn into a dot and disappear into his glabella. He then repeated the same action, taking out the tablet and retracting it to familiarise himself with the action. Krune looked around, noticing how there wasn''t anything within the range of his vision. For as far as he could see, there was only the ocean and the churning waves. Thankfully, the waves weren''t that strong, at most spanning 10 centimeters in height. Nevertheless, the constant shaking was making his stomach feel a bit odd. Even then, Krune was thankful for the fact the Escapist was present in the scene. If he had retracted it, then he would have no other choice but to swim through the ocean, an action that was bound to tire him out immediately. After all, he wasn''t a good swimmer. Well, to be more exact, he had Spiritual or Godly Energy to use. So, in any action he performed, he could supplement himself with them by activating a couple of suitable techniques. But now, all he could rely on was his incredulously nerfed body. Without any energy to bank upon, he didn''t have much choice in the matter. It was a stroke of luck, but he had been riding the Escapist all along. Which was why it was transported along with him. Whatever the laws that worked to achieve that, it had sensed that Krune and the Escapist were a single entity. And hence, they were transported as one. Krune tried a couple of times to summon the Pestlor from his subspace, though nothing happened. To add even more insult to injury, his storage rings were no different from metal rings at present. Krune didn''t even have any weapon to defend himself from the threats of the place. He was completely helpless. The Escapist wasn''t any different from him. At the very least, it was able to brandish its claws and use its powerful jaw to attack. There was at least something he could rely on for protection. Though, as a faint wind blew through the place, Krune trembled. His head hurt while he began to sneeze. He hadn''t dried himself yet. Not long after that, his face paled as he spotted a shadow move past in the ocean above him. The shadow was¡­massive. It was akin to a blue whale in size, an enormous existence to his current mortal form. Even the Escapist, after it was turned into its mortal self, was only two meters in height. It was thanks to its wingspan of four meters it was able to remain afloat, even with Krune on its back. "Well...I''ll be damned," Krune muttered helplessly. Chapter 916: The White Line It was a massive shadow swimming in the ocean. Thanks to the blurriness of the waters, Krune was unable to make out its appearance. All he managed to see was a massive shadow slowly swimming past where he was. Followed by it was an elongated sound dragged to the limit, resounding like a train''s whistle heard from far away. Krune shuddered, feeling the intensity of the other party''s presence. In his current state, he didn''t even qualify as a snack. The Escapist curled its tail into a spiral before starting to rotate it, making use of the fin attached at the end of its tail to push the water. This way, it created some torque, allowing it to move on the ocean waters. It was capable of flying. Sadly, flying in such a place was tantamount to suicide. After all, from the middle of the air layer, it was divided into two regions of gravity acting in opposite directions. In other words, even a single flap of the wings through the other half meant extra strain. Not to mention flying, the Escapist didn''t even have the confidence of not crashing into the ocean a second after it took flight. Therefore, all it did was move its tail like a motor paddle and row through the waters. This was the most economical way to travel while conserving their stamina. As they neither had a destination in mind nor a direction to travel towards, all they could do was sail aimlessly. In the meantime, Krune tore off parts of his clothes and tied them to create some makeshift rope. He then clutched the ends and prepared a solid lock. He planned to use this rope to attack anything that might try to harm him. More than attacking, it was better geared towards defense. Nevertheless, anything at this moment was better than remaining unarmed. There was a gentle light in the place, illuminating everything in a dull yellow. Though, Krune was unable to make out the source of the light. It seemed the water allowed the light to travel this long from the source through a series of reflections, refractions, and diffractions. Though, whenever Krune peeked into the ocean before him, he wouldn''t be able to see anything beyond 10 meters. Everything below was too dark for him to spot anything. Honestly, it was unnerving for him. Surprisingly, he could also only spot a depth of 10 meters in the ocean above him. Beyond that was pitch black. The fact that he was sandwiched by two bodies of water and he couldn''t see past their surface layer made him jittery. If he was still able to use Godly Energy, Krune wouldn''t have been like this. But now, he didn''t have any methods to protect himself. To avoid emitting any Godly Energy, he had stored all his equipment in his spatial rings. Krune then summoned the tablet by double-tapping his glabella. He then grabbed hold of it, moving it around using his hands. A thought struck him as he gently placed it on the water surface. He hadn''t relaxed his hold over it too much, still making sure he was able to grab it. The moment he placed it on the water surface, Krune realized that it wouldn''t float. Instead, it seemed it would head straight into the depths of the ocean. Moreover, in the current situation, he couldn''t retract it with a thought. He had to double tap it to retract it. Unlike before, the tablet didn''t hover in the air before him. He had to grab hold of it. Otherwise, it would just fall to the ground. Well, in this case, it would plunge into the ocean and disappear from view. Without the tablet, he wouldn''t be able to check any information or even use Godly Points to purchase something. The tablet was the most valuable item in the Sub-Realm. "Well, if something life-threatening arrives, I can at least use it to defend myself. It seems sturdy enough," Krune muttered as he fiddled with the tablet for an hour, sighing as he retracted it, unable to obtain any other information from it. Even the place displayed in the region, Epic Hell, had disappeared. As the Escapist rowed through the ocean surface, Krune sat in thought while drying himself up. He had no other choice if he didn''t wish to fall ill, a concept that was odd but was his current reality. He had to instill the concept into his mind that he was now a mortal again. He wasn''t the Krune that was able to mow down foes easily. He was a being made out of flesh and blood that would bleed when hurt and can fall sick easily when not taken care of. "At least, the water''s drinkable," Krune muttered. He had drunk quite the lot of it when he plunged into the ocean at the start. So, he knew he could stay hydrated just by drinking it. Just as he thought of it, Krune frowned, noticing something through their shared thoughts. The Escapist wasn''t feeling well. Its body temperature was dropping. Frowning, Krune dipped his hand into the water, retracting it immediately as he yelled out subconsciously, "Cold!" "When did it become this cold?" He frowned with a hint of panic since he didn''t have any other means to change the situation. To protect him, the Escapist was on the ocean floor, paddling through. As the ocean water turned colder, it was losing body heat continuously. The Escapist made a turn immediately, retracing its travel path. Soon, a couple of minutes later, its condition turned normal. Krune touched the water once again, sighing in relief when it was warm. The warmth caused the Escapist''s faintly trembling body to warm up. "That direction is dangerous," Krune said as he pointed at his back. But a second later, he tilted his head to the side, wondering if that was the direction towards where the water turned colder. To obtain some clues, he looked at the tiny waves on the water, noticing that the currents were completely random. For every kilometer, their direction changed, making it impossible to determine which direction they were proceeding towards. On top of that, even in the same place, the direction of the currents continued to slowly but surely change. With that, there was no way for them to determine the direction they proceeded in. Thankfully, they were proceeding in a straight line from the start. Then again, Krune dared not claim they were traveling straight from the initial point. They were heading straight, that''s for sure. But the water currents might have displaced them subtly over time, changing their direction. Surprisingly, as the currents constantly changed direction, even though they were rowing straight, when seen from a bird''s eye point of view, the path they had traversed would be curved scribbles. Water! There was only water as far as he could see. The shadow of that blue whale-like creature was the only sign of life he had seen till now. After that, Krune didn''t manage to glimpse any other living beings. As they continued to travel aimlessly, the surroundings were starting to dim. For a moment, Krune wasn''t used to it, having accustomed to the God Realm''s environment. But he soon realized what was happening, turning vigilant as the surroundings continued to dim. The night was approaching! Normally, it wouldn''t have been a cause for concern. After all, most cultivators relied on their Divine Sense than their sight. But now, his sense of sight, taste, and smell were all Krune could rely upon to sense his surroundings. And with the descent of the night rendered the sense he primarily relied on useless. Whether it was Krune or the Escapist, both were feeling bouts of fear. As for the Escapist, it started to tremble from time to time. After all, unlike Krune that had a layer of safety under him, more than half its body surface was in contact with the water. So, if something sprung up from within, it would be affected first. Of course, Krune was able to feel its thoughts. He no longer felt safe. But that didn''t mean he could do anything. Thankfully, they hardly made any sounds while moving. The rowing of the Escapist was silent and hardly created any ripples. Moreover, its body had been still from the start. All Krune did was sit on top of it, not moving the entire time. They didn''t wish to cause any commotion and attract any unwanted attention. Just as a habit, Krune double-tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet, grabbing hold of it as he gazed into the data on it, frowning immediately. [Layer 3: Double Ocean] [Total People: 340,127] ''Almost 1400 people have died already,'' Krune frowned as he thought, feeling a chill. In his mind, he thought that they most likely drowned to their deaths. After all, there was a limit to how long they could remain afloat. Even then, if they ventured into places like the cold waters as Krune did, their bodies might freeze up and sink. Anything could happen in the place. Krune had just thought of this when the data on the tablet flashed, changing to just a single row of words, causing Krune to tremble from fright to the point where he had almost dropped it. [The First Wave will begin now.] "The first wave? What the hell is that?" he cursed aloud, immediately shutting himself as he strained his eyes, hearing the sounds of waves. It was like something was moving through the waves, a lot of them at the same time. The sounds were similar to those made by the waves along the shores as they arrived at the beach one after another. It was a resounding bassy sound, one lacking a point source. It was spread throughout the place. Krune turned around immediately, noticing a faint white line at the end of his line of sight. It was like the ocean was bubbling. Though, the shocking fact was the white line extended horizontally to beyond his range of vision. It was as if it spanned the entirety of the layer and was moving forth from one end to another. Moreover, as the white line approached, his surroundings fully dimmed. The night had set when the white line arrived at a position a kilometer away from him. But, only when the night set did he notice the neon lights hidden amidst the white line. Surprisingly, they seemed to be approaching him at a quick pace. Chapter 917: I Am Krune "Run!" Krune bellowed as the Escapist took in a deep breath. Its tail joint trembled as its wings aligned themselves along the water. Followed by a mild screech, the Escapist''s tail began to wriggle sideways, doing a helical spin that tails were capable of performing. It also began to actively move the fin attached at the end of its tail, using it to generate more thrust. The speed of the Escapist''s movement on the water soon increased, accelerating further and further as Krune''s heart thumped in increasing intensities, knowing just the sheer amount of stress the Escapist was facing. The neon lights highlighted the white line that was heading straight towards them. They seemed to move like a meat grinder, coiling into the waters as it moved forth. Sadly, despite giving it all it had, the Escapist wasn''t able to move faster than the white line. As time passed, Krune was able to spot the neon lights with better clarity. Though, at the very instant he saw them, Krune immediately felt weak. Not only was the size of each light terrifying, but even their numbers would make one wonder if there was any hope for them. Each was a worm-like entity, possessing the traits of a fish, apparent from the fins growing all over its serpentine forms. The neon lights were akin to tattoos or different patches of skin on their bodies. Well, to be more exact, they seemed to be some kind of parasitic lifeform sharing a symbiotic relationship with the worm-like fishes. Each fish was at least 5 meters long. It jumped from the water surface, leaping with enough force to head into the ocean above. The same happened on both the oceans as the fishes exchanged places without colliding with each other even once. Their external appearance was still fine to the stomach. But sometimes, they opened their mouths, showing their shark-like teeth within, snapping them shut while entering the water. Just their actions caused his legs to feel weak. As Krune was paying attention to the neon lights, the Escapist was able to learn everything through their shared thoughts. This, in turn, prompted it to go faster. But no matter how it felt, it had reached its physical limit, unable to accelerate any further. On top of that, it was tiring out, feeling its muscles burn due to the strain. Sometimes, its muscles were starting to give out, causing its speed to fluctuate. From a distance of one kilometer, the white line began to approach them, getting nearer by a hundred meters every minute. Naturally, the closer they approached, the worse Krune''s mental state became. He was flustered. The situation was beyond what he could hopefully handle. All that was in his hands was the rope he had made. He didn''t even have anything else to use as a weapon. So, the moment they closed in on him, he would be unable to preserve his life. Thanks to his current mortal form, the emotions he felt were even stronger than what he would have felt usually. Thanks to this, his emotions were getting a hold of him. But of course, Krune didn''t lose his mind. All the Little Krune fragments in his subspace were calm. After all, they didn''t face any threats. The sharp contrast served to help him calm down, allowing him to think logically. He still had some time to plan his actions. "Hah, this is beyond what I had signed up for." Krune sighed as he took in deep breaths, feeling the thumping of his heart slow down back to normal rates. Moreover, his physique experienced some changes. The pores on his skin opened, causing him to feel the slightest change in the moisture and temperature. His ears were able to focus on a broader scale, allowing him to perceive sounds with greater clarity. His nose, surprisingly, was also able to identify smells sharper. On top of that, his range of vision broadened, but the focus was on the task he wished to achieve. His body entered a complete battle state, one only attained by staring death in the face for a considerable time. The sheer stress it placed on his mental state caused Krune to erupt with all his potential. Emotions he had forgotten, skills he had gained, the caution he had maintained, the fights he had experienced, everything he had gone through in his life spanning a couple of centuries flashed through Krune''s mind. Slowly but surely, the memories condensed into himself, reviving his past experience, awakening the muscle memory he hadn''t used in ages. Because of his sharp increase in cultivation and the speed he bulldozed through them before he realized, Krune had become overly reliant on his Godly Energy. He had become dependant on the abilities he had learned, always using them to win over his peers and even stronger foes. He had long since forgotten the concept of training the body. All the training he had done had been related to Godly Energy. He hadn''t analyzed the techniques he learned in relation to how his body played a role in it. In fact, the thought hadn''t even crossed his mind. "Fine." Krune gazed at the approaching white line, taking in a deep breath as he entered a slightly crouched form, muttering to himself, "This here is when I pit my life against the odds." "I am Krune," he muttered, feeling relaxed all of a sudden, watching the white line approach closer to him, now only separated by 30 meters of water. In such proximity, Krune was able to observe the creatures better. They didn''t seem to contain any energy in their bodies. Instead, they just seemed to be sea creatures that had evolved to such a size. As they moved forth as a group, they appeared imposing. The Escapist was no longer able to paddle forth. All its muscles had cramped, causing its speed to begin slowing down. Its wings twitched as the forearm on its right was slightly bent. The bone within had a crack, seemingly on the verge of breaking. It seemed that the exertion twisted some muscle strands too much and applied pressure on the bones to the point one of them cracked. The Escapist was grunting in pain but still desperately tried to move forth. It was at this time that the white line arrived behind them. One of the worm-like fishes jumped out from the ocean above them. It made a beeline towards them, decelerating for half the distance before accelerating the moment it entered the second half. It opened its mouth, revealing its teeth as it headed straight towards the Escapist. Krune dodged sideways as he tugged his rope, barely managing to evade, despite knowing the direction the attack would come from. The fact that an ocean was right above his head unnerved him. Moreover, he couldn''t stand up in fear his body would be pulled into the ocean above. With that, he had to act while crouched. As Krune dodged the attack, the worm-like fish bit into the Escapist, causing it to scream in pain. The weight and the momentum behind the impact caused the worm-like fish and the Escapist to drown in the water. The Escapist struggled while it was pulled down further and further by the worm-like fish. The worm-like fish left the swarming school and headed into the depths. Suddenly, the area lit up as more than ten worm-like fishes appeared. The neon glow they emitted allowed them to see the figure of the Escapist clearly. All of them bit onto it and tore it into pieces, causing blood to splatter and dissolve into the waters. They were feasting right below the trail of the school of the worm-like fishes. Some of them were lured by the scent of blood and left the school to feast on the Escapist. When they didn''t manage to get any piece of the flesh, they returned to the school and continue to move forth. Tears streamed out from his eyes as Krune was able to experience everything the Escapist had felt while it was torn into pieces by the worm-like fishes. Its emotions, its feelings, fears, thoughts, the pain it experienced, everything was relayed realtime to Krune. It made him howl in sadness. He had jumped into the water and used his rope to latch onto a worm-like fish. He tied it around the opponent''s mouth, constricting it while preventing it from opening its mouth. It continued to struggle as it fell into the water, making a curve within as it headed towards the surface, shooting forth with enough force. It then plunged into the ocean above. It then made the same curve within the water and swam towards the surface, jumping forth with enough power to plunge into the ocean above. This was how all the worm-like fishes moved, alternating from one ocean to the other constantly. The fluctuation in the gravity fields disrupted him, not to mention the constant plunge into the water. Krune had to time himself during the struggles to breathe in the air. The worm-like fish wriggled, trying to throw him off balance. Krune had to concentrate to his limit. Using the rope like a ring, he spun around the worm-like fish''s body, evading the lunges from the surrounding school of fishes. Even a slight lapse in judgment would cost him his life. With that, Krune had to be as careful as possible. His arms hurt while his nails had come off during the struggle. At times, Krune had dug his nails into the skin of the worm-like fish to hold his balance. So while he was evading a couple of attacks, they were pulled off. The pain was unbearable, but Krune couldn''t relent that easily. He had to use all his experience to stay alive. Having used a shield for all his life, he was an expert in defending himself. But even then, Krune was facing a lot of difficulties. The worm-like fish he had latched onto continued to swim, occasionally bumping into other fishes in an effort to smash him into mush. At those moments, he had to quickly swerve his body to the side and avoid the collision. Then again, it was easier said than done. They were constantly alternating between air and water. So, every time this happened, the difference in the density of the mediums caused him difficulty in reacting. After all, it was easier to move faster in the air than in water. There were many variables at play. Moreover, the fishes had serpentine bodies. So, they were able to coil-over one another and constrict him slowly to death. And whenever this was bound to happen, Krune had to let go of the current worm-like fish and latch onto another nearby. On top of that, he was wounded. So, every time that happened, it made his blood mix with the water and draw in more fish towards him. Chapter 919: Neon Radiance ''Argh!'' Krune mentally bellowed with immense ferocity, tightening the rope as his vision was filled with only blood. All the worm-like fishes swimming above him parted way like a stream coming across a boulder. At present, there weren''t any worm-like fishes swimming directly above him. As for the two worm-like fishes that had been immobilized at the start, they were trembling as the ocean currents pushed their bodies away. When they had moved a certain length, they regained the ability to move once again, swiftly escaping from the scene. ''It¡­burns!'' Krune screamed mentally, not even being able to open his mouth due to the fear of the water gushing into him. When the blood of the worm-like fish fell on his body, they were absorbed into him, turning into faint marks all over his body. Immediately, as if actuated by a vortex, all the blood flowed out from its twitching body and seeped into him, creating a coating over his skin. All along, Krune felt as if he was being burned in boiling water. He screamed amidst the pain, almost losing grip over the rope. Though surprisingly, his heart thumped with vigor, making him realize that his life would be forfeit the moment he let go of his hold. So, no matter what happened, Krune didn''t relent in his actions. He banked on his experience in living for two centuries, making use of the determination and willpower he had accumulated through it, pressing forth with sheer effort. The blood of the worm-like neon fish continued to seep into him as its body began to wither up. Eventually, the burning sensation disappeared as he was able to pull the rope as much as it could go. His vision cleared up as Krune noticed that the worm-like neon fish he was wrangling had withered up into a husk. Even its bones had become brittle, compressing into mush when he tightened his hold. With that, Krune looked up and noticed that the worm-like fishes had completely moved past, revealing clear water now. Despite their disappearance, there was still enough light around him, allowing him to see. It was at this moment he noticed the oddity, looking around to notice the light was only in his surroundings. He then looked at his hand, noticing it glisten with a neon glow. His entire body was the source of the light now. Dragging the withered husk of the worm-like fish, Krune surfaced soon after, gasping for air a couple of moments before he gathered his bearings, muttering, "Damn it! What just happened?" He then noticed how he was feeling a bit tired, immediately realizing the cause was his glowing self. "Did I somehow gain their glowing ability?" Pondering over it, Krune willed himself into turning off the light, immediately noticing his glowing self dim until his surroundings turned pitch black. There wasn''t any speck of light in the surroundings, causing him to feel fear immediately. With a single thought, his body began to glow once again. Krune then experimented with himself a little, realizing that he could control the intensity of the glow and determine the places of his body that glowed. If he wished to, he could only make his palms glow while modifying their intensity. In any case, it wasn''t free to use. Instead, it seemed to be a biological evolution. When he emitted the light, Krune began to feel a bit tired. So, the ability was consuming the energy in his flesh to work. It was an ability highly reliant on his flesh. He was currently like a firefly in that his skin could emit light. Krune opened his mouth to see if he could emit light from within it, closing it a moment later in embarrassment when it didn''t work. He determined that when the worm-like fish''s blood seeped into him, it formed a coating on his skin, causing it to glow. To experiment, he made his left hand glow while he scratched its surface. He noticed that the glowing property wasn''t diminished on the contact area just because he scrapped a patch of dead skin from it. "Is there anything else?" Krune double tapped his glabella after that, summoning his tablet, using his left hand to grab hold of it immediately. His right hand was holding the withered husk of the worm-like fish. There was a new message on it now, surprising him. [Killed one Neon Radiance King: 1 Godly Point obtained] [Obtained Passive: Neon Radiance] [Total Godly Points: 26] "Just what are the factors that gave me this ability? A passive?" Krune muttered as he thought out loud, getting a few hints as to how it functioned. "So, after killing this Neon Radiance King, I obtained this passive ability of Neon Radiance." "At least, it''s something," he said not long after, double-tapping the tablet using his index finger as he watched it return to his glabella. He was tired now, no longer having the mood to do anything. Nevertheless, he couldn''t relax. After all, he no longer had the Escapist to rely on to move. His legs were slowly paddling to keep him afloat. Though, the reason his inexperienced self could remain afloat was thanks to the withered husk of the worm-like fish. And judging by its name, it was called the Neon Radiance King. "Then, are the others called the Neon Radiance¡­fishes?" The Neon Radiance King''s withered husk had a certain buoyancy to it that allowed him to remain afloat by grabbing onto it. As its body spanned a length of five meters, it was enough for him to remain afloat. Krune felt all over its body, noticing that the bones in it had turned brittle while it had lost all its blood. Using the rope, he tied it, creating a small plank-like surface where he could rest on. As Krune boarded it, he heaved a sigh in relief, noticing that it barely managed to retain his weight without sinking. But that was all. He couldn''t row using it since even the slightest movement would just topple it. Even now, he had to balance himself carefully and spread his body weight evenly. Otherwise, it would tip over. Thankfully for him, the waves were small and didn''t affect him much. In any case, it was a burden to maintain balance due to all the shaking. At least, it was better than remaining in the water and freezing up when his stamina ran dry. "But, what should I do now?" Krune frowned as he gasped for air, feeling pain all over his body. He was injured all over from the skirmish and was bleeding. Moreover, he could still see a faint neon line far away from his line of sight, watching it move further and further away. "At least, I escaped the first wave¡­wait, first?" Krune double tapped his glabella after pondering over this, summoning his tablet as he punched it, making it display the basic information of the place. [Layer 3: Double Ocean] [Total people: 288,146] Krune inhaled a sharp breath of air, seeing the rapid drop in the number of cultivators. The first wave hadn''t even ended yet. All it did was pass by his current location. So, it meant that the losses were disastrous. Moreover, as it had the term ''First,'' it naturally meant there were subsequent waves to face. "I can''t waste my time like this. I have to recuperate from my injuries first," Krune frowned as he muttered to himself, looking around as he increased the intensity of the glow he emitted, failing to spot anything living. He then reduced his glow to a bare minimum, only enough to make out his silhouette. He then faced his palm upwards, unleashing the maximum brightness from it as he emitted a neon glow like a beam. The light fell on the ocean above, spreading out a little as it traveled fairly deep before dispersing completely. Krune didn''t manage to notice any fishes in it, frowning as he directed his beam all over it. He then stopped when he noticed a silhouette on the ocean surface. It was the body of a worm-like fish, one that had died thanks to its injuries. Krune then noticed how its carcass was floating, realizing that their bodies were naturally capable of floating upon death. "I can''t let this chance slip." He then took in a deep breath, crouching as he grabbed hold of the ends of the rope. After a moment of thought, he tore off most of his pants and the sleeves on his arm, extending the length of the rope. He tied its end around his hip, looking around with the beam of light to ensure there weren''t any other living beings moving around. Then, after taking in a deep breath, he jumped, almost making the float he had haphazardly made with the carcass drown into the water as his body shot forth. Krune extended his hands as much as he could, heaving a sigh of relief when more than half his body weight passed through the midpoint of the air layer. There didn''t exist any specific line pointing it out. But when he stood up, he could feel the change in gravity acting on his shoulder and above, giving him a rough estimate. For a moment, the pull of gravity on both sides almost reduced the momentum behind his jump as his body slowly moved towards the other sides before plunging into the ocean above. His perspective shifted as Krune surfaced from the ocean, marveling at the fact that the ocean he was on until now was above him now, acting like the sky in his perspective. The rope he had made was long enough to extend from the float to himself. It was fully tugged. Thanks to its weight and the difference in gravity, it was akin to an object that tried to lift him up. As Krune had calculated the length, even if he fell asleep now, he wouldn''t drown. The weight behind the float would prevent it from falling towards him, while the tension in the rope would keep him afloat. Though, remaining in contact with the water for so long would sap all his body warmth away. Krune had no such intentions. Thanks to the tension in the rope keeping him on the ocean surface, Krune was able to paddle his way. In this way, even his inexperienced self was able to move forward. As he swam, the rope pulled the float, causing it to move on its respective ocean surface accordingly. After what felt like an eternity, he approached the body of the worm-like fish, climbing aboard it as he grunted in exhaustion while lying flat on its body. "Right, I have to eat to recover my strength." Followed by another grunt, Krune sat up and looked at the long body of the fish, sighing. Chapter 920: Losing Sanity The ocean waters were peaceful, with the tides proceeding about as usual while the water currents within changed according to the depth like usual. The sunlight illuminated the area, despite it being difficult, if not impossible, to determine the source. There was one ocean on the bottom and another facing it on the top, situated 3 meters away. The waves were tiny, barely reaching 5-6 centimeters, which meant they did not produce any noise. Everything looked the same¡­except for one thing. The sounds of something being scratched constantly resounded throughout the place, somewhat grating to the ears. The sound was akin to using stone to scratch against a rock to scoop dirt from it. At times, there was a faint white powder that floated on the ocean surface. The cause was Krune. His gaze was vacant, almost dispirited, as he seemed to have lost his sanity. At present, in his hand was what seemed to be a piece of bone, somewhat cylindrical at the back while sporting a triangular front, sharp. It seemed to be the tooth of the worm-like fish that he had ripped out. Right now, he was using it to scrap on a large piece of bone, trying to shape it into a weapon he could use to wield. Currently laid beside him were a couple of bones that had been carved into weapons. One was a tail bone that had been turned into a club. The handle part was slightly curved to give it a better grip. He had also tied some of the cloth from his dress to increase its grip. The second weapon was a pike with a small hook-like thing attached at the front. Tied to its end was a rope, made using his dress. The other end of the rope was coiled around his left hand. At present, there was only a small piece of the garment covering his hips. He was bare for the rest of his body, having used up all the cloth. Having been afloat on the ocean water for almost a month now, Krune had almost become mad. As a cultivator, a month wasn''t even a long time. Rather, it was just a short cultivation session. But as a mortal, a month was a long time to be idle. It was the difference in mindset and mentality. It wasn''t just his body that had turned into a mortal. His mind, too, had been affected. At present, even the Little Krune that was within his subspace was idle, having stopped comprehending the laws of his subspace. All it did was lay flat and stare at the floating Wisp Cores. Its mind was blank at the moment. It was because it was affected by Krune''s thought process. Their shared thoughts worked against it at this moment. Initially, Krune had thought about doing certain things to protect himself better. After all, he had begun to work on creating them. But as the days passed, without anyone to talk with, without anything to think or ponder over, he had shut his mind and began to mechanically work on developing his tools. The body of the worm-like fish was five meters long. In other words, that meant it contained a tremendous reserve of flesh to eat and bones for him to carve into weapons. Using the smaller bones, Krune made some knives that he used to further carve out the flesh of the worm-like fish. As for the bigger bones, he used the longest two to turn into weapons: the club and the pike. During normal times, he used the club to row himself forward. But over time, he stopped doing that, allowing the weak ocean currents to take him wherever they wished. After all, without seeing any destination in sight, he didn''t even know if moving in a certain direction was worth it. After a while, Krune simply gave up rowing. All he did was work on making weapons, healing his injuries, and strengthening his base. It was the most difficult during the first day. Krune didn''t have any tools to work with. Using the neon glow he emitted, Krune looked into the mouth of the worm-like fish, noticing its teeth. After protecting his hands by putting a piece of cloth over it, he began to pull out its teeth. Then again, it was easier said than done. The teeth didn''t even budge, no matter what he did. As his nails had fallen off, Krune couldn''t even scratch its gums. With that, he had to struggle through a lot. After struggling for an entire night, he finally managed to take out the tooth that was the most damaged out of them all. He cleaned it using a piece of cloth before using it to cut open a section of the worm-like fish. It took a lot of time as Krune was completely exhausted. After spending hours on it, he managed to rip out a considerable size of flesh. As he was famished, Krune didn''t even stop to think if it would be healthy to eat it raw. All he did was clean it a little using the ocean water before gorging on it. Once he finished eating it, Krune fell asleep immediately. When he woke up, he felt like he had recovered some of his lost strength. After that, he began to use the damaged tooth to cut the gums and take out the healthy teeth one after another. From there, he used them to cut patches on the worm-like fish''s body and cut out pieces of its flesh. Though, he soon noticed that his actions were making the floating worm-like fish''s carcass unstable. It seemed that if he kept up with his actions, it was bound to topple over soon enough. In order to avoid such a scenario, Krune spent a lot of time pulling out a tiny bone from the worm-like fish. He then used the teeth to scrape away on it, grinding it down to the size of a needle. He then used the worm-like fish''s tendons to sew its skin back together. This way, he reduced the extent of its damage. From there, he began to work. After some days passed, he spotted a school of fishes flowing past, barely managing to capture some using his clothes as a net. During his free time, Krune used the worm-like fish''s body as support while using his legs to paddle through the water. This way, he practiced swimming, preparing for the day he would be in the ocean on his own. Previously, he had only survived by banking on his trove of experience. Then again, he couldn''t say it would always be the case. After all, he was inexperienced in the art of swimming. With that, Krune began to train accordingly. Moreover, he discovered a rather surprising fact. The ocean water was different from all the water he had come across. It seemed to contain a property beneficial to the body. As he soaked himself in the ocean water, his injuries began to heal. Nevertheless, the healing speed was incomparably slow. Even a scratch took a day to heal. Moreover, it only increased his natural recovery by a small amount. At the very least, thanks to it, Krune''s injuries didn''t worsen his condition. Moreover, the water also prevented any meat from rotting thanks to its beneficial property. This was the reason Krune could safely consume the worm-like fish''s meat without any risks. Then again, after eating some of it, he left the remaining as is to ensure he had a soft platform underneath him. As days passed, Krune came across numerous fishes swimming in the oceans above and below him. They weren''t the threatening kind but rather seemed like regular fishes. He began to hunt for them and stored enough of them for his later needs. As the water prevented their corpses from rotting, he used that to his advantage and racked a pile of fish for his food needs. The first three nights were the most nerve-wracking since he was alert against anything that might spring up on him. But as the days passed, he became less vigilant, even going to the extent of stopping his body from glowing during the nights, remaining in the dark. His mortal fear of the dark continued to diminish. And, with a decrease in fear came a reduced care for survival. ...which resulted in his current situation after almost a month has passed in such a fashion. Krune had used the skin of the fishes to stitch on the worm-like fish''s carcass, reinforcing it into a sturdier platform that he could comfortably rest on. He had adjusted its body shape to resemble the float above, using the extra space to rest and relax while making his tools. As he was using a tooth to shave a long piece of bone, something jumped up from the water, opening its mouth to clamp on Krune. In reflex, Krune''s left hand moved, carrying the bone he was working on to plunge it into the mouth of the fish. The bone hit the depth of the fish''s mouth, going further in before choking on it, causing internal damage. As the fish had clamped shut in reflex, it noticed to its horror that its teeth cracked when coming into contact with the bone. Krune''s right hand went to his hip and pulled out one of the hung knives, thrusting it through the head of the attacking fish. The fish twitched for a dozen seconds before turning still. Even then, Krune didn''t take out the knife. Instead, he left the knife as is and pulled out a second knife from his hip, also plunging it into the fish, watching it twitch immediately, showing that it was just playing dead all along. His vacant eyes glanced at his thigh, watching the deep bite marks of teeth that revealed his bone, gently placing the fish before him, all along using the long bone to prevent it from moving. Using a couple of knives, he quickly diced it up into many pieces. Once he did that, he worked on it, extracting all the bones and internal organs from it. He dumped them on the ocean and separated the skin from the body. He washed both of them first, storing the flesh in a leather sack he had created. As for the skin of the fish, he set it aside for the time being. Layer 3: Double Ocean! A layer of the Sub-Realm that had completely changed the cultivator that was once overpowered among his peers. Chapter 921: Wriggly-Ugly Krune looked at the skin of the fish he recently killed, stretching it a bit to see its toughness. He then nodded as he muttered, "This can work." Not long after doing that, he began stitching it on the platform he had made using the body of the worm-like fish, making it flatter and even. Unsurprisingly, he was slowly but surely turning it into a boat, little by little using the flesh, bones, and skin of the fishes he obtained. He was primarily using the bones of the large fishes he had hunted over the month to form the walls of the boat. He then filled them with the flesh of the fishes he had caught, those whose taste he didn''t like but had obtained in excess. Once he made sure to fill in between the bones, Krune used the tendons of a couple of tough fish varieties to tie them together. He then sewed the skin of the fishes over them, giving the entirety a rigid texture. It was a work in progress. It seemed like it would take him a lot of time before he would be able to complete the boat. Thankfully for him, as long as the structure remained in contact with the water, it wouldn''t even deteriorate. The worm-like fish was 5 meters long and a meter wide. So, when he stitched its body together after eating some of its flesh and taking out some of its bones, it resulted in a platform that was around two meters in length and width. Surprisingly, it still maintained a meter in height. It wasn''t elongated like a boat at all. Then again, Krune had no other choice. Hence, he decided to just build it accordingly. After all, it wasn''t as if he had any intentions to row it. He wanted the weak waves to carry it forward, so he left the design as a simple square. To curb his boredom, Krune was constantly working. At times, he hunted whenever a school of fish came closer to the surface. At times, he just continued to swim while immersing his body in the water, banking on the beneficial properties of the water to heal himself faster. He couldn''t remain in the water for too long, though. After all, he wasn''t an aquatic creature. If he remained in contact with water for too long, his body cells would bloat up, turning them soft and weak, making it easy for him to get injured with the slightest touch. So, he had to remain on the boat for most of the day and dry himself under the sunlight. The sunlight that appeared with no source in sight did confuse him at the beginning. He did ponder about it for the first few days and nights. But after that, he quickly gave up on it, intending to focus on his survival first. He began to take it for granted, treating the sourceless sunlight as the norm. At present, he had created a small raised platform around the edges of the platform made with the worm-like fish. It spanned a height of 10 centimeters, with the ends covered by peeking bones. There were a couple of bones the size of his hand that he had taken out from some of the larger fishes. They served as the base for the walls of the boat. As he was idly pondering over the ways to better the construct, he noticed the number of fishes around him had increased all of a sudden. They were the very same type of fish that tried to bite him just now. They had a body spanning a meter in length, sporting a jaw at the front similar to a crocodile, able to clamp on their opponents. They were fairly dangerous due to the fact that their skin was tough. Krune had only fought against them a couple of times in the past month. In fact, it was their skin that he stitched on the outer surface of the boat construct. After all, they had the toughest skin among all the fishes he had encountered. "Usually, there aren''t more than 5-6 that swim as a group," Krune frowned as he muttered to himself, feeling a sort of mental exhaustion where he didn''t wish to think hard. His eyes faintly widened in surprise as he noticed the fishes increase in number, numbering past thirty. Most of them were swimming in the ocean above, seemingly in a hurry. They then leaped out of the ocean and plunged into the ocean below, hurriedly trying to escape. Even though it was daytime, Krune was unable to see anything beyond a depth of 10 meters. It had always been the same. Immediately, he tracked the direction they were fleeing from, facing his palm towards them as he unleashed his Neon Radiance. The neon beam he radiated illuminated to a depth of 20 meters, allowing him to inspect a greater range. He soon frowned as he saw more and more of the said fishes swimming about frantically. "Damn it!" Krune leaped into the water and hurriedly paddled forth, swimming away as he saw a massive shadow appear in the ocean above. As the fishes jumped into the ocean below, it also followed suit, chasing after them. For the first time since he laid eyes on it at the start, the massive shadow appeared in the layer of water illuminated by the sunlight, causing Krune to gulp as his heart thumped in fear. He swam at a faster pace, bursting with all the strength left in him. As he had tied his two long weapons, the club and the pike on his hands, they were also dragged into the water as he escaped. Thankfully for him, they didn''t constrict his movements too much, getting dragged in the water without much resistance, thanks to their streamlined shapes. Krune continued to paddle as he glanced over at the side, watching the figure of the massive shadow being illuminated by the sunlight. It was shaped like a whale, spanning a length of 25 meters and a width of 8 meters. Followed by a massive flap of its tail, it exited the ocean above and fell into the ocean below, causing a massive splash of water that displaced some of it into the ocean above. Krune frantically paddled with his limbs, struggling to move as he noticed his body was being pulled backward at an alarming pace, "No¡­no...nooooo!" The humongous whale-like creature had opened its mouth, revealing a massive jaw filled with jagged teeth. Wriggling inside were tentacles that emerged from its throat, acting as feelers for the prey it would have caught. It had crashed into the waters right next to the school of fish it had been chasing. At the very moment it opened its massive mouth, it created a vortex as the water gushed right into it like a flood. The currents it created were so strong it pulled in all the fishes swimming away from it, including Krune that was ten meters away from it. Even though he tried to swim away with all his might, the vortex didn''t seem to end. After all, the whale-like fish seemed to have evolved in such a way that it was able to filter out all the water instantly and eject it immediately, causing it to be able to maintain the vortex without its body bulging. This turned it into a disastrous predator that could hunt for prey like an unending vacuum cleaner that searched for dirt. It seemed that the whale-like fish had considered Krune as its snack as well, moving a bit closer towards him. The increase in suction pulled in Krune, sending him flying into its mouth. Krune had no other choice but to comply, pulling his hands backward as he grabbed hold of his two long weapons. The current in the water was too powerful, preventing him from even reacting as he was sent in helplessly. While moving over it, Krune defended himself with the two long weapons, crouching as he defended his body, reducing the area of contact. Even then, he scraped himself a bit against its teeth. The force behind the currents even crushed the two long bones that he was depending on to defend himself. The whale-like fish''s teeth were even stronger than the worm-like fish''s bones. In any case, he managed to survive. As for the other fishes that were pulled in along with him, all of them were on death''s door after being cut by the whale-like fish''s sharp teeth. Krune slammed into the back of its throat, grabbing hold of a tentacle within to prevent himself from being sent further inward. After sucking in all the fishes in the surroundings, the whale-like fish noticed the float and the boat Krune had created. They were made from fish, so in its eyes, it was food as well. It sucked in both of them, closing its mouth when it was done as it continued to swim away. "Ugh." Krune jumped and landed on the floor of the whale-like fish''s mouth, dodging the boat that flew towards him. The water levels swiftly reduced until there was none within the chamber as Krune emitted light from his body, using it to look around. He noticed the injured fishes that were twitching on the floor, bleeding while suffocating. Without any water, they couldn''t live for long. Moreover, the blood they shed was instantly absorbed by the surface. Krune grunted, bleeding all over as he was also injured by the whale-like creature''s teeth. The two long bones he had created had been destroyed into pieces. At the very least, they protected his life. He then looked to his side, noticing one of the fish twitch before turning still. It had suffered a gash on its stomach, one that almost severed it into two. Unsurprisingly, it swiftly died. Though, when Krune intended to pick it up to eat, a tentacle shot forth, latching onto it before pulling it into the throat. One after another, the tentacles picked up the dead fishes and sent them inside the throat. Moreover, thanks to the neon light he emitted, Krune noticed the tentacles acting weirdly before a couple of them spat out tiny spheres. When he noticed what they were, Krune almost vomited out of disgust. Thankfully for him, his experience in the sea allowed him to build up a lot of resistance against the gore and wriggly-ugly. The spheres grew more than twenty legs each as they moved towards the fishes that were still alive and hadn''t been injured at all. Upon reaching them, they revealed mouths that expanded greater than the width of their bodies, clamping on the fishes to kill them. It seemed to be an internal defense mechanism of the whale-like fish to kill all the prey it ate. And, upon seeing the alive Krune, they began to charge towards him. Chapter 922: Recovering His Cunning Krune immediately moved his hand over his hip as his fingers dangled in the air, touching each knife once as he counted them. ''I have eight knives in total. That should be enough for now, I think.'' He pulled out two knives, holding one in each hand as he moved into a battle stance. His body glowed with the Neon Radiance, illuminating his surroundings enough for him to move about without any problems. He watched the creatures scurry over the floor at tremendous speeds. At the very moment they were close to him, their twenty legs slammed on the flesh floor, causing them to spring towards him. Krune hurriedly dodged and swiped his knife on the creature''s back, cursing when he noticed that the attack was shallow. The spherical creatures were protected by a tough carapace. So, he couldn''t wound them with normal swipes. After all, his bone knives weren''t sharp enough. With that, Krune had to plunge the knives into them to make sure their lives were gone. Nevertheless, it was easier said than done. Each sphere was around 30 centimeters in length. It was tough and had the ability to jump almost two meters. With such properties, it created a lot of variables while fighting that he had to guard against. His heart thumped as his field of vision widened. He began to sweat. The tension of the atmosphere made him feel alive once again. Slowly, as he looked around, he became alert while his mind began to work. What felt like the sluggishness of the drifting ocean wore off as Little Krune also woke up, beginning to think up a plan of action to help him. It used their shared thoughts to create a way for him to survive while Krune fully focused on fighting. This way, they optimized their abilities, achieving more with less effort. Krune stepped back, kicking a fish as he jumped. The fish slammed into one of the spherical creatures, sending it flying a bit. It then wriggled on the floor a bit as its twenty legs flailed. It then reoriented itself and began to scurry towards Krune once again. Krune didn''t do the mistake of fighting against them all out in the open. That would be suicidal. He would surely be swarmed to death. After all, he could see around 20 of those spherical creatures. It wasn''t a number he could simply fight against. With that in mind, Krune kept running, picking up a twitching fish as he threw it towards the tentacles emerging from the throat. It seemed the whale-like fish didn''t wish to swallow anything alive. So, the tentacles in its throat immediately swatted away the alive fish. This action caused all the spherical creatures to pause as they simultaneously looked at the swatted fish. Two of them immediately moved towards it, clamping on it using their exaggerated mouths to kill it. It seemed they had thought of it as an invader for a moment, prioritizing on killing it. Krune took this chance when they had stopped to lunge at the one closest to him, slamming down his hands on it with all his might. He plunged the knife right into its back, piercing it all the way until the tip of the knife emerged on the other side. Though, it seemed that the spherical creature wouldn''t die by one attack. Krune immediately plunged another knife using his left hand, watching in shock when he only managed to pierce halfway. "Damn it! The knife doesn''t have much weight. I need more strength to kill them," he cursed but had no other choice other than to attack the spherical creature. The first knife constructed its movements. With that, he left it as is, using two other knives to jab it three to four times before evading immediately. A couple of spherical creatures had jumped at him. Krune dodged and rolled on the floor, using the fishes'' bodies to defend himself from their attacks. The attacks of the spherical fishes consisted of clamping using their exaggerated mouths. Upon seeing their attack pattern, Krune sheathed one of his knives, picking up the carcass of a fish. In his left, he held the fish. In his right, he held the knife. Krune awaited as he watched a spherical creature jump at him. The moment it jumped, his body emitted blinding radiance for a moment, causing it pain in the eyes as it had evolved to look in the dark. So, the blinding light hurt it the most. Using the chance when its reaction time was reduced, he thrust the fish forward, watching the fish reflexively clamp its mouth shut. For a moment, it had swallowed a huge chunk of the fish. So, it wasn''t able to open its mouth as easily anymore. They weren''t the type with a stomach. After all, when they clamped on the other alive fishes, they spat out the bitten pieces immediately. With that, Krune used that to his advantage, which is why he thrust the fish forward. This way, when the spherical creature clamped on it, it swallowed a piece beyond what it was capable of biting into, becoming suffocated. Krune immediately jabbed on its back with a knife. This time though, he didn''t follow up with a flurry of attacks, noticing that he would run out of strength if he continued to do that. The number of enemies this time around was too much. So instead, he threw the spherical creature''s body with all his might. Throwing consumed less energy. On top of that, he had aimed it at the row of teeth of the whale-like fish. The spherical creature slammed into the sharp teeth, suffering from major cuts. It was unable to move for a short period, twitching on the spot. Krune continued with this tactic of first blinding the spherical creatures momentarily, stuffing their mouths with the fish, plunging an attack on their backs with the knife, and using it to throw them towards the row of teeth with greater speeds. A couple of the spherical creatures slammed right dead center into the whale-like fish''s sharp teeth, getting impaled there as their bodies twitched. They were unable to free themselves while their blood continued to drip out. Krune didn''t relent on his attacks. All he did was look around in a hurry to react. In the meantime, Little Krune processed everything he saw and thought of ideas to use. Thanks to their shared thoughts, Krune was able to implement it instantly. It was basically two minds working at once. As long as his body was able to move, he was able to execute whatever he thought without any errors. This was because as their thoughts clashed, they came up with new ideas and methods to make use of their advantage. The prime advantage was the fact Krune was able to radiate with light when needed. The spherical creatures, on the other hand, were those that had evolved to work in the dark since they only operated in the whale-like creature''s mouth. With that, their sight had regressed accordingly, unable to tolerate bright light. Just that was enough for Krune to abuse, taking advantage of this fact to kill them off one by one. It seemed that the whale-like fish had sensed his actions as the tentacles in its throat flashed, lashing out on him like whips. Some of them attacked while others tried to constrict his movements and capture him. While dodging one of their attacks, Krune swiped with his knife, noticing that the muscle mass forming each tentacle was ridiculously tough. He immediately attributed it to the whale-like creature''s humongous body. With a body of such size, its muscles had to be accordingly tough to withstand the sheer pressure and weight active within it. Unsurprisingly, they were tremendously tough. Krune had to hack them at least 15-20 times before he managed to sever one tentacle. And this was just one of the many that lashed out. It seemed to be a nigh-impossible feat to escape from when Little Krune finished analyzing the scene. When a spherical creature jumped at him, Krune decided to attack using the knives from the side, piercing into it. This way, he prevented it from biting him. Krune immediately twisted one of the knives a little, causing the spherical fish to open its mouth wide. He faced it towards a lashing tentacle, twisting the knife back to normal, watching the spherical fish clamp its mouth shut with its usual force. He smiled upon seeing his plan work, watching the tentacle get severed into two. When he had attacked the spherical creatures till now, Little Krune had collated all their reactions, thus determining the place to attack that would cause them to behave in such a manner. Using this, he obtained a tool to use against the tentacles. Just like how the saying went, the antidote grew right next to the poison. The creatures the tentacles produced were able to injure them. When another tentacle lashed out, Krune used the spherical fish to sever it as well. But as it had tanked two impacts, the spherical fish died. The piercing wound he had created on its sides at the start had now turned into long gashes. Without feeling any regret, Krune did the same to another spherical creature, using it to attack the tentacles. All along, he was constantly flashing about, using everything as his shield. The moment he came across a live fish, he threw it towards the throat, causing the tentacles to move and swat it away. The attention of the spherical creatures was also diverted to the alive fish for a moment. It seemed like they didn''t have a brain to operate but acted like reflex muscles. It also seemed like they communicated through pheromones. As they weren''t intelligent, Krune made use of it to save himself during moments of crisis. Moreover, at times when the tentacles lashed out on him, he dodged, watching them be impaled on the row of teeth. Thanks to the force behind their lash and the sharpness of the teeth, they were fully pierced through, most of the time, getting severed. Moreover, he cunningly placed himself before the teeth where the spherical creatures were stuck during his earlier attacks. And when he dodged, the tentacles lashed onto the spherical creatures, severing their bodies into two using the teeth as a wedge. This way, he used his two opponents against one another, easily dwindling their numbers, changing an impossible-to-win situation to something manageable. Though, it was all thanks to Little Krune. If Krune was all on his own, he wouldn''t have been able to think and plan so much. There was a good chance he would commit mistakes. Moreover, he wouldn''t even be able to enact such an elaborate scheme. "Phew." Krune let out a breath in relief upon killing the last of the spherical creatures, wiping off his sweat. Chapter 923: Whale Tooth Krune stared at the throat of the whale-like fish, watching the severed tentacles struggle to move. At the moment, they were bleeding. With that, the whale-like fish didn''t open its mouth to bring in another torrent of water. After all, that would be suicidal. It was because its internal defenders were annihilated. Bringing in more enemies would just further worsen its condition. Krune could feel the interior become slightly hot as the heat seemed to be congregating around the throat. It seemed like the tentacles were intending to birth more spherical creatures to kill Krune. They only were severed at their ends. The tentacles hadn''t been destroyed yet. Therefore, Krune couldn''t approach them carelessly. At present, he had calculated their reach, staying beyond that. Thankfully, he could use the row of teeth as a defensive line to hide behind. Only when the tentacles had fully recovered from the damage would they be able to reach the row of teeth. Considering how they didn''t have any regeneration abilities, it would take them at least a few months to a couple of years to recover completely using the beneficial properties of the ocean water. "It would be better if I had this to use," Krune muttered as he gazed at the row of teeth. They weren''t actually in a neat row, but were instead a cluster forming a row overall. In actuality, there were at least 3-5 teeth in each section, totaling at least a couple hundred teeth that formed the row. Unsurprisingly, they weren''t aligned like human teeth. Each tooth was positioned at various angles. This way, no matter in which direction a fish moved, it would come into contact with the sharp edge of at least a couple of teeth. After all, the water swirled. So, to use this feature to the utmost level, each tooth had to face different directions and angles. Moreover, now that he wasn''t being attacked, Krune could emit a gentle glow of the Neon Radiance and take a closer look at the teeth. He noticed how the shape of each tooth was different. Some were long, some were short, some were curved, some were thin, some were thick, and so on. It was always varied. After a moment of thought, Krune chuckled as he muttered to himself, "This is great." He then began to look around, finally noticing a short tooth that was also fairly thin. It was thirty centimeters in length, the perfect item height that Krune desired to obtain at the moment. He then used his knife to carefully cut the gums around the tooth, feeling the floor underneath him shudder. It seemed that the whale-like fish was feeling pain from his act. He could also feel the heat as the whale-like fish seemed to be accumulating more muscular strength in its tentacles to birth more spherical creatures sooner. "Let''s see how fast you can act." Krune chuckled as his eyes shone with a cunning glint. Living out in the ocean, adrift, and having to eat all his food raw, Krune''s mindset was becoming more and more vicious. He didn''t even hesitate as he continued to scoop out pieces of the gums around the tooth, eventually severing the dental roots beneath. He lifted the short tooth, noticing that it was perfect for him. He immediately began to work on it, scraping away the gums on it while grinding the edges. Thankfully for him, the shape of the tooth did have a handle-like protrusion lodged into the flesh. It seemed that was how their teeth structure was. To Krune, it was all the more convenient. It was already shaped like a knife, handle included. So, all he had to do was trim out the excess and create a curved shape on the handle, making it perfect for him to grip and wield. Having done the same for a month, Krune could mechanically do it. Intense scraping sounds echoed within the whale-like fish''s mouth. The grating sounds were annoying as Krune used the shells of a couple of spherical creatures to cover his ears. After that, he happily worked on it, finishing the task within a day as he laughed. As he looked at the dagger, he said, "I''ll call you the Whale Tooth Dagger." Just based on its quality alone, the Whale Tooth Dagger was superior to all his knives and the two long weapons he had at the start. After all, he had ground the bones of the worm-like fish into such weapons. As for the Whale Tooth Dagger, it was already a weapon from the start. Moreover, the bones in the whale-like fish''s body were stronger and tougher. With that, the quality of the weapon was inherently superior. Krune then looked around, noticing another similarly shaped tooth, chuckling as he began to work on extracting it. Whenever he was tired, Krune rested while munching on the flesh of the severed tentacles. Compared to everything, they were the most edible. Having fed on all sorts of fishes, Krune wasn''t opposed to the notion of eating them raw. Besides, it wasn''t as if he had any other choice. To survive, he had to eat. And so, he did. Another day later, Krune had crafted himself a second Whale Tooth Dagger. With these two, he was content. After all, they were perfect in terms of weight and length. Any more, and the weight might drag him down. Krune then thought of leaving when he noticed a certain tooth in the center of the row of teeth, standing upright. The tooth was perfectly shaped like a blade, spanning 60 centimeters in length. It was tremendously sharp, seemingly like it had grown just recently and hadn''t been damaged or worn down yet. Upon seeing it, Krune changed his stance immediately, using a knife to scoop out the gums around it. The two Whale Tooth Daggers were enough for him, but upon seeing the tooth before him, he felt like it wouldn''t be a waste to have a primary weapon. After all, a heavier weapon was able to damage greater. Considering its sharpness, Krune would be able to use it a lot. Thinking as such, he began to cut into the gums surrounding it, soon picking up the tooth as he began to work on it. It was a new tooth, hence the gums around it weren''t as rigid compared to the others. With such variables into the mix, he was slightly faster this time, marveling at the finished product. He swung it once, feeling a bit of difficulty doing so since it was a bit heavier than what he could wield normally. Nevertheless, Krune intended to train using it a bit until he was accustomed to its weight. He then pulled some of the tooth roots and used it as a sash to tie up both the Whale Tooth Daggers. As for the longer tooth, he hung it on his back as he said, "I''ll call you the Whale Tooth Sword." After strapping the sword on his back, Krune approached the whale-like fish''s mouth, tapping the walls to see that it was tremendously tough. Even if he were to attack it, he wouldn''t be able to go through its thick layer and would have to dig as if he was digging through a mountain. Moreover, if it opened its mouth in such a situation, the force of the water''s entry would slam him into the row of teeth and shred him apart. It was too risky. So instead, he looked around, picking up the bodies of some of the spherical creatures that were still lodged on the teeth. He carried them with himself as Krune walked towards the throat, immediately throwing them towards the tentacles. He then unsheathed both the Whale Tooth Daggers and rushed forward, swiping them whenever a tentacle attacked him. After resting for two days, Krune was at his maximum strength. As for the tentacles, they were still bleeding and hadn''t recovered yet. On top of that, they seemed to be preparing to produce more spherical creatures. In other words, they were tired. Therefore, it was way easier for Krune now than before. Moreover, the sharpness of the two daggers was far above his previous daggers, so all Krune had to do was defend himself. When the tentacles slammed on the daggers, the force behind the impact severed them. This way, he simply charged towards the throat and moved with the pair of knives, soon severing their roots. The whale-like fish roared as Krune crouched, protecting himself from the shockwaves. As he had already covered his ears with the spherical creatures'' shells, his ears weren''t affected by the sounds. There was a reason Krune went on the offensive now. It wasn''t only because he wished to leave it and survive. It was also because he recalled the scene with the Neon Radiance King. Killing it gave him the passive ability, Neon Radiance. After that, despite him killing numerous fishes, none of them gave him anything. So, Krune determined they had to be different from the norm. In a school of fishes, it was the one that acted as their leader, one that was a mutant or was incomparably powerful as compared to the rest of its species. Otherwise, it should be a massive lone predator. The whale-like fish fell on the latter. Even though Krune wasn''t sure if it would work, he had to give it a try. After all, if it did work, he would obtain another passive that would help him. He was indeed thankful for obtaining Neon Radiance. It saved him numerous times during the night when some fishes had attacked him. Thanks to it, he wasn''t afraid of the dark and wasn''t helpless in it. Thinking as such, Krune jumped into its throat, descending through it as he felt the convulsions of the surrounding muscles. As he descended, Little Krune pondered through everything he experienced, pointing him in a certain direction. The best way to kill a behemoth was to attack its heart. And, to follow it, all Krune had to do was follow its pulse towards where it was the loudest. After all, for a creature this massive, its heart had to be enormous. The amount of sound it would produce would be easily audible. Krune made a cut in a muscle and slipped into it. It seemed to be a place where two different muscles layered over one another. As he proceeded into it, Krune grunted, feeling like the muscular pressure would smash him into pulp. In any case, all he could do in such cases was endure and press forth. Chapter 924: Sonic Radar "Ugh." Krune felt pangs of pain whenever the muscles surrounding him twitched, increasing the pressure applied on him. Every time this happened, he struggled to breathe, feeling a bit suffocated. Not to mention the fact that the walls of the muscles were layered over one another. Since he was the one who slipped into it, Krune felt difficulty in breathing. After all, there wasn''t enough air for him to breathe. At least, in the mouth chamber, there was enough oxygen for him to survive. It seemed that the spherical creatures also required oxygen to operate. With that, the whale-like creature had evolved accordingly to circulate some of the air it inhaled into its mouth. That was why Krune was able to survive within it peacefully. But right now, he was facing difficulty in breathing. With that in mind, Krune increased his pace, quickly moving through the muscle walls while severing some parts using the two daggers he had just fashioned. This way, he reduced the muscular pressure on himself while moving forward quickly. The whale-like fish didn''t have any measures against the foe that was damaging it internally. After its internal defense mechanism was destroyed, it didn''t have any other methods to protect itself. All it could do was flail in agony as it swam through the ocean waters. Following the loud thumping sound and the coursing of the sound through the muscle walls, Krune easily followed it to the source, finally cutting apart a muscle section as he arrived before a certain something. If it wasn''t for the Whale Tooth Daggers, he couldn''t have gone this far. The teeth the whale-like fish grew were also used to shred apart the flesh of its prey, may it be fishes or similarly large creatures like itself. So, it was that tough. That was why Krune could cut through its muscles. Although it was time-consuming, it was doable. At the moment he appeared before its thumping heart, just the sheer sound rattled his internals. Even though his ears were covered by the shells of the spherical creatures, the sound waves still affected him. They just coursed through his body, making him feel strained. His nerves popped as Krune felt pain in his chest. His blood flow was facing difficulties thanks to the sound. If he delayed any longer, he might be the one to fall apart. After all, the whale-like fish''s heart was as big as himself. With that, Krune lashed out with his dagger, aiming at the spot away from him in fear the pressure of the liquid within would wound him. Krune was aware of just how much power a liquid in high pressure could emit when the outlet was a small hole. In this case, it would be nothing short of a laser beam. As he was aware of the danger, Krune didn''t recklessly make his move, only aiming at the section of the heart that was facing the other side. Also, he didn''t directly plunge the knife into it. After all, if a hole was poked, all the blood would gush out and drown himself. With that, he had to be careful. After taking in a deep breath, Krune carefully cut sections on the whale-like fish''s heart, stopping the moment there were faint signs of the blood seeping out. He continued to cut in such a manner, soon stopping when blood began to drip from all over the heart. It seemed like a balloon that was on the verge of bursting. Krune then took out one of his knives and partially inserted it into a section of the heart muscle he had cut. He then retreated into the muscle folds, ensuring he was fully protected by it. His hand then exited the folds before slamming it into the back of the knife, retracting immediately. As if a full water balloon was poked by a needle, the whale-like fish''s heart burst, spilling out all the blood that had flown into it. The moment its heart burst, the whale-like fish began to lose signs of life. It was now on the verge of death. Krune was fully protected by the muscles, avoiding the blood from drowning him completely. Soon, he noticed a thin stream of blood land on his body, only to be absorbed by it soon after. He then roared in joy, "It worked!" He hadn''t finished his roar of laughter when the blood seeped into him at a massive pace. It wasn''t the blood itself that entered him. Rather, it was the essence contained in the blood. After seeping into his body, it condensed into his throat, causing him to feel burning pain in the region. It felt as if he had drunk boiling hot water. Krune grunted from the pain, struggling to cope up with it, heaving a sigh of relief after 10 seconds had passed. The burning pain had stopped as he immediately double tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet. The tablet propped up the muscle walls, giving him a breather. He then looked at the new row of information that had appeared on it, smiling. [Killed one Sonic Radar: 1 Godly Point Obtained] [Obtained Passive: Sonic Radar] "Is this different from a Sonar?" Krune muttered in curiosity as he could feel a sound wave being transmitted from his mouth. It landed on the muscle walls surrounding him and was reflected, causing him to perceive the distance. It was a strange feeling. It was as if he was able to do this from birth, making Krune chuckle as he said soon after, "I got my second passive." Krune could feel a concept at place here. Every ability that could be gained wasn''t offensive. They seemed more in the support category. Then again, it wasn''t as if one always needed an offensive ability to survive. As long as they had the right ability for the right environment, they would be able to survive. Upon seeing how his ability worked, Krune immediately began to retreat, retracting the tablet as he sighed in relief once he arrived at the throat. He could also feel the pressure within the muscle walls begin to decrease. It was the same case as with the Neon Radiance King. After he had absorbed its essence, its body turned brittle. The same was happening to the whale-like fish as well. Of course, since it was a massive creature, it was dying slower, giving Krune enough time to escape. Soon, he arrived in its mouth, grabbing his boat and the float before dragging them to one side of the mouth. He then lodged the two Whale Tooth Daggers into the muscle walls, tying the rope to them as he anchored his boat and float. This way, he prevented them from being washed away when the water current crashed into it. Even though they had been damaged because of everything that had happened, they could still be repaired. So, Krune didn''t wish to leave them behind. Not to mention, they were the only things he could rely on to survive on the ocean waters. After all, he just didn''t have the time to sever the bones from the whale-like fish. On top of that, since he had obtained its essence, its body was turning more and more fragile as time passed. So, even if he made a boat using its bones, it would quickly shatter. So, the boat and float he had been working on for the past month was his only solution. Krune then arrived before the whale-like fish''s mouth, feeling its dying breath. He then sprinted through the place, leaping with as much strength he could before plunging his Whale Tooth Sword into the mouth walls. He plunged it as diagonally as possible before holding onto it for dear life. The sharp pain caused the whale-like fish to open its mouth a little in reflex, causing the ocean water to gush in like a torrent. Since it was dying, it didn''t have the strength to close its mouth. "Ugh!" Krune held the sword with all his strength as the torrent of water gushed into the whale-like fish''s mouth, soon filling it up. The undercurrents tried to wash him away as he desperately held on for dear life. He knew that the moment he slipped, the currents would send him straight to the row of teeth and shred him apart into pieces. Ten seconds later, the entire place was filled with water. Activating his Neon Radiance, Krune pulled out his sword and strapped it to his back. He quickly swam through the water and arrived before the float and the boat, retracting his two Whale Tooth Daggers. Sheathing them on his hip, he pulled the two constructs, heading towards the mouth. It was difficult to pull them since they had a natural buoyancy to them. So, the two constructs tried to go up. The water pressure also made him feel like he was going to be smacked into a paste. Krune had difficulty keeping up with everything as he slowly brought out the constructs, exiting the whale-like fish. Once he did that, he just held onto the two and didn''t paddle, conserving his strength. Thanks to their buoyancy, they moved upward at a pace beyond what he was able to achieve through normal swimming. It seemed like forever when Krune surfaced, gasping for air. It was daytime, thankfully for him since he didn''t need to waste any more energy to emit light. Krune just tied the float to the boat using the rope, and climbed aboard, gasping for air as he lay flat on it, feeling pain all over. He had trouble breathing while all the nerves in his body were acting up. It was as if the flow in them was getting clogged. Krune instinctively opened his mouth and took in rapid breaths in succession, turning up the heat in his body. He inhaled and exhaled as quickly as he could, doing it at least three times per second. Time passed in such a fashion, with Krune feeling like his lungs were burning. Then again, he could also feel the pain in his body subside little by little. Two minutes later, he was exhausted. The pain still existed, so after resting a little, Krune repeated the exercise once again. It took him a couple of hours before his body returned to normal. At the very moment his condition was stable, Krune fell unconscious. Having been on high alert for the past two days, he hadn''t caught even a wink of sleep and was working nonstop. Now that he was safe, he laid defenseless, allowing himself to get that well-deserved sleep. Chapter 925: Checkpoint Turtle It was daytime when Krune grunted, tossing and turning as he seemed to feel a bit of discomfort. His face was covered with sweat while his body ached, making him feel pain while he moved in his sleep. While doing so, there was a constant sound of something hitting something hard. It was rocking his boat and made him uncomfortable. His brows furrowed as he tried to sleep some more. Though soon after, he woke up with a start, looking at the source of the sound, only to notice that his boat had hit a piece of rock. The waves caused it to hit the rock, while the reaction from the impact made the boat move back a little. It was then rowed by the waves for another collision. With that, it was continuously crashing into the rock. As it didn''t have much momentum, it wasn''t damaged from the impacts. "Oh, it was hitting the rock. That''s why I was hearing those sounds," Krune muttered, slowly extending his hands with the intent to push the rock away when he paused. His eyes focused on the rock as he seemed immersed in thought, only now waking up as he jolted, turning around to look at where he was now. Spanning before him was a large piece of land, forming an island. It was a flat piece of land, almost aligned with the ocean surface. At times, the water covered a large part of the land. Only the centermost part of the island was devoid of being covered by the water as it was 20 centimeters above the water surface. "Land!" Krune shouted in surprise, about to jump on it when he paused, controlling his urges as he looked around, noticing how there was only the ocean water around him. He then gazed at the ocean above, noticing that it was also the same. "I should be careful." Recalling the fact that he was in a place where massive sea beasts roamed forth, Krune was just about to use his newly obtained passive ability when he saw the ocean currents in his surroundings change. A massive shadow appeared from under him before emerging above water, looking like part of the island had moved. It made an arch in the water, causing water to stream from it like a waterfall, coiling its head before looking at Krune. The head seemed to be similar to a rounded-out snake''s head, but in this case, it was massive. Just the size of its head alone spanned 20-30 meters. Its massive eyes stared at Krune, causing him to shudder as he lost the ability to speak. The presence it exhibited was just too much for Krune to endure, almost losing consciousness when the head of the opposing party began to retreat into the ocean water, leaving behind a sentence, "Welcome to the Checkpoint Turtle. Head inside." It took a while after it retreated into the water before Krune could gasp for air and stabilize himself. He plopped on the boat, losing strength in his legs as he panted. When he was a cultivator, the size of his opponent usually didn''t matter. What mattered were their cultivation bases. After all, with Godly Energy, Krune was able to beat larger opponents easily. The bigger they were, the slower they became. Also, they painted themselves as a bigger target. So, taking down bigger foes was easy for Krune. But now, as a mortal, size mattered a lot. All the other party had to do was exhale. It would create a gale powerful enough to send him flying, causing him to receive damage as he collided into the water and drowned. Krune didn''t act for the time being, looking around to see if he could escape by jumping into the ocean above. In the meantime, he double-tapped his glabella, summoning the tablet, looking at the two words inscribed on it as he heaved a sigh in relief. [Checkpoint Turtle] There was just this written on the tablet. But, the fact that it was written as if he had arrived at a new area, Krune heaved a sigh in relief, thinking that he wouldn''t have to fight against such a fearsome foe. Only then did Krune notice a flight of stairs in the center of the island. By the looks of it, it seemed that the massive turtle beast was inviting him to enter through it. After mulling over it for a bit, Krune carefully landed on the island, feeling secure when there was solid land underneath him. He then pulled the boat atop it, banking it. This was to prevent it from moving away while he visited whatever was at the end of the flight of stairs. He then heaved a breath in exhaustion, finding that he was able to perceive the distance between him and the land below him. ''I don''t need to unleash a sound using my voice?'' he wondered as he looked above and breathed out, feeling that he had emitted a wave that landed on the ocean above and was reflected. He captured the detail, understanding the distance between the two. Though, it seemed the activation of his passive using the sounds of his exhalation wasn''t as effective as normal. The details he perceived from it weren''t as clear. Well, since the sounds were weak, the range of its function was limited. "Alright," Krune then muttered, feeling the sounds he produced travel far and wide, only to be reflected soon after. The farther it was reflected from, the weaker and vaguer the data he could perceive. Though at the moment, this allowed him to perceive the size of the island he was on. ''It has a radius of around 100 meters. And, this isn''t everything. It proceeds further into the waters.'' As all the sound waves he unleashed were reflected from the island surface, he was unable to sense anything below the waters. It was due to his position and the direction the sound waves he emitted could traverse. Krune then faced the flight of stairs, mouthing a word as he walked towards it, allowing him to perceive everything that was within it as he received a response soon after. It was an astounding feeling. It was as if the senses on his skin were expanded, allowing him to sense the spatial location of himself and his surroundings. It wasn''t related to the laws of space or anything like that. It was just him being able to perceive his three-dimensional surroundings with greater clarity, physically. Krune smiled, now treading with a little confidence as he thought, ''Depending on its use, it would help me a lot in many situations in this layer.'' He began to proceed through the flight of stairs, watching his surroundings turn darker as he proceeded deeper. Only now did he notice everything around him resembled the shell of a turtle. It seemed that the flight of stairs was carved into the turtle beast''s shell. Soon, Krune reached the end of the flight of stairs, arriving at a dome as his body radiated the Neon Radiance, allowing him to perceive his surroundings better. There was a small platform spanning a meter in radius at the end of the flight of stairs. It was where he stood. Beyond that was just water. This was the extent he had sensed before through his Sonic Radar. Suddenly, followed by a gurgle, the head of a beast peeked out of the water, staring straight at him. It resembled an octopus in appearance but was massive in size. Just the portion of its head that peeked out spanned 4-5 meters in size. Krune became alert, holding his Whale Tooth Sword. Though surprisingly, the octopus didn''t attack him. Rather, a voice resounded through the dome, telling Krune, "Welcome, the visitor named Krune, to the Checkpoint Turtle." Upon hearing it speak, Krune relaxed for an instant, feeling that it wasn''t a foe he had to fight against. But he remained silent, staring at the octopus, waiting for it to speak further. As if it realized his intention, the octopus exited the water until half of its head peeked out, speaking, "The Checkpoint Turtle is a place that''s similar to a shop in this layer. This is where you can spend the points you have accumulated to buy items of your desire." "This place is¡­?" Krune''s eyes widened in surprise, having not expected for the Sub-Realm to have a place this direct in approach. After all, in the fourth layer, nothing was announced. It was the same here as well. But suddenly, this shop popped out from out of nowhere. So, Krune didn''t know what to think of it. The octopus laughed, but in actuality, its laughter was a series of screeches that were grating to the ears. "I understand what you''re thinking. The fourth layer is the place where one can farm the maximum amount of Godly Points. It might be tough at the start, but once you understand the method, you can farm for Godly Points easily. As for this layer, it would be tough to come across creatures that will reward you Godly Points. Killing such creatures is not easy." It then wriggled one of its tentacles in the water, making some currents in it as he continued, "As for this Checkpoint Turtle, it is a feature in this vast ocean layer. It will appear for the first time after a month of your arrival. And after this, it will appear on the same day every year. There are a lot of items you can purchase from here using your Godly Points. As for the list of items, they''re available on your tablet." Krune immediately double-tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet as he held it in his hands, looking at the numerous words displayed in it. There were around 10 items in total that he could purchase. But upon seeing the price of each item, Krune frowned, feeling they were beyond expensive. [Passive (Underwater Breathing): 20 Godly Points] [Water Essence: 1 Godly Point] [Motor Fish: 7 Godly Points] [Bone Arsenal: 2 Godly Points] [Ticket to Primary Landmass: 5 Godly Points] [Ticket to Secondary Landmass: 15 Godly Points] [Ticket to Tertiary Landmass: 50 Godly Points] [Return to Layer 4 (6 Months): 100 Godly Points] [Entry to Layer 2: 200 Godly Points] [Helper Whistle (10 Uses): 10 Godly Points] Chapter 926: Active Ability "The explanation to each item will appear when you tap it," the octopus said as it watched Krune follow its advice. With that, he tapped on the first item, reading its description aloud, "Passive (Underwater Breathing): Allows the user to breathe underwater freely." "Fair enough." Krune nodded in satisfaction, though it was obvious from the name alone. He then tapped on the second item in the list, reading its description, "Water Essence: A concentrated essence of the healing substance present in the ocean waters. Consuming one would be able to heal most injuries, even regenerating lost body parts. If one is at death''s door, consuming two would be enough to recover to an optimal state." "This is great¡­" Krune then thought about something as he looked at the octopus, soon asking, "Based on what this is saying, then even if I were to lose a limb or two, as long as I immerse myself in the ocean waters, I''ll regrow them?" "Yes." The octopus splashed the water as it nodded. "But that would take a couple of years at the very least since the healing property is too scarce in the water. As for this Water Essence, it takes us about a year to condense one. With that, it''s incredibly precious. That''s why it''s prized as such." Krune then asked the octopus regarding the method used to condense it. Unsurprisingly, the octopus went silent, expressing its intention to not tell him. He then sighed in response to the sight before reading out the details of the third item, "Motor Fish: It''s a special type of fish that is artificially bred to ensure it remains loyal to its owner for all its life. Its specialty is its rowing and pulling capacity. It would be caged in a cage of bone and can be either attached to a boat or ridden on directly. It would allow you to travel at great speeds in this ocean layer." "Just the thing I need, but¡­" Krune frowned as he continued, "It''s too expensive." It cost 7 Godly Points. For every Godly Point, Krune had to kill a tremendously powerful fish. So, spending that much just to obtain a fish that would help in moving about seemed like a waste of his hard work. Besides, without any set destination in mind, obtaining the Motor Fish seemed useless. Krune then read the description of the fourth item. "Bone Arsenal: weapons, armor, and tools required for your survival, all made from the bones of a powerful fish. A boat is also included." "Fair enough, but I don''t need it." Thinking that he could just make one, Krune looked at the description of the fifth item as he continued to read it, "Ticket to Primary Landmass: It will transport the user to an island with a radius of 50 kilometers. The island would be filled with monsters and would be ruled by five Kings. Killing each King would result in a passive ability. There are 10 other monsters. Killing each one would yield a Godly Point. Duration of stay in the Primary Landmass is 1 year. Ripping the ticket during the stay would return the user to the Checkpoint Turtle." After seeing it, Krune was interested in visiting it. It was a sure-fire method of obtaining Godly Points and passive abilities. After all, even though he had obtained two of them, those were purely coincidental. He didn''t have a guarantee of stumbling upon such opponents again. After all, the ocean layer was just too vast. After a month afloat, he hadn''t ever come across another human. So, if he wished to meet up with his friends or even leave this place, obtaining more abilities and Godly Points was a must. Besides, there was a clear goal before him. As he could afford it, if Krune didn''t choose it, he would be a fool. Intending to first look through all the treasures, Krune didn''t buy it immediately, looking at the sixth item. He read its description, "Ticket to Secondary Landmass: It will transport the user to an island with a radius of 150 kilometers. The island would be filled with monsters and would be ruled by 15 Kings. Killing each King would result in a passive ability. There are 30 other monsters. Killing each one would yield a Godly Point. Duration of stay in the Secondary Landmass is 1 year. Ripping the ticket during the stay would return the user to the Checkpoint Turtle." He then looked at the seventh item as he continued to read it aloud, "Ticket to Tertiary Landmass: It will transport the user to an island with a radius of 500 kilometers. The island would be filled with monsters and would be ruled by 50 Kings. Killing each King would result in a passive ability. There are 100 other monsters. Killing each one would yield a Godly Point. It is also governed by a Supreme Monster. Killing it would yield an active ability. Duration of stay in the Tertiary Landmass is 1 year. Ripping the ticket during the stay would return the user to the Checkpoint Turtle." "An active ability¡­?" Krune realized his conjecture was right as he looked at the octopus and asked, "We can obtain active abilities as well?" "Only from the Tertiary Landmass," the octopus nodded as it replied. "Obtaining an active ability will make you feel like a King in this layer. Though, obtaining it is easier said than done. Also¡­" It looked at Krune, speaking solemnly as it continued, "One person can have five passive abilities at most. If you obtain the sixth, you will have to overwrite it on one of your existing passive abilities or choose not to obtain it. That option will appear on your tablet at that time." "I see, so five is the limit." Krune nodded, asking, "Then, what about the active ability? When I obtain it, do I have to forgo one of my Passives?" "No." The octopus shook its head, splashing some of the water due to its size as it replied, "You can have only one active ability. It is independent of the number of passive abilities you possess." "Fair enough." Krune nodded, not glancing at the Tertiary Landmass Ticket anymore since it cost 50 Godly Points. He didn''t have that much on his hand now. Moreover, he wasn''t prepared enough. He only planned to head there once he was geared up completely. While thinking of it, he realized a certain line of thought that he hadn''t pondered about before. The mountainous demon beast said that they could leave the Sub-Realm after a decade had passed. But it seemed it wasn''t automatic. They would only be able to leave after a decade, not that they were guaranteed to do so. Instead, they would have to buy a ticket to exit the Sub-Realm. If they failed to do so, they would be in the Sub-Realm for all their lives. Seeing the items listed on the tablet, Krune was able to understand the objective of the Sub-Realm creator. ''Maybe it''s not a Sub-Realm, but the subspace being developed by a God. Through the allure of the treasures, he now has a significant number of cultivators living in this Sub-Realm. If developed over time, they would be enough to populate the entire Sub-Realm within a millennium.'' He didn''t state his thoughts aloud, reading the eighth item description. "Return to Layer 4 (6 months): The user will be randomly dispatched to one of the regions in the fourth layer. After a stay of six months, he will be transported back to the Checkpoint Turtle." "This is for those who wish to farm for more Godly Points, right?" Krune inquired, watching the octopus nod in response. He then looked at the ninth item description. "Entry to Layer 2: You''ll be transported to the Second Layer." Upon not seeing anything else, Krune looked at the octopus, inquiring for it to explain. The octopus seemed a bit tired as it spoke, "The Fourth Layer is like a demo. So, after some time has passed, everyone was transported to this layer forcefully. But unlike that, this layer is the full version. Cultivators could live here for all their lives. So, if you wish to head to the Second Layer, this is the only way." ''As I suspected,'' Krune nodded as he thought. It wasn''t easy obtaining Godly Points. Moreover, to head to the Second Layer, one needed 200 Godly Points. It was an outrageous sum. One would need to save up for all their life and would still have to be lucky enough to obtain that sum. After all, as a mortal, Krune realized the risk involved in obtaining each Godly Point. He then looked at the final item description, "Helper Whistle: It calls forth a predator fish from the ocean to help the user, either to escape or kill his foes." "How strong is this?" Krune couldn''t help but ask the octopus, "Is it powerful enough to help me kill those Neon Radiance¡­fishes from the First Wave?" "It can at most kill 2-3 three before dying. Against the Neon Radiance King, it would be lucky to kill one." The octopus then iterated further, "As for the waves, it will only happen once every decade." "Only once per decade." Krune sighed in relief, relaxing at the thought he didn''t have to face something of that extent again. He didn''t plan on remaining in the Third Layer for that long. After thinking for a moment, he decided to ask, "How can I leave this Sub-Realm?" "I''m not sure about that." The octopus shook its head. "Only the First Layer will have a clue regarding that." Krune then hovered his gaze above the first item, inquiring, "Will you be selling other passive abilities later?" "No." The octopus shook its head. "This list will never change unless the owner of the Sub-Realm changes it personally. So, I''ll only be selling this one passive ability here." "Alright." Krune nodded before saying, "I''ll take the passive, Underwater Breathing. I''ll also take two Water Essences and one ticket to a Primary Landmass." "Sure thing." The octopus nodded as it flailed its tentacles in the water, taking out three items from within. The first seemed to be a parchment, the second was a vial containing two pills, while the third one was a container with blood. In the meantime, Krune noticed the Godly Points displayed in his Tablet turn zero. He had spent everything he had obtained till now. It seemed that the transaction was done through mysterious means as the octopus handed him the three items, pointing at the container with the blood and said, "Drink this, and you''ll obtain the passive ability." "Alright." Krune opened its lid and drunk it, not caring about its raw taste. He soon convulsed on the ground as his lungs, neck, and nose burned. Ten seconds later, he relaxed, dipping his head in the water before him to see he could breathe through his nose like normal. It was a bit more difficult than while in air, but it was doable. He safely tucked away the vial in his hip, placing the two Water Essences there and looked at the parchment. Following the instructions of the octopus, he dripped a droplet of his blood on it. Immediately, his body disappeared from the place. Chapter 927: Monster Gecko After some time, he had appeared in a narrow cave, almost dark thanks to its narrowness. There wasn''t any disturbance in the air as Krune''s figure had appeared in the place. For a moment, he was dizzy, having been teleported as a mortal. It took him a good minute before he could recover from the after-effects. He immediately smelled something pungent, sniffing around as he realized the source was himself. "Damn, I never thought I would experience such a day." Krune frowned, only now taking a glance at his appearance. Blistered skin which had a new layer forming underneath. Patches of skin that were falling off, bruises all over the body, gashes of varying degrees of severity, the tooth mark on his thigh that almost revealed his bone, and finally, his teeth, yellow from the lack of hygiene. He hadn''t even thought about something like that, for a moment turning silent before chuckling as he muttered, "I hope Feifei doesn''t see me like this. She would probably¡­" He sighed after thinking about it. "It isn''t of my concern for the time being. Let me focus on the task before me now and worry about the rest later." Shaking his head, Krune exhaled with his mouth, sensing the sounds that were reflected from the walls of the cave, allowing him to perceive its distance from him. He then uttered a word gently, being able to scout a bit farther outside the cave. Beyond that, it seemed like there was too big of an open area that the strength in the sound he uttered had completely vanished. With that, he wasn''t able to obtain any feedback from it. Krune carefully walked forward, nearing the cave''s entrance as he peeked out, not being able to notice any monsters in his vicinity. He was careful about the terminology that had been used in the tablet. It specified the species on this Primary Landmass as monsters and not demon beasts or fishes. There ought to be a significant difference. So, Krune didn''t dare to be careless. He only had one life now. He sighed, exhaling all the air in his lungs as he muttered inwardly, "It seems I have become careless regarding my life and death after obtaining my Spiritual Incarnation. I guess this is a good measure against that. I probably won''t take it for granted again." As Krune looked around, he was shocked. The layout of the Primary Landmass was rather simple and direct. There was a massive piece of land that was shaped like a bowl. Considering its shape with respect to its size, the walls were akin to a mountain range. After all, just a short glance told him that the walls spanned at least a kilometer in height. To a mortal like him, it was a considerable distance. As for the mountain range, it enclosed the entire landmass like a circular dome. Its tip touched the ocean above, making it seem like a lid that covered the Primary Landmass. Krune also noticed vicious fishes with gigantic jaws swimming around in the waters. Some of them were even eyeing him, considering he was just 20 meters away from the ocean surface above. Thanks to the mountain range, the water from the ocean he was in couldn''t enter this Primary Landmass, creating a terrain of land within. That was how this habitat had been established to exist in this Double Ocean layer where the layer of air only spanned a height of three meters. As the radius of the Primary Landmass spanned 50 kilometers. It was way too big of a place that he could scout using his Sonic Radar. That was because he didn''t have a reflective surface that could reflect the transmitted sound to himself. Even though sound traveled as a wave and diverged through its path, it also caused the energy in the transmitted wave to be expended too quickly, causing the sound wave to vanish. So, unless he hollered, Krune didn''t have any chance of receiving any data in this place. Though, in fear that he would alert the monsters of the place through this action, he refrained from doing so. Thinking of this, he looked around, making use of the daylight to scout through his surroundings. There were steep regions all over. At the bottom of the place, there seemed to be a flatland or something similar. But as the entire region was covered by a thin layer of fog, Krune wasn''t sure about it. All he could see was a white patch of cloud covering their entire bottom, like rice covering the bottom of a cup. As for the mountain range, it was steep, while the protruding rocks seemed fragile as if they might fall off if he misstepped. Currently, there was a small path¡ªenough for a man to walk¡ª50 meters below him. Krune noticed the path trailed towards the bottom with winding zigzags. It did seem like a path hardly used by the monsters in the place, apparent by the smooth layer of moss growing on it without any hindrances. So, even if they had used the path once, it had been abandoned for too long. "Alright." Krune checked the sides of his hip, touching the two Whale Tooth Daggers. He then felt around through the cloth wrung around his hip, touching the vial with the two Water Essence pills. They were something that would save his life. He then tightened the sash of the Whale Tooth Sword hung on his back, ensuring it wouldn''t fall off when he climbed down. With that, he held the parchment that was his return ticket. He had to tear it off to be teleported back to the Checkpoint Turtle. This was his only gateway to leave the place voluntarily. Otherwise, he would have to survive in the place for a year until his ticket expired and get forcefully transported back to the Checkpoint Turtle. So, he had to secure it carefully. But now, he didn''t have the room for that, only able to tuck it in the cloth around his hip and hope it didn''t fall off or get damaged. Mentally preparing himself, Krune began to slowly descend through the rocky cliff, grunting as he kept his Sonic Radar active. Using the sounds of his grunts, he got a map of the rocky terrain he was moving upon. Thanks to it, he didn''t misstep on a piece of rock and fall off. He was also able to carefully pace himself and didn''t have to turn his head to look at his footing or placing. ''Even though this isn''t comparable to Divine Sense, for a mortal, this is almost the same.'' It took him considerable time as Krune''s hands were shaking from climbing down the 50-meter wall. Eventually, he landed on the path and panted, looking at his hands that were trembling. There were traces of blood on his palms. He had injured himself while climbing down. The rock of the mountain range hadn''t been eroded by wind or rain. So, they maintained their sharpness. This made it all the more riskier for him to traverse. Thankfully, there existed a path where he could traverse upon after the short trek. Otherwise, he would have died from blood loss. Even though the path was winding through the mountain range, he would have to cross a considerable distance to reach the bottom, Krune had no other choice. At least, this was a safer choice. Moreover, the moss-covered path didn''t hurt his bare feet. ''I should have prepared a bit more for this. That octopus didn''t give me any warnings and directly sent me here.'' He sighed, pausing immediately when he felt a sense of danger. It was because of the message he received from the breath he had exhaled. He had kept his Sonic Radar functioning all this time. As long as he only used the sounds of his breaths to wield it, the reduction in his stamina would be bearable. With that, he used it to guard against any ambushes. And now, the Sonic Radar pointed him to a couple of monsters that were walking before him. And by walking, they didn''t use the path. Rather, they were scaling down the walls like it was a flat plain. Large palms and feet were designed similarly, allowing one a larger surface area to keep in contact with while traversing webbed surfaces to avoid any slip and even traverse vertically. They resembled a gecko. The only difference was, they were humanoid and were the same size as him or even larger. It seemed their spines had serpentine flexibility to them as the monsters slithered across the walls. On top of that, one of them stood on two feet, even in such a situation where it was difficult just to hold onto the steep rock. It hissed while looking into the air as its eyes darted to and fro, searching for something as Krune hid behind a rock protrusion. His body was covered with sweat as he didn''t dare engage with his enemies like this. After all, they were humanoid and also possessed weapons to wield. Fishing rod! That was the weapon they were using. The hook on their rod was shaped like a kite, with a sharp, pointed end and some curved sides. This design ensured when the hook lodged into flesh, it wouldn''t be easy to remove without gorging the piece of flesh. It was a vicious design. And, it seemed to be the favorite weapon of the monsters, for both the ones near him possessed the fishing rods. ''Monster Geckos¡­'' Krune frowned, linking them with a name as he summoned his tablet, frowning upon seeing just one name on it. [Primary Landmass] ''As always, this doesn''t state anything worthwhile.'' He frowned as he observed the positions of the two Monster Geckos through his Sonic Radar, silently unsheathing his Whale Tooth Daggers. Since the opponents used fishing rods, he needed to be able to move fast enough to dodge their hooks. With that, wielding the Whale Tooth Sword would slow him down. Thinking as such, he removed it from his back and set it aside, noticing the two Monster Geckos pause in the air as if they were statues. If it wasn''t for the fact he had sensed them moving before, Krune would have mistaken them for a rock protrusion. ''Wait¡­mistake them for a rock protrusion?'' He shuddered as he lashed out with his dagger to his left, the sounds of metal hitting each other soon resounding. Krune hurriedly turned and watched the jaws of a Monster Gecko appear before his face, revealing all its sharp teeth as it opened wide enough to swallow his head whole. Chapter 928: Cold, Everything is Cold Clang! A loud sound resounded as the head of the Monster Gecko shuddered as it clamped on the thick tablet. The force from its clamp shattered its teeth as Krune double-tapped the tablet using his free little finger, allowing him to retract it as he slashed forth using his dagger, cutting its neck. From the start, the Monster Geckos have been camouflaging on the cliff as rocks. They had been so still while their skins looked no different to the moss-covered rocks. This was why Krune had not been able to distinguish them. And now that Krune had positioned himself before a Monster Gecko that was mimicking a piece of rock, it had tried to clamp down on his head and kill him. Thankfully, Krune realized it before seeing how the two Monster Geckos were moving through the cliff walls. Using the tablet as defense, Krune cut the neck of the Monster Gecko, cursing in alarm when some of its blood splashed on him. The blood was extremely cold. It was as if he had covered his hand in ice. Not long after, a hook flew through the air, intending to gorge into his eyes as Krune evaded, shielding himself with one dagger. He unsheathed one of his knives and threw it into the opened mouth of a Monster Gecko, causing it to choke while vomiting blood. The other two Monster Geckos that were slithering through the cliff walls heard the commotion and swiftly arrived at the scene of battle, brandishing their fishing rods at the very moment they spotted Krune. One of the hooks lodged into his arm, tugging into his flesh. Krune reflexively used the dagger on his other free arm and severed the thread, grunting in pain as he slashed out with it, parrying a fishing rod. Though, after realizing his opponent was intending to use the thread to constrict him, he haphazardly slashed out with the dagger, cutting the threads. Unfortunately, just as he was about to hack at the opponent''s legs, it leaped out of the way and landed on the wall, looking at him from a higher vantage point. He had only left two Monster Geckos in near-death states while three were still alive and kicking. Unwilling to drag it out for too long, Krune looked around while breathing quickly through his mouth. The sounds of his breathing reflected on the walls, allowing him to perceive the movements of his opponents while at the same time giving him a visual of his surroundings. At the moment the Monster Gecko on the walls jumped towards him, lashing out its fishing rod, the part of his body it was focusing on suddenly emitted blinding light, causing its eyes to bleed. For a moment, its senses were disoriented. Though, before it could recover, its fishing rod was parried while its neck was severed. Despite the tough scales protecting its entire body, the dagger Krune wielded was sharper. After slashing at its neck, Krune reflexively changed the way he held the dagger, reversing his hold on it as he plunged the dagger into its head. The blood that splashed onto numbed his limbs as Krune charged towards the remaining two Monster Geckos, stopping when they jumped from the walls, falling a height of 10 meters before they latched themselves onto the walls again. A single leap was all it took for them to position themselves out of his reach. Krune couldn''t walk on the walls like them. On top of that, they were way beyond his reach. So, he couldn''t try to attack them. Surprisingly, the two Monster Geckos stared at him for a couple of seconds before bolting away from the place. They had swiftly escaped, leaving behind a frowning Krune. Unwilling to waste any time, Krune arrived at the Monster Gecko that was bleeding from its mouth and pulled out the knife he threw into its mouth. He gave the final blow to all three Monster Geckos he had injured, searching their corpses to see if they contained anything valuable. All they had on them was a chain of sorts hanging around their necks. In place of where a locket would normally be found were three claw nails. It seemed to be from a different monster species, judging by its shape and size. They didn''t have anything else on them. After glancing at their fishing rods, Krune picked up all three of them and bolted through the path, intending to first leave the place and find a safe zone. The cave he had spawned from was too far away. He had to climb over the steep, sharp rocks to reach there. It was bound to wound him again and drain him of all his energy. So, Krune decided to find a better place. He coiled the threads onto the fishing rods, carrying them as a single bundle. He then sheathed his two Whale Tooth Daggers, strapped the Whale Tooth Sword onto his back before beginning to move through the path. He made sharp noises from his mouth, keeping the Sonic Radar active. This way, he was able to sense any change in the path or terrain well in advance. Moreover, now that he had learned his lesson, Krune was cautious against all rock protrusions. Moreover, just in case he had to defend against any possible attacks, Krune kept his left hand on his glabella at all times. The tablet was a meter in height. So, it was big enough to defend him. And since it could be summoned and retracted easily, he planned to use it in times of necessity to defend himself. Just as he had suspected, a couple more Monster Geckos were camouflaging as rocks. The moment he came near them, they attacked him. Unfortunately for them, they only managed to clamp onto the tablet, causing their teeth to break in the process. Swiftly, his dagger flashed as Krune cut their necks, causing them to bleed profusely. He then stabbed them in the neck once, killing them. But by now, his hands were numb from the cold generated through their blood. Every time their blood splashed on him, he would lose some of his body heat, failing to maintain enough heat to run actively. He paused, judging that it was risky to proceed in such a fashion. He would just be inviting death onto himself. So, Krune looked around, first determining his safety in the place before looking at the corpses of the two Monster Geckos he had slain. Inching forth with his index finger, he touched a part of their blood flowing on the path, noticing that it was still cold. "I don''t have any means to start a fire," Krune frowned as he muttered, thinking of something as he focused on the fingertip of his index finger, making it unleash his Neon Radiance in full power. Not long after, he sighed in disappointment, noticing how his Neon Radiance didn''t generate any heat. It only generated purely light. Krune then began to skin the two Monster Geckos, cutting pieces of its flesh that he judged were edible. He then wrapped them in the skin and squeezed them, dripping out all its cold blood. With that, he touched the bare meat, realizing that it was no longer like a block of ice. It still had a bit of coldness in it, but Krune judged that when he drained out all the blood from it, it would become a normal piece of meat. He then packed a couple of large pieces in the skin, tied their ends on his hip, and began to scale down the path. He no longer ran, instead deciding to walk so that he wouldn''t tire out soon enough. Eventually, he dragged himself to the final stretch of the path, noticing the sea of fog positioned right beneath him. He sported wounds all over his body that bled blood. But they weren''t serious enough that he wished to waste a Water Essence. After all, as long as he arrived at a safe place, he would be able to treat himself. Besides, he had secured some meat to last him for a couple of days. Thinking as such, he carefully took a step forward on the moss-covered path, flinching when the fog was cold. As he was bare-skinned, the chillness of the fog caused him to tremble. Krune had only taken a couple of steps forward when everything below his knees had turned numb. Immediately, he walked back, panting as he rubbed his legs, intending to warm them up as he cursed, "Why the hell is everything here so cold?" Even though the atmosphere itself was warm, thanks to the blood and the fog, Krune was shivering. Through his Sonic Radar, Krune let out mild grunts and used the sound to sense the area within the fog. He could sense a massive forest situated in a swampy area. By varying the volume of the sounds he emitted, he managed to judge the layer of the fog. It only spanned a person''s height. For a moment, Krune just emitted his Neon Radiance onto the fog, sighing when he was unable to see through it. Then, gritting his teeth, he rubbed over his body continuously, generating enough heat so that he wouldn''t freeze up completely. Moreover, through the Sonic Radar, he determined the path he had to traverse upon. After all, the cunning creatures had dug out a large section of the path, making it resemble an ''S'' in shape. So, in the case intruders walked through it, while their senses would be numbed by the cold, they would walk out of the path by mistake and fall to their doom. Krune aligned himself accordingly, taking in a deep breath as he sprinted forward, jumping through the fog as he kept track of the path, stumbling along the path as he barely managed to pass through, mentally heaving a sigh of relief when he noticed the place below the fog was warmer than above. Though, Krune frowned when he noticed the entire place was dark, as if it was already nighttime. He soon heard a cacophony of noises that echoed throughout the area, causing him to flinch involuntarily. He quickly reached the end of the path and landed on the ground, noticing that it was still a rocky layer. There didn''t seem to be any soil in the area. Then, he frowned as he smelled a bloody tang in place, unleashing a mild light as he looked at the nearest tree, only to be left aghast as he found out that¡­ It wasn''t even a tree. Chapter 929: The Cave of Residence A body made out of bone rooted to the hardened ground, which was, in actuality, just a piece of flat rock. A stem as wide as a person and branches that resembled their limbs. And to top it all off, tiny branches like the fingers of a person, with leaves and fruits seemingly hanging on them. The leaves seemed to be a stitched flat piece of nails, resembling those of a human, while the fruits seemed to be eyeballs covered by hair. Each of the so-called ''Trees'' spanned a height of 3-4 meters, giving off an eerie atmosphere. The moment Krune gazed at one, he felt immense disgust, controlling his urge to barf the contents of his stomach. If it was the Krune from before he arrived at the Sub-Realm, he would have vomited at this site. But thankfully for him, he was more mentally grounded now, having seen gore daily. This was his first time seeing trees that were completely made out of bone. Though, Krune didn''t waste his time staring at the monstrosity before him, quickly making a move as he first intended to search for a cave of sorts to take refuge within. Only after that did he plan to investigate the surroundings. After all, whether he liked it or not, unless he ripped out the parchment, he was bound to stay in this place for a year. With that, he had to adapt to the surroundings first. Thanks to his Sonic Radar, Krune could see through the dark, quickly moving. He didn''t want to rely on Neon Radiance too much. After all, in this darkness, any light would make him a clear target. Thus, he couldn''t use it without caution. Only after sensing that there weren''t any Monster Geckos in his surroundings did Krune use his Neon Radiance to look at the actual appearance of the things around him. Currently, there were only bone trees in his vicinity. In most of them, the grotesque fruits hung in large batches. Krune carefully placed his hand on the stem of a bone tree, noticing the blood on his finger get absorbed into it. He retracted his finger immediately, noticing that he wasn''t affected in any way. Though, he realized that if he was wounded and by mistake placed the wound on the bone tree, then all his blood would be sucked into it. Upon noticing something, Krune hid behind a bone tree with a fairly thick stem, breathing a bit more roughly as he increased the range of his Sonic Radar, noticing the figures of two Monster Geckos. Currently, hoisted on their right were their fishing rods, while on their left was a basket of sorts. They arrived before a bone tree and swung their fishing rods, hooking a fruit each that they tugged. Followed by the sound akin to a twig getting stomped on, the thin finger-like stem holding the fruit snapped as the Monster Geckos collected the fruits in their respective baskets. Similarly, they proceeded through the area, harvesting the fruits that had ripened. Krune was unable to determine how they did that. After all, the place was pitch black. And, as he observed their actions, he thought, ''Are they able to sense heat? If that''s how, what do they use to move around?'' Considering how their entire bodies were cold, akin to ice, Krune thought it might be a possibility. When he increased the range of his Sonic Radar''s sense, Krune frowned, spotting more and more Monster Geckos in his surroundings. It seemed that they had come to harvest the fruits. Without any hesitation, Krune sprinted through the place. As the floor was just stone, as long as he ran while tiptoeing, he hardly made any sounds. Using that, he quickly sped along the foothills of the mountain range, scouring for a cave he could hide within. Thanks to the Sonic Radar, the moment he spotted any crevice, he could immediately search its interior without having to walk into it personally. This saved him a lot of time. After all, Krune had some specifics as to the type of cave he wished to reside within. It had to have a narrow entrance and some curved paths within so that even when he used his Neon Radiance to work on anything he wished, the light wouldn''t spill out. Not to mention that he needed a sizeably large cage with enough room for his dwelling. Along the way, Krune was unable to find any normal trees, only finding the bone trees. Moreover, he couldn''t find any objects that he could use as fuel to start a fire. The entire floor was solid rock, while the sole items other than rocks were bone trees. It took him almost four hours, at the end of which his tired self stumbled upon a reasonable cave. First of all, it wasn''t on the ground level. There was a thin path made from rock protrusions that were wide enough for him to grab hold of them. And, only after climbing them, positioned at a height three meters from the ground, was the cave''s entrance. The entrance was narrow, barely enough for him to slide through. Fortunately, its entrance was blocked by a bone tree lodged into the walls. It made a curve and blocked the cave entrance, preventing anyone from seeing inside. Though, there was enough gap in the side for him to slip into the entrance. Krune immediately entered it, heaving a sigh of relief as he crawled through the narrow pathway. It was narrow enough that he could only move sideways. Thankfully for him, the path''s height was enough for him to move. Though, if he grew about 10 more centimeters in height, Krune wouldn''t be able to pass through it. He had to travel a distance of 10 meters through the curved pathway before arriving within a small section, one that was like a bubble, wide enough for him to stretch his arms. Following it were three paths, each wide enough for him to walk through normally. The first path led to a large chamber where the walls were wet. It seemed that the ocean water had permeated through the rock walls and had collected on the ground. The space was a meter below the surface, so a pool of ocean water had collected over it. This was the thing Krune had been searching for all along. As long as there was a water source, he could treat his injuries. Even though it would take considerable time, it was basically free. Plus, with the water source, he would stay hydrated, which was one of his prime concerns on the island. Standing before the water chamber, Krune unleashed his Neon Radiance, looking around the place as he could spot the thin layer of water permeating through the walls. ''As long as I use the water sparingly, the supply should be barely enough.'' He then entered the path on the right, looking at the other chamber filled with rugged rocks. There were tiny holes in it that connected to the outside. Krune planned to use this place to relieve himself. At least, the ventilation would prevent the smell from lingering within the cave. And with those two done, Krune entered the path in the center, walking a fair distance before entering a massive chamber. The chamber was riddled with rocks. Surprisingly, there was a rock protrusion in the center, supported by the rocks on the floor. They segmented the chamber into two stories. The upper portion was small but was fairly concealed. Krune muttered, "I''ll sleep above and work on anything I need below. That should be enough." Saying his piece, he sighed, placing his Whale Tooth Sword on a boulder while dropping the bags of meat he carried. Using some of the water, he cleaned the meat, washing away all the blood as he could see the meat become warmer. As the place was already warm, Krune didn''t have to suffer from the cold. Using the knives, he cut the meat into pieces and ate one of them, frowning as he muttered, "The taste is bland. Even a raw fish tastes better than this." He sighed and filled his belly first, cleaning his wounds with the water before sleeping on the rock protrusion. Thanks to the warmth in the place, he quickly fell asleep. It felt like a long time had passed before Krune woke up, feeling groggy. He habitually used his Sonic Radar, heaving a sigh of relief when his cave was safe. He then stretched himself, looking around as he muttered, "I should start hunting the Monster Geckos and prepare myself to fight against their king eventually." He drank some water to hydrate himself before exiting the cave, holding the two Whale Tooth Daggers and some knives. He left the Whale Tooth Sword in the cave since it was too heavy. He wasn''t accustomed to wielding it yet. Using his Sonic Radar, Krune determined that there weren''t any Monster Geckos in his immediate surroundings. After landing on the ground, he walked for some distance and entered the forest of bone trees, soon spotting a couple of Monster Geckos one hundred meters away from him. They were picking up the fruits. One of them threw a fruit in its mouth, crunching it as it let out a breath in relaxation, patting its tummy. It seemed eating just one fruit was enough to satiate a Monster Gecko. Krune looked to his side, focusing on a fruit. In any case, he had zero intentions of eating one. He didn''t know if his body would be able to digest something like that. Krune neither had the intention to experiment with that nor was he planning to eat anything apart from the Monster Gecko meat that he judged was safe for consumption. He crept forward, hiding behind the trees as he trod forth, approaching the two Monster Geckos slowly. But, at the very moment he arrived at a distance of twenty meters, they sensed his presence, clearly able to perceive his heat. With that, they took up arms, setting their baskets aside as they brandished their fishing rods. Upon seeing that his plan to sneak and ambush them had failed, Krune could not help but sigh. "Here we go again." Clutching the two Whale Tooth Daggers, he blasted forth towards them with all his speed. Chapter 930: The First Step Even though Krune was raring to go, his mind was calm. The blood and killing he had done mechanically in the ocean waters ensured that the adrenaline didn''t get to his head and make him form heated decisions. The moment he began to run forward, a hook flew towards him, aiming at his right thigh. Krune directly activated his Neon Radiance soon after, causing his opponents to flinch while allowing him to see everything better and evade the attacks. He still wasn''t used to only relying on the Sonic Radar to move around. After all, all his life, he had relied on his eyes. Moreover, sensing through the eyes was faster when compared to the Sonic Radar. It was also more accurate, especially in cases like the hook and the thread connecting to it. In his Sonic Radar, such tiny objects weren''t clearly registered. Moreover, when stretched tautly, the thread vibrated, causing unnecessary sounds that further threw off his accuracy. So, Krune just decided to rely on his Neon Radiance. Through his prior probing, he determined that there were only these two Monster Geckos in this place. So, as long as he didn''t waste his time, he wouldn''t get caught. And now, he threw a Whale Tooth Dagger with all his might, using its inherent weight to his advantage. As the two Monster Geckos screamed due to the intense light he emitted, the Whale Tooth Dagger he threw pierced the chest of one of them. Sadly, it wasn''t a critical wound. With that, Krune followed it up with a kick, lodging the dagger all the way in. His kick sent it flying, causing it to wheeze and struggle to get up. It seemed like the dagger had pierced through its lungs, preventing it from getting up for the time being. Followed by a swift jump, Krune arrived at the back of the other Monster Gecko, stepping on its tail as he slid his hands under its armpits, aiming to do a chokehold. Once he had done so, he exerted strength in one hand while tumbling, using his body weight to cause the two of them to fall. At the moment they fell, the impact pushed his hand further, dislocating the Monster Gecko''s shoulder, making it scream in pain. He stomped on its other hand and pressed on its head using his hands, taking out the thread he had saved up. Krune swiftly tied up its head, increasing the pressure he applied with his legs, soon dislocating its other shoulder in the process. Now that it was largely incapacitated, he used the thread to tie up its legs. He had used the thread from the fishing rods he had collected. They were fairly strong, stronger than anything he could make in the current environment. After tying up the incapacitated Monster Gecko, Krune rushed towards the other Monster Gecko that was dragging itself over the ground, intending to escape. He plunged the dagger into its neck, rending its life. Thanks to the light he emitted, Krune noticed that some of the blood pooled on the floor had moved towards a bone tree nearby, touching it. Then, as if it was vacuumed, the blood flowed towards the bone tree and was fully absorbed into it. After pondering over what he had seen, Krune dragged the Monster Gecko''s carcass and made an open wound of it touch the bone tree, watching the blood within be sucked out at an alarming rate. Soon, the Monster Gecko was devoid of any blood. Upon noticing that the flesh wasn''t affected, Krune went silent for a bit, dragging the alive one as he stopped before the bone tree situated right next to the one he had experimented on. And now, he made a tiny hole on its tail, gently touching the bleeding tip on the bone tree. The same magical phenomenon happened once again. It seemed that the bone tree had the property to attract blood towards itself. Even though this property had a small range, only being around a centimeter from its surface, it was still pretty great. Within a couple of minutes, all the blood in the alive Monster Gecko was sucked out. In any case, Krune could notice some differences. Unlike the other bone trees in the surroundings, this one began to develop scales over itself. Moreover, it was slowly growing in size. It seemed absorbing the blood of an alive one had differences as compared to that of a dead one. Krune didn''t know what the end result might be, but he sure didn''t plan on observing it from such a close distance. After making sure he made a small marking on the floor nearby to point at the tree exhibiting such changes, Krune dragged the two Monster Gecko corpses with him. Along the way, he made a couple of discrete markings, stuff that one might not notice even if they stared right at it. After all, there were numerous scratches on the floor, everywhere. It was like finding a needle in a haystack. But for him, he just drew a small image of the Pestlor. Since it was a unique item that he took a great liking to, he decided to etch that. The direction the Pestlor''s head pointed towards was where the tree exhibiting the changes was. This way, he would be able to find it more easily. Eventually, he exited the forest, making a similar marking near one of the bone trees that he was sure he could identify thanks to its alarmingly stout branches. He dragged the two carcasses and soon made it back to his cave, panting in exhaustion when he had finished dragging them. Transporting them through the narrow entry path was even more difficult than his hunt, leaving him utterly exhausted. As for the reason Krune hadn''t injured the second Monster Gecko, he was after its skin. After judging that camouflaging himself as one of them would be better than just roaming around almost naked, he aimed for one that was of a similar size to himself. Krune set it aside for the time being, intending to practice on the damaged one first. He carefully looked around its jaws, noticing places from where he could pry open its skin and peel it off in one full stretch. Thankfully for him, its body was completely dry now. With the blood siphoned off from the body, most of the substance he had to watch out for was now gone. So, Krune could peacefully work on it without suffering any injuries. Even though he made a lot of mistakes, Krune managed to determine the way he could pull out the Monster Gecko''s skin wholly intact. He first made pieces of the corpse he had butchered, separating the bones from the organs and flesh, placing the flesh separately while piling up the rest. He then wrapped the pieces of meat in the skin of the Monster Gecko after cutting it into desired sections. When he was hungry, he ate some of the meat he had already cleaned and processed, resting for some time before beginning to work on the wholly intact Monster Gecko. He carefully peeled it in one piece, almost taking six hours to do so as he intended to do it without any mistakes. As he didn''t have much experience in skinning like this, Krune had to proceed carefully. Thankfully, his experience as a spiritual chef played a major part here. Even though there was a significant difference in performing the same action as a cultivator and a mortal, the experience of cooking for a couple of centuries was deeply ingrained in him. Thanks to this, he managed to skin it completely without any observable errors. He set it aside for some time and separated the Monster Gecko''s flesh from the rest, wrapping it up in skin sacks. He then began to clean up the intact skin, setting it aside to dry for the time being. He still had to cut off the tail while designing it so that he could stitch the remainder. Krune planned to make an article of complete skin-tight clothing out of it. Moreover, when he felt the flexibility of the skin, he felt that it was doable. As he had enough food to last a couple of weeks, Krune didn''t venture out. He opted to stay within his cave and work on all his arrangements. As for food, as long as he sprinkled some drops of the water on the meat, they didn''t spoil and remained fresh. So, Krune basically didn''t have anything to worry about. He used the bones of the Monster Geckos, trying to find anything useful out of them. Upon seeing their limb bones, he thought of a way he could use them. He set them aside and took out a tail bone, using the Whale Tooth Dagger to grind it into a needle. He made needles of a couple of sizes, using one of them to poke a hole in the rest. This way, he finished creating some sewing needles for his use. After that, he carefully cut the tail, leaving some material behind that he stitched using the threads wound around the fishing rods. After he had obtained two more fishing rods, he had enough thread to go around. He then made numerous cuts and stitches on the face part of the skin, adjusting it to his size. Whenever he was ever confused, a stare in the pool''s reflection while emitting his Neon Radiance was enough to determine his facial structure and the orientation of the eyes, nose, mouth, etc. It took almost a week of careful sewing before Krune finished the entire skin armor. He tugged its surface once, feeling that it was considerably tough. Even though it could easily be ripped through using something as sharp as the Whale Tooth Dagger, it was many times better than being almost naked and defenseless. After treating his wounds once using the ocean water, Krune began to wear the skin armor, grunting in the process as it was tighter than he had imagined it to be. Even though it was elastic, he had to be careful to not exert too much force in random directions and risk ripping it apart. After all, the sewing he had done wasn''t really that thorough. He had only done it based on the limited materials in his possession. In any case, after an hour of struggling and tugging, inch by inch, Krune managed to wear it completely, immediately feeling warmer with an added sense of security. He arrived before the cave walls, using his knife to carve the words ''Skin Armour'' and put a tick mark beside it. As he did this, he thought to himself, ''This is just the first step to establish myself in this environment.'' Chapter 931: Adapting The second goal on the wall was ''Complete Recovery,'' one which he didn''t even bother to make a tick mark beside. After all, with every battle he fought, he was bound to get injured. Plus, considering how he was going to fight continuously in the future, there was just no point in putting a check on it. Krune stared at his tablet for some time, punching it once to see the number of people present in Layer 3, Double Ocean. At the moment the contents he wanted to see appear on the tablet, Krune was left aghast. The number had doubled compared to before. "How? Or¡­" He frowned, thinking of a certain possibility as he muttered, "Were more people added in?" At present, those that had entered the Sub-Realm were cultivators from the three continents, Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria. Location-wise, the Sub-Realm was positioned in the Four Sector''s Border Region of the Zamuria Continent. Then again, the Sub-Realm was a different dimension, apart from the God Realm. So, there wasn''t anything that prevented it from being moved around. Or from another perspective, the actual Sub-Realm might have been in the Four Sectors'' Border Region, but entrances to it might have been cropping up in other continents too. The God Realm was just too huge. A God that reigned at its top would have been able to do something like this easily. Probably once he determined that his Sub-Realm was just too massive for the number of people he got, to increase his level of entertainment, he might have decided to bring in more people. This way, as the number of people increased, the resources would begin to experience a shortage. And, with a shortage of resources arose the delicious conflicts. And with conflicts came¡­endless entertainment for the God. So, no bored God would ever say no to something like that. Or perhaps, the Sub-Realm was actually created by numerous Gods that had joined hands to curb their boredom. That might explain its sheer size. Moreover, now that he thought about it in detail, today was the day that marked his first year in the Sub-Realm. It made Krune wonder as he muttered to himself, "Are they planning to add more people every year?" He then thought of another surprising outcome as he continued to mutter, "I have to reach Layer 1 to get a chance to leave this Sub-Realm. But to do that, I need to obtain more Godly Points. Though, with a larger number of people, the competition will increase. In the future, there will come a saturation point beyond which obtaining Godly Points would be too difficult." He sighed after thinking about it. "If what I feel is accurate, then within a decade or two, we might reach such a point." He had just thought of it when Krune realized an error in his calculations. "Wait, it has been a year. But didn''t we stay in Layer 4 for almost 10 months? Then, if the next batch was brought in right after we were transported to Layer 3, it makes no sense. After all, only two months have passed since then." And as if to comply with his statement, the population count of Layer 3 doubled once again. Moreover, every hour, it continued to increase, as if more and more people were streaming in. Eventually, the total population had increased to 24 times the original number, making Krune inhale sharply in shock. "What the hell is even happening? Were there other areas like Layer 4 or something?" Though soon after, he shook his head, deciding that there was no point in worrying about it for now. "There is just one thing I have to do, and that is to accumulate enough Godly Points and leave this place sooner or later. After all¡­" He thought of a possibility, shuddering at the thought as he muttered to himself, "I am a mortal now. So, if nothing else happens, I will die as an old man." He shook his head, saying, "I have a family to return to. I have no plans of dying here. If anything, I''ll reap a harvest from this Sub-Realm and strengthen myself further before leaving." Thinking as such, Krune picked up his Whale Tooth Sword, weighing it in his hands while gripping it in a stance. He looked at his trembling arms, cursing at the thin twigs he possessed. As a prior cultivator, like most cultivators, he possessed a slender body. His masculine self only consisted of a toned body, kind of streamlined. And now, in a mortal form, Krune could consider himself as someone more focused on agility. But he didn''t wish to be that alone. He also wished to increase his base strength. Krune didn''t wish to become overly buff, gaining strength while sacrificing flexibility and mobility. He didn''t wish to become some sort of tank. Instead, he wished to have enough strength to pry himself out of any situation. Thinking as such, Krune looked at the Whale Tooth Sword, making a goal that he would work on his strength training until he became strong enough to wield it normally. Followed by a bellow, Krune swung it from the top and stopped it on a horizontal level. At least, that was his plan. Unfortunately for him, the Whale Tooth Sword only stopped when it touched the ground, nicking a part of the rock. Sighing, he continued to swing it, getting used to the skin armor he had created. And, as he sweated, his sweat coursed through the skin, forming on its external surface. Moreover, when he doused himself with the water, the skin absorbed them, retaining some within itself, healing him for longer durations while remaining in contact with his skin. At first, he was unable to emit any Neon Radiance through the skin. But as he turned up the intensity while working out, occasionally dousing himself with the water, Krune realized that the skin armor was slowly changing. It was getting adjusted to his body, his form, his presence, and his abilities. It did come as a surprise to him, for he wondered if the ocean water had such properties as well. Since he hadn''t tested it before, he wasn''t sure. Moreover, he wasn''t sure if it was brought about by a special mineral composition within the mountain range that the ocean water absorbed while seeping through. He wasn''t sure. Without his Divine Sense or even Mental Energy, Krune was unable to investigate. Left with no other choice, he could only continue to train while observing the changes. After all, his mindset wasn''t unaffected by them. Even if he changed species, it didn''t matter. After all, once he left the place, he could simply commit suicide and revive as his usual self or figure out the cause and eradicate it thanks to his Spiritual Incarnation. A normal cultivator wouldn''t have such an option. But as someone with a Spiritual Incarnation, having absolute control over oneself was normal. From time to time, Krune did pull up the skin armor, heaving a sigh in relief when he discovered that even though it was changing, it still remained as skin armor. It didn''t attach itself over his skin. As long as that didn''t happen, he wasn''t troubled. In any case, as he continued to use his abilities, the skin armor eventually adapted to him. Now, even while wearing it, he was able to use his Neon Radiance. There was some loss as compared to when he used it while naked, but Krune was willing to stomach that in favor of the defense the skin armor provided him. For two weeks, all Krune did was eat and train. During his resting time, he worked on creating his gear. If anything, he needed to create a suitable undergarment with an attached belt that he could use to carry all his items. For that, he used the tail skin of the two Monster Geckos he had left with him, embedding tiny bones that he had carved into it to form something similar to a belt, with the extra portions of the skin hung over like a parted skirt. On his front, he made a pocket where he could keep the rolled-out parchment safely tucked within. On his right, he made secure pockets for the Water Essence, one per vial. Under it was the place to sheathe each Whale Tooth Dagger respectively. And finally, on his back, trailing across the belt, were numerous holders for the knives. After all this time, Krune still had a good number of knives that were usable. Thanks to the thread from the fishing rods, Krune was able to keep everything well sheathed. To experiment, he sprinted, jumped, rolled on the ground, and did a variety of activities in his cave, making ample use of the boulders. In the end, he determined that none of his items were damaged or fell out. For work that was just done in a couple of weeks, he was satisfied with the result. Upon seeing as to how his reserve of meat was running low, only enough to last him another day, Krune exited his cave. He still had no idea about where to use the hook and the handle of the fishing rods. So, at present, he just piled them at one corner of his workbench in the cave. His only weapons were the two daggers and the six knives. For emergencies, he had a yarn of thread and a small packet of water. Now prepared, he walked on the solid rock ground, using the Sonic Radar to keep track of his surroundings, keeping the sounds he emitted to a minimum. He was able to get a picture of everything in a twenty-meter radius around himself. And beyond that, he could still get a blurry picture through the Sonic Radar. So with that, he approached the forest of bone trees, looking at the tree with stubby branches as he observed the carvings he had made, following it as he soon approached the tree he had marked, intending to check its mutation. He was still around thirty meters away from it. Just to make sure he wasn''t ambushed, Krune unleashed a powerful roar that was short, not even spanning half a second. At the moment he received feedback, he turned and ran away, sprinting at his maximum speed in alarm. Chapter 932: The Lady with the Fiery Hair "Aaaah!" Followed by a resounding scream, a woman plunged into the ocean water. She gagged, swallowing the ocean water without control as she flailed erratically. She kicked the water like a paddle, eventually gaining control of her body as she surfaced, gasping for air as she coughed. Unexpectedly, she had only taken a couple of breaths when she could feel that something was amiss, quickly turning around to see a man lunge a large sword right at her. He was a man of large stature. In his hands was a greatsword, one that he was barely able to use while imbalanced in the water. At present, his hands that held the great sword were trembling while nerves protruded out from them, alarmingly so as they turned red, becoming violent, slowly blackening. The blood vessels ruptured upon wielding an equipment of the cultivators as a mortal. He hadn''t even realized that he had become a mortal, focusing on slashing his opponent apart first. The change in his state from a cultivator to a mortal caused his swing to go haywire, missing the lady as it cut into the water. The generated force and the momentum carried by the great sword pulled his body into the water, its weight beyond what he could control. Moreover, the blood vessels on his arms erupted, spilling forth blood like a torrent. Eventually, it dawned on him as he let go of the great sword, intending to surface when a pair of legs landed on his back, one on his hip and the other between his shoulders, pressing him down. It was the woman that did that, balancing herself accordingly over him, shifting her weight with enough dexterity that the man was unable to move up. He was already out of breath, and no matter which way he tried to move up, she constantly maintained herself over his back, pushing him down. She had long, fiery hair tied up into a bun on her back. Her marble-like skin was riddled with injuries while she had lost a couple of her fingers. Even though she was a phenomenal beauty, her current appearance was manic at best, oozing with bloodlust. Her pearl-like eyes shifted around, noticing a couple of figures paddle towards her, having identified her. She unsheathed her dagger, one that she had become accustomed to wielding in the past few years after arriving on the God Realm. Though, at the very moment she grabbed it, intense pain assaulted her as the nerves on her hand protruded, on the verge of bursting. Having recalled what happened to the man that held the greatsword, she quickly plunged it into the water, impaling it into the back of the man struggling within. Out of breath, bleeding hands, and now a stab on his back with an item of the cultivators that mortals weren''t allowed to touch. Unsurprisingly, he immediately died. Blood gushed out his body, dyeing the water around her red. The couple of people that were swimming towards her saw the figure of the man of large stature surface and float just like corpses did. They immediately screamed, "That scummy Feifei betrayed us and killed the boss." "Avenge the boss!" Upon seeing their arrival, her eyes didn''t seem disturbed, placing her hand on the back of the man she had killed. She was ready to pull out the dagger at a moment''s notice to attack. At present, that dagger was like a potent poison to everyone in the area, so she planned to do exactly that. Even as a cultivator, using equipment beyond a certain stage above their cultivation base would harm them. And now, as a mortal, any equipment a cultivator used would straight up kill them in a matter of seconds. The two people were only 10 meters from her when Feifei noticed a black shadow swim in the ocean above. Only now did she notice it, becoming shocked at the fact that there was an entire ocean above her. Though, she didn''t have time to marvel at the fact, grabbing hold of the man''s corpse as she paddled back with all her strength, watching the massive shadow above approach the surface, make a tiny leap, and plunge into the ocean below. It seemed similar to a squid but sported a massive mouth in place of its head, inside it filled to the brim with sharp teeth. It spanned a length of 20 meters, a behemoth. Unsurprisingly, it clamped on the two people, passing just before Feifei as one of its ten eyes shot open, glaring at her. In reflex, she took out the dagger from the man''s corpse, and before it completely passed by her, she plunged it into its body. The dagger easily pierced its body, getting lodged in its flesh until the hilt. Upon seeing that the creature wouldn''t leave her alone, she acted the moment a chance presented itself before her, using the property of the dagger. Even though her hand began to bleed a little from holding the dagger once again, she smiled as the creature screamed, flailing in pain as the nerves in its body protruded. Five seconds later, it surfaced, bleeding profusely, dying in a matter of seconds. And at the same time, its blood touched Feifei, being absorbed by her. This caused her to scream in pain that was akin to getting doused by boiling water. Ten seconds later, she lay weakly on the water, floating aimlessly as her body touched the floating carcass of the creature. She somehow managed to climb up to its top and plopped on it, gasping for air now that she didn''t need to paddle in the water anymore. She looked at the dagger positioned next to her, lodged into the creature''s body, chuckling as she muttered, "Hah, that was fun." Upon feeling something, she thought of summoning a certain object in her, frowning, slowly muttering, "Come out! Open! Arise! Reveal! Tablet!" After a couple of minutes of futile effort, she sighed, massaging her forehead when the dot on her glabella activated, materializing into the tablet that fell on her, suffocating her. When she tried to move it, her fingers touched it twice during the struggle, making it retreat to her glabella. After experimenting with it for some time, she figured out the gist of it, now looking at the row of words displayed on it. "Killed one Staunch Predator: 1 Godly Point obtained." She then read the second line, frowning as she muttered in curiosity, "Obtained Passive: Staunch Bloodlust?" "Well, that''s weirdly convenient." She looked at the ocean above her, noticing a couple of fishes swimming within shudder upon meeting her gaze. After some time passed in such a fashion, she sighed with a forlorn expression. "We shouldn''t have separated at the start. This God Realm is a lot different from what we have been told." ¡­ "Shit¡­shit¡­shit!" Krune continued to sprint at his maximum speed, exhibiting maneuvers one would see used in parkour as he skittled from one place to another, swerving through numerous bone trees and other boulders that acted as obstacles. Only after he ran for a distance of 400 meters and was exhausted did Krune stop, hiding behind a boulder as he rested, recalling the scene he had witnessed. The mutating bone tree had grown to a height of 10 meters, turning into a massive bone tree. And while growing, it had eaten up the other bone trees surrounding it. With every bone tree it ate, it produced a special fruit on its stem. But unlike others, this fruit was half the size of a person. Moreover, a single glance was enough to see that it was humanoid in shape, as if the fruit was conceiving a life within it, one that was humanoid. Though, just this alone wouldn''t have made Krune run away like that. Rather, the cause was positioned 200 meters further away. It was a group of Monster Geckos, numbering almost a couple hundred. And, leading them was a Monster Gecko that was twice the size of others, hulking the group. Spanning a height of 4 meters, it possessed ripped muscles that screamed with power. Resting on its shoulders was a massive fishing rod, possessing the same circumference as Krune''s leg. Attached to its thicker thread was a hook shaped like a dagger. It was almost 20 centimeters in length. Just its appearance alone was enough to prove that it was a mutant among them. Though, it didn''t seem to be the leader of the group, rather acting subservient, despite displaying its dominance from time to time. After all, positioned further away from it was another Monster Gecko that was similar to it. And finally, seated at the back of the group, on a throne made from bones of vicious sea fishes, was a gigantic creature, spanning a height of 5 meters. Its throne was carried by the joint effort of 20 Monster Geckos that squeaked from time to time under the weight whenever the gigantic Monster Gecko shifted its body. Monster Gecko King! Just the sheer presence it exuded was enough for Krune to determine its identity. Moreover, when he scouted them using his Sonic Radar, even though the others were flustered, unable to zone in towards the source due to the echoes, the two mutants and the Monster Gecko King simultaneously turned their heads, facing Krune. That was why he bolted from the place immediately, sprinting at his maximum speed. Moreover, to prevent them from approaching the area his cave was located, he ran off in a different direction. It seemed the Monster Geckos had a priority to destroy the mutated bone tree or something along the lines. After all, when running, he was making sounds to keep track of his surroundings, and all along, he didn''t find any Monster Gecko chasing after him. Upon seeing that his surroundings were safe, he gasped for air, drinking the water he had prepared. After he had calmed down, he shuddered at the thought of having to face the three for Godly Points. After a moment, he sighed, chuckling helplessly as he muttered, "It won''t be easy defeating something that powerful." Once he gathered his bearings, Krune intended to head somewhere else when he noticed something approaching him rather quickly. Immediately, he realized that the opponent had managed to locate his position. Considering its speed of approach and its sheer size registered in his Sonic Radar, Krune knew that the Monster Gecko King had dispatched one of the two Mutant Monster Geckos to track him immediately. "Damn it." Krune rolled on the ground as something sharp landed on the rock he was hiding behind, cracking it. Now, he had no other choice but to face the mutant Monster Gecko. Chapter 933: Suffocating Tablet With every sound he uttered, his Sonic Radar activated relentlessly, giving him a detailed outlook of his surroundings. Whatever his Sonic Radar bounced off of, everything was mapped out and formed a three-dimensional image in Krune''s mind. And now, he noticed a dagger-shaped hook fly straight at him. As he ducked, it slammed into the rock he was resting on, cracking it a little as the knife-like hook was lodged almost until its hilt. It showed the sheer power it contained as it was thrown by the Mutant Monster Gecko. Even though the surroundings were dark, both parties were able to move without trouble. Krune relied on his Sonic Radar to move around while the Mutant Monster Gecko seemed to be perceiving the thermal image of its surroundings. Different methods were used for the same purpose. Who knows which one was better in this instance. As the place was a warm area, its thermal imagery functioned without any problems, outlining Krune''s figure clearly. The knife-shaped hook flew out as the Mutant Monster Gecko reeled in its fishing rod, not even grabbing hold of the hook as it used the momentum to launch another attack. And this time, it curled its wrists a little, adding a hoop in the threat that coursed through it, transferring the force to the hook that made a curve in the air and targeted Krune, making it harder for him to defend. Left with not much choice, Krune could only double-tap his glabella in a hurry as the hook slammed into it with tremendous force, knocking him back as the tablet fell out of his grasp. Krune rolled on the floor, taking a second before the Mutant Monster Gecko could launch a second attack, hurriedly double tapping on the tablet the moment he grabbed hold of it. As it vanished into his glabella, he summoned it again, defending against another attack, grunting as he slid on the rock floor. Leaving his hold over the tablet, he pulled out his Whale Tooth Dagger and slashed downward onto the thread, intending to cut it. Sadly, the Mutant Monster Gecko was much faster, reeling it back immediately, which caused him to only hit the air. He retracted the tablet and began to run, jumping behind a bone tree as the hook lodged into it, almost peeking out on the other side. As the Mutant Monster Gecko pulled the hook, the stem of the bone tree snapped as it fell. Krune had vanished behind another bone tree by then, hiding as he tried to calm his thumping heart that felt like it would burst out of his chest. He didn''t have any ranged attacks. As for close combat, he didn''t have the guts to attempt that just yet. After all, the Mutant Monster Gecko was more than twice his height. Considering the sheer power behind its ripped muscles, one hit was enough to snap his body in half. His life was in danger. A single mistake would result in his death. But as for his opponent, his attacks might not be fatal in any way. There was just too much difference in their physique. Krune slid on the rock floor, flinching when the edge of the knife-shaped hook scraped past his stomach, causing him to bleed. He hurriedly slipped behind another tree, hearing the sounds of a tree trunk getting snapped as the Mutant Monster Gecko was closing in on him. ''I have to destroy its fishing rod first. Otherwise, my problems will never end. I might really die here,'' Krune thought as he shouted, "Hey you, damn lizar¡­" Though, before he could finish his taunt, a hook flew his way, penetrating the bone tree he was hiding behind. He hurriedly used his tablet to defend it, sliding 10 centimeters back before stopping. As he had defended the same quite a few times already, and as the hook had penetrated through a bone tree trunk before hitting him, the Mutant Monster Gecko was a tad slower in recalling it this time. Krune pushed the tablet on the tree trunk''s side, making the hook coil around it partially as he slashed forth with his dagger. At the same time, the Mutant Monster Gecko pulled the hook back, raising the tension in the thread. The force caused the hook to lodge into the side of the trunk while his dagger slashed onto a part of the thread. As the tension in it increased, it snapped as the Mutant Monster Gecko stumbled from the lack of force, hitting a bone tree on its back. It then looked at its fishing rod that had no hook now, looking at the cut at the end of the thread. Followed by a growl, it coiled the thread around the fishing rod, now wielding it like a club as it sprinted immediately, moving with a lot of momentum. Krune bolted with a start, hastily getting into motion upon seeing its imposing approach. He quickly ran through the forest, deliberately taking narrow paths that were okay for him to run through but were small for the Mutant Monster Gecko. Unexpectedly, the Mutant Monster Gecko just smashed through them like they were nothing. Moreover, there wasn''t even a reduction in its imposing momentum. It was like a raging tidal wave, unstoppable. Krune had no other choice but to keep running, trying to sense for any areas that he could use as traps. Despite everything, he continued to run, feeling that his lungs were on fire. He saw that the Mutant Monster Gecko was closing in on him, now almost within arm''s reach. Using all the momentum he had accrued, he jumped, landing on a bone tree, storing all the momentum built up from his run into his leg muscles. Then, his entire body radiated with intense light, akin to day, lighting up the entire area with a hundred-meter radius, highlighting the face of the Mutant Monster Gecko that was in proximity. It could stop its run, but the intense light blinded it momentarily. The rapid increase in brightness overwhelmed its optic nerves. After all, it was using its eyes to see all along, the only difference being that it was able to perceive the heat signatures during the dark using its eyes. Having understood their behavior and having tested it on his previous prey, Krune knew that his Neon Radiance was effective on them. A moment after unleashing his Neon Radiance to the limit, he jumped to the side, watching the Mutant Monster Gecko crash head-on into the bone tree. Unlike before when it rammed through them, it was defenseless now, tumbling down as it broke the bone tree, having lost balance as its head spun. The intense light had short-circuited its optic nerves, causing its head to spin. The moment he landed on the floor, Krune unleashed all his power in his legs, bolting forward once again as he approached the Mutant Monster Gecko, holding a dagger in each hand as he lunged forward, slashing with all his might as he attacked its palms. At the same time he attacked, he wasn''t even able to evade, having no choice but to double-tap his glabella, summoning his tablet as he tanked the backhanded swing from the Mutant Monster Gecko using its fishing rod. The impact sent him flying for almost ten meters, cracking his bones, causing him numerous injuries as he crashed into a bone tree before stopping. His left hand was a mess, while he was barely able to exert strength in his right. Quickly, his hand trembled while taking out a vial, bringing it close to his mouth as he swallowed the Water Essence, immediately feeling something cool circulate through his body, starting from his stomach. Sadly, the effect wasn''t as fast as he had hoped for, noticing the Mutant Monster Gecko shake its head before slowly getting up. It was currently bleeding a lot. Lodged in its feet were the two daggers, making it unable to even stand up properly. On top of that, the worst thing was the bone branch that was lodged in its stomach. Surprisingly, the Mutant Monster Gecko wasn''t bleeding. Rather, all its blood was being absorbed by the bone tree branch that voraciously drank all the blood it came in contact with while swiftly growing, turning from a branch to a stem almost within a couple of seconds as it began to grow branches, even sprouting a couple of leaves. Krune dragged himself forward a couple of steps, sliding on the floor as the pain made him wish to close his eyes and faint. Of course, he knew that leaning on a bone tree was a death sentence. So, he had no other choice but to do this. Thankfully for him, the Water Essence he had swallowed was healing him bit by bit. As for the Mutant Monster Gecko, it was stunned for a moment before pulling out the two daggers from its feet, unable to get up due to the blood loss and the severe pain. It then saw Krune crawling forward, swiftly throwing the fishing rod in its hands, knocking him away from the impact, causing him to slide a fair distance away. It then placed its hands on the bone tree stem growing out of its stomach, grunting as it tried to pull it out, slowly doing that as it could feel its strength was waning rapidly. A sense of exhaustion stemmed forth throughout its body as its blood was being sucked at a rapid rate. Alarmed, it used all its remaining strength, pulling out the bone tree branch, all to its dismay seeing that it had already rooted itself within its body to a fair extent. So, when it pulled it out, a lot of its internal organs were also pulled out as a result. After all, the roots of the bone tree had seeped into them. The Mutant Monster Gecko barely managed to drop the bone tree branch nearby as it lost all its strength, plopping on the ground, facing upward as its eyes felt heavy. But, it hadn''t died yet, displaying its tremendous lifeforce. A lot of time passed in such a fashion before it could hear the sounds of footsteps. A weary Krune arrived before it, inching his trembling right hand to his glabella before double-tapping, summoning the tablet that he dropped onto its face. He then sat on it, suffocating the other party until a row of words flashed on the tablet. Chapter 934: The Ripened Fruit "¡­Damn it¡­haah¡­damn¡­hah¡­ahh¡­." Krune muttered as he gasped for air, still unable to heal as he felt his body had become heavy. Of course, he couldn''t leave as is. After all, he didn''t have enough rations in his cave. On the tablet, he saw the message telling him that he earned one Godly Point, muttering, "So, they were indeed called Monster Geckos. My naming sense is getting pretty accurate these days. But¡­" He sighed, continuing, "I earned one Godly Point, but I also spent one. So, the only extra I got from this was my injuries." His left hand was useless as he felt pain all over his left shoulder. He didn''t even know the extent of his injuries, only barely alive thanks to the Water Essence he had consumed. It was still taking effect, so Krune was able to remain conscious and move. He retracted the tablet and picked up his two daggers, beginning to work on the Mutant Monster Gecko, cutting its limbs first. Even though it was difficult, he didn''t wish to waste anything that might serve useful to him, especially a carcass as valuable as the one before him. He used the bone tree branch to suck out all the blood. And upon pondering over it, he broke some branches that he felt would be useful for him later, intending to experiment with them. Once he cut up the Mutant Monster Gecko''s carcass into numerous pieces, he used the thread on its fishing rod to tie up the pieces, dragging the lot with him as he moved. Even though it was tremendously difficult because he was in pain all the time, making it difficult for him to even walk, not to mention pull such a tremendous weight with him, Krune felt like he was about to die. Though, unwilling to waste away, he grit his teeth and continued to move, making a round-about path as he arrived before his cave, inspecting the path behind he had traversed upon using his Neon Radiance, taking note that there weren''t any traces of him dragging the Mutant Monster Gecko''s carcass. With that, he transported each piece into his cave, making numerous trips, at the end of which he felt he was closer to death. Setting aside everything in his cave, he laid on the floor right next to the pool, closing his eye as he fainted, no longer able to bear the pain. His left hand was unnaturally twisted, bent alarmingly. Once he passed out, the effect of the Water Essence kicked in with greater potency, causing mild cracking sounds to emit from his broken left arm. Such sounds also resounded from the ribs on his left, same for the legs and hip on his right. It seemed that he was injured in a lot of places, enough to die as a mortal if not for the Water Essence''s help. A day later, Krune woke up groggily, barely managing to get up as he drank water, carrying some with his pouch before heading to the place where he had stored all the meat, sprinkling the water on them to keep them fresh. He then ate some meat, returned to the place beside the pool, and fell asleep immediately. Cracking sounds began to emit from his body once again, a sign that he was still healing. The Water Essence was adjusting his muscles to tighten and loosen gently, aligning the broken bones back in their original positions using the muscular contractions and expansions. As he was injured, and as his body was expending a lot of energy to help the Water Essence in healing, Krune was immensely tired. With that, he spent most of the day sleeping. In the remaining time, all he managed to get done was drink some water, sprinkle some of it on the meat, and barely relieved himself. After that, he continued to rest, passing the days in such a fashion. He didn''t even know how many days had passed, having lost track of time because the place was dark all around. After a month had passed in such a fashion, Krune managed to recover completely, feeling that he had become a bit stronger than before. He was already able to move normally for the past four days but decided to rest until he was completely healed. He also noticed the wounds that he had sustained while adrift on the ocean had also closed up completely, not even leaving any scars behind. A month was enough time for Krune to finish all the meat on the Mutant Monster Gecko''s carcass. That was the only way he could still keep an approximate track of the time. Krune judged that as he lacked energy and was recovering, he would have at most eaten twice per day. So, for every two meals, he counted it as a day had passed by. Even though it was a rough calculation, he had a general estimation of the situation. So, he was able to plan himself accordingly. "The ticket to this place costs about 5 Godly Points. And, I have already consumed one Water Essence. So, my expenditure is at 6 Godly Points. I have to earn at least that much to say that I''ve broken even. My profit will only start after that." He shuddered, thinking about having to face more Mutant Monster Geckos and even the Monster Gecko Kings. After all, there were five Kings and 10 Mutants on this Primary Landmass. All he had managed to do so far was kill one Mutant. On top of that, he took a month to recover from that. So, Krune''s pace was slow. Well, to be more exact, he couldn''t afford to repeat the same thing every time. After all, he only had one more Water Essence to rely upon. After that, if he still got injured, death would be his only option. Krune unleashed his Neon Radiance, inspecting his armor to notice that the tear on the stomach portion had closed up at some point in time. "Does this skin armor have the property to heal itself? Is the water beneficial to its recovery too?" He then pulled it up once to see that it hadn''t stuck to his skin, remaining as the skin armor, making him heave a sigh of relief. "Whatever, this makes things easy since I don''t have to make armors again and again." He then arrived at the chamber with the meat and other stuff he placed, situated next to the boulders behind which his berth lay at the top. As he was injured, he hadn''t slept at the top. And now that he was better, Krune decided to make a comfy bed first so that his level of sleep would improve. And while he was using the damaged skin of the Mutant Monster Gecko to make the berth, his line of sight fell on a couple of bone tree branches he had brought with him. They were inconspicuous, looking no different from the bones of the Monster Geckos he had hunted. Though as he looked closer, there was a mild difference in their color. As he gazed at them for a long time, an idea lit up in his mind. "Right, since time immemorial, traps have always been the best. As long as I can make the temperature of the traps look no different from the stone floor, I should be able to pull it off." Once he got the idea, Krune set out to work on it immediately, creating a couple of traps within a day. All he did was create a flat plate using one of the bones of the Mutated Monster Gecko and embedded pieces shaped into nails from the bone tree branch. He made it as tiny as possible so that even if it pierced his foes, they would just assume it to be a sharp rock on the ground and wouldn''t bother to look at it again. Only then would his trap work. After all, he had to use the terrain to his absolute advantage, targeting the exact things that the Monster Geckos would gloss over due to their habit. While he was creating them, Krune left his cave, using his abilities to track the Monster Geckos that were on the prowl, collecting fruits from the bone trees. He managed to kill them using his usual tricks that relied on blinding them first before stabbing them dead. He deprived their bodies of all blood using the bone trees, returning to his cave to stockpile the food. A month later, he had stored enough meat to last him for more than six months. Seeing that he had prepared enough, Krune began to lay down the traps. It was just a long plate that he placed on a path and situated a couple of rocks on its ends to keep it affixed to the ground. After that, he poured some of the soil that he had ground over from the stone, using that to hide the temperature difference between the bone and the stone. As he was the one who laid the traps, Krune remembered the places where they were positioned so that he wouldn''t step on them by mistake. And while scouting, as usual, he noticed that a troop of Monster Geckos was still waiting near the mutated bone tree. They had been stationed there all this time. And during one of his scouting missions, a fruit on it ripened, turning as huge as him. The remaining fruits instantly wilted as if they were just present to camouflage the ripened fruit. The moment it finished forming, all the Monster Geckos in the area were jubilant, looking at each other with vigor. They dragged the massive fruit with them as the mutated bone tree began to immediately wilt, as if producing the fruit took everything it had. As Krune followed them from afar, only making sounds that wouldn''t be audible to their ears but would be enough for him to get a general gist of the situation, he soon came across what seemed to be a village. He named it a village, but it was protected by a large column of bone. The wall seemed to be made with a different species of bone trees, one that neither bore fruit nor had any leaves, not to mention any branches. They grew to staggering heights, reaching as high as eight meters, spanning almost a meter thick. They formed a rigid defensive structure. Using his Sonic Radar, Krune managed to get an estimate of the population of the Monster Geckos within, noticing the Monster Gecko King seated on a throne that was placed on one end of a massive ground¡ªsituated in the center of the village. At present, two Monster Geckos, those with statures bigger than the rest, glared at one another, raging to battle. Upon seeing the group of Monster Geckos bring in the massive ripened fruit, numerous screeches resounded as the Monster Geckos seemed to be celebrating. Chapter 935: Blood Essence The Monster Geckos seemed to be in a festive mood as the Monster Gecko King soon raised its arm, causing the crowd to bellow with a festive spirit. Upon a general estimate, there were at least 5000 Monster Geckos in the place, causing Krune to feel fear. After all, this was just under one Monster Gecko King. There were still four other Monster Gecko Kings on the Primary Landmass. In other words, he still had to face a lot of enemies before his dagger would reach the neck of their leaders. Then again, aiming for the Monster Gecko King was almost impossible, considering it was always surrounded by a massive troop of Monster Geckos. Even otherwise, given the situation where it was alone, Krune had no confidence in facing it. He had to spring up enough traps to damage it first before daring to go against it. Now that they were in a festive celebration, Krune decided that this was the best time to place his traps all over the place. After a month''s preparation, he had more than enough traps to use. Krune made repeated trips from his cave to the Monster Gecko village, bringing with him traps that he carefully held, placing them on numerous paths that trailed out from the village. Of course, he took precautions to ensure that they wouldn''t notice anything amiss after stepping on the traps. He first treaded through the paths himself, feeling the sharpness of the rocks that jutted out unevenly. In a place with a lot of sharp rocks, he laid the traps one after another, placing at least three traps on a path, separated by at least 30 meters from one another. He then did the same on other paths, letting out a sigh in relief when he had placed almost 80 traps around the Monster Gecko village, covering almost all the paths that they took to traverse. This way, he was bound to damage a lot of them. After laying down all the traps, Krune arrived near the village, hiding behind a large bone tree as he hooted continuously, using the repeated sound transmissions to get a better image of the scene happening within. It seemed that the Monster Geckos were having a tournament to decide the winner for something as all the able-bodied Monster Geckos participated in the fights. Even though a lot of them suffered from varying injuries, none of them died. After all, when approached with such a situation, the Monster Gecko King would stop the match and declare a winner. Eventually, two contestants managed to win all their matches without suffering from any serious wounds, reaching the finals. Now, they faced each other, going head-to-head the moment they were motioned to. Throughout the fight, none of them used any weapons, relying on their bare bodies to fight, as was their custom. The two Monster Geckos were significantly skilled. The moment he observed their fighting, Krune realized that if he fought against one of them, they would be evenly matched. This was considering the immense fighting experience Krune had amassed. After all, he was an old monster. But now, the fact that two Monster Geckos had the same level of combat experience as him, Krune was left aghast, realizing that there was more to the Monster Geckos than what met the eye. It made him wonder how scary the Monster Gecko King would be. The two Monster Geckos fought for a long time before one of them ended up as the victor, raising its hands as it hissed with all its might, causing the crowd to roar in response. It then arrived before the Monster Gecko King, bowing. The Monster Gecko King stood up as its hulking figure caused the crowd to turn silent. It then grabbed hold of the massive fruit and placed it before the winner, motioning for it to help itself. The winning Monster Gecko immediately gobbled up the massive fruit, struggling to eat as time passed, its belly feeling like it would burst. Though, without stopping, it still continued to eat, stuffing itself to the brim. At the start, it looked like it might burst. But some time later, it seemed as if it could still keep eating. In actuality, it was because its body was increasing in size. Soon, by the time it finished eating the fruit, its body had ballooned, seemingly on the verge of bursting. The winning Monster Gecko was no longer able to even move, remaining in place as it looked helpless. Even though that was the case, its body was subtly changing as it was digesting everything in the fruit, causing it to evolve as even its bone structure was changing, becoming larger as its bloated body began to adjust little by little, causing the crowd to cheer in response. Krune realized that by the time the winning Monster Gecko finished absorbing everything from the fruit, it would become a Mutated Monster Gecko. ''Is that how they''re created? Then, why aren''t they created en masse?'' He couldn''t fully understand the mechanics of the system in place, just deciding to experiment and see if he could create a Mutated Monster Gecko on his own. As long as he killed it right before it finished evolving, there might be a chance for him to harvest some Godly Points. ''Well, it took a month for that fruit to ripen. So, if I plan to do the same, I have to plant a bone tree in a secluded cave. Since I won''t suffer any losses even if there are more of them, I should try to experiment to the limit. If it works, then it''s better for me,'' he thought before muttering, "Even if they''re strong and have shown exceptional hunting capabilities, they don''t seem sentient. So, that might explain the reason why they hadn''t figured out this mechanic." "Well, I''ll know once I try it out." Krune shook his head and began to retreat, scouting across the mountain range to find caves that were hidden and wouldn''t fall under the radar of the Monster Geckos. After all, most of them didn''t leave the forest of bone trees. As the caves were on the very edge where nothing grew, there wasn''t a chance they would try to roam there. Moreover, Krune discovered a couple more routes to climb up the mountain range, apart from the one he arrived at the start. Unlike that route, these were more secluded and weren''t beside any bone trees. So, his worries were lessened. As the fruits from the bone trees were the food of the Monster Geckos, the Monster Geckos on watch outside all across the mountain range would only arrive through places that were nearest to the forest. And since they were able to walk over the walls as if it was normal, they wouldn''t even need the help of the paths. Eventually, after a couple of days of scouting one side of the place, Krune managed to find 10 caves that fit his description. He already planted the branch of a bone tree in each, intending to grow them soon enough. After that, Krune hunted a Monster Gecko daily, capturing it alive before making a small cut on its tail, attaching it to one of the bone tree branches. Once its blood was completely sucked dry, he stored the meat and bones in his cave. Upon seeing that they began to grow into a tree at a rapid pace, he kept up with his hunt, training with the Whale Tooth Sword and making traps during his free time. From time to time, he could hear the screams of some Monster Geckos from whose bodies a bone tree began to grow all of a sudden, causing them to pull it out immediately. In most of those cases, the Monster Gecko was fine, having treated it swiftly. All they suffered was a flesh wound that healed within a couple of weeks. As for the unlucky ones, they died when the bone sprouts growing from their bodies were pulled out. Their roots had already tangled with the leg bones of the Monster Gecko, bringing them along when the bone sprouts were pulled out. To ensure that he wouldn''t alert the Monster Gecko village too much, Krune also began to make longer trips, soon approaching the vicinity of the second village as he began to hunt the Monster Geckos from there. Just to make it seem fair, he also laid down traps during his frequent trips. This way, both villages would suffer. Through such a schedule, he soon filled his cave with enough meat to last him for the rest of his stay on the Primary Landmass. When he reached that point, Krune began to consume more and more meat voraciously, training and working harder so that his body would burn all the food he was consuming. With such conditions, he trained his body even more roughly, depending on the water in his cave at the end of the day to heal any fatigue and strains developed in him. This way, when he woke up, he felt fresh, without any sore muscles. His training continued at a steady pace as Krune was able to swing the Whale Tooth Sword at least three to four times before his arms started to ache, a considerable improvement from the start when he wasn''t even able to make a proper swing. Another month passed in such a fashion as Krune looked at the massive fruit hanging before him. It was as big as him, looking no different from the one he had seen before. Similarly, all the other nine caves also contained the same fruit. Until now, he wasn''t discovered, a massive thanks to the passive ability, Sonic Radar. Krune realized that he wouldn''t have been able to do anything without the two passives that he relied on for everything. Neon Radiance and Sonic Radar. They had become one with him now, having used them for literally everything. Moreover, as he used them, his expertise with them was improving, now being able to use them with greater precision. With that, his scouting abilities had also improved. Finally, as the day he thought approached, Krune took great pains to capture a Monster Gecko alive and dragged it all the way to one of the caves, keeping an eye on its expression all along. Upon seeing its excitement when it noticed the massive fruit, Krune smiled, thinking that his conjecture had indeed worked. After all, it seemed the fruits of the bone trees directly nurtured the Monster Geckos. So, if one lived long enough and had consumed a lot of the fruits, it would eventually turn into a Mutant. And if it lived even longer and consumed even more fruits, it would become a King. But, the massive fruit shortened this process, allowing a normal Monster Gecko to become a Mutant within a week. All the fruits on the bone trees were concentrated blood essence that seemed to develop the monsters drastically. After his numerous experiments, Krune was able to say that with assurance. Chapter 936: Failure Any Monster Gecko needed to eat the fruits hanging from the bone trees for survival. On top of that, it also seemed that it was their prime mode of nourishment. Krune hadn''t seen them hunt anything else from the waters above the Primary Landmass. Well, even if they did, they didn''t do it anywhere near him, so he hadn''t witnessed such actions. In any case, it seemed the roots of the bone trees either absorbed the water from the ocean or the blood mixed into the ocean as the fishes within killed one another. Either way, it accumulated a lot of Blood Essence, condensing them into the fruits. So, any monster that consumed such fruits would absorb all the Blood Essence in it, developing accordingly. Throughout its life, as it consumed more and more of such fruits, its body would continue evolving until it became a mutant. And, the end of such a journey was it becoming the king of its species. For a moment, Krune was inclined to eat a fruit to experiment. He didn''t have such a notion at the start. After all, he didn''t know what the fruit did. But, now that he realized that it was beneficial to the monsters, he wondered if it would help him as well. If it did, then he would also be able to increase his physical might. And with an increase in his might, he would be able to use his Passive Abilities more frequently. In the future, it might also help him a lot when he tackled the Tertiary Landmass and obtained an active ability. That way, he would obtain a lot of strength, enough to dominate Layer 3 and accumulate a lot of Godly Points in such a fashion. This way, he would eventually be able to reach Layer 1 and leave the Sub-Realm. Committing suicide at present wouldn''t be damaging to him since a fragment of Little Krune was in the Lawless Plains. So, he would easily revive there. Though, Krune didn''t wish to do that. After all, he was curious about the treasures present in the Sub-Realm. Just the passive abilities and the Pestlor that he obtained here were already worth it. So, Krune anticipated just how strong he would become at the end of this place. He didn''t wish to miss out on such opportunities. After all, if he died right now, all his accumulations wouldn''t be transferred over to the Little Krune fragment in the Lawless Plains. Not to mention that his subspace was also with him currently. There was no chance that it would be able to leave the Sub-Realm and appear in the Little Krune fragment due to the powerful spatial laws protecting the Sub-Realm. Losing the subspace would definitely be a tremendous loss for him. So, after thinking it through, he didn''t wish to be reckless, planning to first see if his method would allow him to harvest Godly Points. Krune brought over the Monster Gecko he had captured, pushing it closer to the massive fruit hanging over the bone tree within the cave. To ensure it wouldn''t kill him the moment he set it free, Krune dislocated its arm joints, making it emit muffled screams. As it was gagged, it couldn''t scream normally. Krune left it as is, gazing at the massive fruit hanging before him. He didn''t know if it had fully ripened or not, unable to determine it. So, as he stared at it, from time to time, he glanced at the bound Monster Gecko, looking at its reaction. After suffering from the pain of its arm joints getting dislocated, it slowly returned to a normal mental state, soon becoming allured by the massive fruit. With its changing expression and wagging tail that turned intense as time passed, Krune was eventually able to get an idea. He then stretched his hand, intending to pluck it out when the Monster Gecko looked with an anxious expression. Upon seeing that it wasn''t the time yet, Krune stopped. At regular intervals, he attempted to do the same, keeping watch of the Monster Gecko''s expression. Eventually, when the Monster Gecko no longer looked anxious as he stretched his hand, Krune realized that it was okay to pluck it out now. All he did was just sever the tiny bone branch by poking with his dagger. It seemed that it was already in a delicate state, having to bear the tremendous weight of the massive fruit. So, all it needed was a light touch to break. When the massive fruit fell on the floor, the Monster Gecko stirred up, looking desperate. Krune didn''t say anything and untied it, watching it pounce on the massive fruit immediately. As it was unable to use its hands, all it could do was use its mouth to struggle while eating the fruit. Though, as time passed, it seemed unable to endure eating, looking like it was on the verge of giving up. Upon seeing this, Krune frowned, realizing that it wasn''t as easy as it sounded. After all, no matter how much it tried, the Monster Gecko seemed to have reached its limit. It wasn''t able to eat anymore. Unwilling to leave it as is, Krune soon helped cut the massive fruit into pieces and stuffed the Monster Gecko to the brim with it, watching its body balloon. After all, it had consumed a fruit that was almost as big as itself. If not for the evolutionary property present within the fruit, no creature would be able to survive eating something as big as its own body. Though, it seemed the case wasn''t the same for the Monster Gecko. After all, when he finished stuffing it full, he noticed that it was showing the whites of its eyes already. Moreover, upon a closer inspection, he noticed that its heart was no longer beating. Unable to endure, the Monster Gecko had died. "That''s a loss." Krune scowled, thinking of something as he noticed the bone tree began to wilt. It seemed producing a massive fruit was the limit of a bone tree. So, once it had produced that, it began to lose all vitality. Krune hurriedly made an incision on the Monster Gecko''s tail and tied it to the stem of the bone tree, watching its blood be absorbed into the tree. With that, the bone tree''s wilting slowed down. Unfortunately, it seemed as if it was about to die anyway. Though as he watched the bone tree absorb the Monster Gecko''s blood, Krune noticed something amiss, gazing at the Monster Gecko carcass to see its body gradually shrinking in size. This time, not only was the blood in its body being absorbed, but it seemed that even its flesh wasn''t spared. Krune muttered in confusion, "Is it because it''s wilting this time and is the reason why it''s also absorbing the flesh?" "Then..." He looked with anticipation. "What will the result be?" This was how most experiments went. One might have sought out to obtain something but might obtain something completely different instead. Krune looked at his tablet, noticing that he hadn''t obtained a Godly Point. It was obvious since the Monster Gecko failed to evolve and had died during the first phase itself. And now, the wilting tree began to absorb everything in its body, reducing the rate of its wilting as it began to emit a mild reddish hue. The moment Krune retracted his Neon Radiance, he could see the reddish hue. It was really dim, but in the pitch-black environment, it was obvious. Six hours passed in such a fashion as the Monster Gecko became a withered husk. The moment he touched it, it crumbled into dust, as if everything that made up its body was fully absorbed. Though, the bone tree wasn''t well-off either, wilting as the once twenty-meter tall tree was crumbling at the slightest touch. The moment the branches fell on the floor, they crumbled into powder. Finally, when there was only powder in the cave, Krune dug through it using his bare hands, soon spotting a dim reddish radiance. He continued to dig in such a manner, soon touching something solid, picking it up immediately as he observed it. It was a gem, shinning with a mild reddish hue. It was pretty tiny, only spanning a centimeter in length. But at the very moment he saw it, Krune''s heart thumped with increasing intensity. He was allured by it as his body wished to consume it whole. The moment he held it, Krune realized a certain fact: Eating it would prove to be beneficial to him. Though, he dare not risk it at present, not in this cave where he didn''t have anything to help him. He planned to try it in his cave. At least, if something went amiss, he could gouge out his stomach, swallow a Water Essence and jump into the pool. That way, he was guaranteed to survive. Krune carefully pocketed the reddish gem that he hastily called the Blood Essence Crystal and exited the cave, stopping at the entrance as he sighed. "It isn''t easy obtaining Godly Points." Now that he thought about it, Krune understood the reason the Monster Gecko King made all its able-bodied Monster Geckos fight each other to pick out a winner. It wasn''t just a tournament. It was to determine the Monster Gecko that had evolved the most. The stronger it was, the more it evolved it was. It meant that it had survived for a longer time by eating the fruits daily. That way, its body was more robust. So, the strongest Monster Gecko would be able to handle devouring the massive fruit and remain alive until it finished evolving into a Mutant. It wasn''t as if any Monster Gecko would cut it. So, Krune''s plan was flawed from the start. "I cannot capture those Monster Geckos." He sighed as he thought about it. It wasn''t easy determining their development. After all, unless it was a Mutant or a King, all the Monster Geckos looked more or less the same. Only through a battle would the extent of their development be determined. Krune didn''t have the time to fight with the Monster Geckos to determine that. It would be too risky. That was why all he did was blind them first through his Neon Radiance before finishing them off immediately. He wasn''t able to determine their strength and development in this manner. So, Krune''s plan of farming for Godly Points had wholly failed. Chapter 937: Monster Gecko Traditions Even though his plan had failed, Krune wasn''t disheartened at all, looking at the Blood Essence Crystal in his hands. His heart had been thumping ever since the moment he laid eyes on it. Even though he was a mortal, Krune was still able to judge based on his two centuries of experience in obtaining treasures that the Blood Essence Crystal was beneficial to him. In such a manner, he captured Monster Geckos, dragged them to a cave each, made them consume the massive fruit while dislocating their arm joints, and patiently watched them. Just like his first attempt, not one of them managed to evolve, dying in the process. Without any hesitation, he tied their tails to their respective wilting bone trees after cutting the tip. And as a day passed in such a fashion, Krune sprinted from one cave to another, collecting all the Blood Essence Crystals. At present, he had 10 of them in his hands. He first placed them in his cave and hunted for 10 more Monster Geckos, killing two, sometimes three, every day. He dragged them to the 10 caves once more, placing one in each. In the place covered by bone powder, he planted a new bone tree branch that he had broken out from the forest. And, once he watered them using the blood in the Monster Geckos, the bone tree branch began to grow. Krune observed that even when some blood spilled on the bone powder, there was no reaction from it. It seemed that it had truly lost all life the moment it wilted, becoming no different from dust. Once he finished supplying blood to all the bone tree branches, he let them grow to a normal height first before supplying it with the blood of a live Monster Gecko. Only after that would it begin to grow the massive fruit. He then scouted his surroundings, noticing that the cases of injuries among the Monster Gecko village had increased. They were now in a state of unrest. Similarly, the second village was also alarmed. Krune noticed that even though they were all Monster Geckos, they had mild differences in their appearances. That was why when he hunted from the second village, he always ensured there was a witness of his hunt. This was to instigate a war between the two villages. Only through that would he be able to target their leaders. Otherwise, it wasn''t possible. He had been going about with this plan from the day he decided to target the second village. Laying down the traps was just to further destabilize their mental states. After all, they were monsters and weren''t sentient. So, he planned to make use of their advantages against them, turning them into disadvantages instead. Upon seeing that his surroundings were clear, Krune returned to his cave, picking up a Blood Essence Crystal and the remaining Water Essence. He arrived before the pool, laying down all the tools he had created until now beside it. This way, the moment something turned amiss, he was ready to operate himself and protect his life. Once he was done with all preparations, Krune sat beside the pool and held a Blood Essence Crystal in his hand. Using his Neon Radiance, he looked at it, observing that it was a pristine blood-red crystal, perfectly smooth and almost see-through. He was anxious, making a double-check of his surroundings to see that he had indeed prepared everything at his disposal. "Here goes nothing." He gulped it immediately, feeling difficulty in swallowing it for a moment as he downed some water, flushing the Blood Essence Crystal into his stomach. Within a couple of seconds, a burning sensation emanated from his stomach and permeated throughout his body. Instantly, Krune felt his heart beat faster and faster, as if it wanted to increase the speed of blood flowing through his body. Similarly, to keep up with the higher rate of pumping, his lungs contracted and expanded faster and faster. Krune took deep but rapid breaths, supplying enough oxygen to his heart. He could feel his entire body heat up, brimming with vigor. And, without his control, his Neon Radiance activated, brightening up the entire cave as if it was directly under the sun. The brightness he unleashed was beyond what he was capable of normally. He had surpassed his limits in its emission. Krune could feel the Blood Essence Crystal dissolving in his stomach before eventually flowing through his blood. This way, the immense energy in it flowed through his blood, being used in place of his stamina when Krune activated his passive abilities. He could feel his cells were now drunk with energy, brimming with power. Eventually, he felt bloated, as if his body was about to burst. Without any hesitation, Krune emitted the Neon Radiance from throughout his body at its maximum intensity, one that had already surpassed his maximum during normal times. As he kept up with it, Krune could feel that the bloated feeling no longer increased. Instead, he was still feeling bloated. With that, he ran to the nearby chamber in his cave, picked up the Whale Tooth Sword and began swinging it, intending to tire himself as much as he could. It was like he was on drugs. No matter what he did, he didn''t tire out easily. Though, Krune realized that it was only because of the boost from the Blood Essence Crystal. His body was still becoming physically exhausted. The moment its effects wore off, he would collapse in exhaustion and wouldn''t be able to move for a long time. So, after understanding it, he realized what the Blood Essence Crystal truly was. "It''s a concentrated mass of the energy in our physical body. Or in other words, a condensation of muscular energy." Krune trained for two hours like a maniac when he felt the energy from the Blood Essence Crystal eventually wear off. He immediately ran towards the pool and jumped into it, noticing immense exhaustion set at the moment the effects wore off. The exhaustion was to the extent he almost lost consciousness, feeling unbearable pain all over his body. Thankfully, he jumped into the water, feeling a bit relaxed as he drunk it, gulping it down until he couldn''t drink any more water. The healing property in the water alleviated his strained muscles little by little as Krune fell asleep, only waking up after half a day had passed. He woke up groggily, feeling a splitting headache when he noticed his body was feeling brisk. Krune clenched his hand into a fist, feeling that his strength had increased a tad bit as compared to the day before. The improvement was staggering, something he would need a couple of weeks to obtain. "Just this alone makes this an amazing treasure for mortals." Krune laughed, finding a path that he could proceed upon now to develop himself in this dangerous place. Now, he was no longer afraid of the Monster Geckos. Rather, he saw them as a tonic that would boost his growth. Though, that didn''t mean he planned to go on a massacre. It didn''t conform with his ideals. He only planned to kill based on his needs, no more, no less. It was a simple rule of survival of the fittest. It was what he had been following all his life until now, and that was what he planned to do from here on out as well. Krune soon exited the cave, hunting some Monster Geckos from the second village while in the presence of some witness, driving a wedge between the relations of the two villages. He used them to grow the bone trees, returning to his cave as he consumed another Blood Essence Crystal and trained himself like mad. When he was done, he rested in the pool, healing his body slowly. He determined that he could only consume a Blood Essence Crystal every three days for maximum benefits. Before that, his body would still be damaged, and the effect would drop. Moreover, he would injure himself further and would require even more time to heal. If he delayed beyond three days, then it was simply a waste of time. So, Krune maintained the time correctly, using some of his resting time to hunt the Monster Geckos. The Monster Geckos needed to eat daily. With that, groups of Monster Geckos roamed through the forest daily at regular intervals to harvest the ripened fruits. With such a schedule, this gave Krune a lot of opportunities to hunt them. Moreover, during one of the times when he spied the first village, Krune noticed that when a female Monster Gecko gave birth, it usually laid 6-8 eggs. On top of that, it seemed that the time period for her to lay the eggs was short, only spanning around two months based on his observation. "But if their fertility is that potent, then their population should have exploded massively by now." Thinking as such, Krune passed the foggy layer one day, now being able to see using the sunlight. He noticed that there were indeed a lot of Monster Geckos on the Primary Landmass. It seemed that they had a tradition to follow, the cause for their controlled population. Every month, a large batch of Monster Geckos that had matured would leave the Primary Landmass and head into the ocean above to hunt for fish. The bigger the fish they hunted, the stronger they were, and the greater they were lauded. And that basically determined if they had a chance of becoming a Mutant in the future. But it wasn''t as easy as that. After all, constantly swimming in the ocean surface touching the Primary Landmass''s face were dangerous predator fishes that were massive and dangerous. So, most of the Monster Geckos lost their lives in this way. Though, that also meant that the survivors were praised all the more. At these times, the survivors would drag in massive fishes that they had killed in the waters. Most of the time, they would only eat the fishes a little to celebrate their victories before dropping them whole on the bone trees. After all, eating the fruits on the bone trees was more beneficial to them than eating the fish. Hunting them was just one of the traditions they followed. "So, that''s why their population hasn''t snowballed out of control yet," Krune muttered before descending through the foggy layer, arriving at the bottom of the Primary Landmass, returning to his cave to train. Chapter 938: A Yarn of Thread It had been almost six months since Krune entered the Primary Landmass. Unsurprisingly, he was getting rather comfortable in living in the place. His routine consisted of training in his cave after consuming a Blood Essence Crystal before starting a training session that took around two to three hours. The time varied depending on the intensity of his training. Once that was done, Krune relaxed in the pool, healing all his injuries. For the rest of the day, all he did was satiate his hunger, drink plenty of water, and rest in the pool, healing all his muscle strains. The intense training burned up his body, causing damage. And then, the healing session allowed him to recover completely, making the prior damaged regions heal stronger. It was akin to forging his entire body. For the second day, Krune primarily hunted Monster Geckos, using them to water the bone trees he had been planting in the caves throughout the Primary Landmass. From the initial 10, he had expanded to 30 caves. Once he noticed the beneficial property of the Blood Essence Crystals, Krune was unwilling to leave it alone. After all, it would help him even after leaving the Primary Landmass. It would help him train like mad whenever he wished. Just that alone would make the Godly Points he spent to purchase the ticket to the Primary Landmass more than worth it. As a mortal, increasing his strength was important. Moreover, as he trained himself using the Blood Essence Crystals, his body became more fit, increasing his stamina. Moreover, he realized that the duration for which he could maintain his Neon Radiance had increased over time. It wasn''t just due to his increased control and understanding of the ability. But, the reserve of energy in his body to fuel the passive ability had increased. Before arriving at the Primary Landmass, if he unleashed his Neon Radiance to the maximum, he would be able to sustain it for 20-30 minutes before he would start to feel tired. Now, he could sustain for double the duration before the fatigue would kick in. As he continued to train in the ability, his body was evolving accordingly to better wield it. It made him realize a certain fact, muttering, "Sooner or later, I have to finalize all the passive abilities I would use. That way, I would develop in a set direction. If I keep changing the passive abilities, then my depth of control over their usage wouldn''t be high enough. I wouldn''t be able to exert dominance over others in the contest of resources." His goal was to head to Layer 2 sooner or later. After all, the earlier he went, the more benefits he could obtain. So, he didn''t wish to dilly-dally. With that, the entire second day was spent on hunting Monster Geckos. After hunting them for a while, Krune was able to target them better and better. Moreover, once he expanded his range to the third village, hunting became easier as he got weaker targets to kill. In every hunting session, he killed three Monster Geckos, no more, no less. He kept his routine to schedule every month. In the latter half of the second day, he spent the time crafting tools that would prove useful for his hunts, especially the traps made using the bone tree branches. He also made tools that would help him after he returned to the Checkpoint Turtle and would have to be adrift on the sea once again. On the final day, he hunted three Monster Geckos again. For the latter half of the day, he spent the time tracking the villages while laying down his traps. Krune was someone who was a practitioner of equality. Since the first village was suffering from the traps, he had placed some for the second village as well. And now that he had expanded his range, he began to do the same thing for the third village. The surprising fact was that despite the number of accidents that happened daily, neither the Mutants nor the Kings of the three villages took any action. It seemed that something like this wasn''t of their concern. After all, after the first few days, the Monster Geckos had become somewhat alert, taking action the moment they could feel the pain in their foot intensify. So, the number of deaths thanks to the traps quickly plummeted. Though, that wasn''t Krune''s goal in the first place. With that, he was fine with their decreasing effectiveness. After all, what he wished to achieve the most was to incapacitate as many Monster Geckos as he could so that he could conspire against the Mutants and the Kings. From the day he started his scheme, Krune was indeed trying his best to instigate the Monster Geckos against one another. He was slowly but surely driving a wedge between the different villages, increasing tensions between the different groups. And in such a fashion, his three-day routine continued until he had lived on the Primary Landmass for six months. At present, even after consuming a Blood Essence Crystal every three days, thanks to the increased number of caves, he had saved up a small stockpile. Krune planned to increase it to the maximum by the end of his stay. That way, he could continue to train. Besides, he also determined another use, and that was the boost to his passive abilities. Once he consumed the Blood Essence Crystal, the excess energy circulating in his body amplified his abilities, allowing him to emit more intense light and farther progressive sound waves. This did increase his advantages, allowing him to hunt better. Just to become more accustomed to it, Krune hunted a couple of times after swallowing a Blood Essence Crystal. He soon found out that the beam of Neon Radiance he managed to unleash after that was even more potent on the Monster Geckos, increasing the duration of their blinded states. This way, incapacitating them became even easier. The Blood Essence Crystals could be considered his boosters, an advantage he could capitalize upon whenever he fought against any tough foe. To warrant that, he had to accumulate more. After all, if he continued with his plan, he would eventually have to tackle the Tertiary Landmass, something that would be many times scarier than the Primary Landmass he was at now. Moreover, the criteria of the monsters there were also different, shown to have a Supreme Monster. Among the three levels of the monsters, the first was the Mutant, one that gave him one Godly Point upon being killed. The second was the King, one that would give him one Godly Point and a passive ability upon being killed. And finally, there was the Supreme Monster that awarded one Godly Point and an active ability upon being killed. At present, Krune wasn''t even guaranteed of surviving a battle with a Mutant. If he was careless, he could very well lose his life. Even though his abilities had improved, it wasn''t to the extent he could fight head-on against a Mutant Monster Gecko. Of course, his current strength was not worth mentioning against a Monster Gecko King. As for the Supreme Monster, it was an impossibility. Krune judged that only when he could kill a Monster King by fighting it head-on would he have a chance against the Supreme Monster. Even then, it wasn''t guaranteed. Moreover, in the layer where all abilities were passive, Krune was incredibly allured towards the so-called active ability. So, instead of wasting his time, he continued to train endlessly while scouting for even more caves to use. A week later, he finally obtained his opportunity as Krune spotted a Mutant Monster Gecko exit the second village. It seemed to be looking for something. Judging by its tracks, it was searching for Krune. It seemed his recent actions had spurred enough trouble for one of the second village''s elites to take matters upon its own hands. Moreover, it was accompanied by a team of 10 Monster Geckos scouring through the forest in search of him. The moment his Sonic Radar detected them, the Mutant Monster Gecko was also able to detect his position, immediately charging towards him. Krune turned tail and sprinted from the place immediately. Though, he neither tried to escape towards his cave nor exited the forest to escape their detection. He headed straight towards the first village, making mild detours along the way, knowing based on routine scouting the positions of the teams of Monster Geckos that would be collecting fruits from the bone trees. At the very moment he spotted a couple of such teams, Krune swerved beside them, heading further towards the first village. Since there was a clear difference in the body temperature of Krune and the freezing-blooded Monster Geckos, his chasers came right after him. Though, this worked against them now. Thanks to the strained relations between the two villages, the moment the group from the second village passed by them, the teams of Monster Geckos were shocked. Moreover, upon seeing the Mutant leading the charge from the other village, they assumed that it was a raid, immediately brandishing their fishing rods onto the other party. The moment that this happened, the group led by the Mutant Monster Gecko retaliated, wiping out the small teams. It sparked a war between the two villages immediately. As the news spread through a myriad of shouts, a Mutant exited the first village, accompanied by a similar number of Monster Geckos, immediately speeding towards the group from the second village. The relations between the two villages had become so strained that the moment they spotted each other, they engaged in a bloody fight. Thanks to the intense sounds of the fishing rods of the two Mutant Monster Geckos crashing into the rocks and breaking every bone tree they passed by, the sounds produced by Krune were no longer audible to their senses, allowing him to spy on their fight from a rather comfortable distance. Upon seeing that both the Mutant Monster Geckos were matched in abilities, he smirked, pulling out a yarn of thread that he had collected and coiled into a rope. Chapter 939: Limited Means, Greater Disposal The battle between the two Monster Gecko groups ended up in a stalemate as the Monster Geckos from the first village retreated into the village in fear of an ambush. As they were just monsters without any sentience, despite their superior physical prowess, they only reacted based on external disturbances, behaving accordingly. That''s why they retreated into their village immediately, not even thinking of any other solutions. Besides, their first instinct was to protect the regular populace that was in the village, the non-fighters. Based on what Krune had gathered over the past months, the Monster Geckos had non-combatants among their populace. Moreover, non-combatants made up most of their populace. They were in charge of collecting the fruits, harvesting materials for building constructs in their village, making their tools and weapons, giving birth, and so on. The combatants among their populace made up only a small fraction. It was only this fraction that patrolled their village and usually only did that. Even though every Monster Gecko that had survived had gone into the ocean at least once and hunted a fish, due to their lifestyle, their battling skills had no longer been sharpened. Moreover, it wasn''t as if everyone hunted massive predator fishes. Most just survived the ocean and hunted a relatively easier target that was within their capabilities. Only the ambitious ones targeted the dangerous ones, grabbing their attention until either one of them died. Now that a group fight had erupted, and it seemed like the strained tensions between the villages would result in a war, all the non-combatants retreated into the village as the gates were soon shut. Krune watched the ongoing fight, observing the Monster Geckos die one after another. As they went at each other without any hesitation, every attack removed flesh and drew out blood. Though, until now, both the Mutants were uninjured, dodging the attacks of their foes while attacking. They used their superior agility to dodge and move around. And no matter what happened, it seemed a victor between them wouldn''t be decided that easily, at least unless the surrounding Monster Geckos did something. Nevertheless, the other Monster Geckos were immersed in their fight, moving the battle to a nearby location. Upon seeing their actions, Krune muttered, "The two Mutants are equally matched. The fight would only result in a pyrrhic victory. That would be a waste, too much of a waste of this opportunity." Krune frowned as he heard the sounds of rocks being shattered. Noticing their massive figures, his eyes lit up as he sprinted back to his cave, picking up three Blood Essence Crystals before heading back to the scene of battle. Without hesitation, he threw two of them forward, watching them land on the rocky ground and skip a couple of times before stopping near the two Mutant Monster Geckos. He kept the other one in his hand, intending to swallow it at a moment''s notice, retreating further back as he observed. There was only a moment''s hesitation in the two Mutants that acted based on their instincts, scurrying to the Blood Essence Crystals after sensing the sheer energy in them, fighting between each other as they picked one each. And in their hurry, they swallowed the Blood Essence Crystals and continued their fight. But this time, they possessed explosive vigor. Their attacks were stronger, they were able to move faster, and their momentum was more imposing. But even with that, since their skill levels were similar, they still failed to land an attack on their opponent. Moreover, spurred by the sheer energy gushing into their bodies, they moved at a faster pace, making elaborate leaps as they danced through the area, encroaching upon the territory of the battle between the two Monster Gecko groups. As they missed each other''s bodies when they attacked, the attacks of the two Mutants wounded the Monster Geckos one after another, soon beginning to kill them. And whenever their side lost a member due to the actions of the other party, the Mutant Monster Geckos would increase the flurry of their attacks. Unsurprisingly, this increased the speed at which the Monster Geckos fell. It created a vicious cycle, at the end of which only the two Mutants were alive. During all this commotion, they had noticed Krune''s heat signature, slowly moving towards him as they fought. Upon noticing the third party in the place, they were wary. But despite that, their fury continued to drive them to attack each other. As for Krune, whenever the two Mutants approached him, he backstepped accordingly, moving farther away from the first village as he approached closer and closer to the edge of the forest. Time passed in such a manner with Krune sweating buckets, being extremely vigilant all this time. After all, the moment the two Mutants targeted him, he had to sprint with all his might at a moment''s notice. A delayed reaction at this moment would just cause his death. Just as he had expected, after more than an hour passed, the two Mutants were unnerved by his presence, intending to finish him off first before continuing their fight. As if they had come to a tacit understanding instantly, the two Mutants shot towards Krune. Having been ready for this all along, Krune swallowed the Blood Essence Crystal he had been holding all this time, sprinting instantly as the two Mutants closed in on him. To ensure their hooks wouldn''t pierce him, Krune ran through a curved path, slipping past the bone trees. But within a couple of minutes, the two Mutants were now 10 meters away from him. At this very moment, his back radiated with the Neon Radiance, shining two beams that targeted the Mutants, one beam each. The beam was stronger than his maximum, amplified thanks to the Blood Essence Crystal''s energy. This blinded the two Mutants, causing their heads to spin for a couple of seconds. As all their senses went haywire, their bodies lost balance, crashing into a couple of bone trees along their way before tumbling down to the ground. It took them a few seconds before they regained their senses, getting up before dusting off any pieces of the bone tree on their bodies. They had only sustained mild injuries, nothing to fret about as they had removed anything related to the bone trees. In this period, Krune had increased the distance between them considerably. The two Mutants looked at one another, communicating something as they chased after Krune, taking a wider path as they intended to encircle him. Krune wasn''t flustered, despite his opponents closing in on him. The moment they arrived closer, he unleashed Neon Radiance on them, causing them to stumble once again. But this time, they weren''t caught off guard, quickly getting up before giving chase. Krune was pressured, having to use his abilities to the limit in order to stay alive. Using the Sonic Radar, he scouted the route, the terrain, and the position of the two Mutants that chased after him. Using the Neon Radiance, he kept them at bay whenever they approached closer. Even though the Mutants had to rely on their eye while using their thermal sense, they were somehow able to time themselves accordingly whenever they closed in on Krune, closing their eyes on time to negate most of the damage from his Neon Radiance. This way, they continued to close in on Krune, looking like they would trap him soon after. But, the moment they had such a thought, a beam of light landed on their faces again. They swiftly closed their eyes, barely managing to prevent themselves from stumbling as they waited for a second before opening their eyes. After all, the beams only lasted for a short second before vanishing. And, as they had thought as such, due to their habit of facing the same attack numerous times till now, they were fooled to believe that information. With that, when their eyes shot open, the beam of light was still going strong, blinding them once again, causing them a headache. Their heads spun as they tumbled down to the ground, taking a couple of seconds to gather their bearings. In the meantime, Krune headed to a cave far away, something he had scouted and marked for use in such cases. It was a narrow cave, only wide enough for him to pass through. Moreover, it had a small curve in its path, preventing anyone at the entrance from being able to see the end. There were quite a few of these caves. It was the reason he was running towards one of them in the first place. Thanks to the Sonic Radar, Krune was always a couple of steps forward in his plans. Soon, by the time the two Mutants got up and gave chase, he slid into the cave, side-stepping his way as he quickly proceeded into it. Upon seeing that he was trying to escape, both the Mutants brandished their fishing rods, sending the hooks flying into the cave path. Krune managed to move towards the end right at this moment, watching the two hooks hit the wall behind him. As they were too sharp, they just lodged into the rock. If they had blunt edges, they would have bounced off the walls and hit him due to the cave''s curvature. His heart thumped, enough for the sound to resound loudly in his ears as Krune watched the hooks being recalled. Thanks to the proximity, even the sounds from his ragged breathing were enough for him to sense their positions. Through their thermal sight, they noticed that he was right next to their reach, unwilling to let their prey slip away. So, they began to try all sorts of methods in order to fish him out, trying any means to kill him. But as they couldn''t trust one another, they had their guard up. Moreover, they didn''t have anyone to use and send a message to their respective villages to ask for reinforcements. The gap in the cave was something a regular Monster Gecko was barely able to crawl into. The Mutants didn''t have too many methods to use or think of. They mostly relied on their fishing rods to reach Krune or, at times, threw rocks into the cave to hit him. In such cases, having observed their throwing posture, he was able to determine the approximate place the stone would bounce off the walls and approach him, evading it accordingly. As time passed in such a fashion, the two Mutants suddenly felt intense exhaustion. Unsurprisingly, this exhaustion hit them all of a sudden, causing them to lose their balance. Naturally, right at this moment, blinding radiance was reflected on the cave walls and slammed right into them, knocking them unconscious instantly. Ten seconds later, Krune exited the cave, letting out a sigh of relief as he pulled out his rope, setting out to work with an excited expression. Chapter 940: Going Overboard? "Laaa¡­la¡­laaaaa...they fought, they sought, and now they got caught." Krune hummed a rhymeless tune, whistling as he dragged two bodies, each of which was twice his size. Currently, they were bound like a cocoon, unable to budge an inch. To prevent them from trying anything sneaky, Krune used his body weight to dislocate their arms, barely managing to do so. That way, they wouldn''t be able to escape. He used a roundabout path, traversing along the foothills of the mountain range, dragging the two Mutant Monster Geckos towards one of the caves he had found recently. It was a relatively large cave, one that he had been using for a couple of days so far. All he had done was give the blood of a Monster Gecko carcass to the bone tree branch inside. After pulling for an hour, he finally arrived at the cave, walking within to notice that the bone tree had grown to the standard height. As he hadn''t fed it the blood of a living Monster Gecko yet, it hadn''t exploded in growth to reach twenty meters in height. It was only 3 meters tall currently. Even though he had bound them completely, Krune hadn''t relaxed at all. Instead, he moved as if he was pressed for time. After all, the moment the effects of the Blood Essence Crystal wore off, he would be incapacitated for a while. Without the pool of water, his body would be in an injured state. The longer he delayed the treatment, the greater his injuries would be. So, the moment he dragged in the two Mutant Monster Geckos, Krune set one aside while making a small cut on the tail of the second, bringing it closer to the stem of the bone tree to make contact. He swiftly used the remainder of his rope to bind them together, watching the body of the Mutant Monster Gecko shrink at a visible rate. He double-tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet as he stared at it with expectation. He wanted to see if killing the Mutant Monster Gecko in this manner would award him a Godly Point. He wanted to condense a Blood Essence Crystal using the Mutants. Seeing how a normal Monster Gecko was able to produce a Blood Essence Crystal, Krune was hoping to see the potency of one produced by a Mutant, hoping it would be useful when he faced the Supreme Monster one day. Moreover, he wasn''t limiting himself to a Mutant. Since the ones before him were already Mutants, Krune was planning to use the fruit grown from a live Mutant''s blood to feed the other Mutant, curious to see the extent of its growth. Whether it failed or succeeded in its evolution, he was planning to feed it alive to the wilting bone tree. This way, he was hoping to see the Blood Essence Crystal that he would obtain. If it succeeded, he wondered if its passive ability would be condensed into the Blood Essence Crystal. After he thought about it, the passive abilities he obtained were part of the creature''s trait. Since he only obtained them by absorbing their blood, Krune wondered if he could do the same through the Blood Essence Crystal. Even though this was an expensive experiment, he was willing to see it to the end. If it evolved into a King, his plan would be a success. Besides, now that he had a reserve of Blood Essence Crystals, Krune had enough incentive to target the Mutant Monster Geckos. He still had zero confidence in facing them alone, but it wasn''t as if he needed to fight them head-on to kill them. Krune planned to use his superior wit and intelligence to kill them. At the end of the day, killing them awarded him Godly Points. So, he wasn''t willing to risk his life. The first time he did that, one side of his body had been destroyed. If not for the Water Essence, Krune wouldn''t have survived. Thirty minutes later, there was a small change in his tablet, causing Krune to beam in happiness. He was awarded a Godly Point for killing the Mutant. As for the Mutant before him, it shriveled up after losing all its blood, dying in the process. Krune gazed at the other Mutant Monster Gecko that was bound, inspecting it for a moment to see that it had no hope of escaping the bindings, immediately sprinting out of the cave as it headed towards his cave. He was running out of time, noticing the energy unleashed by the Blood Essence Crystal he had consumed begin to wane. He was short on time, but he still had to be careful so that his dwelling location wouldn''t be disclosed to the Monster Gecko village. Thankfully, in preparation for the war, they had closed their gates. So, there wasn''t a chance there would be any Monster Geckos roaming this far out of their village. Soon, Krune reached his cave''s entrance, climbing into it as he slid through the narrow path, almost losing consciousness as the effects of the Blood Essence Crystal wore off. The intense exhaustion that came after caused him to tumble, making him scream in pain. After all, he had consumed a Blood Essence Crystal two days ago. He was only supposed to consume it the next day. Though, since he was unwilling to miss the opportunity of getting the Mutant Monster Geckos, he had consumed one in advance. Now, the side effects impacted him harder than before, causing him to scream in pain as he dragged himself through the cave path, crawling closer and closer to the pool. His heart thumped loudly as if his blood vessels were about to rupture from the strain. His body began to burn, preventing him from seeing clearly. It was unknown how he was able to maintain consciousness until he plopped into the pool. Thankfully for him, it didn''t have enough depth to drown him. So, even though he fell haphazardly into it, his impact caused the water to form waves that eventually aligned him correctly, making his head peek out of the water. His mouth opened unconsciously as the water streamed in, healing his body. He only woke up a day later, feeling pain all over his body as he felt weak. After staying in the water for some more time, Krune got up slowly and exited the pool, walking a bit before figuring out that his condition was less than optimal. He needed to rest for at least a week before he could heal completely. Even then, Krune exited the cave and dragged himself, walking slowly alongside the mountain range, eventually arriving at the cave with the Mutant Monster Gecko, noticing that it was still bound in the same position as before. He approached it and inspected its condition, noticing that it was in a similar state to himself. It, too, was reeling from the after-effects of consuming a Blood Essence Crystal. Though, considering its robust body, it was bound to heal within a week. Then again, that was only in the case it ate something. Krune didn''t have any plans to do that, intending to keep it weak for the time being. Otherwise, it was bound to escape one way or another. Without being fed, it wouldn''t have enough energy to heal itself. As for the bone tree, it had already reached eight meters in height. Considering its growth speed, it seemed like it would grow even bigger than the other bone trees. Thankfully for him, the cave he had selected was high enough for that, being situated in a crack in the mountain range. The cave reached a height of 60 meters, more than enough for him. This was why Krune chose this particular cave. Thanks to his scouting, he had memoried a lot of places, knowing the terrain clearly. As he didn''t have anything else to do, memorizing the layout of the place became his favorite pastime. That was why he did it every three days. During the week he recovered from the damage, Krune visited the cave daily, looking at the growth of the bone tree and inspected the Mutant Monster Gecko''s condition. It had become a tad weaker due to hunger and wasn''t able to garner enough strength to heal itself. So even after a week had passed, it was still reeling from the after-effects of the Blood Essence crystal. After three more days had passed, Krune carefully fed it a fruit taken from a normal bone tree. He didn''t wish to see it die from hunger. It seemed the Mutant Monster Gecko needed to eat at least two fruits per day to satiate its hunger. As for Krune, he only provided it one every day, watching its physique grow thinner day by day. After another week passed in such a fashion, he began to feed it two fruits per day. This way, it wouldn''t grow any weaker. In any case, it would need at least another month to recover to its peak. Before that happened, it was susceptible to him. To keep an eye on it, Krune spent most of his free time in the cave with it, observing its recovery. From time to time, he checked its shoulders to see that they were still in a dislocated state, only relaxing after that. Krune still maintained his activities, training in his cave once every three days. In the remaining time, he stayed in the cave with the Mutant Monster Gecko. But, even after a month had passed, the fruit growing on the bone tree hadn''t ripened. As for its size, it had reached a height of 40 meters, double the bone trees that grew the massive fruit. As for the fruit it nurtured, it was colossal, reaching twice the size of Krune''s body. "This would definitely yield a King Monster Gecko," Krune smirked as he glanced at the Mutant Monster Gecko on the floor. After tying two ropes on the thin branch connected to the colossal fruit, Krune carefully descended from the bone tree. Of the two ropes, one was to sever the branch. The other was wound from over one of the large branches, using it as a lever so that he could lower the fruit slowly when it ripened. Krune waited in patience as he continued in his training. As for the situation in the Monster Gecko villages, the scene seemed to have caused a state of unrest in all the five villages due to the prior clash between the first two villages. Conflicts happened every day, but it hadn''t escalated to their elites yet. The only fight among the elites was between the two Mutant Monster Geckos at the start. After they had lost the two elites, the first two villages didn''t go overboard. Only the regular Monster Geckos fought on a daily basis while strolling through the forest in search of ripened fruits. After all, for some strange reason, the number of fruits had dwindled sharply, causing a wave of hunger throughout the Monster Gecko populace. Unexpectedly, this further caused the Monster Geckos to fight more, using the blood of their enemies to water the bone trees and grow more fruits. Of course, this action further incited hatred between the different villages. As for Krune, he instigated them whenever presented with an opportunity while waiting for the colossal fruit to mature. Over time, he had lost all the hesitation he had harbored in him about causing an unneeded loss of life. After all, mortals had a different mindset compared to cultivators, even if they were the same individual. Chapter 941: Krune’s Preparations to Retain Mental Sanity Krune had already gone slightly insane while he was adrift on the ocean. After all, a mortal''s mind was susceptible to environmental conditions. Though, after he arrived at the Primary Landmass, the sense of land underneath his feet healed his mental state a little. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, he was alone, mingling among corpses and monsters for his living. Growing stronger had become his only goal, his only drive. If his stay in the Primary Landmass didn''t have any deadline, Krune''s approach to the situation would have been way different. Over time, he would have lost the very notion of getting stronger. After all, over time, he would have completely gotten accustomed to the place. Considering his superior intelligence, there was no chance he would ever fall prey to the Monster Geckos. So, there was a good chance he would become lazy once he had turned his cave into a more comfortable dwelling. After all, without any other humans, his emotional state would become numb. At present, Krune had long stopped feeling any sentiments to the notion of killing the Monster Geckos. After all, he had been eating them for three meals daily. To him, it was similar to how humans consumed chicken. By consuming it repeatedly without any hesitation, most humans had glossed over the fact that chickens were also living beings but began to consider them as just food, a delicacy. At present, Krune was thinking the same. Even though he didn''t consider the Monster Geckos a delicacy, they were his only source of nourishment. At the start, he did consider making some tools to cook them. Though, after living in solace, he had become disappointed, unable to use his cooking skills properly. After all, there wasn''t even a way to start a fire in the place. Krune hadn''t come across any rocks that were able to cause a spark. On top of that, he didn''t have any fuel to burn. The bone trees weren''t made from wood or a flammable substance. Not to mention the fact that there were neither any spices nor any minerals that could act as seasoning. Ultimately, since he was alone, over time, Krune lost all interest. At least, cooking for someone else might have invigorated his inner chef. As he didn''t have enough time to make any elaborate dishes, all Krune did was eat the flesh as is. He did cut them up into neat slices, though, so that he could eat them better. But that was all. After all, he had many things to do in his time when there was land under his feet. Among those things, storing enough food took priority. After all, while adrift on the ocean, he had no guarantee of coming across enough fish to satiate his daily needs. As long as the meat remained in contact with water, it wouldn''t spoil. As long as he packed it perfectly, the smell of the meat wouldn''t radiate outward. So, that was one such tool he was making. As for the second, it was a boat. Even though he already had a boat''s base ready, Krune wasn''t sure if it still remained on the Checkpoint Turtle. Even if it remained, if someone else had come across it, they would have definitely stolen it. After all, no one would say no to something that would keep them adrift. Plus, materials with as much buoyancy as the Neon Radiance fishes were rare. So, they were great materials in the ocean environment. If they weren''t stolen by the time he returned, it would only mean no one managed to reach the respective Checkpoint Turtle. After all, based on what that octopus had said, there were many numerous Checkpoint Turtles in Layer 3. So, Krune had been working on a boat big enough to last him while on the sea. Moreover, he wasn''t working on a normal boat but was making one while using the bone trees. Through his experiments, Krune determined that a bone tree fragment was able to grow into a bone tree. But as a whole, a bone tree only reached a height of three meters on average. With that, he was making a layered structure. The outer surfaces were made using the bones of the Monster Geckos he had hunted, while the inner surface was made using the bone trees. With that, Krune was making an elaborate structure so that he could live comfortably with enough room while on the ocean. Besides, he planned to take complete advantage of the place, which was the differing gravitational fields 1.5 meters above the ocean surface. So, as long as he created a cylindrical structure with a height of three meters, he would basically obtain a boat that would never sink. After all, it would be pulled on both sides. As a boat naturally wouldn''t sink, this extra step would make it perfectly steady even when it moved due to the ocean currents. That alone would make his life wonderful, allowing him to train while on the move. Moreover, as long as he had enough blood, he could snap a branch from the bone tree and grow it into a tree, expanding the size of the boat while he was at it. Even though he didn''t have such plans, at least, when he had such an intention, he could do it readily. Moreover, Krune had a lot of the Monster Gecko skin that he had hunted over the months. He was using this to form a flooring on the boat, giving a leather finish in its interior. This way, he would have comfort while being able to train. He had been planning some rooms to add as well while he was at it. In the chamber where he had been sleeping was now the construct that he had been working on for almost six months. In the first two months, he had been creating some tools that he could later use, other than the traps. After all, everything he was doing was to not go insane. Krune knew for a fact that if he didn''t have anything to think about during this time, he would literally go insane. So, he busied himself, resting when necessary and working for the rest of the time. This way, he kept his mental erosion in check. As long as he was busy, he would remain sane. But even then, once he began to consider the Monster Geckos as just food, Krune stopped caring about their life and death. That was why his schemes became crueler as time passed. And now, if any Monster Gecko saw what he was about to do, they would lose their minds. After all, having grown before him was a bone tree that spanned 40 meters in height. And what ripened on it was a fruit that was twice his height. Similar fruits were hanging all over the bone tree. But, a single glance at the Mutated Monster Gecko was enough for him to determine the real deal among them. The rest of the fruits were just fakes of similar size and without any real substance. They weren''t even worth a normal bone tree fruit. Having been observing it for the past two months, Krune was able to guess its emotions by now. As he noticed the unabated excitement in its eyes, Krune realized that the colossal fruit had ripened at this moment. He grabbed hold of the two ropes, clutching the second one with greater strength as he tugged the first one. The moment he tugged it, the thin branch holding the colossal fruit snapped, causing the colossal fruit to fall. If it fell from such a height, it would just shatter into mush. That was why he had tied it with the second rope. As the colossal fruit fell, its weight pulled the second rope that was hung over another branch, used as a pulley. Holding on the other end was Krune, immediately pulling into the air as the colossal fruit fell. Krune had jumped accordingly, making his body move up. The pull from the second rope then continued to pull him up as the weight of the colossal fruit was almost the same as him. Even though it was twice his size, their weights were similar. The colossal fruit wasn''t as dense as its size implied. This worked in favor of Krune, whose body moved up. He used his legs to walk over the stem of the bone tree, controlling the speed at which he moved up, applying more and more pressure as the fruit moved downward. Eventually, he used the tension and weight differences to make the colossal fruit stop a meter above the ground, slowly making it land. Krune then leaped from one branch to another, landing on the ground soon after. Over the past two months, as the bone tree grew, he had been practicing climbing it. After all, time was of the purest essence now. He couldn''t waste it by climbing down slowly. Krune noticed that the bone tree hadn''t shown any signs of wilting yet. After all, it was robust and was massive. Even the twenty-meter-tall bone tree took almost half a day to completely wilt. And, this seemed to take even longer. It was exactly what he desired. Krune used his Whale Tooth Dagger to cut the Mutant Monster Gecko''s bindings, kicking its shoulder joints to set its arms back in place. Though, he didn''t set them up perfectly. The Mutant Monster Gecko was still able to move its hands, but it couldn''t use them to fight. To the current Krune, it wouldn''t pose as much threat as compared to a normal Mutant Monster Gecko. Moreover, over the past two months, his vicious practices had almost tamed the Mutant Monster Gecko. After all, the moment it was able to get up, it whimpered, bowing a little while facing Krune. There was a limit to the duration a mortal''s mind could remain steady. Even the two-century-old monster Krune had succumbed to his mortal state of mind, not to mention a mere monster with lacking intelligence. Moreover, its opponent was Krune, a monster that had lived past two centuries. So, it lost the battle of wits, becoming subservient to Krune. "It''s all yours. Become a King now!" Krune kicked its ass, watching it pounce on the colossal fruit immediately. Among the two Mutant Monster Geckos, the current one seemed to have been older. Physique-wise, it was a tad superior. That''s why he had chosen it. Sometimes, even the subtle differences meant a lot. Also, since he had seen the two fight, he could determine the extent of their development. With that, Krune then watched the Mutant Monster Gecko devour the colossal fruit in a frenzy. Chapter 942: And Voila The Mutant Monster Gecko continued to devour the colossal fruit as its stomach gradually bulged out. Soon, its stomach had expanded to the extent that it looked like it was pregnant. Surprisingly, it had only eaten half of the colossal fruit so far. The Mutant Monster Gecko was struggling, pausing for a couple of minutes as it regained its bearings, shooting a glance at Krune to ask for his help. "Fine," Krune said as he held the end of the colossal fruit, propping it up as the Mutant Monster Gecko laid flat on the floor, facing up as it held the eaten side of the colossal fruit. It then bit on the fruit using its jaws before swallowing chunks of it. In this pose, its body felt the least muscular strain, now able to eat some more. As it continued to eat, its thighs had also begun to bulge, its arms being in the same situation not long after. Its body was rapidly digesting the fruit, sending the excess substance to the limbs first to allow more space within the stomach. This way, as it continued to eat, its body ballooned, turning more and more into a ball. Even though it struggled, the Mutant Monster Gecko had lived for a long time, able to pace itself correctly. It was unlike the regular Monster Geckos that were unable to control their greed, eating the massive fruits that their bodies were unable to handle, losing their lives in the process. Though, despite its careful proceedings, it seemed that even the Mutant Monster Gecko had reached its limit. It wasn''t easy to become a King. Otherwise, there would have been more of them on the massive piece of land. After all, the Primary Landmass had a radius of 5 kilometers. So, it was more than enough space for the current population of the Monster Geckos to double and still live comfortably. Becoming the King was akin to reaching the peak of their race, so it was a long bridge to tread on. Even a Mutant Monster Gecko had to be alive for years, if not decades, before it became a King. And considering the conflicts that happened, there was a good chance it would die before achieving that. And now, as the Mutant Monster Gecko was trying to bridge that gap in one sitting, it was struggling. Its body was failing, unable to handle the sheer mass and energy contained in the colossal fruit. "Damn it! No, no, no!" Krune shouted when he saw the Mutant Monster Gecko show the whites in its eyes, a sign that it was beginning to lose consciousness. There was still a small piece of the colossal fruit left in his hand. The fact that it was losing consciousness at this point meant that it was about to fail its evolution. "Damn it! Two months, I spent two goddamn months on you. Get up, damn it! Get the fuck up!" Krune was just about to kick it in anger when he stopped. His mind whirred in thought as he weighed the pros and cons, thinking of what he had set out to do. "When this Mutant Monster Gecko dies, I would have obtained three Godly Points from this Primary Landmass. If I obtain five, I''ll be able to go to another Primary Landmass. I''m sure the octopus wouldn''t allow me to visit this same place again." He frowned, deep in thought as he continued to think out loud, "With five Godly Points, I''ll be able to hunt in another Primary Landmass. If I do well there, I''ll be able to harvest 15 Godly Points. Then again, I don''t think I''ll get such an opportunity there. On top of that, this opportunity is only because I figured out a use for the bone trees. Well, that only happened through chance when I tied up a living Monster Gecko and made a bone tree absorb its blood." He thought further, recalling the details of his passive abilities. "After killing certain creatures, I''ll absorb their blood and gain their most prime ability as a passive. Considering the abilities possessed by the Monster Geckos, I''ll probably gain abilities like frozen blood, wall-crawling, thermal eyes, or something similar." "To get them, I need to absorb the blood of Monster Gecko Kings. Based on what I witnessed, as long as I remain in contact with its blood while killing it, its blood would flow into me...or at least the essence in its blood will. And I will get its ability as a passive ability. A bone tree absorbs all the blood. And¡­a Blood Essence Crystal¡­" "One of the abilities it possesses¡­in its blood¡­as essence¡­probably the most dominant¡­" Krune muttered, gazing at the Mutant Monster Gecko that had shown the whites of its eyes. His eyes lit up as he seemed to have obtained enlightenment, taking out the Water Essence as he inhaled a deep breath. "If my conjecture fails, then I''ll be damned. Though, it seems likely that this would be possible." Thinking as such, Krune diced the remainder of the colossal fruit into pieces with his Whale Tooth Dagger, slapped the jaw of the Mutant Monster Gecko until it partially regained its senses and stuffed the remaining piece in its mouth, almost making it choke. "Swallow it. You''ll live immediately. I can guarantee that. And, you''ll become a King if you do that. A King! King! King!" His shouts hypnotized it, causing it to struggle with every ounce of strength it possessed, barely managing to swallow the final portions of the colossal fruit. Though, it seemed to have exceeded its limits by doing that, looking like it was about to die within a couple of seconds. Having braced himself, Krune stuffed the Water Essence in its mouth, hitting its jaws until the Water Essence barely managed to slip into its throat. If Krune looked into its mouth, he would still be able to see the end of the Water Essence. After all, until the tip of its throat, the fruit pulp it swallowed had accumulated. But then, at the very moment, the Water Essence touched it, it began to melt, seeping the healing properties in it through the chunks of fruit pulp. Surprisingly, this did allow the Mutant Monster Gecko to live, albeit barely. It was constantly on the verge of death, looking like it would die the moment the effects of the Water Essence disappeared. Unfortunately for the gecko, it was in a constant state of pain, having to endure the pain that was tearing its body apart. Its body was also burning up thanks to the evolution as the sounds of its thumping heart resounded in the cave, becoming louder and louder. "Is this what happens when a King is being birthed?" Krune muttered with curiosity as he staggered a couple of steps back, sensing a fearsome presence churn within the Mutant Monster Gecko. He could notice a faint change in its demeanor as it was happening, even though it was in a lot of pain. ''The moment it finishes evolving, its body would be completely healed. Thanks to the boost from the Water Essence, there''s a good chance it would become stronger than the other five Monster Gecko Kings. Even though the presence of each King is vast, the one before me already has that at the start,'' Krune thought, realizing that he was birthing an incredibly fearsome monster. The moment it finishes evolving, it would be stronger than the rest. Only now did Krune realize a certain something. Even though Monster Gecko Kings were immensely powerful, as if they had reached the peak of their race, it seemed that it wasn''t the truth. Rather, they were just below the cusp of their race, hindered due to some natural barrier, either biologically or because they had grown by eating the fruits from the bone trees. But right now, the Water Essence seemed to be cleansing the Mutant Monster Gecko''s body while healing it. While doing so, its essence seeped into the pulp of the colossal fruit, subtly changing it. Only now did Krune think of another point that he had thought of before in passing. The bone trees needed blood to nurture fruits. Then again, there couldn''t be that much blood in the ocean near it. After all, when Krune had drunk the ocean water, there wasn''t even a tinge of blood in it. Even if it was, the trace should have been negligible. So, it wasn''t possible for there to be enough blood that seeped into the island through the water and was later absorbed by the bone trees for the number of fruits it nurtured. So, there was a chance the bone trees didn''t survive from blood alone. Rather, they also absorbed the ocean water that seeped through the landmass. As Krune''s cave had a pool that was a result of seeping water, the bone trees were probably using something similar that their roots could reach. So, because of that, they were able to bear fruit by absorbing the essence in the ocean water. On the other hand, the Water Essence, a concentrated product of that, had taken a year to create using a mysterious method. So, the Water Essence increased the quality of the colossal fruit while healing the Mutant Monster Gecko, giving it that final push to reach the absolute peak of its race. A day later, its body had reached 6 meters in height, turning into a colossal Monster Gecko. It could very well be called a Monster Gecko Emperor, one that would lord over the five Monster Gecko Kings. Within a day, thanks to the boost given by the Water Essence, it had managed to finish evolving. On top of that, the effect of the Water Essence hadn''t finished yet, still circulating through its body, revitalizing it. Feeling unsurpassable power coursing through its body, the Monster Gecko Emperor intended to roar to announce its appearance when it noticed that it wasn''t able to open its mouth. Moreover, its body also seemed immobile, unable to move. Right at this moment, it saw through the corner of its eyes a pair of feet that were covered by Monster Gecko skin. It was the very same one that had tortured it for a month. And now, its enhanced self felt its pride was hurt to have submitted to something as weak as Krune. Then again, it was unable to move its body, so it struggled. Though, it stopped when it heard a derisive sneer that accompanied a hum. "A boulder on your two legs, a boulder on your two hands, a boulder on your back, a boulder on your head, and everything nailed into the ground by the bones of your kin. You get¡­this!" Krune smiled, watching the boulder cage that he had used to completely immobilize it, leaving it no way out to even wriggle itself. After that, he tugged the end of its tail, most of which had been immobilized by another boulder, making a tiny cut on its end before touching the wilting bone tree and saying, "And...voila!" Chapter 943: You Died In the two months that the Mutant Monster Gecko was bound, Krune was creating a cage that would trap it after it finished evolving. It was a simple setup, but thanks to his ingenuity, Krune managed to install a locking mechanism that would constrict the Mutant Monster Gecko after it finished evolving. Then again, if he had placed it while it was evolving, its bulging body might burst. So, the cage had to be kept during the final moments of its evolution. Plus, it had to be fast and perfectly functional. Otherwise, he would lose his life. Not only that, but it should have enough weight to fully immobilize the Mutant Monster Gecko that would have evolved to a King. And well, that was precisely what he had used now. Even though the Mutant Monster Gecko had surpassed his expectations and became a Monster Gecko Emperor, his cage was still barely enough to hold it in place. Then again, he didn''t have a guarantee of locking it for long. Upon knowing that the Water Essence was still circulating in its body, Krune knew that he couldn''t delay. After all, knowing that it would heal, the Monster Gecko Emperor might struggle without caring about the damage it accrued. This way, it would be able to escape the bindings. And once that happened, Krune was as good as dead. Or worse, once it got used to its enhanced strength, it would be able to break free from the cage naturally. Krune could clearly feel that its explosive power was at least one and a half times greater than a Monster Gecko King''s. So, his cage definitely wasn''t enough to hold it down. After all, even though it was like a weight press made using many boulders, the anchors were still bones of the Monster Geckos. On top of that, they weren''t strong enough to contain something that stood at the absolute peak of their race. So, Krune hummed a tune, attacking the Monster Gecko Emperor''s mind first, acting in the time it took to process what he had said. During the time it was processing the damage to its pride and whatnot, Krune cut the tip of its tail and attached it to the wilting bone tree. From its initial height of 40 meters, it had wilted to twenty meters. Nevertheless, it retained a considerable amount of toughness, a reason its branches hadn''t fallen and crumbled into dust yet. To ensure the blood-draining process continued without stopping, Krune tied its tail to the stem. He had already made the knots on the bone tree''s stem beforehand, making all the preparations perfectly. So, he wasn''t in any hurry, executing his actions efficiently. The Monster Gecko Emperor''s eyes widened in shock as it could feel its strength abating. Its blood was being sucked out, causing it to struggle in an effort to break free. Every time it struggled, the boulders on its back trembled, moving up and down accordingly. As time passed, the vibrations were continuing to increase as the bones lodged into the ground began to crack, seemingly on the verge of breaking. At this moment, Krune kneeled on the ground, making eye contact with the Monster Gecko Emperor, causing it to look at him in shock while struggling. Considering the fact that he wasn''t in the least flustered, its violent actions slowed down a bit. Then, Krune flashed a smile as he spoke slowly, "Do you know the promise I made with you?" For a moment, the Monster Gecko Emperor was confused. Even though it couldn''t understand the language Krune spoke, it was able to understand the emotions he wished to convey through the undulations of his voice. Due to the two months of¡­training, it was able to understand bits and pieces of his intentions. And, as if he wished to give it the absolute best, Krune spoke with deep care, "I promised to make you a King, but you were unable to endure the pain. Remember when you fainted. I had to use an absolute treasure of mine after that." He stared into its eyes, speaking with clear conviction, "And, this absolute treasure not only allowed you to live but also managed to break your shackles and resulted in you in becoming¡­" "An absolute being." Hearing his solemn voice, the Monster Gecko Emperor for a moment felt pride in itself. Though, it quickly broke free out of its trance as its growing ego didn''t like their current eye level, wishing to be the one that stared from the top. Once it struggled to break free once more, it noticed in shock that it wasn''t able to push the boulders as much as before. It eventually realized that with every passing second, its strength continued to wane. "Yep, I was buying time. And now..." Krune smiled, waving his hands before it. "It''s already too late for you. See, you''re already dead." "You died!" "You''re dead!" "You died long ago!" "You''re a corpse now!" Krune continued to speak in the same manner, affecting its mental state as it was able to grasp his intent, psychologically weakening the strength it could exert in its struggles. It wasn''t actually as weak as he made it out to be. It still had enough strength to eventually break free from the cage. But, Krune didn''t wish to see that, attacking it mentally. That was why he spent a lot of time with it in the past two months. Without it realizing the intent, he was making its mind weak. This was so that even when it became a King, it would still be susceptible to his words. Though, if Krune tried it a day later, it wouldn''t work. After all, the Monster Gecko Emperor would have fully stabilized its mind from the ego of its powerful self, etching the fact in its mind that it now stood above everyone else. But now, it was still affected by his words. Even though the bones of the cage continued to crack, its struggles became weaker and weaker. Time passed in such a manner as its body continued to shrivel up, eventually turning into a piece of skin. And soon, when Krune exhaled, even the skin vanished, the remainder turned into dust. Everything of substance in the Monster Gecko Emperor had been absorbed into the wilting bone tree. A Monster Gecko Emperor, the most powerful being the Monster Gecko race had ever produced. It died the fastest, only living for a couple of hours. If it had been set free, the Monster Gecko race would have become significantly powerful and would easily be able to expand into the ocean waters without much effort. After all, not many would be able to match the Monster Gecko Emperor in sheer power. Even the whale-like creature Krune fought wasn''t a fighter type, despite the sheer presence it exuded. It was a type that only preyed on weaker fishes en masse. Based on this presence alone, the Monster Gecko Emperor was on the same level as the whale-like creature, the biggest creature he had seen apart from the Checkpoint Turtle. Moreover, the Monster Gecko Emperor was a mobile creature that was born to attack and slaughter. So, Krune dared not imagine the changes the Monster Gecko race would experience if it had been set free. Though, it didn''t matter now since it had died. Krune looked at the wilting bone tree with anticipation, watching it shrink little by little. He just munched on a small reserve of meat he had packed for this, intending to have enough energy for whatever he had to do next. Another day passed by as the bone tree finished wilting. There was a large mound of bone powder before him. Though, Krune didn''t even have to dig as something from within floated up, hovering in the air. He hurriedly dug through the bone powder, noticing that there wasn''t anything else buried within it, finally gazing at the object that hovered before him, mesmerized, "Beautiful." It was a sparkling blue gem the size of his nail. On it was exactly five crimson strips. It was radiating a mixture of blue and crimson light, almost blinding him in the dark cave. Moreover, waves of energy pulsed out from it, causing him to suffocate every time this happened. Krune double tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet to notice that he had received another Godly Point in the process. He then retracted it as he gazed at the gem before him, wondering what he had to do with it. Though, he approached it closer, eventually sniffing to smell a similar scent to the Water Essence and the Blood Essence Crystal. As he had been with them all along, Krune was familiar with their scents. And now, the gem was emitting a mixture of the two scents. Krune carefully touched it, feeling that it was warm to the touch. He pocketed it, checked the cave to see if he had left anything behind before sprinting back to his cave, hurrying along the way as he was careful to not alert any Monster Geckos. Nevertheless, excitement covered his face, his gait, and his very body language. Absolute treasure! Krune was almost certain of this fact. It was what he had pondered about a lot. And considering his life experience, Krune knew for a certainty of the gem''s wonder. At the very moment he returned to his cave, he headed straight towards the pool, jumping into it immediately as he held the gem in his hands. "This is what I''ve been hoping for all this time." Taking in a deep breath, Krune mentally prepared himself, swallowing the gem. For almost a minute, he didn''t feel anything, barely able to feel the gem reach his stomach. As if his thoughts had arrived too soon, intense pain emanated from his body, knocking him out unconscious instantly. Krune plopped into the pool, touching his bottom as his body turned hot, causing the water to vaporize while something from within was absorbed into his body. Even though he was within the water, he didn''t drown. After all, his nose was still able to breathe normally. Passive¡ªUnderwater Breathing! His mouth then opened as a sonorous hum reverberated, causing bubbles to form on the water. Passive¡ªSonic Radar! And after that, the entire place was lit up as if it was daytime, causing the emitted light to even spill out of the cave. Passive¡ªNeon Radiance! All his passive abilities had activated automatically and were in full swing as Krune''s body began to subtly change. Chapter 944: Ocean Heart The sounds of Krune''s heartbeat echoed within the cave as it gradually increased in speed. The heat his body emitted managed to eventually vaporize all the water in the pool, only to fall down as drops not long after through condensation. With this, a cycle was formed. In other words, there was a continuous supply of water for his body heat to vaporize and keep him at controllable levels. His arms bulged at the start, becoming bulkier as the muscles seemed to be in the process of forging, becoming hotter. When the water touched it, his muscles turned leaner, repeating the process as Krune became taller. Surprisingly, his physique was becoming more robust, more explosive, and more streamlined. Before Krune came to the Sub-Realm, his physique was average. He was around 170 centimeters tall. But now, he had already reached 200 centimeters in height. Moreover, the excess heat, the energy emitted by the gem he had swallowed, and the repeated forging process also affected the Monster Gecko skin armor, evolving it as well as it also began to grow larger, developing tougher scales that covered his body. Even now, it didn''t stick to his skin, only remaining as armor. Nevertheless, it was also growing. Moreover, on sections of his hand, leg, hips, jaw, head, back, and chest, a thin layer of white began to grow. It still had the scaly patterns, but the substance that was growing wasn''t skin but instead bone. And this bone, although flexible, had a sense of hardness to it, increasing its defensive properties. It was honestly a lucky find for Krune. In any case, the greater change was brought about by the water in the pool and the Blood Essence Crystals he was using every day. They were the cause that evolved it further. After all, it was sourced from a Monster Gecko whose blood had been siphoned alive. So, it was kind of mysterious in itself. As the armor finished developing, Krune''s body had also stopped growing, now at a staggering 220 centimeters in height. As for his weight, he had probably reached a hundred kilograms by now, transforming into a giant. On top of that, his body hadn''t become overly buffed, still retaining a streamlined form to allow an explosive burst of speed and flexibility. Overall, he had grown tremendously stronger in this short duration. Then again, the most shocking change that happened to him was his thumping heart. If someone dissected his body to gaze at his heart, they would be shocked to find out that the color of his heart had changed to blue. On top of that, five crimson stripes could be seen on top of it. The heart thumped with vigor as Krune gradually regained consciousness, feeling odd at the fact that the water around him was warm. Not only that, but he felt that his body was brimming with power and seemed¡­stronger than usual, way stronger to the point where it scared him. He gazed at his hand, staring at it speechlessly for a minute before muttering, "What¡­the hell is this?" To compare his perspective, he gazed at his body, observing its changed size before noticing the upgrade to the skin armor. He then looked at the Whale Tooth Dagger beside him, holding it in his hand to notice that it was a bit small to his liking now. He wielded it as if it was a vegetable cutter to him now due to its size. He could feel something was different in him, able to feel it instinctively. Krune double-tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet, looking at the row of words that flashed on it. "Killed one Monster Gecko Emperor, obtained one Godly Point." He didn''t care about that, gazing at the new line that popped up below. "Obtained Passive: Ocean Heart." "Ocean Heart¡­" Krune shuddered at the name as its significance meant a lot. Having been on the Sub-Realm for so long, Krune realized that the naming scheme used in the place was simple but straightforward. It didn''t have any exaggeration attached to it. So, if his passive ability was called Ocean Heart, considering the name of the layer he was in, Krune could feel his excitement brimming up. Barely managing to calm himself down, he meditated, focusing on his heart that he felt was the source of the passive ability. The Neon Radiance was on his skin, Sonic Radar was in his throat, and Underwater Breathing was in his nose. Similarly, Ocean Heart was in his heart. Rather, it was his heart, as he could sense. Similar to the other passive abilities, Krune wasn''t able to understand the ins and outs of his ability immediately. Though, he realized that as long as he meditated while experimenting from time to time, he would be able to understand it eventually. Nevertheless, the ability''s name was the most important indicator. Krune thought about the two ingredients he had used, getting out of the pool as he began to jog while remaining in the same place, working out to see the improvement in his physique. There were remarkable differences, making him realize that he was able to barely go toe to toe against a Mutated Monster Gecko. Though, if he was careless, he would still die. Then again, it wouldn''t take one hit like before. He would be able to withstand at least three to four hits before dying. Krune exercised until he was able to obtain a good understanding of the change, finally gazing at a boulder as he lifted it. It was hard, forcing him to put all his might into it. Even then, he was struggling to lift it. And in such a situation, he focused on his heart, intending to summon more power. Suddenly, the image of five crimson rings flashed in his mind as the topmost ring shone with a crimson hue. In an instant, his heart began to pump energy through the blood. As the blood circulated through his body, Krune was able to exert slightly more strength, being able to lift the boulder more and more. He quickly dropped the boulder, relaxing as he tried to stop the energy flow, sighing in relief once it stopped. There were some difficulties, but as he repeated the exercise of lifting the boulder, he was able to get the hang of the energy flow. Eventually, he realized that every time he activated the ability, the image of the five crimson rings would flash in his mind. Upon every activation, Krune noticed the topmost ring slightly dull in its radiance every time. Eventually, he determined that he had five rings worth of energy in his heart, shown as the five crimson rings. Unexpectedly, each ring had the same energy as a Blood Essence Crystal, which was a tremendous amount. He eventually stopped experimenting, returning to another chamber where he had stored his food, filling his belly first. He then rested, patiently meditating as he concentrated on the sounds of his heartbeat, realizing that if he heard it long enough, he could hear the sounds of the ocean. A couple of hours later, Krune activated the ability once again, gazing at the topmost ring to see that its radiance had increased by a slight amount. "So, the expended energy will recover as I eat. Though, it seems I need to eat for at least 10 days to recover enough energy for a ring. That''s how much I can replenish it after my body sustains itself using energy from the food intake. Nevertheless, this serves as a good trump card." "Moreover, this doesn''t seem like the end for this ability," Krune muttered, clenching his hand into a fist as he heard the sounds of the ocean through his heartbeats. He tugged his skin armor, revealing a part of his body as he used the Whale Tooth Dagger to make a small cut. Then, he focused on his heart, noticing that nothing happened. After that, like before, he activated the ability as the image of the five crimson rings flashed in his mind. With that, he continued to focus on the ocean sounds, concentrating further and further when the image of the five crimson stripes in his mind turned blue. "Success!" Krune bellowed in joy as energy streamed out of his heart, being transferred through his blood. When the blood reached the injured part, his injury began to slowly heal. Even though it was really slow, taking more than ten minutes to heal it completely, Krune was exhilarated. It was the power of the Water Essence. Just as he had expected, by making the Mutated Monster Gecko swallow the Water Essence, it finished its evolution, reaching the peak of its race. When the bone tree absorbed it while it was still alive, most of the Water Essence''s power was still circulating in its body. After all, when Krune used it, its power was in him for a couple of weeks. The Monster Gecko Emperor hadn''t expended it completely yet. So, when it was being absorbed into the bone tree, its dominant ability had been recognized as the ability of the Water Essence. If Krune had absorbed its blood then, he might have obtained the passive ability of the Water Essence. But, since it was condensed by the bone tree into a gem, he obtained an even stronger passive ability. Now, Krune had a reserve of energy to bank upon and also an ability to heal. Even though it was slow for a mortal, just the notion of being able to heal made them almost invincible. Not only that, but the speed of healing was considerable. So, as long as his heart wasn''t shattered and he had enough energy, Krune would be able to recover from any state of injury. For the following week, Krune continued to experiment to the limit, watching the amplifications to his other passive abilities using Ocean Heart. He also consumed a Blood Essence Crystal, noticing that its energy directly refilled his crimson stripes and the fact that the side effects he felt after its use had been halved. Finally, after trying out everything, he concluded, "Each crimson stripe has the same energy as a Blood Essence Crystal. When I use it to heal, by consuming two crimson stripes worth of energy, I obtain the same healing effect as a Water Essence." Krune smirked as he continued, "I guess, even after I return to being a cultivator, this would still prove useful for me." Chapter 946: Igniting an All-out War Ocean Heart! Neon Radiance! With his passive abilities in full swing, Krune unleashed a beam of light from his two palms. Each beam struck the gates of the first and second village, alerting the populace inside those villages due to the sudden increase in brightness. In the first village, there were numerous huts made from the bones and leather of fishes the respective dwellers had killed. In the center of all those huts, situated within a hut made from the bones of a fish on the same size as the Sonic Radar, was the Monster Gecko King, frowning the moment it noticed the place brighten up. While inside it, it noticed the source of light streaming from the second village, grunting in response. For the past few months, numerous incidents began to crop up one after another. Its soldiers were becoming injured as the bone trees grew in their feet. Thus, a lot of its fighting populace had been incapacitated. Moreover, the bone trees were nurturing fewer fruits than usual for some reason, causing a massive food shortage, weakening them as a whole. Thanks to said food shortage, the second and third villages usually targeted their Monster Geckos, using their blood to water the bone trees. This way, they managed to grow enough fruits to sustain themselves. Unsurprisingly, its village had also done the same to the other villages. Though the number of fruits grown by the bone trees had recovered to the usual amount in the past month, they were still on edge. Plus, the deep-seated hatred between the different villages continued to cause numerous conflicts between them every day. The villages first crossed their boundaries to steal the fruits of other villages to weaken them. With that, problems continued to increase with the passing of each day. To bring it under control, the Monster Gecko King from the first village had even sent envoys to the other villages in an effort to converse with their Kings and control the situation. But unfortunately for that King, its envoys were killed before they even reached the respective villages. Not only that, but they completely disappeared. The Monster Gecko King did have suspicions that there was someone foreign in the place that was inciting all the conflicts. After all, even before this fight had started, some of the Monster Geckos had gone missing every day. On top of that, it also sensed the presence of the third party a couple of times. After all, it had lost two mutants by now. If not for it chancing upon a massive fruit that birthed another Mutant in their village, they wouldn''t have any Mutants with them right now. But even then, their village was considered the weakest at the moment. After all, they only had two elites, the King and a Mutant, that recently became one. As for the remaining villages, the second village was also in a similar situation. As for the three other villages, they had three elites each, a King and two Mutants. With that power backing them up, they were beginning to encroach on the territory of the first two villages. Right now, the moment the beam of light landed on the two villages, it was able to confirm the presence of the third party, immediately getting up from its seat as it left the village, sprinting at its maximum speed to find the third party as soon as possible. Rallying up the others would take time, and it didn''t wish to let go of this chance. The ground thundered as the Monster Gecko King sprinted at its maximum speed, heading straight towards the source of the beam of light that had disappeared within three seconds. Using its thermal sight, it searched the entire place, soon noticing a warm figure standing almost one hundred meters away from it. The figure was standing still as its body radiated a bit of light. Without any hesitation, the Monster Gecko King punched at it, sending its body flying. Though, it frowned immediately, noticing a splash of fluid the moment it sent the opponent flying, unable to feel any struggle from the other party. The impact of its punch had shattered the opponent''s chest, causing numerous cracks in its bones. At the moment it crashed into the ground, it failed to get up. It seemed to be dead at this point. The glow had disappeared not long after its punch as the Monster Gecko King stopped, looking with its thermal sight that the opponent''s body was warm, unlike the Monster Geckos. Though, it did possess a similar physique as the rest of them. The only thing different was the lack of a tail. Coincidentally, right at this time, another Monster Gecko King arrived. It was the King of the second village. The moment it saw the warm figure that lied on the ground, crushed, it realized that something had happened. The two Kings stared at each other in vigilance before the Monster Gecko King from the first village talked. Soon, the two conversed, attributing the entire conflict to the enemy it had killed just now. Eventually, the two Monster Gecko Kings came to a consensus, deciding to rally together and come to an agreement with the three other villages. Finished with their talks, they soon parted ways. And, once the Monster Gecko King was halfway towards the first village, dragging the corpse of the creature it had killed, it stopped, feeling pain in its feet as it hurriedly lifted its leg, noticing a few bone trees had sprouted, numbering in the dozen. Since these bone trees were absorbing the immense vitality in its blood, they were growing at a pretty fast pace. In a hurry, it pulled them all out, struggling to do so near the end as the roots of a couple of bone trees came out with a significant chunk of its flesh. It had even lost a couple of leg bones in the process, bleeding profusely. As both its legs had suffered the same fate, it wasn''t able to pull them out fast enough. In the end, its legs were severely damaged, preventing it from being able to run or even walk properly. Barely managing to limp by balancing its body using its tail, the Monster Gecko King eventually arrived at its village, soon returning to its tent as it sat on its throne, immersing its legs in a pool as it relaxed. This pool had been artificially built since they knew about the healing properties in the ocean water. So, every day, a team of Monster Geckos headed towards the ocean and brought in some water. They formed two of these pools in their village, one for the general populace to heal their injured foot and the second for its personal use. Immersing its feet in the water, it frowned, unable to put a handle on the emotion it was experiencing for the first time in its life. Similarly, the Monster Gecko King from the second village was also in a similar state, having injured its feet due to the traps. Only now did it realize that when it dashed towards the light source. As it arrived closer, its legs were pricked a lot. And now, it understood the cause, grunting as it also relaxed its feet in a personal pool built for its use. After suffering from bleeding feet for the past few months, they managed to create these pools. A couple of minutes after the two Monster Gecko Kings had left, near the protruding roots of a large bone tree, a small platform opened up as Krune peeked out. The handle to lift the platform was a small piece of rock that he had carved out from the ground. "Soon, there won''t be any scope for diplomacy since they just had one now. When the same thing repeats tomorrow, their trust would completely collapse." Krune nodded as he closed the platform, smudging some of the rock dust he had scattered over it as camouflage. He had set up the place more than a week ago, biding his time until he completed the boat. After digging under the roots of a relatively large tree, he drilled a narrow path before connecting it to the surface in a relatively wide-open place. It was a place with an open route towards the first and second villages. So, it was the perfect place for his plan. Once he finished digging the narrow tunnel, Krune installed a tube in it, making its end peek out of the ground. He then emitted his Neon Radiance from within the hole, sending it using his index finger that he inserted into the other end of the tube. He then peeked out from the hole, noticing that a considerable extent of the light was emitted in the place. After finishing his plan, Krune stood at the place and unleashed the beam first, keeping it active for three seconds. He then replaced himself with the body of a Monster Gecko whose blood had been completely drained out. He kept it in the place as his dummy and retreated into the hole. This way, his body wouldn''t be visible in their senses. On top of that, he didn''t rely on his Sonic Radar to see for the time being, only keeping his ears on the surface of the hole to feel the vibrations. Knowing that they were able to sense it somehow, he wasn''t able to use the Sonic Radar, not to mention in such proximity. He emitted light through the tube and caused the dead Monster Gecko to glow. Moreover, without its blood, its body looked warm in the eyes of the Monster Geckos, something he had confirmed a couple of times before in his experiments. Plus, no Monster Gecko looked warm in the eyes of others. So, it would be treated as an outsider. Krune knew that the Mutants were smart while the Kings were even smarter. So, he used their smartness against them. And thus, the following scene played out. Based on the Monster Geckos he had killed daily, if the Kings thought about it carefully, they might realize that the outsider might only be one individual. And that exactly played along to his strategy. After they left the place, Krune exited his hole and slipped back to his cave. After that, he continued to hunt the Monster Geckos daily for his needs, soon being able to sense that the unrest in the villages had further increased. And just like that, the diplomacy established between the two villages crumbled as the sense of trust between each King vanished. They began to assume it was the other party that was using any excuse to hunt their own. Soon, as he had expected, the tension increased so much it went up in flames, igniting an all-out war between the first two villages. Chapter 947: Targeting All of Them "It has finally begun," Krune muttered, dragging a large bag with him as he ran through the forest. Using a full-powered Sonic Radar, he managed to get a glimpse of everything that happened in one part of the Primary Landmass. As for everything he managed to sense, Krune took around a minute to process all of it, soon coming up with a plan for a scenario that he had already accounted for. After all, his prime mode of attack was to rely on the traps. So, no matter the plan, only the arrangement of his traps differed. Now, upon seeing that both the first and second villages were gearing up for war, Krune darted through the forest, collecting most of the traps he had set over the months. The number of combatants in each village numbered around 300, a tenth of their total population. At this moment, they were geared up from head to toe, brimming with bloodlust to tear their opponents apart. Their primary weapon was still their fishing rod. But now, they had also sharpened their fangs and jaws while holding in their mouths something that seemed like a pouch. As for what it did, he was unaware. Though, upon seeing all the Monster Geckos hold one in their mouths, he judged that it was a potent item. There was a straight path from the first village to the second. It was the widest path in the forest terrain. Because they were marching forth with an army, they were bound to use this path. Otherwise, they would lose their advantage in numbers. So, Krune carefully waited to see their approach, instantly sprinting forth with all his speed towards the center of the path. Calculating the collision point based on their speed of march and their time of exit, he approximated a place where the forces from the two villages would clash with each other. With that, he dragged the bag of traps with him, immediately setting them up in the approximated place of the battle. This way, the inflicted damage would be maximum. That was Krune''s plan all along. He quickly set things up, sweating along the way as he was pressed for time. After that, he sprayed the rock powder over the traps to assimilate them into the surroundings. Krune inspected the terrain using his Sonic Radar, noticing that the position of the traps wasn''t evident. After all, they were just tiny spikes that one wouldn''t even notice at first glance, looking no different from the rock that formed the ground. They weren''t sharp enough. So, their efficiency also wasn''t much. Then again, he made up for that with their numbers. As long as his targets were attacked, he would be satisfied. Once he finished the setup, Krune left the area, heading far away from the battlefield as he hid behind a large tree. From there, he hummed with a low tune, spreading his voice into the surroundings as the sound waves reflected back to him eventually, allowing him to perceive the entire place clearly. Krune continued to do that as he activated his Ocean Heart, supplying more energy to his throat, which increased the power behind his Sonic Radar. Through this, he increased its range and precision, also making it more difficult for the monster elites to detect his position. Over time, the sound waves he continued to emit resonated with the land as Krune''s eyes shot open, muttering to himself, "This is the land''s resonant frequency." At a particular frequency of the emitted soundwave, the land would resonate with it, allowing the sound wave to travel with almost no loss in energy. That was the phenomenon of resonance. The sound waves caused the land to mildly vibrate. Though, due to the difference in energy levels, the vibration of the land was negligible. Only if one was in a meditative state would one be able to sense it. As for Krune, this was a chance. After achieving resonance with the land, his Sonic Radar worked even better, allowing him to spot the two marching armies. Moreover, the Kings on both sides failed to locate him. He was spying on them using the land itself, so they were unable to pick up the traces through whatever method they relied on before doing so. Now, he could spy on them without any tension, watching twenty Monster Geckos on both sides carry their respective King. The Mutants of both sides took the lead, brimming with killing intent. Both sides were evenly matched in numbers and elites, so it wasn''t possible to determine the victor among them. Soon, they were two hundred meters from one another, now able to see each other. The armies paused as the Kings gazed at each other with a frown, expressing anger as they felt betrayed. In their minds, the opposite King had let go of their pride as a King and went against their word. As such, they no longer had any intentions to talk. Diplomacy was always the solution for peace in a war-strained situation. But if diplomacy was attained, and the situation remained the same as before, both sides would never be able to trust each other ever again. This was basically what Krune had achieved before when he unleashed a beam of light on both villages. Now, the two sides had no other choice but to duke it out until one of them emerged victorious. The two Kings bellowed a war cry, causing their underlings to do the same as both sides charged forth. Among them, half of the troops sprinted forward while the other half limped a little while running. They hadn''t managed to make a complete recovery yet. After all, even though the ocean water had a healing effect, it was way too weak. So, they needed more than a few months to make a complete recovery. Of course, Krune never gave them that time. Followed by a brutal roar that caused the nearby bone trees to shiver, the two armies clashed, brandishing their fishing rods to pierce into the hide of their opponents. A Monster Gecko pierced its hook into the eye of a far-away opponent, flicking its wrists to twirl the thread around the opponent''s neck. When it pulled with all its might, its opponent''s neck was cut open, causing it to bleed. The opponent clutched its neck, failing to move as it eventually bled to death. As for its killer, it had just retracted its fishing rod when an opponent arrived behind it, spitting the pouch from its mouth. The pouch was like a sac that exploded the moment it touched its opponent. Surprisingly, spilling out from it was blood, the same one in their bodies. Through, this seemed concentrated, colder. The coldness in it caused the opponent to freeze up immediately. After that, the attacker followed up with a smack using its fishing rod, bashing in the opponent''s head. Similarly, the Monster Geckos beat each other up nonstop, dwindling their numbers to half within a couple of minutes. Upon seeing the situation, the Monster Gecko King from the first village finally took action, getting off from its throne as it limped a little, gazing at the battlefield as it glanced at the Mutant under it. Followed by a nod, the two joined the battlefield, cutting down the numbers of their foes like a lawnmower cutting grass. Seeing the situation, the two elites from the second village had also joined, clearing out the opponents from the first village along their way as they clashed at the center. Without saying anything else, they exchanged numerous attacks nonstop. Krune''s heart thumped as he watched the intense exchange, muttering, "Thankfully, I didn''t do something foolish as fighting them head-on. I wouldn''t have lasted more than 20 seconds in there." Well, Krune had never been a head-on fighter to start with. He then smirked. "Anyway, it''s time they sprouted." Coincidentally, as he said that, a Monster Gecko screamed in pain as a bone tree sprouted from its feet, traversing up its legs as it continued to grow. The same situation happened one after another as the war stopped as abruptly as it started. Hearing the screams all around them, the elites frowned as their expressions paled. At the same time, they gazed at their feet, noticing small shrubs sprout like a thicket. Alarmed, they tried to pluck them out. "Now!" Krune sprinted out of his hiding and ran towards the battlefield as fast as he could. Each of his footsteps caused loud noises as he was currently wearing a pair of hard shoes that he had created using a mixture of leather, bones, and thread. As a blacksmith, creating a simple pair of shoes was easy. Now, he didn''t have to be afraid of becoming prey to his own traps. Without any hesitation, gripping the Whale Tooth Sword, Krune sprinted straight towards the Mutant closest to him. As both their legs sprouted the bone tree saplings, they had to remove them one after another. After all, if they sat on the ground as is, the bone tree saplings would next grow out of their butts. As such, they were pressed for time. If they delayed, their lives would be forfeit. Unsurprisingly, this was the perfect time for Krune to attack. He wouldn''t get a better opportunity to attack them. First, the moment he arrived at the battlefield, all eyes fell on him, disturbed by the intense sounds his footsteps created. Fortunately, this worked in his favor as Krune''s body emitted intense light. It was further amplified by his Ocean Heart, so the intensity of the light caused his opponents to lose consciousness. All the normal Monster Geckos tumbled to the ground, instantly losing consciousness as their eyes bled. As for the two Mutants, they also lost their balance, falling on the ground as they barely maintained their consciousness. As for the Kings, they were still okay but had been blinded for a couple of seconds due to what happened. Krune slashed with his Whale Tooth Sword, severing the left arm of the Mutant first. He slipped past its unbalanced body, slashing apart its other arm as well. He then left it and attacked the other Mutant. Since they had been fighting, they were next to one another, making it easy for him to attack. But, when he targeted its arm, the Mutant lost its balance, causing its head to come in the way as he hacked it, killing it, unfortunately. ''Don''t mind, continue!'' He mentally propped himself and had just planned to target the King next when it lashed out with its fishing rod in reflex. Krune barely managed to make his sword come into contact with it as the impact sent him flying, causing him to crash into a couple of trees before stopping, bleeding profusely. Chapter 948: Low Success Rate "Cough!" Krune coughed out blood as he felt difficulty in breathing. The impact was way too powerful for him to handle. On top of that, when he crashed into a couple of bone trees, some of the sharper objects managed to penetrate his defenses, lodging into his body. Gritting his teeth in pain, Krune hurriedly pulled out all the bone tree fragments in his body, quickly inspecting himself as he soon heaved a sigh in relief. He had pulled all of them out in time. Though, when he looked at a piece of the bone tree fragment, noticing the roots that had formed on it, he shuddered in fear. If he had been a couple of seconds late, the bone tree fragment would have lodged itself in his body. The only way to remove it would have been to cut a part of his body out and hope he would survive long enough until he finished healing. Ocean Heart! Krune activated his healing ability, barely managing to stabilize himself as he picked up his Whale Tooth Sword and sprinted towards the battlefield once more, unleashing his Neon Radiance at maximum intensity. He kept it activated, preventing the Monster Gecko Kings from being able to see. If they opened their eyes, they would be affected. Though, upon hearing the sounds of his footsteps again, they began to flail their fishing rods, intending to keep him at bay. Even though he failed to attack them, he kept one of their hands busy, only leaving them one hand to pull out the bone tree sprouts. This caused them to waste time and allowed the sprouts to grow faster as they finally took root. The moment this happened, the sheer pain caused them to let go of their attacks and focus entirely on their legs. Krune took this opportunity and attacked with all his might, slashing the hand of one of the Monster Gecko Kings. Unfortunately, to his dismay, he noticed that his slash didn''t even manage to sever its arm. It only managed to reach halfway through it, stopping after hitting the bone. The Monster Gecko King flailed its attacked arm, sending Krune flying away once again. After all, Krune was a bit above two meters in height. But as for the Monster Gecko Kings, they were both five meters in height. The sheer difference in their muscular power caused each of their attacks to prove devastating to him. Coughing out blood, Krune got up, flinching at the pain as he could feel a lot of his bones had cracked. The pain was unbearable. But, he hadn''t completed his task yet. With his every move, crunching sounds emanated from his body as Krune continued to move, delaying the Monster Gecko Kings from treating themselves as he hacked on another arm, this time retracting the Whale Tooth Sword before it managed to retaliate. This way, Krune kept up with his attacks, being sent flying at times. He barely managed to defend against the attacks, preventing himself from dying. A single mistake was enough for him to lose his life, especially against opponents who were way stronger than him. "Aargh!" Followed by a bellow, Krune slashed with the sword once more, severing the right arm of a Monster Gecko King. He then traced around, attacking the nearby Monster Gecko King, severing its arm as well. Unsurprisingly, the loss of an arm caused them to panic. They had to remove the bone tree sprouts from their legs while defending against his attacks. With one hand, it wasn''t possible. Besides, the roots of some bone tree sprouts were slowly creeping up their legs, intending to burrow into their entire body. And just as they thought of that, Krune jumped up with all his might, bringing his sword slashing down, hacking off the second arm of the Monster Gecko King from the first village, incapacitating it first. Hearing its roars of pain and loss, the second Monster Gecko King pulled out the bone tree sprouts from its legs in a hurry, not caring about losing its flesh and foot bones in the process. Though, having figured its plans, Krune lunged forth with a thrust, piercing the sword through a cut he had caused before. Inserting his sword into the cut, Krune lodged it deep into its arm, slashing down with all his strength as he severed it, mentally heaving a sigh of relief for a moment. Then again, before he could relax, the second Monster Gecko King turned around and opened its jaws wide, clamping on his right leg before grounding it into a pulp. "Aaargh!" Krune screamed in pain, plunging his sword into his ground leg, severing it right as the Monster Gecko King pulled its head backward. It planned to use its upper body to slam him into the ground and smash him into pulp. Thankfully, Krune acted decisively, severing his right leg. He then limped back as he watched the bone tree sprout in its legs, beginning to grow into a tree. The Monster Gecko King gazed at him and smirked derisively, causing Krune to scowl in response. ''I shouldn''t have been too greedy.'' He mentally rebuked himself but was unwilling to leave it as is. The reason he didn''t go for their heads immediately was to obtain their Blood Essence Crystal. Krune realized that if he absorbed their blood as is, he would only obtain a normal Passive Ability. But, if he did that using the bone trees, he would obtain a stronger one like the Ocean Heart. That was why he didn''t even wish to kill the Mutant, intending to evolve them into a King. Unfortunately, he had killed one by mistake. And now that he looked at the second one, he sighed, seeing bone tree saplings sprout from all over its body. After he had hacked its hands, it crashed into the ground. Now, a bone tree was growing all over its body. Left with no other choice, Krune could only sever its head. He then limped on his left leg, watching the body of the second Monster Gecko King turn right as a bone tree grew from it entirely. Sighing, he hacked its neck, eventually severing it as he touched its blood with his hands. Immediately, his body burned for ten seconds as Krune could feel his body turning colder. Surprisingly, it didn''t feel odd, but rather as if his body was now naturally cold like the Monster Geckos. Even though his vision spun from the blood loss, Krune couldn''t waste any time, arriving before the first Monster Gecko King that could only helplessly stare at the bone tree that sprouted from its legs. It didn''t even have any hands to do anything. It also couldn''t reach its legs with its jaws, so it was unable to even clamp its legs. Krune soon arrived in front of it and hacked its legs immediately, taking numerous slashes before he managed to sever them, freeing itself from the growing bone tree. He looked around, watching bone trees grow out of all the Monster Geckos in the area. It seemed the place would soon become a thicket of bone trees. In a hurry, he summoned his tablet and placed it on the ground. He then barely managed to place the Monster Gecko King on it. Without its limbs, lifting its body was barely possible. Though, without his right leg, Krune also faced a lot of trouble, slipping on the ground at times before he had to hurriedly clean himself of all injuries and pull out the bone tree sprouts. Tying a rope to the tablet, he pulled it on the floor, preventing the Monster Gecko King from being damaged any further as he used his body weight to pull it. He then focused on stopping his blood from flowing out of his severed right leg, wounding it up with thread tightly. This did prevent the place from bleeding any longer. Plus, his healing ability slowly healed the area, stopping the blood loss. Though, as he did that, he noticed that the Monster Gecko King was on the verge of death due to blood loss. After pulling it away for a certain distance, Krune kneeled on the ground, placing his hand on the severed parts of its body, unleashing his Neon Radiance. But this time, he infused the healing effect into it, emitting a blue light that began to heal the Monster Gecko King. Then again, this healing effect was only one-third as effective as normal. It was because he was using the Neon Radiance as a medium to unleash it. Though, as long as it did its job, Krune was satisfied. After patching up its wounds first using the rope he had brought, Krune used the healing light to barely stop its bleeding. He had attempted it a couple of times before. When the Neon Radiance turned blue, Krune knew that it was possible. That was why he went for their limbs in the first place. It was because he had the confidence in patching them up before they bled to their deaths. Nevertheless, his plan consisted of capturing all four elites. In reality, he only managed to capture one King and even ended up losing his right leg in the process. Eating up the reserve of meat he brought with him and drinking the pouch full of water, Krune barely managed to prevent himself from fainting. He then pulled the Monster Gecko King slowly, eventually reaching a cave as he placed it within. The moment he did so, Krune slumped on the side, fainting. He woke up after a long time had passed, feeling pain all over his body as he faced difficulty in even moving. In any case, his condition was a tad better than before as the Ocean Heart''s healing effect had corrected some of his broken bones to their original positions. But when Krune looked at the Monster Gecko King, it noticed that it was barely alive at this point. He then dragged himself to another cave and harvested the massive fruit from there, dragging it back to the cave as he placed it before the Monster Gecko King. "Eat!" The Monster Gecko King looked at him but refused to do so. Instead, it seemed willing to accept death at this point than accept his help. Unfortunately, Krune had no intentions to allow that. So, he cut the massive fruit into pieces, propped open the mouth of the Monster Gecko King using a couple of tools, and kept it open. He then dropped tiny pieces of the massive fruit into its mouth. Even if it refused to eat them, its saliva would eventually get the job done. And in such a process, while he recovered, Krune made the Monster Gecko King consume the massive fruit. Chapter 949: A Second Hovering Blood Essence Crystal Days passed in such a fashion as Krune did everything in his capacity to heal himself faster. He gorged himself with meat until his belly felt like bursting while making sure to keep his Ocean Heart activated all the time. Four weeks later, Krune was back in good shape, having regenerated his right leg. Sadly, he had lost three of his five energy rings in the process. Then again, as long as he accumulated energy in his body, he would recover it later. At the very moment he recovered fully, Krune directly infiltrated the first village and dragged out a couple of Monster Geckos. It was easy considering all he had to do was emit his Neon Radiance, and all the Monster Geckos would faint. Using this as an opportunity, Krune roamed around the village, trying to see if he could find anything that he could use. There were indeed a lot of items in the place. Though, most of them were derived from the ocean. As for Krune, they weren''t exactly useful. If it had been him from six months ago, then he would have taken them all. But now, he had crafted everything he needed, no longer interested in the tools used by the Monster Geckos. After roaming through the entire village, Krune checked the tents of the two Mutants, noticing that the items inside were of superior quality. But just as before, he wasn''t interested in them, heading towards the King''s tent before finally noticing a suffocating presence emit from the bones of the tent. At the moment he felt this presence, Krune could feel a mild itch in his throat, realizing the owner of the bones immediately. "This is from a Sonic Radar?" "Damn, this Monster Gecko King actually managed to hunt a Sonic Radar?" Krune shuddered, thanking his intellect once again for not trying to fight against it head-on. After all, even after he had trapped them significantly and gave them a sense of urgency using the bone trees that grew out of their bodies, he was still significantly injured. And out of all the attacks, Krune didn''t even take any direct hits. Even the ones that sent him flying were only reflex actions by the Monster Gecko Kings. If he had taken a direct hit, the bones in his arms would have broken into pieces then and there. Now that he looked at the bones of the Sonic Radar, Krune could determine the strength of the Monster Gecko King. He looked around, noticing the simplistic arrangement of the place. There was a throne in the center. In front of it was a tiny pool. Judging by the traces of blood in it, the Monster Gecko King had been using it to heal its legs. Krune then noticed a certain box behind the throne. The box was made using the same material as their fishing rods. He opened it to see a large yarn of the thread¡ªused in the fishing rod. It was around a meter in diameter. In other words, the amount of thread in it was a lot. Upon seeing it, Krune smiled as he muttered, "I''ll be taking this." He was just about to return when he used his Sonic Radar subconsciously, immediately frowning as he could spot a faint line underneath the throne. Surprisingly, there seemed to be a stairway that led downwards. Krune pushed the throne sideways, toppling it with great difficulty as he noticed a slab. Once he pulled it up, he looked at a stairway proceeding deeper into the ground. Judging by the size, it seemed to have been frequented by the King. Using his Sonic Radar, Krune scouted the interior first, descending through the flight of stairs as he muttered, "It doesn''t seem to be too big." Sometime later, he reached the bottom, staring at a small cave that only spanned a height of five meters, barely enough for the King to remain standing within. The floor was covered with slick mud that seemed to glow in the dark. Krune then touched the cave walls, noticing that the ocean water was seeping through it, collecting in the cave. It was surprisingly similar to his cave. Though the most eye-catching thing in the cave was a tree growing in the center. But considering its height that barely reached a meter, it was only a shrub. The moment he looked at it, Krune figured out the source of the thread used in the fishing rods. As for the shaft of the fishing rod, it was the shrub''s stem. Krune noticed some holes in the area around the shrub. Judging by the width of the holes, it seemed similar shrubs had been planted in the place. The shrub only consisted of a straight stem that spanned a meter in height. And hanging from its top was what seemed to be strands of threads, numbering in the hundreds. And finally, fixed at the top was a fruit. Upon seeing it, Krune could glean that by planting the fruit, he would be able to grow another of the shrub. "If I have this, I''ll get a constant supply of thread. That''s the most important thing out here," Krune muttered, plucking the fruit first to see if he could grow it normally. He then returned to the cave with the box, removing its contents before filling it with the soil from the ground. He then left the place, blinding all the Monster Geckos along the way as he arrived at his cave, placing it in his boat, Paddle. He then stored the yarn of thread in another compartment. Planting the fruit in the box, he watered it, hoping to see how it grew. Along the way, he had placed the throne back in its original spot to ensure the other Monster Geckos wouldn''t stumble into the place and damage the shrub. Done with the basic preparation, Krune muttered, "I''ll call you the Rope Bush." After that, he hunted the Monster Geckos daily, only targeting the two weakened villages. Though, Krune noticed a King accompanied by two Mutants on the battlefield, looking at the thicket of bone trees that grew in the place. They had been lured by the two massive fruits and one colossal fruit that were beginning to grow in the place. Krune decisively avoided the place, intending to work on his task first. He had yet to digest his gains. Plus, he had just begun to target the other three villages. So, it wasn''t the time to target them yet. With each passing day, Krune''s reserve of Blood Essence Crystals continued to increase. He then arrived at the cave with the Monster Gecko King, glancing at its mouth that had been propped open by the tools he had fixed in place. Dragging an alive Monster Gecko with him, Krune slashed its neck and caused its blood to flow into the Monster Gecko King''s mouth. When it was done, he dropped in a couple of fruits harvested from the forest. By killing the other Monster Gecko King, Krune obtained the passive, ''Monster Gecko Blood.'' It wasn''t anything impressive other than making his blood cold. If Krune extracted his blood, he could store them in capsules and use them as attacks to freeze his opponent. They were fairly potent. In any case, Krune wasn''t satisfied with it. Rather, he wished to obtain another passive ability around the level of Ocean Heart. Even though he knew the likelihood of obtaining something like that was almost impossible, he still wished to try it. And now, he was planning to increase the concentration of the Monster Gecko''s blood essence in the body of the Monster Gecko King. This way, any passive ability it granted would be stronger than Monster Gecko Blood. That was Krune''s plan. He was able to judge what type of ability he would obtain as a passive ability. The Monster Geckos were able to remain still like rocks, can walk over cliffs like it was normal ground, can perceive heat, and had freezing blood. Among them, as the Monster Gecko King lacked limbs, Krune could determine that he wouldn''t be getting the ability to remain still like rocks or walk over cliffs from it. The only ones he would obtain would be between heat perception and freezing blood. Among them, Krune had no liking towards heat perception. He already had the Neon Radiance to see with his sight and the Sonic Radar to perceive everything in his surroundings. On top of that, the range of Sonic Radar only continued to increase as his strength improved. So, obtaining another perception-related ability was only a waste. Instead, Krune was hoping to obtain a stronger version of the Monster Gecko Blood. At least, he would be able to set up nice traps using its freezing property. Moreover, if he ever drifted into cold currents in the ocean, he would survive. Thinking as such, Krune continued to feed the Monster Gecko King massive fruits from time to time, made it drink the blood of its brethren, and even fed it Blood Essence Crystals occasionally. Thanks to its robust body, it was able to handle everything he stuffed into it. To ensure he wouldn''t obtain thermal perception, Krune blinded the Monster Gecko King, increasing the chances for him to obtain the Monster Gecko Blood ability. As days passed in such a fashion, Krune noticed the Rope Bush had begun to grow in his boat. He also sneaked into the second village and robbed the box with the yarn from there. He also brought the soil and Rope Bush fruit that was in the cave under the throne. This way, he could grow two Rope Bushes in his boat, enough for all his needs. As for the situation between the three other villages, Krune had no luck. Since they were positioned closer to one another, his risks were too great. On top of that, he couldn''t affect them too much in the time he had left. Sighing, Krune just focused on obtaining more Blood Essence Crystals. Moreover, he also had to recover his expended crimson rings before he returned to the ocean. Eventually, when he felt that there were only around ten days of his stay left on the Primary Landmass, Krune made an incision on the Monster Gecko King''s body and connected it to a wilting bone tree. This time, the moment the wilting bone tree came in contact with its blood, its wilting almost stopped. It hadn''t stopped completely. Rather, the wilting process had paused until it finished absorbing everything in the Monster Gecko King''s body. It had to be attributed to the sheer density of energy circulating in its body. After all, if it had retained its limbs, it would have become a Monster Gecko Emperor by now. Krune had fed it too much that its body had begun to emit a suffocating presence. After absorbing its body, the bone tree wilted after a day, turning into bone powder. Krune then dug through it, failing to notice anything on the ground. Realizing something, he smirked, brushing the bone powder at the top as he saw a tiny gem hover before him, emitting a cold white radiance. Chapter 950: Hello Friend The gem emitted a gentle white color, frigid to the touch. The moment Krune grabbed hold of it, he could feel his hand turn slightly numb. This was considering he already possessed Monster Gecko Blood, being immune to even freezing conditions. "Success!" Krune bellowed in joy and pocketed it. He swiftly ran through all the other caves and collected the Blood Essence Crystals that had been produced. After that, he sprinted back to his cave, calculating all his gains. Everything of value, he placed in the boat. Then, he arrived at the pool and plunged into it, taking in a deep breath as he swallowed the white gem. In an instant, his body turned numb as even his exhales began to frost over, turning into small ice spikes on his nose. He could feel something in his body block the process. After all, his limit was only five passive abilities. Krune hurriedly summoned his tablet and noticed a prompt asking if he wished to replace the new passive ability with one of the five in his possession. He hurriedly selected Monster Gecko Blood as the ability to be replaced with the new one, watching something from his body be expelled immediately. Krune then plopped into the pool completely as the water began to slowly turn into ice. Nothing unexpected happened after that, as a couple of minutes later, the warm temperature caused the ice to melt. Another minute later, Krune got up, breaking all the ice lodged on his body. He then noticed that he no longer felt cold. Though, he could sense that his blood had turned colder now, a weapon on its own. Using a needle that he had created, Krune pricked his index finger, watching a droplet of blood fall on the pool, the water turning into ice immediately. "That''s incredible. The freezing effect has become even more potent now." He then thought, gently unleashing his Neon Radiance through the palm on his right, hitting the beam on the cave walls where water was seeping through at an incredibly slow pace. He then closed his eyes and focused on his blood, causing it to connect with the Neon Radiance on the skin. Unfortunately, nothing happened. Then, remembering something, Krune activated his Ocean Heart, noticing the image of five rings flash in his mind. The fifth ring hadn''t fully recovered yet but had around half the maximum energy. His heart began to pump the energy through his blood, slightly amplifying his physical prowess. On top of that, since the energy was carried through his blood, as he concentrated, the energy began to interact with the coldness in his blood, eventually taking up that property. Krune then supplied the energy to his Neon Radiance, watching the light turn white. The moment it happened, he could see a faint layer of ice form on the cave walls. In any case, it was a slow process, not instantaneous as when he had dropped a droplet of blood. Nevertheless, the moment he saw it, Krune was overjoyed. "That''s an incredibly strong passive ability." He then began to practice with it, eventually muttering in the end, "The reason I can combine two passive abilities into one is thanks to the Ocean Heart that pumps energy into my blood. Since the blood interacts with everything in my mortal body, it allows me to do this. Without the Ocean Heart, I wouldn''t have been able to create this effect." He began to laugh in joy after that. "As long as I develop myself in this manner, I''ll eventually be able to head towards the Tertiary Landmass and face against the Supreme Monster." Krune then double-tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet as he gazed into it, reading the latest line. "Obtained Passive: Frozen Blood." "As direct as always." He then punched the tablet, noticing a different message be displayed. "So, I have 7 Godly Points now. I spent seven Godly Points to visit here and have earned the same. If I consider in that regard, I have wasted a year. But in actuality..." He smiled as he continued muttering to himself, "I got the Ocean Heart. Just that alone makes this trip worth it." He then stepped into the boat, looking at the pile of Blood Essence Stones he had accumulated. "On top of that, these are bonuses that would help me in my future hunts." Adrift on the ocean, he wasn''t able to prepare himself. But after being on land for a year, he was able to create everything that he would be needed in the future, allowing him to be ready for whatever he faced next. For the next couple of days, Krune didn''t leave the boat, afraid that he would be teleported out when he wasn''t with the boat. He then gazed at the parchment that would send him back when ripped, smiling at his silliness. Instead of waiting for the next few days in worry that he would be teleported at the wrong time, he might as well leave on his initiative. After all, there was no chance for him to affect the other three villages or reap any Godly Points. Besides, the thicket of trees caused by the war between the first two villages would eventually produce a ton of massive fruits. After all, all the bone trees had grown by absorbing blood from Monster Geckos that were alive. So, if Krune thought about it, at least 600 massive fruits would be produced. If even only one in a hundred survived eating that, around six Mutants would be birthed. Besides, two bone trees were growing from the blood of Mutants. So, they would produce the colossal fruits that, when a Mutant consumed it, would cause it to become a King. On top of that, there was a bone tree that grew by absorbing the blood of a King. As for what it would produce, even Krune was unaware. Besides, when he was trying to birth Mutants, he only used whatever Monster Gecko he could get his hands on. As for the three Monster Gecko Kings that remained on the Primary Landmass, they would precisely be able to calculate what to do with the massive fruits and allocate them to whichever Monster Gecko had the greatest success rate of becoming a Mutant. So, their success rate would be many times higher than him. Krune looked around, noticing that he had placed everything of value in his boat, sighing as he looked at the cave he spent a year in. "Alright, I should leave now." He then bit a part of the boat while using a couple of ropes trailing from it to tie himself up, making it seem as if it was something he had worn over his body. He still wasn''t completely sure if it would work. After all, he had only been teleported once. So, he had to work with the limited info. As such, prepared with everything, he tore the parchment, noticing his vision blur before he had to squint his eyes at the bright surroundings. Krune immediately looked at the ground to see that he was still in his boat, screaming with joy, "It worked!" ¡­ The moment he left the place, a group of Monster Geckos entered his cave, looking around as he observed the status of the cave. They then reported everything to the King that stood at the entrance in thought. Similarly, another King stood at the entrance to a certain cave, kneeling automatically when it sensed the suffocating presence that had permeated in the area. The final King stood before the thicket of bone trees, smiling as it saw the numerous massive fruits that grew, focusing on the two colossal fruits in the center, finally gazing at the special fruit that caused a desire in it. It seemed that the three Kings had allied themselves to make sense of the situation in their lands. ¡­ Krune sensed something amiss, turning around to see a group of people gazing at him in shock, suspicion, fear, and greed. The myriad of gazes slammed into him, someone who had been devoid of human contact for more than a year. For a moment, Krune forgot how to even react when seeing others. Though, after noticing that his boat was above the Checkpoint Turtle, he sighed in relief, remembering that he had returned exactly after a year had passed. That meant that it was time for the Checkpoint Turtle to appear once again. And with a casual glance, Krune noticed almost one hundred people on the Checkpoint Turtle. Surprisingly, there seemed to be a queue that had formed to enter inside. It seemed only one would be permitted to enter at a time. Krune also noticed a couple of squids go around while instructing the people. They didn''t seem capable of speech but seemed intelligent enough to convey their intentions to the people. Upon noticing his arrival, a squid arrived before his boat, gently pushing it from the Checkpoint Turtle until it landed on the ocean water. As the upper half of the boat was in contact with the ocean above, it was easy to push it. Once it was done pushing, the squid looked at Krune and pointed at the queue, prompting him to join it if he wished to buy something. Krune nodded, deciding to wait and see first. He didn''t wish for someone to steal his hard work while he waited in the queue. After all, he couldn''t see the raft he was relying on a year ago. So, someone had definitely taken it in the meantime. Plus, judging by what the Octopus had said before, it seemed the Checkpoint Turtle would only remain for two days before vanishing. The moment he had this thought, Krune shuddered, beginning to sweat immediately as he muttered inwardly, ''My calculations were wrong. It seemed I snapped the parchment when my time was almost up. Thankfully, I did it. Otherwise¡­'' He dared not imagine being unable to bring the boat with him after putting all his efforts into its creation. He would have probably gone mad if that had been the case. So, he thanked his luck that he took action right when he did. At the same time, he noticed a man exit the interior and approach the end and rip out a parchment. Immediately, a boat materialized before him. It was wide enough for him to sleep and had a small compartment to store some tools. Moreover, it had a fair degree of comfort and had a sleek, efficient design that allowed one to row better. It was worth two Godly Points that Krune had been disinclined to buy before. And now that he looked at it, even though the bone boat was incredibly efficient, allowing one to row it easily through a variety of means, it didn''t have a lot of space. In comparison to that, his Paddle was many times better since it had a larger floor space and numerous compartments for a variety of uses. Still, it seemed the man was happy as he jumped into it and rowed away from the place, intending to go wherever he pleased. But just as Krune was contemplating what to do next, a group of people approached his boat, eyeing it greedily. They were a group of ten, and judging by their healing scars, they seemed to have been in considerable battles recently. Among them was a man with a large build, sporting a considerable presence as he looked at Krune, asking, "Hello friend, may I know how you obtained this large boat?" Chapter 951: Krune’s Cultivator Mind "Hello friend, may I know how you obtained this large boat?" Upon hearing the man''s statement, Krune wasn''t even concerned about his motives, rather pleased to strike up a conversation with a fellow human. He smiled in response, stating honestly, "I made this during the year I spent in a Primary Landmass." "A Primary Landmass¡­" The man frowned, muttering, "That costs five Godly Points." Only then did he notice that Krune was actually sitting in the boat. Even then, he possessed a massive frame, causing the man to feel slightly fearful. He then noticed the Whale Tooth Sword hanging on the boat wall, frowning at its sheer size and quality. A glance was all he needed to realize that it was way better than the weapon he obtained in the bundle¡ªtermed the Bone Arsenal in the Checkpoint Turtle¡ªthat cost two Godly Points. So, he could determine that Krune was a tough individual. Thus, he immediately changed his stance, no longer intending to kill Krune to obtain his boat. He then cupped his fists as he said, "Boss, my name''s Strinker. We''re going around as a group to ensure we survive this place." "My name''s Krune." Krune faced a bit of awkwardness in showing formality as he hadn''t done that for a year now. Though, the familiarity of the interaction allowed him to continue, making a sweeping glance around the Checkpoint Turtle. "There''s a lot of people here this time. There was none when I visited it last year." "Last year?" Strinker blurted out in shock, muttering, "Sir, were you part of the first batch?" "The first batch? What do you mean?" Krune frowned when he recalled the scene he had witnessed during his second month of stay in the Primary Landmass. After a confused look, Strinker thought of the time Krune spent on the Primary Landmass, speaking immediately, "Every month, around 10 million people are dropped in this layer. Eventually, we started to call them as batches." He pointed at himself and the people behind him, "I''m part of the fifth batch while the rest range from the seventh to the tenth batch." Krune''s eyes widened in surprise as he thought it was time to satiate his curiosity and the feeling of oddity he had sensed long ago. "Then, which continent are you from?" "I''m from the Zukra Continent," Strinker replied. ''Never heard of it.'' Krune frowned before continuing to ask, "Then, how long ago did you arrive in this Sub-Realm? Where was its entrance?" Hearing the question, Strinker frowned as he responded, "As I said, I was part of the fifth batch. Also, I didn''t see any entrance or anything. One day, I was chasing after a group of people when something hit all of us. Before we realized it, we were already in this place and had turned into mortals." ''I see, so they hadn''t started from layer 4.'' Krune nodded in understanding, ''It seemed he was just forcibly dropped here.'' "Then..." Krune looked at the others behind Strinker, asking once more, "How did the lot of you arrive here? Did everyone appear in this place first?" "I fell from a cliff. When I thought I would die, I fell into this ocean. By the time I managed to reach the surface, I noticed that my cultivation had disappeared." "I was just sleeping when I suddenly drowned. Next thing I knew, I was here." "I was just talking with my family when my surroundings changed all of a sudden. I was here before I noticed it." Upon hearing all their claims, Krune determined that they were all forcibly dropped in layer 3. Unlike those from the Zamuria Continent, they hadn''t voluntarily arrived at the Sub-Realm. It was Strinker''s time to question as he frowned. "You said this was a Sub-Realm? Then, are we no longer in the God Realm? I thought a spatial anomaly had sent us here. At the very least, that''s what all of us had been thinking." "No, this is a Sub-Realm created by a God since he was bored. To entertain himself, he placed a lot of treasures in this place. Upon seeing these treasures, we had entered it through its entrance," Krune replied, noticing the faces of others convulse. "Fuck! So, we''re trapped in a goddamn Sub-Realm!" Strinker cursed, clutching his head in anger. The others also had the same reactions, vexed at the situation. All along, they had been assuming that a spatial anomaly had sent them in this danger zone where they had regressed to their mortal selves. They thought that as long as they traveled in a direction long enough, they would eventually exit the danger zone. But if it was a Sub-Realm, everything changed. As mortals, they wouldn''t be able to leave the Sub-Realm. Seeing their reactions, Krune pointed at their foreheads, having noticed the tiny dot on their glabella before saying, "The lot of you have the tablets with you. You can leave this place using them eventually." "In the end, that seems to be the only option." Strinker sighed. "I thought we would have been able to leave this place as long as we rowed in one direction." "Even if you reach the boundary, your mortal self wouldn''t be able to even scratch the Sub-Realm''s barrier," Krune replied, sensing the Checkpoint Turtle flinch once, causing some waves while making the people on its surface groan in response. Upon seeing the expression of the people in the queue, Krune felt confused as he asked, "What''s happening?" "The items in the Checkpoint Turtle are limited. This reaction would happen the moment at least one item on the list is sold out. From what that damn octopus had said, it would leave the moment this happens." Strinker scowled. Though, it wasn''t because the Checkpoint Turtle was leaving, but rather at the fact that the place he assumed as a Danger Zone ended up being a Sub-Realm. As for the Checkpoint Turtle''s items, he had already bought his fair share. He didn''t have many Godly Points to begin with, so all he managed to buy was a Bone Arsenal and a Water Essence for emergencies. Upon noticing that the Checkpoint Turtle was about to disappear, Strinker spoke in a hurry, "Boss, if you don''t mind, can we follow you on our boats?" "Sure, I don''t mind." Krune waved his hand casually, rather pleased at the company. With some people around him, he wouldn''t become insane. "Then..." Strinker looked at his group and nodded, speaking to Krune, "It''s for the best if we leave right now. The moment the Checkpoint Turtle vanishes, this place would become rowdy as everyone would try to steal the treasures of others." "Hmm, that seems lively." Krune''s eyes lit up at the sound of that. Having been along for a year as a mortal, he had only fought against Monster Geckos. Now, it would be a nice change to see a fight between people. Then again, he had no intentions of taking part in it. His morality wouldn''t allow him to harm another person for no reason. Only if they tried to kill him would he retaliate. As for the rest, he would rather pull his punches or just be content being a spectator. It was odd since the moment he began to converse with Strinker and the others, his values as a cultivator began to return as if the mental state he had exhibited for the past year was a lie. Since he didn''t wish to become a bloodthirsty individual, Krune welcomed the change, turning more and more into his usual self as time passed. Like an island that was sinking, the Checkpoint Turtle retreated deep into the waters, disappearing from view the moment it sunk to a depth beyond 10 meters from the surface. As the light couldn''t reach beyond that, its figure had vanished in the darkness. In the meantime, all the people on its top scrambled to their respective boats or whatever that floated, alarmed at the chaos that would result. Unsurprisingly, there were quite a few people that didn''t have anything to rely on to float on the ocean waters. As for such people, they sprinted towards any vacant boats they saw to row with it first. After all, they couldn''t fight in the presence of the Checkpoint Turtle. If they did, the Checkpoint Turtle would punish them. Just the sheer presence it exuded was enough to suffocate them, not to mention when it attacked them. So, that was the reason no one tried anything while it was there. But, the moment it vanished, it was a free for all battle. Krune noticed a group of people jump into a boat and begin fighting with each other as they tried to push others out into the water. Some of them flailed whatever piece of bone they used as a weapon to injure their opponents. Among them, quite a few had been eyeing Krune''s massive boat. Considering its size, more than ten people could seat themselves on one side. On top of that, there were two sides to take a seat, so it was sizeable property. Upon seeing a group of people swim towards his boat, Krune glanced at Stinker and the group, noticing that they had three boats. Two people sat on each while the three boats were connected to the carcass of a rather large fish. Seated on the fish were the remaining four people. They had used the tough nerves of the fish to create a rope and harnessed its carcass to the three boats. Due to the healing properties in the water, the rope wouldn''t even snap from wear and tear as its damage would be healed constantly. Krune noticed that Strinker''s group was observing his actions. If he failed to show any strength worthy of his large property, it seemed they also planned to take control of his boat. Krune then looked back at the group swimming towards his boat, facing his palm towards them as he unleashed his Neon Radiance, causing them to flinch as they shouted. "Ack!" "My eyes!" "It burns!" They hurriedly opened their eyes while underwater, surfacing after a couple of seconds as they had completely recovered. Though, when they tried to swim towards Krune, the Neon Radiance struck their eyes once again. Even though Krune didn''t use the Ocean Heart, with the improvement in his physique, the intensity of his Neon Radiance was harmful to the eyes, especially since the surroundings were dimming as the night approached. So, the potency of his ability was great. Every time they tried to approach his boat, Krune caused them to flinch and cover their eyes in pain. Even though they weren''t injured, they were unable to close in on Krune. Seeing the scene, and especially the ability Krune displayed, Strinker and his group shuddered. There was slight fear in his eyes as Strinker gazed at Krune, stuttering, "N-Neon Radiance?" Chapter 952: Trouble Strikes as Usual Neon Radiance. It''s a rare ability only a select few among the first batch possessed. Those that possessed this passive ability were all strong. After all, it meant that not only did they survive through the First Wave, they also killed the Neon Radiance King to obtain the ability. Those with the ability were ranked in the top hundred of Layer 2. Considering the fact that around ten million people were brought into the place every month, it meant that competition was getting tougher with each passing day. With tougher competition arose figures that stood above the rest, making up the Top 100. Every person in this ranking was tremendously powerful, despite only being mortals. It was because of the passive abilities they had obtained, as well as their fighting methods. Normally, the passive ability one possessed was random since the two oceans were vast. Nevertheless, the only widely known passive ability was Neon Radiance. It was because this ability could only be obtained during the Waves. Once the First Wave ended, all the Neon Radiance Fishes vanished. Hence, it was impossible to obtain that ability again. And since everyone with that ability was among those in the top 100, it was widely known. Even the group of people that were trying to head towards Krune''s boat stopped after trying for a couple of seconds, realizing the ability they were facing. Even if they were unwilling, they no longer had the guts to approach his boat. Then again, despite that, they didn''t wish to let go of any chances, slowly floating on the ocean waters as they drifted a fair distance away from his boat, following him. After seeing their intentions, Krune didn''t mind their actions. Instead, he felt that it would be fun since he would no longer be bored. Krune took out the rope he had and tied it on one end on one of the four pillars forming his boat. He then threw the rope towards the group of people, saying, "Hold it so that you won''t drown. I won''t allow anyone to board my boat. With that said, I hope you don''t annoy me too much." The moment he threw the rope, the group of people scrambled to grab hold of it as sounds of relief resounded amongst them. Even though their conditions weren''t great as they had to remain on the water, at least the rope would prevent them from drowning. Strinker and his group watched Krune''s actions, unable to guess the thoughts that ran in his mind. If they judged based on appearance alone, Krune looked like a monster thanks to his skin armor. As the Monster Gecko skin armor covered his entire body, face included, it made him look like a bloodthirsty individual. This was the reason Strinker hadn''t made a move on Krune yet. He was deterred by Krune''s appearance and stature. If it was the old kind-looking Krune, he would have definitely tried to take control of his boat. ''Just who is this guy?'' Strinker thought as he double-tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet to pull up a certain page. It was the list of those who were in the top 100. From the first rank to the hundredth, Strinker looked through it completely, failing to find anyone by the name of Krune. Eventually, he was unable to rein in his curiosity, facing Krune as he asked, "Sir, what is your rank?" "Rank? What''s that?" Krune frowned as he asked in response, unaware. Seeing his reply, Strinker was caught off guard. He wondered if Krune was actually from the first batch, as he had said. Within a couple of seconds, numerous scenarios flashed through his mind as he noticed how Krune had never displayed any bloodthirst. His cruel appearance was the only thing going for him. Beyond that, he hadn''t shown any offensive nature. Even for the group of people that tried to take his boat, he lent them a helping hand, even if it was just throwing them a rope to remain afloat. It made Strinker assume that Krune was actually weak and was just putting up a front. He didn''t have it in him to fight against others and was just making up an excuse to save himself. Thinking as such, he displayed the contents of his tablet to Krune, saying, "This is the ranking." Krune unleashed some light as he brightened up the area, allowing him to stare at the tablet better. He then frowned as he asked, "Since when was such a list introduced? Anyways, how did you pull up that list?" "When I tap five times on the tablet, this information pops up. The information displayed on the tablet changes according to the number of taps." Strinker replied, wondering how Krune managed to survive without even knowing about something so basic. ''Strange.'' Krune frowned, wondering if he had attempted that in the past when he was experimenting with the tablet. Soon, he realized that he wasn''t clear about what he had experimented with. All he knew was that he didn''t get anything from the tablet. Thinking as such, he summoned his tablet and tapped on it five times, immediately watching a stream of data be displayed. [Double Ocean: Godly Point Rankings] [Rank 1: Princess Zamuria (142 Godly Points)] [Rank 2: Hrook (127 Godly Points)] . . [Rank 27: Cultivator (87 Godly Points)] . . [Rank 100: Daelleur (64 Godly Points)] [Rank 798: Krune (34 Godly Points)] Only the top hundred ranks were displayed. Beyond that was his rank. Upon seeing that he was way below his expectations, Krune was disappointed for a moment. Then, he smiled a moment later as he muttered inwardly, ''It''s only interesting this way. With my advantages, I''ll soon catch up to them.'' "Well, it seems I''m pretty far behind," Krune muttered. Upon hearing his casual tone, Strinker was unable to judge the emotion Krune was actually feeling. He hoped Krune was just putting up a strong front and wasn''t actually unfazed by everything. After forming his thoughts, he asked, "May I know your rank?" "Sure." Krune nodded casually as he replied, "It''s rank 798." ''Not overly high, but still high enough.'' Strinker controlled his urges, intending to take it slow and make a move only when the situation looked right for him. A cultivator had as many Godly Points as his strength dictated. The stronger they were, the more they hunted and accumulated Godly Points. So, their ranks were a clear indication of their strength. Besides, Strinker had observed a certain trend among those from the first batch. A lot of them had staggeringly high Godly Points. But over the months, the number hadn''t increased as fast as he had thought, considering their high initial numbers. So, he wondered how they accumulated that many Godly Points in the first place. After all, even after being in the place for seven months, he only managed to accumulate three Godly Points. Even that proved to be tremendously hard. If not for the fact two massive fishes fought each other and had sustained enough life-threatening injuries, he wouldn''t have been able to land the final blow on them and reap the Godly Points. And only through that did he accumulate three passive abilities. Among his group, he was already the strongest. After all, only two others in his group had two passive abilities, while the rest only had one passive ability. Surprisingly, they were already considered an elite group because of this. As for the group holding the rope that Krune had thrown, none of them had any passive abilities. If they had been capable of killing a powerful fish, they would have at least used its carcass to build themselves a boat. Or, they hadn''t been lucky until now to chance upon an injured fish that gave them a passive ability upon death, like Strinker. Krune had zero intentions of hunting fishes to give them passive abilities. He wasn''t a saint. On top of that, it wasn''t easy to hunt a fish that was able to give a Godly Point. Every hunt was life-threatening. Only if they had certain elements of luck, coincidence, the proper placing, and perseverance will they be able to destroy one, just like what Krune had done to the Sonic Radar. Thus, he only planned to think about himself. And just when he thought about it, a woman slowly paddled towards his boat. Just when he thought of using the Neon Radiance to prevent her approach, he paused, noticing that the woman barely retained her consciousness. She wasn''t part of the group that held his rope. She seemed to have been severely injured as a couple of bones the shape of knives had been pierced through her back, having injured her lungs. In other words, she wasn''t even able to breathe. Moreover, the stretch of the ocean behind her had a long line of red due to the blood she had lost. She had lost her left arm while her legs seemed to have been riddled with holes. Held on her right arm, secured in her embrace, was a baby, barely a few months old. The baby was currently silent, its body covered with blood that bled from her. It was currently still as its body was turning cold, a sign that it wasn''t far from death. As darkness had set, the woman had been lost. And it was then she noticed a bright light far away, one that seemed capable of sending away the night at the owner''s discretion. Using the last vestiges of her strength, she paddled towards the light source, noticing a figure that seemed even more vicious than the most vicious of monsters. But for some reason, she felt he was her final hope. "Please¡­my child¡­save him¡­" she uttered using the last of her breath, barely lifting her son''s body as she lost all vitality. Her extended hand slowly fell into the ocean as her corpse floated on its surface. Krune frowned, immediately understanding that trouble had knocked at his doorsteps. As someone who had attracted trouble throughout his life, Krune had a sharp radar towards such situations. Seeing the extent of injuries riddled on the woman''s body, he knew that she had offended someone too much that they acted so viciously against her. Then again, he didn''t wish to involve himself with her, so he hadn''t taken any action. The woman died before she reached him. Plus, the fact that she died despite being in the ocean with its healing properties meant that her injuries were life-threatening. In short, even he wouldn''t have been able to save her. "¡­Guah!" Suddenly, the baby cried, stifling him as Krune scowled immediately, no longer able to remain a cold onlooker. He leaned over the edge of the boat and extended his hand, grabbing hold of the baby that had begun to drown in the water, lifting it up. He quickly inspected its condition, frowning for a moment as he placed his palm over its body. He then unleashed a blue radiance as he began to heal it. Coincidentally, at this moment, he noticed another bright spot moving in his direction at breakneck speeds. "Ah shit, here we go again." Chapter 953: Defensive Battle Activating Ocean Heart, Krune used its healing effect and transmitted it through his Neon Radiance, causing the light to turn blue. The light then enveloped the baby, barely instilling some warmth into its body. He quickly used some ocean water to clean the baby before wrapping it in some of the leather he had with him, warming its body up. It didn''t seem to have been injured in any significant way. Though, if he didn''t treat it enough, it was bound to die. Naturally, seeing the death of a baby would never sit well with him. So, Krune continued to heal it as he gazed at the source of light gradually approaching him. It was traveling rapidly, at least around 40-50 kilometers per hour. That speed was way beyond what any boat could hope to achieve through manual paddling. With that, Krune immediately thought of the ten items sold in the Checkpoint Turtle, muttering, "Someone bought a Motor Fish, huh. Well, that''s extravagant." Judging by the way it headed straight towards him without any hesitation, Krune judged that one of the people in the boat had a passive ability related to tracking. Using that, they were able to track the woman that had died just now. As the source of light began to arrive closer, the numerous boats in the place began to paddle away in fear, as if they knew the person that was approaching. It hadn''t been long since the Checkpoint Turtle vanished. So, a lot of the boats were still in the area, only maintaining distance from one another. Right now, they hurriedly began to paddle with all their might to escape. Krune turned around and noticed that the group holding the rope had begun to swim away in fear, deserting the place. As for Strinker, he too seemed to agree, quickly turning around as he tried to escape. In his eyes was fear, judging by his hurried posture. Krune shouted towards him, "Strinker, who''s that?" Upon hearing his question, Strinker didn''t even turn around to answer, just urging his group to paddle faster as they escaped. Krune didn''t follow him, though, as it wasn''t possible for him alone to paddle and escape. Besides, it was apparent that the target was approaching his boat. It seemed that they were able to track both the woman and her baby. So, as long as Krune didn''t abandon the baby, they would come for him. Besides, he wouldn''t be able to paddle and escape from the chaser that was using a Motor Fish to move through the waters. So, Krune had no other choice but to face them head-on. Because he had been in numerous situations like this one, he wasn''t even mad at the woman. He just sighed, noticing her corpse float on the water beside his boat. The area lit up as the enemy boat arrived at the place. It was a rather large boat because they had followed a similar setup as Krune. Then again, their boat didn''t seem like a single construct. Rather, it was a series of boats that were joined together into one. All the boats were those obtained from the Bone Arsenal. At present, there were five boats on each ocean surface. So, whoever it was, they had spent 20 Godly Points on this alone. Though, judging by the way everyone scurried off, it seemed that their ship hadn''t been created by expending their own Godly Points but by pillaging it from others. Five boats were joined together to form a base on each ocean while a thick mast stemmed from the boat in the center, connecting the two rows of boats together. In fact, this was only the main boat. There were numerous double boats¡ªcreated by joining two boats from the Bone Arsenal together¡ªtrailing right behind it, numbering six in total, three per ocean. Trailing further behind them were individual boats, numbering 18 in total, nine per ocean. All of them were connected to one another in a triangular formation. Overall, it was a collective force as Krune could spot at least 30 people in it. At the front of the main boat were the Motor Fishes, two per ocean. There was a total of four Motor Fishes propelling the entire construct, costing a staggering amount of Godly Points almost in the three digits. It seemed that they had been raiding a lot, considering they had chased after the place where the Checkpoint Turtle had been until now. As people would have arrived there to exchange their Godly Points for treasures, pillaging them would be the easiest ticket to power and wealth in the place. But this time, it seemed that they weren''t just here because of the treasures, as they didn''t even target the boats that were paddling away. The construct stopped ten meters before Krune''s boat as a man stood at its front, staring at Krune as he observed him. Upon seeing that Krune''s body was also emitting a gentle neon glow, he was startled for a moment, cursing his luck to come across someone from the top hundred. Nevertheless, he wasn''t scared. Even if the other party was from the top hundred, he was just a single person. They had more than thirty people on their side, and their boss was also someone from the top hundred. So, he wasn''t the least bit afraid. He then focused on his senses, trailing towards a dead figure in the water before Krune''s boat, smiling. "So, she''s finally dead. Good riddance." "Then, what about her baby?" He then focused further as he frowned, sensing the baby in Krune''s boat. He turned around, looking at his boss, telling him, "Boss, the baby''s still alive." The boss was a man with a large stature, possessing thick arms that were equivalent to a regular person''s legs. He was seated on a comfortable chair, overlooking everything. On top of that, there was the handle of a sword placed before him. Though, it was in reverse, with the blade lodged into the boat above. The tip of the handle stopped right at his forehead. He possessed scaly eyes that maintained a permanent frown. With that, he gazed at Krune, noticing that the other party was alone. He then observed Krune''s boat, speaking, "He has an incredible boat. It seems to have taken considerable work to complete something of such scale. He probably did that while in a Primary Landmass or something." The boss then looked at Krune, shouting, "The baby in your hand belongs to me. Return him!" "What will you do with him?" Krune replied, frowning as he noticed some of the people among the group jumping into the ocean and swimming through it, circling his boat first. ''It seems a fight is unavoidable.'' He sighed, bending as he picked up his Whale Tooth Sword. As for the Whale Tooth Daggers, they were already hoisted around his hips. In the case any fish might attack him, he was always ready. "That''s for me to decide." the boss replied with a grunt, observing that Krune was calm all along. He then acted politely to make Krune let go of his guard, saying, "Let''s introduce each other first. I''m Gajor, the boss of this little force. What are you called?" "I''m Krune," Krune replied as he hoisted the Whale Tooth Sword on his shoulder. "Let''s cut the chatter, shall we? It''s best if pirates like the lot of you remained in character." "Fine then." Gajor laughed, waving his hand to his group as he coldly commanded, "Kill him." No sooner did he give the command did the people in the ocean accelerate and jump out like fishes, heading straight at Krune. For a moment, Krune didn''t know if they were humans or fishes, considering the incredible manner in which they jumped. They had sharp weapons in their hands, resembling knives and picks. As they were about to touch his boat, Krune smiled as the intense sound of his heartbeat resounded in the place. He gently placed the baby on his bed, taking action instantaneously. Ocean Heart! Neon Radiance! The intense light he emitted elicited screams from them as their eyes bled from the intensity. At the same time, Krune lashed out with the Whale Tooth Sword, hacking their heads, killing four people easily. "Tch!" Gajor scowled as he lost four men. It had taken him a lot of effort to grow them over the month, so it was a major loss when they died. He then shouted, "Ram his boat! We''ll deal with him once he''s in the water." The Motor Fishes then flapped their fins, causing the construct to accelerate towards Krune''s boat, intending to ram into it. But, the moment they approached closer, Krune grinned, crouching low before jumping out of his boat, heading straight towards the Motor Fishes, intending to kill them first. Seeing his choice of action, Gajor frowned as he pulled out his sword in a hurry and jumped forward, meeting Krune''s blade. Though, at the moment they clashed, he grunted, almost being overpowered by Krune. Followed by the slash, Krune let go of his Whale Tooth Sword, pulling out his two Whale Tooth Daggers as he swiped at Gajor''s legs, drawing out blood. But when he tried to close in on him, Gajor emitted the same Neon Radiance, causing Krune to grunt as he stumbled. To protect himself, he had also unleashed blinding light, brightening up the entire place. The intensity of the light was to the extent those fleeing from the area noticed their surroundings light up like it was the evening. All of them turned around simultaneously, noticing the brightly lit ocean. There were two sources of Neon Radiance, their rays apparent like sunlight that shone in from a room''s window. But suddenly, one of the lights, the stronger one, turned white as everyone felt an intense chill. Krune grabbed hold of his Whale Tooth Sword and slashed horizontally, making a wide sweep. He wasn''t able to see much, so all he could do was make wide attacks. He then faced his back towards Gajor, noticing a couple of people try to enter his boat. Krune leaped from the place and slashed out with his sword, killing one of them. He then pulled out his Whale Tooth Dagger and plunged it into the leg of the other, causing him to scream in pain as Krune pulled the dagger downward. Followed by a long laceration, the man was pulled into the water. But immediately, he slipped out and escaped like a fish. Cursing, Krune climbed aboard his boat, noticing that the baby was fine. It seemed to be on the verge of crying but hadn''t uttered any sound yet. "Tch." Krune grunted as he looked at the people surrounding his boat. It seemed that all of the pirates had an ability that allowed them to move faster in the water. That was why he was facing so much difficulty in landing a decisive attack on them. Chapter 954: The Seamstress Appears Again Even if he wished to deal with the pirates, Krune couldn''t leave the baby alone. Without it having protection, it could be killed mid-fight. After all, the pirates had impressive mobility in the water. Observing their actions, he determined that they weren''t even swimming through the water. There was a mysterious force that generated currents around their bodies, propelling them forward. But thanks to the light he emitted, and due to the high-tension battle, Krune''s attention span was magnified. He immediately noticed that the Motor Fishes also moved in the same manner, thinking to himself, ''So, all of them have a passive ability related to the Motor Fishes? Hmmm...they''re only worth 7 Godly Points in the Checkpoint Turtle, while I had to spend 20 Godly Points to buy Underwater Breathing. So, did they figure out a method like what I did with the Monster Geckos?'' "What the heck? It''s freezing all of a sudden!" The pirates cursed all of a sudden as they retreated into the water, using the warmth from the water to shield themselves from the cold. The source was Krune, who activated his cold blood and transmitted the freezing effect through his Neon Radiance. Of course, its effect wasn''t that intense as he had directed it everywhere. Not only that, but since the ocean waters were warm, as long as the pirates jumped into it, they would be okay. Besides, Krune couldn''t freeze up part of the ocean. Even if he had recovered his cultivation base, it would be a difficult feat, not to mention now. He quickly retracted the freezing effect and deactivated his Neon Radiance, relying on Sonic Radar as he began to breathe rapidly in quick sessions using his mouth. Through this, he emitted weak sounds that allowed him to perceive the entire surroundings. Krune then pulled out a fishing rod and slapped it out, causing the hook to plunge into the nose of a jumping pirate. He then tugged it with all his strength, causing the pirate to scream as part of his nose was torn off. He continued to scream while moving within the ocean. Upon seeing that they had a greater advantage due to their mobility in water, Krune took out the fishing rods, using them to hook his foes. Upon seeing his adaptability to the situation, Gajor frowned. ''This guy is good, but how come I don''t remember seeing his name on the top hundred rankings?'' Gajor thought as he called out, "Heuk, can you sense any weakness in him?" "I can''t find any," Heuk observed Krune''s fighting style as he responded. "He seems too attuned to a defensive battle as if he lived with shields all his life. Then again, this guy isn''t normal, boss." "I feel the same." Gajor nodded. "Well, let''s probe his strength first before making any other moves. It is a loss, but most of them are disposable anyway. Might as well put them to good use." As his subordinate, Heuk nodded and instructed his men. Gajor then gazed at Krune, watching the other party flash a smile his way before turning off his Neon Radiance. For a moment, Gajor felt like his heart would leap out of his chest, sensing danger from Krune. ''Very few are able to make me feel this way. This guy is definitely a monster.'' ''But!'' He smiled. ''If you were still a cultivator, it might have been a different issue. Sadly, you''re just a mortal. Your stamina is limited. You will tire out soon enough and won''t be able to rely on any passive abilities. But on my side, those pirates are just disposable pawns. Once I weaken you enough, I can easily finish you off.'' But just when he chuckled, one of Gajor''s passive abilities activated, warning him of another incoming danger. This was a danger-sensing ability that he managed to obtain after spending three months chasing after a certain fish. Only after he had obtained it was he able to roam around as a pirate and manage to survive up till now. Everything was because of the danger-sensing passive ability he had obtained. At the moment he sensed the danger, Gajor commanded Heuk immediately, "Retreat!" Heuk, too, was privy of the danger-sensing passive ability his boss possessed. So without asking any questions, he shouted for them to retreat, confusing the pirates for a moment before they hurried off to retreat. And right at this moment, a figure swam through the water at breakneck speeds before slashing the cage with a motor fish, severing it from the pirate construct. Gajor jumped forth with his sword and slashed with all his might as the entity within lightly parried his attack before making another slash on the second Motor Fish cage, severing it as well from the pirate construct. The blade that severed it emitted intense heat even though its texture resembled a coral. Upon seeing the signature blade, Gajor hurried his men while shouting, "Damn, it''s the Seamstress! Retreat! Retreat!" Their pirate construct quickly sped away as the remaining two Motor Fishes worked harder. While they were escaping, the heated blade flashed a couple of times, severing some of the boats from the construct. The pirates on those boats quickly jumped from the boats, carrying with them the items they had pillaged. They climbed aboard the other intact boats and watched as the construct sped up, throwing off the entity that was chasing after them. After all, with two Motor Fishes, they were capable of moving at speeds beyond an individual was capable of, despite relying on related passive abilities. Thus, the entity called the Seamstress was no longer able to give chase. Once they had disappeared far away, a figure surfaced, slightly exhausted. Sporting a look like she was in her late twenties, the lady''s blue hair was highlighted by the Neon Radiance she emitted at a weak intensity. She then swam through the water before pulling the couple of boats she had severed, attaching them to the two Motor Fish cages. She then climbed aboard them before slowly paddling towards Krune. She then spoke when they were nearby, asking, "Are you okay?" "Yes," Krune replied while carrying the baby, using his healing effect to heal it. When he had set it aside while fighting, its condition had worsened. With that, he had to heal it further so that it wouldn''t die. Unfortunately, despite having wrapped it in the leather blanket, its body was getting colder. The moment she noticed the baby''s condition, the Seamstress moved closer until her boat touched him. She then extended her hand, touching the baby''s forehead before frowning. "The baby is losing its body heat." "I''m already healing him. Do you have a better solution?" Krune inquired, not wary of the other party. He heard Gajor''s shout as they tried to escape. He addressed the lady as the Seamstress. Surprisingly, that was a name even he had heard about. After all, when they were traveling towards the Four Sectors'' Border Region, Cultivator had informed him of some of the interesting people he met. Since he was the type of person to only care about nature and almost never about people, when he called someone interesting, they were bound to be unique individuals. With that, he had described the Seamstress as a mad woman that still followed the ideals she had when she was a five-year-old. In order to instill peace upon the land, she went around using her Spiritual Incarnation to convert all the bandits and other notorious figures into selfless individuals who wished to bring peace to the world. She instilled in them a sense of innocence while granting them power, subtly changing their mindset to make them better individuals. Even though bringing peace in the God Realm was impossible, she was making an effort through her own strength. Thus, she had accumulated considerable fame because of that. Surprisingly, the number of followers she had was staggering, almost enough to rival the armies of a couple of cities combined. That much power in the hands of an individual that wasn''t even an immortal was an astounding feat. On top of that, she was a smart lady, capable of scheming when necessary. But despite everything, she stubbornly wished to uphold the ideals she had as a child and strived forth accordingly. As the one who said this was Cultivator, Krune wasn''t averse towards the lady before him. And since Cultivator had also shown him her appearance, he could recognize her. ''But, she looks very young now. As a cultivator, she seemed to be in her sixties, but now, she looks like she''s only in her twenties.'' "I can help," the Seamstress said, retracting her hand lightly as she could feel the essence of the ocean in the blue light Krune emitted. She then focused as her hand emitted a gentle heat, selectively wrapping around the baby. The heat was warm, soon instilling some vigor in the baby. Simultaneously, Krune''s healing effect instilled more and more vitality in the baby. Soon, the baby began to make crying sounds. The moment they heard it, Krune and the Seamstress beamed at each other with a smile. The baby had survived. "Is he your son?" the Seamstress looked around, trying to find the mother of the child. Judging by his age, she wondered if the mother had delivered him while in the Sub-Realm. "No, she gave him to me before dying." Krune pointed towards a floating figure on the other side of his boat. "For some reason, those pirates had been chasing after her." Following his gaze, the Seamstress noticed the stabbed figure of a woman floating on the ocean water. The water currents caused her body to hit Krune''s boat every once in a while. The moment she noticed the vicious manner in which he was stabbed, the Seamstress fumed in anger. Nevertheless, she quickly controlled herself, taking deep breaths as she calmed down before performing a prayer to the lady. "May your vitality flow into the ocean and birth new life." She then turned around, cupping her fists to Krune as she told him, "Then, I''ll take my leave." Saying so, she just turned around, intending to command the Motor Fishes when suddenly, Krune raised his hand, asking her, "Please wait." Chapter 955: Gajor and Gehen "Please wait." Krune raised his hand and spoke aloud. The Seamstress turned around, looking at Krune as she faintly increased the intensity of her Neon Radiance, taking a better look at Krune. Even though the skin armor covered Krune from head to toe, making him resemble a monster that was almost similar to a Monster Gecko, due to the experience she had accumulated, she knew that Krune wasn''t a bloodthirsty individual. It was an instinct of hers that she had honed through her life. Even though it seemed like Krune had some problematic inclinations, overall, he was a decent individual. That was why she wasn''t completely guarded against him. "Yes?" she said after turning around, noticing the way Krune held the baby, noticing his mild awkwardness in doing so but still did a good job. She determined that when Krune was a cultivator, he had experience raising a child. "What are you planning to do now?" Krune could not help but ask. "Before the pirates pillage any more from the scattered people, I''ll stop them," the Seamstress replied. "Why don''t we move together, then?" Krune suggested as he pointed at the baby. "For some reason, the pirates targeted this baby first and didn''t bother with the escaping people. So, they''re bound to attack here again." "Then, you wish for me to protect you from harm?" the Seamstress could not help but frown after hearing his words. "No, I can take care of myself," Krune replied. "But when the pirates attack again, it would be helpful if you can protect the baby while I take care of them." "The boss of those pirates is Gajor, ranked 75th in this place. Are you saying you can handle him?" the Seamstress looked at Krune from top to bottom before asking, "What''s your name?" "Krune," Krune replied. "I can''t say for certain if I would be able to finish him since I lack mobility in water like the pirates. But with some footing, I can defeat them." "Are you that confident?" the Seamstress frowned as she asked, intending to test his strength. "Yes, they were attacking me for some time before you arrived." Krune pointed at the corpses floating on the water. There were six of them in total. The rest weren''t killed, only severely injured. They managed to escape after that. The Seamstress looked at Krune''s figure, noticing that he hadn''t suffered any damage. With that, she nodded in response, replying, "Alright, I''ll accompany you, then." She then tied the boats to the side of Krune''s boat, one per each and harnessed the caged Motor Fishes, one on the front, and the other on the back, saying, "The Motor Fishes can only swim in a straight line. So, this arrangement allows us to advance and retreat when necessary." Once she was done, she grabbed Krune''s extended hand and climbed into his boat before gazing at his oar, noticing that it was able to change the direction of the boat by affecting both oceans. This way, it was more effective than trying to change the boat''s direction using the oar on one ocean surface alone. Only now did she notice the numerous compartments, the bed, a boxing bag, the Whale Tooth Sword hanging on one of the walls, etc. Upon seeing the elaborate setup, she was shocked as she asked, "How were you able to create this?" "I spent a lot of time while I was on the Primary Landmass making this. It has everything I would ever need in this layer," Krune replied with a hint of boasting. After all, he didn''t create it as a cultivator but as a mortal. When he was a cultivator, Krune could make something like the paddle within a day. But as a mortal, he had put in a lot of effort. Besides, he also managed to hide the bone tree within, being able to reap the fruits at regular intervals. Based on what he tested while he was on the Primary Landmass, there were four compartments to produce the bone tree fruits. And in each compartment, there were two fruit-bearing branches. So, with enough supply, a fruit ripened every day. And now, as the paddle was on the water, the bone trees had a lot of supply. Moreover, six people had just died near his boat. Krune looked into the water once, noticing no traces of blood. All of it had been absorbed by the bone trees forming the inner layer of his boat. So, this time, his harvest would be greater. Krune thought as such when the Seamstress whistled once, causing one of the Motor Fishes to begin pulling the boat. Seeing the speeds his boat began to travel at, Krune was surprised as he could not help but say, "Wow, this is fast." "Yes, the Motor Fishes are a species created specifically for this." The Seamstress nodded in agreement. Krune then thought for a moment before deciding to ask, "Can you tell me the method you used to obtain its ability as a passive ability? I''ll repay you accordingly." "How do you plan to repay me?" the Seamstress asked in response as she looked at him with curiosity. Krune didn''t just ask for her secret but offered an appropriate reward. So, her opinion of him had improved. Besides, she did have a good opinion of him from the start. "I have a method to condense an ability to its limit. So, it would be at its strongest state," Krune replied with confidence. The Seamstress shuddered once as she thought over it through, realizing that the person before him was kind of unfathomable. Normally, she wouldn''t have been too much shocked. But in the current situation, they had only been on the layer for a bit more than a year. It wasn''t a long enough duration to accumulate anything terrifying. Even if a person possessed terrifying strength, it could just be regarded that they had accumulated a lot of Godly Points from Layer 4 and had used it in the Checkpoint Turtle to gain benefits. But, it seemed that the advantages Krune accumulated were from the layer itself. After all, his name wasn''t in the top hundred. So, he wouldn''t have possessed enough Godly Points to gain anything much from the Checkpoint Turtle. "Alright, I hope you aren''t lying." Even though the Seamstress spoke as such, she was able to judge that Krune wasn''t lying. That was the reason she was shocked in the first place. She then pointed at the Motor Fish in the front, soon telling Krune, "Keep them beside your flanks and kill them with a single slash. When their blood mixes and touches you, you''ll gain their passive ability. As they only possess this one trait, you will get the passive ability, Moving Water." "Fair enough." Krune nodded. "Then, we would need one more Motor Fish. I guess we''ll have to wait until we find the pirates once again." "Actually," the Seamstress spoke. "The reason all the pirates have this ability is that they found a cove where a lot of Motor Fishes live. Gajor trapped them in that area and forced them to breed while nurturing more Motor Fishes to kill and obtain the passive ability. It''s because of this is why it''s hard to catch him since all his men are able to travel freely in the water." "And..." She spoke, "I managed to locate this place. But, there are too many people guarding it. I can''t determine how, but Gajor managed to make more than two hundred people follow him. Even as we speak, they''re trying to use all the stolen goods to create a large ship that they can use to dominate the oceans. On top of that, he''s actually building it around the cove." Followed by a sigh, she continued, "This cove is just a piece of floating rock. So, with enough power, it can be moved. With that, it will give him a piece of land to establish his base. Since it''s the breeding ground of the Motor Fishes, he would be able to accumulate more power as time passes. And from what I saw once, he also has a lot of captives." "So, it''s a pirate den with around 200 pirates, not to mention Gajor, who''s among the top hundred in the rankings." Krune nodded before asking, "How many strong men does he have?" "Among Gajor''s pirates, there are two noteworthy people. The first is Heuk, in charge of scouting and tracking. I can''t fathom the passive Ability he obtained, but they are pretty unique and have mysterious effects," the Seamstress replied. "The second one is named Frontiff, the second strongest person in their group. He has a mysterious ability that works similar to the Helper Whistle sold in the Checkpoint Turtle. It''s because of him that I was never able to defeat them. After that, most of the other pirates are disposable to Gajor. He only values these two." "But now that they''re here, wouldn''t his base have lacking defenses?" Krune proposed. "We can simply raid the place and free the captives." "That''s not easy to achieve. First of all, even if they''re weak, there are 200 pirates in that place. Secondly, there are three more noteworthy people there that are strong. Among them is Gehen, Gajor''s twin brother. His abilities are mysterious, and he ranks at 70th place. He''s stronger than Gajor." The Seamstress sighed as she continued, "I attacked their base once, but as soon as I did that, Gajor returned. I think he''s able to sense anything related to his base somehow." "Seems fairly complicated." Krune sighed as he muttered, "At least, on land, I am many times stronger. I should be able to handle quite a lot of them." "It''s still hard," the Seamstress said as she picked up a wooden whistle. "This is a Helper Whistle. Gajor and Gehen have relied on this to hunt really powerful fishes. Using all their Godly Points, they have only purchased these. So, when their lives are truly threatened, you can expect a swarm of predator fishes that would try to kill you." "Gajor and Gehen, huh..." Krune muttered. "Truly a troublesome duo." Chapter 956: Confiding Abilities Krune soon noticed that while they had been talking, the Seamstress had been panting a little, a sign of exhaustion. It seemed she had been on the trail of the pirates all along and hadn''t managed to get enough rest yet. ''This isn''t good.'' Krune thought before asking her, "Do you want to eat something?" He didn''t even wait for a reply as he approached a relatively large cupboard, opened it and used the knife lodged within to scoop up some slices of meat. He then placed them on a plate and presented them to the Seamstress before telling her, "The taste is bland since there aren''t any spices. But, it is edible." "Thank you," the Seamstress replied, expressing her surprise when Krune gave her cutlery to use and also pulled up a piece of board from the walls that he used to set up a temporary table. The arrangements were a bit crude in any other place. However, they were luxurious in the ocean area, where people were constantly adrift and didn''t have enough space or materials to create anything elaborate. And in such a situation, Krune managed to create basically everything he needed. Upon seeing her reaction, Krune asked, "Did you spend the past year on these waters?" Hearing his question, her eyes lit up as she asked in response, "Were you from the first batch as well?" "I''m from the Zamuria Continent." Krune nodded. "So, you must have heard about me." The Seamstress nodded after hearing his words, realizing why Krune was being polite with her all along. "A crazy genius did praise your efforts. Plus, he''s the type to never care about people. With that, I could recognize you immediately." Krune smiled as he began to eat quickly. Well, even though he was speaking, he had kept his Sonic Radar active all along. So, his speech acted as signals that scouted their surroundings and ensured they weren''t ambushed by anyone. Now that he was on the ocean once again, Krune realized just how overpowered the Sonic Radar was in terms of detection. He basically had no limitations over the range. "What was his name? Maybe I might know him," the Seamstress expressed her curiosity as she asked. At present, the two of them emitted a gentle light, keeping the place well illuminated. This way, they were able to eat at peace. "He called himself Cultivator." The moment he mentioned the name, the hands of Seamstress paused for a couple of seconds before resuming her eating. She looked at Krune like he was a monster before saying, "A crazy genius indeed." As Cultivator was from her continent, she knew of him very well. Considering his antics, anyone he considered as a companion would be equally as powerful and eccentric as him. With that, she began to treat Krune on the same level as she would have done to Cultivator, thinking to herself, ''I''m curious of his abilities as a cultivator. Hopefully, I''ll get a chance to see once we leave this place.'' "Well, it wasn''t just because of your character that I invited you. It''s also because you won''t try anything on this boat and would be able to sense anything amiss instantly," Krune spoke, noticing that the Seamstress wasn''t completely confused, realizing that she had indeed sensed some danger from within the boat. "Well, just consider this boat as a beast that would devour you if you carelessly touch it." The Seamstress was alarmed when Krune waved his hand, speaking after a chuckle. "There''s nothing to be worried about. I have closed it under multiple layers. On top of that, you''ll only be affected if you touch it with an open wound. Otherwise, you''ll be fine." "I see." The Seamstress nodded as she finished eating. She then landed on the boat tied beside and crouched, using the ocean water to clean the plate. After finishing his meal, Krune, too, did the same. Satiated, he observed the baby once, wondering how he would feed it. "Directly feeding him meat would be harmful. Supplying the nutrients through a juice of sorts would be appropriate," the Seamstress said when Krune stared at her in silence, continuing to look at her. Only after a couple of seconds did she realize his intention, snorting as she replied, "I don''t have breast milk." "Then, there is only one option," Krune muttered as he cut out a cube-sized piece of meat from the cupboard that stored meat. He then placed it on top of something and took in a deep breath, activating his Ocean Heart as he used its healing effect. By activating his Neon Radiance, he emitted a blue beam of light into the meat cube, increasing the intensity as the Seamstress could feel its effects even from far away. She was shocked internally, able to sense the image of the ocean appear in her mind as she concentrated on the blue beam of light for long. ''As expected of a friend of Cultivator,'' she thought as she observed. ''He has the Neon Radiance and is able to use it to heal others. A rather valuable ability since its effect looks many times better than the healing effect in the ocean.'' "What do you plan to do with this?" the Seamstress asked after observing for some time. "Well," Krune spoke after a moment of thought, speaking without any hesitation. Through his experience, he was able to judge that the Seamstress was someone who could be trusted. Well, having a teammate would help him on his journey and allow him to harvest Godly Points faster. "My healing ability is no different from the Water Essence sold in the Checkpoint Turtle. Since it can even regenerate limbs, I''m planning to seep the essence in this piece of flesh and then squeeze it so that I can obtain some in liquid form. Feeding the baby this would be better, right?" "Hopefully. Indeed, it might be better." She nodded, speaking after a moment of thought, steering the boat at times, "Since we''ve decided to act as a team, let''s introduce ourselves further." She pointed at herself before saying, "My goal to arrive at this place was to prevent people from slaughtering each other in the face of treasures. I thought I would be able to do something with the followers I brought. But all of us were separated at Layer 4, and I haven''t managed to see anyone yet. I hoped to see at least one of them since the Checkpoint Turtle is able to pull us towards itself automatically upon its arrival, but unfortunately, none of my followers are here." "I have filled all five of my passive ability slots." She then lifted her hand, showing a coral sword as she explained, "This is my most important ability, Coral Wave. It''s an accumulation-based ability when I slowly create coral on my body. It is also developed by consuming the deposits from my body. Among its uses, one is to store the healing effects in the ocean water and store it inside the created coral. This way, it would eventually be able to condense a Water Essence. Though, just as that Octopus had said, it took me a year to do so." "Since it''s stronger than a normal passive ability, I began to call it a mutated passive ability. The second one is called Heat Radiance, a mutated version of Neon Radiance. Using this ability, I can also emit heat when necessary. With that said, I can even emit a domain beyond which my heat of light will not move. They will simply lose power and vanish beyond the designated point." Saying so, she emitted heat from her palm, warming up the place a little. "My third ability is Bubble Touch, something I rely on all the time. It allows me to mark any place I touch, whether it''s stationary or moving. That works as a compass for me, so I can track anyone easily." She smiled before continuing, "My fourth ability is Thermal Sight, allowing me to see all heat signatures. While using Heat Radiance, I can increase the effectiveness of this ability." She then displayed her dagger, causing it to emit intense heat enough to melt objects upon touch, stating with a smug expression, "My Coral Wave and Heat Radiance are completely synchronized to one another. So, I use the Heat Radiance to refine my corals and improve their quality. This way, I can continue to increase the power of my sword without limit. Also, I store a lot of heat inside and just release it in times of necessity." "And with that, the final ability is Moving Water." The Seamstress smiled, motioning for Krune to talk about his abilities so that the two of them coordinate with greater ease in future battles. As they were bound to use the abilities, information about them would be known anyway. So, it was best to learn about them first hand so that they could use the knowledge to their advantage and fuel their growth further. As he heard details regarding her abilities, Krune was in awe. The Seamstress had passive abilities that greatly complemented one another. And most of all, the Coral Wave was an accumulation-based ability. His Spiritual Incarnation and Cultivator''s Spiritual Incarnation were accumulation-based. So, Krune knew the advantages of such an ability. At the start, it would be super weak. But in its later stages, it would become overpowered. Krune then expressed his doubts as he asked, "Why do you not have Underwater Breathing? Surely considering your rank, you must have more than enough Godly Points to obtain it. In this layer, being able to breathe underwater is a must." Krune had said it because the Seamstress was ranked 64th, rather high. With that, there wasn''t any wide gap between her rank and the one at 50th place. Most of them were close to one another. There was a good chance everyone among the top 100 would have been cultivators with Spiritual Incarnations. Only then would they have been able to obtain sufficient Godly Points in layer 4. So, having such a high rank was incredible. This was to be noted that all along, even Krune had never slacked and had always been trying to increase his advantages. Sure, he spent most of his time in Layer 4 trying to create Pestlor. But even then, it showed the competition in the place. Hearing his question, the Seamstress laughed as she replied, "That is because even if it isn''t efficient, Moving Water allows us to breathe to a certain extent. Efficiency-wise, it''s only half of Underwater Breathing. But, this ability is just a plus while allowing us to move in water at great speeds. With a simple comparison, and considering our limited five slots for passive ability, it is apparent which one is superior, right?" "That it is." Krune nodded, sighing as he began to talk about his passive abilities. Once he spoke about Ocean Heart, it was the Seamstress''s turn to look at him with her mouth agape, astounded. Chapter 957: An Organisation of Pirates? "There, there, there. There is more than enough still." Krune smiled as the baby began to drink the liquid he fed it. It was the extract he had taken after squeezing a piece of meat after filling it to the brim with his healing ability. Normally, he was only able to emit the healing effect through his Neon Radiance. But now, by focusing it on the piece of meat, he allowed the energy to heal the muscles forming the piece of meat, revitalizing its individual cells. This way, he soaked it up full of the healing effect. After that happened, he squeezed it dry, obtaining some liquid. It was in a concentrated form, barely amounting to 10 milliliters. He then drank a bit first, finding that it tasted better than he had expected. It was fully nutritious, and once consumed, it began to circulate through his body, alleviating the slight tension in his body. "This is better than I had expected," Krune muttered in surprise as he gave it to the Seamstress, allowing her to sample a little of it as well. Upon tasting it, she could feel its effects, nodding with widened eyes. "This is truly great, you know? When you''re free, make some and store them in a container. It would prove to be useful later. It can be used for nourishment during the time we can''t find any fish. Better to use this when there''s a surplus," she spoke in a string, watching Krune listen to her in silence. Krune then diluted the extract using the ocean water that he had filtered and fed it to the baby in little quantities, watching the baby smile happily while drinking it. "It seems that he likes the taste." All along, the boat had been traveling through the ocean, being pulled by the Motor Fish at the front. The Seamstress was rowing it by using the oar. On top of that, using her passive ability, Bubble Touch, she was able to sense the direction the bandits were heading towards. All this time, they had come across numerous people floating aimlessly on the ocean with distraught expressions. Whatever they had saved up over the months while adrift on the ocean and the items from the Checkpoint Turtle they had bought with their accumulated Godly Points, all of them had been snatched by the bandits. Moreover, she focused on their foreheads, frowning when she was no longer able to see the dots on them. Upon noticing the same, Krune cursed, "So, the bandits are stealing their tablets as well? Quite despicable." He then expressed his curiosity as she asked her, "Do you wish to save them?" "If by saving them, you mean to shelter them on the boats I have, then you''re mistaken. I won''t do something like that." The Seamstress shook her head, causing Krune to look at her in surprise. "After all, it''s not like surviving is easy for even me. All I will do is ensure the bandits don''t steal their hard-earned items. As for the rest, it''s all up to them. If they wish to reclaim what is rightfully theirs, they have to stand up for it. Despairing as pieces of rocks is not what peace amounts to." "I thought you would try to return their items back to them once you defeated the bandits? Could it be that it wasn''t the case?" Krune expressed his doubt. "Now that we''re all humans, I can say something with assurance. There''s no end to human greed. If I hand them over to these people, there''s a good chance they would turn out no different to the bandits. After all, they''ve experienced loss and despair once already. Whether they like it or not, they would try to project it onto others." The Seamstress vented as she continued, "And, those who aren''t such a type wouldn''t have remained standing while the bandits snatched everything from them." She let out a deep sigh after that. "Peace dulls the hearts and minds of people. It makes them appreciate less of what they have. Even if there are no wars fought or life and death battles that are waged, people would still fight for money, resources, men, women, if nothing else, pride." "The peace I wish to attain and spread around isn''t anything that would create even complex situations and create an even greyer world." She looked forward to this future of hers as she continued, "When seated on a grass-filled plain, hearing the flow of water while watching the setting sun, the breeze that makes a gentle tune in your ears, your state of mind in that situation is exactly the peace I wish to bring about." "So..." Krune gazed forward in the darkness, setting the baby comfortably on the bed to rest as he noticed a faint light far away, "Our objective is to destroy the enemy ship and scatter the items all over the ocean. Without killing the bandits, we just have to make them helpless." "That''s the only option." The Seamstress nodded. "If it was the previous me, I would have been able to affect their thoughts so that they would live as honorable men. But now, we have to drill that notion into them slowly." ''No, that''s the option that seems like the most pain in the ass.'' Krune thought as he spoke, "Well, you do whatever you want. However, if they try to kill me, I won''t pull my punches." Those words coming from a wisp seemed quite weird in Krune''s mind...but he decided to ignore them. "I won''t force my ideals onto you." The Seamstress nodded. "I know how absurd and troublesome they sound, but that''s my way of life." "So you do realize they are absurd." Krune laughed and adjusted the baby''s position, tying it up a little to ensure it wouldn''t roll over when the boat rocked during the ensuing fight. Upon seeing that the baby was sleeping peacefully, Krune chuckled as he muttered, "He''s one tough guy." Krune then thought of something, asking the Seamstress, "About that Water Essence you spoke about¡­relating to your Coral Wave. Have you finished forming it?" "Almost." The Seamstress nodded before asking, "Why do you ask?" Krune slipped his hand into a pocket and took out a Blood Essence Crystal, giving it to her before explaining, "Consume it only when necessary. It would give you a slight boost to your physique and abilities and lasts around two to three hours. But, once the duration ends, your body would be severely exhausted. You have to immerse your body in the ocean water for a couple of days after that to heal all the damage." The moment she looked at the Blood Essence Crystal, the Seamstress looked at Krune with curiosity. "Who the heck are you? How come I never heard of you before?" "I had troublesome karma that always put me in dangerous situations. So, for most of my life, you can say I was living under a rock." Krune chuckled. "Only after I managed to solve it did I emerge out in the open. Well, it hasn''t been long since then, less than a decade, I think." As they spoke, their boat approached closer to the bandit ship as the other party spotted them immediately. They had been looting a group of people and were in the process of loading all the goods in their ship. Krune could immediately spot a pile of tablets in front of Gajor. Upon noticing his gaze, Gajor smirked as he ordered his men to leave the rest behind. Their ship took off immediately and sped forth. When they gave chase, Krune realized that his opponent''s speed was greater than his boat as soon after, they had sped far beyond his range. Even while using his Sonic Radar, he wasn''t able to find them any longer. Krune hadn''t tested the limit of this ability yet, so he wasn''t sure how far they had gone past. Nevertheless, it was at least beyond a kilometer. Before they had fully vanished from his Sonic Radar''s range, he remembered that at the front of the bandit ship were eight Motor Fishes. They were apparently due to the specialized cages that held them. He cursed immediately, "Just how did he manage to get more Motor Fishes in this short duration?" He looked at the Seamstress, asking her, "Do you know anything about this?" "No, this is the first time I''m witnessing such a change as well. I never knew they had a method to replenish their Motor Fish reserves. If they were able to do it¡­" She frowned, immediately using Bubble Touch to see where the bandit cove was, frowning. "Their cove is still in the same place. Then, how were they able to transport them so quickly? Judging by the distance, it shouldn''t be possible." "There''s a good chance they have individual boats rowed by the Motor Fishes as standby." Krune frowned. "They might probably have a larger net than we had thought. In the place of the two boats you had detached from their ship were two new boats. They were possibly the reinforcements that were roaming farther beyond our reach and had quickly come to their reinforcement when needed." After some thought, the Seamstress finally spoke, "It seems they managed to figure out the secret to this layer already." "Do you still wish to pursue them?" Krune asked after a moment. "Of course," the Seamstress replied like it was a matter of fact. "If our lives are threatened, I''m pulling out." "That''s for sure. I am not reckless, you know." Chapter 958: The Baby’s Tablet As dawn was just beginning, Krune got up and checked the condition of the baby, smiling when he noticed that it was healthy. He then jumped on the bone boat attached nearby, holding a toothbrush in his hand as he began to clean his teeth. He didn''t have anything like toothpaste. So, all he did was use the ocean water to clean his dental cavity while using the toothbrush to scrape off anything unpleasant. Thanks to the healing effect in the ocean water, he noticed that when he was done, his teeth were sparkling clean, and his gums weren''t injured in any way. He then looked up, noticing the sleeping figure of the Seamstress. She had placed her bed on the other side of the boat. It seemed that she had been significantly exhausted. So, the moment she closed her eyes, she fell asleep like a log. Then again, the stable movement and soft flooring, not to mention the bed and the blanket, allowed her to have a pleasant sleep. Seeing that she had yet to wake up, Krune didn''t bother her, using a bucket to scoop the ocean water and pour it into a certain container at the top. It acted as a water tank within their boat. After all, Krune had built a bathroom in the boat. After all, he was now a mortal and had to take care of mortal things. He never had such things to worry about as a wisp back then, a being of pure energy. Krune carefully placed his fingers near his mouth and held the ends of his skin armor, pulling it as it stretched. His head soon peeked out as Krune continued to slowly peel away the entire skin armor. It did take him considerable time, considering its elasticity wasn''t to the extent he could easily pull it off like a piece of cloth. Once he had pulled it out completely, he sighed, relaxing his muscles once. Even though the skin armor had become fully in tune with him, it was still an extra layer over his body. With that, he had to remove it while taking care of his bodily needs every day. Krune habitually soaked it in the ocean water once and left it on the floor to dry as he headed into the bathroom, using the pod to empty his bowels first. He then took a shower, feeling refreshed as he exited. He then wore a pair of leather knickers he had stitched, sitting on a seat as he allowed his body to dry. He only had leather to use, so he couldn''t prepare a towel. That''s why he had to sit until his body dried itself. Moreover, the humid weather made it even worse. Sighing, Krune got up and lifted the boxing bag. It was something he made using three layers of Monster Gecko Skin, filling it with the bone tree''s bone powder. It had considerable weight to it, and when he practiced using it before, he felt that it was perfect for his current physique. The ends of the boxing bag were attached to the floors on either side. Once he fastened the hooks to it, Krune lightly punched on it, feeling the response as he could not help but exclaim, "Great! That''s how I wanted!" He then made a series of punches and jabs on it, moving his body around as much as possible to become an agile fighter. Having used shields all his life, Krune was an expert when it came to defending. Moreover, having multitasked by controlling 102 shields each time, he was able to divert his attention span on other things while boxing. Krune looked at the baby, counting the number of times it breathed and the duration it took each time based on his counts. Using the Sonic Radar, Krune sensed the flow of fishes beneath his boat, their numbers, their depth with respect to his position, and so on. He continued to do a flurry of attacks on the boxing bag, intending to improve his skill. After all, the previous night, no matter how they gave chase, they were unable to close in on the pirate ship. On top of that, they had looted the belongings of everyone in the vicinity. After that, they just headed for their base. As the pirate cove was too much for them to handle, for the time being, they decided to retreat first. As for the people whose belongings were stolen from, they just drifted through the place, intending to head as far away from the range of operation of the bandits. When Krune extended a helping hand, they simply looked at him in fear and paddled faster. Without their tablets, they no longer had any hopes of surviving in the place. Even if they obtained any Godly Points, they wouldn''t be able to use them. Surprisingly, most of them had indignant expressions, planning to scour for powerful fishes to hunt and obtain strong passive abilities and reclaim their tablets one day. Upon seeing their expressions, Krune didn''t stop them. He was never a saint, so he didn''t poke his nose into where it didn''t belong. As for the Seamstress, she just pointed them in the direction where some of the materials left behind by the bandits still remained. After that, they decided to call it a day since their Motor Fishes were getting exhausted. Due to all their rowing, they had lost considerable weight. If it continued like that, they might even die. Krune fed them some meat and headed to sleep after taking care of the Seamstress''s sleeping arrangements. And now, while punching the boxing bag, Krune kept thinking about what Gajor had been plotting all along and why he had been snatching the tablets too. ''Considering the rate at which he is pillaging everything from these areas, I''m afraid he''s scheming something grand.'' ''One way or another, he might prove to be an obstacle to my growth here. If I can''t leave this place because of him...'' As he thought, Krune''s eyes shone with a dangerous glint. He had been killing the Monster Geckos daily, and during the end of his stay in the Primary Landmass, he had been killing quite a few daily. That was quite a rare sight, though. Since he wasn''t the killing type usually. So, the moment he thought of anything remotely dangerous, the air around him was filled with a bloodthirsty tang. Upon sensing the bloodthirsty scent, the Seamstress woke up in a hurry and flashed her coral sword, looking around to find Krune''s figure standing before the boxing bag, deep in thought. Only now did she see his actual appearance, for a moment blushing a little upon seeing his sculpted abs. She then coughed once and got up as she asked, "Did something happen?" "I just couldn''t remove the thought of Gajor stealing all the tablets. Those from the other batches might not know since they were mortals by the time they sensed the tablet on them. But, as we were there when they were created, we know what they''re made from." The moment Krune voiced his opinion, the gaze of the Seamstress shuddered. Tribulation Lightning! In the Four Sectors'' Border Region, there was a place where the Predominated Vines had broken through from the Ninth Stage Nascent God Realm into the Semi-God Realm. As they didn''t possess a Spiritual Incarnation, the First Stage Semi-God Realm was their limit. But even then, those Predominated Vines could be considered immortal Predominated Vines. And as all of them had broken through in the same place, tribulation lightning had struck the place so many times that the Tribulation Laws had fused into the soil of the place. With that, the mountainous demon beast, the representative of a God, had used the Tribulation Lightning Law rich soil to form their tablets. Up to now, Krune was unsure of the reason they had used such a material to form their tablets. He knew there was a deeper reason for that. But due to his lacking comprehension, he was unable to determine them. He wasn''t sure if the tablets of the other batches of people were also made from the same material, but the fact that Gajor was accumulating them rubbed him off the wrong way. Just the quantity he had stolen overnight was already in the triple digits. After all, except for Krune and the Seamstress, he didn''t seem to have left anyone else in the area. As for Strinker and his group, Krune hadn''t seen them after that. He wasn''t sure if they had escaped or had their items stolen by the bandit group. He gazed at the Seamstress and asked once more, "In the end, this problem seems like a grander scheme. Are you sure you don''t wish to stain your hands with their blood?" "If the situation dictates¡­" She swung her coral sword, showing her stance on the matter as she responded, "I''m someone who believes that there is good in everyone. But, if the situation doesn''t allow me to bring out their good, I won''t hesitate to put an end to their evil." "Then, we would need a team. Just us two alone are insufficient." Krune then became curious, wondering the reason Gajor had been after the baby from the start. Focusing on the dot on its forehead, Krune used the baby''s index finger to double-tap its forehead and hurriedly caught hold of the tablet that appeared. At the moment he gazed at it, he was left at a loss for words due to the words the tablet contained. "What?" Chapter 959: Firstborn "What?" Krune was left at a loss for words when he looked at the details displayed on the baby''s tablet. There were four rows of words on it, with each line as shocking as the other. [Sub-Realm''s Firstborn] [Obtained: 100 Credits] [Obtained Passive: Ocean Affinity] [Obtained Passive: Solar Breathing] "Just¡­what are these? I have not seen them before..." The Seamstress went closer to him and looked at the words displayed on the baby''s tablet. "These abilities, they were gifted by the Sub-Realm itself? Also, his tablet looks a bit different from ours as far as I can see, don''t you think?" Naturally, Krune also noticed a tiny difference in the baby''s tablet. On its top were a couple of waves, making the tablet look grander than theirs. Upon seeing the rewards displayed on it, Krune realized the reason they were after the baby in the first place. Just as Krune had done, they could easily use the baby''s finger to summon his tablet. Even if he wasn''t able to use it now, once he waited until the baby was three to four years old, Gajor would be able to manipulate the baby to purchase everything he needed through the Checkpoint Turtle. After all, 100 Godly Points was a large sum. If one solely relied on their ability to hunt, it might take decades to obtain such a sum in Layer 3. And this was in the case they were able to fight and already possessed helpful passive abilities. Otherwise, a typical cultivator in Layer 3 might never even touch the double digits in his lifetime. So, the allure of 100 Godly Points was already significant enough to make a move. Nevertheless, there were also the two passive abilities the baby had been awarded. They weren''t obtained but were rewarded by the Sub-Realm itself. In short, they were powerful abilities. Gajor could very well raise the baby like his son and obtain a powerful ally in the future. Considering the sheer impact of the names, the two passive abilities should definitely be insanely powerful. After all, Krune''s most powerful passive ability was named Ocean Heart. On the other hand, the baby had a passive ability titled Ocean Affinity. Whether it was related to wielding the powers in the water, living in the water, manipulating the water and so on, Krune wasn''t sure. In any case, what he was sure about was the fact that no matter what, Ocean Affinity would be an ability on par with his Ocean Heart. Not to mention the baby''s second passive ability, Solar Breathing. Krune wasn''t able to guess as to what this ability entailed. No matter what, he decided to consider them as abilities on par with his Ocean Heart, if not superior. Having seen the way they were named, the Seamstress frowned, muttering, "If we consider them to be on par with your Ocean Heart, their two abilities will make him overpowered in this layer once he grows up into an adult." "That is very well a possibility. But it''s not guaranteed," Krune replied, "Remember that there''s something in the Tertiary Landmass. The one who possesses that is the one who would dominate this place." "The active ability!" The Seamstress nodded in realization as she frowned. "No matter what, this baby should never fall in the hands of Gajor." "You don''t need to say it twice." Krune nodded as he spoke after some thought, "We have to grow stronger first. Say, is there any way you can track more of these Motor Fishes? We''ll need greater mobility than them if we wish to target them. Otherwise, it''s impossible if we were to have a water bottle." He gazed at the Seamstress as he continued, "At present, your mobility in water is no different to any average pirate. You''re better skilled, but you can also be overwhelmed. After all, you''re just a mortal. You have your limits." "What you said makes sense." The Seamstress nodded before asking, "But, are you really able to enhance a passive ability to its peak?" "Yes." Krune nodded as he replied, "Though, the process might take anywhere from a month to three months. Also, I need at least four Motor Fishes and two Water Essence to make it happen. After that, we would still need two more Motor Fishes for our boat." "Hmm..." After thinking it through, the Seamstress nodded. "Leave it to me. I can ambush their individual boats and bring in enough Motor Fishes. There should be some prowling all the time in search of more people to plunder from." She then pointed at Krune as she told him, "The healing extract you made for the baby, create a container full for me so that I won''t end up dead by exhaustion mid-journey." "You''re planning to tackle it alone?" Krune frowned, just about to retort when she motioned towards her dress, or rather the thin layer that had appeared on it by now. Smiling, she spoke, "While keeping my Coral Wave active, when I drift through the water, I will seem no different from a piece of coral. I''ll move through the dark layers, so they won''t even know I hit them. As long as I have enough energy to sustain myself, I can handle this easily." "Alright." Krune nodded and headed to one of his compartments before slicing out a piece of meat bigger than his head. He had saved up enough for him to consume for three months, so this hardly put a dent in his storage. He then activated the healing effect in his Ocean Heart, condensing it into a beam using his Neon Radiance before emitting it through his palms, focusing it entirely on the piece of meat. It took him a couple of hours, having expended an entire ring''s worth of energy. When he filled the piece of meat to the brim with the healing effect, he used a couple of tools to squeeze it completely, pouring the juice into a filter. He then collected the concentrated solution into a bottle that he had created using the shaft of the Monster Gecko''s fishing rod. He then gave it to the Seamstress, who took a sip to test its effectiveness first before nodding in response. "This is enough for the entire journey. I''ll be back." Saying her piece, she grabbed hold of her coral sword before jumping into the ocean, speeding forth underwater. She then headed into the darkness within, positioned beyond a depth of ten meters from the surface and disappeared. Using his Sonic Radar, Krune was able to keep track of her motion until she moved beyond his range. He then looked around, deciding to get to work immediately. Upon noticing that there were many fishes near his boat, he smiled, picking up his fishing net before casting it over the place. As for the piece of meat that was left over after he had extracted the essence from it, Krune diced it up into two pieces and before throwing each piece to a Motor Fish. He also opened one of the four compartments attached to the pillars of his boat, looking within to see that there were around eight fruits within instead of the usual two. Thanks to the sheer volume of blood that flowed into the ocean water thanks to the bandits, the number of fruits had increased. He took out two of the fruits before throwing one each to the Motor Fishes. They gobbled the fruits immediately, recovering significant vitality. Krune then noticed that they were still hungry, smiling as he threw in a second batch of fruits. "Eat more and grow faster. I know this isn''t your limit." He then opened up a secret cupboard that had the tightest defense in the entire boat. From within, he took out a tiny container, opening its lid to reveal tiny shards within. He carefully picked out two of them, closed the container and placed it back in the cupboard. Krune tied the bone boats sideways to the boat as he carefully planted a shard in the center of each. He then pulled up his net, capturing a lot of fishes that he dumped in equal halves over each boat, using a knife to stab them in quick sessions. Within a few seconds, a tiny sapling sprouted amidst them before beginning to grow, soon reaching his height. All the blood of the fishes had disappeared while their bodies had been devoured by the growing bone tree. Krune then caught a lot of fish and killed them, using their blood to water the bone trees. While doing so, Krune noticed something strange. Unlike on the Primary Landmass where the bone tree reached a height of three meters, the one before him stopped growing at the height of 1.5 meters, resembling a bonsai. It seemed as if it couldn''t cross the line beyond which the gravity reversed. Instead, the size of its trunk widened accordingly. Upon seeing it, Krune chuckled as he could not help but say, "Well, this saves me a lot of trouble." He then continued to water them until they reached complete growth. A couple of days passed in such a fashion as they no longer showed any signs of growth. Soon after, a wheezing Seamstress arrived, pulling with her exactly four Motor Fishes. It seemed to have taken a toll on her to rely on the passive ability, Moving Water for so long as she appeared thinner, weaker. Krune pulled her up as he smiled. "Rest and recover your strength. We won''t be moving from this point for at least another month or two." Chapter 960: Speedrun As Krune had said, they really didn''t do anything beyond being adrift on the ocean. From time to time, they used fishing nets to capture a large batch of fish. Krune cut them up accordingly, separated the meat from the rest before dumping the remains back into the ocean. He only collected some useful parts that he thought would come useful later. Well, he needed a lot of meat, for he and the Seamstress were consuming through it quickly. The Seamstress was moving through the water in search of any large fishes they could hunt to obtain Godly Points. Moreover, she was also moving around to train her body accordingly. After all, the passive ability, Moving Water was incredibly useful. When activated, all it did was generate currents around the body, propelling it forward. Of course, this burned up all the energy in the body, causing the Seamstress to grow thinner every time. With that, Krune took this chance to supply her with healing energy, familiarizing himself with the ability more and more. After all, he had determined a simple result from his one year of stay on the Primary Landmass. As long as he used a certain ability a lot, his body would gradually grow accustomed to it and would develop accordingly. So, even though a mortal''s stamina was limited and they couldn''t rely on the passive abilities for a long duration, as long as they trained with them to the extent their efficiency was on par with the body''s reflexes, the passive abilities would become no different to breathing or blinking to them. This way, they would stop being passive abilities and would just become a part of them. With that, attaining such a state was a must for them. In any case, they had to get stronger, greatly so if they wished to demolish the pirate organization that was gaining more and more momentum. As the days passed, Krune and the Seamstress had clashed with the pirates numerous times. Every time, they managed to kill one or two of them. Of course, it was mostly Krune that did the killing. As for the Seamstress, all she did was destroy their boats, leaving them stranded in the ocean, adrift. Lured by the blood, the fishes did the rest of the work. When need be, she could be vicious in her own way. Krune fed the bone tree fruits to the six Motor Fishes every day. And as he had expected, the results started to become noticeable after a couple of weeks. The Motor Fishes had grown in size and were steadily growing. At the start, the Motor Fishes were only able to consume one fruit per day once they recovered to their peak. Of course, it would take too much time for them to mature in such a fashion. It might take a decade before they reached a level that Krune wanted. So, he worked them to the limit, actively targeting the smaller pirate boats. He pillaged from the pirates. As long as the pirates didn''t try to kill him, he didn''t kill them either. Most of the time, when they surrendered, he just pushed them into the ocean and looted all their items. Most of the time, though, they didn''t have anything. Well, in cases when they returned from a trip, they might even have a Water Essence that they had stolen from some poor soul. In such cases, Krune gladly pocketed them. After all, he did have some uses for them. Nevertheless, the prime reason he attacked the pirates was to steal their Motor Fish. Eight out of ten times, they were unable to catch up to the pirates. During the first few tries, Krune did manage to steal their Motor Fishes. But soon after, it seemed that Gajor noticed his motives, sending out larger groups. All such groups were only pulled by one Motor Fish. At the moment it seemed like they were about to lose, the pirates would grab all their belongings and jump into the ocean. All they did was leave behind an empty boat. They would circle around the Motor Fish and use their passive ability, Moving Water, to propel themselves forward. Their abilities, plus the Motor Fish''s power, would create a powerful propelling force that Krune and the Seamstress were unable to match. It seemed that the ability Moving Water was stronger when used as a group. Once Gajor used this strategy, Krune and the Seamstress were unable to do anything to his group. They were no longer able to cause the pirates any losses. Krune had already swapped his Underwater Breathing with Moving Water. He killed three Motor Fishes simultaneously and absorbed their blood, gaining the passive ability. He almost cried at losing Underwater Breathing, not because it was a useful ability, but because it had cost him 20 Godly Points. After that, he had also trained with the Seamstress daily, using Moving Water to the limit, getting accustomed to it. Even though breathing underwater while using it was harder than while using Underwater Breathing, as he continued to train, Krune''s body began to adjust to it accordingly. Over time, it gradually became more bearable for him. Then again, he couldn''t remain underwater for too long and would have to resurface before his body turned numb from the lack of air. Moving Water wasn''t able to provide enough air for his needs. All it did was prolong the duration one could remain underwater. Krune and the Seamstress eventually timed how long they could last, making a note that they were able to remain underwater for around 10 minutes. The Seamstress could stay for a slightly longer duration than him because she was more attuned to the ability. Krune was currently maintaining 10 Motor Fishes. Among them, four were for moving the boat. There were two Motor Fishes on each ocean, facing opposite directions. This gave the boat enough propulsion and stability in movement. As for the remaining six, they were to be harvested for their ability. Upon thinking that he was already making two of them, Krune decided that he might as well make three of them and give the third one to the baby. Krune wasn''t sure how long he would be in the Sub-Realm and for how long he would have to live as a mortal. But if it took him a long time, he might as well nurture a strong future companion. Besides, the baby was blessed with two powerful abilities. He wasn''t sure what Ocean Affinity did. In any case, Krune didn''t care. The baby had three slots to fill. Having Moving Water as one of them didn''t hurt. In the future, if it looked like Ocean Affinity was able to mimic whatever Moving Water was capable of, they could simply replace it with another ability. After all, it didn''t hurt to have more. Thinking as such, he planned the third one. Maintaining three bone trees wasn''t a hard process. With two of them, they managed to capture enough fish from the ocean. Sometimes, they would even capture pretty huge fishes. As both of them had underwater mobility, they would just head into the water and sprint up the nets over the fish. It was when he showed the Seamstress the rope bush did she almost lose her mind. When he asked her about the reason, she told him to think about her name. From the looks of it, she was an expert when it came to threads. Unsurprisingly, the nets she created were incredible, allowing them to catch groups of fish like it was no big deal. As always, all the blood was given to the bone trees to develop and bear fruits. The fruits were the only source of nourishment to the Motor Fishes. Over time, all ten of them began to grow in size, also gaining an upgrade in their movement speed. Unfortunately for Krune and the Seamstress, it seemed that the pirate group had veered farther away from them. After all, the area was already looted dry by them. With that, they went to a different place to pillage more. But, Krune didn''t give chase. Rather, he was pleased with the development. The Seamstress had already marked the pirate cove once with her passive ability, Bubble Touch. So, no matter how far they went, she would always be able to track them. Without them being in the vicinity, Krune could safely proceed with the important part of his project. He could rest assured that no one would try to steal the fruits of their labor. Moreover, through his Sonic Radar, he would know the moment anything approached close. It was also how he was able to track groups of fishes and veer the boat in that direction before he and the Seamstress jumped into the water to capture them all. As the development of the Motor Fishes continued, three months passed in such a fashion. At this point, they needed to eat five fruits daily to sustain themselves. This was because all this time, Krune made them swim from morning to evening. In the evening, he even provided them with the fruits. This caused their bodies to easily digest all the excess energy derived from the fruits. Moreover, they also began to grow as a result. Normally, when a Motor Fish swam all day, it would have to eat for at least a week or two before it could swim for another day nonstop. After all, it needed the energy to move its body. And that was the energy stored in its muscles. So, that was why the bandit activity wasn''t conducted daily but only at certain intervals. As for Krune, he simply brute-forced his way through. Chapter 961: Frozen Cylinder Whenever a Motor Fish was drained of all energy and had even thinned in size, Krune fed it with a lot of fruits. He also gave it the extract he created by infusing his healing ability in a piece of meat and squeezing the juices out. Without much surprise, it worked wonders in developing their bodies, causing them to gain muscle mass quite quickly. Even though a lot of time was being consumed in this elaborate process, and the two knew for a fact that the bandit group was getting progressively stronger as the days passed, they had no other choice but to wait. Even though the bandit group was getting stronger, Krune and the Seamstress were getting significantly stronger individually. It was because they were using their abilities without care and constantly trained like madmen. It came as a pleasant surprise to Krune that the Seamstress was more or less similar to him in views and ideologies. The only difference was the fact that she wished to stick to her childhood''s ideals. As for the reason, she simply said that she wished to accomplish a challenging task. So, she took up a task that seemed the toughest and would never end. With that, even if she were to become a God, she would never be bored. Whether she was weak or invincible, her methods might change, but the goal she should strive forward would always be the same. At the start, she was driven by her vow. After that, it became her obsession due to an incident she experienced. And now, it was her way of life. It had been eight months since the day Krune met the Seamstress. Krune observed the Motor Fishes, speaking, "Alright, we have attained a limit of sorts. For the past two days, there have been no noticeable differences when they consumed the fruits." "Are we going to kill them now?" the Seamstress inquired. All along, Krune hadn''t explained the method to her yet, saying that she would only understand it when she witnessed it herself. "Nope." Krune smiled, dragging one of the bone cages holding a Motor Fish with him. The bone cage wasn''t something it had at the start. It was what he had created over the months to house it. After all, it had doubled in size over the months. Just by sensing its sheer presence, Krune determined that it was on the level of a Mutant Monster Gecko right now. On top of that, it seemed that it wasn''t able to grow beyond this level...at least, not naturally. Its natural limit was what it was eight months ago. Its current form was already because of the bone tree fruits that had boosted its growth tremendously, evolving it into a higher existence. Over the eight months, other than training, Krune expanded the ship''s size. From its initial radius of three meters, it had expanded to five meters. As its skeletal base was the bone tree, expanding it was simply too easy. All Krune had to do was cover it with bones of other fishes before layering it with leather. He had plenty of Monster Gecko leather, so he simply used them, already used to them aesthetically. The increase in space made the boat seem too big, especially considering that there were only two people and a baby living on it. Krune and the Seamstress sparred against one another a lot, understating the complex dynamics at play when humans used their passive abilities to fight. This way, they built up more experiences related to the fights between humans and not just between humans and fish. "Now, what happens next will shock you." Krune smiled as he grunted, slowly pulling the Motor Fish''s cage above a bone boat. It was created by stringing three bone boats together. It was tied to the Paddle. Growing on it was a bone tree. Krune carefully placed the Motor Fish cage next to the bone tree. He then took in a deep breath as he gazed at the Motor Fish within. Despite possessing a presence on par with a Mutant Monster Gecko, it wasn''t even in the least bit threatening. It was because the Motor Fishes were a tamed race. They lived by using their superior agility to steal the hunted prey of other marine creatures. So, they would never attack. As Krune pulled it out of water, the Motor Fish began to face difficulty in breathing as its body began to twitch. He swiftly made a small cut on its tail and touched it on the bone tree, watching the Motor Fish shudder in response and twitch harder. "Help me hold it!" Krune shouted as the Seamstress jumped out of the Paddle and landed on the bone boat, grabbing hold of the Motor Fish as she tried to keep it as steady as possible. Even though she wasn''t as strong as Krune physically, she wasn''t that far off. Within a minute, the Motor Fish stopped twitching as it lost all strength, gazing with glazed eyes as its body visibly shrunk further until all its blood had been sucked away. Krune maintained the position for some more time before he noticed that no more blood flowed out from the Motor Fish, heaving a sigh of relief as he let go of his hold. "Now, let''s do it two more times." Krune then placed the dried Motor Fish on the floor of the Paddle. Without wasting any time, they did the same to two other Motor Fishes. Once that was done, they continued to wait while going about their daily activities. The Seamstress tested the Blood Essence Crystal, marveling at the boost she obtained from it. After using it to the limit, she rested for a day, recovering from the side effects. Krune then gave her another three, telling her to use it when they fought against some tough opponents. The number of weapons they had created during these past few months was significant. Using their combined prowess, they managed to create a bow, a really powerful bow that was only a meter wide but packed a powerful punch. The bowstring was something the Seamstress had created using the thread from the Rope Bush. She processed it for months using the heat from her passive ability, Heat Radiance. She did the same thing for the bows, too, upgrading their strength to a greater level. And when she was bored, the Seamstress worked on Krune''s Whale Tooth Sword and the pair of Whale Tooth Daggers, slightly upgrading their quality. On the other hand, Krune worked on the arrows, making a special component in the tip where he was able to store some of his blood inside. It did take multiple trials and errors before they managed to create an arrow tip that was able to contain his blood without freezing over. With that, they obtained arrows that would inject his frozen blood into his pierced enemies, turning their bodies numb from the cold. They could put it to good use when attempting a Secondary Landmass next. Even though heading to a Primary Landmass was easier, a Secondary Landmass would prove to be better in terms of profit. Moreover, they could head inside as a team, which was the most important. Only one person could enter a Primary Landmass. Three people could enter a Secondary Landmass. As for the Tertiary Landmass, a total of nine people could enter it. If they all held hands or made bodily contact while ripping the entry tickets, they would all end up in the same Secondary or Tertiary Landmass. It was unknown how many Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary Landmasses were in the layer. So, they couldn''t get an accurate grasp. Moreover, even though they had roamed about a significant distance, they hadn''t come across any of the landmasses. The only piece of land that could be said was the cove where the Motor Fishes lived. Now, it was controlled by the pirates as a mobile fortress around which they were building a ship. Whatever they were preparing, Krune and the Seamstress had to make a breakthrough. So, they were accumulating some of their own secret weapons. The one that played a major factor in this was the Seamstress'' passive ability, Coral Wave. Using it in conjunction with her Heat Radiance, she was able to refine tiny cylinders that were capable of holding his frozen blood without freezing over. It did take three months of continuous trial and error to figure out the correct combination. But when it did, it paid a lot. Using it, she created tiny thumb-sized containers, cylindrical in shape. Krune was able to store his frozen blood in them, around 10 milliliters. Surprisingly, they worked no different from a grenade. There was a tiny pin on their top that, upon pulled, would turn the container fragile. And, when it collided with any object, the frozen blood within would splash forth. If the pin wasn''t pulled, the container wouldn''t shatter. Krune had experimented and noticed that only if he hacked it using his Whale Tooth Sword would the container break if its pin is not removed. Surprisingly, ten milliliters of his blood was pretty effective. After testing it, they realized that it was the perfect amount to slow a relatively larger creature for a moment. Moreover, it had the most efficiency of usage. Krune called it the Frozen Cylinder. They were making a Frozen Cylinder every five days. It did take time to create them. After all, if the containers were of subpar quality, they would break if the user ran or fell or suffered an attack. They would just freeze over. After all, even Krune wasn''t completely immune to it, even though it was his blood. If it landed on his foot, it would form ice over the ground and his foot, keeping him stuck to the place. Even though the ice wouldn''t directly damage him, it would still hinder him. Chapter 962: Moving Ripple After that, they also created three large Frozen Cylinders that would serve as their trump cards. They each held 100 milliliters of his frozen blood. So, if they faced a behemoth of a creature, the large Frozen Cylinders would prove effective. Of course, that wasn''t the only grenades they possessed. The Seamstress also accumulated her Heat Radiance in some coral cylinders she made. They worked similar to the Frozen Cylinder. But, there was a difference here. The Frozen Cylinder directly used his frozen blood to create a freezing effect. But, the Seamstress didn''t possess such blood. So, she used another technique to make bombs out of it. As she already stored intense heat within her coral sword and only unleashed it when necessary to melt objects, she used the same principle here. She stored a reasonable amount of heat in a coral cylinder and filled it with water. There were two compartments within, a chamber where the water was stored and another block of coral where the heat was retained. Similar to the Frozen Cylinder, when a pin was pulled, the block would release all its heat, instantly vaporizing the water, causing it to explode. To increase its efficacy, she also added some coral fragments that she had refined within the water. When it exploded, the coral fragments would act as shrapnel. This was almost like a real grenade. Sadly, Krune took the chance to name it, calling it the Exploding Cylinder. The Seamstress rolled her eyes while accepting the name. As it took too much time to create, the Seamstress only managed to create five for each. After that, she made arrowheads using her coral that, upon piercing, would emit intense heat, enough to melt flesh. In total, they had prepared an arsenal of weapons while waiting for the bone trees to bulge even more until they looked like miniature versions of the Paddle. Among their branches were numerous massive fruits, something that would cause a Mutant to become a King. Krune knew that only one among them was real. Based on experience, he was able to guess them accurately by now. Around three months later, the fruits had ripened. They had taken a considerably longer duration than in the Primary Landmass. The reason might be because they had absorbed too much variety of blood that they weren''t able to concentrate one type of essence. In the Primary Landmass, all the blood only belonged to the Monster Gecko. The rest was only ocean water. So, they were able to concentrate the essence and process faster. Though finally, once the fruits ripened, Krune heaved a sigh in relief. In the meantime, their arsenal consisted of 20 Frozen Arrows, 20 Heated Arrows, 24 Frozen Cylinders, 6 big Frozen Cylinders, and 10 exploding cylinders. They were equally divided between the two. Moreover, they also had around 100 normal arrows that they planned to use against the small fry. Overall, they were completely geared up for war. "Let''s pull them up on board," Krune said as he placed three tubs on the boat floor. He scooped out the ocean water and filled them, barely enough for the Motor Fishes to survive but not enough for them to use their abilities and escape. Krune and the Seamstress then carried three Motor Fishes and placed them in a tub each. The tubs were then shielded by a cage, giving the Motor Fishes no chance to escape in the unlikely event. Though, they were a tameable species from the start and had already been tamed by them. Upon seeing that the cages worked perfectly, Krune smiled as he plucked out three massive fruits from the bone trees. "What about the rest of the fruits?" the Seamstress asked in curiosity. "They''re fakes," Krune replied as he placed a fruit in each tub, closing the cage immediately. Without him needing to urge them, the three Motor Fishes jumped on the massive fruits immediately. But, even though he called them massive fruits, they were only half the size of the Motor Fishes. The fault to be attributed here was the numerous miscellaneous fish blood Krune had made the bone trees absorb. If it had only been the blood of the Motor Fishes, then the massive fruit would have been as big as the Mutated Motor Fishes. Unfortunately, they didn''t have that many Motor Fishes. So, Krune had to work on it differently. In the end, as long as they reached the status as a King, he would be content with them. The Seamstress held three Water Essences in her hands, just in case they failed to handle the stress. Krune held the Whale Tooth Dagger in his hand as he turned around and looked, noticing that all the three bone trees began to wilt. He smiled, thinking that he had picked the fruits correctly. As the fruits were only half their body size, all the three Motor Fishes were able to eventually eat them completely. Once they had finished eating, all three Motor Fishes began to squeal in pain as something seemed to be happening in them. Their bodies turned hotter as their bodies continued to grow bigger. But having seen the same process many times before, Krune realized that they would survive the process, but wouldn''t attain the status as a King. So, he quickly took out all the fruits he had saved up, all thirty of them and dumped 10 in each. The Motor Fishes immediately gobbled each of them up, causing their bodies to become bloated to an exaggerated extent. Even then, they didn''t die. It was thanks to feeding them numerous fruits daily that their bodies got used to the energy levels and became tougher. When the final fruit was swallowed, Krune smiled as he noticed that the process was a success. He could feel a suffocating presence build up within the Motor Fishes. But unlike before, their presence was no longer tame. As the blood essence of numerous fishes were mixed into them, they were partly affected. A horn began to grow on their foreheads while their bodies shrunk instead, turning more streamlined. Though, the process would take a couple of days before concluding. So, Krune and the Seamstress began to take action. They carried each tub carefully and placed it beside the bone tree each, using other methods to constrict the Motor Fishes accordingly to their change in body size. Krune quickly explained the entire process to the Seamstress, telling her to do it herself on the second wilting bone tree. After a couple of days passed, the entire air surrounding the Paddle was heavy. In the ocean, there weren''t any fishes in a hundred-meter radius. This was a result due to the sheer presence exhibited by the three Motor Fishes that had attained King status. Though, it seemed that they had gone way past their genetic limitations as their bodies looked like they would collapse within a week. It was too unstable. Though, as they finished evolving, Krune tightened the hold on all three Motor Fishes and made an incision on each, connecting their tails to their respective wilting bone tree. Even though the Motor Fishes struggled to move, the bindings held them rigidly. The water in the tub swirled around as the Motor Fishes tried to break free. With that, Krune and the Seamstress took turns to go around the three boats and ensured they wouldn''t be able to break free. Within an hour, the Motor Fishes lost all strength in their bodies, laying weakly as everything of substance in their bodies was sucked into the bone trees. After some time passed, only their skin was left. And when Krune touched them, they collapsed into dust. "If we had tried to fight them in the water, we wouldn''t have been able to even touch them. But with enough planning¡­" "Indeed." The Seamstress nodded, watching the three bone trees continue to wilt. Almost five days later, they completely finished wilting as there was a gem in each. Krune grabbed them and smiled, giving one to the Seamstress as he told her, "Here you go. I kept my end of the deal. Once you swallow this, you''ll get a stronger version of Moving Water." Storing the third gem in a safe place, Krune placed two tubs on the floor, filling them to the brim with ocean water that he freshly scooped, speaking to the Seamstress, "It''s for the best to remain in the ocean water. There is a chance the pain would subsist for a considerable duration, and our body might be damaged." "Alright." The Seamstress nodded as she sat in the tub, taking in a deep breath as she gazed at the gem. She noticed through the corner of her eye that Krune had already swallowed his, immediately inciting a reaction as his body began to emit a stronger presence. The water in the tub began to tremble, forming minute ripples. Smiling, she consumed the gem as well, exhibiting a similar phenomenon to Krune. Krune quickly double-tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet and accepting the prompt that appeared. The Seamstress did the same soon after. Almost a couple of hours later, Krune grunted, shaking his head as he double-tapped his glabella, gazing at the new row of words that appeared. [Killed Motor Fish King: Obtained 1 Godly Point] [Obtained Passive: Moving Ripple] Chapter 963: Solare Krune took in a deep breath, feeling the changes in his physique as he noticed the currents that were forming in the water in the tub. As he thought about it more, ripples formed on the water, lifting his body a little. At the same time, the Seamstress observed the changes, expressing her delight as she said, "This is¡­stronger. Moving Ripple? Has it changed anyhow?" "We can only test it to find out." Krune nodded as he jumped into the water, noticing a ripple form the very moment his feet touched the water surface. For a moment, he felt like he could use the propulsion from the water to not enter it. ''This is amazing. I can breathe almost on the same level as Underwater Breathing. If I stay still, I can remain underwater without any difficulties for as long as I want., Krune thought, creating water currents around himself that propelled him forward, immediately expressing his surprise as he muttered inwardly, ''The speed is at least 1.5 times faster than before.'' After swimming through the water for some time, Krune leaped into the air, heading into the ocean above as he swam through it. He leaped like that for some more times before he landed on the ocean water, increasing the propulsion the water generated around his legs, but this time, aiming it towards himself. "Woah!" Krune exclaimed as he looked around, standing atop the water. Even though the feeling was like he was stuck in wet mud, it was still amazing that he could stand on top of the water. Krune looked below, seeing that he was submerged until his ankle. He then used his right leg, taking a step forward to find his leg sinking until the knee. But a second later, the water currents pushed his leg upwards, only keeping the part below the ankle underwater. At present, it wasn''t even possible for him to walk properly before he would fall into the water. But, upon seeing the extent where he could train and develop himself, Krune began to get excited. He carefully began to step on the water, getting used to the propulsion his legs were subjected to. He noticed that when he pressed down on the water surface, a ripple was created to disperse his weight. The water pushed on his feet, using its force to cancel out his weight, thereby keeping him on the surface. Once he understood the basic concept, Krune continued to train for the entire day, finally calling it a day once he got tired. Only then did he notice the Seamstress jumping to and fro the two ocean layers, using both oceans as a platform of sorts. Upon noticing his gaze, she smiled, kicking into the water as her body flashed towards Krune, shocking him. But, just when he planned to defend himself, the Seamstress lost her footing, drowning in the water. She soon surfaced, laughing. "Ahhh, I was close to executing it correctly." "It''s still the first day," Krune said as he helped her get up. "This is better than what I bargained for." "True." The Seamstress nodded, "It also helps me fight faster. Unlike Moving Water, I can use this ability to accelerate faster. It has great uses in battle." "I guess we''re more or less prepared to face the pirates," Krune said. "Though, it might have been better if we had a couple more allies." "We can look for more allies as we chase after the pirate ship then," the Seamstress said as she whistled, causing two of the four Motor Fishes to begin propelling the boat forward. All four of the Motor Fishes had reached Mutant status. Unless they were fed a massive fruit, this was their limit. The only other possibility was to feed them the bone tree fruits daily and hope they would eventually surpass their limits over time. Nevertheless, their current level was more than enough for Krune. Any stronger, and there was a good chance they could no longer be controlled. Boarding their boat, they gave chase. Krune took out a bottle containing the healing extract, feeding it to the baby, seeing that it was growing at a steady pace over the past few months. At present, the baby was able to make cute sounds and walk wobbly. In their free time, the two played with the baby when realization hit them, causing them to look at the faces of one another and say in unison, "The baby has no name!" "How come I missed such a chance?" Krune patted his forehead, immediately thinking of a great name as he opened his mouth, about to say it when the Seamstress shut him up. Having lived together for almost a year, the two had gotten quite close. "Don''t make him hate you for the rest of his life." The Seamstress glared at him as she stared at him with calm composure, "Your naming skills are abysmal." It felt like Krune had suffered from a heart attack as he sulked in one corner. The Seamstress looked at the baby, observing his bright personality. Having heard of Krune''s encounter with him, and having observed him over the months, she knew that the baby had a hardened nature. Though, despite suffering much as an infant, the baby still had a bright personality, having a smile filled with laughter throughout the day. As she played with him, the Seamstress she spoke after a long time" "Since you''re the first ray of life in this sub-realm, I''ll call you Solare." "That''s...a name..." Krune looked at the Seamstress for a while before nodding. "Sounds good. We''ll call him Solare from now onward." Krune then played with Solare after that while the Seamstress was resting, seated in a tub of water as she was meditating, observing the ins and outs of her new passive ability. She then frowned all of a sudden, shooting her eyes open as she said, "This is strange." "What''s strange?" Krune frowned. "We have been traveling for almost a day now, but I can''t sense that the distance between us and the pirate ship has reduced. In fact, I feel like the distance between us has increased." She massaged her forehead, feeling irritated. "Are they moving while making use of a lot of Motor Fishes? The generated currents are immensely powerful with a lot of them, right?" Krune thought as he spoke. "That is true, but why?" the Seamstress muttered, gazing at Solare as she muttered to herself, "Have they given up entirely on Solare?" "Fighting the two is too risky for them," Krune said as he frowned. His voice then turned solemn as he continued, "But, it seems they have higher priorities, no?" "Let''s continue giving chase," the Seamstress said as Krune nodded. Among their four Motor Fishes, two took charge of moving the boat in half-day shifts. This way, they kept moving nonstop. Moreover, no matter what, the bone trees continued to supply them with enough fruits for their needs. As for Krune and the Seamstress, they occasionally stopped in places where a lot of fishes were close to the surface and fished them quickly using the nets. They then proceeded with the chase. Days passed in such a fashion before Krune muttered, "It has already been a year. I can feel something drawing my focus." "That should be the Checkpoint Turtle. I can feel it as well." The Seamstress nodded as she sighed" "Until now, we have been unable to close in on the pirate ship." "There is no other choice, then." Krune nodded as he suggested, "Let''s give up on them and focus on heading to the upper layer." "You''re right on that one." The Seamstress nodded before asking him, "Do you have any plans?" "I''ve already visited a Primary Landmass before. I am confident of accumulating all 15 Godly Points there now, as long as the place isn''t too unsuitable to my abilities" Krune nodded, looking at the Paddle before continuing, "Also, I figured out a method that can be used to take this boat with me while heading there." "But." He looked at Solare before adding, "We can''t leave him behind. No matter what, since his mother handed him to me, he''s now part of my responsibilities." "Alright." The Seamstress nodded, suggesting, "Then, instead of heading to a Primary Landmass, we''ll head to a Secondary Landmass together. Three people can head into one at the same time. This way, we can protect one another and harvest points faster." "But, I only have 7 Godly Points with me right now," Krune said. "I can''t buy a ticket to a Secondary Landmass. And besides, one ticket costs 15 Godly Points. Three tickets cost 45 Godly Points. And the total amount of Godly Points you can obtain from it are 45 as well. So, we would only be wasting our time there." "That is true, but..." The Seamstress smiled as she shot a glance at the cupboard where the bone tree fruits were. "Will it really be a waste of time?" "Hah!" Krune flashed her a thumbs-up as he agreed. "Indeed. If we do it right, we can profit a lot from the place. Plus, the Secondary Landmass has a radius of 150 kilometers. It''s huge." As the boat headed towards the nearest Checkpoint Turtle, the Seamstress spoke, "I''ll buy the three tickets. So, the first 45 Godly Points are mine. We''ll split the profits after that." "Perfectly fine by me." Krune laughed as he looked around, noticing that they were the first to arrive at the Checkpoint Turtle. The Seamstress quickly entered the entrance in the shell, purchased the three tickets and exited. She then looked at Krune and asked, "Do we have enough Water Essence for emergencies? I think we have enough." "Yes." Krune nodded, also noting that he had stocked up to the limit on food and water. The three people then hugged each other while holding the boat, ripping apart the three tickets. Not long after, they vanished from the scene. Chapter 964: The Cove Somewhere along the vast ocean was an elongated ship, a construct with a spherical front and a pointed end. Its sheer scale was enormous, being 400 meters long and 150 meters wide. Its body was equally submerged in both oceans, keeping it perfectly balanced. Though at times, it moved into its ocean of choice. At present, it was wholly inside one of the oceans, with a small portion of it exposed to the air layer to keep it circulated in its interior. Wherever it went, intense water current accompanied it, carrying it forth naturally. When seen in its interior, there were hundreds of Motor Fishes propelling it. Moreover, forming the center of the ship was a piece of land, one that had once been the breeding grounds of the Motor Fishes. And now, the cove had become the central structure around which the ship had been built. Quite a few rooms had been constructed within it where workers ran to and fro, busying about various tasks. The entire place seemed to have been created using a material similar to bone, resembling a shell or a rock. But despite that, it was sturdy. Moreover, the walls were tremendously thick and seemed to be slowly getting reinforced further and further as time passed. The Cove! It was the name of the pirate ship, named after the cove where the Motor Fishes lived, the symbolic existence that allowed their pirate organization to grow from the initial hundred to the current two thousand strong. Seated in one of the rooms, acting as the leader of the forces, was Gajor, smirking as he spoke, "Who would have thought the shell of a Checkpoint Turtle would have such miraculous properties? It was our sheer luck to have discovered one, that too of such an ancient one that''s even bigger than the Checkpoint Turtles we see." Seated beside him, his twin brother, Gehen laughed as he said, "It''s worth all the risk I went through to bring it up. And now, even if we do nothing, this would condense 10 Water Essence every year. Just that alone would give us tremendous authority to control everyone else, not to mention the Motor Fishes we control." "Still, I''m thankful that you have abilities related to maintaining and managing the Motor Fishes and being the eyes of The Cove." Gajor smiled as he patted the shoulder of his brother, speaking before he exited the room, "I''ll complete the remaining preparations. It should be done about now. I''ll signal when the plan''s about to commence." "Alright." Gehen nodded, maintaining his cordial smile as he watched Gajor exit the room. But at the moment he left the place, Gehen''s expression morphed into one of anger, cursing inwardly, "That useless coward." He stomped on the ground, muttering with a hint of rage, "It was me who went into the darkness under the ocean and braved through all the frightening sea monsters to discover this Checkpoint Turtle shell. It was also my passive ability that discovered it in the first place. I am the one who can control all these Motor Fishes. And, it''s my ability that we relied on to obtain more Godly Points." He scowled. "It was also me who discovered the firstborn of this Sub-Realm. But not only did Gajor screw it up and allow the baby to land in the hands of two powerhouses, he even plans to take credit for all my effort?" He then let out a deep breath, sighing as he continued to mutter, "You have always been a hindrance in my life, Gajor. Despite your inferior talent, Mother loved you the most. And it''s only because of my promise to her that I have been supporting you all these years. I can take it no longer." "The world has always been the survival of the fittest. And, someone without talent, wit, and ability like you will only be left behind." He muttered, closing his eyes as he sensed the location of the baby, Solare, "It seems they have been chasing after us all this time." He then thought, muttering, "Judging by how the distance between us is increasing, it seems they have plans to give up. After all, despite her nature, the Seamstress only focuses on her immediate surroundings. Even she knows she cannot put an end to all the atrocities that happen in the world." "As for that guy named Krune." He smiled as he said, "As long as I don''t involve myself with him, he will never bother me. Plus, he doesn''t seem the type to be content with staying here." "Right, who would like to live as a mortal for all their life?" He laughed out loud. "Even if you were to have a lot of strength, you would soon die. So, no sane cultivator would try to remain here for long unless it was their plan¡­just like me." "I''m fed up with the God Realm. No matter how strong I become, there''s always someone stronger. But here, as long as I put in enough effort, I can reach the top and secure a stable life for myself. This Sub-Realm is just too vast. So, even the God that created it wouldn''t ever set it aside." He then grinned, clenching his hand into a fist. "With my special passive ability, I can live for many centuries." "This is the best!" He laughed, closing his eyes as he kept watch on the ship''s progress. In the meantime, Gajor arrived at one of the rooms closer to the ship''s walls, looking at the groups of pirates that streamed in. They then saluted and placed a bunch of whistles on the table. "Sir Heuk has been significantly injured and fell unconscious. It seems controlling too many fishes took too great of a toll on him. But thanks to him, all of us have accumulated enough Godly Points over the past few months." The pirate continued, placing a total of fifty whistles on the table, "This is what we obtained by pooling the resources of all the pirates. To obtain this number, we had to visit numerous Checkpoint Turtles." "Impressive." Gajor nodded, laughing out loud as he looked at the fifty whistles on the table before him, "Adding onto what we have collected before, we have one hundred Helper Whistles in total now." ''If Gehen hadn''t figured out the method of pooling our Godly Points in the Checkpoint Turtle, this wouldn''t have been possible. As always, he''s impressive.'' He then mentally snorted, ''Once this plan is successful, I have to keep him in check. At present, it seems most of the pirates admire him more than me.'' ''Though, once this is successful, no one would be able to go against me, hahaha!'' He mentally smirked as he grabbed all the Helper Whistles, speaking, "Alright, take up positions. If we succeed, our lives would be significantly easier in the future. We would become the dominant force on these waters, haha." Yes, Boss!" All the pirates saluted and left. While adrift on the ocean, almost everyone was helpless. Among those, Gajor recruited those he thought would become useful subordinates. Those without value, he dismissed, giving them dangerous missions until they died. As for those that proved their worth, he nurtured them. And, immediately after surviving the First Wave, Gehen found him and they concocted their scheme, creating a pirate organization. ''It was Gehen that found me, discovered the cove where the Motor Fishes mated, and so on. One way or another, once this plan is successful, I must wring out the details of his passive ability. He must have falsified the information on his abilities. Since he hasn''t left The Cove for more than a year now, I haven''t been able to see him use any passive abilities.'' Gajor was deep in thought as he arrived in the room where Gehen was sitting, speaking, "We have one hundred Helper Whistles now." "All preparations are complete." Gajor looked at Gehen and asked, "Which Checkpoint Turtle are you planning to target?" "We are heading towards it right now. I feel like this Checkpoint Turtle is the youngest of the lot. So, targeting it is the easiest," Gehen said as he thought, ''I have been leading the Seamstress and Krune accordingly so that they would use the services of this weakest Checkpoint Turtle.'' ''They''re probably planning to head into a Secondary Landmass to harvest more Godly Points. They must have figured out the baby''s secret by now, so they wouldn''t leave him behind. So, that gives an assured possibility that they would head into a Secondary Landmass. Even though they wouldn''t obtain any extra Godly Points than the cost of their tickets, a year on land would be more than enough for them to grow even stronger. With their strength, they should be fine.'' He mentally laughed as he continued, ''And, if the Checkpoint Turtle they bought their tickets from dies, they wouldn''t be able to return here. So, I can rest assured that I wouldn''t see them again. Even if I do, I would have tremendously outclassed them by then.'' He then closed his eyes and shared sight with a fish that was seated on The Cove''s front, looking forward to seeing a massive Checkpoint Turtle come in sight. Chapter 965: Attacking the Checkpoint Turtle Krune, the Seamstress, and Solare vanished from the scene, along with the boat, Paddle. Within a minute, people were beginning to appear from all sides, intending to board the Checkpoint Turtle to exchange their Godly Points for rewards. But then, they noticed a group of boats heading towards the Checkpoint Turtle, forming a file. On top of that, there seemed to be something huge moving underwater behind them. The people looked at the expressions of each other, having guessed that the group were the pirates that have been infamous around the parts recently. Without any hesitation, they turned their boats around and left the place, intending to search for another Checkpoint Turtle. Situated inside the Checkpoint Turtle''s shell, floating amidst the water within was the octopus. Its head peeked out of the water as it was able to sense the incoming pirate ship, muttering, "Interesting. My lord would definitely love this development." It didn''t do anything and simply vanished from the spot, similar to the people that ripped their tickets. It reappeared in a faraway place and watched the Checkpoint Turtle with a curious expression. As for the Checkpoint Turtle it had been inside all along, it was still oblivious of its disappearance. It then felt something as its head coiled around, gazing at the massive pirate ship that was approaching. Upon seeing the shell of its brethren used in the making of the ship, it felt anger. "Let''s greet it first, shall we?" Gajor laughed as he transmitted his voice using his passive ability, informing the people, "Send two torpedoes first and see what happens." Two small entrances were manually opened by a group of fish. It was the place the Checkpoint Turtle''s head was supposed to be if it had been alive. From each hole exited a long tube, possessing a sharp tip. It was the one Gajor called a Torpedo. It seemed to have been created using the bones of a Sonic Radar, judging by its toughness and the sharpness of its tip. The front was a cone, while the rear was just a hollow cylinder. The walls of the cylinder sported numerous gaps through which water flowed. Situated within, biting a protrusion for support, was a Motor Fish, accelerating the construct through the water. Moreover, it wasn''t alone. There were two hatchling Motor Fishes that had been affixed within the cylinder perpendicularly to the Motor Fish. When they moved forward, they caused the Torpedo to rotate. And, as the two hatchling Motor Fishes moved with all their might, the Torpedo rotated with a tremendous speed. It swiftly moved through the water, making a wide arc as it headed straight towards the Checkpoint Turtle. The two torpedoes moved separately, aiming from different angles. Upon seeing their approach, the Checkpoint Turtle expressed fury as it unleashed its tremendous presence, for a moment causing everyone in the place, humans and fishes included, to shudder in fear, choking as they seemed to be on the verge of fainting. As for the Motor Fishes in the two torpedoes, they weren''t that different either. Though, even after they had fainted, their bodies continued to affect the water and generate currents. In the pirate ship, Gehen was kneeling on the floor as he directed the Motor Fishes in the torpedoes. This was the reason they continued to move. Unlike everyone who only tamed them, Gehen was controlling them using his passive ability. Thus, he was able to do something like that. Upon seeing the two Torpedoes continue to head towards it, the Checkpoint Turtle grunted as its tail peeked out of the water, rapidly sucking in air. It then opened its mouth and unleashed a sphere of air that headed towards the two torpedoes. The torpedoes swiftly changed directions, making a wider arc to escape the air bubble. But even though it missed, the air bubble exploded, causing a wave in the water that slammed into the torpedoes, killing the Motor Fishes within. ''That is tremendously powerful!'' Gehen inhaled a sharp breath of air, shouting towards Gajor, "Quick, begin the plan!" "Alright!" Gajor replied as he transmitted his voice, "Send out all the torpedoes and breath blockers. Commence full-scale attack!" The moment he transmitted his voice, Gajor looked at Gehen. Gehen nodded as he patted his brother''s shoulder, saying, "I''ll leave it to you, brother." "Haha, leave it to me." Gajor laughed as he grunted and quickly moved through the floors. Even though they had been affected by the Checkpoint Turtle''s suffocating pressure, having consumed a Water Essence each, they were able to move. As for the pirates, they had also done the same. Even the Motor Fishes had been fed a quarter Water Essence each. All of it were those they had plundered from the people throughout the two years. And now, they were spending them all for this one mission. Almost twenty torpedoes were shot out from the pirate ship. They instantly spread out in all directions and headed towards the Checkpoint Turtle through different paths and at uneven times, preventing it from reacting accordingly. Despite its tremendous size and powers, at the end of the day, it was a turtle, not famed for its speed. Moreover, when the Checkpoint Turtle unleashed another air bubble, something shot towards it at tremendous speeds, colliding into it. And upon collision, the impact of the wave only caused a ripple, one that spread vertically in a two-dimensional manner. Unlike before when the shockwaves traveled radially, none were affected this time as they ensured they weren''t around the singular wave. It was a piece of cake to predict and dodge such an attack when in comparison, the radial shockwave couldn''t be dodged. The one that had caused this was a flat piece of wall that was slightly bigger than the air bubble unleashed by the Checkpoint Turtle. And, despite facing the attack head-on, it wasn''t even scratched. That was because it was made using the tablets of the people. The tablets were stuck to one another to create a wall large enough to block an attack. There were three rows of tablets arranged accordingly to create an unbreakable wall. Upon seeing its effectiveness, Gehen heaved a sigh of relief, muttering, "Thankfully, the adhesive I used to stick them is powerful enough." He then nodded, recalling a powerful creature that was capable of secreting mucus that caused all fishes to be attracted towards one another. Upon contact, they would stick to one another. The creature used this to create massive baits that attracted even more fishes towards it, creating a beneficial cycle. And in the end, it would swallow them whole. Just the memory of it caused Gehen to shudder. He hadn''t personally killed it, but had used the Helper Whistle to summon a lot of predator fishes to kill it. In the end, he obtained its ability, storing its secretion to later apply on the tablets. It was an incredible ability to rely on and was one of his main weapons. And, now that he noticed its adhesive properties was enough to not fall apart from one of the Checkpoint Turtle''s attacks, he heaved a sigh in relief. He hadn''t used the adhesiveness generated using his passive ability, for that wasn''t potent enough yet. Rather, he had used the one sourced from the creature itself. Only because of that was it so powerful. There were four walls in total. Hidden behind each was a team of pirates. They moved through the water, propelling towards an air bubble immediately upon notice. Upon receiving every attack, their bodies shuddered, on the verge of death. The moment they defended against an attack, they retreated to recover while another team replaced them immediately. Since everyone had swallowed a Water Essence, they were managing somehow. One of the Torpedoes managed to swerve through the Checkpoint Turtle''s attacks, arriving before its neck before colliding into it. Even the neck muscles were ridiculously tough as the Torpedo stopped by the time the tip was lodged a couple of centimeters deep. But soon after, the hatchling Motor Fishes began to proper forth as the torpedo continued to rotate while the Motor Fish continued to press it into the Checkpoint Turtle''s neck. Moreover, quite a few torpedoes headed towards its back, a place it couldn''t reach easily under the situation, landing on its tail one after another. Upon noticing this, the Checkpoint Turtle moved, intending to head deeper into the water and rotate so that it could throw them all off. But, the moment it began to move, the pirate ship arrived from underneath and rammed into its belly. The shell covering it was tougher than the Checkpoint Turtle''s as it was sourced from a mature, ancient Checkpoint Turtle, possibly the strongest of them when it was alive. So, the younger Checkpoint Turtle was unable to handle the impact, suffering mild internal injuries as it was pushed up, prevented from escaping into the depths of the ocean. At this time, Gajor arrived at the center of the pirate ship, out into an open tunnel that traversed from the front to the end of the pirate ship, acting as the channel that all the Motor Fishes in it used to propel the ship forward. He laughed, saying, "One Helper Whistle can summon a predator fish. On top of that, a Helper Whistle can be used ten times." Followed by his laughter, he began to blow into each Helper Whistle ten times. Something immediately changed in the waters as numerous dangerous fishes emerged from the depths of darkness, each at least three to four times his size. Chapter 966: Killing the Checkpoint Turtle Predator Fishes! Any fish that hunted other fishes were classified under this category. But the ones summoned by the Helper Whistle were at least one to two meters in length and had a vicious nature. On top of that, it was calculated based on their ability to resist a wave. In other words, that meant only fishes capable of killing at least three Neon Radiance fishes were classified as the predator fishes summoned by the Helper Whistle. With that, Gajor blew a hundred of them ten times each, causing the ocean water to dim a little as a thousand predator fishes appeared, swimming through the waters as they headed straight towards the Checkpoint Turtle. Using the Helper Whistles, that was the command Gajor gave them. A Helper Whistle worked on chance. Only the closest predator fish would be summoned. And by summoned, it wasn''t as if they would be teleported. They would simply be called forth. The closer they were, the faster they came. Since he had called forth a thousand predator fishes, they arrived in numerous batches, splitting up as they began to attack the Checkpoint Turtle. The breath blockers¡ªthe tablet walls¡ªblocked all of the Checkpoint Turtle''s breath attacks while the torpedoes continued to drill into its body. Even though its body was tremendously tough, after drilling continuously, they were beginning to pierce through it. They hadn''t aimed at its shell. Gajor and Gehen were knowledgeable about just how ridiculously tough the Checkpoint Turtle''s shell was. Even its muscles proved to be tremendously tough. As for the shell, they could drill it for an entire year and still fail to penetrate it completely. First of all, they didn''t have the proper tools to damage it. And secondly, the shell absorbed the healing properties from the ocean water. Therefore, it was capable of healing the damage inflicted on it. So, attacking the shell was perfectly useless. Moreover, even its body was the same, capable of healing by absorbing the healing properties in the ocean water. Moreover, it was able to condense all the healing effects in a damaged part. Since it was stupendously huge, resembling an island, the amount of healing effect it could absorb was nauseating to drill through. Despite everything, they continued to attack it. The greatest damage dealer to it was the pirate ship that rammed into it from time to time, jerking it completely. This caused it internal damage while at times causing it to shoot breath attacks on the pirate ship. Gajor and Gehen were happy whenever that happened. That was because even they knew the ship''s hull wouldn''t fall apart that fast. It would be able to bear at least forty to fifty attacks before even beginning to crack. Plus, it took almost a minute per breath attack. The predator fishes entered the gaps between its shell, biting into its flesh. A torpedo retreated, revealing the hole it had drilled through. A group of predator fishes hurriedly swamped the area, biting through the exposed flesh. Just the sheer nutrition within it caused the predator fishes to enter a state of frenzy, drilling through it in an effort to devour more. The Checkpoint Turtle flailed its limbs, failing to hit anyone as it was just too slow. As for its breath attacks, they were being defended by the tablet walls. Though at times, they failed to completely negate the damage and caused some casualties. In any case, it didn''t matter on the grand scale of things. Neither of the twins cared about the losses. In their minds, all losses were recoverable. "Time to send in the big one now." Gehen laughed as a large space was opened in the ship''s front. Exiting it was a torpedo ten times the size of others. There were four Motor Fishes just to propel it forward and another four to spin it. All of them were adults. The moment they appeared, the Checkpoint Turtle noticed them. But, when it targeted them, the pirates controlling the tablet walls desperately moved forth to defend. More than half the pirates had suffered serious injuries now. But now, that didn''t matter as they persisted. The Checkpoint Turtle condensed another breath attack. This time though, it didn''t unleash it, instead storing it and compressing it further. Upon seeing it, Gehen knew that the situation had turned dangerous. He immediately summoned all the fishes under his control to move forth, forming a large spherical school in the water, heading towards the Checkpoint Turtle''s mouth. As for the two massive torpedoes, they spun ominously in the water, traveling at insane speeds. Right when the Checkpoint Turtle opened its mouth, the two of them pierced into either side of its shoulder, targeting the point where its neck touched its body. The insane revolution it possessed caused it to readily drill into the Checkpoint turtle''s flesh, drawing out copious amounts of blood. As the Checkpoint Turtle''s mouth opened, a sphere of air exited, looking almost no different to the bubbles from before. But this time, it seemed slightly heavier. On top of that, it didn''t blast forth, moving slowly as it arrived before the school of fish, breaking apart. For a moment, the ocean water seemed to have frozen over as everything seemed still. But immediately, a vortex formed in the center before a powerful shockwave blasted forth, attacking everything in its path. It hit the pirate ship, sending it flying back a little. As for the pirates, they turned into a sea of blood. Most of the torpedoes had been destroyed, the Motor Fishes within, dead. Gehen quickly got up and ran through the ship, soon exiting it as he was only able to see a sea of blood. His brother had already been floating outside. The two arrived within the ship and looked at each other, looking at the confusion and fear in the eyes of one another. Gajor asked, "Is it dead?" Gehen shook his head as he replied, "It''s still going strong." "Damn it. I guess we have no other choice but to go all out," Gajor cursed. "We might be able to replenish the pirates within a couple of years. But, we won''t be able to replenish the Motor Fishes that quickly." "But once you get that, we''ll have more power. We can slowly accumulate everything back once again," Gehen said. "Fine. What you said makes sense." Gajor nodded, commanding all the pirates to head out, "It''s almost dead. One more push. The one that contributes the most would be directly supported with powerful passive abilities." All the remaining pirates exited the pirate ship, swimming towards the Checkpoint Turtle. The remaining torpedoes were also launched as the pirate ship accelerated towards the Checkpoint Turtle, ramming into it. The two monstrous objects moved past the sea of blood as Gehen was able to notice the two torpedoes lodged deeply into the Checkpoint Turtle''s neck. It seemed the force from its attack had caused them to be lodged deep into its neck, preventing it from healing itself. Moreover, there still seemed to be around a dozen predator fishes that were alive. They were the ones that had penetrated deep into the Checkpoint Turtle''s flesh and had avoided the shockwave. Gehen rammed the pirate ship into the Checkpoint Turtle continuously while Gajor commanded the pirates to attack accordingly. The earlier attack had caused all four of their tablet walls to be sent flying. When the momentum died, they sunk to the depths of the ocean. Thankfully for them, the injuries in its neck prevented the Checkpoint Turtle from unleashing strong breath attacks anymore. The ones it unleashed, although terrifying, weren''t at the previous levels. The shockwaves didn''t directly kill them. And with the Water Essence healing them, combined with the fact that they were surrounded by water, the pirates persisted. The battle continued for three more days when the last of the pirate perished. None of them had escaped because the closer they got to killing the Checkpoint Turtle, the greater they were enveloped by greed, wondering if they would be the lucky ones to obtain its ability. Eventually, only Gajor and Gehen were alive. Without saying anything, they sped through the waters, intending to deal the final blow to the Checkpoint Turtle. At present, its neck was almost snapped as it was oozing out blood. It was on the verge of death. Upon seeing it, Gajor carried his blade, expressing his greed as he sped forth with his maximum speed. Summoning all his strength, he hacked on the tethered portion of the neck, barely causing a dent. Gehen had arrived before him, positioning himself on the other side as he began to hack into it. To prevent being stabbed in the back, the two faced each other and continued to hack into the Checkpoint Turtle''s neck. And when it seemed like it was about to die, Gajor raised his blade high up, condensing all his strength in it as he brought down his blade, pausing abruptly as he noticed a blade peeking out of his chest. His first thought was of Gehen betraying him. He looked at his brother, noticing the shocked look on the other party, suffused with anger and disbelief. Gajor turned around, wondering if there was any other pirate that had survived and had stabbed his back, only to see a Motor Fish hatchling holding a blade. His eyes widened as he mentally sighed, watching a sword pierce his neck. It was Gehen. After killing Gajor, he didn''t even waste another second on him as Gehen hacked with his sword, dealing the final blow to the Checkpoint Turtle. Chapter 967: First King The moment the Checkpoint Turtle died, all its blood that had mixed into the ocean mystically converged around Gehen, seeping into his body as he screamed in pain. Even though the healing effect from the Water Essence was still active in his body, the pain made him feel like he would be unable to hold on. His body seemed like it would no longer be able to hold on. The sounds of bones crunching resounded as they seemed to be broken and rejoined repeatedly. Gehen could not help but bawl from the pain, unable to tolerate it any longer when a warm feeling permeated through his body. All the blood in the surroundings vanished as the body of the Checkpoint Turtle floated before him, its eyes glaring at him. This startled him for a moment before he realized it was dead. For a moment, Gehen felt like there was unbelievable power in him before it seemed like that wasn''t the case. It was a confusing situation as he noticed the body of the Checkpoint Turtle began to dissolve into the water. Gehen stared at it for a couple of hours until it finished dissolving completely. He then looked around, noticing the numerous seas of blood surrounding him as he sighed, thinking to himself, ''Just what happened?'' He then returned to his ship, noticing that he was the only one alive in it. There were a couple dozen Motor Fishes that had been kept in reserve. They were also alive. As for the Motor Fishes that worked in pushing the pirate ship, they had died from overexertion. "I have to make them breed and increase their population number. It would take me a year before I have enough Motor Fishes to even move this ship to a reasonable level." He sighed, clenching his hand into a fist as he felt his body to be in perfect condition. But, just when he thought he could rest, he noticed a group of people arrive on boats. They seemed part of the group that had fled at the start upon seeing the pirates. It seemed that some of them had detection abilities that were able to sense the loss of life in the place. Upon discovering that there was just one survivor, they arrived as a group, lusting for all the treasures the pirates had hoarded. "I''ll test it on them." Gehen smiled, realizing that he wasn''t the least scared, despite there being around forty people that had arrived. He exited the ship, swam through the water, and landed on its surface. It almost seemed like he was on land now as the ship had barely surfaced. Upon seeing him, the group of people didn''t display any pleasantries, treating the pirate like they would treat a monster. They jumped on the surface of the pirate ship and brandished their weapons, heading towards him, intending to hack him to death. Gehen planned to evade their attacks when an unnerving level of confidence emanated from deep within him, causing him to feel the weapons weren''t threatening to him. He then raised his arm, watching the sword of a man land on him. The force did send him skidding back, but Gehen noticed that his arm wasn''t even scratched by the attack. Even though he felt the force, he didn''t feel any pain. It was a strange feeling, considering the amount of pain he always felt corresponded to the force behind the attack. Now, he felt the attack but felt no pain. He felt strange. But, upon realizing that he had obtained what he had hoped to gain, Gehen laughed, kicking the ground as he jumped towards the attacker, slamming a punch into his stomach. His opponent felt like a rock had hit him as the air in his lungs escaped. He fell backward as Gehen stomped on his head, silencing him. Gehen gazed at his hand, noticing that the skin was covered with a faint texture. It was akin to the Checkpoint Turtle''s shell. He noticed how the shell was only at the place the man''s sword had landed. ''So, this layer of armor will be auto-generated when I receive an attack?'' Intending to verify it, he jumped into the fray and attacked a couple more people, taking more attacks in response. Even though he felt the impact of the attacks, he didn''t feel any pain. Soon, he noticed how the places he was attacked were now covered by a faint layer of the shell. But it soon disappeared after not being attacked anymore for a certain duration. Gehen continued to hit them, slowly experimenting with his abilities. After some time passed, all the attackers were lying down, exhausted, beaten and battered. As for Gehen, he was completely fine. As the effect of the Water Essence was still in him, he wasn''t even tired. He then looked at the group before him, saying, "Since you dared to steal from me, that makes you pirates as well." They were too tired to even refute him. Seeing their response, Gehen smiled as he said, "I was just intending to search for subordinates. You came at the right time. Follow me, and I can promise you wealthy lives. I''ll also nurture you to become stronger than you are." After a while, all of them submitted. Gehen then spent the day showing them the ropes, drilling into them everything they needed to take care of. Their battle was enough for the group to know that they couldn''t do anything to Gehen. But, none of them showed any expression of regret. Rather, they were happy. Without having to be adrift on the ocean on their small boats, afraid about being capsized by a large fish at any moment, or encountering strong opponents that tried to rob their belongings. Now, they had become the robbing party. Moreover, their leader, Gehen had mysterious powers and was tremendously powerful. So, as long as they worked hard, they would lead wealthy lives, just as he had said. So, they wholeheartedly followed him. Once they settled within the pirate ship and had begun to take care of the various tasks at the place, Gehen arrived at the top, watching the scene of the two oceans before him, muttering, "It is unfortunate I lost Heuk, Frontiff, and the other two. They had powerful abilities that proved helpful all this time. On top of that, unlike Gajor, they were significantly talented. It''s such a pity..." He then sighed as he muttered, "It would take me ages to find such useful subordinates like those ones." He then closed his eyes, having figured out his power, shooting his eyes open as he was almost exhausted in a second. Followed by a flicker, a silhouette of the Checkpoint Turtle''s shell materialized around him like a protecting cover. All the veins on his body bulged as he gradually became more and more exhausted. The shell slowly gained form, growing out four limbs, a tail, and even a head. It was the Checkpoint Turtle. At present, it was just three meters in size. That was all the muscular energy in his body could afford to summon. Gehen touched it once, noticing that even if it seemed like an entity of energy, it felt real to the touch, just like a real Checkpoint Turtle. He then concentrated further, almost becoming exhausted enough to fall unconscious. The energy was streamed into the Checkpoint Turtle projection that began to suck in air from its tail and collected it in its stomach. It then channeled the air towards the throat, pressuring it with a chamber created to facilitate it. Aiming at the ocean above, the Checkpoint Turtle projection unleashed the ball of wind. Gehen watched the ball of air land on the ocean above, causing a meter-wide crater that had a depth of almost three meters before expanding within the water, causing a mild shockwave. Upon seeing the extent of the damage, Gehen laughed aloud. "As long as I improve my stamina, I would be able to condense it even bigger and deal even greater damage. Just this alone was worth all the sacrifice!" He then double-tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet to see the words displayed on it. [Killed Supreme Monster [Checkpoint Turtle]: Obtained 10 Godly Points] [Obtained Active: Checkpoint Turtle] "My own active ability. I love how it''s named the Checkpoint Turtle. So, does that mean it possesses all the abilities of a Checkpoint Turtle?" Gehen laughed when he noticed another row of words appear. But this time, it seemed it wasn''t transmitted to him alone. It was transmitted to everyone on Layer 3. [Birth of the First King: Gehen] [Killing a Checkpoint Turtle will no longer reward an Active Ability] "Ha¡­hahaha!" Gehen broke out into a burst of laughter. "That''s right, this is for the best. Now, no one will be able to mimic my strategy against a Checkpoint Turtle. Good luck obtaining an active ability by killing a Supreme Monster in the Tertiary Landmass, a place it rules over, with only the help of nine people." His laughter was carefree and was filled with a sense of pride. After all, he would probably be the only one in Layer 3 that would ever obtain an active ability by barely suffering any wound. Chuckling, he turned around, looking at all forty people that had become his subordinates. Upon meeting his gaze, they thought of his mysterious ability and the announcement a while ago, linking one to two as they kneeled on the ground instantly. Chuckling, Gehen spoke, "That''s right, I''m Gehen, this world''s first King." Chapter 968: World Map Gehen gazed at the octopus that was standing before him, staring at the other party and said, "So, you''re still alive." It was the octopus that had been within the Checkpoint Turtle he had killed. Now that it showed itself before him, Gehen was curious about the reason. Even though he assumed it wouldn''t be as strong as the Checkpoint Turtle, a Supreme Monster, he didn''t dare be careless. "No need to worry. I''m not an opponent you will have to face here." The octopus let out humane laughter as it responded, "The reason I am here is to hand out your punishment for killing a Checkpoint Turtle. No matter your reason, a Checkpoint Turtle has been established to help the humans struggling on this layer." "What¡­kind of punishment?" Gehen frowned, becoming alert. "For the crime of killing a Checkpoint Turtle, you are banned from anything related to the products sold in the Checkpoint Turtle. And that includes the items in the possession of others," the octopus replied, noticing Gehen heave a sigh in relief. It then expressed a frown as it asked, "You don''t feel like it''s a punishment? The products sold in a Checkpoint Turtle have tremendous value, you know." "Yes, but I already have everything I need." Gehen smiled. "And, I have no plan of leaving my base behind to head into a Primary, Secondary, or Tertiary Landmass. I have already reaped all the benefits that can be obtained." "There''s also the entry ticket to Layer 2. It can only be bought in a Checkpoint Turtle," the octopus said. "I have no plans for that," Gehen said, noticing the octopus laugh in response. "Interesting, indeed!" It laughed. Gehen pointed at it and spoke, "You mentioned before that you aren''t an opponent I must face. Then, when and where will you be my opponent?" "In layer 2." The octopus laughed. "But, since you won''t go there, you don''t have to concern yourself with it." It then said a word of caution. "Also, unlike passive abilities, you can pass your active ability to your kids. They would become what is called an active ability bearer. When you die, the most suitable one among them obtains your active ability. So, if you wish to form a kingdom, don''t leave your seeds in every sow you encounter." "Alright, I''ll keep that in mind." Gehen nodded. The octopus then pointed at his forehead, saying, "Now that you have an active ability and have been recognized as a King, your Tablet has gained an extra feature. Every year, you can look at the world map for exactly an hour. It would show all the various kingdoms in Layer 3." The octopus cackled as it disappeared. "I wonder if you''ll still be happy staying on Layer 3 once you see that." Gehen returned to his room and sat in one corner. He didn''t have anything like a pen and paper to take notes. It would take him a long time before he managed to install all the necessities in his ship. So at present, he just wished to look at the feature. Thinking as such, he double-tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet to see that it was now bordered by waves on all sides, making it look fancier. He then messed with it until the map of the Layer 3 was displayed. Immediately, the tablet changed. It displayed things related to an ocean on either side. Gehen looked through it, noticing that most of the place was just water. On top of that, there seemed to be minuscule dots scattered across it. He swiped with two fingers, noticing that he was able to zoom in a little bit. Once he zoomed in to the limit, one of the scattered dots became as big as his finger. That seemed to be the limit of the function. Soon, he noticed that the dot he had been looking at was a Landmass. Judging by its relative size with respect to the other dots, he determined that it was actually a Tertiary Landmass. "What the heck?" He quickly zoomed in and out of the map, noticing that the Tertiary Landmass alone was in the four digits. Using it as a reference, he made a general estimate of the scale of the map, sweating buckets immediately as he muttered, "Approximately a million kilometers?" He then noticed that there were various colors displayed on every island. After surfing through it for a while, Gehen noticed that humans were displayed as black. Not only that, but he noticed that most of the humans were concentrated in just one part of the map. When he zoomed in further, he noticed that the distance between one edge of a human area to another was around two to three thousand kilometers. So, most of them had only been scattered in and around one part of the map. The only reason they hadn''t come across too many people was because their population was still too small, considering the area they were scattered across. Gehen then looked past the area humanity was scattered, noticing some rocks situated closer. Judging by their size, they seemed to be some Primary Landmass. But then, Gehen noticed how the colors of a couple of Primary Landmass seemed to be the same. Judging by that, it seemed that one of the colors seemed to be invading the others. As he hovered on it, a word was displayed, outlining the race that was invading. "Monster Gecko¡­?" "It seems that are invading other Primary Landmasses. Once they cross that, they would start attacking humans." He frowned after realizing that, sighing as he said to himself, "Well, it''s not something I have to care about for the time being." He then located his position on the map and looked for the nearest place with the highest density of people, intending to recruit them. He planned to have around 2000 pirates with him, a number he felt would be optimal to man within his pirate ship. If he expanded even further, he planned to make more follow in individual boats, like a fleet. After looking at the map until its time was up, Gehen laughed. "There are allies to recruit, enemies to face, and a massive world to explore. I won''t ever regret staying behind." ¡­ There was a massive fish currently floating on the ocean water. And, seated on its back were twenty people while standing at the front was a woman, possessing features similar to Cultivator. She was the one that had birthed him, the Third Princess of the Zamuria Royalty, hailing from the Zamuria Continent, and currently, the top-ranked person in Layer 3. She had been looking at a certain name on her tablet ever since she was in Layer 3, focusing on it for a long time. It was Cultivator. Since she planned to rectify her mistake, she had been keeping an eye on his development all along. Cultivator had become her prime focus. Everything else was secondary. But, as she continued to stare at his name, the display on the tablet changed as two rows of words were displayed. It showed the announcement of Gehen becoming the First King and the fact that no more Checkpoint Turtles could be hunted. "So, the Checkpoint Turtle was indeed a Supreme Monster. Sucks that someone beat me to it," she muttered, but didn''t seem disappointed. Princess Zamuria! She gazed to her back, looking at the ground with twenty people on it, asking, "How is it?" "We have lured another one, Princess!" one of them spoke, heaving a sigh of relief as she let out an exhausted grunt. "Good." Princess Zamuria nodded as her body shone with a gentle radiance. She noticed the display on the tablet change back to the rankings. She then tapped it once, pulling up her information, looking at her Passive Abilities. [Neon Radiance] [Neon Radiance] [Neon Radiance] [Neon Radiance] [Neon Radiance] She then nodded, thinking, ''It''s for the best to develop with this unless I find a better ability. But for that, I have to wait a decade for the Second Wave. Only the passive ability given by the creature in a Wave has such potential.'' She then watched a shadow loom in the water above as a massive fish jump out, opening its mouth as it intended to gobble up the twenty people behind her. The moment it jumped out, all the twenty people simultaneously jumped into the water, acting like they were used to the situation, timely escaping as the fish landed into the water. Princess Zamuria smiled as she walked forth. The Neon Radiance she unleashed condensed into a blade of light as she leaped into the air, making a slash as the blade expanded accordingly, creating a long gash on the massive fish. It seemed like Neon Radiance couldn''t emit such a phenomenon. But, it was only possible because it was in her hands. Even now, the light blade had five flickers that combined to give it solidity. Even then, it seemed like she hadn''t perfected the technique yet as a lot of light was simply radiated out, a waste considering her purpose of use. Though, all she needed was only training. Smiling, Princess Zamuria attacked the massive fish in a flurry, preventing it from even nearing her before it bled to death. She easily farmed for a Godly Point, wiping her sweat as she sat on the fish carcass. The twenty people soon went aboard it, beginning to lure in another massive fish that might award a Godly Point. Upon seeing their zealous work, Princess Zamuria waved her hand, telling them to rest for the time being as she frowned, deep in thought, ''Once I master this ability, I should head straight into a Tertiary Landmass. But before that, I have to purchase a lot of Water Essence to heal and replenish my stamina as I train myself. This will increase my stamina reserves the fastest.'' Chapter 969: I Love Stories It was currently nighttime. But even if it was daytime, it wouldn''t have mattered for Cultivator, who had gone beyond a depth of 10 meters from the ocean surface. At present, relying on just Underwater Breathing, he proceeded underwater. Soon after, he activated another passive ability that allowed him to head deeper into the ocean depths. Once he noticed any dangerous fishes approach him through one of his abilities, he activated another passive ability, causing them to ignore him, as if they could sense that he would taste disgusting. This way, he avoided all battles, continuing to head deeper and deeper into the ocean. He didn''t seem bothered about Gehen obtaining an active ability, minding his own business. He seemed pretty excited about the exploration, gazing at the various fishes that swam past. He then stopped, watching a Sonic Radar fly below him, sucking everything in its way as it used sharp teeth to shred them apart. Only after it went a long distance away did he continue to head deeper. And the deeper he went, the more bizarre the fishes got. They stopped being streamlined, taking on unnatural shapes and sizes. Some of them were stupidly huge, while others were stupidly larger than huge. As if the depth necessitated a bigger body size, the fishes continued to become bigger and bigger. As Cultivator headed deeper into the water, he initially thought it would be harder to breathe since he was too far from the air layer for the diffusion of air into water to reach him. But on the contrary, he felt like it was getting easier to breathe. Cultivator traveled for well beyond two days, noticing that it was still easy for him to breathe. Thanks to his final passive ability, he wasn''t crushed by the water pressure at all. At present, he had swapped out all his previous passive abilities to ones that were suitable to explore the depth of the ocean, taking an entire year to collect them. And now, his abilities had finally paid fruit. Irrespective of how strange the sea creatures got, none of them tried to eat him, allowing him to pass by. As he was underwater, the healing effect of the water satiated him to a certain extent. He had trained himself to be able to absorb enough healing effect from the water, using his previous passive ability to do so. Instead of depending on his passive ability like an extra ability, he trained using them, gaining part of the traits on his body himself. That was how he increased his advantage. And now, using the same advantage, he kept himself satiated, continuing deeper into the ocean. By this point, he was able to witness sea creatures that were more than a hundred meters in length. Judging based on their suffocating presence, Cultivator thought to himself, ''All these are probably on the level of a Supreme Monster.'' Eventually, after more than a couple of months of travel, he reached the bottom, noticing a barrier before him. When he touched it, he was sucked into it and dropped to the ground. Cultivator got up and dusted himself, looking around to see he was in a small air bubble that was hemispherical in shape, possessing a radius of 100 meters. The entire place was almost devoid of life. Almost, because there was actually a living being before him, one that was actually sentient. "Welcome!" Upon seeing him, the being spoke. Though, its voice seemed like it didn''t have a singular source. Cultivator looked around, observing the desolate place. There were quite a few pillars that were broken and almost grounded into dust due to the passage of time. Among them, there seemed to be a pillar that was still standing. Only spanning a height of 10 centimeters, it was a humanoid creature with tentacles in place of legs. It still retained a humane upper body, though. When Cultivator stood before it, the stature spoke, barely moving its mouth as it emitted a weak voice, "Welcome, mortal of a new era. May I know your name?" "Cultivator." "Cultivator is but a thing of legend." "I''m not a legend yet." "¡­" "¡­" "¡­" "My name''s Cultivator." "Right! No wonder! Sorry, my bad! I got confused for a moment there," the statue said before its hands weakly shot towards his forehead, pointing at his glabella, asking, "That thing there, can I see it?" "Why?" Cultivator asked in return. "I want to see what''s the controlling race of my world now," the statue said. "Sure." Cultivator just smiled as he double-tapped his glabella and showed it for the statue to see. Upon seeing it for a couple of seconds, the status emitted crunching sounds. "Dammit, it''s still those blasted octopuses." Cultivator simply watched the statue rage around for a good couple of hours, smiling when it calmed down. It then looked at him, saying, "This world was once dominated by us Immortal Statue race. We were those that grew without having to consume any race. As long as we were in the ocean water, we would absorb nutrients and grow. Every adult from our race would reach a height of 80 meters and possess tremendous power." "Once we mature, we break one of our arms and watch them grow into a copy of ourselves. It wasn''t easy to kill us since our bodies were made from tough stones." "We were one frightening race, but also the most peaceful, having never harmed any other race since we never had a reason to do so." The status groaned as it continued, "But, everything changed once the octopuses attacked us. Their ink was capable of eroding our proud stone sculpted bodies." "One after another, we were killed by this blood-thirsty race. Eventually, I became the last survivor. I, the last king, who was once deemed as the strongest of my kind, a 200-meter-tall symbol of power, ran into the depths of the ocean to survive. My only safety net was the fact that the octopuses cannot reach this deep." "From then onwards, I have been waiting for a day when I could pass all my powers to someone that would carry out my revenge." The statue looked at Cultivator and said, "If you promise to avenge my race, I''ll pass you the strongest of my race''s power, something that your race now knows as an active ability. Do you wish to obtain this ability and avenge us after hearing my complete story?" Cultivator took a comfortable seating posture, smiling as he responded, "I love an interesting story." Chapter 970: Oh Shit! Krune, the Seamstress, and Solare appeared within an expansive cave. It was slightly dark and moist, while the ground seemed to be covered in a layer of mud. Krune immediately uttered minute sounds, using his Sonic Radar to scout his surroundings. Immediately, he began to sweat as he looked at the Seamstress, telling her, "We''ve ended up in a rather tricky place." Upon making sure that Solare was comfortably sleeping, the Seamstress gazed back, looking at the walls of the cave. She then accompanied Krune as they reached the exit, peeking out cautiously before they exclaimed in alarm, "Oh shit!" They had arrived in a rock pillar that had a diameter just slightly bigger than the size of their cave. Their cave was almost positioned near the top of the pillar. Though, it was the bottom that caused Krune to sweat buckets. Using his Sonic Radar, Krune determined that they were at least a kilometer from the ground. And that alone spoke facts about their plight. If it was just him and the Seamstress, they would manage to head down one way or another. But unfortunately, they also had Solare to take care of, not to mention their boat, which had all their needs and necessities. With that, bringing it down was hard, if not outright impossible. Moreover, they were unsure about the dangers involved in the place. After all, there was even a layer of cloud that blocked their vision from seeing the surface. Krune looked upward, noticing that the water layer was almost a hundred meters above them. It was the ocean above. The Secondary Landmass was no different from the Primary Landmass in shape, shaped like a bowl that was submerged in one ocean while its ends touched the ocean above. This way, it wasn''t possible for the ocean water to leak inside. And from their spot, there was no way to reach it. Krune then used his Sonic Radar, frowning as he cursed, "This is bad, really, really bad." "What is it?" The Seamstress also frowned while looking at him, holding her coral sword as she remained vigilant. "There seem to be two races living here. And one of them...can fly," Krune said. "What?" The Seamstress was left at a loss for words. If she was still the Seamstress she previously was, she wouldn''t have been shocked. After all, she could simply tame a demon beast that was capable of flight. She had quite a few of those. But now, as a mortal, the sky was off-limits. Hearing one of their foes was capable of flight almost frightened her. After all, they were currently stuck on a pillar. And, if they decided to descend to the ground, they would need to climb down the rock pillar for a kilometer. During this time, they were fair game for the flying creatures. So, it would place them in a passive situation. Unless they were careful, they could very well say that their lives were currently at risk. Krune maintained his Sonic Radar, scouting through a couple of kilometers in his surroundings. Only by activating his Ocean Heart was Krune able to shout loud enough without ripping off his throat. It seemed that the flying creatures didn''t cross the layer of clouds, ensuring that they were currently safe. He then thought of something, saying to the Seamstress, "We''ll have to begin creating enough rope. Once we figure out a method to gain a water supply, our situation would turn for the better." "But first, we have to scout our surroundings." Krune inspected the side of the rock pillar, touching with his hands as he felt around, gazing up. "But first, I have to see from the top." "Be careful!" the Seamstress said as Krune exited the cave and grabbed hold of a rock protrusion, feeling it around with caution before he began to scale it up. Thanks to his Monster Gecko skin armor, he had better grip on the rocky surface, being able to move without much trouble. There were less than ten meters to the top as Krune reached it within a minute. Standing at the top of the rock pillar, he looked around, for a moment beginning to laugh. His laughter was one of mockery but also of a sense of relief. That was because the walls of the Secondary Landmass were only positioned forty meters away. The walls were steep, unlike the Primary Landmass with the Monster Geckos. Though, Krune noticed a couple of caves in his vicinity. After looking at them, he realized, recalling his experience of arriving at the Primary Landmass. He muttered, "So normally, I would have been teleported into one of those caves. But since I arrived with my boat, the caves weren''t big enough. Thus, we were teleported into a big enough cave that was nearest to the wall. That makes sense." Even though 40 meters was still a vast distance that couldn''t be traversed easily, Krune was confident of obtaining a solution. The reason he hadn''t noticed it before while using Sonic Radar was because he had activated it while standing within the cave. Thus, the only sound waves that exited it traveled in the direction of the cave''s entrance. With that, he wasn''t able to scout his back and sides yet. And now that he was at the top of the rock pillar, he was able to scout around without any blind spots. He observed all the caves, noticing the ones under the cloud layer to be filled with the flying creatures. "So, for some reason, they won''t fly past the cloud layer? That makes it a lot safer for us to be here." He then looked around, noticing numerous pillars situated everywhere. Some of them were situated close while others were far from each other. The closest rock pillars only had a gap of 20 meters between them. Krune closed his eyes, deep in thought, before deciding his course of action. "With enough ropes, we should be able to salvage the situation. Thankfully, we have enough food to last that long." He then gazed up, looking at the ocean layer a hundred meters above. He then returned to the cave and talked with the Seamstress. "We have enough rope but not enough to bear your weight for that great a distance." The Seamstress nodded as she offered her thoughts on the matter. Eventually, they decided on the course of their action. "Let''s use our water judiciously. We should be able to last for a month with it," Krune said as he noticed the Seamstress take action immediately. In the meantime, he began to work on other matters. Two days later, the Seamstress had completed a thick enough rope. Krune tied one end of it to a large Frozen Cylinder. He then climbed to the top of the rock pillar, looking at the bone tree growing before him. It hadn''t reached full height yet. Rather, it had only reached his knee in height. It was because it was only growing by relying on his blood and some of the water he had supplied it. It didn''t have any source of water to finish growing. Krune tied a knot around it, ensuring that it wouldn''t be damaged when the trunk of the bone tree widened in girth. He then created the same knot around the big Frozen Cylinder, taking in a deep breath as he inserted a bone tree fragment in a safety hole the Seamstress had installed into it. He then hurled it with all his might, aiming it at one of the caves. Followed by a mild whistling sound, the big Frozen Cylinder crashed into a cave situated quite lower from his altitude. Sadly, it didn''t explode. Rather, there was only a crack on the two flat surfaces, making it seem like it would shatter soon enough. Its inherent weight prevented the rope coiling it from slowly moving out of the cave. Moreover, the knot was just around it. Krune had kept them separate, one for tying up the big Frozen Cylinder and a knot for the growing bone tree. Once he had thrown it, Krune sat in silence as he awaited, using his Sonic Radar to notice a thin bone sprout emerge from the cracks on the cylinder. One of its roots had eventually touched the ground, seeping into it when all the other roots had also followed suit. The upper part of the tree exited the cylinder soon after as it began to grow in size, having absorbed all of Krune''s blood. To increase its speed of growth, Krune had infused a lot of energy from his Ocean Heart into it. So, it quickly began to grow, eventually stopping at a meter in height. Krune then threw two more big Frozen Cylinders, hitting them on the bone tree. They shattered and caused a layer of ice to form on the bone tree. Though, it wasn''t affected. Rather, it absorbed all the blood before the freezing effect could even spread, quickly growing to reach its full height of three meters. Krune also smashed the remaining two big Frozen Cylinders on the bone tree beside him, watching it grow in real-time until it reached its maximum height of three meters. He noticed how the stem was sturdy while the rope was perfectly taut around it. The knot the Seamstress made seemed advanced. Moreover, the way she had tied each string to create the rope was different than what he had ever witnessed. A simple touch was all he needed as a master blacksmith to determine that it was strong enough to bear his weight. To grow the two bone trees to full height, they had expended all six of their big Frozen Cylinders. But, since they could be created at any time, Krune didn''t care about them. Instead, he was pleased with the solution to his problem. Once it was done, he tugged the rope once, determining that the bone trees were lodged deep into the ground and wouldn''t be uprooted. This was the reason he used them in the first place. If he had resorted to any hooks, they were bound to come off during repeated use. But in the case of the bone trees, their roots would dig deep and not only hold the rock steady, but also create the most stable and toughest foothold to string their ropes around. With that, Krune slung a shovel that he had created using the shaft of the Monster Gecko''s fishing rod and held the rope, using it to move like a sloth. Chapter 971: Shattered Hope With the rope being inclined downward, Krune did not hasten his travel at all, proceeding at a slow pace. The rope had a length of 50 meters he had to traverse. Even though the distance between the walls and the rock pillar was 40 meters, since the rope was declined, he had to travel a longer distance. It took him more than ten minutes before he managed to land in the cave, patting the bone tree the rope was coiled around. As the bone tree had a near smooth surface, he was assured the rope wouldn''t be damaged by wear and tear every time he used it to cross. He then exited the cave and traversed across the walls, using its slope to his advantage as he climbed faster. It wasn''t a vertical wall but had a small slope. Because of that, his time was a lot easier as he could simply rely on the extraordinary grip his Monster Gecko skin armor provided, quickly scaling up the place. After spending half an hour, Krune reached the topmost cave in the wall. It was positioned the closest to the top, only three meters away from the water surface. The cave had a length of five meters and a width of three meters. It was a fairly decent cave as he immediately began to dig into it using the shovel. The cave contained a lot of mud that made his life easier. Spending almost half a day, he managed to dig a pit of three meters deep, spanning the width of the cave. While doing so, he was relying on the healing effect in his Ocean Heart to alleviate his exhaustion, continuing to work nonstop. With that, he created a dam of sorts, heaving a sigh of relief. As for whether or not it was sturdy enough for their needs, Krune wasn''t the one taking care of that. The Seamstress would continue from that point onward. After finishing his task, Krune slowly returned to his cave, suddenly noticing something amiss as he looked at the figure of the Seamstress. At present, she was clutching her ticket, staring at it in shock. Upon seeing him, she said in a solemn tone, "I can feel this ticket losing power." "What?" Krune was shocked as he quickly took his ticket out, soon able to feel something amiss about it as well. "Just¡­what is happening?" "The Checkpoint Turtle is the source of the ticket''s power," the Seamstress said. "And now that the ticket is losing power, it means something has happened to it." She had just said it when the ticket snapped, crumbling into dust immediately. Krune''s and Solare''s tickets were no different. The fact that the tickets disappeared meant that the respective Checkpoint Turtle had died. The Seamstress summoned her tablet as she gazed at the two rows of words that contained news about Gehen. After seeing it, realization hit the Seamstress as she muttered, "I see, we were played right into his hands. That damn fox." Upon noticing that Krune hadn''t figured it out completely yet, she sighed, explaining, "I had been suspicious when the pirate ship continued to change directions constantly. But I just thought they were looking for people to loot and didn''t wish to miss even a single one of them. But now, it seemed they were targeting us to follow them and ensured that we were the closest to a certain Checkpoint Turtle." "And..." She grunted. "It seemed that they had been aiming to a weak Checkpoint Turtle, judging by how they managed to kill one. So, they managed to kill it, obtaining incomparable benefits while causing us to remain stranded here. Now, without our tickets, we can''t return to the Checkpoint Turtle anymore since it''s already dead." "In short, we won''t be recalled even after a year has passed. And if we wish to leave this place, we have to manually exit it and hope we stumble upon a Checkpoint Turtle." Krune nodded. "I must say, they got us good." "You''re not concerned?" The Seamstress glared at him, almost shouting. "Nope." Krune laughed. "Instead, I would like to thank them." As her expression morphed into that of anger, Krune smiled. "It means we have a longer time to stabilize ourselves in this place. If I didn''t have to leave the previous Primary Landmass, I would have created a steady supply of Godly Points myself. And now, we have the option to do that." "Besides." He chuckled. "Don''t forget that we still have the four Mutated Motor Fishes. So, no matter the distance, once we''re ready, we would be able to find a Checkpoint Turtle. Let''s obtain enough Godly Points to leave Layer 3 by then." "Fine." The Seamstress let out an exhausted sigh, looking at Krune. "I''m just afraid that we would have to spend the rest of our lives in this place. We''re just mortals now. And every day, we are aging further and further." "Uh¡­huh¡­" Krune nodded awkwardly, mentally sighing as he thought, ''I already have a wife.'' He could figure out the intention of the Seamstress. She meant that if they would be stuck in this place for the rest of their lives, they might as well start a family. As mortals, they needed hope to press forth in their lives. "Even though I already have grandkids in the God Realm, if this is our fate¡­" The Seamstress slumped on the floor, lacking the strength to speak. As for Krune, he wasn''t any different either. The fact of losing the tickets took a greater toll on their minds than they had expected. Even though he tried to put it off in an optimistic way, he too was plagued by the thought of ''What if?''. What if even after he accumulated 200 Godly Points, he was unable to find any Checkpoint Turtle? What if the Secondary Landmass was situated in a dangerous ocean area that prevented them from ever leaving it? What if they became too old to even battle by the time they obtained enough Godly Points? What if he was unable to endure being alone anymore and started a family with the Seamstress? What if he came across Feifei after he had a child with the Seamstress? Thoughts that he never had as a cultivator swarmed his mind, steeping him in worry. Even though Krune had immense trust in his character and loyalty to his wife, he couldn''t guarantee any of that as the current him. Maybe he won''t give in for a year or two or three. But what if a decade had passed? What about two decades later when the signs of aging would become apparent in him? Would he still remain as the same Krune? He wasn''t sure. As a mortal, he could be assured in himself. After all, a mortal''s mind was susceptible to the weakness of the passage of time. As a cultivator, even if they were old, they would still maintain the strength dictated by their cultivation base. They wouldn''t ever feel weak. But as a mortal, beyond a point in life, it was only downhill. The body would slowly begin to weaken over the years. And beyond a certain point, they would become too weak to even take care of themselves. In this dangerous world where they had to constantly fight for survival, even reaching old age wasn''t guaranteed. Rather, becoming old was a curse since they would only drag everyone down. That night, they went to bed early. Krune was woken up quite a few times during the night by Solare, but in the end, he still managed to get enough sleep. When he woke up in the morning, he noticed that the Seamstress was getting dressed. He quickly turned around. Unlike in the ocean, the gravity was only facing one direction. So, they couldn''t use the other side of the boat''s surface. Therefore, they slept on the same side. Even though there was around three meters of space between their beds, it was still a bit awkward between them. Krune began to feed Solare while the Seamstress let out a forced smile, speaking to Krune, "I''ll complete the dam first. The Motor Fishes, too, need water urgently." Saying so, she exited the cave, holding with her a couple of coral tools that she had created. She also held a couple of containers of the Healing Extract, soon leaving the place as she traveled using the rope, soon heading towards the topmost cave in the walls. She then entered the cave, looking at the tank that Krune had created. It had a depth of a meter. As for the dugout soil, he had flattened them into bricks and lined them in one side. His part of the work was impeccable. The Seamstress carefully jumped into the tank and placed her hand on the floor, slowly emitting a murky white radiance. Coral Wave! The floor was soon layered with a thin layer of coral. It acted as a layer to prevent the water from seeping into the ground. She continued with the process, drinking the Healing Extract from time to time to replenish her stamina. At the end of the day, she layered the insides of the tank with a centimeter-thick layer of coral. It hadn''t ended as there was a lot of work to be done. She was already exhausted. "Work is slow as a mortal." Sighing, she returned to her cave, plopping to the ground in exhaustion. She then looked around, noticing Krune taking care of the four Mutated Motor Fishes. He placed two tubs on the ground, filling them with their water reserves, expending more than half the reserves. It wasn''t enough for them to live comfortably, but he didn''t have many options. It was barely enough to ensure that they wouldn''t die. They were brought with them because Motor Fishes were considered as property. Since they were attached to the boat, they were teleported with the boat. It seemed the teleportation wasn''t something that could be selectively executed. It was the advantage they took to bring the Motor Fishes with them. For the next two days, Krune and the Seamstress hardly conversed, busying themselves with their respective work. At the end of the second day, the Seamstress heaved a sigh of relief in the topmost cave as she muttered to herself, "Finally, it''s done." Before her were coral walls that were a meter high. They were a centimeter thick and had been equipped with a tap mechanism. "Now, to prepare the pipes and other items." The Seamstress sighed, shaking her head as she continued to work on her next task. "I hope I can leave this place before my death." Chapter 972: Creating Water Tanks And Ropes "Alright, this looks pretty good." Krune heaved an exhausted sigh as he looked at the ground before him. He was currently inside a wide cave where he had dug the ground and placed all the rocky gravel on one side. He then made numerous trips from the cave to the topmost cave, bringing with him the mud that was in there. The closer the cave was to the ocean layer, the more abundant the mud in it. Thus, he transported the mud from there to the large caves in the walls. It was to plant the Rope Bushes. Having raised two of them for more than a year now, Krune had collected quite a few of their seeds. A Rope Bush finished growing within a month and bore a seed at the end of each month. Krune collected the seeds and stored them. As he hadn''t uprooted the two Rope Bushes, they bore seeds every month. Because of that, he had 30 Rope Bush seeds now, including what he obtained from the Primary Landmass. As they needed a lot of rope to descend to the ground, their priority was to grow even more Rope Bushes. With that, all their needs would be satisfied. The Seamstress worked on the delicate parts of making rope, pipes using the rope, and so on while Krune worked on the grunt work and created places to plant the Rope Bushes, the bone trees, and other plants they had. He also dug a large pit in one of the longest caves. This cave only had a width of three meters but a length of almost 30 meters. He chose this place for the Motor Fishes to live in for the time being. Keeping them in a small place would cause them to die sooner or later. After all, even if they were a tamed species, moving in the water was what they loved. So, if he didn''t wish to lose them, Krune had to create a place for them to survive. He couldn''t leave them in the ocean since it was too risky. When he checked using his Sonic Radar, Krune noticed a lot of predator fishes in the vicinity. Even if he was strong, they would swarm him to death within a dozen seconds. It was too risky. This was another reason he almost despaired. After all, he would have to face them when they planned to leave the place. The Seamstress only had one Helper Whistle with her that she carried around for emergencies. Naturally, it was clearly insufficient in this place filled with predator fishes. Even if she summoned all 10 predator fishes, they would easily be overwhelmed. ''Once the two of us grow stronger, leaving this place should be possible,'' Krune thought as he finished planting all the thirty Rope Bush seeds in a couple of caves. The Seamstress had created a bundle of threads that were wound close to one another to create tiny flexible pipes. She lodged a rectangular piece of coral into the walls that were submerged in the water, fixing all the thin rope pipes into it. She then extended them straight, stopping them at the entrance of the topmost cave. Capillary Rise! It was a concept of physics where water moved up in a thin tube against gravity. She used the same concept here, making the water move a certain distance until the gravity changed. At that exact point, she increased the diameter of the rope pipe, causing the principle of capillary rise to fail. With gravity acting on it, the water soon dripped down. This way, she created an automatic pumping system. Even though the water only dripped one drop per second, she had placed around a hundred pipes in the cluster. In other words, it was a considerable amount that was generated automatically every second. She had created an inclined slope over which the water dripped. They slid down into a funnel that was connected to another pipe, with it being connected to the water tank. The water tank had a width of three meters, the same as the cave''s width. It was a considerable reservoir of water, able to hold 24,000 liters of water. Once filled, it would last them for a month. Though, they still had other necessities, like watering the bone trees and the Rope Bushes. With that, they needed even more water. Then again, considering the speed of water influx, they would have more than enough water to use after a couple of days. After all, the dripping from the numerous thin pipes equaled to five milliliters per second, which amounted to 18 liters per hour. It was more than enough for all their uses. As the water began to drip into the water tank, the Seamstress continued to make more rope pipes, intending to connect them to the other tanks that Krune was making. They intended to have a couple more water reservoirs just in case they had an emergency. Moreover, they also needed to provide a source of running water in the tank with the Mutated Motor Fishes. After all, if they lived in stale water, they would come down with diseases. Setting up everything required time, a lot of it. Once the first water tank was completed, Krune made numerous visits to it, carrying a small bottle that he filled with water and used to water the Rope Bushes. Making repeated travels along the slope was hard and exhausting. Nevertheless, he persisted while relying on his Ocean Heart. The Seamstress relied on the Healing Extract he had created, subsisting on it to continue working with almost no rest. In the night, they played with Solare for some time before sleeping. It almost seemed like they had formed a routine as they worked without a single complaint, soon running out of rope to use. They had first prioritized creating pipes using the ropes to obtain a reserve of water for their use. And now, the water tank in the topmost cave was fitted with almost ten taps, with each tap connected to one of the caves. Among them was the longest rope that caused them to run out of their stock. Even though Krune had brought in a massive amount that he had stolen from two Monster Gecko villages, their expansive project quickly burned through the reserves. "Thankfully, it was enough." Krune sighed in relief as he noticed the pipe continue to drip a drop of water every couple of seconds. Currently, he was standing atop the rock pillar. And surrounding the bone tree before him was a small circular platform. It had been built around it, with enough space between it and the bone tree to house some water. The walls were made of coral. And inserted into it was the pipe that continuously dropped a drop of water every couple of seconds. This way, the bone tree would have a continuous supply of water. At present, Krune wasn''t sure if that level of water was enough for the bone tree. So, he was just experimenting to see the level of water it needed. Moreover, another pipe was attached to the walls around the bone tree. From this pipe spanned a rope, heading into their cave, connecting with their boat, the Paddle. This way, they can fill up their water reserves. Moreover, Krune also installed a simple drainage system in their cave so that their level of hygiene would be maintained. The drainage was connected to a thick rope pipe that was connected to the nearby rock pillar. From there, it fell wherever. Krune noticed how the murky drainage water fell through the layer of clouds, coughing once as he muttered, "May you have pleasant rains under." A month later, the first batch of Rope Bushes finished growing. Krune harvested them and planted the thirty Rope Bush seeds that grew on their top. Now, they got more material to use. They constantly worked to finish setting up. When they rested, they took turns to teach Solare about simple stuff, carefully taking him to the top of the rock pillar for fresh air. Once the pool of water for the Mutated Motor Fishes was completed, Krune and the Seamstress struggled a lot to transport them to their respective cave. It took them a day to transport each. Once they reached the cave and noticed the pool with a length of 30 meters, the Mutated Motor Fishes were overjoyed. It was more than enough for them to live happily. After all, Krune had increased the depth of the pool to a staggering four meters. It gave them plenty of space to swim. Moreover, a pipe was connected to the pool, supplying it with fresh water from the ocean. Plus, another pipe was connected to the pool that siphoned out the murky water at regular intervals. Thanks to the Seamstress and Krune''s efforts, they had made it entirely automatic. Thanks to the bone tree fruits, they could keep them fed easily. After three months passed in such a fashion, they were close to running out of food. After talking it through, the two of them headed into the ocean layer above, struggling for some time before they killed a massive fish. Krune dissected it while in the waters as they constantly moved around, dodging the attacks of other predator fishes that had been lured by the blood. Once he had cut out sizeable chunks of the fish, they left it in the water and arrived at the topmost cave. "This is enough for a week." Krune heaved a sigh. Then, they carefully brought in pieces of the meat, making numerous trips to do so. Once he stored all the meat in his boat, Krune said, "Let''s hunt once every three days. That way, we can stock up on food. I need a lot of energy since I''ve already expended four rings of my Ocean Heart." "Fine by me," The Seamstress nodded and headed out to work once again, keeping her conversation with Krune to a minimum. He understood why she was doing that. It was because if they interacted more, over time, they might become used to the company of the other party. Chapter 973: Vicious Monsters of the Secondary Landmass Eight months had passed since Krune and the group had arrived at the Secondary Landmass. Until now, they had never tried to go down. Instead, they had been working nonstop to first ease up their livelihood. Since their tickets had been destroyed, they had to spend a lot of time in this place. Thus, instead of hurrying to obtain Godly Points, they first created a foothold for themselves to have a healthy living. After that, they began to work towards the future of harvesting Godly Points en masse. Solare was already walking around in his baby steps, so they had to create a fence in the cave to ensure he wouldn''t fall to his death. Moreover, in this time, they had created a rope bridge that connected a couple of caves to the top of the rock pillar. On top of that, they had also created a similar rope bridge to another rock pillar that was almost 80 meters away. This was the thickest rock pillar in their surroundings, boasting a diameter of almost 40 meters. This was the place they used for almost everything, from leisure activities to training. They had also erected a fence around it so that Solare could play around in the open space. As a growing child, he needed all the space to grow up healthy. They hadn''t figured out how his two passive abilities worked. But since he wasn''t even two years old yet, they weren''t in a hurry. The rope bridges were strong and sturdy, allowing them to walk on it without any worries. Not only that, but the Seamstress had figured out another breakthrough with it, layering the rope bridge with a porous pipe of coral through which the ocean water flowed. This ocean water seeped into the rope bridge, healing any wear and tear it had developed due to use. As the rope was taken from a living organism, the Rope Bush, this was possible. It was because the healing property of the ocean water was also able to keep dead meat fresh indefinitely. Using this property, they ensured the rope bridge wouldn''t ever snap. Once it had been created, life was a lot easier for Krune and the Seamstress. They were able to transport goods from one cave to another without wasting any time. Naturally, this increased their work efficiency tremendously. Plus, when they hunted fishes in the ocean above, they didn''t have to throw most of them away due to being incapable of carrying their bodies in the previous precarious situation of having to traverse using a single rope. The Paddle was already fully stocked up on food and water. The pool with the Mutated Motor Fishes was in great shape. Since they were being fed the bone tree fruits, they were brimming with power. On top of that, one of them even seemed pregnant. It was a piece of joyous news as they would soon get more Motor Fishes. Krune also went around in search for bigger caves around the walls, marking some for future use. He had been working on numerous projects, increasing the Rope Bush farm to produce more thread. As for the wood, he was using them to create more tools and weapons. He was also planning to create a path to the ground. For that, he was working on two routes. The first was to bore his way through the largest rock pillar and reach the ground. The second was creating a staircase that spiraled around the largest rock pillar and reached the ground. The problem with the latter was the sheer requirement of materials and the risk involved in getting down each time. Though, it also allowed them an avenue to attack the flying creatures. As for the former path, it was discrete and allowed them to reach the ground without alerting any creature. Then again, creating it was even harder. After all, Krune had to bore through the tough rock pillar for a kilometer before reaching the ground. It wasn''t something that he was able to achieve easily. Krune worked on the digging, having created the tools necessary for that. As for the Seamstress, she was working on making more rope bridges to expand their range. Moreover, she was also hunting fishes for their needs. Using her passive abilities, Coral Wave and Heat Radiance, she was building a house on the top of the largest rock pillar that would allow them to have a comfortable life. Having lived in the place for eight months now, they noted that the ocean waters had two dominant currents. The first was a warm current that caused the water to become warm. The size of the fish roaming near them was smaller during this time. And there were fewer predator fishes. In this time, the place turned warmer, causing them to sweat buckets when they worked. The second was a cold current that was too cold to bear. It was similar to what Krune had encountered at the start when one of his clones was still alive. At present, thanks to his Cold Blood, Krune would be almost fine in the cold currents. Though, the same couldn''t be said to the Seamstress and Solare. The whole area would turn colder during this time. On top of that, the fishes roaming in the waters near them would be the bigger, scarier ones. Krune had even witnessed a Sonic Radar three times during his stay in the Secondary Landmass. When he noticed it in the waters, he didn''t allow the Seamstress from ever setting foot in the waters until he was absolutely sure it had left the place. He knew just how powerful it was. It wasn''t an opponent they could face. A single mistake would cause them to be shredded in its mouth. During such times, they couldn''t hunt and had to bear the cold. So, the Seamstress was building this house that allowed them to store enough food to last for six months and was also equipped with thermal insulation. To cool the interior, she could cause the coral walls to emit the heat she had stored in them. And to cool it, Krune''s Cold Blood came in handy. Months passed in such a fashion as Krune hammered a platform into the sides of the largest rock pillar, looking around to see that he was within a cloud. The cloud was just water vapor that had condensed in the place, unmoving as it formed a layer. He then continued to add platforms around the largest rock pillar, soon peeking out of the cloud as he witnessed the place below, shuddering immediately. The Seamstress also accompanied him, gazing at the world below in shock. The place was warm and humid, with abundant sunlight that the cloud layer was emitting. It seemed that the cloud layer wasn''t some water vapor that had condensed in the place, but also seemed to contain a mysterious substance in it that emitted light. This caused the place within to thrive with life. As far as they could see, there was a dense overgrowth. Trees of all shapes and sizes existed in the place. Plus, the terrain wasn''t flat. There were quite a few hills and valleys. Not only that, but there was a river that meandered from one end to another, seeming as if the rocks under it had a mysterious property to suck in the ocean water and send it out similarly at the end. Because of this, a healthy world rich in life was created, too rich in fact that it birthed vicious monsters. Krune and the Seamstress broke into cold sweat as they looked at the face of a creature that was part insect and part monster, positioned only five meters away from them. It seemed to have been perched on the rock pillar''s walls. Though, it wasn''t alone. Rather, there were hundreds, if not thousands of the same creature perched all over the rock pillar until the ground. Upon noticing the two, they flapped their wings, emitting a violent screech. Krune and the Seamstress retreated immediately, running to the top of the largest rock pillar as they patted their chests, calming their thumping hearts. Upon noticing that the creatures didn''t come above the layer of cloud, they heaved a sigh in relief. The face of the creature was a mix between a frog and a butterfly. It had a flabby cheek with insect eyes. As for its body, it was long and aerodynamic, spanning two meters in length. Its wings were curled under a layer of armor, similar to a beetle. And it had four limbs that looked like armored hands of a monkey, possessing sharp nails that held the sides of the rock pillar. All the rock pillars were covered by them. Krune saw that their wings only allowed them to fly for short durations. Though, their bursts of speed were insane. He couldn''t observe the rest in the short window. After reaching the top, Krune shook his head and got back to work. He intended to finish digging through the largest rock pillar. Even though it was hard work, he didn''t mind. Besides, it was still training as he kept using his other abilities. His Ocean Heart already seemed to have reached its natural limit, but his proficiency in using it was getting better and better. As for Neon Radiance and the others, he still had a bit more to go before he mastered them completely. Krune also felt that his body was getting accustomed to using them like they were a natural part of him. As time passed, he, too, was evolving. After all, after discussing with the Seamstress, they began to capture fishes alive and stored them in a pool he had dug in one of the large caves. He used those fishes to create Blood Essence Crystals. Even though the ones he produced were inferior to the ones created using the Monster Geckos, as the fishes used were tiny, they were still useful. Plus, the side effects weren''t as strong either. So, both he and the Seamstress consumed one daily while working, training their bodies as a result since they were using their passive abilities to work. Moreover, once the effects of the Blood Essence Crystal subsided, they quickly drank the Healing Extract, taking a short rest before continuing to work. This way, their abilities continued to improve. And two years after they had arrived at the Secondary Landmass, Krune finally reached the ground. Chapter 974: Vicious Self-Sufficiency Two years since he arrived at the Secondary Landmass, Krune arrived at the bottom of the rock pillar, reaching the ground. Creating a hole for his exit, he peeked out, taking a look at his surroundings. What he saw through his sight and his Sonic Radar startled him. There was only one monster species in the place, which seemed to go through two stages of life: the pupa and the adult stage. An adult laid down eggs at the banks of the river. Upon hatching, the hatchling entered the river water, feeding on the tiny organisms living within the pores of the coral reef at the bottom. This seemed to be their prime mode of food. In any case, the coral reef was vast, spanning the banks of the entire river. Since the river was two kilometers wide, it was massive, stretching for the entire length of the meandering river that spanned from one end to the other of the 300-kilometer-long island. The depth seemed to average around 300 meters, with some shallow and deeper sections. The larvae were no different from simple worms. After feeding on the organisms in the coral reef, they quickly grew into pupa within a month. This was the stage they spent most of their life at. The pupa was almost shaped like a frog, capable of swimming in the river. Sometimes, they would feed on the larvae. But oftentimes, they would leave the river water to hunt for food. Possessing bodies that were around two meters in height, they possessed strong legs that allowed them to jump to a height of ten meters. Their strongest trait was their tongue, which was able to extend to a length of fifty meters. It was such a tremendous distance that they were fearsome opponents. They didn''t have any toxin on their skin, but their tongue seemed to contain a certain neurotoxin that caused numbness to the creatures they attacked. Then again, there was just one creature on the land, their adult counterpart. Their adult version was bigger, spanning a height of two meters. But, their wingspan was five meters, making them seem bigger than their pupa version. They were the target of the pupae. Possessing a stinger on their abdomen, they were hunters of the sky, capable of flying at tremendous speeds using their buzzing wings that resembled a mosquito''s. Nevertheless, they primarily fed on the nectar produced by the overgrown flowers of the region that spanned a meter in diameter. Once they had their fill, they latched onto the rock pillars to rest, positioned at a height above 60 meters, beyond the reach of the pupae. The pupae and the adults often clashed. After all, when they had to feed on the flower nectar, the adult versions had to move within the range of reach of the pupae. So every time this happened, a bloody battle ensued forth. As for the adults, they laid eggs every three months. They usually laid enough to completely fill up the banks of the river. During the time they laid their eggs, they weren''t attacked by the pupae, nor were the eggs targeted. But once the process was done, the pupae and the adults were fair game to one another. In any case, it seemed cannibalism was the most prime means for them to satiate their fill. It may be because the stronger a pupae became, the more powerful it was when turning into an adult. Then again, most pupae would begin the evolution process the moment they obtained enough to achieve it. So, the power level difference between a pupa and an adult wasn''t too high. ''There should be 15 Kings and 30 mutated monsters here,'' Krune thought, seeing a group of pupae leap around as their tongues shot forth, latching onto the wings of the adults. At least three targeted an adult, preventing it from escaping easily. Their tongues had a powerful adhesive that latched onto their targets. On top of that, the tremendous tension and spring-like capabilities it possessed allowed them to recall their targets swiftly. This caused a lot of damage to their foes. Though, when a pupa opened its mouth, Krune noticed that in the deeper sections of its throat were multiple rows of teeth that clamped one after another like a meat grinder. Just a glance at it was enough to churn his stomach and make him wish to puke. This was already considering he was used to crazy levels of gore by now. Krune observed for a long time as he fully understood the dynamics of the place. He also understood the reason they never left the cloud layer in the first place. It was because the cloud layer contained a certain substance that was capable of melting their wings. So, if they passed through it, their wings would melt, and they would soon fall to their deaths. With that, they had no way of escaping the place. Though, they didn''t have any reason to do so. After all, the place was tremendously huge. In any case, they were self-sustained. After all, they never had any lack of food in the place. They had plenty of prey in any direction they turned. So, the thought of leaving the place never hit them. There was an overabundance of resources in the place. Since they had a cannibalistic nature and a tremendous fertility rate, they never ran out of food. "How''s the situation?" the Seamstress asked as she slowly descended to the ground, lodging platforms into the inner side of the rock pillar. The hole Krune dug had a radius of three meters, a reason it had taken him a lot of time, even though he was assisted by the Ocean Heart throughout it. And among it, the Seamstress had been lodging steps into the inner side so that they could use it to descend and ascend. As she was using her coral to do so, it took some time. But, since it also took time for Krune to dig through it, she was able to keep up the pace. Moreover, this was only one method of descending. The second was the pulley mechanism they had installed in the place. It allowed them to descend vertically and ascend accordingly. Moreover, on one side of the pulley was a large bucket where they could stand inside. It had enough space for them to haul any carcass of the monster''s kills. On the other end of the rope was a heavy piece of coral that weighed the same as the weight of Krune and the bucket combined. This way, they wouldn''t have to waste too much energy hauling themselves to the top every time. Well, Krune considered it as a form of training for his arms and hips. Not to mention that there was a gear and locking mechanism in the bucket that they could use. Its prime mechanism was to allow them a smooth travel up and down, controlling the speed of ascent and descent. It also had a braking mechanism and a locking mechanism. This way, they could take breaks in between while traversing up with prey. The space in the ground had also been widened to act as their ground base, allowing them to store some necessities in the area. They hadn''t installed any necessities in the place yet, but it would be done soon enough. Krune explained everything he had observed for almost half a day to the Seamstress, who nodded in response to everything he said. Then, she proposed a deal as she said, "Let''s take turns to hunt. While you hunt, I''ll rest here with Solare. This way, I''ll be able to hurry to your rescue when necessary. You can do the same while I hunt. And once we finish our hunt, we''ll return to the top. Let''s spend two days at the top and another two at the bottom." "Right." Krune nodded."This way, we can keep up with everything in a timely manner." He then thought something and asked, "So, what''s the plan? How do you plan to farm Godly Points?" "How strong is a mutated monster?" the Seamstress inquired. "Plenty strong, probably the strongest Mutated species we might ever face," Krune said with a solemn expression, pointing at a certain pupa that had surfaced from the river water, "It seems to be the overlord of this territory. From time to time, it would surface to hunt." And right as he explained, the mutated pupa leaped out of the water and landed on the ground, showing off its size. It had a height of four meters. From the looks of it, it seemed capable of jumping to a height of 15 meters while its tongue could shoot up to a length of 75 meters. Every jump of it was accompanied by a thunderous thump as it landed. And it alone was able to kill an adult with a flick of its tongue. When the tongue of others landed on the adult, it only stuck to their wings. But the tongue of the mutated pupa directly pierced their wings, displaying the sheer power it possessed. Upon seeing it, Krune shuddered for a moment as he said, "We''ll easily be thrown off from its power. Unlike the Mutated Monster Gecko I faced before, all the mutated pupa''s strength is focused on its legs and tongue. So, its attacks are too strong. Even though its weaknesses are equally glaring, the problem is the range." "Then, hunting these creatures should only be a test of our strength, to see how far we''ve grown," the Seamstress said after thinking for a long time, gazing out, "Our priority should be obtaining Godly Points, and not risking our lives needlessly. So¡­" Krune nodded, gazing at the shore that was situated quite near to them. "We should steal the eggs. Let''s experiment with them and produce enough mutated pupae." "That''s my plan as well." The Seamstress nodded, then looked out, asking, "The question is, how do we obtain enough eggs without alerting them? There are too many monsters nearby. It would be pretty risky. And, once they are alerted of our position, they would be focused on our entrance, preventing us from exiting this place ever again." "If that happens, we would have no choice but to dig another path in a far-away rock pillar. But..." Krune smiled as he said, "I have a plan against that." Chapter 975: Supreme Monster Five days later, Krune and the Seamstress arrived at the bottom of the largest rock pillar once again, holding a large bowl. They had created the bowl by coiling the rope to create the shape. Using some of the bone powder he had stored, Krune applied a coating on the bowl, making it hard for his enemies to sense them while within it. After all, based on his observation for the past few days, he had figured out that both the pupae and the adults only relied on their sense of smell. Their mode of perception was their sense of smell. Whether it was the pupae or the adults, both were capable of secreting a sort of pheromone that marked their territory. Though, it wasn''t of much use since they were the hunters and prey of each other. Therefore, they didn''t possess any other sensory abilities. Through his probing, this was what Krune had determined. And now, he and the Seamstress had created this rope bowl to shield them while they moved forth. The bowl had a radius of two meters. It was pretty big. Though, since the entrance was tiny, it couldn''t pass through. This was the reason they made it using the rope. With that, it was easy to fold it and bring it out. It was noon, the time of the day when the activity was lowest among the monster group. After nodding once at each other, Krune and the Seamstress exited the rock pillar, quickly hiding themselves under the rope bowl. Krune had covered it with the bone powder, also adding some soil and grass on it, ensuring that it looked no different to the nearby ground. This way, they could remain camouflaged. To ensure their scent wouldn''t leak out of the rope bowl, they had taken precautionary measures. After taking a long bath, they applied a crushed mixture of the grass that grew on the ground. This way, their scent was no different from the grass. Thus, the monster groups wouldn''t notice anything amiss. Krune and the Seamstress slowly began to crawl forward. As it fully closed them, they couldn''t see or hear anything from the outside. Their only mode of sense was the passive ability of the Seamstress, Thermal Vision. Through this, they sensed their surroundings and moved accordingly. To ensure they wouldn''t be caught, they didn''t even converse with one another. The Seamstress poked Krune''s back accordingly to give him directions. In return, he was the one carrying the rope bowl. Thankfully for them, the river bank was less than a hundred meters away from them. Also, since they were closer to the walls of the Secondary Landmass, there were fewer obstacles along their way. To ensure no one would notice their movement, they proceeded at a snail''s pace. At that speed, it took them two hours before they reached the edge of the riverbank, stopping right before a bunch of eggs. Keeping the dome touching the ground perfectly, Krune unleashed a bit of Neon Radiance, turning around to look at the Seamstress, noticing that she was as tensed as him. Then, the two of them nodded to one another as Krune slightly lifted a part of the rope bowl, using his Sonic Radar gently to scout his surroundings. As the sound he produced was too little, he couldn''t scout too far. Nevertheless, he judged that it was safe. With that, their dome moved forward a little more, barely touching one of the eggs. Each egg was 10 centimeters in height. They were small. And now, a small hole positioned right beside the egg¡ªon the rope dome¡ªopened. It was what they had planned to stealthily steal the eggs. The opened hole perfectly outlined the egg''s shape. The hand of the Seamstress moved, gently touching the egg with a suction tool that she had created using some rope and her coral. Using that, she gently brought in the egg, placing it within a holder that she had brought. The holder was something she could strap on her back, made from her coral and cushioned using a lot of rope and flesh. As all meat had been kept in contact with a bone tree, it was completely sucked dry of all fluids, ensuring that it didn''t emit any smell. Now, as she stored the egg, there wasn''t any disturbance. It would be safe within the holder. After it was done, they slowly positioned the dome forward, outlining the hole with another egg, taking it in as well. Slowly, they continued to take in the eggs, storing them all in the holder. The Seamstress had brought in three holders in total. She wore two on her front and one on her back. Krune wore the last one on his back. Each holder was able to store around twenty eggs in total. So, all in all, they planned to obtain 60 eggs from this trip. After a couple of hours, they stopped taking in the eggs, gazing at one another in tension. The hardest part had now arrived. After all, they had to return back to their rock pillar. But if they simply dashed forth, even if they managed to survive in the end, they would lose all their eggs. On top of that, returning in the same way as they had arrived was hard since the monsters were active now, as it was already evening. ''We have to stay put here until tomorrow.'' Krune began to sweat a little, feeling the tension as he looked at the Seamstress as he said, "I thought of something better for our next session." The Seamstress nodded when her expression changed as she looked above, making eye contact with Krune. Immediately knowing from her expression, he activated his Ocean Heart, circulating the energy through his Cold Blood as he unleashed a thin beam upward. It passed through the rope bowl and headed out. An adult monster had intended to land on the rock to inspect the eggs once. But, upon feeling a cold breeze all of a sudden, its wings instinctively flapped as it moved elsewhere. After all, the place was always warm. So, none of them were accustomed to the feeling of cold. So, the moment it perceived some coldness, the adult escaped. After it left, the Seamstress was still on the watch, using her Thermal Vision to look around, eventually heaving a sigh of relief. Similar situations continued to occur numerous times during the evening and the night. And every time, Krune made them leave using his Cold Blood in conjunction with his Ocean Heart and Neon Radiance. Eventually, once the morning ended, the activity around them paused as all began to rest. The adults returned to perch on the rock pillars while some of the pupae retreated into the river. As for the rest, they laid in wait within the forest. Krune began to move slowly, crawling the rope bowl towards the rock pillar. They had to be cautious. Because if they moved faster, one of the adult monsters might assume them to be prey and attack them. Thus, they had to move as slow as possible to ensure they wouldn''t think of the rope bowl as moving. After all, they weren''t as sentient as a human. So, they wouldn''t be capable of thinking and logically deduce the positions of the rope bowl with respect to the different time stamps. Eventually, they returned to the rock pillar''s entrance as Krune lifted the rope bowl, tilting it to cover the entrance with it as the Seamstress entered first. She placed the two holders she carried on the ground, helping Krune remove the final one. After that, Krune folded the rope bowl and brought it inside, shutting the entrance with a door they had created. It was a coral door that was coated with the mud from the rock pillar to keep the same texture. This way, none of the monsters might realize that they were hiding within. "Phew, that was nerve-wracking." Krune sighed, shaking a bottle that he carried to show that it was almost empty. The Seamstress too patted her bottle, nodding in response. Contained within it was the Healing Extract. It was what they had used to sustain themselves for the day and to recover the stamina that they were constantly expending. As for the Seamstress, she had been using her Thermal Vision continuously, so she was getting tired with every passing time. As for Krune, he had to use his abilities to keep any monster at bay. Not only that, but the two had to work in conjunction, using their hot and cold abilities to maintain the condition within the rope bowl to imitate the exterior. Only in this way would the eggs remain unaffected. Otherwise, they wouldn''t hatch. So, they were expending too much stamina and energy to execute the mission. The Healing Extract was what helped them all along. As they had to move carefully, they couldn''t have too much weight. So, they had only brought one bottle of the Healing Extract with them. If they had delayed any longer, their situation might have turned precarious. The two then brought the 60 eggs to the top of the rock pillar, placing them at the edge of a large pool. This pool wasn''t located within a cave but had been created atop a large rock pillar. They had used all the soil Krune had dug to solidify into a pool. They had created quite a few of such pools, intending them to be used for the eggs. They planned to keep four eggs per pool as Krune looked at the Seamstress, saying, "We''ll split them into thirty for each. Let''s see how we can develop them." "Alright, that sounds fun." The Seamstress laughed. "Also..." Krune chuckled. "Farming for Godly Points is one thing. But, we must also consider the end result." "You mean¡­?" The eyes of the Seamstress widened in shock as she stared at Krune. Nodding in response, Krune replied, "They are a species that can naturally evolve once in their lifetime. Their accumulations during the pupa stage result in how powerful they become at the adult stage. So theoretically, all eggs have a potential to reach the peak." "And thanks to our bone trees¡­" Krune expressed in a solemn tone. "If we put in enough effort, we might be able to produce one each¡­" "A Supreme Monster." Chapter 976: The Rock Pillar Farm "A Supreme Monster." Hearing his solemn voice, the Seamstress shuddered once. She then pondered over it for a bit before saying, "We would only be able to obtain one active skill from this. If you remember the announcement when Gehen obtained an active ability¡­" "Yes, I know." Krune nodded. "But if what I think works, I''ll be obtaining an active ability from an entirely different species. Remember how our Motor Fishes began to change after feeding them the bone tree fruits from various fishes? Using that, I plan to change them to what I seek. How about you?" "I am pleased with the adults," the Seamstress replied. "Though, I am looking forward to how strong they would be as a Supreme Monster." "Alright, that makes sense." Krune nodded. "What else do you need to make it a reality?" "At least a couple of alive adults," the Seamstress answered. "Alright, that''s easy." Krune smiled as he explained his plan to the Seamstress. After they had placed the eggs in their respective spots, Krune returned to the bottom of the rock pillar. He then stood near the entrance, activating his Ocean Heart as he continued to circulate the energy through his blood, causing the coldness in his blood to seep into it greatly. As time passed, the level of coldness within the energy had reached the limit. Once he was ready, Krune sent a beam of normal Neon Radiance through the tunnel to the top as a signal for the Seamstress. Standing at the top, the moment she noticed the flash of light, the Seamstress carried with her a large coral container. Contained within it was all the Frozen Blood Krune had amassed over the year. This was the excess after making enough weapons for their needs. The Seamstress swiftly descended through the staircase Krune had installed on the rock pillar''s exterior, passing through the layer of clouds before reaching the final step, looking at the figures of the adults perched on the rock pillar below. "Happy winter!" she exclaimed with excessive laughter before opening the coral container''s entrance, splashing Krune''s Frozen Blood all over. The moment the adult monsters came into contact with the blood, a layer of frost began to form on their bodies. When they tried to take off into the air in reflex, they belatedly noticed that their bodies had turned numb, unable to flap their wings. They immediately fell, crashing into other monsters perched on the rock pillar. Upon noticing the intense buzz of their wings, Krune judged that the Seamstress had taken action already. He then exited the rock pillar and aimed his hands upward, focusing on the adult monsters perched the lowest on the rock pillar. They didn''t know what was up yet, only intending to fly since there seemed to be a commotion at the top. At the same time, as they flapped their wings and let go of their hold on the rock pillar, Krune smiled, unleashing his Neon Radiance. This Neon Radiance was white, carrying with it all the frozen effect his Frozen Blood had seeped into the energy of the Ocean Heart that had been circulating through his body all this time. The beam of white hit the closest monsters, causing their bodies to go numb. Their wings began to fail them as they began to fall from the skies. Krune aimed his Neon Radiance, targeting as many adult monsters as he could. In the meantime, followed by rapid sounds of descent, the Seamstress arrived at the bottom. She then grabbed hold of the nets they had created, quickly springing them on the adult monsters that were hovering just above the ground, stuttering in their flight from the cold. Her nets quickly constricted them, causing them to fall on the ground. The Seamstress tied them up before dragging them within the rock pillar, struggling to fit their bodies through the entrance while doing so. She didn''t care for the damage they received in the process, only wishing to keep them alive. After all, she could heal them easily. The moment they had caught five such adult monsters, Krune grunted as he returned. They swiftly closed their entrance, watching the corpses of some adult monsters crash on the ground before breaking into pieces. They were the ones directly affected by the Frozen Blood the Seamstress had splashed. Thanks to their aerodynamic bodies, they had fluttered in the air for some time, being lifted off by other adult monsters during the process before eventually landing on the ground. Krune and the Seamstress didn''t care about the dead once, rather focusing on the ones that were alive. They quickly worked on them, clipping off their wings first before tying them tighter. Then, they made trips to the top one after another, transporting an adult monster each time. After all five were transported to the top, Krune took one for his use while the Seamstress retained the rest. They then promised not to interfere with the tasks of each other and headed to their respective locations. The pillars they were focusing on these tasks for were situated far away from one another. Krune had picked a location where around ten rock pillars were situated closer to one another. They were situated 200 meters from the largest rock pillar. The Seamstress had picked a similar location. Having been on the landmass for two years, they had significantly expanded their Rope Bush farm, having created enough rope to construct rope bridges to all the pillars they used. If they were regular mortals, this wouldn''t have been possible. But, they had passive abilities to rely on for everything, not to mention they had abilities that complemented one another, boosting their overall progress. This was another reason the Seamstress hinted to him that they start a family. But all this time, Krune acted obliviously. Then again, the Seamstress was only stating to him out of obligation and at the fact they were mortals now, susceptible to a short life. Otherwise, she wouldn''t have suggested it either. After all, she had children and even grandchildren in the God Realm. Krune set the eggs in their respective pools, watching the pools be filled to the brim with ocean water. He had picked a rock pillar on the top of which he was growing bone trees, a lot of them, putting the surface with a radius of 30 meters to good use. Swimming in one of the pools that had a radius of 20 meters and a depth of five meters were a bunch of Motor Fishes, those he had produced numerous offsprings. Since they were fed with the bone tree fruits daily, they had a surplus of energy in their bodies. This surplus caused them to mate on every occasion, birthing babies at every interval. After two years of this, the number of Motor Fishes under him alone surpassed thirty. Naturally, this number would only continue to increase. "The pupae have powerful offense using their tongues. Their legs allow them to leap to great heights. Even though they have significant weaknesses, their strengths make it hard to target their weaknesses. And now, I have to force them to focus on this direction while also changing their species, giving them another advantage," Krune muttered. "The Motor Fish is the perfect candidate for that. If I fuse them and evolve, I wonder how the end result would turn out to be, especially as a Supreme Monster?" Krune recalled the suffocating presence exuded by the Checkpoint Turtle, wondering just how much time and effort he had to spend to make the eggs before he reached that point. After a couple of days, all the eggs successfully hatched. And when they did, they jumped into the pool of water nearby, instinctively heading to its bottom for the coral reef. But when they didn''t find the coral reef, the larvae were fully confused. Having observed their actions using his Sonic Radar, Krune knew what they needed. Though, since the bone tree fruit seemed to be a universal food source, judging based on what he had experienced, Krune diced some bone tree fruits into small bits, small enough for the larvae to feed on them without problems. As a spiritual chef, dicing the fruits to an almost powder-like state wasn''t even an issue. He had collected them in a bowl each, pouring into all the pools one after another. He saw the larvae approach them in confusion as one of them gently ate a piece, realizing that it was healthy. Soon, all the larvae were eating through the bone tree fruit powder. Upon seeing that, Krune sighed in relief. He then continued to feed them more of the powder at regular intervals. He had placed four eggs in every pool, and six eggs in the final pool, for a total of seven pools. The first batch of bone tree fruits was made using the blood of the adult monster. Krune had healed it considerably while causing it to swallow the bone tree fruits en masse. He then extracted its blood at regular intervals, making it drink a lot of the ocean water after each process while stuffing it full with bone tree fruits and some meat rich with the Healing Extract. This way, he was able to extract enough of its blood at regular intervals without killing it. Days passed in such a fashion as Krune continued to feed them until the larvae grew enough to reach the initial stage as a pupa. As for the first six pools, he continued to feed them the bone tree fruits made using the blood of the adult monster. As for the final pool with six pupae, he began to feed them the bone tree fruits derived from the Motor Fishes. As time passed, the pupae began to grow fully. Krune had already shifted them to separate pools of their own, big enough for them to live, but that was it. They couldn''t jump since the height wasn''t much. Though, as the area was high, they could swim within. But no matter what, they couldn''t escape from the sturdy cages that were almost twenty centimeters thick. They were something he had been creating over the past year using the wood of the Rope Bush. After he had understood the secret behind creating a large enough rope bush that was used to make the fishing rod of a Mutated Monster Gecko, Krune delved in this path, eventually unlocking the secret recipe to grow a rope bush that was worthy enough to be used in the Monster Gecko King''s fishing rod. It was what he grew en masse and used in creating the cages of the pupae. So, even after they reach the status as a King, they still wouldn''t be able to break past the defenses. After all, the healing effect of the ocean water also healed all the damage it sustained, creating an unbreakable cage. Moreover, if it still tried to thrash, Krune controlled them by unleashing a cold beam that caused them to curl up into a ball and remain immobile. And with that, both he and the Seamstress had finally kickstarted their plan to farm Godly Points. Chapter 977: Finalised Passive Abilities Another six months had passed in such a fashion as Krune and the Seamstress headed down once every three months to retrieve 60 eggs each time. After they had formed a plan of action, they didn''t waste any time. When they headed towards the ground, it was only to scout and observed the behavior of their enemies. With that, they would be able to obtain a greater understanding of them that would further their research and development. At present, both of them had three goals. First, to continue developing their passive abilities and train daily so that their stamina would improve. Second, create a farm of Godly Points. And third, create a Supreme Monster to obtain an active skill. With that, their goal in Layer 3 would be achieved. Krune was able to determine how these abilities would help him when he regained his cultivation once again. And upon obtaining numerous ideas, he was pretty excited. He was assured that he would become even stronger among his peers than before. After obtaining his Spiritual Incarnation, he was like an undying tiger with wings. And now, after obtaining the abilities related to his physique, he was like an undying strong tiger with wings. When cultivating, Godly Energy was focused on the most. So, everyone only built their cultivation bases. Though, not much of an emphasis was placed on the physical body. Even if they did, their physical bodies had a clear limit. For a regular human, their bodies were weak. Even though they obtained a boost in strength thanks to their cultivation base, it was limited. There weren''t any established methods to cultivate their bodies. But now, having observed their workings for long enough and using his understanding derived from his comprehension of the Balance Laws, Krune determined that the real treasure of this Sub-Realm was the physical cultivation method. That was why an emphasis on their mortal selves had been placed. Krune determined that by the time he left the Sub-Realm, he would have obtained the physical cultivation method. Godly Energy related to the cultivation base, Mental Energy related to the soul, and now, Physical Energy related to the body. They would form a trinity once he completed them. Krune realized that he would evolve to a whole new realm of strength in the end, possibly able to skip a major realm in power in the future to combat his opponents. Just thinking about it made everything he experienced worth it. Moreover, living as a mortal human allowed him to look at life from a perspective that a Wisp never obtained, even when it was young. So, it was an experience just like what he had desired. Thanks to that, Krune felt he wouldn''t face any blocks in cultivating until he reached the peak of the Nascent God Realm. Krune was currently standing atop a cage, looking at the pupa that had been growing within. Upon seeing him, the pupa opened its mouth and shot out its tongue, smashing the cage. The cage faintly vibrated from the attack, but Krune was assured it didn''t even suffer any damage from this. As the cage was constantly in contact with the ocean water, he supplied water to it with a pipe, healing all damage. While the pupa kept attacking the cage with no effect, Krune had been observing its state all along, sensing the presence built up within it. As they were grown with bone tree fruits made using the blood of their adult counterparts, all the pupae were growing to become stronger than their counterparts on the ground. As they were growing, the bone tree fruits became insufficient since the source was the blood of only a single adult. After that, Krune and the Seamstress caught a couple more adults by risking their lives. He took one while the Seamstress took the other. With a second adult, he had an easier time. Moreover, despite their wings being clipped at regular intervals and their blood being drawn out daily, they were growing healthily. It was because they were being supplied with an unending stream of nutrition. Life was tough because Krune and the Seamstress had to constantly enter the ocean above to kill a lot of fish. Even though he had expanded the bone tree farm to produce enough bone tree fruits naturally through the ocean water alone, he still had to feed the adults with enough meat. Otherwise, they would refuse to eat the bone tree fruits after a while and would rather starve to death. It seemed they had mental blocks that refused to survive by eating the bone tree fruits alone. So, Krune had no other choice but to hunt the fishes from the ocean. As the pupae grew further, after four months, quite a lot of them began to spin a web around themselves, turning into a cocoon. A month later, they turned into adults. Once that happened, Krune obtained a lot of blood supply for the subsequent bone tree fruits. Once they evolved, he used his freezing energy to freeze them to a near-death state, clipped their wings, bound them and tied them up in a cave with the other adults. Moreover, through his experiments, he determined that they only evolved when the climate was warm and humid. With a change in the temperature, they wouldn''t evolve. So, once the cold currents began to flow in the ocean above, the temperate in the place dropped, causing the pupae that had been on the verge of spinning a cocoon to give up and remain as a pupa. Krune and the Seamstress shared their experimental data with each other, finally obtaining a lot of information to serve their purpose. Now, as he stood upon the cage, Krune looked at the pupa within, thinking to himself, ''It has already reached the stage of a Mutant.'' At present, Krune was no longer interested in obtaining any other passive ability, settling for the ones he already had. The Ocean Heart was the strongest out of them all, something he didn''t even think of swapping. Followed by that was Frozen Blood that had a variety of uses. Then, there was Moving Ripple, allowing them to run on the water surface or swim within it at great speeds. Having trained for the past two and a half years, Krune had already mastered its use. Following it was his Sonic Radar, an ability that allowed him to scan massive distances using sound. And by training it for long, Krune was able to unleash a sound beyond the audible range, improving this ability to the limit. He was able to sense around him for ten kilometers without trouble. Within a 100-meter range, he was even able to outline the texture of sand granules clearly. On top of that, if he just focused on one direction, his range went even further. In the ocean layer, with minimum obstacles, the range was further vast. It was tremendously useful. Even as a cultivator, boosting it using Godly Energy, he couldn''t even estimate its range. So, it was incredibly useful. And finally, he didn''t even need to talk about Neon Radiance. It was an ability that unleashed bright light. That alone was useful to see in the dark or blind the eyes of his enemies. Through the Ocean Heart, he was able to transmit the healing effect using Neon Radiance, now able to heal others when necessary, and from afar as well. Moreover, he was also able to unleash a cold beam by applying the power of Frozen Blood. All in all, he had a well-rounded set of abilities. So, Krune no longer wished to obtain another passive ability. After all, if he did obtain one, he had to train it from the start and develop it. At this point, he didn''t have enough time to do that since he was expending energy on a variety of tasks daily. Besides, all his passive abilities were in need at the moment, so if he swapped it for anything, his work would be hindered. After thinking it through, Krune decided against obtaining any other Passive Ability. "So, Mutants are enough," he uttered, pulling the plug to the cage as the water within it flowed out. The pupa within looked alarmed when the water level began to fall. Upon noticing the hole, it shot out its tongue, plugging it up. Smiling, Krune pulled out a couple more plugs, watching the pupa look perplexed, unable to figure out what to do to stop. Soon after, all the water flowed out of the cage. Krune then faced his palm at the pupa, activating his Ocean Heart as the image of four red rings flashed in his mind. The fourth ring brightened as its energy coursed through his body. He then seemed the freezing effect in his blood into the energy, activating his Neon Radiance as he unleashed a white beam of light. Once the beam of light fell on the pupa, it shuddered, scurrying about within the cave. Though, as it couldn''t jump, its speed of motion wasn''t fast. As for Krune, he only had to adjust the angle of his palm. So, it was easy to target it continuously. Slowly, the pupa started to move slower and slower before it stopped completely, turning immobile as a layer of frost formed on its skin. Krune continued with it as he summoned his tablet, gazing at it until he obtained a Godly Point. He then noticed that the pupa had been turned into an ice sculpture. Looking at the name displayed on it, he muttered, "So, you''re called a Great Dipper." It seemed that there wasn''t a difference in name between the pupa and the adult. So, for convenience''s sake, he called them the Great Dipper Pupa and the Great Dipper Adult, respectively. Killing the Mutated Great Dipper Pupa awarded him one Godly Point, nothing unusual. He similarly began to kill all the pupa that had reached the Mutated status, obtaining a bunch of Godly Points as a result. He then fed their bodies to the bone trees to generate more fruits. Another batch of pupa were already in a collective pool, still in an infant stage. Krune split them up into each of the pools used by their predecessors, filling the cages up with ocean water once again. Finishing the process, he arrived at the final rock pillar, gazing at the six pools near one another. They were the pupae that were grown by being fed only the bone tree fruits made using Motor Fish blood. Chapter 978: A Bunch of Things Occur The pupa here could already no longer be called Great Dippers. They had already experienced some changes. The first change was the deformation of their limbs. Slowly, over time, their limbs turned into stumps before vanishing entirely. The second change was them obtaining the same trait as a Motor Fish. In other words, being able to swim in water by generating water currents. Their speed didn''t seem to be on the same level as a Motor Fish, but they accounted for that with their offensive ability. They still possessed their tongue, and it was faster and stronger than before. Krune could feel that they were evolving significantly, judging by the speed of their growth. Nevertheless, it wasn''t enough for him. After all, his end goal was to cause them to reach the peak power strength of Layer 3. For that, he had to increase their evolution potential. For that, he first left them to their devices, ensuring to impede their cocoon stage by always keeping the temperatures around them to below optimal the moment he noticed they began to weave a cocoon. While doing so, he noticed that it seemed a lot of energy was expended to initiate this process. So, when it was impeded, they didn''t attempt to do it for another month. While keeping them as is, Krune focused on the Motor Fishes, those he determined were key to the fruition of his plan. The first batch of Motor Fish Kings had grown a horn and all that due to being fed bone tree fruits from a variety of fishes. But Krune didn''t want that. He wished for them to remain as Motor Fishes to the end, tamed. So, once they became Mutated Motor Fishes, Krune caused them to selectively breed with the most powerful among them, even going to the extent of creating a large pool for them to live and swim within. As the area in a rock pillar was limited, he supplemented it with depth, creating deep pools so that they would have a lot of room to plan and move around. And this way, they would exhaust energy tremendous and consume bone tree fruits even more. Most of the bone tree fruits fed to them were those that grew naturally using the ocean water. But among them, he mixed in some that were grown using their blood. This way, he was trying to accumulate more Blood Essence of their race in their bodies. As time passed, it seemed to be working as the Mutated Motor Fishes surpassed their natural restriction and eventually became Motor Fish Kings. It had been five years since they had arrived at the Secondary Landmass when the Motor Fishes became Kings. As they were still Motor Fishes, they were tamed by him, even though they were kings. Krune had a total of 10 Motor Fish Kings under him and almost a hundred Mutated Motor Fishes now. Having been working nonstop for years, he had developed the place significantly. As for the Seamstress, she too had her respective gains. As for Solare, from morning to until he slept, he hopped around from his working place to the Seamstress. On seeing that he was having fun, they left him to his devices, teaching him the alphabet, language, and numerous other skills during their resting time. They hadn''t figured out his passive abilities yet, but he was still young, so they weren''t pressed for time. One fine day, while he was working, Krune felt something instinctively, summoning his tablet to see that he was notified of a message. [The First King, Gehen has captured a Primary Landmass, designating humanity''s first stronghold.] There was then a large arrow mark on the tablet, pointing in the direction they had to travel before reaching the location. "Way to go." Krune smiled and retracted his tablet, muttering, "Now, we don''t need to worry about a place to head towards." Even otherwise, it wasn''t their concern in the first place. After all, the Seamstress had already marked Gehen''s pirate ship and a couple other places using her passive ability, Bubble Touch. So, one way or another, they would be able to reach a Checkpoint Turtle without getting lost. Krune checked the condition of the six pupae that were grown using the bone tree fruits from the Motor Fish blood. At the start, they fed on the Mutated Motor Fish blood-based bone tree fruits. Once a Motor Fish King had been birthed, Krune only used their blood to create bone tree fruits and feed them. Because of that, they had also reached the status of a King. Krune didn''t know what species they were now, but he could determine that they were no longer a Great Dipper. Appearance-wise, they were still the same as the start, possessing a limb-less body with a powerful tongue. And once they had become kings, it seemed they got a further boost in power as their tongues were able to damage the cage he had created. Then again, Krune wasn''t worried because he had already expanded the thickness of the cage to a crazy extent. This way, even if they continued to attack for an entire day, they would only be able to crack through half the thickness. After that, they would become tired. Once they rested and recovered, they would see to their dismay that the cage had fully healed from the damage. As the cages were damaged and healed daily, it seemed to have experienced a tempering of sorts. It was like an iron being repeatedly hammered to forge a stronger weapon. Over time, they had become so strong that even a king monster was unable to damage it. Over time, Krune began to call it the Tongue Fish, as it was literally that. Also, since they had been consuming nothing but the blood of the Motor Fishes in the form of bone tree fruits, over time, the tamed nature of the Motor Fishes kicked in, causing them to submit to Krune. Because of it, the attacks on the cages were reduced. Krune then made an incision on a Motor Fish King and tied it up to a bone tree that had been exclusively grown only using the blood of a Motor Fish King. Once it died, Krune allowed the bone tree to grow. It was placed in a rock pillar exclusive to it, so it could grow without any hindrance. Almost three months later, it bore a colossal fruit that was as big as a Motor Fish King. Krune harvested it and fed it to the oldest Motor Fish King, having made enough preparations by even feeding it a Water Essence a day before. So, even though it faced a lot of problems, it managed to swallow the fruit whole in the end. Ten days later, it became a Motor Fish Emperor. At this point, even Krune couldn''t believe his eyes, upgrading the Motor Fish to such an extent when it seemed a Mutated status was their racial limit. He then continued to feed it daily while using its blood to water new bone trees, using the produced fruits to feed the six Tongue Fish Kings. Krune was obtaining Godly Points from both the Mutated Great Dippers and the Mutated Motor Fishes. At this point, the amount he obtained from the Motor Fishes was thrice the amount he was getting from the Great Dipper. It was because when he released some Motor Fish Kings into the pool with the Motor Fish Emperor, they had mated furiously, birthing a lot of Motor Fishes that seemed to be a new species. And, when these Motor Fishes reached adulthood, they reached the Mutated status naturally. Once that happened, Krune killed most of the old Mutated Motor Fishes and regular Motor Fishes. This was to prevent polluting the new, improved bloodline. He didn''t kill any after that, allowing them to breed for a couple more years in the meantime resulting in three Motor Fish Emperors, 12 Motor Fish Kings, and around 20 Mutated Motor Fishes. From this point onward, any Motor Fish that was birthed would reach Mutated status naturally upon reaching adulthood. And the best thing of them all: they were tamed by him. Eight years since he arrived on the Secondary Landmass, Krune gazed up, noticing the ocean shining with Neon Radiance as he looked at the message displayed on his tablet. [The Second Wave begins.] As he was within the Secondary Landmass, Krune was unaffected by it, gazing up at the light spectacle with the Seamstress and Solare, chatting freely about how they struggled with the First Wave. Soon, they made a move, using their fishing nets to capture more than thirty Neon Radiance Fishes. As one of their core passive abilities, they wouldn''t say no to obtaining an upgraded version of the same. "Do you wish to obtain Heat Radiance?" the Seamstress asked him, "It might turn out to be stronger than what I have right now." "I''ll pass." Krune laughed. "I am focusing on just Neon Radiance. The stronger I can obtain it, the better. Heat Radiance would negate my Frozen Blood." "Alright," the Seamstress said before grabbing hold of Solare. She then asked, "Which one do you like, Heat Radiance or Neon Radiance?" Solare innocently looked at the faces of two, feeling formless pressure from the Seamstress before he spoke, "H-Heat Radiance." "Great! That''s my boy!" She laughed, carrying him with her as they went about making merry. Krune laughed at the sight, for a moment tranced by the atmosphere when he shook his head. "Focus!" Setting aside 10 Neon Radiance fishes for Solare, Krune and the Seamstress took ten each. He killed one of them first, feeding the body parts forcefully to the remaining nine, turning them all into Neon Radiance Kings, for a moment cursing his rash actions as he understood just why they were feared by the Neon Radiance fishes. They were called the Neon Radiance King, and hence, possessed as much strength as a Monster Gecko King. Even though he had been training for so long, Krune wasn''t able to handle such a large group. He was able to kill a Monster Gecko King one on one, albeit suffering life-threatening injuries. Though, subduing them all was incredibly hard. Upon seeing them thrash around without a care in the world if they would break the rock pillar forming their cage, Krune felt a headache. Chapter 979: Entering the Final Phase "Now, how do I deal with this mess?" Krune frowned, feeling a headache as the Neon Radiance King turned out to be stronger than he had thought. Though surprisingly, he didn''t mind them thrashing about. After all, each Neon Radiance King had been locked in a separate cage of its own. And these cages were made to withstand the attacks of a monster king long enough while the ocean water would heal their damage. Krune glanced around, noticing numerous pipes scattered throughout. They were the rope pipes transporting water to every rock pillar. The farther they went from the wall, the greater the cluster of water pipes that formed at the topmost cave since it was where the water was being drawn from. Then again, the Seamstress did a fairly great job at preventing everything from being too clustered. She replaced some of the pipes by increasing their diameter, allowing them to transport a greater flow of water from the water tank. This way, their work was done quickly. Once the tanks for the nine Neon Radiance Kings were filled, Krune sat near the tank of one of them, closing his eyes in thought, even going to the extent of shielding his eyes with his hands to prevent going blind. The Neon Radiance King was unleashing insanely strong beams of light without rest. The moment it heard a sound, it would unleash light in that direction. This was just the light it emitted. Its physical prowess was on the same level as a Monster Gecko King. Krune didn''t bother with them for the time being, feeding them bone tree fruits daily. He first fed them the normal bone tree fruits while going about with his other tasks. The Motor Fishes were increasing in numbers pretty well. So, in order to cause a population boom, he only created more pools for them to live within, watching with giddiness every time their population boomed. As for the Great Dipper, upon noticing how he was struggling to manage them, he gave them all to the Seamstress, who was more than happy to accept them all. As she was focusing on them, the ones he had grown were tremendously helpful for her. After hugging him once in happiness, she rushed forth, leaping in joy from time to time as all the Mutated Great Dipper Pupa and Adults he had created numbered around thirty by now. On top of that, it seemed that his methods were greatly different from hers, so the Mutated versions turned out slightly different. To the Seamstress, this only meant she had a higher chance of succeeding. After she left, Krune increased the size of his Motor Fish farm, also using all the pools that the Great Dipper Pupae were using before. With that, his work was halved while his efforts were bound to fruition faster. This was why he gave all the Great Dipper Pupae and Adults to the Seamstress. On the scale of efficiency, he had achieved the highest with the Motor Fishes. When the group of Mutated Motor Fishes in a pool had reached the limit, he killed them all. After that, he scooped the pool water that was filled with their blood and watered all the bone trees, feeding the produced bone tree fruits to the other growing Motor Fishes. Once the pool was empty, he cleaned it and filled it with the ocean water, bringing two Mutated Motor Fishes into it. He then left them to their devices to mate eventually, ensuring he fed them with a lot of bone tree fruits daily so that their excess pent-up energy would cause them to mate more. When he checked the rankings, he noticed that some of the top rankers had already left Layer 3. Not only that, but it seemed they already managed to obtain an active ability, shocking Krune. "I guess there are strong individuals everywhere." As ten million people were brought into the layer every month, geniuses from numerous continents appeared one after another, swiftly going up the rankings. Most of them struggled for the first couple of years, accumulating strength. After that, they began to hunt in the Primary Landmasses, reaping a profit of 10 Godly Points every year. There were those that had already entered quite a few Secondary Landmasses, managing to obtain at least 20-30 Godly Points each time. Because of this, the rankings continued to change constantly as new people entered the top hundred while the old ones headed for Layer 2 once they thought they had obtained enough benefits from the place. Krune was checking the rankings intensely for the first two years during his stay in the Secondary Landmass. After that, as the rankings continued to change constantly and since he was only staying in the Secondary Landmass, he stopped bothering about it after a while. After that, he only checked a single ranking, and that was the ranking of the Kings. At present, there were eight of them in total, signifying that eight people had managed to obtain an active ability. Among them, Krune noticed two familiar names, Princess Zamuria and Cultivator. As their names were dull, it signified that they were either dead or had left Layer 3. Since all the other names were also the same, Krune knew that they had reached Layer 2. He couldn''t think how someone with an active ability could die in Layer 3. He then looked at the sole flashing name in the ranking. It was Gehen. Having decided to settle in Layer 3, despite being unable to obtain Godly Points any longer, Gehen was still making wide strides. He was capturing a Primary Landmass once every two years. And the people that arrived were able to head towards these Primary Landmass to survive. Shaking his head, Krune continued to work. A year later, by condensing the Blood Essence of a Neon Radiance King and causing another Neon Radiance King to swallow it, killing it after that, Krune repeated the cycle until he finally obtained a Neon Radiance Emperor. He determined a simple solution for that. He tossed a Blood Essence Crystal to the first Neon Radiance King, watching it swallow that as its body was filled with energy. When the energy ran out, the side-effects kicked in, causing it to become immobile for a while. During this time, he easily killed it, repeating the process until he killed the final of the nine that had become an emperor by this point. After absorbing the Blood Essence Crystal resulting from it, Krune had obtained a new passive ability, Neon Radiance King. The only difference in the name as displayed in the tablet was the suffix King. While using it, he noticed that it was more powerful than his previous Neon Radiance. He was able to expend a greater level of energy while activating it than before, causing the intensity of light to be even stronger. Thanks to it, all his other abilities had also experienced a boost. On top of that, he noticed that its potential for development was higher than Neon Radiance. So, Krune was happy with it. "Now, except for my Sonic Radar, all my other abilities are the strongest of their king," Krune muttered, laughing in joy. He wasn''t worried about others obtaining an active ability before him. It was because he was taking his time to train and develop his passive abilities to their strongest state. Having witnessed Layer 4 and Layer 3, Krune could easily guess that Layer 2 would be no different. He would remain a mortal there as well. So, in that case, it was better to take time in his base of comfort and head to Layer 2 only when he knew he was truly ready enough. 12 years since he arrived in the Secondary Landmass, Krune beamed with a smile, gazing at the six Tongue Fish before him that had reached the Emperor status. They were all brimming with enough power that even he shuddered while looking at them. Nevertheless, he wasn''t in the least scared by them. After all, they were fully tamed by him now. Since birth, they hadn''t killed even a single living being, living solely on the bone tree fruits. This had dulled their vicious nature. Moreover, since they were being fed with Motor Fish blood-based bone tree fruits that forced their evolution to proceed in such a direction, they had practically become a harmless species. Moreover, due to the instinct of the Motor Fish becoming dominant in them, they had completely submitted to Krune. They hadn''t just reached the status of an Emperor, but had already reached the peak for it. They no longer had any room for growth. Just in case the experiment failed, Krune didn''t wish to lose all his progress. So, he placed two of them in a pool for the first time in their lives. Urged by his commands, it didn''t take long for them to mate. A month later, four eggs were laid. Another month later, they hatched. And, they reached adulthood within six months, reaching the status as a Mutated monster. Upon seeing that they had all the traits as their Supreme Monster parents, Krune made the others mate as well. A year later, he had enough contingency measures to kickstart the plan to fruition soon after. He then took in a deep breath, causing a bone tree to absorb the blood from now one, not two, but all five at the same time. During the past year, he grew this one bone tree from scratch, using only the blood of the Emperor Monster that he determined as the strongest of the six and had the highest potential for growth. And now, he simultaneously caused this particular bone tree to absorb the blood of all the other five Emperor Monsters. When the blood of five Emperor Monsters was absorbed at the same time, a mysterious reaction of sorts seemed to have been sparked as their bodies began to shrink. It took a month for the process to end as not even their skin was left behind. As for the bone tree, it had grown to a height of 50 meters, requiring an insane supply of water daily. Otherwise, it began to show signs of wilting. Moreover, the bone tree seemed to be absorbing essence from the rock pillar itself as it began to show signs of cracking. Chapter 980: Cloud Whale It took another year from that point before a tiny fruit grew on the 50-meter-tall bone tree. Surprisingly though, the fruit seemed like it was nothing special. From afar, the Seamstress noticed his actions, smiling as she shook her head, muttering to herself, "This guy¡­" Krune carefully plucked the fruit, noticing the tree begin to wilt immediately like wet grass dropped in the middle of the desert. He judged that it would finish wilting within an hour at this pace. He could also hear the rock pillar rumbling as a result as it began to destabilize. Krune hurriedly returned, also not forgetting the sever the rope bridge connecting to it. He didn''t want the crumbling rock pillar to hit the other rock pillars because of this rope bridge, which was stretched completely taut. After he discovered the method to grow King-level Rope Bushes, the rope bridges created out of it were even sturdier. With that, there was a good chance the rope bridge would pull the crumbling rock pillar towards the rock pillar connected by it. It took Krune more than ten minutes to finish severing it as he was sweating by the end of it, having forgotten to bring his Whale Tooth Sword. He could only use the knife he usually carried, so it took him time to cut it off. Once it was done, he traveled far away, sighing when he noticed the rock pillar crumble like sand. It didn''t fall on any other rock pillars and just crumbled to the ground, creating a massive dust cloud in the process. The only ones to be affected by it would be the Great Dippers living beneath the cloud layer. Krune wasn''t concerned about that as he looked at the fruit in his hand that was only the size of his palm. He then cautiously approached the pool where he had relocated the final of the six Emperor Monsters that he had taken more than a decade to grow. "I hope you succeed," Krune said solemnly as he tossed it into the opened mouth of the Emperor Monster below. There was nothing else he could do other than this. It was the time of warm currents in the ocean above, so the place had turned warm. Not only that, but he no longer hindered it from trying to form a cocoon, which he had done for more than a decade. The moment it swallowed the fruit, the Emperor Monster closed its mouth, seemingly struggling as its nerves became highlighted on its skin, seemingly on the verge of bursting. And to survive, since it was no longer hindered while the climatic conditions were perfect, it began to form a cocoon. This was the reason he went with this species to achieve his target the moment he saw it. It was the characteristic of the species itself. A pupa would form a cocoon and evolve into its adult form. This evolution was their principal characteristic that he could use. After all, the stronger it grew while in the pupa stage, the stronger it was as an adult. Though, as all pupae began to form a cocoon the moment they met the requirements, Krune wasn''t able to find out their limit. Simply based on his experience, its Mutated version seemed the strongest out of the numerous Mutated species he had seen. Not only that, but he had also chanced upon their King versions, among both the pupa and the adult, realizing that both were even stronger than a Sonic Radar, the strongest King he had ever seen. In that state itself, they had already reached the same level of strength as a Monster Gecko Emperor. With that, Krune was assured that once the monster had reached its limit as an Emperor Monster, and if it spun a cocoon, it would be able to reach the next stage. After all, it had the highest growth potential. Moreover, he was boosting it with the bone trees by concentrating the Blood Essence of their race in their bodies for decades. And as he had experimented and collated during his thirteen plus years of stay in the Secondary Landmass, the Emperor Monster began to form a cocoon around itself, finishing the entire process within a couple of days. He noticed that some of its blood vessels had ruptured from the sheer density of energy circulating through it. But in the end, it finished creating a cocoon. Krune looked at it as days turned into months and months turned into years. Three years later, the cocoon forming it cracked, breaking little by little. Upon seeing it, tears began to well from his eyes as he had spent tremendous time on it. "Yes! Yess! Yesss!" Krune touched the ground as he cried, watching the cocoon completely break to reveal a creature that was serene, having the gentlest of appearance. The moment it appeared, even the air surrounding air turned a tad warm, occasionally accompanied by cold winds that made the place peaceful and refreshing. It had a long, streamlined body, shaped like a whale with a flat top and bottom. On its forehead grew a horn, spanning a length of five meters. On top of that, its tail was like a tadpole''s. Attached to its end were a pair of fins, creating a beautiful curve. Attached to the sides of its body were a pair of fins that were a mix between wings and flappers, looking like it was made using an elastic material of sorts that caused it to expand into large wings or contract it into tiny retractable flippers when necessary. Lastly, it had a pair of humane eyes that blinked, with every flap of its eyelids mesmerizing. Overall, it had a hint of peacefulness to it that prevented anyone seeing it from harboring any sort of animosity against it at all. Supreme Monster! ''D-Do I have to kill it?'' Krune felt his thoughts stammer as he looked at it. He wasn''t an individual with staggering killing intent in the first place. He was someone who only killed when necessary. Even though he had reaped a lot of lives in the past decade, enough to amass a tremendous quantity of killing intent, it only took one look at the creature before him to forget all notions of killing. He craned his hand, gently placing it near its eyes, watching the eye focus on him, expressing a humane helplessness. Upon seeing the expression, Krune was confused before frowning, noticing a blood vessel next to its eye rupture, spilling blood on him. At first, since he had planned to kill the Supreme Monster and absorb its blood, Krune had swallowed two Water Essence, their final stock. The remaining two were in the hands of the Seamstress for her use. And now, he stared helplessly as blood vessels on the Supreme Monster burst one after another, spilling its blood on him. Krune stared at it with widened eyes, making eye contact as it seemed to be able to convey its emotions and thoughts to him through eye contact. ''I succeeded in the evolution, but my body is unable to handle the resultant stress.'' ''I''m about to die now.'' ''So, take me with you!'' "A-Alright." For some reason, he began to cry involuntarily as Krune stretched his hand, placing it near the biggest wound in its head, noticing its eye stare at him with an expression of content. Slowly, its eyes lost focus, losing their light as it slowly closed its eyes. Immediately, something stirred up from within it as its blood essence spilled out through its bleeding injury, touching Krune, seeping into him slowly to the extent he didn''t even feel any pain. It seemed until its final moments, it was a creature that was the embodiment of peacefulness. Even while its essence seeped into him, it made it painless. Krune stared at it for two days as its blood essence seeped into him before stopping. Its body slowly began to dissipate as particles of light, vanishing as even its blood followed suit, leaving behind a Krune that was seated on the ground, panting as he shed tears once again. "Why couldn''t it just be a monster that would have killed me if I slipped up even the slightest?" Krune hugged his knees, continuing to cry as he was depressed. He remained within the place for two more days before he got up due to hunger, unable to endure it any longer. After eating, he slept. For the next one week, he did not do anything but alternate between the two, finally getting over it as he brisked himself, smacking his cheeks as he summoned his tablet. [Killed Supreme Monster (Cloud Whale): Obtained 10 Godly Points] [Obtained Active Ability: Cloud Whale] There was an announcement to everyone in Layer 3 about the birth of the tenth king. "Wait, tenth?" He then looked at the name of the person in ninth place, surprised as he heard a series of footsteps before the Seamstress arrived, telling him, "You were depressed for the past week, so I didn''t get the opportunity to tell this to you. But it seems I was a couple of hours earlier than you." Krune laughed after hearing that. "I guess it''s congratulations to the both of us. We managed to obtain everything we needed from this layer." "Let''s head out for a walk, then. We hardly ever relaxed for the past 17 years. It seems even though we have become mortals, our cultivator mindset hasn''t vanished yet." The Seamstress laughed as she accompanied Krune, heading out as they walked on a rope bridge, taking in a refreshing breath of fresh air. Now that they had achieved all their objectives, they felt free of stress, wishing to just lay back and relax. As they walked, Krune asked, "What do you plan to do once you return to the God Realm?" "Same old, same usual." She laughed. "I don''t think I''ll ever get bored of repeating what I had been doing before I arrived here." She then looked at Krune, asking, "What about you? Do you have any plans?" "I''ll start searching for Feifei while cultivating to become an immortal so that I can bring my kids to the God Realm." Krune sighed once. "It''s been too long since I last saw them. As a mortal, the passage of time is an unbreakable curse. I feel like I can''t even remember the faces of my wife and kids that clearly anymore." Chapter 981: Active Abilities Are Insane! Krune and the Seamstress spent a couple of months understanding their active abilities. Even an active ability was still limited by their mortal bodies. If they expend all their stamina, they would be able to condense the Supreme Monster forming their active ability. Plus, the size of the monster created dictated the strength the Supreme Monster wielded. When summoned, just like the Checkpoint Turtle summoned by Gehen, they were able to compress air in their bodies to launch an attack. The Seamstress''s active ability was called Great Dipper, which came from one of the adults. It was capable of high-speed flight between multiple points. It was a great advantage in the presence of numerous enemies. Its special ability was inhaling and compressing air before shooting them out of the stinger-like bullets. And, each air bullet packed a lot of punch, enough to make a hole 10 centimeters deep into the rock pillar. On top of that, the stinger itself was covered with a poison that would paralyze the stung foes. These were the abilities the Great Dipper possessed. While summoning it, the Seamstress could use it to ride freely in the air. If she activated her active ability without summoning the Great Dipper, she was able to secrete the poison in its stinger. Upon understanding the potency of the poison, she stored it within her coral sword, improving it further. Overall, she obtained numerous abilities that made her insanely stronger when compared to before. At present, her stamina wasn''t enough to summon the Great Dipper in its largest form. Still, even when it was smaller, it retained all its abilities. In any case, the Seamstress usually summoned it in a tiny form to use it like a mobile gun. As for Krune, he had long since overcome his depression, now brimming with a childlike grin as he experimented with his abilities in excitement. At its maximum size, the Cloud Whale spanned 20 meters in length and had a horn of 5 meters long on its forehead. Its primary ability was related to the Motor Fish. Though, as all Supreme Monsters wielded air, it was able to generate air currents to move in the same way a Motor Fish moved in water. And by using its expandable wings, it was able to glide over long distances, only expending minimal energy. It wasn''t able to travel like the Great Dipper, though. It was only capable of traveling in straight lines and took a lot of time and space to make a turn. Nevertheless, it was the best bet to travel long distances at a minimal cost. By inhaling and compressing air in its body, the Cloud Whale was able to shoot out a stream of air from its horn that was thin and possessed tremendous penetrating power. It wasn''t able to shoot in multiple bursts like the Great Dipper, and had to expel all the compressed air in one shot. In any case, it was the most powerful when mowing down things in a straight line or creating a tunnel through a thick piece of rock. After experimenting, Krune figured out that even after expending all five rings of his Ocean Heart, he was only able to summon it to a length of 18 meters, short of its maximum. Even with all his energy, he still wasn''t able to summon it in its most powerful state, but this only caused him to beam in joy. Because that meant he could still train and grow a lot. Last but not least, the final segment of this active ability caused him to be unable to control his excitement. Just like how the Seamstress was able to generate poison when activating the active ability without summoning the Great Dipper, Krune was able to do the same. And in his case, the ability he got was the Cloud Whale''s ability to generate air currents. Even though the air currents he generated weren''t powerful enough to make him fly, it was still strong enough for him to glide through the air for long distances. That was just one part. While running, he was able to boost his running speed by making use of the air currents. It also allowed his attacks to become faster and stronger, giving him a boost in speed overall. Even though it was an exhausting technique, since air was 800 times less dense than water¡ªto achieve the same effect as in water, he would need to exert more¡ªbut it caused his strength to grow even further. Now, Krune was confident of only relying on the air currents to go toe-to-toe with a Monster King and emerge out victorious. He was still unsure of facing a Monster Emperor. He would only have a guarantee of winning if he summoned his Cloud Whale. As for a Supreme Monster, Krune still not dared face one alone. Upon obtaining one himself, he knew just how ridiculously strong a Supreme Monster was. It made him wonder just how a mortal was able to face against a being of such a level. ''Just how did Gehen kill a Checkpoint Turtle within two years of arriving at Layer 3?'' Krune thought about it so many times over the past two months while training. As for him, even though his plans were conservative, it still took him 17 years before he obtained an active ability. Given that he nurtured a Supreme Monster from scratch and did not kill it through other means, he took a longer time. But even otherwise, he had chosen this path because he didn''t have confidence in killing a Supreme Monster. After spending two months fully experimenting and training with their active abilities, Krune and the Seamstress descended to the bottom of the rock pillar, heading into the territory of the Great Dippers to hunt their Mutated and King versions. "Let''s have a race, shall we?" Krune laughed and sped off, being carried by his Cloud Whale. "Alright!" The Seamstress laughed and rode her Great Dipper, beginning her hunt. A week later, Krune and the Seamstress looked at each other in shock, for they had tied. Among the 45 Godly Points available in the Secondary Landmass, they had obtained 22 each. Krune was always aware that the Seamstress has plenty strong. But, over the years, he had trained and became stronger. Moreover, he had his Ocean Heart to rely on for an unceasing supply of energy. So, it didn''t make sense as to how the Seamstress was able to finish at the same time as him. Even though she was slightly more exhausted than him, it wasn''t by much. It showed that her abilities had either grown stronger. But, he knew of her abilities, so he wasn''t able to make sense of how she was able to finish at the same time as him. Upon seeing his confusion, the Seamstress laughed as she said, "I managed to figure out the way to obtain the passive ability, Solar Breathing. It was something I discovered during my research into creating the Supreme Monster." "No wonder." Krune nodded in realization. Solar Breathing was one of the two passive abilities Solare was gifted for being the first human to be birthed in Layer 3. Unsurprisingly, its power was simple but peerless. It allowed one to absorb energy from the sunlight or any heat sources for the matter. The condition for it to be used was of the heat source being at a temperature greater than the body. And the greater the temperature difference, the greater the energy replenishment. It was a technique that surpassed a mortal''s understanding and bordered the realm of a cultivator. The Seamstress laughed as she continued, "I have mutated and obtained the stronger versions of both Coral Wave and Heat Radiance. Just that alone improved my strength. Then, upon seeing that our tablets can point the direction of the Landmasses Gehen is ruling over, and the map function we can use after becoming Kings, I judged that Bubble Touch no longer has any value. So, I swapped it with Solar Breathing." "I also upgraded my Thermal Vision to Thermal Sense. Now, I can perceive heat not only through sight alone but also through my other senses." She grinned. "With that, I have upgraded all my abilities to the limit. If you want, I''ll give you Solar Breathing as well." "I''ll pass on that. My abilities are already perfect for my use," Krune shook his head as he replied. "Help me to capture a couple of Sonic Radars. They should be coming near us within a month." As they headed back to their house, Solare was waiting with a bored expression, jumping up the moment he looked at them. "Are we finally leaving this place?" "In a few months." Krune smiled. "Let''s prepare accordingly." "Alright! I''ll make a lot of friends once we head to the human settlements." Solare chirped in joy as he ran out, jumping from one rope bridge to another like a monkey as he seemed to be collecting something. "That child is too strong and too na?ve for his age." The Seamstress sighed after looking at his back, turning around to face Krune as she asked him, "Are you sure about leaving him behind?" "Yes." Krune nodded. "That would be for the best. He has been living alone for more than 18 years since his birth. He needs human interaction the most now. And there won''t be any of that in Layer 2." "Besides..." He laughed. "Solare is strong, you know. We have given him really strong abilities." Solar Breathing allowed him to replenish his abilities. Water Affinity allowed him to live within the water like a fish without any problems. It also allowed him to shape water according to his needs and wield it, a peerless ability in the Double Ocean layer. The Seamstress had gifted him Heat Radiance, complementing his Solar Breathing to turn any place into a fiery hell when needed. On the other hand, Krune had gifted him Moving Ripple, allowing him to move through the water at tremendous speeds and even run on it without trouble. Finally, the two of them used their respective healing abilities to condense it in the body of a Motor Fish Emperor, making it the dominant trait before giving it to him, allowing him to gain a healing ability. This way, they prepared him against everything. As for an active ability, they didn''t bother with that, unwilling to spend a decade or two for the same unnecessarily. Moreover, Solare already had no sense of value for the things he had, taking everything for granted upon living with the two monsters named Krune and the Seamstress. Solare wasn''t their son, so they had already done everything to take care of him all along until he was able to handle himself. Chapter 982: Reaping Godly Points Krune and the Seamstress began to work on a boat that would allow them to travel the long journey. Using the maps on their tablets, they took the scale of their Secondary Landmass as reference and determined the distance they had to travel to reach the place Gehen was most active around. Of course, it wasn''t just because he was the only other King active in Layer 3. The real reason had been the fact that Gehen had been successful in taking control of a Tertiary Landmass, making it the prime landmark for humanity to take shelter. And considering a Tertiary Landmass had a radius of 500 kilometers, it was insanely huge. With that, they were curious as to how Gehen would develop it. Looking at the map, they soon realized his intentions. He had chosen a location where there were numerous Secondary Landmasses surrounding the Tertiary Landmass. On top of that, they were further surrounded by numerous Primary Landmasses. They occupied a massive area that he picked off one by one, conquering all the Primary Landmasses first, followed by the Secondary Landmasses. It seemed that he recruited all the people that headed towards his land after receiving the notification. Plus, it was very well apparent that Gehen had used them all to conquer one Secondary Landmass after another. Judging by how he even managed to conquer the Tertiary Landmass in the end, it seemed like he was well-received by the populace to garner a massive following. So no matter what, Krune and the Seamstress planned to visit it first and see the state of things. If it was really good, they planned to leave Solare there for him to have an adventure of his own. It wasn''t like they bore any animosity towards Gehen. After all, his actions allowed them to develop considerably and obtain their respective active abilities. Krune and the Seamstress spent a month creating a massive boat. They repurposed all the Rope Bush King wood used in the cages to create the hull of the ship, increasing the area within it. Unlike before, where Krune planned to keep it within the two oceans, he now designed it to be more like a submarine that would only surface for air. It was better this way as they could speed up even further. After all, they had Motor Fish Emperors to row the boat. While constructing it, it was time for the cold currents in the ocean. With that, the number of predator fishes had increased in the ocean. Krune used his Sonic Radar passive ability to detect a couple of Sonic Radars in the ocean. With the help of the Seamstress, they captured the two Sonic Radars. And soon after, Krune managed to upgrade his passive ability, Sonic Radar, to the limit, beaming with glee after that. Though, while surfing through the map in the tablet, Krune noticed a patch of green that had been expanding at a rapid pace. It seemed to be the race that had spilled out of their respective landmass. Until now, all races had only been living in their respective territories, unable to leave it for natural reasons. It was just like their Secondary Landmass, where the pupae were unable to scale to the top while the wings of the adult version would melt the moment they touched the cloud layer. So, similar barriers would have been placed among all the Landmasses, preventing the native race from expanding beyond their territory. And now, a race had indeed done such a thing. Upon touching the area dominated by them, a name popped up, causing Krune to frown. Monster Gecko! It immediately made him realize that he was the reason they had done so in the first place. Before he left the Primary Landmass, he had caused the death of quite a lot of Monster Geckos in one place. And among them were two Mutants and one King. Most of the normal Monster Geckos were also sucked into the bone trees alive. As for what he did, the bone trees had sprouted out of them while they were alive. So, as time passed, the bone trees bore fruits numbering hundreds. All of them were capable of birthing Mutants. There were two massive fruits among them to birth Kings and finally a colossal fruit to birth an Emperor. There was a good chance the oldest of the remaining three Monster Gecko Kings must have consumed it and managed to evolve into an Emperor. Using the intelligence of an Emperor, the cause of the incident and the resultant emergence of the fruits, it should have figured out the trick to the bone trees. After that, it would have changed their traditions as the Emperor and would have worked in order to increase their population. Because of this, and the fact that the Monster Geckos had innately high fertility, they quickly snowballed in population, spilling out into the seas as they occupied other nearby Primary Landmasses. "This was my fault." Krune sighed, realizing that the Monster Geckos would have killed a lot of people. If people attempted to clear the Primary Landmasses and got themselves killed, then their deaths were of no concern to him. But since the Monster Geckos were going around killing people, and since he was the reason they obtained the opportunity to do so, Krune felt he was responsible. Though, he had zero intentions to play a hero and annihilate the Monster Gecko race. Krune looked around, gazing at the Motor Fishes and the Tongue Fishes, thinking of a plan. "That should be enough. It seems Gehen wishes to play King. I''ll gift him something to help with that." Krune finished constructing the boat that was almost a ship now, creating enclosed regions within for the Motor Fish Emperors to stay. They had a continuous flow of water, so this way, they would be able to propel the water easily. Also, since they were secure within the ship''s hull, they couldn''t be targeted by any predator fishes. The Seamstress had installed some coral reef in the place that would continue to absorb the healing effect in the ocean water and condense it into a Water Essence, allowing the Motor Fish Emperor to feed on it to survive. This way, they would be automated, no longer requiring to be fed manually. She had installed enough corals within its chamber to keep it well fed. She had experimented with it before to see the Motor Fish Emperors were content with it. Krune then created a whistle using the Rope Bush King''s wood, training the Motor Fish Emperors with it so that when blown into the whistle, they would row the fish to the source. Once they reached the landmass and arrived at a Checkpoint Turtle, they planned to gift the ship to Solare. To avoid anyone from stealing it, they had enacted such a plan. This way, the ship would be safe deep within the ocean and would only surface when Solare summons them forth. The whistle was created by using the Helper Whistle and Krune''s Sonic Radar for reference. With that, it worked exceptionally well. When tested, they determined that the range was almost 20 kilometers since the sound the whistle produced was in the ultrasonic range. The Motor Fish Emperors also had superior sensory range. There were four such chambers for the Motor Fish Emperors within. Inside were two males and two females, respectively. Krune then attached a separate container to the ship, which he stored four Mutant Motor Fishes and four Mutant Tongue Fishes. There were two males and two females in each container. He was planning to gift them to Gehen to help the humans against the Monster Geckos since he knew their threat levels very well. Since both the Motor Fish and Tongue Fish were species that reached the Mutant status upon maturity and were tameable, they were perfect for humanity. The Motor Fishes were best used for traveling, while the Tongue Fishes were best hunters with the same mobility, given their tongues. Once he was done with everything, Krune began to destroy all the bone trees. It wasn''t possible to destroy them through normal means, though they wilted while condensing Blood Essences. So, Krune used that to destroy them all, ensuring not even a single bone tree remained behind. He also destroyed Paddle, the boat that he hadn''t touched for the past decade. He split the Blood Essence Crystals evenly between him and the Seamstress before turning around to look at the Motor Fishes and the Tongue Fishes under him. There were only four other Tongue Fishes since they were created recently. As for the Motor Fishes, there were too many. Sighing, Krune began to kill them all, reaping Godly Points continuously as a result. As for the Seamstress, she too killed all the Mutant Great Dippers that she had been rearing. Now that they were leaving, they harvested everything. They first sent Solare into the boat after bringing it into the ocean, preventing him from seeing the bloody spectacle below. After killing all the Motor Fishes, Krune looked at the Godly Points he had amassed, checking the ranking to see that he had comfortably attained first place with a staggering 3372 Godly Points. At second place was the Seamstress with 3301 Godly Points. Their harvest was stellar, the fruits of their efforts for almost 18 years. And now, they have reaped all the benefits. After everything was done, Krune looked at the rows and rows of rock pillars before him that were covered in blood now. In seventeen plus years, they had done significant changes to the place. Upon seeing the bloody atmosphere, Krune shook his head, heading into a cave as he slugged a backpack around him. In the backpack, there was a sealed section consisting of three rows. The first row consisted of the Rope Bush seeds, numbering around a hundred. As it was of low priority, he only took a hundred with him while the Seamstress took the rest with her, numbering almost four digits. Chapter 983: Turtle Empire The second row was very small, only consisting of 20 tiny marble-sized spheres. They were the bone tree fragments. Only he had them. As for the Seamstress, she showed no more interest in them, saying she had better methods now. On top of that, the third row consisted of Blood Essence Crystals, more than a couple thousand. Even though he had been using them to train daily, their numbers still accumulated a lot, especially since he destroyed all the bone trees in the end. Also, with the bone trees dead, the rope bridges now lost their anchor, collapsing into the cloud layer below one after another. After these three items, Krune held a bottle that the Seamstress had created using her expertise, layering its interior with coral while ensuring it retained its flexibility. It had a capacity of five liters and was filled to the brim with his Healing Extract in a concentrated form. During emergencies, this would allow him to survive. As it was a concentrated Healing Extract, five liters were enough for him to last almost a year. Instead of carrying the bulky meat, this was hundreds of times better. Finally, there was the pair of Whale Tooth knives that he now only used for culinary purposes. There were numerous packets in the backpack consisting of containers made from the Rope Bush wood, containing spices that he had harvested from the abundance of the Secondary Landmass. The place with the Great Dipper was rich in all types of flora and mineral resources. So, Krune managed to obtain everything he would ever need from them. Sadly, he only had the guts to do so after obtaining an active ability and managing to kill all the Mutants and the Kings of the place. The dishes they had over the past two months were the tastiest, enough for him to become a foodie once again. It ignited his fighting spirit as a spiritual chef once again. There were also some clothes that the Seamstress had stitched for him. They were made from the Rope Bush King''s rope and were of stellar quality. When she was bored, she made dresses for him, forcing him to try all of them out. Since he dared not leave them behind, Krune stuffed all of them into the bag. There were also around ten rods placed at the bottom of the backpack. They were made from coral and contained a tremendous reserve of heat that she had infused into them. All Krune had to do was supply them with a bit of energy for them to release the heat. She had gifted him that so that he could start a fire easily while cooking in the future. Krune had similarly infused his cold energy in her corals, following the method she had instructed him with. He had similarly infused them to the brim. The Seamstress was planning to use them as air conditioning if she was trapped in any hot places. And, one coral was enough to last a year of continuous use. So, they were a lot. They were preparing in such a manner because they knew very well that they would be separated once they reached Layer 2. With that, Krune sheathed his Whale Tooth Sword on his hip and slung around his hip 10 Frozen Cylinders and 10 Exploding Cylinders. He didn''t take any more with him since they would just drag him down. As for the arrows and bow that they had created before, they no longer used them. Both of them now possessed powerful projectile capabilities thanks to their active abilities, making a bow and arrow almost useless. Krune had quite a few long-ranged abilities thanks to his Neon Radiance. So, he only took with him what he felt would help him. Now ready, Krune looked at his coral house, the one the three of them had stayed within for almost 18 years. He patted it once, unwilling to destroy it since he shared a lot of memories with it. Finished with his farewell, he boarded their ship, leaving the Secondary Landmass for good. Krune and the Seamstress took turns to control the ship, using the remaining time to either rest or teach Solare about things he had to take care of. "Here, take this," Krune said, handing over the whistle he had made. "This whistle calls this boat to you whenever you need it. I have trained them quite well. Whatever you wish to do with them next, I won''t tell you otherwise." "Thanks, uncle!" Solare beamed in giddiness as he laughed while looking at the whistle. "Aunty gave me a coral sword while you gave me this. It almost feels like¡­" His voice turned slightly hoarse as he continued, "You two are planning to leave me." "That is true." Krune nodded as he gazed at the ceiling once, explaining, "There are four layers to this world. And, this layer, Double Ocean is Layer 3. The Seamstress and I will be heading over to Layer 2 next. It''s just another brutal place filled with slaughter and without any people. You have already lived in solitude for 18 years. So, have some fun now, mingle among your peers, make friends, and live your life to the fullest." "But, I''ll miss you¡­" Solare said as tears streamed out of his eyes. "If you wish to see us again, head to Layer 2. Though, there''s no guarantee we would still be there," Krune shook his head as he replied. "Unlike you, we aren''t part of this world. We belong to what is called the God Realm, an almost infinite landmass in the universe." "And one of the Gods ruling it had created this Sub-Realm. We have only arrived here with the intention to explore it, not to live here." Krune sighed after that. "After all, we have our families living beyond this world. We''ve already been away from them for far too long." "Then¡­" Solare asked as he looked at Krune, "What about¡­my family?" "There''s a chance your father is still alive. You might have some siblings as well. Though, I don''t know about that. Your mother died when she gave you to me," Krune said. After some time passed, he took control of steering the ship while the Seamstress seemed to be conversing with Solare. Summoning his tablet, he looked at the map, nodding once. "30,000 more kilometers left. Considering our current speed, we need to travel for another month." As only two Motor Fish Emperors rowed the ship at a time, the other two rested and recovered enough energy. This way, they traveled nonstop. A month later, Krune was able to see numerous boats floating above them as they were traveling eight meters underwater. They seemed to be traveling from one Primary Landmass to another for trade. Using his Sonic Radar, Krune was able to listen in on their conversation, quickly obtaining the gist of the situation. It seemed that each Primary Landmass was established as a village. And, thanks to their unique habitat, each village had a specialty of its own. It was not to mention the native monster species of the Primary Landmass that have been caged and treated like animals bred for meat and other products. These different products formed a chain of supply and demand. Moreover, it seemed a currency of sorts had been established. This currency was similar to God Stones in that it had beneficial uses when consumed. Though, they had clear limits. As to what they were, Krune wasn''t sure yet since those from the villages hadn''t amassed enough currency to determine the limits yet. Since a Primary Landmass only had a radius of 5 kilometers, they were tiny. The Secondary Landmasses, on the other hand, each had a radius of 150 kilometers. Thus, they were labeled as Kingdoms. The villages fell under the rule of the respective kingdoms. And, there seemed to be four such Kingdoms, as Gehen had only captured four. Rather, there were only four Secondary Landmasses in the place. So, he had only captured that. And finally, situated in the center, surrounded by Secondary Landmasses and Primary Landmasses in two concentric rings, was the Tertiary Landmass, now addressed as an Empire. It seemed that Gehen hadn''t named any of them yet, since there was only them among the human settlements. But among the populace, some called it the Empire, or the Turtle Empire. Upon realizing that Gehen had the Checkpoint Turtle as his active ability, Krune thought the name Turtle Empire made perfect sense. Even though he was curious as to how all the kingdoms had been developed, Krune planned to meet up with Gehen first. So, he directed the ship straight towards the Tertiary Landmass, immediately noticing numerous ships and boats alike patrolling the place. Upon noticing their ship, they immediately converged over to attack when they abruptly stopped, parting way to allow them entry. Krune was curious for a moment before he understood the reason. It was Gehen! He had commanded the people to allow their entry. There seemed to be a dock of sorts installed in the place where numerous ships alighted and departed in a bustling network. And traversing behind the dock seemed to be a waterfall that headed into the Tertiary Landmass. And through his Sonic Radar, Krune noticed a familiar face. It was Strinker, someone he thought had been killed by the bandits before. At present, he was dressed pretty lavishly, sporting a humble demeanor as he looked at their ship as if he was waiting for them all along. Krune motioned for the Seamstress and Solare to remain within as he exited, looking at Strinker as he smiled, saying, "Long time no see." "It''s a pleasure to meet you once again, Lord Krune. The Emperor has been waiting for your arrival all this time. Please follow me; you can bring in your ship and enter the Empire through this waterfall," Strinker said while pointing at the waterfall behind the dock. He got into a boat that allowed them to see his figure, making the boat enter the waterfall first. Having already scouted ahead using his Sonic Radar, Krune smirked, causing his ship to proceed forward as he closed in on the waterfall, soon driving over the edge as he entered the bowl-shaped landmass that spanned a radius of 500 kilometers. Tertiary Landmass¡ªTurtle Empire! Chapter 984: Three Gifts At first, it seemed like a waterfall. But in actuality, it was actually a river traversing a gentle slope. It traversed along the walls of the Tertiary Landmass, making a spiral spanning ten kilometers in diameter until it reached the bottom, connecting to a lake. As for the water quantity, there seemed to be an outlet like a selectively permeable membrane similar to the one in his Secondary Landmass that sent out the excess water into the ocean. This way, it prevented the Tertiary Landmass from drowning. The water currents were slow. As the slope was gentle, his ship moved at a slow pace. Krune sat on the ship and used the opportunity to look at the Tertiary Landmass, admiring the breath-taking view. There was a sea of clouds at the top that were constantly moving, showering rain at times. Then again, not all clouds were rain clouds. There were clouds that simply emitted sunlight, keeping the place bright. There were quite a few mountains and mountain ranges. After all, the ground surface was located 10 kilometers from the ocean above. So, it created stellar biodiversity in the place. "Gehen really picked one heck of a place." The Seamstress gawked, looking around with widened eyes. As a mortal, something of such a scale was definitely a sight to behold. As for Solare, he was pretty much overwhelmed by everything. The sheer people and the ships forming a line before and after them already caused him to become super excited. "There¡­are so many humans," Solare exclaimed. It took them half a day before they managed to reach the bottom. While a kilometer above the ground, Krune noticed a river traversing over the landmass, possibly heading to another end as he saw how all the docking ships headed in that direction after they were done with their business. ''The way to leave this Landmass is probably there.'' Once their ship reached the lake at the bottom, Strinker brought his boat nearby, speaking, "Please follow me. The Royal Capital is 150 kilometers away." "Alright." Krune nodded, making a signal for the Motor Fish Emperors to move. Upon seeing that they were able to follow easily, Strinker increased the speed of his boat to the maximum. Solare looked at the port city that was bustling with activity as goods of various types were being transported by people. The sheer level of activity made Solare enthusiastic. Upon seeing his reactions, Krune and the Seamstress made eye contact once, feeling that their decision to leave him behind was for the best. He had yet to witness anything of human civilization. Strinker glanced at Solare once, thinking to himself, ''Is he¡­that baby the pirates were chasing after back then? To think he has grown to become a young man now. How time flies.'' It was evening by the time they reached the Royal Capital. And when they arrived, a separate channel maintained for the exclusive use of the Emperor was opened, causing the citizens to gaze at the ship in shock, soon gazing at the three individuals seated above it. "Why are they using the Emperor''s personal water channel?" "Just¡­who are they?" As they wondered, Krune''s boat traveled through the channel and soon arrived at the side entrance of the castle. A group of people adorned in armor were stationed at the place. They respectfully escorted the three upon arrival. Before leaving, Krune shot Strinker a look and told him, "Take care of our ship. It took me a lot of effort to build this one." "You can bet my life on it," Strinker replied with a subservient bow, causing Krune to stare at him in shock. He realized that Strinker was actually speaking in a humble tone. All traces of his earlier persona had vanished. ''It seems that Gehen has a tight reign on everyone here.'' Krune nodded as the soldiers escorted him through a sprawling hallway where people dressed as dignitaries walked around as their respective servants followed them, carrying around scrolls full of information. Everything looked new to the eyes of Krune since he knew this so-called empire had only been recently established. But, judging by the stares of the people, it made everything seem like the empire had already existed for a couple centuries as people were used to the lifestyle. Even Krune was unable to determine how something of such a scale had been so seamlessly put together. ''I guess I''ll know soon enough.'' While they were walking through the palace, Solare was too overwhelmed by its sheer scale. With that, the Seamstress sighed as she looked at Strinker, pointing at Solare, saying, "I''ll meet Gehen later. I''ll show around this place to Solare for now." For a moment, everyone stared at her frightened expression when she uttered Gehen''s name. Nevertheless, the Seamstress didn''t seem to care, knowing very well what she was and wasn''t allowed to say. "Please allow me to show you around." A young boy in his seventeen arrived right when Strinker sported a flustered expression, looking at the Seamstress as he performed a gentle bow. "Alright." The Seamstress nodded with a cool expression as she and Solare accompanied the boy and looked around the place. Krune knew very well that the reason she had done so was to allow him some free time with Gehen. She didn''t wish for Solare to learn about anything beyond necessary. As he was immature and had grown alone, he wasn''t aware of logic, common sense, and many others along the line. So, her actions were to ensure he would have a good time settling in the place. Krune then smiled as he nodded at Strinker, prompting him to show the way to the throne room. Soon, they arrived before a massive double door that spanned 20 meters in height. The path until now spanned the same height, outlining the majestic structure of the palace. Strinker immediately shouted at the top of his lungs, signaling Krune''s arrival, "Lord Krune is here!" It did feel weird to see him addressed as such, though Krune didn''t nit-pick for the time being, watching the double doors open to reveal a grand throne room. Strinker stood at the entrance, motioning for Krune to head inside. It did feel weird to see everyone standing in respectful stances at the entrance. Once he entered the room, the double doors closed with a loud thud, creating a gust of wind. At present, all the seats along the side were vacant. Seated on the throne was Gehen, currently the Emperor of the Turtle Empire, the first base of humanity in Layer 3. Upon seeing him, Krune raised his hand, speaking with a light tone, "Yo!" Gehen let out a wry smile, descending down the stairs below the throne, walking towards Krune as he said, "I believe this is the first time we are meeting in person." "Indeed." Krune nodded, sensing the suffocating pressure from Gehen as he thought, ''He''s strong!'' A glance was enough for him to know that Gehen was close to achieving the status as a Supreme Monster. It was a stark contrast to Krune, who had barely entered the realm recently. If they fought right now, Krune would probably lose within a couple of rounds. And, this was in the case he used his Ocean Heart to the limit. So, it was apparent how strong Gehen was. He was very well the strongest human in Layer 3 now. "I apologize for scheming against you back then. You and the Seamstress were too much of a threat to my plans back then," Gehen expressed his apologies. Krune waved his hands as he replied, "It''s fine, actually. We don''t even resent you for that. Rather, it gave us plenty of time to obtain everything we needed from here." "Are you planning to head to Layer 2 now?" Gehen asked. "Yep." Krune nodded. "We''ll just wait until a Checkpoint Turtle appears nearby." "If that''s the case, I have a deal to propose," Gehen said, glancing at Krune''s expression to see that the other party was interested before continuing. "I am in communication with a city in Layer 2. It works somewhat like an oracle of sorts. But in actuality, we just chat using our tablets. I''ll be able to send you to a city of your choice where you''ll be treated as a hero that has been sent to rescue them." "Is that the setting up there?" Krune frowned, feeling that it would be a pain to be treated as a hero. "Yes." Gehen nodded as he explained, "The seven kings before you too were also sent as heroes. Those without an active ability won''t get this privilege. They would simply be dropped in random dangerous zones. If you don''t intend to go as a hero, you would also be dropped in a random dangerous zone." "Wait, you mentioned about cities¡­" Krune frowned as he thought about it. "Very few people should have gone up from here. So, how are cities even formed?" "People have been transported to Layer 3, same as here. Though, the only difference is that they had been transported around a couple thousand years ago," Gehen explained. "So, they have formed their own culture there." "Are there are perks in being a hero?" Krune asked. "There are no immediate perks, to be frank with you," Gehen replied. "But, you''ll have better sources for resources. And, let me be brutally honest with you¡­" He said with a solemn tone, "Those that went up without becoming heroes have died, all of them. Layer 2 is even more dangerous and resource-scarce compared to Layer 3." "Is that why you decided to stay behind?" Krune asked. "Not really. My plan was to remain here from the start. That''s why I entered this Sub-Realm in the first place," Gehen answered. "I had to endure too much pressure from my family. Well, you can simply say that I turned tail from my responsibilities." "Well, being an Emperor should be plenty annoying." Krune laughed. "Indeed." Gehen laughed alone. "Nevertheless, I chose this life. Plus, I do like the feeling that I''m shaping a path for humanity here. I''m getting addicted to this sense of purpose." "Alright." Krune shrugged. "I''ll pick being a hero. I''m also quite curious of what I will experience as one anyway." He then beckoned for Gehen to follow him, "Since I''ll be leaving this place, I thought of giving you some gifts as fellow active ability users." "Gifts? But why, though?" Gehen was surprised. The fact that Krune didn''t bear a grudge against him itself was a gift to him. But on top of that, Krune said that he was even giving him a gift. If he said he wasn''t curious about it, he would be lying. Arriving at the boat, Krune detached the compartment at the back, dragging it back to the throne room as he opened it, showing the four Motor Fishes and four Tongue Fishes within as he explained, "These are my gifts to you. I upgraded the Motor Fishes beyond their natural limits. Now, when they reach adulthood, they would attain the Mutant status." "Mutant status upon reaching adulthood?" Gehen inhaled a sharp breath of air. Seeing his reaction, Krune smirked, intending to rile him up even further. "Also, if you keep them alive for long enough, there''s a good chance they would become Kings." "Kings?" Gehen exclaimed as his breathing grew ragged. "Last but not least, even though it needs numerous conditions to be met, if you grow enough of them, one of them might reach the status of an Emperor, their natural limit," Krune said, watching Gehen pinch himself to see that he wasn''t dreaming. Laughing, he showed the Tongue Fish as he continued, "They are more or less similar to the Motor Fish. But they can attack using their tongue. A Mutant''s tongue reaches 50 meters in length, a King''s reaches 75 meters in length, and an Emperor''s reaches 100 meters in length. Moreover, this species is also as tamed as a Motor Fish." After that, he threw a small box to Gehen, watching him catch it and open it to see a couple of seeds within. Krune then explained, "Rope Bush King seeds. These Rope Bushes have strong stems and threads that can be used for everything. They are what the Monster Geckos use in their fishing rods." "How¡­do you know about them?" Gehen asked in surprise. "Well..." Krune laughed awkwardly as he replied, "I was the reason they spilled out of their Primary Landmass in the first place. Anyways, these seeds would create a Rope Bush strong enough to be used in a Monster Gecko King''s fishing rod. Since I was the reason they have become dangerous, I hope you would use these three gifts of mine to protect humanity." Chapter 985: Development Spheres "On behalf of my Empire, I thank you for your valuable gifts," Gehen cupped his fists, thanking Krune with a tone of respect. "I haven''t seen cultivators with your disposition. You''re a rarity even in the God Realm." "Haha, I just don''t wish for the problems I caused to scale up beyond the tolerable limit," Krune smiled as he said in response. "The Monster Geckos are strong monsters. They aren''t as strong as the Great Dipper, but they''re still strong." "Great Dipper?" Hearing that, Gehen decided to ask, "How strong are they?" "A Great Dipper King is as strong if not stronger than a Monster Gecko Emperor. In any case, a Monster Gecko King might be able to solo a Sonic Radar." Krune then said after a moment of thought, "You can ask the Seamstress for more details. She has better knowledge about them than me." "I''ll do that then." Gehen nodded, looking at the Motor Fishes and the Tongue Fishes. "Still, to think you can create such remarkable species. They are¡­free Godly Points." "Indeed." Krune nodded, "That''s why once they served their use, I have killed all of them. These are the last of their batch. There are four Motor Fish Emperors in my boat. That''s all." "I don''t wish to screw the value of Godly Points and cause problems in this place any more than necessary," Krune said as he looked at Gehen before continuing, "But in your hands, I''m sure they would be used accordingly." "You have my word on that," Gehen nodded as he replied. "I''ve been trying to create a stable structure in my Empire. Since I plan to live here for the rest of my life, I don''t wish to create a half-baked barbaric empire." "I have already begun to develop culture, education, and other crafts in this place. I''m basically speedrunning civilization here. Since all the people are ex-cultivators, they quickly caught up on my idea and have settled accordingly. Thanks to that, I have been able to accelerate the development of this place," Gehen smiled as he half-boasted. He then summoned a small Checkpoint Turtle to carry the container, motioning for Krune to follow him. "Let me show my sincerity next." Krune was curious about a lot of things. Thus, he smiled and followed Gehen as they arrived beside the throne, with Gehen touching a lever hidden within the armrest. The throne then parted to the side as the entire platform began to head into the ground. It was like the entire platform had been converted into a lift. Krune watched as his surroundings turned dark for a moment as they descended down through a tunnel. Soon after, they entered a massive dome-shaped cave, one that spanned at least a kilometer in diameter. Plus, it seemed luminescent rocks had been embedded in the walls, causing the place to be bright. Krune noticed a ship situated in the water, half-submerged. It was the pirate ship that had been constructed. He had seen it through his Sonic Radar right before leaving for the Secondary Landmass. And now, there were Motor Fishes swimming around it in great numbers. All of them were the normal Motor Fishes, unlike the ones Krune had created. Gehen placed the container on the ground when the tiny Checkpoint Turtle jumped into the water and returned soon after, holding something in its mouth. It then spat out a bag that Gehen took and gave Krune, saying, "This is my sincerity." "What¡­are these?" Krune wondered as he opened the bag and looked at the tiny spheres within. Based on the smell, they seemed like Water Essence, but he knew that they were something entirely different. Upon seeing his reaction, Gehen laughed as he explained, "While forming this Empire, I recruited countless geniuses. And among the 10 Kings, I created five of them." Krune could not help but whistle in amazement at Gehen''s words. He knew just how difficult it was to obtain an active ability. The fact that Gehen not only became the first King but also nurtured five others to do the same showed his deep foundation. It hasn''t even been long since they had arrived at Layer 3. But already, Gehen displayed the sheer accumulations that only an Empire with centuries of history would possess. Smiling, Gehen continued, "Just as how you determined a method to create these two species, every other genius had figured out something of their own that allowed them to grow stronger faster than everyone else. With that, I recruited all of them into my Empire and nurtured them while learning their methods." "Thus, I had numerous breakthroughs as a result." Gehen pointed at the spheres within the bag, telling Krune, "I call them Development Spheres. Eating one sphere would allow you to reap in a couple of days the fruits of a year''s worth of training. On top of that, they also improve your stamina, causing you to surpass your limits one after another." Krune looked into the bag, noticing that there were five Development Spheres, shuddering at their value as he asked, "Just how expensive are these?" "Hmm..." Gehen thought for a moment before saying, "Considering present-day value, those five spheres have the same worth as a Primary Landmass." ''That''s expensive.'' Krune''s eyes widened as he looked at the Development Spheres once again. "I heard you had created a currency that''s almost similar to God Stones. Are they¡­Development Spheres as well?" "Yes." Gehen nodded. "Though, they are distilled. We have created tiers for these Development Spheres. Tier 1 Development Spheres give you a day''s worth of training results, while Tier 2 Development Spheres give you a month''s worth of training results. And, the one in your hand is a Tier 3 Development Sphere. We have yet to create the Tier 4 version. In any case, the higher the tier, the stronger the effects. So, their value grows at an exponential curve, unlike the God Stones." He then let out a chuckle as he continued, "In comparison, a Tier 1 Development Sphere is almost useless since it needs a day to give the effect of a day''s training. So, it hardly has any value. Anyways, it forms the basis of our currency. Only I can produce them, so there is no fear of others creating it and inflating market prices." "If there are people with stronger constitutions, can they eat more than one Development Sphere?" Krune asked. "For Tier 1 Development Spheres, it''s possible. It has also become a show of talent if anyone can consume more than one per day. We also use the same thing to pick out talented soldiers to train further." Gehen then shook his head as he said, "But beyond that, it''s not feasible. Consuming two Tier 2 Development Spheres on the same day won''t give as much effect as consuming a Tier 2 Development Sphere on consecutive days. It''s the same for Tier 3 Development Spheres as well." "Is there a limit as to how much you can grow using these?" Krune asked. "Yes, there are distinct limits." Gehen nodded. "Then again, the limits are because of the individual. It seems the class of the monsters applies to us too. Mutant, King, and Emperor, the same applies to us. So once they hit their respective limits, consuming Development Spheres won''t give them any effect. Unless they experience something that expands their potential, their growth stagnates at that point." "But for us, we will continue to develop in the realm of a Supreme Monster until we hit the limit," Gehen said. "And based on my calculation, once you consume enough Tier 3 Development Spheres worth a century, you''ll reach the absolute peak of this world." "A hundred¡­" Krune muttered. "Even you haven''t reached this point yet, right? How long does it take to create a Tier 3 Development Sphere?" "It only takes one year, but..." Gehen sighed as he lamented, "That is in the case my Checkpoint Turtle is only working on creating the Tier 3 Development Spheres. Unfortunately, it also needs to produce Tier 1 and 2 Development Spheres. So, production has stalled recently. As the Empire continues to expand, the load on me would increase further." He then let out a sigh once more as he said, "I only have one more Tier 3 Development Sphere left with me. Thankfully, once it''s year 20, no more people would be brought in." "The influx of people would stop?" Krune asked in surprise. "Indeed." Gehen nodded. "As the first to obtain an active ability, I was given some extra perks, a contact channel, if you will. One of them is with the cities in Layer 2. And the other is with that damn octopus. It said that people would only be brought here for 20 years. Since 10 million people are brought in every month, we would have a staggering population." "Since I have already created a base for humanity, we would eventually expand accordingly from this as the focus. Even if many humans die as a result of being unable to adapt to this Double Ocean layer, our population would still be enormous." Gehen surfed his tablet, saying, "When the Third Wave arrives, people will stop entering Layer 3. We would then be like Layer 2, having no other visitors. And, it seems the Gods that created this Sub-Realm plan to take the next two thousand years to develop Layer 4 completely." He laughed as he continued, "And once Layer 4 is completely developed, it would signal the end of this Sub-Realm''s creation. They would fill it up with people, same as with Layer 2 and 3. And after that, they would slowly work on expanding the size of this Sub-Realm even further." "Wait, you mentioned Gods? I thought only one God made this Sub-Realm?" Krune was confused. "Nope." Gehen laughed as he explained, "Just based on what I listened to, at least five Gods are involved in the creation of this Sub-Realm. That''s why its size is this absolutely vast." "That makes sense now." Krune nodded, shaking his head as he sighed. He then looked at the Motor Fishes he had brought, warning Gehen, "Don''t mix them up with the rest. Their bloodline would be diluted. Even I don''t have any guarantee in being able to create them once again." "Relax." Gehen laughed as he eased Krune''s worries. "I plan to keep them exclusively to this place while relocating all the normal Motor Fishes to another location. I''ll make another place to house the Tongue Fishes. These two species would improve our navy in the fight against the Monster Geckos." "Are they a threat at present?" Krune asked. "Not at present, no." Gehen shook his head. "They only have one Emperor-level Monster Gecko leading them. Then again, their insane fertility is definitely a problem. Give them 3-4 decades, and they would grow enough to match our staggering numbers. And if they manage to produce a Supreme Monster, they would be on equal footing as us." ''They have the bone trees in their possession. And now that they have figured out its details¡­'' Krune pondered over it before telling Gehen, "Two decades, or even shorter. They''ll produce a Supreme Monster within that time." Chapter 986: The Sub-Realm’s Ultimate Treasure "What makes you say that with such assurance?" Gehen was surprised to hear such a comment from Krune. "Well, the Monster Geckos have numerous advantageous traits. The only reason they haven''t made use of it was because of their inferior intelligence. Though, thanks to what I did there while hunting them, they might have figured out quite a lot of details," Krune said as he pointed at himself, showcasing the Monster Gecko skin armor he wore. "This is just the skin of a regular Monster Gecko that I stitched into an armor." "But as I grew and emitted energy while using my abilities, it slowly evolved accordingly to suit me more and more. Plus, it was also able to heal itself by absorbing the healing effect in the ocean water." He allowed Gehen to pinch his skin armor and feel its sturdiness as he continued, "Now, it''s stronger than any armor I might ever come across." "So that''s it, huh." Gehen nodded. "They have a trait of being able to evolve accordingly to environmental changes?" "Yes." Krune nodded, "This was what I have observed in them. Before, their customs ensured that their population was always small and that they were trapped on that Primary Landmass. Now that they''re invading other landmasses, they would develop more traits and cause more genetic variations. Sooner or later, one of them might accumulate enough variations to break through its limitations and become a Supreme Monster." "It seems I have underestimated them greatly." Gehen sighed after hearing that. "And once the Third Wave ends, all the Checkpoint Turtles would vanish. Only one of them would remain, stationing = itself within my Empire. With them gone, it wouldn''t be long before the other monster species would begin to spill out of their landmasses as well." "You can always head to Layer 2, you know," Krune said. "Hell no." Gehen laughed in excitement. "In here, I will never have a moment of boredom until I die. Why would I leave this place?" "As long as you like it, I guess." Krune shrugged, then speaking, "As for the Rope Bush King, it takes a couple of months to fully grow. Also, one bush only produces one seed at a time. So, you''ll have to take time to create a plantation for them first." "My boat was made using the Rope Bush King''s stem," Krune continued as he said with a hint of pride. "If you damage them a little while keeping them continuously immersed in water, over time, they would grow even sturdier. You can create strong ships out of these. Even a Monster Gecko Emperor would have trouble breaking through a ship." "I''ll do that," Gehen said with a hint of excitement. Upon seeing how Krune had willingly shared with him such valuable information, he then said, "Our active abilities are different from the passive abilities in that they can be passed down to our children." As Krune''s eyes widened, Gehen spoke, "Though, it''s like only a key is passed. Only after we die would one of our children obtain the active ability. Also, there is a certain goal to be achieved in this Sub-Realm." "A goal?" Krune asked. "Yes." Gehen nodded, "Once you leave this Sub-Realm, your active ability would absorb all your accumulations and would seep into your blood, forming a bloodline." "A bloodline?" Krune was surprised. "A demon beast has its bloodline. But, a human doesn''t have any bloodline. With that, a demon beast in human form is incredibly weak compared to its demon beast form. In any case, our reward for clearing this Sub-Realm is that, a bloodline. Whether we are humans or demon beasts, while in human form, we would have access to this bloodline that is passed down to our children and beyond," Gehen said. He then looked at Krune as he told him, "So if you have any children after this, they would possess all your active and passive abilities. So from the start, your children would be many times stronger than their peers. You should be very well aware just how overpowered an active ability would turn out to be once we integrate it with Godly Energy, right?" Upon seeing Krune nod, Gehen exclaimed, "The bloodline, the condensation of everything we obtain from this Sub-Realm is the ultimate treasure we will receive from here." "The Sub-Realm''s ultimate treasure¡­" Krune muttered, thinking, ''If I have any kids after this, they would definitely grow to be stronger than their peers easily. A treasure that is passed on through blood is definitely a peerless treasure.'' "Thank you for this information. I will be more careful in my growth and obtain as much advantages as I can." Krune cupped his fists as he thanked Gehen. "I have used the same trait by breaking heads with more than a thousand geniuses from all parts of the God Realm that I have created an institution with. And..." Gehen smirked. "I managed to create something similar here." "You managed to figure out the Sub-Realm''s arrangements?" Krune was shocked, wondering just how deep Gehen''s law comprehension extended towards. "No, it''s not something of that level." Gehen hurriedly waved his hands. "All I did was split portions of my active ability and mix it with each of my passive abilities. This way, I created five inferior bloodlines. I passed them to five people and created a noble house of sorts." "This bloodline only gives the bearer a passive ability, nothing grand," Gehen said, but even then, his face beamed with pride. "Then again, it is passed on through blood. So, everyone in a family has that power. I split them up into five colors: White, Black, Red, Violet, and Gold. I named them the Turtle Bloodlines and gave the Gold Turtle Bloodline to my son. Soon, he would establish the Royal Family while the other four Turtle Bloodlines would form the Four Great Noble Houses. They would form the pillars of my empire in the future and would stabilize it." "You have figured out everything, even for the long term." Krune nodded in praise. "Yes, it''s necessary since I plan to spend my life here," Gehen said, "Also, I have also been capturing various fish species to forcefully tame them. One of my passive abilities is related to that. With that said, I have only been capturing the Kings to rear more of them in the future. This way, I can reward talented people among my populace passive abilities to suit them." "How many have you captured to date?" Krune asked. "Around 30," Gehen said, watching Krune look at him as if he was looking at a monster. "Well, I do have an active ability boasting the greatest defense after all." Gehen laughed. "So, whenever I chance upon a colony of fish lead by Kings, I tame them using my passive ability. Due to the difference between our leagues, taming them is possible." After chatting with Gehen for a long time, Krune exited the palace, intending to roam around the capital city. He slung over his backpack and walked with the intention to travel. As for the ship, he left it for the Seamstress to take care of. It seemed that the Seamstress had already planned on what Solare would do. Thus, he didn''t interfere, allowing her to do her thing. Gehen gave him another bag filled with Tier 1 Development Spheres, numbering around 1000, saying that it would be more than enough for him to spend until a Checkpoint Turtle appears. When it appeared, it would appear within the Empire itself, so Krune felt he had no need of the boat. After all, based on what Gehen said happened the previous year, more than a hundred Checkpoint Turtles would arrive within the Empire. It was to account for the sheer population in the place. So, as long as he was fast enough, Krune would be able to arrive at a Checkpoint Turtle to buy his way up to Layer 2. And, considering he had his active ability, he was capable of taking flight by summoning his Cloud Whale. This way, he would be able to reach the nearest Checkpoint Turtle first. The capital city was huge. Based on what Gehen had said, more than eight million people were living here. The other cities were equally populated. To account for the space issues and the sheer population, numerous skyscrapers had been installed. Krune touched a skyscraper, realizing that it was made from stone. The tallest building only had 15 floors. It seemed to have been the limit of using a stone structure. When he asked Gehen how they had managed to achieve this in such a short time, he said that the native population of the Tertiary Landmass was a monster species that was capable of building. They were similar to ants, but instead of creating mud structures, this monster species was able to condense the soil to the extent of forming rocks. After killing the Supreme Monster, Gehen tamed the rest and used them to construct everything. ''A taming ability among passive abilities,'' Krune thought. ''For someone like Gehen, it''s the perfect ability.'' As for Krune, since he was someone who was always on the move, a taming ability was useless. In the current place, there were enough fish to be tamed and used. Though, Krune couldn''t say it would be the same in Layer 2. Besides, he wasn''t someone interested in taming other species. He had his own clones to use against everything. So, Krune wasn''t interested in such a passive ability. He was only interested in obtaining an ability that meshed and complemented his overall abilities as a cultivator. Upon hearing Gehen mention about them turning into his bloodline upon exiting the Sub-Realm, Krune''s thoughts had changed. He was thinking about the uses of two of his passive abilities, Moving Ripple and Frozen Blood. As a cultivator, he was able to unleash elemental attacks using the Laws of Ice and Frost. So, Frozen Blood would lose its value in such a case. As for Moving Ripple, even though it allowed him to run on water or move through it at tremendous speeds, it wasn''t that useful. After all, if he planned to move anywhere, he could simply ride his Cloud Whale. And by generating wind currents around himself, he would be able to run on water to a certain extent. The same could be said underwater since he could simply employ the Law of Wind and accelerate accordingly. As he thought in such a fashion, Krune realized that Moving Ripple and Frozen Blood wouldn''t have as much value once he returned to being a cultivator. "I guess I have to hunt for passive abilities once again." Chapter 987: Guilds and Academies Krune roamed around the capital city first, enjoying the sights as he ate the numerous treats sold in the restaurants, thinking to himself, ''Gehen has already developed the culinary dishes of the place. All of them are made using the local product, so they''re unique and a specialty of this place.'' He then approached the institutions installed in one section of the city. They had been named guilds. There was the Explorer Guild, whose only task was to head into uncharted lands or into the depths of the ocean to explore and note down the details. The Mercenary Guild existed for people who didn''t wish to be tied down by an organization. They took up various hunting and escorting jobs and were paid with enough Tier 1 Development Spheres as monetary compensation. As Development Spheres also allowed one to improve their abilities, it had tremendous value. When Krune asked around, he came to know of a concept called inferior money. This inferior money was a minted metal that allowed one to keep tabs in shops and restaurants. After all, one Tier 1 Development Sphere was enough for a person to eat three meals in a restaurant. So, in such cases, inferior money was used to keep note of the tab. To prevent this system from being abused, Gehen enforced a rule that inferior money was only useful at the shop or restaurant that minted them. This rule prevented anyone from making money out of this factor. Similarly, it also helped create a system of change that was necessary for microtransactions. "To have created so many things in such a short time. Just who was he while in the God Realm?" Krune muttered to himself. While passing by, he noticed how the people treated Gehen with the respect befitting his position. It made it seem like they had forgotten about their cultivator past and had wholly become mortals. Krune then came across a Trading Guild, a Mining Guild, a Fishing Guild, and other types of guilds. Finally, as he roamed around, he even came across an academy to teach the young. And, it seemed a lot of people had gotten used to the place, married and even had kids. Academies popped up all over the Empire. Just in the Tertiary Landmass alone, there were around 10 academies. With that, every Kingdom had at least 3-4 academies. As for the villages, they only had small schools that taught them the basics. Krune looked at the name of the academy, reading it aloud, "Imperial Academy." He looked inside, noticing students wearing their uniforms, bearing bright expressions as they roamed around the campus to attend different sessions. The oldest of the lot seemed to be around 15 years old. And, this age limit would only increase with the years. Upon inquiring around, Krune realized that the teachers in the academy were part of the Teachers Guild. And, they had a transfer system installed. Depending on their performance, they were transferred accordingly between the various academies. Some counted as a promotion while others counted as a demotion. As the Imperial Academy, it represented the best of the best. After peering in from the entrance, Krune observed for some time before leaving. He didn''t have the permission to enter it, and he didn''t wish to disturb Gehen for something so small. ''Just based on the numerous things happening in the place and beyond, Gehen should be swamped with work,'' he thought, entering the Mercenary Guild to see how things were faring. [Kill the Saw-tooth Blighter: 20 Tier 1 DS] [Bring an intact corpse of a Sonic Radar without its passive ability being lost: 600 Tier 1 DS] [Capture 20 Stringed Monkeys from Primary Landmass No. 38: 400 Tier 1 DS] [Bring a young master with you and make him obtain a passive ability: 1 Tier 2 DS] DS was the short form for Development Spheres. It seemed everyone was habitually using it, another difference he noticed. As cultivators, they always said a name fully, no matter how long it was. But as mortals, the same people shortened everything. It was an abstract display of their changed mindsets. Cultivators had time on their hands while mortals didn''t. There were all sorts of missions lying around. With that, Krune noticed how there was a crowd that was constantly exchanging for missions the moment they were posted. The missions were written on large wooden boards and hung in a banner of sorts. Once they were claimed, they were swapped with another. Considering there were around 300 such boards spanning one side of the wall, it was apparent just how chaotic the place was. They were divided into tiers based on difficulty. Plus, it seemed ranks had been installed for every guild. It was a simple star-based rank, with the lowest and highest being one and five stars, respectively. Krune then visited the Blacksmith Guild, for a moment feeling like he was back at home. There was a large reception at the front as weapons of all sorts were displayed. They, too, were ranked by stars, ranging from one to five. Krune looked at their prices, for a moment frowning as he noticed even a one-star weapon cost around 20-30 Tier 1 DS. A three-star weapon reached as high as 1000 Tier 1 DS. Krune approached a counter, asking a blacksmith seated behind, flashing his Whale Tooth Dagger, "How much will this sell for?" The blacksmith glanced at it, saying, "A Sonic Radar''s tooth. The condition isn''t pristine, but it still maintains its sharpness. It would sell for 60 Tier 1 DS." "Per dagger?" "No, both." Upon hearing it, Krune''s eyelid twitched as he thought to himself, ''I have been using them for so long. To think they have such low value now.'' Thinking back to the Mercenary Guild rewarding 600 Tier 1 DS for an intact Sonic Radar corpse, Krune realized that this price for the Whale Tooth Daggers was reasonable. Rather, the blacksmith had given him a concession since he seemed like a new customer. He then showed his sword, asking its price, "How much would this cost." "Give it to me," the blacksmith said as he took it, analyzing the sword. Krune thought as he saw the blacksmith''s actions, ''This guy is an expert.'' He then wondered, ''The Seamstress did upgrade it using her abilities. So, it''s stronger than a normal Sonic Radar''s teeth. I wonder how much he would quote for it?'' As he was thinking, the blacksmith soon responded, "It seems a couple of passive abilities have been used to upgrade it. Though, it is too old and has already suffered numerous internal damage. It doesn''t have much life, despite being stronger than a regular Sonic Radar''s tooth. You will get 220 Tier 1 DS for this." "Very reasonable." Krune nodded with a sigh before asking, "Are there any weapons made from a Sonic Radar? Better than this one." "We do." The blacksmith nodded, shouting towards his side, "Rikka, bring me some three-star Sonic Radar swords." "Coming!" A teenage girl shouted as her figure flashed a little before heading into one of the rooms behind, looking around for the respective weapons. "I''m curious." In the meantime, Krune took the time to converse with the blacksmith, "If a three-star weapon is stronger than my sword, how do you create four-star and five-star weapons?" "Using our passive abilities, of course." The blacksmith nodded as he replied, "As weapons are of prime importance, the Emperor has invested heavily. He has created a set of five passive abilities that create a synergistic effect while creating weapons." He raised his hand, showing three fingers, "There are three such sets. The first set is termed the upgrading set. All five passive abilities in this set create an effect to upgrade the strength of existing material. The one you requested for has been created in such a manner. The second set, on the other hand, is a forging set. This set has five passive abilities that allow us to process various materials and forge weapons, armors, and other types of equipment. Last but not least, the final set is a creation set. It consists of five passive abilities that allow one to expend their stamina to create a weapon. Usually, weapons created from this set have inferior abilities and are then upgraded by blacksmiths having the upgrading set." "But..." he continued, "This set also has the advantage of being able to create new weapon varieties with a bunch of special traits. So, they have their use." ''Just like the Seamstress''s Coral Wave. Using that and her Heat Radiance, she''s able to create any item she wishes,'' Krune thought, ''Even though Frozen Blood has its uses as a mortal, it''s useless when I become a cultivator. Instead, an ability to create special materials would be tremendously useful even when I become a cultivator.'' ''That would be better in the long run,'' he thought before asking, "Can you tell me the five passive abilities in the creation set?" "Sorry." The blacksmith shook his head as he answered, "Only when members achieve a certain level of contribution can one gain access to such information. If you join our guild and work your way up, I''m sure¡­" The blacksmith suddenly stopped talking as sweat began to drip from his face, soon drenching his clothes. His body trembled as his eyes darted to a tiny fish with a long needle that was now slowly moving around Krune''s neck. The Cloud Whale was less than 10 centimeters in length. But upon seeing it, the blacksmith understood just what was happening. And at the same time, the surrounding people also witnessed it, stunned into silence as their bodies remained rooted to their spots. "It''s not for free. I''ll pay you accordingly," Krune said with a smile. "I could ask Gehen, but this is too inconsequential for that. Plus, I''m only asking you the basic information for them, not asking you to give them to me. Understand?" "Y-Yes." The blacksmith nodded, telling immediately, "In all three sets, four passive abilities are the same. Only one passive ability changes in the set, determining which set it is. In the creation set, the core passive ability is called Bubble Wrap. It creates a sponge-like material that we then process using the remaining four Passive Abilities to create weapons." ''So, it''s not an independently useful passive ability. I don''t have any other passive abilities to refine it. It''s useless for me.'' Krune sighed, retracting his Cloud Whale, placing his Whale Tooth Sword and the two Whale Tooth Daggers as he said, "Sorry if I scared you. I just don''t have enough time. Consider the daggers as my compensation. As for the sword, I''ll sell it." "Thank you." The blacksmith only relaxed now as he wiped off his sweat. Chapter 988: The Five Crimson Ring Activation "This sword costs 500 Tier 1 DS. Since you''re selling your sword, you only need to pay 280 Tier 1 DS," the blacksmith said. "Give me a pair of daggers as well, same material," Krune said in response. He didn''t try to use any other sword because he had gotten accustomed to using the Whale Tooth Sword and Daggers for the past 18 plus years. Thus, he didn''t wish to change them. Besides, he didn''t wish to buy any superior weapon of the sort. First of all, a four-star weapon ranged in the thousands. He didn''t have that much money with him. Sure, if he took some missions or did any of the work available in the capital, he would be able to accumulate enough money soon enough. Then again, he didn''t wish to waste his time doing that. Once he was done with his tasks, he wished to head into Layer 2 right away. After all, by lacking time, he meant his lifespan. He was looking at the mirror during the years. Of course, he knew that he was aging. Sooner or later, he would start to become an old man, and his physique would start regressing. He had to leave the Sub-Realm before his lifespan ended. That way, he could commit suicide and revive immediately as a youth. Though, if he delayed and lost his life in the Sub-Realm, everything he had gained would be lost. Even though he wouldn''t die, since one of his Little Krune fragments was in the God Realm, he didn''t wish for all the time he had spent here to go to waste. Moreover, he realized that the powers he obtained here would be of tremendous use once he left the Sub-Realm and regained his cultivator powers. Having talked with Gehen, Krune changed his plans. Before, he planned to spend some time sightseeing while waiting for a Checkpoint Turtle to arrive. But now, he wished to obtain abilities that would suit him the best once he arrived back on the God Realm. He would love that. After paying 400 Tier 1 DS to the blacksmith, Krune exited the Blacksmith Guild, clearly able to hear the sighs of everyone once he left. It was apparent that they were tense upon meeting someone of his caliber in the place. After all, the only other person on that level was Gehen, their Emperor. And, coming across the Emperor or someone equal was nerve-wracking to the general populace. After all, even if they were ex-cultivators, they had completely adapted to the place. So, they were nervous while he was within their sight. After he left, the blacksmith that had transacted with Krune slumped on a chair, drinking a glass of water as he sighed, muttering, "So that was King Krune." "How strong is he, dad?" Rikka, his daughter, peeked out from nearby as she asked, "I thought he was a monster at first." "He''s¡­strong," the blacksmith said before looking at the Whale Tooth Sword and Daggers before him, his eyes glinting as he shouted, "The lot of you, look at these before me. They were the items used by King Krune." He then laughed as he took the three items with him and left the place, "You guys are my eyewitnesses. I''m going to auction these in the Auction House." Hearing the blacksmith''s words, some of the customers muttered, "He''s going to auction them? No matter their quality, they were the personal weapons of King Krune." "None of the other nine Kings have left anything behind." "Those three weapons have tremendous value." One after another, the group of customers scurried off the Blacksmith Guild in a frenzy, leaving the place vacant within a couple of minutes. Seeing the large crowd that had exited the Blacksmith Guild all of a sudden, the people on the streets were startled. When they inquired about the reason, their eyes glinted upon knowing the information. Soon, news spread as thousands of people converged at the auction house. The three items had created quite the chaos, and in the end, it was purchased by the Auction Guild Master because he had a tendency to collect exotic items. He had spent a whopping 40,000 Tier 1 DS for the Whale Tooth Sword alone. As for the Whale Tooth Daggers, they were each purchased by the Mercenary Guild Head and the Trading Guild Head for a sum of 36,000 Tier 1 DS each. Immediately, they had broken the record of the highest price ever bid in the auction. This was the price only because things had just been established, and the money in the hands of the rich wasn''t much. Had it been a couple of decades later, the price would have easily reached the millions. It was all because Krune hadn''t realized his actual worth as an active ability user, a human sharing the same status as a Supreme Monster, the peak of their world. Unaware of the chaos he had created, Krune was whistling as he surfed through the streets, trying out some delicacies along the way, content on selling the three items for 250 Tier 1 DS, thinking, ''They are old anyway.'' He then held the Sonic Radar Sword that he had bought, nodding in praise as he muttered, "This is many times better. I probably won''t need to worry about a weapon for another decade with this. From now on, this is my new Whale Tooth Sword." He also named the two daggers Whale Tooth Daggers, smiling as he visited every guild along his way, soon arriving at an inn as he booked a room. He booked for five days since it was a cheap inn and cost three Tier 1 DS for five days. Unloading his backpack, Krune gazed at the five Tier 3 Development Spheres he had received from Gehen, muttering to himself, "A year''s worth of training per sphere, huh." Without any hesitation, he swallowed one Tier 3 Development Sphere, noticing it emit energy the moment it reached his belly and was acted upon by his digestive fluid. The energy instantly placed him in a state of deep concentration as his muscles began to faintly vibrate. The degree of vibration was minute, but it had completely loosened up his muscles, causing him to enter a state similar to wet cement. Krune then lifted up his Whale Tooth Sword, taking a stance as he aimed, swinging once as his eyes widened in shock. He instantly noticed the difference. His body was rapidly adapting to whatever action he did. Upon realizing that he needed to go all out in order to make the most out of it, Krune hurriedly grabbed his backpack and jumped out of the window, summoning his Cloud Whale around himself. The Cloud Whale created air currents around itself and sped through the air, heading straight towards the capital, causing everyone in the streets to exclaim. Krune immediately arrived at the palace as Gehen had already arrived at the entrance, smiling upon seeing his plight as he pointed towards an open area in the palace, telling him, "Treat it as your training ground. Go all out. I had created it for my use." "Thank you," Krune said as he placed his backpack on one side as arrived at the center of the training ground, taking in a deep breath as he entered a stance. Immediately, the thumping of a heart resounded while the sounds of ocean waves continued to increase in magnitude. The sounds of the heart thumping and the ocean waves soon spilled out of the palace walls and reached the streets, causing the populace to unanimously look in the direction of the palace, wondering what was up. On top of that, it was late evening as it was starting to get dark. In the palace''s training ground, Krune finished taking in a deep breath as his eyes shot open. Passive Ability¡ªOcean Heart! Passive Ability¡ªNeon Radiance King! Immediately, there was a fluctuation around him before a pillar of light manifested, boring into the clouds, increasing in girth to the extent it brightened up the entire capital, causing everyone to look at it in panic, almost alarmed. "Isn''t that¡­Neon Radiance?" one of the people exclaimed. "But why is it this powerful?" There was chaos in the entire capital while the other cities were also able to see the pillar of light that reached the clouds, wondering just what was up. As for Krune, he was completely focused, hearing the sounds of his heartbeat while looking at the image of a crimson ring being highlighted in his mind. There were still four other rings, all inactive at present. ''What if¡­?'' Krune thought as he took a second Development Sphere, hearing the shouts of panic from Gehen, "Don''t waste it like that. Every Tier 3 Development Sphere is precious. It''s not useful if taken in the same day." Krune didn''t mind his shouts, immediately swallowing the second Tier 3 Development Sphere as he could feel his stomach acids churning to digest it. And in his mind, followed by numerous hesitant flickers, the second crimson ring activated, causing the influx of energy circulating through his body to double. Instantly, the pillar of light he emitted doubled in girth and intensity, causing shouts of alarm from the populace. As for Gehen, he looked at the scene with part anxiety but mostly excitement, "This guy¡­hahaha!" Passive Ability¡ªSonic Radar! His throat constantly vibrated, emitting an inaudible sound wave that coursed through the palace, soon spreading into the capital before a quarter of the capital was perfectly highlighted in his view. Krune smiled, taking in the third Tier 3 Development Sphere. Immediately, the Neon Radiance pillar increased in size once again while causing the capital to be as bright as day. Those that tried to look at the pillar of light were almost blinded by the intensity. Passive Ability¡ªFrozen Blood! The pillar of light turned white instantly as it began to emit freezing cold. A layer of ice began to form everywhere, including the people and the palace walls. Upon seeing the situation, Krune hurriedly swallowed the fourth Tier 3 Development Sphere, causing the pillar of white to expand in size as the freezing effect further intensified as wind began to blow as a result. In his mind, four crimson rings had been activated. Passive Ability¡ªMoving Ripple! Instantly, ripples formed on the pillar of white, preventing the freezing effect from spilling out any longer. Nevertheless, the air coming into contact with it still began to freeze as a thick pillar of ice formed in the air, reaching the clouds. Krune then swallowed the final Tier 3 Development Sphere, noticing the fifth and final crimson ring in his mind activate, creating a synergistic effect as something mystical occurred in his body. Active Ability¡ªCloud Whale! Chapter 989: Dreams of the Heart—Ocean Turbulence! All five crimson rings of Ocean Heart had been activated, causing them to pulse with waves upon waves of energy as he felt like the rings were getting closer in his mind. Not only that, but each ring was forming a connection with his abilities. The first crimson ring connected with Neon Radiance King. The second connected with Sonic Radar. The third connected with Frozen Blood. The fourth connected with Moving Ripple. And lastly, the fifth crimson ring connected with Cloud Whale. For a moment, it was as if all his abilities were absorbed into a crimson ring each before they were returned to their rightful places. Krune focused as he had already activated all his abilities, now realizing that he had underestimated their potential. ''It''s because all my passive abilities are from Monster Emperors. So, they''re strong and have enormous room for growth. No other ability might hold a candle to these,'' Krune thought, thinking for a moment as he condensed an ice sculpture of the Cloud Whale before him. Similarly, as he thought, he layered the floor with ice instantly, creating ripples as he skidded on it at tremendous speeds. With Neon Radiance King for emission, Sonic Radar for grasping the structure of everything he created in great detail, Frozen Blood to give a property of ice to everything he creates, and Moving Ripple to manipulate and control water and ice, he was able to create anything he wished using ice. On top of that, using Moving Ripple, he was able to control the ice, changing its structure and other properties ice would have. On the other hand, the Sonic Radar allowed him to sense the properties of the material. There was also the ability of Cloud Whale to generate air currents when it wasn''t summoned. This, when combined with Sonic Radar and infused with Frozen Blood''s effect, allowed him to blast gusts of cold air in his surroundings, like projections of his fists when he punched out. Krune immediately began to train like crazy, watching his ability rapidly evolve as he derived a new level of power out of this, the true potential of all the abilities he had accumulated. Dreams of the Heart¡ªOcean Turbulence! The name automatically resounded in his mind as his heart continued to thump. Krune realized that in this state, he was able to fuse his abilities in any combination he wished. Using this, he was able to formulate a number of abilities that were derived from his base abilities. While in the state, as he trained, he understood that his Cloud Whale was growing in size, based on the image it depicted in his mind. The Cloud Whale also depicted its image like the crimson rings of his Ocean Heart when he activated it. When its size increased, it meant his stamina was also increasing accordingly. Krune realized that there was a limit as to how much stamina he could possess as a fleshly being. It was the same even for a Supreme Monster. It was only because they had massive bodies and a tremendous amount of flesh and blood that they could store an enormous amount of energy within them. As for Krune, his body was insignificant in comparison. With that, he could find that he was hitting the limits of his fleshly body. Beyond that, and the rest of the energy within the Tier 3 Development Spheres would simply be wasted. Fortunately, Krune had his Ocean Heart. After activating all five crimson rings, its energy circulated through his body at greater reserves, absorbing the beneficial quality from the Tier 3 Development Spheres. ''It''s changing.'' Krune could instinctively feel the change as the Ocean Heart continued to absorb the excess effect of the Tier 3 Development Spheres the moment his physique hit its limit. Beyond this, it was no longer possible to strengthen his physique anymore. He had attained the absolute limit of mortal flesh. Then again, there was still a tremendous reserve of the Tier 3 Development Spheres'' effect available in his body. As their essence flowed through his blood, they were absorbed by the energy from Ocean Heart, just like how it absorbed the freezing effect in his Frozen Blood. It was the trait of Ocean Heart. And now, the healing effect present in Ocean Heart was subtly changing, absorbing the essence of the Tier 3 Development Sphere. It already had the healing effect. And now, it was only changing a little to turn into something stronger. Moreover, Krune could feel that the energy in each crimson ring was increasing little by little. The heart contained the strongest muscle in the body. And with the addition of Ocean Heart, it was even stronger. So, even though Krune''s body had reached its limit in development, his heart still had some ways to go before it reached its limit. Using this opportunity, it strengthened itself further. Krune continued to train all his abilities like a madman as he threw attacks in every direction without thinking of the consequences. Gehen had hurriedly used his active ability to seal the training area so that Krune''s attacks wouldn''t reach the people beyond the palace. Even he felt surprised by Krune''s development speed as he could feel the other party''s strength grow by leaps and bounds. ''His physique has already reached the peak level achievable by a mortal.'' He smacked his lips in admiration as Gehen watched with widened eyes at Krune''s training. Krune summoned attacks one after another while condensing an ice sword that he swung in a flurry while dancing around the entire training ground like a madman. He condensed more ice into the sword, making it tremendously heavy as he carried the weight, swinging it as his body screamed from the strain. The healing effect of his Ocean Heart worked its magic at this moment, constantly healing him as he broke his muscles while it healed him back to an optimal state. Adding to that, the Tier 3 Development Sphere''s essence seeped into his body, slightly strengthening him further, causing his body weight to increase by a small amount. Krune hadn''t even realized that he had attained a breakthrough to surpass the limit of his flesh, however insignificant. For the entire day, he continued to train and experiment with the effects the fusion of his abilities resulted in. Based on what Gehen said, the training effects should last a day. But for Krune, it was expended well in advance. He was somewhat confused about how it was caused, wondering if him swallowing five Tier 3 Development Spheres instead of one had been the cause. But upon activating his Ocean Heart once again and feeling the effect of the healing effect, he was unable to control himself from smiling. ''My Ocean Heart has absorbed the Development Sphere''s effect. In the future, I can train and increase my strength even further through that.'' He was now able to experience the development effect along with the healing effect using his Ocean Heart. On top of that, Krune could feel that his body had mildly gained weight. Normally, it wouldn''t have been possible for him to detect such a minute change. But during the state of Ocean Turbulence, his Sonic Radar was able to relay this data based on the change in density in his body. After all, his size had experienced zero change during this. Through that, Krune was able to determine the weight difference. ''Is it possible to increase my weight further? Maybe that might be the way to grow even stronger,'' Krune thought, smiling as he relaxed, feeling his body brimming with power. "How was it?" Gehen asked as he approached Krune after taking down all the barriers. Currently, it was raining in the capital due to all the ice and cold air Krune had launched. "Impressive." Krune laughed. "I think I got more than five years'' worth of training out of it within the day." ''So, his abilities amplified the effect by creating a synergic reaction,'' Gehen thought, nodding as he smiled. "You can go rest now. If there''s anything else, you can ask me later." "Sure." Krune nodded, condensing the Cloud Whale around him as he carried his backpack and flew out of the palace, landing at a discrete street as he deactivated it. He then mingled through the crowd, sightseeing the city until he was satisfied. He then left the capital city, heading towards the other cities as he took in the sights filled with people, relishing the experience as he had spent way too much time alone. He didn''t know what the Seamstress was doing with Solare. They had parted ways already, going about with their respective needs with the promise of meeting each other once they were back in the God Realm. Since they were on neighboring continents, it was each to find each other if they searched with such an intention. He immediately dropped his plan of searching for new passive abilities. It was no longer worth the effort since he had witnessed the potential of Frozen Blood and Moving Ripple. Thus, he decided to stick with them without any changes. Moreover, he had invested too much in them and had already developed them significantly. There was also the fact that they had formed a synergic effect with his other abilities. Krune dared not say any other ability he might obtain might have this synergic effect. So, instead of losing his trump card for an ability that would create him a weapon, it was better to stick to his current abilities. In the state of Ocean Turbulence, he was able to condense weapons of ice anyway. In any case, it was better. Even when he became a cultivator, it would still serve its use. Krune was fine with that. Though, he wondered if it would become even stronger if he imbued the laws of wind and ice in them. Krune spent the rest of his time training and visiting new places. He figured out the duration that he could sustain the activation of Ocean Turbulence. It ranged between two to three minutes. The duration was less because he was consuming a tremendous amount of energy, expending all five crimson rings. But the power that resulted from those couple of minutes was enough time to fell any opponent he faced. Krune continued to loiter around for the next few months until he could feel the arrival of a Checkpoint Turtle. Chapter 990: Strong Enemy "There, it''s done." Gehen laughed as he looked at the statue before him. It was a realistic statue of Krune holding his old Whale Tooth Sword. The sculpture was made using turtle shell, something he had condensed using one of his abilities. It wasn''t known how he managed it, but Gehen was able to imbue Krune''s disposition, aura, and the suffocating presence he emitted into the sculpture. It was as if Krune had been turned into a sculpture and placed there. Gehen nodded in satisfaction, gazing left as he looked at the statue of the Seamstress. There were statues one after another, finally ending with his own statue. Seeing them laid out in front of him one by one, he could not help but think, ''Now, there''s a legacy of kings here.'' Gehen was working hard in creating history for the place. And now, with the status of 10 kings, he had created a legacy of sorts. As each status had the presence, will, and power of the respective person, future generations would be able to see them and get an inkling as to how each King was. Moreover, they could even obtain inspiration from the statues. This was Gehen''s plan, a way to strengthen his future generations using the way of the predecessors. All 10 kings were in a row, their statues created realistically with lifelike accuracy. ''Hmm, I don''t think any other active ability user might appear any time soon...unless I start nurturing another one,'' he thought when he was interrupted by a boy aged around 17. "Dad, I want to head into a Tertiary Landmass and face a Supreme Monster," the boy said, carrying a sword in his hand. "Sure." Gehen smiled, condensing a thin film before him, telling the boy, "If you can penetrate this barrier, that is. This represents the hide of the Supreme Monster with the weakest defense." The boy focused, condensing all his strength into an attack as he barely managed to scratch the barrier, panting in exhaustion. Gehen said, "It''s good that you''re motivated, but you must first kill a Monster King one on one. You aren''t at the level of a Monster Gecko King yet. You need to train hard to reach that point." "Alright." Sulking, the boy walked away when another boy walked forward. He was the one that had volunteered to tour the palace with the Seamstress and Solare. He looked at his twin brother that was sulking, saying, "His record kill is only three Mutant Monster Geckos. A Monster Gecko King would be too much for him to handle." ¡­ Upon sensing the Checkpoint Turtle, Krune instantly summoned his Cloud Whale. The Cloud Whale condensed around him, placing him within its body as it turned transparent, allowing him to see while controlling it. It accelerated, leaving towards the exit when Krune noticed flashes of light from another part of the Tertiary Landmass as the Seamstress arrived with her Great Dipper. The two swiftly left the Tertiary Landmass and headed into the ocean, arriving first above the Checkpoint Turtle. The two had chosen different Checkpoint Turtles as they had the advantage of speed and didn''t wish to hinder one another. Krune dissipated the Cloud Whale and felt the presence emanating from the Checkpoint Turtle, muttering, "I would still die if I face it head-on, but I should be able to escape from it with minimal injuries." He then entered its shell, soon arriving at the cave within, noticing the octopus surface from the water. Krune double-tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet as he looked at the number of Godly Points he had. ''A total of 3372 Godly Points. That''s a tremendous sum.'' He then looked at the octopus, saying, "I want to enter Layer 2." "Sure, that would be done instantly," the octopus said before slapping the water once. Krune noticed his Godly Points reduce by 200 when he felt a mysterious power of sorts envelop him. "¡­Krune!" Suddenly, his Sonic Radar that he maintained using the sounds of his breathing picked up an individual rushing towards the Checkpoint Turtle in a hurry. His heart trembled all of a sudden as he hurriedly activated his Sonic Radar, noticing a familiar figure rush towards the Checkpoint Turtle while bellowing his name. "Krune!" "Krunnneeee!" "Feifei!" Krune shouted in shock as his body disappeared from the place. A disheveled Feifei hurriedly entered the cage, noticing his figure had vanished, plopping to the ground with a dazed gaze, devastated. "I had already activated the ability to send him to Layer 2. You were a couple of seconds too late." The octopus shook its head. It raised its tentacle once, patting her head as it told her, "Don''t worry. You can meet him in Layer 2. Now that he realizes you''re also here, he''ll definitely wait for you in Layer 2." "Work hard to obtain an active ability and head to Layer 2." It hastily said when it saw Feifei hurriedly summon her tablet, intending to head to Layer 2, "You will be transported to random locations. Without any active ability, you''ll die within a couple of minutes. I had warned others before you, but none listened to me and died futile deaths." "Do you wish to buy anything?" the octopus asked. "Give me 10 Water Essence, 2 Helper Whistles, and a ticket to a Secondary Landmass," Feifei said, firming herself immediately as she resolved herself to quickly become strong enough to defeat a Supreme Monster. ¡­ "Feifei!" Krune shouted at the top of his lungs when he realized that he had appeared at the edge of a cliff that overlooked a valley. There was a mysterious miasma floating around within the valley in dense concentrations. It was light around him, but at the moment he inhaled it, Krune felt like his insides were mildly burning. He then looked around to see that he was in a wide stretch of land, devoid of people. Realization hit him as he slapped his head, thinking to himself, "Dammit, I should have asked to be sent as a hero. Gehen said that I''d only be sent as a hero once I asked the octopus. He had already made all preparations for it even. To think I wasted it." He then frowned as he thought about something else. "What was Feifei doing there? Was it really her? No, the voice was definitely hers. Was it done by someone to trick me? No, no one knows about Feifei here. Even the Seamstress only knows what I have told here." "Then¡­was that really Feifei? Who else has arrived in the Sub-Realm?" Krune muttered, trembling once in fear. "Feifei didn''t try to follow me to Layer 2, right? Without an active ability, she would face a hard time¡­" Krune suddenly pulled out his Whale Tooth Sword, slashing it to his right, watching a humanoid figure grab the blade with bare hands that resembled claws. It hardly budged from the attack as Krune was left surprised, wondering if it was actually possible for something to take the brunt of his attack and remain undamaged. He hurriedly bent backward and dodged a claw swipe, shuddering once at the wind pressure generated from the attack. Upon seeing that it had a pair of eyes, Krune directed a beam of Neon Radiance towards them, causing the beast to flinch as a response. He used the chance to slash the sword at its neck, noticing his blade only dig a couple millimeters into its neck. He barely saw a thin line of purple blood as he grunted, exerting even more power as he activated Ocean Heart, using the power boost it gave to tumble it to the ground. Sadly, it only managed to suffer a thin wound on its neck, moving its neck sideways once as it got up, jumping towards him once again. The speed caused him to flinch as Krune seeped the effect of Frozen Blood, turning his Neon Radiance white before aiming it onto the beast as he parried its attacks. It suddenly clenched its claws into a fist, slamming it into his sword, which caused it to slip from his hand. It swiftly used its other hand, shaping it into a knife as it intended to skewer him when Krune realized the threat he faced, immediately activating his Cloud Whale, using it as a meat shield. Using the time it got destroyed, Krune leaped back and grabbed his sword, summoning the Cloud Whale at a length of 2 meters. The Cloud Whale immediately inhaled air, concentrating it into its body before transferring it into its horn, aiming at the beast right when it flashed before Krune. A needle of air slammed out from the horn and landed on the beast''s head, poking open a tiny hole that bled a bit of purple blood. Nevertheless, the beast was still fine, swerving its head as it dodged the rest of the air needle that continued to last for a couple more seconds. It kicked Krune, noticing he had diverted his body accordingly to latch onto its legs. Its body suddenly began to feel numb all over, especially at the joints, as it leaped back immediately, swiping with its claws to prevent Krune from closing in. Panting, Krune jumped forth once again, lashing out with his sword while targeting its joints with white beams. Light couldn''t be evaded. So, he easily targeted its joints, slowly causing it to freeze little by little. As he couldn''t grasp his current situation, he didn''t wish to use Ocean Turbulence and expend most of his energy reserves. That''s why he was only using his basic abilities. The Cloud Whale unleashed another air needle, hitting right on its neck, piercing through the wound he had cut before. It pierced through a little before the beast evaded it, watching the rest of the air needle fly past. It had already adapted to his fighting style, reacting accordingly. It attacked Krune nonstop while sticking close to it, preventing the Cloud Whale from targeting it easily without attacking him as well. ''Dammit! Just what beast is this?'' Krune was worried as he fought it, unwilling to go all out. He wished to conserve his energy. Otherwise, he could summon a larger Cloud Whale and finish it with one attack. But upon seeing that his body was burning up more and more as he fought, he realized that the miasma in the area was dangerous. Moreover, he noticed the miasma seeped into the beast''s wounds, beginning to slowly heal them. Upon seeing that, Krune realized he had no other choice, deactivating the Cloud Whale as he kept the ability active in his body, generating air currents around himself as he unleashed Ocean Turbulence, flashing forth for a second as he condensed an ice spear around his hand and pierced it into the beast''s head, killing it as he hurriedly deactivated it. Panting, he summoned his tablet, looking at the message that was displayed. [Layer 2: Demon Invasion] [Killed one Demon Soldier] Chapter 991: How Can I Get to Safety? [Layer 2: Demon Invasion] [Killed one Demon Soldier] "Are you fucking kidding me?!" Krune couldn''t help but curse out loud. "That strong beast was just a fucking Demon Soldier? And how come I got a notification but didn''t receive any Godly Point?" Even though his Monster Gecko skin armor filtered out most of the miasma, some of it still got inside as the burning sensation in his body continued to increase. Krune hurriedly looked around using his Sonic Radar, noticing numerous beasts, or as mentioned in the tablet, demons in the valley. There were at least hundreds of them that made Krune flinch upon sensing them. He dared not even peek with his head as he immediately backed away from the cliff, using his Sonic Radar to notice a hill located far away. He jumped and landed on his two-meter-long Cloud Whale, riding it towards the hill as he noticed the density of the miasma decrease the higher up he went. He arrived at the peak of the hill, breathing in relief once he noticed the air in the area was breathable. He looked below, noticing faint miasma circulating a couple of centimeters below his feet. Seeing this, he could not help but think to himself, ''Thankfully, I am barely above the reach of the miasma.'' "Now, how should I reach a city?" Krune wondered as he looked in one direction, emitting his Sonic Radar at its maximum strength, unleashing it at a sound level inaudible to the ears. Like a radar, Krune continued to scan in one direction alone, continuing as such by turning his head little by little. This way, he covered the maximum reach for his Sonic Radar. Unfortunately, despite everything, he was unable to detect any city. Rather, the valley continued for as far as his Sonic Radar''s range. And above the valley, there were only some crooked trees scattered around. Everywhere he looked, there were demons marching about. Worst of all, the Demon Soldier he had killed had actually gotten up as its head finished healing. Then, it shook its head a little, looked around in confusion before jumping into the valley. "What kind of phantasmagoria is happening here?" Krune was flabbergasted. The Demon Soldier he had killed by going all out revived within a couple of minutes and began to go about as usual. If he wasn''t flustered by something of such scale, then it would be odd. "Then again, where are they heading towards?" Krune wondered as he had been observing that all the demons in the valley were marching towards one direction. They seemed endless and were like a river. "Wait¡­the title of this Layer¡­" Krune was just about to summon his tablet when an intense sense of danger enveloped him. He could see a figure flying towards him at tremendous speeds. "Damn it!" Without any hesitation, Krune summoned his Cloud Whale around him and flew away, noticing another demon appear. It had a pair of wings and seemed many times stronger than the Demon Soldier he had faced. It swerved through the air and closed in on him. Krune aimed his palm towards it, blasting forth a cold beam, intending to slow it down when he realized that the demon was hardly affected. ''Well, this sucks. Unless I go all out, it probably won''t be injured. Then again, even if I attack and defeat it after using Ocean Turbulence, there''s no guarantee another demon might not show up. With that, there''s only one way.'' Krune thought, increasing the size of the Cloud Whale to a length of 8 meters, his current limit. Instantly, the air currents generated around it increased in quantity, propelling it forward as the Cloud Whale fully spread its wings, increasing its flight speed as it quickly expanded the distance from the demon. Though, the demon had also flapped its wings and continued to chase after relentlessly, keeping pace without being thrown off. Krune was startled because he was traveling in a straight line. In a straight line, the Cloud Whale was incredibly fast. So, he was confused as to how it was able to keep up. Not only that, but he noticed that it was still at ease, looking like it wasn''t overexerting itself. Krune directed cold beams on it or the regular Neon Radiance to blind it. But after the first two times, it simply closed its eyes and followed him. It seemed to possess high resistance against cold, so no matter what he did, it wasn''t harmed. As time passed, Krune noticed that the reason it was able to keep pace with him was due to the miasma. Even if he focused a heavily concentrated beam of Neon Radiance on its eyes the moment it opened them, it swiftly fell into the layer of miasma below and surfaced soon after, perfectly uninjured. ''Does the miasma have healing properties towards the demons?'' Krune thought, realizing that it might very well be the case. He was just shocked at the intense speed of regeneration the Demon Solider he killed had shown. It meant that unless he killed them in one or two hits, he wouldn''t be able to kill them. Also, a prolonged battle would only tire him out. On the contrary, they would be fully healthy and brimming with power in such a case. Krune constantly maintained his Sonic Radar, scouting through his surroundings, keeping his senses alert for a wide range so that he wouldn''t be ambushed. Even though it was taxing on his mind to take on such a toll, he had no other choice but to do so right now. He was in enemy territory. And since the name of the place was ''Demon Invasion,'' it meant that the enemies were in superior numbers. Then again, the name also gave him another clue. It was the word ''Invasion.'' For an invasion, an army was needed. And, the horde traveling through the valley was just that. Considering the fact that they were brimming with power without any sign of injury or fatigue, it meant that they were heading in for an invasion. So, as long as he followed them, Krune would be able to reach a city. That was his plan. It was what he had hoped for to be the truth. Krune soon noticed the demon chasing after him give up on its chase and enter the dense miasma in the valley. Just when he thought it had given up on him, Krune heard numerous shouts traverse through the valley. Immediately, he understood just what was happening, "Oh no, they''re signaling those at the front to probably take flight." Ocean Heart! Krune no longer had any other choice but to use all his strength. He hurriedly took out four Blood Essence Crystals from his backpack, hesitating for a moment before swallowing them. Unlike the ones he used while on the Primary Landmass, these Blood Essence Crystals were condensed using the bodies of Motor Fish Kings. So, their backlash would be tremendous to the extent he wouldn''t even be able to remain conscious once the effects wore off. There was a prompt on the tablet whether he would like to obtain the passive ability. Krune declined it as he could feel the rush of energy enter his body. The energy was tremendous, boosting the speed of his Cloud Whale, causing the air currents around it to become stronger. As many demons took off to the air, the Cloud Whale sped past them even faster. Upon seeing his figure, they hurriedly retreated into the valley, causing the shouts to travel even faster. Soon after, demons began to take to the skies 10 kilometers before him, getting ready to intercept him. "As if you can stop me!" Krune realized that if he was hindered for even a moment, he wouldn''t be able to evade their superior speed. The Cloud Whale was only good at traversing straight lines. So, once the path on his front was blocked, it would be difficult to move. Moreover, it needed time to accelerate, unlike the Seamstress''s Great Dipper that was great for accelerating from zero to top speed within a second and swerve around in the air without any trouble. So, after a moment of thought, he took out another Blood Essence Crystal, swallowing it as the energy circulating in his body further increased. If he hadn''t upgraded his physique to the limit of Layer 3, he wouldn''t have been able to handle the energy. Krune then took out a bottle from his backpack, drinking some of the Healing Extract. This was to prevent him from dying due to the side effects. The Healing Extract would keep his body well maintained and healed to a certain extent. He had taken a mouthful of the concentrated version. So, the effects were great. Krune then took in a deep breath before the image of five crimson rings flashed in his mind, fusing into one. Dreams of the Heart¡ªOcean Turbulence! Neon Radiance King, Frozen Blood, and Moving Ripple, Krune fused them all into his Cloud Whale''s ability to generate air currents, causing the area around it to freeze and turn moist. And, this moisture was acted upon by Moving Ripple, generating currents to make the Cloud Whale move even faster. It then began to suck in a tremendous quantity of air into its body before compressing it by more than a thousand times, almost turning it into a liquid state as Krune fused the effect of Frozen Blood and Moving Ripple into it, building up pressure further before accelerating it through the horn as the Cloud Whale unleashed it. The air needle was viscous this time around, but it was faster than normal. It was also bigger and had more power. The quantity of air was also enough for the air to continue exiting the horn for at least five seconds. The air needle spiraled in the air, turning into a larger vortex as it pushed the demons to the side from the impact as a faint layer of ice formed on their wings, making it difficult for them to flap it, prompting them to return to their positions. By the time they managed to flap their wings, the Cloud Whale had already passed by them, speeding even further as the currents around it had become tremendously powerful. Using Moving Ripple, Krune sucked in more air even while the Cloud Whale was unleashing its attack. And when it sucked in the air, it was able to fill itself up at least twice as faster than usual, allowing it to attack once again and send the demons flying away. Chapter 992: Freaking Abomination "Just how long do I have to travel?" Krune bemoaned in exhaustion as the Cloud Whale unleashed its attack for the umpteenth time. He had lost count long ago, having been traveling for hours. To ensure he wouldn''t reel from the side effects, Krune had been consuming the Blood Essence Crystals nonstop. It was something he had experimented with before. As long as the effect of a Blood Essence Crystal remained within his body, the side effects from those he consumed before wouldn''t strike him. In exchange, this meant that when he stopped, all the accumulated side effects would slam into him at once, causing irreparable injuries. Unfortunately, he had no other choice. If he stalled even for a second, he would be surrounded by demons. With that, Krune had no other choice but to continue with this. He had been using Ocean Turbulence all along. But as he hadn''t used any heavy attacks like condensing a field of ice, the energy expenditure wasn''t too high. Then again, he was still expending enough energy equivalent to all five crimson rings every hour. So, it was too much to account for. And every hour, he consumed five Blood Essence Crystals. From time to time, insanely powerful demons whose presence would cause his heart to skip a beat would emerge. Thankfully for him, when he unleashed his Neon Radiance, they could flinch and close their eyes. Using the 3-4 four seconds it bought him, Krune would have traveled far away for them to lose interest in chasing after him, considering his speed that even those suffocatingly powerful demons failed to catch up. This was the best advantage of the Cloud Whale. In a straight line, it could accelerate to tremendous speeds. Its shape made it face almost no air resistance, allowing it to travel long and far by consuming a small amount of energy. Though at present, he was constantly making it generate stronger air currents. In other words, he was expending a lot of energy. "How long¡­how long¡­" As Krune continued to mumble, his eyes lit up as his energy expenditure spiked for a moment as he bellowed, "Finally, a city!" For a moment, Krune was awestruck by its grandeur. It was like a floating continent, considering that he was unable to see its ends despite viewing it from far away. It was a tremendously large floating city. There was a wide path, spanning a hundred meters in width, that trailed from the miasma-covered ground to the floating city. The demons of the valley entered that path, heading up the floating city before engaging in a battle with the humans there. There was a massive ground before the floating city, present on another floating landmass, an oval with a length of 20 kilometers and a width of 15 kilometers. It was connected to the city by a bridge spanning a length of a kilometer and a width of 100 meters. More than a million humans and demons fought on the battlefield. Upon seeing them, Krune hurried over, getting closer to the battlefield, when a demon suddenly flashed before him, using its hand to shield itself from the air needle, taking zero damage from it. It used the same speed to slam into the Cloud Whale''s horn, cracking it into pieces before slamming into its head. Krune immediately understood that he was facing an enemy way beyond his capability. But instead of getting flustered, he revved up his Ocean Turbulence to the limit, causing the sound of the ocean waves to resound in the area as the Cloud Whale opened its mouth and swallowed the demon. In an instant, its body turned into an ice sculpture. Krune was above it, instantly condensing another Cloud Whale around himself as he sped forward, shooting forth beams of ice that landed on his foes like spikes, stopping their approach as he flashed past them. Without holding anything back, Krune slammed attacks on them nonstop, arriving above the battlefield when suddenly, a mysterious force pulled the Cloud Whale towards the ground. Knowing that the impact would slam him dead, Krune made the Cloud Whale turn around, causing it to face the ground as it unleashed the air needle. The air needle then impacted the ground, raising a massive dust cloud as it slowed down the Cloud Whale''s fall. "Ugh!" Krune grunted, dissipating the Cloud Whale right at the moment of impact, causing it to absorb all the shock as he dissipated it before the shockwaves could reach him. He summoned it once again, repeating the same thing three more times before he landed on the ground. Of course, he knew that he couldn''t relax, immediately condensing another Cloud Whale to act as his shield. He then froze the ground under it, using Moving Ripple and its ability to generate air currents to glide on the ground. He instantly understood that flying seemed to be prohibited on the battlefield, judging by how he noticed even the flying demons landed on the ground the moment they neared the battlefield and entered it through the path. Honestly, he had hoped to skewer any demon he came across along the way. Though, it was easier said than done. Some of the demons were like mountains, causing his Cloud Whale to be sent flying with a flick of their hands. Even when he impaled them, they never budged. But in return, Krune experienced all the shockwave from the impact, rattling his body. It was impossible to avoid any demons since they were closely packed together on the battlefield. Of course, he ensured to never hit a human even by mistake. The ground under the Cloud Whale continued to freeze up as he created a path, heading towards the city nonstop. But suddenly, a human along the way used his sword to hack the Cloud Whale, almost severing it into two, causing Krune to flinch in shock. He then looked at his Monster Gecko skin, looking at the demons to realize that even though they looked different, they shared some similarities. So, in the chaos of the battlefield, it wasn''t odd that someone mistook him for being a demon. Krune spat out blood as he condensed the Cloud Whale once again, continuing to sped past as his body was burning up from all the Blood Essence Crystals he had consumed. He hurriedly pulled open the suit, revealing his face to see the humans that had planned to attack him retract their weapons. As there were enemies on all sides, Krune wasn''t able to converse with anyone, not even a word. He continued to travel along the way, condensing the Cloud Whale every time it was destroyed. "Fucking hell! Just how powerful are the mortals here? This is an active ability, for fuck''s sake! An active ability that they''re butchering like a vegetable with every hit." Suddenly, followed by a loud impact, something landed on the Cloud Whale, slamming it deep into the ground, almost deforming it. Krune''s face began to bleed blood as he gazed up, looking at the face of a red demon that smiled mischievously as it looked at him, speaking, "Look at what we have here. A cute little hero." Krune tried to make the Cloud Whale move using all his strength, but no matter what he did, it failed to budge. In order to weave through the crowd, he reduced its length to the minimum, making its internals almost hollow as he slipped within, facing the ground. Since he was relying on his Sonic Radar, he didn''t need to see. But now, he turned around and gazed at the face of the demon up close, noticing that its entire body was beet red, shining with a gentle glow. Also, it wasn''t using any technique or ability to constrict him in place. All it did was stand above his Cloud Whale. And that itself prevented him from moving. ''Dammit!'' Krune cursed as he thought of sending a bone tree fragment hurling into its mouth. But, having noticed the speed at which the red demon had landed on him, Krune knew that his speed was lacking enough to do that. He condensed all his energy into his Ocean Turbulence, instantly freezing the Cloud Whale into an ice sculpture while making the front of its head vacant. Using the boost from the air currents, Krune activated Moving Ripple on the layer of ice around him, bolting out like a bullet as he condensed the Cloud Whale around him once again, slipping under the legs of another demon. Krune''s brain thought rapidly to the extent his face heated up as the Cloud Whale danced on the ice-covered ground, swiftly aligning itself in a certain direction upon arriving at the position. And as he had expected, he noticed the red demon land above the Cloud Whale with greater force this time. Being mentally prepared, Krune turned it fully into ice once again. And this time, he used the force of its slam to shoot out just like how toothpaste blasted out when one slammed into its tube with force. Using the Moving Ripple on the ground that he was layering with ice as he passed by, Krune condensed another Cloud Whale, making a straight line of escape through the battlefield just as the fighting parties moved. It was as if they had moved to open a line for him. But in actuality, Krune had observed their actions using his Sonic Radar and had times himself accordingly, arriving at the perfect position to achieve this. And using the force from the red demon, he blasted forth. Coughing out blood from his mouth, Krune could feel numerous bones in his body had broken from the shockwaves of its landing. While speeding away, he glared at the red demon, etching its visage in his mind as he mentally cursed, ''You''ll get it one day, just you wait.'' Krune quickly arrived in the section of the battlefield with more humans than demons, soon making his way to the end. He intended to tread on the path and arrive at the city''s entrance, moving as such until suddenly, he didn''t know what had transpired. But then, he noticed that his Cloud Whale had been torn apart into two like paper and that he was dangling in the air, his neck gripped by a man who stared at him with a cold, bloodthirsty expression, asking, "What the hell are you, you fucking abomination?!" Chapter 993: Tortured to the Limit ''Abomination? What the fuck are you high on? Can''t you see that I''m a fucking human?'' Krune bellowed in his mind but was unable to utter anything as his opponent tightly gripped his neck. He seemed like a man around his sixties, sporting a cropped beard and a bushy mustache that accentuated his rectangular face. His raven black hair glistened in the sunlight as his eyes stared straight at Krune, smirking upon seeing the opponent struggle. Dreams of the Heart¡ªOcean Turbulence! Krune used the remainder of his strength as he froze his opponent''s hand while lifting his body with wind currents, also using Moving Ripple on the ice-covered hand around his neck to slip away like an eel. He also blasted a beam of Neon Radiance into the man''s eyes, blinding him as he used the opportunity to slip away. Using the wind currents, he propelled his body, swiftly arriving at the bridge connecting the battlefield to the city when he paused abruptly, his body immobile as he spat out a mouthful of blood that froze the moment it touched the ground. His eyes turned red as veins popped all over his body, causing him to spasm like he was electrocuted. His body turned hot, almost neutralizing the effect of Frozen Blood as he began to bleed from his orifices. His skin cracked as the blood vessels on it ruptured. The side effect of the Blood Essence Crystals had finally kicked in. He had consumed plenty of Blood Essence Crystals, putting off their side effects until now. And now, all the accumulated side effects had kicked in all at once, causing him to spit out blood nonstop as his body turned brittle. He focused the remainder of his power in his Ocean Turbulence, fusing the healing effect of his Ocean Heart into his Frozen Blood. This way, he planned to mitigate as much of the damage as possible so that he wouldn''t die. But, a second after he had activated it, Krune suddenly felt a tremendous force slam into his sides, breaking a lot of his bones as he skidded on the bridge, causing a large trail of blood to appear. His vision grew blurry as he noticed the grin from the rectangular-faced man. He was the one that kicked him. And now, he arrived before him and slammed his leg on his head, knocking him out. "This piece of shit dared to attack me," the rectangular-faced man cursed as he lifted up Krune like a ragged doll, thinking for a moment as he held one of Krune''s arms, exerting a bit of strength as he snapped them into two like twigs. He did the same to the remaining three limbs, smirking as he looked at the lady beside him. "Put him in prison and torture all the information out of him. This human-like demon bastard might just be what we need. Do a good job if you wish to get a raise, Raka." "Yes, Master." Raka nodded, slumping Krune on her shoulder like he was a piece of wet cloth and sprinted towards the city at superhuman speeds. "Hoh, look at her go. The scent of money always gets her riled up." The rectangular-faced man smirked as he noticed the red demon staring at it from far away, glaring in anger. He flashed his middle finger at it as he shouted, "Come and get it, bitch. Let''s see if you can live after facing me once again." "Hmph!" The red demon snorted as it stomped the ground once, creating a massive crater as its hands flashed once, hitting all the rocks that flew up. It then vanished from its spot, retreating back into its army. But, more than twenty humans standing around the crater suddenly dropped dead, with their heads bursting out like water balloons that got pricked. Staring at their deaths, the rectangular-faced man cursed, "Petty bastard." The battle continued nonstop as more humans arrived while the exhausted ones retreated into the city. As for the demons, an unending stream of them continued to pour into the battlefield nonstop. ¡­ "Gah!" Krune woke up with a start as he felt piercing pain on his thigh, alarmingly close to his groin. The pain caused him to shriek as his eyes failed to make sense of his surroundings, failing to see anything beyond a blurry outlet. A couple of seconds later, his eyes adjusted themselves, clearing up the blurry atmosphere as he noticed that he was in what looked like a prison cell. Rather, more than a prison cell, it seemed like a torture chamber. There was no semblance of light in the place. The only source was a dim glowing stone that was embedded into the ceiling. It emitted red light and was dim to the extent it made it hard for him to see. "Hoh, you finally woke up." A lady''s cheerful voice resounded as she moved closer, positioning herself right before Krune''s face, staring deeply into his eyes as she continued, "So, why don''t we start with introductions?" ''W-What?'' Krune was about to speak when he realized that he was gagged, unable to even grunt or make a sound. Only now did he notice that he was sealed up in a chair, bound to it. When he struggled to move, he realized that he was unable to exert strength in his limbs. They were broken. He also had numerous injuries in his chest as some of the broken bones had pierced his lungs, causing them to bleed. Krune felt that it was difficult to even breathe as he realized that it wouldn''t be long before he died. Upon seeing his reaction, the lady chuckled as she said, "Well, don''t bother speaking. When I said about introductions, I meant mine." She flashed her pearly white teeth, taking out a knife as she plunged it into Krune''s knees, wedging it between the joint as she moved it to and fro, causing incomparable pain to Krune. Seeing the nerves protruding on his neck due to the pain he felt, she chuckled as she said, "I''m Raka, Head of Torture Divisions. Basically, my job is to torture the captured demons and extract valuable information from them." She let go of her hold over the knife, grabbing hold of the knife plunged in his thigh closer to his groin, pulling it out as she noticed that it had frozen up. "You''re one interesting demon. You''re able to shed your skin and mimic a human. Interesting. I''m curious as to how many of your companions are present or have infiltrated into our city?" She then sat on his thigh, leaning on his body, using him like a chair as she yawned. She then nonchalantly took out a rectangular slab from beside the chair. But upon seeing it, Krune''s eyes widened in shock. ''That''s my tablet!'' "Now, let''s see." She yawned, slumping one of her hands around his shoulder, lifting her leg as she used them to rest the tablet, using her hand to scroll through it happily. But whenever she moved, Krune felt like he would die. It was because she was heavy, tremendously heavy if he said so. When she sat first, he felt something in his legs was getting crushed. And now, he was unable to feel anything below his hips. "I see, I see. You have 3372 Godly Points. I don''t know how you demons managed to obtain the treasure that''s exclusive to us humans." She then stared at his eyes as she asked him, "So, what had been your plan? Were you planning to infiltrate our city and grow using our methods and then kill us from the inside?" She then smirked as she said, "You did put a magnificent show out there, displaying magical abilities as you weaved through the battlefield without killing a single human while wounding the demons alone. I must say, you looked just like the hero from our oracles." "But you''ve made a minor mistake." Her gaze turned malevolent as she continued, "A hero is summoned, a blessing from our celestials. A hero won''t arrive from deep within the demon territory. Too bad for you, but we won''t be fooled by your abilities." She tugged the part of the Monster Gecko skin armor around his neck, tearing it apart as she fully stripped him bare. "Hmm, below this skin, you look exactly like a human. Are you even able to mate with our kind now?" She then gazed at him, expressing a bright smile as she told him, "We''ll take our time as you spill all our secrets, right? I wonder how the demons managed to make you look like this?" Suddenly, the door behind the prison opened as a soldier cupped his fists. "Madam Raka, the City Lord is requesting for your presence." "Alright, I''ll be there." Raka nodded, turning around as she winked playfully at Krune. "The two of us will spend a great time together in the future." She then rolled up his Monster Gecko skin armor into a bundle, carrying it in one hand and the tablet in the other. Before leaving, she looked at Krune and said, "You have quite the mysterious items in your bag. I''m wondering what you planned to do with them." She then left the room, instructing a couple of guards as the room doors closed. Krune felt his vision was hazy from the pain as he was unable to even think straight. There was a constant ringing sound in his ears while his entire body burned up. He hadn''t even reeled from the side effects of the Blood Essence Crystals while Raka had caused him further damage. On top of that, she was incredibly cunning. Upon seeing that his blood froze the moment it came in contact with air, she inflicted numerous wounds, guaranteeing that he would die. Even though she tortured him immensely, it was as if she knew the limits beyond which he would meet his death. She stopped right beneath that line, cunningly so while giving him the greatest pain. ''Dammit! Hero, my ass! Fucking bastard pieces of shit!'' Krune was unable to even think straight, unable to even take in deep breaths as a searing pain emanated from his lungs when he did so. He was at his absolute worst condition now. His entire body was burning up like he was lit on fire. Adding onto the torture he had experienced, Krune''s heart seethed with hatred. Chapter 994: Concocting a Vicious Plan ''H-How long was I here?'' Krune wondered as he had regained clarity of thought now. The burning sensation in his body had also reduced to a certain extent. It was because the healing effect from his Ocean Heart had prevented the side effects to a certain extent. Thanks to Ocean Turbulence, the healing effect had fused into his Frozen Blood, circulating through his body as it rapidly healed him. Unfortunately, the side effects were too much. So until now, it had only been competing against the side effects, preventing him from dying. Krune thought for a moment, noticing that he barely had one and a half crimson rings remaining in his Ocean Heart. ''It''s clearly insufficient for me to even heal. Thankfully, the side effects have been stopped, for now. Let''s hope it will continue at least like this.'' Sonic Radar! His throat vibrated minutely, causing him pain while doing so. Only the side effects have been stopped. But their damage hadn''t been healed yet. Krune''s state was getting closer to death as time passed. His Sonic Radar outlined the prison cell in his mind, allowing him to notice that the door had three bars in a rectangular portion at the top. They were only big enough for one to peek into the cell from outside to see the state of the prisoner within. Currently, two guards had been posted outside. They occasionally kept watch within, not uttering a single word otherwise. It seemed like they were trained experts. So, they didn''t banter while on duty. Krune continued to scan through the hallway, noticing what seemed to be demons trapped within each cell. Their conditions were horrible, as they had faced torture worse than Krune. The only difference was the fact that they had been captured before him. He knew for a fact that he would suffer even worse torture when Raka returned. He quickly scanned through the entire prison, noticing that it was a sprawling structure, spanning at least a kilometer in length and width. It was fifty stories high, a behemoth of an institution. Most of the cells were filled to the brim with demons, all bound to chairs similar to his. Their limbs were either severed or broken into pieces. ''It seems everyone in this place are brutes. They''re like mountains, each of them. Fuck, even that Demon Soldier was as strong as an Emperor Monster from Layer 3. If I add in its ability to regenerate by absorbing the miasma, it''s at least three to four times stronger than an Emperor Monster.'' Krune frowned as the layout of the entire prison appeared in his mind. He then continued to sense further, using the metallic structure to echo his soundwaves, obtaining a lot of information. He then transmitted the soundwave backward, focusing on the wall behind him. He increased the frequency until the soundwave passed through the wall, spread out, collided with other objects and returned. ''So, I''m in a prison cell almost at the top of the prison. There are only two floors above me, and they seem to be a resting place for the wardens and for them to collect dates, observe, and collate their torture plans. They even have accommodations for delegates.'' After that, Krune inwardly scowled, ''Monsters!'' Krune realized that there was a valid reason to suspect him. But, the fact that they simply tortured him and had resorted to it as their first measure made them have an absolute bad impression on him. After scanning the wall enough, Krune thought, ''This wall seems to be made of mysterious material. It''s incredibly dense to the extent that I wouldn''t be able to destroy it even if I were at peak condition.'' ''Fuck, where did they hide my bag? This thing is truly, truly annoying.'' Krune thought as he continued his search, soon noticing that his bag had been placed in a room. The items he had brought were neatly placed on a table. Krune counted through them, heaving a sigh of relief to see that all of them were in place. He then thought of something, noticing the position of the guards before his cell as his eyes shone with a cunning glint. Soon after, he summoned his Cloud Whale, making sure it was small, only spanning 10 centimeters in length. Dreams of the Heart¡ªOcean Turbulence! Krune fused Frozen Blood, Neon Radiance King, and Moving Ripple into the Cloud Whale, causing a layer of ice to form on its body. He then focused, fusing Sonic Radar into it as he slowly adjusted the layer of ice, soon turning it crystalline, causing the Cloud Whale to behave similarly to a mirror. Krune then focused intensely, creating a minute layer of ice on it, making a tiny, nigh negligible gap between the two. They were balanced using Moving Ripple and the Cloud Whale''s ability to generate air currents. Krune then adjusted the two, creating two more layers of ice on the Cloud Whale, adjusting everything based on trial and error when the Cloud Whale turned invisible. Rochester Cloak! It was a scientific principle that used four lenses to cause an object to appear invisible. There was also the case where an object placed within two concentric glass cylinders would appear invisible. It was simply because the light rays were reflected through them from the front and to the back. They converged around the object and traveled in a straight line that seemed like a continuation of its incident ray. Because of this, the object placed within the innermost glass cylinder couldn''t be seen from outside. And now, Krune used the same principle, using Neon Radiance to experiment until his Cloud Whale turned invisible. After that, using Moving Ripple, he suppressed the coldness emanating from it until it was fully suppressed. The Cloud Whale arrived close to his cheek, but he wasn''t able to feel any chill from it. ''Now, no one would be able to sense it.'' He then sent the Cloud Whale through the bars, making it fly slowly through the corridor while he kept track of the place through his Sonic Radar. Eventually, after numerous efforts, the Cloud Whale arrived in the room with his belongings. It compressed air in its mouth, arriving in front of a bottle before gently unleashing the air needle, silently poking a hole through it. It then pushed the needle inside, sucking in as much of the Healing Extract within as it could hold in its body. It then flew out and returned, entering a cell as it hovered before a demon. This was the demon that had been tortured the worst, made to lay in a state worse than death. But, based on everything Krune could feel through his Sonic Radar, this particular demon''s body had the highest density. It was to the same extent as the Red Demon he had faced before. So, Krune realized that it should be very high up in the food chain as there was just one on its level in the massive prison. The Cloud Whale arrived before its opened mouth, gushing all the Healing extract into it. The Red Demon''s eyes widened in shock as it was unable to find just from where it arrived, feeling something hit the insides of its mouth. ''Did the humans put something weird in me?'' Its eyes shot around, ''No, there isn''t anyone here. And this fluid¡­it''s able to heal me?'' After a moment of shock, the Red Demon swallowed everything. As its mouth had been pried open and fitted to a lever of sorts, it was unable to close it anyways. But upon sensing that the Healing Extract was beneficial to itself, it didn''t struggle, acting nonchalant as if it hadn''t drunk anything beneficial to not appear suspicious. Krune knew for a fact that he wasn''t able to break free out on his own. He needed chaos to do that. And what was the best way to enact chaos in a prison filled with demons? The Cloud Whale made numerous trips, soon emptying all the Healing Extract into the Red Demon. It then returned to the room with his back, swallowing five Blood Essence Crystals before adjusting the ice on its body. Thanks to Ocean Turbulence, it was able to manipulate the passive abilities on its body. The Cloud Whale soon arrived and dropped all five Blood Essence Crystals into the Red Demon''s body. Upon feeling the influx of energy into its body, the Red Demon was surprised before its body began to greedily devour all the energy. It then faintly released some miasma as a result, immediately pulling everything into its body. It first used the energy to heal the most grievous of its injuries. While it was healing its injuries, the Cloud Whale continued to drop the Blood Essence Crystals in its mouth. 10¡­20¡­50¡­70¡­leaving behind five Blood Essence Crystals for his later use, the Cloud Whale dumped the rest into the Red Demon''s mouth. While the Red Demon continued to heal its body rapidly with the excess influx of energy, the Cloud Whale brought a Blood Essence Crystal and placed it in his mouth. Krune used the energy as he activated the healing effect of his Ocean Heart, first working on eradicating all the burning feeling in his body. By the time the Blood Essence Crystal''s effects wore off, he finished healing himself from the burning feeling throughout his body. Then, after expending some more energy, he healed himself from the side effect of the Blood Essence Crystal he had just devoured. The Cloud Whale cut open his stomach, encasing the remaining four Blood Essence Crystals in a layer of ice before placing them within. Krune then healed the cut, closing the wound. As the layer of ice on the Blood Essence Crystals was his ability, he was able to remove them as he saw fit. So, this way, he could replenish his energy reserves without needing to take any action when necessary. Based on what he had heard, Raka had been called by the City Lord to discuss about him. They judged that his situation was way too important to take action in a hurry. They wished to extract the best use out of him. And hence, they had summoned all the important figures of the city for a conference. ''And something of such scale would indeed take time to reach a consensus,'' Krune thought as the Cloud Whale made numerous trips, now layering all his items near the walls, away from the line of sight of the guards when they peeked inside from time to time. The Rope Bush seeds, the bone tree fragments shaped into spheres, the Frozen and Exploding Cylinders. Other than that, he didn''t bring in the rest with him. They were just travel baggage and weren''t that important anyway. Chapter 995: Chaos and Demon Miasma ''It''s a shame for the Whale Tooth Sword and Daggers. But, I can''t bring them with me, not in my current state at least.'' Krune sighed, feeling that it was a waste. Then again, at the end of the day, they were just replaceable weapons. The most important goods were already in his possession. ''And now, I have to patiently wait for the right moment,'' Krune thought as the Cloud Whale appeared beside his constrictions, freezing them first before using the air needle on them. Using Moving Ripple, Krune made the ice absorb all the sounds from the air needle drilling into the constrictions. He made it as slow as possible, breaking through one constriction after another. He used the second Blood Essence Crystal, subsisting the energy to the Cloud Whale to aid in its activities. Soon, he managed to break free of the restrictions without alerting the guards. His restrictions weren''t too strong. It was because he was pretty weak when compared to the humans he had seen till now. Secondly, his limbs were broken while his bones were crushed into pieces. In short, it wasn''t possible for him to flee. That''s why Krune was able to break free of the restrictions. He was unable to move his body, though. So, all he could do was remain sitting, biding time for his escape. As for the lock on the door, it was just a handle. It could be moved using the Cloud Whale at any time. With that, Krune awaited, observing through his Sonic Radar that the Red Demon was recovering rapidly. The Cloud Whale held two Frozen Cylinders in its body, lying in wait at the entrance to the Red Demon''s cell. After thinking it through, the Cloud Whale appeared before the Red Demon, making its presence known. It then arrived beside one of the constrictions of the Red Demon that prevented it from even applying power in its hands, beginning to drill through it as it turned invisible. The Red Demon was confused about its identity, but upon seeing that its constrictions were getting removed one after another, it smiled insidiously, focusing on healing itself even further. Soon, it made a complete recovery, noticing the Cloud Whale gently place the restrictions on the ground. After that, it turned invisible once again and arrived before the guards, destroying the two frozen cylinders within its body as it blasted out an air needle, but now using the Frozen Blood, aiming at the mouth of the soldier the moment he yawned. "What?" The other guard was startled as his mouth was also filled with Frozen Blood that suffocated him, preventing him from uttering any sounds. While he twitched on the ground, the Red Demon exited the cell, swiftly twisted their heads and placed them within the cell. It then smirked, its figure flickering as it appeared before two other guards, instantly twisting their necks as it entered the cell they were guarding, approaching the Yellow Demon within, telling it, "Get ready. Eat the humans to recover." Saying so, it broke off all the restrictions binding the Yellow Demon, emitting miasma that seeped into the Yellow Demon''s mouth, stopping after watching the other party heal rapidly. "Wait until my orders to move out." As the Yellow Demon nodded, it exited the cell, flickering from the place as it killed two more guards, dragging them into the respective cell as it arrived before the second Yellow Demon bound there, freeing and feeding it some miasma as well. In the same manner, it continued to kill the guards, soon killing everyone on the floor without causing a single commotion. ''Those red crystals¡­whatever they were, they''re incredible. I''m still full of energy. I can release enough miasma to heal every demon locked in this cell.'' It was no longer able to see the Cloud Whale. But it didn''t have the time to think about it now, intending to proceed into the upper floor when the Cloud Whale appeared before it once again, making circles in the air. "Are you telling me to not head up?" As the Red Demon whispered, the Cloud Whale danced in the air, confirming it. "How strong are they? And how many?" As it asked, the Cloud Whale pointed at the Yellow Demon that had arrived behind it and then made three lines in the air. "So, there are three humans on the Yellow Demon''s level above. What about below?" the Red Demon asked. The Cloud Whale moved to indicate that there weren''t any on the Yellow Demon''s level below. Smiling, the Red Demon unleashed a bit of its miasma, summoning the ten Yellow Demons that it had rescued. As for the rest of the demons, they were weaker. For a stealth operation, they wouldn''t be suitable. So, it swiftly rushed with the Yellow Demons, cleaning out all the human guards one floor after another. After emptying the prison floors except the top three, the demons devoured all the slain humans to replenish themselves even further. They then arrived at the floor just below the top three floors. The Red Demon looked at the group of Yellow Demons behind it, nodding once as they flashed to the upper floors, swiftly overwhelming their opponents with sheer numbers. Brimming with energy, the Red Demon was too powerful for the three human powerhouses on the floor to face against. At the same pace, they cleared out all the guards in the top two floors as well. Starting from the top floor, the Red Demon healed the captive demons and freed them. Eventually, it arrived on the third floor from the top, freeing the demons one after another before it noticed that one of the cells was vacant. It was odd because all the cells at the top were always filled with demons. Only the bottom floors had empty cells. But upon seeing that it was empty, it didn''t bother thinking about it further. The Cloud Whale no longer appeared before it. So, it swiftly appeared on the terrace once, glancing around to pick their route before returning into the building. The Red Demon looked at the differently colored demons, telling them, "I won''t tell you the way I was rescued in case you spill the secret to the humans lest you get captured. We are in the heart of the Human City. Escaping would be difficult. We might even get captured once again." "If it feels like you''ll get captured, you know what to do, right?" It then glared at the demons, watching them nod in response. The lot of them congregated on the ground floor, overcrowding the place to the extent some of the demons had to remain on the second floor. Having eaten the guards, they were brimming with strength now. Following the Red Demon''s lead, they broke through the prison entrance, spilling out like a tsunami as the humans that witnessed the scene were frightened. "They''re finally leaving." Krune heaved a sigh in relief as the Cloud Whale opened his cell door. It then manifested around him, bringing him out of the door before placing him on the corridor. It then brought his bag. Upon seeing that the Red Demon had basically cleared out the prison cell, Krune was glad. But, just at this time, another thought struck him, ''Right, if the bag disappeared, then it would seem obvious that I had escaped. I don''t want them to search for me later.'' Krune observed the state of the chairs in the other cells, making the Cloud Whale bigger as it did the same to his chair as well. This way, it would seem like he hadn''t escaped, but had been devoured by the demons. To make that, the Cloud Whale sucked in the blood on the corridor, splattering it on his chair exactly as how it would look if he was devoured there. And to make it seem real, it sucked in his blood and added it to the blood mixture. The blood indeed froze up, but thanks to the temperature difference, it was thawing slowly. That level of detail was enough to make it apparent that he was indeed killed in the place. Krune didn''t forget to do the same to the Red Demon''s chair. Now, there was no way for the investigations to conclude his hand in this. After all, he had displayed his abilities to countless people in the battlefield. So, it was easy to make deductions based on the extent of the damage. Because of that, he had no choice but to leave his bag behind. As for the Frozen and Exploding Cylinders, he exploded them in the room, making it seem like they had exploded when the demons had fiddled around. The heat from the exploding cylinders set the room aflame as the fire soon spread towards the other rooms as well. ''The perfect way to destroy all traces of me,'' Krune thought as the Cloud Whale placed all his important items in a tiny bag he had stolen from the office room above. It seemed like a common bag, and there were countless such bags there, so it wouldn''t be noticeable if one of them went missing. Besides, there were bigger problems to worry about for the humans. The Cloud Whale manifested around him as Krune lay within it in a sleeping pose, having closed his eyes. He relied on his Sonic Radar to navigate, using the third Blood Essence Crystal. The same as before, the Cloud Whale turned invisible. As the prison entrance had been blasted wide open, it flew out stealthily. Krune was able to see the extent of damage the demons had wrecked around. Those imprisoned had been higher up in the food chain. So, each demon was immensely strong. With that, the average human soldier was unable to face them as the demon horde massacred their way through, razing the place to fire as numerous sky scrappers collapsed to the ground. It seemed the Red Demon had placed to wreck as much damage as possible to the human city while they were escaping. Moreover, all the demons constantly devoured the humans they had killed, digesting their spoils as they released their signature miasma, filling up the air slowly. This miasma rejuvenated them, healing them immediately upon any injury. As the miasma spread, they became stronger, able to fight better and devour even more humans. Through that, they released even more miasma, causing a beneficial cycle to them and a vicious cycle to the humans. As for the perpetrator, he was escaping using the Cloud Whale, unaffected by the death and chaos below, continuing to head far away from the chaos of the place. Chapter 996: Devouring 70 Passives "W-What the fuck just happened?" Raka screamed in rage as she pummelled the severed head of the Red Demon. Then again, her attacks barely had any strength left in them. It was a pyrrhic victory as they had ganged up on the Red Demon and barely managed to kill it. Had it been on the battlefield, she would have been capable of soloing a Red Demon and emerge victorious ten out of ten times. That was because there wasn''t any miasma on the battlefield. But here, the situation was different. No matter how much damage she dealt to her opponent, the Red Demon constantly regenerated by absorbing the miasma. They had been in an important meeting, so by the time they received the news, it was already too late. Too much damage had been done as a swirling cloud of miasma had been generated. And with the density of miasma, the Red Demon was able to regenerate without worries as it played around, casually taking on ten powerhouses on its level. Raka kneeled before the rectangular-faced man in shame. "Master, I have failed you. I didn''t take enough precautions in the prison and allowed this jailbreak to occur. I''ll take full responsibility." The rectangular-faced man sighed as he gazed up, pausing for a couple of seconds before he gazed at his right arm that lay on the ground, severed. "Nothing can be done about that. We have to resolve this miasma issue before the damage spreads even further." He stopped glancing at his severed arm, mentally firming himself that he would live with one arm from now on. "Capture some Demon Soldiers and send them into this miasma. Keep hacking away at their bodies while they''re there. Make them absorb as much of the miasma as they could to regenerate. Once that''s done, kill them. This way, the miasma problem could be solved." "As you wish." Raka kneeled on the ground, got up and vanished, heading out to execute his orders immediately. Suddenly, the ground tremored as a figure landed on the ground, seemingly looking like a hulking giant even though he had a rather lean physique. Upon seeing the figure, the rectangular-faced man kneeled on the floor and exclaimed, "City Lord!" ¡­ Through his Sonic Radar, Krune realized that the farther he went from the prison, the density of the people continued to reduce. He noticed that he was currently in a sprawling metropolis where even the average human was as strong as an Emperor Monster. With an average glance, he judged that out of every hundred people, at least 40 were stronger than him, and another 30 could fight him toe-to-toe. If he were to talk in terms of physique alone, more than 95 out of 100 people could defeat him. Of course, he didn''t include children in that list, only adults. Still, it was something scary as he got accustomed to the notion of Layer 3. The feeling hit him more harshly than when he arrived at the God Realm and became the weakest of the weakest in the food chain. In the prior case, the energy used in cultivation itself changed. So, it just signified a higher lifeform. Thus, it was easier to digest the fact that he would be the weakest once he ascended to a higher plane. But here, there was no such thing as superior energy. The humans on Layer 2 and Layer 3 were the same. But, those in Layer 2 were simply stronger. That''s all. With that, Krune felt waves of depression upon seeing that even the most normal people here were as strong as him. It made him wonder just why he had bothered to grow strong in Layer 3 and didn''t just arrive at Layer 2 before. ''Then again, I would have simply died if that had been the case. If I had lacked even a single of my current abilities, I wouldn''t have been able to escape the prison. So, all''s well that ends well.'' ''Besides, I''ll be able to become stronger than them once I grow using their methods. After all, none of them seem to possess any passive or active abilities,'' Krune thought, soon arriving atop a skyscraper that seemed to be a residential complex. The people of this place seemed to be the weakest of the lot that he had come across until now. Plus, the place was also positioned closer to the edge of the city. Based on his probing and what he heard while the Cloud Whale was slowly gliding through the air, the floating city was a massive landmass shaped into a circle with a radius of 300 kilometers. And, this entire stretch was a sprawling metropolis with skyscrapers as far as the eye could see. So, Krune was unable to even fathom the population density of the place. There were humans everywhere, in dense numbers. Krune scanned through the building, looking through the houses and rooms within each, picturing the layout in his head as he thought of a way to live. On the first floor of the skyscraper lived an aged couple, older than the rest of the residents. The reason the people in this apartment felt the weakest to Krune was because all of them were old people in their eighties and above. They had lived through life and were now simply relaxing and enjoying a peaceful life. This skyscraper was an old age home with barely any private spaces. As they just wanted a bustling place and hoped to take care of one another, there were barely any rooms. The only place that he could call a room was the bathrooms. Thankfully, there seemed to be a library on the first floor. It was a common library frequented by everyone from the old age home. Then again, there were a couple of houses on the first floor. The remaining space was entirely allocated to the library. The reason he had chosen the library was that it had an attic, a rather big one at that. It was where numerous old books were stored as their newer versions were placed on the bookshelves below. The Cloud Whale entered the attic and vanished. Krune grunted a little, positioning himself at one corner of the attic. This way, even if he made any sounds, it wouldn''t be audible to the people beyond that. The Cloud Whale then exited the attic, moving towards one section on the second floor where extra berths had been placed. It swallowed one and returned to the attic, laying it down in the corner. Similarly, it traveled through the old age home, bringing in necessities one after another. Krune created a comfortable shelter for himself in the attic, finally relaxing a little, noticing that he had expended the energy from the fourth Blood Essence Crystal. While he was reeling from its side effects, the Cloud Whale headed into the kitchen and stole food for him. While healing himself using the half crimson ring remaining in his Ocean Heart, Krune ate the food, barely managing to do so. The Cloud Whale had to feed him bits and pieces, using its needle like a fork. Once he finished eating, he thought, looking at his appearance, ''My limbs are pretty much busted now. I only have one Blood Essence Crystal. In my Ocean Heart, there''s only half a crimson ring''s worth of energy. It''s not enough to make a full recovery.'' He then sighed after that. ''I have time. Let''s take it slow. If I leave some energy to condense the Cloud Whale and expend the rest, I''ll be able to make a half recovery. If I focus, I''ll first heal my hands. That would make things slightly more convenient for me. My legs are even worse off, so I''ll have to heal them slowly.'' "I guess from now on, it''s a slow life for me. No way in hell am I ever going to leak any hints of my survival," Krune muttered. "Thankfully, it''s an open kitchen here. Plus, food is always cooked for everyone. So, it''s in bulk. They won''t notice if I steal some food." "Though, I would probably eat equivalent to three or four times of such old people. So, it would be suspicious," Krune muttered, then smirking, "Right, I''ll just steal bits and pieces of food from all the houses in this neighborhood. That way, no one would actually notice any food going missing." He then thought of another thing, "Right, when everyone''s sleeping in the night, I can use the bathrooms, take a bath whenever I feel like, and live comfortably. Plus, this library has a ton of information that I can access and learn more about this world." Smiling, he shook his head. "To think I would plan like this. Anyway, the invisibility cloak using the Cloud Whale is impeccable. Even that Red Demon was unable to see me when I was sitting in my cell." Krune then continued to eat his fill and heal himself using all the energy he obtained. He was more than 250 kilometers away from the place where he had caused the chaos, hiding in an old age home''s inconspicuous attic. ¡­ In the miasma-filled region of the city, underneath the rubble formed by a collapsed sky scrapper, there was a certain gemstone. It was yellow in color. Demon Core! It was the essence of a demon, something that could be used by it to resurrect as long as there was enough miasma around. Suddenly, the miasma swirled around the yellow Demon Core as it began to sprout flesh, growing out a head, followed by the limbs. Within a couple of minutes, an entire demon had formed. It was a Yellow Demon. But, it waved its hands, absorbing some of the miasma as its body began to turn red. It was actually the Red Demon that Krune had saved. It looked at its hand that began to grow scales, suddenly create a long tongue, form a row of jagged teeth, and so on before everything retreated into the hand. After staring at its hand for some time, the Red Demon wondered, ''Just what has been fed to me? I can feel that there are multiple powers within me. Rather, there are 70 of them in total, exactly the number of those crimson gems I ate.'' ''What was that? And, just who was it that had helped me?'' It frowned in thought. ''Whoever this being is, it''s strong and mysterious. And now, it has bestowed upon me tremendous power.'' It clenched its hand into a fist as it continued to think, ''At present, these 70 powers feel like a messy array of sorts. Once I club them all into a single power, I''ll surpass my current limit and become a legendary Black Demon. No, even they don''t have such powers. I''ll surpass all the Black Demons and become the strongest of them all.'' It quickly controlled itself, looking around before thinking of something, ''I have to first hide somewhere and collate my gains. Until then, I must ensure no human would ever be able to find me.'' It then awkwardly used its newfound powers to dig through the ground and filled it up while it retreated deep into it, hiding as it continued to evolve. Having devoured 70 passive abilities, it was unknown as to how it would evolve. Chapter 997: The World of Layer 2 "So, that''s how it is." Krune nodded in understanding as he closed a book, letting out a sigh soon after. "To think this was actually a pretty dangerous place that''s survived over a thin sheet of ice all along." It had been three months since he began to live in the attic of the old age home. He had been pretty careful all this time, managing to finish making a complete recovery in the meantime. He also read through the books continuously, making use of his Neon Radiance to light up the attic while he read. There were numerous books to be read in the library. As such, he had obtained a sizeable amount of information from that. After all, it seemed that all the books the old people had collected during their lives had been stored here. So, he obtained a sizeable amount of information regarding Layer 1. All the information he had read through over the past three months could be summarized into the following excerpts. The city he was in was called Demon Wall 22. It was one of the 24 cities where humanity lived and survived. In fact, all 24 cities survived on a belt called the Abyssal Trench. It was a trench with seemingly infinite depth. In this place, flying was prohibited, even if it were done using wings. The width of the Abyssal Trench was 600 kilometers, the exact dimension occupied by the cities. For some reason, it seemed the cities were an exception. After all, all 24 cities floated at the top of the Abyssal Trench, a place where flying was impossible. Krune recalled how his Cloud Whale was instantly pulled towards the battlefield the moment he flew above it. He also remembered the endless dark abyss below the battlefield. The abyss was the reason the demons were unable to surround the cities and bombard them to death, despite their near-infinite numbers. Thus, the only way to enter a city was a lone path spanning a width of 100 meters. It spanned from the ground beyond the Abyssal Trench, entered a battlefield, then spanned another kilometer in length before reaching the city. That was the only way to enter the city. The same applied to all 24 cities. This was also the only path the demons could take to reach the cities. And that was why the battlefield, oval in shape, spanning a length of 20 kilometers and a width of 15 kilometers, was where the humans and demons clashed constantly. Based on the books, it was unknown how the demons were created. But, based on historical records, they were endless in number. There was never a time when the number of demons on the battlefield was smaller than the number of humans. They constantly streamed towards the cities endlessly like an unending river. It seemed like the goal of the demons was to reach the interior land within the ring formed by the Abyssal Trench. It was a circular piece of land spanning a radius of 3000 kilometers. It was surrounded by the Abyssal Trench like a ring. Surprisingly, this piece of land was actually an ocean, a gravity-defying ocean where the water formed a pillar, reaching the sky. After seeing the picture of the species local to the water pillar, Krune realized that they were the very same octopuses he met in Layer 3. Plus, it seemed that they had formed a certain deal with humans. They were the actual goal of the demons. It was unknown as to what the goal was. Humans were just the shield, the guards of the octopuses. They also maintained trade relations, supplying the cities with food and water while the humans traded them with Demon Cores that they harvested from the demons. And it seemed that these Demon Cores played the primary aspect of Layer 2. The way the power structure of Layer 2 was established was through the weight class. Whether it was a human or a demon, both were humanoid creatures possessing similar-sized physiques. Fortunately, this factor seemed constant to Layer 2. There weren''t any giant organisms that existed anywhere in Layer 2. Even the octopuses had a humanoid form that they used when transacting with humans. And their physiques were the same size as well. So, their weight class played much importance. When he first read it, Krune had been incredibly excited, knowing the actual prospect of the Sub-Realm and what they had been emphasizing from the start. Body cultivation! Everything was about improving the physique. That was the theme of the Sub-Realm. Krune realized that every layer was setting up one aspect of body cultivation, creating the basic layout to establish it whole. As it was an entirely new field, it had to be introduced one after another through numerous layers of restrictions placed on the cultivators that had been brought into the Sub-Realm. Krune realized that the God(s) that had created the Sub-Realm had been pretty ambitious. The weight class was pretty much the same between humans and demons. The only difference was the names. Among the Demons, those below 150 kilograms were simply called a Demon Child. A Demon Child was called as such because it didn''t possess a Demon Core. They rarely appeared on the battlefield. Plus, they were easily noticeable due to their pristine white skin, including their white horns. Ranging between 150-200 kilograms was a Demon Soldier, violet in color and possessing a violet Demon Core. They were typically called a Tier 1 Demon Core in the city and formed the core currency circulating around. Considering the number of Demon Soldiers that appeared on the battlefield every day, Tier 1 Demon Cores hardly had much value. It was to the extent that even regular food cost a couple of Tier 1 Demon Cores. Following that was the Demon Lord, a demon weighing between 200-500 kilograms. They were blue in color, and their blue Demon Core was called a Tier 2 Demon Core in the city. They were rather precious. The next class after that was called a Demon King, ranging between 500 to 900 kilograms. It was green in color, and its green Demon Core was called a Tier 3 Demon Core in the city. Moreover, killing a Demon King awarded one Godly Point. At this point, Krune was flustered. It was because the value of Godly Points had further spiked as compared to Layer 3. Layer 4 was the most rewarding as Krune was able to farm almost two Godly Points per day once he understood the situation. Layer 3 was relatively difficult as it was hard to even get 15 Godly Points per year there. If he wished to obtain more, he had to challenge Secondary Landmasses alone. The ticket to it cost 15 Godly Points, and it was only possible to obtain a total of 45 Godly Points from there. That too had to be done in a year before the duration of the ticket expired. It was really difficult to obtain Godly Points in Layer 3 as compared to Layer 4. And now, he might very well say that it was simply impossible for the average person to ever obtain a Godly Point. It was simply because even a Demon Soldier was as strong as an Emperor Monster from Layer 3. It was the very first enemy he had faced against once he arrived at Layer 2. Adding on the healing effect from the miasma, a Demon Soldier was able to kill three Emperor Monsters with ease and solo more than 10 Emperor Monsters. And, this was the weakest of the demons that appeared on the battlefield. Not only that, but the average human in Layer 2 was at this level. Simply comparing himself based on the weight class, Krune was equivalent to a Demon Child. After all, even after growing in height once he obtained Ocean Heart, he was around 100 kilograms in weight. With that, he was below average in that regard. While maintaining the same physique, speed, and agility, when one''s body weight increased, that meant their body had more density. And that meant their attacks were more powerful than giant creatures with their weight. That was because more of their power was concentrated in their tiny bodies. That was the secret to Layer 2. In the same physique, cram as much weight as possible to cause even regular punches to become deadly. A Demon Soldier was only Tier 1, while a Demon King was Tier 3. So, it was already something only an elite was able to kill. Even then, killing it only rewarded one Godly Point. Beyond a Demon King was a Demon Emperor, a Tier 4 Demon that was yellow in color. They were the ones the Red Demon had freed in prison the moment it was able to move around. A Demon Emperor weighed between 900-1400 kilograms. They were tremendously fast and packed an insane amount of power. Based on the strength he witnessed from them on the battlefield while they hacked his Cloud Whale, and based on what he experienced in the God Realm, Krune was able to determine that if it were in the God Realm, a Demon Emperor was capable of soloing a Nascent God easily. That was how strong a Yellow Demon was. And above this stood the Red Demon, a Tier 5 Demon that was called a Supreme Demon. It weighed between 1400-2000 kilograms and was the strongest that could be found on the battlefield. Krune recalled the Red Demon that jumped on his Cloud Whale, brimming with hatred upon thinking of its mocking look as it toyed around with him. The worst of all was the fact that all Demons were sentient, possessing intelligence on par with humans. Thus, they were also capable of schemes and tactics. Surprisingly, Red Demons were strangely cunning to the point that facing one would be the worst. Last but not least, standing at the peak of Layer 2 was a Demon God, a Tier 6 Demon that weighed between 2000-3000 kilograms. It seemed that the level of a Demon God was the limit possible at Layer 2. In any case, Demon Gods were tremendously overpowered to the point they haven''t been killed from recorded history. Based on the recounts, no human had ever been able to reach the level of a Demon God, or in other words, the Tier 6 status. Chapter 998: Weight Class Once he read through them all, Krune realized that even the Supreme Monsters from Layer 3 would only be as strong as a Demon Lord in Layer 2. A Demon Lord was just a Tier 2 Demon, almost at the bottom of the chain. As for the awarded Godly Points, a Demon King awarded 1 Godly Point, a Demon Emperor awarded 5 Godly Points, a Supreme Demon awarded 10 Godly Points, and a Demon God awarded 100 Godly Points. Based on what they had witnessed and recorded, there were three Demon Gods in total. Each had enough power to create a calamity, enough to destroy an entire city on its own. The only reason a Demon God never attacked a city directly was unknown. If they hadn''t been witnessed a couple of times on the battlefields silently lurking around in a corner, they would have been treated as pure myth. Krune then read through a book that talked about the items one could buy using Godly Points. There were five items in total. And when he read through the list, he was left confused since it was written that the fifth item was unknown. It always appeared as blank on every tablet. There was a place called the Central City Altar. It wasn''t within the city but was actually situated somewhere in the water column. The water column was simply addressed as the Water Column. It seemed that, for some reason, a name hadn''t been given to it. Krune wasn''t bothered about that fact. He was rather interested in the items. [Dome of Protection (1-kilometer radius: 10 Godly Points) (100-kilometer radius: 1000 GP) (300-kilometer radius: 10000 Godly Points)] ''Why don''t you rip me off even further while you''re at it?'' Krune mentally cursed at that price tag. After all, a Dome of Protection only filtered out the miasma. It didn''t do anything beyond that. Not only that, but suppose a demon was within the Dome of Protection. Even with the dome''s effects, it was still able to produce miasma within, turning the filter useless. It was only because it was used by the cities situated above the Abyssal Trench that they were useful. Otherwise, they were simply useless. After all, even after being bought, they had to be powered up by Demon Cores constantly based on the filtering expenditure. In short, they were an endless money pit. [Water Essence: 1 Godly Point] ''Another rip-off!'' Krune clenched his fist as even though the cost of the Water Essence was the same as Layer 3, the value of a Godly Point here was way higher. For something like Water Essence, it was simply too expensive. However, as he read about how there were no ways to heal people with severe wounds without it, he eventually understood, even if he didn''t wish to accept the price. Humans didn''t seem to have any ability to heal wounds on Layer 2. They only had to heal their wounds naturally, which was no different to a mortal human. So, if someone had severed limbs, unless they consumed Water Essence, they would have to live with a disability for life. Moreover, Krune understood that the Water Essence sold here was no different from that on Layer 3. In any case, it was only able to regenerate limbs for Tier 1 humans. The higher the Tier, the lower the healing effect. Since it had to regenerate their dense bodies, the healing effect was used up rather quickly. To regenerate the limbs for someone at Tier 5, Krune was unable to come up with an estimate for the number of Water Essences that might be required. It made him gaze at his hand, watching the blue beam of light it emitted. It was the healing effect from his Ocean Heart. [Essence Generator: 10 Godly Points] Krune focused on this, finally feeling that it was worth its price. This Essence Generator was the most important tool that formed the core of Layer 2. Its function was to absorb a Demon Core and create an Essence that could be consumed. This Essence worked in upgrading the physique. The greater the Tier of the Demon Core, the more potent the produced Essence turned out to be. Due to the cost of Godly Points involved, only prominent warrior families possessed an Essence Generator. The general populace had to use the Essence Generator of the city, albeit paying a cost for each use. [Godly Summon: 100 GP] ''Another rip-off.'' Krune snorted, for the Godly Summon condensed the projection of a God supposedly on the summoner. According to what it said, it retained some power that could be used by the summoner to do anything. Krune immediately figured out that the so-called God was basically the projection of a First Stage Godly Fusion Realm cultivator. He realized that to a mortal, a Godly Fusion Realm cultivator was no different from a God. Only at the God Realm was a Godly Fusion Realm cultivator an absolute weakling. It seemed that the Godly Summon brought in a small amount of power from a Godly Fusion Realm cultivator. Then again, the powers mostly involved were shooting out fireballs and stuff. In actuality, Godly Energy wasn''t actually used. It seemed that the Godly Summon relied on a sacrifice to function. Basically, by absorbing the energy in the bodies of humans used as a sacrifice, the Godly Summon would use it to unleash a myriad of abilities cultivators possessed. To the humans that only possessed a strong body, this was a feat of the gods. ''Maybe that''s why they were freaked out by me? No, if they simply thought of me using a Godly Summon, their tone shouldn''t have been violent towards me at all.'' Krune could not help but snort after that. "Well, I''m inclined to proceed with my first impression. No way in hell am I ever helping the people of this city." As the fifth wasn''t known to the people, Krune realized that among the remaining four items, only one had any actual worth. He then sighed, double-tapping his glabella, seeing that there was no reaction. "Unfortunately for me, that Raka took my tablet with her. Unless I get that, I won''t be able to use my Godly Points." He sighed, thinking, ''I have to get stronger first before hoping to get back my tablet. She also has my Monster Gecko skin armor. It''s too precious to leave in her hands.'' Chapter 999: Krune Is Neither Human Nor Demon As he remembered the various ways Raka had tortured him, Krune''s expression turned cold. For a moment, all the people living in the old age home experienced a sudden chill, as if they had returned to the battlefield once again. The chill disappeared in less than an instant as they wondered if they were going senile. As for Krune, he quickly controlled his emotions, returning to normal. Even though it seemed like he hadn''t changed much from before, only did now Krune realize that he was almost like a different individual. He understood that he was capable of vicious things now that his prior self couldn''t have even thought about. He still tried to stick to his old ways, but once his switch was flipped, he was even worse than the devil. Krune then focused on the details about the Essence Generator, immediately sweating once he understood the details, realizing why humans failed to produce any Tier 6 beings. After all, a human could only use the Essence generated from a Demon Core of their tier and above. Essence generated from lower-tier Demon Cores won''t be effective. So, it was impossible to grow stronger by relying on the Demon Cores of weaker demons. The following was the weight an Essence gave to a human when consumed. [Tier 1 Essence: 1 kilogram] [Tier 2 Essence: 3 kilograms] [Tier 3 Essence: 10 kilograms] [Tier 4 Essence: 30 kilograms] [Tier 5 Essence: 100 kilograms] Krune saw that there wasn''t anything mentioned about a Tier 6 Essence. "I mean, if no one has ever killed a Demon God, it makes sense that they don''t have information about how much weight it could add to the consumer." "Still..." He frowned after that. "Just how much should one kill before they''re able to reach Tier 5? Thankfully, there''s an endless number of demons here. So, it won''t be an issue for me as long as I get my hands on an Essence Generator. There''s a good chance my face would be plastered across everywhere, so I can''t appear anywhere in public." It was because there were electronics in the place. The development seemed like they had just used the electronics from the God Realm. There were TV, radios, and so on. As for transport, as the city was crowded due to the sheer number of people, only skates were allowed to be used as a means of transport. There also seemed to be buses that used an underground route to travel from one place to another within the city. After all, spanning a radius of 300 kilometers and filled to the brim with skyscrapers, it was one massive dwelling of humans. As for the means to fight, it seemed that a human was slightly stronger than a demon from the same tier. It was because humans wielded weapons called Demon Arms that were made from the bones and hearts of demons. It seemed like Demon Arms gave a slight boost in power to the humans by drinking their blood. This allowed humans to defeat the demons in their fights and accumulate more Demon Cores. That was the prime reason the city hadn''t fallen to the endless horde of demons yet. The Demon Arms were also divided into Tiers based on their raw materials. Of course, the higher the tier, the greater the power boost it provided. "Now, I have to begin searching for ways to get stronger," Krune said once he completed his mini reading session, clenching his arms while feeling up his legs to see that he was completely cured. As for his Ocean Heart, there was just half a crimson ring filled with energy. He was still a long way off from filling it full of energy. ¡­ Once the problem with the miasma had been dealt with, all the important figures of Demon Wall 22 were converged in a meeting. All of them were Tier 5 humans, the powerhouses that served as their city''s pillars. Among them, Raka stood up as she explained everything she had discovered. "The suspect''s name is Krune. His race is unknown, but appearance-wise, he seems human. Nevertheless, his blood is capable of freezing anything once it leaves his body. Even demons don''t have such power. There''s a good chance he''s a cross-breed of a human and a demon." "Other than that¡­." Raka hesitated for a moment before speaking, "I have found out the details of the fifth item in his Tablet." She paused, noticing the eyes of everyone fall on her, intent on whatever she did. For a moment, their rapt attention triggered her inner demon, wishing to play with the feelings as she had done with the numerous Demons she had imprisoned. But upon realizing that the people before her were humans, and some of them happened to be her superiors, she barely reined in her thoughts, saying, "I don''t know what it actually means. But, the fifth item is a Ticket to Layer 1. And, the cost seems to be 1000 Godly Points. I have no idea what this Layer 1 means." As Raka said that, she noticed the expressions of the City Lord and a couple others fluctuate. But, it was only for a fraction of a second before their expressions turned normal. The change caught her eyes, making her wonder the reason. But upon seeing that they hadn''t said anything else, she couldn''t probe them any further. But she didn''t wish to leave it as is. After all, Krune had gone missing. For the first time, she discovered a new species that might prove to be a threat to them, having witnessed the power Krune erupted with despite being only as heavy as a Demon Child. So, she was alarmed, wishing to figure out his secrets. Unfortunately for her, when she had brought his Tablet and his armor to show to the City Lord and the other authorities, a prison break had occurred. And, all the demons had escaped. She didn''t know if Krune had escaped or had been eaten alive. But since the prison got burnt down, she lost the remaining pieces of evidence and items Krune had brought with him. As there were many odd points, she said with assurance, "Krune is neither human nor a Demon. There''s a good possibility that''s he''s part of a new race." Chapter 1000: Young Man… "How can that be possible?" The city lord frowned. "You know from our ancient records that only three races are possible in our world: The humans, the demons, and the octopuses. So, how could this guy be the fourth?" "I''m unsure of it myself, but there''s a good chance the demons created something new. I heard some of the cities suffered drastic losses. Perhaps, that might have resulted in this change," Raka replied. "If only I had more time to experiment on him. I could have figured out a lot more details." "But even then..." She shuddered once as she presented Krune''s tablet. "3372 Godly Points, no matter what, this sum is tremendous. There''s also a bunch of other data that makes no sense here." She then flashed Krune''s Monster Gecko armor as she continued, "And this¡­thing strikes fear in me for some reason. He''s definitely not an ordinary person." "Unfortunately, there''s a good chance he''s dead," the city lord replied. "We have been searching throughout the city. If he''s alive and managed to escape, we''ll find him sooner or later." ¡­ Having used the final Blood Essence Crystal, Krune recovered one more crimson ring''s worth of energy in his Ocean Heart. As the Blood Essence Crystal was made using the flesh and blood of a Motor Fish King, the amount of energy in it was even greater. With that, he almost filled two crimson ring''s worth of energy now. After that, Krune continued to steal food daily while eating to his limit. Thanks to the Cloud Whale, he didn''t have to worry about anything. Moreover, he also began to take note of the activities of the people in his neighborhood in a diary he maintained. This way, he determined the routine the people among numerous households followed. This way, once he figured out that a family would leave for the day, he sneaked into their house, remaining in hiding until they left the house. After that, he comfortably rested in their living rooms, watching TV, playing a couple of video games when necessary, listening to the news, and so on. This way, he was getting accustomed to the state of things in the city, enriching his common sense of the place. Unlike before, he was a wanted fugitive now. So, he couldn''t just hope to be filled in on all the details from the people he encountered. Even though his face hadn''t been published in any news article till now, Krune didn''t become careless just because of that. Until now, he never revealed any traces of his existence yet. Yet, a single slipup was all it took for the entire city to come blazing down on his heels to capture him. Even after realizing that the city had a significant level of technology, he only moved out of the attic once he understood everything about them. After all, he didn''t wish for him to be recorded in the devices of any houses while he enjoyed his stay there. And when he enjoyed his stay, he didn''t just laze around their houses. He looked through their items, books, and other items, figuring out anything and everything they owned. His goal was to find a family rich and powerful enough to have an Essence Generator. That way, he could start his plans. Krune didn''t rush, though. He planned to take it slow until his Ocean Heart was filled with energy. And based on the food he ate, it seemed like it would take considerable time. After all, even though it was highly nutritious, it was lacking as compared to what he usually ate. After all, the meat he consumed was from creatures that grew while eating the bone tree fruits daily. So, they were packed to the limit of bursting with energy. He was able to replenish his energy reserves incredibly quickly through them. ''I need to buy a large enough house here one of these days,'' Krune thought, already beginning to prepare for that eventuality. Using the Cloud Whale, he broke into the houses one after another, stealing just one Tier 1 Demon Core from every house. It was an amount of money no one would realize was missing. After all, even a simple meal cost a couple of Tier 1 Demon Cores. Plus, he only picked households with a lot of people. To them, the loss of a Tier 1 Demon Core wouldn''t even be noticeable. He picked his targets selectively to ensure that none of them would raise any claims of suspicious things disappearing from their households. But in the end, Krune took note of everything he stole from the people, intending to repay them in the future. He knew that he couldn''t behave like a psychopath and treat everyone from the city the same way just because he met a couple of horrible people. Based on what he had probed around for the past few months, most of the people were the same as everyone else, just humans that tried their best to survive in a dangerous environment. With that, he didn''t trouble them, entering and leaving their houses like a specter. As he repeatedly used the optical invisibility cloak with the Cloud Whale, he was becoming more and more proficient with it. Currently, the time he needed to spend to create it was less than a second. A month later, Krune arrived at a house that had a private training area. The moment he stepped foot in the place, he realized that the training room had been layered with the tough bones of a rather strong demon, making it sturdy. He closed his eyes, pausing as he took in a deep breath, activating the healing effect of his Ocean Heart. With that, he focused on the development effect in it, immediately beginning to train accordingly. He moved to his limit, jumping around for hours at a stretch. Finally, when he noticed that the people from the household would return after a couple more hours, he stopped, sighing as he muttered, "The development effect is too weak. I''ve already hit the limit of my physique''s growth." "I guess I can no longer train on my own to grow stronger. At least, unless I break past my current limit first." He muttered, clenching his hand into a fist. "Once I make the development effect of the Ocean Heart absorb the traits of the Essence, I''ll be able to develop my weight naturally. That should be the best course of action." "Now then." He frowned, thinking deeply. "How am I supposed to legally find a way to procure everything? I don''t even have an identity." Chapter 1001: Plotting for a Convenient Cliché Krune sighed after that, returning to his attic to rest. For three more months, all he did was rest, eat, and gather information, trying his best to completely understand everything there was to know in the city. Eventually, once all five crimson rings of his Ocean Heart were filled with energy, he exited the attic, swirling through the old age home before exiting it, grabbing a bite to eat along the way. ''I feel like a villain for thinking of such a scenario.'' Krune sighed as the Cloud Whale moved around. He used his Sonic Radar to scout through the surroundings, trying to find the perfect household he wished to make use of to establish an official standing in the place. He had quite a number of criteria to be satisfied for the perfect household he sought. First, the family had to have once been powerful but were now waning due to either losing the pillars of their family or were just dying out naturally. Second, they must have a long history so that the depth of their roots could be abused for benefits. Third, they must currently be in a plight that might cause them their death while the destruction of their family would follow suit. Fourth, the problem they faced should be something Krune could solve easily. Also, this should revolve around his passive and active abilities so that he could share some truth about himself with them. Fifth, the surviving members of the family should be those reputed to be loyal in the brightest and darkest of times. Sixth, they must be wealthy and significantly affluent despite them waning. They should also have strong connections. Seventh, they must definitely possess an Essence Generator so that Krune could abuse its use. Eighth, they must also possess a forge capable of producing their own Demon Arms. Ninth, they must own a lot of lands, both public and private. The private land was a must if he wished to create a bone tree farm for his needs in the future. And finally, tenth, they must be those that needed to depend on Krune to make a comeback despite him solving their immediate problems. These were all the conditions that he sought for in the perfect family that he could reside within freely and not in hiding while using them to grow stronger. Also, he couldn''t simply judge them. He had to take his time to investigate them first and find out just how they were like and just how they would respond to someone different like him. Overall, Krune had to figure out numerous complex things quickly so that he could begin his plans as soon as possible. That''s why he used his Sonic Radar to the limit in his search. After flying through the city for almost two days in search of the perfect household, Krune finally found it, sensing everything that happened within through his Sonic Radar. He then moved closer, staying invisible while listening to everything that happened before him. At the start, he sported a frown, wondering whether they were the right choice or not. But, as he stared at their actions for longer and heard their continuous conversation, Krune steadily smiled, feeling that his gamble might pay off this time. If he failed the gamble, the city would be alerted of his survival. That would put every superhuman out there on his tail. But if he succeeded in his gamble, he would have found a way to grow stronger at a speed faster than what he had done on Layer 3. ¡­ "Grandpa, please don''t give up. I''ll definitely treat you for sure." A lady aged around twenty years old bawled out like a little girl as she lay beside a bed, screaming with her hoarse voice that had been damaged from prolonged strain. Lying on the bed was an old man in his eighties. His body was fit, oozing out tremendous power. Unfortunately, it was apparent that he was like a broken tank, about to become empty soon enough. It was all due to his injuries. He only had his right leg now, having lost the remaining three limbs in the war. Plus, he had also suffered grievous blows to his internal organs. Their level of medical technology was unable to patch him up to prolong his life. He was just on the final vestiges of his life. "They wish to see my death, child." Wheezing in pain, his eyes were blurry, lacking focus as he weakly muttered, "I''ve contributed a lot to this city. When people were injured, I used my Godly Points to buy them Water Essences every single time. You could very well say that I was the reason they survived and managed to step into a battlefield again. Yet¡­" He coughed once, spitting out blood. As his granddaughter looked at him in worry, he wheezed. "Those scum, not only did they betray me, but they also caused the death of my son and daughter-in-law. To think I worked hard to save them, protect them, and even heal their injuries. Now, not only did they not help in return, but they even caused the death of my family." At this point, he was furious. But soon after, his face reddened as he seemed to have overexerted himself, noticing blood flow out of his nose. He then looked at his granddaughter and told her, "Flita, our family might have dwindled, but as long as you follow my teachings, you''ll one day become strong. Don''t think about avenging me until you reach Tier 4. Too many families wish to see our downfall." "But¡­grandpa¡­" Flita shed tears, trembling in sadness as she spoke, "I don''t want to lose you. You''re my only family now. What will I do once you''re gone?" Her grandpa sighed after that. "If only I wasn''t injured. I could have protected you until you matured. Your grandpa is weak, Flita. Just abandon me and survive. As long as you survive, I can rest in peace." "Grandpa!" Flita shouted in anger. "If you talk rubbish, I''ll just follow you to death!" Her grandpa was just about to persuade her otherwise when his eyes looked at the figure that was standing near the wall, "I¡­guess the grim reaper is already here. Sorry, Flita. It seems my time is up." "Young man, I''m not a grim reaper, nor are you going to die today," Krune leaned on the wall, smiling as he replied. Chapter 1002: Wrister Ralk "W-who are you? How did you get here?" Flita was alarmed as she hurriedly pulled out her blade, pointing it at Krune. Before she could lash out at him, her grandfather spoke, chuckling a little. "I guess I really am becoming old. Even a young lad like you is calling this pile of bones a young man." "Well, I''ll leave it to you to judge my age." Krune shrugged his shoulders, saying, "Though, I came here to make a deal. Are you interested?" "Huuuuh? Who the hell are you? Haven''t you people robbed us enough already?" Flita screamed in anger as she pointed her blade at Krune, intending to attack him when she stopped all of a sudden, looking at the tiny fish-like creature that appeared beside Krune. It only spanned the length of her palm and peacefully swam around him, looking serene. The moment she glanced at it, her mind calmed down automatically, causing her to feel at peace. She was surprised as she was able to think calmly right now. "Sir, who are you?" The old man sighed in defeat after seeing the Cloud Whale. "I don''t know if this pile of bones has anything to offer." "Well¡­" Krune smiled as he calmly arrived beside the old man, placing a hand above his heart, telling him, "I''ll show you my sincerity. We can talk after that." The old man nodded, making eye contact with Flita to stop her from acting up. He then gazed at Krune, speaking hoarsely, "Please¡­" "Alright." Krune nodded. Dreams of the Heart¡ªOcean Turbulence! Krune fused the healing effect of his Ocean Heart into the Neon Radiance, emitting a blue beam from his hand. Normally, he could simply mix the healing effect from his Ocean Heart into his blood and use it to activate Neon Radiance. With it, the healing effect would appear. But after obtaining Ocean Turbulence, Krune no longer used the passive approach like before. Prior to this, he only used them one after another, making use of their properties. But now, using Ocean Turbulence, he fused the healing effect of the Ocean Heart into Neon Radiance directly. Now, its potency was at its limit, just as if he used it on himself. It was far more useful compared to how he did it before. Flita stared in shock as she noticed the blue beam Krune emitted, seemingly at a loss for words. She hadn''t ever seen any abilities. After all, humans in Layer 2 didn''t possess any abilities like this in Layer 3. They only had their tough bodies to rely upon. As for the old man, he sighed, muttering, "To think I would live to see such a spectacle." As he spoke, his vision cleared up a little as he could feel some strength return to him. He could feel faint squirming in his body as the pain subsided little by little. However, after some time had passed, Krune looked at Flita and said, "Bring me a chair." Flita hurriedly got up and offered him her seat. Now that she noticed the injuries on her grandfather had reduced in intensity a little, she realized that he was the real deal, someone sent by the heavens to save her grandfather. Thus, she didn''t display even the slightest of animosity towards him, hurriedly dusting her seat as she offered it to him. Krune didn''t say anything, taking a seat as he yawned. He placed his hand on the old man''s chest, positioning it over his heart, telling Flita, "Make sure my hand doesn''t move from this position." After saying so, he fell asleep. Having been looking around for two days nonstop and spending some more time investigating the household to see if they were safe to act within, Krune was truly exhausted. Keeping the healing effect active, he closed his eyes, sleeping immediately. "¡­" Flita''s eyes twitched in response to his action, for some reason feeling like she should smack him on his head. ''What am I thinking towards my benefactor?'' She shook her head, mentally berating herself. She looked at her grandfather''s condition constantly improving as time passed. When it was evening, Krune woke up, realizing that he had spent almost four crimson rings to heal the old man. And despite that, his injuries were still severe. It showed that he was one tough guy, so the healing effect required to completely heal him was that high. Though, rather than being angry, Krune was rather happy at this fact. It meant that he would obtain a powerful backer that was indebted to him. Once the healing effect stopped, Flita was alarmed, for her grandfather hadn''t healed completely. She then noticed that Krune seemed exhausted, sighing as she thought that he was just tired. Looking at the old man, Krune spoke, "I believe I''ve shown enough sincerity." "Sir, please tell me what you seek. I''m not someone that withholds repaying a favor," the old man said as he tried to get up. "Are you mad? Don''t make all my healing go to waste. Just rest, damn it." Krune hurriedly pressed down on the old man, worried his movement would rupture his internal organs further. Based on what Krune had probed using his Sonic Radar, it was a miracle the old man hadn''t died yet. He didn''t wish to lose a potential backer from a moment of hastiness. "Hahaha." The old man laughed in response. "Even though my wounds are still painful, I feel a lot better already." Even without his hands, he easily tightened the muscles around his back and hip to get up, smiling as he looked at Krune. Sighing, Krune asked, "How much do you know about this world?" Even though Krune used the term ''world'' and not ''layer,'' the old man was able to understand the hidden meaning behind his choice of words, responding, "My family''s ancestor was part of the first generation. So, we know the truth of this world." "Truth? What truth?" Flita was flustered when the context of the situation instantly went way over her head. Krune ignored her as he looked at the old man and said, "Then, it''ll be simple enough. I''m from below. I was supposed to be summoned here as a hero or something. But due to my carelessness, I arrived beyond the city. And when I reached here, they thought I was some kind of monster and locked me up in prison." Chapter 1003: Demon Child Weight Class "Eventually, I escaped and hid." Krune smiled as he continued, "Your end of the deal would be to get me a legal identity and give me a stay here. Simple, right?" "A hero¡­from below¡­" the old man muttered as he sighed. "I can understand why that might have happened." He looked at Krune before continuing, "Other than the City Lord, there are very few families that still maintain clear records of what happened during the first generation. My family is one of them. Only we would have been able to understand your situation. As for the rest, anything that arrived from outside is treated as a demon." "That makes sense now." Krune nodded, looking at the old man, intending for the other party to give his word. "It''ll be done once I get back on my feet." The old man said before introducing himself, "I''m Wrister Ralk, current head of the Ralk family." He then pointed at his granddaughter, continuing, "This is Flita Ralk, future head of the Ralk family." "I''m Krune." Krune smiled in response. "But for safety''s sake, use the name Pestlor when you address me." "We''ll do that, Sir Pestlor." Flita nodded immediately, performing a formal bow. "Arrange an accommodation for Sir Pestlor," Wrister ordered soon after as Flita exited the room to make the arrangements immediately. Now that only the two of them were left in the room, Krune frowned as he asked, "You seem pretty strong. Why are there only the two of you in such a large mansion?" By mansion, he meant the thirty-story skyscraper the family lived within. At present, it was devoid of any people. Having such a massive structure empty was indeed off-putting. Thus, Krune decided to ask about it first. "Without me, there''s no one to stop my enemies from gobbling up my estates. They either bribed the greedy employees or threatened the loyal ones from coming here. They wanted me to perish as soon as possible," Wrister said in anger. "Once you''re fully healed..." Krune smiled as he continued, "Have fun dealing with them." "Hahaha." Wrister laughed aloud after that. "I really am glad to have encountered you." "Don''t mention it." Krune smiled politely. "It''s a simple trade. I''ll completely heal you while you''ll help me settle in this place and grow stronger." "How long will it take you to completely heal me?" Wrister asked. "Hmm, judging based on the amount of time I need to replenish my energy and the rate at which you are healing, I must say¡­about a year or two?" Krune gave an estimate after a quick calculation. "That would be too late. We wouldn''t be able to stall for that long," Wrister expressed his worry, soon thinking of something as he looked at Krune and asked, "What is your weight class?" "Demon Child," Krune blushed as he said that. "Last time I checked, I was around 100 kilograms." "Hahaha!" Wrister began to roar in laughter immediately as tears streamed out of his eyes. He then looked at Krune and said, "Please don''t misunderstand. I''m not making fun of you." "It''s fine, I can understand," Krune sighed as he replied in embarrassment. "No, I mean..." The old man smiled widely as he explained, "If you can heal me to this extent at Demon Child level, wouldn''t it be faster if you just grow stronger?" Upon seeing Krune''s frown, he asked in a hurry, worrying, "Do your abilities rely on something other than stamina to function?" "No, it''s stamina-based," Krune said, watching Wrister sigh in relief. "Then, it''s doable. Plus, you only need Tier 1 Essence to grow stronger. Those are dirt cheap for someone like me." Wrister smiled. "We haven''t faced any financial losses yet. So, we have more than enough funds to bolster your growth." "That''s good." Krune nodded, watching Flita enter the room right this moment. Wrister looked at her and said, "Bring in 50 Tier 1 Essence, as well as a weighing machine. Let''s check Sir Pestlor''s weight class." "Alright," Flita replied and left the room, soon returning with a tiny rectangular machine and a box full of tiny spheres that looked no different from grapes. Upon seeing them, Krune gulped visibly. Flita placed the weighing machine on the floor, motioning for Krune to stand on it. The moment he stepped on it, she involuntarily burst out laughing, saying, "You''re such a big man, but your weight is puny." "A weight of 102 kilograms¡­" Krune muttered, feeling embarrassed upon hearing Flita''s parlous laughter. Weight was the most stressed aspect of Layer 2. As it formed the core of their logical concept, they judged people accordingly. This was why, after she saw Krune''s height and figure, she assumed he would be a heavyweight. It was not to mention the healing energy he had exhibited. Subconsciously, she had assumed him to be a powerful figure. And by powerful, she thought he would weigh a lot. But in actuality, Krune was inferior to even a Demon Child. The heaviest Demon Child even reached 150 kilograms. When she saw Krune was inferior in weight to even that, she lost her mind, laughing uncontrollably. Eventually, reality hit her that she was making fun of her savior, quickly shutting up as she apologized to Krune. However, her gaze focused on his focused expression. Looking at his tough and ripped muscles and his large body frame, before involuntarily looking at the number once again, failing to control her laughter any longer. "Even a child has more weight than¡­him, kukuku." Finally, she patted her stomach, feeling some pain after laughing for so long, immediately getting up as she corrected her expression, bowing to Krune. "I''m extremely sorry to have laughed at you." However, when she bowed, the number on the weighing machine was displayed closer. When she saw the ripped nerves on Krune''s legs, the sharp contrast between that and the pitiful weight caused her to kneel and break into laughter even more. "¡­" Krune looked at Wrister, lifting his right hand as he clenched it into a fist, asking, "Can I smack her on the head just once?" "Please go ahead." Wrister sighed, nodding as he added, "Give her another on my behalf." Chapter 1004: Lacking Energy in Their Food Krune looked at the box of grapes, asking, "These are Tier 1 Essences?" "Yes." Wrister nodded as he explained, "Based on what we had determined through centuries of experimentation, we are able to gain a kilogram of weight per day at most. Beyond that, the effect of the Essence simply doesn''t take effect even if we consume a second or third one. As for Tier 2 Essence, its effect lasts for three days, and during this time, we gain a kilogram in weight every day for three days." "I see." Krune nodded before asking, ''Was Gehen applying their effect in the Development Spheres? Now it makes sense as to why he was that ridiculously powerful even in Layer 3. Even though increasing weight shouldn''t be possible like on Layer 2, he must have figured out a method to increase the limit.'' "Do I just need to eat them directly?" Krune asked, popping one into his mouth the moment Wrister nodded. He felt that the taste was indeed similar to a grape, slightly sweet and juicy. However, even after swallowing it, he didn''t feel any change. Wondering about it, he looked at Wrister in confusion. Smiling, Wrister explained, "Your weight doesn''t increase automatically. You would have to eat a lot of food for the day. The energy from that would be absorbed by your body while the nutrients would be better arranged in your body, adding to your weight." ''I see, this is a mortal level effect. So, it works with mortal logic.'' Krune nodded in understanding. Wrister then lied down after that before saying, "Flita would show you around our mansion. Please have a meal and plenty of rest." "Alright." Krune nodded as he said, "Once I refill my energy, I''ll heal you again." He then followed Flita out as they roamed around the massive mansion. Flita enthusiastically showed him around the place, watching him nod in response all along, neither disinterested nor overly enthusiastic. However, upon looking at the training room she showed, his eyes widened as he appreciated it. "This is a wide enough place for me to train within." "The walls have been reinforced with the bones of Demon Emperors. So, even when grandpa trains here, the damage to it is minimal," Flita said with pride. ''So, he''s a Tier 4 expert. Considering the strongest in this city is only at Tier 5, he''s plenty strong,'' Krune thought before asking, "How strong is your grandpa among the Tier 4 experts here?" "Before he lost his limbs, he was well within the top ten," Flita replied, saddened as she clenched her fist in anger. "If they hadn''t lured two Red Demons into our unit, we wouldn''t have suffered such a loss. My parents would have been alive." "How strong were they?" Krune asked, even if it might seem insensitive. Flita didn''t seem to mind, though, speaking as she gritted her teeth, looking like she wished to speak to blow off some steam, "They were also at Tier 4. If they didn''t have to protect me during that battle against the two Red Demons, they would have survived as well. As someone at Tier 3, I only dragged them down." "Is there any limit to a person''s growth?" Krune asked after that. "Usually, it''s because we''re unable to kill a higher-tiered demon after reaching the peak of our respective tier. Other than that, there are no other limitations. As long as we consume higher-tiered Essence after reaching the peak of our tier, we''ll enter that tier," Flita explained. "That makes everything simple, then." Krune smiled, soon arriving at the dining room, causing Flita''s jaw to drop to the floor when he ate enough for five people without trouble. She stared at his stomach, wondering where all the consumed food went. As for Krune, after eating enough, he muttered, slightly dissatisfied, "What type of creatures do you consume here?" "It''s a fish that we procure from the water column. That''s what the trade with the Octopuses grant us," Flita answered. "That''s our only food and water source. We can''t exactly consume demon flesh since their bodies are poison to us. Even the miasma they release can burn our internal organs if we inhale it for too long." "Can we procure live fish?" Krune asked. "Yes, we can. However, they''re incredibly expensive. Plus, growing them is hard since even water isn''t cheap. We have to pay for everything," Flita replied. "Alright, get me some fish that can breed," Krune spoke. "The food we are eating lacks in energy and nutrients. If I rely on it to replenish my energy reserves, it''ll take too long. If what I plan works, I''ll be able to heal your grandfather sooner than expected." "Please give me a day, sir. I''ll bring in a lot of live fishes." Flita responded as she ran out, intending to make the respective preparations. For a moment, Krune was worried if something bad might happen to her while she was on the way out. With that in mind, he summoned his Cloud Whale, intending to send it after her when he realized that she had disappeared. Activating his Sonic Radar, Krune was shocked to see her running at high speeds. The realization finally hit him as he understood, ''Right, she''s a Tier 3 human. She''s pretty strong.'' For the rest of the day, all Krune did was eat and rest. He also brought all his items from the old age home''s attic, returning the items he took from there to their respective original places. Now, there was no evidence of him ever living there for six months. As he saw the energy trickle into his Ocean Heart, Krune frowned as he thought, ''This is too little. At this rate, it might take three to four years to heal Wrister. This food is lacking in nutrition.'' It was true. Back then, Krune ate meat from Mutated Motor Fishes and the like while on Layer 3. Sometimes, he even feasted upon Motor Fish Kings. In comparison, his current meal was only made using normal fish. Plus, the fishes were of the tiny variety, insufficient in the density of energy contained in their flesh compared to what he ate. So, he was pretty disappointed by them. Initially, he thought the Ralk household would have more nutritious food than the one available in the old age home. Thus, he had given the estimate of one to two years to heal Wrister. But upon seeing that the quality of food didn''t improve in the least, he was taken aback. After all, there was just a single variety of food. Not much could be done about that. Chapter 1005: Two Reservoirs The next day, Flita carried in a large water tank that contained around fifty fish. Upon seeing the fishes swimming within, Krune was indeed disappointed, ''They span a length between 5-8 centimeters. They are indeed tiny. No wonder they provide insufficient energy.'' "Is there a spare water reservoir here?" Krune asked. "We have four water reservoirs in total here." Flita smiled, "As there''s just the three of us here now, you can use one or even two water reservoirs for your use." "I''ll need the use of two water reservoirs," Krune said. Flita then directed him to the underground, showing him a water reservoir. It was massive, spanning a length of 30 meters, a breadth of 20 meters, and a depth of 30 meters. Upon seeing his reaction, Flita spoke, "We don''t have a constant supply of water. If the octopuses decide otherwise suddenly, then we would die from thirst." "We also have a sewage treatment plant that would recycle drinking water during such times." She said, "And to prevent the worst-case scenario, most buildings have a large reservoir of water underneath them." "My actions won''t put you in any financial losses, right?" Krune asked, intending to double-check one last time. "This is heavy expense, but," Flita sighed, "If my grandfather isn''t treated, then everything would be snatched by our enemies sooner or later. I don''t have the capabilities to defend everything on my own." "I see," Krune nodded, smiling, "then it should be fine. Please ensure there is no surveillance in these two places. Also, prevent anyone from stepping here." "That is easy," Flita smiled, understanding that Krune didn''t wish to reveal his secrets to them. However, she was fine as long as her grandfather made a full recovery. Once he sent Flita away, Krune took out a bone tree fragment from his stash. It was the size of his thumb, spherical in shape. He inserted it into a small metal plate to act as a float on the water and then placed it on the water. Krune stared at it, watching the bone tree sphere remain the same as it was, unchanging. He waited patiently, finally noticing a tiny protrusion after six hours had passed, lamenting, "I forgot the water here is normal, unlike that on Layer 3. So, of course, their growth would be slow, dammit." He then headed towards the kitchen, noticing Flita loot at him in curiosity. He took a bunch of raw dead fishes stored to be cooked later, put them into a large granite bowl and began to grind them into a paste. "Can I help with anything?" Flita asked, curious as to what he was doing. "Yes, please grind them into a paste, as finely as possible," Krune said, watching Flita repeat the same after observing him for a while. Soon, he had a large bucket full of fish paste. Krune carried it and arrived at the water reservoir where the bone tree sphere had been placed, pouring everything into the water. He then observed, noticing that the bone tree''s growth had sped by many times as it absorbed the essence in the paste to grow. ''It''s working.'' Smiling, Krune continued to do the same, intending to pour as much fish paste into the water reservoir as possible. As for the second water reservoir under his control, he released the fifty fish into it. As they swam through the large space of water, Krune smiled, "You''ll become big and strong soon enough. Just you wait." It took around five days for the bone tree to reach a height of three meters, its normal limit. After that, he broke some branches, planting them across the reservoir until he covered the place entirely. As they began to grow, he poured fish paste into the reservoir continuously. Flita didn''t complain, though, since they had a tremendous reserve of fish to feed everyone that lived and worked in their mansion. And now that everyone had left, all the food was on the verge of wasting away. And, as they didn''t have much resale value, Flita didn''t know what to do with them. Krune conveniently made use of them, so she was glad that they weren''t being wasted. And hence, Krune worked her to the bone, making her grind all the fish into fish paste nonstop. Krune finished planting around fifty bone trees in the first reservoir, smiling as he saw them grow, "Now, this place is packed to the limit with the bone trees. I can''t add any more." A couple more days later, the first bone tree bore fruits. They were a size smaller than what he observed in Layer 3. But, Krune was fine with them, feeling that they were better than the bone trees not bearing fruits at all. He plucked them, used the knife he borrowed from the kitchen and cut them into tiny pieces. The pieces were as tiny as possible without losing their potency; Krune used his skills as a Spiritual Chef to the limit. He then poured the bone tree fruit powder into the second reservoir, watching the fifty fishes gobble it up in a frenzy. To ensure they wouldn''t reject the powder, he had starved them to the limit, only feeding them bits and pieces of food to ensure they wouldn''t die before. Having exploited fishes for two decades while on Layer 3, Krune was an expert at the task. He smiled as the fifty fishes finished the bone tree fruit powder. The next day, he saw that they were brimming with energy. There was no change in their sizes thought. ''It''s just the first day.'' He thought, smiling as he continued with the task, watching the bone trees in the first reservoir bear fruits one after another. In the meantime, Flita brought in another three hundred fishes, grunting as she placed the water tank on the floor, saying as she sighed, "I can''t buy any more than this. It already seems suspicious enough that I''ve been doing this. My liquid finances are also running tight." "Thank you, this would prove a great help for me." Krune smiled, patting her head once as he took the fish with him in batches using a bucket. He transferred them all into the second reservoir, "Now, I have 350 fishes to start with." Chapter 1006: Creating Another Bone Tree Farm After that, Krune took out the book Flita had brought with her. It detailed all the information about the fish that collectors had documented. Quite a few rich households grew these fishes as decoration. With that, everyone had collated their information on online forums dedicated to this. Unsurprisingly, one researcher delved into the topic fully, collating all the information available online before he experimented on his own collection, finally publishing the book. It was the most detailed among all the books relating to the topic. It was what Krune had asked her to bring, wishing to understand everything that was to know about the fish he was dealing with. While the bone trees grew and the fish ate the powdered bone tree fruits, Krune read through the book, eventually finished reading after three days. It was a considerably thick book detailing all the information he required. Once he read through them all, Krune could not help but smile devilishly as he muttered, "So, they grew better when the weather was colder? Consider that done." Not long after, Krune dropped a chunk of ice in the second reservoir. He had condensed it using his Ocean Turbulence. Of course, he also imbued some of the healing effects in it. This was to ensure the fish wouldn''t die due to unfortunate or unforeseen reasons. This way, he planned to create the same situation as the Motor Fishes: cause them to brim with excess energy so that they would mate as many times as they were biologically capable of. This way, he could spur their growth faster, causing them to evolve further and further as the generations passed on. Based on what was written in the book, this fish species laid eggs every five days. And each time, they laid around 20-30 eggs. It was a considerable sum that could quickly grow out of control when not taken care of. It was then that Krune realized part of the reason why the octopuses traded the fishes with the human cities. Enough population of the fishes would be replenished almost daily, so no matter how much the human cities consumed them, their population would never go down. ''They might have some aquatic or coral species for the fishes to feed on and grow. That might form the core of this food chain,'' Krune thought as he continued to work, dicing up the bone tree fruits into powder before dumping them into the second reservoir. He also consumed a Tier 1 Essence every day. And when he checked on the weighing machine, he realized that he was indeed growing in weight by a single kilogram every day. He could also feel his strength increasing, achieving new limits every day. To grow accustomed to his new strength, Krune used the training room, training whenever he didn''t work on his project. Upon seeing his zealous activity of alternating between work and training, Flita was inspired. She then controlled her strength to spar with him, finally realizing something. She was unable to defeat Krune. His defense was impeccable. No matter what she threw at him, he calmly defended against them. Not only that, but at times when she failed to control her strength and leaked out a bit of her true strength, he still parried them, suffering minimal damage from the attacks. This made her realize that her opponent had a wealth of experience to read her like a book. From there, she constantly trained with him, asking him for advice all the time, growing leaps and bounds in skill. She noticed that even though Krune''s weight class was on the level of a Demon Child, he was capable of outputting all the strength his body could muster. If she determined his ratio to be the norm and compared herself to it, she figured that she was only outputting less than forty percent of her body''s potential. When she realized this in numerical terms, Flita was unable to believe herself, muttering in disbelief, "How?" "If you live and fight long enough, this is possible." Krune smiled, guiding her in ways where she could better employ her body''s strength and use her weight to greater advantage. He had lived for more than 230 years now, so his plethora of experience was only rising. Guiding a youngling like Flita was child''s play for him. ''Hmm, teaching others is fun. Should I establish a sect in the God Realm once I leave this place? It seems fun. Once I gather my family, I''ll probably do that. It would be a nice change of pace to settle down in a place and grow together as a family. Plus, I can also teach this body cultivation to everyone,'' Krune thought, smiling as a result. But soon, he began to miss them, hurriedly eradicating the thoughts before he became homesick. He had already struggled through a lot in controlling himself while living with the Seamstress. He lost count of the number of times when the mood between himself and her was perfect to bud romantic feelings and when both of them had almost given in. It took him all his might to extricate himself every single time. If he wasn''t as old or lacked enough experience, Krune would have crossed that boundary long ago. As a human and a mortal at that, he was aware of everything that happened around him. He wasn''t an ignorant wisp in that regard. That was why he faced numerous struggles while staying with the Seamstress. Naturally, he knew very well for a fact that if the Seamstress made a move on him right now, he would give her zero resistance. She had already made her way through her emotional barriers. Similarly, if Krune did the same to the Seamstress, she would give him zero resistance as well. If both of them hadn''t controlled themselves, they might have had a child by now. Thankfully for Krune, he didn''t do anything that might make him live a life of guilt. ''I should be careful when I meet the Seamstress in the God Realm. I can''t do anything that might make Feifei kill me.'' Days passed in such a fashion as Krune''s weight continued to increase. Soon, he crossed 150 kilograms, reaching the status of a Tier 1 human. Chapter 1007: Reaching Peak Tier 1 At Tier 1, Krune felt that he had indeed grown a lot stronger. Not only was his physique the same size as usual, but his external appearance also didn''t change. But internally, it was completely different. His density had definitely increased. His muscles had grown tougher to wield all his weight, making him stronger, faster, and tougher. Even his skin was a lot stronger now. Krune felt happy that he was able to grow once again. Nevertheless, the greatest of this boon was the fact that all his abilities had grown stronger as well. It was like their effect had grown as potent as the density of his body did. Of course, that effect also applied to his Ocean Heart. Krune noticed that even though he was eating the same amount of food, as usual, the increase in brightness of the crimson rings in his Ocean Heart was becoming slower and slower with each passing day. This meant that its capacity was increasing. In turn, the quality of energy stored in them was also increasing. This meant that he would be able to store even more energy in them and use his abilities for longer durations. While using his Sonic Radar, Krune noticed that its range and sensitivity had increased, allowing him to capture things that happened farther away than usual with greater clarity. Naturally, this effect was clearly pronounced while activating Ocean Turbulence. Krune was able to figure out just how much his abilities had grown stronger. And that wasn''t all. The best out of all this was the fact that the development effect of his Ocean Heart was absorbing the effect of the Tier 1 Essence, upgrading itself. Now, even without a Tier 1 Essence, Krune was able to strengthen himself to the limit of Tier 1. Then again, since directly consuming a Tier 1 Essence was faster, he continued to use it while allowing his energy to recover so that he could finish healing Wrister first. Ten days later, Krune gazed at the 12th generation of fishes in the second reservoir, finally noticing that some of the fishes seemed different from the rest. They were violet in color as compared to the usual white. They weren''t that different physique-wise, only spanning a couple of centimeters longer. However, the energy of their flesh was denser, not to mention their weight. They were indeed heavier. Krune was surprised by the development as he thought, ''Based on the color code, they match the demons. Then, would a blue fish appear next?'' Krune was curious as he continued to feed them. As a new generation was birthed after every five days, the number of violet fishes continued to increase in number. Moreover, even the white fishes had more energy in their bodies due to the constant breeding. After all, the feed to the bone trees was their bodies crushed into a paste. And it was that the bone trees concentrated in their fruits. Without surprise, such a variable caused their essence to pile up more and more in the bodies of the fishes as they only consumed the bone tree fruit powder. Thanks to his experience on Layer 3, Krune could instinctively feel that he wouldn''t ever obtain any passive ability from these fishes, no matter how much they grew. ''So, they are in line with Layer 2. The concept of passive and active abilities don''t exist here.'' ''Well, I''m fine with that. I already have whatever I need.'' Krune smiled, realizing that the second reservoir was almost full of fish. If it wasn''t for the fact that he had cooled down the temperature of the place and had always added in ice with the healing effect, their numbers wouldn''t have grown this much. After all, with the healing effect, they would also remain healthy and at the prime of their life. Moreover, they were being fed with food that was rich with energy and nutrition, enough to overwhelm them if they weren''t active. So, this caused their population to snowball out of control. However, it was easy for Krune to limit their numbers. Using his Sonic Radar, he scanned through the fishes with the lowest density in the lot, scooping them out with a fishing net. He captured around a hundred each day, grinding them into pulp before adding them to the first reservoir. This way, he reduced the population of the white fishes while the blue fishes continued to increase. Soon, there were only blue fishes in the place. Krune brought some to the kitchen and made a meal for the three, using all the condiments of the place. There didn''t exist any plants in the place or in the entire city for the matter. With that, Krune only had mineral condiments to work with. Even then, the food turned out great. As he served them, Flita began to cry at the taste and the amount of energy she felt from eating each morsel. As for Wrister, he looked at Krune like he was some kind of god, for he never thought it was possible to obtain such energy-rich nutrition. A hundred days after he started with everything, Krune managed to reach the peak of Tier 1. As he had the tremendous experience of growing stronger by leaps and bounds every time, Krune quickly adjusted to his newfound strength. As his overall abilities and physique grew stronger as a whole, adjusting to it was really easy. With that, once he used his healing effect on Wrister, the old man cried with tears of joy as his wounds healed at a faster pace. He was still severely injured, though, even after Krune almost emptied his reserves. But now, he was assured that it wouldn''t be long before he made a complete recovery. Krune had already finished healing all of his internal injuries. Now, only his limbs remained to be healed. By his estimates, it wouldn''t take longer than three months before Wrister was completely healed. Once he reached the peak of Tier 1, Flita brought in a different variety of grapes, saying, "Unfortunately, we don''t have any Tier 3 Demon Cores with us now. Fortunately, we have enough Tier 2 Demon Cores for you to reach the peak of Tier 2." "That''s fine." Krune nodded in response. "You''ve been a great help to me." "Oh no, not at all." Flita waved her hands as she replied, "It is us who are grateful for your help. The Godly Points in our possession weren''t even enough to reduce the severity of grandpa''s injuries. You have helped us tremendously." Chapter 1008: Water Essence Nodding in response to Flita''s words, Krune swallowed a Tier 2 Essence, feeling like his limit was being broken once again. For the next three days, he didn''t consume a second Tier 2 Essence, noticing his weight increase by a kilogram daily. As he was consuming blue fish constantly, the energy replenishment rate was pretty high. Moreover, after twenty generations, a green fish was born. Krune was immediately able to feel the energy it contained. It was on the level of a Mutated Motor Fish. At this point, Krune was already satisfied. After all, a tiny green fish now had the same energy value as a Mutated Motor Fish. After reaching this point, Krune began to weed out the weakest among the blue fishes, watching the number of green fish grow in number slowly with each passing day. As the second reservoir was filled with fishes, they mated all the time, producing eggs constantly. So, numerous fishes hatched every hour. He was pretty happy with managing them while obtaining more nutritious food. Another twenty days passed before all the fishes in the second reservoir were now green. Krune then began to use them for food, smiling upon seeing the stupefied expressions of Flita and Wrister. Wrister was finally unable to control himself, asking, "Sir Pestlor, how old are you? How do you know such mystical stuff?" "I''m around 230 years old, so I know some¡­stuff," Krune said humbly. "What?" "230 years?" Wrister and Flita were stunned into silence, staring at Krune with their mouths agape. Eventually, Flita asked after a hesitant glance, "Sir Pestlor, are you a¡­god?" Krune gave her a knowing smile, remaining silent at the question, ''Even a First Stage Godly Fusion Realm cultivator is a God in the eyes of mortals. But since I''m part of the God Realm now and not the three realms below, I can only call myself a god when I reach the First Stage of the God Realm.'' Upon seeing his smile, Wrister and Flita felt like a boulder had been smashed on their minds, almost causing them to prostrate themselves before Krune. If it wasn''t for the fact that Krune told them to act as usual around him, they would have prostrated before him and even built a statue of him to worship. A Tier 2 human weighed between 200 and 500 kilograms. Considering the fact that he was only able to gain a kilogram per day, he needed around 10 months to reach the peak of Tier 2. Krune had time, so he wasn''t worried. As for Wrister, even though he was slightly anxious that their enemies were pressuring them on all sides, beginning to attack their business and income sources, he patiently waited while gathering all the evidence necessary to stage a comeback. As he had nothing else to do while healing, he focused all his energy on thinking up schemes to cause the downfall of his foes. As for Krune, he was busy growing stronger. Now that he began to progress in Tier 2, he noticed that his abilities had grown more potent while his physique was oozing with power. His healing effect was stronger now, while his development effect was already able to achieve the same potency as a Tier 2 Essence. As for his Cloud Whale, its maximum size was still 8 meters, but it was stronger than before, growing just like all his other abilities. Just that alone gave him enough confidence to pummel the face of his enemies that had attacked him when he arrived at the city first. Nevertheless, he wasn''t hasty, calmly proceeding about with his tasks like a volcano that was about to erupt but remained immobile. Two months later, Krune looked at a completely healed Wrister, asking, "How do you feel?" Wrister moved his hands and legs, feeling that they were perfectly alright. He hadn''t lost any strength in his regenerated muscles. He retained the same strength as before he lost his limbs and received grievous injuries. Wrister''s figure blurred for a second in response. Before Krune could notice it, he saw that Wrister was prostrated on the floor before him, shouting at the top of his voice, "I, Wrister Ralk, vow to help Sir Pestlor to the best of my abilities." "It''s fine. Please get up." Krune waved his hands. "As long as you follow your end of the deal, I''m satisfied. I don''t need anything else from you." "Please give me three months," Wrister told Krune, standing up straight as his eyes shone with killing intent. "Once I eradicate my foes, I''ll be able to forge you a new identity without any issues. I still have enough people to do all kinds of work for me." "Sure, take your time." Krune waved his hand and returned to work, telling Wrister, "I have no plans of leaving this place until I reach the peak of Tier 2 anyway." "Until the peak of Tier 2, huh¡­" Wrister looked at the ceiling before saying, "That means I have eight months to complete his end of the deal. Otherwise, we might lose his support." Even though Krune hadn''t meant it in such a way, Wrister was a man of his word, unwilling to delay it that long in the first place. Besides, after eating the special fish and Krune''s cooked food, he was unwilling to eat anything else. Just that alone was more than enough to keep Krune by his side through all means. Moreover, the food was highly nutritious and energy potent. It was enough for him to recover his energy and head into battles at least once every month. In his eyes, Krune''s worth couldn''t be calculated. After all, the stronger Krune grew, the innumerous times his worth was multiplied. After all, he was capable of healing people. And suppose he reached Tier 5, he would be able to heal droves of people easily, making humans stronger, allowing more to fight without having to retire for losing limbs and lacking any Water Essence to heal. Some days later, while they were eating, Wrister recalled the healing energy Krune had used to heal him, asking after a moment of thought, "Sir Pestlor, what is the name of the ability you used to heal me? If it''s possible, can you tell me about it a little?" "Why little? You know about it perfectly well. Plus, you''ve also known its name all along." Krune smiled, his gaze showing his bottomless depth as he responded, "That''s my healing ability''s name¡­" "Water Essence!" Chapter 1009: A Cunning Mind "Sir Pestlor, I''ve created a legal identity for you." After processing the words Krune told him in utter disbelief, Wrister eventually handed him an identity card. On it was the face of Krune with a well-trimmed beard, a tiny mustache, and neatly combed hair, all blue in color. Naturally, he had to dye his hair. After all, no matter his disguise, his rainbow-colored hair was a clear indicator of his identity. So, unless he changed it, he would be spotted no matter where he went within the city. And now that he had changed his getup, Krune looked at the mirror, almost failing to identify himself. "If even I find it this difficult to recognize myself, I''m sure even Raka wouldn''t be able to recognize me." Smiling, he returned to the first reservoir, noticing that it was completely filled up now. The substance looked like soil, but it was only the remains of the fish paste that the bone trees didn''t absorb. They had accumulated over time and had turned into a type of soil, now filling up the reservoir halfway. Nevertheless, Krune didn''t remove them, for he noticed that the bone trees were no longer able to remain afloat using the temporary surfaces he had created. As he used his Sonic Radar, Krune realized that even the bone trees were gaining weight now. Their height was still the usual three meters, but they were a lot denser now. As a result, the fruits they produced were more potent. Because of this, a synergistic effect was created as a yellow fish was birthed after a couple of months. This was achieved exactly a year after he had begun growing them. And when he saw a yellow fish, Krune realized that the energy levels contained in it had surpassed a Monster Emperor. Size-wise, it was only 15 centimeters in length. So, its energy density was stellar. When Krune took a bite of the yellow fish, he was shocked when just one fish alone replenished a quarter of his crimson ring. Just four yellow fishes were enough to fill up a crimson ring full of energy. That meant he was able to replenish all five crimson rings with a single meal. After all, considering their size, Krune was able to eat through 20 fishes easily. The moment he arrived at such a conclusion, Krune was overjoyed. He then hopped towards Flita and asked, "Can you procure me one Tier 3 Essence?" "Now that grandpa''s back in action, that''s easy." Flita nodded and went around to ask her grandpa. As he was already heading towards the battlefield, it was simple. He was also planning to bring in enough Tier 3 and Tier 4 Demon Cores to help increase Flita''s strength. Even though he dealt financial blows to his foes, he hadn''t eradicated them yet. He planned to do that while on the battlefield since his foes would definitely not let the chance to end him once and for all pass up anyway. After all, they previously missed killing him, allowing Flita to grab him and escape. So, it was a guarantee that they would attempt to do something to him this time. To prepare against that, Krune condensed his healing effect worth his entire reserve of energy from the five crimson rings into a tiny ice sphere, giving it to Wrister. Even though it wouldn''t be enough to heal the old man''s tough body completely, it was enough to heal most of his flesh injuries. Plus, Krune had condensed enough ice and had reduced its temperature, ensuring that the old man wouldn''t naturally melt it faster. Thanks to its density, it would remain as is for a day before starting to melt completely. If the old man wished to use it before that, all he needed to do was to use his stomach muscles to press on it, cracking it, allowing its healing effect to spill out. It was a simple but efficient means of usage. For another layer of security, Krune gave him a second ice sphere, making him swallow it as well. To the current Krune, it was just two meals worth of energy. So, he wasn''t even worried about it. After that, all he did was focus on his training and growth. Since he was already consuming Tier 2 Essences, it would only be a waste of his development effect. With that, he was using the yellow fish meat to create the healing extract. And once he drank it, he smacked his lips at their enhanced effect, smiling at the result. A week later, Wrister returned jubilant, apparent that he had given him enemies a severe blow. He had also brought with him quite a number of Tier 3 Demon Cores and a couple of Tier 4 Demon Cores. As he was at the peak of Tier 4, they were useless to him. And since he had asked, Wrister gave one each to Krune. Using their family''s Essence Generator, Krune obtained a Tier 3 Essence and a Tier 4 Essence. Smiling, he swallowed the Tier 3 Essence first. Even though Wrister and Flita were confused at his actions, as he hadn''t reached the peak of Tier 2 yet, they didn''t question. They knew that Krune knew what he was doing. And as they had thought, he indeed knew what he was doing. Since he now had enough energy, instead of waiting for the Demon Cores, he could simply rely on his development effect to grow stronger. After all, his Ocean Heart was already getting accustomed to the Essences, able to grasp it better. And once he judged that it would be able to grasp the Tier 3 Essence upon a single dose, Krune did the same. He had to wait 10 days for the effect to finish. That was enough time for his Ocean Heart to fully absorb its properties into its development effect. Since Flita had enough Tier 3 Essence to reach the peak of Tier 3, she continued to train daily. As for Wrister, he began to stabilize and revive his family. And by that, he made all his loyal personnel return. As for those that betrayed him, he used his political rights to strip them of their respective licenses, painting them with a worse image in their respective markets. As for his foes, it wasn''t known how he did it, but Wrister caused quite a few of them to announce bankruptcy down the line. Krune realized that there was a reason the Ralk family stood strong for more than a millennium. It was because they were naturally gifted with a cunning mind. Chapter 1010: Lord Krune Ten days later, Krune finished obtaining the effect from the Tier 3 Essence, now weighing 490 kilograms, just 10 kilograms short of reaching the peak of Tier 2. Seeing how closed he was, he wished to perform an experiment. Since he already incorporated the effect of the Tier 3 Essence in his Ocean Heart''s development effect, he wished to see if he would face any obstacles once he reached the peak of Tier 2 or if the development effect would take him straight into Tier 3. It was only possible for him to experiment now when the cost was cheaper and the time required was less. If he tried this in Tier 4, it might cost a lot more. After all, Wrister had to hunt a Demon Emperor to obtain a Tier 4 Demon Core. And to do that, he had to risk his life. Plus, it wasn''t guaranteed that he would emerge victorious all the time. Nevertheless, Krune laughed when he reached 500 kilograms in weight. And the next day, he reached 501 kilograms without any hindrances. It led him to conclude that his development effect was no different from the Essence. So, as long as he obtained a Tier 5 Essence, he would be able to reach the peak of Tier 5 without any problems. After all, no matter what type of Essence it was, he was only able to grow by a kilogram per day. So, the only thing inhibiting him was the restrictions of the tiers. Upon reaching this level of thought, Krune summoned Flita and Wrister, telling them, "I have an important announcement." "Please say it, my Lord¡­Sir Pestlor." Wrister corrected himself, trying his best to treat Krune as an equal. But at times, his sense of respect oozed out as zealous worship. After all, he was having the yellow fish as his meals daily. Considering the tremendous energy he was obtaining, it made him wish to head into the battlefield daily and slaughter his enemies. Also, because everything had changed once Krune had arrived, it would be impossible for him to not look up to Krune. He maintained it as a secret, but he was already silently praying to Krune daily. It had become his habit. As for Flita, even though she didn''t show it on her exterior, she too was doing the same to Krune. Oblivious to what was going on in their minds, Krune said, "Somehow, we need to obtain a Tier 5 Demon Core. That should be our goal for now. Once we obtain that, we won''t need to hunt for Demon Cores again. However, once we do so, I''ll be able to elevate both of you to the peak of Tier 5." Upon hearing his words, Flita and Wrister didn''t even doubt him for a moment. Rather, they thought the same, ''Please forgive my impudence for only praying once a day, God Krune. I''ll pray three times daily from now on!'' "Yes, Sir Pestlor!" They said in unison. Wrister then told Krune after he was done, "Sadly, it won''t be possible to buy a Tier 4 Demon Core, not to mention a Tier 5. Anyone who has that would be a powerhouse, so no one sells them. Even Tier 3 Demon Cores won''t ever be sold. The limit to what can be bought in the market are only Tier 2 Demon Cores." "Then¡­" Krune nodded as he said, "We''ll wait until all three of us reach the peak of Tier 4. Then, we''ll hunt a Red Demon. We''ll train daily to prepare for that day." "Yes!" Wrister and Flita replied in unison, excited at the prospect of reaching Tier 5, a realm only the pillars of their city could achieve. Once they achieved that, they could ensure their successive generations would also reach Tier 5. After all, the only prerequisite to achieving that was to hunt a Red Demon. Once they do that, they would be able to boost their family members who are at the peak of Tier 4 to Tier 5. That way, their family line would continue to survive for another millennium. It was endless glory and power that awaited. So, the two Ralk family members were jubilant. After some discussions, Krune asked Wrister, "By the way, how do you create Demon Arms?" ¡­ Two years had passed since the miasma incident. The collapsed buildings had been cleared out while new buildings had been built in the place. Currently, it was nighttime as a small patch of the ground, situated in a house''s garden, opened out. What exited it was a hand, soon bringing the rest of its body out. It was the Red Demon that Krune had freed from the prison. Currently, it had dug out from the ground for the first time in two years, finally freeing itself. It looked at its body, smiling at the changes. Its body was now covered by a row of scales, further spiking its toughness. It then gazed at its hand, watching the palm split open to reveal a mouth. The tongue within was sharp like a spike, looking like it could pierce through anything thanks to its body''s toughness. Of course, the changes didn''t stop there. The Red Demon calmly patted the patch of ground it had dug out from, slowly rearranging the portions back to their original locations to ensure no traces of it would remain behind. It was already tremendously intelligent before. But now, it also seemed wise, as if it had experienced a century''s worth of life. Usually, all demons, even Red Demons, didn''t live for long. It wasn''t because of a problem with their lifespan, but because they always swarmed a city the moment after they had spawned. So, they were killed at the early stages of their life. There was no exception since that was the purpose ingrained in their minds, forming their core instinct. Even the Demon Gods weren''t an exception, but it seemed that they were able to resist this instinct to a certain extent, judging by why they hadn''t ever attacked a city. And now, having absorbed all the 70 passive abilities in the Blood Essence Crystals, it had finished evolving, having broken free from that instinct. Naturally, it had become strong, tremendously strong in fact that no Red Demon was ever capable of winning against it. The Red Demon looked around, feeling something as it sniffed. "I can sense the lingering presence of my Lord." The wind lightly ruffled around it, generating currents that lifted it into the air, silently taking it to the skies as it reached as high as it could, trying its best to stay away from the gazes of the people. As anyone hardly looked above, no one noticed its flight as it unfurled its wings and sped towards one direction. "Please wait, my Lord¡­" "¡­Lord Krune." Chapter 1011: Hazak "¡­" Krune felt a headache as he watched the figures of Wrister and Flita tremble like broken leaves caught under a storm. They were currently hidden behind him like a broken recorder, their expression pale, their eyes trembling like a drug addict, and their minds broken down. The cause was the Red Demon that was before them at the moment, prostrating on the floor in a subservient expression. From the moment it appeared, it didn''t speak anything, silently landing on the ground before assuming its prostrating pose. It had arrived all of a sudden in the middle of the night that none of them were able to do anything, shocked. As for Krune, even though he was shocked at the start, after feeling a similar presence on the Red Demon, he was no longer afraid of it. First of all, it was the Red Demon he had freed from the prison. Second, it currently had the tremendous aura of a Motor Fish in it, the aura of a Motor Fish that had been completely tamed by him for generations together. Plus, he had elevated its race from weaklings to the level of a Monster Emperor. So, one could say that he was basically their race''s savior. Moreover, it was ingrained in them to the extent that it had formed another extent in their genetics, that was the instinct to submit to Krune automatically. Even though they were a tamed species, it meant that anyone could tame and control them. However, the Motor Fishes that Krune produced were slightly different. Even though they were still tameable by others, their control only came second to Krune''s. If Krune wished to, all the Motor Fishes would execute his commands first with the highest priority. So, it could be said that they had genetically become subservient to Krune. Even while forming and by birth, they would already express their loyalty to Krune. And now, almost 60 Blood Essence Crystals, derived from the very same Motor Fishes, had been swallowed by the Red Demon. So, it needn''t be explained what had happened here. Among the 70 Blood Essence Crystals it had swallowed in total, the remaining 10 were from the Great Dipper and the Tongue Fish. Even though the Red Demon had escaped its racial restriction of swarming human cities, it had now fallen under Krune''s control. That''s why the moment it had finished reeling from the side effect of consuming 70 Blood Essence Crystals and finished evolving, it immediately tracked Krune''s presence and arrived at the Ralk family mansion. "Lord Krune, I express my undying loyalty towards you," the Red Demon said. "What''s your name?" After some time, Krune sighed as he massaged his head, feeling his headache worsen as he asked. "I don''t have one." The Red Demon smacked its head on the floor as it said. However, the floor cracked from its action, alarming Wrister and Flita even further. The Red Demon hesitantly lifted its head, pleading, "Please¡­can you bestow upon me a¡­" "Alright," Krune said with a tone of joy, pumped at the fact that he could name an overpowered individual in Layer 2, immediately thinking of one based on the way the Red Demon arrived. "I''ll call you Hazak, then." "Hazak¡­so, that''s my name." The Red Demon was enamored, going into a trance as it cried, "My gracious lord, I am unworthy of such a magnificent name." "It''s fine." Krune smiled, waving his hands. "Also, you can just call me Krune. No need to address me with unnecessary titles." "B-But, Lord Krune¡­" Hazak, the Red Demon stammered, unable to articulate its words as it didn''t wish to show even the slightest of disrespect. "Krune is fine. And for the moment, address me as Pestlor," Krune clarified. "If you still want to address me with a title, a simple sir is fine." "Understood, Sir Pestlor," Hazak responded, getting up once it was prompted to do so by Krune. Krune then looked at Wrister and Flita, saying, "You guys don''t need to worry about it. It''s loyal to me." "B-But, it¡­" Wrister trembled as he said, "It''s stronger than the strongest of Red Demons I''ve seen to date." "Well yeah," Krune coughed once as he thought, ''It has swallowed 70 Blood Essence Crystals and managed to digest them all. Of course, he would be insanely strong.'' "Anyways, you don''t need to fear it." Krune then looked at Hazak, saying, "These two are important comrades that have helped me tremendously. Treat them well." "Yes." Hazak bowed immediately, even cupping its fists while facing Wrister and Flita one by one. But even after it had done so, showing a respectful demeanor, the grandfather and grandchild were still unable to calm down. To them, the strength of a Red Demon was apparent. And precisely because of that, to the Red Demon before them that surpassed the strength of all Red Demons, they could only assume it to be on the same level as the strongest extent in their world¡ªLayer 2. Demon God! A demon of myth, almost legend that had only fleetingly appeared on the battlefields rarely. A figure that was said to be capable of destroying a city almost on its own, unless the city unleashed all the trump cards it had been saving up for at least a century. And now, a being almost on its level stood before them. So, it would be strange if they were calm. But upon seeing that they were struggling to cope with it, Krune excused himself, motioning for Hazak to follow him as they headed towards the second reservoir. Upon seeing all the yellow fishes, Hazak was gobsmacked, his eyes widened to the extent it seemed like his eyeballs would fall out, "T-This is?" "Ah, this? That''s just our food." Krune replied, lightly dismissing it. But, his casual actions ended up stunning Hazak into submission even more, the faint vestiges of its former self vanishing without a trace, "Now, before we talk about serious business..." Krune looked around, thinking for a moment as he smiled, noticing Hazak''s thin appearance before suggesting, "Let''s eat first." Chapter 1012: The Reason Demon Gods Never Attacked Krune noticed how even though Hazak was brimming with power, emanating pressure that was suffocating, he felt like a mountain that was about to crumble down. Having not eaten anything for two years, it was barely skin and bones, looking like it might die if it starved any longer. Unwilling to lose such a valuable subordinate, Krune intended to feed it first. He cooked up a large batch of yellow fishes, watching Hazak devour them like crazy. With that, its physique readily grew in size as it digested everything at rapid speeds. It seemed like at this pace, it would recover within a week. In any case, that was considerable recovery speed. As it continued to eat, Krune didn''t say anything, watching it gorge itself with the food, feeling some satisfaction that his cooking was that delightful. However, once Hazak finished its meal, it prostrated on the floor, saying, "I, Hazak am extremely blessed to eat food made by you, Sir Pestlor." ''This guy¡­'' Krune massaged his forehead, feeling a headache once again as he sighed, thinking of dealing with Hazak''s behavior later. He then asked Hazak, "How do you demons usually deal with the issues of hunger, thirst, and other things?" "We never have to worry about that," Hazak replied. "Within the miasma, all our needs are naturally met. So, ever since we are born, we begin marching towards the human cities." "You begin to march since you''re a baby?" Krune was shocked, wondering just how even demon babies were capable of walking right after being born. "We are born just like this," Hazak said, pointing at itself. "And right from that moment, our strength is fixed. I was born a Red Demon, same for every other demon, including the Black Demons." ''Black Demons are Demon Gods¡­'' Krune nodded, asking, "Then, how are you born?" "From the Demon Nest," Hazak replied. "I don''t have clear memories since I was there for a short time, quickly heading out right after I was born. I began to march towards this city right after that, so my memories of it aren''t clear enough. But from what I know, it is a colossal creature that sucks the essence of the world and condenses it into its eggs, giving birth to us demons." "Does a Demon Nest have any combat abilities?" Krune asked. "I have no idea." Hazak shook its head, bowing in shame for its lack of information. "Well, that''s fine. So, your strength is fixed once you''re born, right?" Krune sighed, muttering, "It''s a bummer since I hoped to learn of the demon''s way of growing stronger." "Actually, when I was born, I was the weakest Red Demon," Hazak spoke. "But as I walked through the miasma-filled region, my body absorbed it and began to grow stronger. To be frank, I hadn''t even grown a tenth of my potential as a Red Demon by the time I arrived at this city. I was defeated and captured by the humans after that. If I hadn''t rushed to be here and had remained within the miasma for a couple of decades, I would have reached the peak as a Red Demon." "I see, that makes perfect sense." Krune nodded after hearing that. "That''s why the Black Demons never fight. They''re just taking their time to grow." He then frowned, asking, "Then again, why do the Black Demons never fight the humans? Isn''t the purpose of the demons to fight the humans?" "Yes, but for some reason, the Black Demons are only interested in sitting things out while observing the war between humans and demons." Hazak frowned. "I can say with assurance that they know of something that''s preventing them from attacking the human cities." ''Wait a minute. It might be simpler than that.'' Krune frowned, thinking to himself based on his experience, ''Unless a human obtains the Demon Core of a higher-tiered demon and consumes that Essence, he wouldn''t be able to reach the respective tier. So, in such a way, if no human ever kills a Black Demon, they would never be able to reach Tier 6. And, since the miasma is poisonous to humans, they also cannot venture deep into the miasma lands barring the swarming demons.'' ''So, it might just be their scheme to prevent humans from reaching the highest tier possible in this layer.'' Krune then asked, "Have you ever seen a Black Demon in person?" "Yeah, there''s one sitting on the bottom of the stairs always," Hazak replied. "It likes to stare at our marching forms all day for no reason at all." "That''s definitely weird," Krune muttered before waving his hand to stop thinking about it. "Well, let''s just rest for the time being. I have no plans of moving until I increase my strength." "If there''s anything I need to do, please tell me, Sir Pestlor," Hazak said. "Can you control your strength?" Krune asked. "I haven''t tried it before. But with some training, I should be able to do that," Hazak responded. "Great, then help me with my training." Krune replied, thinking, ''With Hazak around, I think I can plan on recovering my items from Raka. But first, I should reach the peak of Tier 4 before that.'' Krune instructed Hazak in controlling its strength and many forms of combat suited to its abilities, telling it better ways to wield them since he had first-hand experience in creating and evolving their source monsters. As for his own abilities, Krune was consistently gaining a kilogram daily. And with every increase, his body''s potential continued to increase. And by that, as he trained, he also increased the size of his Cloud Whale. When he arrived at Layer 2, the limit of his Cloud Whale''s length was 8 meters. And now, it had already reached 14 meters. At this rate, he would reach the peak of 25 meters within another couple of years. By that point, he would be able to tap into its full potential. Just the air currents he would be able to create around himself would be significantly powerful, powerful enough to possibly make him fly. Normally, he would have headed towards the battlefield to fight the demons even while in disguise to train his abilities. But with Hazak, he no longer needed that. The strongest Red Demon was his training partner, a partner that was rather glad to bleed for him. Not only that, he was a partner that wasn''t even scratched by the strongest of his attacks. So, Krune was able to gain all the necessary battle experience from the comfort of home. Chapter 1013: Sonic Punch "Sir Pestlor, are you sure about this?" Hazak asked as he gazed at Krune, feeling nervous. "Sure. I wanted to see how strong a normal Red Demon is," Krune replied, flexing his arm as he felt his muscles twitching. It had been four and a half years since he had arrived at Layer 2. During that time, he managed to reach the peak of Tier 4. His body now weighed 1400 kilograms, a colossal weight. He could feel the tremendous power dwelling within him. Also, it wasn''t just his physical body alone that had been strengthened. When he arrived at Layer 2, he weighed around 100 kilograms. Now, he was 14 times heavier. As the development effect of the Essence worked in improving his body as a whole, all his passive and active abilities had also improved. After all, they were physical traits that were rooted in his body. As his body grew stronger, it meant they grew stronger. The most important of this development was the strengthening of his heart. Of course, by the strengthening of his heart, it meant that his Ocean Heart developed. The energy in each crimson ring was 14 times denser as compared to back then. His healing effect was similarly 14 times more potent, same for the development effect. And now, even after reaching 1400 kilograms, Krune realized that he didn''t feel the limitation a human in Layer 2 might feel. That was, being unable to surpass this limit without ingesting a Tier 5 Essence. As for him, the development effect of his Ocean Heart allowed him to grow stronger even beyond that. After all, the development effect wasn''t sourced from the Essence in Layer 2. In actuality, it was sourced from the Development Spheres Gehen had given him. So, in technicality, Krune didn''t face any limitations. However, unlike when he grew in Tier 4, he was barely gaining 20 grams per day upon entering Tier 5. It showed that even though he was still able to grow strong, the efficiency was the lowest. With that, it was better to obtain a Tier 5 Essence first and upgrade his development effect to enter the level of Tier 5. Moreover, even though his current development effect only gave him an increase of 20 grams per day, it made Krune assured of a certain fact. He could grow his body without any limits! This assured him that even if the growth was slower, he would still be able to increase his body''s weight and grow stronger after returning to God Realm. That alone meant the world for him. After all, he had obtained something that would strengthen him constantly, just like Godly Energy and Mental Energy. Moreover, he was currently only relying on the Tier 4 development effect. With that in mind, Krune looked forward to the Tier 5 development effect. He knew his development speed would be greater than 20 grams per day even after hitting the peak of Tier 5. As long as he did this, Krune''s prospects while reaching God Realm would be even higher. However, there was also another reason he bode his time while waiting. By this point, he was assured that the one he sensed while departing from Layer 3 was his wife, Feifei. Judging by the strength he felt from her, she was still far away from obtaining an active ability. So, he planned to wait for her to arrive at Layer 2. And for that, he needed to make his move first and lay out all the necessary groundwork. That way, once she arrived, she wouldn''t have to face the horrors he had faced. Of course, the first step to achieve that was to kill a Red Demon. To achieve that, he had to get used to the strength of a Red Demon first. Hazak was the best option to achieve this. It was able to limit its strength perfectly now, thanks to Krune''s teachings. By limiting itself to a regular Red Demon''s strength, it was the perfect opponent for Krune to face against. Currently, they were within the training room that had been reinforced using Hazak''s bones. Thanks to his healing effect and the excess energy he obtained through his meals, loping off the limbs of Hazak and completely healing it was simple. On top of that, it also allowed him to train his healing abilities to a new level, now able to efficiently heal anyone he encountered. Moreover, in this way, Krune also used Hazak to train himself against the miasma, building up resistance against it. Even though he had been training with that routine for more than two years, Krune hadn''t even achieved the first step in developing resistance against the miasma. Rather, as he continued to breathe it, his internal organs began to melt. The only way to increase the duration he could withstand it was by increasing the density of his body. Thankfully, while he used Ocean Turbulence, Krune relied on the healing effect to last longer. But despite everything, three hours was his limit. Beyond that, even his healing effect failed to prove useful as his body began to rot and melt. "Hazak, don''t hold back," Krune said as he stood barefoot in the training room, not carrying any weapons. Wearing a simple white pajama, he smiled, beckoning Hazak to attack him. "Only stop an inch before I die. Attack me!" Krune stared at Hazak, feeling his heartbeat become more intense. His vigorous thumping resounded throughout the room like thunderous war drums, enough that a normal human might shut his ears to avoid damaging his ear. The training room was shaped like a circle with a radius of 25 meters. It seemed massive at the start, but for experienced fighters at higher tiers, it was a narrow space to move within. Of course, Krune was well within that range to make the space feel cramped. Now that he planned to go all out, even Krune was curious as to how strong he had become, having been unable to go all out before. Most of the time, he only used his physical body to fight, at most relying on his Sonic Radar to sense things. He hadn''t erupted with the entirety of his strength even once. And now, he took the opportunity to do so, knowing very well that his opponent was someone who wouldn''t die under his attacks. Currently, the two were separated by a distance of 40 meters. Right as Krune finished speaking, a fist was planted on his face, followed by a sonic boom as his body flew back like a bullet. Chapter 1014: My Lord, I Went Too Far "Guah!" Krune groaned as he slammed onto the training room''s walls, blanking out for a moment. In the place he stood before, a layer of ice formed, acting as a wall. The scene had happened so fast that he was hit before his ice shield could form. Dreams of the Heart¡ªOcean Turbulence! Krune fused all five crimson rings into his healing effect before infusing them into his Frozen Blood. As the blood pumped through his body, he fused Neon Radiance into it, emitting them while fusing Moving Ripple atop everything, controlling the Frozen Blood from not spilling beyond the boundaries of his body. Through that, they were only transmitting the healing effect in the form of a cold wave through his body, quickly regenerating his damaged parts, especially his face that had caved in enough to shatter his eyeballs. Through his Sonic Radar, he barely managed to grasp a figure''s movements, covering himself with ice to create a thick sheet. At the very moment a fist landed on him, he manipulated the ice with Moving Ripple, absorbing as much of the impact force as possible using Moving Ripple, causing the thick sheet of ice to break. In the meantime, Krune using Moving Ripple on the layer of ice he made on the floor, barely evading when a sonic boom flashed at the tips of the Red Demon''s fists, sending him flying. Krune crashed into the floor, hurriedly using the chance to spread ice all over the floor. He intended to layer the floor with ice so that he could move faster. With his Moving Ripple, he was able to move at least thrice as fast as if he was on land. However, the moment his ice began to spread on the floor, Hazak punched the air in a flurry of blasts. The sonic booms it created shattered all the ice into a great number of fragments. Plus, the friction it generated caused the volatile substances in the air to catch fire, turning the training room into a sea of fire. Krune condensed a sword of ice, slashing it into Hazak when it appeared before him. Sadly, his ice sword shattered from the impact, barely nicking a surface wound on the Red Demon. In turn, a punch landed on his stomach, sending him reeling backward. Krune slammed into the wall with enough force that blood splattered from him in all directions. Fortunately, he still managed to retain consciousness, thanks to his Ocean Turbulence working hard on healing him. Hazak then flashed before Krune, intending to send in the finishing blow when an air needle slammed into the side of his shoulder, sending him crashing into the floor. The attack came from diagonally upwards, slowly moving forward as the angle changed upon his crash, soon pinning him vertically. The air needle was tremendously strong, powerful to the extent that Hazak''s muscles were drilled into, his tendons, ligaments, and nerves even getting shredded into pieces. The air in the room turned thin as everything was sucked into the massive Cloud Whale that had manifested. Upon seeing its figure, Hazak shuddered, slapping the ground with its other arm, barely managing to evade the air needle as it flashed to the other end of the room. On its shoulder was a gaping wound, causing its left hand to become immobile. Unless it healed itself, it wouldn''t be able to use that arm anymore. The moment it stepped behind, Krune used the time to heal himself, trying his best to mend all the damage. Moreover, the Cloud Whale disappeared once again, causing Hazak to be alarmed. In response, Hazak punched the air in front of him, sending a sonic beam coursing through the space, immediately identifying a crack in it. It was the ice on the Cloud Whale breaking from the shock wave. Upon spotting its location, Hazak slammed attacks in its direction nonstop. But when an air needle arrived, it hurriedly dodged once again, scuttling through the place in a hurry as the air needle slowly followed it. While it was running, it continued to punch out, generating more and more sonic booms. Krune tracked Hazak''s movements through the Sonic Radar, straining his throat as the sound wave he emitted surpassed the speed of sound. Only in this way was he able to track Hazak in advance. Once he did so, Krune emitted his Neon Radiance King beam from everywhere on his body. He was trying to ensure that Hazak wouldn''t be able to see his location, turning up the intensity to the extent the other party wouldn''t be able to even open its eyes. Moreover, he had also fused his Frozen Blood''s effect into it, turning the light white. The air condensed as frost began to build up in the training room. Right when Krune was about to create a domain where he would have the greatest fighting advantage, he heard the loud sound of glass being shattered. Hazak had attacked the Cloud Whale, piercing its body before shredding it apart from the inside. It then used the Cloud Whale''s skin to cover its eyes, barely able to see now, following the point where the intensity of light became denser. It then flashed towards the source, making a low sweep kick, shattering Krune''s knees as he tumbled on the floor. But when he tried to flash away using Moving Ripple on the ice floor, Hazak stomped with its legs, aiming at his legs, crunching them into pulp. Krune was rooted to the spot when a fist landed on his chest. He barely defended against the attack with all his might, protecting his chest at the cost of his hands. Now, he laid on the ground, battered, his limbs crushed, having suffered grievous injuries in numerous parts of his body, including organ rupture and bone fracture. If not for the healing effect running through Ocean Turbulence, he would have breathed his last there and then. As his Neon Radiance faded, Hazak stopped its attacks, looking at Krune''s state, immediately kneeling on the floor as it apologized, "My Lord, I went too far." "Hahaha." Krune laughed, wincing in pain as he was unable to utter anything else, focusing on healing himself first. He then looked at Hazak, noticing the wound on its shoulder, thinking, ''The only attack deadly enough to injure Hazak was the air needle. Plus, it was when it limited itself to the level of a Red Demon. If it used its full abilities, even this wouldn''t have been possible.'' Chapter 1015: Hazak’s 1650 Kilograms Krune realized that he had really underestimated the demons, thinking that they wouldn''t be that strong compared to himself, who had five passive abilities and an active ability to rely on. Sadly for him, reality proved otherwise. At lower tiers, this would have been apparent. But at higher tiers, the strength of the fleshly body was too high to be compared. So, because he was a tier lower, Krune was unable to retaliate properly. On one side, he hadn''t faced any demons until now, except for that time when he had just arrived at Layer 2. Not only that, but he still hadn''t gotten accustomed to using his abilities alongside his strengthened body. Krune was still in the process of fusing the two into one battle form, hence the fight with Hazak. As he lay battered on the floor, Krune thought about the mistakes he had committed that caused him to be put in a passive state. He wasn''t quick in defending himself right from the get-go. Rather, he hadn''t activated Sonic Radar right at the start but had only done so after tanking the first attack to his face. This caused him to lose his initiative, being forced into a passive state where he had to be constantly hit by Hazak. Every hit from Hazak was deadly. Soon, Krune realized that for a Red Demon, killing a warrior at the peak of Tier 4 only took three punches. If the Tier 4 warrior was distracted, then the required number of punches was even lower. As for Krune, it was only due to his numerous abilities that he was able to last so long. But even when he retaliated, he failed to damage Hazak. His ice sword barely scratched Hazak''s skin. He had been confident of the ice sword''s capabilities since it had already surpassed his Whale Tooth Sword in sharpness and sturdiness. The fact that something of such a caliber broke from a single impact from Hazak proved just how strong a Red Demon was. A Red Demon was a Tier 5 Demon, called a Supreme Demon. It weighed between 1400-2000 kilograms. At present, Hazak was only mimicking a Red Demon that weighed around 1500 kilograms. It didn''t even output the peak capability of a Red Demon, not to mention unleashing its true strength that it gained from devouring 70 Blood Essence Crystals. Thanks to Krune training it every day for the past two-plus years, and feeding it with the yellow fishes three to four times a day, it slowly grew in weight. At present, it was at 1650 kilograms. Once it reached 2000 kilograms, Hazak would become even more terrifying. As for how to fuel its growth, only the miasma was the key. Once a Demon reached Tier 4, turning into the Yellow Demon that was commonly called the Demon Emperor, it was able to emit miasma from its body. Then again, it usually had to eat something with rich sustenance to produce it. It wasn''t capable of producing the miasma normally. As for Hazak, after devouring the yellow fishes, it began to emit some miasma daily, stuffing it in a training room that it had created for itself. Once the miasma achieved qualitative growth, it began to live inside it while resting, increasing its weight that way. Thanks to that, it was capable of growing. This was the reason Krune was curious about the miasma. Once he figured out its secrets, he would be able to rely on it to strengthen himself even more. A couple of minutes since his fight with Hazak ended, Krune sighed as he got up, fully healed now. Of course, his energy reserves were empty, thanks to it. However, he didn''t mind the consumption, thinking, ''The potency of my healing effect has increased tremendously compared to before. Now, as long as I train and upgrade it, it will continue to grow stronger. That way, I should be able to face a Red Demon on my own.'' At present, Krune''s plan was to team up with Wrister and Flita to gang up on a Red Demon and kill it. That way, by consuming the Tier 5 Essence, Krune would be able to upgrade his development effect to Tier 5 level and calmly reach the peak of Tier 5. He had no plans to fight anymore after that one fight. Moreover, his goal was to kill a Red Demon without using his passive abilities. After all, the higher-ups of the city were looking for him. Over the years, Krune''s face was shown in the news a couple of times. However, it was only shown in passing and wasn''t given much importance. That''s why Wrister and Flita were careful in employing servants in their mansion. Plus, they only employed the most trusted of their employees, those that were willing to shed their lives for Wrister and Flita. Moreover, once the employees began to work in the mansion, some places were sealed off for them, barring their entry. These places were only for Krune''s and Hazak''s exclusive use. Once in a while, while they rested in some other room, the servants were allowed to clean up the place. Other than that, no one was ever allowed entry. Moreover, Wrister built more reservoirs since Krune was using two of them. Also, he created them in an even more discrete location, somewhere no one would even think of looking. Once it was done, Krune and Hazak worked on transporting all the contents of the two reservoirs in the new ones. Moreover, as for the appearance, Krune had dyed his hair black. So, he looked normal now, unlike his prior self with rainbow-colored hair. Moreover, he also grew a beard and a mustache, looking like a different individual. It was just a precautionary measure. Surprisingly, these two changes alone made him look like a completely different person, so he didn''t look like himself from the wanted posters. As for Hazak, there was nothing to be done for its appearance. So, it could only live in hiding. However, it didn''t seem to care, devoting itself wholeheartedly to serving Krune. Chapter 1016: Tier 5 Demon Arms Once they had something to eat, Krune meditated, sensing the food in his stomach get digested and converted into energy to supply his Ocean Heart. Once he recovered enough energy, Krune finished completely healing himself, noticing that Hazak had also done the same. Its training room had enough miasma to heal even the gravest of injuries it faced. So, it didn''t need to depend on Krune to heal itself. Surprisingly, it was the type that didn''t wish to burden Krune for such a small matter. Once he was done with his work, Krune left Hazak to its devices as he entered a certain room situated at the bottom of the mansion, noticing Wrister immersed in his work. He was forging a Demon Arms, an axe that used Hazak''s leg bones as the primary material. It was tremendously sturdy, imbued with a suffocating presence. Despite his body trembling from the presence every time he hit the Demon Arms, Wrister still worked on it zealously. Upon seeing that, Krune smiled, picking up a hammer as he helped out in the process. Over the years, Wrister had taught Krune about the ins and outs of forging a Demon Arms. A Demon Arms was a weapon created using the body of a demon. Usually, depending on the type of weapon, the body part of the demon that was used varied. For a sword, it was usually the arm bone. For a spear, it used the bones from both arms. And at times, the demon''s horns were used as the spearhead. Similarly, for a shield, a demon skull was used. The bones were just the framework of a Demon Arms. Its true strength lay in the forging technique. The technique ensured the demon''s bone marrow flowed within the item, circulating through it as if it was alive. A network of nerves was also installed within. And finally, some parts of the demon''s brain were fused into its heart, creating a malleable structure that was turned into the weapon''s hilt or a shield''s handle. It was an impressive method. After all, when they were fighting, a human would clinch the hilt tightly, piercing their palms with the needles poking out of it. This way, the hilt would drink their blood, coursing their energy-rich blood throughout itself. This would cause a sort of energy to build up within the item that, in turn, would be supplied to the user. It would create a synergic effect that would slightly improve the strength and speed of the user, also increasing the weight of the item at times when necessary. The higher the tier of the item, the greater the amplification. And to achieve this, an item should only be comprised of materials from a single demon. Otherwise, it wouldn''t function as well. At present, Krune and Wrister created some Demon Arms for their use while using the body parts of Hazak. Of course, that included his heart. After all, while placing Hazak in the miasma-filled room, even after its heart was ripped off, it wouldn''t die. On top of that, before it lost its life, the miasma would surge into its body and regenerate its heart within a couple of minutes. During that time, Krune would also supply it with his healing energy after activating Ocean Turbulence. Thanks to that, Hazak didn''t lose its life. Using this manner, they obtained enough materials to create three Tier 5 Demon Arms. Though that had all the materials needed to do so, creating a Demon Arms was easier said than done. It needed numerous steps to be followed religiously to ensure the quality of the end product didn''t diminish. Once he had been taught of it, Krune decided to create his Demon Arms himself. Naturally, as the next head of the Ralk family, Flita also decided to do the same. So, each of them planned to create their respective Demon Arms. As for Hazak, it helped them at times by supplying its blood to the three creations, causing them to absorb the blood and turn even stronger. Even though it was a good outcome, it raised the difficulty of the forging process. After all, all three of them were at the peak of Tier 4 now. Plus, they were processing the materials of Hazak, one that had surpassed Tier 5 in power. Even though its weight class hadn''t reached the peak of Tier 5 yet, as it gained weight daily, it supplied its blood to the three items. This way, it was giving the increased essence, causing the three items to become denser with the passing of each day. After hammering at the item before him for a while, Krune paused, sighing, "At this pace, it would take another couple of years to finish making this Demon Arms." He then looked at Wrister and Flita and asked, "Why don''t we kill a Red Demon first?" "But¡­" Wrister said with hesitation. "How are we supposed to kill a Red Demon? Usually, a squadron of Tier 4 Warriors fight to the death and barely manage to kill a Red Demon. Even then, seven times out of ten, we fail to kill a Red Demon." "And Sir Pestlor." Wrister sighed. "Since you cannot use your actual powers on the battlefield in fear of your identity being leaked, you will only have the regular strength of a Tier 4 human. With that, we won''t be able to kill a Red Demon." "I thought of something for that." Krune smiled, condensing a tiny Cloud Whale beside him. "We''re just bait for the Red Demon. I''ll slam it with an air needle first. No one would be able to sense this attack. All they would feel was a sudden gust of wind. After that, using my abilities, we''ll target the weakest Red Demon on the battlefield. If I judge killing it isn''t possible, we''ll retreat." "As for the position on the battlefield, pick out one where we won''t have to worry about the eyes of any Tier 5 warriors on us," Krune explained. "Please give me three days. I''ll make all the necessary preparations," Wrister said and hurried off. Krune then noticed that Flita was shivering a little as she gazed at the wall before her in a daze. Curious about her actions, he asked her, "Is something wrong?" "It just feels surreal that I''ll be facing a Red Demon now. I hadn''t even thought of reaching this point four years ago." Flita sighed, bowing to Krune as she thanked him. "This is all thanks to you, Sir Pestlor. You have helped our family tremendously." Chapter 1017: Demon Invasion Three days later, Krune, Flita, and Wrister geared up for a battle early in the morning. They each donned armor made from the bones of Tier 4 Demons, armed to the teeth. Upon wearing the armor, Krune sighed, laughing as he shook his head, "I guess I was worried over nothing." After all, the armor completely covered his body. Only the part of his eyes was visible to the onlookers. Well, that was also blocked by a layer of membrane that acted like glass. So, irrespective of his identity, no one would be able to recognize him under this armor. It seemed only those powerhouses at Tier 5 didn''t wear armor. It was because armor was unnecessary to them. Not because they were strong, but because the Red Demons that arrived at the battlefield were usually young and way weaker than them. So, that was the reason they never wore armor. Before they departed, Krune looked at Hazak and said, "We''ll be back soon. Protect this place until then." "Rest assured, Sir Pestlor. Even if the powerhouses of this city attack this place at once, I''ll still be able to defend this place," Hazak said while patting its chest. Smiling, Krune waved his hand, leaving the mansion. The trio of him, Flita, and Wrister exited the mansion and arrived at an underground transportation network where they hailed a private bus meant exclusively for soldiers like them. In the city, there were two forces that fought on the battlefield. The first was the soldiers, those that were formed by most of the populace. They acted as units consisting of their respective tiers, armed to fight together and plow through the battlefield. They formed the majority of the forces on the battlefield. Surprisingly, soldiers had guaranteed spoils of war. After all, there existed a strict team of observers that acted from behind enemy lines, marking down the kills of every soldier. Then, there were the transporters that collected the demon corpses, bringing them into the city to be processed. As all records were maintained fairly, there was no fear of malpractice or the rewards of someone''s efforts going unnoticed or stashed away. After all, there were numerous teams of observers working about on the battlefield, both openly and covertly. This way, numerous records were kept, preventing any single party from tampering with the records. After all, even if a single record was tampered with, rewards were only given out after all the records were cross-checked. So, when there was a sign of tampering, the respective observer group would be punished. Over time, it created an information system where no one dared to tamper with the results in fear that they would be reported, causing all their hard work to go down the drain. That was why the soldiers were able to calmly fight on the battlefield with the assurance that their efforts wouldn''t ever be wasted. It was then followed by the mercenaries. They formed about a small fraction of the battlefield, usually working around the borders. Wealthy families that developed their exclusive forces used this mercenary service. The city would auction off large pieces of the battlefield in an auction. Then, the families that bought off pieces of land on the battlefield would be able to use it privately for a select period of time. This way, they''ll be able to reap benefits from slaying all the demons that pass through the respective area. There were both big and small areas that were auctioned off. Based on the appearing horde of demons, the value for every place would vary every day. So, the auction house contesting for these pieces of land was heavily eyed by every powerful family of the city. On top of that, since it was a daily occurrence, everything was conducted online, making the process quick. Among the lands under the hands of the mercenaries, most were auctioned off. Then again, some were left as free grounds. It was where the commoners trying to test their luck would head towards. Those that made a name for themselves in these public grounds would be eyes by the powerful families to be recruited into. At present, Wrister had indeed bought a private piece of land for themselves. It was only valid for a day, but the area was big enough for more than 100 warriors to fight. Plus, it was a place frequented by Tier 3 Demons constantly. So, it was a pretty expensive piece of land. Wrister had expended a significant sum of his money to buy this piece of land. However, he wasn''t concerned about the cost. After all, he and his granddaughter were already at the peak of Tier 4. Any sum of money could easily be earned by them. After all, with their strengths, they only had to fear the Red Demons. After journeying for three hours, their bus had finally reached a massive building, the biggest and largest of the city. It was where all the warriors from the city congregated to head into the battlefield. And, since the entire source of revenue for the city was from the battlefield, the city''s workforce was in the place. It was the most bustling and chaotic place in the entire city. If not for the fact that warriors had to rest and recover from their injuries and replenish their expended energy, a process that took a lot of time due to the nutrition lacking fishes they ate, the place would have been practically filled by people to the extent even air wouldn''t pass through. It was an eighty-story structure, shaped into a crescent moon, spanning a length of five kilometers and a width of two kilometers. It was simply a concrete behemoth. Once they reached the building, the trio had to go through a myriad of headaches to finish the formalities. The formalities consisted of a series of identity verification and other matters. Even though Krune was slightly apprehensive at the start, once the process concluded, he heaved a sigh of relief. It was already evening by the time they were done with everything. Unwilling to waste any more time, they headed into the open, walking through the narrow bridge that was covered with humans either heading towards or leaving from the battlefield. Spanning a width of 100 meters, it wasn''t much for the crowd to move through. Thankfully, they only had to traverse a distance of one kilometer to reach the battlefield. As it was getting dark, Krune noticed massive beams of light fall on the battlefield from the crescent moon-shaped building, brightening it up, allowing the humans to see during the night without trouble. Upon seeing the shouts of roars and the slaughter conducted nonstop in the place that was covered by a thick layer of blood, Krune shuddered, muttering as he gazed at the unending stream of demons arriving from the other side, "Demon Invasion¡­!" Chapter 1018: Private Ground in the Green Strip The massive lights from the city cast large beams onto the battlefield, lighting it up like it was daytime. Krune walked alongside the crowd, noticing the soldiers head into the center of the battlefield while the mercenaries split off to the sides. Their ground was on the right. They had to travel for around seven kilometers along the battlefield''s borders first. The battlefield spanned a length of 20 kilometers and a width of 15 kilometers. So, their ground was almost located along the edge. As they calmly walked over the sides, Krune noticed that Wrister was getting excited as time passed. The battlefield was a place where life forces were snuffed out one after another. To those who were sensitive to such things, it would make them awry. Their mental states could collapse upon seeing the numerous losses of lives around them. As for Wrister, he seemed to have entered a state of drunken stupor, precisely because he could feel the loss of life. It seemed that the sensation caused him to be drunk on the lifeforce emanating from his body. It was as if he had a surplus. Krune was worried if his condition would hinder their battle when Flita assured him, saying, "Grandfather is always like this. Plus, this state allows him to sense threats clearly. That''s partly the reason he had survived the ambush on our family before." Even though Flita was speaking calmly, it seemed that she was the same as her grandfather. Her face slowly flushed red as her feet seemed to be tipsy, light-footed. However, Krune realized that she was walking in a stance that made it seem like her body was weightless. ''Is this a trait exclusive to their family?'' Upon seeing that their strange states did more good than harm, Krune didn''t comment on the matter, closing his eyes as he walked to get a clearer picture of the battlefield, activating his Sonic Radar. The innumerous screams and roars, the clashing of blades and claws, the spurting of blood, the collapsing sounds of bodies and limbs falling on the blood-covered ground, the sonic booms caused by the intense exchange between experts along the battlefield, and the intense nauseating stench, Krune took them all in, realizing once again that he was someone who didn''t like wars. It was nauseating to the extreme for him to even be in the place. Unsurprisingly, when he stepped foot on the battlefield and saw the layer of blood that was as high as five centimeters, almost drowning his feet into it, Krune felt the urge to freeze everything in the place and call it a day. It seemed that when the quantity of blood increased beyond a certain duration, they would overflow and fall into the Abyssal Trench. Because of this, the height of the blood on the battlefield never crossed five centimeters. The trio began to walk through the battlefield, quickly crossing the private grounds bought by powerful families. Those at the back of the family were youngsters, facing off against the Demon Soldiers as training and a means of revenue. The stronger demons were killed off before that, only allowing the weaker ones for them to dispose of. That was how the battlefield worked. In the length of 20 kilometers, there was a dividing line at the center. On one side, the humans were dominant. On the other side, the demons were dominant. The tier of the demons decreased from the 10-kilometer mark, leaving only Demon Soldiers at the final two kilometers of the battlefield. For the first two kilometers from the 10-kilometer mark, the battlefield was the fiercest. After all, this was where the Red Demons were the most active. All the powerhouses faced the Red Demons here, trying their best to prevent any from passing them. So, this stretch of two kilometers on the battlefield was called the Red Strip. The third and fourth kilometers from the 10-kilometer point was called the Yellow Strip, the place where Tier 4 Warriors clashed with Yellow Demons, trying their best to prevent any Yellow Demons from breaking through their net. The Yellow Strip was followed by the Green, Blue, and Violet Strips. The Violet Strip was the end of the battlefield. Beyond that was the bridge leading into the city. At least two Tier 5 powerhouses stood guard here, preventing any demon from setting foot on the bridge. While passing through the place, Krune looked around casually, failing to find any familiar faces that he detested. Then again, he was thankful for not spotting them. Even he wasn''t sure if he would remain placid once he saw them. There was a good chance he would spam air needles on their faces until they died. However, that would cause all the warriors standing in reserve within the city to come out as a punitive force to kill him. With that, Krune was thankful for their lack of presence, planning to deal with them once he reached Tier 5. Their ground was located in the Green Strip that bordered the Yellow Strip. It was the most dangerous ground in the Green Strip since the chances of Tier 4 Demons intruding was high in the area. Well, that was also why it was really expensive. As for the families contesting Wrister during the auction, they usually consisted of those with at least 20-30 Tier 4 Warriors with significant influence. They weren''t like the Ralk family that only had two Tier 4 Warriors. ''Then again, none of it matters. Even in their present state, if the Ralk Family has 10 descendants, they would get 10 Tier 4 Warriors within four years. Simple as that.'' Krune smirked as he calmly evaded the Green Demons that lunged at him. As they were still on foreign grounds, he couldn''t kill them. That would be the same as stealing prey. Even though no one cared about that since the number of demons was endless, it still would cause others to raise an eyebrow. After all, all the private grounds worked on a time basis. And, the number of Demons they killed in this duration signified their income. With that, Krune didn''t face any Green Demons, calmly focusing on the Yellow Demons far away as he activated his Sonic Radar. Chapter 1019: You’re Too Weak, Call Your Boss Sonic Radar! Krune scouted throughout the battlefield, outlining every demon and human in his mind. Even though his mind was currently that of a mortal, he was still able to process everything with an intense level of detail. After all, he had the healing energy to rely upon, using it to heal his brain''s damage from the overexertion. One after another, the numerous splashes of what seemed like tsunamis resounded in his perception. They were the shockwaves produced from the movements of the strong demons, Yellow and Red. After all, only they were capable of breaking through the sound barrier while fighting. The moment they arrived at their private ground, Wrister and Flita looked at Krune, nodding once. Then, they took out a tiny piece of meat from their pouches and swallowed them. Immediately, their expressions turned into one of bliss as their bodies brimmed with energy. After all, the piece of meat they swallowed was special. It was the meat of a red fish, brimming with enough energy that a single fish was enough to fill their bodies with enough energy that they would feel like bursting. As for Krune, thanks to his Ocean Heart, he was able to consume five such fishes. Though, at present, even he only packed meat worth two red fishes. After all, it was only recently that red fishes began to appear in the second reservoir. Plus, there were only ten of them in total. Krune had killed and packed the meat of four of them, two for him and one each for Flita and Wrister. And now, to have enough energy while fighting, they each swallowed a piece of the meat. Krune then lifted his sword, a Tier 4 Demon Arms that had been used by Flita''s father before. Upon seeing a Green Demon, he hacked once, beheading it easily. After all, the Green Demons hadn''t reached the peak of Tier 3 yet. Most of them had hurriedly approached the battlefield upon birth and hadn''t had enough time to reach the peak of their growth. To a Tier 4 like him, it was a small fry. Krune stomped on the ground once, moving before the splash of blood could fall on him. Along his wake fell the severed heads of numerous Tier 3 Demons. Their first plan was to farm for Tier 3 Demon Cores. After all, they were precious money. Plus, they needed money to take care of their expense. As the cost of food and water would only grow in the future, Krune planned to stave off some of the family''s burden in terms of money. As it was pretty easy to kill the Green Demons, Krune didn''t wish to leave such a source of money alone. If the Ralk family grew richer, there only existed benefits for him. So, Krune simply danced through the ground they had bought, killing all the Green Demons in the area. The ground borders were marked by flat plates created using the bones of demons. They were marked with the respective number for every ground. On top of that, they also formed a border, one that was pretty apparent since they peeked out of the blood-covered ground. Once Krune finished killing all the Green Demons in the area, a team of personnel arrived, swiftly carrying all the corpses with them. They were part of a private agency Wrister was on good terms with. Their only task was to transport demon corpses from the battlefield to the city. Even though Krune had just slain a bunch of Green Demons, even more arrived within the next ten seconds, causing him to look at it with an incredulous gaze. ''They really are like an unending stream. If the city wasn''t as big and heavily populated as it is, and if the bridge to the battlefield was any wider, humanity would have lost long ago.'' For the first round, Krune took action. Flita followed next, killing all the Green Demons. After that, Wrister took action, killing the third wave of Green Demons. They allowed the Tier 2 and Tier 1 Demons to simply run past them, just dodging a little to evade. After all, it was simply a waste of energy in trying to kill them. And, as long as they waited for around ten seconds, Green Demons would fill up the place once again. It was better to conserve their energy and hunt Demons efficiently. Soon, while hunting, Krune focused on using his Sonic Radar, noticing a lone Yellow Demon charging in the Yellow Strip. He noticed quite a few of them, smiling for an instant as he unleashed his Neon Radiance for a fraction of a second, making it as thin of a beam as possible, accurately targeting the Yellow Demon''s eyes. The Yellow Demon flinched, closing its eyes in reflex before opening it a second later to glare at Krune, getting angry upon noticing his mocking smile. To make things worse, Krune lightly turned around, bent a little, craned his hand backward and tapped his buttock, taunting the Yellow Demon. Fuck! You! He could hear the Yellow Demon''s screams as it leaped through the air, flying straight at him. As for Krune, he altered his body''s position, taunting the other Yellow Demons that had glared his way. Simultaneously, all of them jumped towards him. "Haha, this is nice!" Krune laughed as he spun once, slashing forth with his sword as he decapitated two Yellow Demons instantly. When three others landed right after that, he punched one on the left, kicked the one on the right, and flashed a smile towards the one in the center. Upon seeing their reactions, Krune muttered in all seriousness, "It seems my smile is the deadliest attack. Sigh, such is my fate of being too handsome." His action, his tone of voice, his manner of speech, and the overflowing arrogance on his face caused the Yellow Demons to wish they could kill him first and erase the scene from their memories. They immediately began to attack him nonstop as Krune defended himself, smiling when his attackers failed to even get in a hit on him. "Weak! Weak! Weak! You turtles are too weak! Call your boss! You know, that red guy!" Chapter 1020: Mockery Battle Krune panted a little, watching the more than 20 Yellow Demon corpses that lay under him. As for Flita, she had killed around 10 while Wristed had killed another 15. Altogether, they had killed 45 Yellow Demons on their own. Wrister and Flita were beginning to tire out, having fought against such strong enemies. Even though their bodies were still brimming with energy, a tinge of exhaustion was seeping into their systems. Krune lightly patted their shoulders, as if to show support. But in actuality, he was seeping some healing energy into their bodies. Since he was touching their shoulders, the light he emitted wasn''t visible to anyone else. Once he noticed that they were at their optimal conditions, Krune recovered himself as well, now focusing as he tensed up, having discovered a Red Demon far away. As Red Demons rarely appeared on the battlefield, encountering one was hard, not to mention finding one that was the weakest of the lot. The Red Demon he found wasn''t weak by any means. Rather, it was stronger than the average Red Demon. Normally, he would have ignored such a strong creature and would have found something else to kill, but upon looking at it, Krune paused in his action, for a moment turning no different to a statue. Red Demon! It wasn''t a normal Red Demon, but the one that had attacked him when he arrived at the battlefield right after appearing in Layer 2. He wasn''t someone who voluntarily picked a fight with others. But against foes that tried to kill him, he was like a king cobra. He would never forget them, ensuring that he would slaughter them when he encountered them in the future. And this Red Demon was one of such targets. Upon seeing it prowling about, sneak attacking humans to snack upon, and looking at its mockery-induced grin, the very same it used when it jumped on his Cloud Whale and intended to squash him like an ant, Krune''s eyes lost their usual vibrance. Ocean Heart! Suddenly, the intense sounds of thumping echoed, causing Wrister and Flita to shudder in response, losing their balance as they plopped to the ground. Followed by the echo was the rumbling of sea waves resounding throughout the massive battlefield. Krune looked at the Red Demon, causing it to immediately turn his way, startled by the piercing killing intent he emanated. For a moment, in its vision, the Red Demon could see the silhouette of numerous dishes behind Krune, for a moment confused by the sharpness of the killing intent and the abstract image of food behind him. What it didn''t know what the fact that Krune had eaten many creatures, whether sentient or not. And to an angered Krune, it was prey. Unknowing of this fact, the Red Demon smirked. "Interesting brat. To challenge me when you''re only at the peak of Tier 4." It stomped on the ground, flashing through the battlefield, shredding apart Tier 4 humans that stood along its way without any effort. "Guys, stay out of it," Krune said, not sparing a glance anywhere except his target. "That red fucker is mine." "S-Sure!" Flita made eye contact with Wrister, knowing very well that they couldn''t intrude upon this fight. Just the sound of sea waves they were hearing caused them to tremble, knowing very well that the god they secretly worshipped daily to was about to unleash his wrath. As the two retreated far back, Krune focused, noticing the Red Demon flash before him within a second, carrying a couple of human arms in its hands that it used like batons, smacking his legs. Krune guarded with his sword, skidding on the ground for twenty meters from the impact as his sword bent out of shape. Before he could use the Demon Arms to amplify himself, it was damaged beyond use. "Hmph!" He threw it on the ground and began to walk towards the Red Demon. For every step he took, the blood on the ground rippled with him as the center. Upon noticing that he wasn''t dead with a single attack, the Red Demon smiled, swallowing the human hands it carried with it. "Interesting." It then flashed before Krune, aiming a punch at his gut, watching in surprise when Krune evaded the attack. Dreams of the Heart¡ªOcean Turbulence! Active Ability¡ªCloud Whale! Krune didn''t summon his Cloud Whale this time, rather keeping it within himself, making use of its ability to generate air currents. With Ocean Turbulence, he overlaid all five crimson rings of his Ocean Heart into it, causing its power output to increase by five times. He also fused Moving Ripple into it, raising his control of the air currents, causing it to react with the blood on the ground, causing the two mediums to mix to raise a blood vapor. This state allowed both his abilities to generate water and air currents to function the greatest. With his speed raised to the limit, Krune reached a level where he was capable of withstanding the Red Demon''s speed. And when it punched, he evaded, clenching his hand into a fist before slamming it into the opponent''s chest. His attack didn''t even scratch the Red Demon, causing it to scoff in response, "For all the show you put, you''re weak." "You fuckface, don''t boast if you can''t even touch me," Krune retorted, slamming a punch on the opponent''s nose, causing it to bleed. Instantly, the Red Demon digested part of the human flesh it had consumed as it generated some miasma that it condensed in its nose, acting before it could be sucked into the battlefield by the mysterious force at effect in the place. As its nose healed, it grinned, slamming a punch right into Krune''s face, feeling the impact singe deep into its target. "Trash, you can''t even wound me." As it retracted its fist, grinning cunningly, it noticed Krune''s smashed face convulse for a moment before it healed up, soon turning pristine. Grabbing the Red Demon''s horns, Krune kneeled at its nose, causing a lot of blood to spill out in the process. "You''re no different, bastard." Chapter 1021: The Reason Krune Cursed Nonstop Intense sounds of punches resounded as Krune and the Red Demon exchanged attacks one after another, healing their damage. Externally, it seemed like they were exchanging attacks barbarically, but in actuality, the Red Demon''s punches lacked their usual power. After all, when it stepped foot on the ground, craning strength in its legs, the blood rippled, turning into a cushion that absorbed the force from its stomps, this way diverting less energy to its hips for its punches to harness. As for Krune, his attacks were amplified in speed by his two abilities working in conjunction, generating enough currents to accelerate his attacks to maximum speed. This way, he was able to keep up with the Red Demon that possessed a superior physique. Having faced Hazak, a Red Demon that he had personally trained in the air of fighting, Krune had tremendous experience in fighting against Red Demons. So, he knew exactly what he was doing. Normally, the plan had been to gang up on a Red Demon as a team of three and defeat it. However, upon seeing the detestable Red Demon that was the target of his revenge, Krune changed his plans, intending to solo it. Unlike a normal fight to the death, Krune mocked its pride, showing his healing prowess to it, forcing it to compare who among them was able to last longer. He relied on his healing energy to heal swiftly while the Red Demon relied on the miasma it produced from devouring the arms of numerous Tier 4 humans it had slaughtered along its way. The attacks of the Red Demon were simple and powerful, pummelling his body with its devastating power. In response, it seemed Krune''s attacks lacked power, only withstanding due to his powerful healing ability. But in actuality, his threatening attacks were subtle. Every time his fist came into contact with the Red Demon''s body, he emitted a beam of Neon Radiance into its body, one fused with his Frozen Blood. Having known the anatomy of a Red Demon clearly thanks to Hazak, he targeted the stomach where it would be able to know clearly. After all, he seeped the freezing effect into the human flesh in its stomach. Krune''s attacks numbed the Red Demon due to the freezing effect. But surprisingly, it thought the effect was just due to his punches. After all, Krune''s punches also packed a lot of power, having been amplified by the two currents. At the start, Krune was relying on the blood to create vapor to generate both water and air currents using it. But upon realizing that it would be too obvious, he seeped some freezing effect through his legs, forming a layer of ice on the blood. And, the air currents he created ground the ice, creating a transparent mist. Even though the preparation took time, Krune was able to stall the Red Demon with a flurry of mockery he unleashed, "Are your horns just for decoration? That''s going to be my back scratcher from today onwards." "Fuck you! I''ll use your skull as my piss collector!" the Red Demon scowled before punching Krune''s stomach, causing him to spit out blood in response. Quickly, while it was mocking him, Krune spitted all the ejected blood into the Red Demon''s mouth, having accelerated it using his two currents. Moreover, he directly sent them through the Red Demon''s food pipe, causing his blood to arrive at its stomach. And immediately, the insides of its stomach began to freeze up due to the frozen blood. Then again, the interiors were already cold enough due to his prior attacks, giving the Frozen Blood even lower resistance, freezing up the insides immediately. But right at this moment, Krune bellowed, slamming punches into the Red Demon''s chest one after another. But this time, he used a self-destructive approach, using Moving Ripple internally as he fused it on his Frozen Blood, causing his blood to eject out of his fists like needles and pierce the Red Demon''s skin. At the moment it pierced through, the Frozen Blood spilled into it in excess, using the fraction of a second to do so. Even though the quantity was less, Krune attacked nonstop, taking the Red Demon''s attacks while doing so. He had received enough attacks to his head that his jaws were crushed, his eyeballs shattered, and his nose pummelled deep into his face. There were also numerous broken ribs poking into his lungs, preventing him from breathing properly. But Krune didn''t care, attacking the Red Demon''s joints one after another, causing the Frozen Blood to seep into them, numbing the places. The Red Demon was only able to use the miasma to heal the injury. As for the frozen effect, it was unable to destroy it as fast enough as Krune injected it within. "Scared now, fucker? You shouldn''t have sat on me four years ago," Krune grunted as he spat out blood. "What¡­that rainbow dumbass was you¡­?" The Red Demon was surprised when something flew into its mouth when it opened to curse Krune. From the start, Krune had been cursing it every time he landed a hit. Unwilling to lose on any front, it cursed him in return, forming a habit as the two cursed themselves while fighting. Moreover, no matter its injuries, it wouldn''t die. After all, it had enough food in its belly to heal itself back to full health even from a mortal injury. So, it was just having fun hunting a rather tricky prey. As for the healing effect, it wasn''t too surprised. After all, it already knew about the existence of Water Essence from torturing some humans during its past. So, it assumed Krune overdosed himself with Water Essence to exhibit such regenerating speed. It was simply waiting for the healing effect to vanish so that it could feat upon such a delicious prey. And as a result, when Krune attacked it and cursed while talking of something, it immediately recalled the time when it saw a strange creature swimming through the battlefield, opening its mouth to curse in return when the Cloud Whale swam into its mouth, immediately exploding to spill out all the Frozen Blood it had sucked out from Krune''s body. This was the reason he manipulated the Red Demon into a cursing session. And immediately as the Red Demon''s mouth began to freeze up, he plunged his left hand into it, punching forth using his right hand with all his might, aiming at the underside of its jaw, causing it to shut up, severing his left hand in response. Now that his left hand was within its mouth, all the Frozen Blood he had forcefully stuffed into it using Moving Ripple spilled out, flowing into its body as its internals began to completely turn into ice. Chapter 1022: Tier 5 Essence Uncaring about his bleeding left hand, Krune gazed at the Red Demon''s frozen expression, muttering as he punched its eyes, "Pick your enemies wisely in the future." He punched its eyes with all his might, causing his blood to spill out of his fist, forming a blade of blood that punched through its eyes, piercing its brain. Using Moving Ripple, the blade of blood travelled radially, having divided into numerous smaller needles. The needles of blood were like the spikes on a Morningstar''s head, piercing the brain in numerous locations. Even though the toughness of the brain''s muscles caused the blood needles to break repeatedly, Krune attacked nonstop. Moreover, his blood caused the brain to freeze, turning into a layer of ice which prevented the Red Demon from reacting to his attacks. He then punched it nonstop, stomping it to the ground as he grabbed hold of its horns, ripping its head apart. Knowing very well that as long as a demon''s core was intact, it would be able to revive perfectly upon coming in contact with miasma. That was why the first demon he had killed upon arriving at Layer 2 revived soon after. It was because he hadn''t attacked its Demon Core. Then again, even if he ripped it out then, thanks to the miasma around him, the core would have condensed flesh around itself soon after, reviving the demon. But now, there was no miasma in the surroundings to help the Red Demon''s revival. To prevent any additional problems, he inserted his right hand through a hole he poked through using his blood blades, pulling out its Demon Core. Smiling, he pocketed it before kicking the Red Demon''s corpse constantly to seep the external blood into it and thaw the frozen internals. He didn''t wish for there to be any traces of his attacks in its body that could be researched upon. Moreover, he stealthily took out an ice sphere from his pouch, putting it into the Red Demon''s head, shattering it immediately. In it was a highly condensed miasma that Hazak had taken a month to condense. When it shattered, it coursed through the Red Demon''s body, beginning to melt all the ice before melting the shattered body of the Cloud Whale and his left hand. Soon, both of them were completely digested by the miasma, along with the numerous hands in its belly. Thanks to this miasma, the Red Demon''s body began to regenerate, rapidly growing to the extent it grew out another head. But no matter what, it would no longer revive, having lost its Demon Core. Krune plopped to the ground, muttering with a broken voice, "Finally, it''s over." His healing effect continued to heal him as Krune watched numerous Green Demons spring towards him, intending to devour him while he was in a weakened state. Flita and Wrister arrived on time, killing all the Green Demons and any other demon that approached Krune. A couple of nearby Yellow Demons arrived, intending to eat the human that had managed to kill a Red Demon. Wrister dealt with the two while Flita kept watch over Krune, unwilling to give a chance for anyone to sneak attack on him. Krune wasn''t worried about anyone seeing his healing figure. After all, he could simply say that he had consumed a bunch of Water Essence. If someone still dared to say anything otherwise, he could simply deal with them. After all, he knew about a certain flaw in his plans, the reason he had planned to team up with Wrister and Flita. After all, when he killed a Red Demon, he would receive 10 Godly Points. And that meant it would be registered on his tablet. He wasn''t sure who held his tablet right now, or if anyone even looked at it after so long had passed. But if they did, they would notice a new line had emerged, one that would say as follows. [Killed a Supreme Demon: 10 Godly Points obtained] That one statement would prove that Krune was still alive. That was why he had hoped for either Wrister or Flita to deal the final blow. But in the end, he had killed the Red Demon himself. "Well, I''ll just deal with it, I guess. I have enough contingency measures prepared for that," Krune muttered, having planned accordingly. The base with the bone trees and the fishes was located in a different location, filed under an alias unrelated to the Ralk Family. Moreover, enough preparations had been done to ensure that, if necessary, the Ralk family members could live in hiding until they reached the peak of Tier 5. There were just two members, after all. Before they set off for this hunt, they had completed all the necessary preparations. Finished with the hunt, Krune and Flita hurriedly returned while Wrister stayed behind to finish all the formalities. Upon returning to their mansion, both had excited expressions. After all, they would reach Tier 5 now. Using the Essence Generator, Krune converted the Tier 5 Demon Core into a Tier 5 Essence, feeling the intense thumping of his heart as he swallowed it. The development effect coursed through his body as Krune closed his eyes, sensing a change in his Ocean Heart once again. Its development effect was getting upgraded once again. And, having been upgraded four times already, it was even faster this time, concluding within a couple of hours. Later the next morning, Wrister arrived, slightly tired but brimming with excitement. Once they all had their meals, Krune recovered his expended energy completely, activating the development effect as he induced them into the two, also circulating the same in his body by fusing it into his Frozen Blood. Now, until they reached the peak of Tier 5, they wouldn''t face any limitations. And Tier 5 was the peak reached by humanity, a weight of 2000 kilograms. Once he reached this point, Krune planned to reclaim his Monster Gecko armor and tablet. ''It''s been a long time since Raka took them from me.'' Hazak soon exited its room, sensing the change in Krune as it kneeled on the floor, proclaiming, "My Lord, you are unstoppable." Chapter 1023: Oh Shit A year and a half later, in the royal treasure, located in the deepest section of the city''s administrative building, was a woman. She was old and frail, looking like she was at the final vestiges of her life. However, in contrast, her body seemed heavy, the toughest in fact. The fact that she had been the only one to oversee and protect the royal treasury was a testament to her strength. She was the previous City Lord, the mother to the current City Lord. During her prime, she had even clashed with a Demon God once. Sadly, it wasn''t even a fight. A single hit was all it took to bring her to death''s door. But for some reason, the Demon God had let her live. After that incident, she retired and focused on healing her injuries using Water Essences. Once recovered, she decided to oversee the royal treasury, stepping back from everything. Pacing around the massive hall, she looked at numerous items, sighing as she could feel their past glory. Most of the items in the place were thought to be brought by the first generation. Each of those items contained boundless might. And now, they were placed in different altars of sorts, one per item. The old lady arrived before an altar, looking at the sword placed on it. She inched her hand forth, lightly touching it, immediately feeling as if her body was poisoned. Hurriedly retracting her finger, she sighed, ''Just who are our ancestors? There''s too much mystery surrounding them. Did they really hail from the legendary immortals? Why did they come here? And why have they decided to settle here? Were they fleeing from something?'' Her thoughts weren''t too far, though. After all, the first generation of humans to arrive at the place were cultivators from the God Realm. Except for a few of them who entered voluntarily, everyone else had been forcefully pulled into it. Left with no other choice, they had to settle in the place and get accustomed to the laws of the place. Of course, all the items in the royal treasury were those the cultivators had brought with them. Weapons, armors, pills, storage rings, robes, and other related things. To a cultivator, they weren''t much, just the items they used on a daily basis. But to a mortal, even the robe was a stellar item. After all, even that had a faint layer of Godly Energy within it. To a mortal, Godly Energy was something wielded by the gods, something they couldn''t even touch. That''s why she experienced such a heavy reaction even though she only touched the sword lightly. Had she remained in contact for a couple more seconds, she would have burst into a murky goo. When Feifei arrived at Layer 3, she had used her sword to kill her foes. Veins had popped on her hand, intending to rip it apart. She seemed on the verge of death for wielding a weapon of the gods as a mortal. But in the end, the amount of damage she received from holding a weapon of the gods was way less than what the old lady currently faced. It was because of one difference. Even though she had become a mortal, Feifei was originally part of the God Realm, having high cultivation. She was only forcefully turned into a mortal by the laws of the Sub-Realm. So, the amount of damage she received from holding a weapon of the gods wasn''t too much. But in the case of the old lady, she was a true mortal. If she took a step into the God Realm, just the sheer Godly Energy would render her into dust. So, it was impossible for her to even hold a weapon of the gods, not to mention using it for a moment like Feifei. At the far end of the treasury were the items brought by the first generation. Once she arrived at the other end of the treasury, the old lady came across numerous Demon Arms that were at the peak of Tier 5. They were the precious resources of their family, and in extension, the city. The old lady finally arrived before a certain altar, gazing at the horn placed atop it. It was a horn belonging to a Demon God. It was given to her by the Demon God she had faced, left to her after her life had been spared. It was unknown as to why it did that. The old lady tried to solve the puzzle throughout her life but had failed to do so to date. Just as she was trying to think of another line of thought to research it further, her line of sight fell on a tablet that was positioned farther back. It was Krune''s tablet. Unlike the other tablets, this was the only tablet that had information about the fifth item on the list that could be purchased using Godly Points. Moreover, it also contained other precious information that astounded them. Its design was also slightly different from the rest. So, all in all, it was kept in the royal treasury for safekeeping. All the information displayed on it had already been noted. And now, since there wasn''t any other use to it, they just kept it in one corner of the treasury. Upon seeing the tablet, the old lady''s vision glazed over, thinking of some of the records her ancestors had left behind, muttering inwardly, ''Will I be able to find its mystery before my death?'' While thinking of that, she gently touched the tablet, caressing it once, having done that many times at the start when it was handed over to her. But after failing to find anything new after a while, she eventually stopped probing it. But now, thanks to her worries, she had habitually touched it, suddenly noticing a new line had appeared. [Killed one Supreme Demon: Obtained 10 Godly Points] The old lady stared at it as her eyes widened, causing her to shudder before bolting out of the treasury, "Oh shit!" ¡­ Flying above a certain prison that had been rebuilt, remaining invisible, were Krune and Hazak. Staring at the familiar prison, Hazak inquired, "My Lord, why here?" "There''s a score I have to settle here," Krune said in response. Chapter 1024: The Smiling Monster "Well, let''s head inside first," Krune told Hazak after that as the Cloud Whale slowly flew, arriving before the prison''s entrance as he used his Sonic Radar. Thanks to his increased strength and his unceasing daily training, his Sonic Radar was leaps and bounds better than when he first arrived at Layer 2. Now, he was completely able to see through the entire prison, able to judge the material strength of the walls, scan through the people and demons within, and obtain a precise three-dimensional image of everything. On top of that, having used it enough times, he no longer had to think about what he perceived through Sonic Radar. Everything was instinct now. His brain didn''t even need to process most of the information he perceived. Everything was already in him as muscle memory. So in an instant, Krune saw two figures seated at the topmost floor of the prison. Their body density was a cut above the rest, dense to the extent his Sonic Radar was unable to fully penetrate through their bodies. Upon seeing their figures, Krune determined that it was Raka and the rectangular-faced man that he met when he first arrived at the city. Krune gazed at Hazak and asked, "What do you plan to do with the demons held captive within the prison?" "I will only do what is beneficial to you, Sir Pestlor," Hazak replied. "We demons don''t have a sense of camaraderie in the first place. So, I don''t actually care about their well-being." "Then, there''s a middle-aged old man inside. I want you to fight him. Don''t kill him, but sever his limbs first," Krune ordered, watching Hazak nod in response as he drove the Cloud Whale towards the prison''s entrance. There was enough security at the place. Plus, there wasn''t enough of a gap to just drive the Cloud Whale through. So, Krune had no choice but to deactivate the Cloud Whale. Coincidentally, he had deactivated it right when it touched the ground. So, they weren''t even detected by the guards that otherwise would have had he deactivated it in the air, causing them to fall to the ground. The moment the Cloud Whale vanished, the two landed on the ground, instantly accelerating to the peak. They passed through the door and headed up the stairs, undetected by the guards. Rather, a couple of seconds later, intense gales were created, causing everyone to scream in surprise. "Who the heck are you?" Raka frowned as she hurriedly picked up her weapon, glaring at the two individuals that burst through the doors, standing before them with imposing momentum. "You sure you don''t remember me?" Krune smiled, pointing at himself. "You even took my tablet and armor. While at it, you also tortured me pretty horribly." "Y-You were alive?" Raka finally realized it as she exchanged glances with her master, the rectangular-faced man. The two of them shot a glance at Hazak, shuddering upon looking at its appearance. Hazak looked different from a regular Red Demon. It was more imposing, sporting scales on its skin that glistened with different colors while viewed from different angles. It was not to mention that Hazak''s horns were huge compared to other Red Demons. Overall, the sheer presence it exuded was beyond what any Red Demon had ever emitted. With a solemn tone, Raka gazed at Krune, stealthily pressing a button on her wristwatch as she asked, "What do you want?" "Let''s see." Krune tilted his head to the side, thinking about it as he said, "I believe I already told you what I wanted. Anyways, let''s first hurt you a bit and talk after that, shall we?" Dreams of the Heart¡ªOcean Turbulence! Walking on the street were a couple of friends, soldiers that had braved through the battlefield as one unit. Currently, they were enjoying their day off, resting while recovering their energy. Suddenly, the air turned humid while they heard the sounds akin to the ocean waves. "What is this?" Just as they wondered, there was a sharp reflection of sunlight, causing them to squint in response. Immediately, they turned in the direction it was from, their mouths agape as they noticed the prison had now turned into a giant ice pillar. The pillar reached so high that practically everyone from the area was able to see. Inside the prison, Raka trembled from the cold, shivering a little as she looked at Krune in fear like he was a monster. However, she didn''t have the chance to say anything as Krune''s figure flickered. In the next moment, his fist met her face, sending her flying towards the walls, crashing into it as the ice blocked her from going beyond. "Raka!" The rectangular-faced man shouted in alarm when Hazak appeared before him, gently extending a hand forward. Suddenly, his palm parted way to reveal a mouth that grinned, shooting out a tongue from within. The tongue directly pierced through the rectangular-faced man''s stomach, drawing out a lot of blood. "Damn you, demon!" Cursing, he grabbed his Demon Arms, a war axe. He clenched its hilt hard, feeding it his blood, causing his physical abilities to receive a boost. Immediately, he and Hazak began to exchange blows one after another, creating enough shockwaves that all the surrounding ice began to shatter. Raka got up with a start, coughing as her nose bled. She noticed Krune remaining in the same place as before, as if waiting for her to get up. She then noticed Krune''s right-hand flicker once. Immediately, something pierced her left arm, causing her to flinch, screaming in shock. She gazed at her left, noticing a palm-sized Cloud Whale piercing her arm. Plus, it seemed to be injecting something into her body, turning her hand numb. Raka pulled out the Cloud Whale, intending to throw it away when it exploded, spilling out a bunch of Frozen Blood onto her hands, freezing it. Krune''s right hand flickered once again as another palm-sized Cloud Whale pierced through her thigh, injecting Frozen Blood into her once again. And right when she was about to pull it out yet again, it exploded, spilling all the Frozen Blood onto her, causing her to shudder from the cold as a layer of ice formed on her. With that, she looked at Krune, afraid of the monster that she had failed to dispose of properly. Chapter 1025: Overwhelming Power "I shouldn''t have allowed you to escape?" Raka grumbled as she smacked her hand on her body, enacting a flurry of hits, breaking off all the ice while increasing her body''s temperature using the action. "Allowed me to escape? Quite the interesting choice of words you have there." Krune laughed, his expression still a smile as he asked, "By the way, I was wondering why you tried to torture me instead of asking me about the details normally?" "Shouldn''t Gehen have informed you of my arrival?" "Who''s Gehen?" Raka was confused all of a sudden. However, she didn''t allow herself to be distracted, thinking that everything he was doing was Krune''s scheme to catch her off guard. Grabbing hold of her Demon Arms, an axe with a curved head, she watched it absorb her blood, injecting her with an energy that raised her abilities to a higher level. She gently stomped on the floor, flashing before Krune to hack him. In response, Krune raised his hand, condensing a column of ice that blocked the attack. Even though it shattered in response, he continued to generate more ice, eventually stopping the axe before it reached his hand. In exchange, his ice coursed through the axe, spreading over Raka''s hand, causing her to retract the weapon in response. She then flailed it around a couple of times, hitting the walls when she noticed that the ice was stronger than she had assumed. Left with no other choice, she smashed it on her knees, breaking it off eventually. Though, when she did that, Krune watched her actions with a smile. While doing so, Raka was able to perceive a formless killing intent envelop her, increasing in intensity as time passed. The killing intent was as if she was being boiled in a bowl of oil. ''This guy is dangerous!'' She was assured of this fact now, seeping in even more of her blood into her Demon Arms, causing her body to emanate a tinge of blood mist. No longer able to hold back to prevent collateral damage, she unleashed her full strength, slamming a kick into Krune''s chest instantly. A layer of ice appeared in her way as she pummelled through it with her kick, eventually reaching Krune, sending him flying. However, she saw his hand flicker once again before she flinched in pain, watching the palm-sized Cloud Whale piercing the side of her neck. Just like before, it burst before she could pull it out, freezing her to a certain extent. On top of that, Krune no longer seemed willing to give her time to get rid of the ice anymore as the Cloud Whale appeared one after another, piercing numerous places on her body. And every single time, it exploded after injecting some Frozen Blood into her body. Around ten of such attacks later, even if she wished to move, her body had considerably slowed down. Even if she tried to move and increase her body temperature, a thin layer of ice began to form on her. No matter how many times she broke it, ice continued to form on her body. It was being generated from within her. As if to mock her efforts, the Cloud Whale continued to pierce her body in numerous locations, eventually causing her to stumble to the ground, no longer able to move. Her body was numb now. She was unable to feel anything, feeling her head spin as her blood wasn''t circulating enough. As her body turned still, an air needle arrived all of a sudden, piercing her left arm first. As the air needle slowly moved up and down, her left arm was fully severed. "Gah!" Raka screamed upon seeing the scene. But in actuality, her body was numb to the extent she hadn''t even felt any pain. A couple of seconds later, her right arm came off, followed by her legs. She had now been crippled. Calmly, Krune walked out of a hole, brushing off the dust on him as he arrived before Raka, looking undamaged. Upon seeing his condition, Raka was unable to believe it, "H-How? My kick should have caved your chest in. Just who the hell are you?!" "A hero," Krune replied. "Or at least, that was what I was supposed to be once I arrived here. Unfortunately, your and that other guy''s actions changed things." "So, you want revenge, then." Raka scoffed, closing her eyes. "Fine, do what you want with me." "Where did you keep my tablet and armor?" Krune asked, frowning when he saw Raka remaining silent, acting as if she had resigned herself to her fate. He then turned around, watching Hazak dragging a limbless man and asked, "Are you done?" "Sir Pestlor, he hasn''t spoken a word after being defeated." Hazak then asked, "What shall I do? Shall I torture them? Or, shall I capture their families and torture them before their eyes? Will that make them speak?" "That won''t be necessary," Krune said, gazing out. "Someone who''s willing to speak would have arrived by now." And right as he said that, there was a loud rumble as a vibration coursed through the gigantic prison building. "Let''s go out and meet them. Drag the two with you." Krune calmly brushed off the dust that fell on him, arriving before the wall as he kicked it once, revealing the outside. He then leaped out, landing on the road with a tremendous impact. Hazak landed behind him with an even greater impact, carrying the two captured humans with it. Through his Sonic Radar, Krune noticed numerous humans positioned around him, hidden within various buildings, intending to attack him the moment a signal was given. In fact, most of them were strong, seemingly at Tier 5. The peak power of the entire city seemed to have gathered at the place. However, Krune didn''t care about them for the time being, focusing on the two individuals standing before him. Even without the Sonic Radar, he was able to notice that the two people before him were at the peak of Tier 5. And that wasn''t all, but they were also stronger than any human at the peak of Tier 5. Upon seeing them, Krune closed his eyes for a moment as the sounds of an ocean rumbling intensified. Opening his eyes, he asked, entering a battle stance, "Are you the City Lord?" Chapter 1026: Where is My Tablet? It wasn''t a surprise that Krune had changed a lot since he had arrived at the God Realm. Even though it seemed like nothing much had changed, the changes in his personality had begun the moment he obtained his Spiritual Incarnation. After all, when he did that, he had devoured Little Cally. It was unknown what happened to Little Cally after that. However, it had never shown up the entire time. Whether it was something good or not, Krune wasn''t able to guess. In any case, he began to change after that. Then again, the change wasn''t noticeable. After all, he was still a wisp in essence. No matter what, some things about him never changed. However, everything started to change once he entered the Sub-Realm and arrived at Layer 3¡ªDouble Ocean. After being turned into a mortal, and a human at that, his control over his emotions started to change. He turned more emotional, his mental state exaggerated, and his mindset adapted to the weakness of a mortal being. As a human, he was more prone to emotions. As such, having stayed afloat on the ocean without anyone to talk to while having to be on constant guard against the fishes strained his mind to the limit. As if that wasn''t enough, he survived for a year in the darkness of the Primary Landmass, having to hunt and eat the Monster Geckos for a living. On top of that, the most prominent thing there were the bone trees, those that absorbed the blood of living creatures to grow. And the fact that he used them to strengthen himself was like breaking another mental restriction in himself. Eventually, pressed for survival, he went against some of his principles, killing the Monster Geckos to accumulate more power for himself. And in retrospect, he became more coldblooded. The fact that his blood had turned cold, thanks to Frozen Blood, also ensured that he wouldn''t ever be caught up in emotions like anger. Even if he felt anger, he would maintain a cool mind that was like a frozen blade, silently rending his foes apart. Having to fight, hunt, and eat his enemies for a living, Krune had already changed a lot. After that, when he met people again, he had softened a little. During the stay in the Secondary Landmass with the Seamstress and Solare, his mind and heart had healed to a certain extent. However...Krune also came to understand that all these changes to his personality were, in fact, connected to this Sub-Realm. He knew that his and even the emotions of the other participants were, somehow, connected to this place. It''s just that because he was also a wisp, he was probably the only one to notice it. Because of that, he wondered whether he would return to normal once he left this place. After that, he just began to consider the Sub-Realm as what he had intended to at the start, a place to train himself so that he wouldn''t face any blocks while cultivating in the future. Also, unwilling to spend too much time in the Sub-Realm, Krune intended to hurry through the layers and exit it soon enough. Even though he was in a hurry, he didn''t do anything rash, calmly proceeding through things as he had planned. But, everything changed when he was in a Checkpoint Turtle, intending to leave Layer 3 and arrive at Layer 2. He heard his wife''s voice. And through his Sonic Radar, he had picked up her appearance. Based on what he sensed at that time, Feifei wasn''t doing well. It seemed she had been mentally drained, judging by the creases on her face and her disheveled state. Naturally, he could clearly recall her voice. It was of one that was desperate, longing to be with him, fearful of losing him once again. It was apparent that Feifei had also been affected by the mentality of a mortal adversely. She had already been forcefully separated from Krune once they arrived at the God Realm. And it seemed the place she had been transported towards wasn''t safe. Even after arriving at the Sub-Realm, her problems followed suit, causing her endless troubles. She hadn''t said a word to him. Nevertheless, they had lived together for more than two centuries, spiritually connected. Just based on her scream, Krune was able to picture the life she had been living, causing his heart to squeeze in pain. Him experiencing pain was fine. It was something he was ready to face, so he didn''t mind that. But, to see Feifei face the same, he didn''t like that. Judging based on her strained voice then, it seemed she had led a disastrous life, surviving with the sole goal of reuniting with Krune. But after managing to evade her pursuers time and again, she finally managed to locate Krune. Sadly, just when she was close to him, he had left the place, heading to a faraway place once again. Considering the unstable mindset she might have had then, there was a good chance she might not have been able to endure anymore. Had she decided to take her life then¡­Krune was unable to imagine. Every night he closed his eyes, he was reminded of her screams, causing him to be plagued with worry. He had hoped to use the resources of the city to lay down the groundwork to treat Feifei favorably wherever she arrived at Layer 2. However, the initial reception was bad. They tortured Krune. Raka had crunched his bones to dust as she played with him. But all along, even though the pain was unbearable, a single thought flashed in his mind constantly. What if, Feifei was treated the same as him when she appeared in Layer 2? It was the final straw that shattered his emotional self. At that point, Krune decided on something. No matter who it was, anyone that hindered him from reuniting with his wife, he would eradicate them, no matter who they were. It was to the extent Krune had even changed his opinion on Soren, his friend that had separated him and Feifei. He wondered just what reason was so important that his wife had to suffer and be so emotionally damaged. He didn''t like that. As for reasons, they didn''t matter. "Keuk!" "Gurhh!" Raka and her master screamed as ice covered their faces, growing in size until their bodies were fully encased in ice, turning them into sculptures with their eyes wide open. Krune then gazed at the two people before him and asked, "Let me ask you this." "Where is my tablet?" Chapter 1027: The Old Lady’s Astonishment The City Lord gazed at the two individuals before him, understanding that they were the strongest enemies he had ever faced. He first focused on Hazak, thinking, ''A Red Demon that''s at the peak of its weight class and has mysterious powers.'' He then looked at Krune, thinking to himself, ''So, that''s Krune. As expected, he has mysterious powers but looks no different to a human. If he didn''t use any powers, he would blend right in with us. Though, his rainbow-colored hair is a dead giveaway.'' After freezing up Raka, Krune removed the dye on his hair using his abilities, causing his hair to return to its original color. Just as the City Lord had intended to communicate with him, his mother, the previous City Lord, patted his shoulder, stepping forward. Gazing at Krune, she asked, "Child, what''s your identity?" "Do you know of someone named Gehen?" Krune asked in return. "Gehen? Sorry, that name doesn''t ring a bell," The old lady shook her head as she replied. Krune sighed for a moment, realizing that the old lady was different from others. He didn''t wish to fight her, not when the other party had no intention to fight him. Pointing at the ground, he said, "I''m from below. If you know¡­" "I see." Her eyes widened as the old lady nodded. "That makes sense, then." She then asked, "Final question. Are you an ally or an enemy to our city?" "I don''t care about it, to be honest. I plan to leave soon anyway," Krune replied. "Then..." The old lady said as she pointed behind Krune with a trembling finger, "Can you make it disappear? I won''t be able to be calm with that here." "You can sense it?" Krune was surprised for a moment as he snapped his finger, causing the layer of ice on the Cloud Whale to shatter, revealing its appearance. At present, it was in its full glory, spanning a length of 25 meters. Upon seeing it, even though everyone was alarmed, the tense situation disappeared. They could feel their minds return to ease, their fighting spirits disappearing. Upon seeing the situation, the old lady thought, ''My killing intent is waning just in its presence. If we actually fought, I wouldn''t be able to unleash the entirety of my strength. This Krune isn''t just a strong individual.'' She then said, "Your tablet and armor are in my custody. Follow me to retrieve them." "Sure, let''s get going then," Krune said, causing the side of the Cloud Whale to shrink as he jumped atop it, riding it like a vehicle. Hazak sat behind him as Krune patted the spot before him, telling the old lady, "Please sit here. We can move pretty fast through this." "Excuse my presence, then," the old lady said, making a light jump as she gracefully landed atop the Cloud Whale. She then looked at the City Lord, pointing at the two sculptures on the road and at the ice-covered prison. She then told him, "Handle the situation here. I''ll take care of the rest." Even though he was worried, the City Lord decided to trust in her judgment, beginning to clean up the damage while some of the warriors started to break the ice on the prison. The Cloud Whale gently increased its altitude before flying towards the center of the city. Throughout the journey, no words were exchanged between them. An hour later, the Cloud Whale arrived above a massive palace that was situated in the center of the city. Upon the old lady''s directions, it landed at a massive open balcony, one where massive banquets were usually conducted. Deactivating the Cloud Whale, Krune followed the old lady. As for Hazak, it walked a step behind Krune, ready to react to any ambushes. "Our ancestors arrived approximately two thousand years ago and settled in this place due to its geographical advantages. Not much of that time has been recorded," the old lady started to talk, leading them towards a secluded chamber, opening the door into the treasury. "Placed here are objects our ancestors had brought with them. Unfortunately, we can''t even touch them now. If we do, we''ll die immediately," the old lady said. Entering the treasury, Krune gazed at the numerous items before him, unaffected. After all, they were just weapons and armors that he could create if he had enough materials. Looking at a sword, he muttered, "Three Stars God Foundation equipment." He then looked at a shield, muttering, "One Star God Core equipment." "Seven Star God Core equipment... Three Star Nascent God equipment... One Star Godly Fusion equipment¡­what the heck?" Krune iterated the levels of every item he came across. After doing it for some time, he turned around, noticing the old lady look at him in shock, her mouth agape. She was unable to control her astonishment, asking in a fluster, "Do you know what they are?" "Of course, I''m a blacksmith myself. I''ve created quite a few shields of that caliber," Krune replied. "Then, how can we wield them?" the old lady asked, excited at the prospect. "You can''t," Krune replied, gently touching a shield as he noticed the nerves on his hand protrude, bursting out after a couple of seconds. "This is what will happen to anyone that touches them. As mortals, we cannot touch equipment wielded by the gods." His healing energy coursed through his hand, beginning to heal it as Krune told her, "The difference is too vast. You''ll simply die if you try to wield it. After all, you''re just a mortal." "The equipment of the gods¡­" the old lady muttered, dazed. "Then, how can I ever wield them?" she asked soon after, anticipating his response. Even Hazak looked at Krune with widened eyes. It had touched a sword only a little but sensed that its hand was already on the verge of breaking down, even though the contact had been short. It made Hazak realize the true extent of the powers dwelling within the items and the power an individual had to possess to wield them. It understood the true extent of its master''s power, raising its hand as it proclaimed, "Master is a godly being!" Krune noticed his tablet placed atop an altar in one corner, arriving before it quickly as he touched it once, caressing it longingly before double-tapping it, watching it enter his glabella. Chapter 1028: This is…Spiritual Energy? The old lady was once again astonished upon noticing Hazak''s behavior towards Krune. If she hadn''t yet figured out everything, then she would have once been called the wise City Lord. With a tone of respect, she asked, "May I know why and how you came here?" "Sure, I don''t mind." Krune nodded, feeling somewhat relieved that he had obtained his tablet as he started to explain, "This is a Sub-Realm created by a God¡­" "A god, just like you?" the old lady asked in a hurry. "No." Krune shook his head, not minding the interruption as he clarified, "To a mortal, we could be called gods. But we''re just regular cultivators living in the God Realm. Among us, there are beings called Gods that oversee the entire God Realm. Only they could be truly called Gods. With that, some of them had joined hands to create this Sub-Realm." "I arrived here through the entrance in search of treasures," Krune said. "However, a lot many people were just forcefully brought here. Most of your ancestors should have belonged to the latter. Without enough strength to leave this place or simply of their own volition, they remained behind to create these cities." "Then, if we wish to leave this place, how can we do it?" the old lady asked. Krune summoned his tablet, pulling up the page with the item details, looking at the fifth item as he said, "Ticket to Layer 1 costs 1000 Godly Points. And from Layer 1, there''s a way to exit the Sub-Realm." The old lady hurriedly pulled up her tablet, watching the fifth line of the same list be invisible to her. She could only sigh in dejection, asking Krune, "Then, when you''re leaving, can you bring me with you?" "If that is possible, sure," Krune replied, turning around to see his Monster Gecko armor. But when he saw it, he could only sigh in disappointment, noticing the ragged state it had been reduced to. When he touched it, he was no longer able to feel anything from it. Sighing, Krune picked it up, hoping to see if he could restore it in the future. He then thought of something, gazing at the old lady before telling her, "I''ll help you reach Layer 1. But in response, help me out with a certain task." "Please tell me, I''ll execute it to the best of my abilities," the old lady said. "There''s a lady named Feifei. She has fiery red hair. There''s none with such a hair color here. So, when she arrives from Layer 3, she''ll stand out. And when she does, I want you to protect her." Krune said, continuing with a tone of arrogance. "To the person that manages to protect her, no matter what his/her wish is, I''ll grant it." "Please deliver this message to the other cities as well," Krune asked. "If she arrives in this city, I''ll guarantee on my name that she''ll be protected. However..." The old lady shook her head, sighing as she continued, "We have no way to contact other cities. We have been trying to establish a connection both electronically and manually for the last century. Sadly, nothing ever works. We''ve sent a team of Tier 5 Warriors in the past to establish communication with the other cities. However, once they entered the miasma, we never heard from them ever again." ''It seems I should visit them myself. Based on what Gehen said, a couple of cities had established a method to contact him. If I can find them, then I''ll be able to reach out to Gehen and coordinate with him to protect Feifei and safely make her arrive within a city,'' Krune thought, heading out of the treasury. Hazak quickly followed him while the old lady did the same after locking up the treasury. Once Krune reached the open balcony, he asked Hazak, "A Black Demon always sits at the end of the stairs to the battlefield, right?" "Yes." Hazak nodded. "Until I was active on the battlefield, I always saw it there. But my Lord, it would be impossible to win against it even with our powers combined. Every Black Demon would be at the peak of its weight class, 3000 kilograms. With a difference of 1000 kilograms, we wouldn''t be able to hold a candle to it." "Sir¡­Krune, are you planning to fight a Demon God?" the old lady asked in shock. "Please, that would be impossible." "Why do you say so?" Krune asked as the air around him turned colder. "I faced against it once," the old lady replied. "And...I don''t even know what happened after that. My limbs had vanished, and I eventually lay on the ground." "Then¡­" Krune stopped. The old lady understood what he wished to ask next. It was why she was still alive. The old lady said, "For some reason, it spared me and then left me with its horn." "It left its horn with you?" Krune was surprised for a moment as numerous thoughts clashed in his mind. He then thought of something, asking in a hurry, "Did you place the horn in your treasury?" "Yes, every item of value is placed there," the old lady said, watching Krune''s expression change. Krune then looked at Hazak and asked, "No Black Demons have ever been killed, right?" "Not that I know of. But since the humans only have Tier 5 strength, that means no Black Demon has ever been killed," Hazak replied. "Let''s return to the treasury right away," Krune said, running through the palace. The old lady and Hazak followed after him. Soon, they arrived before it once again as the old lady opened it. After entering it, she pointed towards the altar where the Demon God''s horn had been kept. Krune arrived before it, noticing that nothing seemed odd at first glance in the place. However, as he focused, opening up all his senses, he perceived faint Spiritual Energy in the place. ''Spiritual Energy?'' Krune was shocked to find it here. But, he then followed the faint trail of Spiritual Energy. He had only managed to sense it because he once used it. A regular mortal that hadn''t ever come across Spiritual Energy wouldn''t even manage to notice such a faint trace. Following it, Krune came across a storage ring. Chapter 1029: The Scheme of the Demon Gods The storage ring wasn''t anything spectacular. It was only a piece of Two Star God Core equipment. The only thing that was different was the fact that it was slightly cracked. And it seemed that it was losing its essence through this crack. However, the energy leaking out was only Spiritual Energy. Based on the rate of leakage, it would take tens of thousands of years for the storage ring to deteriorate further and shatter. And, this trace leakage of Spiritual Energy was being absorbed by the horn. Krune then focused his senses once more, sensing another stream of Spiritual Energy being emitted by the horn. This trace stream of Spiritual Energy directly flowed in the direction of the battlefield. With that, Krune finally understood what was happening. "I now understand why the Black Demon hasn''t ever fought and always sat and the bottom of the flight of stairs leading to the battlefield." Krune turned around, looking at Hazak and the old lady, telling them, "It is cultivating." "Cultivating?" The two were unfamiliar with the term. "Cultivating is the act of transitioning from a mortal to an immortal," Krune explained. "Spiritual Energy is the first step to initiate that process." "Then, the reason it gave its horn to me was¡­" the old lady muttered with widened eyes. "Yes, it must definitely know that the humans of the first generation were cultivators, and the fact their equipment should all have Godly Energy. Godly Energy is the highest level of energy. The most basic form of it is Spiritual Energy." Krune then said, "It knew that its horn would be treated as a treasure and be placed in the treasury, the place where all items of the first generation cultivators would be kept." "And even though it is faint, with all such equipment in one place, they would begin to produce trace amounts of Spiritual Energy naturally. This Black Demon planned to absorb it and embark on the journey of a cultivator," Krune gazed at Hazak and asked, "Based on what you said, as long as they''re within the miasma, Demons don''t have the concept of death, right?" Upon seeing Hazak nod in response, Krune then told them, "So, it isn''t pressed for time. It can patiently absorb this trace level of Spiritual Energy and take centuries to break through the stages of Qi Refinement." "Can I also begin cultivating by using this energy?" the old lady asked, excited. "You can, but I would advise against doing so," Krune replied, watching her expression turn into one of disappointment immediately. "With this level of energy, it would take you decades if not a century to even enter the first stage of Qi Refinement. And I can assure you that it won''t give you any benefit." "Then again, this changes things." Krune smiled as he looked at the horn, asking, "If you devour this horn, will you break through your current limit, Hazak?" "That won''t be possible, Sir Pestlor¡­" "You can just call me Krune from now onwards. No need to hide my name anymore," Krune said. "Sir Krune," Hazak said. "Even if I eat this horn, I won''t break through my current limit. Even if I eat a Black Demon''s body, there''s no guarantee I might be able to break past my current limit. Maybe there''s a chance if I continue to absorb the miasma every day." "Then..." Krune smiled, looking at the old lady. "I''ll take this horn with me. In exchange, no matter how many people you bring, I''ll heal them all." "What?" The old lady was shocked to hear such a thing. "You can do that?" "Indeed, I can." Krune patted her shoulder, emitting his Neon Radiance by fusing the healing effect of his Ocean Heart into it, causing the old lady to flinch in shock as she felt invigorated. Once the exchange was complete, Krune carried the Black Demon''s horn with him, smiling as he and Hazak left the palace, returning to their home soon after. As for the old lady, he told her to come to the Ralk family mansion if she wished to meet him. Returning to their secret hideout, Krune patted Hazak''s shoulder and told him, "The rest will depend on how much miasma you can produce." "Please leave it to me," Hazak said, entering its air-tight room to begin producing miasma. Krune constantly fed it red fish, giving it more than enough energy for the task. In the meantime, he wore his Monster Gecko armor once again, noticing that it was completely in tatters now. He then infused the healing effect in it, noticing that it was unable to heal. After thinking of something, he also infused the development effect into it, causing it to recover slowly. As another idea popped up in his mind, Krune entered the room with the miasma. The miasma immediately began to burn him. However, the effect wasn''t to the extent when he first appeared at Layer 2. As his body had almost reached the peak of Tier 5, the miasma damaged him less. Nevertheless, he wouldn''t be able to remain within it for more than a day. At that point, his internal organs would begin to melt. But, the reason he appeared in the miasma was to help in his Monster Gecko armor''s recovery. As he infused the development effect into it, it began to grow. And while doing so, it also absorbed some of the miasma, slightly changing in color as a result. As he was fully regenerating the Monster Gecko armor, and since it had already evolved numerous times while it was with him, adding onto the development effect on it, this was possible. Krune could feel its weight slowly increase, smiling as a result. ''This is indeed special.'' As he continued to regenerate the armor, Hazak continued to generate more and more miasma. Once the miasma reached a certain concentration, it sucked in everything into its mouth, compressing it into a tiny sphere. Krune then condensed a tiny ice sphere, watching Hazak blow in all the concentrated miasma into it. The miasma had been compressed to the extent it had turned into liquid. And once it was filled up, Krune closed the gap, looking at the thumb-sized sphere in his hand, telling Hazak, "We''ll begin our experiment once you have condensed over 300 of such spheres." Chapter 1030: Completed Body Cultivation Method Days passed as Hazak continued to condense more and more miasma. As for Krune, he took short breaks while regenerating his Monster Gecko armor. During his breaks, he arrived at the Ralk family mansion using the secret tunnel and met with the people that had arrived to meet him. Most of them were disabled warriors that were unable to fully heal due to the lack of Water Essence. After all, every Water Essence cost one Godly Point. For those at Tier 3 and beyond, a complete recovery required at least 50-100 Water Essences. As for higher tiers, it was even worse. So, for those severely injured, they simply decided to retire, unwilling to waste their Godly Points. They exchanged them for Water Essence and stored them in their houses, willing to use them to heal the younger generation of their family when wounded. It had more use that way, and youngsters were prone to injuries due to their mistakes. But now, all such people arrived at the Ralk family mansion, generating a long queue that existed whether it was day or night, instantly making the place famous throughout the city. Krune''s existence as a hero was announced throughout the city, and his spectacular powers caused everyone to hail him as a legendary figure. Thanks to the red fishes, even if he emptied his energy reserves, a single meal was enough to replenish them completely. So, Krune was never worried about the number of people that arrived. If he needed more energy, he simply ate more. After all, he had a massive reservoir full of red fish. Surprisingly, their population continued to expand, despite the heavy consumption. So, Krune had to eat that many anyway. Otherwise, they would simply go to waste. After completing another round of healing, Krune walked away amidst innumerous cheers of gratitude for healing the warriors. Arriving at a room, he picked up the Black Demon horn, sensing through the Sonic Radar that there were two higher density concentrations within the horn. Both of them were only the size of a rice grain. But, Krune knew what they were. Tier 6 Demon Core Fragment! It seemed the Demon God had carefully broken off two fragments from its Demon Core before embedding them into pieces of its horn that it broke off. Thanks to the miasma, the horns grew, covering the two Demon Core Fragments within it. As for it, it was able to manipulate the miasma. After all, even Hazak was able to manipulate it to a certain extent. While taking time spanning decades, the Demon God had managed to regenerate its Demon Core back to completion. As for the broken horn, it prevented it from absorbing any miasma to regenerate. Through its ability gained after living for around 2000 years in Layer 2, it created a plan and finally achieved it through the horn. After that, it fought the old woman, defeated her, and left its horn with her. While the old woman returned to the city and healed her injuries, she placed the horn in the treasury. Due to its toughness, it couldn''t even be scratched, despite everything she tried over the years. Thanks to this, the Black Demon was able to siphon Spiritual Energy to begin cultivating. And now, its horns were in Krune''s hands. While holding it, he grinned as he muttered to himself, "It might not be possible for the old lady to damage it, but I surely can." Krune said while taking out a knife. It was a Tier 5 Demon Arms, created using Hazak''s hands. As he pressed onto the handle, it absorbed his blood, increasing his abilities further while a thin layer of ice formed on its blade. Krune then began to saw through the horn, freezing it first to make it brittle. His powers allowed him to lower the temperature tremendously to the extent even the horn turned slightly brittle. After that, Krune spent a month sawing through it, finally bisecting it into two pieces as he cursed, "Just how strong is a Demon God? No wonder no one managed to kill one yet. Even for me, it seems impossible." "Fortunately, that would no longer be the case." Grinning, Krune used his Sonic Radar, noticing that each of the severed halves contained a Demon Core each. He then continued to saw through them, finally fishing out both Demon Core fragments. Once he was done, Krune brought one Demon Core fragment with him, arriving at the miasma-filled room, placing it within, watching the miasma swirl into it in an instant. There was no longer any miasma in the room a few seconds later. Krune then began to shatter one ice sphere after another, causing the liquid miasma within to spill out. They were automatically sucked towards the Demon Core fragment, causing it to grow slightly. However, the growth was minuscule. Krune commanded Hazak to work harder, causing the poor demon to work nonstop without rest. He then fed the Demon Core fragment one ice sphere after another. Eventually, after feeding it more than 700 such ice spheres, Krune gazed at the completed Demon Core before him. When he supplied it with some more miasma, it began to condense a layer of flesh around. Scrapping away all the flesh, he grinned, feeding the Tier 6 Demon Core to the Essence Generator. A couple of days later, it produced the Tier 6 Essence as Krune grinned. "Why must I face an impossible to defeat enemy when I can reap the benefits safely?" He then swallowed the Tier 6 Essence, getting up as something within him seemed to have exploded. The Monster Gecko armor he wore almost behaved sentient, rippling excitedly as it began to evolve once again, absorbing some of the residue miasma in the room. As his body weight continued to increase, Krune watched his Ocean Heart absorb the Essence, elevating his development effect once again. When he reached the peak of Tier 3 and hit the limit, his Development Effect was still able to give him 20 grams of weight every day. When he attained the peak of Tier 4, the effect almost reached 100 grams. At the peak of Tier 5, it was around 350 grams. And now, Krune realized that even after hitting the peak of Tier 6, his development effect would still be able to give him a kilogram of weight every day. "This is the power I would possess even after returning to the God Realm. With this, I can say that my body cultivation method is complete." Chapter 1031: Tier 6 "I''ve finally reached Tier 6." Krune smiled, sensing the changes in his body. Now, he had obtained the complete body cultivation method, getting excited. He wished to return to the God Realm immediately. Nevertheless, he still had to find Feifei. On top of that, he had to become stronger in Tier 6 so that he could roam through the miasma and head towards other cities. This way, he''ll be able to make enough preparations to ensure that Feifei would be safe when she arrived at Layer 2. ''Now, I''ll have to upgrade Hazak,'' Krune thought, smiling as he saw the second Tier 6 Demon Core Fragment. After that, he commanded Hazak, "Generate enough miasma to condense a body for this once it forms into a Tier 6 Demon Core. Stop before its head forms." Hazak nodded and began to stuff itself full with the red fishes, producing miasma once it was done. It constantly compressed the miasma until it turned into liquid, storing it in one large tub. It continued to fill the tub with liquid miasma, busying itself in the process. As for Krune, he continued to develop his weight in Tier 6. Of course, he also helped Wrister and Flita break through the limit of Tier 5, causing them to shed tears of gratitude. He just thought it would be helpful to make them this strong. After all, he needed them to work for him until his wife was found. Since they were loyal to him, it was the best option. Besides, upgrading them didn''t need any extra energy. Krune had enough to sustain all his needs. Four months later, Hazak had filled the tub full of liquid miasma, sighing in exhaustion as Krune dropped the Tier 6 Demon Core Fragment into it. Like a vortex had been created, all the liquid miasma gushed into the Demon Core Fragment, causing it to begin growing immediately. Soon, when there was a tenth of the liquid miasma left, the Tier 6 Demon Core finished forming. Immediately, flesh started to condense around it, birthing internal organs, soon resulting in a body. The Black Demon began to grow, stopping when the miasma was emptied. Hazak then took a deep breath, trying to lift the Black Demon corpse when it was amazed at the weight. "It would have revied if I had poured a bit more liquid miasma." Seeing Krune nod, Hazak carefully opened its mouth, biting the Black Demon, struggling to even pierce its teeth into the flesh. It was to the extent that its teeth shattered by the time it managed to tear a tiny piece of the Black Demon''s skin. Thankfully for Hazak, it could easily recover itself using the miasma. Once it regenerated a new set of teeth, it began to tear into the Black Demon''s corpse once again. During its free time, Hazak generated liquid miasma. In the rest of its time, it continued to eat the Black Demon''s corpse, repeating it as it struggled a lot, howling in pain from time to time as even its jaws shattered from time to time. Hard! As the pinnacle of the beings of Layer 2, and possessing a weight of 3000 kilograms in its tiny frame, the Black Demon''s body was spectacularly dense. After all, it took Krune a month just to saw through the Black Demon''s horn. Thus, it was apparent of the toughness a Black Demon possessed. There was one difference between all the demons and a Black Demon, though. Typically, every demon began to march towards a city once they were given birth. So, they didn''t have enough time to develop. So, when they arrived at the battlefield, humans were able to kill higher-tiered demons by grouping up to a certain extent. That''s how they managed to kill the demons and grow stronger. Moreover, once they began to develop in Tier 5, they no longer faced any threats. After all, most, if not all the Red Demons that arrived at the battlefield would only weigh around 1500 kilograms. It was a sharp contrast to the Tier 5 humans that have grown in weight by killing the weaker Red Demons constantly. Thanks to that, they were able to kill the Red Demons, allowing more Tier 5 humans to be birthed. This happened in every tier, a reason humans were able to kill the demons in the first place, in the first generation when their bodies were the weakest. They started with the Demon Soldiers, pitting tens of themselves to kill one foe. And by eating the Tier 1 Essence generated from that pyrrhic war, the first generation of Tier 1 Warriors was born. After that, they slowly accumulated strength through numerous losses, killing higher-tiered demons one after another. Eventually, they managed to produce enough Tier 5 Warriors to keep their cities stable and cause their population to boom. Of course, everything only happened because no demon ever grew much in its respective tier, killed before it could tap into even a tenth of its potential. Sadly, Black Demons weren''t like this. Since the start, they never fought humans, gone against the instinct ingrained in their race. They stayed within the miasma and continued to grow stronger, eventually reaching the peak of Tier 6¡ª3000 kilograms. The peak of Tier 5 was only 2000 kilograms. So, the difference of 1000 kilograms was too vast of a level to scale against. This was the reason no human was able to kill a Black Demon and attain the Tier 6 status. Plus, since the horn was from the Black Demon that was at the peak of Tier 6, even the corpse Hazak grew using the miasma conformed to the same, the fully grown body of a Black Demon. That was why Hazak struggled to even damage it, howling in pain whenever it broke its jaws by exerting too much strength in an effort to rip apart the Black Demon flesh. But as months passed, Krune was able to help out since he was growing in strength in Tier 6. Even though it still took a lot of effort, the speed of progress was at least faster now. Thanks to that, Hazak was able to eat bits and pieces of the Black Demon flesh. Two years after they embarked on this endeavor, Hazak''s skin was finally faintly tinged with a shade of black. Chapter 1032: Feifei’s Endless Troubles "Huff¡­huff¡­" A lady with fiery hair panted atop what resembled a hill, trembling in pain as her body burned. The blood from the hill was burning her as its essence seeped into her, causing her unimaginable pain. Nevertheless, she stood strong, weakly raising her hand, pointing her blade at the ground of people before her. They were holding a variety of weapons, but all of them were injured. Some of them lacked limbs, but their eyes expressed immense hatred, enough to trade in their lives to kill the other party. Lying around on the ground were the corpses of more than a thousand people, dismembered into various shapes and sludges. The cause for most of the damage had been the hill-like creature the fiery lady stood upon. Eyes brimming with hatred, a man that sported numerous gashes all over his body stared at the fiery-haired lady, grunting, "Feifei, today is the day we''ll settle scores. It''s either you or us. One will die today." "Right¡­from the start..." Feifei glared, trembling from the pain as she spoke, "It was your sect that had attacked us. Was it my fault to retaliate and survive? Was it my fault that you threw your people at me constantly?" "Enough nonsense!" The gash-ridden man bellowed, screaming hysterically, "Kill her! This is the best time to kill her! Hurry! Do it before she finishes absorbing the Supreme Monster''s essence!" Seeing the almost hundred people running towards her, Feifei grunted, preventing her exhaustion from kicking in as she dragged her feet, arriving before a hole in the Supreme Monster''s body as she inserted herself into it, burrowing deep into it to bide time. She had to survive until she finished absorbing the essence of the Supreme Monster. Well, the only way to do that was to rely on the Supreme Monster''s tough carcass to hide within. By the time they hacked into it all the way till their blades reached her, she would have finished evolving. ''Just¡­where did it go all wrong?'' Feifei thought, recalling the scene when they arrived at the God Realm. It was still a jovial atmosphere as they argued and made fun of each other. When she was suddenly split from Krune, even though she had been surprised, she didn''t think it was that big of a deal. After all, she planned to swiftly reunite with Krune, thinking that the God Realm wouldn''t be too treacherous. Unfortunately, she had been proved wrong. The God Realm had maintained the longest unbroken history in the Four Realms. As the lifespans of the cultivators in the lower three realms wasn''t that high, and as civilizations appeared and were destroyed one after another, the history of things wasn''t from too long. Beyond that, there were just historical records and no attachments. It was because the events of history happened long ago. But in the God Realm, things were different. The immortals lived for as long as they weren''t killed. But that wasn''t all. There was one reason things in the God Realm were insanely chaotic. It was thanks to the Spiritual Incarnations. Even if a sect, race, or family was eradicated, if a Spiritual Incarnation possessor managed to survive and managed to erect a Land Incarnation before death, they would revive eventually. In most cases, their Land Incarnation would be immensely damaged due to the battles. So, they wouldn''t be able to revive easily, taking thousands of years to do so. Nevertheless, they eventually did. That''s where the problems arose. Once revived, they remained in hiding, biding their time as they constantly increased their strength, building up a force while doing so. And eventually, they would seek revenge on the entity that had killed them and their beloved in the first place. The problem was the fact that this happened on all sides. So, those wishing to seek revenge were numerous. All manners of plot and schemes were ongoing, making the God Realm an incredibly dangerous place to exist. After all, it was a place where history couldn''t ever be truly broken. Characters from history would revive one way or another. After all, users with a Spiritual Incarnation were impossibly hard to kill. As for Feifei, after she was taken away from Krune, she was dropped in a relatively safe place, almost no different from Sunkan City. As she continued to develop in the place, she took a certain mission in the Mercenary Guild. Since the destination was rather far, she had used the city''s teleportation services. But, when she arrived in the teleportation array of her destination, she noticed that it was being attacked. And due to the attacks, the teleportation array she was upon got activated once again, transporting her to another location. She arrived at a completely different continent. And from there, she struggled to survive before eventually arriving at a sect. After taking a test, out of the thousands of participants, she emerged victorious, getting admitted into the sect. As she continued to prove herself, she was acknowledged as the disciple of a rather powerful elder, a powerhouse at the Elementary God Realm, a step below a Primal God. As that elder hadn''t taken in a disciple for more than 300 years, she became famous throughout her sect. And soon enough, she proved herself among all the disciples of the elders, obtaining the qualification to attain the sect''s method to condense a Spiritual Incarnation. It had been a joyous occasion on the day she condensed her Spiritual Incarnation. But unfortunately, it proved to be a short-term joy. It seemed around 8000 years ago, her sect had eradicated a superpower, a sect that had more than ten massive continents under its borders. Sadly, the remnants of that sect had revived eventually, creating a powerful force. They launched a war on her sect on the same day she condensed a Spiritual Incarnation. As her master had been one of the participants in the previous war 8000 years ago, she too was targeted with greater importance. While the war had been ongoing, Feifei and the countless enemies that had been pursuing her had landed in Layer 3 of the Sub-Realm. From there, they constantly pursued her all along, intending to get rid of her, also recruiting more people into the task. Due to that, she hadn''t ever had a moment''s rest while she was in Layer 3. ''But today, I''ll put an end to everything.'' Chapter 1033: Supreme Monster Gecko Feifei burrowed deeper into the Supreme Monster''s body, noticing her foes trying to follow her. She extended her hand, touching the sides of the flesh she had burrowed through, layering a viscous membrane over it. When her foe came into contact with it, he started to scream as his body began to blister. Upon seeing his state, the others that had planned to enter the wound stopped, watching the blisters on their comrade burst, killing him from the pain. "Dammit! Hack the muscles! Hurry! We''ll make a new path towards her!" the gash-riddled man screamed, picking up a massive sword as he hacked the Supreme Monster, grunting, "Damn it, she used us to kill it. But now, she''s reaping the benefits." As they constantly pursued Feifei anywhere she went, she had no choice but to escape towards the Monster Gecko territory. As humans and Monster Geckos were at war for the past five years, she planned to live in hiding within enemy territory. Of course, unwilling to leave her alive, they had chased after her, following her nonstop, uncaring about the deaths sustained. After all, their hatred was something that had festered for 8000 years. Until Feifei was hacked into pieces and her entrails strewn across the ocean, their fury wouldn''t ever disappear. So, they chased her like rabid dogs. And that was when it arrived. A wounded Monster Gecko, the Supreme Monster that led the Monster Geckos against a war with the humans. Surprisingly, it seemed that the Supreme Monster Gecko had been fighting with Gehen, hence the injuries it was inflicted with. Even though it had been growing at tremendous speeds, Gehen was even faster. Also, since he also had more time to accumulate strength, the Supreme Monster Gecko was unable to defeat him, sustaining mortal injuries as a result. After it fled, successfully escaping Gehen''s pursuit, it had arrived at an empty Primary Landmass. The monsters in it had been killed ago, and as it was barren, none lived there. It was a secret spot the Supreme Monster Gecko used to heal every time it suffered grievous wounds from Gehen. When it did the same this time, Feifei arrived at the scene. She used the Supreme Monster Gecko to protect herself, causing the attacks of her pursuers to fall on it, enraging it. And before anyone realized it, her pursuers were locked in a battle against the Supreme Monster Gecko. Due to its mortal injuries, it was unable to kill everyone, losing strength in the process. Moreover, upon seeing its state, Feifei''s pursuers also hoped to gain an active ability. That way, they''ll be able to kill Feifei and other members of her sect that had arrived at the Sub-Realm. With that motivation, they brought it close to death''s door, losing many lives in the process. The death toll crossed a thousand and continued to pile up. But in the end, it seemed that Feifei had used one of her Passive Abilities to insert a corrosive substance into the Supreme Monster Gecko''s body all over, managing to deal it the final blow. Due to that, it was recognized that she was the one that killed the Supreme Monster Gecko. Due to that, its essence¡ªthe one that would condense the active ability¡ªflowed into Feifei''s body. It was like she was mocking their sacrifice, reaping the benefits in the end. To those that had once been robbed of their wealth and lives by her sect members, this action of hers further enraged them. So, they hacked at the Supreme Monster Gecko in a frenzy, beginning to shout whenever they spotted traces of Feifei moving about within the flesh of the monster. "She''s here!" "She moved towards its spine!" "She''s using its stomach to protect herself." As their shouts continued to resound, their attacks increased in vigor. As for Feifei, she was constantly on the move, also emptying all the Water Essences she had brought into her mouth, using the excess healing effect to barely survive the burning sensation. The essence of the Supreme Monster Gecko continued to stream into her. If not for the fact that she had been injured an uncountable number of times over the past three decades, she would have lost consciousness from the pain she was feeling now. As she hid within its stomach, its stomach acids continued to damage her. With that, she needed the healing effect from the numerous Water Essences to remain alive. As she continued to struggle, her eyes suddenly lit up in joy while a devilish expression appeared on her face. She continued to move about within the Supreme Monster Gecko''s stomach, watching the blades of her foes begin to reach it. Her body was healing at a faster rate now that she was no longer being burned. She hurriedly began to experiment, using the fact that she was within the Supreme Monster Gecko to understand her active ability better. A sword hacked into the stomach walls, tearing through it when all the stomach acids gushed out, causing him to scream as his skin burned up. And at the same speed, Feifei swam out, piercing her hand through his chest, crushing his heart. Her eyes lit up immediately, muttering, "I see, so the bone trees are a functional part of the Monster Gecko''s body. Rather, their real selves are the bone trees, and they are just creatures birthed from it to take care of themselves. And now¡­" Grunting, she pulled her hand, causing some sort of essence from the man to condense on her palm, forming a small orb. She swallowed it, closing her eyes for a moment before spitting it out, "Garbage passive abilities." The orb shattered upon landing on the ground, vaporizing in the process. Feifei looked at the people surrounding her now that she had exited the Supreme Monster Gecko''s body. "Today, I won''t be the one to die." Snorting, she sprinted towards the closest foe, causing a layer of scales to grow on her body as she deflected the attacks, using her sharp claws to pierce his chest. And similar to before, she pulled out an orb, swallowing it before spitting it out. "They¡­aren''t good enough." Chapter 1034: Time to Leave "Die!" Bellowing at the top of his lungs, the gash-riddled man plunged a sword into Feifei''s back, laughing upon seeing her spit out blood. "Die! Die! Die!" "Gah!" Feifei screamed, using her claws to grab the sides of the blade peeking out of her stomach, preventing it from going up. She then slowly turned around, coughing out blood as she wheezed, "The one¡­who''ll die¡­" "Is you!" Suddenly, a pair of claws dug into his neck from behind. Before he could react, his head was bitten off by a Monster Gecko. Spitting out the head, the Monster Gecko swatted the man''s body to the side, grabbing hold of the hilt before pulling it out slowly, causing Feifei to grunt in the process. The moment the sword was thrown away, she collapsed on the ground, lacking energy to even move as blood dripped out of her body. Fortunately, she didn''t die. Thanks to the healing effect from the numerous Water Essences she had swallowed, her wounds were slowly healing while her blood was getting replenished. The Monster Gecko vanished as Feifei carefully sat up, applying pressure on her back and stomach by tying it with a cloth that she tore off from her pants. She then looked around, noticing the numerous carcasses around her as she sighed. "Finally, it''s over." "All my enemies are dead now!" She relaxed, feeling a heavy burden being lifted off her shoulders. She then thought of Krune, clenching her hand into a fist. "I''ll head up to Layer 2 soon. Wait a bit more, Krune!" She was assured that Krune would wait for her in Layer 2. After all, even though she was a couple of seconds later, Krune was still able to notice her presence and react accordingly. That was enough of an assurance for her. ''He might have changed a bit, but he''s still the same Krune.'' As she thought of it, she couldn''t help but laugh. "He''s wearing Monster Gecko armor. It was pretty comical.'' As she laughed, blood spurted out of her stomach, causing her to control herself as she sighed. "Soon, I''ll head to Layer 2. Now that I have an active ability..." She muttered while gazing at the claws that had formed on her hands, retracting them to gaze at her normal hands. "If my active ability is how I think it works, I''ll have to change my entire repertoire of passive abilities." A day later, Feifei washed herself using the ocean water, making a set of clothes using pieces of fabric she tore off from the numerous carcasses around her. As for the Supreme Monster Gecko, it had turned into dust by now, beginning to vaporize. Having recovered enough strength, Feifei looked around, muttering, "This empty Primary Landmass is in the perfect location. I can use it as my base while I hunt in the surrounding Primary and Secondary Landmasses." "I''ll extract and assimilate the strongest of passive abilities while I''m at it. But first..." She dusted herself, jumping into the ocean above. "I''ll have to experiment and see how it works." ¡­ Krune was anticipating in silence as he watched Hazak stare at the Tier 6 Demon Core. Three years had passed since they started this task. Krune had already reached the peak of Tier 6, shredding the Demon God''s corpse easily every time it necessitated. Hazak then fed on the parts and had begun to show more signs of black on his skin. But, after a while, the signs of black had stopped growing. It was apparent that only eating the Black Demon''s body wasn''t enough. So now, Hazak was about to consume the Tier 6 Demon Core. "Don''t worry about it. You''ll be fine, I''m sure of it." Krune smiled, motivating Hazak. Finally, it had gathered enough courage as it picked up the Tier 6 Demon Core and swallowed it whole. Nothing happened for a moment, but a couple of minutes later, the shade of black on its skin began to increase once again, turning darker. As for Hazak, it sat cross-legged, faintly absorbing the miasma it had generated. It controlled itself, beginning to slowly digest the Demon Core, slowly turning into a Black Demon. Upon seeing its growth, Krune nodded. "I guess it''s time to leave this place. I''m now prepared enough to exit the city." He then arrived at the first reservoir, looking at the numerous bone trees. He broke pieces from some of them, turning them into tiny spheres that he packed. After that, he picked up a black fish, one of the few that had appeared, making a tiny cut on its body as he touched them to the bone tree. The black fish''s blood was swiftly sucked dry. A week later, the bone tree had grown in size. Krune plucked the fruit that it had produced, feeding it to a black fish. Also, as the bone tree was wilting, he made a cut on the black fish and touched it to the wilting bone tree. This way, he produced a Blood Essence Crystal. Unlike before, he no longer had to suffer from any side effects. It wasn''t because the side effects had disappeared, but that he had become strong enough to remain unaffected. Plus, by using some of his healing effect, he could make the side effects vanish. In the same way, Krune turned all the bone trees into Blood Essence Crystals, repeating the same process until Hazak finished evolving. He also used the flesh of the black fishes to create a highly rich Healing Extract. He only stopped when he had created 1000 liters of the Healing Extract. As it was made from the black fishes, it was brimming with energy. It was enough for him to last a day with just a couple of milliliters of this Healing Extract. As usual, Krune just went overboard. As for the Blood Essence Crystals, he stopped after making around 10,000 of them. He had only stopped because he had depleted most of the fish. Any more and the population of the fishes would never increase ever again. Krune then arrived at the Ralk family mansion, smiling upon seeing the grandfather and granddaughter duo that had both reached the peak of Tier 6 thanks to him. "It''s time for me to leave." Chapter 1035: Moses Parting the Sea Krune handed over a box of ice to Wristler, saying, "There are three Development Spheres inside this box. After consuming one Development Sphere, anyone at Tier 5 would eventually reach the peak of Tier 6. In the future, if the need arises, give it one to someone worthy. Otherwise, just save it for your successors." "It is our blessing to receive your grace," Wristler and Flita bowed immediately, holding the icebox like their life depended on it. It was odd, considering the two of them were already at the peak of Tier 6, the strongest in Layer 2. Of course, they knew that their current power was only thanks to Krune. So, they wholeheartedly devoted themselves to him. The fact that they had created a statue for Krune and prayed to it at least three times per day further attributed to their devotion. Even though Krune had already discovered it through his Sonic Radar, he didn''t interfere, leaving them to their devices. For some reason, he wasn''t averse to the notion of people praying to him. Krune then looked at Flita and told her, "There are some fishes remaining of all colors, from white to black. As to how you''re able to grow them in the future, I''ll allow you to figure it out. My method is too risky, so I''m taking it with me." Flita nodded, telling Krune in response, "I have a couple of ideas. Even though it might be difficult to grow the higher-level fishes, I should still be able to mass-produce the violet and blue fishes to a certain extent." "Then, that should be good enough." Krune nodded, saying, "Keep an eye out for Feifei." "We''ve already sent posters of her appearance through every medium. At this point, the entire city knows about her. If she were to appear here, we''d protect her with all our strength." Wristler patted his chest as a sign that he was willing to guarantee it with his life. Krune then slumped a bag containing all the items he had packed for the occasion. He was just about to leave when the City Lord and the old lady arrived, formally bowing towards them. Gazing at them, Krune said after a moment, "I''ll return once my journey is completed." Without waiting for any other nonsense to transpire, Krune nodded at Hazak, causing it to lift a large tank containing the 1000 liters of Healing Extract. He then stood beside Krune, gazing at the humans that had congregated around them in silence. As he wore his Monster Gecko armor right now, he looked like a monster himself, causing people to flinch at the sheer presence he induced. Krune and Hazak then exited the building, arriving at the road as he motioned for everyone to back away, summoning his Cloud Whale. The Cloud Whale appeared around them as they were seated in its belly. At present, Krune just maintained it in a state of energy and not in a physical form. It was more useful for him as its body was transparent now and allowed him to see everything. Comfortably seated inside, Krune grabbed a snack and began to munch of it, watching the crowd of people that followed him as the Cloud Whale took off to the air. It first started slow, accelerating slowly before attaining its top speed, flashing through the air in its gigantic figure that spanned a length of 25 meters. Knowing very well of his destination, most of the people following him headed into the underground tunnels to catch up to him using their transports. As for those at Tier 5, they simply ran through the streets since they were many times faster than any transport. They kept pace with the Cloud Whale, feeling flustered as they were doing everything they could to keep up with the pace. In the meantime, Krune sat comfortably within the Cloud Whale, eating some of the food he had packed up with him, waving his hands at them from time to time as a show of support. Honestly, to him, it was a vexing feeling. An hour later, the Cloud Whale slowed down to a halt, arriving at the crescent moon-shaped building. Beyond it was the exit to the city. Knowing very well that he was leaving, no one was using the bridge beyond, giving him passage first as a sign of respect. The Cloud Whale arrived above the bridge as Krune felt a mysterious force pulling it towards the ground. He lowered the Cloud Whale, causing it to slide on the ground, traveling as if it were a skate. Followed by the bridge, the Cloud Whale arrived at the battlefield. For a moment, most of the humans parted to the side, causing the demons to laugh as they rushed through the gap. "That''s quite the welcome party." Krune smiled, commanding the Cloud Whale to attack the rushing demons to create a path. The Cloud Whale was still serene, like an embodiment of peace. But suddenly, it began to suck in the air, causing a tornado to form atop the battlefield instantly. Intense gales were riled up as an insane amount of air was sucked into the Cloud Whale. Within its body, the air was compressed to the extent it resembled a liquid. If not for the intense temperatures inside, it would have turned into a liquid immediately. The Cloud Whale then moved forward as Krune saw the demons approaching. As he grinned, the Cloud Whale unleashed the air needle, causing the air to form a pillar of spiraling air that traveled like a needle, piercing through all the approaching demons. As the needle continued to travel, its diameter continued to increase, causing it to vary from piercing through the bodies of the demons to shredding them apart. Soon, it had expanded in size akin to a dragon, mowing through the battlefield until it reached the end and proceeded beyond for a whole minute, causing the battlefield to turn silent. Even the demons had forgotten their purpose, simply gazing at the aftermath with a blank stare. This was the first time they had witnessed such an unbridled display of power, one that was unscalable. His body alone had already reached the peak of Layer 2. Adding his abilities on top of that, his combat power had long surpassed the standards of the mortal world. Chapter 1036: Cultivating Black Demon The Cloud Whale continued to move through the battlefield when Krune thought of something, layering it with ice before turning it invisible. By the time it had crossed half the battlefield, the Cloud Whale had vanished from the eyes of everyone. And right as it had done so, it accelerated, soon reaching the end of the battlefield before taking off to the skies, having crossed the range of the Abyssal Trench. Krune stared down, looking at the demons climbing up the flight of stairs towards the battlefield, focusing at the bottom of the stairs to see a Black Demon sitting there as usual. Surprisingly, it was there as he had expected. The Black Demon was cultivating. Despite losing the horn in the treasury, it seemed to have created a current of Spiritual Energy towards itself, relying on the stream to siphon out more Spiritual Energy. It was the reason why it had never moved from the place, despite Krune having blasted off a great segment of the demons on the battlefield. Once he had left, the human army charged through the path he had cleared up, harvesting the Demon Cores of every demon he had shredded into pieces. It was more than enough to strengthen themselves even further. Soon after, most of the Tier 5 humans in the city had charged out, brimming with energy. A significant portion of them were the retired Warriors, those that had retired from losing a limb and feeling that it was too expensive to treat themselves. Most of them were at Tier 4 and Tier 5. Now that they had all been treated by Krune, they were itching to battle once again and relive their past glory. With their influx, the human army began to grind through the demon army, killing them in droves. As for Krune, he thought for a moment, considering the odds, ''Even if there are two Tier 6 humans in the city, they won''t be able to kill this Black Demon once a fight erupts. This Black Demon has begun cultivating. With that, it should be capable of using at least one spell. That increases its threat level even further.'' "It seems that it''s best to remove all threats," Krune muttered, gazing at Hazak before telling him, "We''ll hunt that Black Demon. Its Demon Core should accelerate your evolution further." "Gladly." Hazak bowed as the two of them jumped out of the Cloud Whale. The Cloud Whale was still invisible, hovering high up in the air. The two of them blazed through the air, dropping down straight towards the Black Demon. Dreams of the Heart¡ªOcean Turbulence! To give it a greeting, Krune condensed a massive boulder of ice, one that resembled a meteor. He then kicked it, causing it to slam faster towards the ground, alerting the Black Demon. The Black Demon hesitated once, unwilling to leave its place since the stream of Spiritual Energy would be cut off. It didn''t have a guarantee of siphoning out another stream later. However, upon sensing that the ice meteor was a threat, it had no other choice but to evade. Right as its figure flashed away, the ice meteor crashed into the ground, rapidly bringing down the temperature in the area. And right after, Krune and Hazak landed on it, breaking it into tiny pieces, sending the pieces of ice flying everywhere as shrapnel, killing thousands of the demons in the area. "I always wanted to do that." Krune laughed, dusting his body as he walked out amidst the mist generated by the ice, gazing at the Black Demon as he spoke, "On a scale of one to ten, how high do you rate my greeting?" "Who¡­what are you?" The Black Demon frowned, alarmed, "No human can reach Tier 6. Also, you don''t exactly seem like a human." "Then guess?" Krune laughed as he walked forward, condensing a layer of ice on the ground. "If you manage to guess it correctly, I won''t attack you." "An alien." The Black Demon thought of the time when the humans arrived in its world, grumbling, "So, a new race has arrived." And right as it was about to attack, it noticed the miasma in the region swirl towards the ice. When it looked at the cause, it noticed a Red Demon that was turning black as it absorbed the miasma in massive volumes, blurting out in shock, "How is this possible? Our power is determined at birth!" "You can cultivate using Spiritual Energy. So, why can''t it reach the Black Demon status?" Krune laughed, stomping on the ground once as he accelerated thanks to Moving Ripple, flashing before the Black Demon, sending a punch its way. The punch sent it flying away for a couple of meters. It weighed 3000 kilograms, after all. With that, his punch wouldn''t have sent it flying any further. The Black Demon noticed its chest had caved in a little, realizing that Krune had reached the peak of the world in terms of body toughness. That''s why he was able to damage it. As the miasma gushed into its body, the Black Demon easily regenerated, arriving before Krune to smack him in the chest. Moreover, its fists faintly shone with a layer of fire, resulting in burn marks on his chest as he was sent flying a similar distance. ''That''s pretty hot!'' Krune was alarmed. The Black Demon didn''t have any meridians to cultivate. With that, it seemed to have taken an entirely different direction. The moment it attacked him, he was able to sense Spiritual Energy swirling in its Demon Core. It was apparent that the Black Demon had been trying to fuse the Spiritual Energy into its Demon Core so that it would be able to produce Spiritual Energy by absorbing the miasma around it. This way, it would be able to absorb the miasma, convert it into Spiritual Energy and cultivate it accordingly. And surprisingly, it had succeeded! It was already obvious just from the first punch. Krune understood just why the Black Demons had never attacked the cities, clearly so. ''They were trying to research a way into obtaining Spiritual Energy and cultivate using it. In any case, they have succeeded.'' "This will be troublesome." He sighed, condensing two ice swords as he glared at the Black Demon. Chapter 1037: Krune’s Close Combat Style "Hah!" Krune grunted, slashing the two ice swords down on the Black Demon, watching it melt them by covering its fists with fire. Soon after, the miasma in the region had swirled around, seeping into the Black Demon constantly as it replenished its reserves. In any case, the two sides were at a stalemate. Ignoring it, Krune slashed time after time, inflicting freezing gashes onto the Black Demon. In response, the Black Demon thawed the ice using its fire, regenerating its energy. However, it didn''t have a good time either. When it inflicted wounds on Krune, he regenerated at the same pace as it. On top of that, he hadn''t absorbed the miasma or anything of the sort. ''From where does he obtain such a frightening quantity of energy to use? Is this new race really so scary?'' The Black Demon was worried. And adding onto its worries was Hazak, one that was a demon but was different from a demon in quite a few ways. The first was the fact that it didn''t seem to be influenced by the instinct ingrained into a demon, one that forced them to march towards the cities. It was just a Red Demon, but it seemed unaffected by that. The second was the fact that it was evolving into a Black Demon, something that was impossible for all the demons. Their color remained the same from their birth to their death. The third was the fact that it was subservient to Krune, and the fourth was its scaly appearance. The Black Demon was assured that Hazak was different from all the demons. ''I should get rid of them before researching their corpses to figure out their secrets,'' the Black Demon thought, condensing a fireball that it blasted into Krune''s face. Krune condensed a layer of ice on his face on time, defending against the heat while something hit him in the chest, sending him flying back. By the time he eradicated the fire burning through his face, he had faced a flurry of attacks, causing all the ice he had erected as a defense to shatter. Hurriedly healing himself, Krune panted a little, realizing that the Black Demon was indeed troublesome. It was further attributed to the fact that they were fighting in a place filled with miasma, giving the home ground advantage to the Black Demon. ''It seems I cannot win without going all out.'' Krune thought, shouting at Hazak, "Take care of the items. I''m bringing down the Cloud Whale." "Yes!" Hazak shouted in response, stopping its act of absorbing the miasma as it watched the Cloud Whale arrive before it, vanishing once it touched the steps leading towards the battlefield. Hazak then hurriedly flashed before it, guarding the tank filled with the Healing Extract and the bag Krune had packed. It controlled the miasma, absorbing it while creating a ring around the items, preventing any miasma from touching them. Its figure flashed for a moment, killing all the demons on the flight of stairs before returning to its station. Now that he had retracted his Cloud Whale, Krune was at his full strength, causing intense gales to ripple from him as he activated his active ability, generating air currents that increased his speed. He immediately flashed before the Demon God, now faster than it, as he attacked it in a flurry. He layered every attack with his ice, beginning to freeze the Demon God''s body. As the Demon God retaliated, he suffered some wounds, healing them automatically as he simply focused on the attacks. "Haha, you''re getting slower. So, your energy isn''t infinite." The Demon God cackled upon seeing his panting figure. "Is that so?" Krune smirked, shattering an ice sphere in his stomach, causing all the Healing Extract from within to spill out. His stomach digested it readily, replenishing his energy in droves, quickly filling up all the five crimson rings of his Ocean Heart while also revitalizing his body in the process. Grinning, Krune punched the Demon God and said, "What do you have to say now?" "Impossible!" The Demon God was shocked, having watched Krune recover in real-time. It was shocking because he hadn''t absorbed any miasma or any other energy of sorts to recover, giving him an air of mystery, causing the Demon God to feel a tinge of fear. For a moment, it wished to escape. After all, it had already perfected the method to generate Spiritual Energy. It had only been sitting at the steps because it knew that Spiritual Energy was just the first form of energy. It knew that the final form of this energy was called Godly Energy, the energy the first generation of humans complained about being unable to wield when they arrived at the place. So, it had hoped to continue siphoning Spiritual Energy from the city until it was able to increase the rate of siphon and improve the energy quality to higher levels. If it wasn''t because the cities had the Godly Summon to rely upon in times of crisis, it would have already stormed into a city and killed all the humans. In the past, it had sent in hundreds of Red Demons as a group, storming into the city. But when cornered, the humans sacrificed their lives, activating the Godly Summon to blast energy attacks on the Red Demons, killing them all. By using the Demon Cores of all the Red Demons, the city had grown stronger as a result. Unless it had obtained enough strength to overwhelm the Godly Summon, the Black Demon had planned to wait while growing in strength. But now that it faced a powerful foe, it wished to run and focus on increasing its reserve of Spiritual Energy first. But unfortunately for it, thanks to the air currents, Krune was faster than it, always remaining on its tail as he attacked it. Suddenly, he condensed the Cloud Whale in his hand, wielding it like a knife as he pierced the needle into the Black Demon''s leg. The Cloud Whale injected Frozen Blood into the Black Demon, numbing its legs a bit. Wielding it like a knife, Krune pierced the Black Demon in multiple places, always injecting Frozen Blood into its body while he attacked, realizing that this tactic of his was the strongest counter to any foe. Even though it continued to absorb the miasma in large droves, the Black Demon was unable to eradicate the Frozen Blood in its body fast enough. After all, Krune was just stabbing into it every time he attacked and continued to inject Frozen Blood into its body. Chapter 1039: Imposing Presence In response, Hazak happily devoured the Black Demon''s corpse after being helped by Krune. Eventually, it gulped in hesitance, swallowing the Black Demon''s core that was different than the previous Black Demon core it had swallowed. After all, this Demon Core also contained Spiritual Energy, so it was naturally different. However, the moment Hazak swallowed the Black Demon Core, a change erupted within its body, causing the miasma to slam into the Cloud Whale like a tsunami, shocking Krune for a moment. However, upon being notified by Hazak, he allowed the miasma to enter from the top of the Could Whale from where it usually sucked in air. Krune created a layer of ice around it while letting Hazak sit below the blowhole. This way, he blocked the miasma from going beyond the layer of ice, ensuring it didn''t damage the items he had brought forth. The Cloud Whale proceeded towards the next city by traveling alongside the Abyssal Trench. As he knew that all the cities were located on the Abyssal Trench, as long as he moved along its border, he would reach the next city. However, to conserve his energy, Krune didn''t hurry forth, causing the Cloud Whale to glide naturally, expending the least amount of energy. This was the biggest advantage of the Cloud Whale. Using that, he could travel far by expending the least amount of energy. As it continued to travel, Krune gazed at Hazak with interest, watching its skin turn blacker as time passed. Eventually, it fully turned into a Black Demon, absorbing an insane amount of miasma. Moreover, it continued to evolve, finally opening its eyes after six months had passed, having fully absorbed the traits of the Black Demon Krune had killed. It turned around, tearing up as it bowed towards Krune. "Lord, I can feel Spiritual Energy gathering at my Demon Core." "That''s great. Once we leave this place, I''ll install a set of meridians in your body to help you cultivate properly," Krune said when a question hit him, thinking to himself, ''How will I bring Hazak with me beyond the Sub-Realm?'' Intending to ponder about it later, Krune caused the Cloud Whale to move forth, landing atop the battlefield. They had long arrived before the second city. Then again, as Hazak seemed immersed in its evolution, Krune didn''t wish to disturb it. That''s why he waited until it had finished evolving. The moment the Cloud Whale arrived above the battlefield, it was automatically pulled towards the ground, prevented from flying. Having expected it in advance, Krune prepared himself accordingly. At the moment it landed on the battlefield, the Cloud Whale unleashed a weak air needle, destroying half the demons standing before it. A layer of ice formed on the ground as the Cloud Whale skated above it, moving forth as the layer of ice increased in thickness, stopping upon reaching a height of two meters. The Cloud Whale moved towards the city as Krune slammed an ice spike into every demon that tried to jump at the Cloud Whale. However, once he neared the humans, Krune realized that the humans were alarmed, guarding against him for a possible attack. Sighing, Krune slowed down the Cloud Whale, exiting it as he said, "Let me meet your City Lord." "What makes you think we''ll allow a demon to meet our City Lord?" A man, seemingly in Tier 5, retorted, emitting killing intent as he brandished his sword. Krune looked at the man for a second, causing the other party to scream in shock when his legs turned into an ice sculpture. "Don''t make me repeat myself a second time." He pointed at the Cloud Whale behind him and said, "Demons can''t do this. If you don''t wish to make an enemy out of me, drag your City Lord out." Quite the number of humans on the battlefield had seen the Cloud Whale in action. So, even if those at Tier 5 were unwilling to make him meet with the City Lord, some of the humans realized the meaning behind Krune''s words, rushing towards the city. "If you don''t wish to make me your enemy, bring your City Lord out." It was clear as to what it meant. So, it also meant that for the moment, as long as they complied with his demands, Krune wouldn''t be their enemy. The fact that he hadn''t killed any humans was enough proof of that claim. Soon, the City Lord rushed out of the city, flashing through the battlefield before he arrived, cupping his hands as he gazed at Krune, shuddering in response upon sensing Krune''s strength. He then asked with respect, "Sir, may I know why you visited my city?" "Do you know someone named Gehen?" Krune asked, noticing the City Lord''s eyes light up upon the mention of the name. "Yes, there''s just one person with that name," The City Lord replied. "I''m a hero from below," Krune said in response, noticing the City Lord heave a grand sigh in relief. "Please follow me. Let''s talk more inside." The City Lord showed the way, intending to lead them when Krune landed atop the Cloud Whale, motioning for him to sit beside. "This is faster," Krune said, patting beside him. Gulping for a moment, the City Lord nodded and landed beside Krune, watching the Cloud Whale move through the battlefield. Even though the humans were scared upon seeing such a gigantic creature that they had never witnessed, after seeing the City Lord seated atop it, they relaxed a little. However, upon gazing at Krune seated beside the City Lord, they tensed up once again. After all, Krune still wore his Monster Gecko armor. So, he looked incredibly scary. Once they crossed the bridge and entered the city, the Cloud Whale took off to the air, heading straight towards the center of the city where the administrative building should exist. He looked at the City Lord and asked, "Are you able to communicate with Gehen?" "The previous City Lord is the one maintaining contact with Gehen," The City Lord replied, amazed by the Cloud Whale''s ability to fly silently. "Thank goodness." Krune nodded and told him, "Let''s talk further once I converse with Gehen." "Alright." The City Lord nodded, patting his head to calm his tensed self. Unlike others, his senses were stronger. So, he was able to sense Krune''s unfathomable power, realizing that he was already on par with the legendary Black Demons. Chapter 1040 - Feifei Didn’t Become A Hero The previous City Lord was an old man in his eighties, now feeble due to his deteriorating health. However, he still maintained his body density to a certain extent. Though, as he lacked an arm and both legs, he was frail, barely getting by. Upon looking at Krune, the old man''s eyes widened in surprise before he shouted, "Praise the heavens! Our city''s finally blessed with a savior!" The old man was up and about in tears, seemingly delirious. Krune was confused at the reaction, looking at the City Lord in confusion. ; The City Lord shouted in return, "What the hell are you saying, father? I have told you many times. Our city''s perfectly fine. We are able to hold our ground, and for the past decade, we have been pushing the demons back." "That''s what they want you to believe." The old man snapped back. "All they need to trash our entire city is for a Black Demon to attack with twenty other Red Demons. With a Black Demon in the lead, it should deal enough damage to us." "We have the Godly Summons to rely upon in that case." The City Lord snorted. "Didn''t you use the Godly Summons to push back a Black Demon that appeared forty years ago?" "A Godly Summon¡­hah!" The old man snorted. "What do you think a Godly Summon actually means? Huh?" "It''s our gift and trump card!" The City Lord argued. "Idiot!" The old man snapped back. "We''re relying on the power of the gods to do that. Every time we do it, our city destabilizes a little. Ever since our city was established, we have used the Godly Summon nine times. If we use it a tenth time, our city would no longer be able to float atop the Abyssal Trench." "So, we ''e on our last line." The old man grumbled, finally gazing at Krune as he continued, "And, a hero is our only salvation." As he looked at Krune, he suddenly trembled, sensing the frightening presence Krune exuded, also noticing a sharp killing intent in his body. And only now did he see Hazak standing at the corner of the room, silently meditating while keeping its eyes closed. "A Black Demon!" "Hazak is with me," Krune hastily said, watching the old man wheeze in pain, paranoid about seeing a Black Demon. ; "Relax!" Krune aimed his hand towards the old man, unleashing a beam of light-filled with the healing effect, quickly calming the old man while also beginning to heal his injuries, swiftly curing him. The old man looked at his limbs that had regenerated, amazed at them for a moment before he bowed on the ground. "Thank you, Lord Savior." "You should have had enough Water Essences to heal yourself since you''re strong. Why didn''t you do it?" Krune asked soon after. ; After a couple of minutes had passed, the old man got up from his prostrating position, saying with a respectful tone, "I was afraid we wouldn''t have enough Water Essences to heal our warriors when we truly needed them. So, I saved them all in the royal treasury." "How many Water Essences have you stored?" Krune asked in curiosity. "Around 7000 of them," the old man said in worry. "Sadly, they are hardly sufficient. If a real war breaks out, they won''t even last a day." ''So, he''s been afraid of the city being put in a precarious situation. Indeed, it''s possible. If the Black Demons have all learned to cultivate like the one I killed, then they aren''t opponents the humans can face,'' Krune thought, realizing the reason why the concept of heroes was brought up. ; It was actually to fight against the Black Demons that have begun cultivating. Only with their passive and active abilities were they capable of facing such powerful beings that had surpassed the peak of Layer 2. ; After a moment of thought, Krune asked the old man, "How do you communicate with Gehen?" The old man summoned his tablet and explained, "During my time as the City Lord, we had faced crisis numerous times. In response, I had to activate the Godly Summons thrice to tide through the crisis. Once I did that, I obtained the knowledge that the city would fall into the Abyssal Trench once the Godly Summons had been activated ten times. With that, a section also opened for me that allowed me to chat with Gehen once a year for a short duration. It is at most a couple of minutes." "When will it open the next time?" Krune asked, feeling his heart thump. "Actually, that time is now," the old man replied, motioning for Krune to stand beside him, pointing at the tablet that changed its screen soon after. "Had you arrived a couple of minutes later, you would have missed it. It seems you wished to talk with Gehen about something. Please tell me what to say. The conversation happens by relaying our thoughts to each other through this tablet." "There''s a person named Feifei in Layer 3. Once she obtains an active ability, send her to this city as a hero. She''s my wife, and I wish to ensure her safety. Do this, and I''ll elevate you to the peak of Tier 6," Krune said his terms. ; The old man''s breathing grew ragged at it, quickly closing his eyes as he cleared his thoughts, thinking of what Krune had said. After a couple of seconds, the old man opened his eyes, asking Krune, "Gehen is asking for your name." "It''s Krune," Krune replied. ; Once the old man communicated, he frowned, only speaking after a couple dozen seconds had passed. "It seems this person named Feifei had caused chaos in Layer 3 once she obtained an active ability. She''s wanted as a terrorist by many groups there. It seemed she had offended too many people after killing a group that had bad blood with her. However, it seems she has already met with a Checkpoint Turtle an hour ago and has arrived at Layer 2. And... it wasn''t as a hero." "Damn it!" Krune cursed at the top of his voice, causing the City Lord and the old man to shudder at the sound that rattled the walls, causing faint cracks to form on them. ; "Hazak! Let''s move! Now!" Krune shouted as he flashed before Hazak, causing the other party to hurriedly grab hold of their things as he summoned the Cloud Whale, heading straight towards the city''s exit. Chapter 1041 - Krune’s Tension While the Cloud Whale rushed out of the city, Krune thought of something, calculating the number of days he had stayed, cursing himself, "Today is the day that exactly marks a decade since I had arrived at Layer 2. So, it should be the day the Checkpoint Turtles would arrive as well. Damn it. I should have realized it sooner." "Why didn''t you select being a hero? It would be impossible to survive once you''re dropped in the middle of nowhere in the miasma region." Krune felt jittery, filled to the brim with anxiety as the Cloud Whale appeared on the battlefield. Seeing the way it moved on the bridge, the humans parted way. As for the demons that tried to sneak in through the way, the Cloud Whale shredded all of them using its air needle, creating a clean path to skid forth. Also, sensing the intense killing intent he emitted, the weaker humans and demons alike fainted, unable to bear it any longer. The Cloud Whale blasted through the battlefield, taking off to the skies once it left the range of the Abyssal Trench. "Move!" Krune bellowed as the Cloud Whale unleashed another air needle, rupturing every single demon in the air that tried to attack the Cloud Whale. In his rage and sense of urgency, Krune attacked every demon that tried to hinder him. Dreams of the Heart¡ªOcean Turbulence! Krune fused all five crimson rings into his Sonic Radar, increasing its range widely, trying his best to scout for any sign of Feifei. He was almost mad, bellowing every time a demon tried to hinder him. Suddenly, Hazak patted him on the shoulder, telling him, "Please allow me to handle all the demons. Focus on finding Lord Wife." "Hah." Krune exhaled, nodding after a moment of thought. "Thanks, Hazak." "It is my life''s pleasure." Hazak bowed before exiting the Cloud Whale, sitting atop it as it faced its palm towards the nearest demon. Its palm split open, revealing a mouth from which a tongue shot forth, piercing the demon before pulling out its Demon Core. The demon dropped to the ground like its strings were cut while its Demon Core headed into the mouth on its palm, followed by some crunching sound. Without any change in pace, Hazak pointed its palm at every demon that tried to close in on the Cloud Whale, ripping out their Demon Cores using its tongue. Once it began to deal with all the demons, Krune focused completely on his Sonic Radar, expanding to a range beyond his usual. Everything within a radius of 100 kilometers was in his range. But at this point, the precision dropped grandly, preventing him from telling a demon from Feifei if she had been there. So, he had to reduce the range to 40 kilometers where the precision was enough to tell them apart. With this, he began to scour through the miasma-covered world, killing demons occasionally to vent his anger. He wished to find Feifei as soon as possible. For every second that passed by, he was feeling tense, wondering if Feifei was okay or if she had come under harm. "Right, when I appeared, I was around 300 to 400 kilometers from the city. Maybe, Feifei arrived at a similar place. So, as long as I move around that point and make a circle around the Abyssal Trench, I should be able to spot Feifei." The Cloud Whale soon arrived at the point he had calculated, beginning to circle around the Abyssal Trench from this point. The Abyssal Trench had an outer ring radius of 3600 kilometers. Adding onto the 400 kilometers to the point he observed, Krune had to make a circle with a radius of 4000 kilometers in his search of Feifei. That meant he had to scour through a distance of 25,120 kilometers. And that was just one round. He could only scout 40 kilometers around himself while moving using his Sonic Radar. Considering where Feifei would have appeared, it was impossible to guess when he would find her or if he would even find her at all. So no matter what, Krune had to be patient and persist in his efforts. But would he be patient, though? When his wife''s life was on the line, remaining calm and nonchalant was impossible for Krune. He then thought of something, ''Right, what if she decided to tail after the marching line of demons and head towards the cities?'' Right as this thought entered his mind, Krune shouted, "Hazak, make a round around the cities. See if Feifei has reached there. Since your speed is high, you would reach it pretty quickly. Circle around the Abyssal Trench in the opposite direction to mine! Find Feifei and protect her no matter what!" "Gladly!" Hazak said before jumping out, unfurling its wings before speeding away in the air. Moreover, air currents were generated around it, further accelerating it, making it seem like it would reach the Abyssal Trench within 10 minutes. Seeing its speed, Krune was assured that Hazak would have enough time to scour at least a circle around the Abyssal Trench before Feifei managed to reach there. That would allow him to protect her. Nevertheless, he was still worried, making the Cloud Whale proceed at tremendous speeds, breaking the sound barrier as it continued to accelerate even further, soon reaching top speed now that enough time had passed. While he calculated the distance based on his speed, he grunted in anger, "Even at four times the speed of sound, I still need five hours to scour the entire distance. Dammit!" He was feeling helpless, for no matter what he did, it was beyond his control. He was already proceeding at his top speeds. Even if he consumed a bunch of Blood Essence Crystal, they wouldn''t amplify the speed any further. Just the shockwaves resulting from the Cloud Whale''s flight caused intense damage to the demons, causing them to shriek while covering their ears. However, Krune didn''t consider how many demons died as a result, focusing only on finding Feifei. Even when he arrived at Layer 3 and had regressed into a mortal, he hadn''t felt this helpless. It made him recall the time when he was just a wisp and had to run to survive.. And now, he had to run to make his wife survive. Chapter 1042 - She Can Manage Herself "Hmm..." Feifei looked around upon arriving at Layer 2, quickly noticing that the region was filled with miasma that was harmful to her. However, she wasn''t alarmed, instead deciding to camouflage herself into her surroundings. For a moment, her presence had vanished. Nevertheless, she was still there. It was just that she felt no different to the air based on her presence. So, even when a demon walked past her and even saw her, it didn''t register her in its mind, proceeding about as it went. Feifei scanned the demon through her senses, shuddering upon noticing its tough body, immediately realizing that she wasn''t its opponent. She noticed that it was green in color. ''The moment I touch it, it would be aware of my presence.'' Feifei calmly walked forth, feeling a faint burning sensation as she noticed that the miasma was proving to be an issue. She then expanded her sensory ability''s range, judging the strength a demon possessed, soon noticing the relation to their colors. Soon, she discovered the weakest of the demons, a White Demon, approaching it stealthily. A White Demon was typically called a Demon Child, having a weight below 150 kilograms. They were incredibly rare and didn''t even have any Demon Cores within their bodies. Feifei approached a White Demon and stood alarmingly close to it, marching alongside it before she expanded the range of the passive ability that hid her presence, enveloping the White Demon into it as well. Now that the White Demon''s presence was also ignored by the other demons, Feifei grabbed hold of it, shutting its mouth first to prevent it from speaking, quickly leaving the place as she suppressed the White Demon, turning her hands into claws as she dug them into its body. The White Demon''s body rapidly thinned out as its essence was absorbed by Feifei. She then digested the essence, nodding as she understood the concept at place. She smiled, causing the absorbed essence to take effect, noticing that the miasma no longer troubled her. Rather, it began to heal her injuries, causing her to feel invigorated. ''Indeed, it was the best decision to have collected the strongest of passive abilities to complement myself. If not for them, I would have had an impossible time surviving here.'' She was then worried as she thought to herself, ''How did Krune fare? Is he okay?'' However, soon far, upon thinking who he was, Feifei placated herself. ''He should be fine. That silly wisp won''t die.'' ''Now, I have to survive until I meet up with him,'' she thought, turning her skin white as her body began to resemble a White Demon. She then found a second White Demon, repeating the same before she devoured its essence, furthering her mimicking of the White Demon. By her tenth kill, she resembled an actual White Demon, also noticing that she was able to absorb the miasma to grow stronger. ''However, this process seems to have some limitations.'' She understood it immediately after turning herself into a White Demon. Once she summoned her tablet and looked at the title of Layer 2, she understood the concept at play. Feifei then focused on the next demon on the list, a Violet Demon. Using her ability to make her presence similar to air, she approached a Violet Demon, suddenly acting a bit flustered, pointing away from the marching line as she said, "Something seems off about there. I think a lone human is wandering there." "Where?" Brought about by instincts, the Violet Demon hurriedly followed her, not realizing that it was the only one that had moved out of the line. As Feifei had wrapped the passive ability''s effect on the two of them, its actions went unnoticed by the other demons. Feifei then ran through the ground, soon arriving behind a hill of sorts, having scouted before that there were no demon eyes in the place. She pointed at the place, saying, "Here!" "Here?" The Violet Demon arrived at the place, looking around in confusion as it was unable to see any humans. It then faced the White Demon but acted like it hadn''t seen anyone, scratching its head in confusion when a force slammed onto its back, causing it to tumble to the ground. A Monster Gecko appeared and sat atop it, locking it to the place. Feifei then plunged her claws into the Violet Demon''s back, shocked when she realized she barely scratched it. ''And this was already the weakest of the Violet Demons.'' Thankfully, her claws managed to come into contact with the Violet Demon''s blood, beginning to absorb its essence using it, causing the Violet Demon to shrivel up, soon turning into a pile of dust. Feifei had also absorbed its Demon Core into her, closing her eyes as she digested the gains from the essence she had absorbed. The Monster Gecko stood beside her, guarding her. For a moment, it seemed like a regular Monster Gecko. However, once Feifei absorbed the Violet Demon Core, the Monster Gecko grinned a bit, beginning to absorb the miasma into itself. It seemed that even it was capable of this feat. It then arrived before the hill, using its claws to drill into it, creating a cave. The cave was big enough for Feifei to sit within and meditate. After all, she was now able to cultivate using the miasma. So, she was unwilling to waste any time moving around at risk. If she came across a powerful demon against whom her passive abilities didn''t work, she would be in danger. Even though her appearance was no different to a White Demon right now, she didn''t wish to take any chances. Now that she realized she could increase her weight by absorbing the miasma and grow stronger, she was unwilling to stop until she grew to the maximum level the essence from the Violet Demon could allow her to do so¡ªthe peak as a Violet Demon, 200 kilograms. Once the cave was dug, the Monster Gecko vanished. Feifei just got up, intending to head into the cave, when she noticed a gigantic figure flying in the air high up, causing her shock at its size, wondering just how strong it would be based on the standards of Layer 2. However, upon seeing the familiar figure, she recalled the scene she had witnessed in Layer 3. ''That''s Krune''s Cloud Whale!'' Upon extending her passive sensory ability, she determined that it was indeed him inside the Cloud Whale, wearing the same Monster Gecko armor. But, now that her appearance was no different to a demon, he was unable to notice her as the Cloud Whale flashed past. As it was traveling at four times the speed of sound, it vanished as fast as it had arrived.. Right as Feifei intended to reach, intense shockwaves slammed into her, causing her to scream in pain as she hurriedly condensed the Monster Gecko around her to absorb all the shockwaves. Chapter 1043 - Message Engraved In The Ground Once the shockwaves died down, Feifei grunted as she deactivated her Monster Gecko and slumped to the ground, coughing out some blood as she cursed, "Idiot." "Is he searching for me?" Feifei thought, recalling Krune''s flustered expression as his Cloud Whale zoomed past. As she thought about it, Feifei understood that Krune was searching for her. ''At present, there''s too much danger if I reveal myself. There''s a good chance I might die under the hands of a demon before Krune gets here.'' "Besides, I want to show him that I am strong enough to take care of myself." Feifei clenched her hand into a fist as she formulated a plan. "First, I must prevent him from doing anything reckless. Then, I must create a meeting point and affix a date so that we can meet without any problems or enemy ambushes." After thinking it through, Feifei nodded inwardly, taking action immediately once she absorbed some miasma to heal her injuries. She then placed her hand into the ground, activating one of her passive abilities. Passive Ability¡ªBone Tree Monster Gecko! Feifei retracted her hand from the ground, watching a tiny bone tree sapling sprout out of it. It then began to absorb the miasma, using it as fuel to grow in size, reaching its full height of three meters within a couple of minutes. Immediately after that, it began to bear fruit, one that continued to grow in size until it reached a length of two meters. Then, followed by a plop, the fruit ripened, falling on the ground as it splattered. Soon, kneeling on the ground, having emerged from the pulp of the fruit, was a Monster Gecko. It was kneeling while facing Feifei, under her control. Once it had been birthed, the bone tree began to wilt, turning into dust. Feifei planted twenty such trees, commanding the twenty Monster Geckos that had been birthed shortly after, "Go make a message." She pointed them to proceed in a certain direction, planting more bone trees as she watched them move about. Once the second batch of Monster Geckos was birthed, she sent them in the opposite direction. In a similar fashion, she sent out numerous groups, intending to engrave enough messages of her wellbeing into the ground. ¡­ "Dammit, just where did she go?" Krune was worried as his face had turned pale. For the past five hours, the closer he was to making a full circle, the more he panicked. Surprisingly, he faced enough stress to the extent his sideburns turned white. Krune seemed to have aged considerably in the past five hours due to worry. As the Cloud Whale continued to fly, he suddenly noticed a massive drawing on the ground. Using his Sonic Radar, he was able to read it clearly, "I''m fine, Krune." The words were like the first rainfall on a drought-ridden land, causing Krune to break into tears as he kneeled. "Thank you¡­ thank goodness¡­ you''re alive." As the Cloud Whale continued to move about, more messages began to appear as Krune read them all. "I''m fine." "I''m alive." "I''m in hiding, Krune." "I''m strong enough to survive." "Don''t worry." "I''m fine, Krune." The messages continued to repeat one after another as Krune traced them all, moving from one place to another as he circled through the region, noticing the fairly vast area that had been covered by the messages. Eventually, he noticed another new message that had appeared at a far-off place. "We''ll meet after two years here." Krune was confused as to how the messages appeared, for he hadn''t seen anything creating them in the first place. Nevertheless, the way the messages were written, the style of writing, the tone in them all pointed to the fact that it was Feifei who had written them. Krune was relieved at the fact that she was alive and seemed to be doing well. Then again, that didn''t mean he would simply return to a city to chill out for the next two years. He wished to step in and help her the moment she was in trouble. So, Krune continued to make rounds over the area where the messages had been written. Moreover, due to the faint winds in the place, the engravings in the ground vanished after a couple of days. ¡­ "Now that he seems to be fine, it''s time to work on increasing my strength," Feifei muttered upon using her investigative ability while the Cloud Whale passed by high above in the air. She didn''t have anything in her surroundings that seemed amiss. But, she was still a White Demon appearance-wise, that was alone in the middle of nowhere. So, it was definitely suspicious. However, the reason Krune hadn''t been able to sense her despite having gone over the area twice was due to her passive ability. Passive Ability¡ªWind Zone! This ability made her presence resemble the air. So, people would gloss over her existence unless she did something to affect them. With that, Feifei was able to sense numerous threats lurking around in the area. One of them was emanating suffocating pressure to the extent she dared not think about fighting it. Also, she was aware of one fact: the moment she deactivated Wind Zone, her presence would register in the senses of the suffocating creature. She was vaguely able to sense that it would be able to reach her neck before Krune would be able to step in to save her. So, that''s why she hadn''t done anything to alert Krune of her existence. Thankfully, her abilities revolved around her active ability, Monster Gecko. So, when she created the group of Monster Geckos by using the passive ability of Bone Tree Monster Gecko, they all were protected by her Wind Zone. That''s how they were able to stay undetected while relaying the messages to Krune. Once her basic preparations were completed, Feifei retreated deep into the cave that had been widened, seating herself as she began to meditate. The miasma swerved towards her, gushing into her body as she could feel her body density increasing ever so slightly at a consistent pace. "Thanks to all my abilities being perfectly attuned to one another, I''ll be stronger," Feifei calmly muttered, staring at the group of Monster Geckos that kneeled at the cave''s entrance. Chapter 1044 - Spirit Deity Spiritual Incarnation Passive Ability¡ªEnergy Sink! Feifei absorbed the miasma into her body, turning it into two streams. One was used to strengthen her body while the other flowed into her stomach, becoming absorbed by the stomach walls. Energy Sink was her favorite passive ability in that it converted any forms of energy and stored them all in a mini world that was in her stomach. As she had obtained this passive ability from Layer 3, the energy in the mini world took the form of the healing water from Layer 3. Energy Sink was basically a reservoir of energy she could store in herself and use upon necessary. Plus, since it was tied to her stomach, as her body density grew, it meant that her stomach walls grew similarly. So, the quantity and quality of energy she could store in her Energy Sink continued to increase. Moreover, as it was stored as the healing water, Feifei never had to be worried about being able to heal from her wounds. Using her bone tree ability derived from her active ability, she could condense the healing water into Water Essence to heal herself. Then again, in Layer 2, it wasn''t necessary. After all, she could use the miasma to heal herself. Having activated her active ability internally, Feifei had absorbed the essence of a Violet Demon, condensing it into a passive ability. Upon obtaining the active ability, Feifei had been surprised when she discovered its real use. The bone trees and the Monster Geckos were closely connected. So, Feifei obtained the ability of the bone trees to condense the Blood Essence of creatures. With that, she condensed the traits of the creature into a passive ability that she stored using another of her passive abilities. Passive Ability¡ªSlot of Dozen! This was a passive ability that could temporarily hold 12 passive abilities. Every passive ability stored in it could only be used once. Then again, as long as she didn''t deactivate the passive ability or her energy didn''t run out, she could maintain it constantly without its effect vanishing. That''s how she was able to maintain her transformation into a White Demon once she had condensed its essence into a passive ability. Just like how Krune had centered his abilities around the Ocean Heart, Feifei had done the same around her passive ability, Bone Tree Monster Gecko. With that, she obtained a set of abilities that worked in great sync with each other, creating beneficial results. It was only thanks to that did she have the confidence to arrive at Layer 2. Moreover, it was only when she arrived here did she feel at ease. "After all, there are no more of my enemies here." She knew of the people that had headed to Layer 2 before her. None of them were her enemies since all of them had stayed behind to kill her. Now that she had killed them all, she was free of all burdens. "Then again..." She sighed in worry. "This is only in regards to the group that followed me into the Sub-Realm. Once I return to the God Realm, they''ll begin to hunt for me once again." There were two reasons she was heavily targeted to be killed. The first was the fact that she was the disciple of one of the elders of the Golden Gate Sect. Her master was at the Elementary God Stage, a powerhouse. However, that wasn''t enough to warrant the reason she had been chased after relentlessly, with no care for the lives of the pursuers. It was because of the second reason. Feifei''s Spiritual Incarnation was the root cause of everything that she had to endure during the past few decades. She had created a Spiritual Incarnation that was the same as the founding ancestor of the Golden Gate Sect, someone that had died during the final stage of becoming a God. Spirit Deity Spiritual Incarnation! It was a Spiritual Incarnation that was capable of openly peeking into the laws of the God Realm, allowing the cultivator to comprehend the laws at a tremendous speed. Secondly, it was able to imbue a tremendous level of insight and thought process into the cultivator, allowing them to create powerful techniques at rapid speeds. It was because of this that the founding ancestor of the Golden Gate Sect was able to grow tremendously strong and reign victorious among his peers, even as a Primal God. That was also how the Golden Gate Sect''s territory spanned many continents. Zamuria Continent was already vast, and its Emperor used the continent''s vast resources to become a Primal God. It could be safely said that every continent was capable of supporting a Primal God. And the fact that the Golden Gate Sect''s founding ancestor wielded control over several continents was a testament to his peerless strength. So, when Feifei obtained the same Spiritual Incarnation, the Golden Gate Sect was overjoyed, hoping to be able to reach their peak once again. And in the same notion, when the sect was attacked, Feifei was given priority on the same level as the Golden Gate Sect''s current Sect Leader. During the chaotic battle, Feifei appeared in the Sub-Realm. "When I exit this Sub-Realm, I might find myself in the center of chaos once again. However, adding onto the body cultivation atop my powers, I have enough potential to grow even stronger than the founding ancestor," Feifei muttered. "On top of that, I hid a fragment of my Spiritual Incarnation in a discrete location. Even the trackers wouldn''t be able to detect Spiritual Incarnation fragments of such a tiny caliber." "Though, if I wish to revive through that, it would take me tens of thousands of years." Feifei sighed. "Then again, if the fragment is any bigger, it''ll be easily discovered." "I don''t want to drag Krune into this conflict." Feifei took in a deep breath, continuing to cultivate as her body density grew. Soon, she began to train within the cave, getting used to her increasing strength. Thanks to the miasma, she was able to train without feeling tired, needing to eat or sleep. With that, she trained nonstop, displaying her determination, smiling every time she watched the Cloud Whale pass overhead. Chapter 1045 - Feifei’s Army Of Monster Geckos Every time the Cloud Whale passed overhead, Feifei became happy. She gradually noticed that Krune''s mental state had recovered over the days as she sent him messages by engraving them on the ground. On top of that, she determined Krune''s cycle, creating a message on the ground only a couple of minutes before he arrived, erasing it soon after the Cloud Whale passed by. This way, she ensured none of the demons saw her messages. She also took measures to engrave the messages only in places where no demon ever appeared. By sending scouts to follow the line of demons marching forth in the valley nonstop, she determined that their destination was a human city. There was a total of 24 such cities. And accordingly, there were 24 lines of demons marching towards the respective cities each. While scouting through on the opposite side, Feifei had noticed that most of the demons began to join into the line only when they approached a distance of 1000 kilometers from the Abyssal Trench. Beyond that, they were a scattered mess, walking out from wherever their respective Demon Nest was situated at. Two months had passed as she trained while sending the Monster Geckos to scout her surroundings, understanding the gist of things. The suffocating presence she constantly felt was from a Black Demon that was loitering about in a nearby area, having been sleeping all along while she scouted it, not once waking up. The Black Demon was the source of the suffocating presence, eradicating all thoughts about attacking it from Feifei''s mind. Feifei also noticed that every time the Cloud Whale flew overhead, the suffocating presence from the Black Demon fell by a notch, understanding Krune''s strength. "So, you''re already at that level." Two months since she had appeared at Layer 2, Feifei calmly approached the line of demons marching in the valley. Using her Wind Zone, she remained undetected, approaching a Blue Demon before enveloping it in her Wind Zone. She pointed away from her and asked the demon, "I saw a human romancing about there?" "Where? Show me the way?" The Blue Demon asked in a hurry, following Feifei as she began to run. Feifei had changed her appearance into that of a Violet Demon. So, her speed wasn''t suspicious to the Blue Demon. As they began to run through the wastelands where not even grass grew, a lone figure came into view. It was currently kneeling on the ground, seemingly exhausted. It had draped a set of clothes on itself, causing its appearance to be invisible. But since demons never wore any clothes, it was apparent that the figure was a human. The Blue Demon didn''t even wait for Feifei to say anything, taking action the moment it saw the figure, flashing past at her maximum speed, pouncing upon the figure to plunge its claws through its head. The figure''s head splattered due to the power behind the Blue Demon''s punch. But suddenly, the Blue Demon felt its hand had turned numb as it saw a layer of ice forming on it. Suddenly, numerous hands shot out from the ground, grabbing hold of it when the ground caved in. It revealed that the Monster Geckos had held onto each other to act as a trap. They had layered themselves atop a massive pit and covered their bodies with sand. The moment the Blue Demon arrived, they let go of their hold onto one another, latching onto the Blue Demon. Adding their weight and the way they attached themselves onto its body, the Blue Demon was unable to unfurl its wings and take flight, getting dragged with the Monster Geckos into the depth of the pit that was at least 30 meters deep. The ground fell into a pool of Monster Gecko blood, causing the Blue Demon''s body to turn numb when it was incessantly attacked by the Monster Geckos. Then again, all the Monster Geckos were only the normal monsters from Layer 3. They weren''t even the Mutant Monster Geckos. So, a single punch from the blue Demon splattered more than ten Monster Geckos. Of course, that too was a trap. After all, when their bodies burst, their blood fell onto the Blue Demon, hastening the formation of ice on its body. If it didn''t attack, the Monster Geckos would constantly attack it. But if it attacked, the splattered blood would worsen its situation. Just as it came to such a conclusion, some of the Monster Geckos spat out a sac filled with blood on it. This was the sac filled with the coldest blood in their bodies, a trump card every Monster Gecko carried with itself. When the sac exploded, the Blue Demon began to freeze over even faster. Soon, it was unable to even move, having turned into a sculpture. Feifei jumped in at this time, plunging her claws through the Blue Demon''s back, barely piercing through its body before she began to absorb its essence. Once it was done, she exited the pit, watching the Monster Geckos cover the hole once again using their bodies. She then headed towards the valley with the marching demons, luring over another Blue Demon. This way, she killed enough of them until she was able to condense a concentrated version of a passive ability. Normally, just one demon''s essence was enough for her to condense a passive ability. However, Feifei knew very well that as long as she concentrated the essence of a being to a certain extent, the generated passive ability would be the strongest of its kind. It''s the same that Krune did for every passive ability he obtained. Now, Feifei was killing more Blue Demons just to condense the passive ability of the Blue Demon into its most potent state. After killing 10 Blue Demons, she had concentrated the passive ability to the limit, activating it as she turned into a blue Demon. Immediately, she could sense the differences, primarily the amount of miasma she could pull towards her now.. Upon reaching this stage, Feifei began to train nonstop, reaching Tier 3 as her body weight went beyond 200 kilograms. Chapter 1046 - Time To Reunite "Sir, please look at this!" Hazak double-tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet as he showed it to Krune. "I got one!" "That''s amazing. How did you manage that?" Krune asked. After he determined that Feifei was safe, he made a trip towards the cities, noticing Hazak running around like mad in search of her. After that, he told him to return when Hazak said he noticed something, asking for a couple of days of permission. Once Krune permitted him, Hazak headed towards a battlefield, returning after two days when he showed the tablet to Krune. "When I was searching for Lady Feifei, I also made way into the battlefields, just in case she had appeared there. A couple of humans attacked me at that time. When I wounded them, I could feel that something was different about me. Once I finished evolving into a Black Demon, I could feel it even more," Hazak explained. It then bowed as it continued, "All I needed to do was devour ten humans and absorb their foundation to create my own tablet. I only targeted those that tried to kill me." "That''s fine by me," Krune told him in response, not affected by the death of humans. There was a time when he had even cooked them, so he never cared about them much in the first place. The racial sympathy between him and humans never existed in the first place. After all, he wasn''t a human but a Wisp. As long as they weren''t anyone he cared about, he wasn''t concerned with their life and death to a certain extent. Plus, since Hazak hadn''t voluntarily hunted humans but had only killed the ones that tried to kill it, Krune''s stance on the matter remained unchanging. "Now that you also have a tablet, that means you can begin to accumulate some Godly Points. We''ll definitely need as much as we can, so go ahead and kill some Demons." Krune then told him, "Only do it on the battlefields. Remain as discrete as possible. The moment a Black Demon tries to attack you, run away immediately. You''re still not strong enough to face one head-on yet." "Yes, Sir Krune." Hazak bowed before flying towards the flight of stairs leading towards a certain battlefield. It was smart, so it knew what to do, picking a battlefield where there weren''t any Black Demons loitering about. Krune then returned to his rounds, smiling every time he read Feifei''s message, wondering just how strong she had become. "Soon! There are less than two years." As for Feifei, she was training as usual, smiling when the size of her Monster Gecko began to increase. With her active ability''s growth, her overall abilities took a spike in development. Thankfully for her, she was capable of using the miasma. In short, to her, it was an endless cultivation resource that she could rely upon to grow stronger without any limitation. At present, she was meditating in her cave, absorbing the miasma as her Energy Sink converted it into the ocean water, storing it within the tiny world created by the passive ability. The world of Energy Sink wasn''t like Krune''s subspace. She couldn''t place or take out any items from within. The only thing she could do was turn any form of energy she absorbed into the ocean water to store within. And when needed, she could supplement her energy needs using it. The best part of this Energy Sink was the fact that it was energy-exclusive space. So, Feifei was able to dump a tremendous reserve of energy into it. Unlike Krune''s Ocean Heart that came accompanied by a couple of abilities, the function of Energy Sink was simply to store energy in it. So, the sheer quantity of energy it contained grandly surpassed Ocean Heart. After all, the primary function of the Ocean Heart was being the heart of everything. That''s how Krune was able to create his trump card, ''Dreams of the Heart: Ocean Turbulence.'' As for Feifei, she didn''t have anything like Ocean Turbulence to rely upon. Nevertheless, the two of them had taken different directions of development. Krune went onto with the individualistic approach, increasing his fighting strength to the limit. As for Feifei, she went through the army route. With Energy Sink, she had a tremendous reserve of energy to rely upon. Using the Bone Tree Monster Gecko, she was able to create an army of Monster Geckos to do her bidding. Feifei continued to grow stronger while developing her passive abilities further as a result. After obtaining her active ability, she changed her entire arsenal of passive abilities to suit it. So, she hadn''t familiarised enough with them. And now, she was able to do so by fighting the demons daily. Her army of Monster Geckos created numerous pits for her while she lured in one demon after another, fighting it one-on-one as she trained her abilities, growing stronger as a result. Her proficiency with using her abilities increased at a staggering rate as she was able to fight without rest. The miasma healed all her injuries and kept her fresh, allowing her to fight without any concerns. Time passed in such a fashion as Feifei lost herself in her training. But all along, she kept an eye on the Black Demon nearby, alert that it would wake up the moment she revealed herself and attempt to kill her. Through her senses, she was clearly able to feel it. That''s why she told Krune to wait for two years first. It was to make some preparations so that she would have enough facility to survive long enough until Krune met with her. Moreover, she also didn''t wish for him to see her weak. So, she had planned to at least attain sizeable strength before that happened. Eventually, two years had passed since she had arrived at Layer 2. Now, she had reached Tier 4, finished with all preparations for the encounter. Her heart thumped at the fact that she would reunite with her husband once again after more than 40 years had passed since they had been separated. Today was the day she was supposed to meet Krune. Chapter 1047 - A Successful Ambush Laying atop a sand dune, exhibiting the pinnacle of laziness, was a Black Demon. It had been sleeping for months at a time. Suddenly, intense gales were riled up, causing a lot of the sand to fall atop it. Some of it even fell into its nose, causing it to get up due to the discomfort. Watching the sand billowing about, the Black Demon snorted, gazing up to see the Cloud Whale flashing past. The intense shockwaves produced as a result of its motion were what caused the sand to be buried atop it. "Just because he killed one of us, he''s acting like he''s the ruler of this world. For the past two years, I''ve been patient, but he''s ruining my sleep constantly. It had taken me a decade to find this perfect spot to sleep. And now, it''s ruined." The Black Demon snorted, glaring at the Cloud Whale as it muttered, "You here, yet?" "I just arrived, Grotak." Another Black Demon, one sporting three horns, arrived. It stood beside the dune, saying with a tone of mockery, "It took you a decade to find this dune? Were you trying to find it in your sleep?" "Shut up, Doit." Grotak, the Black Demon that always slept, chided back. "Only a connoisseur of sleep can understand the worth of this sand dune." It then grunted, asking, "Where''s Leat?" "It wishes to make a flashy entrance. So, it will join mid-battle," Doit replied. "But, what are you planning to do with that other demon? I believe its name is Hazak." "I never knew we would have a traitor among us." Grotak groaned, "But, I fear it has something to do with that creature it follows around." "Anyway, it doesn''t matter anymore. We''ll kill both Hazak and that annoying thing it follows around," Grotak said, unfurling its wings, gazing at Doit. "Anyway, carry me. You''re the fastest existence among all of us." "Retract your wings," Doit said, grabbing hold of Grotak''s hand. "They''ll just hinder us." The moment it said its piece, the air surrounding it swirled around, building up momentum in their bodies while causing everything in the place to be swept up by wind. "My precious sleeping spot!" Grotak shouted in regret as the wind destroyed the sand dune. In the next moment, their figures vanished from the spot, speeding straight towards the Cloud Whale. "He''s here!" Feifei beamed with a smile upon spotting the Cloud Whale farther in the sky. There were still tens of kilometers to travel before it would reach the designated spot. Feifei was already at the appointed place, obscured by her passive ability. She was planning to deactivate it once Krune arrived at the destination and landed on the ground. As the Cloud Whale continued to fly closer and closer, Feifei''s heart thumped, her face flushed red as she was finally about to reunite with Krune. "After so long!" However, her thoughts froze up as when the Cloud Whale was 10 kilometers away from her, a bolt of lightning slammed into it, causing it to shriek while a large part of its body had caved in, melted from the intense temperatures. Its body had turned numb, unable to move as it began to fall towards the ground. Seated within it, Krune and Hazak were alarmed, intending to make a move when a gust of wind flashed past, followed by two figures that slammed right into the Cloud Whale, tearing through it before landing hits on Krune. "No! Noo! Nooo!" Feifei was shocked before screaming in despair, watching Krune be attacked by three Black Demons. Having been on Layer 2 for two years, she was well aware of the strength of every demon now. And among them, the Black Demons were strong, tremendously so. It was especially true for the Black Demon that was sleeping quite close to the cave Feifei had been training at. It was wiser to have relocated to somewhere else. Sadly, Feifei didn''t have a choice. After all, 1000 kilometers from the Abyssal Trench, the demons were littered everywhere. So, even if she were to remain in hiding while relying on Wind Zone, demons would stumble into her constantly, able to notice her presence upon touching her. With that, it was too risky. However, it was even riskier when she approached closer to the Abyssal Trench. After all, Feifei had noticed quite the number of Red and Black Demons lingering around there. Moreover, they were constantly on the move. It was teeming with danger. She had assumed that Black Demons were lower in number at the start. But only now did she realize that they had staggering numbers. Every region she had scouted, there was a Black Demon calmly sitting there, meditating. Left with no other choice, she remained in her original location since it was more beneficial for her to train. Since a Black Demon was nearby, she didn''t have to worry about any other demon stumbling into her cave. Right now, though, that plan backfired. It seemed that the Black Demons had been offended by Krune flying over them constantly for the past two years. "W-What do I do? I''ll only hinder him if I try to help him." Feifei stammered when she calmed herself, gazing at her stomach as she thought of something. "Right, I can still heal him when necessary. Yes, a Water Essence!" The moment she reached this line of thought, Feifei began to run towards the battlefield. "Damn it! What now?" Krune was alarmed when his Cloud Whale was torn into shreds when two demons attacked him, sending him flying towards the ground, causing a crater when he collided into it. "My Lord!" Hazak shouted in alarm when a bolt of lightning landed on it, numbing it a little. Hazak enveloped its body with gales, flying around as it headed towards the ground, intending to help Krune when multiple bolts of lightning landed on it, singeing its body. "Hahaha!" Doit flashed above it, condensing a whirl of wind around its fist before it smacked Hazak in the face, sending it reeling towards the ground.. No sooner had Hazak collided into the fist when Doit slammed right into its stomach, breaking its bone, causing a multitude of shockwaves to course through the ground. Chapter 1048 - Three Versus Two As Hazak planned to heal itself, it realized to its alarm that there wasn''t any miasma for it to use. When the three Black Demons had attacked, they pushed all the miasma out, keeping it only for their use, preventing Hazak from using any. This way, they prevented Hazak from recovering the injuries it sustained. After collapsing deep into the ground, Krune''s heart thumped rigorously as the sounds of sea waves resounded throughout the place. Instantly, a layer of ice formed on the ground, also creating another dome atop it. Krune sighed in relief for a moment, realizing that the container with the Healing Extract was safe, but the same couldn''t be said for the other items he had brought with him. When the lightning bolt landed on the Cloud Whale, he was only able to keep the container with the Healing Extract safe. As for the rest, they were destroyed, including the bone tree spheres, the Rope Bush seeds, and other items that he carried with him. And now, to prevent anything from happening to the Healing Extract, he quickly covered it with a layer of ice, preventing any Black Demons from aiming at it. He also created a dome of ice to get a breather as he shouted at Hazak, "The enemy is faster than us. Try to stay as close to me as possible so that we aren''t cornered!" "Yes!" Hazak nodded, opening its palm to reveal dense miasma that it inhaled, swiftly healing its injuries. It made it seem like it had pulled and condensed that miasma while it was sent flying through the air. But in actuality, it was putting on an act. The miasma was something it had pulled out from the amount it stored in its stomach. Just in case something like this might happen, it had filled its stomach with liquid miasma. There were even tiny crystals made from solidifying the miasma. So, it had enough energy to last a long time. Krune was the same, having filled his stomach with the Blood Essence Crystals. As they were created using the black fishes, they contained a tremendous sum of energy. From his previous battle, he had realized that he was close to defeat while facing a Black Demon in a field of miasma. So, he had filled his stomach with Blood Essence Crystals, covering them with a layer of ice to prevent his body from digesting them and exploding due to a surplus of energy. And when he needed it, he would remove the ice on a Blood Essence Crystal and replenish his energy reserves. Right as he got up, the dome of ice shattered as two demons broke into, focusing on both of them. Grotak focused on Krune, landing a punch on the latter''s chest. Krune defended against the attack, shouting as he kicked Grotak''s face. He was angry and worried, having recognized Grotak as the Black Demon that slept near the region Feifei was active at. Now, he was worried if it had done something to her. ''Only by killing it will I be able to search for Feifei.'' Krune condensed a sword of ice and slashed at Grotak, freezing the gash he inflicted, causing the other party to flinch at the force behind the attack. "As I expected, you are strong. No wonder you were able to kill one of us," Grotak muttered as it dusted itself once, causing Krune to become shocked when the injury he had inflicted on it simply vanished. "My regeneration speed is the fastest among all the Black Demons," Grotak said, flashing before Krune as it punched out. Suddenly, its fists roared with tremendous heat before lava gushed out, causing Krune to defend in alarm. The ice shield he condensed rapidly melted as the lava landed on his Monster Gecko armor, beginning to burn through it. The armor did its best to defend against the power behind the attack but was readily losing ground. In a battle of such scale, it was unable to keep up. Nevertheless, it gave Krune enough time to condense another ice shield and push off the lava. However, Grotak swerved towards his back, opening its palms like a flower before unleashing a torrent of lava. "And, just so you know, I also possess the greatest amount of Spiritual Energy among everyone." Krune hurriedly closed his eyes, relying on the Sonic Radar alone to sense his surroundings, now able to be alert in every direction. He then emitted a blinding Neon Radiance, causing Grotak to close its eyes, flinching in pain before it could feel the light turning white, now also suffused with intense cold. The area rapidly turned cold as Krune''s body was wrapped by wind currents, raising his speed as he jumped around, unleashing cold mist into the air. This way, he was also able to use Moving Ripple to accelerate further, swerving around the lava as he kicked Grotak''s knee. Then, just as he condensed a palm-sized Cloud Whale, intending to plunge it into Grotak''s neck when a bolt of lightning landed on his hand, causing him to scream as his body was numb for a moment. Grotak smirked as he changed the direction of his lava emission, showering Krune with it. In the meantime, Doit attacked Hazak nonstop, landing numerous hits one after another, not even suffering a single hit in response. "Too bad! Even though you''re tremendously powerful, you haven''t reached the peak as a Black Demon. In any case, you cannot match my speed." Hazak grunted as he suffered one hit after another. The opponent was tremendously powerful, but Hazak wasn''t taking as much damage as his opponent had signified. After all, he had tremendously powerful defense due to the layer of scales on his skin. His physique was also different from a demon''s. After all, he had absorbed 70 passive abilities. He was a different individual entirely. Hazak focused while taking the attacks, calmly relying on its senses as an eye opened on its back. Soon, tens of eyes opened all over its body, the irises focusing on the opponent''s movements, trailing behind it as it moved. Suddenly, a mouth opened on the back of its thigh as a tongue shot out, piercing the opponent''s hip, causing it to scream in surprise when the stung area felt numb. Moreover, the attack was tremendously fast, fast to the extent it could barely react and swerve its body, preventing it from landing on a vital area. However, no sooner had it done so did a lightning bolt land on the extended tongue, singeing it, turning it into dust. Chapter 1049 - Defeat "Argh!" Krune''s ice shield completely melted under the torrent of lava landing on him. It was melting through faster than he could create his ice. Left with no other option, Krune summoned his Cloud Whale at a relatively bigger scale, causing it to tank the lava. In the meantime, he jumped back in its body, deactivating it the moment it left the range of the lava. However, right when he planned to retaliate, another lightning bolt landed on him, numbing him while burning him. As the Neon Radiance resided in his skin, he simply fused the healing effect of his Ocean Heart into it, emitting healing light that swiftly healed him, making him recover from the shock of the lightning. Krune sensed using his Sonic Radar, noticing the Black Demon flying a couple hundred meters away in the air, calmly watching the battle unfold below, coolly absorbing the miasma into its body as it attacked with lightning bolts one after another, targeting Krune and Hazak right when they gained an advantage. ''It''s the main reason we''re being held back to such an extent.'' Krune frowned but was unable to do anything much. Even though the Black Demons didn''t have much experience in fighting since they had lived uncontested in Layer 2, that didn''t mean they were careless. Previously, when he fought the Black Demon, Hazak helped him, keeping most of the miasma at bay. The only amount of miasma the Black Demon could absorb was the amount it wrestled free from Hazak''s control. So, it didn''t have the initiative. Even then, it was a close match between it and Krune. After all, just based on the amount of time they had lived, every Black Demon was around eight times older than Krune. So, they had a considerable amount of time to grow their skills. And since they had been absorbing Spiritual Energy all this time, they had trained themselves considerably, even though it seemed they had only one Spirit Ability. Then again, it was exactly because they had one Spirit Ability that they had focused on mastering it. So, fighting against them proved difficult. After all, Krune didn''t have Spiritual Energy to rely upon in the fight. So, he was slightly disadvantaged in that regard. And now, his enemies held the initiative, also able to absorb as much miasma as they wished. So, they were able to spam powerful Spirit Abilities like they meant nothing. As for Krune, he took damage from even the miasma. It was only thanks to the Monster Gecko Armour was he able to shield himself from the miasma. As it was getting damaged by the lava attacks, the miasma swerved through the gaps, beginning to cause damage to him. Krune was greatly disadvantaged. He was facing old monsters that had been training nonstop for more than 2000 years. They were tremendously used to relying upon the miasma to the greatest benefit. "Cough!" Krune slid on the ground, spitting out a mouthful of blood, screaming in pain when two lightning bolts accurately landed on his back. His eyes almost turned vacant as he was tired, unable to attack his foes. No matter what he did, they continued to regenerate. Moreover, there were three of them, so he was on the receiving end. Even if he gravely injured one of them, they retreated to heal while another Black Demon joined in the battle to hold him back. Plus, it wasn''t possible to kill a Black Demon with a single attack. Considering the density of their bodies, they wouldn''t die from a hit. Even if they didn''t defend themselves and just stood at a place, Krune would still need four good hits from his strongest attack to kill them. Considering the pace of the battle, he wasn''t able to do that. Krune''s focus returned as he healed himself, intending to make a move when a gentle hand peaked out of the ground, touching him when he was able to sense the entity now. It was Feifei. She had taken the risk to dig through the ground and help him. Surprisingly, she had planned her actions, intending to intervene only to give Krune a condensed Water Essence that she had created by using most of the energy stored in her Energy Sink. It was a tiny sphere only a centimeter in radius. However, it contained a tremendous amount of energy. For a moment, it seemed like time had trickled down to a stop as Krune watched Feifei peek out of the ground, smiling as she placed the condensed Water Essence in his mouth. In response, Krune could only smile wryly, unable to think of a way to escape. Just based on her actions, and the information he obtained over the course of two years, and the fact that he only sensed her existence when she touched him, Krune realized that only he was able to see Feifei now. Plus, he also noticed that the demons were still able to sense his presence, even though Feifei had extended her Wind Zone to him as well. It was because they had been intently focusing on Krune, so they didn''t glance over him. Had Feifei done it when they weren''t looking at Krune, she would have succeeded. But in the high-pitched battle, their focuses prevented her passive ability from taking effect. Krune suddenly emitted multiple ice spikes in all directions, taking the chance to mutter to Feifei, "I''ll be waiting for you." Feifei''s eyes widened in shock as she understood the implication behind his words, tearing up when Krune punched her, sending her reeling deep into the hole she had dug out from, immediately sealing the entrance as he extended the layer of ice, creating a massive foundation atop which he could battle. "Come get me! Fuckers!" Krune bellowed, blasting ice spikes in every direction, also focusing cold beams on all the three Black Demons, slowly beginning to cool their body temperatures. No matter how they evaded, the cold beam of light was always incident on their bodies. "Hazak!" Krune shouted, making eye contact with Hazak, causing the other party to immediately tear up in despair as he motioned with his mouth, "Find Feifei!" Immediately, Krune unleashed a massive blast of ice, enveloping the three Black Demons in the range of his attack, for a second placing them in a passive state, only able to defend themselves. After all, he was expending five crimson rings worth of energy with every blast. The strain caused him to age when Krune punched the ground, pulling out the container with the Healing Extract. He pulled out all the Healing Extract, manipulating it with Moving Ripple as he condensed it as ice around his body. Immediately, he unleashed the densest ice he had ever created, wrapping it around his body, expanding to a radius of ten meters instantly before he compressed it to the extent it was only a centimeter now. Within a second, Krune repeated the action more than two hundred times, creating a cocoon of ice around him that was a couple of meters thick. And inside it was Krune, falling into slumber. As for Hazak, it had used the second Krune had bought through his strongest attack, hurrying off at its maximum speed while relying on its air currents, escaping from the place while bawling madly, "Ahhhhhhhhh!" Chapter 1050 - Grief "Noooo!" Hazak screamed at the top of its lungs, expressing its grief as it blazed through the sky. It swerved around, making numerous twists and turns, eventually arriving at a discrete location beyond what the Demon Gods could find through their searching methods. Landing on the ground, it began to bawl its eyes out as it lamented, "If only I was stronger. I should have been the one to sacrifice myself!" Lamenting at its weakness, Hazak cried nonstop, mourning as it seemed to have lost its mind. Around half a day later, it suddenly jerked around in shock, noticing a Monster Gecko touch its shoulder. It hadn''t sensed the other party''s approach, only noticing its existence after it had touched its shoulder. Hazak was about to smack it in reflex when the Monster Gecko waved its hands, displaying that it hadn''t come to fight. It then pointed in a certain direction, motioning for Hazak to follow it. Even though it was grief-ridden, Hazak could feel something from the Monster Gecko. After all, it was an entirely new species. There were only three species on Layer 2. So, the one before it was the fourth one. Moreover, it was a Monster Gecko. Hazak''s master, Krune, also wore a type of armor resembling a Monster Gecko. So, Hazak recognized it immediately, being a reason it hadn''t attacked the Monster Gecko. The Monster Gecko broke into a sprint, running in a certain direction. Hazak followed it closely, easily keeping up the pace. Five hours later, the Monster Gecko was gasping for breath, exhausted to the extent that it seemed like it would die. But, it suddenly raised its hand into the air, catching a fruit that landed in its palms, eating it readily as it felt alive once again. Only now did Hazak manage to see the figure of Feifei standing before him, her face smudged due to the tears she had shed. As the wind carried the dust, they fell on her face, making apparent lines. Currently, her expression exuded intense killing intent. Upon seeing her, Hazak felt like all hope wasn''t lost, kneeling on the ground, screaming as its voice cracked up, "Lady Feifei, I failed to protect Lord Krune." "He''s alive," Feifei replied, barely managing to articulate her words as she seemed hindered by her turbulent emotions. "We''ll be saving him shortly." "He''s¡­alive?" Hazak gasped before shedding tears in gratitude. "Thank you¡­.my Lord''s alive. Thank goodness." Feifei had witnessed how Hazak fought alongside Krune, noticing how Krune confidently showed his back to it. This meant that he trusted Hazak to such an extent that he treated it as his closest companion. So, she decided to trust it as well. "Get up. We need to talk. Once we exchange enough information, we''ll be able to come up with a suitable plan." "Yes, Lady Feifei. Please instruct me," Hazak replied, getting up as he followed Feifei, heading underground where she had created a temporary cavern. Soon, it noticed numerous bone trees growing in the area, increasing in height until they anchored the cavern, absorbing the miasma before producing fruits. Numerous Monster Geckos roamed to and fro, consuming the fruits and making things that Feifei had ordered them to do so. Surprisingly, the density of the miasma continued to increase the deeper into the cavern one went. When Hazak reached the end of the cavern, it noticed a pool of miasma had formed on the ground. Suddenly, a Monster Gecko exited it, flexing its body a little before leaving the pool, consuming a bone tree fruit as it began to converse with the other Monster Geckos. Feifei caused a bone tree to grow out of the ground, taking up the shape of a table and two chairs. Feifei seated herself on one, motioning for Hazak to be seated on the other as she told it, "I''ve been making some preparations for the past two years since I''ve arrived here." "Now, tell me everything Krune has experienced here. We''ll start from there," Feifei told Hazak, curious of Krune''s adventures. Nodding in response, Hazak began to speak, recounting everything it had witnessed first hand or heard from Krune. It was a considerably long story, spanning a couple of hours. Having listened to everything, Feifei nodded. "So, in the end, Krune used the Healing Extract to solidify the first layer of ice around him. This way, he could depend on it to survive while remaining unconscious. The ice would keep his body in a state of forced hibernation. Even though the layer of ice surrounding him is tremendously tough, if the Demon Gods try to damage it, the energy from the Healing Extract would automatically heal the damage." "So, we indeed have some time on our side." Feifei nodded, asking Hazak soon after, "What happened to the 10,000 Blood Essence Crystals Krune had brought with him?" "Other than the ones he kept within his stomach, all the other Blood Essence Crystals have been mixed into the Healing Extract when the Black Demons attacked us. It was something Lord Krune had done in place upon predicting the course of events," Hazak replied, turning sullen when remembering Krune''s state. "Even if I calculate based on the energy in the Healing Extract, I cannot determine what the Black Demons might try on the ice surrounding him. I should keep an eye on them." Feifei nodded in response, having sent scouts long ago. A constant stream of messages returned to her at regular intervals, allowing her to determine Krune''s state in real-time. ''Hopefully, I have enough time to prepare,'' Feifei thought, clenching her hand into a fist as she said, "Hazak, continue to absorb the miasma and reach the peak of Tier 6 first. After that, help me hunt some Red Demons. That''ll make my growth faster." "What about me?" Hazak asked in response, patting its chest. "If you were to absorb my Demon Core, you''ll turn into a Black Demon straight away. That way, you''ll be able to save Lord Krune." "Don''t be an emotional idiot," Feifei retorted. "Once you reach the peak of Tier 6, coupled with your passive abilities and the ability to use Spiritual Energy, you''ll be stronger than all the Black Demons." Feifei stared at Hazak, saying in all seriousness as she continued, "You are of prime importance when it comes to saving Krune." Chapter 1051 - Feifei’s Elaborate Scheme "Hah!" Leat shouted as it unleashed tens of lightning bolts onto the cocoon of ice, barely singeing a bit of the outer edge. After unleashing a torrent of lightning nonstop for a minute, Leat stopped, groaning as it cursed, "Just what is this ice made out of? I hardly managed to scratch it." "No, you''ve definitely damaged it plenty enough," Grotak pointed at the damaged parts on the ice cocoon. "However, it''s recovering at a tremendous speed that your attacks seem useless. Had his ice been as powerful as you had thought them to be, we wouldn''t have been able to trap him this easily." "No matter what, this guy was too strong. I wonder what his secret is." Doit frowned, touching the ice cocoon as it felt the chill emanating from it. "If we manage to decipher it, we''ll be able to grow even stronger and even get a chance to leave this world." "Hazak has similar powers to Krune," Grotak said in response. "That''s the answer we are looking for." Pausing for a moment, Grotak told the others, "Contact the other Black Demons. It''s time to discuss this incident." "Are you sure?" Leat asked. "We''ll lose our advantage if that''s the case." "It doesn''t matter," Grotak replied, gazing at the other two Black Demons. "We''re the strongest Black Demon group in this world. So, no matter what, since everyone would benefit equally from this exchange, we''ll end up being the winners." "That''s true." Doit shrugged his shoulders, condensing gales around its body before saying, "I''ll summon everyone now, then." Saying its piece, Doit flashed into the sky, forming a beam as it flew at tremendous speeds, vanishing in the blink of an eye. Grotak then gazed at Krune''s figure, focusing on his face that was covered by the Monster Gecko armor, muttering, "Just what are you? A human cannot grow this strong." A couple of days later, Doit returned, sighing before it plopped to the ground. "I traveled a lot. Now, I just wish to rest." "Good work out there." Grotak nodded in praise. "I guess we''ll be seeing everyone within 10 days." ¡­ "Ordinary, Mutant, King, Emperor, Supreme. There are five stages in total for the Monster Gecko. I can consider the Supreme Stage to have strength on par with mine. Every stage below is a reduction in tier based on this world''s standards," Feifei muttered. As she continued to grow stronger, all her abilities had undergone the same. Right now, the regular Monster Gecko she created was many times stronger than the regular Monster Gecko that she created upon arriving at Layer 2. Feifei made a mental count, "There around 73 Mutants, 19 Kings, and 5 Emperors." She then gazed at the bone tree growing at the end of the cavern, smiling once she looked at its ridiculous size. The miasma in the place had almost solidified, now resembling a viscous gel. The fruit hanging from the bone tree was humongous, displaying the sheer size the Supreme Monster Gecko would be upon birth. ''This Supreme Monster Gecko would unfortunately only have Tier 3 strength. I can''t believe I planted this tree while possessing such low strength,'' Feifei thought, feeling it was a bit of a waste. Had it been created while she was at Tier 6, it would have turned into a powerhouse. Then again, it was still alright as she could put every Monster Gecko to use, no matter how weak they were at the start. Placed before her was a large slab created from the bone tree. Innumerous intricate patterns were constructed on it, detailing an elaborate labyrinth. In order to save Krune, Feifei was going all out, creating a massive labyrinth to enact her plan. To achieve that, she needed a lot of manpower. Thankfully, due to the miasma, she never had to worry about lacking energy to do so, capable of pulling any form of energy expenditure. It seemed that the miasma was indeed infinite as no matter how much was consumed, its density never seemed to have decreased. As Feifei created the plan, the Monster Gecko Emperors relayed her plan in detail down the chain of command, causing the numerous Monster Geckos to move about, digging through the ground to begin the creation of a grand structure that was bound to affect the entirety of Layer 2. All Feifei did apart from training her abilities was plant more bone trees nonstop. Those strategically placed began to absorb more miasma, beginning to also grow in size before producing Mutant Monster Geckos. Monster Gecko Kings were rare, while the Emperors were even rarer. Eventually, after a couple more days had passed, the Supreme Monster Gecko had been born. Since the laws of Layer 2 were different from that of Layer 3, killing the Monster Geckos now didn''t result in any passive abilities. Of course, it was because the Monster Geckos were a product of her ability, so they weren''t considered as Monster Geckos from the wild. Once the Supreme Monster Gecko was produced, the workflow became even more streamlined as it took charge of directing everything as long as Feifei relayed the orders. With enough cunning and intelligence, it was more than capable of understanding just what had to be done. The Monster Geckos branched out in the underground, erecting numerous tunnels and channels, creating winding pathways that interconnected at times and meandered out at others. As for the depth, it continued to increase. Once an area was completed according to plan, Feifei layered it with the bone tree, ensuring that there was only a flat layer visible. She then began to set up some traps that she assumed would work on powerful opponents like the Black Demons. Meanwhile, the Black Demons had all converged into a group, numbering 108 in total. They were the total number of Black Demons in Layer 2, having all been invited by Grotak. "Everyone, thank you all for coming here. There''s something that I must bring to your notice," Grotak told them, facing everyone as it pointed at the ice cocoon. "A new race has appeared in our world.. And they possess mysterious powers." Chapter 1052 - The Initial Black Demon "What kind of powers?" one of the Black Demons asked. Making eye contact with one another, Grotak motioned for Doit and Leat to lift up the ice cocoon. "First of all, they seem capable of using elemental powers more or less similar to what we can using Spiritual Energy." "Second, they can create a mysterious beast to attack, defend, flee, and so on," Grotak continued, nodding once at Leat. Leat flapped its wings and took off to the air, unleashing numerous lightning bolts in the area surrounding the group of Black Demons. All the Black Demons looked with a frown when their gazes shuddered for a moment, noticing charred bodies appearing in their midst. "And third, they''re all invisible until they come into contact with us. When Doit was flying around, he seemed to have attacked some of them, causing their bodies to be revealed. That''s how we were able to discover them," Grotak concluded. "They had been hiding near us all along?" Some of the demons muttered, noticing tens of Monster Gecko corpses surrounding them right now. For a moment, all of them felt a chill when Grotak said, "Their fighting prowess isn''t spectacular, nor can they make use of the miasma like us. However, they aren''t affected by it either. Only the humans are affected by the miasma. So, these creatures should be our priority first." "How do you suppose we fight them?" One of the Black Demons came forward, asking with a frown. "Wasn''t our plan to leave this world anyway? Why should we waste our time in this endeavor?" ''As expected, this guy is opposing us.'' Grotak frowned, saying, "Feater, it''s not guaranteed that we''ll be able to leave this place. Even if we determine the method, we''ll still need a lot of time to do so. As to how long we need, it cannot be said. Are you saying we let this threat develop until it hinders our plan?" "The humans have it," Feater, the opposing Black Demon, replied. "Once we reach the Water Column, we should be able to leave this world. The octopuses have the means to achieve that. Once we steal the method from them, leaving this place would be simple. Since there are all of us here now, we''ll just storm a city and head towards the Water Column. It should be easy once all of us combine our strengths." "The Water Column prevents our miasma from working, so our strength would be suppressed once we head there. Plus, there are strong ones even among the octopuses. We can''t take them lightly," Grotak said in response. Immediately, they entered an argument, sowing discord as both sides had plausible backing to their claims. "All of you, stop!" Suddenly, a voice resounded as everyone stopped speaking, parting way for a Black Demon to walk forward. A single glance was enough to display that it was head and shoulders above the rest of the Black Demons. "Hwait¡­" Grotak muttered, turning silent as a result. Hwait was the oldest and strongest of the Black Demons. It was also the one who managed to figure out a way to harness Spiritual Energy from the cities to cultivate. Everything else the Black Demons did using Spiritual Energy were offshoots of what it had created. It was unknown as to how long it had been alive. After all, it was the first Black Demon to have been created by the Demon Nest. Just considering its ability to use Spiritual Energy, it wielded at least three Spirit Abilities. It was unknown as to what its real strength was. Nevertheless, Hwait was the Black Demon that every other Black Demon looked up to, sharing a common goal of leaving their current world to head into the wider one beyond. So, once it turned up to speak, everyone else turned silent, watching what it had to say with bated breaths. Hwait approached the ice cocoon, gently placing its hand on it, feeling the intense chillness emanating from it. It clenched its hand, noticing that it was only able to make a tiny crack in the ice. It relaxed its hand when the miasma swirled towards it like a typhoon, condensing into a tiny sphere that seeped into the crack, beginning to drill into the ice when it was frozen. Upon sensing that the temperatures turned even colder the deeper one went into the ice cocoon, Hwait frowned. "If they have as many numbers as us, the demon race is doomed." Its statement was like a boulder being smashed upon the minds of every Black Demon. For a moment, there was only silence in the area as all the Black Demons gazed in disbelief at Hwait, watching it probe through the ice some more. Finally, after probing enough, Hwait asked Grotak, "What did you say he was called?" "Krune," Grotak nodded as he replied. "That''s what I noticed based on the information exchanged between him and someone on the ground. They were communicating about something. I''m unsure as to what it was as I was only able to sneak glances at some of them." "So, he''s called Krune." Hwait nodded, saying, "He''s not from this new race you speak of. He''s human." "Human? How?" It was Grotak''s turn to be shocked now. "It''s impossible for a human to be this strong." "Didn''t you notice Wrunt is missing?" Hwait asked in response. "It was killed by Krune. His aura contains Wrunt''s presence. And that''s not all." "I received a message from the Demon Nest," Hwait continued, shocking everyone. "It seems a Red Demon named Hazak has become a Black Demon. I''m sure you''ve fought it before. How was it? Was it the same as the rest of us?" "No, it had abilities similar to Krune," Grotak answered. "And, it was subservient to him for some reason." "It all doesn''t make sense," Hwait said, suddenly flashing past as it appeared beyond the crowd of Black Demons, staring into the air as it spoke, "Right? What do you have to say about it?" Hwait was seemingly staring into black space, confusing all the Black Demons, when a figure slowly revealed itself to them. Spanning a size of a hill, it had an imposing presence, though it was nothing compared to any of the Black Demons gathered in the place. However, the fact that it could grow to such a size indicated differently in Layer 2.. It was Feifei''s active ability, the Supreme Monster Gecko that had arrived to spy in on their discussion. Chapter 1053 - Leading On The Supreme Monster Gecko and Hwait stared at one another as the atmosphere seemed to gradually turn volatile. For now, all the Black Demons stayed put, unwilling to do anything as they anticipated what Hwait, the wisest and strongest of them all, planned to do. As for the Black Demon in question, it was staring at the Supreme Monster Gecko, observing something as it muttered, asking Grotak, "How did you say the creatures summoned by Krune looked like?" "It had a long symmetrical body that could float in the air¡­" Just as Grotak began to speak, Hwait motioned for it to stop. It then looked at the Supreme Monster Gecko and asked, "So, you''re the same. Then, why doesn''t your owner come out to greet me?" The Supreme Monster Gecko grinned once, slamming its fist into the ground, suddenly causing the entire place to cave in. As soon as it had done so, its figure vanished. Hwait''s eyes darted around at superhuman speeds, quickly taking everything into account by the time its body fell through a meter into the massive hole that had appeared. It then saw the figure of a Black Demon standing farther to one side, sporting scales all over its body. The moment their eyes met, hundreds of eyes and mouths formed on Hazak''s body as it spoke, "If you wish to meet its owner, you''ll have to find the correct route." "Hazak!" Doit shouted, hurling towards it at its fastest speed, suddenly noticing a couple of walls appear between it and Hazak. It simply blasted through the walls, scowling upon noticing that Hazak had vanished. From their previous fight, it realized that Hazak had the same level of power as it. So, Doit had taken Hazak seriously. After all, even before it reached the peak of Tier 6, Hazak was able to face it and even injure it numerous times. So, Doit knew very well that once Hazak reached the peak as a Black Demon, it wouldn''t be Hazak''s opponent anymore. Naturally, that thought wounded its ego. That was why at the moment it spotted Hazak, it flew towards it without hesitation. Upon seeing Hazak''s figure vanish, Doit was angry, intending to just vent its frustrations on everything, wishing to blow apart everything in an effort to find Hazak. "Doit, control yourself," Hwait warned, causing Doit to stop in its tracks. Flapping its wings to remain in place, Hwait said, "Let''s first analyze the situation before heading inside." It then shouted, "Is Krune still in our hands?" "Yes, we were prepared for anything that might happen. So, we were safeguarding it all this time," Grotak replied as it and Leat carried the ice cocoon, grumbling in the process. "This is pretty heavy." All the Black Demons retreated from the hole, landing on the ground nearby, still reeling from the shock of the previous event. They hadn''t even imagined the ground caving underneath them like that. It was the first time they had experienced such an event in their lives. So, quite a few of them still hadn''t recovered from the shock. As for the damage they sustained from the event, there wasn''t any physical damage whatsoever. Hwait flew higher up, noticing the Supreme Monster Gecko from before dig out from the ground. Only it had noticed the Supreme Monster Gecko. As for the rest of the Black Demons, they were unable to see it. Some of the Black Demons were even staring straight at the Supreme Monster Gecko, but for some reason, it seemed like they were unable to notice it. The Supreme Monster Gecko gazed at Hwait, understanding that it was able to notice it. It grinned as it opened its jaws wide, motioning as if it would clamp upon the Black Demons that were still unable to notice it. It then retracted its jaws, removing the effect of the Wind Zone over itself, causing the Black Demons near it to flinch in response. The Supreme Monster Gecko looked at Hwait, opening its mouth as it spoke, "At present, my race isn''t strong enough to threaten the Black Demons. But that''s only for now. Give us a decade, and we''ll be able to fight you on par." "Even then, we can give you a pretty great scare. Only your bodies are tough. Your minds aren''t." The Supreme Monster Gecko smirked. "The demons roam the lands while the humans and octopuses are confined to small regions. As for us Monster Geckos, we''ll be everywhere under your feet." "Is this your declaration of war?" Hwait frowned, slowly walking towards the Supreme Monster Gecko as it asked in response. "Not really." The Supreme Monster Gecko grinned. "Any demon below Tier 6 cannot even break out of that mold, you see. So, the only free-willed demons are the ones here." "Then, what do you want?" Hwait asked, slightly curious. After all, it hadn''t talked with anyone other than a Black Demon for quite a few thousands of years. So, it was curious as to what the other party had to say. Moreover, it didn''t feel threatened in the least. Rather, it was looking forward to having another enemy to deal with. "What do you think of Hazak?" the Supreme Monster Gecko asked in return. "Nothing much," Hwait replied. "It seems to have obtained a couple of extra abilities. But, that''s it." "I''ve been listening to your conversation from the start. It seems the goal of all the Black Demons here is to leave Layer 2," the Supreme Monster Gecko said, noticing Hwait''s expression twitch upon the mention of the term ''Layer 2.'' It then said, "Anyways, Hazak can leave Layer 2 anytime it so wishes." Its words resounded in the ears of all the Black Demons, causing them to erupt in shock. Hwait noticed their fluctuating emotions, frowning as it looked at the Supreme Monster Gecko. "So, are you offering that in exchange to free Krune?" "Nope." The Supreme Monster Gecko grinned. "I want all the Black Demons to become my subordinates. That''s all." "And, what makes you think we''ll do that?" Hwait glared, emitting a tinge of its presence, noticing the Supreme Monster Gecko''s body begin to tremble as a result. "You aren''t even strong enough." "Strong enough?" The Monster Gecko laughed humanely. "You should say that to my real self. The one before you is just an avatar I''m using to speak with you. With your current strength, you''ll simply die in my presence." "Also, I''m not going to simply accept you all as my subordinates just because you asked so. You''ll have to prove yourself first." The Supreme Monster Gecko smirked, pointing at the massive hole beside before saying, "If you manage to reach me within 10 years, I''ll accept you as my subordinate." "If someone strokes my favor, you''ll even become my disciple," the Supreme Monster Gecko said before vanishing. "As a mere mortal, you should be capable of at least this if you wish to seek the favor of¡­" "A deity." Chapter 1054 - Feifei’s Plan "We could have grabbed hold of Lord Krune during that chaos," Hazak said in frustration as he looked at Feifei. "Why did you prevent me from doing that?" "Krune would be fine for the time being. If we show that he''s our target, the Black Demons would surely increase the security around him. That would make it impossible for us to rescue him. Plus, it''ll take me too long to reach the strength on par with a Black Demon. We don''t have that much time with us," Feifei explained, calmly staring at a bone tree before her. "Plus," She continued, "It might not have seemed that way, but the moment you tried to head towards Krune, tens of Black Demons would have stopped you. Quite a few of them are faster than the current you. Even if you manage to grab hold of the ice cocoon, its weight would reduce your speed, allowing the demons to catch up to you easily." "So, let''s first lead them on in circles and look for an opportunity to rescue him," Feifei said. "I''ve already grabbed their attention. Sooner or later, they''ll enter the labyrinth I have prepared for them." A vast underground network, that was what she had been doing for the past two years after arriving at Layer 2. She couldn''t do much on the ground without fear of running into the demons. So, she simply headed underground, using the Monster Geckos to do all the grunt work. She created an elaborate network of tunnels, layering each with bone trees to prevent them from collapsing as the network proceeded deep into the ground. It was quite a vast network. Not only that, but the deeper one went, the lower the density of the miasma got as all the bone tree layers in the tunnels absorbed them. Just in case she battled demons in the future, this was to prevent them from overwhelming her using their advantages. And now, Feifei was fully using it to her advantage, inviting the Black Demons into exploring it. It was a giant maze, one whose entire dimensions were beyond what even she could fathom. After all, she gave the commands to her underlings, who continued to increase in number and execute the task on their own. There were numerous chambers in the labyrinth where Monster Geckos were produced endlessly. It was easy to do so once she figured out a trick in her ability, or better yet, understood her ability to a greater extent. The bone tree that produced a regular Monster Gecko was three meters in height. After birthing a regular Monster Gecko, it wilted. But if Feifei used a bone tree that was about to birth a Monster Gecko King to birth regular Monster Geckos, it wouldn''t ever wilt. It would keep producing the regular Monster Geckos without stopping. And that''s how she began to lay down farms that produced regular and Mutant Monster Geckos without limits. For a Mutant Monster Gecko, she used the bone tree that might have birthed an Emperor Monster Gecko. Even though she had invited them, the Black Demons were cautious. So, they hadn''t entered the labyrinth yet. However, she was also glad with their decision. After all, she wasn''t strong enough to face them yet. She wished for them to take as much time as possible so that she could grow stronger while increasing the number of forces and also their power. After all, as she grew, her active and passive abilities also grew as a result. So, it caused the strength of her Monster Gecko army to skyrocket accordingly. As for her, she headed to a completely remote location, constantly training to increase her strength. The labyrinth was just a ruse, after all. It was her plan to distract the Black Demons so that Krune''s ice cocoon wouldn''t take damage from their attacks. Otherwise, they might try to experiment in breaking it down. Considering their numbers, if they focused on it entirely, they would be able to completely destroy it in a month. Even considering all the energy in the Healing Extract and the Blood Essence Crystals Krune had taken with him into the ice cocoon, that''s the maximum duration it could last under the constant attacks. So, Feifei had to do something to distract their focus. And what best to do other than to lure them in with their desires? Moreover, she painted herself with a persona of a deity, one that was simply observing them as ants, testing them to see their mettle. And if they proved themselves worthy, she might take them under her wing. The labyrinth was a test for that. With that, the Black Demons would focus more on the labyrinth, her motives, and so on, distracting themselves from Krune over time. That was her goal. If they weren''t actively attacking Krune''s ice cocoon, the duration he could last out in the open would continue to increase. With that, she would eventually become strong enough to grab him and escape from the place. Feifei had created select chambers in the labyrinth that were filled with bone trees to produce regular and Mutant Monster Geckos. To feed them with the energy needed for that, she created numerous small pipes using the bone trees, trailing them towards the surface, causing them to absorb the miasma from there. Plus, every such chamber acted as the beating hearts for the labyrinths, turning into energy sources for the Monster Geckos to carry out all their activities. The higher-ups among the Monster Geckos relayed them the plan as they continued to expand the labyrinth. As for Feifei, she never had to be actively involved in it. All she had to do was activate her active ability and let it manage everything. After all, the Supreme Monster Gecko she had killed in Layer 3 was different from all the other Supreme Monsters. It had used the bone trees to absorb the intelligence of countless humans, even obtaining some exclusive abilities to strengthen itself even further. Surprisingly, they were carried over as its traits, making it different from a regular Supreme Monster Gecko. With that, it used her passive abilities to expand the labyrinth while Feifei simply trained nonstop, protected by Hazak. ''Even though the labyrinth isn''t strong enough to kill a Black Demon, it''s complex enough to trap one in it for pretty long.'' Feifei clenched her hand into a fist, muttering, "Just you wait, Krune.. I''ll save you shortly." Chapter 1055 - Plans To Counter The Demons "What shall we do now?" Grotak asked Hwait. "The other party is rubbing me off the wrong way." "Let me think about it for a bit." Hwait sat on the ground, staring at the figure of the Supreme Monster Gecko that was far away. "Our goal has always been to escape from this place. There''s nothing much for us to do here except to rot and wait in boredom. We''ve never had to face any threats." "Some are in the opinion of remaining here. After all, if more races are brought over, we would have enough things to worry about. That might be fun," Feater interjected. "You may be right," Hwait nodded as he replied. "However, haven''t you always been curious about the world from which humans had been brought in at first?" Sighing in nostalgia, he continued, "Every human of the first generation was impossibly strong to the extent I could not even grasp their actual power. Sadly, a heavenly power suppressed them into the mortals we see in the cities now." "Embarking into such a dangerous world and having to face the humans and the possibly other myriad races, doesn''t the adventure excite you?" Hwait looked at the two Black Demons seated next to it and asked. "In contrast, even though we''re basically immortal here, there''s nothing much for us to do. Every demon from Tier 5 and below is constantly urged by the notion of marching towards the cities. But in actuality, there is nothing awaiting us at the destination." "That''s just how this world has been created," Hwait lamented. "We have no use being in this world. So, why not escape towards one where we can forge our own destinies?" "Then, as for the invite from the Monster Geckos¡­" Grotak asked, only for him to trail off at the end. "Let''s see what they have to offer." Hwait nodded. "If they''re indeed capable of bringing us out of this world, then we''ll do as they say for the time being. Let''s first drop in some Red and Yellow Demons and see how they fare there. We''ll decide accordingly." Once Hwait said its decision, the other Black Demons followed it religiously, heading towards a couple of valleys where numerous Demons were marching forth, grabbing a bunch of them before returning. The Black Demons dropped all the Yellow and Red Demons into the hole, commanding them, "There are humans inside. Find and kill them." The word human acted like a trigger to guide the Red and Yellow demons into exploring the labyrinth. Moreover, as the orders were given to them by the Black Demons, their leaders, they had no other choice but to follow. One of the Black Demons explored the massive hole, noticing a door of sorts being placed in a couple of directions. There were 10 such doors in total. Surprisingly, each door seemed to be the entrance to tunnels proceeding about in various directions. A couple of Yellow Demons headed into a gate, embarking on the path as they continued to walk, soon sensing something amiss as they made eye contact. They noticed the density of the miasma around them had decreased, causing them to worry a bit. However, not long after, as they continued to proceed deeper and deeper into the path, they were in a slight panic. The density of the miasma had fallen sharply, soon disappearing by the time they had walked a kilometer into the path. After walking for some more, they came across a fork, one that split up into three paths. Nodding, they decided to proceed together as a group, picking the path in the center. They then walked for a dozen meters when bone spikes shot out from the ground, intending to impale them. Unfortunately, they failed to even scratch them, stopped by the toughness of their bodies. Heaving a sigh of relief, the two Yellow Demons proceeded even further, suddenly noticing tens of Monster Geckos rush out from a section that suddenly opened behind them. For a moment, the sight of a different species startled them. In any case, their reactions were stellar, defending themselves against the Monster Geckos, realizing that their opponents were¡­spectacularly weak. It wasn''t surprising because even Feifei was only at Tier 3 when the Yellow Demons were the equivalent of Tier 4. So, the regular Monster Geckos she created failed to even scratch the Yellow Demons. Within ten seconds, the Yellow Demons made short work of all the Monster Geckos, noticing the confusion in the faces of each other. "The Black Demons made it seem so ominous. But, why are the enemies so weak?" one of them muttered. "Maybe we''ll find the answer once we head deeper." The other nodded, trembling a little as it noticed its body was mildly numb. When it punched the Monster Geckos, they splattered like balloons under its force. Their blood fell on the Yellow Demons every time. And with enough blood on their bodies, the Yellow Demons began to feel a bit cold. Moreover, the deeper they went, the colder it got, causing them to begin shivering from the cold after a certain point. Soon, they arrived at a massive chamber, gazing at a liquid that was in the ground. One of the Yellow Demons lightly dipped its index finger into it, retracting it immediately to see that it had turned into ice. The Yellow Demon quickly broke off the ice, shuddering at the cold as it said, "At this rate, we''ll freeze over." "We never had to worry about it before. But..." The other Yellow Demon frowned. "Without the miasma, we''ll freeze over eventually." Saying that, it gazed forward, noticing ice spikes covering the walls while the body with the mysterious cold liquid spanning at least a couple of kilometers, resembling an underground pond. The ceiling was only a meter above the liquid surface, not giving them enough space to fly over. So, anyone that came here would have no other choice but to head into the water to pass through. Upon seeing this, the Yellow Demons muttered simultaneously, "Let''s return and inform the Black Demons about this first. We''ll act according to their decisions." However, what they hadn''t sensed was the fact that more than thirty Monster Geckos were standing behind them, carrying a massive log made from a bone tree, charging through the straight path before ramming into the Yellow Demons. The force was enough to send the two Yellow Demons hurling into the water. Unfortunately for the demons, right as the Yellow Demons unfurled their wings, intending to stabilize themselves in the air and not fall without control when numerous hands shot out from the water, latching onto their bodies. It was a train of Monster Geckos, using their bodies to weigh down the Yellow Demons, soon pulling them into the cold liquid.. A minute later, a team of Monster Geckos surfaced on the other side of the pond, dragging two ice sculptures deeper into the labyrinth. Chapter 1056 - Probing With Deaths "How come none of the Yellow Demons have returned?" Grotak frowned as he asked, looking at a Red Demon that had returned. "I''m not sure why. There was nothing there that could even pose a danger to even a Green Demon, not to mention them," the Red Demon expressed its confusion. "Bring in a team of demons with you. Redirect part of the demons marching towards the cities to come here," Grotak commanded, watching the Red Demon follow it soon after. Watching the Red Demon leave, Grotak muttered, "Had the instinct in the Demons not existed, this would have been many times easier. I could simply command them to do things. But now, I have to constantly remind them to come here. Otherwise, they instinctively forget the mission and start marching towards the cities once again." "That''s why this place sucks." Grotak shook its head as it let out a sigh. "Us demons don''t have a freedom of will, self-preservation, and concern for fellow brethren." It then muttered, "Maybe once we leave this place, that might change." Soon, the Red Demon returned with a group of demons, entering a path before marching forth. The Red Demon turned around, pointing at a chamber before them, saying to the other demons it had brought with it, "The moment we enter there, around 30 Monster Geckos would appear to kill us. Their strength is inferior to even a Violet Demon, so you don''t have to worry. However, they''ll try to swarm you. Their blood can numb you or even freeze you if the quantity is sufficient." "Once they are killed, I''ll devour their corpses and produce some miasma. Store it in your bodies so you can heal when you receive damage. Also, beware of the walls. They can absorb the miasma. On top of it all, they also give me a bad feeling." Once the Red Demon finished saying its piece, it began to walk towards the chamber. The moment the group entered it, numerous Monster Geckos rushed out like usual, surrounding them. Immediately, a battle erupted as the demons annihilated all the enemies within a minute. The Red Demon hurriedly began to devour the Monster Geckos, commanding the Yellow Demons to do the same. Once they began to produce the miasma, it shouted, "Hurry and absorb them." Even though it had shouted, some of the miasma was still absorbed into the walls as all the demons were startled. After devouring all the Monster Geckos, the Red Demon muttered, watching the Monster Gecko blood on the floor be absorbed into it, "The deeper we head into, the stronger the walls suck in the miasma. Our blood will also get sucked if it spills." Once they cleared up the area, they began to walk further, soon approaching a place where the floor, the walls, and the ceiling were riddled with holes. The Red Demon said in a hurry, "This trap spans a hundred meters. Cross it at your maximum speed." Saying its piece, its figure shot forth, reaching the other side within a second. The Yellow Demons followed suit, doing the same. When the Green Demons tried to cross it, bone spikes exited the holes, intending to pierce them. Fortunately, the Green Demons swiftly evaded them all, reaching the other end. There weren''t any Blue or Violet Demons in the group. So, all the Demons had managed to evade the trap, having reached the other side. And right as they had done so, the floor underneath them caved in while the ceiling caved in on them. The Red and Yellow Demons were fast enough to unfurl their wings and evade within that duration. But since they arrived with the objective of exploration, they hadn''t done that. The Red Demon slowly descended through the tunnel as it thought to itself, ''This trap didn''t activate before. Is it based on the number of demons exploring?'' It then arrived at the bottom, noticing large bone spikes protruding from the ground, ready to impale any unfortunate soul that had fallen. Some of the Green Demons were unable to stop themselves completely since they fell atop each other. Some of them crashed into the bone spikes, breaking them while getting injured a bit. Thankfully, by consuming some of the miasma stored in their bodies, they swiftly healed the injuries. The Red Demon broke some of the bone spikes at the end, landing on the ground as it pointed at the path treading forward. "Let''s get a move on now." They threw all the broken bone spikes into the bone spikes protruding from the ground, beginning to march into the tunnel. For the next hundred meters, nothing happened. But out of nowhere, numerous walls began to come up behind them, catching all the demons unaware. In any case, the walls had just fallen. So, by the time the demons reacted, the path behind them was already closed up. Moreover, at least 10 such walls had fallen one behind another. So, even for the Red Demon, it would take some time to punch through them all. Right at this moment, a space opened up at the top as around fifty Mutant Monster Geckos dropped in, attacking the demons readily. ''They''re somewhat stronger now,'' the Red Demon thought as it punched and retracted its fist immediately, dodging the blood splash, shouting, "Avoid its blood! Don''t let it splash on your body!" "Guh!" Suddenly, while they were fighting, one of the Green Demons shouted as it crouched on the ground, trembling in pain. It was one of the Green Demons that had been mildly injured by the bone spikes before. And right as it began to shout, the other Green Demons that had been injured also began to shout. Suddenly, they opened their mouths while screaming in pain as a vine sprouted out, soon growing in thickness before turning into a tree, killing the Green Demons in the process. Moreover, thanks to absorbing the rich vitality and dense nutrients in the bodies of the Green Demons, the bone trees rapidly began to form the fruits that grew to the maximum within a minute, causing them to ripen before falling on the ground. From each walked out a Mutant Monster Gecko, causing the Red Demon to frown. Chapter 1057 - The Labyrinth’s Danger The Mutant Monster Gecko was a lot stronger than a regular Monster Gecko. Then again, to the Red Demon, both were similar in strength, inconsequential before it. No matter which one faced against it, the Red Demon was able to kill both with a single hit. However, that wasn''t why it was frowning. It was the fact that the Green Demons had only been injured partially once. This was a level of injury that wouldn''t have mattered even if they hadn''t healed themselves using the miasma. On top of that, they had already healed themselves using the miasma. But then, sometime later, bone trees grew out of them, absorbing everything forming their bodies. Then, they later bore fruits that ripened within a minute. When the fruit fell on the ground and splashed open, a Mutant Monster Gecko walked out. This was what startled the Red Demon. Every demon was birthed from the Demon Nest, a colossal being of flesh that ate the world''s essence to give birth to them. It was like a natural factory that churned out demons nonstop. For the Red Demon, it was proud of this fact. After all, their race had an efficient means of progression, unlike the humans that had to copulate and wait for a year just to give birth to one baby. It was incomparably inefficient. But now, the Red Demon was alarmed since the Mutant Monster Gecko was birthed from seemingly nothing. The Red Demon frowned due to the matter, motioning for the remaining demons to eradicate all the Monster Geckos in the place. It hardly took a minute, after which the Red Demon punched the walls, breaking out a piece forming it, throwing it into the mouth of a Green Demon, forcing it to swallow it. It then waited patiently, startled when the Green Demon began to scream in pain after a couple of minutes. And like before, a bone tree grew out of its body, absorbing its entirety, killing it in the process. And a minute later, it produced a fruit which hatched a Mutant Monster Gecko sometime later. ''So, that''s how it is,'' the Red Demon thought as it nodded before its hand flashed a bit, vaporizing the Mutant Monster Gecko, displaying the extent of its power. It then looked at the others and told them, "Let''s retreat for the time being and report the details to the Black Demons." All the demons nodded to its command, beginning to march towards the entrance. The Red Demon grabbed hold of a couple of bone spikes along the way, arriving before Grotak as it reported all its observations. "Even ingesting a tiny fragment of this would cause a bone tree to grow out of our bodies. By absorbing everything in us, it would produce Monster Geckos, stronger ones." "That''s quite troublesome." Grotak nodded before saying, "If it''s like this, then the situation is dangerous." Just to see how it would function, Grotak stabbed the bone spike into the mouth of a Green Demon, causing it to swallow it, watching the Green Demon choke for some time before burping a little, frowning. "What¡­is this?" The Red Demon frowned, unable to answer as it inspected the Green Demon, seeing that it showed no signs of faults. A bone tree indeed didn''t grow out of it. It then pondered over it for a bit before asking, "Maybe this power is only effective within the labyrinth?" "Let''s test it out," Grotak replied, carrying the Green Demon with it as it flashed into the labyrinth, stabbing the bone spike into its mouth once again. This time, as it waited, the Green Demon began to shout in pain as a bone tree grew out of its body. Nodding, Grotak concluded, "For some reason, the bone trees grow only while within the range of the labyrinth. Beyond that, they''re simply materials that we can consume." "This gives me some ideas," Grotak smiled as he continued. "Send in more teams into the labyrinth. Each team would be led by either a Yellow or Red Demon. Report back at least once ten days." As everything happened, Monster Gecko scouts spied on their conversation, reporting back everything to Feifei. As she organized the information she obtained, she nodded, muttering to herself, "It seems they found out about the bone trees becoming useless beyond the labyrinth." Smiling, she sighed. "Thanks to Krune''s exploits, I know how dangerous they are. They could be weaponized tremendously. That''s why I made them this way." As she had the power to control the bone trees, she could make them useless whenever she wanted. This extended to all the bone trees she created. Moreover, this further extended to any bone tree out in the wild. That''s why, when she left Layer 3, Feifei had annihilated all the bone trees there, causing them to turn into regular bone trees that just bore fruit by absorbing either blood or water. They lost the ability to grow into massive trees from a mere fragment. Moreover, they were also unable to condense Blood Essence like before. They were only left with the most basic of their abilities. This way, Feifei eliminated the greatest threat. However, she realized this threat came only to be after Krune discovered their secrets. Otherwise, they would have just appeared like regular trees. She was unsure if there existed other such species with similar, if not even more dangerous properties than the bone trees. She could only deal with the threat she had discovered. That''s why she placed a restriction on the bone trees that they would lose all their properties once they exit the range of the labyrinth she had specified. This was the safest approach. After all, she didn''t wish for the demons to abuse this property of the bone trees and destroy the ice cocoon on Krune. That would become the counter to all her plans. Now, with that done, she left the rest to her Supreme Monster Gecko, heading towards a particular city that her Monster Geckos had scouted. Active there was a certain person that she felt would be able to help her. Feifei arrived at the battlefield, noticing crescent beams of Neon Radiance fly about everywhere, slicing demons into pieces nonstop. At the center of this mess was a lady, seemingly in her late forties. Feifei revealed herself in her human form, eventually making her way towards the lady, calling her out.. "Princess Zamuria." Chapter 1058 - Talks With Zamuria "Who?" Princess Zamuria stopped attacking as she looked around, gazing at the figure of Feifei that calmly approached her. Even though Feifei was weaker than her, Princess Zamuria was able to feel a mysterious presence emanating from her, causing her to be on guard. "I''m Feifei, the eleventh King in Layer 3." Feifei introduced herself, getting right to the point. "I wish to trade with you." "A trade?" Princess Zamuria frowned in response to the suggestion, looking around for a moment as she soon replied, "This isn''t the best place to do that. Let''s return to the city first." "Alright." Feifei nodded, following Princess Zamuria as they made their way towards the city. Along the way, Princess Zamuria looked at Feifei and told her, "By the way, just call me Zamuria. Princess is just a title. It''s not my name." ''She''s named after the continent she''s from. From what I heard, only the greatest of geniuses in their family are allowed to take on the name of Zamuria as their own. In their past millennium, she''s the only person to obtain this name,'' Feifei thought before nodding. "I''ll call you Zamuria, then." Once they reached the city, Zamuria led her to her house, offering lunch as they began to talk while eating some food. Zamuria then commended while eating, "The food here is stale. There''s just one variety. So, I''m getting bored of it." Sighing, she lamented a bit before asking Feifei, "How are you able to roam outside? From what I''ve sensed, you''re only at Tier 4 in strength." "I have a passive ability to evade the senses of the demons. That''s how I was able to live in the miasma-filled region all along," Feifei replied. "Wait, why were you there in the first place? Shouldn''t you have arrived at a city in the first place?" Zamuria was confused by that. "Had you asked Gehen about it, he should have arranged you to arrive at a city." "I couldn''t." Feifei sighed as she shook her head, telling Zamuria, "I had too many enemies that followed me into the Sub-Realm. Also, when I killed all of them, I offended those that had formed close relationships with my enemies in the two decades they had spent in Layer 3." "So, I arrived in the miasma." Feifei sighed. "And I have been living there all this time." "Impressive," Zamuria said with an expression of acknowledgment. "The fact that you can survive in the miasma means you''re strong." She then made eye contact with Feifei and told her, "Tell me what you wish to offer. I''ll definitely consider it." "My husband is currently trapped by a coalition of Black Demons. I plan to rescue him from there, but I still need a strong individual to fight alongside me. So, I hope you''ll take up that role." Feifei then said, "As for however many Black Demon cores you need, I''ll give you all of it." "Wait¡­" Zamuria rubbed her forehead, feeling a headache at the plethora of information contained within the short line of Feifei. "What do you mean¡­by a coalition of Black Demons? Who''s your husband? What do you mean by trapped? How can he survive after coming across a Black Demon? Also, how are you able to provide me Black Demon cores when you''re only at Tier 4?" Zamuria shot out a multitude of questions, unable to wrap her head around what Feifei was going on about here. "Before that..." Feifei asked. "Are you at the peak of Tier 5 now? Or perhaps you''ve obtained a method to enter Tier 6?" "My weight is currently 2341 kilograms," Zamuria replied. "I have indeed figured out a method to grow beyond. Sadly, it''s taking a longer time than I had thought. I''m already growing a lot older. At this rate, I might need 20 to 30 more years to reach the peak of Tier 6." "If it isn''t because of the fact that I feel like I would be able to complete my body cultivation method once I reach Tier 6 here, I would have long headed towards Layer 1." She sighed. "But of course, I also know the power difference between the layers. When I arrived here, I struggled at the beginning, even though I was the strongest at Layer 3. So, I don''t have any plans to hurry either." "Then¡­" Feifei then began to recount all the information she had heard from spying on the Black Demons. She also told her about Krune, noticing Zamuria''s expression widen upon hearing his name. "So, that''s why I need your help in my plans. As for the Tier 6 Demon Cores, it would take time to produce them, but the process would be a lot faster than yours." "Krune, huh." Zamuria muttered, sighing, "He was the guy who was with Cultivator." "Cultivator?" Feifei asked. "Who''s that?" "Just someone I have some history with," Zamuria replied, washing her hands as she said, "As for your plans, I don''t mind helping you. If my growth can be faster, I don''t see the reason to refuse your order. Besides, it seems interesting to fight the Black Demons. Since they''re at your doorsteps, let me greet them." "Thank you." Feifei smiled in gratitude as she got up and bowed. "I am grateful for your time." "It''s just a trade, nothing personal," Zamuria laughed as she replied. "Both of us are benefiting from this trade. So, don''t mind it too much." She then thought of something, asking Feifei, "But what about food and water? There isn''t any out there in the miasma-filled zones. How are you surviving there?" "I can turn into a demon to make use of the miasma to survive," Feifei replied. "As for you, I have established trades with one of the cities that are subservient to Krune. They''ll transport food and water for your needs." "Alright, that''s all I need, then." Zamuria nodded as she packed some clothes, a ration of food, and her Tier 5 Demon Arms. She then followed Feifei as they left the city after informing the City Lord about it. Even though the City Lord was unwilling, she couldn''t say anything since Zamuria was already the strongest in the city. Also, considering her power, she would be able to kill everyone before they even attempted to activate the Godly Summons in an effort to stop her. Left with no other choice, she could only bid farewell to Zamuria, watching her leave the city. Chapter 1059 - Curiosity Runs In Her Blood Zamuria rammed through the demons on the battlefield, reaching the other side as Feifei kept up with her, hiding behind her all the time. Once they crossed the battlefield and began to scale down the steps, Feifei activated Wind Zone, wrapping it around the two of them, causing their figures to vanish in the eyes of the demons scaling up. Feifei then turned into a Yellow Demon, manipulating the miasma to not affect Zamuria as they began to run through the land, heading towards one of the outposts Feifei had erected. It was situated 200 kilometers from the city, located within a hill whose entrance was covered by a boulder. Upon pushing it aside, the two of them entered it, walking through the tunnel as Zamuria noticed the walls covered by a material resembling bone. "These are¡­?" "Don''t touch them. They''re dangerous," Feifei warned her, telling her about the properties of the bone tree. However, she only told her about its ability to absorb blood and miasma. "Amazing." Zamuria looked at Feifei in a new light. "So, you took the strategic route." "Yes." Feifei nodded as she said in response, "Individually strong abilities are many, but what I can do with them is limited. As I was constantly chased around in Layer 3, my thoughts changed. So, I began to prefer the strategic route. On top of that, it would help me greatly once I return to God Realm and encounter my enemies again." "I see." Zamuria nodded, not asking about the rest. She was unwilling to be dragged into Feifei''s conflict. As she was the princess of the Zamuria Empire, she had to be careful in making friends or foes. After all, her decisions would affect the state of her continent. It was true, especially since her empire was in conflict with two other continents, each as strong as her own. So, adding to the number of enemies would only cause her empire''s downfall. With that, Zamuria didn''t probe further, only wishing to know the bare minimum that was necessary for the trade between them to be conducted. Though, as they continued to head deeper into the tunnel, Zamuria began to pout, being vexed since her curiosity was triggered. She wished to know more about what Feifei was capable of and had planned. It was even more difficult for her to curb her curiosity once she noticed the numerous Monster Geckos roaming about in the place. Most of all, they were subservient to Feifei. ''Just a single ability is enough for her to command and create an entire race. Truly fearsome.'' Feifei then led her through the tunnels, soon approaching a tunnel heading deeper into the ground. An elevator-like mechanism had been installed at the place. It was just a simple rack and pulley mechanism, managed by two Monster Gecko Kings and a group of Mutant Monster Geckos. They saluted upon seeing Feifei, carefully motioning for them to head into the elevator before beginning to lower it into the tunnel. As the elevator descended through the tunnel, a massive underground cavern came into view. Numerous bridges of bone were erected at the place as Monster Geckos of all sizes roamed around, carrying numerous tools as they seemed to be working with a variety of projects. Monster Gecko Kings stood positions at important places, giving orders to everyone, while the Mutant Monster Geckos worked and finished the orders by commanding the regular Monster Geckos under them. This way, the chain of command formed a seamless workforce. Finally, the one managing everything that happened at the cavern was a Monster Gecko Emperor. As they watched everything, Feifei told Zamuria, "It''s hard to create a Monster Gecko Emperor, despite the abundant miasma. At present, I barely have 30 of them. It''s definitely insufficient for all the plans that I have in place. After all¡­" She expressed her worries as she continued, "Krune is being watched by over 100 Black Demons. If I have to face them, this level of power is clearly insufficient. Usually, he''s the type to cause miracles one after another to break out of any pinch in the past. But, just to remain guard for me, he¡­" As she thought about the state Krune was at, Feifei was unable to endure anymore, breaking down in tears as she quickly wiped them, using her tremendous speed to her advantage. Wiping her tears, she stood strong, ensuring the Monster Geckos wouldn''t be distracted by anything. Having witnessed everything, Zamuria was unable to endure any longer, patting Feifei''s shoulder as she could not help but say, "Tell me your story." ¡­ "Let''s move further now. We''ve reached the three-kilometer mark," the Red Demon leading a group of 10 Yellow Demons said. "At present, we are one of the teams that have reached the farthest in the labyrinth. We have no idea as to how deep this goes. However, we''ll eventually probe through everything." Saying so, the group passed through a corner, standing rooted to their spots in shock as they gazed at a massive cavern before them. The place was covered by the blood that resembled a pond. And, jutting out of it were islands, made from bone. Situated on them were huts of a variety of sorts. Living within them were Monster Geckos, the weakest being a Mutant. Also, situated on the biggest island in the center was the largest hut. Living within was a Monster Gecko King. Since Feifei had reached Tier 4, all the Monster Gecko Kings she created after this had strength were on par with Tier 2 beings. They weren''t much to the Yellow and Red Demons, but it still proved troublesome. After all, the strength of the Monster Geckos was steadily rising the deeper in the labyrinth they proceeded. ''Probably at the deepest point, we''ll come across Monster Geckos that are on par with¡­'' The Red Demon was unwilling to finish that line of thought, immediately motioning for its team to attack all the Monster Geckos in the place. Since the caverns were big, there was more than enough space for them to fly. Adding on their superior speed, they were capable of killing all the Monster Geckos in the place before the other party could even react. Sadly, right as they had entered the cavern, a black shadow flashed past when all the demons became still in the air. The Red Demon looked aghast as it noticed its Demon Core had gone missing.. It barely turned around, noticing Hazak flying in the air, holding all the Demon Cores in its hand. Chapter 1060 - Green Demon Blood Essence Crystal The group of demons then crashed into an island, dying in the process as their Demon Cores had been stolen. They were then ganged up by the Monster Geckos, tied up before being dragged by a team that carried them into a secret tunnel nearby, eventually dropping the bodies at a certain chamber. All the bodies dropped here had lost their Demon Cores, the only injury on their body. It was apparent that all of them had been killed by Hazak. The massive cavern was a bait to lure in as many demons as possible. No matter what, the Monster Geckos living in the place were tremendously weak. Even the Monster Gecko King was nothing but a mere Tier 2 being in terms of strength. Considering how even the weakest demon that explored the labyrinth was a Green Demon, having strength at Tier 3, they were just small fry. But of course, Feifei had planned this specific place to be the bait that would give her as many demon corpses as possible. And by corpses, she put a lot of focus on the corpses of the Red Demons. Thanks to Hazak hunting them, Feifei had already absorbed the essence from more than 10 Red Demons, turning into one herself. Using that, her growth speed increased further as she was now growing like a Red Demon. Fortunately, as the essence in her was more concentrated than a typical Red Demon, her growth speed was even faster. Hazak had reached the peak of Tier 6 now, turning into a powerhouse that was also able to accumulate Spiritual Energy, even though the quantity was insignificant. Then again, as it hunted the demons entering the cavern, it was also cultivating during its attacks. But even Hazak knew that it was almost useless. After all, the Black Demons had cultivated for many centuries to obtain a basic level of power from Spiritual Energy. It was impossible for it to grow stronger quickly. Sadly, it had no other choice, having already reached the peak of Tier 6. Moreover, having been privy to Feifei''s plan, even though Hazak didn''t like her goal, it understood that her choice was pretty realistic. Or, to be more exact, Feifei was looking over the horizon, having grander plans. So, it could only grit its teeth and follow everything. Having turned into a Red Demon, Feifei accompanied Zamuria, motioning her towards a certain chamber. "This is where I''m refining the essence of the demons." One of the Monster Gecko Kings at the place arrived with a box, revealing the contents, showing three glowing gems within. Feifei took one of them, telling her, "This is Green Demon Essence that''s been refined over ten times." By refining, she meant causing a bone tree to absorb a Green Demon''s blood while it was alive. Once it grew to the limit as a result and produced a massive fruit, another Green Demon would consume the fruit. While it evolved thanks to the fruit, its body would be attached to the bone tree after being injured a bit. The bone tree would completely absorb its body while wilting, producing a Blood Essence Crystal in the end. This was a single round of refinement. The subsequent rounds consisted of feeding this Blood Essence Crystal to another Green Demon and repeating the above process, concluding the second refinement. All in all, the process used in the second refinement was mimicked as many times as necessary until only their purest essence was condensed into the resulting Blood Essence Crystal. Naturally, Feifei had erected a farm to do that. There were ten such caverns in total, with each cavern dedicated to one refinement process. Like a factory line, Blood Essence Crystals were shipped from one cavern to another. And now, three Tier 3 Blood Essence Crystals have been created. Feifei took one of them, inspecting them to see that they were barely passable. She then handed it over to Zamuria, saying, "This is a concentrated Green Demon Blood Essence Crystal that I have refined over 10 times. The quality isn''t on par with what I have in mind, but this can be used." "What does this do?" Zamuria asked, gazing at the Tier 3 Blood Essence Crystal, wondering its use. "Once you ingest it, you''ll obtain the abilities of a Green Demon," Feifei replied, shocking Zamuria. "And by that, I mean their ability to absorb miasma and grow, heal, and so on. Of course, this isn''t permanent. You''ll only be able to do so for an hour at most. Also, the side effects, once its effect vanishes, are tremendous. I consumed one before, and I was unable to move for an entire day." Feifei then pointed at Zamuria as she continued, "Since you''re a lot stronger than me, the side effect you''ll face should be a lot less. I have also prepared a Water Essence to heal all your injuries when the side effects appear." "Why don''t you try one?" "Hmm..." Zamuria wondered for a bit before smiling, interested in what Feifei had prepared for her. She then ingested the Blood Essence Crystal, coughing blood immediately as it was like she had eaten poison. Her body trembled as veins popped on her body at times. Feifei hurriedly fed her a concentrated Water Essence that she had condensed using her Energy Sink. Zamuria was able to endure after that, sitting cross-legged as she could feel the damage to her body reducing while the Water Essence healed her completely. After some time, she no longer felt any damage, opening her eyes as she could feel something different about her. Upon seeing the scene, Feifei gave her a bottle containing liquid miasma. Nodding, Zamuria took it, hesitantly taking a sip before her eyes lit up. She then gulped the entirety of the contents, smirking as she relaxed. "It has quite the good taste." "How are the effects?" Feifei asked. "Hmm..." Zamuria closed her eyes, sensing the changes in her body, "It''s not anything substantial, but I am able to feel an increase in my body''s weight. This is incredible, Feifei." "Thank you," Feifei laughed as she replied. "Once your body adapts to consuming these Blood Essence Crystals, the effect would be greater.. I''ll also refine them further to increase their potency and reduce the side effects." Chapter 1061 - Ocean Radiance Days passed in such a fashion as the Monster Geckos continued to expand the size of the labyrinth, increasing the number of farms that produced their kind. Everything in this respect was handled by Feifei''s active ability, the Supreme Monster Gecko. The number of demons attempting to clear the labyrinth steadily increased while their death rate was staggering. Most of the time, a select few teams survived the first exploration. As they continued to proceed deeper and deeper into the labyrinth, the number of corpses piled up like crazy. As for the 108 Black Demons, they had formed a council, discussing the findings of everyone almost every day. After all, each Black Demon had taken charge of an entrance into the labyrinth that had popped up in numerous places. There were 108 such entrances in total. So, each Black Demon positioned itself in one such place, bringing in a horde of demons to explore the place and gather as much data as possible. After a day passed, they met with the other Black Demons in the council, exchanging their information. For the first few days, the atmosphere was solemn. After that, it turned jovial as the Black Demons took fun in the exploration, turning it into a competition where they would try to find as much information about the traps, Monster Geckos, labyrinth structure, routes, and so on. As the Black Demons had lived uncontested for many millennia, they had been bored. Surprisingly, this labyrinth excited them a lot, causing each of them to beam with a smile. In any case, as Feifei had given them a 10-year limit to reach the end of the labyrinth, they were calm. First, they used the other demons to scout as much of the labyrinth as possible. Once they understood the entirety of the mechanics at play in the labyrinth, they would form teams of Black Demons and explore the labyrinth. This way, they''ll reach the end before the time limit. This was also why Feifei baited them with that time limit. She understood that the Black Demons had been bored. That''s why she created this labyrinth, wishing for them to become addicted to exploring it. That sense of tension was something that would be new to them. So, they were bound to become overjoyed. Moreover, the time limit allowed her to reach Tier 6 and rescue Krune. There was also the fact that she portrayed it as such that the deeper one went, the stronger the Monster Geckos became. Having laid the place with numerous traps and the occasional appearance of Hazak, Feifei controlled the difficulty of the place, creating an illusion of the labyrinth becoming more dangerous the deeper one went. In reality, if she didn''t use the blood of the Monster Geckos and trap numerous Yellow Demons, it would have been possible. They could easily reach the end of the labyrinth with their strength. Thankfully, she had Hazak take care of the truly strong and smart demons that evaded all her traps with the prior information. Even though every Black Demon was many times stronger than her, using her abilities and some psychological warfare, Feifei caused the Black Demons to dance to her tune. Even though the other party had lived many times more than her, they hadn''t ever schemed in their life. At most, they had done so a couple of times to siphon Spiritual Energy from the cities. But beyond that, they hadn''t done anything of the sort. On the other hand, Feifei had lived a life full of strife. So, she was well aware of what had to be done to manipulate her opponents in giving her what she desired. This difference in experience and cunningness was what allowed her to manipulate the Black Demons. As for the Black Demons, they were happy to be manipulated, relishing the novelty of the experience. Thanks to that, Feifei was able to obtain enough Tier 5 Essence to turn into a Red Demon. Beyond that, she continued to train and grow stronger. As for Zamuria, she first trained with the Tier 3 Blood Essence Crystals, getting used to their side effects while her body adapted to their effects. Six months later, she was able to consume them without coughing up blood. Moreover, Feifei had increased the refinement to twenty times before she noticed that she had attained the limit for a Tier 3 Blood Essence Crystal. From there, the factory line continued to produce Tier 3 Blood Essence Crystals nonstop as Zamuria trained using them, noticing that her strength continued to increase at a faster pace. "Hahaha!" "This is great!" She then roamed through the labyrinth, feeling for herself the viciousness of the traps installed, eventually making contact with some demon teams that had traveled too deep into the labyrinth, killing them in the process. Upon seeing the strength she displayed, Feifei was enamored. ''As expected of the person that was first in the Godly Point rankings until she left for Layer 2. Zamuria is strong, too strong, in fact. She should be able to kill at least two to three Black Demons while facing them at the same time after reaching the peak of Tier 6.'' Zamuria had traversed the route of individual strength, accumulating abilities that allowed her to do so. When Feifei asked about the details, Zamuria revealed her abilities, telling her that it was no big deal. But after seeing them, she was even more confused. Surprisingly, she was unable to comprehend Zamuria''s train of thought. After all, her abilities were strange, not something any sane person would attempt to obtain. [Passive Abilities: Neon Radiance King, Neon Radiance King, Neon Radiance King, Neon Radiance King, Neon Radiance King] [Active Ability: Ocean Radiance] Her entire arsenal of abilities was only derived from the Neon Radiances. So, it was a wonder as to why she had attempted such a thing. Feifei was confused, so she asked, "Why did you think this would give you strength? You could have chosen a variety of passive abilities that would increase your strength overall in a variety of bases like attack, defense, healing, reconnaissance, and so on." "You see..." Zamuria smiled in response to the question. "Ocean Radiance does exactly that. This is the treasure of Layer 3 that I managed to obtain. After all, the Waves in Layer 3 should have had some connection to the layer itself, right? Otherwise, it makes no sense as to why a Wave occurs every 10 years and why a Neon Radiance is the prime cause for that.. When I thought of it like that, I figured out the truth and obtained Ocean Radiance." Chapter 1062 - The Labyrinth Grown Increasingly Scarier "The real reason the Waves happen every 10 years is to control the aquatic population. The Neon Radiance fishes would attack any fish on their way and ensure that all populations remain the same," Zamuria explained. "Moreover, the Neon Radiance fishes contain the genetic material of every fish species that live in Layer 3. So, if a species went extinct, they would replenish the particular race''s numbers by laying down some eggs during a Wave." "That''s how they maintain the balance of Layer 3 and prevent the ecosystem from being destroyed through imbalance," Zamuria added. "And Ocean Radiance is exactly that. It allows me to create any fish species. However¡­" She sighed as she lamented, "The energy expenditure is too vast if I have to create a physical fish. So most of the time, I just create them out of light and use them for a variety of means." Zamuria laughed after that. "Suppose I wish to scout my surroundings, I will unleash a certain type of fish that''s great at that. And the best thing is that since I only release these fishes with bodies of light, they can swim through the air just as they do in the water." "Then..." Feifei asked after a moment of thought. "Can you also make Monster Geckos?" "Sure," Zamuria replied, condensing a Monster Gecko beside her. Of course, its body was only made out of light. After that, she then said, "If I were to condense them physically, I''d only be able to make five of them after exhausting all my energy. That''s why I never do that." "In any case, this is also the reason why the Waves happen." She told Feifei the truth that she had discovered in Layer 3. "The Neon Radiance fishes need a tremendous amount of energy to lay eggs for the extinct fish species. That''s also why they devour through the ocean like a wave." "That makes a lot of sense now," Feifei muttered before asking, "Can you leave some predator fishes in the pools of some of the trap chambers I''ve created? You''ll have plenty of energy to do that if you rely on the miasma. We already have more than 30 Tier 3 Blood Essence Crystals in our reserves. They should be sufficient if you add in the Water Essences I''ve provided." "That''s great." Zamuria laughed as she replied, "I''ll begin working on that now. The predator fishes I create would prove troublesome for even the Red Demons." ¡­ "We''ve reached the five-kilometer mark." A total of ten teams were at the place, each led by a Red Demon. The number of Yellow Demons in the place surpassed 300 hundred. After all, there were individual groups led by Yellow Demons as well, with each leading a group of 10 Green Demons each. The total number of demons at the place surpassed two thousand in number. Currently, they were in discussion as they confided their various findings. There was a team of messengers that relayed everything they discovered to the council of Black Demons. Having been exploring the labyrinth for three years, the Black Demons had grown through various trials and errors. Even when a team discovered something impressive, they were usually annihilated as a result. So, a lot of sacrifices had to be made as a result every time until one of the team members survived by luck and managed to return to the surface. Because of that, the Black Demons had installed roles to the demon groups. There were the scouts that only observed how a place functioned and relayed the information back to the council. They never engaged with anything. The main passageways were scouted by the Red Demons. As for the smaller branching passageways, the scouts observing them reduced in strength accordingly. The second role was logistics. Their sole function was to carry the miasma in the form of crystals or liquid and supply it to the exploring teams. They also created containers using the bones of their brethren to ensure the miasma within wouldn''t be sucked in by the walls of the labyrinth. Plus, the deeper they headed into the labyrinth, the stronger the bones used on the containers. Only through this manner would the miasma within remain safe. The third role was comprised of the markers. They tested and trialed the strength of the suction force of the walls of the labyrinth, the depth a place was from the surface, the strength of the foes, and other things. They marked everything on parchments created using their skin and installed them at various checkpoints. This way, the exploring teams would obtain information about the place and wouldn''t lose their lives foolishly. The fourth role was the scouts. They were the ones who tested the effects of a place, suffering the greatest damage as a result. Everything they experienced was observed by the messengers from a safe distance and reported back to the council. And the final role was the dealers. They were the ones who went with clearing up the areas, ensuring it was safe enough for subsequent groups to traverse. Having conducted enough explorations, the demons had realized that if a place was cleared properly, it wouldn''t recover. After all, the Monster Geckos would have to manually set up everything in the place from the bone traps, the freezing blood siphoned from their bodies, and so on. When a place was wiped clean of everything, the Monster Geckos would have to start from scratch. Plus, when they were constantly annihilated by the passing streams of the demon groups, they were unable to set up anything in the place, eventually abandoning it entirely. At this point, a chamber was declared as to have been cleared. In this manner, within the span of three years, the demons had arrived at a chamber located five kilometers below the surface. It was a tremendous distance since the labyrinth only spanned from one floor to another in a series of levels. So, making their way to the five-kilometer mark was already s significant feat in three years. After all, only a small fraction of the demons actually entered the labyrinth to explore it. And now, an explorer group had arrived before a humongous chamber that was filled to the brim with water¡ªthe blood of the Monster Geckos. There was barely any space for them to fly above, spanning only around three meters in height. For starters, they sent a Green Demon to fly above the waters first at its greatest speed. Nodding without hesitation, the Green Demon flapped its wings and flashed above the body of water when a certain creature jumped out of the water and bit the Green Demon''s legs, dragging it into the water. There were some signs of struggle following that.. But after five seconds, the water turned tranquil once again. Chapter 1063 - How Much Can One Bullshit? Upon seeing a Green Demon killed as easily as that, the group of demons flinched. The Red Demon frowned as it said, "As we had feared, it''s becoming increasingly dangerous for us the deeper we proceed. The death of Green Demons has become commonplace now." Since Feifei had reached Tier 5 by now, the Monster Gecko Kings she created were now at Tier 3 strength. So, whenever they appeared as boss monsters of a chamber, it meant a tough fight for the Green Demons, who were also at Tier 3 in strength. Rarely, a Monster Gecko Emperor made an appearance, causing a headache for the Yellow Demons. So, the danger of the labyrinth had now been etched in their minds. Now that they watched a Green Demon get killed so easily as that, the group of demons looked at the faces of one another, frowning as they discussed some more. They tested and trialed some more as the messengers brought all the information to the council. The council of Black Demons had been working nonstop recently, creating items that were no different to Demon Arms. Surprisingly, they wouldn''t boost the strength of a demon wielding them like it did for humans. So, they had been working and experimenting on some things, eventually creating a method in which they could use the bones of the Monster Gecko as equipment. Of course, just like the Demon Arms, not only were the bones used, but every part of the Monster Gecko was treated as an item. The skin was used to create armor to repel the cold in the freezing environment of the labyrinth. On top of that, it also protected them from the freezing liquid every Monster Gecko spat out at the moment of death. That wasn''t all. The Black Demon council also created a method to infuse the hearts of the Monster Gecko into the items they created, also adding some miasma into it by fusing a Demon Core in its center. This way, they created a new product that boosted their strength in the same way Demon Arms did for humans. Gecko Arms! They began to call it as such, immediately spreading the information to a group of Yellow and Red Demons that worked to produce them en masse. By using such equipment, their exploration quickened. It was not to mention the fact that every demon carried pellets of miasma that the Black Demons had personally condensed. Each pellet had a rich reserve of miasma, enough to replenish a Red Demon''s energy reserve and heal it back to full health even if it only had a Demon Core remaining. This level of compression was only possible for a Black Demon. The Layer 2 that had remained unchanged for the past two millennia began to rapidly progress in the aspect of development as all the Black Demons of the world pooled in their knowledge and experience. It was an unprecedented situation. A Yellow Demon nodded at the group, tying a rope around its hip as it began to head towards the pond. Taking hold of the rope were four Red Demons, intending to pull it back with all their strength the moment something happened. As for the Yellow Demon, it held a spear with a hook-shaped blade, approaching the water as it jumped into it immediately, ready to thrust with its spear. Having fought such battles for years, all the Demons had experienced a growth in their senses. With that, the Yellow Demon was able to sense a gigantic creature heading its way, brandishing its spear at its opponent, drawing out blood. The two entities fought nonstop as the Yellow Demon felt its body turning limp from the cold, its defenses failing over time. It suddenly lunged forward, stabbing its spear right in the head of the fish as it tugged its rope in a certain manner they had specified before. The moment it did so, the Red Demons pulled the rope backward with all their might as the Yellow Demon pulled out the fish along with it. The moment it was pulled towards the surface, the predator fish struggled to breathe, limping in place. However, the demons had sour moods upon seeing it, noticing its massive size spanning five meters in length. But that wasn''t all. It had a set of protruding teeth that had evolved to rip apart any prey it bit just once. Moreover, its massive round eyes stared at the demons, causing them to flinch as a feeling of fear pervaded their hearts. This was the first time they had seen such a creature after the Monster Geckos. In Layer 2, where the number of races had been a constant 3 for two millennia, the introduction of new races one after another in a short time was perplexing. Their worldview had been overturned. The messenger group arrived immediately, telling them to remain in waiting while they transported the fish back to the council to be researched further. "Are you able to create new races?" Hwait asked in shock as it gazed at the Supreme Monster Gecko seated beside it. As it looked at the other party, it faintly shuddered. ''It has grown tremendously strong since last time. It''s already on par with a Red Demon now. Soon, it would enter our domain of strength. A decade, huh.'' "As I told you before, this is possible for a deity," the Supreme Monster Gecko said while smirking. "My master is a deity that arrived at this world to train herself. And she''ll return when her time''s up." "If she''s a deity, why hasn''t she come to face us personally?" Hwait was confused. "If she''s really as strong as you said, can''t she just defeat us and force us to submit to her?" "Well, you are right about that. But..." The Supreme Monster Gecko smirked with a condescending gaze as it replied, "Why should she do that? She won''t make a move unless you prove yourselves worthy first." "Then, how strong is a deity?" Hwait asked, expressing its curiosity. "Do you remember the weapons brought in by the first generation of humans?" the Supreme Monster Gecko smirked as it said in response. "Yes." Hwait nodded as it shuddered. In the past, when it touched such a weapon, its arm burst into pieces that rotted instantly. From there on, it felt a formless fear whenever it thought of such a weapon. However, that also allowed it to obtain knowledge about Spiritual Energy and eventually create a method for all the Black Demons to grow stronger. "Well..." The Supreme Monster Gecko smirked as it explained, "Any deity can casually wield that. And a stronger deity is called an immortal, one with a nigh-infinite lifespan. And my master, she doesn''t have the concept of death. She''s a perennial, an incarnation of a concept." "Think of it like this," it continued. "What did you think would be when this miasma that you all rely upon gain consciousness and take on a physical form? As long as the miasma exists, this entity is alive." "As long as the miasma exists¡­" As Hwait muttered, it shuddered at the notion, realizing the true extent of the power it was facing against. "Yes, and there are divisions even among the perennials," the Supreme Monster Gecko said in an expression of devotion. "Master Feifei is powerful even among them.. Someone so strong, even the God Realm, the land of the Gods know of her pretty well." Chapter 1064 - Plan’s Fruition "Ugh. I feel like I would grow old if I lie any further." Feifei rubbed the goosebumps that formed on her arms, trembling once as she sighed. "I feel like I''ll become an expert at this sooner or later." To manipulate the demons, she constantly kept in touch with Hwait, the oldest and most influential Black Demon. Through this, she fed the poor demon as many lies as she could, painting herself as a mysterious enigma that the likes of mortals couldn''t ever hope to meet, an entity that mortals like the demons had to be grateful of to even get a chance to meet her. She fed Hwait exaggerated tales of herself, making her seem like an overpowered character. Then again, as the labyrinth was something she had created herself, it caused Hwait to drink up any lie she fed it. The fact that the other party was ignorant about even the most basic levels of cultivation allowed her to easily lead it through the nose. After all, it had just embarked on the path of cultivation. Even though it had figured out a different method to wield Spiritual Energy, it wasn''t a proper method. All it did was store Spiritual Energy in the Demon Core and use it. Without the miasma to replenish their reserves, they wouldn''t be able to unleash any strong attacks. If they used Spiritual Energy in places without miasma, their Demon Cores would be put under a lot of stress. After all, it was because the method Hwait had created, though unique and new, was incomplete. Only after it was completed could anything of value be obtained. And to attain that, a tremendous reserve of knowledge was necessary to do so. In Layer 2, Hwait and the Black Demons had to prod through the dark and slowly experiment with things. As they didn''t have any knowledge, they had to build it up from ground zero. That''s why their development had been so slow. But through conversing using the Supreme Monster Gecko, Feifei solved some of the puzzles plaguing Hwait, causing it to look at the Supreme Monster Gecko in a new light. When it asked about the details, the Supreme Monster Gecko simply replied, "Spiritual Energy is simply the most basic form of energy in the path of cultivation. There are five levels of energy in total: Spiritual Energy, Elemental Energy, Chaos Energy, Divine Energy, and finally, Godly Energy. Every deity wields Godly Energy." "Standing at the peak of the God Realm, an infinitely vast landmass are the Gods, those that had reached the peak of cultivation. This world you know of is something created for fun by the Gods. My master arrived here to train herself in the ways of mortal warfare." ¡­ Eight years had passed since the labyrinth had been created. Now, all 108 Black Demons stood at the entrance, fully geared up, ready to engage the labyrinth. They looked at one another, dividing themselves up into teams of five, forming twenty teams in total. The final team consisted of eight Black Demons and formed their main force. It consisted of Hwait, Grotak, Doit, Leat, Feater, and other demons that had their respective advantages and were the strongest of the Black Demons. All of them branched out through the numerous paths in the labyrinth, their destination being its end. Their expressions were solemn, but there was excitement hidden underneath their solemn gazes. They were finally attempting to clear the labyrinth, two years in advance of the stated time. As all the teams began to march into the labyrinth, Hwait turned around, looking at the figure of the Supreme Monster Gecko that was now imposing. Seeing its stare, the Supreme Monster Gecko understood its implications, grinning as it vanished. "I''ll be waiting for you at the end. I''ll fight you with everything I got if you do manage to reach there." "I''ll have your word then." Hwait nodded, turning around as it entered with its team of Black Demons, bulldozing through the paths that had already been cleared. Once they crossed the ten-kilometer mark, the uncleared zone started. Of course, they didn''t hold a candle to the Black Demons that simply brushed off any traps and monsters standing their way like swatting dust. Even for Krune, he needed four solid hits from his strongest attack to critically injure a Black Demon. And that was eight years ago. Thanks to the explorations, the Black Demons have grown exponentially, now even armed with equipment suitable for their use. They even incorporated Spiritual Energy into their equipment, making it even stronger. With zealous excitement, the Black Demons proceeded through the labyrinth, unaffected by whatever was thrown their way. Ten days had already spanned once they had begun their exploration. Back on the surface, a group of Red Demons were guarding an ice cocoon, looking alert. But unbeknownst to them, a lone figure casually approached the ice cocoon, never sighted by the Red Demons even though she was right before them. She then arrived before the ice cocoon, gently tracing her fingers over it, tearing up as she muttered, "I made you wait for too long, didn''t I?" Suddenly, a beam of light flashed before all the Red Demons dropped dead. The area was devoid of demons in an instant as the figure of Zamuria appeared, having long reached the peak of Tier 6. She looked at the ice cocoon. "So, this is Krune." "Please, release him from this," Feifei said as she wiped her tears. "Leave it to me. I will ensure he wouldn''t be harmed in the slightest," Zamuria replied, hacking at the ice with blades of light. She then condensed thousands of tiny fishes that began to gnaw at the edges of the ice, slowly eating through it over time. Zamuria increased their numbers, beginning to eat through the ice cocoon faster and faster. But even then, when they approached the final layer of ice on Krune''s body, a month had already passed. Eventually, she condensed a tiny scalpel, gently peeling forth the final layer that was just a gelatinous mixture created from the Healing Extract to keep Krune alive and well-fed. The moment the layer was torn up, Krune''s eyes shot open, focusing on Feifei as he smiled. "You''ve grown old, Feifei." "You''re a grandma now!" Chapter 1065 - The Side Effect Kicks In "Idiot, you''re also an old man." Feifei lightly smacked Krune on the head, hugging him tightly as she told him, "I missed you." "I missed you too." Krune hugged in return, feeling the warmth in his embrace as he inhaled Feifei''s scent, feeling as if he had returned home. However, just as he was about to say something, his face convulsed as he began to shout, "It hurts! Don''t hug so tightly!" "But, I didn''t exert much force, though." Feifei was suddenly alarmed as she stepped back, noticing Krune''s condition, shouting with a shrill voice, "Your nose! It''s bleeding!" "Eh?" Krune was confused as he touched his nose, noticing the blood that was leaking out like a stream, failing to understand when his vision spun, losing consciousness as he collapsed. "Krune!" Feifei caught hold of him, shouting in alarm as she noticed veins popping all over his body, causing it to shudder nonstop. It was impossible for Krune''s energy reserve to last in the ice cocoon under the onslaught of the Black Demons. They would have broken through it in some minutes if they exerted their maximum strength. That was simply prolonging his death by a few minutes. So, to avoid that fate, Krune had used all the Healing Extract to wrap around him before freezing it, entering cryogenic sleep. The Healing Extract was created using the flesh of the black fishes. So, it had a tremendous reserve of energy. However, fearing that it wouldn''t buy him enough time, Krune had also mixed in all the Blood Essence Crystals into it. This way, he would have enough energy. After all, each Blood Essence Crystal was created from a black fish or through the repeated condensation of more than ten red fishes into one. So, its energy reserve was also astounding. Adding everything up, he had hoped to buy a decade''s worth of time. Then again, as to how long he could last like this was entirely dependant on the actions of the Black Demons. Had all 108 Black Demons spammed their attacks onto his ice cocoon, it would have broken within a month. He had hoped that Feifei would do something to prevent that. Thankfully, his wager was successful. But the fact of the matter was that he relied on 10,000 Blood Essence Crystals to survive. And accompanying each Blood Essence Crystal was some side effects. Even though he had negated the side effects to a great extent, they still existed. With 10,000 of them, the side effects accumulated to threatening levels. Even though the healing extract negated quite a lot of it, the remainder took effect now. Thankfully for Krune, he hadn''t ingested them and had only absorbed them through his armor over time. Otherwise, his death would have been guaranteed. Now, he was reeling from the side effects. Krune''s body twitched erratically as he spewed out blood like a fountain, reeling from the pain that sent him into shock, knocking him unconscious. His nerves ruptured while his flesh started to deteriorate, thinning out considerably as it was rotting. "No! No! No!" Feifei screamed as she faced her right palm towards Krune, causing a portal of sorts to open as water gushed out, landing on him, washing away all the blood. The water seeped in through the wounds, beginning to heal them while the side effects continued to damage them. Feifei faced her left palm towards the opposite side, beckoning for the miasma to gush into her, rapidly replenishing the energy levels in her Energy Sink. She was pouring the healing water from her Energy Sink onto Krune, trying her best to heal him overall. Had she fed him a pellet of Water Essence, it wouldn''t have worked much since his body was deteriorating. It wouldn''t be able to digest and circulate the effects of the Water Essence. That''s why she had to resort to such a measure. Thankfully for her, the miasma was endless as Feifei used it to supplement her energy drain, finally sighing in relief once she reached a stalemate of sorts in Krune''s body. His rate of deterioration and healing was now even. As for Feifei, she gritted her teeth, absorbing the miasma as if her life depended on it, trying her best to pull in enough miasma for her needs. It was definitely hard. The quantity of miasma she had to pull even exceeded a Black Demon''s. With that, she had to explode with all her power and pull in as much as she could. Thankfully, once she activated her Supreme Monster Gecko, it headed to somewhere else, pulling the ambient miasma towards itself before pushing it towards Feifei in a concentrated form. This way, she didn''t have to exert herself beyond her limits to pull in enough. Now, with two sharing the burden, she was able to maintain the balance, even going to the extent of increasing the healing rate by a tiny margin. This way, Krune was healing at a slow but steady pace. In any case, thanks to Feifei''s actions, the terrain had changed. Before, it was dry ground. But now, it was wet thanks to the healing water she had been pumping out nonstop. Moreover, the water formed channels as it began to flow through the desert land, enriching it with vitality before coming across the entrances leading into the labyrinth. They began to flow into the labyrinth, startling the demons exploring within. But when they touched the water, they were confused as it healed them, also vanquishing their fatigue. To those roaming in the depths of the labyrinth, they soon noticed a tiny stream of water flowing through the path, confused as they wondered what it was. Unlike the cases with blood, the bone walls only absorbed the water at a slow pace, no different from a normal tree. The influx of water changed the situation completely. As it was just water, it didn''t take it long to cascade through the numerous levels, eventually making its way towards a chamber where one of the Black Demon teams was active. "Eh? Everyone, check this out!" One of the Black Demons touched the water, surprised about its properties, calling out everyone to inspect it as well. Chapter 1066 - Like Looking At A Mirror "It''s time I ventured into the miasma-filled lands. From what I heard, the Black Demons have their respective tales to tell. This is bound to be an interesting journey." A certain middle-aged man with small patches of white calmly walked through the miasma-filled lands, completely unfazed. He didn''t even glance at the Red Demons that were constantly attacking him, all to no avail. They failed to even scratch him as he continued to walk, undisturbed by their presence, attacks, and sheer numbers. At the start, there were just three Red Demons. But upon seeing their struggling expressions, more Red Demons jumped in, attacking the man constantly. Eventually, there were over a hundred Red Demons taking turns to launch their strongest attacks on the man. But everything proved to be futile. Eventually, they aimed to just stop him in his tracks first, lining up before him one after another, simply pushing him like a train. But no matter what, he didn''t stop. In fact, his speed wasn''t even in the least affected. He just continued to walk in a peaceful expression, looking at the struggling Red Demons with interest. "If the me from when I just arrived at Layer 2 saw this scene, he would kneel before me." Suddenly, his expression changed as he felt something wet touch his feet. "Who the heck urinated on me? You should try harder to stop me, and not¡­" He paused, noticing the Red Demons also stare at the wetness with confused expressions. The man then noticed a stream of water flowing over from somewhere far away, curious as he activated one of his passive abilities, trailing through the water stream towards the source, immediately noticing three individuals. "Eh? Isn''t that Krune? How come he ended up in such a state?" Right as he thought of that, he looked at Feifei, muttering to himself, "So, she''s healing him. Hmm, a lady with fiery hair, just as he had said before. Is she his wife? Damn, how did this idiot snag someone with much¡­character? She''s also pretty to boot." He then focused on the lady standing beside the duo, looking at everything with a calm expression, vigilant against any Black Demons that might try to sneak attack now that they had probably noticed the traces of the water that had seeped into the labyrinth in torrents. "This lady is¡­beautiful, graceful, charming, intelligent, smart, authoritative, dynamic, pretty cool, looks overpowered, and seems to be in control of any situation. Damn, it feels like staring at a mirror, but only the gender has been swapped. How is this possible?" The man thought, suddenly flinching when the other party turned around, making eye contact, despite being more than 100 kilometers apart. He then noticed her lip movements, wording it out as he read them. "Cul¡­ti¡­va¡­tor¡­?" Cultivator! "What? Does she know me?" The man, Cultivator was startled for a moment before he thought to himself. "Wait, my name is the same as what every damn creature that can eat and fart Godly Energy is called. So, she shouldn''t have talked about me." He then noticed the woman saying something to the lady with the fiery hair before sprinting in his direction. "Nope. Shit, she was talking about me, after all. Does she feel threatened by my beautiful, graceful, charming, intelligent, smart, authoritative, dynamic, pretty cool, powerful-looking, and seemingly in control of any situation self? This is rather troubling." Right as he had thought of that, Cultivator flinched when he saw a sea of fishes created from bodies of light swim towards him at tremendous speeds, beyond what a Black Demon could run at. The sea of fishes quickly tore through the group of Red Demons surrounding him, making their way towards him in a matter of ten seconds. Unwilling to sustain unnecessary damage, Cultivator crossed his hands before himself, turning his entire body grey, resembling a stone, watching the fishes crash into it and burst from the impact. Nevertheless, the fishes continued to collide into him, at times biting him in an effort to devour him. Unfortunately, they were unable to even scratch him. Or, to be more specific, the innumerous impacts failed to even budge him from his spot as Cultivator continued to walk forward, soon noticing Zamuria dashing towards him through his naked eye. And at the moment she appeared in his line of sight, she waved her hands, pointing them horizontally before unleashing hundreds of fishes. The fishes made arcs through the air, approaching him from two sides, causing him to shout, "Hey, that''s cheating." "Besides..." He shouted now that Zamuria was in hearing range of his voice. "Why are you even attacking me? This is the first time I''m seeing you." "Oh, really?" Zamuria expressed killing intent, causing the miasma around her to tremble from the display of power as she said, "But, I assure you. This isn''t the first time you''ve seen me. Though, this would indeed be the last time." "What¡­do you mean?" Cultivator frowned, entering a stance upon feeling the brunt of her killing intent, suddenly asking in interest, "Do you have a reason? Why are you doing this? It feels odd to fight without a backstory." "You indeed make a point there." For a moment, Zamuria even retracted her killing intent, rubbing her chin to think before realizing her objective, emitting her killing intent once again as she slammed a pillar of light into Cultivator. "Well, that doesn''t matter." However, she frowned upon noticing that Cultivator didn''t even budge from her hit, frowning as she changed her attack into a hammer that spanned a couple hundred meters in length, slamming it right onto Cultivator, sending him reeling into the ground, causing a massive sandstorm in place. But a couple of seconds later, Cultivator jumped out of the hole, landing on the ground, unscathed. Snorting, Zamuria focused, unleashing a dense beam of light by expending a great deal of energy, shaping it into a pair of scissors, clamping it onto Cultivator. Upon noticing the force imbued in it, even he was alarmed, hurriedly grabbing hold of the blades clamping on him, noticing the rock forming his palms began to crack and shatter bit by bit, asking her in a shout, "Are you really not going to talk?" "I won''t!" Zamuria shouted in return, increasing the force in the pair of scissors. Chapter 1067 - Dimensional Crack "Lady, you aren''t being cool now," Cultivator shouted, intending to retaliate when his heart thumped in pain all of a sudden, causing him to remain on the defensive. Every time he thought of attacking Zamuria, his heart ached, making him wish to cry all of a sudden. The feeling was just too strange. After all, he hadn''t ever felt something like that before. Just as he was worrying about his mysterious feelings, wondering if Zamuria had a passive ability that was capable of this, he noticed the killing intent of the other party intensify all of a sudden. "Lady? Brat, did you seriously just call me that? Where''s your sense of respect?" Zamuria exclaimed in response, increasing strength on the scissors as Cultivator began to grunt in response, noticing more cracks form on his body. Suddenly, the stone forming his hand increased in girth, barely pushing back the blades of the scissors a bit as he ducked while thinning it back to normal, finally dodging the blades. Immediately, he retreated, increasing the distance between the two as he kicked up a dust cloud, intending to obscure his presence first. He was feeling weird, and it was concerning as he was unable to even retaliate. So, he first wished to buy some time before trying to understand the reason as to why he felt this way. However, no sooner had he evaded did a spear of light impale him, intending to penetrate him. Then again, Cultivator defended against the attack without suffering much damage. As for the cracks on his body, they had vanished, as if it had healed instantly. With that, he constantly defended against the attacks, seeking on evading all the time while he tried to understand the reason why his heart was behaving strangely. During this time, Feifei solely focused on Krune, increasing the rate of healing as she placed a concentrated Water Essence in his mouth. She flushed it down into his belly as she focused more of the healing effect on his stomach. This way, she wished to kickstart the digestive process in Krune''s body and help speed things up a bit. Within a couple of minutes, his stomach had recovered to the extent that it could begin the digestion process. The moment this began, Krune''s rate of recovery spiked exponentially as his body regained its girth rapidly while his skin recovered its prior radiance. An hour later, Krune woke up with a start, now fully healed as he could feel the energy brimming in his body. Surprisingly, the side effects that had been persisting in his body for more than eight years seemed to have tempered his body a bit, causing his abilities to develop a bit more, reaching the limit of strength allowed by Layer 2. As he woke up, the miasma moved away from him, as if it was scared of his presence. Without bothering about it for now, Krune laughed, grabbing Feifei in a bear hug as he apologized to her, "Sorry to worry you." "Idiot." Feifei shed tears, making eye contact as she looked up, telling her husband, "You''ve matured a lot, both physically and mentally." "Living as a mortal sure is tough." Krune sighed in response. "Spiritual Energy is so convenient. At least, it prevents our minds from ever becoming as weak as our current mortal selves." "I''ve come close to committing a sin that I would regret for the rest of my life many times." He shook his head as he muttered, "Thankfully, I didn''t do anything. But, that''s only because I had lived for so long that I was able to control myself." "I understand." Feifei nodded. "That''s the weakness of being a mortal human." She then pinched his ear as she continued, "Though, it''s good that you didn''t commit a sin. Otherwise¡­" Her aura changed to resemble a bloodthirsty volcano. "I really would have become a widow." "I was just joking, haha." Krune hurriedly waved his hand in a fluster, trembling under Feifei''s killing intent. "You know me better." As he fluttered around, trying to ease up her heart, Krune couldn''t help but think, ''Her killing intent is so dense. It''s beyond anything I''ve ever felt. Just what sort of life has she led up to this point? She''s suffered a lot.'' "You know..." Krune gently scaled Feifei''s check with his thumb. "I have been thinking about this for some time now." "And that is¡­?" Feifei asked in curiosity. "The reason we had been separated after arriving at the God Realm is so that we wouldn''t slack on our cultivation. But¡­" Krune frowned as he continued. "Was it really worth it? I''ve been close to a mental breakdown numerous times in the past four decades. In fact, I might have lost it quite a few times as well. And after this long, even though I understand it had been done with our best interests in mind, I couldn''t help but¡­" "Develop hatred for Soren and Luvile." ¡­ "Huff¡­puff¡­" Zamuria panted as she slumped on the ground, grunting as she gazed at Cultivator''s intact form. Their fight was somewhat intense, causing her to expend all her energy to fight. Unfortunately for her, she was still unable to inflict any grave injuries onto Cultivator. "I guess I don''t have any other choice," Zamuria muttered as she took out a Tier 5 Blood Essence Crystal and swallowed it, immediately getting up as she absorbed all the miasma, recovering to her peak soon after. "Damn it. Please give it a rest." Cultivator groaned as he got up. He, too, had exhausted all his energy in defending himself, so he was unwilling to fight anymore. Or, to be more specific, as he had been unable to retaliate, he had to expend even more energy to defend himself, burning through his safety energy rations that he had brought with him. He then noticed a hole form farther to his right. Peeking out from it were Black Demons, numbering five. At the same time, groups of Black Demons exited the ground at various locations, attracted towards the height of battle. Cultivator also noticed Krune and Feifei rushing towards him, concern plastered all over their faces. However, right as he thought of that, an energy blade slammed into him, containing power beyond what was previously present in all of Zamuria''s attacks. Only now was she revealing her true strength. "Enough!" Cultivator shouted, left with no other choice but to resort to his trump card, causing his body to shine with a green radiance. For a moment, he caused the world to pause as he lifted his index finger, gently touching the energy blade to shatter it into numerous fragments. However, the power behind his gentle touch was too great that a mysterious power slammed upwards, causing a crack in the sky. The dimension of the Sub-Realm itself had been damaged from his attack. Chapter 1068 - Even A God Can Become Flustered It was a cloud situated within the darkness, gently floating aimlessly, casting mild light into the night occasionally. Situated atop the cloud was a hut, also made of a cloud. And situated within was a single hammock. Sleeping on it was a wizened old man that for some reason looked like he had just been born. It was a distracting contrast. As usual, he used his perception of the myriad laws to observe the state of the Sub-Realm and check if everything was working perfectly. After observing Layer 3, he smirked, muttering to himself, "The humans are struggling as more and more races exit their confined landmasses. Now that there is only one Checkpoint Turtle left for their use, one that only sells six items now, they''re having a harder time." Typically in order, he then focused on Layer 2, laughing. "This recent change brought about by the Monster Geckos is great. The stale atmosphere of the place has begun to change. As I expected, we need more variety of creatures to create interesting dynamics." God Realm Cultivator! He was one of the Gods that had created the Sub-Realm. Just like the other Gods, it was his daily pleasure to observe the state of things in the Sub-Realm and see how the things play out. As they were bored from their infinitely long lives, this was an enormous, consistent entertainment. "Moreover, this body cultivation method may one day provide us that final push to leave the Four Realms," he thought, calmly observing Layer 2 further when he noticed the figures of Zamuria and Cultivator fighting. "Both of them are like mirror images in character. They are¡­interesting." However, once he said that, he saw the battle escalate before Zamuria unleashed the strongest of the attacks she had launched till now, placing Cultivator''s life in peril. But right at this moment, a green radiance enveloped Cultivator, causing the old man to spring up with a start. "What the fuck?" A perennial being that had been unfazed by even the most dangerous of situations lost his composure after seeing the green radiance. Then, when he saw Cultivator cause a crack to form in the sky of Layer 2, damaging the barrier between Layer 1 and Layer 2, the old man''s face paled. "No! No! No! My life''s work won''t be destroyed like this!" He immediately unleashed an intense amount of Godly Energy, riling up the numerous laws under him to fix up the crack immediately, only sighing in relief when it was done. He then slumped on the hammock, muttering, "Cultivator¡­was it? Strange. Just how is a weak creature like him capable of controlling such a powerful law? And the strange thing is that there''s no trace of any God in that law. Just what is happening here? Is it an unclaimed law?" Suddenly, he began to laugh out loud. "Interesting! This is fun!" He then turned around, waving his hand at four other people that were lazily lying atop their respective hammocks. "Idiot laws, take a look at what I just found." ¡­ "What the¡­?" Zamuria stared at the crack in the sky with a frightened expression, screaming at Cultivator immediately. "Idiot! If that destroys this Sub-Realm, we''ll die along with it!" "Tee-hee!" Cultivator snuck out his tongue, acting shocked himself, behaving as if he wasn''t related to the massive crack in the sky. Every single living being in Layer 2 stared in fear at the crack in the sky, one that seemed like the cue to their world''s end. "Oh my god!" "No! I don''t want to die!" "Save us!" "Lord Krune, protect us!" Numerous sounds of screams and pleas alike resounded from all over Layer 2 when the crack in the sky closed automatically, as if it hadn''t existed there in the first place. It swiftly disappeared, causing everyone to wonder whether it was an illusion or reality. As for the Black Demons, they had been staring at Cultivator''s actions and hence had seen the green energy emanating from him that created the crack in the sky. They trembled, recalling the words Feifei had fed them over the years through the Supreme Monster Gecko. It was like a bucket of cold water was poured on them. Even though they had heard plenty about cultivators and the difference in power they had at higher levels when compared to mortals, only when they saw it through their eyes did they realize just how ignorant they had been. "One hit. Just one mild touch with the index finger was enough to almost destroy our world. Just¡­" Hwait trembled in fear. Before, it had assumed that even though the difference between them and cultivators would be high, it wouldn''t have been much. Rather, it should have been a gap scalable thanks to their tough bodies. And, only high-level cultivators should prove troublesome to them. But now, the sense of power displayed here was beyond what they were even capable of processing, despite witnessing it first-hand. "I think it''s for the best if we stop and talk things out peacefully for now." Cultivator finally broke the silence as he faced Zamuria. "Besides, I have a couple of questions that I hope you''ll be able to answer." Right at this moment, Krune landed beside him, swiftly arriving to his aid as he asked Cultivator in a hurry, "Are you alright? What happened? How did you unleash such a frightening attack?" "Remember that hilt?" Cultivator said in response. "I just used some of its power. It''s not suppressed even in here." "Makes sense." Krune nodded, not pressing forth much since there were too many prying ears in the place. He was then surprised to see Feifei inquiring about the wellbeing of Zamuria, inspecting the other party''s injuries. ''This situation is kind of complicated.'' He sighed as he thought to himself before asking Cultivator, "Why were the two of you fighting?" "She just started to attack me all of a sudden. And I don''t even know why she did that." Cultivator shrugged in exhaustion. "And no matter how many times I asked, she never told me about it." Krune frowned in response, taking a deeper glance at Zamuria before looking at Cultivator, alternating his gaze between the two as he soon let out a light sigh, patting Cultivator on the shoulder as his eyelids twitched, whispering, "Say, wasn''t she the reason you arrived on Zamuria Continent in the first place?" Chapter 1069 - An Unwanted Spawn "Say, wasn''t she the reason you arrived on Zamuria Continent in the first place?" Krune''s words resounded like thunder in Cultivator''s ears, causing him to gaze at Zamuria as all the dots in his mind had seemingly connected. He stared at the other party in confusion, happiness, gratitude, admiration, anger, and various other emotions, finally opening his mouth as he uttered, "Mother?" Zamuria sighed, clenching her hand into a fist as she stared at the ground. With that, she made eye contact with Cultivator, saying with a cold tone, "I''m not. That was just an accident." "An¡­accident?" Cultivator stared at her with widened eyes, disbelief etched in his expression. "You mean to say, my birth¡­was an accident?" "Indeed," Zamuria said as a matter of fact. "If it wasn''t an accident, I wouldn''t have left you with that man." "How can you give birth through an accident? It''s not a process that happens in a couple of seconds. You need 10 months, 10 freaking months to do so. How can such a long time be an accident?" Cultivator barely controlled himself, staring at Zamuria as his eyes reddened. "When I was traveling through the Guria continent to temper myself, I fell victim to the scheme of a certain enemy of mind and suffered grave injuries. Even though a life-saving tool I had healed me back to full health, I had temporarily lost my memories," Zamuria replied, barely reigning in her hatred. "And in this state, I was just a na?ve girl. Your father took full advantage of it. The result of that was you." "But how? Father was just a weak man. And he was a man of honor. He lived a simple life singing poetry about you daily," Cultivator shouted in return. "He''s not someone that would take advantage of anyone." "Are you sure about that?" Zamuria snorted in response. "He became like that after I crippled him. After all¡­" She glared at Cultivator as she continued, "He was the one that had been the cause for my injuries in the first place. He was once an infamous bandit that had reaped countless lives. Do you seriously believe that he was a down-to-earth individual?" "No." She shook her head vehemently. "He was as bad as they came. And you¡­" She condensed a blade of light in her hands. "You are the smear in the family line of the Zamuria Empire. You''re the spawn of something that''s an enemy of my empire. And now, I''ll eradicate you!" Saying so, Zamuria unleashed countless fishes towards Cultivator, intending to drown him through quantity rather than quality so that even if he unleashed the green radiance, some of them would still manage to survive. Everything Zamuria had said came off as a shock to Cultivator, emotionally devastating him, preventing him from being able to react. Surprisingly, all he did was stare at the incoming fishes as tears streamed out of his eyes, his body trembling as he was sad¡­for the first time since the death of his father. But, right as the fishes were about to slam into him, a pillar of ice erupted, blocking their paths as a beam of white light landed on the fishes, slowing down their movements before turning them into ice sculptures that dropped to the ground. "What are you doing? Don''t interfere! This is the personal affairs of my family. Outsiders have no business poking their nose here," Zamuria shouted. "Oh, I very well have my business here," Krune said, staring solemnly as he patted Cultivator''s shoulder. "I''m his friend. And as a friend, I''ll stand up for him." "If he doesn''t have a family, I''ll be his family from today onwards," Krune declared. "A brother, a father, a grandfather, whatever need be, I''ll be th¡ª" However, Krune stopped there and thought it through. "No, wait! I don''t want such an ugly child or grandchild." Krune pondered over it for a bit before continuing, "Alright, a brother should be enough." Even in his sadness, Cultivator''s mouth couldn''t help but twitch a little after hearing that. Krune didn''t notice it, though. "If you don''t wish to accept him as a son, then you have no right to even scold him." "Shut up!" Zamuria shouted, slamming an energy sword at the ice, intending to hack it into two and reach Cultivator. But, right as it hacked the ice, Krune caused a pillar of ice to erupt from the ground, sending Cultivator reeling backward, causing him to evade the slash. Krune then stared at Zamuria, activating his full power as the sounds of the ocean waves resounded throughout the region. For a moment, every single person there hallucinated the image of an ocean surrounding them, with its majestic waves thrashing about. "It seems your primary ability is the Neon Radiance King," Krune said, unleashing a beam of white light onto her, beginning to freeze her body and at the same time, any attack that she launched at him. "I¡­have it as well. The speed of your attacks is terrifying. But I can do it as well." "Don''t¡­interfere¡­" Zamuria tried her best to rein in her anger, understanding very well that Krune was Feifei''s husband, turning around to glare at her. "Tell him to stay away!" Sighing, Feifei looked at Krune and said, "Let them resolve it between themselves." "Sure." Krune relented immediately, saying after a second, "But, only after Cultivator gets some time to gather his bearings. Until then, I''ll protect him." Seeing that there was no other choice, Zamuria could only give in. She didn''t wish to injure Krune and make Feifei her enemy. Having worked with her for almost six years, she was well aware of what Feifei was capable of. Such an individual, she never wished to make an enemy of. So, she relented. After all, even if she was confident in killing Krune, the aftermath wasn''t something she could handle. It would cause Feifei, Hazak, and even Cultivator to gang up on her. Considering the immense power Cultivator had displayed, he would be a threat to the Zamuria Empire even after returning to the God Realm. After some thought, she had no other choice but to wait patiently while glaring at Cultivator, barely controlling herself from going all out and killing him through an ambush. She also noticed the Black Demons encircling them a couple of kilometers away, watching the drama that unfolded. Right at this moment, followed by the powerful sonic fluctuations, a Black Demon arrived at the scene, landing on the ground with mountainous impact, bellowing at the top of its lungs, "Lord Krune! Welcome Back!" Chapter 1070 - Cultivator’s Past "You okay there?" Krune patted Cultivator, asking in concern. Sniffing, Cultivator wiped his tears, taking in deep breaths before muttering, "Yeah¡­give me some time. I''ll get by." Cultivator then glanced at Krune for a moment before adding, "By the way, you have no right to call me ugly." Krune just smiled in response and continued, "Whether she accepts you or not, she''s still your mother. Just work hard in making her accept you." Krune smiled, lightly patting Cultivator. "I mean, the both of you are like mirror replicas. Probably all of her is what makes most, if not all of you." "Right." Cultivator visibly relaxed as he barely smiled. "There''s no need to despair. I had worried about being unable to find my mother for the rest of my life. But now, I have found her. This is already a joyous occasion. If she doesn''t wish to accept me, I''ll just be patient and work hard so that she''ll accept me as her son one day." "Alos, no matter how many attacks she throws my way, I can tank them all." Cultivator firmed himself, uplifting his spirits as he said, "I am strong. I won''t die until I obtain her acknowledgment. After all¡­" "I am Cultivator!" "That''s the spirit." Krune laughed, helping Cultivator get up. "Moping around isn''t available in your dictionary." "Thank you, Krune. I am glad to have befriended you." Cultivator slightly teared up as he controlled himself, patting Krune as he began to walk forward. "I''ll handle all of it from here." "Go! I''m rooting for you." Krune raised his fist, pumping it in the air. As for Hazak, it silently stood behind Krune, glaring at the other Black Demons. Upon seeing Cultivator walk towards her, Zamuria snorted, preparing herself to attack when Cultivator raised his hand, saying aloud, "Long ago, when I was eight years old, I was bullied by everyone in my home city¡­" "Are you telling a goddamn story now?" Zamuria shouted in anger, though, even she hadn''t noticed that her killing intent had already reduced automatically. When Cultivator stopped ten meters away from her, she didn''t attack him for some reason, staring straight at him as she cursed him when he paused for more than a second. "Are you dumb? Continue speaking or I''ll chop you up into pieces." "Every pig that was able to eat and fart Godly Energy had parents. Every single damn one. Except for me," Cultivator''s voice trembled as he continued. "But I didn''t." "Everyone mocked father for being an idiot. For most of the day, all he spent doing was reciting poems. He barely earned anything for our living." Cultivator shed tears as he narrated his story. "He tried to work many times. But every single time, he would suddenly change mid-work and begin to recite poems. There was something wrong with him. When he began to recite those poems, he wasn''t aware of anything that happened around him. Even when he was injured, he wouldn''t know." "Eventually, begging was our only resort. Father knew of his condition and sought to beg while his condition activated, hoping for at least someone to pity him and drop a Tier 1 God Stone." Cultivator clenched his hand into a fist, saying through gritted teeth, "People mocked him and made fun of him, jeering at his illness." "On the first day, he was stripped naked. He earned three Tier 1 God Stones that day." Cultivator''s voice turned hoarse as he went on. "On the second day, he was pushed into a pond, almost drowning him. Had he not broken out of his condition on time, he would have drowned to death. He got five Tier 1 God Stones that day. But on the third day, his main point was viciously hit." "And the ones that did that were my peers. Barely eight years old, yet they were capable of such atrocities. Worst of all, no one helped him. As for any Tier 1 God Stones he earned that day, they stole it. He earned nothing that day while the injury caused him to be bedridden for a month." Cultivator made eye contact with Zamuria as he told her, "I took up his role the next day." "Father was the only one I could imitate. So, I begged while behaving similar to him, reciting the poems that I had heard from him numerous times." Cultivator cleared his throat, singing a mild tune, "With the stars, I follow with you, come may I have been, for all I''m you!" "My wish had I one, for all I am with you, my hope is relit, as long as I see you!" "Rise and abide, for the world in you, arise like sunshine, as long as I feel you!" "Far away you go, for the one that sees you, but hope shall I have, for as long as I know you!" The poem, though lacking in tune, had a strange rhythm, causing Zamuria to tear up all of a sudden. Not noticing it, Cultivator continued, "For the first day, it seemed people had pitied me. I earned 53 Tier 1 God Stones and even a Tier 2 God Stone. On the second day, my voice got hoarse for some reason. And on the third day, I began to be bullied by my peers." "On the seventh day, I bled for the first time. I earned only three Tier 1 God Stones that day. On the nineteenth day, my crotch was hit, but I still persisted to earn money to treat father. I earned one Tier 1 God Stone that day." Cultivator took in a deep breath as he added, "On the twenty-second day, my right arm was broken. I earned 15 Tier 1 God Stones that day and bought some medicine for father." "On the twenty-eighth day, both my hands were broken. I couldn''t clench the thirty Tier 1 God Stones I earned that day and had to hold them in my mouth. And¡­" With a sigh, he uttered, "On the thirtieth day, all my limbs were broken while my jaw was dislocated. I was neither able to move nor able to make sounds. I made 150 Tier 1 God Stones and seven Tier 2 God Stones that day. But, it was father who had to pick them, along with my unconscious self." "He blamed himself, reeling in self-torment for causing his son to suffer. After all, in order to cure him, his eight-year-old son had suffered abuse for a month and ended up in a coma at the end." Cultivator shed tears as he said that. "That was my last memory of my father. I had been in a coma after that for seven years. And, when I was fifteen years old, the day I woke up was when¡­" "My father breathed his last." Chapter 1071 - Cultivator’s Single Wish In Life "People are shit. Whether they be humans or demon beasts in their original or human forms, hardly anyone of them had any redeemable qualities." Cultivator wiped his tears as he lamented, "All my life, I was a cripple, unable to even move from my place. I cultivated by absorbing the natural Godly Energy in the air and advanced myself. Eventually, once I reached God Foundation Realm, I read through the poem father had sung every day." "All I did was sing it every single day. A decade later, when I had reached the Ninth Stage God Foundation Realm, I had developed my Spiritual Incarnation and managed to heal all my injuries," Cultivator said. "But, despite possessing such power, I didn''t harm those that had harmed me. The only ones I killed were those that had harmed father. I never tortured them either and just gave them swift deaths." Cultivator slumped to the ground on his knees, slowly bowing his head as his forehead touched the ground while his palms were slightly buried into the sand. "For all my life, I haven''t been filial. My only wish is to be filial to you. If father had committed crimes in the past, I''ll shoulder them all and work to ease the lives of the victims. For the rest of my life, I''ll work in making all his mistakes right." "It is your right to detest me and hate father. You have every reason to do so. I''ll face all your hatred. Until the day you can say that your hatred is no more, I''ll bear them all. Whatever you want me to do, I''ll do it. If it is my life that you need, take it," Cultivator said solemnly, lifting his head as he looked at Zamuria. "All I ask in return is to call you once what I would have the privilege to had I been born out of love." "Give me the fortune and blessing of calling you it once. That''s all I ever need. Take my life after that." Saying his piece, Cultivator closed his eyes, deactivating his abilities as his body returned to normal. Moreover, he even went to the extent of weakening his body further, so as to make it easier to kill him. Krune stared at the scene, scowling as he closed his eyes, unable to endure watching it any longer as he turned his head away. Cultivator had made his choice, so he couldn''t change his friend''s resolve. The only fault was that had he known Cultivator would have made such a choice, he wouldn''t have cheered him on before. ''No matter what, I''ll respect your decision.'' Krune deactivated his Sonic Radar, knowing very well that he wouldn''t be able to stop himself from rescuing Cultivator if he sensed what was happening. The attention of every Black Demon trailed from Cultivator over to Zamuria, anticipating what she intended to do. Everything they witnessed was something that they hadn''t felt before, even the emotional aspect. So, they simply acted as background decorations, training their senses on the scene that unfolded. Seeing Krune''s choice on the matter, Feifei too stopped herself from saying anything, silently gazing at Zamuria''s back, intending to see what the concerned party decided to do. However, she hoped Zamuria would at least give Cultivator a chance. After all, the other party was serious and had sacrificed his life just to call her mother once. Thinking of it, it was just too sad. Zamuria had birthed Cultivator through a tragedy. And throughout his life, Cultivator had been living through a tragedy. So, she at least hoped they could ease up a bit, even if it might seem difficult. After all, neither Zamuria nor Cultivator were at fault. The cause for it had already died long ago. The hearts of the onlookers were pulsing as Zamuria approached Cultivator, standing within his arm''s reach as she stared at him, only now observing his face in detail. She looked at his contours, his features that resembled her greatly, his countenance, his sense of pride, and his ego that were a carbon copy of her. Had he resembled his father more, she could have simply dismissed him due to her hatred. But, in every regard, Cultivator resembled her. In fact, she was unable to sense even a single similarity between Cultivator and his father. It was as if Cultivator had inherited everything of her, and only her. The more she looked at him, the more she was able to verify this statement. And because of it, she realized that Cultivator was indeed willing to die just for being allowed to call her mother once. It was such a laughable notion. But to him, one that never had someone to call as his mother, the emotional weight that one weight had was significant. To him, no matter how strong he became, being able to see Zamuria and call her once would allow him to die with no regrets. That''s was all he ever needed and was all he had ever hoped to find in his life. And to attain that, he was ready to lose his life. ''He''s my¡­child.'' Zamuria gently raised her hand, instinctively intending to touch his face when she controlled herself, recalling the face of her father, biting her lips as she forcefully turned around, taking in a deep breath as she said, "Just once, you can call me as your birthright dictates, son." Hearing the way she addressed him, Cultivator teared up in joy, elated as he was at peace, gently raising his arms as he faced them towards her, now having no regrets as he faced death. "Yes¡­" "Mother!" A Neon Radiance beam, shaped into a rod, pierced the ground, remaining in place as blood slowly dripped through it. Zamuria began to walk away as tears streamed out from her eyes as she said, "Cultivator is dead." She created a massive fish onto which she leaped, causing it to fly away as she said, "If I had a son, I had hoped to name him Zamura.. Only that name''s befitting my son." Chapter 1072 - From Now On, I Am Zamura Zamuria flew away alarmingly quickly as if she wished to escape from the scene. Upon seeing it, Krune sighed, motioning for Feifei to chase after her, mouthing the words, "Ensure she doesn''t come under harm." Sighing, Feifei could only nod in response, immediately turning into a Red Demon as she flew after Zamuria. All along, Cultivator stared at the retreating figure of his mother, touching the side of his cheek to see some blood. In the end, Zamuria hadn''t killed him, even going to the extent of satisfying his wish. Moreover, the words she said in the end resounded in his mind. Soon, he made up his mind as he muttered, "If that''s what my mother wants, it''s only right that I follow it, right?" Cultivator sat up, gazing at the sky as he muttered, "From this moment forth, Cultivator is dead. Hence, I''ll be known as Zamura." As he said it, his face sported a wide smile, looking forward to his future as he thanked Krune. "If you hadn''t encouraged me, I would have never been able to attain my wish." "What do you plan to do now?" Krune asked, standing beside Zamura. Previously known as Cultivator, and from henceforth honing the identity of Zamura, he looked into the horizon, staring at the direction his mother had flown by. "I can''t force my mother. In the end, I don''t wish to burden her anymore. She''s acknowledged me once. That''s more than enough. I can understand the pain she''s been through. When she stared at me, I could feel her love and affection for me." "After all, I''m her blood," Zamura spoke. "But at the same time, she''s unable to suppress her hatred. Me being around her only hurts her. So, the most I can hope is slowly bridge the gap and eradicate the hatred. It doesn''t matter how long it takes. As both of us possess Spiritual Incarnations, time¡­is on our side." "That is true. They say time heals many things. Over time, her affection for you would triumph her hatred." Krune nodded. The two of them then stared at the horizon for a good amount of time before Krune said, "Then again, I wish she consulted with me beforehand about giving you a new name. You might not know this, but I''m an expert at coming up with names. Back in the day¡­" "Even my father has a better naming sense than you." Zamura laughed as he replied. "And, that''s something of a record in itself." "As if." Krune shook his head. "My naming skills aren''t something you can comprehend. Ask Feifei if you don''t believe me. She knows how good my skills are." "You can really lie through your teeth." Zamura laughed, suddenly turning around as he looked at the Black Demons, pointing at Hwait as he beckoned for it to come closer with his index finger. "So, what are the lot of you doing here? I never knew Black Demons worked together." Upon seeing Zamura talk to it all of a sudden, Hwait flinched instinctively. The scene of Zamura casually splitting the sky was still evident in its mind. It quickly changed its tone, saying in a manner that showed the fun it was having. "We were in the midst of raiding the labyrinth Lady Feifei had created for us." "Labyrinth?" Zamura was surprised, becoming interested as he asked for Hwait to tell him more about it. Hwait then said the decade-long trial they had to go through and the possible rewards they were promised to achieve. "Passive abilities¡­and even active abilities." Krune frowned, thinking as he laughed, "It seems Feifei has become tremendously strong once again." "So, the plan is for the Black Demons to become subservient to Feifei and then rely on her help to leave Layer 2. Is that it?" Zamura looked at the group of Black Demons that were beginning to crowd around them. Normally, Krune would have been afraid of facing such a force. After all, he could at most face against two Black Demons. And even that would depend on their abilities. But now that he had Zamura on his side, he had nothing to worry about. Zamura''s abilities weren''t completely restricted by the laws of the Sub-Realm. After all, the reason was because he possessed a Law in its purest form in his body. In other words, it was a product related to a God¡ªa God Realm stage cultivator. Using that, he could simply remove the restrictions placed on his body and erupt with his full power as a cultivator. In a mortal world setting, he could easily shatter entire worlds with the tap of his finger. So, with someone like that on his side, Krune didn''t care about the number of Black Demons that had or would arrive. Now that they were unthreatened, Krune and Zamura joked around jovially. Krune then looked at Hwait and told it, "Hazak has a tablet. Ask it for more information." Hwait nodded in response. "Thank you." But, right as it was about to leave, Zamura looked at it, saying, "Wait a moment." "What''s wrong?" Krune asked in surprise, seeing that Zamura had resolved himself. "I have decided," Zamura said. "I plan to establish a sect after leaving the Sub-Realm. Each of us has a method of body cultivation. Once we return to the God Realm, we''ll combine our strengths and work on them some more. Besides, instead of joining other sects and fighting for resources within, we can establish our own Sect." "Plus, I believe each of us has at least one method to obtain a certain type of resource," Cultivator spoke. "Indeed." Krune nodded as he told Zamura, "I have an ability to collect Godly Energy from different places. I have also incorporated teleportation formations and energy gathering formations into my Spiritual Incarnation. So, it''ll help our sect with all its energy needs." "Besides..." Krune laughed as he continued, "I can create Water Essences and also Development Essences that would constantly increase our body density. Once we create some body tempering methods, our efficiency would further increase." As the God Realm was the final stop of cultivation, it meant that they would stay here for a significant amount of time. After all, even for a talented person, breaking through the stages in the upper ranks of the Semi-God Realm and above took too much time. So, that meant the sect they would create would remain for long, a permanent identity that they would carry with them for as long as they lived in the Four Realms. As the two conversed, exchanging ideas, they became excited.. "Adding the body cultivation method into the mix, our sect disciples would become peerless among their peers." Chapter 1073 - Three Reasons To Establish A Sect "Each of us is good at gathering a certain type of resource. With my clones, the energy we can obtain is tremendous. It should be enough for the initial expenditure," Krune could not help but tell Zamura. "As for the location of the sect, I have a great place in mind." "Oh, go ahead." Zamura was curious, wondering which place made Krune this excited. "Once we cross the Zamuria Continent through the blocked path, there was a massive stretch of water. When I explored it before, I was unable to see any other landmass for thousands of kilometers," Krune started to explain, slightly excited. "The energy there is more or less the same as everywhere else, but this much free space is great, right? Especially since any place with any bit of resource is already occupied by people of power." "And best of all..." Krune chuckled as he continued, "If you have to arrive there from the Zamuria Continent, you have to pass through a certain place that would corrupt your mind and turn you into a wish granting creature. I fear that you won''t be immune to it even after turning into a Primal God. The stronger you are, the greater the power of wishes would corrupt your mind." "Moreover, this corruption is permanent. Once the people there create a statue of you, no matter what you do, their prayers would reach you and corrupt you eventually. Even if you commit suicide, you''ll only reset the corruption. Once you revive, the corruption would begin to latch onto you once again. So, if you don''t wish to become prey to it, you''ll have to commit suicide and revive constantly." Krune laughed. "If you are strong, you won''t be able to revive easily since the requirement for it is just too much." "This is a natural barrier preventing any entry," Krune said. "And of course, I have a method to get by. I already placed my Land Incarnation in the waters beyond it. Once we return, I''ll make a clone grow there and create a teleportation formation. With that, we''ll all move there." "As for the landmass to base our sect on, I have an interesting material to use. I got it from Layer 4." Krune then talked about the material he used to make Pestlor, causing Zamura to nod with interest. After listening to it, Zamura said, "I''ll use my Law to restrict its growth to a certain extent and cause it to float in the air. This way, we''ll have an air of elegance to our sect." "I''ll ask Feifei to convince your mother to become part of the sect as well. It seems they had established a good rapport between them. So, there is a chance," Krune said, watching Zamura nod with a hopeful expression. "This way, even if you avoid her to prevent her from being hurt, you''ll also have a chance to eventually negate her hatred. He then thought about something, asking Zamura, "Now that I think about it, why are you suddenly interested in establishing a sect? I thought you were the type of guy to roam the world freely without any worries." "Actually, there is a realistic reason and a benefit in creating a sect." Zamura explained, "Of course, the first is to have a safe haven where we can establish our Land Incarnation and revive in the future upon death. With many people in the sect, the Land Incarnations would remain undamaged. We can also prepare enough resources to revive faster. The sect members would guarantee the protection of the resources." "We''ll run into numerous dangers in the future. So, it''s for the best to have such a contingency measure," Zamura continued. "The second thing is to prepare for tribulations. Becoming an immortal is tremendously difficult. Nevertheless, breakthroughs are dependent on the individual. So, having a sect isn''t necessary for that too much. All we need is a safe place to consolidate our realm after a successful breakthrough." He then double-tapped his glabella, summoning his tablet as he added, "This tablet was created using the soil containing Tribulation Lightning. So, if we breakthrough from one place numerous times, then the land in the place would contain traces of Tribulation Lightning. I don''t need to tell you the advantages it would give us in the future, right?" "Yes." Krune nodded as he said in response, "Even though we can''t gain any comprehension of Tribulation Lightning, we can temper our flesh using the high concentration of Tribulation Laws in the place. This would ease our breakthroughs in the future." "Indeed, this reason is the second advantage of establishing a sect." Zamura took in a deep breath before continuing to explain, "And then, we have the third, most important reason to establish a sect." "And, that is?" Krune asked, curious. "Progression on the path of cultivation gets slower the higher you climb up. When we are immortals, a single increase in a minor realm may even take us decades to centuries. If we simply cultivate blindly, we''ll hit our limits sooner or later." Zamura laughed as he said that. "But in a sect, we can observe the sect members when bored, take in disciples for fun, invent new stuff and give a headache for others. Basically, we''ll never be bored and can cultivate without stagnating." "All of them make perfect sense." Krune nodded in realization. "No wonder people establish sects all over." "Well yeah," Zamura said in response. "There''s also the need for resources to cultivate. With more people under us, we can simply give them missions to gather the materials we need. This way, we don''t need to personally roam around the world for every single material we need." He then looked at Hwait and asked it, "What will you Black Demons do? You can join my sect." "Our intention had been to follow Lady Feifei," Hwait answered. "Most of the Black Demons have this thought." "Will Feifei join our sect?" Zamura asked Krune. "Of course, she will," Krune laughed as he replied. "We plan to settle down and live together for some time. For all our lives, we have been moving from one place to another. In recent times in the Sub-Realm, this has been plaguing us a lot. We no longer wish to live apart from one another." "It''s time we lived together and reunited with our family." Chapter 1074 - The One With OP Uncles And Aunts "Aunt Seamstress, I''ve finally arrived!" Followed by a powerful bellow, a man flickered into existence. "Idiot! I told you to remain below. It''s not safe here!" Seamstress shouted, lightly smacking Solare on the head. "You should have come up a bit later." "What really happened?" Solare was confused as he asked her. "I came up because I already grew to my limit there. Even my active ability has reached the peak of its development now. And...I was getting kind of lonely there." "Fine," Seamstress sighed as she listened to his words. "I guess there''s no use chiding you anymore since you''ve already arrived." "Then, what do I do now?" Solare asked, looking around in curiosity. "Well, for the time being, swallow this," Seamstress told him, feeding him a tiny sphere. "In Layer 2, we grow by increasing our body density. The one I fed you will grant you a kilogram of weight daily. I have condensed enough in it for you to reach the peak of Tier 6." "That''s amazing," Solare said in response, not aware of just how amazing the thing he had swallowed was. Like usual, he had a chirpy attitude about things, accompanying the Seamstress as they left the city. "I wanted to roam around the city," Solare pouted, unwilling to leave so abruptly. From a single glance, he noticed many things here that weren''t present in Layer 3. So, he wished to explore them further. "Had you arrived a bit later, then it would have been possible. Sadly, the situation is a bit different now," the Seamstress said. "Something happened farther from here that we need to check." The moment they reached the end of the battlefield, the Seamstress summoned her Great Dipper. The two of them boarded it as the Great Dipper flashed through the sky, heading straight towards the source of the power that had caused the sky to crack. She had an idea as to who might have caused it, the one individual she had known of beforehand, someone that always never conformed to logic. Even she was curious as to how he had achieved it since all of them had regressed in strength to mere mortals. Soon, she approached the source area, flinching once upon gazing at the more than a hundred Black Demons silently standing in the place. She then observed Krune and Zamura standing in the center, shouting, "Cultivator! Were you the one that cracked the sky?" "The Seamstress?" Zamura was surprised for a moment as he laughed in response. "Yeah, I did that. Is that the reason you arrived here?" "Uncle!" Solare noticed Krune, shouting at the top of his lungs as he jumped on the ground, rushing towards him. "Have you been well?" "Were you bored of Layer 3 already?" Krune was surprised to see him here. "Weren''t a lot of things happening there?" "Yeah, so many things happened every day that it seemed like a constant festival," Solare replied, scratching his cheek a bit as he laughed awkwardly. "But I was starting to miss the two of you. So, I came up. Thankfully, you haven''t left yet." "We were planning to leave soon enough." Krune laughed as he heard that. "You''ll need at least a decade to gain all the strength you can from here." "Well, I already gave him what he needed," the Seamstress laughed as she replied, retracting her Great Dipper. "He''ll be gaining a kilogram until he reaches the peak of Tier 6. There won''t be any problems as long as we leave after a couple of days." "Well, aren''t you lucky?" Krune patted Solare''s back, noticing something as he remarked, "Even though you''ve just arrived from Layer 3, you''re quite strong already." "Of course." Solare laughed as he told them, "A week ago, I defeated Gehen in battle. I''m the strongest in Layer 3." "You defeated Gehen?" Krune and the Seamstress exclaimed simultaneously in surprise. "How?" Even though defeating Gehen for their current selves was easy, had they been at Layer 3, they wouldn''t have been able to. They had witnessed Gehen''s strength personally and were aware of just how strong he was. Over time, he would only grow stronger. But it made no sense as to how Solare was able to defeat such an individual. "Well, I spammed long-range attacks on Gehen while recovering my expended energy constantly. I forced him to defend passively while ensuring the gap between us never reduced. Had I been forced into close combat, it would have been hard to defeat him, but yeah, it wasn''t too hard," Solare flashed a thumbs-up as he explained. ''Right, this guy was awarded two cheats by the Sub-Realm. Of course, it allowed him to recover his energy constantly while spamming attacks. I wonder what other abilities he had obtained right now.'' Krune thought, patting Solare as he told him, "Well, now that you''re here, I''ll train you further." "Yay!" Solare was overjoyed when the Seamstress patted him, adding a bit more strength than usual as she glared at him. "Didn''t you say you''ll train with me first? I have better abilities than him." "Hmph!" Krune snorted, condensing an ice sculpture of Solare beside him. "Your skill and control over an ability matter the most. I am undefeated in that. If she can teach you ten things, I can teach you eleven." "I can train you better." "I was called the training god in the past." As the two people closed in on him, Solare began to sweat, recalling similar incidents that happened in the past. As they competed against one another, they fed him passive abilities in the past, many times at that. It was to the extent except for the two passive abilities he was born with, the remaining three changed almost every month. There was no entertainment in the Secondary Landmass where they worked to the bone daily, nonstop. During their fun time, they played with Solare. To the two workaholics that had nothing else to do while resting, he was their pastime. Just as he worried about how to evade them, he looked at Zamura, noticing the other party''s aloof gaze, recalling his appearance from a picture Krune had drawn while bored, shouting, "Are you Uncle Cultivator?" "Uncle Cultivator?" Zamura was surprised, taking a glance at Krune for a moment as he replied, "No, I''m called Zamura. And, I''m no uncle." "Just call me brother Zamura." Zamura laughed, pointing at Krune and the Seamstress. "I''m young, unlike these two oldies. See how much white hair they have. Obviously, they''re too old." "But uncle¡­" Solare pointed at Zamura as he could not help but say in response, "Your hair is completely grey." "¡­" Chapter 1075 - United Collaboration "Fine, I''ll join the sect," Zamuria said, gazing at Feifei as she spoke after a sigh. "Might as well try something new." "I thought you would need a lot more convincing to join." Feifei was surprised at how quickly Zamuria accepted the invitation. She had assumed she would need to offer lengthy explanations about the benefits of joining this sect in comparison to returning to the Zamuria Empire. "Well, there''s the fact that my siblings are somewhat toxic," Zamuria lamented. "Also, when I return, I''ll be forced to give everything I have to the eldest sibling." "How can that be possible? Aren''t your abilities yours?" Feifei was confused when she heard that. "Spiritual Incarnation!" Zamuria replied. "The eldest sibling has a special Spiritual Incarnation that was modeled after the Spirit Aberrant. So, if he devours my Spiritual Incarnation, he''ll gain my body cultivation method and all my passive and active abilities." "The Spirit Aberrant¡­" Feifei frowned, knowing very well of the ancient and terrifying race. It was said that they were capable of devouring people and absorbing all laws they had comprehended. It was a cheat they had been born with, allowing them to quickly master every law they came across. With that, they were a terrifying race. Unfortunately, they were only able to exhibit their true power while in demon beast form. In their human forms, they were weak, weaker than the weakest of races since they were unable to exhibit even the least of their talent. Moreover, in demon beast form, they lost their sanity. There was also the fact that once they returned to their demon beast form, they were never able to revert to their human forms due to having lost their sanity. Once they used their demon beast form, they became attached to the land, turning into a Land Aberrant. They were such an infamous race that the mighty Spiritual Incarnations were named after them. That''s how the terms Land Incarnation and Heavenly Incarnation came to be, named after the Land Aberrants and Heavenly Aberrants. "That''s a troublesome Spiritual Incarnation." Feifei expressed her worry as she asked her, "So, once he does that, wouldn''t you die?" "No," Zamuria shook her head as she answered. "We''ll set aside a tiny fragment of my Spiritual Incarnation. With it, I''ll revive eventually." "But..." She snorted as she continued, "I don''t like the fact that I have to hand over my hard work on a silver platter to a snob who does nothing but sit on his ass every day. His only accomplishment was creating a troublesome Spiritual Incarnation. Other than that, he hasn''t done anything. Even for the Spiritual Incarnation, he stole the ideas that I had formulated for all my life." "There''s no way in hell am I going to hand him my body cultivation." She said, smiling as she looked at Feifei, "So, I''d rather join the sect. Even though I am named after the continent I was born in, I dislike many things there. Well, it''s more like my ego wants me to be the one to rule others and not be ruled upon." "That''s great then," Feifei nodded in response. "You''ll be an elder of the sect once we expand. Using your active ability, we''ll be able to allow every sect member to embark on the path of body cultivation and obtain passive and active abilities as well." "Indeed," Zamuria nodded in agreement. "Also, I feel like my body cultivation would progress faster when I''m with you guys. Pooling all our abilities together, we''ll be able to grow stronger at a faster rate." Besides..." She sighed. "Whether I hate him or not, he''s still my brat. I already abandoned him once. At least, back then, he had his father to rely upon. But, now that he has no one else to call his family, it won''t be cool of me to abandon him once again. Personally, I really hope to set aside my hatred. Maybe once I see him enough, I''ll be able to gradually accept him." ''So it seems she was also working towards that from the start.'' Feifei thought, saying, "As for the sect members, we''ll see if it''s possible to bring in people from the Godly Path Realm. That''s what Krune and I had thought about." "The Godly Path Realm?" Zamuria asked, curious about it when Feifei told her everything about the Four Realms. "I see." Zamuria nodded as she could not help but say, "Since those below would have spent many centuries to attain our level of power, they have a plethora of experience. Once they join our sect, their experience would shine tremendously, giving rise to stronger people. This way, our sect would grow to greater heights within a couple of decades." "Once we return to the God Realm, I''ll consolidate my powers a bit before attempting a breakthrough to the Semi-God Realm," Zamuria said, condensing a fish that she and Feifei rode to return to the place everyone had gathered at. It had already been a week since Zamuria and Zamura fought. So, when they reached the meeting location, they noticed Krune brewing a tea of sorts while relying on the fish bones to create it. As for everyone, they were just seated in the place. The Black Demons calmly took a sip, double tapped their glabella, grinned like idiots while gazing at their tablets, retracted them, took another sip and repeated the process in a loop. Krune, Zamura, Seamstress, and Solare were seemingly discussing the details they had to incorporate in the sect. Moreover, just in case they needed the use, everyone had hunted the demons and had accumulated a certain level of Godly Points. Now that they were prepared with everything, they were waiting. When Feifei arrived with Zamuria, Krune smiled, realizing that she managed to convince Zamuria. "Shall we get going now?" Krune asked, summoning his Cloud Whale upon seeing Feifei nod. All 108 Black Demons, Hazak, Krune, Feifei, Zamura, Zamuria, Seamstress, and Solare were now present within the Cloud Whale. Albeit with great difficulty due to the weight, the Cloud Whale barely shot up into the air after Hazak and Doit supplemented its flight with their powers of wind. "Let''s head into the water pillar now," Krune said, causing the Cloud Whale to slowly fly towards a city.. Even though running would have been many times faster, he wanted them to go as a group, just for that level of flexing. Chapter 1076 - Onwards To Layer 1 "T-T-T-T-That''s impossible!" a man exclaimed, fainting immediately after staring at the Cloud Whale. he wasn''t alone, for everyone on the battlefield, whether human or demon, was the same. The humans were overwhelmed after staring at the more than a hundred Black Demons seated within the Cloud Whale. Even seeing a Black Demon was a feat of legends. A Black Demon had only appeared along the borders of the battlefield a couple of times in their history. So, one Black Demon alone would have caused the city to go into a state of full alert. But, 109 Black Demons¡ªIncluding Hazak¡ªwas an amount beyond their wildest dreams. It was a number they simply failed to comprehend. So, every human that laid eyes on them fainted immediately after, losing every speck of fighting spirit. As for the demons, they felt the sheer presence being exuded by the Cloud Whale. Thanks to everyone seated within the Cloud Whale, their presence combined into it, being exhibited as one. And since it was the presence of a human, they also failed to comprehend just how such a ridiculously powerful human came into existence, one that surpassed the combined might of all the Black Demons in the world. After all, in their eyes, the human had captured all the Black Demons and was transporting them into the city. All in all, both sides fainted as the Cloud Whale slowly dragged itself over the battlefield, taking flight the moment it entered the city. Krune actually had to break the gates of the city to enter it. No one dared to stop them as the Cloud Whale soon reached the center of the city, crossing over as it flew towards the other side. In there laid another gate. The Cloud Whale blasted it open, sliding above the bridge that appeared beyond. This bridge spanned 100 meters in width and more than 10 kilometers in length. At the end of it was the water column that the Cloud Whale gently entered, beginning to swim towards the center. The water column had a radius of 3000 kilometers. So, there was a considerable distance to travel before they reached their destination. The moment they entered the water, numerous octopuses were startled, noticing the number of Black Demons within the Cloud Whale. They scurried off to report the details to their superiors, soon causing a large crown of octopuses to arrive. Carrying tridents as weapons, they swam through the waters, surrounding the Cloud Whale, but failing to muster enough courage to attack it. After all, they didn''t wish to poke a hole into a nest of absolute monsters. They didn''t wish to do so due to the fact that they were able to sense based on the sheer presence exuded by the Cloud Whale. So, unless their Supreme Elders arrived, they didn''t wish to do anything. And at this moment, the Cloud Whale calmly swam towards the center. Sadly for the octopuses, no matter how long the octopuses waited, their Supreme Elders never arrived. Hearing all their conversations through the Sonic Radar, Krune muttered, "Strange, why haven''t they arrived? They never allowed a demon to set foot within this water column, not to mention a Black Demon. And here we are, carrying more than a hundred of them. why hadn''t they taken action?" The octopuses had the power to trade Godly Points with many special items that they manufactured. Plus, they were also the ones with the power to send them to Layer 1. For that to happen, they had to first reach the center of the water column. Whenever a human visited, they would be carried by the octopuses in a special container towards the center of the water pillar, where they would exchange their Godly Points for one of the five treasures available on the list. Then again, since the Ticket to Layer 1 was only shown as a black line to everyone else born in Layer 2, they only had four items to choose from. "Oh, you mean those octopuses with strength at Tier 6?" Zamura laughed all of a sudden, having heard Krune. "Well, I dispatched them all to the afterlife. The stone dude that gave me my active ability had an interesting story to say. The price for it was to eradicate all the octopuses." "Since I hadn''t promised him anything, I just killed their Supreme Elders and called it a day." Zamura laughed. As he was able to use his real strength, the octopuses weren''t his match. After a long time had passed, the Cloud Whale reached the center of the water pillar as Krune noticed a weary old octopus seated atop a chair of sorts that was half-submerged in water. He dispelled his Cloud Whale, reactivating it a bit below so that everyone could stand on it. As for him, he walked on the water surface calmly, being even more comfortable than while on land, asking the weary old octopus, "We came here to purchase a Ticket to Layer 1." "That''ll be 1000 Godly Points each," the weary old octopus replied. "Is there anything we have to be concerned about? We wish to proceed there as a group." Krune said soon after, asking just in case the mechanic was similar to when he arrived at Layer 2. "Everyone starts from the same position." The weary old octopus replied. "Also, Layer 1 is completely different than anything you could ever imagine. So, there is nothing that can be said. There are zero risks at the place you would appear at. So, you can observe everything first before taking any actions." "Thank you." Krune nodded, gazing at everyone once as he said, "Then, let me head in first." "Lord, please wait." Hazak interrupted him, landing beside him as it said, "If in the case there is some danger, let me deal with them. I''ll go first. I can''t bear to see your life at risk." "I''ll be fine, though¡­" Krune was just about to refute when Hazak refused adamantly, finally beaming in joy when he relented. It then summoned its tablet, spent 1000 Godly Points when its figure vanished. Following it was Krune, Feifei, and everyone else in order. Once everyone left, the weary old octopus chuckled. "This group is interesting. Ever since I created this Sub-Realm, I hadn''t fathomed such a development." "This is so fun!" Chapter 1077 - Is That A…Wisp? "Where¡­is this place?" Hazak was confused upon appearing in Layer 1, noticing that it was standing atop a tiny island situated in the center of a pond. The pond had crystalline water with a mild greenish-blue hue to it. Leaves danced across its surface while the sounds of birds chirping resounded throughout the place. Hazak looked around, seeing a thicket of trees surround the forest on all sides, with the canopy of trees being large enough to blanket out the sky. Each tree was spectacularly large. Hence, their canopy covered the sky atop the pond, preventing Hazak from seeing beyond. It didn''t wish to take action immediately, wishing to wait for the others when suddenly, its heart thumped, causing the sounds to resound in its ears. And over time, the sounds were¡­increasing? "Ack!" Hazak bellowed in pain as it began to sweat while something seemed to be changing in its body, causing unimaginable pain as its skin peeled over as patches of it fell on the ground. Right at this moment, Krune arrived, becoming alert as he noticed the screaming figure of Hazak, shouting, "What happe¡­" He stopped abruptly, noticing the changes happening to Hazak''s body, flabbergasted. It was obvious based on the changes as to what was happening. Hazak was¡­gaining a gender. Every demon on Layer 2 was genderless, lacking any of the body parts to facilitate any mating of sorts. So, even when they roamed around naked, it didn''t feel odd. After all, there was no reason to cover themselves. They didn''t have the emotion of shame inherent in them that only those possessing certain mating organs possessed. And now, Hazak''s face was flushed red as it screamed in pain, experiencing numerous changes in its body. "What happened?" Feifei arrived at this moment, asking Krune in alarm upon seeing Hazak thrashing about in pain to the extent it began to bleed profusely. "Hazak is gaining a gender," Krune replied amidst the confusion, unable to decide what to say about the situation. Suddenly, he was urged by an instinct of sorts, something that he had lost after arriving at the Sub-Realm and turning into a mortal human. "Say, would Hazak be a man or a woman?" But Feifei didn''t answer him, suddenly staring at him in shock, shouting all of a sudden, "Krune! Your body!" "My body?" Krune asked in surprise, just about to look at his hands to see if something had happened, when he noticed that he didn''t have any hands. Rather, his changes felt alarming but familiar all of a sudden. His body naturally hovered in the air, taking on a form that he had taken on when he first saw Feifei. ¡­ Laying down on his hammock made from clouds was the old man from before, calmly observing everything that happened in the Sub-Realm as he sipped on some drink, one that he had personally brewed. Similarly sleeping beside him on other hammocks were four other Gods that were slacking with imposing grandeur. As Gods, slacking off was their favorite pastime. Surprisingly, they waged competitions with fellow Gods on who was capable of slacking off the best once every millennium. Suddenly, the old man that was observing the Sub-Realm trailed over the group that left Layer 2, seeing them at Layer 1, suddenly noticing Krune''s body morphing. "What the fuck?" The old man suddenly spat out all the juice it was drinking, spraying it evenly over the other four Gods, causing them to sit up in disgust, protesting in return. But he didn''t reply to them, screaming as he smacked his head. "I really should have scanned them using my Divine Sense and probed all their secrets. This surprise is too much for my old heart to endure." "Why are you overreacting¡­?" Another God mocked him and calmly focused sight onto the place of observation, exaggeratingly widening his eyes as he exclaimed in shock, "Is that a¡­wisp?" "Is that a wisp?" "Is that a wisp?" "Is that a wisp?" "The lot of you really don''t need to echo the same thing." The old man snapped back. "And besides, this is no laughing matter. A wisp managed to reach the God Realm. This is troubling news." "I''m sure it''ll be fine." Another God lazily replied, "He''s just a fledgling now. Wisps are born defective, unlike True Spirits. They can never become a God. If we actually wish to deal with him, we can do so when he''s at the Primal God Realm." "Have you seriously forgotten about Wally? Do you wish for another wisp to break the balance of the Four Realms?" The old man snapped, saying in hatred, "As a wisp, Wally managed to become a God. What makes you assume there cannot be a second wisp that can do the same?" "Wally was a special case." Suddenly, the voice of a God resounded. The moment they heard it, all the Gods turned silent. It was apparent that there existed a hierarchy even among the Gods. Usually, a God was a manifestation of a Law, having turned into that Law itself. In short, they only represented one Law. However, there was one odd case in history, a God that became the manifestation of two Laws. As to what its second Law was or how it managed to manifest itself into two Laws, even the Gods were unaware. After all, its second Law was something from beyond the Four Realms. It was a mysterious entity whose appearance was unknown even to the Gods. After all, every time it appeared, its appearance differed. Even the Gods were unable to see through it. Suddenly, a ping-pong ball bounced into the layer of clouds, hopping towards them before landing on a hammock that appeared for it, speaking, "This wisp is even more special than Wally. It bears an enormous fate on part with us Gods already. And...that would only grow in the future." "This fella is named Krune." The ping-pong ball emitted mild laughter as it continued to talk. "He''s currently the one favored upon by the Calamity Laws. So¡­" "Let''s just wait it out and observe just what Luvile had brought for us.. Maybe he''s our hope to leave the Four Realms." Chapter 1078 - Chaos And Mayhem "How did you become a wisp?" Feifei was flustered for a moment, realizing full well that Krune wished to hide his identity as a wisp. "Oh shit!" In response, Krune was flabbergasted, not because he had turned into a wisp, but because of an entirely different reason. "Ah shit, here we go again." Faint electric sparks flickered around his body as he could feel some changes in him, noticing that his body was now no different from when he had just started his journey of cultivation. "I have 10 years left to live," Krune lamented. "They say history repeats. But this¡­fuck!" Feifei also realized just what had happened, understanding everything immediately, "Layer 3 gave us active and passive abilities, allowing us to consume our stamina and wield it. Layer 2 increased our body weight, allowing everyone to complete our body cultivation methods. And Layer 1¡­" She frowned, sighing as she continued, "It seems Layer 1 will fuse this into our physique, making it part of us while we cultivate from scratch once again. This way, it''ll be fully integrated into us by the time we head into the God Realm. We won''t experience any rejection from the Laws of the God Realm." After all, body cultivation was entirely new, something that the Laws in the God Realm wouldn''t be happy to accept. So, they have to be tempered into the world and make it accept the newfound laws. And what best way to do that other than through tribulation lightning? As they break through the stages, they''ll trigger the tribulation lightning numerous times. This way, the body cultivation would fully integrate into them. "But wait a minute." Feifei was alarmed as she hurriedly walked towards the edge of the island, gazing at her reflection in the pond, screaming, "I''m still the same. We aren''t young." She turned around, screaming as she pointed at Krune, "You no longer have 10 years. Four¡­at most three years. That''s all you have since you''ve grown a lot older now. You''re an old man!" "Fuck!" Realization hit them out of the blue, causing them to stagger as they began to sweat. As Feifei sensed herself, she noticed that she was at the First Stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, right at the very beginning of one''s cultivation journey. Krune, in his wisp form, was the same as well. So, if they wished to increase their lifespan, they had to reach Foundation Establishment. On top of that, time was even shorter this time. In fact, three years was just an estimate. People in the God Realm lived regular lifespans. Only those at the Semi-God Realm and above were called immortals, those that lived almost infinite lives. But before that, their lifespans were no different from mortals. The moment they appeared at the God Realm and acclimated to it, they became no different. From the day they arrived at the God Realm, more than 50 years had passed. Suppose Krune could be considered to technically be in his twenties at the start, then his God Realm age was in the seventies. So, this meant that he didn''t have much longer to live. And now that he had turned into a wisp that had a natural lifespan of 10 years, taking that into account, it could very well be said that Krune only had a couple of years at most to reach Foundation Establishment and increase his lifespan by ten years. "Wait, I don''t even have any meridians now." Krune groaned, intending to activate Ocean Heart habitually when he realized that he wasn''t able to anymore. To activate Ocean Heart, he had to rely on his heart that contained the passive ability. But in his wisp body, he didn''t have that. So, he couldn''t rely on it to supplement himself. Surprisingly, as he worried about it, Krune laughed, consoling the worried Feifei as he told her, "Hey, it''s not all that bad. Look, I can still use my active ability. It''s something present in the entirety of myself, so I can use it even while I''m a wisp." The Cloud Whale appeared as usual as Krune heaved a sigh in relief. With that, he wasn''t as weak and helpless as his old self. "Ahhh!" Right at this moment, Hazak''s voice increased in pitch as its evolution completed. And right as that happened, Feifei slapped Krune, sending him flying away to prevent him from seeing Hazak naked. After all, Hazak had chosen the feminine gender. "This is too chaotic," Zamura muttered with a wry smile, appearing before Krune as he crouched on the ground, picking up Krune. "You should really stay like this. You''ll make for the perfect pillow. Man, you''re the best toy a child could ask for. If I have an absolutely cute daughter in the future, I''ll gift wrap you to her. That''s what brothers are for, right?" "Screw you!" Krune said in irritation, intending to fly away when Zamura caught hold of him, laughing cheekily as he said, "I haven''t seen a wisp all my life. Why don''t you tell me more of your story?" "Later. I have less than a couple of years to live in my current state," Krune replied in worry. "If I don''t reach the Foundation Establishment Realm within that time, I''ll die. The natural lifespan of wisps is only 10 years." "I''ll ensure you won''t die until I get to hear your entire life story. I''m damn confident that it would be a thrilling experience." Zamura laughed. "You can count me in on that as well." Zamuria arrived, ignoring Zamura as she looked at Krune. "I''m interested in your story as well. Unless I hear it, I won''t allow any harm to befall you." "I''ll protect my lord with every essence of my being." Hazak, now wearing a set of clothes that Feifei and the Seamstress had hurriedly put together for her, replied, bowing in response. "Hey, hey, hey. All of you are talking as if I have become weak. I''m still strong. I can use all my abilities through my active ability." The wisp retorted, flying into the comfortable arms of Feifei as he snuggled cozily, muttering in comfort, "That takes me back!" ''The moment he turned into a wisp, it''s like his old self had returned.. Hopefully, his bloodthirst from when he was a mortal would disappear thanks to this change,'' she thought, silently hoping for it to be the case. Chapter 1079 - Myriad Energies Technique #2 Holding Krune in her arms, Feifei looked around, watching all the Black Demons obtain a gender of their own, with a majority of them turning into females. The fact that the Demon Nest birthed Black Demons nonstop played a factor in deciding their genders. In their instinct, there was a part that wished to produce offspring like the Demon Nest, hence their obtaining of the feminine gender. Krune then hovered in the air, telling everyone, "Let''s be careful and proceed as a group. My Cloud Whale uses the least energy to travel. So, we''ll use it once we cross this forest. Hazak will take the lead while the rest will follow her." Krune then taught the Myriad Energies Technique to everyone, watching their shocked reactions as Godly Meridians formed in their bodies. "The Myriad Energies Technique is the best cultivation technique there is. It also allows us to cultivate the quickest. On top of that, the Godly Meridians it creates is the best type of meridians to exist in the Four Realms." "Thank you, Sir Krune." Hazak shed tears as she gratefully accepted his teachings, closing her eyes to sense her insides as she watched Godly Meridians form in her body. Immediately once it did, the Spiritual Energy in her Demon Core gushed out, beginning to circulate through the meridians. As the Spiritual Energy continued to circulate, she felt slightly stronger, also observing that she was able to use her Spiritual Energy better. Of course, the power output was tremendously lacking. After all, this was no longer Layer 2 with the limitless miasma for them to absorb and spam attacks with the greatest effect. At present, she realized that even after she expended all her Spiritual Energy, her strongest attack using it wouldn''t even scratch her body. After all, her current cultivation was only at the First Stage of Qi Condensation. That wasn''t enough to damage a Black Demon. Carrying Krune, Feifei sat on the Cloud Whale¡ªthat spanned 2 meters¡ªand crossed the pond, landing before the thicket of trees. As the Cloud Whale vanished, she began to walk, following Hazak''s lead. Standing beside Hazak was the Seamstress, using their sensory abilities to keep track of everything. Suddenly, Hazak paused, warning them, "There are some beasts before us." "They''re just animals. We have more than enough food reserves for now, so let''s just ignore them and continue walking." Krune instructed, having already prepared enough Healing Extract for all their food needs. After all, once the threat of the Black Demons had been eradicated, Feifei destroyed the labyrinth, causing all the bone trees to wilt instantly and turn into powder that had nothing special going for it. As for the Monster Geckos, once their blood was sucked in by the bone trees, their flesh was used to produce Healing Extract through Krune''s methods. He also used the chance to produce as many Blood Essence Crystals as possible. Some were potent, while others were too weak to offer any use. Nevertheless, he created them anyway, intending to see if he could use them in Layer 1. At present, every Black Demon was carrying a bag full of the Healing Extract and the Blood Essence Crystals. Krune and Feifei had discussed accordingly and made use of the Monster Gecko army she had created to monetize them. This way, they''ll have enough funds and energy reserves to go about while on Layer 1, being prepared against anything they might have to face next. For everyone, the Blood Essence Crystals were nothing. Each carried around 5000 Blood Essence Crystals of varying potency, not to mention a large can full of the most concentrated Healing Extract. So, all in all, they had zero need to hunt for any animals. Of course, no matter how much they hunt, it wouldn''t be able to satiate their hunger. Moreover, it would be a waste of time. And now that Krune knew he had a time limit, he didn''t wish to waste any time on things, beginning to circulate Spiritual Energy the moment his Godly Meridians finished forming, thinking to himself, ''The Spiritual Energy here is too sparse to cultivate. We''ll have to find major cultivation resources to progress faster. Thankfully, it seems that my energy can be used to supplement Spiritual Energy. That''s reassuring.'' He then said to Feifei, "The both of us have a tremendous reserve of energy in us. Since it''s possible to convert it into Spiritual Energy, let''s set up a haven for cultivation once we understand a bit more about Layer 1." "I had just finished thinking about it as well," Feifei nodded in response as she replied, patting the wisp, reassuring him. "You''ve already done it once. So, I''m sure the second time would be a cakewalk. You''re also not pressed for any energy since we can use the Healing Extract to supplement our energy needs." "Wait, I can''t eat anything," Krune said in alarm. "A wisp can only consume energy since we have an energy body." "You don''t need to worry about it too much," Feifei replied, dripping a droplet of water on Krune, watching his wisp figure absorb it. "It seems you are able to absorb my healing water since it''s a condensation of energy in my Energy Sink." "I''ll replenish your energy every time it gets depleted." Feifei laughed. "There''s faint Spiritual Energy in the air. So, I can constantly absorb it as we move and store them in my Energy Sink." "Besides..." She smirked, pointing at Solare. "He''s able to absorb sunlight and convert it into energy. With him around, we don''t need to ever worry about a lack of energy." "That''s true." Krune laughed in response as their group slowly passed through the thicket of trees, making way as they simply scared away any animal that tried to jump at them, not harming any since there was no reason to do so. Even if they simply stood silently and allowed the animals to attack them nonstop for days, they still wouldn''t suffer any damage. This included Krune as well. Even though he had turned into a wisp, his body still maintained a level of energy density on par with everyone. His current form simply cannot be compared to his old self at all.. Had they tried to harm him, no matter what they did, they would fail to even scratch Krune. Chapter 1080 - It Starts With A Mountain "What¡­is this?" "Is this real?" "Impossible!" "No way is that real?" Everyone stammered upon seeing the scene, standing rooted to their spots in shock from the sheer scale of the thing that laid before them. After traveling for more than four hours, they arrived at the end of the forest, exiting it to see a vast plain before them. Beyond that, spanning hundreds of thousands of kilometers away from the plains, was a mountain. Surprisingly, this mountain was huge. Then again, huge was an understatement. The ends of the mountain base couldn''t be seen as it stretched endlessly. As for the height, it also stretched endlessly, forming what looked like an impossible-to-scale wall in their eyes. It made them seem tiny, insignificant even before the vastness of heaven and earth. With trembling fingers, Feifei double tapped her glabella, summoning her tablet to see the words that appeared on the screen. [Layer 1: An Immortal''s Peak] "An Immortal''s Peak¡­" Feifei muttered the name, looking at the seemingly infinite landmass protruding from the ground far away, taking in its grandeur. "The one that designed this layer is a goddamn genius." "He definitely knows what''s cool." Zamura nodded, sighing as he took in the sights, amazed at the peerless mountain that he set eyes on for the first time in his life. "I won''t become bored of seeing it no matter how many centuries pass by." The group then began to walk towards the mountain, deciding to reach it first. Krune summoned his Cloud Whale, wrapping it around everyone as it took to the air and began to slowly move forward, slowly accelerating as time passed. Once it attained a certain speed, Krune caused it to glide through the air, thereby not expending any energy. The speed also allowed them to take in the sights from the high altitude. Stretching before them was a vast plain before the terrain turned rocky. Eventually, the rocky terrain turned sandy as a gigantic river akin to a sea spanned past. Once they reached that point, they noticed some boats on the river, capturing fish to be transported towards their respective settlements. The Cloud Whale had already turned invisible by now, allowing them to move past without being spotted. Eventually, they spotted a town of sorts that seemed the least developed out of all. The Cloud Whale landed at a discrete location before vanishing. As everyone landed on the ground, Feifei looked at everyone and warned them, "We don''t know for sure if we''ll garner attention due to our appearances. So, Zamuria and I would visit the town first and then gather information. Once enough information has been gathered, we''ll begin our journey to leave this Sub-Realm." Upon seeing everyone nod without any complaints, Feifei gently let go of her hold over Krune, watching him hover in the air, whispering, "Be safe, alright? Don''t get into any trouble." "With so many Black Demons to protect me, I would rather be glad if someone dares provoke us." Krune laughed, dancing in the air a little as he said, "Go on, don''t worry about us." "Alright." Patting him once, Feifei turned around, accompanying Zamuria as she walked towards the town, soon disappearing from their sights. "Well, what shall we do now? Just waiting is boring." Zamura asked, looking around at the Black Demons as he thought of an idea. "Shall we play a game?" "What game?" "Well¡­" Zamura laughed with an expression of interest, beckoning for the Seamstress'' help as he whispered the plan to her, causing her to nod in response, interested with the plan. ¡­ "This¡­is the town?" Feifei frowned, looking at the dilapidated town that had less than a hundred houses. The people at the place didn''t seem all that friendly, shooting glares at the duo that had entered their place. Just based on the looks they received, Feifei realized that this place wasn''t friendly to visitors. Moreover, since the other party wasn''t well off, they had been eyeing the bags the two carried from the beginning. Their gazes were probing the two old ladies of their strength, checking whether their goods could be stolen or not. Feifei and Zamuria looked like women in their early sixties, having gained in age but still maintained a fit body. So, they were looking to see if the two old women were easy targets to steal from or not. "Idiots, the lot of them are blinded idiots." Suddenly, a grumbled voice resounded from one of the houses they had just passed by. When they turned around to look, they noticed a middle-aged woman opening the entrance to her house as she arrived out, gazing at Feifei and Zamuria as she asked then, "Are you travelers?" "Indeed, we are." Feifei nodded, ensuring to ask like she knew what she was up to. This was to never give off the impression that she was clueless about a lot of things. "You can stay at my house. It will cost one Spirit Stone per day. Meals are included." The middle-aged lady told them. "There aren''t many that are friendly towards travelers from outside." "What happened here?" Feifei asked upon entering the house and taking a seat. "Actually, it went like this." The middle-aged lady sighed, offering tea to Feifei and Zamuria as she explained, "A decade ago, this had been a bustling town where many mortals frequented about to harvest resources from the Captchua Forest. Our business primarily involved accommodating the travelers, providing them food and a place to stay. We''ll also provide them information related to their exploration as we receive information from many people." "Thanks to this, our town had turned into a hub for people to rest and gather information. But, everything changed 10 years ago when a certain group of people arrived," She sighed with a forlorn expression as she continued. "They were cultivators. All of them were only at the First Stage of Qi Condensation, but they were quite strong. Moreover, they were a friendly bunch." "They frequently visited the Captchua Forest to hunt for resources and sold them at the city. Thanks to either their luck or skill, they always obtained the best of resources. Soon after, they became close with everyone." The middle-aged lady controlled herself from shedding tears as she dropped a bomb on them.. "Unfortunately, that was when disaster befell our town, reducing it to its current state." Chapter 1081 - A Mysterious Treasure "At the ground level, only mortals and cultivators at the First Stage of Qi Condensation can roam freely. Cultivators at the Second Stage of Qi Condensation and beyond can never descend here. If they do so, they would incite tribulation lightning and be eradicated." The middle-aged lady shed tears as she continued to explain, "This particular group were made up of cultivators at the Seventh Stage of Qi Condensation. In order to obtain a certain treasure that was in the Captchua Forest, they had sealed their cultivation to the First Stage of Qi Condensation." "It seemed they had obtained a certain pill to do so. By using it, they descended the Immortal Peak." The middle-aged lady wiped her tears as she let out a sigh. "The treasure wasn''t something mortals or those at First Stage of Qi Condensation could hope to obtain. So, anyone stronger could never set foot here." "In any case, they made such a plan and used their superior experience to eventually obtain this treasure. But in the end..." She snorted as she continued, "They had underestimated the power of this treasure. Even though they were able to bring it back with them, it caused the effect of their pills to eventually vanish." She said with a solemn tone, "And when this happened, they were smack dab in the middle of our town. The moment their cultivation bases returned to their original levels, heavenly tribulation arrived, killing them and most of the residents in our town." "After that, news of this treasure spread far and wide, causing numerous mortals and cultivators at First Stage of Qi Condensation to arrive and try their luck. But no matter what, they were unable to even grab hold of it." She let out a long sigh before adding on, "The first group had prepared designated tools to grab the treasure. But, all the tools were eradicated by the tribulation lightning. And it seems in the levels of the Immortal Peak where cultivators below the Foundation Establishment Realm could travel, there are no longer such tools anymore." "The one brought by the first group was the one and only tool that was able to touch the treasure. After all, it seemed to be part of an inheritance. That''s how they were able to know of this treasure in the first place." She gazed at Feifei and Zamuria after that, telling them, "After that, numerous groups of cultivators arrived after sealing their cultivation bases. But without any exception, all of them turned to dust the moment they approached the treasure and incited the tribulation lightning once their cultivation bases recovered." "And every single time, our town was devasted more and more. Eventually, people stopped coming here anymore." The middle-aged lady glared at the two as she told them, "All our children, friends, and family were killed by the tribulation lightning. So, we naturally came to despise outsiders. Right now, all we''re doing is to die of old age as this place holds all our precious memories." "Of course, I don''t wish for this to be the case forever." She held Feifei''s hands as she continued, "More people might arrive in the future and destroy our town further. At least, we wish to rest in peace after our deaths. Since the two of you arrived here, please turn around if you don''t have the confidence to pick up that treasure." Everything the middle-aged lady said resounded in her mind as Feifei thought, comprehending all the information she received. ''So, Layer 1 is divided into numerous levels. Based on everything she said, all levels are restricted by cultivation. In a level meant for those at the Fourth Stage of Qi Condensation, only those at the Second, Third, and Fourth Stage of Qi Condensation can roam around. This is the same for every level.'' Feifei then asked, "Since you seem well aware of this treasure''s abilities, why don''t you become stronger and deal with it yourself?" "Unfortunately, it''s impossible for me since I lack the meridians necessary to cultivate Spiritual Energy." The middle-aged lady sighed. "Also, only after setting foot on the Immortal Peak can one begin their cultivation journey. Unfortunately, there''s a formation preventing us from heading there naturally." "Then¡­" Feifei frowned, watching the middle-aged lady speak further. "There are gates installed in the formation. But each gate only gives out thirty tokens every year. So, the competition to obtain the tokens create a bloodbath every single year. Even the toughest of fighters may die since the competition is becoming getting more and more fierce every year." The middle-aged lady shook her head. Eventually, she sighed, asking while making eye contact with Feifei, "So, what will you do? Have you really come here for the treasure?" "Let me take a look at it first." Feifei replied, asking in return, "Is it in the center of the town?" "It has been there all this goddamn time." The middle-aged lady grunted in irritation. She was then surprised when Feifei and Zamuria got up and exited the house, shouting, "Wait, what about my Spirit Stone?" "We''ll pay in kind." Feifei waved in return as her and Zamuria''s figures flashed, disappearing from view. They quickly arrived at the center of the town, noticing the place was charred completely as even setting foot on the soil caused them to feel like they were being electrocuted. Situated in the center of the mess was a lone needle, gently hovering in the air. It spanned ten centimeters in length, barely a finger''s width. Feifei carefully approached it, thinking as she muttered, "Will this treasure remove the restriction placed on us?" "We can only see if it is possible." Zamuria nodded as the two of them cautiously arrived before the treasure, frowning when nothing happened. Thinking that it might take some time, they waited in place for half a day, sighing when nothing happened. Feifei then inched her hand cautiously, gently touching the treasure when she noticed her hand passing through it. Surprised, she flailed around, saying, "I can''t touch it." "Let me try," Zamuria said soon after, snorting when she too was unable to touch it. She even used her Neon Radiance to condense a claw to touch the needle, watching it pass through the treasure as if it didn''t exist. "What the heck is this treasure?" Zamuria groaned. ''I haven''t seen something like this all my life..'' Feifei frowned. Chapter 1082 - Layer 1 Isn’t Dangerous Enough "It seems like picking this up is impossible," Feifei muttered, giving up in the end as she said to Zamuria, "Let''s explore further and gather the necessary information." "We might as well do that," Zamuria replied as the two of them ran out of town, speeding towards the next location. The middle-aged lady that had talked with them barely caught up, only seeing the figures of the two old ladies disappear from her vision once again. She muttered in shock, "Just¡­who were they? That''s not something those at the Qi Condensation Realm could ever achieve." Within an hour, Feifei and Zamuria arrived at a city. They took this long because they were only jogging casually. Had they sprinted at their full speed, they would have reached faster. However, that would also mean the shockwaves they unleashed due to their speed would damage all the surroundings along the path they traversed. Since they didn''t want to do that, they restricted themselves. After all, the shockwaves produced when they moved at full speed was more than enough to destroy towns. Feifei and Zamuria soon arrived at the town, nimbly skipping the walls as they arrived at a street within. Considering the speed at which they moved, none of the residents spotted them. After all, the people in the city were mostly mortals and some cultivators at the First Stage of Qi Condensation. "Let''s split up and gather here when night sets in," Feifei said as the two of them split ways. They had no fear in doing so. After all, it would only be a surprise if there existed anyone that was able to even scratch their skins. Feifei had been through all the cultivation stages, so she was aware of the power each stage was capable of exhibiting, ''A Core Formation Realm cultivator would be able to injure me. But, that''s only in the case I stand perfectly still and tank all the attacks. If I move and use my current abilities, then no Core Formation Realm cultivator is my match. Adding on my cultivation at that realm¡­'' She shook her head, laughing, "This is unlike what I went through in Layer 3. That was the highest in terms of difficulty. Even though Layer 2 was equally dangerous, there were just demons. So, with a lack of variety in danger, I was able to adapt easily." Her figure flashed through the streets as she appeared on the rooftop of a house, hiding as she observed the conversation held by the people roaming on the street below. Just a casual glance allowed her to glean a lot of information. Since she was already privy to the various cultivation realms and everything else necessary to cultivate, she was easily able to understand the gist of things. ''There are some differences in cultivating here and back in the Mortal Realm. However, there should be no problems in adapting.'' She then flashed through the street, causing faint gales that caused the people to look around in confusion. Her figure appeared in a cloth shop and stole a certain gown that contained a mysterious vibe to it. She then roamed through the place, soon arriving at a large mansion as she entered it stealthily. Skipping through the courtyard, she listened in on the conversation happening inside, smiling as she thought to herself, ''Krune really has interesting thoughts. His experience in Layer 3 made him more cunning. Then again, I like this aspect since you need that to survive in this treacherous world.'' "The Old Master cannot live on for long." A feminine voice sighed. "I fear this would spark a lot of trouble for this household." "If only the Old Master wasn''t poisoned while fighting for the Spiritual Mark." "Alas, even though we managed to obtain the Spiritual Mark, the Old Master is too ill to use it. Once he dies, everyone would wage war to obtain it." Soon, the voices died down as Feifei observed that there wasn''t anyone else in the room. She calmly entered it, noticing an almost withered old man staring at her, as if having expected it all along. Feifei was partly surprised that he was able to sense her. Even though she hadn''t been hiding, there didn''t exist any techniques to perceive others beyond the natural five senses. "Have you come to kill me for my Spiritual Mark?" The old man gasped while speaking with a lot of effort. "If I said that I haven''t come for it, would you believe me?" Feifei responded calmly, grabbing a chair as she sat on it. Though surprisingly, she didn''t actually press her butt on it. That would just break the chair into pieces. All she did was position herself, making it seem as if she had sat on it. "Do I have a choice?" The old man sighed as he lamented, "I''ve seen many people, but it''s my first time seeing someone as old as you still maintaining battle strength in her prime. That''s the feeling I''m getting from you." "Well, I''ve gotten quite old recently." Feifei sighed, seeing her appearance in a nearby mirror, noticing the wrinkles on her face that had been increasing recently. She then looked at the old man and asked him, "Boy, do you wish to trade?" "Boy? Trade?" The old man was surprised by her choice of terms as he burst out laughing. "Interesting, that''s the first time someone dared address I, Old Peun, in such a manner." "Well, you''re just seventy years old, after all." Feifei laughed. "Compared to me, you are just a boy." "Fine, I am interested in what you have to offer." Old Peun replied, looking at Feifei with interest. "I just need someone to talk with over tea." Feifei smiled. "And in return, I''ll heal you back to full health." "Impossible, the poison plaguing me is something even the best doctors of the region failed to cure," he retorted vehemently. As Old Peun looked at her in shock, Feifei calmly grabbed a glass from a corner and filled it with her healing water, giving it to him while saying, "Why don''t you test it for yourself?" "I''m sure your horizons would be broadened after this." Chapter 1083 - Spiritual Mark "T-This¡­!" Old Peun was flabbergasted as he could feel strength returning to his body. All his wounds started to heal up while the poison in his body was being flushed out through one of his wounds. By the time he finished downing the glass, he was completely cured. Moreover, he could feel his cultivation stirring up a little as it was on the verge of entering the Second Stage of Qi Condensation. Competition was heavy while resources were scarce. So, increasing one''s cultivation was difficult. However, the prime reason was the fact that not many wished to climb up the Immortal Peak. After all, while on the ground, The First Stage of Qi Condensation was the level of cultivation one could possess. This meant that the powerhouses of the ground level were only of this level. So, it allowed them to accumulate more power and influence and live a life of content. After all, most of the cultivators led short lives. In search of resources and treasures, they fought life and death battles. So, most of them, including the so-called geniuses, failed to live past thirty years of age. As to how many were able to achieve longevity, it couldn''t be said. Nevertheless, everyone knew that the number was so few or barely amounted to anything. That''s why those that felt their talents weren''t sufficient to embark on a journey filled with death remained on the ground level, leading comfortable lives. After all, old Peun was in his seventies now. Even though he had experienced his fair share of hardships, he was able to live a long life of wealth and comfort. Moreover, he had established a prominent family to take care of himself in his old age. So, if he said he regretted not embarking on the journey of cultivation on the Immortal Peak, he would be lying. Moreover, after obtaining a Spiritual Mark, he could be considered one of the powerhouses of the ground level, one that was stronger than the usual cultivators at the First Stage of Qi Condensation. "Let me serve you some tea." Old Peun said as he exited his room, shocking everyone in the household as they flurried towards him, making numerous inquiries. However, he simply smiled in response, attributing everything to his Spiritual Mark. He then set up a private room where it was impossible for anyone to spy on them, brewing some tea as he personally served Feifei. "How shall I address you, Lady Cultivator?" "Just call me Feifei," she replied, taking a sip of the tea as she inhaled its gentle aroma, liking the taste as she felt slightly clear-headed upon drinking it. With that, she remarked, "Great tea." "Thank you." Old Peun seemed pleased by her remark as he said, "I spent a fortune to gather their tea leaves. Haplelita tea leaves are hard to come across on the ground level. Even though the ground level is incomparably vast, it''s still hard to find them. After all, there is a limit as to how far we can travel with our strengths." "I heard there was a certain secluded location on the Immortal Peak where Haplelita leaves grew in great abundance," Feifei calmly bullshitted. Since the Immortal Peak was incomparably vast, it would make sense for there to be a location as such. Heck, anything and everything might be available. As long as she was vague about it, she could probe for more information, which was precisely her intention. "Indeed, there is." Old Peun sighed as he replied, "But it''s guarded by demon beasts. So, harvesting them is too difficult for the average cultivator. The reward isn''t worth the risk, so not many dares to harvest them." "I was also curious about something." Feifei arrived at the point of interest. "Since you possess a Spiritual Mark, shouldn''t your cultivation journey be easier? With the level restriction, you almost won''t ever face difficulty." "There is a point in your statement, but..." Old Peun sighed. "I only obtained my Spiritual Mark recently and was bedridden from the poison that I was inflicted during the fight to obtain it. Plus, I''m already too old to head up the Immortal Peak now." "I was hoping to obtain a Spiritual Mark as well. So, can you tell me more about them? Sadly, it seems like my knowledge is inferior to yours." Feifei laughed freely, pouring more tea for herself. "I was probing through the place to find someone interesting to talk with over tea. And word of mouth on the street is that you''re by far the most informed person in this city, if not this entire region." "Haha, they''re damn right about that." Old Peun laughed, clearly pleased by the flattery. Feifei had a plethora of experience, knowing very well to strike the perfect chord to please the other party. Old Peun had lost his wife a couple decades ago to an illness. After that, he didn''t have any female peers to converse freely with. And, based on what he observed, Feifei was the same age as him. So, he treated her as an old-time friend of his that had visited after many decades to share their life experience with one another. This was clearly what Feifei had directed from the start. Also, considering how she healed him first and only asked to talk with him, Old Peun had a great impression of her. Laughing, Old Peun explained, "Spiritual Marks are basically Spirit Abilities. But, there are a couple of significant differences that increase their value." Taking a sip of his Haplelita tea, he continued, "Most Spirit Abilities are pretty simple; fireball, water shield, earth wall, etc. The greater the complexities of Spirit Abilities, the longer they require to charge up. In a battle where life and death are decided in a matter of seconds, we cannot use any strong Spirit Abilities due to their complexities." "And there are the Spiritual Marks," Old Peun said with a beaming smile. "A Spiritual Mark is a complex Spirit Ability that a cultivator needs at least a minute or more to prepare. Only such Spirit Abilities are qualified to be called a Spiritual Mark. Using a Spiritual Mark, you can unleash the respective complex technique instantly.. All you need to do is pour in your Spiritual Energy, and voila." Chapter 1084 - Old Peun "That''s impressive." Feifei nodded, immediately understanding the benefits of a Spiritual Mark. "That''s not all." Old Peun smirked as he continued, "A Spiritual Mark also acts as a reservoir of Spiritual Energy. It can store enough Spiritual Energy to activate it once. So, this means we carry it with us a trump card that can save us or change the tide of battles." "A Spiritual Mark only has one ability each. And from what I have collected, a person can only possess one Spiritual Mark," Old Peun said solemnly. "After all, once obtained, a Spiritual Mark becomes imprinted on your soul. It can neither be inherited nor transferred. Plus, it would be carried with you even when your soul enters the reincarnation cycle. That''s why they have a tremendous value." "Amazing!" Feifei smacked in wonder. This meant that even if she were to die, she''d possess her Spiritual Mark in her soul and would be able to use it after reincarnation. And if she were to obtain a Spiritual Mark that stored all her memories, it would mean that she had basically conquered death. After all, even though having a Spiritual Incarnation made her a perennial, unable to be killed easily, as long as her opponent pursued her relentlessly and destroyed all her Land Incarnations, she would die eventually. But with this Spiritual Mark, she would reincarnate in a new body while possessing all her memories. Even though she would have to start from scratch once again, thanks to possessing all the memories of her past life, she would be able to grow stronger at a faster pace and seek revenge in the future. After all, since she would be an entirely new individual, her enemies would never know what hit them. But she didn''t know if such a Spiritual Mark existed. It was just a hopeful wish of her due to the chaos she would be subjected to once she returned to the God Realm. She then thought, asking, "Where and how do I obtain a Spiritual Mark?" "A Spiritual Mark is tremendously precious and rare. In this entire city, I am the only one to have this. And from the information I had collected, in the hundred plus cities situated in this region, there are only three with a Spiritual Mark. All of us had been lucky to obtain it while venturing through the Alacatra Ruins." "Alacatra Ruins?" Feifei asked in confusion. "Yes," Old Peun nodded. "It is a mysterious place located 20,000 kilometers to the west of this city. Thankfully, the Gargantuan River is a straight line passing nearby the Alacatra Ruins. That''s how I was able to make it back here despite my perilous condition." "After all, heading there is difficult since we have to head upstream. But returning is simple since it''s just a voyage downstream." He continued, "Alacatra Ruins in the only place where one can obtain a Spiritual Mark. However, that''s easier said than done. After all, strength is irrelevant there. Every year, millions of people, both mortals and cultivators, head there. Nevertheless, they all die. At most, one of them might survive. But even that is rare." "Then again..." Old Peun sighed. "Anyone with a hint of ambition would head there first. After all, with a Spiritual Mark, your life would be many times easier on the Immortal Peak." "Is there a certain time when the Alacatra Ruins opens up? Or does it operate with different standards?" Feifei asked. "Different," Old Peun shuddered. "The moment a million people converge before it, a path to enter it opens up. And, the moment another million gather, it opens up once again. So, it''s only dependent on the number of people." "I see." Feifei nodded, asking, "Do you know anything interesting about the Immortal Peak?" "Of course." Old Peun laughed as he patted his chest, glad to converse so freely after many decades. "The competition to enter the Immortal Peak is tremendous. After all, each gate only hands out thirty tokens a year. But if you don''t wish to fight for it, you can simply head towards the Immortal Staircase. All you are tested upon there is your willpower." "There are 1000 steps in total there. If you manage to reach the peak, even if you don''t have any Spiritual Roots, you would be granted a set of meridians by the heavens and also a cultivation technique suitable for you." Old Peun laughed as he continued, "Even cultivators that are privy to the information take that path just to obtain a cultivation technique suitable to them." "Though, there''s a catch here," Old Peun said in all seriousness. "It only works if you hadn''t stepped foot on the Immortal Peak before. Otherwise, you''ll simply be teleported to a random location on the Immortal Peak the moment you set foot on the first step." "It seems the Heavenly Dao itself personally creates the cultivation techniques there. So, if you hadn''t entered the Immortal Peak before, you shouldn''t miss this chance." Old Peun then realized that he was talking to an old woman that might very well have entered the Immortal Peak before. Otherwise, it wouldn''t explain the healing technique she had displayed. So, he changed his tone. "The Immortal Staircase is one of the closely guarded secrets. So, please don''t divulge it to anyone. Only tell it to a person you judge worthy of handling this information." "I''ll keep that in mind," Feifei replied, beginning to talk about a lot of things as they conversed for a couple of hours. Eventually, upon seeing that it was already evening, she sighed, getting up as she placed a tiny pill on the table, "I had fun talking with you. Take this pill. You can either eat it or can give it to your descendants. When consumed, your body would grow stronger with the passing of every day. Your body weight would reach 200 kilograms, giving you tremendous power." "Anyone who consumes it would become stronger than their peers," Feifei said, waving her hands as she intended to leave. "This is a show of my gratitude for listening to this old lady speak for so long." "The Alacatra Ruins are tremendously dangerous. Once entered, you will only exit it after finding a Spiritual Mark. Otherwise, you''ll either die or be trapped in it until you die of old age, hunger, or starvation." Old Peun shouted a bit, thinking of something as he said, "Please wait." He then took out his ring and gave it to Feifei. "This is my storage ring that I had obtained during my younger days after going through a lot of peril. It has no use to the current me. If you are planning to explore the Alacatra Ruins, this would prove more useful to you. And besides, contained within it is a scroll detailing my experience there." "I didn''t want my experience to die with me, so I wrote it while on my deathbed.." Old Peun waved his hand as he told her, "I hope you succeed, friend." Chapter 1085 - Split Up And Reach The Peak "There''s a lot of information I found out," Feifei said after seeing Zamuria. "I didn''t have much luck with the rest, but I managed to find some information about the treasure in that town," Zamuria said in response. "There are some mysterious treasures in other places as well. I obtained a list of them all." "That''s great." Feifei laughed as they exchanged information after arriving at a secluded location beyond the city. Once she learned of all the information related to the needle treasure, Feifei nodded in satisfaction. "I see, so only tools related to pure Spiritual Energy are capable of touching this treasure. The tools used by that group had been created using Spirit Stones and refined naturally for a millennium. Only after that did it attain the necessary purity to touch it." ''We don''t have such tools with us, but we have Krune.'' Feifei laughed. "Let''s return first and then work up a plan." "Alright." Zamuria nodded as the two of them sprinted towards their camp, noticing a jovial atmosphere as everyone seemed to be playing a game of¡­tag? "What¡­is happening?" Feifei frowned, glaring at a certain silly wisp that was laughing boisterously as he swerved between one pillar to another while exclaiming at the top of his voice, "I am¡­speed!" Upon seeing the arrival of Feifei and Zamuria, Krune stopped, chuckling a little as he curbed his excitement, trying his best to appear prim and proper as he flew towards Feifei, asking, "How did it go?" "What were the lot of you doing here?" Feifei asked in return. "We were playing tag," Krune said with a laugh. "But in this tag, all of us would work together to catch the culprit. And, if this culprit manages to evade for three minutes, it''s their win. And, we can run anywhere within this field the Seamstress had created. It''s both fun and helps train our agility and dynamic perception." Krune then boasted, "None of these people managed to touch me once. The total time I evaded them has already reached two hours." "Let''s see if you can still maintain your record once I join the mix," Feifei snickered menacingly, knowing Krune like the back of her hand, knowing his bias very well. She was confident of catching him easily, even though his wisp form granted him superior agility and dexterity. "We''ll play games later," Zamuria interjected, beckoning for everyone to gather around as she began to inform them of everything they had discovered. Eventually, she concluded, "Spiritual Marks would help us tremendously once we leave the God Realm. We can abuse them to obtain techniques that we otherwise are incapable of using. As for the treasures lying around the ground level, we''ll split up into teams to gather them. And finally, by ascending through the Immortal Staircase, we would obtain cultivation techniques that are perfectly suited to us." "Everything contains their respective risks. Whether you wish to take them or not depends entirely on you. The list of treasures I obtained only mentions six treasures. There might be more of them out there." She continued, looking at the Black Demons, "But, I''ll have you all know that you don''t have an infinite lifespan now. Maybe if you lived in a region filled with miasma, it might be the same. Without the Demon Nest, you won''t have an unending supply of miasma." The Demon Nest was a special entity that absorbed the essence of the world and produced miasma. Without it, the only other way to produce miasma was for the Black Demons to consume food and generate it. However, the quantity they could produce this way was limited by the amount of food they could procure. It was a pain in the neck process since food didn''t grow in excess and was an exhaustible resource. Feifei took the chance to address everyone, "To make things faster, split yourself into smaller groups, no less than three. Not all of us have the freedom of time on our hands. So, once we complete our objective, we would begin proceeding through the Immortal Peak." She then announced, "We''ll all either meet at the peak or in the God Realm. Krune and I would be speeding through the things here, so we''ll be reaching it the earliest. We''ll establish a way for all of us to arrive at the same place in God Realm." She then arrived before Krune, saying, "Let''s get going." She then looked at Zamuria and told her, "We''ll meet at the peak. Let''s race to see who reaches it first, haha." "Interesting." Zamuria grinned. "Don''t come crying to me if I reach it a decade before you." "Surely you jest," Feifei retorted. "I''ll become a wrinkled old granny while waiting for you at the peak." After some banter, Zamuria hugged Feifei, saying, "I''ll be waiting for you." "Same here." Feifei nodded. "I''m glad to have met you." Standing on the side, Krune and Zamura looked at each other awkwardly as they asked in unison, "Do we really have to hug each other?" "Nope!" After a couple of seconds, Zamura said, "Well, if I have a daughter, I''ll gift you as a plushie to her. I feel like that would be the best gift to give a child. A plushie that can protect her from any harm." "I can just send in a clone for that. So, it''s not troublesome." Krune then asked with curiosity, "You''ve already mentioned it a couple of times now. You don''t even have a girlfriend. A daughter is way beyond you for the time being." "Well¡­" Zamura mildly scratched his cheek as faint green radiance wrapped around them, preventing the topic of their discussion from being heard by others as he said, "I just realized that I have the hots on the Seamstress." "She even has grandchildren, though," Krune retorted immediately, "It won''t be possible. Forget about her." "Are you even my friend?" Zamura snorted in response, retorting in return, "She does have grandchildren. But, she doesn''t have a husband. Her husband died young while protecting her from evil. That''s one of the principal reasons she goes around vanquishing evil." "Indeed, it is like that¡­" Krune nodded in realization. "Right, that''s what she had mentioned once. But still, are you okay with this? She already has someone in her heart." "Well, it would be for the best if you can convince my heart otherwise." Zamura laughed. "But, it seems to have decided already. Oh well, what else can I do?" "I have a feeling that you seem to prefer uphill battles." Krune spoke, suddenly noticing Zamura blush a little as he cursed in disgust, "Man, don''t show me that face! Throw it away!" Chapter 1086 - Soul Needle Treasure Everyone split up into many groups of their choice, soon dispersing from the place as they headed in their direction of choice. Krune looked at a crying Hazak, saying, "Go, broaden your horizons. That would help you the greatest. My race has by far one of the lowest lifespans. So, I have to cultivate faster. I''ll wait for you at the top." "Yes." Hazak sniffed, wiping her tears as she was unable to refute his instructions. She was then consoled by Hwait as the two of them accompanied Grotak, Doit, and Leat, forming a team of five as they went in one direction. The Seamstress, Zamuria, Solare, and Zamura formed a team and headed in the direction of their choice, tailing after one of the treasures that caught their fancy. After everyone left, Krune sighed in relief, snuggling with Feifei. "Finally, some personal family time!" As Feifei hugged him tightly in their embrace, Krune said with a tone full of emotion, "Did you miss me?" Right as Feifei was about to reply, he continued, "How did you survive so long without sex? You sure you didn''t go mad?" "¡­" "Tee-hee!" The figure of a certain wisp could be seen flailing around in the forest that day as a scene of carnage ensued forth. The screams were so loud that anyone that had thought of traveling in this direction redirected themselves, shuddering at the pitch of the wailing. A certain rounded figure was used as a soccer ball and kicked everywhere a certain pissed character wished to kick at. Eventually, any cartographer that passed by would have to scratch their heads, for the map had to be changed a lot. Slinging over a certain wisp on her back, Feifei sauntered into the dilapidated town, waving her hand as she noticed the middle-aged lady from before. "I''ve come to deal with your problem." "How did you come from here?" The middle-aged lady was shocked as she watched Feifei, looking in the other direction to gaze at the path that she had taken before. Unable to come to terms with it, she couldn''t help but inquire, "Just who are you?" "Haha, I''m just your everyday humble cultivator," Feifei replied, soon arriving at the center of town as she nudged at Krune. "Hey, come on. Don''t sulk too much." "¡­" Krune turned the other way, remaining silent. "Lookie here, a treasure," Feifei said, gently poking Krune as she gazed at him, staring at him until he was unable to endure any longer. "Ugh, fine, fine. I won''t sulk anymore." Krune groaned as he danced in the air once, turning around to see the treasure as he was shocked. "What the heck is this?" "Are you able to feel anything different from it?" Feifei asked. "No, but..." Krune said with a frown, "I am getting a familiar feeling from it. Like it was made for me, or rather my kind." Krune then slowly floated before the needle treasure, gently touching it with his body when he shuddered, as if he was being electrocuted, suddenly feeling immense pain. "Ahhhhh!" A couple of seconds later, his screams stopped as Krune was able to feel something different in him. When he noticed, he was able to sense the needle present in his Wisp Core, as if it had become a part of it. Then, with a thought, it manifested beside him, hovering alongside him as Krune said, "I don''t exactly understand myself. But, it seems this treasure has been bound to me from now on. This is unlike any equipment I have seen. Or rather, this is a¡­" "Growth-type equipment?" "And not just that..." Krune frowned as he continued, "Even if it gets destroyed, I would be able to condense it once again like it''s just a part of my ability. Seriously, just what is this treasure?" Suddenly, the needle treasure trembled before spinning in the air, stopping after a second as it pointed in a certain direction. Krune and Feifei made eye contact as they disappeared from the location. The middle-aged lady stared agape at the scene, unable to make heads or tails of the situation. "That treasure that caused so much misfortune to the town is gone¡­just like that?" Leaving the town, the duo arrived at a remote location twenty kilometers away from it. Krune stopped as he observed the needle shivering faintly while pointing at a certain location in the ground. It was a spot situated underneath a boulder. "I feel like it''s showing me something." "Let''s check." Feifei nodded as she pushed the boulder away, failing to notice anything different in the spot the boulder had been before. Krune then summoned his Cloud Whale, causing it to unleash its air needle to drill a hole into the ground. Soon, they bored deep into the ground, reaching a depth of ten meters before coming across a metal chest. Feifei brought it up and opened it, revealing the chest filled with Rank One Spirit Stones. She then looked at Krune, noticing the needle beside him pointing at the chest. "So, it was pointing at this chest?" Krune thought for a moment, saying, "I think this treasure works like a compass and points towards treasures. I feel like the level of treasure it can point towards is related to my cultivation base. The higher it is, the greater the quality of treasure it can point towards." "What an interesting ability." Krune laughed, watching Feifei place all the Rank One Spirit Stones in her storage ring, shocked as he asked, "How do you have a storage ring?" "A friend of mine gifted it to me." Feifei smirked, saying, "Don''t stop. See if it can point towards other treasures." "Sure." Krune had just replied when he felt tired all of a sudden. The Spiritual Energy in his body turned a bit sluggish as he sensed the changes, observing for some time before saying, "It seems there''s a cost to use this treasure. I cannot use it consecutively." "Nevertheless, it''s an incredible treasure." Feifei nodded. "With it, we can obtain a lot of treasures. Let''s first tabulate the information related to it and see how long it takes before you can use it once again." "That''s for the best," Krune replied. "I''m anticipating what other surprises this Soul Needle has in store for me." "Soul Needle?" Feifei sighed. "You really never miss a chance to name stuff, don''t you?" "Of course, that''s one of my greatest joys in life." Chapter 1087 - How To Become Rich Quickly? "It''s showing again!" Krune shouted excitedly, jumping around in the air as his wisp form spun around Feifei''s head, almost causing her vision to spin as her sight was focused on him. Currently, they were seated within the Cloud Whale, traveling upstream the Gargantuan River that resembled a sea due to how wide it was. It was faster traveling atop the Cloud Whale as they could easily minimize the time it took for them to travel. After all, no ship or boat was capable of traveling as fast. It had been three days since they began their journey. All this time, every time Krune had enough energy to use his Soul Needle, he did exactly that, watching it point excitedly. Without any suspense, the husband and wife traveled in the pointed direction, digging up treasures. Most of them were Rank One Spirit Stones. However, there were also some pills, secret manuals, weapons, etc. Basically, anything that had been lost or buried in history was dug up by them, profiting tremendously. After all, by the end of the first day, Feifei had run out of space in her storage ring, causing her to exclaim, "With the Soul Needle, we never need to work ever again. Just digging up treasures is more than enough." "You''re right about that. This is such a cheat." Krune laughed, clearly excited about being able to move in his natural form freely. Moreover, remaining as a human permanently in Layer 2 and 3 had been constricting. After all, they had affected his mind a lot, causing him to think like a human and feel human emotions. That wasn''t his core self. Therefore, now that he had returned to his wisp form, Krune felt like he had been liberated. That''s why he was chirpy, feeling like the murkiness of human emotions was slowly being shed from him. He was gradually returning to his natural self, his regular state of mind. The insides of the Cloud Whale were now filled with numerous bags containing the treasures they had looted. Nevertheless, even though they had a tremendous pile of resources now, they couldn''t cultivate. After all, the ground level was only for mortals and cultivators at the First Stage of Qi Condensation. They were already at that stage. Considering their talents, they would reach the Second Stage of Qi Condensation naturally. So, they had to restrict themselves until they obtained a Spiritual Mark. Considering how it was touted to be powerful, the two of them were definitely interested. Moreover, just the fact that they could grow even stronger excited them. After Feifei told Krune of her circumstances, they decided to become as strong as possible before returning to the God Realm. And in the future, when Feifei''s enemies discovered her and arrived to attack her, they would be prepared. Since the Spiritual Mark allowed them to possess a trump card, they placed a high priority on it. As the Cloud Whale flew atop the Gargantuan River, they came across a port city five days later. It was a massive city that was the hub of commerce. Situated on the Gargantuan River and positioned as the final stop before the Alacatra Ruins, it was tremendously popular. After all, everyone that wished to visit the Alacatra Ruins arrived at this city even once, just to probe for information or buy any treasures that might help protect their lives. As for Krune and Feifei, they swiftly arrived at the city and browsed through some of the most expensive shops. However, upon seeing that the Soul Needle didn''t react, they judged that the treasures at the place weren''t anything spectacular. So, all they did was use their wealth to buy a house and dump all their useless treasures there. After all, it wasn''t possible to just carry them all with them. Anything of value was already stored in Feifei''s storage ring. The rest were just baggage. "Maybe if there is someone lucky, they''ll stumble upon all these goods," Krune casually muttered as he and Feifei boarded the Cloud Whale, speeding towards the Alacatra Ruins. Along the way, he relied on the Rank One Spirit Stones to replenish his energy expenditure. A month after they had begun their journey, the Cloud Whale arrived atop a vast plateau that was surrounded by a mountain range on all sides, blocking it from view. Unsurprisingly, the area spanned by this mountain range was enormous, ranging in the dozens of thousands of kilometers. "There''s the entrance." Feifei pointed at a small opening near the mountain range, noticing the crowd of people that had been gathered below in surprise. "There''s at least twenty to thirty million here. What the heck is this?" "It seems the allure of the Spiritual Mark is greater than we had thought. Due to this crowd, the entrance probably never even closed for a long time." Krune sighed. "The competition is going to be harsh. I hope everything your friend said works." "That''s the problem." Feifei frowned, clutching a scroll in her hands, "Even if everything works the same, we still have no other choice but to face it head-on." "Right, this is truly troublesome," Krune sighed as he replied. During their journey, they had read through the scroll containing Old Peun''s experiences numerous times. And in the end, all they could conclude was one thing¡­ It didn''t mean much! The Alacatra Ruins was basically a death zone where mortals and cultivators had to survive death one after another. Every form of death one could encounter was present here. On top of that, the fields of death they would encounter were random. So, Old Peun''s experiences didn''t give them any advantages. "Then again, just the fact that the ruins would be trying to kill us using every method in the book is helpful," Krune concluded. "At least, we can prepare our minds accordingly and head in knowing very well of what to expect." "I am just afraid of one thing," Feifei sighed. "Strength is irrelevant there. So, I don''t wish for you to plunge yourself needlessly in danger. Even without a Spiritual Mark, you''re already tremendously powerful, Krune." "Being vulnerable is the essence of being a wisp.." Krune laughed as he told her, "Besides, I think it would be a learning experience to return to my roots once again." Chapter 1088 - Returning To One’s Roots Having deactivated the Cloud Whale, Krune and Feifei joined the crowd, inciting numerous stares their way. After all, demon beasts were rare among them. In the Mortal Realm, demon beasts with intelligence on par with humans were rare, almost none. Only after a certain stage in cultivation did they obtain sufficient intelligence. Moreover, Krune''s wisp form was unique, something none of the humans in the place had ever seen. So, they were curious. One of the people among the crowd, a girl in her early teens curiously extended her hand, intending to touch Krune when Feifei blocked her, glaring in return. "You should respect one''s privacy." "I¡­just wanted to touch it." The girl pouted, turning around as she walked away, unable to endure Feifei''s glare. She instinctively realized that getting on the bad side of Feifei spelled doom. Even though Feifei had retracted her presence, just her mere glare was enough to suffocate most, causing the crowd around her to slightly part ways, creating a clearance where she and Krune were alone. Snorting, she didn''t mind it, calmly walking forward as she noticed the opening in the mountain range come closer and closer. The entrance barely spanned three meters in width. It wasn''t much for the crowd of people that constantly streamed in. After all, they had to crowd in through the narrow entrance and enter the Alacatra Ruins. Feifei tried to probe inside the ruins, but noticed that a faint veil of mist blocked her from seeing through. The case was the same for even her detection methods. Left with no other choice, she could only proceed forward slowly, grudgingly moving at a snail''s pace. "At this rate, it might take us a couple of weeks just to enter it." She then looked at Krune, realizing that both of them had the same opinion. Smirking, their figures disappeared. Suddenly, an intense gust of winds was created in the plateau as the people were alarmed, hurriedly protecting themselves. And before anyone noticed, a certain bulky man that was closer to the entrance vanished, having been transported by Feifei. And, replacing him was Feifei, carrying Krune in her arms. As for the man that had been transported away, he looked around in alarm, shouting, "What the heck? How did I end up here?" He then ran towards the entrance in a fluster, being blocked by the people standing before him as they shouted, "Damn you, don''t cut the line!" "If you''re that impatient to die, we don''t mind sending you to your death early!" Hearing the string of abuses, the man had no other choice but to control himself, staring at the entrance that was almost 7-8 kilometers away, almost tearing up. "But, I had been waiting for a month to reach there." ''Most, if not all of you, would die anyway. I''m helping you prolong your life.'' Feifei made a blatant excuse for her action, watching the entrance come closer and closer. Her heart thumped in trepidation as she looked at Krune. "Be safe." "You too," Krune replied as they entered through the layer of mist. ¡­ "Dammit, where the hell am I?" Krune groaned the moment he regained consciousness, looking around to see he was within a chamber of sorts whose walls were adorned by a mysterious mural depicting a scene of carnage. It seemed to be like a humanoid lion of sorts that had been caged, eating what seemed to be another lion. The second mural showed the lion that devoured its brethren being freed from the cage, allowed to walk freely after that. The moment he made a sweeping glance of the place, Krune shuddered, knowing just what the concept of the place was. Death Battle! ''Dammit, just as Old Peun had written, my strength has vanished.'' Krune grunted, realizing that he had returned to his state as a regular wisp. He didn''t have his active or passive abilities to use. He also didn''t have his Mental Energy to use. Of course, he couldn''t use Spiritual Energy whatsoever. But right as he had thought so, Krune felt the Soul Needle still present in his Wisp Core. ''Why is it still here?'' As he thought about it, he recalled the feeling he obtained from it at the start. ''It did feel odd that this treasure integrated itself into my Wisp Core. Now, it seems that it has very well become a functioning part of my being.'' His present state was no different from when he was born, only possessing the bare minimum energy that formed the functional makeup of his body. He didn''t even have a level of cultivation, fully suppressed to his mortal self. However, contrary to what was normal, the Soul Needle had integrated into himself to such an extent that it was as if he had been born with it. That''s how it still remained with him. "I had prepared myself to return to my roots. But still, this feeling of helplessness is something I hate." Sighing, Krune looked around, quickly hiding behind a pillar in the corner. His tiny body allowed him to hide in safety as he noticed another figure spawn in the chamber. It was a human man, spanning a height of seven feet, possessing a hulking physique. The moment he appeared, he was startled to find that his cultivation had vanished. Fortunately for the man, his equipment remained with him, allowing him to eventually regain his composure. In regular intervals, more and more people arrived in the chamber, causing it to become noisy soon enough. Eventually, when twelve people, including Krune, were present in the chamber, a mechanical voice resounded through the place. "First mission." The voice was cold and unfeeling but contained a mysterious authority to it that prevented people from disobeying it. "In the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, kill everyone." "The survivor will obtain the qualifications to proceed towards the second stage." The moment the voice finished talking, the mural on one side morphed, sporting the inscription of an incense stick that was burning. And as time passed, the incense was being burned more and more as its length continued to decrease. The people in the chamber looked at each other warily as they noticed the scene depicted in the murals. It was unknown as to who started it, but within a couple of seconds, everyone brandished their weapons. Chapter 1089 - Using Sweat As A Weapon "Great Heaven, Sword-Wielding Mysterious Slash!" A middle-aged man bellowed at the top of his voice, making it seem like he was condensing a tremendous amount of power when he dodged an attack and punched the attacker. "Damn troll! Die!" The youth that had been punched in the face spat out blood, cursing himself for falling into the trap. He then reminded himself that no one was able to use Spiritual Energy here as he lunged in with a thrust of his spear. Suddenly, he was alarmed when his spear pierced through the neck of the man that had punched him, staring agape when he noticed a blade peeking out of the other party''s chest. Using the chaos to her advantage, a lady that seemed to be in her early twenties pierced her weapon through the middle-aged man''s back. Her weapon was a needle laded with poison that she used to poke her enemies with. However, it seemed that she had been lucky to plunge it into the middle-aged man''s back while avoiding his bones, causing the needle to peek from the other side. She hurriedly somersaulted backward, throwing out another needle towards the youth, causing him to barely evade it. This way, she prevented him from using the chance to close in on her. In order to not be swept under the pace of his enemies, the youth hurriedly retreated towards the wall, facing his back towards it while targeting anyone that approached closer. As for the young lady, she used the chaos to her advantage, nicking the unprotected skins of anyone she came across, acting as if she had failed to pierce them. This prevented them from detecting that she had laced her weapon with poison. Moreover, her poison was a mild-acting one. It wasn''t potent. All it did was cause the victim to become severely fatigued. In such a battle where everyone expended as much of their energy to stay alive, it wouldn''t be surprising when they quickly ran out of juice. After all, it was a known fact that people expended too much energy when in a tense situation. In a life and death battle where there could only be one survivor, it was apparent that everyone was tense to a fair extent. This caused her poison to work its magic without anyone learning about it. As for the middle-aged man that she had stabbed through, he wasn''t dead yet. He hurriedly backtracked, slumping on the wall as he tried his best to patch up his wound. Unfortunately, his lung had been pierced, so he was having a difficult time even breathing properly. In any case, he attributed his exhaustion to his wound and blood loss. All along, Krune acted as if he was a decoration of the place, hiding behind a pillar while positioning himself closer to the ceiling. He took advantage of the fact that he had arrived first in the chamber to scout it, taking up position in a place where it seemed as if he was just an ornate decoration to a mural. As Feifei had arrived before the entrance all of a sudden, no one managed to see his figure under the gales. Anyone that had indeed seen him was positioned far away from the entrance. It would take them at least a week or two to enter the Alacatra Ruins. This was another reason Feifei cut the line. It was to give Krune some advantage. After all, he was currently in his most vulnerable state. If people were aware of his existence prior to their entry, then they would be prepared against him. As almost everyone entering the Alacatra Ruins were humans, demon beasts were rare. Plus, they were usually large creatures that stood out from the rest. Subtle energy figures like Krune were probably never seen by others before. So, she had hoped for him to maintain as much of an element of surprise as he could. Unsurprisingly, it had worked with stellar results. Krune calmly watched the ongoing battle while acting as a wall decoration, noticing the number of killed enemies slowly pile up one after another. Eventually, only two of them were left¡ªthe youth and the young lady. "Haha, I knew you would survive." The young lady smirked. "Even though you''re young, your skills are great. Once you regained your composure, you were able to remain uninjured until now." "I could say the same about you." The youth frowned, gripping his spear tightly as he glared at the young woman. "Your poison is sneaky." "Well¡­" The young woman was just about to taunt the other party when the youth suddenly kicked a weapon that had been on the ground, causing it to fly towards her. In her alarm, the young woman bent backward, watching the weapon fly above her, hurriedly rolling to the sides as her senses screamed in alarm. The youth''s spear barely missed her as she continued to roll on the ground, slapping the floor as she used the rebound to get up. "You!" The young woman was suddenly scared when she noticed the spearhead approaching her face, intending to impale her when she raised her hand in guard, making a diagonal contact with the spear tip as she diverted the momentum, causing it to miss her. She knew very well that she wouldn''t last long if she defended against the brunt of the youth''s attacks. So, she used her superior experiences to deflect his attacks. The youth attacked nonstop, forcing the young woman into a passive, riddling her with surface wounds when suddenly, intense exhaustion set inside him, causing him to stumble backward in shock. "Y-You¡­?" "It finally kicked in." The young woman smirked as she increased the distance between them. "Our clan consumes a special herb since birth to faintly modify our constitution. The poison I use is just my sweat." "S-sweat?" The youth grunted in exhaustion, kneeling on the ground as he glared at her and yelled out, "That is cheating!" "As I''ve been running around nonstop, my sweat has evaporated and covered this chamber to a mild extent.. Since you''ve been breathing nonstop during your flurry of attacks, you''ve inhaled enough for its effect to finally kick in." Chapter 1090 - Maze Runner "D-damn it! I won''t die here, not when I haven''t achieved anything yet!" The youth grumbled, struggling to get up as the young woman calmly maintained distance between themselves, staying well beyond his reach. She then looked at the mural, noticing the inscription of the incense having been almost burned. It showed that time was almost up. ''I have to hurry. There''s a risk of him launching out a last-second attack. In any case, I have no other choice.'' She then pulled out a couple of spikes, throwing them towards the youth, surprised when he exhibited surprising agility to dodge the attacks. "So, you were putting on an act." But rather than be shocked, she smiled, noticing the visible strain the youth was experiencing to move around as he did. She threw another spike, causing the youth to dodge it when she launched forward, quickly grabbing the shaft of his spear. This prevented him from using it as she dodged all of a sudden, evading a slash from the knife he pulled out and kicked his groin. As the youth howled in pain, unable to react for a split second, she plunged the spike through his throat, wedging it deep. "It''s over!" Though, right as she landed the finishing blow on the youth, guarding against any possible retaliation he might mount, her vision suddenly blurred as she noticed that she was unable to speak for a moment. A piercing pain originated from her neck as she turned around, noticing a blue-colored spike piercing through it. The blue-colored spike suddenly vanished as her blood spurted out profusely, causing her to clamp on her neck in an effort to stop the bleeding. Sadly for her, blood still leaked out of the wound, causing her to slump on the floor, gasping for breath as she saw the light in the eyes of the youth die out. "Damn it!" She looked around, noticing a certain bluish entity hurriedly flying behind a pillar, causing her to curse as her vision spun from the blood loss. Eventually, she was unable to hold on, collapsing to the ground as she cursed, "Seriously?" A couple of seconds after she breathed her last, the incense inscription died out as a mechanical voice resounded once again, "Survivors: One. Congratulations for passing the first stage." Krune lost consciousness as his body was teleported from the chamber. A couple of seconds later, a mysterious energy arrived, flashing upon all the corpses as they turned into liquid. The liquid then congregated into one place, merging into a tiny solid sphere after being compressed many times. Soon after, it vanished, causing the chamber to regain its pristine look. After all, even the weapons had been dissolved into that liquid. Ten seconds later, a teenage girl appeared in the place, looking around in confusion as she observed the mural, soon hiding upon understanding just what the place entailed. Soon, after 12 people arrived, the mechanical voice repeated the same as before, causing everyone to fight one another. ¡­ "Where¡­is this?" Krune became alert the moment he regained consciousness, noticing he was surrounded by humans. There were at least a couple thousand in the place, waking up one after another. Some of them had pristine appearances, while most were bloody. The stronger ones had the blood of their enemies covering them while the rest had a mixture of both them and the blood of the foes they had slain on their bodies. Krune''s appearance caught the attention of quite a few of them, causing them to wonder just what type of demon beast he was. However, he didn''t pay heed to their gazes, frowning as he thought, ''My speed has also fallen to how fast I was in the past. I no longer have the speed I have before entering the Alacatra Ruins. At this speed, I''m not faster than the humans. So, I''ll have to be alert to dodge anything that might happen.'' He then observed his surroundings, noticing that they were in what appeared to be a tunnel of sorts, possessing a cuboidal shape that extended out from the front and back with almost no end. During his observations, Krune noticed an old man that was bleeding to death, having sustained grievous injuries in the first trial. In any case, Krune''s attention wasn''t on the man but on the blood that had been spilled on the ground, noticing faint ripples forming on it. ''Ah, shit!'' Right as he had thought and prepared himself mentally, the mechanical voice resounded once again. "Second mission: Reach the end of the maze." Roar! Right as the announcement ended, an intense roar resounded as hundreds of demon beasts charged through the tunnel, aiming for the group of demons. Krune was prepared already, flying straight the moment he heard the announcement, quickly passing through most of the crowd. The humans that were alert also began to sprint immediately, having felt the faint vibrations in the ground all along. Those that failed to react in advance began to run, only to realize the crowd of people before them prevented them from escaping promptly. As the humans forced themselves onto each other to escape, the demon beasts arrived, joining in on the frenzy as a war between the two parties erupted. Some of the demon beasts simply jumped overhead the crowd, using the heads of the people as footholds as they jumped further deep into the group of humans, starting a massacre. Then again, it wasn''t as if the humans went down easily. After all, most, if not all of them, possessed weapons, allowing them to defend against the demon beasts. So, the number of demons beasts that dropped dead was at least twice to even thrice the number of humans that died. As for Krune, he didn''t care about something like that, having been blazing through the tunnel from the start, soon noticing numerous forking paths before him. "So, the maze starts from here." He was just about to enter one of the paths when something hit him from the side, sending him flying towards the ground. "Move away!" It was a woman with a large build, having a brash character as she simply swatted him aside like a fly.. She then turned around, looking at the demon beasts still being a fair distance away from her as she entered one of the paths, quickly proceeding through it. Chapter 1091 - Caution And Disgust "Did a truck just ram into me?" Krune grunted, floating to the air as he reeled from the impact. Thankfully, his Wisp Core wasn''t damaged from it. He then proceeded into the same path the brutish lady from before had entered. He had initially planned to choose this path, so he had zero intentions to avoid it just because of a hiccup at the start. After all, the demon beasts had drawn closer by this time. Krune quickly entered the path, proceeding further by twenty meters when he saw a fork. Having observed the footsteps on the ground, he turned right. Instead of risking himself through the unbeaten path, he might as well ride on the path braved by others. After all, the goal was to reach the other side of the maze. Krune suddenly thought of something as he continued to move. ''Wait, I might get lost anyway. I should at least determine the general direction first.'' Saying so, he summoned the Soul Needle first, watching it spin in the air before pointing in a certain direction. ''Alright, this would be my basis. Since the term used by the voice was the other side of the maze, it means the exit is on the side of the maze forming a straight line, or somewhere along there.'' He determined the angle the pointed Soul Needle made with respect to the maze entrance, serving as the reference point for him to never get lost. He then took the path on the right, following the footsteps as he soon turned left, shrieking immediately when he noticed the brutish lady staring at him, expressing tremendous killing intent. "Oh shit!" However, he suddenly noticed something strange, seeing the brutish lady stare at him without expressing anything else. It was only then did he notice the faint stream of blood streaming from her ears. Upon gazing at her eyes, he noticed that they were empty as if she was already dead. He then peeked past her, noticing a faint trail of blood on the ground that abruptly stopped above a certain patch of grass. Of course, Krune knew very well that something was up with that patch of grass. After all, the blood trail started from there. Plus, the brutish lady seemed dead. "Oh fuck! For heaven''s sake! No!" Krune bellowed in disgust as he retreated alarmingly, noticing a worm drill out of the brutish lady''s bleeding ear. It slithered over her body and landed on the ground, moving towards the patch of grass before plunging into it, disappearing from view. It was a messed up scene, considering the fact that the worm spanned almost four meters in length, alarming Krune''s disgust levels to the extent he retreated even more. Right as the worm entered the patch of grass, its tail end exited the brutish woman, causing her body to tilt before collapsing on the ground, deflating like a balloon that had lost all its air. It was apparent that the worm had a feast in her body. "Disgusting!" Krune was scared. But more than fear, it was his sense of fear that prevented him from moving. He then thought of something, using his Soul Needle to poke into the brutish woman''s eyeball, lifting it as he threw it. The eyeball made an arc and landed beyond the patch of grass, inciting no reaction from it. Thinking for a moment, Krune picked up the second eyeball and threw it, watching it land on the patch of grass. What happened next caused him to escape from the path. The patch of grass opened like the maw of a beast, revealing hundreds of worms within that squirmed ceaselessly. One of them jumped out and gobbled the eyeball before retreating as the patch of grass closed immediately. Had Krune possessed his powers, he would have frozen the hell out of them. But now, he dared not trigger them. After all, even though he could fly, he couldn''t rely upon the advantage too much. After all, the ceilings of the maze were at a height of three meters. That height was well within the range of the worm''s reach. So, he had to be absolutely careful. ''Wait, there''s no guarantee the traps in the other paths aren''t as equally vicious. At least, I already probed through this trap. So, as long as I am careful, I can avoid it.'' Krune returned soon after, pausing for a moment as he summoned his Soul Needle, intending to use it to strike the moment something tried to attack him. He then accelerated through the air, attaining his top speed as he quickly crossed the patch of grass, sighing in relief when nothing happened. ''Thankfully, I have to touch it for it to activate.'' He then used the Soul Needle to pierce the eyeball he had thrown first, carrying it with him, intending to use it to probe for any other traps in the future. At least, the eyeball wasn''t heavy enough. So, he could still carry it without suffering a drop in speed. Soon, he passed through another fork, following the traces of human activity on the ground. The moment he vanished from view, a mysterious energy appeared, dissolving the brutish lady, condensing her into a tiny crystal before vanishing with it. Unaware of what happened after he left the scene, Krune continued to make numerous turns, evading any and every trap he encountered. Thankfully, there were enough people that constantly streamed into the maze. So, there was never a time when he had to proceed into danger on his own. He patiently awaited and only followed the paths that were tested and tried by others. There were quite a few that managed to obtain a Spiritual Mark. And this was only the second trial. So, Krune knew with guarantee that quite a few would have passed it. That was why all he did was follow the traces left behind by other people. Even though it took time, it was faster than blindly scouring through the entire maze. Moreover, thanks to the Soul Needle, he was aware of the general direction he had to proceed towards, never getting confused through the innumerous twists and turns the mazes had. Thanks to this, he always picked the routes that led him in the general direction of the exit, eventually reaching it. "That¡­is?" Upon reaching the end, he was shocked to see only three people there. "But, there were thousands at the start!" Chapter 1092 - Calveb Dotrite "Oh... that''s not it." Krune sighed in relief, watching the people at the finish disappear one after another as more people streamed in. Based on what he observed, it seemed like three people had to remain at the finish line constantly. So, when the fourth person arrived, the first person was teleported out. ''I almost got a heart¡­core attack.'' Krune sighed, being teleported when it was his turn. When he regained consciousness, he appeared at the edge of a rectangular pond. Two sides of the pond were walled, preventing anyone from going beyond. Based on the mural inscribed there, it seemed that the goal was to reach the other side of the pond while enduring the attacks of the demon beasts that lived in the water. Krune looked behind him, gazing at a forest of trees, thinking, ''I see, the objective is to chop the trees and create a boat using them. After that, we have to set sail using this boat and reach the other side.'' Right at this moment, the mechanical voice resounded, "Mission objective: Reach the other side of the pond." As the voice disappeared, Krune looked at the number of people in the place. ''There''s around 500 people here.'' He then made a mental measurement of the pond, muttering to himself, "A width of four kilometers and a length of fifteen kilometers. That''s quite the distance." "Everyone, please hear me out!" A man in his early thirties shouted, garnering the attention of everyone. He sported a well-ironed robe, one that remained unblemished. The cleanness of one''s clothes was a glaring reflection of their abilities. After all, it meant they were able to clear the previous two trials without suffering in the least. As this man''s clothes were as if he was ready to attend a banquet next, it was apparent that even as a mortal, he was strong, probably the strongest among the lot. Krune hid behind a rock, using his tiny stature to his advantage as he shrunk his ethereal form, observing the crowd. Some of the smarter ones among the crowd realized the strength of the man based on his clothes. As for the rest, they simply hoped to listen as to what this man hoped to say. "The demon beasts in the ocean have long tentacles that they use to tilt any boats. Moreover, they have sharp teeth that allow them to bite through wooden plants," he said, pointing at the forest. "This wood is named Petlopca, a tough material suitable to build boats and boasts the greatest durability." "But..." He pointed at the pond as he continued, "The demon beasts in these waters are called the Kaleptopus. They love to eat materials made from Petlopca wood. So, creating boats with them is suicide." "How do you know this?" Someone in the crowd asked with a frown. "I''m Calveb, a cultivator hailing from the Dotrite Clan. We rear Kaleptopus for the ink they produce. Using our clan''s refining method, the produced ink can be used to create talismans. Petlopca wood is what we feed them to ensure the quality of ink they produce is the highest." "The Dotrite Clan¡­?" Most of those in the crowd were unfamiliar with it. After all, every one of them hailed from faraway places. Plus, there were tens of thousands of clans in the region. So, unless they were a major clan, no one would know. A couple among the crowd said in support, "The Dotrite Clan are indeed renowned for their Talismans." "How do you know this?" One of the people in the crowd asked in suspicion, wondering if the three people were colluding for some objective. "Even though you wouldn''t have heard about the Dotrite Clan, I''m sure you must have known about the Barrier Talismans, right?" The one that spoke in support continued. "Those are created by the Dotrite Clan. If anyone had ever used one of them, then they might''ve seen the double triangles inscribed on them. That''s their clan''s symbol." "Ahh, I''ve seen them." "Right, no wonder it felt like the name was kind of familiar." "So, the Barrier Talismans are made by the Dotrite Clan." "Our Talismans precede our clan''s reputation," Calveb said with a wry smile. "It''s because our clansmen hardly mingle with the outside world apart from selling the Talismans." "So, what plan does young master have to propose?" The crowd slowly accepted his words as the truth. "It''s simple," Calveb replied. "Normally, if you had made boats, you''ll have to struggle against the Kaleptopus and strive to survive through luck. In any case, all we have to do is capture one Kaleptopus now. Once I coat the completed boat using its ink, it would last us long enough to reach the other end. To ensure it isn''t eaten through or pulled into the water, I propose we create a large enough ship for all of us." He then told them of the method to capture a couple of Kaleptopus, setting aside a group to do that while he instructed the rest. "Let''s start building a ship now. Since my clan has used the Petlopca wood for generations, I know the best way to utilize them. Let me direct the process. Does anyone have any objections?" "As long as we can get to the other side safely." Some of the people laughed, beginning to use their weapons to hack and saw the trees. There were around 500 people at the place. With around 100 of them trying to fish the demon beasts in the pond, the remaining 400 people worked on building a ship. And with so many people, and thanks to Calveb''s efficient commands, the work continued to be done at breakneck speeds. As for Krune, he had been in hiding from the start. He was incapable of doing grunt work and hence wouldn''t be included as an ally. Moreover, he was capable of flying. So, traversing the pond wasn''t an issue. The only thing that bothered him was how the demon beasts in the water would react to his presence. If they were faster than him, then he would be destroyed.. With that in mind, Krune planned to wait it out and simply escape while the attention of every demon beast in the pond was on the massive ship with around 500 people. Chapter 1093 - An Abandoned Genius Calveb Dotrite was greater than what he was assumed to be at the start. Thanks to his genius commands, the work of building the ship was quickly done. "This part takes too much time to create. Our only goal is to cross this pond and not sail a sea. So, we only need to make it sturdy enough to last this journey." "The Kaleptopus warn each other using their ink. So, erect spikes on the sides of the ship. This would keep them at bay for long enough." "Simply tying these logs together would be enough. Their buoyancy would be enough as well." Calveb went around instructing everyone, allowing for the work to be completed swiftly. After all, they weren''t building a ship for a long voyage but to cross the pond that spanned a length of 15 kilometers. So, trying to make things take longer was simply a waste of time. Within half a day, they had miraculously put together a ship enough for all five hundred of them to use. A group had already finished applying the ink coating on the sides of the ship, just like Calveb had directed them. "Pull!" Everyone shouted as they pulled the ship into the water, stopping when it was half inside. Once all of them boarded it, they used long logs to push on the ground, causing the ship to enter the water completely. Immediately, the group within the ship rowed the paddles, causing the ship to swiftly gain speed in the waters. The Kaleptopus that actually thought of attacking them hovered a couple of meters away from the ship, silently staring at it while following its motion. As the group saw the scene of thousands of Kaleptopus silently staring at them from within the water, they felt a chill. However, at the same time, expressions of relief also washed over them. After all, the plan was a success as the ship calmly proceeded through the waters. Having witnessed everything, Krune had stealthily boarded the ship, having retracted his ethereal form to the limit, hiding within a tiny crevice. He calmly stared at the figures of the people strutting about on the ship, getting ready for anything that might happen next. Then again, just like Calveb had assured, nothing actually happened as the ship touched the other end of the pond an hour later. Calveb motioned for the respective group to lower the ladders for them to reach the ground, saying, "It''s not like there only exists one Spiritual Mark. Based on what I have inquired from those that had already obtained one, there''s no limit to the number of Spiritual Marks present here." "So, anyone that manages to reach the end would obtain one. However..." Calveb sighed as he continued. "The risk is too great. I dare not claim that anyone among us might even make it alive to the end. So, as long as the trial doesn''t force us to fight one another, try your best to join hands. That way, our chances for survival are the highest." "We''ll keep that in mind." Those that got down on the ground cupped their hands in respect, saying, "If we meet in another trial, we''ll definitely help you, young master Calveb." Soon, their figures vanished one after another. Calveb remained on the ship, making pleasantries with everyone that left the ship. Soon, he was the only one remaining in the place as he sighed, turning around as he muttered, "That was really dangerous." He still remained on the ship, sighing as he continued to mutter, "The moment they leave, they''ll face another trial. Without enough rest, they''re bound to be killed. Thankfully, unless I leave this place, the next batch of people wouldn''t arrive here. Plus, this trial has no time limit. So, it''s the best place for me to rest." "I know everything there is to know about these demon beasts," he laughed, picking up a small container full of ink before using a brush to make small engravings on his skin. "Even though I''m a mortal now, the ink of the Kaleptopus has faint traces of Spiritual Energy. So, if I engrave them in a certain form¡­" "Alright, it''s done." He muttered after some time, closing his eyes. "I can feel my fatigue reducing. Within a couple of hours, I would be completely refreshed." He then picked up a barrel of ink that they had prepared just in case the coating on the ship proved insufficient. That was the motive at the start, but Calveb actually planned to use it for himself. After all, he knew for a fact that the Kaleptopus wouldn''t ever attack thanks to his methods. He then took out a stick made from the Petlopca Wood, one that had been carved to resemble a cylindrical stick with curved ends. Unsurprisingly, he had tasked some of the more gullible people to smoothen it to the limit during the entire time. Thanks to that, they were tremendously smooth now. Calveb smiled, taking out ten such sticks that he had prepared in total, gazing at the ten barrels of ink before him. "This should give me enough preparations." Saying so, he dipped his index finger in ink and made small markings on a stick before gently placing it within the ink, watching it drown into it. He then repeated the same for all ten sticks. "Unfortunately, I could only do this much without making anyone suspicious of me. Nevertheless, this would help me tremendously." He let out a chuckle as he continued, "After all, the clan only gave me half a stick. As I am not from the main family, they simply don''t care if I live or not. But, I won''t give up." He grinned, gazing at the barrels. "Now, I''ll soon have ten sticks. With that, I should be able to protect myself in many trials." He then slept within the formation he had created, getting a pleasant rest while the faint Spiritual Energy within the ink seeped into his body, revitalizing him. In the meantime, all the ink within the barrels began to reduce in quantity mysteriously as they seemed to be getting absorbed into the sticks of Petlopca Wood he had placed within each. Calveb spent a day resting, maintaining a pristine state of body and mind as he grinned, noticing the barrels were now devoid of any ink.. At the bottom of each barrel were the wooden sticks that had now turned jet black. "Perfect!" Chapter 1094 - Talisman Pastel Calveb carefully picked up a stick, inspecting it as he arrived before a section of the ship''s deck, crouching as he made a small diagram, sensing a cool sensation immediately, smirking. "Alright, it works perfectly." "The effect is greater than the Talisman Pastel the Clan gave me." He then snorted as he complained inwardly, "Of course, not only did they only give me half a Talisman Pastel, the quality was also subpar. The talismans I had created during the other trials only functioned at a quarter of their usual efficiency." "They simply want me to die a dog''s death here...but I won''t go down that easily." He let out a snort yet again, carefully storing all ten Talisman Pastels as he grinned. "In every trial, I''ll help as many people as I can. This way, if one of them do end up getting a Spiritual Mark, they would be indebted to me. Only the Clan Leader has the Spiritual Mark. So, this would give me the greatest say of things. I would be able to give my family a greater standing." Talisman Pastel! It was something used to draw Talismans. It was the signature product of the Dotrite Clan, one that allowed them to create Talismans with greater quality than using brushes. After all, the quality of the ink used by the brushes was vastly inferior. After all, a Talisman Pastel had absorbed a barrel''s worth of ink into it, raising the quality of the inscriptions created using it. That was why the Dotrite Clan''s Talismans were greatly popular. Of course, that wasn''t all. Unlike using the traditional mode of ink, they wouldn''t be able to create talismans on the fly. After all, ink would spill and brush strokes would vary in depth when one was on the run or was hiding in uneven terrain. But with a Pastel, it was different. Its only disadvantage was the fact that complex Talismans couldn''t be created using it. Nevertheless, its advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. Just the sheer quality of the Talismans produced using it far surpassed any traditional techniques. "Just in case, I''ll prepare some Talismans." Calveb laughed before pulling out a couple of his tools as he took out some of the extra planks stored in the ship. He had intended to use them for his use. However, making it seem like he was preparing it for emergencies, he made the others do all the necessary work. With that, he now gazed at a plank that spanned 15 centimeters in length and five centimeters in width, being only a centimeter thick. Now, Calveb used the Talisman Pastel he had created to draw an inscription on it. He then spent a couple of hours to finish creating twenty Talismans, muttering as he sighed, noticing he had expended more than half a Talisman Pastel, "Hopefully, they last long enough for me to reach the end." He then noticed the ship was faintly trembling, peeking from the edge to see the Kaleptopuses beginning to attack it. They seemed like they were slowly entering a state of frenzy. "Right, using this method causes them to turn vicious and attack with no concern for their lives for at least a day." "Otherwise, I could have made some more Talisman Pastels." He then shook his head, descending down the ship as he arrived on land. "I shouldn''t be greedy." His figure vanished right after when a blue entity streaked towards his spot, vanishing right after. Suddenly, a mysterious energy arrived at the place to vaporize the ship while calming all the Kaleptopus. Moreover, the Petlopca trees that had been felled by the group of people mysteriously grew back to their full size, eradicating all traces of human-induced damage. Soon, the place looked like it hadn''t been visited by humans. Soon after, another group of 500 people arrived as the same trial repeated. ... Now that it was the fourth time, Krune had prepared himself, calmly waking up after being teleported as he looked around, inspecting his surroundings. ''This is¡­damn!'' He was currently situated atop a rock pillar, one whose base couldn''t even be seen. He looked around, judging that the top of the rock pillar was a circle with a radius of 10 meters. A hundred people stood in this area, making it feel cramped. The mechanical voice resounded at the same time sometime later. "Fourth Mission: Reach the ground before night." "Oh shit!" Krune and many others muttered simultaneously, noticing the surroundings darken bit by bit. So, it was apparent that they didn''t have too much time. ''The difficulty level spiked all of a sudden,'' Krune thought, peeking from the edge of the rock pillar to see that its sides were filled with numerous rock protrusions. As long as one was careful, they would be able to use them to descend quickly. As for Krune, it was even simpler. He waited patiently at the start, watching a man quickly grab the rock protrusions to descend quickly. Upon noticing that there wasn''t any other danger in the trial, Krune flew over, quickly descending through the rock pillar as he reached the ground, feeling tired. "There''s a kilometer?" "How will the others even reach the end on time unless they were expert climbers?" Right as he thought of this, his figure vanished. As the ambient light continued to darken, some of the people managed to reach the end. One of them, a middle-aged man with a robust body grunted as he tried to accelerate as much as he could, finally noticing that there were still twenty more meters to reach the ground, noticing that it had darkened now. "It''s a do-or-die situation now!" He let go of his hold, dropping to the ground as he braced himself for impact before rolling on the ground the moment he touched down. Although he had suffered a couple of fractures, he shouted immediately, "I''m alive!" But after he shouted, his face paled as he gazed at those unfortunate to still remain on the rock pillar as the moment it darkened, numerous serpent-sized worms jutted out of the sides of the rock pillar and clamped on the people, biting and shredding them apart. Unwilling to die like that, some let go of their holds just like the middle-aged man had done.. But unlike him, they were caught by the worms mid-air and feasted on them, causing a stream of blood to fall on the ground when the middle-aged man''s figure vanished. Chapter 1095 - Fear Serpent "This is¡­?" Now, Krune was wholesomely confused as he looked around, finding himself smack dab in the middle of a city. Wherever he looked around, there were people streaming about in large numbers. He also noticed some demon beasts strutting about in their bulky physiques. However, they were too far and few in-between. The mechanical voice resounded once again around the people that arrived at the place. "Fifth Mission: Hunt the three apparitions." The moment no time limit was announced, Krune could feel a collective sigh in relief around his surroundings. In their minds, they thought that it would be fine if they weren''t constricted by time. But surprisingly, Krune only frowned at this. After all, whenever the time limit wasn''t announced, it meant that the mission was too difficult. And as he had expected, it was indeed so. After all, details related to the mission were posted all over the city on large televisions. Krune looked at the information posted on one television. "First apparition: Nightmare Demon Wolf. Physique-wise, they aren''t any different from regular wolves. But, the moment you close in on one, you would fall asleep and be subjected to nightmares. Unless you''re carried to safety by someone else, you would be preyed upon by the Nightmare Demon Wolves that roam in packs. The greater the number of Nightmare Demon Wolves in a pack, the stronger the subjected nightmare." "Second apparition: Fear Serpent. Hunting them is by far the most difficult. After all, the moment you close in on them, you would be subjected to intense fear. Even the bravest among people failed to kill one. The Fear Serpent is the reason hardly anyone managed to clear the fifth trial." ''So, this is where everyone is prevented from proceeding forward.'' Krune frowned, realizing how difficult it was to obtain a Spiritual Mark. After all, Old Peun had gone through more than forty trials before obtaining his Spiritual Mark. And this was just the fifth trial. So, the spike in difficulty was too much. ''Even though the Fear Serpent is dangerous, this is even worse.'' Krune shuddered, fearing the opponent that was relatively easier for others to hunt. "Third apparition: Poison Spectre. Sporting an ethereal form, they can pass through matter, unaffected by most attacks. Upon coming into contact with a living being, the poison of the Poison Spectre corrodes their bodies, eventually turning them into Spectres as well." "This is too dangerous," Krune shuddered as he muttered. After all, based on what he read, it took time for the poison to convert flesh into an ethereal form of the Spectres. However, Krune only had his Wisp Core that emitted some energy to condense his ethereal form. With that, the moment he came into contact, he would instantly turn into a Poison Spectre, a mindless creature that instinctively flew towards any living being. He didn''t wish to become anything like that. Krune hurriedly hid within a crevice nearby while shrinking his ethereal form, listening to a couple of people speak. He immediately judged based on their getup and presence that they were someone who had a lot of experience at the place. Sporting a red hat, the man who was in his late twenties spoke, "It has been three years since we arrived here. We hunted the Nightmare Demon Wolf using traps. Thanks to the Sun Stones we obtained, we managed to kill the Poison Spectres relatively easily as well. But the Fear Serpents¡­" "They live in their colossal den and never exit it. And, their effect of fear pervades even outside their den to a certain extent. But even before setting foot inside, we would be subjected to fear and flee the area." "It just feels like butting heads at a wall." "The Fear Serpents never leave their den. So, we can''t even kill them using traps." "I heard someone is organizing a raid party to hunt the Fear Serpents. Let''s check it out and see what they have planned." "Hopefully, they have a way to pass this place." ''What have they planned?'' Krune was curious as he tailed after the two veterans, soon arriving at the place where a group of people had huddled together. It was in front of an entrance to a massive building, the plaque atop which read, ''Celestial Forge.'' There was a clamor at the place as the people that were barred from entering argued with the guards at the place. Suddenly, the doors opened as a man calmly walked out, causing shouts of surprise to resound from the crowd. "It''s Gangli!" "The executioner, Gangli?" "So, even he joined the Celestial Forge." "Of course, even he is helpless against the Fear Serpent." "I heard he managed to enter the serpent den once, though? Why is he still here?" One of them expressed his confusion. "I have no idea. Something must have happened." "If even the rumored iron-hearted Gangli has failed, then¡­" As the discussions continued to increase in pitch while rumors were circulated, Gangli calmly expressed himself, "Our Celestial Forge plans to conquer the Fear Serpents and clear this round. Also, we''ll be recruiting talented folks into our fold. However, please note that we have limited slots. So, if you wish to become one of us, you''ll have to prove yourselves." "What do you need to test?" One of the people in the crowd, a man with a massive stature surpassing two meters walked forward, hulking Gangli as his shadow covered the other party. "Whatever it is, I, Storvin, would succeed." "It''s simple. Our objective is the Fear Serpents, so we''ll test your mettle accordingly." Gangli flashed a smile as he continued, "I''ve placed some flags at the entrance of the serpent den. There are twelve flags in total, which is the total number of people we would be taking with us. Bring a flag, and you''ll become one of us automatically." "What? Is he for real?" "How can we head there?" "That''s too dangerous!" "That''s all." Gangli laughed, pointing at some people that already begun to head towards the serpent den. "There are indeed talented people among us." Upon seeing such a scene, the rest of the crowd clamored, beginning to head towards the Serpent Den. "Damn it, it''s just the entrance.. I should be able to manage somehow." Chapter 1096 - Making A Trap "May I know how to address you?" While Krune had been staring at the backs of the group that ran in a particular direction, a voice resounded from behind him. Turning around, Krune noticed the person named Gangli standing behind him, sporting a calm smile. The man had lean, if not thin, muscles. He seemed like someone suffering from a mild case of malnutrition. But on a second note, he wasn''t anything like that. In fact, his gaze was sharp like a blade. On top of that, Krune spotted a belt around Gangli''s hip that felt odd at first glance. With careful observation, he noticed that it was actually a whip blade that had been worn as a belt. It was apparent that Gangli wasn''t a simple character. ''Right, this is how cultivators usually are. I shouldn''t think like how I did when I was at the Qi Condensation Realm. The cultivators I faced there were only part of a backwater planet. They weren''t like the cream of the crop that I might encounter here.'' Krune thought before responding, "You can call me Krune." "I am Gangli." Gangli cupped his fists in response before asking, "Are you interested in joining our Celestial Forge?" "I just arrived at this place." Krune refused. "I have yet to kill the other apparitions." "That would be easy. Unlike the Fear Serpents, killing the other two apparitions shouldn''t be that much of a problem. They can be trapped with a bit of patience," Gangli replied. "If not for the Fear Serpents remaining within their den, they too would have been hunted eventually." "Such a situation wouldn''t have come about in the first place," Gangli said. "I have been observing your actions from the moment I walked out. I feel like you would be able to help us a lot." "Let me consider it a bit more," Krune replied, not stating anything with assurance. "We have a month before our scheduled departure. if you change your mind before then, all you need to do is bring a flag," Gangli said before waving his hand. "Even though I made it look simple, at least a couple of flags should remain until the end." ¡­ "This is indeed troubling." Having roamed for a couple of days, Krune was currently hiding beneath a table in a tavern where people frequented. He took the time to collect information, especially about the Poison Spectres. After all, they were what posed him the greatest threat. Though, it seemed like he was the only one to feel this way. After all, the usual person threw a Sun Stone at the Poison Spectre and melted it into dust. Although hard, obtaining a Sun Stone was possible. A Sun Stone was a simple material. It was a piece of gem-like rock that had absorbed the sunlight and trace Spiritual Energy for hundreds of years. They were able to emit mild light and heat during the dark. Their only effective use was against the Poison Spectres. In fact, most times, a Sun Stone could be used to kill at least ten to twenty Poison Spectres. Just throwing it at a Poison Spectre would do the job. So for everyone, Poison Spectres weren''t a threat. Therefore, the topic of conversation always ended up about the Fear Serpents. But for him, dealing with the Poison Spectres was troublesome, especially since he can''t hurl a Sun Stone at them with enough force due to his ethereal form. But even if he managed to, he was still afraid that the resultant poison lingering in the area would corrupt him. After all, based on what he heard, there were occasional gusts of air carrying the poison from the Poison Spectres. And those coming in contact with this would eventually turn into Spectres themselves. This was the prime danger in hunting the Poison Spectres. ''Let me deal with the Nightmare Demon Wolves first,'' Krune thought, intending to think up a plan when he noticed a certain familiar figure enter the tavern. Upon seeing the person, Krune thought of something, hurriedly flying towards the other party. "Hey there." "You¡­are?" The man was surprised to find a strange entity hovering before him. Though, upon gazing at the familiar core present within the center of Krune''s Wisp form, he understood, having seen it a couple of times before. "So we''ve met before." "Well, you could say that," Krune replied, introducing himself. "I''m Krune." "You can call me Calveb." Calveb smiled, habitually extending his hand to offer a handshake when he paused, smiling awkwardly. "Is there anything I can help you with?" "Let''s combine forces and hunt together. I can help scout anything without any trouble," Krune said, mildly dancing in the air. "Alright, I''m fine with that," Calveb said in response, gazing at Krune for a second before smiling. "I''ll help you with the Poison Spectres." "Thanks!" "Shall we set off now?" "Of course." As Krune had already collected all the details, the two of them reached the northern exit of the city and noticed a lack of gates or even the city walls for the matter. After the final row of houses, it directly continued into the open patch of land, beyond which was a valley. The valley was overgrown by trees and served as the habitat of the Nightmare Demon Wolves. Without any hesitation, the duo entered it, immediately hearing the howls of some wolves far away. "There''s a pitfall closer to this location. Let''s just use that," Krune said, leading the way towards a pitfall that he had obtained the information of, gazing at it with a frown upon seeing it filled halfway up with the corpses of the Nightmare Demon Wolves. "There''s no way any wolf would ever fall prey to it now." Calveb pinched his nose. "The smell is unbearable." He then thought of something, pointing at another place farther away. "That place is positioned headwind to us. So, the wolves won''t sense anything amiss. I''ll lay down a trap there. It should be enough to kill around three to four wolves." "Alright, I''ll lure them in," Krune said, flying past immediately. "Don''t lure in more than four wolves!" Calveb shouted, noticing Krune''s figure had already vanished by now.. "Damn, he moves fast." Chapter 1097 - Nightmare Spiritual Mark Krune flew through the forest, alert of his surroundings, knowing very well the range of the nightmare effect around a Nightmare Demon Wolf. In fact, it ranged around twenty meters. Beyond that, the effect only made someone faintly drowsy. Even when the number of Nightmare Demon Wolves in a pack increased in number, the range never increased. Of course, the potency of the drowsiness subjected beyond the range of the nightmares also increased. Nevertheless, this was also the perfect indicator of a Nightmare Demon Wolf''s presence. Of course, Krune didn''t rely on something as dangerous as that, simply chasing after the sounds as he maintained an alert state, intending to swiftly fly away the moment it felt like he would fall into a nightmare. To assure himself of his safety, he thought that if he curled his ethereal form while doing so, the Nightmare Demon Wolves would simply mistake him as a rock and gloss over him in the event he wasn''t fast enough to react. Even otherwise, if he fell prey to their abilities and was carried by a wolf to play with, he would soon be set free the moment the wolf was killed. After all, people constantly arrived to hunt the Nightmare Demon Wolves. Since Krune only moved around the edges of the forest, the likelihood of him surviving a capture was guaranteed. While moving about, he brought out his Soul Needle, noticing it spin a bit before pointing in a certain direction, causing him to be shocked. "There''s a treasure here?" For a moment, Krune was conflicted before deciding to satisfy his curiosity, "This is within the Alacatra Ruins. So, the treasure might be something valuable." Without any hesitation, Krune swerved directions, immediately flying towards the direction pointed by the Soul Needle, stopping abruptly when he noticed a group of Nightmare Demon Wolves before him. There were more than twenty in the pack. Krune immediately retracted his ethereal form and hid behind a branch, silently observing the pack of wolves pass by. Only after that did he begin moving. He was always alert, ensuring to keep track of at least a couple of hiding places at every point while moving about. This sense of caution had been instilled in him after becoming a mortal human. Even though he had returned to his old self a bit after returning to his wisp form, the changes still existed, largely so. This sense of caution was one of them. After traveling for thirty minutes in such a fashion, Krune had treaded deep into the valley, crossing boundaries beyond human action, trodding into uncharted territory. He arrived before a boulder that the Soul Needle pointed at, noticing a tiny badge hover in the air above it, looking ethereal in nature. The moment he saw it, Krune shuddered, realizing very well what it signified, feeling his consciousness slipping away as he hurriedly retreated towards a safe distance. Spiritual Mark! It had arrived so abruptly that Krune failed to make sense of the situation. "How¡­?" "Wasn''t it something that could only be obtained after passing tens of trials? How come there is one here already?" Faint energy fluctuations emanated from the Spiritual Mark right at this time, causing a couple of words to appear in his mind, stating the identity of the Spiritual Mark. Nightmare Spiritual Mark! This was a Spiritual Mark that subjected one inside a nightmare, a rather powerful one at that. Upon realizing that it was a genuine Spiritual Mark, Krune was rather tempted. Moreover, the faint energy fluctuation asked him whether he was ready to accept it or not. ''But, nightmares¡­huh. Do I really want them to be my trump card?'' Krune thought, thinking of quite the scenes of danger he had been in. ''No, I''m not mentally well equipped to use this Spiritual Mark to its full potential. Even though it''s a waste, this isn''t the right fit for me.'' Even though he was aware that he was missing a great opportunity, Krune didn''t wish to obtain something that he wouldn''t be able to use properly and simply decided to leave it for someone that might need it instead. He soon returned towards the edge of the valley, scouring for some more time before noticing a group with three Nightmare Demon Wolves. He arrived well beyond their range, using his Soul Needle to scrape off the bark of a nearby tree, producing shrill noise that alerted the keen senses of the three wolves. "Haha, bite me! Cowards!" Krune laughed as he danced in the air provocatively, making exaggerated circles while scratching the tree barks constantly. Immediately, he managed to piss off the three Nightmare Demon Wolves that began to chase after him. Krune took off at his greatest speed, noticing the three wolves slowly close in on him. He used his advantages to make abrupt turns in an effort to throw them off, angering them even further, causing them to chase after him with even more vigor. Soon, he arrived at the appointed place, unable to notice Calveb in the location. Still, he was cautious, acting like before as he swerved around the place with the potential trap, proceeding to run further. The three wolves chased after him, rushing through the trap, and suddenly, the sound of something shattering resounded when a wind blade shot out from opposite sides, attacking the legs of the wolves, severing them. One of them had been in the air and only got its toes chopped off. The remaining two had their legs completely severed, causing them to crash into the ground and howl in pain. Calveb revealed himself, seeming as if he had hidden himself using a Talisman to avoid any detection. He then gazed at Krune, pointing at the three Nightmare Demon Wolves that were unable to put up any resistance. "Quick! Kill one! I''ll kill the other two!" "On it!" Krune plunged his Soul Needle through the head of the Nightmare Demon Wolf with the highest injury while Calveb used a Talisman to shoot out another wind blade that severed the heads of the remaining two. No sooner had they done so did Calveb stagger, barely orienting himself as he muttered, "Thank goodness, the injury suppressed their abilities for a moment.. If we delayed killing them, we would have fallen prey to their nightmare." Chapter 1098 - Sun Stones "That was pretty risky," Calveb said, looking at Krune. "I think it would be for the best if we discussed things beforehand. That way, we''ll be able to prepare ourselves accordingly. Consider this trap, for instance." Calveb pointed at the ground as he continued, "I was afraid you would rush into the trap and hence made something that would only respond when applied weight upon. I used this since you''re hovering in the air. But if we discussed it, we could have used a better trap." "True." Krune nodded. "I just didn''t ask since I didn''t want to pry into your secrets." "Makes sense." Calveb nodded after that. "Despite that, we can at least give each other general directions to proceed with." "Fair enough." Krune suddenly lowered his voice before continuing, "By the way, I discovered something while I was scouting the place." "What did you find?" Calveb became serious upon noticing Krune''s change in demeanor. "A Spiritual Mark." "What?" Calveb lost control of his emotions for a moment, barely reining himself in after seeing how calm Krune was, sighing as he apologized. "The news just caught me off guard." Since he saw Krune hadn''t obtained the Spiritual Mark, he assumed it was because either the Spiritual Mark was guarded by a horde of monsters or if it was located in a precarious location. Either way, he wished to know more, looking at Krune to motion him to detail further. "When I approached it, I sensed danger and retreated. But, when I maintained a safe distance, the Spiritual Mark emitted an energy fluctuation when a set of words appeared in my mind." Krune recounted his experience. "Nightmare Spiritual Mark, that''s its name. Judging by its name, you can guess its ability." "Nightmare Spiritual Mark¡­" Calveb muttered, asking after some thought, "But why didn''t you obtain it?" "I''m not capable of wielding it. Or, to be more specific, I want my trump card to be something else. Even though it''s valuable, I''m not capable of using it to its full potential. I am hoping to obtain something else," Krune said honestly. "If you want to obtain it, I can guide you to it. However, it''s pretty deep into the valley, so it''s dangerous." "I wish to see it," Calveb said after a moment of thought. "Sure," Krune replied and led the way. As Calveb had a large stature, hiding was a lot more difficult than Krune, who could simply hide in branches and behind leaves. Therefore, they took almost ten hours before reaching the spot, causing Calveb to gawk in shock upon staring at the hovering Spiritual Mark. He continued to stare at it, enamored by it for a good hour before he sighed, shaking his head as he backed away. "I don''t wish to obtain this power." "Why?" Krune asked curiously. "I use Talismans," Calveb said in response. "So, if given enough time, I should be able to prepare myself for any situation. And, what I seek is a Spiritual Mark that''s able to instantly bring me out of a predicament. Even though this Nightmare Spiritual Mark is tremendously powerful, it''s only effective against living beings. What if a Spirit Ability attacks me? I can''t use this to defend against that." "So, both of us have similar reasons." Krune nodded, noticing the Soul Needle failing to point anything else. He then led Calveb back to the city as they rested in an inn, the price for which was rather cheap, the meat from one Nightmare Demon Wolf. It allowed them to stay for a week. After resting for a day, they set off towards the east of the city, heading towards a rocky terrain that led them into a range of clustered mountains. The moment they had exited the city, Krune had summoned his Soul Needle, watching it begin to stir up once they arrived at the foot of the first mountain. The Soul Needle began to spin at tremendous speeds, soon stabilizing as it pointed at a mountain peak situated farther away, behind tens of mountains. The only reason people arrived at this place was to gather Sun Stones. And they were available in the first mountain itself. At most, some would have scoured through the second mountain. "Let''s head in this way," Krune said, pointing in a certain direction by morphing his ethereal form into the shape of a hand. "Why? Shouldn''t it be simpler to gather the Sun Stones from this mountain?" Calveb frowned, noticing the Soul Needle pointing in a certain direction as he asked, "This is¡­?" "Well, it''s a racial ability of mine. I can sense things of value. And this needle acts as a compass to direct me when using my ability," Krune replied. "That''s how I found the Nightmare Spiritual Mark." "Then, what are we waiting for? Let''s go!" Calveb laughed, clearly excited at the prospect of finding another Spiritual Mark. As the Sun Stones grew only at mountain peaks, the journey was the hardest part in finding them. Since they were proceeding towards another mountain peak anyway, Calveb was content. It was hitting two birds with one stone. Rather, the second bird was a colossal treasure. ¡­ "La! La! Lla! Lalalalaaa! It''s a beautiful day!" Krune hummed a tune while hovering above a rock protrusion, gazing at the figure of Calveb drenched in sweat, slumped on the rock protrusion in exhaustion. "No more! I don''t want to climb anymore!" Calveb groaned. His earlier demeanor had completely vanished by now as he complained, "I''ve never trained my physique this much. I make talismans for a living! I''m a genius at that! I don''t need to toil like a buffalo here!" "We are almost there at the peak," Krune said, noticing Calveb ignoring him like he was air, just like he had done all along after seeing just how casually he flew over the path that was hard to climb over for a human. ''This won''t do.'' He thought for a bit before saying the magical words, "Spiritual Mark!" "Yes, Sir!" Calveb got up with a start, full of vigor as he suddenly took out his Talisman Pastel and drew a small symbol all over his body, brimming with energy as he began to climb once again. The symbol was something that reduced his fatigue and kept him revitalized to a certain extent, preventing him from making any mistakes while climbing and also not tiring out as soon. Chapter 1099 - Specter Swamp "Haha, I climbed up!" Calveb laughed, resting upon reaching the peak as he looked at Krune. "Where is the Spiritual Mark?" "This way," Krune said after staring at his Soul Needle. "It seems to be pretty near." "But it''s too hot here," Calveb could not help but say, drinking up his reserve of water that he had brought. "It feels like walking through a desert." "You''re indeed right," Krune said in response, looking at the Sun Stones embedded in the rocks nearby. "The quality of the Sun Stones here is also superior." He then led them over numerous windings over the mountain peak, soon arriving before a boulder that seemed to be receiving the most sunlight all day long. During the night, it was absorbing the heat radiated by the mountain. Due to this reason, the Sun Stones embedded within this rock were of the greatest quality they had ever witnessed. Then again, both of them weren''t concerned about the Sun Stones, awestruck as they gazed at a symbol hovering above the boulder. It was emanating a faint radiance akin to gentle sunlight. The emitted heat cast onto them like warmth, but after a couple of seconds, the warmth turned uncomfortable as Calveb began to sweat uncontrollably. Right as they felt uncomfortable, the Spiritual Mark emitted a faint fluctuation, telling them of its nature. Sun Stone Spiritual Mark! "Sun Stone Spiritual Mark¡­" Both of them muttered in response as Calveb asked, "What do you think this Spiritual Mark does?" "The ability of a Sun Stone¡­" Krune continued after some thought, "Based on what I can feel from it, the ability of this Spiritual Mark is exactly as its name dictates. It can create Sun Stones. The created Sun Stones should be of a quality even superior to the ones here." "Sun Stones are pretty valuable," he continued. "They can emit heat and light. They can also ward off any illness or poisonous substances in the air. Since they''re effective against the Poison Spectre, you can think of them as the bane of anything related to the traits a Poison Spectre possesses. That includes poisons and other negative ailments." "It has a strategic value," Krune concluded. "As long as you have this, you can create a clan of your own and become tremendously rich just by selling these Sun Stones." "Are you not planning to get this Spiritual Mark?" Calveb asked after considering everything Krune had said. "No, I never lack any wealth," Krune replied, mildly boasting. "I''ve been pretty rich for most of my life." ''Even now, I managed to collect enough funds to establish a clan within a couple of days using my Soul Needle,'' Krune thought. ''So, this Spiritual Mark is useless for me." "I see." Calveb thought through a lot, sighing in the end. "I don''t want this Spiritual Mark either. I can obtain enough wealth through selling my Talismans. I need an offensive Spiritual Mark." "Then, let''s return after getting some Sun Stones," Krune said to him. "I feel like the Spiritual Marks we encounter here are one of the weakest Spiritual Marks." "I feel the same too," Calveb responded in agreement as he slowly fished out five Sun Stones. They planned to use one each to defend themselves against the effects present in the area of the Poison Spectre. They planned to throw one Sun Stone each onto a Poison Spectre and end it. The fifth one was a spare, to be used just in case. Krune kept one Sun Stone within his ethereal form, feeling its color become tinged with a mild orange hue. ''Wait, how is this possible?'' He was suddenly shocked to notice the Soul Needle drilling into the Sun Stone on its own as it began to absorb the Sun Stone''s properties into it, soon being tinged with a faint orange color on its tip. As for the Sun Stone, it lost its properties, crumbling into dust as Krune retracted his ethereal form, causing the dust to spill on the ground. "¡­" "Can you fish out a couple more Sun Stones?" "Alright." Krune placed a second Sun Stone within his ethereal form, observing the Soul Needle not taking any action. It seemed to be a one-off action. After observing for some time, they began to descend the mountain as Calveb groaned all along, taking more time than usual since he was no longer motivated at the prospect of finding a Spiritual Mark. ¡­ Spectre Swamp. It was the area where the Poison Spectres roamed about. Krune and Calveb arrived at the place, hiding beyond the edges. "Here, take this." Calved handed out a tiny wooden plate, saying, "This would erect a barrier around you for a couple of minutes. During this duration, the poisonous winds of this place wouldn''t affect you. With that, once you see a Poison Spectre, run straight at it, throw the Sun Stone right on its face and retreat within the time limit." "Alright, thanks," Krune said, noticing his Soul Needle pointing at a certain direction deep within the Spectre Swamp. Noticing the Soul Needle''s actions, Calveb was stunned for a moment before becoming excited. "There was the Nightmare Spiritual Mark in the territory of the Nightmare Demon Wolves, the Sun Stone Spiritual Mark in the region with the Sun Stones. Then that means, this place would have¡­" "Poison Spectre Spiritual Mark!" The both of them muttered simultaneously as Krune noticed an obvious excitement in Calveb''s face. "Are you sure you wish to obtain this Spiritual Mark? There would be stronger ones in the later trials, you know," Krune persuaded him. "There''s no such thing as the strongest Spiritual Mark but the most optimal Spiritual Mark," Calveb laughed as he replied. "If I really think it''s what I think it does, then it''s perfect for me." "If you say so." Krune nodded after hearing that. "But it should be deep within this territory. How are we supposed to be safe until we reach that far?" "There''s no problem with that." Calveb laughed, completely using up a Talisman Pastel to create a complex Talisman for the both of them before saying, "This should last us for two hours in this area. That should be enough for a round trip, right?" "Of course!" Krune laughed as the two of them entered the Spectre Swamp. Chapter 1100 - Poison Specter Spiritual Mark "Hah!" Krune shouted, morphing his ethereal form to condense a hand as he threw a Sun Stone, frowning when it made an arc and only traversed three meters. "¡­" "¡­" "Let me try it again." Krune acted as if the first throw had never happened, picking up the Sun Stone before flying towards a Poison Spectre, hurling the Sun Stone towards it. The Poison Spectre had an ethereal figure, capable of morphing its shape as it pleased. When it saw the Sun Stone coming at it, it expanded like a sheet of blanket while a hole formed in the middle. The Sun Stone passed through the hole, failing to kill it. Fortunately, the higher quality radiance from the Sun Stone singed the sides of the hole, causing the Poison Spectre to shriek in pain as it unleashed a breath of misty substance that tried to corrode everything in its path. Krune relied on the Talisman''s defense as he swerved around at his top speed, picking up the Sun Stone once again as he hurled it towards the Poison Spectre, noticing that it managed to dodge once again, only suffering minimal damage from the Sun Stone''s radiation. Suddenly, the Poison Spectre condensed a hand, causing the tip to resemble a long blade as it slashed towards Krune. ''The protection from the Talisman might dissipate if I endure this attack head-on.'' Thinking as such, Krune summoned his Soul Needle, holding it by condensing his ethereal form into a hand, defending against the attack. The moment their attacks met, both of them flinched. Krune flinched since he felt tired all of a sudden. The energy exertion was too much for him. As for the Poison Spectre, it flinched in pain as the Soul Needle burned through its sword, causing it to melt and drop on the ground before dissipating into thin air. Taking advantage of its momentary weakness, Krune swerved right at it, plunging the Soul Needle into its body as he poked repeatedly. When the Poison Spectre retaliated by grabbing hold of his ethereal form, it shrieked in pain as its hands melted. After all, Krune carried another Sun Stone within his ethereal form, causing it to be tinged with an orange hue. And this not only protected him from the Poison Spectre''s attacks but also damaged it in return. Within a minute, Krune managed to kill the Poison Spectre, laughing in the end. "I am strength!" "¡­" Calveb didn''t say anything, suddenly throwing his Sun Stone, causing it to impact upon a Poison Spectre caught unawares. It screamed in pain as its body melted, dying immediately. "¡­" "Fuck!" Krune groaned, realizing how easy it was for a regular person to kill a Poison Spectre. Only he had struggled so much. "Let''s get moving." Unwilling to mope about it, Krune led the way as the duo passed through the swamp, remaining still whenever the poisonous winds blew past. They were tensed as the barrier protecting them trembled whenever this happened. In the end, it held up as they continued to travel, killing numerous Poison Spectres that tried to attack them. Then again, Calveb took charge of it, having tied up a rope around the Sun Stone. This way, he quickly pulled it back after throwing it at a Poison Spectre. "Let''s rest," Calveb said all of a sudden as he panted in exhaustion. "The effect of the Talisman is also wearing off. Let me make another one." "Alright," Krune replied as he watched Calveb use another Talisman Pastel to create a second Talisman. This way, they would be able to travel for two more hours without any worries. They had long since arrived at the uncharted territory. And now, they continued to proceed even deeper, watching the number of Poison Spectres increase constantly. Soon, they had to fight their way through the path, noticing that it was getting harder and harder to do so as time passed. But upon seeing this, Calveb was only becoming more excited. "The greater the hurdles, the stronger the resulting treasure." "You''re right about that. It seems this Spiritual Mark is stronger than what we had assumed at the start." Krune nodded, noticing Calveb pull out a piece of wood as he made a hole in its center. He then inserted a Sun Stone into it, locking it perfectly within. He then used a Talisman Pastel to draw over the Sun Stone, also covering both the sides of the piece of wood, creating a complicated diagram. After expending a Talisman Pastel, he laughed, activating it, suddenly erecting a barrier that hummed with an orange hue. Now, the moment the Poison Spectres closed in on them, they screamed in pain, beginning to melt. The radiation prevented them from even nearing the duo that now calmly proceeded forward. "You could have done this at the start," Krune muttered, realizing how easy it was to move now. "But, this would make it hard for me to move. That''s why I hadn''t used it at the start." Calveb said, wiping his sweat as the temperature within the barrier continued to increase. But, this also meant that it was getting harder and harder for the Poison Spectres to harm them. Eventually, they arrived before a pond where the Poison Spectres seemed to emerge, as if they were birthed here. After observing a little, they concluded that the Poison Spectres were indeed being birthed here, making eye contact as they muttered in unison, "This is a strong Spiritual Mark!" "You sure you don''t want this Spiritual Mark?" Calveb asked. "Nope." Krune laughed, thinking, ''Once I regain my cultivation, I can use my Spiritual Incarnation to do wonders beyond this Spiritual Mark''s capabilities.'' "Thank you!" Calveb said as he approached the pond, noticing a tiny symbol hovering at its center. Upon sensing his presence, it emanated a faint fluctuation, transmitting information about itself to Calveb, causing him to laugh as he looked at Krune, bowing once. "I''ll always be grateful for your help. Please send a message to the Dotrite Clan if you wish to ask for my help. I''ll come rushing to your aid." "Good luck!" Krune said in response. Nodding, Calveb accepted the Spiritual Mark, causing the symbol to swerve into his head before fusing into his soul, giving him the ability. Immediately, his body vanished from the trial grounds. "Wait¡­fuck!" Krune shouted in alarm when the barrier shielding him vanished along with Calveb, causing all the Poison Spectres to stare at him, laughing eerily. Chapter 1101 - Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark "Damnit!" Krune cursed. Without the barrier erected by Calveb, he only had less than an hour of defense left in the Protection Talisman he had. If the numerous Poison Spectres in the place attacked him all of a sudden, it would shatter within a dozen seconds, causing him to be affected by the poison eventually. Even though the Sun Stone in his ethereal form would help him out to a certain extent, he wasn''t sure how long it could last under the unceasing tide of Poison Spectres that threw themselves onto him. After all, he was in the heart of their territory, where they were in great numbers. But right as he prepared himself to fight his way out with all his might or for his eventual doom, the pond changed color all of a sudden. It was no longer murky. The Spiritual Mark powering it had already been taken. With that, no new Poison Spectre was being birthed. Instead, the pond turned blue all of a sudden as the murkiness changed into smoke that billowed out, as if they were before a volcanic crater. A lightning bolt flashed out from it, landing on a Poison Spectre, vaporizing it instantly. "Screw it!" Right as Krune was about to escape, a faint fluctuation swept past as a stream of information appeared in his mind, causing him to gawk like his brain had been fried clean. After all, another Spiritual Mark had appeared. And this one was something that caused him to become excited like a baby that was given candy for the first time after asking for it for many years. Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark! "What¡­the heck? Of course! Accept! I accept!" Krune shouted at the top of his lungs, clearly understanding the power of this Spiritual Mark. Tribulation Lightning was part of the Tribulation Laws. It was the sole law that could never be comprehended by a cultivator, Krune included. The moment he tried, he would experience a head-splitting headache. In fact, there was only one person that was capable of using Tribulation Lightning. That was the God that had become one using the Tribulation Laws, his friend Luvile. And now, he obtained a Spiritual Mark that was capable of unleashing Tribulation Lightning. The worth of something like that needn''t be said. The moment he accepted it, the Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark exited the billowing smoke and entered his Wisp Core, fusing into it. Immediately, a resounding laughter echoed in his mind, "Hahaha, you didn''t find this through luck or coincidence. I had arranged for this to be sent to you, my friend. I hope it is of use in your travels." The voice was from Luvile. Though, when Krune tried to communicate, he realized that this was just a recording of Luvile that he had left within the Spiritual Mark. His voice turned somber as he continued, "The God Realm is incomparably difficult and complicated to understand due to the numerous users of Spiritual Incarnations that revive in the future and wreak havoc while bringing their tens of thousands of years old sentiments into play. So, proceed with caution, and if you have good friends to rely upon, establish a sect. That stability would help you grow the fastest." Krune could feel a sense of exhaustion within Luvile''s voice that continued to speak. "I have a lot of work to be done here. So, even if your life''s at risk, I''ll be unable to arrive at your rescue. I hope that by the time we meet again, you''ll already be a God." "Take care, Krune." "Thanks, man." Krune laughed as he could feel the power of the Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark as he vanished from the location, soon appearing outside the Alacatra Ruins at a discrete location, noticing the figure of Calveb walking away in a certain direction. Krune didn''t meet up with him, though. There was no reason for him to do so. Calveb was only at the First Stage of Qi Condensation. And, it seemed he wished to live on the ground level for the rest of his life. So, he wasn''t someone Krune was interested in befriending or bringing along. Rather, he simply didn''t have the freedom of time to wait for him to obtain insight into the ways of cultivation and proceed up the Immortal Peak. Therefore, all he did was remain at the place, waiting for Feifei to show up. As time passed, he indeed got bored. So, Krune looked around at the plain walls surrounding this place, thinking of something as he grinned, condensing a tiny Cloud Whale that flew towards the walls and unleashed its air needle, beginning to draw something on the wall. A month later, Krune had finished creating a detailed mural on the walls. In it showcased a scene where a wisp hovered in the air, seated atop the Cloud Whale as it roamed through the heavens, at times unleashing beams of light onto the world to heal, strengthen, or even punish the people by freezing them into ice sculptures. It was nothing more than a prank since he needed to do something to curb his boredom. Moreover, he also left a note at the end, one that said, "If you wish to become a perennial, reach the summit of the Immortal Peak and head towards our sect. Find the one named Krune. You''ll truly embark on the path of cultivation after that." "Well, this might be a good way to recruit talented disciples in the future." He laughed, soon slumping on the ground in boredom, waiting with a blank look, wishing for Feifei to arrive quickly. In this manner, five months passed by as Krune blankly stared at the walls, having increased the level of detail on it to a tremendous extent. Now, he could safely say that the level of the mural here surpassed¡ªin the workmanship detail¡ªthose within the Alacatra Ruins by a large margin. Eventually, on one fine day, an injured figure appeared at the place, causing Krune to hurry towards her in alarm. "Feifei!" "I''m fine," Feifei muttered weakly, swallowing a Water Essence as her injuries began to slowly heal. She slumped on the ground as she told him, "I''m going to sleep now. I haven''t slept properly for five months now." "Alright, get some good rest.." Krune sighed in relief, watching Feifei''s injuries slowly heal. Chapter 1102 - Soul Lamp "That was refreshing." Feifei stretched her arms, heaving a pleasant sigh in relief. Having rested for enough, she was completely healed now. She then got up, grabbing hold of Krune as she pulled him into a hug. "I''m glad that you''re safe." "Of course," Krune boasted. "I obtained my Spiritual Mark within four days. I am¡­speed!" "Right, right." Feifei rolled her eyes, saying, "Let''s get going now. We''ll head towards the Immortal Staircase now." "Alright," Krune replied, condensing the Cloud Whale around them as it took off towards the sky, slowly turning invisible as it began to move. All along, Krune used his Soul Needle to detect treasures. After all, if there was a chance he could obtain something useful, he didn''t wish to waste the opportunity. As they continued to travel, they unearthed numerous treasures, soon getting lucky as they found a couple of spatial rings. Feifei used it to store any and all treasures they came across, segregating them into the respective storage rings to keep everything in order. Eventually, Krune noticed the Soul Needle whirring nonstop before pointing in a certain direction, causing him to say, "There''s a treasure on the level of the Soul Needle there. This level of reaction shows that they''re somewhat similar in nature." They soon arrived atop a lake situated within a ring of mountains, a place never ventured forth by humans. And, hovering atop the center of the lake was a lamp, emitting a gentle energy fluctuation, nurturing the place''s vitality. Upon making eye contact, Feifei arrived before it, gently touching it once as it made a connection to her soul, fusing into her. Sighing, Feifei turned around, saying, "No wonder. This is an amazing treasure. It would help us in establishing our sect." "I''ll tell you more about its properties along the way," Feifei said soon after, entering the Cloud Whale as they took off once again. "This treasure is called a Soul Lamp. People that I allow can place a fragment of their souls in this. If they die, their respective soul flame vanishes. Moreover, it would also display their state of being through its flickers. Its greatest use is to act as a guiding beacon for the Spiritual Incarnation fragments of the dead people and condense it within it. Eventually, using the soul fragment as the core, it would help the cultivator revive faster. This is its greatest use." Feifei then concluded, "It would be safer to use in comparison to other forms of survival with our Spiritual Incarnations." While journeying towards the Immortal Staircase, they dug up numerous treasures, causing the number of storage rings on the fingers of Feifei to continue to increase. Eventually, she had no other choice but to place all the storage rings in her bag. There was enough to cause clinking sounds. Finally, after traveling nonstop for another six months, they arrived at the Immortal Staircase. It was a series of thousand steps that spanned over a chasm, reaching the foot of the Immortal Peak at its end. Each step only spanned a meter in height, but it had a length of 100 meters and a width of two kilometers. A sizeable crowd had gathered before it, watching the people struggle to climb the staircase. All of them were the local populace that were aware of what the Immortal Staircase entailed. Beyond that, a very small section of the people came from outside. Information about the Immortal Staircase was strictly kept under wraps. After all, it was situated on a secluded island in what appeared to be a sea. Due to the water currents, no ship was able to naturally reach there, unless they went against the currents with the map of the island in their hand. Once the Cloud Whale arrived above the island, it gently touched the ground, vanishing as Feifei and Krune calmly behaved like they had arrived at the place through natural means. They then looked around, noticing the buildings mostly consisted of single stories. Only some inns meant for those visiting from outside had two stories. In fact, they were mostly vacant. Krune and Feifei calmly arrived before the Immortal Staircase, hearing the cheering sounds of the people. "He reached the 95th stair. He''s almost at the top!" "Look, Hicka is only thirteen years old this year. But, she has managed to reach the seventh step within an hour. She''s the most talented among our village this year." "Stinci isn''t any inferior. She''s right behind Hicka." The discussions were in a frenzy as Krune and Feifei felt the presence of the people around them, muttering simultaneously, "They''re stronger than your average cultivator." "They probably have cultivation techniques perfectly suiting them," Feifei said, sensing the variations in the Spiritual Energy fluctuation from each villager. "Since they have been with the Immortal Staircase for generations, they have produced generations of heroes. So, they have improved overall," Krune said, then expressing his doubt, "But if that''s so, why is their village so barebones in development?" "Haha, it''s because this is just the starting village." A villager overheard their conversation, laughing as he intruded, "We are those that have decided to remain here and pass on our village''s legacy to the future generations." ''He''s¡­strong.'' Feifei could instinctively feel the old man''s strength. Sensing the change in her gaze, the man laughed. "I have journeyed through a lot on the Immortal Peak. And, once I felt I have gone high enough, I sealed my cultivation and returned to live in my birthplace. Now, I focus on imparting my experiences to the younger generation." "This is our village''s tradition. Once we complete our journey, we return to our hometown to live our old age." The old man laughed as he continued. "And, we have established a village at every point of the Immortal Peak. So, the higher up you proceed, the more developed our village becomes. We have just made it like this to symbolize progress and development." "That''s an interesting culture," Krune said before gazing at Feifei. "Well, shall we start our journey as well?" "Might as well.." Feifei nodded as they approached the foot of the Immortal Staircase, taking in a deep breath before stepping on the first step. Chapter 1103 - Betrayal Of The Closest Companion "That''s¡­it?" Feifei was confused, feeling a minute level of pressure on her mind. But beyond that, it was nothing surprising. "This is just the first step. So, the pressure shouldn''t be much," Krune replied, going up the second step, feeling the pressure doubling as he said, "At this rate, the pressure would be increasing to a scary extent soon enough." Soon after, the villagers muttered in shock, staring at the two people that calmly went from one step to another. "These guys¡­!" "How are they able to do this?" "They really aren''t your regular cultivators." "Their progress has surpassed the records from our village." As if they were casually strolling through a park, Krune and Feifei climbed up the steps one after another, soon reaching the ninetieth step before stopping. Krune felt sluggish as it felt difficult for him to fly forth. The pressure had reached a threatening level by now, causing him to feel like his mind was being shredded apart to be then ground into dust later. Slowly, he reached the 100th step when the pressure vanished. However, Krune noticed his surroundings had changed a bit, now turning into a world where neither sound nor light existed. He suddenly felt an intense sense of hunger while an aromatic smell wafted in his surroundings. As he was just a wisp, his body naturally absorbed the faint Spiritual Energy from the surroundings as the sense of hunger vanished. It seemed that the steps from 100 to 199 were those that increased in the sense of hunger. So, Krune managed to quickly reach the 199th step, soon reaching the 200th step as his surroundings changed once again. Now, there was blinding light everywhere, causing it to become hard to see. As he didn''t have a pair of eyes, Krune wasn''t affected much, casually reaching the 300th step, grunting as grating sounds resounded everywhere. And with every step he proceeded, the sounds continued to increase in intensity to the extent his ethereal form was trembling like a water surface where waves formed. A couple of hours later, Krune reached the 400th step, now feeling a rapid spike in the temperature, causing it difficult to move anymore. But thanks to his wisp form, he wasn''t as affected as if he had been in a human form. With that, Krune managed to reach the 500th step, now feeling that the environment had turned viscous as if he was situated at the bottom of the ocean. It became harder to even move now, causing him to become immobilized. But, like a piece of wood being swept by the undercurrents, Krune eventually found his undercurrent amidst the pressure, being able to move bit by bit once he adapted to the pressure. After all, there was a saying that went, ''what doesn''t kill you makes you stronger.'' Every form of pressure only worked in strengthening their mind. As Krune had lived for around 250 years now, his mind was somewhat refined. However, his experience living in Layer 3 had damaged his mind tremendously. And now, under pressure, his weakness was laid bare. Krune began to lose himself under the hallucinations brought about by the pressure. "Krune!" Feifei shouted all of a sudden, jolting him to his senses as she shouted, "I''m here!" "Hahaha!" He burst out laughing after that. "Right, you are here!" Her one sentence was able to bring him to his senses. Moreover, he began to temper his mind using the pressure, shedding off the unwanted influences on his mind, slowly firming his mentality, his mindset, his willpower. Soon, he began to proceed up the staircase, able to move faster and faster as time passed. As for Feifei, she calmly followed him, staring at his back as she sighed in nostalgia. ''This staircase is the tonic that would heal your mind.'' "Shed your worries," she said, directing the statement towards both herself and Krune. The duo then reached the 600th step, laughing when the scenery changed to become filled with killing intent. As they proceeded forward, the killing intent continued to increase in might. For a normal person, this would be the hardest to traverse. After all, they had just embarked on their cultivation path and wouldn''t have killed anyone. But for Krune and Feifei, they simply shrugged off the ambient killing intent. After all, the number of lives they had taken was¡­simply uncountable. They easily reached step 700, having traversed from step 600 to 700 the fastest, even after considering their journey among the other batch of steps. Now, the surroundings were full of whispers, of ravings that dug into their mind, laying bare their dark history, their embarrassment, and things they were annoyed at. As for Krune, all of them comprised of a magical word, one word to incorporate all his negative feelings. "¡­Rainbow." "Rainbow¡­" "Rainbow~" "Rainbow!" "D-Damn it!" Krune grunted, shivering as the same word echoed around him, forming a rhyming cacophony that attacked his mind with unbridled power. "Rainbow¡­" Soon, the word rainbow was used as a rhyme as it seemed like millions of people began to hum it in unison. "Stop it!" Krune began to cry, hurriedly wishing to reach the end while he cursed himself for moving so slowly. Eventually, he slumped on the 800th floor, groaning in exhaustion as he noticed a prehistoric beast standing before him. It spanned hundreds of meters tall, hulking in front of him tremendously, oozing with bloodlust, looking like a beast that had devoured numerous planets'' worth of life. It gazed at him, grinning while opening its mouth, looking like it would devour him as it said, "Rainbow!" "Damn it!" Krune bellowed, summoning all his willpower as he blasted a hole through the prehistoric beast, penetrating every single prehistoric beast that manifested before him, soon reaching the 900th step. Standing before the foot of the staircase, the old man that had conversed with them before suddenly sighed. "They have such tremendous talents. It''s apparent from the speed at which they climbed up. But, all of them that possess such unrivaled talents fall prey to the stairs in the 900s." "After all, this is the weakness of everyone that''s gifted." "F-Feifei?" Krune turned around in shock, trembling in response as he saw Feifei standing behind him, focusing on the blade held in her hands.. The blade had pierced through his Wisp Core, causing it to shatter in response. "Why¡­?" Chapter 1104 - Deific Wisp Technique "Feifei¡­?" Krune asked as he felt his heart¡­core ache. "Why?" He then continued, speaking after summoning all his willpower, "Why¡­does your chest look¡­smaller?" "What?" The projection of Feifei was stunned for a moment before vanishing, causing Krune to land on the ground, sighing in relief upon seeing that his Wisp Core was intact. "That was just an illusion." Krune sighed. Even though he knew Feifei wasn''t someone that would do something like that, it still came off as shocking. "Right, if she wishes to kill me, she would straight up smack my face and not my back. That''s in her character," he muttered, firming himself as he proceeded towards the second step, suddenly noticing Feifei before him, punching him in response as she cried. Behind him was his daughter, Fie, crying as she hacked his back with a blade. Now that he had already prepared himself mentally, Krune wasn''t as much affected as the previous time. Even though he knew they were fakes, seeing such emotions from his wife and daughter made him sad. He never wished for them to be anything other than giggles and smiles. "This will never happen in reality. I''ll ensure you''ll be full of smiles always!" Krune continued to go up the stairs, firming himself every single time to never become what was shown in the illusions, eventually reaching the 1000th step. But at the moment he saw it, he was stunned, unable to move any further as he was affected, tremendously so. This was different from every other scene he had seen. Until now, it was a scene of betrayal. Since he knew both him and those concerned weren''t like that, he was able to firm himself and move forward. But the scene before him¡­could very well be a reality one day. It was a concrete, high-raised floor, sporting cracks all over as dried leaves flailed about with the faint wind. Beyond the concrete was a patch of lawn, on which rain fell. There were faint sounds of thunder while lightning occasionally flashed. Ignoring all of that, Krune''s attention was grabbed by the scene before him. Kneeling on the concrete floor was Feifei, sporting various levels of injuries. But at present, she was crying her heart out, unable to endure the level of sadness and pain she felt. It was like she was tearing her soul apart, sporting an expression as if her world had been shredded apart. After all, lying in her embrace was a wisp, beaten and battered. Its Wisp Core had been shredded into fragments, with most of them having corroded to create a murky hue. Its ethereal form gently morphed, creating a thin hand that slowly extended itself, gently patting Feifei''s cheeks. "I love you." Upon saying the piece, its ethereal form vaporized while the remaining fragments of its Wisp Core became powdered. Krune¡­was dead as Feifei stared at his crumbled Wisp Core with vacant eyes, having lost her sanity as she simply stared at the ground like a broken doll. She remained as is, not moving an inch, holding the powered Wisp Core in her embrace as she slowly breathed her last. "No!" Krune bellowed at the top of his lungs, unable to bear Feifei dying even if it was just a projection, a hallucination conjured by the Immortal Staircase. Until now, all he witnessed was his death. So, it was tolerable. But now, seeing how devasted Feifei was upon his death, affected to the extent she became a husk of her former self and died from the pain of losing him, Krune was unable to endure, screaming madly. He continued to shout, flailing about when he coincidentally moved out of the Immortal Staircase, reaching the end when the hallucination disappeared. He stared at the ground, at the soft patch of grass gently flailing due to the wind. He then looked towards the Immortal Staircase, watching the figure of Feifei slowly walking towards the exit, tears streaming from her eyes. Anger, indignation, helplessness, and sadness. They were all evident in her expression. It seemed she had seen the same scene as Krune, only with their roles reversed. The moment she exited the Immortal Staircase and noticed Krune, her figure flashed, wrapping him in an embrace. "I''ll never let you go, never again." Krune extended his ethereal form, condensing a pair of hands that he wrapped around Feifei, saying with a whisper, "Don''t die before me." "Screw you!" Feifei shouted in response as she tightened her hold around him. "If you dare die before me, I''ll kill you myself. Got it?" As they remained in an embrace, a heavenly light landed on them, immediately causing a gust of memories and information into each. Krune could feel this heavenly light grabbing hold of his Myriad Wisps Technique, his Mental Energy Technique, and his body cultivation method, fusing them into one before modifying them accordingly to suit him the best. Krune could feel his cultivation base experience mind differences as even his Godly Meridians began to change, turning into something that better suited to his physique, one that was capable of making him exert his accumulations the highest. Eventually, the fusion and modification process was complete as the brand new technique assimilated into his entire being, morphing his Godly Meridians. Krune could sense a name emerging from the depths of his mind, the identity of the newly created technique that best suited him. Deific Wisp Technique! Now, it was a single technique that cultivated his Spiritual Energy (Godly Energy after returning to the God Realm), Mental Energy, and body. This technique raised everything as a unified whole, allowing him to achieve greater stability and independence from the various methods required for each. Now, as long as he absorbed Spiritual Energy and cultivated, he would be able to improve all three aspects simultaneously. This way, he would be able to perfectly mesh all three features in everything he did. His cultivation was a whole now. Moreover, his Godly Meridians had vanished, now changing to accommodate all his abilities, including his passive and active abilities.. Once the changes were completed, a new name popped up in Krune''s head, causing him to mutter, "So, they''re called Deific Meridians." Chapter 1105 - Deific Meridians "Deific Meridians¡­" Krune muttered, feeling that they were more or less similar in quality as compared to Godly Meridians. But, they were even more suited to his body of a wisp. It also allowed him to cultivate both Mental Energy as well as the energy that his body used. The prime function of the Deific Meridians was to convert one form of energy into other. So, all Krune needed was a thought to convert Spiritual Energy into the energy of the body or Mental Energy. Moreover, all his energy sources¡ªOcean Heart, Dantian, and the Mental Energy in his soul¡ªwere fused into his Wisp Core, allowing him to output even more power through his attacks. It was akin to possessing three Dantians based on energy capacity. Even though this caused his cultivation speed to slow down, since he was cultivating all three aspects at the same time, his strength was on a whole other level as compared to others. After all, his body, cultivation, and mind were in sync now. This allowed him to exercise greater control than before. Krune could safely say with assurance that his current self was capable of defeating his past self that had attained Foundation Establishment without a problem. And, of course, this was without including his current body strength that was on par with a Black Demon. Just by relying on his new cultivation technique and possessing a cultivation base at the First Stage of Qi Condensation, Krune was now confident of the thought. After all, he possessed all his active and passive abilities, a tough body, the Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark, and Mental Energy. And he was only at the First Stage of Qi Condensation. ''Once I return to the God Realm and my cultivation base recovers to Eighth Stage God Foundation, I should work in bringing all my three cultivations to the same level. That way, the synergic effect given by the Deific Wisp Technique would allow me to output the greatest power.'' Krune then looked at Feifei, asking, "How''s your cultivation technique?" "Peerless!" She had only one word to describe it. "Whatever I have now, and what I possess after returning to the God Realm, everything has been perfectly integrated into it. I no longer have any weakness." "Same here," Krune said in response, activating Sonic Radar to scout his surroundings. He was now able to use it naturally. With that, he noticed two people standing some distance away, staring right at them. "There are two people positioned 30 meters away from us." "Let''s meet up with them and see what they have to say," Feifei said, striding forward. "They should be related to the village." "Are you outsiders?" A middle-aged man stood before them, asking upon seeing the duo walking towards them. Though, it seemed he was only asking out of formality, knowing very well that Krune and Feifei weren''t part of his village. "We came from beyond the village," Feifei said. "Then, please proceed in this way." the middle-aged man said in response, pointing towards his right at a forest trail. "This would lead towards a mountain pass, beyond which lies the Hacka Clan that guards the gate towards the next level." "Hacka Clan? Gate?" Krune asked in confusion. "What are they?" "You don''t know about them?" the middle-aged man asked in surprise before sighing, beginning to explain, "So, you must not have heard about much regarding the Immortal Peak. Let me explain, then." "There are numerous levels on the Immortal Peak. On every level, there is a cultivation base dictated. Only those a stage above and below the designated stage can remain on that particular level," he told them. "Each level is akin to a vast space. Even though we''re situated on the side of the Immortal Peak, the entire level consists of flat plains and occasional mountains. We have no idea how it functions, but that is how it exists." "How will we proceed higher up, then? I thought all we needed to do was scale upwards," Krune asked, now even more confused. "I''ll tell you that shortly," the middle-aged man replied, continuing, "In this level, the designated cultivation base is First Stage Qi Condensation. So, mortals and Second Stage Qi Condensation cultivators can also roam here. But, anyone with cultivation bases beyond these would incite heavenly tribulation and would be vaporized immediately. There''s no way to avoid them." "And, since each level look like vast, independent planes rather than the side of a mountain, there''s no way to virtually scale up." He then continued after letting out a sigh, "A famous cultivator genius that had the power of wind tried to fly up and see if he was able to reach the next level. Unfortunately for him..." The middle-aged man shook his head, sighing. "He carried with him a tremendous amount of Spirit Stones to help in his flight and flew for more than a month. Unfortunately, he failed to reach the next level and only met a barrier of sorts that prevented him from proceeding beyond. No matter what he did, that barrier wasn''t even in the least scratched. Rather, his Spirit Abilities dissipated by the time they reached the barrier." ''Right, if the barrier is made from Godly Energy, the sheer oppressiveness it exudes is enough to dissipate any ability that uses Spiritual Energy.'' Krune nodded, asking, "So, I think this is where the Gates come into play?" "Yes." The middle-aged man nodded. "The gates work similarly to the ground level in that they release a select number of tokens every year. Only those with a token can pass through the gates and reach the next level." "Occupying each gate is a clan that dominates the respective region. Using this, they use most of the tokens to send their genius family members to the higher levels and establish their clans there as well. That way, they try to clear a path until the top. Our village has also done the same. To be more specific, we have ancestors that have formed clans at the very peak as well," he spoke. "Does that mean there''s no hope for those not part of the respective clans to head higher up?" Krune frowned as he asked, considering whether he should brute force his way through and snatch the tokens using his power.. If he wished, it was a piece of cake, not worth fretting over. Chapter 1106 - Teng Zakutra "No, there is a way for outsiders," the middle-aged man replied. "Every gate sends out 100 tokens every year. Based on the power possessed by the clan, they give out a part of the tokens to the populace by organizing tournaments. However..." He laughed as he continued, "It''s more like their way of inviting talents into their clans by forging marriage alliances. This way, they upgrade their power through every generation. But, you can say that the stronger a clan is, the lower the number of tokens they give out. That''s because they are capable of handling any outrage, confident of their power." "The Hacka Clan gives out 50 tokens every year," he said, staring at Krune and Feifei. "Even though the competition is intense, as the two of you have climbed up the Immortal Staircase, you''ll be able to snatch a spot easily." "What about your¡­village?" Feifei asked. "Are you not accepting any outsiders?" "Unfortunately, no." He shook his head. "It''s because we aren''t a clan. And, we have too many talents that, honestly speaking, 100 tokens are clearly insufficient. In the past, many outsiders tried to challenge us for the tokens but weren''t able to defeat our contestants. After that, no one dared to challenge us anyway." He then said, boasting a little, "There is only our village surrounding the gate and nothing else." ''Since they all have cultivation techniques suited towards them, they should be easily stronger than their peers.'' Krune thought, suddenly getting an idea. "Wait, since all of them are so strong, then they would be a good influx of talents to our sect.'' Right as he thought of planning accordingly, Feifei acted first, saying, "Why don''t we challenge your talents for the tokens?" "You sure about that? You might be discouraged by it, though." The middle-aged man replied, clearly having expected something similar. "If you still wish to do so, you can challenge our candidates." "That''s great." Feifei laughed, looking at Krune, seeing his figure dance in the air to show his approval. "Then, shall we get going? We are actually pressed for time." Soon, they arrived at the village as Feifei looked at the entrance, noticing a lack of name to the place, asking, "What''s this village called?" "There''s no name. It has been left blank from the start." The middle-aged man laughed. "We are the only village in the entire immortal peak. So, people simply recognize us as the village." The village was slightly more prosperous than the one on the ground level as they arrived at the center, stopping 50 meters before the gate. It was called a gate but was, in actuality, just a door hovering in the air. A flight of steps had been built before it to enter it. The middle-aged man shouted at a wizened old man that was seated at the first flight of stairs that led into the gate, "Chief, we have two outsiders that wish to challenge our talents." The village chief seemed like he lived beyond 100 years, barely having any strength left in him to walk. But, it seemed like he still wished to be in charge of the place, apparent by how he guarded the gate. He struggled to open his eyes, gazing at Krune and Feifei for a minute before saying, "Just give them two tokens and send them in. None of us can even hope to scratch them anyway." Even though he had just whispered, it seemed like everyone in the village could hear it as all of them flashed, surrounding Krune and Feifei. However, none of them acted out of place, simply glaring at the two, wondering why their chief had said as such. "I want to see it for myself." A brute man walked forward, holding an oversized blade in his hands, expressing a sense of ferociousness in his being. The village chief gazed at Feifei and asked her, "Dear, can you raise your arm a bit so that he can hit it until he understands?" "Sure!" Feifei laughed, gently raising her left hand as she looked at the burly man. "Go ahead." Even though he held a blade, looking like he would hack everyone in his path, the burly man first hit Feifei''s outstretched hand using his fist, controlling most of his strength to do so. Unfortunately for him, it seemed like he had slammed into a mountain, for Feifei''s hand didn''t even budge a bit. He then hit using most of his strength, still failing to budge her. Rather, he observed closely now, noticing that even Feifei''s skin remained the same, as if it was indestructible. "Alright, I give up," he spoke, turning around to leave. "I don''t need to probe any further." The burly man then bowed at the chief and apologized, "Sorry for doubting your words, chief." The old man simply smiled in response. One of the villagers arrived with two tokens, giving one each to Krune and Feifei as the village chief said, "All the best in your travels." "Thank you," Feifei replied, suddenly asking while pointing at an empty location in the center of the village. "Can I use this place?" "Sure." The village chief didn''t say anything else, silently watching with interest, anticipating what Feifei would do next. Feifei arrived at the place and gently touched the ground with her index finger. Immediately, a bone tree jutted out of the ground, spanning three meters in height and a meter in width. Its leaves wilted while its branches retreated into the stem that flattened itself into a tablet. Rows upon rows of words appeared on it, containing detailed instructions. Feifei had already removed all the special properties from the bone tree, only keeping it there as a decoration as she said, "If you reach the peak and exit this place, join our sect." "May I know what''s the name of your sect?" The village chief asked in curiosity after swiftly reading through everything written on the bone tree slab. Feifei wrapped her arms around Krune, preventing him from speaking as she said, "You''ll know once you reach the peak." "Interesting." The village chief laughed as he watched Krune and Feifei walk into the gate, disappearing from the place. "It''s time I leave this place, then." The village chief suddenly laughed as his figure morphed into a teenage boy, looking at the oldest in the village. "You''ll be the chief from today onwards." "When I reached the peak, I wasn''t allowed to observe the secrets of the world, saying that I didn''t have the necessary qualifications to do so." The boy grabbed a token, entering the gate as he continued to mutter to himself, "I feel that these two would be able to do so.. And I, Teng Zakutra, will witness it myself." Chapter 1107 - Summit Of Immortal Peak Breakthrough! Second Stage Qi Condensation! Third Stage Qi Condensation! The moment they arrived at the second level, Krune and Feifei circulated their Spiritual Energy, using their extra reserves of Spiritual Energy to forcefully break through the stages. If they were normal cultivators, they had to accumulate enough energy to break through their limits and attain a higher stage. But for them, they already possessed more energy than First Stage Qi Condensation cultivators. For Krune, his Deific Meridians allowed him to convert his energy from one form to another. So, he simply brute-forced his way through easily, without even suffering any side effects. As his Spiritual Energy circulated, his cultivation base stabilized. It was the same for Feifei. Upon completion, they looked at each other, grinning. "This would be a cakewalk." Using Sonic Radar, Krune noticed a couple of people placed sentry nearby. They were people from the village, posted to welcome the new arrivals from the village. Just as they planned to meet up with them, a teenager exited the gate. He looked at Krune and Feifei and asked, "Ah, the both of you are here. My grandfather said to journey with you, saying that it would be fun. Can I accompany you guys?" Krune looked at him, replying, "Sure, if you can keep up, that is." "Of course!" the teenager replied with a cheerful tone. "Let''s meet up with the villagers. I know most of them." "Fine," Feifei said as the trio met up with the two people stationed sentry. And right as she was about to converse with them, her actions paused as sweat dripped down her cheek, noticing a change in the aura of the teenager behind them. Third Stage of Qi Condensation! He had broken through in a manner similar to them. Or rather, there were minor differences, as if he was returning to his original state. "Come with me." The guard posted as sentry brought them towards the village center, relaying the message to the village chief. The village chief shot a glance at Teng Zakutra, saying, "Prepare three tokens. Allow our esteemed guests to head up." "That''s it?" Feifei frowned after hearing that, turning around to look at Teng Zakutra and asking, "Who are you?" "I''m just your casual genius." Teng Zakutra smiled bashfully, sporting an expression of the personification of honesty. Using the three tokens, they passed through the gate, arriving at the third level. And right on time, all three of them broke through to the next level. If they were still unable to understand, their intelligence would have to be questioned. Feifei looked at the teenager, saying, "So, you had sealed your cultivation." "Yep, aren''t you guys the same?" he asked in return. "Nope." Feifei laughed as she explained, "We''re simply breaking through every single time. You should be able to notice the difference since you''ve already reached a higher level of cultivation." "Just¡­who are you guys?" Teng Zakutra asked, completely curious about the identities of the other party now. "You know¡­" Krune sported a solemn tone before responding, "We are just your everyday puny mortals." "¡­" In a similar fashion, they proceeded from one village to another, breaking through the cultivation stages like it meant nothing. Soon, Krune bellowed happily while roaring at the sky, "Foundation Establishment! Woohooo!" He immediately took on a human form, turning into a man in his late sixties. He and Feifei had only become younger by a bit. Krune then looked at Teng Zakutra and told him, "Give us a day¡­a couple of days. We have something important to do." He then gazed at Feifei, thinking of something as he said, "No, we need a week. Otherwise, a certain someone won''t be satis¡­" Before he could complete his sentence, an impact sent him flying away, causing him to crash into a hill far away. Feifei''s eyelids twitched as she looked at Teng Zakutra and told him, "Why don''t you play with your descendants for a couple of weeks? We''ll resume our journey after that." Saying her piece, she flashed away. Immediately after, the wailings of a certain man resounded painfully across for a good half a minute. After that, Teng Zakutra noticed a palace of bones suddenly exiting the ground. A couple of seconds later, the ground tremored as if an earthquake had erupted. The villagers were alerted as they hurriedly approached him, shouting, "Lord Teng Zakutra! You''re here! What''s happening?" "Well¡­" He silently closed his eyes, facing elsewhere. "It isn''t of our concern. Return to the village. I''ll accompany you since it might be dangerous." The amplitude of the earthquake had a strange rhythm to it as it increased in intensity at times before reaching its peak, only to stop soon after. A couple of minutes later, it resumed once again, repeating the process. Two weeks later, the tremors fully stopped as two people appeared in the village. One of them was a lady that seemed like she had turned younger by a decade, while the other was an old man with sunken eye sockets, looking as if he had been wrung dry of all his essence. He was supported by the woman as he seemed to have an intense backache. While walking, Krune weakly whispered, "Just because we haven''t done it for more than 50 years doesn''t mean we should do all 50 years'' worth at a stretch. Balance and rest is key." "Of course, they are. I was just having a trial run with you." Feifei laughed, glaring at Krune. "You didn''t assume it was for real, right?" "O-Of course, not!" Krune replied, facing the other way as he bellowed mentally, ''Fuck!'' Feifei left a bone tree slab in every village, telling them to join their sect after reaching the peak. After that, thanks to Teng Zakutra, they got a free pass in every single village, allowing them to proceed up through the Immortal Peak one after another. Qi Condensation, Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Divine Soul, Soul Forging, Void Breaking, Divine Path, Divine View, Semi Divinity, Divinity, Transformation, Mortal Rejection, and Godly Fusion. With every breakthrough, the duo turned younger and younger until they finally looked like they were twenty years old, brimming with the youth of life. Spiritual Energy, Elemental Energy, Chaos Energy, Divine Energy, and Godly Energy. The quality of energy gradually increased from Spiritual Energy until it finally became Godly Energy. And eventually, the cultivation of the trio had all reached the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm, the limit of Layer 1. And now, they had arrived at the summit of the Immortal Peak. Chapter 1108 - A Cultivational Dystopia "So, this is the summit?" Krune asked, looking around as he saw another flat plain just like all the other levels. The only difference was the fact that everything looked grand and majestic. Then again, Krune didn''t feel anything of the sort now, realizing that the laws of this place had already conformed to the laws of God Realm. With that, he understood the significance of the Immortal Peak. It was to acclimate them to the laws of the God Realm. In fact, it was to scale up their body cultivation to the laws of the God Realm, ensuring the strength they had was, in fact, enormous in the God Realm. After all, a regular cultivator in the God Realm only had the strength of a normal human. Had they been directly transported back to the God Realm, their strength would have been meaningless. After all, it was a Black Demon physique''s strength on a mortal scale. In comparison to the God Realm''s level of power, it was puny. After all, any random cultivator in the God Realm was capable of shattering countless planets in the Mortal Realm with a flick of their finger. But in the God Realm, they weren''t anything special. So, the act of upgrading their body cultivation to the level attuned to the God Realm was the essence of the Immortal Peak''s purpose in existence. Now, Krune''s physique had a weight surpassing 3000 kilograms in the God Realm. If the current him jumped into the Mortal Realm, his body would be as heavy as tens of thousands of planets put together. It seemed that countless people had decided to stay at the peak and proceed with their lives here. After all, thanks to the laws of the God Realm in effect, those birthed here would be at the Mortal Rejection Realm. So, they could simply settle and live their lives peacefully here. After all, the lowest cultivation was the First Stage of Mortal Rejection, while the peak was the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. Even if a person never cultivated, as long as they breathed in the Godly Energy daily, they would reach First Stage Godly Fusion Realm by the time they become adults. So, the world had veered into a strange dystopia where people never bothered to cultivate and simply worked with their society, performing farming, working on jobs, and doing a variety of things. There wasn''t any ounce of things related to cultivation in the place. After all, it didn''t matter since everyone was in the same realm. And one''s strength could at most overpower a couple of people. And that was if they trained themselves in martial arts. If someone tried to do that, they would be captured by the police and jailed for the rest of their lives. The world at the peak was no different from the mortal world. Then again, there existed many techniques here to help make their lives easier. After all, they had an abundance of Godly Energy to abuse. And, every Godly Ability in the place was related to life skills. "Is this why you returned to your village?" Feifei asked. "Yes." Teng Zakutra sighed. "As cultivators that have braved through danger one after other to finally reach this level, it came off as a culture shock to see that these people that lived at the peak of our world didn''t even regard cultivation as anything serious." "Where is the place that you mentioned?" Krune asked. Even if he didn''t go into detail, Teng Zakutra knew very well what Krune had specified, saying, "We''ll have to board the train and journey for more than a month to reach our destination. After all, it''s tremendously far away. However, it costs a fortune to travel that far." He laughed wryly as he continued, "And I don''t have that much money on my hands." "I see," Krune said, closing his eyes as he focused on his subspace, now able to do so since the laws of the place were on par with the God Realm. Otherwise, he was unable to sense it normally, having to depend on his Little Krune fragments within the subspace to sense it. As his cultivation was weaker in the past, he was unable to communicate with them. Their thoughts came off like nuclear bombs in his mind. That''s why he never bothered to communicate with them even once, wholly blocking the channel. He had done that at the start, after arriving at Layer 3 and observing the state of things. Even now, he was unable to open the entrance to his subspace. Even though the Laws of the level were similar to the God Realm, the peak cultivation here was only the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. And that meant his subspace that he attained after arriving at the God Foundation Realm and unlocking his Spiritual Incarnation couldn''t be used here. In any case, he wasn''t disappointed as he had other means to gather wealth. He made eye contact with Feifei, looking at Teng Zakutra before telling him, "Wait here for a day. We''ll quickly return." "Alright." Teng Zakutra could only smile wryly and wait for them, sitting at a corner. Once the duo left, he looked around, noticing his stomach rumble. He then approached a street vendor, asking, "Boss, how much is a chicken skewer?" "Five Rank One God Stones," the vendor replied. As he inhaled the aroma from the chicken skewers, his mouth watered as Teng Zakutra asked, "Boss, can I pay in kind? I''ll work here for a day. You''ll only need to feed me thrice a day." "¡­" The boss looked at Teng Zakutra, noticing the other party dressed in casual clothes, saying, "Consider yourself hired." "Can you handle yourself using a fire?" "Of course." Teng Zakutra laughed in response. "This isn''t the first time I''m doing this. Remember old Wang from the next street? I worked as his assistant during his golden rise." ¡­ A day later, Krune and Feifei had arrived, having unearthed enough treasures to have a sizeable amount of Rank One God Stones in their hand. They looked around the appointed meeting place, failing to find Teng Zakutra around. But in return, they noticed a large crowd had formed while the aromatic smell of roasted chicken wafted everywhere, causing the passerby to drool before they too inquired and joined the crowd. As the duo made their way through the crowd, they noticed Teng Zakutra and the vendor joining hands to flawlessly work in the art of cooking, causing waves of exclaim from the onlookers. Seeing such a scene, Krune snorted, looking at Feifei as he cracked his knuckles. "These people really wish to flex in front of a Spiritual Chef.. Let me show them who''s the boss of the culinary world." Chapter 1109 - Double Soul Cultivator "Boss, please continue to work in my stall. I''ll pay you 50 percent of the profits." The stall vendor grabbed Krune''s thigh, begging after having tasted true delicacy, the delicacy of rolling money. "As if. You didn''t even eat a single item that I cooked. How do you expect me to work in your stall?" Krune cursed back, extricating himself from the vendor''s hold. "I could have sold them for money. Why would I waste it by eating it?" The boss said like it was a matter of fact, looking at Krune with concern, wondering if the other party had a couple of screws loose. "Anyways, I only joined in for fun. I don''t have time to be working here," Krune said soon after, waving his hand as he walked away. "Alright," The vendor sighed, turning around to look at Teng Zakutra. "How about you? If you work with me, I''ll give you 45 percent of the profits." "¡­no thank you." Teng Zakutra turned around and walked away. The vendor looked at their receding backs, sighing before grinning once. "Anyways, I made as much as what I would make in two years. Plus, I don''t need to share profits with them." He laughed, looking at the bustling crowd, "Thanks to these two, I have a lot of attention on my stall. I''ve cooked chicken all my life. I''m sure my skills are in no way inferior to them." "On top of that, I''ve copied their techniques." He grinned. "I might lose to them in other delicacies, but not with chicken." He began to work once again, replicating Krune''s and Teng Zakutra''s techniques flawlessly, causing the crowd to go bonkers as the queue became even longer. He was all smiles when suddenly, he noticed, all his stock of chicken had run out. "Wait, boss, I run a chicken farm. I''ll supply you an exclusive batch." One of the customers hurriedly came forward, presenting him a card. "Just say the word, and I''ll bring you a batch right now." "Please hurry up," the vendor said, whispering in return. "I''ll treat you to my special brewed chicken as a kind gesture." "You''re the boss!" The man flashed a thumbs up and contacted his farm, quickly bringing a batch within ten minutes. In a similar fashion, many other people also arrived to help him with the supplies, earnestly anticipating the completed product while drooling. "Sir, do you mind opening a restaurant? I''m sure you''ll make more money this way." A real estate owner quickly noticed the opportunity, noticing the cash flow into the vendor''s hands. "There''s one in this street as well. It was closed down just last week." "Oh, you mean that one?" The vendor understood, having passed by that shop daily to return home. "Tell me the price." "A down payment of 1000 God Stones and an interest of 100 God Stones every month. You can buy it within five years," the real-estate owner replied. ''At the rate I''m going, I can pay it off within a couple of months.'' The vendor laughed, handing over the down payment immediately as he signed off the contract. One of the customers was a lawyer who helped smooth things up. Another person that worked on interiors quickly worked in refurbishing the place, making the place ready within a couple of days. Throughout the day, the vendor was busy, already noticing an even bigger crowd. A week later, he transferred all his goods to the restaurant, earning money the likes of which he hadn''t ever seen. His family and friends too arrived to help with the work, shaving off some of his burdens, also profiting from the lucrative business and the hype their restaurant carried. Seeing the prosperity brought towards his life, the vendor thanked two people in his mind. "I''ve sold the same chicken all my life, but I never made such a large sum. It''s thanks to the hands of the two of them. They have hands that perform miracles, truly." As for the concerned people, they were currently traveling through a train, tremendously bored. They had been talking nonstop for the past few days until their throats turned sore. And now, when they rested, they felt bored. After some time, they began to share the many incidents that they had experienced in their lives, soon making the atmosphere lively. Once Teng Zakutra came to know about the truth of the Four Realms, he sighed, amazed. "To think such a massive place existed. I truly am a frog at the bottom of the well." "Not actually," Krune replied. "This Sub-Realm is actually created by a joint venture of many Gods. So, there are many things here that aren''t even available in the God Realm. Just consider the Spiritual Marks. They don''t exist in the God Realm. You also have one, right?" "Yes," Teng Zakutra nodded, thinking, ''Two of them, in fact.'' He had an interesting encounter during his childhood. When he was young, he was indeed a genius, one that stood out among millions of youths. He had also ventured forth to the Alacatra Ruins, obtaining a powerful Spiritual Mark. Just when he had exited, a strange fluctuation had happened in the place as a bolt of lightning landed on him, singeing him, causing him to fall unconscious. When he woke up, he felt strange, for he could sense his soul in the first place. Surprisingly, there was a second soul there, one forming a small connection to his own. And, it was a dragon that belonged to a once-mighty existence. Dragon! After being defeated, the dragon had hoped to take over his body after destroying his soul, hence why it had appeared in him in the first place. Though, the lightning bolt had destroyed its ego, its personality, and its sense of self. Now, the only thing remaining in its soul was pure knowledge, and of course, the Spiritual Mark that it had obtained. Thanks to this connection between their souls, Teng Zakutra was also able to siphon the power of the dragon''s Spiritual Mark. Thanks to this, he was stronger than even cultivators with Spiritual Marks, also becoming the strongest of his village, blazing through the levels before arriving at the peak.. The moment Krune talked about the Four Realms, it seemed the final restriction in the dragon''s soul shattered, causing all the knowledge it had about the Four Realms to flow into him. Chapter 1110 - The Group Reunites Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, the trio finally arrived at their destination, the supposedly tallest mountain at the Immortal Peak. It stretched for a lot of distance, passing through the clouds. Gazing at it, Teng Zakutra sighed, saying, "This mountain spans 12,314 meters in height. It''s the tallest peak on this level and is also the actual peak of the Immortal Peak. At the top is a staircase that supposedly leads to heaven or something." "But..." He sighed in disappointment. "I was unable to set foot on it. The moment I tried to do so, a heavenly voice whispered that I didn''t have the qualifications. Of course, I was indignant to hear that. I set foot on the stairs anyway. And guess what, my feet passed through it." "So, this is that peak." Krune nodded, gazing at Feifei before asking, "Shall we check it out once?" "Sure." Feifei nodded as Krune summoned his Cloud Whale, shocking Teng Zakutra. Without wasting any time, the Cloud Whale flew up the mountain, reaching the top within an hour, to indeed see the flight of stairs reaching the top. Krune landed on the peak, gently touching the first step with his toe, noticing that he was indeed able to set foot on it. He muttered, "Is it because that I possess the body cultivation method am I able to touch it?" Feifei too arrived, gently touching the first step to see that she was able to feel it as well. "That should be the case." "Then¡­" Krune thought, suddenly casting a beam with the development effect on Teng Zakutra, causing the other party to look in surprise to see that his physique was slowly growing stronger. After a couple of minutes, Krune said to him, "Try and see if it works now." Nodding, Teng Zakutra hesitantly touched the first step, noticing that the sensation he felt was akin to touching jelly. "It''s not firm enough for me to travel." "I see." Krune nodded, smiling as he said, "Then, it''s simple." He then focused the beam with the development effect on Teng Zakutra until his body weight increased by a kilogram. After that, upon touching the staircase, Teng Zakutra was able to feel that it was solid underneath. "So, a kilogram of the body cultivation is sufficient." Feifei nodded, gazing at Krune as she continued, "Make pills so that anyone that ingests one can obtain a kilogram worth of weight within a day. I''ll take care of the necessary preparations." She then looked at Teng Zakutra and asked him, "Your village also exists here, right?" "Yes," Teng Zakutra nodded as he replied. "Alright," Feifei said, creating a bone tree slab similar to the ones she planted in the villages in all the levels, giving it to Teng Zakutra, along with a couple of development pills Krune had created. "Place it within your village while giving these to the chief there. Explain what you have seen here. Tell them that if they wish to join a powerful sect upon arriving at the God Realm, they''ll have to follow what is written on that slab." "Alright, I''ll do that," Teng Zakutra said, placing the bone tree slab within his storage ring as he calmly jumped down from the side of the peak, descending down through the slopes rapidly, using winds to control his jumps. Suddenly while moving partway through his descent, his body vanished, reappearing within the village that was situated tens of thousands of kilometers away, gasping for breath upon arrival. He had activated one of his Spiritual Marks to achieve this. He then met with the village chief, telling him of everything that he had expressed, conveying the method to climb onto the flight of stairs beyond the peak. His news brought excitement to the villagers. After all, they shared the sentiment of a cultivator. After conveying everything, Teng Zakutra used all the God Stones he had in his possession, recharging his Spiritual Mark fully before beginning his journey. This time, he traveled by train after asking for the travel funds from the village chief. His Spiritual Mark needed a tremendous quantity of Godly Energy to activate. In any case, that wasn''t something he possessed at his current cultivation base. He had only used it before to shorten the travel time. Eventually, he returned to the mountain, stunned to see that many things had changed here. First was a sect that had silently appeared in place. Its entire walls had been created with the same material that formed the bone tree slab Feifei had given him. And, roaming within were Monster Geckos. The moment he saw them. Teng Zakutra was surprised, shocked even as he was unable to understand just what had happened. Soon, he saw Feifei walking out, waving at him while asking, "Are you done with your work already?" "Yep," Teng Zakutra said, asking in response, "What''s happening here?" "Oh, they''re just helpers that would be helping me with managing all the stuff. When the villagers arrive here, they''ll be the ones to guide them with the necessity to leave this place," Feifei replied. Though, Teng Zakutra wasn''t looking at her. Rather, his attention was grabbed by the hill that looked odd, something he hadn''t noticed before. And, right as he thought as such, the hill moved. It was a living being. Supreme Monster Gecko! The sight of it scared him, for its presence overwhelmed him, surpassing him in strength. He would have to use his second Spiritual Mark to emerge victorious while facing it. And this was just something Feifei had summoned. Right as he was wondering about the true extent of Feifei''s power, he could feel even more ridiculous auras behind him, turning around to see another group walking towards him. Upon noticing their approach, Feifei shouted, "You guys were too late. Krune and I almost died from old age." "The Alacatra Ruins proved troublesome for us." Zamuria sighed. "There were some complications that we faced there." "Well, I managed to complete it within four days, you know. It''s a difference in skill, sheer skill." Krune had turned into his wisp form, purposefully taunting the group, looking down on them from high up in the air. "When this majesty entered it, the Alacatra Ruins had to bow before my awesomeness." "The God that created it was probably your friend." Zamura snorted. Even though he had hit the mark right on its head, Krune didn''t accept it.. "It''s purely thanks to my s-skill." Chapter 1111 - Three Ultimate Treasures "Where''s Solare?" Krune asked after failing to notice him, gazing at the Seamstress. The Seamstress shook her head as she told him, "He just reached the Core Formation Realm. As this is his first time cultivating, he is unaware of many things. So, we left him behind to slowly catch up. I had an inkling that you''ll be preparing something like this to bring in more talented disciples for our sect. After all, we saw Feifei''s bone tree tablets along the way." "Well, you''re right about that." Krune nodded, realizing that they too had arrived using the route maintained by the village. So, it meant that Solare was in the custody of the villagers. "Great, this way, Solare would finally be able to expand his horizons and understand the value of things better." "That is true." The Seamstress sighed as she heard that. "Though, he began to cry the moment I left him behind. He''s already forty years old now." The Black Demons were in a similar situation as Solare, struggling while they slowly increased their cultivation while moving using the gates belonging to the village. As for the villagers, they noticed the differences between them and the Black Demons, broadening their horizons about many things. In any case, it created a harmonious relationship. "Shall we get going now?" Krune said before asking Feifei, "How''s it going?" "Yeah, I''ll be able to create enough Tier 1 Essences before the stock is depleted," Feifei said, holding a Tier 1 Demon Core in her hands. It was something she had brought with her as a souvenir, one of the many things she had brought with her. Thankfully, after producing a Supreme Monster Gecko, Feifei sighed in relief as the Supreme Monster Gecko worked in maintaining the functionality of the place. It kept a Yellow Demon captive, causing it to generate miasma after absorbing Godly Energy. After that, it placed a Tier 1 Demon Core within the miasma, causing its body to form slowly. And, once it was revived, The Supreme Monster Gecko killed it, extracting its Tier 1 Demon Core, making the Demon corpse remain within the miasma. Soon, its body regenerated before beginning to produce a Demon Core eventually. The Supreme Monster Gecko then repeated the same process, accumulating as many Tier 1 Demon Cores as possible. Surprisingly, in its hands was the Essence Generator used in Layer 2. Using that, it was generating Tier 1 Essences, enough to increase one''s weight by a kilogram. However, as Godly Energy was limited in the area, the efficiency of this process was slow, requiring one month to create a Tier 1 Essence. But thankfully, there was Krune here, having condensed more than ten thousand development spheres. So, this reserve gave them enough leeway to slowly accumulate the Tier 1 Essences. Moreover, Feifei had planted powerful bone trees deep within this clan, allowing at least one Monster Gecko King to be birthed every year. This way, she was assured that everything in the place would function accordingly to her wishes, placing the orders within the bone tree itself. So, the birthed Monster Geckos would follow the orders without any issues. There were also bone trees to birth Mutant and regular Monster Geckos, ensuring to maintain a sizeable Monster Gecko population. Now that a method to make the visitors embark on the path of body cultivation had been established, Krune summoned his Cloud Whale, carrying everyone with him as they reached the mountain peak, descending before the flight of stairs that simply headed into the sky, passing through the clouds. "Me first!" Krune laughed, stepping foot first as he began to scale up the flight of stairs. Feifei closely followed him while the rest walked one after another. It took an hour for them to reach the clouds, passing through them before arriving on a platform. It wasn''t anything spectacular, other than being a circular platform where five statues were placed around. The moment they arrived, a voice resounded, telling them, "Congratulations, cultivators! You have managed to reach the end of the Sub-Realm. Now, you''ll be able to obtain rewards." Right as the voice said so, the tablets of everyone flew out, hovering in the air. [Reward Distribution] [Pocket Ring: 5000 Godly Points] [Godly Vein: 10,000 Godly Points] [Sub-Realm: 100,000 Godly Points] "Since the lot of you arrived as a group, you can pool all your Godly Points to make the purchase," the voice told them. ''Pocket Ring is a massive storage space where even living beings can be kept within. That''s not useful to me since I already have my subspace. Godly Vein generates Godly Energy constantly. So, it has the utmost value here. As for the Sub-Realm, it would give us a large space to cultivate within, easy to defend and hard to breach.'' Krune thought things through, transferring all his Godly Points to Zamura. "You make the purchase. At most, buy one Pocket Ring. Beyond that is simply unnecessary." Zamura said in surprise, "You''ve managed to accumulate 17,165 Godly Points?" "Haha, I hunted a lot of Black Demons when I rampaged around." Krune laughed, feeling smug as he noticed the Godly Point accumulations of everyone else. [Teng Zakutra: 3 Godly Points] [Seamstress: 8,341 Godly Points] [Zamuria: 11,111 Godly Points] [Zamura: 15,148 Godly Points] [Feifei: 84,999 Godly Points] Upon seeing Fefei''s Godly Point accumulation, everyone inhaled a sharp breath of air while Zamuria calmly uttered, "Indeed, she''s the one that changed the entire Layer 2." In the end, their grand total amounted to 136,767 Godly Points as Zamura responded to the voice, "We''ll get a Sub-Realm, three Godly Veins, and one Pocket Ring." "Alright." The voice resounded as 135,000 Godly Points were deducted before five items appeared in Zamura''s hands, along with their instruction of use. And right after that, the voice chuckled, saying, "Brace for impact." "Eh?" They were caught off-guard when their tablets suddenly melted, turning into tribulation lightning as it attacked its respective owner, causing them to scream in agony as it damaged their body considerably. The voice resounded, speaking, "Even though you have been tempered with the tribulation lightning during your various breakthroughs, the laws of body cultivation have yet to truly fuse into your laws. This is the final step to attaining that. With this, you won''t face any problems upon returning to the God Realm." "However, if you die from being unable to endure the tribulation lightning, everything would become a huge waste of time." Chapter 1112 - Returning To The God Realm "Ack!" Krune screamed in pain as the tribulation lightning wreaked havoc in his body, causing many places to melt as he was unable to endure its sheer power. It was anything beyond what he had ever faced. Moreover, he hadn''t prepared to guard against it as it was generated from within his body once the tablet returned to his glabella. Due to this, he was unable to defend against it, having no other choice but to endure. Eventually, after more than two hours passed in such a fashion, Krune thumped on the floor, barely alive when the voice laughed. "Impressive! You managed to withstand that!" Right as it said that, a mysterious energy wrapped around Krune, healing him back to full health, repeating the same thing to the others that also dropped to the ground, remaining in a half-dead state. Once they got up, all of them realized that they were slightly stronger than before. The voice then said after that, "Now, everything you have obtained in this Sub-Realm is wholly yours. It has been integrated into your respective Spiritual Incarnations. With that, once you return to the God Realm, you won''t face any issues." "Where would we return to the God Realm?" Krune asked. "You''ll return to the center of the Four Sectors Border Region in the Zamuria Continent," the voice replied. "Though, you can also be teleported towards anywhere you wish." "Then, can you transport everyone to my Land Incarnation?" Krune asked. "Give me a second," the voice replied as one of the statues used its divine sense to inspect him, asking him soon after, "You have placed your Land Incarnation in two places. One is in Zamuria Continent while the other is outside it. Which one do you wish to be transported towards?" "I''ll return to the Four Sectors Borders Region," Krune replied. "Can you send the rest there?" "That shouldn''t be an issue." The voice replied. "Why are you heading there?" Zamura asked in curiosity. "For the Predominated Vines, of course." Krune grinned. "That''s the best way to obtain Predominated Fruits, right? I have enough methods to obtain them." "Alright, if you say so." Zamura laughed, flashing him a thumbs up, handing over the Pocket Ring to him. "You can use this to transport them. Loot the place dry!" "Of course!" Krune laughed. Feifei then asked the voice, "As for those part of our group and the villagers that arrive here in the future, can you send them to the same location that we will be heading towards now?" "Yes, I can do that," the voice replied. "Let me leave a message for the others," Feifei muttered, giving some instructions to the Monster Geckos at the foot of the mountain. "Now, when the Black Demons gather, they''ll pool their Godly Points to get as many Godly Veins as possible." With more Godly Veins, their need for Godly Energy would be satiated to some extent. Krune then looked at Zamura. "Wait in the place. Don''t start until I arrive. I''ll come within a month or two once I gather as many as I can." "Sure," Zamura nodded as he replied. "Until then, we''ll determine the perfect location for the establishment of our sect." "Alright," As Krune said that, the figures of everyone vanished from the place. The voice sighed after a couple of seconds. "From now onwards. New waves would be generated in the God Realm." "I''m curious as to what name this sect would have and what it would generate in the future." ¡­ "I''m finally back. To think I would already begin to miss this place." Krune took in a deep breath of air, noticing his cultivation base recovering to the Eighth Stage of the God Foundation Realm. Now that he was no longer inhibited, Krune sensed his body based on his new cultivation technique¡ª the Deific Wisp Technique. ''I see, my body cultivation is currently at the Ninth Stage of the God Core Realm.'' His weight surpassing 3000 kilograms was what he would have possessed when at the peak of the God Core Realm. Krune grinned, sensing his Mental Energy as he continued, ''I see, it''s only at the Second Stage of the God Foundation Realm. Now, I don''t need to struggle in training it separately. I can simply cultivate everything in one setting.'' "I''ll be able to increase all three in unison once I reach the Ninth Stage God Core Realm." Krune sighed in relief, thinking of something as he sent out a clone, now inspecting his subspace. "Holy shit, it already spans a kilometer in size!" While he was within the Sub-Realm, the Little Krune fragments within the subspace continued to comprehend the laws related to it, causing its size to constantly grow. So now, he had already obtained a sizeable space to use within. Then again, Krune didn''t think about it too much for the time being, waiting in patience as the clone headed towards one of the Predominated Vines at the place, touching it only using its body cultivation to uproot it. Even though there was no reaction when the energy touched the Predominated Vine, the moment the clone touched it, the Predominated Vine smacked it to the ground, wrapping around it as its Spiritual Incarnation was dissolved. Within a couple of seconds, the clone was killed and devoured by the Predominated Vine, causing Krune to inhale a sharp breath of air. "That was indeed dangerous." Only then did he realize the fact that he was at the core of the Four Sectors Border Region, wishing to smack himself on the head for attempting to attack the Predominated Vines in his surroundings. After all, they were immortals. First Stage Semi-God Realm! The level of power they possessed wasn''t yet something he could bridge the gap of yet. "I shouldn''t be excessively greedy. Besides, the Four Sectors Border Region is really vast." Laughing, he began to run towards the edges of the region, targeting a Predominated Vine at the outermost layer, condensing a beam of ice as he yanked it out of the ground, including the soil its roots were attached into. Thanks to his Sonic Radar and Mental Energy, Krune was able to map its entirety without any issues, attacking perfectly.. The Predominated Vine wriggled while it was sent flying in the air, trying its best to resist when a layer of ice formed on its body, freezing it while Krune used the chance, quickly sending it within the Pocket Ring. Chapter 1113 - Looting The Predominated Vines The Predominated Vine quickly broke free of the layer of ice covering its body, flustered as its surroundings had changed. There was no longer the Suppression Law in place. Moreover, it was unable to see any more of its kind around it, failing to understand just what had happened. Thankfully, it at least had the soil held by its roots. Otherwise, it would have been thrown into this place without anything to latch onto. "Alright, that was a success." Krune grinned, sending out five clones. All of them possessed the same abilities as him, so they were able to perform a lot of things. Each clone attacked a Predominated Vine, yanking it out of the ground along with the soil it had latched onto. While in the air, it was swiftly frozen by a layer of ice when Krune sent it into his Pocket Ring. As all six¡ªfive clones and Krune¡ªhad activated their Ocean Turbulence, the sounds of the ocean waves were incomparably loud, causing the Predominated Vines to faintly shudder. They were unable to win against him in a contest of strength, having no other option but to be uprooted and stored in his Pocket Ring. As it was currently wartime between three continents, there was none in this place. After all, despite its value, it was also risky to tread upon. After all, a single misstep was enough to send all the Predominated Vines attacking them. So, none of the armies from the other two continents dared use this path. Rather, there was no need to do so since everything of value had already been concentrated within the Royal Capital of the Zamuria Continent. As the other two continents too had done the same, they concentrated attacks directly on their respective capital cities. This allowed Krune to calmly and patiently pluck out one Predominated Vine after another like uprooting grass. In the meantime, spanning a vast ocean that almost seemed endless, barely littered with tiny islands, there was a barren island atop which an energy-gathering formation had been built using Krune''s Land Incarnation. One after another, people flashed atop it, starting with Feifei. They looked around, witnessing the vast stretch of ocean, spanning as far as their eyes could see. "This is a good place," Zamura muttered. "To think such a place existed beyond Zamuria Continent," Zamuria muttered, turning around as she noticed a mountain range far away, shuddering for some reason as she looked in the direction. "What¡­the heck is that?" "An abyss of prayers," Zamura said solemnly. "An abyss of prayers?" Zamuria asked in shock. "What does that mean?" "Well, that''s the name Krune gave it anyway." Zamura said, continuing, "Anyone that entered there would eventually turn into a wish-granting machine for the indigenous populace within. Once targeted, even if you end up committing suicide, it would only reset the corruption to your mind. You''ll start to be corrupted right after your revival." "Either you become their wish-granting machine or revive endlessly for all eternity to escape the curse," Zamura finished his piece. "That''s the type of place it is." Suddenly, they noticed the dense Godly Energy in the place stir up as Krune appeared. He was just a clone that was created, possessing a cultivation base of First Stage Godly Fusion Realm. "I can converse through this clone," Krune told them. "The harvest of the Predominated Vines is proceeding smoothly. I probably won''t be able to bring in the Immortal Predominated Vines. But as for the rest, I''ll try to bring in as much as I can." "How much did you capture until now?" Zamura asked. "Just a couple. But, once I get a handle of their abilities, I''ll be able to capture them better," Krune replied, frowning a bit before saying, "Though, it feels like I cannot take too many of them. The Suppression Law at the place would prevent me from bringing in any Predominated Vines from the core region of the place. At most, I''ll be able to bring from the outer region." "How many would that result in?" Zamuria asked, wondering just how Krune was able to capture them so easily. If it was possible, her family would have stored them all in their private sub-realm. After all, the Predominated Vines were the only ones that produced a Predominated Fruit. On top of that, using the Predominated Fruit was the easiest way to condense a Spiritual Incarnation. So, it was a strategic resource. However, the moment anyone tried to affect the Predominated Vines, the Suppression Law in the place would act upon them. All the Predominated Vines would latch onto the person until nothing was left behind. Even a Primal God cannot completely escape from being affected by the place. So, she was unable to guess as to how Krune was able to do it. "Around the tens of thousands," Krune answered. "If my cultivation reached the Nascent God Realm, I should be able to uproot the entirety of the outer region." His words shocked Zamuria, for she knew just how impossible to think such a notion was. Then again, Krune had the Mental Energy to rely upon. Using it, he was able to prevent any other Predominated Vines from acting up while he pocketed them one after another. Without Mental Energy to shield his actions and the targeted area, it would be impossible to uproot them. ''I see, so it isn''t just Feifei that''s special. Krune is even more ridiculous.'' She sighed, glancing at Zamura once. ''Of course, he''s also ridiculous. No wonder they became friends.'' "Pick a good location to set up our sect. I''ll remain here since the cultivation of this clone is too weak," Krune said. "Alright, we''ll tell you once we scout through this place completely," Zamura said before pointing at the ocean. "I''ll scout it completely. I have abilities to suit this. Can the rest of you scout through this place?" "Sure!" Feifei, Zamuria, and the Seamstress replied in unison before they used their respective abilities to roam and scout the surroundings. "What about me?" Teng Zakutra asked, feeling left out from the start. "Stay here and cultivate. At present, you''re too weak. Once you reach the God Foundation Realm and obtain a Spiritual Incarnation, only then would you truly be able to contribute." Zamura jumped into the ocean water, leaving behind a statement. "The density of the Godly Energy here is high. So, cultivate first." "If only my energy-gathering formation encompassed a larger area instead of this tiny island." Krune sighed as he muttered, "The quantity and quality of energy we could have accumulated within these past four decades would have been a stellar sum." "In any case, it''s still pretty good." He nodded, gazing at Teng Zakutra, saying, "I''ll be guiding you from now onwards.. Cultivate like there''s no tomorrow." Chapter 1114 - Guardian Spirit At the start, it seemed like it wouldn''t take long. But in actuality, two years had already passed when everyone gathered at the starting island, tremendously exhausted. "There are more than a million kilometers before any other continent came into our line of sight," the Seamstress said, plopping to the ground as she told all her experiences. "The waters here only have demon beast fishes that are at the Godly Fusion Realm. The Godly Energy within the waters is too little to be worth nothing about. There isn''t anything of value here," Zamura said. "I sensed one hotspot for Godly Energy. It''s located smack dab in the middle of this ocean stretch," Feifei told the others. "So, I feel like it would be the best location for us to set up our sect." "This entire stretch of water is as peaceful as it can get. Plus, we are walled on all sides by mountain ranges that seem like they have no height limit. So, this is the perfect location for us to establish our sect." Feifei grinned, liking the place a lot, "We won''t have any enemies to worry about. Plus, I can use my Monster Geckos to hunt in the ocean for food without any problems of the food supply ever running out. If necessary, they could also act as a food supply." Right at this time, a second clone of Krune arrived, riding his Cloud Whale, saying, "I have been going about, placing my Land Incarnations everywhere while encompassing its maximum range. Even though it''s a trickle of Godly Energy at present, it would eventually become a substantial amount." He then said, "I''m almost done on my end as well. Give me a couple of days. I''ll return by then." "Alright, we''ll rest until then," Zamura said as everyone straight up began to sleep in their respective positions. A couple of days later, the clone on the island got up as the subspace appeared within it. Once it opened up its entrance, Krune walked out, sending out all his clones to explore and lay down Land Incarnations everywhere. He planned to encompass a massive area within his energy-gathering formation. "Let''s head towards the location you decided," Krune said, summoning his Cloud Whale that carried everyone, reaching a certain location after three months of nonstop travel. "The ocean waters here are the deepest of them all," Zamura said once they had arrived at their destination. The spot wasn''t any different from the other places, except for the density of the Godly Energy being slightly higher. Then again, even this density was a tad weaker to the level of Godly Energy present in general on the Zamuria Continent. This was also one of the reasons why no sects established themselves in such places. After all, there were no special resources, mining areas, or Danger Zones with special properties here. So, only a fool would establish a sect here. But, since any place with a rich resource reserve would have been occupied with sects that stood tall for tens of thousands of years with numerous immortals guarding it, they had no other choice but to settle here. Still, they had an incomparable advantage in the fact that they possessed a Sub-Realm. It was enormous, the treasure prepared by the Gods, spanning a radius of a million kilometers. Moreover, the laws forming it were no different from those forming the God Realm. So, they could break through within the Sub-Realm without any troubles. This was the advantage they possessed that no other sect had. At most, the Sub-Realms they possessed would be those created by the Primal God in charge of the sect, one refined through countless years by numerous generations of Sect Masters. But at the end of the day, they were made by Primal Gods, not Gods themselves. Moreover, they also had the body cultivation to their advantage. This was the reason Krune and Zamura talked about establishing a sect in such a barren region. "Alright, take it out, Krune!" Zamura said, "I''ll turn it into equipment." "Alright," Krune said, handing over a spatial ring that he took out from his subspace. In it contained a pile of rock that he had taken from Layer 4¡ªEpic Hell. It was the material he used to create Pestlor. Zamura carefully took the lump of earth out of the spatial ring, watching it begin to expand as it sucked in all the Godly Energy from the surroundings. "This is..." Zamuria was confused before she shuddered. "From Layer 4?" Every region in Layer 4 conformed to a different setting. But in one way or another, they ensured using Godly Energy would cause disaster. So, Zamuria realized that Krune had brought this material with him. "Yes." Krune laughed. "I also made a weapon out of it." Zamura suddenly grinned while emanating a massive influx of Godly Energy, having activated his Spiritual Incarnation. He began to refine the lump of earth into a single disc, intending to create a base, a platform for the sect to be established upon. He spent two days in the refinement process, carefully doing it while keeping the material suppressed all along. Eventually, he awakened its Spirit, a humanoid creature with brown fur and a pair of antlers on the forehead. "As the equipment spirit of our sect''s landmass, you''ll be addressed as Mountain Sect''s Guardian Spirit." "Yes, that is my pleasure." The Guardian Spirit made a respectful bow. "Mountain Sect¡­" Krune frowned. "Why did you choose this name? There were better choices in the list I gave you." "Well¡­" Zamura said after a thought. "It seemed like you were the most excited about this name. So I thought, why not? It feels basic but, at the same time, unique in the sense that no one would pick such a name. And, it represents a mountain, stable and tall, a perfect representation of our sect where everyone possesses bodies that would weigh as much as entire mountains in the future." "I see¡­I see¡­" Krune nodded. "Indeed, as a name I recommended, it has such a detailed thought process and symbolism behind it. The Mountain Sect¡­huh. The more I think of it, the more I realize that my naming skills have already surpassed my knowledge." "Am I a freaking genius?" Chapter 1115 - The Mountain Sect Even though Krune played it off as his usual self, he was internally breaking out into cold sweat. After all, when he gave a list of names to Zamura, the other party had proposed a rather scary thought process. "Since each of us has different hair colors and are the founding members of this sect, there should be a good name to give it, right? And, since your hair is a mix of colors, I thought of¡­" "Stop!" Krune shouted, quickly thinking of something as the gears in his brain spun at speeds surpassing his usual self as his Mental Energy was consumed at an alarming rate, reaching peak efficiency as he thought up a plan, hurriedly looking around as he acted afraid. He then sneaked before Zamura, whispering, "Don''t say that name out loud. Anything related to colors is a no-go. In the Lower Realms, there was something called the Rainbow Sect. And, Feifei had a¡­history with this. If we use the same name, there''s a guarantee that she will leave us. Even I won''t be able to change her mind." "Something like that happened?" Zamura said with mild excitement. "Tell me more. What happened later? What was this history between them?" "I''ll leave to her. If she wishes to share it one day, she''ll do it herself." Krune sported a solemn tone as he replied. "So, anything related to colors is a no-no. I''ll give you four choices. All of them conform to our goal." "The Cliffhanger Sect, The Mountain Sect, The Plot Armor Sect, and the Pioneer Sect," Krune said, shooting off anything that came to his mouth, "I feel like these are titles that represent our sect the greatest. Since you are its sect master, I''ll leave the final decision to you. I''ll be fine with whichever of the four you choose. But, you must only choose from these four, got it?" "Alright," Zamura sighed. "They sound something like you''d come up with, but I guess using wacky names are the best." Back to the present day, Krune sighed in relief, relaxing only now, ''Thank god, he didn''t pick the abomination of a name like the Rainbow Sect.'' "The Mountain Sect," Zamuria muttered. "Well, it''s good enough, I guess. No point in stressing about it too much." As she was named after her continent, Zamuria didn''t have much expectations of names in the first place. As for Feifei and the Seamstress, they silently stared at Krune, easily guessing that he was the one behind the name. Even though his back was slick with sweat from the stares, Krune acted oblivious, making it seem like he was immersed in Zamura''s actions. Once he finished creating the disc and birthed the equipment spirit, the size of the disc remained the same. It didn''t expand any longer, not controllable based on the Guardian Spirit''s wishes. On top of that, it followed Zamura''s command. Zamura carried the disc, facing everyone as he said, "Now, let''s discuss the layout of things. Once I expand it in size, I''ll also expand the ground to make it resemble the architecture as well. This way, the entire sect would be one piece of equipment." "For convenience''s sake, let''s use this to carve out the structures we need," Krune said, condensing blocks of ice, giving pieces to everyone while he condensed a complicated palace of sorts, placing it in the center. "This would be the Sect Tower. The entrance to our Sub-Realm would be within it. People would stream in and out of it nonstop to perform various tasks that we allot to them." "That''s great. The design is also majestic enough," Zamura said, nodding in response as everyone else began to pitch in their ideas. Eventually, once the entire layout was completed, Zamura said, "The Mountain Sect is atop a disc-shaped platform. Based on the envisioned layout, it would span a radius of 100 kilometers upon completion." It had taken them an entire year just to plan everything that had to be incorporated into the sect. There were countless arguments, discussions, debates, and so on. Many ideas were put together, scrapped, clubbed, or used for purposes not intended at first. The disc in Zamura''s hands had been expanded to a radius of 100 meters to maintain a 1:1000 scale. And even then, they had to use their Divine Sense to carefully plan and determine everything. Once everyone was satisfied with the result, Zamura began to refine the disc, causing the surface to morph before numerous structures appeared, replacing the similar-looking ice structures they had made temporarily during their discussions. As Zamura installed everything in place, everyone else guided him, pointing him at places where the precision wasn''t enough, or the workmanship wasn''t sufficient. As a blacksmith, Krune also participated in the refinement process, working tirelessly while the others supported them. The work here required a tremendous extent of detailed planning as they had to install every single idea that they had factored into the layout. Finally, after a couple of months of grueling refinement, they completed the layout as numerous Divine Senses flashed through it, inspecting it to the limit before everyone gave their nod of approval. "Amazing!" "Perfect!" "Pretty! Majestic!" "Beautiful!" "Now, for the final touch to make this a reality." Zamura smiled, taking out a Godly Vein from within the Sub-Realm in his hand, gently inserting it into the core of the disc as the Guardian Spirit appeared, grunting in pain. Zamura was refining the Godly Vein, fusing it into the Guardian Spirit to make them a singular entity. This way, all the operations of the sect would be stable and functional. As the Guardian Spirit screamed in pain, it was steadily evolving. Moreover, at the final step of the process, Zamura grunted as a green radiance emanated from his body, wrapping around the disc as he was forcefully elevating its quality, removing any defects that might have arisen within it as he finally inserted the Sub-Realm into the Sect Tower in the center, causing a green radiance to emit from the disc as everything fused into a singular entity. Bellowing in laughter upon seeing that it was a resounding success, Zamura roared, "Guardian Spirit! Take flight!" Chapter 1116 - Home! "Guardian Spirit! Take flight!" As Zamura roared in laughter, the disc slowly floated towards the sky while the Guardian Spirit hovered beside it. Right at this moment, the Godly Vein within began to emit Godly Energy, causing the disc to absorb it and begin to slowly grow in size. The growth speed was slow since Zamura had ensured there wouldn''t be any defects in the process. Moreover, the growth process was itself another round of refinement as the disc increased in strength while the Guardian Spirit''s cultivation also continued to increase. "This is amazing!" Zamuria looked at the scene with widened eyes, watching the layout they created expand in size to slowly become a reality. It was a mystical scene. Krune and Feifei held each other''s hand, silently staring at the expanding disc as he said, "Our permanent home." "Indeed, it is." Feifei smiled, tearing up in response. "All our life, we have been traveling from one place to another. And for most of our lives, we''ve been apart. It''s about time we lived together from now on." "You''re right about that. Soon enough, our entire family would be living here," Krune said, hugging Feifei. "You''ll live in peace, happiness, and a sense of comfort here." "I already am happy just to stay by your side." Feifei sighed, watching their sect begin to expand in size little by little. "This is such a gradual increase in size that my heart is thumping in tension." "Same here." The Seamstress laughed. "I had established the Ribbon Sect in the past. But, it was just a group of wanderers fighting crime everywhere." "Now, I feel like I can finally belong somewhere." She laughed as she continued, "My family hates my guts anyway. So, I wonder if they had already erased my name from the family records?" "Our sect is a close-knit family. That''s how it''ll be." Zamura laughed. "And eventually, it''ll become an immemorable place in our heart." As time passed, the sect began to grow in size, hovering in the air at a height of 200 meters from the ground. As it was growing slowly, it seemed like it would take a considerable amount of time to finish growing. To conserve time, everyone began cultivating. The Pseudo Wisps had begun to increase in numbers in every energy-gathering formation as a Little Krune fragment inhabited them at times, bringing the subspace in this body to transport the Pseudo Wisps that had absorbed Godly Energy to the limit. Then, all the Pseudo Wisps arrived at the island as Krune let them out of the subspace, having transferred the subspace back into him. The Pseudo Wisps exploded one after another, increasing the density of Godly Energy within the energy-gathering formation on the island. This allowed everyone to cultivate faster. As for Krune, he directly absorbed a Pseudo Wisp that had as much Godly Energy as him, noticing a minor increase in his cultivation. He immediately absorbed ten Pseudo Wisps, attaining cultivation at the Ninth Stage of the God Foundation Realm. With this, he was able to create one more Little Krune fragment, allowing him to multitask even further. Among them, Zamuria was collating her cultivation base as she was bringing her body cultivation to be on par with her cultivation. As for the Seamstress, she, too, was doing the same. As time passed, Feifei and Krune broke through to the God Core Realm, growing even stronger. Since they were also cultivating their Mental Energy apart from their body and regular cultivation, their cultivation speed had slowed down considerably. In any case, none of them were worried. After all, they were already perennials, having their respective Spiritual Incarnations. So, if it felt like their lifespan was coming to an end, they could simply commit suicide and revive shortly after. Plus, as long as they prepared enough Godly Energy, they would be able to revive without any drop in cultivation. As days passed in such a fashion, another figure appeared on the island. It was one of the villagers, gawking immediately after seeing the phenomenon that was happening in the sky. Moreover, he was able to feel the incomparably powerful auras emanating from everywhere, shuddering in response before noticing Teng Zakutra rushing towards him. "Lord, what is happening here?" He asked in a fluster. "Well, welcome to the Mountain Sect," Teng Zakutra said, pointing at Zamura and the others. "He''s Lord Zamura, the sect master of the Mountain Sect. The other four are the founding elders of the sect. And right as we speak, they are creating the sect." "It was a heavenly phenomenon." He sighed, saying in the end with admiration on his face. The newcomer immediately greeted everyone before he sat behind Teng Zakutra, whispering, "Lord, what should we do now?" "We''ll have to wait in patience. Once the sect is created, it''ll allow us to truly embark on the path of cultivation." Teng Zakutra said, asking after a couple of seconds, "What about the others from the village? When are they coming?" "The village chief is still making some preparations to ensure our villagers would be able to constantly leave the place. He doesn''t wish for everything we strived towards to collapse soon after we left," he spoke. "That''s actually wise of him to do so." Teng Zakutra nodded, speaking, "Now, focus on your cultivation. Reach the end of the Godly Fusion Realm first. I''ll instruct you of the rest after that." "Yes!" The man replied before beginning to cultivate, shocked when he saw himself growing strong at a tremendous pace, "I-Is this how powerful the God Realm is?" "Based on what Krune said to me." Teng Zakutra sighed as he enlightened the newcomer, "The Godly Fusion Realm is the playground of newborns and children here." Time passed in such a fashion as more and more villagers began to arrive at the island, making it more and more crowded. But, even if they were confused, none of them said anything, silently staring with bated breath at the feat of epic proportions that was happening before them. Eventually, after a decade had passed, a ripple of Godly Energy pulsed out of the sect, signifying its completion as everyone on the island roared in joy. "Everyone!" Zamura laughed, causing a flight of stairs to condense from the sect to the island. "Let''s enter our home now!" Chapter 1117 - Sect Dynamics The Mountain Sect! It was a large flat disc hovering two hundred meters above the ground, spanning a radius of 100 kilometers. It was an incomparably massive structure that caused everyone to look at it in shock and surprise. Moreover, it was a piece of equipment, one that could grow in quality over time. After all, a Sub-Realm and a Godly Vein had been fused into it, upgrading the equipment spirit that was now addressed as the Guardian Spirit. So, the entire Mountain Sect was no different from a living, breathing cultivator. After all, as the Guardian Spirit continued to grow stronger, the quality of the sect would also improve, causing the walls to become even stronger. Moreover, upon completion, followed by a Godly Energy fluctuation, a barrier formed around the sect, encasing it in a sphere, protecting the sect from any attacks. It was a defensive array, meant to constantly evolve and defend the sect against any and all attacks. The control was placed in the hands of the Guardian Spirit, allowing it to manipulate it successfully. Unsurprisingly, the one to create this and infuse it into the disc during its refinement process was Feifei. Spirit Deity Spiritual Incarnation! Using this, she devised the most optimal defensive array and imbued it into the sect, focusing everything during the refinement process. So, she turned it into an ability of sorts that the Guardian Spirit was able to use to defend. The moment she had done that, Feifei obtained an enlightenment of sorts, having been meditating for the remainder of the time. As the light stairs reached the island, Zamura took the lead, scaling it up as he reached the sect, being the first one to set foot inside. Following him were Krune, Feifei, Zamuria, and the Seamstress. Beyond them arrived Teng Zakutra and the rest of the villagers, exclaiming in surprise upon seeing the vast buildings that scaled through the place, reaching the clouds. Every single building was vast and grand, created as a formation of sorts. Thanks to that, the moment they entered the sect, their minds felt livelier, their thoughts felt clearer while they could feel their cultivation bases stirring up. A haven for cultivation! This thought popped up in the minds of everyone, followed by joyous laughter. Zamura then said, transmitting his voice to everyone, "Everyone, today marks the birth of our sect, the Mountain Sect. All sect members have an identity that would be given to them the moment they set foot here." Right as he said that, the Guardian Spirit flashed before him, joining its hands together to emit a harmonious fluctuation of Godly Energy before something flashed around, slamming into the foreheads of everyone. Immediately, the design of a mountain appeared on the foreheads of everyone, causing them to look at each other in surprise when Zamura said, "The symbol of a mountain is our identity as members of the Mountain Sect. The color of your mountain signifies your rank. At present, there are seven ranks in total: Outer Disciple (White), Inner Disciple (Violet), Core Disciple (Blue), Elder (Green), Sect Master (Yellow), Grand Elder (Red), and the Founding Members (Black)." The symbol on Zamura''s forehead was black first before he controlled it, turning it red. "Since I have two positions now, I am able to switch the symbols. But, this is only for us five Founding Members. Everyone else will only be having one symbol. Naturally, there are perks associated with every level." Smiling, he continued, nodding once at Feifei. "An Outer Disciple will obtain one of the best cultivation techniques to date, the Myriad Energies Technique and a set of Godly Meridians to accompany that. Everyone that joins the sect will obtain this. For those that prove themselves as Outer Disciples and obtain enough Sect Contribution Points, they would be rewarded a Quasi-Spiritual Mark." "A Quasi-Spiritual Mark?" Teng Zakutra shouted in surprise while a lot of the villagers were also shocked. "Yes, you haven''t heard me wrong." Zamura laughed as he continued, "It is many times inferior to a Spiritual Mark, but it is still greatly useful. Our founding member, Feifei, was the one to create them. In the future, she''ll be in charge of this. With her present strength, a Quasi-Spiritual Mark is the limit. But once she becomes an immortal, she gave us the guarantee of being able to create Spiritual Marks herself." "Up next are the Inner Disciples," Zamura continued to speak. "An Inner Disciple would be able to embark on the path of body cultivation. You''ll obtain relevant techniques and be able to obtain active and passive abilities." "For everything cultivation-related, Krune would be in charge." He also added, "And in relation to active and passive abilities, Zamuria would be in charge." "Finally comes the Core Disciples," he said, laughing. "All Core Disciples would obtain a Predominated Fruit, allowing them to possess a Spiritual Incarnation. The moment you obtain this, you become a perennial, one that cannot be ever killed." "Zamuria is in charge of everything related to this field," he explained. "And as for elders, you''ll gain qualifications to become one once you''re an immortal. Of course, only an immortal with a Spiritual Incarnation is qualified. After all, without a Spiritual Incarnation, First Stage Semi-God Realm is your limit." The new terms confused all the villagers while Zamura said, "Every Elder would be the head of a faction/department within the sect. In the future, once we have more members, everything will fall into place. And as for the lot of you¡­" He grinned, saying, "This is your best chance to become Elders since the competition is less. Moreover, since you already possess the most optimal cultivation techniques thanks to the Immortal Staircase, there isn''t anything that can hinder your cultivation here." "From now on, I''ll delegate the rest of the factors that make up our Mountain Sect," Zamura said, busying himself with relaying the orders, allotting people to different factions based on their likes, dislikes, talents, and so on. All along, Krune and Feifei had disappeared from the scene, heading into a building that they had created for themselves, having a fun time.. They were resting their weary minds since they had worked a lot for the sect''s creation. Chapter 1118 - Mountain Sect Sub-Realm While everyone remained in the sect, Krune left some of his clones everywhere to manage things. There were also a couple of them at the island where the villagers appeared from time to time. And now, the five founding members entered the Sub-Realm, the one that they had fused into the sect. Inside was an enormous space, enough for them to open their mouths agape in shock. After all, the Sub-Realm was shaped like a sphere. And the sphere''s radius was a million kilometers. This was a space on par with a continent. After all, the sky and the ocean extended until the limit, creating a tremendously massive biosphere to live within. On top of that, the space in here was optimally created by the Gods to house any and every type of resource one might ever need. Millions of floating islands littered the sky, spanning sizes from tiny islands to massive structures in the air that almost resembled a tiny continent. They were positioned at varying heights, allowing for great use of the vast space within. Plus, all sorts of exotic plants and minerals were abundant in the place. Of course, that wasn''t all. The ground also covered the greatest area, forming at the center of the sphere. It was tremendously deep, forming a dense layer of earth. There were lakes, ponds, seas, and even oceans within. And through some of the oceans, one could access the true depth of the ocean. Mysterious minerals grew within them, emitting light of their own for various reasons. "Hmm, the density of the Godly Energy here is somewhat thin," Zamura muttered, sensing using the Law¡ªthat was in its purest form¡ªhe obtained from the hilt, saying, "There is just one Godly Vein in this entire Sub-Realm. It seems the Gods had simply created this for fun and set it aside, leaving it to develop on its own. As tens of thousands of years had passed, it resulted in such a rich world." "I wonder how many they had created out of boredom," Krune could not help but say, suddenly thinking of something as he told them, "Let''s name this place as the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm for convenience''s sake." Ignoring the stares from others, he sent his clones in every direction to scout. Once he broke into the God Core Realm, every increase in stage allowed his Little Krune fragments to increase in ten. Thanks to that, he now had one hundred Little Krune fragments, having reached the Ninth Stage of the God Core Realm. Except for the ones he had left outside, the remaining Little Krune fragments each entered a Pseudo Wisp, turning them into clones. Soon, the clones changed their body shape, turning into the Escapist, causing Zamura to look at them in surprise and exclaim, "They look just like my Equipment Spirit that I use to escape from danger." "It''s the same. My clones are mimicking its body structure since I have already comprehended the related laws to the necessary level. So, they can perfectly mimic them," Krune explained. "I just began to call them the Escapists since that''s what I used them for all this time." "Fair enough." Zamura laughed. "I hadn''t named it anyway. I''ve only used it in situations to flee and hadn''t bothered with it after that since it always dies upon overexertion." Only now realizing something, Zamura waved his hand, causing a tiny spirit to jump out of its body. It was just a ball with an elongated mouth, opening to reveal a bag within. Zamura grabbed hold of the bag, stringing it to his hip as the ball spirit vanished. Contained within the bag were hundreds of rings, his collection of Ring Spirits, used to deal with any situation. "It has been a lot of time since I last brought them out." Saying so, Zamura grabbed a handful of rings and threw them far away, watching their respective ring spirits condense before all of them gathered before him. He did the same until he threw out all the rings, watching the large group before him, saying, "Now, scout through the entirety of this place and make a report of everything." "Yes." Saying so, all the ring spirits went away. Those that were able to fly carried everyone else, dropping them at various locations to gather information. As for Krune, all he did was condense a clone beside him, giving it a massive book, telling it to make a note of everything they scouted. Since they had shared thoughts, everything each clone saw was also seen by everyone else instantly. So, their scouting network was more efficient. In the meantime, Seamstress, Zamuria, and Feifei were conversing as they saw the gate before them. It was the sole entrance into the Sub-Realm. Since it was positioned atop a floating island, they thought of something, finalizing a plan as the Seamstress took action. She condensed a spear of coral, piercing it into the ground to create the foundation. The coral spear then branched out as the branches moved over the ground like vines, spreading throughout the floating island, burrowing into it from many directions, creating a rigid foundation. Soon after, the entire floating island was covered by coral. Even though the coral appeared weak at the start, as time passed in such a fashion, it was slowly refined by the Seamstress, increasing its sturdiness. Once the foundation was fully laid and the defensive measures were taken care of, the coral branches began to move upward, slowly creating a gigantic structure. It was apparent that the trio of ladies had planned to first increase the security of the place, ensuring people wouldn''t be able to simply leave and exit it as they please. "Interesting." Zamura nodded, saying as he watched the building be constructed. "Tell me when it''s done. I''ll awaken the strongest building spirit for it." "That''s good enough." The Seamstress nodded as she continued to create the building. After some thought, Feifei said, "We need to create some signature techniques for our sect. That way, it''ll create a form of recognition, making it apparent that those that use such techniques are from our sect." "Thank you in advance," Zamura said, cupping his hands. "Thank you in advance," Krune repeated the same, mimicking Zamura. It was apparent that they simply wished to push the workload onto her. After all, her Spiritual Incarnation meant she was able to create the best techniques. The techniques created by others wouldn''t even be on the same level as the ones made by her. So, they dumped the work on her and escaped from the floating island. "¡­" Feifei stared at the escaping figures of the two men, feeling her blood pressure spiking up a bit. Chapter 1119 - Grinding For The Supression Law "This spot looks good enough," Krune said upon arriving atop a floating island. It was one of the largest floating islands in the place, spanning a radius of 380 kilometers. But that wasn''t all. There was a cluster of floating islands surrounding it, positioned nearby. They were a cluster positioned really high up in the air, located over a corner in the Sub-Realm. Thanks to this, it formed the prime location for their next task as Krune grinned, taking out the Pocket Ring from his subspace as he said to Zamura, "I was able to capture five million Predominated Vines and around thirty million Mashed Serpents. As long as we create a perfect territory for them, we''ll be able to create a scene similar to the Four Sectors'' Border Region." "And, we won''t have to face the problem of them expanding endlessly since they are on the floating islands," Krune said, pointing at the gaps between the floating islands forming the cluster. "Now, we need to find a realistic way to patch up the gaps." "Hmm..." Zamura said after a moment of thought, "Why don''t we use the coral ability of the Seamstress? They don''t have any attributes, so they won''t give rise to any complications later on." "That would be good enough." Krune nodded in agreement. "As long as the Mashed Serpents don''t spill out of this place and cause the Predominated Vines to eventually fall to the ground, I wouldn''t be worried." Once they had decided on a plan of action, Krune brought Seamstress over using his subspace, making her cross the journey within a second, causing her to look at him in surprise, saying, "That''s an incredible ability." "It''s part of my Spiritual Incarnation," Krune said, explaining everything to her. Once she got the general gist of things, the Seamstress began to work in setting things up. She began to patch up the gaps between the floating islands forming the cluster while also working on creating a sturdy wall to prevent the Mashed Serpents from leaving. She also encased the outer surfaces of the floating islands using her coral ability, causing their roots to bore into the islands to increase their structural stability. Eventually, she created a small altar in the center of the largest floating island as Zamura arrived there. He and Krune worked together to fuse a Godly Vine into it. They were now using up the second Godly Vine since they planned to keep this place exclusive for the Predominated Vines. Since they were the only source of the Predominated Fruits, the catalyst to create Spiritual Incarnations, they were the most precious. Hence, they planned to fuse a Godly Vine in the area to create enough foundation for the Predominated Vines to live and prosper. On top of that, they needed someone to manage the place constantly, as if it was their sole duty. And what could do a better job of doing that than an equipment spirit? Since Zamura''s Spiritual Incarnation allowed him to make any equipment spirit submit to him, it was the best-case scenario. Moreover, he was able to condense the strongest equipment spirit for any equipment. So, it was an optimal decision. For the next year, the two of them worked in constantly fusing the Godly Vein into the created coral structure, ensuring that it would continue to refine the entirety through the Godly Energy it emitted. Moreover, they had to take care to not leave behind any remnant laws in the place. The Predominated Vines lived in a place with an abundance of the Suppression Law. So, if the habitat was different, they wouldn''t be able to live. It would take them hundreds of years to first expend their energy to terraform the place to suit their growth. During this time, they wouldn''t be able to produce any Predominated Fruits. So, it would be a major loss to wait for that long. Krune and Zamura didn''t wish for that to happen. So, they ensured the place was as devoid of laws as possible. Krune was working on the side as a couple of his clones had been in the Four Sectors'' Border Region, comprehending the Suppression Law at the place. So, during the one year they spent fusing the Godly Vein into the altar, Krune''s comprehension of the Suppression Law reached the bare minimum for him to take action. He immediately took out a metal plate from his subspace, one forged by his clone. It was made using dirt-cheap materials. The laws in it were super weak. Once he set the metal plate on the ground, a clone stood on it, beginning to melt. Land Incarnation! Instead of laying down the Land Incarnation normally, it did so by breaking down its body. This way, the concentration of the laws forming the Land Incarnation would be the strongest and most potent. Krune then used his Divine Sense to locate certain spots on the metal plate, breaking out pieces as he inspected them. "Alright, these tiny chunks only have the Suppression Law now." As his Spiritual Incarnation was comprised of all the laws, Krune took advantage of the fact to create some bits with the Suppression Laws. Thanks to his comprehension session of the respective law, its area on the metal plate was somewhat large enough for him to break a piece off. Naturally, he had also created the metal plate to be as brittle as possible just for this. Krune threw the metal plate into his subspace while placing the tiny piece with the Suppression Law on the ground. He then took out a second metal plate and repeated the process. Thankfully for him, his Pseudo Wisps were absorbing enough Godly Energy from many locations. There was also the massive energy-gathering formation in the Limitless Plains on the Zamuria Continent. That reserve of Godly Energy was what everyone depended on to execute their various plans. That was also how he was able to revive the Little Krune fragments that committed suicide to create Land Incarnations for their plan with the Predominated Vines. For the subsequent months, all Krune did was grind bits and pieces of metal that were wholly comprised of the Suppression Law. Chapter 1120 - First Experiment With The Vine "Now, there are 10 kilograms of metal with the Suppression Law," Krune said with reddened eyes, feeling mentally drained. It seemed repeating the acts of laying down a Land Incarnation took a toll on him severely, even though it was his clones that did it. As all of them were extensions of himself, he was tremendously exhausted now. It was to such an extent his clones had retreated into his subspace and fell asleep. That''s how he was still able to endure. "This is good enough for a start." Zamura nodded, gently fusing all ten kilograms of the Suppression Law metal into the altar. He was incredibly careful, ensuring Krune''s efforts didn''t go to waste. He used all his refining and forging abilities, spreading his Divine Sense carefully through the coral covering the entirety of the gigantic floating island. Once the Seamstress finished her task of merging the floating island cluster into one, Krune sent her back to the floating island with the gate to the outside world. She still had a lot of work to be done there. As for the strength of the coral in the place, it was barely enough. After all, its goal was to prevent the Mashed Serpents from leaving the enclosure. As they behaved as the beacons for the Predominated Vines, as long as they didn''t escape the place, the vines wouldn''t try anything else. Moreover, the Mashed Serpents only had cultivation bases in the Godly Fusion Realm. Hardly anyone managed to even reach the God Foundation Realm. It was due to the lifestyle they led, living off by eating the sediments produced by the Predominated Vines. Thanks to the Suppression Law dominant in the place, it prevented their cultivation from advancing beyond the God Foundation Realm. Plus, the structure Seamstress created was enough to withstand attacks from an average Nascent God Realm cultivator. With that, it was enough for them, as long as the Predominated Vines didn''t try to bash it into pieces. After all, every Predominated Vine was at the Nascent God Realm. Nevertheless, they had no other choice but to go with the current level of sturdiness. It was because even if the Seamstress spent any more time, the increase in sturdiness wouldn''t make any difference. Moreover, all it would do would be to waste their Godly Energy further. They had great ambitions. To sustain that, the Godly Energy collected by Krune wasn''t enough. On top of that, the Godly Energy emitted by the Godly Vein fused into the sect wasn''t much. After all, all the produced Godly Energy only circulated within the foundations of the sect, enriching it. Since it took priority to make the sect sturdier, they didn''t siphon any Godly Energy from it. Plus, since the cultivation chamber planned to make use of their third Godly Vine was yet to be finished, they couldn''t use it. If they haphazardly used the Godly Vein to cultivate and damaged it, then it would stop producing Godly Energy. After all, it was a delicate material. Zamuria was on the verge of breaking through any moment to the Semi-God Realm and invite tribulation lightning. Hence, they were being careful about it. They also had other plans related to following her breakthrough. Unless all of the necessary things were constructed, Zamuria was putting off her breakthrough. "Heuk!" Zamura grunted, feeling a mild ringing pain in his head as he manipulated the Suppression Law, a law that wasn''t part of his Spiritual Incarnation and one he hadn''t comprehended even a little. Nevertheless, he didn''t relent, pressing forth to manipulate it as he slowly dissolved the Suppression Law metal into the coral, spreading it throughout the coral forming the gigantic floating island. This way, the place would be more suitable for the Predominated Vines to propagate. Krune was seated cross-legged right behind him, feeling like he was on the brink of death due to exhaustion. What he was doing was consuming his Godly Energy to activate the Suppression Law. After comprehending it to the bare minimum, he was able to use the law. Right now, he was generating it, creating an environment where the effect from the Suppression Law existed. Even though the effect was only temporary, it allowed Zamura to spread the Suppression Law metal through the island better. At opportune moments, some of the Suppression Law metal absorbed the suppression effect in the air, faintly increasing in strength. This was the reason Krune was releasing the suppression effect in the first place. Zamura eventually completed fusing the Suppression Law metal, watching them be concentrated more within the altar. Soon, they were drawing out Godly Energy from the Godly Vein, unleashing the suppression effect into the air. "Alright, it''s done," he said, sighing in relief, collapsing to the place immediately. He then looked at Krune and told him, "Let''s rest for some time. We won''t be able to handle the Predominated Vines otherwise." "Yeah, that would be better," Krune said in exhaustion, barely finishing his sentence before fainting. The two of them only began to move after resting for a month because their minds were stretched thin from the various tasks they did. The moment they felt they were prepared enough, Krune activated the Pocket Ring, causing a Predominated Vine to fall on the ground. Its roots were entangled around a large block of soil as Krune had uprooted them whole, soil included. The Predominated Vine looked a bit weak, having thinned up a bit after staying within the Pocket Ring for quite some time. Even though it was a spatial ring where living beings could be stored, that didn''t mean they could live comfortably without any food. Only thanks to their reserve of Godly Energy did they survive for so long. The moment it fell on the ground, the Predominated Vine looked around in joy, feeling that its current environment was better than the Pocket Ring. After all, there were faint traces of the Suppression Law in the ground while the air was filled with the suppression effect. The Godly Energy filled with suppression effect acted as a tonic for it as the Predominated Vine began to absorb them, slowly regaining its body mass. Not long after, its roots burrowed into the ground, adjusting the soil it brought with itself around the foot of its stem, creating a barely comfortable enough place. Upon seeing that it was able to live at the place fairly better than their expectations, Krune and Zamura sighed in relief. Chapter 1121 - It Wasn’t Me! Upon seeing that the Predominated Vine was able to live well in the surroundings, Krune and Zamura heaved a sigh in relief. However, they didn''t take action hurriedly, watching what the Predominated Vine did. It first remained in place before uprooting itself as it roamed through the place, carrying all its precious soil with it, soon stopping before the altar. It saw the equipment spirit emerge from the altar, looking no different to a Predominated Vine. Upon sensing the source of the suppression effect was from the altar, it planted itself nearby. For a moment, the two people felt as if the Predominated Vine let out a chuckle upon the comfort, muttering simultaneously, "So, they''re heading towards the place with the greatest concentration of the Suppression Law." "It would become chaotic if we drop too many at once. Let''s drop them in small batches," Zamura said. "Alright, using my clones, I can drop them at various locations simultaneously. This way, they won''t have to fight each other for the spots around the altar," Krune said, letting out his clones that took up spots around the altar. At the very next moment, the subspace appeared within a clone that took out the Pocket Ring from within and let out a Predominated Vine. Then, it placed the Pocket Ring within the subspace. The subspace appeared within another clone as the same process was repeated. The Predominated Vines appeared in places one after another. And as expected, they began to march towards the altar. Krune had planned accordingly, sensing through the Pocket Ring using his Mental Energy. Thanks to this, he only let out the strongest of the Predominated Vines first. He then released them in the decreasing order of their strength, eventually emptying them all out. Eventually, he arrived at an empty spot on the large floating island, causing a clone to take the form of the Escapist as Krune and Zamura boarded it. All the remaining clones of Krune already left the place, heading out to perform their respective duties. Now that they were high up in the air, Krune activated the Pocket Ring, pouring out all the Mashed Serpents on the ground. The numbers were enormous as they piled up into a massive hill. They were startled at first before sensing the Predominated Vines situated nearby, forming numerous streams as they slithered into the forest of Predominated Vines. "It''s done." Krune sighed, noticing the suppression effect in the place slowly increase in strength as he spoke, "Unlike the Four Sectors'' Border Region, there''s a Godly Vein here that''s fuelling them. So in the future, this would easily surpass the one on Zamuria Continent." "Thanks to the altar spirit here, everything would proceed more smoothly," Zamura said. "I think what you spoke of will happen within a couple of centuries. All we need is for some of them to break through to the Semi-God Realm first. That''ll condense the Suppression Law here to a considerable extent and allow their population to boom further." "I plan to help them achieve that," Krune said. "I''ll use my development effect on them, increasing their body weight first. This way, they''ll grow stronger and be able to attempt a breakthrough soon enough." Krune then thought for a moment before smirking, "In fact, I''m confident of making one breakthrough within a year. This was the strongest Predominated Vine that I managed to capture by luck since it was roaming in the outermost regions¡­" Boom! But right as he was talking, tribulation clouds condensed in the sky before a thick bolt of lightning landed on a Predominated Vine. It had attempted a breakthrough. The altar spirit appeared once, taking note of the situation before disappearing. The amount of Godly Energy it produced with the suppression effect doubled all of a sudden, allowing the Predominated Vine some reprieve to withstand the tribulation lightning. "I was planning to help it first. It would just die upon attempting to breakthrough now¡­" Krune was just about to retort when an intense sound of thunder caused him to shield his ears. Boom! Boom! Boom! As sudden as it had appeared, the tribulation clouds increased in number before even more lightning bolts flashed. It wasn''t just one Predominated Vine that had attempted a breakthrough, but almost thirty of them, everyone that formed the inner circle surrounding the altar. Lightning flashed while thunder boomed. The light flickered, highlighting Krune''s face in it, one that looked like it had been slapped numerous times. It was apparent that the Predominated Vines were angry at him and had taken action to prove him wrong. "Wait¡­I think I know the reason now." Zamura thought for a minute before saying, "Remember how all the Predominated Vines in the Semi-God Realm were in the core of the region? Those beyond that core region were only at the Nascent God Realm, despite them possessing enough power to attempt a breakthrough." As Krune nodded, Zamura continued, "It seemed the Semi-God Realm Predominated Vines were actually suppressing the others from attempting a breakthrough. I can''t say the reason for sure, but it seems the cause had been to prevent the Suppression Law of the place from becoming any more potent." "And now..." He laughed, pointing at the scene before them, "This is the best chance for these Predominated Vines to attempt a breakthrough and become an immortal themselves. Those that reach it first would be able to suppress the rest in the future just like on Zamuria Continent." Right as he said it, even more Predominated Vines attempted a breakthrough, causing the number of lightning bolts attracted to the place to surpass a hundred. Of course, the number was only growing. The commotion was so large that Krune felt the audience was too small. So, he brought in the three ladies using his subspace, causing them to stare in shock at the scene before them. "What the hell did you do, Krune?" Feifei screamed in alarm. "The intensity of the tribulation lightning has increased. Too many would die a futile death at this rate." "Hey, I''m not the culprit!" Krune raised his hands. "They did it on their own. We just finished planting them, to be honest." "Trust me!" Krune screamed in despair, watching Feifei''s doubtful look at him.. "I didn''t cause this problem." Chapter 1122 - 3000 Semi-God Realm Predominated Vines "I''m telling you, Little Cally vanished once I condensed my Spiritual Incarnation," Krune said in protest, intending to make Feifei believe him. "If it vanished when you condensed your Spiritual Incarnation¡­" Feifei said with a frown, "Doesn''t that mean a part of it has become you?" "The Calamity Laws are a part of your Spiritual Incarnation now. So, you are indeed the cause," she said, pointing a finger at him. "Before, it happened through you. And now, you''re the culprit." "Fine, jail me!" Krune said, raising his hands, turning his head around as he returned to his wisp form, pouting. Since all of them already knew of his form, he could freely use his wisp form without any apprehension. "Alright, alright, don''t sulk." Feifei sighed, wrapping him in her embrace. "Let''s see the action first. We probably won''t get to see it again." "Indeed¡­" Krune said, returning to his human form as he looked at the numerous lightning bolts that slammed down one after another on the Predominated Vines, saying, "Maybe it''s thanks to me that we get to see such a spectacle. Don''t forget to thank me later." "¡­" "¡­" "¡­" "¡­" Everyone else stared at him, surprised at his shameless comeback. Some of the Predominated Vines too turned around to look at him, shaking their vine stem upon observing him before returning to their usual selves. "¡­Damn it, even a vine¡­" Krune grumbled, snorting as he sat in place, glaring as he saw the scene before him. From time to time, some of the Predominated Vines failed to break through, getting reduced into ash in the process. But occasionally, there arrived some Predominated Vines that managed to successfully break through to the Semi-God Realm. Moreover, once a Predominated Vine was reduced into ashes, another Predominated Vine nearby attempted a breakthrough. It was like they had no plans to stop until the number of immortal Predominated Vines that could live here had hit the limit. For every twenty breakthrough attempts, there was one success. Every time a Predominated Vine turned into ashes, Krune winced at the loss, almost crying. "I lifted that vine from the ground with delicate care. I even polished it once before storing it." "I cleaned a bit of the soil coating its stem while transporting it." "I sang it a melody while picking it up¡­" "I even kissed it goodbye while storing it¡­" For every Predominated Vine that turned into ash, Krune made up a story, creating a melodramatic atmosphere. Feifei and Seamstress frowned, glaring at him while Zamura and Zamuria listed to every nonsense he spewed with rapt attention, already immersed into the situation. They even began to cheer the Predominated Vines in support, acting based on their backstory that Krune explained. "Just¡­what is this situation?" Feifei looked at the lightning bolts slammed nonstop on one side and at the cheering group on the other that attached a sob story to every vine that fell. "Thankfully, the two of us are still sane." The Seamstress sighed as she looked at Feifei. ''Weren''t you someone that ran all over your continent to capture evil cultivators?'' Feifei thought while gazing at the Seamstress, deciding to remain silent. The ashes of the Predominated Vines that failed to break through changed the terrain, making it more suitable for the vines to live. By absorbing the ashes, they grew stronger, beginning to condense the Predominated Fruits bit by bit. Soon, when around three thousand Predominated Vines attained the Semi-God Realm, the lightning bolts ceased to exist while the tribulation clouds dissipated. Soon, there was a shuffling as the Semi-God Realm Predominated Vines formed the inner circle around the altar while the remaining vines surrounded them. The moment all the breakthroughs concluded, Krune was able to sense that the Suppression Law had condensed in the area. "From now on, this place has some foundation." He laughed. "You''re right about that." Zamura laughed in agreement. "At present, we don''t need many Predominated Fruits. So, we can allow the remaining fruits to burst upon ripening and increase the concentration of the Suppression Law in the place while also expanding their population." "I have around 800 Predominated Fruits with me," Krune said. "If urgent, I can send my clones through the Four Sectors'' Border region. This war seems like it might span at least a century or two as the secrets in the Sub-Realm they''re fighting over concern becoming a God." "Send a couple clones to keep track of the situation there," Zamura told Krune. "Once we have enough strength, we''ll participate there and obtain the benefits for ourselves. Let''s take action when it seems like the war is about to conclude." "If it was a two-way war, it would have concluded long ago," Zamuria interjected. "But since it''s a three-way war, it will stretch for even longer. The ones who truly need the secrets are immortals. Naturally, time is always on their hands. So, they will keep probing until they have enough guarantee in making a move." "They would also be trying to kill the immortals of the other side and cause them to expend more resources to revive. This way, the continent that goes bankrupt first would be ganged up on by the other two. Then, the remaining two would fight to decide on a victor." She concluded. "It''s for our best interest if this war takes a lot of time to finish. We can grow stronger in that case," the Seamstress said, glancing at Feifei to ask, "Can you also tell us more about the Golden Gate Sect? There''s no guarantee that your sect''s enemies wouldn''t be able to track us down here. It''s for the best to be prepared from early on." "Alright, I''ll tell you more about them," Feifei said. "But, I feel like the continent with the Golden Gate Sect is too far away. So, my enemies won''t be able to track me down this far away. Even if they manage to track me, it''ll take tremendous resources for them to even teleport this far away. They probably won''t be able to afford to do so in the short time since the Golden Gate Sect still hasn''t fallen." "Before that happens, let''s have thousands of immortals in our sect," Krune said, laughing.. "Now, let''s finish constructing the cultivation chamber." Chapter 1123 - Zamuria’s Breakthrough "As for the cultivation chamber, let us three ladies complete it. We''ve been working on it all this time and wish to complete it on our own," Feifei said, surprising Krune and Zamura. "Are you sure? Don''t you need the two of us to forge the construct?" Krune asked, feeling left out all of a sudden. "We don''t." The Seamstress laughed as she told the two, "Feifei figured out a method that could be used to create a natural cultivation chamber. Well¡­just observe it for now." "Give me the Godly Vein," Zamuria asked while facing Zamura. For a moment, he was pretty happy that his mother talked to him on her own initiative, giving her the final Godly Vein immediately. The group then used Krune''s subspace as a convenient mode of transportation, arriving at a massive stone island that was situated 1000 kilometers away from the Sub-Realm''s entrance. The moment they arrived at the place, the two men were shocked to see a mountain formed by precious minerals. "Zamuria has been harvesting all the materials while Seamstress refined and removed the impurities from all of them," Feifei started to explain, sporting a smug look. "And I laid down a formation in each of them." "You didn''t forge anything here," Krune said, pointing at the place where all the materials were simply scooped to form a massive hill. "How can that do anything?" "Just wait and see." Feifei grinned. "This is a method that the two of you can never use to forge items." "What is it?" Zamura asked, fully curious now. "Tribulation Lightning Forging Technique," Feifei said. "You''ll understand when you see it in action." Right at this moment, Zamuria carried the Godly Vein and burrowed into the hill of materials, saying after a couple of minutes, "I''m ready now." "What do you think is the reason we face a tribulation?" Feifei asked all of a sudden, causing the two men to look at her in confusion. Zamura replied in a matter-of-fact tone, "Cultivation is the process of going against the heavens. So, the tribulation lightning is the method in which the heaven uses to stop us." "But, if that was actually the case¡­" Feifei said while grinning, "The tribulation lightning shouldn''t ever stop and persist until we are reduced to ashes. Also, why is it that some of us manage to survive and become even stronger?" She then looked at Krune and asked him, "Didn''t you spend most of your life with Luvile? How come you never understood his essence?" Before Krune could reply, Feifei replied, "It''s actually simple. The tribulations are just a checkpoint to ensure only cultivators with a certain level of strength can attain the higher cultivation bases. Their true purpose is to allow the cultivator to deepen their comprehension of the laws during a breakthrough." "This is only true in the God Realm." She continued, saying with a hint of seriousness, "Through the tribulations, you''ll gain comprehension of your laws. If you''re lucky, you might also be able to glean into a whole new law." "Now, what we''re doing is the same." Feifei laughed, checking through the pile of materials once before saying, "Zamuria, you can begin!" Boom! Right as she finished talking, the sound of thunder resounded as a thick bolt of lightning landed on the hill of materials, causing all of them to emit a blinding hue. By the time the bolt of lightning reached Zamuria, who was at the bottom of the pile, it lost all strength, having been absorbed by the materials surrounding her. It seemed as if the heavens were enraged with such an arrangement as the tribulation clouds formed overhead, condensing more and more as a suffocating presence emanated from the place. It quickly surpassed the amount that the collective might of the Predominated Vines from before could bring forth. It showed Zamuria''s accumulation and how strong a cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation was versus one without. Within a couple of seconds, the second bolt of lightning landed, now ten times thicker than the first, immediately causing a lot of the piled materials to spill out. However, Zamuria waved her hand once, pulling them all back into place. "Is she¡­manipulating the pile of materials on top of her breakthrough?" Zamura asked in shock. "Yes." Feifei nodded as she told them, "This is a necessary procedure. We''re using her tribulation to refine the materials and fuse them into a singular structure. Since she''s the target of the tribulation lightning, as long as she remains the core of their formation, what we wish to accomplish would be done." "Amazing!" Krune looked at the scene in shock, watching the materials melt one after another as they flew towards Zamuria. In response, Zamuria seemed to be moving them, causing the lightning bolts to first hit them before reaching her. As she always ensured to prevent the lightning bolts from actually hitting her, the tribulation clouds continued to increase in density. Slowly, the strength exhibited by them continued to climb as they reached the late stage of the Semi-God Realm. Zamuria wasn''t a regular cultivator at the Ninth Stage Nascent God Realm. She also had a Spiritual Incarnation while her body was tremendously tough. So, the strength of the tribulation lightning had already surpassed what any cultivator could incite during their breakthrough to the Semi-God Realm. Adding onto her scheme, it seems that the heavens were indeed angry as the tribulation clouds soon spiked in strength once again, stabilizing before unleashing a tremendously powerful bolt of lightning. God Trial Realm! "Aaargh!" Zamuria bellowed a battle cry before taking out the Godly Vein, using it as a defensive tool to defend against the tremendously powerful bolt of lightning that directly melted all the materials forming the hill. "Mother!" Zamura was shocked, intending to rush to her rescue immediately when Feifei and Seamstress stopped him. "She''ll be fine. Don''t interfere!" The both of them said solemnly, almost cold, looking like they might take action if he did anything to disrupt their plans. Unwilling to cause a scene, Zamura noticed that his mother was persisting, calming down a bit, noticing the pile of materials forming a hill before had now turned into liquid, revolving around Zamuria as her figure began to float into the air. As for the Godly Vein in her hands, faint lightning flickered forth from it. Chapter 1124 - Wrath Of A Calamity Zamuria''s body had half-melted into a puddle, being on the receiving end of the powerful lightning strikes. She suddenly threw the Godly Vein into the swirling liquid mass around her, causing the lightning bolts to be diverted towards it for a couple of moments. During this duration, her body returned to normal while she manipulated the liquid, beginning to condense a platform out of it. She then sat on its center, attracting numerous lightning bolts that crashed on her body, now less powerful than the lightning bolt that was in the God Trial Realm in terms of strength. Zamuria continued to resist while the lightning bolts gradually solidified the platform, causing Krune and Zamura to stare in wonder, for the solidified platform was shaped like a lotus. Seated in its center was Zamuria, casually basking in the lightning bolts that had dropped in power further, no longer able to threaten her. The Godly Vein had fused into this lotus-shaped platform, emitting tremendous amounts of Godly Energy that Zamuria absorbed to stabilize her realm. Semi God Realm! "Just¡­what happened?" Krune was confused, unable to understand the events that he witnessed. "What was the purpose behind this arrangement?" Zamura was the same. "It''s simple." Feifei laughed, explaining, "The higher our cultivation progresses, the greater our need for Godly Energy. In the future, when we have tens of thousands of Sect Members, it would be hard for us to have enough Godly Energy for all our needs. Even these Godly Veins might prove insufficient." "Plus, even if they might not seem like it, the Godly Veins would one day stop producing Godly Energy once they run out. To prevent that, we created this plan." She grinned. "Basically, Feifei had created a formation in which a Godly Vein would be considered as part of the cultivator during their breakthrough. That means it would be considered no different to our meridians during the duration of a breakthrough," Seamstress interjected. "With that frame of thought in mind, the tribulation lightning would also temper the Godly Vein, making it stronger." "In this manner, the Godly Vein would continue to get strengthened and wouldn''t ever run out of Godly Energy to produce," Zamuria concluded, hovering in the air while maintaining a cross-legged stance. "With this, our sect wouldn''t ever run out of Godly Energy as long as we produce disciples that are able to reach the Semi God Realm in regular intervals." "With all the foundation our Mountain Sect has, this is guaranteed," Feifei concluded. "That was our plan, amazing, right?" "It is." Krune and Zamura flashed a thumbs up. After noticing the lotus-shaped platform hovering in the air, Krune asked, "So, this lotus platform would be producing Godly Energy for us to cultivate?" "Yes." Feifei nodded. "We can now construct a building around it for everyone to use for cultivating purposes. I''ll add a formation in the building to ensure the amount of Godly Energy influx is different for varying levels. This''ll create something for our disciples to strive towards." "Once someone needs to break through, they''ll sit on the lotus platform that''ll automatically exit the building," the Seamstress added. "And once the breakthrough is done, the lotus platform would return to its original location." "Spirit Deity Spiritual Incarnation¡­" Zamura muttered, sighing. "It really is tremendously powerful. No wonder the Golden Gate Sect''s founder was able to expand their sect to encompass numerous continents." "Before Feifei''s enemies manage to arrive here, the Mountain Sect would become terrifyingly powerful," Zamuria said, her demeanor cold and arrogant now, having become an immortal. She now was one of the strong, an immortal cultivator, someone with weight even in the God Realm. Moreover, she was the first genuine Immortal of the Mountain Sect. After all, the Predominated Vines didn''t have a Spiritual Incarnation. First Stage Semi God Realm was their limit. So, they weren''t genuine immortals. The group of five were overjoyed to have an immortal amongst them when Krune said, "Since she''s an immortal and is stronger than all of us now, shouldn''t she take up half of the work?" As everyone stared at him, blinking in surprise, Zamuria sighed, saying with a disappointed tone, "I would love to do that, but my realm has yet to be stabilized. Based on my immortal senses, it would be stabilized only after all the work is done." ''When did she become so shameless?'' Krune was surprised before Feifei shooed everyone away, telling them to continue with their respective tasks. Eventually, she was alone with Zamuria, asking in concern, "Are you alright?" "Almost," Zamuria replied, wiping the blood leaking out of her lips. "I bit off more than I could chew. My Spiritual Incarnation has destabilized a bit. I need to reorient all the laws forming it. Otherwise, I would just explode and die." "There is an abundance of Godly Energy emanating from the lotus platform," Feifei said, pointing at it. "So, just use it to stabilize yourself first. We''ll complete the remainder of the necessary work. It''s of utmost importance that you make a recovery first." She then sighed, apologizing, "I placed too much of a burden on you. Just the breakthrough alone is precarious enough. And I added another burden on you¡­" "It''s perfectly alright!" Zamuria laughed. "This would be my way of contributing towards our sect. Since everyone is giving their all, it makes no sense for me not to do it. Besides, fighting is my only forte. So, this is the least that I could do." "Besides." She patted the lotus platform. "With this, all of us would be able to cultivate faster without any worries of a lack of Godly Energy. I must say¡­it''s a win-win situation." "Thank you." Feifei exited the Sub-Realm, returning to the Mountain Sect''s entrance, gazing out at the vast ocean waters beyond that stretched as far as she could see, sighing to herself. ''I hope I have enough time to develop.'' "You will, don''t worry," Krune said, staring at the boundless ocean beyond as his eyes turned sharp, his usual chirpy demeanor vanishing, returning to his state from when he was at Level 3, saying, "As for any enemies that might pop out, I''ll make them regret having a Spiritual Incarnation." "They''ll face the wrath of this calamity!" Chapter 1125 - A Gentle Ripple Of Krune’s Determination ''Is the Calamity Laws the cause for his change in mentality? Or was it just his experience in the Double-Ocean of the Sub-Realm?'' Feifei wondered, saying, "Let''s focus on reaching the peak of Nascent God Realm first. I''ll probably need a couple decades to reach that point. What about you?" "It''s more or less the same," Krune nodded as he replied. "Though, my clone also needs to reach the same cultivation base. I feel that would be the proper way to reach a stable breakthrough to the Semi-God Realm. If I have to do that, I would need a bit more time." "We''ve already completed all the major work. What remains is the setting up of various buildings. I''ll be working on their design. When you''re free, forge some weapons and the variety. Also, make pills using your development effect and healing effect. That''ll help our disciples cultivate faster." Feifei iterated all the work that was pending for him to do, causing Krune to feel a headache. "I feel like¡­" Krune said after a sigh. "This is the first time I''m becoming afraid of work." "Haha!" Feifei laughed. "Well, I also have a lot to do. Setting up a sect isn''t easy, especially since this would be our final destination. We''ll probably be spending thousands to tens of thousands of years here." "Once I reach the Semi-God Realm, I''ll bring in the rest of our family here," Krune said, shocking Feifei. "Do you have a method to head towards the Godly Path Realm?" Feifei was shocked. "Yes," Krune replied, pointing his index finger upwards as a tiny lightning bolt flickered atop it, causing Feifei to look at him in excitement as he said with a boast, "Tribulation Lightning! That''s my Spiritual Mark." "While using it and Zamura''s pure law, I''ll somehow manage. However, I would probably have to sacrifice a lot of clones. Of course, it''s not a big price to reach the Godly Path Realm once again," Krune explained. "As for Zamura''s Law¡­" Feifei asked with some hesitation, "Just what type of law is it? It seems to be able to do whatever he wishes." "I''m not sure either. Rather, Zamura has remained tight-lipped about it all this time." Krune shook his head. "It seems there''s some reason that he doesn''t wish to say anything about it. Well, he''s always ready to use it to help us, so we''ll leave it at that." "Fair enough." Feifei laughed, waving her hand as she turned around. "I still have some work to do, so I''ll be going for now." "Alright!" Krune waved his hand, remaining in place as he saw Feifei''s silhouette disappear, suddenly leaping into the air as he plunged into the ocean beyond. Without any hesitation, Krune swam deeper and deeper as the water currents around him became stronger, bolting him through the high-pressure waters as if they were nothing. Passive Ability¡ªMoving Ripple! ''Thanks to the Deific Wisp Technique, my abilities have gotten stronger. Unlike before, all my abilities have now fused perfectly into me,'' he thought, continuing to head deeper and deeper into the water until there was no sunlight around him. ''There''s also the Soul Needle and the Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark that have become part of my core being.'' Soon, he reached the sea bed, gently touching it as he weaved a small dance, causing his body to flicker with gentle blue light as his surroundings were lit up. The water around him danced accordingly, making waves as the currents coiled and circulated, revolving around him constantly as they built up power. Krune continued to do the same as he used Moving Ripple to perform the dance, increasing the range of water that he could manipulate, gently activating his Divine Sense, noticing that his range had increased. Now, he was able to increase the range of activity until the reach of his Divine Sense, also noticing that his control over the water currents has gotten stronger, ''I see, it makes sense that my control has gotten better. Passive abilities aren''t one of extreme finesse. But by supplementing their control with my Divine Sense, I can achieve something like that.'' Slowly, he continued to perform the same dance hundreds, if not thousands of times, synchronizing his rhythm with the ocean, becoming one with it as he got used to it, gradually becoming more and more of an expert at it when he gently activated his Mental Energy, also mixing it into the situation. Now, the control over the water currents turned a bit sloppy. However, Krune didn''t change his decision, constantly circulating his new cultivation technique as he noticed the three abilities synchronizing with one another, gradually fusing into one that moved in conjunction with his manipulation. Eventually, he reached a point where the ocean water felt like it was just an extension of his body, his senses, his sense of self. Before he realized it, he had deactivated his passive ability of Moving Ripple, Divine Sense, and Mental Energy, now remaining steady in the water, still like a statue. Suddenly, the waters around him gradually began to move, forming gentle new currents, re-enacting the same sequence of flow he had performed just now. Slowly, the water currents expanded in range, beginning to travel far and wide as Krune remained in place, meditating while remaining as a statue. From his immediate surroundings to the range where his Diving Sense and Mental Energy were active, the water currents gradually expanded, ever slowly encapsulating more and more area, forming a pattern as they stabilized, branching into more underwater streams, continuing to expand without any limits. In the meantime, Krune''s body began to slowly break down, dissolving into the generated water currents little by little, fuelling them even further. Eventually, his figure was completely washed away by the water currents, the expression of his smile the final image before his death. Land Incarnation! There was a sect member standing at the edge of the sect, having walked down halfway along the stairs, staring at the ocean to appreciate the boundless nature and comprehend the law of water that he had focused upon for all his life. Suddenly, he noticed a minor ripple originate from the spot on the water surface directly under the center of the Mountain Sect. The ripple then spread radially, vanishing soon after, causing the man to rub his eyes in confusion, wondering if what he saw was just a hallucination conjured up by his mind after staying awake all along, "Or maybe it is just the trait of the water body here?" Chapter 1126 - You Silly Wisp Within the Mountain Sect''s Sub-Realm, a clone running about within it suddenly stopped as its body morphed all of a sudden, changing into Krune. Then, through his subspace, he brought out some Pseudo Wisps, absorbing them to recover his cultivation base. He then casually exited the Sub-Realm, entering the sect as he walked past the buildings, hearing the information being passed to the villagers that were arriving one after another. A couple of his clones were in charge of transporting the villagers that arrived on the island to the Sect. The clones explained everything they needed to know on the way before leaving them at the sect where a couple of Monster Gecko Kings would take over to guide them through everything. Even though she hadn''t created anything full-scale yet, she did plant a couple of bone trees in the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm to produce some Monster Geckos. This was for them to manage everything in the sect. After all, the Mountain Sect was incomparably big. It was hard for a small group to manage everything. That was where the Monster Geckos came. They were inherently loyal to Feifei since they were created from her ability. Moreover, thanks to being birthed in the God Realm, their starting cultivation was at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. Surprisingly, they had normal intelligence now, just like every other creature born on the God Realm. Thanks to that, they were the perfect assistants for the Mountain Sect. On top of that, they were able to attain human forms right from the get-go. ''We can basically fill up the sect with Monster Geckos. But, they probably have some drawbacks in that they aren''t naturally birthed.'' Krune thought, ''Maybe not being able to become immortals might be one such drawback? Whether it''s true or not, we''ll know in the future.'' He then left the sect, sitting on the Cloud Whale as he observed the ocean below, noticing faint ripples form from the place where his line of sight landed. Krune was now able to feel the entire ocean water as if it was a part of his body. It was because he had mixed in his Land Incarnation into the undercurrents within, guided by his abilities that he used to pull the remainder of the laws making up his Spiritual Incarnation. "I''ll continue to strengthen them over the years until they turn into a gigantic formation," Krune muttered. "Whoever you are, if you dare aim for Feifei, I''ll make you regret ever being born." From the moment his emotions turned cold, the water below him frothed, beginning to boil as a result. Once he calmed himself down, it returned to being its regular self. Calamity Laws! "What''s a calamity? It''s something that a living being cannot fathom, a feat of nature," Krune muttered as he flew up, sensing his surroundings as he said, "A calamity is something that strikes you without warning, one whose scale is so vast you cannot help but feel it''s beyond what an individual can hope to accomplish." "However, I have the Calamity Laws in me. Thanks to my experience in the Sub-Realm, my comprehension of them have further increased over the decades." Arriving high up in the sky, Krune entered a cloud, freezing it into ice immediately as he moved within. Dreams of the Heart¡ªOcean Turbulence! Krune opened the entrance to his subspace as his clones flew out one after another, summoning the Cloud Whales one after another. All the clones had assumed their wisp forms, retracting their ethereal body into their Wisp Core, enveloping the Cloud Whale around it. In an instant, there were twenty such Cloud Whales, all tiny in size, gazing at Krune while hovering before his face. Smiling, Krune''s index finger melted as a Cloud Whale came forward, sucking it in first. Using a Pseudo Wisp to recover the expended Spiritual Incarnation, Krune repeated the same, causing the Cloud Whales to suck his melted body one after another. Soon, they stored the melted forms in their bodies, compressed to the limit. Now that they were ready, Krune watched with anticipation as all the Wisp Cores flickered with lightning, instantly unleashing a powerful lightning bolt. Tribulation Thunder Spiritual Mark! One after another, every single clone unleashed the same bolt while melting, casting their Land Incarnation within the bodies of the River Whales they were within. Using their Land Incarnation, they trapped the tribulation lightning within. After all, it was part of his Spiritual Incarnation. At first, it was hard to control the tribulation lightning, but gradually, they stabilized. After seeing the situation, Krune encased all the Cloud Whales in a thick layer of ice, causing them to vanish. Now, his Land Incarnation seeped into the layer of ice, looking exactly the same as the Cloud Whales. ''This is great.'' Krune grinned, as his expression soon turned malevolent. ''Let me see just who would dare attack my home now.'' Controlling himself, he continued to further his preparations, expanding the number of Cloud Whale ice sculptures that he stored in the cloud. To ensure they would remain in place without dissipating, Krune melted part of his Land Incarnation, layering it atop the laws that formed the clouds. Myriad Wisps Spiritual Incarnation! Since his Spiritual Incarnation was composed of all the laws, making something as simple as a cloud was easy. This way, he ensured even the clouds moved in his favor. After all, he could use the Calamity and Balance Laws in conjunction to make whatever he wished a reality. Balance and Calamity. They were what formed the essence of the entire planar existence called the God Realm. Feifei had coincidentally returned to the sect when she noticed something, gazing at the sky to see Krune working with zealous fervor, almost at a maddened state, sighing as she teared up, "This idiot¡­!" "No matter how many centuries span past or how much you change, some things about you will remain the same." Feifei wiped her tears, firming herself as she entered the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm once again. "I won''t lose to you in preparations¡­" "You silly wisp." Chapter 1127 - Gegrafikan Eats Tina "No! Stop! Get away from me!" A middle-aged lady screamed in fear, having lost her limbs as she dragged herself on the ground, bellowing, "Why have you been following me all this time? Why?" "I thought you already knew from the start. Isn''t that why Trivar used all his resources to flee from Sunkan City?" A wizened old man laughed as he stomped on the middle-aged lady''s stomach, preventing her from escaping. He watched her squirm under his feet as he laughed, telling her, "From the start, we have been searching for you. For countless millennia, your family has escaped from our grasp time and time again. Those that manifested your Spiritual Incarnation were always on the run and avoided us." "But finally..." He gazed at the sky and bellowed a loud laugh. "Us Spirit Aberrations can finally get rid of our curse and dominate the God Realm. And the key lies in you, Tina. Or rather, your Spiritual Incarnation, the Beast Tamer Spiritual Incarnation is the key we have sought since time immemorial." Their journey spanned countless continents before they finally tracked over Tina to the Zamuria Continent. Having noticed their movements, Trivar began to flee, using the Sub-Realm as a chance to enter it and avoid the Spirit Aberrations. But eventually, they caught up. Trivar was killed in Layer 3, where everyone was a mortal. Moreover, the passive and active abilities allowed the Spirit Aberrations to wield enough power to finally satisfy their desires. With that, they were constantly on the tails of Tina, finally catching up to her at the peak of Layer 1. Gazing at Tina''s figure in his hold, the wizened old man failed to rein in his joy, laughing aloud as he grabbed Tina by the scruff of her neck and threw her into the air. "Ack!" Tina gasped for air as she flew high up in the air, despairing as she saw the body of the wizened old man wallop up before exploding, causing a powerful shockwave that destroyed the building in the surroundings. Slowly from within¡­emerged a monster that looked like a mix of countless monsters, possessing tree roots in place of legs that burrowed into the very ground itself, sucking in its essence. Its eyes instantly lost their luster, returning to a bestial nature that prevented even the faintest level of cognition. As Tina''s limbs had been severed, her blood flew out while she was in the air, causing the bestial abnormality to gaze at her, opening its mouth that expanded to become hundreds of meters wide, enveloping within before shrinking down to a manageable size. Land Aberration! A being of the legends, one of the first demon beasts that had been birthed by the chaos of the God Realm when it was forming. Throughout history, their population slowly dwindled in size due to their innate deficiency, eventually resulting in a tiny group. And now, having been through numerous trials and tribulations in the Sub-Realm, their size had been reduced to just one. One person¡­of the once scary race. The Land Aberration swallowed Tina, digesting her in its belly. Tina cried as she noticed her body gradually being dissolved. Suddenly, the restriction on her cultivation vanished as she returned to her state as a God Core Realm cultivator, also obtaining her Spiritual Incarnation. Or rather, she realized that she only recovered her cultivation base because the Land Aberration''s stomach had even digested the seal placed on her. It was the seal placed on everyone that had entered the Sub-Realm, turned into mortals to be placed in Layer 3. It was the seal created by the gods! It showed just how scary the Spirit Aberrations were, capable of digesting all sorts of laws to empower themselves. Not only that, despite the Spirit Aberration only being at the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm, as depicted the restriction at the top of the Immortal Peak, she was unable to damage it. She was unable to rile up her strength in the least, only able to flail around as her body melted while her Spiritual Incarnation was digested, causing her to scream, "Bastard! If I were to reincarnate, I would exact revenge on you." "You don''t need to put on an act!" Suddenly, the wizened old man''s voice resounded within his stomach, shocking Tina as he continued, "I know you have left a fragment of your Spiritual Incarnation in Sunkan City. I haven''t touched it." "What I''m devouring here is sufficient for me to protect my race. If you still wish to seek revenge, I, Gegrafikan, would face you anytime. Moreover, the abilities you gained in this Sub-Realm, I have stored all of them within me. When you find me again, I''ll give them all to you, with interest." His voice said in all seriousness, "Now that I have attained my race''s sole goal, I have no other needs." "Head towards the Lawless Plains, Tina. I''ll be waiting for you there." That was the last line she heard as Tina''s body completely dissolved. In an instant, a heavenly presence originated as Gegrafikan absorbed everything that was once part of her, her Spiritual Incarnation, her laws, and the comprehension she had for the respective laws. It was not to mention the fact that he also obtained all her techniques, becoming many times stronger in an instant. Upon returning to his human form, he sighed, feeling his clear state of mind as he muttered to himself, "Now, I can switch between my human form and Spirit Aberration form without any problems, maintain a perfect clarity of mind all throughout." "Ancestors, comrades, I have finally attained our long-lived wish. The hope for our future is now in my hands," he said, tearing up, crying profusely. "But¡­ I''ve now become the sole member of our race. How will there be glory when I am the last of us, no longer able to propagate our race?" His expression was aghast when he noticed his surroundings had changed, suddenly noticing he was standing on a circular platform that hovered within a sea of clouds, noticing five streaks of lights hovering before him. Suddenly, he noticed an alarming sense of danger, turning around to see a sixth streak of light behind him. Surprisingly, this stream of light was actually two lights that had coiled together into a double helix. Right as he looked at it in alarm, the double helix said, sighing, "To think even a Spirit Aberration managed to enter our Sub-Realm. What the fuck are the rest of you Gods doing?" Chapter 1128 - The Source Of Beast Tamer Spiritual Incarnation "What the fuck were you Gods doing? Even a Spirit Aberration managed to enter our Sub-Realm," the double helix said, cursing aloud. "What have we Spirit Aberrations ever done to you?" Gegrafikan overcame his fear, shouting in anger, "Is wishing to survive that bad?" "You! Shut up!" the double helix responded when he noticed he was unable to speak or even move for the matter. "Weren''t you the one who wished to keep that element of surprise?" One of the streaks of lights cursed in response. "And what do you mean by shifting the blame on us? Didn''t we all decide that we wouldn''t interfere no matter what happened? Why the heck are you going back on your words?" "Eh? I said that?" The double helix was surprised, asking in confusion as its earlier tone of anger vanished. "Of course!" All the other streaks of lights said in unison. "Then, it should be fine," the double helix said after that, looking at Gegrafikan, "Well, look at your tablet and use your Godly Points to purchase from the list of treasures. Hurry along, brat! We don''t have all day to spoil you." "¡­" As everyone else looked at the shamelessness of the double helix, Gegrafikan looked at his tablet, surprised when he noticed his Godly Points had spiked, asking, "Is this the reason you brought me here all of a sudden?" "Yes, we don''t want you to kill all the people just to gather more Godly Points. It was hard to raise the foundation of this Sub-Realm so much, you know," the double helix replied. "And, you alone are capable of destroying everything. There is a reason Spirit Aberrations are both feared and hunted, you know." "I understand." Gegrafikan sighed. "In any case, you don''t have to worry about that. I''m the last Spirit Aberration. Nothing will happen to your Sub-Realm. And if I fail to break through to the Semi-God Realm, the Spirit Aberrations would just become a thing of legend in the God Realm''s history." "About that¡­" The double helix hesitated for a moment before saying, "There is actually a possibility for you to still have kids¡­" "There is?" Gegrafikan was shocked, shouting in excitement, "Please, tell me!" "It''s that Tina woman." The double helix explained, "Since you have devoured her Spiritual Incarnation, some changes have happened in you. And, since she isn''t a normal human, this possibility arose. Now that you have her powers in you, it should be apparent to you, right?" "Yeah." Gegrafikan nodded. "The Beast Tamer Spiritual Incarnation is quite mysterious." "Actually, the Beast Tamer Spiritual Incarnation was part of the Spirit Aberrations. But when they were birthed, the creator of the God Realm understood the threat and power posed by the Spirit Aberrations. Hence, it extracted a part of their power. The power he condensed from that was the Beast Tamer Spiritual Incarnation," it spoke. Upon seeing Gegrafikan''s eyes widen in shock, the double helix continued, "Over time, this ability was passed on from one generation to another, passing hands through numerous races before finally settling with a particular human family. And now, all it has done was return to its original owner." "As a bearer of this ability, Tina is part Spirit Aberration too, even though she looks no different to a human down to her very core," the double helix said. "Though, if you have any offspring, they won''t be as powerful as you. The creator''s scheme was to weaken the Spirit Aberrations by having this ability be away from them for long. So, you are the sole Spirit Aberration that can exhibit the true power of your race." "Thank you for telling me that before my death." Gegrafikan cupped his fists, thanking the double helix as he spoke, "Now, please kill me. I have no regrets since I have already fulfilled my race''s objective." "Why do you think we would kill you?" The double helix suddenly laughed. "Wasn''t that why you were shouting at the other Gods in anger at the start? Isn''t that why you were telling me the truth of my race??" Gegrafikan was confused. "As you said, us Spirit Aberrations are overpowered. We would destroy the balance of the God Realm due to our overwhelming powers. And¡­" "Right, right, enough, enough, stop talking." The double helix suddenly took on a human form, grunting as it said, "Do you seriously think we care about what you do? Just make a family, live a healthy life, and become a God. We''ll talk after that. Now, get lost! It''s not like you''re the only strong character we''ve witnessed." "There¡­are others?" Gegrafikan was shocked, failing to comprehend it when all the streams of lights began to laugh raucously. "I''ll drop you at the Four Sectors Border Region. Once you meet up with Tina, head to the energy gathering formation in the Lawless Plains. A certain¡­character there might bring you to his sect if he likes you enough. It is named Mountain Sect. Once you arrive there, you''ll realize that¡­" "There are two more powerful characters like you there. And they''re possibly more broken than you." Their words echoed in his mind before Gegrafikan laughed, tears streaming down his eyes. "So, that means I can live, right?" Upon hearing the response, he looked through his tablet, responding after he looked through it, "I want to buy one Godly Vein. As for the remaining Godly Points, can you give me a bit of help in exchange for that?" "Oh? Sounds interesting." Returning to its previous form, the double helix asked, "What type of help do you need?" "Well, since I have devoured Tina''s Spiritual Incarnation, even though she''s able to revive now, it''s the last time she can do so. After this, she would turn into a mortal, unable to cultivate ever again," Gegrafikan responded. "I have troubled her too much. So, I wish to repay her however possible. I was thinking of using this Godly Vein to do that. You know, with it being a vein and all¡­" "Impossible!" All the Gods shouted in anger while the double helix laughed in response. "I see what you''re getting at here. For anyone else, it would be impossible. But for you, it''s possible.. Alright, I''ll assist you with the means to achieve that." Chapter 1129 - God Stone Arriving at the Four Sectors'' Border Region, Gegrafikan looked around, surprised as he muttered, "Why does it feel like this place has changed a lot?" As he ran through the place, he noticed that the Predominated Vines at numerous places seemed to have vanished, causing many bald patches of earth to be left behind now, as if they had been uprooted. "Was this¡­possible?" Recalling what the Gods had told him, he laughed. "I see. Just the fact that they could touch and loot the Predominated Vines makes them world-changing characters." He then swerved through the place, using his passive ability to scour through the surroundings, grinning when he noticed a bunch of Predominated Fruits hanging from a Predominated Vine. They had already ripened, on the verge of exploding to fuse with the Suppression Law of the region. He then used his active ability, grabbing hold of the Predominated Fruits before throwing them towards himself. His active ability was smashed to the ground by a couple of Predominated Vines, quickly absorbing it. Storing the Predominated Fruits in his storage ring, he eventually exited the Four Sectors'' Border Region, turning around to see the Predominated Vines when his body morphed. Spirit Aberration¡ªLand Aberration! The Land Aberration grabbed hold of a Predominated Vine and sucked it in like it was eating noodles, digesting it immediately as Gegrafikan returned to his human form, hurriedly retreating from the place while avoiding the attacks from the Predominated Vines. Activating his active ability once again, he traveled at tremendous speeds, reaching Sunkan City within a month. In the place Sunkan City used to exist was a massive crater. Every single resource of value in and around the place had been unearthed and looted dry. The Godly Energy at the place was barely a trickle, not worth mentioning. Even those at Mortal Rejection would be unable to cultivate here, not to mention those at the Godly Fusion Realm and above. As everything of value had been forcefully removed from the place, the land would become tremendously damaged if a couple of immortals decided to fight here. The foundation of the place itself had weakened as a result of the Zamuria Empire''s actions. In any case, Gegrafikan wasn''t concerned about that. Instead, he arrived at the center of Sunkan City''s crater, noticing a tiny seed present at the place, pulsing as it slowly increased in size by absorbing the surrounding Godly Energy. Sadly, as the quantity of Godly Energy was so little, the seed was having difficulty even surviving, not to mention growing to its full size and reviving Tina. This was the sole Spiritual Incarnation fragment she had left behind in place to revive in the future. Upon arriving before the seed, Gegrafikan sighed upon noticing that Tina was having difficulties. If left alone, there was a good chance that she would die. After all, the Godly Energy in the place was already running out. The suction forces the seed could generate weren''t enough to pull in enough Godly Energy from far away. "I''m extremely sorry to have stolen your right to cultivate. Even with what I am about to do, you will still be unable to cultivate. Although powerful, your active and passive abilities aren''t useful enough considering your future condition." Gegrafikan bowed in front of the seed as he told it, "So, I''ll do something that may or may not be good for you. Sadly, this is the only way you can still retain some level of strength." Sighing, he took out the Godly Vein and four Predominated Fruits, dropping them into the seed as he activated numerous abilities present in him, especially riling up the powers a Predominated Vine possessed, fusing everything into the seed before wrapping it up. Thanks to the energy supplied by the Godly Vein, the seed was able to expand in size. Though, due to everything he had done, the seed sprouted, turning into a Predominated Vine as it grew in size at tremendous speeds, soon reaching a couple of kilometers in height. It then remained in such a state for a whole year before condensing a fruit as everything he had infused into the seed seemed to be gathering into it. At the same time, the Predominated Vine absorbed the essence of the earth, pouring it into the fruit further. Three years passed in such a fashion as Gegrafikan stood guard, helping the Predominated Vine complete the process. And now, the vine began to wilt, shriveling up at an alarming rate as it began to shrink. Soon, the fruit touched the ground when the Predominated Vine vanished. The moment it landed on the ground, the fruit also began to shrink as its pulp began to get absorbed by the entity in the center, soon cracking as the figure of a lady appeared within. It was Tina, now naked as she was confused, wondering what she was doing within a fruit when she inspected herself, sobbing as she shed tears, no longer able to cultivate. She noticed the figure of Gegrafikan standing before her, crying as she spoke, "Are you happy now? I''ll be a mortal for all my life. Have you come here to mock me?" "I''m not here for that," Gegrafikan said in response, kneeling as he covered her with a piece of cloth. "Even though you cannot cultivate, I''ve ensured that you would remain strong." "What¡­?" Tina was surprised when she noticed that it was indeed the case. Her meridians had been replaced with something else, something foreign, something vast that seemed to be generating Godly Energy. "Wait¡­how come I''m generating Godly Energy? That makes no sense." "Well, your meridians are formed using a Godly Vein. So, even though you can never cultivate, you can use as much Godly Energy in your attacks as you please," Gegrafikan said, sighing. "However, due to this, you cannot use any active or passive abilities either, since they would come into conflict with the Godly Vein. Therefore, I had modified it a bit, giving you the sole ability that won''t conflict with your nature." "It allows you to create crystals with any shape, size, mass, and density. You can create anything you please using them." Gegrafikan told her. "As for their true abilities, I''ll leave it to you to figure out. With this, you''ll be stronger than before, without a limit to your strength. You are no longer bound by any cultivation limits." Smirking, he concluded, "I name this ability....the God Stone!" Chapter 1130 - You Can Join The Sect "God Stone¡­" Tina muttered as she slowly got up, sighing as she resigned herself to her fate. "I can somewhat understand what you are saying, but that doesn''t mean I will forgive¡­" "Actually, you''re also part Spirit Aberration," Gegrafikan said soon after, shocking Tina. As she stared at him with widened eyes, he explained everything that the Gods had told him, concluding, "This is actually a plot of the creator." "Well, let''s forget about that. No use worrying about what is beyond my control." Tina quickly recovered, sighing as she asked, "So, this place called¡­Mountain Sect? Is that where you want us to go next?" "Yes." Gegrafikan nodded, telling her, "That''s where the Gods advised me to head towards, saying that all odd characters would gather there in the future. So, it''s the best place for us to survive without trouble." "Besides." He looked at her, laughing, "You are the personification of wealth itself right now." "Well, that is true." Tina nodded, condensing a tiny crystal in her right hand, observing it to conclude, "This is a Rank One God Stone, alright. There''s practically no difference between it and those in the market." "And¡­" She muttered in surprise, "How come I can use Divine Sense?" "Well, it''s something hard to explain¡­" Gegrafikan smiled wryly as he tried his best to make her understand. "I don''t fully understand it myself. In any case, you can use Divine Sense. The greater the range of your Divine Sense, the more Godly Energy you''ll be consuming. So, you don''t have any limitations in this regard. Moreover¡­" He laughed as he continued, "You can crystallize your entire body. As long as a fragment of it survives, you will be able to revive instantly. After all, Godly Energy is constantly produced within you." "You''re right on that one." Tina meditated, understanding her powers as Gegrafikan talked about everything he understood, sighing as she concluded, "I feel like once I get a grasp of my abilities, I''ll be able to output power on par with immortals. Also, just to clarify, I¡­ can''t die naturally? I''m an immortal?" "Well, something like that. I don''t understand it fully myself either." Gegrafikan sighed, saying, "Since I have troubled you plenty, this is how I wish to repay you." "I accept your apology," Tina said, getting up as she frowned, taking flight. "This¡­ doesn''t make sense. Only those at the Semi-God Realm should be capable of this." "Anyways..." She nodded as she said, "This is rather interesting. I am liking this better than my previous abilities and the Beast Tamer Spiritual Incarnation." "Let''s head towards the Lawless Plains then." Saying that, her figure blazed through the air, causing Gegrafikan to sigh. He then used his active ability, struggling to catch up to her. "Damn, she''s fast!" Even though he was relieved to see that Tina had let him go without bearing too much of a grudge. If she had maintained a grudge with him, then it would have been hard for him to make a family with her, "In any case, it seems I have to work harder for that future. Well, I''ll get there eventually." ¡­ Lawless Plains. The duo of Tina and Gegrafikan landed in the region when Tina muttered, sensing the faint flow of Godly Energy in the place. "There''s an energy gathering formation here. And¡­" She then focused, pointing at the ground, saying, "All of it is being collected here." She then pointed a way for them to enter and reach the cavern within, noticing a figure appearing at the entrance instantly, holding a weirdly shaped blunt instrument in his hand. "We don''t mean to intrude." Gegrafikan took charge of the situation, intending to speak when Tina laughed. She walked forward, waving her hand as she greeted the figure. "Hello there. We meet again, Krune." "Tina¡­?" Krune was surprised, shocked as he muttered, "You seem¡­different now." "Well, indeed I do." Tina nodded, getting straight to the point. "We want to join the Mountain Sect." Krune frowned as he asked her, "How do you know this name?" "The Gods of the Sub-Realm told us," Gegrafikan replied, pointing at himself as he spoke, "I''m actually a Spirit Aberration." "What?" Krune instantly widened the distance between them by a hundred meters, alarmed as the sounds of the ocean waves resounded through the cavern, increasing in might continuously as the thunderous sounds made it seem as if they were up against a perennial ocean, a nature''s calamity. Their hairs stood on end in alarm as Gegrafikan could feel his back sweating, thinking, ''This guy is strong!'' He hurriedly waved his hand as he hastily tried to clear up the misunderstanding. "Look, we don''t mean to harm you. Rather, we wish to join your sect to live a peaceful life." "Well, prove it then," Krune said in response, waving his hand as he opened the entrance to his subspace, bringing Zamura out. Zamura gazed at the duo before him, observing them before he laid his eyes on Tina, muttering, "Are you the one that can control demon beasts?" "I used to be able to do that." Tina nodded. "But not anymore. I''m not even a cultivator now, nor can I ever cultivate in the future." "You''re no longer a cultivator?" Zamura was confused before he probed her with his Divine Sense. Confused, he unleashed green radiance, causing them both to tremble before retracting it after a second, nodding as he told them, "Alright, you can join the Mountain Sect." "Wait¡­ that''s it?" Tina stood up, asking in surprise, "You don''t need to see anything else?" "Not necessarily." Zamura laughed. "The both of you are oddities. If your true abilities are witnessed by anyone else, they would hunt you down for their benefit." "One can produce endless wealth while the other is the source of Spiritual Incarnations. You''ll be hunted down to the ends of the God Realm the moment your identities are revealed," Zamura said, causing the duo to shudder in shock, surprised that he was able to see through them so easily. "Plus, there are similar ones in our sect. So, it''s indeed the best place for you to live in peace." He laughed, nodding once at Krune, "Can you transport us to the sect?" "Sure," Krune said, bringing everyone into his subspace before a clone let them out on the island situated in the middle of the ocean. "Wait, can''t you send us directly into the Sect?" Zamura asked, feeling that it was a pain to travel from the island all the way to the Mountain Sect. After all, it was a three-day trip on the Cloud Whale. "Well, when the newcomers see our sect from afar, they would become awestruck at its grand scale. It''s a necessary process." The clone grinned as Krune exited the subspace, having left a clone at the Lawless Plains. "Now, let''s go!" Krune laughed, summoning his Cloud Whale to bring them towards the Mountain Sect. Chapter 1131 - The Sect Tour (Part 1) Three days later, the group of four approached the vicinity of the Mountain Sect when Tina and Gegrafikan gawked at its sheer size. Noticing that it was hovering in the air, they asked simultaneously, "How did such a massive floating island appear here?" "It was actually constructed," Zamura replied. "It took us a lot of time to make this." "You¡­made it?" Tina asked in shock. "Five of us worked together to create it," Zamura laughed as he clarified. "All of us have a variety of interesting powers. And when combined, it resulted in what you see before you." "What about the resources required to create this? You need a continent''s worth of resources to make this." Gegrafikan said in shock, having traveled through numerous continents in his life. A Spirit Aberration was different from other species. They didn''t have the concept of natural death. He had been alive for countless millennia, roaming through various continents in search of the Beast Tamer Spiritual Incarnation, trailing it from the traces left behind in various races. Due to that, he had enough experience to judge that the resources required to construct the massive feat before him weren''t something a group of lone cultivators could possess. "Everything here was procured by us alone," Krune said with a hint of pride. "Well, you''ll understand more once you enter it." Soon, they arrived at the flight of stairs leading into the sect, entering it when a light shone on Tina and Gegrafikan, engraving the tattoo of a mountain on their foreheads. Both were white tattoos, showing their designation as Outer Disciples. "A Monster Gecko would tell you everything you need to know about the sect. The symbol on your forehead means that you are members of the Mountain Sect." Saying his piece, Krune opened the entrance to his subspace, bringing out a clone while he and Zamura entered it. The clone then walked towards one of the buildings, entering it to proceed with its respective tasks. "A Monster Gecko?" Tina was surprised as she made eye contact with Gegrafikan, clearly aware of what this species was. After all, during their stay at Layer 3 of the Sub-Realm, the Monster Geckos were waging war with humanity. "New members?" Suddenly, the raspy voice of a woman jolted them to their senses, causing them to turn around to see a woman with an angular face, possessing sharp features. However, upon seeing their looks and the white mountain symbol on their foreheads, the lady nodded, saying as she walked forward, "Follow me." Tina noticed that the woman also had the same white mountain symbol on her forehead, realizing that she was also an Outer Disciple of the Mountain Sect. As the two followed her, she led them towards a massive hall that was situated a hundred meters away from the sect''s entrance. There was a large plaque overhead. The words engraved on it said, ''The Hall of Logistics.'' "This is where you''ll register yourself and obtain the basic necessities for your stay." Saying so, she led them into the building, bringing them towards a counter where a lady that looked similar to her added their names into a register. She then inscribed their names on coral slabs, scanning the sizes of Tina and Gegrafikan using her Divine Sense before taking out appropriate clothes for them. The lady that led them into the building handed them over their respective clothes and the coral slabs. "There are three sets of your sect uniform here. This is the only piece of clothing you must wear while conducting sect affairs. If you want more, you can purchase them in the market. I''ll guide you there later. There are also sect uniforms with multiple designs." She then pointed at the coral slabs as she continued explaining, "As for these, they are the most important. Everything related to your identity is recorded in them. There''s a small formation embedded in them that tracks your contribution points and has been synchronized with the Contribution Tower. It also keeps track of your whereabouts. So, in the case of you getting lost outside, we''ll be able to track you using them." "There are numerous missions and quests that are handed out at the Mission Tower. You can perform them and be awarded contribution points. These contribution points allow you to exchange for weapons, pills, equipment, cultivation techniques, passive abilities, active abilities, Quasi Spiritual Marks, and so on," she continued. "Your coral slabs keep track of everything." "As an Outer Sect Disciple, you''ll be awarded 100 contribution points every month. Then again, it''s hardly enough to develop yourself. After all, a single Body Development Pill costs that much." She rambled on, realizing that they weren''t following her train of thought as she spoke, "Oh, a Body Development Pill can increase your body weight by one kilogram. It''s a must for your body cultivation journey." "However, only Inner Sect Disciples have access to that." She laughed, continuing, "Anyway, to become an Inner Sect Disciple, you must accumulate 10,000 contribution points. With that, if you don''t wish to waste your life, you should hurry up with the tasks." She then took out a book from her spatial ring, having gone over to each. "Everything I''m saying is written in it. You can look at it later for reference." She then arrived before a building that was shaped like a dome, entering it as she pointed at a large stone slab situated in the center. "That is the Myriad Energies Technique. It will allow you to have the fastest cultivation speed. It would also allow you to develop Godly Meridians, which are the most potent form of meridians one could have to cultivate." "You can come here later to learn the technique." She then led them towards a library of sorts, explaining as she pointed at the innumerous books and scrolls situated in countless racks, "This here is the general library. Any information you wish to know about is available here. Though, it''s still in the process of being filled up. There are missions related to that as well. If the information you provide could be verified, it would be placed here, and you''ll be awarded the necessary contribution points." "This is one of the easiest means to obtain contribution points." Gegrafikan laughed, confident in his treasure trove of knowledge. The lady didn''t react to his boast, calmly guiding them towards another building when Tina suddenly exclaimed in shock, "Aren''t they¡­Black Demons?" Chapter 1132 - The Sect Tour (Part 2) "Have you been to the Sub-Realm?" the lady asked, turning around as she inspected their bodies using Divine Sense, noticing how dense their physique was, concluding, "It seems you are indeed from there. That makes things simpler." "They are the very same Black Demons you might have seen in Layer 2 of the Sub-Realm," she replied. "So, this is how they look." Tina nodded, having not seen one while she was in Layer 2. The highest she saw was a Red Demon. Her physique, back when she was in the Sub-Realm, was as strong as a Red Demon. Gegrafikan was the same, possessing physical strength on par with a Red Demon. Now, they gazed at the sheer presence oozed by the Black Demons, honestly surprised at how strong they were. Upon seeing more than thirty Black Demons in one group, they were alarmed. However, upon seeing the white tattoo of a mountain on their foreheads, Tina and Gegrafikan visibly relaxed. "They have appeared a couple of months ago. So, they''re also new disciples," the lady said, finally introducing herself. "You can call me Alfa. I''m a Monster Gecko in charge of taking care of all the sect''s needs. I''m a regular Monster Gecko. And all female regular Monster Geckos have the same name." "You''re a¡­Monster Gecko?" Tina was surprised when Alfa reverted to her Monster Gecko form for a second before returning to her human form. "All of us look the same since we''re a product of Master Feifei''s ability. Hence, we share the same name," Alfa explained. "As for our male counterparts, they''re addressed as Azra. The stronger a Monster Gecko, the prettier they become while in human form." "Also, they are addressed accordingly. If they''re a female Mutant Monster Gecko, they''re addressed as Mutant Alfa. It follows the same order for a King, Emperor, and Supreme Monster Gecko." Alfa said, concluding, "Over time, you''ll be able to differentiate our strengths and appearances." She then led them towards a building built like an inverted honeycomb, entering one of its rooms to show a forging room."This is where you can forge any item that you wish to create. You can borrow all the necessary tools here." She then pointed at a certain place, switching on the formation to cause a flame to flicker into life. "You can adjust the intensity of the flame, the type of flame it generates, and other variables. You''ll be charged contribution points based on how much you spend. There''s a meter nearby to show you how much you''re spending in real-time." She then showed them to another building, one that was shaped like an igloo. The moment they entered it, an intense smell of herbs wafted to their nose as Alfa explained, "This is where pills are created. All the herbs you need could be requested. There''s a list of everything in the lobby, similar to the forging building. The cost of each herb is given based on contribution points." "Anything you create would be inspected and priced accordingly by the Emperor Monster Geckos in charge of the place. Of course, you can use them on your own or sell them to the allotted price," Alfa added. "This is amazing¡­" Tina said in amazement, asking in confusion after some thought, "Thought, why are there so few people everywhere?" "That''s because the sect is only a couple decades old since its establishment," Alfa explained. "At present, the only disciples we are recruiting are those from the Sub-Realm. So, this is for the better. Quality above quantity. A couple of centuries later, the sect would be fully populated." The next building she led them to was one where Talismans could be created. The environment was peaceful, pleasant to aid in the creation of Talismans. "The formations in each room allow you to imitate various environments. This way, you can use them as inspiration to create various Talismans." She then brought them to what was apparently the biggest building in the entire sect, telling them, "This is the market where everything is sold. There are also auction houses of various sizes here that open up accordingly to the items that arrive." Tina then entered the market, noticing numerous stalls placed everywhere. However, very few of them were filled. There was a small crowd of people surfing through things, clearly familiar with all the people in place. She observed that the items sold at the place ranged from mundane things like jewelry to important items like pills, weapons, and so on. After giving a brief recount to everything in place, Alfa led them towards a heavily guarded building, saying, "This is where all the Godly Abilities are stored. They are present for every cultivation realm. As long as your realm matches the condition, and you have enough contribution points, you can exchange for any technique from there." She then arrived at a building around which a lot of Outer Sect Disciples had congregated around, saying, "This place is by far the most important for the Outer Disciples. This is where you can buy Quasi Spiritual Marks." "Quasi Spiritual Marks?" Tina was surprised. "Are they the same as the Spiritual Marks present in the Sub-Realm?" "Yes, only weaker." Alfa nodded. "Their creator can only create them up to this level of power. But in the future, once she becomes an immortal, she can create Spiritual Marks without trouble." "Spiritual Marks¡­" Tina sighed, having seen everything. "The Mountain Sect is prosperous in resources." "Of course." Alfa nodded in agreement. "That brings us to the prime location in the sect, the central tower. Though, you''ll only gain clearance to visit there once you become Core Disciples." She then brought them to a certain district within the sect, saying, "This is the residential district. As an Outer Sect Disciple, you''ll only get a 1BHK apartment for your use. An Inner Sect Disciple would have a 3BHK apartment while a Core Disciple gets a villa." She then brought them to their respective apartments, leaving them after a word. "Your coral tablets are the key to your apartment. Don''t lose it. If you wish to purchase some storage rings, you can head to the market. Look through the book I gave you for further details about everything else. There''s a lot that I haven''t shown you around." After she left, Tina and Gegrafikan looked at each other, bursting into laughter. "This place is on a whole other level." "And to think five people established it.. That''s simply unbelievable." Chapter 1133 - 12 Extra Godly Vines "Aunt! I finally returned again!" Solare shouted upon setting foot into the Mountain Sect, tearing up in joy as he exclaimed, "It was hard to cultivate so much!" "You did well." The Seamstress patted him, noticing that he had returned to his appearance from when he was a teenager, basking in nostalgia as she noticed that he still retained his sense of intelligence from before. Solare extricated himself from the group of Black Demons that he had traveled with, bringing the Seamstress to one corner as he whispered, "Aunt, I brought along a Godly Vine." "What?" The Seamstress was surprised to hear that. "How did you manage to obtain that many Godly Points?" "Well, actually..." He scratched his chin, telling her, "All the Black Demons pooled their Godly Points into me before leaving. I was told to wait until the last of them arrived. That''s why I arrived the last here." He then continued, smirking, "Now, I possess 12 Godly Veins in total. I left the remaining Godly Points with a villager who promised that they would do the same and accumulate until they''re able to buy another Godly Vein." Taking in a deep breath, he added, his tone filled with disappointment, "If not for the fact that the Gods refused to sell a Sub-Realm, we would have bought it first." "12 Godly Veins¡­" the Seamstress muttered, grinning as she grabbed hold of Krune''s clone nearby, telling him all the details. He immediately transported both of them into the Mountain Sect''s Sub-Realm as all five founding members entered a meeting. "What shall we do with them?" the Seamstress asked. "They''re in great abundance. Though, if we don''t utilize them properly, we would be simply expending them." "We''ll create two more Cultivation Lotuses," Feifei announced suddenly. The Cultivation Lotus was what Zamuria created during her breakthrough. Through it, they would obtain a steady stream of Godly Energy without fear of the Godly Vein drying up in the future. "However, that might slow down the growth of the first Cultivation Lotus. We also need to work on the quality of Godly Energy it can produce, remember?" Zamura retorted. As everyone looked at Feifei, she let out a chuckle, telling the others after giving it a bit more thought, "We''ll use the first Cultivation Lotus for the Outer and Inner Sect Disciples to cultivate. We''ll occasionally take it to reinforce it using Tribulation Lightning. The second Cultivation Lotus would be what the Core Disciples would use to cultivate and breakthrough to the Semi-God Realm." "And finally, we''ll reserve the third Cultivation Lotus especially for Elders and above, those that are breaking through from the Semi-God Realm to the God Trial Realm and beyond. This third Cultivation Lotus would become the most valued treasure of our sect and would be generating enough energy for all our needs," she concluded. "This way, we''ll all be able to have enough Godly Energy to cultivate without dividing our task force over wider activities." "That sounds like a feasible plan. However..." The Seamstress said after a frown, "This is in the case our disciples breakthrough enough to constantly reinforce the Cultivation Lotuses. Otherwise, we''ll expend them sooner or later." "Actually, there''s a quicker solution to that," Krune interrupted her, placing his palm forward for all to see when lightning flickered on it, alarming everyone. Zamuria was pale with fear as she looked at Krune with a haggard expression. "T-Tribulation Lightning? H-How do you have it?" "Krune has used it for all his life," Feifei explained, the only one among the group that wasn''t shocked. "Actually, Luvile, the God of Tribulation Law, is Krune''s closest friend. It was Krune that helped him when he was wounded, nursing him back to full health. Now, the two have known each other for a couple centuries already." "But, how is it possible for you to wield the Tribulation Lightning even if that were the case?" Zamuria continued to express her fluster, looking at Krune as she told him, "The Tribulation Law is the sole law that cannot ever be wielded by cultivators. Even if your friend if the Tribulation Law God, this is still something that isn''t possible." "It''s thanks to my Spiritual Mark," Krune laughed as he replied. "Luvile created a Spiritual Mark exclusively for me. It is what allows me to wield Tribulation Lightning. However, I cannot control it, just like I did in the past. All I can do now is simply discharge it towards a target, nothing else." "That''s still amazing in its own regard." Zamuria nodded when her eyes widened, understanding what Krune had implied before. "Right, with Tribulation Lightning, you can constantly reinforce the Cultivation Lotuses. You can absorb the energy they emit and use it to reinforce them further." "Since I''m only at the Ninth Stage of the God Core Realm, the reinforcement I can give it would only be a fraction of what a breakthrough to the Semi-God Realm provides. Nevertheless, I can stack it without problems," Krune grinned as he told them this. "And when I grow stronger in the future, I can reinforce them even further. So, even if there is a lack of disciples at any time, we won''t ever be troubled." "Alright then. I''ll break through next and create the second Cultivation Lotus," the Seamstress said as she looked at Zamuria and asked, "Can you handle gathering all the necessary materials?" "Sure, give me a month. I''ll gather two piles of them." Zamuria nodded. "That''s two down. We still have ten more to use," Zamura said. "We have to ensure that they''re used appropriately." "I was about to suggest we create a fountain that can produce God Stones," Krune suggested. "But, since there''s Tina among our ranks, I don''t see the need for that." "Well, there''s still a limit as to how much she can produce. Once our sect members increase in numbers, she would be slumped with work. Unlike us, she''s a mortal and has to sleep daily. Otherwise, her brain would fry." After going silent for a bit, Zamura suggested, offering a solution, "We can do it this way." He took out the Pocket Ring and continued, "The space within is vast while even living things can live inside it. I''ll use my abilities to fuse a Godly Vein into it so that it would constantly produce God Stones.. In the unlikely event something happens, we can take refuge within it without any problems." Chapter 1134 - A Beneficial Cycle "That''s great, then." Krune nodded in agreement. "Now, that leaves us with 9 Godly Veins." "What about your subspace?" Zamura asked while looking at Krune. "Why don''t you use one for it?" "Unfortunately, that doesn''t seem to be an option," Krune replied. "Only my comprehension of the laws allows it to expand in size. With that, if I insert something foreign in it, it would collapse my subspace." "You can create another Cultivation Lotus and keep it safe there. Since your clones are performing a lot of work, they need all this energy. Plus, you can also use it to temper the other three Cultivation Lotuses of the sect." Feifei offered a solution. "Moreover, you can stop using them to collect Godly Energy from everywhere else. You can now put them to better use by forging items, making more pills, and so on." "That makes sense." Krune nodded, grabbing hold of a Godly Vein that was handed to him. He placed it in his subspace as some of his clones arrived, beginning to absorb energy from it directly. "That means I have to gather three batches of the materials. Fair enough!" Zamuria said, looking at Feifei as she spoke, "It seems you have already thought of a good way to use the rest." "Yes," Feifei responded. "It would be for the best to create danger zones. Of course, not the ones like in the God Realm, but those that our disciples can use to train themselves." "For example, my Energy Sink has the healing water from Layer 3 of the Sub-Realm. So, if I work around it to create a terrain with this healing water and infuse a Godly Vein into its core, then the entire terrain would become a blessed land for healing everyone," she told them, causing everyone to give a round of applause for the idea. "Using my Pseudo Wisps to cultivate is faster than regular cultivation. I can program them to mimic those that approach their vicinity, allowing those that approach them to absorb the Pseudo Wisps easily. In this terrain, they''ll absorb the abundant Godly Energy and constantly birth Pseudo Wisps. Since this is the essence of my Spiritual Incarnation, the only thing I have to do is lay my Land Incarnation in the place," Krune said soon after. "My Land Incarnation is related to the mind," The Seamstress went after Krune. "Irrespective of the type of person you are, the moment you step into this area, all your negative thoughts would vanish while you''ll become a functionally better person right from your core. Of course, I''ll tone down the effect so that the cultivators using the place to train wouldn''t be too drastically affected." "At first, I had to constantly manage them. But now, I''ll lay down a part of my Land Incarnation," Zamuria said. "That would constantly birth the monsters from Layer 3 that Feifei can then process using her bone trees, converting them into pellets that could be ingested to obtain passive abilities. It would be the same for active abilities as well, just incredibly rare in number." "This way, everything that is necessary for the sect would become automated." Feifei nodded, looking at Zamura to see him deep in thought, asking, "What are you thinking about?" "I was thinking long-term," Zamura replied. "Even though the Mountain Sect''s Sub-Realm is vast and is rich in resources, once our sect has enough population, the resources would start to be used up rapidly. Over time, quite a lot of resources would become depleted. We would no longer be self-sufficient as we are right now." "We''ll do what everyone has proposed. Including my Spiritual Incarnation that would allow one to forge equipment and create equipment spirits with greater ease, we''ll be using 9 Godly Veins." Zamura said. "As for the remaining three Godly Veins, we''ll fuse them directly into this Sub-Realm itself. This way, its foundation would be improved drastically. Adding on the Godly Energy constantly being produced by the Cultivation Lotuses, this place would always be teeming with resources." "However, it would be hard to fuse the Godly Veins into the Sub-Realm." Krune frowned. "A single minor error would cause major disasters to the place and possibly even sever all our plans." "I understand that." Zamura nodded as he said in response, "That''s why I''ll simply store the remaining three Godly Veins in the Pocket Ring. Once all of us have become immortals, we''ll have enough means at our disposal to make this plan a reality. At that time, we''ll perform this task." "Fair enough." Krune nodded before everyone dispersed one after another. A month later, Zamuria handed him a batch of the resources as Krune recalled most of his clones, making them form a circle around the pile that was carefully arranged by Feifei according to his plan. A Pseudo Wisp carried the Godly Vein, burrowing deep into the pile when Feifei checked through everything using her Divine Sense, giving him the go-ahead. Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark! Krune activated it first, causing a bolt of lightning to slam into the pile of materials, depleting all the Godly Energy stored in the Spiritual Mark. Once the effect of his lightning bolt was beginning to wane, a clone soon took action, slamming a second bolt of Tribulation Lightning. Similarly, the clone after that repeated the same. As the clones took action one after another, Krune was busy supplying the Godly Energy in his meridians into his Spiritual Mark, taking out a Pseudo Wisp from his subspace as he absorbed it, instantly recovering all expended energy. With his Spiritual Mark fully recharged, he waited his turn, unleashing a second bolt of lightning after some time had passed. In such a fashion, all of them slammed lightning bolts into the pile, beginning to slowly melt it. Krune had prepared plenty of Pseudo Wisps just for this occasion. Thanks to the Godly Vein he had kept in his subspace all this time, he had birthed enough Pseudo Wisps to fill up the entire space. It was more than enough to complete the process. As the potency of the Tribulation Lightning he unleashed was greatly inferior to what Zamuria faced during her breakthrough to the Semi-God Realm, it took Krune almost two months to finish forging the Cultivation Lotus. However, upon completion, he was overjoyed, grinning as he said, "It''s done." He then placed it carefully in his subspace, causing ten clones to surround the Cultivation Lotus, absorbing the Godly Energy it produced before unleashing lightning bolts onto it. This way, he planned to constantly refine it, using the energy produced by the Godly Vein to reinforce it through Tribulation Lightning, increasing the Godly Energy it produced upon each minor upgrade. With that, a beneficial cycle had been created. Chapter 1135 - A Wisp’s Flaw "This is troubling." Krune frowned as he riled up all the Godly Energy in both his dantians, struggling to break through. No matter what he did, he failed to reach the Nascent God Realm. He had thought that since he had obtained enough experience, he wouldn''t face any blocks in his cultivation path until he became an immortal. But here it was, preventing him from even reaching the Nascent God Realm. Though, he noticed that the reason he was unable to reach the Nascent God Realm wasn''t due to his lacking experience, enlightenment or anything of the sort. Instead, it stemmed from a core reason, one that soured his mood upon realization. It was because he was a wisp! Wisps were naturally ungifted towards cultivation. Rather, they were defective beings. The fact that Krune managed to reach such a stage was already something worthy of praise. But now, the defects in his nature prevented him from proceeding beyond his current realm. It had been three years since he obtained a Cultivation Lotus for his personal use. And, he had tried to break through to the Nascent God Realm all that time, constantly failing to do so. Now that he had wasted a lot of time futilely trying to breakthrough, Krune sighed, giving up on working alone as he approached Feifei, asking, "I''m unable to breakthrough. Can you find the reason as to why using your Spiritual Incarnation?" "Let me try," Feifei said as she riled up her Godly Energy, casting a beam onto him as mysterious symbols floated in the air. "Return to your wisp form. I''ll only be able to figure out the details after that." Once Krune returned to his wisp form, Feifei was able to notice something, beginning to mumble something as she was calculating and boring deeper into his secrets, trying to find the source of his trouble and intending to figure out a solution. She constantly worked in probing him for three days before sighing in the end, having exhausted all her Godly Energy reserves, telling him, "I figured out the cause. It''s because there are some impurities in your Wisp Core. This is related to the defective nature of wisps." "How do I solve this issue?" Krune asked, feeling a bit worried about being unable to grow in strength. However, once he remembered Wally, he realized that there was indeed a solution. All he had to do was just find it. Once he understood that, he calmed down, watching Feifei calculate something for a long time. After some time, she broke out of her thoughts, saying, "You''ll need to refine your Wisp Core and remove all the impurities that make you defective. However, simply doing that would only lead to your death. So, you must replace it with something to stabilize your Core. The greater the quality of this substance, the longer it''ll keep you stabilized. Otherwise, for every breakthrough into a higher realm, you would have to repeat this process that''ll get riskier for every consecutive attempt." "How do I refine my core?" Krune was confused. After all, this refinement wasn''t something related to forging at all. Otherwise, he would have figured out something by now. "Basically, you''ll have to plunge yourself into places rich with elemental laws. Fire, Water, and Wind elemental laws are the three laws necessary to help you. Also, these places should have a concentration of the laws around the Primal God Realm level. Plus, they should be wholly pure. Otherwise, you''ll simply end up taking damage," Feifei told him. "As for the refinement process, as long as you subject yourself to these laws while attempting to breakthrough, the impurities would be ejected automatically while the respective law in the place would help fill up the vacuum. Once you have refined your Wisp Core enough, you''ll automatically reach the Nascent God Realm," Feifei concluded. "With the Cultivation Lotus in your subspace, you won''t be lacking the Godly Energy necessary to breakthrough." "But, where will I find such a place?" Krune frowned as he thought about it. "Even the danger zones aren''t like this since they''re Land Incarnations, containing a lot of laws. A place with only one law probably doesn''t exist...I think." "I''m unsure about this as well." Feifei sighed after mulling over it. "I''ll look into it further and tell you if I manage to find something." "Alright." Krune vanished from the place, roaming through the Mountain Sect when he thought of something, approaching Zamura as he expressed his needs. "I have never seen such a place myself. But..." Zamura said after some thought, "Gegrafikan should know something about it. I''ve been observing him for the past three years. He has filled a tremendous volume of information in our sect library. At present, more than 40 percent of the information is from him, and it''s continuing to increase as we speak. It''s apparent that he knows a lot of things. Probably he''s the most knowledgeable of us all. Ask him about this." "Thanks, I''ll ask him next," Krune said in response, using his subspace to arrive at the residential district, gazing at a villa to see Tina sitting on the lawn, sewing something using some of the flowers she had picked up from the garden. She was pregnant, smiling from time to time as she was lazing around. The moment Krune approached the villa gate, Tina sensed him, waving her hand once to open the gates, saying, "Welcome, Krune. Why did a busy individual like you appear here?" "I''ve come to consult Gegrafikan about something," Krune replied, surprised the moment he set foot within the villa''s laws, noticing the spike of Godly Energy in the place. It was apparent that Tina had changed the place to suit Gegrafikan''s cultivation needs. After all, even the walls were layered with crystals rich in Godly Energy. Due to her power and abilities, Tina was already given the title of an Elder. She was in charge of the logistics of the Sect now, also commanding power on par with an immortal once she understood her abilities further. As for Gegrafikan, he quickly rose through the ranks to become a Core Disciple. Once he became an immortal, he would become an Elder right away as his contribution points were close to the requirements. "Please head inside. He''s buried himself under a pile of books that he''s preparing to be placed in the library." Tina laughed. "Honestly, it''s shocking to see just how much he knows." "Thank you." Krune nodded and entered the villa, immediately hearing incessant scratching sounds that were grating to the ears. In fact, the sounds were too irritating to bear as Krune understood the reason Tina was sitting on the lawn. She couldn''t bear the sounds. Chapter 1136 - High Stakes Breakthrough Needs Krune noticed the house being filled with books and scrolls everywhere, making it a messy place for a pregnant lady to live in. Though, since it seemed like Tina didn''t pay too much heed to it, he didn''t say anything, calmly sitting on the sofa in the living room. It seemed Tina had already informed Gegrafikan through her Divine Sense since the scratching sounds vanished as a messy individual walked out of the room, scratching his head before looking at Krune in surprise. "I was surprised to hear that there was something you needed my help with." "Why is that surprising?" Krune asked, surprised at the question. "Well¡­" Gegrafikan coughed, muttering with a wry smile, "It seemed like you had a solution to everything and also seemed capable of everything." "That¡­ isn''t entirely true." Krune smiled wryly as he responded, "I do have a lot of troubles that I cannot solve on my own. One of which is what I''m currently facing." "What trouble is it?" Gegrafikan asked, suddenly trembling in shock upon seeing Krune return to his wisp form, muttering in fear, "A¡­wisp!" "You know of wisps?" Krune asked in surprise, saying upon seeing him nod. "There aren''t any in God Realm, though. So, how did you find out about them?" "That''s not true." Gegrafikan sighed, trembling a bit before saying, "There was one wisp who lived in the God Realm before." "He called himself Wally and later became a God. He almost caused the Four Realms to destabilize," Gegrafikan said, controlling his trembling. "I''ve seen Wally a couple of times personally. So, I know everything there is to know about wisps." "So, you''ve seen Wally." Krune nodded, understanding. "That isn''t all." Gegrafikan continued, "Wisps are an ancient race just like us Spirit Aberrations. We were all born around the same time. However, a wisp is basically energy that clumped together to gain some sentience. So innately speaking, wisps are a defective race and becoming an immortal is impossible, not to mention becoming a God." "Then¡­" Krune was just about to interject when he realized that the other party was aware of Wally. So, there should have been a reason for his claim. He remained silent, wishing to hear the reason next. "The source of this defect is from the fact that wisps are just energy beings. In the God Realm, they''re just manifestations of Godly Energy. And just as how everyone can use Godly Energy to invoke a variety of abilities, wisps can become a variety of forms themselves." Gegrafikan then took in a deep breath before continuing, "And, here lies one of the root causes of the trouble any Wisp faces." "Mating between different races generally doesn''t produce any offspring. On the off chance the two parent races have enough similarities, there''s a possibility of them birthing an offspring. Surprisingly, wisps don''t have such a limitation. Given that they could take on a human form, they can mate with any race and produce offspring without any trouble," he spoke. Upon seeing Krune''s face twitch, he continued, "Moreover, wisps are generally attracted subconsciously to those possessing powerful cultivation techniques. Just like how a cultivator having a strong cultivation technique can pull in a lot of Godly Energy from their surroundings to cultivate, they can also attract the attention of any wisp that faces them." Upon seeing Krune''s shock, Gegrafikan laughed, saying, "So, one way or another, any wisp that doesn''t die from its low lifespan ends up mating with someone. If it hadn''t done that, then the only reason is because it was fleeing for life constantly. Otherwise, wisps are by far the easiest race to mate with. Then again, it''s not like everyone knows about this." "Since we Spirit Aberrations have existed from the beginning of the Four Realms, the amount of information we have inherited from our ancestors through our bloodline is an unsurpassable chasm. So not many from us might know about this fact," Gegrafikan said. "And, though wisps are defective in many ways, they wouldn''t have been blockaded in cultivation before reaching the Nascent God Realm. The actual problems would only crop up once you try to break through to the Semi-God Realm and beyond." "Then, why am I facing this problem?" Krune wondered. "Since you have mated and produced an offspring, it caused the defects in you to increase. That''s the reason. The greater the number of children you have increases or the more the number of races you''ve mated with, the greater the defects that would accumulate in you until your Wisp Core shatters." Gegrafikan sighed. "Wally suffered from the same fate. Though in his case, he faced obstacles in even reaching the God Core Realm. He was¡­rather popular with women from various races." "What''s the solution to rectify this problem?" Krune asked, getting excited upon seeing that Gegrafikan was well-versed with the issue. This meant his problem could be easily solved. "There are two choices." Gegrafikan sighed, saying after some hesitation, "The first is to annihilate all your offspring and soak in their blood for your defects to gradually heal themselves." Upon seeing Krune''s expression of anger, Gegrafikan nodded. "Yeah, it''s not advisable. Even if you end up doing it, you''ll feel like shit for the rest of your life. But the second option, though feasible, contains more risks than the first option." "You''ll have to immerse yourself in many Law Pools." "Law Pools?" Krune asked in confusion. "A Law Pool is basically a place where there only exists one Law, and its quality of concentration had reached the Primal God Realm. In other words, it has manifested into a tangible state in reality. You''ll have to immerse yourself in such a pool to heal your defects," Gegrafikan explained. He then said after some hesitation, "However, there''s a problem with this." "What''s this problem?" Krune asked, becoming serious upon seeing Gegrafikan''s hesitation, reassuring him. "Please tell me. I promise I won''t do anything unsensible." "Deep into every continent, situated at their core is a vacuum. Present within this vacuum are these Law Pools. Usually, there''s only one Law Pool that had grown to become tangible in a continent''s core while the remaining Law Pools would be small and intangible," he explained, sighing as he decided to tell Krune the truth. "When you immerse yourself in this Law Pool, your defects would be healed. In exchange, the defects that your Wisp Core ejects out would be absorbed into the Law Pool, causing it to no longer be pure." He then continued, his tone filled with worry, "This would imply that the foundation of the entire continent would be damaged, causing the Godly Energy in it to run amok¡­" "Millions of people would die as a result." Chapter 1137 - Bruh… "Millions of people would die as a result." Upon hearing the cold hard truth, Krune was worried. ''My breakthrough would destabilize an entire continent, huh.'' He then thought of something, asking Gegrafikan, "What did Wally do in this case?" "I have no idea," Gegrafikan shook his head as he replied. "Only the Gods might know of this. Though, that is in the case they had been paying attention to him during then." "But, it''s not the end, of course." Gegrafikan laughed upon noticing Krune''s hesitant expression, recalling something from memory as he told him, "If the act of you causing millions of deaths doesn''t sit well with you, there''s a simpler option." "What is it?" Krune felt like there was hope for him now. Both the methods Gegrafikan had proposed before weren''t something he would ever do, no matter what. That went against his beliefs. "You can search for infant continents," Gegrafikan said. "Infant continents? What are they?" His curiosity sparked, Krune thought of something to provide his conjecture. "Are they continents that have yet to finish forming?" "Correct." Gegrafikan nodded, explaining, "In the God Realm, you can consider every continent as an individual organism, a cell forming the entirety of the massive realm. So, once they''re depleted of all resources or become too unstable, the continents begin to collapse." Gegrafikan then went on to talk about the specifics of the case that could be summarised as below¡­ Once a continent destabilizes, it would shatter into countless pieces that would all be sucked into the vacuum forming its center. There, all the matter would be compressed, processed, and their forms varied. The laws forming their entirety would restructure themselves while taking on new forms. The Godly Energy of the realm would be constantly sucked into it until the core stabilizes enough before the laws begin condensing parts of the continent, like stacking pieces of a puzzle. This was its infant stage. From there, it would take countless millennia to slowly grow as the laws forming its core would begin to stabilize. After that, a continent would finish forming, now capable of supporting life. Unsurprisingly, those infant continents also possessed Law Pools in them, though smaller in size. "Though they are small, they should be enough for you to cure your defects until your breakthrough to the Semi-God Realm. You''ll have to find more infant continents once again after that," Gegrafikan reminded him. "Of course, you''ll have to take caution. Elemental storms would be plenty in an infant continent. Even immortals would be killed in an instant. Moreover, countless cultivators would explore such locations in search of precious treasures that form during a continent''s birth." But, upon seeing that Krune was relaxed, Gegrafikan shook his head, warning him, "Don''t become overconfident that you will be safe due to your Spiritual Incarnation. Those that become immortals can attack using laws. If they hit you, they would be able to damage your Land Incarnations that you have placed in any part of the God Realm. The stronger they are, the greater they can affect your Land Incarnations." "That''s¡­" Krune shuddered. He had indeed gotten complacent, thinking that even if he were to die, he could easily revive using his Land Incarnation. Moreover, he had plenty of Little Krune fragments in the Mountain Sect. So, reviving through them was pretty easy since he had the Cultivation Lotus to rely on for the Godly Energy necessary for a revival. "Just think of it like this," Gegrafikan said solemnly. "If there''s an attack that can kill you instantly, you can rest assured that it would use the laws to track your Land Incarnation through the various laws forming it and harm you." "The only way to escape complete annihilation, in this case, is if you possess a law of your own, in which case you are a God. And the second case is to only possess laws that your attacker hasn''t comprehended. This way, their laws won''t find any channels in you to channel the attack through," he concluded. ''¡­Fuck!'' Krune''s expression was like he had swallowed a fly by mistake, barfed it out, and ate it by mistake once again. After all, the Myriad Wisps Spiritual Incarnation was comprised of all the laws that form the God Realm. So, any average immortal was capable of channeling an attack through him to all his clones and Land Incarnations. Even though Little Cally was an entity from beyond the Four Realms, the laws forming it belonged to the God Realm. ''Then again, there''s still my Spiritual Mark. I''ll survive thanks to that.'' Krune relaxed upon thinking of it. After all, the Spiritual Mark had fused into his soul, becoming an integral part of himself. And hence, it was also reflected in his Spiritual Incarnation. In any case, no cultivator was capable of comprehending Tribulation Lightning. Upon arriving at this line of thought, Krune smiled, cupping his fists as he got up. "Thank you for your help, Gegrafikan. Do you know of any infant continents?" "¡­" Gegrafikan stared in silence. The two continued to stare in silence for a good minute before he spoke, tilting his head, "¡­Good luck?" ''Fuck!'' Krune understand what that meant. Gegrafikan had no idea where an infant continent was. Sighing, he left their house, returning to his house to see Feifei busying herself while looking at the books that had been placed in the library. They were those Gegrafikan had written. It seemed she was looking for a possible answer to his problem in them. Laughing, Krune explained everything Gegrafikan had told him. "When are you setting off for this journey?" Feifei asked, feeling sad that they had to separate once again. She had already reached the Nascent God Realm. Now, only Krune was left. If he failed to rectify the defect, he was bound to remain weak for the rest of his life. "I''ll miss you." Feifei hugged Krune tightly, tearing up a little. "Return soon." "Return where?" Krune asked, tilting his head as he laughed. "What?" Feifei became angry when he mocked her sadness. "I mean..." Krune returned to his wisp form, dancing around the room as he said, "It''s not like I''ll be leaving the house, you know. My clones would be the ones traveling." "I''ll become the prodigal son that lazes around¡­" ¡­ It was evening as Zamura casually strolled through the sect, taking in the sights of the various buildings, coincidentally arriving at the residential district when he noticed a gem of sorts embedded on the front gate of a villa. Upon arriving closer, he looked at the gem, his eyes twitching. After all, the other party also noticed him, behaving like he hadn''t noticed anything, acting like he was just a gemstone embedded into the gate. Seeing Krune being used as a decorative gem on the gate, with the other party getting into character, all Zamura could say was expressed with one word¡­ "Bruh¡­" Chapter 1138 - I’m A Handsome Gate Decoration Around ten clones teleported to the Lawless Plains, exiting it before setting off in the direction of the capital. After arriving, they split up, taking a route each as they planned to cover as much ground as possible. As it was wartime, he couldn''t determine from where enemies might pop up. So just in case, Krune sent ten clones, hoping that at least a couple would manage to reach the battlefield. His goal was to use the restricted routes that allowed one to exit Zamuria Continent and enter the neighboring continents, Rumria and Guria. This was just one batch of clones that he had sent out. He sent numerous batches of clones from the Mountain Sect. Since the sect was located in the space between continents, it also meant that they shared borders with numerous continents. With that, Krune planned to find a way to enter them. This way, he would be able to branch out into different directions. After all, it was unsure where he would find an infant continent. So, he had to spread his net as wide as possible. Thankfully, his current cultivation allowed him to divide Little Krune into 900 fragments. That meant he could have 900 clones. Leaving aside 100 to take care of all the sect''s needs, he sent out the remaining 800 clones. However, their cultivation bases weren''t up to the mark. Well, to be more exact, they only had cultivation. To prevent any wastage of energy, Krune had limited them to only having cultivation bases. They didn''t have any Mental Energy or a tough body. And among passive abilities, they only had Sonic Radar while the Cloud Whale was necessary to travel long distances efficiently. After all, having a lower body weight meant lower Godly Energy expenditure when traveling. So, he made them with as minimal power as possible. And while traveling, all the clones were in the wisp form, only possessing a core. With that, the Cloud Whale carrying them only spanned a meter in length. It was enough to exhibit its powers of travel. As he was sending out 800 clones, their energy requirements were tremendous since they were traveling nonstop. His Cultivation Lotus would be unable to meet the demand if he sent out the clones that possessed the same strength as him. That was why he sent them with as minimal ability as possible. After all, it was with the assumption that they would be killed nine out of ten times thanks to the numerous risks that were out there. And, the moment they found something important, Krune was planning to take action personally. It would be easy to do so since all he needed to do was enter the subspace and make it appear in the respective clone. All it needed was a thought, with the transfer instantaneous, irrespective of the distance. "It''s perfect¡­" Krune muttered in pride when a shadow loomed before him. It was Feifei, holding a wet cloth in her hand, gazing at him, staring hard. After a while, she muttered, "That''s what the problem was. You aren''t shiny enough. Be a proper gemstone." Saying so, Feifei used the wet cloth to rub over the gemstone¡ªWisp Core¡ªlodged into the gate, nodding in satisfaction when it was polished enough to shine brightly. Once she left, Krune continued to remain in place, staring at the gate of the villa situated opposite. "Hello there, gate of the neighbor''s villa. It''s a fine day to be here, right?" He tried to strike a conversation to curb his boredom. Unfortunately, there was no reply. After all, the gate he was speaking to was just that¡­a gate. "Idea!" The Wisp Core trembled before opening the entrance to the subspace, bringing out a clone that lodged itself into the opposite gate. And now, he would no longer be bored. "Hello there." "It''s a nice day, isn''t it?" "Indeed, what wind sent you here today?" "Just you know, the usual Feifei wind. What about you?" "Pretty much the same¡­Krune wind." "¡­" "¡­" "¡­Is it just me, or are you getting more handsome by the minute?" "You mean...you''re also feeling that way?" "Wow, you too?" "Please, you''re more handsome than me." "No, no, no. You should see yourself in the mirror. Someone more handsome than you doesn''t exist." "That''s not true. I''m seeing someone more handsome than me right now." "Oh ho, you''re making me blush." "¡­" Feifei had just exited the house, intending to stop punishing Krune when she heard the conversation. Hearing that, she turned around, calmly took a step into the house, and vanished from the spot, acting like she hadn''t heard anything. ¡­ "You dare?" A middle-aged man bellowed in anger, condensing a spear of flames before throwing it into an opponent that remained invisible to the naked eye. Followed by a wail, the entity turned into smoke, having been vaporized. The middle-aged man had been fighting at the edge of the battlefield, preventing troops of the Guria Continent from going past him. He was an army general, commanding more than 10,000 troops. Currently, they were battling in a delta, with the rivers meandering through a canyon of sorts while the cliff was high enough to reach the clouds. All the fights happened in the water, creating a bloody mess of things to the extent the water was dyed a gooey red. At the start of the three-way continental war, most of the populace had been afraid of the harsher times that would arise next. But, once the war began, they realized that they had been foolish. After all, it seemed that the three continents had become linked to the Sub-Realm that was filled to the brim with treasures. And, the greater the area occupied by each empire, the greater they could explore in the Sub-Realm, which resulted in a greater harvest of resources. Moreover, these resources would directly enter the bodies of those that achieved exemplary performances, allowing them to break through countless times. Injuries? Kill some opponents, take control of foreign territory, and be rewarded by the Sub-Realm that would not only treat your wounds, but also increase your cultivation realm. Thanks to this war, even though tens of thousands of people died every day, the strength of the three continents was actually¡­increasing. Among them was this middle-aged man, a cultivator with subpar talent, having barely achieved the Eight Stage of the God Foundation Realm at the age of 42. And now, at the age of 51, he attained the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm. And he was just one of the most average examples of those who benefitted from this war. Chapter 1139 - Nonchalance Of The Strong "This is getting pretty messy." One of Krune''s clones hid behind a boulder, peeking out to observe the chaotic battlefield below, watching the blood-diluted water splash around everywhere, swallowing people alike, may they be dead or alive. At present, those from the Zamuria Continent were getting pushed back a little, with the troops having a hard time fighting back as the reinforcements seemed to be taking longer than usual. The clone then looked up at the sky, noticing another battle being waged atop the cliff. Those were from the immortals of the Zamuria and Guria Continents. Based on the way the immortals were acting, it seemed a restriction of sorts had been placed in the area, possibly by the Sub-Realm itself that prevented the immortals from participating in the battle of the mortals below. This way, it created two battlefields. In contrast to the situation at the bottom of the canyon, the battle at the top was actually in favor of the Zamuria Continent. "You dare spy on us?" Suddenly, a cultivator from the Zamuria Empire enveloped the clone in an acidic mist of sorts, melting it down into a puddle within a couple of seconds. As the clone had strength on par with an average God Foundation Realm cultivator, it was treated as a small fry. On the battlefield, enemies and allies were distinguished by their clothes. There was a dress code followed by both sides. ''Rather, it seems this is the arrangement by the Sub-Realm itself.'' Another clone that was in hiding thought, gazing at a group of cultivators rushing towards the delta, noticing their clothes change into the dress code automatically the moment they entered the place. ''Nevertheless, the clones are dying too quickly.'' It sighed, noticing that it hadn''t been awarded a dress yet by the Sub-Realm. That was why the clones were being taken out by both sides one after another, ''It seems only my main body has the right to obtain a dress.'' The subspace appeared within it as the clone opened the entrance to its subspace. Krune casually walked out, noticing his clothes change automatically, muttering, "It seems I have been recognized as a resident of the Zamuria Continent. Very well, that makes things easier." The clone entered the subspace as Krune retracted it into himself, transporting it to a clone that was calmly seated at the Lawless Plains. Krune then slowly walked out of his hiding place, noticing numerous eyes fall on him instantly, wondering just from where he had popped up. Suddenly, a man from the Zamuria Empire noticed him, intending to sense him using his Divine Sense when he shuddered, noticing that it was blocked. ''Just who the heck is this guy?'' Upon seeing that Krune looked really young, seemingly in his late teens, he was even more shocked. He quickly arrived before Krune, asking with a domineering voice, "You! Which squad are you from?" "The OP Squad!" Krune replied as he brushed past, vanishing from view. "The OP Squad?" The man scratched his head. "Which squad is that?" "Haapp! Die!" A Nascent God Realm cultivator shouted as he condensed a massive sword beam, slamming it onto his opponent, exerting enough might to shred his opponent in half and cause the water below to part ways. Upon killing his opponent, he emanated his bloodthirst, shouting at the top of his lungs, "You Zamuria bastards! Come get me!" He hacked his sword, sending many sword beams flying out that severed countless cultivators in half. He was at the Third Stage of the Nascent God Realm, having broken through numerous times in this war, now possessing strength surpassing his peers after the Sub-Realm seeped a mysterious tonic in his body. Suddenly, his intuition rang numerous alarms as he turned around, staring with widened eyes at a figure that had been standing a couple of meters behind him from god knew when. He seemed to be in his late teens, a youth with an average face that looked handsome the more one gazed at his visage. Eyes filled with viciousness, but hidden amidst them was childlike curiosity, a desire to have fun and live a simple life. He seemed to be wearing a straw hat, one that was worn down, seemingly of poor quality. Rather, it was apparent that it had been made in a jiffy, apparent from the same grass that grew on the cliff walls along the sides. And in his mouth was a grass that had been coiled to resemble a spoon; the reason for munching on such a bland grass was unknown. Currently, the youth seemed to be gazing elsewhere, observing the state of the battlefield, looking absolutely calm. In fact, his gaze trailed to the top of the cliff from time to time, as if he was contemplating on joining the fight above. But, upon seeing that the youth was wearing clothes from the Zamuria Continent, the man quickly slammed forth an energy beam, intending to sever his neck. The sword beam landed on Krune''s neck, the resulting shockwaves raising gigantic waves in the water, sending away a lot of people. The force of impact caused a vacuum of water in the place, causing some of those fighting from safer distances to gaze at the scene in shock. However, the one who had been shocked the most was the man, noticing that his sword beam failed to even scratch his opponent''s unguarded neck. On top of that, it even shattered in response. As for the youth, he remained standing the same, as if he hadn''t noticed the attack in the first place. Then again, the most shocking of them all was how the man was unable to move anymore, noticing that his Godly Energy stopped circulating through his meridians, having been frozen. His body had become like a statue, unresponsive to his brain''s stimulus. Cold! His eyes slowly darted above, noticing a tiny fish-like organism with a needle front had pierced into his forehead and seemed to have injected something in him. ''Damn! What a monster!'' That was his last thought, after which even his thought process was frozen up. His body looked the same as before while the fish lodged on his forehead vanished. Though, if one looked closely, they would notice a minute layer of ice forming on his skin. As the water returned to fill in the void, it washed his body away, dissolving him into the water like he was but a mere ice cube. Chapter 1140 - Can’t Be Defended Against Hiss! Everyone in the place inhaled a collective breath of air in shock, wondering just how such a monster had appeared in their midst. Krune''s actions had proven that he was one of the strong, if not the strongest in the place. Then again, when those from the Zamuria Continent thought he would lead the way for them by charging into the enemy lines, they noticed Krune calmly walking forward. The water in the canyon was around 30-40 meters deep in most of the places. As for those that fought in the place, they at times jumped atop the floating corpses of the cultivators or used wooden logs to act as their footholds. The army at the rear sent many logs floating through the stream. Nevertheless, a lot of them were destroyed constantly by the attacks that flew everywhere. But despite everything, the cultivators either used something to remain afloat, fought by lodging themselves into the cliff walls, or proceeded to even fight underwater. However, none were like Krune, who casually walked on the water surface as if he was walking on flat ground. He looked so natural in such an action that they were perturbed by him, unable to decide on whether to follow him or not. But there was one thought that collectively echoed through the minds of everyone in the place. ''He''s a cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation!'' Even on this battlefield, cultivators with Spiritual Incarnations were rare. Most of them wrestled in the core of the battlefield, where the rewards allotted by the Sub-Realm were the highest. Since this was the outer area surrounding the core area, the rewards here, though great, weren''t on the level that those with Spiritual Incarnations would be satisfied with. "If you don''t attack me, I won''t do the same either," Krune casually said, transmitting his voice by infusing some Godly Energy into his Sonic Radar, allowing it to travel everywhere, shocking countless cultivators. "As if we''ll allow you to step foot in the Guria Continent!" A group of cultivators shouted before charging at Krune, suddenly tumbling down into the waters, sinking into it. They no longer surfaced after that, signifying that they had died. As to how they had died, none knew how it happened. A cultivator that had been swimming underwater noticed a pile of corpses falling into the water all of a sudden, observing them to see holes on their foreheads. It was a tiny hole, sharp to the extreme to make a clear cut. When he observed using his Divine Sense, he noticed that intense winds were stirring up within the bodies of the corpses for an instant before vanishing. And right as he had sensed it, he watched the pile of corpses instantly dissolve into the water, as if they had been reduced to a powdered state. ''Infusing a mild amount of Godly Energy into the Air Needle allows me to control it tremendously like this.'' Krune nodded, casually continuing to walk before thinking of something, picking up speed. Of course, he only ran as fast as a regular human, having noticed a powerful presence had locked onto him. And as he had expected, a fish suddenly crashed into his face, halting him at his spot. Krune was surprised as the impact was nothing to brush off. ''This guy''s pretty strong.'' "You''re pretty strong for someone at the Ninth Stage of the God Core Realm. Your Spiritual Incarnation must be pretty impressive." A youth smirked as he retracted his fist, suddenly frowning when he noticed there was a dent on his face. And the impression followed the outline of Krune''s nose. "Well, you aren''t bad yourself." Krune smiled in response. "Do you have a Spiritual Incarnation?" "Yes," the youth answered. "Otherwise, why would I fight you?" "I advise you to find someone else to fight," Krune said in all seriousness. "You still need to train a lot before you can fight me." "Well, I have already placed my Land Incarnation in a safe location in the Guria Continent. I have enough resources necessary to revive." The youth laughed as he heard that. "So, come fight me. I wish to see just how strong someone who isn''t an immortal can be. Even though I have reached the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm, I feel like I can still improve a lot." "Well, if you say so." Krune''s fist gently flickered as the youth was shocked, noticing a gaping wound in his chest. He noticed that his Spiritual Incarnation was incapable of pulling himself together, having been destabilized beyond recovery. Eyes widened, he gazed at Krune and said, "Thank you. Even though I couldn''t react, my Divine Sense managed to capture everything." "I''ll train hard and catch up to your strength one day." As his body began to collapse, he asked with a wry smile, "Can you tell me your name, sir?" "Krune." "Krune¡­I''ll remember that name." The youth said before dying. Patting his shoulder, Krune whispered before walking away, "Train hard!" As he continued to walk forth, no one tried to stop him, paving the way for him to tread forward. And as he continued to walk forth, Krune noticed that the strength of the cultivators was beginning to increase. Soon, everyone around him was at the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm. On top of that, their strength continued to climb up, apparent that they were geniuses of the lot. Krune had entered the core of the battlefield, noticing a narrow path situated far away. It was where he had to pass through to enter the Guria Continent. Naturally, it was easier said than done. After all, there were thousands of cultivators fighting here. And worst of all? They all possessed Spiritual Incarnations. The core of the battlefield was completed covered by Land Incarnations. The advancement of a continent was dependent on whether the Land Incarnations of one side increased in area or not. If they increased, it meant they wielded greater dominance, increasing the territory in which they would exercise the greatest strength. "Damn! Various laws are active everywhere!" Krune muttered, noticing the messy state of things. "You''ve come right in time!" Suddenly, a woman bellowed, being pressured by more than five cultivators. "Quick! Reinforce me!" Krune noticed that the woman had a mild resemblance to Zamuria, thinking to himself, ''She must be Zamura''s aunt or something.'' Thinking as such, he¡­ignored her. Chapter 1141 - Krune Becomes Serious It wasn''t like he had a grudge on her or anything. Instead, he simply didn''t wish to get involved in the continental war. After all, the lady that had called for his help was a princess of the Zamuria Empire. So, the moment he helped her, he would be making an enemy of the Guria Empire. With that in mind, that was just an unnecessary headache for the current him that was worrying about being able to find an infant continent. That was why he hadn''t attacked anyone all this time, only retaliating when they came at him with the intention to kill. On top of that, to avoid killing people unnecessarily, he showed his power first, making people hesitant to attack him. His goal was to safely reach the Guria Continent and then head beyond. With that, he didn''t wish to become involved in anything that might cause him difficulties later. Unfortunately for him, reality proved different. "So, you''re not part of the Zamuria Empire¡­" the lady said, frowning. "To think there was still someone living on my continent that isn''t part of my empire yet." Krune immediately noticed a subtle change in the stares of all the cultivators that were part of the Zamuria Empire. They stared at him with wariness, looking like they might plot against him to prevent him from obtaining any treasures. "I have no intention to fight, to be honest," Krune said, continuing to walk when suddenly, something slammed into him, causing him to stop as he looked at the object. It was a sword, having been sent at him with the intention of killing him. After all, it had targeted his forehead. Krune stared at the attacker, noticing that it was a middle-aged lady that was part of the Guria Continent. She was part of the reinforcement, having taken action the moment she arrived, dealing the final blow to the lady that had asked for his help earlier. She unleashed her Land Incarnation, beginning to shred apart the Land Incarnation that had been placed in the area before. She then pointed at Krune casually, causing the sword that had attacked him to explode. "You''re next." It seemed the sword contained a lot of power, judging by how strong the explosion was, causing even Krune to be surprised as he sighed. ''I shouldn''t become too arrogant. Users of Spiritual Incarnation are strong as well.'' The middle-aged lady snorted, frowning as she watched the smoke vanish, looking at Krune''s pristine appearance when something similar to glass shattered all over his body. "That''s an impressive defensive ability you have there." "Let''s see how many times you can rely on that." As she said that, her Land Incarnation completely manifested in the area, allowing her to wield her power wholly, immediately beginning to condense numerous swords around her. But¡­just as she was about to attack him, her eyes widened in surprise as she noticed numerous danger signals being transmitted from her Divine Sense, causing her to hurriedly condense more than one hundred swords before her to act as her defense. Bam! It was unknown as to what had happened, but an ear-piercing sound resounded through the place, for a moment causing everyone in the core region to stop fighting as they gazed at the source of the sound in alarm. Slowly, like a rising tide, the sounds of the ocean waves increased in rhythm as intense winds billowed at the place. As for the hundred swords that had defended against Krune''s fist, they had shattered into fragments. The middle-aged lady was shocked at Krune''s strength, instantly making her body turn into metal, punching at Krune''s face, noticing her fist penetrate him easily. However, upon sensing no resistance, she noticed that what she had punched was just a film of water that resembled him, possibly due to her Divine Sense registering his afterimage as his real body. When she came to her senses, Krune was standing at the edge of her Land Incarnation, intending to proceed deeper but noticed that a formless force was restraining him, preventing him from setting another foot forward. "Haha! Are you an idiot? The only way to move forward is to defeat us one after another. You can''t enter enemy territory due to the Sub-Realm''s rules that have been imposed upon here." The middle-aged lady quickly regained her composure, taking action immediately. Countless swords jutted out of the ground to impale upon Krune, being blocked by a transparent film that had formed on him. He had condensed a layer of ice on his body to protect himself. And using Moving Ripple, he was able to control it freely to cover his body while he was on the move. The moment he became stuck at the place due to the imposed restriction, a man standing at the back of the Guria Empire''s region, having watched Krune''s actions all along, took action, teleporting before Krune as he condensed a jet-black blade in his hand. It resembled a knife with a thin blade, but the amount of Godly Energy circulating within it was tremendous. Moreover, it seemed to be as if the man had condensed the entirety of his Land Incarnation into this knife, plunging it into Krune''s eyes. It easily shattered through the layer of ice on his face, piercing through his ice before getting lodged halfway deep. The man was a bit surprised at how dense Krune''s body was, but he didn''t bother with that, grinning as he lodged the knife deeper and deeper into Krune''s head, saying, "WE meet again, bastard." "You¡­?" Krune noticed that the man before him looked familiar. Soon, he remembered that the man was one of those from the Guria Empire that had fought against him and Cultivator (The name Zamura went by back then) in the Four Sectors'' Border Plains and tasted defeat. "Wasn''t your Spiritual Incarnation related to blood and essence, Hrook?" "Dead men shouldn''t care about that," the man addressed as Hrook said in anger. "You have come a long way in your body cultivation. It was vexing to see your traces everywhere." "Well¡­" Krune used his hand to grab hold of the knife, slowly pulling it out as the laws forming his Spiritual Incarnation clashed with the laws forming the knife. And the moment he pulled it out, Krune''s casual demeanor vanished entirely. Replacing it was now an enigma of viciousness as Krune''s voice turned a bit hoarse. "Do you seriously believe I would just stand still for you to kill me?" Chapter 1142 - Krune Vs. Hrook "Damn, how is he able to grab my knife without dying?" Hrook was shocked as he noticed Krune''s demeanor change drastically. He was one of the princes of the Guria Empire, having been stronger than his peers since childhood. Due to being pampered a lot since childhood, he came to look down on anyone that¡­existed. Even if someone was just breathing somewhere, he was the type to get offended by that. And what followed next were executions. But as long as those being executed didn''t possess a Spiritual Incarnation, the Guria Empire didn''t bother with any investigation. Thanks to that, Hrook roamed freely. However, the day he met Krune and Zamura was when he was first face-slapped figuratively. The ones he tried to kill not only didn''t die, but they even managed to injure him. After that, he entered the Sub-Realm, entering the top hundred rankings from the start. While checking the rankings, he didn''t see Krune''s name, smirking disdainfully. Moreover, he noticed that Cultivator was only ranked 27th, turning arrogant as he outdid them. Surprisingly, he couldn''t become prideful about it. After all, he was only ranked second in the rankings. And the one standing first was Zamuria, having a lead on his Godly Point accumulation. He tried to exceed her, intending to obtain an active ability first and take advantage. It was then he saw a character named Gehen, someone he didn''t even know existed, someone that was way behind in the rankings who suddenly became the first King of Layer 3. Until the end of his stay at Layer 3, he neither became the first King, nor reached rank one. After all, once he obtained an active ability, Gehen casually attained the first rank. On top of that, on the day he was about to leave Layer 3, moments before he was teleported out, he noticed that he dropped another two ranks as Krune and the Seamstress pushed him down. Left with a sour feeling, he arrived at Layer 2. But as he struggled to become strong and finally reached Tier 5 in strength, he saw Krune casually beyond the city, making numerous rounds every day. Those that he hadn''t given attention to and felt were mere peasants in front of him showed him up one after another. Unfortunately, he was unable to attain Tier 6 strength in Layer 2 since all the Black Demons had left. Once he accumulated enough Godly Points, he reached Layer 1 and made his way towards the top of the Immortal Peak. And the worst thing of all that he encountered there? Krune, Cultivator (Zamura) and others that he looked down on had joined hands to create a sect. And¡­they were strong. With only his abilities, he didn''t have the confidence to eradicate them all. Left with no other choice, he had bowed his head, asking for permission to reach the peak to exit the Sub-Realm. To release his pent-up stress, he had arrived at the battlefield to blow off some steam. But, as if to mock him once again, Krune had arrived before him. Hrook took action the moment he probed through Krune''s strength, attacking him, leading to the current sequence of events. "I didn''t like you before. And my opinion remains unchanged," Krune said, condensing the Cloud Whale in his hand, wielding it like a knife as he plunged it into Hrook''s neck. His other hand that had been holding his opponent''s knife exerted strength while emitting a freezing energy, hacking away at the Land Incarnation present within with his laws of ice. Instantly, both of them summoned their Land Incarnation, causing the Godly Energy in the place to spike to tremendous levels. On one side was violent bloody mist, condensing countless horrid wails of the beings whose essences were trapped within. And on the other side was pure¡­Godly Energy. Those fighting on the side of the Zamuria Continent suddenly sensed a blast of Godly Energy that invigorated their beings, replenishing their expended reserves while also causing them to feel safe all of a sudden. Behind Krune, Godly Energy swirled, condensing into a pulsating heart before turning into a creature resembling him¡ªin his human form. And since enough Godly Energy had been supplied during the creation process itself, its cultivation base spiked continuously before settling down. Ninth Stage God Core Realm! It was not one, not two, but thirty of them that had formed behind Krune. And as if it was natural of them to do so, they all summoned a Cloud Whale in its complete size, causing the massive creatures to float in the air. All of them faced Hrook and the cultivators from the Guria Empire, instantly causing a tornado to form as they sucked in air from all around. For a moment, the area in a radius of a couple kilometers around them was devoid of any air. A couple of seconds later, intense gales were generated as the air rushed in to fill the vacuum. As everyone from the Guria Empire understood the threat the Cloud Whales exhibited, they launched attacks towards them in an effort to destroy them. In response, Krune casually condensed a massive wall of ice suffused with plenty of Godly Energy to defend against the attacks. He then looked at Hrook, directing the question to everyone behind him, "Can you revive?" "Well, that''s your worry," he concluded. Air Needle! Instantly, the attacks bombed through the place, piercing through the bodies of countless cultivators, destroying their bodies. And when their bodies turned into liquid¡ªthanks to their Spiritual Incarnation¡ªbefore morphing into their original forms, the air needles riddled them with holes once again. They were being destroyed one after another as the Cloud Whales constantly condensed air into their bodies before firing off the Air Needles. In the meantime, Krune gazed at Hrook, calmly taking out his Pestlor as he said, "Man, you really are stupid." "Such a blatant show-off!" Hrook snorted, unaffected by the cultivators that were struggling behind him. Even though they were being thrashed about by the Air Needles, none of them had died yet. After all, this level of attack wasn''t enough to kill them. Being supported by their Land Incarnations, they could heal all their injuries without trouble. "I''ll show you true power.." Hrook''s body slowly turned beet red as a figure of a fish with needles all over its body condensed around him. Chapter 1143 - Being Blackmailed Godly Energy spiked constantly as all sorts of abilities were unleashed. Two figures flickered through the core of the battlefield as each of their attacks caused thunderclaps. In fact, the resultant heat alone unleashed a sea of flames. In the meantime, twenty-five clones sprinted forth before attacking the enemy cultivators, riddling them with ice spikes that constantly stripped away at the laws forming their Land Incarnation. The remaining five clones looked behind them, staring at the cultivators from the Zamuria Empire. "We''re going to charge. We''ll keep the enemies busy. Work on destroying their Land Incarnations!" "Alright!" Those that had a wise head above their shoulders immediately realized that this was a chance. Whether he did it voluntarily or not, Krune''s actions opened up a path for them. So, they charged after the clones, beginning to target the Land Incarnations of their opponents first. In the meantime, Krune and Hrook clashed constantly, attacking each other with all their might. "Heuk!" Hrook grunted as the mortal part of Pestlor crashed into him, sending him flying from the impact, shattering his bones on one side. However, when he was sent flying, his body collapsed into a pool of blood mist that his energy condensed together into his figure once again. He then used his active ability to slam forth countless spikes into Krune, shooting them forth like a machine gun. In response, Krune calmly condensed an ice shield before him, constantly increasing its thickness as it was being shredded apart at the front. His other hand flickered, throwing out the palm-sized Cloud Whale that arched in the air before slamming into the shield of blood surrounding Hrook, causing a portion of it to turn into ice. Though, upon seeing that Hrook''s Spiritual Incarnation prevented him from being affected by his Frozen Blood, Krune changed tactics, resorting to slapping the daylights out of his enemy. After all, Hrook was someone with an insecure pride, being offended at everything. Even a normal man would become pissed when slapped in the face, not to mention Hrook. So¡­ "Screw you! Bastard!" Hrook groaned as his face had caved in from the impact, grandly deforming to the extent that he had no other choice but to dissolve his body into blood mist and reform once again. But, every time he did so, he was expending a lot of his energy and blood reserves. Moreover, thanks to their constant clashing, the Land Incarnation he had laid on the ground had long since been shattered beyond recognition to the extent the laws of the God Realm took charge at the place once again. Of course, Krune''s Land Incarnation also suffered the same fate. Then again, that was his goal all along. He definitely didn''t wish to retain his Land Incarnation in such a place where everyone fought constantly. Hrook didn''t seem to have completed his body cultivation method. And hence, his physique was only a bit stronger than a Red Demon. So, he wasn''t Krune''s match, not at the very least. Krune was still holding back, only using a couple of his abilities. After all, he noticed countless eyes on him ever since he approached the battlefield. And the eyes were from those in the sky, battling atop the cliff. Immortals! He wasn''t from the Zamuria Empire but from the Zamuria Continent. As he battled, Krune noticed a small difference in his cloth design, indicating the difference. Considering the strength he displayed, he attracted a lot of attention. Those from the Zamuria Empire wished to recruit him into their fold, while those from the Guria Empire wished to prevent that from happening. They didn''t wish for too many unforeseen factors to mix into the play. It was apparent that Krune''s appearance alone already tilted the balance in favor of the Zamuria Continent. After all, the strongest from the Guria Continent, Hrook, was struggling against him from the start. Anyone with a tenth of a brain cell would understand Krune''s value. "Damn it!" Hrook grunted, slamming an attack onto Krune''s neck, noticing that the injury he inflicted healed in an instant. "This fucking turtle!" "Have you ever seen such a fast turtle?" Krune flailed around with the Pestlor, smacking Hrook to the extent the other party felt like he was becoming dumb. After all, from the start, all the hits had been aimed at the face. And as if they had a grudge, the first attack perfectly shattered his nose, in the same manner, every single time. After that was his left jaw, followed by the right. It was this combo all the time, no matter how Hrook defended himself. By the time this combo was repeated thrice, Hrook had understood what was happening, seething with uncontrollable rage. Krune was taunting him! But no matter how well he defended himself, the attacks from the Pestlor accurately landed on the same three locations. Soon, it seemed like Hrook was unable to hold on, looking like he was about to give in, both physically and mentally. In fact, the damage to his mental state seemed terrifying, causing his fragile ego to be demolished. And, just as Krune was able to completely overpower him, a voice resounded in his ears. "Brat! Don''t you dare kill him! He''s too important to waste time with a revival." ''One of them took action.'' Krune smirked as countless thoughts clashed in his mind, transmitting the message through Divine Sense, "Well, if he continues to charge at me, I have no other choice, right?" "Humph! You''re not even part of the Zamuria Empire. Do you think you can remain safe after killing him?" The voice resounded, gruff with a menacing tone, one that was blackmailing him. And in response to that, Krune casually increased the strength in Pestlor, slamming it into Hrook''s head, splattering it into pieces, causing him to hurriedly take on his blood mist form to revive. However, it was taking longer than usual as he only recondensed after more than three seconds had passed. "You know...before you try to blackmail me, ask your grandpa first." Krune laughed.. "Now, run along with your useless threats." Chapter 1144 - Sweet Bargain "Brat, I''m being serious here. If you dare kill Hrook, I''ll make you regret it for the rest of your life," the voice resounded when a couple more echoed along. It was apparent that the immortals were transmitting their voices from above since they couldn''t interfere personally. "Then, why don''t you convince Hrook to stop attacking me?" Krune said while pointing at Hrook charging at him with a crazed expression. "This is war! Do you expect me to chat him up while he''s trying to kill me?" All the voices turned silent, unable to refute. After all, Krune didn''t even care about their threats while he countered their persuasions with grounded logic. So, they were at a loss for words. Suddenly, an ethereal voice filled with grace said in response, "Krune, was it? Name a price for allowing Hrook to kill you. We''ll complete the transaction." "Well, why don''t you quote the price yourself?" Krune replied, controlling himself from smirking. "You can give a value to Hrook''s life yourself." With the way he put it, if the other party quoted a small price, it would seem like they were just being stingy. That''ll make it like they didn''t attach much value to Hrook''s life. The ethereal voice remained silent for a good minute before giving a proposal. "How about 1000 Rank 6 God Stones?" ''A Rank 6 God Stone contains energy equivalent to a God-Trial Realm cultivator. So, the one that''s forking out such wealth should be someone at least in that realm or above,'' Krune thought, shaking his head as he told the one who offered him the proposal, "God Stones are useless to me. Whatever I need, I can earn them on my own. Give me a different offer." Even though Krune had slowed his actions, it seemed like Hrook didn''t wish to relent in his attacks. On top of that, it seemed he wasn''t even paying attention to the voices of those trying to calm him down. He had lost himself due to anger. With that, he was losing strength, taking more than ten seconds to reform his body when attacked by Krune. So, the ethereal voice quickly answered, "Since it seems like you wish to travel, I''ll gift you a treasure accordingly." Suddenly, a tiny disc appeared before Krune, visible only to himself. There were two circles on it. Embedded between these circles were 36 spheres, looking like tiny pearls. The moment it manifested before him, Krune understood that it was safe for him to use. After all, the immortals were prevented from attacking the mortals fighting below. So, the fact that the disc appeared here without any fluctuations was enough proof that it wasn''t tampered with. The ethereal voice then explained, "This is my 36 Pearl Dimensional Relic. It''s a treasure that allows you to travel to the places you''ve recorded in it. In my younger days, I visited many continents and recorded interesting locations on them. With that being said, you can use this to travel anywhere. What do you say? I''ve proved my sincerity with this, right?" "Yes, you have." Krune nodded, placing the treasure in a storage ring before chucking it into his subspace. He then replied to the ethereal voice, "Alright, I''ll allow Hrook to kill me." Saying so, Krune suddenly stumbled on the ground, acting weak as if all the injuries he had sustained until now had accumulated enough to finally take effect. Moreover, he retracted all Godly Energy, causing his clones to vanish one after another, a sign that his ability had run out of time. "Haha! I''ll be the one to win!" Hrook shouted before condensing all his remaining power to hack at Krune''s neck, noticing his sword stopping right after touching Krune''s neck, failing to even scratch his itch. "Boss, he can''t even injure me in my current state." Krune transmitted to the ethereal voice. "Is it my fault that I''m too strong?" "¡­" The ethereal voice acted like it hadn''t heard his claims. It was probably sighing in embarrassment somewhere else. Since he was already bribed¡­shown sincerity, Krune wanted to keep his end of the bargain. So, he suddenly bellowed, putting on an act, "My ability might have run out of time, but I can still kill you before I lose all my strength." Suddenly, Hrook was caged by ice as dense mist wasted out from the attack. Using this chance, Krune let out a weak clone while entering the subspace. "Hah!" Hrook bellowed as he shattered through the cage of ice, grunting as he wheezed for air, noticing a weakened Krune looking no different from him. In fact, it seemed Krune had lost a lot of weight, being a lot weakened. Laughing, Hrook seemed to have regained his vigor, shouting, "Your Spiritual Incarnation turned your body strong. But it seems it has a duration limit. Now, you''ll be the one to die for playing around all along." Saying so, Hrook condensed an energy blade, hacking into Krune, only managing to inflict a small injury, thinking, ''This bastard''s body is still this strong.'' Thinking as such, he put more effect into his attacks, dodging Krune''s retaliation using the last vestiges of his power. ''Indeed, reviving him is cheap. However, his death would damage him mentally too much. And the cure to that isn''t easy to achieve even after expending countless resources. He might probably even fail to become an immortal,'' Krune thought, understanding the reason for the immortals contacting him in the first place. After a last-pitched battle cry, Hrook hacked Krune''s head, noticing his body plop to the ground while his eyes lost all signs of life in them, bellowing with maniacal laughter, "I finally killed you! Hahahaha!" But, his laughter was short-lived as an energy blade severed him at the hips, causing him to plot to the ground as the figure of a handsome man appeared before him, crouching while smiling. "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it. Such a classic scene, right?" The man laughed, saying, "The both of you are strong, but now, I''ve ended up as the winner." "Bastard! I''ll kill you next!" Hrook emitted killing intent as his eyes lost all signs of life. Seated high up in the sky was an immortal, gazing at the countless immortals battling before it, smiling as it muttered, "Well, it seems Hrook''s fighting spirit has been reignited to enact revenge on the one that sneak attacked him. This is good enough. He''ll become stronger as a result." "It was worth giving you that treasure, Krune." It laughed. After all, the one who killed Hrook was actually a clone of Krune that had transformed into someone else. This was to prevent Hrook from moping about his battle with Krune and lamenting his helplessness. Chapter 1145 - Lady Strombisu "That was a pretty sweet deal." Seated on the Lawless Plains, Krune laughed as he fiddled with the treasure. "I only lost one clone. In return, I obtained this convenient treasure that saves me a lot of time." The Cultivation Lotus in his subspace constantly emitted Godly Energy that Krune fed into his meridians, pouring it into the 36 Pearl Dimensional Relic. He focused on the first pearl, pouring Godly Energy into it constantly as he shuddered. "Just how far is this place? It has already absorbed ten times the Godly Energy I can hold at once, and it''s still not even a quarter full." Nevertheless, Krune continued to fill it up with Godly Energy. After all, whether it was Guria or the Rumria Continent, they were regular continents. If there had been any infant continents nearby, then his sect members would have known about it. After all, such information should have been common knowledge. After all, an infant continent took countless millennia to finish forming. News of it would reach everyone around the place. As they didn''t know anything related to that, it was apparent that there weren''t any infant continents in the surroundings of the three continents of Zamuria, Guria, and Rumria. So, his best bet was to head towards a foreign continent and try his luck. Thankfully, there were a lot of locations marked on this treasure. Thanks to the Cultivation Lotus, he wasn''t worried about a lack of Godly Energy. After he constantly fed it Godly Energy for a good two days, Krune sighed in relief once the first pearl completely lit up, activating it as he anticipated what would happen next. He could feel the spatial laws around him acting up before his body vanished from the place, arriving at a lushly decorated environment. There were vast pools of aromatic water around him, emitting a gentle steam while curtains of all colors had been used to decorate the place. Cheerful giggles resounded everywhere as the scent of lavender filled the air. The moment he appeared at the place, Krune instinctively placed the 36 Pearl Dimensional Relic in a spatial ring before chucking it into his subspace. He then tried to move the subspace towards the clone present in the Lawless Plains, frowning as he thought, ''It seems since the distance has been tremendous, it''s taking almost a minute to send the subspace to the clone at the Lawless Plains. It seems when my cultivation base increases, the time it takes to shift my subspace over long distances would also reduce. I have to make a note of this point.'' Just as he finished concluding this point, Krune noticed that he was within one of the pools, immersed up to his hip. Not only that, but there were more than a hundred eyes on him, staring at him in shock, surprise, fluster, and other similar emotions. Only now did Krune understand just where he had arrived, mentally cursing the entity that had recorded such a place. It was a Royal Bath House! Judging by the poshness of the place and the dense Godly Energy swirling around, it was apparent that the place was something meant for the wealthy, for the powerful. "Kyaaa!" "It''s a man!" "A man infiltrated here!" All the women in the place screamed at the top of their lungs. Krune was alarmed at the start, intending to leave the place when he noticed that the women weren''t actually in a fluster as indicated by their voice. Rather, they seemed to be¡­having fun acting as typical girls? After all, a casual probe was enough to note that most of them were at the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm while the remainder were¡­immortals. "Ara! How did a cute little fella like you come here?" Suddenly, a voice whispered from behind Krune, causing him to turn around in shock, for he hadn''t even noticed the other party until she whispered in his ear. It was apparent that her cultivation base was beyond what he could fathom, gazing at her face for a moment before he was stunned, as if enamored by her depthless eyes. Rather, within a second, Krune was alarmed when he could feel his Spiritual Incarnation¡­ destabilizing. "Alright, don''t stare at me so intently. Big sister here feels shy," the lady said as she blushed, turning around as she faced another direction. But all along, Krune wasn''t focused on her beauty or anything the other women in the place were behaving. He was full of dread, for even though it seemed like everyone else was playing around, they had long since taken action, having covered him with their Divine Sense. On top of that, they seemed to possess a mysterious power that was applied through their Divine Sense as he was unable to move, rooted to the spot in shock. In fact, when he tried to reply, he realized that he was unable to even open his mouth, now only able to stare at the lady before him in shock. "Oh, I apologize. Since this wasn''t something we had ever expected, we took action by instinct." The lady noticed his plight, waving her hand to free him as she introduced herself, "You can address me as Lady Strombisu." Her eyes then gently arched into a smile as her words echoed like a heavenly flute, causing his knees to go weak. "Now, how do I address you, little boy?" "K-Krune¡­" Krune replied instinctively when he noticed his voice was trembling. It wasn''t fear that made him like this, but it was because his Spiritual Incarnation had destabilized to such an extent that he was having a hard time breathing. He realized that his opponent only had to gently unleash her Land Incarnation to wholly annihilate him. In fact, there was a good chance all his clones would also suffer from the attack, despite the massive distance. ''Thankfully, I sent away the subspace early.'' That was his only relief, unwilling for the Cultivation Lotus to fall into the hands of his opponent, who he was unable to judge whether was an ally or an enemy. "So, Krune...is it?" The one addressed as Lady Strombisu laughed cheerfully when the subtle pressure she exerted caused Krune''s body to melt as the tone of her voice subtly changed. "Now, this place is heavily protected by countless dimensional arrays to prevent anyone from coming here in the first place." "So, how did you appear here?" Chapter 1146 - Infant Supercontinent "So, how did you appear here?" Upon hearing her question, Krune noticed that the pressure she exerted seemed to be invading deeper and deeper into his Spiritual Incarnation, feeling like it would reach his clones on the Zamuria Continent if he dared to delay. At first, he thought of lying by saying that a spatial anomaly was the cause that sent him here. However, there were a lot of risks with this. So, he decided to just come out with the truth. "I used a treasure to arrive here. I thought the location marked in it would be somewhere in the outskirts of a city, but I didn''t know I would appear here, to be honest." "A treasure?" Lady Strombisu suddenly chuckled. "Brat, you shouldn''t lie, you know? Any treasure in your eyes is just mere low-class equipment in my eyes. They definitely cannot pass through my spatial array." "The one that sold this treasure to me called it the 36 Pearl Dimensional Relic," Krune said with all honesty, noticing the other party becoming surprised all of a sudden. "The 36 Pearl Dimensional Relic¡­?" she muttered in silence, laughing soon after. "To think I would hear about it once again. So, how did you get your hands on it?" Whether it was necessary or not, Krune didn''t have much choice. So, he explained the circumstances with Hrook that allowed him to trade this treasure in return for his opponent killing him. "Hahaha!" When he was done, Lady Strombisu laughed and said, "To think she sold the item I had given her for something so basic." "Ma''am, you created this treasure?" Krune was surprised. But upon recalling how the first pearl transported him to the place, he understood. "It''s something I made so long ago that I forgot about it entirely." Lady Strombisu retracted the pressure she exerted, watching Krune''s figure slowly recover as she asked him, "So, you used that to arrive here from the Guria Continent?" "From the Zamuria Continent," Krune replied. "They''re pretty far away. How did you have enough energy to activate it?" she asked soon after. "I was in a massive energy-gathering formation that had been abandoned. Once I used the Godly Energy accumulated there, it was easy," Krune answered, putting the blame on the Lawless Plains. Since he had teleported from there, he technically wasn''t lying¡­too much. "So, why is a kid like you taking on such a risk? Based on what I can sense, you''re strong enough that anyone below an immortal can never hope to even injure you," she said as she frowned. Upon seeing that Lady Strombisu didn''t express any animosity towards him, Krune replied truthfully, "I''m in search of Law Pools." "Law Pools¡­?" Her eyes narrowed as Lady Strombisu asked, "And, what do you need them for? Unless you''re a Primal God, you cannot even touch them." "Actually, it seems my race is defective in nature. So, I need to rely upon some Law Pools to gradually heal my defects. But, since I cannot use the ones in a continent, I was searching for infant continents," Krune said in a hurry, watching Lady Strombisu''s expression morph constantly. Eventually, she sighed, "Who the heck told you all these things? It''s not something someone as weak as you should know about. An entire continent will be destroyed if you mess around with such stuff." She then connected the dots, chuckling as she said, "So that''s why you are searching for an infant continent. Interesting!" It seemed that she didn''t even need to hear Krune''s response, having already observed his character in full detail using her powers. In any case, she was aware that whatever Krune said conformed to his character, his ideology. She then thought of an idea, smiling as she told him, "Well, there aren''t any infant continents in and around here. You''ll have to proceed more towards the center of the God Realm. And even if you teleport to the closest location present in the 36 Pearl Dimensional Relic, it''ll still take you a century to reach the closest one." "A century, huh¡­" Krune muttered, sighing as he mentally prepared himself for that. "And even if you head there, the Law Pool there might not be the one you''re expecting," Lady Strombisu added. Upon seeing Krune sulk in response, she laughed as she told him, "Then again, there''s an even better option for you. With this, you''ll only need to visit one place, and there''s a guarantee that all the Law Pools that you seek would be available here." "There''s such a place?" Krune was surprised, asking in excitement. "Yep." Lady Strombisu laughed upon seeing his excitement, patting his head once before explaining, "There is an infant supercontinent that has been forming. It''s a perilous place where immortals cannot set foot due to the backlash of the laws involved and due to the fact that we would destabilize the supercontinent''s development. So, only mortals can head in to explore and reap the countless treasures there." "The amount of treasures there is unimaginable to think of for even immortals like me." She laughed, patting Krune once again as she asked him, "What do you think about going there, brat?" Considering the fact that Lady Strombisu was probably an old monster that had lived for countless millennia, Krune didn''t feel any anger upon being treated like a brat by her. Technically speaking, in terms of age, he was only a hatchling compared to her. Once he digested her words, Krune asked in response, "There should be a catch here, right?" "You''re pretty smart." Lady Strombisu smiled before saying, "I''ll teleport you directly to the border of the infant supercontinent where the tokens necessary to enter the barrier shrouding the place are given out. When you return, I''ll directly send you back to the Zamuria Continent." "All you need to harvest for me in the infant supercontinent is the Eight Elemental Nascent Lotus and the Saffiric Pearl," she said. "I''ll also give you everything necessary for this journey." "It''s a place where you cannot place your Land Incarnation. So, your powers would be severely limited. There are also countless dangers there since it''s teeming with cultivators that are trying to gather the treasures," Lady Strombisu warned him. "So, anything you need for this trip, I''ll provide it to you." "Are you willing to take this risk?" Chapter 1147 - Godly Cup "Are you willing to take the risk?" Upon hearing the words, Krune laughed, replying with assurance, "Of course. This isn''t something I could achieve by remaining safe anyway." "Nicely said." Lady Strombisu laughed, taking out a ring before handing it to Krune. "In the infant supercontinent, your Spiritual Incarnation would be severely suppressed while simultaneously not being able to lay down your Land Incarnation. Also, you cannot use any abilities related to space there, not to mention using your spatial rings." "Then¡­why have you given me this?" Krune asked in confusion. He then noticed that the ring wasn''t even a spatial ring. In fact, the material making it was mysterious, strangely giving him an erratic yet ethereal sensation. "Triple Beast Ring, it''s a special type of equipment I forged to store items in the infant supercontinent." Lady Strombisu smiled, activating the ring to cause three equipment spirits to appear. She then said, pointing at the tiger, "The tiger can store God Stones in its belly. Since it''s an equipment spirit in nature, you can cause it to return into the ring. This way, you''ll be able to carry a certain amount of God Stones using it." Pointing at the hippo next, she continued, "The hippo can store all types of minerals and other items in its belly. As long as the items are something its mouth can swallow, then you can store them in its belly. If you wish to use them, just make it barf them out." Then, she gazed at the pelican that rubbed its beak on her thigh, laughing as she explained, "As for the pelican, it can store herbs in its stomach and beak." "The storage space is limited to their stomachs. So, you''ll have to keep that in mind," she reminded. "This is the limit to what I can create to use the loopholes of the laws in the infant supercontinent. If they''re any bigger, the laws of the place would simply annihilate the ring." "That''s pretty useful." Krune patted the tiger, one that reached his hip in height, before sensing through his Divine Sense that there were a lot of God Stones in its stomach, only to be shocked by the density of Godly Energy swirling within, "This is¡­?" "Quasi Rank 5 God Stones," Lady Strombisu replied. "Rank 5 God Stones and beyond would be annihilated within the infant supercontinent. So, this is the best that I could place inside it. Currently, I have stuffed it to the brim with God Stones. There are 3572 of them in there. That should help you to a fair extent." "You can roam through my treasury and pick up any item below the immortal level. You can either carry them with you or keep them in the hippo," she continued. "However, I advise you to only carry those that are necessary. After all, you still need enough space to store the treasures you obtain there." "I''ll keep that in mind," Krune replied. "As for items, I only need to carry my weapon with me. As long as I have enough Godly Energy with me, I''ll be able to use a lot of my abilities freely. So, I only require items that can store and emit Godly Energy." "Sure, I''ll leave it to you." Lady Strombisu snapped her finger once before Krune noticed that they were currently within a treasury. All sorts of items were lying around, with details of them inscribed on the walls nearby. Upon seeing that Lady Strombisu didn''t have any intentions to guide him, Krune started to look around the place, looking through the countless items that were displayed. ''My Pestlor is better than all of them since it allowed me to wield it using my body cultivation,'' Krune thought while browsing through them, finally stopping before a small cup, peering into it to notice a God Stone placed within. "This is¡­?" Its design was interesting enough to catch his intention as Krune read through the description beside it. "Godly Cup. It has a built-in energy gathering formation that''s activated through Divine Sense. Through that, it would actively gather any trace sources of Godly Energy before condensing a Rank 4 God Stone inside it. And once the God Stone is removed, it begins to condense it once again." ''This is pretty interesting. With this, I can leave it to absorb any trace Godly Energy around me,'' Krune thought before saying, "I''ll choose this." "That''s an interesting selection." Lady Strombisu flashed beside him, saying, "The Godly Energy in the infant supercontinent should be so little that it''s negligible. But with this Nine Star Nascent God item, you''ll be able to gather enough Godly Energy while in hiding." "Also..." She laughed as she continued, "Its Divine Sense works better than any Nascent God cultivator or below. Since I was the one who made this, I incorporated my abilities to make it better." "Do you need anything else?" she asked. "You can still look around." "No, this is enough. I haven''t seen anything else that might prove useful to me," Krune replied, placing the Godly Cup in his pocket before wearing the Triple Beast Ring on his finger. He then opened the entrance to his subspace and sent in his other storage rings, taking out his Pestlor to gear up. "Are you sure you don''t need any armor?" Lady Strombisu asked. "It won''t be a safe place, you know." "That''s true, but..." Krune sighed as he replied, "My body is stronger than even Nine Star Nascent God equipment. So, wearing armor is of no use. It will only serve to hinder me." "Alright." Lady Strombisu laughed, suddenly pointing her finger towards his forehead before emitting a gentle fluctuation of Godly Energy. In the next instant, all the details pertaining to the Eight Elemental Nascent Lotus and the Saffiric Pearl appeared in his mind. "So, that''s what they look like." Krune nodded, checking his appearance once before saying, "I''m ready." "That''s great." Lady Strombisu nodded, snapping her finger once when the both of them arrived at a city. Krune looked around, noticing a massive misty curtain laying beyond the city walls. Everyone in the place was at the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm. But what was more surprising was that they possessed a Spiritual Incarnation. Every single one of them. Chapter 1148 - Silly Wisp, Get Rekt "Everyone here has a Spiritual Incarnation¡­" Krune muttered, clearly able to feel their strengths that had long since exceeded the levels of the usual Nascent God Realm cultivators. It was apparent with a single glance that they were all users of Spiritual Incarnations. "What actually is this place?" he asked. "This is an artificial city created just to act as a stop for those preparing to enter the infant supercontinent," Lady Strombisu replied. "There are a group of Primal God Realm cultivators here that open up the entrance into the place once every year." "Why are they doing that?" Krune felt confused. "Won''t they have to expend a lot of their power to do this every year?" "Yes, opening an entrance is definitely a daunting process." She nodded, "However, the rewards are worth the effort. The council here would take 10 percent of whatever you bring out. Thanks to this, the Primal Gods are actually making a profit." She then whispered, transmitting the contents to him through Divine Sense, "So, if you find any good treasures, hide them within the Triple Beast Ring. When they ask you to show it, only bring out the tiger. This way, you won''t have to part with anything of value. Others can''t do this since they''re incapable of hiding any secrets from a Primal God. However, since the Triple Beast Ring is something I created, they would be fooled." "Alright, just follow me for now. Don''t speak a word. I''ll make you my representative, so that''ll save you a lot of hassle," Lady Strombisu said, snapping her finger upon seeing Krune nod. Immediately, they appeared on a paved altar, noticing twelve pillars surrounding it. Seated on each was an ethereal being, their figures a cluster of laws that caused cultivators a headache to even look at. So, everyone that arrived here would only look at the foot of the pillars and not gaze at the entities seated atop. The moment they appeared at the place, one of the Primal Gods spoke, "Strombisu, you''ve brought in another child?" "You should give up." "Don''t send such talents to their deaths." "Just stop this vain pursuit. The treasures you seek are too hard to bring for anyone below an immortal." "I have confidence in this child here," Lady Strombisu said, pointing at Krune. "If even he fails, then I''ll give up." "Suit yourself then," One of the Primal Gods said before looking at Krune. "Child, are you willing to brave the risks necessary to bring the treasures Strombisu had asked?" "Of course." Krune nodded as if it was a matter of fact. "Alright, we''ll send you first then. We have just opened a portal a month ago." The Primal God looked at Strombisu, nodding. "Since she''s in a hurry, waiting for next year is not an option." After a round of discussions, one of the Primal Gods told Krune, "Transporting you will be fine, but since you''re a demon beast, you should return to your natural form. Otherwise, there might be some problems while transporting you in this way." "Sure." Krune nodded casually, returning to his wisp form when there were bouts of exclaim from the Primal Gods. However, their shouts were so minuscule that Krune didn''t even notice any reaction or hear anything. Of course, as a fellow Primal God, Lady Strombisu heard them. "A True Spirit." "How did she manage to find one?" "But, this True Spirit seems to have suffered some injuries. Maybe that''s the reason why she''s able to bring him to help her." ''A True Spirit,'' Lady Strombisu thought, silently observing Krune. ''To think he was from such a legendary race.'' Immediately, she became more confident of Krune being able to bring out the treasures she sought. A minute later, all the Primal Gods finished gathering their power, blasting it onto Krune before causing him to vanish. On the mist walls spanning beyond the city, there was a tiny hole that formed for an instant before recovering. Krune watched himself fly through a mystical space that was covered by mist. But suddenly, he was alarmed when he noticed a familiar existence flashing near him, shouting in response, "L-Little Cally?" "Hahaha! Did you miss me? It is I, your favorite Little Cally." Little Cally''s voice resounded. "I couldn''t influence you like before since a fragment of me became a part of your Spiritual Incarnation." "But no worries, I found the perfect opportunity to screw you over now." Little Cally laughed jovially, feeling like it was at peace upon seeing Krune''s expression of worry as if he had consumed a pile of horse shit. "I was working on¡­some stuff in this infant supercontinent. After all, I knew all along that you would eventually arrive here to heal your defects." Little Cally''s voice slowly vanished as it left a few parting words. "Well...have fun, Krune!" "Screw you!" Krune screamed as he suddenly noticed the power that was transmitting him into the infant supercontinent vanish before he was sent flying in a completely different direction. Moreover, since he was currently in his Wisp form, a mysterious power enveloped him, suddenly causing his ethereal form to retreat into his Wisp Core before he was sent hurling through the mist. Krune watched the mist clear up before he was enamored by the scene. There, huge landmasses were covered by swirling colors as they jammed, twisted, and turned into each other, creating and destroying countless new landscapes. The remainder of the space was a void of sorts where nothing existed. At times, the laws at a place would concentrate before flaring up, destroying anything in place. Among them, the mysterious energy wrapping around him caused him to fly towards a massive floating island that resembled a tiny continent. It seemed to have stabilized to a certain extent, and hence only its edges changed substances. The core of the place was pretty stable, with the occasional energy waves. Situated in its center was a large mural, one inscribed with countless images. Though, upon seeing them, Krune scowled, for all the scenes inscribed on it were his memories. "Damn you!" Before he knew it, his Wisp Core slammed into the mural, being embedded into the eye of the structure, gently shining a mysterious light onto the surroundings. A couple of seconds later, countless humanoid creatures rushed out and prostrated before the mural, praying with a zealous expression. The tone of reverence was evident in their emotions, with their eyes welling up with tears of joy, gratitude, and devotion. "Silly wisp, get fucked!" Chapter 1149 - Krune Snaps "Silly wisp, get fucked!" "Silly wisp, get fucked!" "Silly wisp, get fucked!" The group of humanoid creatures constantly worshipped the stone pillar before them, bowing all this time, only getting up after a couple of minutes had passed before beginning to disperse. Krune noticed that the language they used to speak was different from the one spoken on the God Realm. On top of that, their prayer seemed to be something that had been taught to them. After all, before he became embedded into the stone pillar, he noticed a line of words inscribed on it in an unknown language. The contents were translated to what the indigenous people uttered in the God Realm''s language. It seemed to have been created just to piss him off. However, Krune didn''t bother with that for the time being, nervous as he watched a part of his power flow out from his Wisp Core and seep into the stone pillar, causing the murals to faintly light up. In fact, it seemed like he was stuck to the place as decoration, unable to exit. ''Damn it, this is the worst situation.'' Thankfully, the rock pillar was situated atop a hill, allowing him to see a wide area. Though, when he saw the scene that played before him, he was left at a loss for words. After all, the indigenous people fought against cultivators that entered the tiny continent. There seemed to be a war going on between the two. The most shocking fact of them was that both sides were evenly matched. As the cultivators were unable to lay down their Land Incarnation, they couldn''t bring out their total power. Despite that, they were still able to use part of the power of their Spiritual Incarnation. With that, they were still stronger than a regular Nascent God Realm cultivator. The indigenous people, on the other hand, didn''t even have a cultivation base. Instead, they seemed to be relying on mysterious energy that flowed into their body to fight against the cultivators. And, this energy was sourced from the tiny continent that was fed into them through the stone pillar. The indigenous people resembled humans at first glance, but they lacked eyes, noses, or even ears. All they had was a mouth on their head and nothing else. On their body existed tattoos of various shapes, sizes and colors. At first, all the tattoos were only black in color. That was what the indigenous people who came to pray had at the start. But now, their tattoos were of a vibrant rainbow. All the colors forming a rainbow formed gradients in their tattoos, causing them to exhibit a colorful display. One of the indigenous people with a rainbow tattoo suddenly shouted before condensing a Cloud Whale and threw it towards a cultivator, causing him to scream as the Frozen Blood in it dripped into his body. It seemed that the indigenous person hadn''t known of the powers and had mysteriously used this ability on instinct. The moment he used this power, all the indigenous people shouted in joy, "Silly wisp, get fucked!" Every time they shouted the prayer, the stone pillar shone with a gentle radiance, siphoning his strength, making Krune turn weaker and weaker. In response, the indigenous people became more and more reinforced, beginning to wield his abilities. "How come the Galki became stronger?" One of the cultivators that fight against them shouted, retreating as the injuries cast on his body healed. "They are able to wield strong abilities all of a sudden," another one of them said in alarm, having lost an arm from the exchange. He retreated soon after, summoning his power to gradually heal his injury, gazing at his severed arm that had turned into ice on the ground. One of the indigenous people stepped on it, smashing it into pieces. "Damn it. Their bodies are also growing in strength." "So, this is the trap you prepared for me, Little Cally," Krune muttered calmly, seething with rage. "Hehehe! Amazing, right?" Little Cally''s voice resounded in response. "I had been preparing it all along to the extent I was unable to follow you into the Sub-Realm. But still, this would continue to suck in all your abilities until you''re left with nothing, permanently." "You''ll lose all your abilities that way, hahaha!" Saying its piece, Little Cally vanished. "You made a small error this time, Little Cally. I hadn''t expected that from you." Krune laughed all of a sudden, causing Little Cally to return. Even though it had said otherwise, it had remained beside him all along. After all, it had zero intentions to miss seeing him suffer under its machinations. Therefore, the moment Krune didn''t act in a fluster anymore, it was shocked. Rather, it noticed Krune''s demeanor change, expressed even though he was in his Wisp Core, shocking Little Cally. ''Just what the heck did he experience in the Sub-Realm? His mental state is¡­really strained. I''m surprised he kept it together to behave as usual until now.'' "Aaaarrghhhhhh!" Suddenly, Krune bellowed to his utmost limit, riling up his Spiritual Incarnation to the limit as sparks of Tribulation Lightning flashed around him, wreaking havoc everywhere. Calamity Laws! Little Cally watched in shock as Krune activated its laws, beginning to wreck disasters everywhere. Balance Laws! Suddenly, all the damage that was spilling out condensed around the Wisp Core, flickering with Tribulation Lightning as they condensed to form a thin layer around the Wisp Core. Suddenly, an unimaginable amount of mysterious essence was sucked in from the tiny continent, causing the rock pillar to shine with a resplendent radiance. The energy in it went into overdrive as Krune directed it towards a certain direction, shooting it forth like a cannon into the sky. It soon flowed through the void, flashing around as it crashed through countless floating islands, shattering them into bits before slamming into Little Cally that had been hiding there. "What¡­the heck?" It was now Little Cally''s turn to become flabbergasted as it looked at Krune like it was staring at someone else. On the tiny continent hovered the Wisp Core, having now condensed the ethereal form around itself, holding the Soul Needle. Poking in it was the rock pillar, now having been shrunk until it was tiny. A multitude of energy was brimming forth from Krune, one that emitted blinding killing intent. Chapter 1150 - Didnt Expect That One, Now Did Ya? Krune noticed that he felt stronger than usual. The intention of Little Cally was to trap him in the stone pillar and siphon his powers into the indigenous people that prayed to it. It was a sound plan, one that would have worked on him like usual. That is...unless he hadn''t experienced something like that before. After all, once he crossed the Zamuria Continent, Krune came across the shadowy abyss where some mysterious power of prayers seemed to be in effect. One of his clones had been converted into a wish-granting tool just because a group of indigenous people there started to worship it. The clone had been permanently morphed, losing everything it had of him in the process. It was a frightening experience. And now that they had established the Mountain Sect while relying on this terrain to act as the walls protecting it, Krune wished to understand them better. With that, he had sacrificed a lot of clones in the process. Originating from that sacrifice was an idea that he could use to protect himself in such a situation. Of course, it hadn''t been perfected yet. After all, it wasn''t a simple concept. However, Little Cally''s intervention gave him the idea to try it out. After all, he now possessed the Soul Needle with its mysterious properties. Since the indigenous beings here had been trained to worship him from the start due to Little Cally''s machinations, evident from the murals depicting his entire life history, it was apparent that they were dependent on him. With his body being lodged in the stone pillar, it caused their prayers to turn into reality. Though, they were different from the shadowy beings he had seen before. All they did was siphon his abilities to use for themselves. So, the concept in place was that he would grant power to those that prayed to him. But...what would happen if he prayed to himself? On top of that, the one that had created such a scenario was Little Cally, the personification of the Calamity Laws. And that very same Calamity Laws were a part of his Spiritual Incarnation. Adding one and two, Krune riled up all his abilities, using his Balance Laws to counter Little Cally while using the Calamity Laws to take control of the area. After all, it was in control of Little Cally all along. By expressing a changed demeanor, he caught Little Cally off guard for a moment. In the fraction of a second that bought him, all the clones Krune had left in various parts of the God Realm prayed to him simultaneously. "Silly wisp, get fucked!" Little Cally had used this line as a prayer to make fun of Krune. In fact, just the word rainbow would trigger him. So, no matter what, he would rather find some other method than utter this sentence. Unfortunately for Little Cally, Krune had gone up the Immortal Staircase, having witnessed countless scenes, with the scene of Feifei clutching his dying body affecting him the most. So, he had absolutely no plans to die. With that, the moment he activated all his plans, he caused the stone pillar to glitch for a moment that he used to free himself. He then picked it using his Soul Needle, causing it to begin absorbing the essence in it, taking control of it instantly. Within a second, the stone pillar shrunk as all the power in it was absorbed into the Soul Needle. As the essence of the tiny continent flowed into him because of that, Krune thought of a rather daring move, willing the subspace to return. All the laws around him manifested into reality as he actually didn''t suffer a backlash for a moment. Instead, he was keeping the backlash at bay by relying upon the continent''s essence that was gushing into him. A couple of minutes later, the subspace appeared in him as Krune opened an entrance, hurling the rock pillar into it before waving his hands, using the power from the tiny continent to unleash a violent gale. The gale turned into a tornado and sucked in all the indigenous people, hurling them into the subspace one after another. Similarly, the winds also picked up all the murals Little Cally had painstakingly created to embarrass him, also putting them all into the subspace. Within a minute, Krune placed everything that Little Cally had arranged into his subspace, letting out a clone along with thirty Pseudo Wisps before closing the entrance to the subspace. The subspace then jumped into the clone that condensed the Cloud Whale, wrapping it around all the clones before taking off in a certain direction. It then sent the subspace back to a clone in the Mountain Sect. Right at this moment, the essence flowing into him vanished as the backlash of forcefully using spatial laws and trying to hinder the process of the place''s development appeared, snuffing him out of existence. Death came in an instant. No matter how strong his body was, he didn''t even last an instant before dying. As the clone continued to fly, its eyes changed for a moment before ten Pseudo Wisps entered it, elevating its strength as Krune revived. He then gasped for breath, noticing that his Spiritual Incarnation had greatly destabilized. ''I probably won''t be able to use it for at least another decade.'' "But still..." He grinned, muttering, "Thanks for the treat, Little Cally." "Damn it. This won''t be the last time." Little Cally grumbled in distaste upon seeing Krune profit immensely from the disaster. Even it was unable to understand what he had obtained, for Krune''s subspace was beyond its vision. Then again, even if it tried to see through, its own laws that formed his Spiritual Incarnation hindered it. There was a chance it could brute force its way through, but it was averse that Krune would have something that would turn the tides in his favor. Nevertheless, that''ll allow him to comprehend the Calamity Laws at a tremendous pace.. "His comprehension of the Calamity and Balance Laws have improved by leaps and bounds when compared to before he entered the Sub-Realm. Just what the heck did he experience there to have changed this much?" Chapter 1151 - Misty Plains "Go after him! He did something to steal all the treasures!" a man shouted, hurling an attack at the flying Cloud Whale. Even though Little Cally had gone to prepare more traps, Krune hadn''t avoided trouble yet. He had been a bit too high profile with his previous actions. So, he had garnered a lot of ire from the cultivators that had been fighting against the indigenous people before. Based on what he figured out, it seemed that killing the indigenous people allowed one to deepen the comprehension of their respective laws. So, for those with a Spiritual Incarnation, it was a tremendously potent elixir. After all, the deeper one''s comprehension of the laws was, the stronger they would become. After all, the limit of a Spiritual Incarnation was the availability of Godly Energy and the depth of one''s comprehension of the laws forming it. So, even if all of them were at the Nascent God Realm, their strengths would continue to increase as their comprehension of the laws forming their respective Spiritual Incarnations deepened. So, killing the indigenous people, the Galki, was beneficial to their growth. There had been a lot of them at the start. So, the cultivators only focused on fighting their opponents, not concerned with hindering their fellow cultivators. After all, there was enough for everyone. On top of that, their enemies were pretty strong. So, without the other cultivators, they would be overwhelmed. However, Krune had suddenly taken action, sucking them all into his subspace. It was no different from stealing the treasure from the hands of someone that had spent a decade nurturing it. So, all the cultivators that were on the tiny continent chased after Krune in anger. Normally, Krune would have been able to fly away easily thanks to the Cloud Whale''s speed. But after he was killed, his Spiritual Incarnation destabilized to a certain extent. It prevented him from exhibiting his true strength. At present, he was barely able to exert a tenth of his strength. And even that was stretching it. Due to that, he was unable to escape easily. His cultivation base was only at the Ninth Stage of the God Core Realm, while his chasers were at the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm. All of them had Spiritual Incarnations. Not to mention the fact that they had been roaming through the infant supercontinent to strengthen themselves further and further. So, each of them was pretty powerful, causing Krune to sweat like crazy as he was alarmed. Then again, he had one advantage that his chasers didn''t. That was the Pseudo Wisps he had brought out on time. There were still twenty of them left, with the energy contained in them being at the Ninth Stage of the God Core Realm in quantity. It would allow him to replenish his energy reserves twenty times. If not for the fact that he didn''t wish to use his trump card before everyone, Krune would have blasted forth a bolt of tribulation lightning. But he was aware that he would only be able to kill at most a couple of his chasers. After all, they were chasing after him from numerous directions, spread far apart. Had they been huddled closer, it would have saved him a lot of time and effort. "Ugh!" He grunted, feeling a powerful impact slam into the Cloud Whale, ripping off a part of its tail. He quickly expended some Godly Energy to heal the damage as he turned around, gazing at the man that had hurled an attack at him. He raised his hand, directing it towards the man before unleashing a beam of light right on his face. Neon Radiance King! The attack caused his opponent to flinch as his eyeballs burst from the intensity of the light, causing him to stop as he whirred up his Spiritual Incarnation to heal himself. Similarly, Krune instantly attacked everyone that was chasing him. Had it been just the Neon Radiance King, they wouldn''t have been affected this much. However, Krune had fused a lot of laws into the beam of light, targeting the eyes of the targeted enemies. This way, their vision would be impaired, leaving them with no other choice but to rely on their Divine Senses instead. But at the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm, one''s Divine Sense only spanned a radius of nine kilometers. So, during the time they had stopped to regain their sight, Krune flew along faster, preparing another Neon Radiance King beam onto them. This caused them to erect defenses over their eyes to guard against the attack. But in the time this happened, the Cloud Whale increased the distance between them, soon crossing the range of nine kilometers from the closest chaser. While hindering their eyesight, he left the range of their Divine Sense, soon noticing a a misty area before him. As the Soul Needle pointed in this direction, it was apparent that a treasure lay inside. With that, the Cloud Whale passed through the mist, entering the area. Just in case the Cloud Whale was damaged, he didn''t wish for the Pseudo Wisps to be wasted. So, he turned them into his wisp form, causing them to retract their ethereal forms, only leaving behind their Wisp Cores. Krune pocketed them all soon after, muttering, ''I should have done this at the start. That way, I could have brought some more Godly Energy reserves with me.'' "Ugh!" The cultivator that had been attacked the first managed to heal his eyes, activating an ability as he focused on Krune, watching the Cloud Whale enter a misty area as he shouted, "That bastard has entered the Misty Plains. After him!" "He should have a lot of secrets on him." "Let''s pry them open!" As the man that had riled up everyone planned to also charge towards the Misty Plains, he suddenly shuddered, noticing a graceful figure land behind him. Once he turned around, he was shocked, immediately kneeling on the ground as he paid his respects. "Junior greets the Monarch!" "Explain the situation!" The one addressed as a Monarch was a lady seemingly in her teens, having a playful demeanor. But in actuality, her playful expression caused the man to shudder as he hurriedly replied, "Someone stole all the Galki and escaped into the Misty Plains." Chapter 1152 - Monarch Kirena Wohat The man replied, trembling, "So, we had been planning to chase after this guy to obtain all the Galki he stole." "The Galki¡­they are pretty useful." The one addressed as the Monarch smiled. The man shuddered in response to her smile, screaming mentally, ''Just my luck! Why has this mad woman come here? Damn it! This mass murderer only loves to play with everyone. I should find a chance to escape!'' Kirena Wohat, commonly addressed as the Monarch. She was a peerless existence, one that was top-tier crazy in the head. It was unknown as to what went on her mind. After all, she had once been a Primal God. But for some reason, she killed herself and revived as a mortal, now only possessing a cultivation base at the Nascent God Realm. She had entered the infant supercontinent after that and wreaked havoc everywhere. No one was able to fight against her. After all, her comprehension of her respective laws had reached the pinnacle. After all, she had once been a Primal God. With that, no Nascent God Realm cultivator was a match for her. "Interesting!" She smiled when the man was alarmed, immediately riling up all the Godly Energy in his body as he exploded with every ounce of strength in him, instantly activating all his trump cards. He slammed forth from his position, leaping into the sky as if he was a meteor. However, his figure suddenly stopped in the air as he was full of dread, shouting, "No! Damn it! Stop!" "Give me one reason! I''ll stop after that!" Kirena still maintained her cheerful smile. "I''m the son of the¡­" Just as the man continued to speak, he was alarmed when he saw his hands, noticing that they were now frail, full of wrinkles like he had aged tremendously, which was indeed true. That wasn''t all. A mysterious power swerved into his body, breaking apart his Spiritual Incarnation. On top of that, through the laws forming his Spiritual Incarnation, it spanned through the God Realm, targeting the Land Incarnations he had set up as contingency measures, breaking through them all. The mysterious power quickly destroyed the function makeup that acted as the adhesive between various laws forming his Spiritual Incarnation, scattering the individual laws everywhere that bored into the surroundings, becoming a part of them. The foundation of the area was improved as a result, but the man''s Land Incarnation was destroyed. He screamed in horror as his voice turned weak, with his body soon crumbling into dust as his lifespan was sucked out. Kirena grinned as she looked at the tiny sphere of light hovering on her palm. It was the man''s lifespan that she had sucked out. Even though he was an immortal being thanks to his Spiritual Incarnation, she had first destroyed his Spiritual Incarnation, turning him into a regular cultivator before absorbing all the lifespan he had. Contained within the lifespan were some law fragments that remained behind. Laughing, Kirena swallowed them, closing her eyes as she digested the gains, muttering with distaste, "Geh, this guy doesn''t have any new laws in him." She then sighed, muttering to herself, "To create my own law, I first have to devour the countless laws that form the God Realm. Once I get my own inspiration, I''ll be able to charge straight to the top." "This is by far the safest place to do as I please." She laughed, noticing that one of the cultivators charging towards the Misty Plains had been observing her. Upon finding out that she had sensed him, he bolted off, quickly entering the Misty Plains to escape from her range of attack. "Interesting! It seems there are a lot of talents around this time." She laughed, licking her lips with a maniacal craze as she began to run towards the Misty Plains. "This would be a bountiful harvest!" ¡­ "¡­I''ll be damned!" Krune groaned the moment he entered the Misty Plains, watching a vast stretch of meadow span before him. At first glance, it seemed peaceful. Vast plains, tender green grass that covered them, gentle winds that caused the grass to dance, clear skies, and radiant warmth. It was a place filled with the bountiful peace of nature. However, a closer glance would cause one to see the grass moving on the ground, subtly changing their positions. It was because the ground itself was moving all along in tiny streams. The place was still forming, so the laws of the earth and other related laws were actively arranging things in place. The moment Krune arrived at the place, the ground below him rumbled before a massive hand made of earth jutted out, intending to grab hold of the Cloud Whale. Krune acted immediately, shrinking the Cloud Whale before causing it to accelerate forward, barely escaping from being grabbed hold of by the earthen hand. Immediately after, a lot of hands jutted out of the ground, intending to grab hold of him. Upon seeing that it was getting harder and harder to evade with the Cloud Whale that didn''t have a dexterous nature, Krune retracted it, activating it within his body to condense wind currents around him that propped his body up. When a hand tried to grab hold of him, Krune condensed a platform of ice under his feet, propping it atop the wind current he had generated. This way, he created a foothold in the air that he used to jump upon. This was faster than flying with the wind currents as it allowed him to deftly kick the air at any direction he pleased and change directions mid-air, performing countless complex maneuvers. He then took out the Pestlor, causing its length to expand as he smacked an earthen hand, shattering it into pieces after a couple of hits, frowning as he noticed something flicker on the ground for an instant. "What¡­is that?" Thinking of something, he kicked his feet on the air, condensing an ice platform before using it to shoot towards another direction when his Pestlor expanded in size to a length of ten meters and smacked the earthen hand in one hit. "Damn! What the hell is that?" When the earthen hand was destroyed, he noticed a tiny creature scuttling about in the ground. It had occupied the place where the foot of the earthen hand had touched the ground. The moment the earthen hand was destroyed, it drilled into the ground and vanished. Chapter 1153 - The Law Of Divine Sense "Is that the one responsible for creating the earthen hands?" Krune muttered, frowning. "But, I thought this place was incapable of supporting life. Shouldn''t that be the norm?" He then thought of the Galki. ''They too are alive enough.'' "So, what exactly is happening here?" He wondered, wielding his Pestlor in its usual size, damaging the earthen hands that tried to grab hold of him when all of a sudden, he expanded its length before shattering an earthen hand into dust, noticing a tiny creature being revealed at the bottom. The creature was just about to head underground when a layer of ice formed around it, caging it. An instant later, the cage of ice flew up, landing on Krune''s palms as he constantly dodged the frenzied attacks from the other earthen hands. He then observed the creature within, noticing that it resembled an earthworm at first glance. However, it had the features of a spider and a centipede mixed into it, not to mention a pair of feelers that doubled down as wings. ''Why didn''t it try to fly away?" Krune wondered when he noticed the creature suffocate within the cage of ice, instantly dying. And the strange thing was that when it died, its body collapsed, turning into a pool that turned brown before glistening for a bit. It then seeped out of his ice cage and flowed into his hands, shocking him. Right as Krune planned to sever his arm in caution, he noticed his comprehension of the laws of Earth, Wood, and Life improving as a result. Not only that, but another surprise was the fact that he noticed there also existed a law related to Divine Sense. This was a law purely related to Divine Sense. Only after this, when the laws from the creature flowed into him and improved his comprehension, did he even come to notice that there was a law related to Divine Sense. This law was a part of his Spiritual Incarnation. But, despite using Divine Sense all along, his comprehension of the respective law was at absolute zero. That''s why he hadn''t even sensed its existence. "How do I even begin to comprehend this law?" Krune was confused when he looked at the countless earthen hands trying to catch him. Thinking for a moment, he expanded the length of Pestlor to one hundred meters in an instant and shattered every earthen hand in his vicinity. Then, using his Divine Sense, he caged all the tiny creatures in a cage of ice, bringing them before him. Like before, once they died of suffocation, the laws in them flowed into his body, increasing his comprehension of the laws of Earth, Wood, Life, and Divine Sense. "Is this¡­really possible?" Krune muttered, now understanding why those cultivators from before were attacking the Galki. He then slammed the Pestlor into the ground, killing a couple more creatures, frowning when his comprehension didn''t increase, eventually understanding why. "So, I have to bring them closer to me alive. Only after they die from suffocation would I be able to profit from this." His figure then turned into a blur, erupting with all the strength he was able to unleash currently. It was on the level of a Red Demon right now, condensing footholds of ice as he ran away at tremendous speeds, heading deeper and deeper into the Misty Plains. A couple of seconds after he left the area, the meadow returned to its original appearance, as if the damage he had unleashed wasn''t even a reality. Soon after, the cultivators chasing after him entered the place one after another, pulling up their weapons as they fought against the earthen hands that tried to attack them. As they were unable to fly, they had no other choice but to fight. Then again, even if they could fly, fighting was still the only option left for them. After all, there was also the law of suppression in effect. It prevented one from going too high up. That was also why Krune had to constantly dodge them even while riding the Cloud Whale. However, thanks to the strength of his physique, he was able to move through the area without much trouble. But for the other cultivators, only the attacks they launched were fast. In actuality, they were pretty slow and had to rely on their abilities to move at the same speed as Krune. All this action expended a lot of Godly Energy. But for Krune, he was just running at his body''s regular capabilities. The energy he expended was negligible compared to what the other cultivators were spending. Once he arrived far away from the group of cultivators, Krune continued to capture the tiny creatures one after another, surprised every time his comprehension of the laws increased, especially those of the laws of Divine Sense. After all, he noticed that when his comprehension of this particular law increased, he was able to use it to heal the instability of his Spiritual Incarnation. On top of that, when he activated his Balance Laws, the effect was more pronounced now. His Spiritual Incarnation was able to heal from the damage bit by bit, allowing him to become slightly relieved. Otherwise, with his present strength, he would struggle against a single cultivator that was chasing after him. It wouldn''t be possible for him to survive any contests, not to mention reaping awards from them. As he continued to capture and kill the tiny creatures, Krune noticed that there seemed to be an inexhaustible supply of them. In fact, the deeper into the Misty Plains he went, the greater the potency of the increase. However, that also meant the earthen hands attacking him grew in strength. Soon, they reached a level where he struggled to even destroy one. ''This isn''t efficient enough,'' Krune thought, retreating towards an area where he was comfortable enough while the increase in comprehension was potent. "After all, there''s a limit to how much Godly Energy I have. So, I''ll have to harvest as much as I can before I waste too much Godly Energy," Krune said, suddenly grinning. "However, the law of Divine Sense. This is pretty surprising." After all, with the increase in understanding the law, his abilities were also improving as a whole.. After all, everything was dependent on the control of his Divine Sense. Chapter 1154 - My Main Dish Divine Sense. It was the one ability every cultivator in the God Realm possessed. It was what they relied on the most to execute their various abilities. Whether it was to fight, to sense, to observe, to create pills, talismans, and even to sense the mystery of the God Realm and comprehend various laws, it was all done through Divine Sense. So, it was apparent that it was by far the most important tool to a cultivator. Until now, even though this law had been a part of his Spiritual Incarnation, Krune hadn''t known of its existence. It wasn''t just this alone. There were countless such laws in his Spiritual Incarnation that just existed for formality''s sake. After all, they were only part of his Calamity and Balance Laws. They weren''t what he had comprehended on his own. If he wished to determine what all laws formed his Spiritual Incarnation, he would have to spend some decades at the very least to observe and figure out them all. After all, his situation was different from other cultivators. For others, the laws forming their Spiritual Incarnation were only those that they comprehended. But for him, all the laws in the God Realm were a part of his Spiritual Incarnation. Even a Primal God wasn''t capable of knowing all the laws in the God Realm, not to mention someone like him. So, now that his comprehension of the Divine Sense Law increased, he noticed its presence, being pleasantly surprised at the discovery. Krune was aware of its use and didn''t hesitate to farm for them. He had twenty Pseudo Wisps to support his energy expenditure. So, he wasn''t worried. Moreover, he was only performing minimal movements to reap benefits. Until now, he hadn''t used his own Godly Energy to expand the Pestlor. Its equipment spirit was the one doing everything, expending Godly Energy from its cultivation to expand the Pestlor. To retract it, all it would do was absorb the Godly Energy it had emitted out. This way, the total waste of Godly Energy was minimal. While doing so, Krune gazed at the Godly Cup, smiling when he noticed a Rank 4 God Stone had finished forming. ''So, it takes around a day to condense one. That''s actually pretty fast.'' The Godly Energy in the air was so faint that he was barely able to feel it. However, the energy gathering formation in the Godly Cup was activated using its Divine Sense. Meaning, it was subtle in effect, undetectable to anyone not an immortal. After all, the one who created it was a Primal God, one that was an expert in the laws of space and other mysterious laws. With a range of Divine Sense spanning nine kilometers and its active search methods, the Godly Cup was capable of pulling in even the faintest of Godly Energy from its surroundings. This also included the Godly Energy unleashed when he slammed forth attacks. Thanks to this, Krune''s loss in Godly Energy was so minimal he was capable of maintaining his farming for at least a couple of years. ''And I plan to do exactly that.'' He grinned. After all, as his comprehension of the Divine Sense Law continued to increase, his expertise in using his Divine Sense improved by leaps and bounds, surpassing what a God Core Realm cultivator could achieve. In fact, it was already in the realm of a Nascent God Realm cultivator. Until now, Krune''s strength that surpassed his peers came from a couple of areas: his tough body, his experience surpassing 250 years, his mental energy, and his Deific Wisp Technique that unified everything into a working whole. But if it was in the subtle control of things like Divine Sense, he was only using his experience to control it better. It was like using superior skill to control a weak rope. But now, thanks to this farming session, the rope itself was increasing in quality. This allowed his skill to be put into effect better, improving his strength by leaps and bounds. Moreover, he was also able to heal his Spiritual Incarnation, causing its stability to recover little by little, understanding something important. ''Now, I am able to heal my Spiritual Incarnation faster than before. Since all the attacks that I face in the future would be regarding the destabilization of my Spiritual Incarnations, this would allow me to defend and heal myself better.'' Upon understanding the value of the Law of Divine Sense, Krune continued to constantly attack. Surprisingly, he had the Sonic Radar constantly active. After all, its range could easily surpass 40 to 50 kilometers now. Plus, he didn''t need to produce much sound regarding that. Rather, just generating minute fluctuations using his Divine Sense was enough for his Sonic Radar to take effect. This made it more subtle than before while also increasing the clarity of its function. Unlike in the Sub-Realm, Krune now regained his soul cultivation. So, his Mental Energy allowed his brain to process the stellar amount of information relayed by the Sonic Radar easily, allowing him to focus on the most minute of details sensed by it. Thanks to this, he was constantly on guard, beginning to move the moment any cultivator came within this range. Days passed in such a fashion as Krune constantly kept watch of his surroundings and evaded coming near any cultivator. Unexpectedly, he remained undetected. Suddenly, he noticed a cultivator entering the range of his Sonic Radar. He was blasting forth through the air in a streak of fire. Just when Krune had intended to escape, he noticed that the other party seemed injured. And, based on his expression, he was afraid, fleeing from something horrifying. "Screw you, Monarch!" he screamed when his body suddenly paused in the air while the flames around him slowly died out, now only emitting fumes. His expression became mortified as his body began to melt. Krune watched in a fluster as something in the man was affected, slowly destroying his Spiritual Incarnation. Just based on the change in density and other things in his body, Krune determined that the man''s Spiritual Incarnation was destroyed. "Can Spiritual Incarnations be so easily destroyed?" He was aghast when the man aged rapidly, turning into dust that scattered in the wind a matter of seconds later as an energy sphere remained in place. It then flew towards a lady that was in her teens who swallowed it up, grinning as she muttered, "Oh, that''s an interesting law he has there." Suddenly, she swerved her head, gazing directly at Krune before moving in his direction by condensing a column of fire around her, just like the man she had just killed used to fly, grinning. "There you are. I finally found you¡­" "My main dish!" Chapter 1155 - Air Needle Escape "Ah shit. Here we go again!" Krune grunted as he turned around, beginning to run at his maximum speed without hesitation. Though, he frowned immediately, muttering, "She''s ten times faster than me." He had yet to fully heal himself. So, the speed he could erupt with was only superior to a Red Demon. As for the other party, she was blazing through using a powerful godly ability to catapult towards him. Just a glance was enough for him to know that she was bad news."Damn it. Just why are all these crazies always attracted to me? Can''t a wisp explore places peacefully?" Even though he seemed flustered externally, he was rather calm internally, slowly condensing strength in himself. Moreover, with the Sonic Radar, he noticed that the other party directly flew towards him, shattering the earthen hands in her way. She hadn''t noticed the tiny creatures on the ground yet. ''I can use it to my advantage,'' Krune thought. He was careful to avoid coming into direct contact with her. After all, he had witnessed firsthand as to how she destroyed a cultivator''s Spiritual Incarnation, turning him into a regular cultivator before sucking out his lifespan. ''She must be used to dealing with cultivators possessing Spiritual Incarnations. Her level of expertise isn''t something a regular cultivator would have,'' Krune thought as he continued to frown. Soon, he concluded based on his experiences, ''She must have been an immortal, a rather terrifying one at that. After death, she had revived herself at this stage for some reason.'' With a glance, Krune determined the other party''s secret. He then muttered, "Right, there are items in this infant supercontinent that Lady Strombisu needs. So, this person that''s chasing me should have arrived here with similar intentions. Since she has a greater grasp of the laws than a regular cultivator at the Nascent God Realm, she wouldn''t face any danger." "So, she''ll be able to obtain any treasure that she desires." Krune nodded after that. "That''s a pretty solid plan. Unfortunately, I have no intention of tussling with you." Krune took out a Wisp Core from his bag, shattering it as he condensed the Cloud Whale around him, activating the law of the Wind to the limit as he positioned himself within its horn. In fact, he had returned to his wisp form. So, after retracting his ethereal form, there was only his Wisp Core that could be placed within the horn easily. Moreover, he placed his bag in the mouth of the hippo in the Triple Beast Ring, causing it to vanish as he used the Soul Needle to hold the ring safely. The Triple Beast Ring perfectly settled itself towards the end of the Soul Needle where it was perfectly fixed. This was how he carried it before, preventing it from falling off while he was only using his Wisp Core. On top of that, as the Soul Needle''s tip was sharp, it allowed him to face as little air resistance as possible when the Cloud Whale finished condensing all the power it could muster. Then, followed by an air clap, one that destroyed all the earthen hands in the surroundings, it shot him out. Air Needle! Like a cannonball being launched by a cannon, Krune''s Wisp Core flew out at blinding speeds, vanishing in an instant. It made a streak in the air, heading at a straight line due to the amount of power it possessed. Kirena was charging towards Krune when she suddenly stopped, scowling as she cursed, "Just what the hell did that guy do? How come he disappeared all of a sudden?" She riled up all her laws, using a myriad of tracking abilities. But no matter what, she was unable to find him, cursing aloud, "Damn it!" This was the first time her prey had escaped from her grasp so brazenly. There were always talented cultivators around that managed to escape from her grasp using mysterious techniques. However, she had always been able to track them and eventually grab them for herself. But now, Krune simply disappeared from her sight. "I''ll definitely find you and devour you. None of my prey would ever escape." Kirena grunted before continuing her path of flight, unleashing countless investigative abilities to scour for his traces. "Ahhhhhh!" Krune shouted as he was unable to sense anything. His travel speed was so fast that whether it was his Sonic Radar, Divine Sense, or even Mental Energy, none of them were able to see anything. The funny but scary thing was how he crossed the waves that his Sonic Radar emitted. He was traveling that fast. Krune flew in the same manner for a good half-day before his speed reduced to the extent that his Mental Energy was barely able to sense something. He then thought of something, realizing that it was too dangerous to leave his Wisp Core so unprotected. After a thought, he condensed the Cloud Whale around him once again. The air resistance faced by the Cloud Whale wasn''t any higher than his Wisp Core. After all, it was perfectly aerodynamic. However, the reason Krune had condensed it was because he was able to see earthen hands jutting out of the ground. It was like seeing something in slow motion. After all, he was still traveling at such a speed that by the time an earthen hand barely peeked out of the ground, he would have long gone past it. Then again, as he continued to travel, Krune noticed that the height of the earthen hands continued to increase, thinking, ''Did they sense my arrival in advance since I am traveling at a straight line?'' Of course, he wasn''t too worried now that he had the Cloud Whale to act as the first layer of defense. After all, he had condensed it in its full glory, spanning a length of 25 meters. Plus, it began to suck in the air, beginning to compress it as the height of the earthen hands slowly began to reach it little by little. Soon, when it was about to touch the Cloud Whale, it unleashed a powerful Air Needle once again. The earthen hands before it suddenly sported a hole in them, instantly cracking them due to the swirling winds that accompanied with a powerful shockwave. And after that, the Cloud Whale crashed through them, shattering them into pieces. After crashing through a lot of earthen hands, the Cloud Whale''s speed had drastically reduced, allowing Krune to whip up both his Divine Sense and Mental Energy, freezing the tiny creatures that appeared in a cage of ice before picking them up. Chapter 1156 - Krune’s Genius The Cloud Whale crashed into countless earthen hands that shattered into pieces upon contact, unable to endure the momentum of the entity that crashed into them. After all, they were first pierced through by the Air Needle, weakening them in advance. As its momentum continued to reduce, so did its altitude before the Cloud Whale crashed into the ground, forming a massive trench that continued to span past as the Cloud Whale dragged itself through the ground. During this time, Krune constantly collected the tiny creatures, bringing them closer to the Cloud Whale. As they suffocated to their deaths inside, their respective laws melded into him, sharply raising his comprehension to the extent his Divine Sense was able to keep up with the speed he was going. Soon, the power of his Divine Sense surpassed his Mental Energy, shocking Krune. In fact, this was the first time it had happened ever since he had embarked upon soul cultivation. Eventually, when the Cloud Whale stopped, countless earthen hands jutted out of the ground, slamming onto it, intending to compress it into oblivion. Unfortunately for them, Krune was still seated within, focused on absorbing all the laws that he could obtain. A few seconds later, the Cloud Whale was almost killed when he entered its horn, causing it to unleash another Air Needle. This time, his Wisp Core only began to travel through the second half of the Air Needle. After all, he didn''t wish to take the brunt of the impact. That would simply damage his Wisp Core or even cause it to shatter. Instead, he could simply wait for the Air Needle to do its work while he would travel through its stream. After all, it was like a river but was cylindrical in shape with a sharp tip that pierced through everything in its path. After traveling for some distance, Krune condensed the Cloud Whale around himself once again, causing it to mow down through the earthen hands using its massive body. While doing so, he casually collected all the tiny creatures. The reason he was doing this instead of fighting on his own was due to how strong the earthen hands were. If he fought on his own, he would soon be overwhelmed. But instead, accelerating his Wisp Core using an Air Needle would give him a lot of momentum. And he could ride that momentum by summoning his Cloud Whale, causing it to slam into everything in its path with its heavy body. This was his best mode of attack to destroy as many earthen hands as possible. Krune calculated that his current efficiency was at least ten times greater than before. After all, the rate of comprehension he obtained from the current tiny creatures was many times greater than the ones he obtained from at the start. The deeper he went, the more comprehensive the laws became in the tiny creatures. Thus, it was more profitable. In such a manner, Krune launched himself over and over again, traveling deeper and deeper into the Misty Plains until he was suddenly surprised, landing on the ground to see around himself. No earthen hands emerged out from the ground. Sweeping around using his Divine Sense, Krune found out the reason why. "This part of the land has already stabilized." Had it been before, he would have been unable to understand the cause of the earthen hands. But now that he had been absorbing the laws related to the same thing repeatedly, his comprehension had shot up by a lot, allowing him to observe the reason now. "The laws of Earth, Wood, Life, and Divine Sense had condensed into the tiny creatures that move around the place, slowly adjusting themselves as they fuse and collide, continuing the process repeatedly until their arrangement aligns naturally in an optimal manner," he muttered. In simple terms, it was like there were billions of jigsaw pieces that began around a centerpiece. They would constantly appear in all the places, failing to fit them. They would randomly flow around, falling into any place they could occupy, flying out when it wasn''t fit for them. Over time, when a correct piece fell into the area around the centerpiece, it would stabilize. That was what was happening here. If there was someone that actively placed the tiny creatures in the correct positions, then the piece of stable land would rapidly increase. But now, they would need thousands of years to naturally fall into their rightful places. And this process could only be manually done with the gods of the respective laws joining forces. After all, the required intricacy of the arrangement and the determination of their respective position was only possible for them. Krune had no intention to sit around and complete the puzzle. Instead, he grinned, looking around, "This area 20 meters around me is stable land. I can use this as my base to begin serious cultivation." And with serious cultivation, he meant destroying the earthen hands. Krune approached the border, causing his Cloud Whale to fly out when an earthen hand jutted out instantly, clenching it into dust instantly. However, Krune wasn''t disillusioned by the power it had displayed, activating the laws of Earth, Wood, Life, and Divine Sense, focusing them all into his Pestlor that slammed into it. The same laws negated each other when Krune applied his Balance Laws on top of that, shattering the earthen hand. The tiny creature within was rather powerful, but since he was only focusing on one, Krune was able to focus all his power on it, sealing it up in an ice cage. A couple of seconds later, the tiny creatures died as Krune stumbled backward in shock, clenching his head as the nerves on his hand protruded for a moment. The amount he comprehended was way too much for him to handle. It was a level only strong immortals were capable of enduring. As to how strong their cultivation bases had to be, he was unable to determine. All he could tell was that it went beyond what he could endure. "Of course, I''m not just any average cultivator!" Krune grunted, circulating his Deific Wisp Technique to the limit as the Godly Energy in him morphed into Mental Energy, changing into muscular energy an instant later. It constantly changed states, diverting the comprehensions into various streams. All it did was break the stream of comprehension. He didn''t absorb them yet. However, this diversion gave him a breather. Before the remainder joined together, Krune finished comprehending the stream targeting him. This way, he split them up before devouring them in batches, sighing in relief once he was done, muttering, "My comprehension of these laws have now reached the stage that Semi-God Realm cultivators would have if they focused on these as their prime laws." Chapter 1157 - Then What Are You? "Hahaha!" Krune laughed in joy as he shattered the earthen hands one after another. When he felt tired, he would simply retreat and take a comfortable nap on the stable piece of land. While that was happening, the Godly Cup was constantly condensing God Stones for him to replenish his reserves with. Until now, he hadn''t touched the reserves remaining in the Triple Beast Ring''s tiger yet. In fact, among the 20 Pseudo Wisps left, he only used up one of them. With that, Krune was stably cultivating without any sense of danger. After all, he was assured that Kirena wouldn''t be able to chase after him so easily. After all, despite her power, she still had to conserve her Godly Energy. It was not to mention that the strength of the earthen hands constantly increased the deeper one went in the Misty Plains. If she hurried towards him, it would only make his situation easier. After all, she would be exhausted while he had just taken a pleasant nap. It would be an uphill battle as he would hurl attacks at her from the safety of the stable land while she would be swarmed by the earthen hands from all sides. Plus, he was only using the God Stones created by the Godly Cup to replenish his energy reserves. When it hadn''t condensed a God Stone yet, he simply took a nap. He didn''t have to proceed about it in such a slow manner. But Krune knew for a fact that he would only be able to obtain the greatest of gains if he did it in this manner. After all, the Misty Plains would need at least a couple thousand years to finish forming. He observed the rate of increase of the stable area and the total distance he had traveled from the border to the core of the place. This way, he made a general estimate. ''I''ll spend some time developing myself here,'' Krune thought, setting up camp as he also started to cultivate. As the area of the stable land increased, so did the amount of Godly Energy in the air. This allowed him to cultivate faster and faster. Two years passed in such a fashion when Krune sighed in relief, muttering, "I''ve managed to completely heal all the damage done to my Spiritual Incarnation. Now, thanks to my stronger Divine Sense, it''s far sturdier." The more he suffered injuries to his Spiritual Incarnation, the more of its intricacies he understood. He realized that a Spiritual Incarnation wasn''t all that omnipotent. There were ways to completely destroy it if even one place of it was attacked. It made him understand that leaving a Land Incarnation everywhere he pleased wasn''t a solution. After all, if an enemy of his came across that, he would be able to channel all his attacks through it. Those attacks would land on him anywhere in the God Realm, using the laws forming his Spiritual Incarnation as the channel to transmit the attacks. This was the reason the God Realm wasn''t filled to the brim by Land Incarnations. There were only the danger zones that were caused by the Land Incarnations unleashed by immortals that died. There weren''t any Land Incarnations that cultivators casually left behind. Once he understood it, Krune sent his clones through the Zamuria Continent, destroying any and every Land Incarnation he had left behind. He also conveyed the information to the elders of the Mountain Sect. At present, there was a clone that was conveying everything that he had been experiencing in the infant supercontinent. Among the elders, Gegrafikan was noting down all the information he conveyed, intending to store them in the sect''s library for all disciples to read about. There was a section of the library created exclusively to house the experiences of the sect members. However, this experience only consisted of those from Core Disciples and beyond. On top of that, the level of the experience was classified accordingly based on the value of the information in it. The disciples had to exchange enough contribution points based on which experience they wished to read. As he was the most knowledgeable in the Mountain Sect, once he became an elder, Gegrafikan took charge of the library and collated all the information regarding the sect''s matters. As for Feifei, she arrived at the library every month, dropping a bunch of godly abilities for various realms. Thanks to her Spirit Deity Spiritual Incarnation, she was able to create new abilities, invent new things, and upgrade existing techniques. Thanks to that, the plethora of knowledge, techniques, and training materials available in the Mountain Sect continued to increase. Once he had healed his Spiritual Incarnation, Krune observed his state, muttering, "Thanks to the increased adhesiveness between the different laws forming my Spiritual Incarnation, I''ve become a lot stronger." But just as he intended to continue cultivating further, he noticed a stream of fire heading towards him at tremendous speeds. "So, she''s finally arrived." Now that he had recovered completely, Krune wasn''t as afraid as before. Moreover, he noticed that the other party was slightly haggard, sporting reddened eyes while displaying a crazed mental state. She spoke through ragged breaths, "Finally, you damn rat! I''ll devour you now! All those new laws that you absorbed shall become mine!" It seemed she had sensed his uniqueness, the reason she chased after him with maniacal craziness. There were two reasons she had done so. She was confident in her abilities to remain unmatched in the place. And second was the fact that she was aware her opponent wouldn''t have enough Godly Energy reserves to remain on the run constantly. However, the moment she arrived in range to observe him, she was shocked for a moment before brimming forth in anger, "So, all along while I was killing my way through the Misty Plains, you were sleeping in its core?" "Of course." Krune began to act as he had revised long ago, behaving like it was only a matter of fact. "Only an idiot would fight against them for no reason. Isn''t it just a waste of Godly Energy?" "You''re wasting Godly Energy and aren''t even getting anything in return. If you aren''t an idiot¡­" "Then what are you?" Chapter 1158 - Screwing An Ancient Expert "Damn you! I''ll show you what I am!" Kirena bellowed as her Godly Energy boiled. She was tremendously angry. Even though she had once been a Primal God and had been a complicated schemer that had caused disasters to entire continents, that was in the past. Anyone that dared to talk trash about her were her peers, fellow Primal Gods. But now, a God Core Realm ant dared to taunt her. Just that fact alone triggered her as countless laws activated in her body, broiling forth as they condensed in her hand as a swirling mass, intending to be sent flying into the enemy. Krune wasn''t yet in the range of her Divine Sense. So, she first planned to attack him to quench her rage. But to her shock, Krune wasn''t flustered. Instead, he condensed the Cloud Whale behind him, instantly slamming forth an Air Needle her way. In fact, he first slammed the Neon Radiance on her face after fusing his Frozen Blood into it. He did the same to the air condensed by the Cloud Whale. Immediately, two attacks slammed into her, being destroyed by the energy swirl condensed in her hand. However, Krune wasn''t even surprised that his initial attacks failed to harm her. Rather, it was just icing on the cake, unleashed just to delay the launch of her attack. His actual plan had been something he had been preparing all along in response to her arrival. Calamity Laws! Through the Air Needle, Krune sent the Calamity Laws churning towards her. As it comprised all the laws in the God Realm, he was able to transmit it in the form of the laws of Wind, inlaying the Calamity Laws within it. This way, it traveled forth through the Air Needle easily without suffering any power reduction and slammed into Kirena. For a moment, Kirena was unable to understand just what had happened when she noticed the veins on her hand protruding before bursting. Suddenly, the energy swirl that she had condensed exploded on her, escaping out of her control. It buried her under its explosion, sending her reeling towards the ground. For a moment, the attack impeded her Godly Energy circulation as she slammed into the ground, forming a crater when it wriggled like it was alive as countless earthen hands shot out before slamming attacks onto her. Krune calmly began to prepare another round of attacks as he used a Rank Four God Stone to replenish his reserves. While doing so, he watched the earthen hands slam attacks repeatedly onto Kirena, causing her to become bruised. She hurriedly healed her injuries through her Spiritual Incarnation, shooting towards him, intending to reach the stable land and avoid all the attacks when a block of ice fell on her. After causing a couple of Little Krune fragments in the Mountain Sect to commit suicide, he expended his Godly Energy to condense them in himself. He then caused a Little Krune fragment to occupy a Pseudo Wisp each, making them hover high up in the sky as Wisp Cores. On top of that, they shielded themselves using the Laws of Divine Sense. Over the past two years, Krune had been experimenting, finally achieving this after his comprehension had attained a certain level. This way, the two Wisp Cores remained in the air, camouflaging themselves and preventing the earthen hands from targeting them. And now, one of them condensed the Cloud Whale, turning it into an ice sculpture before sending it hurling towards Kirena right when she jumped up. The horn of the Cloud Whale pierced through her body as it unleashed an Air Needle right before piercing her. Her defenses came undone as she slammed into the ground once again. This time, the horn of the Cloud Whale nailed her to the ground. The earthen hands slammed attacks on both, damaging them equally. However, the damage to the Cloud Whale was of no consequence. It could be condensed easily once again. Thanks to being in its presence, Kirena was surprised when she noticed that her killing intent was¡­waning? The thought of peace was slowly entering her mind, slowing down the rate at which she struggled to escape. Her body suddenly turned into plasma as she melted the Cloud Whale, along with all the earthen hands that tried to harm her. "Bastard! I''ll kill you!" She got up in rage as her anger rapidly cooled down, replaced by calm as she observed her surroundings, turning into a stream of light as she instantly arrived before Krune, laughing. "Now, you''re in my range." Right as she said so, Krune was shocked to see that his body had turned numb as a mysterious force seemed to be trying to weasel its way into him and destroy his Spiritual Incarnation. But suddenly, his body shone with a rainbow color as his entire being morphed, suddenly causing the mysterious force to flow into him automatically, as if they belonged to him. Krune was stripping her of her control over the laws responsible for the ability. ''What the heck is he?'' Kirena was now unable to maintain her cool as she mustered all her strength, regaining control of her ability as she began to damage Krune''s Spiritual Incarnation. It was apparent that he wasn''t her match once she showed her true strength. But that was only if he used brute strength against her in a contest of fair play. He¡­never had such an intention in the first place. Spiritual Mark¡ªTribulation Lightning! One of the Wisp Cores that was in hiding expended all its energy reserves, also combusting its body to fuel the attack, slamming forth a powerful bolt of Tribulation Lightning that landed right onto the back of Kirena, causing her to scream in pain as her body was jolted. The Tribulation Lightning wreaked havoc in her body while stripping her control over herself for a moment. Using the chance, Krune activated his Balance Laws to the extreme, complementing it with the Divine Sense Laws to pull out the laws of Kirena that formed the core of her fearsome ability. Right after that, a Cloud Whale formed behind him and slammed forth an Air Needle on her, piercing a hole on her forehead when Krune pulled up his Pestlor from within the ground and smacked her away like hitting a ball. While she was mid-air, a Cloud Whale condensed before her as it pierced through her body, nailing her to the ground once again, causing her twitching body to lose its fighting spirit as the earthen hands ganged up on her. In the meantime, Krune calmly took a Rank 4 God Stone and¡­ate it, as if he was watching a movie. Chapter 1159 - Overwhelming? Or Not? Krune ate a Rank 4 God Stone. Though, he wasn''t actually eating it. Instead, he placed it in his mouth while using his cultivation technique to absorb the Godly Energy from it. As he was fighting using both his hands and since everything beyond his figure was a clash of godly abilities, he wouldn''t be able to recover his Godly Energy. With that in mind, he placed it in his mouth to siphon Godly Energy from it constantly and replenish his expended reserves. After all, even though he behaved as if everything was according to his plans, in actuality, he was slowly losing his cool. Kirena was stronger than he had expected. He could say with assurance that she was by far the strongest opponent he had faced in the God Realm. Even though she fell victim to his attacks time and again, a battle between cultivators with Spiritual Incarnations wasn''t like that. It depended on which side exhausted their Godly Energy first. Naturally, the one that expended all their Godly Energy first would be the one getting defeated. After all, to them, no amount of injury mattered since they were able to recover. Even if their Spiritual Incarnation was damaged, as long as they had enough Godly Energy, they could use their Divine Sense to slowly restructure the laws forming their Spiritual Incarnation and heal themselves. In their current battle, even though it was Krune damaging Kirena, he was the one expending a lot of Godly Energy. In contrast, Kirena hadn''t yet used any means to recover her Godly Energy. She still had enough in her reserves to fight him. It was because she had tough defenses that were hard to crack. Plus, even though he slammed a Tribulation Lightning into her, he failed to kill her. Watching the earthen hands continue to pummel her nonstop, Krune used his Sonic Radar to discreetly spy on her, noticing that she was actually recovering her strength despite the attacks on her. Each punch of the earthen hand was equivalent to an all-out attack of a regular Nascent God Realm cultivator. In fact, tens of such attacks slammed into her every second. ''To think that she''s able to heal despite such attacks. Her comprehension of the laws is frightening.'' Krune had his guard up all this time, ready to counterattack Kirena the moment she tried anything on him. After all, she hadn''t used any trump cards yet. On the other hand, he had already shown most of his cards to her. If they continued in such a fashion, it was only time before he fell victim to her abilities. However, he had no intention of allowing that to happen. Suddenly, two Cloud Whales appeared in the air, piercing through Kirena''s body. The subtle fluctuation they exhibited influenced her mind, further reducing her fighting spirit. The Cloud Whale was a being full of peace. When he didn''t use it to attack, it began to exude the property it was born with. This was to ensure everything was at peace. With three Cloud Whales piercing her body, Kirena''s fighting spirit dropped as low as it could go as she passively endured the attacks. Suddenly, intense ringing sounds emanated from her body before it turned metallic. Numerous metal hands shot out from her body, punching the three Cloud Whales away. However, before they were sent flying, all three of them slammed an Air Needle into her. This time, the Air Needles resembled plasma. Krune had filled them with the laws of Fire, increasing the might of the damage they could inflict upon her, watching her body beginning to sear. Kirena condensed an energy sphere around her as countless ripples formed on them, diverting the Air Needles before absorbing all the heat energy from them. ''She''s absorbing the Godly Energy from the ability itself.'' Krune frowned, instantly causing the Air Needles to return to their original state, increasing the force of pure impact as they sent her flying. As the Air Needles were made by absorbing and compressing the surrounding air, it was a purely physical attack. As long as he didn''t use any laws in attacks that made direct contact with her, her abilities wouldn''t be able to affect them. Thinking of something, Krune quickly modified his plan as one of the clones brought out a Cloud Whale, one that was hidden from view. Mental Energy Shell! It was a technique he developed using Feifei''s help to shield the attacks made using the Cloud Whale, exclusively for this purpose. In fact, it was such a profound technique that it didn''t actually shield the Cloud Whale or anything. To be honest, all forms of detective abilities would be able to sense it. However, the users of said abilities wouldn''t realize anything. Instead, they would gloss over this piece of information just like how the brain would filter out all excess information about the surroundings. Of course, the Mental Energy consumed was proportional to the power of the detection ability used. But for Krune, he was able to bear with the consumption. At present, the expenditure was lower than what he had assumed as Kirena had yet to recover her complete fighting spirit. Using the chance, the Cloud Whale pierced through her body, injecting Frozen Blood into her. Once it was done, it vanished when Kirena was stumped for breath all of a sudden, unable to move. When she tried to sense any changes in her body, she was alarmed to see that she was unable to notice anything. In fact, everything seemed perfectly fine with her Spiritual Incarnation. Soon after, an intense sense of lethargy enveloped her. This lethargy amplified the feeling of peace still affecting her, causing her unable to bring even an ounce of fighting strength. ''This guy is a freak!'' She realized as she watched Krune calmly place God Stone in his mouth, smiling as he waved at her. "Damn it! It won''t end here!" she shouted in rage. But in actuality, even she herself was shocked to see that she was actually speaking to him formally, with a tone of composure, as if they were conversing over tea. The changes alarmed her as her body brimmed with fire, sending her body reeling out as she made a streak of light, flashing towards the border of the Misty Plains. Chapter 1160 - Capitalism Is The King! As Krune watched Kirena fly into the air like a rocket, he waved with his hand, causing the Frozen Blood to seep out of her wounds before vaporizing instantly. Thanks to the Mental Energy shrouded in them, even if Kirena noticed it, the information didn''t register in her mind. Unaware of the fact, Kirena disappeared as a fiery stream, noticing that the lethargy in her disappeared once she had flown far away, muttering in anger, "Damn it. Just who is this guy? Is he a Primal God like me that revived at a lower realm to hunt for treasures here?" "The laws he used were too weak at the start. However¡­" She recalled the tribulation lightning that had struck her, shuddering soon after. "How the hell can he wield the laws of Tribulation Lightning? It''s something a cultivator cannot use even if they obtained anything related to it by chance." After all, if she managed to obtain Tribulation Lightning and wielded it, the heavens would be angered. Tribulation Lightning would slam onto her from the sky until she was reduced to nothing. Even if she became a God, this wasn''t something she could overcome. After all, the entire God Realm would be focused on eradicating her. "However, that guy used it without any repercussions. Just who the hell is he?" She was unable to make sense of it. Then again, that didn''t mean she wished to just make a run for it, muttering with hatred, "Just you wait. Once I prepare enough, I''ll return and make all your laws mine." "Maybe you have something in you that allows you to wield the laws of Tribulation Lightning. Once I get that." She grinned devilishly, unable to control her excitement as she screamed inwardly with glee, "I''ll be able to make the power of the tribulations mine!" "Hahaha!" Followed by a streak of laughter, she exited the Misty Plains, heading somewhere else as she came across a cultivator, attacking him immediately. After robbing his lifespan, she checked through the bag he carried. "Hmm...there are only three hundred God Stones here. That''s not enough, especially not against him. I need to amass enough wealth to win against him in a battle of attrition." She muttered while frowning, "At least enough God Stones to last me for a year of continuous battles." Deciding on her plan of action, Kirena roamed through the tiny continent, scavenging for any cultivators that arrived at the place. Unfortunately, she didn''t obtain enough resources for the fight, carrying the large bag with her as she left the tiny continent and headed towards other locations. As for Krune, he kept watch over Kirena''s location through his Sonic Radar, slumping on the ground in exhaustion only after she had moved 100 kilometers away from him. He then looked around, noticing that a lot of earthen hands in the area were beginning to crumble. It was because the damaged body parts of Kirena had spilled onto the area. To be more specific, the laws in them were beginning to affect the area. The native laws fought against them, soon eradicating them. But, Krune noticed that the laws in the affected areas had destabilized a bit. The area of the stable region directly fell in half, alarming Krune as he understood, ''It''s not this battle that''s the cause. It''s me. I absorbed too many laws from the core of this region.'' He had been focusing on the laws that would give him the greatest comprehension for his growth. With that, he had been impeding the region''s development, also causing a deficit at the place. Had he roamed around the Misty Plains and absorbed the laws from various locations, this wouldn''t have happened. After all, the vacancy that had to be filled was too small to matter and it would fill up almost instantly. However, he had done that at the core for two years, constantly increasing the deficit in the area. It was like a large boulder smashing into a shallow river. In short, Krune had disrupted the flow of the place. Fortunately for him, it would have taken another year or two before the place showed signs of instability. Unfortunately for his luck, Kirena had to show up. Even if they had fought at the place, the damage wouldn''t have been high enough to warrant the destabilization of the region. But then, Krune had fired off a bolt of Tribulation Lightning. As it was an ability of his Spiritual Mark, he was unable to control it. All he could do was unleash it after determining the target. With that being said, quite a lot of it landed on the ground instead of Kirena. This was the culprit that destabilized the place a lot. Basically, he had shot himself in the foot. By now, it had become his specialty as Krune sighed, slowly noting that the collection of Godly Energy within the Godly Cup had reduced a lot compared to before. It was because the area of the stable land had reduced sharply. "There''s no use in remaining here anymore. It''ll only increase the danger I''ll face once she returns," Krune muttered, raising his hands as all the Wisp Cores in the air returned to him. In preparation against Kirena, he had been planning a lot. Even though he was partly overwhelmed against her in the recent battle, he still had plenty of reserves. In fact, he hadn''t even fought her properly and only used emission-type abilities at her. ''Thankfully, I have already healed my Spiritual Incarnation. Now that I have comprehended enough of the Divine Sense Laws, it''s enough for me.'' Thinking as such, Krune packed up all his belongings, placing them in the Triple Beast Ring before he began to run across the air by condensing footholds of ice under his feet. ¡­ Mountain Sect Sub-Realm. One of Krune''s clones grinned while looking at another clone, causing its body to melt before falling onto a large metal plate situated under. Land Incarnation! Through its death, it unleashed the strongest Land Incarnation. Once it had stabilized, all the remaining clones surrounding it took out numerous tools before they began to carefully cut the metal piece. They extracted tiny bits and pieces of it, piling them up into a corner. They were pieces full of the laws of Divine Sense. Of course, Krune would never forget to capitalize on something so valuable. Chapter 1161 - Prove Your Innocence For the past two years, ever since Krune began to comprehend the Divine Sense Laws, his Spiritual Incarnation was unstable. With that, he wasn''t able to take advantage of it. Only now, when he had fully healed his Spiritual Incarnation, was he able to begin his plans. In the meantime, his clones had been creating countless metal plates for the task at hand. After making a general estimate based on his current cultivation base and the potency of his Land Incarnation, they made a metal plate that was 90 meters in radius. This was where the maximum potency could be established. A Land Incarnation was split into two regions, the core and the outer region. A tenth of one''s Divine Sense range conformed to the core region of the Land Incarnation, the area where it was the strongest and most potent. At the God Core Realm, the range of the divine sense conformed to 900 meters. Hence, the core region of maximum potency spanned 90 meters. Once Krune recovered, five clones unleashed their Land Incarnations after committing suicide, eradicating all the laws forming the metal plate before replacing them with the laws forming his Spiritual Incarnation. The remaining clones began to cut and dice up the five metal plates, extracting the parts with the Divine Sense Laws. They then placed the pile in one corner, having no idea what it could be used for. Afraid that further actions would destabilize his Spiritual Incarnation once again, the clones stopped the process. Zamura looked at the pile of metal full of Divine Sense Laws, smiling as he asked, "Why don''t we make a cultivation chamber out of it?" "That''ll be a bit hard to do at this moment," Krune''s clone replied. "I won''t be able to create enough materials for that in my present situation." "There''s no rush." Zamura laughed after hearing that. "Once you return, we''ll make it. In the meantime, I''ll research a way to turn this pile of Divine Sense Laws into a cultivation chamber. This way, all of us would be able to comprehend this law." "That''ll be helpful," the clone thought for a moment before responding. "Also, I''ll probably be retracting most of my clones. The foes I have to face are too strong. I can''t divide my strength so much." "You don''t need to worry about things here," Zamura replied. "Feifei''s Monster Geckos are managing most of the things." He then stretched his hand and said, "Place three of your Little Krune fragments in a Pseudo Wisp and give it to me. I''ll ensure that any attacks targeted through your Spiritual Incarnation won''t damage them." "You can do that?" Krune asked in surprise. After all, only after he started to roam out did he realize that attacks could be transmitted through a Spiritual Incarnation towards all the Land Incarnations of the respective cultivator. Similarly, an enemy could launch an attack on the cultivator through one of their Land Incarnations. Cultivators like Kirena were able to destroy the Spiritual Incarnation itself through this connection. It was because the laws forming the Spiritual Incarnations weren''t exclusive to the individual alone. If both the fighting cultivators had the law of Fire in their Spiritual Incarnation, then they could use this law of Fire to transmit their attack through all of the God Realm and target their opponents. The deeper their comprehension of the law of Fire, the farther they could transmit this attack. So, having comprehended more laws would make someone stronger. However, at the same time, it would also make them more vulnerable. It was a conflicting choice of interest. "Yes, I''ve been researching this topic all along," Zamura told him. "I have a certain degree of confidence in being capable of achieving it. Though, if the one that''s attacking you is an actual immortal, even I cannot give any guarantees." "Thanks, your guarantee is more than enough for me," Krune laughed as he replied. "Then again, I do have abilities that''ll mitigate this attack to a certain extent. So at most, I''ll be the only one dying from it. My clones here won''t be affected." As their conversation continued in the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm, Krune sighed in relief upon reaching the border of the Misty Plains. He had been fighting a lot against the earthen hands. Now that he had reached the border, he could relax. ''But from now onwards, the situation might become more and more dangerous.'' Krune sighed, recalling that Little Cally had returned. And by the sound of it, it had been scheming a lot to make his life miserable. If he wasn''t careful, he would find himself in more and more tricky situations. If not for the abilities he obtained in the Sub-Realm, it would have been hard for him to escape from the first trap Little Cally had set up for him. Now that it had a better understanding of his abilities, the traps would become harder and harder to escape from. Sighing as he thought, Krune exited the Misty Plains, crossing the curtain made of mist as he stepped foot on the ground, suddenly flinching when countless chains shot out of the ground and wrapped around his limbs, constricting him immediately. In fact, the chains seemed to have a mysterious power as they began to melt, looking like they would fuse into his body. In an instant, thanks to the Divine Sense Laws, Krune determined that the attack was aimed at the laws of Metal, Restriction, Earth, and Sound that were part of his Spiritual Incarnation. Using them as the medium, the chains bore into his body. "Hahaha! You got caught in my trap." A cultivator laughed boisterously as he walked out of his hiding location, looking at Krune as he said in greed, "Now, hand over the treasures you had stolen, especially the Galki." "Are you sure that you hadn''t mistaken me for someone else?" Krune tilted his head, asking in confusion. "I have been inside this Misty Plains for a decade now. So, I cannot remember taking anything with me." "Is that so?" the cultivator said, clearly unconvinced. "Then, prove it." "It''s simple," Krune replied. "Just check me.. If there''s anything on me to prove your claims, then you are right." Chapter 1162 - Casual Deceit "Eh? Ehh? Ehhh? How come you have nothing on you?" The cultivator was flabbergasted as he was unable to find any item on Krune. It was shocking to see that the person he had been waiting for for two years had evaded while he had trapped someone else. "So, this person you''re trying to search for, what did he look like?" Krune asked calmly. "He looked just like you¡­" the cultivator replied. "I''m not talking about his appearance." Krune shook his head as he clarified, "Tell me about his Godly Energy signature." "That¡­" The cultivator looked at Krune for a moment before realizing that the Godly Energy fluctuation he was sensing from Krune was completely different from the person he had been searching for. In actuality, Krune was his target. When Kirena exited the Misty Plains and began to hunt for every cultivator she could find, he hid deep within the tiny continent using one of his abilities, only surfacing after he was assured that she had left. He then waited, having laid a trap all around the Misty Plains. This way, when Krune exited it, he would fall into the trap. And¡­Kirena had also fallen for the trap, getting stuck in it for a couple of days before she broke free. She then raged forth, trying to find the cause. However, since he had been hiding deep within the tiny continent, she was unable to find him. Killing a Galki directly increased the comprehension of all the laws in one''s Spiritual Incarnation. So, they were tremendously beneficial to him. That''s why he camped at the place, waiting for Krune to exit and fall into his trap. He was an expert in this field, having confidence in trapping people. That was how he was able to trap even Kirena for two days. Now that he had finished searching Krune, he was dejected, understanding that he had trapped the wrong target. "I''m sorry, sir. I mistook you for someone else." He cupped his fists in apology, retracting the chains as Krune grunted for a moment, watching his limbs heal automatically. Using the Divine Sense Laws, he determined there was nothing amiss in him anymore, nodding. "Thanks for being reasonable. Otherwise, the situation would have turned a bit sticky." He then said after a moment of thought, "By the way, unless you''re really desperate to find this person, I advise you from remaining here. Kirena would return soon enough." "There isn''t anyone here for her to kill¡­" the cultivator said when he noticed Krune laughed. "The last time she entered the Misty Plains, I gave her a pretty good beating. So, she''ll soon return for revenge," Krune grinned as he said that. "Y-You did what to her?" The cultivator was shocked when he watched Krune''s figure vanish from the place, causing him to become afraid. He then turned around in a hurry, noticing Krune standing a kilometers away from him, calmly, as if he hadn''t even exerted the limit of his power. "I''ve warned you. Take care." Krune waved his hand, summoned his Cloud Whale and zoomed through the air, heading towards the border of the tiny continent. Upon seeing the familiar Cloud Whale, the cultivator was stunned for a moment before his expression collapsed, "I''ve been tricked by him. Damn it!" He stomped the ground in anger before trying to chase after Krune, only now realizing that the Cloud Whale had long since vanished from view. He slumped to the ground in defeat, muttering to himself, "With such strength, why did he resort to trickery?" "It seems my usage of Mental Energy had improved." As the Cloud Whale moved, Krune grinned, looking at the Triple Beast Ring on his hand. He didn''t hide it away. In fact, it was in the same place as usual. All he did was shield it using Mental Energy, activating an ability to ensure the cultivator wouldn''t process the information despite his abilities sensing it numerous times. Until now, he had a lot of abilities that allowed him to go beyond his realm and defeat stronger foes. But with that, he realized his flaw. He was mostly depending on the fact that his brute force was able to overpower his opponents. But from now onwards, that might no longer be the case. Opponents like Kirena might be common. Even if someone wasn''t an immortal, they might have remained as a Nascent God for tens of thousands of years. After all, anyone with a Spiritual Incarnation was considered immortal. By living a long life, they would have trained endlessly and deepened their comprehension of the laws to a frightening degree. So, even if he might be able to overpower his opponents, it would no longer result in his victory. Rather, as his enemies grew increasingly trickier to defeat, he would have to upgrade his skills. And Mental Energy was one of those skills. He had barely been using it. So, Krune made it a point to practice further with it and develop more abilities to activate using Mental Energy. It was something even ex-Primal Gods like Kirena weren''t knowledgeable about. So, it would serve as his trump card against all old monsters. He had a lot of abilities that either proved redundant now or weren''t put to good use. So, before he became an immortal, Krune planned to complete his arsenal of abilities that he would use in various situations. "Single-target attacks, all-out attacks, defense, evasion, healing, reconnaissance, and growth. I''ll have to finalize the abilities I would use for each part." Krune nodded as he recalled his plan in mind. "This way, I won''t use all sorts of abilities and fail to output my true strength." "My Mental Energy and body cultivation would play a prime role in this," he muttered. "Both of them aren''t law-based attacks. So, they have their respective advantages and disadvantages. I should prioritize everything accordingly." After traveling for quite a while, the Cloud Whale reached the border of the tiny continent as Krune looked at the vacuum of space beyond, where countless spirals of energy and matter swirled, colliding and separating. Just the sight of it caused him to shudder. "I''ll simply die if I head there. I should find a direction to proceed at first." Just as he thought of it, Krune was surprised when he noticed the Soul Needle whirring into response.. It meant a treasure was nearby. Chapter 1163 - Godly Inhibition Tower Krune looked in the direction pointed by the Soul Needle. It was a swirling mass of Godly Energy being actuated by countless laws that clustered together to create a visual spectacle. All sorts of abilities were being launched in there by the laws forming the infant supercontinent. With a single glance, it was apparent that something incredibly precious was forming in there. Once formed, it would become one of the important locations of the completed supercontinent. At the core of it seemed to be a treasure, based on how the Soul Needle seemed to be pointing at it without changing. Unfortunately, Krune had no idea how to enter that violent storm to obtain the treasure. It wasn''t possible with his current capabilities. Well, even if he obtained it successfully, he would have expended all his Godly Energy reserves and would still be injured atop that. It would be hard for him to protect the treasure after that. Since he still needed to find the two items asked by Lady Strombisu, he didn''t wish to weaken himself for a treasure. In fact, his original goal was to heal the defects in him and reach the Nascent God Realm. That took priority over a treasure. "Then again, if I manage to complete all my objectives, I''ll return here and see if it''s possible to retrieve the treasure in there." The Cloud Whale turned around and began to fly somewhere else. For those that had entered the infant supercontinent, traveling in the vacuum was somewhat troublesome. After all, they had to shield themselves while unleashing abilities that would propel them forward in the void. As for Krune, it was relatively simpler. Once the Cloud Whale arrived at the void, it turned around and unleashed an Air Needle. The force it unleashed was enough to send it flying away due to inertia. While doing so, Krune returned to his wisp form, shrinking his ethereal body until only his Wisp Core remained. After this, he also shrunk the Cloud Whale to its tiniest form possible as it banked upon all the force to move faster and for longer durations. He casually traveled through the void by expending the least amount of Godly Energy possible. After all, the first Air Needle was condensed from the air in the tiny continent. So, he didn''t even have to expend Godly Energy to generate air. As the Cloud Whale continued to travel, Krune noticed a small group of cultivators flying in a certain direction. Curious, he accelerated the Cloud Whale their way, expanding its size before retracting it. Krune covered himself with a barrier of ice before propelling himself by generating wind. He didn''t wish to show that he could travel through the void casually, unlike others. So, he tried to blend in with the others by acting like he was in a similar situation to them. Soon, when he approached them close enough, the group of cultivators noticed him, tensing up for a moment. "Hello there, fellow cultivators." Krune arrived before them, cupping his fists as he asked, "I was just curious as to where you were heading towards." Upon seeing that he was just a curious traveler, the group visibly relaxed. Moreover, one of them probed through his cultivation base, noticing that he was only at the Ninth Stage God Core Realm, conveying the information to the others. They no longer treated him as a threat after that as the one that seemed to be the leader of the group laughed and replied, "Friend, we''re currently heading towards the Godly Inhibition Tower." "What''s that?" Krune asked curiously. "Since you''re our junior, it makes sense that you''re unaware." One of them smiled before explaining, "The Godly Inhibition Tower is a place where you won''t be able to use your Godly Energy. In there, you won''t be able to use any godly abilities. Even your Divine Sense would be inhibited." "Then, why are you heading there, senior?" Since he was addressed as a junior, Krune put on an innocent act. "It seems pretty dangerous." "That''s because of the treasures there." The one he addressed as a senior seemed content of being addressed as such as she continued further, "This place is actually a tower consisting of nine levels. In fact, it had formed naturally. Every floor contains a natural formation that would inhibit your Godly Energy." "This is the best place to train yourself," she smiled as she continued. "After all, once you have adapted to the inhibition placed on you, you''ll be able to wield your Godly Energy there. With that, you can head towards a higher level and repeat the same." "The higher the level in the tower, the stronger the inhibition. Plus, it conforms to our cultivation bases as well. All of us spend our time in the fourth level since the inhibition there can limit Nascent Gods," she said with the grace of one knowledgeable. "You should cultivate in the third level. It''ll allow you to compress the Godly Energy in your body, raising its quality." "Thank you for the information." Krune nodded. "Sorry to hinder you on your journey." "It''s fine. In fact, you can accompany us," the lady said when all the others nodded in response. It seemed since Krune was weaker than them, they didn''t feel threatened to be in his presence. And besides, he was rather pleasant to look at, only if they ignored his rainbow-colored hair, which was¡­pretty tacky. Thanking them in response, Krune joined the group, casually conversing with them as they moved across the void. "By the way, which sect are you from, junior brother?" one of them asked. "The Mountain Sect," Krune replied. "Have you heard about it, seniors?" "Hmm, not really. Is the sect not famous?" one of them asked. "It''s actually a tiny sect located in a faraway continent," Krune replied. "Well, there are countless sects. Plus, we generally don''t know about any sects beyond the continents surrounding us." The lady laughed, saying, "Still, you seem pretty confident in your strength to come here when you aren''t even a Nascent God." "I am just desperate. Nothing grand, haha." Krune laughed wryly as they continued to travel. A day later, they arrived before a grand building that floated in the void, one that spanned hundreds of kilometers in height. Chapter 1164 - Inhibition Of Godly Energy "Wow, that looks grand and imposing," Krune muttered. "That''s the difference between a regular continent and a supercontinent," the lady said in response. She was addressed as Waela and seemed to be the daughter of her sect''s Sect Master. The remaining four were her bodyguards charged with protecting her. As Waela hadn''t traveled much, she spouted off her knowledge upon encountering someone that wasn''t one of her followers. After all, her guards only nodded to whatever she said, not saying anything beyond what their roles told them to do. Thus, she said in excitement, "Things like the Godly Inhibition Tower are common in a supercontinent. But in a regular continent, buildings like these would become the core of a sect." "After all, the higher the level, the stronger the inhibition. Even Primal Gods could train at the eighth level, not to mention the ninth level, which would inhibit the Godly Energy of Gods," she spoke. "So, this is a treasure fought for by everyone." "Fortunately, that won''t happen for the time being." She laughed as she continued, "Only those below the Semi-God Realm can enter this infant supercontinent. We cannot even hope to scratch it, not to mention steal it." "So, once the supercontinent finishes forming, it would create a bloodbath," Krune frowned as he said. "Indeed." Waela nodded in response. "After all, the power that manages to establish a sect or empire here would grow with incomparable speed and would have countless Primal Gods amongst them. After all, the resources here would make cultivation pretty easy for them." Krune nodded, thinking that her words made sense. The moment a cultivator became an immortal, the amount of resources they required to cultivate further was a stellar amount. Naturally, this would continue to increase exponentially as their cultivation base increases. To birth a Primal God, a continent''s worth of resources was required. So, even if a continent hadn''t encountered any wars or disasters, they could at most have between one and three Primal Gods. If they had three Primal Gods, they would become a force to reckon with. After all, it would mean that their sect or empire had stood tall for tens of thousands of years and beyond without any problems, allowing it to gradually birth three powerhouses. Unless they wished to plunger the continent completely and destroy it to become a Primal God, they''ll have to patiently wait and cultivate step by step based on the resources produced in the continent. Also, since they would also have to nurture the younger generation, they would have to patiently cultivate and become a Primal God. Then again, such a thing was of no concern on a supercontinent. A cultivator could casually become a Primal God without much trouble. After all, the supercontinent would be producing enough resources to even birth a God. "Based on what I was told by my father, every supercontinent is the home to a God that rules it. So, the power that manages to occupy this supercontinent would eventually produce a God," Waela said. "So, once it''s completed, it would create a bloodbath." "It wouldn''t be long before that happens." She sighed, saying, "It''ll take less than a millennia before this infant supercontinent finishes forming." "That soon?" Krune was surprised to hear that. "But, based on what I noticed in a couple of places I was at before, I thought it would take¡­" "Actually..." She said after a moment of thought, speaking before her guards managed to block her from saying, "Once the supercontinent''s core stabilizes, its development would accelerate. With that, it would finish forming within a millennium. This has been verified." "Do you remember the rule that you would have to hand over ten percent of the treasures you obtain from here?" she asked. "Yes, the Primal Gods in the city I came from enforced that rule. Because only they can create an entrance into this infant supercontinent," Krune nodded as he replied. "On one side, this tax is for them to replenish the resources they expend to create an entrance every time." Waela nodded. "The other side is to also gauge the infant supercontinent''s rate of competition through the treasures we obtain from here." "I see, that makes sense." Krune nodded as they arrived before the Godly Inhibition Tower, noticing that the entrance at the lowest level was open, asking in curiosity, "How is this open?" "We have no idea. Though, you can attribute it to the wonders of nature," Waela said before nudging him on. "Anyway, we wasted enough time already. Let''s enter the place." Nodding in response, Krune increased the air currents he generated, flying into the Godly Inhibition Tower before he suddenly lost balance, crashing face-first onto the floor. His Godly Energy vanished instantly as he lost control. Once his face slammed first on the floor, the momentum caused him to carve a line of snot on the floor. For some reason, his snot leaked out. Krune got up, looking forward to see countless other snot lines in the vicinity. It seemed this was a common result. He was then alarmed, seeing his hand above a snot line as he hurriedly retracted his hand, heaving a breath in relief. He had no intentions to touch the snot lines of others as Krune scowled immediately. "Fuck!" He noticed when he turned around, looking at the path he slid upon to see that he had pretty much annihilated three snot lines. And that meant¡­ "Ugh, it stinks!" The moment he said it, Krune''s figure flickered through the air, instantly unleashing the peak of his body''s speed, causing everything stuck on him to peel off like torn paper. His heart thumped as he emitted intense mist to remove all the scary material from his body, sighing in relief upon tidying himself up, quickly flashing through the place as he was unable to tolerate the smell of the snot that was heavy in the air. Once he arrived deeper into the level, Krune found a corner to sit at, focusing as he noticed the mysterious power inhibiting his Godly Energy, preventing him from bringing it out of his meridians. Krune immediately riled it up, causing it to fight against the inhibition as both sides clashed. An hour later, he was able to use his Godly Energy once again as the inhibition on him continued to wane before fully disappearing. He was only on level 1. The inhibition at the place was meant for those at the Godly Fusion Realm. So, it was normal for him to break out of it so easily. Upon seeing that the quality of his Godly Energy had increased by a minute amount, he was surprised. "That''s pretty amazing." Smiling, Krune''s figure flashed towards the end of level 1. Chapter 1165 - Another Crazy Primal God At the end of level 1 was a flight of stairs leading up to level 2. As this was a place where there wasn''t any inhibition on his Godly Energy, Krune was able to calmly proceed upward, traveling the more than a dozen kilometers that he had to trek before arriving at level 2. The moment he set foot within, his body lost balance as the Godly Energy circulating within him stopped almost instantly. The inhibition prevented him from even circulating his Godly Energy, not to mention being able to use it. ''The effect is a lot stronger than on level 1,'' Krune thought, looking around to see a lot of people calmly meditating at discrete locations. It was strangely odd that there weren''t any fights in the place. No one even talked, calmly meditating as they riled up their Godly Energy constantly, slowly beginning to destroy the inhibition placed on them. As for those that managed to completely negate the inhibition, they got up and proceeded towards the next level. ''It''s strange that there isn''t even a single fight here,'' Krune thought, sensing using his Sonic Radar before finding a calm place to settle down. He focused on his meridians, noticing that the Godly Energy in him had solidified. It was as if it had turned into jelly that was drying up. It was hard for him to will it into action. Then again, as he continued to focus on it, the jelly moved, albeit at a snail''s pace. He continued to work in such a fashion, stressing it to move and circulate as its speed of motion slowly began to increase. ''This is pretty tiring.'' After half a day of work, Krune stopped meditating as he slumped on the floor, resting his weary mind as he looked around, understanding the reason others didn''t try to fight. ''It takes everything out of me just to do this. And this is just the second level. There''s no benefit in fighting and weakening oneself here.'' After taking a short nap, Krune got up and got into a meditative pose immediately, grinning upon seeing his Godly Energy beginning to move faster. Soon, as if something had broken, it turned into a viscous liquid, now moving even faster. As time passed in such a fashion, the Godly Energy soon turned into a gaseous state, beginning to move at its usual speed as Krune broke out of the inhibition, nodding in surprise as he noticed the changes in his Godly Energy. "It has become denser. That''s amazing!" He then walked towards the third level, tumbling to the ground the moment he entered the area. For now, his meridians began to shrivel up, unable to endure the inhibition affecting him. It caused him to thrash about in the area, unable to control his body as he suffered from pain that felt like every muscle in his body was getting cramps. "Ugh!" Krune hurriedly used his healing effect, surprised when he noticed the pain had vanished instantly. He then smiled wryly as he thought to himself, ''For a moment, I forgot my body was tremendously powerful.'' When his meridians suffered, he tried to deal with it in terms of a regular cultivator. But in actuality, all he had to do was use his body''s muscles to vibrate and massage the meridians, reducing their strain while the healing effect coursed through them. The moment he did this, Krune noticed that the inhibition placed on him began to wane quickly as if it couldn''t affect him much longer. Within a couple of hours, Krune broke out of the inhibition, surprised at the state of his Godly Energy. "The quality of my Godly Energy has almost reached the Nascent God Realm." "Damn!" He laughed, beginning to head to the fourth level, barely taking the first step on the long flight of stairs, when he noticed a figure flying right at his face. Krune caught hold of the burly man, reducing his feet''s grip on the floor to allow his body to slide and cushion the man''s fall. He quickly turned the man around, intending to inspect him when Krune was shocked. Surprisingly, the man lacked a front half. It was charred black, melted as its body had caved in. The attack was targeted at his Spiritual Incarnation, destroying it first before killing him. It was a gruesome scene as Krune frowned, thinking, ''What the heck is happening up there?'' Krune''s figure flashed through the stairs, dodging the human corpses that flew at him. Through his Sonic Radar, he noticed that their figures were already melted, their deaths apparent. So, he didn''t bother rescuing them. Soon, he appeared at the end of the staircase, scouting within using his Sonic Radar first to see a cultivator going around, killing everyone around him. It was a man, seemingly in his early teens. However, through his bloodlust eyes, it was apparent that he wasn''t a child but rather an old veteran that had revived recently. "Why are you killing us? We have no enmity or hatred between us!" one of the victims shouted as he shielded against the attacks, grunting at the overwhelming power behind the attacker. "It''s simple." The cultivator laughed as he explained, "After reaching the sixth level, I figured out that when there''s only one cultivator within this Godly Inhibition Tower, it would choose that person as its master." "From the day it finished forming, I have been in here." He laughed, tearing apart his opponent before spitting out, "And, I finally managed to kill that blasted rival of mine. Now, there''s no one else strong enough to face me here. And I, Brenker, would make this tower mine!" The fighting was somewhere far away, and Brenker, the one slaughtering everyone, had only whispered to the man he killed. But, thanks to the Sonic Radar, Krune was able to hear the conversation. "Another crazy has arrived," he grumbled. "Seriously, every Primal God I''ve seen till now has something wrong with their heads." It was apparent based on the strength and the depth of laws he displayed that Brenker was a Primal God that had revived as a Nascent God just to explore the infant supercontinent in search of treasures. He was as strong as Kirena Wohat. Chapter 1166 - Brenker’s Intuition "Thankfully, the fourth level is a pretty massive place. It won''t be possible for him to kill everyone so easily." Krune thought of a solution immediately, returning to his wisp form as he retracted his ethereal form. He then condensed the Cloud Whale around him, making it as tiny as possible before he flew into the fourth level. The moment he entered, Krune felt pain from his Wisp Core as his Godly Energy turned sluggish. However, using his Mental Energy to shield himself, he made the Cloud Whale undetectable. In the meantime, the healing effect reduced his pain to a fair extent, causing him to endure the sensation while the Cloud Whale moved through the fourth level, heading towards one corner, continuing to suffer while he kept track of the situation through his Sonic Radar. Though, upon seeing that Brenker was able to notice the waves of Sonic Radar, he stopped using it, heading towards another location. Brenker was heading from the end of the fourth level, slaughtering his way through the place. He intended to make a clean swipe of the place and eradicate all living beings. Among the ones that managed to reach the sixth level, he was the only one living right now. In fact, the quality of his Godly Energy had already surpassed a Semi-God Realm cultivator. Adding on the depth of his laws, he was unstoppable, killing all his enemies in one hit. Those that managed to break the inhibition on the fourth level managed to last a couple of hits against him before dying. As for the rest whose Godly Energy was sluggish, they were sitting ducks for him to kill. Upon seeing the ensuing slaughter, those that broke through the inhibition hurriedly erupted with all their power to escape from the place, heading towards the lower levels. Since his task was only to clear the Godly Inhibition Tower of all living beings, he didn''t bother with those that fled. But for the rest, only death awaited them. Having watched his actions, Krune was aware of one thing. ''This is a peerless treasure that would benefit me throughout my cultivation. No way in hell am I going to let him take it.'' Since it wasn''t anyone''s property, that meant it was free for grabs. The victor was the one who would obtain it in the end. While Brenker continued to kill the cultivators on the fourth level, Krune calmly moved while being shielded by his Mental Energy. Thankfully for him, he was situated way beyond Brenker''s detection methods. Moreover, since his Godly Energy was currently inhibited, he didn''t even leave any Godly Energy signature behind. So, it wasn''t possible for his opponent to track Krune for the time being. He used the effect of the place to his advantage, soon approaching the end of the fourth level. He remained there after that, continuing to meditate while Brenker had reached the halfway point of the fourth level by now. At this time, he encountered an obstacle where all the cultivators that had seen his actions had banded together. After all, he had been slaughtering his way for the past one week. It was about time for the news to reach those that were safe and far away. Once they all broke through the inhibition of the place, they ganged up, intending to destroy the threat. After all, even without news of the tower becoming one''s private property, this was still a tremendously beneficial place. After all, the higher the floor they proceeded, the stronger their Godly Energy became. Once they reached the fifth level, their Godly Energy would become on par with Semi-God Realm cultivators. Even though it would be tremendously hard, with the possibility of death being high due to the increase in the inhibition power, those that were talented would still be able to grow stronger. After all, who wouldn''t like the notion of being able to possess Godly Energy quality on par with Semi-God Realm cultivators while remaining as a Nascent God? As Brenker hadn''t exactly been tight-lipped about it, a lot of people indeed came to know about the reason for his slaughter. The final person to remain within the tower would become its owner. This was enough for a lot of people to ally themselves together. After all, at present, Brenker was the most terrifying opponent. Once he was killed, it would mean the rest of them would stand a chance at the tower''s ownership. This was the reason for them allying together. The moment Brenker came into their view, all of them unleashed attacks one after another, instantly putting him in a passive. After all, he wished to conserve his Godly Energy as much as possible. In fact, his opponents weren''t easy for picking either. They had been preparing against him, as countless cultivators with similar abilities allied, joining their powers together. "Hmm¡­" Brenker frowned, thinking that something was amiss. He was feeling some sense of tension, or rather a foreboding that something unexpected was happening. It was his intuition that had allowed him to reach almost the peak of the world. "Did someone escape my senses?" He frowned, intending to check back once he was done with the people fighting him. As for Krune, he was focusing by riling up his Mental Energy and the energy of the body, causing it to flow through his meridians before turning into Godly Energy, increasing its pressure while hacking into the inhibition little by little. Normally, it would have taken even him around a year to break through the inhibition at the fourth level. After all, he was only at the God-Core Realm, while the fourth level was meant for those at the Nascent God Realm. He should have been slower than others. But, thanks to his robust physique, his meridians were tremendously stronger compared to other cultivators. Thanks to that, he was able to resist the inhibition effect better. And now, while his other two energies were supporting his Godly Energy, Krune grinned, using the healing effect to heal the damage to the meridians while also causing the development effect to strengthen them further, using this as a chance to refine his meridians and Godly Energy into a stronger version of itself. Unlike others that passively obtained this benefit while trying to break free from the inhibition effect, Krune was actively using it to increase his power. Brenker''s intuition had been correct. Chapter 1167 - Inhibition Law Doesn’t Exist "Kekekeke¡­.kukukuku¡­kakakaka!" Krune couldn''t help but grin like an evil mastermind as the quality of his Godly Energy reached the peak of the Nascent God Realm. The inhibition effect on him had completely vanished now as he was free once more, now stronger than before. The same techniques, when unleashed now, would be a lot stronger. After all, there was no longer any difference between him and a Nascent God. The quantity of Godly Energy possessed by both would differ. Though that is in the case Krune was normal. But now, he had three dantians that were superimposed over one another, behaving like they were one, but in actuality, they were three dantians. Energy cultivation, soul cultivation, and body cultivation; the energy sources for all three had been converted into dantians. He had a dantian for regular cultivation from the start. Soul cultivation was the foundation of his soul. The Mental Energy was generated from there. And the energy for body cultivation was stored in his Ocean Heart. If not for Ocean Heart, he wouldn''t have been able to integrate body cultivation into the trinity. Thanks to that, it was hard to pinpoint anything related to Krune. After all, if even a part of him remained, it could regenerate into the entire whole easily. After all, all three aspects of cultivation were unified in him. Thanks to that, even his base godly abilities were on par with a Nascent God. In fact, once he went all out, Krune was confident of killing even a Semi-God Realm cultivator now. He could feel his abilities elevating on a whole. After all, since his Godly Energy entered the Nascent God Realm, he was able to convert it into its equivalent of Mental Energy and body energy. And that meant that using the development effect would strengthen his body even further. Krune wasn''t a Nascent God yet but had already attained all the benefits one could get from the realm. Smiling, he casually entered the flight of stairs. "Brenker said that he had entered the sixth floor. So, unless I break through the restrictions there, I won''t be able to win against him." Thinking as such, he erupted with his strength, arriving at the end of the flight of stairs. And now, he returned to his wisp form once again, realizing that only if he went all out would he be able to handle the inhibition of this level. As he expected, the moment he flew into the fifth level, he slammed into the ground, unable to get up as his ethereal body fluctuated erratically, unable to maintain its form. Like a candle whose flame was snuffed out, his ethereal form vanished as his Wisp Core made a clunking sound upon touching the floor. It rolled over for some time before stopping. "¡­" The familiar feeling of being unable to move returned once again when Krune began to practice, condensing his Cloud Whale around the Wisp Core, causing it to fly everywhere. As the Cloud Whale was related to his physique and was activated using his body energy, it wasn''t inhibited in the place. The reason he was planning as such was to prepare against his eventual foe. "Brenker." "Before that, I must collect any items that would help me in this situation. Even God Stones would be helpful." Saying so, Krune took out his Soul Needle, intending for it to point him towards the nearby God Stones that the dead cultivators had been carrying with them. However, the moment it appeared, the Soul Needle began to whir unceasingly as Krune could feel his Spiritual Incarnation stirring up through it. Gong! Suddenly, the entire tower hummed before a mysterious energy was channeled through the Soul Needle, alarming Krune. He raised his head upward, noticing a silhouette resembling a tower with nine levels slowly descend towards him. It had a body made of Godly Energy, almost transparent in nature. As it arrived closer and closer to him, it began to shrink in size. As if it had been waiting for that to happen, the Soul Needle shot forth, piercing the projection of the tower, causing the other party to shrink in size continually until it vanished into the Soul Needle. "¡­Wha¡­.kehuheufhuefuencudd!" Krune began to mutter when he noticed only gibberish came out of his mouth. Before he could understand what had happened, intense pain emanated from his Wisp Core, causing him¡ªthe Wisp Core¡ªto roll on the floor in pain. No matter what he used, the pain never subsided, causing him to scream in pain. But suddenly, as unexpectedly as it had begun, the pain stopped when Krune felt like his mind would tear apart at the volume of information that poured into him. "Grrahhhh!" "Grakkk!" "Ugyaaaahhh!" "Aieeeee!" He continued to scream for a good couple of days before the Wisp Core settled at one corner, dimming a bit as it seemed like his mind had been fried. Another day later, Krune barely regained consciousness, grunting as he noticed that the inhibition effect on him had been broken. "So¡­easily?" It had only been three days, but he had already broken through it. And now, his Godly Energy quality had reached the same level as a Semi-God Realm cultivator. Of course, even he knew that proceeding towards the sixth level was a death sentence. Had he been at the Nascent God Realm, he would have been able to take the risk. But as he was only at the God Core Realm, it was a definite death sentence if he entered the sixth level. It was made apparent now. After remaining silent for an hour, Krune began to boisterously laugh. "Screw you, damn Primal God!" After all, the one his Soul Needle had absorbed was the core of the Godly Inhibition Tower. The core and the tower itself were two entirely different entities. The tower was a place that formed naturally due to the laws that clashed around in the formation of the infant supercontinent. On the other hand, the core was a condensation of such laws, the cause that created this tower in the first place. Since his Soul Needle had absorbed the core of the Godly Inhibition Tower, it had now become his ability. Had he obtained ownership of the tower, he would have to figure out a method to carry such a colossal structure. But now, he had an ability whose function was the exact same as the tower. As his godly ability, he could wield it as he pleased. Once he digested all the related information, Krune nodded in understanding, muttering, "I see why there was such a reaction now.. There''s no such thing as an Inhibition Law." Chapter 1168 - Flickering Blue Ice Mountain "There''s no such thing as an Inhibition Law," Krune muttered in realization. "This inhibition effect is unleashed by combining all the laws of the God Realm in a certain ratio." "With that in mind, my Spiritual Incarnation is the only one that can facilitate that as an individual." He grinned as he thought about it. "So, it was naturally attracted towards me and became a part of me." After all, the Godly Inhibition Tower was on the verge of completion. Once completed, the core would dissipate. But, since Krune arrived, there was a path for it to survive. It was neither alive nor sentient. But, it was naturally attracted to his Spiritual Incarnation and had now become a part of him. Of course, the Soul Needle was the catalyst to instigate that. "Even if I become the owner of this tower, I cannot take it with me. It cannot fit in my subspace even if I somehow manage to bring it here." Krune laughed. "In any case, I now have the power of the tower as an ability. That should do." If he so wished, Krune would be able to condense the Godly Inhibition Tower in reality to trap his opponents within. Even though it wasn''t possible for him to condense the entirety of the tower, he was still able to condense the first five floors. In fact, that was enough. Even for stronger opponents, once placed within the Godly Inhibition Tower, they would need some time to break out of the inhibition effect. Within it, Krune would be able to swarm them to death using his clones. Now that he had obtained something even better than the tower, Krune condensed the Cloud Whale, causing it to unleash an Air Needle. And sent flying from it was his Wisp Core, flying rapidly as it reached the entrance to the fifth level. Returning to his human form, he flashed towards the bottom of the stairs. Upon inspecting to see that the fourth level was bereft of any living beings, the Cloud Whale cautiously moved as he thought for a moment, deciding that it was wiser to remain in his wisp form. After retracting his ethereal form, the Cloud Whale shrunk while he layered it with Mental Energy, preventing it from being sensed easily. The Cloud Whale continued to fly as it passed above a pile of corpses. Krune noticed plenty of bags filled with Godly Energy there. He just used them to recover his energy capacity to the limit, not taking anything with him. He hadn''t used his God Stone reserves yet. They were still filled to the brim. Beyond that, simply carrying bags of God Stones would only inconvenience him further. After all, he might very well have to face Brenker. The Cloud Whale soon reached the third floor as Krune observed the same slaughter. It seemed that in the time he had been meditating, Brenker had already killed all his opponents. Unwilling to be the only other person left within the tower, the Cloud Whale accelerated, passing through the second level before finally reaching the first level. The moment he arrived, he was shocked to see Brenker calmly waiting at the entrance, preventing his exit. And it seemed his sensory means were powerful enough to recognize Krune despite the layer of Mental Energy shielding him. Or rather, he realized that there was someone before him, unable to register Krune''s appearance in his mind. ''His investigative means is powerful!'' Krune flinched at the Mental Energy expenditure. Within a second, he had expended a tenth of his Mental Energy reserves. This showed that Brenker was exceptionally gifted in this field. ''It seems there''s no choice.'' Sighing, Krune took on his human form, dissipating the Cloud Whale and the layer of Mental Energy on it. The moment his figure appeared, Brenker locked onto him, for a moment feeling shocked internally. ''I was only able to get a vague feeling and was unable to spot him. This guy''s strong.'' However, Brenker was aware that despite the means to hide, his opponent wasn''t strong enough to kill him. With that, he asked in an overbearing tone, "How did you evade my detection skill?" But right as he began to talk, he was stunned to see Krune bleeding all of a sudden, coughing out a mouthful of blood even. "Well, I heard about your claims of being able to become the owner of this tower if you climb up high enough." Krune put on an act, sighing as he shook his head. "Unfortunately, the sixth floor was my limit. Once I saw that guy, I admitted defeat." He continued, his expression dejected, "I couldn''t even defend against him once. He''s by far the strongest I have ever seen. Even a revived Primal God cannot be this powerful at the Nascent God Realm." Upon hearing his choice of words, Brenker''s eyes fluctuated once as he thought, ''How does he know that I was once a Primal God?'' But upon seeing how Krune stood casually before him, he was angered, saying, "Well, let me see if you''re strong enough to warrant that statement." Whether or not he missed an opponent, slamming an attack at Krune would be enough for him to get a measure of things. If he was able to kill Krune in one hit, then whoever that other guy was wouldn''t be his opponent. Thinking as such, he raised his hand, directing his palm towards Krune, unleashing a powerful energy force that slammed into Krune, blasting him off far away. The energy had the intention of destroying his Spiritual Incarnation first before killing him. "Keuk!" Krune grunted at the force of impact when his body ballooned a bit, exerting all the strength his physical body had to offer while the Cloud Whale condensed around him, acting as a layer of defense when the sounds of the ocean wave thumped throughout the level, increasing in intensity. "Hah!" Krune bellowed as he unleashed countless energy fluctuations, finally negating the force slamming into him as his Mental Energy eradicated whatever means were embedded into the force¡ªwith the intention of destroying his Spiritual Incarnation. "My turn!" His eyes turned cold as the sounds of the ocean waves continued to increase in momentum, as if a celestial body of water had arrived at the place as Krune directed his Cloud Whale at Brenker, unleashing an Air Needle. But this time, contained within it was the Neon Radiance King fused with Frozen Heart, Moving Ripple, and Sonic Radar. Activating it was the Divine Sense Laws, turning it alive, hiding something like a capsule within it. The Air Needle formed a straight line and slammed into Brenker, instantly causing a mountain of ice to encase him. As Brenker looked at the scene, defending against the attack, he was pleasantly surprised by the power behind the attack. In fact, he noticed the interior of the ice walls flicker with lightning. Once he sensed the power in them, his face paled. Tribulation Lightning! The entire mountain of ice glowed blue. Chapter 1169 - Hoping For Trinity "Arrrgh!" Brenker growled in pain as the lightning bolts arced across his body, melting through his flesh, having already destroyed his defensive means. Tribulation Lightning! The power behind it was tremendous to the extent even he was afraid, hurriedly riling up all his power to desperately hold on to dear life. Though, a couple of seconds later, he unleashed countless laws, hindering the Tribulation Lightning from damaging him further as he used the chance to recover. Keeping it at bay, he created countless other barriers around himself, watching with bated breath as they were destroyed one after another. Eventually, a tiny spark landed on his head as he sighed in relief, watching all the lightning bolts vanish. However, just as he was about to relax, the ice mountain encasing him collapsed upon him, burying him deep under. "Huff¡­puff!" Grunting, Brenker exited the pile of ice, melting his way through as he noticed the figure of Krune hovering outside the tower, gazing at him. The other party also seemed to be exhausted, as it was apparent that the attack had taken his all. But despite that, Brenker had no intention to fight against him at all. ''How the hell can a cultivator use the laws of Tribulation Lightning? This freaking monster!'' "As we exchanged pointers just now, let me give you a piece of advice," Krune said, transmitting his voice confidently. "That monster inside, you cannot face him. Farewell!" Having no other intention of lingering at the place anymore, the Krune flew away, propelling himself using winds that he generated constantly to travel in the void. Carried in his hands was a large bag. As to what was within them, Brenker was unaware. "A monster that''s able to defeat this monster in one hit?" Brenker was surprised as he cracked his knuckles, closing his eyes as he meditated. Slowly, his presence changed as his body slowly turned more and more solid. He was preparing for the fight against his probably strongest opponent, so he was trying to enter peak battle strength first. He waved his hand, intending to siphon in some God Stones lying around the place, when he was surprised to not find any. Recalling the two bags Krune had taken with him, he smiled wryly, laughing as he waved his hands once, closing the entrance to the Godly Inhibition Tower. "Well, no mind. There''s still plenty from the second to the fourth floors." Raging with fighting spirit, Brenker began to travel upwards, recovering using the God Stones present in the second level, unaware of the fact that he was the last remaining person in the place. The moment he completely recovered, roaring to express his intent to battle, his expression collapsed, noticing that he had achieved the condition necessary to become the Lord of the Godly Inhibition Tower. "¡­" "¡­I was fooled?" "¡­" He facepalmed, slapping himself violently to cough out a mouthful of blood. "Damn you, Brenker. When did you become so rusty? That bastard casually fooled you." "And you¡­" He recalled Krune''s face, expressing his hatred. "You better pray that you don''t meet me again. Otherwise, I''ll kill you." He then muttered, "Since I already became the Lord of this tower, I won''t have to worry about fighting for it once the supercontinent finishes forming. As long as I recover my Primal God Realm cultivation by then, I can calmly arrive here and retrieve this priceless treasure. With that, I''ll be able to increase my Godly Energy quality to become on par with the Gods. That''ll make me the strongest among all the Primal Gods." "Phew, that was dangerous. Thankfully, he bought my lie." Krune sighed in relief as he started to recover his expended energy. After all, he had already used his Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark. It stored as much power that was generated by condensing ten times his Godly Energy reserves. So, he had to replenish it first. That was why when Brenker was defending against his attacks, his figure erupted with all its power to collect as many God Stones as possible. That was the reason he was panting in the end. "Still, that was a pathetic fight," Krune grumbled, clenching his hand into a fist. "I haven''t managed to erupt with the true extent of my power. As for Brenker, he wouldn''t have died even if my attack was two to three times stronger. I am still missing a vital component to make my attacks more lethal." Focusing, he uttered a word. "Trinity!" Suddenly, his Deific Meridians began to circulate both the Body Energy and Mental Energy along with his Godly Energy. However, after a couple of seconds, he grunted in response, noticing the other two energies change into Godly Energy. Panting soon after, he sighed. "I am still unable to try it." It was the most potent form that was a resultant of his cultivation technique, the Deific Wisp Technique. It allowed him to enter his strongest state. Unfortunately, it was harder to achieve than he had thought. Once he achieved that, he would be able to fight against opponents like Brenker. And in this infant supercontinent, it was necessary since there would come many more opponents like them. Moreover, among those killed by Brenker, Krune noticed the distinct Godly Energy signature of immortals. It was apparent that quite a lot of immortals had revived as Nascent Gods just to obtain treasures from the infant supercontinent. There was less than a millennium before its completion. And, this meant that a lot of treasures in the place would have finished forming. They were ripe for picking. So, it was the most lucrative period for them to fish for resources. That was the reason a lot of cultivators with Spiritual Incarnations began to enter the place in droves. Semi-God Realm, God Trial Realm, Elementary God Realm, and Primal God Realm. Immortals from these cultivation realms would have revived as Nascent Gods to join the contest of treasures. And he would have to fight against them. After all, his goal was something that might very well push back the completion of the infant supercontinent by at least a couple of centuries, or even more. Chapter 1170 - Taken Captive The Cloud Whale flew through the void, traveling past giant clusters as he slowed down, watching the scenes transpire around him. He wasn''t gawking at the visual spectacle but was using this chance to comprehend the various laws at a faster pace. After all, quite a lot of the laws around the edges of the giant clusters had yet to fuse into the structures within. So, as long as he focused on them, he would be able to comprehend the respective laws at a faster pace. Comprehending them here was superior even to comprehending the laws dominant in the danger zones. After all, he would even be able to interact with them here without fear of any interruption or pollution from cultivators. Among the laws that he saw in one of the giant clusters, Krune spotted some laws that he hadn''t witnessed before. They were the laws that were part of his Spiritual Incarnation but weren''t even in his knowledge. So, he now planned to comprehend them and increase the potency of his Spiritual Incarnation. The stronger the comprehension of all the laws forming his Spiritual Incarnation, the stronger he would become. That''s why all those ex-Primal God Realm cultivators were so strong. It was because their comprehension of the laws forming their Spiritual Incarnations had reached the peak or was close to it. There were already able to erupt with the strongest power someone at the Nascent God Realm was able to attain. He was an exception thanks to also possessing body and soul cultivation. If not for that, Krune wouldn''t have been able to even lift a finger before such powerhouses. After all, most of the cultivators that dared to fight against such beings died from one hit. As for the rest, they needed a couple more hits to be killed. Having already encountered two such powerhouses, Krune was pressed for the need of strength. Only then would he become stronger. And to attain that, comprehending lots of laws would hasten that growth. After all, the laws forming his Spiritual Incarnation were innumerous. So, as long as he comprehended all of them to a basic level, he would become a lot stronger than his current self. The greater the number of laws forming a Spiritual Incarnation, the stronger the resultant Spiritual Incarnation. Moreover, it would also become more complex and sturdier, causing it to resist attacks trying to destabilize it greater than others. If not for the fact that he didn''t even know about the existence of most of the laws forming his Spiritual Incarnation, most of the attacks that destabilized his Spiritual Incarnation before wouldn''t have affected him that much. At present, this was a weakness. Thinking optimistically, that also meant that he had a large room for growth. Krune passed the days meditating, fully applying the Divine Sense Laws to capture the laws faster, comprehending them at a greater speed, fully realizing once again how powerful the Divine Sense Laws were. Thanks to the two bags of God Stones he had grabbed, Krune had enough energy to sustain himself. It allowed him to last for three whole years in the void before he expended them all. Left with no other choice, he began to move forward, intending to head towards a tiny continent or the sort to rest and recover a bit. After all, he was now beginning to consume the God Stones stored in the Triple Beast Ring. Even though he had only consumed one God Stone, Krune was still worried. After all, this was his emergency reserve. He didn''t want to waste them unless the situation was urgent. Though, he had already departed when there was only a small pile of God Stones left among the pile. Unfortunately, no matter how long he traveled, he was unable to find any place to rest. And as time passed, he burned through the pile, left with no other choice but to start using the reserve in the Triple Beast Ring. "There''s something there!" he suddenly shouted in excitement as the Cloud Whale accelerated a bit, charging towards a small dot that he saw far away. He soon closed in on them, shocked upon seeing a massive ship sailing through the void. It was apparent that this ship was built in the infant supercontinent since it couldn''t have been brought in from the outside without the aid of spatial rings that didn''t work in the place. The ship spanned twenty stories in height, possessing countless majestic towers and overarching bridges that spanned from one to another, connecting them in the air to create a wondrous architecture. With a single glance, Krune was surprised, observing that the ship wasn''t actually using any Godly Energy to row through the void. Instead, it had cast a domain of Divine Sense, but one that wasn''t spherical in radius. This domain stretched like an amoeba, constantly morphing shapes as it grabbed hold of any whiffs of Godly Energy in the void before using it to fuel its operations. The principle behind its operation was the same as his Godly Cup. However, its range was tremendous. As a blacksmith, even he was unable to understand just how this was possible. The ship''s range of Divine Sense seemed to span hundreds of kilometers, not to mention the amoeba-like structure with which it constantly varied with time. It was a wondrous creation. Though, the same could not be said for the people in it that jumped out the moment they noticed Krune, brimming with killing intent as they shouted, "Another straggler! Capture him!" Even though Krune was alarmed, his mind whirred in thought, calculating the benefits and losses. He realized that as he was already in the range of the ship''s Divine Sense, it would be hard for him to break out. He would be wasting too much Godly Energy in such a manner. And, without any direction to proceed towards, all he would do was waste his Godly Energy and possibly be trapped in the void forever. Then again, the second option was easier as Krune instantly converted all the energy in his body into Mental Energy. This way, none of them would be able to sense his energy reserves. And similarly, he used a technique to mask his Triple Beast Ring, preventing anyone from noticing it. He then struggled a little bit, clearly displaying that he wished to escape but had already expended all his Godly Energy.. Without much suspense, he was captured within a minute, bound by a special pair of chains, and dragged into the ship. Chapter 1171 - Abolition Tower "Come in!" One of the men dragged Krune into the massive ship before slamming him shut into a cell of sorts. A bracelet was strapped onto his hands each as Krune sensed that the bracelet was a piece of equipment capable of absorbing Godly Energy. Through his Mental Energy, he determined that it was a piece of Nine Star Nascent God Realm equipment. It was enough to absorb the Godly Energy from everyone present in the infant supercontinent. It was unknown as to why they had created such a piece of equipment here, but Krune understood that the creators probably had a plan in mind. Of course, there was also the thought that by absorbing the Godly Energy from the cultivators they had captured, they would be able to fuel the ship to move through the void. That was another potential use for the bracelets. All along, when Krune was being dragged by one of the men, he used his Mental Energy to make himself lighter. Otherwise, if he actually remained in his natural state, the cultivator wouldn''t have been able to even cause him to budge. "Wait, stop! Why am I being imprisoned here?" Krune put on an act, taking on the role of a helpless victim as he grabbed hold of the bars of the prison cell. "If you don''t want to die, stay there." Snorting in disdain, the group of cultivators jeered before walking away. After begging for a couple of minutes, Krune stopped, slumping on the wall in sadness, grief, wholly confused¡ªthat''s how he was acting. In reality, he was mapping out the place using his Sonic Radar, noticing that there were thousands of such prison cells in the ship. Most of them were filled with cultivators, all bound by the bracelets that absorbed all their Godly Energy. Some of them were wailing, some were shouting in anger, while the remaining calmed down soon after, beginning to look for a way to escape. "Damn these bandits!" One of the prisoners smacked the cell bars in anger, grumbling. "I shouldn''t have trusted them. Now, they''ll sacrifice me into that zone!" "What zone?" The prisoner in the next cell turned around, asking in curiosity, wishing to mentally prepare himself. "Heh, what else? It''s the Principality of Precipice, otherwise called the Zone of Suffering," the grumbling prisoner replied. "It''s one of the core regions of this infant supercontinent that has already finished forming. And now, there''s a certain species that have formed there naturally." "What species is that?" the other prisoner asked, his complexion turning pale. "I don''t know much either. However, it''s said that this species is bloodthirsty in nature and can cause you to suffer enormously." The grumbling prisoner expressed his anger as he continued. "But, since the place has already completed, there''s Godly Energy in there. In other words, we can cultivate. So, those bandits are planning to dump us all into that zone first to whittle down the enemies." "How are these pirates so strong?" Another prisoner that overhead their conversation shuddered, asking. "They have such an enormous ship here, countless equipment and a large number of cultivators under their command. Just who the hell can wield so much influence?" "The Abolition Tower," the grumbling prisoner quickly answered. "The Abolition Tower!" The others that were silently listening to the conversation were unable to control their shock, exclaiming as a result. "The Abolition Tower¡­" Krune frowned, using his Sonic Radar to hear all the whispers throughout the cells as he slowly understood just what this organization was. It was a terrorist organization, one that didn''t have a main base of operation. However, they had tiny bases on numerous continents. Just the official estimate was in hundreds of continents. They were a behemoth of an organization whose motives were purely to pillage, murder, and wreak havoc everywhere. The members didn''t have any identification proof, code of conduct, or even any special godly abilities to prove themselves as members of this organization. They were your regular, day-to-day cultivators. Or, the best term to describe them was¡­sleeper cells. Until the day they were given orders, they would live as regular cultivators, raise families, and behave no different from the general populace. However, the moment their orders were given, it would be like a switch was flipped in their minds, taking on different personalities. They would turn into a different person entirely before committing violent acts of terrorism. It was unknown as to how orders were communicated to them. Even Primal Gods were unable to understand the cause or method used. But somehow, it was done. And the respective members of the Abolition Tower would take action immediately. The worst thing was how they could be anyone, your father, your mother, your wife, your brother or sister, or even your children. Anyone! There had been countless cases where they had destroyed entire continents. They didn''t destroy the continent itself but rather killed all the cultivators living on it, causing the place to turn barren. And most of all, once they were done killing, they committed suicide. They were one of the most bizarre organizations to exist. Any organization, no matter how evil, would generally have a goal that they would strive towards. So, once their goal had been determined, defending against their schemes and tactics was possible to a certain extent. Depending on the scenario, it could also be used against them to cause their annihilation. Unfortunately, the Abolition Tower wasn''t like that. They had been around for thousands of years already. And until now, neither their goal nor their methods could be discovered. And, hearing that they had been captured by a ship belonging to said organization frightened everyone. "Wait a second!" Suddenly, one of the cultivators could not help but yell out. "I have faced against members of the Abolition Tower once. They aren''t the types to make elaborate schemes. Rather, they would take action swiftly and be done with it. Capturing and making plans with the captures doesn''t conform to their usual actions." "You''re right on that one," the grumbling prisoner said in response before laughing. "I was just joking with you." "Oh shit!" Realizing what was happening, the cultivators in the surrounding cells immediately sprang to their senses and bashed on the cells, shouting to be freed when the grumbling prisoner''s meridians suddenly coiled into a sphere, compressing itself to the limit before going beyond. It caused a reaction from within as his body was sucked into it, turning into a small white sphere that was condensed with countless destructing laws. And without any pause, it exploded. Boom! Chapter 1172 - Sterlena Boom! The explosion enveloped more than ten cells as countless abilities flashed around. As the prisoners were unable to use their Godly Energy, they were like helpless lambs awaiting slaughter, instantly vaporized by the explosion. The first explosion shocked Krune as his senses caused time to slow down around him. It was his concentration being raised to the limit, to the extent he perceived time slowly. His head slowly turned to the right, noticing a girl that seemed to be in her late teens smiling once as the veins on her body began to protrude. Her meridians were sucked into her dantian as they turned into a sphere before brimming with a suffocating power. After all, it had been done by combusting her entirely, including the laws forming her Spiritual Incarnation. It wasn''t the laws in her taking action, but rather, the laws themselves were being destroyed. Even the attacks of Kirena and Brenker only destroyed a Spiritual Incarnation. As for the laws forming the respective Spiritual Incarnation, they were absorbed by the surroundings. No attack of a cultivator was capable of destroying the laws themselves, whether it was powerhouses like Kirena or actual Primal Gods at the Primal God Realm. None were capable of destroying a law, even the tiniest of its fragments. They were only capable of destroying the bonds between various laws. However, here, it was being overturned. A casual cultivator, one that wasn''t even strong among the prisoners trapped around her, had done that. The entirety of her Spiritual Incarnation was destroyed, including all the laws forming it. And, the resulting explosion¡­ wasn''t something anyone could ever hope to defend against. ¡­ Seated on the captain seat in the ship was a lady in her early thirties, possessing a pair of calm, collected eyes. They had a sense of sharpness to it that only someone who had been through countless battlefields for more than a millennium would possess. Her expression was cold as she asked the bandit kneeling before her, "How many prisoners do we have right now?" "Around 7,650, my lady," The kneeling man replied. "We''ll soon obtain enough to send into the Principality of Precipice." "Good." The captain nodded. "We''ll gather everyone within the next three months and make a beeline towards our destination. The other ex-Primal Gods are also planning to tackle the Principality of Precipice. This is the first gateway into the core land of the infant supercontinent." "Once we establish our base there, we would grow to become an unstoppable force before this millennium ends." She grinned as she thought about the endless possibilities. "The suppression at the core land is weakening as they''re returning to the same level as the God Realm. Even at present, I''ll be able to enter the Semi-God Realm once I head there." "The one who manages to reach there first would end up as the victor," she muttered, soon gazing at the man. "Ensure everything runs smoothly." "Yes." Bowing even lower once, the man got up and left to make the necessary arrangements. Sighing, the captain gazed into the endless void, looking at the faint stars scattered across. "Such a mystical phenomenon this is, the creation of a supercontinent." Sterlena was once a Primal God, the ruler of her empire. Unfortunately, in her attempt to reach the God Realm, she had failed. As a result, the resulting calamity destroyed her continent. Everything she had worked for ended up being in vain. Her family, friends, colleagues, subjects, everyone was gobbled up by the tribulation lightning that arose from her breakthrough to the God Realm. Once she failed, she was obliterated. The resulting effect destroyed everything she held dear. Thankfully for her, her journey didn''t end there. During her younger days, she had once come across a calamity that wounded her seriously. And through this calamity, fragments of her Spiritual Incarnation were severed and fell below the God Realm, landing at the Mortal and the Godly Path Realm. They formed danger zones in the two realms. Even though they formed massive danger zones in the two realms, the size of the fragments wasn''t actually big. It was because her cultivation was too vast that even a tiny, insignificant fragment of her Spiritual Incarnation created such massive zones. As they were too tiny, she wasn''t able to revive through them. Time passed in such a fashion when the actions of some cultivators caused a strange treasure to be birthed in one of the danger zones. As the ability of her Spiritual Incarnation was the creation of items automatically using the materials available around her, the created treasure actually managed to condense the entirety of the danger zone''s essence into it. As it was an incomparably powerful treasure, countless sects in that realm fought for it. And over the annals of history, it was lost when the sect that had obtained it gradually declined. After that, a lone cultivator chanced upon this treasure, using it as his trump card. Eventually, he ventured into another danger zone that was resulted by her. A resonance happened between the two as the treasure absorbed the danger zone''s essence, improving in quality. And that''s when her consciousness slowly formed in it, allowing her to converse with the cultivator. She provided him knowledge on cultivation, allowing him to grow stronger quickly. In response, he ventured forth into other danger zones formed as a result of her Spiritual Incarnation, allowing her to gradually recover her strength. From the Mortal Realm to the Godly Path Realm, she gained strength little by little. Since everything related to her Spiritual Incarnation in the God Realm was destroyed by the final tribulation, she wasn''t able to recover all her strength. But after absorbing all the tiny fragments, she was able to condense her body. After that, she eventually managed to reach the God Realm and spent countless millennia in hiding while patiently recovering her Spiritual Incarnation. As for the cultivator that journeyed with her, he managed to become a legend by then. Now that she had created a force once again, she had ventured into the infant supercontinent to gather some treasures that would allow her to survive the final tribulation and become a God. When she was in her reverie, her face paled as she shouted, "That damn Abolition Tower!" The ship that she painstakingly created had exploded. Chapter 1173 - A Shocking Question ''W-What?'' Krune''s head slowly turned around in his high-pitched concentrated state where time seemed to have slowed down drastically, watching the lady in the nearby prison smile. Her body was sucked into her dantian before it condensed a dense plasma, swirling around with tremendous power as all the laws condensed within it were destroyed, used to fuel the power. The nerves on his hands protruded out as Krune returned to his wisp form, instantly escaping the restriction of the bracelets by wrapping himself with Mental Energy. Without any hesitation, he sent the bracelets flying towards the plasma sphere, causing them to cover it. Upon understanding the seriousness of the threat involved, Krune realized that he couldn''t hold back. Otherwise, he would immediately die. Immediately, all eighteen Wisp Cores that he had stored flew out. Krune shrunk his ethereal body until only his Wisp Core remained behind, wrapping countless layers of Mental Energy, Godly Energy, and the energy from his body around him. He then summoned a tiny Cloud Whale to protect himself. The first Wisp Core then landed on the Cloud Whale, summoning a Cloud Whale to layer atop the previous one. In such a manner, all Wisp Cores unleashed a Cloud Whale, erecting 18 layers of barrier around Krune''s Cloud Whale. And that wasn''t all. He also unleashed a beam of Neon Radiance, infusing Frozen Heart into it to make it slightly solid. Using the speed of light, he slammed the attack into the plasma sphere, intending to send it hurling away. However, the beam shattered into countless pieces upon coming into contact with the plasma sphere. In his heightened state of concentration, Krune watched the plasma sphere shrink a little before expanding instantly, burying the Cloud Whale within immediately. The explosion continued forth as it slammed into the ship walls, shattering it like a steel ball being rolled through paper walls. Simultaneously, almost a dozen similar explosions occurred all over the ship, fracturing it completely. "Ugh!" Krune grunted as the outermost Wisp Core poured in all its energy into the Cloud Whale, erecting the strongest of defenses while also activating the Godly Inhibition Tower to dissipate as much Godly Energy from the explosion as possible. But in an instant, it was destroyed as the next Wisp Core took charge, repeating the same thing. In an instant, they were destroyed one after another, causing him to sweat in alarm as all the Wisp Cores output the entirety of their power. 18 Cloud Whales¡­17 Cloud Whales¡­16¡­15¡­3¡­2¡­1. Eventually, there was only his Cloud Whale as Krune tried his best to hold on, activating all the laws at his disposal to be sent flying by the explosion. As the outer area of the explosion had already crossed him, it had destroyed through the ship walls. And now that it was possible for him to escape without being caged in, he allowed the force of the explosion to carry the Cloud Whale. He trembled in fright as the Cloud Whale began to shatter, unable to hold on any longer. Without any hesitation, he poured in the remainder of his energy, constantly mending its damage as it was sent flying eventually. Finally, after one final push, the Cloud Whale flew into the void as Krune watched the once colossal ship now being reduced to debris. Countless explosions filled it to the brim, slowly dying out as he watched them. The entire explosion only lasted for a second. If he didn''t have Mental Energy, Divine Sense Laws, and a powerful physique with heightened senses, he wouldn''t have been able to react on time. All the explosions soon mysteriously vanished. But a couple of seconds later, another explosion ensued. This time, it was huge, encompassing the entire ship before shrinking into a dot and vanishing. Not even the debris of the ship was left behind. "Calamity Laws. Fuck you!" Having sensed the presence of Little Cally, Krune was just about to curse it when someone cursed before him. He turned around, noticing an ethereal creature hovering in the void, full of hatred, gazing somewhere into the void in anger. "You promised you''ll leave me alone! Why the fuck have you returned?" "I wasn''t involved in this." Little Cally arrived, forming an inconspicuous streak of light in the void, saying, "I saw the guy beside you coincidentally getting onboard a ship targeted by those from the Abolition Tower. So, I came here to gloat at his misfortune." "He?" Only now did the ethereal creature turn around, noticing Krune''s presence, saying in shock, "A¡­wisp. I see¡­" Similarly, Krune was looking at the ethereal creature in shock, feeling an overwhelming sense of inferiority immediately. After all, the other party was like the perfected version of his race. True Spirit! "So yeah, I stay true to my words, Sterlena. Your luck sucks as you have been with me for long enough. And besides, it was your oversight to have not noticed the members from the Abolition Tower getting onboard your ship." Little Cally cackled before vanishing. "Anyways, I''ve had my fun. Let me vanish now." "Damn this bastard!" Cursing once, Sterlena gazed at the empty void before her, turning around to see a couple of pieces of debris flying away at tremendous speeds. Sighing, she returned to her human form, looking at Krune. "I never thought a wisp would enter the God Realm once again. Since it''s fate to have met with each other, let''s introduce ourselves. I''m Sterlena, a True Spirit, as you have already found out." "I''m Krune," Krune replied upon returning to his human form, exhausted. He then asked as he took out a God Stone to recover his expended energy, "How did you come across the Calamity Laws?" "Probably no different to you," Sterlena replied. "It''s like a leech that won''t let go of you once it latches onto you." As she could feel the familiar aura of the Calamity Laws on him, Sterlena was assured that Krune was the next target of it. Sighing, she then asked another question, shocking him, "Did you finish creating the Balance Laws?" Chapter 1174 - Daughters Of The Four Realms "B-Balance Laws?" Krune stammered in shock, asking, "What are you talking about?" "Well, everyone who''s targeted by the Calamity Laws would eventually derive the Balance Laws. After all, that''s the best way to protect yourself from its machinations," Sterlena explained. "With that, you must have devoured a part of the Calamity Laws while forming your Spiritual Incarnation, right?" "¡­Yeah," Upon seeing how much she knew, Krune realized that it was better to come out with the truth and probe for more information. "I had done the same thing in the past," she told him. "With every law of the God Realm under my command, I became a powerhouse even among the Primal Gods. But alas, I failed in the final tribulation to become a God. The Calamity Laws backfired on me at that time since the created tribulation was amplified by them." "Calamity Laws¡­as expected, they result in calamities." Krune nodded, able to believe in her words. After all, both of them possessed the Calamity Laws. So, there was that sense of instinct established between each other, allowing them to sense whether the other party was being honest or not. That was also the reason Krune decided to not lie. Had he met Sterlena before he obtained his Spiritual Incarnation, he wouldn''t have been able to detect this. Suddenly, the both of them began to cough violently as their bodies began to bleed all of a sudden. Krune realized that a mysterious energy of sorts was invading his body to wreak havoc. He hurriedly unleashed his development effect, offsetting the damage. Sterlena also seemed to be doing the same as the two of them flew away, heading in the direction away from the violent energy. "Even the embers of that explosion are potent enough to wound us," Sterlena grunted as she wiped the blood leaking out of her mouth. "Those from the Abolition Tower are freaks." "Is there a method to detect them?" Krune asked, worried. He didn''t want anyone from the Abolition Tower to infiltrate his Mountain Sect. "Until now, there''s none," Sterlena replied. "That''s why they''re such a threat. Even when I had reached the peak of the Primal God Realm, I failed to detect any abnormalities in my own daughter that had turned out to be a member of them." "I have no idea how she became their member. I hadn''t detected anything amiss in her even once." She shuddered as she recalled the memory. "One day, my daughter caused an explosion, destroying my palace. And this happened right after I began my breakthrough to the God Realm." "Their methods are unknown. But somehow, they''re able to make normal people into members of the Abolition Tower. And worst of all, until they''re given the command, they would live like normal people. When they die, they die. Simple as that. Only when orders are received would they change." She sighed. "That''s what makes them so scary." "Is a God behind such an organization?" Krune asked. "What if a couple of Gods try to investigate this situation? Surely they¡­" Krune stopped speaking, seeing Sterlena shake her head, sighing as she told him, "Just based on my knowledge alone, three Gods have taken action. However, they ended up with no results. If it was that easy, the Abolition Tower wouldn''t have been regarded as a fearsome organization." The two continued to travel until they escaped the range of the violent energy as Krune inspected his belongings, sighing when they were all safe. Though, he had expended all 18 Wisp Cores that he had stored for emergencies. Now, he didn''t have enough trump cards and energy reserves to battle any strong opponents. As they continued to fly through the void, Krune asked, "Can you tell me more about your experiences with the Calamity Laws?" "That''ll be difficult." Sterlena sighed, saying, "There''s too much that I don''t want to recall of my past. So, I''d rather not do that." "Then, can you tell me more about True Spirits?" he asked, now diverting to the actual point that he wished to converse about. "There''s not much difference between a Wisp and a True Spirit," Sterlena said, gazing at Krune from top to bottom. "Both of our races are birthed from the energy of heaven and earth. However, there''s one fundamental difference between us," she said solemnly. "The defects?" Krune replied. "Not that." Sterlena shook her head, saying calmly, "It''s the fact that True Spirits could actually be considered to be the daughters of the Four Realms. The fate each of us carry is enormous, and we never suffer any blocks in our cultivation journey." "Basically, given enough energy, a True Spirit would be able to reach the peak without much obstacles. Though, surviving the tribulation lightning is another matter altogether," she spoke. "That''s it?" Krune tilted his head in confusion. "I thought there would be a fundamental difference between wisps and True Spirits. Wouldn''t a proper cultivation technique give rise to a similar result?" "You might think it''s simple, but¡­" She shook her head, "Even if you use the Myriad Energies Technique, reaching the Nascent God Realm is your limit. And, that''s in the case you didn''t have any children." "You know¡­" she said after a moment of thought, "Heavens despise wisps. So, once you try to reach the Semi-God Realm, the strength of the tribulations you face would be ten times stronger than what you would have faced if you were part of any other race with your respective strength." "But why?" Krune asked. "Aren''t we birthed by the world as well? Why are wisps inherently disadvantaged like this?" "Let me explain it from another standpoint." She thought for a couple of minutes before explaining, "Consider the world to be a tailor. There''s a square piece of cloth. The tailor makes a circular cut with the ends of both touching each other and imbues life in it." "The circle would result in a pure lifeform, the one the tailor intended to create. Then, the excess energy causes the remaining pieces of the square to also form again, something the tailor didn''t intend to create." She continued, "Since the pieces aren''t intended to be given life, the tailor doesn''t like them. After all, they aren''t creations it can be proud of. They aren''t perfect. They''re just leftover pieces." "This analogy¡­" Krune stared with widened eyes, not wishing to believe it to be the truth. But he knew, realizing that what Sterlena said was the truth. "The circle is a True Spirit while the remaining pieces are wisps." Chapter 1175 - Big Sis~ "It seems you''re planning to use a Law Pool to cure the defects in your core," Sterlena could not help but say, easily determining Krune''s reason for visiting the infant supercontinent. "Yeah," Krune nodded as he replied. "Otherwise, it''ll be impossible for me to even reach the Nascent God Realm." "Had you immersed yourself in the Law Pools of a regular continent, your defects wouldn''t have been cured completely. But since you''re about to use the Law Pools in the infant supercontinent, you won''t face any problems until you reach the Primal God Realm," she told him. Smiling, she continued, "On top of that, once you cure the defects, you would be no different to a True Spirit in probably everything." "Is that so? Then would I no longer be a wisp?" Krune asked in surprise. "You''ll still be a wisp. After all, a True Spirit doesn''t face the wrath of the heavens during breakthrough. As for you, you''ll definitely face them, even more so than the regular Wisps since you would be no different to a True Spirit." She laughed. "The heavens wouldn''t like a defect imitating its favored daughter." "¡­" Krune stared at Sterlena, scowling as he shuddered. "Damn it." "Also, there''s the Calamity Laws to worry about." Sterlena sighed all of a sudden. "It''s capable of increasing the strength of the tribulation lightning. So, you''ll have to become so strong that you''re able to kill cultivators a realm above you when you are an immortal. Otherwise, you''ll die from the tribulations." Krune frowned after hearing that. Considering his current strength, even if he were at the Godly Fusion Realm, he had the confidence of fighting against Nascent God Realm cultivators. After all, the difference between the different cultivation stages of the base realms wasn''t that wide. But, from the Semi-God Realm onwards, even a minor realm caused a vast difference in strength, not to mention a major realm. With his current strength, he was confident of killing a Semi-God Realm cultivator. At the peak of the Nascent God Realm, he had the confidence of going against early-stage God Trial Realm cultivators. At the Semi-God Realm, he would be able to kill God Trial Realm cultivators. At the God Trial Realm, he may or may not be able to kill Elementary God Realm cultivators. The higher up he progressed in cultivation, the greater the difference between each stage. The advantage he possessed would continue to reduce. This was unless he comprehended laws all the way to the Primal God Realm before attempting the breakthroughs. However, comprehending the laws as a Nascent God was at least ten times slower than doing the same as a Semi-God Realm cultivator. With that being said, Krune would be wasting a lot of time in this case. He didn''t wish to do that. In the second case, he''ll have to constantly gather stronger abilities in an effort to become as strong as possible. Only through this method would he be able to survive the tribulations. Upon reaching this line of thought, Krune shrugged, saying, "Well, I''ll deal with them at that time." "¡­" Upon seeing Krune shrug off such a serious matter so nonchalantly, her eyebrows twitched as she could not help but say, "You know¡­ I feel like I can understand why the Calamity Laws have targeted you." "You''re pretty annoying." "They say that''s one of my charms." Krune winked once before condensing his Cloud Whale, asking, "Wanna hitch a ride?" "I''ll pass. I have a mode of transport that''s better," Sterlena quickly replied, waving her hand once before emitting a subtle Godly Energy fluctuation. Nothing happened after that as she continued to fly across the void. Slowly, dust began to gather under her feet from afar as if attracted by her. Within an hour, it condensed into a boat which she calmly sat on. The boat then unleashed that amoeba-like Divine Sense once again, absorbing the trace levels of Godly Energy from the surroundings to power itself. After some time passed, Krune noticed her actions, deactivating his Cloud Whale as he stealthily climbed over her boat. Her eyelids twitched at his shameless manner but didn''t say anything, calmly closing her eyes as she meditated. Then, upon seeing Krune take out the Godly Cup and place it near him, she lost her patience. "Hey..." "Sorry¡­" Krune laughed wryly, retracting the Godly Cup. After all, the moment he brought out the Godly Cup, the boat slowed down to a halt. It was because the Godly Cup began to absorb all the Godly Energy it siphoned from afar. To have a vast range, it had been stretched thin. So, it was pretty weak. That''s why the Godly Cup was able to pry Godly Energy from it easily. Since they were pretty much from the same race¡ªalmost¡ªand had suffered under the machinations of the same annoying fella¡ªlittle Cally, they had established a type of camaraderie between themselves. After some time, Krune gazed at the back of Sterlena, grinning as he said all of a sudden, "Big sis~" "Ugh!" Sterlena shuddered at the fawning voice as she turned around, eyes twitching as veins popped on her forehead. "What?" "Gimme some Godly Stones." Krune extended his hands, putting on a pitiful expression. "I''m hungry." "Here." She dumped a pile of God Stones onto Krune, perfectly burying him under it, turning around as she grumbled. Even though she seemed like she was completely annoyed, there was a small smile on her face. After all, for one that had lost everyone, Krune was something like kin. At least, that was how she looked at him. First of all, he was a wisp, cut off from the same cloth as her. Secondly, he was her successor¡ªto be the one tortured by the Calamity Laws. And third, she was assured of the fact that there weren''t any other True Spirits remaining in the God Realm. True Spirits were incredibly rare in the first place. Even in her long life, she had only met three of them. And during her breakthrough to the God Realm, her failure and the intervention of the Calamity Laws pretty much implicated the remaining True Spirits on the God Realm, causing their deaths. If not for that, there should have still been some True Spirits left on the God Realm and not become one of the legends, only known about but never encountered. In short, Krune was the closest to her that she had encountered upon returning to the God Realm. Chapter 1176 - Inviting A Powerhouse Krune laughed as he used the God Stones to replenish his expended reserves, storing the remaining in his Triple Beast Ring. After that, he looked around, acting sneaky before he¡­began to annoy the hell out of Sterlena. For some reason, he too wished to annoy her, treating her as his big sister. Both the old monsters behaved like teenagers after that, constantly bickering throughout the journey before they ended up in a fight. Of course¡­Krune was owned. After all, his opponent was someone who had become strong enough to attempt to become a God once. So, her laws were pretty much at their peak. After some time passed, Krune massaged the bump that formed on his forehead, asking, "How many laws have you managed to comprehend to the peak?" "Around 500 something laws, give or take." Sterlena thought for a moment, giving an approximate value. "Without a strong and pure enough source, it''s hard to comprehend the respective laws to the peak. Of course, finding such sources is easier said than done." "500¡­" Krune was surprised to hear that. "No wonder you''re by far the strongest I have seen." By comprehending to the peak, it meant her comprehension levels were inferior only to the Gods of the respective laws. In the case the respective Gods died for some reason, she would be able to take over and even replace them in the future. It''ll be hard since they had become the laws themselves. But over time, she could slowly override their influence and dominate the laws. Eventually, she''ll become the law herself once she got rid of the previous God''s influence. And this was the limit to what even a God of a different law could reach, not to mention a Primal God. At present, Krune didn''t even have a single law that had reached the peak. "Do you want me to sense and determine the growth of your respective laws?" Sterlena asked. "I should be able to determine what cultivation base your comprehension of the laws have reached." "I think I have a general idea myself." Krune refused the offer. Ever since he obtained the law regarding Divine Sense, he was able to understand himself better. So, he understood the levels his comprehension of the laws had reached. There were almost twenty laws that had become on par with a Semi-God based on comprehension. As for the laws of Ice, Wood, Earth, Life, Divine Sense, Ice, Wind, Light, and Sound, they had reached the God Trial Realm in terms of comprehension. And, the most surprising thing of all was the Tribulation Lightning Laws. They had reached the Godly Fusion Realm in terms of comprehension. This had more value than everything because of the sole fact that no cultivator was able to comprehend this law. Even for Krune, this was only thanks to his Spiritual Mark. On top of that, the God Foundation Realm was the limit on how much he could comprehend it. Beyond that would be impossible. At least, that was what he was able to sense right now. That may or may not change in the future. Krune then laughed, suddenly asking, "I have established a sect. Wanna join that?" "No sect can offer me anything valuable." Sterlena sighed, shaking her head. "As long as I have enough Godly Energy, I''ll be able to reach the Primal God Realm¡­" She suddenly stopped speaking, looking at Krune in surprise to see him extending his hand towards him. "Punch it," he said. After a moment of confusion, Sterlena punched his hand, flinching immediately upon seeing that his hand was tremendously tough. Her body was also strong, reinforced by the countless laws she had comprehended. However, that was only when she activated them. Her body''s toughness would increase to the extent that even immortals would have a hard time injuring her. As she observed Krune hadn''t done anything of the sort, she was surprised, asking, "What¡­is this?" "Body cultivation." Krune laughed, explaining, "Mountain Sect is the only place where this is possible." He then displayed his Cloud Whale as he told her, "Observe it." As Sterlena scanned through it using her Divine Sense, she was alarmed. "It''s not made from Godly Energy." "Yep," Krune replied. "So, even in places where Godly Energy is suppressed like in the Godly Inhibition Tower, I can move freely there. After all, my body itself is tremendously heavy, and I have another mode of energy to use." "So..." Krune grinned, asking once more, "Is this a lucrative offer for you to join my Mountain Sect?" "That''ll be hard. Trouble follows me everywhere¡­" Sterlena said in disappointment before her eyes blinked with delight, laughing as she gazed at Krune. "No, when compared to you, I won''t be attracting any trouble. You''ll be bringing enough trouble for both of us included." "¡­" Krune''s forehead twitched at her shameless comeback. He then shook hands with her, laughing, "Welcome to the Mountain Sect. There are a lot more fun things there." "Plus, we aren''t the sole endangered species to be there as well," he continued, garnering Sterlena''s attention as he said, "There''s also a Spirit Aberrant there." "Spirit Aberrant? That legendary race still exists?" She was shocked, asking in concern, "Is the sect safe? You know what a Spirit Aberration is capable of, right?" "Yeah." Krune nodded in response. "But, they''ll be hunted everywhere. So, our sect is their only safe haven. Besides..." He said while laughing, "The one in our sect doesn''t have the trouble every Spirit Aberration undergoes. He can switch between his human and Spirit Aberration form whenever he pleases." "A Spirit Aberrant with full control over its powers¡­" Sterlena muttered. "This is by far the most terrifying race of all the races in the God Realm." Krune nodded in response, knowing very well the threat a Spirit Aberration possessed. After all, if Gegrafikan arrived at the infant supercontinent and managed to devour a couple of ex-Primal Gods, he would completely obtain all their respective law comprehension. That would instantly make him a powerhouse. Plus, he would only have to repeat the process until he managed to comprehend all the laws of God Realm to the peak. Such was the might of the Spirit Aberrant, a reason they were heavily restricted upon creation. ''Then again, Gegrafikan only hopes to create a soccer team with his children, nothing else.'' He laughed.. ''Also, once Feifei''s enemies arrive, we can unleash him onto them.'' Chapter 1177 - The Gate To The Supercontinent’s Core Region The boat continued to travel through the void as Krune gradually felt tired, casually returning to his wisp form before sleeping. Sterlena looked at his sleeping figure, grinning as she patted him once, watching him snuggle upon contact as she smiled in content, sighing as she looked beyond. ''To think there would come a day when I would find solace in a wisp.'' She also began to sleep after some time had passed, wishing to rest first. After returning to the God Realm and having healed her Spiritual Incarnation, she had created a small force of bandits. The purpose was to have this force help her in the infant supercontinent. However, since they were annihilated by the Abolition Tower''s attack, her plans had suffered a major setback. It was pretty emotionally draining for her to start from scratch once again. ''I''m done. I''ll stop relying on others.'' She sighed, no longer thinking of plans to rely on others. She didn''t wish to spend a lot of resources on them just for them to die a futile death. Instead of that, she decided to just use the resources for herself. ''Now, it''ll be hard to head into the Principality of Precipice.'' She sighed in response. ''I''ll have to work something else for that.'' ¡­ Two years since they had begun to travel through the void, Krune and Sterlena had gotten pretty close, constantly bickering like a pair of stray cats as they traveled atop the boat. During the journey, they shared experiences with one another while slowing down the boat''s speed. Krune used the now excess obtained Godly Energy to unleash the development effect to increase the strength of her body. In exchange, she provided him knowledge and experience in relation to the usage of the Calamity and the Balance Laws. "I thought that I was the first one to create the Balance Laws." Krune sighed as he thought about it. "I had the same thought when I also create," Sterlena said. "Then again, the Balance Laws are just a derivative of the Calamity Laws meant to oppose it. So, it''s just a natural product that''s attained as long as you''re talented enough. From the looks of it, not everyone troubled by the Calamity Laws managed to derive the Balance Laws." "Have you met others?" Krune asked in surprise. "Nope." Sterlena shook her head, saying, "I''ve come across some ruins where past experts have left some notes related to this. That''s how I came to understand that I wasn''t the only one troubled by Little Cally." There was another reason Krune and Sterlena hit off so well. It was because both of their naming senses were peerless. On top of that, Krune had been pleasantly surprised at the start to see that in her human form, Sterlena also had... rainbow-colored hair. That was why they hit it off so well. Their similarities made them feel as if they were real siblings. It was honestly a novel feeling for Krune, making him appreciate the encounter. "We''re here." Sterlena became serious upon gazing at a massive spherical cluster spinning before her. Swirls of energy swathed out of the spherical cluster, forming tongues of heat and light before coiling around it. An abundance of Godly Energy was being condensed and circulated within the cluster. The phenomenon caused the hearts of both to thump in increasing intensities. The energy emanating from it was at a level of power that surpassed even a Primal God. "Even at my peak, I wasn''t able to achieve such a display of power," Sterlena muttered as she tried to control her breath. As for Krune, he was shocked. Had he witnessed such a scene when he was in the Godly Path Realm, he wouldn''t have paid it much attention. But now that his comprehension of the laws has increased, he was actually able to understand the true extent of the power swirling within. "That''s our entrance." Sterlena pointed at a tiny portal that looked no different from a black hole situated at the edge of the cluster, touched by a sliver of energy, fuelling it. As the boat slowly approached the gate, the hearts of both continued to accelerate as they didn''t even breathe, pensive and alert. The moment a tongue of energy from the cluster blasted out unknowingly, they would be eradicated easily. So, they had to be alert at all times. Krune had already informed her of a method he had devised to escape the fastest. Since they had practiced it quite a number of times over the past two years, they were ready to do the same in an instant. Unfortunately for them, trouble always seemed to be brewing along as the cluster emitted a Godly Energy fluctuation, sending out a blast of energy in their way. "Go!" Krune bellowed at his limit as he condensed the Cloud Whale in its largest form while he and Sterlena returned to their actual forms, shrinking their ethereal forms until only their cores remained behind. Air Needle! The Air Needle sent them flying towards the gate when Krune condensed the Cloud Whale once again around them, sending them flying with the Air Needle a second time, accelerating them further. As they were in the void, they could accelerate without trouble. Upon seeing the energy wave closing in on them, Krune continued to accelerate them while Sterlena used the laws of the wind to compress the wind within the Cloud Whale even more. This way, the speed at which they traveled soon surpassed the limit that he could sense using his Divine Sense. Thankfully for them, Sterlena was still able to keep track of things, taking charge of the situation as she directed them, barely managing to enter the gate. The moment the two cores fell into the gate, the energy wave arrived, destroying the gate itself, passing along casually, as if it was a natural process. After some time passed, the gate began to form once again. After all, it was a naturally forming location created by the infant supercontinent. So, despite the number of times it was destroyed, it would reform. Moreover, it seemed that by reforming after destruction, it would grow in strength, repeating the process. Countless energy fluctuations slammed into it in discrete intervals, destroying the gate from time to time before it reappeared. After some time passed in such a fashion, a massive ship that spanned for tens of kilometers arrived at the scene and entered the gate. Similarly, countless other ships had also appeared at sporadic times before entering the gate. Chapter 1178 - Run! "Ahhhh!" Krune and Sterlena cried in alarm as they traveled through a tunnel in the void, being sent flying all over without any control over their bodies. Krune barely managed to condense the Cloud Whale around them while Sterlena erected countless formations over it, strengthening it further as she noticed in alarm that the Cloud Whale was taking damage despite that, beginning to crack. "Hold on!" Shouting in response, she activated her Spatial Laws, trying her best to stop the damage, barely able to prevent the Cloud Whale from being torn apart. "Ahhh!" After traveling for an hour in such a fashion, there was light at the end of the tunnel as the two cores flew into it, arriving at a brightly lit world, crashing into a pond below. After some time, the wisp and True Spirit surfaced, flying over to the shore before returning to their human forms as they collapsed on the ground, panting in response. "Never again am I going to travel through that¡­" Krune muttered, letting out a few curses. Sterlena panted as she regulated her breathing, saying after a couple of minutes had passed, "Unfortunately for you, that''s also our way out." "¡­" Krune wanted to cry. He quickly gathered his bearings, looking around to see that the pond nearby was serene in nature. Tiny lotuses bloomed atop it while tiny creatures hopped around it. A couple of flies came to drink in the nectar that the lotuses were brimming with. Upon seeing the scene, Krune was surprised. "Just what is this nectar?" "It''s an elixir." After probing at it for a moment, Sterlena replied. "Ingesting this nectar would allow you to improve your cultivation without the need to cultivate. However, it''s only useful for those at the Nascent God Realm and below." "The immortal version of the same lotuses would be useful for the immortals." She concluded. Krune then looked around, noticing that they were on vast plains that seemed to stretch for hundreds of kilometers. There was a large river flowing through the plains, heading towards the end where Krune heard the sounds of a mighty waterfall. Based on the level of sound, the amount of water flowing over from the river could be assumed. It was nigh endless. "Is this the Principality of Precipice?" Krune asked. "No," Sterlena replied, pointing at the river, trailing her finger across the stream before stopping at the waterfalls. "Beyond the falls, situated deep into the sea there acting as the seabed, is a misty barrier. Once we cross it, we''ll arrive at the Principality of Precipice. There''s a reason it''s called the Zone of Suffering." "Countless treasures lay there, but the dangers are also innumerous. Even immortals could die there, not to mention us. So, we''ll have to be cautious all along to avoid death," she said as the two of them arrived at the shore of the river before beginning to walk towards the waterfalls. Hovering beside Krune was the Cloud Whale. Stored within its stomach was obviously the nectar from the lotuses. He had¡­collected all of them. "We can use this to replenish our Godly Energy reserves, you know," Krune said when Sterlena stared at him with doubtful eyes. Upon his response, she rolled her eyes, pointing a finger into the air. "With this level of Godly Energy around us, do you really need that?" After all, the quality of Godly Energy in the air had reached the God Foundation Realm naturally. On a regular continent, the quality of Godly Energy would only reach the Godly Fusion Realm. With that, Krune was able to feel the superior quality of Godly Energy here. Not to mention the fact that any place he saw seemed like a treasure. He then tried to see if he was able to bring his subspace to the location, sighing upon judging that it still wasn''t possible. "If only I could bring it here." As they were casually walking along the side of the river, they noticed a massive ship crash into the pond, destroying it. Upon seeing the scene, Krune muttered, "See, see, see! They got destroyed. That''s why I was saving them. I''m a nature enthusiast." "All you did was save the nectar. The lotuses were the true treasure there," Sterlena said, opening her palms to reveal some seeds, saying, "I already took all the lotus seeds. This way, I can grow them in the future." "As expected of big sis!" Krune clapped his hand, watching Sterlena store them in her ring, asking in surprise, "I wanted to ask about that all along. How are you able to use a storage space?" "It''s similar to yours." Sterlena pointed at his Triple Beast Ring, explaining, "My ring is actually a weapon of mine that''s able to expand and shrink. But no matter what, despite the change in size, its mass and density remain the same." "So, its volume remains the same?" Krune made the connection, asking, "But, how''s that possible?" "Well, there isn''t any dimension within it like in the storage space." Sterlena laughed, saying, "It''s just regular space that I can shrink and expand. So, items placed within also shrink in response. The property of this item ensures they aren''t damaged or lose their property." "Does that mean you can store as much as you need within it?" Krune asked in shock. "Not exactly," Sterlena sighed as she responded. "Unlike a storage ring, I''ll have to bear the increase in its weight. So, I''m only keeping the stuff that''s necessary within it. There''s only God Stones, a couple of my weapons, and some other tools in it." "However..." She laughed as she continued, "Thanks to your help, my base physique itself has grown a lot stronger. I''ll be able to carry a lot more weight now." "Stop!" Suddenly, a voice shouted from behind them, causing the two to turn around and see a fat man standing at the edge of the ship''s deck. In the time they were conversing, the ship had pulled itself out of the pond and cleaned itself. Or better yet, a group of cultivators had swiftly done the job by activating a formation. "Are you feeling what I am feeling?" Ignoring the fat man, Krune whispered to Sterlena. "Yeah, I feel trouble, a lot of it." Sterlena replied before quickly shouting, "Run!" The figures of the two flashed away as the fat man shouted at the top of his lungs, "Guards! Capture them!" Chapter 1179 - Cannonball Of Doom "Shoot them!" The fat man roared as the group of cultivators around him pushed out a massive cannon and accurately aimed at the flashing shadows on the ground before unleashing an attack. The cannon spanned a length of twenty meters, with its mouth spanning a circle with a radius of three meters. Upon the fat man''s shout, the cannon glowed with countless rays of light before a ball of energy was sent flying out. The ball contained countless laws in it, swirling around in a chaotic mess. At that instant, Krune and Sterlena realized that the purpose of this ball was to destroy their Spiritual Incarnations. Even if it failed to destroy them, it would very well damage their Spiritual Incarnations by a significant sum. With that, they would be weakened and would fall prey to future attacks. "Hmph!" Krune faced his hand behind, sending out an icicle against the ball, intending to slam it away. However, instead of bulldozing through the icicle, the ball actually evaded the attack, as if it was sentient. Then, it swerved around in the air before speeding towards them, absorbing the Godly Energy in the air to fuel its actions. "This is bad! It''s too fast!" Sterlena said before she communicated with Krune. "Let''s use the Calamity Laws. I don''t wish to display any of our methods at this point. That''ll only inconvenience us in the future." "Alright." Krune nodded in response. Upon her signal, the both of them activated their Calamity Laws in full swing before Sterlena infused it into his Calamity Laws that he had fused into his Neon Radiance King. The unleashed beam landed on the ball without trouble since it was too fast to evade. For a moment, the ball continued to fly towards them. But suddenly, it lost that sentient nature it possessed when Sterlena unleashed her Divine Sense, subtly using the Balance Laws to crane the ball around her, infuse some of her power into it before hurling it back onto the ship. Due to her power, the ball began to absorb Godly Energy en masse while flying, increasing in size as its power became imposing. "Damn it! Raise the shields!" the fat man bellowed as the inscriptions on the hull of the ship shone, brightening up as the surrounding Godly Energy was absorbed. And right at this moment, the ball, one that had turned into a massive hill-sized boulder, slammed into the ship, causing a deafening boom when it spurted out like lava, covering most of the ship. The ship''s protective barrier held up under the attack, but the force of the impact still caused it to tilt to one side, alarmingly close to the ground. Followed by a flicker of light, a gust of Godly Energy was unleashed to push away the lava-like substance covering the ship when the fat man frowned. "That was pretty dangerous. As I had thought, those two are also pretty dangerous." As he talked, his body coincidentally arrived at the other side of the deck due to slipping a little from the tilt. Ironically, that was the straw that broke the camel''s back, causing the ship to crash over to the other side. In anger, he bellowed, "Shoot all of the cannons! The Principality of Precipice had just finished condensing. The one that enters the first will gain a lot of advantage. They definitely shouldn''t be the ones to enter it first!" Right as he shouted, almost a dozen cannons were activated as the cannonballs were launched into the air. Like homing missiles, they flew towards the sprinting duo, tracking them while accelerating in the air. "Damn it!" Krune grunted. He was already running at his top speed, having used all his power. As for Sterlena, even though her physique was inferior, it was only a little. After all, her physique grew powerful once she activated all the laws that passively built up her strength. Plus, she was also using a couple of abilities to accelerate. Krune was the same. But despite everything, they still failed to evade the pursuit of their foes. "How are they tracking us at this speed?" Krune was flabbergasted, unable to understand just how this was possible, "Are they using some mysterious ability or treasure?" "No¡­" Sterlena replied, frowning as her face paled a little. "I think I know what it is." "What is it? Tell me." Krune urged her. "Authority!" Sterlena said solemnly as her face darkened. "Authority? What the hell is that?" Krune asked, irritated. "Shut up for a second! Let me think!" She snapped back, turning around to see the cannonballs closing in on them. "Let''s first hurry over!" Shouting, she thought of something, pointing at the river nearby. Understanding her decision, Krune followed her into the river, summoning his Cloud Whale before using Moving Ripple at full strength to throttle forward. On the other hand, Sterlena used her abilities to layer a formation over the Cloud Whale, allowing it to travel faster, actually making them travel at a speed faster than while on land. After all, there was also Moving Ripple in effect now. As it was an ability of his physique, it was as powerful as his strengthened physique. Layering atop it the laws that were beneficial to the physique by Sterlena, the explosive speed they attained was stellar, throwing off the cannonballs as they sped off. "The threat is still there," Krune shouted in alarm, noticing the cannonballs slowly beginning to catch up to them once again. "How are they still accelerating?" "Don''t mind that. We''re approaching the waterfall." Sterlena shouted in response before saying, "When I give the signal, use all your freezing power to freeze the entire water. That way, it''ll buy us enough time to enter the Principality of Precipice." "Alright!" Krune nodded as his hearth thumped, watching the Cloud Whale pass over the edge of the river before flying down the falls, soon plunging into the water below. Soon, it went deeper when Sterlena shouted, "Now!" "Argh!" Krune grunted as the both of them used all the ability they could muster from the Law of Ice and began to freeze the water around them. As the Cloud Whale proceeded deeper, starting from its tail, a layer of bluish-white formed that spread around, freezing all the water. A gigantic iceberg formed in the water, acting as their layer of defense as a dozen cannonballs slammed into it. For a moment, there wasn''t any reaction.. But an instant later, a massive shockwave erupted as the laws of the place were in disarray, pulsing out as a ripple that slammed into the Cloud Whale, destroying it. Chapter 1180 - Land Spirit "When you''re weak, your suffering is amplified." "Mortals suffer the most, unaware of their lives dictated." "Suffer, and return to earth, from whence you may realize¡­" "The vastness of the world!" Krune suddenly woke up as he noticed that he was situated in the void once again. But, unlike before, a strange entity hovered before him. The entity was no different from a ball of light. However, it was an unnerving existence. For one moment, it was a ball of light. At the next, it was a gigantic tower. Another moment later, it turned into a vast meadow. It was constantly changing, fluctuating from the smallest of objects to the vastness of things in the universe. Right as Krune wished to speak to it, he realized that he was unable to utter anything. In fact, his entire body remained stiff, unable to move. His Godly Energy, his physical energy, and even his Mental Energy didn''t move according to his will. Right at this moment, the strange entity shaped itself similar to Krune, telling him, "You have two choices. The first is to leave this place unharmed. Second is to suffer for the faintest possibility of obtaining the treasure you seek." Now that he was able to move his mouth, Krune asked, "Among those treasures, do Law Pools exist?" After a moment of silence, the entity replied, "Yes, since you only wish to immerse yourself in them." It then continued, "So, you wish to suffer¡­ fine then. Let me warn you beforehand." It said with joy, making a coquettish expression using his face, "In the trials you face, you''ll be inhabiting the bodies of countless individuals one after another and suffer their fates. If you manage to figure out the source of the suffering and solve it, then you''ll pass the scenario and return here. You''ll be able to receive rewards accordingly." "After that, you''ll receive the choices of returning to the outside world or enter for another round of suffering." "But..." It laughed, "There''s hope even in despair. You''ll be allowed two things that would give you hope in this suffering." "What¡­ are they?" Krune asked, surprised that he was able to talk once again. "One ability and one item." As it shared the same appearance as him, the entity raised two fingers in the air, saying, "You can bring them with you. This way, no matter who you become, you''ll retain these two as your exclusive power." "The extent of your suffering would depend on your choices¡­now, CHOOSE!" Krune frowned, thinking as he could feel a mysterious force surrounding him, realizing that he had less than ten seconds to make a decision. If he failed to do so before that, he would be sent into the Zone of Suffering without any power. After all, based on what the entity said, his physique wasn''t being sent. But, whether his soul was being sent or not was unsure. If it was his soul, then he would still be able to rely on his Spiritual Mark. However, the likelihood of it being possible was low. After all, unlike Mental Energy, a Spiritual Mark, though mysterious, was still possible under the laws of the God Realm. As for the entity before him, Krune was aware of what it was, as Sterlena had already briefed him about it. Land Spirit! It was a mysterious entity that was born from the land, capable of wielding all the powers belonging to this land. Even though it behaved sentient, it actually wasn''t. It was just a part of nature, existing no different from the mountains, rivers, etc. And all along, the Zone of Suffering hadn''t been fully functional, allowing cultivators to enter the place with their bodies. Though, they didn''t manage to reap any rewards as a result. But now that the Land Spirit had appeared, it was apparent that the outermost region of the core land of the infant supercontinent, the Principality of Precipice, had finished forming. Going against a Land Spirit was simply impossible because it possessed powers almost on par with a Primal God. So, whatever it said was the law of the area it acted upon. After all, they were just mortals before a Primal God. Land Spirits were only available on a supercontinent. Based on the number of Land Spirits present on one, the foundation of the supercontinent varied. ''If I am sent into the bodies of different individuals, there''s probably a good chance I won''t have any cultivation.'' Krune thought, recalling the verse or poem he heard at the start. It mentioned mortals, so he obtained some idea as to what he might face. ''I really didn''t like becoming a mortal ever again.'' His mind whirred into action as his thoughts clashed. ''So, the ability I pick would be tremendously nerfed to the extent it wouldn''t be anything important even from the perspective of a mortal. So, I''ll have to pick one that would allow me to gain the most advantage.'' ''There''s only one for that.'' He finalized his choice, ''And, to escape from suffering, only that is capable of helping me.'' He then nodded, speaking once he judged that he was able to move his mouth. "I have decided on the ability and the item I would bring with me." "Think of them once, and it''ll be with you," the entity said as Krune took in a deep breath, thinking of the item and ability he would be carrying with him. His figure then vanished as the entity muttered, "Alas, another person''s suffering has begun." ¡­ "Gah!" A beggar choked, coughing immediately as his coughs turned violent, spitting out some blood in response as he looked forward, watching the soles of a shoe slam into his face, causing his nose to bleed. "It¡­hurts!" Suddenly, he screamed in pain, feeling a searing sensation from all over his body. His lungs seemed to be¡­burning, while he was unable to feel anything under his hips. His lower body seemed numb. "Hahaha! This dirt rat still has enough energy to scream." A couple of derisive chuckles resounded as a fat man with a forest patch of hair on his chest bent forward, spitting on the face of the beggar before walking away. "His screams are so pitiful!" ''What the¡­heck happened?'' Krune thought, looking around as he was unable to understand anything, noticing that his eyesight had turned blurry.. And soon after, his eyes closed. Chapter 1181 - A Dying Beggar "Geh!" Feeling a sharp pain in his lungs, Krune woke up with a start, about to habitually move when he realized that he lacked the strength to do so. His vision was hazy. His body was heating up while a ringing sound constantly resounded in his ears, preventing him from thinking about anything. On top of that, an intense stench of blood, urea, and other things emanated from him, causing him to throw up. But even with all of that, all he did was open his mouth. There was nothing in his stomach to throw up, not even bile. "Hah¡­haaah¡­what¡­is this?" He wheezed, unable to even talk much, barely observing his body to think a little. ''I cannot feel my lower body, my lungs are burning, I think I have a fever, and most of all, it seems I haven''t eaten anything for days.'' A helpless, dying beggar! That was his first suffering. Had he possessed a healthy body, any amount of suffering could be regarded as a type of hardship that could be overcome eventually. Or at least, time would heal the scars. But, to a weak, frail person like him, it was impossible. Krune observed his surroundings, noticing that he was leaning on a massive wall that spanned five meters in height, layered with green jade to give it a grandiose aesthetic. The jade wall spanned almost a hundred meters in length, outlining a mansion within. His current position was situated beside the mansion''s entrance. Standing in front of the gate were four guards, each donning expensive-looking armor with imposing physiques. With a single glance, it was apparent that they were the guards of an important family. The roads were wide, paved with cobblestone of various colors, creating various designs on it. There was the design of flowers, mountains, rivers, and so on. Currently, the guards stood tall, erect in their demeanor, not even displaying the slightest hint of carelessness. But from time to time, they communicated in sign language, stealthily to not get into trouble. Occasional glances were swept past Krune before some clicking sounds resounded. Suddenly, a couple of pedestrians moved past the entrance, shuddering at the imposing manner of the guards and the prestige of the family they were guarding. Then, their eyes naturally trailed over Krune, the beggar that destroyed the aesthetic of the place with his awful appearance. Immediately, looks of disgust and contempt were evident on their faces as they gazed at Krune. For a moment, no matter how nonchalant he was at the expressions of the passersby, even he was affected. It was because he had never done anything to be placed in such a situation. He had always gone by in his ways, never doing anything beyond necessary. He couldn''t call himself righteous, but he never veiled himself with the hypocrisy that the so-called men of justice and righteousness wore. ''Damn¡­them!'' Krune was pissed at the passersby. His cloudy eyes turned sharp for an instant when he was startled by the events that happened next. Among the pedestrians, there was an eight-year-old, a cute little girl sporting a twin ponytail. Her expression was soft, one full of smiles. She had been holding her mother''s hand, giggling from time to time. Her smile cheered the faces of the others, causing them to feel enlivened by her presence, affected by her enthusiasm. Suddenly, her head swerved around, noticing the glare from Krune. She then looked at her mother and asked, "Mom, that beggar is hungry. Can we feed him a little?" "You shouldn''t, child. You might catch some disease if you get near him." Her mother hurriedly grabbed hold of her shoulders, warning her. "However, father taught us to be kind and benevolent," the child said before her eyes lit up as she continued. "Mother, I know what to do. Can you give me a fruit?" "Fine." Her mother sighed before taking out a piece of fruit from her basket that resembled an orange at first glance. Then again, it was purple in color, a common fruit in their city. The girl grabbed hold of the fruit, taking a couple of steps forward before throwing the fruit with all her might. It made a tiny arc in the air as the fruit landed on the road and rolled towards Krune, hitting his legs before stopping. "Nicely done!" Her mother immediately praised her for her action before the group moved along. The scene shocked Krune. After all, it wasn''t the child''s innocence but rather the twisted way of upbringing that allowed her to express her kindness in such a manner. Just as he thought of it, another thought resounded in his mind. What if he really had a disease? One that was contagious. Her actions would make sense, then. And besides, she had still given him something to eat. As he thought as such, Krune suddenly realized that his right hand was holding the fruit now, with a part of it already in his mouth. He hadn''t even realized his actions, beginning to eat the fruit, not caring about the extent of dirt it had accumulated from rolling on the ground. After all, the area around him wasn''t exactly neat, forming a sharp contrast to the rest of the cobblestone road. It seemed he had been around enough to permanently stain the part of the area. ''What the heck?'' Krune was unable to form any reaction as his mind seemed to be overwhelmed from hunger. And as he was eating, the guards suddenly stomped on the road loudly, parting to the side before saluting. "May you have a prosperous evening, Madam Su!" "Why is this trash still polluting our prestigious locality?" Suddenly, a cold, arrogant voice resounded before a carriage exited the manor. It was being pulled by a massive beast that spanned a height of three meters and a length of five meters. It was adorned with jewelry, dressed in an armor of sorts as protection. A single glance at it was enough to prove that it was a terrifying beast. But now, it was being used to pull a carriage. As for the carriage itself, it was plated with white gold, shimmering with luxury as various crystals were decorated further atop. Even the windows of the carriage were created using these crystals. ''It seems the body I''m inhabiting and this lady share some history?'' Right as Krune thought as such, intense pain assaulted his head as countless memories surfaced, causing him to choke on the fruit he was eating, soon collapsing to the ground. Chapter 1182 - Prestige And Conspiracy? Memories of the body he had inhabited poured into his mind, causing him to become overwhelmed at the notion. After all, it wasn''t just the memories that poured into him. They also included the emotions the character felt, the feelings he had harbored, as well as the pain he suffered. Everything surfaced instantly, almost tearing apart Krune''s mind. A person''s lifetime worth of experience had emerged instantly. So, even for him, it was unbearable. ''So¡­ that''s what¡­ happened.'' Krune gradually regained control over himself, thinking weakly. The voice was the trigger that brought out his memories. After all, it was the voice of his daughter. However, he dared not even think of her. Betrayal! Abuse! Scorn! His current identity was of a beggar. Though, he had once been someone important from the Su Family. In fact, he was the younger brother of the Su Family Head. Seven years ago, the previous family head passed away while fighting a Nightmare. A Nightmare was a spiritual entity that was created from the negative emotions of the people. A Nightmare would form after a long period of condensation. Each Nightmare was a terrifying entity capable of destroying an entire village overnight. Physical attacks were useless against them. And the only ones who were capable of fighting against them were the Imperial Meisters. An Imperial Meister was a wielder of Imperial Arms, a mystical weapon forged using the cores of more than a dozen Nightmares. This was the sole weapon capable of wounding a nightmare. Then again, only if the Imperial Arms chose the wielder could he become an Imperial Meister. And this was difficult. There were three conditions one must achieve to bond with an Imperial Arms. First was the fact that they had to be blood-related to the Imperial Arms. After all, forming the hilt of the Imperial Arms were the bones of the creator that had been refined over countless years. So, only those related to the creator by blood had a chance to bond with it. The second condition was for them to possess a sharp mind, one greatly resistant to the attacks of the Nightmares. The third and final condition was for them to possess a righteous mind. Only when one satisfied all three conditions would they become eligible to bond with an Imperial Arms. Krune''s current character was once such an individual, an Imperial Meister. An Imperial Master wielded immense authority and prestige. After all, they were too few in numbers. Just the creation of an Imperial Arms was a monumental task that only the wealthiest of families could afford to do so. And, the greater the number of Imperial Arms a family possessed, the stronger they were. The Su Family was one of the four great noble families of the Daxia Empire. It was because they possessed four Imperial Arms. On top of that, all of them could be wielded. With four Imperial Meisters, they garnered tremendous influence. When the previous family head died while fighting a Nightmare, the family shook. After all, there was now a vacancy in the seat of the family head. The remaining three Imperial Meisters of the Su Family immediately fought for the seat of the clan head. And among them, he¡ªKrune''s character¡ªwas in the lead, close to becoming the clan head. But all of a sudden, his Imperial Arms betrayed him. Or rather, it was no longer bonded to him. All of a sudden, his daughter, Su Daiyu gained control over it, rendering him powerless. It was because she accused him of being a traitor and crippled him, turning him into a waste. After that, his oldest brother took on the position as the clan head as the internal struggles in the Su Family stabilized. Everyone praised Su Daiyu for being righteous and culling the internal struggles of their family to focus on their external threats¡ªthe Nightmares. However, the strange thing was the fact that he, Su Zixin, had never treated her harshly. He was just strict with her, but the same applied to the rest of his children as well. On top of that, it was necessary, given his position. Moreover, during the contest to become the clan head, he had gathered the most support. Everything didn''t make sense once Krune thought about it. After all, Su Daiyu hadn''t ever expressed a desire for power. But on that day, she gained control over his Imperial Arms, crippled him, pressed countless charges against him, and struck him off the family records. After that, he became a beggar, beaten up by everyone that passed by the Su Family Mansion daily. It was due to the charges he was pressed against. There were three such charges in total. The first was the fact that he was accumulating Nightmare Cores illegally. Illegal in the sense that he was wantonly causing suffering in some of the villages under his control to eventually generate a Nightmare from there. And after defeating them, he was planning to use their Cores to create another Imperial Arms to further boost his strength. The Daxia Empire had forbidden any artificial means of creating Nightmares. The second charge was of him using a demonic technique to forcibly wield his Imperial Arms¡ªthe Moon Flower. This technique allowed him to use the Imperial Arms even though it hadn''t accepted him as its owner. Using it through this technique damaged it little by little every time. When Su Zixin obtained the Imperial Arms from his hands, it was proved that he was using a demonic technique to forcibly wield it. The final charge was of him making moves on his daughter to bed her. He had attempted it countless times but had failed due to coincidences. There was proof related to that. Once everything came to light, he was castrated before being crippled and thrashed around daily, placed at the side of the Su Family Mansion''s entrance to serve as an example for everyone that anyone that didn''t abide by righteousness would face such a fate, irrespective of the power they wielded previously. "Why is this trash still polluting our prestigious locality?" Upon hearing the viciousness in the tone of Su Daiyu, it was apparent to Krune. Though, he couldn''t understand one thing. ''Why is there no recollection of such events in my memory? I hadn''t done anything of that sort.'' Chapter 1183 - Burn The Trash "Shall we get rid of him, Madam Su?" The guards saluted in response before asking with their utmost respect. A couple of seconds later, a sigh resounded. "Leave him be. He''s still serving as a good reminder for everyone. And thanks to him, the generation of negativity has been the lowest in the Imperial Capital for the past few years." "He now has more use than when he was an Imperial Meister." The carriage continued to proceed after that as Su Daiyu''s voice resounded. "Also, prevent anyone from giving him food in the future. It''ll be good if he dies of starvation in the next couple of days. His Highness, the Third Prince, is visiting our manor next week. This place has to be clean by then." "Yes, Madam Su!" All the guards bowed in response as the carriage vanished from their view. They then gazed at Su Zixin¡ªKrune¡ªwith contempt. "Why the hell are you still alive? Do a favor for us and just die, evil scum!" "Ha¡­haha¡­hahaha¡­!" Suddenly, Krune began to laugh, unable to breathe as he had choked on the fruit he was eating, only now realizing that the fruit had been tampered with. In it was something that worsened his condition, suddenly spiting the rash he was feeling. Itch! Intense itch, the likes of which he hadn''t ever experienced before, caused his hands to suddenly scratch all over his body, with power that he didn''t know he had. And soon after, his weak skin began to peel off. As he hadn''t even had a bath for god knows how long, his hygiene was as low as it could get. His infection flared up as he suffocated, lying on the roar, face down, tears streaming out of his eyes. The memories, emotions, and everything Su Zixin had bottled up within him for all these years flared up as his eyes turned bloodshot, the nerves in the straining up as they reddened. A couple of seconds later, blood flowed out of them, drying up immediately as all signs of life in them vanished. "He¡­died? Just¡­like that?" The guards looked at the scene in shock before a couple of them hurried along the road, intending to inform Su Daiyu of the news. Another guard rushed into the Su Family Manor, informing the head attendant of the information. Soon, the carriage returned as Su Daiyu exited it. A cool lady with a bob cut, wearing a cheongsam, sporting vibrant brown hair and a pair of eyes that seemed honest and virtuous at first glance but had a hidden, shrewd nature. Worn on her left hand was an armguard, one that emanated a mysterious power. It was the Imperial Arms, Moon Flower. She stared at the corpse of her father, her expression cold, her lips pursed, her posture static. After a dozen seconds passed in such a manner, she uttered a command before leaving, "Clean up the place." "Don''t forget to burn the trash." ¡­ "Hah¡­" Krune opened his eyes, noticing an unfamiliar ceiling above him, immediately observing a leaking roof. There were obvious holes in the ceiling that had been haphazardly patched up. He slowly got up, noticing that his body was clean, no longer having any burning sensation or pain, recalling the final expression he had as he thought, ''So, I died once.'' What he was currently experiencing was no different from reincarnation. He would be entering the bodies of a lot of people, constantly, until he solved the source of the suffering in the place. Either he solved it, or he lost his mind in the process, thanks to the memories, feelings, and experiences of countless reincarnations pouring into his mind. Even now, his fingers shuddered as anger and a vast sense of helplessness pervaded his being. ''The memories of Su Zixin are still in me. I have to process them and understand just what the heck had happened.'' "Grandpa woke up!" Suddenly, a chirpy voice resounded as a figure dashed towards the bed. Upon hearing the voice, Krune grunted as another stream of memories flowed into his mind, causing him to fall unconscious immediately. "Grandpa! GRANDPA!" All he heard were the worried sounds of someone before he lost consciousness. ¡­ A chill wind blew through the night, raising a lot of sounds when it passed through the holes in the house. A gust of wind flew towards an old man that had been sleeping, gently brushing past his skin, causing him to wake up with a shudder. "What¡­happened?" Krune was alarmed, trembling from the cold as he looked around, failing to see anything in the darkness. He then processed all the memories that flowed into him, understanding just who he was now. Wang Hu, an old man in his early seventies. His children had died from the attacks of beasts while defending their village, leaving behind only him and his grandson as the sole survivors. His grandson was only eight years old but had matured beyond his age due to hardships. Wang Hu had one goal, and that was to admit his son, Wang Hao, into the Iron Peach County''s academy. This was the sole academy in their county, a medium-sized county in the Daxia Empire. Anyone that got into it would eventually become an elite of the society, taking on a governmental position. As an uneducated man, this was his only hope of saving his family. After all, Wang Hao would be left alone the moment he died from illness or old age. So, to provide a better life for him, Wang Hu had been pushing himself to work and save up as much money as possible. Getting into the County Academy was hard, even more so for people from their backgrounds. So, he had been using the spare money to obtain books and anything that would allow Wang Hao to learn. Initially, it was going pretty well. Unfortunately, a group of bandits attacked their village to rob them. And, in the scuffle, all his savings had been robbed while he also suffered severe injuries that pushed him into a coma. It had been a month since then as he gradually healed himself enough to at least move around a little. However, it wasn''t enough to procure anything for them to eat. Wang Hao had been managing somehow, despite his young age. But, it was apparent that the pressure and stress was beyond someone as young as him could handle. Now that Wang Hu¡ªKrune¡ªwoke up, the sounds from his rustling clothes caused Wang Hao to wake up immediately. "Grandpa! Don''t leave me!" Wang Hao held his hands, able to accurately find his position in the dark due to habit as he shed tears, bawling out. "Grandpa! I was scared that you wouldn''t wake up like dad and mom!" "Hao''er, you''ll be fine. Grandpa won''t die so easily," Krune said, gently patting the back of the boy''s head as he sighed.. Slowly, his sight grew sharp. Chapter 1184 - The Wang Family’s Circumstances ''My current state is better than Su Zixin. Does the level of suffering change from every reincarnation? Or will I be able to improve my situation somehow?'' Krune thought, patting Wang Hao as he told him, "Grandpa is fine. Now get some rest. We''ll talk in the morning." "Alright!" Now that he was assured his grandpa was feeling alright, Wang Hao fell asleep. Their bed wasn''t anything fancy. They didn''t even have a cot. What they called their bed was just a bag of cloth stuffed with hay, allowing them to sleep. As for their blanket, Krune brushed his hand over it, feeling countless signs of stitching. It was apparent that they hadn''t changed the blanket and had been mending the tears all along. At present, it was more akin to a colorful rag. As it was the middle of the night, Krune was unable to see anything, even after his eyes had adjusted to the dark. There was just no source of light within the house. He then gently opened the window, allowing the moonlight to cast within, using it to observe the interior of the house. Even though he knew how it was thanks to the memories of Wang Hu, Krune still wished to see it once. There was nothing in the house except for a trunk on one corner. In it were their clothes and some miscellaneous items. Near it was a pile of wood used as fuel to cook. There were a couple of worn-out utensils placed in another trunk nearby. As for food provisions, there was just a couple of dried rice wrapped in a dried leaf, placed atop the trunk. It was Wang Hao''s fruit of labor. That was how he sustained himself while nursing his grandpa back to health. Krune''s gaze finally fell on Wang Hao''s face, tearing up immediately. Bluish eyes, swollen face, signs of wounds everywhere on his limbs. It was apparent that he hadn''t had a good time all along. "Don''t worry, I''ll ensure that you''ll have a good life." Krune clenched his hand into a fist. As he had inherited everything from Wang Hu, he currently considered Wang Hao as his own grandson. It also allowed him to understand the dangers of the Principality of Precipice, commonly called the Zone of Suffering. At present, his mind consisted of three egos. The dominant one was, of course, Krune''s original ego. The remaining two consisted of the egos of Su Zixin and Wang Hu. As everything that was theirs had now become his, Krune''s decision-making was influenced accordingly. Wang Hu was currently in his early seventies. Before his death, Su Zixin was in his fifties. Just their combined experience almost reached half of Krune''s lifespan. So, the extent of influence they had on him was tremendous. If he didn''t do anything, it would cause his cultivation to go bonkers in the future. After all, for every situation, each ego would wish to solve it accordingly. It would stall his decision-making skills and pretty much complicate things further. ''If I had known the sufferings in this place was like this, I wouldn''t have come here in the first place.'' He frowned in worry. Moreover, he was unable to sense his body or even his clones that were kept safe in the Mountain Sect by Zamura. At present, wherever he was consisted of his entire self. It was a baffling feeling, causing him to feel bouts of fear. Krune then peered out the window, looking at a dilapidated street devoid of any human beings. A single glance was enough to understand that the village wasn''t well off. Thanks to the recent bandit attack, they had been forced into a corner. A cold gust of wind caused him to tremble as Krune closed the window, sighing as he thought, ''Now, I should determine my powers. As Su Zixin, I didn''t have the leeway to do so. My death came too fast.'' Thinking as such, Krune willed for his power to materialize, noticing that he was facing a hard time as the sense of exhaustion in his body was increasing. Eventually, he managed to condense his ability. Cloud Whale! Though, unlike the one he created before, the current Cloud Whale only spanned the length of his palm. On top of that, it was soft to the touch, looking like even he would be able to deform it if he clenched it hard enough. ''Indeed, as I had feared, it had been heavily nerfed.'' Krune sighed. At first, when the strange entity told him to select an ability and an item, he had thought of selecting the Ocean Heart first. The Ocean Heart was a reservoir of energy. Even if it was heavily nerfed, it would still be an extra reservoir of energy. Moreover, it companied with the healing and development effect. Just that alone would allow him to heal from his injured state and even grow stronger in the future. Albeit, this would take a lot of time, and the effect wouldn''t be that substantial. It would have allowed him to recover from sufferings slowly. Though, he finally decided against it. That was because of just one reason: Efficiency after it was nerfed! The healing effect would only be mildly superior to a human body''s natural recovery. As for the development effect, it wouldn''t result in anything. At most, it would allow one to have the strength of a bulky human while possessing a leaner frame. However, to attain that would take years. It wasn''t good enough. As for any abilities related to Godly Energy, he couldn''t use them as a mortal, so he didn''t even bother to consider them. His choices were only among the active and passive abilities. After considering them all, he selected the Cloud Whale. It was because of two reasons. The Cloud Whale was the most energy-efficient. Its presence alone inhibited a person''s killing intent. It also caused the minds of people to relax, preventing any chaos and heated discussions from happening. And finally, the Air Needle. This was a power it exhibited by compressing the surrounding air before unleashing the pressurized air in the form of a needle. It was a flying creature. All in all, even when nerfed, it was by far the most useful among all his abilities. Thinking as such, he used it to unleash an Air Needle, surprised at the power it exhibited, noticing a tiny hole form on the ground.. ''If they aren''t protected by armor, the Air Needle can kill them if I target their vital areas.'' Chapter 1185 - Cloud Whale And The Soul Needle ''That isn''t all as to why I chose the Cloud Whale,'' Krune thought, closing his eyes as he focused for a while before a thin needle appeared in his hands. Soul Needle! It was a mysterious treasure with mysterious properties. Its primary ability was to detect treasures, acting as a compass that pointed in the respective direction. Beyond that, it had two more abilities that it had absorbed. The first was the ability of the Sun Stone, allowing it to emit gentle rays of the sun. Surprisingly, it was actually hot. Thankfully, only the tip was hot while the back of the needle wasn''t. So, Krune was able to hold it without a problem. As this heat was something it inherently generated, Krune didn''t expend any energy to use it. On top of that, he caused it to disappear and reappear, getting used to summoning it. Unlike the Cloud Whale, it was a treasure. So, he wasn''t condensing it. Therefore, he wasn''t that much affected by summoning it. Though, Krune realized that there was a limit to how many times he could repeat such an action. Even though it was minute, he was getting tired every time he summoned the Soul Needle. After familiarising himself with the process, Krune held the Cloud Whale in the palm of his hands, summoning the Soul Needle within it. After a couple of attempts, he managed to perfectly summon it within the horn of the Cloud Whale. Immediately, the Cloud Whale flew to the air before beginning to compress air in its body, aiming it at the ground beyond the house as it shot forth another Air Needle. And this time, like a bullet, the Soul Needle blasted forth from it and lodged itself into the ground, causing a scorching mark. With a thought, Krune caused it to vanish before summoning it on his palms again, observing it to see that the heat it emitted had dulled faintly. ''I see, so the heat it can emit isn''t endless.'' He then smiled as he continued to think, ''But still, this gives me a lot of reassurance. As long as I manage to eat enough to turn healthy, I should be able to manage. Also, this Soul Needle should be capable of damaging a Nightmare, albeit a little.'' Thanks to the memories of Su Zixin, Krune was aware of the dangers of this world, causing his heart to thump in increasing intensities as he observed the still night. Even an Imperial Meister wielding an Imperial Arms could die under the hands of a Nightmare. Each Nightmare was strong and possessed bizarre abilities. They couldn''t be dealt with easily. In fact, the methods used by the Imperial Meisters to deal with the Nightmares caused him to frown. After all, the process wasn''t something he could tolerate. A Nightmare was a strange entity in such a way that it could even possess a human or an animal, given the right conditions. Once it possessed a human, its might would increase. Then again, human will wasn''t that easy to eradicate. And the whole process would leave it in a weakened state. This was when the Imperial Meisters killed it. To achieve that, they were accompanied by a group of people called the Ghost Appeasers. They were those trained from a young age to become vessels to contain the Nightmares. So, once a Nightmare encountered them, it would possess them. But even though their bodies were the perfect vessel, the Ghost Appeasers possessed a terrifyingly strong will, causing them to fight with the Nightmare internally in a contest of will. This way, they would delay the completion of the possession while the Imperial Meister would hack the possessed Ghost Appeaser. This way, the Nightmare would be significantly weakened and would no longer be an opponent to the Imperial Meister. After all, when they go head-on, an Imperial Meister wouldn''t be able to defeat a Nightmare one-on-one. Hence the requirement for such sacrifices. But, since a Nightmare was capable of toppling entire villages overnight, sacrificing the life of one person¡ªthe Ghost Appeaser¡ªto kill it was a great deal. It was an honorable task. As for Krune, he abhorred such a notion. Unfortunately, the ego of Su Zixin countered such a notion. It caused a conflict to erupt in his mind as two opposing points of view clashed together. After some time passed, Krune managed to suppress the conflict as he meditated, trying his best to integrate the egos of Su Zixin and Wang Hu into himself. This way, he would avoid any mental conflicts in the future. And the way in which he would proceed about this was to slowly fuse similar parts between the three first. This way, he would be able to remain wholly himself, only causing some minor parts about him to change. He could simply attribute the rest to a change in him, a maturity caused by the increase of his experience. Normally, if left alone, the conflicting egos would cause his cultivation to go crazy once he left the place. But if he integrated everything in him, it would provide him benefit later. After all, he was obtaining valuable life experience from various perspectives originating from different walks of life. All of them would accelerate his comprehension of the various laws thanks to his experiences. ''Then again, it''s easier said than done.'' Krune sighed, realizing that this would be a long process, something he would have to achieve after painstaking meditation, ''But until then, I have to survive. Otherwise, if another person''s memories become a part of me, my mind would shatter.'' A gentle warmth pervaded the Soul Needle, warming up his aching bones. It also allowed the faintly shivering Wang Hao to relax and sleep comfortably. Seeing such a scene, Krune sighed as he gently patted the child that had suffered a lot. "You''ll eat plenty of rice in the future and grow up into a strong young man." ''But first, I must create an excuse that''ll allow me to openly use my abilities,'' Krune thought, soon thinking up a method as his expression brightened. He then got up¡­slowly, as slowly as he could as he was really weak. A gentle gust of wind was enough to topple him. Soon, he dragged himself over to a corner of the house, picking up a metal slab based on memory. The Soul Needle gave him faint light, allowing him to see in the dark. Feeling up the metal slab, Krune smiled and thought inwardly, ''This''ll do.'' Chapter 1186 - The Knock At The Middle Of The Night Krune''s first task was to create a reason he was able to wield such power. And for that, the metal slab was perfect. It was just a fist-sized chunk of metal that Wang Hu had obtained coincidentally one day while farming. All they had was a small chunk of land, barely twenty square meters in area. The rest had been divided and sold off since he was unable to farm enough. Also, they were in dire need of cash to feed themselves after the passing of Wang Hu''s children. This small piece of land was all they were left with now. One of the days while he was plowing through it, his plow hit a touch rock. When he unearthed it, he noticed that this was a tough piece of metal. It was unrefined, containing some impurities. At that time, Wang Hu had thought of selling it. But after thinking about it for a bit, he decided to store it, later planning to use it to forge a knife for Wang Hao. Even though he was inexperienced, even he understood that this piece of metal was pretty precious and had been naturally refined to have a pretty high level of purity. With a bit of processing, it would become a high-quality weapon. Unfortunately, he hadn''t obtained a chance to forge it as the only blacksmith of their village had died from old age. As for the blacksmith''s children, they had left him to pursue their future in larger towns, never returning even for his funeral. It was a harsh world out there. Now that Krune held the piece of metal in his hand, he understood its importance. ''I am a blacksmith. I should be able to turn it into decent equipment.'' Of course, he wasn''t planning to make a weapon out of it. All he wanted was to create something that would make it seem like he was able to use his powers¡ªan Imperial Arms. Then again, only trouble would attract him in such a case. So, he was planning to go with the excuse that it was an Imperial Arms Fragment. This way, it won''t be surprising that the power he could unleash wasn''t on par with an Imperial Arms¡ªwhich was the case. As he knew the detailed process involved in the creation of an Imperial Arms, Krune was aware that the piece of metal in his hand was just that, a piece of metal. It was worthless against a Nightmare. Thud! Just as he planned to begin carving the piece of metal, he picked up faint sounds from beyond the window, alarming him. Thud! The sound wasn''t loud, but in fact, faint. Had it been the original Wang Hu, he wouldn''t have sensed it. But Krune was different. Not only was he a cultivator with a myriad of abilities, but he had also embarked upon the path of body cultivation. And among them, there was the Sonic Radar, an ability no different to a bat''s echolocation. All abilities of body cultivation were related to increasing the function of a body part to the extreme to generate the ability. Sonic Radar was stored in his throat, allowing him to unleash sounds to detect everything in his vicinity. It was a simple ability. Even though he didn''t have Sonic Radar now, the experience in using it for countless decades was ingrained in him, allowing him to replicate the same thing here as well. In his current case, he wasn''t making any sounds now but instead relying on the sounds of his breathing to transmit the sound waves and sense his surroundings based on the rebound of the sound waves. He was able to do this subconsciously. This was the advantage in body cultivation. Anything related to it would be ingrained in one''s body as experience. Even if their cultivation was blocked or their bodies were switched, this would allow them to exhibit the same abilities once again. Though, using the Sonic Radar was his limit now. As for the other abilities, he was unable to use them. Using them required something extra that his body wasn''t equipped with. Even though it wasn''t clear enough, Krune was still able to notice something, something humanoid standing at the entrance to their house. It remained still as the faint moonlight caused it to cast a shadow on their house. As his heart thumped as a result, he didn''t wish to take unnecessary risks, causing the Soul Needle to disappear while the Cloud Whale moved to the other end of the house. This way, nothing amiss would be present in the house¡ªthe warmth generated by the Soul Needle and the sense of peace exhibited by the Cloud Whale. Thud! Thud! As the room turned dark, Krune watched a shadow pass by the window as he immediately fell asleep, sensing that it would be bad to alarm the other part of him being awake. He instinctively understood that acting asleep was the best solution to survival in this case. The moment the entity stood before the window, the moonlight caused its shadow to be faintly highlighted through the window that was covered by a cloth¡ªthe cloth had countless signs of repair and being mended. "Umph!" He hurriedly closed his mouth, preventing himself from screaming unconsciously. The one inciting such a reaction was Wang Hu''s ego, almost causing his death hadn''t Krune reacted fast enough to block his mouth. A massive head thrice the size of a human''s was highlighted for a couple of seconds before the figure walked away. Thump! Thump! Krune''s heart thumped as his weary body was unable to handle the stress. Once the ''creature'' walked away, his hand moved towards the window, intending to see if the creature had disappeared when Krune controlled himself. ''Damn this idiot Wang Hu!'' Of course, it hadn''t disappeared. Krune was able to sense its position through echolocation, albeit faintly. Wang Hu''s instincts caused him to almost open the window to take a peek. Thankfully, both Krune and Su Zixin''s egos suppressed him in time, preventing such a disaster from taking form. ''It''ll be impossible for me to do anything if I don''t address this internal issue first.'' Krune gulped in tension as he noticed the creature stop. After some time passed in such a fashion, it gently placed its palm on the nearby house''s door before knocking a couple of times. Chapter 1187 - Yin Beast A Yin Beast! Thanks to Su Zixin''s memories, Krune figured out the identity of the creature standing beyond the house. In this world, there were two forms of threat to the inhabitants. First were the Nightmares, incredibly scary existences that could only be killed by the Imperial Meisters. Second were the Yin Beasts, denizens of the night that appeared mysteriously to cause disasters. Unlike Nightmares, a Yin Beast could be injured with regular means. The only problem was the fact that they possessed a tough body, capable of fending off a group of people easily. So, the moment a Yin Beast was spotted, a team of soldiers would be dispatched to kill it. The beast that pulled Su Daiyu''s carriage was also a Yin Beast, one of the few Yin Beasts domesticated by the Su Family. Even for such a prominent family, it was hard to domesticate Yin Beasts. So, for a regular household, coming across a Yin Beast was a guaranteed death sentence. The moment Krune understood his identity, his figure trembled from fright. At present, even after fighting with all he had, he wouldn''t be able to win against a Yin Beast. Had he been a youth possessing a healthy, trained physique, as long as he was equipped enough, he had a fighting chance. If at all, he could use the Cloud Whale to constantly injure it when he evaded its attacks, also using the Soul Needle to burn it little by little. He could pour oil on it and set it on fire and perform a variety of tactics. However, everything needed him to move. As an old man, that was impossible. The moment he attacked it once and garnered the Yin Beast''s attention, his life was forfeit. Moreover, Wang Hu''s ego caused a strong sense of hesitation in him to not take action, unwilling to implicate Wang Hao in his reckless endeavor. After realizing that it would be a lost cause in his current state of mind, Krune didn''t take any action, pressing his ears close to the window to sense the position of the Yin Beast. As he was only relying on the sounds of his breathing to probe around, Krune was unable to make out the opponent''s figure. All he could sense was that there was something standing a faint distance away. Once the creature entered the other house, there was a muffled scream for an instant before everything returned to a tranquil silence once again. After that, Krune noticed the creature beginning to move in a certain direction. And for some reason, it seemed heavier than before. Time passed in such a manner as Krune was on his toes all along, perspiring with sweat enough to get his rough clothes drenched. It was unknown as to how long he was in such a state, but before he realized it, he had fallen asleep. An old man''s body wasn''t convenient to remain in such a tense state for so long. ¡­ "Grandpa, grandpa!" It was morning as Krune woke up at the sounds of his grandson''s voice, looking around in alarm before he sighed in relief, realizing that it was daytime already. All Yin Beasts were nocturnal creatures. They hunted during the night while sleeping during the day. "Hao''er¡­" Krune muttered his name, feeling how familiar it was to him, sighing mentally as he patted him, seeing the child tearing up before hugging him. Right at this moment, through his echolocation, he heard faint murmurs. Wishing to see what had happened, he patted Wang Hao and told him, "Stay here. Grandpa will take a look outside." "Eat first, grandpa," Wang Hao said, bringing him a packet of rice. "I got this yesterday, so it''s still good enough to eat." "It''s fine, child. I''m not hungry." Krune flashed a gentle smile as he told him, "You eat this first. Tonight, we''ll have a feast." "But¡­" Wang Hao frowned gently, worry evident on his face. He no longer had a childlike innocence, having matured early due to their hardship. "It''s fine. Go ahead and eat all the rice. Grandpa will bring more food for you soon." Saying so, Krune got up slowly and first headed to their backyard. Then again, it was a backyard only in name. In actuality, it was an open patch of land, and the closest patch belonged to him. Even though it was called a village, there were less than a hundred houses here. Among thirty of them faced each other, forming a line through the center of which a mud road spanned. There were similar arrangements in a couple more locations, with the backyards of each house connected to their respective plantations. Then again, the fields of some households were situated farther away, and they had to travel across the areas belonging to their neighbors. There were paths designated for travel, so it wasn''t an issue. Having sold off most of their lands, the patch connected to their house''s back was the only piece of land left to their property. Krune looked at it, sighing upon seeing the pitiful area it had. Even the bathroom he had in the Mountain Sect was bigger than this. On top of that, he didn''t even have to use a bathroom. Such disparity caused him unable to decide whether he had to laugh or cry. But, that wasn''t his intention now as Krune summoned his Soul Needle, watching the glow on it begin to recover once the sun rays fell on it. ''As expected, this property of it as a Sun Stone is still there.'' A Sun Stone was formed as a result of the sun rays being concentrated at a place for long enough for the material there to absorb it and become one. Other than that, a Sun Stone continued to absorb heat from the sun during the day, That was its characteristic. It would then constantly emit it during the night. Krune gently planted it in one corner of the field, inserting the back end of the Soul Needle into the soul to hold it up firmly. He then entered the house and exited through its front, arriving on the road to see a small group of people congregated around their neighbor''s house, also hearing the topic of their hushed discussions. "Old Leaf has disappeared." "He''s not at an age to travel afar." "Did a beast attack him?" "There are no traces of such beasts here.. It''s like he has vanished into thin air." Chapter 1188 - A Friend In Need Upon seeing Krune¡ªWang Hu¡ªapproaching them, none of the villagers paid him any heed as the elderly, giving him derisive looks even, displaying that he wasn''t well-received in the place. But, that was only because he was an old coot still alive while the younger members of their village had died from starvation in the past month. ''So, Old Leaf had been picked up by that Yin Beast.'' Krune understood the gist of things, turning around as he returned to his house, uncaring. Wang Hu and the one called Old Leaf didn''t share a good relationship. Thus, he didn''t feel anything for the other party''s death. Instead, there was only the worry that Old Leaf''s body didn''t satiate the Yin Beast enough. Krune suppressed the weak-willed thoughts from Wang Hu as he arrived at the backyard once again. ''It''s not the time to be high profile yet. I have to first solve the issue of food shortage.'' He looked at the backyard, watching a couple of dried potatoes in the place. The leaves of the potatoes had completely withered. As for the potato grown underground, it shouldn''t have been anything worth nothing about. There were cracks in the soil, showing a sign of a lack of water. Krune then surveyed the other fields, noticing that even though crops filled the place, they weren''t healthy, showing minor signs of wilting. ''There''s a water shortage. After the bandits raided this place, there''s a food shortage as well. Most of the villagers are starving.'' ''In any case, let''s first solve the issue of a water shortage.'' He picked up the Soul Needle, realizing that it had already recovered completely. He then closed his eyes, holding it solemnly as he thought, willing it into action. ''Point me towards a water source!'' This was one of the uses of the Soul Needle, something he had discovered after more than a decade of research. Usually, the Soul Needle pointed at anything that qualified as a treasure. In fact, it acted on its own. At first, Krune thought that was how it worked. But later, he realized that he could actually control it. Though, it depended on how specific he was. Otherwise, it wouldn''t work. Now, as a mortal, water was a valuable resource, a treasure to him. As he wished to find an underground reservoir of water, the Soul Needle acted up, beginning to spin in his hand as its radiance dimmed slightly when it hovered in the air. After that, it calmly pointed in a direction. Krune began to walk in the pointed direction, crossing a couple of farm patches before he arrived at the middle of deserted land. It was unclaimed by anyone from the village because of just one reason: rocks beneath the land. Just a couple of feet under the soil existed a rocky bed, preventing anyone from growing any crops in this patch of land. Upon arriving at the place, the Soul Needle pointed at the ground. Krune then frowned as he calmly circled around the pointed location. He watched the Soul Needle constantly change directions according to his movement while its tip pointed at the location. He also varied the height of the Soul Needle by moving it up and down. After observing the change in the angle of the Soul Needle with respect to the ground in all the cases, Krune determined the depth at which the water was located. ''That''s great. It''s only a few meters deep.'' It was a simple mathematical calculation. So, it took him a couple of seconds to finish the calculation. After that, he began to walk towards a certain house in the village. ''But first, I must claim this land as mine. Otherwise, I''ll just be shooting myself in the foot.'' As he decided to not reveal his abilities yet, he would be considered a frail old man. With that, a source of water would cause everyone to occupy it in their greed, pushing him, the one that discovered it, away. The house he arrived at was the Village Head''s house. He was the one with the authority to preside over land deals in the village. Krune knocked on the door before turning around to see the Village Head arriving from behind. It seemed he had gone over to check the state of Old Leaf''s house. "Old Wang, you woke up?" The Village Head asked with great familiarity. They were both childhood friends and one of those that treated him warmly. After all, as they were both illiterate, they had shared worries and concerns. Even though the Village Head''s children were alive, they weren''t smart. So, he was worried about the well-being of his grandchildren once he passed away. For that, he and Wang Hu jointly invested in gathering books and teaching their grandchildren. Moreover, when Wang Hu fell unconscious, he was the one helping in secret, using some grains stored in their reserves to help nurse him. Otherwise, in their village''s destitute state, it wouldn''t have been possible for him to survive a month-long coma. "I want to claim that rocky land." After entering the Village Head''s house, Krune stated his desire. "It has no value¡­" The Village Head stopped speaking, understanding the reason Krune had asked for that land. At present, Wang Hu only owned a small piece of land, insufficient for Wang Hao to survive once he passed away. So, the rocky land, despite being useless, could at least prove useful somehow, in one way or another. Even otherwise, the rocks there were of good quality and could be used in house construction if the one purchasing it was someone from another village that wished to settle here. Plus, since it was worthless, he could claim it without paying anything. If the Village Head had claimed it himself, it would cause the villagers to doubt his authority, calling him unscrupulous. That was the only reason he hadn''t gained ownership of that land. ''But, I can help my friend this way. Though, I have no idea if that would ever come to happen.'' He sighed, lifting his head to say in return, "Alright, if I didn''t even help you in such a small matter, I can''t call myself your lifelong friend." "Thank you, brother." Krune thanked profusely before saying, "Also, can you make it like I had claimed ownership of it two years ago?" "Oh? Have you thought of something?" The Village Head asked in surprise, seeing a glint in Wang Hu''s eyes. Chapter 1189 - Sacrifice: Suffering Of Guilt "Have you thought of something?" the village head asked, seeing the glint in Wang Hu''s eyes. "Yes." After nodding lightly, Krune took in a deep breath before his expression turned solemn. His body posture slightly changed, suddenly making it seem like he had a majestic air about him, concealing an aura of authority. Upon seeing the minor changes, the village head immediately felt that Wang Hu''s posture was familiar. As he was wondering in surprise and confusion, he saw his old friend exhaling gently. Raising his head, Krune told him, "During this coma, I recalled my family''s lifelong secret. It seems I somehow lost this memory until yesterday." After a dramatic pause, he said solemnly, "My family is actually a line of Imperial Meisters." "W-What? Imperial M-Meisters?" The village head trembled n fear, for a moment trembling as he unconsciously wished to prostrate on the floor. However, Krune prevented him from doing that, sighing as he continued, "Something like that isn''t necessary between the two of us. Besides, after I recovered my Imperial Arms, I realized that it had been severely damaged. I can barely use its ability right now." "Anyway, keep this a secret." He then leaned closer, whispering, "I used its ability to determine a water source that would save our village''s plight." "Don''t you wish to head towards a town and announce your status so that you can assume a governmental position? Wasn''t that what you had sought all along?" After calming down from the surprise, the village head asked. "Did you forget that I''m illiterate?" Krune laughed wryly. "And besides, I don''t have the strength to make that trip. Making our grandchildren enter the County Academy takes the utmost priority. Otherwise, once people come to know about my identity, they''ll target Hao''er for our bloodline." "You''re the only one I can trust with this secret," Krune said with all his seriousness. "I understand," the village head replied. He understood the underlying implications behind Krune''s words. As Wang Hu was considered an Imperial Meister, possessing an Imperial Arms, even though it was damaged, that still gave him status above typical wealthy families. Unfortunately, he''s an old man who could die any day. After that, the only other person carrying his bloodline was Wang Hao. So, any aristocratic family would definitely try to make Wang Hao marry into their family. This way, they would be able to elevate their status and obtain the power of the Imperial Arms. In the future, the bloodline would continue in their family. Moreover, after using enough funds, they could even begin to repair the fragmented Imperial Arms. After all, repairing one was way easier than creating one from scratch. Now that Krune divulged the secret to the village head, it meant that in the case he died, it was up to the village head to continue his bloodline. At present, Wang Hao and the Village Head''s granddaughter were pretty close. The two old men had been focusing on educating the two all along, as they were the smartest of their respective families. So¡­having understood everything, the village head teared up, holding Krune''s hands as he promised, "You don''t have to worry. As long as this pile of bones still breathes, I''ll do my utmost to give them a better future." After that, the two of them chatted for quite some time, discussing a variety of things before the village head forged a document that indicated the empty patch of rocky land in the village was now the property of Krune¡ªWang Hu. With that, it had been claimed two years ago, just as how Krune wanted. After carefully tucking it within his clothes, Krune then told him, "Also, you must make an overbearing choice." "An overbearing choice?" The village head was startled upon the abrupt change in Krune''s tone. "Yeah." Krune nodded, sighing as he told him the truth. "The reason Old Leaf vanished was because a Yin Beast had taken him away." "Y-Yin B-" As the village head shouted in shock, Krune hurriedly shut him up. Once he calmed down, Krune began to speak. "I still cannot fully understand its nature, but it seems to be seeking those that live alone in their house. So¡­" The village head shuddered, having understood what Krune implied. "But, with your Imperial Arms¡­" "It''s impossible," Krune sighed, lamenting. "With my body, I cannot dodge its attacks. Plus, my attack power isn''t enough to kill it in one strike." "No soldier would even come here if we ask the nearby town." The village head frowned in worry. "We haven''t even managed to pay our taxes this year after we were raided by the bandits. Our village lacks any prospects, so no one would take the effort to come to our aid." Krune nodded in response, clearly understanding the status of their village. Had it been before the bandit raid, there could have at least been some possibility of receiving help. But now, there wasn''t. The produce in their village was of the lowest quality, the talents non-existent, and with their taxes not being paid, they would be ignored. After all, to hunt the Yin Beast, the lord of the nearby town would have to send his personal troops. And, every soldier that died to the Yin Beast meant a major loss in resources. After all, training able-bodied men capable of fighting against Yin Beasts consumed a lot of resources. No one would be willing to waste their resources for no returns. "So, an overbearing measure." The village head sighed before asking Krune, "However, we cannot go like this forever. After the second time, the villagers might realize something is indeed amiss. We need to solve the threat of the Yin Beast somehow." "Do we have any animals left? Alive ones, I mean," Krune asked. "I still have a goat tucked safely," the village head replied, shaking his head. "However, we have stored it for emergencies. Besides, it can still provide milk by eating grass. It''s too valuable to part with." "There''s still Old Stem and Old Root," Krune said coldly. "That should buy us some valuable time. if we are unable to prepare by then, let''s buy time with your goat." "To think I value my goat over two human lives. I have failed as the village head." The village head sighed in exhaustion. Krune patted his shoulders, saying, "We can only focus on protecting our families first. Only the strong can care about protecting everyone." "Us old bones should work harder to survive this crisis." Chapter 1190 - Sentries After finalizing their plan of action, Krune completed his discussion with the village head and returned home, bringing with him a packet of milk and some food. Upon returning home, he noticed Wang Hao looking guilty for having finished all the food on his own. Smiling, he patted the child''s head, saying, "There''s more food to eat now." Upon seeing his grandpa return with more food, Wang Hao teared up, expressing his relief. It showed just how much stress a child like him had endured the past month. The two then ate a hearty meal and drank the milk. Krune then urged Wang Hao to continue studying, casually giving him some pointers that allowed him to learn through things better. Thanks to Su Zixin''s memories, Krune was knowledgeable about a lot of things. After all, being an Imperial Meister was no joke. The amount of knowledge and experience one would need to amass was too much for a regular mortal to bear. Only with that would such existences revered by everyone be created. Now that he had eaten his fill, Krune felt like he was able to move somewhat better. Of course, it was the food in his stomach talking. Sometime later, he arrived at the rocky patch of land that was now his, calmly finding a boulder to be seated upon. He then looked around, watching a couple of farmers moving about in the fields to work while the rest returned to their homes, having no hope. Even the ones going to work were only doing so to prevent themselves from going crazy and doing something unspeakable. There was despair in everyone. Hope was lost. ''At this rate, a Nightmare would form within a couple of months. If the deaths in the village piled up in the meantime, the creation of the Nightmare would only speed up.'' He sighed, thinking of something as the Cloud Whale stealthily flew out of the house. As Wang Hao was busy studying, it was able to sneak out of its hiding place, arriving at the spot Krune had determined to be the location of water as it began to suck in the air. Soon after¡­ Air Needle! As even the closest villager was situated far away, they didn''t hear the sound of air cutting into the ground. Once the gust of air finished flowing out, the Cloud Whale began to suck in air once again, unleashing a second Air Needle. In the meantime, Krune grabbed hold of the metal slab, summoning his Soul Needle as he gently pressed the tip on one end, watching the slab of metal slowly heat up. As the Soul Needle was constantly absorbing the sunlight, it didn''t dim and continued to generate heat, allowing him to slowly make a small carving pattern. Even though the slab of metal slightly got hotter, as the wind was blowing, it cooled off rapidly. He could casually hold the metal slab with his bare hands and work on it, slowly carving it little by little, beginning to make a bizarre design. Even though he was working slowly to not overexert himself, he still became tired soon enough, unable to remain seated in the same place. "Being old sucks." Pocketing the metal slab, he retracted the Soul Needle, waving his sleeve for the Cloud Whale to slip into. Working nonstop hurt his head too much. As he was old and malnourished, he didn''t have enough strength to keep up with the heavy work. Even though the Cloud Whale was doing all the work, he was the one controlling it. As a cultivator, it came to him as second nature. But right now, he was exhausted from the mental strain he had to bear. So, he planned to take a stroll and relax himself a little bit. Maybe walking would improve his health by a little. Their village was located on a rocky plateau, with little soil covering it and mostly rocks. So, not much grew in the rocky places while their village was situated on the sole large patch of soil. Therefore, the total farming land they had was pretty small. Even on years with a bountiful harvest, it was barely enough to stock up on some seeds for the next season. So, it wasn''t like their condition deteriorated only after the bandit raid. It had been in the red even before then. The villagers were afraid of the bandits, but Krune wasn''t. He planned to deal with a couple of them first and use them to satiate the Yin Beast. That way, they''ll get more time before the lives of Old Stem and Old Root had to be sacrificed. These two elderlies lived alone. In fact, they were the oldest in the village, looking like someone that would die any day. The only reason they had survived despite the poor condition of the village was thanks to their way of life, which was to consume grass. Or rather, that was their diet, one that had been forced to make, cooking various amounts of grass for food. It was pretty much ridiculed in the village, though, as eating grass was never fulfilling. Nevertheless, the two elderlies had eaten the same for almost a decade now and still managed to live. ''Hmm¡­grass,'' Krune thought. ''That might solve some of our immediate food needs. Plus, their knowledge might prove useful since grass can grow quickly. Having grown it for a decade, they should know enough about them.'' Krune continued to walk until he reached the end of the village, soon crossing it as he began to slowly stroll through the rocky path, at times resting upon the rocks to catch his breath. After some time passed, he finally caught his breath, taking in deep exhales before exhaling them abruptly, producing a sharp sound, one that was barely audible but was painful to the ear. He then closed his eyes, sensing the reflections of the sound wave he emitted. Soon, he got a blurry sense of his surroundings before his eyes lit up, muttering, "Now it makes sense.. There are indeed two sentries posted here." Chapter 1191 - You’ll Never Be Old Enough ''Hmm, there are two bandits posted here as sentries.'' Krune frowned, scouting a bit more through echolocation as he sensed their position around 30 meters away. This was the limit as to which his sound could reach. If he wished to sense any farther, he would have to shout harder. Naturally, that would alert them. Having observed their positions, Krune''s mind whirred in thought, eventually understanding their reason for standing as sentries here. First of all, they were positioned atop a large piece of rock that allowed them to look far away, keeping track of everything, able to see the more than six villages in the surroundings. Even though all villages were pretty far from one another, the ones atop this location were still able to spot the people in the village as tiny moving dots. That was enough for them to know if something had happened. This way, they''ll be able to alert their bandit stronghold in case something happened. Among the six villages situated on this plateau, the village Krune was from was the poorest. As for the rest, they fared relatively better. In fact, one village among them lived pretty content lives, having a small canal connecting to the well in their village from a river farther away. Thanks to this, they never had to face any water deficit. Moreover, this village and the bandits had a subtle relationship. Some of the bandits were actually from the village, taking on the role of bandits just to plunder from the other villages in times of necessity. This way, they ensured their village always had a surplus of food. Krune knew the reason, thanks to Wang Hu''s memories. Rather, everyone in their village was also aware of it. Of course, no one was able to do anything. After all, the bandits were pretty strong and had capable men leading them. It was not to mention the fact that the village they had relations with was the sole village valued by the nearby town. So, no matter how much Wang Hu''s village protested in the town, no action would be taken against the bandits. Sometimes, to protect their vested interests, the bandits had even killed a couple of Yin Beasts before. So, they were left to their devices by the lord of the nearby town. Upon sensing that there were only two sentries placed atop the large rock, Krune hid behind a boulder, gently peeking from an edge before observing their figures. As it was a boring job, the two sentries were yawning while talking casually. Occasionally, they spared a glance at every village once before resuming their casual chatter. Krune manipulated the Cloud Whale into gently moving towards the bandits before causing it to hide near them, hovering behind a rock. In such proximity, their moods were gradually affected. Even they themselves were surprised that their manner of speech became gentler before they realized it. Laughing about the oddity of the situation, they continued to talk about a variety of miscellaneous matters. After an hour passed in such a fashion, they became tired, falling silent. One of them closed his eyes momentarily while the other calmly looked around for one more round of inspection. At this moment, the Cloud Whale arrived behind the one that had closed his eyes. As he was currently seated, he was a better target as it calmly poked at a certain location on his neck. Before he knew it, the man fell asleep. Slowly, the Cloud Whale arrived before the other man, doing the same when he wasn''t paying any attention, causing him to fall to the ground, asleep. Krune slowly dragged himself over to the top of the large rock, using the Soul Needle to cut some pieces of fabric from their clothes, using it to bind their hands and legs, also covering their eyes, mouth, and even ears once he had stuffed them. This way, they wouldn''t be able to do anything. He then began to drag them, grunting a lot as he pulled them little by little, complaining to the Cloud Whale from time to time about how weak his body was. After dragging both of them to a discrete location fifty meters away, he hid them there. He then waited at the place near the large rock, cautiously seated nearby, soon sensing three more bandits walking towards the place. It was already evening by now. They were the ones on night duty. Since nighttime was riskier than daytime, there were three of them, holding their respective equipment and rations for the night. Krune had helped himself to the rations the other two bandits had, hence replenishing his strength a little bit. ''Okay, now comes the tough part.'' Krune took in a deep breath, causing the Cloud Whale to stealthily move while hiding behind the rocks. After making a large circle, it arrived behind the guy that was walking at the back, gently poking at his neck, causing him to fall to the ground with a thud. Before the other two could react, the Cloud Whale turned around to face the second bandit, unleashing its Air Needle. Surprisingly, being shot through it was the Soul Needle that pierced through the man''s neck, causing him to roar in pain before fainting immediately. "Haha, you damn bastard! That''s what you get for pillaging our village!" Krune suddenly leaped out of his hiding spot and danced on the spot, taunting aloud. "This crazy¡­!" At first, the last remaining bandit was flustered at the sight of the Cloud Whale. However, before he could process the information, Krune''s loud voice instinctively caused him to gaze in the direction, watching a crazy old man dancing on a boulder while taunting him with a string of expletives. Within a couple of seconds, the bandit''s mind was filled with anger. But suddenly, he was alarmed, only now realizing that he had glossed over the Cloud Whale''s existence thanks to Krune''s loud taunts. This thought just resounded in his mind when his eyes lost focus, collapsing to the ground, unconscious. The Cloud Needle had poked him on the neck just like it had done to the others. "Thankfully, it worked as I had planned." Sighing in relief, Krune arrived before the three bandits, smirking. "You''re 250 years too early to¡­wait, adding Su Zixin''s and Wang Hu''s age¡­so, 370¡­and also subtracting the bandit''s age¡­so around 330 years¡­argh!" He then muttered in seriousness, "You''ll never be old enough to outsmart me." Chapter 1192 - Bait? Scheme? Danger! "Aargh¡­gah¡­gruaahh!" Grunting sounds erupted from Krune as he dragged the bodies of five people one after another. From one discrete location to another, he dragged the bodies over one by one. To an old man, this was too much, causing his back to ache while he felt dizzy. Thankfully, the rations the five bandits had brought was plenty enough for him. He first returned to his home and placed all the rations and other valuables looted from the bandits there. He then called the village head as the two of them arrived at the place, beginning to drag the bodies of the five. Even though the village head was startled at first, once Krune explained the reason for his action, he grinned. They were planning to pit the Yin Beast and the bandits against one another. Naturally, these five bandits were the perfect bait for that. It had already become nighttime as everyone from the village returned to their homes, dispirited. After finding something to eat, they all slept, unaware of the two old men toiling about, carrying in the darkness. Eventually, they carried all the five bandits into Old Leaf''s house since it was empty. Four bandits were unconscious, bound by Krune, preventing them from moving or even emitting any sound. After all, with their mouths stuffed, even their muffled screams wouldn''t be audible to anyone beyond the house. As for the fifth bandit, he had died. He was the one that had been targeted by the Soul Needle, dying as the nerves in his neck burned from the heat. As the place melted, it didn''t bleed. Then again, he had died as a result. All Krune did was tear some cloth from the bandit''s pants and tie it around his neck to prevent it from breaking off. Of course, it was grotesque to see, so he wished to hide it. The place was deathly silent as not even the sounds of any insects resounded through the streets, devoid of any signs of human activity. The village head gulped in fear, slowly giving in to his sense of paranoia when Krune patted his shoulder, consoling him. "I''m here." He then escorted the village head to his house before beginning to return, shuddering at the desolate atmosphere of the place, hurrying back to his house. Placed at the doorstep to Old Leaf''s house was the dead bandit, placed as bait for the Yin Beast. On top of that, the door to the house was left ajar, just to ensure the Yin Beast was able to see the bound bandits inside. Then again, Krune didn''t have to worry about that. The Yin Beast was a stealthy creature, unwilling to alert the people. That''s why it first kidnapped Old Leaf, an old man living alone. So, those living in a group wouldn''t come at risk¡­yet. And, it seemed it was capable of detecting the state of people inside the homes. Upon seeing Wang Hao sleeping, Krune gently patted his grandchild before resting his weary back, slowly feeling his heartrate accelerate as his eyes were wide open, with sweat dripping down his face. Thump! Thump! His heartbeats continued to accelerate as Krune tried his best to calm himself, patting himself. ''It''s here!'' As he had expected, through the fluctuations in the air generated by his breathing, he barely sensed the rebounding sound waves, determining that a mysterious entity had appeared before Old Leaf''s house. However, the moment he sensed it, Krune was alarmed. Unexpectedly, there wasn''t one Yin Beast there, but three. ''Did I inadvertently attract disaster?'' He was alarmed, but even through Su Zixin''s memories, such a situation wasn''t common. Typically, Yin Beasts moved alone. They were prideful creatures, not having any foes to worry about. Thus, they were solitary creatures. As to how they were born, no one knew. Yin Beasts mysteriously appeared from time to time. So, even though they had existed since ages ago, nothing much was known about them. And now, upon noticing that three Yin Beasts stood before the neighboring house, Krune was alarmed. But he soon calmed himself, noticing them carrying all four bandits with them before they left the village. Krune slowly got up and stealthily exited the backdoor of the house. Once he wasn''t confined by the walls, he was able to perceive farther through his echolocation. Also, since a faint wind blew, he was able to feel the presence of things based on the faint dynamics created when the wind hit every object along its path. Thanks to this, he was able to sense the position of the three Yin Beasts, watching them carry the five bandits and slowly walk north of the village. ''That''s¡­'' He frowned because to the north of the village was a dangerous place filled with sharp rocks and boulders. Countless hills stretched there, shaped bizarrely, with not even a speck of soil around. The Barren Range! That was what the villagers called it since no life existed there. Krune cautiously trailed after them, gripping the Cloud Whale for assurance, intending to find just where they lived. Though, once he entered the Barren Range, Krune was shocked to see that he had actually lost track of them. First of all, he wasn''t able to move as fast as the Yin Beasts. Secondly, the terrain was rugged, preventing him from even walking at his usual pace. His straw slippers had almost been torn into shreds thanks to his actions, preventing him from walking beyond. With that, the sharp surface constantly prickled at his feet. All in all, he lost sight of them, sighing as he returned and slept on his bed, thinking for some time. Soon after, he had fallen asleep. What even he hadn''t known was that sometime after Krune had fallen asleep, a shadow flashed beyond the window, for a moment pausing as a hand gently pushed the window slightly, glancing within to see two people. It then closed the window and vanished. The night continued to remain in silence after that as the sounds of winds at times resounded with an eerie tune.. Within their house, the breathing sounds of an old man and his grandson resounded at a steady pace. Chapter 1193 - Water Krune woke up in the morning of the next day, ate some of the rations brought by the bandits and helped Wang Hao learn some more words. As his grandson continued to learn, Krune smiled, exiting the house to see that there was no commotion in the village. The bandits were healthy, brimming with power. It was because they had a surplus of food to eat, enough to even make snacks. To remain on night duty, the three bandits had brought a lot of provisions with them. Krune stored them all in his house, sighing as he thought, ''That''ll be enough to last three days for us.'' As he was an old man while Wang Hao was still a child, the amount of food they consumed was very little compared to burly men like the bandits who had to eat a lot to keep up with the energy requirements of their large figures. Krune didn''t head towards the location of the sentry of the bandits now. That would just be tantamount to suicide. They would be investigating the place for any signs of clues. Thankfully for him, Krune had hidden the weapons he had looted from them. They weren''t stored anywhere in the village. That would just be risky. Instead, Krune had cleverly placed them in the crack of a boulder far away from the village. On top of that, the boulder was located in a barren location. No one would be going there. Plus, even if they were searching there, they still wouldn''t be able to notice the weapons placed at the end of the crack in the boulder where it was completely dark, even during noon. So, it was pretty easy to overlook. As he had expected, there was a sudden commotion in the village as the violent shouts of men resounded. "Everyone in this village! Get out within a minute! Otherwise, we''ll exterminate the lot of you!" A burly man waved a scimitar around as he bellowed. Upon sight of him, all the villagers trembled and cautiously walked out of their homes. Upon seeing how skinny everyone had gotten since the last time he had seen, the burly man frowned, whispering something to the men he accompanied. He then found the village head, asking, "Did anyone from your village disappear recently?" "Yes." The village head shuddered in fear as he replied, "Old Leaf vanished yesterday." "Anyone else?" "Only him." "Show the way to his house." "Yes." The village head humbly nodded, fear evident on his face, his body trembling from time to time. In the meantime, all the villagers had gathered in one location, dispirited. Most of them didn''t even seem to care about the bandits, ready to accept their fate. "This place is done for." A bandit whispered to his colleague. "Yeah, it seems we pushed them too much recently. This village has been the poorest among all the villages, after all." Another bandit nodded. "Anyway, once they die from starvation, we''ll demolish this village and build a stronghold for us here," another bandit whispered. "Yeah, it seems our boss has some plans regarding the Barren Range. Since this place is the closest settlement to it, it''s necessary for us," a smart bandit replied. "Why can''t we just kill them all?" Another bandit asked in confusion. "Why waste so much time waiting for their deaths? They''re bound to die anyway." "It''s not the right time yet," the smart bandit replied. "Boss said we still have a lot of other plans to execute before beginning our plan here. And also, he plans to use the villagers to build our base. Might as well use the free labor, right?" "Hahaha!" Krune overheard their discussions through his sharp senses, frowning while kneeling on the ground with the rest of the villagers. In the meantime, the village head showed a couple of bandits to Old Leaf''s house. Upon inspecting the inside, they were unable to find any clues, sighing as they planned to return. But suddenly, one of the bandits frowned, pointing at a window while asking, "Wait, what''s this?" "This¡­!" The other bandit frowned. "Looks like a beast''s claw marks. But the way it has been done¡­" He then returned and informed the others as soon all the bandits finished inspecting Old Leaf''s house before leaving the village. They left as quickly as they had arrived. After all, there was nothing of worth in this village. Once the bandits left, the villagers got up one after another and dispiritedly returned to their work, tending to whatever remained of their farms. After ensuring that the village head wasn''t injured, Krune arrived at the rocky patch of land and took a seat on the usual boulder, making the Cloud Whale bore holes into the ground. There was only a faint layer of soil, spanning a few centimeters in thickness over a patch of rock in the area the Cloud Whale was digging. So, once the soil patch was removed, the Cloud Whale cleaned up the place neatly. It was noon when Krune gazed at the circle before him, shaped into a basin. The circle only spanned a meter in radius. And, at its center, the depth reached a meter. ''This is good enough to act as a reservoir of water.'' Smiling, Krune made the Cloud Whale do all the work, using its suction ability to transport the soil elsewhere. In the meantime, he was continuing to carve the metal slab. It was finally evening time as Krune completed the task he had set out to achieve, calling the village head as the two arrived before the basin. Upon seeing the Cloud Whale, the Village Head was shocked, finally realizing that this was the ability resulting from Krune''s Imperial Arms¡ªthat was what he believed. Seeing his expression, Krune smiled, causing the Cloud Whale to hover in the center. Air Needle! A tiny hole was poked into the center of the basin as immediately, a thin, tiny geyser erupted out, reaching a height of a couple of feet. The water in the basin began to fill up as Krune muttered, "The source here is connected to a thicker underground water stream.. So, it''ll be barely enough for our village''s needs." Chapter 1194 - Grass Is Bountiful "¡­Amazing!" "We''re saved!" "Thank the heavens!" The villagers huddled around the place one after another, exclaiming in joy. The wells in their village were almost dry, barely having any water for them to drink, not to mention watering their crops. And now, seeing the water gushing out, a lot of them could not help but cry. "Village head! We''re finally shown mercy!" some of them cried, saying in response. A villager gently scooped out some water and drank it, exclaiming, "It''s really fresh!" A couple of villagers soon brought some containers from their house, intending to scoop out water from it for their uses, when the village head stopped them from doing so. "Village head! What''s the meaning of this?" "It seems you misunderstand something." The village head shook his head, saying, "This land is Old Wang''s property. So, before you use the water, you must get his permission." "What? Old Wang? This patch of land has been unclaimed from the start. Why are you telling us this?" Some of the villagers refused to believe it. Right at this time, Krune arrived, watching the restless gazes of everyone trail on him as he calmly pointed at the basin. "See the carving at this place. It''s something I have been doing for the past two years." Only now did everyone divert their gazes from the water and look at the border of the basin, looking at the words carved there. [Property of the Wang Family] Based on the depth of the inscription, it wasn''t something that could be done overnight. Since they had arrived the moment they smelled the water, it couldn''t have been done on the spot to claim unjust ownership. "I experienced a dream once," Krune said after showing the relevant document that stated he had bought this piece of land two years ago. "It showed that if I diligently carved into the rock here, our village would be saved. For two years, I have been doing it nonstop. And today, I finished the process, and fortunately, there''s indeed water here." "Old Wang! Are you going to charge us for this water?" One of the healthier villagers came forward, glaring at him. All Krune did was smile in response before shouting, "In troubled times, we must help each other to survive. Otherwise, our village would be annihilated. Everyone can use the water here. There is enough supply to barely meet our needs. But..." He said, pausing for a moment, watching everyone gulp in response. He then laughed as he continued, "I don''t ask for much in return for using my water. Just give me enough food for me and Hao''er to eat. That''s all!" Upon seeing his demand, the villagers visibly relaxed. With enough water supply, they would be able to somehow grow enough food soon enough. "Alright, I''ll take charge to provide your family enough food." A middle-aged man walked forward to say before turning around to face everyone. "Since I''m taking charge of this, do help a little on my farm, please." "That''s fine." "We don''t have much work to do here anyway." As everyone echoed in response, Krune suddenly spoke, "Also, even though we have enough water now, our life is still hard. We don''t have enough food. Think of our past. Even during the times when we had enough water, our produce was still insufficient." Upon his words, the atmosphere became gloomy once again, causing them to recall the fact that the land they were upon wasn''t bountiful. "But..." Krune smiled. "Grass can still grow here plenty. Old Stem and Old Root have been living off of grass for a decade now. And they''re quite healthy for their age. It''s time we shatter our preconceived bias and adapt to our situation better." "Eating grass is¡­" A lot of the villagers muttered. It wasn''t that they thought of eating grass as beneath them or anything. They were only worried that it wasn''t nutritional and fulfilling enough compared to rice and the rest. "Trust me, it''s pretty fulfilling enough." Old Root slowly walked forward, hunched as she said with a weak voice. "As long as you follow my recipes, you''ll be able to eat your fill without worrying. There are more than thirty varieties of grass that grow here, and most of them finish maturing within 4-5 days." "Fine, let''s try it." One of the villagers nodded, clenching his hand into a fist before saying, "Please lead the way, Old Root." "Of course," Old Root chuckled weakly before shooting a deep glance at Krune. Soon, five days passed by in such a fashion. Krune hadn''t seen any Yin Beast after the first two encounters. It seemed that eating five bandits seemed enough for the time being that they hadn''t arrived at the village. Or maybe the bandits began to track them to seek revenge. The village wasn''t bothered by anything external for the past five days as all the villagers worked with enthusiasm, clearing the dried crops to use them as manure as they planted the seeds of the various grass varieties that Old Root had been collecting. On the evening of the fifth day, everyone had congregated at the center of the village as the women of the village cooked in the open, following the recipe as instructed by Old Root and Old Stem. Eventually, they created four varieties. The first seemed like a grain of sorts that had been achieved by immersing a special grass root in water to boil after it was dissolved. And once it was cooled, it condensed into a substance similar to grains. The second was a paste that was created by grinding three different types of grass before adding some potatoes and tomatoes into it as pieces. There was something that resembled noodles, mysteriously made from grass. As for the final dish, they were shaped into dumplings. Krune ate them, grinning widely from one end to another. ''They aren''t too tasty, but they aren''t bad either. And best of all, this grass would always be in surplus.'' ''Our food shortage is now resolved.'' Krune smiled, saying, "This is pretty great." "Hahaha! It seems with a good recipe and a skilled cook, even grass could be turned into a variety of satisfactory and fulfilling dishes." The village head roared in laughter, stuffing his face full. The other villagers also laughed in response, enjoying the very first time their village ever had a feast. Chapter 1195 - Self Bait "You''ve changed a bit, don''t you think?" Old Root whispered as she looked at Krune before walking away. She continued to converse with the other ladies of the village, informing them of the dos and don''ts concerning the grass. After all, the amount of knowledge she had accumulated over a decade of practice wasn''t something that could be learned in days. Nevertheless, she was in a hurry, as if sensing that her death was near. She didn''t have long to transfer all her knowledge to others, ensuring everything she had accumulated wasn''t lost. It was as if she knew about Krune''s and the village head''s plans to sacrifice her and Old Stem to the Yin Beasts to buy time for the village to prepare. ''Old people can indeed perceive when their death is near. And it seems that''s true.'' Krune sighed as he watched the figure of Wang Hao stuffing his face to the brim, smiling contently. ''This sight is enough to risk my life.'' Even though Krune knew of the risks, he couldn''t do anything else. After all, having inherited everything from Wang Hu, his concerns, his attachments, his feelings, and other things, everything had now become Krune''s. With an inherently kinder disposition, it was impossible for Krune to focus on his selfish needs while watching Wang Hao suffer. That would only serve to cause a fracture in his mind. "Cooking with everyone is fun!" One of the ladies basked in the bright atmosphere, sighing as she spoke. "Yes, I wish for this to happen daily." Another lady spoke, her dispirited eyes now darting about in interest. ''In just one day, Old Wang has brought about such great changes,'' the village head thought, looking at everyone eating about joyfully as he cleared his voice, speaking aloud, "Everyone! Please listen to what I have to say!" As there was a festive mood in their village thanks to the abundance of food for the first time, he wished to nail the concept in their minds while the iron was hot, speaking once everyone looked at him with rapt attention. "Now that everyone has worked together, our lives have become a bit better almost immediately. With that, from now on, I propose that everyone in the village share all three meals together. We''ll make it our custom and ensure we actually live and enjoy." "Yeah!" Everyone collectively shouted in unison. ''The bandits won''t pay much attention to this village for the time being. At least, until it''s time for them to level this place.'' Krune frowned, deep in thought as he watched the spirited expressions on the faces of everyone. ''I should do something to protect this place. Naturally, destroying the bandits would be the key to that.'' ''No, destroying them wouldn''t solve our issues.'' He tapped his chin, having eaten until his stomach was bloated. ''The Yin Beasts are also troublesome. The best bet is to cause mutual destruction of both parties.'' He then patted the metal slab on his chest. He had already finished carving it out, turning it into a pendant. It was circular in shape, and engraved in its center was the picture of the Cloud Whale. It was pretty simple, but it''ll get the job done. After all, he had created a secret groove in the center for the Soul Needle to be placed within. To make it seem mysterious, he''ll place the Soul Needle within and cause it to spin to display a treasure. Then, the force it generated would also make the pendant spin. That alone would be enough proof that it was an Imperial Arms or at least the fragment of one. An actual Imperial Arms possessed a suffocating presence that it would unleash once upon activating. That was the proof of its existence. A genuine Imperial Meister would be able to determine that the pendant was just a sham and wasn''t even an Imperial Arms fragment. ''I''ll have to search for Nightmare Cores in the future and make an Imperial Arms for my use. I''ll have to prepare for that eventual possibility, at least for my next reincarnation.'' Thinking as such, Krune accompanied Wang Hao, soon returning to their homes. As it was already getting dark, everyone cleaned up the place and brought all the utensils back to their respective homes. Before long, the village was as silent as the previous days. As everyone had been working hard, they fell asleep immediately. After a couple of hours had passed, Krune woke up, got up and summoned his Soul Needle, using the dim light to look around the dark, seeing the empty house. He had sent Wang Hao to the village head''s house. Now, he was alone in his house. In the past five days, with enough food, he had regained sufficient health. Upon seeing that he had reached his limit, Krune began to push forth his plans. The first of them was to figure out the secrets of the Yin Beasts. After all, even with his death, he would only reincarnate. However, if he found valuable information, that''ll allow him to figure out the source of misfortune in this world, solve it and return to the God Realm. As for Old Stem and Old Root, he had arranged for a couple of the villagers to accompany them for the night under the guise of learning their information. That was the reason for Old Root''s remark at him. And now, he was the only one in the entire village that was alone. As time passed, Krune controlled his breathing, using his superior experiences to make it seem as if he was sleeping. But in actuality, he was wide awake. His breathing, his body''s relaxed posture, his body temperature, everything looked as if he was sleeping. But, through the sounds of his breathing, Krune was alert to his surroundings. Before he had noticed it, there stood a creature beside him, staring at his fan while remaining a statue. As for the door to the house, it was left ajar now. The creature crouched forward, expunging a smoke that knocked Krune unconscious. It then gently picked him up and carried him out of the house, slowly exiting the village in the quiet of the night. Chapter 1196 - Requirement Of Human Corpses ''Hmm, we''re entering the Barren Range right now,'' Krune thought, ensuring his body didn''t even budge an inch unnecessarily while he was getting carried by the Yin Beast. Of course, he wasn''t knocked out unconscious. He had been taking shallow breaths the moment the Yin Beast made an appearance, only making it seem like he was taking in deep breaths by making his chest expand and contract accordingly. Had the Yin Beast decided to observe for some more seconds, his cover would have been seen through. Thankfully, he had endured long enough, putting on such a convincing attack. It was a thought process he went through after seeing Old Leaf kidnapped. He had obviously looked through Old Leaf''s house, failing to find any traces. Even the claw marks under the window were something he had done to bait the bandits. The Yin Beast originally hadn''t left any traces behind while kidnapping him. So, it made him think of a couple of possibilities. First of all, why hadn''t Old Leaf made any sounds? Surely he would have woken up while he was being carried by the Yin Beast, which of course, wouldn''t have been comfortable to his old, weary body. However, there hadn''t been any sounds that day. Secondly, the Yin Beast had remained at the doorstep to Old Leaf''s house for quite some time before entering. It was apparent that the Yin Beast was intelligent and was first observing the people inside. It had done the same to Krune''s house as well. Upon seeing that there were two people inside, it left them as is and had instead targeted Old Leaf, who lived alone. As for the bandits in Old Leaf''s house, they had been bound while knocked unconscious. After determining that, the Yin Beasts carried all of them and vanished. Now that the first phase of his plan had come to fruition, Krune observed through his echolocation, sensing that the Yin Beast followed the same path that it had taken the previous time when he followed behind them. Soon after, they reached the place where he had lost track of them. Krune paid extra attention, surprised when he noticed that on the side of the road, hidden behind a boulder, was a hole through which it jumped. It was a short fall, a height around three meters. And upon landing, the Yin Beast walked forward. There were countless growls that echoed in the place, entering what seemed to be a massive cave. Krune wasn''t able to sense the entirety of the place, as it spanned beyond what the sounds of his breathing could reach and be reflected back at him. Suddenly, the Yin Beast jumped, landed on something that seemed to be a pillar of sorts before making a low jump, landing on the ground as it placed Krune there. Its figure then vanished as Krune stealthily opened his eyes, looking around to see that the Yin Beast was nowhere to be seen. He quickly got up, taking in his surroundings in alarm. It was a massive cavern, with what seemed like pools of sorts dug into the ground. All the pools were empty, and placed in them were the bones of creatures. Krune spotted the bones of what seemed to be like rats forming a large pile in one pool. In the second pool, there were worms of some sort, disgusting in nature. Before the Yin Beast had vanished, it had stopped at this pool, scooped out a mouthful and then left. ''It seems the primary food for these Yin Beasts are this worm species. But damn, there must be millions of them there,'' he thought, also noticing that this worm species was unable to scale up the walls, hence being trapped within the pool. Krune then noticed a small cave section deep into the place, storing something. He was unable to make it out from far away, finally observing his current location. Unsurprisingly, he, too, was in a pool. And in this pool were human bones, quite the number of them. He looked around, noticing two of the bandits alive, still unconscious. There were the bones of two of them situated nearby, with pieces of flesh still on them, a sign that they had only been eaten recently. He then focused on the final bandit, one that was dead but still retained most of his flesh. Squirming on the floor beside him were ten creatures, humanoid, like babies. A simple glance at them confirmed his suspicions. They were actually young Yin Beasts. ''I hadn''t ever seen Yin Beasts having offspring.'' Most of the time, a Yin Beast would attack a village or town, and soldiers would be dispatched to subdue it. Most of the territory of the Daxia Empire consisted of dense forests and dangerous terrain unfit for human living. And since the Yin Beasts lived in such locations and only headed out to kill humans, not much of them were known. After all, even the Daxia Empire didn''t have the guts to charge an army into the dangerous forests in pursue of the Yin Beasts. In fact, they had done that in the past and had suffered crushing defeats. After that, they only focused on defending their territory and didn''t wish to bother the forests that much. After all, the Yin Beasts weren''t the most threatening. The Nightmares were. Even though Yin Beasts were troublesome, they could still be handled. If a group of them charged at a town, killing them was easy since they could launch a barrage of arrows at them to kill them. Only the Nightmares that were unaffected by regular weapons were troublesome. ''So, they have offspring.'' After some observation and looking at his surroundings, Krune concluded, ''I see, so the Yin Beasts only need human flesh for their newborn. That makes sense as to why the Yin Beasts never engaged in pointless slaughter and devoured all the killed humans before leaving. They were actually feeding it to their newborn.'' Upon seeing that there were five newborns nibbling on the bandit corpse, Krune turned around, grunting as he climbed over the pool, making a circle over the entire cave for traces before coming to a conclusion. "There are only three adult Yin Beasts." Once he arrived at the entrances, he focused on his echolocation, nodding when he heard faint sounds of metal clashing and the roars of the men.. "It seems the bandits have taken the bait." Chapter 1197 - Birth Of The Yin Beasts In the past five days when the village was working in full swing while growing grass, Krune wasn''t being idle either. During the middle of the night, he exited the village and roamed through the other villages, targeting the bandits that were stationed nearby. All he did was knock them out unconscious before carrying their bodies somewhere else, setting them inside an abandoned cave. While doing so, he had ensured the cave was well hidden from view. As for the places where the bandits had been on standby, he left behind some traces, pointing to the Yin Beasts. On top of that, he increased the clues every day, pointing them to the Barren Range. After more than ten bandits had gone missing, the bandits were no longer able to remain passive. They realized that the Yin Beasts had become too dangerous and had begun to threaten their position. So, without wasting any time, they set off to investigate, trailing towards the Barren Range. Through their sentries, they discovered the Yin Beasts going about in the area, relaying the news to the bandits'' boss. With that, the bandits immediately set out for an expedition. As for Krune, he had confirmed it. Only after did he send Wang Hao into the village head''s house and slept alone in his house. As he had expected, he was kidnapped by the Yin Beasts and brought over to their lair. Then, the bandits struck soon after that, causing the two parties to become broiled in a fight. Having observed their fight through the sounds, Krune headed deeper into the cave, finally arriving before a discrete section, a tunnel that led from one corner. The tunnel spanned around five meters in length, leading into a small cave. However, the moment he closed in on it, Krune was alarmed, inhaling a putrid stench. He summoned the Cloud Whale, loading the Soul Needle in its horn as he held it in his hand, cautiously peeking from a corner. The scene he saw next left him seething in rage. In the cave was a small stone bed, layered with hay atop which a leather blanket was placed. Laid down on it, grunting in pain, was a human woman, or at least, someone that had once been human. It seemed that she had been enduring enough pain that her mind had shattered, leaving her as a husk of her former self. Currently, a pair of horns grew on her forehead while her eyes glazed over, turning silver, similar to the Yin Beast. On her hand were traces of scales, with an occasional patch of fur. However, the most alarming of all was an orb embedded onto her forehead, one that pulsed with energy to affect her, turning her into something not human. Her stomach was bulging, looking like she was pregnant. Though, the moment he glanced at the orb, Krune was flabbergasted. "T-That''s¡­a Nightmare Core." Unlike a regular Nightmare Core, this was bigger and pulsed with a stronger energy fluctuation. After being embedded on her forehead, this Nightmare Core was constantly changing her race, causing her to give birth to the Yin Beasts. After some observation, thanks to the memories of Su Zixin, Krune was able to understand the cause. "So, Yin Beasts are birthed when a human woman is affected by a Nightmare Core." It made him scowl because he clearly understood that a human woman was only able to give birth once before she died. It was because she was unable to endure the changes done to her body by the Nightmare Core forcefully. He looked around, seeing the bones of human women scattered around. It seemed the Yin Beast captured them, placed them in this cave and attached the Nightmare Core on their forehead. Once they birthed a Yin Beast, the hatchling Yin Beast first devoured them while the adult Yin Beasts found another human woman to give birth to more of their kind. "I thought only an Imperial Arms was capable of killing a Nightmare." Krune frowned, realizing that the world was more complex than he had assumed. He then gently arrived before the lady, muttering, "Sorry, I don''t have the power to heal you. All I can do is give you mercy." As he had expected, the woman was unable to even sense his existence, withering in constant pain. Sighing, he used the Cloud Whale to first knock her unconscious. After that, it unleashed an Air Needle on her forehead, killing her. Scree! Suddenly, the developing Yin Beast burst out of her stomach, expressing its anger. "Shut up!" Krune shouted in anger, unleashing an Air Needle on it, watching it only tumble in response to the hole on its forehead. "What frightening vitality." He unleashed three more Air Needles, finally sighing in relief upon noticing that it had died. "This shouldn''t be here," Krune said, gazing at the Nightmare Core lodged on the lady''s forehead, prying it out as he frowned. Sensing the energy fluctuations it emitted, he muttered, "Since the Yin Beasts are birthed through this, they would be able to sense its energy fluctuations." Thinking as such, he dispersed his Cloud Whale, summoning it once again. But this time, he condensed it around the Nightmare Core, noticing that its body had prevented any energy fluctuations from coming out. "But this way, I won''t be able to use the Cloud Whale." Sighing in response, Krune looked around, unable to find anything else of value. He then arrived at the pool he had woken up at the start, using the Cloud Whale to gently press a couple of acupoints on the remaining two bandits that were alive. He also removed their bindings, hiding the Cloud Whale within his clothes as he shook them awake. The reason he had done so was because he needed their help to successfully leave the place. There indeed existed methods to tame Yin Beasts. However, they required a long period of effort and suppression using Imperial Arms before achieving success. The Yin Beasts in the possession of the Su Family had taken at least two to three months to tame each. And this was considering all the power and means they possessed. As for Krune, even though there were hatchling Yin Beasts before him, he didn''t have a guarantee in subjugating them. After all, he wasn''t an Imperial Meister right now. Only to the aura of an Imperial Meister would a Yin Beast become subservient towards. So, he needed the help of the bandits for his plans. Chapter 1198 - Fooling Them Righteously "W-What happened?" A bandit with a rough face woke up with a start, looking around as he was alarmed, watching five creatures nibbling on his comrade. "Heuk! What the heck are these?" The other bandit, sporting a freckled face, exclaimed in shock upon getting up, staring at the figures of the hatchling Yin Beasts in closeup. "Quick! We don''t have time to waste!" Krune shouted, causing them to look at him instinctively. For some reason, they automatically followed his words, getting up from the place as the trio distances themselves from the five hatchling Yin Beasts. "What happened here, old man?" the rough-faced bandit asked Krune, trying to appear intimidating like usual. But after a second of observation, upon hearing his shivering voice, he put down the act, asking normally. "We have been captured by the Yin Beasts and brought here to become food for their children," Krune replied, pointing at the pile of human skeletons nearby. "It seems they didn''t regard me as an enemy since I was so weak. So, I wasn''t bound." "That''s why once I woke up, I proceeded to remove your bindings and freed you," he said, pointing at the pieces of rope lying on the floor at the spots they had been before. "Thank you for saving our lives, old man," one of the bandits said in response, patting his heart in relief while he watched a familiar face now lying on the ground, as a corpse, almost half-eaten by the hatchling Yin Beasts. "We''ll have to escape alive," Krune said in all seriousness, pointing at the hatchling Yin Beasts. "But first, they must be killed. If they grow up into adults, they''ll end up wiping out all our villages." "Even though you''re bandits, all your families live in one of the villages, right? So, I''m sure you don''t want to cause our doom," Krune said, watching the two bandits becoming convinced by his words immediately. After all, they were witnessing the act of their comrades being eaten right before their eyes. Without any hesitation, the freckled-faced bandit rummaged through the pile of human bones, picking out a sturdy thigh bone as he used it to slam the head of a hatchling Yin Beast. "Damn it! Why is its head so tough?!" He grunted in response, repeatedly whacking his opponent. As they were only hatchling Yin Beasts, they were unable to run quickly, getting attacked nonstop by the two bandits. Even though the bandits hadn''t eaten much for the past five days, they still retained enough strength to finish killing the five hatchling Yin Beasts. However, by the end of it, they were panting in exhaustion. "We don''t have much time to waste. Let''s leave," Krune said in a hurry when he saw the bandits slump to the ground in exhaustion. He then changed his words, telling them, "Alright, I''ll remain on standby. Please rest in the meantime." "Thanks, old man." They nodded in response, gasping for air soon after. In the meantime, the Cloud Whale gently slipped out of his dress and stealthily arrived before a hatchling Yin Beast, gently inserting its needle into its body before sucking in its blood. As the blood entered its body, it was rapidly absorbed by the Nightmare Core. Upon seeing the situation, Krune nodded in response. ''So, it''s the same as before. Since they''re products of the Nightmare Core, their essence can be absorbed back into it to strengthen itself further.'' Normally, to create an Imperial Arms, at least ten Nightmare Cores had to be used. That was because the Nightmare Cores were tiny and lacked enough power on their own. However, the one in his hand contained a tremendous amount of power. Plus, when he killed the hatchling Yin Beast that burst out of the woman''s stomach, Krune noticed the pulsing in the Nightmare Core. When he did the same, he noticed its blood being absorbed by the core. Once it had absorbed all the blood, the energy it contained was strengthened by a bit. This allowed him to understand that he could strengthen the Nightmare Core enough to make an Imperial Arms using it alone. The Cloud Whale stealthily absorbed the blood from all the hatchling Yin Beasts, sucking them all dry, leaving them as withered corpses. In the meantime, he distracted the bandits enough to prevent them from seeing their corpses again. After that, Krune led them towards the entrance, explaining the specifics. "I know the way to return to my village." One of the bandits crouched on all fours as the other used his back as a stepping stone to climb up. After reaching the surface, he extended his hand, helping Krune exit the cave as well. Finally, the two of them helped bring the second bandit to the surface. "Follow me! If what I heard before isn''t wrong, then the bandits are currently fighting against the Yin Beasts," Krune said, beckoning for them to follow him, bringing them through a side path. He was constantly conversing with them, looking like he was assuring them of many things. But in actuality, his voice was used to sense his surroundings, also to make out the figures of the bandits walking behind him. Upon seeing the two of them make eye contact from time to time, Krune frowned. Suddenly, he tripped and fell on the floor, grunting in response as he began to sweat profusely. "Old man, are you alright?" The two bandits expressed their concern. But in actuality, they had already decided to kill him, no longer having any use for him. "Sorry, it seems this is as far I can go." Krune smiled wryly as blood leaked out of his mouth. "My ribs have broken and have pierced through my lungs. I don''t have much longer to live." He then slowly cupped his hands, speaking earnestly, "When you meet with your boss, please tell him of the fact that I saved the both of you. If possible, please repay the favor by making my grandson join your bandit group." Upon seeing the old man''s face paling rapidly before them, the two bandits got rid of their thoughts to eliminate him, sighing as one patted his shoulder. "Old Wang, right? I''ll promise you. You can rest assured and be at peace." "Thank you¡­ thank¡­" Krune muttered weakly, his voice turning fainter and fainter. Even though he was still breathing, it was apparent that he didn''t have much longer to live on. He then pointed in a certain direction, saying, "Once you head in that direction, you''ll reach my village." Followed by a sigh, the two bandits gave him some words of assurance and left. After a couple of minutes passed in such a fashion, Krune woke up, wiped the blood on his lips and grinned viciously, walking away. Chapter 1199 - It Seems Simple, But It’s Not! "Thankfully, that old fart died on his own," the rough-faced bandit could not help but say. "Well, at the very least, he had some sense in him. He also saved us. The least we can do is not mock his efforts." The freckled-faced bandit shook his head, scolding the other one. "Hmm? Are you planning on honoring his dying wish?" the rough-faced bandit asked after being silent for a bit. "It''s not in my hands. All I can do is relay the old man''s wishes to Boss," The other bandit sighed a little as he replied. "Then again, if not for him, we would have been eaten by the Yin Beasts." "Let''s hurry and inform Boss of everything," the rough-faced bandit spoke as the two of them came to a sudden stop, hearing the vigorous roars of men farther away. Upon hearing the familiar voice and the clang between weapons, the two looked at each other in excitement before rushing out, noticing three Yin Beasts fighting against a group of more than forty bandits. Among them was their Boss, calmly commanding everyone to encircle the Yin Beasts and exhaust them first. His commands were swift and precise, causing the bandits to change formations like they were part of an army. They constantly raised their spears, thrusting them at the Yin Beasts before retracting, only intending to cause minor injuries. They didn''t want to antagonize the Yin Beasts too much and cause them to throw themselves at them with no regard for life. That would simply mount the casualties. Instead, exhausting them took priority. Only after they had been sufficiently weakened would the bandits go in for the kill. While doing so, to prevent the Yin Beasts from grouping up, they had encircled each Yin Beast, taking them to separate battlefields as groups. This way, each Yin Beast was cornered. Right at this very moment, the two bandits rescued by Krune arrived at the scene, standing at a point of headwind. The winds blew from their back, heading towards the battling group. Carried with it was a mysterious scent, that of the blood of the Yin Beasts. There were five scents in total on them. The moment the three Yin Beasts caught a whiff of the scent, they unleashed a mournful scream, realizing that the two bandits had slaughtered all their offspring. Howl! The three Yin Beasts quickly rushed out of the encirclement, ignoring the injuries they sustained as a result and jumped right onto the two startled bandits. "Wait¡­ they''re alive?" The bandit boss looked at the two bandits, observing the reaction of the Yin Beasts and their blood-drenched clothes. "Did they kill one of their kind to escape?" He then shouted, "Protect them! They must have valuable news!" Upon his shout, all the bandits rushed towards the two bandits, intending to protect them. As for the Yin Beasts, they were faster, rushing without any care at their maximum speeds. They quickly caught up to the running bandits, pouncing upon them. If they were in their best condition, the two bandits would have been able to last long enough for the others to come to their rescue. Unfortunately, they had already gone hungry for five days in their captive. Not to mention they exerted all their effort to kill the five hatchling Yin Beasts. In their exhaustion, they were unable to escape, barely putting up any resistance as the Yin Beasts slaughtered them, brutally devouring their corpses to express their anger. Swallowing their entrails, they let out mournful howls while gazing at the sky. For a moment, the entire place was silent as the rushing bandits felt a chill creep up their spines. Then, in unison, the three Yin Beasts gazed at the rushing bandits, grunting in anger as their unleashed a powerful roar, pouncing onto them. In an instant, the sight turned into a scene of slaughter as both sides went all out. The Yin Beasts targeted the bandits because the ones that had killed their offspring had the same clothes and smell as the ones attacking them. As for the bandits, the Yin Beasts had already kidnapped quite a lot of them. Moreover, they had also devoured two bandits right before their eyes. Even though the bandits didn''t have a great sense of camaraderie, anger was one thing they did have that united them, not to mention the pride of being part of the group that didn''t face any threats in the place. Due to that, they wanted to avenge their fallen comrades, brimming forth with anger as their blades hacked into the Yin Beasts. Wounds quickly piled up on both sides. A dozen seconds after their high-pitched battle, a bandit lost his life. However, this only spurred their anger to destroy their foes. Two minutes into the battle, a Yin Beast''s head was chopped off by the bandit boss himself. Without any words being exchanged, the two groups went at each other, wishing to pay blood for blood. While that was happening, Krune stood atop a hill, positioning himself at a tailwind section, ensuring the noses of the Yin Beasts wouldn''t pick up on him. Even though he didn''t have the blood of the hatchling Yin Beasts on him, there was still the cave''s odor on his body. Naturally, that was still a cause for concern. Nevertheless, he watched the battle span before him, smirking as he muttered, "My trap has bloomed." Using his old age as an excuse, Krune ensured the bandits killed the hatchling Yin Beasts. In the process, the blood of the Yin Beasts splashed onto them. As he was aware of the exceptional senses of the Yin Beasts, Krune had acted as he if was about to die, pointing the two bandits in the direction that would bring them towards the battlefield. With that, it would cause them to arrive at a place with a strong headwind, allowing the Yin Beasts to catch onto the smell on their bodies, the scent of the blood from their offspring. Unsurprisingly, the Yin Beasts would be enraged and kill the two bandits. Upon seeing such a scene, the bandits would also be enraged. Both sides would fight with the intention of wiping out the other side after that. That was Krune''s plan, one that had been executed flawlessly. Chapter 1200 - The Bandit Boss’s Secret At the start, there were forty bandits and three Yin Beasts. The bandit boss had brought over all his men in this dangerous operation. After all, they were facing a Yin Beast. Taking even one down needed a group of soldiers at the very least. With that, he didn''t have the leeway to leave anyone behind in their headquarters. Well, there was also the fact that he had a use for the Yin Beast corpses to further his plans. Thus, he had brought them all. There was also the trust factor to account for in this. He didn''t trust any bandit to leave them behind in the headquarters during his absence. He had a lot of valuables there that he didn''t wish for anyone to come across. They were a secret only known to him. Due to that, he brought everyone with him on this journey to annihilate their threat. Ten minutes since the start of the high-pitched battle, a Yin Beast was killed. Fourteen bandits paid their lives to do that. Thirty minutes into the battle, the second Yin Beast died. However, this time, only ten bandits remained alive. They were already hoping to escape. Unfortunately for them, the bandit boss constantly warned them that escape wasn''t an option. The Yin Beast was specialized in tracking, and that it would track them down and kill them before dawn. And since he himself was still giving his all in the fight, the remaining bandits could only grit their teeth and throw themselves at the final Yin Beast. As both sides were exhausted, the battle was no longer high-pitched. The Yin Beast minimized its movements, only evading when necessary to use its injuries to claim a life. "It''s on its last legs. Don''t lunge to attack. Maintain your distance and target its legs first," the bandit boss shouted, acting like he was lunging with his scimitar to throw the Yin Beast into reacting. When it reacted to target him, the remaining bandits took the opportunity to attack it, riddling it with more injuries. However, it seemed that was its actual plan as the Yin Beast suddenly grabbed hold of a spear and wielded it like a human. It had learned the method to do so during the fight, watching their attacks. Grabbing the spear, it thrust the tip into a bandit''s neck, pulling it out to make a wide sweep, making a gash on the faces of three more bandits. As the four injured bandits flinched at the attacks, it leaped into the air, breaking the spear into two to defend against the bandit boss''s scimitar, unleashing a backhanded kick onto a bandit that sneaked up on it. The kick caused him to cough up blood, kneeling on the ground in exhaustion as he was riddled with injuries. ''Damn it. Five people were incapacitated in this attack.'' The bandit boss grunted, increasing the force he exerted in the scimitar to cut into the spear shaft and make a long gash on the Yin Beast''s shoulder. "Arrrggghhh!" he shouted, intending to lodge the scimitar deeper into it when the Yin Beast roared in response, biting the head of a nearby bandit, ripping it apart before crunching it a bit. It then spat it onto his face, blanketing his senses, using the chance to plunge its claws into his chest. "Gah!" As the bandit boss grunted in response, the Yin Beast shuddered. Surprisingly, two bandits had rammed up a sword each through its back, making use of the wounds it had sustained. All the bandits that were still able to move rushed in to target it, plunging their weapons into it. Unfortunately, the Yin Beast didn''t die yet, displaying exceptional vitality as its claws slashed forth, targeting their necks. It was no longer a dogfight but one where the two parties bit into each other. "Groorrr¡­" The Yin Beast weakly growled as its voice lost all signs of life. As for the bandits, they were all bleeding, clutching their wounds, trying to stop the blood from flowing but lacking the strength to do so. At this time, Krune arrived at the battlefield, alarming the bandits as he smiled at them before pocketing the Nightmare Core in his pocket. With the Yin Beasts dead, he didn''t have to worry about them targeting him first. He held the Cloud Whale in his hand, pointing it at the closest bandit. Air Needle! He killed all the bandits, double-checking once before condensing the Cloud Whale around the Nightmare Core, causing it to hover on the ground before beginning to suck up all the blood. Even though the blood of the humans had mixed with the Yin Beasts on the ground, they were all sucked into the nightmare Core without problem, suddenly causing a whirring sound as everything was automatically absorbed by it. Krune watched the scene solemnly, shuddering after an hour had passed, noticing that there wasn''t even an ounce of blood in his vicinity. The corpses of both the humans and Yin Beasts were now bone dry. Krune then crouched before a Yin Beast''s corpse, noticing that its teeth, claws, and eyeballs still retained their luster, not being damaged in the slightest even after the rest of its body looked like it had aged considerably. With that, he extracted them from the three corpses, placed them in a bag that he made using the clothes of a bandit, and then began to walk in the direction of the bandit headquarters. After more than two hours of walking, Krune was completely exhausted. In any case, he finally arrived at the bandit headquarters. It wasn''t a building but rather a cave that had formed naturally within a hill. It almost formed a tiny labyrinth with countless small caves attached to it. So, it naturally formed a place where they could live. At present, there were no sentries placed here, as everyone had died. The bandits had no worry that the villagers would try to enter their den. After all, only if they had a death wish would they dare to do so. Despite it being empty, Krune was still alert, cautiously entering the place as he relied on his echolocation to sense around. He looked through the caves, finally arriving at a discrete location, the most guarded of them all. And upon opening the door, Krune was alarmed, saying with a hint of surprise in his tone, "So, this is your secret." Chapter 1201 - A Researcher Turned Bandit In the cave existed a large apparatus full of glass containers. Immersed in one at the end was an agglomeration of organs in an animated state. Krune noticed that there were the claws, wings, tongue, skin, and other parts of various Yin Beasts meshed into a structure there. At first, Krune was unable to understand just what was up with the place. However, as he continued to look around the hidden cave, he soon found a parchment in which the records of the bandit boss had been kept. In it were his thoughts, his research results, his hypotheses, and other academic findings. Krune casually glanced through it, understanding the gist of things. "No wonder I felt he was giving me a strange vibe. He wasn''t a bandit in the first place." The bandit boss was originally from the village. But in his childhood, he had obtained an opportunity to enroll in the County Academy, eventually becoming an elite of society. He then pursued research, with the intention of creating a weapon that would allow humans to hunt Nightmares and Yin Beasts more effectively. Unfortunately, over time, his ideas warped as his greed took over. Not too long into it, his experiments soon began to involve other humans. At that time, the higher-ups of the research institute ordered his execution. However, being the smart man that he was, he noticed their decision in advance. With that, he escaped from the place, also taking with him all the necessary equipment and research materials. After that, he arrived at his home village, finding some vagrants to establish a bandit group. Using them, he hunted for the necessary materials, some of which consisted of humans. Moreover, thanks to his commands, the bandits were even able to kill a couple of Yin Beasts. With those killed Yin Beasts, he used those to further his research. "It seems there are more Yin Beasts deep within the Barren Range. He had planned to establish a fortress in my village and unite all the villagers under his command. With that, he''ll take on the position of a Lord and send in an expedition into the Barren Range to lure in Yin Beasts," Krune muttered. It was a sound plan, but when he was injured by the Yin Beast, Krune had taken the chance to kill him. So, all his plans were brought to a halt then and there. "Thankfully, he has already accumulated all the necessary materials." Krune nodded as he muttered to himself, "Guess I''ll continue his project and use it to help myself." He then gently closed the door, walking around the cave as he looked into the countless attached caves. "There''s enough food and water here to last many years. It seems to prepare for any drought. The bandits have stocked up on dry rations." "Let me use them to my needs." Krune grinned, closing the entrance to the bandit stronghold as he returned to his home, waking up Wang Hao. "What happened, grandpa?" Wang Hao woke up and rubbed his eyes, using the moonlight to see the hazy figure of his grandpa. "Come with me," Krune said, gently propping him up. "We''ll be leaving this village tonight." Wang Hao didn''t complain, silently following him, knowing very well that he had reasons to do so. He had matured a lot for his age, so he always thought before speaking. There wasn''t anything else to take from their home. So, Krune accompanied Wang Hao, arriving at the village head''s house, knocking on the door. The sound startled the people within the house as everyone woke up. Currently, four people were in the house: The village head, his eldest son, his daughter-in-law, and his grandchild. The village head had two other children that had left him to pursue their future. At this point, there was no contact between them. "Old Wang, why did you wake us up in the middle of the night?" The village head asked, motioning for the others to remain quiet upon seeing his expression. "Let''s talk inside," Krune said, watching the village head invite him in. With that, the village head lit up a candle that he had been saving up for special occasions. But now that his childhood friend, Wang Hu, had a solemn expression, he decided to use it, thinking that the situation must have been urgent enough for him to disturb them in the middle of the night. Once Krune took a seat, he sat opposite to him. The rest were unable to understand why he was expressing such a humble posture towards Krune. Sure, as a village head, he held a small amount of authority. However, Wang Hu didn''t even have that. So, it didn''t make sense as to why he was looking at Wang Hu like that, almost like a servant looking at their lord. As the husband and wife were confused about the village head''s expression, Krune uttered calmly, "I''ll be going on a journey. Will Chen''er be willing to accompany us?" "What?" As the parents of Chen Xue reacted, the village head quickly raised his hand, motioning for them to shut up. Chen Xue was his granddaughter, almost the same age as Wang Hao. The village head immediately understood the implications behind Krune''s words, asking, "Will she ever return home?" "Once they turn ten, they''ll obtain the qualifications to be admitted into the County Academy. I''ll be educating them until then. As for the money, I have enough for them," Krune said, having taken a gander at the treasure of the bandits. "So, before they leave for the County Academy, they''ll return here to see you once." "That¡­makes no sense, Old Wang," Chen Xue''s father could not help but say. "You make it seem as if you have the ability to make that a reality." "Shut up!" The Village Head raised his voice in response. "It''s fine," Krune laughed, saying as he brought out his Cloud Whale. "Showing it to them is the best proof." "T-T-T-That is¡­" Chen Xue''s mother stammered in fright while Chen Xue''s father instinctively prostrated themselves. As for Chen Xue and Wang Hao, they looked at the scene in confusion, unable to understand just what was happening, gazing at the Cloud Whale in surprise, wondering where it came from. "I have sinned to have offended an Imperial Meister!" Chen Xue''s father slammed his head on the ground, producing a loud thud. Krune stared at the scene, breaking out into cold sweat. Chapter 1202 - Taking Up A Bandit Residence "It''s fine. The two of you can get up." Krune smiled wryly, saying, "I had only remembered my past after I woke up from my coma recently. So please, just treat me as usual." It took quite a lot of convincing before the husband and wife were able to meet his line of sight without prostrating to the ground in reflex. After some time passed, Krune told them, "I plan to impart all my knowledge to Hao''er and Chen''er. The two of them are smart. So, I''m sure they''ll absorb everything." He then looked at the village head, saying after a sigh, "I feel like I don''t have long to live. So, before that happens, I want to train them into honorable people. Will you give me this opportunity?" "It''s my family''s boon to obtain this opportunity," the village head stood up and bowed as he replied, soon prostrating on the floor. "It is our honor to have Chen''er learn your ways." "Thank you." He got up before patting Chen Xue''s head, asking, "Will you be willing to accompany grandpa on a journey?" "Will I be able to pat fishy if I do that?" Chen Xue asked. Even though she had also matured for her age like Wang Hao, she still retained some innocence, wishing to play with the Cloud Whale. "Just don''t touch its horn. It''s pretty sharp." Krune smiled as he motioned for the Cloud Whale to gently hover before her face, laughing as he watched the little girl''s eyes widen in response. She then gently touched the Cloud Whale, exclaiming in shock, "It''s so soft!" Upon her shout, Wang Hao was also unable to rein in his curiosity, touching the Cloud Whale as his face brightened up immediately. Upon seeing the troubled child''s face relax and beam with a smile for the first time in years, Krune felt that it was worth the effort. As the two continued to play with the Cloud Whale, Krune motioned for the Cloud Whale to slowly move away. The children followed it, heading into the nearby room. Krune then looked at the three adults, saying, "There had been three Yin Beasts that have targeted our village. Old Leaf was the recent victim." The village head nodded in response, already aware while the other two exclaimed in fear. Chuckling, Krune dropped another bomb on them. "Now, all three Yin Beasts, including all the bandits, have been killed. So, at least, for the time being, this village would be safe." "Thank goodness!" The village head patted his chest, calming his thumping heart. "However, I cannot give any guarantees." Krune shook his head, sighing as he continued, "It seems there are other Yin Beasts living in the Barren Range. So, no matter what, be on your guard. Try to unite all the villages here as much as possible and band together. That way, the chances of being targeted by the Yin Beasts would reduce a little. At least, you''ll have a chance to defend yourselves." "That''ll be difficult," the village head replied before asking, "But, what about your¡­" "There''s too much risk in disclosing my identity. There''s a good chance everyone here would be killed to prevent any seeds from remaining alive while Wang Hao would be kidnapped by the aristocratic families. I''m too old, so killing me is easy. One arrow is enough to end my life." As the village head turned silent, Krune patted his shoulder once, getting up as he beckoned for the Cloud Whale to return. As the two children followed after it, Krune said to Chen Xue, "Chen''er, it''ll take you a long time before you see your family again. So, make sure you say your farewell to them." Saying so, he brought Wang Hao and waited outside the house, picking up faint sobbing from within the house. "Grandpa." Wang Hao looked at the desolate silence in the village, asking, "Will you vanish after leaving me alone?" Krune''s eyes widened as he hugged his grandson, "Of course not! I''ll be staying with you until you become old." "Liar!" Wang Hao teared up as Krune patted his back, gently rubbing it. ''He''s a perceptive child.'' Sighing, Krune continued to lie for almost an hour before Wang Hao was convinced. He then brought Wang Hao and Chen Xue with him towards the bandit hideout, saying, "This''ll be our home for the next two years." Upon seeing the massive space, the two kids became excited and began to run around everywhere. "Hahaha." Seeing such a scene brought energy to his weary body. He then brought the both of them to the room where the bandit boss stayed. That was the most lavish and cleanest room in the place, quickly putting them to sleep. After that, he sighed, picking a nearby room to rest. In the morning of the next day, Krune began to instruct them on the basics. In the morning was the language where he taught them the alphabet and other basic knowledge. During the afternoon was knowledge related to Yin Beasts, Nightmares, Imperial Meisters, and Imperial Arms. The evening consisted of training where he trained them in the art of hand-to-hand combat, sword fight, and other weapons. With his experience, he was able to impart the necessary knowledge easily, ensuring he first gave them a solid foundation before building up the rest. Even though the two children were overwhelmed by what he taught at the beginning, they quickly adapted to the training regime after a couple of weeks. Other than that, they were perceptive individuals, understanding that Krune seemed to be in a hurry. Unfortunately, that was indeed true. As the days passed by, Krune was able to feel his body slowly beginning to fail. He was aware that his death was close by and hence decided to create two warriors out of the children so that they would help in solving the world''s suffering in the future. He would be continuing with the same mission in his future reincarnations as well, so Krune was planning for everything in advance. Moreover, he now had possession of the required materials to do so: The Nightmare Core and the bandit boss''s research results. So, Krune had been working on it to produce something to fulfill his wishes. For the bandit boss, completing the research would have taken him a decade or even longer. Even then, there was no guarantee of succeeding. But for Krune, it was different. As an old monster, he had a plethora of knowledge and experience. Not to mention the fact that he had Su Zixin''s memories, someone that was part of the four great families of the Daxia Empire. With that, his plans began to fall in place. Chapter 1203 - Motor Fish Farm Part 2? It had been a year ever since Krune and the two kids had arrived at the bandit den to live. They had enough supplies to live and no one to trouble them. Or, to be more exact, there had been people knocking up the door of the bandit den multiple times ever since they noticed that the bandits had vanished. It made them suspect the likelihood that the bandits had either left the place or had been annihilated. As for some daring ones that came to check up on the place and possibly obtain any spoils that had been left behind, Krune gave them a good scare. Using the Cloud Whale to unleash an Air Needle that gently scrapped their cheeks was enough to scare the wits out of most. Repeat the same thing enough times, and a legend would be born to never set food near the bandit cave that was "haunted." Once such rumors spread throughout the villages in the region, no one else tried to disturb them after that, allowing him to continue with his research. Upon reading through the initial notes of the bandit boss, Krune immediately made a trip on the same day, retrieving the corpses of the three adult Yin Beasts and the six hatchling Yin Beasts. There were six hatchlings because he also brought in the one that burst out of the woman that gave birth. After that, he was in pensive thought for a couple of weeks, watching their preserved bodies while gazing at the Nightmare Core in his possession. Once he completely read through the notes of the bandit boss, Krune understood the direction of research that had been done. Surprisingly, the bandit boss was rather ambitious. He had understood the defects of Imperial Arms and had been trying to create a weapon that didn''t have such limitations. An Imperial Arms was a mystical weapon that stored energy in it. This energy usually varied between three forms: Sun, Moon, and Star. For Imperial Arms that took on the Sun form, the effects they unleashed were based on fire. Once the Imperial Arm was depleted of energy, it needed to be exposed to the sun for a certain number of days to recharge all its lost energy. They were generally addressed as Sun Imperial Arms and were the most popular. After all, recharging them was the easiest. Following them were the Moon Imperial Arms, which relied upon the power of the moon. Contrasting to the previous type, the energy was frost-based. Then again, Moon Imperial Arms had one advantage that Sun Imperial Arms lacked. It was that Nightmares always appeared during the night. So, for Imperial Meisters using the Moon Imperial Arms, they had the option of recharging their weapon during their fight. Moreover, under the influence of the power of the moon, its effect was higher. However, they had the disadvantage of taking a longer time to recharge since the power of the moon wasn''t as strong as the power of the sun. On top of that, its damage against the Nightmares was a tad inferior to the Sun Imperial Arms. Then, there was the Star Imperial Arms, which were so rare that only the Imperial Family possessed them. Star Imperial Arms were dual-attributed, possessing the power of restriction and lightning. The restriction was gravity-based. As for lightning, it needn''t be said. They were the most effective against Nightmares. However, recharging them was really hard as it took almost a year for them to be recharged naturally. Otherwise, the faster option was to place them under lightning strikes. Then again, lightning was unpredictable, and the chance of it landing on the Star Imperial Arms was super rare. In any case, Star Imperial Arms were the strongest of them all. The one possessed by the Emperor was capable of taking on two Nightmares singlehandedly and emerging victorious. Nevertheless, all Imperial Arms had the same weakness. And it was that they were emission-based. Meaning, the Imperial Meisters were still regular people, possessing the same mortal limitations as a normal human. So, while fighting a Nightmare, they tire out quickly, which was usually taken advantage of by the Nightmare to flee. Moreover, if they suffer a hit, they bleed, which, when left untreated, caused them to be bedridden. Nightmares were fast while Imperial Meisters weren''t. On top of that, the abilities unleashed by an Imperial Arms was limited. In other words, once it was used up, the Imperial Meister was a sitting duck. Consider the Imperial Arms of Su Zixin, Moon Flower. When activated, it condensed a flower with six petals, with each spanning half his body size. Su Zixin was able to hurl them towards the Nightmare, controlling the trajectories of the petals as he pleased, destroying the Nightmare. However, once all six petals were used up, with the Nightmare still not being defeated, he wouldn''t be able to survive after that. If his control was even the least bit sloppy, his aim would miss, causing the petals to hit the surroundings and unnecessarily lose power. This was an inherent disadvantage all Imperial Arms possessed: a limited number of attacks, long charging time, and the weak bodies of users. So, the bandit boss had been planning to create a weapon that boosted a person''s physique, allowing them to keep up with a Nightmare''s speed while dealing close-ranged attacks, accurately targeting it. He wished to harness as much of this power as possible. Thus, he began his project that wished to fuse the Yin Beasts and Nightmare Cores to create a weapon that would make this a reality. Unfortunately, his direction of reason was warped since he was proceeding about in the wrong train of thought. He thought that Nightmares and Yin Beasts were completely different. Had Krune not seen what he had seen, he too would have assumed the same. But now, he knew that a Nightmare Core was the source to produce Yin Beasts. With that, he began to research, tallying the properties of the Yin Beasts and how he could integrate them with the power of the Nightmare Core and produce something using the production method of an Imperial Arms. For the first six months, all he did was this while training the Wang Hao and Chen Xue. Eventually, thanks to his plethora of experience, Krune attained a breakthrough, sighing as he spoke, "It seems I''ll be repeating the same farm as the Motor Fishes¡­" "All over again!" Chapter 1204 - Inhumane Actions After staying at the bandit nest for six months, Krune exited it for the first time, taking advantage of the night while the two kids were asleep. He slowly made his way over to the town and infiltrated it stealthily, roaming through its night district. He roamed through the place and obtained information related to the filth present in the city. In other words, bandits, traffickers, and other people engaging in illegal things. For the next two weeks, he started to prepare while gathering info, also buying some things that he needed along the way. In any case, the bandit nest had saved up enough funds for his use. So, he purchased the necessary materials with that, transporting them one after another to the hideout. Even though it greatly exhausted his weary body that was aging rapidly with the passage of every day, Krune held on. Currently, he was performing four tasks. First was educating and training the two kids. Second was meditating to integrate the memories of Su Zixin and Wang Hu into himself. Third was researching the weapon he was planning to create. And fourth¡­was capturing humans for the experiments. That was the sole reason he was digging up for information in the first place. For every trip, he needed two people, a man and a woman. With that in mind, he found those that were scum, silently ambushing them in their homes during the middle of the night. On alternate days, he brought in a woman and a man each to the bandit nest and locked them up in the secret room. He dislocated the joints of both, preventing them from escaping while also using the Cloud Whale to press on some nerves that prevented them from speaking. The ones he captured were criminals that had murdered quite a few times. So, he had no qualms about using them as a sacrifice. Upon seeing the tear-struck expression on the lady''s face, Krune didn''t bat an eye, calmly taking out the Nightmare Core as he placed it on her forehead, watching it slowly sink into her flesh. In an instant, the lady struggled to break free as her body spasmed. Veins popped on her body, displaying the pain she was experiencing. "You shouldn''t have killed and tortured people if you''re this afraid of it yourself," he muttered, turning around to gaze at the man that saw everything with a pale face. Slowly, over the passage of days, Krune noticed the woman''s body bulge slightly, nodding in response based on what he had witnessed in the cave of the Yin Beasts before. "It should take around a month to complete." The reason he was doing this was to strengthen the Nightmare Core until it reached its peak. That was only possible by absorbing the essence in the bodies of the Yin Beasts it birthed. To make it reach the state he desired, just absorbing the essence of the hatchling Yin Beasts wasn''t enough. He needed blood from the adult versions. As the stomach of the woman continued to bulge, Krune made repeated trips to the cave of the Yin Beasts and transported the bugs that grew in one of the pools there. It seemed that these bugs were able to eat anything edible. So, Krune was planning to feed them grass that grew plenty, even within the bandit cave. He could simply call it training and make the children do the work. With that in mind, Krune transformed a large enough cave into a pool to house them, preventing the children from seeing such a scene, unwilling to destroy their innocence further. After all, what he was doing was pretty inhumane. As there was more than enough space in the bandit nest, they didn''t complain. Moreover, they were studying, training, eating, and sleeping. That was all they did, barely having any time to play. So, they didn''t bother with the repeated trips he did and the mysterious containers he brought. Even though they were curious, since he didn''t say anything to them regarding it, they didn''t ask him. After a month had passed, the criminal lady died after giving birth to a hatchling Yin Beast. And as expected of a fierce Yin Beast, immediately after being born, it tried to eat him. Unfortunately for the beast, Krune was prepared, incapacitating it using the Cloud Whale immediately, causing its limbs to stop working. He had been working with the Yin Beast corpses, researching their body enough to know all their weakness. It was still able to use its head, though it wasn''t able to utter a word. Krune placed it on the man that he had been nurturing just to increase the potency of his flesh to the Yin Beast to further its growth. That was something already present in the bandit boss'' records. All he did was improve it up a notch, watching the scene of the hatchling Yin Beast slithering with all its might before beginning to eat up the man, who had been sedated enough to not even realize that he was being devoured. He was put to sleep beforehand and hence, hadn''t witnessed the sight firsthand. Once it finished devouring the man, its size had increased partially. However, it had taken a week to finish devouring him. Upon inspecting its growth, Krune fed it another man. Laid on the berth nearby was another criminal that he had captured and brought during the night. He constantly brought in more and more criminals, watching the number of Yin Beasts continue to increase in numbers. But no matter what, they were unable to do anything. After all, he had amputated their arms and legs, preventing them from doing anything, chaining them to the ceiling as they dangled like cattle ready for slaughter. If not for their abundant vitality, they would have long died to the abuse. Every month, a new Yin Beast would join their ranks. Thankfully for him, a Yin Beast reached maturity in six months, a staggering growth rate. Beyond that, only its intelligence continued to grow. Eighteen months after arriving at the cave, Krune left one day and returned only after three weeks had passed, haggard, but his eyes were bright. Nothing unexpected happened after that as days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. Eventually, the day finally approached when he had been at the bandit cave for 21 months. "It''s finally done!" Chapter 1205 - Two Cores "It''s finally done!" Krune said as he stared at the Yin Beasts hanging from the ceiling. There were fourteen of them in total. Among them, eight had reached maturity. As for the rest, they were in descending order of maturity, including the fourteenth one that had just been birthed. "It''s time to reap the benefits," he said soon after as he picked up the Nightmare Core, noticing that it had dimmed considerably when compared to how he obtained it at first. It had expended a lot of power to birth fourteen Yin Beasts. Smiling, Krune condensed the Cloud Whale around it, piercing it through the body of the youngest Yin Beast, watching it scream in agony as its essence was extracted. Krune smiled in response, watching the degree of increase in the Nightmare Core''s strength surpass what he saw previously. "So, absorbing blood from those that are alive is more effective. That trip to the Sub-Realm is proving valuable in countless situations." With that, Krune continued to poke the Cloud Whale in the Yin Beasts, one after another. By the time he was finished with the sixth Yin Beast, a change had appeared within the Nightmare Core when it had reached full strength. Followed by a minor energy fluctuation, a minor crack appeared in it. For a moment, Krune was worried if he had overfed it with energy. However, upon a closer look, he nodded in understanding, muttering, "I see, that makes perfect sense now." As he was using a female to birth the Yin Beasts while feeding the hatchlings males, it caused two types of energy to be absorbed by the core. Once the Nightmare Core absorbed enough, it split off the respective energies. As Krune plunged the Cloud Whale into the seventh Yin Beast, the Nightmare Core split into two halves, soon turning into smaller whole spheres. Smiling at the result, he continued to repeat the same process, finally absorbing the essence from all fourteen Yin Beasts. Had they been dead, then he wouldn''t have been able to see such a scenario. But with them being alive, adding in his nurturing process, the two energies built up within them over time. That was what he had been aiming for all along. Then again, he had initially planned to manually split the Nightmare Core into two during the absorption process before developing them into two separate entities. But since it had happened naturally, he was even more satisfied. In any case, that meant his train of thought was in the correct direction. Seeing the husks of the fourteen Yin Beasts, Krune proceeded to extract valuable parts from their bodies. Leaving the rest of their bodies aside, he arrived at the room that he had created especially for the refinement process, setting up all the necessary tools. He had spent a lot of money on this, almost expending most of their funds. Nevertheless, the place he had created was perfect for what he was about to create next. Exiting the cave, Krune called forth the two children, stating when they arrived, "Have you memorized everything that I have taught you?" "Yes!" The two of them shouted in response, having clearly grown a lot as compared to before. They were almost ten-year-old now, ready to join the County Academy. Smiling, Krune told them to wait, heading towards the village as he knocked on the door to the village head''s house. When the village head opened the door, he was pleasantly surprised. Well, he was already expecting it a bit when someone knocked on their door in the night. Only someone like him did that. Upon seeing Wang Hu''s old friend, Krune smiled, asking solemnly, "Are you ready to give up your life for your granddaughter to become an Imperial Meister?" For a moment, the village head was stunned before laughing in response. "That''s beyond what I could ever hope. Let these old bones help my family." As for the parents of Chen Xue that had heard their conversation, they fell on the floor, expressing both sadness and happiness. Sadness at the sacrifice of the village head, but happiness at the enormous future that was already paved for their daughter. It was no different from a beggar instantly turning into a king. They were unable to handle such an emotional matter, looking like they would announce the matter to the entire world. But at this time, Krune''s cold voice shut them up, pouring cold water over their emotions. "If word of her leaks, then the aristocratic families would eradicate the both of you and any familial relations Chen''er has. This way, they''ll ensure the bloodline of an Imperial Meister would flow through their family line next." "So, until the day Chen''er announces it herself after turning into an adult, you better quiet about it. Or else, take it to your graves. Will you swear upon your ancestors?" he asked them. As their minds rapidly cooled down, they rationally thought through his words, solemnly bowing as they quickly said, "We swear upon our ancestors to take this matter to our graves. If we break it, may we suffer in hell and never reincarnate." "Good enough." Krune then nodded at the village head, bringing them to the bandit cave. Upon seeing the location he was staying at, the village head was surprised. "To think you were close by all along." "Well, come in!" Krune brought him inside, hearing an excited voice of Chen Xue that pounced upon her grandfather. The grandfather and granddaughter pair spoke a lot as Krune watched the scene for an hour before coughing once. "Can''t I spend some more¡­?" The village head asked, unwilling to part with his granddaughter so soon. Having seen her grow from birth and seeing her every day, he had become pretty lonely after not seeing her for the past 21 months. "No, we don''t have enough time. After you would be my turn. Just so you know, my strength is waning even faster recently." Krune shook his head in response. Only at this moment did the village head notice Krune panting a lot. His skin had cracked while there were countless blisters on his hands. He seemed to have aged by a decade compared to the last time he saw. "I have been pushing myself a lot these past 21 months." Krune smiled wryly, leading the village head to the refinement chamber, the cave where he had set up all the tools. Upon seeing his actions, the two children teared up immediately, realizing something based on the conversation they had exchanged just now. Chapter 1206 - Imperial Refinement "G-Grandpa, you promised!" Wang Hao screamed, kneeling on the ground in sadness. Chen Xue was in a similar state, looking at the village head in tears. However, in response to their tears, the two old men only grew resolute. "Hao''er! Chen''er! What did I remind you?" Suddenly, Krune shouted, causing the two kids to flinch in response. Instinctively, they thumped their fists, shouting, "Only calculated righteousness is the truth of peace!" "Good." Krune nodded, saying gently, "Next, the two of us would be doing something that would make the two of you Imperial Meisters." Seeing them beginning to tear up once again, Krune said, "Remember everything that I have taught you. And now, recall them as you see me in action. This would be the first and probably the last time you see two Imperial Arms be created before your eyes." Krune then erected a small glass barrier, one that reached their height. It prevented them from rushing in during the important process, possibly ruining everything. Even though he had instructed them repeatedly, they were still kids. They wouldn''t be able to stomach what happened next. Sighing, Krune asked the village head, "Are you scared?" "No, I''m excited, actually." The village head laughed in response. Though, after a couple of seconds had passed, he asked hesitantly¡­ "It won''t be painful, right?" "I''ll give you an anesthetic. You won''t feel a thing," Krune replied as he took a large bag of powder from nearby. It was what he had been making, using the bones of all the Yin Beasts that he had in possession till now. After that, he took out a large metal tub and poured half the contents of the powder into it, dropping a stone in its center that automatically caught fire. The fire constantly changed color as the stone vanished, causing the powder to glow bright red. Subtle heat was released from it, but there weren''t any flames. Krune smiled, dropping a Yin Beast''s claws atop it, watching it mystically melt and condense into a small puddle in the center. Krune then dropped in a droplet of his blood, touching the puddle with his index finger, casually making circles using it. This was a type of flame that was ineffective on humans but casually melted the Yin Beasts. As the preparation process and the strict conditions were hard to achieve, it couldn''t be used against the mobile Yin Beasts. Krune continued to add in the claws of the Yin Beasts that he had just harvested, watching the puddle in the center continue to increase in size. Soon after, when he noticed the powder change color to emerald, Krune took out an apparatus from a nearby glass container. It seemed like a Yin Beast at first glance but had been created by the combination of organs from many Yin Beasts. Krune brought it over the flame, watching the entire apparatus float in the air and begin to move as if it were alive. Nevertheless, it slowly began to shrink in size as the organs forming it continued to melt until the entirety shrunk into the puddle. At present, the puddle almost filled the tub as Krune continued to add in many items, just like concocting a pill. As it continued to take time, even though they watched with bated breath, the children were unable to endure, falling asleep after some time. Half a day later, the two of them woke up when they were urged by the village head, gazing at the tub where the mysterious pool in the center had shrunk inside to resemble a tiny cup. Krune then dropped the Nightmare Core that he had preserved for Chen Xue, watching the cup swallow it, immediately looking like it was about to explode. Immediately, Krune used his hands to knead them like dough, feeling the hardness in the center continuing to shrink in size, understanding that it would soon be about time. He then looked at the village head, having already fed him the anesthetic beforehand. "When I give the signal, chop off your legs and put them in the tub." "Are my legs alone sufficient?" The village head said in worry, gazing at Krune who seemed to have aged even further within a day. "I feel like you won''t even last long enough to complete the first refinement." After a moment of thought, he said, "Use my entire body, alive. That way, you''ll be able to use my remaining lifespan to support yourself. Surely there must be a way for you to use it, right?" Seeing the confident look on the other party''s face, Krune laughed wryly in response. "As expected, you managed to read my face." "Of course, I''ve known you since young." The village head laughed and stood before the tub, sending a final gaze at Chen Xue as he told her, "Treat grandpa well. I''ll be in your hands, forever." "Grandpa!" Chen Xue shouted, instinctively wishing to rush in and prevent his death. However, the glass wall blocked her, preventing her from disrupting the process. Even though she was able to climb over it, she was unable to do so, unwilling to disrupt their work. It was especially so since she watched Krune age rapidly right before her eyes. Any interruption from her side would halt the process, causing their sacrifice to be in vain. This was the rational thought process that Krune had instilled in both of them. Upon seeing their reactions, Krune smirked in pride, facing the ceiling once as he looked at the village head, asking him, "I''ve taught them well, didn''t I?" "Is this the right time to be boasting about it?" The village head gazed at him incredulously, flabbergasted. "Of course," Krune replied. "If not now, when else would I get such a chance?" "Hahaha, you destroyed the solemn atmosphere." The village head laughed and slowly climbed into the tub, watching his figure beginning to melt rapidly. Upon seeing Krune''s face that was aging even faster, he sighed in worry, saying, "Persevere, old friend!" "Ugh!" Krune grunted as he was unable to close in on the fire, for it was now capable of burning humans as well.. He quickly took in the prepared tools, beginning to constantly shape the spherical mass that formed in the center, one that resembled clay after the entirety of the village head melted into it. Chapter 1207 - Sun And Moon Wasps For the next six hours, Krune struggled like crazy as his hands began to shiver. Not only did he have to refine the spherical clay in the mysterious fire, but he also had to extract the excess essence generated from the village head, ensuring to not take any of his bloodline. In other words, Krune required a lot of precise control, having no room for mistakes. Had Krune been younger, around 20-30 years old, this would have been a lot easier on him. Then again, it wasn''t like he had such an option. Thus, he persisted stubbornly, finally beaming with a smile when the color of the flame changed once again. Throwing aside the tools, he used his hands, beginning to mold the clay-like substance. As the fire raged forth, the clay began to be compressed once again, gradually getting smaller and smaller. However, it still retained its original weight. So, Krune''s hands were hurting a lot. For the next three hours, he was constantly working on the clay, slowly shaping it into a tiny pair of wings. As time passed, the pair of wings turned crystalline as Krune''s forehead was soon covered in sweat. His skin was slightly charred, looking like he would drop dead any moment. However, at the very last moment, his expression morphed into maniacal glee, turning around as he shouted, "Chen''er! Come here! Quick!" Upon his shout, Chen Xue climbed over the glass wall and arrived before him. "Turn around and show me your back," Krune said as Chen Xue did as told, revealing her bare back to him. "From today onwards, your destiny has changed, into one that would change the world¡­" Krune said solemnly, gently placing the pair of crystalline wings on her back, watching her flinch in pain as her skin was singed before the pair of wings melted into her body, soon vanishing. "As an Imperial Warlock." "Moon Wasp, that''s the name of your Imperial Arms, one that has become part of you and would be inherited by your successor through your blood," he said, pointing at a box in the corner of the cave. "Everything that I can think of, I''ve placed them there for you." Without saying another word, Krune began to work on the flames, creating some preparations as he condensed a similar cup as before and dropped the Nightmare Core prepared for Wang Hao into it. However, this time, the process was slightly different as he wished to proceed in the same route as the village head. After all, the end product turned out to be superior compared to his expectations, so he didn''t wish to pull punches this time around. He kneaded and already created a mold, one in which the process would be automatically carried out by the fire. He used the properties of the fire and how the clay reacted to it before to make a design in which the end result would finish forming. Eventually, once the Nightmare Core finished dissolving into the clay, Krune finally turned around, facing Wang Hao as he told him, "Your Imperial Arms is called the Sun Wasp. And¡­" "You will always be my pride and joy." At this moment, he was neither Su Zixin nor Krune, but a simple grandpa that loved his grandson, Wang Hu. Facing Chen Xue, he told him, "Once it finishes forming, place it on the back of Hao''er just like what I did for you. All the materials I prepared for him are within the box next to yours." Saying so, he took a final glance at the two children that he had wholeheartedly taught everything in his power. "I guess this is what it feels like to have disciples." Smiling, Krune climbed into the tub, watching his figure melt quickly. A minute later, there was a squirming clay in the tub that was constantly reducing in size, beginning to take shape. Despite tears streaming down their face, Wang Hao and Chen Xue didn''t speak a word, staring at the scene without even blinking, watching the process take even longer than Chen Xue''s since it was being done automatically thanks to Krune''s arrangements. A day later, a pair of crystalline wings formed in the tub as the fire within it had vanished. Chen Xue gently picked it up and placed it on Wang Hao''s back, watching the other party wince in pain for a moment as it melted into his body, only leaving behind a small scar behind. Feeling the power brimming forth from within his body, Wang Hao kneeled on the floor, sobbing, "Grandpa!" While that was happening, Chen Xue stood beside him, gently patting his shoulder as she was silently shedding tears. Upon her pat, he turned his head, looking at her to see her shake her head. Sniffing once, he wiped his tears, controlling himself from crying as the two of them approached the two boxes placed in the corner of the cave. Picking it up, they noticed that it contained things in relation to their Imperial Arms, the methods of use, the various ways in which they would affect the Nightmares, and so on. There was also a detailed instruction as to what they had to do upon heading to the County Academy, their admission tokens, and much more. There was also a bag of money placed in each, along with clothes and other accessories that Krune had bought for them, necessary to mingle in the County Academy and socialize there. There was a small slip attached to it that read, "For the next five years, prove your excellence in the County Academy without revealing your true identities. Gain the qualifications to attend the Imperial Academy. Once you reach there, work in investigating the cause of suffering in the world. This, I leave in your hands." "Wait, there''s something else," Chen Xue said, looking at the bottom of the box to see two items placed there, a pen and a sword. And on both of them was an engraved sentence. Both Chen Xue and Wang Hao received a set of pens and swords. On the sword, it read, "In battle, I am mighty!" On the pen, it read, "In conflict, I am mighty!" Chapter 1208 - Third Suffering "¡­" "¡­" "¡­" "¡­Do you not plan to pour this tea?" Hearing the annoyed voice, Krune instinctively did the task as his instincts as a Spiritual Chef took control. Once he was dismissed, he exited the room, kneeling on the wall as he panted, feeling the influx of memories bombard his mind. Until now, he was barely keeping in a poker face. Once he was out of sight, his visage crumbled as another rush of information gushed into his mind, almost tearing it apart. If not for the fact that the person he had reincarnated into was slightly younger, the influx of memories would have almost turned him mad. Once his mind cooled down, Krune took in deep breaths, coming to terms with his new identity, thinking to himself, ''Thankfully, I meditated enough for the past two years and integrated most of Su Zixin and Wang Hu into myself. Otherwise, I would have definitely gone crazy.'' He was Shi Jiang, a middle-aged man that was a servant of the Feng Family, a merchant family that had achieved quite a bit of fame in Red Coast Town. It wasn''t on the scale of a city but was still fairly influential due to the fact that they bordered the Red Jetty River. The Red Jetty River was one of the three great rivers that ran through the Daxia Empire. As one of the few settlements located right alongside it with a great location and a temperate climate, it was a bustling place. A lot of goods were exchanged at this place, also leading to auctions. With that said, the Feng Family owned an auction house that was of prestigious fame. Currently, it was related to the setting up of items in the upcoming auction that the Feng Family head, Feng Bolin, had called for distinguished guests to talk about the necessary procedures. And for that occasion, he had tasked his trusted servant, Shi Jiang, to set up the table. Towards the middle of the meeting, right as he was about to refill the teacups for everyone, Krune''s consciousness landed within, causing him to pause abruptly. Thankfully, Krune knew very well to not act up and did as he was told, showing greater performance than usual just to not get into the bad books of his lord. That would just be a death sentence. Not only that, but it would also implicate his family. Currently, his family consisted of his mother that was healthy despite her age, his wife that was prettier than what a servant like his deserved, as well as three kids. Now that he had gathered his bearings, Krune stood beside the door, hearing of the contents spoken within through his exceptional senses. The moment he appeared, the muscles in Shi Jiang''s body began to convulse subtly, turning a notch stronger within seconds. Soon, the senses of his body had become stronger than before. Within a couple of minutes, he turned from a normal servant into a warrior. When he was Su Zixin, his body was in a state worse than death. As Wang Hu, his body was too old that just prolonging his life took everything he had. But now, as a middle-aged man, he was able to erupt with a bit more of his capabilities. At present, he was capable of killing at least two well-trained soldiers without suffering a single injury. And that was only because his body wasn''t trained. If he was given a couple of years to train, then he was capable of killing at least ten people without suffering a single injury. With a weapon in hand¡­ Krune controlled himself from smirking. He was aware of his status right now, having no other desire to act beyond that. Even though his mind had processed all the information related to Shi Jiang, the character had yet to set in him. The situation was somewhat troublesome to the extent that if trouble were to come knocking, then he wouldn''t be able to react on time since Shi Jiang''s mentality would clash with the rest. Even though the degree of influence it could exert wasn''t much, it was still troublesome because it was able to prevent him from making split-second decisions. Ting-ling! There was the sound of a bell being rung as Krune entered the meeting room in character, picking up a jar that was being warmed atop a pile of shimmering charcoal before pouring the tea for everyone. He also expertly refilled the refreshments for everyone and exited as quickly as he had arrived. He had done such a perfect job that Feng Bolin raised an eyebrow in surprise, smirking as he looked at the others. Previously, when Krune made a small blunder, he felt embarrassed. Thankfully, Krune had recovered immediately and did his part. Now that he had outperformed himself, his sour mood had completely vanished, replaced by a good mood as the discussions continued forth with a better pace. Arriving at the back of the hall once again, Krune sighed in relief. The subtle fluctuation in Feng Bolin''s mood was all his life weighed upon, even if he was the most trusted servant among everyone in the Feng Family. ''This''ll be a troublesome reincarnation.'' He sighed before thinking, ''In any case, living conditions wise, this is many times better than my previous life. Is it because of the actions I had taken before I passed away? In short, as long as I work towards the goal of solving the sufferings of this world, my successive reincarnations would be in better conditions?'' ''And similarly, if I perform worse, I''ll end up in an incarnation like Wang Hu or someone even worse?'' Krune frowned when he thought about it that way, massaging his forehead as he looked around. He was currently in a room located adjacent to the meeting hall. He was the only one at the place. The other servants were too inexperienced to cater to the guests here since their status alone would cause them to shiver. As he was the most experienced, he would be able to maintain his calm. That was the reason he was the only one here. Nodding in response, Krune looked around, seeing the many refreshments placed on neat shelves. For a moment, recalling the events that he was scheduled to take care of next, Krune felt an incoming headache, sighing in exhaustion.. ''These series of sufferings would easily exhaust anyone, especially since the end is nowhere in sight.'' Chapter 1209 - Saving His Neck It was evening when the meeting had concluded as Krune accompanied Feng Bolin to send off all the guests. Feng Bolin walked at the front while Krune walked a couple of steps behind him, holding a tray in his hands. Placed on it were some gifts that Feng Bolin took from time to time and gave to the guests before sending them off. Eventually, once everyone left, Feng Bolin continued to stare at the road spanning beyond the Feng Family mansion for a bit, asking with a curt tone, "Shi Jiang, what was up with you earlier?" The man had used a casual tone, but the Shi Jiang within Krune shuddered at that. However, Krune didn''t fret, having already thought up a plan, bowing as he cupped his fists, saying, "My Lord, your servant was unable to react when a certain thought hit me while pouring tea." He then cupped his wish, putting on a solemn tone of voice, bowing a tad lower as he continued, "I wish to convey everything to my Lord in a place where the walls don''t have ears." Of course, he meant a place without any prying eyes. Due to his experience and having seen Shi Jiang for all these years, Feng Bolin knew that his servant wasn''t the type to run his mouth. Moreover, he had been a careful person, never going beyond what a servant ought to be. That''s the reason he had survived so long and had become the oldest servant in the household. All the servants that started before or along him had either been executed, whipped to death, or thrown into the streets to beg because they ran off their mouth. There were also cases where they were implicated because the master they followed did something foolish and used them as scapegoats. Even though a servant never had to worry about food or decent living space, their lives were always at risk. With that, they had to be careful. Though, as they constantly worked about, gossiping was their only pastime. Moreover, they were working in the Feng Family, an influential family. So, a lot of distinguished guests arrived from time to time. Just that alone was gossip-worthy material. Because of that, gossiping had become a thing that was frequent among the servants. Most of them whispered to one another, only gossiping with those they trusted. But sometimes, they lost control of their bearings in their enthusiasm and blurted out things, which somehow reached the ears of those from the Feng Family. If they were controversial enough, the servant was executed. There was no one that would ask them anyway. After all, the servants adopted by the Feng Family were always orphans. Once taken into the servant quarters, they were divided between the various houses there, taken care of by older generation servants that served those from Feng Bolin''s previous generation. After that, as the servants grew and learned of their ways, they were also married off within the servant quarters to make a family. After all, there were never enough servants. If the ones within the servant quarters were enough, the Feng Family wouldn''t adopt any more orphans. In the end, Shi Jiang had lived as long as he had for a reason. So, Feng Bolin intended to listen to what he had to say at least. Even though Shi Jiang''s early blunder displeased him, he had already redeemed himself after that. It was also because of the fact that there weren''t any capable servants to replace Shi Jiang and were to his liking, so he didn''t wish to be that hard on the sole competent servant he had. Had a normal servant paused while pouring tea like Shi Jiang before, then they would have been executed. Arriving at his study, Feng Bolin sat at his seat as Krune calmly poured him his favorite tea, one that helped to soothe his nerves. Only after he had finished drinking a full cup did Krune begin speaking, refilling the cup as he told him, "My Lord, this is something this servant can only feel instinctively. However, please hear me out." "Go ahead." Feng Bolin nodded. Taking in a deep breath, Krune spoke, having gone through the related memories a couple of times already. "Three months ago, a beggar had sold off his family heirloom, a jade handle with a mysterious inscription. Seven months ago, when our guards chased off a drunken old man, they accidentally killed him. While searching his body, they found an amethyst plate. Similarly, last week, Young Master had found a pearl ring in the stomach of a tiger he had killed in the forest." "They all did happen." Feng Bolin stared at Krune, motioning for him to speak further. Clearing his voice once, Krune stated his claim, "Though, I feel like the Biao Family is related to all these three items. Even though I have a great memory, I am unable to recall them. However, I have definitely seen them being worn by members of the Biao Family. Either it''s a scheme by the Biao Family, or someone is using this to develop a feud between us and the Biao Family." "The auction is the key to everything. Weren''t we planning to put up all three items there?" Krune finished. "Hm, there is no concrete evidence to your claim. It''s not enough to begin a probe against the Biao Family or the others," Feng Bolin frowned as he replied. "I understand, My Lord." Krune cupped his hands before continuing, "It''s just, as the servant that managed to avoid death all this time, I am strangely sensitive to such things. At present, it feels like a noose is tightening around my neck. When I was pouring you tea, this sensation felt stronger, which was why I blanked out." "I''ll consider it." Feng Bolin nodded. After some time, he began to busy himself with other matters of the household. As for Krune, his task was to accompany Feng Bolin through everything. As Feng Bolin''s personal servant, there were a lot of things that he had to do. Eventually, late into the night, he sighed in exhaustion, massaging his aching forehead as he made his way towards the servant quarters, soon arriving at his home. As one of the oldest servants other than the ones serving the previous generation, he had made enough contributions to have his own house and even a personal courtyard. Sighing, he opened the door when a familiar scent pounced upon him. Chapter 1210 - Danger! "Hahaha! Were you obedient today, Lian''er?" Krune was surprised for a moment before familiar words rolled out of his mouth. It was the Shi Jiang in him taking action. "I was rewarded a bit by the second Young Miss today." Ming Lian, his youngest daughter, laughed, extricating herself from her hug. "Lian, as a lady, you shouldn''t jump around so much." A chiding voice resounded as another girl, similar in appearance to Ming Lian, appeared, bowing respectfully to Krune. "Father, you must have had a tiring day. I''ve prepared some hot water to wash your face." "Xue''er, did the Eldest Young Miss treat you well today?" Krune asked in worry, immediately scanning over his eldest daughter, Ming Xue, to see if she had suffered from any injuries. Upon seeing that she hadn''t suffered anything, he sighed in relief. "No, she was pretty tame today," Ming Xue replied with a sigh. "She''s only going on talking about the new guy that arrived at the Red Star Brothel House." "Thank goodness." Krune nodded before saying, "No matter how much you have to lie there, just do it. Ensure that you are never the target of her vents." He then turned towards Ming Lian before continuing, "The same goes for you as well. The two young ladies are fighting each other. So, you''ll have to know that they would take advantage of your relationship as sisters to pry information out of your mouths." "It''s fine, Dad." Ming Lian laughed in response. "The Second Young Miss is too scheming that she doesn''t need to get any information from me. She has a lot of channels." "In any case, you can never be careless," Krune advised her. "If her information channels dry up, she''ll turn to you as her last resort. So, always keep that in mind and continue to think up as many scenarios as you can in your head. Always devise plans that would allow you to survive." "Fine!" Ming Lian pouted and ran off into her room. Seeing Ming Xue still remaining in the same spot as before in a respectful posture, Krune sighed, patting her head as he asked, "How''s your mother''s health?" "It has improved a little," Ming Xue replied, gritting her teeth. "Lian is taking too much of a risk to sneak in some ointment to hasten her treatment. The Second Young Miss is meticulous. Lian''s digging herself a trap this way." "You should rest now." Krune sighed as he gently hugged her. "No matter what happens, I''ll ensure to protect our family." Dismissing her to her room, he went towards the room of his mother, greeting her once to report everything that had happened during the day. After that, he returned to his room, watching the figure of his wife sleeping on the bed. She had a mild fever, but the most glaring issue was the two lash marks on her face. Just the shock from the lash had sent her into such a state where she hadn''t been able to even get up from bed for the past two weeks. Upon seeing her state, rage filled Krune''s mind, wishing to use the Cloud Whale and execute everyone within the Feng Family overnight. However, he stopped himself rationally. He and his family were registered as servants in the Daxia Empire''s registry. So, it meant that wherever they went, being servants was their only option. Their only other options were to prostitute themselves or work in the mines. So, once he destroyed the Feng Family, there would be no protection for his family. The other merchant families in the Red Coast Town would gobble up the Feng Family estate. In the process, all the servants of the place were free real estate, up for grabs. His wife and daughters were quite beautiful. So, all he would be doing next would be causing misery to his family. That''s why he controlled his anger. Suddenly, a gentle hand grabbed his hand as a weak voice resounded, "Don''t¡­everything you have endured until now would have been for naught." "You shouldn''t strain yourself." Krune hurriedly stopped his wife from getting up, gently patting her head as he watched her fall back into a slumber immediately. It seemed she had woken up after sensing his killing intent, something all servants were sensitive against after being used to the atmosphere of the place. He didn''t stay up after that, falling asleep immediately. As a servant, he had duties to accompany Feng Bolin from the moment he was awake until he fell asleep. So, that also meant he didn''t have much time to be with his family. Moreover, he slept for less time than Feng Bolin. It was an exhausting and stressful job. But at least, as long as he endured everything, his family could survive. This was the last thought in his mind before falling asleep. It was late into the night as a figure staggered through the estate of the Feng Family, fairly drunk. He had large, broad shoulders, hulking muscles and wide facial features. Holding a liquor bottle in his hand, he walked through the estate, taking in the fresh air of the night. He wasn''t tipsy, still maintaining enough clarity of mind to know what he was doing. However, his pace wasn''t the best. As he passed along, the patrolling guards saluted him before hurrying off from his line of sight. They didn''t wish to be executed. He was the second son of Feng Bolin, Feng Hu, a lecherous man that had his way with any woman that caught his fancy. At the slightest irritation, he ordered for the execution of people. He was a typical tyrant, someone dreaded a lot in the Feng Family estate. Even some of the distant bloodlines of the Feng Family didn''t wish to deal with him. After all, even though he was brash, he was also a cunning character that was also unrivaled in fighting in their entire city. As his prospects were high, Feng Bolin turned a blind eye to his misdeeds. And now, occasionally drinking, he smirked, looking at the mysterious ring that he had obtained through the black market. ''I never imagined such a fabulous treasure existed. With such a treasure, not to mention the mere Feng Family, even noble families won''t be able to do anything to me.'' He laughed, noticing that he had arrived before the servant quarters. Just as he was about to turn around and return to his home, his footsteps suddenly halted as he looked at his pants, noticing his dragon rising up from within. After a moment of thought, he grinned, muttering to himself, "Right, Shi Jiang''s two daughters are really pretty despite being servants. And best of all, they''re pure. Eating them both tonight would be fun." He then patted his pants after that. "Be a bit more patient.. We''ll be having a feast soon enough." Chapter 1211 - The Stronger Cloud Whale Treasure! Krune woke up with a start as he felt something, summoning his Soul Needle to see it spinning around constantly. Since it was spinning, that meant the level of treasure was of great significance. In habit, Krune moved his hand, tracing it forward and backward. This way, based on the swaying of the needle''s tip, he would be able to get a general estimate of the distance the treasure was situated away from him. But now, when he did the same, he could feel the Soul Needle swaying a lot, causing him to get up hurriedly. The treasure was inside his house! Had this been present before, even if it were in hiding or sealed, the Soul Needle was capable of sensing it. However, the fact that it had registered it only now meant one thing, someone had infiltrated their house. Taking in a deep breath, Krune exhaled as all the muscles on his body wriggled, using the powers of his body cultivation to open up all his physical senses. Sonic Radar! Using his breath, he sensed his surroundings, starting with the room he was at, followed by the nearby rooms. There were four rooms in total in their house. One was the master bedroom, where he and his wife stayed. The second was where his mother stayed, with the third being his son''s room, which was currently empty since he was on night duty, accompanying the Eldest Young Master of the Feng Family. The final room was where Ming Lian and Ming Xue slept. Currently, he felt the presence of a third party there, a bulky man with a suffocating presence. It was unknown how he managed to enter the house as Krune''s senses soon reached the door, watching that it had been opened as if the other part had a key. In any case, he could instinctively feel that the situation was different. After all, the hulking man triggered his danger senses. ''Damn it! My daughters!'' Krune cursed in response as he summoned his Cloud Whale, loading the Soul Needle within it. It was still able to function, causing the Cloud Whale to turn and point its horn in the respective direction. This was another use that he had figured out. The Cloud Whale had a weakness of being unable to turn quickly. But by loading the Soul Needle within its horn, he could consider his opponent a treasure. This way, it''ll constantly point their way, forcefully turning the Cloud Whale in the respective direction. Thanks to that, its inherent weakness was resolved. The moment he condensed the Cloud Whale, Krune was surprised to see that it was larger than before, thrice its initial size. Moreover, it was a lot tougher now. ''I see. Since it''s inherently tied to my physique, with Shi Jiang''s physique being many times healthier and stronger than Wang Hu, the Cloud Whale is also stronger,'' Krune thought, quickly pulling out a set of clothes from his wardrobe that he draped over himself. ''My current clothes are a giveaway of my identity.'' He had to save his daughters and prevent any trouble from knocking their way. So, he draped himself in black, using a set of clothes that he had bought long ago from the market, making sure to cover his face as well. The burly man was currently before his two daughters, beginning to remove his clothes. It was apparent as to what he was planning to do. Based on what Krune could sense, he was able to determine the identity of the other party. After all, there was only one person in the entire Feng Family with such a massive physique, as well as someone who could disregard all rules. Feng Hu! His daughters hadn''t woken up yet. But, even if they did and screamed, nothing would change. Even if the other servants were to arrive, after seeing Feng Hu, they would treat it as if they hadn''t seen or heard anything and would scurry off from the place. So, he had to take matters into his own hands. Of course, he didn''t approach him from within the house, for that would just be him revealing his identity. Instead, he exited the house, ran around and arrived before the wall of his daughters'' room, grunting in anger. Air Needle! From the window, his Cloud Whale unleashed an Air Needle, also shooting the Soul Needle forth like a bullet, slamming it into Feng Hu''s neck. "What?" There was a startled sound from Feng Hu as the Soul Needle crashed into the barrier that automatically appeared around his body. It constantly spun, drilling into the barrier that had appeared, penetrating into it quickly. Fuelled by the Air Needle that had appeared, it quickly burned through the barrier and pierced Feng Hu''s neck, drilling into him. Krune had attacked at a point that would prevent Feng Hu from even uttering any sound. He had prepared himself for a different task, fully confident that there were no threats around. So, he had let down his guard, unable to react on time as the Soul Needle pierced through his neck. Before he managed to realize what was up, his neck had melted, killing him in the process. The burning stench woke up the two girls when Krune''s voice resounded, "Don''t shout!" As they hurriedly shut up, Krune arrived at the room, lighting up a candle to take a clear look at the situation. On the floor lay the corpse of Feng Hu with his eyes widened, not having least expected that his death would come like this. Lodged in his neck was the Soul Needle, continuing to melt his body. On the middle finger of his left hand was a mysterious jade ring, one that emitted a sinister feeling, causing everyone in the room to shudder upon gazing at it. The two girls closed their mouths in fear, trying their best to muffle their screams. After all, the one that had been killed was Feng Hu, the Second Young Master of the Feng Family. Their entire family would be wiped out once the news spread. "Don''t worry," Krune said with a vicious tone. "I''ll erase his corpse.. No one will ever find him." Chapter 1212 - The Stronger Once the morning of the next day arrived, the entire Feng Family estate was in a state of chaos, with everyone scuttling about in panic. Feng Bolin slammed a vase into the wall, watching it shatter as he raged. "Damn it!" Feng Hu had gone missing. Today was supposed to be an important day where he was supposed to meet his prospective bride. Him going missing today spelled trouble for him, especially since the bride was from the Yan Family, a merchant family on par with their Feng Family. "No matter what, find him!" Feng Bolin relayed the orders to all his guards. "Search beyond the city!" He then turned over to all the servants that stood beside the guards. "And you! Search through the estate. Once you''re done, go search every nook and cranny of our town! Understood?" "Yes, Lord!" All the servants replied and rushed out from the place, including Krune¡ªShi Jiang. While exiting the Feng Family estate, a small smile crept up his face. ''There''s no way anyone can ever find him.'' Of course, the reason was simple. The act of feeding someone to the dogs, Krune had done the same. Naturally, he also took some extra steps first. Using the Cloud Whale, he sucked in all the blood from Feng Hu''s body, using it to water a plant deep within the Feng Family estate. To be more specific, he didn''t just pour it on the ground but had injected it into the tree''s trunk. He had found a relatively hollow tree trunk based on his memories. As for the flesh, bones, and organs of Feng Hu, Krune diced them into small chunks before making the Cloud Whale carry them. This way, it would be discrete. He knew of places within the city where there were street dogs, especially in the slum area. He dropped the pieces there one after another. In order to ensure all the traces were absolutely erased, he had spent the entire night making the Cloud Whale move all throughout town. Unsurprisingly, the dogs in the slum had a relatively good feast that night. As for Feng Hu''s clothes, after tying them up into a bundle, Krune made the Cloud Whale carry it towards the river before dropping it along the shores. It then slammed the Soul Needle into them, burning them up before washing off the ashes into the river water. In his home, there was the hole he made in the window, which he patched up during the night. The windows there were just made of porous paper-like material that wasn''t damaged by rain. As he had a spare, he replaced it. As for any traces of blood in the house, the two girls worked tirelessly through the night to clean up everything, also helping him with the other tasks. None of them were repulsed by the sight of blood. This wasn''t the first time they had seen it. Even though the two girls were only eighteen years old, they had seen some deaths of servants that were executed before them. So, they were quick to take action, realizing that Krune had killed Feng Hu to save them. As servants, they were good at lying through their teeth or acting to ensure they would live. So, the next morning, all three of them behaved as if they were as ignorant as the rest of the servants. They wholeheartedly searched for Feng Hu. Or better yet, they acted as such, just like every other servant and guard. None liked him, to be honest, so they wished he would drop dead wherever he had disappeared towards. While all the servants were searching, Krune roamed through the market, acting like he was also looking for Feng Hu. However, his mind was elsewhere, ''That ring, just what was it? It actually condensed a barrier to protect him even though he was caught unaware by my attack.'' ''The feeling the energy from the ring gave was similar to a Nightmare but even more sinister.'' As Krune thought about it, some tattered records that Su Zixin had learned about flashed in his mind, causing him to be rooted to the spot in shock, trembling in response as many things began to make sense. Demon Arms! Nightmares were capable of possessing people and living within them. However, the stronger the Nightmare, the harder it was for it to find a human with a large enough vessel to contain it. Even for a regular Nightmare, the human it possessed would die in a couple of days. However, there was one exception here, those created with the intention of trapping Nightmares. Ghost Appeasers! A Ghost Appeaser was trained to be able to house a Nightmare within them so that the Imperial Meister was able to kill them and deal the Nightmare a fatal blow. This was how they usually killed Nightmares. However, if they had failed to kill the Ghost Appeaser, allowing the Nightmare within him to win the battle and fully possess them, the situation turned dangerous. The Nightmare now had the advantage of a human body that allowed it to wield its power even better, making it even stronger. Usually, in such cases, Imperial Meisters would be dispatched in large numbers to kill such a being. Though, there was one exception. It was the Nightmare that had killed Su Zixin''s father. It was by far the strongest Nightmare they had ever faced. The Su Family Imperial Meisters were unable to deal with it. They had asked for reinforcements, but before they could arrive, the Nightmare managed to completely take over the body of the Ghost Appeaser that it had possessed. After that, it had killed Su Zixin''s father and escaped. With a successful possession, a Nightmare was called a Demon. A Demon was even stronger than a Nightmare. To further strengthen themselves, they would temporarily weaken themselves to cut off a body part and refine it into an object. They would dispatch it into human markets, causing it to circulate until it reached the hands of someone that would use it. That item was called the Demon Arms. Upon every use, a part of their lifespan would be shaved off and stored in the Demon Arms. After many years, once it had accumulated enough lifeforce, the Demon would collect it, becoming stronger than before. It was a slow process. But, Krune understood what the Demon was doing here. Cultivation! The Demon was using the lifeforce of the humans collected in the Demon Arms to extend its life and even strengthen itself in the process. Every Nightmare naturally did the same thing, but for a Demon, it was just far simpler. And now, one such Demon Arms fell in his hands. Normally, it was a worrying situation. However, rather than be dismayed, Krune smiled in response. ''I now have a source to track you and eradicate you.'' He was able to sense that as long as he destroyed all the schemes of this Demon, he would be able to return to the God Realm and obtain the means to immerse himself in the Law Pools.. With that, he would be rid of all defects and cultivate peacefully afterward. Chapter 1213 - Demon… Thinking as such, Krune arrived at a corner and activated his Soul Needle, wishing for it to point in the direction of a treasure that was similar to the ring he had obtained. For a moment, the Soul Needle whirred at the same place, spinning for a bit before suddenly pointing towards a certain direction. Looking at where it was pointing, Krune moved forward, watching the Soul Needle turn a little accordingly. ''It''s actually close!'' Krune was alarmed as he activated his Cloud Whale. However, he didn''t summon it this time, activating it within his body instead. It slightly amplified his body with the air currents, allowing him to skip with lithe and grace. Arriving at a narrow alley, he jumped on the protrusions along the side of the walls, soon arriving at the roof of a building, frowning as he stared in the direction pointed by the Soul Needle. Skipping on the roof of one building towards another, he discreetly arrived atop a certain inconspicuous building. Shi Jiang had been in Red Coast Town all his life and had been through the market countless times. However, he hadn''t ever seen this building before. It was because it was expertly hidden between three intersecting streets, with no road leading to it. The only way to enter it was through an underground passage that led from a certain building farther away. Upon arriving atop the building, Krune looked around, noticing a crow standing nearby. Smiling, he opened his mouth, taking in a deep breath before exhaling out sharply. Caww! Caww! His shout was as original as a crow''s as Krune used this to scout his surroundings, relying on his Sonic Radar. With a healthier body, he was able to use Sonic Radar to a good extent, watching the scene within the house be highlighted in his mind. Though, the moment he saw two individuals within, his attention fell on the woman seated there, stunned into silence. "Su¡­Daiyu¡­" He was alarmed, for that was Su Zixin''s daughter, one that had framed him and forced him to be a beggar for many years. And right now, she was currently sipping tea, seated opposite another man who was also familiar. Ghost Appeaser! He wasn''t a regular Ghost Appeaser, but one that housed the strongest Nightmare and had killed Su Zixin''s father. Currently, the Ghost Appeaser lacked both his little fingers in his hands and all the fingers of his toes. It was apparent that he had used them to refine the Demon Arms. One of them fell into the hands of Krune while the other was in the possession of Su Daiyu. ''Is that how she gained control of Moon Flower from me back then?'' Moon Flower was Su Zixin''s Imperial Arms. The fact that it left his ownership had served enough proof of his misdeeds. That was why he had been punished, left to rot at the gates of the very household that he had served to protect all his life. ''This Demon is here.'' For a moment, Krune felt fear, instinctively escaping from the place. He dared not stay there to even spy for long. Nightmares had exceptional senses, not to mention a Demon. The only reason he had managed to spy so long was thanks to his exceptional control over his body''s senses, capable of ensuring he didn''t even exude any presence. But as time passed, his position would eventually be compromised. Besides, he didn''t wish to engage with them for the time being, not on his own at least. Red Coast Town was no longer safe. The moment the Demon flared up, the entire town would be destroyed. Without any hesitation, Krune returned to the Feng Family estate, using the chance of a lack of guards or servants to infiltrate the building and break into the treasury. He ensured to only take items whose records were really old and hadn''t been checked recently. He also took the records of such items, ensuring no one would even know that something had been stolen. As a merchant family, the Feng Family had considerable wealth. Thanks to Shi Jiang''s memories, Krune was aware of what to take and what to keep. He quickly carried the items and placed them in an inn that he had booked in advance. Naturally, he was careful all this time. He then used the Soul Needle to locate his two daughters and his son, Shi Bao, bringing them to the inn as he told them. "Red Coast Town is no longer safe." "What do you mean by that, dad?" Shi Bao asked in alarm. He was pretty smart, smart enough to follow the Eldest Young Master, having long since obtained the position of head servant. With that, upon seeing his father''s solemn face, his heart began to thump in response. "There''s a Nightmare hiding in this town," Krune replied, stopping the others from interrupting him as he continued, "And no, it''s not a regular Nightmare. It''s one of the strongest Nightmares to exist to date, not to mention the fact that it possesses a human and has become a Demon." He then placed the ring in Shi Bao''s hand, telling him, "This is a Demon Arms, a weapon produced by the Demon. Every activation consumes your lifespan. However, as long as you don''t use it frequently, the Demon won''t arrive to collect it. Only use it when your life is at risk." "With this, you''ll be able to protect yourselves in another city," Krune said, pointing at the luggage he had brought. "There''s enough money and treasures in it to last you a lifetime. Head towards another city and make a living there." "Dad, why are you saying all this to me?" Shi Bao was flustered, "Why are you making it sound like you won''t be coming with us?" "That''s because I indeed won''t be coming along with you," Krune answered in all seriousness, facing his two daughters as he nodded. "When Feng Hu used that ring yesterday, I knew something was up with this city." "Feng Hu? Wait, what''s going on?" Shi Bao was utterly confused when Krune explained everything to him. Eventually, Krune sighed, saying, "I''ll bring your mother here. She''s ill, but book an expensive carriage for your departure. I also forged a certificate that would allow you to set up a small shop in another city. Your names have already been erased in the Feng Family''s servant records, so from now on, you''re free." Without waiting for them to speak anything, Krune vanished from the inn, heading into the Feng Family estate as he knocked on the door to his mother''s room. "Mother, can I enter?" "I won''t be leaving¡­" A reply came from the other side as if the other party had already sensed his actions. "Take care." Krune sighed, bringing his wife out as he brought her to the inn in stealth. Without waiting for any farewells, he booked a comfortable carriage, boarded all four in it and sent them away, praying for their safety. With that done, he bribed someone from the market to speak as he dictated and rushed towards Feng Bolin, saying, "My Lord, I have some news about the Second Young Master." Chapter 1214 - Invaded By Demon Arms Wielders "What? Is it true?" Feng Bolin asked in a hurry. "Yes, my Lord!" Krune nodded, saying, "The person that informed me said that the Second Young Master had entered a certain building in the market yesterday night. I didn''t know of the risk present there, so I first arrived to inform my Lord about it." "Good work. Summon the guards and send them there for an investigation," Feng Bolin relayed the command as Krune nodded in response, heading out to relay the orders when a loud announcement resounded. "The Yan Family''s young lady has arrived!" ''Damn it. Right at this time,'' Krune thought when he halted in his steps, watching the Soul Needle stir up in response, realizing that something was up. "Please come in." Feng Bolin exited the house, welcoming a graceful lady that was accompanied by five servants. The lady wore a veil that covered her face, dressed in a wolf fur of sorts that gave her a devilish charm. Feng Bolin audibly gulped upon staring at her, for a moment enchanted by her appearance. "Come in! Come in!" Laughing awkwardly for staring at her so intently, Feng Bolin coughed before inviting her inside to save some face. Seated on a table opposite to her, Lady Yan calmly sipped her tea, asking with a melodious voice, "I was hoping to talk with Feng Hu first before my family arrived for some serious discussions. Can I meet him?" "This¡­ah¡­you see." Feng Bolin coughed once before replying awkwardly, "Feng Hu mysteriously disappeared in the market yesterday night. We just managed to locate him there and were in the process of retrieving him." "I remember seeing him in the Feng Family mansion yesterday night. One of them said he was last seen heading into the servant quarters," Lady Yan said coldly, changing her tone. "Feng Bolin, I''m giving you a warning. Don''t test my patience!" "How dare you talk to me this way. Even your father doesn''t dare do so!" Feng Bolin roared in anger, shouting, "Guards! Escort Lady Yan out!" As the guards streamed in at his shout, Lady Yan took off her vein, revealing the purple rimmed spectacles that she wore, saying, "It seems you have no use. Well, it was bound to happen anyway, so I might as well start it now." Krune''s heart thumped in response as he quickly pulled Feng Bolin to the side, leaping away, watching a couple of arrows pierce the chair he had been sitting upon. "You¡­!" Seeing her actions, Feng Bolin gritted his teeth in anger before shouting in anger, "Guards! Kill them!" All the guards that had been on standby rushed towards Lady Yan and her five servants. "Hahaha!" A male''s laughter resounded as one of the five servants removed her disguise, revealing a familiar figure. Feng Bolin stared at him in shock. "Third Young Master of the Biao Family?" "What''s happening?" Right at this moment, all the other servants had also removed their disguises as their bodies shone with a purple hue. ''All of them possess a Demon Arms.'' Krune was alarmed as he pulled Feng Bolin to safety while the guards rushed towards the six Demon Arms wielders. However, followed by a wave of energy, four guards dropped dead. "Hahaha!" The Third Young Master of the Biao Family roared in laughter, condensing an energy blade that flew around, killing every guard that tried to kill him. "Let''s get you to safety!" Krune pushed Feng Bolin away, bringing him to a corner. After all, without his orders, the guards would flee away. But now, since their families were in his control, they had no other choice but to throw their lives to heed his orders. As for Krune, he was waiting for them to tire out the Demon Arms users as much as possible. Moreover, after ensuring Feng Bolin was safe, protected by five guards, Krune rushed into the crowd of guards, taking the opportunity when they were busy to condense his Cloud Whale, unleashing an Air Needle. He targeted Lady Yan, for she seemed the most troublesome out of them all. From the looks of it, anyone that made eye contact with her was rendered speechless before they were killed by others. Thus, if he wished to take them down, he had to kill her first. ''This wouldn''t have happened if I hadn''t killed Feng Hu.'' It seemed they had sensed his death and had arrived here to investigate. Judging based on what Lady Yan had said, it seemed they had been planning to slaughter everyone in the Feng Family anyway. ''Thankfully, I have sent my family away on time.'' Krune sighed in relief. Of course, this situation was about to happen no matter what. There was no way he would allow Feng Hu to do as he pleased with his daughters. "Wha¡­" Lady Yan screamed in fright as the Air Needle pierced her head, quickly drilling through the layer of light shielding her before blood spurted out of her head. Eyes blackened out, she collapsed to the ground. "There''s someone dangerous hidden amongst these soldiers. Kill him first!" the Third Young Master of the Biao Family shouted as he fought. Upon seeing one of the dangerous enemies die just like that, the group of soldiers roared with vigor, their fighting skills undergoing quick improvement as they charged at the five remaining Demon Arms wielders. "Argh!" A guard screamed as his hands were chopped off by the flying sword, screaming in pain when Krune jumped above him, grabbing hold of his sword. In air, the Cloud Whale was activated within his body as air currents were generated around him, causing his body to spin as he brought forth his sword with imposing momentum. He then hacked down onto one of the Demon Arms users, a lady that was able to use a shield. She was the one protecting everyone from the attacks of the guards. The sword clashed into the shield as the lady shrieked, shouting, "This guy''s strength is inhumane!" "Grrraaaahhh!" Letting out a guttural roar, the air currents pressed down on his body as he coursed all the power into his sword, cracking it when it pierced through the shield, causing a clean line on the lady''s face, splitting it. Chapter 1215 - Cornered Animal Having killed two Demon Arms users, Krune shocked everyone with his imposing momentum. "Is this really¡­ Shi Jiang?" Feng Bolin muttered in shock, noticing that every soldier also had the same reaction. Someone that they had assumed to be a servant all this time turned out to be a hidden expert. On top of that, he seemed capable of the legendary Qigong, surprising everyone. It was because Krune was relying upon the air currents generated by the Cloud Whale to move his body faster, lithe like a leaf. If it wasn''t because Shi Jiang''s body was a regular person''s and one untrained in the way of fighting, he would have been able to fight better. ''In any case, if I take down as many Demon Arms users here, I would be able to reincarnate into a younger, richer body. That''ll allow me to complete this entire loop of suffering and return to the God Realm.'' Thinking as such, Krune grunted, slashing with a sword as he clashed with the Third Young Master of the Biao Clan. The two swords clashed as Krune''s sword was chipped from the attack. It was just an inferior sword, after all. Having faced the shield before, it was more or less worn out. "Haha! It seems your strength is only temporary. I could already feel that you have gotten weaker." The Third Young Master from the Biao Clan laughed. "Is that so?" Krune smiled in response as the Cloud Whale appeared behind him, finished condensing air within it. Followed by a whistling sound, an Air Needle was unleashed onto another Demon Arms user, killing him. Even if they were able to defend against the attack at the start, the Air Needle wasn''t like a bullet. It was a drill sent like a bullet, constantly drilling into the shield as it continued for a long duration. Even if its front was dissipated, it was just air. The air further down the air needle column took on the role of drilling through the energy shield, eventually piercing through it to land on the bare human skin beneath. What followed next was the death of the Demon Arms users. "Dammit, three of us died in this dump!" the Third Young Master of the Biao Family screamed as he controlled his flying sword, aiming for Krune''s head. From the start, the moment he made a move, everything that transpired in the room played in his mind thanks to Sonic Radar. With that being said, Krune was aware of every move, grabbing hold of a shield thrown towards him by one of the soldiers as he calmly deflected the flying sword. "Dammit! Die! Just die!" the Third Young Master from the Biao Family screamed as he constantly waved his hands, controlling the flying sword to kill Krune. Unfortunately, no matter what he did, irrespective of the angle of attack, Krune''s defense was impeccable. Plus, unlike the sword, the shield wasn''t even chipped despite defending against the flying sword, something a regular shield couldn''t defend against. Smirking, Krune grabbed hold of a spear, throwing it right onto a Demon Arms wielder, causing the shield on their body to tremble from the power behind his throw. Right at this moment, Krune''s shield collided with the shaft end of the spear, transferring all the force through it to shatter the shield and pierce through the opponent''s shoulder. "Hehe!" Suddenly, the opponent laughed before opening his mouth to unleash a rain of needles that Krune haphazardly defended against, grunting as blood dripped all over from his body. Surprisingly, a faint poison seemed to be circulating from the wounds, causing his body to feel sluggish all of a sudden. As for his attacker, he dropped to the ground, dead, sporting a hole on his forehead. "Take this!" A girl in her early teens, hailing from the Xiong Family, rushed at this moment, slamming her gauntlets his way before unleashing a beam of purple light, eradicating more than ten guards while leaving Krune panting on one side. Even though he had defended against most of the attack, he still lost his left arm. ''It seems this girl from the Xiong family is the strongest of them all.'' Krune panted, his vision cloudy while his legs had lost all strength in them. However, his mind was elsewhere, ''Every Demon Arms wielder is from one of the merchant families of the Red Coast Town. It seems the Demon wishes to take control of the city to fuel its growth even further.'' ''I should at least kill these two first.'' Krune gazed at the girl from the Xiong Family, expressing his anger. "It seems you''re the strongest of them all. I''ll kill you first!" "Try it if you can, old man!" the girl responded and flashed before him, causing the floor behind her to shatter from the force of her movement. Craning her right hand backward, she slammed it into Krune''s stomach, intending to pierce it. At this time, Krune seemed to be targeting her head. But then, all of a sudden, his hand slightly changed directions as the Cloud Whale condensed in his hand, with the Soul Needle already loaded in it. With a grunt, Krune launched it at the Third Young Master of the Biao Family, catching him off guard while he was targeting the remaining guards. Even though he defended himself on time, the Soul Needle still pierced through his body, beginning to melt him. Late in defending himself, the Third Young Master from the Biao Family died. Krune grunted soon after, watching a part of his stomach vanish, possibly from the Xiong Family girl''s attack. Coughing out blood, he collapsed to the ground, unable to get up. Just when the girl tried to attack his Cloud Whale, Krune retracted it, causing it to vanish. As air currents enveloped his body, he condensed strength in his body, intending to erupt with one last attack to destroy the girl when suddenly, he was alarmed. "Heuk!" Krune was unable to move, remaining at the spot in shock, watching the clothes on his body begin to melt, charring his skin, eliciting painful grunts from him. Getting up, he glared at the ceiling that had been shattered at one point in time. Hovering there was the Demon, accompanying Su Daiyu. Upon seeing his figure, Krune''s eyes widened in shock before tearing up, bellowing loudly, "Damn it!" That was because.... held in the Demon''s hands was the head of Shi Bao, his son. Chapter 1216 - Destroyed In Seconds "I''m able to sense anyone in possession of my Demon Arms, as well as smell the scent of anyone that has come into contact with it or had killed a wielder of the Demon Arms." The Demon smiled, dropping Shi Bao''s head on the ground, smirking while gazing at Krune. "I also took the liberty of dealing with your family." "Damn you¡­ fucker!" Krune grunted in wrath when he noticed something amiss, noticing that Shi Bao''s face looked as if he was around sixty years old. "Hahaha, he used my Demon Arms to protect his family. After he was killed, his sister used it, followed by the other one. Eventually, they just strengthened me while trying to defend against my attacks." The Demon laughed, sneering upon seeing Krune''s malevolent expression. "Hmph!" Suddenly, a gust of wind spread around Krune, allowing him to get up as his body began to rapidly thin out. He was combusting all his flesh and blood to fuel his Cloud Whale''s power. With a start, he leaped towards the Demon, intending to attack with all his might. His sudden spike in speed startled everyone, including the Demon. However, before Krune''s sword managed to reach the Demon, a gentle petal appeared, defending against his attack. Unexpectedly, it also caused his sword to freeze up, creating a layer of frost over Krune''s hand. "I cannot feel the presence of any Imperial Arms on you," The Demon frowned. "And you''re pretty strong despite that. However, that''s it. Without an Imperial Arms, you won''t be able to harm me." Saying so, the Demon raised his hand, unleashing a purple beam of light that pierced through Krune''s head, bursting it into pulp, causing his body to plop to the ground. Seeing the scene of carnage, the Demon frowned, saying, "We lost five Demon Arms wielders that I had been grooming all this time. Just where the hell did he come from?" He then looked at the figure of Feng Bolin rushing away from the Feng Family estate before saying, "Interrogate him." "On it!" The girl from the Xiong Family laughed before chasing after Feng Bolin, catching him before he managed to leave the estate. As a merchant, he hadn''t ever had to run before. So, he was too slow that the girl was able to catch up to him even though she was playing around along the way. Upon the Demon''s orders, she interrogated Feng Bolin, killing him in the end, along with the rest of the guards and servants that had arrived. "Lord, what shall we do now?" Su Daiyu asked, furrowing her pretty brows. "Our plan to take over Red Coast Town has fallen apart with the death of most of the young masters and young ladies." "This is indeed a worrying matter." The Demon sighed before slumping his hands over her shoulder. "In any case, we''ll have enough time for everything. Taking down the Daxia Imperial Family is easier said than done, after all. Even I don''t dare to underestimate a Star Imperial Arms." His hands then gently brushed over her lips as he continued, "But first, let''s turn you into a Demon. You''ve already become half-demon after I implanted a Nightmare Core into your body. Now, you only need to nurture a nightmare inside you and make it yours." "Yes, Lord. I won''t fail you," Su Daiyu replied, lightly blushing when he gently nibbled on her earlobes. ¡­ Krune soon woke up, staring at the scene of a classroom around him. However, he was unable to make sense of the situation. Odd ringing sounds resounded in his mind while the light distorted. All he was able to smell was a horrid stench of blood and the mocking voice of the Demon. It was not to mention that the sight of Shi Bao''s withered head flashed into his mind, along with the rest of Shi Jiang''s family. Sweat dripped from his forehead as his eyes turned red. His breathing grew haggard as he could feel his body temperature increase rapidly. The sounds of a brush stroking paper splashed around nearby, resounding as the scene of countless bodies being chopped, with the severed parts plopping into a pool of blood through which his injured body slid through, creating the same sound as the brush. "Arrgh!" Krune was unable to endure it any longer, screaming as he clutched his head. Shedding tears, he collapsed to the ground, fainting. ¡­ "Where¡­am I?" After what felt like a long time, Krune weakly woke up, noticing that he was in a brightly lit room. The ventilation was exceptional, with both the sides of the room leading into an open veranda, one in which also existed shallow pools, enriching the ambiance of the place. Getting up, he clutched his head, feeling an unbearable pain emanate from it. "You should still rest. You have a horrible fever." A melodious voice resounded as a gentle lady the personification of water appeared before him, lightly tapping his forehead before making him sleep. As he heard her voice, a surge of information gushed into his mind, knocking him unconscious. ¡­ "That child has been unconscious for the past two days after that one time he woke up," a worried voice echoed through the place. "His vitals are pretty healthy. With sufficient rest, he would be fine." A gentle voice, one filled with wisdom, resounded following that. Hearing the conversations, Krune regained consciousness, taking his sweet time to understand his current identity. He also came to terms with how Shi Jiang''s life played out. It was a massive blunder! He had died. His family had been killed by the Demon. And worst of all, he was unable to even touch the Demon before being killed. The difference in power between the two was clearly made obvious as Krune gritted his teeth before sighing. ''No, wallowing in my own sorrow would do me nothing. I have to learn from my mistakes and create the perfect path for my victory.'' Sighing, he regulated his breathing, finally going through all of his current identity''s memories as he clenched his hand into a fist. ''This feels like the best setting I could ever hope for.'' ''And this time, I''ll eradicate you, Demon!'' With that, Krune got up, gazing at his young hands, clenching them once before gritting his teeth. Chapter 1217 - Training Monster: Attaining Flight Liu Heng, that was his current name. He was the scion of the Liu Family, an aristocratic family that had an Imperial Meister. On top of that, if nothing else changed, he was supposed to become the next Imperial Meister. Not only did the current him have authority, but he also had an affluent background. Even though he was only ten years old, he was one of the most promising students in Iron Peak County''s County Academy. From young, he was a talented child, carefully groomed by the Liu Family to become their successor. Now that Krune had reincarnated into such a talented child, he was a bit happy. ''It seems that since I have killed five Demon Arms wielders before my death, my current reincarnation has received quite a lot of benefits.'' ''But this time, I won''t take action so hurriedly.'' Krune clenched his hand into a fist, mulling over his plans. ''I''ll first train and achieve the peak of my power. With my knowledge of body cultivation, I''ll be able to grow really strong even without the development effect.'' Upon seeing that he was alright, Krune excused himself from the infirmary, returning to his dorm to rest. From the next day onward, he began to attend classes. The classes only consisted of mundane stuff that he gained an understanding of after reading through the contents for a couple of weeks. After that, for the rest of the duration during the classes, all he did was close his eyes and meditate. He had become mad due to the rapid influx of memories he had received. So, the moment Krune tried to take action right now, he would come off as insane. In fact, that was why he didn''t do anything, spending the mornings meditating during the classes while training during the evenings and the late nights. He was building up both his body and mind, creating a weapon capable of going head-to-head against the Demon, with the goal of winning this time. During the night, Krune summoned his Cloud Whale, noticing that it was even stronger compared to when he summoned it as Shi Jiang. Not only was it healthier, but it was also able to grow in strength now. After all, unlike the bodies of everyone that he reincarnated until now, Liu Heng was a child, only at ten years old. His body was rapidly growing with every passing day. In other words, with the development of his body, the development of the Cloud Whale would quickly follow, being intrinsically connected. As its strength increased, its size also increased, soon reaching the size of his head after a couple of months of practice. Krune also trained in his Sonic Radar, making his body used to the sensations, increasing the density of his body by training accordingly. He increased his body weight, making his muscles strong. At times, he looked through the library, finding some recipes to create concoctions that would help temper his body better. His insane training regiment did catch the eyes of a lot of teachers. However, they were unable to say anything to him. After all, his scores were perfect. During one of such days, Krune found Wang Hao and Chen Xue, noticing that they were part of a nearby class. Upon seeing them, he was happy immediately, calling for them, "Hey, you guys!" "Lord, did you summon us?" Wang Hao and Chen Xue arrived before him and made a polite bow, privy of his status. As they were already sensible children, the couple of months of stay in the academy already taught them everything they had to know in relation to etiquette, the status of the students studying there, and so forth. So, they didn''t wish to offend such a powerful person. "As fellow students, you must call me Liu Heng," Krune smiled as he said, casually shaking hands with the other two before dragging them with him. "I was bored training alone. Come join me!" "But, we have classes after this!" Chen Xue smiled helplessly. "Don''t worry about that," Krune waved his hand as he replied. "I''ll teach you everything later." He was well aware of the secret the two children held. After all, he was the one that had created them in the first place. So, he wished to teach them and take care of them so that they would turn into strong people that he could depend upon. "Fight me!" Saying so, he threw a bunch of wooden swords at them, forcing them to pick one as he wielded one himself. Immediately, he fought them, cornering them after ten moves before defeating them. Of course, he only exhibited swordplay that looked like something a genius ten-year-old was capable of showing. He didn''t exert his true strength. "You¡­ are strong, Liu Heng!" Wang Hao smirked, getting up from the ground as he said, "Let''s go again!" "Sure." Laughing in response, Krune fought against them. While fighting them, Krune felt his mind relax a little. His stress was decreasing while the countless cracks in his mind, resultant of the memories from countless people, was being mended. In short, their simple exchange was actually the medicine required to heal his mind faster. Moreover, he was also training the two to become strong. Thus, he was hitting two birds with one stone. Every day, once classes ended, Krune dragged the two with him to train, teaching them some stuff related to their homework while training with them for the rest of the time. Upon hearing countless remarks from the passing students that regarded the three as weird, Krune didn''t seem too bothered. Instead, he sent a letter to the Liu Family, requesting for a manor to be provided in the academy for the three of them to stay. Of course, it was easily provided. In the County, the Liu Family was one of the strongest families. So, they possessed a lot of authority. With that, the trio were able to peacefully train. For the next five years, Krune completely forgot about himself, his objectives, everything. He wholeheartedly immersed himself in training both his body and mind, attuning himself to his Cloud Whale as much as he could. And finally, five years since he had begun training, Krune arrived at the courtyard in the middle of the night, sighing as he gently kicked the ground with his foot, taking off into the air. Arriving at a height of four meters off the ground, Krune hovered in place. He had finally attained flight! Chapter 1218 - Imperial Warlocks Back then, while he was a mortal in Layer 3 of the Sub-realm, Krune had obtained the Cloud Whale, an active ability that was at the peak of body development. So, with that, he understood that just unlocking the entire potential of the Cloud Whale could make one tremendously strong. Of course, to attain that would take decades as a mortal. Nevertheless, even the amount he had unlocked just now caused him to become powerful, now hovering in the air calmly. With a tug of his hand, Krune landed on the roof of the manor he was using, calmly landing atop it like a feather. His presence was like a ghost, not even having any weight. Moreover, even the air currents supporting him were gentle, not exhibiting any violent gales. Thanks to his training, Krune had completely attuned himself to the Cloud Whale. He had already done it once in the Sub-Realm before. But now, as this was the sole ability he was training, his attainment had become deeper. ''I guess this experience would enrich my abilities further.'' Smiling in response, Krune watched the air currently around him die down as a massive eye opened behind him for a moment before vanishing. Smiling in response, he muttered, "Let me see how you fare this time, Demon." He then sat on the roof cross-legged, meditating for the rest of the night, watching Wang Hao exit the manor once it had turned dawn. It seemed he wanted to train at the crack of dawn. Gazing at the other party, Krune smiled and thought to himself, ''It seems his abilities have improved a lot.'' Today was the day they were graduating from the County Academy. Normally, they would take up a government position after this and proceed with their lives accordingly. However, thanks to Krune''s involvement, the three of them attained perfect scores in all subjects, turning into exceptional students that news of them reached the capital. With that, they received qualifications to pursue higher education in the Imperial Academy. Graduating from there would allow them to take up a position in the Royal Court. Of course, Krune didn''t care about that. Killing the Demon and completing this arc of suffering was his goal. For the past five years, other than investigating some rumors, Krune only trained his abilities. After all, he was aware that fighting the Demon would only cause his death once again. So, until he possessed the required power, he couldn''t hope to face it. With that, heading towards the Imperial Academy was his best choice. There, he could meet with the princes of the Empire and get to know the Imperial Meisters stationed there. After all, no matter how much he understood about Imperial Arms, there was a clear difference in them, with them having the Star Imperial Arms. They were in a class of their own, strategic value weapons that were only taken out when the situation was deemed urgent. ''But first, I should obtain the Imperial Arms of the Liu Family. That would strengthen myself further and help me in my fight against the Demon,'' Krune thought, gently landing on the ground as he startled Wang Hao, asking, "Do you want to visit my house?" "Why so sudden?" Wang Hao asked in surprise. As he was fifteen years now, his body had grown considerably, sporting toughened muscles. Moreover, thanks to being an Imperial Warlock, his physique was many times stronger than a regular human. There was also an abundant vitality and regenerative power that allowed him to train nonstop and grow stronger. "Now, what are you making us do again, Liu Heng?" A melodious voice rang out as the graceful figure of Chen Xue walked out. Seeing the two boys whisper something secretly, she pouted in irritation. "Well, I''ll be inheriting my family''s Imperial Arms. It''ll be a good experience for you." Krune laughed. "I don''t think we''re qualified to see that." Chen Xue shook her head. "Besides, an Imperial Arms is a family''s secret. Showing it to outsiders is frowned upon." Seeing Wang Hao nod in response to her actions, Krune smiled and said, "However, showing it to the sole pair of Imperial Warlocks in the world is fine, you know." "W-What?" Wang Hao was stunned before he entered a battle stance. As for Chen Xue, even though she was alarmed, she didn''t show it on her face, looking like Krune hadn''t said anything concerning. "How did you know that?" Wang Hao was a bit simpler when compared to her as he glared at Krune, telling him, "If you don''t give us a proper answer, then I won''t even consider the fact that we''re friends and cut you down immediately." "Relax!" Krune laughed as he gently pointed his index finger, condensing a palm-sized Cloud Whale. "I feel like showing this would be better than any excuse I could make up." "The Cloud Whale!" The two shouted in surprise as Chen Xue asked in shock, "How do you have it?" "This isn''t an Imperial Arms, you know," Krune said, motioning for the Cloud Whale to move towards Chen Xue, causing her to touch it. After a couple of seconds, she asked, "Why does it feel stronger now? What¡­ exactly is this Cloud Whale?" "An emblem of peace!" Krune said seriously, even though he was just making up nonsense. "In the entire world, there just exists one and is passed on from one wielder to their successor upon their death. Our goal is to bring peace to this world, simple as that. I''m the current generation peace wielder while Wang Hu was the previous generation wielder." "Actually..." he continued. "There was another wielder in between, but he died within a day since possessing it. Every wielder is able to inherit memories from the previous three wielders. That''s how we can unleash peace onto the world." "Is that how you came to know about us?" Chen Xue asked. "Yes." Krune nodded before continuing, "Though, all I know is the fact that you''re Imperial Warlocks and the fact that Wang Hu wished with all his being that the both of you could bring peace onto this world. Beyond that, I don''t know much. That''s why¡­" "I was testing you at the start to see if you wholeheartedly went through Wang Hu''s wishes." Krune smiled after that. "For the past five years, I was able to confirm everything.. That''s why I have revealed my identity to you two now." Chapter 1219 - A Disciple Surpasses Their Master… "How many generations of those possessing the Cloud Whale has existed up till now? Is it bloodline-based?" Chen Xue asked, frowning as she poked at the Cloud Whale. The sense of peacefulness she felt from it was stronger than what she felt from Wang Hu. With that, she was confused. "No, it''s random. Anyone that has the notion of wishing to make the world peaceful can become a successor," Krune replied. "In other words, it''s not related by blood or any other factor. Only when I became a successor five years ago myself did I come to know about the existence of the Cloud Whale." "Yours feel a lot powerful when compared to my grandpa," Wang Hao could not help but say, able to feel a suffocating presence from the Cloud Whale even though it was only palm-sized, same as what his grandfather was able to summon. "Well, that''s a given." Krune nodded, saying as if it was normal. "Wang Hu was an old man, so he wasn''t able to summon enough of its power. However, I am young. So, of course, my Cloud Whale is powerful." Even though he hadn''t shown it, Krune had also been using the Soul Needle a lot. Using it, he selected herbs and other materials that would help strengthen the bodies of him, Wang Hao, and Chen Xue. He was using them to build up their bodies. Thanks to the Soul Needle, he was able to pick up precious medicinal herbs from the wilderness that had been growing there for decades or even longer. That was how their bodies were brimming with power. On top of that, he took advantage of the fact that all of them were at the age of fast growth. So, even Krune was unable to determine just how strong their bodies had become unless they fought for real. "Also..." His tone suddenly turned solemn as he continued, "My predecessor died from facing a Demon." "What''s¡­ a Demon?" Both were confused. Krune then explained everything about it to them. As they were already aware of most of the information related to a Nightmare, they quickly understood the threat a Demon possessed. Also, Krune came out with the information related to Su Daiyu that he had understood based on what Shi Jiang had witnessed, making the two realize the underlying scheme at the place. Solving the source of the sufferings would make him return to the God Realm. Whether it was him that managed to finish it or someone else, it was of no concern. So, in the case he came close and was killed, Krune wished for Wang Hao and Chen Xue to finish it on his behalf. "Young Master, the carriage has arrived." After some time had passed, a servant arrived and informed Krune. "Well, let''s go!" Krune laughed as he looked at the other two, glancing at their bags. They didn''t have a lot of belongings except for a couple of clothes. Though, it was the same for him as well. He didn''t pack any clothes at all, only bringing with him some herbal pastes that he had created thanks to the Soul Needle. If he considered anything as treasure, the Soul Needle''s applications continued to broaden. ''I see. As a cultivator, I have countless means to solve any situation. But since I''m not a cultivator now and have limited means, I''m deepening my understanding of my abilities and have broadened their use and application.'' Krune nodded, feeling like he had an epiphany. Suddenly, his head hurt a little as something seemed to be spilling out of it. For a moment, it felt like he was able to sense his surroundings clearly. However, the feeling vanished immediately after, causing him to mutter, "What¡­was that?" Even though the sensation felt familiar, it was something he had felt for the first time. So, Krune was unable to solve this puzzling feeling. During the journey through the carriage, he was silent all throughout, watching the people walking along the side of the street as the carriage sped past. He noticed that even though the people seemed well-dressed, their eyes lacked vitality. There was a sense of fear simmering within them. Wang Hao and Chen Xue, being the perceptive individuals that they were, also sensed the current situation. Then again, they had seen the same set of eyes in their village, so they were clear of it. "Why¡­ are they like this?" Chen Xue was confused. "Let''s see if we can find out something from my household," Krune said as the group turned silent, hearing the sounds of the horse galloping through the pavement. After four hours of travel, they finally arrived at the estate of the Liu Family, one that resembled a town in of itself. The Liu Family had many vassals that managed various trade and other mediums. As one of the most powerful families of Iron Peach County, they garnered a lot of influence. Just the fact that their estate alone was the size of a town and was equally populated was enough proof of their affluence. The moment the carriage entered the estate, a stream of guards rushed out and calmly marched along the side of the carriage. It was not just that, but there was another group at the front and back of the carriage, protecting it, resulting in a grand entrance, causing the people to stare at the scene in a daze as they whispered to one another, wondering what was up. "Hey, I heard the young master is returning from the County Academy today." "You mean... that young master? I heard he has topped the entire academy." "The one and same. He''s a prodigy." "Kyaa! I hope I can see him!" As chatter spread throughout the populace that gathered around to watch, three people within the carriage were sweating buckets now. "Young master!" Chen Xue glared at Krune, "Please get out and put on a show. this is too much stress for me." "You think I''m fine heading out there by myself?" Krune rolled his eyes, patting Wang Hao''s shoulder as he told him, "Bro, you can do it!" "No way am I going to act in your stead." Wang Hao calmly distanced himself from Krune, behaving like he didn''t even know the other party. "¡­" Krune frowned, wondering when his shamelessness affected those two. ''They say a disciple surpasses the master. But I didn''t want shamelessness to be the field they''ve surpassed me in!'' Chapter 1220 - An Imperial Meister "Welcome, my son!" A burly man roared in joy as he pulled Krune into a bear hug, cackling as he faced all the guests seated in the room. "Everyone, this is my pride, Liu Heng!" "So, that''s Young Master Liu!" Someone from the audience stood up and cupped his fists, taking a second glance at Krune. With a casual sweep, Krune noticed that the seated people consisted of many dignitaries from the Iron Peach County. Unsurprisingly, it wasn''t just them that had arrived, but they had also brought in their respective daughters. It was apparent as to what they hoped for. It was a prospective marriage. After all, Krune had displayed exemplary performance in the County Academy. So, everyone of respect had already heard about him. They wished to rope such an individual into their fold. It was not to mention that he hailed from the Liu Family, one that garnered tremendous influence in Iron Peach County. So, marrying their daughters into the Liu Family would gain them powerful connections. No matter what, it was a profitable deal. The reason Krune had been high-profile in the County Academy was because he needed an invitation into the Imperial Academy. Only from there would he be able to work in solving the issues. After all, the Demon''s aim was also the capital. With the royal family destroyed, those capable of opposing the Demon would be gone, allowing it to rule the world. In short, its scheme was pretty obvious. Krune politely greeted every guest, also exchanging a couple of pleasantries with each. Some of the daughters brought by the guests were also from the County Academy. So with them, he exchanged some academy knowledge. However, in actuality, he didn''t even recognize anyone from them, internally sweating all the time. After all, in class, he didn''t do anything beyond sleeping or meditating. Not to mention the names of his classmates or other students, he didn''t even know the name of the teacher that had taught him for five years. If anyone else came to know of it, he would be placed in an embarrassing position. Then again, he had no time or mental strength to do so, having to spend all his energy into meditation so that he could integrate the memories of everyone into himself. That had taken him five years to do so, allowing him to say with assurance that his mind would no longer be affected by the memories of the other characters he had reincarnated into. Though, Krune realized that he himself had changed somewhat. In fact, the changes in some places were too drastic. He himself wasn''t sure of the exact specifics, only capable of knowing the changes when placed in various situations and observing how he faced them. It was a troubling situation. ''Nevertheless, this change would allow me to cultivate faster.'' Krune understood the pros and cons of his current experiences. With that, he wasn''t worried. ''I just hope Feifei doesn''t alienate me saying that I have changed too much.'' Sighing for a moment, he continued to exchange words with everyone. After seeing his exhaustion, Liu Heng''s father said to everyone, "He''s just come from a journey, so he''s a little tired. Please excuse him." "Of course!" "He''s a young hero, so resting is necessary." As everyone politely replied, Liu Heng''s father whispered, "Get some rest for now. Your mother is waiting inside." "Alright." Nodding in response, Krune headed inside, conversing with his mother a little. As they were pretty much considered the royalty of the County, the interaction between him and his mother was pretty formal. Beyond that was nothing. No familiar bonds, no close interactions. Krune did have some memory of her, so he expected as such. After that, he introduced Wang Hao and Chen Xue to his family as his close friends. The two of them were received pretty warmly, especially Chen Xue as his mother seemed rather interested in her. Massaging his forehead, Krune turned in for the day, beginning to rest as he thought of his subsequent plans. He had to head towards the Imperial Academy after five months. So now was the best time to rest a little and then plan accordingly. ''But first things first, I must obtain the Imperial Arms.'' The next day, a servant beckoned him to arrive at the family hall where Krune''s father, mother, siblings, and relatives were gathered. All of them stared at him as if he was an exhibit. Liu Heng''s father looked at him, stating solemnly, "Today, we''ll see whether our family''s Imperial Arms can recognize you as its wielder or not." "Alright!" Krune nodded, watching his father place a large box on the floor before him, opening it to reveal a tiny ring within. Sun Ring! That was the name of the Liu Family''s Imperial Arms. Once activated, it condensed three rings of fire that could be used for attack or defense. On top of that, they were also able to expand or shrink in size. As they were pretty versatile, the Liu Family had become as powerful as it had to reach its current might. "Now, drip a drop of your blood on it. Whether it recognizes you or not would become apparent with that," Liu Heng''s father said. Nodding in response, Krune used a needle given to him to gently prick his index finger, dropping a drop of his blood on the Imperial Arms. His heart thumped in response as his forehead was filled with sweat. If it failed to recognize him, then his situation would become tougher as he would have to collect materials and forge his own Imperial Arms. The moment the droplet of blood fell on the Imperial Arms, a clear sound resounded throughout the place as the surrounding temperature increased all of a sudden, causing everyone to sweat profusely. In response, the Sun Ring hummed, taking off to the air as three rings of fire appeared around it, rapidly increasing in size as they slammed into the ceiling, forming three concentric circles that constantly revolved around one another, rotating at the same time. The scene caused everyone to stare at it, flabbergasted as Krune gently extended his hand. With the sense of connection he felt just now, he understood that, from now on¡­ He was an Imperial Meister! Chapter 1221 - Liu Heng’s Actual Identity Hum! The ring constantly hummed as the sounds made everyone feel like they wished to prostrate before it. Liu Heng''s father gazed at the scene, flabbergasted, unlike the others. ''T-This is¡­ Resonance? To think my son would attain such a state that was just mentioned in passing in a mysterious book I chanced upon in accident.'' He then noticed the look of doubt and confusion on Krune''s face, immediately getting up as he said, "Everyone! For the future of our family''s rise, please don''t reveal this information until Liu Heng is old enough to shoulder the fate. Otherwise, he might be snatched away from us." "Family head doesn''t need to worry." One of the members stood up and cupped his hands, saying, "If someone dares to leak this information, then I would personally behead them and their entire family line." "I''ll do the same." "Anyone who leaks this information is a traitor to the Liu Family." Upon seeing everyone in the room express the same stance as him, Liu Heng''s father sighed in relief, saying as he cupped his fists, "With all of you helping me, I''ll be able to rest assured. Liu Heng is the hope of our family to attain more Imperial Meisters and establish a stronghold in the capital." His words didn''t mean much for everyone, thinking that it was just fuelling their plans to expand their family. However, for his brothers, his choice of words caused their eyes to tremble for an instant before they controlled themselves. "Now, everyone, please excuse us for the time being. I wish to train Liu Heng in the ways as an Imperial Meister," he said, watching everyone get up, bow and begin leaving from the family hall. He then motioned for Liu Heng to follow him, watching the Sun Ring fall into the confused hands of Liu Heng. After arriving at a discrete room at the back of the hall, closing all the doors to prevent the words discussed within from leaking out, Liu Heng''s father took in a deep breath, asking Liu Heng, "What¡­ do you feel right now?" "I am¡­ confused to be honest," Krune said after a moment of thought. "I feel like even though I have become an Imperial Meister, the sensation I''m feeling from the Sun Ring is different from what I had expected." "That''s because it''s no longer the Sun Ring," his father replied, telling him, "As you have attained the Resonance phenomenon, things are different now." "What¡­ do you mean?" Krune was confused. "There are three Imperial Arms: The Moon, the Sun, and the Star. Why do you think such a division exists?" he asked. "Isn''t it because of the difference in materials used?" Krune asked in confusion. He didn''t state the complete answer because it wasn''t something Liu Heng was supposed to know. "There''s that, but that''s only in relation to the Sun and Moon Imperial Arms." His father nodded, giving him a basic gist of all the knowledge he was already aware of. After that, he suddenly dropped a shocking statement. "However, a Star Imperial Arms isn''t something that could be created by human hands," he said, shocking Krune. "What¡­ do you mean by that? How come the Royal Family has them then?" Krune was confused. After all, even Su Zixin didn''t know of this information. Everything related to the Royal Family was shrouded in mystery. "If I hadn''t seen this today, I too wouldn''t have been able to believe this otherwise." Sighing, his father said, "A Star Imperial Arms is something that would awaken from either a Sun or a Moon Imperial Arms after attaining certain conditions." "It would awaken?" Krune was shocked. "Yes." His father nodded before explaining, "To awaken an Imperial Arms into a Star Imperial Arms, two conditions must be attained. First, the spirituality of the Imperial Meister should exceed the Sun or Moon Imperial Arms. This would force it to break its initial mold and birth the Star Imperial Arms. And secondly¡­" He said, sighing in the end, "You much be a descendant of the Royal Family. These two conditions are a necessity to evolving an Imperial Arms into Star Imperial Arms. In the first condition, when your spirituality exceeds the Imperial Arms, it causes the Resonance phenomenon." "What''s this spirituality? Also, how do I have the blood of the royal family in me? I don''t remember our family line having shared blood with royalty." Krune was becoming more and more confused as he heard about things. "Let me tell you about that." Suddenly, the voice of his mother resounded as her figure appeared in the room all of a sudden, startling him. Even with his Sonic Radar, he hadn''t noticed her presence until she appeared there. Krune then noticed his father turning silent after that. His earlier proud disposition had turned meek, looking at his mother like he was a mouse gazing at a cat. Such an action from him surprised Krune, making him wonder just what was up. His mother then spoke, her voice a bit tender as compared to how she spoke in the past, "This spirituality is nothing but the weight of your memories. There are some children born during the time of spirituality, allowing them to gain memories of their previous lifetimes. Only those that have more than a century''s worth of memories are capable of causing this Resonance phenomenon. That''s also why a Star Imperial Meister is incredibly rare. After all, with the death of a Star Imperial Meister, the Star Imperial Arms cannot be used." "Or better yet, a normal Imperial Meister can only use it after feeding his entire life essence. That''s why the Royal Family hardly mobilizes their Star Imperial Arms." She spoke in one breath. "But¡­" Krune was still confused. At this time, his father spoke, "Your mother''s current identity has been fabricated. Her actual identity is that of the Emperor''s daughter whose identity has been kept under wraps since birth." "The Emperor''s daughter¡­" Krune muttered, gazing at his mother before asking, "So, that makes you a princess?" "Pretty much." His mother smiled in response. "Our imperial astrologer had proclaimed that I would be the one to bear this generation''s Star Imperial Meister.. That was why I married into the Liu Family." Chapter 1222 - Star Imperial Meister "So, everything was calculated?" Krune sighed, not exactly pleased with such a setting. However, his mother told him, "A Star Imperial Meister is the strongest of humanity. Only they can kill the terrifying nightmares that plague our world. At present, the only other Star Imperial Meister in the Daxia Empire is the Emperor." "What about the other Empires?" Krune asked. "Do they have Star Imperial Meisters in their midst?" "Maybe." His mother shrugged in response. "Such information is sensitive. Even exchanging basic information is problematic since there is a chance of information leakage. There''s just too vast a distance between each Empire, not to mention the terrifying Yin Beasts and Nightmares lurking in the wilderness." She then gently patted Krune, telling him, "Also, you don''t need to act like a child before me. With the speed at which your Star Imperial Arms formed, you can definitely remember more than a century''s worth of your past life." "This is how I really am, though." Krune laughed, scratching his nose. Though, he was unable to understand just how someone was able to remember their past lives. For him, it was different. He was just Krune and him alone. The memories of Su Zixin, Wang Hu, Shi Jiang, and Liu Heng were just those that he inherited after arriving at this realm of suffering. They weren''t his actual memories from past lives. So, he wasn''t able to understand just how the current generation Emperor had become a Star Imperial Meister. ''I''ll just ignore it for the time being,'' Krune thought, sighing inwardly. ''Understanding deeper into the mechanics of this world is unnecessary. I only need what I need in order to kill the Demon and return to the God Realm.'' "A Star Imperial Meister has a lot of duties, especially since the Nightmares in our Empire have become rampant recently." His mother said all of a sudden, shocking him. "But aren''t there a lot of Imperial Meisters? Shouldn''t they be able to deal with any Nightmares that come?" Krune asked in confusion. "Yes, there are a lot of Imperial Meisters, but in the past, the numbers of Nightmares and Imperial Meisters have more or less been matched. But in recent times, the number has been tilted in favor of the Nightmares, especially since the appearance of the Demon in our lands," she spoke. "The Demon¡­" Krune frowned. "Until now, a Nightmare was birthed naturally from the suffering of the people and fed on them. However, the Demon precisely knows what to do to increase the suffering of the people, having been creating Nightmares everywhere," she said in worry, taking out a bracelet from her dress that she wore. Upon activation, it condensed a large shield of ice, one whose shape resembled the Daxia Empire. "This is¡­the Daxia Moon!" Liu Heng''s father said in shock. "It''s in your possession?" "Yes." Liu Heng''s mother, Daxia Ting, frowned. "I''m sorry that I haven''t disclosed this before. But surely you understand my circumstances, right?" "I''m sorry. I didn''t want to implicate you." Liu Heng''s father nodded. "If you don''t wish to say anything, I won''t pry further. I know the weight of things you have to endure." Sighing in response, Daxia Ting looked at Krune, pointing at the shield where various bright spots began to appear, "The orange spots are Sun Imperial Meisters, the blue are Moon Imperial Meisters. And similarly, the white are Star Imperial Meisters." Krune saw the map, looking at the various dots on it, focusing on the white dot in the capital whose size was large enough to shroud the entire capital. In response, the white represented by him was only a tenth in size. "So, the massive dot in the Emperor?" "Yes, the size of their dot shows the strength of an Imperial Meister." Daxia Ting nodded in response. "It''s a direct representation of how much of an Imperial Arms'' power they can manifest." She then tapped the ice shield once, causing ripples to form on it before all the dots vanished, now replaced by pink, purple, grey, and black dots, saying, "The pink is represented by Yin Beasts, the purple Nightmares, the grey Demon Arms Wielders, and finally, black is represented by Demons." "There are¡­ three Demons in the Daxia Empire?" Krune was shocked, muttering, "How? Shouldn''t there just be one that was created during the Su Family''s loss?" "So, your memories contain that incident." Daxia Ting nodded, saying, "But that was just the second Demon. The first Demon has existed since the founding of the Daxia Empire. It has been sealed in the depths of the Imperial Castle where countless generations of Star Imperial Meisters have taken charge in tightening the seal while trying their best to weaken the Demon. Unfortunately, that monstrous entity has yet to die to this day." "As for the third Demon, it has only appeared two years ago." Daxia Ting sighed. "I have no clue as to how this was possible, but I fear it''s related to the second Demon." Even as she showed the image, the two dots depicting the second and third Demon were constantly on the move. "How¡­are they moving so fast?" "They managed to obtain a flying-type Yin Beast." Daxia Ting sighed. "We have never seen such a Yin Beast to date. So, no matter how many Imperial Meisters we dispatch on their trail, we have been unable to catch them. While they are tired from the pursuit, the Imperial Meisters become susceptible to attacks from the Nightmares the Demons release." "Then, what about the Demon Arms wielders?" Krune asked, noticing that their position has remained consistent, located in Red Coast Town. "Why haven''t they been dealt with yet?" "That''s because¡­" Daxia Ting sighed, showing four grey dots that have been superimposed on one another, "Their positions cover the entire Red Coast Town. So, unless something happens, we have no trails to find them. Investigation is hard there, especially since Red Coast Town is located the farthest from the capital, so our influence is the least there. Even though the merchant families there are cooperating with us, there is nothing strange to investigate there." "There''s nothing strange there?" Krune frowned before saying, "Are you sure?" Chapter 1223 - Imperial Peacekeeper "What do you mean? We have dispatched a lot of spies, many of them even living there for the past six years. However, none of them have reported anything suspicious until now." Daxia Ting frowned, asking, "Why? Do you have some memories that say otherwise?" ''Well, I already lied once, so might as well continue.'' Krune sighed, gently summoning his Cloud Whale, shocking the other two as he explained, "My previous life was of Shi Jiang, the head servant of the Red Coast Town''s Feng Family. As an Imperial Peacekeeper, I fought against the Demon there and was killed." "What¡­that doesn''t make sense." Daxia Ting gazed at the Cloud Whale, muttering, "How can such a power exist? This doesn''t feel like power from an Imperial Arms." "And¡­ what does an Imperial Peacekeeper even mean?" "From one generation to another, people would awaken the Cloud Whale in areas where there is something of great significance, related to the misfortune of the world. This is in an effort to stop them," Krune explained. Daxia Ting gazed at the Cloud Whale, noticing that she immediately was at peace, feeling her mind relax upon gazing at it, believing Krune''s words. "Then, does that mean¡­?" "Yes, that might be the reason I became a Star Imperial Meister. However, they weren''t the memories of my past lives, but those of the previous generation Imperial Peacekeepers," Krune replied. "Every Imperial Peacekeeper can remember everything from the previous three generations. That''s how we can plan and keep the world in a peaceful state." Daxia Ting gently touched the Cloud Whale, feeling that she was able to trust every word Krune uttered for some baffling reason. "I¡­ never knew about this." "Also," Krune spoke. "Shi Jiang killed five Demon Arms wielders five years ago and was killed by the Demon in the end. The Demon Arms wielders were the young masters and misses of the four merchant families of the Red Coast Town. Moreover, the person accompanying the Demon as his equal was Su Daiyu." "Su Daiyu¡­ but we thought she was killed by the Demon who also destroyed her Imperial Arms." Daxia Ting was speechless, slumping down on the nearby sofa as she massaged her forehead. "This changes a lot of things. If¡­ if Su Daiyu was the one that had become a Demon¡­" She frowned, muttering nonstop, "Then, it makes sense as to how the Demon is able to evade all our strategies. Of course, she would know about all of them." ''The situation has become a lot more complex.'' Krune sighed, gazing at the three black dots on the map, frowning as he focused on the large black dot in the capital. Its size was bigger than the dot made by the Emperor, displaying that it was on a whole other level. ''A Star Imperial Meister is many levels stronger than a Sun or Moon Imperial Meister. Also, only they can face a Demon. But now, even after adding myself to the picture, there are just two Star Imperial Meisters. In contrast, there are three Demons.'' Krune massaged his forehead, muttering, "This is troublesome." "If we are careless, then our Empire might just collapse." Daxia Ting was worried as her earlier composure waned. Thanks to her Imperial Arms, she was aware of everything of importance that happened in their empire. Thus, she was aware that thanks to the appearance of the two Demons, the strength of their Imperial Meisters was constantly waning. Over time, the difference would be enough to topple them completely. Even though the Daxia Empire currently had enough strength to destroy all their enemies, it was only time when the two Demons grew in strength until they reached the one sealed in the capital. Or worse, they manage to destroy the seal and free it. That would be enough to destroy their empire. "Thankfully, we have our own powerhouses." Krune sighed in relief, causing her to look at him in surprise. Upon seeing her look, he smiled, saying, "Mother, do you remember Wang Hao and Chen Xue?" "Your two friends?" Daxia Ting nodded, saying, "Of course, I remember them. Chen Xue has a formidable bearing that I felt like marrying her to you would be for the best. Your children have an even better guarantee of becoming Star Imperial Meisters in the future. The odds are even higher than what we had." "I''d advise against that." Krune shook his head, saying, "Wang Hao should be the one marrying Chen Xue. Their bloodline is that important. After all, they are the sole Imperial Warlocks of this world." "Imperial Warlocks¡­?" Daxia Ting was in surprise, wondering just what was up for her son to state so many things that puzzled her. "Are you sure you can''t sense them using your Imperial Arms?" Krune asked with a smile. "Let me try." Daxia Ting frowned before focusing on Daxia Moon, watching the sheet of ice flicker constantly, beginning to crumble as veins popped on her forehead. The dots flickered from red to blue to white to purple to grey to black, finally turning pink as the image turned erratic. "Wife! Don''t overexert yourself¡­" Liu Heng''s father was just about to support her when Daxia Ting raised her hands, motioning for him to quiet down as she focused further, ignoring the droplet of blood that dripped down from her nose. Eventually, the sheet of ice representing the map of the Daxia Empire turned calm. However, there were no dots there. Slowly, two tiny circles formed in the location representing the Liu Family''s estate, slowly gaining in size before burning like two flames, golden in color. "T-This is¡­?" She was flabbergasted, feeling a suffocating yet regal aura from the two dots, on par with a Star Imperial Meister. ''It seems my gamble was worth it.'' Krune smiled upon seeing the scene, telling her, "Now do you understand? My predecessors gambled everything to create them." "Haha! The heavens have blessed our Empire." Wiping her blood, Daxia Ting sighed in relief before looking at Krune. "Can you bring them here? There''s something I have to say to them." "Sure." Krune nodded, thinking to himself, ''With mother''s help, it''ll be easier to target the Demons. I was planning to contact those from the Royal Family anyway. But now, things have become more convenient.'' He then thought, sighing, ''I feel like my reincarnation into Liu Heng is the endgame of this series of trails. If I fail here, then there''s a good chance that I, as Krune, would die permanently.'' ''It''s because I''ve already been reincarnated into the body with the greatest potential there is in this world.'' Chapter 1224 - Krune’s Creation "We pay respects to Madame Liu!" Wang Hao and Chen Xue bowed, paying respects to Daxia Ting. "Hahaha, get up." Daxia Ting smiled as her gaze lingered on Chen Xue, regretting that she wasn''t able to engage her to her son. The more she looked at her, the more she liked her. Then again, now that she took a second glance, Wang Hao also had a heroic aura about him, wishing to tie him down to the Liu Family by making him marry one of their girls. However, recalling her exchange with Krune, she dropped the idea. Plus, she had personally sensed their strength, aware of what they indicated. So, she didn''t wish to do anything that would separate them. Instead, she wished to tie them together. That way, it''ll gain them more prestige if they decide to settle down in the Liu Family. Many thoughts swirled in her head as she told the two, focusing on the importance of the task at hand, "The two of you, what''s your plan?" "What do you mean, Madam?" Chen Xue asked in surprise, wondering why a lady of her stature was curious about two students. Had they been privileged children, then such a question would have made sense. Wishing to take over the family business, pursue further studies, take employment in a respectable place, and so on and so forth. There were many things an aristocratic child was able to do, so a question would make sense when directed at them. However, Wang Hao and Chen Xue didn''t have anything other than the fact that they graduated from the County Academy. Somehow, they also managed a seat at the Imperial Academy, so they were just planning to head there while planning to support Krune into dedicating their lives towards the goal they had promised to Wang Hu. ''Is she asking about that?'' Confused as to how she had such an idea, Chen Xue shot a glance at Krune, watching him nod in response. "Mother is an Imperial Meister that is able to sense the positions of everyone with power in the Daxia Empire," Krune finally said. "Yes, so I know the secret of the two of you being Imperial Warlocks. That''s why I have asked you such a question." Daxia Ting then said, sighing, "This is such a dangerous route you''re taking. So, I hope you fully understand the risks of that before journeying into that. The world has become more dangerous than before, so there''s also that to take into account." "We are aware, Madam." Wang Hao raised his head, stating firmly, "My grandfather has said everything to me before. So, I understand the responsibility that we have to face." "We''re willing to tread such a dangerous path." "Good." Daxia Ting nodded, pleased with their response as she said, "I''ll be wholeheartedly supporting the both of you in such an endeavor. From today onwards, consider the Liu Family your household. Whatever you need, our family will do its best to support you. With me backing you, it''s the same as you obtaining the Emperor''s favor." "The¡­ Emperor''s favor?" The two children stared agape, confused. Krune interjected, "The Emperor is mother''s father." Hearing such a response, the two kids prostrated on the ground, "We have committed a mistake, your majesty." "No, you didn''t." Daxia Ting hurriedly motioned for them to get up. "You didn''t know my lineage. So, it''s not a problem." She then smiled, saying truthfully, "Liu Heng''s a Star Imperial Meister. His fate is to fight against the Demons. Since you''re planning to travel the same path, I hope you can help him." "Please leave it to us, madam," Wang Hao replied, grinning in response. "I''m glad." Daxia Ting nodded before asking, "By the way, I only know that you are called Imperial Warlocks since my son called you as such. Plus, I only know the extent of your power, but not what you can actually do. If possible, can you show me?" "This¡­?" Chen Xue hesitated. "Husband, can you stand guard outside?" Daxia Ting smiled as she asked. "Yes," Liu Heng''s father nodded before exiting the ground, sporting an expression that wished to cry. ''But... I''m an Imperial Meister too!'' "Alright, can you show me now? You can rest assured that no one else would be privy of your powers, including the Emperor himself," Daxia Ting said. Hearing such a bold statement from her, Chen Xue and Wang Hao looked at one another, sighing as they cupped their fists. Immediately after, a golden light enveloped their bodies before beginning to morph them. A couple of seconds later, two Yin Beasts appeared in their positions. A humanoid stature that reached three meters in height, possessing scales akin to a dragon, scaly eyes, protruding mouth, sharp teeth, whip-like tail with a bladed end, and a pair of claws that were menacing. They unleashed a suffocating presence when a pair of wings grew on their back. Yin Beast Transformation! Wang Hao''s Yin Beast form emitted dense heat while Chen Xue''s form emitted breath-taking chillness. As Wang Hao waved his hand, his claws glowed with a fiery radiance, extending in size accordingly to his thoughts. Similarly, his wings grew or shrunk in size according to his thoughts, completely vanishing when he didn''t deem them necessary. "A-Amazing! They no longer possess the weakness of an Imperial Meister!" Daxia Ting muttered in great shock. "So¡­ this is an Imperial Warlock!" ''Amazing!'' Krune was also surprised, only now seeing the fruits of his labor, understanding just how strong the two of them were. On top of that, they had just begun to grow. Unlike an Imperial Meister, their bodies themselves had been strengthened. So, not only would they age slower, but they would also retain the ability of Yin Beasts to heal their wounds. Even for wounds where their limbs had been cut off, as long as they recuperate for a couple of years, they would be able to regenerate it completely. In this world, such a power defied common sense. So, no wonder Daxia Ting was shocked. After all, even he himself, the one that had created such power, was surprised. A minute later, the two deactivated their powers, panting as they seemed exhausted. Chen Xue barely managed to catch their breath, saying, "We haven''t been able to transform more than a couple of times.. So, we aren''t used to unleashing all this might." Chapter 1225 - First Quest "I see, I see. Liu Heng has successfully become a Star Imperial Meister. Great work as always!" Seated on a throne, a man exuding a regal aura smiled, seemingly conversing to the air. He turned silent a couple of seconds later, still sporting a smile as his seated posture relaxed a little bit. ¡­ "Yes, Lord Father." Daxia Ting finished speaking, deactivating her Imperial Arms. What people didn''t know was that Daxia Moon was a special Imperial Arms capable of locating the positions of Imperial Meisters, Yin Beasts, Nightmares, and other beings of importance. It also came with a couple other abilities, such as the divination of things in nature. The previous wielder of Daxia Moon had predicted that she would be able to give birth to a Star Imperial Meister if she married into the Liu Family. And with that, she became its successor, now using it to help their empire. Its final function was the relaying of commands, transmitted telepathically. As long as she was able to locate them, she would be able to converse with them. Through this, she was able to relay orders to all the Imperial Meisters, dispatching them accordingly towards any Nightmares that appear. However, unless the situation was deemed urgent, she never took action, keeping her existence a secret. After all, once the Nightmares came to know of her existence, they would target her first. With that being said, communications through her were the fastest and safest. Just now, she transmitted Krune''s success to the Emperor directly without any delays. In their world, where the fastest means of communication was through messenger birds, this was on a whole other realm. "First things first," she said, looking at the trio of Krune, Wang Hao, and Chen Xue. "You''ll need to train and gain experience in fighting against Nightmares. Only then would you be able to face the Demon in the future." "But before that, you aren''t ready to face a Nightmare yet." She then told them, "Head to Four-Cross Jade Town tomorrow. It''s situated about 100 kilometers from here. According to the information I''ve received, there is a Yin Beast troubling the people there. It''s pretty strong that even a team of soldiers have been unable to kill it. That''ll be your first assignment. Kill it and return." "Alright." Krune nodded in response while Wang Hao and Chen Xue cupped their fists, performing a mild bow before all three of them left the room. "I''ll be communicating with you throughout the journey this way. So, you can rest assured." The moment they exited the room, Daxia Ting''s voice resounded in their mind. "If you''re stuck on something, I''ll help you devise a solution." "Thank you, madam!" Chen Xue responded through her mind, surprised when she noticed that she was able to communicate with Daxia Ting this way, making her realize that the world was larger than she had assumed. ''Of course, the Daxia Empire should have had its means to remain firm to this day.'' Nodding in response, she patted Wang Hao''s shoulder, heading towards a private manor arranged for them. In order to train, and since they had formed a habit at this point, the three of them stayed in the same house. It was a large residence with more than five rooms, all possessing their respective courtyards. The reason they were given this manor was thanks to the fact that there existed one training ground that was hidden from view. It was covered by the buildings on all sides, preventing anyone else from seeing what happened within. In the past, this was where Liu Heng''s father trained with his Imperial Arms. No servant was allowed to enter this place beyond a set interval in a day, which spanned no more than an hour in the evening. "This is¡­amazing," Wang Hao muttered in shock, for a moment becoming excited as he rushed into the manor, roaming through the various corridors as he observed the various pieces of art hung along the walls, the sculptures placed at discrete locations, the expensive items that were used everywhere, and so on. "Man, you''re incredibly rich!" he muttered while gazing at Krune. "Well, the Liu Family is one of the richest in our county after all." Krune nodded like it was a matter of fact. He wasn''t the least affected by the wealth around him. After all, for most of his life, he always possessed wealth that rivaled large sects. Even now, the Mountain Sect''s wealth was incredible for something that had just been established. Then again, considering the dozen Godly Veins that were used as a foundation for the Mountain Sect''s Sub-Realm¡­ The amount of wealth they would be producing in the future would easily rival most sects, allowing them to produce Primal Gods at a faster pace. "Let''s set off during the night," Krune said after a moment of thought. "Yin Beasts are active during the night. So, we''ll be able to find it quicker this way." "However, we''ll have to travel for 100 kilometers first. By the time we reach there, we''ll be pretty exhausted," Chen Xue said in response to his words. "Plus, there''s also the fact that we would have to search for the Yin Beast beyond that." "There''s a solution for that," Krune replied, summoning the Cloud Whale whose size surpassed him, shocking the other two as he continued, "We can ride on top of this. Thus, traveling under the cover of the night is for the best. Though, we''ll need to make a couple more preparations." He continued, "First, are you able to control your transformation? Can you only transform part of your body into a Yin Beast?" "Yes." Chen Xue nodded. "However, we aren''t able to maintain it for long. Until now, in fear of prying eyes, we haven''t been able to openly train with them. So, we''ll at most be able to maintain them for a minute or two before our concentration lapses." "That''s a good start." Krune nodded in satisfaction. "Continue practicing that until noon. After we have our lunch, let''s get a good rest and set out during the night. In the meantime, I''ll get some quick-replenishing rations for our necessity." Saying so, his figure vanished, appearing atop the manor''s roof before jumping towards another location, heading somewhere else. Seeing such a scene, Wang Hao asked Chen Xue, "Would I be able to travel like that as well?" "It should be possible. But we''ll have to train more and fully master our powers for that to happen," Chen Xue replied. "Guess there''s still a long way for us to go, then." Chapter 1226 - Yin Dragon "I''ll need you to make a medicine ball using this¡­ this¡­ and these two herbs. Grind them into a paste first, then add these three ingredients after that¡­" Krune gave a recipe to the cook after barging into the kitchen, instructing the cook to move as he wanted him to. The kitchen itself was a large manor where food for everyone in the estate was prepared. Of course, the place where food for the household was prepared was separate, in an extravagant part of the manor. They had a large storage of precious herbs and other medicinal ingredients to use when necessary, including every type of fruit, vegetable, and spice that was available in the Daxia Empire. Using the Soul Needle, Krune thought of the end product he needed, using it to direct the necessary ingredients. Then, thanks to the instinct and knowledge he had as a Spiritual Chef, he used the Soul Needle to point at those deemed ''Treasures'' among the list of recipes he randomly created, eventually finalizing one. As long as he had the necessary knowledge, Krune was able to bypass a lot of trial and error thanks to the Cloud Whale. As long as he thought of a certain result as a ''treasure,'' then the Soul Needle would be pointing at the required ingredients and would continue doing so until he picked up enough of the ingredients. With this, determining the recipe was easy. ''I guess I can become a reputable alchemist with this factor alone. That''s great!'' Smiling in response, Krune iterated all the details to the cook, also writing things down on a piece of paper to ensure they wouldn''t mess up the recipe. "Prepare me thirty pills before evening." Leaving behind a command, Krune returned to his manor, beginning to train with the two Imperial Warlocks. Even though Krune''s physique had grown stronger thanks to the Cloud Whale''s reinforcement as an active ability, he noticed that Wang Hao''s physique was improving by leaps and bounds. Just the flesh in his human form had become so tough that regular blades would barely be able to scratch him. In his Yin Beast form, it would probably require a ballista in the army''s possession to even injure him. Krune wasn''t able to train with the Imperial Arms yet because recharging it was difficult, if not a nuisance. After all, as a Star Imperial Arms, it needed either lightning or had to bask in the light of stars for months to fully recharge. ''I don''t have the freedom to wait for long times between each battle.'' Frowning, he pondered over something, eventually muttering to himself, "I should figure out a method to reduce the recharging time." Finished with their lunch at noon, all three headed to sleep. ¡­ "Are you prepared?" Krune asked as he looked at the other two, watching them nod in response. He then took out a bag, sniffing the pills within, nodding based on the smell that the cook had followed the indicated recipe to the dot. He sighed in relief, splitting ten pills each per bag, giving one to Wang Hao and Chen Xue as he told them, "They''re called Nutrition Pills. Take one pill every time you use a strong ability." "It''s a concentrated version of our meals, so it would replenish your energy reserves in an instant," he continued. For him, even if his Star Imperial Arms ran out of power, he didn''t mind it too much. After all, he still had his Cloud Whale and Soul Needle to use. Plus, the amount of heat the Soul Needle was able to exude was greatly different from when he was Wang Hu. As Wang Hu, he wasn''t even able to use the full extent of his already pitiful powers. But now, as Liu Heng, once he integrated the memories of everyone into himself, it caused his Soul Needle to grow in strength accordingly, now able to contain a lot of power. In any case, the heat it emitted was the property of the Sun Stone, greatly effective against Nightmares. For a regular Yin Beast, the Air Needles were enough to riddle them with holes, especially since the Cloud Whale had become a lot stronger. With its body being bigger than him, the amount of strength it was capable of exerting was like heaven and earth compared to Wang Hu. Summoning the Cloud Whale, he popped two Nutrition Pills into his mouth, swallowing them as he could feel a sensation of warmth in his stomach. As his body digested the two pills, his expended energy would be replenished. "Hop on!" Krune said, jumping onto the Cloud Whale, patting his back. Chen Xue landed behind him gracefully while Wang Hao sat at the end, assuming a defensive stance. Slowly, the Cloud Whale took off to the skies before beginning to fly towards their destination, Four-Cross Jade Town. "Once we arrive there, use your senses to determine traces of the Yin Beast," Krune said, watching the Cloud Whale constantly accelerate. The air currents generated around it were in such a way that the trio on its back didn''t experience any air resistance. Their travel was smooth sailing as they managed to reach their destination within three hours. "What¡­ the hell happened here?" Wang Hao frowned, exuding a suffocating presence due to his anger, gazing at the row of corpses on the ground. All of them were soldiers, and judging by the state of their bodies, they had only been killed a couple of minutes ago. "Be careful," Krune spoke in warning as he used his Sonic Radar to scout their surroundings. In the dark, with the moon blanketed by the clouds, this was his only means of reliance. Wang Hao and Chen Xue manifested the ears and nose of their Yin Beasts, using them to feel their surroundings. There was a lone torch on the ground, situated at the foot of a small hill. It was the only source of light in the desolate place, allowing them to make out the countless corpses strewn around. "Hello there, hatchling meats!" Suddenly, a voice resounded, causing the hearts of the trio to skip a beat. After all, the voice wasn''t human but was uttered through the vocal cords of a beast, apparent from the pronunciation. Krune focused on the entity coiled around the top of the hill, shuddering in fright for a moment as he sensed the entirety of the Yin Beast through his Sonic Radar, whispering to the others, "When I give a signal, go all out! This is one of the fabled Yin Beasts recorded in legends¡­" "A Yin Dragon!" Chapter 1227 - One Of The Strongest Yin Beasts Yin Beasts were few in number. However, some Yin Beasts were recorded in the Daxia Empire''s history for the sole reason that they hadn''t been killed despite multiple appearances. This meant that the Yin Beast was powerful enough to survive even after a team of soldiers had pursued it on countless occasions. That alone was a testament to the Yin Beast''s strength. So, for such Yin Beasts, a name was given by the Empire in reverence to their might and ability to survive. There weren''t many Yin Beasts that reached such a state. After all, before they gained such a status, they had to achieve a certain feat. Killing an Imperial Meister. An Imperial Arms possessed enough power to almost destroy a Nightmare. No Yin Beast was capable of surviving that. However, if one survived such an encounter and even managed to kill the Imperial Meister, it meant it was in a class of its own. Such Yin Beasts were given names, dictating their fearsome might. Among them was the Yin Beast before them, known as one of the strongest Yin Beasts to date in the Daxia Empire''s history of named Yin Beasts. After all, the number of Imperial Meisters it had killed had reached a frightening number. 12 Imperial Meisters! It was a terrifying foe, one that had lived for more than two centuries, having even learned the languages and customs of the humans in this duration. It was a walking disaster. "Mother! This Yin Beast is the Yin Dragon!" Krune shouted in his mind. "I''m aware!" Daxia Ting responded. "If you wish to fight against the Demon, you should learn to take on such an opponent. But don''t worry. I''ve also dispatched four Imperial Meisters to assist you. So, you won''t have to worry." "When will they arrive?" Krune asked. "Based on their speed, the first one would arrive in a couple of minutes. The last of them would arrive twenty minutes later. So, only engage after that," Daxia Ting said. Even though her voice was plain, Krune was able to detect worry in her. She had thought his Cloud Whale was only able to fly slowly. Even though Krune hadn''t gone at full speed, it still went over her calculations. In theory, she had planned for the Imperial Meisters to arrive first to plan and strategize while the trio would arrive last and join the battle. "It''s fine. We''ll be careful." Krune replied through telepathy before turning around, whispering to the two Imperial Warlocks, "Four Imperial Meisters have been dispatched. The first of them would arrive after two minutes while it would take twenty minutes for the last of them to arrive." "That''s a lot of time." Wang Hao frowned, wondering if he would be able to last that long once they began to fight. "Watch out!" Chen Xue shouted as Krune reacted promptly, causing the air currents surrounding the Cloud Whale to turn violent as they deflected a boulder flying their way. But despite that, the boulder managed to touch the Cloud Whale, knocking the three over from the momentum. "Tch!" Krune clicked his tongue, watching the Yin Dragon grin while glaring at him. Even though he behaved flustered, he was in actuality as calm as he could be. After all, even though they fell off the Cloud Whale, Wang Hao and Chen Xue were Imperial Warlocks. They would be fine with this fall. In response, as he fell towards the ground, through his Sonic Radar, Krune watched the eyes of the Yin Dragon trail towards him, looking like it would charge at him the moment he landed on the ground. One of the documented abilities of the Yin Dragon was its charging ability. It was capable of accelerating from zero to a horse''s top speed in a second. On top of that, it was a mobile opponent, able to twist and turn like a snake. That''s why it was a dangerous opponent to face against. Even a normal Yin Beast''s flesh was capable of deflecting blades, not to mention the scales of the Yin Dragon that was barely damaged even under fire from an Imperial Arms. This was the reason it was feared and had earned its name as the Yin Dragon. While Krune was three meters above ground, the Yin Beast began to charge at him. Then again, now that its attention was on him, the Cloud Whale aimed at it, unleashing an Air Needle. The Air Needle slammed into the Yin Dragon, piercing through the scale that it impacted upon. However, it didn''t damage beyond that as Krune frowned, making the Cloud Whale turn constantly as the Air Needle trailed over the Yin Dragon''s body, making a mild depression all over its body. It was no different from a scratch mark, with the initial point of impact sporting a scale-deep wound. ''That''s one hard bastard.'' Cursing, Krune deactivated his Cloud Whale, activating it within himself before taking flight. Wang Hao and Chen Xue also summoned their wings, flapping them to remain in the air. "What do we do now?" Wang Hao asked. "Even your Air Needle hasn''t damaged it much." "What else can we do?" Krune sighed in response. "Let''s slam attacks on it and inflict enough damage until it dies. That''s the only option. Let me first fire enough Air Needles at it from afar. It won''t consume any of my energy to do so." "Wang Hao, will you be able to carry me?" Krune asked. "Of course." Wang Hao nodded before carrying Krune as he and Chen Xue flapped their wings, increasing their altitude. Condensing his Cloud Whale, Krune watched as it began to suck in the surrounding air, condensing it within its body before unleashing a second Air Needle. Chen Xue landed on its horn, grabbing it using her hands as she pushed it accordingly, ensuring the Cloud Whale turned fast enough to constantly keep the Air Needle focused on the Yin Dragon. "Is that all?" The Yin Dragon laughed as its mouth clamped upon a soldier''s corpse. Its body coiled as its top half spun around, contracting in response before it released, like a taut bowstring being released. The soldier''s corpse flew into the air, slamming into the Cloud Whale that wasn''t able to evade on time, sending it flying away. Grunting in response, Krune noticed that a bit of his stamina had been consumed to recover the Cloud Whale''s damage, shouting, "Damn it! I''ll kill this annoying turtle!" Chapter 1228 - Traitors In The Midst "Haah!" Krune gasped for air, having slammed more than twenty Air Needles at the Yin Dragon, noticing that all he had managed to do so was destroy a couple of its scales. It wasn''t because the Air Needle proved ineffective. Instead, the Yin Dragon was so fast that it dodged the attacks the moment the Air Needle landed on it. Even though Chen Xue was turning the Cloud Whale accordingly, the Yin Dragon''s speed was too high, allowing it to dodge the entirety of the Air Needle. Most of the Air Needle''s power lay in its ability to penetrate through things. So, with that taken out of context, its might had been weakened a lot. "Shall we engage it in close combat?" Wang Hao asked, gritting his teeth. After all, the Yin Dragon had been mocking them all along, hurling a string of expletives at them, followed by their families, etc. "Don''t give in to its taunts. That''s one of the basics," Krune said in an effort to console him, conversing in his mind. "Its skin is tough to withstand our attacks. Where are the Imperial Meisters, mother?" "One of them is positioned towards your west. I''ve told him to unleash the entirety of his Imperial Arms'' power and make a retreat. He won''t be able to evade the Yin Dragon''s speed otherwise," Daxia Ting replied. "Tell him to launch an attack after thirty seconds. We''ll coordinate accordingly," Krune replied to her before informing Wang Hao and Chen Xue about the same, "I''ll gather its attention using my Imperial Arms. Flank it using your strongest attacks in the meantime. The moment the attack lands on the Yin Dragon, transform into Yin Beasts to launch your respective attacks. Retreat immediately. It won''t die from just one attack alone. Don''t give it a chance to retaliate." "We know," Chen Xue said before flying away, making an arc towards the Yin Dragon''s right. Wang Hao arched towards its left while Krune deactivated his Cloud Whale, flying in the air as he shouted, "Damn snake, let me see if you can withstand this." The moment he said this, he activated his Star Imperial Arms, causing three flaming rings to manifest around him, increasing in size as they revolved around him, slowly turning blue before they began to spark. "S-Star Imperial Meister?" The Yin Dragon was shocked when the sound of thunder reverberated through the sky, drowning its words. The land brightened from the intense light emitted by the flickering lightning arcs dancing around between the three rings around Krune, causing him to resemble a deity. Right at this moment, a three-meter-long flaming arrow arced through the air, making a whistling sound before slamming into the Yin Dragon, bursting into a sea of flames. Immediately after, five more flaming arrows seared through the air and slammed into it, homing towards it despite its attempt to run away. The arrows seemed able to track targets, a reason the respective Imperial Meister had volunteered to attack first. All six flaming arrows landed on their target, enveloping the Yin Beast in a sea of flames, eliciting countless shrieks from it. "Now!" Wang Hao shouted as he activated his transformation, turning into a Yin Beast as his speed exploded, arriving before the Yin Dragon as he swiped with his claws. They glowed before condensing large fiery claws, cutting into the Yin Dragon''s body, drawing out a lot of blood as a result. He hadn''t even finished his slash when the Yin Dragon''s tail slammed into him, sending him flying away as a result. Wang Hao crashed into a row of trees before stopping, coughing out a mouthful of blood as a result. "Wang Hao!" Chen Xue avoided attacking as she flew towards him. Her attacks were of the frost attribute and would only serve to dampen the flames. So, she instead went to Wang Hao''s aid. "Roar!" the Yin Dragon screamed in pain as it rolled on the ground in pain, trying its best to douse the flames but failing to do so. After all, they weren''t ordinary flames, but those generated by an Imperial Arms, possessing the power of the sun. So, until their energy was exhausted, they wouldn''t die out. However, even though it was suffering from two powerful flaming attacks, Krune felt his heart thumping in tension all of a sudden, noticing a pair of eyes staring at him from within the sea of flames. ''This beast! It won''t die from this!'' Instead of putting on a show, Krune focused all his attention on his Imperial Arms. This was his first activation, so he had to concentrate a lot. The outermost ring flew away from him and flashed through the air like lightning, arriving above the Yin Dragon as it expanded in size, enveloping it completely. It then turned transparent before unleashing a certain sealing effect. Roar! The Yin Dragon roared in pain as it felt its body turn numb, feeling a weird sensation as if it was getting chained down by something. This was one of the two abilities of a Star Imperial Arms: Seal! The second ring then flashed before the Yin Dragon''s head, beginning to rotate as it slammed into its head, causing countless sparks as a result. The lightning ring then began to cut into its skin, causing fear to appear in its eyes for the first time. But strangely, the foreboding sensation in Krune''s mind didn''t vanish when he watched a massive bird of ice take off towards the air, beginning to head towards the Yin Dragon. "No! That would only put out the fire!" Krune screamed as he shouted in his mind, "Mom! Tell this Moon Imperial Meister to stop his attack. He''ll screw up everything." "I''ve been commanding him all this time. But he''s not listening for some reason. No! It''s not him alone. Another Imperial Meister is doing the same now. Damn it! Son! Take the two Imperial Warlocks and retreat from there! Something''s strange! Retreat!" Daxia Ting''s voice was in a fluster as she shouted in his mind. "Too late!" Krune scowled, watching a giant firebird take off towards the air and fly towards him instead. He was the target! Chapter 1229 - The Essence Of Star Imperial Arms Boom! The ice bird slammed into the Yin Dragon, dousing all its flames. "Hehehe! It seems you have incompetence among your members." The Yin Dragon laughed as it showed its trump card, causing its body to heal at a speed visible to the naked eye. Within a minute, it had completely healed from all the injuries they had inflicted. "Shit!" Krune groaned as he flew through the air, watching the firebird close in on him constantly, intending to kill him. "Hah!" Chen Xue arrived behind it and slashed with her claws, using her frost powers to scatter part of the fire bird''s attack, weakening it. Without any hesitation, she slammed forth numerous attacks, destroying the firebird within a dozen seconds. Thanks to her mobility, she was able to evade the firebird''s attacks. In any case, the moment it tried to attack her, Krune blasted an Air Needle at it, using the wind to scatter the flames. Even though the flames wouldn''t die just like that, once separated from the firebird, it was only a matter of time before they lost all power and dissipated. "Kaaaa!" Krune opened his mouth, unleashing a primal roar that echoed everywhere when he closed his eyes, sensing the position of his enemies. He then spotted the figures of two Imperial Meisters huddled behind a tree, watching the battle from afar. Without any hesitation, he summoned the Cloud Whale and blasted an Air Needle towards them, catching them off-guard. After all, they had changed positions after summoning their respective birds of fire and ice. So, they hadn''t assumed that he would be able to locate them, not during the darkness of the night that hid them safely. With that, the Air Needle pierced through both of them, causing them to scream as their bones were pierced through. Krune had targeted their legs, wishing to interrogate them. In short, his attack destroyed their kneecaps, causing them to flail on the ground in pain, unable to escape now. With that taken care of, Krune gazed at the figure of the Yin Dragon, one that wasn''t able to move. Even though it had been boasting, one of Krune''s rings was still constricting it. As a Star Imperial Arms, its power was on a whole other level. In other words, the Yin Dragon wasn''t able to escape. "I should have done this sooner," Krune smiled, surprised at the power of his Star Imperial Arms. After all, until now, all three rings hadn''t even expended a bit of their power, making him understand the essence of why a Star Imperial Arms was said to be strategic trump cards. Unlike when they were wielded by those that weren''t Star Imperial Meisters, a Star Imperial Arms was able to harness the energy from the surroundings to attack. Thanks to that, the ring that trapped the Yin Dragon was using the gravity in the surroundings to constrict the Yin Dragon, preventing it from moving no matter what. It was because this gravity was chaotic that it could not even amass strength in its muscles at all. After all, no matter in which direction it flexed, the various pressures by gravity loosened and tightened the nerves accordingly, ensuring it wasn''t even able to gather its strength. Thanks to this, it was rooted to the spot, unable to move. "I see, so this is how that Demon within the capital has been kept sealed." He nodded in understanding. "Since it had been harnessing the power of the surroundings, the seal never ran out of energy." "Haha, that was pretty anticlimactic." Wang Hao laughed as he appeared beside Krune, perfectly alright. "Let''s finish the other task first," Krune said, gazing at Wang Hao, "Ensure nothing happens here until I return." "Sure, leave it to me." Wang Hao nodded, gazing at the Yin Dragon that had turned silent now. In the meantime, Krune and Chen Xue arrived before the two Imperial Meisters that had targeted them, seeing that they were desperately trying to escape. Earlier, when he was using his Sonic Radar using his shout, Krune noticed that the first Imperial Meister that had supported them had already retreated on his horse. He was returning to his city, having already done his job. As for the fourth Imperial Meister, he had yet to arrive, not even in the vicinity. Upon asking his mother, he understood that the Imperial Meister had encountered some trouble and was hurrying back towards his city. It was a Nightmare that had targeted his city during his absence. So, he promptly retreated. Daxia Ting wasn''t able to stop him. Rather, she was the one that had notified him of the situation, making him return after hearing that Krune had neutralized the traitors. "So, let''s talk," Krune said, grinning devilishly as he gazed at the two Imperial Meisters before him, holding a palm-sized Cloud Whale in his hand. He then unleashed an Air Needle, knocking away a ring one of them picked up all of a sudden, intending to use it. ''Demon Arms!'' He nodded in understanding, flashing behind the second Imperial Meister as he fished out the other ring and knocked it away as well. ''I see. Since they hadn''t begun to use it, they weren''t registered in mother''s Imperial Arms. There''s this problem.'' He nodded in thought, relaying the information to Daxia Ting. Hearing her orders, he knocked out the two Imperial Meisters, ones that wished to live despite everything. He didn''t wish to interrogate them. The Liu Family had enough experts in this field to pry out all the necessary information from them. After taking their respective Imperial Arms, he told Chen Xue, "Bring them to the Liu Estate. Once you''re done, return here. Can you do that?" "That''ll be a bit hard," Chen Xue said in response. "I don''t have enough practice to sustain flight for so long. So, it might take longer than when we rode the Cloud Whale." "That''ll be fine." Krune nodded after hearing that. "It''ll only get riskier after this. So, I want you to transport them first. Since no one knows of our identity yet, you should be safe as long as you use the cover of the night to your advantage." "Alright, I''ll do that," Chen Xue replied, tying up a piece of cloth around the injuries of the two Imperial Meisters to prevent them from bleeding to death.. She then picked them up, grunting a little before taking off to the sky, heading towards the Liu Estate. Chapter 1230 - Future Emperor Air Needle! Summoning the Cloud Whale at its maximum size, Krune began to unleash the Air Needle onto the ground, beginning to drill up a hole. As it was a static target, the true extent of the Air Needle''s potency was displayed, boring deep into the earth. He constantly did the same for the next three hours until Chen Xue returned. She was exhausted, panting as she slumped on the ground, swallowing three Nutrition Pills to replenish her energy reserves. In fact, Krune was also consuming them once every 30 minutes. Even though the Air Needle didn''t consume any of his energy, he was still making the Cloud Whale hover in the air. That did consume some of his energy. Moreover, while fighting before, he had summoned and retracted it many times, exhausting him greatly. So, he was recovering from that. "What are you planning to do here?" Chen Xue asked in curiosity. "Making a hole deep enough to bury those two Demon Arms," Krune replied, pointing at the two rings that he hadn''t even touched all this time. "The Demon is able to sense their position no matter how far they are. So, taking them with us is dangerous. Plus, if we were to destroy them, the Demon would be alerted of our existence in advance. He''ll be able to feel our powers." "It''s too soon for it to know about us. After all, my predecessor was killed by the Demon. So, it knows the Cloud Whale," he continued. "I see¡­" Chen Xue nodded, turning silent after that. She then excused herself and headed to check up on Wang Hao. Krune continued to bore into the ground until he heard the sounds of a gushing river through his Sonic Radar, "There''s that underground stream." Without any hesitation, he used a tree branch to pick up the two rings and dropped them into the hole, with an interval of an hour between each. This way, both the rings would be transported somewhere far away. To completely kill a Demon, destroying all its Demon Arms was also necessary. Otherwise, it would one day be able to revive through the Demon Arms once it had collected enough life force. However, destroying them now would alert the Demon. So, Krune sent them through the underground river. This way, even if the Demon noticed them moving at a rapid speed, it wouldn''t be able to reclaim them. After all, for that to happen, it would need to dig into the ground until it reached the underground river. By then, the rings would have gone somewhere else. Even if they were to get stuck somewhere, it still wouldn''t be easy to dig into the ground. After all, they didn''t have the Cloud Whale''s Air Needle. The amount of time and effort they would spend on this would only give him more time to plan, train, and target the Demon. Then again, once the Demon had been killed, Krune was confident of finding them using his Soul Needle. Hence this plan. After putting both the rings into the hole, Krune covered it up, filling up the entirety of the hole. This way, there wouldn''t be any traces of his activities. With that done, he arrived before the Yin Dragon, one that was sleeping right now. As it was still unable to move, he arrived atop its head, placing his hand on it to feel the energy circulating within, ''I see. So, the thing I had done during the creation of the Imperial Arms for Wang Hao and Chen Xue, a similar thing has happened in the Yin Dragon as well.'' As it had been alive for more than two centuries, the Yin Dragon had been storing enough energy in itself that it had begun to condense a Nightmare Core on its own. On top of that, this core had been developing to such an extent that it had reached peak capacity. Krune then arrived before it, smiling as he asked, "So, Yin Dragon, what do you want in life?" "What¡­ do you mean?" The Yin Dragon frowned, snorting as it replied, "No matter what you scheme, I won''t fall for it. Your attacks aren''t strong enough to kill me anyway." "You sure about that?" Krune smiled, gently summoning his Soul Needle, waving it before the Yin Dragon, causing it to shudder for a moment upon seeing the energy fluctuation radiating from it. In shock, it muttered, "A fragment of the sun?" Since the Sun Stone was no different, it had assumed that the Soul Needle was something that had been fragmented from the sun. Well¡­ that''s what it thought anyway. "I hadn''t used this because I thought it would be a waste to kill a beast like you," Krune replied, asking once again, "So, what do you want to do in life?" "What are you planning right now?" The Yin Dragon didn''t relent, asking without being flustered in the least. Nevertheless, its eyes darted towards the Soul Needle from time to time. "Well, if you pledge your loyalty to me, I''ll make you evolve into a higher version. Your core has attained its limit, right?" He smiled, shocking the Yin Dragon. "H-How do you know about that? Impossible! Research related to that had been abandoned more than a couple decades ago." It iterated in alarm. "Wang Hao, Chen Xue. Show it!" Krune said when the two assumed their Yin Beast forms. Before, the Yin Dragon had been wrapped in flames. So, it hadn''t seen Wang Hao''s Yin Beast form. As for the wings they were using to fly, it had just assumed that to be a power of their respective Imperial Arms. "Y-Yin Beasts? How? Their auras are just like humans." The Yin Dragon was alarmed. "Are you convinced now?" Krune smiled. "If you submit to me, you''ll become a grand existence revered by the Daxia Empire. Not only that, you''ll become even stronger than your current self." "Who exactly are you, sir?" The Yin Dragon gazed at Krune properly for the first time, observing his figure oozing wisdom and knowledge, possessing the presence of a peerless expert that had seen through the secrets of the world. "I''m Liu Heng, future Emperor of the Daxia Empire.." Krune smiled. Chapter 1231 - Krune’s Scheme For The Future "You''re¡­the future Emperor of the Daxia Empire?" The Yin Dragon asked in surprise before nodding in understanding. "Right, you''re a Star Imperial Meister. In that case, it makes perfect sense." It then sighed, saying, "It seems there''s no other choice for me, is there? Even though I won''t die, I have no hope of leaving this trap either." "I''m glad you understand the consequences." Krune smiled before telling it, "However, you don''t need to worry. You''ll become an existence on par with a Demon in the future." Hearing his words full of confidence, the Yin Dragon was surprised for a moment before laughing. "Interesting! You''re different from all the other Imperial Meisters. Alright, I, the legendary Yin Dragon, would see what you accomplish in the future." "Okay, now let''s return first," Krune said as the second ring of his Imperial Arms flashed around, turning transparent before sliding under the Yin Dragon. Slowly, the gravitational fields fluctuated before the body of the Yin Dragon was lifted up. "A-Amazing!" the Yin Dragon said in shock as it hovered in the air. Summoning his Cloud Whale, Krune and the other two sat on top of it, beginning to fly away. As for the soldiers that had died in vain, he didn''t have the time of time to bury them. Then again, as he sensed another batch of troops arriving at the scene, he didn''t bother with them, leaving the scene immediately. Until now, none knew that he, Wang Hao and Chen Xue had taken action. Even the four Imperial Meisters that had been dispatched were only given the instruction of dealing with the Yin Dragon while supporting a mysterious Imperial Meister. As they were only tasked with slamming their attacks from afar before making a swift retreat, Daxia Ting was confident that Krune''s identity wouldn''t be found out by them. "Let''s go," Krune said as the Cloud Whale began to fly. And in response, the Yin Dragon had also followed them, being carried by the two rings from his Star Imperial Arms. ''There are a variety of ways I can use these abilities. Plus, I can harness the power from nature. A Star Imperial Arms cannot be wielded the same way as a Sun or Moon Imperial Arms,'' he thought, understanding that the recharge duration of a Star Imperial Arms was of no problem. As long as he didn''t expend its inherent power, he would be able to use it constantly without trouble. This was probably the true extent of a Star Imperial Meister''s power. They didn''t fly too fast, though, only proceeding at a speed at which the two rings were able to sustain by harnessing the energy of nature. If he went any faster, then they would need to expend their energy, which would weaken them. ''So, my strongest state is when I don''t expend their energy. But if I plan to do that, I should pour out everything in a single attack. Otherwise, I''ll just be weakening myself.'' He understood the concept at play now, smiling. ''In any case, I never thought I would be able to capture the Yin Dragon, a famed Yin Beast of the legends.'' A couple of hours later, they arrived at their manor, watching Daxia Ting wait for them in response. "Are you okay?" She hurriedly hugged Krune in concern, inspecting his injuries, sighing in relief when he wasn''t hurt. She then looked at the Yin Dragon, asking, "What do you plan to do with this?" She was already briefed about everything along the journey. So, she wasn''t alarmed by the sight of the famed Yin Beast of legends. "Where''s father? I need his help with what I have in mind," Krune spoke. "I''m here." Liu Heng''s father walked out of the manor, holding a large iron chain in his hand, looking like he had been preparing to chain down the Yin Dragon. "That won''t be necessary, dad." Krune laughed, pointing at the Yin Dragon. "No iron chain is able to restrict it." "Well, that is true," the Yin Dragon said nonchalantly. "Even a full-powered attack from an Imperial Arms can at most injure me a little. If I could fly, I would have ruled this world already." "¡­" Liu Heng''s father broke out in cold sweat after that. Once the group entered Krune''s manor, Krune gently placed the Yin Dragon on the ground, casually retracting both the rings restricting it, surprising it for a moment. But, as its interest was already captured, it didn''t take any action, only relaxing its body before curling up on one corner, saying, "Boy, tell me your plan." "It''s pretty simple, actually." Krune smiled before looking at it, asking, "Do you know about Demon Arms?" "I''ve seen them once. They''re nothing special," it replied. "They might seem like that only to you," Krune retorted. "Since even an Imperial Arms cannot kill you. However, there''s a hidden gimmick behind their creation." "Oh?" The Yin Dragon was curious, raising its brows. "Cultivation," Krune continued. "Every activation of the Demon Arms consumes a bit of the user''s lifespan. After enough time passes, the Demon would consume the Demon Arms to grow stronger than before. This is how they continue to grow in strength." "Are you planning to do something similar using me?" The Yin Dragon shook its head, telling Krune, "But it''s impossible. I''m a Yin Beast and not a Nightmare. There''s a fundamental difference between us, even considering the similarity that you have figured out." "If I did something similar, then the Demon would be able to take advantage of it in the future." Krune shook his head, pointing at Wang Hao. "What I am planning is like an inferior version of them. You''ll be sharing a connection with the created ones that would constantly be supplying you with vitality." "Vitality? And not lifespan?" The Yin Dragon quickly noticed his choice of terms. "Yes, vitality. Or rather, stamina is the more accurate term," Krune replied. "Even though this is inferior to your growth, this is what is necessary to evolve you. Since you aren''t a Demon, lifespan is useless to you. You cannot harness that." "Interesting¡­" the Yin Dragon muttered, partly able to understand his scheme.. "Go ahead, tell me more." Chapter 1232 - Taking Inspiration From Disasters "Using this would only expend their stamina and not their lifeforce. Even though its power would be a little inferior to Demon Arms, but over time, the gap would be bridged. After all, this would be something that could be inherited through bloodline in the future," Krune said, gazing at Wang Hao and Chen Xue. "Since the Imperial Warlocks has this trait already, it''s easy to install it in this new weapon." "So, what part of my body are you planning to use? You should remember that I cannot regenerate nonstop. The energy in my core is expended accordingly each time based on the extent of regeneration," the Yin Dragon could not help but ask. Krune pointed at the two horns growing on its head, replying, "We''ll only be using the horn. Not only are they ridiculously tough, but based on what I sensed, other than your heart where your core resides, this has the highest concentration of your energy." "Well, let''s try it first and see if it works," the Yin Dragon said. "No." Krune shook his head, telling it, "First, we need to make some preparations. We''ll have to plant some herbs that would work best in replenishing your energy. Since this is a long-term process, we have to make things efficient." "Hahaha!" The Yin Dragon began to laugh after that. "Liu Heng, you''re one interesting fellow. Alright, let''s do it this way." Its eyes suddenly began to bleed blood that hovered in the air, condensing into a pellet that landed on Krune''s forehead. "This is my blood essence. I have now formed a pact with you. In the future, even after your death, your children and grandchildren would inherit this pact." "Thank you." Krune nodded, now relaxing. This was what he had been hoping for all along, the reason he had taken the risk in removing the seals. For the Yin Dragon that had been alive for more than two centuries, it surely would have accumulated some mysterious techniques. So, he was hoping for it to reveal them naturally. This way, his advantage while facing the Demon would be higher. Thankfully, it paid off. "Let''s rest for now. We''ll talk about everything else in the morning," Krune said. They were exhausted from their first battle and hadn''t gotten accustomed to things yet. Moreover, this plan was pretty complicated and couldn''t be rushed. So, Krune put it off for the next day. "Alright." Daxia Ting nodded before looking at her husband, "Dear, interrogate all information from those two captives." "Leave it to me." Her husband smiled before walking away, his steps jovial. Of course, he was happy at Liu Heng''s success. Thanks to the pact, none were worried that the Yin Dragon would try anything. It also seemed intent to rest, having expended some energy at the fight before. Closing its eyes, it slept, having made the training grounds its base. Krune returned to his room, falling asleep the moment he slumped onto his bed. He then thought of the time Little Cally appeared recently and had made him part of an altar where an indigenous tribe, the Galki, prayed towards him and inherited part of his powers. After that, he stored them in his subspace, intending to research them later. Then again, whether it was that or the shadowy creatures living in the borders between the continents that caused their prayers to latch onto the subject of their prayer, morphing them into a wish-granting entity, both were fearsome. The former siphoned power from the one they prayed towards, while the latter turned the entity of their prayers into something that would live solely to fulfill their wishes. And now, Krune drew inspiration from them, applying based on his accumulations. On top of that, he already researched the topic as Wang Hu. And now, as Liu Heng, he had been going through all his memories, obtaining new results after integrating them all into him. The morning of the next day, Krune had his breakfast and summoned his Soul Needle, thinking, ''A plant that can replenish the Yin Dragon''s energy.'' The Soul Needle constantly whirred in place before pointing in a certain direction. Krune walked for some distance, smiling in surprise when he saw it pointed towards the market in their town. Disguising himself, he informed his parents before setting out, arriving at the market as the Soul Needle stopped spinning, pointing at a certain herb shop. Krune noticed that it was a rather small shop, dilapidated even as it was located in an alley. Due to its poor location, not many customers frequented there. Arriving before it, Krune noticed a six-year-old boy seated within the shop, sporting a bored look. Through his Sonic Radar, Krune noticed a middle-aged man sleeping in the room beside it. Situated behind the shop was their house, so he was sleeping there. Having understood that they won''t have many customers anyway, the middle-aged man was lazing around. Strewn on the floor beside him was an empty bottle of alcohol. Judging by his unkempt appearance, he was an alcoholic. Evident by the finger marks on his son''s face, he was pretty much trash, a waste of breathing space. The Soul Needle pointed at an almost withered plant that was within the shop. After checking to ensure the Soul Needle was pointing at it, Krune knocked on the door, asking the boy, "Kid, how much for this plant?" "3 Copper Xian," the boy replied. Xian was the currency used, divided between Copper, Silver, and Gold. A Gold Xian was equivalent to 100 Silver Xian and 10,000 Copper Xian. 3 Copper Xian was practically nothing to him as Krune handed him 5 Copper Xian instead. As the child looked at him curiously, Krune asked, "Can you tell me where you procured this plant?" He had to ask this because, in their town, there was only this one withered plant. That''s all the Soul Needle showed. "Sir, we can''t tell our family secrets just like that." Suddenly, the boy''s father arrived, interrupted by the sounds of the conversation. "Name your price," Krune stated coldly, glaring at the man while letting out a tinge of his killing intent. The man sobered immediately, shuddering as he gazed at Krune''s eyes for a moment before kneeling on the ground. "It would be this servant''s pleasure to tell the lord." "Cut the crap and just say it!" Krune retorted soon after. Chapter 1233 - Tethlea "Y-Yes!" the man shrieked in fear before beginning to speak. "We call this the decaying plant. It only grows in old homes that are on the verge of ruin and hadn''t been maintained. Besides that, it hardly has any medicinal properties other than alleviating rashes a little." "Suppose I wish to buy this in bulk. Do you have the means to arrange them?" Krune asked. "Lord, you wish to buy this in bulk?" The man was shocked before saying hurriedly upon seeing Krune getting angry, "Yes, I''ll definitely be able to arrange for this. There are plenty of abandoned villages where a lot of this grows." "Alright," Krune said soon after, dropping a bag with 100 Silver Xian in it. "Bring me content worth this first. If you do a satisfactory job, consider a long-term contract." "Lord¡­ where should I bring them?" The man stared at the bag of money, shuddering up seeing it filled with silver, gazing at Krune with a mild sense of fear. "The Liu Estate." Saying so, Krune turned around to leave. "If you dare elope with the money, you should understand the consequences. There won''t be a place under the heavens for you to survive." "I''ll definitely satisfy you, my Lord!" The man prostrated on the ground, only getting up after Krune had left the street. He then looked at his son, cursing, "Why are you wasting time? Go, prepare! If we do this well, even you''ll eventually live in a freaking mansion!" "So, his greed is good enough to seek a long-term benefit." Standing at the roof of the shop, Krune heard their discussions, nodding as he left. "If his greed was short-sighted, I would have beaten him then and there." He purposely didn''t give a date, wishing to see the man''s efficiency. Just to curry favor with him, he would work with all his might. ''Now that the Yin Dragon''s food supply is taken care of, I''ll have to find a way to make it permanent.'' He sighed. Based on the description of this plant, it only grew in ruins that didn''t have any human contact. He didn''t know any other detail regarding it, not to mention its name. So, he first wished to trail after the man from the shop to the location and see how they grow in nature. After that, he wished to replicate such a scenery in their manor to ensure there was a protected supply for the Yin Dragon. Only then can he state with confidence that the food issue was solved. Yin Beasts had their respective food. The Yin Dragon typically preyed upon animals and the likes in the wilds. However, it wasn''t a suitable food for it. Or, to be more exact, it was normally enough, but insufficient for his plans. So, for it, only the most beneficial food was necessary. This plant was the perfect fit for that. Thinking as such, Krune trailed after the shopkeeper, seeing him meeting up with his friends before engaging in hushed discussions. Then again, Krune overheard every single word they uttered. Once the shopkeeper said the type of work they had to do, all of them were surprised as their eyes lit up, glinting at the smell of money. With that, they quickly pooled their resources and left town, traveling in a worn-out carriage while everyone carried the tools necessary for the operation. Krune casually trailed after them, easily keeping up with the speed of the carriage by heading to the skies from time to time. Soon, after half a day''s worth of travel, the group arrived at an abandoned village. It was a large village with stone buildings. It had once been prosperous. But alas, a nightmare had appeared there, destroying it overnight. By the time the nearby Imperial Meister arrived, it was too late. As a place attacked by a nightmare, none wished to settle down here, feeling fear whenever they passed by it. So, it was an abandoned ghost town. "Tethlea!" The shopkeeper exclaimed in surprise immediately upon reaching the village''s entrance. It was the plant he was looking for. There was a batch situated at the entrance already. "When you''re plucking it, ensure that you plant some of the Tethlea''s flowers into the ground. That would ensure to make them grow there once again." the shopkeeper said. "Also, make a note of all the spots where they grow. We must never disturb them. They are our cash cows, our hope for becoming rich." "You don''t need to stress it that much." One of their colleagues laughed. "We aren''t idiots. We''ll never shoot our own foot." "Yeah, everyone will be careful." Saying so, they began to gather the plants, ensuring to not even disturb the atmosphere of the place. "This place has a deathly energy¡­" Krune muttered, sensing the atmosphere of the place. "Only when a Nightmare commits a massacre would it become like this." "It''ll be hard to replicate." He frowned, continuing to investigate the place before returning with the ground during nightfall. Thanks to his arrangements, the group was allowed entry into the Liu Estate as Krune received the batch they brought, making a general estimate that they had brought enough for the money he had given. "Bring this amount once in every two days, understand?" Krune said, watching them nod in response. "Also, ensure to deliver the goods at the same time. This has to be kept secret. Otherwise, your lives¡­ well, you don''t need me to remind you that, right?" "Yes, Lord!" Everyone prostrated on the ground, leaving immediately once Krune waved his hand. Nevertheless, while leaving, their faces were beaming with smiles. Even after the cost of transport and other necessities, each one of them still ended up with a sizeable sum, way larger than what they made from their shops. It was then and there that they decided to keep this secret and take it to their grave. After all, they would be idiots to spread their money-making strategy. "We''ll head towards another village after two days. I know of six such villages in total. If we rotate, the plants would finish growing in the meantime, allowing us to harvest in a proper cycle without depleting the goods," the shopkeeper said as everyone nodded. Satisfied, he returned to his house, habitually picking up his bottle of alcohol before throwing it away. "I''ll become rich in the future.. As a winner, I should make a habit of drinking tea instead." Chapter 1234 - County Arms "This plant is pretty tasty and nourishing!" The Yin Dragon nodded in praise as Krune fed it a batch. "Let''s sever your horns now," Krune said, gazing at the two horns that grew on the Yin Dragon. "Well, how are you planning on doing that? It''s not like any weapon is effective against me, you know," The Yin Dragon said in response. "Who said we''ll be the one to sever them?" Krune laughed. "¡­" "Well¡­ go on!" "¡­I should cut off my horns myself?" The Yin Dragon was perplexed. "Of course, your claws are sharp enough to do that without diminishing the energy from the horn." Krune nodded in response. Eventually, after some convincing, the Yin Dragon sighed as it used its claws, exerting all its strength before severing one horn perfectly. It was cut right at its roots. Feeling some loss while looking at its majestic horn that was on the ground, the Yin Dragon wanted to cry for a moment. After a couple of minutes, it finished severing its second horn. "Get lost now. I need some alone time." It grumbled. "Don''t cry!" Krune said. "You''re a big boy." "Damn dinner! Screw off!" It roared and turned around, beginning its waterworks soon after. Krune stared at the scene, controlling his urge to laugh at it. That was because, while the Yin Dragon was lamenting about its loss, its two horns had already finished growing back to full size. It was just unaware of it. Smiling, Krune summoned his dad to the forging room that they had created just for this occasion, gazing at the two Imperial Arms before them. They were the ones taken from the two traitors. Both Imperial Arms were shaped as handguards, created to be equipped on the left and right hand, respectively. Krune dipped them each in a solution he created using the Tethlea, also dripping ten drops of the Yin Dragon''s blood in them. The solution with the Sun Imperial Arms turned bright red while the one with the Moon Imperial Arms turned frosty white. It was the Yin Dragon''s blood reacting to the Tethlea solution, digesting them while slowly synchronizing with the Imperial Arms. Krune was planning on using them as the template for the creation of his new weapon series. This way, the end result would be pretty usable. Once the two solutions fully synchronized with the items, Krune arrived before the forge. He had been working on making it for the past week. Only after it was completed did he dare start the process. Three rings surrounded a small pillar. Two of them were transparent, emanating varying gravitational fluctuations, while the one in the center emitted sparks of lightning. At present, Krune used his Star Imperial Arms'' full power. Then again, using the property, if he kept the powers active at the place long enough, the effect would become permanent. That meant that the forge would be functioning for all eternity by using the energy from nature. This was also the same method the Emperor used to seal the first Demon in the capital. Otherwise, his hands would have been tied by the seal, and the moment he died, the seal would break. A Star Imperial Arms didn''t function like that, so Krune was making full use of it. As for the central pillar that had been created, Krune gazed at the figures of Wang Hao and Chen Xue, looking at each missing an arm, bowing once. "Thank you for your sacrifice!" "No problem," Wang Hao replied. "Based on my speed of regeneration, I would finish regrowing my hand within three months. I can also use this as training to further understand my regenerative powers. After seeing the Yin Dragon''s speed of regeneration, I feel that I can still improve lots in that regard." "I''m of the same opinion as him." Chen Xue nodded in agreement. "Thank you." Krune nodded, glad to have taught such heroes. Their hands had been fused and forged within the three rings to result in the forge. Krune also installed a mechanism in the seal using which people could manipulate the force. After all, at the top of the pillar was a flame, fist-sized, alternating between the colors of red and blue. The red was the sun energy, and the blue was the moon energy. After two days of the Yin Dragon''s horns being immersed in the solutions each, Krune took them out, noticing that they were colored orange and white, respectively. He and his dad worked on the orange horn first, adjusting the flame to become red, also increasing its strength accordingly as they began to gently hammer it. The hammer was one of the Yin Dragon''s bones that was more or less such a shape. "After this, we''ll have to prepare proper forging hammers using its horns," Liu Heng''s father said. In response, Krune only let out a knowing smile. The two then rhythmically hammered the horn, taking turns as they worked on it nonstop for an entire day, finally creating a kite-shaped item resembling the Yin Dragon''s scale. "Alright, dad. Use it. This is yours," Krune said, giving the item to his dad. "This is for me?" His dad was shocked. "Of course." Krune nodded, gently pressing the item onto his dad''s hand, watching it meld into him. After a moment of surprise, his dad muttered in disbelief. "This is¡­a hammer?" "Yes, to forge more of such creations, a hammer is necessary." Krune laughed, declaring, "And in the future, our Liu Family will become a forging family." "Amazing!" His dad focused, summoning a hammer in his hands, one that was tremendously tough and shone with a gentle fiery radiance. With a glance, he knew that it was a peerless item created exclusively to create other such items. "Mom, your turn next," Krune said. After some rest, they began to work on the white horn, repeating the same process before creating another kite-shaped item. Once Daxia Ting absorbed it into her body, she summoned a hammer that shone with a frosty radiance. "We''ll make some more of such hammers and equip them to the rest of our family," Krune said, smiling. "These hammers also double down as powerful weapons against Yin Beasts and even Nightmares. So, it''ll become our Liu Family''s symbol." "These items¡­" Daxia Ting asked, "What are they¡­" "Of course, I already thought of the perfect name for them," Krune showed unusual excitement all of a sudden. "I call them¡­" "County Arms!" Chapter 1235 - Star Hammer "What''s even happening here these days?" A shopkeeper could not help but ask as he felt alarmed, discussing with his neighbor, watching a lot of materials being brought into their town recently. It wasn''t just that, but a lot of buildings were being constructed recently. It made the place feel somewhat chaotic. Then again, the ones experiencing the most changes was the Liu Family''s estate. Not only was its area expanded, but countless buildings were being erected nonstop. Moreover, instead of the usual wooden architecture, they used stone instead. Those that were working there commended how the Liu Family carried hammers in their hands and personally worked in the creation of such establishments. It was a confusing and chaotic scene. "It''s going great," Krune muttered, standing atop the tallest building in the Liu Family. He was the one that proposed to convert the buildings from wood to metal. Not only was it better in terms of structural integrity, but it would also remain strong under attacks of the Demons and their underlings in the future. In short, he had been making preparations regarding that. Of course, that wasn''t all. He had also shifted the forge underground into a massive stone chamber that had been created just for this purpose. It was situated 30 meters underground, a cubicle that spanned a side of 20 meters, surrounded by four other such cubicles. The central cubicle had the forge in it, while the surrounding four cubicles were meant as storage for the County Arms they would be forging in the future. As safety was necessary, this was the best method to store them. There was only one way to enter the forge, so it was easy to defend, preventing infiltration. Krune took charge of changing the layout of the entire Liu Estate, making everyone take up arms to personally forge them. Even though it took time, with more and more people joining to forge County Arms, within five months, everyone in the Liu Family was equipped with them. A sun-attributed County Arms¡ªhammer¡ªwas necessary to forge more sun-attributed County Arms. Conversely, a moon-attributed County Arms¡ªhammer¡ªwas necessary to force more moon-attributed County Arms. So, someone was constantly using the forge to make them. It did take some time for him to teach them the necessary means. Nevertheless, as everyone in the Liu Family was trained to become an Imperial Meister, they were able to learn the forging process pretty easily. Even though the County Arms looked like an inferior version of the Imperial Arms, he installed three important features in them. The first feature: Anyone possessing a County Arms was able to sense the existence of Demon Arms, Yin Beasts, Demons, and Nightmares in their immediate surroundings. The second feature: The first person to obtain a certain County Arms finalizes it. After that, only those from that bloodline would be able to inherit that certain County Arms. On top of that, someone under a Nightmare''s/Demon''s influence, possessing Demon Arms, and so on, cannot inherit a County Arms. Plus, those with the County Arms would never fall under the influence of a Demon/Nightmare and would be incompatible with a Demon Arms. The third and final feature: Information related to the respective County Arms would be stored in their bloodline that future generations could access through their dreams. On top of that, future generations would inherit the County Arms from their parents. Krune ensured to create them to become bloodline-specific, something that could be inherited naturally. For example, suppose Liu Heng had the hammer County Arms. When he has children, both would also possess the hammer. Not only that, but he would still have his hammer as well. He wouldn''t lose his hammer. This was the most important aspect of this County Arms. Thanks to this, their reliance on the Yin Dragon was minimal. After all, now that everyone in the Liu Family possessed a County Arms, they had established the bloodline completely. So, in the future, children of the Liu Family would be born with the hammer. This was to ensure that future generations wouldn''t become powerless if the Yin Dragon was either killed, lost interest in the pact, or for any other reason. He wished to ensure this peace would last long-term. "Now, for the most important task," Krune muttered, arriving at the forge, making all the other Liu Family members leave the place. The gazes of everyone were filled with respect. After all, he alone had wholly elevated their family standing. "Of course, I must also establish a legacy." Smiling, Krune took out a hammer that was created using the Yin Dragon''s bones. It was the hammer he used to forge the first batch of County Arms. Now, he began to do the same. But this time, the Yin Dragon''s horn had been immersed in a solution within which his Imperial Arms, the Star Ring, had been placed. It was called the Sun Ring previously. But now that it had evolved, he called it the Star Ring. The solution had turned transparent with glowing particles in it, akin to stars. Krune waited for two days, watching the horn fully absorb the solution, turning transparent with glowing particles forming its body, shining. He then began to forge them, watching the process take a longer time than usual. For two whole weeks, he was constantly at work, gently molding it until he created the same kite shape. "Hahaha! It''s done!" He laughed weakly. After forging for two weeks straight, he gently placed the item on his palm, watching it seep into his body. Immediately, he could feel a rush of power circulate within him, enveloping him with a sensation of strength. He gently extended his hand, summoning a hammer, causing it to hum as he watched the Star Ring hum in response, resonating with one another. "With this, I have become strong enough to face a Nightmare alone and defeat them without sustaining any injuries." He grinned, gently waving the hammer around him, watching it rile up tiny sounds while moving. He then placed it beside him, focusing as it lit up with a bluish radiance, gently unleashing minor sparks of lightning. He then watched it turning transparent as the hammer''s weight vanished, turning feather-light when Krune smiled. "Alright, it has both the powers of a Star Imperial Arms." He then flicked his wrist, causing a loud gong to resound from the sky as lightning arced around the hammer, increasing in strength constantly until his body was fully surrounded by them. Chapter 1236 - Establishing A Legacy Krune then took out the Star Ring and wore it on his finger, making his County Arms vanish. Star Hammer! That was what he named his County Arms, with the other two hammer versions being named the Sun Hammer and Moon Hammer, respectively. He planned to ensure that only he had the Star Hammer. This way, his bloodline would be inheriting the same, always remaining as the main family line in the Liu Family. Once the source of the suffering in this world vanished, he would return to the God Realm. However, the ''Liu Heng'' of this world would still be living here. He would continue to ensure peace remained there and fight evil. On top of that, he would have children, grow old, and so on. That was why Krune planned it to be this way. Once he left the forging room, he saw a group of Liu Family members standing at the entrance, bowing the moment they saw him. "We greet his Lord!" "What''s with this?" Krune was confused for a moment. "We felt through our hammers that you''re our leader." One of them, an old man in his late sixties, stepped forward to speak. "I see." Krune nodded, summoning his Star Hammer as he said, "This is the Star Hammer. In the future, those possessing this would form the main branch of our Liu Family." "As you dictate!" Everyone bowed in response, full of respect. After all, just based on what he had done recently, they realized that he wasn''t any ordinary individual. Other than that, everyone in the Liu Family had begun to secretly address him in a particular way. Child of Heaven! Krune''s actions were so high-profile and mysterious that only naming him this way would make sense. The moment he summoned his Star Hammer, everyone realized that their way of addressing him was accurate. After all, they could feel their hammers hum in response when the Star Hammer hummed. It was a show of subservience. "Please continue with your work. I''ll establish the process for designing other County Arms. This way, you won''t have to depend on me to create new County Arms," Krune said before walking away, feeling a bit awkward when everyone actually prostrated on the ground for him. "What¡­ did you do recently?" Daxia Ting looked at him in shock, feeling a mysterious sensation from her hammer. When Krune explained the situation, she was stupefied for a moment before laughing in joy. "As expected of my son!" "Mom, don''t use dad''s lines." Krune laughed, watching Daxia Ting blush in response. She then left behind a statement and vanished from the scene. "You''ll soon have a younger sister¡­" "¡­" Krune was stupefied for a moment before shaking his head, arriving before the Yin Dragon, asking, "Long time no see! How is life these days?" He then looked at the Yin Dragon, frowning before muttering, "You''ve become fat." "Well, life''s good." The Yin Dragon laughed as he replied, "I can eat delicious food daily. There are caretakers that scrub my scales daily. I don''t even need to move, and I can live in luxury. Well, I can also feel a mysterious strength slowly enter my body." "So¡­ work hard, kid." It smirked. "I can feel that I''ll surpass the strength of a Yin Beast and turn into a whole other being in the future." "Well, congratulations in advance." Krune smiled when he heard that. "That was my plan. Once you evolve, all the County Arms too would evolve a little, finalizing everything I''ve hoped to achieve." "You are one terrifying kid. I''ll give you that," the Yin Dragon said before closing my eyes. "Now, shoo. This is time for my afternoon nap." "Weren''t you sleeping in the morning as well?" Krune frowned. "That was my morning nap," the Yin Dragon spoke nonchalantly. "Then in the evening¡­" "Evening nap." "What about the night¡­" "Who the hell would have a nap in the night?" The Yin Dragon glared at him like he was an idiot. "Of course, I sleep during the night." ''This dragon has transformed into a goddamn sloth.'' Grumbling mentally, Krune finally asked the dragon for what he had come for. "Give me your skin." "Why the hell would you need that?" The Yin Dragon groaned in response. "Of course, to pass on knowledge to my clansmen." Krune nodded as if it was a matter of fact. "Plus, if I write them on a scroll made using your skin, not only would it last for many centuries without damage, it would also make it seem important." "Ugh, fine¡­" The Yin Dragon nodded. "Come collect it during the night. It''ll take me a lot of time to pry it out without damage." "Alright." Nodding, Krune walked out of the place. A massive house had been erected for the Yin Dragon. It was shaped like a cave, with a lot of herbal plants planted along the walls, allowing the place to be filled with herbal scent, just perfect for its preference. A brook flowed on one side of the cave walls, forming a small pool on the ground. Situated next to it was the Yin Dragon''s bed. A group of the Yin Family had been declared as the Yin Dragon''s caretakers. It was their job which would be passed down to their future generations. During the night, Krune arrived at the cave, bursting into laughter immediately as he shouted, "Excuse me, Lord Worm! But, can you tell me where the esteemed Yin Dragon had gone?" "Scram! Inedible dinner!" the Yin Dragon roared, beginning to cry immediately after. After all, its skin had been pried out just now. It was hoping that Krune would arrive a bit later so that it could finish regenerating. However, as luck would have it, he arrived right when it finished peeling out its skin, allowing him to see its sorry state. "Hehe!" After making fun of it a little, he summoned his Cloud Whale, using it to carry the heavy skin, heading towards his private residence where he began to process it. He then took out the Soul Needle, using the heat it generated to carve out a set of words and diagrams, beginning to fill out the entire sheet. Of course, he also asked the Yin Dragon for two of its long bones, using them as the ends of the scroll, finishing the creation after a week. Nodding in response upon its completion, he exited his residence and headed towards the main hall of their family that had now taken up clan status. At the very instant he entered it, he saw everyone seated within immediately take to the ground, prostrating towards him. "¡­" Chapter 1237 - The Spark Of War "This scroll contains all the knowledge regarding the forging of County Arms," Krune said after he made everyone sit down, controlling his eyelids from twitching. "Please look through it and ask me if you have any doubts." He placed the scroll on the large table, revealing it completely, allowing countless diagrams, forging methods, and rows and rows of words to come into view. Once everyone in the main hall looked at the scroll, they were shocked before Liu Heng''s father muttered, "T-This is¡­ written in code?" "It is." Krune nodded, saying, "I encrypted them using the humming produced by our hammers. It''s something only we can understand. In short, it''s the safest way to ensure the contents of this are never leaked. For anyone else, this is just a bunch of garbled letters and erratic scribbles." "Amazing!" Liu Heng''s father began to immerse himself into the logic presented on the scroll, muttering, "So, that''s how we make the designs for the County Arms." After all, until now, it was Krune that did the designing. Everyone else just blindly followed what he did to make the hammer County Arms. With the scroll before them, they began to link them to the actions they had done, understanding how the hammer County Arms was produced. Krune left them to their devices, smiling as he saw them discuss the contents of the scroll with great enthusiasm. He then said, "Mother said that news of the County Arms has been given to the family heads of various aristocratic families. In two days, they''ll be coming here. So, you should also discuss who''ll take charge of which family. Well, that''s because you''ll be tasked with forging their County Arms for many generations." "What do you mean by this?" Liu Heng''s father frowned as he heard that. "Well, what do you think would happen once all the prestigious families obtain County Arms?" Krune smiled, watching the eyes of everyone light up in surprise. "Our clan would lose its standing," one of them spoke. "Yes, our forging services would no longer be desired unless new aristocratic families emerge," Krune said in response, nodding. "So, we''ll make it seem like forging County Arms is more difficult than it is, only giving them one every six months. On top of that, they''ll have to pay a lot for this." "But, is this okay? Wouldn''t the Emperor become mad at our actions?" One of them frowned, shuddering for a moment in fear of the Emperor''s wrath. "If not for me, there wouldn''t have been any County Arms. Besides..." Krune smiled. "Did you forget how our forge works?" Everyone shuddered as realization finally hit them, causing them to gaze at Liu Heng''s father in suspicion. Sighing, he nodded, saying, "Daxia Ting is the Emperor''s daughter. Her identity has been kept secret because the Imperial Astrologer had predicted Liu Heng''s birth as the next Emperor." "A Star Imperial Meister!" Everyone understood the reason, also understanding the reason why they wanted to prostrate every time they gazed at Krune¡ªLiu Heng. "In other words, my authority is only below the Emperor''s, at least based on what my mother told me." Laughing in response, Krune left the main hall. "Also, allow me to forge the County Arms for the Imperial Family." With that, he returned to the forge, having already thought of their design. Surprisingly, through his mother, the Emperor had already expressed his desire for the type of power they wished to wield. Since they were royalty and would also become the leading force against the Demons, Krune had been preparing accordingly. In the Liu Clan, the men wielded the Sun Hammer while the women wielded the Moon Hammer. He planned to keep the same concept for every clan/family. For Wang Hao, the County Arms he designed was an actual firebird. As Imperial Warlocks, they were experts in close-range combat. Their only weakness was long-ranged fights. So, to solve that, he made their County Arms that way. Wang Hao''s County Arms was in the shape of a firebird, while Chen Xue''s was an ice bird. This way, their abilities had no apparent weakness. Now, there were only a couple of weeks before they had to enroll in the Imperial Academy. Thus, Krune first sent them traveling to the academy. As for him, he planned to spend the next year forging as many County Arms for the Imperial Family as possible. In the meantime, Wang Hao and Chen Xue were to investigate the Su Family and matters regarding the Demon. After all, Daxia Ting had informed him that the number of Demon Arms wielders was increasing in numbers. It was apparent that the Demon had made a breakthrough in its research. Moreover, it had now gone towards the south of the Daxia Empire, making their habitat in a large forest, beginning to grow their numbers over there. There were also reports of kidnappings in various cities, towns, and villages as people discontent with their lives were being brought over to the settlement in the forest. She coined the term... the Demon City. The two Demons there had begun to actively gather their strength in order to topple the Daxia Empire. So in response, Krune''s County Arms were of tremendous help. ''Based on mother''s expression, something dangerous is brewing in the Demon City. Its location makes it impossible to raid with our army. If I''m not mistaken, Su Daiyu is the other Demon. Now that there''s a male and a female Demon, what happens next doesn''t even require much thought.'' He sighed, muttering, "It''s obvious since they established their stronghold." Demon offspring! Shaking his head, Krune began to forge the County Arms for the Imperial Family. When he was resting, the rest of the clansmen began to work on their respective County Arms, forging for other families. Time passed in such a fashion as Krune wholly focused on his task, unaware of the schemes that were being enacted behind the scenes. ¡­ "County Arms¡­ that''s troublesome." An arrogant voice resounded before issuing a command. "Command the Yin Beasts to wreak havoc throughout the Daxia Empire. We''ll have to ensure the resentment of the populace continues to build up so that more Nightmares are birthed." "Your commands shall be fulfilled, Lord!" Multiple voices responded in unison. Chapter 1238 - Of Course "Yes, Clan Head. We''ll be able to deliver four County Arms within the next six months. Two of the sun attribute, and the two of the moon attribute. Everyone in my family will be working on it, so you can rest assured," a middle-aged man from the Liu Clan spoke, giving tea to a wizened old man. He hailed from a prestigious family belonging to a city, one of the three families in control of the city. Of course, he had more than enough funds to spare for the County Arms. After all, buying a single County Arms not only meant obtaining a precious treasure, it also meant every descendent of the County Arms holder would also possess it. So, as long as one of them obtained it, they could immediately have children and ensure the County Arms was carried through the bloodline. This way, they would preserve it and ensure that their family would continue growing stronger. That was why he had ordered four County Arms, the limit to what he could, since only one family from the Liu Clan could take charge per aristocratic family. So, getting four County Arms was the limit every six months. Nevertheless, it was enough. After all, the family head was planning for his first two sons and their respective wives to gain these County Arms. And then, he wished for them to have more children. Then, once every six months, he would allow more and more among his family to become County Arms wielders. Their finances allowed such an expenditure. The moment news of the County Arms spread throughout the Daxia Empire, everyone had entered a state of frenzy. Nevertheless, not anyone could obtain it. Only the families that obtained permission from the Emperor were allowed to do so. Any other family that even dared approach the Liu Estate was charged with treason and executed on the spot. After all, a fort had been erected next to the Liu Estate, where imperial troops were stationed, meant to protect the Liu Clan. "Then, I''ll take my leave." The wizened old man sighed in relief, handing over the necessary funds. It consisted of both money and precious items ordered by the man from the Liu Clan that took charge of creating their County Arms. "You don''t have to worry about its completion. Also, you can station someone from your family in our guest house. Once we finish forging all four County Arms, we''ll contact you through them," the middle-aged man spoke. "Thank you, I''ll directly send the four from my family that wish to gain the County Arms," the wizened old man said, pleased. "Yes, we''ll also be imparting them the necessary knowledge in this duration. This way, they''ll be able to use their County Arms without trouble," the middle-aged man replied, completing the deal. Once the wizened old man left, he sighed, sporting a smile. "Liu Heng''s amazing! To think he''s able to read the thoughts of everyone like a book and make preparations in advance¡­" He sighed, sporting an expression of zealous fanaticism. Everyone from their clan had the same opinion regarding Krune. A year had passed since they had begun this journey. Every family of authority in the Daxia Empire had already visited them. To ensure they weren''t out of the loop, only the heads of the respective families came. It showed the value they had attached to this. ¡­ "Finally, I have forged enough for everyone from the main line of the Imperial Family to equip themselves," Krune said, sighing in exhaustion, gazing at the row of County Arms before him. He grunted, getting up as he exited the forge, coming out of the room when he noticed everyone on standby were on the ground, prostrating. However, this time, they weren''t facing him but the other side. The moment Krune gazed at the target of reverence, he prostrated, stating aloud, "Liu Heng greets his Majesty the Emperor!" "I had been waiting for you all this time." The Emperor smiled, standing at the other end of the corridor. "Father has been waiting for almost a month now," Daxia Ting said, standing beside the Emperor. "However, he didn''t wish to disturb you." "You could have just called for me. I would have arrived at a moment''s notice." Krune smiled wryly in response. After all, the person before him was the Emperor, the strongest human, the shield of the Daxia Empire. And in this world, the Emperor was treated no different to a deity, a manifestation of the heavens. So, of course, he had to show enough respect when facing such a being. "I myself have been impatient." The Emperor laughed when he heard that. "I even brought all the talented princes and princesses with me." "How many are there?" Krune asked Daxia Ting, wishing to bring out the necessary County Arms. "17 of them," she replied. ''Thankfully, I have forged enough.'' Krune sighed in relief as he muttered inwardly. It took more than two weeks to forge one of the imperial County Arms. So, he had only made 18 of them in the past year. Thankfully, he had one extra when a thought occurred to him. ''Is the Emperor not included in that count?'' He smiled wryly, realizing that all the County Arms he had forged would be used up immediately. He returned to the forge, placed all of them in a suitcase and brought them with him, arriving at a large manor where the Emperor and his descendants were staying. As he placed the suitcase and opened it, the Emperor peeked inside, eyes lighting up as he muttered, "They are¡­ powerful." "Of course, I made them possess the same power as a Star Imperial Arms," Krune replied, watching the eyes of everyone light up in response, sporting emotions of shock and surprise. "Please, bestow us the honor, father," Daxia Ting said, taking out a circular item from the suitcase that she handed over to the Emperor, placing it on his palm. As the item seeped into his hand, the Emperor noticed a mysterious power welling up within him, making him feel stronger as he closed his eyes, focusing for a couple of minutes before activating the power. Immediately, a pair of wings appeared on his back, flapping as they allowed him to take flight. They manipulated his body using gravity, allowing him to freely fly in the air. The Emperor then thought something as a feather turned into a bolt of lightning, slamming into a boulder nearby. Upon seeing the exhibited power, he was surprised, gazing at the countless feathers still remaining in the wings. "This is almost as strong as a weak Imperial Arms!" "But of course!" Krune smiled as he replied. Chapter 1239 - The Lantern In The Tavern The power of gravity was focused on the wings, making the Emperor''s body light. This allowed him to fly freely and move faster than normal. As he continued to fly, he was able to vary the direction of gravity acting upon him, making sharp turns in the air, noticing that the power was more versatile than he had expected. "Great ability!" he praised, landing on the ground before exhaling a little. "Am I consuming my stamina to use it?" "Yes," Krune nodded as he replied. "I took inspiration from the Demon Arms and tweaked it a little to make it safer and long-lasting. Even though the exhibited power is weaker than if we used lifespan, stamina could be easily recovered." "And, your Majesty," Krune continued. "I was hoping for you to designate a family for which I could bestow upon County Arms that would allow them to refine medicines better for our consumption. After all, there''s an impending war in our future." "What else have you planned other than the County Arms for pills?" the Emperor asked, curious about Krune''s thought process. "Four families with County Arms meant exclusively for transportation. One will transport messages through bird-like creatures, but faster and safer. The messages would only appear before the intended target, preventing any message leaks. Another one will transport people and goods underwater using our river channels. And another will transport people through land in massive chariots as a mobile stronghold. Lastly, another family that does the same thing, but in midair," Krune replied. "However, that''ll be hard unless they have enough stamina." The Emperor frowned. With his short experiment, he noticed the massive amount of stamina consumed by the County Arms. So, it couldn''t be used for the means Krune specified. "That''s only in the case if they are used alone." Krune smiled in response, saying, "For the transports, I''ll make the County Arms in such a way that a group of them could come together to combine them into a whole structure. This way, they could share the burden and make this a reality." "Is that possible?" the Emperor asked. "It should be," Krune replied, not implying it was certain. "There are still some issues that I haven''t worked out for them yet. However, they are one of the main things that I wish to achieve." "You have great insight," The Emperor nodded after that. "Any other ideas you might have?" "County Arms for medical purposes," he replied. "It''ll allow for treatment to be carried out faster, whether it''s amputating infected limbs, cutting open and suturing wounds, and other medical procedures." "Once you have completed their design and forged them, inform me. I''ll look into the necessary families for that in the meantime." The Emperor gave his word and then walked towards the side, allowing the oldest prince to walk forward and receive his County Arms from Daxia Ting. Soon, everyone received their County Arms, causing a wave of discussions to erupt as they felt the power brimming within them. "Your majesty, is it alright for you to be here?" While everyone was busy discussing, Krune approached the Emperor, asking in worry. "Don''t you have to be on guard against the Demon sealed within the capital?" "I''ve checked the strength of the seals before making this trip," the Emperor smiled as he replied. "Besides, the two Demons in the wild won''t be launching an attack right now. They haven''t accumulated enough power yet. Then again, there are more than 50 Imperial Meisters within the capital. It''s not something they could take down that easily." "Of course, I''ve also been monitoring their positions all this time," Daxia Ting spoke. "So, the moment they make a move, we''ll be alerted. Without the two Demons making a move, the rest are of no concern." ¡­ Tap! Tap! Tap! A middle-aged man that was gradually getting older tapped the table before him, drinking tea constantly. He was a tavern owner, watching the customers constantly streaming about. Some of the customers were calm, some were angry due to their hunger, some were paranoid about the state of things, and so on. It was somewhat chaotic. "Did you hear? Old Feather and his family were killed by a Yin Beast while traveling to the nearby town," a lean man with toned arms spoke in worry. "Damn, that''s scary. What''s the Empire doing these days? So many Yin Beasts and Nightmares are running rampant." The receiver, a lean man with sunken eyes, spoke, his eyes darting about in restlessness. "I feel like a Yin Beast would pop out from a random corner now." "The Empire has its hands full dealing with all the chaos." The lean man with toned arms sighed, whispering, "It was still fine before. But recently, the massive influx of immigrants from the neighboring kingdoms has caused the situation to become troubling. Most of the immigrants have halted work in many places. Some have even taken up arms to become thugs." "Crime rate has been increasing, and in fear of that, common folk like us are afraid of even exiting our homes. Recently, someone in the next street was stabbed to death for a couple of Copper Xiang." "Brother, do you know what happened to the neighboring kingdoms? Why so many immigrants have been flowing in recently?" the lean man with sunken eyes asked. "War. What else could it be?" Suddenly, a burly man with a bushy beard interjected, joining in their conversation. "Even though the Empire has warned them repeatedly, the kings of the neighboring kingdoms still waged war with each other. Unsurprisingly, the war turned nasty pretty quickly. To prevent the collapse of both kingdoms, the Empire sent some troops to cull the seeds of war. However, the situation is still pretty volatile." "Such situations are the perfect birthplaces for Nightmares," he concluded. As the conversations between the countless customers continued, the middle-aged man, the tavern owner, casually sipped his tea, controlling his urge to smile. His gaze then landed on the lantern hanging at the center of the tavern, emitting a chilling purple flame. But for some reason, none of the customers seemed to have realized its existence, passing by as they continued on with their grievances. As they continued to talk, their fears, grievances, and all other negative emotions slowly flowed into the lantern, causing the purple flame to turn a tad brighter. Chapter 1240 - Yin Ghost During the middle of the night, the tavern owner closed the tavern, sighing as he climbed above a table and grabbed the lantern, gazing at the purple flame within. He then exited the tavern, carrying it as he walked through the streets. For some reason, despite the people walking past him, they didn''t seem to have recognized him, assuming him to be some stranger. On top of that, they were unable to see the lantern he was holding. Sporting a gentle smile, the tavern owner exited the city, arriving atop an inconspicuous hill, opening his mouth to unleash a certain bird''s cry. Caw! Caw! There was silence after that, the eerie sounds of winds being the only thing present in the scene. The tavern owner calmly awaited at the place in silence, using the light from the purple flame to gaze at his surroundings. Using the vantage point of the hilltop, he gazed at the town he was from. "You''re here?" After a couple of hours passed in such a fashion, a raspy voice resounded before a robed creature arrived, standing behind a large tree, only causing its beak to peek out. "Yes." The tavern owner didn''t say anything, extending the lantern as he nodded. "It''s full." "Good job," the creature muttered, exiting its hiding spot from behind the tree, revealing its bulky figure that reached a height of five meters. It seemed humanoid at first glance but sported winged limbs and a head that resembled a bird, displaying an unnaturally large beak. It arrived before the tavern owner, opening its beak before making an inhaling action, sucking in the purple flames from the lantern, eating up all the flames. "Come find me next month, same time," the creature said before disappearing in the shade of the night. The tavern owner calmly stared at the scene for a couple of minutes before turning around, beginning to scale down the hill. Even though it was dark, his eyes had adjusted enough to barely make out his surroundings. "After losing my family to that blasted lord, this is my only way of seeking revenge," he spoke casually, as if he was commenting about an unconcerned person''s life. It was as if he was ready to destroy the entire town without even having a tinge of regret. He then returned to his home, resting during the night. He was mostly devoid of negative emotions, for everything that he was able to generate had already been absorbed by the lantern. So, he was someone that was actually at a mental peace, no longer able to harbor any negative feelings. Then again, without any negative feelings, he also lost the thought process capable of nurturing positive feelings. So, he was like a vegetable that was able to think, move, and converse. During the morning of the next day, he hung the lantern in the tavern, watching a small purple flame manifest by the end of the day. As he had a relatively large tavern, quite a lot of people streamed to it daily. Since matters of importance among the common populace were typically discussed here, it also meant a gathering place for both positive and negative emotions. But thanks to the recent times where the Yin Beasts and Nightmares were constantly harassing the various towns and cities, not to mention the drop in public security, sanitation, food, water, and other basic resources due to the immigration, mostly negative emotions were abundant in the place. ''The Empire has some means to discover Nightmares and Yin Beasts. However, through this lantern, they are only partially created, at a level weak enough to escape detection. The Yin Ghost stores the flames in its body in discrete packets until it has gathered enough to make at least a couple of Nightmares,'' he thought. Yin Ghost! It was on the same level as the Yin Dragon, one of the legendary Yin Beasts that had lived for more than two centuries. Unlike the Yin Dragon, it had only managed to kill one Imperial Meister. Then again, that was because it wasn''t a battle-type Yin Beast but a strategic type. It had mysterious powers that the Empire barely had much knowledge of and was elusive in nature. It always lived on mountain peaks, capable of escaping at tremendous speeds and was also able to glide through the air for short distances. So, chasing after it was difficult. On top of that, it always had a habit of moving around, having an erratic pattern. And now, the tavern owner was working together with such a creature, intending to destroy the town. Moreover, the lantern wasn''t a Demon Arms, but something produced using its ability, created with a part of its body. So, it wasn''t registered in Daxia Ting''s senses that oversaw the entire Empire. Once the tavern owner had left the mountain, the Yin Ghost returned to its prior spot, continuing to stare at the town that glimmered like a large piece of necklace in the night. "I hate working with that weakling Demon, but there are some benefits with this trade. I''ll be able to improve my strength once again after having been at an impasse for more than four decades." It then began to walk away, muttering, "Well, it''ll be fun to see how the Daxia Empire deals with such a threat. I''ll finally be able to free master from his seal. Only he can rule over this world." Smirking, its beak opened to exhale a purple smoke, vanishing soon after. ¡­ Krune bode farewell to his family and the rest of the Liu Clan, holding his baggage as he accompanied the imperial caravan to head towards the capital. He had already put forth joining the Imperial Academy for a year now. With the County Arms being distributed, he was informed that those in the Imperial Academy were prioritized first by their respective families. So, they would form the core of the fighting force against the Demons, who were also multiplying in number recently. The cause was discovered because all the Nightmares and Yin Beasts, even though they were rampaging throughout the Daxia Empire, they were heading towards the Demon City. During all these rampages, countless talented Ghost Appeasers had been kidnapped. That explained the influx of Demons recently. So, Krune understood that he had to personally guide their generation forth in this war against the Demons, Yin Beasts, and Nightmares.. Only then would he be able to clear this realm of suffering and return to the God Realm. Chapter 1241 - Trouble Within Home Imperial Academy! It was situated in the south of the capital, right next to its southern end, spanning an area a tenth of the capital. It was a massive place considering the fewer number of students enrolled there. However, things had changed in the past year, with the students filling in at times after admission. It was all thanks to the launch of the County Arms. Those part of the younger generation that had obtained them joined the Imperial Academy to train themselves further and become the future pillars of the Daxia Empire. After all, they were now no longer just prospective Imperial Meisters, but also possessed real power of their own. So, things had to be changed a lot in order to accommodate the new variable. So, the past year had been pretty chaotic, an adaptation phase, to be exact. And from this year onward, all the changes had finally cemented. Following the month''s break after the year ended, a new term began in the Imperial Academy as countless students streamed in, from ages fifteen to twenty. They joined when they were fifteen years old and graduated when they were twenty. Usually, a year after graduation, they would marry and settle down. That was the process taken by those joining the Imperial Academy. Krune landed at the entrance, carrying his bags as he looked around, watching many students in a similar situation as him. There were those that were confident, full of spirit as they confidently strode into the academy. They were students in their senior years. Then, there were those that had joined this term, looking around everything with a curious gaze. "Hello there. Are you a freshman as well?" A slightly chubby boy approached Krune, asking him, for some reason, feeling that he should follow this student and befriend him. "Nope, I''m a second year," Krune smiled in response as he replied, waving his hand as he walked past. He didn''t wish to waste any time with unnecessary things. As Daxia Ting had already informed his friends of his arrival, he was waiting for them. Slowly, there was a clamor among the senior students as they parted ways, allowing two people to walk out, drawing gazes from everyone. There was admiration, envy, and other various expressions among their gazes. Walking in the highlight were two students that now appeared like prestigious children favored by the heavens. They had an air of aesthetic coldness and grace in their actions. Wang Hao and Chen Xue! Upon seeing Krune wait at the entrance, they were excited, rushing towards him happily. "Man, I missed you," Wang Hao said, pouncing upon Krune like a bear that had found its prey. "Haha!" Chen Xue snickered from the side, watching Krune''s helpless figure trying his best to break free from Wang Hao''s hold. "Who''s that? Why are Wang Hao and Chen Xue treating him so well?" "I have no idea. He seems to be a new student." "I do have to say that he''s quite dashing. Is that perhaps the reason?" The surrounding students engaged in a flurry of discussions, watching Krune being escorted by the two most popular students of the academy. After all, those that possessed a County Arms were able to sense that Wang Hao and Chen Xue were different from the rest, concealing unfathomable power within them. Even though the Liu Clan only gave eight County Arms per family a year, that was still enough to equip the students the respective families prioritized. After all, even after getting the County Arms, they needed to obtain positions accordingly to make the best use of it. Moreover, things were changing in the Empire thanks to them. The first place to reflect that change was the Imperial Academy. So, every family, no matter how much money they had to gather, once they obtained permission from the Emperor, ensured that everyone from the younger generation of their respective families in the Imperial Academy obtained the County Arms first. The rest were only given the preference of choice after that. So, from this year onwards, everyone in the Imperial Academy possessed County Arms, completely changing its dynamic from the previous years. "The residence here is separated by gender. There are countless manors, with each having four rooms facing each other, with a small training ground in the center," Chen Xue spoke. "We''ll be allotted residence based on our year. Since we joined at the same time, your room is next to Wang Hao''s. So, he''ll fill you in on the details later." "That''s great." Krune nodded, whispering once they walked out of the range of prying ears, "How''s the situation that I told you to investigate?" "There''s been a lot in that regard." Chen Xue sighed, massaging her forehead as she looked around, speaking, "There are spies in our empire that have pledged their loyalty to the Demons. They are typically from territories with tyrant lords or unscrupulous merchants, dissatisfied with their lies due to the tragedy they had experienced in the past." "So, they will do whatever they can to destroy the empire," Wang Hao continued where Chen Xue left off. "What about the Su Family?" Krune asked. "This is where things turn confusing." Wang Hao furrowed his brows, expressing mild anger. "The Su Family of the past and the present have remained the same. But, any and every shady thing they had done till now have been blamed on your predecessor, even the recent ones, masking them to be incidents that had happened long ago." By Krune''s predecessor, Wang Hao meant Su Zixin. "So, they''ve become corrupted to this extent." Krune nodded, sighing as countless images flashed across his eyes. "Well, I can''t say for sure about that," Chen Xue replied. "That''s where things have become confusing." "They look like they''re harboring some secrets. But at the same time, they''re also trying their best to uphold their duties to the Empire with even more zeal than before. After all, after losing one of their four Imperial Arms, their status has taken quite a hit," she continued. "Is there anyone from the Su Family in the Imperial Academy?" Krune asked, intending to probe for information from them. "There are quite a few, in fact," Chen Xue said in response.. "There''s also the youngest daughter of the Clan Head that''s among our batch." Chapter 1242 - The Seal In Danger "Well, have you talked with her before?" Krune gazed at Chen Xue, watching her shake her head in response. "I''ve only exchanged some words of pleasantries with her. Nothing beyond that," Chen Xue replied. "She''s pretty reserved. Plus, I didn''t wish to alert her of the fact that I''ve been investigating her family. So, I didn''t bother with her." "Fair enough. I''ll take care of that side after this," Krune said in response. "Also, how is the strength of the County Arms wielders?" "Pretty great, to be honest," Chen Xue told Krune, nodding as she continued, "Some of them have become pretty attuned to using them. So, they''re able to erupt with greater power. Plus, as they continue to train, their stamina reserves are continuously increasing." "Good." Krune sighed, saying in worry, "The number of Demons is increasing. Even though they''re weaker than typical Nightmares at present, they''ll grow stronger in the future. Not only that, but it would also mean an increase in the number of Demon Arms wielders." "How many Demons are there right now?" Wang Hao asked, frowning. "Seven," Krune sighed as he replied. "And the number''s still steadily increasing. So, that''s where elites like you would come into play." "What do you mean?" Wang Hao asked, failing to understand. "Well, you can say that a Nightmare and an Imperial Meister are evenly matched. They weren''t before, but with the addition of the County Arms, they could fight evenly. Those with the County Arms would force the bulk of our army in fighting against the Yin Beasts and the Demon Arms wielders," Krune spoke. He then said solemnly, "But, what about the elites? The top powers of both sides? Only a Star Imperial Meister can fight against a Demon. However, there are just two of us in this Empire. The Emperor has to be on guard against that insanely terrifying Demon sealed within the capital. So, that just leaves me as the sole power that can contend against the Demons." "But, what if I die?" Krune said solemnly, causing the two to shudder. "There won''t be another Star Imperial Meister to replace me since, in the Daxia Empire''s history, there had only been one per generation. There were even times when there wasn''t a Star Imperial Meister. So, in such cases, our Empire was pretty weak." "And that''s where you''ll come in," Krune stated, making eye contact with the two. "As Imperial Warlocks, your children would inherit your powers upon your death. As long as your family line isn''t broken, there would always be two guardians defending this Empire." "Guardians¡­" Wang Hao muttered. "Family¡­" Chen Xue glanced at Wang Hao, blushing in response. Even though she had been aware of it all along, hearing it from Krune was still embarrassing. "Is that the identity that we would have in the future?" Wang Hao asked. "Yes." Krune nodded. "You''ll be accompanying the Emperor in secret, only taking action when the Empire''s at risk of collapse." "Can you do it?" "Do you even need to ask?" Wang Hao thumped his fist on his chest in response. "My grandpa exchanged his life to create our identities. All he wished was for the peace of the world. It''s our duty to uphold it." Staring at the serious visage of Wang Hao, Chen Xue tried her best to prevent herself from blushing, daydreaming a little before snapping back to reality. "Xue!" Suddenly, a girl shouted before rushing towards Chen Xue, panting a little before saying, "I''m hungry. You promised you would accompany me for lunch today." "Haha, alright," Chen Xue said before looking at the other two. "Once you finish placing your luggage, come to the cafeteria." "Alright," Wang Hao nodded as he slumped hands over Krune''s shoulders, bringing him to their manor. Staring at Krune''s back, the girl was in a daze, only snapping back to reality after Chen Xue called for her many times. "Y-Yes?" "You okay?" Chen Xue asked, noticing the girl''s eyes darting towards Krune from time to time, unconsciously. ''Interesting.'' She smiled, her eyes arching into crescent moons as she teased, "Seems like our fair maiden''s heart has been stolen." "As if!" The girl shrieked, complaining, "I wasn''t staring at him, Xue. I''m not interested in any man." "Hoho?" Chen Xue laughed, smiling derisively. "Hong Lian, your mouth is saying something different from your face. I can see a hint of blossoms in your fate, in the alignment of your star¡­" "No!" The girl addressed as Hong Lian closed her ears, her face beet red as she turned around, unable to look at Chen Xue. Grinning devilishly, Chen Xue didn''t miss the chance to tease the heck out of her friend. In the past year, the two of them had bonded pretty well, becoming close. She was Chen Xue''s sole friend in the Imperial Academy. The rest were just those she was on good terms with. "So¡­that¡­boy¡­" Hong Lian''s voice turned meek after that, asking under her breath, "What''s¡­his name?" "It''s¡­" Chen Xue stretched her words, her eyes darting to the side, face tilting while a smile bloomed on her. "It''s¡­?" For some reason, Hong Lian repeated the stretched words, waiting in anticipation. Though, upon realizing what Chen Xue was doing, she stomped her foot in anger and ran away. "Haha, wait for me!" Laughing in response, Chen Xue chased after her, catching up immediately after. "Why are you so fast?" Hong Lian complained, pouting as Chen Xue patted her head. "You''ll probably hear his name countless times in the future." Chen Xue said, smiling, "He''s the scion of the Liu Clan, Liu Heng." "Liu Heng¡­? You mean... that Liu Heng?" Hong Lian was shocked. "Of course, who else would it be?" Chen Xue laughed, patting her friend''s shoulder. "If you wish to capture his heart, you''ll have to make a move first. You''ll have my full support." "I¡­ didn''t say that I would be pursuing him." Hong Lian gazed at the ground, her face reddening even further. ''Cute.'' Laughing, Chen Xue pinched her cheeks. Unbeknownst to their little exchange, Krune and Wang Hao were fully serious, staring at a scroll containing all the information that the two Imperial Warlocks had investigated for the past year. "This is bad, really bad," Krune said, staring at Wang Hao''s gaze of confusion. "I''ll explain it to you later. But if this is as I feared, then it''s in danger." "The seal is in danger." Chapter 1243 - Formation Of Malice "The seal is in danger," Krune muttered in worry. He took out a map of the empire that his mother had given him, taking it out as he placed pins all over it, signifying the places where either a Yin Beast or a Nightmare had appeared and wreaked havoc. Once he began to connect the dots, he noticed that they were erecting a formation of sorts, with the capital forming the formation core. Normally, this wasn''t something anyone would understand, even if they saw such a scene. But, Krune was aware of formations, understanding the underlying logic. A Demon was similar to a Nightmare, capable of growing by absorbing the malice in the air. And at present, this malice was being used as energy to lay down the formation. Once the formation was complete, the malice in the air would be amplified. Using the various places of damage as the node, the malice would flow through the people, affecting them a little, using them as mediums to travel forth before gushing into the capital. And there, the Demon within the seal would absorb them, using the malice to break out from the seal, corrupting everyone in the place to make them full of malice. In a desolate scenery, a person would be pensive, scared even. Similarly, in a village where many deaths had happened, there would be a vicious feeling permeating in the air. This wasn''t anything concrete, but just a psychological feeling that was induced into the minds of the people due to the environment¡ªwords, actions, visual input, auditory input, olfactory input, and so on. And that was how malice also spread. It wasn''t some tangible energy to the humans. It''s just that when people expressed their malice, whether to defend against it or for other reasons, the rest of the people would also express varying levels of malice. That was how it would spread. Nightmares were able to harness this for their growth. So, it would be similar to creating a mob mentality that would fuel their growth constantly and place the Empire in a state of unrest. With that, their objective would be achieved, allowing the Demon in the capital to free itself. ''Mom, you there?'' Krune shouted in his mind, receiving a reply from his mother a couple of minutes later. To ensure information was passed along without any problems, the connection between Krune and his mother was kept as is, allowing them to converse with one another through telepathy whenever they wanted. ''What happened?'' His mother''s voice resounded, slightly tired. ''The situation has become dangerous,'' Krune said, informing her about everything that he had figured out. ''I see, so that''s what they''re planning. Formations, huh. I never thought something like this was possible.'' Daxia Ting sighed in exhaustion. ''It''ll be for the best to take action immediately.'' Krune urged her. ''As long as we deal with the Yin Beasts first, we''ll be able to mitigate this to a great extent. The number of Nightmares are too little, after all.'' ''No, that''s what I''ve been trying to do. It''s just that they''re too fast,'' Daxia Ting said, expressing her worries. ''The Demons have a flying-type Yin Beast. On top of that, it''s tremendously fast, transporting other Yin Beasts and Nightmares all over the place. Just so you know, there are seven of these flying Yin Beasts now. So, even though I have been giving orders to mobilize all the Imperial Meisters, our enemies are faster.'' ''They''ve been running all over the place. If our Imperial Meisters chase after them, the Yin Beasts living in the nearby forests target the cities they''ve been guarding.'' She let out a groan of annoyance after that. ''We''re only tiring ourselves out at this rate. Thankfully, with the influx of County Arms users, the situation has stabilized a little. But we''re still facing a lot of trouble.'' ''Mom, are there any near the capital now?'' Krune asked. ''If there''s anything within 6-7 hours of travel from my location, I''ll deal with them. It''ll also serve as combat practice for Wang Hao and Chen Xue. We''ll also be able to shave away their combat reserve.'' ''There''s a group of five Yin Beasts in your range,'' Daxia Ting replied. ''However, focus on your studies for now. You also have the responsibility of training the first generation of County Arms wielders. After all, only you understand them the most. With your training, they would become strong enough to deal with this threat. That''ll be better than you running around and exhausting yourself.'' ''Fine, but Wang Hao and Chen Xue still need combat experience. I can rely on my memories to have enough experience. But they don''t have that,'' Krune replied. ''Alright, I''ll contact them and allow them to deal with some weak Yin Beasts. I''ll make a group of those from the Imperial Family travel along with them. Since all of them can fly, it''ll be easy, and they can also protect each other,'' she said, turning silent. Sighing as a result, Krune stretched his hands, taking a scroll that he read, maintaining a constant frown all along. He then noticed Wang Hao silent, focused even. It was apparent that he was talking with Daxia Ting through telepathy now. Krune spent the night reading through the accumulated information, only coming to his senses when it was already morning. There were the sounds of chatter in his surroundings. Surprised, he freshened up, wore his student robe and began to make his way towards the class. Though, he paused along the way, realizing a rather crucial point. He had no idea where his class was. As for Wang Hao, he had left during the middle of the night and had yet to return. So, Krune was alone. He looked around, failing to find any familiar faces, casually following through the crowd as he used his Sonic Radar to spy on their conversations, finally discovering a couple of people who were part of the second year. Soon, he arrived at the building where there were many classes for the second-year students, pausing again. He wasn''t able to determine which class had been assigned to him. Just as he thought as such, his mouth opened automatically, letting out a long yawn. "Well, might as well." Rubbing his eyes, Krune entered the closest classroom, picked a seat in the corner, felt around the table and the cushion on the floor, feeling that they were rather perfect. With that, he seated himself, taking on the most serious of faces a student could pull off, sitting with the utmost devotion and respect to education before sporting a gentle smile as he began to sleep, with eyes open. Chapter 1244 - Devotion And Legacy "Good morning, class!" A scholar entered the class, watching everyone get up in response and bow at him. He then motioned for them to be seated, taking out a brush that he dipped in ink and began to write on the scroll hung on the wall behind him. The scroll would be changed by a servant at the end of every class, replaced with a blank one. "Even though this is just the first day of their term, you still have the responsibility as our Empire''s pillars. So, we''ll be discussing the administrative affairs¡­" The scholar began to speak. Eventually, his gaze fell on Krune, noticing the other party sporting a humble, focused expression, with his head occasionally nodding in response to his words. ''Man, such a studious young man. Everyone should aspire to become like him,'' the scholar thought, noticing his mood improve automatically as he continued his lecture with greater enthusiasm. Suddenly, he thought of something, ''Eh? I don''t remember having such a student in my class during the previous term.'' ''Well, maybe he''s someone that came here from another class to listen to my lecture.'' Upon arriving at this line of thought, the scholar''s expression was priceless, controlling his urge to cry, ''Students should be like this, always pursuing the best of education. Only with this would our Empire prosper even further.'' Suddenly, Krune''s hand shot up, surprising the scholar, prompting the latter to nod. Getting up from his seat, Krune asked a question, "Sir, it is a known fact that Nightmares feed on the negative emotions harbored by the people. So, a general consensus is that poor villages are more prone to this and have to be supported. However..." He said in all seriousness, "Based on what I had tallied, the frequency of a Nightmare''s appearance is greater in richer cities. Plus, the Nightmares birthed in the capital are by far the most terrifying of them all. Why is there such a disparity? How would you propose we solve this issue?" "This¡­" Upon hearing the question that many well-known scholars had been racking their heads to think up an answer, the scholar almost shed tears in joy. ''Such a bright student. I should give him a worthy answer.'' He turned silent, wracking his brains as his past flowed into his mind like a revolving lantern. He experienced his entire life once again, finally sighing as he said, "There''s no concept as absolute suffering. Everything is relative." "For a beggar that had been suffering from hunger every day, the day he gets a sumptuous meal is the happiest day of his life. For a rich man, even if he''s given more food than he could ever eat in a day, he might complain about its taste, find fault with the maid''s service, and so on." "If you''re looking at it from an absolute perspective, the beggar''s suffering daily. However, staying at hunger has become the norm, a life he had become accustomed to. So, he''s not expressing any negative emotions. In contrast, more negative emotions are generated by the rich man just because the served food wasn''t exactly to his palette." The scholar then concluded, "So, even if everyone in the Empire became rich, the generation of negative emotions would never decrease." Upon hearing the answer, Krune''s eyes widened as he shuddered. ''Then, does that mean I won''t be able to return to the God Realm even after killing the Demon?'' Seeing Krune''s frown, the scholar sighed, realizing that he had only given a clear context to the problem and hadn''t offered a solution yet, raising his hand after a while, saying, "However, there is one way in which we can reduce the generation of negative emotions." Upon seeing Krune''s expectant look, the scholar smiled and said, "Devotion and Legacy. They are a must to combat this ever-present issue." Everyone that heard the answer was utterly confused. At the start, the only reason Krune had asked a question was that his acting was too good that the scholar might ask him to answer a question. However, as he hadn''t been hearing anything, he wouldn''t be able to answer. His ruse of sleeping would be discovered. So instead, he had timed in advance, waking up in the middle of the lecture to pose this question in an effort to show that he was listening all along. As for the question, he expressed his thoughts. He didn''t expect much, asking it just like that. But now that he obtained such an enlightening answer, Krune became wide awake, listening to the scholar with rapt attention. ''This guy''s a genius scholar. Maybe he''ll be able to offer me a solution.'' "Devotion could also be termed as faith. And, it should be directed at the Empire instead of an individual." He then saw many students frowning, prompting him to explain it in terms that everyone would understand. "Suppose everyone places their faith onto the Emperor. What do you think would happen once the Emperor dies of old age? The faith shatters. Faith isn''t something that could be transferred from one to another so easily. So, having faith towards our Empire is the best bet." "If you''re devoted to our Empire, you would work to give the best for it. Your devotion should be at a level that it''s contagious." The scholar smiled as he continued, "As for the second, it''s legacy. No matter what, the future is uncertain. Not only are there worries about that, but we also face many things that we don''t like. So, to avoid us expressing negative emotions in such cases, a legacy is necessary." "In the darkest of times comes the brightest of light to quell all our sufferings, the warrior of light," he spoke, laughing a little. "If what I said is the truth, then whenever we face something that we dislike, a certain thought would resound in our mind¡­" "Ah, my suffering is only temporary. The warrior of light would definitely come to save me." The scholar raised his hand after that. "This line of thought would firm the person to endure and persist with the sufferings without generating any negative emotions. It won''t solve the root issue of things, but it also wouldn''t fuel a Nightmare''s birth that would cause further sufferings." "So, Devotion and Legacy. They are the answer that would minimize the creation of Nightmares to the greatest extent." The scholar sighed in relief after that, glad that he had actually managed to think up a proper answer on the fly, one that was infinitely better than anything his peers had ever managed to come up with. "Devotion and Legacy¡­" Krune muttered as his eyes widened. "I see¡­" "That makes perfect sense." Chapter 1245 - Anticlimactic ''Killing a Demon isn''t enough to return to the God Realm. All I''m doing is just removing a strong pillar for suffering. I''m not actually solving the issue related to the sufferings of this world.'' Krune fell into deep thought, sporting a mild frown. ''So, as the scholar had said, I should establish the sensation of devotion towards the Empire and create a legacy so that future generations could latch hope onto it.'' As he thought about it, his eyes lit up, opening his palm to reveal a palm-sized Cloud Whale peacefully floating atop it. ''The embodiment of peace¡­'' "Is this possible?" he muttered, thinking hard before sighing. "I need to gather more data for that." He then noticed his vision blur a little, feeling even more exhausted as he sported a look of serious thought, soon falling asleep. Seeing Krune in ''deep contemplation,'' the scholar smiled, unwilling to disturb his thoughts as he continued his lecture. A couple of hours later, the lecture ended as he left the class. The education in the Imperial Academy was pretty lax. There was a two-hour session early in the morning, followed by an hour break. After that was two more hours of class. Then, there was lunch after that, leading to an end. At least, that''s how it was before. But from this year onward, it had been changed to include practical classes in the afternoon. It was in order to train them to wield their County Arms better. "Hey man, I''ve never seen you before in this class," a boy approached Krune, sporting a smile as he asked. "¡­" Of course, Krune didn''t reply, deep in sleep. After trying to speak a couple more times, the boy snorted in response and walked away. A couple of other students also tried to talk to Krune, only to be met with an unresponsive person that sat on his seat in silence, eyes closed, deep in thought. It was unknown as to what happened to him during the one-hour break as Krune didn''t seem to care. He only woke up upon sensing another scholar walk into the class. Similar to before, Krune behaved like he was paying attention. As he was a lot more exhausted than he had thought, he lost track of things, only waking up when a boy shook him awake, saying, "Bro, are you actually sleeping on the first day of the term?" "What time is it?" Krune yawned a little, looking around to see that the classroom was mostly empty. "The scholar told you to head towards his office once you woke up," the boy replied, sporting a wry smile in response. "He had called for you during class a couple of times. But you didn''t respond. You shouldn''t have done that." "Hah... might as well get it over with." Krune stretched his arms after that, understanding based on the chatter from his surroundings that it was already time for lunch. He took in a deep breath soon after, opening his mouth to exhale with power. Sonic Radar! Immediately, his surroundings were highlighted in his mind, allowing him to perceive everyone in his surroundings, frowning when he was unable to find either Wang Hao or Chen Xue. Then again, he hadn''t unleashed his Sonic Radar to the limit, only scouting a portion of the Imperial Academy. After asking for the route from the boy, just as he began to walk towards the staff room, his stomach rumbled. ''Right, I hadn''t eaten anything since yesterday.'' He didn''t even hesitate before marching towards the canteen, wolfing down enough food that the surrounding students shot him weird gazes. Afternoon, all the students from the second year were informed to assemble at the training grounds. As Krune followed a couple of faces that he had seen once in the classroom he sat at in the morning, he noticed some older and younger faces streaming into the mix. It seemed that all the students had been told to assemble. Soon after, the headmaster of the Imperial Academy, an old man in his sixties, walked forward, gazing at everyone as his booming voice resounded. "Everyone, I hope you have been healthy." Smiling, he paused for a couple of seconds, scanning through the crowd before noticing Krune in their midst, continuing to speak after that, "The chaos in the Empire is increasing. Demons are running rampant while Nightmares are being birthed alarmingly so. In the past, only Imperial Meisters were able to deal with them. But now, things have changed." "Every single one of you before me has a County Arms. So, all of you are able to fight them. However, fighting alone is a fool''s endeavor. Therefore, I hope everyone forms a team of six. Make a team from the same term so that you''ll be able to move as a group in the future after graduation," the headmaster spoke. "You''ll be registered as a team and would conduct missions in the future accordingly. As for the choices of who to team up with, I''ll leave them in your hands." He then smiled as he continued, "Also, to ensure everyone gets an idea of the capabilities of County Arms users, let''s host a friendly exchange tomorrow." Upon seeing everyone break into a discussion immediately, the headmaster coughed once before saying, "If anyone has any doubts, ask Liu Heng. He''ll also be your training instructor." "What the hell?" Krune was surprised at the claim. ''I wasn''t told about this.'' Seeing the headmaster gaze his way, everyone else followed his line of sight, finally gazing at Krune. "So, he''s Liu Heng." "The one sleeping in our class was him?" "He''s that genius?" As everyone conversed about him, the headmaster grinned, stating, "Now, let''s have Liu Heng address everyone. After all, it''s only thanks to him that County Arms have become a thing of reality." "A legacy, huh¡­" Sighing as he recalled the scholar''s words, Krune sighed, lightly stomping the ground as he took off into the air, making a gentle arc before landing on the stage. His actions shocked everyone because he was flying just like that. ''It seems I have to be high-profile from now onwards if I hope to create my legacy here.'' Thinking as such, he looked at everyone, sporting a tired expression as he said, "Well¡­" "All the best?" Chapter 1246 - Mental Energy’s True Source "¡­" The students looked at him, stupefied. Upon seeing his imposing entry, they thought he would say something inspiring, something that would make their blood boil, something that would fire up their fighting spirits. But in actuality, all he said was a bunch of useless words. Seeing their reactions, Krune laughed. "In any case, that''s all we ever need." After saying his piece, he returned to his original spot. The headmaster gazed at his back, smiling in response as he nodded in praise. He then announced, "Alright, we''ll leave everything to you now. Once your teams are formed, inform the administration department by evening." "Liu Heng¡­" A boy in his teens approached, cupping his fists as he introduced himself. "It''s a pleasure to meet you again." "The pleasure''s all mine." Krune cupped in response, noticing that the other party was a part of royalty. "Do you have anyone in mind to make a team with?" the boy asked. "I only know two people here, to be frank with you," Krune said in response, laughing. "So, I''m waiting for them to arrive first before we can discuss our teams." "Are you waiting for Wang Hao and Chen Xue?" the boy asked, looking around before whispering, "For some reason, they had been invited to the Imperial Palace. So, they won''t be returning anytime soon. Plus, I don''t even know if they would form teams with anyone here." "I didn''t know that." Krune shook his head before extending his hand towards him. "Then, let''s form a team." "Do you have anyone else in mind?" The boy smiled, pleased that he was included in Krune''s team. "I''m planning to make a mobile unit," Krune replied. "So, having people that can fly would be for the best." "There''s only me among the second years that can fly, though." The boy smiled wryly in response. "From what I know, only the County Arms of the Imperial Family are capable of flight." "Well yeah. That''s because I''ve also infused the Star Imperial Arms'' ability of gravity in them. So, no other County Arms has the ability of flight." Krune nodded. "However, that doesn''t matter. I''ll figure out a way to create a flying unit." "Liu Heng!" Sometime later, another boy approached him, condensing a sword as he pointed it at him, shouting, "Fight me!" "Why do you want to fight me?" Krune asked in surprise. "I want to see how strong you are," the boy replied. Upon seeing that the other party didn''t have any killing intent in him, only sporting eyes of curiosity, Krune nodded, summoning his Star Hammer. "Alright!" Bang! The moment he summoned his Star Hammer, his opponent charged at him, causing his sword to glow red, emitting a lot of heat. Though, Krune didn''t meet him head-on, slamming his hammer into the ground while increasing its weight by varying its gravity. Followed by a resounding boom, a dust cloud was raised, blanketing them when Krune rushed towards the other party, arriving behind him to hit his neck, knocking him unconscious. When the dust cloud cleared up, the figure of a boy lying in a large crater appeared, shocking everyone. After all, the boy that had challenged him was pretty famed for his strength. ''Might as well train everyone,'' Krune thought before shouting, "Remember this. Even if you possess County Arms, you''re still humans. So, even a regular, experienced soldier can defeat you. Only by improving your skill would you be able to harness your power to its full extent." "Now, everyone. Come at me!" He smirked. "What¡­?" "This bastard!" "He''s underestimating us¡­" Krune''s blatant provocation surprisingly angered a lot of students. A short-tempered boy was the first to charge at him, taking out a fan that unleashed a sea of flames around it. However, a faint gust of wind flowed as Krune''s figure appeared before the boy, grabbing hold of his hand to lift it up, causing the flames from the fan to spew into the sky. "Damn it!" The boy was shocked when Krune''s punched him in the stomach, causing him to slump to the ground, the wind in his lungs quickly getting knocked out. A girl then summoned her chakram, causing it to spin violently in the air, emanating a suffocating amount of chillness, hurling it at Krune. It then swerved through the air, arcing around a couple of students, intending to hit Krune. Unfortunately, another boy, in his hurry to attack Krune, had stepped into the line of fire of the chakram, looking like he would be killed by the attack. "Ugh!" Krune grunted, slamming his hands onto the sides of the chakram, causing the air currents he produced to hinder the chakram, beginning to slow it down as his hands clamped over it, throwing it high up in the air. Flustered, the girl retracted her chakrams, patting her chest as she began to sweat, thanking Krune for stepping in. Otherwise, that boy would have died. As for the person in question, he had broken out into cold sweat. But before the thought fully registered in his mind, he was knocked out by Krune that went around hitting everyone in his range. He only attacked them using hand-to-hand combat, using his Star Hammer to disrupt the flow of the battle by raising up dust clouds from time to time. "Gah!" "What happened?" "Uwhyak¡­!" "Uwak!" The students screamed one after another as they were attacked under the cover of the dust cloud, falling to the ground one after another, knocked unconscious. Staring from afar, gazing at the chaotic battle, the headmaster''s eyes were brimming in joy. "To think Liu Heng''s this strong." "Get him!" "Attack!" "He only has two hands. Bind them first!" The students, although chaotic due to their inexperience, surprisingly managed to form some groups to target him. Soon, they attacked from all sides with the power of their County Arms. Some were targeted at him, while some failed to target him, seeming like the fellow students would become collateral damage. Krune quickly deflected both, ensuring that there were no casualties. A normal battle where he just killed all his enemies would have been way easier as even Krune, with his tremendous experience, was feeling difficulty in the task. One man against an army, the thoughts of everyone synchronizing with the same task. As Krune continued to fight them, multitasking, his head began to hurt, suddenly causing his body to spasm mildly as his eyes turned red while a thin line of blood leaked out of his nose. However, he was unaware, engrossed in the epiphany where the world around him had turned incomparably sharp, feeling the mental states of everyone around him. Unexpectedly, he had unlocked Mental Energy! Chapter 1247 - County Arms Division Director Mental Energy! It was something that he awakened through the Soul Cultivation Technique. Even its creator, Heavin, hadn''t guessed that Mental Energy could be awakened when one practiced it. It was a pleasant surprise. But surprisingly, in this world of sufferings, Krune awoke it in him. The moment he did so, he obtained an enlightenment related to Mental Energy, understanding its essence. ''It''s an energy of the mind, undetectable normally because not everyone can harness the mind.'' He took in a deep breath as he thought this. ''The reason practicing Soul Cultivation awoke Mental Energy was due to the development of the soul acting as a force on the mind to condense the mental waves, producing Mental Energy.'' ''And now, thanks to the experiences from four people other than me, my mind has matured a lot, even greater than my more than two centuries worth of experience. It gave new facets to my train of thought. To think this is the true way to awaken Mental Energy.'' He sighed. ''Through cultivating the mind through various life experiences.'' ''So, this is how Mental Energy is actually used.'' He had an epiphany. ''And to think I just used it as a power booster for the most part until now.'' Just as he sighed, he noticed everyone around him had distanced themselves from him a little, staring at him in confusion, wondering why he had gone into a trance suddenly. Krune came to his senses, noticing his clothes were drenched in the blood that leaked out of his nose. His sight was blurry, while his stance was wobbly. He was close to losing consciousness, but Krune felt great. It was because he now had Mental Energy. Even though the power from his Mental Energy was very weak, it still meant a breakthrough, a qualitative one at that, one that would make him a fearsome foe in the God Realm. Retracting his Star Hammer, Krune took in a deep breath, exhaling, followed by another inhale, repeating the process. Slowly, all the blood that had flowed out of his nose and smeared his dress began to be extracted, mysteriously condensing all the blood into a tiny crimson crystal that he pocketed. He then smiled, feeling intense exhaustion stemming from both his body and mind, gazing at everyone as he bowed a little. "It''s thanks to the pressure you exerted on me that I attained enlightenment." "No, we were just charging at you¡­" The person closest to Krune waved his hands in embarrassment, retracting his County Arms immediately, losing all fighting spirit. Many others also echoed his response as Krune laughed, stating aloud, "Everyone! Don''t be worried. From today onwards, I''ll be teaching you everything about County Arms and will also train you to be powerhouses capable of upholding our Empire." Saying his piece, he activated the Cloud Whale within himself, using the generated air currents to fly away, hurrying towards the cafeteria, sliding through its doorway upon losing balance. "Child, are you okay?" The cook there looked at Krune''s majestic entrance, understanding that he needn''t sweep the floor there today. "Yeah, I''m fine," Krune said, dusting himself as he got up, asking, "Can you give me some food to eat? I used up too much energy before and am feeling light-headed." "Take a seat. I''ll prepare some recovery soup." Saying so, the cook headed into the kitchen, whipping up something within ten minutes as he brought a bowl and placed it before Krune. "Start eating this. I''ll make some dishes to go with this in the meantime." "Thank you." Krune nodded, beginning to drink the soup, feeling his sight clear up a little. He quickly finished the bowl, relaxing on the chair as he recalled the experience of fighting against the students. ''It''s not fighting against strong enemies that gives the most experience. It''s to fight people with the intention of protecting and training them. That gives the most experience.'' Upon reaching this line of thought, Krune laughed. "It seems becoming a teacher is the most beneficial for my growth, both here and in the Mountain Sect." As the cook brought out some more dishes, Krune thanked the heavens and gorged through everything like he hadn''t eaten a morsel for weeks. Finished with his meal, he patted his belly, intending to return to his room when he exited the cafeteria, noticing the headmaster standing there, seemingly expecting him. "I greet the headmaster," Krune said, performing a mild bow. "Remain at ease." The headmaster smiled before saying, "I''ve seen your performance today. I can say with assurance that you have experience teaching students." "Yes, I''ve been doing the same to my clansmen recently, so I got accustomed to it," Krune replied. "Great." His smile became even deeper as the headmaster asked, "Since you''ve said it yourself, I wish to appoint you as the director of the County Arms Division. What do you say?" "What does the director of this division do?" Krune asked, confused at the position yet surprised at the offer. "Teaching and training the students in regards to everything related to County Arms, you will be the deciding authority on that. We also need more teachers to teach the students in the future, so your first responsibility would be to pick up some good candidates for that task," The headmaster nodded as he replied. "That''s great. I''ll accept that." Krune nodded. "It''s my responsibility anyway." "Great." The headmaster nodded after hearing that, smiling as he walked away, "I''ll draft up the official document tomorrow. In the meantime, you can head towards the County Arms Division''s facility." After hearing the location of the facility, Krune was interested as he walked towards the place, surprised when he noticed that it was like an academy within the academy. It was huge. However, he didn''t enter it, asking in his mind first, "Mom, you there?" "Of course," Daxia Ting''s voice resounded immediately. "What''s up?" "Does the Emperor have any Nightmare Cores stored in the Royal Treasury?" he asked. "Why do you need them?" Daxia Ting asked in surprise, pausing for a moment before saying, "Yes, I''m sure there must be a lot there." "I just realized that I haven''t been rewarded for my contribution to the Empire yet." Krune stared at the building before him, sporting a bright smile. ''It seems my route to clear this realm of suffering is here.'' "So, I plan to be rewarded with Nightmare Cores instead." Chapter 1248 - A Meeting With The Emperor "It''s possible for me to arrange a meeting with the Emperor. Though, are you sure? Is this what you need?" Daxia Ting asked in concern. "You could have taken this chance to gather wealth, status, or even a bride from the most prestigious of families in the Empire. Even a princess from another Empire isn''t impossible." "Do we lack wealth or status?" Krune laughed, saying, "No, right?" "As for a bride, I have no plans as of now. Dealing with the Empire''s threat comes first," he added. "Fine." After a good whole minute passed, Daxia Ting''s voice resounded, concealing mild disappointment as she said, "I''ll arrange a meeting and inform you about it." "Alright." Nodding in response, Krune entered the County Arms Division, noticing a group of servants prancing about, arranging the things at place. He looked around the entire place, smiling as he liked it very well. ¡­ The afternoon of the next day, once Krune''s position had been declared, everyone was informed to assemble at the training grounds of the County Arms Division. There were no other teachers around, allowing Krune to do whatever he wanted. Standing on the platform before everyone, Krune noticed that everyone had arrived, speaking, "Alright, let''s start with the basics." "First, summon your County Arms and keep it activated all the time while making a lap around the training grounds." "That''s it?" Someone among the crowd was confused. "Are you mocking us?" Someone from the fifth term stepped forward, glaring at Krune. "Running a lap is easy for us. We have been training to become generals all our lives." "Yes. normally, a single lap is nothing for you." Krune nodded, summoning his Star Hammer to make it produce an intense hum. Immediately, more than half of the assembled students prostrated on the ground instinctively. As for the rest, they resisted for a couple of seconds before doing the same. Seeing the expressions of shock on everyone, Krune told them, "There''s a lot that you have yet to unlock in your County Arms. Well, it''s nothing surprising since you have just obtained it. Anyway, run a lap first. You''ll understand what I''m talking about." He then pointed at the first row, retracting his Star Hammer. "You''ll be the first batch. Now, start running." His actions instantly established a hierarchy as the students no longer saw him as a fellow student but the director of the County Arms Division. In response, the first row of students got up, dusted their clothes and began to run. They had their respective County Arms activated, running as they felt strange all of a sudden. They had only run for 200 meters when they began to gasp, noticing their County Arms had been deactivated. For some, it returned to their bodies already. "What''s happening?" "How come I''m only able to use it for so little?" "I could use it for longer before!" Upon seeing the perplexed expressions of the running students, Krune smiled. "Until now, while using your County Arms, you''ve either been standing still or had done minimal exercise. You also haven''t pushed yourself to the limit. You have to note that for a full-fledged activation of the County Arms, your stamina is consumed like a torrent." "So, you''ll have to get used to this sense of exhaustion and build up your stamina reserves accordingly." He then continued, "Though, don''t worry. As you continue to push yourself, your stamina reserves would only continue to increase." He motioned for them to return to their positions, making the second row of students run next. In this way, he made everyone run a lap, though hardly anyone managed to finish it properly. He then began to train them in various ways, also supplying them supplements from the cafeteria during set intervals. It was a tonic that he had prescribed to them. It would be what would allow them to develop their stamina the fastest. Of course, it was his invention. Once he became the director, Krune obtained access to many things that he hadn''t had before. One of them was a private cafeteria within the County Arms Division. As the students finished drinking their herbal concoction, he made them unleash the entirety of their County Arms'' might, making a lot of them faint immediately. On top of that, just to increase their training efficiency, he condensed the Cloud Whale in its maximum size, hiding it nearby, allowing the effect of peace it emanated to keep the minds of everyone pure. This way, they concentrated on their training without harboring any negative feelings. There was an immediate spike in training efficiency, causing many to be shocked. "This is going great." He nodded, concluding the day when it was dusk, returning to his new home, a manor in the County Arms Division. Five days later, Krune left the Imperial Academy, hailing a carriage as he headed towards the Imperial Palace, showing his identity as the director of the County Arms Division of the Imperial Academy, also showing proof of his invitation by the Emperor himself. After entering the palace, he made his way towards the throne room, entering once his name was announced aloud. He glanced once, noticing many ministers seated along the sides, thinking of something as he bowed. "I greet his Majesty the Emperor." "You''ve come, Liu Heng. I was pretty surprised when you had directly requested for a reward." The Emperor smiled in response. It was pretty much impossible for him to be angry at Krune. Not only was the other party the only other Star Imperial Meister, but he was also the creator of the County Arms that elevated the standing of their Empire on a major scale. Even though he was only 15 years old now, Krune''s influence was already on par with the Emperor. Among the younger generation, it had long since surpassed the Emperor. "I was informed that you wished to be rewarded with Nightmare Cores," the Emperor spoke after a moment of pause, noticing the eyes of countless ministers widen in shock at his words, "Why do you want Nightmare Cores instead of even greater rewards." "I''m not interested in any wealth or the likes." Krune stood up, emanating his imposing valor, stating with pride. "The only reason I request for the Nightmare Cores is that they are useful in making the Empire more peaceful.. Nothing more, nothing less." Chapter 1249 - Suppressing Opposition "Making the Empire more peaceful? How presumptuous of you to discuss something like that!" A minister was unable to control himself anymore, shouting in return, expressing his anger. The Emperor didn''t say anything against it, though, curious to see how Krune would handle it. After all, he did plan to make Krune the Emperor in the future. There was simply no other competitor. Not only was he of royal blood, but his achievements were also something none could ever hope to compete against. Following the Emperor''s death, Liu Heng would become the strongest in the Empire. So, the Emperor wished for Krune to become used to the politics of the Imperial Palace. "Does that mean you want the Empire''s current state of chaos to continue?" Krune retorted calmly, seeing the other party''s face convulse in response. The minister slammed his hand on the armrest, increasing the volume of his shout. "You''re just a brat. As if you can understand the various complex things that happen in the Empire. You simply have neither the experience nor the qualifications to¡­" The minister stopped talking all of a sudden, noticing that words failed to come out of his mouth. He opened his mouth, moving his lips and tongue, but his vocal cord failed to produce any sounds, even when he moved it frantically. On top of that, he felt difficulty in breathing, breaking out in a cold sweat. "I haven''t seen you reproach the Nightmares for wreaking havoc in the Empire. They''re even younger than me. They simply don''t even have the experience or qualifications to cause chaos." Krune stated in mockery, his tone cold, causing all the ministers to shudder. "Why don''t you talk about qualifications with them? I''m sure as an Imperial Meister, you can do that, right?" "This¡­ bastard¡­" Another minister gritted his teeth when he noticed he was unable to breathe any longer. It was because of the killing intent Krune emanated, one akin to someone that had gone to hell, lived there, and destroyed it. It was of such an overbearing might that even they, Imperial Meisters were unable to endure it. ''Impressive!'' The Emperor''s eyes widened as he asked in his mind, ''How strong is Liu Heng compared to me?'' ''Five days ago, his power spiked suddenly. When I asked him, he said he had attained an enlightenment of sorts. The area of his power in the map covers more than half your circle,'' Daxia Ting responded immediately. ''At only sixteen years of age, to possess such fearsome power.'' The Emperor was glad to hear that. ''He''s definitely the child of heavens.'' "So, give me one valid reason as to why you''re hindering my claims to make our Empire more peaceful?" Krune''s voice resounded, causing the ministers to shudder once more. "After all, if you''ve seen what I have achieved, you''ll know that I have no reason to lie." He then chuckled as he continued, "Well, if we''re considering just based on your statement, none of you have any qualifications to question me. After all, I sense the lot of you possessing the County Arms I created." Seeing them grit their teeth, failing to offer any counter, Krune smiled, retracting his killing intent as he cupped his fists towards the Emperor. "Your Majesty, I ask for forgiveness for overstepping my bounds." "It''s of no concern." The Emperor smiled, asking, "How many Nightmare Cores do you need?" "That''ll depend on the Nightmare Cores themselves. If I find ones suitable for my purpose, I won''t be needing a lot of them," Krune replied. "Alright." The Emperor nodded as he waved his hand towards the ministers, "Let''s adjourn the meeting here for now. I''ll need to talk with Liu Heng more." "Yes, Your Majesty." Bowing in response, the ministers exited the throne room, limping in the process as their legs were failing to move properly. Once everyone had left, the Emperor told Krune, "Even though you countered them with logic, displayed your authority in the matter, and suppressed them with your show of power, they''ll harbor resentment. After you become Emperor, they''ll give you a lot of trouble." "That''s of no concern." Krune laughed once he heard that. "When I become Emperor, those that become ministers would be my students." The Emperor was silent for a moment before roaring in laughter. "Of course, I hadn''t considered that. So, even if you offend them, nothing would happen. Their children and grandchildren would look up to you and support you the most." "Yes." Krune nodded. "Also, my stance on the matter is to bring peace to the Empire. So, they have no grounds to gain any advantage in this matter, even if they talk about it to the next generation in order to drive a wedge between me and my students." "I''ll take you to the Royal Treasury now." The Emperor smiled with content, bringing Krune to a discrete location of the throne room, leading into a small hallway that was heavily guarded by those from the Imperial Family. They arrived before a large double-door as the Emperor pushed it open, allowing Krune to enter. "Amazing!" Krune was surprised to see a row of books placed on one side. And upon seeing the topics, he noticed that they were all knowledge related to Imperial Arms, Imperial Meisters, Nightmares, Yin Beasts, and so on. There was also a section related to County Arms. However, based on the thin content, it was apparent that they were still in the process of collating data. There were powerful weapons forged by the best of blacksmiths using various Yin Beast parts, scrolls with the most elaborate paintings, rare medicinal plants, precious minerals, and even the most priceless of treasures. Eventually, they arrived at one section which housed Nightmare Cores. Placed behind each Nightmare Core was a scroll containing all the information related to the respective Nightmare. Krune opened the first scroll, reading through the contents, "Starfish County, Lavender City. This Nightmare had the power of amplifying the negative emotions of the people, causing them to engage in fights with one another. It was killed by¡­" ''So, their powers are also displayed here.'' Krune smiled, activating his Mental Energy, using it to scan through the Nightmare Core. The moment his Mental Energy seeped into the Nightmare Core, Krune grunted as countless erratic thoughts flashed through his mind. Despair! Anger! Hunger! Indignation! They were the negative emotions contained within the Nightmare Core. Chapter 1250 - The Demon Sealed Beneath The Capital "Haah¡­ ugh¡­ gah!" Krune grunted, feeling his head hurt while veins appeared all over his face. "Liu Heng! What''s happening to you?" The Emperor was alarmed as he was just about to call for the Royal Physician when Krune raised his hands, motioning that he was fine. Retracting his Mental Energy scan, he closed his eyes, meditating as the Mental Energy healed his mind, cooling it down. A couple of minutes later, his eyes shot open as Krune nodded, "To think that''s what Nightmares require." "Did you sense something in them?" The Emperor was surprised at his claim. "Yes." Krune massaged his forehead, saying, "Based on what I probed and obtained just now, it''s impossible for a Nightmare to be birthed so easily. Or to be more exact, for a Nightmare to finish forming, a catalyst is required." "A catalyst?" The Emperor was confused. "But in all our records, something like this wasn''t written." ''If not for my Mental Energy scan, I wouldn''t have found it either.'' Krune nodded, saying, "For a Nightmare to actually begin condensing from the negative emotions, death must happen. An unwilling death of someone indignant with their life." "Only with that catalyst would it begin forming. After absorbing negative emotions after this stage, it would burrow into a human," Krune continued. "It''s not possession, but it would actively begin to absorb every negative emotion the person generates. So, they would always target the most miserable of humans as their targets." "The day this target dies is when the Nightmare is born. This is also the reason we''re unable to sense a Nightmare''s location until it is born," he concluded. The Emperor''s eyes lit up, nodding in response. "I see. This makes perfect sense. A lot of our scholars had thought about this issue before but failed to find an answer." Krune then spent the rest of the day probing through the Nightmare Cores to select those he required. And what he hadn''t ever expected was the fact that the Royal Treasury would actually contain tens of thousands of Nightmare Cores. "How come there are so many Nightmare Cores here?" "Well, not anyone can use them to forge an Imperial Arms. Usually, a blacksmith would have to consume their lifeforce to create this. At most, they can make two Imperial Arms." The Emperor shook his head. "So, nurturing such talented blacksmiths takes decades. On the other hand, Nightmares appear constantly. So, our stock of Nightmare Cores continues to increase." ''Even the Su Family barely has twenty Nightmare Cores in their treasure.'' Krune smiled wryly after hearing that. ''That''s the difference with having a Star Imperial Meister every generation.'' "Alright, I''m done," Krune said, having picked more than 700 Nightmare Cores. Even the Emperor couldn''t sit still at his choice. Controlling his urge to refuse, the Emperor asked, "Are you sure you need this many?" "Yep." Krune nodded. "If what I have planned is attained, even when our Empire faces a tremendous threat, we''ll still have the will to live and persevere." "This would become the hope for our future," he added in all seriousness. "Alright, I''ll trust you." The Emperor nodded. "Our enemies are increasing in strength as we speak. However, they are located beyond our reach." He sighed, lamenting, "If only my hands weren''t tied by the Demon held captive here, I would have charged into the enemy''s base while leading our flying troops." The County Arms of the Imperial Family allowed them to fly after all. Even otherwise, the Emperor was capable of carrying them through his Star Imperial Arms. "That''s why I have taken so many Nightmare Cores. Don''t worry, I''ll make something related to that." Krune smiled, packing the Nightmare Cores in a suitcase the Emperor had prepared. Before leaving the Imperial Palace, Krune asked, "Can I look at the captive Demon? Why haven''t we tried to kill it even though it has been sealed?" "That''s unfortunately due to the nature of seal erected by the first Emperor." The Emperor sighed, leading Krune through a flight of stairs that went a kilometer into the ground. Both of them were sweating due to the heat when they arrived at a massive cavern. Seated before them calmly was a figure that reached a height of five meters, emanating a suffocating presence that even Krune felt difficulty in breathing for a moment. There were no chains around it, no special power constricting it, etc. At times, the Demon lifted its hand, making a menacing action before scratching its butt. It sported a bored expression on its face, sleeping. "This is the problem." The Emperor raised his hand, placing it on an invisible barrier. "The first Emperor''s seal was something that isolated this Demon from this world. This is as if the Demon is in another dimension, even though we can see its actions." "So, even if we attack, all we would be doing is weakening the seal. Without destroying the seal, it''s impossible to attack the Demon." He sighed. "That''s why every generation of Emperor had no other choice but to reinforce and strengthen the seal. None of them had the confidence of winning against this Demon without sacrificing at least half the Empire." "Over time, as the seal was continuously strengthened, the Demon was completely isolated in this sealed dimension. Even though we''re standing before it, it''s unable to see us. All it''s able to see is the small cavern that the seal encapsulates. That''s all. The same scenery for more than a millennium," the Emperor spoke. "The sealing power of every Star Imperial Meister is different. So, as we overlaid our powers atop the original seal, it has now become something inaccessible to those from our world," he added as he smiled wryly. "But can this seal still be broken?" Krune asked. "Yes." The Emperor nodded. "However, it''ll need a collaborative effort from tens of Demons that attack it nonstop for months at a stretch." "I see." Krune thought, placing his hand on the transparent barrier, gently touching his Mental Energy on it, observing its patterns, power, and so on. ''This is like a formation.'' He nodded, smiling. ''But, this cannot even guard against Godly Energy, not to mention my Mental Energy.'' "Now, to unleash the true potential of Mental Energy." He smiled, seeping it in through the seal easily, making it seep into the Demon''s mind, sighing as he muttered, "Is this the realm of comprehension Heavin has attained in regards to Mental Energy?" Chapter 1251 - Krune Deals With The Ancient Demon The Demon didn''t even feel anything odd as the Mental Energy gushed into its head, beginning to do something as Krune concentrated. At present, he was harnessing the true potential of Mental Energy, the energy of the mind. The Mental Energy pervaded the Demon''s mind, allowing Krune to scan through its memories, thoughts, and everything else mind-related. He then spent an entire week processing all the information in the Demon''s mind. Upon informing him of his ability, the Emperor stayed beside him, protecting him, relegating all duties to the first prince for the time being. "Staying in this seal would turn even the sanest of people insane. So, the Demon has been in slumber for all this time, never once waking up. Its plan is to wake up on the day this seal is broken. Until then, it plans to hibernate and churn its abilities, slowly growing stronger through natural growth. This is the reason it''s continuing to grow strong with every passing day," Krune spoke. "Well, that''s troubling." The Emperor sighed, asking, "Can your mysterious power do anything to it?" "I''m trying that. I''m still getting a feel for things," Krune replied, shaping the Mental Energy into sharp blades that slowly began to spin within the Demon''s mind, flying across a bunch of memories, grinding them into dust. The Demon was asleep, unaware that its memories were being ground into dust little by little. Krune''s face was full of sweat at this moment. Surprisingly, his Mental Energy reserves were being drained alarmingly fast. His face turned pale when he stopped, eating the rations that the Emperor had instructed one of the princes to bring. He then rested, healing his mind, waking up to see that some of his Mental Energy had recovered. However, his head still hurt when he tried to think about anything. Thus, he continued to rest, meditating in the meantime as he spoke his findings to the Emperor. In such a manner, he spent a month, staying at the palace for three days before returning to the Imperial Academy for a day of rest. With this process, he managed to also take care of his task of training the first generation of County Arms users. Honestly, he was so busy that it felt like even sleeping was a waste. At the end of the month, Krune nodded in relief, telling the Emperor, "It''s done. The Demon''s mind had been destroyed. Right now, it''s just an empty husk." "Thank goodness." The Emperor slumped to the ground, relieved. Honestly, he would be lying if he said he wasn''t tensed these days. Not only were the number of Demons increasing in his Empire, the one sealed within was so scary that even he had zero confidence in defeating. And now that he looked at the Demon''s figure, even though it was still sleeping, there were no other subtle movements from before. It was proof that it was now in a vegetative state. He was then surprised when Krune summoned a needle in his hands, "What''s that?" "A priceless treasure that points and absorbs treasures," Krune replied, seeping his Mental Energy into it, wrapping it around the Soul Needle as he slowly passed it through the barrier. Eventually, he made it enter the sealed space, bringing it before the Demon as the Soul Needle tried to drill into it. However, no matter how much it tried, it failed to do so. The skin of the Demon was frighteningly tough. ''It''s almost on the level of a Red Demon from the Sub-Realm.'' Such a frightening level of flesh was beyond what a low-leveled world like this could handle. "Hmph!" Snorting once, Krune poured more Mental Energy into the Soul Needle, causing it to spin violently as the heat emanating from its tip increased. Slowly, the Soul Needle touched the Demon''s forehead, beginning to drill little by little before it managed to reach the brain. ''A Nightmare is able to absorb all negative emotions. It''s the same for a demon as well. Since Mental Energy is related to the mind, based on my hypothesis, this should be possible,'' he thought, willing his Soul Needle to act up as everything within the Demon''s mind that had been shredded into powder began to flow into the Soul Needle. Even though they were shredded, they were still there. If left alone, they would eventually rearrange themselves back to normalcy. Then again, it might take thousands of years. Of course, this wasn''t a proper solution. As the Soul Needle whirred into life, being powered by Mental Energy, everything in the Demon''s mind was absorbed by it. Following it was the destruction of the Demon''s mind. The Demon had zero hopes of gaining consciousness ever again. But of course, Krune didn''t stop at this point, increasing the power of the Soul Needle as it began to slowly absorb the Demon''s essence. It had already done the same to the Sun Stone once. So, Krune used the same experience. Thanks to his Mental Energy, he was able to replicate the same effect, causing the Soul Needle to absorb the Demon''s essence. Essence, abilities, life force, and so on. Everything it possessed was absorbed by the Soul Needle until its body vanished, leaving nothing behind. The Emperor gawked at such a scene, stuttering as he asked, "W-What happened to it?" "Destroyed, with nothing left." Krune let out a long sigh, wiping off his sweat. However, he didn''t retract his Mental Energy yet, laying down a small formation within the sealed space. He made the formation harness a bit of the seal''s power and erect a projection. It was of the Demon chained to a rusty old pillar that had been covered with blood for enough time to fuse with it. There, the Demon was, still powerful, but unable to escape. "Now, the illusion has been laid." Krune laughed as he could not help but say, "If the other Demons manage to make it here, they would be expending a lot of effort just to be fooled in the end." "That should mess up their mind a lot." He could not help but laugh a bit harder after that. "You''re¡­ one cunning little rascal," The Emperor could not help but say, laughing as well soon after. "Of course." Krune smiled as the both of them returned to the palace. To celebrate the joyous occasion, the Emperor hosted a grand banquet, making an excuse that the banquet was thanks to the County Arms. They didn''t say anything about the Demon, controlling their urges to laugh aloud, wishing to see the expressions of the Demons one day in their futile struggle. Chapter 1252 - Preparations For War "One! Two! Three! Repeat them after me!" Standing on the platform was Krune, swinging his hammer in a set action. Repeating the same action were all students of the Imperial Academy, their expressions full of vigor. After all, for anyone that dared to not give their all, they were forced to kneel. For Krune, it took a quick thought to exert his dominance by fully activating his Star Hammer. In any case, those that trained in his teachings noticed a visible growth in their strength. Plus, Krune was only strict. He didn''t abuse them nor show any partiality. Well, to be more specific, he was partial towards training, making everyone train to their limits. As for himself, he trained even harder than everyone, leading everyone by example. So, none could actually complain. Then again, they were glad to have such a knowledgeable instructor guiding them, one that was impartial and wholeheartedly imparted them precious knowledge. So, before they realized it, they were also worshipping Krune as their idol. "Performing these set of actions is what stirs up our body''s potential the most. It also leads to a slightly faster growth of our stamina," Krune said while continuing with the training exercise. "Keep this up for a couple of years, and the difference would be glaringly obvious." After an hour, he motioned everyone to stop training, making them rest while the servants delivered soup to everyone. "This is a new recipe I made. It allows the muscles to relax faster and ensures your muscles remember the training better. A lot of herbs were used in every bowl, so don''t you dare waste even a single drop of it." After saying that, he also drank the same soup, sighing when he could feel his physique improve with the passage of time. Thanks to his Mental Energy, he had a pretty accurate grasp of the development. On top of that, he also used Mental Energy to sense the physique of everyone, understanding how their respective County Arms affected their physique, growth, and so on. With that, he devised training manuals. He was still working on perfecting them, though, planning to give them out as graduation presents. These manuals would be what formed the foundation of the respective families, allowing them to train their County Arms with the utmost efficiency. With the passing of every day, the Demons were amassing their power, recruiting more Yin Beasts and Nightmares into their fold while also creating more Demon Arms. Their goal was to turn every Nightmare into a Demon. That way, their power would enter a new realm. On the side of the Empire, Daxia Ting was mobilizing the army and the Imperial Meisters to hunt every single Nightmare and Yin Beast that made an appearance. As for the collected Yin Beast materials, they were being used to forge weapons, armors, and other war items. On top of that, every family was busy collecting Nightmare Cores in an effort to make new Imperial Arms. The Imperial Family also gave out countless tasks to various families of power, rewarding them with Nightmare Cores. This was to allow them to create Imperial Arms and strengthen the Empire as a whole. After all, with war approaching them, saving the Nightmare Cores was only a waste. The Emperor was constantly fuelling the development of every city and town. As for the villages, they were either relocated or were combined together to make towns. This way, they wouldn''t be as fragile against attacks. "There are a lot of talents¡­" Krune muttered after six months passed in such a fashion. "But some are clearly a cut above the rest. I must make units accordingly." After obtaining permission from the Emperor, he selected the elites among the County Arms users, forming what he called the ''Invincible Golden Battalion.'' It was comprised of the elites who had the potential to reach the power scale of Imperial Arms through their County Arms. Krune paid them more attention, making them train even more vigorously than the others. From time to time, he used Mental Energy to heal their sore muscles, giving them slight boosts. They were also given superior nourishing medicines, with each being costly enough to bankrupt medium-sized merchant families. "Director, the shipment from the Liu Clan has arrived," a servant arrived, informing Krune. Behind him, a large carriage arrived, carrying a lot of materials within. "You can leave now." Krune nodded, pulling the carriage towards the entrance once the servants left. He then transported all the materials into a secret underground room that he had built under his manor. The materials consisted of the teeth, hair, horns, claws, and skin of the Yin Dragon. These days, it wasn''t even bothered about handing out its body parts, treating it as a casual matter. After all, it was living in luxury, lazing around, having an entire team to groom it, including cleaning its butt and wiping its shit. It had zero complaints and lazed around comfortably. Moreover, albeit slow, it was still growing stronger, evolving into something beyond a mere beast. However, as to what might happen to it, Krune couldn''t say with assurance yet. Smirking, Krune activated his Star Ring, causing three rings to manifest around him. He then expanded them until they enveloped the entire room, turning blue as they began to spark with bolts of lightning. Krune then summoned his Star Hammer, absorbing the lightning arcs produced by the rings as fuel to pound the materials. He refined them and began to process them one after another. While he was working on the materials, his assistants trained the others. They were the students that he judged with enough potential to become teachers of the County Arms Division. He was also teaching them with more knowledge than others so that they would be ready to take his place eventually. Eight months later, he filled the room with sets of armors, accompanied by a sword for each set. They would be what the troops of the ''Invincible Golden Battalion'' would don for battle. The sets of armor he created would be passed down as relics among the families that gain qualifications to don them. With self-repairing capabilities and the ability to adjust to the wielder''s body, they were strong enough to not even be scratched from weapons, possessing defense only inferior to the Yin Dragon. Upon finishing them, Krune directed his gaze at the suitcase with more than 700 Nightmare Cores, grinning.. "My soul as a blacksmith is calling for me." Chapter 1253 - Insane Refinement "Hammer!" Krune shouted as he picked up all the 700+ Nightmare Cores using Mental Energy before making a cluster with them. His Star Hammer then unleashed a powerful gravitational force, siphoning it from the three rings of his Star Ring enveloping the room. The gravity was then used to compress the Nightmare Cores as lightning flickered through them, beginning to melt them. A day later, all the Nightmare Cores had been melted and reshaped into a massive core. Through Mental Energy, Krune extracted all the negative emotions contained in them, sending them towards the center, where they were condensed to the extent they turned ethereal. "Go!" With a start, he sent his Soul Needle flying into the mixture, causing it to pierce through the ethereal condensation of negative emotions. Instantly, the power of the Sun Stone began to attack them while Krune activated the Soul Needle completely through Mental Energy, activating the power that it had absorbed recently. Ancient Demon! The power that he had absorbed from the Ancient Demon quickly flowed out of the Soul Needle, seeping into the negative emotions. Moreover, its ability to grow by absorbing negative emotions took effect when the Soul Needle whirred into life, unleashing the brunt of the Sun Stone''s power. Through Mental Energy, Krune protected the negative emotions, slowly purifying them using the Sun Stone''s power before infusing his own thoughts into it. This way, he was changing its inherent nature of absorbing and growing using negative emotions. The type of emotions he infused were just two: Justice and a wish for peace. The Nightmare Cores were then compressed slowly by the gravity while the lightning arcs continued to purify them, turning them into something grander, more serene. For the next couple of weeks, Krune worked solely on purifying all the negative emotions before infusing the emotions of justice and a wish for peace into them. He then rested for a week, recovering his Mental Energy to the peak before resuming the process, continuing to strengthen the core first. Thanks to the three rings unleashed by his Star Ring, there was a continuous exertion of gravity onto the core. Moreover, by drawing the power from nature, lightning bolts constantly slammed into it, tempering it further and further. "Activate!" Krune said solemnly, condensing his Cloud Whale around the core, making its heart form around the core. This way, it was treated as if the core was an integral part of the Cloud Whale. His Mental Energy then gushed into the Soul Needle that emanated a resonant fluctuation as countless formations were engraved throughout the core and the insides of the Cloud Whale. All the space was used for the same as Krune had summoned it in its maximum size. Eight meters! Thanks to his training, this was the maximum length he was able to summon the Cloud Whale now. Just the sheer amount of power he could exert through it was tremendous, almost on the level of a mini calamity. And every time he pushed himself, his Mental Energy reserves continued to grow. It was because his mind was maturing that quickly, thanks to the experiences of four people other than him. With that, his Mental Energy became stronger. The lightning bolts acted like a tribulation as they seeped through the Cloud Whale and passed into the core in its heart while the Soul Needle in its center unleashed a mild fluctuation, connecting everything into one. The countless formations that he engraved through Mental Energy made the process smooth. Eventually, the essence of the Ancient Demon had finished flowing out of the Soul Needle and had completely encapsulated the Cloud Whale. However, through the lightning refinement, its nature had grandly changed. Bam! Suddenly, the Soul Needle shattered, for a moment causing Krune to collapse to the ground, falling unconscious. It was as if he had lost an integral part of himself, spitting out blood. He retracted his Mental Energy, swallowing a bunch of pills as he recovered his Mental Energy, condensing it into himself as he watched the Soul Needle beginning to form, albeit at a snail''s pace. Sighing in relief, he continued with the refinement. The shattering of the Soul Needle was a necessary process. After all, with that, he had established a firm connection between his creation and himself. It was as if the Cloud Whale before him wasn''t his own Cloud Whale, but one that shared a connection with him. After all, with a thought, Krune summoned a palm-sized Cloud Whale, sighing in relief. "It''s done." "Now, I''ll have to wait for the lightning refinement to continue." Continuing to cough out blood from time to time, Krune exited the place, meditating daily after work to heal his internal injuries. Thanks to his Mental Energy, this was possible. Two years had passed in such a fashion as many batches of students graduated and had taken up work at various posts throughout the Empire. Some of them had even clashed with Yin Beasts already. Some performed exceptionally well, but some were unlucky and met their demise. Though, with their influx, the Empire''s condition had stabilized somewhat. It was also because the Liu Clan was constantly equipping more and more people with the County Arms, allowing the strength of the empire to gradually increase. In this span of two years, all Krune had done was work on recovering his Soul Needle and heal his internal injuries. After all, he had taken some serious damage when the Soul Needle had shattered. Had he been in his wisp form, this damage wouldn''t have been as severe. But as he wasn''t, it had taken him so long. Ding! The moment the Soul Needle finished forming, it hummed a resonant sound as Krune arrived underground, gazing at the eight-meter-long Cloud Whale blinking cutely, emanating a dense pressure of peace. In its vicinity, even the most bloodthirsty of humans would sit and meditate calmly, throwing away their weapons. He gently patted it, smiling as he felt the emotions of justice and peace he felt flow out and gush into the Cloud Whale, continuing to strengthen it like how negative emotions did to Nightmares and Demons. "And now, to nail the process completely." Krune retracted his Star Ring and Star Hammer, bringing the Cloud Whale outside before sending it inside a massive building that he had instructed the academy to build¡ªone that took the past two years to finish. Following that, he arrived at the platform, gazing at the instructors that were teaching the new batches of students, coughing once before gaining the attention of everyone.. "Everyone, your mettle would be tested now." Chapter 1254 - Krune’s Blessings "A test?" A student gulped, whispering, "Will the Director kick us out of the Imperial Academy if we fail?" "Who knows?" Another student whispered, tense. "The Director''s influence is greater than the headmaster here. Even in the Empire, it''s only second to the Emperor. So, we cannot say anything." Countless discussions happened amongst the students as Krune clearly heard them all through Sonic Radar, smiling as he looked at the student that talked first, causing the other party to shiver. "The test is a simple one. There are no punishments for failure." The student''s face was ashen, fearing how the Director had known about their conversation when they had been whispering all along. ''Strange, since when did my image turn so frightening?'' Krune wondered as he continued speaking, "However, if you pass the test, you''ll obtain great rewards." "Now." He pointed at the first row, motioning for them to follow him. "We''ll go through groups of 50 for each round of test. You can rest or do anything in the meantime. However, you cannot leave the training grounds." The group of fifty students trembled a little, cursing their luck for being at the front today. Though, they didn''t express anything, silently following Krune. Soon, they entered a massive building, the biggest in the County Arms Division. Here, Krune had used all three rings of his Star Ring to unleash the effect of lightning. Thanks to the property of a Star Imperial Arms, even after he retracted the three rings, as long as he didn''t will otherwise, the effect would never vanish. It would sustain itself by absorbing energy from nature. Above it, Krune laid a formation using Mental Energy. This formation worked by absorbing the unleashed lightning bolts, using them to power itself. Hovering in the center of this formation was the Cloud Whale, possessing all the knowledge related to manipulating the formation. Even though it didn''t have Mental Energy, it was able to morph the energy in its body, causing it to affect the formation. That was how he had designed it. The students entered, noticing that they were in a massive dome of sorts. Within, mini caves had been created along the dome walls, enough for a person to be seated within each. "Now, take a seat and close your eyes. I''ll relay the rest of the instructions once everyone is seated," Krune said as all fifty students hurriedly took their spots, closing their eyes. Though, the moment they closed their eyes, the formation took effect, plunging them into a realistic hallucination. It tested their character, mettle, ambitions, and so on. "Alright, it''s working pretty well." Krune nodded, sensing various emotions being emanated from the students. With his Mental Energy being used to its true potential, and thanks to his various encounters, he was able to feel this, at least in this place, with his power amplified by the formation. "There''s already one?" Krune was shocked, hurriedly arriving before a cave, noticing a familiar figure seated there. She was Hong Lian, Chen Xue''s best friend. And now, a vast surge of Mental Energy gushed into her as the Cloud Whale''s body shone in the center of the formation. Krune felt a tad weak for a moment before recovering. Of course, the process he was performing now was exactly what Little Cally had done to him by employing the Galki. While stuck in a mysterious altar, when the Galki prayed to him, they obtained part of his power by weakening him. But here, Krune modified the same formation, making the Cloud Whale he created bear the brunt of the load. It was still his abilities that were being taken, but the effect was almost negligible. After all, thanks to its ability to grow by absorbing the emotions of peace and justice, the Cloud Whale would be able to recover the loss in power quickly. After all, for a person to be chosen by it, they would have to possess an enormous sense of righteousness in them. They must have a strong sense of justice and earnestly wish for peace. ''Hong Lian had lost her parents to a Nightmare when young. So, she knows the feeling very well.'' Krune nodded, watching the Mental Energy continue to gush into her body as he felt a tiny Cloud Whale form in her. At present, its size was only equivalent to his nail. But, as time passed, it slowly continued to grow, stopping when it had reached the size of his palm. "With this, she has obtained the power of the Cloud Whale." Krune smiled contently. Of course, power corrupted people. So, suppose the Empire manages to eradicate all threats, then the people itself would turn on one another after that. To prevent that, having heroes of justice was a necessity. Then again, it was more like a police force, one driven by a strong sense of justice. Krune had made it in such a way that the people with such traits were bestowed the power of the Cloud Whale. And if one day, they lost their sense of justice and wish for peace, the Cloud Whale would vanish from them. However, it would reappear magically the moment they regained their sense of justice and wish for peace. It was a foolproof mechanism. "These heroes are what would ensure the longstanding of the Empire''s peace even after the eradication of external threats." Krune sighed in relief. Though, his expression turned sour when he realized that only Hong Lian inherited the power of the Cloud Whale. There were a couple others in the batch that was close to it but failed in the end. After an hour since their arrival, all the students woke up one after another, looking around in confusion, unable to understand just what had happened, failing to recall the hallucinations they were put through. "Everyone can leave," Krune said. "Send in the next batch of students." Krune then nodded at Hong Lian, telling her, "Congratulations on passing." "This¡­is¡­?" Hong Lian was surprised, sensing a mysterious power welling up within her. "What''s¡­this?" "I call it Krune''s Blessings." Krune smiled, saying without even an ounce of embarrassment. "This is your mark as a hero¡­" "The Empire''s Police Force." Chapter 1255 - Precursor To War "The Empire''s Police Force." Hearing his words, everyone was stunned, shooting glances at Hong Lian, wondering how she passed. Moreover, based on Krune''s words, it seemed she had attained high status, causing them envy. A girl, one that always considered herself as Hong Lian''s rival, stepped forward, unable to endure it anymore, asking, "Director, how did we fail the test?" "That''s unnecessary for you to know," Krune smiled casually as he replied. "All you''ll get to know is the fact as to whether you had passed the test or not. For the past one hour, everyone took their test. Those who passed would be accepted into the Empire''s Police Force." "Then¡­" She gritted her teeth, unwilling to stomach the fact that Hong Lian had passed while she failed. "You''re from the third year, right?" Krune asked, watching the girl nod in response as he smiled. "Then, it means you have two more chances. Everyone will get a chance to undergo the test once a year. So, better luck next year." "Sir, but what are we being tested¡­" The girl was unrelenting in her behavior, wishing to be part of the group that passed the first time itself when she noticed words failing to form in her mouth anymore. She then made eye contact with Krune, collapsing to the ground in fear. Even though all Krune did was stand in place, after unlocking the true potential of Mental Energy, he was like an entirely different individual. Anyone that gazed at his eyes would feel as if all their secrets were laid bare before him. This was the reason the students harbored a fear of him recently. None dared to speak up after that as everyone left the dome. Soon, another group of 50 students entered and repeated the same as the previous batch. Krune''s eyes lit up in excitement, for there were four people who passed in this batch. After informing the four students that they had passed, he watched the third batch. Seeing the duration it was taking per batch, he made most of the students return to their dorms, giving them numbers, motioning for them to assemble at their respective time. Eventually, after five days, all the students had been tested once. There were approximately 6000 students in the Imperial Academy now. This was already a sizeable number. If not for the fact that the Liu Clan used a multitude of excuses to keep everything hidden, it was simply impossible for them to produce such a frightening number of Imperial Arms, given their excuse that one could only make two County Arms a year. Fortunately, thanks to the Emperor''s orders, it made it seem as if the Liu Clan had mysterious origins, with their members spread throughout the Empire, their total numbers unknown. That was how none questioned the number of County Arms users that were increasing in numbers every year at a staggering pace. Among the 6000 students, almost 400 students managed to obtain a Cloud Whale. It pleased Krune tremendously because this number would only continue to grow in the future. It would be enough to station them in every town and city, ensuring peace would be maintained. From the start, Krune never left the County Arms Division, relaying all his needs to Daxia Ting, who then mentioned them to the Emperor. And the Emperor did his best to fulfill Krune''s orders, already setting up police stations in every town and city, ready to be occupied by the police officers once they graduated. Krune then took a week to draft the laws the police officers had to follow, the things they had to investigate and solve, the crimes/activities that fell under their jurisdiction, the various means to track and search for clues, and so on. Everything a police officer had to know, including the means to train and use the Cloud Whale, had been drafted into two scrolls. The first consisted of the laws, while the second was personal, containing training manuals for the Cloud Whale and its abilities. He then passed on the two scrolls to the calligraphy department and made them create countless copies of the two scrolls, enough for all the police stations. Once everything was done, Krune called for the police officers. The Emperor had also made an appearance to witness the event as everyone summoned their respective palm-sized Cloud Whales. All Krune did was leave behind one statement for them. "Ensure our land is peaceful. That''s the police force''s only motto." "Yes!" Everyone saluted before pointing their Cloud Whales into the sky, unleashing Air Needles simultaneously. Seeing such a scene, Krune whispered to the Emperor, "Your Majesty¡­" "We''re ready!" ¡­ Demon City, a massive fortress erected from stone. In truth, it was a city that had been carved into a mountain, making it a natural fortress with walls spanning hundreds of meters in thickness. It had a massive area, with a radius surpassing thirty kilometers. Bizarre-shaped buildings had been erected, with creatures of all shapes and sizes living here. It was a utopia of sorts for the Nightmares, especially the Demons. Su Daiyu stood atop a massive tower that was situated in the center of the city, overlooking everything. She noticed the many Demons walking about, living their lives, with each followed by many Demon Arms users. Unlike before, the Demon Arms users were no longer human. They were Yin Beasts. Once the number of Demons reached the double digits, they pooled together their intellect, receiving help from some of the legendary Yin Beasts to improve their methods. And that was the creation of Demon Arms that Yin Beasts could use. After all, even after using Demon Arms, humans were frail creatures. Moreover, they had short lifespans, unable to handle extended use and died quickly. But for the Yin Beasts, that wasn''t a problem. Plus, the Yin Beasts had an inherent characteristic of serving Demons. And it was here that they noticed an interesting relationship. The energy signatures of some Yin Beasts were similar to one of the Demons. Every Demon noticed some Yin Beasts sharing the same energy signatures as them. And, when such Yin Beasts used Demon Arms of the Demon with the same energy signature, the output power was stellar while not much lifeforce was consumed, allowing prolonged use. Though, for the Yin Beasts that had long lifespans, this was of no concern. "What''s on your mind?" Suddenly, the Demon that created Demon City patted Su Daiyu''s shoulder, asking, "Are you concerned?" "Concerned? About what?" Su Daiyu laughed, expressing a devilish grin. "I was just thinking about how we would be trampling the Empire." "You don''t need to think about it anymore." The Demon laughed. "You can witness it with your eyes." "When?" "Shortly." Chapter 1256 - Demon Manual "You damn wench, is this why I raised you?" A middle-aged man screamed in anger, slapping a girl that seemed to be in her teens. The slap was strong enough to imprint his palm on her cheek. "Dad, I love him. Didn''t you promise me before that you''ll marry me to anyone I want?" The girl shed tears, clenching her cheek that had reddened, coursing a stinging sensation in her. "Fool!" The middle-aged man bellowed. "He''s a Ghost Appeaser. Do you know their job? It''s to be possessed by a Nightmare and get killed. I won''t allow my daughter to live as a widow for the rest of her life." "But, can''t you make an exception?" The girl begged him. "Our Su Clan has a lot of Ghost Appeasers. Won''t the disappearance of one not even be noticed?" "As if," the middle-aged man snorted as he replied. "A Ghost Appeaser is nurtured through a lot of resources, with their sole goal being to be killed by an Imperial Meister one day. That is their duty. Now, what do you think would happen if I married one of them? They''ll develop hope that they too could have a family one day." "It creates a precedent that would collapse our family''s efforts." The middle-aged man then waved his hand. "Su Daiyu, this is my order. From now onwards, you are to forget about that Ghost Appeaser and live an honorable life. Find someone else to marry, whether a royal, a nobleman, or even a commoner. Anyone other than a Ghost Appeaser is fine." ''But he''s the one I love.'' Su Daiyu controlled her tears, biting her lips until they bled as she bowed and walked away. On the night of the same day, a figure jumped into her courtyard, stealthily creeping into her room, arriving before the sleeping figure of Su Daiyu, muttering with a weak voice, gently caressing her cheek wound, "Su Daiyu¡­" Her hands grabbed hold of his as Su Daiyu turned around, sobbing as she said, "Get lost. Don''t come here from today onwards. My father would kill you." The man looked at his hands that she was clutching with the entirety of her strength, smiling wryly as he patted her head, saying gently, "Being killed is my honor. So, I''ve never feared death. Moreover, being with you fulfills my existence." "Han¡­" Su Daiyu gazed at him as tears welled up in her eyes before planting a kiss on him. She then pulled him into her quilt as the two joined together. An hour later, the two lay beside one another as Su Daiyu spoke all of a sudden, "I''ve decided." "Decided on what?" the man addressed as Han asked in confusion, his cheeks red, still reeling from the intense activity that he had never imagined would happen to him one day. A Ghost Appeaser had no second name; neither were they registered in the family registry. They were like ghosts, their life and death unconcerned. So, he was only called Han. Whether that was actually his name or not, even he was unsure. His older brother had been called Han before. And following his death, he was now addressed Han. "Let''s escape from here," Su Daiyu said. "No." Han shook his head. "You have already been chosen by your Lord Su Zixin''s Imperial Arms. So, you''re the next Imperial Meister that would succeed him. Escaping is not an option. That''s traitorous. I''ll never allow you to bear such infamy." "I''m not saying we''ll make a break for it just like that." Su Daiyu smiled before taking out a scroll from a nearby drawer, opening it to reveal a mysterious diagram. "This is¡­" As Han looked at the scroll and read its contents, he was left flabbergasted. "This is the lost manual created by the Ghost Saint?" The one addressed as a Ghost Saint was a legend in the Ghost Appeaser community. He was the first Ghost Appeaser that had created the means to generate more Ghost Appeasers. He was someone whose origins predated the Empire. Though, information about his life and death was unclear. But before vanishing from the world, he had left behind two scrolls and a statement, "My second scroll is my lifetime''s achievement." The first scroll was called the Ghost Appeaser Scroll and formed the basis of creating Ghost Appeasers, allowing humans to possess the means to kill Nightmares efficiently. As for the second scroll, it was lost in history, never being found out. Countless families had searched for it throughout the eras but failed to find it. And now, such a scroll was in Su Daiyu''s hands. Han looked at the words written at the top of the scroll, reading it aloud, "The Demon Manual?" "Yes," Su Daiyu replied. "This information isn''t available to the public or the aristocratic families. However, sealed at the bottom of the Imperial Palace is a Demon, one that had appeared before the Empire was even founded. It had been terrorizing the lands before the people joined hands and eventually founded our Daxia Empire." She then stated solemnly, "And that Demon is the legendary Ghost Saint. After turning into a Demon himself, he created the second scroll." "How did you find it?" Even now, even as he stared at the scroll, he was unable to believe it, for it was too much for him to handle emotionally. After all, the Ghost Saint was pretty much revered by the Ghost Appeasers. And now to stare at the scroll created by him¡­ "In the Empire''s ruins," she said, continuing, "The original Daxia Empire wasn''t founded here. It was situated on a mountain within a forest. But as the number of people increased, they relocated here." "But once, using exploration as an excuse, I sneaked into that forest and stumbled upon a grave in the ruins. When I dug it out, I found the scroll. It was pretty obvious that I wondered why no one managed to find it in the past," she said. "Where is that forest located?" Han asked. "To the north of the Empire." Chapter 1257 - Warfront: Praire River "What does this Demon Manual state?" Han asked, curious. "When a Ghost Appeaser is possessed by a Nightmare, they''re called a Demon, right?" she asked, watching him nod. "But in actuality, even when possessed, the Nightmare isn''t unable to exert power. Because the will of the respective Ghost Appeaser is fighting against the Nightmare''s. And that gives enough time for the Imperial Meister to kill the Ghost Appeaser, destroying the Nightmare along with him," Su Daiyu said. "But, if the Nightmare manages to take control fully, it''ll be called a Demon." "This manual talks about the means to complete this possession while defeating the Nightmare." She smiled, gazing at Han, causing him to shudder as she handed it over to him. "Treat this with care and memorize all the contents first. After that, return it to me." "I''ll do that." Han sighed. "I feel bad for doing this." "No, you''re doing it for me," Su Daiyu replied. "Unless you wish for me to live as a widow for the rest of my life after your death." "Fine, I''ll do it." ¡­ "Su Daiyu, you''re lost in thought again." The Demon that created Demon City spoke. "Han¡­" Su Daiyu smiled, gazing at the Demon City from her vantage point, seeing the Yin Beasts, Nightmares, and Demons marching out. "The first of its kind, the Demon City. To think it''s established in the exact place of the previous initial Daxia Empire''s ruins, the hope for the survival of humanity back then. The irony of it makes me laugh." ¡­ Sirens blazed while horses neighed. Soldiers streamed through the streets of every single town and city, armors sparkly, weapons gleaming with a deathly sheen. The common populace that looked at the scene was full of worry. It was because they weren''t fighting against other humans. This was a war for survival, against Demons. Hence, their victory and loss would determine the Empire''s fate. Prices shot up while those wealthy began to stockpile resources. There was a state of unrest everywhere. And this indeed caused negative emotions to continue to increase. However, whenever a Nightmare Appeared, a group of people rushed towards the place, swiftly dealing with it first through their County Arms. Whether it was a Nightmare, Yin Beast, thugs, bandits, etc. No matter the trouble, this group rushed to solve everything, gradually calming the minds of the populace, assuring them that as long as they were there, the respective city or town would be fine. Police Officers! That was their official designation. But in reality, the populace addressed them with another name: Imperial Peacekeepers. Not only were they stronger than the regular human, but they were also faster, able to jump high and perform a variety of activities while jumping. It was all thanks to their Cloud Whale, its air currents giving them greater control over their bodies. Moreover, as the Cloud Whale continued to grow in size, their abilities improved. Even though it would take them at least a decade before they reached the required level to take flight, it still made them faster than everyone else. The Air Needles of the Cloud Whale were also effective against Yin Beasts. For Nightmares, they had their County Arms to rely upon. And no matter what, the Police Officers were only stationed within the cities and towns and never drafted for war. So, thanks to their presence, the security of every region returned to normalcy as people returned to their usual lives, feeling safe under the protection of the Police Officers. Thanks to them, the internal chaos of the Empire quickly stabilized. As for Krune, he took charge as the commander of the Imperial Forces, leading the troops full of County Arms users. There were other commanders that led the general army, not to mention the commanders leading specialized units like the Invincible Golden Battalion, Recovery Battalion, Mobility Battalion, etc. The Recovery Battalion consisted of County Arms users whose abilities allowed them to treat the injured. Though they didn''t have any means to regenerate lost limbs, they were still able to treat most injuries at a faster pace. As for the Mobility Battalion, it was a trump card that Krune boasted upon. Smiling, Krune gazed upwards, noticing four ships flying in the sky, with each carrying two hundred soldiers, equipped with ballista and other hard-hitting projectile weapons. The four ships slowly moved through the air, hovering thanks to the gravity inbuilt into them. After all, each ship was created jointly by twenty County Arms users that unleashed and maintained their respective County Arms. The only trait of their County Arms was the gravity Krune had built into them. That was how they hovered in the air, allowing for travel. If not a ship, they were also capable of making individual boats that were capable of carrying at least four people. Krune looked around, gazing at the face of nervousness of the soldiers, the anxiety prevalent in their expressions, the fear they were emitting, etc. Some were brave, some shivered, some ignored everything and dreamed of their potential valor, etc. Soaking up with the terrifying atmosphere, Krune sighed, muttering, "So, this is war." It wasn''t something he could experience as a cultivator, not when they had countless abilities to mask out things. Here, the blood, gore, the screams of dying soldiers, the stench of war, and so on would slam into one''s senses. Even though the war had yet to begin, this sensation already began to pervade the battlefield. Currently, they had gathered at the north of the Empire''s territory, along the shallow banks of the Praire River. This river formed the northern boundary of the Daxia River. Its shore spanned tens of kilometers in length, forming the largest shore in their empire and beyond. As for the river''s depth, it was just shallow waters, only reaching the height of their knee. In its deepest parts, it reached their neck in height. As a river with shallow waters and weak currents, also forming the Empire''s borders, it naturally became the battlefield. After all, to its north was a forest, and thirty kilometers into the forest was Demon City. So, this naturally became the battlefield. Standing on the southern side of the Praire River shore were the humans, nervousness amidst them. On the other hand, situated on the northern side, with their figures hulking over the human side, were the Demon army, consisting of massive creatures. As the representative of the side of humans, Krune took off into the air, hovering a hundred meters from the ground as he stopped atop the river''s center. As the representative of the Demon Army, Han, the Demon that created Demon City, flapped his wings and arrived before Krune. The two glared at each other as the place was slowly dyed with killing intent. Chapter 1258 - He’s Strong "State your terms, Demon," Krune spoke, as dictated by the warring laws their world followed. The representatives would talk first, just in case everything was due to a misunderstanding. This was to prevent war from unjustly happening. However, it was mostly used by the representatives to display the moral standing of their respective sides and to rile up their soldiers. "Well, the Empire''s downfall sounds just about right." Han smirked in response, his five-meter-tall figure casting a large shadow on the river. ''He''s almost reached the strength level of that Ancient Demon when it had been sealed.'' Krune probed through Han''s power level as he snorted at its claim. "I''m not going to ask for your terms, though." Han continued to laugh. "You''ll be annihilated anyway. Maybe if you surrender, you''ll be spared." He purposely raised his voice, transmitting it to the human army, causing countless soldiers to seethe in rage, almost breaking out of their formation. "Unfortunately for you," Krune suddenly smiled as he replied. "The Empire is already prepared to mourn at your graves this time next year. We''ve even planned for a holiday. You know, the day we sweep the dirt off our streets." "You!" Han became angered at his words. Rather more than words, Krune''s expression of ridicule pissed him. Without any hesitation, he punched at Krune. He had no reason to follow the customs of humans anyway. He had only done so to break their morale at the start. And since it didn''t work, he planned to destroy their commander first. His punch slammed into Krune when Han frowned, feeling like he had hit air. Krune''s figure skid through the air for ten meters before he laughed boisterously. "Wow, I never thought the Demon commander was this weak. If I had known this, I would have sent my youngest disciple to mop the floor with you." As Krune wasn''t even the least scratched, his words carried tremendous weight. Thanks to Mental Energy and the air currents he generated through Cloud Whale, there was a layer of air cushion surrounding him that absorbed all attacks. That was how he came out unscathed. Then again, his opponents didn''t know of that, only seeing the scene of Krune casually brushing off the attacks of their strongest. "Humans." Krune''s voice suddenly resounded throughout the battlefield, amplified thanks to his imposing display earlier as he raised his hands, bringing them down immediately. "Charge!" "Arrghhh!" The soldiers bellowed at his command and began to charge towards the Praire River. "Destroy them!" Han shouted, gritting his teeth at Krune''s actions. The Yin Beasts formed the first line as massive hills of meat jumped into the river, unobstructed by the water as they rushed towards the humans, gaining momentum, looking like they would easily topple through hundreds from this charge. "Moon Archers! Fire!" Suddenly, generals under him bellowed as countless soldiers summoned their moon-attributed County Arms, all projective based, unleashing the entirety of their power in one go. A myriad of abilities arched through the air before slamming into the Praire River. "Dammit! Retreat!" Han noticed it a tad too late as he shouted, noticing countless Yin Beasts had charged through the Praire River and almost reached the other end. As for the humans, even though they had been charging with reckless might before, they were a lot slower, hence creating this situation where they stopped 20 meters from the river as if everything was planned beforehand. And right at this time, the myriad abilities slammed into the Praire River, turning the river into ice, trapping all the Yin Beasts there. Not only were the moon-attributed County Arms included in this, but also the Imperial Meisters with moon-attributed Imperial Arms. Thanks to that, a tremendous amount of frost power coursed through the river, freezing it entirely, continuing to freeze it for dozens of kilometers. "Now, charge! Kill them!" Krune commanded as the army charged forth, attacking the trapped Yin Beasts. With their mobility gone, they could only rely on their arms, being expertly targeted by the humans that moved on the ice surface. And the spikes under the soles of their shoes helped them maintain balance in this situation. "So, they''ve prepared a lot¡­" Su Daiyu sighed, arriving beside Han, having reached the same height as him. They were the biggest of Demons on this battlefield, attracting attention from everyone, for their actions would change the tide of war. "With the elites gone, the rest would become akin to a sandcastle," she said, gazing at the figure of Krune that was situated a couple hundred meters away, calmly standing in the air, hands folded, gazing at them all along. On top of that, for some reason, he sported a knowing smile, one that caused her to shudder. "We should take him out first. Based on the information we gathered, he''s Liu Heng, a Star Imperial Meister. He''s also the one that created County Arms and the one that strengthened the Empire recently." "So, he''s the real deal." Han turned solemn, no longer treating Krune as a spoiled brat. Preparations for war took time, and by the time the Demon actually finished amassing power from even beyond the Empire, it had been six years since the appearance of County Arms. Krune was almost 21 years old, of course too young to be in a position of authority. That was why he hadn''t put enough strength in his punch before, having underestimated Krune. "Let''s deal with him first. Killing him would deal an emotional blow to everyone that looks up to him," Su Daiyu said, flapping her wings before flying towards Krune. "Fine." Han nodded in response as his figure flashed, speeding towards Krune as he unleashed the brunt of his aura, causing the air to crackle as a baleful screech resounded. A gigantic human skull formed above him, opening its mouth to unleash green flames at Krune. The green flames were akin to a jelly mixture of poison and curses, flying at Krune with tremendous speeds. "Hmph!" Krune snorted, using Mental Energy on his clothes to hover in the air while he condensed the Cloud Whale next to him, adding a small reverse funnel at the top of its horn. Air Needle! Thanks to the reverse funnel, the concentrated beam of air expanded in size, turning into a powerful thrust of wind, blowing away the fire towards the skull, even sending it flying back from the force. Violent gales were stirred up as a result, halting the Demons in their approach, causing them to frown. "This human¡­" "He''s strong!" Chapter 1259 - Pressured By Their Foes The powers of each Demon varied, allowing them to possess a myriad of abilities. Not to mention their terrifying flesh body that was able to endure the strongest of attacks, as well as their superior regeneration that was similar to the legendary Yin Beasts. With that, they were unstoppable foes. Three Demons landed in the middle of the human army, laughing as the humans barely reached their hips in height. One of the Demons swiped his hand, sending almost a dozen humans flying, with four of them dying from the impact. Without any hesitation, the Demon unleashed a baleful screech soon after, causing all the humans in his vicinity to clutch their heads and drop to the ground, screaming in response while they bled from all orifices. One after another, the Demon casually stomped them to death, grinning. "Is this all you''re capable of?" "Is that so?" Suddenly, an angry voice resounded before a spear of fire crashed into the Demon, sending it flying back as a Sun Imperial Meister revealed himself, accompanied by four other Sun Imperial Meisters. They joined hands, using their respective Sun Imperial Arms to unleash torrential flames, attacking the Demon. "Haha, this is great. Keep it coming!" The Demon laughed in response as his body began to vibrate with tremendous power, causing intense fluctuations that rippled out. The shockwaves affected the flames in response, diminishing their power. When the flaming spear landed on him once again, it had shrunk to a third of its original size, destroyed with a punch from the Demon. "Again, is that all you''re capable of?" "Tch." One of them snorted, condensing a firebird that took off to the air before flapping its wings, unleashing a gust of hot air. As it continued to flap its wings, the air turned hotter and hotter until it had become hot enough for any flammable materials to catch fire automatically. Sparks of fire flashed in the region before one of the Sun Imperial Meisters threw off a vat using all his strength, causing it to explode from the heat and spill out all the contents from within. It was oil, one that caught on fire from the sparks, landing on the Demon before causing him to scream. This fire couldn''t be cut off that easily. Just when the Demon planned to head towards the Praire River to snuff it off, the flame spear crashed into him, sending him reeling deeper into human territory. However, even though they gained an advantage now, the five Sun Imperial Meisters still sported a pensive expression. After all, the Demon''s injuries were pretty light. The moment they took a moment to breathe, they noticed the Demon''s injuries beginning to heal, despite it being burned by the fire. A simple oil fire was insufficient to actually wound it. Only the fire from their Sun Imperial Arms was capable enough to wound it. Thinking of something, they made eye contact before condensing their County Arms. Among them, the one that acted as their leader whipped up his County Arms, a fan-shaped item. All he did was fan it towards the Demon when the intensity of the flames surrounding it spiked all of a sudden. The more he fanned it, the harsher the flames became. Then again, he was also getting exhausted with every wave of his fan. "Haap!" As that battle was raging on, a County Arms user summoned his County Arms, an axe that turned red, emanating blinding heat as he slammed it into a Yin Beast, sending it reeling backward. His face was a bit pale, seeing the Yin Beast only sport a small injury from his attack while some of its scales got singed. ''Damn it. I used a lot of strength in that attack.'' Gritting his teeth, he coursed more power into his County Arms, causing the heat it emitted to continue climbing up in strength as he slammed it into the Yin Beast once again. "I''ll help you." Right on time, his comrade jumped into the fray, targeting the Yin Beast''s back, nicking it using his sword. The Yin Beast retaliated when the both of them jumped back, watching an arrow of fire land on its face, causing it to growl in response. "I''ll keep it occupied." Standing farther away was another County Arms user, panting as he spoke, condensing another arrow of fire on his bow, targeting the Yin Beast. But, just when he was about to fire it, he noticed the faces of his comrades pale as they shouted in alarm. But, he didn''t manage to react, noticing the world around him turning jet black all of a sudden. Grrr! A Yin Beast that resembled a tiger, only thrice in size, let out a guttural sound, gently landing on the ground as it spat out the head of the County Arms archer that it had bit off just now. It then sniffed once before its tongue shot into the severed head, sucking out his brain matter like it was a delicacy. Satisfied, the tiger licked its lips before leaping away, evading the attack from the enraged due whose axe and sword only hit the air. The battlefield was messy as the humans were at a disadvantage. After all, despite possessing County Arms, the humans needed time to kill the Yin Beasts, even for the weakest of the Yin Beasts. But in response, they had fragile bodies, dying from a couple of hits by the Yin Beasts. This disparity caused a lot of humans to fall prey to sneak attacks from mobile Yin Beasts that simply rushed through the battlefield to ambush strong foes. "Kill them! Hurry!" The situation on the Praire River was even more chaotic as the ice began to crack. The humans there attacked the trapped Yin Beasts in a hurry, ganging up on them in an effort to kill them faster. Then again, this was the line between the two armies. So, more and more Yin Beasts poured in, making the situation chaotic. "Kyaak!" Suddenly, a group of soldiers screamed and fell to the ground one after another, writhing from agony as their eyes burst out within a couple of seconds. Black smoke swirled around in the area, condensing into a Nightmare that screeched once before targeting another group. Wars were the perfect tonic for their growth as the Nightmare continued to grow in strength, feeding on the negative emotions generated by the soldiers prior to their deaths. "The side of the humans have yet to bring out their trump cards." Hovering atop a mountain deep within the Empire and staring at the battlefield as if it had eyes everywhere was a mysterious legendary Yin Beast. It suddenly let out a smile before turning around. "But, judging by the situation, it is only a matter of time before the Empire brings out its trump cards. And that would be my chance¡­" "To rescue my Lord that is trapped in the capital." Chapter 1260 - The Rain Of Arrows "Help me!" A soldier cried aloud as his legs were severed, oozing out blood as a Yin Beast munched on his severed legs, struggling as the ice around it continued to break off. Even though it had been trapped, it was a behemoth, reaching a height of 8 meters. It had been alive for a century, its status only inferior to a legendary Yin Beast. So, even though many soldiers attacked it, they were unable to even scratch it, being killed off in return. "This Yin Beast is strong. Take care!" A County Arms wielder shouted before taking out a chakram of ice that spun in the air and slammed into the Yin Beast, causing it to reel a little from the attack. She waved her hand when the chakram spun at frightening speeds, beginning to dig into its body. "Attack!" Four more County Arms wielders from the same clan appeared, unleashing their respective Moon Chakrams, slamming all of them into the Yin Beast. The frost power they unleashed began to freeze up the Yin Beast, also mending the cracks on the ground. Boom! Suddenly, a Yin Beast landed on the ice floor, causing all the ice in a thirty-meter radius to shatter completely. Its body shone with a purple hue that condensed into a pair of arms behind it. Demon Arms Wielder! These pair of arms were like whips, slamming everywhere as they packed a punch. As for the Yin Beast, it resembled a rhinoceros but was humanoid in structure. It casually walked while the pair of purple arms on its back continued to attack all enemies and free up the Yin Beasts. Its eyes then fell on the massive Yin Beast, thinking of freeing it when it noticed the five women that were attacking the eight-meter-tall Yin Beast. The rhinoceros Yin Beast stopped in place and crouched a little before kicking off, sprinting towards the five women, intending to slam them all away. "Guard!" The leader of their group shouted as all five unleashed their ice chakrams, sending it flying towards the rhinoceros Yin Beast, unleashing frost as they erected a barrier of ice. They couldn''t allow it to reach the eight-meter-tall Yin Beast, for the moment it was freed, the situation on the battlefield would worsen. Even with a simple estimate, it was one of the strongest Yin Beasts. And with it freed, more and more soldiers would die faster. "Stop it no matter what!" They brimmed themselves with courage, pouring as much power as they could into their County Arms, causing the ice wall to emanate a gentle moonlight. Unfortunately, the rhinoceros Yin Beast wrapped itself in purple light as its two purple hands condensed on its head, turning into a massive horn as it slammed into the wall of ice, shattering it, with the momentum sending the pieces flying away everywhere like bombs, erecting countless casualties¡ªmostly human. The five women were thrown off, coughing out blood as their ribs shattered from the impact. The leader among them had defended against the brunt of the impact, the rebound force causing her to slam into a Yin Beast. Though, she hadn''t even managed to inhale when the respective Yin Beast grabbed hold of her, lifting her up, grinning as it intended to eat her. "Damn it! No!" The other four women gasped in fear as they watched the Yin Beast open its mouth, about to rip their leader''s legs off. Boom! Crackle! Suddenly, three feathers rushed into the Yin Beast''s mouth, entering its throat before exploding, causing countless arms of lightning to emanate, disorienting it when a bluish figure flashed past, severing its head. Revealing his wings, the man reoriented himself and flashed behind the captured woman, grabbing hold of her as he retreated. The Yin Beast''s headless corpse soon slammed down on the ice. Gazing at the hero that saved her, the leader was about to thank him when she was shocked, stuttering in response. "F-First Prince?" "Tend to your injuries first." Saying so, the First Prince placed her on the ground before his figure shot off into the air, arcing towards the rhinoceros Yin Beast as countless feathers swerved from his wings, blasting onto his opponent. The rhinoceros Yin Beast was unable to even react as it was blasted away, its figure skidding for tens of meters on the ice, causing a lot of Yin Beasts to tumble in the process. The First Prince had sent it flying in such a way, hindering a lot of Yin Beasts while showing off his exceptional powers. Moreover, the sheer power he exuded had already surpassed an Imperial Meister, immediately attracting countless gazes from his enemies. But unconcerned with them, the First Prince sent a feather flying into the air that exploded, creating a loud boom before the lightning flickered to form the shape of an arrow. Right at this moment, shadows loomed over the human side as four massive ships arrived. Immediately, the sky darkened as countless arrows, each three meters in length, flew out. They were made from Yin Beasts and hence possessed tremendous might, same for the ballistas that shot them. Boom! Kaboom! Thunderous sounds resounded as the massive arrows slammed into the Yin Beasts with tremendous power, causing blood to spurt out. The Yin Beasts died one after another as the humans roared in fighting spirit. "Lady Chen, please help my Lord." Standing on the deck of one of the ships was the Seventh Prince, sporting a solemn expression as he gazed at the massive greenish cloud at the top of the battlefield. It was where Krune was fighting against two Demons. "What about protecting these ships?" Chen Xue asked. "I''ll protect them with my life." the Seventh Prince said. "With everyone in the Imperial Family armed with County Arms, we''re capable of this. And, even for Lord, fighting against two Demons is impossible, not to mention them being as strong as that Ancient Demon prior to being sealed." "Alright, take care," Chen Xue said, flapping her wings as she bolted off into the green cloud. Immediately, there was a tinge of blue in the green cloud as the thunderous sounds from it heightened in intensity. The battle that decided the fate of the war increased in pitch, causing the Seventh Prince to gaze at the scene solemnly before bellowing, "Unleash the second volley. Let''s annihilate these monsters!" Chapter 1261 - Infiltrating The Royal Castle "Where''s your previous condescending expression, huh?" Han bellowed as the sea of green flames buried Krune within, causing the other party to struggle. He flailed his Star Hammer, unleashing sparks of lightning that continued to destroy the green flames. And right as he activated his Star Ring and was about to take action, Su Daiyu aimed attacks at him using her Imperial Arms¡ªMoon Flower. Two of the six petals flew towards him, their edges sharp, cutting through his layer of defense, sending him flying away. Every time he planned to use his Star Ring to go on the offensive, she would disrupt him, causing him to remain on the defensive. After all, Su Daiyu not only had her Demon powers to rely upon but also her Imperial Arms. So, Krune had to use all his power just to remain alive. The reason he was doing so was to keep both the Demons busy. He was aware of their strength, knowing very well that the battle would become a lost cause the moment one of them joined the war front. That was why he got on their nerves, causing them to target him with top priority. After all, it wasn''t just here that the war was happening. This was where the majority of the armies from both sides were stationed. Then again, small groups infiltrated both sides to engage in guerilla tactics. As the Empire''s territory was vast, they had a lot to defend. So, the Police Force was having a tough time, constantly on the move to keep everything stable. Thanks to the Cloud Whale, they had the advantage of mobility and were able to keep up with the Yin Beasts. Thanks to his training and with the Empire sparing no lack of resources to train them, the heads of each town/city among the Police Force were already capable of flight. On top of that, there were many who were able to travel at frightening speeds thanks to the wind currents generated by their Cloud Whales. Thanks to that, they were able to fight against the Nightmares that infiltrated the Empire at this time to sow seeds of chaos. There were also some Yin Beasts that had been hiding in the uncharted forest territory within the Empire. At this moment, they poured out one after another, causing every town and city to enter a state of siege warfare. So, even though it seemed like they had a lot of trump cards, they were all being used as a spare to defend the Empire. Wang Hao had also been posted on the defensive as a trump card against the Nightmares. There were four Police Officers that accompanied him, acting to transport him from one city to another while also supporting him during fights. As for the Emperor, he was personally fighting more than ten Nightmares that appeared within the capital mysteriously. All of this happened during Krune''s fight. ¡­ The moment the ships made an appearance, the legendary Yin Beast, Yin Ghost, smirked as its figure disappeared, speeding through the air, undetectable, looking no different from a crow. It then arrived at the capital, entering a large building as it swiftly killed the people living there. It then slowly undressed, revealing a beating heart that was shaped like a tree trunk. Connected to the ends of the nerves extending from the heart were tiny ghastly flames. They were similar to what the tavern owner had collected before. The Yin Ghost had been doing the same throughout the Empire, collecting negative emotions using the lantern that it had personally refined using its body. The process was similar to the creation of a Demon Army but was more discrete. On top of that, it had only one function, and that was to nurture Nightmares. After the flame within the lantern grew to its limit, the respective human possessing it would bring it to the Yin Ghost that collected the flames. After that, it would condense the flames into a ghost fire within its body. Normally, a ghost fire wasn''t a Nightmare. It had a special means in which it was able to condense dozens of ghost fires into one, which would birth a Nightmare. Due to this ability, it had been collecting ghost fires all along, the process spanning centuries, all in hopes of one day freeing its lord, the Ancient Demon whom it had pledged an allegiance towards. As ghost fires, they weren''t detected by Daxia Ting. As it was aware of this type of Imperial Arms, the Yin Ghost had been storing the ghost fires in its body all this time, planning to one day release them when there were enough to overthrow the Empire. Fortunately for it, the birth of the second Demon allowed it to finalize its plans faster. When war erupted, most of the Empire''s forces were stationed at the war front, causing the defensive line in the capital to be at its weakest. With that, it had enough means to destroy them now, beginning to condense the ghost fires into Nightmares. One after another, Nightmares gushed out of the building, terrorizing the populace, causing all the stationed Imperial Meisters to be alarmed. After all, the enemy appeared from their midst. Almost thirty Nightmares had appeared all of a sudden, spreading out throughout the capital as the Yin Ghost appeared within an aristocratic family, kidnapping two of their Ghost Appeasers. It knocked them out and began to pour ghost fires into them, condensing the Nightmare from within, externally overwhelming the minds of the Ghost Appeasers. Therefore, the moment the Nightmare formed in them, the possession was done while the minds of the Ghost Appeasers shattered in response. It instantly created two Demons, bringing them with it as they infiltrated the Imperial Palace once the Emperor came out to attack the Nightmares. Thunderclouds formed in the skies as bolts of lightning slammed onto the nightmares, wounding them severely with every hit, quickly beginning to kill through them. "They won''t last long against this¡­ human." The Yin Ghost scowled, knowing very well that the Nightmares would at most be able to injure the Emperor after killing through all other Imperial Meisters. But, as long as the Emperor was alive, it won''t have long for its plans to be completed. "However, as long as I free my Lord, everything would change. Even back then, my Lord was stronger than the first Emperor, a Star Imperial Meister that was a lot stronger than the current Emperor." Thinking as such, the Yin Ghost accompanied the two Demons and sneaked into the Imperial Palace, quickly heading underground, having long since detected the place of the seal. Chapter 1262 - The Strongest Attack Boom! Krune was constantly on the defensive, noticing gaps forming in his defense, tensed at the oppressive attacks from two Demons when a large gap formed in the sea of green flames. Chen Xue rushed into their midst, instantly freezing most of the flames, targeting Su Daiyu as she sent her flying away. She gazed at Krune, nodding as she told him, "I''ll fight her." "Alright, be careful." Krune nodded as he activated his Star Ring, watching Chen Xue swerve around Han and fly towards Su Daiyu. Before he could hinder her, Krune attacked him, shouting, "Have a taste of my ultimate attack!" Han immediately tensed up upon seeing the presence Krune exuded, instantly focusing most of his power on defense when his expression collapsed. "Damn bastard!" He had been fooled, for Krune began to gather power, finally activating his Star Ring. Kaboom! A mighty sound of thunder resounded, causing everyone fighting on the ground to tremble from the sound, staring at the sky to see clouds forming there. Within a couple of seconds, vast swathes of clouds clubbed together and condensed into a thundercloud. Boom! Boom! Crackle! The sounds of thunder echoed continuously as Krune grinned. "Well... now I''m actually ready." Three rings revolved around him, combining into one as they floated into the air, quickly turning into a bolt of lightning as they entered the thundercloud. In the next moment, a thick bolt of lightning landed on Han, causing him to scream in pain. "There''s more from where that came from." Krune laughed, causing his Star Hammer to flicker with tiny arcs of lightning as a massive bolt landed on it from the thundercloud, powering it up. A second bolt of lightning slammed into Han, paralyzing him for a moment when Krune flashed before him while the dense lightning presence in the Star Hammer morphed into gravity, instantly making it tens of thousands of times heavier. Krune quickly slammed it into Han''s chest, causing it to cave in alarmingly before his figure was sent flying into the ground. The ice river shattered upon the impact as countless blocks of ice flew everywhere. Hovering in the air was Krune, pointing at the opposing army with his Star Hammer as bolts of lightning accurately targeted the Yin Beasts and Nightmares, damaging them severely. Then again, the Yin Beasts weren''t so weak that they would die from a bolt of lightning, though. Even humans had a chance of survival in such cases, not to mention them. But, if once didn''t work, he could unleash it twice, thrice, even ten times if necessary. Slowly, the battlefield was filled with the sounds of thunder and the arcing lightning bolts that were accompanied by the screams of the attacked Yin Beasts or Nightmares. "He''s¡­ a God!" Suddenly, one of the soldiers uttered, dropping his weapon as he gazed at the sky, awestruck, watching the imposing figure of Krune that hovered in the air as a deity, unleashing punishment from the heavens. As if it was wildfire, the notion spread throughout the human army, causing everyone to cheer continuously, raising their morale. Upon seeing Chen Xue being suppressed by Su Daiyu, he slammed three bolts of lightning into the enemy, allowing Chen Xue to gain an advantage and rip off a piece of her arm. "No!" Releasing a baleful roar, Han flew into the air, slamming an attack at Chen Xue when countless lightning bolts interrupted him, negating his attack. "You!" No longer having the mood for playing, Han turned serious as his body continued to expand in size, soon reaching a height of thirty meters, instantly dwarfing everyone, casting a massive shadow. He then swiped his claws, shattering all the lightning bolts, barely affected by them. "Hmm..." Krune frowned as he stopped the field of lightning, causing the Yin Beasts and Nightmares to heave a sigh in relief. He no longer had the option to disperse his power, condensing it as he slammed an attack at Han. The bolt of lightning was dozens of times stronger than before, slamming into Han that condensed a purple shield, barely managing to defend against it. His wings then flapped once when shockwaves were produced. His figure flickered before Krune, punching him while his fists swirled with green flames. "Damn!" His eyes widened in shock as the air currents around him intensified while he reinforced a barrier using Mental Energy, intending to fly away as the punch landed on the layer of air, sending him reeling far away. "Aaargh!" Just the shockwave from the punch alone riled up his insides as Krune resisted the urge to cough out blood, barely managing to bring himself to a stop, noticing that he had been sent flying for a surprising two kilometers. "He''s definitely strong." Then again, distance didn''t matter for him, not at present as he waved his hand, causing three bolts of lightning to slam into Han, stopping him at his tracks. With that, the clouds moved a little, turning transparent all of a sudden when the body of Han was sent towards the ground thanks to the powerful gravitational field, slamming him into it once again. The colors changed, quickly returning to normal as bolts of lightning constantly slammed into Han, causing him to grunt in response, coughing out blood. He had just managed to gather his bearings when a small column of air slammed into his forehead, constantly whirring in response as it began to drill into him. Moreover, at the top was a blue needle, with its tip shining with the power of the Sun, instantly eliciting screams from him as he felt weakened. The lightning bolts intensified as they paralyzed him, preventing him from moving while a mysterious force flowed through the Air Needle, causing his mind to turn sluggish. Right at this moment, Krune''s figure appeared above his head, flying through the help of Mental Energy as he condensed all his strength in his Star Hammer. He accumulated as much power as he could muster into it, enough for his body to be strained, slamming it onto Han''s head with the strongest force the world had ever seen. Pfft! The Star Hammer slammed into the back of the Soul Needle, hammering it into Han''s forehead, causing it to explode from within as all the energy of the Sun Stone that it had condensed within spilled out, flooding his brain. And through the help of Mental Energy, it also flooded his mind, burning through everything. Crack! Followed by a resounding boom, Krune was thrown away from the rebound as his right arm shattered.. As for Han''s figure, he sported an expression of absolute shock, staring at Krune as his body began to melt, dying in a matter of seconds. Chapter 1263 - So, This Is War "How is this barrier so powerful?" The Yin Ghost stared in a fluster, watching the two Demons beside it slam attacks onto the barrier unceasingly. It was unable to endure this sense of suspense, watching its Lord within the barrier, causally sleeping, at times scratching itself. It tried to communicate, but noticed through its exceptional senses that it was impossible. For mysterious reasons, it seemed that its Lord was cut off from the world. "That makes sense why I haven''t been able to feel anything from my Lord even though I could feel his presence within the Imperial Palace." "This is taking too much time," it muttered, firming itself as it siphoned out a lot of ghost fires from its body and condensed it on its palm, turning it purple as it placed it on the barrier, instantly causing countless ripples to form on it. The purple hue then spread through the barrier, releasing a lot of purple mist as its palm began to slowly sink into the barrier. However, it also noticed the barrier draw out power from the ground to quickly mend itself. "Get¡­destroyed!" It opened its beak, unleashing a roar as the ghost fires swirled into it, condensing into a sphere before blasting off into the barrier like a breath attack, instantly puncturing a hole through it. Its power had surpassed the natural repairing capacity of the barrier, causing it to shatter. "What¡­what is this?" The Yin Ghost slumped to the ground in shock, unable to handle the emotional outburst as it noticed that there was nothing on the other side of the barrier. There was no trace of its Lord anymore. Its presence had disappeared as if it no longer existed. "My Lord! Lord! Please answer me! Where are you?" the Yin Ghost screamed until its throat hurt, unable to handle it anymore as it began to weep, finally realizing something¡­ Its Lord had been killed long ago. And the presence it felt was only the lingering presence of its Lord that had been maintained here through mystical means. "I¡­ was late. Forgive me, my Lord," the Yin Ghost screamed in remorse. "Get up," one of the Demons near it said solemnly. "Enemies inbound. And they''re strong!" "I''ll kill them all!" The Yin Ghost stood up in rage, watching the figure of the Emperor, Wang Hao, and a bunch of Imperial Meisters rush into the cavern. Immediately, a battle erupted between the two parties. And surprisingly, the Yin Ghost was actually stronger than Han. After all, it was a legendary Yin Beast that had been condensing its power since the founding of the Empire. Unlike the Yin Dragon, its power was accumulation-based, depending on the quantity of ghost fires that it had. Even though it had used up a lot of them, it still possessed enough, putting up a tough fight. Two minutes into the battle, five Imperial Meisters died. After all, they were facing against a legendary Yin Beast and two Demons. Even though they were young Demons, thanks to the chaos wreaked in the capital by the thirty Nightmares, there was a vast amount of negative emotions in the air that they absorbed like a sponge, rapidly growing in strength. On top of that, the Emperor and group had been battling the thirty Nightmares and had just managed to kill them, having used up a lot of their power. So, casualties piled up on their side quickly. ¡­ "Han!" Su Daiyu screamed like a banshee, seeing her beloved being killed by Krune. She exploded her Imperial Arms, using the generated power to critically wound Chen Xue, sending her flying away as she rushed towards Krune in an effort to destroy him. "So, the daughter plans to kill me a second time?" Krune stared at her, letting out a wry smile, clutching his shattered right hand. For a moment, her rage vanished as Su Daiyu felt an odd sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu, recalling the statement her father, Su Zixin, had uttered right when she used a Demon Arms to forcefully take control of his Imperial Arms. Though, it had only been for a moment before her expression hardened as she condensed all her power to destroy Krune. Unfortunately for her, a massive Cloud Whale flickered into existence before her, impaling her with its horn before unleashing an Air Needle, puncturing through her body. Accompanying it was a rain of lightning bolts, slamming her into the ground as the force of gravity on her amplified, preventing her from moving. Slowly, Krune arrived before her, holding the Star Hammer with his left hand, noticing the sense of hesitation in him as his hands shivered. ''No, she''s not your daughter. Not anymore. She caused the sufferings of countless people.'' He then lifted his Star Hammer, causing it to flicker with a tremendous amount of power as countless bolts of lightning landed on it, empowering it before its radiance vanished. Suddenly, it was suffused with a suffocating might, exuding enough weight to shatter a hill as Krune brought the hammer down. "Goodbye, Su Daiyu. Father has neglected your well-being." "You¡­ who are you?" Su Daiyu stared at the approaching hammer as her face slowly turned serene, accepting her fate. Bam! ¡­ "Huff¡­huff! Hah¡­haaah!" Wang Hao gasped for breath as he lay at a corner of the cavern, his limbs severed, exhausted. Surrounding him was a pool of blood of both the humans and the Demons. The Yin Ghost''s head lay before him, sporting a baleful expression, unwilling to leave without avenging its Lord. It was a brutal annihilation on both sides. The Yin Ghost and the two Demons had been killed. However, their side lost all the Imperial Meisters. The Emperor had also breathed his last, having overexerted himself to defend against the Yin Ghost''s breath attack that it had unleashed using all the ghost fires that it had condensed. Wang Hao was the sole survivor as he grunted, laying still, closing his eyes as he sensed his limbs regrowing, albeit at a snail''s pace. There was a flurry of footsteps as a couple of princesses that had been ordered to guard another location arrived, exhausted, having just won their respective battles. Upon seeing the desolate scene, as well as the corpse of their Emperor that was missing his head, they collapsed to the ground, screaming, "Dad!" Suddenly, a resounding siren blazed throughout the Empire, signaling their victory. Hearing it, Wang Hao sighed as he muttered, "There''s no joy of victory. Only sadness of the loss of loved ones prevails. So¡­" "This is war." Chapter 1264 - I Was Wrong "Greetings, everyone! Hot news! Buy your early morning news for just five Copper Xian!" A newspaper boy ran around, peddling the morning news. "Boy, did something happen?" One of the curious passersby, a shop owner, asked, wondering if it was worth it to spend five Copper Xian on a newspaper. Unless the news was interesting enough, he didn''t have the mood to waste his money, especially since he was a small-time shopkeeper. "Yes, the County Arms Division Director has woken up from his decade-long coma," the newspaper body replied in tune, having received the same question countless times within an hour since he began to peddle the news. "Oh, what happened after that?" The shopkeeper was interested when he was surprised to see the newspaper boy extending his hand. "5 Copper Xian. Read the news and find it out yourself." "Cunning child¡­" The shopkeeper grumbled before buying the newspaper. Then again, the moment he read through the news, he was shocked, forgetting to walk, finally sighing after a good ten minutes had passed, gazing at the sky as he said, "So, even legends have the same end." Sighing, he dragged his feet, losing the mood to work for the day, returning to the shop as he closed it, took up some liquor and downed it in one gulp. Sporting a somber mood, he sighed. ¡­ "Your Majesty, please follow me." The Liu Clan''s current generation head bowed before leading the Emperor through the clan''s main hall. "I heard that he woke up., the Emperor asked, nervous, expectant. "Yes, but his condition is¡­" Hesitating for a moment, the Liu Clan Head bowed before saying, "You''ll know once you see him, your Majesty." The one addressed as the Emperor was an old man in his eighties, having already passed on all responsibilities to his son. He slowly walked through the Liu Clan, noticing how affluent they had become, smiling as he walked through a corridor, arriving before a lone house in the center of the estate. It was a moderate house with no ornaments. The Liu Clan Head showed him the way as he entered, arriving within the hall where countless scrolls were neatly rolled up in a corner. There were stacks of books, information, carvings, and inscriptions everywhere. As the emperor looked around, he noticed a painting. It was a family of three, with their son sporting a content smile. After staring at the son in the picture, the Emperor sighed in nostalgia before looking at the woman in the picture, cupping his hands at her. "Aunt, I hope you''re blessing our Empire from the heavens." She was Daxia Ting, having died long ago. After lighting incense in her name, he entered the bedroom, noticing a weary old man seated on the bed, looking older than his age. Having lost all hair, saggy skin, and a frail body, he was unlike his picture or feats of heroism. Moreover, his right hand was like leather skin, lacking anything of substance. As for his legs, they seemed to have been cut off long ago. His mouth constantly moved up and down, muttering something, words that none around were able to utter. As for his eyes, they had been closed all along, even though he was awake. Arriving beside the bed, the Emperor slowly took a seat, realizing that the legend before him was at the end of his life. He slowly spoke, "Director¡­" Slowly, the old man''s eyes opened as they gazed at the Emperor, causing the other party to feel as if all his secrets were laid bare in front of him. ''Director has grown stronger in the mental department.'' The Emperor controlled his body from flinching under the gaze. The old man was Krune, having remained behind in the world despite winning the war. He slowly opened his mouth as a raspy voice resounded, "The Seventh Prince¡­ what do you need?" "Director, I''m the Emperor now. And I''m officially retiring tomorrow." The Emperor smiled wryly after hearing that. In response, Krune smiled gently. "I see, so it has already come to that." After a moment''s silence, he extended his hand, condensing his Star Hammer, holding it with his left hand that seemed to only be skin and bones. He then activated his Star Ring, condensing all three rings when the Star Ring shattered. He then fused the three rings into the Star Hammer, causing it to hum before landing on the hands of the Liu Clan Head as he spoke¡­ "In times of need, a clansman would be able to wield its power. Since I never had any children, this is my final contribution to our clan, to this world." "We are unworthy, grand elder!" The Liu Clan Head bowed, shouting at the top of his voice. The Emperor interjected at this moment. "Director, I want to know about the truth¡­ of what happened back then." "The truth, huh¡­" Krune muttered weakly before sighing, saying, "Su Daiyu and Han had a child, the first Demon to be birthed naturally. And she¡­ also inherited the power of Su Daiyu''s Imperial Arms, Moon Flower, naturally." ¡­ Bam! Su Daiyu closed her eyes, anticipating her death when the expected hammer strike never happened. She then turned around, noticing a slender hand propping up the hammer, resisting the imposing might it exuded, stopping it from killing her. Suddenly, an innocent voice resounded, "Are you planning to kill me too, grandpa?" "You¡­" Krune''s tone became one of shock as he gazed at Su Daiyu and asked, "You had a child? This was possible for a Demon?" "I''m enough proof," the girl replied as her hand trembled, profusely bleeding. Even though she had stopped the attack, the force coursed through her body, beginning to destroy her from within. "No! Zi! Forget about me and run away!" Su Daiyu screamed in horror, intending to push her away, when she noticed Krune''s hammer trembling. He hesitated, for the child before him, even though a Demon, hadn''t done anything wrong. Unlike other Demons that were the condensation of malice, she was pure. So, he hesitated, eventually retracting his hammer. "Su Zi¡­ that''s a good name. I didn''t see you here. Now go." Su Zi carried Su Daiyu, flying away, condensing two of the petals of Moon Flower as her wings, turning into a ray of light before disappearing. Krune then announced the death of the two Demon Commanders. Among the other Demons, only four survived that turned tail and fled. The Praire River had turned into a river of blood, a mixture of human, Demons, and Yin Beasts. Even though they had suffered a massive hit, the Yin Beast Army still had enough numbers as they made a sound retreat. Sighing, Krune gazed at the sky and muttered, "Is this the right thing to do? Will the sufferings of this world reduce now?" As he gazed at the sky, wishing to return to the God Realm, nothing happened. ¡­ "Of course." Krune smiled helplessly, gazing at the Emperor as he told him, "I was wrong." "She might have been pure back then. However, a Demon absorbs the malice in the air naturally. Over time, she was corrupted, resulting in the constant wars that we face to date.. She hadn''t publicly appeared even once, but Su Zi is the source of all chaos right now." Chapter 1265 - Mission Cleared The war they fought at the Praire River was only the beginning of a series of wars. After all, upon hearing the news of their defeat, the Yin Beasts and Nightmares from beyond the Empire poured into it. Even though a lot had been killed, four Demons had survived, not to mention Su Daiyu and Su Zi. So, problems persisted continuously. In the end, Krune had made a mistake, thinking that if he was too bloodthirsty, he wouldn''t be a solution to the source of suffering in this world. Then again, none of the two was a solution, causing him to rack his brain, trying his best to do everything in his power. With the Emperor dead, he had become the Emperor naturally, being a Star Imperial Meister and what not. So, he worked in bettering the living conditions of everyone, improving medicine, culture, art, etc. Anything and everything to ease the lives of people, he did that. But, there was no such thing as absolute suffering. Everything was relative. So, despite bettering the living conditions of everyone in the Empire, the creation of Nightmares was more or less the same as before. Three decades of being the Emperor, he arrived at this conclusion. He then gave up the throne to someone from the Imperial Family, personally making trips to the Demon City to kill the Demons. He thought that at least eradicating the Demons would solve his troubles. He did kill them, a lot of them, in fact. Su Daiyu died during one such battle. However, Su Zi survived, for she was special, surpassing in strength to even that Ancient Demon, giving Krune endless troubles. Finally, when he was around 70 years of age, he managed to kill her, suffering from enough injuries that it was a wonder how he managed to survive. He had been in a coma for a decade after that, only waking up today. "Liu Heng¡­" Wang Hao entered the room, tearing up upon seeing the old man. "I thought you would never wake up again." "Haha." Krune smiled wryly, telling him, "I had to complete my mission no matter what." He then gazed at the other party, noticing that he looked like a youth, having not aged past that. As an Imperial Warlock, he only grew in strength with the passage of every day, having now grown to become one of the strongest in the world. Of course, the other person was Chen Xue. Both of them had attained a status as legendary Yin Beasts, capable of wielding more powers other than what they possessed as Imperial Warlocks. Roar! Suddenly, followed by a loud roar, the Yin Dragon arrived, standing near Krune''s manor, muttering, "Why did you never have children, Liu Heng? Our contract would end with your death." "It should be enough. Thank you for your services," Krune replied. After all, the number of County Arms users in the Empire was at its peak now. Every single variety that he could think up had already been created. There was no more use in creating any more County Arms. After all, there was even a reserve of every County Arms in the Liu Clan''s storage, enough to ensure County Arms users would never become extinct. "Then, I''ll be taking my leave now," the Yin Dragon said before flapping its wings to take flight. With every County Arms user using their abilities, it had been growing in strength, finally attaining a qualitative change, growing its wings before being able to accumulate power within it. It was no longer a Yin Beast but had surpassed all legendary Yin Beasts in the world. After saying its piece, the Yin Dragon vanished into the skies, seemingly intending to travel the world and make a nest in a remote region, only intending to return when the world needed its presence. "It seems I''m done here." Krune took in a deep breath, gazing at everyone, seeing the figure of Wang Hao, Chen Xue, the current Emperor, his students, etc. tearing up immediately. "Keep the world peaceful. That''s all I''ve ever hoped for." Saying so, Krune closed his eyes, utterly exhausted, losing all signs of vitality immediately. Gooong! Suddenly, a deep sound coursed through the capital as a massive Cloud Whale appeared in the skies, stirring up fierce gales. It gazed at the skies, unleashing a mournful scream. Immediately, every police officer, possessing their respective Cloud Whales, kneeled on the ground, bowing with heartfelt gratitude. "Director, watch over us from the heavens." The Emperor teared up as he slowly got up, giving a royal decree, "We''ll create a statue before the Imperial Palace to honor this legend. Begin preparations immediately." "Yes, your majesty!" ¡­ "It''s¡­ done?" In the void hovered a wisp, its ethereal form flickering weakly, utterly exhausted, looking around in confusion. "Congratulations on returning." The Land Spirit manifested as his human form, clapping its hands. "You''ve done well in solving that world''s sufferings." "Did I¡­solve it?" Krune stared blankly, asking, "How?" "Where there is life, there is both joy and suffering. This is a natural facet of life, something that could never be changed," The Land Spirit said. "So, eradicating sufferings from that world would have only been possible when you annihilate every living being there. However, you''re only increasing the suffering to reach that point. That''s not a solution." "Then¡­" Krune frowned, confused even further. "Your death was the answer." The Land Spirit pointed at him as it continued, "In every life, you passed on your karma through others, carrying it from one reincarnation to another. Before you realized it, you wielded considerable weight on that world''s fate." "Your actions, the extent you''ve affected and changed that world, etc., everything played a part." It continued, "Whether it was your enemies or your allies, everyone was affected by your actions. So, you could say the karma you spread around had connected with everyone." "At the time of your death, they were all affected by it. Your allies mourned at the loss of a legend but praised your feats of legends while your enemies heaved a sigh of relief, for their most troublesome foe had passed away. Though..." It said, smiling, "Irrespective of their reasons, at the time of your death, the world itself was at a state of peace, though temporarily.. But that was enough, for you had cleared the sufferings of this world." Chapter 1266 - I’m Still A Wisp "If you say I''ve cleared it, then it''s done," the wisp spoke, showing no change in emotion. There was no elation, just exhaustion. It wasn''t easy to live multiple lives while bearing the weight of the world on his shoulder. "Now, give me my rewards," he said after. "Sure." The Land Spirit nodded before snapping its fingers, causing three whirlpools to appear beside Krune. "They''re all that you need to heal your defects." "Thanks," Krune said and entered the first one, feeling a relaxing sensation as something in him seemed to be elevating automatically. It was like taking a bath in a hot spring as he felt relaxed, slowly falling asleep. He was suffering from a lot of mental exhaustion. This didn''t just start from his trip into the realm of sufferings, but had begun the moment he was sent into the Sub-Realm as a mortal. Everything had taken a huge toll on his mind. So, the moment he entered the Law Pools, he fell asleep, resting his weary body and mind. "This is?" The Land Spirit was shocked when the Law Pools surged all of a sudden and gushed into Krune, entering into something within him. The moment it happened, all the other Law Pools that existed in this infant supercontinent appeared, causing a tiny stream of each to flow into Krune. "What the heck is happening?" The Land Spirit was alarmed. "No! This would cripple the supercontinent''s foundation!" Though, the process only lasted for a couple of seconds before all the extra Law Pools vanished. The amount they expended was pretty much insignificant. Even for the three Law Pools that Krune had immersed himself into, they weren''t being used up at all, not to mention being polluted by the impurities in him. They were just used as a bath as Krune''s body automatically healed its impurities. The Land Spirit soon sensed the culprit, gazing at the Soul Needle that was poking out a little from Krune''s Wisp Core. It shone with a gentle blue hue, accumulating the impurities in the Wisp Core into itself before sending them back. And during this time, the Law Pools just pressured the impurities, causing them to condense and refine themselves. Originally, by immersing himself into the Law Pools, Krune would have become no different from a True Spirit, albeit the difference with him still being disliked by the heavens. But at least, there would be no difference in potential between him and a True Spirit. That would have been the case originally. But now, despite his impurities being healed, Krune was still a wisp. It was a surprising situation, though not unprecedented. For there was still Wally, a God that was still a wisp. It was unknown as to how much time had passed as Krune slept peacefully, waking up when he felt complete, noticing that he was still a wisp in the end. Even though there wasn''t much difference between him and a True Spirit, a glance at himself, and he realized that he was still a wisp. ''Well, Wally was also the same,'' he thought, not minding much about it, noticing that he felt a lot better, not only physically but also mentally. It seemed this process had healed his mind completely, allowing him to sigh in relief before breaking into a dance. "Ah! I missed this feeling!" "As expected, being in my true nature is the best!" "You can head into the core of the infant supercontinent now," the Land Spirit said. "When the Principality of Precipice finished forming, there was still a century before the core of the supercontinent actually opened. And now, there''s still a decade left. So, I''ll send you to the edge of the Zone of Suffering, where you can wait for its opening. The others that managed to clear the trials are also waiting there." "This Zone of Suffering¡­ just what exactly is it?" Krune asked, wondering about it. Had it just been a simulation of sorts that was created by a formation, it wouldn''t have been this¡­immersive and¡­ realistic. So, he had been wondering about that. It was not to mention the fact that he felt stronger than before. Though, it wasn''t due to the healing of his defect. He was constantly growing in strength, but the strength increase was so minute it was negligible. "This is a place that is connected to tens of thousands of worlds." The Land Spirit smiled mysteriously as he said that. "And, every single world is real, including the one you were sent into." "Tens of thousands of worlds? Wait, what do you mean by that?" Krune asked in alarm, shuddering in response. After all, the word used here wasn''t ''Sub-Realm'' but ''worlds.'' Meaning, these worlds weren''t connected to the laws of the God Realm at all and were independent existences, having their own laws. "Come here when you become a God. You''ll understand the truth." The Land Spirit smiled mysteriously, waving its hand to send him away. "If you can reach the highest cultivation realm the God Realm has to offer, that is." "Damn it, what is¡­" Krune cursed, noticing that he had appeared at an entirely different place, noticing the vast plains he was upon before gazing at the mountain-sized gate at the end. With a glance, he understood that it was the gate into the core of the infant supercontinent. And before he could even gather his bearings, countless Divine Senses scanned him, probing his strength. Reflexively, Krune guarded himself using his Divine Sense, glaring at the other party. They didn''t even bat an eye, expressing peerless arrogance. A simple probe at their presence and the depth of their laws allowed Krune to understand something. They were all cheats! Even the weakest among them had once been at the late stages of the Semi-God Realm, committed suicide and revived at the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm just to gain benefits from the infant supercontinent. Of course, Krune saw powerhouses among the people on the plains, each with vast auras that stood out even among this aura fest. Primal Gods! And now, even though they were at the Nascent God Realm, they retained the entirety of their law comprehension. "Shit!" He hadn''t even managed to observe the situation before an attack slammed his way as an angry roar resounded. Upon seeing the other party, Krune felt a headache. "Well, shit.. It''s Kirena Wohat.'' Chapter 1267 - Comic Relief God Author''s note: I release two chapters ahead of the real ones. Comic Relied was supposed to come out today. Go back two chapters and read them. The same goes for the next one. --- Boom! The ground exploded as Krune leaped back. Thanks to his powerful physique, he flashed around, evading Kirena''s attack. Landing within the crater, Kirena gazed at him and said, "Krune¡­ I''ll kill you now!" "Stop!" Suddenly, just when she was about to condense an attack, a man flashed beside her, grabbing hold of her hands before telling her, "Look around you." "What?" Kirena gazed at the man in annoyance. "What am I supposed to look at?" "Don''t reveal your abilities." The man informed her through Divine Sense. "There are quite a lot of ex-Primal Gods here. Revealing your abilities to them would only endanger us. Remember the reason we arrived here." "Fine." Surprisingly, Kirena actually controlled her killing intent, retracting her Godly Energy emission as she snorted in response and turned around, soon leaving the place. The man sighed helplessly after that, watching her move away. He then turned around, glaring at Krune while emanating an oppressive aura. "You best pray you don''t encounter us inside¡­" "I think you should pray right now¡­" Krune replied, pointing behind the guy. Confused, the man turned around to see Kirena''s figure slam into him, causing a massive crater to form at the place. The earth morphed before swallowing them until their necks, locking them to the place, shocking them. After all, even they realized that it wasn''t possible to escape from this ability so easily. "Best pray for what? Are you aiming at my only brother?" Sterlena landed on the ground, veins popping on her forehead. Her legs flashed as she kicked the heads of the two like soccer balls, sending them flying straight at the mountainous gate, causing a resounding boom. Instantly, the gazes of everyone on the plains swerved towards her, wondering who this powerhouse was to handle two ex-Primal Gods so casually. "Well¡­ consider this your final warning." Sterlena snorted before flashing before Krune, hurriedly inspecting him to see that he was uninjured, heaving a sigh in relief after seeing he wasn''t. "Big sis, I''m fine," Krune smiled as he said. "I would have been able to handle it myself." "Don''t waste your energy here," Sterlena replied. "The laws of the God Realm have already manifested here in their entirety. However, the production of Godly Energy here hasn''t begun yet. Do you know what that means?" As Krune shook his head, she informed him through Divine Sense, "This is a place where Godly Energy is equivalent to lifeforce. With that in mind, if there''s no Godly Energy in your meridians, you''ll die." "Something like that is possible?" Krune asked, shocked. "Yes." Sterlena nodded as she told him, "It''s like staying underwater for a mortal. The deeper they go, the harder it is for their bodies to handle the water pressure. Similarly, the Godly Energy within our meridians is what''s resisting the pressure that''s present here. Without it, we would be compressed into a tiny rock." Hiss! He inhaled a sharp breath in shock after that, muttering, "Thank goodness I didn''t use any abilities just now." "Also..." Sterlena continued. "Don''t take out any God Stones either. They would become corrupted. Absorbing them would only weaken your Godly Energy, making it easier for this pressure to kill you." "I''ll keep that in mind." Krune nodded before asking another question. "However, is it alright for you to waste your energy to attack them like that?" "Don''t worry about that." Sterlena smiled in response. "That''s just the passive force I can exhibit thanks to all the laws I''ve comprehended. I haven''t used any Godly Energy." She then dragged him, leaving the place. "There''s a good spot that I''ve been using for the past few months. Let''s sit there and wait for the gates to open." There was a small rocky mound closer to the gate, with a cave inside it. This was the place Sterlena had been staying at, bringing Krune inside as she told him, "There''s nothing much we can do here besides wait. There''s still plenty who are waiting to catch up, so we can take our time." "How was your trial of suffering? When did you come here?" Krune asked immediately, curious about it himself. "Also, who arrived here first?" "Well¡­" Sterlena pointed at a lone man far away as she told him, "He was here before me. Based on his stature, it seems he was here a decade before me. I was the second to arrive here." "A decade?" Krune was shocked, unable to believe that. After all, who was Sterlena? A True Spirit, the daughter of the Four Realms, someone that possessed both the Calamity and Balance Laws. She also had more than 200 laws that had been comprehended to the extent that they were only inferior to the Gods of the respective law. Such a frightening character only came second. And someone actually arrived here a decade before her? It was hard for him to believe that. After all, to arrive here meant they had to go through the trial of suffering and complete it. Krune had spent almost 90 years at that. Those that had lived longer, had a stronger comprehension of the laws, had versatile abilities that could be used in the world of suffering, and had a rich life experience were what could complete the trial of suffering faster. With that being said, Sterlena was already a frightening old monster at that. So, someone even beyond was¡­ "Not only that," Sterlena added. "Almost a dozen people arrived right after me. So, we have to be careful. There''s no lack of experts here." "Sis, do you know who that guy is?" Krune asked, pointing at the guy that had arrived first. "No, but he resembles someone I''ve read about once," Sterlena whispered. "He was replaced by a certain someone that shook the whole Four Realms." "Someone who shook the Four Realms?" Krune had a strange foreboding. "Yes," Sterlena said solemnly. "He absolutely hates our races because of that and would kill any on sight. So, it''s for the best if you never reveal your true form." "Wait, who was the person that shook¡­" Krune asked, failing to connect the dots. "It''s Wally," she replied. "Wally had replaced him before. So, that''s why he hates wisps. But since he cannot differentiate a wisp from a True Spirit, he hates them both. Also, he had participated in the wisp hunt of the God Realm back then, killing both our races alike." "But, what does replaced mean?" Krune was shocked upon seeing Sterlena''s face turn comical all of a sudden as she began to laugh uncontrollably. "That meant he was a God once. However, someone''s comprehension of the respective law surpassed his and kicked him down a peg from the authority of this law. In short, his law was stolen and replaced, kicking him from the seat of a God back down to a Primal God." "It did make him the butt of all jokes throughout God Realm for thousands of years because of that." Chapter 1268 - The Gate Opens "It does feel strange to hear about him like that," Krune replied, unable to control himself any longer as he also burst out into laughter. "Well, there''s no questioning his strength. But¡­" Sterlena was unable to control herself, collapsing to the ground as she burst out laughing. "Wally had done this while as a Primal God. And worst of all, he didn''t even pick that law to become a God." "It''s like the seat of the God is vacant, but the door to it is being blocked," she continued. "So, you can imagine his frustration. His original seat is vacant, but he can never reclaim it since his comprehension never exceeded Wally''s." The two shared a good laugh for a while after that, feeling like a heavy weight was lifted off their shoulders. Leaning on the wall, Sterlena groaned as she told Krune, "My trial was such a pain, you know? It was a world in which even grass didn''t grow. On top of that, the only source of food was from a mysterious monster that ate the dirt and laid hundreds of eggs every day. People there were hunters with a high fatality rate." "Most of them were small tribes with at most a thousand in number." She sighed. "Plus, these monsters protect their eggs pretty well, preventing them from being stolen. On top of that, once the baby monsters hatch, they would hunt the humans to feed upon." "So, people lived in constant fear and hunger, never having enough food to eat or water to drink. The egg yolk was the only fluid they had for sustenance. There were no water sources. So¡­" She let out yet another sigh as she continued, "Every tribesman were only skin and bones, with most dying around the age of twenty." "Then, how did you resolve their sufferings? How many reincarnations did it take?" Krune asked. "I reincarnated 19 times. The longest I lived in one reincarnation was 2 years while the oldest I ever grew up there was to the age of 12," she replied. "In every reincarnation, I investigated into the monsters, their biology, their habits, as well as the way their body worked." "Eventually, I found a method to transplant the organs from a hatchling monster into our own. This way, we were also able to eat the soil and digest it," she said, laughing in the end. "What power and item did you pick?" Krune asked. "Were they suitable to be used in your world?" "The power I picked was Divine Sense, of course." Sterlena laughed. "Because, no matter what situation you''re in, Divine Sense is the most versatile, allowing us to perform various feats." "But without cultivation, how can you even use it?" Krune was confused when Sterlena smiled, taking out a lamp from her storage ring. "I call it the Godly Incubator." Sterlena smiled as she explained, "I had created this item in the past just for fun. It has a tremendous reserve of Godly Energy within it. Its function is to create meridians in people and improve them." "Also, when you break down Godly Energy into Spiritual Energy, you get a nigh inexhaustible resource," she continued. "That was more than enough for me to condense a set of meridians in myself each time and cultivate to a suitable cultivation base. Using Divine Sense, I researched into things and found the solution." "But the operation alone isn''t a solution, right? It''s not easy to perform," Krune refuted. "Indeed." Sterlena nodded in response. "So, my research continued further until those implanted with this monster organ were able to create a new organ in their bodies. This new organ was like a seed that would take root in their stomach before growing into the organ, allowing them to grow up healthy without any risk of operation." "Plus, it took a couple of months to condense a seed per person. So, the tribe I was from managed to condense the organ in their bodies pretty quickly. From there, they spread around, giving the seeds to other tribes, allowing them to gain the monster organ as well." "Surviving against the monsters was still tough, but as they were able to consume the soil, they became healthier and stronger over time, able to defend themselves better," she said. "With the prime suffering of that world being hunger and fear, I pretty much resolved hunger with this organ. As for fear¡­" "Well, that took a lot of time and effort." She sighed before asking, "Tell me about your experience now." Krune started with his life as Su Zixin, recounting everything he experienced. Sterlena listened to everything with rapt attention, praising his actions from time to time, getting emotional upon hearing his painful experiences, even raging at the enemies he faced. By the time he finished speaking, Sterlena was silent, only commenting after a long time had passed, "In your trial, the concept of suffering was more obscure and unclear. And, only at your death, the action of you dying was what achieved your victory." "That''s cutting it close, especially since a century is the limit to every trial." "A century? What happens if I fail to clear before that?" Krune asked, confused. "How did you figure this out?" "I interrogated the Land Spirit¡­" Sterlena coughed, nonchalantly continuing forth, "If you fail to clear before the time limit of a century, you''ll just become a permanent resident of that world. So, when your time is up in that place, you''ll die a natural death." "The moment this happens, your Land Incarnation and other backup plans in the God Realm would become erased automatically. So, you''ll never revive," she concluded. "Thankfully, I cleared it." Krune smiled. Time passed in such a fashion as they talked and exchanged information related to their comprehension of the Calamity and Balance Laws. Days turned into years, and eventually, a century had passed. The number of people on the plains had increased quite a lot as more and more cleared their trials. And now, followed by a great rumble, the mountainous door opened, causing a swirl of Godly Energy to gush out and slam into everyone, throwing them off for dozens of kilometers deeper into the plains. "Storage rings would work in the core. So¡­" Kirena whispered, "The moment we enter it, let''s forge some first. It''ll be easier to store any items within them. We''ll worry about bringing them out of the infant supercontinent after that." "Alright, leave the forging to me.." Krune nodded as the two began to run towards the opening door, sensing the concentration of Godly Energy continuing to increase. Chapter 1269 - Rapid Breakthroughs Krune and Sterlena increased their speed, being one of the early groups to enter the core of the infant supercontinent, immediately feeling the difference. Once entering, Krune quickly realized that the only restriction at the place was on their cultivation bases. None could become immortals here yet. On the other hand, everything else was possible. Then again, the restriction on the cultivation was slowly weakening as the infant supercontinent was approaching closer and closer to completion. Krune pondered for a bit, smiling immediately as he said to Sterlena, "Let''s not stop. We''ll have enough storage rings after a minute." "Alright." Sterlena was surprised at his claim but didn''t stop, continuing to run as they immediately felt a suffocating aura. It was from a stalk of grass, one that bore a tiny fruit at the top. Size-wise, it was nothing spectacular. However, the aura it unleashed was on a whole other level. God Trial Realm! It was a precious herb that even God Trial Realm cultivators and above coveted. To think such a herb grew out in the open here. "Move out of the way!" Suddenly, a burly man bellowed, riling up the ambient Godly Energy in the surroundings as he condensed a colorful bird, sending it hurling towards Krune and Sterlena, intending to pick the herb first. Since they were the closest to it, they were targeted. "Hmph!" Krune snorted as he snapped his fingers, causing a thick column of ice to condense behind him, stopping the impact. But a second later, the colorful bird broke through the column of ice, intending to head towards them, when a column of rock jutted out, trapping it within. It then retreated into the ground, making the surface return to normal as if nothing had happened. A couple of seconds later, a resounding boom occurred as the colorful bird exploded. All along, the speed of the duo didn''t lessen in the least. Even though it seemed like this herb was growing nearby, that was an illusion caused by the powerful aura it emitted. In truth, it was located somewhere far away, spanning almost a minute by the time Krune and Sterlena appeared next to it. "Here!" Krune shouted suddenly, handing her a high-quality storage ring. It was enough for Semi-God Realm cultivators to use comfortably and store objects in their realm. "Thanks," Sterlena said, causing rainbow radiance to gush into the storage ring when its quality was forcibly raised, allowing it to now store God Trial Realm-related objects. The rainbow-colored radiance spanned out and wrapped around the precious herb, instantly uprooting it without damaging it. Sterlena then snapped her fingers, causing the ground nearby to morph as a box jutted out, suitable for storing the herb. Storing the herb within, she placed the box in her storage ring. She also laid down countless inscriptions on the storage ring to prevent the divine senses of others from intruding into it. "Give me your ring," she said, grabbing hold of Krune''s as she upgraded it similarly, also adding countless arrays before returning it to him. "There, it''s better this way." "Thanks." Krune nodded, feeling at ease. After all, he now had the qualifications to do so. After all, his subspace had returned. It had already grown in size to house a massive city within. After all, a century had passed. The ten clones in the Mountain Sect had been comprehending the laws related to it all along. So, the space it contained continued to expand at a considerable rate. Not only that, the Cultivation Lotus within had reached the Semi-God Realm in quality, producing Rank 5 God Stones. After all, there were some clones in charge of unleashing tribulation lightning on it all this time, mechanically repeating it for a century now. With every refinement, it was upgraded a little. Eventually, the Godly Energy within the subspace had saturated to the extent they began to condense and turn into God Stones. So, he could say with assurance that he no longer had to worry about Godly Energy usage, able to use as much as he needed. He condensed a couple of clones within, making them condense pills using the development effect of his Ocean Heart. It was for Sterlena to improve the strength of her physique. Since they would be fighting against terrifying enemies next, giving her the edge, no matter how minimal, would still prove useful. As for himself, Krune took in a deep breath as the Godly Energy from his subspace flowed into his triple dantians, circulating as it alternated from one form of energy to another. Soon, the pressure they created reached a qualitative point when Krune''s aura suddenly burst forth, making a breakthrough. First Stage Nascent God Realm! "It''s good that you''ve attained a breakthrough¡­" Sterlena was just about to congratulate him when she noticed Krune''s aura spike once again. Second Stage Nascent God Realm! "That''s amazing¡­" she said in surprise when Krune''s aura exploded once more, turning her numb. Third Stage, Fourth Stage, Fifth Stage¡­ In the Realm of Sufferings, Krune had attained a breakthrough in his Mental Energy. Since his Deific Wisp Technique was based on all three forms of cultivation that he possessed, just the sheer upgrade to his Mental Energy affected the others, elevating them as well. So, without any suspense, his cultivation base continued to climb up, quickly reaching the peak of the Nascent God Realm. Not only that, it continued to climb up as Krune was shocked. "Just how much did I accumulate?" The conditions for breakthrough not only depended on painstaking energy circulation through the meridians alone. Obtaining enlightenment also helped it a lot. And for Krune, after obtaining the life experiences of four other people, his growth potential had shot up a lot, beyond what he had expected, enough for him to not even face any obstacle to shoot up towards the Semi-God Realm. Unfortunately, the restriction at the place prevented him from doing that. "Well, I''ll be able to stabilize my realm¡­" He had just uttered it in expectation when Krune realized that his cultivation base was as stable as it could be. It was as if he had broken through long ago and had completely stabilized his renewed powers. "Experience." Sterlena smiled at his confusion, explaining, "Experience plays a major role in our cultivation. That''s why everyone fights or explores different places. It is to widen their horizons. Your experience in the Realm of Sufferings gave you what you lacked before." "So, your foundation has only become more solid." Chapter 1270 - Law Deity Everywhere before them, countless precious treasures grew, sparking fights all over the place. To avoid this, Krune and Sterlena had been running ahead of everyone, intending to reap all benefits that came their way without having to compete with others. Soon, they crossed the edge of the place, finally entering the true core of the infant supercontinent. The basic quality of Godly Energy here was equivalent to a Rank 2 God Stone. It was not to mention the mysterious treasures that were growing like cabbage here. The treasures at the start were already impressive enough. Though, the ones that came after that made everyone drool in greed. Hovering on the ground, scattered about, were gemstones of various sizes and colors. And all of them emanated a suffocating aura. The bigger the gemstone, the stronger the aura. "Move!" a cultivator shouted, blasting away his competitor as he jumped onto a gemstone that glowed red. However, just as he neared it, his body was drowned by a sea of fire, eliciting mournful screams from him. Suddenly, a sea of flames wrapped around the red gemstone, turning it into a giant. "It''s a Fire Deity!" a knowledgeable cultivator shouted. "What''s a Fire Deity?" Krune asked in surprise, having witnessed the scene. For some reason, his senses had warned him not to approach the gemstones. Hence, he had avoided them. Sterlena also did the same. "A Fire Deity is an entity that''s created from the Law of Fire. It''s not a living creature, but just the condensed Law of Fire within that had taken up shape over prolonged existence," Sterlena replied, pointing at the other gemstones scattered about. "Each gemstone is the condensation of a respective law." "If you kill the respective Deity that forms, grab hold of the gemstone, and absorb it, your comprehension of the respective Law would increase automatically," she added. "This is the shortest way to become a powerhouse." "A Law Deity Core used to be so expensive that they were incredibly rare before," she muttered in shock, gazing around. "But now, there are so many scattered about." "What do we do now?" Krune asked. "I wasn''t sure at first. But since it''s confirmed that they''re Law Deities, we can''t leave them be." She nodded in all seriousness as she said, "We''ll hunt as many as possible and strengthen ourselves." "Let''s split up. That''ll be more efficient. Though, don''t go too far away from me," she said before vanishing from the spot, leaving behind a line. "Also, the bigger the gemstone, the stronger the Law Deity. So, take care." "Understood." Nodding in response, Krune stopped, taking in a deep breath before unleashing his Mental Energy Scan. Unlike before, when it spread out radially just like Divine Sense, it was now like a three-dimensional amoeba, extending at discrete locations into long tendrils, giving him more reach. On top of that, it was constantly revolving around him, ensuring there weren''t any blind spots. ''Now, which Law should I focus on first?'' Thinking for a moment, he targeted a gray-colored gemstone first, watching it take shape immediately, condensing into a Wind Deity. Krune slammed ice onto it while activating the Cloud Whale within him, causing wind currents to revolve around him, propelling him further as he slammed into it. The Wind Deity he had chosen was at the Semi-God Realm in power. So, it was a fairly tough opponent. Though, the moment he slammed into it, he spiked his ice, freezing the Wind Deity as he took out his Pestlor, expanded it in size and smacked the Wind Deity into the ground. The Wind Deity had a humanoid upper half that consisted of swirling wind. Around its hips was where its body thinned out, ending with the core. So, he could target its upper body without hesitation, not afraid that he would hurt the core. The force of his impact shattered the layer of ice, also destroying the layer of ice that it had frozen, turning the Wind Deity smaller than before. Upon seeing that it was working, he summoned a palm-sized Cloud Whale, filling it to the brim with frozen blood as he threw it into the Wind Deity. The force of the impact caused the Cloud Whale to pierce through half the Wind Deity''s body before exploding, freezing its body from the inside. He then slammed Pestlor into it, breaking off the chunk of ice, repeating the process some more times until the Wind Deity was reduced to the size of his palm. Krune extended his hand and froze it completely, shattering it as he grabbed hold of the Wind Deity Core and sent it into his subspace. There, one of his clones sat cross-legged and began to absorb it. ''I see. It takes a lot of time to absorb a core. So, it''s not something the cultivators can do while in battle.'' Understanding the case, he noticed that many cultivators were only strutting about, awakening the Law Deities one after another. Though, they didn''t exert much effort, calmly eyeing the ones that fought with all their might. Since they couldn''t be absorbed while engaged in a battle, their only option was to store the Law Deity Cores. Once they were exhausted, another cultivator could come and kill them, reaping the benefits instead. ''Damn it!'' When Krune noticed that most of the immortals were doing the same, he gritted his teeth in anger. Of course, there were also exceptions to this, especially the ex-Primal Gods. They had enough confidence in themselves to maintain enough strength to deal with the aftermath. Though, even after he realized the situation at play, Krune didn''t stop, targeting a second Wind Deity. After all, he didn''t have such a limitation, having a lot of clones to call forth. Plus, thanks to the Cultivation Lotus, he didn''t have to worry about his Godly Energy reserves either. He was constantly at full power. "Hah!" He condensed a lot of power, unleashing an Air Needle by fusing the frozen blood into it. The Air Needle was now the Frozen Blood Needle, piercing through the wind giant as it was completely frozen over. He then smacked it apart with his Pestlor, storing the Wind Deity Core in his subspace. It was only now that he realized something. Body cultivation, soul cultivation, energy cultivation; with all three supporting him, as a Nascent God, a cultivator at the Semi-God Realm was no longer his opponent. Chapter 1271 - Blank Law Core "Look at him." Kirena Wohat snorted, glaring at Krune from far away. "He''s dancing like a monkey, oblivious to everything." "Don''t bother with him for now," The man accompanying him frowned, focusing attacks onto a Fire Deity. "We can always kill him later and devour all his laws." "But..." His voice turned solemn as he continued, "That woman accompanying him is bad news. You saw how effortlessly she severed our heads before, right? She did that to us ex-Primal Gods." "Right¡­" Kirena frowned, unconsciously clutching her neck, recalling the scene from when Sterlena had attacked her. "We''ll have to first separate them. Or even better¡­" "Make her face a lot of enemies and tire her out. In the end, we can devour her too, along with Krune." She snickered, eyes flashing about with a cunning glint. "Keke!" The man laughed. "Let''s observe them and instigate others while doing so." Running through the place was Krune, targeting the Wind Deities one after another. In his subspace, each clone held a Wind Deity Core, absorbing it as his comprehension of the Law of Wind continued to climb up steadily. Soon after, he stopped hunting them, judging that the ones he collected were enough to elevate his comprehension of the Law of Wind to the Semi-God Realm. They wouldn''t work beyond that. To improve his comprehension, he would have to hunt the God Trial Realm Wind Deities. However, that needed a lot of effort and was risky. Moreover, he would have to go all out, which would end up revealing his true strength. Krune didn''t wish to take the risk at this point, hence switching targets to a Water Deity instead. After obtaining enough, he continued to change targets. There were many times when other cultivators competed for him. Normally, he avoided a confrontation, killing the Law Deity quickly to store the core. Though, if they targeted him instead, he retaliated, sending them flying with a good old smack from the Pestlor. "How dare you, brat? Do you know who I am?" The moment he grabbed hold of a Law Deity Core, a middle-aged man bellowed, emanating fighting spirit. "I don''t," Krune replied in all seriousness, maintaining eye contact with the other party for a moment before his figure flickered past. The middle-aged man could only rage, for he was unable to catch up to Krune''s speed. While hunting in such a fashion, Krune came across the man who had reached the plains before Sterlena, the ex-God Realm Cultivator. Unlike the others, he casually strolled through the area, extending his hand to grab hold of a Law Deity Core before swallowing it as is. The Law Deity didn''t even manage to retaliate before vanishing. He neither used any techniques nor released even an ounce of Godly Energy. His actions also weren''t that fast, only as fast as a God Foundation Realm cultivator. However, he was reaping benefits the fastest. Upon noticing Krune staring at him, the man turned around and glanced his way. Pressure! It was unknown as to what had happened, but before he realized it, Krune was on the ground, his body half-buried. The moment he came to a realization, he hurriedly got up, noticing Sterlena standing before him, taking on a protective stance. Upon noticing her, there was a mild twitch in the man''s brows before he continued on with his task of reaping Law Deity Cores, unconcerned about other matters. "Are you alright?" Sterlena asked in concern as she looked at Krune. "Yes." Krune inspected himself before muttering in confusion, "I still cannot understand the reason I was on the ground. It happened too fast." "It''s for the best to not interfere with him," she said. "That''ll be the smart way to go about it. I had an eye on you all along, but even for me, I would have barely managed to react to his attack." "Still..." She smiled, patting him on the shoulder as she told him, "Had that been someone else, they would have died. You have your tough body to thank. You actually came out unscathed from that." ''No, I expended all my Mental Energy to defend that.'' He uttered in his mind. It was a barrier that constantly defended him, absorbing all power from the attack. In response, it was expended as a result. So, only thanks to expending all his Mental Energy reserves was he unscathed from that attack. And by expending all his Mental Energy, it meant the total energy in him. After all, all three forms of energy were interchangeable in him. So, in an instant, everything became Mental Energy to guard against that attack. Had he not been at the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm and was still at the God Core Realm, he would have died. Then again, this also meant that the trinity of energies in his body allowed Krune to reach such a stage where he was able to withstand an attack from such a powerhouse that had once been a God. Suddenly, there was a stirrup among the cultivators as everyone rushed towards a mountain that was a hundred kilometers away. They even ignored the Law Deity Cores to do so, their eyes red, in a frenzy. "What''s happening?" Krune frowned, unable to make heads or tails of the situation. "Let me find out," Sterlena said as she closed her eyes, activating countless laws as she condensed them into her eyes, activating a mysterious ability that allowed her to scout from far away. She then focused on the mountain, noticing twelve gemstones hovering atop the peak, transparent. Upon probing at their aura, she was shocked before trembling in excitement. "Blank Law Cores." "What are they?" Krune asked, unaware. "They''re just like the Law Deity Cores, but without any law in them," she said, barely reigning in her excitement, speaking upon seeing that Krune was unable to see their worth. "Suppose you have a mysterious technique that you learned recently but haven''t comprehended much yet. But, if you unleash that ability into a Blank Law Core, it''ll absorb it and then turn into a Law Deity Core of the respective law forming that ability." "This is the fastest way to upgrade your trump cards." Hiss! Krune inhaled a deep breath, clearly understanding their value. After all, he had a mysterious ability, one that could never be comprehended beyond the level he had already attained. Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark! Chapter 1272 - Eight, Three, One "Let''s head there immediately," Sterlena said, intending to move when Krune stopped her, pointing at the mountain in confusion¡­ "Why haven''t they scaled up the mountain yet?" "Naturally, there''s a natural formation around such places," Sterlena replied as if it was a matter of fact. "Plus, there would be many obstacles along the way before we can manage to arrive there. So, we''ll lose our advantage if we''re late. We might take a lot of time." "Then..." Krune smiled, gazing around to see that most of the cultivators were rushing towards the mountain. "I''ll take care of that. Let''s continue to hunt for the Law Deity Cores here." Saying so, he let out thirty clones from his subspace, causing them to take on different appearances. This way, they would seem different. On top of that, all of them had cultivation bases at the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm. So, they were pretty strong. To ensure the success of the mission, Krune didn''t waste any time with them, sending them towards the mountain, whispering to Sterlena, "If any one of them manages to reach the destination, we''ll swap places with them." "Alright, that''s a better choice." She nodded. After all, there were still plenty of Law Deity Cores around them, including the ones at the Semi-God Realm. Most of the higher realm Law Deity Cores were still left as is, for most didn''t wish to take the risk for the time being. After all, their cultivation was only at the peak of the Nascent God Realm. Even for strong cultivators like them, killing a Law Deity in the God Trial Realm would consume a lot of effort, leading to them revealing their cards. On top of that, they would also become prone to ambushes. So, not many took the risk to fight against such beings. The ones left behind were those at the Nascent God Realm that wasn''t some immortal that had committed suicide to revive at this stage. They didn''t have the confidence of reaping the rewards from the mountain, not when so many tough opponents were contesting for the same. After all, they were struggling to even kill a Law Deity Core, barely managing to do so before requiring a lot of time to heal and recover. "Let''s first obtain all Law Deity Cores at the Semi-God Realm. Even if they are excess, we can give them to the sect members," Sterlena said before her figure vanished, attacking the various Law Deities. Of course, Krune did the same, getting more and more accustomed to dealing with them. They weren''t sentient, only acting based on the law that formed them. So, they only had a fixed attack pattern. After fighting them for some time, he understood their patterns, casually aiming through their gaps as he killed them faster. Even if they had defensive means on par with Semi-God Realm cultivators, as they were like sitting ducks before him, they fell prey one after another. ¡­ "Hmm..." An eight-year-old girl frowned, skipping from one location to another as she observed everything, cautiously observing some cultivators brandishing attacks into a natural barrier. Only after entering it would one be able to scale up the mountain. Despite the attacks from countless ex-immortals, the natural barrier held up. From time to time, ripples formed on it, allowing the auras of the Blank Law Cores to waft out, causing the eyes of the cultivators to turn red every time. After all, the aura they unleashed determined the realm of their effect. Meaning, if they were consumed, the comprehension of the respective law would straight up shoot towards the respective realm''s worth. For a Fire Deity Core at the Semi-God Realm, one needed to consume at least ten before their comprehension reached the Semi-God Realm. This was in the case they didn''t have any comprehension of the Law of Fire before. No matter what, one Fire Deity Core at the Semi-God Realm wasn''t enough to comprehend the Law of Fire to the Semi-God Realm. However, a Blank Law Core was different. Suppose one fed a fire-attributed attack into a Blank Law Core that gave out an aura of the Semi-God Realm, then once it turned into a Fire Law Core, consuming it would cause the cultivator''s comprehension of the Law of Fire to straight-up shoot towards the Semi-God Realm. Just one was enough. That was why everyone was red-eyed. After all, among the 12 Blank Law Cores, the aura they exhibited varied. Eight at the Semi-God Realm, three at the God Trial Realm, and one at the Elementary God Realm. This was the reason everyone didn''t even bother to hunt the Law Deity Cores anymore. As ex-immortals, they might possess mysterious abilities using rare laws that only existed in discrete locations on the God Realm. So, comprehending them was difficult, if not impossible, without inspiration to draw from nature. After all, only by using their Divine Sense to look into the complexity of a particular law in nature where it was abundant would one''s comprehension increase. And now, with the Blank Law Cores, they could be upgraded to terrifying levels, instantly making their trump cards into something frightening. As everyone attacked in a frenzy, the eight-year-old girl threw out fireballs from time to time as she mixed herself among the crowd, acting weak. She was one of the thirty clones Krune had dispatched, having taken on such a form to ensure people would gloss over her existence. After the cultivators rained down attacks nonstop on the barrier for almost a month, it began to crack, soon creating a crack wide enough for people to squeeze through. Using her small stature, the eight-year-old girl rushed through it like a fish, soon entering the place. Immediately, the ground trembled as ethereal giants manifested before them, emanating suffocating auras. Without any delays, they attacked the people. "What?" A cultivator had just managed to squeeze through the entrance when the attack slammed into him, alarming him when he realized his Godly Energy had failed to circulate anymore. An instant later, his meridians ruptured, causing him to cough up blood and collapse to the ground. Immediately after, for some reason, his Spiritual Incarnation deactivated, preventing him from healing himself. The ethereal giant grabbed hold of him and clenched its fists, causing a rain of blood to spew out. Mental Energy! The eight-year-old girl layered her body with Mental Energy, preventing people from recognizing her.. Then, using the peak of her physique, she flickered around, evading the ethereal creatures that were targeting others around her. Chapter 1273 - Absolute Confusion The eight-year-old sensed countless Divine Senses scanning her. But despite doing so, none seemed capable of detecting her. This also included the ethereal giants. As Krune and all the clones had shared thoughts, they were aware of the positions of each other, the actions they took, the actions other people took, the routes that were safer, and so on. With that, they scattered throughout the foot of the mountain, intending to scale up from various paths. The ethereal giants were just the first obstacle. The moment the eight-year-old set foot on the mountain, she noticed a formless force slamming into her, causing her movements to become a tad sluggish. ''This is similar to the pressure I felt in the Immortal Staircase.'' She noticed quite a few cultivators grunting the moment they began to climb up, suffering from the pressure as their reactions became delayed. Suddenly, when one of them arrived beside a boulder, the boulder revealed a set of teeth that clamped him, intending to sever him into two pieces. However, the cultivator still had enough strength to resist as a layer of light formed around him, shielding him from the boulder''s mouth when he pulled out his sword and hacked at it, nicking it continuously before destroying it. "Haah, that was scary." He had just muttered when the ground underneath him opened when the gravity acting on his body multiplied thousands of times, slamming him into the depth of the pit where spikes jutted out of the ground, with each composed of a law. The moment he slammed into them, the spikes with laws countering him stood up, impaling him, causing him to scream before his eyes lost all signs of life. Hiss! Those that witnessed the scene inhaled a sharp breath in shock, looking around in suspense, alert against anything that might attack them. Though, as they continued to climb up, the pressure on their bodies caused their concentration to wear off a little. And as if they were waiting for this, traps sprang up on time, trapping them. Some were injured, while the unfortunate ones died futile deaths. ''These were all that had successfully cleared the Realm of Sufferings,'' the eight-year-old thought as she continued to climb up, not affected by the pressure as her figure flickered through the place at blinding speeds. After Krune reached the peak of the Nascent God Realm, just his physique alone allowed him to fight an early-stage Semi-God Realm cultivator. So, the eight-year-old''s figure couldn''t be detected that easily. Unless they had laws that amplified their sight, Divine Sense was the only way for most cultivators to sense her movement. But of course, they wouldn''t be able to reach her, not unless they were ex-immortals that had reached at least the God Trial Realm and above. Some traps did pop up on her, but they were easily evaded. But suddenly, she stopped, alarmed, breaking out into a sweat. Nothing happened to her, but the thing that happened to one of the clones caused everyone to experience fear. ¡­ "Brother, thank you for saving my life." A cultivator cupped his fists, bowing in gratitude. "I''m only doing what I feel is the right thing to do," A wide-shouldered man with a red beard spoke, expressing a deep smile. "In our rush for treasures, we must always pay attention to our safety." "You''re right about that." The cultivator cupped his fists. He wore a grey robe, sporting a fan that he hung at the side of his hip. Standing nearby was a lady that possessed an identical fan. They were a couple, bowing in response. Glancing at the wide-shouldered man, the lady thought for a moment before asking, "Sir, why don''t you accompany us? The traps are risky, but we can share the burden." "Sure, I don''t mind." The wide-shouldered man nodded before accompanying the couple. Soon, they hit it off well with each other, joking from time to time as they struggled against the various tests. The wide-shouldered man was another clone of Krune, having decided to take on a slower approach. As they continued their travel, an ethereal giant manifested before them, attacking them immediately. "I''ll defend against its attacks. The both of you, flank from the sides!" the wide-shouldered man shouted as he pulled out a pair of kite shields, causing them to glow with a faint radiance before a gust of wind was produced. The winds slowed down the ethereal creature''s attacks before a thick layer of wind over the shields absorbed all the power behind the attack, dispersing it to the sides as a powerful gust was produced as a result. "Hiya!" The cultivator slapped his fan, producing a wind blade that slammed into the ethereal giant, almost severing its hand. In retaliation to such a powerful attack, the ethereal giant opened its mouth and unleashed a beam of formless force onto the cultivator, intending to destroy his meridians first. Alarmed, he was about to escape when the wide-shouldered man jumped in the fray, defending against the attack. "Just focus on attacking. I''ll defend the both of you!" "You''re the best!" Shouting in response, the man rushed out and continued to slam attacks at the ethereal giant. All along, the woman cultivator had been pouring her Godly Energy into her fan, accumulating power before unleashing an explosive shout as she swiped it at the ethereal giant. Suddenly, a tiny tornado formed within the ethereal giant''s body before expanding in size, destroying it from within. Within a minute, the ethereal giant was destroyed as the woman slumped on the ground, panting in exhaustion. "If¡­not for this pressure, I would have defeated it easily¡­" she said, absorbing the abundant Godly Energy, beginning to recover. "It was a great attack." The wide-shouldered man nodded in praise, retracting his pair of kite shields as he said, "Since all three of us use the Wind Element, it''s easy to coordinate our attacks." "Brother''s defensive abilities are an eye-opener." The woman laughed while gazing at the wide-shouldered man. "I never thought it was able to brush off that giant''s attacks so easily." "Well, I did train¡­" The wide-shouldered man had just begun speaking when his expression changed, slowly sporting an expression of peace. Suddenly, his meridians had undergone a change while his body slowly turned transparent. It looked like that, but in reality, it had only taken an instant before turning into a miniature energy sphere. And then¡­ Boom! Chapter 1274 - Abolition Tower Strikes Again "What the heck just happened?" Whether it was Krune or his clones, only one emotion existed in their minds now. Absolute fear! After all, one of his clones had committed suicide, detonating itself, just like those from the Abolition Tower. It made absolutely no sense, instilling everyone with fear. "Sister!" Krune shouted before hurrying towards Sterlena, informing her of the incident in a fluster. "One of my clones became a member of the Abolition Tower. How did this happen?" "Let''s go through everything your clone experienced," Sterlena said, frowning as she asked, "Was there any response or warning from the Calamity Laws?" "None." He shook his head, worrying about it. "And even until the end, that clone''s thought process was absolutely normal. There was nothing strange about it. But suddenly, it exploded. That''s all." He then recounted the details from the beginning, still reeling from fear. After all, if there was a terrifying external enemy, then it was fine. He would be able to do something about it. But, this was internal. And that was one of his clones. There was no clue as to what had happened. It was an eerie sensation, one that disoriented his thoughts. Boom! A tremendous sound resounded at this time as Sterlena gazed in the direction of the mountain. The soundwave from the clone''s explosion had only now arrived at their location. With that, there was a noticeable crater on the mountainside. Smoke billowed out, alerting all the cultivators that were there. After all, those knowledgeable immediately understood just what had happened. Abolition Tower! A terrorist organization that existed everywhere in the God Realm, their methods unknown, striking abruptly. Neither their goals nor their means could be detected. Suddenly, a wave of terror wafted throughout the group of cultivators, alarming everyone, causing their actions to become cautious. Even the ex-God Realm cultivator was no exception, frowning as he made his way towards the crater, observing the massive crater that had formed, thinking, ''The one that exploded should have at least been an ex-God Trial Realm cultivator. That makes sense for such a massive crater.'' The clone indeed possessed the trinity of Godly Energy, body energy, and Mental Energy. Adding onto the properties of the Deific Meridians, the explosion was tremendous. The ex-God Realm cultivator crouched, touching the ashes at the edge of the crater, scouring through it using his Divine Sense as his expression morphed grandly, for the first time in years as he cursed, "Damn it. As usual, it doesn''t make sense." Of course, he knew about the Abolition Tower. Some of his descendants had become part of that, exploding as they messed up a lot of his plans in the past. His hatred towards the Abolition Tower was inferior only to the hatred he harbored towards Wally. And that meant a lot, considering the hatred perennial beings like them possessed was permanent. Soon after, he got up and began to scale up the mountain, understanding that there was nothing for him to investigate here. ''Once I reclaim my seat as a God, I''ll look into the Abolition Tower.'' "Calm down." Sterlena grabbed hold of Krune''s shoulders, telling him, "There must be something that we''re missing here. I know how it feels to be targeted by them. However, the one that was targeted this time is your clone, so try to think harder. What else did you feel or sense?" "Or better yet, just replicate that clone''s actions for me to understand," she spoke. "Alright." Sighing in response, Krune brought out another clone, making it resemble the wide-shouldered man, making him behave just the way the previous clone did. As for his behavior, it was the fight he went through, the dialogue he uttered, the things he touched, and so on. However, even after observing everything, Sterlena was still unable to determine anything, sighing in defeat. After all, she had been trying to understand the Abolition Tower all her life, ever since her daughter had become one of them and exploded, destroying most of her family. That incident also triggered the tribulations, implicating her entire race of True Spirits, causing their annihilation. So, she had used all her means and resources in an effort to investigate them, failing to gain any leads. So, she didn''t have any confidence in determining anything this time. Though, that didn''t mean that she would give up, saying to Krune, "Ask Gegrafikan about it. There''s a chance he might know. He should have been alive for millions of years already." "I''ll do that." Krune nodded, intending to ask the other party when he realized that there were no free clones in the Mountain Sect. There were ten of them there, but they were all sealed by Zamura with the intent of protecting him. This way, even if someone killed him and used a method to destroy his Spiritual Incarnation, the ten clones under Zamura''s care would survive. That way, he would be able to revive later. So, he didn''t have any clones to move around as Krune sighed, saying, "I''m unable to ask him for the time being. That''ll have to wait until we return there." "Hmm¡­" She frowned before nodding. "I guess I''ll have to ask that guy about it. He should be able to do something about it." "Who?" Krune asked, curious. "The one I accompanied to the God Realm from the start of his cultivation journey." She smiled as she said, "He owes me plenty. He has a few interesting methods in his arsenal." "We''ll do that, then." Krune nodded before saying, trying his best to relax. "Let''s continue hunting. Only the Law Deity Cores at the God Trial Realm and above remain." "Fine." ¡­ The eight-year-old girl had begun to move once again, evading the traps constantly. From time to time, she would pass by the corpse of a cultivator that had exploded in strength at the start, only to fall under the pressure by the midpoint. Thinking of something, she paused, slowly riling up all her strength before bursting into a ray of light, directly scaling up the mountain, enduring the rapid escalation of the pressure. "Guh!" Grunting in pain, she suddenly dropped to the ground, no longer able to move as the pressure was just too much to bear. It took her an entire minute just to lift her head, surprised when she noticed a Blank Law Core hovering before her. She had reached her destination but was unable to move. Chapter 1275 - Hack And Sack "Guh!" The eight-year-old girl struggled to move, watching in anger as the Blank Law Core was within arm''s reach. It was close but seemed unreachable. Suddenly, a figure appeared beside her, commenting, "Interesting ability you''ve got here. As expected of someone that was able to survive a hit from me." It was the ex-God, remaining casual, unaffected by the pressure. He did grunt from time to time but was still able to walk normally, approaching the Blank Law Core that unleashed the aura of the Elementary God Realm. He picked it up, stored it, and walked away, saying, "Anyways, I only need this one. All the best in your endeavors." He casually walked away after that, beginning to leave the mountain. ''Wait, I can do that.'' Instantly, everyone got the same idea as all the clones erupted with all their strength and began to descend the mountain, converging at the bottom as the subspace appeared within one of them. Everyone then entered the subspace before it appeared within the eight-year-old girl. Taking in a deep breath, she circulated all three energies in her body, fusing them for an instant as she attained a new level of strength. Trinity! She then used the reinforcement from the increase in strength to open the subspace as a clone exited it, arriving a step before her. The force instantly sent him towards the ground when the subspace flashed into his body while the entrance opened, swallowing the Blank Law Core. ''It''s working!'' Everyone laughed in response as the clones exited the portal one after another, taking a step forward before collapsing to the ground. Then, they condensed the portal where another clone exited it and plopped it on the ground. In this manner, they marched forth, soon grabbing hold of all the Blank Law Cores. Then, they executed the same process in the reverse as they entered the subspace one after another, leaving the eight-year-old in the end. In the short time when the trinity existed, she used the chance to take a step backward, now able to somewhat handle the pressure. Slowly, she descended down the mountain, becoming more and more free before sprinting down at full speed. Soon, she let out a weak clone that opened the portal to the subspace as she entered it. The weak clone then destroyed itself, unwilling to leave behind any traces. The weaker the clone, the fainter the traces. That''s why he condensed a clone that was at the First Stage of the Mortal Rejection Realm, the lowest possible cultivation in the God Realm. On top of that, it didn''t have any hint of his abilities, a truly scrapped clone created for the sole purpose of allowing the stronger clone to escape. As the subspace returned to him, Krune smiled, saying to Sterlena, "The Blank Law Core at the Elementary God Realm was taken by that ex-God. The rest are in my hands now. Sis, how many do you need?" Her eyes lit up as Sterlena patted him, saying, "Good job. I never thought you were this capable. I really underestimated you." After a moment of thought, she replied, "Give me one of three Blank Law Cores at the God Trial Realm and two at the Semi-God Realm. That''s enough for me. I don''t have any other good laws to take advantage of this." "Alright," Krune replied, intending to take them out from his subspace when Sterlena stopped him in a hurry, saying¡­ "What are you doing? Everyone would be able to feel their aura. That''ll just attract more enemies towards us." "Ah, I forgot about that," Krune smiled wryly as he replied. ''This wisp¡­'' She rolled her eyes before giving him a bit of warning. "I''ll have to tell you right now. If you use either the Calamity or Balance Laws on them, it won''t work. You''ll just end up wasting the Blank Law Core. Anything you use on them should only consist of one law." "Alright," he replied. "Do you want to use them now? It''s for the best to strengthen ourselves further." "Fair enough." She smiled, surprised at the subspace''s portal. After a casual glance, she entered it, exclaiming from within, "This is pretty huge!" "Of course." The eight-year-old nodded in agreement as she explained, "I''ve been working on this for more than a century now. So, it has expanded a lot in size." "If I wasn''t fully busy and had focused on it more, it would have become at least ten times bigger." "Oh my, who''s this adorable little munchkin?" Sterlena completely ignored her words, enveloping her in a hug as she patted her head. "Oh ho, aren''t you the cutest?" "This is one of my clones¡­" the eight-year-old replied. "I know, shut up." Sterlena smacked her a little. "Let me just play around a little." She then looked at the numerous clones around her, asking in excitement, "Krune, tell everyone to return to their wisp forms now." "Done," everyone replied simultaneously before their figures morphed, emanating a gentle blue light as their ethereal bodies flickered like fire. They hovered in the air, slowly closing in on Sterlena that stared at the scene in silence, the images of the glowing wisps reflected in her eyes. Slowly, her expression crumbled as she teared up. "¡­Hic¡­" Even though they were all Krune''s clones, they were wisps, the closest to her. Of course, the sight of such figures dancing around her in silliness¡­it had been too long since she had witnessed such a scene. Forgetting about her purpose, Sterlena hugged as many wisps as her hands could hold, shedding tears, remaining in the same pose. "Um¡­sis?" Suddenly, the eight-year-old''s wisp form tilted its head, saying, "It''s getting late. I''m scared to be alone out there, like a helpless lamb amidst hyenas¡­" "Urgh, fine. I''ll come out soon. Just give me the freaking item." She groaned, unwilling to leave the crowd, cursing under her breath, "Stupid brat!" "I can hear you, sis." "That was my intention." "¡­" Sterlena hugged a wisp on either hand, casually walking towards one of the Blank Law Cores as a silver light exited her body and entered it, instantly turning it silver. She then used her Divine Sense, beginning to absorb the Law Core, smiling gleefully as she observed that troublesome law of hers becoming clear to her as her comprehension rose rapidly. Chapter 1276 - No! That’s Not Its Name! While Sterlena was absorbing the Law Core, Krune had positioned himself before a Fire Law Core. The only difference was that he didn''t attack it and just stared at it. They had gathered quite a lot of Law Deity Cores already, looting all the ones at the Semi-God Realm. They had also obtained some rare Law Cores at the God Trial Realm. As for the Law Cores of common laws that were easy to comprehend, they didn''t bother with that. Not only was it a waste of effort, if they wiped the place clean, it''ll only infuriate the others. At least, leaving them with some chicken soup would prevent further chaos. After all, with all the Blank Cores vanishing, most of them should have been pretty pissed, enough to use the entrails of anyone that angered them to paint the ground. Boom! Hearing the sound, he turned around, seeing countless flashes of light on the mountain as the people had indeed erupted in battle. After all, even if they hadn''t reached the peak, they would have sensed the auras of the Blank Law Cores vanishing. Moreover, the ex-Primal Gods should have reached the peak by now. The fight erupted between them first before spreading towards the rest. "Move!" Suddenly, a blast of Godly Energy vibrant with the Laws of Fire and Ice slammed his way. As Krune evaded it, a group of people attacked the closest Law Core with expressions of greed. He noticed that they were all unfamiliar, newcomers that had entered the core of the infant supercontinent just now. People continued to stream into the place. Krune''s batch was just the first to arrive. ''As time passes, our advantage as the first batch diminishes.'' Though, just the fact that they had obtained the Blank Law Cores was already worth the trip. So, Krune wasn''t worried. Besides, the infant supercontinent was massive, with countless treasures everywhere. Even if people obtained it, there would definitely be killing and stealing involved. Except for the three items that he had promised Lady Strombisu, he didn''t have anything else to worry about. After all, he had healed his defects, obtained the means to grow stronger, became enlightened to the true usage of Mental Energy, and also obtained a big sister to rely on and act cute towards. It was already a fruitful journey. Gazing at the people that began to fight amongst themselves for the Law Cores before running around in fear when the Law Cores chased after them, Krune sported a mild expression of arrogance. He then thought of something, licking his lips as he began to take out cooking ingredients, soon setting up a kitchen. "Lalala, I have a big fish to cook¡­" Krune began to hum, causally taking out a demon beast meat that he stored in his subspace, skinning it first before marinating it a little. Any process that required time was accelerated with the help of his Divine Sense, which manually did the process that needed time to work on its own. He then took out his Pestlor, gently pressing onto the flesh when his Divine Sense turned into fire, melting the bones. Instead of removing them, Krune caused the molten bone to seep through the flesh, using it as a soup to boil the piece of meat. Anything that he had extracted before, he now used them as supplementary ingredients. After all, there was a simple change that he was now able to execute. Divine Sense Law! Thanks to that, his control over the flesh, the depth he perceived in them, the changes he could actuate had all deepened, allowing him to bring out the natural flavor of the meat while eliminating any bad odor, taste, and body acids. Soon, he started a fire and expertly controlled it, turning it into a sphere as the piece of meat actually turned into a fish and swam within, using the fire like water. It was as if the piece of meat was a fish that was alive. Soon, a mouth-watering aroma spread out as those fighting the Law Deities became distracted, immediately suffering a beating from their opponents. They gazed at Krune, noticing that he was humming a tune and casually cooking, looking peaceful as if he was in his home. In contrast, here they were, pitting their life against a powerful foe that was in the God Trial Realm, with each of its punches capable of killing them or pushing them close to injury. In such a situation, they needed all their concentration to survive and defeat their foes. It was an excruciating battle. But in front of them was a mesmerizing aroma of food, something that made their stomachs rumble louder than thunder. They weren''t mortals but cultivators! On top of that, everyone had a Spiritual Incarnation. So, they were above cultivators, perennials that didn''t require any food for sustenance. Godly Energy was all they needed for survival. However, a sense of primitive hunger grew in them as the rumbling of their stomach continued to increase in sound. "Is someone undergoing a tribulation?" One of the cultivators at the bottom of the mountain gazed at the sky, frowning as he failed to see any dark clouds there."Strange¡­ where''s this sound coming from then?" It was to be noted that the mountain was positioned a hundred kilometers away from the group whose stomachs were rumbling. "What are you doing?" Sterlena exited the subspace, observing Krune''s cooking as she snapped her fingers, causing a bunch of items to appear on the ground, made from precious materials. Table, plates, bowls, etc., everything that was needed appeared in an instant. "That''s amazing." Krune smiled, understanding that Sterlena''s power allowed her to instantly condense any item of her choice from the ground. It was a power that was a borderline cheat. "Wow," she exclaimed, watching the meat fish jump out of the fire sphere and land on the large plate. Mysteriously, broth started to seep out of it, turning it into a variety dish. "No!" Those fighting shed tears for some reason, envy of the sharp contrast. Here they were, being punched in the face by the Law Deities, while there they were, happily eating delicious food while treating their sufferings as entertainment. "I want to go back home." One of them sobbed, giving up then and there as he pouted, slumped to the ground and drew circles there, sullen. "Exquisite taste," Sterlena commented, stuffing her face full like a squirrel, berating him. "Eat slowly!" "As if you can say that." Krune rolled his eyes, looking like another squirrel as he gobbled the food, swallowing it as he suddenly glared at her, expressing his anger, "You didn''t ask for its name." "Flying Meat Fish," Sterlena commented, flashing a thumbs up. "That''s its name, right?" "No!" Krune shouted in response. "That''s not what it''s called. It''s Flying¡­" "This Flying Meat Fish is tasty," Ignoring him, she commented, "As expected of the Flying Meat Fish¡­" "Flying¡­" "Fly¡­" Chapter 1277 - Controller Of The Four Realms "That was satisfying!" Krune licked his lips, burping once, having clearly eaten more than what he was able to store in his stomach. It had been a long time since he had properly cooked, so he got carried away with it. "How long are you going to laze around?" Sterlena asked after some time. "Can''t I?" Krune replied, yawning once. "We have work to do?" she replied. "What work?" Krune raised a brow in curiosity. "Steal some treasures, of course," Sterlena smirked as she responded. "Right, I forgot about that." Sighing, Krune got up, turning brisk immediately. "Well, let''s get going, you exemplary big sister." "What''s up with that disgusting title?" Sterlena rubbed her arms, seeing goosebumps form on them, grunting in response. "It has a nice ring to it," Krune told her, making a traditional bow, going an extra mile as he buried his head into the ground. "I greet her majesty. My bow is my level of respect." Rolling her eyes in response, Sterlena walked away, heading deeper into the infant supercontinent. "While we wasted time, the others have gone in deeper." "You''ve only used one of them. What about the remaining two?" Krune asked. "Not now," she told him. "I''ll save them up for the time being. If I obtain something better, I''ll use it for that." "Fair enough." Krune accompanied her, soon breaking into a sprint as their figures turned into a blur and vanished. Three seconds after they vanished, a sonic boom resounded in their initial spots, alerting the cultivator that had arrived there to ambush a Law Deity. The shockwave alerted it as it focused on him, chasing after him. Shedding tears at the injustice, the cultivator continued to run away. Within the subspace, a clone gazed at the God Trial Realm Blank Law Core, pointing a finger at it before activating his Spiritual Mark. Spiritual Mark¡ªTribulation Lightning! The tribulation lightning slammed into the Blank Law Core that lit up immediately in response. It glowed blue as mystical energy permeated it. Upon seeing that it was the Tribulation Law, the Blank Law Core didn''t immediately turn into that, instead checking to ensure that this was an ability possessed by someone and not the tribulation lightning that had arrived when someone faced a tribulation. No sentient being should be able to wield the power of tribulation lightning. This was the law of the heavens. So, this manner was imposed to prevent people from taking advantage of Blank Law Cores to cause lightning during a cultivator''s tribulation to fall onto it and turn it into the Tribulation Law. There was once someone that had done that, the first of his kind. He later became the God of Tribulation Lightning¡ªLuvile! After that, the God Realm forbade such action, imposing a restriction upon tribulation lightning to prevent anyone from comprehending it by using a Blank Law Core. Though, now that this tribulation lightning originated from Krune, that restriction imposed by the God Realm didn''t work, turning it into a Tribulation Law Deity Core. Smiling, the clone began to absorb it as every clone closed its eyes instantly, feeling a mystical power well up from deep within each. After all, they were comprehending the Tribulation Law, and at a rapid pace at that. While running, Krune suddenly closed his eyes, stopping in place. Surprised at his abrupt action, Sterlena nudged his shoulder when she noticed her hair standing straight like she got electrocuted. ''Tribulation lightning?'' She was absolutely shocked before laughing aloud. "As expected of my brother!" She snapped her finger as a castle formed around them immediately, instantly covered in countless arrays and restrictions, preventing anyone from prying within. Now, Krune could focus on his comprehension without worries. Slowly, as his comprehension continued to increase, the air around him turned volatile, beginning to spark from time to time. He didn''t even use his Spiritual Mark, but his body itself was able to naturally harness this power. And no, he wasn''t emitting it from his body but was condensing it from his surroundings. ''How is he doing this?'' Sterlena was surprised as she observed that the Law of Gravity around Krune had turned weak all of a sudden as his body began to float in the air. And in response, the lighting flickers increased in intensity. Godly Fusion¡­ God Foundation¡­! God Core¡­ Nascent God¡­! Semi-God Realm¡­ God Trial Realm! His comprehension of the Tribulation Law finally reached such a height as Krune opened his eyes when lightning flickered across it, causing him to flinch for a moment before he regained his bearings. He then extended his hand, revealing his palm as lightning flickered across it. Upon seeing the sparks, he nodded in understanding. "I see. This is just inferior lightning, not truly the Tribulation Law." It was just for the lightning that he was condensing out of nothing, smiling in response. "But, I never thought it would work here as well." "Star Imperial Meister?" Sterlena asked in surprise. "The same concept works here as well?" "It more or less works that way." Krune nodded as he continued, "I''m just harnessing the power of nature. That''s the power of a Star Imperial Meister." "It seems you''ll never tire out during fights any longer." Sterlena smiled. "You enemies must either have a death wish, or they must swing that way." "What way?" Krune stared at her, acting ignorant. "The muscat way," Sterlena replied in response. "Muscat¡­" Krune retorted. "Isn''t it masochi¡­" "Muscat¡­" she said before beginning to move. "If you''re done, let''s get going." "Sis, do you want the Divine Sense Law?" Krune smiled gleefully, sporting the expression of an unscrupulous merchant as he gazed at her. "I can trade it to you for a discount." "Divine¡­Sense Law?" Sterlena was surprised. "First, the Tribulation Law, and now the Divine Sense Law. You have some precious laws in your collection." She then waved her hand as she said, "It''s useless. I won''t compete you on this path. I don''t think anyone possesses this law. So, gain complete authority in this first. If I also comprehend it, it''ll only slow your scope of gaining ownership in this law." "But, I didn''t plan on making this my main law," Krune frowned as he replied. "Then make it," Sterlena said in all seriousness. "A cultivator''s arms, legs, and even half the brain is probably made up of Divine Sense. The one that controls this law controls the Four Realms." "As a wisp, you''re the perfect fit for this task." Chapter 1278 - Largest Divine Sense "Done!" Krune finished absorbing the Divine Sense Law Core at the God Trial Realm, immediately sensing that his control over all his abilities had exploded in power. Divine Sense Law and Tribulation Lightning Law. With both comprehended to the God Trial Realm, they were his strongest now. It was not to mention that they were special laws capable of elevating his abilities on a comprehensive scale. So, he was pretty happy about this increase in power. At present, he and Sterlena were heading towards a region that the surrounding cultivators named the Reverse Rainfall. It was a place in which water droplets condensed at the ground level and flew towards the skies. It was a place abundant with the Law of Water, so abundant that one could stay here and comprehend the Law of Water up to the Primal God Realm. That was the quality of it that was concentrated here. Of course, as expected of such a precious place, the treasures contained here were also of the same level. Drop! It was a precious crystalline substance that healed the impurities in any cultivator, whether it be in the body, the meridians, or even the soul. It was a panacea of the sort that also helped one clear their minds the best, allowing them to wield their Divine Sense in the most crystalline manner and grasp the wonders of the various laws that they comprehended. Just the fact that they would aid in the comprehension of the laws made them a precious resource. A sect could be established around it and turn it into a powerhouse. Such was the value of this place. After all, the production seemed endless. Though, only one was produced in the vast area covered by the Reverse Rainfall per minute, making it a precious resource. Consuming a drop only aided in clearing their body and mind for a day, so it was an exhaustible resource. Therefore, like usual, a bloody bath ensued. "Get lost, horse face!" A cultivator slammed a mighty pole at his competitors, swatting them away. "Daddy here will be the one to get this drop!" "Daddy has to ask mommy first!" A middle-aged woman smirked in response, arriving atop him before sending him flying away with a similar rod. "Idiot, I''m your husband!" The cultivator shed tears as he turned into an arrow and flew far away, slamming into a hill far away. "That''s why I hit you." The middle-aged woman grabbed hold of the drop before vanishing from the place. She then arrived before the hill and gave it to her husband that just climbed out of a crater. "Here you go. I personally braved through thick and thin to get you this peerless treasure." "¡­" The cultivator rolled his eyes, retorting, "But, it was already in my hands when you smacked me away¡­" "Oh my, you don''t have to lie so badly." The middle-aged lady blushed before slapping him gently. "Here, this is my gift to you." "Eh¡­ thanks, I guess?" The cultivator grabbed hold of the drop, clearly unable to laugh or cry. The situation made absolutely no sense, but here he was, already married to this crazy woman. "What about you? It''ll be better to have a pair¡­" He had just begun to speak before realizing his mistake, shutting up his mouth. But, it was already too late as the middle-aged woman grinned at him. She pinched his cheeks, blushing as she said, "As expected of my husband. You realized that I needed a drop too. Now go along and get one for me as well. Don''t make me wait for too long." ''Curse my damn mouth.'' Grumbling internally, the cultivator sighed and got up, heading towards the messy battlefield once again. A minute later, another drop appeared when everyone congregated around it, intending to grab hold of it when it suddenly disappeared. "What the¡­?" "How did it vanish?" "Is something wrong here?" The group of cultivators looked around but failed to sense anything amiss. As they looked around in confusion, a minute passed as a drop appeared almost near the edge of the Reverse Rainfall. But it hadn''t even been an instant since its appearance before the drop vanished, causing the people to rage. "What the hell is happening?" "How come it''s vanishing so quickly?" "Did someone use their Divine Sense?" "Which idiot said that? Let papa here vomit some brain cells into your brain." "Huh? You dare?" "Horsetail, wanna go at it?" "Horse fart, you asked for it first!" Immediately, two cultivators engaged in a life and death battle. Their nerves were already stretched taut as is, so with the slightest of triggers, they began to fight brutal battles. Ignoring them, the remainder of the group engaged in a flurry of discussions. "It''s impossible for the drop to appear in place covered by Divine Sense. Also, we have to be away from it for a certain distance for it to manifest. Otherwise, it won''t." "This distance is beyond our Divine Sense anyway, so how would the drops disappear so quickly?" "How the heck would I know? You dumb?" "As if, smarty robes. If you have the brains, why don''t you find the truth right now?" "I know the truth for one thing, though!" "What?" "Your death will be in one minute." Another group began to clash with each other. And the reason everyone''s IQ had taken a nosedive was due to the rainfall. As it was going up from the ground, most of it directly targeted the noses of the roaming cultivators, irritating them a lot. It was like they were drowning. Though, if they shielded themselves with Divine Sense, then the drops would cease to form. So, they had no other choice but to have their nostrils sprayed by the rainfall. It was the same for their eyes as well whenever they gazed at the ground. The damage was pretty much tolerable, but the irritation was really high. "Alright, another drop obtained." One of Krune''s clones, having turned into a hairy middle-aged man, smiled, unleashing his Divine Sense as a drop appeared and collected it. As to how he attained it? It was simple. It seemed the range of one''s Divine Sense was only held up by their cultivation base. In other words, it wasn''t restricted by one''s cultivation base. So, after Krune''s comprehension of the Divine Sense Law reached the God Trial Realm, the range of his Divine Sense had also become as massive. At present, he had the largest Divine Sense in the entire infant supercontinent. Chapter 1279 - Krune Loses His Cool ''Alright, I''ll continue to collect them,'' the clone thought, unleashing his Divine Sense for an instant when a drop appeared to capture it, sending it within his storage ring. He planned to place the storage ring in the subspace after it was full, though the likelihood of it being filled up was very close to zero as each drop was only the size of his thumb. "Your clones are pretty convenient," Sterlena commented as she and Krune continued to run past the Reverse Rainfall. "Help me!" Suddenly, a man shouted as he continued to run away, turning into a golden streak of light. All along, he was bleeding blood, his injuries failing to heal up. Suddenly, a white light appeared behind him, when the man condensed a golden hand, clutching the white light that broke away into mist and seeped out through the gaps between the golden fist''s fingers, condensing a hammer of mist that swatted the golden light towards the ground. "Gah!" The man''s godly technique came undone as he coughed out blood, turning into a bloody mess. And coming to a standstill before him was an old man sporting a gentle demeanor. Though, the killing intent he exuded formed a sharp contrast to his countenance. "Just meet your fate. This is your just desserts for annihilating my sect," the old man said, slamming an attack into the other party, causing him to cough out blood. Golden light shone as his Spiritual Incarnation was activated, healing all his injuries as he returned to his pristine appearance. Immediately, his body morphed, turning into a three-headed humanoid bull, sporting two pairs of arms, wearing brass knuckles that shone with suffocating pressure. "Take this!" Screaming with all his might, the three-headed bull condensed a golden avatar of himself over him, condensing power that resembled a deity before slamming it into the old man. The old man snorted in response, condensing a shield of clouds that softened the blow, skidding on the ground from the impact. Just when he planned to retaliate, he noticed the figures of Krune and Sterlena approaching them, alarmed, shouting at them, "Are you planning to interfere?" "Nope." Krune pointed forward as he replied, "We''re aiming for the treasures in the next region. Good luck with your revenge." "Phew." The old man sighed in relief, watching the two figures leave as he patted his chest. "They seemed pretty strong." He then noticed the massive golden figure charging at him, smirking as he defended against the attacks, using his massive cloud that absorbed all the attacks. "As expected of an immortal from the Golden Gate Sect. All your godly abilities are stronger than your cultivation." "Take this!" The three-headed bull didn''t seem to care about his speech and attacked him nonstop. "However, your glory days are over. With the death of your sect leader and most of the elders, you don''t have the means to defend against us." The old man smirked. "Besides, in your heyday, you were only at the First Stage of the God Trial Realm while I was at the Seventh Stage of the God Trial Realm. Even with your powerful godly technique, you cannot last long against me." "Besides." He grinned, watching the three-headed bull become riddled with injuries all over. "You''ve already been poisoned." "What? That''s impossible!" The three-headed bull was shocked as all its injuries opened up immediately, causing it to slump to the ground. "But... I took care of them with my Spiritual Incarnation already." "As if my poison was so simple." Letting out a cackle, another man walked out from behind a tree, nonchalantly grinning. "It was just incubating within you. By now, it has already spread through your Spiritual Incarnation and any Land Incarnation you''ve left in the God Realm." "T-This is¡­impossible!" the three-headed bull said in grief before collapsing to the ground, no longer able to stand up anymore, slowly bleeding towards its death. At this time, the old man arrived before it, placing a led on its jaw, displaying a vial. "This is the antidote to that poison. You''ll have to die here, but at the very least, your revival methods would survive if you consume this. Whether or not you can escape our hunt beyond that is up to fate. However, the choice is yours." "What do you want?" the three-headed bull asked, clearly showing signs of giving in. "Just let me live, damn it. Whatever you need, I''ll just tell you." "I heard Feifei inherited your founder''s Spiritual Incarnation." The old man grinned. "As long as you reveal her location, I''ll spare you." "Her damn master didn''t even reveal anything no matter how much we tortured her and just took charge to destroy her Spiritual Incarnation just to escape from our hands." The man that had poisoned the three-headed bull snorted. "Still, we know that you''re brothers with the Divination Immortal. You should have learned of her location through him by now." "M-Mountain Sect!" the three-headed bull shouted immediately. "It''s near some small place called the Zamuria Continent. It''s a new sect that was just established. That''s where she was ten years ago when the Divination Immortal divined her location." "Great." The old man smiled, waving his hands. "As promised, I won''t destroy the rest of your Land Incarnations in the God Realm." "T-Thank you." The three-headed bull gasped in relief, closing his eyes, preparing for his death. But suddenly, he screamed in pain, for a mysterious force invaded his body and coursed through the laws forming his Spiritual Incarnation, traveling throughout the God Realm before finding the places with his Land Incarnations. Katata! Followed by a snapping sound, all his Land Incarnations were destroyed. "You promised!" the three-headed bull screamed before turning into a puddle of blood that froze over. "That wasn''t me!" The old man shouted in alarm and gazed at the other man, seeing that he was also flustered. "Who did you say you were targeting?" A cold voice resounded from behind the old man, chilling him to the bone. Before he realized it, he noticed that he was unable to use his Godly Energy anymore. Godly Inhibition Tower! The two men were no longer able to use their Godly Energy as the figure of Krune appeared behind them, veins popping out of his face to the extent his blood gushed out with enough force it formed craters on the ground when impacting. Chapter 1280 - They’ve Asked For It "What¡­ are you talking about?" The old man shuddered, turning around to gaze at Krune. Suddenly, one of the nerves on Krune''s face exploded, spilling out blood with enough force. The old man was sent flying, coughing out blood in response. He tried to heal himself but discovered that his Spiritual Incarnation was unable to do so. With his Godly Energy suppressed, he was unable to use the Divine Sense from his Spiritual Incarnation, turning weak immediately. Only the passive strengthening of his body due to the various laws he had were what protected him. But against a raging Krune that had the body cultivation to use, it wasn''t enough. "Feifei," Krune responded, slowly uttering one word after another. "Are you referring to the Golden Gate Sect''s Feifei?" "What are you planning to do if we''re aiming for her?" The other man that wielded poison snorted, taking out a thin needle from his sleeve that he threw at Krune. It was a poisoned needle, one that he carried with him always, intending to ambush his enemies with that. It was made from a mysterious material that was undetectable to Divine Sense and was capable of phasing through objects, directly targeting the bodies of those he attacked. This was his trump card, one that allowed him to kill countless powerful cultivators. After all, every cultivator relied on their Divine Sense and powerful treasures to defend against attacks. However, this needle was capable of phasing through them. Plus, the poison within it was so strong that even those that the Elementary God Realm would be affected. Sometimes, they would even die, depending on the situation. As Divine Sense didn''t work, he couldn''t store it in a storage ring and had to carry it on hand. Unfortunately for him, as the needle flew towards Krune, the Calamity Laws warned him. Moreover, it moved like a snail in his perspective as he calmly walked towards its side, probed it with Divine Sense before proceeding to pick it up using Mental Energy. He then stored it within a storage ring and plunged his hand into the man''s chest, crushing his heart. All of this happened before the needle moved a meter away from the man''s hand. Krune then condensed a sphere of Mental Energy and plunged it into the man''s mind before pulling it out, collecting it. He then did the same to the old man, killing him as well before retracting the Godly Inhibition Tower. He then used his Divine Sense to target the bodies of the two, scouring through the laws forming their Spiritual Incarnation as the means before discovering their countless Land Incarnations. With a snap of his finger, he destroyed them all, ensuring they would never reincarnate. Sterlena had already taught him the best method to destroy the Spiritual Incarnations of others. Done with everything, he flicked his hand, burning their bodies until not even dust remained behind. The moment he unleashed his Godly Inhibition Tower, the Land Incarnations they had unleashed in the place was destroyed as well. "The Feifei they talked about¡­" Sterlena arrived next to him, watching Krune stare into the two spheres he had collected. Using his Mental Energy, he probed through the memories of the two, getting a gist of things, nodding with an expression of anger. "Indeed, they are." After a couple of seconds, he took in a deep breath, relaxing himself, healing his face, saying, "Sorry, I got too worked up. I was already prepared to face her enemies. But hearing about them speak of targeting her, I just lost it." "Are there more of them here?" she asked next. "Indeed. One of them is an ex-Primal God," Krune nodded as he replied. "Then, why don''t you leave those previously above the God Trial Realm to me?" She smirked. "Let''s annihilate them right now. I don''t like looking at your angry expression." "I know where they are," Krune said as he condensed the Cloud Whale around the both of them before taking flight. The Cloud Whale accelerated soon after, flying in a particular direction. Through the memories of the old man and the man with the poison, Krune had figured out where they were stationed right now. They weren''t just waiting. But instead, they remained behind to ambush the Golden Gate Sect members that had entered the infant supercontinent to strengthen themselves and fight their enemies. One of them¡ªthe three-headed bull¡ªthat had valuable information had escaped, so two of the enemies chased after him. Of course, whether it was the Golden Gate Sect, or their enemy, the Mist Sect, Krune didn''t plan to leave either of them alive. After all, the three-headed bull was from the Golden Gate Sect, but he readily leaked Feifei''s location. Moreover, it was a fact that the Golden Gate Sect were the ones that had annihilated the Mist Sect in the past. Plus, Feifei had only been a member of them for a few years. But, to involve her in their fight? The Golden Gate Sect had someone called the Divination Immortal that was able to divine Feifei''s location. That meant even if the Mist Sect didn''t know of her location, the Golden Gate Sect survivors would arrive at the Mountain Sect to look for her. And obviously, the Mist Sect would follow after them, only endangering Feifei. "We''re destroying both sides," Krune spoke. "Sure." Sterlena didn''t even bat an eye at the claim. In the past, she had cooked up and eaten the bodies of both humans and demon beasts alike. After all, countless cultivators had treated wisps as a cultivation tool. Naturally, True Spirits were dubbed as superior versions of the same. So, if someone that wasn''t a wisp or a True Spirit got on her nerves, she cooked them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, whatever the time of the day was. Having lost her entire race, after so long, she encountered a wisp, one that was really adorable in her eyes. And to see him expressing such rage, she didn''t like it. ''Wisps are natural-born silly creatures. Such hatred and anger aren''t part of their race''s code,'' she thought, firming her mind as her eyes glinted.. ''I''ll kill them all before Krune has a chance to make a move.'' Chapter 1281 - Courting Death "Mountain Sect, Zamuria Continent. That''s where she''s hiding, huh?" A grey-haired youth smirked. "I have no idea where this Zamuria Continent is, but I''ll be able to find it sooner or later." He then looked at the two fighting groups, yawning once as he said, "Come on, put your back into it. We surpass their numbers by at least twice. Why haven''t you killed them yet?" "We''re waiting for those two to return with the information. We can''t kill them before information about Feifei arrives. These bastards don''t seem to know about it," one of the cultivators turned around, bowed and replied. "I''ve received the information already," the grey-haired youth said in response. "Also, the two of them are dead for some reason. So, let''s clean this place up and investigate their location." "Yes!" Followed by their shout, the cultivators from the Mist Sect began to show the true extent of their powers. Even though the members of the Golden Gate Sect were stronger individually, they were outnumbered two to one, quickly falling into a disadvantage. Suddenly, the grey-haired youth''s pupils constricted as he got up in a hurry, bellowing, "Stop! Converge!" Everyone from the Mist Sect stopped fighting and returned, standing around him in a protective stance. Even the weakest among them had one been at the God Trial Realm. So, they were an impressively strong bunch. Moreover, the grey-haired youth was one of the elders of the Mist Sect, having reached the First Stage of the Primal God Realm during his peak. To chase after the group of the Golden Gate Sect that had entered this infant supercontinent, he had used a mysterious technique to send a clone of himself here. Knowing of the various dangers involved, he made it a separate entity, weakening his cultivation base a little. But this way, the clone possessed all his abilities and memories, including the respective law comprehension, allowing him to act as a powerhouse in this chase. Thus, his senses were alert, having detected a frightening entity approaching their location. The moment the Mist Sect members retreated, the Golden Gate Sect members wished to use the chance to escape when they watched the Cloud Whale come into view. "Stay here." Leaving behind a word, Sterlena flashed into the sky before Krune could say anything. She then gazed at the grey-haired youth, muttering, "I''ll keep you alone alive." "What?" The grey-haired youth was startled, intending to retaliate, when he noticed his hands were beginning to shiver erratically. Suddenly, a grey fluctuation emanated from Sterlena as she extended her hand forward, muttering with a trace of anger, "Heavenly Destruction!" Boom! Grey radiance slammed out of her, disintegrating everything it touched. It seeped into the bodies of all the cultivators on the ground, whether it be those from the Mist Sect or the Golden Gate Sect, traveling through the respective laws in the God Realm before targeting their incarnations. Within a second, everyone disintegrated, not leaving anything behind. The same was true for their Spiritual Incarnations. The only one left behind was the grey-haired youth, laying on the ground, slack-jawed, stuttering in shock, "W-W-Who the hell are you?" Even if he wanted to, he could no longer resist them. After all, his Spiritual Incarnation was already destroyed, with him being reduced into a mortal. "He''s yours now." Sterlena smiled, making way for Krune to interrogate him. Krune didn''t say anything as he sent his Mental Energy into the grey-haired youth''s mind before extracting all his memories. He then burned the other party, storing the sphere of memories as he told Sterlena, "I''ll look into his memories later." He then sighed, saying to Sterlena, "I knew you were strong, but not this strong." "Well, you do have to give me credit, you know," Sterlena smirked in response. "I''ve comprehended more than two hundred laws to the peak, not to mention countless other laws. Plus, my enemies were pretty much weak kids in response. The strongest was just at the First Stage of the Primal God Realm." Only then did Krune recall that Sterlena had attempted to become a God. ''No wonder she''s this powerful.'' "By the way, which law did you use to become a God?" he asked. "The one I used now," she replied. "This is something I created anyway during my tribulation. I hadn''t completed it back then since I failed the tribulation. But when I started my journey again, I began to slowly finish it since I was almost done back then." She grinned as she continued, "Also, I used the Blank Law Core to rapidly raise its comprehension." She then felt an entity that had been observing them beginning to escape immediately. ''Of course, I''ve created it to purposefully kill you as well, Little Cally. You better not disturb me after this.'' Upon seeing that her power was a real threat to it, Little Cally vanished from the scene. It had been preparing another great trap for Krune and wished to annoy Sterlena since she cared for him. But now, it abandoned its plan and escaped first. Now that it had vanished, Sterlena spoke, "Little Cally isn''t from the Four Realms." Krune hurriedly looked around, wondering if it would take action immediately. "I scared it away for the time being." She then continued, "I can sense that you''re looking for a way to leave the Four Realms. Little Cally is the clue to it once you become a God. Also, if you gain control over the Divine Sense Law, you''ll be able to achieve this even without the keys." "Divine Sense Law¡­" Krune muttered before saying, "I''ll give it a thought. I''ll continue growing all the laws I can until then." "Yep." Sterlena nodded in agreement. "That''s the best plan. Who knows, you might create someone even better than the Divine Sense Law. However, make sure to have enough preparations for that eventuality." "Alright." Krune nodded, commenting after a couple of minutes as he cleared his mind. "Shall we rob some treasures?" "Robbing is not the correct term since we''re just picking it from the ground." Sterlena chided, grinning after that. "I''d say farming would be the better term." "Alright, but naming any treasure we come across will be up to me." "Bah, you''re dreaming, brat! Your big sis calls the shots for names here." Chapter 1282 - Preparation For The Sect Wars Clang! An old man that seemed like he was in his teenage years slammed a cup on the ground, crushing it in anger. "Damn it! My clone is dead." "What happened?" Hovering in the air before him was an old man whose body was flickering in different states, turning from one law to another, displaying the frightening extent his cultivation had reached. "The clone I sent to that infant supercontinent has been killed. If even that is dead, I fear the rest of our sect members have also¡­" the teenager grunted in anger. "Then, there''s nothing we can do." The old man heaved a sigh in response. "But, don''t think about such matters too much. We''ve already seized all the properties of the Golden Gate Sect. Their remaining forces have gone into hiding in a Sub-Realm. We''ll eventually find them and destroy them." "But first." His voice turned serious as he said, "We''ll have to use up all the available resources to cultivate and become stronger. Countless surrounding sects are eyeing us. Our Mist Sect now controls four continents. We don''t have the strength to protect it yet." "Yes, sect leader. Your subordinate understands." The teenager bowed in response. "Good." The old man nodded before waving his hands. "I want you to focus on reaching the peak of the Primal God Realm first. Let''s send some weak immortals to search for Feifei and the remnants of the Golden Gate Sect. Our elites must solely focus on becoming stronger." "I''ll pass the order, sect leader," the teenager said before turning around to leave. But suddenly, he paused as his expression turned odd for a moment before an expression of delight appeared on his face. He turned around, shouting excitedly, "Sect leader, my failsafe method worked. Even though that clone died, it passed me the related information. It was just that the information had to travel through a secluded law I cultivated and only managed to reach me now." "Oh?" The sect leader lifted his brow, asking, "What did you find? Don''t keep me in suspense." "I dare not, sect leader." The teenager laughed before saying, "It''s about Feifei''s location. A decade ago, she was hiding in a place called Mountain Sect that''s located near the Zamuria Continent." "Zamuria Continent?" The sect leader frowned, deep in thought. "I see, that makes sense." "Does sect leader know about the place?" The teenager was surprised by the leader''s response. "I do." The sect leader nodded, saying, "Once we''ve collated all our people and stabilized the four continents under us, I had planned to invade the trio of Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria continents. There are some lucrative Sub-Realms there that some Gods had created in the past." "Such a thing exists there?" The teenager was surprised. "If so, we should hurry and¡­" "No, that''ll be foolish." The sect leader shook his head. "That would mean we''ll have to go against three continents. With our unstable foundation, we''ll be courting death. Each continent has at least two Primal Gods defending them. That''s six Primal Gods in total, not to mention any unknown elements that could be factored into the situation." "I was foolish." The teenager bowed in response. "I have a lot of expectations towards you, Gucheng," the sect leader told him. "Use as many resources as you need, but I want you to reach the peak as soon as possible. After that, we''ll invade those three sister continents and seize the Sub-Realms before attempting ascension into the God Realm." "Yes, I''ll get to it immediately." He flew out of their headquarters before making an announcement to the sect members of the Mist Sect. "Those at the Nascent God Realm, Semi-God Realm, and God Trial Realm, form an army and begin preparations for war. This mission is of utmost priority." "If we have to stop the Golden Gate Sect from making an uprising in the future, Feifei must be killed, no matter the cost. Plant your Land Incarnations here and finish preparations as soon as possible." "Yes!" came a roar from the sect members that heard the announcement. Soon, war preparations were being made. ¡­ "Hmm, is that it?" Sterlena asked in confusion. "Are you sure this was the last of them?" "Yes." Krune nodded, looking through the memories he had harvested. "Whether it''s the Golden Gate Sect or the Mist Sect, we''ve killed everything that had entered the infant supercontinent. Though, it''s quite unfortunate that the ex-Primal God from the Mist Sect was nothing but an unconnected clone. It would have been great if we had damaged him." "Well, not even I have a guarantee of being able to damage a Primal God with my current cultivation base," Sterlena said to Krune. "Even though my comprehension is the same, the level to which I could dominate my laws grows higher with an increase in cultivation. This is not to mention the innate quality of Godly Energy, power of Divine Sense, the basic fusion of the various laws into my body during breakthroughs, and so on all contribute to a rapid spike in power." She then stopped speaking, realizing that Krune was distracted. "Are you worried about Feifei? We''ll be able to return through your subspace, right?" "Yes, but the treasures here would rapidly help our sect grow. And that''s necessary for the upcoming war. So, I''ve been unable to decide yet." Krune sighed. "Then, let''s do it like this." After thinking for a moment, Sterlena said, "We''ll loot till our hearts'' content for one year and then return to the Mountain Sect. It''ll only take a minute through your subspace, right? We''ll then become immortals and raise our cultivation as quickly as we can." "Let''s get as much battle experience as possible so that we wouldn''t need to worry about facing any blocks while cultivating," she concluded. "Thanks, sis." Krune laughed. "You''ve really helped me clear my mind. For some reason, I''ve been feeling mentally drained ever since I''ve arrived at the God Realm. Everything just feels¡­" "Shh¡­" She stopped him from speaking further. "Don''t think about such matters too much. The God Realm is just that messy. It has always been that way. And as a wisp, there are plenty of matters that you''ll have to face in the future, especially the enemies that Wally had made." "After all, when you reach the Primal God Realm, they''ll come looking for you." Chapter 1283 - Rampant Pillaging Of Resources "The Jade Fountain is just up ahead!" a cultivator shouted as he led a group over, rushing through the woods before arriving at a lake, or at least, that was what it should have been. At present, the lake had gone missing. As for the Jade Fountain that had existed in its center, it had been plundered. Judging by the perfect means as to how the laws in the surroundings remained unaffected, the thief was an expert in stealing. They then arrived beside a man who gazed at the empty lake with an ashen face, asking, "Brother, what happened here?" "I''m¡­still unsure," the ashen-faced man said after a while, still failing to return to reality. "I was the first to come here. I thought I would use the Jade Fountain to gain some strength. But suddenly, a shadow rushed past me. By the time I managed to react, it had turned out like this." "Are you lying, brother?" The other cultivator rolled his eyes in response. "How is it possible to steal something so big so quickly? And to remove it so cleanly without damaging anything, you''ll have to make a lot of preparations." "Then, how do you explain this?" The man''s fingers trembled as he pointed at the empty lake. "Word of the Jade Fountain quickly spread around. If I had taken it, people would have been chasing after me by now." He then pointed at some cultivators that were scattered around the lake and continued, "Look at the others. They too had seen the same." "Forget it. Let''s search for another treasure." The group of cultivators sighed before rushing towards another location. There were countless treasures at this place, after all. Once they left, the ashen-faced man smirked as he condensed the portal to the subspace as all the surrounding cultivators entered it and vanished. He then calmly began to rush in another direction. Similar scenes began to happen everywhere. "I''m done with that. Where''s the next one?" Sterlena asked, cracking her knuckles. "Your subspace is super convenient to steal stuff." "My clones are arriving at another location now," Krune said before nodding in response. "We''ve arrived there." "Alright, give me a moment." Sterlena smiled as she entered the subspace that entered the body of a clone before a portal opened, allowing her to exit. The moment she exited the subspace, she observed her surroundings, determining the laws that were at the place as she involved her ability. Balance Laws! The treasure she was aiming for cleanly extracted itself from the ground as she added countless restrictions over it, sealing it up while shrinking it, using the laws of space. Once it was made small enough, she sent it into the subspace, also entering it as the clones vacated the area, morphing their appearances and aura before heading towards another location. Soon, news of this spread throughout the group of cultivators moving through the subspace as countless cultivators became alert. But even if they did, nothing changed as someone among them suddenly stepped forward, creating a portal through which Sterlena arrived, stole the item while they made their escape by dropping out a disposable clone. Soon after, the clones dispersed to more unexplored regions, working Sterlena to the bone. Though, thanks to the Cultivation Lotus, she had more than enough Godly Energy to rely upon, taking a break from time to time before working nonstop. The number of items they began to steal exploded in number. Even though countless enemies were created as a result, Krune didn''t seem to care, only focusing on gathering as many resources as needed so that the Mountain Sect would have enough to nurture elites to go against their enemies. Plus, the treasures in the infant supercontinent were precious enough for even Primal Gods to be drool after, not to mention the rest. For those that were vast fields with specialized laws, Krune didn''t target them, for they couldn''t be taken away so easily. Sterlena would have to be at the Primal God Realm before she would be able to affect such vast places. So, in the end, their targets were smaller habitats. But, that didn''t mean they were ignoring the large habitats that produced treasures. Krune left a clone there to do all the work by relying upon his large Divine Sense. Just as how there was a clone constantly collecting drops in the Reverse Rainfall, there were clones in every place of importance, collecting the treasures stealthily while storing them in a storage ring. When they had collected enough, the subspace would appear in their bodies for a moment as they would place the storage rings within. This way, Krune was accumulating riches at a rapid rate. Within the subspace, a bunch of clones were forging items nonstop using the materials acquired, rapidly raising his attainment with forging. Forging items, making pills, creating formations, and even drawing talismans, Krune''s clones were doing them all. There was also one cooking as Krune was truly making use of his clones. At his current stage, he could fragment Little Krune into thousands, allowing him to possess a thousand clones. Among them, a hundred solely spent meditating, comprehending the various laws that formed the subspace, working in increasing its size. Another hundred worked with the Cultivation Lotus, tempering it with tribulation lightning constantly. And finally, there was another batch of hundred clones that were comprehending the Law Deity Cores to increase their comprehension. The only reason he was able to maintain all this was thanks to Mental Energy. As it was an energy of the mind, it bore all the mental load with such multitasking involving a thousand clones. Every second, each clone consumed a significant amount of Mental Energy to sustain the calculations required to process everything that they were doing. They primarily relied upon the Cultivation Lotus for that. By absorbing the Godly Energy it emitted, they converted that into Mental Energy to sustain themselves. Adding onto the Godly Energy needs of Sterlena that was moving massive areas into the subspace one after another, the energy production barely kept up. Sometimes, Krune had to stop the clones just so that Sterlena would have enough Godly Energy to recover, for her task was of the utmost importance. Hindering her would mean hindering their plan. "This guy¡­ is a training monster.." Sterlena teared up, laughing aloud as she cheered at the clones, from time to time making them assume wisp forms as she snuggled with them, healing her mind as she used them as pillows to take a nap occasionally. Chapter 1284 - Returning To The Mountain Sect "Just what the hell is happening here?" A cultivator roared in anger upon seeing that a secret location of treasure that he had been aiming at for the past three days had vanished all of a sudden. Having lost his treasure, he was angry. After all, his hard work had been stolen. "I have an idea." Taking the chance, Kirena Wohat made an entry, smiling as she said to the cultivator, "The culprits are two people, Sterlena and Krune. They''re the ones pillaging our treasures from everywhere." "¡­" The cultivator silently stared at her, unwilling to believe her. Snorting at his actions, she turned around, walking away as she said, "If you don''t believe me, ask anyone else you come across. Everyone would tell you the same. A lot of treasures have been plundered by them recently that quite a lot of people have been searching for them." "I see." After thinking for a moment, the cultivator rushed in a certain direction. A couple of minutes after that, an eight-year-old girl wearing a cropped dress appeared, sporting a frown on her face as she muttered, "What the heck is this woman planning now?" She then kicked a random rock. "Well, not that it matters." Of course, she was Krune''s clone, having been hiding there all along. She was experimenting to see if Kirena was able to detect her presence when she was cloaked by Mental Energy. ''Her detection ability is pretty fearsome. It made me expend my entire reserve of Godly Energy within a minute.'' She then smiled as she muttered to herself, "But, this only means my Mental Energy shield works even against an ex-Primal God as long as I could handle the energy expenditure." She then hummed a tune and began to walk towards another location. If she used the Wind element, then others might attack her, having seen other thieves use the same. Then again, it wasn''t like she didn''t have an option, casually amplifying her movements using the Laws of Earth, detecting the next location where the concentration of a respective law spiked. That would be a special region with treasures. Thankfully for Krune and Sterlena, they didn''t come across the ex-God after the Blank Law Core incident, allowing them to roam as they pleased. However, a couple of times, an ex-Primal God attacked Krune. Then again, Sterlena stepped in to thrash them into submission. She wasn''t called the strongest Primal God once for no reason. Only cultivators like the ex-God were her opponents. So, for an entire year, they roamed through the infant supercontinent as much as they could, storing enough treasures to fill the subspace to the brim. After that, they decided to return to the Mountain Sect. But, Krune had still left some clones behind to continue with their resource gathering process. This was the plan until the infant supercontinent finished forming and became open to everyone in the God Realm. A massive war would erupt by then as the powerhouses would contest for the real treasures that only those at the Primal God Realm and above would be able to touch and vie for. Those present here weren''t able to obtain such treasures. Though, Krune had already obtained the Godly Inhibition Tower as an ability. This was even better than the Godly Inhibition Tower that Brenker had. After all, storing that was pretty hard, not to mention carrying it with him. He would only be able to do that when the infant supercontinent finished forming. And at that time, he would have to face the onslaught from Primal Gods. So, it was a pretty worrying situation for him. ¡­ A clone formed in the Lawless Plains of Zamuria Continent before using the teleportation formation there to teleport into the Mountain Sect, turning into the figure of the eight-year-old girl. As she entered, the defensive formation of the Mountain Sect recognized her as Krune, allowing her entry. She then directly headed towards the main hall of the sect, noticing that Zamura was seated there. Upon seeing him, she shuddered for a moment in surprise as she thought to herself, ''He''s become terrifying even more now.'' "Krune?" Zamura asked in surprise. "Did something happen?" "I''m planning to return, that''s all. So, you don''t need to protect my clones," she said before waiting patiently for a minute, soon condensing a portal as Krune and Sterlena exited it. Pointing at Sterlena, Krune introduced her, "This is Sterlena, my big sister." "You have a sister?" Zamura acted surprised for a completely different issue, pissing him off. "Of course, I have one!" Krune cursed in response. "Well¡­ that''s debatable, I guess." Zamura turned his head, whistling away. ''Debatable my ass. What''s debatable in this?'' He grumbled internally before saying, "Anyway, sis is pretty much the strongest even now." "Hoh, can we fight?" Zamura asked, itching for action. "I''ve created a pretty powerful training ground where we can fight to our heart''s content." "Not now." Sterlena shook her head before nudging Krune. Upon seeing the serious atmosphere between them, Zamura turned serious as well, asking, "What''s the issue?" "Feifei''s enemies. The Mist Sect would be attacking us soon," Krune said, giving a short recount to what he had found out in the infant supercontinent. "First of all, you''ve managed to cure your race''s defect, right?" Zamura asked. "Yep." Krune nodded. "I probably wouldn''t be having any other problems for a long time." "See Gegrafikan after this. It seems he has a lot to talk to you," Zamura said in response. "Where''s Feifei?" he asked next, having observed along the way that the sect seemed emptier than when he had left it. "What happened here?" "Huh? Oh, nothing much." Zamura laughed. "I''ve just organized a sect competition. So, most of them are within our Sub-Realm right now to see the competition. The ones remaining here are just our forces to defend the sect if in the case of an emergency." He then groaned, "I wanted to see the competition as well, but the responsibility for defending the sect was pushed onto me. My mom and your wife are happily cultivating every day while I''m left with all the grunt work." "Well¡­ good luck with that!" Krune said, intending to leave when Zamura grabbed hold of him like a predator looking at prey. "How many clones can you create now?" Zamura asked. "1000," Krune replied, eyes twitching as he backed away instinctively. "Perfect!" "I''m not doing it¡­" Chapter 1285 - Inviting Death "I made this¡­." "I created this¡­." "I shaped this¡­." "I conceptualized this¡­." Krune showed Sterlena around the Mountain Sect, shamelessly taking credit for everything. Even if it was something completely created by Zamura or someone else, he went along the lines of, "I gave them the idea¡­." And for some reason, Sterlena believed every single word he uttered, eyes widening from time to time as she inspected the depth of planning that went into the creation of the Mountain Sect. "The sect even has a Sub-Realm?" She was shocked by this point, entering the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm. "Yep, it''s something we obtained as a reward from the Sub-Realm where the five Gods experimented with creating body cultivation. Most of our disciples originate from there," Krune replied, leading her to a massive arena where a competition was being held. Of course, he was also surprised at the changes that had happened to the Mountain Sect in the time he had been away. All the buildings had been occupied, every department had enough personnel, and the treasures of the sect were being put to proper use to nurture more immortals. Countless other buildings had also been erected within the Sub-Realm, whose size had expanded a lot since he had last entered it. Zamura had explained that this was thanks to the Godly Veins that they had fused into it, spiking its growth. At present, its size was already a quarter of a continent, with most of the newly created space being empty. Resources were being produced there, but there just weren''t enough cultivators to roam that far. "This Sub-Realm is rich!" Sterlena was shocked. "How much wealth have you accumulated here?" "Probably a continent''s worth," Krune said nonchalantly. "It''s thanks to our limitless supply of Godly Energy, after all. We have three Cultivation Lotuses." "There are three of them here?" She was shocked once again before massaging her forehead, muttering, "Ahh, I feel a headache already." "Krune, you''ve returned?" The Seamstress quickly flew his way, surprised. "You''ve been away for so long that I almost forgot you." "How''s the sect''s growth?" Krune asked. "Oh, amazing, to be honest." She laughed in response. "We don''t even need to recruit any cultivators. Those arriving from the Sub-Realm are more than enough. And recently, based on what the newcomers have said, it seems that most of those from the topmost layer have begun to arrive here. Things changed after one of the Gods allowed one of us to head there and show our might to recruit them." "Why have the Gods done that?" Krune was confused when he heard that. "What do they gain from losing the cultivators that they have painstakingly accumulated for so many years?" "I''m not so sure." She shook her head as she told him, "Only Gegrafikan knows about it. He was the one that made a deal with the Gods of that Sub-Realm, after all." "It feels like I''ve skipped on a lot of important events." Krune smiled wryly before asking, "Where''s Feifei?" "She''s cultivating," the Seamstress replied. "She has relegated most of the work to the Monster Geckos under her control and has only been cultivating ever since you left." "If she''s cultivating, then I won''t disturb her." Krune nodded in response. ''We need all the strength we can to face her enemies anyway. Better not interrupt her focus.'' "What''s the competition about?" he then asked, gazing at the massive arena below, seeing cultivators move together in groups as they fought the Monster Geckos that came along the way. "Recently, Zamuria managed to create some powerful passive abilities. So, they are being used as a prize, with the winner being able to obtain a unique active ability," she spoke. "So, the competition is pretty fierce." "It''s only for Inner Disciples, though, so you can''t participate," she spoke curtly, observing his intention to fight before asking, "Besides, I''ve already reached the God Trial Realm, but I still don''t have the confidence of defeating you." "What the hell have you been up to until now?" "Well¡­ it''s a pretty long story." Krune smiled in response. "I''ll tell you at a later date. I''ll break through to the Semi-God Realm first." ¡­ "This Cultivation Lotus is bigger than yours¡­" Sterlena said in surprise, arriving above a Cultivation Lotus. "Well, everyone broke through to become immortals on this, after all," Krune replied. "Plus, the founding members have already reached the God Trial Realm, not to mention the countless Core Disciples that have reached the Semi-God Realm." "The refinement the lightning tribulations can unleash are beyond what I could create, at least, until now, that is." He smirked. Thanks to his comprehension, the power of his Tribulation Lightning would almost be on par with the Tribulation Lightning one would face to break through into the God Trial Realm. It''s thanks to his comprehension of the Tribulation Lightning Law already reaching the God Trial Realm, raising the potency of its effectiveness. Moreover, he was at the Nascent God Realm right now, able to use it at a stronger level than during the century when he was only at the God Core Realm. "Once I reach the Semi-God Realm, my Cultivation Lotus would grow to become stronger." Saying so, he turned around, asking, "Sis, do you want to break through first?" "Hmm... why don''t we try to breakthrough simultaneously?" After a moment of thought, she suggested something that was insane. "We''ll definitely die!" Krune shook his head, refusing the initiative immediately. "Well, it''ll surely be interesting, don''t you think?" She laughed, saying, "Besides, I wasn''t asking your permission. I was just giving you a heads up." Krune''s eyes widened in shock as he quickly noticed dark clouds form in the sky, groaning. "Oh, come on! Are you actually the Calamity Laws in disguise?" "Well, I''ve eaten up a good part of the Calamity Laws. So, you''re not wrong to say that." She laughed, dragging him towards the Cultivation Lotus. "You should also start if you don''t want to suffer for no reason." "Just my luck." Krune wanted to cry as he had no other choice but to break through. It seemed Sterlena had no intentions to leave him alone. Besides, with his current strength, their actions were indeed no suicide. Or at least, that was what he had thought until he noticed what happened in the skies. The Tribulation Lightning changed shape, turning into actual dragons, emanating such a powerful presence that he was stumped for words for a moment. His expression collapsed as he almost pulled out his hair. "¡­fuck me! Why again?" Chapter 1286 - Cute Little Lightning Dragons? "Huff¡­ I''ve finally stabilized my realm." Feifei exhaled slowly, adjusting her clothes as she inspected herself, feeling the brimming power within her. She then felt something was odd, closing her eyes as her senses coursed through the Laws that she had comprehended, traveling through the God Realm before arriving at a tiny pool on which an altar had been placed. It consisted of all the Laws that formed her Spiritual Incarnation, the method that could be used to contact her, left behind by the founding ancestor of the Golden Gate Sect. "Feifei is still in the Mountain Sect. We have to hurry," an old man said so as the group behind him nodded before entering a portal that manifested before them. The portal vanished as the old man grabbed a swirling sphere in his hand. He was a famous Primal God in the God Realm, his fame known among countless continents. He was a ruthless cultivator that had once bathed countless continents into a sea of blood singlehandedly. It was not to mention the fact that he was an expert in the laws of space, impossible to be countered. He appeared wherever he wished to do so, stealing things, severing heads, and leaving silently, without so much a trace. Currently, he was the vice sect leader of the Golden Gate Sect. He was the reason the Golden Gate Sect hadn''t been annihilated yet, having already pocketed all the important resources of the sect beforehand. So, when the Mist Sect invaded, they didn''t obtain any significant wealth but would have to rely upon what was produced in the four continents that they now controlled. Plus, before making his escape, he had severely injured two Primal Gods from the Mist Sect, causing them to tend to their injuries for five decades with no signs of recovering yet. Pocket Immortal! This was his title, specifying his ability to create pocket dimensions that he carried with him. He carried countless such pocket dimensions with him and detonated them while facing enemies. The rampant ejection of various laws was capable of wounding even Primal Gods depending on how big the pocket dimension was. "Hmm, I cannot feel any spatial coordinates to the Mountain Sect, but¡­" The Pocket Immortal frowned before muttering, "But reaching the Guria Continent is easy. Then again, I need to conserve my power. Without any spatial coordinates to the destination, I''ll have to hop from one continent to another while bringing everyone with me." He sighed, muttering, "That''ll take a lot of time." "This guy¡­" Having observed them, Feifei frowned. When the other party tried to determine her position through that altar, Feifei had used it in reverse to spy upon them. To be honest, she didn''t want them to find her. After all, it wasn''t as if she had that good of an impression of the Golden Gate Sect anyway. They were just a sect that she had joined to survive in the God Realm. Plus, she hadn''t been part of them long enough to become attached to them either. But throughout the Sub-Realm, she had to face enemies from the Mist Sect, all because of the fact that she was part of the Golden Gate Sect and had inherited its founding ancestor''s Spiritual Incarnation. She had only faced trouble because of them. Out of all of them, only the elder that had taken care of her did Feifei have a favorable impression of. But that was all there was, just a favorable impression. It wasn''t as if that elder had gone out of her way to help her or anything. But now, the reason they were looking for her was simple. They wished to use her Spiritual Incarnation to improve their strength. As simple as that. After that, they would wage war with the Mist Sect again, repeating history. She didn''t wish to become a part of that, never again. Also, she didn''t wish to implicate Krune and others because of her. She had thought of leaving the sect on numerous occasions just to keep Krune safe. But, the moment she had the thought and tried to leave, Zamura prevented her. No matter what she tried, she wasn''t able to get past him. "If you want to leave, do that after Krune returns. You do realize that Krune won''t even bat an eye if you implicate him in danger, right?" Zamura had been pretty stubborn back then. So, left with no other choice, Feifei wholeheartedly focused on her cultivation to become as strong as possible. Suddenly, she sensed a terrifying aura as her eyes widened. Flustered, she destroyed her cultivation chambers and shot towards the air, worried that the Mist Sect had already invaded them. But then, she noticed a familiar scene forming in the clouds, stopping as her eyes twitched, tracing towards the source to see the frustrated expression of Krune on the Cultivation Lotus. "Pfftt¡­!" She began to laugh right after, flashing through the air as she landed before Krune, hugging him lightly as she said, "Welcome back!" She then escaped from the scene immediately, as if fleeing from the area, gazing at the clouds from time to time. "¡­" Krune wanted to cry as he watched Feifei stopping at a safe distance before erecting a comfortable platform, arranging a sofa on which she slumped, taking out a variety of food items that she began to much upon while gazing at the scene, clearly prepared to witness the spectacle. "Shit!" He facepalmed upon seeing Zamura riling up all the sect members to make a large circle around him, transporting the seats from the arena and even began to charge them for spectator fees. It seemed that he had clearly heard a lot of stories from Feifei, judging by how excited he was. "Ufufufu! You can''t chase me now, can you?" Followed by parlous laughter, Little Cally''s voice resounded, causing Krune''s mood to worsen. Relishing his worsening mood, Little Cally gloated, "Your Majesty here worked hard on this one. Take a gander and appreciate my efforts, will you?" "Those cute little lightning dragons¡­" Its tone became pure as if belonging to a child. "Why don''t you receive them to your face?" As if triggered by its voice, a massive lightning dragon spanning a length of two hundred meters arced through the air before slamming into Krune, destroying the surroundings. Chapter 1287 - Semi-God Realm! "Cute little lightning dragons?" Krune muttered with a hint of confusion. "Them?" And as if right on cue, a gigantic lightning dragon slammed into him, eliciting screams from him as he condensed a layer of ice to defend himself. The ice layer was broken immediately as the lightning behaved like it was sentient, retracting its body a little before slashing its claws at Krune, ripping apart his barrier. It then coiled around him, emanating countless lightning bolts that slammed into him nonstop, beginning to char his skin. Whenever he erected a barrier around him, its claws would attack it, destroying them. Little Cally''s laughter echoed every time this happened, stating after some time had passed, "Oh, I''m not aiming for you, Sterlena. You''re just coincidentally around Krune. So yeah¡­ you know¡­ just enjoy them, I guess?" "Who the hell can enjoy them?" Sterlena retorted in response as a second lightning dragon arrived and slammed into her. She erected countless barriers around her, defending herself, from time to time also helping Krune. "Way to go, big sis. You''ve made it way worse than it originally would have been," Krune muttered as he was slapped by a lightning dragon, flinching from the attack before punching it in reverse by condensing a massive fist of ice. Of course, the ice shattered instantly when a bolt of lightning slammed into it. "Yes, it may be dangerous. But the benefits are higher as well," Sterlena said, transmitting her voice to him through Divine Sense. "Didn''t you obtain the Tribulation Lightning Law? Use one of your clones to unleash your Spiritual Mark on a Blank Law Core and begin comprehending the law again." "But I''ve already comprehended it to the God Trial Realm. The Blank Law Cores that are left can only raise my comprehension to the Semi-God Realm. They wouldn''t work for my Tribulation Lightning Law anymore." "Trust me, it''ll work," Sterlena shouted in response, "All you need to achieve is the process of you being able to comprehend the Law of Tribulation Lightning. That way, you''ll actually be able to bypass the natural restriction and gleam into the truth of the heavens. That''s why I made the both of us breakthrough at the same time!" Krune''s eyes lit up as both he and Sterlena returned to their demon beast forms, looking no different from one another. "Another wisp? In the God Realm?" Feifei was shocked. "Shouldn''t Krune be the only one here at present?" The Wisps should have increased in number within the Godly Path Realm by now. But for the God Realm, that shouldn''t have been the case. Even if they arrived here, they shouldn''t have accumulated enough to attempt a breakthrough to the Semi-God Realm. Also, based on what she sensed, Sterlena was strong, too strong for a Nascent God. So, it made no sense. "Who is she?" Feifei wondered, especially since Krune''s breakthrough had begun the moment she came out. So, she didn''t have much time to interact with him. Boom! Followed by a mighty roar, a lightning dragon slammed into Krune, causing him to endure the pain while within his subspace, all the Little Krune Fragments joined together to turn into a whole once again, after almost a century. Little Krune used all his power to activate his Spiritual Mark, slamming a powerful bolt of tribulation lightning into a Semi-God Realm Blank Law Core, turning it into a Tribulation Lightning Law Core. As he began to absorb it, Krune''s eyes lit up as he suddenly sensed that he was able to probe into the lightning dragon. The headache that he felt when trying to sense the Tribulation Lightning Law was no longer there, allowing him to forget the pain from the attacks and focus slowly on comprehending it. Moreover, thanks to Sterlena''s intervention, the tribulation lightning had advanced to a higher form now. Not only was it dangerous and life-threatening, but the concentration of the Tribulation Lightning Law was also dozens of times more than before. As his Divine Sense was on the level of a God Trial Realm cultivator, the moment he activated it, he was lost in a sea of thought, comprehending the essence of the Tribulation Lightning Law. His Mental Energy broiled, causing a sea of it to churn, allowing him to process his thoughts faster. Thanks to Little Krune comprehending the Tribulation Lightning Law Core, he was able to understand it better and better. However, this also meant he was unable to defend himself under the tribulation. Fortunately for him, Sterlena chimed in, shielding him to the best of her ability. Even though they were having a hard time, thanks to Krune''s tough physique, even if some lightning bolts slammed into him, he wouldn''t die. On top of that, the healing effect of his Ocean Heart would begin to heal him. As he had returned to his wisp form, his Soul Needle peeked out from his core, causing countless lightning bolts to be pulled towards it as if it was a lightning rod. Krune''s Spiritual Mark shone from the depths of his soul, unleashing sparks from time to time that interacted with the tribulation lightning, amplifying themselves. "This is the best tempering one can find." After some time had passed, Sterlena closed her eyes, letting go of all defensive means as she took on all the hits, being injured severely. Then, she riled up her Spiritual Incarnation, using the tribulation lightning to temper her various laws, to an extent surpassing her previous level. Her Spiritual Incarnation not only grew tougher, but the alignment, interaction, and cohesiveness of the various laws forming them increased. Instantly, it felt like her mind was released from the confines of her body as her consciousness spread throughout her Divine Sense. For a moment, her body of a True Spirit exploded into a sea of flames, ethereal in nature, unaffecting even Krune as it spread around, absorbing the countless lightning bolts that slammed into them. Suddenly, the lightning dragons writhed in pain for some reason as all the power in them was voraciously sucked in by her. Once it was done, the sea of flames condensed back, forming her body as a True Spirit, hovering with no aura whatsoever. Similarly, Krune''s Wisp body also did the same, but instead of a sea of flames, it just vanished, conceptualizing into Divine Sense instead. The lightning dragons attacking him turned still immediately as the form of sentience they displayed was sucked out from them and absorbed by Krune, turning them into regular lighting bolts. His body condensed into the wisp form after that as the lightning clouds slowly dispersed. And slowly, the aura of a Semi-God Realm cultivator was emitted by both Krune and Sterlena. Breakthrough complete! Chapter 1288 - Tea? Semi-God Realm! The moment he reached this realm, Krune realized that his body was changing a lot. All the laws that he had comprehended were now being fused into his being. He had already achieved the same through his Spiritual Incarnation, but now, the laws were further elevated in quality and purity. So, he would naturally age countless times slower. Then again, the thing that he attained with the realm was the ability to look into the laws of the God Realm through the laws he possessed. ''So, this is how immortals channel attacks through the laws of others and destroy their Land Incarnations, preventing them from reviving.'' He now understood it completely. Before, he was just applying it blindly by following Sterlena''s method. That had been enough since his opponents were only in the Nascent God Realm. But now that he understood the essence of the concept, he understood how ingenious her ability was. ''My comprehension of the Tribulation Lightning Law has increased by a lot.'' He was surprised by this, finally understanding something. ''Is this how Luvile became a god of the tribulations?'' Whether it was Heavin''s Mental Energy or Luvile''s Lightning Tribulations, Krune was able to understand them better now. The more he understood them, the more he realized just how powerful they were. His Divine Sense Law also improved through the tribulation as Krune noticed his subspace having expanded in size by ten times. It was because the lightning tribulations tempered his laws, naturally raising his comprehension of them. He wasn''t able to fully wield his powers yet, having to first cultivate a little and stabilize his Realm. But, it was of no concern as he could feel his body growing tremendously powerful with every second. After all, thanks to the Deific Wisp Technique, all three cultivation paths in him would be raised simultaneously. So, both his body cultivation and soul cultivation reached the Semi-God Realm in potency. Thanks to the powerful tribulation, the Cultivation Lotus had developed a lot, instantly releasing a dense stream of Godly Energy, vitalizing all the spectators. "Krune!" He hadn''t even gathered his bearings when Feifei leaped into his arms. "I''m back!" Krune laughed as he spun around, treating her like a kid as he threw her up a little, intending to catch her immediately. But the only problem was¡­he forgot to consider that he had just broken through, unable to control his strength. "Krunnneeeee....!" Feifei''s voice turned faint as her figure vanished high up into the sky, followed by a gentle twinkling effect. "Oops!" He could only scratch her cheeks and let out a wry smile, watching Feifei land gracefully on the ground nearby. Of course, she was able to fly. So, being thrown into the air wasn''t that much of a big deal. Nevertheless, the fact that he had done so proved his strength. After all, Feifei had also cultivated her body. So, she was probably heavier than him¡­ "I''m featherweight!" As if she heard his thoughts, she smacked him before slugging him like a sack over her shoulders, blasting off into the sky immediately. "¡­How I envy the young." Sterlena gazed at the scene, shaking her head as she laughed. "Ma''am, let me guide you to your quarters." Zamura landed before her, saying, "I''ve already prepared one for you." "Can I get an entire floating island for myself?" she asked in response. "Anything you want." Zamura laughed before continuing, "For free." He then muttered under his breath, "I''ll just deduct the cost from Krune''s labor charges¡­" "Deal!" She laughed, shaking hands with him. "Ugh." Krune felt goosebumps all of a sudden. "I feel like a deal was made using me as collateral." "Let''s worry about that later," Feifei said as she dropped him on a floating island. Krune looked around, noticing a small house built at one end, asking, "This is¡­?" "Our house," she replied. "I moved it into the Sub-Realm. This entire floating island is our private property." "This floating island?" Krune asked in surprise, for it was massive, one of the biggest in the Sub-Realm. Even though he was one of those that created the Mountain sect, their intention was to keep everything public. So, he never thought about owning a private space within. That had never been his intention in the first place. But as the space within the Sub-Realm had been increasing continuously, it seemed the rules had been changed a little, allowing elders and higher up to possess private spaces, having an entire floating island to themselves. Currently, there were all sorts of herbs planted throughout the floating island, with a lot of Monster Geckos tending to them. From time to time, they cut open their wrists and watered the herbs with their blood. "I devised a method to use their blood that is rich in Godly Energy. Thanks to this, we are able to grow precious herbs at a faster scale. They''re also healthier this way as the energy of body cultivation is maximum in the Monster Gecko," Feifei told him. As he had the passive ability of Frozen Blood that was derived and improved upon the passive ability of Monster Gecko Blood, Krune understood what she was getting at. "Oh wait, before I forget." He thought and began to take out some items from his subspace. "I''ve brought a lot of things from this infant supercontinent. I was planning to establish two training chambers using them, one to strengthen Godly Energy and the second is to comprehend the laws with greater efficiency." "Let''s first have some tea." Feifei smiled as she entered the house. "I''ve been dabbling in pill refining recently. And from that, I derived some tea recipes that are quite beneficial when drunk." "Tea?" Krune asked in shock, hurriedly placing his hand over her forehead, checking her temperature. "Strange, you don''t seem to be ill." "We haven''t seen each other for a century, but you haven''t gone crazy during that duration and even mentioned a peaceful activity like tea¡­?" As he continued to speak, he shuddered to see Feifei gazing at him with a smile. "Congratulations, my detective." She smiled, yanking him into the hut before closing the door shut. "The tea was just a ruse." Chapter 1289 - Deity Spheres "What are you making right now?" Feifei asked in curiosity, resting her head on her arm as she gazed at his working face, admiring him. At the moment, Krune lost sight of everything around him as he focused on his task, taking out three items from his subspace. The first thing he took out was a Law Deity Core, one that contained the Law of Fire at the Semi-God Realm. The second thing he took out was the drop, one that he continued to harvest in the Reverse Rainfall region in the infant supercontinent. And last was something that he created himself. It was a material containing his Divine Sense Law. Creating it was pretty simple. All he had to do was take out a massive block of steel and cause a clone to commit suicide on it while laying down its Land Incarnation. After that, he would just scrap out the pieces with the Divine Sense Law. After repeating it several times, he would obtain a large enough block filled with the respective law. Plus, after reaching the Semi-God Realm, he was able to obtain a larger block, especially since the Divine Sense Law was one of his most comprehended laws now. It was not to mention the fact that the slab was pretty pure. These three were the primary materials, while the supplementary materials only consisted of Rank 6 God Stones. Even though a Rank 5 God Stone conformed to the Godly Energy quality of a cultivator at the Semi-God Realm, since Krune wished to improve the quality of the end product as much as possible, he was using Rank 6 God Stones instead. Well, thanks to Tina, procuring Rank 6 God Stones wasn''t an issue. Taking out his Pestlor, Krune began to grind the Divine Sense Law slabs into dust, using them as cement to build a simple construct out of the Rank 6 God Stones. He also processed them first to turn them into the shape of bricks. Following it, he poured out a large pile of drops, planting a Fire Deity Law Core in the center, activating his Spiritual Mark as he unleashed tribulation lightning. Soon, countless clones surrounded him, unleashing tribulation lightning one after another to maintain a steady supply. In the meantime, he used the Pestlor as a hammer to pound the drops and the Fire Deity Law Core, beginning to fuse them together. The tribulation lightning already served to do the same, also improving them a little. The Fire Deity Law Core helped a cultivator comprehend the Law of Fire. Whereas a drop improved one''s mind and body, allowing them to perceive a law clearly and increase their rate of comprehension. And now, all Krune did was to fuse the effects of the two, creating a tiny sphere the size of his thumb. As the material containing his Divine Sense Law was mixed into it, the moment Krune gazed at it, he was able to perceive the Law of Fire clearly. On top of that, it wasn''t just the Law of Fire contained within the sphere. He was also using the same method immortals used to destroy the Land Incarnations of others. The sphere before him acted as a gateway that allowed one to perceive the Law of Fire throughout the God Realm. This way, the rate of comprehension of this law was tens of times faster. The effect was equivalent to entering a danger zone filled with the Law of Fire and entering it. This was Krune''s purpose in making them. He had been pondering over ways to make his Mountain Sect stronger to resist the calamity. After all, it wouldn''t be a simple war that lasted a day or two but would be something that would last a century, if not longer. After all, their opponents were those capable of reviving. They would keep coming back for revenge. So, in the long run, having more sect members that were strong would be for the best. To increase their strength, he had to make long-term plans. Using the Law Deity Cores would only help them short term, only benefiting a small group of cultivators. But now, they would be able to help a lot more people. "This is just the first of its kind." Smirking in response, Krune began to produce more of such products that he called "Deity Spheres!" After becoming an immortal, Krune''s need for sleep almost became nil, allowing him to work nonstop. Two hours after Krune landed on their home floating island, Feifei put on an expression of nostalgia, gazing far away as she uttered a single statement, "This is such a vast land that we have to ourselves. It''s too empty. It would have been nice to have Fie and the rest here." "Consider it done," Krune said, gently patting her head. "I''ll bring them here shortly after this." This was another reason that he was making preparations. If he were to bring the rest of his family here, in order to keep them safe, the Mountain Sect should become powerful enough to defend against any threat. So, his plans aligned with his thoughts, causing him to work nonstop. Moreover, when he was pummelling through the items, working amongst the tribulation lightning, Krune noticed something surprising, waving his hand once when he noticed the tribulation lightning arcing its way around his hand. He was confused for a moment before trying it again, noticing that it was able to curve around him based on his wishes. It still wasn''t anything spectacular, but it made Krune excited immediately. It meant that he was beginning to control the tribulation lightning, causing him the recall the good old days when he was accompanied by Luvile. "What are you up to these days?" he muttered before beginning to focus on his forging process, understanding the cause for his control. "It seems my experience as a Star Imperial Meister in the Realm of Sufferings has been worth it." "What''s this place?" A sect member that was passing by looked surprised to see a massive dome appear all of a sudden, surprising him. Curious about what it could be, he approached it, noticing that the interior was pitch black while embedded in the top of the dome''s underside were countless tiny spheres resembling stars, but each was of a different color, twinkling constantly. The moment he gazed at those stars, the information related to countless laws gushed into his mind, causing him to froth at the mouth and fall unconscious. Right at this moment, Krune exited the dome, having just finished its construction as he stopped in shock, noticing a group of people on the ground, all unconscious, frothing at their mouths. "What the hell happened here?" Chapter 1290 - The God Realm Is Destabilizing "Did you make a mess again?" Zamura felt a headache, gazing at the almost hundred sect members that were unconscious. All of them were Core Disciples that were being nurtured carefully. "I have no idea what happened." Krune raised his hand, sporting an expression that said, ''I have nothing to do with these people.'' Zamura''s eyelids twitched at his response, intending to smack him in the head for a moment. But, upon realizing his duty as a sect leader, he controlled himself, trying to appear dignified. He stroked his non-existent beard, asking, "Well, aren''t you an expert of healing? Why don''t you heal them first and see what happened to them?" "Well¡­ I would love to do that," Krune replied, suddenly holding his back as he continued, "But you see, I sprained my back working my ass off for a certain slacker. So¡­" "The next on your list is to take care of them, though." Zamura lied through his teeth, "They need your experiences to grow up into fine immortals. So, you''ll have to teach them next. Every elder is doing the same." "¡­Did you make that up just now?" Krune stared at Zamura, maintaining it for a good whole minute before the other party averted his glance. Suddenly, Zamura left behind a statement and flew away. "I just remembered I have something important that I have to take care of. Aiyaaa! It''s tough managing a sect." "¡­" Krune stared at Zamura''s fleeing back, cursing aloud, "Slacker!" He sighed and approached the closest Core Disciple, slapping his cheeks gently to wake him up. He cast a beam of healing effect on the other party, causing him to wake up immediately. "What¡­whe¡­where am I?" The Core Disciple looked around, unable to understand what was up for a moment. He was around fifty years old, having reached the Fifth Stage of the Nascent God Realm already. He was pretty talented and seemed to have a rather interesting Spiritual Incarnation. He then gazed at Krune, asking in doubt, "Elder¡­Krune?" "That''s me." Krune nodded before asking, "What were you doing here? Why did you fall unconscious?" "I was just curious and peeked inside when I perceived countless laws and fell unconscious," the Core Disciple said as he slowly recalled everything, trembling in fright for a moment. "Come with me," Krune said, dragging the hesitant guy into the dome, placing him in one corner as he iterated, "Just focus on one." "Y-Yes." His voice shivered as the Core Disciple gazed at the first Deity Sphere that fell in his line of sight, focusing on it alone when he felt as if he had become trapped in a block of ice, chilling. "Gah!" A couple of seconds later, his concentration broke as he noticed he was back in the dome, asking as he panted, "Just¡­what was that?" "The Law of Ice," Krune replied. "What you had experienced was just a hallucination conjured by your mind as you comprehended the Law of Ice. The longer you endure that sensation, the greater your rate of comprehension." "I''ll try again," the Core Disciple said in excitement before focusing on the Ice Deity Sphere, this time maintaining concentration for a good dozen seconds as he laughed, despite panting in response. "I could feel a difference already. This is amazing!" "Good." Krune nodded, patting his shoulders, "Now, pass on the message to everyone in the sect. Tell them that since this is the opening day, everyone would be able to comprehend the laws for free for a month." "Yes!" The Core Disciple was excited as he rushed out of the dome immediately, taking out an information transmission talisman as he passed on the details to everyone he was in contact with, causing the message to circulate throughout the sect. In the meantime, Krune slapped awake the rest of the unconscious Core Disciples. Just when they woke up, they were surprised to see the ground trembling, turning around in fear to see a horde of people rushing towards them. It was a stampede of cultivators as everyone rushed into the dome, occupying any available spots. It became cramped pretty quickly as some took out their swords, standing on their tips to begin comprehending the laws, immediately noticing a large difference. "Did you make something again, Krune?" Tina landed on the floating island, asking in surprise. "It''s a place to comprehend the laws faster." Krune smiled in response, asking, "Where''s Gegrafikan?" "He''s in the library. There''s a lot that he wishes to talk with you." Tina laughed before pointing at the dome. "I''ll manage this place. I''m pretty bored these days anyway. Plus, this seems fun." "Sure." Krune smiled before taking flight. He still wasn''t used to flying as a Semi-God Realm cultivator, from time to time relying on his Cloud Whale since that was faster. For things related to moving the body, abilities derived from body cultivation were better. Comparing such things, he reached the library, entering it to see rows and rows of books filled everywhere. He casually looked at the nearest book, muttering, "Records of the Persimmon Immortal Sect?" Of course, he didn''t know what that sect was, flipping through the pages to see all the details related to that sect. From its founding, the continent it was based upon, the number of members in the sect, the various divisions, their enemies and allies, etc., everything related to the Persimmon Immortal Set was recorded. Krune gazed around him, noticing that the section he was at consisted of such records about countless sects. "Just how many places has he been to?" He then moved away from the column related to sects and arrived at the forging section, noticing countless techniques used by countless cultivators to forge various equipment, from One Star Godly Fusion Realm equipment to even rare records of Nine Star Primal God Realm equipment. There was a vast variety of them. Curious, he flipped through some of them, reading through every book in a matter of minutes, all thanks to his Mental Energy, allowing him to understand the underlying concepts so quickly. He could feel his knowledge improving while countless new ideas popped into his mind, causing him to exclaim in surprise, "Amazing!" "Are they to your liking?" a familiar voice resounded from behind him as Krune turned around, noticing the figure of Gegrafikan wearing a monocle, gently leaning on a shelf while sporting a smile. "There''s a lot to learn here. How did you come to learn about so many things?" Krune asked in surprise. "That''s just what has been coded into my race''s bloodline. I''m tapping into that information trove after becoming an immortal." Gegrafikan smiled. "As a Heavenly Aberrant, I''ve unlocked my race''s true powers and now have access to everything that my race had learned about. Well... I''ve learned about a shocking fact from that." "What''s that?" Krune turned serious upon seeing the other party''s solemn tone. "The God Realm is destabilizing." Chapter 1291 - Wheeee "The God Realm is destabilizing?" Krune asked, slightly nervous. "That makes no sense, though." "The Gods of the God Realm had once attempted to exit the Four Realms. Their attempt almost destroyed the Four Realms. Thankfully, the laws of the Four Realms stabilized themselves somehow," Gegrafikan told him. "However, the stability we attained wasn''t perfect. Some foreign entities managed to make their way into the God Realm, beginning to wreak havoc throughout it." "Yes." Gegrafikan nodded after seeing Krune''s suspicion. "The Abolition Tower is one of them." "The Abolition Tower?" Krune muttered, asking after some time, "Do you have any idea as to how their powers work?" "I''m getting to it." Gegrafikan turned silent, articulating his thoughts as he said after some time. "The powers of these foreign entities aren''t available in the existing laws of the Four Realms. So, our methods are ineffective against them. This is also the reason why no one has managed to uncover the methods of the Abolition Tower." "One of my clones recently became a member of the Abolition Tower," Krune said, recounting the experience. As it was his clone, everything that ran through the clone''s mind was shared in real-time with Krune. So, that allowed him to obtain first-hand data related to it. Even though neither he nor Sterlena were able to obtain anything from it, Krune hoped for Gegrafikan to obtain some clues. After all, he was from the mysterious Spirit Aberrant race and had already become a Heavenly Aberrant. It was not to mention the fact that he was the leader of their race and had been alive for god knows how long. After listening through Krune''s experiences, Gegrafikan thought long and hard, saying, "There are some ideas that I can piece together. Though, it''s nothing quantitative yet. I''ll inform you once I finish my research." He then continued, "In any case, the goal of the Abolition Tower is to weaken the structural stability of the God Realm and invade it fully before wholly consuming it." "I suspect it''s related to an entity on par with the creator of the Four Realms. This was all that I''ve managed to find out." Gegrafikan sighed. "Every time the Abolition Tower takes action, they impede the development of those that shoulder a lot of fate of the Four Realms." "They impede the development¡­ I see." Krune nodded, getting a slightly better idea of their goals. "And uh... that''s where you''ll come into the picture, Krune," Gegrafikan said, surprising him. "I''m able to do something against them?" Krune was pleasantly surprised. "I''m unsure about it yet." Gegrafikan shook his head before saying, "The only thing I''m sure about is the fact that wisps are equipped with the means to deal with the Abolition Tower since they''re beings made out of pure energy. But I have no idea beyond this." "What about True Spirits?" Krune asked next. "They don''t have that." Gegrafikan shook his head. "After all, only wisps are able to leave the God Realm and enter the lower three realms without any price. There''s a reason this is possible. And I feel like this is the key to going against our eventual foes." "How much time do we have until the God Realm is destroyed?" Krune asked next. "A lot of time, I think," Gegrafikan replied. "The God Realm is incredibly vast, after all. With the recent increase in the number of Gods, it has stabilized further. Sure, the rate of deterioration right now is rather slow. But..." His tone turned solemn as he continued, "That would change the moment the Abolition Tower takes action on a grand scale. The scale would quickly tip towards destruction. So, an accurate time limit could not be determined." "Haah!" Krune sighed. "This is indeed troublesome." "Also..." Gegrafikan whispered, "Are you able to contact Wally?" "Wally?" Krune thought a bit before shaking his head. "I have no idea where he is at the moment, nor do I have a method to contact him." "There''s a good chance you''ll be able to find Wally once you become a God. However, that might already be too late. But anyway, Wally is a Wisp God. So, his help is a necessity in this situation. There shouldn''t be any strong wisps in the God Realm." Gegrafikan sighed before getting up, saying¡­ "I''ll continue researching about this and will tell you if anything happens." He then walked away, murmuring something from time to time. Sporting a heavy expression, Krune slowly left the library, sighing as he gazed at the clear skies beyond, slouched as he scratched his head, for a moment wishing to pull out his hair. Sensing his worsening mood, he let go of all attachments, returning to his wisp form as he took flight, flying in the air. Slowly, as he continued to fly, the sombreness in him was washed away. From time to time, returning to his origin was a means to keep himself sane. He really wished to head back into the past and live a carefree life. Things were really great before he arrived at the God Realm. "No, that''s just giving in to weakness. I''m not like that¡­" Such a thought emerged in his mind before turning blank. And, a couple of minutes later¡­ "Wheeee!" Some of the Outer Sect Disciples gazed at the sky, watching an ethereal figure that resembled cotton candy emitting parlous laughter while it skittled through the air. A peaceful warmth radiated from it, calming their minds. Before they realized it, all the Outer Sect Disciples that were in the area had seated themselves on the ground and had closed their eyes, feeling that all troubles they harbored in their minds had been alleviated to a certain extent. Moreover, a mystical feeling enveloped them as they felt that they were able to think faster. The godly techniques that they had learned became clearer in their mind, allowing them to understand them better. Some of them even went a step beyond and derived new techniques. Seated within the clan''s main hall was Zamura, conversing with a couple of elders about the sect affairs in preparation for the upcoming war with the Mist Sect. Suddenly, his eyes widened as millions of thoughts clashed in his mind, allowing him to solve many doubts in cultivation that he had before. Followed by a flash of green, he appeared outside, noticing a certain wisp making circles in the air like a newborn. "Wheeeee!" Chapter 1292 - Capture Feifei "Is this how you vent, Krune?" Zamura muttered, watching a figure arrive next to him. It was Feifei, having noticed the phenomenon from within the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm as she exited it immediately. Sterlena also followed suit, same for the Seamstress, Zamuria, Gegrafikan, and Tina. Everyone gazed at the scene where Krune flew around in the air as a wisp, seemingly having switched off his brain. At present, he was actually a silly wisp. Feifei gazed at the scene, expressing her worry. ''It seems he''s endured a lot. I hope this helps him relax.'' While watching him, she could feel Mental Energy swathing out from Krune, mixed with the sense of peace emanated by the Cloud Whale, causing everyone in the vicinity to become peaceful while countless thoughts clashed in their minds, allowing them to obtain new ideas. "Feifei!" Followed by a sonorous shout, the wisp flamed into Feifei''s arms, turning silent after that. Feifei observed that Krune had fallen asleep, snuggling in her arms like it was the most comfortable cradle in the world. Smiling, she patted him, watching his ethereal form wave around, expressing the comfort and sense of security he was feeling at the moment. After that, she turned around, intending to leave, when suddenly, she turned around as nerves popped on her face, expressing her anger. She quickly controlled it, saying to Zamura, "The ones from the Golden Gate Sect have arrived." She then handed Krune over to him before flying towards the entrance of the sect. "Wait, Feifei! Don''t be reckless," Zamura shouted when Feifei turned around, motioning for him to be quiet. "It has been long since Krune had a moment''s peace. Let him rest for now. I''ll handle the rest." Saying so, Feifei arrived at the sect''s entrance, watching the space before her morph as a sphere slowly manifested itself. The sphere was jet black, emanating a dense Law of Space. Slowly, it turned transparent before dissipating, revealing an old man within that seemed exhausted. His eyes lit up in joy when he saw Feifei standing a short distance away from him, shouting in happiness, "You''re here, Feifei. I finally found you." "I''ve already prepared a ceremony for someone else to inherit my Spiritual Incarnation. I won''t have any connection to the Golden Gate Sect after this." Feifei got to the point immediately. Hearing her curt remarks, the old man was shocked as his face slowly reddened in anger, gritting his teeth as he said, "Even if you prepare the ceremony, there isn''t anyone suitable to inherit it. In our sect''s history, you''re the only one after the founder to possess the Spirit Deity Spiritual Incarnation." "That''s unrelated to me," Feifei said in response. "I''ll return everything I''ve obtained from the Golden Gate Sect and wash off my relations with it." She sighed in exhaustion, muttering, "I''m really fed up with all this." "Unfortunately, you don''t have a choice in the matter." The old man shook his head. "You''re our sect''s only chance of making a comeback. Without you, annihilation is our only fate. So, please don''t be selfish and return to us." He then said, "Besides, what can this tiny sect even do?" He snorted. "It has an impressive platform. But that''s it. There isn''t anything special beyond that. A sect needs more than just impressive decor to sustain itself." "At least, we don''t have any enemies." Feifei snorted in response. "And that''s enough. We may be small, but we can cultivate peacefully using our limited resources." "Do you think that''s enough?" The old man sported a mocking tone. "You''re a Primal God," Feifei said, gazing at him. "But despite that, aren''t you on the run? I don''t wish to face such a situation." "You think the Mist Sect would simply leave you alone even if you hand over your Spiritual Incarnation?" Upon seeing that an approach of invitation didn''t work on her, he changed his tone. "They would still target you. After all, your potential is limitless with the Spirit Deity Spiritual Incarnation. Even if you condense a different Spiritual Incarnation, your relationship with the Golden Gate Sect isn''t non-existent." "That doesn''t matter. I''ll deal with that when the time comes." Feifei shook her head, intending to continue rejecting him, when the old man unleashed a burst of Godly Energy, pressuring her. But suddenly, a green light wrapped around her as Zamura landed beside her. "Old man, cut it out. It''s unbefitting of a Primal God to behave like this." "Hmph, I was just giving her courtesy due to her talent. It doesn''t take me much effort to kidnap her or even destroy this puny sect." The old man snorted, unleashing a spatial blade with the intention to destroy the green barrier and kidnap Feifei. But suddenly, another spatial with equal power appeared and slammed into it, negating the attack. "So, you''re also well-versed with the Law of Space¡­" the old man muttered, intending to press forth with his attacks when he sensed Zamura''s aura, muttering in shock, "How come you''re only at the God Trial Realm?" ''I didn''t use my actual strength, but still, a God Trial Realm ant managed to counter me?'' The old man was shocked when he noticed that Zamura didn''t even seem like he had exerted himself to counter that previous attack. "Pocket Immortal, if you dare try anything else, you can forget about reviving your damn sect ever again." Feifei bellowed, unleashing a torrent of Godly Energy as a massive avatar of her appeared behind her, holding a cup in her hands where soul flames burned. A glance at it and the old man experienced a minor headache, feeling like his soul could be pried out by her if he was careless. He wasn''t afraid of that thought but rather began to laugh with maniacal joy. "Yes, this is that power. Limitless improvement! Our founding ancestor''s legacy!" He laughed before taking out a pocket dimension from his sleeves, opening a portal as countless immortals streamed out, filling up the skies as they neared the Mountain Sect. After that, the Pocket Immortal shouted, "Everyone! Destroy this puny sect and kidnap Feifei. She refuses to follow us otherwise." Upon his words, even those among the Golden Gate Sect members that were happy to see her alive began to emit killing intents, expressing unity in their desire to capture her. Chapter 1293 - A Primal God Shed Tears? "Attack!" "Capture Feifei!" There were hundreds of the immortals from the Golden Gate Sect at the Semi-God Realm, dozens in the God-Trial Realm, four at the Elementary God Realm, and Pocket Immortal being the only one that was at the Primal God Realm. This was pretty much all that remained of the Golden Gate Sect right now. However, it was beyond what the Mountain Sect would be able to handle. Or at least, that was what the sect members of the Mountain Sect had thought. Of course, it was what Pocket Immortal and the rest of the Golden Gate Sect members had also thought. Unfortunately for the Golden Gate Sect, reality proved otherwise. When the Golden Gate Sect immortals tried to enter the Mountain Sect to engage in a killing spree, they noticed, to their surprise, that the sect''s barrier remained steady under their attacks. Godly Energy whirled within, reinforcing the barrier to resist their attacks. "What the hell is up with this barrier?" Pocket Immortal frowned before deciding to take action personally, intending to create a portal into its insides. With his powers, he would be able to do so easily. However, just when he had planned to do so, the Laws of Space around him turned rigid, causing him to frown as he glared at Zamura. "A mere ant dares to¡­" "I''m only at the God Trial Realm. But..." Zamura calmly took to the skies, glaring at the incoming attacks with a calm expression. "Why do you think I''m able to face your attacks?" The very moment he said that, dozens of figures appeared beside him, all emanating auras at the God Trial Realm, surprising the Golden Gate Sect members. In response to that, they pulled out their treasured weapons, intending to go all out when suddenly, their weapons began to hum, escaping their control. "What the hell?" Even the Pocket Immortal was shocked to notice his weapon spirit appearing beside him, sporting a cunning smile as she slammed an attack at him, causing him to defend in a hurry. Heavenly Sacred Dimensional Blade. That was the name of his treasured weapon, one that he had forged by spending his life''s accumulations. It was a weapon fit to be used by a Primal God and was comprised of the Laws of Space, the perfect fit for him. Not only that, but it had taken him a couple centuries to successfully awaken the spirit of this Three Star Primal God equipment. "Tianal¡­why?" Pocket Immortal gazed in disbelief as he defended against his weapon spirit''s attack, watching it leave his grasp and hover before him. "I serve a different master now," Tianal, the weapon spirit, spoke curtly, clenching her hand into a fist as her weapon turned into a flash of light and seeped into her body. Immediately, some changes erupted in her body as her aura climbed in strength, becoming almost on par with Pocket Immortal. Now, she was completely out of his grasp, never returning to his control ever again. "How¡­?" Pocket Immortal was unable to digest it, for she had accompanied him for tens of thousands of years. Breaking through every stage in the Primal God Realm required thousands of years due to the difficulty involved. So, even though the Heavenly Sacred Dimensional Blade was only a piece of Three Stars Primal God equipment, it was the only one that he could rely on in his fights. After all, creating this treasure consumed a large portion of his Golden Gate Sect''s finances. When created, it was a piece of One Star Primal God equipment. Over the years, as he grew stronger, he spent countless treasures to gradually upgrade it. Moreover, Tianal, the weapon spirit, had accompanied him through countless life and death battles. If he had to talk about the person that he trusted the most, confiding his secrets without any hesitation, that would be Tianal. He had a wife once, even a family. But even with that, he trusted Tianal more. That was because, despite her cold character, she was loyal to him and truly cared about his well-being, always placing him as her number one priority. Honestly, if it was possible, he would have rather married her. Unfortunately for him, she was an equipment spirit, unable to give birth to offspring. So, he had to bury such intentions deep within his heart. That alone showed how much he cared about her. After all, she was his life''s accumulations, something that he had become bankrupt as a Primal God to create. Even up to this date, he was collecting materials to further improve her. But now, that very same person had betrayed him. It was something that he was unable to digest, no matter how he thought about it. "You!" He glared at Zamura, unleashing a vast swathe of Godly Energy, causing the very space itself to bend. "You did something to her! I won''t forgive you!" "Your goddamn sect¡­ I''ll destroy it!" Bellowing in response, he unleashed a powerful attack using the Laws of Space, also amplified by countless other laws, turning into a beam that was strong enough to vaporize the Mountain Sect instantly, despite its defensive strength. The strength behind the attack caused the faces of all Mountain Sect members to turn pale. But suddenly, a massive shield appeared, enveloped with the same aura and laws, defending against the imposing attack, preventing the Mountain Sect from being damaged. Sparks flew from the collision, with even the tiniest of them capable of forming cracks on the sect''s defense, displaying the peerless might a Primal God was capable of. Zamura seeped his power into the barrier, causing it to resemble Pocket Immortal''s attack, shielding against the stray emissions. He wasn''t flustered, though, calmly gazing at the figure of Tianal that was defending against Pocket Immortal''s attack. Upon seeing that his attack was pressuring Tianal, Pocket Immortal unconsciously lowered his power, unable to endure the feeling of loss he was experiencing. What he had attained over his life, his sole companion in his endless cultivation journey had now turned against him. Right now, she was the one defending against his attacks. As he stared at her face that now expressed opposition against him, his face convulsed as his eyes turned red. A couple of seconds later, a single teardrop seeped out, cascading over his cheeks before vaporizing. A grand Primal God, one that stood at the peak of power, was unable to shoulder his loss and had begun....crying? Chapter 1294 - Mist Records Spiritual Incarnation "No¡­ this can''t be happening?!" The Pocket Immortal was in half rage and half disbelief, causing the clash to arrive at a standstill. Upon seeing that Zamura had brought out a lot of strong opponents, all the immortals from the Golden Gate Sect had taken out their strongest weapons to begin the battle. Though, what they didn''t expect was their weapons turning against them. They were grand immortals, having lived for thousands of years each. So, all their equipment had an equipment spirit. And now, it was their equipment spirits that had turned against them. Flustered at the scene, they were only able to hold back their attacks, unwilling to damage their equipment. From the start until the end, Zamura singlehandedly changed the tide of battle. Even though he was panting in exhaustion, having overexerted himself to the extent of damaging his Spiritual Incarnation, he had still achieved his objective. "Golden Gate Sect!" Feifei took the opportunity to shout. "Retreat! This is no longer a place where you have a say. If you don''t, then you can forget about ever getting your precious treasures back." "You think such a threat would deter us?" One of the four Elementary God Realm cultivators snorted, coming forward as he snapped his fingers, constricting the equipment spirit that was going against him. Clearly, he was a lot stronger than his equipment. He was just about to attack when Pocket Immortal raised his hands, glaring as he gazed at Zamura. Understanding that the other part was the cause for Tianal betraying him, asking, "Will you really return our treasures?" "Of course," Zamura nodded in response. "However, it won''t be immediate. It''s not like I trust you, so you''ll have to express your sincerity." "And how do we do that?" Having already lost his fighting spirit, Pocket Immortal asked, sighing. Had it been in the past, he wouldn''t have conceded so quickly. But in recent times, after suffering under the hands of the Mist Sect time and again, watching his comrades getting murdered one after another, he had become timid. And the fact of Tianal betraying him was the last straw that broke the camel''s neck, causing him to have zero drive to do anything. He just wished to leave everything aside and just disappear to some random city and live there in peace. He was pretty exhausted with everything. "Just leave us alone. That''s enough," Zamura said. "And once the situation with the Mist Sect is done, we''ll return your weapons." "The Mist Sect? You think that''s something your weak sect can hope to contend against?" the Pocket Immortal spoke in a fluster. "They''re stronger now than they were in the past. They were terrifying!" "We''ll manage." Zamura smiled, speaking nothing else beyond that. "As the sect leader of the Mountain Sect, this is my guarantee." "Hahaha! That''s nice. I''ll see how you can manage that." Suddenly, one of the immortals among the Golden Gate Sect laughed as his aura changed. Slowly, his figure morphed, turning into something that was familiar to the rest of the Golden Gate Sect members. "Divination Immortal¡­? You''re still alive?" Pocket Immortal asked in shock. "When did you revive? And why have you been hiding¡­" He slowly stopped speaking, watching the aura of the other part continue to climb until it reached the Primal God Realm. It was apparent that something was up. His expression collapsed as Pocket Immortal stared in anger. "You¡­ you''ve betrayed us? Why?" "Why?" Divination Immortal, an old man with vibrant hair, laughed in response, saying, "You¡­ don''t know much about me at all, do you?" "What¡­do you mean?" Pocket Immortal''s eyes widened in surprise, shouting, "What the hell do you mean by that, Divination Immortal?" "The only survivor of a tragedy¡­ that was me." Divination Immortal''s expression turned into one with unconcealed anger. "My parents sacrificed their lives just to protect me and ensure that I survived that day, the day when my sect, the Mist Sect, was destroyed by you barbarians." "Lord Divination Immortal. You¡­you can''t be¡­?" Some of the immortals shouted in shock, unable to believe it. "Yes, I was originally a member of the Mist Sect. Thanks to the efforts of my family, I survived and obtained a new identity thanks to the versatility of my Spiritual Incarnation." Divination Immortal gritted his teeth as he continued, "And to seek revenge, I joined the golden Gate Sect." "I had to endure socializing with the barbarians that massacred my sect to satisfy their greed. I''ll never forget the burning hatred I had back then, something that wouldn''t be quenched to this day." The air around him shuddered as he continued to speak. "In sect missions, whenever I accompanied those with immense potential, I killed them. Through my Spiritual Incarnation, whenever I noticed anyone with the ability to inherit the Golden Gate Sect''s founding ancestor''s Spiritual Incarnation, I killed them." "So, that''s why¡­" Pocket Immortal shuddered. "So, it wasn''t that none had the capability, but they were all killed." "Unfortunately, when I was busy reviving my sect members, she appeared all of a sudden and snatched it away," Divination Immortal said as he glared at Feifei. But suddenly, he grinned. "But it matters not. It was I that leaked a secret that your founding ancestor had harbored, causing him to be killed by a God. Plus, it was I that embezzled the sect funds for almost a couple hundred thousand years, accumulating enough resources to revive my Mist Sect." "But in our records, all revival means of the Mist Sect had been eradicated. So how¡­?" Pocket Immortal was unable to understand. "Just how did you achieve it?" "Hahaha! That''s funny!" Divination Immortal roared in laughter before unleashing his killing intent. "That''s because, similar to the Spirit Deity Spiritual Incarnation, my Mist Sect had something grand as well. Something that allowed the user to mark and store information of every sect member of the Mist Sect." "So, even if they were to die and all their revival means are destroyed, as long as this one cultivator survives, he would eventually be able to revive every single member of the Mist Sect, even the brats at the Godly Fusion Realm," Divination Immortal uttered. "And that was me, the inheritor of¡­" "The Mist Records Spiritual Incarnation." Chapter 1295 - Let Me Greet Our Enemies First "Everything makes sense now." Pocket Immortal closed his eyes, sighing as he opened them, glaring at Divination Immortal with killing intent. "You''re the reason that led to my sect''s annihilation." "Took you long enough to realize that." Divination Immortal smirked in response. "And now, you''re the only Primal God left. With you dead, killing the rest would be easy." "Let me see you try!" Roaring in response, the Pocket Immortal went all out, sending out an attack that was tens of times greater than what he had unleashed onto the Mountain Sect before. The Divination Immortal''s eyes widened at the power behind the attack, instinctively whipping out his treasure to defend against the attack when something hit him, causing him to recall the scene that had happened just now. Zamura coughed out blood, using up the rest of his strength as he yanked his hand, causing Divination Immortal''s treasure to fly away from his hands. As he was defending against Pocket Immortal''s attack, he didn''t have the freedom to protect it. After all, he had taken it out to protect himself and not to further hinder himself by also protecting it. In his hurry, he was unable to hold it in place, defending against the powerful attack as his weapon arrived before Zamura. Slowly, its weapon spirit appeared overhead, bowing to Zamura. "I greet the lord." "Hinder him," Zamura said before sitting down, cross-legged, recovering his Godly Energy while healing the damage he had sustained to his Spiritual Incarnation. Converting such a massive group of equipment spirits to his side, out of which two were at the Primal God Realm, did take a toll on him, especially since he tried to do it as quick as possible. So, he needed time to heal himself. Thankfully, the two powerful equipment spirits at the Primal God Realm were there to help. "Boldak¡­?" Divination Immortal managed to defend against the attack, watching his equipment spirit now beginning to attack him. Boldak was the name of his equipment spirit, a humanoid creature with a bull head, tiger''s body, and insect legs. The antlers on its head shone with a mysterious energy fluctuation, one that completed the Divination Immortal''s abilities, allowing him to grasp Feifei''s location before. Earlier, when he was acting as a Semi-God Realm immortal, he didn''t think much about his weapon being stolen away by Zamura. It was just a piece of useless equipment that he didn''t even put in his eyes. After all, it was was only a Two Star Semi-God equipment. Upon seeing Zamura''s mysterious ability, he didn''t have any intention to use his weapon. However, Pocket Immortal''s attack had surprised him, for the other party had indeed destroyed a pocket dimension to fuel that attack. So, he had taken out his weapon in reflex to defend against it, regretting it immediately. And now, what he feared had happened. His weapon was in the shape of a bell, unleashing powerful energy fluctuations. It turned into a dot and entered Boldak''s body, causing its aura to raise to the extreme. Raising its hands, Boldak unleashed the same attack as him, tying him down while Pocket Immortal bombarded him with attacks. Gritting his teeth, Divination Immortal regretted his actions. He had revealed himself at the start just to rile up everyone. After all, he had already marked the coordinates of the place for his sect members to teleport here. Pocket Immortal was exceptional when it came to escaping. But, his fighting abilities weren''t on par. So, it should have been an easy battle. But now that he was on the receiving end, he communicated with his sect members, urging them to arrive. Immediately, the space behind him warped before the immortals from the Mist Sect arrived. As he had informed them, they had increased their troops. There were four immortals at the Elementary God Realm. As for those in the God Trial Realm and the Semi-God Realm, they were twice the Golden Gate Sect in numbers. It was apparent that they wished to annihilate the Golden Gate Sect and the Mountain Sect in one fell swoop. "Golden Gate Sect!" Pocket Immortal shouted, destroying a pocket dimension to condense a terrifying attack that warped the space. "Kill them! This is our final stand!" "Mist Sect! Let''s eradicate them all and put an end to this age-old grudge!" Divination Immortal roared, unleashing mighty energy fluctuations that defended against the attacks, especially the teleportation formation. After the immortals had arrived, almost a hundred thousand mortals arrived, with many among them possessing a Spiritual Incarnation. The rest were those sent as cannon fodder, left with no future as they had already reached the Nascent God Realm but didn''t possess a Spiritual Incarnation. They were promised lucrative rewards if they destroyed the Mountain Sect. Followed by a roar, the mortals summoned countless boats that they used to rush towards the Mountain Sect. The air was filled with killing intent as Zamura and the group gazed at the approaching army. Feifei took the chance to say, "Leave everyone on the ground to my Monster Gecko army." Saying so, Feifei snapped her finger as tens of thousands of Monster Geckos rushed out of the Mountain Sect Sub Realm, quickly arriving at the edge of the sect before spilling out. Without saying anything, they directly jumped into the water, speeding through it faster than when they ran on the ground. The moment they entered the water, they returned to their original appearance as Monster Geckos. Each and every single one of them emitted the aura at the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm, the peak their race was capable of attaining. However, thanks to body cultivation, they were stronger than the usual cultivator, on par with those having a Spiritual Incarnation to a certain extent. "So, the Mountain Sect isn''t that weak either¡­" one of the immortals from the Mist Sect muttered before defending against many attacks. "I''ll take care of those in the Elementary God Realm," Feifei grunted, intending to solve her issue by herself, taking off to the air when a solid hand grabbed hold of her, preventing her from flying any higher. Turning around, she noticed the pleasant face of Krune grinning at her. "Thanks to you, I had a great nap, Feifei." Saying so, he took off into the air. "Let me greet our enemies first¡­" "With some lightning!" Chapter 1296 - Army Of Monster Geckos "Let me greet our enemies first... with some lightning!" Saying so, Krune''s figure shot into the skies, entering the clouds that were high up. His actions were indeed noted by the cultivators that were fighting, but none were able to interfere for the time being. Those with the ability to do so were currently engaged in fierce battles of their own. Suddenly, a grand voice bellowed throughout the battlefield. "Welcome to the Mountain Sect." Boom! A Semi-God Realm cultivator from the Mist Sect had just sent his opponent flying away when a bolt of lightning smacked him right in the face, paralyzing him, damaging his Spiritual Incarnation. "What the hell¡­?" He gazed at the sky in alarm when three more lightning bolts smacked him, directly killing him. After all, each lightning bolt had an aura at the God Trial Realm, something those at the Semi-God Realm couldn''t defend against for so many rounds. "Tribulation Lightning?" Divination Immortal was shocked as he noticed the clouds in the sky turning jet black as the power of tribulations continued to rise in them. One after another, lightning bolts with the power of the God Trial Realm began to target the cultivators of the Mist Sect, easily killing those at the God Trial Realm. There were some unfortunate ones on the boats at the bottom that were targeted, directly dying in the process as their boats exploded. Suddenly, countless screams resounded as Monster Geckos rushed out of the water and dragged the cultivators into it as countless of them pounced upon each, shredding them apart. The Monster Geckos were the experts of underwater warfare, being born to fight there. It was not to mention they had tough bodies, not dying easily. "Damn it! Why are they so tough?" A Mist Sect cultivator grunted as he condensed sword energy and slammed it into a Monster Gecko, only able to make a gash, shocked as he had assumed it would slash his opponent in half. "Heh!" The Monster Gecko grinned before punching at him, shattering the energy shield he had erected, sending him reeling into the water. "Take this!" a cultivator shouted as he condensed a pair of chains, coiling it around the bodies of a group of Monster Geckos, trapping them when another cultivator unleashed a fire beam, slashing them apart. But in the next moment, their bodies exploded, spilling their blood everywhere, freezing everything that came into contact with them. The two cultivators barely managed to break free of the layer of ice, gasping for breath when they turned around in shock, noticing a Monster Gecko that was almost double in size arriving before them. Mutated Monster Gecko! The two erupted with their strongest attacks, shocked to see the chains of the former be easily ripped apart while the fire beam of the latter was stopped by an ice shield. Grinning in response, the Mutant Monster Gecko punched them, pulverizing them with a single hit. From there, it jumped over to the next boat, attacking the cultivators there. As the regular cultivators were mowed down like grass, those with a Spiritual Incarnation fared better. However, the Monster Geckos they were facing were the King and Emperor versions. A cultivator unleashed his Land Incarnation, turning a part of the water into a desert, establishing a domain of his authority. There, he and his comrades fought the Monster Geckos, using the terrain advantage to the best of their abilities. Monster Geckos fell like grass before their powerful attacks as the group took charge attacking. And with every attack, they followed it by switching the groups, retreating to the back as they pulled out a Rank 4 God Stone and began to replenish their Godly Energy. This way, they planned to hold out for as long as possible until their enemies were down for the count. Similarly, countless other cultivators with Spiritual Incarnations did the same, establishing their Land Incarnations to gain back their foothold. A Monster Gecko King landed on the desert as its surroundings began to turn into ice automatically due to the chillness it was emitting. Condensing a sword of ice, it charged at the group, defending against the attacks using a shield of ice. It deftly avoided the attacks and arrived before the closest cultivator, slashing him with the ice sword. The cultivator screamed in pain as his body was cut into two. But immediately after, laughter resounded as the cultivator''s body regenerated. "You monsters just have some physical strength, that''s all." "Let''s see how many times you can regenerate." The Monster Gecko grunted as it hacked at him again, slashing him into countless pieces, maintaining a nonstop flurry before the other party could even begin to regenerate. "Hmph!" Suddenly, a symbol flashed before the Monster Gecko King before a burst of Godly Energy slammed into it, disintegrating its body. "Are you okay?" the one that had used the attack shouted in concern. "Yeah, just give me a second." The other cultivator finished regenerating, groaning as he said, "Its attacks are heavy, and its speed is beyond what I could easily face." "These monster bastards are strong," he uttered, frowning when two Monster Gecko Kings landed on the desert, grinning as they rushed at him. Suddenly, just when they planned to go all out, the hairs on his body stood on end as the cultivator hurriedly turned around, noticing another Monster Gecko had arrived behind them at this point, its speeds beyond what they had anticipated. It calmly clutched the head of the cultivator that had used mysterious symbols to attack, clenching to shatter his head like pulp. His head hurriedly began to regenerate, though, but before that could happen, the Monster Gecko''s hands relaxed and clenched a couple of times, turning his body into paste. A raspy voice resounded, "Just keep repeating the same. After a couple hundred times, they won''t be able to endure it any longer. Just infuse the Law of Ice in them until they reach the breaking point." Monster Gecko Emperor! Even when attacks rained on it, it calmly resisted them, not even flinching at the powerful attacks. "Though, that''s unnecessary for now. Let''s retreat." The moment it said so, all three Monster Geckos vanished from the desert, causing the cultivators there to look around in confusion as they finished regenerating. The one that had created the desert gazed at the waters around the desert as his face paled. "Oh my¡­ god!" Highlighted in the waters was a massive shadow as the cultivator saw a row of teeth appearing around the desert region before slowly being swallowed. Whether it was the Land Incarnation or the Spiritual Incarnations of the respective cultivators, everything was swallowed up and digested as the mountainous beast jumped out of the water, arched in the air and retreated into it again, causing a tsunami along its wake. Supreme Monster Gecko! Chapter 1297 - Hazak’s Actual Character "What the hell is that creature?" Those on the boats gazed in shock at the mountain-sized Monster Gecko directly swallowing a Land Incarnation before retreating deep into the waters. Supreme Monster Geckos emerged from the waters one after another, each swallowing a Land Incarnation, shocking the entire army. Even the immortals were shocked at the Mountain Sect''s accumulations. They gazed at each other, understanding what they had to do now. "The Mountain Sect''s only weakness is their number of powerhouses. We shouldn''t allow them to develop any further." This was what was exchanged between everyone among the Mist Sect. However, thinking of it and taking action were two entirely different things. There was still the tribulation lightning that continued to slam into them, causing them to move carefully to avoid the attacks. In response, since the Golden Gate Sect immortals weren''t targeted by the lightning bolts, they freely attacked their enemies, causing both sides to reach a stalemate. After all, among the powerhouses, both sides had four Elementary God Realm cultivators and one Primal God Realm cultivator. So, once the God Trial Realm and Semi-God Realm cultivators of the Mist Sect were hindered, they lost their advantage in numbers. "Wow, that seems pretty fun." Suddenly, a chirpy voice resounded throughout the battlefield as Hazak arrived at the entrance, pouting as she gazed at the tribulation lightning dancing throughout the battlefield. "Lord Krune already returned?" Pouting in response, she shouted, "All Black Demons, assemble!" "Here!" Hwait bellowed in response, bringing all the Black Demons that had become immortals. "Let''s have fun!" Giggling, Hazak flew into the air, directly finding a God Trial Realm cultivator from the Mist Sect that she bumped into, causing the other party to cough out blood before being sent flying so far away that he vanished from view. "¡­" Staring at the scene, Hazak tilted her head in confusion, muttering, "Strange, isn''t he at the God Trial Realm?" "Why¡­ is he so weak?" Hearing her innocent voice, the faces of all immortals from the Mist Sect reddened in embarrassment. Immediately, five cultivators at the God Trial Realm unleashed the strongest of their attacks at her, intending to destroy her. "Hahaha!" Hazak laughed as she brought out exactly 102 shields, created using a mysterious transparent substance that was filled to the brim with her laws. She used them to expertly defend against the attacks, deflecting them towards their enemies while sending the shields to slam into her opponents, repelling them far away with every hit. She was like a turtle that reflected their attacks back at them, annoying them a lot. Besides, just the reflected force of her shield caused them to cough out blood. "Wasn''t this my old fighting style?" Krune was surprised as he turned around to gaze at Feifei, watching her face the other way and fail at her attempt to whistle in nonchalance. "Kekeke!" Hazak laughed, having not fought for so long. She was still in her human form, having not gone all out yet. Suddenly, a beam of light slammed onto her shields from afar, surprising her as the force sent her flying away. "You bitch! You dare attack me?" The God Trial Realm cultivator that was sent flying returned, a mess of his initial self, seething in rage. His body wriggled as the major deformity on him healed itself. Hazak had only hit him with a physical attack and not one infused with any law. So, he wasn''t actually injured. Then again, it was still humiliating to be sent flying away like a piece of rock. "Why wouldn''t I dare?" Hazak stopped as her body slowly reoriented herself. All the shields suddenly moved to her back, forming a wall where she placed her legs, crouching low before kicking onto them. She flickered at such speeds that her figure disappeared. The God Trial Realm cultivator barely managed to react when he noticed a hand had pierced through his chest, clutching his heart as he saw Hazak''s face close up, only that it was no longer innocent but filled with mockery, "Why don''t you dance for me? She crushed his heart and kicked his face, once again sending him flying far away until he vanished from the sights of others. In contrast to her actions, the rest of the Black Demons were only fighting their opponent without provoking the other party too much. They were born as Black Demons, uncontested in their world for almost two millennia. So, they weren''t born with the viciousness that other Demons had. However, Hazak was a Red Demon before meeting Krune, possessing all the viciousness a Red Demon possessed. She was only tame towards Krune. And after becoming immortal, her true nature surfaced, causing her to play with her prey. "Is that all you weaklings can do?" she shouted with a tone of mockery. Those at the Elementary God Realm gritted their teeth in anger, having enough power to swat her to death with one hit. Unfortunately, they were hindered by those from the Golden Gate Sect, left with no other choice but to see their enemies pounce upon their Sect Members like a pack of wolves roaming through a herd of sheep. Whenever they wished to take out their treasures, Divination Immortal warned them, causing them to curse in response as they gazed at Zamura, watching him smirk in response and calmly continue to heal himself. Suddenly, a God Trial Realm cultivator sneaked up on her, intending to destroy her in one hit, when a bolt of lightning slammed on him, causing him to grunt in shock. Hazak instinctively was about to attack him when she stopped and shouted at the sky, "Lord Krune, don''t weaken my prey! Just target those Elementary God Realm turtles! They''ve been glaring at me all along." "Fine!" Followed by a resounding sound, all the lightning bolts stopped as the clouds began to gather power, instantly causing the Elementary God Realm cultivators to frown. The aura was still at the God Trial Realm, but if a large enough bolt slammed into them, it would hinder them, giving their foes a chance to mount a counterattack. "Tch!" The Divination Immortal clicked his tongue, gritting his teeth before shouting, "Retreat!" Chapter 1298 - Return Of The Original Krune Boom! "Ack!" A God Trial Realm cultivator screamed in pain as his body melted. After all, the lightning bolt that landed on him seemed to be condensed from dozens of lightning bolts. It was beyond what he could handle, dying in the process. Similarly, the number of God Trial Realm cultivators that died under the tribulation lightning reached double digits. On top of that, all this happened in the short couple of minutes the Mist Sect had taken to retreat. The Divination Immortal glared at the figure of Krune hidden in the clouds, gritting his teeth as he uttered, "I''ll return soon. And when I do, you''ll be the first to die under my hands." As he said so, the space around him trembled as the entire army from the Mist Sect teleported to behind him. The laws of space whirred in response as even Pocket Immortal stayed silent, unwilling to take action. He only wished to do something to survive for the time being, unwilling to wait for the Mist Sect to send in more Primal Gods to take revenge. "Let''s go," Snorting in response, Divination Immortal activated the ability, teleporting the entire army back to the Mist Sect¡­ or at least, that was what was supposed to happen, until a certain someone took action. Sterlena arrived before Divination Immortal, smiling as the other party''s face morphed in shock, for he was unable to retract his ability anymore. In the short window that spanned a fraction of a second, Sterlena had appeared before him and unleashed a powerful ability, activating the laws of space that were superior to his own. The coordinates of their destination were changed. "Y-You¡­ who are you?" Pocket Immortal asked in shock as he gazed at the Sterlena, one that only emitted an aura at the Semi-God Realm. As he gazed at her, the laws of space that he had comprehended the highest warned him to not take action against her. After all, if he tried, the spatial laws would never heed his call, for they were subservient to her. Her comprehension of this law was only inferior to the God that controlled the Law of Space. So, unless the Space God intervened, she was capable of exerting her influence through it. As he understood it clearly, he had zero intentions to pressure the Mountain Sect ever again. Sterlena''s existence alone was frightening enough. After all, suppose he went against her and failed to kill her. Considering her deep accumulation, she would be able to revive somewhere else in the God Realm. And within a thousand years, she might reach the Primal God Realm easily and wipe the God Realm with his face. He had zero confidence in permanently killing her. Divination Immortal had also figured it out, shocked that such a figure was in the Mountain Sect. "We''ll take our retreat." Pocket Immortal cupped his hands into a fist as he activated a pocket dimension, forcefully pulling all the immortals of the Golden Gate Sect into it. He then activated the laws of space and left the place, unwilling to stay here any longer, even forgetting the matter about Tianal. Sterlena only gave a knowing smile in response, snapping her finger as she affected the laws of space. "They can forget about returning here for the time being." "Where did you send them, sis?" Krune arrived before her, panting a little as he asked. He was constantly making the clones activate their Spiritual Mark that he controlled to target the foes. So, he was exhausted while most of his clones had run out of Godly Energy and were in a recovery process. "To the Realm of Suffering!" Sterlena chuckled as she replied. "They''ll be away for a century, both sects, I mean." "But aren''t their cultivations above the Nascent God Realm, though?" Krune asked, "Isn''t that the limit to be in that infant supercontinent?" "That''s the best part about it all," Sterlena told him. "If they fail to suppress their cultivation base on time, they''ll be snuffed out of existence by the laws of God Realm there. If they succeed, they''ll have to undergo the trial in the Realm of Suffering." She then chuckled, pointing at Krune before continuing, "Aren''t your clones there? We''ll make them camp there. If any members of the Golden Gate Sect or the Mist Sect succeed in the trials and enter the core of the infant supercontinent, you can kill them." "Indeed." Krune laughed. "I''ll make enough preparations for that." "Does that mean the Mist Sect won''t try to invade us for a century?" Feifei asked, feeling like everything was surreal. "They''ll be busy trying to save their members. After all, if everything that Divination Immortal said was the truth, then he''s the core of their sect. They''ll have him as their priority," Krune spoke. "A century, huh," Feifei muttered. "When they arrive after that, they would have stabilized their situation to a certain extent and would be able to mobilize a stronger force. If we don''t grow stronger by then, destruction is our only result." "There''s another way to accelerate that," Krune said, raising his hand as he laughed. "The three-way continental war. If we participate in it, we''ll be able to reap a lot of rewards." "Let''s first prepare for that." Zamura joined in on the conversation. "We''ll only focus on cultivation for the next few decades and consolidate our power." "I''ll try to reach the God Trial Realm by then," Krune said, snapping his knuckles, grinning in excitement. "I feel clear-headed now." From the looks of it, his venting process had helped him greatly, returning him to his usual chirpy self. It was all thanks to Mental Energy that was able to affect the mind. Using that, he eradicated his heavy mood, pensive outlook, aggressive killing intent, and other negative behaviors. At present, Krune only retained his original nature along with some quirks that he felt were a necessity in the God Realm. To celebrate this occasion, he laughed, glancing at the Monster Geckos that were exiting the waters. "I''ll cook up a feast in celebration of our first victory." Upon hearing his words, all the Monster Geckos retreated into the water and played dead, including the Supreme Monster Geckos that expertly camouflaged them as islands. Chapter 1299 - Krune’s Strongest Ability "We''re past the first hurdle." Krune sighed in relief as he accompanied everyone, returning to the sect. Sterlena had already used her detection methods on everyone that had participated in the war, ensuring there weren''t any hidden methods of their enemies among them. Only after that were they allowed entry. "What about the cleanup?" Krune asked, looking at the pollution within the waters that were obviously caused by the war. "Let''s handle it tomorrow after some rest," Sterlena said, acting nonchalant. "I''ve already destroyed any markers they left here. Also, the owners of said markers are currently trapped in the Realm of Suffering, meaning they wouldn''t be able to return for almost a century. Even if they finished it, they would be curious to explore the infant supercontinent due to the obvious rewards there." "You''re right." Nodding in response, Krune entered the sect and used a massive open hall to begin cooking up food. Instantly, an aroma wafted out throughout the sect, mesmerizing the sect members, causing them to become captivated by the aroma to such an extent they turned into mindless puppets, following wherever their noses led them. "Wait¡­ this is?" Sterlena was shocked as she hurriedly closed her nose, using her abilities to seal her entire body. But even then, she was still able to feel the aroma, finally noticing the cause. "It''s being transmitted through my Divine Sense now?" She shuddered for a moment to gaze at the happy figure of Krune, that was grinning like an idiot while seriously cooking up a massive feat enough for the entire sect. ''Does he realize what he''s doing or not? Man, the Divine Sense Law is pretty terrifying.'' She then observed his expression, feeling a brimming headache already. "Of course, he doesn''t." "Eh? I''m not done cooking yet. You''ll have to wait." Krune was startled all of a sudden, noticing a crowd had formed around him. Those in the Semi-God Realm used their aerial superiority, surrounding him in the air. In unison, all of them were drooling, looking like they had lost their minds. "Wait, wait, you shouldn''t eat it now!" Krune shouted in a fluster, distracted, watching a sect member use a godly ability to snatch a portion of the food he was cooking and begin eating immediately. That was the spark that ignited the mountain of dynamite as every sect member began to unleash their godly abilities to steal the food and gorge on them in madness. "What the¡­ hell?" For a moment, Krune looked like he was seeing a group of zombies that were ready to feast upon him, stepping back immediately, watching the sect members pounce upon the food. Things escalated to such an extent that even the bowl and utensils that he used to cook the food were eaten up, causing Krune''s face to turn pale. "What came over them?" "It''s your food¡­" Feifei said, hesitantly approaching him as she was wrapped up in layers of defensive abilities, saying, "It''s already on the level of a potent ability." She then patted him and asked, "Why didn''t you cook when my enemies arrived before? The war would have ended even sooner." "¡­" His eyes twitched as he wished to refute but couldn''t find a counter, cursing the weak-willed students for falling prey to the aroma so easily. "I''ll train them harshly in the future. This isn''t befitting of a member of the Mountain Sect." The horde of zombies attacking the bowl instinctively shuddered for some reason before they continued to eat. Poor cultivators, they fell prey to Krune''s cooking and would have to face harsh training in the future under his hands. It took at least a couple of hours before everything subsided as the sect members regained their senses one after another. Some clutched their stomachs, feeling like they had swallowed rocks, while some sported expressions of content, suddenly becoming enlightened as they meditated then and there, attaining breakthroughs simultaneously. A small batch of these cultivators lacked any teeth, for they had all been shattered¡­ for obvious reasons. However, they didn''t seem to have noticed that, furiously chasing after the spark of enlightenment they had obtained. "Why don''t we change our sect''s name to Rainbow Flavours of Disaster?" Suddenly, Zamura stroked his non-existent beard, putting on a wise sage act as he stated solemnly. "I feel like this killer weapon of ours would make us famous throughout the God Realm." "We''re no longer friends from today onwards¡­" Krune muttered as he flew away, obviously shirking responsibility as he didn''t want to deal with the questioning of his sect members. Though, from a closer glance, he noticed the sect members licking their lips from time to time, looking like they still wanted to eat more. However, Krune dared not cook in front of them again, fearing what might happen this time. The previous time, they only ate the utensils along with the food he was preparing. But what if they tried to eat him up as well, along with the food? Surely the cook would taste better than the food, right? Considering how his Spiritual Incarnation consisted of all the laws of the God Realm, surely it would contain everything that would be beneficial for those that consume him¡­ Right? Such dangerous thoughts flashed in his mind as Krune passed through the portal in the center of the sect and arrived within the Sub-Realm, quickly finding a vacant floating continent that he arrived above. He took out his Soul Needle, concentrating on it before unleashing a massive tower before him, rooting it to the floating continent, expanding it to its maximum size. Krune noticed that the first to fifth floors were solid while the sixth to ninth was ethereal. It was because he was at the Semi-God Realm. Godly Inhibition Tower! He needn''t much preparation beyond that since he was only manifesting his ability to the place, ensuring to create a cultivation environment for the sect members where they could temper their Godly Energy. At least, this created an opportunity for the mortals to work hard and raise their Godly Energy quality to the Semi-God Realm¡ªresembling a Rank 5 God Stone.. That way, once they attempt a breakthrough to the Semi-God Realm, not only would it be easier, but they would also become stronger. Chapter 1300 - Krune Vs Zamura His goal was to next ensure multiple immortals were birthed. After all, having as many immortals as possible was the key to victory. The number of mortals was of no concern since Feifei alone was capable of filling the numbers using her Monster Geckos. Plus, thanks to also practicing body cultivation, the immortals of their sect would be able to take on at least two to three foes at the same cultivation base and emerge victorious. If he filled up enough numbers of Semi-God Realm cultivators and managed to elevate the current Semi-God Realm cultivators into the God Trial Realm, it would have been enough to make them a sizeable power. After that, the strongest of their members should try their hand at the Elementary God Realm. Though, attaining that within a century was pretty much impossible. Just breaking through a minor realm in the Semi-God Realm took a decade. Plus, it only became alarmingly slower at the God Trail Realm. Even Feifei had only managed to reach the Second Stage of the God Trial Realm, displaying how long breakthroughs as an immortal took. So, Krune only wished to fill up the sect with as many Semi-God Realm cultivators as possible. For that, the Godly Inhibition Tower would serve as a perfect fit. After erecting a formation to ensure the Godly Inhibition Tower functioned properly, Krune returned to his home, taking a seat in the living room as he focused on his subspace, sensing everything that was happening within. "Now, to look at the Galki," Krune muttered, focusing on the mysterious group of natives that he had taken from the infant supercontinent after surviving a scheme by Little Cally. They were born with the innate ability to pray to others and draw out strength from them naturally, whether their target willed it or not. And now, Krune intended to research upon this ability. After all, if he managed to learn it, he would obtain an advantage in their fight against their opponents. At present, their sect only had two experts capable of going against Primal God Realm cultivators. They were the two equipment spirits¡ªTianal and Boldak¡ªthat Zamura had brought over. There were also four equipment spirits at the Elementary God Realm and dozens at the God Trial Realm. Honestly, at this point, the strength of the Mountain Sect had already reached the level of a weak continent. Considering their wealth, it would only continue to increase. It was also to be noted that the Mountain Sect had existed for only a little above a century. So, this level of growth was stellar, if not terrifying. Thanks to the steady influx of disciples from the Sub-Realm maintained by the five Gods, they didn''t have any lack of disciples. Moreover, since so many years have passed, countless births had transpired within the sect, causing its population to boom. The resources the Mountain Sect had were a vast sum, enough to develop at least 3-4 Elementary God Realm cultivators. As the years passed, thanks to the countless Godly Veins, the resources produced within the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm would only continue to grow. Eventually, they''ll have enough resources to satisfy the needs of even Primal Gods. Due to the time it took to reach this Realm, the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm would be more than ready to accept the expenditure. To increase their defensive strength, once he recovered, Zamura was working on strengthening all the equipment spirits under his control. From time to time, Krune helped them with the refinement process. The rest of his time was spent cultivating, intending to increase his cultivation as soon as possible. He observed the actions of the Galki, noticing that they had long since created an altar of sorts to worship. But at present, it didn''t have a single defining trait, looking like a target of worship hadn''t been decided yet. Krune caused a clone to take the place of worship, embedding it into the altar, noticing the Galki kneel on the ground as their prayers started. Slowly, the clone weakened as the Galki obtained all his powers¡ªeverything the clone possessed, including his Myriad Wisps Spiritual Incarnation. Thanks to that, they had an entity similar to Little Krune within their bodies, not to mention a subspace in each. It was a pretty surprising case, noticing so many subspaces pop up one after another. At the start, Krune was excited, wondering if there was a way he could abuse this to grow stronger. However, through his senses, he noticed that whenever a subspace formed within the body of a Galki, the volume of his subspace was reduced by a tiny bit. And this decrease was exactly the volume of the subspace that had formed within the Galki. "So, they are inheriting all of my power, irrespective of what sort of resistance I face or what I can or cannot do. They inherit everything from me." Thinking of something, Krune caused the Galki to use his various abilities, including his Mental Energy. Heck, even his Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark appeared within the Galki. Krune was pretty worried throughout the process, wondering if he was losing some of his hard work in the loss of a portion of his subspace, no matter how small they were. However, as time passed, the stolen strength began to gradually return to the original, causing him to understand. "It seems that stolen strength isn''t permanent. It''ll only last for a few hours." Even though Krune was glad for such overpowered creatures to not possess an ability that could permanently steal abilities, he also thought it was a disappointment that such mystical creatures weren''t allowed to do so. He wished to exploit their abilities, after all. The more overpowered they were, the better it was for him. With that in mind, Krune began to furiously research about the Galki, understanding that the more he knew about it, the greater a feeling of oddity emerged in his mind. It felt like he¡­ was already aware or familiar with the concept. It was a surprising sensation, causing him to ponder while deep in thought. He also noticed that once his clone''s ability was completely sucked dry, the Galki would destroy and eat them. "Such a vicious personality." For the next couple of decades, all Krune did apart from cultivating was research the Galki, eventually attaining greater success. "I''ll show you something great." Krune laughed, summoning Zamura as he faced the other party. "I haven''t seriously faced you before. Let me gauge your true ability." "Good." Zamura laughed, patting the pouch hung at the side of his hips, causing it to emit a clanging sound. "I''ve been itching for a proper fight all along." "Let''s do it!" Chapter 1301 - I’m Hungry, Gimme Your Power! "Let''s fight!" Shouting in response, Zamura patted the pouch hung at the side of his hip, causing countless rings to fly out as they formed a net behind him. Immediately after, the storage rings were absorbed within the bodies of the respective ring spirits that manifested behind them. Their auras slowly climbed up as they were all immortals. In fact, quite a few had already reached the God Trial Realm in power. "You''re able to upgrade their power?" Krune asked in shock, seeing many familiar faces among the ring spirits. "It takes time, but yeah, it''s possible," Zamura replied. "All the ring spirits in my possession have interesting abilities, after all. With the materials our Sub-Realm is able to produce, I''ve been working in my free time to improve them." "It does take time since I have to ensure there aren''t any changes in the structure or composition of the ring." He lightly wiped his sweat as he said that. "If any change happens, the ring spirit would no longer be the strongest version of equipment spirit for that ring. Also, the spirit itself might suffer some damage. So, as their realm increases, it gets harder and harder to upgrade them." "That''s still pretty amazing," Krune said, letting out ten thousand clones of himself. At the Semi-God Realm, Little Krune was able to fragment itself into ten thousand versions. Once he inserted them into a Pseudo-Wisp each, they formed a clone. Thanks to the Cultivation Lotus in his position, there was enough Godly Energy for his needs, allowing the clones to constantly cultivate and also reach the Semi-God Realm in strength. It did take time for them to reach such a stage, after all. But once attained, as long as they weren''t destroyed, they were pretty much another copy of Krune. And now, seeing ten thousand versions of the same, Zamura gulped once, laughing awkwardly as he caused his army of equipment spirits to attack. Both sides clashed as a myriad of abilities flashed forth, causing the sky to be filled with a variety of colors. They had appeared above the waters surrounding Mountain Sect to battle. And to witness it, all the sect members congregated atop a platform that Feifei had erected for them to watch everything comfortably. They just treated it as a festival of sorts. As it was a friendly competition, not to mention it being a battle between two of their founding members, the sect members were excited. Only ten seconds into the battle, the Semi-God Realm cultivators raged forth, complaining, "That''s cheating! A Semi-God Realm cultivator isn''t that strong." Among them, those whose cultivation had exceeded Krune wanted to cry, realizing that they wouldn''t even last two rounds from Krune. After all, a casual punch from Krune unleashed a violent gale, not to mention the fact that there were ten thousand doing the same. For the first few minutes, the two sides were seemingly in a standoff. One side punched nonstop while the other side defended against the violent gales and tried to approach their opponent. The two sides then clashed as the sect members were stunned, seeing the might condensed by their founding members. The battle raged on for an entire day as Krune and Zamura only stared at one another, not even taking a step from their original position. They hadn''t made a move until now. "Shall we start?" Krune grinned, slowly taking out his Pestlor. "You''re taking out your weapon before me?" Zamura laughed, waving his hand, shocked to see the Pestlor still remaining in Krune''s control. Or rather, he could feel the Pestlor intending to come to his side for a moment before returning to Krune''s side voluntarily. As he sensed his actions, he noticed that his power¡ªto convert the equipment spirits of others into his own¡ªdropped in level alarmingly for a second before returning to normal. He gazed at Krune, smiling. "So you''ve completed it." "Yep." Sporting a praying expression, Krune smiled. Within the subspace, the Galki were kneeling before an altar that had been shaped to resemble Zamura. During his research, Krune realized that he wasn''t able to learn this technique. It only seemed to be exclusive to the Galki. And, if he still learned it, then he''ll face many obstacles, especially to his cultivation base. The Galki were never able to become immortal, flawed beings, to be specific. So, if Krune obtained their power, his cultivation base would take a hit. So, what he had derived was a technique that would simply channel their powers through him. And what best to use it for other than Mental Energy? Krune had already performed something similar in the Realm of Sufferings, causing people to inherit his Cloud Whale. He had done that by referring to the Galki and the shadowy beings at the border of the Zamuria Continent. And now, that experience was the breakthrough he needed to employ this power. Having already lived in the subspace for more than a century, the Galki had already adapted to the place and established a city. And at the center of the city was a massive altar that could be seen from every part of the city. As the city was constructed within a crater, this was possible. Thanks to his experience with taming the Motor Fishes in Layer 3 of the Sub-Realm, Krune made use of Mental Energy, engraving a formation within the city. This way, the moment he thought of it, all the Galki going about their lives in the city would kneel and immediately begin praying towards the altar. As for the altar itself, it would morph in shape and turn into the target that he had selected. And now, it had become Zamura as all the Galki began to obtain his abilities. After that, they channeled Zamura''s power that targeted equipment spirits into the formation that formed the ground of the city, coursing it through Mental Energy that Krune channeled out of his body. It was a population game. As he channeled it through enough Galki, the resulting power was able to negate Zamura''s power, causing Pestlor to remain in his control. "You''ve grown stronger, Krune." Zamura smiled. "What do you call this technique?" "I''m glad you asked." Krune grinned in response, stating, "I call the technique¡­" "I''m Hungry, Gimme Your Power!" "¡­" Zamura stared at him before closing his eyes.. "Forget I ever asked." Chapter 1302 - Participating In Continental Politics "What the hell happened in your journey?" Zamura massaged his forehead, feeling a headache. "Before you embarked on your journey, even though you weren''t the brightest in the naming department, it was still bearable. But now¡­" "I only wished to surpass myself," Krune sported a smug expression as he replied. "And I finally attained enlightenment." "When I become a God." Krune slowly raised his hands, clenching them into fists as he gazed at the sky. "I wish to become the God of the Law of Names." "To name any newborn, new places, new techniques, etc., in the God Realm would fall under my authority." Krune finished speaking as he flew towards Zamura, abruptly changing his stance as his Pestlor increased to a length of a kilometer and smacked the other party. Suddenly, a greyish humanoid figure appeared behind Zamura, grabbing hold of the Pestlor before punching it away. In response, Zamura gazed at Krune, internally sweating. "He was only joking now, right?" Right? While Zamura was worrying about it, Krune shrunk the Pestlor, retracting it from the grey giant''s hold as he enlarged it again, seeping the laws of Tribulation Lightning into it to cause it to spark. This way, he wished to destroy the giant. Tribulation Lightning flowed out from his Spiritual Mark while Godly Energy flowed into it, replenishing its reserves immediately. Thanks to Krune''s increase in control due to his comprehension reaching the peak of the God Trial Realm, he coursed the Tribulation Lightning through Pestlor, raising its attack power. Suddenly, a green radiance enveloped the grey giant as it punched at the Pestlor, shocking Krune. Surprisingly, the other party seemed unaffected by the Tribulation Lightning. "What exactly is this law?" "The Law of Counter." Zamura smiled. "It allows me to counter any ability to realistic extents. In the entire Four Realms, I''m the only one to possess this law." "Or rather..." He laughed as he continued, "The total concentration of this law in the Four Realms is within me. You won''t find this anywhere. So, in essence, you can say that I''m already the sole wielder of this law." ''That''s why he''s this terrifyingly strong.'' Krune nodded as he continued to slam attacks into the grey giant, frowning when all of his attacks failed to do any damage. Zamura was also cultivating his body. Having reached the God Trial Realm, his physique was even stronger than Krune. So, he wasn''t actually being damaged by Krune. After all, when at the same cultivation base, it could be said that the strength of both was more or less similar. And now that Zamura had higher cultivation, he began to suppress Krune. Though, it wasn''t as if Zamura was able to defeat him either. After all, whenever a powerful attack beyond his defensive capabilities slammed into him, Krune brought out a clone from his subspace and entered it. The subspace then flashed into the body of another clone far away as Krune exited it casually, having dodged the attack. Moreover, as he continued to escape in such a manner, his expertise in it increased as veins popped on the forehead of Zamura, causing him to shout, "Have you become the Cockroach God?" "Maybe I did," Krune replied nonchalantly, dodging an attack in a similar fashion. As it was a friendly match, both weren''t using any techniques that would truly harm the other party, like destroying their Spiritual Incarnation. That was why this situation came to be. Otherwise, Zamura could channel such an attack through the countless clones around him and bring the fight to a standstill. Similarly, Krune could also do the same and kill the equipment spirits, crippling the storage rings that they originated from. However, none of them did that. It was because they were just fighting and exploring the various possibilities of their abilities, wanting to gain more experience in them. The battle spanned for a month before both sides had become exhausted. Krune retracted all the clones into his subspace and also stored his Pestlor, feeling that his weapon had grown sturdier from this exchange. It was created from a material that grew in the presence of Godly Energy, after all. During the fight, not only was Krune supplying it with Godly Energy, but also tempering it with his tribulation lightning. It was a process of slow refinement during battles, the perfect way to strengthen it until it became the perfect weapon for his use. "Phew, that was tiring." Zamura stored in all his ring spirits, stretching himself as he said, "Let''s do it again once you reach the God Trial Realm. I had to hold back a lot at present." "I can only go all out when you reach my realm," he added. "It won''t take long." Krune smiled in response, returning to the sect as he entered the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm, arriving at his home. "Feifei, did you see my fight with Zamura?" He asked upon entry. "Until the end," Feifei replied, exiting a room as she carried some scrolls in her hand. "I returned in a hurry to think of our next course of action." "What is it?" Krune asked, watching Feifei open the scroll, revealing the contents within. It was a massive battlefield that had formed in-between the three continents of Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria. On the ground were the mortals waging bloody war, constantly gaining power as they felled their opponents. The rewards arrived from a mysterious Sub-Realm that was undetectable to the naked eye. In the air were a group of immortals, fighting a constant war of godly abilities that slammed into the air. It wasn''t bloody here, though, as the number of immortals was paltry compared to the mortals. Moreover, their attacks spanned a massive distance. When someone was on the verge of death, their allies jumped forth to defend them, protecting them until they recovered from their injuries. Even though almost two centuries spanned past since the appearance of this Sub-Realm, the three continents were still at a stalemate. After all, it wasn''t easy to defeat a continent that soon. It was because it was a three-way war. Had it been a war between two continents, the victor would have emerged long ago. But with three enemies, no side went all out in fear of being ganged up by the other two sides. So, they were in a constant stalemate. But still, they were also growing over time, so without any sense of danger, they just maintained the status quo. "And now, they''re competing to increase the number of immortals on their side. Eventually, as centuries passed, the Semi-God Realm cultivators would reach the God Trail Realm, etc. Their accumulations would one day increase to tip the favor to their side," Feifei told him. "And, this is where we''ll come in." "We''ll align ourselves with one of the continents, participate in this war, and defeat the remaining two continents.. And in the meantime, we''ll rely upon the rewards from that Sub-Realm to rapidly grow stronger," she said. Chapter 1303 - Maybe I Should’ve Fought Someone Stronger Zamuria Continent, at the capital of the empire, the royal palace was currently in chaos. That was because two delegates had calmly made an entry, spurting the powerhouses of the Zamuria Empire to take action. It was Krune and Zamura, accompanied by Boldak. Even though Boldak was an equipment spirit, its aura at the Primal God Realm was of no question, alerting the Zamuria Empire. The Emperor personally made an appearance, wondering just who had arrived with such an imposing entry. Upon seeing Zamura, he felt odd for some reason before his face scowled, "You!" "You''re still alive?" he grunted in anger. "Why are you angry, old fart?" Zamura smirked casually. "Even I don''t bear a grudge against you. So why the hell are you behaving like a teenager?" "Good. I was searching for you all along ever since Zamuria vanished." He was just about to take action when Boldak glared at the other party, causing him to restrain himself. Seeing as to how such a powerful figure accompanied Zamura, the Emperor wanted to probe the foundations of his backer. "Are you interested in a trade that''ll help you become stronger?" Krune took the chance to ask, behaving nonchalant, sporting an expression of unbridled arrogance, not showing respect to anyone, not even placing them under his eye. Everything was scripted, though, as Krune and Zamura had already prepared everything beforehand. Among the three continents, they finally decided on Zamuria Continent to support. Even though Zamura and the Seamstress originated from the other continents, the Mountain Sect''s foundation was the Sub-Realm located in the Four Sectors Border Region, which was present in the Zamuria Continent. So, they didn''t wish to make things difficult for them. Moreover, Zamura and Zamuria belonged to the Zamuria Empire''s royalty. So, if they solved prior grudges, they could establish a powerful connection between each other and gain a strong ally. With that in mind, they arrived to negotiate. At the start, Zamuria and Feifei had volunteered to do so, clearly having the confidence to complete the mission successfully. However, there were two obstacles to their plan, named Krune and Zamura. With such an interesting situation before them, why would they not take the chance upon themselves to explore and make a mess of¡­ establish relations with others, right? With that in mind, after a lot of fighting, begging, and so on, Krune and Zamura reigned victorious, proudly arriving at the Lawless Plains of the Zamuria Continent. After that, they traveled towards the capital, recalling the past when they had traveled in the same fashion. Now that he thought about it, their first meeting was incredibly odd. However, Krune didn''t pay it any heed, thinking that he had only attracted another weirdo. It wasn''t the first time he had done that. Heck, even Feifei, at one point in time¡­ Krune shuddered for some reason, dropping that line of thought as he continued to travel with Zamura. Once they reached the capital, such a scene ensued. Right as the tension in the air continued to spike, Krune''s nonchalant arrogance broke the flow as the Emperor and other dignitaries glared at him. Upon seeing his expression of arrogance, they seethed in anger. "A mere Semi-God Realm ant dares to¡­" "Hey, hey, hey, this grandpa is cultivating from scratch for the tenth time after reaching the peak. Do any of you dolts dare do so?" Krune snorted, casually putting on an expression as if he had seen through everything. His role was pretty much to behave as a wisecrack that was overpowered among his Realm. Before a dignitary could rebuke him, Krune pointed at a God Trial Realm cultivator. "Hey you, brat from a bratty mother, let me mop the floor with you." "Hmph, you shouldn''t overestimate yourself." The God Trial Realm cultivator Krune pointed at snorted as he stepped forward. "Let this grandpa show you the true meaning of mopping the floor." "Well, this should show you the clear difference between us." Zamura laughed, waving his hand, motioning for everyone to make some space, "Let''s discuss after this." "Hmph." The Emperor snorted, silently communicating with the God Trial Realm cultivator, commanding him to kill Krune. With that, the initiative of whatever discussion that would happen next would fall in their favor. Krune and the God Trial Realm immortal took to the skies, hovering a hundred meters away from one another. Krune gazed at the God Trial Realm cultivator with a condescending gaze, raising his hand just when the other party was about to make a move. "Wait!" "What? Are you scared now?" The God Trial Realm cultivator smirked as he asked. "Are we going to establish some rules? Or is it a deathmatch?" Krune asked. "Are you afraid of a deathmatch?" The God Trial Realm cultivator snorted in response. "Oh, I''m fine with that," Krune replied nonchalantly. "I was afraid your side would bawl their eyes out at your death, that''s all." "You!" The God Trial Realm cultivator expressed anger, condensing Godly Energy in his palms to unleash an attack when Krune raised his hand once again. "Wait!" "What is it now?" The God Trial Realm cultivator grunted in anger, stopping his attack abruptly. "Have you prepared your revival means?" Krune asked. "Don''t make your death futile." "I did!" the God Trail Realm cultivator cursed aloud, beginning to attack until... "Wait!" Krune did the same once again. "What the heck?" The God Trial Realm cultivator wished to rip apart his hair in frustration, "What is it now?" "Oh, I''ll give the first attack to you." Krune smiled as he said that. "Now, come to daddy." "Screw you!" The God Trial Realm cultivator bellowed in anger as his body erupted with Godly Energy, directly activating his trump card as he rushed at Krune. But suddenly, when he neared Krune, his imposing momentum vanished as an expression of shock appeared on his face. He noticed that he¡­ wasn''t able to use Godly Energy anymore, turning into a helpless being. "Be a little smarter next time." Smirking in response, Krune took out his Pestlor, increased it in size and smacked the God Trial Realm cultivator, destroying his body, directly killing him in the process. "Done. He was pretty weak," Krune muttered casually, storing his Pestlor as he gazed at the Emperor, saying, "Maybe I should have fought someone at the Elementary God Realm instead?" Chapter 1304 - What Kind Of Monster Did You Give Birth To? At present, the Zamuria Empire''s Emperor was seated on the throne, frowning as he stared at the figures of Krune and Zamura that were seated opposite to him. Standing behind them was Boldak, sporting a subservient posture. Even though it was just an equipment spirit, it was a freaking Primal God''s weapon. The fact that it was behaving in such a manner to a pair of Semi-God Realm and God Trial Realm ants unnerved him. It made him feel insulted for some reason, as a fellow Primal God. However, he swallowed the insult he felt, controlling himself as he stared at Zamura, asking, "Why the hell have you come here?" "To obtain the rewards from the Sub-Realm you''ve been fighting two centuries for," Zamura replied. "Preposterous! Do you think you''ll receive it if you just waltz into our territory and demand it?" a minister shouted in anger when the Emperor raised his hand, motioning for him to remain silent. Controlling his anger, the Emperor glared at Zamura, asking, "And your reason being?" "We''ll help you win it, of course," Zamura said nonchalantly. "We don''t need the ultimate treasure of that Sub-Realm. We''re only interested in the rewards until the Elementary God Realm. Of course, we aren''t asking it for free." He smirked as he continued, "We''ll participate on behalf of the Zamuria Continent. Whatever we gain through the war, we''ll take it home. Only that much. Nothing more, nothing less." "Only those hailing from the three continents of Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria have the qualifications to participate. The rest cannot. Some foreign cultivators have already tried it and failed." The Emperor snorted as he continued, "So, the Second behind you¡­" "It''ll work." Zamura smiled mysteriously. "Or should I say, those belonging to my Mountain Sect are all part of these three continents." "Impossible! Our three Empires have existed for almost a million years now and have dominated our respective continents throughout it. There has never been another force here!" Another minister was unable to endure any longer, retorting as he exerted his presence in an effort to pressure the two. However, Boldak casually shielded against it, glaring at the minister, pressuring him in response. The Emperor hurriedly shielded the minister, chiding him lightly before gazing at the two individuals. He was deep in thought, asking in the end, "What''s your real goal?" "Using this chance, why don''t we unite all three continents into one?" Krune laughed. "Of course, we won''t be ruling over that. You''ll only have a business relationship with us. So, if they''re clubbed into one, I guess the Zamuria Empire would be the ruler." Upon his words, the eyes of countless ministers lit up, clearly interested at such an offer. Of course, they had such a thought before as well. After all, with the resources of two more continents, they too would have the qualifications to reach the Primal God Realm. Currently, they were limited by resources, stuck at the same realm for thousands of years with a slow, if not, no improvement. That was why they were prolonging the conquest of the Sub-Realm, reaping as many rewards from it as possible. Moreover, they understood that the end result of the Sub-Realm''s appearance was the unification of the three continents. "How strong is the Mountain Sect?" the Emperor asked. "As strong as the number of enemies we face." Zamura smiled mysteriously. Only Krune understood that reference. After all, Boldak was the best example of that. However, the Emperor and the others looked like they were beginning to understand it. At this time, Krune hammered the deal. "Also, Zamuria has become an elder of our sect. So, your empire has a legitimate back to rely upon when seeking for our sect''s help in the future." "Zamuria has joined the Mountain Sect¡­ and an elder at that?" The Emperor frowned, thinking, ''What rewards has she obtained within that smaller Sub-Realm?'' The Emperor was deep in thought for a couple of hours before saying, "Alright, I accept the trade relationship. However, if the Mountain Sect proves to be incapable, then we''ll go back on our words." "You don''t have to worry about that." Krune smiled and got up from his seat, intending to walk away when he noticed the God Trial Realm cultivator from before arriving at the throne room, looking sullen. "Oh, you''ve revived pretty quickly," Krune could not help but say. "Damm it!" The God Trail Realm cultivator grunted in shame, having lost so shamefully to someone a realm lower... and in one hit at that. "Well, you shouldn''t feel all that bad." Krune patted his shoulder and walked away. "A lot of God Trail Realm cultivators die under one hit from me. So, you''re not alone in this." ''I don''t want to be grouped in such a shitty category!'' The God Trial Realm cultivator shouted mentally, wishing to bury a hole and hide within. Soon, Krune left the throne room, followed by Boldak. As for Zamura, just when he was about to exit, he paused, turning around as he gazed at the Emperor. "I was curious about it all along." "Why did you ask my mother to kill me?" "Because you''re the spawn of a mistake, something that shouldn''t have existed," the Emperor replied expressionlessly, sporting mild traces of anger in the end upon seeing Zamura''s nonchalance. "Well, it''s not something in your hands anyway." Zamura turned around, waving his hands. "If you were to meet my mother in the future, don''t bring up something like this ever again." "The moment you do is when your Empire ceases to exist." Seeing Zamura''s figure exit the throne room, the Emperor glared at him, using his Divine Sense to probe the secrets of Zamura, wishing to find out why he was so arrogant. But, the moment he did so, he was shocked, finding himself in the void as a greenish entity floated before him, staring at him before slowly morphing into a gigantic version of himself, possessing qualities that perfectly countered him. He had only stared for an instant when blood began to bleed out of the Emperor''s nose, shocking all the ministers. His throne shattered as he fell on the ground, but the Emperor didn''t mind that, staring at Zamura''s back as he muttered, "What kind of monster did you give birth to, Zamuria?" Chapter 1305 - The Mountain Sect Army "Is everyone ready?" Feifei stared at the two groups before her. One was a scattered unit that hovered in the air, consisting most of the Mountain Sect''s immortals. 117 Semi-God Realm cultivators and three God Trial Realm cultivators, excluding Feifei. This was pretty much their entire force of elites. There were a total of five cultivators in the Mountain Sect that had reached the God Trial Realm: Feifei, Zamura, Zamuria, Seamstress, and Gegrafikan. Tina was a special case in that she was pretty much a God Stone. So, she wasn''t included in the rankings. Krune and Sterlena definitely possessed enough strength to destroy a God Trial Realm cultivator, but they were still in the Semi-God Realm. So, what hovered before Feifei was their sect''s actual strength. It was a paltry sum that definitely looked like a laughingstock. However, if they were to talk about powerhouses capable of defeating God Trial Realm cultivators, then everyone in the Semi-God Realm was almost able to do so. Some, like Hazak, could easily mow through a couple of God Trial Realm cultivators. Once they became an immortal, their cultivation speed suffered a massive drop. So, there wasn''t much they could do in the span of a century. At least, thanks to body cultivation, they were stronger than those in their realm. "Yes!" the immortals shouted in response, brimming with fighting spirit. "What about you?" Feifei shouted, gazing at the crowd standing at the bottom. There were ten thousand of them, all ranging from the God Foundation Realm to the Nascent God Realm. Of course, all of them had a Spiritual Incarnation. Only those possessing that were allowed to participate in the war, as it was possible to revive them. As for those without a Spiritual Incarnation, they weren''t qualified. After all, even if they grew stronger, it was of no use since their limit was the First Stage of the Semi-God Realm. Only those with a Spiritual Incarnation were able to grow beyond that. "Alright, let''s go to war and grow stronger!" Feifei shouted as the crowd roared in response. As the seconds ticked by, the sounds only grew louder as she activated a teleport formation, bringing everyone to the Lawless Plains. She didn''t teleport them directly to the destination, creating a safety net in her teleportation. After they arrived at the Lawless Plains, she teleported them to their base camp that was located 100 kilometers away from the border of the battlefield. Upon arrival, the ground unit split themselves into two, heading off in two different directions. There were two war fronts: Zamuria-Guria and Zamuria-Rumria. Thus, they had to split their forces accordingly. Zamura was already waiting on one side, leading them to the Zamuria-Rumria battlefield. Among the immortals, Zamuria and the Seamstress followed after him. The second batch followed Krune as he and Feifei gazed at one another, acting like a single glance was enough to communicate a book''s worth of emotions. But in actuality, one side was a silly wisp acting silly while the other side consisted of a human that resisted the urge to cuddle and smack him at the same time. "Our free meal is right around the corner." Krune grinned as he led the way. As the ones they were fighting were immortals, there was no consequence in their fight. Whether it was Krune or Feifei, both never planned to destroy the Spiritual Incarnation of their opponents. They would only kill their opponents and not interfere with their revival means. Their eventual goal was to gain rewards and win over all three continents to their side and make them subordinate to the Mountain Sect. That was pretty much their plan. "Only this much?" The Emperor frowned upon seeing Krune''s side. "Yep. This is enough to change the tide of war." Krune smirked in response. "Plus, we''re not planning to fully change things at present. We''ll first probe through their foundations before landing a strong blow." "Fine¡­" Saying his piece, the Emperor flew away. "We''ll act on behalf of their alliance. If the Elementary God Realm and Primal God Realm cultivators take action, we''ll hold them back." "That''s enough." Nodding in response, Krune commanded the group, slowly building an imposing presence as they arrived at the battlefield, startling the warring sides. "Reinforcements?" Those on the ground were shocked to see five thousand cultivators. Having fought for so long, they became able to determine whether their opponents possessed a Spiritual Incarnation or not. And now, they clearly observed it, all five thousand cultivators, possessing Spiritual Incarnation. "Dammit! How come the Zamuria Continent has so many strong cultivators? Did they cheat?" "Outsiders cannot gain qualifications to join the war. It has been tested and proved already." Slowly, the five thousand cultivators set foot on the battlefield, immediately causing the clothes they wore to change, turning into the uniform of the Zamuria Continent. "The hell? They aren''t outsiders? How can they still possess such a large reserve?" The cultivators were shocked. "Wait, the Predominated Vines!" A cultivator suddenly recalled a piece of information he had read about long ago, shouting, "They should have used all the Predominated Fruits that they had stored until now. That explains it!" "Hmm, this is interesting." The leader of the ground unit from the Mountain Sect muttered as he gazed at the back of his uniform, seeing the symbol of a mountain inscribed, "So, it also displays our affiliation." He then shouted, "Everyone! Those from the Mountain Sect have the same symbol. So, use that to coordinate during the chaos. It''ll be every man for himself once it begins." "Hmm, who''s that kid? He''s pretty competent," Krune asked in surprise. "He''s one of Gegrafikan''s children," Feifei replied. "I don''t know much apart from that. Ask Gegrafikan later. He''ll tell you more. He has a lot of children, after all." "Gegrafikan''s son?" Krune''s eyes widened in interest. "I wonder how he would fare." "He''ll be perfectly fine." Suddenly, one of the immortals spoke. Krune gazed behind, feeling a sharp aura as he gazed at the youth, asking, "You are?" "I''m the first child," the youth replied. ''He''s perhaps the strongest Semi-God around this place, of course excluding me and big sis.'' Krune nodded in response as he gazed up, seeing the silent figure of Sterlena. "Big sis, what''s up?" "Nothing much," Sterlena said nonchalantly.. "I was just trying to crack open the Sub-Realm here and steal its treasures." Chapter 1306 - Big Sis Is OP "It has been more than a century since I last made my mark here," Krune muttered, gazing at the bloody river. Herakkan Delta. It was the name of the region where this battle was taking place. It was one of the widest routes between the Zamuria and Guria continents. With that, it had been selected by the Sub-Realm as the primary battlefield. The arrival of the Mountain Sect sent waves of confusion throughout the battling groups as the groups of immortals looked in fluster. Though, upon seeing that they were on the Zamuria Continent''s side, those from the continent relaxed a little. However, it wasn''t much since they were unsure of the Mountain Sect''s identity, wondering from where such a force had cropped up. As for the side from the Guria continent, they felt their heart rate spike up all of a sudden. The higher-ups from both sides arrived before Krune, staring at them with uniform hostility. The fact that a foreign force arrived meant an infringement on their benefits. So, they didn''t wish to see such a situation happen. ''It seems the Emperor hadn''t informed them of the situation. That old fart wishes to probe information about us through this way,'' Krune thought as he gazed at the representatives from both continents. "Who are you? Also, how did you gain the qualifications to appear here?" the representative of the Zamuria Continent asked curtly. He was a Primal God and didn''t have any intention to talk formally with a bunch of brats. "You can call me Krune." Followed by a casual chuckle, Krune introduced himself. "If you''re wondering if we''re from another continent or not, you can simply verify the records. Your Spirit Awakener Guild should have my details." The Zamuria continent''s representative obviously didn''t like Krune''s tone, but upon hearing his words, he gazed at an Elementary God that had been polishing his weapon nearby, causing the rotund cultivator to arrive immediately. "Yes, representative?" the rotund cultivator asked. "Is there someone named Krune in your organization?" the Zamuria representative asked. The rotund cultivator was the Chief of the Spirit Awakener Guild, gazing at Krune as he squinted. "The one percent success rate guy?" "Yep, that''s me." Krune nodded. "So, he''s part of your organization?" The Zamuria representative glared at the rotund cultivator as if to scold him for not keeping his subordinates in check or failing to perform a proper background check on them. "Let me verify it immediately, representative!" The rotund cultivator wiped his sweat as he hurriedly communicated using his Divine Sense, sending messages to the headquarters as he soon received a reply, saying, "We lost all records of Krune from the time the Sub-Realm opened. He was last mentioned about wishing to explore the world and train himself and made a trip to the Four Sectors Border Region." "And along the way, all the guards sent to protect him were mysteriously killed. After that, due to the mass relocation, we didn''t have the time nor spare energy to search for him," he spoke. "So, it''s due to an oversight on your part." The Zamuria representative frowned, causing the rotund cultivator''s knees to almost go weak. The Zamuria representative ignored the Spirit Awakener Guild Chief after that and gazed at the army of immortals behind Krune. "And, what about them?" "They''re a part of my Mountain Sect," Krune replied before snorting. "This is pretty annoying, old man. It was a pain to talk with your Emperor, and you''re even worse than that. Just ask him. He will fill you in on the details." "You dare raise your voice against me?" The Primal God exerted his presence when he felt a sudden chill, sensing his back covered with cold sweat. He abruptly retracted his presence and gazed up, glancing at the figure of Sterlena as he suddenly had the notion to bow before her. Glancing at him, trying his best to resist his instinct, Sterlena observed him for a moment before saying, "You''ve comprehended the Metal Tusk Law to the Primal God Realm, right?" "H-How did you find out?" The Zamuria representative felt his voice stammer without his knowledge, staring at Sterlena as he shuddered for some reason. "You inherited the means to comprehend this rare law in a secret Sub-Realm that collapsed soon after your inheritance¡­" she casually spoke, still continuing to stare at the Sub-Realm that hadn''t manifested itself and remained in hiding. "How did you know that?" The Primal God was unable to hold back any longer, shouting as he expressed his shock and surprise. "Well, I made that. So, I know," Sterlena said as she closed her eyes, frowning. "Though, I hadn''t thought it would still remain whole until someone inherited it. I hadn''t expected that at all." "A-Are you¡­the Calamity Lord?" The Primal God stammered in shock, surprise, excitement, confusion, and other various emotions for the first time in thousands of years. In short, he experienced a multitude of emotions. "I was called that ages ago, not anymore, though. So, don''t address me with that, got it?" She scolded him, barely releasing a hint of her presence when the Primal God kneeled immediately in response. Only after a second had passed did he understand what he had done. Though he didn''t feel any shame. After all, the entity before him felt unfathomable for some reason. "Anyways, we''re all part of the same continent now. Stop being long-winded, and let us join the battle. You won''t be losing out on anything. Instead, you have a lot of benefits in front of you." She snorted, "It seems your Emperor brat is acting cocky." "Emperor¡­brat¡­" The Zamuria representative shuddered at such a remark, massaging his forehead as he suddenly felt like he was aging, even though that was impossible for him. He immediately communicated with the Emperor, sighing as he said, "The Mountain Sect is also part of the Zamuria Continent. So, we''re glad to have you reinforce us." "Well, with that done¡­" Sterlena gazed at Krune and nodded. Taking out his Pestlor, Krune grinned as his figure flashed past, directly charging at a God Trial Realm cultivator before smacking him in the chest. "T-This is¡­?" Even the Zamuria representative was shocked to see a God Trail Realm cultivator sent flying helplessly until he left the battlefield, continuing to fly towards the Guria continent. Chapter 1307 - I Too Can Unleash Beams "I''ll say it now!" Having sent a God Trial Realm cultivator flying, Krune shouted, "I''ll only kill you normally. So, you''ll be able to revive without any trouble." "After all, I''ll be lonely without enough punching bags." He grinned malevolently soon after, displaying an attitude akin to a battle maniac. Of course, it was all an act. He wasn''t a battle maniac at all. This was only done to garner the attention of his opponents. After all, as long as he defeated his opponent, he would be awarded by the Sub-Realm. As long as he got on their nerves, even after getting killed, they would revive in a hurry and return for revenge. This would create a beneficial cycle of rewards as he killed them continuously. "Hmph! Take my sword!" A God Trial Realm cultivator snorted and condensed a sword beam that was condensed using a multitude of laws, going all-out from the start. The sword beam''s length continued to increase as it made a mountain-length arc and slammed into him. Krune condensed a thick layer of ice to defend against the attack, grunting in response as he was sent flying away for a hundred meters. Heavy! That was the thought that resounded in the God Trial Realm cultivator''s mind, staring at Krune as if he were a monster. A normal cultivator at the same realm as him, even if he managed to defend against the attack, would have been sent flying at least a couple of kilometers. Normally speaking, Krune ought to have been the same. However, the force behind the impact, when met with his body weight, only managed to send him flying for a hundred meters. ''Does his Spiritual Incarnation rapidly increase his weight?'' The God Trial Realm cultivator frowned as his Godly Energy churned, condensing armor over himself. It shone with a metallic sheen, covered with various reddish-blue patterns. They were all formations, condensing countless mysterious effects. The moment they appeared, it was as if he had become countless times stronger. The mysterious formations each had a special effect, slowly spreading over his armor as they even spread into the air, dancing gently like the sea waves. The Godly Energy of the area swirled into them as the patterns acted like veins, condensing mysterious weapons in the air. Soon, each weapon condensed a wielder, mysterious monster-like humanoids. There were five of them, each emanating a unique presence. Upon seeing them, Krune was surprised, turning alert immediately, thinking, ''He''s not your typical cultivator.'' At first, Krune had assumed him to be just another God Trial Realm cultivator that he could defeat easily. When he defended against the sword beam, his thoughts remained unchanged. The opponent''s strength was only average. But now, the moment the mysterious patterns appeared, the aura of the God Trial Realm cultivator climbed to the peak of the God Trial Realm immediately, not to mention the fact that it was continuing to grow in strength. "I''m Krune. What''s your name?" Krune turned serious, grabbing Pestlor tightly as the sounds of ocean waves resounded from him, slowly coursing throughout the battlefield. Upon hearing the sounds, including the faint pulsing of a heartbeat within, some of the Semi-God Realm cultivators turned around, focusing on his location. "This is¡­ him! He''s returned?" one of them muttered. Of course, when Krune had participated in the war before, they were all elites among mortals, having cultivation at the peak of the Nascent God Realm. Unsurprisingly, Krune''s strength was vividly etched in their minds. After all, he had steamrolled through his opponents back then without trouble, made a deal with a Primal God and had vanished soon after. He was pretty much a legend in the Herakkan Delta. And now, the familiar sound made them recall his figure. "Of course, he must have become an immortal." Some of them sighed, leaving their respective battles as they flew in the direction of the sound, watching the figure of Krune facing against a God Trial Realm cultivator. Upon seeing Krune''s opponent, most of them exclaimed in shock, "Isn''t that Senior Ferlash? Krune''s already strong enough to fight against such an opponent?" "When did Senior Ferlash return? Wasn''t he in secluded cultivation after obtaining a major treasure from the Sub-Realm?" another person muttered. "It seems he''s obtained a breakthrough in his powers. The mystic beasts he created now are countless times stronger than the past," a Semi-God Realm cultivator that had once fought near Krune muttered, excited to see how the fight would proceed. Of course, in the over two centuries since the appearance of the Sub-Realm, countless geniuses had appeared, making a name for themselves. Among them were those that had cleared the Sub-Realm in the Four Sectors'' Border Region. They were a notch stronger than most geniuses. As for Ferlash, he was a subpar immortal two centuries ago. He didn''t have any explosive power or abilities to speak of. He was pretty lackluster. But one day, when he participated in the war, during the time when the battle between the immortals was the most fierce, he luckily stumbled upon a God Trial Realm cultivator that was on the verge of death. He luckily managed to kill that cultivator, immediately obtaining an inheritance from the Sub-Realm that changed his life. From that point onwards, his Spiritual Incarnation began to evolve, causing him to morph from a lackluster cultivator to a renowned genius. From there, he reached the God Trial Realm, always challenging opponents stronger than himself. A couple of times, he was killed. Nevertheless, he always returned, defeating his opponents as he continued to grow stronger. From then onwards, no matter what he faced, he continued to grow, surprising most immortals, causing them to wonder what inheritance he obtained from the Sub-Realm that changed him so much. He was one of the brightest examples that had received the greatest of rewards from the Sub-Realm. "I''m Ferlash," he spoke as his figure vanished, appearing before Krune as he condensed a pike that he thrust, unleashing a beam of energy in response, sending Krune flying for almost a kilometer. "Haha! This is great!" Laughing in response, Krune faced his palm towards Ferlash. "I can also launch beams." Dreams of the Heart¡ªOcean Turbulence! Chapter 1308 - Krune’s Sole Weakness Fusing all his passive abilities into his Cloud Whale, Krune unleashed an Air Needle, one that was filled with a myriad of laws. The Air Needle then pierced through the beam, slamming into Ferlash, sending him flying for a bit more than a kilometer. "Go!" Ferlash shouted as the five mystic beasts around him rushed at Krune, carrying various weapons each. Though, upon seeing the five mystic beasts, Krune felt triggered for some reason. After all, the first mystic beast was red, the second was orange, the third was yellow, the fourth was green, and the fifth was blue. "¡­ Isn''t that part of a¡­" Krune grunted as he shouted at Ferlash, "Hey, where''s the violet and indigo monsters?" "Eh?" Ferlash''s eyes lit up at the question as the mystic beasts stopped all of a sudden. The various patterns on his body swirled around, morphing in real-time as they changed, turning more and more complex as he was in the midst of obtaining enlightenment. "Right, I was worrying about their sequence, wondering what was next." Ferlash slowly opened his eyes as his aura blasted out, forming a vortex around him as his aura continued to climb up. Immediately, one after another, he attained breakthroughs as the Godly Energy swerved into him. From the Fourth Stage of the God Trail Realm, he directly reached the Eighth Stage, shocking all the immortals. Moreover, his aura continued to climb up as Ferlash muttered, "Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and finally, violet. They are the seven colors that form my Mystic Beast Spiritual Incarnation." He gazed at Krune and said, "Thank you. It seems you have exceptional insight into this, considering how you''ve managed to point out my flaw at a mere glance. I should thank you." He then gazed at Krune''s hair, eyes widening as he nodded in response. "Your entire figure is the condensation of the heavenly laws. Staring at your hair is giving me enlightenment every moment." "Fuck!" Krune coughed up blood, gasping in exhaustion as he flailed his hands. "No more! Speak no more! Damn it, I''ll die at this rate." He controlled his revulsion, desperately urging his wish to throw up as his face turned as pale as a sheet of paper. "To show my gratitude, I''ll go all out on you, manifestation of a rainbow," Ferlash said, immediately unleashing all seven mystic beasts, causing his aura to billow out as the surrounding clouds were vaporized. "Gah!" Krune coughed out a mouthful of blood, taking mental damage from his words. He hurriedly used his healing effect before sealing his ears to no longer hear such blasphemous words from the other party. Gasping for air, he fully healed himself, panting as he spoke, "Y-You''re strong! I underestimated you!" "¡­" The spectators of the scene controlled their urge to facepalm, shouting mentally in unison, "You''re the only one affected by mere words!" "Damn it! If I had known this back then, I would have subdued him and turned Krune into my subordinate," a Semi-God from the Guria continent muttered in regret. "I¡­ didn''t do anything¡­" Ferlash raised his arms, wondering why Krune coughed up blood. "If you''re a man, stop speaking and fight me!" Krune raised his Pestlor, pointing at his opponent to bellow. "Fine." Ferlash nodded as he sent the seven mystic beasts flying towards Krune. Among the seven, the first to arrive before him was the red mystic beast, wielding a hammer that was enveloped in flames, slamming it into him. Krune raised his Pestlor, pouring Godly Energy into it as he expanded it in size, meeting head-on with the red mystic beast. When the hammer slammed into the Pestlor, the red mystic beast gazed to its astonishment that the Pestlor didn''t even budge. It remained unmoving like a mountain. As for the fire unleashed by its hammer, it vanished all of a sudden the instant it touched Pestlor. Godly Inhibition Tower! But unlike before when he unleashed it on an entire area, Krune had focused it around the Pestlor, causing any Godly Energy attacks that touched it to be annihilated. With that, all he would have to endure would be the force behind the attacks. Though, it wasn''t as if Godly Energy was destroyed. It was just suppressed into the weapon that unleashed it. The flames continued to billow beyond the range of the Godly Inhibition Tower, but within it, they turned tame, failing to even warm it up. Krune spun around, extending Pestlor as he sent the red mystic beast flying away, immediately condensing a shield of ice as he defended against the yellow mystic beast''s attacks. It seemed to use the laws of light, creating illusions throughout the battle. When the Pestlor slammed into it, its figure vanished. He had only hit an illusion. Krune was surprised to see his Divine Sense fooled to such an extent, immediately activating his Divine Sense Law, now able to sense the figure of the yellow mystic beast flickering in and out of place. ''I see, so its body can morph between illusion and reality. That''s a troublesome ability.'' Thinking as such, Krune ignored it. After all, the yellow mystic beast''s attack power wasn''t a threat to him. After all, it had taken out a whip to lash at him, failing to even scratch him. When it tried to restrict Krune''s arms, he tugged at it mildly, causing it to fly at him with tremendous speeds. In order to escape, it turned into an illusion and vanished, managing to survive. Even though it had a troublesome ability, its attack power was lacking to actually injure Krune''s toughened flesh. Soon, the blue mystic beast appeared behind him, slamming a punch at him. Krune retaliated with a backhanded swing of his fist, slamming into the blue mystic beast''s face, shocked when he was sent flying. "Eh?" Forcing himself to a stop, he was shocked to see his cheeks had reddened a little. Touching it, he felt a stinging pain, "It managed to injure me?" Right when he had hit the blue mystic beast''s face, a hand jutted out of its stomach and slammed into his face at the same spot that he had targeted it with. Then, the force that slammed into him was the same as what he had hit it with. "I see." Krune gazed at Ferlash after that.. "You have a set of annoying abilities." Chapter 1309 - Tricky Ferlash "Hah!" Storing his Pestlor, Krune''s figure flickered towards the blue mystic beast, slamming a punch in its stomach, grunting as he felt the hit in his. He then caused his hands to be enveloped in flames, punching it in its stomach, feeling his stomach burning. After that, he activated his healing ability, instantly recovering from the damage as Krune leaped back, throwing an ice pike that pierced into the blue mystic beast, flinching as he watched droplets of his blood drip out of his body. "So, whatever I throw at it, it''s capable of reflecting them at me." Krune understood the essence of its ability, smiling as he sent out three clones. "What will happen now?" The moment he finished his sentence, the three clones flickered, surrounding the blue mystic beast as they all attacked at the same time, using the Law of Fire. The moment they attacked, they suffered a retaliation, feeling their bodies burn in response. Though, the blue mystic beast also suffered some damage, clearly unable to transfer the entirety of the attack. Smiling, Krune sent two more clones at it, noticing that the blue mystic beast was no longer able to transfer all the damage. It began to suffer more and more damage. "It''s easy now." Krune grinned, leaving the blue mystic giant to his five clones as he condensed his Cloud Whale, holding it like a knife as he ran towards Ferlash, throwing it at him. The Cloud Whale curved in the air and pierced through the barrier Ferlash had erected, injecting Frozen Blood into it as the barrier began to freeze up before shattering immediately. "What the¡­?" Ferlash was surprised as he condensed another barrier, watching a second Cloud Whale pierce it, repeating the same as it also got shattered. He snapped his finger, causing the violet mystic beast to appear before him as it fused into his armor, causing his aura to climb up as Ferlash unleashed a wave of energy at Krune, causing all the Cloud Whales to turn old and wither as their bodies began to release a musky scent. With a snap of his finger, Krune dissipated them and condensed them anew, throwing them one after another at Ferlash. Of course, he only had one Cloud Whale. However, Krune had thousands of clones in his subspace. So, he was bringing out their Cloud Whales as well to fight. Since they had shared thoughts, there wasn''t even a need to coordinate. Everything worked seamlessly as a hail of Cloud Whales flew towards Ferlash, unleashing thousands of Air Needles along the way, riddling his body with holes. Ferlash hurriedly tried to heal his injuries by whipping up his Divine Sense after noticing that his Spiritual Incarnation wasn''t able to heal naturally. Though, when he tried to eject the foreign laws that had been injected into his body, he noticed to his shock that he wasn''t able to do so. This was the first time his Divine Sense proved ineffective. Of course, since Krune used the Divine Sense Law in them, the opponent''s Divine Sense was pretty much useless against his attacks. "Heup!" Ferlash snapped his finger, fusing the red, yellow, and orange mystic beasts into his armor, clenching his hand into a fist before punching at Krune. Nothing happened after the punch, causing him to look in confusion. But slowly, ripples formed in the space as by the time Krune reacted, his head was shattered. His Spiritual Incarnation wriggled as his head formed immediately after, ejecting all the foreign laws the attack had seeped into him. Thanks to his Divine Sense Law, it was impossible to contaminate his body with foreign laws. Nevertheless, Krune was shocked at the mysterious attack that caught him off guard, destroying his head in one attack. This was to be noted that his body''s toughness prevented Ferlash''s prior attacks from not even leaving a scratch. "What? He didn''t die even from that?" It was Ferlash''s turn to be shocked as he unleashed a second punch. This time, Krune was alert, dodging the moment the space ripples appeared, watching his right arm shatter and vanish. He quickly healed through it and pointed at Ferlash, causing his index finger to flicker with lightning. "This exists?" Upon sensing the Tribulation Law from Krune''s finger, Ferlash was shocked when a gigantic bolt of lightning slammed into him, causing him to writhe in pain. Suddenly, the green mystic beast appeared behind him, unleashing a beam of light as it hurriedly healed his injuries, allowing him to move as Ferlash caused the space to ripple again, destroying one body part of Krune''s after another. In response, Krune fired off lightning bolts that destroyed anything in its way, smacking Ferlash. He suddenly clutched a Cloud Whale in each hand, grunting as he thought of a daring move, feeding the tribulation lightning through the Cloud Whale''s suction hole, causing it to be compressed in its body. The Cloud Whale''s body began to disintegrate due to the violent lightning that thrashed about in its internals. Though, before it could break out, the Cloud Whale''s mechanisms began to work, beginning to compress the lightning. A second later, Krune aimed them at Ferlash, unleashing two Air Needles. But this time, they were Lightning Needles instead, instantly piercing through Ferlash''s forehead as the law of Tribulation Lightning coursed through his body, paralyzing him as the various laws of his Spiritual Incarnation were disabled and destroyed one after another. Immediately, countless Cloud Whales appeared behind him as they all sparkled with tribulation lightning, unleashing Lightning Needles one after another. This wouldn''t have been possible without him gaining comprehension of the Tribulation Lightning Law up to God Trial Realm. Hundreds of Lightning Needles slammed into Ferlash, also targeting all the mystic beasts that were still trying to attack him. Following that, Krune flew high up in the air, bellowing as he gushed a tremendous volume of Godly Energy into Pestlor, "Expand!" "H-Holy damn!" A Semi-God Realm cultivator gasped, out of breath from the sight before her, watching a gigantic weapon flicker with tribulation lightning and slam into Ferlash, completely annihilating him, unleashing shockwaves that were so strong everyone in the vicinity were sent flying far away, clearing up the immortal battlefield. Chapter 1310 - Rainbow Makes Sense Within a massive tower that consisted of countless floors, various colored lights shone from time to time. It was a show of cultivators reviving from it. The lowermost floor spanned a tenth of a city in area, with countless circular platforms on it. Each platform spanned the size of a God Foundation Realm cultivator''s Divine Sense, the maximum area their Land Incarnation could overlap¡ªa circle with a radius of 10 meters. Floating in the air, forming a wave, was Godly Energy that was condensed into a liquid. A formation was installed in place that detected the fluctuations of the Land Incarnations in the place. Whenever a Land Incarnation pulsed, a drop of the Godly Energy liquid fell onto it, giving it enough power that the Land Incarnation pulsed to condense the figure of the respective cultivator. After reviving, they sat on the platform, meditating for some period of time to stabilize their Spiritual Incarnation. After that, upon checking their Land Incarnation to ensure it was working fine, they exited the tower to return to war. The first three floors of this tower were meant for the mortals and were the largest. Following that, from the fourth floor onwards, the floors resembled an inverted funnel in comparison to the first three floors. It was because each floor from there was exclusive for one person each. The stronger they were, the higher the floor they laid down their Land Incarnation. On top of that, the area spanned by them continued to increase, from ten kilometers for a First Stage Semi-God Realm cultivator to the thousands of kilometers required by Elementary God Realm cultivators. There was a stream of Godly Energy circulating through everything while a Primal God sat at the very top, constantly monitoring everything within the tower to ensure none of the Land Incarnations within were affected by the attacks of their enemies. The loss of every cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation was a blow to their foundation. After all, it wasn''t easy to raise them, not to mention the sheer volume of resources required to do so. For something like Sunkan City, the resources gathered by the entire city were necessary just to produce a Semi-God Realm cultivator. And from there on, it was just a fight for resources. Whenever an immortal revived, a bright light was emitted from the respective floor. There was a group of Semi-God Realm cultivators that acted as servants in this tower. They were those without a Spiritual Incarnation, stuck at the First Stage Semi-God Realm for the rest of their lives. All of them were either rogue cultivators or hailed from poor cities. And now, they were used here as servants to cater to the needs of those with Spiritual Incarnations. Then again, the formation took care of most of the needs. So, the servants were just there for namesake. For the first couple of years, they felt insulted, having been reduced to mere servants. But as the days passed, upon seeing powerful figures revive with sullen expressions that rushed out to exact revenge, only to revive within the tower shortly after, the servants were shocked. Over time, they adapted to it. At least, they didn''t have to face such humiliation. Even though they weren''t perennial beings, having reached the First Stage Semi-God Realm, their lifespan had increased tremendously. They were able to live up to a millennium. That was more than enough life of living, especially since they didn''t have to worry about resources or the like. Thanks to their immortal bodies, they were deprived of hunger or thirst. So, they could simply slack off for the rest of their lives and do nothing. Since they didn''t have any potential, they weren''t worried about their future. Even at present, the outcome of war mattered not for them. So, after a couple of decades, they simply began to treat this as a fun activity, secretly betting the time before a certain cultivator or immortal would revive again. Occasionally, powerful auras would stream forth from the topmost floors as someone from the Elementary God Realm would revive. However, those instances were rare. Even though they were rare, they were a spectacle, causing the servants to wish for more Elementary Gods to die. And today, the tower trembled a little as a suffocating presence wafted out of a floor that was only a couple dozen below the top. Most of the Godly Energy liquid within the floor was sucked up by the Land Incarnation as a figure appeared within, sighing as he gazed at the horizon. "So, I was killed by someone a realm below me." He was Ferlash, having been killed by Krune. Currently, he was feeling melancholy. Had he been at the First Stage of the God Trial Realm while Krune was at the Ninth Stage of the Semi-God Realm, he could simply chalk it up to Krune being a legendary genius that only came once a millennium. But in truth, Ferlash had attained multiple breakthroughs to reach the Eighth Stage of the God Trial Realm, not to mention his Spiritual Incarnation also becoming complete. Despite everything, he had lost, not to a God Trial Realm cultivator, but a Semi-God Realm cultivator. And the most devastating fact among that was that Krune was only at the Semi-God Realm. Based on his aura, he had only broken through recently to become a Semi-God. While they were fighting, Ferlash had noticed that Krune hadn''t even finished consolidating his breakthrough. This showed his terrifying accumulation, one in which he was able to overpower the genius Ferlash in the Eighth Stage of the God Trial Realm. "This world is indeed filled with monsters. But¡­" Ferlash suddenly frowned, sporting a solemn expression. "Why am I not seething with hatred by now?" "For some reason, when I think of Krune, I''m unable to feel any hatred." This thought puzzled him. After all, he wasn''t some righteous character that was nonchalant to everything that came their way. Only legendary geniuses capable of attaining anything they desired with the least amount of effort had such nonchalance. He, on the other hand, had been a desperate cultivator that had struggled throughout his life, fighting against his mediocrity. Slowly, as he continued to ponder about his confusion, his thoughts were replaced by Krune''s lush lock of hair. As if hypnotized, Ferlash muttered, "¡­rainbow." "Of course, everything makes sense now." Chapter 1311 - The Continent’s Ace "Uwaak!" "Gehweee!" "Puahhh!" The screams of three God Trial Realm cultivators resounded as they were enveloped within burning spheres of fire that resembled the sun. The three burning spheres contained a suffocating amount of power, causing the onlookers to break out into cold sweat. And the most mysterious fact about this was how all the heat was contained within the spheres. There wasn''t anything mysterious about this attack. It neither contained any law nor had the ability to destroy one''s Spiritual Incarnation. All it had was a simple power. Heat! Blazing temperatures, the likes of which even cultivators using the Law of Fire could never hope to emit. Such heat churned within the spheres, beginning to melt the bodies of the cultivators. As there was no law contained within this attack, their Spiritual Incarnations began to quickly recover from the attack. However, the heat raged on, continuing to melt their bodies, placing them in a state of limbo, one of eternal suffering. A couple of hours trapped in such burning spheres caused the minds of the cultivators to give out first as their Spiritual Incarnations soon followed suit, collapsing immediately. The shattering of their minds was reflected in their Divine Senses, which eventually led to the collapse of their Spiritual Incarnation. Slowly, the laws themselves were being damaged by the heat as soon after, there was nothing of the three immortals left behind. Hiss! Those at the God Trial Realm shuddered upon gazing at such a scene. Those that had been fighting with the immortals from the Zamuria Continent had stopped soon after the Mountain Sect made entry. Among them, the trio of Zamura, Zamuria, and Seamstress shocked them all. It was especially true for those that recognized Zamura, shouting in shock. "Isn''t that the eccentric Cultivator?" "Cultivator? He''s become an immortal now?" "How¡­ is this possible?" "Weren''t we the same age as him? We''ve only managed to reach the Semi-God Realm while he''s already attained such a level of strength?" Suddenly, a cultivator shouted in fear, transmitting his voice throughout the battlefield, "Everyone! Don''t take out your weapons or any items! Cultivator is capable of gaining control over them all!" "Hmph! I''ll see you try!" A God Trial Realm cultivator at the peak snorted as he landed before Zamura. He had already seen the Seamstress''s fight and had figured out that she was strong. But even with that, he wasn''t afraid, having been hailed as a genius when he was young. He had the confidence of defeating the Seamstress quickly, despite seeing her strength. And upon hearing from the Mountain Sect disciples as to how he was the Sect Master of the Mountain Sect, he wished to defeat Zamura and attain glory. After all, none of them had ever thought that a new sect would pop up in their three continents. From when their records existed, the ruling party of all three continents had remained the same. In history, many ambitious people had established sects of their own. However, they were quickly suppressed. It was not to mention their inability to gather enough resources to grow strong quick enough as they turned poor soon after, having expended all the resources they had accumulated to serve their ambitions. After that, they either gave in to their fate and joined the ruling powers or eventually were killed off. But now, not only did the Mountain Sect seem successful in having a lot of immortals, they even dared to participate in the war. The higher-ups had already instructed him to deal with Zamura and deal a critical blow to the Mountain Sect. So, it went without saying he was ready to do that. "Here, take my attack!" the God Trial Realm cultivator shouted and slammed a basic attack at Zamura, intending to smack him into his place first. But suddenly, a fish flashed into place, blocking the attack easily, not even suffering a scratch. "I''ll be your opponent," Zamuria said, calmly walking towards the God Trial Realm cultivator until she was within his arm''s reach, taunting him. "Or, are you incapable of attacking someone stronger than you?" "A mere tiny sect''s immortal dares to act arrogant before me?" The God Trial Realm cultivator laughed as he snorted. "Remember the name of the one that will kill you. I''m Dolveron, your future nightmare." "Dolveron?" Zamuria raised her eyebrow as she smirked. Suddenly, before Dolveron managed to react, something slammed into him, sending him flying away until he crashed into an Elementary God Realm cultivator, angering that powerhouse. "Heh, your name isn''t qualified to battle me." Zamuria slowly entered a stance, saying with a solemn tone, "I bear the name of my continent, possessing the strength, grace, and fate of my empire." "Zamuria!" "Zamuria?" The eyes of all the cultivators flickered in shock, doubling down their gazes on her. "She''s Zamuria?" An Elementary God Realm cultivator frowned. He was aware of a tradition that was followed in their three continents. When someone exceptionally talented appeared in their families, they were named after their respective continent. And throughout the continent, there would only be one bearing this name. Only if they die would someone else be chosen. Though, that wasn''t guaranteed. After all, to bear the name of their continent and their empire, the cultivator should be so exceptional that they should clearly stand above their peers to such an extent that they outshine every cultivator that was birthed from the respective continent for at least ten millennia. And now, standing before them was the immortal bearing the name of her continent¡ªZamuria. "Bring out Rumria, if you even have someone that talented in your midst." Her tone was filled with arrogance. As for Dolveron, he was a bloody mess, coughing out blood from time to time as he failed to heal easily. The Elementary God Realm cultivator behind him snorted, pointing a finger at Dolveron as he emitted a dense stream of Godly Energy. Immediately, all the laws plaguing him from healing were ejected as his body regenerated immediately. "Thank you, Elder!" Dolveron cupped his hands, bowing at the Elementary God Realm cultivator. "Dolveron, stand down. You''re no match for her." The Elementary God Realm turned around, ignoring Dolveron''s protest as he announced to his group, "Tell Rumria that her opponent is waiting." "It''s time to show our continent''s ace." Chapter 1312 - Zamuria Vs Rumria Vs Guria A Semi-God Realm cultivator panted as his figure formed a streak in the air, expending his Godly Energy as he rushed at his maximum speed. He had been traveling for almost a day now, expending his utmost energy. He was a messenger tasked with relaying messages across the continent. However, due to the weight given to the matter, he couldn''t transmit the information through a transmitting treasure but had to rush over personally. The rest of his seniors were unwilling to budge from their places, anticipating the upcoming fight. After all, the names of their continents were at stake. Even the immortals standing guard at the capital dropped their roles and rushed towards the battlefield. Even the stealth groups that had infiltrated each continent to disrupt their foundations had dropped their important missions and returned to the battlefield. After all, it was orders from their higherups. Every single immortal from the three continents had arrived here. Upon hearing the news, Krune and Feifei had also arrived with their troops, taking seats in a massive arena that a Primal God had been kind enough to create. This was probably the biggest arena to date, capable of seating the entirety of troops from the three continents, mortals included. Even those hidden powers, immortals that had failed in establishing their sects but were accumulating power, had also arrived, shocking the three ruling powers. It was only now did they realize how much power of their continent wasn''t in their control, sensing their hearts thump in response. After all, among them were two Primal Gods, originating from the Zamuria Continent alone. Upon seeing them, Krune and Zamura raised their hands, greeting the two. "Seniors, we meet again." Among the two Primal Gods, one of them was the one that gave advice to Krune and company back in the Immortal Severance Zone. As for the second Primal God, he was even more mysterious, having been the cause of the Immortal Severance Zone. Currently, he was sullen but also glad at being given freedom. He gazed at Krune and said, "Thanks, brat. Because of you guys, my punishment was cut short, and I was able to revive." "Hahaha¡­" Krune laughed, feeling awkward for being thanked for something he hadn''t done. He then asked, "Then senior, what happened to the Immortal Severance Zone? Has it vanished?" "I left my Land Incarnation there. So, that Danger Zone should still be the same¡­" "Oh, I forgot to mention." The other Primal God, whose figure continued to fluctuate between various ages, gender, and race, pointed out nonchalantly, "I had destroyed it already. You don''t think I would leave your revival mechanism behind, did you?" "But how come I can still sense it?" the sullen Primal God said in shock. The figure-changing Primal God smirked as he replied, "I just laid down a small trap to fool you. You have just revived, so your senses are still wonky." "¡­boss, can you leave me alone? Your daughter already dumped me ages ago. I still haven''t gotten over that fact." The sullen Primal God sulked. "Good. If you were to ever get over it, I''d kill you," the figure-changing Primal God said nonchalantly as the sullen Primal God turned even more sullen. "¡­" Hearing such an exchange from beings that were only inferior to the Gods, the immortals found it hard to stomach. As for the mortals, their expressions were blank, their minds having short-circuited already, finding everything surreal. "There were such experts on my continent?" The Zamuria Emperor gazed in shock as he took a seat, sighing as three other Primal Gods sat next to him. The Zamuria Continent had four Primal Gods in total. The other two continents also had the same number of Primal Gods. They were evenly matched. However, as the hidden forces began to appear, they felt somewhat uneasy. After all, there were six Primal Gods in total that didn''t belong to their rule but were clearly part of their three continents. ''There would be a bloodbath following this fight.'' Zamuria Emperor sighed in worry, cautiously using his Divine Sense to relay orders to the immortals under him. He only gave orders to his fellow Primal Gods and the Elementary God Realm cultivators. Those below that weren''t strong enough to change the tide of things should a battle between these powerhouses erupt. "Guria is here!" Someone suddenly shouted as a figure landed in the arena, a dozen meters away from Zamuria. Upon gazing at Zamuria, she said, "You surely weren''t planning to fight this decisive battle without me, right?" "You''ve come right on time. Between us three, we''ll decide on a winner today." Zamuria snorted. She was actually aware of Guria and Rumria. All of them were only a year apart in age and had been named at almost the same time. It had once caused a ruckus in their three continents, for there arrived three talents worthy of bearing the name of their respective continent simultaneously. It made the people both look forward to the future and feel pensive at the same time. ¡­ "Hah¡­haah¡­gah!" A Semi-God Realm cultivator panted in exhaustion as he slammed through a palace''s double door, immediately grunting in fear as his body began to rapidly disintegrate. He hurriedly shouted, "Your highness, the fated battle is upon us today. Zamuria and Guria are already at the battlefield!" "I see." A cold voice resounded as the Semi-God Realm cultivator stopped disintegrating, causing him to heave a sigh in relief. He had not only been severely exhausted but had also been targeted with such a dangerous attack, unable to recover as he grasped for his life. Suddenly, a gentle energy gushed into his body as the Semi-God Realm cultivator noticed that not only was he fully healed, but his Godly Energy had also been replenished to the limit. "Let''s go. Don''t miss out on this battle where the pride of our continents lay." Saying so, a figure appeared, graceful like a swan, looking delicate to the extent it seemed like a gentle breeze would snap her waist in half. But in actuality, even though she floated in the air, the ground underneath her began to crack before soon, the entire palace turned into dust. "Che, I had liked this design.." Expressing dislike for a couple of seconds, the lady snapped her finger as the figures of her and the Semi-God Realm cultivator soon vanished. Chapter 1313 - Evenly Matched "Eh? How did I appear here?" The Semi-God Realm cultivator was surprised to see that he was now seated in the massive stadium, besides fellow Semi-Gods. He hurriedly gazed at the arena, noticing three figures standing a dozen meters away from one another. The air slowly began to turn hot as the tension slowly reached its peak. Not only were the combatants ready, but they were brimming with killing intent. Most of the immortals were nervous, breaking out into cold sweat, worried about the result of the battle. After all, the pride of their entire continents rested on this battle. It wasn''t a doubt to say that the three figures on the arena all had the potential to reach the Primal God Realm and be strong even among the Primal Gods. The winner of this battle determined the dynamic shift of the three continents. ''Crap¡­'' The Zamuria Emperor was feeling the most restless now. After all, he didn''t know the exact strength of Zamuria, having not seen her ever since he sent her to the Sub-Realm in the Four Sectors Border Region. ''Moreover, the Spiritual Incarnation that was meant for her had been snatched away by her elder brother.'' This was the true cause of his worry. He had been in secluded cultivation back then. Using the chance, one of the ministers had rallied everyone against Zamuria, causing the Spiritual Incarnation that she had condensed through great pains and insight to be swallowed by her elder brother. It was an irreversible process, after all. The reason he felt regret was that the Spiritual Incarnation Zamuria had condensed back then was done using the records and accumulations left behind by the previous generations of Zamuria. And after that, the Spiritual Incarnation she condensed was, though strong, paled in comparison to what she had possessed at the start. It was after that incident did she leave Zamuria Continent and gave birth to Zamura, creating embarrassment for the royal family. So, he was feeling restless. As the first prince had already devoured her original Spiritual Incarnation, the Zamuria Emperor could only give him light punishment and work towards making him the future Emperor. And now, he glared at the First Prince, transmitting through his Divine Sense, "If she loses, you''ll be the first one to die. Even if it''s not me, the other Primal Gods won''t sit still since this is a matter concerning our reputation." "Relax, dad." The First Prince, on the other hand, was actually calm about it. "I had been regretting my actions all this time. I had been impulsive back then and was influenced by the ministers. However, you don''t have to worry." He said slowly, gazing at the back of Zamuria, "The current Zamuria is many times stronger than even me. As for her Spiritual Incarnation, it has evolved tremendously to actually surpass the Spiritual Incarnations of the previous Zamuria." "I hope that is the case." The Zamuria Emperor sighed in worry, gazing at the figure of Zamura, seeing that he was calm. ''This detestable brat!'' In response to his glare, Zamura gazed at him, extending his tongue to laugh mockingly, filled with arrogance. ''This bastard!'' The Zamuria Emperor barely managed to rein in his anger. He was then signaled by the Emperors of the Rumria and Guria Continents, taking to the skies as all three discussed among themselves before speaking in unison. "The battle will be a deathmatch. The three participants may not leave the arena under any circumstances. Attacks intending to target the revival mechanisms are forbidden. That''s all. May we have the fateful match of the millennium!" The three of them combined their powers to erect a powerful barrier around the arena, preventing anyone from interfering within the battle or engaging in any malpractices. That''s why all three had used their powers. This way able to keep everyone in check. The moment the three of them returned to their seats, the battle had erupted. Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria; all there remained standing in their respective spots as they unleashed the brunt of their aura, immediately causing the ground around them to crack. The air trembled as a sonorous sound reverberated throughout the stadium, causing everyone to clutch their ears. "Who do you think will win?" Krune asked Feifei. "You should have the best knowledge about Zamuria, right?" "Honestly¡­" Feifei''s eyes shone with myriad colors as her forehead was filled with sweat. "I''m not sure." "All three are actually evenly matched." "Impossible. She knows body cultivation. And you''ve tremendously helped improve her Spiritual Incarnation and all abilities overall," Krune said in shock at Feifei''s claim. "That''s the thing," Feifei muttered. "The other two, they''re also cultivating body cultivation. Plus, the method is different from ours." "Were there any Sub-Realms that popped up in the other two continents?" Krune faced Zamura and Seamstress, as they originally hailed from the other two continents. "No, if it had, we wouldn''t have arrived at the Zamuria Continent in the first place," Zamura said, frowning after that. "However, one thing''s for sure. The body cultivation of Rumria and Guria directly originated from the five Gods that created that Sub-Realm." "¡­" Krune frowned at the information. Zamura continued to sense their auras, feeling the subtle presence of the five Gods in Rumria and Guria. He had already possessed his Law of Counter back then and had already grasped the presence of the five Gods. So, Zamura was assured about his conjecture. "Damn, now even I''m getting tense." Krune felt goosebumps form on his skin as he looked at Sterlena. "Sis, what''s your take on this? Who do you say will win this fight?" "Watch the fight. You''ll be amazed." Sterlena smiled mysteriously, "This would be pretty interesting. It could be said that ignoring you and Zamura, the three in the arena are pretty much the strongest these three continents could offer." "Even stronger than Feifei?" Krune was shocked. After all, Feifei''s strength was only inferior to his own. "Feifei has yet to truly accept her Spiritual Incarnation.. So, her strength has been suppressed," Sterlena said, smiling as she gazed at Feifei, causing the other party to bite her lips and turn silent. Chapter 1314 - Ocean Radiance ''Feifei''s suppressing her powers?'' Even Krune was surprised, having been unable to notice that before. Boom! But before he could process his thoughts, a loud explosion resounded from the arena, redirecting his attention. He observed that a dust cloud had formed in the center as the three people remained in the same spot. Until now, they had only been unleashing their aura, causing it to become so concentrated that an explosion resounded. This wouldn''t have happened if the aura unleashed by either one of the three was slightly more or less. Though, the fact that an explosion had resounded was definite proof that their auras were evenly matched. Gazing at the figures of Rumria and Guria, Zamuria frowned subtly. ''They''re on the same level as me, including their body cultivation. Interesting!'' ''Only such a fight is worthy of the fate that we had shouldered since young,'' she thought, slowly gathering power in her body, preparing to attack. From childhood, she had been repeatedly told that since her talent was to a high enough level, she was named Zamuria on behalf of her continent. Due to that, she had been forced to train constantly, ignorant of everything else. That was why when she suffered her first setback to the First Prince, Zamuria was unable to endure it and ran away from her continent. After that, she fell victim to the ploys of a villain, lost her memories in the process and even bore her child¡ªCultivator, or the current Zamura. That experience was a severe blow to her innocent nature and caused her to rapidly mature. After that, when she lived in the Sub-Realm, deprived of her powers when she first landed in Layer 3, Double Ocean, she had been helpless. This was the first time she truly felt helpless, unable to do anything, left at the mercy of nature. Even simple fish that she had cooked for breakfast before was now terrifying, capable of claiming her life. And, no sooner had she tried to adapt to it did the First Wave occur, causing her to encounter the Neon Radiance fishes. She somehow persisted and lived on, gripping anything and everything she could to survive, her struggles causing the Neon Radiance fishes to mistakenly eat up parts of their brethren''s flesh and turn into Neon Radiance Kings. What followed next was a month''s struggles as she traveled with the Neon Radiance fishes, moving along with the First Wave. From the position she had started at first, she had traveled for a far distance before managing to free herself from them. For a month, she hadn''t gotten a wink of sleep, fighting for her life every second. Honestly, even she herself was unsure as to how she had done that. But nevertheless, she did it, quickly ranking at the top in Layer 3. Her experience in the Sub-Realm was truly enlightening, something that she hadn''t experienced in her sheltered life at the palace. From possessing nothing, she had reached the peak of the world. Her journey started from there as she lived a difficult life, growing strong with every twist and turn, gaining comrades that supported her, and so on. All her thoughts, experiences, and the wisdom that she had accumulated were now condensed in her mind in the space of a couple of seconds as Zamuria crouched a little, saying, "Go all out! Otherwise, you''ll die!" Passive Skill: Neon Radiance King! Active Skill: Ocean Radiance! Unlike the passive skills that either Krune, Feifei, Zamura, or the Seamstress had obtained, her five passive skills were the same¡ªNeon Radiance! This was not only a show of her experience but also her undying will in her resolve to grow stronger no matter what. The air in the arena suddenly turned moist before resembling water as countless fishes appeared, real, swimming around as they soon targeted the two enemies. "That''s a neat trick that you got there," Guria smirked as she condensed a feather that she shot out, instantly piercing through a fish. Though, immediately after, she was surprised to see the ocean water churning into the fish''s wounds, rapidly healing it. The fish quickly appeared before Guria, opening its mouth to clamp on her as its teeth emanated an edge-like presence, looking like it could cut through anything. Two feathers flew out from Guria and slammed into the fish''s open jaws, preventing it from closing shut as they sent the fish flying away. ''It''s also heavy!'' Guria frowned, intending to attack, when she noticed a massive creature appear from beneath her, slowly opening its mouth as it unleashed a breath attack that was pretty much a sphere of air condensed into a bubble. Tens of feathers shot out from Guria that pierced the bubble, instantly causing it to explode as the force alone sent everyone flying. Rumria, on the other hand, calmly stood in place, observing the fight between the two, slowly raising her hand as she noticed a massive fish approaching her. Condensed in her hand was a crescent moon that emanated a rotting stench, causing the water itself to vaporize as it flew out, cutting through the fish, rapidly disintegrating it. At this time, a beam of light slammed into her, sending her flying away as a group of feathers swerved behind her, ambushing her, intending to injure her first. But when both the abilities touched her, they disintegrated and vanished. "Hahaha!" Rumria laughed as her presence slowly churned around her as her figure slowly landed on the ground. She then lifted her hand, muttering softly, "Compress!" Instantly, the entirety of the water that had drowned the arena was smacked into the ground to such an extent it turned into a solid layer, barely a centimeter in height. As for all the fishes in there, they were flattened into two-dimensional drawings instead. Rumria gazed at the figures of Guria and Zamuria that had slammed into the ground, creating a crater each, resisting the force she was exerting. "Heuk!" Guria shouted as her body swelled up, causing her physique to become stronger as she slowly pushed away the pressure that tried to flatten her, causing Rumria''s hand to move upwards in response. Grunting, Rumria pressed her hand downward, raising the force that was pressuring them. As for Zamuria, she suddenly clenched her hand into a fist as a layer of light condensed over her body before expanding at the speed of light, generating enough force on her own that she completely negated the force on her. She then hurriedly raised her hand, unleashing a beam of light, actually targeting Guria instead. Chapter 1315 - Guria! Instead of retaliating against Rumria, Zamuria had targeted Guria. The beam of light slammed into Guria, causing her to grunt as blood leaked out of her body in response, having been injured. The attack also distracted her enough that the force unleashed by Rumria began to pressure her body further, slowly causing her to bloat sideways. "Guria!" Those among the crowd that were part of the Guria Continent shouted in alarm upon seeing the representative of their continent bleed. She was the first to be injured in this fight, while the other two hadn''t even suffered a scratch until now. The Semi-God Realm and God Trial Realm cultivators from the Guria Continent were of the same mind, shouting in worry. But in contrast, those at the Elementary God Realm and above smirked in response. "Cough!" Suddenly, Zamuria and Rumria coughed out blood at the same time, shocked to see that they were damaged the same as Guria. "When did she¡­?" Zamuria was shocked before she noticed a feather attached to the back of her hand. She immediately chopped off that part of the flesh, noticing the mysterious attack on her had vanished immediately. Her Spiritual Incarnation wriggled, healing her immediately. Rumria had also done the same as the same thought echoed in their minds, ''Some of her feathers lack any presence. They are able to transfer the damage she receives onto us.'' Guria had just injured the other two when she paused, surprised to see a blade of light piercing her head, instantly expanding in length as her body was severed in two. Zamuria leaped into the air as countless chakrams flashed above Guria, rotating at high speeds as they rammed into Guria, cutting through her body faster than she could heal. At the same time, a massive fish leaped out of the flattened layer of water, biting into the lower body of Rumria, shocking her as her lower half was ripped off and swallowed. The fish vanished immediately as Rumria coughed out blood, her face paling in response as a tenth of her aura plummeted immediately. It was apparent that she had sustained real damage. In response, even though Guria was hacked into countless pieces, since the attacks didn''t consist of any laws, she was perfectly fine. Suddenly, an energy fluctuation emanated from her body as the blades of light were destroyed. Guria''s body began to rapidly heal as her angered face formed. Though, just when she was about to launch an attack, a fish leaped out of the flattened layer and seeped into her body. Just like the feathers she had launched before, this fish didn''t possess any presence and stealthily entered her body. And soon after that, Guria''s body finished healing. Her face paled as she shot a glare at Rumria, coughing out blood as she collapsed to the ground, gasping for air as cracks formed on her body, showing signs of disintegration. After biting off Rumria''s lower half, the fish had condensed it and turned into a tiny fish. After that, it entered the body of Guria and vanished, causing the Spiritual Incarnation of Rumria to collide with her, causing her severe damage. "Zamuria is powerful!" The crowd shouted upon seeing the other two candidates collapse to the ground in a pool of their own while Zamuria stood tall, having not suffered a scratch since the start. "How the hell is this happening?" An Elementary God from the Guria Continent muttered in shock, unable to believe the outcome transpiring before him. "All three are evenly matched. How come Zamuria didn''t even suffer a scratch while the other two are already on the ground?" "Tch!" The Guria Emperor clicked his teeth, frowning at the result. After all, Guria was his daughter, one that he had boasted about all along. Seeing her suffer a disadvantage so early didn''t bode well for him. After all, he wasn''t the only Primal God in the Guria continent. There were three others with their respective families. And until now, with the excuse of her being talented and special, he had ensured that every treasure of value was recommended to Guria with the highest priority. However, if she were to lose now, his actions would be questioned, deeming them selfish. His rapport with the other three Primal Gods would weaken. ''Don''t let your father down, Guria!'' His hands faintly trembled in anxiety as he almost wished to rush into the battlefield and incite chaos so that none could question his daughter''s defeat. The Rumria Emperor was also of a similar stance, feeling jittery. "This is due to a simple difference in their experience," Sterlena said. "Even though they are of the same strength, she had cornered them first and forced them to use their offensive to protect themselves. In one move, she gained the initiative and forced them to reveal their cards early." "Tch!" Guria grunted in anger upon seeing that neither Rumria nor even the one with the advantage, Zamuria, tried to attack her. She had been planning to counterattack them if they had attempted to do so. She sighed, left with no other choice as her body slowly began to vaporize, turning into a crystalline mist. Soon, dropping as a lump on the ground was the condensed body of Rumria. After it was freed, it vanished and returned to Rumria''s body, instantly causing her legs to grow out. She got up and stared at the mist that had formed, muttering, "You''ve already chosen to use your Spiritual Incarnation?" "Why not? I''ll take the lead this time." Saying so, the mist dispersed throughout the arena and vanished, shocking the audience. For a moment, even the Zamuria Emperor and Rumria Emperor were shocked, wondering how Guria managed to teleport out of the arena. Though, when they used their Divine Sense, they noticed that she was still within the arena but had only turned invisible to all senses. Frightening! Even for them, only after they had reinforced their Divine Sense using other laws were they able to notice Guria. And they were Primal Gods while she was a mere God Trial Realm cultivator. When they thought of how frightening she would become after reaching the Primal God Realm, the two of them shuddered, gazing at the Guria Emperor to see his expression turning smug in response. Chapter 1316 - Do You Want To Join My Mountain Sect? "Hah!" Rumria shouted as she condensed multiple barriers around her, spreading her essence of destruction throughout the arena. But no matter what she did, she was unable to even detect Guria, not to mention detect her. As for Zamuria, she was even worse off, shocked as she noticed how she was unable to even activate her Spiritual Incarnation, staring as her face paled before slowly turning red. Blood leaked out of her orifices even when she used her healing ability. It was incapable of offsetting the damage. Upon seeing that her damage continued to pile up, Zamuria suddenly unleashed bright light from her body, one that flickered through the arena, being reflected multiple times. There were countless reflections, the first ten doing nothing special. When they were reflected twenty times, they faintly outlined something in the air. And when they were reflected around a hundred times, they began to highlight faint particles in the air that were swirling around, with a large part of the swirl around Zamuria and Rumria. By the time the light was reflected a thousand times, the tiny particles in the air had turned a bit sluggish while seeming heavier. Zamuria continued to bleed in the meantime, watching the light she emitted turning slower and slower every time it was reflected by some surface. In the meantime, Rumria had already used an ability to condense a powerful barrier around her, somehow managing to block anything attempted by Guria to hurt her. This resulted in the swirl around her to increase in quantity gradually. She then observed Zamuria''s actions, noticing her ability beginning to highlight Guria. ''That''s a frightening detection ability. Not only did she manage to detect Guria, but she also caused Guria to become susceptible to attacks. No way am I going to miss this opportunity.'' Thinking as such, Rumria focused her power in her body, fully activating her Spiritual Incarnation. Her body was full of a destructive aura that caused everything in her vicinity to age out and dissipate. Slowly, she took a step forward as the particles of Guria''s body were affected by it, being destroyed easily. In response, Rumria was also being damaged, but the damage she sustained was a paltry sum in response to her opponent. Upon seeing the two in action, Zamuria also riled up her Godly Energy as all three erected their Land Incarnation simultaneously, causing the space in the area to show signs of cracking, startling everyone. Normally, only the actions of the Primal Gods were powerful enough to crack the space. But here, three God Trial Realm cultivators had done the same. Their actions caused a single thought to resound in the minds of all the powerhouses, and that was to kill the other two representatives and prevent them from growing strong in the future. Killing intent was slowly rising in the stands before vanishing completely. It had arrived so briefly that most of those present were unaware. "Krune¡­" Zamura spoke. "I''m ready," replied Krune, muttering, "Can you support us, sis?" "You don''t need to ask." Sterlena grinned, ready as well. "Nothing will happen to Zamuria." Within the arena, the battle had reached its zenith as all three had gone all out, ripping apart one another. When the space began to crack, Guria recondensed herself into a physical form. It was also because Zamuria had almost unraveled her. Rumria''s attacks, when combined with Guria''s destructiveness, had been the cause for the spatial cracks. On the other hand, Zamuria''s attacks actually healed the spatial cracks. But in truth, they weren''t being healed. The light she emitted, when observed clearly, was actually a gigantic fish that swallowed the spatial cracks before vomiting them towards either Rumria or Guria. This way, she actually concentrated the damage around them, causing the area around her to be the safest. "Ack!" "Keuk!" Suddenly, Guria and Rumria screamed in pain, having lost their lower halves to a fish that suddenly leaped out of the ground and clamped over them. They had reacted, slamming attacks onto the fish, shocked when its physical toughness caused their attacks only to injure the fish severely. They were unable to kill it as the fish retreated into the ground with a flash, vanishing. "I''ll take down the two of you with me!" Rumria shouted as she expended the entirety of her Godly Energy, rupturing her Divine Sense as she condensed two spheres and threw them towards Guria and Zamuria. In response, Guria condensed two feathers, causing them to shoot towards the other two. As for Zamuria, she calmly saw the two attacks approaching her, grinning as she raised her hand, meeting them head-on. The two attacks slammed into her, destroying her defenses, causing her body to splatter, being destroyed instantly. The feather slammed into Rumria, who defended herself with all her might, exhausted as she slumped on the ground, barely managing to survive. She had been weakened to the extent her Spiritual Incarnation showed signs of destabilizing. In any case, Guria wasn''t any better, only needing one more attack to be killed. "Now, only you''re left." Rumria and Guria gazed at each other, muttering in exhaustion, trying to recover some energy. However, the spatial cracks around them prevented any Godly Energy from approaching them, causing a stalemate. "Guess it''s my win." Suddenly, Zamuria''s voice resounded as a fish peaked out of the ground, shocking them. "That''s your actual form?" the both of them shouted in shock. "Yes." The fish slowly morphed into Zamuria as she panted a little, saying, "I still have enough Godly Energy to unleash two more attacks. Surrender if you don''t¡­" Just as she was about to finish speaking, the powerhouses from the three continents immediately took action, erupting with the power to destroy Spiritual Incarnations, intending to permanently kill the representatives of the other two continents. "Guria and Zamuria, Die!" "Zamuria and Rumria, Die!" "Rumria and Guria, Die!" The shouts resounded as the barrier protecting the arena was destroyed. The attacks launched by countless powerhouses, Elementary Gods and Primal Gods included, rushed towards the center, instantly making everyone regret their impulse. After all, judging based on the power that was being condensed, it was apparent that all three would be permanently killed. "No!" They all shouted in regret when suddenly, a thin green barrier surrounded the arena when an oppressive aura reverberated through the place, causing everyone to tremble. After all, it was a law''s manifestation. The presence of a God! The green barrier vanished as the attacks changed forms, turning into substances that countered the users that had launched it, being sent back towards them, causing everyone to spit blood simultaneously. "Hahaha!" Zamura gently landed at the center of the arena, being rapidly healed by Krune and having his powers amplified by Sterlena. Ignoring the stupefied gazes of every powerhouse in the area, he gazed at Guria and Rumria and said, "The both of you are pretty talented." "Do you want to join my Mountain Sect?" Chapter 1317 - Calamity Lord "Do you want to join my Mountain Sect?" Zamura''s voice resounded throughout the stadium, echoing in the ears of everyone. "What¡­what the hell is this brat even saying?" The Zamuria Emperor gazed in shock, wiping the blood that leaked out from the corner of his lips. At this point, he no longer attempted to attack. Previously, an instant after shooting out his attack, he regretted it. Because, as everyone attacked, the power was enough to kill all three in the arena. Naturally, that went against his wishes. Everyone that had launched an attack regretted it the same. The attacks of twelve Primal Gods and dozens of Elementary Gods. All of them had targeted the three in the arena and were deflected by this lone individual. Not only was it not tanked, but it was even deflected. On top of that, the nature of the attacks was morphed in such a way that they proved to counter the attacker that unleashed this attack. With the same power that they had launched, their attacks slammed into them, having been turned into something that damaged them the most. At present, even though everyone looked fine on the outside, they were frantically mobilizing their Godly Energy to heal their internals from the damage they sustained. "Let me heal the three of you," Krune said, activating the healing effect before transmitting it through the Divine Sense Law, quickly causing the Spiritual Incarnations of Zamuria, Guria, and Rumria to heal. They watched in shock as their strength returned rather quickly, causing them to gaze at Krune in surprise. ''How is he able to heal my Spiritual Incarnation?'' Guria and Rumria were flabbergasted, having never thought that such a thing was possible. After all, to heal a Spiritual Incarnation wasn''t easy. The cultivator had to use their Divine Sense to slowly rearrange their respective laws in their original position and power scale. A small tilt in the balance would injure them further. Plus, any external assistance had to be done without any laws. That didn''t contribute anything to their healing. If those healers used any healing abilities with some laws, those laws in them would harm the injured. So, as long as they weren''t dead, leaving them in a pristine environment while providing them ample Godly Energy was enough. But here, Krune had casually broken that rule, directly healing them. And shockingly, the healing was a success as the laws in their Spiritual Incarnation weren''t even the slightest bit harmed. ''Who the hell are these people?'' They gazed at the three figures that had not only thwarted such a powerful attack but had also easily healed the three. ''Wait!'' Guria trembled as she suddenly recalled something. When the attack from all the powerhouses flew at them, her face paled as she resigned herself to death. Though, before those attacks even shattered the three-layered barrier surrounding the arena, the trio of Sterlena, Krune, and Zamura had already appeared at the center. ''This is to say they were capable of bypassing the barriers erected by three Primal Gods all along? How?'' Guria was unable to understand, especially since she was able to clearly sense the auras of all three before her. First Stage Semi-God Realm! First Stage Semi-God Realm! Third Stage God Trial Realm! None of them were even remotely close to reaching the level where they were capable of such feats. "Who¡­ are you people?" Guria muttered. "I''m the Sect Master of the Mountain Sect, Zamura." Zamura pointed at himself before pointing at Krune, continuing, "He''s the Founding Elder of our Sect, Krune." He then pointed at Sterlena before saying, "And she''s the Grand Elder of our Sect, the one dubbed with the title of the strongest Primal God." "The strongest Primal God?" Everyone in the arena was instantly slack-jawed. After all, just by becoming a Primal God would one become a legendary powerhouse, present in scarce numbers in every continent. Considering how isolated most continents were and how vast the God Realm was, it was hard to actually determine how strong a Primal God was in respect to one another. This was because fights between Primal Gods seldom happened. However, everyone knew of something. If there was a Primal God that was addressed by a title among their Primal God circle, then they were definitely peerless existences. So, upon hearing Sterlena''s title, all the 18 Primal Gods at the place shuddered. "Is this the truth?" the Zamuria Emperor asked one of his Primal Gods due to a conversation that had transpired before. He wasn''t secretive this time, wishing for everyone to hear it. "Yes, I''m the living proof of that," the Primal God replied. "The reason I''ve even become a Primal God is thanks to inheriting one of her inheritances long ago. In that inheritance, she was addressed with the respected title of Calamity Lord." "Calamity Lord?" The Primal Gods frowned. Of course, they had never heard of such a title. However, when they glanced at Sterlena, all of them shuddered for some reason. It was like she was capable of¡­ mopping the floor with them? Upon focusing to their limits, seeing how she was only at the First Stage of the Semi-God Realm, they didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. The Guria Emperor appeared forward, cupping his fists as he spoke, "Respected cultivator, how may we address you?" "Call me Sterlena. All my titles are only a thing of the past," Sterlena said, glaring at the Primal God that had addressed her by the title of Calamity Lord despite her warning. "Heuk!" Suddenly, the Primal God glared by Sterlena lost his footing in the air and collapsed to the arena, losing control of his body as he screamed, "My laws! My laws are working against me!" "Uwaaakk!" His screams of fear caused everyone else to shudder as Sterlena''s anger-filled voice resounded. "This is my final warning. If anyone ever dares to utter that title, I''ll destroy your continent!" ''Oh shit! She''s pissed now.'' Krune''s back was filled with cold sweat as he hurriedly thought of a way to calm her down, quickly taking out a couple of clones that returned to their wisp form before stuffing them in her hands. "Oh my, these cute darlings!" Her anger vanished as Sterlena giggled, cuddling with the two wisps. Chapter 1318 - Nope "Putting that aside..." An Elementary God stepped forward, gazing at the three on the ground before continuing, "Since the fight was interrupted, shall we consider it a draw?" "You dare? It was obvious that Zamuria won the battle!" an Elementary God from the Zamuria continent shouted in response. "Huh? Our Guria hadn''t even used her trump card. She was waiting to take out both her opponents in one swing." "As if. Rumria had maintained an upper hand right from the start. She could easily win if it wasn''t for the interruption from your two sides. Isn''t that why you interfered?" "Are you blind? Your side also attacked! Were you scared because your representative was used to mop the floor?" Instantly, the air turned volatile before the immortals started attacking each other. Since the immortals had already begun so, the mortals were also influenced. Instantly, a bloodier war ensued forth. This time, even forces not part of the three empires were involved. "Damn it! We only came here to witness the fight!" "Fat chance! You''ll become insurgents at this rate. Killing you is a necessity for the safety of our continent!" Everyone attacked anyone in their range. It was turning bloody immediately. But suddenly, everything paused as the hairs of everyone stood on ends. Bang! Tribulation clouds formed in the sky as tribulation lightning rained down in the arena, beginning to destroy it as Krune shouted, "Stop this mess! We can resume battle after all sides regroup in their respective locations! This will only cripple all of our foundations!" Even though the tribulation lightning was weak in the eyes of the powerhouses, it was still tribulation lightning, causing them to stare at Krune in shock. It was instinctual. After all, every immortal had to face tribulation lightning if they wished to ascend to a higher realm. Hence, the moment they witnessed it, they tensed up instinctively. Upon gazing at the figure of Krune that was capable of wielding such a power, they were horrified. ''If this guy reaches the Primal God Realm¡­'' Such a thought resounded in their minds as killing intent flashed out from their eyes. Though, Krune already had a plan, smirking as he put on an act, transmitting his voice everywhere. "Everyone already knows that to become stronger as an immortal, you''ll have to survive against tribulation lightning. If you join our Mountain Sect, you''ll get the chance to temper yourselves against tribulation lightning for mock practice." "This way, your guarantee of a breakthrough is a hundred percent. This is the success rate that those in the Mountain Sect enjoy the privilege of. Every breakthrough results in success. And that is all because I''m there to train them." Krune then flexed his strength as he continued, "The immortals from the Rumria and Guria continent must already be aware by now. Even though I''m only at the First Stage Semi-God Realm, even God Trial Realm cultivators at the peak of their realm are no match to me. How do you think this is possible?" He then pointed at Zamura. "And, this freak here, our Sect Leader, has already managed to fend off two Primal Gods. That''s how strong he is, even though he''s only at the Third Stage of the God Trial Realm." "Every cultivator that we had brought has been able to easily defeat opponents at the same realm and even challenge those from a higher realm." He put on a melodramatic voice as he added, "Had it been just one or two, then it could be amounted to us being geniuses. However, if every single immortal from our sect has these capabilities, something must be different, right?" He then announced aloud, "If you join the Mountain Sect, you too would be capable of challenging cultivators or immortals above your realm. This, I guarantee." "As long as you are related to these three continents, then you''re qualified to join our sect. Anyone!" Krune glanced over the Elementary Gods as well, smirking. "Irrespective of your strength, you can join our sect and become a lot stronger than your current self." ''When did he turn this into an advertisement for our sect?'' Zamura was internally surprised but didn''t show it outward. He then noticed the faint twitching of Krune''s facial muscles, feeling the urge to smack him right then and there. ''Even he himself isn''t aware?'' ''Well then, might as well cover him. It seems he''s run out of content.'' Zamura patted Krune''s shoulder, saying, "I''ll take it from here." ''Thank goodness!'' Krune wiped his sweat after that. After all, he had only done so when he noticed the attention of everyone was on him thanks to the tribulation lightning he had unleashed. So he thought¡­ might as well use this chance to recruit some powerhouses to their sect. There was no harm done with this, right? Surprisingly, none interrupted him. It was apparent that they had all seen him, Zamura, and Sterlena in action, not to mention the mortals and immortals from the Mountain Sect that had participated in the war. So, they were already aware of how strong those from the Mountain Sect were compared to the others. And now, since it seemed like Krune was giving details about their sect, none of them interrupted them, including the powerhouses. After all, the punishment Sterlena had dealt to that Primal God was still evident in their minds. Even though he wasn''t injured, he still shuddered while hovering in the air, trembling as he recalled the scene of all his laws breaking out of his control and acting against it. It had caused him a trauma of sorts. The actions of the Mountain Sect had been rather high profile. Moreover, Krune''s single word caused all the unaffiliated Primal Gods to show intentions of joining their side. After all, it was their plan to establish a sect in these continents anyway. However, even though they had failed at it, they still hadn''t forgotten their dreams. And now, the Mountain Sect was a successful manifestation of that dream. One of those rouge Primal Gods focused on Zamura and asked, "Mountain Sect Leader, is your sect''s resources capable of supporting us?" In response to that, Zamura smiled before replying, "Nope!" Chapter 1319 - The 100-Year Declaration "Nope!" That one word from Zamura stupefied everyone at the place, for a moment making the atmosphere awkward. "Hahaha!" Suddenly, an Elementary God Realm cultivator from the Guria Continent laughed aloud as he spoke, "It seems a small group of you attained some powerful inheritance and became strong. However, that''s it. You guys don''t have any foundation." "The source of your strength is the Sub-Realm that appeared in the Zamuria Continent," he said, having already been informed of the details from those in his continent that had entered the Sub-Realm as well. "And now, you''ve been fooling everyone here in hopes of stealing not only our resources but our talents as well!" "Talents?" Zamura snorted at the words, causing the faces of every immortal to turn ashen. "You''re overestimating yourselves. Aren''t the results clear?" "Well, why don''t we do it like this?" He raised his hand, pointing at the Zamuria Emperor. "Our Mountain Sect would align with the Zamuria Continent. Both the Rumria and Guria Continents can align and face against us. It''ll be just the same as we''ve always done. But this time, there would be a victor within a century." "If anyone has the guts to bet with me, then come forward," Zamura smirked as he said. "What''s the wager?" That Elementary God snorted. "My Spiritual Incarnation," Zamura said, shocking everyone from the Mountain Sect. "Wait, did I hear that right? If we win, we''ll get Cultivator''s Spiritual Incarnation?" A Semi-God Realm cultivator muttered as his face flushed red from greed, shouting, "We''ll accept!" "We''ll accept!" "We''ll accept!" Semi-God Realm cultivators that were aware of Zamura''s old identity bellowed with maniacal craze. It was so much so that the rest of the immortals were shocked, wondering why this was happening. It has to be expected that among those Semi-Gods, there were even disciples of Primal Gods. "Strange, my disciple wasn''t this excited even when becoming my disciple. Just who exactly is this brat that he could rile up their greed to such an extent?" A Primal God from the Guria Continent frowned. Though, upon recalling the scene when Zamura deflected his attack, he clenched his hand into a fist. "Kid, shall we participate in that bet as well?" The figure-changing Primal God approached Zamura, asking. "There''s no use in joining the bet anyway. It''s impossible for my side to lose, even considering our current strength." Zamura smiled, extending his hand. "If you''re bored, why don''t you visit my sect and consider becoming a member?" "Will it be more interesting than whooping this guy''s ass daily?" The figure-changing Primal God pointed at the other Primal God with him. "Definitely," Zamura smirked as he replied. "Actually, you''ll be shocked on a daily basis to such an extent that you''ll find that normal. That''s how different we are there." "Consider it done then." The figure-changing Primal God laughed in response. "I''m Zualin, and this dumped son-in-law of mine is Faunkill, once called the Immortal Severance Primal God." "A titled Primal God?" Zamura was surprised before laughing. "We accept you to our Mountain Sect! Welcome!" "Well, we might as well do the same." The remaining four Primal Gods also did the same. It seemed they honestly didn''t care about whether or not Mountain Sect had enough resources to sustain their cultivation. They just wished to join a sect and create a base for themselves. And since this was the first time rogue Primal Gods had made an appearance, they had already communicated with each other beforehand. After all, with them joining, the Mountain Sect''s power straight-up shot to the top. All three continents had four Primal Gods each, while the Mountain Sect now possessed six Primal Gods. It completely toppled the state of affairs, shifting the dynamics of the three continents to them. "This is bad. If we don''t suppress them right now, the seats that we have preserved for countless millennia would be destroyed." The three Emperors communicated with one another. However, just when they planned to make a move, there was a bright light in the sky before a majestic ground manifested itself. Immediately after, a heavenly voice resounded. "Since the state of things has changed, the wars would be changed from a three-way continental war to a four-way sect war. Plus, the winner would attain ownership not only to this Sub-Realm but also to the three continents. The entrances to this Celestial Battlefield would be available in the capital of the four forces, respectively. And..." "The Sub-Realm accepts the 100-year bet. If there''s failure to declare a winner by then, the Sub-Realm will collapse, never to be inherited ever again." "A Land Spirit!" Krune stared at the source of the voice, muttering, "This Sub-Realm has attained a staggering height of development to create a Land Spirit." "Land Spirit? As expected." The Primal Gods nodded, understanding as they all uttered in unison, "We accept!" Immediately after, beams of light flashed as everyone was teleported away from the arena. "We''re¡­back?" Krune looked around in shock, noticing that he was hovering before the Mountain Sect now, looking around to see that everyone from the sect had been transported here. This also included the rogue cultivators that had expressed their wish to join the sect. He then observed the portal hovering ten kilometers from the sect''s entrance, staring at it as he was able to observe that Celestial Battlefield through it. "This¡­ is the Mountain Sect?" The figure-changing Primal God, Zualin, stared at the imposing floating city that spanned a radius of 100 kilometers, shocked as he observed the denseness of the structure, frowning. "I thought the Mountain Sect didn''t have the resources necessary for our cultivation." "Not yet, for the Primal Gods anyway," Zamura replied. "As for the Elementary Gods, it would be a slight stretch to support them. But that''s only for now. As the years pass, our accumulations would continue to increase." "I can say with guarantee that our sect''s foundation and potential surpasses the three continents combined," Zamura said proudly. "What the hell?" Zualin was shocked, especially when he observed how none of the sect members batted an eye at such a claim, treating it as a common fact. It caused him to take a second glance at Krune and the others, thinking to himself, ''Are these still the same brats I saw back then?'' Chapter 1320 - Get Lost! You’re Scary! "Well, let''s first enter it and register everyone as members," Zamura said, leading everyone through the flight of stairs. The moment they entered the sect, through his input, the sect''s formation recognized them as members, engraving the sect''s mark on their foreheads. "Meet Alfa and Azra, the sect stewards. All your necessities, whether it is to gather materials or assistance in forging, refining, and so on, they are capable of everything," Zamura told them, pointing at the Monster Geckos in human form. "However, it''s a pity that their cultivation peaks at the Nascent God Realm." "How¡­ is this possible?" Zualin was shocked. "No race born in the God Realm has any innate restrictions." "You know about the Predominated Vines, right?" Zamura asked. "Yes, I heard that they''re actually the product of some ancient cultivator that had died there and failed to revive. The remains of his Spiritual Incarnation formed that region," Zualin nodded as he replied. "This is something similar. They''re a race called the Monster Geckos and are the product of one of our founding Elders, Feifei." Zamura pointed at Feifei after that. "All of them are part of your ability?" His eyes widened in shock, asking, "Is there no limit to this ability?" "My resources are the only limit." Feifei smiled contently in response. ''They don''t even need any mortal disciples. Every single one of these Monster Geckos are strong. On top of that, some are powerhouses among the mortal level.'' As he observed their strength, he was internally shaken. ''So, this is their true strength.'' He then recalled Zamura''s words that he would be shocked daily, internally sweating. "New recruits for our sect?" Upon seeing the commotion, Gegrafikan exited the library, gazing at the group that accompanied Zamura, smiling in joy upon seeing their strength. His gaze then fell on Faunkill, frowning for a couple of seconds before his eyes lit up, asking, "Immortal Severance Primal God?" "You know me, sir?" Faunkill asked, surprised when he noticed that he addressed the other party with respect automatically, despite him only being at the God Trial Realm. "I passed through your Land Incarnation pretty recently. I learned about you then," Gegrafikan said. "Who is he? He triggers my sense of danger for some reason?" Zualin contacted Zamura through Divine Sense. "He''s from the legendary Spirit Aberrant race, one that has overcome their racial limit." Zamura smiled, surprised when Zualin''s face paled in response before his knees turned weak. "Are you okay? If you''re injured, I can check and treat your injuries." Gegrafikan extended his hand, approaching Zualin. "Mom, save me!" Zualin shrieked in response, erupting with his strength as he vanished from the spot, reappearing at the sect''s entrance, trying his best to remain steady, but was unable to control his body. His legs danced like a startled cat, trembling nonstop like he was caught in the midst of snow. The expression of fear etched on his face was apparent. Spirit Aberrant! It was a frightening race that was casually capable of growing to the peak just by eating up cultivators. Any technique used by immortals to target Spiritual Incarnations, not to mention the very existence of Spiritual Incarnations, was derived from this race. Normally, the Spirit Aberrant was a faulty race, unable to revert to their human form if they took on their demon beast form. So, as long as one wasn''t caught up within the range of the Land Aberrant, they could attack from afar and deal with it. Moreover, no matter how terrifying their accumulation increased, they were trapped in one location. After all, they were only able to use their racial ability while in their Spirit Aberrant form. As mindless monsters, they were unable to reach the Semi-God Realm. So, immortals wouldn''t ever be threatened by their existence. Even if they somehow got lucky to become immortal, they were still stuck to the same location, the only difference being that they would not be stuck to one spot in the air instead of the ground. Plus, passing immortals would spread the news upon discovery and get rid of them out of fear. However, the one before Zualin wasn''t at the Nascent God Realm but at the goddamn God Trial Realm. This meant that not only had Gegrafikan solved their race''s problem but had also reached the status as an immortal, showing that he was able to cultivate normally now. Zualin once had the bad luck to run into a Land Aberrant when he was a mortal. That was the worst memory that haunted him even to this day, a scene where thousands of Nascent God Realm cultivators charged at a lone thrashing Land Aberrant and were quickly devoured whole. It also took the sacrifices of a dozen immortals before the Land Incarnation was put to rest. It was a nightmarish scene as a river of blood flowed over the land. "You mean to say that horror would be replicated again now? This time, even more terrifying?" Zualin panted, unable to control himself as his Godly Energy began to run out of control, flailing around. Tianal, Boldak, and the five other Primal Gods hurriedly surrounded Zualin, erecting a barrier to prevent the surroundings from being damaged. A rampaging Primal God was no different from a calamity, after all. Of course, that wasn''t all. Zualin was so caught up in his nightmares that his Godly Energy was spilling out like a gushing volcano, splashing over everywhere it could move. "What happened to him?" Zamura shouted in alarm, unwilling to see one of the hard-earned Primal Gods he had brought to his sect die just like this. "Let me help." Gegrafikan arrived to help him when Zamura noticed Zualin''s condition worsen immediately. Thinking of something, Zamura made Gegrafikan turn around and kicked him straight into the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm. "Get lost! You''re scaring him!" "Don''t return until I inform you." "Let''s suppress him," Zamura said as green radiance shot out of his body, countering everything that was happening to Zualin, forcefully suppressing his wailings while the rest of the Primal Gods assisted Zamura, shocked at his display of power. "What¡­ what happened to me?" Zualin finally came to his senses, touching his left cheek to see that it stung, swollen. "Who slapped me?" "Him!" Everyone at the scene pointed to Faunkill and retreated, hoping for whatever the relationship that existed between the two to help Zualin take his mind off things. "Phew, that was crazy." A Primal God wiped his sweat as he looked at Zamura. "Strange, what were you talking about that made Zualin behave like this." "It was pretty simple. Did you see that man I kicked away just now?" Zamura sighed, speaking upon seeing the Primal God nod. "I told Zualin that he was a Spirit Aberrant¡­" Zamura hadn''t even finished his sentence before the Primal God dropped to his knees, shuddering as Godly Energy began to spill out of his body. "Oh, come on!" Chapter 1321 - Everything Had Been Accounted For "My god, to think this sect has a Spirit Aberrant in it." As the Primal Gods slowly came to their senses, they discussed it with one another, expressing their fears. "Gegrafikan is fully in control of himself. He has overcome his race''s restrictions. Also," Zamura spoke, sighing in the end. "He''s the only living Spirit Aberrant in the God Realm." "He''s the last of their kind?" Zualin asked in shock. "Yes. Everyone else died in their quest to treat their race''s defect. He''s the only survivor," Zamura replied. "He does have children, though. However, they aren''t true Spirit Aberrants." "To think your sect harbors such secrets." Zualin sighed before laughing aloud. "I believe you now. I don''t think I''ll ever become bored living here." "You''re right about that." Zamura nodded as he gave them a tour through the sect before bringing them to the Mountain Sect Sun-Realm. "And here is the treasure trove of resources we use to cultivate." "A Sub-Realm?" Zualin''s eyes lit up as he looked around in shock. "This is¡­ massive!" "Yes, and its size would continue to expand due to the Godly Veins that have been fused into it." Zamura smiled casually, watching them shudder in response. Honestly, making fun of Primal Gods seemed rather interesting as he was having a blast doing so. "Godly Veins¡­ to think they were real." Zualin sighed. "I really feel like I''ve lived under a rock until now." "Though¡­" He was just about to speak when words failed to come out of his mouth as Zualin swerved to the side, gazing at something far away in shock as he felt a wave of Godly Energy wash over him, invigorating him. "That¡­ what is¡­ that?" "Cultivation Lotus," Zamura succinctly replied. "It is the ultimate treasure and foundation of our sect. It constantly generates Godly Energy to support our cultivation." "My god. This is amazing." Zualin arrived before the massive building that was constantly emanating Godly Energy. Disciples of the Mountain Sect streamed in and out of it from time to time, brimming with power. "There are many more things present in our sect. But first, we must embark all of you in body cultivation." Zamura pointed out as he said, "That way, your strength would improve." "Body cultivation?" Zualin was shocked to hear that. "A whole new branch of cultivation?" "Yes. Only our Mountain Sect has the proper means to actuate and train this. That''s the true reason our sect disciples are stronger than their peers," Zamura replied. "Why are you telling us all your secrets so easily?" Zualin asked. "What if we decide to betray you after learning about it?" "Well, that''s impossible." Zamura laughed in response. "First of all, what is the reason to betray us? Anything you can think of to satisfy your greed, it''s available here, plus in superior grade and quantities. Secondly, you can only surpass your limits here." "And finally..." His eyes turned serious as Zamura pointed at his forehead. "This mark, do you think it''s so simple?" "What''s¡­ this?" Only now did Zualin probe through the mark, frowning when he realized he wasn''t able to affect it. "It''s the sect''s Spiritual Mark. It''s engraved in your soul and is only displayed on your forehead like this. As long as this mark exists, the thought of betraying the sect would never form in your mind," Zamura smirked as he explained. "So, I can casually reveal our secrets to sect members without any worries." "Definitely terrifying." Zualin sighed before cupping his fists. "I wholeheartedly greet you, Sect Leader Zamura." "Likewise." Zamura smiled, gazing at the white mark on Zualin''s forehead. "At present, you''re only an Outer Disciple. You should quickly strive to attain Elder status. After that, you can participate in the war on behalf of our sect." Zamura then relayed the means for them to obtain Contribution Points and upgrade their status. Six Primal Gods, and a couple dozen Elementary Gods, with their arrival, the Mountain Sect''s weakness was immediately solved. Now, they had the confidence to face stronger enemies. ''However, this isn''t enough to face the Mist Sect after they finish stabilizing their power. With four continents under their rule, they have a terrifying reserve. That''s not to mention the fact that they haven''t finished reviving all of their sect members yet.'' Zamura frowned, having already obtained all the information about them from Krune. It had taken time for Krune to digest the memories he had stolen from the minds of the cultivators he had captured in the infant supercontinent. Once collated, he presented the memories to the other elders of the sect, making them prepared. As Zamura was arranging things for the rogue cultivators that had just joined, Krune and the Mountain Sect army entered the portal, arriving at the Celestial Battlefield. The armies from the three continents also slowly streamed into the other three sides. It was a four-way battlefield, but within a couple of minutes, there was a major change in the armies. Shockingly, they began to move towards each other, allying to oppose the Mountain Sect. "Is this development in your plans?" Feifei frowned, asking in response as she stared at Krune. "When I defeated Ferlash, my reward was a conversation with the Land Spirit of the Sub-Realm," Krune told her. "And in the conversation, I came to understand some things." "The continents of Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria could be addressed as sister continents. Surprisingly, they actually have the potential to join into one and slowly evolve into a supercontinent," Krune spoke, clenching his hand into a fist. "So, I proposed a certain something to the Land Spirit, and it accepted that. That''s why we have the current development here." "In other words, yes. I was aware that the three continents would join forces against us in the end." "If those rogue cultivators hadn''t joined us, what would have you done? Did you predict that they existed before?" Feifei frowned, feeling that his actions were reckless. "I was aware." Krune smiled once more. "While fighting on the battlefield, I used Mental Energy to look through the memories of others. Unexpectedly, there were rogue immortals that had infiltrated the three continents. Through them, I found out the side of their forces." "I talked about it with Zamura. After that, it only depended on whether we could gather everyone in one place. And that was the fated battle between Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria," he told her.. "This was the reason Zamuria challenged Rumria in the first place." Chapter 1322 - Junior Of Conflicts "Then, how are we supposed to fight them? They have twice the number of Primal Gods on their side," Feifei frowned as she asked. "Tianal and Boldak will have to hold on until the Primal Gods are strengthened by Zamura. We''ll have to press on until then." Krune smiled wryly in response. "It''s impossible to plan everything, you know. Whether it''s through trickery or deceit, we''ll have to fight for time." "Time¡­" Feifei sighed as she heard that. "I guess this is our only option!" She noticed that there wasn''t any barrier between the mortals and the immortals in the Celestial Battlefield. This meant that when needed, the immortals could launch an attack on the mortals. "This is bad. The number of immortals on our side is pitiful when compared to theirs. Even with our strength, we''re bound to be overwhelmed for sure," Feifei muttered. "If we include my clones, I''ll be able to handle a thousand God Trail Realm cultivators," Krune told her. "As for the rest, it''ll depend on the abilities of everyone else." "The Monster Geckos are pretty much expendable. So, I''m not concerned in terms of the mortal side. Given our resources, I can produce as many as we need. However, it''s the Elementary Gods and the Primal Gods that I''m worried about. It''s not that easy to increase the number of our powerhouses in such a short time." Feifei was worried. "Relax," Krune smiled as he assured her. "They''ve just allied. And until now, they''ve been fighting one another. It''s not that easy for them to set aside their differences so quickly." "I''ll buy us enough time," Krune said soon after, releasing all his clones that spread out through the battlefield, rushing towards the allied forces before startling them at the imposing momentum. But just when they were about to retaliate, a clone suddenly exploded, engraving a Land Incarnation. Puff! One after another, all ten thousand clones committed suicide and used their entirety to engrave their Land Incarnation. Immediately after, the laws forming the Land Incarnations morphed according to Krune''s wishes, unleashing the effect of Mental Energy. Mental Energy wasn''t something that could be detected by others. In fact, all the Land Incarnations only existed for a mere three seconds before vanishing, having been eradicated automatically. The bizarreness of the situation confused the immortals, wondering why Krune had just wasted the entirety of his strength. "It''s done. Let''s just wait in silence now," Krune said, slumping to the ground in exhaustion. In the allied army, a God Core Realm cultivator was brimming with fighting spirit when his eyes swerved suddenly, outlining a certain figure, shocking him. "You¡­?" Immediately after, he raged in wrath, pouncing upon that cultivator. "Bastard! You''re the one that killed my brother! I''ll kill you!" "Hey, you! Stop! Attacking allies is punishable by his Majesty''s orders." A Nascent God tried to interfere when he suddenly pulled out his sword and defended against the attack from another Nascent God, surprised by the killing intent he felt. As he gazed at the Nascent God, he nodded, saying, "I see, so you''re also here." They had been fighting in the battle until just now. Plus, both had killed the companions of the other side, so there was plenty of hatred between the two. And now that they''ve chanced upon themselves, a battle sparked. The war had been transpiring between the three continents for two centuries. So, all Krune did using Mental Energy was just one thing. That was to cause people to notice the enemies they shared hatred with. To do this, he had readily sacrificed all his clones. In exchange, it worked splendidly. The battle among the mortals erupted immediately, unchecked, as even the immortals began to argue with one another in response, exchanging attacks. And the more they fought, the less they restrained themselves, soon engaging with their foes in a high-pitched battle. As for the Elementary Gods, they stared at the scene, frowning in response, trying their best to restrain themselves. Even though they had aligned with the other two continents, they had their own schemes as well. It was a plan to cause the other two continents to deal with the Mountain Sect and suffer greater casualties. This way, the victor would be able to swallow the weaker two continents. And surprisingly, all three continents had the same thought. It was only natural that they had this. Krune had brilliantly taken advantage of that fact. Had the Mountain Sect clashed against the three-continent alliance, they would be wiped out. But instead, he singlehandedly took advantage of their hatred of one another, causing infighting to erupt. "It''ll take a few years before this hatred could dissipate even with the best of their efforts. And with me around, I''ll be able to buy a decade''s worth of time," Krune said. "During this time, everyone should focus on growing stronger." "What about you?" Feifei asked in worry. "You won''t be able to cultivate in the meantime." "It''s fine," Krune replied through Divine Sense. "I have a Cultivation Lotus in my subspace. So, I''m constantly cultivating even while I fight. My Little Krune does all the cultivation." "I''ll leave things to you then," Feifei said as she riled up the army and retreated from the Celestial Battlefield, leaving Krune behind to be the sole member from the Mountain Sect to be here. Krune created a table of ice and a cutting pad, taking out a variety of items from his subspace. "They say the best food to eat while watching a war is ice cream." With that, he began to cook the snack, watching the helplessness of the powerhouses from the three sides. They were occupied to the extent they were unable to even spare a glance his way. After all, a single mistake would cause people to drop dead one after another among the allied army. And the moment that happens would be when their alliance would collapse. Everyone, including the Primal Gods, had someone they cared about in the army. So, to prevent any hatred from affecting even them, they had to ensure none would die from the army, including mortals. This way, as long as the people vent enough, the situation could somehow be brought under control. "Krune!" The Zamuria Emperor gritted his teeth, gazing at the figure of Krune casually eating some ice cream. Chapter 1323 - Get Beaten Up Constantly In the subspace, after using up a lot of Godly Energy, Little Krune slowly revived. It then split into ten thousand fragments and burrowed into the Pseudo-Wisps that had already absorbed enough Godly Energy akin to the Semi-God Realm. Once it entered them, their bodies morphed before the absorbed Godly Energy was morphed into their cultivation at the First Stage Semi-God Realm. It took time for a Pseudo-Wisp to absorb enough Godly Energy. Then again, Krune didn''t face any limitation in the number of Pseudo-Wisps he could create. So, after abusing the Godly Energy generated by the Cultivation Lotus, he had already created enough Pseudo-Wisps for his needs and filled the subspace with them. With that, he created ten thousand clones that began to work on their various tasks once again. While that was happening, Krune sat and ate his ice cream, slowly absorbing the Godly Energy generated by the Cultivation Lotus in his subspace to circulate through his Deific Meridians. From a certain perspective, he was casually multitasking. Earlier, he had to rely upon the Mind-Splitting Technique to perform a variety of tasks. But now, that technique was outdated. After all, Krune had become an expert in performing various actions. Naturally, that was all thanks to Little Krune. Multiple clones worked on multiple fronts, proceeding with various tasks. On top of that, all of them had shared thoughts. So, Krune had long since gotten used to performing various tasks at the same time. So, cultivating while watching the battle and eating ice cream was as easy as breathing. He observed the state of battle between the three continents, smirking upon seeing that the situation continued to escalate. To prevent them from engaging in a full-blown war, the powerhouses of the three continents were busy suppressing them. Then again, if they were forcefully suppressed, the people of the three continents, whether mortals or immortals, would no longer be willing to fight. It was because of their hatred against those in the army. Unless that was taken care of, a similar situation would erupt at any time. Also, the fact that Krune was the sole person sitting on the Mountain Sect''s side spoke volumes. It was a type of intimidation where Krune expressed this to the three-continent army. "Look, I can easily stir up the hatred your people have towards one another. Before you fight me, take care of the hatred among your own." It came off as arrogant. But in truth, Krune had taken action first and showed that he was capable of achieving this. As for his methods, none among the opposite side were able to understand. It showed how terrifying he was. ''We have to first cause this hatred to vanish.'' This was the thought that resounded among the Elementary Gods and Primal Gods. That was why they didn''t do anything to stop the infighting but just ensured none died. Moreover, they had acted a variety of abilities to ensure that the hatred the people felt to those from the other continents died down eventually. Then again, as to how long this took, even they were unsure. Probably, the only person that could estimate this was Krune, no one else. ¡­ "My son was killed by you. And now, you''ll die by my hands." A Nascent God Realm cultivator flashed his bloody sword, brimming with fighting spirit as he gazed at the figure of his enemy that was on the ground, battered, on the verge of death. "I''ll reincarnate as a ghost and haunt you." His enemy stared with soulless eyes, uttering with the last vestiges of his breath. But suddenly, just when the Nascent God was about to deal the killing blow, fierce winds blew, carrying dust and mist that blanketed his vision. This mist had existed from the start of the battle in their three-continent army. It was annoying, but since he had already discovered his enemy, he chased after him without relenting. He had already marked the other party with a technique, able to track his position all the time. And now, when the wind blew, he noticed the other party move away and vanish mysteriously. "Damn it!" He hurriedly hacked at the mist, bellowing in anger upon failing to see his enemy in the place any longer. The Nascent God continued to vent and attack his surroundings in response. As for the injured cultivator, he was transported to another part of the army, mysteriously healed. He was feeling bouts of shock but didn''t get any time to think as another enemy of his charged at him. "I found you at last! Die!" "Another one?" he cursed in response and shielded himself, exchanging countless attacks with the cultivator as he was soon on the ground, wounded once again. The cultivator he was fighting also happened to be a Nascent God. He, on the other hand, was only at the God Core Realm. The one he had killed before was the wife of this Nascent God, someone that was at the Ninth Stage of the God Core Realm. To take revenge, the Nascent God had been searching for him all along. And once he appeared, he was attacked. Just like before, when the Nascent God was about to deliver the killing blow, the mist blocked his senses when his target vanished, causing him to rage at the scene. The wounded cultivator hadn''t even managed to take a breather when he realized that his body had been fully healed yet again while he was transported to another part of the battlefield. And this time, just when it seemed he could get a moment''s peace, a sword came crashing down on him. "You''re the one that killed my older brother. Die!" The one that attacked was at the Third Stage of the God Core Realm. ''Finally, someone that''s weaker than me.'' the cultivator thought in response as he fought against his opponent. But shockingly, he noticed that he was actually getting pushed back, causing him to bellow in indignation, "Wait, I''m not this weak! I''ve even killed a Nascent God before. Why am I getting pushed back by you?" "Who cares? Die!" his opponent shouted and pierced a sword through his lungs. But just when he was about to die, his figure vanished, completely healed as it reappeared at another location. And there, a child at the God Foundation Realm teared up after gazing at him as she charged at him. "You killed my uncle! Die!" Chapter 1324 - Don’t Lie "Damn it. This is getting more or more chaotic as we speak." An Elementary God from the Guria Continent complained as he looked at an Elementary God from the Zamuria Continent, asking, "Any luck on your side?" "No, the situation is still escalating. The methods we''re using are only making them more frustrated," the Elementary God from the Zamuria Continent cursed in response. "I''ve only killed my foes before. I hadn''t done anything related to this ever before." "Same here." An Elementary God from the Rumria Continent sighed in agreement. "This is troublesome." "We have no other choice. Let''s just continue in this fashion until the Emperors arrive at a final verdict," an Elementary God said before teleporting some of the fighting mortals to other parts of the battlefield, preventing them from killing each other. He healed the injuries of everyone and noticed that they had begun to fight again. He had already noticed this pattern. No matter where he transported the people, there would be at least one enemy in the vicinity. The war had spanned for two centuries. So, the hatred had been built upon for generations already. So, the number of enemies each cultivator had from the other two continents spanned a lengthy list. This was not to mention the competitors from the same side that they had clashed against for a variety of reasons over the decades. It could be a simple battle for resources that had escalated. Where there were people, there existed conflicts. And during times of war, with generous rewards for the victors, all sorts of schemes ran amidst both allies and enemies. So, in this situation where Krune''s actions caused them to be aware of their enemies, conflicts could never be stopped. "I''ll kill you!" "I''ve already killed your talented daughter. You think an old pile of useless bones like you can win against me?" Similar conversations resounded everywhere as the people spilled out their grudges. And worst of all, this wasn''t just directed at the two opposing continents, but also amongst them as well. "The Seven-Scents Gloria Herb was a property inherited by my family for generations. You fucking bastards dare to covet it?" "Fuck you! It''s just an herb. Do you seriously wish to lose your life over that?" "Then, I''ll make your entire family pay for it with your lives!" "I''ll see you try!" "Oh, I''ll try alright. I''ll also kill your grandchildren when they''re born!" Boom! Explosions resounded everywhere as people continued to rage forth, watching their opponents vanish right before they were killed. "Which fucker is transporting our enemies? Come out! Let this grandpa carve an ass on your face!" a Nascent God shouted in anger. "Calm down. Control yourself!" An Elementary God patted the shoulder of his friend. "They''re raging due to a couple centuries of hatred. Such language is common." "I know. I won''t be offended by that." The other Elementary God nodded, controlling his eyebrows from twitching. "I''ll also carve an ass on your mother''s face!" the Nascent God shouted as he looked around, hacking anyone that came closer to him. "Hey¡­ this guy¡­ isn''t a talent needed for our continent, right?" The Elementary God that was the target of abuse gritted his teeth as veins popped all over his forehead, expressing the extent of anger he was enduring. A mere Nascent God ant dared to talk about him that way. "Don''t kill them. Control your anger!" the other Elementary God said in a hurry. "The moment you attack, all the other Elementary Gods would also no longer be able to endure." "Everyone is just enduring, waiting for the first Elementary God to take action. That way, they could place all blame on that Elementary God and kill everyone that had pissed them off until now." "I understand." The Elementary God calmed down a little, massaging his forehead as he eased up his nerves. "But this guy is definitely dead once the war is over." "Yeah, just slaughter those bastards to your heart''s content after the war is over." The other Elementary God nodded in agreement. "Remember them and kill them later. But for now, we must protect them." "All it takes is the death of a single mortal for everything to come spiraling down," the Elementary God muttered before staring at the far-off figure of Krune. "This terrifying bastard." "There are some terrifying bastards that are a part of the Mountain Sect." The others nodded. "Thankfully, none of them are our opponents yet. Plus, it''s impossible for them to become strong enough to face us even by the end of this century." "So, we have enough time to solve this issue within our armies and then eradicate the Mountain Sect." ¡­ "Zamuria Emperor, out with the truth. Did you strike a deal with the Mountain Sect?" The Guria Emperor snorted. "This conversation would go nowhere if you behave like this." "It''s a problem between me and Zamuria. I don''t have any ties with the Mountain Sect." The Zamuria Emperor snorted in response. "Before joining the war, they barged into my palace with two weapon spirits at the level of the Primal God Realm. They wished to join my side and reap benefits from the Sub-Realm." "Everything was to gain benefits from the Sub-Realm. But now that they had been recognized as an individual force themselves, there''s no reason for them to ally with us," the Zamuria Emperor said. "Then, what''s up with Zamuria?" the Rumria Emperor spoke. "She''s your daughter. And I''ve come to know that Cultivator, the one that now calls himself Zamura, the Sect Master of the Mountain Sect, is actually Zamuria''s son." "He''s your grandson. So, are you saying that you still don''t have any relation with the Mountain Sect?" The Rumria Emperor emitted a tinge of his killing intent. "None. She actually hates us." The Zamuria Emperor snorted in response, unleashing his killing intent in exchange. "My firstborn son had devoured Zamuria''s Spiritual Incarnation in the past. So, she hates the royal family. Also, I''ve sent her into that Sub-Realm to kill the spawn that is now known as Zamura." "I have no relationship with either of them. In truth, there is only hatred." "That''s a great tale you''ve spun there, Zamuria Emperor.." The other two Emperors snorted in response, clearly not believing him. Chapter 1325 Rumria and Guria Defect to the Mountain Sect Chapter 1325 Rumria and Guria Defect to the Mountain Sect¡¡¡¡"That''s what the two of you are going to focus on?" The Zamuria Emperor snorted. "But what do you have to say about Rumria and Guria?" "What do you mean?" The Rumria Emperor frowned, expressing a tinge of anger. "Haven''t they joined the Mountain Sect as well?" The Zamuria Emperor frowned. "Isn''t that why we aligned in the first place? Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria, with the three geniuses of our continent joining the Mountain Sect, our reputation has taken a serious hit." "After all, just the fact that every hidden powerhouse in our continent arrived just to watch the fight between them shows the prestige their names have and the special position they have in the hearts of every cultivator from our three continents," the Zamuria Emperor said in response. "Are you saying that since both your daughters have also joined the Mountain Sect, you also have a relationship with it?" The Zamuria Emperor snorted, watching the other two Emperors turn silent in response. Upon seeing that the conversation was going nowhere, he said, "There''s only one outcome to their actions." "What''s that?" the Guria Emperor asked in seriousness. "Either we join hands with the Mountain Sect and be ruled over it, or Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria reach the Primal God Realm in the future and forcefully make the three continents submit to their rule, as representatives of the Mountain Sect, I mean," the Zamuria Emperor spoke. There was silence following that as the other two Emperors had also realized the seriousness of the situation. Honestly, they had never thought about Guria and Rumria defecting to the Mountain Sect. When all the powerhouses had launched an attack, Zamura had deflected them all. Following that, Krune had healed them. The situation was still fine until then. But when the Land Spirit from the Sub-Realm announced that it recognized the Mountain Sect as the fourth party eligible to contest over its ownership, both Rumria and Guria had responded that they would like to join the Mountain Sect. Honestly, that outcome was startling. Thankfully, only those at the Elementary God Realm and above managed to hear their decisions. So, they were still keeping it under wraps. However, at the moment news came out that both Guria and Rumria had joined the Mountain Sect, it would be a massive blow to them as more and more cultivators that had admired them would also express willingness to join the Mountain Sect. That would be an act of shooting themselves in the foot to feed their enemy. Plus, this wasn''t a situation that could be controlled for long anyway. After all, Rumria and Guria only had to make an appearance on the Celestial Battlefield by appearing on the Mountain Sect''s side. That would cause the morale of their army to quickly collapse. "We have ruled over our respective continents for very long. I''m sure none of us would like to give away our position of authority," the Zamuria Emperor said. "We''ve long since gotten used to it. Had the leader of the Mountain Sect been a powerhouse at the Primal God Realm that''s able to suppress us all, then we could somehow still grit our teeth and endure it. However, he''s just a spawn." The Zamuria Emperor gritted his teeth, recalling Zamura''s bold statement that if he were ever to mention the matter in front of Zamuria, then Zamura would wipe out the entire empire. Recalling that threat only caused him anger. "You''ve mentioned that he''s a spawn many times. Just who is his father?" the Rumria Emperor asked, curious to know of Zamura''s background. "His father was a bandit in the Guria Continent. He impregnated Zamuria by force when she had escaped to the Guria Continent after the first prince had devoured her Spiritual Incarnation," the Zamuria Emperor sighed as he explained. The two Emperors verified the claim, understanding that Zamuria indeed hated her empire to a certain extent. "But she was pretty proud about her name." "That she was, and she is even now." The Zamuria Emperor nodded. "It has always been in her character to be proud. Though, before entering that Sub-Realm, she was still on my side and had hated her spawn, Zamura. But, something seems to have changed now." "Not only did she accept him as her son, but Zamuria also severed ties with me," the Zamuria Emperor spoke in anger. "It seems you''re indeed speaking the truth." As it could be verified, the other two Emperors sighed, massaging their foreheads. "What shall we do now? Now only is our army incapacitated, but the most promising geniuses of our respective continents have already defected to the Mountain Sect." The Guria Emperor sighed. Honestly, he hadn''t ever expected his daughter to take such an action. He hadn''t ever treated her wrongly. In truth, he had pampered Guria pretty well, training her properly to make her strong enough to obtain anything she desired of her own strength. And that only made it all the harder for him to bear the news of her betrayal. ''Why, just why have you entered the Mountain Sect? You have access to better resources here. And in the future, the entire Guria Continent would be yours to command. Why head into a downtrodden sect of weaklings?'' ''Wait, I still have a method to contact her.'' The Guria Emperor thought as his Godly Energy riled up, establishing a line of communication with Guria. Upon seeing his actions, the Rumria Emperor also did the same, contacting Rumria as well, wishing to know her reason for betraying her continent. "I didn''t betray anyone, dad," came Guria''s response. "There''s a deeper reason for me joining the Mountain Sect. After a century passes, you''ll come to understand the truth. Until then, just let things proceed in the current fashion. Focus all your efforts on destroying all hatred between the cultivators from the three continents. And once that''s done, make them charge at the Mountain Sect." "W-What are you saying? Nothing makes sense." The Guria Emperor frowned. "You''ll come to understand it eventually, dad. Know this, neither I, nor Rumria, or even Zamuria for that matter have betrayed our continents," Guria''s voice responded. "And for that matter, we won''t be participating in the upcoming fights as well. So, none will know about us defecting to the Mountain Sect." Chapter 1326 There Are Wisps in the God Realm! Chapter 1326 There Are Wisps in the God Realm!¡¡¡¡"Krune, hurry up and send a clone to the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm!" Krune was seated in the Celestial Battlefield, eating some ice cream, when a startled Sterlena''s voice resounded. Shocked at the high pitch of her voice, Krune sent a clone rushing into the Mountain Sect immediately after. The clone flew into the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm, hurrying towards the location that Sterlena had informed him about. It was pretty much along the expanding borders of the Sub-Realm, situated in a desolate place that had just been created. Nothing even grew at the place yet. "What happened¡­?" Krune¡ªthe clone¡ªlanded before Sterlena, asking upon seeing her disheveled state. "Come with me! See this!" Sterlena dragged him over and pointed at a massive mountain that had formed on a floating island. "Isn''t this where you cast your Land Incarnation?" "Yes." Upon seeing the location, Krune nodded in response, saying, "I put it there a century ago." "Now that you''ve become an immortal, the Land Incarnation here has grown stronger. Besides..." Sterlena said in a hurry, "Since it has been here for so long, it has completely dominated the region! And now, this happened!" She pointed at the mountain peak, trembling in response. "What is¡­ happening here?" Krune gazed at the mountain peak, squinting as he noticed a tiny ethereal figure doing somersaults in the air. "Is that a¡­ wisp?" "Yes, a wisp, a natural-born wisp!" Sterlena shouted as she dragged him over to the peak and landed before the wisp, startling it. "How cuteeeeee!" The wisp was startled upon her appearance, hurrying away as it scrambled to hide behind a rock, not even realizing that a part of its body was still peeking out. Krune stared with widened eyes as he gently patted the boulder, startled when tens of wisps rushed out of it and flew away. "Kyaaaa!" "Monsters!" "They''ll eat us!" "Run!" "Wheeee!" Krune instinctively grabbed hold of the silly wisp that was having fun in the situation and used his Divine Sense to probe through it, saying in shock, "This isn''t a Pseudo-Wisp, but a true wisp." "This is a result of your Spiritual Incarnation. What exactly is it? You''ve never mentioned it to me either," Sterlena said, arriving before a large boulder that seemed to be blocking a tunnel of sorts, apparently based on the parts that weren''t blocked by the boulder. "Myriad Wisps Spiritual Incarnation¡­" Krune muttered, watching Sterlena push the boulder away, revealing a lone ethereal creature hovering there. Upon gazing at it, Sterlena instinctively pounced upon it, holding it in a hug, not budging an inch despite its resistance. "This was the reason I wasn''t able to hold back my emotions, Krune." "A T-True Spirit?" Krune was flabbergasted now. His Spiritual Incarnation was the Myriad Wisps Spiritual Incarnation, with its process of creating Pseudo-Wisps almost similar to how wisps were birthed naturally. So, at the back of his mind, he was aware that if he left his Spiritual Incarnation untouched somewhere long enough for the laws forming it to dominate the region like a danger zone, it would eventually begin birthing wisps. That was pretty much a natural process. It was a given from the moment he also obtained the Divine Sense Law. However, what he hadn''t expected was for it to also birth a True Spirit. It was shocking. But had it been before, he would have been afraid of the mess that he had gotten into as wisps were hated by the Gods of the God Realm. But now, he was rather happy at the result. The Mountain Sect was even harboring a Spirit Aberrant that had overcome its racial limits. How could the presence of a wisp change anything? After all, he was also part of the Mountain Sect. He was a wisp. "Little bro, this is the first time you''ve done something incredible." Sterlena praised, slowly turning into her True Spirit form as the True Spirit held in her hands no longer resisted upon feeling the aura from the same race. "Spear of Justice!" As he was staring at Sterlena, a wisp crept up from behind him and slammed into his back. Then again, it was almost flattened into a pancake before its ethereal form recovered its shape resembling a candle flame. "You''re as dense as a rock!" The wisp snorted at him before flying away. "Your father is as dense as a rock!" Krune shouted in response, turning into a wisp as he chased after that silly wisp. "Uncle, you''re slow!" The silly wisp giggled and flew around a boulder, evading him naturally. Though, Krune wasn''t even using a fraction of his power, only chasing after it at the same speed as itself. Honestly, playing around with his brethren was more fun than he could ever expect, especially since they weren''t hunted anymore. ''The wisps from the Godly Path Realm should have begun appearing in the God Realm by now,'' Krune thought. ''Or, they might have already appeared in a lot of continents.'' "Grandpa, I''m here! You''re slow. Check your eyes!" Upon seeing the fun one of them was having with Krune, the rest of the wisps also joined it, taunting Krune constantly. Wisps matured quickly within a couple of years. And most of them had already matured. Though, since they were never hunted or had contact with others, they retained the entirety of innocence. The Mountain Sect Sub-Realm was vast and was growing in size with the passing of every day. And, there just weren''t enough people to use even a tenth of the place. So, Sterlena was the first person to stumble upon them. The hurriedness his clone expressed was seen by many cultivators in the sect. So, word of mouth soon reached Feifei as she flew towards the location, arriving to see dozens of wisps giggling around as they flew around everywhere and the figure of a grumbling Krune that was chasing them nonstop. "Feifei, you''re here! Catch them! I''m going to whoop their asses!" Krune shouted upon seeing her. "Run! Grandpa is mad!" "He''s not grandpa! He''s an uncle!" "This lord already made grandpa my younger brother!" Each wisp let out its own arrogant declaration before scurrying away. Staring at the scene, Feifei was silent for a good minute before glaring at Krune, asking, "Aren''t I the wife?" "How come you''re the one giving birth?" Chapter 1327 I’m The Best Wisp Chapter 1327 I¡¯m The Best Wisp¡¡¡¡"Aren''t I the wife?" "How come you''re the one giving birth?" Feifei glared at Krune as she asked that. "That''s what you''re concerned with?" Krune shouted in response when a wisp morphed its ethereal body into a leg before slamming into the side of his face. "Dense rock! Useless grandpa!" Snorting with a derisive tone, the wisp puffed itself arrogantly and escaped. "See this? These arrogant fellas need a lesson." Krune pointed at the constant remarks he was taunted with by the wisps. "I¡­ remembered I have some work to do. We''ll talk later." Feifei suddenly acted like she was busy before flying away at her fastest speed, clearly unwilling to get involved in his mess. She even went to the extent of condensing a massive structure using Godly Energy that resembled a thumbs up while flying away. "¡­" Krune stared at her escaping figure as he watched a wisp shape its ethereal figure into a mouth that clamped upon his head. Another wisp condensed a pair of fists and unleashed a flurry of punches on him. Even though he was also in his wisp form, his ethereal body alone was tougher than the mountain. So, all the wisps treated him as a punching bag to practice their killer techniques with. Sterlena stared at the scene of Krune being buried by the wisps, expressing jealousy, "How nice¡­" She then gazed at the True Spirit that she was hugging, asking it, "Why don''t we play?" "I want to sleep." Unfortunately for her, the True Spirit was spoiled and lazy. "¡­" ''That''s it!'' Sterlena glared at Krune as she teleported his figure to the other side of the mountain before pouncing upon the clueless wisps. "Haha, auntie will eat you all!" "Kyaaa!" The wisps screamed in response and scurried away. Soon after, they crowned around her and began to land punches and kicks on her True Spirit form. It was impossible for any of their attacks to even cause her an itch. Plus, the wisps were also just playing with her as soon after, Sterlena''s laughter filled the area. The True Spirit gazed at the scene before slowly flying into the tunnel before turning silent. Unsurprisingly, it was taking a nap. Hovering high up in the air, Krune probed their cultivation through his Divine Sense. "The strongest among the wisps are at the Ninth Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm while the True Spirit is already at the Ninth Stage of the God Foundation Realm." He then landed beside the True Spirit, startling it for a moment before it sensed his aura as a wisp, calming down. "Do you know about laws?" Krune asked before he felt that his question was wrong. He then frowned for a moment, silent as he riled up his Mental Energy, extracting all the information necessary for a cultivator to know. He refined the information to ensure none of his emotions were contained within it, ensuring it was fully neutral. He then sent them into the True Spirit, causing them to turn still and begin digesting all the information. ''A Wisp can only live for ten years. Does that condition still apply in the God Realm as well?'' Krune frowned, duplicating the information he had created as he sent it into the minds of every wisp, causing them to stop attacking Sterlena and turn silent. "What did you do?" Sterlena frowned upon seeing that all the wisps had turned silent, gazing at Krune. "I''ve just given them the basic knowledge of cultivation. If I''m not wrong, they can only live for ten years, just like in the Mortal Realm," replied Krune. "You''re right about that. Wisps can only live for ten years. I forgot that in my excitement." Sterlena sighed in worry. "At least, in the Mortal Realm, if you reach Foundation Establishment, you''ll experience an increase in your lifespan. But in the God Realm, you have to become an immortal. Otherwise, it''s impossible to raise your lifespan." "Become an immortal in 10 years?" Krune sighed. After all, that was impossible. His eyes suddenly lit up as he gazed at the True Spirit, saying, "Right, there''s still the Spiritual Incarnation. As long as they have that, they could revive and cultivate normally until they become immortal and experience a massive increase in their lifespan." "Do we have enough Predominated Fruits?" Sterlena asked in worry. "More than enough to be frank," Krune replied. "I''ll train them in various laws during that time and bring their cultivation to the First Stage of the God Foundation Realm. When there is less than a week left of their life, I''ll give them a Predominated Fruit and make them condense a Spiritual Incarnation." "You do that while I''ll keep myself busy," Sterlena said before hugging the Wisps as her face reddened. "Aren''t they the cutest cuddle buddies?" "They are cute cuddle buddies." Krune corrected her before pointing at himself. "In the wisp world, I hold the title of being the handsomest, cutest, charmingest, and strongest." "¡­and anything else that ends with an est," he announced. "Come here, let me verify it." Sterlena raised her hand, teleporting Krune''s figure into her hold as she hugged his wisp form, giggling. "Well, you''re definitely cuter." "I think you''ll say the same to every wisp," Krune retorted. Sterlena coughed in response and whistled away, ignoring his remarks. The two bickered during the time the wisps were busy digesting all the information Krune had fed them. Suddenly, a wisp shot to the air before pointing at Krune, saying, "I''m the strongest wisp!" "Well, I''m the smartest wisp." Another wisp that finished digesting the information announced proudly. "I''m the best cook." One of them acted like it was preparing dishes. "I''m the most handsome wisp." One struck a pose, imitating Krune. "I''m the most beautiful wisp." Another twirled around in the air. "Right, right, everyone is right." Sterlena clapped and went along with their declarations. "I''m the¡­ I''m¡­" The last of the wisps looked around, hesitating as everything that could be declared about were already done by its brethren. It then gazed at Krune, thinking before announcing, "I''m the best wisp!" "The best wisp!" Chapter 1328 Rumria’s Reasons Chapter 1328 Rumria¡¯s Reasons¡¡¡¡"So, this is the proper method of body cultivation," Rumria muttered as she observed the lake where countless creatures swam around. "Yes, you''ll obtain passive abilities if you kill them and bathe in their blood," Zamuria said. "But first, you''ll have to revive at the Godly Fusion Realm. Only then can this process be done properly." "I don''t mind." Guria nodded before asking, "Will the sect provide resources for our revival?" "Of course," Zamuria nodded as she replied. "All the Godly Energy and the materials with laws necessary for you will be provided." "Still, it feels unreal that we''ve joined another sect." Rumria sighed, gazing at the sky once as she muttered, "The Mist Sect, huh. I''ve read records about them once." "How strong are they?" Guria asked. "In their prime, they had a God leading them," Rumria explained. "I''m not sure what happened, but their God disappeared one day. During the resulting chaos, the Golden Gate Sect sneaked up on them and started a massacre." "Back then, the leader of the Golden Gate Sect was a powerhouse capable of fighting against a dozen Primal Gods at the same stage as him and easily clinching victory. He was one of the strongest Primal Gods to ever appear in the God Realm," Rumria spoke, sighing. She then said, "Of course, Sterlena is another such character." "How do you know about her?" Guria was surprised. "Heh, information gathering is the specialty of my Spiritual Incarnation. It''s just that my destructive capabilities have been too strong, so none actually are aware of this side to me." Rumria laughed in response. "I''ve cast my information network through countless continents by now and had even earthed information buried under history." "One among them is Sterlena''s, counted as one of the biggest tragedies of the God Realm," she said. "One of the biggest tragedies?" Zamuria was surprised to hear that. She didn''t know much about Sterlena other than the fact that Krune looked up to her. She had mostly been busy and hadn''t obtained any chance to share a proper conversation with her. So, Zamuria was ignorant about Sterlena''s story. And now that Rumria seemed to know about it, naturally, she was also curious. "Throughout her life, irrespective of where she went, disaster followed suit. However, she never gave up and fought for the life of both her and her loved ones. Eventually, she reached the peak of the Primal God Realm, turning into a legendary existence that was known throughout the Primal God community back then." Rumria condensed a book that she read from. Raising a finger, she said solemnly, "But when she attempted the final breakthrough to become a God, her daughter turned into an Abolition Tower member. She exploded, taking Sterlena''s empire with her. After all, she was also at the Primal God Realm. With that, her explosion was terrifying and affected the entire continent." "And right at that moment..." She sighed, saying, "The tribulation struck Sterlena, preventing her from saving her people. Moreover, the tribulation was tens of times stronger than usual, turning more terrifying than what even a God could handle. That power flowed through her the same way our attacks target the Land Incarnations of the cultivators we attack throughout the God Realm." As Zamuria and Guria shuddered at the thought, Rumria nodded, saying, "Yes, the tribulation lighting used her laws to course throughout the God Realm and targeted every living being, Danger Zone, and Land Incarnation belonging to her race, annihilating it." "And that was the day the race of True Spirits became a legend in the God Realm, a ghost of the past," she concluded. "But to think Sterlena had survived despite that. She''s terrifying, right?" Guria exclaimed in shock. "Yes, but it shouldn''t have been easy," Rumria replied. "I have no idea how she survived. But, it isn''t as simple as what I have been told. Imagine the guilt she must be facing to be the cause that ended her race." "Indeed, you''re right about that." Zamuria nodded, sighing as the mood turned somber. "Anyways..." Guria spoke. "So, the Mist Sect will be targeting our three continents due to the Sub-Realm that opened, right?" "Yes, they wouldn''t pass this opportunity up." Rumria nodded. "The Founding Elder of this sect is Feifei, the inheritor of the Golden Gate Sect Founding Ancestor''s Spiritual Incarnation. Since the Mist Sect occupies four continents, they have a terrifying foundation." "Plus, since our Sub-Realm hold the secrets for one to become a God, they wouldn''t pass up on this opportunity," Rumria added. "With a God in their sect, they''ll be unstoppable. Also, this is something that I''ve probed through myself in the past two centuries." Rumria whispered, "This Sub-Realm, we cannot be sure of what its creator had in mind to make it. But one thing is for certain. The winner that gains ownership of it would obtain qualifications to rule our three continents. Also, they would obtain a key." "A key? What''s that?" Zamuria asked in surprise. "It''s a key to unlocking our three continents. From time immemorial, the continents of Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria have been addressed as sister continents. This is because they share the same source." Rumria dropped the bomb. "And, the key from the Sub-Realm will change our three continents." "They''ll slowly start merging to become a supercontinent. And, that would ensure we attain the qualifications to produce a God," Rumria said. "That''s the true reason the Mist Sect is aiming for us." "If they manage to eradicate us, they''ll occupy these three continents after abandoning their original four continents. After the merge, it would become a supercontinent and generate more resources than what their original four continents could produce," she said with a sigh. "That foundation is enough to produce a God. Since the Sub-Realm contains secrets related to that, the chances of birthing a God is rather high here." Zamuria nodded after hearing that. "That means, when they attack us, they''ll be coming at us with full force." Guria shuddered. "The force from four continents'' worth of cultivators." "Is that why you urged me to join the Mountain Sect during the fight, Rumria?" Guria asked, causing Zamuria to look at them in shock. She also didn''t understand the reason for the two of them to join the Mountain Sect. And now, it seems Rumria was the cause behind that. Chapter 1329 Mountain Sect is Worthy to Lead Everyone Chapter 1329 Mountain Sect is Worthy to Lead Everyone¡¡¡¡"There were a few reasons I urged you to join me, Guria," Rumria told her. "First of all, once I found out that our three continents would merge to become a supercontinent, I came to a startling realization." "Only a God can rule over a supercontinent. Otherwise, foreign forces would invade our lands and occupy us. However, none of our three continents'' Primal Gods have that capability." She snorted. "They''ve been alive for tens of thousands of years but haven''t even managed to reach the Ninth Stage of the Primal God Realm yet. Their hope of becoming a God is pretty much nil at this point." "In contrast to that, Mountain Sect has Sterlena, someone who had attempted to become a God once and survived a tribulation that was strong enough to kill a God. With that experience, she''s bound to succeed this time. Not to mention there''s Feifei, possessor of the Spiritual Incarnation that a legend among Primal Gods possessed, capable of perfecting any Godly Ability, formation, and even improving Spiritual Incarnations." "She''s a peak treasure that would be adored in any sect, no matter where she goes," Rumria continued. "Then there''s Zamura, someone that managed to protect us against the attacks from all the powerhouses. And he''s only at the God Trial Realm." "Following that is the Seamstress. She hasn''t done anything much these days, but she''s terrifying," Rumria said solemnly. "Irrespective of what that cultivator had been, she''s able to brainwash them into serving her wholeheartedly. And most of all, she''s even able to upgrade their strength without damaging their personality." "You see the pattern here?" Rumria smirked, glancing at Zamuria once before saying, "There''s also the two creatures called Gegrafikan and Tina. You''ve seen how those Primal Gods lost control of their emotions upon learning his true identity." "Yes, I never thought I would see a Spirit Aberrant." Guria sighed. "And it''s scary to think that he''s overcome his racial limitation. That means he could straight up swallow everyone in his path and become the strongest cultivator to ever walk the God Realm." "Indeed." Rumria nodded in agreement. "And I''ve also found out about the fact that Tina could materialize God Stones out of thin air. Honestly, it is frightening that all of this is happening in this sect. That''s why I am sure that the Mountain Sect is worthy of leading the three continents." "Indeed, you''re right about that." Guria sighed, "And finally, the mysterious ability that Krune used to heal us immediately without any problem. That scares me." "That''s the Mountain Sect''s foundation. This is why we have to join here. That''s the only way to become strong and protect our homes in the future," Rumria said before facing Zamuria, "Now, show us everything related to body cultivation. Once I''ve obtained the proper mode for it, we''ll fight for real and see who''s the stronger one." "I''m ready to fight anytime you want," Zamuria smirked. "I always feel like the third wheel here," Guria mumbled before joining the other two as they went around the Mountain Sect, learning the ropes and finding out the various things the sect had to offer. Upon seeing the two Cultivation Lotuses, Rumria and Guria gazed at one another, realizing that the Mountain Sect had a robust foundation. Just from the density of Godly Energy circulating within the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm spoke volumes about it. This was not to mention the rich herbs and precious minerals that popped out everywhere like grass, alarming the duo. "There''s just not enough people to use these resources. So, they have begun to pile up like this," Zamuria said in worry. "Even after we''ve posted disciples to take care of these things, there are just too many things growing around and not enough hands to harvest them." Guria and Rumria made eye contact, retorting, "That''s such a bountiful thing to worry about." Soon, they reached a special building in the Mountain Sect as Zamuria led them inside. "This here is our cultivation wonder¡ªSpiritual Marks!" "Spiritual Marks? What are those?" Guria asked in confusion. "Spiritual Marks are concepts that are engraved into one''s soul. It could be taken as something you''re born with, even if you were to die and reincarnate. You''ll always possess this Spiritual Mark," Zamuria said. "Something innate to oneself, imbued in the soul¡­" Guria muttered in shock. "You mean¡­ this is something we could obtain?" "Yes, this is possible. After becoming an immortal, Feifei is able to perfectly create various Spiritual Marks," Zamuria said, smiling with a tone of slight boasting. "Most obtain Spiritual Marks for powers that they aren''t suitable to cultivate or can never attain." "The best example is Krune whose Spiritual Mark unleashes the power of Tribulation Lightning." "Tribulation Lightning! So, that''s how he''s able to wield it." Rumria nodded, eyes widened as even she was unable to control her desire. "Spiritual Marks, such a nice thing they are." "Then, can I also obtain the Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark?" Guria asked. "Unfortunately, no. It''s impossible to create that, even for Feifei. Plus, even if she did, the moment we obtain it, the God of Tribulations would destroy us because no cultivator should ever possess or control tribulation lightning," Zamuria replied. "Then, how come Krune''s using it wantonly? I don''t see him being targeted by anyone," Guria asked, unable to understand why the logic is so messed up here. "Well¡­ we can only say that Krune and the God of Tribulations share a¡­ mysterious relationship." Zamuria coughed. "As to what exactly that is, I don''t know either. My son and Feifei know that, though. So, if you''re interested, you can ask them." "I''ll pass. I still have to break through a lot of times." Both Guria and Rumria laughed awkwardly before letting go of the matter. They then looked through the long list of Spiritual Marks that were available and the contribution points necessary to exchange for them. The two of them were already aware of what they needed to do to earn contribution points. Upon seeing how much some of the Spiritual Marks cost, they were shocked, frightened even. Guria gazed at a Spiritual Mark almost near the top of the list, full of desire as she said, "If I work hard, I''ll be able to obtain it within a century." "Mine would probably take a couple of centuries." Rumria laughed as she said. "That is if we went about it normally." She then looked at Zamuria and asked, "Information can also be used to obtain Contribution Points, right?" "Of course." Zamuria nodded, aware of what Rumria was getting at. As the successor of her continent, the things she knew about were¡­ a bit too much. Zamuria silently prayed for the Rumria and Guria Continent before leading the two individuals bearing the same name to the library. Chapter 1330 True Might of Immortal Severance Primal God Chapter 1330 True Might of Immortal Severance Primal God¡¡¡¡"Increasing one''s body weight, passive skills, active skills, Spiritual Marks, insane godly abilities, endless Godly Energy, and a plethora of resources." Zualin sighed as he muttered, "I had been fearful for no reason. The Mountain Sect''s thousands of times richer than I had assumed." "It''s still insufficient to support the resource needs for Elementary Gods and Primal Gods, though," Zamura said in response. "So, I wasn''t lying when I said it back then." "That''s only because the quality of the materials has yet to reach our realm in purity. You have an entire continent beat in terms of quantity of resources, especially due to your Godly Veins that keep production at an all-time high," Zualin replied. They had already contributed a tremendous reserve of information, godly abilities, mysterious resources, and countless other things that they had collected to date. Everything had been given to the Mountain Sect to be converted into contribution points. These resources weren''t of use to them, not as much as compared to body cultivation and Spiritual Marks. Just like Guria and Rumria, they too had been unable to control themselves after seeing the Spiritual Marks. Upon seeing the lengthy list, they didn''t even hesitate to dump all their belongings to the sect, so much so that they no longer possessed even a single God Stone. Even their spatial rings had been deposited. After all, they were high-quality items that were used by Elementary and Primal Gods. After knowing that Feifei could create custom Spiritual Marks based on the requirements or if there was an item or ore related to the desired ability, Zualin burned with greed. Custom Spiritual Marks were the most expensive, but he didn''t even bat an eye at that and commissioned Feifei. "Finally, after obtaining that Spiritual Mark, I''ll surpass my strength to new heights." "Why don''t you ask your daughter to join the Mountain Sect as well?" Faunkill hesitated a lot before saying, "She''ll also be able to grow strong." He had been contemplating it a lot and finally decided to come out with it. "You sure? Even though she dumped you, she hasn''t married anyone either. She''s probably mad at you for what you''ve done in the past. You know how it''ll go if I tell her, right?" Zualin said, surprised at Faunkill being frank with him. "I understand. I''ve committed a lot of horrors in the past. And after being trapped for so long, I''ve gradually understood my actions. If she''s willing to kill me, I will accept it," Faunkill said in response. "I will¡­ take responsibility for my actions." "What¡­ has he done in the past?" Zamura asked, curious to see why a Primal God behaved like this. "Well, he''s Immortal Severance, you know?" Zualin told Zamura. "In the past, every time he unleashed his Land Incarnation, the cultivation of everyone was suppressed until the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. After that, he dropped a meteor on them, killing them like ants." "Even Primal Gods were no exception." Zualin sighed as he continued. "There wasn''t anyone that could hold him back anymore as he behaved like a warlord, conquering one continent after another as he turned the cultivation of everyone to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. More than what he had killed, the number of people that committed suicide upon permanently losing their cultivation was ten times higher." "If you managed to painstakingly cultivate and reach the Elementary God Realm, only for your cultivation to be reverted back to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm, how would you feel? You''ll have to cultivate from scratch," Zualin spoke. "But the minds of cultivators are stronger than that, right?" Zamura asked in response. "Surely they wouldn''t have despaired at that." "Indeed, those that manage to reach such a high cultivation wouldn''t despair so easily." Zualin nodded. "But, what about twice?" "T-twice?" Zamura shuddered after hearing that. "Yes, after reaching the same cultivation as the past, you''re once again brought back to the Godly Fusion Realm," Zualin said. "Our Faunkill here loved to do that the most. He had only killed people in his younger days. Once he grew older, he killed people without killing them." "If you have a strong mind, twice. If you were a resolute genius, thrice," Zualin added. "It did not matter how many times you cultivated back to a high realm. Zualin was able to imbue his ability in the bodies of others in such an undetectable way that the moment they reach that cultivation, their strength would immediately fall back to the Godly Fusion Realm." Zualin gazed at Zamura before saying, "Once hit by this ability, you can forget growing past your original strength." "For all eternity, you''re bound to cultivate and lose your strength again and again until you give up on life and never revive." Zualin glanced at Faunkill before saying, "In any case, the most frightening aspect of him is that he can easily imbue this within a Spiritual Incarnation and course it throughout all the revival means possessed by the cultivator." "This way, irrespective of how they revive, they''re doomed to repeat their tragedy." "That''s¡­ evil." Zamura shuddered, gazing at Faunkill before asking, "And, did you enjoy doing this?" "To be honest¡­" Faunkill sighed as he came clean. "Yes. The stronger the cultivator, the more I loved to do this to them." "After understanding his ability, the victims have stopped cultivating after reaching a step below their peak. And now, they have been waiting to exact revenge on him all this time," Zualin said. "If they wished to exact revenge on you, what will you do?" Zamura asked, patiently gazing at the other party to know what he would do. "I guess they''ll be repeating a couple hundred more times until their spirit breaks," Faunkill replied, turning calm all of a sudden. The moment this change appeared in him, Zualin turned strangely silent. Zamura was even able to notice sweat pouring out from Zualin''s forehead. It was apparent that the other party was tense, afraid even. After all, judging based on what they had said, Faunkill was many times stronger than Zualin. The only reason he could bully Faunkill was that the latter had let him do it. "If my wife wants to kill me for my deeds, then that''s fine. I''ll accept it." Faunkill closed his eyes, saying, "But, if any of the other trash dare to even glare at me¡­" "Then... they can forget crossing the Godly Fusion Realm." Chapter 1331 Zela’s Injustice Chapter 1331 Zela¡¯s Injustice¡¡¡¡"Strange, she''s not replying to me." Zualin frowned, "I can feel that my messages are reaching her. But for some reason, she''s ignoring me." "When''s the last time you contacted her?" Faunkill asked. "Around 800 years ago." Zualin coughed, "And I only told her that I''ve eaten dinner." "¡­" Faunkill turned silent, staring at Zualin like he was a bigger idiot among the two. "What, she won''t hate me, you know." Zualin snorted, "I''m her dad." "Well¡­" Faunkill tried to retort before sighing in response, lacking the energy to do anything. ''I hope she''s doing well.'' "Why don''t you try to contact her?" Zualin said all of a sudden, "You too should have the means to contact her." "I¡­do indeed. But¡­" Faunkill hesitated. "Just try it once. No harm done." Zualin forced him. "Who knows, she might have forgiven you after so long." "Fine¡­" Faunkill sighed before riling up his Godly Energy, coursing a thought through a certain law that was quickly transmitted throughout the God Realm, falling into the response of a certain flying individual. "¡­Shit, she replied!" Faunkill trembled as his face paled, gazing at Zualin, "And she''s still angry." Boom! Suddenly, the skies above the Mountain Sect ruptured as a booming voice resounded, "Rat bastard! You dare remain elusive all along?" "Your dad''s here!" Faunkill was flustered upon hearing her voice as he immediately thought up a plan, trapping Zualin in his hold, "Wife! I''ve finally captured your elusive dad!" "I''ll deal with him later!" Came a voice as a beam of light slammed into Faunkill after piercing through the barrier shielding the Mountain Sect. "Gah!" Faunkill grunted in pain as tens of thousands of punches rained down on him every second, at speeds beyond what even he could react to, causing his body to be pummelled by the other party. "It¡­hurts!" Faunkill shouted as he was mysteriously able to feel pain from every punch, as if he had a mortal body. This shouldn''t have been possible for him, as his body was fully comprised of pure laws now. "It¡­hurts?" The rain of punches stopped as a figure slowly manifested before Faunkill. Golden hair that danced in the wind, a jet-blank body that resembled the depths of the void and crystalline orange eyes that resembled the sun. The woman resembled a deity as she stared at him in silence before slowly extending her hands. "Eh? I''m not feeling pain anymore." Faunkill was surprised to see all the pain vanishing as he quickly healed his injuries. "Good, now for round two." Saying so, the woman began to pummel him once again, causing him to shriek in response for every hit that made him feel like he had returned to being a mortal. "Every time you turn someone into a mortal, I''ll make you experience the same pain a mortal feels." The woman said, hitting him nonstop. The impact from the punches wasn''t much. It didn''t even generate any shockwaves. Or rather, the power behind the punches were only as much as a mortal. It shouldn''t even hurt those at the God Foundation Realm, not to mention a Primal God. But here, it did, causing Faunkill to constantly shriek in pain. He noticed that the deformity in his body was only due to the pain he was reeling from. The attacks he faced didn''t even scratch him. After all, the power behind these punches was only at the mortal level. "This is¡­?" Zamura frowned, gazing at the massive hole in the Sect''s barrier as he hurriedly repaired it, heaving a sigh in relief when he noticed that the Sect''s Guardian Spirit wasn''t injured. The Guardian Spirit was a trump card that hadn''t been revealed yet even when the Golden Gate Sect had invaded. He was saving it up for the time when the Sect was truly in a crisis. He then observed the woman attack Faunkill at such speeds that her hands weren''t even visible to his divine sense. It only seemed like she missed a pair of hands. But when she stopped attacking, they appeared. So, it made him realise that when she attacked, they moved so fast that they appeared to not exist. "That''s my daughter, Zela, currently known as the Mortal Hit Primal God." Zualin said. "Dad, come here and get beaten up." Zela stopped hitting Faunkill as she glared at Zualin, prompting him to arrive closer as she smacked him for a good two minutes too, "Why the heck didn''t you not contact me for so long, huh? Do you really think it''s cool to make someone wait for an eternity? Huh? Do you like that?" "And, why the heck do you need 800 freaking years to eat dinner? When you last contacted me, you said you were having dinner. I thought you abandoned me and made a new family!" She began to cry eventually, plopping to the ground. "Why? Is it fun to leave people alone?" "I had revived just recently." Faunkill said, sighing, "I realise my faults. If you wish to kill me, I''ll accept it." "Shut up! You braindead shitroach!" Zela screamed as she punched him in the face, "The what? Do you want me to live as a widow for the rest of my life?" "B-But I heard that you dumped me?" Faunkill said before facing Zualin. "Dumped who? Shut up and eat my fist!" Zela said in anger and continued to pummel him, "I warned you all along to stop acting like an idiotic freaking tyrant. But you didn''t listen, didn''t you? You then went and offended a freaking God and was almost eradicated. If I hadn''t pleaded on your behalf for ten thousand years, that God would have annihilated your Land Incarnations too." ''So, that''s what happened in the end.'' Zualin understood, ''Right, there weren''t any Primal Gods strong enough to kill him to the extent that he needed tens of thousands of years just to recover his Land Incarnation from the tiny fragment left behind.'' Upon seeing Zela continue to scream the injustice she had to endure while pummelling Faunkill, Zualin silently prayed for the other party and gazed at Zamura, "This won''t end soon. It''ll take a few years at the very least. Shall we start preparations for the Sect wars?" "Might as well do that." Zamura sighed, introducing himself to Zela as he moved the two to a villa in the Sect, leaving her to pummel him until she was satisfied. Chapter 1332 The Mountain Sect’s Scheme Chapter 1332 The Mountain Sect¡¯s Scheme¡¡¡¡"As I promised, I bought time for everyone. A total of eight years," Krune sighed in relief, noticing the army from the three continents converge on the other side of the Celestial Battlefield. Even though it was hard, as all the powerhouses had been working nonstop, they managed to solve the issue. The hatred between the people had been diminished to such an extent that they would no longer kill each other on sight. And now, they were standing side by side as comrades. "Don''t expect me to save your life." "Heh, arrogant arses like you are always the first to die." Toxic remarks were exchanged between the people in the army, but none tried to target the lives of each other. It was because they had already done the same so many times that they had gotten fed up by it. So now, they only exchanged ''pleasantries'' with one another, full of love while wishing the ingrown toenail of the others to cause them so much pain they would cry. During the years, Krune had been fuelling their hatred from time to time to ensure they continued to engage in conflicts. But eventually, exhaustion began to set in. That was when the powerhouses from the three continents realised that there was a better method to deal with their hatred. It was for the people to display enough hate until they became exhausted. After all, it wasn''t possible for someone to generate infinite hate. There would be a time when they attained their limits. And that was what the powerhouses from the three continents had focused upon. So now, having already forged their enemies to near death state hundreds of times, everyone had lost the will to kill their foes. And that was how the army was stabilised. And now, ones that had fought to kill each other hundreds of times stood beside one another, like comrades. They were still cursing the deaths of one another but didn''t take action personally. Some of them even began to change topics and converse about the rewards they could obtain from the Sub-Realm instead. It was unknown how long this would last. Maybe the exhaustion they are feeling would vanish eventually. But by then, they would have fought side by side as comrades. It will help ease up the situation a bit. "Somehow, you''ve managed to do it. Congratulations!" Krune smiled, grunting as he slowly got up. He hadn''t done so in the past eight years, having not budged an inch from his spot. After his painstaking cultivation, he had reached the Second Stage Semi-God Realm, making him understand how slow cultivation became after one became an immortal. Breaking through a single stage within the Semi-God Realm took 10 years on average, a century for every stage in the God Trial Realm, a millennium for every stage in the Elementary God Realm, and so on. The only reason Zamura had reached the Third Stage God Trial Realm within a century after becoming an immortal was thanks to enlightenment. He got enlightenment in a variety of things that caused him to breakthrough many stages. This was the same that Ferlash experienced after obtaining enlightenment from Krune. Unfortunately for Krune though, he himself hadn''t attained any enlightenment recently. What he had attained was when he was at the Nascent God Realm. So, it wasn''t of no use now. Had he attained the same enlightenment after he had reached the Semi-God Realm, he could have skipped many stages. But, he couldn''t worry about that. After all, he had spent the eight years fully consolidating his abilities and had also trained all his powers to the limit. He had also completed every task that he had been planning to do. ''Now, I only need to bring Fie to the God Realm.'' Krune thought, ''I should find a way to enter the Godly Path Realm. Thankfully, Gegrafikan and Zamura have figured out the means to do so.'' "Now, it''s time to obtain rewards from the Sub-Realm and break through the stages of the Semi-God Realm quickly." Krune said, slowly taking out Pestlor as he muttered, "I''ll reach the peak of the God Trial Realm before the Mist Sect arrives." "Guys, it''s time to fight." A clone in the Mountain Sect informed everyone as the Sect members of the Mountain Sect slowly streamed into the Celestial Battlefield. There was a surprising formation among the mortals, with every mortal cultivator being accompanied by a Monster Gecko as a guard. This was to protect them and cause them to reap rewards from the Sub-Realm. After all, that was how they would be able to become an immortal soon enough. There would be no use with the Monster Geckos obtaining the rewards, hence this arrangement. Among the Immortals, the moment those from the Mountain Sect poured in, those from the three-continental alliance army were startled. "How¡­do they have so many immortals?" It had to be noted that before when the Mountain Sect had participated, even though they were strong, the number of immortals on their side were little. It could be amounted as a paltry sum in contrast to the number of immortals on each continent. But now, the number had tripled easily, shocking them. "The fight is finally happening." Zamura smirked, watching the faces of the immortals on the opposite side tense up as they retracted their equipment immediately after seeing him. "Mountain Sect mortals, charge!" He motioned for the immortals to remain still as he commanded the mortals, causing them to roar and charge at the opposing army immediately. "Kill them all!" The three Emperors said simultaneously, causing all the mortals to bellow a war cry and charge at the Mountain Sect. "Let''s do it." A mortal from the Mountain Sect made eye contact with the Monster Gecko accompanying him as they charged into the enemy, using their toughened bodies like a bulldozer as they dashed through the crowd, only targeting those with a Spiritual Incarnation. The Monster Gecko used its peak strength to push them to the verge of death while the cultivator dealt the final blow, killing more than a dozen cultivators with a Spiritual Incarnation in one hit. And they were all at the Nascent God Realm. He slowly closed his eyes, smirking, "It''s coming!" The rewards from the Sub-Realm gushed into his body, causing his strength to explode as his body ballooned. Bang! Tribulation lightning slammed into him as the skies darkened, causing the people around him to scurry away in fear. He had begun a breakthrough to the Semi-God Realm. "What the¡­fuck is happening?" The Zamuria Emperor stared at the scene, flabbergasted, watching tribulation lightning descend from the skies one after another as cultivators began to breakthrough to the Semi-God Realm. The only problem being¡­their numbers had already reached the five digits. Chapter 1333 Boy, You Need to be Whooped Chapter 1333 Boy, You Need to be Whooped¡¡¡¡Boom! Boom! Boom! One after another, tribulation lightning slammed into the Celestial Battlefield, alarming the three-continent army. They had been preparing for war, but what they hadn''t expected was for thousands of their enemies to breakthrough and invite a tribulation. Naturally, it was a terrifying scene. It wasn''t like none of them hadn''t ever seen a breakthrough. In the past two centuries, many of those at the Nascent God Realm had obtained a lot of rewards from the Sub-Realm and initiated a breakthrough to the Semi-God Realm. However, it was rare, nothing close to what was happening here. That was something completely different from the norm. It was pure mayhem as sect members of the Mountain Sect attempted breakthroughs everywhere. If anyone were to interfere, then the lightning tribulation would also target them. So, the charging army had to halt and retreat one after another, losing their momentum. After all, scattered throughout were cultivators attempting a breakthrough. "This guy¡­" The Guria Emperor glared at Zamura, saying, "With one move, he destroyed our morale and caused us to retreat. To think he would use tribulation lightning to do this, he''s a terrifying guy." "He''s just treating his sect members as disposable pawns to invite tribulation lightning." The Rumria Emperor snorted in displeasure. "No, look there." The Zamuria Emperor pointed at one of the first cultivators that had attempted a breakthrough. "Can you see it? He''s almost done with his breakthrough. And judging by his aura, he wouldn''t fail. At least, that''s how it looks to me." "None of them are disposable pawns. Instead..." The Zamuria Emperor frowned as he said, "He used the rewards from the Sub-Realm to boost their breakthroughs simultaneously, truly impressive." "At this point, if we continue to sit on our asses, they''ll continue to use us and grow stronger." The Guria Emperor got up and took the lead. "We have more powerhouses and a stronger foundation. If we continue to delay, their foundation would eventually surpass us by the end of their century." "And if we still behave like useless idiots, after a couple dozen thousand years, they''ll replace us." Saying so, the Guria Emperor targeted Zamura. "Zamura and Krune, let''s take out the both of them first. After that, the rest would be easy." The moment the other two Emperors nodded in response, the Guria Emperor unleashed a beam of Godly Energy, infusing his laws into it so that anyone that came into contact with it would die immediately. Their Spiritual Incarnation would also shatter, preventing them from reviving. Recalling the scene from when Zamura had retaliated against him before, the Guria Emperor complicated his attack, ensuring it had a mind of its own to swerve around and target Zamura even if he tried to change its nature and course like before. ''I see. The previous method would no longer work against him. As expected of a Primal God. He had already devised a countermeasure against my abilities,'' Zamura thought as he watched the attack close in on him, grinning in response. "But, I''m not your opponent." Immediately after, a crystalline mirror manifested before him that absorbed the attack, shattering in response. But even though it had shattered, the attack was no more, shocking the Guria Emperor. After all, the three Emperors were the strongest of their respective continent. So, it was shocking to see the attack of one of them being blocked so easily, especially by a Primal God not among the Emperors. "Who the hell is it? Show yourself!" The Guria Emperor bellowed in rage, angry for being made a mockery out of. "You should relax a little at your old age." Slowly, the figure of Zualin appeared as he grinned, saying, "I''ll be your opponent. Let me see just how strong the Guria Emperor is." "Zualin, you think you''re strong enough to face me?" The Guria Emperor appeared displeased. "Do you want me to thrash you around like before?" "Hmm, are you talking about the time when I received a blow from you and didn''t retaliate?" Zualin smirked, slowly pointing at the figure of Faunkill that appeared beside him. "At that time, I was only focused on locating him. Plus, I only used your attack as clues to locate him. Otherwise, did you think you were strong enough to target me?" Slowly, Zualin''s aura began to climb up from the Second Stage of the Primal God Realm, shocking the Primal Gods from the three continents. "You''re not at the Second Stage?" The Guria Emperor was shocked. "Of course not. I had just split myself up to cover a wider area. Well, that''s no longer needed, of course." Zualin scratched his head, sighing. "I''ve been alive for a couple million years already. If I hadn''t even managed to reach the peak, I''d become a laughingstock among the Primal Gods." Ninth Stage of the Primal God Realm! "P-Peak cultivation?" The Guria Emperor trembled in shock. Even he was only at the Sixth Stage of the Primal God Realm, just like the other two Emperors. As for the rest of the Primal Gods from the three continents, they ranged from the First to Fifth Stage. "The both of us will join hands to deal with him. They don''t have enough Primal Gods on their side. We outnumber them by two to one," the Rumria Emperor whispered to the Guria Emperor. "We''ll kill them and seize everything they possess." "Alright." The Guria Emperor nodded before looking at the Zamuria Emperor, asking, "Will you be able to handle that other Primal God?" "Yes." The Zamuria Emperor nodded while looking at Faunkill, saying, "He''s barely at the First Stage of the Primal God Realm. His cultivation hasn''t even stabilized, so it''ll be easy for me to handle him." "Alright, let''s move." Saying so, the Guria Emperor and the Rumria Emperor targeted Zualin while the Zamuria Emperor targeted Faunkill. "You dare target my husband?" Zela shouted as she teleported before the Zamuria Emperor, slamming a fist into his face. The Zamuria Emperor condensed a barrier to defend against the attack, frowning when Zela''s hit didn''t even cause any ripples on his barrier. Or better yet, it didn''t even feel like an attack had hit him. "Cough!" Suddenly, blood began to leak out of his nose as the Zamuria Emperor was shocked, surprised when he felt pain on his nose, glaring at Zela, who gazed at him in mockery. "Boy, you need an ass whooping!" Saying so, Zela began to rain down punches on the Zamuria Emperor. Chapter 1334 Immortal Severance Takes Action Chapter 1334 Immortal Severance Takes Action¡¡¡¡"Hah!" the Zamuria Emperor shouted as he condensed a massive basin of water, splashing it into Zela, intending to seal her within. But in response, Zela''s figure turned into liquid and moved through the water, appearing before him as she slammed a punch his way. It wouldn''t be over that easy. "Hrrah!" He morphed the water into fire, intending to burn her when Zela turned into smoke and casually moved through his fire. No matter where she was, the moment her fists made contact with his Godly Energy, his physical body took damage. It was like he had been turned into a mortal as every attack caused him a lot of pain. Even when he defended against her attacks, it was as if Zela was capable of transmitting her attacks through her Godly Energy. That was why, even if all she did was touch his attacks using her fists, some body part of the Zamuria Emperor would begin bleeding. "What''s with her mysterious ability?" The Zamuria Emperor flinched as he felt a lashing pain on his butt, causing him more emotional pain than physical pain. Normally, even if half his body was blown off by an attack, he wouldn''t even flinch. After all, there was no concept of pain to a Primal God, whose body was now a manifestation of the laws themselves. As laws, the pain wasn''t exactly the correct thing to feel. So, they could casually fight without any concern. It was due to how much control they had over their respective laws. It could be said that in the Primal God Realm, one began to obtain authority over their respective laws. In short, it was hard to actually kill a Primal God unless the God of the respective law cut off their authority over it. But now, what Zela was doing went against common sense. Every attack from her didn''t cause him much damage. But in exchange, the pain was stellar. Zela was unbelievable. Plus, she was casually able to actuate such pain from any direction she pleased. The pain of fingers breaking, nails being peeled off, skin being ripped out, eyes being gouged, and so on. As they fought, the sensation of pain felt by the Zamuria Emperor continued to escalate as soon after, he became unable to concentrate on fighting anymore. "Damn it, how is this possible? This shouldn''t be happening!" The Zamuria Emperor shouted in shock, "You''re only in the Third Stage of the Primal God Realm. How can you injure someone three stages above you? It shouldn''t be possible!" "Stages?" Zela paused her attacks, pointing at the Zamuria Emperor as she began to laugh. Her laughter resounded throughout the battlefield as everyone heard her tone filled with mockery. "This guy seriously thinks he''s stronger than me just because he''s at a higher stage. That''s way too naive!" "Listen, boy." Zela smirked as she pointed at the Zamuria Emperor, saying, "I hail from the Chaotic Four Supercontinents where each supercontinent is ruled by a God. Just so you know, there are more than a hundred Primal Gods in each supercontinent." "And throughout history, the four supercontinents have been at war. It''s unlike a peaceful backwater continent like yours." She snorted after that. "So, I''ve constantly had to fight those stronger than me just to survive. A mere three stages in difference is nothing when I''ve even had to fight with a realm''s worth of difference before." "Currently, I''m just playing with you. There''s nothing you can do about that." She grinned, extending her hand as she invited him to throw a punch. "I''ll thrash you a little more." "You think you can act arrogantly for long?" The Zamuria Emperor riled up his Godly Energy. "Did you seriously think us Primal Gods are weaker than the lot of you?" "I don''t think that," Zela shook her head seriously as she clarified, "I know that for a fact." "This bitch!" He glared at her before erupting with a dense Law of Water, causing the entire Celestial Battlefield to turn into an ocean that attacked everyone from the Mountain Sect while helping those from the three continents. The Guria and Rumria Emperors also noticed his actions, making eye contact as they erupted with their respective powers as well. The Rumria Emperor unleashed the Law of Gravity, causing the water to turn heavy and accurately target the enemies, weighing them down. Soon, the Guria Emperor unleashed the Law of Weightlessness, causing the water to move rapidly like light, accurately targeting the enemies. It was apparent that they had discussed and created a Godly Technique that fused the powers of all three and created a battlefield that was advantageous to them. They unleashed their Land Incarnations respectively, immediately creating a battlefield that amplified their strength and hindered their foes, causing those from the Mountain Sect to pale in response. The remaining four Primal Gods from their side were struggling already to face nine Primal Gods. Tianal and Boldak were even worse, constantly getting injured. They were just Weapon Spirits, not having the strength to engage in a prolonged battle with a cultivator. And now that this mysterious water battlefield had appeared, it further caused their situation to worsen. "It''s risky if I don''t take action even now, you know." Faunkill raised his hand, uttering nonchalantly. "Don''t!" Zualin rebuked him. "This isn''t a war to kill them. We need to defeat them and obtain resources from the Sub-Realm. If you take action, we''ll win easily, but we won''t be getting any rewards." "Fine¡­" Faunkill muttered, gritting his teeth as he glared at the Zamuria Emperor. "Fucker." He recalled the time that the Zamuria Emperor called Zela a bitch, intending to make him suffer a fate worse than death. However, Zualin had been advising him to not take action. "You''re damn weak, trash." The Zamuria Emperor snorted, pushing away Zela using their battlefield advantage as he spoke, "You can only hide behind your wife. Are you even a man? Well, once your wife is dead, you will never get the chance to be a man." "¡­" Zualin sighed, raising his hand as he signaled the Primal Gods from the Mountain Sect to retreat, including Zela. "Just this once¡­" Faunkill muttered as he moved past Zela as he slowly released the killing intent bottled up within him throughout the millennia he had been trapped on the Zamuria Continent, too injured to even revive. "It''s time people understand that I''ve returned. And you¡­" Faunkill gazed at the Zamuria Emperor as he muttered, "Your nightmare starts from today onwards." Immortal Severance! Chapter 1335 Killing the Emperors Chapter 1335 Killing the Emperors¡¡¡¡Author''s Note: Yesterday I mistook the edited chapters of "Is that a wisp?" from my editor and posted the same chapters twice. Those two chapters have now been corrected. If you still see the same chapters, go to settings>clear cash>clear. Doing that should allow you to see the fixed chapters. --- Thump! Thump! The Zamuria Emperor''s heart thumped in increasing frequency all of a sudden, alarming him. He stared at the Guria Emperor in shock, noting that he was also the same. As for the Rumria Emperor, he was pretty much flustered. The three Emperors gazed at one another, flustered as they felt something had gone wrong for them. And worst of all, they didn''t even realize what hit them. The three let go of their reservations to one another and used their Divine Sense and every law under their control, looking through the bodies of each as they tried their best to understand what had happened. "It''s done." Faunkill sighed in exhaustion, saying, "This is stressful since I have to recover from my injuries." "That''s¡­ it?" Even Zualin was shocked to hear that. "You pretty much didn''t do anything special. Is that already in effect?" "Yes." Faunkill nodded as he said, "It''s pretty much instantaneous against opponents without methods to guard against it. When I was at my peak, even that God that moved against me was affected." He then grinned, saying proudly, "From the God Realm, he fell all the way down to the Elementary God Realm. He pretty much began to cry in the end." "Is that why he had been behaving strangely when I went to beg for his forgiveness?" Zela thought, snorting as she said, "So, he was just putting on an act, but in reality, he was weaker than me at the time?" "Pretty much." Faunkill nodded in response. "As if someone that took action against me could live safely after that. As for that God, he could forget about reaching the God Realm ever again. Once someone''s comprehension of that Law exceeds his, he''ll lose all his power." Hiss! Zualin sucked in a cold breath, shocked to hear the truth of the incident, causing him to realize that Faunkill had every right to be called a tyrant. ''One turns his enemies into mortals while the other inflicts pain onto her enemies by making their bodies as sensitive as mortals.'' He sighed, gazing at the figures of Faunkill and Zela, saying, "You two are pretty suited to one another." He then gazed at Zela and asked, "When will you be returning home?" "I won''t." Zela shook her head, ignoring the state of their enemies as she spoke, "All my children have become Primal Gods. There''s no reason for me to support them any longer." "Already?" Zualin was surprised to hear that. "How did they reach the Primal God Realm so quickly?" "Our family has grown a lot stronger since you''ve last seen us," Zela said in response. "We''re pretty much one of the three major families now." "Holy shit¡­!" Zualin was shocked. "Can we¡­ not return there?" Faunkill scratched his cheek, telling her, "If we go there, we''ll have to fight daily. And I fear I''ll return to being my old self once again if that happens." "Relax, we''ll stay here." Zela laughed and pinched his cheek as she told him, "The scenery here is pretty good. Besides, you''re pretty cute the way you are right now. So, we''ll stay here." "Besides." She laughed. "Once the three continents fuse and turn into a supercontinent, we''ll have our fair share of opponents to fight. We won''t be bored." "True." Faunkill nodded in agreement. "The cultivators here aren''t as battle crazed as our home supercontinent." "W-What the hell did you do to us?" The Zamuria Emperor stared in shock, noticing this his cultivation had already dropped to the Elementary God Realm and continued to fall. His face trembled as his emotions became chaotic. His hands shivered as his eyes reddened, the tears in them held in desperately, holding in his urge to cry. "Well, that''s what you get. You won''t die, so don''t worry. None of my techniques are lethal," Faunkill spoke, smiling upon seeing the three Emperors gaze at each other in a fluster. That wasn''t all. The rest of the Primal Gods from the three continents had also arrived to help. After all, if something happened to their Emperors, they would be the next in line. The Emperors were the strongest cultivators their respective continents had to offer. With the Primal Gods all arriving to help the three Emperors, the battlefield seemed like it was turning placid. "Continue attacking them!" Zamura said as he personally charged at an Elementary God, fighting him. "Shit¡­ shit¡­ shit!" The Zamura Emperor became more and more flustered at the sight of his cultivation dropping. The Guria and Rumria Emperors were naturally the same. The three gazed at the rest of the Primal Gods, shouting, "Kill that man! He''s the cause! We''ll return to normal once he''s killed." "That''s right." A Primal God nodded, gazing at Faunkill as he spoke, "It seems it has taken a considerable toll on him to use that mysterious ability. We can kill him if we overwhelm them." "Charge!" The remaining nine Primal Gods charged straight at the six Primal Gods from the Mountain Sect. Faunkill was weak now, unable to fight. So, he began to retreat when the Primal Gods teleported around him, launching attacks immediately. Countless mirrors appeared around Faunkill, shattering after absorbing all the attacks. "With me here, you can forget about killing him." Zualin snorted. "You dare target my husband?" Zela shouted as she crazily attacked all the Primal Gods. The remaining four Primal Gods from the Mountain Sect also began to attack everyone, actually placing the situation in a stalemate. It was because Zualin was at the peak of the Primal God Realm while the strongest among the enemies were only at the Fifth Stage Primal God Realm. Since Zualin was wholeheartedly focused on defense, it was hard for the enemies to breach it. Moreover, Zela was able to even smack the Zamuria Emperor without suffering any injury, not to mention the weaker Primal Gods from the three continents. "Shit, I''m already in the God Trial Realm now. Hurry!" The Zamuria Emperor shouted when suddenly, his face paled as he stared at the Guria and Rumria Emperors, noticing that they were the same as him. On the foreheads of all three was a thumb-sized hole, flickering with tribulation lighting as slowly, the figures of Krune and Sterlena appeared before them. "Fuck!" The Zamuria Emperor cursed in response as he was killed by Sterlena. Chapter 1336 Lightning Turtle Chapter 1336 Lightning Turtle¡¡¡¡"What the¡­?" "The Emperors¡­" "They were killed?" Everyone from the three continents stared with widened eyes as they watched the corpses of the three Emperors be burned to cinders by Sterlena. They were unable to accept the fact that the Emperors, the pillars of their continents, the symbol of absolute power, could be defeated so easily. It was not to mention that all the Primal Gods on the Mountain Sect''s side were still perfectly fine. So, it was a despairing situation for those from the three continents, causing their morale to plummet quickly enough. As for the cause, Krune and Sterlena, they had their eyes closed, accepting the rewards from the Sub-Realm. At the start, Krune had enveloped himself and Sterlena with a layer of Mental Energy, preventing any detection methods from failing to sense them. After that, the both of them turned to their demon beast forms, retracting their ethereal forms until only their cores remained. After that, the Cloud Whale launched them like a cannonball towards the location of the three Emperors. Once they arrived in the midst of the three Emperors, Krune poured in all his power into his Cloud Whales, condensing three of them as he infused the power of almost thirty clones, causing each to activate their Spiritual Marks. The three Cloud Whales were on the verge of exploding from the built-up internal pressure as the tribulation lightning flared up in response, unwilling to stay dormant and be compressed easily. Krune then unleashed the Lightning Needles, aiming one per each Emperor, while Sterlena destroyed their Spiritual Incarnations, preventing them from defending themselves. As they were already in a fluster due to their cultivation dropping steadily, they were unable to notice the attack, falling victim immediately. They didn''t destroy the revival means of the opponents, for that was a stupid move. In the future, these three Emperors would fight the Mist Sect and other enemies on behalf of the Mountain Sect. That was why none of the Mountain Sect members targeted the revival means of the cultivators from the three continents. Upon seeing their intentions, those from the three continents also refrained from using the same. Both were aware that they could use the rewards from the Sub-Realm to grow stronger. So, the more the enemies that were there to kill, the faster they could reap the rewards. As the war had gone on for two centuries, all cultivators were aware of what needed to be done to reap the most rewards. However, none dared to imagine that Krune and Sterlena had killed the three Emperors. "Ugh!" As he continued to wait, the rewards from the Sub-Realm arrived, causing him to grunt in response as his cultivation began to increase at alarming speeds. Moreover, they were stable increases. In short, it was like he was at that cultivation stage for a long enough time already, having fully consolidated his powers. It seemed that even though they had been nerfed, the deaths of the Emperors were rewarded rather handsomely. Third Stage of the Semi-God Realm¡­ Fourth Stage ¡­ Ninth Stage of the Semi-God Realm¡­ Eventually, Krune could feel his cultivation continuing to swell up as he immediately brought out a clone, opening the entrance to the subspace as both he and Sterlena entered it. The subspace arrived within a clone that was in the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm as the entrance opened. After exiting, Krune and Sterlena rushed towards the Cultivation Lotus as the sky began to be filled with thunder clouds. "Same as before?" Krune asked. "Indeed, we''ll be able to manage the danger somehow," Sterlena said in response. "Have you prepared the Blank Law Core?" "Yes, it''s ready," Krune said, causing one of the clones to unleash tribulation lightning into a Blank Law Core, turning it into a Tribulation Lightning Law Core. "Wait, what are you doing?" Just as Sterlena landed atop the Cultivation Lotus, she was startled to see Krune summoning his Cloud Whale before pouring drops¡ªwhich he had been collecting from the Reverse Waterfall region in the infant supercontinent. Moreover, Krune became bold, directly planting the entirety of Little Krune into it. "What''s up with that? Why are you risking it?" Sterlena grabbed hold of his hand, asking in alarm. "No, I feel like this might help me upgrade myself," Krune replied. "My powers are scattered too much. So, I''m trying to use the tribulations to fuse and refine them. That''ll make them stronger." "But if you fail, then you''ll lose both the Cloud Whale and Little Krune," Sterlena retorted. "I won''t fail," Krune said in response, taking out large chunks of metal that possessed the Divine Sense Law. "I have been preparing them just for this case. With these, I have a solid shot at making this possible." Of course, he didn''t stop at that, taking out a Blank Law Core that he stuffed into the Cloud Whale. Even at its maximum size of 25 meters, it was stuffed to the brim with drops and items infused with the Divine Sense Law. Boom! Thunder resounded as lightning began to spark from the thunderclouds. However, they didn''t strike immediately as hundreds of lightning dragons began to swim across the thunder cloud. Slowly, the lightning dragons began to fuse into one another as it seemed like the entirety of the tribulation''s power was being condensed to unleash just one attack now. "Oh shit, it seems we''ve angered the heavens now." Sterlena''s face paled, rethinking her strategy. She then turned around, noticing that Krune had returned to his Wisp Form already. "Aren''t we stronger in our demon beast forms?" Krune grinned, displaying a hint of excitement at the scene. "I forgot you''ve been troubled by Little Cally throughout your life as well." Sterlena sighed before laughing jovially. "Well, screw it! The lightning this time is as slow as a turtle anyway. I can defend it easily." Somehow, her words seemed to have offended the heavens as the lightning dragons fused to become a gigantic turtle instead, one that slowly moved its head to glare at the two before opening its mouth. And from there, it unleashed a beam of tribulation energy, possessing enough power to annihilate any God Trial Realm cultivator. Boom! Chapter 1337 Lightning Wrath of Heavenly Turtle Chapter 1337 Lightning Wrath of Heavenly Turtle¡¡¡¡"Defend with all your might!" Krune shouted as he condensed a gigantic layer of ice by expending all his Godly Energy, also increasing the size of Pestlor to create a second layer. After that, he sent out a bolt of tribulation lighting using his Spiritual Mark, intending to weaken the beam of tribulation as much as he could. As for Sterlena, she exhausted her Godly Energy, infusing everything into Krune''s abilities, reinforcing them to the limit. In any case, strengthening them was better than erecting more barriers. After all, having a stronger barrier was necessary as compared to multiple barriers in such a scenario. Moreover, she had morphed the ice barrier in such a way that it would only give in after the entirety of it was destroyed. A hole couldn''t be poked through. So, this meant that the tribulation beam would have to fully overpower their defenses and absolutely destroy it before striking them. The two, in their demon beast forms, stared at the incoming attack as their faces were highlighted in blue by the tribulation. The tribulation lightning sent out by Krune was like someone taking a piss at a volcano. It vaporized before it could even touch the tribulation beam. "Any last words?" Sterlena gulped, staring at the attack solemnly. "I''ll name it the Lightning Wrath of Heavenly Turtle," Krune said in response, trembling as the attack closed in on them. Boom! The tribulation beam slammed into the layer of ice, spreading throughout as the ice began to crack immediately, even after dispersing the attack throughout itself. Within a second, the ice was wholly vaporized as Pestlor came into view, expanding to tens of kilometers in length, forming a massive sky to shoulder the attack. The tribulation beam bore through a hole from the face of the mortal part, boring through the pestle part before exiting from the handle end. From top to bottom, a perfect cylindrical bore had been created within the Pestlor as the tribulation beam arrived before the wisp and True Spirit. "Hahaha! Take this!" Suddenly, Sterlena shouted as a whale appeared before her. It resembled a killer whale but was wholly black as it opened its mouth, unleashing a suction force similar to a black hole, beginning to swallow the tribulation as if it was drinking water. It seemed even the heavens were surprised by her actions, as Sterlena had never displayed it before. The black killer whale devoured more than thirty percent of the tribulation beam before turning full as its body was no longer black but resembled the same color as the tribulation beam. It was a sign that it had devoured until its limit. Immediately after that, it vanished as the Cloud Whale took its place. As there was no clone within the subspace, it was Krune''s mission to begin comprehending the Tribulation Lightning Law Core. After all, the Pseudo-Wisps turned into clones only after a fragment of Little Krune burrowed into them. Currently, Little Krune was within the Cloud Whale. So, the task was left to him now as Krune began to comprehend it desperately. When the tribulation beam slammed into the Cloud Whale, a mysterious change erupted from within. There were tens of thousands of drops within its body, whose function was to enhance the perception of the laws to the cultivator that used them. And then there were the materials imbued with the Divine Sense Law, the manifestation of the law that lorded over the domain that every cultivator relied upon to sense things and practically execute every task as a cultivator. The Divine Sense Law materials fused into the drops, turning into a shell whose core was the Blank Law Core. Moving into this core was Little Krune, also possessing the Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark. Little Krune activated its Divine Sense, causing the Divine Sense materials to resonate since they were fragments chipped off from Krune''s Land Incarnation over a metal plate in the first place. Through the resonation in the materials, the Divine Sense reached the body of the Cloud Whale, forming a bond as the tribulation beam breached through everything, beginning to destroy through them. Using the destruction, all the items here formed a stronger connection as the Spiritual Mark within Little Krune unleashed tribulation lightning, slamming it into the Blank Law Core. At the same instant, both the tribulation beam and the tribulation lightning slammed into the Blank Law Core. It turned into an interesting phenomenon where part of the formed Law Core was Krune''s while the rest were the heaven''s. Since Krune was also comprehending the Tribulation Lightning Law Core in his subspace, a synergistic effect took place, actually melting everything in the Cloud Whale as a whole. "Ha¡­ haha!" Krune''s eyes lit up a second before the Cloud Whale was destroyed, laughing aloud in joy as the remainder of the tribulation beam slammed into him and Sterlena, causing them to roar in pain as their ethereal bodies were absolutely shredded. Followed by it were their cores that began to crack and vaporize accordingly, seemingly the beginning of their deaths. "Ho-Hold on!" Sterlena gasped for air as even her core, the toughest part of her body, was now on the verge of shattering apart. Krune''s Wisp Core was even worse, looking like it might fully evaporate any moment. She hurriedly shielded him, taking more of the damage as her core reached his state in a matter of seconds. Beyond that, both the cores barely held on, trying their best to resist the tribulation beam when eventually, it ended. The tribulation clouds had exhausted all the power in them and began to dissipate. Two cores, the Wisp Core and the True Spirit Core, slammed into the Cultivation Lotus, unresponsive as Godly Energy began to slowly swerve into them. Zamura had noticed something amiss, arriving at the scene to see two fragments of the cores, paling in response as he hurriedly inspected them, only to sigh soon after. "Alive¡­ but barely. They should be given time to heal." He hurriedly erected a barrier around the Cultivation Lotus, preventing anyone else from coming in the vicinity, giving the two cores enough time to eventually recover. "Damn, these death-seeking idiots." Chapter 1338 Key to the Supercontinent Chapter 1338 Key to the Supercontinent¡¡¡¡"Where¡­ am I?" Slowly, a small fragmented core muttered with a weak, groggy voice. "In heaven. You''ve died?" soon came another, slightly sharper groggy voice. "How¡­ did I die?" the small voice asked. "Breakfast," the sharper voice replied. "You forgot to make breakfast. That''s why." "Why didn''t I make breakfast?" The small voice regained some strength to speak fully. "Because you were spending time on stupid names," the sharper voice replied. "But, they weren''t stupid names," the small voice said in resistance. "Only if they come out of my mouth. Since you said it, they''re stupid names." The sharper voice snorted, displaying obvious displeasure. "Lightning Wrath of Heavenly Turtle is a stellar name, big sis," the small voice retorted. "You buffoon, it should have been Heavenly Wrath of the Lightning Turtle." The sharper voice cursed in response. "You really screwed up at that moment." "Names that start with Lightning are more impactful," the small voice said in displeasure. "Even if you''re my big sis, I won''t concede against you on this matter." "Huh? The tribulation was from the heavens. So, of course, the name should start with heaven," the sharper voice mocked the other''s intelligence. "But the attack was through lightning. So, it should have started with lightning¡­" The small voice raised its tone. "¡­guys¡­?" Zamura frowned as he stared as the two cores wrecked beyond recognition, jumping up and down on the Cultivation Lotus, arguing nonstop as their voice resounded like faint squeaks to Zamura. "Are you able to talk now?" Zamura asked, watching a weak ethereal body form on both the cores. "I need a lot of time to recover from this," Krune said, noticing that even his ethereal body was unstable, displaying the extent of his damage. Or rather¡­ "Good, there wasn''t any reaction from the both of you for three months now," Zamura said, sighing in relief. "I almost thought the two of you had died." It was apparent that they had blanked out completely from the tribulation to the extent they weren''t even aware of how long they had been asleep. "Our Land Incarnations are still intact. At most, we''ll revive and attempt our breakthrough a second time," Krune said, laughing in the process. "There''s still the Sub-Realm''s rewards that we can use to boost ourselves further." "That''s not possible anymore," Zamura told him, sighing. "It''s done." "What''s done?" Krune asked, confused. "The war''s done," Zamura replied. "You''re kidding, right? This isn''t something like breakfast. It''s war, WAR!" Krune retorted at the nonchalance Zamura used. "Once their Primal Gods reached the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm, the three continents surrendered," Zamura said, sporting a wry smile. "I lent Faunkill one of our Cultivation Lotuses to replenish the Godly Energy he used while attacking the three Emperors. When the rest of our Primal Gods defended against the attacks from their nine Primal Gods, he casually replenished his Godly Energy reserves before targetting four more Primal Gods." "But this time, he ensured the effect wasn''t displayed until he could replenish his Godly Energy. The last batch of Primal Gods were the weakest among the lot, so he targeted all five," Zamura said after that, sighing. "Following that was a scene of all the Primal Gods breaking into tears. And in their hurry, they took out their weapons to use¡­" Zamura said, suddenly sporting a smug expression. "Basically, we got some strong sect members from that." "Good for you." Krune rolled his eyes after hearing that. "So¡­what now?" "We''re waiting for the three continents to merge together. The process would actually take eighty years. In the meantime, we''re planning to recruit the mortals of the three continents into our ranks. That way, we''ll gradually win their hearts by then. Eighty years is more than enough time to bring everyone not an immortal from the three continents under our control." "In other words, Mountain Sect is the ruler of the three continents now," he continued. "Also, mom, Rumria, and Guria have already revealed themselves to the immortals from the three continents, convincing the immortals at the Semi-God Realm and the God Trial Realm to already join us." "What about the Elementary Gods?" Krune asked. "They are repeating their cultivation¡­" Zamura coughed. "Same goes for the God Trial Realm and Semi-God Realm cultivators that were too loyal to the three Emperors." "Thankfully, Faunkill has a no-kill policy. With Zela there, he''s under control. He has promised that he would reverse their cultivation once they fully accept to fall under the Mountain Sect''s rule," Zamura spoke. "But, we''re somewhat trampling on their culture and way of living. I feel bad about that," Krune said before hearing the raucous laughter of Zamura. "Rumria would be the representative of the Rumria Continent region in the formed supercontinent. Similarly, Guria and mom would take their respective roles." He laughed in response. "All three continents pretty much have the same culture as they are sister continents. We aren''t changing a damn thing." "Well, there just won''t be those three royal families. Instead, it''ll be the Mountain Sect at the top. Nothing else would change." He added, "Besides, this level of change is necessary since the continents themselves are changing." "Plus..." He said in anger, "Due to the war, all the resources throughout the three continents have been pillaged and stored in the capitals. That move damaged the foundation of the continents. If not for this merge, that damage would have continued to pile up. Had the war dragged on for another century, the damage would have become irreversible." ''Right, this guy''s more concerned about nature than people,'' Krune thought before nodding in response, supporting Zamura. The three Emperors had already damaged the continents too much due to the war. So it was time to rectify the changes. Thankfully, with the merge, the foundation would not only be restored but would also be elevated further to reach the level of a supercontinent. "Oh yeah, what about that Sub-Realm?" Having been silent all along, Sterlena asked. "Are we able to enter it yet? What about that key and the secret to reaching the God Realm?" "It seems the Sub-Realm itself is the key," Zamura replied. "So, it''ll merge into the three continents and use the entirety of its power to wholly elevate the fused region into a supercontinent." "As for the secret to reaching the God Realm¡­" Zamura smirked. "I already have it in my possession. Well, it''s currently sealed. So, everyone is waiting for the two of you to recover before unsealing it." Chapter 1339 The Ultimate Treasure Chapter 1339 The Ultimate Treasure¡¡¡¡"The power of healing!" a wisp shouted, displaying the charisma of a leader, bellowing with a magnetic voice that was powerful enough for everyone else from its race to follow it to death. After shouting in this way, the wisp¡­did nothing. Of course, it was Krune, recovering from the damage that he had sustained during his breakthrough. As he couldn''t even cultivate yet due to the damage sustained by his core, he could only passively wait for it to recover while absorbing the abundant Godly Energy. "Thanks, sis¡­" After some time passed, Krune said all of a sudden. "If you hadn''t sustained damage on my behalf, I would have died by now. That tribulation beam would have also shattered my Land Incarnations." "Don''t sweat the small stuff." Sterlena grinned before patting his back. "If you''re feeling grateful, why don''t you leave all the naming in the future to me?" "It seems I''ve mistaken something, big sis," Krune retorted in all seriousness. "I''m not feeling grateful, not in the least." "This brat¡­" Sterlena smacked his head before bickering nonstop with him. They were still in their demon beast forms and their ethereal bodies were weak, fluctuating all the time. So, it was a comical sight to watch them fight as their cores jumped up and down like popcorn seeds jumping from the heat. Time passed in such a fashion as days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months. Almost a year after their breakthrough, Krune and Sterlena had managed to recover completely. Their cultivation was still unstable, but Krune thought of stabilizing it gradually. Now that he thought of it, he had quickly reached a higher rank in cultivation. First Stage of the God Trial Realm! To think that before obtaining the rewards, he was only at the First Stage of the Semi-God Realm made him sigh. "If only we had more enemies to fight with." "This is anticlimactic." "At least, this is for the better," Zamura spoke. "We can focus on stabilizing our sect better and also increase the strength of our members as a whole by introducing them to body cultivation. Before the Mist Sect invades us, we have to be prepared." "At present, there are only seven Primal Gods in our sect," he continued. "In the grand scale of things, that''s insufficient. As for the twelve Primal Gods from the three continents, it doesn''t seem like they''re still at the Godly Fusion Realm." He sighed after that. "Until they accept to join us, they''ll remain at that stage. Though, it doesn''t seem like it would be possible soon, at least not until the Mist Sect''s invasion begins." "Anyway, leaving everything aside," Zamura said in excitement. "Let''s open the gift package. I''ve been waiting for a year. My patience is waning thin. I''ve been desperately holding myself back to not unseal it." "Haha." Sterlena laughed after hearing his honest statements, accompanying Krune and Zamura as they arrived at a deep location within the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm. There, all the Founding Elders and Elders were waiting in anticipation. "Uncle, are you alright?" Solare was the first to arrive before Krune, asking in concern. "You were pretty messed up by the tribulation this time." "I''m fine now." Krune condensed a pair of massive arms in his ethereal body, flexing the muscles that were shaped according to his wishes. He turned himself macho to the limit, grinning before taking on his human form. "Now that everyone is here¡­" Zamura said solemnly, watching the Primal Gods gulp in tension while the Elementary Gods stared with widened eyes. As for those in the God Trial Realm, they looked in anticipation while the Semi-God Realm cultivators treated it as a show. It was apparent that the closer they were to the peak, the greater their tension. After all, this was the reward that caused three continents to butt heads for two centuries. Slowly, Zamura fuelled the suspense, behaving really slow as he took out a cube from his storage ring. If not for the fact that it was the Pocket Ring they bought from the Sub-Realm in the Four Sectors'' Border Region, it wouldn''t have been possible to store this treasure within. A normal storage ring was incapable of storing it, even if it was a Nine Stars Primal God Realm storage ring. After dramatically taking it out, Zamura¡­ placed it back into the pocket ring. "¡­" The expectant eyes of everyone turned into glares at him, making fun of them. They had already waited a year, and now he was wasting even more of their time in suspense. "Do it before I kill you, brat!" Zamuria snorted, expressing killing intent. Zamura sweated in response as he no longer wasted time, unwilling to piss off everyone any further, even though he wished to tease them for at least another day longer. Sighing in disappointment, he took out the cube and began to unseal it, slowly watching each layer of seal light up in response before vanishing. There were thousands of seals on it, mysterious symbols that seemed to have been created by directly condensing countless laws. It was as if laws in their purest forms had been condensed just to create this seal. And there were thousands of such here. Zamura had only removed the first seal as a wave of Godly Energy burst out from the cube, startling everyone as the Semi-God Realm cultivators were caught off guard the most, being sent flying for a kilometer in response. "Keuk!" Solare grunted, feeling like a tsunami had hit him as he barely stopped after being sent flying for a kilometer. He hurriedly reoriented himself, noticing the Godly Energy emitting from the cube turn into waves that continued to push against him. The moment he tried to fly forward, he felt difficulty, as if he was going against the ocean currents that were intent on sweeping him away. He slowly managed to fly for a hundred meters before it started to become suffocating to move forward, causing him to look at the place to see all the Primal Gods and Elementary Gods not even budging an inch from their spots. As for the Founding Elders that were all at the God Trial Realm, they too were in the same spots as before, remaining like unmovable mountains. He then gazed at Krune''s figure, smiling as he muttered, "As expected of uncle. He''s damn strong. I should work harder." Chapter 1340 God Seat Chapter 1340 God Seat¡¡¡¡"Krune has grown stronger once again." Just as Solare intended to gather his strength and move forward, he heard a familiar voice from behind him. Turning around, he asked in surprise, "Aunt Seamstress, what are you doing here?" "I''m resting." The Seamstress smiled, patting her bulging stomach as she said, "I''m content with watching it from afar. It''s not safe for my child if I move into that sea of Godly Energy at present." "I think it''ll become even stronger from here on, aunt," Solare said, moving before the Seamstress to act as a shield. "I think it''ll get even stronger once more seals are removed. You should watch it from afar." "That''s the plan," the Seamstress said as she calmly gazed through the crowd of people gathered in the area, grinning as she whispered, "Boy, be honest with me. Do you see anyone to your fancy here?" "Anyone to my fancy?" Solare was confused for a moment before his face reddened in response. "Aunt, I''m still too young for that." "Young my ass." The Seamstress retorted, "You''re almost 150 years old. Most your age would have great-grandkids by now." "Ahaha." Solare smiled wryly, unable to retort to her. "I don''t fancy anyone yet." "Well, take your time." The Seamstress smiled, patting his shoulders, unwilling to pressure him. "But don''t take too long either." "Also..." She smiled as she continued, "Many pretty immortals from the three continents have joined us. This is the best time for you to court someone. Don''t miss this opportunity." "Aunt, can''t I just focus on that treasure?" Solare looked like he wanted to cry. "You can''t marry an object¡­" The Seamstress retorted before saying, "Well, if you have a preference, I''ll find you someone suitable." "I¡­uh¡­" Solare struggled to form words. It was usual for him, having been pampered a lot since the start. When they were in Layer 3¡ªDouble Ocean¡ªof the Sub-Realm, Krune and the Seamstress pampered him a lot, giving him the best passive skills to train with, not to mention a heap of resources to support himself with. Once he went to Layer 2, it was pretty much the same as the Seamstress casually gave him a pill that would bring his cultivation to the level of a Red Demon. After that, Feifei helped him reach the peak strength equivalent to a Black Demon. After arriving at Layer 1, it was Zamura and Zamuria that supported him. And once he arrived at the Mountain Sect, he had a whole group of uncles and aunties that doted on him. From the start, he had been carried by everyone, having not faced many hardships. Even when Krune and the Seamstress left him behind at Layer 3, they had already made him super strong. So, he didn''t face any problems even after that as he casually hunted terrifying creatures and grew stronger naturally, even going to the extent of wounding Gehen¡ªthe first King of Double Ocean. As he hadn''t experienced hardships, it was hard for him to relate with others. And in a similar fashion, he didn''t have a group that he journeyed with. In the Sect, he was treated as a young master and was alone among his peers. And now, upon seeing Zamura remove the second seal, he sighed, watching the wave of Godly Energy turn stronger, pushing him back by another ten meters. Slowly, he began to gather power, riling up his laws that began to combat the incoming Godly Energy waves, slowly beginning to fly forward. Upon seeing his figure continuing to stride forward, the Seamstress let out a helpless smile as she retreated, landing on a nearby floating island as she observed the action from there. There were hundreds of seals on the cube as it took a couple of minutes for Zamura to remove each. With every seal removed, the force of the exiting Godly Energy increased. "Thankfully, we moved to this barren corner," he muttered, removing the tenth seal, noticing that his hands had begun to mildly tremble as a result. All those at the Semi-God Realm were already a kilometer away at this point, unable to close in any longer. Slowly, Zamura began to remove more and more seals, with the exiting force of Godly becoming increasingly difficult to endure. Time passed in such a fashion as after almost a day from when he removed the first seal, Zamura had finally arrived at the finals seal, coughing out blood as it wasn''t able to endure, barely struggling as he unleashed all his strength to endure and remove the final seal. "Ugh!" Krune grunted, now twenty meters sway from Zamura, looking around to notice that even the Primal Gods had been moved a couple meters from their initial spots, displaying the sheer force of the exiting Godly Energy. However, at the moment Zamura removed the final seal, the Godly Energy waves stopped abruptly, causing the surroundings to turn calm as slowly, the cube in Zamura''s hands slowly vanished as a flat platform now hovered before him, slowly enlarging in size. It was cylindrical in shape, sporting a diameter of one meter and a height of 10 centimeters. It was nothing spectacular in terms of appearance, but it contained a mysterious, unfathomable aura. Upon gazing at it, Sterlena shuddered, muttering, "Impossible! How is it here? How is this possible?" "What is it, big sis?" Krune asked, watching the shocked expression of Sterlena. It seemed she was the only one able to recognize what the object before them was, having been the sole person here that had attempted to reach the God Realm before. "God Realm Foundation¡­" Sterlena muttered slowly, gathering her bearings as she regulated her emotions. "This is what a cultivator condenses after successfully breaking through to the God Realm. This is the manifestation of their Law, the sole Law that has now become theirs." "The Gods typically call this the God Seat," Sterlena spoke slowly, eyes widened as she was unable to break eye contact from the God Seat. "Currently, this God Seat is slowly dying after the respective God''s death. But, if there is someone who has the qualifications, they can claim it and reach the peak of the Primal God Realm immediately." "And soon after, they would turn into a God after fully fusing with this God Seat." Chapter 1341 Mountain Sect’s Unfathomable Foundation Chapter 1341 Mountain Sect¡¯s Unfathomable Foundation¡¡¡¡"Can anyone turn into a God using this God Seat?" Zamura asked, slightly confused. It seemed all the Primal Gods were also of the same mind. They had been scanning the God Seat using their Divine Sense but still failed to sense anything about it. It was an unnerving feeling, one that made their hearts palpitate, unable to determine just what it was and what it could do to them. "Actually, when you become a God, you turn into the very Law that represents you. So, as long as that law exists in the God Realm, you wouldn''t die," Sterlena explained. "And, there was only one incident where countless Gods either got injured or died." "When they tried to leave the God Realm," Krune continued where she left off, frowning. "Yes." Sterlena nodded in response. "Beyond the Four Realms is a chaotic space with swirling energies that makes it hard even for Primal Gods to stay alive for more than a few hours. So, only the Gods can freely venture through that space. But, that''s not possible." "That''s because..." She said solemnly, "When we become a God, we become the Law that turns into the God Realm''s foundation, and in turn, also elevates the foundation of the Four Realms. We become the functional blocks that sustain this place in the chaotic depths of space." "Think of the Four Realms as a piece of cloth with each God being the strand that makes it up," she explained. "So, leaving the Four Realms is not possible unless this entire strand is removed from the piece of cloth." "And in this case, it means reducing the foundation of the Four Realms to do so." She sighed as she said that. "So, when the Gods of the past tried to leave the God Realm, they ripped apart their entire Law from the God Realm but failed in the process." "That resulted in this vacant God Seat," Sterlena concluded. "Once a God extracts themselves from the God Realm, they are no longer an omnipotent being but just an insanely strong cultivator. When they suffered a backlash from trying to exit the place, the God Realm reclaimed the God Seat in order to recover its foundation." "It has lost some of its foundations but reclaimed a few thanks to the God Seats," she said, pointing at the God Seat. "So at present, this God Seat contains the Law of a God. The one that inherits it would automatically become a God." "However, that means we would be giving up on everything we''ve cultivated to date and would have to follow what that God cultivated, right?" Faunkill said, clearly not excited about that. After all, he was pretty prideful about his abilities and felt he had a fair shot at the God Realm as long as he made the necessary preparations. "That''s is true." Sterlena nodded in response. "You''ll lose everything you currently have. But in the end, you''ll gain control over a Law." She stressed further as she added, "Since this Law has already been extracted from the God Realm, it means there''s no one else in the God Realm that has comprehended this law. So, the moment you obtain it, you''ll become the sole owner and user of this Law." "Plus, you can simply spend more time to work on that Law and grow stronger. You''ll be damn weak in comparison to your fellow Gods, but you''ll still be a God nonetheless," she spoke. "I''ll pass," Zamura sighed as he said that. "I already have my own Law. I have a straight shot at becoming a God already." "I''m pretty much the forerunner in the Divine Sense Law, and I don''t wish to lose my abilities. So, I''ll pass as well," Krune said next. "I''ll pass." "I''ll pass as well." One by one, the immortals rejected it. It wasn''t as if they didn''t feel any greed. Then again, what they didn''t like was losing all the abilities they''ve spent tens of thousands of years developing and refining. Presently, their abilities pretty much summed up their life. If they were to give up on that, then it would be despairing indeed. There were a few reasons for this. First of all, they were immortals, perennials that could live for as long as they wished. So, they weren''t pressed for time. As long as they hadn''t exhausted their potential, they would still be able to reach the peak of the Primal God Realm and prepare for an attempt to become a God. But the prime reason was something entirely different. Had it been before, they would have been interested. After all, even if they would have to cultivate that God''s law from scratch after turning into a God. It was a lot of effort. But still, they would be a God, the pinnacle existence of the God Realm. Anywhere they went, they could lord over the region casually. It was just cultivating from scratch. They could do it again. It wasn''t an issue, especially since they''ll become a God. Plus, they could slowly go around the God Realm, planting their Spiritual Incarnation in various places to slowly integrate their respective Law back into the laws of the God Realm. That way, they would soon turn into an omnipotent being. Then, here was the reason for their refusal¡ªThe Mountain Sect! Body cultivation, Spiritual Marks; just these two held back their greed. After all, these two allowed them to amplify their power by many times, giving them a greater hope to be stronger and eventually, one fine day, attempt the final breakthrough to become a God. They didn''t wish to lose their body cultivation and Spiritual Marks, especially the Spiritual Marks that they had painstakingly obtained. Every Primal God had been furiously collecting items to refine and present to Feifei for their respective Spiritual Marks to be created. And that excited them the most, rather than becoming a God. These were their true thoughts. It was good and all, but when everyone, including the Semi-God Realm fledglings, had expressed their intentions to not inherit the God Seat, the atmosphere turned awkward. ''This is a God Seat for heaven''s sake.'' Sterlena sighed before smiling. ''Nevertheless, the fact that they have refused something of this caliber displays Mountain Sect''s true potential. You''ve established one monstrous sect, Krune.'' As everyone began to converse with one another about their thoughts, a voice resounded. "I''ll inherit the God Seat." In surprise, Krune turned to face the source of the voice, asking in shock, "Are you sure about this..." "Solare?" Chapter 1342 Spark in the Mind Chapter 1342 Spark in the Mind¡¡¡¡"Solare?" Even the Seamstress that was watching from afar was shocked at the decision he made. "You sure, kid?" Krune frowned as he tried to dissuade him. "You have two of the strongest among the strongest of passive skills, not to mention various other powers that hardly any among your peers can match with. Are you sure you want to sacrifice them all?" "I''m not sacrificing anything." Solare slowly flew forward until he arrived before the God Seat. "I¡­ actually cultivate this Law. It was what I obtained while climbing through Layer 1 of the Sub-Realm. Plus¡­" He gazed at Krune, surprising the other party as he continued, "I feel like this is pretty much the purpose of my birth. The abilities I''ve been born with, the Laws I''ve comprehended, and even the cultivation technique I obtained after climbing the Immortal Staircase are all preparations to this point." "This God Seat¡­" Solare struggled to speak, controlling his voice as he spoke, "Is the sole reason I was born. Both these Sub-Realms are linked to those five Gods. So, that''s what I feel. I wouldn''t be losing any of my abilities if I were the one to integrate with this God Seat." "I''m fine with it if that''s what you''re feeling." Krune smiled before patting his shoulder. "It''s a good thing actually that you can inherit this without losing your innate powers." "I just feel¡­that¡­" Solare''s eyes reddened as he said, "I''ve been getting a lot of rewards without doing anything for it. I feel guilty." "You don''t have to," Krune grinned in response. "Once you obtain the God Seat, I''ll work you to the bone. Even if I don''t do it, Zamura is a slave worker. He''ll make you work until you regret growing strong." "Hey, I''m not that bad," Zamura retorted, feeling offended at being labeled as such. "I haven''t even obtained much rest recently. And the only reason I was free for the past year was that my core was in shambles." Krune snorted, shutting up Zamura. He then gazed at Solare, slapping his back as he said, "So yeah, don''t worry about it and just get it. You''ll be a historical idiot if you miss this opportunity." "Then again, if you''re feeling forced, just leave it be." He smiled, saying, "You''ll become strong either way. Just leave the rest to me." "Thanks, uncle." Solare sighed before smiling in response, eyes firmed as he spoke, "I''m ready to inherit it." "Go for it!" Krune grinned, taking a step back. Feeling courage at Krune''s encouragement, Solare solemnly extended his hand and touched the God Seat. "I''ll accept you!" However, a second later, his solemn expression changed into one of tears as the God Seat didn''t do anything. Nothing happened at his words, causing him to feel awkward, tearing up when Sterlena burst into laughter. "I''ll accept you!" Sterlena laughed, imitating his actions as she rolled around in the air. "U-Uncle¡­" Solare gazed at Krune, only to see the other party trying his absolute best to sport a straight face as his facial muscles convulsed before soon; he was unable to endure anymore, also bursting out into laughter. "You''ll¡­ have to make contact with it through Divine Sense," Sterlena laughed as she explained. "Also, it''s not an instantaneous process. You''ll need a lot of time to fully accept it and fuse with it. With your puny cultivation, it''ll take decades just to fuse with it, not to mention harness its power." Solare slowly extended his Divine Sense, making contact with the God Seat as a burst of Godly Energy swarmed everyone, sending everyone flying, including the Primal Gods. And in the center of this Godly Energy rush was Solare, unaffected as he slowly but steadily formed a connection with the God Seat. The God Seat began to dissipate alarmingly slowly as minute particles of it flowed into Solare''s body, causing him to grunt in response as he began to accept it. The influx of Godly Energy also began to elevate his cultivation as within a couple of hours, he broke through a stage in the Semi-God Realm. His cultivation began to increase at a rapid pace as the God Seat continued to fuse into him. "I see. It indeed seems perfectly suited to him." Sterlena had been observing all along, commenting once she understood the cause, turning around to look at Krune. "I think you''ve just been made into a nanny by those five Gods." "Now that I think about it, I finally understand why they were supporting our sect so much by allowing new recruits to buy Godly Veins from them and transport them to us." Sterlena nodded, arriving at a conclusion as she gazed at Solare. "I feel like the entirety of the purpose of these two Sub-Realms was just to bolster Solare and make him worthy enough to accept this God Seat." "I see, that makes sense." Krune nodded in understanding, recalling Gegrafikan''s words as he spoke, "The greater the number of Gods in the God Realm, the stronger our foundation. This also prevents those from beyond the Four Realms from targeting us easily. The Four Realms would become more stable as a result, creating a beneficial cycle." "And usually, the Abolition Tower takes action when things beneficial to the Four Realms happen¡­" Upon arriving at this train of thought, Krune turned alert, instantly unleashing his Divine Sense, activating the Divine Sense Law to the utmost limit as he scanned through everyone, alerting the immortals that managed to sense him. Mental Energy! He riled it up to the limit, rapidly proceeding through the thoughts of everyone in his surroundings when suddenly, he noticed something amiss. It was just a thought, a simple spark. Normally, he wouldn''t have thought anything amiss about this. After all, it wasn''t anything special other than a thought about the foundation of the Four Realms. However, he immediately noticed an issue here. It was because one of his clones had become a member of the Abolition Tower before and had exploded. The thoughts related to the Four Realms were in the mind of that clone. But as he was aware of the secrets related to the Four Realms, Krune hadn''t paid it much heed. But now, the same thought sparked in the minds of this cultivator, alarming Krune. That''s because the other party wasn''t supposed to be aware of this piece of information since Krune had pretty much seen him grow up from a baby. His eyes widened in shock, fear, and sadness as Krune shouted to his utmost limit, "Solaaareee!" After all, the one that turned victim to the Abolition Tower was none other than Solare. Chapter 1343 Battlefield on Two Fronts Chapter 1343 Battlefield on Two Fronts¡¡¡¡Once Solare finished fusing with the God Seat, even though his cultivation wouldn''t reach the God Realm, he would still become a powerhouse. It was only a matter of time before he became a God and spread his Law throughout the Four Realms, further strengthening its foundation. So, the importance of Solare to the God Realm itself was high now. With that, he was the perfect target for the Abolition Tower. Once he was killed while in the process of fusing with the God Seat, not only would he die, but it would also cause the God Seat to be destroyed. Krune didn''t know the reason why his clone was targeted in the infant supercontinent before. However, he was aware that either his clone or the couple it accompanied there had chanced upon something important. That was why the clone became a member of the Abolition Tower there and exploded, burying whatever important secret existed there, or whatever one of the three would have derived upon or created based on the experience from that journey. It was permanently buried. Now, the Abolition Tower was doing the same to Solare. In any case, the spark in his mind seemed to be the trigger. "Not him, fuckers! I''ll screw up the lot of you if you dare harm Solare!" Krune bellowed in rage as he summoned all his power, unleashing his Mental Energy to the limit as he arrived before Solare, gushing everything into him. The Mental Energy flowed into Solare''s mind, instantly creating a barrier around the thoughts that were now enveloped by the spark, isolating it from the rest of his mind. The spark seemed powerful as it was like an explosion, intending to engulf everything in Solare''s mind as Krune grunted in response, noticing his Mental Energy being expended at an alarming rate. He converted the entirety of the energy in his body into Mental Energy, including Little Krune''s. On top of that, all the Godly Energy unleashed by the Cultivation Lotus in his subspace was directly absorbed by his Deific Meridians, instantly converted into Mental Energy before being used by Krune. There was a tremendous volume of Godly Energy condensed within his subspace as the Cultivation Lotus was unleashing it constantly. And now, he was harnessing everything as Little Krune arrived at the city of Galki here, fusing into the altar there as its essence changed. Krune''s voice resounded throughout the city soon after. "Pray!" The Galki immediately rushed out of their houses and headed towards the altar, kneeling before it as they began to pray. A mysterious, formless energy manifested around them that flowed into the altar, which then resonated with the subspace itself as they were connected. Then, Krune actuated that power, focusing it on the spark that seemed on the verge of bursting out of the bubble he had created in Solare''s mind. Slowly, as the seconds spanned past, Krune began to absorb the power that was behind the spark as the altar in the subspace changed. A minute later, after absorbing enough power, the altar shone with a resplendent hue, transferring all the accumulated power into a Blank Law Core, causing it to change into that respective essence. The moment the Blank Law Core was hit by that beam, it morphed, turning ethereal, unable to interact with anything. Krune was absolutely shocked to see that Divine Sense wasn''t even able to sense anything in that spot. Fortunately, Krune was aware that the Law Core was still at the same place. Since this was within his subspace, he was aware of its existence, even though it had already vanished from all his senses. He used Divine Sense but failed to find it. He used Mental Energy but failed to find it. He used Sonic Radar, but the situation was still the same. Even after using all three of his detection abilities, he failed to sense anything, causing him to become worried. "Dammit! Feifei! Zamura! Big sis! What the hell are you waiting for?" Krune shouted. "It''s the goddamn Abolition Tower!" He then shouted at Feifei, telling her, "Mental Energy is barely effective here. I''m barely holding it at bay using Mental Energy. Find a solution." He then opened his subspace after that. "It''s in my subspace. Enter it, hurry up before I cannot endure anymore. Also, send in all the Cultivation Lotuses. All the Godly Energy I''ve stored up is being expended rapidly!" "I''ll do it," Sterlena said as her figure vanished, soon returning with the two Cultivation Lotuses their sect had, entering the subspace with the rest. Krune then pointed at the location where the Blank Law Core was in the subspace before disappearing. "I can feel that it''s still there. Find a method to make contact with it. As long as you comprehend it even the slightest, we''ll be able to save Solare. Otherwise, he''ll explode and destroy the entire Mountain Sect." "Let''s hurry," Zamura said as he riled up all his laws, frowning as he tried his best but was unable to sense anything in the location Krune had pointed at. "See the altar for reference. It''s accumulating a bit more of the essence from that spark in Solare''s mind." Krune''s voice resounded throughout the subspace as everyone focused on it. However, except for Feifei, no one else was able to sense anything. "I''ll teach everyone soul cultivation," Feifei said, hurriedly imparting Zamura and Sterlena the soul cultivation technique, causing them to immediately feel Mental Energy. Nevertheless, they had just begun to cultivate it and hence were still unable to feel anything despite everything. "I''ll use a Blank Law Core!" Feifei shouted as she unleashed her Mental Energy into a Blank Law Core, causing it to slowly change forms as it emanated a suffocating pressure, one that caused difficulty for the three immortals. "As I suspected, Mental Energy also has a Law." Feifei nodded before urging everyone, "Let''s try to comprehend it as soon as possible!" Little Krune arrived beside them, inhabiting a Pseudo-Wisp as it also began to comprehend the mysterious law. He hadn''t expected even Mental Energy to conform to a law. Since Divine Sense Law existed, it was apparent that Mental Energy had one as well. Then again, he hadn''t thought about it in his busy schedule. "Please work¡­" This was the thought in the minds of everyone as Krune was slowly losing ground within Solare''s mind. Chapter 1344 Save Him! Chapter 1344 Save Him!¡¡¡¡"Damn it. How long?" Krune grunted, noticing that Solare''s mind was becoming more and more unstable as time passed. All the memory fragments in his mind were swirling towards the Mental Energy bubble, slamming into it from time to time. Even though they were Solare''s own memory fragments, currently, the mysterious spark within the Mental Energy bubble was slowly affecting them, influencing them to move against the bubble. Once the Mental Energy bubble was destroyed, the spark would be able to instantly influence the rest of his mind and instantly turn Solare into a member of the Abolition Tower. By the time that becomes a reality, Solare would use the entirety of his being to explode. Now that he had formed a connection with the God Seat, his foundation had become enormous. It was now an incomparably vast foundation, akin to a mighty ocean. When everything was combusted to result in an explosion, the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm and the Mountain Sect would be obliterated, with not even a single stone of it remaining. Plus, the blast radius would continue forth, possibly engulfing the continents of Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria. It may even expand further. After all, this God Seat consisted of the entirety of the Law that the previous God possessed. It was created after extracting the respective Law from the entirety of the God Realm and even the lower three Realms. So, the entirety of this law had been extracted from the Four Realms to create this God Seat in preparations to leave the Four Realms. When that God had failed, they died, but the God Realm somehow managed to reclaim their God Seat. As long as Solare inherited it properly, it would recover the foundation of the Four Realms. But now, this also meant that the God Seat was the strongest bomb one could create. It would be stronger than what would happen if a God became a member of the Abolition Tower. After all, their Law would be spread throughout the Four Realms. So, the explosion would also be dispersed. It would surely weaken the foundation of the Four Realms but wouldn''t impact it severely. But now, if this God Seat were to explode, it would directly puncture a hole through the fabric of reality and create a hole that would lead out into the chaotic space beyond. That would become a permanent injury worse than the swirling mass in the God Realm that could be witnessed from all corners of it. Those beyond the Four Realms would also be able to easily invade through it and destroy it as a whole. So, a lot of things were riding stake here. They couldn''t just abandon the place or chuck Solare to some corner in the God Realm and leave the problems to occur somewhere else. If they failed here, they would never be able to recover in the future. On top of that, from the moment he was born, it was Krune that took care of Solare. Even though Solare was heavily pampered, it was his soft character that caused others to wish to pamper him further. So, there was no way in hell Krune would allow anything to happen to Solare, not under his watch, not before his very eyes. The three Cultivation Lotuses in his subspace unleashed a torrent of Godly Energy that was entirely absorbed by him, turned into Mental Energy as he poured it into the Mental Energy bubble, struggling to keep the spark under control. While doing so, he was able to notice that the spark was accumulating power mysteriously, combating his Mental Energy. Plus, it seemed that over time, he would be defeated. Even now, the Mental Energy bubble was slowly turning weaker despite the torrent of Mental Energy he was pouring into it. That wasn''t all. Even Tina had arrived at the scene and entered his subspace, generating a torrent of Mental Energy surpassing the three Cultivation Lotuses. It only caused him to gain the upper hand temporarily before, eventually, Krune''s face paled once more. The spark was slowly pushing him back once again. By the looks of it, its growth in power was beyond what he could handle as it was accelerating. Krune focused on the subspace, noticing that Feifei, Zamura, and Sterlena were working to their utmost, multitasking as they were comprehending the Mental Energy Law while also working on probing the mysterious Law Core in an effort to understand the power of their enemy and device a countermeasure for it. However, they needed time to do that, time that they didn''t have at hand. As he stared at their snail-paced progress and at the accelerating growth of the spark in Solare''s mind, Krune''s face trembled, recalling the scene in Layer 3 of the Sub-Realm in the Four Sectors Border Region. The bloody figure of a woman swam through the waters, severely injured, barely able to prolong her life due to the innate healing effect present within the water. Being carried in her hand was the baby figure of Solare. Sheer determination was what willed her to move, move to survive her pursuers, move to find someone to entrust her child with. And finally, when she looked at Krune, she felt that she was able to trust him with her son. Even though Krune wasn''t willing to take care of Solare at first as that was annoying, the moment he heard the cries of the baby that was drowning in the water, he couldn''t remain detached any longer. He had picked up Solare, and that was when he decided to bring him up. Even though it was annoying, Krune didn''t mind it much. Or rather, him having to take care of Solare was what kept the final strand of his sanity intact. Otherwise, he would have gone insane. After that, he watched Solare grow up, spending the first twenty years of their lives together. After that, Solare went through his own journey before returning to the Mountain Sect. To be honest, Krune had already begun to see Solare as his son, even though they weren''t blood-related. But now, at the thought that he would die, tears streamed out of Krune''s eyes as he gritted until blood leaked out of his lips. "Fuck this!" He faced the sky as the nerves on his neck bulged as he accumulated the peak of his power, infusing it into his Sonic Radar until his throat exploded, bellowing at his utmost, "Luvile! You fucker! Come here!" Boom! The skies of the Mountain Sect were instantly filled with tribulation lightning after that. Chapter 1345 Arrival of The God of Tribulations Chapter 1345 Arrival of The God of Tribulations¡¡¡¡Boom! Bam! Kaboom! Tribulation lightning filled the entirety of the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm''s skies, alarming everyone living there. After all, the power was beyond what they had hoped. "Good heavens¡­" Zualin muttered as his eyes widened in shock. "That''s¡­ the God of Tribulations!" All the lightning bolts converged together to form a humanoid figure that turned into a bolt of lightning before appearing before Krune. It was Luvile! Normally, they would have chatted a bit since they had a long history. But upon seeing Krune''s pained expression, witnessing the level of helplessness and desperation he was experiencing, Luvile didn''t do any of that. "What happened?" he asked seriously. "The Abolition Tower¡­" Krune said, pointing at Solare before continuing, "He was fusing with a God Seat when the Abolition Tower took action. Currently, there''s a spark within his mind that I''ve sealed using Mental Energy. That''s the source of the power those Abolition Tower bastards are using. I can''t hold it at bay for long using my Mental Energy. Do something about it!" "I understand the situation," Luvile said before using Mental Energy to probe through Solare''s mind, soon noticing the spark trapped within the Mental Energy bubble. "I see, so this is the Abolition Tower''s Spark. There''s finally a lead after so long." "Can you do something about it?" Krune asked in a hurry. "Let''s not hurry things." Luvile raised his hands, motioning for Krune to calm down. "If we were to extract it from this child''s mind, the Spark would explode and infect all of us. Even I won''t be able to save everyone in that case." "Besides..." Luvile suddenly waved his hand, activating five laws as he said, "You guys should also come here." Instantly, the skies of the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm lit up with five different energy fluctuations as five ethereal figures appeared, surprised at being summoned all of a sudden, that too by the God of Tribulations. "What happened¡­ Luvile?" The one in the lead, sporting the appearance of a basketball, asked. Though, the basketball didn''t continue speaking, hurriedly noticing Solare''s condition as it shouted in alarm, "What the hell is happening to Solare?" "Obviously, the Abolition Tower took action." Luvile snorted. "Since you had been planning for his revival all along, you should be aware of the risks involved, especially considering the attacks that we''re facing recently. Isn''t that why you''re merging a lot of continents to create supercontinents?" "The Abolition Tower¡­ damn it!" the basketball grunted in anger before assuming a humanoid form. It was like a basketball had taken a humanoid shape. Surprisingly, its appearance remained the same. "Besides, thanks to Krune here, the Abolition Tower''s Spark has been trapped. This would help us analyze them better since it''s a pretty huge Spark." The humanoid basketball was surprised at Luvile''s words before using its Divine Sense to probe through Solare''s mind, using a couple of Laws to observe that the Spark indeed existed. "So, this is their Spark. To think it actually existed." The humanoid basketball nodded before slowly speaking, "Tell everyone to clear this place. I''ll activate my second Law. That''s the only way to analyze their Spark." "Are you sure you can handle it?" Luvile asked in worry. "It''s not something we can even handle. You''ll be destroying your foundation the more you use it." "It''s fine." The humanoid basketball nodded as he said in response, "I''m able to handle the backlash better recently. Besides, after so many millennia, we''ve finally managed to bring Solare to this stage. We definitely can''t waste this opportunity. He''s too valuable." "I see, so you''ve managed to bring him back." Luvile nodded, surprised as he asked, "How did you manage it?" "When even you vanished, the God Realm was at its most vulnerable state. We had to do everything to ensure the Gods reincarnated. Of course, that was easier said than done. All we could gather were fragments of their mind, soul, consciousness, basically anything that hadn''t been corrupted or destroyed by that incident." The humanoid basketball sighed. "To emphasize again, that was easier said than done." "We weren''t able to gather much and had to make do with what we had at hand. Thankfully, Wally had helped us by scouring through the Four Realms for any fragment of the killed Gods that remained. He had collected them for us. Though..." The humanoid basketball shook its head as he said, "Wally vanished after that. We don''t know what he''s doing any longer. All modes of communication we had to reach him no longer work." "Are you sure we''ll be able to probe through their secrets better if you use your second law?" Luvile asked, double-checking as he knew the risks it posed. "Wait, before that..." Krune suddenly interjected. "I used a technique to steal part of that Spark''s power and use it to change a Blank Law Core." "You captured a part of the Spark''s power?" Luvile was shocked before asking, "Where is it?" "In my subspace. I''m unable to touch it after that, though. I can just sense its position since it''s in my subspace. The others are trying to work on it, but we''re lacking time," Krune said, opening the entrance to his subspace as he gritted his teeth. "Whatever you do, make it quick. I can''t last beyond two minutes." "I''ll help you." Luvile used his Mental Energy to reinforce the Mental Energy bubble, rapidly strengthening it to the extent the Spark was unable to do anything anymore, displaying his great power. "Keep the entrance open." Saying so, Luvile entered the subspace, arriving before the pointed place as he noticed Feifei seated nearby, sweating in tension as she riled up her Spiritual Incarnation to the limit. "L-Luvile?" Upon seeing him, she shouted in shock before feeling relief. "Thank goodness, you''re here." "Glad to see you again, Feifei." Luvile nodded before focusing on the place Krune pointed at. Lightning flickered in the region instantly before the figure of a Law Core was gradually outlined, "I see, a Law Core. Even if it had been a split-second decision, you''ve done splendid, Krune." Luvile was all praises as he slowly arrived before the Law Core, gently touching it as it gritted his teeth, struggling to lift it despite him being a God. "You''ve done well." "Now, let me take care of things." Chapter 1346 Chaotic Beings Chapter 1346 Chaotic Beings¡¡¡¡"Krune, how many times are you able to do that stealing technique?" Luvile asked. "Usually, I can do it once a week," Krune replied, making Luvile focus on the city in the subspace. "It basically depends on the race of Galki living here. After a single prayer session, depending on the level of power I steal, they need longer intervals of rest." "But right now," Krune said after observing their exhausted states. "It might take even longer. A single prayer session to steal part of the Spark''s power already took a severe toll on their minds." "Hmm¡­" Luvile thought for a minute before gazing at the Law Core, saying, "There''s a reason the enemies are able to target us while we''re sitting ducks." "And that''s due to the Gods that had died in the past," he continued. "When they died, part of their God Seats fell in the hands of the beings from beyond the Four Realms. They used that to understand our power structure and devised a means to infiltrate the God Realm and slowly destroy us from within." "And since we don''t even have a speck of understanding about them, we aren''t able to observe them," Luvile said. "It''s not like their attacks are mysterious. We just can''t sense them as we lack understanding about their power system." "Then¡­" Krune''s eyes lit up as he gazed at the Law Core in Luvile''s hands, saying, "That Law Core is our answer to this." "Indeed." Luvile nodded before gazing at the humanoid basketball, asking, "Why don''t you guys bring out all the Blank Law Cores in your possession? Contact the other Gods as well and ask them to look through their inventory. The higher leveled the Blank Law Core, the better it is for us." "Hmm¡­ we do have a few that we prepared for Solare," the humanoid basketball muttered. "Alright, we''ll use them. I''ll look for more Blank Law Cores after this." Luvile then looked at Krune and said, "Until then, I''ll ensure Solare remains safe. This is the only chance we have to understand more about our enemies. So, instead of eliminating the Spark, we''ll try to make as many Blank Law Cores as we can out of it." "That''s fine by me." Krune nodded, slowly healing his throat as he relaxed. Now that Luvile was here, things were under control. It was not to mention there being five other Gods to ensure nothing amiss happened. With that, Luvile instantly erected a lightning cocoon, perfectly wrapping it around Solare and the God Seat that was still fusing into him. "This way, he''ll be protected." Luvile then looked around, probing through the cultivations of everyone in the Mountain Sect, nodding in surprise. "This is quite the impressive sect you''ve made here." "Mountain Sect, right?" "You could easily find out about that from the minds of everyone here, haha," Krune smirked, noticing Luvile''s eyes widen in surprise. "To think you''ve already reached such a level in using Mental Energy. Even Heavin would be surprised." Luvile then asked, "What level has your Soul Cultivation reached?" "First Stage God Trial Realm." Krune smirked in reply, noticing Luvile''s confusion as he explained, "My Soul Cultivation is no longer separate. That and my body cultivation has been integrated into my main cultivation. So, as long as I cultivate normally, both would also develop accordingly. That''s what my new cultivation technique does." "A new cultivation technique?" Luvile was pleasantly surprised once again. "You''re no longer using the Myriad Wisps Technique?" "Nope, the one I''m cultivating is called the Deific Wisp Technique. Plus, my meridians have become Deific Wisp Meridians," Krune replied. "If we''re only comparing, then my Deific Meridians is inferior to the Godly Meridians. However, its advantage lies elsewhere." Grinning, he slowly emitted Godly Energy from his palm, instantly changing it to Mental Energy before morphing it into the energy of the body. "I can instantly convert one energy form to another. So now, all three cultivation paths are integrated into one in my body. This is where my strength lies." "Three paths into one, impressive." Luvile nodded as he gazed at the humanoid basketball, asking, "Is this what you''ve been doing all this time, Hishe?" "Yes." Hishe, the humanoid basketball, nodded. "Currently, cultivation has three paths of body, dantian, and soul. However, we''ve only been focused on the dantian. None are even aware of the fact that two other cultivation paths exist. Ever since Soren created Soul Cultivation, I''ve been experimenting with Body Cultivation." "Once I''ve completed it, I created Sub-Realms throughout the God Realm to train the younger generation and make them stronger." Hishe then looked at Krune and said, "And among them all, the Mountain Sect is the one that had obtained my complete inheritance. They''re now able to engage in Body Cultivation without any problems and make it a mainstream path." "It seems you''ve endured too much." Luvile sighed in sadness. "If only we weren''t so foolish back then¡­" "There''s no use beating ourselves up on the actions we took in the past." Hishe nodded, continuing, "Our goal currently is to heal and strengthen the God Realm as much as possible. Because, once we fall, the remaining three Realms would collapse instantly." "That is true. The majority of the Laws of the Four Realms are concentrated in the God Realm." Luvile nodded before suddenly, his head swerved around, looking at a certain person in alarm, "You are¡­?" He felt like the other party was familiar but unfamiliar at the same time. It was a strange feeling since he could feel the suffocating strength the other party possessed. "Ah, I forgot to introduce everyone." Little Krune stood up before pointing at Sterlena, saying, "This is Sterlena, an ex-Primal God and a True Spirit." "True Spirit¡­" Luvile nodded, finally understanding something. "I see, so there were still some True Spirits in the God Realm." "No," Sterlena shook her head, gazing at Luvile as she spoke, "I pretty much went on a journey similar to you before reaching the God Realm once again." "I see." Luvile nodded before asking, "Had you been a God, then I would have known about you. Your strength is infinitesimally close to us. But still, you feel familiar to me." "That''s because you obtained enlightenment about Tribulation Lightning on my grave," Sterlena replied. Chapter 1347 Comprehending the Foreign Law Chapter 1347 Comprehending the Foreign Law¡¡¡¡"That''s because you obtained enlightenment about Tribulation Lightning on my grave." The moment Sterlena said her piece, the atmosphere turned strange as Luvile stared at her in shock and confusion before finally uttering, "So you mean to say¡­the place I obtained enlightenment was where you died?" "Pretty much." Sterlena nodded, "When I attempted the final tribulation, due to intervention from both the Calamity Laws and the Abolition Tower, I was killed. And the place I attempted that was reduced to dust but also accumulated a lot of essence regarding Tribulation Lightning. It was just that there wasn''t anyone living in the supercontinent anymore, so none were aware of it." "Indeed, it was that place where I first found out that somehow, I was able to comprehend tribulation lightning." Luvile nodded, "It makes sense now. The laws of the God Realm there were beyond repair so the restriction that prevented cultivators from comprehending Tribulation Lightning Law had been destroyed." Luvile''s eyes suddenly lit up as he stared in confusion, "Wait, you mentioned Calamity Laws?" "Yes," Sterlena nodded, pointing at Krune, "It was troubling me before switching over to Krune." "That''s a lot to take, even for me." Luvile sighed as he looked at Sterlena, formally introducing himself, "I''m Luvile, the God of Tribulations." "I''m Sterlena." "And this is Zamura." Krune said, pointing at the figure of Zamura, "He''s the Sect Master of Mountain Sect." ''Krune isn''t the Sect Master?'' Luvile was shocked before taking a second glance at Zamura, probing the other party''s strength when he noticed a pure Law in his body, "A pure Law?" "A pure law?" Hishe was surprised as he used his divine sense to probe Zamura, also noticing the pure law within, "Hahaha, to think a new Law had been produced." "It was stored in the hilt of a sword. So, I don''t think it was a new Law." Zamura said. "No, I''m sure it''s a new Law." Hishe said, "It''s because the amount present within you is the entirety of it in the God Realm. So, it''s entirely yours. And secondly, the hilt should probably a weapon of one of the Gods that were used to break out from the God Realm." "After the failure, it was damaged beyond repair. But surprisingly, some of the materials within evolved, absorbing all the essence from the weapon to condense a Law within after absorbing some of the fragments that were resulted from our action of leaving the God Realm." Hishe made a connection immediately. "The hilt should have regressed to become nothing special, but it was slowly nurturing a Law within for all this time." Hishe said, gazing at Zamura, "You''ve lucked out, kid. Not only did you chance upon a new Law, but it also seems strong." "You have a straight shot at surviving the final tribulation." Hishe grinned, feeling excited, "With more Gods arriving, it''ll turn our situation better." Time passed in such a fashion as the five Gods camped at the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm, casually conversion as they turned their figures invisible, unwilling to overwhelm the minds of the Sect members. After all, even seeing one God was too much for the usual cultivator to bear, not to mention seeing six at the same time. Only people like Krune were nonchalant. After all, Luvile lived in him for two centuries. Little Krune continued to comprehend the Mental Energy Law as he slowly began to understand more and more about its mysteries, noticing his abilities being strengthened as a result. Zamura and Sterlena looked like they were enlightened as they embarked on soul cultivation, learning of its various mysteries, entering a brand new path of cultivation. Eventually, they used up the Mental Energy Law Core, noticing that the comprehension of each had reached the peak of the Nascent God Realm. Normally, it should have reached the Semi-God Realm, but since they were sharing the Mental Energy Law Core, the limit of comprehension they could attain had lowered. "We''ll use another Blank Law Core." Little Krune said, infusing Mental Energy into a Semi-God Realm Blank Law Core, turning it into a Mental Energy Law Core. After that, all four began to comprehend it, eventually raising their comprehension to the Semi-God Realm. With that, their understanding of various things had increased. As Zamura and Sterlena had just embarked on Soul Cultivation, they didn''t have much Mental Energy to use and experiment with. Feifei had a tremendous reserve that she was able to bank upon to practice and put to use what she had attained now. As for Krune, his cultivation was perfectly attuned to it, allowing him to wield his newfound comprehension to greater extents. "Now, let us all comprehend this first to obtain he gist of things." Luvile said, having been working on the Law Core to ensure it could be interacted with using divine sense. He had just completed the preparations. Six Gods, Krune, Zamura, Feifei, and Sterlena sat around the Law Core, slowly touching it with their respective divine senses as they began to understand just what the heck it was. The moment his divine sense touched it, Krune felt like he had been shocked by tribulation lighting as his mind seared in pain. "Keuk!" Feifei grunted, feeling her eyes turning cloudy as a result. As for Zamura and Sterlena, they were unable to endure, falling unconscious immediately. The only reason Krune and Feifei hadn''t fallen unconscious was thanks to their Mental Energy shielding their minds from exhaustion. But in an instant, their Mental Energy was depleted, putting them on the verge of unconsciousness. Four among the five Gods grunted in pain but they still managed to endure for a dozen seconds. As for Hishe, he seemed unfazed, calmly comprehending the respective law as his forehead was slightly filled with sweat. Luvile too was grunting, managing to last for a few minutes before he was unable to endure any longer. "What the heck is this? Why is it so hard?" Krune felt a massive migraine as he replenished his energy reserves, converting it into Mental Energy to heal his mind. "It''s not something that we''re supposed to understand in the first place. So, that''s why it''s this hard." Luvile said, "After all, it''s not a Law part of our cultivation system." Chapter 1348 Enemy in Their Midst Chapter 1348 Enemy in Their Midst¡¡¡¡Krune rested for an entire fay before he managed to heal his mind. After that, he took in a deep breath before extending his divine sense to touch the Law core, grunting after a second had passed as he was in a pool of his own sweat. It was hard to focus for a moment as intense sense of exhaustion enveloped him, making him wish he could just close his eyes and rest. But, that wasn''t an option, as he knew he would fall unconscious for a long time if he closed his eyes at this moment. Godly Energy was absorbed into his Deific Meridians from his subspace, instantly turned into Mental Energy that gushed into his mind, healing him to a certain extent before he could sigh in exhaustion. "How''s it going for you, Luvile?" He asked. "Not good," Luvile shook his head, "I haven''t been able to comprehend it for long enough. At present, I''m not even properly scratching the surface. Only Hishe is making any leads." "Heuk!" After a day, Hishe grunted in exhaustion as his body turned weak. His figure morphed from a humanoid basketball to a humanoid straw model. He sighed, staring at Luvile to speak, "It''s damn scary to be frank." "Is that Law dangerous?" Luvile asked, "Will understanding it hinder our growth?" "It will¡­" Hishe said, gazing at his trembling hands, "Since my second Law is from beyond the Four Realms, I''m able to somewhat endure this. But I''m crippling myself every time I attempt to use it. Anyway, stop once you obtain a basic understanding of it, just enough to deal with it. If you go beyond that, it''ll do more harm than good." "What does this Law do?" Luvile asked, curious as to what the laws from beyond the Four Realms consist of. "It''s the law of explosion." Hishe said, shocking everyone. "What? This is the Law of Explosion?" Luvile frowned, "Impossible! I have comprehended a bit of the Law of Explosion before. So, I know this isn''t it." "You misunderstand." Hishe shook his head before explaining, "The Laws are the same everyone. It''s just that their structure and composition is entirely different." "There should be a Tribulation Lightning Law in whatever Realm this Law is from. But, if you encounter that Tribulation Lightning Law, you won''t even understand it." Hishe noticed the confusion in the faces of everyone, thinking as he spoke, "This isn''t a perfect analogy, but think of it like this." "There are two ponds. One is an acid pond and the other is a lava pond. The same species of fishes are living in both the ponds and have adapted to the conditions around them." Hishe said, "But, suppose you take a fish from the acid pond and drop it into a lava pond, it''ll die." "And similarly, if you take a fish from the lava pond and drop it into the acid pond, it too would die. This is despite both of them being part of the same species." Hishe concluded. "That''s what the difference here is. The laws themselves are the same, but their structure, composition, and energy mediums are different. That''s why it''s hard for us to comprehend them. it''s because we''re innately incompatible." "Then, how are they able to affect us?" Luvile asked, "The Abolition Tower has been running rampant all this time. How are they able to target us while we failed to even detect them?" "Mental Energy." Hishe said, "They used their equivalent of Mental Energy to shield themselves from us and then targeted us. As they are from different power systems than us, we are unable to detect them, especially since we don''t even have any methods to guard against our own Mental Energy." "Does that mean they have all the Laws we have too?" Krune asked, frowning in response, feeling like their advantage in uniqueness was rendered obsolete by this enemy. "Not really," Hishe said, "They only have the basic Laws that our Four Realms too possess. Any law that our Gods created on their own is unique. They have their respective unique Laws while we too possess our unique Laws." "Currently, they have obtained a basic understanding of our Laws and used that to infiltrate the God Realm." Hishe said, "They too are taking damage from the attacks, but it''s nothing much in comparison to the damage they are able to wreak around." "What is the reason they are doing this?" Krune asked, gritting his teeth as he gazed at the figure of Solare still remaining unconscious. "It''s simple." Hishe said, "Once all the Gods protecting the God Realm are dead, the Four Realms would become incomparably weak. After that, our enemies would make their Realm devour ours. This way, they''ll convert and absorb our foundation, strengthening their Realm to birth even more Gods." "What''ll happen to us at that time?" Krune asked. Hishe sighed in response, shaking his head, "Not even a speck of dirt would remain. Everything would be destroyed, converted into pure energy and absorbed by that Realm." "Dammit!" Luvile cursed in anger as he used his divine sense to comprehend the law further, asking Hishe, "We only need to understand the way their power system works, right?" "Yes, we don''t need to understand their Laws itself." Hishe nodded, "As long as we understand how their power system exists at, we''ll be able to device measures to sense and attack them. That''s more than enough." "This way, not only would we be able to target our opponents, we also wouldn''t have to cripple ourselves in the process." "Fine, we''ll do it." Krune nodded, "There shouldn''t be too many enemies that had invaded. Otherwise, too many cultivators would be exploding all the time." He then frowned, gazing at Hishe, "As to that bastard that infected Solare now, where is he?" All of them had only been conversing using divine sense, aware of what the problem at hand was. And as expected, Hishe replied, "He''s currently standing a couple kilometres away, nervous. I''ve already used my second Law to constrict his movements. Since he''s only a Primal God, this was easy." "So, he''s here." Krune nodded, slowly closing his eyes as he continued to comprehend the essence of the enemy''s Law in the Law Core. And slowly, the sounds of ocean waves churned around him, like a volcano ready to erupt. Chapter 1349 Something Doesn’t Make Sense Chapter 1349 Something Doesn¡¯t Make Sense¡¡¡¡Two months passed in such a fashion when Krune noticed that the race of Galki living in his subspace had fully recovered. He then told them to pray as he targeted the Spark in Solare''s mind, causing the altar in the subspace to light up with a suffocating aura. After that, he slammed all the accumulated power into a Primal God Realm Blank Law Core, causing it to turn ethereal and vanish immediately. Fortunately, Luvile was nearby, using his tribulation lightning to cause the Primal God Realm Law Core to be accessible to the Divine Senses of everyone. With that, all the immortals from the Mountain Sect were also able to comprehend them. But first, Krune taught them all about Soul Cultivation, understanding that only by making people practice it would this path develop further. After all, even though he had obtained a tremendous advantage thanks to Mental Energy, which was capable of bypassing all formations, that wasn''t the best way to use it. After all, now that it was known that their enemies were capable of using Mental Energy, keeping it a secret would only weaken the God Realm further. So, Krune decided to teach them Mental energy. Luvile was also of the same mind as he spoke, "Soren wouldn''t mind." With that, the Mountain Sect members began to comprehend the Divine Sense Law, the Mental Energy Law, and also practiced Soul Cultivation. Krune was aware that he was reducing his uniqueness by teaching Divine Sense Law to everyone. However, he had begun to see the big picture. With the cultivators learning the various laws, they would develop accordingly atop that, causing the power system of the God Realm to improve and become more complex. This would prevent those from the Abolition Tower from claiming their lives easily. It was a necessary sacrifice. Hence, Krune didn''t mind much. Besides, he wasn''t entirely satisfied with the Divine Sense Law being what he pursued after becoming a God. He felt that it didn''t suit his character perfectly. Time passed in such a manner as everyone from the Mountain Sect was busy. After all, countless immortals had appeared in the battle with the three continents. And now, all these Semi-God Realm cultivators needed resources to cultivate and grow further. This was not to mention the immortals from the three continents that had joined the Mountain Sect. Everyone had to be given their respective roles, places to live, create new dwellings in the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm, and so on. Thankfully, the Mountain Sect''s Guardian Spirit automated the roles of everyone, updating their status according to their contribution points. Of course, the contribution points necessary to become an Elder had obviously been increased. Otherwise, every immortal would be able to become an Elder eventually. With the change, some Elders returned to being Core Disciples, causing them obvious displeasure. Though, instead of complaining about it, they silently planned to work harder to reclaim the Elder''s seat eventually. After all, once someone tasted nectar, they wouldn''t be willing to drink salt water after that. The same thing had precisely transpired here. Surprisingly, Krune erected a massive pillar in the Mountain Sect, one that displayed the contribution points of everyone in the Mountain Sect, including those that recently joined. This made everyone realize how much they needed to accumulate to gain a higher role. For most, becoming a Core Disciple was what they strived for. After all, with the changes that had happened, becoming a Core Disciple meant that one had already become an immortal. Plus, an Inner Sect Disciple was those with a Spiritual Incarnation. The rest were Outer Sect Disciples, usually performing menial jobs in the sect that even Alfa and Azra¡ªthe Monster Geckos¡ªdidn''t perform. Moreover, as the three continents were beginning to fuse, it meant that many mystical places began to appear one after another. They were still forming, but that didn''t mean they could leave such places as is. They had to be guarded. After all, such places usually had violent Godly Energy that would spell death to the regular populace. So, formations had to be erected around them to ensure people could move alongside such areas without worries. On top of that, these formations should use nature and turn into natural formations. Only then would they last through the passage of time and wouldn''t be destroyed. What best time to do that other than when they were forming? With that, Feifei took charge of such places, creating formation designs based on the data the sect members had collected. Even though they were also comprehending the foreign Laws, they didn''t spend all their time on them. After all, the sect''s development also couldn''t be neglected, especially at an important time such as this. As too many cultivators had joined the Mountain Sect, and with it being the sole power in the three fusing continents, there was a mountainous pile of work to be done. "Thankfully, you''re here, Luvile¡­" Krune said. "I''m not going to work." Luvile snorted in response. "I still have a lot of pending tasks to be done." "It''ll be easy with a God defending our sect," Krune said. "If a God dares to intrude into the Mountain Sect, just shout out my name. Since you''re the only one other than me to comprehend the Tribulation Lightning Law, I''ll know if you call for me," Luvile told him soon after. "I can appear beside you anytime you want." "Thanks." Krune nodded after hearing that. "Also, declare war on as many continents as you can," Luvile said suddenly. "Cause as much chaos as possible." "Why?" Krune asked in confusion. "Only in chaos and war would geniuses and powerhouses emerge," Luvile replied. "Plus, we need as many powerhouses as we can to combat our external enemies in the future." "If we continue defending passively, we''ll fall eventually." Luvile stared at the sky, expressing anger. "We''ll teach those bastards the consequences of targeting our world." "Indeed." Krune nodded, staring at the sky in the same manner as Luvile. "They''ll pay for everything. When big sis was undergoing her final tribulation, the Abolition Tower targeted her daughter, causing her to explode and destroy everything. And in response, the tribulation lightning was somehow affected as it also killed every True Spirit on the God Realm." "Wait..." Luvile suddenly said in shock. "Didn''t the Abolition Tower only come after the Gods tried to leave the God Realm and fail?" "But, isn''t Sterlena from an even older generation? If so, how did the Abolition Tower exist back then?" Chapter 1350 The Abolition Tower’s Mysteriousness Chapter 1350 The Abolition Tower¡¯s Mysteriousness¡¡¡¡"Obviously, even I became a God after cultivating in the place where Sterlena had died," Luvile said. "Based on what she said, she wasn''t even in the God Realm at that time. She hadn''t even revived back when we attempted to escape the God Realm." "Indeed, that doesn''t make sense." Krune shuddered for some reason, wondering how the Abolition Tower was capable of existing so long ago. The both of them gazed at one another, noticing the doubts in their gazes, hurriedly flying towards the location where Sterlena was meditating. "Sis, something doesn''t make sense," Krune said, stating what he was confused about. As Sterlena heard about it, her eyes widened in shock as she muttered, "Indeed, even I''m failing to understand it now that you mention it." She frowned, gazing at Krune, saying, "The two attacks we faced from the Abolition Tower in the infant supercontinent were the same as what I had faced in the past. Now that I think about it, that wasn''t the first time I''ve witnessed an attack from the Abolition Tower." "Hmm, it''ll be better to show it directly than talking about it," Sterlena said. "Now that I have Mental Energy, this is possible." Obviously, it was all thanks to Krune giving her the techniques related to using Mental Energy better. That was how she was able to display her thoughts to Krune and Luvile. With that, the two journeyed through Sterlena''s memories, observing every instance that she heard rumors about some talented genius exploding. "His Godly Energy went out of control." "His meridians weren''t able to handle his talent." "She attempted an impossible to execute godly technique." "He exploded with too much Godly Energy that his body burst." "She was attempting a breakthrough when her body exploded right when the tribulations began." There were hundreds of rumors throughout the life of Sterlena. As she had lived for a considerably long time, there were countless instances where she obtained news regarding the Abolition Tower. And as they continued to look through the memories, Krune and Luvile frowned. After all, the term ''Abolition Tower'' had already been coined even when Sterlena was only a mortal. This implied that the Abolition Tower had already existed in the God Realm for a considerably long time, long enough for even the immortals in Sterlena''s era¡ªwhen she was but a mortal¡ªto be privy about. "How¡­is this possible?" Krune then saw the scene of a cultivator exploding. This was the first time Sterlena had witnessed the Abolition Tower in action. After that, she had seen quite a few geniuses, tremendously gifted in the way of cultivation and a variety of paths, succumbing to the same fates. Upon seeing what such cultivators were capable of, Luvile muttered in shock, "Everyone single one of them is as talented as you, Krune." This was what shocked Luvile the most. After all, he had remained inside Krune for two centuries, knowing the best about Krune''s talents and abilities. There weren''t many with his level of talents. But now, it was apparent that such a level of talent wasn''t rare in the God Realm, at least the God Realm from back in the day. But unilaterally, all such terrifying talents had fallen victim to the Abolition Tower. It was apparent that the Abolition Tower had been nipping all of the God Realm''s talents in the bud. Over time, the level of talent in the God Realm had fallen considerably. At present, those still talented had luckily evaded the eye of the Abolition Tower. Otherwise, it wouldn''t have made much sense. On top of that, whenever someone obtained a powerful inheritance or gained enlightenment that would turn them into a powerhouse in the future, they were killed by the Abolition Tower immediately after. But as they continued to look through Sterlena''s memories, the scenes began to morph strangely. Soon after, faint figures were outlined there, those that hadn''t existed there before. Now that Sterlena had comprehended both the Divine Sense Law and Mental Energy Law, not to mention obtaining a basic understanding of the foreign Law, she was slowly able to unearth information from her memories. After all, the techniques those from the Abolition Tower were using were similar to Krune''s Mental Energy barrier. This barrier didn''t shield himself from detection abilities. Cultivators were still capable of detecting him. But, what the Mental Energy barrier did was make cultivators subconsciously gloss over information related to him. So, even if the information was in their minds, they weren''t able to spot that information. The case had been the same for Sterlena as well. And now, as she began to comprehend the Laws of Mental Energy, Divine Sense and gain a basic understanding of the Abolition Tower''s power structure, the subconscious mask over her memories was coming undone. Krune and Luvile gazed at one another, understanding what was happening as Luvile brought two Blank Law Cores. Both were at the God Trial Realm. Krune then made them into a Divine Sense Law Core and a Mental Energy Law Core each, making Sterlena comprehend them both. Once she was done with that, they forced her to sit through and comprehend the foreign Law Core until her mind felt like it would break apart. It had taken a year before she was fully able to understand everything there was to know about their power structures and methods. As it wasn''t possible to comprehend the foreign Law Core at a single stretch, since their minds would be on the limit with a few seconds, it had taken a year for Sterlena. But after that, her expression turned pale as she nodded while looking at Krune and Luvile, saying, "This is terrifying." "Even now¡­" She gritted her teeth in anger, helplessness, and despair. "I hadn''t thought such a thing was possible. My daughter¡­!" She shed tears, now fully able to digest everything that was present in her memories. With the Mental Energy covering tracks of the Abolition Tower in her mind gone, she understood just what the hell they had been doing all this time. "Those bastards had infiltrated us a long time ago!" Chapter 1351 To You, From the Past Chapter 1351 To You, From the Past¡¡¡¡Uwaah! Uwaah! A newborn began crying soon after being born as a gentle pair of hands grabbed hold of her. It was Sterlena, holding her daughter as she looked with all the gentleness she could muster. "You''ll be called Illina," she spoke, gently extending her index finger as she watched the baby grab hold of it with her hand. Her eyes turned moist as Sterlena kissed her forehead. Standing beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder, was her husband, Rettal. He was at the God Trial Realm, the same as Sterlena. It was a happy occasion as they gazed at their child when suddenly, Sterlena said in shock, "Dear, look at the presence Illina''s exuding." "T-This is?" Rettal was shocked when he sensed a mildly suffocating presence emanating from Illina before he laughed. "It seems she inherited our talents right from the get-go. She''ll surpass us in the future." "Indeed, you''re right." Sterlena nodded in agreement. "She inherited the talents of us both and can already manifest them." "Hahaha!" Rettal smiled, gently patting Illina, hearing her cry as he gently carried her. It was a harmonious atmosphere. However, what they hadn''t noticed was the existence of a third party in the room. It was an old man, a Primal God that was enveloped with a jarring presence, not something that belonged to the God Realm. The Primal God gazed at Illina, frowning. "What the hell is up with this place? Such frightening talents." He gazed at Illina, shuddering as he muttered, "If left alone, this child would become a ruler that would oppose us in the future." "I won''t let that happen." He thought of something before smiling, gazing at the figure of Sterlena as he slowly placed his hand on Illina, infusing his Mental Energy into her. He used his Laws, planting a Spark in Illina''s mind that was wrapped up with bundles of Mental Energy. He had even created a formation there to ensure the Spark would continue growing in strength by absorbing the energy in her body. "The Spark is what we had created to cause the utmost destruction in the God Realm. Created with an impressive combination of our Laws, all the Patriots that have invaded the Kun Realm can use the Spark." He grinned, gazing at Illina as he spoke. "And now, as you grow, child, the Spark in you also grows. In the future, when it''s the right time, I''ll detonate you and destroy all the talents in this place." The Primal God then headed to different parts of the supercontinent they were from, finding other newborn talents that he planted Sparks within. That wasn''t all. He roamed around the place, finding any talent that he came across, ensuring they died in the end. "Eventually, all the talents in the God Realm would die. With that, no new God would emerge." He sighed, gazing at the sky and muttered, "It has been too long, way too long since I arrived here. I miss home." "But..." He firmed himself. "Once we kill all the Gods of this Kun Realm, we can invade this place and consume everything here." ¡­ "Mom, be careful. The final tribulation would be stronger than anything you''ve faced to date," Illina said. She was already a Primal God, only a step away from reaching the peak. She, too, had begun preparations for her final tribulation as she gazed at Sterlena in worry. "Don''t worry." Sterlena smiled as she brushed Illina''s hair. "I''ve been preparing for this for the past thirty thousand years. I won''t fail." Standing a dozen meters from them was the same old man, same old, same usual as he gazed at the two, closing his eyes as he sensed all the Sparks that he had planted. "I''ve been waiting for way too long." He slowly watched Sterlena begin her preparations for breaking through as massive thunderclouds formed in the skies. All the people had vacated the region, crowding over far away as they watched the breath-taking scene. This would be the birth of a God. Of course, they didn''t wish to miss it. Every cultivator from their supercontinent had crowded around two hundred kilometers away from where the breakthrough was about to happen, watching it anxiously. Despite being so far away, they could spot the suffocating sura churning within the thunderclouds as the Tribulation Lightning Law could be clearly perceived. The land itself was humming in response as the entirety of the Godly Energy in the supercontinent swirled towards Sterlena. After observing this scene, the old man gazed at the sky, muttering, "Calamity Laws, why are you waiting?" Immediately at his words, the Calamity Laws condensed a humanoid figure, a sullen-looking boy with dark circles akin to a panda, lacking any vigor as he was the personification of being dispirited. "Are you backing out now?" The old man gazed at the sullen figure of the Calamity Laws. "If you don''t move according to my arrangement, I''ll destroy your puny Realm. The only reason we''ve left your Realm intact is because you''re useful as the gateway into the Kun Realm." The Calamity Laws gritted its teeth, hesitating as it said, "But, isn''t it enough to just kill the talents? Why must you commit genocide?" "Hah, are you seriously asking that right now?" The old man snorted, saying, "The True Spirits are the daughters of the heavens. Each one of them is blessed to become a God. That''s how blessed this race is. Every one of them is born an elite." "And throughout the years, ever since we killed the True Spirits that had become Gods, we have been killing them en masse. But it''s apparent that True Spirits are elites, each of them capable of being a powerhouse among powerhouses. They are an exclusive race of this Kun Realm." He snorted. Beyond the Four Realms, the foreigners addressed it as Kun Realm, hence the old man''s way of addressing the place as the Kun Realm instead of the Four Realms. In anger, he spoke, "No matter how many True Spirits we kill, the Kun Realm would naturally birth them. So, only by crippling this place can I ensure that True Spirits would no longer be birthed. And you''re of vital importance to this plan, Calamity Laws." "Now choose." He said, staring at the Calamity Laws. "Will you destroy the True Spirit race? Or will you witness the destruction of your home realm?" Chapter 1352 Little Cally’s Choice Chapter 1352 Little Cally¡¯s Choice¡¡¡¡"I''ll¡­ do it." Little Cally gave in the end, gritting its teeth as it vanished. Immediately after, a mysterious power of calamity swerved into the thundercloud, rapidly increasing the power of the tribulation as Sterlena''s face paled all of a sudden. "Wait, why is it growing stronger?" She was alarmed, face paling as despair clouded her mind. "T-This is something that even a God wouldn''t survive against." "Hah, is this my fate?" Sterlena sighed before gritting her teeth, shouting, "As if! I''m the strongest Primal God! I won''t be killed by a mere tribulation!" Immediately after that, Sterlena''s aura continued to climb up as she rapidly absorbed the swirling Godly Energy, actually growing stronger in response to the stress as she was getting strong enough to actually face such a tribulation. "She''s already become as strong as a God¡­" the old man muttered in shock, smacking his lips. "As expected of a True Spirit. A fucking monster!" He then grinned, "But... it''s of no use!" Boom! The humongous thundercloud turned reddish-black in color as a massive bolt of lightning, bright red in color, slammed into Sterlena, causing her to scream in response as her hands were instantly vaporized by it, including almost half her body. However, she bellowed in response, causing the Godly Energy to swirl into her with greater speed, causing the land itself to crack under the power of her suction as she pulled in everything, rapidly healing her body in an instant. She had already prepared all the materials suitable for her Spiritual Incarnation, absorbing them to instantly make up the laws of her Spiritual Incarnation and heal her body in a fraction of a second. Right as she finished healing, the thundercloud turned orange-black as a massive bolt of lightning, bright orange in color, slammed into her next, vaporizing three-fourths of her body. But immediately after, Sterlena healed herself, watching the thundercloud turn yellowish-black next. The bright yellow bolt of lightning slammed into her when Sterlena grinned, suddenly erecting a massive barrier before her, using the swirling Godly Energy to defend against the attack. And shockingly, only a quarter of her body vaporized now. "Three done, four more to go." Sterlena used her wits and all her abilities to survive one lightning bolt after another. After all, having comprehended more than two hundred Laws to the peak, she was one terrifying powerhouse, not to mention the original Law that she had been preparing all along. Slowly, after the yellow bolt of lightning hit her, the laws of her Spiritual Incarnation began to melt as a mysterious law was forming within her, slowly birthing her original law. Green Tribulation! Following it was a bright green bolt of lightning that Sterlena slammed into head-on, actually swallowing it whole as she gritted her teeth, trying her best not to explode as she used the abundant power behind the lightning to rapidly melt her body and evolve her original Law that was forming. Heavenly Destruction Law! When the blue lightning slammed into her, she absorbed most of its power as well, finally completing her Original Law as immediately after, the indigo lightning slammed into her, almost vaporizing her. Only a fraction of her body was left. But that was enough as Sterlena absorbed all the materials from her surroundings to reform her body, anticipating the final attack as she gazed at the thundercloud. "The final one, violet lightning!" However, this didn''t come immediately as the thundercloud was actually accumulating power, causing the energy levels to exceed what all the previous bolts of lightning combined had. On top of that, Sterlena was able to notice a dense aura of the Calamity Laws converging into the thundercloud. The aura it began to emanate was still that of the final tribulation, but there was something odd about it, something that she couldn''t quite put an eye on. But despite everything, she began to condense power in her, fully activating her Heavenly Destruction Law, prepared to survive. In fact, despite the power in the thundercloud, she was confident in surviving. It was thanks to her Law. "I''ll become a God after this." But right at this time, Illina suddenly appeared behind her, sporting an expression of concern as she asked, "Mom! Are you alright?" "I''m fine. Just get away from here!" Sterlena shouted, wondering why her daughter was behaving like an idiot all of a sudden. "I can easily survive this. Don''t kill yourself from foolishness. Get out of here immediately!" "No, I''ll help you." Suddenly, her eyes glazed over as an expression of serene peace enveloped Illina as she gazed at Sterlena and flashed a gentle smile. Slowly, her body turned transparent as her meridians swerved into her core once she took on her True Spirit form. Upon seeing this scene, tears streamed out of Sterlena''s eyes, shouting, "No... no... NO!" Her daughter had become a member of the Abolition Tower and was about to explode. "Not my daughter! NO!" Sterlena bellowed as she rapidly activated all her laws, serving them into Illina to seal her up first before trying to save her. She believed that as long as she became a God, she would have the means to save her daughter. However, right as she took action to save Illina, the aura from the thundercloud spiked alarmingly, as if waiting for her to be distracted. And then, a fragment of the space in the region was actually consumed to fuel the tribulation, whose power exceeded that of what even the God Realm could handle as a violet bolt of lightning. It was the strongest of its kind that had ever been unleashed, flashing past, hitting Sterlena. And at the same time, Illina also exploded, along with every cultivator on their supercontinent that had been implanted with a Spark. "Farewell, the race of True Spirits." The old man smiled as he teleported away. "And with this, the strongest of the Kun Realm has been eradicated." "Gahhh!" Sterlena roared in sadness, watching the explosion from Illina and the violet bolt of lightning impact her at the same time, instantly vaporizing her body, leaving her no way to defend herself. That wasn''t all. The violet bolt of lightning flashed into her core, using the aura of calamity as the violet bolt of lightning teleported, flashing into the cores of every True Spirit in the God Realm, killing them all. And due to the way it moved, it destroyed the relevant laws in the God Realm, preventing it from birthing True Spirits ever again. Boom! Boom! Boom! True Spirits all over the God Realm died instantly, unable to tolerate the power that exceeded even what a God could handle. Chapter 1353 Heavenly Spark Chapter 1353 Heavenly Spark¡¡¡¡Right before the attack destroyed her, Sterlena used the entirety of her power and her new Law, the Heavenly Destruction Law, to envelop a tiny fragment of her core that she teleported using the crack in space. A part of the violet bolt of lightning branched off to chase after the fragmented core. Though, as Sterlena had already infused the entirety of her power in the Heavenly Destruction Law surrounding that fragment, it was able to survive the attack and fall off from the God Realm, falling into the Mortal Realm where it formed a Danger Zone. She barely survived the attack. And it was only because the fragment of her core that she broke off was too small, so the violet lightning that branched out was weak. After infusing all her power into it, she managed to ensure this fragment remained safe. She had long since lost consciousness as the Danger Zone formed by her slowly began to accumulate Spiritual Energy, taking tens of thousands of years to gradually heal and recover. One day, a lone youth that was chased by a group of people entered the Danger Zone that the locals called the ''Destruction Valley.'' Once he entered such a place, the people chasing him labeled him a dead man. After all, no cultivator had ever managed to survive after entering that place. But in actuality, once he entered, a mysterious rock that he had picked up resonated with the Danger Zone as it fused into the place, suddenly causing the laws of the Danger Zone to swerve into the stone and turn into an ethereal object. The Danger Zone actually vanished as the ethereal object entered the body of the unassuming youth, startling him. And that was how Sterlena revived, barely retaining a fraction of her abilities as she began a troublesome journey with the youth to return to the God Realm eventually. By the end of it, Krune was in tears, witnessing how much Sterlena had suffered. Even when she had fallen victim to the ploy of the old man and the Calamity Laws, Sterlena sacrificed herself to ensure that the violet lightning would only kill the True Spirits in the God Realm. This implied that True Spirits in the Godly Path Realm and Mortal Realm could still be birthed, even if they were killed by the violet lightning. This way, she ensured that the True Spirit race wouldn''t be annihilated. But indeed, it was impossible for a True Spirit to be birthed in the God Realm after that, turning them into mere legend. In one move, that old man had crippled the strongest race in the God Realm. "Now, let''s interrogate the one we have captured." Krune snorted as he got up when Luvile stopped him. "Wait just a little bit longer," Luvile said. "Feifei is still in the process of developing a counter to their Spark. We''ll make a move once she''s done." "Fine¡­" Krune muttered as he began to cultivate, trying to increase his cultivation as fast as he could. He had already created a massive Godly Inhibition Tower that was effective on those at the God Trial Realm and below. It was also effective on the Elementary and Primal Gods, but they didn''t obtain any benefit in breaking through the restriction there. As for the rest, it allowed them to possess Godly Energy quality superior to their cultivation realm. From time to time, using the Galki, Krune activated the mysterious technique¡­ I''m Hungry, Gimme Your Power! Using that, he stole a part of the Spark''s power before slamming it into a Blank Law Core. After that, the Gods transported this Law Core that they began to call the Spark Law Core. The Spark Law Cores were each sent to the Gods of the God Realm, informing them of the dangers that had been collected. Once Luvile had said the same thing, they accepted it. After all, none were unaware of the Tribulation God''s identity. Also, once the various Gods began to comprehend the Spark Law Core, they began to notice the issues that they had glossed over. Moreover, sent with the Spark Law Core were also a Divine Sense Law Core and a Mental Energy Law Core. Even though this would weaken the advantages of the Mountain Sect, it wasn''t the time to be acting selfish. In any case, using this chance, they wrung the Gods dry of their wealth. Well, the three Law Cores were definitely that valuable, even if they were only Semi-God Realm Law Cores. So, even without asking, the Gods sent massively valuable treasures to the Mountain Sect, causing it to become richer and richer. So, it worked out in the end as even their Primal Gods now had more than enough resources to cultivate and grow stronger. Sixty years spanned in such a fashion as Feifei finally stopped using her Spiritual Incarnation, weakly letting out a sigh as she murmured, "I''ve completed it." "That''s great!" Krune was jubilant as he immediately learned of the method to eradicate the Spark. It was using a combination of Divine Sense and Mental Energy to perfectly eradicate the Spark. Unfortunately for Krune, Feifei had already named it the Heavenly Spark. Surprisingly, the Heavenly Spark had three functions. First was to scan and determine the places a Spark had been planted. Second was to destroy such Sparks. And third was to implant their own Sparks. "This is¡­?" Krune was surprised after getting to know the third function. "Retaliation," Feifei told him. "Why should we sit like ducks and passively defend against such attacks? We''ll let them experience their dangers first-hand." "Alright, we''ll do that." Krune nodded, expressing anger. Feifei then began to teach the Heavenly Spark technique to everyone. And once Luvile learned it, he arrived before Solare, rapidly destroying the Spark in his mind. Soon after, Solare''s eyes shot open, blinking in confusion upon seeing tears stream out of Krune''s eyes. "Eh? What happened to you, uncle? Were you cutting onions?" "Just a few," Krune wiped his tears as he laughed, patting Solare''s shoulder as he said, "I''m preparing a feast. Come join us." "Okay!" Solare then noticed that he had only merged with a fraction of the God Seat, saying, "I''ll be done in a couple of centuries, uncle." "¡­the food would grow cold by then." Chapter 1354 Kun Realm Gods Take Action Chapter 1354 Kun Realm Gods Take Action¡¡¡¡"Now, let''s have you talk, shall we?" Luvile spoke while gazing at the foreign Primal God sealed by Hishe. Well, it wasn''t an interrogation as Luvile used his Mental Energy to attack the foreign Primal God''s mind, easily destroying all the defensive measures he had erected within. Soon after, he began to go through the foreign Primal God''s memories. After a couple of days, he had fully analyzed everything, saying as he faced everyone, "They come from a place called the Mong Realm. There, they address our Four Realms as the Kun Realm." "The Mong Realm is one of the oldest realms out there and is already dying. Due to that, all the powerhouses from there had created a plan¡­" Luvile snorted as he continued, "They call it the Patriot Mission." "It''s where they would leave the Mong Realm and infiltrate the other realms to destroy their geniuses. And after repeating this for hundreds of thousands of years, all the talents of that realm would have been eradicated. There wouldn''t be any new Gods that would appear among them. It would cause their realm to turn a bit stale." As he spoke, he noticed the moods of the Gods to turn awry, adding, "And as the realm turns stale, the Gods would become bored and would wish to leave their realm so that they would find something interesting." By that point, the expression of all the Gods had turned purple as Luvile told them, "They would slowly instigate this through those implanted with the Sparks, eventually causing the Gods of that realm to attempt breaking through the realm." "This is practically the dumbest action someone could take, as not only would it damage the foundation of the realm, it would also cause the deaths of the Gods, also creating countless spatial cracks that those from the Mong Realm can use to infiltrate better," Luvile spoke. "So, we''re that stupid¡­" Hishe sighed, really regretting the fact that he had become a God. Not only had he failed to notice foreign powers infiltrating his God Realm, but he also fell victim to their ploys and had danced to their tune. He then thought of something, asking, "Then, how did they enter our¡­Kun Realm first? Our defenses should have been the strongest back then." "Actually, that''s easy for them." Luvile sighed, explaining, "The Mong Realm is one of the oldest realms. So, their development in cultivation has already attained its peak. Body and soul cultivation is commonplace in their world, and the number of Gods there had already attained the limit that their realm could birth." "So, when the Gods of the Mong Realm infiltrate ours, it''s easy for them to bypass our realm''s natural defenses. They would then manipulate everything to slowly cause cracks to form in our realm''s defenses that their Primal Gods, Elementary Gods, and others could use to infiltrate through." Luvile sighed. He then gazed at Sterlena and said, "That old man that had caused you to suffer back then has already become a God. He''s called Dolnu-k-malon." "Dolnu-k-malon¡­" Sterlena muttered, slowly clenching her hand into a fist as she snorted. "That fucker is my prey. I''ll annihilate his entire race before his very eyes and then torture him little by little." "He''s already returned to the Mong Realm," Luvile said. "Once we take care of all the cultivators from the Mong Realm here, we''ll fortify our defenses first." "But before that¡­" Luvile''s body flashed with tribulation lightning, transmitting the contents of the Heavenly Spark to all the Gods of the God Realm, causing them to immediately take action. Luvile slammed a bolt of lightning into the sealed foreign Primal God, instantly vaporizing him as he gazed at Krune and said, "I''ll be leaving now. Once we destroy all the Sparks, we''ll kill everyone from the Mong Realm here. After that, we''ll have to fortify our defenses while trying our means to revive the dead Gods. Everything would take time, so I won''t be able to help you." "It''s fine." Krune smiled in response. "I can handle the rest here." "I''ll be watching over you from time to time." Saying so, Luvile turned into a flash of lightning and vanished. The remaining five Gods had also vanished immediately after. Before vanishing, Hishe looked at Zamura and Gegrafikan and told them, "Our task here is done. Reviving Solare was our goal all this time. Now that it''s done, we''ll stop supporting the Mountain Sect. All the best!" With that, the constant influx of cultivators to the Mountain Sect from the Sub-Realm in the Four Sectors'' Border Region¡ªin the Zamuria Continent¡ªhad stopped. On top of that, the Sub-Realm itself had vanished. It would probably appear on some other continent to help them obtain body cultivation. Thankfully for the Mountain Sect, they had obtained more than enough members in recent times, enough that the Mountain Sect itself felt crowded. Then again, that was only in the Mountain Sect, whose radius was only a hundred kilometers. It felt small due to the sheer volume of people that had joined them recently. As for the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm, it was still continuing to grow. So, there wasn''t any problem with resources. Instead, thanks to the gifts from the various Gods all over the God Realm, the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm''s foundation was elevated to a whole other level. At present, it had already begun producing materials on the level of the Elementary God Realm. And soon, it would also begin producing materials of the Primal God Realm. The density of the Godly Energy here was at the God Core Realm¡ªRank 3 God Stone in quality. It was staggering because even in a supercontinent, the density of the Godly Energy only confirmed to the God Foundation Realm¡ªRank 2 God Stone in quality. This showed how high the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm''s foundation had been increased, making it worthy of being called the force controlling a supercontinent. As for their supercontinent, it was on the verge of completion as it took on a ring-shaped structure with a thick ring surrounding it. Situated in the center was a massive ocean that was considered the exclusive property of the Mountain Sect. After all, situated in the dead center of this massive ocean was the Mountain Sect. As they had emerged winners, they had been delegated as the center of the forming supercontinent. So, the continental mass had shifted accordingly. The size of the supercontinent surpassed the previous three continents, and more land began to form gradually. And now, everyone in this forming supercontinent was anticipating the process. After all, there was only a decade left for its completion. Chapter 1355 Primal God Community Chapter 1355 Primal God Community¡¡¡¡"There''s three decades left for those from the Mist Sect to attack us," Krune muttered. "No, the Primal Gods among them might have already escaped the Realm of Suffering. They should probably be waiting for the rest to escape, already contacting the Mist Sect in the process." Krune had initially planned to camp at the infant supercontinent and kill them when they arrived there from the Realm of Suffering. But now, he refrained from doing that. After all, the Mist Sect would serve as a good whetstone for his Mountain Sect to grow. Only through it would the geniuses from his Mountain Sect mature and innovate new powers to combat the Mist Sect. Such an enemy was necessary. And now that all the powers from the three continents had come under the Mountain Sect''s control, they had the foundation to fight the Mist Sect on par with one another. They were still inferior in terms of their powerhouses, especially since the Elementary and Primal Gods of the three continents were still mortals due to Faunkill. In any case, Krune was confident that when the Mist Sect attacked them, those stubborn Elementary and Primal Gods would eventually give in and join the Mountain Sect as well, especially once they see how strong the powerhouses of the Mountain Sect grow through its various resources. Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria had already begun to convince them slowly. Adding onto their current nerfed condition, it was only a matter of time before they would give in. So, Krune didn''t wish to weaken their enemy. The stronger they were, the better it was for him. Then again, if they were beyond what the Mountain Sect could handle, he could always shamelessly summon Luvile. That''s why he wasn''t worried. Moreover, Faunkill was slowly recovering to his peak strength. When he fought against the three Emperors, he was only at the First Stage of the Primal God Realm. And that was only because he had revived in a hurry when Zualin wished to witness the battle between Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria. Now that he had the resources from the various Gods to rely upon, he quickly regained his peak Primal God Realm cultivation. Currently, they had Zualin and Faunkill at the peak of the Primal God Realm. That already meant they had two absolute powerhouses. And among them, Faunkill was a titled Primal God. A Primal God was given a title only if he was special to a grand extent. It was different from self-proclaimed titles or those the masses used to refer to them. Those titles weren''t of any value. It was how Krune was known as the Lightning Hero to the masses from the three continents. This title was of no value other than to the common cultivators. A Primal God''s title was something conferred to him by the Primal God community and was something acknowledged by at least one God. That was when someone was called a Titled Primal God. Faunkill was one such entity. None of the other Gods, whether in the Mountain Sect or from the three continents, had a title. Pocket Immortal from the Golden Gate Sect wasn''t a Titled Primal God either. That was just a means to call him. It wasn''t acknowledged by the Primal God community. As for the Primal God community, it was a mysterious network created by some Gods where all the Primal Gods of the God Realm were a part of. Access to it would be obtained the moment someone became a Primal God. It was the news network that contained records from ancient times. Sterlena once had access to it. Even the Primal Gods from the three continents had access to the Primal God Community. Surprisingly, it was called the Primal God Community, but it was actually managed by the Gods. It had been created by one of the oldest Gods whose ability was regarding sharing of information. When he was a Primal God, he had created it, connecting it with the Primal Gods of the neighboring continents. That''s why it was called the Primal God Community. Eventually, he became a God. And when he became one, he modified the laws of the God Realm, ensuring that any cultivator that became a Primal God would automatically gain access to the Primal God Community. Similarly, when they lost their cultivation, they were ejected from it. That was also the reason Faunkill had offended a God in the past. Because of him, Primal Gods constantly joined and left the Primal God Community, creating a major ruckus. The community was mostly silent as information was seldom exchanged there. But the fact that Faunkill created a ruckus in it was a show of his power. That''s why he was conferred such an overbearing title¡­ Immortal Severance Primal God! Krune had asked for more information regarding the Primal God Community from Faunkill, coming to understand that most of the time, whenever Primal Gods fought, their victory or loss would be reported there. This was how the Primal Gods gauged the development of the respective continents. And until now, the three continents of Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria hadn''t ever made any waves in the Primal God Community, not even any reports. It was to the extent that other Primal Gods weren''t even aware that such a place existed. This was pretty much a backwater place in the God Realm where the ruling powers were too weak. Considering the fact as to how Faunkill was able to deal with all the Primal Gods of the three continents, albeit with some minimal help, was a testament to their inferiority. Though, it was also a testament to his strength. And now, such a powerhouse reached the Ninth Stage of the Primal God Realm. It was a cause for celebration in the Mountain Sect as Zamura announced it to everyone. As for the powerhouses of the three continents that fell victim to his attack, they could only shudder at the claim, feeling even more despair that they would never hope to regain their original cultivation unless they submitted to the Mountain Sect''s rule. Now that they also obtained a method to sense and deal with the Abolition Tower, Krune finally had some peace to cultivate, realizing that he was still at the First Stage of the God Trial Realm, sighing as he muttered, "Cultivation is damn slow." An average God Trial Realm cultivator spent a century to break through a stage in the God Trial Realm. So, it was indeed a slow process. As for Krune''s actual strength, it had actually skyrocketed. And that was exactly due to what he had attained from his breakthrough to the God Trial Realm. Thinking as such, Krune summoned his Cloud Whale, muttering at its changed appearance and said, "I should no longer call you the Cloud Whale." Chapter 1356 Thundercloud Whale Chapter 1356 Thundercloud Whale¡¡¡¡A large whale-like body sporting coral reefs around the eyes, forehead, and tip of the tails, a predominantly white color with shades of grey undertones. A horn that resembled coral at first glance but also had similarities to a rhino''s. The horn had a helical groove to it, having a thin conical structure with a hole at the tip. That was the Cloud Whale. But now, there were obvious changes. First was the appearance of feathers on its fish-like skin, causing it to possess the traits of a bird. However, it still resembled a whale overall. The coral portions of its body had faint purple marks, similar to lightning strikes. The feathers also varied, sporting a large white sea of feathers with grey undertones along the curvature. They were further elevated by purple feathers that emboldened the figure of a wisp on the forehead. The maximum size of the Cloud Whale back then had capped at 25 meters. But now, it increased to 30 meters in length. An increase of 5 meters in length might not mean much, especially considering how his Pestlor could reach kilometers in length. But functionality-wise, there were major changes. And that was blatantly displayed by its eyes full of wisdom. After all, the Cloud Whale was no longer an ability that Krune controlled by infusing a sliver of his Divine Sense into it or through his will alone while using it solely through his abilities in Body Cultivation. Now, Little Krune had fused into the Cloud Whale. That''s why its eyes were full of wisdom. It was because it had basically become another Krune. And the best advantage of this fact was how when Krune fragmented Little Krune, the new Cloud Whale itself would also fragment. This implied that he didn''t need to use clones just to summon more Cloud Whales. He could directly do it himself. There were major differences in this upgrade. First of all, he was still able to make clones. There wouldn''t be any difference from before in terms of the clones themselves. But when Krune wished to fight, he could use the Cloud Whales as a major battle strength. The Cloud Whale''s strength lay in its ability to efficiently fly for long distances. But, its weakness was that it was unable to make quick and sharp turns. On top of that, Krune had to control them through either his will or divine sense. But from now onwards, there was no need for that. As it had become Little Krune itself, the Cloud Whale was autonomous, just like his clones. So, they were able to attack with greater precision, able to fly and scout on their own, etc. And best of all was this one factor, the reason Krune had taken such a major risk during his breakthrough. Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark! It was fused into his soul. Plus, Little Krune was basically an extension of his soul that was able to fragment itself into more and more numbers as his cultivation increased. It was nine fragments at the God Foundation Realm, 99 at the God Core Realm, 999 at the Nascent God Realm, and so on and so forth. When they formed clones, every clone also possessed his Spiritual Mark. Using that advantage, Krune was able to abuse his Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark through them. And now, this had become an inherent property of the Cloud Whale, as the Cloud Whale and the Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark had become one due to Little Krune fusing into it. With that, Krune had actually gained control over tribulation lightning. Until now, all he was able to do was unleash tribulation lightning through his Spiritual Mark. It was just like opening the gates to a dam. The tribulation lightning would just gush towards his target, without any control on his part. He wasn''t able to control it. At the times he did, it was just the bare minimum that he exercised only after a multitude of steps and inherent risks. But now, the Cloud Whale was able to unleash both an Air Needle and a Lightning Needle. Of course, that wasn''t all. When Krune activated the Cloud Whale in his body, he was able to use both the wind currents and lightning currents. The wind currents allowed him to fly and use the wind to defend against attacks and whatnot. Similarly, the lightning currents basically allowed him to imbue the power of tribulation lightning in his hand-to-hand combat. The risk he had taken allowed him to properly wield tribulation lightning as his own power, becoming the second cultivator in the history of the God Realm to do this, following Luvile''s footsteps. That was also why Luvile appeared the moment Krune shouted his name. It was because they were the only two using the Tribulation Lightning Law. So, when Krune used it to call for Luvile, the other party heard it loud and clear, instantly locating Krune''s location through it before arriving by his side. Also, the reason he used the Drops, Tribulation Lightning Law Core, and Divine Sense Law materials in the Cloud Whale during the tribulation was to figure out a way to not only fuse the power of his Spiritual Mark into his Cloud Whale, but it was also to fuse Little Krune into it. In an extension of that, obtain a method to comprehend and cultivate the Tribulation Lightning Law. All in all, it was a grand success. "I shouldn''t call you a Cloud Whale any longer." Krune smirked, immediately thinking of a name before sighing, feeling through his Divine Sense the information that flowed into his mind from it. This was a name that the heavens had naturally assigned it, just like the Cloud Whale. Sullen, Krune muttered, "Thundercloud Whale." "It''s a good name, but I could have given it something ten times better." He sighed, watching the Cloud Whale zap around him. It was more energy-draining, but the Thundercloud Whale was able to make sharp turns and accelerate from zero to peak speed instantly through the power of lightning. And when activating it within his body, Krune was able to zap through the place at tremendous speeds, turning into a blur that even those at the God Trial Realm struggled to keep track of through their Divine Sense. When he activated his Ocean Turbulence on top of that, none at the God Trial Realm were even able to see him. From already being overpowered, Krune further took it to the next level, grinning as he thought, anticipating, "When will you invade, Mist Sect? I''m missing you!" Chapter 1357 Mountain Sect Top Chef Contest Chapter 1357 Mountain Sect Top Chef Contest¡¡¡¡Second Stage of the God Trial Realm! After painstaking cultivation, Krune finally achieved a minor breakthrough, sighing in exhaustion as it felt more boring than before. After all, spending more than 70 years to break through a minor realm was indeed an exhausting endeavor. However, there was no other option. He had to slowly grind to the top. But in contrast, a certain few were having the time of their lives. Boom! "Wheee!" A wisp slammed itself into the incoming bolt of tribulation lightning before being sent flying. The second bolt slammed into it, hitting it further away like a ball. But, despite getting injured by the attack, the wisp wasn''t nervous. Rather, it treated the tribulation lightning like luxury bathing material, flashing all corners of its body to face the lightning. Seeing such a scene, Krune could only facepalm. Of course, the wisps had already cultivated enough to spark breakthroughs to the Semi-God Realm. After all, they were practicing his Deific Wisp Technique from the start. So, whether it was their cultivation, Body Cultivation, or Soul Cultivation, all were being raised from the start. Plus, since they only mingled with their respective community, there wasn''t any problem with the impurities in their Wisp Core. It was because they hadn''t given birth to any children yet. Based on what Krune had probed through, they would only begin to face problems after reaching the Elementary God Realm. When they reached that point, they could find out a solution on their own. They would pretty much be old monsters that had loved for thousands of years by then. "Turtle uncle, look at my shining form!" The wisp undergoing tribulation noticed Krune nearby, rushing towards him. "Idiot! Don''t come near me while you''re undergoing a tribulation!" Krune shouted in alarm before vanishing from the spot. He had almost triggered the tribulation lightning once again. The thunderclouds had almost increased in size just to target him once again. This was something he noticed after obtaining the means to properly wield tribulation lightning. The tribulation lightning that was unleashed during tribulations seemed to hate him to the bone. So, wherever it happened, at least a few of those bolts tracked him down before slamming into his face, turning it ashen. With that, whenever someone was undergoing a tribulation, he had to escape from the spot. Otherwise, he would be the one to face the tribulations instead. He didn''t know why the tribulation lightning was behaving as such, nor was he able to ask Luvile about it, unwilling to disturb him for such a minor matter. At most, his face was painted black a couple of times a day. That was the frequency of breakthroughs happening in the Mountain Sect. Usually, cultivators attained a limit after cultivating for a while. Most of them hit it at the Nascent God Realm. So, the number of cultivators attempting to become immortals was too few in number. On top of that, the percentage of success was abysmal. Well, it was an entirely different scenario in the Mountain Sect. Now that everyone was cultivating both Soul Cultivation and Body Cultivation, even though the tribulation they were facing was many times stronger than what a normal cultivator faced, they also had more means to defend themselves. So, their success rate was darn high, reaching as high as sixty percent. Considering how the success rate of breaking through for others was less than one percent, this was a grand feat. Moreover, Krune prepared the potential immortals by making them comprehend more laws, even going so far as to drill them in the Godly Inhibition Tower so that the quality of their Godly Energy had already reached the Semi-God Realm. This was the reason behind their unceasing success, causing the number of immortals in the Mountain Sect to skyrocket. It was to such an extent that the immortals from the three continents were stupefied beyond belief, recalling the times when they had attempted the breakthrough and what the current generation was doing. After all, the strength of the tribulation lighting that the old God Trial Realm cultivators from the three continents had faced was now being invoked by those trying to break through to the Semi-God Realm. Basically, even the most average cultivator in the Mountain Sect was now capable of skipping a realm in strength. There were countless reasons to list this. First of all were the cultivation techniques. They almost had a million cultivation techniques now, all top-class cultivation techniques to boot. Usually, one such technique was enough to establish a powerful sect. Of course, this was all thanks to the Immortal Staircase in the Sub-Realm that had vanished now. Those that arrived at the Mountain Sect from there had all climbed the Immortal Staircase, each obtaining a cultivation technique perfectly suited to them. Once they arrived at the Mountain Sect, they submitted details regarding their cultivation technique to the library to gain contribution points. Thanks to this, their arsenal of cultivation techniques continued to pile up. Eventually, it created such a rigorous foundation. Now, no matter what kind of cultivator, they would find at least a few cultivation techniques most suitable for them. Due to that, their speed of cultivation was naturally quick. Second was the myriad passive abilities they could choose from. After the Mountain Sect had perfect Body Cultivation, everyone was able to obtain five passive abilities and one active ability. The combination of abilities they could obtain was infinite. Every day was a surprise as the cultivators figured out new combinations of passive abilities that unleashed a rather powerful effect. Quite a few among them had reached Krune''s Ocean Radiance in quality. Indeed, talents were booming in the Mountain Sect. Upon seeing how casual the founding elders like Krune were, none actually put on airs. They actually imitated Krune, trying to create various things all the time, leading to countless inventions that were sometimes useful but oftentimes useless. They turned into workaholics with high IQ and low EQ, all because they had been imitating Krune for years. After all, among all the founding elders, Krune was the most active and most seen in the sect. His clones were everywhere. So, it naturally led to them imitating him. And that led to a rather strange sect-wide competition. Mountain Sect Top Chef Contest! Chapter 1358 Terrifying Contest Chapter 1358 Terrifying Contest¡¡¡¡"Kekeke!" "I''ll become the best chef of our sect." An immortal wearing a long conical white hat spoke with arrogance. "Heh, we''ll see about that. I''ve been pouring my heart and soul into this craft for five long decades." Another cultivator smirked in disdain. "I''ll show you my three-dimensional vegetable cutting slash. The taste of all ingredients gets a 20 percent boost in taste." Another cultivator said when he frowned, noticing that his getup wasn''t perfect. He then manifested a pair of spectacles and wore them, pressing upon them with his index finger when a flash of light was reflected from the lens. All sorts of cultivators congregated in the massive arena that had been constructed for sect competitions. Slowly, the Elders began to line up at the judging seats as Zamura arrived, looking rather excited. He grinned, goading through Divine Sense. "It''s fun, right?" "Boss, I''ll die from overwork at this rate," Krune grumbled. "Why a cooking contest, though?" "This is just the start. I''ll be conducting a pill refining contest, talisman contest, item forging contest, arm wrestling contest, and so on," Zamura grinned as he replied. "It''ll keep our Sect lively and also increase the sense of competition among the members. Besides, I can use this excuse to dish out treasures to the cultivators." "There''s too many piling up in our treasure vault. We aren''t consuming them fast enough." Zamura sighed soon after. Honestly, only the Mountain Sect could have such worries. This was all due to the gifts received from the Gods all over the God Realm. They weren''t something they could consume, as all such treasures were absorbing the abundant Godly Energy in the Mountain Sect and growing further. And when Zamura was worrying about what to do, he recalled the scene where the sect members lost control of their minds when Krune cooked seriously previously. He wanted to further cultivate such potent weaponry in their Sect. It''ll prove useful against their enemies. After all, even if it wasn''t the Mist Sect, Zamura was planning to wage wars with other sects as well. This sense of competition would cause the sect members of both sides to grow stronger faster. Eventually, that''ll create more powerhouses to fight against the Mong Realm. The Gods would also be urging various sects to engage in conflict with one another as the God Realm would be filled with wars soon after. The Mountain Sect was planning to become a leading figure in that. To achieve that, he had to foster talents and growth in every field. The first of them was the Mountain Sect Top Chef Contest as Zamura flew high up in the air before announcing with his booming voice, "Everyone, welcome our one and only Spiritual Chef whose cooing skills have reached strategic weaponry level, our Founding Elder, Krune!" "Boss!" "Boss Krune!" "Cooking God!" "Creator of Spices!" "Harbinger of Tea!" "Lord of Deserts!" "User of¡­ salt!" The cultivators screamed praises at Krune, obviously looking up to him. And all of them wished to individually praise Krune in different fields. Eventually, they ran short of praises as their shouts turned¡­ somewhat strange. "Eater of Cakes!" "Dancer of Sugar Cakes!" "Melter of Ice Cream!" "Juice Maker!" "Alright, enough!" Krune raised his hand, shouting as his eye continued to twitch. "Second best cook!" "Who the hell said that?" Krune shouted, perfectly offended as he looked through the crowd, unable to find the culprit that had shouted such profanity at him. "Rainbow fragrance!" "Alright, all of you have failed the competition!" Krune shouted. "Now pack up and get lost!" "Now, now, they look up to you. Don''t be so hard on them." Zamura patted his shoulder, speaking in all seriousness. "Then wipe that stupid grin on your face." Krune snorted, noticing that Zamura''s face was twisted from holding in his laughter. It seemed he had planted some seeds among the crowd to target Krune, obviously taking pleasure from Krune''s pissed face. "Haha, that was a good one..." Zamura coughed, almost blurting out his true thoughts as he addressed the crowd. "Now, as the supreme judge of this contest, Elder Krune would lay out the ground rules of the cooking contest." "Heh, so I''m the one setting up the rules." Krune grinned, staring at the crowd below, blatantly expressing his desire for petty revenge, almost cackling out loud as he contacted Feifei, watching thousands of Monster Geckos arrive before the participants. "This is a cooking contest, not a fighting contest." Zamura frowned, wondering if Krune would forgo all rules and make it a free-for-all battle. "Heh, I''m not that petty. It''s still a cooking contest." Krune smirked as he waved his hand, suddenly causing thousands of floating islands to appear in the arena, with each bringing up a contestant to the air. Each floating island spanned a radius of thirty meters, shaped like a spoon. The head of the spoon spanned a radius of 30 meters, while the handle portion spanned a length of 100 meters. At the end of the spoon stood 10 Monster Geckos, five Alfa, and five Azra. Alfa was what all female Monster Geckos were called, while Azra was their male counterpart. Among the five Monster Geckos of each gender, they stood in a line, with the normal Monster Gecko standing at the front, followed by the Mutant Monster Gecko, King, Emperor, and finally, Supreme. So, 10 Monster Geckos were present on each floating island. In the head-shaped structure appeared a cutting board with the basic necessities. There was even a flame that was silently burning with a mysterious essence. In a rack nearby were enough ingredients to cook a feast for thirty people. Immediately after, a barrier formed around each floating island, preventing the aroma from the respective place from flowing towards other floating islands. As all the arrangements were completed, the floating islands moved farther from each other. Krune gazed at the faces of the contestants, grinning as he said, "You have three attempts in total. Make a dish fit for ten people per attempt. Standing before each are trained professionals that had been instructed to behave strictly." "Your goal here is to make them lose their mind with your food. The greater they lose their mind, the closer they''ll reach your preparation area. It''s the easiest to lure the regular Monster Gecko and the most difficult to lure in the Supreme Monster Geckos." "You can make a dish of your choice. You have a day until the contest ends. The winner will be decided on how many Monster Geckos you can lure from their starting point." Krune sported a smile of interest, gazing at the contestants that gulped in response, saying, "Let the first-ever Mountain Sect Cooking Contest begin!" Chapter 1359 Law Cooking Chapter 1359 Law Cooking¡¡¡¡"Begin!" Upon his shout, all the contestants began their preparations immediately. The contestant with a conical white hat closed his eyes as he seriously processed the items placed on the nearby shelf, thinking of what dish he would create that would make the Monster Geckos lose their minds. He slowly took out some onions and began to grate them, turning them into a paste before adding in mustard, lots of them, in fact. He mixed the paste in a large bowl and placed it on fire, watching it bubble soon after as a rather pungent odor appeared. He silently gazed at the expressions of the Monster Geckos, noticing that they didn''t even bat an eye. ''Trained indeed.'' They were within the range of his Divine Sense. So, he was able to obtain a clear perspective of what they felt. ''Let''s add some garlic and potato oil.'' He did that, feeling that the smell of mustard was too strong, causing difficulties for him. He then thought of something, adding in a scoop of butter and lentils, stirring the heated mixture until everything turned into a paste. He constantly kept stirring it while adding in a pinch of sugar from time to time, noticing the smell of the mustard slowly reduce over time. Soon after, he added in grated carrots, able to actually inhale a bit of a sweet scent, frowning in response. ''It''s too sweet.'' "This shouldn''t be happening¡­?" He was confused before noticing that the flame had actually changed its properties, turning into a flame with sweetened properties, shocking him. ''I see, so this flame itself has different flavors that constantly keep changing.'' Nodding as such, he added in sliced watermelon skin, noticing the color of the flame change. He was confused but continued to add in ingredients, soon observing what was happening. "I see, so the flame takes flavor properties that are the exact opposite of the added ingredient. This is tricky indeed." "You''re a devil," Zamura muttered, gazing at Krune. "The goal you stipulated would be hard even if they were to cook normally. Adding onto this flavor-changing fire, it''s pretty much impossible." "Not really," Krune said, smiling. "The fire itself is an ingredient. Only when they understand this can they truly become eligible to contest for the title of second-best cook in the Mountain Sect." "I was thinking of the ways to elevate my cooking," Krune said. "Ever since I saw our sect members losing their minds due to my cooking, a certain thought hit me. How far could I take this skill?" "Until now, I didn''t break away from conventional cooking. I''ve been using food ingredients to cook, no matter how potent their effects turned out to be. At the end of the day, they don''t harm your body but rather boost your cultivation," he said, shaking his head. "But, what about the peak of this realm?" "And that''s where I arrived at an epiphany," Krune said solemnly. "Law Cooking!" "Law Cooking?" Zamura''s eyes widened as he asked, slowly breaking out of the solemn atmosphere. "What the hell''s that?" "I use the Laws of my Spiritual Incarnation as cooking ingredients and create a dish with exact effects that I deem necessary. Plus, it''ll cause my targets to drool over and fight to eat it." Krune said, watching Zamura''s face pale in response as he continued further. "Cultivators, no matter how strong of an attack you unleash, can be guarded against. But since time immemorial, in the mortal world, poison has been used a lot." "The Spark used by the Abolition Tower can also be said to be the poison equivalent of the cultivator world," he continued. "Mine would be a poison that would invoke the primal hunger in a cultivator, something only mortals would feel." "Zela''s power is able to cause cultivators to feel pain just like mortals. Faunkill is directly able to turn a cultivator into a mortal. And I¡­" Krune said in all seriousness, "I''ll make them experience a mortal''s hunger, one that could never be satiated after they''ve eaten the food I make using Law Cooking." "No matter what, they''ll never be able to satiate their hunger and would continue to eat anything and everything in their path," Krune said. "That''s the core ability that I''ve been creating for our upcoming fight against the Mong Realm, the ability I''ll be known for in the future." "Zombie Food, Hunger Wave!" "Can''t you just call it Hunger Wave?" Zamura immediately lost the solemnness of the ability upon hearing its ridiculous name. "No, it should be Zombie Food, Hunger Wave," Krune said in complete seriousness. "This is the ability that I''m going to fully focus on in the future. Every single ability I possess until now will be used to further this ability." "I think it would be for the best to address me as Food Immortal by those beyond the Mountain Sect," Krune concluded. "How far have you developed this ability?" Zamura asked. "At present, anyone below the God Trial Realm has zero hope of resisting its effects. After all, I''ve fused the abilities of tribulation lightning, Mental Energy Law, Divine Sense Law, Godly Inhibition, the energy conversion of my Deific Meridians, and fused the essence of Body Cultivation into it. Due to that, their bodies would be affected by this ability." "The only way to survive is to remain in the form of a Land Incarnation. The moment they take on a human form, the ability would resume its effect," Krune replied. "My condolences to the Mong Realm." Zamura prayed for the eventual fate those from the Mong Realm would be subjected to. It was apparent that Krune was incredibly pissed after the Abolition Tower had targeted Solare. It was obvious due to such a vicious ability he had created. On top of that, Zamura stole a glance at Krune, watching the other party silently observing the actions of all the contestants, ''This guy¡­'' ''He''s treating this competition as a source of inspiration to further his Hunger Wave. Thankfully, there''s Feifei to rein him.'' For a moment, his heart thumped as, for the first time in his life, Zamura experienced this emotion, something that he hadn''t felt even while encountering Zualin while mortal, something he now felt from someone weaker than him. Fear! Chapter 1360 Zombie Food, Hunger Wave Chapter 1360 Zombie Food, Hunger Wave¡¡¡¡"My talented wife, you don''t need to participate in this cooking competition," Faunkill said in worry, watching Zela become one of the participants. "Please don''t forget you''re a Primal God. All participants are only at the Semi-God Realm at most." "So what, being a Primal God doesn''t give me an advantage in this field. So, it''s a fair competition," Zela said in response. "Besides, it''s fun. Who knows, maybe I''m terrifyingly talented in this field?" Faunkill turned around, watching one of the normal Monster Geckos on her floating island leap over the edge, committing suicide while holding its neck. It was apparent as to what Zela was making. He remained silent, not commenting about anything, coughing as he looked at Zela and told her, "Please hold back your skills. You''re overqualified as a cook for this competition." "Fine." Zela shook her head, sighing in response. "I know I''m a great cook. I''ll hold back a little so that the other contestants have a fighting chance." "My wife is magnanimous." Faunkill laughed, subtly noticing the remaining nine Monster Geckos on the floating island prostrate on the ground in joy, thanking him. He acted like he didn''t notice them but actually gave them a thumbs up using his Godly Energy, assuring them that he would protect them from his wife''s nefarious cooking skills that were worse than poison. "That guy''s good." Gegrafikan nodded in praise, watching eight Monster Geckos move out of their position on a certain floating island. Among them, the Alfas had almost reached the cooking spot, within arm''s reach of the cooking pot, drooling as their eyes glazed over. The Azras were slightly faring better as those until the Monster Gecko King level had fallen victim already. The Monster Gecko Emperor was ten meters away from the cooking pot. The Alfa Supreme Monster Gecko was forty meters away from the cooking pot, while the Azra Supreme Monster Gecko was forty-five meters away. Slowly, they were inching closer to the cooking pot as their eyes were slowly glazing over. They were trying their best to retain their sanity but were slowly losing control. The most surprising fact was how the contestant had only begun to stir the vegetables over the fire. He hadn''t added any special seasonings yet. It showed that he was only using the flavor-changing fire and the base vegetables to create such a sensation. "Don''t gloat!" Hazak snorted in response. "That''s your son!" Garguntil, Gergrafikan''s oldest son among the newest generation of nerfed Spirit Aberrants. He was currently at the Ninth Stage of the Semi-God Realm, sporting a casual smile as he watched the Monster Geckos losing control one after another. And now, only the two Supreme Monster Geckos were left. Then again, they were already 20 meters away from the cooking pot and were closing in faster and faster. "Oya!" Gegrafikan grinned in surprise, gazing at the contestants as he huffed haughtily. "Are the Black Demons faring worse than usual?" "I mean, they''ve only been alive for two thousand something years. Of course, they can''t compare to my son that has lived for just over a century," Gegrafikan spoke bluntly. "It''s like comparing an ocean to a droplet of water from a broken spoon. It''ll only become despairing on your end." "Screw you!" Hazak shouted in response. "Damn, Grotak, do better. If you lose to Garguntil, I''ll smack your head into your shoulders!" Hazak and Gegrafikan were two of the judges present. And there was significant rivalry between their two factions. The Black Demons excelled in Body Cultivation, while the Spirit Aberrants excelled in standard cultivation. As they formed two of the biggest demon beast factions in the Mountain Sect, they competed all the time. It was quite surprising that Gegrafikan singlehandedly produced enough children to go toe to toe with an entire race. At present, it had become a living trend that Tina was an eternally pregnant lady, as that was how all the sect members remembered her now. Though, Tina didn''t require to cultivate or comprehend any law, as she was of an entirely different variety. So, she only focused on taking care of the children that she continued to birth every ten months. There was no concept of family bloodlines in the Spirit Aberrant race, so the second generation married one another to produce the third generation. So on, and so forth. That caused their population to boom quickly in a short century. Grotak heard Hazak''s shouts, smiling wryly in response as he thought, ''You''re asking me to compete against a Spirit Aberrant? Even if he''s nerfed, that''s still a goddamn Spirit Aberrant.'' Of course, he couldn''t display his emotions on his face, for that would guarantee a beating session from Hazak. Hazak was not only the leader of the black demons, but she was also the strongest among all of them. Due to what Krune had done to her in the Sub-Realm, she obtained powers similar to him. On top of that, due to her devotion towards Krune, she followed in his footsteps, practically obtaining the same passive and active abilities as him. Though, that was only possible due to Feifei, who was aware of the methods he had used to obtain hose abilities and had deduced a process. With her Spirit Deity Spiritual Incarnation, something of this level was child''s play to her. After all, she had even perfected the Spiritual Marks, capable of making any Spiritual Mark that she thought of. It was not to mention that Feifei had a hand in every cultivation technique, actually upgrading them in certain areas, further improving them beyond what the Immoral Staircase had created. It was not to mention that all the Godly Abilities used by the Mountain Sect members were her creation. Whenever Krune thought of an idea, he used her help to perfect them. This included his latest ability, Zombie Food, Hunger Wave. Feifei was even capable of upgrading the Spiritual Incarnations of everyone, making her the beating heart of the Mountain Sect''s rise. And the most shocking fact of all was what Sterlena had commented about Feifei. She had yet to tap into the true potential of her Spiritual Incarnation. Chapter 1361 Festival Finale Chapter 1361 Festival Finale¡¡¡¡"Wait, is she for real?" "Is that even possible?" "Isn''t this a cooking competition?" The sect members gazed at an eccentric cultivator that seemed to be in her own world. All she had done was pile all the ingredients atop the flavor-changing fire, causing the entire pile to go up in flames. Immediately after, due to how many varieties of flavors the flame had to take on due to coming in contact with so many ingredients, the flame immediately died out. The cultivator then scooped them out and arranged them on a plate, calling it a day as she grinned at Krune, flashing him a thumbs-up as she asked, "Why don''t you give me the prize already, turtle uncle?" "Why the hell did she come here?" Krune facepalmed in response. Of course, the eccentric cultivator was a wisp, one that had recently reached the Semi-God Realm. She was named Kulla. Or rather, she had named herself after hearing about Krune''s name, imitating his actions like what a child did from their parents. "Of course¡­he''s also here." He then gazed at the figure on a floating island behind her, one that was stuffing his face to the brim, actually devouring the ingredients with an expression of relish on his face. The moment he noticed Krune looking his way, he stopped eating as his face resembling a stuffed squirrel glared at Krune, expressing unwillingness to share his food as he continued to eat faster, almost choking as a result. But the surprising thing was the fact that all ten Monster Geckos on both islands had arrived before the respective cultivator, having already lost their minds. "Dude, what the hell did you teach them?" Gegrafikan complained. "They aren''t even cooking, but the Monster Geckos already lost their mind." "Kulla and Kuttul, they¡­ cultivate the same cultivation technique as me. And¡­" Krune scratched his cheek, smiling wryly. "They seemed interested¡­ so¡­ I taught them a few things." ''Thankfully, Garguntil finished before them.'' Gegrafikan subtly wiped his sweat, feeling like he would have embarrassed himself after boasting to Hazak so much if his son was defeated by a pair of casual wisps. "Actually, your son wasn''t the first one to finish this round." Hazak seemed like she had been waiting for this all along, acting smug as she pointed at a certain floating island. "He was the first to finish." "Relena¡­" Gegrafikan frowned, muttering the name of the candidate on the floating island. He extended his Divine Sense, seeping it through the floating island''s barrier to come in contact with the terrifying aroma condensed within, shocked at its effectiveness as even he was partially affected. Even though he had a feminine name, the cultivator didn''t share any feminine traits. Rather, he was a buff man sporting a hulking figure that spanned three meters in height in his human form. "A True Spirit¡­ no wonder." Gegrafikan muttered, "Indeed the children of heaven." Relena was the first True Spirit that Krune''s Land Incarnation had birthed. After that, a few more True Spirits had been birthed, one per a couple of decades. As for wisps, at least one was birthed every year. The speed wasn''t much, but considering how the laws of the God Realm were damaged, preventing their natural births to a certain extent, this was a considerable speed. At least they weren''t hunted here. As Relena was the first True Spirit birthed in the God Realm after millions of years, Sterlena practically taught him everything she knew. There was still plenty that she could teach him, but as a True Spirit, Relena was significantly talented. If not for the fact that he was a reserved person that was inherently lazy, he would have actually reached the God Trial Realm by now. It really made Krune understand just how overpowered True Spirits were. Then again, Spirit Aberrants were almost broken in that regard. "In comparison, us wisps are pitiful," Krune muttered, sighing as he observed the ongoing cooking contest. At first, he thought it would be hard for them to achieve the goal he had set. But there were already a few that had already completed the contest. That made him realize that he had actually underestimated his juniors. "Continue underestimating them, and they''ll surpass you soon enough." Sterlena''s voice resounded in his ears. "Sis, were you training them in secret?" Krune asked. "It wasn''t a secret, though. Those adorable kids like me the most!" Sterlena said in pride, pretty much flexing in the end. "I''m number one to them. You''re only number two." "¡­" Krune decided then and there that Sterlena had gone off the deep end, praying for her as he then chose to¡­ ignore her. It was pretty anticlimactic after that as Relena won the cooking competition, with Garguntil in second place. Surprisingly, Kulla and Kuttul ended up sharing third place. With the cooking contest wrapped up, the crowd began to leave, only after Zamura had notified them of the pill refining contest that would begin the next day. "It''s the hundred contest festival!" He announced. "There will be one contest daily, and the entire festival would last a hundred days." The reason he had made it a hundred days wasn''t just to develop the hundred paths that were being cultivated in the Mountain Sect. But it was also to commemorate the completion of the supercontinent. That was why he had begun the festival just now, ensuring that it would end on the same day when the supercontinent finished forming. Following his announcement, the days continued to span past as the festival entered a new fervor. The prizes for the subsequent contests were better than what was announced for the cooking contest. So, the number of participants increased exponentially while the hype for the festival continued to increase. And finally, on the last day of the festival was the finale¡ªbattle! It was actually split into various levels, each for its respective cultivation realm. This way, things would be fair. Plus, the winner of a lower realm could actually challenge the participants of the higher realm. This not only allowed the geniuses of the sect to prove themselves, but it was also the most straightforward way for them to display their talent. After all, the rewards for this were equivalent to ten of the previous contests. Chapter 1362 Arrival of the Monster Gecko Cultivators Chapter 1362 Arrival of the Monster Gecko Cultivators¡¡¡¡As the level of the battles increased from one realm to the higher one, the enthusiasm of the people continued to increase. After all, the battle this time wasn''t conducted in the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm, but out in the open. Krune had constructed a floating platform of ice that acted as the battlefield. On top of that, a massive stand was created, enough to seat an audience of ten million. People from throughout the almost finished supercontinent attended to watch the first major festival that was being conducted. For those that were unable to arrive, they were still able to see it through the broadcasting services. Technology actually existed in the God Realm, even though it had limited development. It was enough for information to be transmitted within the continent. However, it was impossible to send any information beyond the respective continent due to the disruptive energy storms that existed beyond the continents. There was also the habitat of the shadowy creatures that bordered every continent, preventing any energy form from crossing them. To find a path beyond was too difficult, and hence, the level of technology was limited and varied from continent to continent. As for the level of technology on their forming supercontinent, it was lackluster compared to other more developed continents. There were four segments in total to the battle competition. It began at the God Foundation Realm and ended at the Semi-God Realm. They didn''t want to include anyone from the God Trial Realm and above, as the scale of battles would be too powerful and dangerous for the watching audience. Moreover, it would mean Krune and Zamura would be participating. Naturally, a serious fight between them would cause things to become too chaotic. Plus, it wouldn''t end that soon. Their goal was to end the festival right when the supercontinent finished forming. Hence, they stopped at the Semi-God Realm. Eventually, the victor at the Nascent God Realm appeared. Of course, it was a True Spirit. Among the three battles, the winners for two were True Spirits, while one was won by a Spirit Aberrant. That left the final battle, the one between Semi-Gods. "Uncle, do you want me to win?" Kulla asked Krune, suddenly turning serious. "Can you?" Krune asked. "Do you want me to or not?" Kulla repeated her question. Krune paused, stopping from giving a casual reply, only now noticing that Kulla indeed seemed serious, unlike her usual character. It was apparent that her competitive spirit had been ignited. After all, she wasn''t even being serious during the cooking competition, not to mention the other competitions. She was just enjoying the process. But upon seeing Gegrafikan gloating every time a Spirit Aberrant won, or when Hazak did the same whenever a Black Demon won, Kulla was gradually getting pissed. Eventually, it triggered her, especially upon seeing that Krune wasn''t enthusiastic throughout the festival. She wanted to see him gloat over their victory. "See, see, see, my children are the best!" That was what she hoped Krune would say. It was the primary reason she was joining the battle. After all, even though she was close to Sterlena, she was a wisp, and Sterlena was a True Spirit, just like Relena. So, she wanted to be acknowledged by Krune the most. Kulla gazed at Kuttul, making eye contact as they nodded at one another, firming their minds. It seemed they had already discussed it with one another. Krune saw their resolve, sighing as he asked, "Have you placed your Land Incarnations?" "Yep!" The both of them nodded. "Alright, then don''t hold back!" Krune patted both Kulla and Kuttul. "Show them our true power." "Alright!" Kulla grinned as her eyes flickered with fighting spirit. Slowly, as she walked forward, the sounds of ocean waves emanated from her. Passive Ability¡ªOcean Heart! She had obtained the same as him. Though, that was only possible thanks to Krune giving her the go-ahead to obtain it. For exclusive abilities like Ocean Heart, only after obtaining permission from the creator was someone able to inherit the same in the Mountain Sect. This was to show respect to the creator. Of course, Hazak had skipped that part as her loyalty to Krune was impossible to break, as that was something inherent in her genetics, apparent as even her children were the same as her, wholly devoted to Krune. Other than Hazak, Kulla was the only other person to obtain Ocean Heart. As Kuttul, he didn''t choose any of Krune''s passive abilities. Instead, he created his own unique passive ability, following the same path as Zamuria as he created his exclusive ability. Slowly, the two wisps arrived at the arena, noticing the rest of the participants arrive one after another. It was a free-for-all battle royale, with the final three remaining alive being declared victors. There were many familiar faces among the participants, those that had competed in previous competitions. Kulla gazed at the figures of Relena and Garguntil, knowing very well that they would be one of the toughest fighters around. There was also Doit, Grotak, and many other Black Demons. Even Hwait, once proclaimed as the strongest Black Demon, was participating. Of course, he was at the Semi-God Realm only because he had been putting off a breakthrough just because of something that he had been researching on. Otherwise, he would have also reached the God Trial Realm by now. "Has everyone arrived?" Zamura flew into the air, asking as he looked at the contestants, noticing that no one else was arriving anymore. "Wait, there''s one more." Feifei appeared all of a sudden, waving her hand as two thin figures landed on the arena. "Eh? Aren''t they Alfa and Azra?" Zamura said in surprise. It was easy to spot them because there were thousands with the same appearance throughout the Mountain Sect, performing a variety of tasks. "Yep." Feifei smiled casually, "But they''re Supreme Monster Geckos with a Spiritual Incarnation." "Spiritual Incarnation?" Everyone among the crowd clamored. After all, they knew the infamous Monster Gecko race was just a product of Feifei''s ability. So, reaching the peak of the Nascent God Realm was their limit. But strangely, the ones before them were at the Semi-God Realm. It was shocking as Feifei dropped a shocking fact¡­ "Yes, I''ve solved their inherent issue. The Monster Gecko race can now cultivate like the rest of the races of the God Realm." Chapter 1363 Festival Climax Chapter 1363 Festival Climax¡¡¡¡"The Monster Gecko race can now cultivate like the rest of the races of the God Realm." Feifei''s declaration stumped everyone watching the finale of the Mountain Sect festival. Everyone from the Mountain Sect was aware of the infamous Alfa and Azra. After all, they were what took care of all the menial tasks of the Sect. Moreover, with the supercontinent forming, the land turned more dangerous than before. So, most of the grunt work to lay down formations, ensuring the old sceneries and habitats remained intact and so on was mostly done by the Monster Geckos. For any task on the mortal level, it was done by the Monster Gecko. Not only was it because they were insanely loyal due to following Feifei''s commands, but they were also those that weren''t afraid to die. After all, they were just part of an ability. That wasn''t all. They also had staggering numbers, enough to take care of all mortal-level tasks. Only for those tasks requiring immortals were the sect members actually dispatched. Once the three empires had surrendered, and the Mountain Sect took reigns of the three continents, the common populace came to know about the infamous Monster Geckos. The Monster Geckos also acted as a labor force for the past decade to begin rebuilding cities throughout the forming supercontinent. As a demon beast race, they had the highest support among the populace. However, no other demon beast race ever felt threatened by the Monster Geckos. It was all because their cultivation was capped at the Ninth Stage of the Nascent God Realm. Even the Supreme Monster Geckos were the same, even though their battle strength surpassed most Semi-God Realm cultivators¡ªincluding those from the Mountain Sect. But now, upon hearing that their racial limit had actually been solved, allowing them to cultivate, it caused waves of shock and surprise for everyone. And the proof of it was the two figures of Alfa and Azra that were on the arena, emitting auras at the Semi-God Realm. Moreover, upon closer observation, it was apparent that they had reached the Fifth Stage of the Semi-God Realm, proving that it wasn''t recent that they had attained a breakthrough. Feifei had truly concealed this information. "Well, only my Supreme Monster Geckos are able to cultivate past the limits for the time being." Feifei smiled as she clarified. "I still need time to solve the defects among the rest of the Monster Gecko race." "Anyways." She patted the Alfa and Azra before flying away. "Make me proud." "Yes, Master!" The two Supreme Monster Geckos bowed respectfully before gazing at the crowd, emitting killing intent. As the group was flaring up in fighting spirit, two fishes suddenly landed in the arena, shocking everyone. This time, it was Zamuria''s turn to intervene as Rumria and Guria floated behind her. The two fishes seemed calm, returning to their human forms as they resembled cultivators with blue hair and eyes while sporting pearl-like skin. At first glance, they seemed weak. But a glance at Zamuria''s proud expression showed that they were anything but weak. "This is a new race that we''ve created through the abilities of us three," Zamuria said, laughing aloud. "Who would have thought that our abilities can actually complement each other so much?" "Even you, mother?" Zamura sighed, feeling a headache as every Elder was showing their cards now, bringing in either their disciples that they had trained in secret or like Feifei that had brought in a new race itself. Surprisingly, Zamuria had also created a new race with the help of Rumria and Guria. Judging by how the two participants were at the Semi-God Realm, it seemed the plan had been going on since long ago. "Alright, now that everyone has joined, we''ll begin¡­" Zamura had just begun to speak when someone interrupted him once again. "Wait!" the Seamstress shouted as she arrived before him, grinning as she replied, "It''s done." "It''s done?" Zamura was surprised before laughing in response. "Great! I was actually stalling for time until now, hahaha!" Based on her words, it seemed that Zamura and the Seamstress were also involved in something of their own. Though, theirs seemed like a special case. "Eh? Aren''t they your children?" Krune asked in doubt, wondering what was happening here. After all, based on the Seamstress'' words, it seemed like she had succeeded in an experiment. However, what she had brought out were her children. Of course, it felt unnerving that Zamura and the Seamstress had experimented with their own children. "It''s not that." Zamura grinned, saying, "Demon beasts have a greater advantage than humans in a variety of fields. So, we were hoping to give a bloodline to our children. Well, it seemed to have worked." Right as he said so, his two children landed on the arena, causing it to tremble immediately. Boom! "Keuk!" Krune shouted as he hurriedly raised the strength of the arena, barely stabilizing it as he mended the cracks that formed when Zamura''s children landed on it. "They''re heavy!" Krune shot an inquisitory glance at Zamura, who only flashed a grin in response. "You''ll find it out for yourself later." Zamura smiled mysteriously as he and the Seamstress snickered. "Uncle, don''t worry. We''ll win." Kulla gazed at Krune, flashing a thumbs up. "We''re the strongest wisps to ever be born." "Alright, I''ll be watching." Krune smiled as he thought for a moment before going all out to expand the radius of the arena, also adding in countless restrictions and formations to ensure it wouldn''t fall even if an Elementary God were to attack it. His clones flew out one after another as they took position beneath the arena, working on keeping it stable. There were thousands of them, shocking the crowd. After all, some of them took the form of a wisp, hovering high up in the sky to record the battles and transmit it to the rest of their forming supercontinent. A team of clones was also working on adding live commentary for the battles, while another edited the footage accordingly, only sporting a delay of five seconds between the live and broadcasted versions. "I forgot that this guy is also a monster," Zualin muttered, feeling shocked at how powerful and resourceful Krune had become, despite only being at the Second Stage God Trial Realm. At this time, Zamura arrived at the top of the arena, observing for a couple of minutes before stating, "Good, it seems that everyone had indeed arrived. There are around seventeen thousand Semi-God Realm cultivators here. Killing is the condition to eliminate your opponent. Attacks intending to harm their revival means are forbidden. We''ll interfere if that''s the case." "The battle would last for a day. That''s all." Zamura took in a deep breath before announcing, "And now, I announce that the climax of our festival has officially... begun!" Chapter 1364 Krune’s Original Creation: Hunger Law! Chapter 1364 Krune¡¯s Original Creation: Hunger Law!¡¡¡¡"Begin!" Zamura announced before disappearing from his location. The tension in the arena increased immediately, but none moved from their position. After all, this wasn''t a one-on-one battle but a free-for-all war. Even if they were strong individually, they could easily be drowned by attacks from everyone here. And most of all, the cultivators here formed the cream of the crop of the Mountain Sect''s second generation. In other words, they had inherited powerful abilities from their seniors that now encompassed the Elders of the Mountain Sect. Plus, that wasn''t all. They had also learned body and soul cultivation. So, their attacks would be incredibly complex. It was especially true for their soul cultivation techniques involving Mental Energy. The best example that served as their reference material was Krune''s actions in the Celestial Battlefield, where he instigated infighting among the army from the three continents for eight years. That was a tremendous feat, and using that as a source, more techniques related to Mental Energy were derived. All in all, wars like these, where the emotions of everyone would slowly slip out of their control, were the best opportunity to be played around by Mental Energy techniques. That was the reason everyone remained silent, unmoving, tense, ready to erupt but hadn''t done so yet. A single action would be the spark that ignited the explosive here. As everyone was in a state of tension, suddenly, an aromatic scent wafted through the arena, causing saliva to form in their mouths instinctively. It was an aroma that could only be emitted from the most delicious food. As none of them had unleashed any godly abilities, the arena''s state was actually pristine, with no energy interference. This allowed the aroma of the food to emanate and spread around, slowly causing the breathing of everyone to become ragged. They were trying their best to control themselves, slowly raising up their defenses while riling up their Godly Energy, trying their best to refrain from taking action abruptly. After all, doing so would make them the center of attention, causing everyone to instinctively target them. No matter how confident they were in their strength, being attacked by a hundred peers at the same level simultaneously wouldn''t bode well for them. Plop! Suddenly, the senses of a cultivator noticed a tiny slab of metal land next to his feet. It didn''t seem anything special at first glance, but a couple of seconds later, it emanated a powerful aroma, instantly breaking through his Mental Energy defenses as his mind shattered, causing him to lunge at the metal slab, devouring it immediately. Hunger! The metal slab was way too delicious, but it was only half the size of his palm, obviously insufficient to satiate him. And now that he had eaten such a delicacy, he craved to eat more. Unfortunately for him, there wasn''t any other delicacy of the sort around him. However, his hunger continued to grow before soon after, he began to hallucinate everyone else around him as food, leaping towards the closest target. "Food!" Bam! The target slammed him away with a burst of Godly Energy as he was sent flying. Unfortunately, the hungry cultivator was like a zombie as he ignored his injuries, not even feeling any pain as he sprinted towards a nearby cultivator, riling up all his power to defend against the attacks streaming his way as he latched onto the cultivator, biting the other party''s neck. Delicious! The cultivator was overwhelmed with pleasure as he immediately gobbled up the ''food,'' patting his bulging stomach as he could feel a dense stream of Godly Energy brimming through him as the food in his stomach was quickly digested. Immediately after that, he only again felt hunger. It hadn''t even been a minute since he ate that massive ''food.'' "More!" he shouted before rushing towards another cultivator. He wasn''t the only one behaving like a hungry zombie, though. There were at least a hundred of them acting the same, instantly causing chaos throughout the arena. As for the perpetrators, they couldn''t even be seen. The immortals watching among the stands immediately shot glances at Krune, causing the other party to laugh as he said, "I didn''t teach them much. Wisps are just that talented." At his remarks, Feifei just rolled her eyes, obviously aware of what had happened behind the scenes. When the cooking contest had ended, Krune obtained enlightenment, heading out to cultivate in seclusion as he brought out all his clones, causing them to encircle him, forming the shape of a sphere. After that, they all unleashed tribulation lightning, slamming them into Krune. False Tribulation! Krune was mimicking the final tribulation that Sterlena had experienced. He was just replicating it now, controlling the power behind the lightning bolts. Then again, every attack was actually vaporizing parts of his body as they were just that powerful. Under this pressure, Krune refined his Spiritual Incarnation, activating all the laws that he had, beginning to fuse them into one as he condensed all the enlightenment he had obtained. Calamity Laws that caused calamities. Balance Laws that kept everything in balance by actually taking control over the various Laws. Tribulation Lightning Law that vaporised all Laws. Divine Sense Law that formed the core of a cultivator''s senses and acted as the adhesive of their Spiritual Incarnation. Mental Energy Law that formed the base of their mind. They formed the base as Krune had dumped all the laws that he had ever comprehended, focusing them into the core of his being as he returned to his wisp form, finally creating a brand-new Law when he was fully vaporized the next second. Through a clone, he revived soon after, grinning as he focused on the new Law that he had created, one that conceptualized his ability of Zombie Food, Hunger Wave. Hunger Law! With the Law conceptualized, he was now able to actually use his Zombie Food, Hunger Wave as a tremendously powerful ability anyhow he pleased. It instantly became his strongest ability, as Krune had literally condensed everything he possessed to create this Law. However, he also came to understand a severe drawback of this Law. It was the fact that he couldn''t make anyone else learn it. After all, there actually seemed to be a restriction on this, just like the Tribulation Lightning Law. And when Krune understood it, even he was taken by surprise. Chapter 1365 Hunger Wave Spiritual Mark Chapter 1365 Hunger Wave Spiritual Mark¡¡¡¡If a normal cultivator tried to comprehend the Tribulation Lightning Law, they would experience an intense headache before soon, their Spiritual Incarnation would begin melting. If they persisted with the process, they would die soon after, with zero chances of revival. Their revival means would directly vaporize. This was the frightening reason none other than Luvile managed to comprehend the Tribulation Lightning Law. Plus, this was only due to him stumbling upon an area where the laws of the God Realm were messed up due to the calamity Sterlena had faced during her final tribulation. Krune had only been able to comprehend the same thanks to the Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark that Luvile had created for him. Surprisingly, the Hunger Law was no different. If someone other than Krune tried to comprehend it, they would begin facing an intense sense of hunger as the various Laws in their Spiritual Incarnation would begin eating up one another, leading to their deaths. The same process would also occur in their various Land Incarnations, causing their permanent death. So, it meant that Krune was the only one that could use the Hunger Law. However, when he gazed at the silly wisps running around without a care in their lives, he frowned, muttering, "The wisps need something to defend themselves with." It was especially true since wisps weren''t a bloodthirsty race. It was hard for them to kill other people voluntarily, even if they had the best abilities to use. It was an innate resistance they faced that prevented them from claiming lives. Krune hadn''t faced that much since from the moment of his birth, he was constantly chased by cultivators that wished to capture him. Due to that, he overcame this instinct. Though, he also refrained from killing unless it was absolutely necessary. This was just the nature of wisps. And since the wisps in the Mountain Sect were born without any worries, their instinct had become stronger, preventing them from killing people. And that''s where his dilemma had begun. He didn''t wish to subject his fellow wisps to cruelty just so that they could become strong enough to fight for their lives. That just didn''t sit well with him, unwilling to taint his race''s instincts. Therefore, he came to a rather bold conclusion. Upon noticing that since these wisps were born from his Land Incarnation, they actually inherited some of his traits and tendencies. And the first of it was a rather strong affinity for cooking and the likeliness to cook. And just like him, they considered everything around them as potential ingredients, even if they were from people. With that, Krune began to work on the perfect ability that every wisp could universally use from now on. Of course, it would have been impossible without Feifei''s help. And after two months of nonstop work, Feifei managed to produce two creations. Hunger Wave Spiritual Mark! She managed to create two of such Spiritual Marks in the time constraint that Krune gave to Kulla and Kuttul. Using this Spiritual Mark, the two wisps were able to unleash Krune''s Zombie Food, Hunger Wave ability. Feifei promised to make more Hunger Wave Spiritual Marks at a later date to equip all wisps. But with this, he obtained the means to ensure the survival and development of the Wisps. They weren''t averse to using this Spiritual Mark for offensive purposes. After all, they weren''t actually killing their opponents using it. Hunger Law had been produced through the condensation of every Law in the God Realm. Therefore, it was able to target every single Law in existence. Moreover, its effects were also spread in every form, whether it was sight, smell, sound, touch, divine sense, Mental Energy scan, and so on. That was what made it so frightening as Krune poured in all his accumulations to create it. The fact that he used his Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark to create a scene of tribulation for the creation of his exclusive law was something only he could achieve. And now that Kulla and Kuttul were using the Hunger Wave Spiritual Mark, Krune grinned with such a wide smile that the ends of his lips almost touched his ears. Kulla and Kuttul had returned to their wisp forms, retracting their ethereal bodies to only leave behind a floating core each. After that, they enveloped their cores with a Mental Energy barrier before staying hidden in a remote corner of the arena. Of course, they had already planted a few seeds of chaos in the meantime, causing people to behave like zombies as they tried to devour everyone in the vicinity. Even if people hadn''t come into direct contact with the unleashed ability, they were still affected by the smell of the irresistible aroma. And as they fought, their senses were slowly slipping out of their control. Every cultivator that was running around like a zombie was unleashing their aroma to slowly affect others. Like a virus, they spread around the aroma. This was the frightening aspect of Zombie Food, Hunger Wave. The Zombie Food aspect created small slabs that emanated such a delicious fragrance that anyone in contact would try to devour it. And once they ingest it, they would constantly be in a state of hunger and wouldn''t stop until they ate everything around them. Only killing them would put them out of this misery. However, it wasn''t just a normal death. After all, the slab of bait was something similar to Faunkill''s ability in that it would burrow into the Spiritual Incarnations of those that eat it. In short, even if they were to revive, they would still be in a state of hunger. It was a permanent effect until the caster retracted it. On top of that, there was another frightening aspect of this ability. Those affected by this ability acted as carriers, spreading an aromatic fragrance around themselves while running, causing those that inhale this fragrance long enough to also become hungry zombies. This was the Hunger Wave aspect of the ability, the reason Krune had named it as such. Slowly, as the hungry zombies wreaked havoc on the arena, the focus of weaker Semi-God Realm cultivators continued to slip past before soon, the first victim among them arrived, having turned into a hungry zombie himself. He immediately jumped onto a nearby cultivator, shocking him as the intensity of the fragrance continued to increase. Chapter 1366 Key Players Chapter 1366 Key Players¡¡¡¡''Those two are definitely hiding somewhere¡­'' Relena frowned as he looked around through his Mental Energy scan, failing to find any traces of the two wisps. He was aware that even though wisps and True Spirits were mostly the same, there were obvious differences. But innately speaking, there just wasn''t any field where a True Spirit was inferior to a wisp. In truth, wisps weren''t a competitive race. Only True Spirits were competitive. However, this competition only existed below fellow True Spirits. Because honestly speaking, none of the other races could ever hope to compete with a True Spirit. But when Relena was born, he was the only True Spirit around. There was also Sterlena, but she was insanely strong and had lived for millions of years. There was an obvious chasm between the two. So, Relena was unable to compete with her. Left with no other choice, he could only pick the wisps that he felt were pretty similar to him. After all, despite their differences, at the end of the day, they were cut from the same cloth. That was what Sterlena had told him. But when he tried to compete with the wisps, Relena was disappointed. That was because the wisps were interested in having fun rather than cultivating. Even for cultivation, Krune fattened them up using his Pseudo-Wisps. They pretty much existed to help speed up one''s cultivation. As he was focusing on them more, he had neglected his own cultivation a bit. So, in the end, the wisps weren''t even cultivating while their cultivation bases continued to increase constantly. On top of that, Krune devised them many games that gave them enough experience to not suffer any limits and constantly breakthrough without problems. This was what led to Relena''s disappointment. Honestly, he wished to compete with wisps. Two decades after he was born, a second True Spirit was birthed. However, there was already a considerable gap in cultivation between them. So, Relena was in an awkward state, having no one to compete with. That was why he had become lazy, keeping everything to himself. But for the past few days, he had noticed a minor change in Kulla and Kuttul. They seemed intent to show off, which ended up exciting him. He thought that he could finally compete with them. And now, the chaos in the arena indeed lived up to his expectations, causing him to actually enjoy the situation, sporting a content smile. ''Yes, this is it. You should at least be capable of this if you were trained by uncle Krune.'' Relena slowly spiked his Mental Energy output, varying the energy intensities as he unleashed constant waves, intending to pick out where the quantity of Mental Energy within the emitted waves experienced a minor dip. That would be where the two wisps were hiding. Of course, he was aware of the intricacies of Mental Energy. After all, he too was taught by Krune in this subject, as he and Feifei were the most experienced in using Mental Energy in the Mountain Sect. "Relena, let''s see who''s stronger out of the two of us," Garguntil spoke, suddenly landing a few meters before him. "You''re a lot older than me, though," Relena said in response. "Why don''t you fight with Grotak?" "I want to fight you, though." Garguntil said, "I can clearly sense that you''re the strongest out of everyone here. My dad told me many times that only a True Spirit can ever hope to come close to a Spirit Aberrant''s strength." "Hoh?" Relena was planning on ignoring the other party as he only wished to compete with the wisps. But, hearing Garguntil''s remarks, he raised a brow as he asked, "Do you mean to say that a True Spirit is weaker than a Spirit Aberrant?" "Of course." Garguntil nodded as a matter of fact, "Spirit Aberrants can comprehend the laws the fastest among all races." "Well, us True Spirits are the best at everything else, including our cultivation speed and the way we can wield every type of energy¡­" Relena spoke slowly as the Godly Energy in the atmosphere suddenly turned static before flowing towards him, swirling around him. "True Spirits exercise natural authority over the Godly Energy of the God Realm!" Relena said as he caused every cultivator in the arena to look over in shock. After all, when they planned to replenish some of their expended reserves, they observed with shock that the Godly Energy in the air was no longer heeding their call. Even when they tried to grab hold of it forcefully using their divine sense, the Godly Energy simply refused them with all its power. And the most shocking of them all was the fact that Relena hadn''t even unleashed his Divine Sense yet. One thought from him was all that was needed to create this situation. In contrast to his actions, Garguntil''s body slowly began to glow with the unique radiance belonging to their respective Laws. Depending on the radiance, one could determine the cultivator''s comprehension of the respective Law. Only after their comprehension reached the Semi-God Realm would the respective Law emit any radiance. And among the radiance, there would be layers. There would only be one radiance at the Semi-God Realm level of comprehension. Two layers at the God Trial Realm level of comprehension, three layers at the Elementary God Realm level of comprehension and so on. When it reached four layers, the Law itself would begin forming, displaying its dominance through its manifestation, displaying that their comprehension had reached the Primal God Realm. There was no concept of five layers. After all, if someone attained that, it meant they would become the God of that Law. Though, there were exceptions like Wally, that had dethroned a God but hadn''t occupied the seat of that God. So, he had five layers in the radiance of that particular Law. "What¡­ what the hell is that?" A cultivator on the arena muttered in shock, noticing the number of radiances on Garguntil slowly increase in number, soon reaching the triple digits. And the most shocking of them all was the fact that all of them consisted of two layers. Moreover, forming powerful radiances were ten Laws, each sporting three layers, signifying that Garguntil had comprehended ten laws to the Elementary God Realm. "Indeed, he''s a monster," Krune muttered, gazing at Gegrafikan. He then directed his gaze at Sterlena, surprising upon seeing that she was still calm, rather was even sporting a subtle smile. "Haha!" Krune laughed, excited to see how this fight would turn out. After all, this wasn''t a one-on-one fight between Relena and Garguntil but a royal rumble. And as he expected, the rest of the key players began to take action one after another. Chapter 1367 Garguntil Vs. Relena Chapter 1367 Garguntil Vs. Relena¡¡¡¡Boom! Relena and Garguntil clashed instantly, unleashing a powerful shockwave that caused the air in the place to swirl out violently. The Godly Energy instantly froze up before flowing into the epicenter of the impact, changing forms as it seemed to be affected by an ability of sorts. Not only was the ambient Godly Energy behaving as such, but even the Godly Energy within the abilities unleashed by other cultivators on the arena behaved the same. The Godly Energy in them was siphoned out and swerved towards the epicenter of the impact, shocking countless people. "What? My ability!" A First Stage Semi-God Realm cultivator shouted in shock upon seeing the fireball he unleashed dissipate as all the Godly Energy within it flowed out. It was mind-blowing as the fireball he had unleashed was morphed, turning back into its original Godly Energy state within his meridians. The only difference was the fact that they were out in the open now. Immediately after, they flowed away, revolving around Relena. Garguntil gazed solemnly, noticing that even the probing attacks he unleashed failed to touch Relena as, by the time they moved half the distance, the abilities reverted to become Godly Energy streams, joining the already massive vortex around him. "This is the power of the True Spirits!" Relena spoke. "And, I took this ability to the extreme through my Spiritual Incarnation. I control all Godly Energy, irrespective of what form it had taken." "Impressive," Garguntil smirked in response. "As expected. I wasn''t wrong to say that you were the strongest among everyone here." "You have exceptional senses, indeed," Relena said in response with a proud tone. "To think that you guessed accurately that I''m the strongest here." "You''re the strongest apart from me," Garguntil said before chucking out a sphere that flew towards Relena. "That won''t work!" Relena created a defensive barrier before him while trying the morph the attack back into Godly Energy. But suddenly, he noticed the sphere accelerate as it penetrated through his defenses before slamming into him, sending him flying away. "As expected." Garguntil smiled. "If it was something that originally existed as a physical object, then your ability won''t work against it. Then, as long as I chuck them at you fast enough, they''ll damage you." "Unfortunately for you, I''m exceptionally great at throwing things around." Garguntil smiled, condensing a sphere once again. He then focused, fully morphing the Godly Energy into the Law of Metal to create this metal sphere. Moreover, once the sphere was condensed, he ensured not even a speck of Godly Energy remained within. This seemed pretty much like a physical object as he coated it with the Law of Fire, blasting it towards Relena. Relena defended it in the same fashion as before, shocked when his defensive barrier was shattered once again, causing him to be sent flying. As for the metal sphere, it landed on the arena floor, causing a massive crater. This was in the case when it only fell from a height of a meter from the ground, implying the tremendous weight it possessed. After all, this arena was created by Krune. Of course, he was a monster in his own right. The fact that a sphere Garguntil created contained such power shocked countless elders. This was the first time he was truly displaying his powers. "That''s just the beginning," Garguntil smirked, dropping a steel sphere that he kicked, unleashing such a powerful shockwave that the ice behind him cracked in response, displaying the shockwave patterns. The steel ball flew through the air, arching towards Relena as if it had a tracking ability imbued in it. Sterlena had hurriedly picked himself up from the ground, unleashing an evasive ability as he blasted through the arena, using other cultivators as his shields. He didn''t actually use them as shields, though, just focusing on evading. As for the steel ball, it rammed through the cultivators like a brick through sheets of paper, ripping apart holes through their bodies, eliciting countless screams. And the shocking thing was how its speed didn''t even reduce much despite going through dozens of cultivators. The shocking part was how none of them were normal cultivators but those that also cultivated their bodies. The bodies of each surpassed the Black Demons that were in the Sub-Realm. And that state itself was tremendously tough, not to mention it was further reinforced by their Spiritual Incarnations. Clang! Suddenly, the steel sphere came to a stop, gripped firmly by a slender figure that grinned cutely. "This seems fun. Can I also join?" "You are¡­?" Garguntil frowned, watching his attack being stopped so easily by that girl, recalling the scene of how the entire arena quaked when she landed on it. "So you''re the Sect Leader''s daughter." "Call me Zettena." The girl smiled, clenching the steel sphere as its shape deformed accordingly. Followed by a cute grunt, Zettena threw it, causing the deformed steel ball to slam into Garguntil, sending him skidding for a dozen meters as a couple of his fingers had broken under the impact. ''She''s strong!'' Garguntil frowned, watching the deformed steel sphere turn into a flattened plate from the impact. Plus, his hands were still trembling, reeling from the impact as the mild shiver coursed even through his legs. It showed how terrifying Zettena was. And by the looks of it, she didn''t even use much of her strength. "This is how a festival should be," Garguntil smirked as he slowly began to walk towards Zettena. "I''ll deal with you first before fighting Relena. The main dish should be saved for the end." "You still think he''s the strongest?" Zettena cutely tilted her head as she asked. "You weren''t even able to block my attack easily when I could casually block yours, you know. And Relena was dodging your attacks to save himself. Doesn''t that mean I''m the strongest of us three?" "Hahaha!" Garguntil laughed before showing his hands. "Look here, I''m not even injured by your attack. So, you didn''t even defeat me. As for Relena¡­" Garguntil said with confidence, "I can still say with confidence that he''s the strongest." Chapter 1368 Relena Vs Kulla & Kuttul Chapter 1368 Relena Vs Kulla & Kuttul¡¡¡¡"Dumb bro, what should we do?" A certain someone asked. "Dumb sis, just remain in hiding. Let these crazy jackals hunt each other," a certain someone replied. "But dumb bro, when will we make a move?" A certain someone that spoke first asked. "True dumb sis, we''ll only move to grab hold of the winning prize. A true warrior wins a battle without budging his ass." A certain someone that spoke second replied with pride. "As expected of the second smartest wisp." A certain someone that spoke first said in praise. "Then, who''s the smartest?" "Me, of course." They were the two wisps, Kulla and Kuttul, that had been in hiding from the start. They were casually touring through the arena while remaining in hiding using their Mental Energy barriers. As they were only moving with their cores, it was hard for any attacks to hit such tiny, nimble targets that slipped through any gaps they could find. And for some reason, they always passed between the legs of battling cultivators, obviously treating such dangerous locations as if it was a serene walk in the park. Whenever someone strong appeared, they evaded the place and toured somewhere else. Slowly, as they were observing the state of the battlefield, they had entered a roleplay, courtesy of what Krune and Sterlena did on a daily basis. After all, there wasn''t much that they could worry about in this case. After all, they cultivated Krune''s Deific Wisp Technique. Which meant that all the energy in their body had been converted into Mental Energy now. And since wisps were just energy beings in nature, their current figures were just a condensation of Mental Energy. Their Wisp Cores were just Mental Energy that was solidified. This was the prime reason why their stealth wasn''t seen through by others until now. For others, even if they enveloped themselves using a Mental Energy barrier, there was still Godly Energy and Body Energy circulating within their bodies. It was not to mention their fleshly bodies. They would all be registered in detection techniques like massive alarms. Covering them all through a Mental Energy barrier was hard, especially since they would be expending through Mental Energy in droves in accordance with the strength of the detection technique probing them. So, they would eventually run out of Mental Energy to use as their Mental Energy barrier would come undone. But for the two Wisps, this wasn''t of concern. All the energy in their body was now Mental Energy, not to mention their special racial trait, which caused other detection means to just register their bodies as stray Mental Energy. In this situation where countless Mental Energy Scans were flashing about, none would notice them. Hence, Kulla and Kuttul weren''t even expending much Mental Energy to remain hidden. From time to time, they approached the edge of the arena and absorbed some of the ambient Godly Energy there, recovering a bit of their expended reserves. ''Where are they?'' Relena continued to search for the two wisps, still unable to find them. he had already made a few rounds through the arena but still failed to detect them. ''As expected, they are experts in hiding¡­'' Relena immediately closed his eyes, using his authority over Godly Energy to sense through Godly Energy itself without using any detection means, seeing the flow of Godly Energy in his surroundings, slowly observing every cultivator that was absorbing the ambient Godly energy to recover. Suddenly, he noticed that in one vacant corner, nearby an injured cultivator, there was a mild disturbance in Godly Energy. Only a small fraction of the ambient Godly Energy was absorbed. It was to such an extent that even the one closest to it, the injured cultivator, failed to detect him. "There you are!" Relena grinned as he suddenly exploded with enough Godly Energy that he alarmed everyone fighting in the arena, directly shooting towards the vacant corner, startling the injured cultivator that had been trying to heal himself there. "You won''t escape!" Relena shouted upon noticing a minor disturbance in Godly Energy, clenching his hand as he unleashed an ability. The Godly Energy in the designated area instantly morphed to resemble a spatial cage, locking the place, preventing those trapped within from escaping by teleportation. He arrived before the cage, still frowning as he was unable to notice anything within. "Still trying to hide?" Grinning, Relena flashed within the cage, unleashing his Mental Energy to the limit, "I''ll break your Mental Energy barriers soon enough. Let me see how long you can last. I can easily recover my Godly Energy reserves." As he expected, a couple of minutes later, two figures indeed appeared before Relena. They were on the floor, tiny. But when they appeared, Relena''s face turned pale in fear. "Oh shit!" After all, they weren''t the Wisp Cores that he hoped to catch, but two slabs, the ability of Zombie Food, Hunger Wave. Cough! Cough! Relena hurriedly vacated the place, rushing towards the opposite corner of the arena, mowing through everyone in his way, showing the extent of his body cultivation as he hurriedly unleashed all his abilities, trying to keep himself under control. He instantly caused the Godly Energy in the surroundings to swerve into him, rapidly circulating it in his meridians while activating his Mental Energy, seeping it into his mind to quickly negate any feelings of hunger he faced. Thankfully, he had only inhaled them for a short duration, rapidly able to recover himself before cursing in anger, "Damn it, I fell prey to them." Even though he was cursing, Relena was actually excited, feeling that the wisps were finally serious, in hiding, of course. But no matter, since they were serious in hiding, he would try his best to locate them. He had just thought as such when a layer of frost began to form on his body, rapidly slowing down his movements, not to mention the flow of his Godly Energy. A figure rushed at him, swiping a palm at his neck, treating it like a blade. Relena unleashed a burst of Godly Energy throughout his meridians, using the force to break the frost as he barely evaded the attack, leaping backward as he noticed blood dripping from his neck, surprised. This was the first time he was injured. Chapter 1369 The Shadowy Beings Chapter 1369 The Shadowy Beings¡¡¡¡"He fell for it, sis." "Indeed, you''re pretty sharp, bro." The two wisps discussed with one another as they flew away, arriving to stop next to an injured cultivator that had erected a barrier around himself in an effort to obtain some time to heal his injuries. They used this chance to recover their Godly Energy reserves, watching the ongoing fight while keeping an eye on Relena. After all, he had been trying to locate them from the start. And his methods were indeed numerous. Now that Relena was fighting someone else, the two wisps could relax a little and watch the fight. "This is the first time I''ve been injured by someone," Relena said, wiping the blood leaking from his cheek as his injury instantly healed. His blood also vaporized, leaving behind no traces. Slowly, Relena stared at the figure that had attacked him, glaring at the other party as the Godly Energy around him began to dance, expressing his fury, "Even my aunt never injured me." "Too bad, then." The other party smirked. "I guess I took your first injury." His appearance wasn''t anything special. Rather, it was too common. There were at least a few thousand lookalikes of him in the Mountain Sect. He was Azra that Feifei had brought, one that had reached the Semi-God Realm. Slowly, Azra clenched his hand into a fist as dense frosty smoke emanated from his body. "Relena, killing you would be perfect for the arrival of my Monster Gecko race." "You think that''s easy?" Relena snorted in response. "It''s not," Azra smirked, flashing before Relena to punch him in the face. "And that''s why it''s perfect." "Hah!" Relena sighed, gazing at the fist that stopped a centimeter before his face, noticing the expression of shock on Azra''s face. "I''m angry now." Instantly, the Godly Energy swerved into the body of Azra, rapidly destroying his body from within. And upon a closer look, there were microscopic explosions happening all over his body, starting from his meridians. After all, the culprit was his own Godly Energy that had taken action. Azra was shocked as, despite everything he tried, he was unable to use any of his abilities. The last he saw was the expression of Relena expressing mild anger. "You''re damn strong. But I won''t give you time to use your abilities. It was your fault to pick a fight with me without going all out," Relena said, dusting his clothes as he looked around, frowning upon gazing at the figure of Alfa waiting a dozen meters away, "Will you be facing me next?" "Have fun." Alfa smiled in response, not even the slightest disturbed by the strength Relena had displayed. "I''ll deal with you last." Boom! Zettena smirked after sending Garguntil flying, "Come on! Don''t hold back! I''ll go fight Relena if you don''t go all out!" "Koff!" Garguntil coughed out blood, patting his stomach as he observed the massive depression within. The bones of his ribcage had been shattered as he was pretty messed up. But, the attack didn''t contain any laws behind it; hence the injury didn''t even require a second to heal. Garguntil slowly got up as he noticed the scene of Relena disposing of Azra casually, eyes widened as he smacked his lips. "That''s strong!" "Where are you watching?" Zettena flickered before him, stating in anger as she slammed a punch on his face, shattering the countless barriers that came between them. Garguntil''s face bloated in response before shattering from the impact like a water balloon as his body collapsed to the ground. "Damn this guy¡­" Zettena muttered, feeling it was a waste, when suddenly, her perception of time quickened as she felt the world around her turning almost still. Her senses were heightened beyond her limits, an action taken by her abilities instinctively. Well, that would have only happened in one case. Mortal danger! Suddenly, it felt as if her entire existence would be devoured as Zettena rapidly retreated, creating a distance of more than a couple kilometers between her and Garguntil. Noticing countless serpents stream out of his neck to join together, forming into his head. "Damn, that''s gross." Garguntil slowly sat up as his head finished forming. He looked around, noticing the messy battlefield as he frowned, muttering in the distance, "It seems everyone is holding back because there are too many people around us. I guess I should thin the crowd." "So, he''s the first to take action, huh," Krune muttered, taking out a bowl of ice cream as he gave one to Feifei before eating from the second. "I''m looking forward to it becoming serious from now on," Feifei said in response. "Aren''t you concerned your representative was killed so quickly?" Krune asked, wondering why Feifei was so casual. "Alfa is still alive. So it''s fine," Feifei said in response. "Azra was just probing Relena''s power, nothing else." "Well, just watch," Feifei smirked. Land Incarnation! "Heuk!" The clones maintaining the arena grunted for a moment as the power within the arena was rapidly being sucked towards one direction. It was a small circle with a radius of ten meters around Garguntil. This was the area he laid his Land Incarnation over. Suddenly, stretching out from the ground was jet-black goo, startling Krune, causing him to get up from his seat in shock. "That''s!" He shouted in shock, for the jet-black goo originated from the shadowy beings living within the continental borders. They were capable of turning their targets into wish-granting deities that lived to grant their wishes. They were a strange but terrifying race. And now, Garguntil was generating the same goo. "That''s dangerous!" Krune said, intending to make his clones stop the process, aware of the terrifying risks this ability contained. It wasn''t something that could be cured once infected. One of his clones had fallen victim long ago and was still living as a wish-granting deity to this day. "Just remain seated," Gegrafikan said all of a sudden, prompting Krune to stop. "The ability used by your representatives is just as dangerous. But if something happens, we''ll cure them. We do have the cures for our respective abilities, right?" "Well, I''ll be able to heal them either way," Feifei said in confidence when Krune sighed, taking a seat. He was still nervous, watching the black goo spill out from Garguntil''s Land Incarnation, slowly taking humanoid forms. Chapter 1370 Azra Retaliates Chapter 1370 Azra Retaliates¡¡¡¡Slowly, the jet-black goo turned into humanoid beings before assuming battle stances as their bodies morphed, turning metallic immediately. From their wriggly forms, they suddenly turned into metal puppets, similar to golems, confusing the spectators. "He''s not using his full power yet," Gegrafikan said. "Even Garguntil cannot control that power while in his human form. He has to take his demon beast form before unleashing the full extent of his abilities." Krune sighed in relief in response, watching the battle calmly from that point onward. The metal puppets began to appear one after another as their numbers continued to grow. Soon after, there were hundreds of them when Garguntil uttered, "Kill everyone!" Immediately after that, a massacre ensued as the metal puppets were similar to the steel sphere he threw around before, tough and heavy even for immortals that cultivated their bodies. "Kyak!" "Damn it!" "Run!" The rest of the weaker cultivators were slaughtered one after another. There were some that retaliated, destroying the metal puppets one after another before eventually turning weak and eventually getting overwhelmed. Had the immortals here been the regular Semi-God Realm cultivators, they would have been slaughtered without any hope of resistance. But everyone here was a Mountain Sect member, cultivating all three cultivation paths. So, they were a lot stronger than regular cultivators, able to hold on for some time before being killed. Though in the end, they were still killed. Despite everything, Garguntil was just on a whole other level, easily causing the deaths of hundreds of cultivators in a few minutes. "Let''s join hands against them!" a cultivator shouted before receiving support from those nearby, joining hands as they formed a resistance. Slowly, they battled the steel puppets, using their abilities to create a synergistic advantage that amplified their strength further to the extent they were actually able to push back the steel puppets. That was until a certain steel sphere crashed into the head of the one that had taken the initiative to join hands, killing him in one blow. Some laws were infused into the steel sphere, damaging his Spiritual Incarnation, preventing him from reforming his body. He was the first to die as steel balls rained down one after another, killing the strongest among the groups that acted as the pillars around which everyone else gathered around. And with their deaths, the alliance fell apart as the steel puppets picked them off one after another. The steel puppets also targeted the main characters of this arena like Relena, but when they neared him, they stopped moving immediately as all Godly Energy within them moved out, falling under his control. As for those that approached Zettena, they were torn up like paper casually before being tossed around. "Strange, why did their numbers suddenly reduce in one region?" Garguntil frowned, gazing in the respective direction to see the figure of Alfa smiling back in response, flashing her teeth. In another corner, the steel puppets were blocked by a large sphere of water that began to dissolve their bodies the moment they came into contact. Seated within the sphere of water were two people, calmly observing everything that happened. Of course, there was also Zettena''s brother, that was dancing while sending the steel puppets flying with every hit. Sometimes, he went overboard and attempted to send them flying with a fart. Though, that failed as he was swarmed by them after that. Then, there were a few Black Demons in one corner, fighting against the steel puppets while slowly enveloping their territory with miasma. The moment the steel puppets entered the miasma, they were corroded, contributing to fuel the miasma further. "So, these are all the main players¡­" Garguntil nodded, frowning as he gazed at the figure of Krune''s clone hovering beyond the arena, maintaining its condition. "There''s also those that haven''t shown themselves from the start." Garguntil snapped his finger soon after, causing all the steel puppets to explode, sending fragments of their bodies everywhere, killing everyone else in the arena. They had only been focusing on spreading around the arena until now. And once they did, Garguntil unleashed his second attack immediately, ridding thousands of cultivators from the battle. "With this, only the main ones are left." Garguntil nodded, slowly getting up as the air around him began to cackle at the aura he began to emit while gazing at Zettena. "You asked for me to be serious. And I''ll do just that now." The moment he said his piece, his figure resembled a serpent as he lashed out at Zettena, sending her flying into the ice wall that acted as the Arena''s border. "Haha! Now we''re talking!" Zettena laughed as she jumped out of the crater in the wall, grinning as she flexed her muscles, uninjured by the attack. "Though, attacks on that level cannot harm me." "You sure?" Suddenly, Alfa smirked as Zettena''s body began to rapidly freeze up, slowing her down before she slowly began to turn into a sculpture. Zettena''s brother abruptly arrived beside her, waving his hand as he vaporized the ice, frowning as he noticed his hand trembling from the cold, stating solemnly as he gazed at the trembling body of Zettena. "Don''t underestimate any that remained behind." "Yeah." Zettena nodded before glaring at Alfa. "Are sneak attacks what you love?" "Of course!" Alfa laughed before motioning for her to look to her left. Alarmed, Zettena gazed to her left, noticing the figure of Relena flying at uncontrollable speeds, slamming into her and her brother, turning into a massive block of ice immediately after. Moreover, with every passing second, the ice began to grow in size, further trapping the trio firmly. The change in the situation surprised everyone, causing them to stare in the direction Relena was sent flying from, noticing the figure of a smirking Azra there. "Why did you allow him to enter the arena again after death?" Garguntil frowned, asking Krune''s clone that was stationed nearby. "Isn''t that going against the rules?" "I''ve never allowed anyone into the arena ever since the match started," all the clones replied simultaneously, startling the participants. That meant... Azra wasn''t actually killed by Relena''s attack? "Took you long enough, dumbo." Alfa snorted. "How did this happen?" Krune was confused, gazing at Feifei to ask. "Why don''t you guess?" Feifei stared at him, smiling gently. "After all, you have a complete understanding of the Monster Gecko race." Chapter 1371 Bone Tree Monster Gecko Chapter 1371 Bone Tree Monster Gecko¡¡¡¡"Monster Gecko race¡­" Krune frowned, recalling his time in their habitat where the bone trees condensed fruits that seemed to be tied to the Monster Gecko race. And when Feifei obtained its power, the fruits directly hatched to become Monster Geckos. ''Right, the true bodies of the Monster Gecko race are the bone trees. So, as long as even a fragment of them is left behind, they can revive shortly after. And this doesn''t use any laws, so it''s not something normal cultivators are equipped to destroy.'' "Yep, it''s exactly what you''re thinking." Feifei grinned in response. "You managed to finish that?" Krune was shocked. This meant that what he had feared while in the Sub-Realm had now become a reality. The bone trees could be ground into powder and spread around. Then, when they came into contact with human blood, they would sprout and grow into bone trees, destroying the victim from within. The bone trees would sprout everywhere, producing Monster Geckos constantly. "Thankfully, they are under your control." Krune sighed in relief, asking after a moment of thought, slightly worried. "What about those that overcame their race''s restriction?" "They''re still bound to me, just as Hazak and her children are devoted to you," Feifei said in response. "Well, in my case, it''s more like I have complete authority over their life and death. Also, their genetics itself states to worship me from birth." Krune recalled a scene where the bone trees began to increase in numbers, absorbing the nutrients from the soil to condense fruits that eventually matured to produce Monster Geckos. And these Monster Geckos cultivated, growing stronger as they hunted other races, using their blood to water the bone trees and their bodies as material to birth more bone trees. With the passing of every year, the area covered by the bone trees would continue to increase, soon covering an entire continent. They would continue to expand as droves of Monster Geckos would be birthed constantly that would pour out in every direction, planting bone trees on every piece of land they set foot upon. Since the bone trees weren''t a product of laws, they cannot be killed using the infamous abilities of immortals to target Land Incarnations present throughout the God Realm from a contact point. Like a plague, the Monster Geckos would spread around until all the races in the God Realm were wiped out. With that in mind, Feifei only needed to have a thought to make this a reality. That was the terrifying nature of this race that served her. "Moreover, thanks to my authority over them, I''ve already eradicated all traces of the Monster Gecko race in that Sub-Realm. So, no one else but me has this power," Feifei spoke. This meant that when pissed, she alone was capable of taking over an entire realm. "Don''t act like I''ve become scary." Feifei rolled her eyes when she noticed Krune''s reaction. "Your Hunger Law is capable of destroying an entire realm as well. If seen from a general perspective, yours is even more horrifying." "I didn''t say anything." Krune raised his hands in defeat, hurriedly distracting her to make her focus on the match instead. Honestly, the fight had a lot more value than what was displayed. It signified the Mountain Sect''s development and its future potential. After all, it wasn''t enough that only the founding Elders were overpowered. They would be a successful sect if they also produced overpowered cultivators in the second and third generation. Currently, it was the second generation that was battling, displaying the frightening accumulation and plans that everyone had been working on in the background. And what came as a surprise was how Azra had ambushed Relena, trapping him and Zamura''s two children in a block of ice, preventing them from escaping. Moreover, as time passed, the ice continued to increase in size and grow colder and colder, also causing the environment of the arena to turn colder, causing a blizzard to blow already. It was apparent that the Monster Geckos had unleashed a chain attack to trap three powerhouses and also turn the battlefield to become more advantageous to them. Relena''s expression had already frozen up as his body had become still, unable to be moved. The case was the same for Zettena and her brother as even their Godly Energy began to freeze up. As it was influenced by the rapidly thickening Law of Ice, the Godly Energy flowing in their meridians too began to turn into ice. This was the primary reason that they were trapped. But, that wasn''t long when suddenly, Relena''s eyes focused, glaring at Azra; when instantly, alarm bells rang in the senses of everyone, immediately causing them to retreat to the border of the arena, watching the figure of Relena vanish. In its place was a tiny core that instantly emanated violent Godly Energy like a bomb. True Spirit! The mountain of ice exploded, vaporizing instantly as all the ice turned into mist. Shockingly, when the mist flew everywhere, it suddenly paused, actually reverting back to become Godly Energy that swerved towards the place where Relena''s True Spirit Core had existed, rapidly forming a core. In that instant, Relena had laid down his Land Incarnation and exploded his core, using the explosion to destroy the ice mountain. And then, he influenced the created mist to revert to becoming Godly Energy, absorbing it to revive immediately. He had done all that in an instant, also using the explosion to heavily injure Zettena and her brother. Now that he had taken his True Spirit form, Relena''s abilities were at their peak as his figure instantly appeared behind Azra, unleashing a wave of Godly Energy. "Die!" "Azra!" Alfa shouted in alarm, watching Azra''s body be vaporized instantly. And right as she shouted, Relena''s figure appeared behind her, attacking her as well. "Shit!" Alfa screamed in response before her figure morphed, instantly causing a massive bone tree to appear in her place. Even though a majority of it was vaporized by Relena''s attack, the remainder instantly regenerated. "Holy shit! What the heck is this?" Garguntil shouted in alarm, noticing hundreds of fruits handing from the bone tree, and in each fruit was a slumbering Monster Gecko. One of them ripened instantly and collapsed to the ground, shattering as the figure of Azra walked out, grinning as he leaped onto Relena once again. "Let''s see how many times you''re able to kill me." Chapter 1372 Demon Beast Forms Unleashed Chapter 1372 Demon Beast Forms Unleashed¡¡¡¡"Hmph!" Relena grunted, vaporizing Azra once again as he observed another fruit fall from the bone tree. Currently, there were two bone trees in the arena. From the looks of it, it seemed that the fruits of either were able to revive both Alfa and Azra. So, unless both the bone trees were annihilated at the same time, they would continue to revive. Upon seeing how troublesome they were, the attention of everyone was focused on them. "Brother, it seems we''re still being underestimated by them." Zettena frowned as she slowly got up, watching her body heal. When Relena blasted the ice mountain, she and her brother were severely injured. They also could have taken on their demon beast forms to break out of the ice mountain. They had just allowed themselves to be trapped to save power and wait for the ice mountain to grow in size. This was so that when they broke out, the created explosion would be strong enough to kill everyone in the arena. However, Relena beat them to the punch, actually focusing most of the power behind the explosion on the siblings. "His head is mine." Zettena frowned, staring at the hovering figure of Relena before correcting her statement. "His core is mine." "He''s pretty dangerous, indeed," her brother said, gazing at the scene of Relena constantly vaporizing the large bone trees like they were nothing. On top of that, despite unleashing such massive attacks, he wasn''t in the least tired. "Brother, those two¡­" Zettena frowned, pointing at the two domains that were growing in strength in a corner of the arena, "They have been accumulating strength all this time." "I''ll take care of the Black Demons. You focus on the other one," her brother said in response. "Don''t be careless any longer." He then gazed at the nearest clone of Krune and said, "Elder, just a heads-up. Please raise the defensive strength of the arena to the maximum." "You don''t have to worry about that," the clone spoke as the arena of ice suddenly turned transparent, resembling glass instead. Zettena patted the floor, muttering in surprise, "What''s this? It''s damn tough!" "Focus on our opponent," her brother said before beginning to run towards the Black Demons. "Show our true strength! Unleash our demon beast forms!" "Alright." Zettena nodded, slamming her foot into the ground as her figure shot towards the domain of water that seemed capable of dissolving everything. Present within the sphere of water were two cultivators that had already taken on their demon beast forms. Zettena approached it, unleashing her demon beast form, instantly turning into a giant whose body seemed to be made from marble. The giant spanned a hundred meters in height. And the moment it appeared, even the reinforced ground began to rapidly crack, forming craters with every footstep of hers. "Marble Giant, that''s the race we''ve created," Zamura said with pride. "You see, strength is a different factor. But, if you''re damn heavy and all that mass is concentrated in your body, even your casual attacks would be powerful." He smiled, adding, "We''ve only taken standard body cultivation to the peak. And our racial advantage is to not even feel our body weight. Meaning¡­" He grinned, pointing at the scene where Zettena slammed a straight right into the sphere of water, vaporizing everything from the unleashed force, causing a supernova instantly from the generated force fields, resulting in a terrifying explosion. On top of that, this wasn''t just a physical attack as a certain law seemed to be mixed into it, causing even the air itself to turn tens of thousands of times heavier, raising the density of the attacked region, resulting in the created supernova to explode with greater power. Shockingly, all this power seemed to be contained within a certain area, perfectly obliterating the water sphere and the two cultivators within, not even giving them any chance to retaliate. That wasn''t all. Even the arena in the region, including Krune''s clones in the place, was annihilated. There wasn''t anything fancy. Zettena''s attack was just that heavy. "We lost." Guria sighed. "Well, we didn''t have enough time, to be frank," Rumria muttered before sighing. "Well, it''s our loss. That attack was beyond what our representatives could ever hope to endure. Even we''ll be hard-pressed for our lives against that." "That''s true." Zamuria gazed at the gigantic figure of Zettena. "Hah, you''ve beaten us this time." Zettena gazed at Zamuria, grinning in response. Bam! Her brother also did the same, annihilating the Black Demons with a single attack. There was nothing the resistance could do as they were annihilated under overwhelming force. "Damn those useless idiots." Hazak groaned in anger, pulling her hair out in frustration before rushing towards Krune. "Lord, train my kids too next time. These Black Demons are just an embarrassment." "Haha, alright." Krune smiled wryly, feeling a headache already upon seeing Hazak''s expression morph from one of tears to one of ecstasy. "I''ll birth some talented children soon." Hazak ran away after dropping a shocking statement, rushing off from the spectator seats of the arena, grabbing hold of Hwait along the way, planning who knows what. "Way to go, Krune," Feifei commented. "You''ll have to make at least one of her children a monster next." "As if that''s easy," Krune said in worry, sighing before focusing on the arena, watching the rest of the clones hurriedly repair the damaged areas. His subspace flashed into the bodies of each clone, rapidly replenishing their Godly Energy, also letting out more clones to pick up the slack. Within a dozen seconds, the arena was recovered to its pristine state as the battle ensued. Zettena and her brother of the Marble Giant race, Alfa and Azra of the Monster Gecko race, Relena of the True Spirit race, Kulla and Kuttul of the Wisp race, and finally, Garguntil of the Spirit Aberrant race. They were all that remained on the arena now. "It seems I''m the only one left that has yet to unleash my demon beast form." Garguntil smiled as slowly, his figure changed as he leaped high up into the air, instantly casting a massive shadow. The moment this figure appeared in the sky, Zualin shrieked instinctively, wetting his pants. Thankfully, none of the other Primal Gods mocked him, for they had also wet their pants. Chapter 1373 True Power of a Nerfed Spirit Aberrant Chapter 1373 True Power of a Nerfed Spirit Aberrant¡¡¡¡"Are the Spirit Aberrants really this feared?" Krune was surprised to see most of the Elementary and Primal Gods in the audience stands soil their pants, shuddering as their trauma seemed to have relapsed. The only ones that weren''t affected among the powerhouses were the cultivators that had become Elementary Gods recently. "It seemed they had seen a Spirit Aberrant in action during their younger days," Sterlena said in response. "That might be the reason." "If they''re showing such a strong reaction to a nerfed Spirit Aberrant like Garguntil¡­" Krune muttered before gazing at Gegrafikan. "What would they do when they see his true form?" "The weaker-willed ones might commit suicide," Sterlena replied, noticing Krune''s confusion as she asked, "You''ve¡­ never seen a Spirit Aberrant eat a person, right?" "I haven''t," Krune said. "No wonder," Sterlena said in response. "If you were to see it, you''ll be the same as them. Or rather, the stronger you are, the more you''ll be affected since you''ll be able to understand the situation more." "Is it really that terrifying?" Krune asked, shocked when Sterlena lifted her hand, showing that it was trembling nonstop. "Even I''m terrified. If you were to ever see Gegrafikan in action in the future, you''d understand." "Is that so¡­?" Krune frowned, gazing at Garguntil''s Spirit Aberrant form. There was a central head with a massive mouth covered with ring-shaped teeth that numbered in the thousands. And when it opened its mouth, there was only a void within, like a black hole capable of sucking in everything. Hundreds of tentacles accompanied this massive head, flailing about as anywhere they passed by became bereft of Godly Energy. It was a colossal entity, spanning hundreds of meters in size, emanating a suffocating aura that caused the Spiritual Incarnations of everyone to crawl in response. Heavenly Aberrant! For the first time in history, a Heavenly Aberrant had appeared in the God Realm. "H-H-Heavenly A-A-Aberrant¡­!" Zualin frothed, fainting soon after. This was a comical scene because he was so strong that he was casually able to destroy Garguntil, who was akin to an ant to him. But at present, this powerhouse had fainted at the sight of the ant. Even Faunkill, the infamous Immortal Severance Primal God, was no different, barely able to prevent himself from falling unconscious. And this was only thanks to his Mental Energy. Otherwise, he would also be unconscious. An Elementary God was unable to endure any longer, just about to commit suicide and revive after a few centuries, when Gegrafikan shouted, "Why are you powerhouses overreacting? My son''s just a tiny cultivator. Isn''t it embarrassing that powerhouses such as you are treating him like he''s terrifying? No, he''s not!" "The lost of you can wipe the floor with him with just your fart!" "Shut up!" Faunkill shouted in response. "You won''t talk like this if you have seen a Spirit Aberrant in action before!" "¡­" Only after he shouted did he realize who he was talking towards, taking a couple of moments to digest what had happened, fainting soon after. "The Spirit Aberrant is angry." "¡­" Gegrafikan wished to facepalm, but upon recalling his race''s history, he sighed, realizing that their fears were indeed justified, "I shouldn''t ever transform before them." Garguntil''s Heavenly Aberrant body shone with myriad colors before countless attacks were sent flying in every direction, each consisting of various laws. There was no technique to it, nor were the laws combined in any form. They were just the simplest of the attacks that were sent flying everywhere as projectiles. "This is the Spirit Aberrant race''s infamous attack," Sterlena muttered. "Law Projectile!" "What does it do?" Krune asked. "If one of the projectiles belongs to the Law of Fire, then anywhere it lands would morph into the Law of Fire," Sterlena said, nodding at what Krune thought of. "Yes, every attack from it is akin to a setting up a Land Incarnation. A Spirit Aberrant can casually terraform every region. But most of all¡­" She said solemnly, "These attacks don''t just change the terrain but also affect our Spiritual Incarnations." "Keuk!" Zettena grunted as she defended herself against the attacks, screaming in shock upon seeing the laws of her Spiritual Incarnation rapidly change, transforming into the law of the Law Projectile that landed on the respective area. "Damn it! I won''t go down just like this!" she shouted in anger and flew into the air, intending to target the Heavenly Aberrant. But suddenly, thousands of Law Projectiles slammed into her massive body, fragmenting it into countless pieces of various laws, instantly destroying her Spiritual Incarnation. "What the hell?" This was her final words as Zettena was killed just as easily. This was the same opponent that had destroyed the representatives sent by the trio of Zamuria, Guria, and Rumria, not to mention casually handling all attacks directed at her until now. Within a few seconds, she was killed. But that wasn''t all as the countless serpentine limbs of the Heavenly Aberrant flashed through the air, instantly swallowing all the body parts of Zettena, digesting them immediately before unleashing a second volley of Law Projectiles. "Damn you!" Zeno, Zettena''s brother, shouted in anger, rushing at Garguntil when suddenly, he noticed that he was unable to move any longer, observing in shock as his Spiritual Incarnation melted into juice and was sucked by the massive mouth at the center of the Heavenly Aberrant. Like sipping juice from a cup, the Heavenly Aberrant slurped his Spiritual Incarnation, rapidly causing the hundred-meter-tall Marble Giant to thin out, turning into skin and bones. Boom! Suddenly, the Heavenly Aberrant''s actions came to a stop as a part of its body was vaporized instantly. The figure of Relena flew towards it, deftly evading all the serpentine limbs and Law Projectiles as he unleashed another attack, vaporizing another part of the Heavenly Aberrant. "Tch!" He grunted, noticing the Heavenly Aberrant rapidly recovering despite him injuring it severely. Spirit Aberrants didn''t possess a Spiritual Incarnation. Instead, every action of theirs affected the Spiritual Incarnation of others. Moreover, even while he was evading the attacks, Relena noticed his Spiritual Incarnation beginning to destabilize. "So even a nerfed Spirit Aberrant is this powerful." Chapter 1374 Victors of the Second Generation Battle Chapter 1374 Victors of the Second Generation Battle¡¡¡¡If it was said that True Spirits were the daughters of heavens, then the Spirit Aberrants were those even the heaven feared. And that was being proven now as the Heavenly Aberrant began to rapidly devour the two bone trees. This was despite the bone trees trying to root themselves in the Heavenly Aberrant''s body, but it seemed like the entirety of the Heavenly Aberrant''s body was capable of devouring, as the roots of the bone trees vanished the moment they came in contact with Garguntil''s body. As for Garguntil, he wouldn''t let go of such massive targets, latching onto the two immovable bone trees to begin devouring them rapidly. "Damn it!" Alfa shouted as she took on her Supreme Monster Gecko form, rapidly escaping from the place as Azra did the same. "We''ve lost a lot of our foundation," Azra grunted in anger before patting the ground, planting a bone tree fragment there, smiling upon seeing the roots spread through it rapidly. He immediately evaded the hail of Law Projectiles, going around the arena planting as many bone tree fragments as he could, preparing as many revival means as possible as he watched Alfa chucking attacks towards the Heavenly Aberrant. However, even though her attacks were powerful as the layer of ice on the Heavenly Aberrant''s body continued to develop, after a few seconds, it was rapidly absorbed into the Garguntil''s body. "Don''t use any laws in your attacks. Garguntil would just eat them up," Azra said as he unleashed the power of frost that was in his blood, beginning to slowly freeze up the Heavenly Aberrant. Then again, it didn''t do much as the Heavenly Aberrant shot out countless Fire Law Projectiles, changing the entire arena into a sea of fire, one that burned by absorbing the surrounding Godly Energy. This heat rapidly negated their ice, also beginning to burn the bone tree fragments planted in the ground. "Damn it¡­ gah!" Azra was racking his brains to think of a plan when a Fire Law Projectile slammed into him, rapidly morphing his Spiritual Incarnation in the impact area into the Law of Fire, causing that part of his body to fall out, no longer belonging to him. The damage was serious as Azra was unable to heal himself on time, suddenly being drowned by Fire Law Projectiles. "Shit!" Alfa screamed as she continued to evade, noticing their planted bone tree fragments be destroyed one after another as they turned into materials rich with the Law of Fire. "Hah!" Zeno shouted, slamming a punch using all his strength, vaporizing the entirety of Garguntil''s body. "Hah!" He gasped in exhaustion, having used up the last of his strength, when suddenly, he was alarmed, noticing a serpentine limb of Garguntil remaining intact. It bored into his body as he shouted, "Aaaah!" Roar! The Heavenly Aberrant devoured his body to rapidly form in the air once again, noticing some bone trees managing to grow once again, despite the sea of fire beginning to devour them. As for Relena, he was attacking it nonstop, destroying it continuously. Unfortunately, the Heavenly Aberrant simply devoured the abundant materials rich in the Law of Fire, rapidly recovering its body. "Gegrafikan¡­" Krune suddenly approached him, asking, "Where''s Garguntil''s Land Incarnation?" "What happened?" Gegrafikan asked in surprise. "I need to save him," Krune said. Gegrafikan''s eyes widened in shock before sighing in defeat, "You''re the monster among us." He then informed him of the location, saying, "Please ensure my son doesn''t have any problems." "Sure," Krune said as he sent a few of his clones towards the location where Garguntil had left his Land Incarnation to revive later. "Dammit!" Alfa screamed in defeat, being grabbed by one of the serpentine limbs as she was eaten up immediately after. "Everything is a fuel to him¡­" Relena frowned, constantly destroying the Heavenly Aberrant that rapidly regenerated from the tiniest of its body parts, absorbing the abundant Law of Fire that it had terraformed the arena into. "Oh shit!" Suddenly, Relena shouted in alarm when his Spiritual Incarnation began to melt as the massive mouth of the Heavenly Aberrant continued to come closer to him. Slowly, it came closer and closer as the strength of his attacks continued to grow weaker. Eventually, left with no other choice, Relena grunted, causing cracks to form on his core as he unleashed his strongest ability. Heavenly Destruction! The figure of the Heavenly Aberrant was obliterated as the suffocating power unleashed by Relena shocked the spectators. "This was¡­ from a Semi-God Realm cultivator?" An Elementary God Realm cultivator shuddered. "This is almost¡­ at our level." The entire arena was destroyed as thousands of Krune''s clones died in the process. "Haah¡­hah¡­heuk¡­" Relena gasped for air as he was rapidly losing power, noticing that he had destroyed even the Godly Energy in the region, unable to recover for the time being. But suddenly, he noticed a spike of Godly Energy, shocked to see a tiny tendril floating in the air. The tendril rapidly regrew to become the Heavenly Aberrant once again as Relena sighed, noticing the massive mouth devour him. "I lost." Roar! The Heavenly Aberrant roared in victory when suddenly, it lost all signs of sanity. All the serpentine limbs began to eat the head next, devouring each other while displaying rapid hunger. And right at this moment, something flashed when all of a sudden, the Heavenly Aberrant''s body was riddled with tens of thousands of holes. But despite being attacked, it didn''t retaliate, focusing on devouring itself as the size of his body continued to shrink, constantly being riddled with holes all over. It expended its reserves to regenerate. And when it was busy eating itself, its body was riddled with holes. The more it regenerated, the smaller its size became when eventually, it had exhausted all its power. Its body was riddled with holes nonstop until all signs of its form disappeared. And with that, the Heavenly Aberrant had died. The crowd was stumped as they heard two giggling voices. "Silly brother, you also missed your aim in the end." "Silly sister, a rookie at shooting cannot comprehend a master''s thought process." Chapter 1375 Turia Supercontinent Chapter 1375 Turia Supercontinent¡¡¡¡"How¡­what happened in the end?" The spectators were confused, unable to digest the sequence of events that happened in the end, unable to comprehend the gist of things. Garguntil, the terrifying Heavenly Aberrant that slaughtered all the other geniuses, was done in suddenly by two arguing cultivators that suddenly appeared in the end. "They were slowly influencing the fighting cultivators until Garguntil lost control of his senses and turned into a hungry zombie." Krune provided an explanation on time, causing the eyes of the immortals to lit up in response. And when they gazed at the two wisps floating in the air, they shuddered, recalling the scene when Relena had discovered them. Unfortunately for him, the rest of the cultivators constantly targeted him, preventing him from figuring out the position of the two wisps. This allowed Kulla and Kuttul enough freedom to casually influence the fighters. They then focused on Garguntil upon seeing his strength, influencing him to result in the current situation. Just when everyone felt the battle was over, Zamura said all of a sudden, "There''s only one victor. So, the battle hasn''t ended yet." "I give up!" Kuttul said, withdrawing from the final fight. "Kulla is stronger than me anyway." "I give up!" Surprisingly, Kulla had uttered at the same time. "Kuttul is stronger than me anyway." "¡­" Zamura''s face convulsed as he glared at Krune, complaining about his representatives that weren''t taking this seriously. In response to that, Krune could only shrug his shoulders. "They''ve always been like that." "Ugh¡­" Zamura grunted before pointing at Kuttul, saying, "Then, we''ll make him the winner." He then gazed at Kulla. "Are you fine with it?" "It doesn''t matter. I''ll be stealing his rewards anyway," Kulla said shamelessly, flying towards Krune before jumping in his embrace. "Uncle, wasn''t I cool right there?" "Yep, you were the coolest." Krune smiled, patting her head, when the figure of Kuttul slammed into his face. "Uncle, I was better than her, right?" Kuttul extended his ethereal form, wrapping it around Krune''s head as he shouted. "Yeah, yeah," Krune replied as the two wisps each camped next to his ear before bombarding him with arguments. Upon seeing how Krune''s legs were trembling mildly due to the headache he was experiencing currently, Feifei laughed before nodding at Zamura. "The supercontinent''s about to finish." "Alright," Zamura nodded before announcing to everyone. "Today marks an inauspicious day where our supercontinent is finally about to finish forming. And based on the orders given by my mother, it has been decided that the winner of this battle would have the right to name our supercontinent." "What?" Krune was shocked to hear that. "I didn''t know about this." He then glared at Feifei, noticing her face the other side in response, clearly having planned beforehand to ensure Krune was kept in the dark about this. Krune then looked around, noticing all the powerhouses of the Mountain Sect break eye contact with him, feeling guilty. They were aware that Krune wouldn''t ever miss such an opportunity and would try his best to ensure he obtained the naming rights. And hence, they played a little scheme. And now that Zamura had publicly announced it to everyone, he couldn''t interfere. "Hehe, don''t worry, uncle." Suddenly, Kuttul grinned as he flew away, saying, "Aren''t I the winner?" "Right!" Krune suddenly became overjoyed as he said, "Come here, I have thought of the perfect name¡­" "Sorry, uncle." Kuttul waved his hand, flying away from Krune''s grasp. "Even if you''re my uncle, I won''t leave this to you. After all, you were the one to name all of us. In truth, I wanted to name everyone, but you stole that opportunity." "So, Kuttul and I had already finalized a name for our supercontinent." Kulla grinned proudly. "The title of the Best Naming Wisp will go to me from today onwards. I strip you of that title, uncle," Kuttul said solemnly before arriving beside Zamura. "Traitor!" Krune began to shed tears, feeling deflated all of a sudden. "Everyone, after thinking long and hard with my sister for the past few decades, we''ve come up with the perfect name for our supercontinent," Kuttul said before announcing the name. "Turia!" "That''s the name of our supercontinent!" "Turia?" Krune suddenly wiped his tears, asking, "Isn''t that the name I prepared?" "So what? I was the one that named it in the end." Kuttul gazed proactively at Krune. "Accept defeat, uncle. My naming sense is better than yours." "Isn''t it the same damn name?" Everyone else wanted to retort. "Turia!" "Turia!" The spectators began to mutter the name. Honestly, it wasn''t that bad. After all, it was short and easy to pronounce, so the name easily climbed into the tongues of the crowd as they began to chant the name of their supercontinent in chorus. "Turia!" Those watching the scene from their homes too began to shout the same. "Turia!" Even those roaming through the wilds heard the shout that was strangely being echoed by the very Godly Energy of the supercontinent. Boom! Suddenly, there was a powerful fluctuation of Godly Energy in the air, causing everyone to feel strangely invigorated, signifying the completion of the supercontinent. And immediately after, dozens of mystical figures appeared in the air, each possessing power equal to a Primal God. Land Spirit! All of them were the supercontinent''s Land Spirits as they announced simultaneously, "From today onwards, we are citizens of the Turia Supercontinent! This will be our identity and home!" "And the Mountain Sect will be the Turia Supercontinent''s rightful ruler for generations to come. And following the customs of our predecessor continents of Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria, we''ll name the most talented child that''s born in the future as Turia, the representative of our supercontinent." Boom! Right as they declared that, there was a massive explosion of Godly Energy as the energy of heaven and earth swerved towards one spot, condensing into a strange entity. "T-This is¡­?" Krune gasped for breath immediately, feeling strained as he felt as if his Spiritual Incarnation was being torn down. After all, in one corner of the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm, in the location where he had left his Land Incarnation, the source of this commotion, a certain entity had been birthed! A wisp! Chapter 1376 Turia Chapter 1376 Turia¡¡¡¡"What the hell is that?" Even the Land Spirits were shocked to see such a mystical phenomenon as they turned into streaks of light to head into the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm. As one of his clones was already at the scene, Krune entered his subspace and causing it to arrive within the clone. And once it opened the entrance to the subspace, he exited from it, gazing at the mystical phenomenon as his body shuddered. "U-Uncle, w-what the heck is happening? I feel weak all of a sudden!" Kulla said as she collapsed to the ground. As for all the wisps and True Spirits there had been happily playing in this area, they were all on the ground now, trembling, in submissive poses. And in the center of the commotion was a violent sphere of energy, one that was condensing to form a tiny core. "T-This is¡­what the hell is this?" Even Sterlena was shocked, noticing that she too was experiencing the feeling to prostrate before that entity. As everyone arrived at the scene, they gasped in shock, watching a dense stream of Godly Energy swerve into the swirling center as everyone sensed that even the laws of the Turia Continent were now flowing into the swirling mass. But everyone else was fine. Only the wisps and True Spirits were feeling this sense of suffocation as even the bodies of Krune and Sterlena trembled in response. Slowly, after a few minutes had passed in such a fashion, the suffocative feeling experienced by them vanished as what appeared before them was a wisp, one that had just been birthed. Strangely speaking, it was an instinctive feeling that Krune and Sterlena felt, understanding that the entity before them was a wisp and not a True Spirit. "Is that a wisp?" Zamura frowned, asking in shock. After all, many wisps and True Spirits had been born in this region. But not one had caused such a commotion. "I feel like it''s a wisp," Krune said, extending his hand to gently poke the ethereal body of the birthed creature. "But, it''s strange." After all, when his finger touched its body, Krune shuddered for some reason, instinctively prostrating on the ground. The creature resembling a wisp slowly climbed over his shoulder before resting on his back, sporting an expression of absolute bliss and comfort. It was just a newborn, unable to converse yet. Slowly, as time passed, the sense of willingness to prostrate himself vanished as Krune was able to get up, noticing the newborn wisp readjust itself into his embrace. "It''s strange that the moment we announced this, a wisp was born accordingly." A Land Spirit said, "And strangely, it''s been born in the God Foundation Realm and already possesses a Spiritual Incarnation. Plus, I can sense that this Spiritual Incarnation is something bestowed by our supercontinent itself." "This wisp shall be named Turia." The Land Spirit concluded. Krune gazed at the wisp sleeping in his embrace. It was no different to the rest of the wisps now. "Then, what was up with that presence earlier?" He was unable to notice any difference despite his best methods to probe Turia, sighing as he gave up in the end. "Whatever she is, I''ll come to find out in the future." "Is there any luck on your side, Feifei?" Krune asked as he looked at her. "Turia indeed has a Spiritual Incarnation. As to what it''s capable of, I''m unable to probe at present. It''s still forming, so excessing probing will damage it. So, I''ll look into it at a later date." Feifei replied, retracting her Divine Sense. "But, I feel like she''s intrinsically tied to wisps and True Spirits, at least based on the fact that she was birthed from your Land Incarnation and can exhibit some form of influence on your two races," Feifei concluded. "Fine, I''ll take care of her," Krune said before blinking in confusion, asking Feifei, "What makes you think Turia is a female?" "Well, why not?" Feifei laughed in response. "Turia is a name fit for a female. Well, if she turns out to be a he in the end, nothing changes. We''ll just consider him a second Relena." Despite having a feminine name, Relena was a male. Since there was a precedent, Turia wouldn''t feel much difficulty accepting their name in the future. And with that, the Turia Continent finished forming as Zamura hurriedly dispatched the Set members everywhere to make a track of everything that had appeared. Based on the habitats that formed, they would have to pick the best places to build cities and migrate the people. At present, due to the three continental war, all the people had been living in the Sub-Realms owned by the three royal families, situated in the capital cities of each continent. It had been a bit hard for them as space was limited in these Sub-Realms. It was not to mention the constant state of war that was ongoing for more than two centuries. Right as the war ended, the three continents began to merge to create the supercontinent. Every area on the three continents became too dangerous for the people to live, as even immortals weren''t safe from its dangers. Only the three capitals, protected by their defensive formations, were safe. And hence, the entire population of the current Turia Continent was located in the three capitals and the Mountain Sect. It would only be detrimental to their supercontinent''s growth if their population continued to remain in such crowded locations. Thus, now that the supercontinent had finished forming, they had to select favorable locations to erect cities soon after. That way, the people would soon have homes to return to, finally allowing them to heal from the scars of the war. For the mortals, it had been too tough as they had already forgotten what it means to be free and away from the direct influence of the royals, as they had been living under such a restricted rule for generations already. "We''ve lost a lot of our foundation due to the war." Zamura sighed, "We''ll have to start our recovery efforts and work on replenishing our numbers to occupy this massive supercontinent." After all, the Turia supercontinent had an area ten times the combined area of the three continents of Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria. Chapter 1377 Overwhelming Workload Chapter 1377 Overwhelming Workload¡¡¡¡Swish! A massive waterfall emitted rumbling sounds as it cascaded into the lake below. But, there were two shocking points here. First was how the peak of the waterfall began from the clouds. It was actually the rain that was concentrated on one spot that they formed a waterfall instead. And as for the clouds, they seemed too vast, constantly continuing to form as they never dissipated or decreased in size. The second shocking point was the lake that wasn''t on the ground but floated in the air. It was a massive column of water that began from a hundred meters above the ground surface and reached a height of three hundred meters. The water from the waterfall continued to fall into it as countless streams spread out from this lake. And yes, all the streams were in the air. This was the trait inherent to the Turia Supercontinent. All the water streams were in the air and traveled throughout the continent, forming massive networks. They were like walls in the air that divided the supercontinent into different regions. And from time to time, rain fell over from these river streams onto the ground. This unique dynamic caused the birth of a lot of demon beasts suitable to live in such environments. And the source of all this water was this massive waterfall. The waterfall wasn''t just a flat curtain but actually formed a circle. And, behind this curtain, spanning the inner area of the circle, was a piece of flatlands. It was an odd contrast as there were no clouds above within this circle. And here stood a massive structure in the air¡ªThe Mountain Sect! The lake surrounding this region was named the Doldak Lake, and the falls the Doldak Falls. The place where the Mountain Sect was situated was sunny as the size of the Sect itself had begun to increase from its initial radius of 100 kilometers. Krune and Zamura had been working on it tirelessly to upgrade it, allowing it to expand in strength automatically according to the population increase of the Sect members. They installed a formation to dictate this, leaving everything else to the Sect''s Guardian Spirit. And thanks to Doldak Lake and the countless streams spreading forth from it, the Mountain Sect had vast channels to travel and reach all corners of the supercontinent. After all, the river streams weren''t affected by the nature of the habitat they flowed through. This meant that they had a consistent travel route. After all, the means to travel in a desert region, a region with terrible winds, falling rocks, etc., differed. Cautious methods had to be taken care of while the route wouldn''t be accessible all the time. And it wasn''t something one could brute force their way through. After all, this wasn''t a continent but a supercontinent. Here, there existed environments that could injure even Primal Gods. And hence, these streams were of great importance. With that, the Monster Geckos could use them to speedily travel and reach all corners of the supercontinent. It had been ten years since the Turia Supercontinent had finished forming. In this decade, the sect members of the Mountain Sect had been busy collecting data in regards to the Turia Supercontinent, not to mention laying out plans for various cities and settlements. It wasn''t just a simple task of erecting buildings and calling it a day. There were logistics involved regarding everything. After all, they also had to create a hierarchy where the sect members would be stationed as authorities in the respective cities, taking care of its various needs and performing the tasks assigned by the Mountain Sect. As they were the ruling power, the fate and livelihood of everyone on this supercontinent were in their hands. Every immortal in the Mountain Sect was so busy that they weren''t even able to spend a moment to take in a breather. They were overworked to the extent that fumes began to flow out of their heads. Thankfully, they used their Mental Energy to persist with the task, performing their duties to their utmost. Even the silly wisps had no time to engage with their race''s innate silliness, being buried with work to the extent they wished to commit suicide and revive as mortals to escape work. Actually, Krune had thought of doing that countless times. After all, adding on his thousands of clones, the amount of workload he could shoulder was the highest. It was overwhelming his mind so much that a thousand clones were only focused on cultivating to use Mental Energy and heal his mind. After all, with their shared thoughts, it was like a network as the volume of information shared between everyone was overwhelming everyone. With that, this helped them as the subspace constantly moved from the bodies of the clones one after another as the clones cultivating within instantly used their Mental Energy to heal the mind of the respective clone. This was how they managed to prevent their minds from collapsing. Plus, it wasn''t possible for Krune to escape from this task. It wasn''t like any other Elders were forcing him or anything. They didn''t even have the time to care if he escaped from the scene. But, the reason persisted with the burden was for his desires alone. There were tens to thousands of habitats and cities being constructed in such habitats. This was not to mention the various establishments being erected there, not to mention the roles of the logistics involved. Everything had to be drafted. And that means¡­ a gold mine of potential things that he could name. This was the true reason Krune endured the burden. As long as he could name everything, he would be content. And to dutifully harness his abilities¡­to make him feel happy, Zamura gave permission for Krune to name everything. That was pretty much why their work was proceeding at such a fast pace. Otherwise, without Krune, they would have taken ten times the duration to achieve what they had currently done. The clones were also able to swim through the streams faster than their flight speed, allowing them to travel to every region of the supercontinent the fastest. And this allowed Krune to first notice the bizarre regions that had formed. "Wait, why are the regions of the supercontinent reflecting our abilities?" That was what Krune felt, gazing at a region where Mental Energy was being emitted naturally. Chapter 1378 The First Wisp City Chapter 1378 The First Wisp City¡¡¡¡It had only been a decade, so it wasn''t possible to fully scour the supercontinent yet. After all, even at his top speed, it would take Krune more than a decade to go from one end of the supercontinent to the other. Supercontinents were just that huge. Even the Zamuria Continent itself was huge. If not for the teleportation arrays set up in every city, travel would have been difficult and time-consuming. And now, they were facing it for real in the supercontinent that was way too large in area. So for that, Zamura came up with an ingenious idea. For every region, he would designate one immortal to it. That immortal would fully work on constructing a city in the region where he and his family would rule over in the future. And among the common populace, they would be given choices to select the cities they would migrate over once they were completed. Even while the cities were being constructed, the mortals could join and pitch in. This way, they would have a sense of belonging to the respective city, the same as the immortal that built it from scratch. Moreover, there were countless demon beast races in the Mountain Sect. So, they had begun to divide the supercontinent into various parts where each demon beast race would reside and develop their own customs and traditions. This would allow them to raise the depth of their racial advantage further, strengthening their respective races. Even though Krune was worried that this arrangement would distance the demon beast races from one another, Zamura convinced him that as long as they joined the Mountain Sect to train, what Krune was worried about wouldn''t happen. Since all the immortals would be from the Mountain Sect, with the teachings and environment there, the various demon beast races would share a harmonious relationship. Of course, friction would exist everywhere. And the Mountain Sect, too, wasn''t an exception. After all, it had grown too fast and was somewhat unstable. But, solving such problems also fell under their tasks as the Elders worked on ensuring their sect''s atmosphere was as harmonious as possible. Currently, during his exploration, one of Krune''s clones came across the region where Mental Energy was being produced naturally. The thing that struck him odd about this place was how there were bizarre creatures everywhere roaming around, unnatural structures constantly morphing in shape, size, forms, etc. It resembled a mortal''s fever dream. After all, this place was related to the mind. And when Krune probed the area, he was shocked to find that some of the thoughts of the people living on the supercontinent were absorbed by the supercontinent and transported to this location. And here, they took on forms related to their respective thoughts, erratic in nature. Moreover, they were like a force of nature in that if Krune''s clone were to enter it, its mind would be destroyed and devoured by the various bizarreness of the region. Fever Dream Zone! Krune designated it with such a name, probing the place a little before understanding that it was way too dangerous. This had only appeared once the supercontinent had finished forming. So, they weren''t prepared for it. Krune recorded details regarding the region and used a clone stationed next to Feifei to transmit all the information to her. Through Mental Energy, they were able to transfer memories. So, the clone directly transmitted all the information regarding the region to Feifei. And with that, Feifei began to prepare a formation to seal up the Fever Dream Zone. Once the Mountain Sect''s affairs had stabilized, they would then decide on investigating this region further. But until then, it was too dangerous to leave it alone. Once Feifei was done concocting a formation to seal up the place, a bunch of Krune''s clones began to set up the formation, sealing up the place. And once they were done, most of the clones entered the subspace, traveling over to another area where they were required. In the meantime, the remaining clones acted as scouts, continuing to travel as they recorded details regarding the various zones and regions that had appeared. Surprisingly, some indigenous races were also birthed. As to how they had been birthed, Krune was unaware. After all, when he chanced upon such regions, he already found small groups of such races living there. He didn''t disturb them, only transmitting the contents to the Mountain Sect. The Mountain Sect would then arrange the means to gradually integrate such races into their fold. As long as some of them became disciples of the Mountain Sect, that was enough. And in the future, when they became strong enough, they''ll use their savings to vitalize their hometown, erecting a city there. Gradually, as more and more experts emerge from their race, their home city too would grow in strength, size, and population. "What''s¡­this?" As the clones continued to travel further and further into the supercontinent, one of them arrived at a strange place, one that caused them to feel the utmost comfort. "This place¡­?" Krune exited the subspace, sensing the region as he could feel the laws of the place, noticing a faint humming from his Wisp Core. "This place is suitable for wisps to live." Moreover, he noticed the arrangement of the laws in the region, observing that they resembled his Land Incarnation to a certain extent. Myriad Wisps Spiritual Incarnation! In other words, this region was the most suitable for naturally birthing wisps in the greatest numbers. "Haha, I guess the God Realm is accommodating wisps once again." Krune smiled, relaying the news to all the wisps as they all used his subspace to arrive at the location, exclaiming in joy immediately upon feeling the harmonious atmosphere that catered to their needs. "Uncle, this place is the best!" Kulla shrieked in excitement. "Let''s build a home here," Kuttul said, smiling in joy. "This place is a thousand times better than that desolate place in the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm." "Indeed, you''re right." Krune smiled. "We''ll erect a city exclusive to our race here." "The first Wisp City of the God Realm!" Chapter 1379 Constructing the Wisp City Chapter 1379 Constructing the Wisp City¡¡¡¡The First Wisp City of the God Realm. The moment Krune expressed this thought, everyone became excited. After all, a place exclusive to their race, where the habitat was perfectly suited for their birth and survival, was a cause for celebration. And, they wished to give their all to ensure this place was the best for all wisps. With that, Krune began to ponder, falling deep in thought, wondering what structure he should erect in the place to ensure it catered to the needs of the wisps to the utmost level. "First, wisps love to play. So, it has to be in such a fashion where the newborn wisps can play lots and still cultivate through that," Krune muttered, discussing with Kulla and Kuttul, the oldest among the rest of the wisps. "Uncle, every house should be attached to a garden, preferably a floating island garden. All of us love to cook and forge items, so this is necessary," Kulla suggested. "On the other hand, having borders is annoying. So, most of the building places should be open to everyone for access," Kuttul added. "So, let''s make the houses minimal and increase the rest of the fun activities." "I was thinking of the same thing." Krune nodded as he took out a slab of metal, melting it into liquid before shaping it, creating a general structure and layout. "This is good," Kulla said. "But something is still missing." "Right, I feel the same," Kuttul replied. "It''s not fun." "Then¡­" Krune thought of something, gazing at the water stream passing overhead, grinning in response as he made some changes to the layout. "What about this?" "Damn, this would be epic!" Kulla and Kuttul exclaimed at the same time. "Then, let''s begin." Krune riled up his Godly Energy, creating materials out of thin air. All of them were condensed from his various laws, such as the Laws of Wood, Earth, Metal, Ice, and so on. Immediately, Krune created a massive block of a mysterious alloy that was a fusion of all his material-making Laws, created at a combination that was closer to his Spiritual Incarnation, making it perfect for wisps to reside within. This massive block floated in the air as Kulla grabbed hold of it using her Divine Sense, morphing its shape to create a floating island without buildings. Krune then created another massive block immediately after, watching Kuttul take control of it. Their plan was to create a massive palace in the air, a floating island of sorts that was designed for wisps in their Wisp Forms to move about, consisting of winding tunnels instead of walkways. This would be fun for them to travel and enliven the place. The palace was basically a gigantic market, including theatres, platforms for competitions, storage facilities, etc. It spanned tens of kilometers in radius as they planned to make as many of such palaces as necessary. At present, their population was small, and hence, two palaces were enough. While Kulla and Kuttul were creating the two palaces based on their design logic, Krune arrived at what seemed to be the core of this region, slowly creating a massive structure surrounding it. He activated his Spiritual Incarnation, seeping his Land Incarnation into the land but destroying his connection to it immediately, focusing on raising the concentration of the laws in the core region. He continued to raise its level, noticing the energy of heaven and earth begin to gather in the area as signs of wisps being birthed became apparent. "This place would constantly be birthing wisps. It''ll become our beating heart," Krune muttered, creating a protective building around the place, ensuring no harm would come to this core region. Then, after a moment of thought, Krune took out a Godly Vein from his subspace. Zamura had given it to him long ago due to his contributions. In fact, Krune was originally planning to create a Cultivation Lotus out of it. But now, he had a better idea. "This will act as the foundation for all wisps to grow stronger and reach maturity while still playing according to their nature." No matter what, even in the God Realm, Wisps had a natural lifespan of ten years. In other words, if they failed to obtain a Spiritual Incarnation, only death awaited them after a short life spanning a decade. So, Krune had to do something about that. He had long since been thinking about it, having been thinking of a Spiritual Incarnation that Wisps could inherit naturally. Turia''s birth had given him this insight. After all, she had been born at the God Foundation Realm, possessing a Spiritual Incarnation. The foundation of a race determined the cultivation level a baby would be at during birth. For weak races, it would be at the Mortal Rejection Realm. Most races with a strong enough foundation would birth babies at the Godly Fusion Realm. However, birthing someone at the God Foundation Realm was absurd. Only the brightest of geniuses were birthed with a cultivation at the God Foundation Realm. Of course, Turia was an example of that. But even if a baby was birthed at the God Foundation Realm, it would only be a normal cultivator. It wouldn''t possess a Spiritual Incarnation. And like every other cultivator, they would have to gradually create their own Spiritual Incarnation or depend on a Predominated Fruit to help them in achieving that. "Right, just like the various treasures that I''ve done, I could do the same here too." Krune smiled. After all, he had Turia on his side, the best example to reference upon, a mysterious wisp that had been birthed with a Spiritual Incarnation. With that, Krune began to wholeheartedly focus on this task, constantly bothering Feifei to use her Spiritual Incarnation and work on the loopholes in his plan, slowly perfecting his idea. With that, he began to bring out all the necessary materials: Drops, Divine Sense Law materials, Mental Energy Law materials, materials with his Land Incarnation, a Godly Vein, a pile of Predominated Fruits, and a Blank Law Core. He formed a pile for each item, focusing on them as he smiled, beginning the refinement process. Chapter 1380 Deific Wisp Relic Chapter 1380 Deific Wisp Relic¡¡¡¡Krune first piled the Drops over the Blank Law Core, setting them aside as he focused on the Predominated Fruits. A single Predominated Fruit was enough for a cultivator at the God Foundation Realm to condense their Spiritual Incarnation. With that being said, in his hands was a pile large enough to form a hill. After all, thanks to his contributions to the Mountain Sect, Krune had used them to exchange for as many Predominated Fruits as possible. After all, when there were very few sect members, the production of the Predominated Fruits vastly exceeded demand. So, they were dirt cheap. Aware that the situation would change in the future once there were enough sect members, Krune had hoarded them. After all, he required them for the wisps that were being birthed now. There was practically a hill in his subspace formed by a pile of Predominated Fruits. Every cultivator in the Mountain Sect with spare contribution points exchanged for a couple of Predominated Fruits, saving them for their children. But for Krune, he was never short of contribution points. After all, a lot of operations in the sect were carried out by him alone. And with the constant increase in his number of clones, this only continued to increase. Which led to him hoarding so many Predominated Fruits. And now, his goal was to ensure the birthed wisps were like Turia, born with a Spiritual Incarnation. After all, it wasn''t a guarantee that there would always be enough Predominated Fruits for the newborn wisps. His stockpile would continue to decrease as the Mountain Sect grew vastly, lording over the supercontinent. So, the demand sharply exceeded the supply of Predominated Fruits. Even for him, it was impossible to hoard them any longer. And the case would continue to worsen when the number of birthed wisps continued to increase. In the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm, the Wisps were only birthed thanks to his Land Incarnation. So, there was one wisp birthed every year, and a True Spirit birthed every twenty years. But here, the region itself would be birthing wisps. So, their numbers would multiply quickly. Even Krune''s massive stockpile would be emptied within a century. But after that, a significant portion of wisps would be dying futile deaths after living their short lifespans. Of course, he didn''t like that outcome. And now, he was refining the mountainous pile of Predominated Fruits, slowly extracting their essence while trying to solidify the remainder. It actually took two years of nonstop refinement before Krune extracted all the essence from the pile, condensing it into a tiny sphere. After that, he fused the essence with the Divine Sense Law and Mental Energy Law materials, further extracting the resultant to only bring out the concentrated extract. Following that, he fused the concentrated essence into the Drops, causing the resultant to resonate with the laws of the God Realm. And right at this moment, he made it seem like an ability, causing the concentrated extract to interact with the Blank Law Core, causing it to become something that reflected this extract as if it was an ability. The Law Core formed the core as the extract revolved around it, constantly churning the effect from within as Krune slowly fused the material with his Land Incarnation into it. To create this Land Incarnation, he caused a hundred thousand clones to commit suicide to lay down their Land Incarnation, enacting this process for over a year, almost causing his Spiritual Incarnation to be destroyed as a result of constant deaths. But he pressed forth, enduring the insane pain of his Spiritual Incarnation''s constant destabilization, working on this task with utmost dedication. After all, his race''s future depended on it. As all the clones had committed suicide on the same piece of material while laying down their Land Incarnation, the laws on it became so concentrated that they reached the Primal God Realm in quality. After all, as it was the same set of laws in the exact same combination and position, they were just layers over one another. Since a Land Incarnation''s basic trait was to morph the laws of the region into its own, this meant all the Land Incarnations interacted with one another, trying to change them. As they were just replicas of one another, they began to fuse automatically, elevating the quality of each law forming the Land Incarnation. Over time, the quality surpassed his God Trial Realm, reaching the Elementary God Realm and finally climbing up to the Primal God Realm. But after some time at this level, there was no more change in the quality of the Laws, causing Krune to understand that he had attained the limit for this method. If the quality of the laws increased any further, they would trigger the formation of a continent, becoming its core. As that wasn''t allowed on this supercontinent that already existed in the same place, this was the limit he could reach. With bated breath, Krune fused the material with his Land Incarnation into the concentrated extract, watching as the end product slowly became one. Right before it was about to be completed, he inserted the Godly Vein into the center, right where the Law Core resided, fusing the two. Boom! Instantly, a pillar of light reached the skies, emanating a suffocating aura. But for the wisps, it was a pleasant fragrance, touch, sound, sensation, and so on. The wisps relaxed as if they were in their mother''s embrace due to the beam of light as Krune gazed at the tiny plate that appeared before him. It was an ultimate relic of their race that would ensure the wisps would never face injustice. "Since this would be our race''s hope, I''ll call this the Deific Wisp Relic!" Krune announced, slowly seeping the relic deep into the core of the region, watching it vanish after some time. Thanks to the Divine Sense and Mental Energy Laws imbued in it, the relic camouflaged itself with the ground, ensuring even those at the Primal God Realm would never be able to detect it. And in the future, as it would be nurtured by the energy of heaven and earth, its quality would be slowly refined until even Gods would be unable to detect it. Krune was using the supercontinent itself to refine their race''s relic. Immediately after planting it, the Godly Energy in the region surged as countless swirls began to form one after another as Krune gazed at the scene in excitement, noticing every swirl beginning to emit potent auras. Chapter 1381 Solving the Wisp Race’s Innate Problem Chapter 1381 Solving the Wisp Race¡¯s Innate Problem¡¡¡¡The Predominated Fruits contained a mysterious power in them that allowed a cultivator to pour in all their respective Laws and condense their Spiritual Incarnation. The type of Spiritual Incarnation they create would depend on the number and types of Laws they have comprehended and the extent of comprehension they had for every Law. So, it was different for everyone. As for Krune, just in the name of protecting the wisps, he didn''t wish to limit their potential. Hence, his goal was to ensure every wisp was born with a basic Spiritual Incarnation, with almost no attribute whatsoever. Slowly, while the Wisps go from the First Stage of the God Foundation Realm to the Ninth Stage of the God Foundation Realm, their experiences, their interests, their character, their comprehension of the various Laws, and the activities they performed, everything included would shape the growth of their Spiritual Incarnation, finalizing it to what they had at the Ninth Stage of the God Foundation Realm. That was when their Spiritual Incarnation stopped evolving, becoming a fixed power like every other Spiritual Incarnation. Since Krune''s Calamity and Balance Laws contained all the laws of the God Realm, he was able to lay down such a foundation among the Spiritual Incarnation of the wisps. After all, when they were birthed, their comprehension of all the laws was pretty much zero. This was only possible because he was Krune and had his Myriad Wisps Spiritual Incarnation. With that, Krune didn''t hinder the development of the wisps and instead gave them a solid foundation, enough for them to develop in any direction they pleased. Krune watched as the swirls of energy slowly began to condense, eventually forming cores in their center. After a couple of days had passed in such a fashion, the first swirl vanished, revealing the figure of a wisp there. It was just a baby, acting no different from a plant as the wisp just hovered in one location while its ethereal body continued to pulse gently. First Stage of the God Foundation Realm! "Success!" Krune laughed in joy upon seeing that the newborn wisp had a Spiritual Incarnation. Meaning, it could just lay down its Land Incarnation in one location and live a carefree life. And once it died due to its lifespan, it can simply revive from the Land Incarnation. "There, there¡­" Krune gently patted the newborn wisp with care. After all, it was the first of their kind that was born with a solution, a solution that he had created. With this, Krune created a solution for the wisps, raising their foundation while ensuring they would no longer die futile deaths due to their pitiful lifespans. He then watched as the number of swirls in this region began to slowly increase in number, muttering, "At this rate, a Wisp would be born daily." Even though a birth per day was pretty much nothing when compared to other races, it was a stable birth rate, in his opinion. After all, as long as they weren''t killed, these newborn wisps would never die. They were born as perennial entities. That meant their numbers would accumulate over the years and gradually reach a sizeable number. Bluk! As he admired the newborn wisp that was a perfect wisp in his opinion, a creature resembling a wisp flew across him, catching his intention. It wasn''t a wisp, but a Pseudo-Wisp. But the only difference was the fact that this Pseudo-Wisp was produced by the land itself. This was one of the unique features that he had installed in the Deific Wisp Relic. The Pseudo Wisp didn''t have a mind of its own, only acting based on the instincts and program Krune had given them. The Pseudo-Wisp slowly flew around the region, absorbing the abundant Godly Energy to store it in its body. And as time passed, the quality of energy amassed in them would increase. Though, their limit was the God Foundation Realm in Godly Energy quality. After all, the quality of the ambient Godly Energy was equivalent to a Rank 2 God Stone¡ªGod Foundation Realm. So, that was the limit for the Pseudo-Wisps. However, the advantage of the Pseudo-Wisps was the fact that they were perfect to be absorbed by wisps. After all, thanks to the Deific Wisp Relic, every wisp that would be birthed in this region would be born with a set of Deific Meridians, naturally aware of the Deific Wisp cultivation technique. So for them, the Pseudo-Wisps were the best tonic. Absorbing a single Pseudo-Wisp was equivalent to a day''s worth of cultivation. Plus, absorption was almost instantaneous. The wisps would only need some minutes to circulate their Godly Energy and adjust their bodies to the raise in cultivation. This meant that they would be able to play all the time, slacking to their utmost while occasionally absorbing the Pseudo-Wisps. Moreover, since the Pseudo-Wisps were programmed to constantly be on the move, it''ll be a fun activity for the wisps to chase after the Pseudo-Wisps. It''ll make things livelier. As the Deific Wisp Relic assimilated into the ground more and more, the number of Pseudo-Wisps birthed in their region would increase in number, enough for their cultivation needs. After all, even for those at a higher level of cultivation, absorbing the Pseudo-Wisps was faster than cultivating traditionally. Krune hadn''t been cultivating using the Pseudo-Wisps due to the fact that he was constantly causing his clones to commit suicide. So, he was expending bodies that the Little Krune fragments could reside within. After all, it had to be noted that when a Pseudo-Wisp was birthed, it started from the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm, slowly accumulating Godly Energy like a packet. So, to create a clone at the God Trial Realm, the Pseudo-Wisp must have accumulated enough Godly Energy within itself to reach the God Trial Realm in both quantity and quality. Of course, that was a time-consuming process. So, he had set aside all the Pseudo-Wisps he was producing in his subspace, making them into clones once they reached his level. Otherwise, with his appetite, he could easily go through them all and reach the peak of the God Trial Realm within a short few years. Chapter 1382 The Massiveness of the God Realm Chapter 1382 The Massiveness of the God Realm¡¡¡¡"Uncle, we''re also done," Kulla said, showing the gigantic mountain-sized palace that was floating in the air. There were countless tubes stretching out from it that connected to the river flowing above their region, causing the water to flow through it before leading to a large lake on the ground. Countless river streams flowed on the ground as well, but they were all artificial. Plus, both the start and end of these streams came from the river in the sky. Also, the travel routes were the pipes that had openings in dedicated locations. The river in the air had a mysterious current to it that all water streams branched out from it through artificial means would eventually return to the stream. It was a mysterious trait as water would fully separate itself from the stream only when it rained or created some clouds while passing. So, it led to a plethora of scenic locations as Kulla had installed countless tubes in the river that branched out and ended abruptly, causing water to gush out of it. And this water formed a stream and returned to the river, creating beautiful arcs in the sky. Upon seeing how beautiful such arcs were, Kulla was unable to control herself any longer, creating tens of thousands of arcs throughout their region. Kuttul was basically helping her run amok, supporting her wholeheartedly as he too was of the same mind, having fun with the design. "Wheee!" A wisp jumped into the river, being washed by the currents as it branched into the mouth of a massive pipe, flowing along the currents before being flung out through the exit. The wisp was still in the water current as it was having fun, branching out when it reached the farther end of the arc, hovering in the air as it made rings around the flowing stream, enacting a helical pattern before plunging into the river. It was basically a chance for them to perform acrobatics in a mixture of marine and air habitats in what was pretty much a gigantic scaled water theme park. The wisps acted like fish, jumping in and out of the water stream as they giggled and raced one another, using the countless pipes and streams to reach the palace, going through the various amenities installed through the palace before exiting it. Krune frowned at the scene, feeling envious of the wisps that were having the time of their life. He instantly shielded himself with Mental Energy, reaching the river before plunging into it, allowing the river currents to carry him forth. Like a ship navigating through the ocean, he at times used the wisp''s innate ability to fly, steering through the water before entering a pipe''s mouth. The circumference of the pipe began to reduce the farther he went in, which in turn caused the flow of water to speed up. It was a thrilling ride as the speed of travel continued to increase further and further until he exited the end of the pipe, making a massive arc in the air, still within the stream as he slammed into the river, abruptly slowing down before moving along with the slower river currents. Krune showed no change in expression, silently continuing forth with the next ride, going from one ride to another. And before he realized it¡­ "Wheeee!" His mind wasn''t thinking anything anymore, just enjoying the simple pleasure of life, happily behaving like a fish as he experienced the ride. "Krune!" Suddenly, Feifei''s shout brought him back to his senses. She was informing something serious to his clone. And as they had shared thoughts, he was aware of what the clone heard. Honestly, the reason Feifei had to shout was obviously due to the fact that all the clones were influenced by Krune''s experience, having stopped working. They had shared thoughts, after all. So all the clones instinctively began to relish the experience. That also showed everyone that Krune was currently slacking. And, of course, as the reigning champion of the Mountain Sect''s best-overworked employee, how could he slack off? So, it wasn''t just Feifei that was shouting in the ears of the clone. Every Elder that was assigned with a clone to aid with communication was doing the same, blasting off his poor eardrums. It seemed that quite a lot of dangerous locations had spawned in the Turia Supercontinent that was now being discovered one after another. As the various races began to discover habitats suitable for them, just like Krune, they also came across dangerous places similar to the Fever Dream Zone. Such places were dangerous for even Primal Gods to venture into, not to mention the other immortals. So, sealing up such places was the best course of action until further notice. Once they could spare enough manpower, they would designate teams to gradually investigate such danger zones. After all, every danger zone was an opportunity to both train the cultivators and also serve as places rich in precious resources. At present, the procedure was to seal up the danger zones and leave its investigation to nearby cities. Tens to thousands of cities would be formed on the Turia Continent at the very least. After all, either an immortal or a small group of immortals¡ªusually from their families¡ªwould take charge of the respective city. Hence, as the Mountain Sect had tens of thousands of immortals even before the merge, it was apparent that a massive number of cities would appear. Though, that was pretty much nothing in the grand scale of things. After all, the Turia Supercontinent was just that vast. It was pretty much a world in and of itself. And their current population was nowhere close to even exploring it fully. It was just that vast, causing Krune to realize just how freaking massive the God Realm was. A continent on the God Realm itself was massive, something even Primal Gods would take years to scale without any teleportation formations. Naturally, the supercontinent was on a whole other level. Then, what about the God Realm, a finite landmass that seemed infinite due to how vast it was, consisting of millions of continents and thousands of supercontinents? There wasn''t a word to describe just how massive it was. If a God didn''t use their Laws scattered throughout the God Realm to manifest in places where they decided and simply decided to travel normally, it might take a lifetime even for them. A lifetime because they would eventually become bored of the travel or damn exhausted to just rest in peace, for the region to explore would just seem never-ending. Chapter 1383 The Mist Sect Invades Chapter 1383 The Mist Sect Invades¡¡¡¡"Did something happen, big sis? Why are you depressed?" Krune asked using a clone. "You see¡­" Sterlena said after some time, inhaling a deep breath. "When this supercontinent was forming, it had taken the characteristics of the strongest of the Mountain Sect, as we were the victors of the war and now own the supercontinent. So, regions bearing such characteristics appeared." "Yes." Krune nodded. "So, I was excited, thinking that a region suitable to the True Spirits would finally appear," Sterlena said as her eyes turned moist. "However, I''m unable to sense it." "You can sense such things?" Krune frowned. "The Turia Supercontinent is too vast. We have yet to explore more than a tenth of the area. So I''m sure the place you''re seeking would be around somewhere." "No¡­" Sterlena shook her head. "As the destruction of the Laws that birthed True Spirits was destroyed through me, I gained the ability to sense such things. I can see that the damage hasn''t recovered, even in this newly formed supercontinent." She continued, depressed, "True Spirits cannot be born in the God Realm yet. The Laws regarding Wisps wasn''t much damaged, so they would at least be birthed naturally on the Turia Continent." "Isn''t my Land Incarnation birthing True Spirits, though?" Krune said after a moment of thought. "Let me see if I can do something about it." "You have a solution?" Sterlena''s eyes slowly widened as there was a flash of hope in them, gazing at Krune. "It might not be possible on the Turia Continent, but I can indeed do something about it in the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm," Krune said. "After all, a True Spirit is being birthed there once every two decades. So, I''ll only have to increase their numbers, right?" "Plus, I think once you become a God, the laws of the God Realm would naturally heal themselves, allowing True Spirits to be birthed all over it naturally once again," Krune concluded. "Those other Gods are also trying to revive the dead Gods and heal the God Realm. So, things would eventually turn for the better." "Hah!" Sterlena slapped her cheeks, waking herself up as she nodded. "This isn''t the time to be moping about. I''ll work on my race''s revival." "Thanks, Krune," Sterlena said, strength returning to her voice. "But I''ll do it myself. That''s the least I can do since it was through me that my race was destroyed." "Besides, True Spirits cannot only be birthed in the God Realm. As for the Godly Path Realm and the Mortal Realm, there''s still a faint possibility. So, I''ll work from there." She spoke next, gazing at Krune. "I feel that''s the reason your Land Incarnation is able to birth True Spirits. Since your origin isn''t from the God Realm, but the lower realms where the Laws related to a True Spirit''s birth isn''t fully destroyed yet." Saying her piece, Sterlena vanished as the clone was left alone. Krune was unable to determine where she had gone, for none of his clones were able to determine her whereabouts for the time being. Sighing, he could only continue with his word. Now that he had finished creating the Wisp City, he had to focus on the other cities. The primary importance of this task was to erect teleportation formations in every city. This way, it would be easy to deploy troops whenever necessary or to facilitate the exchange of goods and information. Simply traveling throughout the continent conventionally would take forever. And, they couldn''t just call it a day after erecting one teleportation formation, but there should be enough to facilitate a large enough traffic. As a blacksmith with thousands of clones, he was the perfect man for this task. A lot of clones were working nonstop in his subspace, forging gigantic teleportation formations, including the building it was set up within. Following the blueprint Feifei had given, he also laid down countless formations on the building itself, ensuring it was strong enough to defend against any attacks. All the materials used in its construction were of top-notch quality, even capable of defending against Elementary Gods to a certain extent. Anything beyond wasn''t possible, as the cost of creating such buildings would bankrupt the Mountain Sect. After all, materials capable of withstanding attacks from Primal Gods were rare and cost a fortune. The fact that they were making these buildings to be able to withstand attacks from Elementary Gods themselves strained their pockets. After all, tens of thousands of cities were beginning to crop up one after another. Thankfully, the cities that were already being established used their incoming workforce to mine for suitable materials nearby that they transacted with other cities. This way, a trade relation was established as the cities transacted with one another. Until the teleportation formations were working, Krune''s clones were used as the medium to transfer goods and people. After all, his subspace was able to transfer from one clone to another within a second. And even from the farthermost locations in the Turia Supercontinent, the distance only took a second at most. So, it was the fastest mode of transportation. Since a clone was stationed in every city, this was possible. However, this was also placing a massive strain and drain on Krune as he was beginning to use up all the Godly Energy stored in the subspace that his cultivation lotus had produced over the years. And now, he was running out of Godly Energy, with his consumption exceeding the Cultivation Lotus''s production. To solve this issue, Krune had placed his Land Incarnation in many locations within the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm, where they absorbed the ambient Godly Energy and created Pseudo-Wisps. A clone stationed there transported them all into the subspace at regular intervals. But even that was proving to be insufficient as he was just performing way too many tasks. "I never thought I would face a shortage of Godly Energy once again." Krune sighed as he went through the list of things that he had to do, feeling his head spin as the workload continued to increase. Of course, he wasn''t alone. Every member of the Mountain Sect was the same, overworked. Even the mortals were overworked due to their enthusiasm of finally obtaining their own homes once again. But, as if to mock their efforts, their enemy arrived, someone that they had been expecting to arrive after one more decade. They came, knocking on the doorsteps of the Turia Supercontinent, bringing forth with them the entirety of their sect''s power, a force that had stabilized itself over ruling four continents. The Mist Sect came crashing! Chapter 1384 People of Turia… Chapter 1384 People of Turia¡­¡¡¡¡"The Mist Sect is invading!" All of Krune''s clones announced simultaneously, causing everyone in power to become shocked. "Where are they now?" Zamura asked in all seriousness. "In a region that once belonged to the Guria Continent," Krune''s clone replied. "And they have begun to set up camp there. If we leave them be, they''ll begin to occupy the supercontinent gradually." "Are there any cities nearby?" Zamura asked. "Kolar City is the closest," Krune''s clone said. "It''s one of the cities created by the Black Demons." "Alert everyone! We''ll mobilize our army. Also, keep some of your clones hidden in every city to prepare for an ambush." Zamura laid down a set of instructions. "You''re our only gateway, Krune. So, don''t participate. I want you to be ready to retaliate against any schemes the Mist Sect concocts." "Alright, Sect Leader." Krune nodded and alerted everyone, informing them of the plan as the immortals began to enter the subspace as Krune dropped them at Kolar City. In the meantime, he also transported all the mortals back to the Secret Realms in possession of the three royal families, keeping them safe there. When they are scattered on the supercontinent as they are now, protecting them would be hard. Moreover, it would also spread their manpower thin to defend the various bases. "Thankfully, they had attacked now and not in the future. We can still recall everyone." Krune said, though he was worried that public sentiment wasn''t on their side now. Of course, how would they feel when after two centuries of war, they finally had the chance to settle down once again, only to hear that another war would begin? "No, let''s not transport the mortals away," Zamura said all of a sudden, causing Krune to gaze at him in shock. "But that''ll make them sitting ducks, you know," Krune said. "So what?" Zamura retorted, "If we recall everyone back to the secret realms, we will lose their support. But instead, if they see us risking our lives to defend them and their cities, public morale would reach the maximum." "If that happens, it would be proof for everyone that the Mountain Sect would ensure the needs of its people is satisfied. That means they would take up arms to join the Mountain Sect and become one of us to save their homes," Zamura explained. "And that''s what we need to ensure the Turia Continent and the Mountain Sect are one." "Otherwise, it''ll just seem like the war with the Mist Sect isn''t of the concern of the common populace. Once that idea sets root in their mind, our younger generation would eventually rot itself, no matter what we try to do with them." "Since we have just come into power and haven''t done anything special to the people yet, this is the time to prove ourselves and gain their admiration," Zamura said. "But, in this process, countless lives might be lost," Krune retorted. "And there''s a considerable chance we''ll be labeled incompetent." "And to prevent that from happening, we must ensure none of the people die," Zamura said in response, patting Krune''s shoulder. "It''ll be extremely hard, but it is what it is. If we succeed, we''ll have undivided support from our people for generations to come. It''ll cement our status as the ruling power of the Turia Continent and ensure there are no rebels." "Rebels¡­" Krune frowned, recalling the various powers that had remained in hiding in the Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria continents, slowly accumulating power over the years, silently awaiting the day they could overthrow the ruling powers and seize control of the respective continents. If not for the Mountain Sect''s appearance, they would have eventually accumulated enough power to stage a rebellion. And if the Mountain Sect''s reputation fell, the people would rather join the sect just to pillage its resources and distribute them to rebels. Honestly, managing a sect, especially one the size of the Mountain Sect, was a difficult matter. After all, the Turia Continent was just that huge, with a wealth of resources being produced all the time. And with such wealth, the desires of people would be ignited. Anyone with a bit of ambition would wish to establish their own power and rule the people. Even the members of the Mountain Sect weren''t immune to this desire. At present, everyone was a part of the Mountain Sect due to the wealth of resources it had and the close-knit relationship of the people at the top. But the dynamics of the Sect were constantly changing as countless geniuses arose from their midst. So, to ensure their vastly growing organization wouldn''t collapse on itself, they had to establish a bond between themselves and between the sect members and the people. Once that was achieved, a sense of patriotism to the Turia Continent and the Mountain Sect would emerge in them. If that happened, they didn''t have to worry about internal problems to a certain extent. "This is a necessary risk." Krune sighed once he came to understand the ins and outs of the situation, sighing as he only focused on transporting the Immortals. "Also, the people should know what is happening. So¡­" Zamura trailed off. "Set up transmission services. Broadcast everything that will happen next to the people. Let them know that the Mountain Sect is willing to shed blood to protect our home." "Home¡­" Krune sighed. "You''re right about that. This is indeed our home." He recalled the Wisp City, clenching his hand into a fist, unwilling to see his city suffer even the slightest of damage, "Alright, I''ll do it." "Thank you for letting us trouble you so much." Zamura sighed. "If you truly feel that, give me a decade-long vacation once everything ends. I just want to sleep and slack off completely, all clones included," Krune said before flying away, beginning preparations as the clones stationed in every city took action, erecting gigantic screens in the streets of the cities, displaying the scene of the clones repeating the same in every city. "What''s¡­happening?" Someone among the crowd that was moving a pile of stones paused, gazing at the scene displayed on the screen. "Is¡­another war going to happen?" Someone among the crowd muttered, feeling a strange sense of foreboding when suddenly, the face of Zamura appeared on all the screens, stating. "People of Turia¡­" Chapter 1385 Let’s Believe in Our Heroes Chapter 1385 Let¡¯s Believe in Our Heroes¡¡¡¡"People of Turia¡­" Zamura''s voice resounded. "Yes, the Turia Supercontinent is vast but also majestic. As its citizens, we have the objective to protect it." "In the God Realm, a continent can at most generate enough resources to produce a couple of Primal Gods. But a supercontinent¡­ is different." He paused, emphasizing, "The resources produced in a supercontinent is able to birth a God. And that''s why it''s contested for with such fervor." "A God?" One of the mortals gazing at the screen muttered in shock. "Yes, a God. You heard that right." Zamura nodded, expecting the reaction of the people. "And that was precisely the reason the three continents of Zamuria, Guria, and Rumria had engaged in war for two centuries. And now that the Mountain Sect emerged as the victor, the three sister continents merged to result in our Turia Supercontinent." "In fact, the Mountain Sect already has a God on the rise," Zamura said, causing bouts of shock to resound through the crowd. "There''s a God on our land?" "A God!" As the people were stupefied, Zamura continued, "But, becoming a God isn''t that simple. It''s a time-consuming process. Our God still needs a bit less than two centuries to complete his ascension. And in this time, we are vulnerable." "The Turia Supercontinent has the resources to birth a God but doesn''t have a God defending its borders yet. Can you imagine the consequences?" He raised his brows, sighing in the end. "As a result, a major power, the Mist Sect that has control over four continents, has arrived at our doorsteps to signal another war." "Another war?" "A war¡­" "Again?" The people just seemed too exhausted to fight or care about another battle. "Fear not, my people," Zamura spoke right at this time. "The Mountain Sect would ensure that the lives of the common populace aren''t disturbed by this war. Because this war would be gruesome even when compared to our previous three-continental war. Hence, only the immortals of the Mountain Sect would participate." He thumped his chest as he said, "Protecting the lives of our people is our duty, the Mountain Sect''s core principle that we abide by. If you wish to protect our land and join the cause to protect your newly built cities, your family''s peace, and your bright future, join the Mountain Sect. And once you become an immortal, you can protect us." "Everything that happens in this war would be broadcasted in all cities. This way, we, the people of Turia, will be aware of everything that''s happening in this immortal war!" "Glory to Turia!" Zamura said as the scene on the screen changed, now showing an army of cultivators in the far-off distance, hovering in the skies. All of them were immortals. "My god! Just how many of them are there?" A mortal slumped to the ground in shock. "These are all¡­immortals? This many?" The people began to clamor, having never expected to see so many immortals. After all, the Mist Sect army was huddled together to such an extent that they seemed like ants, possessing a terrifying number. Three million immortals! This was their strength, a terrifying number. And that wasn''t all. Hovering in the very front were immortals with vast auras comparable to heaven and earth. Primal Gods! Slowly, the figure of Zamura appeared ten kilometers before them as the Mountain Sect immortals began to appear behind him one after another. But despite that, their side seemed to be nothing in comparison. After all, there were 76 Primal Gods in the Mist Sect, not to mention the 908 Elementary Gods hovering behind them in silence. In sharp contrast, there were only 19 Primal Gods on the Mountain Sect''s side. And 12 among them were those that had been repeating their cultivation thanks to Faunkill. But now that their home was in danger, those Primal Gods finally decided to accept the Mountain Sect''s rule, joining their side in this war. 76:19! It wasn''t even a competition at this point, as those on the Mountain Sect''s side were nervous. Not only were they short of powerhouses, but their numbers were also vastly inferior. Adding onto all the immortals in the Mountain Sect, there amounted to only a hundred thousand. They were overwhelmed thirty to one in a contest of numbers alone. Among the powerhouses, it wasn''t even a contest anymore. The opponent had 57 more Primal Gods. In the extent of Elementary Gods, the Mountain Sect had a mere 80 Elementary Gods, a paltry sum that was almost a twelfth of the Mist Sect. "We can only believe in our strength to win," Zamura said, transmitting his voice to his sect members. "The opponent hasn''t dabbled in the Body and Soul Cultivation. So, that''s our sole advantage. Has everyone implanted their Land Incarnation in our revival device?" "Yes, Sect Leader," came a unified response from everyone. "We are overwhelmed¡­!" A mortal gazing at the scene said, disheartened. "Are we going to lose?" "My son is fighting there¡­" he said in worry, for his son had recently become an immortal. "I hope he''s alright." "He''s a hero fighting to protect us. Let''s have our faith in your son." A man patted his shoulder, saying in assurance, "All of us watched him grow up to become the fine immortal he is now." "He''ll definitely be fine. You may not know it, but our Sect Leader is a charismatic man," the other guy said. "Right, I''ve heard of his exploits from my grandfather." An old-aged lady said, "In the past, when he went by the name of Cultivator, even at the God Core Realm, he was able to face immortals." "And now, such a terrifying character is our Sect Leader. He''s definitely confident in our strength, despite our inferior numbers," the old lady concluded. "Rightly said so." A grandpa spoke, twirling his mustache, looking healthy for his age, "The Mountain Sect is full of dragons and phoenixes. No matter what we face, we''ll emerge victorious. That''s the way of the Mountain Sect." "The situation was the same in the three-continental war, but the Mountain Sect sharply turned it around within a decade. They ended the war for us to usher in an era of peace." "Let''s believe in our heroes." Chapter 1386 Wipe Out The Mist Sect Chapter 1386 Wipe Out The Mist Sect¡¡¡¡"Why has the Mist Sect invaded Turia?" Zamura shouted, transmitting his voice to the enemies. "A God Trial Realm brat is the Sect Leader? How amusing." A derogatory voice resounded in response, carrying with it complete disdain. "Bring stronger if you wish to converse with us. Otherwise, scram!" "Sect Leader, let me try," Zualin said, flying forward upon getting a nod from Zamura. "I''m the Mountain Sect''s representative. State your claims, Mist Sect." "It''s simple." An old man with a goatee flew forward, stopping a kilometer from Zualin. "I''m the Mist Sect Leader, Multar. We only have two objectives. Hand over Feifei and the Mountain Sect''s God Seat." "How the hell did they know about the God Seat?" The immortals from the Mountain Sect clamored at Multar''s words. "Is there a spy in our sect?" Such a thought resounded in their minds. "No, there''s no spy," Krune said with confidence. "You might not know this, but I''ve been monitoring the minds of every sect member to guard against an attack from the Abolition Tower. So, I know for a fact that we don''t have any spies. The enemy has someone that can divine information through heavens." "Did you like that trip, Divination Immortal?" Zualin smiled all of a sudden upon being shared some information by Krune through Mental Energy. Upon hearing his blatant provocation, Multar frowned. Indeed, it was the Divination Immortal that had divined the information that a God Seat was in the possession of the Mountain Sect. And the reason they were looking for Feifei was to ensure the Golden Gate Sect would never rise. It was not to mention that through Feifei''s help, they would be able to make one of their immortals inherit the God Seat. Only Feifei''s Spiritual Incarnation had such power, hence why she was valued so much by both the Golden Gate Sect and the Mist Sect. "Haha, Feifei is our founding Elder. And, we all know how valuable she is," Zualin said, slowly scowling in response. "Don''t stretch your paws, brat. I''ll fucking blast you into nothing." "Hah¡­haha¡­hahaha! You''re calling me a brat?" Multar cackled all of a sudden, acting like he had heard the biggest joke of the century, "When I was a Primal God, you weren''t even a sperm in your old man''s nuts." "Haha, how funny, right?" Zualin laughed in response. "After so long, even I managed to reach the peak level of cultivation. But you''re still just a Primal God. Amusing!" "This bastard!" A Primal God emitted killing intent, cursing in response, "Sect Leader, let''s not waste time anymore. We''ll mow them down before capturing Feifei." "That''ll take too much time. And if Feifei tries to hide, it''ll cause us to expend more resources¡­" Multar said in worry. Even though he was confident of obliterating the Mountain Sect easily, they couldn''t be away from their home for long as the surrounding forces were still eyeing their territory. After all, it was four continents. No power could be calm about that. It was because the Mist Sect could be considered a Quasi-Super Sect. It was only missing a God to be called a Super Sect. In terms of wealth, resources, manpower, etc., they had already reached the level of a Super Sect. So, they were a superpower whose actions were monitored by all surrounding powers. "Let''s forget those four continents, Sect Leader." The Divination Immortal spoke right on time. "We''ve already pillaged it completely and crippled its foundation. Not even a Semi-God Realm cultivator can be birthed from those four continents now, not to mention stronger immortals. It''s pretty much a wasteland now." "Plus, we''ve brought the entirety of our foundation with us. Even if we don''t find Feifei, we can still occupy this supercontinent and grow stronger rapidly," he said. "Besides, with my power, Feifei cannot escape my grasp. I''ll be able to locate both her and the God Seat." "Where are they now?" Multar asked. "Both are in the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm," Divination Immortal replied. "It''s protected by powerful spatial laws, so we cannot teleport within it. But once we defeat their forces, we can barge into it from its entrance. I''ve already locked onto the entrance''s spatial coordinates." "Nice work," Multar said, transmitting the contents to some Primal Gods specialized in spatial laws. "Begin cracking their defensive code immediately." "Yes, Sect Leader." The Primal Gods nodded before getting to work immediately. "Zamura¡­" Krune whispered. "I know." Zamura nodded. "The Guardian Spirit would be able to hold on for the time being. We''ll suffer too many losses if we move first. So, we''ll have to be patient." "Then, let me begin my preparations," Krune said as his eyes slowly turned purple for an instant. In the sky, the clouds slowly began to accumulate gradually, darkening with time. "There''s someone among them that''s able to use Tribulation Lightning, right?" Multar muttered. "Yes, Sect Leader. He''s a troublesome bastard, but an Elementary God is enough to deal with him." An Elementary God came forward, stating, "I''ll be the one to kill him. I have learned of all his methods from those that had faced Krune in the past." "Alright, he''s yours, Stulfan," Multar said, slowly turning around to face Zualin. "Heed this, Mountain Sect. Surrender, and your lives would be spared. But resist, and this will be the day you''re annihilated." "The same could be said about you." Zualin snorted in response. "If you pay up for your past transactions, apologize for being rude, and scurry away with your tail behind your legs, you''ll be spared. Otherwise, you can forget about reviving after another hundred thousand years once again to exact revenge. You won''t get a second chance." "It seems words are no longer of any use now." Multar snorted before bellowing, "Mist Sect! Our opponent has declined our magnanimous offer and wishes to die a dog''s death. So, as honorable cultivators, we must grant their wishes." "Are you with me?" "Yeah!" The over three million immortals roared, thundering the entire region as just their roar turned into a mystical power that slammed into the Mountain Sect immortals, causing a lot of them to cough up blood immediately as their knees turned weak while they began to lose strength. "I see, so they''ve already launched the first attack." Zamura snorted as he waved his hand, giving his command, "Mountain Sect¡­" "Wipe out the Mist Sect!" Chapter 1387 Displacement Primal God Chapter 1387 Displacement Primal God¡¡¡¡"Wipe out the Mist Sect!" Boom! The moment Zamura said this command, thunderclouds formed in the sky as bolts of tribulation lightning rained down on the battlefield, causing countless explosions. "What the¡­?" Krune was shocked, seeing his tribulation lightning being rendered ineffective for the first time, noticing a mysterious creature appear in the air that acted as a lightning conductor, directly causing all the tribulation lightning to fly towards it. And in response, this mysterious creature opened its mouth and swallowed the lightning bolts. Its body charred in response to the damage it sustained, but followed by a surge of Godly Energy into its body, it healed rapidly. "That''s a mysterious artifact¡­" Zamura frowned, noticing a Primal God standing in the middle of the Mist Sect''s army, holding a cubical item that was emanating a mystical presence. It was what had condensed the mysterious creature in the sky that was gobbling up all the lightning bolts, ensuring not even a single bolt could land on the people. "Keuk!" Krune grunted, trying his best to morph the trajectories of the lightning bolts. But no matter where he aimed them, the lightning bolts were sucked into the mysterious beast''s mouth and consumed. "Sorry, man. It seems they''ve devised a countermeasure to my ability," Krune apologized to Zamura. With him gaining proper acknowledgment from the Tribulation Lightning Law after fusing Little Krune with the Thundercloud Whale, he thought of summoning the tribulation lightning from the sky and raining it down on the enemy battlefield to constantly attack them. This would reduce the pressure on the Mountain Sect''s army a little. But it seemed the enemy had indeed made preparations according to the intel they had obtained previously. The mysterious creature was one such result. Even though they were unable to counter his tribulation lightning, they created a tank that could draw in and withstand the lightning bolts. This way, they rendered one of the Mountain Sect''s primary advantages useless. "They''re also guarded against my ability as well." Zamura frowned, gazing at the items all the immortals from the Mist Sect were using. None of them had any equipment spirits. Even for him, it took a lot of time to awaken an equipment spirit. In a battle, that was impossible. So without any equipment spirit, he too wouldn''t be able to display his primary advantage. "They''re serious about wiping us out." "They''re trying to target other cities!" Krune shouted all of a sudden, noticing a dozen immortals teleport above Kolar City. There were five clones stationed in Kolar City that sprang into action, summoning tens of thousands of Thundercloud Whales. All the Thundercloud Whales that the other clones weren''t using returned. After all, they were just Little Krune fragments that acted similar to his subspace, capable of jumping to and fro the various clones. Lightning Needle! "What the heck?" The Primal God leading the dozen Elementary Gods to attack and capture Kolar City were shocked when thousands of Lightning Needles slammed into them. Boom! "Again¡­?" Krune was shocked, noticing a mysterious barrier appear around the bodies of the dozen immortals while a mysterious creature flew above them. And it seemed the barrier on their bodies and the mysterious creature was connected, for all the damage sustained by their barriers was transferred to the mysterious creature instead. The leading Primal God shuddered for a moment, noticing the mysterious creature dissipating into specks of Godly Energy under the attack, frowning as he gazed at the clones of Krune defending Kolar City. Immediately after, Faunkill and a couple of Elementary Gods appeared beside the clone, instantly engaging the enemies. "This is one troublesome barrier." Faunkill snorted, noticing another mysterious creature appear overhead the dozen enemy immortals, soaking up all the damage he unleashed onto the immortals. The barriers covering their bodies were pretty strange, transferring all the sustained damage to the creature instead. This allowed the immortals to not care about defense and go all out with offense, instantly cornering Faunkill and the two Elementary Gods. "Dodge!" Suddenly, a cold voice resounded in Faunkill''s mind as he immediately grabbed hold of the two Elementary Gods and teleported a kilometer away. "Heavenly Destruction!" Boom! Immediately, the mysterious creature suffered serious injuries, for a moment unable to soak up damage anymore as the barriers on the bodies of the immortals fluctuated. The figure of Relena arrived at the scene, transmitting to Faunkill, "Uncle Immortal, attack them now!" "Hehe, thank you, child." Faunkill grinned as he riled up his Godly Energy, the aura he emanated causing the enemies to shudder. "Wait, this isn''t on the level of a Primal God!" The Primal God from the Mist Sect shouted in shock before coughing out blood. Immortal Severance! "W-What the heck happened to me?" The Mist Sect Primal God shouted in shock, being enveloped with a sense of helplessness, gazing at Faunkill in despair. "What did you do to me?" First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm! The cultivation of the dozen immortals instantly dropped to the First Stage of the Godly Fusion Realm. But it hadn''t even registered in their minds when Faunkill faced his palm towards him, uttering, "Die!" When he clenched his hand, a mysterious force pervaded their beings, using their laws as a channel to track their Land Incarnations placed throughout the God Realm, destroying them all instantly. And following it, their bodies exploded, with no hope of reviving ever again. "I thought their cultivation would only drop gradually?" Krune''s clone asked in confusion. "Only if they are stronger than me," Faunkill said. "Otherwise, it''s instant." "I''ll send you back," the clone said, using the subspace to send the four immortals to the battlefield. ¡­ "I see¡­" Multar nodded in surprise, gazing at the figure of Faunkill appearing within the Mountain Sect army. "So your sect also has a Titled Primal God. He''s your trump card, huh." He locked onto the figure of Faunkill, slowly flying forward as he commanded, "He''s mine. The rest of you can run amok now." Instantly after, his figure flashed before Faunkill, shocking the other party as he sent him flying away, having not even punched or anything. "As fellow Titled Primal Gods, let''s have our instructions, shall we?" Multar smiled. "They call me the Displacement Primal God." Chapter 1388 Messy Fights Chapter 1388 Messy Fights¡¡¡¡Displacement Primal God! Multar, too, was a Titled Primal God, as immediately after he had announced himself, a wave of energy washed out of his body, rippling out as it sent everyone flying away. Some of the immortals died instantly in the process, while the rest were severely injured. "Koff!" Faunkill coughed out blood in the process, noticing that his Spiritual Incarnation had taken damage in the process. Divine Sense Law! He hurriedly activated it, healing his Spiritual Incarnation instantly, surprising Multar as Faunkill took off to the skies once again, exchanging blows with one another. Boom! Boom! Boom! Explosions rang out as countless colorful flashes were emitted as a consequence of their exchange. Godly Energy blasted out in violent forms, causing the space to show signs of cracking already. The strength displayed by the two already surpassed the Primal God Realm, approaching closer and closer to the God Realm. "Don''t give the enemies time to corner us. Attack!" Zamura shouted as he charged straight at the Mist Sect army, punching the God Trial Realm immortal that approached him first, shattering his body like splattering a water balloon. Slowly, the air around him began to tremble as it turned heavy, causing the enemies approaching him to feel as if a heavy weight was pressing down on their bodies. Moreover, they immediately began to feel as if their body weight was being sapped away while Zamura continued to grow heavier and heavier, causing the region to be full of blood mist as everyone he punched splattered easily. ''I''ll target the Elementary Gods first,'' Zamura thought, kicking the air as his figure flickered, kneeling into the face of an Elementary God, deforming his face from the attack. "Arrgh!" Zamura slithered his hands around the Elementary God''s neck, grabbing the sides of his jaw, using it as a lever to violently twist his neck before pulling it with all his might, separating it from his body as a pool of blood splattered around. But suddenly, while splattering away, the pool of blood stopped before rapidly returning to the Elementary God''s body. Decapitation was a minor injury to an immortal. But suddenly, Zamura inserted his hand through the open neck, causing his hand to shine with a green radiance, instantly destabilizing the Elementary God''s Spiritual Incarnation, causing his laws to fail him all of a sudden. "What the¡­ fuck!" The Elementary God''s severed head screamed when his body exploded, followed by his head that did the same. Immediately after, all the Land Incarnations that he had left throughout the God Realm were surrounded by a green radiance before all of them were destroyed. "Isn''t he just a God Trial Realm brat? How did he kill an Elementary God so easily?" A group of three Elementary Gods gazed in shock, seeing the blood-bathed figure of Zamura slowly relax his hold before turning around to face them. Boom! Suddenly, the barriers on their body flashed into life as hundreds of ripples appeared on it all of a sudden as a result of it absorbing all the attacks. Immediately, the mysterious creature appeared above their heads, having absorbed all the attacks. But a second later, its body was riddled with holes, causing it to vanish after it was destroyed. The Elementary Gods needed a second to reinvoke the mysterious creature when suddenly, their bodies were riddled with tens of thousands of holes, with each of them emanating a suffocating aura. Air Needle! Krune''s figure appeared as he expanded his Pestlor in size, slamming it into the three Elementary Gods, sending them flying away deep into the Mist Sect army. "You turtle bastards, come to daddy!" "Haah!" Followed by a powerful bellow, he bulldozed through the army, killing the immortals as he flew past. In order to reach his strongest state, he had already taken on his wisp form. "What''s that demon beast?" "A¡­True Spirit?" "No, that''s not a True Spirit." "That''s a wisp!" "A mere wisp dares to¡­ kuak!" The immortals rained down like flies, dying in the process as a mysterious power flew through their bodies, also destroying their Land Incarnations. This was a war to eradicate the other side. So, of course, he couldn''t hold back and would have to aim to kill and prevent his opponents from reviving. "Aaargh!" Suddenly, Krune shouted as all of a sudden, the entirety of Godly Energy in his surroundings was instantly absorbed into him as hundreds of Thundercloud Whales flew out of his body. Godly Technique¡ªGodly Inhibition! "Wha¡­ my Godly Energy!" Instantly, all cultivators in a radius of a kilometer around him screamed in shock when their Godly Energy was sealed. It was no longer circulating in their meridians, turning static. "Now, die!" Krune shouted as the Thundercloud Whales unleashed Air Needles constantly, riddling the bodies of the helpless cultivators with countless holes. Without their Godly Energy, they were useless, unable to fly and unable to do anything. They were sitting ducks that became his target practice as the Air Needles riddled them with holes nonstop. Moreover, Krune didn''t stop at that, unleashing Mental Energy blades, slashing the minds of the defenseless cultivators, turning them into vegetables. Boom! Boom! Crackle! "Kofff!" He hadn''t managed to kill many when his internal organs were crushed as a result of backlash from his Godly Inhibition ability being broken. A Primal God had taken action upon seeing the potency of his ability, instantly destroying it while sending the remainder of the power behind his attack towards Krune, shattering his defenses. "Take this!" he shouted, condensing his Godly Energy in his fist as he slammed it into Krune. But that was his plan when a shield of green radiance met with his fist, absorbing his attack, morphing it into an attribute most effective against him before sending it right at him, shattering his arm. Law of Counter! Zamura instantly turned into a Marble Giant, slamming a kick into the Primal God to send him flying towards the ground, asking Krune in worry, "You alright, man?" "Yeah¡­" Krune wheezed for a moment, spitting out blood as he used his Divine Sense Law to hurriedly heal his Spiritual Incarnation, muttering as he riled up his Godly Energy, "We might die¡­ probably." "Probably, right?" Zamura snorted in response. "That means we won''t die. Let''s make these Mist Sect bastards pay." Chapter 1389 Danger Sense Chapter 1389 Danger Sense¡¡¡¡"Hah!" Sterlena bellowed as she condensed a jet-black sword, slashing around in all directions as everyone that came into contact with the sword was severely injured, their Spiritual Incarnations failing to regenerate. Unlike Relena, who was using Heavenly Destruction through a Spiritual Mark, this was Sterlena''s Origin Law. Hence, she was able to use it for a variety of means, no longer focusing on other Laws. All the various Laws that she had comprehended to date were set aside, only being used for auxiliary purposes. She used her exclusive Law to attack, defend, and evade. After all, through battle, her comprehension of the respective Law would increase rapidly. This would be her best chance to grow stronger, clearly able to sense that the God Realm was becoming more and more dangerous with the passage of every day. Even at present, her danger sense was going off alarmingly. But, she was unable to determine where it originated from. This danger sense was something she obtained after being troubled by Little Cally for ages. Krune had something similar, but he still relied upon the Calamity Laws in him to sense this. As for her, it had become her innate ability now. Before this, it didn''t work as the Abolition Tower was elusive, not something recognizable by her laws. But now that she had obtained an understanding of the way the power system of the Mong Realm worked, her danger sense became useful once again. Due to that, Sterlena was tense, unable to determine just from where this sense of danger was emanating from. All she could sense was that it was everywhere around her. "Die!" She bellowed, unleashing a beam that hacked an Elementary God into two, gasping for breath as she had been killing a lot of powerful enemies one after another. She took a moment to gather her bearings, contacting Krune, "Contact Luvile and make him pay attention to this battlefield just in case. I''m perceiving an intense sense of danger, but I''m unable to locate the source. This isn''t from the Mist Sect." "Alright, give me a moment, big sis," Krune replied in response before riling up his tribulation lighting, using their exclusive channel to communicate with Luvile. "Big sis is saying that she''s sensing an intense sense of danger here. Can you be on standby?" "You''re constantly blasting tribulation lightning everywhere. So, of course, they all act as my eyes and ears. I''m watching the battle." Luvile responded immediately. "Thank you." Krune sighed in relief. After all, if Sterlena claimed that something was a danger, then it was indeed dangerous. After all, even if a Primal God were to attack her, she had enough means to protect herself. And the best of it was by possessing one of the Primal God''s laws that she had comprehended to the peak. Meaning, she would be able to express her authority over that law to instantly cripple the Primal God. After all, it could be said that Sterlena was gatekeeping over two hundred Laws. The moment one of the Gods of these two hundred laws died, she would be able to replace them as the ruler of that particular Law. She had such an authority already. That was why she was able to dominate over Primal Gods despite only being at the God Trial Realm. So, she wouldn''t be stating this if the threat was from a Primal God. That was why Krune was also nervous upon hearing her words. He really hoped Luvile would fix up whatever cropped up next. And as Sterlena had suspected, there indeed was a source of danger nearby. It was a boy, looking around 12 years old. He wore a set of tight-fitting clothes, draping over a shawl around his neck whose ends fluttered until five meters away from him. Appearance-wise, he was almost human. The only oddity was the third eye on his glabella and the pair of deer horns growing on his forehead. He wasn''t a demon beast but a human. The only difference was the fact that this was the appearance of humans in the Mong Realm. The basic appearance of humans in each realm varied a little. Currently, this boy gazed at the ongoing battle below, yawning as he spoke, "Indeed, those of the Kun Realm are damn weak. It could be said that this Mountain Sect pretty much has most of the talents of the Kun Realm." He slowly grinned as he continued, "That means, as long I destroy the Mountain Sect, the Kun Realm would be further crippled. They have a scant few Gods anyway, so it''s only a matter of time before the God Realm collapses. After that, the lower three realms within the Kun Realm would follow suit." He gazed at the sky, sighing. "It has been a long mission. And recently, we have suffered a lot of losses. But no matter, everything would end soon." He then gazed at the figure of Krune that was fighting against an Elementary God. "I see, so he''s the Kun Realm''s champion. I never thought the Kun Realm''s infamous weak race of wisps would birth its champion. No matter¡­" He muttered, "Irrespective of the race he''s from, a champion is still a champion. With him dead, the Kun Realm would fall into a downward spiral of destruction." ¡­ "Destroy this city! Grab any survivors as hostages!" an Elementary God shouted, arriving with a group of God Trial Realm cultivators. They had teleported to one of the cities of the Turia Continent, intending to destroy this. That would mess up the situation among the battling immortals. After all, when they heard that their home was being ravaged, they would move out from the battlefield and head towards their respective cities to protect it. That would dissipate the army further, allowing the Mist Sect to pick off the scattered forces easily with their superior numbers. They had already planned to do the same, preventing the Mountain Sect from having any chances of retreat. After all, even though the Mountain Sect was strong, having cultivators stronger than their peers, they were overwhelmed thirty to one. The sheer numbers of their opponents were suppressing them as even their peak powers were becoming tired after killing strong foes one after another. Chapter 1390 The Gold Demon Chapter 1390 The Gold Demon¡¡¡¡"Grotak!" Hazak shouted in shock, watching a beam of light pierce through Grotak''s body, shredding him into pieces. "One small fry done, one more left." An Elementary God laughed in response. "I''ll kill you!" Hazak screamed as she summoned her 102 shields, charging straight at the Elementary God. "Humph!" The Elementary God waved his hand, shattering all the shields like they were glass, causing Hazak to fly out like an arrow from the impact as a trail of blood followed her, arching in the air. "Koff!" Suddenly, he shouted in shock, coughing out blood to see that his Spiritual Incarnation had been damaged, noticing the space around him cracking like glass, falling as fragments. Suddenly, the figure of Hazak appeared before him once again. Though bloodied, she was brimming with fighting spirit, causing the glass fragments to bore into his body one after another. The Elementary God unleashed a poison mist that slammed into her, beginning to melt her body. But in response, a couple of shields formed on her skin, slowly separating from her body to become the shields once again. With their separation, the effect of the poison was separated from her body. Like before, the Elementary God''s body began to melt, shocking him. "I see. You''re a death seeker." The Elementary God snorted, intending to escape when suddenly, a powerful attack slammed into his body, causing him to scream in pain. After all, Hazak had gouged out a piece of his flesh and devoured it, immediately generating miasma in response that she injected into his meridians, hindering the flow of his Godly Energy. Immediately, the miasma began to devour his Godly Energy, gaining strength while suppressing him, the process causing him unimaginable pain. Right as he was distracted, Hazak jumped at him, causing the muscles on her body to wriggle for a moment before countless mouths appeared all over her, with each latching onto a body part of the Elementary God. They devoured the body parts, digesting them to convert them into miasma that she injected into his body repeatedly, soon shattering his spirit as the miasma destroyed him from within. Roar! Hazak let go of all restraints as her body instantly exploded in size, turning into a massive mountain that began to rapidly suck in the essence of heaven and earth, instantly generating a torrent of miasma. Demon Nest! The demon race began as the White Demon, the weakest of their kind. Following it was the Violet Demon, called a Demon Soldier. After that was the Demon Lord, blue in color. Above it was the Demon King, green in color. The next in line was the Demon Emperor, yellow in color. And from here, they were able to devour food to generate miasma. A Red Demon, addressed as the Supreme Demon, was an amplified version of a Yellow Demon. Hazak was born as a Red Demon. Though, thanks to Krune''s modification, Hazak obtained the capability to grow as a demon, eventually obtaining the right to advance into the pinnacle of their race, the Black Demon¡­ Commonly feared as the Demon God. But once they arrived at the God Realm, Hazak noticed that her demon race wasn''t that strong in the end. Sure, they had tremendous regenerative abilities, coupling their tough bodies. But those with Spiritual Incarnations that embarked on body cultivation also possessed similar characteristics. With that, the Black Demons arrived at an awkward situation. Their race''s advantages weren''t much in the grand scheme of things. Every race had an innate speciality to that through birth. But the Black Demons didn''t have that. Sure, they had their miasma, but that alone couldn''t be counted to be all that advantageous. When worried about this line of thought, she, of course, approached Krune. It happened when the representative of the Black Demon race fared horribly against peers two millennia younger than him. When she expressed her worries to the entity that she had absolute confidence within, she received a simple statement as an answer. "Isn''t there another stage above the Black Demon?" At that moment, it felt like Hazak''s mind was electrocuted. Yes, unlike the other Demons whose growth as a demon was fixed, she had the power to grow stronger. But that wasn''t all. There was indeed a stage above a Black Demon in the demon race. And the moment she was enlightened, a change erupted within Hazak, allowing her to tap into the true potential of her race. Demon Nest! "This was why I felt pissed whenever I saw her," Gegrafikan observed the mountainous creature that had appeared, sucking in the essence of heaven and earth, releasing a torrent of miasma in the process. Thump! Thump! The hearts of every Black Demon resonated with the loud heartbeats emanating from the very earth itself as the Demon Nest had lodged into the land, causing the land itself to quake in response like it was a beating heart. "This is the pinnacle of the demon race, the one that churns out demons constantly," Krune muttered. "The Gold Demon!" Roar! Roar! ROAR! Within a few seconds, the Gold Demon began to birth a bunch of demons, releasing them to attack the enemies. But what was surprising here was the fact that the cultivation of the various birthed demons was high from the start. Demon Soldiers were at the Godly Fusion Realm, Demon Lords at the God Foundation Realm, Demon Kings were at the God Core Realm, and Demon Emperors were at the Nascent God Realm. Surprisingly, Supreme Demons were at the Semi-God Realm. Immortals! They went against common sense, becoming immortals without a Spiritual Incarnation, also having such a level of cultivation at birth itself. But that wasn''t all. Slowly, a demon was birthed after a tremendous amount of the essence between heaven and earth was consumed. Black Demon¡ªGod Trial Realm! "Hahaha!" Gegrafikan laughed in response. "This would supply us with more than enough immortals to fight." He then noticed that a lot of immortals had noticed the Gold Demon, appearing before her in order to eliminate her. "Don''t even think about it. I finally have someone to compete with, so don''t interfere." The moment he said so, his body morphed. And for the first time since the start of this chaotic and messy war, there was pin-drop silence as the bladders of countless immortals went out of control, causing their Godly Energy to spiral out of control. After obtaining control over his race''s deficiency, he had remained in human form all along. But now, he decided to show his true power. "The world hasn''t witnessed a genuine Heavenly Aberrant''s rampage." Chapter 1391 The True Heavenly Aberrant Takes Action Chapter 1391 The True Heavenly Aberrant Takes Action¡¡¡¡"H-H-Heavenly Aberrant??" The immortals from the Mist Sect screamed in shock, witnessing a figure from the legends appear before them. "The Mountain Sect has a Spirit Aberrant in their midst?" Even Multar stopped fighting, frowning as he gazed at the figure of Gegrafikan in the air. "Not to mention¡­ it''s a Heavenly Aberrant." He then gazed at his hands, noticing that they were trembling in fear. After all, an as old monster, he had seen a Spirit Aberrant in action before. Roar! The thoughts of everyone came to a halt at Gegrafikan''s roar, stilling bouts of fear in their minds. "No¡­ no!" an Elementary God screamed in shock, noticing a tentacle approach him. He erupted with all his strength, intending to run away, when suddenly, hundreds of what resembled bullets slammed into his body. Law Projectile! The mysterious creature appeared overhead but instantly dissipated as its structure seemed to have been forcibly modified, leading to its death. In response, the Elementary God''s shield vanished. Causing a dozen bullets to slam into his body. "Impossible!" he muttered in shock, noticing that his Spiritual Incarnation wasn''t functioning anymore, beginning to break into pieces upon contact with the Law Projectiles. The Law Projectiles only consisted of the Law of Ice now, turning the laws of his Spiritual Incarnation into the Law of Ice. Only a Spirit Aberrant was capable of morphing the laws of a cultivator''s Spiritual Incarnation into something else, crippling them permanently. "Please! Save me!" The Elementary God flailed in fear, noticing his comrades running away in fear. Despair clouded his vision as one of the tentacles opened its mouth, gobbling him in response, causing crunching sounds that resounded throughout the battlefield. Moreover, the skies of the God Realm lit up in response as all of a sudden, the Land Incarnation of the Elementary God appeared before Gegrafikan. It was as if the Land Incarnations of the Elementary God scattered throughout the God Realm were teleported to this location. A couple of tentacles grabbed hold of the many Land Incarnations, shredding them apart before devouring them. And the worst case of them all was how Gegrafikan seemed to be growing stronger rapidly by consuming the Elementary God. This was a trait his children of the nerfed Spirit Aberrant race lost. It was something only he possessed now in the God Realm. By devouring cultivators, he would automatically gain all the comprehension of the various laws they had. This meant that as long as he ate enough, Gegrafikan would easily comprehend all the laws of the God Realm to the peak. It could be easily observed how Gegrafikan''s body began to glow with the laws that he had obtained from the Elementary God. They were all at the Elementary God Realm in terms of comprehension now. "Mist Sect! Come into my mouth, now!" Gegrafikan opened his mouth, letting out a baleful laugh as he roared. His actions instantly reduced the morale of the Mist Sect army, causing them to show signs of retreating, despite them having an advantage until now. But suddenly, the figure of Gegrafikan that was roaring in maniacal laughter as it grabbed hold of the helpless enemies and devoured them stopped all of a sudden. Soon, an expression of shock appeared on his face as he cursed, "Bastards!" "Heh!" Multar grinned all of a sudden, sighing a little. "I was afraid something amiss might happen. But the plan has been going on smoothly." It was because the Divination Immortal, leading a troop of 20 Primal Gods, had arrived before the Mountain Sect, instantly destroying the sect''s protection formation. Roar! The Guardian Spirit manifested into reality, rapidly healing the formation as it tried to change its structure. "Do it!" Divination Immortal muttered as a nearby Primal God took out an item that he charged with Godly Energy, unleashing a beam that morphed into a gigantic serpent that coiled around the Guardian Spirit, tearing each other up. "So, this is the Mountain Sect''s Guardian Spirit¡­ interesting." The Divination Immortal smirked, having already divined of its presence. "But too bad, it only barely reaches the strength of a Primal God. Heavenly Serpent¡­ devour it!" Hiss! The Heavenly Serpent bit onto the Guardian Spirit''s head, biting off a large chunk to devour. Even though the Guardian Spirit began to regenerate, it was getting pummelled by the Heavenly Serpent that was as strong as a Ninth Stage Primal God Realm cultivator. And that wasn''t all. The other Primal Gods were also attacking it to seal its strength, causing it to become helpless. "Aunty, I''ll go!" Solare shouted as he got up. "It''s risky, Solare," Feifei said in worry. "You haven''t finished merging with the God Seat yet. Using your power at present would only delay your fusion." "But I can''t remain silent when our sect is getting destroyed!" Solare shouted as his eyes reddened. Currently, as he and Feifei were the targets, they were protected in a secluded location deep within the Mountain Set Sub-Realm. Even if the enemies broke into the Sub-Realm, it would take them considerable time to locate their position, not to mention break through the countless layers of formations erected around them. "Leave it to me and the Monster Geckos. The two of you remain safe," Krune''s clone stationed next to them said. "We''ll do something about it." "Alfa and Azra, are you ready?" Krune''s clones asked as they exited the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm, arriving at the floating platform that formed the Mountain Sect, gazing at the figure of the Guardian Spirit getting overwhelmed by the enemies. "Yes, Elder!" All the Alfas and Azras that had become immortals roared in response, instantly causing gigantic bone trees to appear as the fruits ripened. As for Krune, he went all out, causing tens of thousands of Thundercloud Whales to appear beside him. Little Krune was able to fragment itself into nine at the God Foundation Realm, 99 at the God Core Realm, 999 at the Nascent God Realm, 9999 at the Semi-God Realm, and finally, at his current cultivation at the Second Stage of the God Trial Realm, Little Krune could fragment itself into more than 20,000. All the Thundercloud Whales had already finished charging up their attacks, and the moment they appeared, they pointed at the enemies, unleashing their attack. Lightning Needle! Chapter 1392 Cornered Casualty Chapter 1392 Cornered Casualty¡¡¡¡Krune''s strength had already reached the Elementary God Realm due to his various complementary abilities. So, when tens of thousands of his clones with the same power launched an attack, the effect was staggering, almost enough for the Primal Gods to take things seriously. After all, he was attacking using tribulation lightning that would mess up and vaporize their Spiritual Incarnation if they were careless. For a moment, the Primal Gods had to stop their attacks and focus on defending themselves, grunting as the penetrative beams of tribulation lightning slammed into their protective shields, beginning to penetrate through them while vaporizing their surroundings. "Don''t split the army!" Krune informed Zamura right as the other party tried to send a portion of their experts to defend the Mountain Sect. "I''ll hold them off for long enough. Try to take care of our enemies by then and reinforce me. I''ve already infected a lot of our enemies. So, they''ll begin to devour each other soon after. Hold on until that happens." "If I activate it early, they''ll become alert and escape. So, we''ll have to wait for the perfect time to counterattack!" "Be careful, Krune. Don''t die on me, alright?" Zamura said, cutting off communication as he noticed the clones around him vanish one after another, with all of them heading towards the Mountain Sect. He then gazed at his enemies, roaring as thousands of figures gushed out of his body, taking form. Equipment Spirits! Equipment spirits of all forms, possessing various powers, emerged, immediately beginning to target the enemies. "Master, the Mist Sect had vacated their four continents. So, their entire wealth and people should be stored within a massive Sub-Realm that they have brought with them," Boldak said. "And that''s where they must also be hiding all their equipment that has equipment spirits. If you gain access there, you''ll be able to change the tide of war easily." "Can you locate it?" Zamura asked. "Yes, but it''ll take time," Boldak replied. "Thankfully, Divination Immortal is focusing somewhere else. Without him hindering me, it''s only a matter of time before I find the location." "Alright, focus on that." Zamura nodded before gazing at the figure of Tianal. "When the location is found, I want you to create a channel into that Sub-Realm." "Yes, master," Tianal replied. Tianal was the Pocket Immortal''s weapon spirit, so she had abilities similar to him. It was the same for Boldak, who had been the Divination Immortal''s weapon spirit. "Zamura! Die!" Suddenly, a Primal God shouted in anger, unleashing the entirety of his might. Of course, he recognized Boldak, realizing that as long as Zamura existed, they wouldn''t be able to use their exclusive weapons to fight. This prevented them from unleashing the entirety of their power. In fact, quite a number of Elementary Gods had already been killed, not to mention three Primal Gods. In response, the Mountain Sect''s Elementary Gods and Primal Gods didn''t suffer a single casualty until now. It was because they were able to go all out while the Mist Sect had to hold back in fear of their weapons being snatched by Zamura. The moment this happened, the strength of the Mountain Sect would increase rapidly, bridging the strength difference between the two sects. So, as long as they took out Zamura first, they would be able to go all out. However, the Elementary Gods that had targeted him were already dead. Zamura had killed fifteen Elementary Gods until now, the second-highest, following Sterlena. Krune was at the third, mostly focusing on unleashing a lot of attacks to keep as many Primal Gods at bay as possible while allowing his sect members to mow them down one after another. "You dare target a junior?" Zela''s angry voice resounded as she flashed before the Primal God, punching him in the face, causing him to squeal in pain, feeling pain for the first time in thousands of years. He had been dead for a hundred thousand years now, only being revived recently. But all along, he hadn''t ever felt such pain, not after he had become an immortal. But now, it returned, causing him to squeal. After all, his pain tolerance had vanished over long periods of never feeling any pain. Zela kicked the Primal God, causing him to be sent flying into three other Primal Gods, all that she had been battling against. They were passively defending against her attacks that caused them to feel a lot of pain. Zela had already been a strong Primal God. But after arriving at the Mountain Sect, she chanced upon Body Cultivation, realizing that it was perfect for her. It complimented her ability perfectly, allowing the strength of her punches to increase, also causing her targets to feel more pain. Moreover, tiny spikes jutted out of her knuckles, injecting a mysterious venom into the bodies of the targets she was pummelling. This venom was something she created after fusing her passive abilities with her Divine Sense Law, creating this venom whose only function was to cause her opponent''s Spiritual Incarnation to fail at healing. It was similar to a leech''s toxin that prevented the body from clotting the wound, causing blood to flow out uncontrollably. Her venom did the same, preventing her enemies from healing their damage while she continued to smack them repeatedly, slowly causing their figures to become bloody. "Haah¡­ hah¡­ this is bad¡­" Zela muttered after a while, becoming exhausted, having been attacking a dozen Primal Gods nonstop. Their side was pretty overwhelmed, so she had to do something and stall as many Primal Gods as possible. The twelve Primal Gods from the three continents were pretty weak in this regard, already on the losing end in a one-on-one battle against their opponents. On the side of the Mountain Sect''s Primal Gods, most of them were only able to fight against two opponents at most. Zualin was able to fight against three to four Primal Gods, but that was already his limit. As she was stronger than him, despite having weaker cultivation, Zela had to take on the burden. Normally, their plan was for her to stall her enemies while Faunkill destroyed them. However, Multar proved to be a terrifying opponent, a Titled Primal God like him. So, Faunkill was already fighting for his life against this opponent, unable to set aside any strength to help them. "Just overwhelm her. She''s getting tired." Three more Primal Gods arrived at the scene, sneaking upon Zela as they attacked her, constantly raining down attacks before soon, her defenses gaze out. Spurt! Chapter 1393 The Fall of Experts Chapter 1393 The Fall of Experts¡¡¡¡Spurt! Zela''s expression was vacant as she noticed her arms fly away, separating from her body. Her senses expanded while she noticed the world around her slow down, noticing her blood spill out slowly, covering a wide distance as it splattered like a foundation. And as she slowly took in the sight, her breathing calmed down, her pulse stopping as her Godly Energy began to dissipate. After all, a Primal God had arrived behind her, thrusting a sword through her neck before severing her head. Immediately after, the laws forming her body exploded, causing a resounding light that formed a beam in the air, slamming into the heavens as tens of thousands of lights lit up, like veins forming the skies. Like the flow of electricity, mysterious hues coursed through such veins, traveling throughout the God Realm, targeting every single Land Incarnation that Zela had laid down, destroying them all. Due to the level of the laws she had comprehended, it created such a scene. Her eyes slowly closed shut, gazing at the figure of Zualin rushing towards her, tears streaming out of his eyes. "Silly dad¡­" "Zela!" Zualin screamed, watching Zela''s body vanish as a result of the attack, resulting in her death, with revival being impossible. "Z-Zela is¡­ dead?" Faunkill gazed in a daze as tears streamed out of his eyes. He suddenly gazed at Zualin and said, "Father-in-law, take care of your health." Hissssss! He slowly inhaled a deep breath, suddenly causing the Godly Energy of the entire region to be sucked inside as the laws throughout the place trembled in excitement, fear, and so on. "W-What is with this power?" Even Multar was shocked, for the level of power had surpassed even Titled Primal Gods, reaching the peak. God Realm! "To the Sacred Laws, I present my foundation. Take it, and unleash my ultimate attack," Faunkill muttered as all the laws on his body lit up, unleashing a blinding beam that slammed into heaven and earth. "To my seventy-two enemies that still remain, I curse you from the bottom of my heart¡­ to die a mortal." "T-This¡­ guy, wait, I heard about you in the Primal God Community. You''re¡­" Multar was shocked, hurriedly activating his spatial laws in an effort to escape when he gazed to his dismay that all the laws failed to function properly, preventing his escape. And that this time, he gazed at the figure of Faunkill expressing blinding hatred, muttering his final words, "Immortal Severance!" "Ahhhh!" Multar screamed in pain as a formless fluctuation emanated from Faunkill''s body, splitting off into seventy-two fragments as it dove into the bodies of the seventy-two remaining Primal Gods of the Mist Sect. Immediately after, Faunkill died. "You two¡­" Zualin shed tears, screaming maniacally as he roared, attacking the Mist Sect Primal Gods with reckless abandon, shouting, "Everyone, kill these Primal God fuckers! They''ll grow weaker with every passing second!" Even though he sacrificed himself to unleash his strongest attack, it was still split into seventy-two fragments, so all the Primal Gods slowly began to lose their cultivation. It wasn''t instantaneous like in the case he only focused on one opponent. Boom! Boom! Boom! Various colored smokes resounded as Zualin ignored the wounds he was suffering, throwing everything he had in him at the twelve Primal Gods that had been severely wounded by Zela, killing them somehow. But in the process, he was crippled as a result, soon being destroyed by the other Primal Gods that swarmed him. "Shit¡­ shit¡­ shit!" The Zamuria Emperor continued to curse as he, the Guria Emperor, and the Rumria Emperor combined their abilities, being destroyed little by little. "I barely regained my cultivation. I don''t want to die here, dammit!" "Guria, Rumria, let''s use that!" Suddenly, Zamuria''s voice resounded throughout the battlefield as suddenly, the entire battlefield was enveloped in water. And in this water, millions of fish swam around. Growing on their bodies were feathers, while contained within them was a destructive aura. The fishes came into contact with the immortals of the Mist Sect, rapidly beginning to disintegrate their bodies upon touch. Moreover, the attacks they endured were reflected on their attackers. But, they also died from a single hit as the power behind the attacks was too much. "That''s a powerful terrain-changing move, but unfortunately, it''s not perfected yet." Suddenly, the Divination Immortal bellowed as he unleashed blinding radiance that swam through the ocean, suddenly highlighting countless cracks. Within a fraction of a second, the light widened the cracks, instantly shattering the body of water, causing it and all the fishes to dissipate, with the rebound directly causing the trio of Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria to explode. "I found it!" Suddenly, Boldak shouted as Tianal opened a channel, highlighting a hidden space. Zamura''s eyes were red as he brimmed with anger, shining with green radiance as he countered all attacks that came his way, crippling his enemies as he entered the Sub-Realm, tugging with his hands. "Arise!" Roar! Instantly, countless pieces of equipment flew out from the treasure room within the Mist Sect''s Sub-Realm, with all of them unleashing their respective Equipment Spirits. "Kill all the Mist Sect bastards!" "Yes, master!" Followed by a roar, all the Equipment Spirits belonging to the Mist Sect charged at the Mist Sect immortals, engaging in a battle. "Haah¡­ haah¡­ huff¡­ puff¡­" Zamura gasped for breath, noticing his Spiritual Incarnation coming undone one after another. "I¡­have to hold on¡­ until they are¡­ defeated." "Master!" Tianal and Boldak surrounded him, forming a defensive barrier to protect him. After all, he was of vital importance to control all the other Equipment Spirits. As he had pulled in too many Equipment Spirits to his side, his control over them wasn''t firm enough. They were unlike Tianal and Boldak. So, the moment he died, his control over the Equipment Spirits would gradually weaken until they would fully return to the Mist Sect''s side. That would only spell their doom. Moreover, the moment the Equipment Spirits joined the fray, adding to the Mountain Sect''s frenzied strength, the Mist Sect immortals began to drop one after another rapidly. "Master, just focus on healing yourself. None would be able to breach the pocket dimension I have created¡­" Tianal was just about to reassure Zamura when her face paled, noticing that Zamura''s head was missing. And¡­ Standing behind him was a teenager. "Alright, another legendary genius of the Kun Realm bites the dust." Chapter 1394 Krune! Nooo! Chapter 1394 Krune! Nooo!¡¡¡¡"Zamura¡­?" the Seamstress muttered in disbelief, staring at the figure of the teenager that stood behind Zamura. "Baaastard! Get away from him!" "Noisy!" The teenager snorted as the Seamstress''s face instantly turned serene, sporting a mild smile as she had become a member of the Abolition Tower, exploding, killing countless immortals, both the Mountain Sect and Mist Sect alike. The teenager gazed at the sky, seeing tribulation lightning spill out in torrents, expressing the heaven''s wrath. "What can you do now, Kun Realm? You''re late." "I''ve already killed your champion." ¡­ "Hold on! Endure!" Gegrafikan bellowed, arriving at Krune''s help in defending Mountain Sect. "What about the battle there?" Krune shouted as he emptied his reserves, unleashing another torrent of Lightning Needles. "The others will pull through. I''m sure of it!" Gegrafikan shouted. "You alone won''t be able to hold back so many Primal Gods." Roar! The Heavenly Aberrant roared, shooting forth countless Law Projectiles that were many times stronger than before, riddling the defensive barriers erected by the Primal Gods useless one after another as large law fragments dropped to the ground like meteors. They were what the barriers of the Primal Gods had turned into after being converted by the laws in the Law Projectiles. Boom! "Ahhh!" Gegrafikan roared as a majority of his body was blasted by the combined attacks of a dozen Primal Gods. It had been a minute since Faunkill''s death, but the cultivation of the Primal Gods had only dropped by two minor realms. They were still strong enough to turn the tides of war, constantly attacking Gegrafikan. Krune''s clones soon began to die one after another under the attacks of the Primal Gods as their numbers diminished rapidly. He brought out all his Pseudo-Wisps, creating more and more clones to fight. But over time, the strength of his clones continued to fall as he soon ran out of Pseudo-Wisps that absorbed enough Godly Energy equivalent to the God Trial Realm. After that were the Semi-God Realm equivalent Pseudo-Wisps. Crossing this point, the Pseudo-Wisps were no longer able to make any difference as the created clones were too weak to even scratch the Primal Gods anymore. Even before, at his peak strength, he had to unleash tens of thousands of abilities to harm them. At present, he couldn''t do much as Krune grunted, retracting all the Little Krune fragments, reforming Little Krune. Little Krune burrowed into his dantian, the place it was born from, as Krune attained his strongest state, experiencing a spike in his power. That wasn''t all¡­ he also began to absorb all the Pseudo-Wisps in the subspace, ignoring the damage such rapid absorption did to his meridians, forcefully raising his cultivation. Ninth Stage of the God Trial Realm! "Raaah!" Followed by a shout, a beam of tribulation lightning slammed into him from the skies as Krune was almost vaporized as a result. But he instantly reformed himself, having finished his fastest breakthrough to date. First Stage of the Elementary God Realm! "Tch¡­ tch¡­ tch¡­ how brave!" Just as Krune planned to severely cripple one of the weakest Primal Gods among the group and allow Gegrafikan to devour him and grow strong enough to defeat their foes, a baleful voice resounded in his mind, grating to the ears. "Arrrgh!" His eyes turned red immediately as blood suddenly gushed out of his orifices, alarming him. "Krruuuuneeee!" Sterlena noticed something amiss, teleporting before him as she noticed his expression crumbling as an expression of sadness appeared on his face. "I¡­ don''t like deaths¡­ big sis," Krune said as tears streamed out of his eyes, noticing that he was unable to even move, gazing at the figure of a teenager that had appeared before him. Bam! Right as Sterlena was about to save him, the teenager smacked him away, raising his brows in response. "That''s one tough body." He then grinned at Krune, slowly extending his hand. "The Kun Realm''s Champion, the wisp that defied fate, and the hope of this world. Wouldn''t it be nice to give despair instead to your realm?" "You''ll become the spark that''ll signal the destruction of your realm!" the teenager said as he pointed at Krune''s face, implanting a Spark inside him. ''Pray!'' Krune shouted using the last of his strength, activating his trump cards. I''m Hungry, Gimme Your Power! The power behind the Spark was consumed as Krune gathered it in his hands, slamming it into the teenager in return, using the fraction of a second to perform his final preparations. ''Go to Feifei.'' He commanded the subspace, gazing at the figure of Turia that was protected within. ''Take care of everyone until I return.'' Zombie Food, Hunger Wave! Expending all his power, he slammed his strongest ability into the teenager as his figure slowly morphed to return to wisp form, a peaceful, bubbly existence that had to endure the world''s cruelty. And now, all his meridians flowed in reverse, retreating into his Wisp Core that went into overdrive, slowly turning his ethereal form transparent as the Spark was activated. "Krune!" Sterlena bellowed in despair. "Uncle!" Kulla and Kuttul noticed the scene from afar, screaming in despair as they watched Krune''s Wisp Core accumulate a tremendous power in an instant before vanishing. A fraction of a second later, a terrifying explosion resounded, creating a gigantic sun in the place at the heat, with the explosion itself tearing up the entire Mountain Sect, killing the Guardian Spirit in the process. Gegrafikan used all his power to guard the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm, vaporized in the explosion as he was too close to Krune when all this happened. "Hah¡­ haha¡­ hahaha." The teenager roared in laughter immediately after, gazing at the resounding explosion. "Man, look at that size. Krune''s indeed the Kun Realm''s champion, such frightening foundation and potential." "Arrgghhhh!" Lightning rumbled in the skies as Luvile''s roar of anger and sadness resounded throughout the battlefield, slamming tens of thousands of tribulation lightning bolts onto the teenager. "I was able to easily distract the lot of you gods with a mere clone. You Kun Realm weaklings are insanely gullible." The teenager laughed as he punched forth, shattering all the bolts of lightning. "Mere cultivation-based attacks without body or mind cultivation integrated into it?" "Weak!" Chapter 1395 Feifei: Mountain Sect’s Core Chapter 1395 Feifei: Mountain Sect¡¯s Core¡¡¡¡Boom! Luvile condensed a lightning sphere, slamming it into the teenager. "Die! Die! Die!" "Hahaha!" The teenager laughed in response, unaffected as he punched forth, sending Luvile flying away. Roar! Suddenly, a majestic beast appeared in the sky, seemingly capable of overturning heaven and earth. It then vanished, entering the teenager''s body. It was the clone that he had released before to keep the Gods distracted, allowing him to kill Krune without any interruption. He was a God from the Mong Realm, having reached the pinnacle in all three cultivation paths. So, when he hid himself using his abilities, none of the Gods were able to sense him. But despite that, he was aware that the moment he took action, they would sense him and hinder him. That''s why he had split a part of his body to act as a diversion. Now that he had achieved his purpose, he retracted his dispersed power, noticing six Gods appearing before him, slamming attacks onto him right after. He was bombarded with attacks, for a moment being pressured. ''I see. They have reached the peak of body cultivation too. Only their soul cultivation is limited.'' "Aunt¡­ I feel odd all of a sudden," Kulla muttered as she lost all strength, gazing at the sphere of flames that Krune''s death had resulted in, slumping into Sterlena''s arms as she returned to her Wisp form. "I feel¡­weird¡­and weak¡­" she said as her ethereal form began to dissipate. Sterlena''s eyes widened, recalling the trauma from the past where all True Spirits died, noticing a mysterious grey radiance formulate within Kulla''s Wisp Core, gradually disintegrating her. "Kulla¡­ Kulla!" she shouted in alarm, seeping her Mental Energy into Kulla''s Wisp Core, noticing the mysterious grey energy destroying all traces of her existence. Unfortunately, her Mental Energy was akin to a droplet before a vast ocean. "Not this¡­ not again!" Sterlena teared up, having exhausted all her means, watching Kulla''s figure completely vanish. And in the same fashion, Kuttul and every other wisp were the same. All of Krune''s Land Incarnations had been destroyed. This also meant that no True Spirit would be born after this, as his Land Incarnation was their only means of birth. "Uncle was talking about finally having a home¡­" Kuttul muttered as he died. Bam! Feifei collapsed to the ground, reeling from shock as she noticed the clone of Krune stationed next to her die instantly, signaling that he had indeed died. "That''s not¡­ true¡­ right? Krune?" she muttered in disbelief, trying to locate Krune using her laws, turning up with zero leads. Even in the locations where he had left his Land Incarnation, Feifei observed that nothing existed there anymore as realization finally hit her. Krune¡­ was dead! "Ahh¡­" Feifei gritted her teeth, biting her lips as her eyes lit up, sensing Krune''s subspace arrive within her soul. And immediately after, a dense stream of lightning surrounded her, including a variety of colored radiances, blocking any ability from affecting her. ¡­ "The Mist Sect has arrived. Feifei, remain here with Solare," Krune said, placing her in the deepest part of the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm where they had laid down countless layers of formations, expending a lot of their precious top-quality resources. It was meant to exclusively protect her and Solare. As to why Solare had to be protected, it was obvious. After all, once he finished fusing with the God Seat, he would become a God. But until then, he was pretty vulnerable. Any injuries he sustained might cripple his chances of reaching the God Realm in cultivation. And similarly, if he used any abilities, his fusion would be delayed. Every delay would increase the time period for fusion by at least a century or two. They didn''t want to waste so much time. After all, the Mountain Sect needed a God to protect their vast resources and supercontinent. As for Feifei, she was given the highest priority in the Mountain Sect. After all, if one had to list her contributions, they were endless. She created Spiritual Marks, upgraded Spiritual Incarnations, improved the godly abilities of cultivators, conceptualized formations, new technologies, and so on. She was practically the brains of the Mountain Sect that ensured everything they possessed was of the top-most quality. But that wasn''t all. There was another core reason that she was treated with such value. And that was due to a certain treasure that she obtained in the First Layer of the Sub-Realm, right after Krune obtained his Soul Needle. Soul Lamp! It was similar to the Soul Needle in that it had become part of Feifei''s soul. And its function was to store the souls of others, including the core fragments of one''s Spiritual Incarnation. Meaning, this was a revival device. Hence, it meant that as long as Feifei was alive, even if people were killed, they could be revived through it. So, the souls of every immortal part of the Mountain Sect were stored in the Soul Lamp. So, as long as Feifei was alive, the Mountain Sect wouldn''t ever die. This was another reason she was treated with the utmost value. This was also why the Mist Sect was looking for her. With her abilities, their sect would also grow a lot, not to mention obtain all the abilities and cultivation techniques she had created. Also, they would obtain the revival cores of every single Mountain Sect immortal. It would basically mean that by obtaining Feifei, they would have the power to make the Mountain Sect submit to them. But, Krune wasn''t satisfied even with their formations, contacting Luvile. "Yeah, if Feifei is killed, it''ll be easy to pick off the rest of you. In a battle, we indeed cannot predict what might happen." Saying that, Luvile invited all the Gods to lay down a part of their Land Incarnation around Feifei. This way, they would constantly be proving her protection even if they were engaged somewhere. After all, they had left a part of their powers to protect her. "With this, I can rest assured." Krune sighed in relief, only heading out to prepare for war after that. With Feifei, their sect''s core remaining safe, they would eventually revive even if they were killed in the war. Chapter 1396 You Can’t Defend Against Hunger Chapter 1396 You Can¡¯t Defend Against Hunger¡¡¡¡Godly Path Realm! "Damn it, how did you find us out? After so long, we barely managed to penetrate this deep!" A cultivator screamed in shock as his body slowly melted before vanishing. "Tch!" The culprit clicked his tongue. "To think the Abolition Tower had begun to infiltrate the Godly Path Realm once again. This shows the situation is worsening again." He sighed after that. "I should make a trip to the Mortal Realm and ensure none from the Mong Realm have infiltrated it. They almost caused my race''s annihilation once." He suddenly grunted, noticing a mysterious grey radiance leaking into the Godly Path Realm from the God Realm, possessing a power that targeted wisps. "You''re targeting my race again?" He frowned in anger, unleashing a bright golden radiance that slammed into the grey radiance, beginning to devour it voraciously, eventually preventing the grey radiance from entering the Godly Path Realm. He was Wally, the Wisp God, having used a wisp''s unique nature to travel between the Godly Realm, Godly Path Realm, and Mortal Realm from time to time, constantly weeding out the infiltrators from the Mong Realm and a couple other realms as well. He had constantly been busy throughout the years, not having a moment''s rest, always on the travel through the vast Four Realms. "Wait, shouldn''t Krune be in the God Realm by now? Then does that mean he''s the one being targeted?" Wally frowned, clicking his tongue as he created a special passageway exclusive to the race of wisps, at least those that had become Gods, not paying any price as he soon reached the God Realm. He then observed the grey radiance coursing through the God Realm in an attempt to destroy the laws related to the birth of wisps here, grunting in anger as he first decided to deal with it. ¡­ "Kek!" The teenager grunted, being singed by the tribulation lightning as he was slowly accumulating damage. "Argh!" Luvile shouted, exploding with Godly Energy as he continued to slam attacks onto the teenager. "Damn Mong Realm bastard!" "Haha¡­ you''ve been attacking me for so long. But what of it? You''ve failed to protect your champion anyway. I''ve already sensed that all traces related to him have been destroyed already." The teenager laughed. "Well, even though I''m feeling hungry, I''ll still play with you weaklings." ''Wait¡­ hungry?'' Suddenly, the teenager''s eyes widened in surprise as he sensed that he was indeed feeling hungry. And for some reason, blood dripped out of his nose, noticing that hidden underneath all the tribulation lightning was a mysterious energy that was constantly gushing into his body in an effort to destroy him. Surprisingly, it was racking up damage to him all along, but for some reason, he had failed to notice it, gazing at the Gods that were attacking him while shielding the figure of Sterlena, who was the cause that had injured him. "Hahaha, I see. So, the Kun Realm Gods still have some tricks up their sleeve." Hungry! "Wha¡­ what the heck?" He was startled for a moment as his stomach rumbled due to hunger, causing him to feel like he had to eat something. However, he looked around, observing that nothing was palatable to him. Initially, he thought he only had to consume a couple of demon beasts or humans to be rid of this feeling. But since he didn''t even feel anything while gazing at them, he realized that this wasn''t an issue. ''I should eat something to be rid of this,'' he thought, also using his various abilities to sense from where this sense of hunger was originating from, only to arrive at a rather frightening conclusion. He¡­ wasn''t able to sense it. "This¡­ impossible!" he shouted in shock. "That was Krune''s exclusive ability. He''s the only one with that power and the only one who can cure you," Luvile wiped his tears, stating with bated breath. "And since you killed him, you''ll have to live with that for the rest of your life." "Heh, just a paltry last ditched effort." The teenager snorted. "I can casually cut off my senses¡­" HUNGER! "Guh!" The teenager shuddered as the sense of hunger in him continued to increase constantly, slowly causing him to become flustered. "Damn it, I''ll deal with you in the future!" Saying so, he exploded with all his strength, throwing off the Gods, injuring them while he escaped, heading straight towards the massive spiral in the sky that was visible from anywhere in the God Realm. Slowly, his figure morphed, vanishing once he reached the spiral. He had left the Four Realms, or the Kun Realm, as those from beyond the Four Realms addressed it as. "It''s finally over¡­" Hishe sighed before looking at the damage to the area, "Thankfully, this supercontinent has just formed. So, its robust foundation would heal this damage gradually." He then announced, gazing at the two armies that had retreated. "All the Primal Gods of the Mist Sect have dropped down in cultivation level to become Elementary Gods now. On the side of the Mountain Sect, two Primal Gods are still alive, causing the scale of power to tip in their favor. The Gods of the God Realm have determined that it''s only a matter of time before the Mist Sect loses all power thanks to Faunkill''s actions and have decided that the Mountain Sect is the winner of this war." He then gazed at Multar and said, "You should return to your home now. You can challenge them again in the future." "I''ll be doing that." Multar snorted, erupting with all his strength as he actually destroyed all traces of Faunkill''s power, displaying his strength as a Titled Primal God. But unfortunately for him, all their Primal Gods had already dropped in cultivation to become Elementary Gods. Even though they wouldn''t drop any further, this damage was irreversible. They would no longer be able to reclaim their Primal God Realm foundation even if they were to revive. In other words, they would have to cultivate once again and break through to the Primal God Realm. They had suffered a terrifying blow to their strength as their morale was at an all-time low when Multar sounded their retreat. Chapter 1397 The Mong Realm Chapter 1397 The Mong Realm¡¡¡¡The teenager exited the God Realm, arriving at the chaos beyond the Four Realms, gazing at the terrifying storms that swirled around, possessing enough power to even kill Gods. The teenager was cautious, no longer possessing the arrogance that he had while in the Kun Realm. He cautiously moved around, treading in the gaps between the swirling storms, patient in his travel. A storm passed by him, barely grazing him as a couple of fingers of the teenager vanished. The damage was something he couldn''t recover in a short while, displaying the ferocity of the storms. There didn''t seem to be any laws in the spatial storms. They were just energy. Untamed energy! This energy continued to expand, contract, explode and fuse randomly as they swirled around nonstop. The teenager continued to travel, noticing the storms continue to grow in strength the farther he went from the Kun Realm. "The spatial storms are the weakest around a realm¡­" he muttered, slowly circulating his energy within his meridians, locating the safest path to tread upon, continuing to travel in this manner. And all this time, a strange sense of hunger continued to grow in his body. "Damn it. What the fuck is this ability? I can''t even sense it!" He felt insulted at that. After all, he was a God that had reached the peak of all three cultivation paths. Even in the Mong Realm, he was a pinnacle power, an expert even among Gods. But the fact that even he couldn''t find a solution to this sense of hunger made him realize the extent of Krune''s power, "Thankfully, I killed him. Otherwise, it would have been dangerous if I allowed him to become a God." After traveling for a few weeks, the teenager appeared before a swirling storm, stopping before it as he gazed at it, observing the energy trails that twirled around like tentacles, eventually creating a minor gap in between, revealing what seemed similar to a wormhole. Instantly, the teenager erupted with all his power, unleashing a mystical ability as he jumped into the wormhole, instantly arriving at the Mong Realm. This was one of the gates that the Mong Realm Gods had prepared for travel to the Kun Realm. Using this, they saved the more than ten millennia of travel that even a God needed to go from the Mong Realm to the Kun Realm. This gate shortened the travel to a mere few days as the teenager entered the Mong Realm. "Damn it, the energy has become even weaker." He grunted in anger, looking around to see that the number of people had increased even further as compared to before. And that wasn''t all. Their average cultivation had only plummeted compared to when he had arrived at the Mong Realm previously. "Henfa-L-Talon! You''ve returned from the Kun Realm?" A Mong Realm God noticed his arrival, manifesting before him before muttering in surprise, "You''ve been¡­ injured? How?" "We shouldn''t underestimate the Kun Realm too much." the teenager, Henfa-L-Talon, replied. "Though, I was targeting one of their sects with the highest potential. So, they had a lot of troublesome cultivators there. Fortunately, I managed to kill them all." "Then that''s great." The Mong Realm God sighed in relief. "I was worried because most of the Primal Gods we sent to the Kun Realm had died recently, not to mention the fact that everyone infiltrating the Godly Path Realm and below in the Kun Realm have been annihilated." "Annihilated?" Henfa-L-Talon asked in shock. "There was one of our Gods there, right? How was he killed?" "I''m unsure about it myself." The Mong Realm God frowned in response. "But ever since we instigated the Kun Realm Gods to attempt to leave the Kun Realm and caused the deaths of countless creatures, our patriots in the Godly Path Realm and Mortal Realm of the Kun Realm have been dying one after another." "And now, not even a single one of them is alive," he spoke. "There is a terrifying entity protecting those worlds." "Once I heal my injuries, I''ll return there to annihilate the rest," Henfa-L-Talon said before taking out a spatial ring. "I''ve looted a lot of the Kun Realm''s resources. Use this to raise the cultivation of our people. It has fallen compared to before." "Ah, you mean the cultivation of the people here?" The Mong Realm God suddenly smiled as he said, "That''s only because I''ve dispatched most of our strength to the Tilk Realm. We''ve managed to eradicate all their Gods. So now, we''re in the process of looting it dry." "Once that''s done, we''ll annex it and raise the foundation of our Mong Realm," he spoke. Henfa-L-Talon became happy at the news, smiling widely. "Finally, after more than two hundred million years, the Tilk Realm finally fell under our control." "Yes." The Mong Realm God sighed. "Every realm is just too big that we need so long to fully gain control over it. Though, this Tilk Realm is only the first of its kind." Henfa-L-Talon grinned in response. "Indeed, once we absorb the Tilk Realm, our Mong Realm would become capable of producing energy once again and would also grow in size. This increase in foundation would also strengthen our laws and make us stronger." "Indeed, once we grow stronger, our efforts in annexing the other Realms would become easier." the Mong Realm God said before vanishing. "I still have work left to do. Make a report of everything you''ve experienced in the Kun Realm while you''re recovering." "I''ll do that." Henfa-L-Talon nodded, watching the Mong Realm God vanish when he suddenly collapsed to the ground, grunting as he was unable to put on an act any longer, feeling famished as his sense of hunger became uncontrollable. He suddenly noticed a Semi-God Realm cultivator flying nearby, strangely feeling as if he smelled delicious. Before he realized what had happened, Henfa-L-Talon was horrified, noticing that he had killed that Semi-God Realm cultivator and was currently munching on his corpse like it was the most delicious meal he had ever tasted. And that wasn''t all. He wasn''t aware that he had been releasing a strange scent all along, one that seemed to be affecting the common populace. Grrrr! A mortal growled as saliva dripped from his mouth. He gazed at a nearby man, pouncing upon him to take a bite. Chapter 1398 Seal Him Up Chapter 1398 Seal Him Up¡¡¡¡Food! Henfa-L-Talon was slowly losing control over his actions as he grabbed hold of one immortal after another, devouring them ravenously. He noticed that once he ate an immortal, his sense of hunger was reduced by a tiny fraction. "I need to eat a lot to satiate myself." He gritted his teeth in helplessness, grabbing hold of another helpless immortal that he devoured. "Wha¡­ what the hell is happening here?" The Mong Realm God noticed the commotion, returning to see Henfa-L-Talon eating the corpse of an immortal. "Tuka-N-Ketton¡­" Henfa-L-Talon expressed in worry. "I''ve been hit by the Kun Realm champion''s ability. Even though I''ve killed him, I''m feeling strangely hungry all of a sudden. I''m unable to control it despite exhausting all my abilities." "Damn it!" Tuka-N-Ketton cursed in response. "What is that ability doing to you?" "I only feel uncontrollable hunger. It doesn''t seem capable of damaging my Spiritual Incarnation, though. But, the people nearby are also being affected for some reason. So, I think this ability is contagious," Henfa-L-Talon said, gritting his teeth. "Seal me for the time being and work on finding a solution. Otherwise¡­" "I''ll do that!" Tuka-N-Ketton nodded as he hurriedly summoned over a dozen Gods, sending Henfa-L-Talon and the affected mortals into an empty Sub-Realm, sealing everyone there immediately after. If only one God did the sealing, there was a chance Henfa-L-Talon would escape from it eventually. After all, he was a powerhouse even among the Gods of the Mong Realm. Hence, to avoid that scenario, a dozen Gods joined hands to seal him, rigorously checking to ensure the seal remained firm. Once they did that, they also sealed up the Sub-Realm, bringing it out of the Mong Realm. "Sir, what are you doing?" a Mong Realm God asked in surprise when the Sub-Realm was brought out of the Mong Realm. "When I conversed with Henfa-L-Talon, I didn''t even notice anything amiss. Even when he showed such symptoms of uncontrollable hunger, I wasn''t able to sense anything different in him," Tuka-N-Ketton said in response. "This means that whatever Henfa-L-Talon is affected with, it''s not something that we can probe for the time being." Tuka-N-Ketton then spoke, "Currently, we''re focused on annexing the Tilk Realm and aren''t able to spare the manpower to solve this issue. The source of this mysterious ability is already dead, so that means we won''t be facing such cases in the future." "In the meantime, if Henfa-L-Talon were to break the seal, I don''t want him to endanger our people as this ability has a terrifying infection rate," Tuka-N-Ketton said viciously. "If he breaks out of the seal, he''ll be killed by the chaotic spatial storms." "I''m regretful that we''ve lost an expert, but it is what it is. We don''t have a choice for the time being," Tuka-N-Ketton said, leaving the Sub-Realm in the spatial storms, creating a bubble to ensure the Sub-Realm wasn''t destroyed. Though, Tuka-N-Ketton had linked this bubble to the seal, meaning that if Henfa-L-Talon were to ever break the seal, the bubble would also break, causing the spatial storm to destroy him. "The Kun Realm is weak, but it seems they haven''t run out of tricks yet." Tuka-N-Ketton snorted, informing all the Gods about his conversation with Henfa-L-Talon about the Kun Realm. "But, the other realms that we''re targeting are stronger than Kun Realm. So, after the Tilk Realm, we''ll focus the majority of our power on the Kun Realm and annex it." ¡­ "We won!" A mortal screamed in joy, shedding tears, having witnessed the entire sequence of battles that had transpired between the Mountain Sect and the Mist Sect. He observed how the terrifying immortals laid down their lives to protect their homes, shedding tears at the deaths of their loved ones and committing suicidal charges in anger. "They aren''t that different from us mortals," one of them muttered. "Of course." Another mortal nodded in response. "They are only stronger and live longer. Other than that, they are no different from us." "Isn''t that why they''ve sacrificed their lives to protect our home?" "The Mountain Sect is indeed the Turia Supercontinent''s protector," one of them said before everyone began to echo the sentiment. "Mountain Sect!" "Mountain Sect!" "Mountain Sect!" "How''s the revival process coming along?" Luvile appeared before Feifei, asking in concern. "It''ll take time," Feifei replied. "After all, only tiny fragments are stored in my Soul Lamp to ensure they aren''t targeted by attacks targeting Land Incarnations." "How long would it take?" Luvile asked in concern. "If I''m reviving them without a loss in their cultivation, it''ll take time. I need a couple of days for each Semi-God Realm cultivator, a few months for every God Trial Realm cultivator, a decade or two per every Elementary God Realm cultivator, and a century or two for every Primal God," Feifei replied. "That''s¡­ fast," Luvile said with widened eyes. After all, he was aware that the smaller the fragment required to revive, the longer it took for them to grow until becoming a complete Land Incarnation before beginning to rebuild their body. And the stronger they were, the longer this process took. For Primal Gods, it wouldn''t be strange for them to spend a couple million years to revive. After all, the extent of resources and Godly Energy they required was astronomical. Hence, it took this much time in cases where the environment was suitable with rich Godly Energy. But if the environment was worse, the duration was even longer. And despite possessing a similar-sized fragment, Feifei said that she only needed one or two centuries per Primal God? "Let me store a fragment in your Soul Lamp, too," Luvile said immediately after. "You''ll have to pay rent, though," Feifei responded. "As I''m only at the God Trial Realm, the space within the Soul Lamp is limited. It would probably overflow to store even a fragment of a God." "I see¡­" Luvile thought before patting her shoulder. "Cultivate faster, kid." He then wiped his tears, asking, "Besides, how was my acting? It was epic, right?" "You sure it was acting?" Feifei snorted. "You were actually crying back then." "That was because that Mong Realm God was too strong. I feared his attacks reached your Soul Lamp as well," Luvile said, patting himself in relief. "Thankfully, it didn''t." Chapter 1399 Nothing’s Impossible For You Chapter 1399 Nothing¡¯s Impossible For You¡¡¡¡All the immortals of the Mountain Sect were aware of the revival means. After all, they all placed a fragment of their soul and Spiritual Incarnation in Feifei''s Soul Lamp. That was why they could fight without any concerns about their deaths. At most, they would miss a few years of cultivation. With the resources being produced by their Turia Supercontinent, there would be more than enough for their revival. It wasn''t just Godly Energy that was necessary to revive. That was just one aspect of the process. If the fragment absorbed Godly Energy, it would slowly have to absorb it constantly and grow in size. Eventually, it would become large enough to begin condensing the cultivator''s body. However, this took a long time. Instead, if the fragment was placed in the center of a pile of materials, each of which perfectly conformed to the laws forming their Spiritual Incarnation, with the quality of materials perfectly conforming to the extent of their comprehension of the respective laws, then reviving would be the easiest. The fragment would absorb all the materials and use them to construct the complete Spiritual Incarnation. Reviving would be pretty quick in comparison, only requiring a few days for even Elementary Gods. Since the fragments were within the Soul Lamp, Feifei had a clear understanding of the resources necessary to revive them, beginning to create a list that the survivors began to gather immediately. There was enough in their treasure to revive all the Semi-God Realm immortals. There were some lacking resources for those at the God Trial Realm and beyond, but as long as they discovered resources to mine in the Turia Supercontinent, they could manage. "I¡­ am alive?" A Semi-God Realm cultivator muttered in shock once he had been revived by Feifei, gazing around to sense that he hadn''t lost his cultivation, tearing up. "I really thought I had died." "Does that mean we''ve won?" he asked upon gazing at Feifei. "Yes." Feifei nodded in response. "Get up. We don''t have time to waste." Another Semi-God Realm cultivator arrived at the scene, dragging the revived immortal with him. "We need to quickly gather the resources necessary for our comrades to revive. After that, we''ll have to resume building our cities. There''s no time to waste." "What are you planning to do next?" Feifei asked Luvile while beginning to revive another immortal. "I''ll work on my body and soul cultivation next," Luvile said, "They aren''t strong enough for me to face against the Mong Realm Gods. Plus, there might still be other Mong Realm Gods hiding in the God Realm. Before, that bastard was observing us all along. Only when he took action did we manage to sense him." "That''s pretty vexing." He gritted his teeth before vanishing. "Tell Krune to call me once he revives. There''s something important I need to speak with him." "I''ll do that." Feifei nodded, saying, "It''ll take time to revive him since I don''t have all the necessary resources yet." She watched Luvile go away, clenching her hand into a fist as her eyes reddened in anger. "If my Soul Lamp malfunctioned, wouldn''t he have died?" "Damn it, what am I hesitating for anymore?" She slammed into the ground as her Spiritual Incarnation began to glow, causing the figure of a man to manifest behind her as a projection. "Child, are you finally ready to inherit everything?" The ethereal projection of the man smiled. Golden Gate Sect Founding Ancestor! He was the legendary figure from the past, one of the most terrifying Primal Gods to have ever roamed the God Realm. "Can''t you just revive?" Feifei asked. "This power is yours, to begin with." "No." The Golden Gate Sect Founding Ancestor shook his head, "I''m a dead man. My soul has long since dissipated. What you''re talking with is just my remnant will within my power. It''ll vanish once you make this power entirely yours." "But¡­" Feifei still hesitated. "I don''t want to be a part of the Golden Gate Sect." "You don''t have time to waste," The Golden Gate Sect Founding Ancestor replied. "I don''t care whether you remain with the Mountain Sect or join the Golden Gate Sect. The choice is entirely yours. Besides, I don''t care about something trivial like that." He then sighed, saying, "I haven''t mentioned this before. But, the one that had killed me was a Mong Realm God." "You''re serious?" Feifei asked in shock. "Of course." The Golden Gate Sect Founding Ancestor nodded in response. "In my time, there wasn''t a Primal God who could be my opponent. I was even strong enough to exchange a dozen attacks with a God. Plus, I had a strong enough foundation to pretty much guarantee my breakthrough to the God Realm." "However, I was targeted by a Mong Realm God at that time. I had managed to investigate and discover their existence. But the moment I did so was when I was attacked and killed. Unfortunately, I wasn''t able to inform our Gods about it." He sighed. "So, my only choice was to bury this information within my inheritance. Since it wasn''t my revival means, it wasn''t targeted. Moreover, I ensured information regarding my inheritance wasn''t known to them." "You were able to block information from reaching them? How did you do it?" Feifei was surprised. "The Spirit Deity Spiritual Incarnation is capable of seeing through, altering, and creating the essence of the world," he told her. "On top of that, you''re even more suitable to use this than me. In your hands, my power would shine forth even more." "But, this power is yours. I don''t want to steal your lifetime accomplishments. It just feels wrong." Feifei hesitated. "The choice is yours¡­" The Golden Gate Sect Founding Ancestor snorted. "My time''s up. But if you''re still hesitant, you can watch the destruction of the Kun Realm." "Currently, you have the power to change it," he spoke. "Fine." Feifei clenched her hand into a fist, saying, "I''ll fully accept this power. And I promise to revive you too. Your remnant will is enough for me to trace your memories that have soaked up into the God Realm itself. If I extract them, I''ll be able to revive you. The Gods are doing the same to revive the fallen Gods, right?" "Hahaha!" The Golden Gate Sect Founding Ancestor laughed in joy. "Interesting! Yes, that''s how the wielder of the Spirit Deity Spiritual Incarnation should be. There''s nothing impossible for you." Chapter 1400 Wally Returns Chapter 1400 Wally Returns¡¡¡¡Gong! Feifei''s Spiritual Incarnation began to morph immediately after, perfectly fusing into her as she no longer held herself back. With her hesitation gone, she tapped into her true potential, instantly manifesting the Soul Lamp as she extracted almost a hundred fragments, reviving them simultaneously. And that wasn''t all. With a tug of her fingers, she reeled in the surrounding Godly Energy, changing their forms to turn them into various materials. The law of Earth, when activated, would turn the supplied Godly Energy into a lump of earth. That meant that it was possible to create materials by using up Godly Energy. For Feifei, she used the fragments as inductors, inducing the Godly Energy as all materials suitable for them were manifested through Godly Energy. "What the¡­? I revived?" A Semi-God Realm immortal looked in surprise, noticing more than a dozen immortals reviving simultaneously. And that wasn''t all. The speed of immortals reviving spiked rapidly as Feifei sent out a command, motioning for the revived immortals to bring her enough God Stones. She then waved her hands, using a technique similar to the True Spirits to control Godly Energy, rapidly extracting it from the God Stones that she funneled into the revival fragments, rapidly condensing their bodies. "It took her long enough." Sterlena gazed at Feifei, smiling as a result. She then patted Relena''s shoulder, saying, "Remain here to greet the wisps when they revive. I''ll be working on something." "Alright, aunt." Relena nodded in response. "I know what you''re worried about. We''ll find a method to heal the God Realm and make it birth True Spirits once again." "Ster¡­ lena?" Suddenly, a powerful entity barged into the Mountain Sect, stopping before her in surprise. "You''re¡­?" Sterlena asked in confusion, gazing at the entity before her that seemed pretty pleasing to her eye, even though this was the first time she was seeing him. "I''m Wally, the Wisp God," the entity said, slowly taking on his wisp form. But unlike all the Wisps, his Wisp Core was golden in color as countless mysterious laws swirled around it. Moreover, when gazing at him, Sterlena felt as if she was looking at the God Realm itself. "How¡­ is this possible?" "This is the true nature of wisps," Wally said in response. "We aren''t the scraps that remain of the cloth the True Spirits are cut out from. In truth, we''re the Kun Realm''s guards." "Guards? What do you mean by that?" Sterlena was surprised to hear that. "To form a simple analogy, there exist the red blood cells and white blood cells in the human body. True Spirits are the red blood cells for the Kun Realm while we wisps are the white blood cells," Wally explained. "And that''s why Wisp Gods are capable of traveling the Four Realms without paying a price. It''s because we are the guards that clean up the intruders that infiltrate our world." "And the True Spirits exist to maintain and enrich the world''s strength." "That is¡­" Sterlena fell deep into thought, understanding that it indeed made sense once she pondered about it, understanding why Wisp Gods were capable of traveling the Four Realms without paying any price. "Though, having too many guards would only weaken the world''s development. And that''s why the wisps have innate defects. Only those that can overcome that and become Gods are qualified to become the Kun Realm''s guards," Wally spoke, asking after that. "By the way, where''s Krune?" "He was killed," Sterlena said, surprised when Wally exploded in anger right after. But a moment later, he controlled himself upon seeing that Sterlena wasn''t too affected. "He''s¡­ able to revive, right?" "Yes." Sterlena nodded. "I''m sorry. I lost my cool," Wally apologized. "It''s just that he''s pretty much the only other wisp that has the chance to become a God." "The Mong Realm God that killed him addressed him as the Kun Realm''s champion. What did he mean by that?" Sterlena asked. "I''m unsure about that myself." Wally shook his head in response. "But, Krune is indeed talented enough to be called with such a term. He''s the second most talented wisp I''ve seen in all my life." "There''s someone more talented than him?" Sterlena asked in surprise. "Yeah, I see him in a mirror from time to time." Wally nodded with a serious face. "¡­" Sterlena stared at him, muttering, "You''re a wisp, alright." "Besides." Wally said all of a sudden, "I never thought True Spirits would reappear in the God Realm once again. There''s a mysterious restriction preventing the True Spirits at the Godly Path Realm from ascending to the God Realm." He then sighed, saying, "But even if they did that, they would be at the Nascent God Realm. Without a Spiritual Incarnation, they wouldn''t ever become an immortal." "Can you make them ascend here, though?" Sterlena asked. "I can forcefully bring them here. However, that isn''t a long-term solution," Wally replied. "True Spirits and wisps are like the Kun Realm''s blood. So, we have always been targeted by the Mong Realm bastards. It''s just that the damage is pretty damn severe. Even I''m unable to figure out a proper solution." "How long are you planning to stay here?" Sterlena asked, thinking of something. "For a month or two," Wally told her. "There was a mysterious power that targeted to destroy all the wisps and prevent their birth, just like what had happened to the True Spirits. I somehow managed to deal with it. But bastards from the other realms are constantly infiltrating our world. And only I can locate and deal with them at the Godly Path Realm and below." "So, I can''t stay here for long." "Then, let me show you an interesting place," Sterlena said, teleporting the two of them to the wisp city. "T-This is¡­?" Wally was stupefied, gazing at the environment that seemed better than his dreams of the most ideal place for a wisp. "What''s with this¡­ paradise?" "When the Turia Continent formed, it took the strongest of the Mountain Sect as a base and created regions accordingly. This region is created using Krune''s Myriad Wisps Spiritual Incarnation as a base. With Krune''s meddling, he changed it in such a way that any wisp born here would have a Spiritual Incarnation. This way, they wouldn''t die in a decade." "¡­" Wally stared at the place for a good while before slowly approaching the swirling streams in the air. "I¡­need to test something out." Chapter 1401 The Fourth Key Chapter 1401 The Fourth Key¡¡¡¡"Wheee!" Wally didn''t know what overcame him as soon after, he was blindly enjoying the rides, giggling like a toddler from time to time. "This place is¡­ pretty dangerous," Wally said. "I¡­ have to double-check its safety." "Wheee!" A day later, he slowly came to a halt, looking around to say, "Hmm, I think I missed something in my inspection before. I¡­ I have to check it again." "Wheee!" "It''s been two days already," Sterlena said, noticing Wally look at her in surprise. "I remember that I had forgotten something¡­" Wally said after a moment of thought. "I think I''ll understand it soon¡­" "Wheee!" Two more days passed in such a fashion before Wally controlled himself, exiting the water slides as he gazed at Sterlena, saying, "The laws related to wisps are pretty strong here. I think I understand what you wish to tell me by bringing me here." He then continued, "The simplest way would be to install your Land Incarnation¡­" Wally said after a while, "There should be a region of this supercontinent that was formed by taking your Spiritual Incarnation as the base. Just leave a couple of your Land Incarnations there. Over time, as the number of True Spirits living there increases, you''ll eventually obtain what you seek." "When you become a God, you''ll become the node through which the God Realm recovers its laws regarding True Spirits," he continued. "Besides, Krune''s Land Incarnation is able to birth True Spirits, right?" "Yes." Sterlena nodded in response. "But when he was killed, they were destroyed. So, even after he lays down a Land Incarnation again, it''ll take a century before a True Spirit is birthed." "That''s good for the time being," Wally said in all seriousness as he looked at Sterlena. "You should understand by now that True Spirits would be aimed at first by the Mong Realm bastards." "With all the True Spirits killed, the Kun Realm would grow weak." He continued, "So before you become a God, ensure the population of the True Spirits is as little as possible. Otherwise, you''ll be heavily targeted once again." "I understand." Sterlena sighed after that. "By the way, I''ve been meaning to ask. But how did you know my name? We haven''t met before, right?" "We met once," Wally said. "I was just a newborn wisp back then. I was just struggling to survive because of my short lifespan and pitiful strength when you handed me some cultivation materials and motivated me to persevere." He then laughed after that. "Thanks to that, I eventually managed to create the Myriad Energies Technique and condense my Spiritual Incarnation before my lifespan was up." "I¡­ helped you back then?" Sterlena was surprised, trying to think as even with the air of Mental Energy, she wasn''t able to recall something that happened ages ago. It also made her realize that Wally was pretty much as old as herself. "It''s such a strange fate." She could not help but say. "The ones related to Krune are somehow related to me as well. First was Luvile, and now you." She then gazed at Wally, asking, "What are you planning to do now? It seems that it would take a long time before Krune is revived." "I''m searching for the final key," Wally replied. "The final key?" Sterlena was surprised. "Yeah, among the four keys, Luvile and the other Gods are in possession of three," Wally said, frowning. "However, the final key is with the Mong Realm Gods. That''s how they''re able to enter our Kun Realm as they please." "But aren''t all four keys necessary to leave the Kun Realm?" Sterlena asked in confusion. "Yes, but the Mong Realm has the keys of other realms that they can substitute for ours. That''s how they are able to enter and leave as they please. And now that the fourth key is in their possession, entering the Kun Realm is easy for them." He sighed after that. "I thought the fourth key isn''t something that could be found easily, but only recently did I find that it had already fallen into their possession." "And¡­" He gritted his teeth as he murmured, "If all four keys fall to their hands, they would be able to annex our Kun Realm. The keys aren''t just necessary to leave the Kun Realm, but they also dictate our fate." "Then, the Mong Realm would next target the Gods in possession of the remaining three keys," Sterlena said. "You said Luvile has one of the keys. Who has the other two?" "I''ll ask him later," Wally replied. "I still have to protect the lower three realms. So, I won''t be able to do much. However, there''s one thing I can help with. Will you be willing to risk your life, Sterlena?" "Yeah, I''m not troubled by that." Sterlena nodded without any hesitation. "We''ll have to reclaim the fourth key from the Mong Realm Gods, no matter what," Wally told her. "Using the current three keys and my special ability, I''ll be able to transport three immortals out of the Kun Realm. However, the highest I can transport in this manner are Elementary Gods." "So, I hope you''ll be able to reclaim the fourth key and bring it back," Wally spoke. "The fourth key¡­" Sterlena muttered. "It would be dangerous." "Indeed." Wally nodded, "Plus, you''ll have to do something to go past the senses of the Gods and barge into their heavily protected treasury and reclaim our key." "And if possible¡­" He hesitated for a moment before saying, "I hope you can forge a route to another realm that''s being targeted by the Mong Realm so that we can be allies in this situation." "After all, the Kun Realm is too weak in comparison to the Mong Realm. We need allies in this war." "Alright, I''ll do it." Sterlena nodded, thinking for a couple of minutes before saying, "There are two others in mind that I think are suitable for this." "I hope you''re not thinking of Krune¡­" Wally said in hesitation. "Of course, Krune has to participate," Sterlena said without hesitation. "His Hunger Law would be of prime importance to rely upon in the Mong Realm." "Fine." Wally could only sigh in response to that. "Who''s the other candidate?" "Of course, our one and only Spirit Aberrant," Sterlena grinned as she replied. "Spirit Aberrant?" Wally was surprised, asking in confusion, "Aren''t they pretty useless?" "You''re the first one to call them useless," Sterlena said with widened eyes. "No, I mean¡­" Wally hesitated before speaking, "They''re the weakest in their human forms, and once they take on their Spirit Aberrant form, they lose their sanity and are stuck to the place they take on their demon beast form for eternity until they''re killed." "Hahaha!" Sterlena laughed. "If it was a normal Spirit Aberrant, that might have been the truth. But the one I meant has overcome their race''s limitations. He can freely change forms without any problems." "Freely change forms? Has overcome their limitations?" Wally was shocked, asking immediately, "Who is this guy? I want to see him." "Sure." Sterlena nodded, teleporting the two to Gegrafikan''s house, seeing the figure of a pregnant Tina seated on their lawn, as usual, playing with her most recent baby. "This child is¡­?" Wally was surprised. "Why am I only able to sense the aura of a God Stone from her?" "That''s because I am indeed a God Stone." Tina smiled in response. "I''m the sole living God Stone." "A living God Stone¡­?" Wally''s eyes widened as he said, "Then¡­" "Here," Tina said, condensing a Rank 6 God Stone casually before throwing it his way. "Impressive!" Wally nodded as he inspected it. "This is no different from one that forms naturally." "Yep, I''ve perfected its creation," Tina said smugly, creating a God Stone that was actually a one-on-one sculpture of Wally, giving it to him. "Consider this as a present from me." "Thanks." Wally smiled in response, nodding in praise as he gazed at the sculpture. "Who''s this perfect-looking man?" "Is that a wisp?" Tina asked Sterlena instinctively. "Nope." Sterlena shook her head in response, clarifying, "He''s the Wisp God." "Wally?" Tina blinked her eyes while gazing at him. "You know me?" Wally was surprised, wondering how this was possible since he had no recollection of her. Most in the God Realm didn''t even know of his existence. Only the Gods were aware of it. As for the immortals, there were seldom few. "My husband talked about you once with Krune," Tina said, pointing at her house. "He''s researching something within. Just bump his head if he''s unresponsive." ''Is he an old machine?'' Wally thought as he entered the house, soon noticing the figure of Gegrafikan creating a formation on a scroll, seemingly deep in thought. "What are you making?" Wally asked, inching his head forward in curiosity. "A defensive scroll that can be carried," Gegrafikan spoke. "But, I want to imbue a lot of power in it so that it can last at least for a couple of minutes against a bombardment from a dozen Primal Gods. Unfortunately, the power circuit is the problem. I just can''t seem to create a way for it to house more Godly Energy." "Why is a Spirit Aberrant researching this?" Wally wondered it, gazing at Sterlena. "With their physique, they won''t be needing any barriers, right?" "The Abolition Tower got Krune this time. When he exploded, Gegrafikan was the closest as his body was vaporized. He revived slowly after due to his nature but has been working on a barrier technique ever since." "Wait¡­ who''s talking to me?" Gegrafikan suddenly noticed something amiss, only now noticing the two individuals beside him, gazing at Wally in shock, shouting, "Wally?" "How do you know me?" Wally was surprised, for he wasn''t able to recognize the other party. Chapter 1402 Kun Soul Chapter 1402 Kun Soul¡¡¡¡"It''s only natural that you don''t know me," Gegrafikan said in response. "After all, even though I''m the Spirit Aberrant race''s leader, I haven''t met you before. However, I have basically inherited the genetic information and memories of every Spirit Aberrant. A couple of them have met you in the past." "I''m sorry to have killed them," Wally said. "It''s fine." Gegrafikan didn''t seem to mind it. "We had tough circumstances to face, so from time to time, my race had no other choice but to take on demon beast forms." "To give birth, that is." He iterated further. "This was the sole way we were able to prevent our race from going extinct for long enough. As long as the Spirit Aberrant losing control managed to give birth to two Spirit Aberrants, it was a victory for us." "Anyway, leaving that aside." Gegrafikan gazed at the figures of Wally and Sterlena as he asked, "Did something happen?" "The fourth key is in the hands of the Mong Realm Gods. I have a method to use our three remaining keys to send three cultivators at the Elementary God Realm outside. I hope you''ll be one of them," Wally said. "The fourth key fell in their hands?" Gegrafikan frowned after hearing that. "This is bad, really bad. It''ll allow them to infiltrate our midst conveniently." "Since they have enough keys, they''ll be able to infiltrate us deep enough." Wally sighed in response. "These days, they''ve even attempted to enter the Underworld Realm to destroy all the souls undergoing the reincarnation cycle there. If they succeed, it''ll cripple the lives that are birthed in all our realms." "But, the living can''t enter the Underworld Realm, right?" Gegrafikan frowned. "Yes, but there exist certain methods to do so," Wally replied. "And, they have such methods, a variety of them, in fact. When I''m killing them, I''m also soul searching them to obtain information from them." He then sighed once more/"I''m just one wisp that has to look after the Godly Path Realm, the Mortal Realm, and even the Underground Realm these days. It''s too much, even for me." "Your cultivation isn''t hindered anywhere in the Four Realms, right?" Gegrafikan asked. "It''s not, but that doesn''t mean I can unleash my full power," Wally replied. "If I do that, I''ll just destroy everything in my path. So, I''ll also have to consider that. As for our enemies, they just try to destroy as many geniuses as they can, or if they fail, they''ll destroy as much of our foundation as possible. Both would cripple us eventually." "Then, can you promise to protect the Four Realms until then?" Gegrafikan gazed solemnly at Wally. "I accept going on this trip. But, I don''t want to worry about anything while I''m away from my home. From the birth of the Four Realms, my race has suffered and only now have we fulfilled our desires. I''ve yet to¡­" "I promise you that," Wally said, raising his hand as he performed a solemn oath. "I pledge on my core that until you return, I''ll protect the Spirit Aberrant race." "That''s enough for me." Gegrafikan nodded in relief. "Just in case, I''ll send a group of Spirit Aberrants to the Godly Path Realm. That way, you''ll be able to protect them while performing your duties." "I know for a fact that if the Mong Realm Gods take action, it''ll be hard for even you to protect my race while performing your work," Gegrafikan said. "Thank you for your understanding," Wally said in response. "You don''t have to worry. I''ll perform my utmost to keep up my end of the deal." "Should I also have asked for something like this?" Suddenly, Sterlena pointed at herself, feeling like she had missed a chance. Wally rolled his eyes when he heard that. "Half of my job is to protect the True Spirits, you know." He then patted Sterlena and Gegrafikan. "I''ll be leaving my junior in your hands. Please ensure he doesn''t die." "Yeah, I''ll do that," Sterlena said before frowning. "Though, it''ll be hard for us to remain undetectable to them, right? Especially since the Mong Realm cultivators are stronger and cultivate all three paths." "That''s why I created this." Wally smiled as he took out three bracelets. "This is something I refined using the souls of the Mong Realm bastards and the infiltrators from the other realms. This would assimilate you to the realm you''re at, making you look no different to the common people there." "Plus, you''re also able to hide your cultivation realm using it," Wally said with pride. "Even the Mong Realm Gods would have to continue trying to detect you for at least a couple of days nonstop before they detect anything amiss. After all, one of the souls used in refining these was a Mong Realm God." "That bastard infiltrated all the way to the Mortal Realm. It was a dangerous situation back then. I almost lost my life in the process of killing him," Wally spoke before grinning smugly. "Well, almost is an overstatement. I''m strong." "What''s it called?" Sterlena asked, her eyelids twitching when she noticed Wally''s eyes brighten subtly. ''Even he''s the same?'' "I call it the Kun Soul," Wally replied. "This is a reminder that our goal is to protect the Kun Realm from destruction." "Kun Soul¡­" Sterlena sighed in relief. "That''s a¡­ normal name." "Of course, it''s a normal name." Wally snorted. "What? Do you think I would give it an embarrassing name or something? Oh, please. Our realm''s fate is riding on this. See, I even etched the names on their underside." He then thought of something, waving his hand as the names of each appeared on the bracelets. "I''ll link it to your souls before departure. This way, you''ll be able to sense the location and conditions of each other. Even contacting one another is possible. This line would be discrete. Even the Mong Realm Gods wouldn''t be able to detect it since they wouldn''t be expecting such an item." "Alright. With that, I''ll have to take my leave," Wally said as he stretched his arms. "I still have to do some work, beat up some weak Gods, meet my girlfriends, and so on. I''ll return after two months with the three keys. So, be prepared by then." "Also, revive Krune faster." Saying his piece, he vanished. Chapter 1403 Leaving the Four Realms Chapter 1403 Leaving the Four Realms¡¡¡¡Boom! Godly Energy swirled into a soul fragment as it constantly began to grow, absorbing all the materials placed nearby. As for the materials that weren''t available but necessary for the fragment, Feifei waved her hand, using the fragment like an item as she condensed the required materials through it, smiling as she watched the fragment soon turn whole, developing a pair of hands and legs. Slowly, the fragment morphed into the figure of Krune that finished forming, slowly opening his eyes as he blinked in confusion, asking, "How long was I out?" "A few weeks," Feifei replied, tearing up as she hugged him. "I was scared the whole time." "I told you it''ll be fine. We''ve erected a lot of powerful defenses around you, not to mention Luvile and the other Gods left a part of their bodies to form a shield." Krune smiled in response. "Yeah, but I really felt helpless when that bastard turned you into a member of the Abolition Tower." Feifei spat out in anger. "I want to destroy them all!" "We''ll do that in the future once the Mountain Sect has grown strong enough." Krune smiled, patting her head. "We''ll all first cultivate hard and become Gods. By then, we''ll be strong enough to retaliate against our foes. Besides¡­" Krune closed his eyes, sensing something as he grinned. "That Mong Realm God is a goner. He allowed my ability to fester within him for too long. I''m still able to sense it growing far away." "It''s that powerful?" Feifei was shocked. "Of course not." Krune smiled helplessly as he explained, "It wouldn''t have affected a God so much. After all, I barely reached the Elementary God Realm when I attacked. The reason it was so effective was that I stole part of the Mong Realm God''s power that he had infused in his Spark." He grinned as he continued, "Then, I fused my attack with it and launched it into him. Since it''s his own power, he wasn''t able to sense anything amiss with it. But in truth, my power slowly infiltrated into him while using his Spark''s power as a disguise." "Krune, you''ve finally revived." Gegrafikan arrived right on time, stating in urgency, "We don''t have much time left. I''ll inform you of all the details." "Can''t it wait a few more minutes?" Feifei said, tearing up as a result. "I haven''t even spent much time with him recently. And now, I have no idea how long it would take¡­" "I''m sorry, Feifei." Gegrafikan sighed as he said, "Honestly, I myself wish to spend time with my family. It hasn''t been long since I tasted freedom after all. However, to protect our home, this is what we have to do." Upon seeing Krune''s confusion, Gegrafikan transmitted all the details using Mental Energy, bringing Krune up to speed in a matter of seconds. "The fourth key¡­" Krune frowned, sighing as he massaged his forehead. "I now understand why they''re able to enter and leave as they please. It''s because of the keys. And, you mean to tell me that the moment they obtain all four of our keys, they would be able to annex our world and use it as fuel for their world''s growth?" "That''s pretty much it." Gegrafikan nodded in response. "That''s why we three would have to do something about it. Given our advantages, I say we have a fair shot." "You also have a Cultivation Lotus that we can use to recover our Godly Energy, right?" he asked. "Mu subspace¡­" Krune focused his senses inward, heaving a sigh in relief upon seeing that his subspace was intact. It hadn''t been damaged from the stunt he pulled before. Gazing at the Cultivation Lotus within that was constantly producing Godly Energy, he nodded in relief. "Yep, it''s working without problem." "I''ll ask Tina to create as many high-quality God Stones as possible. We''ll need everything that we can bring with us," Gegrafikan said. "Using regular spatial rings isn''t possible as they would shatter the moment we near the spiral in our God Realm. Wally said he would prepare something suitable for us. Though, its space would be limited due to the scarcity of the materials involved. So, we''ll have to be careful with it." "I have my subspace, so I won''t be needing it," Krune said. "Wally can use the materials of my ring to increase the size of the two of yours." "I''ve already done that," Wally said, teleporting before them, throwing two rings towards Gegrafikan. "This is for you and Sterlena. The space within has been increased to 150 cubic meters. This is pretty much the limit, so you''ll have to make do with it. If the size is any bigger, it''ll be destroyed by the spatial storms." "Don''t worry, I''ll return soon after." Krune smiled, gently patting Feifei as he wiped her tears. "The three of you, be safe," Wally said as immediately after, followed by a flash of lightning, Luvile appeared. Following him, the various Gods arrived one after another. And among them was another familiar figure. "Senior Soren!" Krune exclaimed in surprise. "You''ve grown a lot, Krune." Soren smiled in response. "Your soul cultivation is damn deep." Heavin had arrived, accompanying Soren, muttering in surprise upon gazing at Krune. "It seems you''ve had a lot of enlightening experiences." "I had that at the Realm of Sufferings." Krune smiled wryly, recalling the sufferings he had been through back then. "Alright, it''s time," Wally said. "I''ve made enough inspections. There aren''t any Mong Realm Gods in the God Realm. There are many Primal Gods scattered amongst a lot of continents, but they won''t be able to sense what we''re about to do now. Before any other Mong Realm God arrives, we''ll have to send the three of you first." "To think the day one of us exits the Four Realms is to save it from destruction." One of the Gods sighed. "If only we had been wiser that day, the fourth key wouldn''t have fallen into the enemy''s hands." Another mourned. "It''s not just the Mong Realm that had infiltrated us." Wally snorted. "The other Realms aren''t any different either. It''s just that the Mong Realm is too strong that the rest are helpless against them." "Then¡­" Followed by a flick of his finger, Wally teleported them all to a discrete location on the Turia Supercontinent, gazing at the spiral in the sky as he muttered, "It''s time to leave." Chapter 1404 Realm Spirit Chapter 1404 Realm Spirit¡¡¡¡"I''ll begin now," Wally said, gazing at the Gods. "Bring out all the three keys." "My Lord!" Hazak suddenly shouted, arriving before Krune. "Can''t you take me with you? I can travel through your subspace." "I won''t recommend that," Wally told her. "You''ll be able to travel through his subspace, sure. However, you won''t be of any help in the Mong Realm. The moment you exit it, our enemies will sense you. Only these three that are wearing my Kun Souls are safe from detection. You also won''t be able to use their laws or energy, so you''ll just strain them further." "Is that so¡­" Hazak became sullen. "It''ll be fine." Krune patted her, reassuring her. "The three of us would complete our mission." "Here''s my key," Luvile said, taking out an ethereal object that shone with all the laws of the God Realm. "Here''s mine," Hishe said soon after, taking out the second one. "Here''s the final one." Soren took out the third. He came possession of it once he returned to the God Realm. Wally grabbed hold of the three keys, suddenly activating them as he slightly weakened them, condensing part of their essence into a sphere as he gazed at Krune, saying, "From what I heard, your Soul Needle is capable of detecting all sorts of treasures, right?" "Yes." Krune nodded, condensing his Soul Needle, watching it point at the three keys with the greatest enthusiasm. "Then¡­" Wally slowly caused the condensed essence to touch the Soul Needle, watching a mysterious spark resound from it immediately, causing Krune to grunt in response. "Have you memorized its signature?" Wally asked sometime later. "Y-Yeah¡­" Krune gasped for breath, watching Wally retract the condensed essence into the three keys. "I can sense them perfectly fine now." "Great, your abilities are required to detect the location the fourth key is kept," Wally said. "That''s what would guide you to it." "Are you okay?" Feifei asked in concern. "Yeah¡­" Krune nodded. "There was just a surge of information related to the keys. That would help me in locating them." "Besides¡­ I just recalled something." Krune said, gazing at the sky as he shouted, "Little Cally, aren''t you the one acting as the gateway for the Mong Realm bastards?" "Little Cally?" Luvile frowned. "You mean¡­ the Calamity Laws?" "I know you''re hearing me just fine, Little Cally. Come out," Krune iterated further. "¡­yes¡­" A weak voice resounded as an ethereal energy signature manifested itself before Krune, resembling a wisp in form. However, it was just a blob of energy, ethereal in nature. "Why are you doing that?" Krune asked. "Isn''t it about time you came out with the truth?" "From the first you''ve made your presence known, you''ve always put me in various disasters. But not once did they claim my life. Instead, they''ve only served to strengthen me. Tell me, what''s your motive?" he spoke. "I am what you can call a Realm Spirit," Little Cally spoke after a while. "And I... originate from a realm similar to the Kun Realm." "A Realm Spirit?" Luvile frowned. "A Realm Spirit forms in realms once it achieves its peak development. The Kun Realm isn''t even close to maturity, so it doesn''t have a Realm Spirit yet," Little Cally spoke. "The reason I act as the gateway to the Kun Realm is that the Mong Realm has my realm hostage." "Hostage?" The surrounding Gods frowned in response. "My Realm is called the Calamity Realm. It''s not massive like the Kun Realm. In truth, it''s just a fragment that broke off in the past from the Kun Realm due to mysterious reasons. So, after eventual development, the Calamity Realm matured as I gained sentience," it spoke. "So, you mean to say¡­" Luvile asked. "You''re pretty much equal to the Calamity Realm itself?" "Pretty much." Little Cally nodded, sighing as it spoke, "And since I''m a fragment that broke off from the Kun Realm, I''m pretty much the easiest way for the Mong Realm Gods to enter the Kun Realm from." "My Calamity Realm was small, so it only had three Gods defending it." Its voice trembled as Little Cally continued. "They were easily killed by the Mong Realm Gods. Plus, I wasn''t a match for them either." "If you''re a Realm Spirit, shouldn''t you be stronger than a God?" Soren said. "A Land Spirit is equivalent to a Primal God, a Heavenly Spirit is equivalent to a God, and finally, in the same vein, a Realm Spirit should be something that surpasses Gods in strength." "Then, how come you lost?" "I wasn''t a match for the Mong Realm Spirit!" Little Cally shouted in anger. "The Mong Realm Spirit is one of the oldest Realm Spirits out there. I was like an ant before it." It trembled in fear, speaking, "I never thought there could be an entity that powerful. Even though the Godly Energy of the Mong Realm is running out, their strength surpasses every other Realm. There was no way I could resist them. If only the Kun Realm Spirit is born, I might have some chance to resist." It then gazed at Krune and Sterlena, adding, "The reason I''ve troubled you and a couple others were because only through adversaries would the strongest be birthed. My hope was to give rise to powerful cultivators that would accelerate the Kun Realm''s development. I had to do this without the Mong Realm Gods noticing my actions. But even then¡­" It sighed, gazing at Sterlena. "When I found out that the Mong Realm told me to target you, the same individual that I spent painstaking efforts to cultivate into one of the strongest existences, I despaired. But I had no choice. As long as I obeyed them, the Calamity Realm hasn''t come under harm." "This Calamity Realm¡­" Krune frowned, digesting everything Little Cally said as he asked, "Where exactly is it located?" "Right outside." Little Cally condensed a pair of hands, pointing at the spiral. "It''s right there once you exit this place." "Tell me something¡­" Krune said, peering into Little Cally, asking emotionlessly. "Do you think you can guide me towards the Mong Realm?" "O-Of course, I can." Little Cally nodded, shuddering for some reason. Chapter 1405 Entering the God Realm’s Spiral Chapter 1405 Entering the God Realm¡¯s Spiral¡¡¡¡"Of course, I can." Little Cally nodded in response. "I''ve been looking for a way into the Mong Realm all this time. Ever since I lost against it, I have been looking for a way to get back at them. I can transport you into a safe location within the Mong Realm." "Then, we''ll do that," Krune said. "Wait, what''s the guarantee that it''s not lying?" Gegrafikan said all of a sudden, seeing as to how Krune seemed like he wanted to rely upon the Calamity Laws. "I know for a fact that it''s not lying." Krune smiled, watching Sterlena nod in response. "After all, I''ve swallowed a part of it. My Spiritual Incarnation was created by swallowing the Calamity Laws." "Same for me as well." Sterlena nodded. She then thought of something, gazing at Little Cally as she asked, "Wait, then what about the Balance Laws? Do you have some relation with it?" "From what I understand about Calamity Laws from looking at the past wielders of you, all of them derived the Balance Laws as well." "The Balance Laws originate from the Kun Realm itself," Little Cally said, shocking everyone. "Of course, I''m a fragment of the Kun Realm itself. So, I''ve been trying my best to awaken it in hopes of saving my Calamity Realm." "Well, the Balance Laws are the Kun Realm''s show of support. With that, you''ll become the strongest of cultivators, having the aid of all the Kun Realm''s laws under your disposal," Little Cally spoke. "And when you become Gods, you''ll have all the laws of the Kun Realm under your disposal." "Even though the Mong Realm Gods weren''t aware of this, they somehow figured out that you''ll become someone that''s capable of harnessing the entirety of the Kun Realm''s strength in the future. That''s why they called you a champion." Little Cally then gazed at Sterlena. "Though, what they don''t understand is that there are two champions at present. Moreover, once you become Gods, as your comprehension of the various laws grows, reaches the peak of the Kun Realm, and surpasses it, you''ll automatically raise the Kun Realm''s growth," it continued. "That''s what being the champion of a realm means." "Champion¡­" Krune muttered, asking, "Then, does the Mong Realm have a champion?" "Yes¡­" Little Cally nodded, saying, "The Mong Realm champion is terrifying. Recently, in the Tilk Realm, he killed thirty Gods singlehandedly. He''s one of the most terrifying existences to exist." "Thirty Gods¡­" Luvile was shocked to hear that. After all, each and every single God was tremendously powerful. They represented the peak of development. So, when two Gods fought, there wouldn''t be much difference in power. The difference would only arise from the abilities used. Their raw power would be the same. So, killing thirty Gods was an impossibility. Even Henfa-L-Talon, the teenager Mong Realm God that fought against Luvile and five other Gods singlehandedly, was only capable of that because he had reached the peak of the soul and body cultivation paths. And even that only allowed him to fight on par with them. None were killed in the exchange. So, this showed that even after reaching the peak of all three cultivation paths, the most one would be able to fight against was 4-5 Gods where killing was impossible. And if the other party had also reached a high enough level with their body and soul cultivation, this advantage would further drop. But no matter what, fighting against thirty Gods and killing them wasn''t practical. After all, a God was basically a law. A good example of that was Luvile. Wherever there was a heavenly tribulation, it was a part of his body. This meant that his body was one gigantic net that was everywhere in the God Realm. Killing him would require one to erase this entire net. It wasn''t something possible for a God even if they faced zero resistance. The feat was just on that grand of a scale. "That''s impossible," Soren said. "Indeed, it''s impossible." Hishe nodded. "But it happened," Little Cally retorted. "That''s the level of strength the Mong Realm representative has attained. At present, the Mong Realm has focused all its attention on annexing the Tilk Realm. Once they''re done with that, the Kun Realm is next. They''ll come at us stronger, having greater resources at their disposal." "If we don''t do anything, we''ll face the same fate as the Tilk Realm." "Let''s not waste any more time then," Krune said, nodding at Wally. "We''ll have to make a move soon." "Alright." Wally nodded, gazing at the other Gods. "Work on getting stronger while trying to revive the dead Gods. I''m busy enough already protecting the lower Three Realms." "We''re sorry for the past." A couple Gods bowed toward Wally in response. "Forget it for now. The survival of our realm is our priority," Wally said, gazing at the trio of Krune, Sterlena, and Gegrafikan. "The three of you are our hope and the strongest among your peers. We hope you can grab our key and return safely, no matter how long it takes." "Will do." Sterlena nodded firmly. "You can count on it." She then thought of something, whispering to Krune, "Did you leave some Land Incarnations here?" "Yes, I replaced all the ones that got destroyed before," Krune replied before gazing at Feifei as his eyes turned moist. "Wait for me, alright?" "Alright." Feifei nodded, hugging him tightly. "I''ll be waiting." "You promise you won''t get cranky while I''m gone?" "I won''t¡­" She tightened her hold over him before Krune began to gasp for air while his bones began to emit strained sounds. "Al-alright, don''t crush me." Krune struggled as he tapped on her, giving up. Loosening her hole, she kissed him. "Return soon." "You can count on it." Krune nodded in vigor as a beam of energy enveloped him, Sterlena, and Gegrafikan. Wally churned his Godly Energy through the three keys, causing them to hum sonorously before a beam of light manifested among the trio, sending them coursing through the air, teleporting their bodies instantly towards the edge of the spiral. A second later, they entered the spiral as the beam vanished. All signs related to it vanished. "Gah!" Wally gasped for air as he collapsed to the ground. Crick! "Wally!" Luvile shouted in alarm, noticing a large crack forming in Wally''s Wisp Core. Chapter 1406 Entering the God Realm’s Spiral Chapter 1406 Entering the God Realm¡¯s Spiral¡¡¡¡"Of course, I can." Little Cally nodded in response. "I''ve been looking for a way into the Mong Realm all this time. Ever since I lost against it, I have been looking for a way to get back at them. I can transport you into a safe location within the Mong Realm." "Then, we''ll do that," Krune said. "Wait, what''s the guarantee that it''s not lying?" Gegrafikan said all of a sudden, seeing as to how Krune seemed like he wanted to rely upon the Calamity Laws. "I know for a fact that it''s not lying." Krune smiled, watching Sterlena nod in response. "After all, I''ve swallowed a part of it. My Spiritual Incarnation was created by swallowing the Calamity Laws." "Same for me as well." Sterlena nodded. She then thought of something, gazing at Little Cally as she asked, "Wait, then what about the Balance Laws? Do you have some relation with it?" "From what I understand about Calamity Laws from looking at the past wielders of you, all of them derived the Balance Laws as well." "The Balance Laws originate from the Kun Realm itself," Little Cally said, shocking everyone. "Of course, I''m a fragment of the Kun Realm itself. So, I''ve been trying my best to awaken it in hopes of saving my Calamity Realm." "Well, the Balance Laws are the Kun Realm''s show of support. With that, you''ll become the strongest of cultivators, having the aid of all the Kun Realm''s laws under your disposal," Little Cally spoke. "And when you become Gods, you''ll have all the laws of the Kun Realm under your disposal." "Even though the Mong Realm Gods weren''t aware of this, they somehow figured out that you''ll become someone that''s capable of harnessing the entirety of the Kun Realm''s strength in the future. That''s why they called you a champion." Little Cally then gazed at Sterlena. "Though, what they don''t understand is that there are two champions at present. Moreover, once you become Gods, as your comprehension of the various laws grows, reaches the peak of the Kun Realm, and surpasses it, you''ll automatically raise the Kun Realm''s growth," it continued. "That''s what being the champion of a realm means." "Champion¡­" Krune muttered, asking, "Then, does the Mong Realm have a champion?" "Yes¡­" Little Cally nodded, saying, "The Mong Realm champion is terrifying. Recently, in the Tilk Realm, he killed thirty Gods singlehandedly. He''s one of the most terrifying existences to exist." "Thirty Gods¡­" Luvile was shocked to hear that. After all, each and every single God was tremendously powerful. They represented the peak of development. So, when two Gods fought, there wouldn''t be much difference in power. The difference would only arise from the abilities used. Their raw power would be the same. So, killing thirty Gods was an impossibility. Even Henfa-L-Talon, the teenager Mong Realm God that fought against Luvile and five other Gods singlehandedly, was only capable of that because he had reached the peak of the soul and body cultivation paths. And even that only allowed him to fight on par with them. None were killed in the exchange. So, this showed that even after reaching the peak of all three cultivation paths, the most one would be able to fight against was 4-5 Gods where killing was impossible. And if the other party had also reached a high enough level with their body and soul cultivation, this advantage would further drop. But no matter what, fighting against thirty Gods and killing them wasn''t practical. After all, a God was basically a law. A good example of that was Luvile. Wherever there was a heavenly tribulation, it was a part of his body. This meant that his body was one gigantic net that was everywhere in the God Realm. Killing him would require one to erase this entire net. It wasn''t something possible for a God even if they faced zero resistance. The feat was just on that grand of a scale. "That''s impossible," Soren said. "Indeed, it''s impossible." Hishe nodded. "But it happened," Little Cally retorted. "That''s the level of strength the Mong Realm representative has attained. At present, the Mong Realm has focused all its attention on annexing the Tilk Realm. Once they''re done with that, the Kun Realm is next. They''ll come at us stronger, having greater resources at their disposal." "If we don''t do anything, we''ll face the same fate as the Tilk Realm." "Let''s not waste any more time then," Krune said, nodding at Wally. "We''ll have to make a move soon." "Alright." Wally nodded, gazing at the other Gods. "Work on getting stronger while trying to revive the dead Gods. I''m busy enough already protecting the lower Three Realms." "We''re sorry for the past." A couple Gods bowed toward Wally in response. "Forget it for now. The survival of our realm is our priority," Wally said, gazing at the trio of Krune, Sterlena, and Gegrafikan. "The three of you are our hope and the strongest among your peers. We hope you can grab our key and return safely, no matter how long it takes." "Will do." Sterlena nodded firmly. "You can count on it." She then thought of something, whispering to Krune, "Did you leave some Land Incarnations here?" "Yes, I replaced all the ones that got destroyed before," Krune replied before gazing at Feifei as his eyes turned moist. "Wait for me, alright?" "Alright." Feifei nodded, hugging him tightly. "I''ll be waiting." "You promise you won''t get cranky while I''m gone?" "I won''t¡­" She tightened her hold over him before Krune began to gasp for air while his bones began to emit strained sounds. "Al-alright, don''t crush me." Krune struggled as he tapped on her, giving up. Loosening her hole, she kissed him. "Return soon." "You can count on it." Krune nodded in vigor as a beam of energy enveloped him, Sterlena, and Gegrafikan. Wally churned his Godly Energy through the three keys, causing them to hum sonorously before a beam of light manifested among the trio, sending them coursing through the air, teleporting their bodies instantly towards the edge of the spiral. A second later, they entered the spiral as the beam vanished. All signs related to it vanished. "Gah!" Wally gasped for air as he collapsed to the ground. Crick! "Wally!" Luvile shouted in alarm, noticing a large crack forming in Wally''s Wisp Core. Chapter 1407 May You Succeed Chapter 1407 May You Succeed¡¡¡¡"If I personally take action, the Mong Realm Gods would detect my existence and hinder your plans. But thankfully, both you and Sterlena have a part of me in you. So, I''ll be able to communicate and guide you through that," Little Cally said as the trio reached the spiral in the God Realm, entering it without any suspense. "I understand." Krune nodded, noticing his surroundings turn pitch-black immediately after as a suffocating bubble of sorts appeared before them, preventing their exit. The bubble seemed like the mouth of a prehistoric beast capable of swallowing all, causing even Gegrafikan to tremble in nervousness. But at this moment, the essence of the three keys enveloped their bodies, causing the bubble''s mouth to sense it and hesitantly open its mouth. "Hurry! Before it closes its mouth!" Little Cally shouted in a hurry as the mysterious power carrying them exploded forth, entering the bubble''s mouth. The bubble regained its senses, hurriedly closing its mouth. But it was too late as the trio had already exited the God Realm, entering the chaotic storms beyond the Four Realms¡ªKun Realm. "T-This is¡­?" Krune shuddered, observing the violent storms that were everywhere, possessing power on par with the Gods. And these were just the edge of the storm. In the thicker midst, even Gods would be annihilated instantly. "Activate your Calamity Laws," Little Cally said as Krune and Sterlena did so immediately. Surprisingly, Little Cally harnessed their Calamity Laws, slowly spreading it around them, subtly affecting the violent storms. What was astonishing was the fact that a tunnel actually formed as a result of Little Cally''s actions. It then spoke, "The spatial storms are pretty much enormous moving calamities. So, the Calamity Laws are the best bet to navigate through the spatial storms. I''ll teach you the method. Master it before you reach the Mong Realm. This way, even if you wish to leave it one day, you won''t be helpless even without my presence." "Is this why they''re using you as a means of transport?" Sterlena frowned, asking in response. "Yes," Little Cally nodded sullenly. "I''m capable of creating safe passages through these spatial storms. From when they began to blackmail me, the Mong Realm bastards were able to travel farther and reach other realms faster, with hardly any casualties." "You won''t have to be passive for long," Krune said. "We''ll find a solution. In the meantime, work with the Kun Realm Gods to hasten the birth of our Realm Spirit. With its birth, we''ll have more time to defend ourselves with, right?" "Yes," Little Cally said in response. "Thankfully, you''ve already initiated that part, Krune." "What?" Krune asked in shock. "I did what?" "You remember Turia?" Little Cally asked. "Turia was able to unleash an oppressive feeling on both wisps and True Spirits alike. Though, the suppression is a tad weaker on True Spirits," Sterlena spoke. "Yes." Little Cally nodded in response. "In truth, Turia is actually a Heavenly Spirit. In essence, a Land Spirit and Heavenly Spirit are closer to a wisp and True Spirit in nature, albeit sharing some differences in that they aren''t sentient lifeforms." "Then, why was Turia birthed at the Nascent God Realm?" Krune asked, confused. "Shouldn''t she be at the God Realm?" "She would eventually attain that once the Turia Supercontinent matures. At present, even though it''s a supercontinent, it has just been born. It has yet to develop," Little Cally explained. "And once the supercontinent develops, Turia would eventually attain strength on par with Gods. But that isn''t all¡­" Little Cally smiled as it continued, "If her growth is the fastest among the Heavenly Spirits, there''s a chance she would gain recognition from throughout the Kun Realm, elevating it to a Realm Spirit. Turia has that possibility thanks to the unique nature of the Turia Continent that has the natures of wisps, True Spirits, Spirit Aberrants, and other exotic races. It''s pretty much a mini God Realm at this point." "Then, there''s a chance Turia would be targeted next." Krune frowned in worry. "You don''t have to be worried about that." Little Cally smiled when he heard that. "Wally said he''ll take care of her for the time being. Moreover, he promised to broaden her horizons by bringing her with him on his journey through the God Realm, Godly Path Realm, and the Mortal Realm. He feels that this would cause her to mature faster and raise the chances of her becoming the Realm Spirit. So, he took it upon himself to see it through." "With Wally safeguarding her, there''s no need for concern." Gegrafikan nodded, speaking as he gazed ahead. "Now, the point remains. What will we do after reaching the Mong Realm?" "We''ll investigate first," Krune said. "Little Cally mentioned that they have won against the Tilk Realm. That means, when they''re annexing it, it''ll cause a lot of commotions. Their laws would even be disrupted. In this scenario, they''ll be in a state of temporary weakness. This is when we can hit them, steal our key and escape from their grasp. They''ll be focused on their realm to ensure nothing amiss happens and wouldn''t have enough freedom to go after us." "That''s a fair plan of action." Gegrafikan nodded in response. "We''ll go with that for now and make changes as and when the situation dictates." "This is the Calamity Realm!" Little Cally said, pointing at a swirling entrance. "I can''t bring you inside since there are a couple of Mong Realm guards stationed here that are monitoring the place all the time. However, if something happens to me in the future, I hope you save my realm." "And, my Calamity Laws is the key necessary to gain control over it," it continued. "If that future ever comes to pass, I hope you fuse the Calamity Realm back into the Kun Realm." "Is that why you readily allowed us to devour a part of you?" Sterlena asked, watching Little Cally nod in response. Slowly, the trio arrived before a mysterious spatial storm that slowly parted way to reveal a gate thanks to Little Cally''s power. "I''ve been making spatial tunnels for them for so long that I can casually make a discrete entrance into the Mong Realm. With the Kun Souls protecting you, I can guarantee that you won''t be detected by the Mong Realm Spirit," Little Cally said, sending the three into the portal. "May you succeed, champions." Chapter 1408 May You Succeed Chapter 1408 May You Succeed¡¡¡¡"If I personally take action, the Mong Realm Gods would detect my existence and hinder your plans. But thankfully, both you and Sterlena have a part of me in you. So, I''ll be able to communicate and guide you through that," Little Cally said as the trio reached the spiral in the God Realm, entering it without any suspense. "I understand." Krune nodded, noticing his surroundings turn pitch-black immediately after as a suffocating bubble of sorts appeared before them, preventing their exit. The bubble seemed like the mouth of a prehistoric beast capable of swallowing all, causing even Gegrafikan to tremble in nervousness. But at this moment, the essence of the three keys enveloped their bodies, causing the bubble''s mouth to sense it and hesitantly open its mouth. "Hurry! Before it closes its mouth!" Little Cally shouted in a hurry as the mysterious power carrying them exploded forth, entering the bubble''s mouth. The bubble regained its senses, hurriedly closing its mouth. But it was too late as the trio had already exited the God Realm, entering the chaotic storms beyond the Four Realms¡ªKun Realm. "T-This is¡­?" Krune shuddered, observing the violent storms that were everywhere, possessing power on par with the Gods. And these were just the edge of the storm. In the thicker midst, even Gods would be annihilated instantly. "Activate your Calamity Laws," Little Cally said as Krune and Sterlena did so immediately. Surprisingly, Little Cally harnessed their Calamity Laws, slowly spreading it around them, subtly affecting the violent storms. What was astonishing was the fact that a tunnel actually formed as a result of Little Cally''s actions. It then spoke, "The spatial storms are pretty much enormous moving calamities. So, the Calamity Laws are the best bet to navigate through the spatial storms. I''ll teach you the method. Master it before you reach the Mong Realm. This way, even if you wish to leave it one day, you won''t be helpless even without my presence." "Is this why they''re using you as a means of transport?" Sterlena frowned, asking in response. "Yes," Little Cally nodded sullenly. "I''m capable of creating safe passages through these spatial storms. From when they began to blackmail me, the Mong Realm bastards were able to travel farther and reach other realms faster, with hardly any casualties." "You won''t have to be passive for long," Krune said. "We''ll find a solution. In the meantime, work with the Kun Realm Gods to hasten the birth of our Realm Spirit. With its birth, we''ll have more time to defend ourselves with, right?" "Yes," Little Cally said in response. "Thankfully, you''ve already initiated that part, Krune." "What?" Krune asked in shock. "I did what?" "You remember Turia?" Little Cally asked. "Turia was able to unleash an oppressive feeling on both wisps and True Spirits alike. Though, the suppression is a tad weaker on True Spirits," Sterlena spoke. "Yes." Little Cally nodded in response. "In truth, Turia is actually a Heavenly Spirit. In essence, a Land Spirit and Heavenly Spirit are closer to a wisp and True Spirit in nature, albeit sharing some differences in that they aren''t sentient lifeforms." "Then, why was Turia birthed at the Nascent God Realm?" Krune asked, confused. "Shouldn''t she be at the God Realm?" "She would eventually attain that once the Turia Supercontinent matures. At present, even though it''s a supercontinent, it has just been born. It has yet to develop," Little Cally explained. "And once the supercontinent develops, Turia would eventually attain strength on par with Gods. But that isn''t all¡­" Little Cally smiled as it continued, "If her growth is the fastest among the Heavenly Spirits, there''s a chance she would gain recognition from throughout the Kun Realm, elevating it to a Realm Spirit. Turia has that possibility thanks to the unique nature of the Turia Continent that has the natures of wisps, True Spirits, Spirit Aberrants, and other exotic races. It''s pretty much a mini God Realm at this point." "Then, there''s a chance Turia would be targeted next." Krune frowned in worry. "You don''t have to be worried about that." Little Cally smiled when he heard that. "Wally said he''ll take care of her for the time being. Moreover, he promised to broaden her horizons by bringing her with him on his journey through the God Realm, Godly Path Realm, and the Mortal Realm. He feels that this would cause her to mature faster and raise the chances of her becoming the Realm Spirit. So, he took it upon himself to see it through." "With Wally safeguarding her, there''s no need for concern." Gegrafikan nodded, speaking as he gazed ahead. "Now, the point remains. What will we do after reaching the Mong Realm?" "We''ll investigate first," Krune said. "Little Cally mentioned that they have won against the Tilk Realm. That means, when they''re annexing it, it''ll cause a lot of commotions. Their laws would even be disrupted. In this scenario, they''ll be in a state of temporary weakness. This is when we can hit them, steal our key and escape from their grasp. They''ll be focused on their realm to ensure nothing amiss happens and wouldn''t have enough freedom to go after us." "That''s a fair plan of action." Gegrafikan nodded in response. "We''ll go with that for now and make changes as and when the situation dictates." "This is the Calamity Realm!" Little Cally said, pointing at a swirling entrance. "I can''t bring you inside since there are a couple of Mong Realm guards stationed here that are monitoring the place all the time. However, if something happens to me in the future, I hope you save my realm." "And, my Calamity Laws is the key necessary to gain control over it," it continued. "If that future ever comes to pass, I hope you fuse the Calamity Realm back into the Kun Realm." "Is that why you readily allowed us to devour a part of you?" Sterlena asked, watching Little Cally nod in response. Slowly, the trio arrived before a mysterious spatial storm that slowly parted way to reveal a gate thanks to Little Cally''s power. "I''ve been making spatial tunnels for them for so long that I can casually make a discrete entrance into the Mong Realm. With the Kun Souls protecting you, I can guarantee that you won''t be detected by the Mong Realm Spirit," Little Cally said, sending the three into the portal. "May you succeed, champions." Chapter 1409 Arriving at the Mong Realm Chapter 1409 Arriving at the Mong Realm¡¡¡¡Mong Realm! The trio of Krune, Sterlena, and Gegrafikan arrived at a secluded location on the outskirts of an old city. It was called an old city due to the fact that the buildings were too worn down. The strength of the people in this city wasn''t much to note about. Most were at the God Foundation Realm, with a small group at the God Core Realm. For cultivators at the Nascent God Realm, there was a mere handful. "I never expected this to be the case in the Mong Realm that''s invading everywhere," Krune muttered. "That''s because there''s barely any Godly Energy here," Sterlena said as she flailed her hand in the air. "Them being able to reach the Nascent God Realm here is already astounding." "That''s also true." Gegrafikan nodded, casually probing through the city as he understood everything. All of them had a basic understanding of the Mong Realm''s power system, language, and culture. Thanks to that, they were able to probe through the strength of others and also sense the Mong Realm''s Godly Energy. However, they weren''t able to harness this Godly Energy. After all, even though it was Godly Energy, its functional makeup was different from the Kun Realm''s. Hence, they couldn''t rely on it and would have to use their private resources. Sterlena and Gegrafikan had a storage ring full of God Stones, mostly at Rank 8. They were gifted by the Gods. A Rank 8 God Stone had energy quality on par with a Primal God and was the highest level of God Stone that could be produced on a supercontinent. They were already rare, so the Gods had to empty their pockets to find enough to fill their two spatial rings. There were Rank 9 God Stones as well, but they were so rare that even a God had at most a few of them lying around. As Sterlena and Gegrafikan didn''t have other modes of energy replenishment, all the Rank 8 God Stones were given to them. As for Krune, he had a large space in the subspace. Therefore, he was fine with filling it up using Rank 7 God Stones. That was enough for him, considering he had the Cultivation Lotus to rely upon for Godly Energy. Then again, it wasn''t as if this was all they had to rely upon. This was where Gegrafikan arrived. As a Spirit Aberrant, he had the capability to rapidly transform the part of the Mong Realm into the Kun Realm, thereby making everything there into resources suitable for their use. Though, if they did this, there was a chance some experts might sense the changes and arrive to look into the issue. In short, that might just make things worse. So at present, their plan was to rely upon the Godly Energy produced by the Cultivation Lotus. Then, they''ll only make use of the God Stones during emergencies. "Are you able to sense the key, Krune?" Sterlena asked. "Let me try," Krune replied, condensing his Soul Needle to see it pointing in a certain direction. He walked away, noticing the Soul Needle not even budging much, causing him to sigh. "It''s too far away that it''s no use at present. In any case, it at least shows us in the direction we have to traverse towards." "Let''s gather some details first," Gegrafikan said, slowly entering the city when suddenly, he stood rooted to the spot in shock. Krune and Sterlena were the same too. After all, the city''s atmosphere was just that strange. "We''ve defeated the Tilk Realm!" A cultivator shouted in joy, tearing up. "We''ll annex their entirety!" "More Godly Energy to cultivate!" "We''ll grow stronger!" "W-What the hell is up with these people?" Krune was alarmed, "Don''t they realize that their actions would result in hundreds of billions of people dead?" "It seems they just don''t care about that," Sterlena muttered, pointing at a nearby television. "Look, this is what they''ve been feeding the people for who knows how many millions of years." "Reports say that the Godly Energy of our Realm has dipped by 0.7 percent compared to the past century. Experts estimate that after 17,000 years, the Mong Realm would run out of Godly Energy." The reporter on the news channel began speaking. "17,000 years¡­" an old man muttered. "For a mortal, that''s too far. But for an immortal, that''s just a short cultivation session. And we have plenty of immortals here. 17,000 years is just too little." "Old man¡­" Krune approached him, asking, "Do you have immortals among your family members?" "My son and even my grandson is an immortal." The old man smiled gently in response. "I didn''t like living for that long, so I didn''t form my Spiritual Incarnation. Still, I''ve lived a fulfilling 120 years, so I don''t have any regrets. I can still live on for another 80 years, hoho." He then observed Krune''s face, asking, "You''re not from here, are you?" "I traveled from a faraway place," Krune said, smiling wryly. "I just plan to see various sights¡­" "Futile!" The old man snorted all of a sudden. "Instead of going on with such a fruitless endeavor, you''re better off fighting against our enemies. Enter a foreign realm and kill some of their immortals while bringing their resources back. That''s better than wasting energy by sightseeing." "Kids these days are too lackluster." The old man spat in disgust. "Back in my time, we invaded countless realms and brought back spoils of war all the time. Heck, even my long lifespan is due to those spoils I obtained from the Kun Realm." "You''ve been to the Kun Realm, old man?" Krune acted like he was in surprise, though in truth, he could feel anger building up within him. "Of course!" The old man grinned in response. "We arrived at a weak continent. While the immortals fought in the air, we mortals waged a bloody war on the ground. Eventually, we razed their cities, refined the bodies of all cultivators into Blood Pills and pillaged all their wealth." "Unfortunately¡­" He sighed, speaking, "A lot of it was wasted in converting it to our world''s power. Otherwise, that wealth would have been significant." Chapter 1410 Blood Pill Chapter 1410 Blood Pill¡¡¡¡"This¡­ bastard¡­!" Sterlena gritted her teeth upon hearing the old man retelling in great detail the people he had slaughtered. And this was where they learned about the most popular term in the Mong Realm. Blood Pill! A Blood Pill was something created by refining a cultivator using a mysterious godly ability. As for the details regarding this godly ability, the people weren''t aware. Only the Gods were aware of the details. And these Gods had created countless artifacts that a cultivator only needed to activate. In turn, it would absorb the Godly Energy, meridians, and even the soul of the opponent. With the way it was created, this artifact was only useable on cultivators apart from those in the Mong Realm. When used, it would condense the targets into tiny crimson pills. When ingested, these crimson pills rapidly raised the cultivator''s cultivation on all three cultivation paths. And best of all, there were no problems associated with raising cultivation this way. Things such as wars and the likes were pretty rare. This only happened in cases the experts from the Mong Realm chanced upon discrete Sub-Realms in the various realms they invaded. In such Sub-Realms, there was no need for them to be discreet. Hence, they were warred upon. Such battles also served to provide valuable experience to the Mong Realm cultivators. After all, once their enemies were killed, using the artifact, they could create a lot of Blood Pills. And just like a God Stone, there were nine ranks to Blood Pills. Since Godly Energy was too faint in the Mong Realm, the production of God Stones had stopped ages ago. And currently, Blood Pills were the current and the norm in usage. As to how there was such a vast supply of Blood Pills, Krune extracted it from the old man''s mind, understanding that the Mong Realm directly invaded a lot of realms, waging war there. That was because the other side had become aware of their means. So, as being discrete was no longer a viable option, they waged open wars. But until recent times, the Kun Realm was pretty defenseless. So, every time the Primal Gods and Gods of the Mong Realm made a trip there, they captured countless cultivators and immortals. Using Mental Energy, they placed the captured cultivators and immortals in a state of sleep. After returning to the Mong Realm, they were turned into Blood Pills. It might not seem like it, but the process actually had a decent efficiency, allowing the Mong Realm immortals and cultivators to sustain their cultivation needs this way. Moreover, there were plenty of experts among them while their population was booming, probably the most populated realm out of all. Due to that, there was never a deficiency of people to participate in their wars. Moreover, unlike the Kun Realm, where information related to each continent was held within the respective continent, everything in the Mong Realm was globalized. This meant that even a Godly Fusion Realm mortal was capable of accessing information on the level of Primal Gods. This allowed them to be prepared for everything, not to mention have an active understanding of their realm''s state of affairs. Thanks to this, the people were pretty pro about everything the Mong Realm was doing. Rather, it had reached such a state that they considered everyone beyond Mong Realm as plants that had to be harvested. The old man''s blatant disregard for any life beyond the Mong Realm was pretty common among the populace. This was why Krune and the group became angrier the greater they heard the old man talk. Slowly, they left the place, using their Mental Energy scans to probe through the minds of the people living there, obtaining the necessary information. "Blood Pills are the currency here," Krune spoke after a while. "And it seems we need to travel past hundreds of continents and dozens of supercontinents. That''s too dangerous and time-consuming to travel by flight. We''ll never make it at this rate." "We''ll use their teleportation services," Krune said. "That way, we''ll save a lot of time." "But, what about the money?" Sterlena frowned in response. "We''ll be needing a lot of Blood Pills to travel that far." "Isn''t this a location with weak cultivators?" Krune smirked as he said, "We''ll steal one percent of everyone''s wealth here and every nearby city. With that, we''ll amass a sizeable fortune. And if it''s depleted, we''ll only have to repeat the same. There are a lot of low-level cities in the Mong Realm without anyone strong enough to face us." Gegrafikan and Sterlena were currently at the God Trial Realm. But, their strength allowed them to easily face Elementary Gods. As for Krune, he stabilized himself at the First Stage of the Elementary God Realm. This meant that anyone below the Primal God Realm was no longer their opponent. After all, the three of them had cultivated to the peak of all three paths for their respective cultivation base. So, the Mong Realm immortals didn''t have any advantage over them. Even in the Mountain Sect, with cultivators cultivating all three paths, Krune, Sterlena, and Gegrafikan were a cut above the rest. There was also Zamura, Feifei, Hazak, and a few others of a similar level. But each of them could be counted as a legendary genius with a shot at becoming a powerful God. And, even in the Mong Realm, whose experts were touted to be stronger than their peers from other realms, the trio were confident in their strength. "This time, we''ll make them eat the same despair they''ve been feeding the Kun Realm all along." Krune smiled, condensing a rectangular piece of food in his hands that he turned into powder, dispersing it into the air. And strangely, everyone in the city inhaled it. However, nothing happened beyond that as Krune hadn''t activated it yet. Zombie Food, Hunger Wave! "In the opportune time, I''ll activate it for everyone at the same time," Krune proclaimed, proceeding about as he used his Mental Energy scan to steal the Blood Pills of everyone, casually bypassing through the protection formations laid down at the place. ''You''ve made a mistake, Mong Realm,'' Sterlena thought, gazing at Krune''s actions. ''You should''ve ensured we remained dead back then. But now, that carelessness would come back to bite you.'' Chapter 1411 Infecting the Mong Realm Chapter 1411 Infecting the Mong Realm¡¡¡¡"Eh? Aren''t I running short of 10 Grade One Blood Pills?" A boy muttered in confusion, gazing at his pouch to notice the difference when he was paying for a purchase. He remembered putting 1000 Grade One Blood Pills in the pouch. Then again, a loss of 10 Grade One Blood Pills was pretty insignificant as he casually reimbursed it from his home. It was just one percent of his wealth. He attributed it to his carelessness or him making a calculation mistake. There was also a small mental suggestion planted in his mind that caused him to forget about this over time. It wasn''t something major, as the incident would gradually be forgotten by everyone over time. The mental suggestion would also vanish after a few days. The same thing happened with everyone. Even though it caused a bit of buzz at the start, the people returned to their daily lives soon after. Krune took out some spatial rings from his subspace, handing them over to Sterlena and Gegrafikan to store the Blood Pills in. "We have a sizeable fortune." "This won''t be enough," Sterlena said after a while. "There are plenty of cities nearby. Anyways, this is the Mong Realm. Considering the nature of its people and their character, I have zero qualms about massacring them. So, let''s just steal from everywhere." "Rightly said so," Gegrafikan said, muttering after a while. "Comprehending their laws would only hinder my cultivation. So, I''m working on a filter of sorts that''s capable of converting their laws into ours. Since it''s my race''s specialty, I should be able to complete this soon enough." "Thankfully, Feifei has laid down a basic gist of things regarding that." He smiled, revealing a hungry grin. "So, once I finish it, I''ll partake in a minor feast." "Just don''t do anything overboard that might leave traces," Krune said. "You don''t have to worry about that." Gegrafikan smirked in response. "Once the filter is completed, I won''t be leaving any traces." "Let''s split up," Sterlena said. "With our abilities, we don''t have to worry unless we come across a Primal God. We''ll meet up here exactly after three years. In the meantime, steal as many Blood Pills as you can." "I was also thinking of that just now." Krune nodded. "With the Kun Souls, we don''t have to worry about being detected. Besides, as long as we behave like weak mortals, no suspicion would be directed at us." "It''s decided then," Gegrafikan said, placing the bunch of storage rings in a pouch as he turned around and headed in a certain direction. "I don''t need to remind you, but do be careful," Sterlena said, walking away soon after. "You too, big sis," Krune said, sighing as he decided to start from this city itself, heading towards a shady alleyway. By probing through the memories of everyone, he came across a middle-aged man that had no family to speak of. He lived a secluded life, never interacting with others. But in truth, he had been a mercenary in the past. After going through countless battles, he had amassed a sizeable wealth and was now just enjoying his life in peace. He was also someone that was constantly on the move and had interacted with too many people to become fed up. At present, he spent his days lazing around, unleashing a string of complaints about the people in power, the ways they took action, etc. Basically, from a mercenary, he had degraded into becoming a keyboard warrior. "Who are you?" Suddenly, the mercenary shouted in alarm upon gazing at the figure of Krune before him. "What do you want? Why are you here?" "Are you Dulan-G? Captain of the Power Tiger Mercenary Group?" Krune uttered slowly. "Y-yes¡­" The mercenary nodded meekly. "But, I''ve stopped taking orders ages ago. Please, I don''t wish to work any longer." It seemed that a life of peace and dullness had dulled his fighting spirit as the mercenary seemed rather willing to use words than his honed fists. "Are you sure you cannot remember me?" Krune said, emitting mild anger. "What?" Dulan-G was surprised as he doubled down on his observation, still reaching a dead-end, beginning to sweat nervously as he said, "I don''t remember seeing anyone like you." "Remember that incident nineteen years ago?" Krune said in response. "In Stellar City''s Crimson Fluid Pub, you and the barkeep there had a rather fiery night." "W-What does that have to do with you?" Dulan-G muttered. "A year later, you found her at death''s door when she wished to convey something to you but breathed her last," Krune said, watching Dulan-G''s eyes turn red in response, nodding as he spoke, "In truth, she had birthed your child two months prior to that." "And that''s me." "You¡­ you¡­ y-y-you''re my child?" Dulan-G said in shock, slowly noticing some familiar features in Krune that existed in him and the barkeep. "Yes." Krune nodded, snorting in response. "The only reason I''ve arrived here is to see the face of my father once. That''s all. Nothing more, nothing less." "Wait!" Dulan-G shouted. "What are you planning to do now?" "I don''t even have an identity anyway. So, I''ll just join a random group as a porter and journey to find my destiny," Krune spoke emotionlessly. "Travel as a porter?" Dulan-G muttered in shock before sighing, stating from experience as his demeanor slowly resembled that of a veteran mercenary. "Porters die a dog''s death all the time. And if you don''t even have an identity, they wouldn''t even bother to protect you. At the first sign of trouble, you''ll be tossed as a body bag to fill a demon beast''s stomach." "Let me help you." Dulan-G sighed, saying, "This is the least I can do to take responsibility. I''ll forge you a new identity. Even though I''ve cut off all contact, I still have a lot of brothers working in high positions among the authority. Giving you an identity doesn''t even take much effort for me." ''Of course, this is why I picked you.'' Krune nodded, not showing much of a change in emotion. Upon seeing that he was unmoved, Dulan-G sighed, thinking, ''Just what has this child been through to become this cold? If I had known that she was pregnant, I wouldn''t have gone off on that mission. It was my fault.'' Chapter 1412 Pestlor Returns Chapter 1412 Pestlor Returns¡¡¡¡"Here¡­" Dulan-G said as he handed over an identity card to Krune. "Are you sure you wish to live by the name of Pestlor?" "Yeah, that was what I''ve been named anyway. Might as well just go with it," Krune said, grabbing the identity card as he walked away. "Thanks for your help. I won''t be appearing here ever again." "Y-You know¡­" Dulan-G said all of a sudden, watching Krune leave. "If things get hard, you can return here anytime you want." Krune just waved his hand and left, thinking, ''I''m getting pretty good at acting, to be honest.'' The fact of the matter is, throughout this interaction, he didn''t use any Mental Energy to manipulate Dulan-G. This showed that Dulan-G wholly bought his ploy through his sheer acting skills alone. Though, despite everything, acting skills alone wouldn''t have been enough. His performance should be convincing, sure, but they should incorporate truths in the matter. And that was why he was looking for a suitable candidate while scouring through their memories. Plus, Dulan-G was the perfect candidate. After surfing through his memories, Krune created a suitable plan of action. It was easy to set his plan in motion after that. Now that Krune had obtained an identity card and a basic level of background, he could infiltrate the ranks of the Mong Realm better. Using Mental Energy, he was already up to speed on various things that happened in the Mong Realm, also playacting to behave no different from the people there. This way, he wouldn''t raise any suspicion. His goal was to infiltrate the Mong Realm ranks as deeply as possible while planning the seeds of disaster, or in this case, seeds of hunger. He did that without stopping, infecting every cultivator he came across. The more that were affected, the greater the effectiveness of his plan. After all, if something began to spread gradually, even if a solution to it couldn''t be created, the cause could somehow be quarantined. Krune didn''t wish for that to be the case. When he took action, he seriously wished to cripple the Mong Realm''s foundation to a certain extent. The Mong Realm was probably as big, if not bigger, than the Kun Realm. So, his actions might very well be a droplet in the ocean. However, his Hunger Law was contagious. So, as long as he infected a sizeable number in every continent he was at, it would spread like wildfire once he activated it. ''Even if I fail to obtain the key in the end, I should still ensure the Mong Realm faces a lot of headaches from this, so much so that they wouldn''t be able to invade the Kun Realm for the foreseeable future.'' He thought, ''That would give us enough time to prepare.'' At present, what the Kun Realm needed the most was time. They were currently working on various plans to raise the strength of the Kun Realm as a whole. The Mountain Sect was the first of its kind, having already developed on all three paths to an exceptional extent while innovating new godly techniques that incorporate all three paths. Soon, sects like the Mountain Sect would crop up all over the God Realm. It would cause the Kun Realm itself to usher in a new age. After all, the increase in the God Realm''s strength directly raised the standards of the Kun Realm as a whole. Moreover, the Gods of Kun Realm were also working to revive the fallen Gods or at least create plans similar to Solare. Even though Solare wasn''t the same individual as the God that had died, he was now inheriting that position. Moreover, he was born to inherit this, thanks to all the experiences that had molded him in such a manner, making him the one to inherit the God Seat. So, as the Gods reclaimed the God Seats of all fallen Gods, they would be creating people similar to Solare to inherit them one after another. This way, with the number of Gods in the Kun Realm increasing, it would stabilize the Realm further, also raising its defenses. Then, once it begins to grow and develop further, the chances for the Realm Spirit''s birth would increase drastically. However, everything needed time. And, the Mong Realm would definitely not give them the chance to grow stronger. So, they would definitely interfere, just as they had done all along. That was how they stalled the Kun Realm''s development. But the Kun Realm was just too massive. So, some geniuses slipped the net of destruction caused by the Mong Realm, eventually turning into powerhouses that continued to develop the Kun Realm. But in the end, the Kun Realm''s development had indeed stagnated for too long. It was unknown when the Mong Realm had actually infiltrated the Kun Realm. Maybe at that time, the strength between both the Realms was equal. But over time, the geniuses of the Kun Realm were assassinated nonstop, while the Mong Realm expended its resources to nurture geniuses that had a wealth of experiences by also fighting experts from foreign Realms. Eventually, it resulted in the current situation where the Mong Realm was one of the leading powers. ''Hopefully, it''ll change in the future,'' Krune thought as he roamed from one city to another, taking advantage of his newfound wealth and identity, using the transportation formations of the cities one after another. He arrived in a city, infected the people, obtaining any useful information from the minds of the people there, stole one percent of their Blood Pills and then left. After some days had passed in such a fashion, he found someone influential once again to forge a new identity, using that for the teleportation services. In this fashion, Krune spent a year going through all the cities on this continent, finally arriving at the capital where he planned to take the teleportation service there to head towards the nearby continent. There were still two more years before he would meet up with Sterlena and Gegrafikan. So in that time, he planned to grad a sizeable wealth and infect the people as much as he could. Thanks to the Kun Soul, he was able to sense their position and status while also being able to converse with them. And if necessary, he could even locate them with the help of his Soul Needle easily. Thinking as such, he entered the Mercenary Guild, planning to take on a mission. After all, that was the necessary excuse to leave the continent. It was hard to travel from one continent to another without a proper reason, after all. Chapter 1413 Heavenly Spark Chapter 1413 Heavenly Spark¡¡¡¡"You''re a¡­D-Rank Mercenary, sir Pestlor?" The staff in the Mercenary Guild looked through his identity and a list of ''fake'' accomplishments on his report. She then nodded, stamping on a document that she gave to him. "Your mission is to kill the bandits in Stork City. They pretty much have control over the city''s underground, so you''ll have to be careful." She then asked in hesitation, "Even though they don''t have any immortals, the leader is at the Nascent God Realm. Will you be fine?" "I''m at the Nascent God Realm as well." Krune smiled, replying, "And I have confidence in my strength to deal with them. Don''t worry." "Alright." The staff sighed in response before reminding him, "You''ll have to understand that if you fail, the people of the city might be implicated." "There''s no choice, right?" Krune smiled all of a sudden. "Even though this mission has been up for more than a year, none have accepted it. That''s why it''s even being posted in another continent like this." "You''re right about that," the staff said in response. "It''s because the payment for this mission is lacking in comparison to the risks. Plus, there might be potential threats attached to completing the mission. As they''ve been in control of the city for so long, who knows if they had even managed to rope in an immortal? So, none dare to take the task while the immortals simply couldn''t be bothered to move for such a paltry reward." "Sir, even for you, I advise that you reconsider. There''s too much danger here," the staff advised out of her goodwill. "It''s fine." Krune smiled, waving his hand as he left. "I need this experience to prepare for my eventual breakthrough. If I fail and fall here, it simply means that I''ve fallen short." "Hah, another brave soul that''s heading to his death." Once Krune left, the staff sighed. "Did you have the hots for that man?" Suddenly, a fellow staff nudged her. "I''ve never seen you advise someone so much. I must say, though, he does have a pleasing aura about him. It''s one of the gentlest I''ve ever seen." "I felt that too¡­" Another staff joined the discussion. "Maybe he''s from a peaceful demon beast race?" "Peaceful demon beast race?" The staff member that conversed with Krune snorted in response. "So we even have something like that here? I''m just doing my job. Don''t misunderstand." "Hehe. I understand." Her friend jeered at her, causing a flurry of giggles soon after. It was indeed true that compared to the people of the Mong Realm, a wisp''s innate nature caused Krune to appear cheerful, despite him sporting a serious expression. It was in his aura that was radiating from him. As the Mong Realm was full of warmongering people that had persisted with the same for so long, most of them had a sense of sharpness to them that felt pretty suffocating and stale in the end. But among them, someone like Krune, though with the sharpness of an expert, also possessing a peaceful nature to him, was refreshing in the eyes of the ladies. That was why they were rather enthusiastic to truthfully state all the cons of the mission he was accepting. The staff lady had indeed tried to woo him. Unfortunately, her target was Krune, who wasn''t even aware that he was her target, walking away once he obtained the necessary materials for a transfer. He then entered the capital''s teleportation circle, arriving at his destination in the nearby continent, Stork City. He then casually booked a room in a nearby inn, beginning his investigation with a Mental Energy scan, obtaining a basic understanding. ''A lot of the inn owners here work for the underground mafia. Basically, this city has fallen under their complete control.'' ''Even the City Lord''s son has joined them¡­'' Krune frowned, sighing, "They are no longer the underground but pretty much the government for this city." ''Eliminating them would cause a lot of eyes to fall on this place. And once they investigate, their attention will be focused on me. And that''s not favorable,'' Krune thought, planning his actions. ''I''ll travel for two years and return to say that I''ve failed the mission. That would make it easy for me to return to that continent.'' He casually began to roam through the continent, noticing quite a lot of immortals this time around. ''Most of them are at the Semi-God Realm, but it seems this continent is stronger. As for the immortals¡­ they''re on par with the Mountain Sect''s Semi-God Realm cultivators.'' Krune frowned at this observation. After all, it would be lying if he said he wasn''t proud of the strength his sect members had reached through the various facilities established in the Mountain Sect. So, he was hoping that they would be stronger than their peers from the Mong Realm. But in truth, they were evenly matched. The only difference were the immortals trained by the Elders, who were on a whole other level, like Relena. ''But, there should similarly be geniuses here too. This is indeed troubling.'' He sighed, realizing that he couldn''t underestimate the Mong Realm in the least. If their people had the same quality as the Mountain Sect, then it was terrifying to think about. ''No, even though the Mountain Sect immortals have greater raw power, they''re vastly inexperienced. So, once they get enough experience, they''ll become stronger,'' Krune concluded. ''But, fighting against the Kun Realm immortals wouldn''t do anything. Only if they fight against enemies that cultivate all three paths would it be valuable.'' ''Hmm, I need to think of something for this,'' Krune thought, watching a couple of immortals nearby discussing about participating in the attack force that would invade the Tilk Realm to fully destroy their immortals. What they weren''t aware of was the fact that Krune was hovering right beside them. However, they failed to sense them. Slowly, as he stared at them, his eyes turned sharp as Krune stretched his hand. ''Since you''ve done it many times, it''s only fair you people experience it yourselves.'' "Explode at the opportune time." Godly Ability¡ªHeavenly Spark! Chapter 1414 Krune’s a Spy! Chapter 1414 Krune¡¯s a Spy!¡¡¡¡Godly Ability¡ªHeavenly Spark! This was the variant of Spark that Feifei had derived to destroy the Sparks of the Mong Realm while retaliating with the same effect. The two immortals weren''t even aware that their fates had been sealed by him. However, Krune wasn''t satisfied with this alone, recalling the time when one of his clones became a member of the Abolition Tower and exploded, and the same thing that happened to himself thanks to the Mong Realm God, Henfa-L-Talon. ''The Abolition Tower has been established as a terrifying terrorist organization in the Kun Realm. Its name alone strikes fear in the hearts of countless immortals. Then, I should do something similar,'' Krune thought, activating Mental Energy as he made minor changes to the Heavenly Spark. ''Now, there would be a festival when they detonate.'' He smiled, flying away before pausing his actions, deep in thought. ''Wait, they were talking about fighting the Tilk Realm, right?'' ''Yes, fighting is the best way to gain experience,'' Krune muttered, gazing at himself as he continued, "With Mental Energy, I can share my experiences with others. That way, they''ll have a good source of reference to work with in relation to fighting against opponents that have developed in all three cultivation paths." It was easy for him to convey everything. After all, he had left behind a clone in the Mountain Sect. Its sole purpose was to relay everything he was experiencing in the Mong Realm. This established a real-time information transfer, allowing the Mountain Sect to learn details about the Mong Realm better. And similarly, as they had shared thoughts, everything Krune experienced could be extracted by the clone on the other side through Mental Energy and distributed to the immortals of the Mountain Sect. This way, they could digest his experiences and develop accordingly. Moreover, these experiences could be sold to other sects that would be established similar to the Mountain Sect in regards to cultivating all three cultivation paths. This would become a major revenue stream that would fuel the Mountain Sect to greater heights. There were many clones of himself in the Mountain Sect. But, except for one, the rest had been sealed with the combined effort of countless Gods. This way, even if Krune were to get killed in the Mong Realm, these sealed clones would survive the resultant destructive force, and only the clone outside would die. Or even if Krune managed to survive, there might be times when an information overload would happen when the opponent attacked him with Mental Energy. That might also result in the clone''s death. So in such cases, they could simply bring out another clone from the seal and continue to extract data from it. The reason the trio of Krune, Sterlena and Gegrafikan planned to meet after three years was to collect as much data as possible. That way, once they met up again, they''ll transfer all the information through Mental Energy to him, allowing the Mountain Sect to extract the same through the clone. But now, Krune also thought of using the same methods to also send in experiences related to fighting against cultivators that cultivated all three cultivation paths. Krune sealed his strength to the Semi-God Realm, crashing into a secluded location where a Semi-God Realm immortal was currently meditating. The Godly Energy in the air here was mildly stronger as compared to the rest. Krune figured out that the cultivator was relying upon the formation there to burn the Blood Pills and generate Godly Energy. The reason he was doing this was to fuel the growth of some herbs that he had planted to create pills out of. He was at the peak of the Semi-God Realm, with the pills being the sole hope of him attaining the God Trial Realm. That was why he was expending his wealth to generate Godly Energy here. "Who''s there?" Suddenly, the immortal shouted in alarm, manipulating the formation to sense the figure of Krune trying to break through the formation. "Stop!" the immortal screamed in shock at his actions, worried about the herbs that he grew painstakingly. "Those herbs¡­ I''ll be taking them." Krune grinned, sporting a ravenous expression like a third-rate thug. This was how he planned to make the other party fight to the death. He had already investigated beforehand to see that the immortal was only a lone cultivator. He didn''t have the backing of any Clan or Sect. That meant¡­ Krune could kill him without any trouble knocking him at his doorstep. He planned to target the lone cultivators first. In the Mong Realm, considering its population, it was already brimming with so many immortals that its resource production had long since failed to catch up. Hence, immortals killing immortals were pretty common here. The Mong Realm didn''t care about the deaths of any immortal that wasn''t a God, Primal God, and weaker immortals that had been labeled as geniuses. As long as they weren''t killed, none of the powerhouses would ever bat an eye. They had a lot on their plates already since each powerhouse was leading its own expedition in foreign realms to weaken their foundations. If he targeted a clan or sect, he would have to eradicate everyone. Otherwise, things would escalate. Krune was, of course, planning to fight against a few. But first, he had to observe the extent of strength he could erupt with without revealing his identity as the Kun Realm''s champion. Moreover, he had to also figure out the investigative means of the Mong Realm using the information in the minds of the Mong Realm immortals. So, he was planning to take it slow and gradually scale up the strength of the enemies he faced. With that, starting with lone cultivators was the best bet at this. Anyway, he had zero hesitations against killing people that happily targeted his home. Considering how the Mong Realm had instigated the annihilation of wisps at one point in time, his racial instincts had pretty much labeled them as target practice. Of course, he had no intention of changing that. "Shut up and eat my fist!" Krune bellowed and punched forth, shattering the formation before slamming into the immortal. Chapter 1415 Mong Realm Immortal’s Battle Style Chapter 1415 Mong Realm Immortal¡¯s Battle Style¡¡¡¡"Gah!" The immortal screamed in despair, watching the formation shatter under a single punch from Krune as the backlash disrupted the environment, destroying his herbs. They would no longer mature or reach the state he had been hoping for. In a single action, his more than two centuries'' worth of painstaking efforts had been rendered useless. "You... bastard!" the immortal bellowed in anger, erupting with the entirety of his strength, causing his body to swell up immediately as he turned into a giant with three heads, punching forth at Krune. The swelling up of the body was related to his body cultivation, rapidly spiking his strength. The emergence of three heads was related to his soul cultivation. After all, at present, he had three minds to work simultaneously with, allowing him to attack Krune''s mind in three different ways. It would be like fighting against three cultivators. And finally, the immortal''s Godly Energy swerved through his giant body, rapidly morphing the terrain into a sea of hands that jutted out of the ground in an effort to capture and shred him apart. The immortal took off to the air as the sea of hands spread out, creating a domain in which he had a superiority in advantage. Heavenly Incarnation! When a cultivator with a Spiritual Incarnation unleashed their domain on the ground, it rapidly terraformed the land, changing all the laws there to become laws forming their Spiritual Incarnation. This was called the Land Incarnation. But, once one becomes an immortal, their Spiritual Incarnation evolved. And now, the domain they unleash turned spherical, resulting in completely changing the environment of an entire region, causing a pseudo¨CSub-Realm to form. Heavenly Incarnation! Most immortals refrained from unleashing this as Heavenly Incarnation expended most of their energy. They wouldn''t be able to unleash it more than once per battle, as the requirements were too harsh. That''s why most immortals only relied upon their Land Incarnations. After all, they were capable of unleashing many Land Incarnations as long as they had sufficient Godly Energy. But for this immortal, his life''s hopes had been destroyed before his very eyes. So, he was raging, having no other intention than to skin Krune alive and shred him apart. Boom! His attack slammed into a barrier of ice that cracked in response. Though, his attack failed to get past. Swish! The three heads glared at Krune, suddenly unleashing a mental attack, causing Krune to feel lightheaded immediately. This caused his judgment to waver for a moment when the immortal''s fists slammed through his ice shield, slamming him into the sea of hands. Their entire surroundings had already turned pitch black as everywhere he turned, Krune was only able to see the hands. The hands grabbed hold of him in an effort to constrict him. But Krune tugged his hand, tearing them apart as he condensed a sword of ice to rapidly cut them apart. There was a mild fist mark on him that vanished, displaying his powerful regenerative capabilities. "Is that all you can do?" "Bastard!" The immortal raged at his taunt, unleashing a string of attacks immediately. ''Body cultivation is used as their primary means of offense and defense. They use Godly Energy to activate their Land or Heavenly Incarnation and allow the environment to damage their opponents. And finally, they condense multiple heads that constantly attack the minds of their opponents to throw them off guard at opportune moments, allowing their attacks to shred their enemies apart,'' Krune thought, obtaining a general understanding of the way the Mong Realm immortals fought. In short, it was a rather solid fighting style. After all, body cultivation was overpowered when cultivated properly. It allowed them to move fast, resist powerful attacks using the toughness of their body, and each attack they unleashed would be tremendously powerful. So, it made sense that the remaining two cultivation paths were treated as supplementary whose function was to raise the effectiveness of their body cultivation attacks. Indeed, this was the perfect way to use all three cultivation paths. The Mong Realm had been in a state of constant battle for millions of years. So, their fighting style had pretty much been perfected by now. Godly Energy attacks could use used for long-range, in the case they were emission-based. But even then, they had to be aimed. And with a powerful body, they would be able to aim fast and react accordingly to their opponent''s actions. Moreover, thanks to soul cultivation, they had powerful minds that were able to process multiple information at the same time, allowing them to think and create countermeasures instantly. And with three heads, it granted them three individual minds to work on any subject. One would analyze their opponent, one would work on attacking and defending, while the final one could work on harnessing the Heavenly Incarnation to gradually damage the opponent. Then, the three heads would combine the power of the three minds to unleash a powerful mental attack that served to destroy the minds of the opponents. Even if it failed to do so, it disrupted the flow of the target, creating a gap in their thought process, resulting in them failing to defect against an attack. And that was what had happened before. Even though Krune defended himself against the mental attack, the power behind it momentarily disrupted his thoughts, causing the immortal to attack him. If his body had been weak in this case, he would have died then and there. That was why the Mong Realm didn''t even put the Kun Realm immortals in their eyes. After all, they would be able to casually dispatch any immortal they were to face. And indeed, that was true. Within a few exchanges, Krune learned a lot, grinning in response. ''Indeed, I made the right decision to fight against them. This experience is too valuable to let go of.'' He then shouted, "My turn!" Immediately, a beam of cold light slammed into the immortal, momentarily freezing his actions when Krune appeared before him, causing wind to swirl around his fists as he pummelled the immortal. When the hands in the surroundings tried to close in on him, the fierce gales revolving around him kept them at bay. Punch! Punch! Punch! Krune unleashed a hail of nonstop attacks using his body cultivation alone, slowly causing blood to gush out of the giant''s body when suddenly, he swerved his body, kicking one of the heads, severing it from the body. Chapter 1416 Krune Loses? Chapter 1416 Krune Loses?¡¡¡¡"Gah!" the immortal shouted in pain as one of his heads was severed by Krune''s kick. But before he could even hope to retaliate, Krune''s figure blurred as he slammed a punch into the immortal''s chest, activating an ability that caused him to grunt in response. Passive Ability¡ªMoving Ripple! Ripples formed on the immortal''s body as his blood acted like water, allowing Krune to manipulate it, reversing his blood flow, rupturing the nerves. Right at this moment, Krune took out Pestlor, rapidly expanding its length and flattening the second head before slamming the immortal into the ground, causing him to groan in response. "Argh!" The immortal defended himself, intending to regenerate, when he noticed in shock that countless holes began to appear on his body, noticing a tiny creature being held in Krune''s hand. "What the hell is that?" "Your demise." Krune unleashed another Air Needle, boring through the immortal''s head, destroying the final head. However, he wasn''t dead, though. Such a level of injury wouldn''t kill an immortal. Then again, that wasn''t what he was gunning for in the first place. Smiling, Krune activated his Mental Energy scan, using the immortal''s momentary distraction to invade his mind and destroy the defensive barriers erected there. As to how he did that? Tribulation Lightning! Lightning ravaged the immortal''s mind, instantly destroying all his defensive means as Krune quickly took control of the immortal''s memories, going through them at tremendous speeds. Bam! The immortal slammed a beam, sending Krune flying as the countless hands began to rain down punches on him. Moreover, each of their fists radiated with a law, preventing Krune from defending himself properly. "Bastard!" The immortal gasped for breath, feeling violated upon having his memories accessed by someone else. His three heads had just finished forming when they were riddled with holes once again. But this time, Krune threw the Thundercloud Whale, causing it to pierce the immortal''s body and inject Frozen Blood immediately. "Shit!" The immortal grunted, riling up his three energies in an effort to counter the Frozen Blood. But right at this moment, Krune arrived before him, smirking as he pummelled him using Pestlor, flattening his body like a pancake. The immortal had no other choice but to exert all his strength in his recovery while Krune used the chance to inject more Frozen Blood into his body, rapidly chilling the giant''s body. Slowly, a layer of ice began to form over his skin as his movements turned sluggish. "Hah!" the immortal shouted, unleashing a mental attack that caused Krune to grunt, momentarily at a loss as to what he had to do. Bam! Using the opportunity, his fists glowed a majestic radiance as the immortal slammed into Krune, shattering his bones as tens of thousands of hands constricted his body, preventing him from escaping while he continued to attack nonstop. He planned to destroy Krune using this momentary advantage. His three heads prepared another mental attack, unleashing it right when Krune recovered, causing him to be in a state of confusion for another second. The immortal''s three pairs of eyes were bleeding, having unleashed mental attacks consecutively, suffering injuries to his soul. However, he was willing to pay this price to kill the bastard that had destroyed his life''s work. Krune was unable to recover from the mental attack as his body was turned into a rough sack soon after. But right when the immortal was about to deliver a killing blow, tens of thousands of Thundercloud Whales manifested beside him, simultaneously unleashing their Air Needles. Boom! Most of the hands constricting him were destroyed while the immortal was sent flying, barely caught by a few intact hands that prevented him from being flung off the Heavenly Incarnation. Krune''s body rapidly healed itself while clarity returned to his eyes, gasping for air. "That was dangerous." ''If not for Little Krune, that situation would have been too dangerous.'' His back was drenched in cold sweat, having obviously underestimated his opponent. ''Dammit, even I lack experience compared to a Mong Realm Semi-God Realm cultivator.'' The Thundercloud Whales immediately began to suck in and compress the air while Krune looked through the immortal''s memories that he had obtained, focusing on a certain ability as he rapidly comprehended it. Suddenly, a hundred Thundercloud Whales glared at the immortal, unleashing an attack. Mental Attack! This was the immortal''s signature mental attack that disrupted Krune''s thought process before. And now, the same thing was being dealt to the immortal, causing him to lose control of his thought process for a moment. ''Hmm, even though a hundred Little Krunes had unleashed it, the effect wasn''t as strong as what he had unleashed.'' Krune frowned in thought, hurriedly taking advantage of his opponent''s defenseless state. More than five thousand Thundercloud Whales unleashed Air Needles, completely riddling the immortal''s body with holes. ''It''ll take him a dozen seconds at least to recover from that.'' The reason he was using the Air Needles was that they were energy efficient. They only sucked in the ambient air to attack. Instead, if he used the Lightning Needle, he would run out of all the Godly Energy stored within his subspace. Even though the Lightning Needles were vastly superior to the Air Needles, even able to make a Primal God only focus on defense, they were very energy-draining. At present, if Krune unleashed the Lightning Needle using all his Thundercloud Whales, he wouldn''t even have a single speck of Godly Energy remaining in his subspace. This included the God Stones he had brought with him. They were just that energy-draining. Besides, using tribulation lightning so blatantly was just announcing that he, Krune, had arrived at the Mong Realm. That was why he was careful in his actions, not using any of his signature abilities. Most of the immortal''s body was destroyed as Krune swatted the rest using his Pestlor, suddenly grunting in pain when the countless hands around him brimmed with a suffocating presence, grabbing a Thundercloud Whale each to squish them to death. And immediately after, a massive eye appeared within the Heavenly Incarnation, glaring at Krune as the eye shattered, unleashing the immortal''s strongest mental energy attack. "Argh!" Krune bellowed in pain, immediately losing consciousness in the process. Chapter 1417 Pyrrhic Victory Chapter 1417 Pyrrhic Victory¡¡¡¡"Hahaha¡­cough!" The immortal reformed his body, laughing in joy at successfully landing his attack when he coughed out blood all of a sudden, gazing in shock to see that Krune wasn''t dead yet. "But I destroyed his mind!" he shouted in disbelief, his eyes widening as he suddenly noticed a lone Thundercloud Whale hiding under Krune''s armpit all along, small enough that it wasn''t noticeable, only the size of his little finger. But with it being alive, it meant that Krune''s mind wasn''t destroyed. After all, he and Little Krune were of one mind. Even if his mind was destroyed, as long as a fragment of Little Krune survived, his mind would recover instantly from it. And that it did now as Krune''s eyes shot upon, shuddering in response from cold sweat as he quickly sent the sole remaining Thundercloud Whale¡ªLittle Krune fragment¡ªinto his subspace, unleashing a beam of cold light that began to freeze up the Heavenly Incarnation. The immortal''s body was already destroyed. He used the last of his Mental Energy to unleash his trump card, causing the Heavenly Incarnation itself to unleash a mental attack. That was what he had been hoping for to kill Krune, having already understood the ways in which Krune''s power played. Honestly, if not for him saving up a Thundercloud Whale, he would have indeed died here. After unleashing his trump card, the immortal was unable to do anything else, having expended all his Mental Energy. Now, he needed a lot of time to recondense a body through his Heavenly Incarnation. Unfortunately for him, the Mong Realm''s Godly Energy was way too thin. With his formation destroyed, the Godly Energy he had accumulated in the region spread out, rapidly thinning in process. Due to this, he was unable to reform his body. Using this chance, Krune rapidly froze the Heavenly Incarnation, using the Law of Ice to destroy the laws forming it. "Damn you!" The immortal cursed through his Heavenly Incarnation that froze into a gigantic sphere of ice that began to shatter soon after. With a wave of his hand, Krune retracted all the laws that he had unleashed. He didn''t wish to leave behind any traces of the Kun Realm Laws here. Thanks to Kun Soul, it seemed like the laws were the Mong Realm''s. But once he left the place, the veil on them would gradually dissipate. In that case, even the Mong Realm Spirit might notice his existence through the Kun Realm laws abruptly appearing in its realm. That was why he retracted all his laws once he ensured he destroyed the immortal''s laws. He then unleashed a fluctuation that traveled through the remainder of the immortal''s Heavenly Incarnation, rapidly destroying all his revival means, preventing him from ever reviving. With that, he was as good as dead. "That was¡­ dangerous!" Krune gasped for air, slumping on the ground in exhaustion. Even though he had sealed his strength to the Semi-God Realm, the base abilities were stronger than the opponent. His foundation was more robust as compared to his opponent that was struggling to reach the God Trial Realm. But instead, when they fought, Krune came close to death once. The reason for this was simple¡­ A lack of fighting experience! Krune had fought a lot of battles in his life, a variety of them, in fact. But, all his opponents, to date, only cultivated one cultivation path. So, their range of attacks was targeted in only one aspect. He had fought Zamura for training purposes, but Zamura typically depended on his Godly Energy and Body Cultivation to fight. That experience wasn''t enough. Besides, both sides were going all out, not even once. The way they fought in the Kun Realm was like child''s play as compared to the Mong Realm immortals. After all, the cultivators here were trained to fight, which was pretty much what was expected in a warring realm that constantly invaded countless other realms. So, every cultivator had a lot of experience in fights. Plus, their opponents typically cultivated all three paths. After all, they weren''t just targeting undeveloped realms like the Kun and Tilk Realms. But, they were also targeting superior realms like Garg Realm, whose strength, to be frank, was almost on par with the Mong Realm. Due to this, every single cultivator had a wealth of fighting experience under them. Thanks to that, the immortal quickly saw through Krune''s fighting style, preparing countermeasures accordingly. The fact that he had almost killed Krune displayed how superior his experience was in comparison to Krune. After all, even at the same cultivation base, Krune was way stronger as compared to the immortal. ''Then, what if I fight someone that''s as strong as me?'' Krune thought, shuddering in response. If he fought a Mong Realm immortal who was as strong as himself, he would definitely die. His lack of experience would be abused by his opponent, resulting in his quick death. "But no matter." Krune grinned all of a sudden. "Isn''t this why I''m fighting them now?" "There are plenty of lone cultivators in this continent alone." He smiled. "As I continue to fight, I''ll be gaining more and more experience." ''And, my clone in the Mountain Sect would transmit all these experiences to the Sect Members, making them live through this battle. This would usher their growth the fastest.'' He muttered contently, "Over time, they too would become prepared to fight against the Mong Realm immortals and win in a one-on-one battle." He then looked around, grinning. "Even though he''s a lone cultivator, he was considerably strong. And judging by how he was preparing to reach the God Trial Realm¡­" Krune grinned jovially. "His belongings should be stashed nearby. That''ll boost my wealth further." He began to look through the immortal''s estate, finding countless Rank 5 Blood Pills and even some rare few Rank 6 Blood Pills. That wasn''t all. There were all sorts of herb seeds around, not to mention precious materials that were hard to come across. Though, Krune paid no attention to the herbs and so-called precious materials. They were precious only in the Mong Realm. They were pretty much commonplace in the Kun Realm. "The Mong Realm has indeed exhausted its foundation to strengthen itself." Chapter 1418 Against Three Immortals Chapter 1418 Against Three Immortals¡¡¡¡"Indeed, there''s a lot left to be learned while battling the Mong Realm immortals. I just fought one by sealing my cultivation to the same level as him. And I was almost killed," Krune spoke, relaying the contents to Sterlena and Gegrafikan through the Kun Soul. "So, I think the two of you also need to experience the same. That''ll help us prepare for the future." "Hmm, what you said makes sense," Sterlena spoke, muttering while considering what to do. "But I''ll first need to convert the Blood Pills to our power mechanic. Only then would I be able to replenish my Godly Energy. Otherwise, we''ll just end up expending all our resources." ''That''s true. I have the Cultivation Lotus, so I''m better off in this regard,'' Krune thought before saying, "Do you want me to send the extra Blood Pills that I collect your way?" "That''s unnecessary," Gegrafikan replied. "We''ll work out something on our end. I just probed through the mind of a retired immortal that had once researched the Blood Pills. That has given me a lot of valuable info. So, I''ll manage on my end." "Same here. I''m working on understanding the various types of Laws that are present in the Mong Realm. That way, I can predict the abilities they can possess that''s different from ours." Sterlena continued, "Since I have all the laws of the Kun Realm and have comprehended all of them to a certain extent, I can figure out the differences. I''ll be focusing on this for the time being. I''ll fight them after we regroup." "That''s fine with me," Krune replied and cut off the communication. Currently, they communicated daily at a fixed time to exchange information. Moreover, they wanted to be prepared for any issues that might arise. After all, suppose their original continent was visited by a Primal God, then that would make it riskier. Hence, they could talk beforehand and regroup somewhere else. Krune looted all of the lone cultivator''s belongings, noticing a strange document there. "Coalition of Lone Cultivators?" He smiled after seeing that. "This is great. There''s information regarding all the lone cultivators here. That saves me a lot of effort." He then looked through the information, finding the closest Semi-God Realm immortal to fight with next, proceeding there right after his strength reached an optimal state. Boom! "What the¡­? Bastard!" The Semi-God Realm immortal cursed in anger when his formation was destroyed as Krune barged into his residence. This lone cultivator had a family he was living with, a group of dozen people, all cultivators. He even had grandchildren, all with sizeable talents. His son and daughter had already become Semi-God Realm cultivators while the grandchildren were at the Nascent God Realm, on the verge of becoming immortals. "Who the hell are you? Why are you barging into my home?" The immortal sporting a green goatee grunted in anger. He was on the cusp of reaching the God Trial Realm. He was pretty strong, and hence, there hadn''t been anything that dared trouble him in the past. But now, the fact that someone barged into the place shocked him. "Well¡­" Krune iterated slowly. "I can here to fight. As simple as that." "For a martial exchange?" The immortal with a green goatee asked, controlling his anger. "Nah, a fight to the death," Krune said, instantly probing through the minds of his children and grandchildren through Mental Energy, noticing that they had actually gone to the Kun Realm in the past. It was an undiscovered Sub-Realm in the Kun Realm. Plus, the strength of the immortals there wasn''t high, with the strongest only at the Elementary God Realm. They had become the Mong Realm''s target. Such Sub-Realms were perfect in that they were originally hidden, with the immortals of the Kun Realm ignorant of their existence. So, for the Mong Realm, this was the perfect training ground. Countless such hidden Sub-Realms in the Kun Realm had been invaded by the Mong Realm and treated as farms to create Blood Pills. This was one of their major sources of Blood Pills. When Krune realized that, he became angry. The Mong Realm bastards were indeed sucking the vitality of the Kun Realm. And the family before him had participated in one such expedition. That was how they obtained a lot of resources that allowed the three of them to reach the Semi-God Realm. ''Then, I don''t need to care about their lives.'' Krune thought as he slowly released his strength, unleashing a sharp aura that caused his opponents to frown. "Take the young with you and escape," he said to his daughter, that was at the Second Stage Semi-God Realm, before gazing at his son. "Support me when necessary. He''s strong." "Alright, dad." His son that was at the Third Stage Semi-God Realm nodded in response. "Go all out," Krune spoke in seriousness. "Otherwise, you''ll die a dog''s death." "Fine, since you asked for it, I''ll oblige." The immortal with a green goatee snorted, instantly erecting a massive domain. It was his Heavenly Incarnation. "What the¡­ fuck?" The immortal with a green goatee was flabbergasted to see his daughter and the rest of his family remaining within the Heavenly Incarnation. This was despite him erecting it to exclude them away. This way, Krune wouldn''t be able to use them as hostage. But surprisingly, his daughter brought them all back within the range of his Heavenly Incarnation. The immortal with the green goatee shouted at his daughter, "Why did you return?" "Dad, this bastard has surrounded this place," she replied, trembling. "We cannot escape." "I did say it''s a fight to the death, after all." Krune smiled gently all of a sudden, gazing at the immortal with the green goatee, "And, I didn''t mean you alone, but your entire family. The lives of your entire family versus mine. Simple, right?" "Fucker!" The immortal with a green goatee snorted as mysterious green discs manifested in his Heavenly Incarnation, with each of them seeming alive. The discs instantly rushed at Krune, spinning rapidly, intending to cut him into pieces. And at the same time, the immortal with the green goatee transformed into a ten-meter-tall giant with three heads and six pairs of arms, starting with a mental attack that he directed at Krune. ''This pressure is pretty suffocating,'' Krune thought while feeling difficulty in breathing, grinning as he gripped his Pestlor, erupting with an attack immediately. Chapter 1419 Adapting To Fights Chapter 1419 Adapting To Fights¡¡¡¡Boom! Boom! Boom! Green discs slammed into a barrier of ice as Krune''s figure flickered throughout the Heavenly Incarnation. His speed was pretty quick as he evaded all attacks, brandishing his Pestlor to shatter the discs that he rushed past. Active Ability¡ªThundercloud Whale! He activated it within himself, enveloping his body with a layer of wind that allowed him to move quickly. Dreams of the Heart¡ªOcean Turbulence! Thump! Thump! Thump! The sounds of his heartbeat resounded throughout the place as Krune fused his Neon Radiance King, Moving Ripple, and Frozen Blood to his Thundercloud Whale, causing his surroundings to become moist, allowing him to fly through it freely like a fish. This speed was more than ten times the flight speed of a Semi-God Realm cultivator, allowing Krune to strut about freely. He wasn''t using the entirety of his abilities yet. First of all, he couldn''t unleash his Land Incarnation. That would just alert the Mong Realm Spirit. After all, by unleashing his Land Incarnation, he was modifying a part of the Mong Realm into the Kun Realm. No matter how small this way, the Mong Realm Spirit would be able to notice it. That was why he couldn''t use any heavy Law-infused attacks. This was why he primarily relied upon his Body Cultivation abilities to fight while using his Mental Energy as a supplement. Anyway, he wasn''t even exhibiting the full strength of his Thundercloud Whale, using it no different from his older Cloud Whale. He didn''t wish to use his tribulation lightning unless he was guaranteed of leaving behind no traces. So, he decided to stick with activating it within the minds of his enemies. This way, there would indeed be no traces. Bam! The Pestlor slammed into the three-headed giant, sending it flying into a wall created by the spinning discs. They instantly turned soft, cushioning his impact, educing his injuries. Moreover, they unleashed a gentle green light, instantly healing all his injuries as the immortal with a green goatee stood up and condensed six crossbows, one per each of his six arms. His aura instantly spiked as Krune could sense an insane level of Godly Energy being condensed into the arrows. ''Taking them head-on would be troublesome,'' Krune thought, unleashing his Neon Radiance fused with Frozen Blood, turning the entire interior of the Heavenly Incarnation moist. But, it was hard to keep up with it as the Heavenly Incarnation was automatically negating this effect. It was just like trying to freeze a desert. The heat from the environment would naturally melt all the ice. Similarly, the different environment created by the Heavenly Incarnation constantly negated the cold mist he was releasing. Then again, Krune didn''t care. Thanks to the Godly Energy generated by his Cultivation Lotus, he was able to maintain this level of output nonstop. With that, he was able to travel faster as compared to before. Swish! Suddenly, a green arrow slammed into him abruptly, causing him to grunt as the force sent him flying all the way towards the edge of the Heavenly Incarnation. Moreover, the green discs also slammed into him in an effort to cut him apart. ''It''s sucking my Godly Energy away!'' Krune was alarmed at this point, sensing a tiny sapling sprouting from the spot where the arrow slammed into him. He then noticed the three-headed giant grinning, saying in content, "Bastard, you''ve been attacked by my Sprouting Arrow. That sapling would continue to grow while sucking in all your Godly Energy. And your attacks wouldn''t work on it since it''s growing with your Godly Energy." ''Is that so?'' Krune thought, noticing the sapling struggling to grow any bigger. After all, his Godly Energy was different from the Mong Realm''s Godly Energy. The immortal with the green goatee had unleashed this arrow in preparation against a Mong Realm cultivator. Hence, it didn''t take effect due to being incompatible with the Kun Realm''s Godly Energy. Grinning, Krune suddenly unleashed his Neon Radiance, transmitting it through his body, his Mental Energy scan and Divine Sense, blinding all the senses of his opponent before pulling out the sapling. He easily burned it. The reason he used the Neon Radiance was to prevent the opponent from realizing that the sapling wasn''t able to affect Krune. He made it seem like the light he unleashed was his trump card that destroyed the sapling. "Is that all?" Krune smiled when suddenly, thousands of Air Needles slammed into the Heavenly Incarnation from beyond, rapidly riddling the bodies of everyone inside with countless holes. "No¡­no¡­No!" the immortal with a green goatee shouted in despair, watching his family become riddled with holes. Thankfully, they all possessed a Spiritual Incarnation. So, such a mortal injury was of no consequence to them. But right at that moment, another volley of Air Needles slammed into them, shattering them into tiny fragments. "There you go." Krune waved his hand, unleashing destructive energy that ruptured their Spiritual Incarnation, also destroying any and all Land Incarnations they had laid down, killing them all. Surprisingly, the immortal''s son and daughter were also unable to endure the string of attacks, dying in the process. "Damn you!" The immortal with the green goatee bellowed in anger, being the sole survivor, when suddenly, his body too was riddled with holes. And right as he tried to heal himself, Krune unleashed a mental attack, slumping his actions when another volley of Air Needles slammed into him. The Air Needles slammed into his body repeatedly, shredding him apart continuously, forcing him to expend his Godly Energy to heal himself. As for Krune, he wasn''t even using much Godly Energy. After all, the Air Needles were the cheapest ability in terms of Godly Energy requirements. It didn''t need any. The only amount of Godly Energy he used was to heal the muscle fatigue in the Thundercloud Whales. And it wasn''t much. In contrast, his opponent expended a lot of Godly Energy every time to heal himself. But before he managed to complete healing himself, he was shredded to bits once again. This happened a couple hundred times before he failed to regenerate anymore, having expended all his Godly Energy. "I see. This feels faster and easier to kill them. Indeed, the Air Needles and my Little Krune fragments make for a terrifying combo." Krune smiled, arriving before the immortal''s fragmented body, destroying him. Chapter 1420 Sharing Cultivation Technique Chapter 1420 Sharing Cultivation Technique¡¡¡¡Now that he faced three immortals and managed to kill them without going all out¡ªunleashing the power of his Heavenly Incarnation¡ªinto the battle, Krune became a bit more confident. "Next, I should challenge three lone immortals at the peak of the Semi-God Realm," he muttered, looting the residence dry before flying away. He soon came across a rather famous pair of triplets, known as the Bald Brothers. They cultivated a mysterious technique that required the three of them to cultivate at the same place. Only if they had equal cultivation would this work. Otherwise, it would just be a fruitless endeavor, requiring them to cultivate from scratch again. Though, from the looks of it, there were obviously significant advantages to this method. In fact, it was the main reason they painstakingly persisted with it to date and even managed to become immortals with it. They acted as one! This mysterious cultivation technique allowed them to borrow the strength of one another. Godly Energy, strength, Laws, godly abilities and so on. Each of them was capable of borrowing the power of each other. And this meant that they were able to switch up their combat systems into three different forms in an instant. They were more troublesome than they seemed. The eldest of the Bald Brothers had a powerful physique and mental attacks. He was like a charging tank with a sharp spear. The second brother wielded all kinds of elemental attacks while the third brother raised an army. As for the army, it was just the Blood Pills gaining sentience, possessing mysterious powers to battle with. As long as they had sufficient Blood Pills, they could create an endless number of soldiers instantly. With such a mysterious cultivation technique, they were constantly able to switch their powers, making defense against them impossible. And as triplets, it was like they had a deep bond between them, a shared connection of sorts that allowed them to sense the emotions of one another. This way, they were able to react to any danger accordingly. The moment Krune came across them, the three Bald Brothers casually proved through his cultivation, becoming disinterested upon seeing that he was also in the same Realm as them. They weren''t interested because even most God Trial Realm cultivators were no match for them. Only the legendary geniuses could be better than them. After all, the bald triplets were the most famous among the lone cultivators for their strength. Bam! Krune was sent flying into a mountain, creating a massive crater. He lay there in the center, his eyes a bit dull as he gazed at the sky. "Indeed, there are a lot of troublesome bastards with troublesome powers here. As expected of a realm that''s always at war with someplace or another." Though, this only made Krune excited. After all, it was valuable data. Setting aside the fighting experience, Krune was more focused on the cultivation technique, ''If twins or triplets were born in the Mountain Sect, I could make them practice this technique. It''ll be like adding wings to a tiger.'' The older brother approached Krune, slamming him with punches one after another, creating a storm at the displayed force as powerful gales were created with every punch that he threw. Krune took the beating silently, enduring it using his healing abilities when he faced his palm towards the older brother, unleashing a beam of Neon Radiance. "That won''t work on me," the elder brother said as he had already evaded before Krune unleashed it. It had happened within the span of a second. He then unleashed a crowd of puppet-like people created using Blood Pills, causing each to rain down punches on Krune. At the same time, the younger brother appeared behind Krune, lighting up a potent blaze that showed signs of melting his Spiritual Incarnation within a few moments. Krune quickly unleashed a cold beam, negating the fire as the Blood Pill cultivators attacked Krune. They hardly resembled cultivators at all, looking like apparitions that had crawled out from hell. Taking out his trusty Pestlor, Krune expanded its length and slammed into the youngest of the three brothers, detecting that he was the weakest among the three. But right on time, the hand of the older bald brother caught hold of the Pestlor like a mountain of iron, preventing his younger brother from being smashed to bits. Suddenly, Krune held his Soul Needle, unleashing a mysterious effect that was capable of sealing all Mental Energy. Godly Technique¡ªGodly Suppression! Since he had such a valuable power, why he didn''t use it? Well honestly¡­ Krune had forgotten about it after so many things had happened. As he considered his trump card to be his Hunger Law, Krune stopped paying as much attention to this ability. Even though it was pretty useful, it also rendered him helpless. All this ability did was seal Godly Energy. A trapped cultivator was still able to use his Mental Energy and Body Energy. So, fighting without the aid of his Godly Energy was suicide. After all, it had to be noted that Krune was still in the process of learning everything. So, he was bound to make a lot of mistakes. Plus, the Godly Energy constantly supplied by the Cultivation Lotus was there to make up for it. With extra Godly Energy, he would be able to last longer than his opponents. This way, irrespective of his screw-ups, he''s still the key player here. That was why he could train himself and face such danger. But if Godly Energy was sealed, he wouldn''t be able to use his innate advantage. Plus, the battle would indeed injure him to a certain extent. It may or may not kill him, but considering what he had seen, the danger was too high. So, Krune resorted to the good old ways, consecutively using the simplest and least energy-consuming ability in his repertoire. Air Needle! As hundreds of Air Needles slammed into the three immortals at the same time, the Blood Pill men acted as shields, withstanding the barrage. However, the Air Needles weren''t like bullets that were over once one defended against it successfully. They would drill through any obstacles along their path and reach their destination. "Gah!" The older brother was the first to shriek in surprise. Chapter 1421 The Three Bald Immortals Chapter 1421 The Three Bald Immortals¡¡¡¡Godly Technique¡ªGodly Inhibition! Krune finally decided to use this ability to gain the upper hand. After all, no matter how much his Air Needles drilled through the Blood Pill creatures, more and more of them arrived. ''It might turn into a war of attrition.'' Krune frowned, thinking for a moment. He didn''t wish to attract the attention of too many people. That would just be detrimental to himself. He wished to kill them as quickly as possible before escaping from the place. In any case, this was already his third hunt. So, news of their absence might somehow circulate through the lone cultivator network, eventually resulting in the lone cultivators heading towards some unknown corner to survive from this predator that seemed to have a thirst for blood of the lone cultivators. "Brother¡­" The youngest brother frowned. "Yes, I know." The older brother nodded. "It must be him." They had noticed that Krune was planning something big, judging by the spike in his Godly Energy. And in response, they fully erected their barriers. But suddenly, a mysterious force emanated from him, condensing a domain around them, one in which they were unable to use any Godly Energy. Krune only activated it for a second before deactivating it. Keeping it activated for longer durations might possibly allow the three immortals to train themselves using this pressure and only grow stronger as their Godly Energy would become denser. Hence, he must make it as quick as possible. Godly Technique¡ªGodly Inhibition! The three bald brothers were shocked to see that they weren''t able to use their Godly Energy, for it had turned solid in their meridians. Plus, a severe pain accompanied it when they tried to move their Godly Energy. But as it was a battle, hesitation would cause destruction. So, the older brother decided to risk it, activating his Godly Energy even in such a case. The solidified Godly Energy in his meridians slowly began to move. But at this moment, thousands of Air Needles flew towards them, turning their bodies into beehives. And right at this time, the Godly Inhibition technique''s effect disappeared. Then again, Krune had already achieved his objective. After thinking for a moment, he turned around and¡­ ran away. "Bastard, stop!" The older brother''s Godly Energy moved at a sluggish pace as it seemed harder for him to use it like usual. The other two bald immortals were in a similar state, unable to chase after the escaping Krune. Their bodies were riddled with holes as they slowly expected their Godly Energy reserves to gradually heal their injuries. "We''ll have to investigate his background." The older bald brother said after thinking for some time. "He has considerable talent to mess around with us. I don''t understand the reason he ran away, but nothing good will come out of being unprepared." "Big brother is right." The younger brother nodded as he finished healing himself. The three bald immortals were leisurely traveling the place, taking in the sights of the various places. This was what pretty much everyone did. They prayed to the heavens to grant them deeper comprehension and a connection to the heavens while roaming through the cities and other places in search of enlightenment. Hence, there wasn''t any formation protecting them, placing them in a dangerous state. However, they hadn''t been attacked due to their infamy of having killed countless God Trial Realm cultivators. Even Krune was able to feel the difference, realizing that he would have to break the seal on his strength to fight them on equal footing. Either that, or he would have to unleash his Heavenly Incarnation or activate one of his trump cards. And this wasn''t a choice if he didn''t wish to alert the Mong Realm Spirit. Hence, Krune wasn''t able to use any of his signature abilities, not to mention the base of his power¡ªSpiritual Incarnation. So, due to this, he couldn''t fight against the trio. ''At least, not now. I still need a lot of experience to face them.'' It seemed like Krune managed to land a decisive blow on the three. But in truth, they borrowed the power of the remaining two, successfully defending against the attack, converting the lethal danger into nourishment. Krune activated the Thundercloud Whale within himself, causing fierce air currents to envelop him as his figure accelerated further, only causing the bald immortals to curse in anger. "Who the hell was that?" The second older brother opened his mouth for the first time since everything happened, spitting out a remark. "Did we offend him in the past?" "Probably not," the younger brother said all of a sudden. "I remember the names and faces of everyone that we have offended to date. This guy wasn''t among them." "Maybe you just forgot?" the second older brother muttered in thought. "I''m assured of what I claim," the younger brother insisted. "He didn''t have any grudge against it. When we fought, I couldn''t feel any killing intent from him¡­" Suddenly, he began to tremble like a little lamb, afraid after being caught by the rain. It was then he realized the meaning behind Krune''s nonchalant gazes while fighting against them all along. "That guy was just treating us like grass at the side of the street that he can casually pluck away," he spoke. "Are you sure?" The second older brother frowned, sighing in the end. "Whatever, if he dares arrive in the future, we''ll kill him. just be prepared accordingly." "Alright, the two of you." The older brother patted their shoulders. "I''ll be able to attempt a breakthrough very soon. Once I reach the God Trial Realm, we''ll be able to take care of that bastard even if he were to return for more trouble. "You''ve finally accumulated enough?" the younger brother said in surprise. "Yes." The older brother nodded in response. "I''ll act as the node during our breakthrough. All three of us must successfully reach the God Trial Realm at the same cultivation base." "This way, we''ll completely be able to overpower our opponents once again." Chapter 1422 Sponsoring the Enemy Chapter 1422 Sponsoring the Enemy¡¡¡¡"Big brother, we''re ready," the youngest said as he finished setting up a formation. Immediately, he poured out hundreds of Rank 5 Blood Pills that were sucked in by the formation. A dense crimson mist was immediately released as it spread throughout the formation, with the three bald immortals beginning to absorb it slowly. They were beginning preparations for their breakthrough. As resources were scarce in the Mong Realm, they had to make do with the few that remained. Thankfully, it wasn''t as if resources were rare, though. They just had to plunder them from other realms and convert them to be suitable for the Mong Realm''s power mechanic. In fact, there were some organizations dedicated to this. They had a massive storage facility for everything. The three bald immortals, though lone immortals, wielded considerable power. Having killed countless immortals of the Mong Realm, they had pillaged a lot of Blood Pills. Using that, they exchanged it for a lot of resources. The oldest among the trio took out the resources, forming a large pile before using his Divine Sense to arrange them accordingly to the Spiritual Incarnations of each. It was like a triangle, with each of them forming its three vertices. It could very well be said that they were three parts of a puzzle. And hence, they were planning to break through as a group, just like what they had done to become immortals. It was their teamwork that allowed them to reach the current height. They didn''t begin a breakthrough immediately, though. They weren''t broken characters like Krune. Even though they were strong even among the Mong Realm''s standards, they needed time to prepare for their eventual breakthrough. The main problem was the fact that there was barely any Godly Energy in the Mong Realm. Hence, they didn''t have the necessary energy for a breakthrough. The problem here arose with the fact that the moment their tribulation began, their formation would be destroyed. That meant they would lose the energy they accumulated using Blood Pills. Hence, they had to do some preparations. This was why they selected a secluded island to undergo a breakthrough. There was nothing much on this island. On that note, the Mong Realm didn''t even have any Danger Zones. Danger Zones, though dangerous, were filled with resources. So, such places had long since been excavated dry by the Mong Realm immortals. Once the formation had been erected, the second brother took out a formation plate that they had spent a fortune purchasing. Slowly, he unleashed his Heavenly Incarnation, fusing it into the formation plate, subtly changing the formation. Gradually, the Godly Energy within continued to increase as soon after, the formation was fully fused into the Heavenly Incarnation. At the same time, the oldest and youngest also unleashed their Heavenly Incarnation, causing the domain to emanate a sonorous fluctuation before the three fused into one. This was their cultivation technique''s advantage. All three Heavenly Incarnations fused into one as the formation vanished. But now, the produced Godly Energy didn''t escape the Heavenly Incarnation. They had created a stable base that probably wouldn''t be destroyed even with the tribulations. The Heavenly Incarnation slowly spread out, completely changing the island and the surrounding waters. The trio continued to pour out Blood Pills that were sucked by the formation, which converted them into Godly Energy. Slowly, the materials the older brother arranged began to suck in the Godly Energy, becoming vitalized. As they were completing their preparations, the old brother was suddenly alarmed, noticing the figure of Krune hovering right before the fused Heavenly Incarnation. "Y-You¡­" He was alarmed, wondering if Krune had arrived to disrupt their breakthrough. ''Is this why he ran away earlier?'' "You don''t have to worry." Krune smiled in response. "This is the first time I''m seeing three people breakthrough as one. I''m curious to see how it goes." "You don''t have to worry, though. I have no intentions of disrupting your breakthrough. Rather, I''ll fight you seriously after you reach the God Trial Realm." Krune smiled casually, releasing his God Trial Realm aura before supressing it to the Semi-God Realm. "So, you were suppressing your strength," the oldest muttered. "Yeah, my seal was about to be undone earlier. So, I had to run away and fix it." Krune said in response. "But if you were to reach the God Trial Realm, it''ll be easier for me to fight you." Krune then waved his hand, sending in a storage ring through the Heavenly Incarnation. The older brother caught it, probing through it when his face paled, "Blood Pills¡­ so many Blood Pills!" ''Even though they are Rank 4 Blood Pills and below, the quantity is fearsome.'' He then gazed at Krune''s smiling face and asked, "What are you planning?" "Well, I need a good whetstone to fight against," Krune replied. "And, the abilities of you three are by far the most bizarre that I have come across. So, think of it as an investment for my benefit." "You''ll die, though." The older brother snorted. "I''ll be happy if that were the case." Krune smiled, "Then again, none that boasted of such words had ever managed to kill me, though." The older brother''s expression suddenly paled as he recalled a certain fact. While fighting against them, Krune hadn''t even unleashed his Land Incarnation. Even after sealing his strength, he was also¡­ holding back? "I''ll kill you once our breakthrough finishes." The older brother spat out. "That''s a great expression you have there." Krune smiled. "If you want more Blood Pills, you can just say so." What Krune took out was just a tenth of the Blood Pills he had stolen. The reason he was sponsoring the trio of bald immortals wasn''t out of his goodwill or anything of the sort. He was observing them. After all, Krune was rather interested in their cultivation technique, where they were able to borrow the power of each other. It might not seem like much, but he had experienced the same once. Realm of Suffering! There, he borrowed the strength of the Yin Dragon to create the County Arms, developing a new power structure from scratch. Eventually, he even created a divine beast out of his Cloud Whale, causing the people there to pray to it and obtain the power of the Cloud Whale on their own, becoming part of the Police Force. Krune had been interested in this power mechanic. But unfortunately for him, he wasn''t able to replicate it in the God Realm. Chapter 1423 Power Structure of the Mong Realm Chapter 1423 Power Structure of the Mong Realm¡¡¡¡The race of Galki that he was sheltering in his subspace was capable of borrowing power from the target of their prayers. But that was all they did, just borrowing. In the end, they were using the target''s own power, which would be expended upon use. It wasn''t like what Krune achieved in his Realm of Suffering. He was still researching in this direction to see if that was a possibility. Now, he felt hope for its eventuality. His hope was to recreate the power of his Star Imperial Arms and harness the power of nature in his attacks. Until now, he was using his own power to attack. But if he harnessed the power of nature, his power would be on a whole other level. He could use the tribulation lightning of nature. And that meant he would be able to attack with power beyond his realm. Even considering their future, if he could harness the power of the Kun Realm itself, he''ll be able to go against the champions of other realms. With that in mind, Krune was able to feel that the three bald brothers had the solution for that to happen. That was why he was sponsoring them. During the tribulation, the way of the heavens would become more open for them, allowing them to deepen their comprehension. With that, the three bald immortals might strengthen their abilities further. Krune was hoping that their growth in strength would make it easier for him, allowing him to draw their powers for what he hoped to achieve. That was why he sponsored them. Anyway, it didn''t matter if they became too powerful. If it seemed like he couldn''t kill them, he could just lift his seal. There were plenty of options to deal with them, so he wasn''t nervous in the least. Slowly, after three days passed in such a fashion, the three bald immortals were finally done with their preparations. It had taken them so long because they had selected a foreign land to undergo their tribulation. As for Krune, he didn''t have such problems. All the needs for his breakthroughs were taken care of by the Mountain Sect in terms of resources. He also broke through atop the Cultivation Lotus, which was the best place to breakthrough. Feifei had created it just for this reason, after all. He always had endless Godly Energy supporting him, along with resources. Those part of a clan or sect had such advantages. But for these three bald cultivators, they didn''t have such privileges, having to trudge through scrap they had accumulated over the years. Failure wasn''t an option for them. If they failed, they would be bankrupt, having no other means to recover their finances. After all, they would also be significantly injured if they hadn''t died already. And recovering from such injuries would require materials with similar laws as their Spiritual Incarnation. In the Mong Realm, such resources had to be purchased from the organizations responsible for them. So, there was no option to scour for them out in the open, an option lone cultivators had in the Kun Realm. ''I see.'' Krune nodded in thought. ''As the Mong Realm stopped producing any resources, all the resources have to be sourced externally. And due to this, the stronger sects control everything. Due to this, their control over the populace is stronger than what anyone back in the Kun Realm could ever hope to achieve.'' In the Kun Realm, if someone in the Turia Continent didn''t like the Mountain Sect, they could just leave the cities and look for resources in the wild. There was plenty of Godly Energy to support their cultivation. As long as they obtained some beneficial items, they could return to the cities and sell that for God Stones. With that, they could buy all their needs and necessities. As long as they purchased a Godly Energy gathering formation, they could plant it in the location they had settled in the wilds, allowing them to gather enough Godly Energy to cultivate. Even though it might be slower than in sects that had gathered all the resources necessary for cultivation, it was still possible to become an expert in this manner. Even reaching the Primal God Realm wasn''t impossible. But in the Mong Realm, that was pretty much impossible. The resources required for a breakthrough were hard to come across and had to be scoured manually. And in the case of the three bald immortals, they went from one organization to another, buying the few materials needed to become God Trial Realm cultivators. After all, resources required by immortals weren''t sold to outsiders. Transactions were usually conducted by the sects and clans that had established trade relationships with such organizations. This way, the clans and sects could exercise firm control over their members. Without obeying them, a cultivator wouldn''t be able to grow. This was how the Mong Realm controlled its experts. You want resources to cultivate? Sure, if you join the sects and clans. The Gods would then command the clans and sects to form armies and march forth into foreign realms. If they wanted to prosper, the clans and sects would have to accept such orders. Otherwise, they wouldn''t obtain any Blood Pills. ''So, this might be why the Mong Realm isn''t producing any resources. The Mong Realm Gods and the Mong Realm Spirit must be in this together.'' Krune understood their scheme completely. ''Their objective is to make the Mong Realm stronger. And for that to happen, the entirety of the people should be in the grip of the powerhouses.'' ''If even the commoners had access to resources, they''ll just work to satisfy their selfish desires and be content with their lives. But now, they have to join the powerful organizations, all of which listen to the Gods.'' "That means¡­" He grinned as he continued, "If resources are produced here, it might cause their structure to collapse automatically." Now that he had a better understanding of the Mong Realm, Krune began to think of a scheme while watching the three bald immortals begin their breakthrough, observing thunderclouds slowly form in the sky. Chapter 1424 Approaching Trinity Chapter 1424 Approaching Trinity¡¡¡¡Boom! A bolt of tribulation lightning slammed into the Heavenly Incarnation, splitting up into three suddenly as it dispersed into the bodies of the three bald immortals. "Gah!" They grunted under the impact, resisting it by taking out their weapons, waving them around as they unleashed their abilities, trying their best to resist the tribulation lightning. Krune watched in silence, gradually suppressing his aura while the tribulation became more and more intense. Slowly, he activated his Tribulation Lightning Law, using his comprehension of the Mong Realm''s power structure to probe the tribulation lightning, understanding¡­ ''I see. There''s no God of Tribulations in the Mong Realm.'' Krune was relieved at this point. Because it meant there wasn''t anyone from the Mong Realm that could actually counter Luvile. This gave them a significant advantage already. That wasn''t all. It also made Krune realize how out of the box Luvile''s existence was. Even in the Mong Realm, comprehending the Tribulation Lightning Law was impossible. This was a law that even the Mong Realm Spirit wasn''t able to go against, for that formed the very foundation of its existence itself. That also meant that the case was the same in every other Realm as well. Therefore, Luvile was one of his kind. ''This also means that I''m the second of the only two people that can use Tribulation Lightning. On top of that, both of us are from the Kun Realm,'' Krune thought, subtly changing his abilities as he seeped his Mental Energy through the tribulation lightning, undetected by even it as he sneaked into the minds of the three bald brothers. As they were facing the tribulation lighting, their defenses had already come undone, allowing him to scan through their minds completely. Of course, Krune had no plans to be shy as he rapidly copied all the information in the minds of the three. His mind whirred in response, causing his Mental Energy to spike, allowing him to rapidly process everything that was happening. ''I see, I see. They''re pretty amazing.'' Krune felt sparks of inspiration instantly, causing his hands to itch as he wished to get into it right away. Thankfully for him, he had his clones to rely upon in this situation as all the clones took action in his subspace, beginning to work on the inspiration while requesting the help of the Galki. The Galki race was mysterious in that they didn''t have any cultivation of their own. However, through their prayers, they were able to borrow his strength. Depending on the depth of their prayer, they were even able to borrow his First Stage Elementary God Realm cultivation. Plus, it seemed they were something created by Little Cally that took advantage of the forming infant supercontinent. So, the Galki race was something new and one of a kind, their entire population living in his subspace. Soon after, Krune finished going through everything the three bald brothers had experienced in their life, also understanding the various ins and outs of their cultivation technique. As the clones began to work, he observed the tribulation, noticing that nothing special was happening. ''The only thing of notice is how the tribulation lightning bolts split into three before it hits them. This is the only new thing about this. Everything else is the same,'' Krune thought, planting a Heavenly Spark in the minds of all three as he destroyed all memories of himself in them. After that, he hid himself using Mental Energy and went away. There was no longer any worth in interacting with them anymore. They would need time to get adjusted to their new cultivation stage. Also, Krune needed more fighting experience before he could fight them again. So, he went off to fight more Semi-God Realm cultivators. Slowly, there was a lot of buzz on their continent''s lone immortal network, stating the appearance of a newcomer that went around killing the lone immortals. A group of Semi-God Realm immortals formed a punitive expedition against Krune, only to serve as his whetstone as he gained experience in fighting against a group. He was strong from the get-go. The only thing he lacked was experience in fighting against immortals that were experts in all three cultivation paths. Now that he was fighting them nonstop, Krune was growing stronger by the minute. He was able to use his abilities better, fusing all three cultivation paths into his fights. "Heup!" He grunted, watching Godly Energy flow through his meridians as he willed half of it to change into Mental Energy. It immediately strained him a lot, causing his body to tremble in response. Krune then tried to split the energy into Godly Energy, Mental Energy, and Body Energy, three equal parts, screaming in pain as he stopped immediately, watching the energy turn into Godly Energy and begin to heal the damage done to his meridians. "I still cannot attain Trinity." He sighed in disappointment before propping himself up. "At least, I could maintain it longer than when I tried it in the Kun Realm. I''m indeed approaching that stage." Trinity was a realm in which he fused all three energies into one. This was the core concept of his Deific Wisp Technique and the ultimate form of his Deific Meridians. However, it was still too hard to achieve it. "As I continue fighting here, I''ll reach that stage eventually," Krune muttered, flying over a city as he enveloped it under his Mental Energy scan, stealing one percent of the Blood Pills of everyone there. That wasn''t all. He also placed them in the effect of his Hunger Law. He fought against immortals to become more attuned to fights, placed every cultivator he came across under the influence of his Hunger Law, and for the seldom immortals he spared, he planted a Heavenly Spark in their minds. As he probed through the minds of thousands until now in the Mong Realm, Krune reached a consensus with a certain fact. "I won''t even feel a shred of pity slaughtering them all." Eventually, he killed all the lone Semi-God Realm immortals of this continent, sighing as he used another forged identity to head towards a rather far continent where he repeated the same. Chapter 1425 After Three Years Chapter 1425 After Three Years¡¡¡¡"Is this all you want to exchange, Sir Pestlor?" The staff from a trading guild asked after looking through ten spatial rings that Krune handed out. "Yes." Krune nodded in response. "So, you want to convert them all into Rank 6 Blood Pills?" the staff asked. "Pretty much." Krune nodded. "That will be troubling." The staff sighed before saying, "The most we can trade out are Rank 5 Blood Pills. Rank 6 and above won''t be given to any outsiders." "Then, Rank 5 Blood Pills it is." Krune nodded, changing his request. "Give me a second," the staff said before making a tally as he sent in a report, causing multiple immortals to arrive as they double-checked to ensure the Blood Pills hadn''t been tampered with. They then gave him a spatial ring in return. "There are an equivalent of Rank 5 Blood Pills here. We have to take a small commission fee for this transaction. I hope you understand." "That''s fine." Krune waved his hand, walking away from the trading guild. He then boarded a teleportation formation, heading towards another continent where he dumped another bunch of low-leveled Blood Pills and exchanged them for Rank 5 Blood Pills. Surprisingly, he had to change to ten continents before he managed to dump everything in his possession and exchange it for their higher-quality counterparts. Krune acted this cautiously to ensure none managed to get wind of his actions. This was why he constantly changed places and identities to deposit his Blood Pills. Of course, that wasn''t all. While traveling, in every city he arrived at, he didn''t forget to plant his Hunger Law in the bodies of everyone while stealing one percent of their wealth. Plus, some geniuses among the immortals had the opportunity to be planted with the Heavenly Spark. Slowly, Krune kept up with the task of the eventual crippling of the Mong Realm. Since they had a wonderful transportation system, he used the myriad forged identities that he had prepared to travel everywhere, ensuring he left no traces. Moreover, he always targeted the groups that wouldn''t raise the concern of the powerhouses. Rather, they would be glad for such groups to be weeded out, allowing them to concentrate their resources more on groups under their control and those that would charge out of the Mong Realm into the other realms for their benefit. It wasn''t long before Krune had gone through a dozen continents, having visited all their cities. He only avoided the cities where Primal Gods had been stationed, targeting everything else. Moreover, sometimes, when he was feeling bold enough, he even targeted the cities with the Primal Gods. After all, it wasn''t as if the Primal Gods were monitoring their cities through their Divine Sense all the time. So, Krune took it as practice to target the people there as well. And that wasn''t all. He recalled Sterlena''s experiences that he had witnessed, weaving through the memories of the populace in the cities to find the friends and families of the powerhouses, targeting them with both the Hunger Law and the Heavenly Spark. He only stayed in a city for a day, teleporting to another city the next day. And since he was stealing a lot of fortune all the time, his overall funds only continued to increase at an alarming speed. Most of all, what was surprising or even scary was the fact that none had even discovered his actions. Sure, investigations were indeed conducted when someone strong lost one percent of their wealth, which was indeed a large sum. But eventually, it was buried when they weren''t able to find anything else. Discussions indeed sprung up about this topic as, after all, everyone in the city lost one percent of their wealth mysteriously. Strangely, they stopped investigating it after a while upon hearing that the same thing had happened in other cities too. But before an investigation had been conducted, Krune had vanished already. "Phew, that seemed close." He sighed in relief, having subtly influenced the minds of the parties that tried to investigate. This way, they investigated half-heartedly and eventually closed the case for a random reason. This was what he did at the end of the day in every city. Honestly, it was a bit tiresome, but he had to do what he had to do. Summoning his Soul Needle, Krune sensed that it was still pointing in the same direction. Other than that, he wasn''t able to sense any treasures nearby, not even a single time all along. There was indeed nothing in the Mong Realm of value other than the cultivators. Eventually, the time of three years was up, and Krune began to teleport back, going from one continent to another. After a week passed in such a fashion, Krune returned to the original location where they had arrived at the Mong Realm in the first place. "Krune¡­!" Sterlena was the first to arrive, waving her hands, seeming a bit tired. "I had to enter dangerous territories to gleam the Laws of the Mong Realm with greater clarity. But now, I managed to obtain a lot of information." "What about you?" She asked in curiosity. "I was stealing Blood Pills, infecting the people, and collecting their combat information. I''ve already relayed everything to the Mountain Sect," Krune said in response. "They''re analyzing my experiences and devising combat abilities accordingly to face the Mong Realm cultivators. All the Gods have also chipped in to help accelerate the combat prowess of our realm." "That only leaves him¡­" Sterlena muttered, saying in concern. "Honestly, unlike us, Spirit Aberrants aren''t built for stealth. They''re just natural disasters. So, I worried that he would face a lot of difficulties." "Did you forget that I spent the majority of my life hiding and chasing after a solution to my race''s defect?" Gegrafikan entered the range of her Divine Sense, transmitting the information first before he arrived in person. He still looked the same as before, but there was a cunning glint in his eyes as Gegrafikan said, "I''ve determined a method to convert the resources and energy of Mong Realm into the Kun Realm''s. " "Now, we can start harvesting their foundation. There''s a secret realm nearby that we can target first." Chapter 1426 Creating a Gateway Chapter 1426 Creating a Gateway¡¡¡¡"What will we be doing there?" Krune asked. "Our goal is only to reclaim the fourth key, right?" "Yes." Gegrafikan nodded in response. "But we should also try to cripple the Mong Realm Spirit along the way. And that''s necessary if we want our Kun Realm to survive their onslaught in the future." "And this secret realm has a way to make that happen?" Sterlena asked. "This secret realm is something only known to the Gods of the Mong Realm," Gegrafikan explained. "And there exists countless native races in this secret realm. You can say that this is one of the properties of a powerful sect. The Godly Energy in this secret realm has even reached a Rank 5 God Stone in quality." "Rank 5 God Stone?" Krune was shocked to hear that. After all, even the Mountain Sect Sub-Realm, with its dozens of Godly Veins, could only produce Godly Energy on par with a Rank 3 God Stone in quality. That meant this secret realm had an incredibly sturdy foundation. "What exactly is this place?" Krune asked. "It''s a training ground for the elite," Gegrafikan replied. "It''s where immortals that have the potential to become Gods cultivate." "Then, wouldn''t it be heavily guarded? At least a God or two might be there," Sterlena said, wondering why Gegrafikan wished to risk their mission so much. "I was thinking of the way we''ll retrieve our key," Gegrafikan said in response. "It would definitely be held by a God that would never leave the Mong Realm. Besides, he must be in one of the most secure regions of the Mong Realm. Retrieving the key by treading through their senses would be impossible." "Hence, we need a plan," Gegrafikan suggested. "Do you remember Pocket Immortal from the Golden Gate Sect?" "Yes." Krune nodded. "He had the power to create Sub-Realms or detonate them as attacks." "Yes. Similarly, if we were to detonate a secret realm, it would inflict a major blow to the Mong Realm Spirit." Gegrafikan raised his hand, motioning for the two to not interrupt him as he spoke, "We''ll be doing the same as Little Cally." "You mean¡­" Krune''s eyes widened in surprise as he understood just what Gegrafikan was getting at here. Since this secret realm had a high foundation and contained the highest of talents of the Mong Realm, if they could detach it from the Mong Realm as an individual realm and put it under their control, then they would obtain a way to target the Mong Realm. "But, the Gods would definitely interfere," Krune could not help but say soon after. "It''s too risky." "Indeed." Sterlena nodded in agreement. "Even if the Gods aren''t there personally, they must be keeping an eye on everything that goes in the secret realm through their Laws. Just as how we protect Feifei, they must have left a portion of their bodies here." "Yes, but here''s where my powers come in," Gegrafikan smirked. "The moment we enter there, I''ll unleash the entirety of my power to rapidly terraform the place into a part of the Kun Realm. Ask Little Cally to infuse a part of its consciousness into the place and birth itself as a secondary Realm Spirit." "It should be possible, right?" Gegrafikan asked. Krune and Sterlena closed their eyes, thinking for some time before nodding. "Yes, it''s possible for Little Cally to do this." "That''s it," Gegrafikan said. "With that, we''ll gain a permanent entryway into the Mong Realm that the powerhouses of other realms can use to enter. This would cause the Mong Realm Spirit to focus on the region, which would allow us to steal our key." "The Mong Realm Gods would take action immediately," Krune said. "If this happens, not only would our plan fail, but we''ll also be captured by them. If they retaliate with their full force, our Kun Realm wouldn''t be able to handle it at present." "Sterlena, you met with them, right?" Gegrafikan glanced at Sterlena all of a sudden. "Through probing the Laws of the Mong Realm, you chanced upon them, right?" "Yes," Sterlena said, sighing. "But, I have no guarantee if they would join hands with us. Revealing our identity to them is too risky." "Some of them are the resistance from the Tilk Realm, right?" Gegrafikan smiled in response. "They would, of course, help us, right? Since they have no other choice, with their realm on the verge of being annexed by the Mong Realm." "Yes, but you have to know. The Tilk Realm is weaker than our Kun Realm. They had lost all strength against the war with the Mong Realm. So, they wouldn''t amount to much in the scale of our plan," Sterlena told him. "That''s why we''ll talk with the other realms that have planned to infiltrate the Mong Realm but didn''t have the means or the opportunity to do so. We''ll offer this gateway to them," Gegrafikan said in response. "What about the Mong Realm Spirit?" Krune asked all of a sudden. "We are snatching a part of its body after all. Wouldn''t it sense our actions right away?" "It indeed would sense it. But so what?" Gegrafikan said with confidence. "The moment I unleash my ability, the secret realm would slip out of its control. It wouldn''t be able to enter this place since I would be cutting off all connections." "Then, it would be impossible for the secret realm to be a gateway, right?" Krune asked in confusion before realizing something; eyes widened as he looked at Sterlena. "Right, the both of you have a part of the Calamity and Balance Laws as your Spiritual Incarnation. So, you''ll be acting as the gateway between the Mong Realm and the Secret Realm through which we''ll establish this." Gegrafikan nodded. "This would be incredibly dangerous. But if we succeed, it''ll allow us to snatch the key." "Before that," Krune spoke after thinking for a couple of hours, considering various situations. "We''ll need to complete the groundwork. We''ll have to meet up with those from the other realms and establish a means of contact and make them ready to take action." "I''ll take care of that." Sterlena nodded, saying, "I can transmit this information even though the Mong Realm''s Godly Energy. The Mong Realm Gods wouldn''t even notice anything amiss since this is my race''s innate ability." "And I''ll be making preparations to finalize the takeover of the secret realm," Gegrafikan said, gazing at Krune as he asked, "What will you do, Krune?" "Same as what I did for the past three years." Krune smiled in response. "You''ll be surprised when I''m done here." Chapter 1427 Blood Pill Farms Chapter 1427 Blood Pill Farms¡¡¡¡Once the discussions were completed, the trio split up once again. Gegrafikan infiltrated the secret realm, displaying a unique ability that none were ever aware that the Spirit Aberrants possessed. He turned into a Law and seeped into the body of an immortal, a legendary genius of the secret realm that had the potential to become a God. It was through him that Gegrafikan came to find out about the existence of the secret realm. It seemed this immortal was actually the grandson of a Mong Realm God and hence had a bit of leeway in his life. Thanks to that, he sneaked out of the secret realm to play around a little outside. This was when he was chanced upon by Gegrafikan. Gegrafikan completely devoured one of this immortal''s Laws and replaced it. This way, when the immortal returned to the secret realm, oblivious to what had happened, Gegrafikan succeeded in his endeavor. There were actually two Mong Realm Gods stationed in this secret realm, training the high potential immortals in an effort to make them Gods in the future. The secret realm was brimming with resources and Godly Energy. It was the best environment to cultivate in. Gegrafikan used the immortal to scout around. From time to time, he influenced the immortal''s actions through his Spiritual Incarnation. A Spirit Aberrant was innately gifted with manipulating the laws. Hence, Gegrafikan was able to do the same. As he wasn''t even using any Mental Energy, there weren''t any traces of tampering in the immortal''s mind. With that, the two Mong Realm Gods weren''t aware of what was happening here. Besides, the Mong Realm hadn''t been infiltrated ever since the Mong Realm Spirit manifested itself. So, they weren''t even on guard against an internal attack, focusing all their senses on external attacks. This helped Gegrafikan manipulate the immortal and slowly plant some Law Fragments everywhere, gradually erecting a formation. ''It might take me a decade before I''m done. I hope I finish it before the Mong Realm Spirit annexes the Tilk Realm.'' In the meantime, Sterlena was traveling through the Mong Realm, eventually reaching one of its supercontinents. Thanks to Krune, she had more than enough funds to travel nonstop for a few decades. As she had other goals, she couldn''t waste her time collecting Blood Pills. The supercontinent was as vast as those on the Kun Realm. However, it was overpopulated here as everywhere she looked around, all Sterlena saw was a sea of people. Most of them were mortals, but there was also a considerable number of cultivators around. Most of them were doing a variety of activities around. And surprisingly, the Godly Energy in the surroundings was a tenth of a Rank 1 God Stone in quality. It was surprising because this was the highest that she had ever sensed in the Mong Realm. The Godly Energy was just that pitiful in the Mong Realm. But thankfully for the residents here, they had created the Blood Pills to deal with it. ''Wait, how many billions of people are being killed by the Mong Realm every day to satiate their needs for cultivation? Just where are they finding so many people to slaughter?'' Sterlena wondered, casually entering a pub as she infiltrated the mind of an immortal here, someone that seemed like he had connections to the underworld. ''I see.'' She nodded, having looked through all his memories. ''They have captured millions of Sub-Realms in the various Realms, turning them into farms that produce Blood Pills en masse. The cultivators there are forced to cultivate and give birth nonstop.'' It was just like what the chicken race experienced on Earth. They were pretty much grown like crops and harvested in large numbers. Through these farms, the Mong Realm obtained enough Blood Pills. Of course, that wasn''t all. They had even graded the level of the Sub-Realms, making them the production target of certain ranks of Blood Pills. There were large Sub-Realms where cultivators reached their peak at the Godly Fusion Realm. They were slaughtered to produce Rank 1 Blood Pills. After that, there would be a gap, giving time for the population to grow. There would be peace in this Sub-Realm for around a decade before another slaughter happened. Having done the same for millions of years, the Mong Realm had already optimized its process. They always maintained these Sub-Realms at a state of overpopulation. With the massive slaughter, the population would only then enter an optimal level. And thanks to generations and generations of brainwashing, even the people would expect the slaughter. Only in that way would they have enough resources to get by and avoid hunger due to overpopulation. A similar case was repeated in other Sub-Realms as well. Plus, depending on the rank of Blood Pills they needed, they terraformed the Sub-Realms, ensuring the limit of cultivation that could be reached there was the same. In a Sub-Realm where Rank 5 Blood Pills were farmed, the peak of cultivation there was the Semi-God Realm. Here, a concept called ascending was introduced. It was what the Semi-God Realm immortals there did to enter a higher cultivation realm. That was the ''truth'' that had become one of the common sense of such Sub-Realms. In truth, once the Semi-God Realm immortals'' ascend,'' they would fall into the traps arranged by the Mong Realm Gods and turn into Rank 5 Blood Pills. But to the populace, they would assume that such immortals had already ascended. For every Rank 4 farm and above, this was the concept that had been employed. Thanks to this, the Mong Realm had a steady supply of Blood Pills. This wasn''t to mention the harvest the Mong Realm Gods and Primal Gods gained through their infiltration into various realms. Sighing as she understood the entirety of the Mong Realm''s scheme, Sterlena took a seat in a corner, shouting, "Master, some alcohol here, please." Once she received her alcohol, Sterlena sipped it while gazing at the youth seated before her, one with curly purple hair, one that seemed like a man of mysteries, smiling as she spoke, "So, why don''t we begin with some introductions?" "Son of the Tilk Realm''s Champion!" Chapter 1428 Recruiting Allies Chapter 1428 Recruiting Allies¡¡¡¡"You are¡­?" The curly-haired youth frowned, sighing in relief upon seeing a sound-proof barrier erected around them. "I''m the Kun Realm''s champion." Sterlena smiled in response. "It''s surprising that you infiltrated the Mong Realm when your home is on the verge of being annexed." "I have no other choice but to do this." The curly-haired youth gritted his teeth. "My father and all the Gods of my Tilk Realm have already been killed. So, I have no other choice but to do this. Using the entirety of our capabilities, I brought a small team of potential geniuses with me." "We''ll fight to re-establish the Tilk Realm once again." He clenched his hand into a fist as he muttered, "Even if it gets annexed, I''ll do something about it." "I have a plan in motion," Sterlena said in seriousness. "This would not only buy time for your Tilk Realm but also put a hold on a lot of the Mong Realm''s plans." "Fine, I''m in." The curly-haired youth said immediately. "If there''s a chance to prevent my realm from being annexed, you''ll have my wholehearted support." "Alright, that''s all I''ve come to talk about here," Sterlena said, getting up as she began to leave. "I''ll contact you after a couple of months. I''ll head out to meet with the other spies now." "Wait!" The curly-haired youth raised his hand, shouting, "How did you find me?" "Secret!" Sterlena smiled, vanishing from the spot as she used the teleportation formations of the city to continue traveling. The reason she found out about the curly-haired man was through her control over Godly Energy. Once she attuned herself to the Mong Realm''s Godly Energy, she probed around through it, determining for any foreign traces. She managed to lock onto some of them, something only her race was capable of. That was how she came to know about the spies of other realms that had managed to infiltrate the Mong Realm. After traveling for a couple of days through hundreds of teleportation formations, Sterlena reached an abandoned city that was in ruins now due to a lack of maintenance. There once existed a massive lake here that produced countless resources. But over time, as the conditions in the Mong Realm worsened, it dried up. And similarly, the city that had been built to harvest the resources from the lack gradually became vacant and abandoned. Currently, this served as the refuge for a group of spies from a certain realm. The moment Sterlena flew towards this city, two immortals blocked her. "Who are you?" "There are actually immortals in an abandoned city? I should report this back to my sect." Sterlena smirked. "We should kill her," one of the immortals whispered to the other. "She seems strong. So, on the count of three, I''ll suppress her while you take us both down. We have no other choice but to prevent her from escaping," the other immortal replied, ready to sacrifice himself. "That won''t be necessary." Suddenly, a wizened old man appeared, gently hovering before Sterlena as he gazed at her. "Who are you?" ''So, one of their foreign Gods also infiltrated. And judging by his strength, he should be from the Garg Realm.'' Sterlena thought, smiling as she spoke, "Is senior a Garg Realm God?" "How did she find that out?" The two immortals were flabbergasted. "You have keen senses. Is that how you managed to locate us?" The Garg Realm God smiled in response. The Garg Realm was an ancient powerhouse, almost on par with the Mong Realm. They had been in conflict with the Mong Realm for the longest time. Though, in recent times, they have declined a little due to a lot of successive losses. However, they were still one of the few powers that were capable of going toe to toe against the Mong Realm. "I''m the Kun Realm''s Champion," Sterlena introduced herself with a pleasant smile. "Didn''t we find out that the Kun Realm''s Champion had been killed recently?" One of the immortals muttered in shock. "And, wasn''t he a guy?" "I''m his predecessor," Sterlena said in response. "Based on your strength and the size of your fate¡­" The Garg Realm God sighed, nodding in response. "If you aren''t even a Champion, the Kun Realm would have dominated the rest of the Realms already." "So, what''s your reason for visiting me¡­" The Garg Realm God asked, trailing off. "Sterlena," Sterlena introduced herself. "I''ll be creating a gateway that connects the Mong Realm to the outside. I want your side to invade with your army through that." "So, your goal is to create a battlefield where the various realms would arrive and fight the Mong Realm. And if the Mong Realm loses, we''ll be able to enter their realm through there. Is this your plan?" the Garg Realm God spoke, having understood the gist of her plan with so little information. "That''s pretty much it," Sterlena said with a nod. "What''s your take on this?" "I''m still concerned about your methods since I can''t picture how you''ll be making this a reality," the Garg Realm God said. "But, since you have approached me, you have considerable confidence in your plan, right?" "Yes," Sterlena nodded in response. "I have a scary teammate working on that. And he''ll definitely pull through." "But first, when we take action, we''ll have to do something about the two Mong Realm Gods stationed in that secret realm," Sterlena said, detailing their plan of action. "I''ll be able to stall them long enough." The Garg Realm God said in response. "And, I''ll contact my realm and tell them to prepare an army. We''ll form the vanguard that charges into the Mong Realm first." "As expected of the Garg Realm." Sterlena nodded in approval. "You''re indeed confident in your strength." "What will your Kun Realm do next?" he asked. "We''ll show the Mong Realm our true might." Sterlena smiled as she continued, "After all, we''ve already managed to clean all spies in the Kun Realm." "All¡­ the spies?" The Garg Realm God was surprised before he gazed at his subordinates, sighing as he spoke, "So, that was why we were unable to know what happened in the Kun Realm after their champion''s death." "Fine!" The Garg Realm God smiled after that. "Our primary enemy is the Mong Realm. So, my Garg Realm would join your plan." "Thank you." Sterlena smiled in response. Chapter 1429 I’ll Kill You in Three Moves Chapter 1429 I¡¯ll Kill You in Three Moves¡¡¡¡"Please¡­ spare me!" A middle-aged lady possessing Seventh Stage God Core Realm in strength slumped to the ground, begging in despair. "Please, at least spare my child. He hasn''t don''t anything wrong." "Heh!" A cultivator carrying a broadsword smirked in disdain, crouching before the middle-aged woman as he spoke, "Wasn''t he born at the Godly Fusion Realm? You have a talented bloodline." "What do you say?" He caressed her hair, muttering, "If you promise to birth me such a talented child, I''ll let the two of you live. What do you say?" "Do you promise¡­?" The middle-aged woman gritted her teeth, resigning herself to her fate, when suddenly, tears welled up in her eyes, noticing the broadsword pierced through her chest. "But you said¡­" "Idiot! A child would never be born between people from different realms." The cultivator carrying the broadsword snorted, watching a thin crimson stream exit the middle-aged woman''s body, sucking in the entirety of her essence, only leaving behind some dust. Such crimson streaks dotted the skies as they all seemed to be heading in the same direction, causing the cultivator with the broadsword to mutter in distaste. "Pah, to think the Blood Pills are produced in such a disgusting manner." "If you don''t like it, stop using them to cultivate." Another cultivator nearby retorted, snorting before he walked past. "Where does this flower pot think he''s going after mocking me?" The cultivator with the broadsword emanated killing intent, staring right at the other cultivator. "Damn, you stink!" The other party pressed down his cap further, pinching his nose as he spoke in disgust. "Damn, who the hell has taken a shit on the battlefield? It stinks!" He then gazed at the cultivator with the broadsword, acting in surprise out of nowhere. "Oh! I thought someone shat here. But it was just your face. Man, your mother must have been one hell of a beauty to birth such a tragedy." "Fuck you!" The cultivator with the broadsword roared in anger, unleashing a sword beam that slammed into the other cultivator. Or at least, that was what was supposed to happen. But instead, a thin barrier protected him from the attack as the two cultivators suddenly found themselves kissing the ground, buried a couple feet under. An ice-cold voice resounded, "If you dare fight, I''ll paint the ground with your entrails. Understand?" "Yes, Sir Immortal!" Both the cultivators nodded vigorously. "Good, don''t be overcome by the bloodlust. Besides, the lot of you aren''t even warriors. You''re just farmers that are farming for Blood Pills here. Nothing more, nothing less. Understand?" The immortal overseeing the entire operation conveyed through his Divine Sense. "Yes, Lord Immortal!" The two cultivators got up before bowing in response. The cultivator with a broadsword suddenly shuddered, noticing a figure hovering in the air before him, gazing down at him from a couple meters above. The cultivator with the broadsword shuddered, asking nervously, "Is something wrong, Lord Immortal?" "Did you¡­ direct lust at that woman before?" The immortal gazed at the cultivator with the broadsword, glaring as he emanated his might. "S-Sh-S-Sh-She was about to d-d-die. So, I just played a game with¡­" The cultivator with the broadsword stammered to speak when he stopped all of a sudden, his expression turning blank. Immediately after, his body split into hundreds of slices and collapsed to the ground. "Look!" The immortal shouted, conveying the information to everyone in the Sub-Realm. "Whether they are handsome, gorgeous, young, old, genius or trash, nothing matters. The only thing that matters is their cultivation and the rank of the Blood Pill they could be turned into. If I see any damned farming idiot try to be smart, I''ll eradicate you along with the rest of your useless bloodline." "Do you understand?" "Yes, Lord Immortal!" Everyone saluted immediately before resuming their battle. "You damn invaders!" A group of immortals from the Sub-Realm flew towards the scene, exploding with all their wrath, slamming massive palm imprints at the Mong Realm army, intending to destroy them. "Hah, finally! Some idiots with a backbone." The Mong Realm immortal smiled before taking off to the air. "He''s only at the Elementary God Realm. There''s just one immortal in this entire army. Kill him!" The immortals bellowed. "There are ten Primal Gods on our side and a few dozen Elementary Gods. Slaughter these Mong Realm bastards!" "Kill!" "That''s a grand welcome for me." The Mong Realm immortal strangely broke into a smile at the situation, partly excited as he blasted into the skies, suddenly moving past the approaching group. For a moment, the group of immortals was stunned into silence as the body of the Elementary God at the front exploded into a pool of blood. "He killed us just by moving past?" The leading Primal Gods were overwhelmed with shock as one of them shouted at the Mong Realm immortal, "What the hell are you?" "Hahaha, I''m surprised there exist people unaware of the mighty me." The Mong Realm immortal laughed as he flicked his hand, splashing the blood of the Elementary God, pointing at the Primal Gods as he spoke, "Listen closely. The one you''ve been honored to bask under the presence of is none other than the strongest Elementary God in existence, and also the one that would reach the apex in the future." "Son of the Mong Realm Champion, the future Mong Realm Champion. I''m Mon-Du-Badak!" "He''s that monster''s son?" The immortals were shocked, trembling in response. They were all from the Tilk Realm. Having lost the war, they didn''t have any God to rely upon anymore. In fact, even the number of Primal Gods had fallen severely. As if to mock them, the Mong Realm invaded them from every direction, killing their people en masse and committing mass genocide that spanned their entire realm. "Haha!" Mon-Du-Badak casually waved his hand, crippling another Elementary God while sending a Primal God flying. "You Tilk Realm immortals are too weak. So weak that I''m bored to fight you." "I really need to fight against someone strong." He groaned, waving his hand, intending to slaughter another Elementary God, when suddenly, his attack dissipated. "Then, why don''t you fight me?" Suddenly, a voice resounded from behind him, up close, startling him as Mon-Du-Badak leaped a dozen meters forward in reflex, turning around to see the figure of Krune positioned just a couple centimeters before him, eyes locked, allowing him to notice a maniacal desire to roast everything present in his eyes. "Let''s see. Since you''re the Mong Realm Champion''s son and touted to be the strongest Elementary God¡­" Krune trailed off, raising his index, middle, and ring fingers slowly. "Three!" "I''ll kill you in three hits." Chapter 1430 Birth of a New Legend Chapter 1430 Birth of a New Legend¡¡¡¡"I''ll kill you in three moves." Hearing such an arrogant tone, Mon-Du-Badak was grandly offended. This was especially so after he sensed that Krune was at the First Stage Elementary God Realm, the same as him. Who was Mon-Du-Badak? He was the Mong Realm Champion''s son, the strongest in his realm. When he was at the Semi-God Realm, he was the strongest Semi-God Realm cultivator around. When he was at the God Trial Realm, he was the strongest God Trial Realm cultivator. And after reaching the Elementary God Realm, the status quo was still the same. He wasn''t just blindly quoting it out of arrogance or due to his birth status. This was something Mon-Du-Badak proclaimed only through battle after defeating the legendary geniuses from other realms one after another. Even legendary geniuses from the strongest realms, such as the Garg Realm, failed to defeat him. Only after that did Mon-Du-Badak proclaim himself as the strongest. Not only that, even at the Mong Realm, after reaching the First Stage Elementary God Realm, he had challenged a Mong Realm Primal God and killed him rather easily. This was the extent of his terrifying strength. The Mong Realm Primal Gods were said to be the strongest among the Primal Gods. The fact that he could casually kill one of them was a testament to his strength. So, the fact that Krune still dared to utter such bold words of unfiltered arrogance pissed him to no greater end. Had Krune been a God, then Mon-Du-Badak wouldn''t have complained much. A God was still able to do so against him. After all, even the strongest of Primal Gods would die to a God, even if the said God was from a weak realm. Therefore, he was just unable to digest Krune''s words, immediately bursting with the brunt of his presence, causing the air to explode as a result as Mon-Du-Badak glared at Krune. "Bastard! Who the fuck are you?" Godly Ability¡ªGodly Inhibition! Krune smiled in response, instantly sealing all Godly Energy in his surroundings, causing Mon-Du-Badak''s ability activation to vanish. The sounds of the ocean waves rumbling resounded as Krune activated his Thundercloud Whale within himself, exploding with tribulation lightning as he seemed the same in his Pestlor, expanding it to a length of a kilometer. "First Hit!" B-Boom! A mighty shockwave resounded as Mon-Du-Badak was unable to defend due to having his Godly Energy sealed. Krune attacked the instant he sealed his opponent''s Godly Energy, not giving him enough time to even react. Following that, he exploded with the brunt of his physical might. Since the Thundercloud Whale was his active ability, it wasn''t affected by his Godly Inhibition. Mon-Du-Badak was sent flying into the ground as he created a crater that spanned more than a hundred kilometers in radius, expressing the power behind the attack. The shockwave alone killed all the mortals of the Mong Realm. This was because Krune had sent Mon-Du-Badak flying in such a direction to make his impact on the ground the thing that killed the army from the Mong Realm. The immortals also weren''t spared as most of them died from the shockwave alone. Less than an instant transpired past the impact when Krune brought out almost two hundred thousand Thundercloud Whales. They were his current limit. Shockingly, all of them had been charged up with enough Godly Energy as the moment they arrived, all the over two hundred thousand Thundercloud Whales unleashed the same ability. Lightning Needle! There was a beam of revolving tribulation lightning that slammed into Mon-Du-Badak''s body, rapidly drilling through his body as the entirety of his Laws were melted rapidly, destroying all his abilities, leaving him in a near-death state. Honestly, he was shocked, terrified even, unable to even understand what had hit him. The strength unleashed by Krune had already reached the Primal God Realm and could be very well said to be reaching the peak limits. Plus, the series of attacks sealed his abilities. So, Mon-Du-Badak wasn''t able to recover fast enough to unleash his power, only taking a beating passively. "You¡­ bastard¡­! Where are you from?" Mon-Du-Badak wheezed weakly, unable to exert even an ounce of his strength. "I''ll¡­destroy your¡­ realm." "You?" Krune laughed cutely as if he had heard the funniest joke of the millennium, gazing at Mon-Du-Badak with unbridled mockery. "You? I thought it might take me three hits to kill you. But you''re down with two." "Seriously, did I overestimate you?" He tilted his head, pondering while deep in thought. "Damn¡­ you¡­!" Mon-Du-Badak bellowed as tears streamed out of his eyes. From when he was born, he had been the best of the best in everything. That had been his confidence and the source of his arrogance. But today, a cultivator from somewhere random absolutely wrecked him, in two hits at that. Moreover, he didn''t even look like those two hits had taken much out of him, adding to Mon-Du-Badak''s despair. "Well, I''ll impart upon you a parting prize." Krune smiled, pointing at Mon-Du-Badak''s forehead as he unleashed three abilities in succession. Godly Ability¡ªI''m Hungry, Gimme Your Power! Godly Ability¡ªHeavenly Spark! Godly Ability¡ªZombie Food, Hunger Wave! He first stole a part of Mon-Du-Badak''s power, fusing the remaining two abilities into it before sending it into Mon-Du-Badak. This way, neither he nor others would be able to sense anything amiss. Even that Mong Realm God was unable to sense anything, not to mention the Elementary God before him. ''Besides, there wouldn''t even be any traces once he revives." Krune was aware that Mon-Du-Badak''s revival means must be protected by the strongest existence, the Mong Realm Champion. So, it would be pretty much impossible to kill him. But, that wasn''t his goal in the first place, as once he unleashed the fused ability, Krune casually activated tribulation lightning and stomped Mon-Du-Badak to death. The army dispatched by the Mong Realm to this Sub-Realm in the Tilk Realm had been eradicated by the shockwaves already. And now, standing in the center of the wreckage, was Krune, nonchalant. Gazing at such a scene, the Tilk Realm Primal Gods muttered in shock, feeling goosebumps. "From today onwards, in the Greater Universe¡­" "A new legend has been birthed!" Chapter 1431 Take Example From an Accident Chapter 1431 Take Example From an Accident¡¡¡¡Bam! "Ack!" "No!" "Please! Forgive us!" A swirling energy wave spread past, destroying an entire Sub-Realm in response to a certain being''s outburst. "My son was killed?" A man''s angry voice resounded as he gritted his teeth, his glare causing the countless Gods before him to shudder in response. He was the Mong Realm Champion, the strongest being in the Greater Universe. He was someone who was capable of killing dozens of Gods on his own, possessing unmatched power and authority since the start of the unchanging era. For as long as history could be dated, he was in control of the Mong Realm. And this was when the Mong Realm Spirit wasn''t even born. Throughout history, he was addressed with countless titles, one of which was used the highest. God King! King among the Gods, the being that reigns supreme at the top. That was him. And among the sons that he had, Mon-Du-Badak was the most cherished, someone he thought had the chance to inherit his seat in the future. That was why he sent him to the Sub-Realms of the Tilk Realm without any guards. After all, only through adversary would a champion be born. If he had to face and kill a hundred Primal Gods on his own with his cultivation at the Elementary God Realm, so be it. It was impossible for his son to be killed anyway since he was the one protecting his revival mechanism. And until now, even when facing a dozen Primal Gods, Mon-Du-Badak wasn''t even in the least disadvantaged. But suddenly, he died unexpectedly? This was what the God King, the Mong Realm''s Champion, was unable to understand. Under his anger, none of the other Mong Realm Gods even dared to breathe, stifled, almost going to the extent of sealing their Godly Energy to not disturb him. Fear! Respect! Admiration! These were the emotions directed at the strongest being. The God King opened his palm, causing a Pocket Sub-Realm to manifest, within which was Mon-Du-Badak''s Heavenly Incarnation. All the necessary materials had long since been placed within the Heavenly Incarnation, including an excess reserve of Godly Energy, the quality on par with a Rank 7 God Stone¡ªElementary God level in quality. Indeed, the Mong Realm''s lack of Godly Energy was just a means to control the masses and make them fight for his objective. The entirety of the Mong Realm''s resources was instead concentrated in the hands of the Gods, not to mention the resources they pillaged and harvested from other realms. The Heavenly Incarnation churned and spat out the figure of Mon-Du-Badak that was sullen for a moment before flying out of the Sub-Realm, bowing before the God King. "I greet lord father." "Mon-Du-Badak!" The God King frowned. "Tell me. How the hell were you killed?" Mon-Du-Badak gritted his teeth immediately as he replied, "It was by an unnamed God. That bastard seemed to originate from a discrete realm. So, I couldn''t even get a feel for his Laws. I couldn''t react on time and was killed." "This was due to my inexperience. I failed my mission. Please punish me, lord father." He prostrated on the floor. "An unknown God¡­" The God King muttered before smiling. "Your punishment is to return to that Sub-Realm in the Tilk Realm and fight that unknown God once again. This time, your mission is to understand that unknown God''s strength." "And, once we find the coordinates of the realm he''s from¡­" He licked his lips. "We''ll obtain another target to loot from." "Now go!" "Yes, lord father!" Mon-Du-Badak bowed in response before rushing into a portal that manifested before him, leaving the place. "An unknown God, he says¡­" The God King smirked all of a sudden. "My son has come into contact with the laws of pretty much every known realm. The fact that he couldn''t recognize that God''s Laws is good news to us. We have one more target." "This will be interesting!" "Congratulations to our God King!" The Mong Realm Gods cupped their fists, bowing in response as they, too, were happy. The Mong Realm had never hesitated to invade other realms. It could be said that invading others was pretty much a basic instinct they had. This instinct had become the core that served as the Mong Realm''s foundation. "It does seem like the Greater Realm is inexplicably vast," the God King muttered when suddenly, he got up and cupped his fists, greeting with respect. In the direction he greeted, there was a small spark that soon grew in size. It was ethereal in nature, flickering in and out of existence while emanating countless tiny sparks all over its spark-like body. Mong Realm Spirit! "Indeed, the Greater Universe is bigger than you fathom." The Mong Realm Spirit spoke. "But, that''s also why it''s fun. The longer you tread into the greater unknown, the higher the magnitude of excitement you experience." "How''s your plan coming along?" The God King asked with a smile. "Are you ready to devour the Tilk Realm?" "Not yet." The Mong Realm Spirit flickered before saying, "I''ll become too strong once I swallow it. That would prevent me from controlling my power. Throughout the Mong Realm, even at the weakest places, the Godly Energy quality would reach a Rank 3 God Stone''s worth. It would wholly disrupt everything we''ve worked on." "You''ll become that powerful?" The God King was shocked, "What about the Laws?" "They too would become stronger." The Mong Realm Spirit nodded as it continued. "It might create too many energy storms that might even result in the deaths of the Gods. Even you might be affected because your strength would jump up too quickly." "So, we''ll be gaining so much power that we wouldn''t be able to contain it," the God King muttered, grinning in excitement. "How interesting." "Right?" The Mong Realm Spirit grinned in response. "I have so many things to worry about that I''m having a blast every second of the day. Every step of this process has been fun." "Besides, I have already devised a plan to swallow the Tilk Realm." It grinned, announcing all of a sudden, surprising everyone, "There has been a precedent due to an accident. I can simply use that example." "That accident called itself the Calamity Realm." Chapter 1432 We Can’t Fight Any Longer Chapter 1432 We Can¡¯t Fight Any Longer¡¡¡¡The Calamity Realm, the realm that Little Cally was the Realm Spirit of, was a fragment of the Kun Realm that had broken off in the past and developed into a whole realm over time, even going so far as to birth a Realm Spirit. Even if it was like a different entity, at the end of the day, Little Cally was like the Kun Realm Spirit''s child. If the Kun Realm Spirit was birthed, this would be the status quo. Currently, this was what the Mong Realm Spirit was gunning for. "I can swallow the Tilk Realm, rapidly digest it and then birth a new satellite realm. This would ensure we wouldn''t face any damages while also raising our foundation a little. Plus, the satellite realm would be helpful as it would create even more experts for us to throw into other realms." "How many satellite realms are you planning to create?" The God King asked in response. "Hmm¡­" The Mong Realm Spirit thought for a moment before speaking, "If I''m commenting based on the volume of the realm itself, the Tilk Realm is actually a tad bigger than me. So, I''ll be absorbing thirty to forty percent of its foundation while delegating the rest into satellite realms. I''ll make around 6-7 satellite realms." "That means our laws would be strengthened by around thirty percent at the very least." The God King smiled after hearing that. "Wouldn''t I become unrivaled after that?" "You sure would be." The Mong Realm Spirit nodded in response. "Currently, even the Garg Realm Champion can barely resist you. With this increase in the strength of our laws, even he would become nothing before you." "That means¡­" The God King''s eyes shone fiercely after that. "That bastard might be trying to obtain the Tilk Realm first. If the Garg Realm devours the Tilk Realm, there''s a small chance his strength might exceed mine." "If we''re careless, our golden age would also spell our doom." The Mong Realm Spirit sighed. "No wonder." The God King nodded before announcing, "Make preparations to wage war against the Garg Realm. We must first give them a crippling blow before we can devour the Tilk Realm. Otherwise, we''ll play right into their hands." He then pointed at Tuka-N-Ketton and said, "You''ll take care of my son and find out details regarding that unknown God." "Yes, God King!" Tuka-N-Ketton nodded before vanishing from the place. However, what everyone in the place had misunderstood was the fact that there was no unknown God here. It was just a result of Mon-Du-Badak memories being tampered with by Krune. The way in which he did this was pretty genius. After all, Krune first stole a fragment of the power that acted as Mon-Du-Badak''s mental defenses. He then added in the altered memories before launching the power back into Mon-Du-Badak. The stolen power returned to its rightful place as the modified fragments affected his memories as a whole. This left no traces behind. After all, there was no foreign power affecting Mon-Du-Badak''s mind. This was how even the God King didn''t notice anything amiss. Of course, if he actually investigated Mon-Du-Badak''s mind closely, he might be able to unearth some clues as the altered memories would be a bit rough around the edges, something that could be picked up by an expert of such a caliber. Though, it was due to his arrogance that he didn''t bother checking into Mon-Du-Badak''s mind. It could also be said that this was Little Cally''s revenge gradually coming into play. After all, it was unknown how much it had sacrificed to create the mystical Galki Race that allowed Krune to unleash this mysterious power that allowed him to steal the strength of his opponents. Having stomped Mon-Du-Badak to death, Krune looked around at the battlefield, gazing at the Tilk Realm Primal Gods before asking, "Are any Gods still alive in the Tilk Realm?" "No." The Primal God in the lead shook his head, sighing before asking, "Lord, who are you?" "I won''t reveal my identity," Krune said in response. "But, you can rest assured that I have no interests in the Tilk Realm. My enemy is the Mong Realm. That''s all." "Please allow us to honor you." The Primal God bowed in response. "Even though our Tilk Realm has been devastated, we wouldn''t allow our savior to return empty-handed." "I don''t need anything. But, I don''t mind having a look around," Krune replied as he appeared before the Primal God. The Tilk Realm immortals then brought Krune out of that Sub-Realm and into the Tilk Realm, causing Krune to become shocked. "The Tilk Realm is abundant with resources," he said in surprise. "Yes," The leading Primal God nodded. "The Tilk Realm had always been rich in resources. You can very well say that our realm produces the greatest amount of resources in the Greater Universe." "But you see¡­" He sighed as he continued, "Because of that, we''ve always been eyed by the other realms. It wasn''t just the Mong Realm that targeted us. The Garg Realm, the Dolk Realm, the Lak Realm, and even the Fon Realm have invaded us in the past. We''ve had long periods of constant war. But no matter what, throughout history, we''ve managed to produce enough geniuses to protect our realm." "Then, the Mong Realm began killing your geniuses in secret," Krune spoke. "Yes." The Tilk Realm Primal God sighed in sadness. "At that time, we weren''t aware of Soul Cultivation. And no matter what we tried, we weren''t able to find any traces of our opponent. After that, there was the Garg-Fon invasion that lasted for three thousand years. It was when we lost a quarter of our Gods." "Following it was the Dolk-Lak invasion where a majority of our Gods were severely injured." The Primal God sighed. "And recently was the¡­" "Mong Realm invasion," Krune finished the Primal God''s words. "Yes." Tears streamed out of his eyes as the Primal God choked on his emotions. "We didn''t even have time to recover from the constant invasions. And when the Mong Realm Champion directly killed so many of our Gods, the remainder were overwhelmed and annihilated soon after." "Now, there are just the surviving Primal Gods that are trying to protect our people." He wiped his tears as he continued, "But, we are constantly failing. The Tilk Realm has lost all its strength." "We can''t fight any longer." Chapter 1433 Suck Their Brainpower Dry Chapter 1433 Suck Their Brainpower Dry¡¡¡¡''Constant invasions, a never-ending war, their resources pillaged all the time, their talents killed one after another and multiple strong enemies.'' Krune sighed, hearing everything from the group of Primal Gods. ''If what the Tilk Realm faced happens to the Kun Realm¡­ we would fall within a couple millennia.'' He was aware of their realm''s strength. Unlike the Tilk Realm, the Kun Realm was still a young realm. It hadn''t even birthed its realm Spirit yet. This was also why the other strong realms hadn''t invaded with their armies yet. It was because a developing Realm wasn''t lucrative enough. However, once the Tilk Realm was annexed by the Mong Realm, the Kun Realm would be next. After all, it was the weakest but most delicious target in their reach. It would be a lamb on the chopping block, surrounded by hyenas. The Mong Realm, the Garg Realm, the Dolk Realm, the Lak Realm, the Fon Realm, etc. Every powerful realm would focus on the Kun Realm next. Even if they managed to grow strong in the meantime, it wouldn''t amount to much. In the end, the Kun Realm was still way too young. If it was just based on the number of immortals, the Mong Realm would outclass them a thousand to one at the very least. And this was a conservative estimate. After all, the Mong Realm had developed to the extent it had exhausted all its resources. The meaning behind this was overwhelming. It meant they had that many immortals to support, which ended up depleting their resources. Krune was unable to estimate the voluminous number of cultivators required to do this. At present, in the Turia Supercontinent, even if the Mountain Sect grew fifty times in size, they wouldn''t even make a dent in the resources produced by the Turia Supercontinent. Then, to what extent would their number of immortals must increase to fully exhaust the supercontinent''s resources? He couldn''t even fathom that. If the Mong Realm invaded in full force, the Kun Realm would cave in under a year or even sooner. It had to be noted that their Champions, Krune and Sterlena, were weak. They weren''t Gods yet. In contrast, the Mong Realm Champion managed to kill more than a couple dozen Gods single-handedly. The Kun Realm lacked a peak expert capable of facing such a terrifying entity. Plus, it wouldn''t just be the Mong Realm alone. To prevent the Mong Realm from becoming too powerful, the other realms would do everything in their power to swallow the Kun Realm first. Even with an optimistic conclusion, Krune was aware that the Kun Realm would be doomed in such a situation. ''I have to buy time. No matter what, I have to prolong the Mong Realm''s annexing of the Tilk Realm. I should ensure the gazes of the other realms won''t fall on the Kun Realm, at least not until we managed to develop enough,'' Krune thought, observing the state of the Laws of the Tilk Realm. Even though it was a bountiful place, the laws had been damaged a lot due to foreign immortals unleashing their abilities here throughout history. Due to the extent of damage suffered by the laws of the Tilk Realm, it would be hard for it to produce another God. At least, it wouldn''t be easy. The reason Krune had arrived here was to look at the state of things in the Tilk Realm firsthand. Thanks to a clone in the Mountain Sect, all the information was being conveyed to them in real-time. This would make them understand the dire straits they were in and begin preparations. Wally had assured him that he had gotten rid of all those that had infiltrated the Kun Realm. This meant that for the first time in ages, the Kun Realm was finally rid of foreign forces. Thanks to this, Luvile, Soren, and the other Gods had taken action to rapidly raise the cultivation and strength of the Kun Realm. They forced various supercontinents to wage war against one another while also rewarding them with Body and Soul Cultivation methods, thereby preparing them for the future. Moreover, only through fights would they develop the three powers. Krune''s experiences in the Mong Realm were sold in Mental Energy capsules similar to God Stones, allowing the immortals to experience what life was beyond the Kun Realm. This prepared them by making them realize just how terrifying the immortals from beyond the Kun Realm were. That wasn''t all. They also developed technology, connecting all the continents and supercontinents, allowing the populace to be updated with the insane volume of information regarding everything that was happening in the Kun Realm. Major waves of changes were happening as they were directly looting the Mong Realm''s experiences. Krune wasn''t just challenging the experts of the Mong Realm. When he won, he also stole all their memories. And the clone in the Mountain Sect created Mental Energy capsules of the same, allowing other immortals to experience such valuable experiences. It allowed them to go through the life experiences of the Mong Realm immortals and sponge on everything, allowing rapid increases in their comprehension. They then built upon that, creating their own battle techniques that allowed them to wield the powers of all three cultivation paths at the same time. And for this, Mon-Du-Badak''s experiences played vital importance. After all, contained in his memories were knowledge related to the Mong Realm Champion, his insights into cultivation, fighting, ruling the Mong Realm, etc. After all, the Mong Realm Champion had been training Mon-Du-Badak to take his seat in the future. So, his experience and knowledge were on a whole other level, to a certain extent also surpassing the Mong Realm Gods. This was why once Krune discovered traces of him in the memories of an immortal he had chanced upon in his journey, Krune acted immediately, infiltrating this Sub-Realm in the Tilk Realm. And now, the value of information obtained from him was valuable to even the Kun Realm Gods as Luvile and Soren took action almost instantly, banking on this information to derive new abilities, achieving multiple breakthroughs in their three cultivation paths. It would be said that Krune was the gateway that funneled precious data into the Kun Realm, allowing it to grow rapidly. The Mong Realm had been scheming to suck its resources dry. In retaliation, Krune was sucking its brainpower dry. Chapter 1434 Gegrafikan Would Never Miss Chapter 1434 Gegrafikan Would Never Miss¡¡¡¡While Krune was looking through the Tilk Realm in search of clues, Sterlena had already come into contact with all the spies in the Mong Realm. When she shared news that the Garg Realm would take up the vanguard in the upcoming invasion, they were excited, immediately acquiescing to her intentions, stating that they would also participate. Information was transmitted back to their original realms, causing them to begin preparations for war immediately. After all, the time limit stated in that was eight years. Just eight years. It was too short a timespan to prepare for such a major operation. Unfortunately, they had no other choice but to act so quickly. Otherwise, there was a good chance the Mong Realm might catch wind of their scheme. Sterlena wasn''t just involved with meeting the spies. In fact, she even took the initiative to leave the Mong Realm and travel with the spies to their home realms. There were the networks used by the spies. Besides, she had enough comprehension of various laws that allowed her to ascertain her safety, guaranteeing that she wouldn''t make any mistakes that might cause the plan to be in jeopardy. There was just one reason the representatives of the other realms were willing to meet with her. It was all thanks to her strength. Sterlena was only at the Fourth Stage of the God Trial Realm. However, she was already able to kill a dozen Primal Gods. Moreover, now that she was working on deepening her comprehension of various laws, her understanding of the True Spirit race''s innate abilities deepened, allowing her strength to explode. True Spirits were capable of tapping into heaven and earth, controlling the very Godly Energy itself, including that which circulated in the meridians of others. Thus, Sterlena decided to take this to the extreme, which was why she became even more terrifying. When she declared herself the Kun Realm''s Champion, the other realms'' representatives had no other choice but to greet her. Considering her strength, once she became a God, she would be strong even among the champions of the various realms. So, it was better to form beneficial relations with her in advance. That way, the Kun Realm would become their allies in the future. Had Sterlena been weak, they wouldn''t have even bothered to meet her. After all, if even the champion was weak, then the realm they were from wouldn''t be a threat. It would be prey that they could have a share of in the future. It was as simple as that. It had to be noted that Sterlena created her Heavenly Destruction Law through the eradication of her entire race, the race of True Spirits known as the children of heaven. Hence, if she so desired, Sterlena was able to destroy everything, Laws, matter, and even eradicate Godly Energy from existence. She could turn a bountiful realm into nothingness. And, when the other realms challenged her to get a clearer idea of her strength, Sterlena destroyed them absolutely until no complaints could be voiced. Surprisingly, neither her peers nor those stronger than her were able to win against her. It had to be noted that Sterlena was even stronger than Krune. And he had just mopped the ground with Mon-Du-Badak, the cultivator regarded as the strongest among his peers, worthy of succeeding the Mong Realm Champion in the future. So, there was no way in hell would any legendary geniuses from the other realms hold a candle to Sterlena. "Thank you." Sterlena smiled, obtaining a storage ring from the Dolk Realm''s Champion. He was a superpower, having survived a battle against the Mong Realm Champion. So, his strength was well known. Currently, Sterlena was conversing with him. Even though she was only at the God Trial Realm, she was treated as an equal by the Dolk Realm Champion. With that, he asked her, "What are you planning to do next?" "I''ll head towards the Lak Realm next." Sterlena pointed at the envoy from the Lak Realm waiting for her. At present, there was a group following Sterlena from one realm to another, all consisting of Gods. They accompanied her while ensuring to protect her. After all, she was the lynchpin of this operation, the representative that caused an alliance between various realms to form. "This operation entirely rests on your teammate. If he fails, we''ll pull back our armies and act like this never happened," the Dolk Realm Champion spoke. "That''s natural." Sterlena smiled, twirling the storage ring in her hands. Contained within it was a myriad of items and resources, all on the level of Gods. It was the gift handed over to her as a show of appreciation by the Dolk Realm Champion. Sterlena didn''t stand on ceremony and accepted it, realizing the hidden intent behind such an expensive gift. ''If we''re lacking, they would invade the Kun Realm next.'' She was obviously aware of their intentions. However, she wasn''t afraid. After all, the teammate she was relying upon was Gegrafikan. Who was he? Spirit Aberrant! A race so terrifying the laws of the Kun Realm split its power into two while at the time of their birth. And now, he was the sole existence that had fused the two split power back into their source, becoming a pinnacle being. Gegrafikan''s power lay in terraforming. And even to this day, he had yet to let loose. Even when the Mist Sect invaded, no matter how angry he got, Gegrafikan still held back a lot. Because he was aware of the consequences of going all out. But now, he was planning to do that. That''s why Sterlena was confident. No matter what, even if those two Mong Realm Gods managed to somehow discover him, the plan would still continue as Gegrafikan would be able to terraform the Sub-Realm instantly. Sterlena gazed at the Dolk Realm Champion, stating in confidence, "Even if he''s discovered, nothing changes. That Sub-Realm would become a gateway. The only difference is that we''ll have to make a move earlier. So, be prepared." The Dolk Realm Champion was shocked before laughing aloud, "Sterlena, right?" "I''m interested to see the Kun Realm Champion''s growth." Chapter 1435 Happy Dinner Chapter 1435 Happy Dinner¡¡¡¡Dolnak-Duk-Dak! It was a supercontinent in the Mong Realm, one of its oldest and most important locations. This was where the Mong Realm Champion had been born from. Currently, in one of its luxurious single bedroom apartments sat a clone that opened the entrance to its subspace, allowing Krune to walk out. He immediately stored the clone inside and sighed, sitting cross-legged. He returned from the Tilk Realm. Obviously, it was too dangerous. But with the help of Little Cally, he was able to transfer his subspace through the chaotic storms beyond the realms. The reason he had arrived here was that his Calamity Laws were sending warning signals constantly. Aware that his disguise would come off if he remained there, Krune promised the Tilk Realm immortals to endure while he solved their issues, leaving immediately after. Though, even after he entered, one of his clones was still left in the Tilk Realm. Using the help of the natives, he left it in one of the most discrete regions of the Tilk Realm. Only a couple of Primal Gods were aware of this fact. Moreover, to protect his secret, they directly committed suicide, only planning to revive when he returned. This was to prevent information about him from being found out by the enemy. After all, there was a good chance all the Tilk Realm''s Primal Gods would be slaughtered next. Seated in the single bedroom apartment, Krune closed his eyes, focusing on his Hunger Law, sensing it throughout the Mong Realm that he had spread it. It was like a virus, spreading through its aroma when inhaled by others. Even though he hadn''t activated the Hunger Wave part, the Zombie Food part was already in motion. Those affected by the ability would unleash a pleasant aroma. Krune concealed it through the scent they had. When inhaled by others, this scent would accumulate in their bodies, slowly gaining power from their bodies before forming another node of the Zombie Food. After that, they would also begin to emit the same aroma, causing the effects of the ability to transfer far and wide. As the people constantly traveled, the effects of the ability also spread like a plague. Over time, it became strengthened in their host bodies. The best thing about this aroma is that Krune modified it to be no different from the natural scent of the land, of nature, of the Mong Realm''s terrain. As no abilities were like this, the immortals were indeed unaware of what was happening in their territory all along. The Mong Realm had a solid teleportation system, allowing one to travel from one continent to another. This caused a lot of people to constantly be on travel. With that, Krune had infected tens of thousands of entire cities with his Hunger Law. When they traveled, they transmitted the effects of the Hunger Law to the people in other cities, causing them too to become infected. Conversely, when those people traveled, they infected people from other places. Krune''s actions turned the strength of the Mong Realm¡ªits rapid cross-continental teleportation system¡ªinto its weakness¡ªthe rapid spread of his Zombie Food. It was like a forest fire as Krune sensed his Hunger Law growing in volume constantly. With the effects of his Law, something exclusive to his use, growing to such an extent, it rapidly raised his strength. After all, he was the one controlling the Hunger Law. It could be said that Krune already reached the status as a pseudo-God through his Hunger Law as it was spreading so much. Years passed in such a fashion as Krune simply continued to wait and meditate in this single bedroom, observing the Hunger Law''s spread. Currently, the Hunger Law was like a beacon of light on a gigantic map, highlighting the areas wherever the Hunger Law had spread around. Krune noticed that it had spread to all corners of the Mong Realm, thanks to some kindred souls that were either traveling for fun or had work. They constantly traveled from one continent to another, infecting the people they came into contact with on their travels. In this manner, the Hunger Law spread everywhere as Krune only focused on comprehending his exclusive law further and further. Even though he was the only one who was able to comprehend this Law, that didn''t mean he could slack off on its comprehension. After all, the greater his comprehension, the stronger it became. Thanks to a Primal God Realm Blank Law core that was gifted to him by Luvile, Krune had raised his Hunger Law to the Primal God Realm in comprehension before reaching the Mong Realm. Now, he was planning to take it a step beyond, intending to make his comprehension reach the God Realm as soon as possible. That way, he could attain a rapid breakthrough using his Pseudo Wisps if necessary, like before. Even though this process was too dangerous, he could just commit suicide after a successful breakthrough. Over time, his laws would heal the deficits and stabilize his realm. But thankfully, if he became a God through the Hunger Law, as long as this Law was undamaged, he too would be undamaged, even if the breakthrough was in a hurry. So, as long as he reached the God Realm in comprehension, Krune would be able to attempt the breakthrough whenever he wished. And now, the thing happening in the Mong Realm was the perfect fit. After all, not only was his exclusive Law present in the bodies of billions of cultivators, but it would only grow stronger once he activated it. "I wouldn''t obtain a better chance than this to reach the peak in one go," Krune muttered as he weighed his odds. Even he knew that becoming a God while at the Elementary God Realm was impossible. Though, what he intended to achieve was similar to Solare, which was attaining the status as a God first before eventually reaching the God Realm in cultivation. It was unprecedented, but Krune had the confidence to attempt it. After all, his Hunger Law was now in billions of cultivators but was completely under his control, which was a level of dominance Gods enjoyed usually. "Krune, it''s time." After many years spanned past, Sterlena''s voice resounded from his Kun Soul as Krune''s eyes shot open, smiling as he snapped his finger. "It''s time." "Happy Dinner!" Chapter 1436 Little Cally’s Longing Revenge Chapter 1436 Little Cally¡¯s Longing Revenge¡¡¡¡Seventy Mong Realm Gods had gathered around, making preparations. One of them carried a Sub-Realm in his hands. Contained in it were tens of thousands of Primal Gods, remaining stationary, ready to be deployed immediately. There were millions of Elementary Gods and lower-tier immortals, not to mention a massive horde of mortals. They were the group sent out to fully cripple the Tilk Realm. After all, when truly cornered, the Tilk Realm Primal Gods still had a chance of attempting a breakthrough to become Gods and succeeding as a result. That would only serve to further delay their annexing of the Tilk Realm. So, their goal this time was to kill all the Primal Gods of the Tilk Realm. Following that would be to kill the rest of the immortals. Only after that could they safely begin the annexing plan. There were untold dangers that might otherwise arise. Even for the Mong Realm, this was the first time they were annexing a realm. So, they had to exercise caution. After all, a simple slip-up would diminish their strength, allowing their enemies to take action instead. So, they had to be thorough in their actions. Sending seventy Gods was already overkill. However, they did so to prevent the other realms from trying anything annoying. To face the seventy Mong Realm Gods, the other realms would indeed have to bring forth their armies. And that was pretty much signaling a declaration of war. Mobilizing so many Gods would leave the defenses of their realm weak. And if the Mong Realm were to invade in anger, it would cripple their strength to a great extent, especially if the Mong Realm Champion were to make a move personally. Not many in the Greater Universe was actually capable of resisting him after all. "Alright, do a good job. This is the moment we''ve been working towards for millions of years." The Mong Realm Champion let out a rare smile as he told them, "Be careful. Notify me the moment those bastards from the other realms do anything funny." "Yes, God King!" The Seventy Gods saluted before creating a spatial tunnel through the chaotic storms, leading a path towards the Tilk Realm. The power they had dispatched was indeed terrifying. This was enough to devastate even the Kun Realm, not to mention the current weakened Tilk Realm that didn''t have any Gods to defend its borders. The group of Gods began to fly through the tunnel, noticing the terrifying spatial storms brewing around them, containing enough power to even kill them. One of the Gods shuddered when a spatial storm''s flare brushed past him, destroying his defenses instantly, muttering in fear, "That was close." "Be careful. These storms can kill us," another God replied. The injured God hurriedly healed himself before asking curiously, "Say, is our God King able to destroy these spatial storms?" "To a certain extent, yeah." The leading God nodded in pride. "But, even he cannot destroy all the spatial storms. These storms are infinite in number." "So, that means¡­" One of the Gods smirked, saying, "They aren''t capable of killing him, unlike us." "Indeed, the God King''s strength is on a whole other level," the leading God spoke. "But, that doesn''t mean he would remain uninjured by these spatial storms. That''s how the Garg Realm Champion has endured his attacks to this day. Somehow, he''s able to influence these spatial storms. That''s why he remained alive despite clashing against our God King so many times." "Then, if they fought inside a realm¡­" another God asked. "The Garg Realm Champion would be killed, no doubt about it." The leading God smirked in response. "There''s a reason our Champion is called the God King. It truly means that he''s unrivaled in strength. He''s the sole King of Gods." Boom! Suddenly, as they continued to travel, the spatial tunnel began to skew unnaturally, destabilizing further and further. "What the hell is happening?" The leading God was alarmed, shouting in response, "Everyone! Try your best to stabilize this place!" "Hahaha! Idiots!" Suddenly, a childish voice full of disdain resounded within the spatial tunnel. "This voice¡­" The leading God frowned before spatting out in anger, "Calamity Realm Spirit? What the fuck are you doing? Have you lost your goddamn mind?" "Hahaha!" The only reply to his words was a burst of laughter as the spatial tunnel continued to destabilize further and further. "I''m called the Calamity Laws for a reason." Little Cally grinned as it manifested as a sphere of light, gazing at the spatial tunnel that had begun to show signs of collapse already, tearing up in response as it choked in happiness. "Ahh! How many centuries, millennia, eons had I been waiting for to see this day?" "Finally, I can exact revenge on these bastards!" It laughed, unleashing the peak of its power, causing the spatial tunnel to collapse, exposing the seventy Mong Realm Gods to the spatial storms, laughing jovially as it heard their screams. ¡­ Calamity Realm! Two Mong Realm Gods were seated on a large throne of sorts, gazing at the Calamity Realm with obvious disdain. "For how long do we have to remain in this dump?" "The Calamity Realm Spirit is pretty useful. We can swallow the Kun Realm through it easily." One of the Mong Realm Gods, one sporting a wavy goatee, smirked. "At least, we''ll be able to take down the Kun Realm faster than the Tilk Realm." "Still, all these resources and the Calamity Realm only managed to birth three Gods. Isn''t that pretty weak?" The other Mong Realm God, one that was bald, snorted in response. "That''s how weak they are," the Mong Realm God with a wavy goatee replied. "Since they had very little conflict, they hit their limit that fast. Even three Gods was a surprising event here. Anyway, we''ve killed those three brats long ago. Let''s just continue relaxing here." "I wanted to take part in the action." The bald Mong Realm God sighed. "They might be having fun fighting against the Gods from other realms now." "Sure, you can also experience the same." Suddenly, a mysterious voice resounded in their minds, startling them, for they hadn''t even sensed his existence. When the two Mong Realm Gods sensed, they noticed a mysterious figure had appeared in their minds. Soul God¡ªSoren! At the same time, Luvile, Hishe, and Wally entered the Calamity Realm, muttering, "So, this is the Calamity Realm." They then pounced upon the two Mong Realm Gods. "Let''s clean up this place, shall we?" Chapter 1437 Distress Signals From Everywhere Chapter 1437 Distress Signals From Everywhere¡¡¡¡Boom! Boom! Boom! Luvile first cast a net of tribulation lightning, protecting the Calamity Realm from being damaged. Hishe grunted, activating his second Law, sending the two Mong Realm Gods flying out of the Calamity Realm. This was to prevent the realm from being damaged by their fight. "What the¡­?" The two Mong Realm Gods were shocked at the sequence of powers unleashed by the four Gods. They gazed at Hishe like they were looking at a monster. "How can a God represent two Laws?" "I''m an exception." Hishe smirked, bombarding the two Gods with attacks. In the meantime, Soren rampaged in their minds, already destroying their memories. The two Mong Realm Gods had to split their focus to defend against his attacks. However, that only prevented them from reacting to Luvile''s attacks. Wally observed the two Mong Realm Gods in silence when suddenly, he returned to his wisp form, absorbing something. "Shit!" The bald Mong Realm God cursed in shock, noticing his life force being siphoned rapidly. A God had infinite life. That means his lifeforce was endless. Though in actuality, it wasn''t endless. His lifeforce was connected to the Mong Realm. Meaning, now that his lifeforce was being absorbed, it meant the one losing lifeforce rapidly was the Mong Realm itself. Even though the quantity wouldn''t damage it, if left unchecked, it might result in a reduction in the Mong Realm''s vitality, eventually causing its population to decrease. Slowly, a deathly aura pervaded the bald Mong Realm God, shocking him as this deathly aura was being sent to the Mong Realm using his body as a channel. After all, the Law of a God was like a thread stitched into the Mong Realm. This was by far the strongest connection one could abuse. Wally''s actions were pretty simple: steal the lifeforce of the Mong Realm while seeping in the power of death into it. This way, it would be weakened twice as fast. As Wally continued to absorb the lifeforce, the crack in his golden Wisp Core rapidly healed. Moreover, an endless stream of deathly energy poured out of his body and seeped into the bald Mong Realm God, rapidly beginning to corrode his Law itself, weakening him at an alarming rate. Of course, that wasn''t all. Just when he planned to react, Luvile''s tribulation lightning began to melt through his law. As if that wasn''t enough, Soren continued to destroy their mind while Hishe ruptured their Godly Energy itself. Faced with such a level of attacks, the two Mong Realm Gods were actually unable to retaliate, gasping in shock. "When did the three of you get this strong? Last time we checked, all of you were damn weak!" Of course, Wally was excluded in their reports. After all, the Wisp God was pretty elusive and had remained in the Godly Path Realm and below all this time, destroying any and all spies that had infiltrated those places. "I mean, as long as you survive a tribulation, you''re bound to grow stronger," Luvile smirked in response. "Tribulation lightning¡­!" The bald Mong Realm God was shocked. "So, you abused the tribulation lightning as a training resource to rapidly grow stronger?" "Even your Realm Spirit is unable to do this, right?" Luvile smirked arrogantly. Of course, when he saw the Cultivation Lotus in the Mountain Sect, a certain thought hit him. Why was it that when cultivators endured the lightning tribulation, they entered a higher realm? Why would they grow stronger if they survived attacks from it? This was what tribulation lightning was meant to be used for: to develop the cultivator''s strength! So, Luvile designed some abilities that constantly caused the various Gods of the Kun Realm to face the tribulations. And when they overcame the tribulations, their abilities became stronger. Through this, they speed-ran through both Body and Soul Cultivation, rapidly achieving significant development. Moreover, they had experts to train them for each field. Soren was the God of Soul Cultivation, available to train them in all the ins and outs regarding this. Hishe was the God of Body Cultivation, taking care of that. And finally, Luvile was the train that carried them through a speedy development phase. As for Wally¡­ he just acted cute throughout the process. He had been aware of the identities of other realms long ago. Hence, he had long since dabbled through Body and Soul Cultivation after ripping out the information from the enemies he destroyed. So, Wally had already reached the peak in all three cultivation paths. Currently, these four Gods were one of the strongest in the Kun Realm. And for their first trial, they planned to use the two Mong Realm Gods as a whetstone. With the four working together, they actually managed to kill the two Mong Realm Gods within an hour. ¡­ "What the hell happened?" The Mong Realm Champion got up with a start, hearing the distress signals from the seventy Gods that had embarked for the Tilk Realm. He instantly turned into a streak of light and condensed a spatial tunnel to chase after them, unwilling to see them die. "Even though I can revive them, it''ll take time and a massive amount of resources. If this is a plan by my enemies, then losing seventy Gods would be troublesome, even for us." With that thought, he rushed into the depths of the spatial storms, soon noticing the figure of the Mong Realm Gods dying one after another under the spatial storms. Right as he planned to save them, the God King stopped all of a sudden, shocked, for the first time since ages unforgotten. That was because¡­ he was getting distress signals from all throughout the Mong Realm this time. That wasn''t all. He was also getting a distress signal from the Calamity Realm, where he had stationed two Gods. Even he paid a lot of attention to this place because the Calamity Realm Spirit¡ªLittle Cally¡ªwas the best gateway for them to swallow the Kun Realm. That was why he stationed two Gods there. ''I''ll save this group first, followed by the Calamity Realm before returning to the Mong Realm,'' he thought, taking action when suddenly, he stopped. Because this time, the distress signal alarmed even him. After all, it was sent by the sole entity that even he respected and cared about. The Mong Realm Spirit! Chapter 1438 Hunger Wave’s Activation Chapter 1438 Hunger Wave¡¯s Activation¡¡¡¡"The Realm Spirit sent a distress signal?" The God King was overwhelmed with shock for the first time in his life, having never expected such a thing to ever happen. He hurriedly waved his hand, condensing a barrier around the seventy Gods, saving those that were still alive. Without even taking a look back at them, he turned into a stream of light and first returned to the Mong Realm, contacting the Realm Spirit to see what had happened. "This¡­! What the hell happened?" ¡­ "Happy Dinner!" Krune smiled, snapping his finger as he activated his Hunger Law. Immediately after, he used one of the teleportation platforms to travel and reach the location where the entrance to that Secret Realm was. After that, he closed his eyes and continued to wait. ¡­ "That would be ten Rank 3 Blood Pills," a shopkeeper said as he handed over a Nine Star God Foundation Realm sword to the customer. He was a middle-aged man with a big mole on his forehead, creating a distracting visage. "That''s pretty expensive." The customer, a rather talented teenager hailing from a decently powerful family, spoke, hesitant on whether or not she should buy such an expensive sword. After all, she already had a good enough sword that she had been using. It was something that would be useful for her until she reached the God Core Realm. It was pretty much a waste of money to buy a second sword, that too for something that would become useless for her soon after. ''However, I need a spare weapon for this mission. If my weapon breaks, I might die. Just saving up money without using it when necessary is plain foolishness,'' she thought, nodding as she paid for the weapon. ''I''ll earn enough during this mission.'' But just as she turned around, she suddenly felt hungry as her stomach growled. "Why am I hungry all of a sudden?" "Gah!" She suddenly slumped to the ground, clutching her stomach as her stomach rumbled. It was as if she hadn''t eaten for a month as her state of hunger continued to worsen. "I need¡­ to eat something." She hurriedly took out some food from her storage ring and gobbled it up hurriedly, unable to tolerate the hunger. Unfortunately for her, though, even after she ate until her stomach felt like bursting, her hunger wasn''t satiated. It only reduced for a few minutes before worsening immediately after. That wasn''t all. It felt like if she didn''t eat anything soon enough, her stomach itself would gobble her up. "Shit! What''s happening to me¡­" the teenager shouted in alarm when she paused, alarmed to see the eyes of the shopkeeper looking at her as if she was a piece of delicious food. But not even a second passed when he flinched in response. After all, the gaze directed at him by the teenager was even worse than his own, like a hyena that wouldn''t let go of even shredded meat, even ones that had rotted, displaying endless avarice. Bam! It was unknown who attacked first. But the teenager gasped for breath, gazing at the bloodied corpse of the shopkeeper before her. Some of his blood had fallen over her clothes, forming stains. Though, the teenager didn''t seem to mind as she felt as if the corpse before her was of the utmost delicacy. Slowly, she was losing reason. "No! I''m not barbaric enough to eat someone raw!" she shouted, breathing out flames to roast the corpse before her as she took on her demon beast form, thinking that she would at least stomach eating someone like this. Gulp! She ate the shopkeeper, sighing in relief when her hunger was satiated, "Phew, finally¡­" Unfortunately for her, not even two minutes spanned past when her sense of hunger grew once again. And this time, it seemed somewhat stronger than before. Her sense of reason was also affected more this time, causing her to breathe out a pillar of flame, killing a lot of people on the street. They had also been aiming at one another when they got killed. The demon beast gobbled them all up, finally sighing in relief. But no more than ten minutes later, her sense of hunger became even worse. And this time, she was unable to suppress it any longer, losing all sense of reason as her carnal instincts of hunger took over, causing her to target any living thing that was close by. She wasn''t the only one affected by this, though. Everyone in her city turned out the same. They restrained themselves at the start. But once someone with weak willpower gave in, they killed the other party to save themselves. Upon gazing at a corpse before them, they eventually gave in. It was a vicious cycle after that as their hesitation slowly vanished while they gave in to their sense of hunger further and further. Moreover, a fruity smell pervaded throughout the city, further accelerating the rate at which people lost their sense of reasoning. "Dad! Dad! Stop it! Dad!" an immortal shouted in alarm upon seeing his dad behaving the same as everyone else. Upon seeing that his father was no longer responsive, he used a Godly Ability to knock him unconscious. Picking his father up, the immortal began to fly away from the city. "Something is wrong with this city. I should first get out of this place." He quickly escaped while carrying his father, observing the streets filled with cultivators that jumped onto one another, eating them up like ravenous zombies. "They seem to have lost all sense of intelligence." The immortal grunted in fear and confusion, gazing at the unconscious figure of his father. "Please be safe." "Right, the ultimate doctor should be close by. As long as I find him, I''ll be able to cure my dad." Thinking as such, the immortal blasted through the skies, speeding towards a certain location on the outskirts of the city. Hungry! Suddenly, he lost control over himself, collapsing to the ground under extreme hunger. "W-What is happening to me?" He was overcome by an uncontrollable urge to eat, something that didn''t diminish no matter what he did. Self-harm, pills, food, no matter what he did, his sense of hunger only continued to increase. Slowly, his eyes lost their glimmer as a carnal expression appeared on his face as he gazed at the figure of his father nearby. And slowly, his hands reached for him. Chapter 1439 Creation of the Laughing Tower Chapter 1439 Creation of the Laughing Tower¡¡¡¡"Please stop! I''m your friend!" A cultivator screamed when his lifelong friend, someone that he had accompanied through many battles, was now aiming for his neck with reckless insanity. Grrrr! As the cultivator continued to evade the attacks, his eyes became gradually heavy. Eventually, he, too, lost all semblance of intelligence, leaping onto his attacking friend. The two close friends were now a pair of mindless zombies tearing each other apart. Even more tragic situations happened everywhere as hordes of people swarmed one another. Mindless, lacking any semblance of their original selves, devouring everything in their paths. Zombies! And among them were flying zombies, cultivators that had lost their minds. All the Semi-God Realm cultivators already fell under the effects. The God Trial Realm cultivators were barely enduring, but their sanity was slowly slipping. The situation began all of a sudden in tens of thousands of cities, alarming everyone. And in the somewhat cleaner cities, the cultivators somehow managed to kill the zombies. But slowly, after some time passed, more zombies appeared. Even after they were killed, more and more continued to appear. Standing in a discrete location, Krune raised his hand, pointing at the sky. "You''ve annihilated big sis''s race once, almost succeeded in doing the same to the wisps as well, and countless other atrocities that had been committed in the name of the abolition tower. And today, you''ll face my wrath¡­" "The Kun Realm''s retaliation!" "And the birth of the Laughing Tower." Krune smiled, snapping his finger. "Dammit, what''s happening?" A lone immortal screamed in shock, having joined a group of God Trial Realm cultivators as they hoped to find a solution by racking their brains together. But suddenly, his lips curled into an obvious smile as he opened his mouth. His vocal cord moved up and down as slowly, gruntles resounding giggles resounded from him, soon increasing in pitch into raucous laughter. "Ha! Ha! Ha! Glory to the Laughing Tower!" Immediately, his Godly Energy began to flow in reverse as his meridians crumpled into his dantian, sucking his body into a tiny vortex that spun rapidly, compressing itself into a dot. All this happened in an instant, followed by a resounding explosion. Boom! The explosion rapidly killed all the immortals in the vicinity. There were barely any survivors, with the lucky few or the unlucky few, in this case, soon losing their sanity. Boom! Boom! Cultivators and immortals alive were either losing their minds or exploding one after another. Suddenly, if someone gazed at the Mong Realm from high up in the sky, they would see millions of bright spots where explosions happened. A level of retaliation unlike any other, with a level of decisiveness and viciousness that was almost unprecedented, destroying everyone without any discrimination. A wisp''s wrath! The God King had just arrived at his meeting location when his son, Mon-Du-Badak, suddenly broke out into laughter. "Glory to the Laughing Tower!" Boom! "¡­" The God King stared directly into the explosion that enveloped him, staring right into the sea of fiery flames and terrifying heat. However, he stared right into it, walking towards the center, his expression one of rage as he wasn''t even the least affected by the explosion. He clenched his hand into a fist, causing the explosion to dissipate as he stared coldly at the Mong Realm Spirit, observing that it was currently sprawled on the ground, grunting like it had an upset stomach. That wasn''t all! Suddenly, a small portion of its body blackened before shattering. "So, this is their scheme! Everything else is but a mere distraction." He grunted, snapping his finger as immediately after, barriers appeared around every single zombie in the Mong Realm, sealing them up. He didn''t want them to damage the Mong Realm any further. But in response to his actions, Krune only smiled, snapping his finger as even more cultivators affected by the Hunger Law turned into zombies. Moreover, they had already released their aroma everywhere. It was already too late to think just sealing the zombies would be enough. The God King was shocked to see even more zombies beginning to appear all over the Mong Realm. He waved his hand, bringing in an immortal that was affected, probing through him before frowning. "There are no traces of any foreign elements here?" He then probed further in shock, murmuring, "This is a Law of the Mong Realm?" "No, there is no such law. But somehow, they masked it to make it our Law?" he muttered. Of course, that was because Krune never directly attacked them with his abilities. He first stole a portion of his target''s strength and returned it to the source while affecting it with his Hunger Law. And once it returned to its host, this would fester as the Hunger Law would take root in his spiritual incarnation. No matter what creature it was, as long as it was a fleshly being, it experienced hunger. Of course, immortals didn''t need to eat. But, that didn''t mean the concept of hunger wasn''t present in them. It was, of course, there. And this was where the Hunger Law had taken root within, the reason none managed to sense it to date. It would just feel like they were hungry. And since mortals ate while hungry and immortals no longer felt hunger, none noticed it, allowing it to gradually grow more and more. It was pretty much like a virus but just more deadly. It wasn''t an entity or an organism. It was just a concept. The concept of hunger. That was the Hunger Law, Krune''s original Law. Tuka-N-Ketton abruptly arrived before the God King, speaking in fluster, "This was the Kun Realm Champion''s exclusive ability. Henfa-L-Talon said only Krune had this ability. But this¡­" "Henfa-L-Talon has been sealed, right?" The God King frowned in response. "Where''s he now?" Tuka-N-Ketton hurriedly led the God King beyond the Mong Realm to the chaotic spiral within which a Sub-Realm was sealed, suddenly screaming in shock, "The sealed Sub-Realm! Where is it?" "It took them time to notice." Krune laughed, for he was able to sense their actions through the Hunger Law. Of course, he was clearly aware of Henfa-L-Talon''s position, having relayed it to the Garg Realm that freed him and set him free within the Mong Realm. "And now, a God that fell to my ability is set free in your realm. What will you do now, God King?" Krune dusted his clothes as he gazed at the entrance to the Secret Realm opening before him. Chapter 1440 Champions of Action Chapter 1440 Champions of Action¡¡¡¡''Alright, all my preparations are now complete,'' Gegrafikan thought, speaking through the Kun Soul, informing Sterlena. "I''m ready!" "Alright, we''re ready here as well," Sterlena replied. "Alright." Gegrafikan nodded and churned his Godly Energy. A cultivator with greenish-brown hair resembling falling autumn leaves flew through the air, having just completed his day''s worth of training. He was currently at the God Trial Realm in strength, one of the candidates that had the chance to become a God in the future. He reached his home, entering the living room when suddenly, he collapsed to the ground, having lost consciousness. His Spiritual Incarnation lit up as one of its laws extracted itself out, transforming into the figure of Gegrafikan. He closed his eyes, sensing the law fragments that he had left throughout the Sub-Realm, slowly causing them to hum in response, synchronizing with one another. The moment they were ready, he smiled and said, "It''s time the Greater Universe learns of the strongest race''s arrival." Heavenly Aberrant! Gegrafikan took on his demon beast form, turning into a Heavenly Aberrant as immediately, his body shone with countless laws, causing all the law fragments to activate. "What the hell?" "Dammit, what now?" The two Gods of the Sub-Realm reacted spontaneously, hurrying towards him when suddenly, they were startled to lose power for an instant. Roar! Followed by a Spirit Aberrant''s signature roar, he unleashed his signature ability. Law Projectiles! The projectiles slammed into the heaven and earth of the Sub-Realm, instantly terraforming it into the Kun Realm. The rapid terraforming instantly caused all the cultivators here to lose power, including the Gods. It took them a second before they regained their power. But by then, Gegrafikan had completed his task, transforming the place into the Kun Realm''s, detaching it from the Mong Realm, breaking out of the Mong Realm Spirit''s control. He then riled up the Sub-Realm''s foundation when a portal appeared. This was the entrance to the Mong Realm. Other than that, dozens of other portals appeared on the other side, with each of them leading towards a realm. ¡­ "Little Cally, are you ready?" Once she finished conversing with Gegrafikan, Sterlena asked the Calamity Laws, gazing at the chirpy ray of light before her. "Of course!" Little Cally replied happily. "I finally took revenge on those bastards. Ahh! It feels good!" She then looked around, gazing at the violent spatial storms everywhere. They only avoided the small bubble she was situated at. This was achieved thanks to the Calamity Laws that she possessed. She had already calculated and determined a safe location ages ago, having already created dozens of spatial tunnels. The spatial tunnels hadn''t been created yet, but all the preparations needed to erect them had already been finished. Currently, she was waiting for Gegrafikan''s signal, for the location she was in allowed her to reach the Sub-Realm immediately using Little Cally''s help. "Now!" The moment she noticed some changes, Sterlena shouted as Little Cally unleashed its power, instantly erecting dozens of stable spatial storms, connecting the various realms to the Sub-Realm. "Let''s go!" Shouting, Little Cally brought Sterlena into the Sub-Realm as the two unleashed their abilities simultaneously. Gegrafikan''s terraforming rapidly modified the Sub-Realm''s foundation when Sterlena grunted, pulling with all her might as the spatial storms outside rumbled. Suddenly, affected by the Calamity Laws, they moved towards her as she used her race''s innate trait to rapidly siphon the energy from the spatial storms, turning it into Godly Energy that she rapidly pushed towards Gegrafikan. In turn, Gegrafikan fused all the Godly Energy into the Sub-Realm, using the terraforming as an opportunity, rapidly raising its foundation to the peak. Gulp! The two Mong Realm Gods gulped nervously, failing to react as they stared blankly at the spatial storms that had invaded the Sub-Realm, brimming with terrifying blasts, lightning, corrosiveness, and so on. The power was more than enough to kill them. Sterlena was actually controlling this spatial storm. However, she was only at the God Trial Realm. So, it would be impossible for her to actually pull in such a magnitude. Then again, there was a way to go around it. She had devoured a part of the Calamity Laws. So, when she activated the Calamity Laws to control the spatial storm, Little Cally seeped into her, amplifying her powers instantly to the level of the Gods, giving her enough control to facilitate this process. And thanks to her race''s innate ability to control Godly Energy, she was able to convert the energy in the spatial storms into Godly Energy. It was how True Spirits reverted attacks into Godly Energy. "Krune!" With their preparations done, Sterlena shouted upon gazing at the figure standing in the Mong Realm, staring at the Sub-Realm from the portal. Upon her shout, Krune entered the Sub-Realm, grinning as immediately, the energy siphoned from the spatial storms increased in magnitude. Hunger Law! Krune closed his eyes, focusing on the significant quantity of the Hunger Law that was throughout the Mong Realm. It had already spread to a terrifying extent. But, it wouldn''t be able to spread anymore, for the Mong Realm Gods and the God King had already taken action. They had already sealed off all the infected people and the areas, thinking up a plan to counter it already. The God King had long since discovered it. As for Henfa-L-Talon, he was currently before the God King, sealed. He had completely turned into a zombie. And within him was a massive quantity of the Hunger Law, the purest of its kind since it had been festering the longest, and within a God at that. Once he had tracked all the traces of the Hunger Law, Krune clenched his hand into a fist, pulling it towards him. "Devour!" "Ahhh!" Suddenly, it seemed Henfa-L-Talon regained sanity as he screamed in despair. But in an instant, the Hunger Law in his body devoured his exclusive Law, rapidly raising its quality to be on par with a fairly developed Law of the Mong Realm. "Kya!" "Kuk!" "Gah!" Screams resounded throughout the Mong Realm as all the zombies suffered in pain from their insides devouring them. The Hunger Law rapidly devoured them by using the sense of hunger festering and magnified in them all along, eating up everything before vanishing. Instantly, the quantity of the Hunger Law multiplied hundreds of times in the Mong Realm before all traces of them vanished. For a moment, the Mong Realm seemed void of any troubles. In contract, Krune smiled, gazing at a massive sphere that had formed before him, muttering, "Condense!" Chapter 1441 Rune Realm! Chapter 1441 Rune Realm!¡¡¡¡"Condense!" Krune muttered as the mountainous sphere of Hunger Law hummed in response, being activated. Boom! In the Greater Universe, standing proudly amidst gigantic swirls of spatial storms was the Kun Realm. Suddenly, it rapidly absorbed energy from the spatial storm before unleashing a beam of energy through the Greater Universe. This beam of energy was directed at the Mong Realm, or rather the Sub-Realm that had branched out from it, slamming into the mountainous Hunger Law sphere. Since it was a Law originating from the Kun Realm, they were empirically linked. Therefore, the moment Krune took action, the Kun Realm itself sensed it, unleashing this beam of energy into the Sub-Realm. "Perfect!" Gegrafikan roared in laughter as Sterlena helped divert a lot of power of that beam towards him that he seeped into the Sub-Realm, fusing it into the Little Cally fragment that merged into the Sub-Realm. The remaining power slammed into the Hunger Law sphere, morphing into tribulation lightning as they formed a wave and crashed into Krune, causing him to grunt. Instantly, his Spiritual Incarnation was activated as all the laws that formed it was devoured by his Hunger Law as his entire body just turned into a single law. The mountainous Hunger Law sphere fused into him, rapidly reforming his body as he was instantly killed. Slowly, the Hunger Law sphere wriggled around, absorbing the tribulation lightning and the power behind the beam. As Gegrafikan stole a significant sum of it, the beam didn''t have enough strength. Upon seeing that, the Kun Realm sent even more energy, blasting it into the Hunger Law sphere, causing it to wriggle faster and faster, slowly turning into a God Seat. God Seat¡ªHunger Law! Thump-Thump! A second later, sounds of a heartbeat resounded as Krune''s consciousness was birthed into it, causing it to gradually reform into his body, taking shape. "It''s¡­ done!" Krune smiled, clenching his hand into a fist. He now had a God Seat. The meaning behind it was pretty simple. He was now a God! Though, of course, his cultivation was still at the Elementary God Realm. However, he had already attained the status as a God, for he was the personification of the Hunger Law. And from now on, his cultivation would automatically grow until it reached the God Realm. After all, Gods weren''t talked in terms of their cultivation. They were personifications of the Laws themselves. So, as long as his Hunger Law grew in strength, he too would grow. Right as Krune finished becoming a God, there was another spike in energy as the Kun Realm sent in another beam. But this time, it was targeted at Sterlena. Of course, she had also made similar preparations. Or rather, Krune had helped her with it. All the Heavenly Sparks that he had unleashed were in accordance with her original law¡ªHeavenly Destruction Law! All the sources of destruction and the areas of the Mong Realm destroyed by it were full of her Heavenly Destruction Law, a law powerful enough to destroy everything in that place. If Krune''s actions caused the Mong Realm Spirit stomachache, Sterlena''s actions riddled it with injuries as its foundation was affected. Similar to Krune, Sterlena beckoned her Heavenly Destruction Law, condensing a sphere that began to fuse into her. Of course, the actions of both Krune and Sterlena were only possible because they had their respective original Laws already, not to mention the fact that only they had control over it, and it had spread through a realm. The conditions necessary for a proper Law to exist had been attained, and it was created by devouring part of the Mong Realm''s foundation. After that, they were extracted to create their respective God Seats. Slowly, Sterlena was reborn through the God Seat, also attaining the status as a God. As for Gegrafikan, he didn''t do anything like them. Of course, a Spirit Aberrant followed a different rule than all the cultivators. After all, it didn''t even possess a Spiritual Incarnation. All Gegrafikan did was divert part of the power unleashed by the Kun Realm towards the two Mong Realm Gods, crippling them. "Noo! Stop!" "Spare me!" The both of them shouted, terrified for some reason, as they gazed at the jaws of a tentacle that clamped onto them before grinding their flesh into bits, beginning to rapidly digest them. Thanks to the Kun Realm''s attack, they were unable to even lift their fingers, not to mention a Spirit Aberrant''s devouring. Soon, they were fully digested by Gegrafikan, who rapidly grew in strength after converting their Laws into the Kun Realm''s respective variant. Even though a lot of power was wasted in the process, they were still two Gods. So, he obtained tremendous growth in strength and foundation in the comprehension of Laws. The reason Krune and Sterlena had condensed their God Seats had a second, more important reason. It was to funnel the Kun Realm''s power into the Sub-Realm, rapidly nurturing the fragment created by Little Cally. This fragment had fused into the Sub-Realm and had become its Realm Spirit, rapidly maturing by absorbing the Kun Realm''s power as immediately after, it began to grow in strength. Sterlena was still funneling Godly Energy into it from the spatial storms. The Realm Spirit already had significant intelligence as it was a fragment of Little Cally. It was aware of the purpose of its birth, and hence, it began to rapidly absorb the influx of energy and raised its foundation, expanding in size. It then funneled its own power through the portals, stabilizing the spatial tunnels further. "I¡­" The Realm Spirit opened its mouth when Krune arrived before it. He gazed at it, sporting a wide smile before stating in excitement, "Rune Realm." "That is what this realm would be called." Krune declared. "Rune Realm?" The Realm Spirit tilted its head in confusion. But, since Krune had authority over the Calamity Laws, the one that it had branched out from, it accepted his suggestion, nodding in response. "Alright, this would be called the Rune Realm." "And I¡­ would be the Rune Realm Spirit!" Chapter 1442 A Casual Wave Chapter 1442 A Casual Wave¡¡¡¡Boom! The God King arrived within the Rune Realm, glaring at the trio of Krune, Sterlena, and Gegrafikan in anger. "So, everything was done by the three of you." "Hahaha! To think I would live to see such a fine scowl on your ugly mug! Life is indeed beautiful!" Just as he planned to take action, a cheerful voice resounded throughout the Rune Realm as a confident figure sauntered out of a portal. This was the portal connected to the Garg Realm, the sole realm that dared to face the Mong Realm head-on despite having suffered some defeats in recent times. Garg Realm Champion! "Fucker¡­!" The God King snorted in distaste. "Since the Garg Realm Champion has already arrived, it would be unwise of me to miss the scene of the century!" A rather energetic voice resounded soon after. He was a fat individual, covered from head to toe in what seemed to be beads that constantly revolved around him. Dolk Realm Champion! "Even though I don''t like to gang up on one person, you''re the God King. So, I''ll make an exception out of you." Following next was the Lak Realm Champion, an old woman that seemed like she had a foot in the grave already. Then again, as she was a God, this was just a mere appearance of hers. One by one, the champions of various realms entered the Rune Realm that was still being fuelled by the Kun Realm. It continued to grow, for it needed to be stable enough to form a battlefield where various champions could fight. "The Kun Realm was the mastermind behind everything?" The God King said in surprise before gazing at Krune. His eyes widened in surprise. "Krune?" "Krune?" The Garg Realm Champion gazed at Krune after that. "The Kun Realm Champion that was supposed to have been killed?" "Krune?" The Lak Realm Champion gazed at him, smiling, "Interesting." The Dolk Realm Champion alternated between Krune and Sterlena, stating in surprise, "The Kun Realm has¡­ two champions?" For a moment, silence greeted his words as this was indeed something unprecedented. Not once had there been two champions in a realm. "I''m the latest champion. Big sis was supposedly killed by the Mong Realm long ago. But somehow, she managed to survive," Krune said as he, Sterlena, and Gegrafikan slowly retreated, arriving before a certain portal. This was the portal connecting to the Kun Realm, and out of which, Luvile, Soren, and other Gods streamed out of. Of course, Wally remained behind. After all, as a Wisp God, protecting the Kun Realm took priority. And in this situation where the Kun Realm was defenseless, someone should remain behind to guard it, and only he was confident enough to deal with any crisis that might arise. Hishe stood on standby in the Kun Realm, ready to reinforce at a moment''s notice. However, he didn''t enter the Rune Realm. After all, he was a special existence, being the sole God to possess two Laws. Even the God King only represented one Law. So, that was enough to garner the attention of everyone onto him. At present, even if it might seem like all the Champions were on the same side, that was only because they joined hands to face the God King. Hishe would become a threat to them in the future, due to possessing two Laws. There was a chance he might even become the next God King. So, if Hishe entered the Rune Realm, even though the other champions wouldn''t say anything, they might fight in such a way that Hishe would be killed by the God King. Hence, he had to remain behind. "Congratulations on attaining your God Seat." Luvile smiled, congratulating both Krune and Sterlena. He then gazed at Gegrafikan and asked, "Did you eat your fill?" "I managed to gobble up two Mong Realm Gods and the entirety of their legendary geniuses in this Sub-Realm, all with the talent to become Gods in the future." Gegrafikan grinned in response, having long since returned to his human form. He didn''t wish to show his Spirit Aberrant form to those from the other realms just yet. Since everyone that had seen his Spirit Aberrant form had been digested, he didn''t have anything to worry about. "So, were you the one that had killed my son?" The God King gazed at Krune, remaining pretty calm now that he was face to face with all the enemies. "Pretty much." Krune nodded nonchalantly, shocking the countless champions due to the nonchalance he displayed against the God King. There was the Hunger Law within Mon-Du-Badak as well. After he committed suicide by turning into a member of the Laughing Tower, he was revived in the Sub-Realm, where his Heavenly Incarnation was kept secure. But the moment he revived, the Hunger Law took effect, rapidly devouring him and his Heavenly Incarnation. And since the Heavenly Incarnation was closely linked to the Sub-Realm to ensure the God King was easily able to protect it, the Hunger Law managed to devour the entire Sub-Realm itself. This was why the God King failed to do anything as the Sub-Realm itself vanished, having been fully devoured by the Hunger Law. So, it pretty much meant that Krune had killed the God King''s son. The case was the same for every cultivator infected with the Hunger Law. Even their Land Incarnations and Heavenly Incarnations were affected and devoured by it, properly killing everyone. "I see." The God King nodded as he waved his hand, unleashing a sparkling beam that slammed into Krune. "Keuk!" Luvile grunted, collapsing to the ground as he defended the attack in place of Krune. That wasn''t all. Pretty much all the Kun Realm Gods had to go all out to defend against this attack. Only then were they able to defend. Despite that, all of them fell to their knees, horrified to realize the God King''s strength. A casual wave from him required all the Gods from the Kun Realm to defend against. Had they been a moment late, Krune and a couple of Gods would have been killed by that attack. "Dammit, we still need time before we''re able to fight on this stage," Luvile grunted, gazing at his hand in shock. For some reason... It was shivering. Chapter 1443 The God King’s Unrivalled Strength Chapter 1443 The God King¡¯s Unrivalled Strength¡¡¡¡''The Kun Realm isn''t that strong, but they have a good variety of Gods. Though, to think they were backed into a corner just from one casual attack,'' the Fon Realm Champion thought, gazing at the God King. ''As expected of the strongest existence, the King of Gods.'' "With just that puny strength, you dare kill my son?" The God King said, mildly gritting his teeth. It was apparent that he was controlling his anger. After all, the one that died was his most promising son, someone who he hoped to reach his level one day. "That same puny strength brought your Realm Spirit to its knees," Krune retorted, readying all his Thundercloud Whales. This time, he planned to intercept the God King''s attacks, even if it might end up amounting to nothing in the face of the opponent''s might. "We still need the Kun Realm to control this Rune Realm. Best not make them endure anymore." The Dolk Realm Champion spoke with the Garg Realm Champion. "They wouldn''t be able to endure a more serious attack from the God King. Only we qualify to face him." "I know," the Garg Realm Champion replied. "I was just curious about the Kun Realm''s strength." "What''s your opinion now that you have observed them?" The Dolk Realm Champion asked, curious as to what the other party thought. After all, the Garg Realm Champion could be said to be the second strongest God in the Greater Universe. "They''re hiding something." The Garg Realm God said in response. "Look at Krune and Sterlena. In the future, they''ll become as strong as us. So, the realm that birthed them wouldn''t be weak. You should know since all our spies that infiltrated the Kun Realm have stopped sending any information for more than a decade now." "So, you also feel that there''s more to them than what meets the eye." The Dolk Realm Champion sighed after that. "Every realm has its innate advantages, like the Tilk Realm being the richest in terms of resources, the Mong Realm for its superior strength in laws. The Kun Realm''s advantage lies in its variety of exotic races, especially their True Spirits." "Due to the threat they possessed, the Mong Realm spent countless millennia planning to finally kill off the True Spirit Race," the Dolk Realm Champion said solemnly. "And from what I found out, this Sterlena was the key used to destroy her race." "And she survived despite being used as the key?" The Garg Realm Champion was surprised to hear that. "That shouldn''t have been possible." "But she did. That''s why we have to be careful. There are many races in the Kun Realm, the highest and most exotic as compared to all our realms," the Dolk Realm Champion said. Even though it seemed like they had been talking for quite a long time, in truth, the entire conversation happened in a flash. The Garg Realm Champion leaped towards the God King, raining down attacks nonstop. The Dolk Realm Champion joined hands, slipping in his attacks through the flurry of attacks, increasing the pressure on the God King. That wasn''t all. Every other champion carefully coordinated with one another to target the God King. "Fucking monster!" The Lak Realm Champion grunted in irritation to see that despite so many champions attacking him, the God King wasn''t even injured once. Shockingly, he matched them in strength, being on par with them. Had it just been a group of Gods that he was fighting on par with, then they would have accepted. After all, he was the God King, labeled the King among Gods. But who were they? Champions! They were supported by their respective realms themselves, capable of harnessing strength from their realms. And despite that, the God King faced them all and wasn''t disadvantaged? "This time, we have to kill him." The Garg Realm Champion communicated with everyone. "Look at his current strength. If the Mong Realm devours the Tilk Realm, none of us would be able to stop him." "I concur." The Dolk Realm Champion replied. "No matter what, we have to take this chance to kill him." "I feel the same!" "You have my support until we behead him!" One by one, all the champions acknowledged the Garg Realm Champion''s words. After all, if the God King wasn''t stopped now, then it would be impossible to do so in the future. After all, it was terrifying that he was on par with all of them. Such a level of strength¡­ If they weren''t in their home realms, they wouldn''t even be able to fight him one-on-one. That meant they could only cower in their home Realm until the day when the Mong Realm invaded with their army. "Support the God King!" A Mong Realm God shouted as he led hundreds of Gods into the Rune Realms. "Kill at least one champion. That would be enough for the God King to slaughter the rest of the champions!" "Don''t allow them to interfere with the fight between our champions!" A God from the Garg Realm shouted in response, immediately slamming into the Mong Realm Gods, engaging with them. The Gods from various realms poured in one after another as they fought the Mong Realm Gods. They battled closer to the ground, having already wrecked the terrain beyond recognition. Higher up in the air were the champions, wrecking apart the laws of the Rune Realm with every attack. The Kun Realm Gods only focused on support, trying to keep the Rune Realm stable as only they were able to do so. A constant stream of energy poured in from the Kun Realm, constantly healing the Rune Realm, not only recovering its damage but also strengthening it, rapidly raising its foundation. Over time, the damage created by the attacks of the Gods began to reduce in severity as the Rune Realm''s foundation reached a certain level. Slowly, as time passed, the battle between the two sides increased in fervor. "It''s time," Krune muttered with focused eyes. "Yeah." Sterlena nodded in response. "We''ve bought enough time." "It''s time to take action." Gegrafikan nodded as well. "Most of their power is now concentrated here." "Let''s snatch the Keys." Chapter 1444 The Most Handsome Wisp Chapter 1444 The Most Handsome Wisp¡¡¡¡Krune, Sterlena, and Gegrafikan entered the portal to the Kun Realm, returning to the Kun Realm. The Mong Realm Gods saw them leaving, not caring beyond that. They were too weak to participate in this fight anyway. Plus, even if the Mong Realm Gods wished to kill them, considering the fact that this situation was wholly due to those three, they already had too much on their plate fighting the Gods from the other realms. So, the trio that had instigated everything returned to the Kun Realm safe and sound. "Wally, are you ready?" Krune asked the moment he arrived. "Yeah, I''ve been making preparations," Wally replied. "I just finished healing my injuries. I''m feeling damn great right now." "Then, let''s get going, shall we?" Krune smiled, opening the entrance to his subspace as Wally, Sterlena, and Gegrafikan entered it. This was the only party that was heading out. The rest were necessary to protect the Kun Realm in Wally''s absence. As to what they were doing? Of course, it was to reclaim their fourth Key. "Help me, Little Cally," Krune said as he brought out a clone before entering the subspace. "No worries," Little Cally replied as it helped the subspace move through a spatial tunnel, bringing it into the Mong Realm. Dolnak-Duk-Dak! This was one of the most important locations in the Mong Realm, a supercontinent where the Mong Realm Champion was said to have been born. Of course, this was also where Krune had been hiding for around eight years, silently concocting his plans. The reason he had selected this place was that this was where his Soul Needle was pointing when he looked for the fourth Key. One of Krune''s clones was seated in the single bedroom apartment like usual when the subspace arrived within its body. Krune and the trio exited the subspace as Wally looked around, nodding. "So this is the Mong Realm." He then gazed at Krune and asked, "So, where''s the Key?" "Here," Krune said, pointing downward. "Is it sealed underground?" Wally frowned. "No, it''s in their Underworld Realm," Krune clarified. "Or, to be more exact, it''s in the very core at the bottommost place of the Mong Realm. That''s where the Mong Realm Spirit has stored all the Keys." "Why are the Keys in the Mong Realm Spirit''s hands?" Sterlena asked in confusion. "Shouldn''t their Champion, as the God King, have such things?" "It''s because it''s safer for the Mong Realm Spirit to have them," Krune replied. "After all, a God in the God Realm would need to pay a price to descend down into the lower realms. This rule applies to every realm." "Conversely." He smiled as he continued, "You can also think of it like the laws restricting us is stronger the lower the realm we go. So, the lower it is, the safer it should be against anyone that tries to steal it. On the other hand, the Mong Realm Spirit can casually bring it out when needed." "Moreover, it''s the Mong Realm Spirit that takes charge to open a passage into other realms using the Keys," Krune spoke. "I see, so this is where I come in." Wally nodded in understanding. Of course, as the Wisp God, he was able to bypass the restrictions. In the Kun Realm, he could casually move through the realms. Similarly, in the Mong Realm, he should be able to fool the Mong Realm Spirit and bypass the layers and head to their Underworld Realm. Since he was the one that created the Kun Soul, Wally should have the necessary means to achieve this. "I can," Wally said as he returned to his wisp form, expanding his ethereal form to envelop Krune, Sterlena, and Gegrafikan within. Suddenly, mysterious runes of the sort formed on the surface of his ethereal form, turning into a seal of sorts. "This will protect you within my body." "Krune, point me in the direction of the key using your Soul Needle. I won''t have time to change directions during my descent. We need to be quick if we wish to fool the Mong Realm Spirit. This won''t work a second time," Wally said. "Alright." Krune also took on his wisp form, as his abilities were the strongest like this, bringing out his Soul Needle, focusing the entirety of his power into it, causing it to point in a certain direction. "I''m ready." "Hmm¡­" Wally suddenly took a second glance at Krune''s wisp form, muttering, "Other than the guy I see in my mirror whose appearance transcends dimensions, you''ll probably take second place." "Did you stick my picture on your mirror?" Krune asked in all seriousness. "If I did that, I would have commented that guy as second best at most. There''s a big difference." Wally spoke even more seriously. "Maybe you''re just delusional, old man." Krune snapped back. "Look at the mirror clearly next time. The guy there is actually my picture." "In which idiotic world do you find a picture within a mirror?" Wally snorted in response. "Mirrors are a reflection of reality. And they only reflect the truth when I stand before them." "Maybe it felt scared and showed a lie to save itself." Krune created an ethereal hand, patting Wally''s golden Wisp Core. "After all, you''re a God. You''re scary. Of course, a puny mirror would definitely be afraid." "That mirror was creator by the Water God." Wally retorted in response. "She''s not afraid of me." "Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder." Krune almost sang aloud. "Or maybe she was blind. We can''t say for sure if Gods are immune to any diseases." "Turia is number one," Sterlena said abruptly, unable to tolerate the bickering between the two at such an hour. "The both of you can tie at second place for all I care. Now, let''s get going." "Big Sis~" Krune suddenly fawned at her after that. "The wisp territory has a protective shield that I installed recently. And only I can give permission to enter it. Not only does the place has those amazing water slides, but even those plushies¡­ I mean, your cute wisps play there as well." He suddenly placed a ticket in her hands, telling her, "Here, a free pass for one full year." Cough! Sterlena stealthily pocketed it, correcting her statement. "Krune is the most handsome wisp in existence." ''Your bribery is happening within my damn body. I can see it.'' Wally controlled his annoyance, unwilling to concede his position to his bratty junior. After all, he was fully confident¡­ He was the most handsome wisp in existence. Chapter 1445 On Its Death Throes Chapter 1445 On Its Death Throes¡¡¡¡Once they were done with their ''friendly'' banter, Wally slowly appeared above the ground, touching it as his body slowly began to sink into it. "You''re going like this?" Krune asked in surprise. "This isn''t the Kun Realm. So, I have to make things seem natural," Wally replied. "You know how in cases of immortals fighting in the God Realm, there are small fragments of their Spiritual Incarnation slipping through the gaps, falling to the lower realms and forming Danger Zones there, right?" Seeing Krune nod, he continued, "I plan to do the same and make the Mong Realm Spirit assume I''m just a Spiritual Incarnation fragment that''s slipping through the gaps." Slowly, his body passed through the ground, heading deeper and deeper underground. It was like they were falling, continuing to do so naturally. It seemed like such a process would take ages, but time of such scale was a luxury to them. The God King was just too strong. And they were unsure as to how long he could be held at bay by the other champions. After all, if he sensed their actions and returned to the Mong Realm, none of the champions would be able to stop him. After all, the Mong Realm was his home ground, where he was the strongest. His powers would be further amplified here. It would be a death sentence once he began to target them. Krune had seen how the Kun Realm fared against a casual attack from him. It was horrible. So, no way in hell would they ever delay enough to be found by him. "Relax, I know what I''m doing." Wally smiled as their dropping figure flickered in and out when slowly, a spatial crack formed, allowing him to slip through. "Ugh!" Followed by a mild grunt, he arrived within the Godly Path Realm of the Mong Realm. The Mong Realm also consisted of four realms, just like the Kun Realm. Wally surprisingly moved quickly, like fish in water, surprising everyone. "Have you been here before?" Krune asked in shock. "No, but I''ve absorbed the memories of many immortals that have lived in all parts of the Mong Realm," Wally said in response. "That isn''t all. I also know plenty of details regarding the other realms." "Only the best of the best is chosen to infiltrate the other realms. And, I have been feeding upon those for as long as I can remember," he shrugged as he continued. "All of them were damn strong, but they are nothing before me." "How will you measure up to the God King?" Gegrafikan asked. "Hmm, let''s see." Wally thought before saying, "I''ll be able to handle three of his full-powered attacks. But nothing more than that." "Three?" Krune was shocked, taking a second glance at Wally. A casual attack from the God King caused all the Gods of the Kun Realm to kneel. But Wally said he was able to face three of the God King''s full-powered attacks? "You''re strong," Sterlena said. "Well, I''ve been fighting against all sorts of invaders throughout the years," Wally said casually in response. "So, I became this strong. Well, not like I was ever weak anyway." "Though," he added. "I hit my limit because I couldn''t find strong enough opponents. But, now that the champions have arrived, I''ll fight them and improve my skills further." "You can fight them?" Krune was shocked. "Yes," Wally said, patting Krune. "You''ll also be able to do so easily once you reach the God Realm in cultivation." He then gazed at Sterlena, telling her, "And, I''m looking forward to you reaching the God Realm in cultivation. After the first-generation True Spirits were killed by the Gods of the other realms, no True Spirit managed to become a God. And since you''ve been used as the key to destroy your race, you''re different from all the True Spirits." "You''ve been tempered the highest by trials, tribulations, and destruction. Once you reach the God Realm in cultivation, you''ll bloom into the strongest True Spirit," Wally said in all seriousness. He then laughed. "Well, the three of you are pretty unique in your own regard. All of you would reach a Champion''s level in the future." His eyes then became sharp as he said, "But that''s also troublesome. After all, the other champions have already evaluated your potential. No matter what, they wouldn''t allow you to mature into Gods. We''ll become a second Mong Realm in terms of being terrifying in the eyes of everyone." "How long do you think the champions would last against the God King?" Krune asked. "Why do you think they would be defeated?" Wally chuckled all of a sudden, asking upon seeing the trio''s confusion. "Have you activated the Balance Laws after attaining your God Seats?" "No, I didn''t," Krune replied. "Well, once we return, try to activate it. You''ll be surprised to feel the power of the Kun Realm itself flowing through you." Wally said. "And that''s what sets you apart as the champion. Currently, all the champions haven''t harnessed the powers of their Realms yet. That''s why there''s a stalemate between the God King and the rest." "But when they harness it, things would change. Even the God King wouldn''t emerge scot-free from the battle. After all, a single realm cannot compete with dozens of realms," he spoke. "The Mong Realm doesn''t have that strong a foundation. On top of that, their Godly Energy is also used up." "You mean, it just wasn''t something they prevented to make the people active in fighting other realms?" Krune asked in surprise. "There''s that too, but inertly, the realm has lost most of its energy gathering foundation." He said, sighing, "You can say that the Mong Realm is a dying realm. If it doesn''t swallow another realm, it would soon fade out of existence. Everything the Mong Realm Gods are doing is just prolonging the inevitable." Slowly, Wally arrived at the Mortal Realm, phasing through the ground just like before. "They''ll need to swallow at least some satellite realms like the Calamity Realm to slow down their collapse." "When I arrived here, I made a rough calculation thanks to our race''s innate advantage," Wally said. "12,000 years. That''s how long the Mong Realm has if it doesn''t swallow any realms." "Even the mighty God King would be no more after that." Chapter 1446 Bro, Seriously? Chapter 1446 Bro, Seriously?¡¡¡¡Wally soon reached the Underworld Realm, muttering as he saw the souls entering the cycle of reincarnation, "Don''t do anything. It''s risky here." Countless souls flew around like ethereal beings with zero sentience. Now that Krune''s cultivation had reached a high level, he was able to observe that as the souls continued to fly, their memories were slowly shaved off from their soul forms, eventually causing only the core of their souls to fly away. As for the memories that were shed like sand caught in a shoe, they continued to fall deeper and deeper into what seemed to be the bottomless void. "That''s where our destination is." Upon seeing where the Soul Needle pointed, Wally moved slowly, accelerating from time to time as he jumped into any spatial cracks that formed naturally to travel further, saving travel time. The memories formed what resembled dust as it fell like rain, slowly congregating as they began to fall towards what seemed to be a sphere. "Is this¡­?" Krune asked in surprise. "Realm Core!" Wally said in all seriousness. "The foundation of the Mong Realm. This is the birthplace of all Laws. Also, whenever a God is born, their Law would be birthed here." "What''s¡­that?" Krune asked, pointing at a mysterious and chaotic steam that seeped into the sphere from the other side. "That''s the chaotic streams that exist beyond the realms," Wally explained. "They''re the power sources that our realms absorb to generate Godly Energy, as well as produce the various resources." "The chaotic streams could be said to be infinite. And that''s what the realm constantly absorbs to grow and raise its foundation," he spoke. "If the source is something external, then why is the Mong Realm dying?" Krune frowned. "Can''t it just absorb more energy from the chaotic streams and increase the Godly Energy of the Mong Realm?" "Everything has a lifespan, whether animate or inanimate, living or non-living," Wally told him. "In that sense, the Mong Realm also has a lifespan. It''s just running out of lifespan now." "You can think of it this way. It''s an old man with a foot in his grave already. Consider the chaotic streams as water that would revitalize him," he spoke. "However, no matter how much water he drinks, his body is unable to process it. So, the excess water ends up poisoning him. That''s why he has to take small sips to barely maintain his dying body." "So that''s why the Godly Energy in the Mong Realm is so low," Sterlena muttered, feeling enlightened a bit. "In comparison, our Kun Realm is a chirpy brat that''s gobbling up water happily, without a care in the world," Wally said, laughing at his own joke. Of course, Krune also giggled along for some reason, showing the strange taste in their humor. "If we were to destroy it¡­" Gegrafikan gazed at the Mong Realm Core, muttering as he thought. "Don''t even think about it," Wally told him. "First of all, destroying a Realm Core isn''t easy. You''ll need at least a couple of champions to bombard it with attacks nonstop for a few centuries before a crack can even form on it. So, our attacks wouldn''t even be worthy of polishing its surface." "Second, even if we end up destroying it, the Mong Realm would collapse on its own and create a resounding explosion that would kill us all. This also counts our Gods that are in the Rune Realm," Wally added. He then raised a hand as he asked the three, "And third, if the Mong Realm disappears, what do you think would happen?" "If the big bad bully vanishes, the smaller bullies will begin fighting with everyone," he spoke in annoyance. "That would just sharply raise the number of our enemies." "Then, what do you propose is the best solution to this problem?" Gegrafikan asked. "Maintain the status quo," Wally answered. "Ensure the Tilk Realm doesn''t fall into the hands of anyone while everyone works together to keep the Mong Realm in check. This would buy us plenty of time to develop and reach a level where we can properly take part in such intergalactic affairs." "Well, not that I care about it since my duties are only to protect the Kun Realm." Wally shrugged. "As the sole genius of the wisp race, a lot is riding on my wispy shoulders." "The wisps born in the Turia Continent are the smartest of the bunch," Krune said all of a sudden. "Well, they aren''t that smart, probably around five to six times smarter than you." Krune gave a thoughtful look, gazing at Wally''s golden Wisp Core as he concluded. "Yeah, not that smart." "Brat, you have a death wisp?" Wally snorted. "Old man, you made a slip-up. It''s a wish, not a wisp." Krune laughed in response. "Whatever." Wally rolled his eyes before slowly approaching the Mong Realm Core. "Wait, why are you approaching it?" Krune asked in shock. "Isn''t your Soul Needle pointing at it?" Wally asked as if it was a matter of fact. "Yeah, but¡­" Krune stared at the Mong Realm Core, seeing minor flares from it from time to time. The flares were comprised of various laws, actuated randomly depending upon the Law that drunk up the most Godly Energy. Such flares were tremendously powerful, each strongest than the attacks of Gods, deadly in might. If they were to just go like this, they would be destroyed. And Wally was about to enter the range of such sparks, each of which seemed powerful enough to destroy them in one hit. "Don''t worry, I know what I''m doing," Wally said as he approached closer and closer to the Mong Realm Core when suddenly, a spark blasted off right in front of his face. "Aaak! We''re dead!" Krune shouted, flinching at the sound, for it sounded like massive continents slamming into one another. "Oh my god! This stupid Wally is an utter fool!" Krune flailed his hands, tearing up in response as he wailed, "Ohh! Why did I have to believe this delusional second-rate Wisp in terms of handsomeness? Why? Oh my, just why?" Of course, nothing happened. They were perfectly fine as three people cast their stares at Krune. ''Seriously? You chose this moment for your theatrical performance?'' Chapter 1447 Finally, Finding the Key Chapter 1447 Finally, Finding the Key¡¡¡¡When the spark slammed into Wally, a mysterious radiance enveloped his body, surprisingly absorbing all the power within the spark. Following that was a short¡­ burp. "What? This is free resources, you know?" Wally said. "This spark is full of resources at the level of the God Realm. You can use it to create weapons suitable to be wielded by Gods. And it''s free, from our enemy even." "Only a refined, once-in-a-lifetime idiot would miss such an opportunity," Wally added. Krune raised his hand after that. "Old man, I didn''t even say anything." "You didn''t say anything, but you conveyed everything already." Wally snorted, saying upon gazing at Krune''s confused look. "Don''t you know that we wisps can share information telepathically?" "Can we really?" Krune asked in surprise. "Wake up to reality, brat!" Wally smacked his head. "Did you see any wisp use it until now?" ''This old freak''s just messing with me at this point,'' Krune retorted suddenly, acting like he suddenly remembered something shocking, pointing at Wally''s golden Wisp Core. "Ah! I remember something. Mr. Second Most Handsome here hit his limit at the Second Stage of the God Foundation Realm." "So many wives, so many impurities! Of course, it''s all thanks to telepathy!" Krune smiled smugly, rubbing his hands as he gleefully stared down Wally''s golden Wisp Core. "Brat, that''s called being popular!" Wally snorted in response. "Only the most handsome wisp has the privilege to accumulate so many impurities at the tender stage of God Foundation." "Besides!" He glared at Krune, continuing, "Don''t talk like you are better than me. No, you''re ten times worse. If this grandfather didn''t manipulate heaven''s will and alter your fate, Feifei would never have fallen for a zero IQ wisp like you." "Hey, that''s being racist towards wisps," Krune protested. "I''m the ancestor god of the wisps!" Wally retorted. "Don''t you have low EQ yourself?" Krune said, indignant. "Yeah, but I have the most handsome face," Wally stated smugly. "I never had to lift a finger." "¡­" Krune grumbled, glaring at Wally''s golden Wisp Core. "By the way, I noticed that you''ve been eyeing my Wisp Core from the start¡­" Wally spoke, smiling all of a sudden. "Are you envious?" ''Dammit yeah! But I won''t tell him!'' Krune thought, shrugging casually, "Nah, I just thought you have a horrible color sense." "Er... we''re in the most important location of the enemy territory, and you decided this was the right time to do a comedy sketch?" Gegrafikan said in exasperation, glaring at Sterlena. "As their senior, shouldn''t you have¡­" He then noticed Sterlena silently admiring their banter like a grandma watching her grandchildren play in the mud for the first time. ''This woman has lost it since long ago.'' Feeling a headache, Gegrafikan took in deep breaths, calming himself down. Of course, he, Krune, and Sterlena were within Wally''s ethereal form. So, they couldn''t do anything rash, for that might damage the seal protecting them. "Jokes aside," Wally turned serious after that. "We need to wait until an opening shows up in the core." "We''ll have to enter it?" Gegrafikan asked. "Yeah, that''s what it seems like," Wally said. "Don''t worry, the sphere is also made of the Space Laws. So, the inside must be as massive as a Sub-Realm at least." Wally slowly approached the Mong Realm Core closer and closer, devouring any sparks of resources ejected out of the core, soon touching the surface. Countless laws were twisting and turning like maggots here. Actually, the Law of Space had surfaced right at the location Wally had touched. This was what he had been waiting for all along. And since waiting in silence was boring, he argued with Krune to pass the time. The moment he touched the Law of Space, his figure vanished, appearing within what seemed to be an endless void. "This is¡­bigger than a Sub-Realm," Krune muttered in astonishment at the sheer size of the place, one that was devoid of anything of substance. "Wait, look at there." Sterlena trailed after a scent of energy, pointing in a certain direction at a tiny twinkling gem-like structure. Key! "That''s not our key, though," Krune said, noticing his Soul Needle pointing in a different direction. "But, it''s still a key. We can steal it and use it as a substitute or trade it with the other realms for equivalent valuables," Sterlena spoke. "Can we¡­ convert this key into our realm''s?" Gegrafikan wondered, intending to approach it when Wally stopped him. "There are traps throughout this place," Wally told them. "So, just remain within me for the time being. Only that''s safe." "Besides," he continued. "There''s a good chance the Mong Realm Spirit would notice our infiltration the moment we touch any of the keys. So, we need to find our key first." "Why are you waiting then?" Krune pointed in the same direction as the Soul Needle. "Go, my transport. Bring us to the destination." ''This brat is talking too much.'' Wally was moderately pissed as he snapped back, "Brat, once we return to the Kun Realm, I''ll whoop your ass and paint your sect gates using it." "You can try, old man." Krune mocked openly. "I''m within your body. How can you attack me now? And it''ll be a lot of time before we return." Ignoring a certain chirpy wisp that acted like it was on a sightseeing trip, Wally continued to move in the direction pointed by the Soul Needle. Of course, he was this free because, first of all, he trusted Wally''s strength. After all, it could be said that Wally was a legendary figure in the Kun Realm. So, he wouldn''t mess up during such a major task. Besides, the fact that he had the time to banter with him meant that the task was proceeding without any hiccups. This was pretty rare. Of course, that was only due to the ongoing war between the Mong Realm and the rest of the Greater Universe. So, the Mong Realm Spirit''s attention was focused on it. After all, it had to support the God King the moment he decided to activate his powers as a champion. "We''re here," Wally muttered as they arrived before a strange item that caused their hearts to hump in increasing vigor, exhibiting unbridled excitement and relief. Thump! Thump! Chapter 1448 Breaking the Key’s Seal Chapter 1448 Breaking the Key¡¯s Seal¡¡¡¡Thump! Thump! Their heart rate accelerated as the quartet gazed at what seemed to be like a small sphere, blinking from time to time as it pulsated with a mysterious energy. Though, that wasn''t all. Its shape continued to morph like it was a droplet of water suspended in a vacuum and was affected by foreign interferences. "There''s a formation installed here," Wally said after inspecting the key. "The moment we try to break the seal, the Mong Realm Spirit would know. And, it would be able to appear here instantly." "Even I won''t be able to do much in that situation," he continued. "So, we only have one chance." "I can destroy the formation," Sterlena told him. "With my Heavenly Destruction Law, I''ll be able to destroy the seal. The only thing to note is that I need a tremendous amount of Godly Energy to do this." "There''s the Cultivation Lotus in my subspace," Krune said in response to that. "Use it." "Don''t cross my body," Wally said. "Accumulate as much power as you can. Only send it out on my command. I''ll help cover up the rest." He then looked at Gegrafikan, telling him, "Sterlena would only act like a sword and cut the chains. I want you to swallow all of them. Even though it might take a lot of time for you to digest them, it''s the fastest way to make them vanish. So, be prepared." "Alright." Gegrafikan nodded after hearing that. "What about me?" Krune asked. "Prepare your tribulation lightning," Wally told him. "The moment the Mong Realm Spirit arrives here after being alerted, attack it with all your power first. In that fraction of a second, we''ll take the chance to escape." "Can the Calamity Realm Spirit reach you here?" Wally asked. Krune focused for a moment before saying, "It cannot arrive here, and the speed at which my subspace moves is too slow in the eyes of the Mong Realm Spirit. It would be able to target us easily." "Then, why don''t you create a second wave?" Wally smiled, asking, "You''ve left enough of a backup, right?" "Yes." Krune nodded, saying, "There''s still enough infection in every city that has yet to be activated. After obtaining my God Seat, I''ve already begun to spread its effects. And this time, there won''t be a Hunger Law in their bodies." "There won''t?" Wally was surprised to hear that. "Then, how will it take effect?" "Annexation." Krune smiled as he explained, "Their laws would turn sentient and devour the other laws. All traces of my Hunger Law would vanish immediately after infecting them. So, my enemies wouldn''t even be able to devise a counter for something that has vanished." "It''s just like someone remaining angry for at least a couple of days after being slapped on the face." Krune grinned. "The slap doesn''t leave an impression, but the memory is enough to trigger them into a fuming reaction that would persist for long durations." "I see. That''s a solid principle." Wally nodded. "When I give the key, activate all of them." "Yep, that''s the plan." Krune nodded, closing his eyes as he began to concentrate, sensing all the Hunger Law scattered within the bodies of cultivators and immortals alike. In the meantime, Sterlena continued to create a jet-black substance that she began to condense, turning it into a pair of scissors that continued to darken in color as the amount of Godly Energy she infused into it was to a suffocating level. She continued with the process, slowly increasing the number of scissors. Each scissor was meant to sever one fragment of the seal. The seal resembled chains wound over the key. The only difference was the fact that these chains were actually created by a cluster of Laws that were compressed and wound together by immense power. Only the Realm Spirit was capable of a feat on this level. After all, if the laws were brought together to such an extent, it would pretty much create an explosion. After all, the laws couldn''t just casually be merged together. When the immortals used such an attack, that was possible thanks to the Divine Sense that acted as a boundary between each law. That was how they were able to use various laws together in one attack or ability. But what happened here was entirely different. There was no trace of Divine Sense on the chains. They were purely compressed together and wound into chains. Surprisingly, even with that, the laws remained docile. "Since the Laws are pretty much part of its body, the Mong Realm Spirit has full control over them. If you''re not a Realm Spirit, this would be an unimaginable feat," Wally spoke. Time passed in such a fashion as Sterlena finished using up all the Godly Energy stored within the subspace, creating enough scissors to cut all the chains twice. "Ready?" Wally asked, slowly condensing a mysterious barrier through the region. This was protection against any other traps that might activate when they stole the key. "This is our key, right Krune?" Wally confirmed, just in case. "Yes, this is our fourth key." Krune moved the Soul Needle up and down, watching it tilt itself accordingly like a compass, pointing right at the key. Now that they had enough conformation, Wally slowly guided her as Sterlena sent the scissors out of Wally''s ethereal body, positioning them over each chain that formed the seal. "Are you ready, Gegrafikan?" Wally asked next. "Yes." Gegrafikan nodded, taking on a miniature Spirit Aberrant form, having compressed his body to a fair extent. He was even able to hide within a law on a cultivator''s body. So, something of this scale wasn''t even a problem. Gegrafikan had already prepared himself to devour everything to the limit, preventing the Mong Realm from reacting on time. As long as he devoured the severed chains first, the remainder wouldn''t have enough time to grow and wrap around the key once again. Slowly, everyone completed their preparations as Wally took a deep breath, looking around to ensure he didn''t gloss over anything, double-checking everything. He scanned around until he was sure this wasn''t just the Mong Realm Spirit''s trap. With that, he gave the command. "Start!" Chapter 1449 Escape! Chapter 1449 Escape!¡¡¡¡Bang! All the scissors Sterlena created using her Heavenly Destruction Law snapped shut at the same time, expending their entirety to snap the chains at the contact spots. In truth, this wasn''t as easy as it sounded. However, Sterlena had infused as much power equivalent to a God in each of the scissors, thereby allowing it to possess enough power required to snap the chains. Of course, thanks to Wally''s probing of both the chain and her abilities, she had an accurate prediction of the extent of power she had to concentrate in order to sever it. Thanks to that, the action proceeded effortlessly as the chains were severed into two. Gegrafikan opened his mouth, unleashing a frightening suction force, instantly swallowing the severed seals. His body became bloated as he seemed to be struggling to digest all the concentrated laws forming the chains. In any case, he did his job and cleared out the chains. The Soul Needle suddenly pointed in a certain direction as Krune instantly brought out a million Thundercloud Whales and unleashed the biggest cluster of Lightning Needles yet. The Mong Realm Spirit had sensed their actions, teleporting to the core in fluster, when suddenly, it felt an intense headache once again. This was because all the infected cultivators turned into mindless zombies once again. But this time, the effect was hundreds of times stronger, actually causing the effect to spread to a tenth of the Mong Realm. It was a staggering sum as the Mong Realm Spirit was unable to ignore that. After all, with such a massive number affected, their laws began to devour each other, causing a reduction in the Mong Realm''s foundation to a certain extent, causing it to flail in pain. It hadn''t felt such a sensation in the past but had already suffered the same twice consecutively. Due to the pain, it was distracted, unable to evade as all the Lightning Needles slammed into it. The attack itself didn''t damage it much, but the tribulation lightning confused it for a moment, reeling in its senses. And during this valuable one second, Wally finished storing the key as he secured the trio within his body and teleported out of the Mong Realm instantly. "You''re this strong?" Krune was strong, for Wally had directly broken past the Mong Realm''s natural defenses and directly exited it, arriving with the chaotic streams beyond the Mong Realm. "This was something I had planted before," Wally replied. "And now, I had to use it." Of course, Wally didn''t kill every spy that infiltrated the Kun Realm. He also took advantage of a few to lay down some traps in the other realms, preparations for when he would eventually have to enter there one day. Though, he hadn''t expected to use it so early. It was more like a device, an artifact that one of the Mong Realm spies he enslaved had left in the Mong Realm. Currently, it was like a powerful beacon, allowing Wally to activate the Wisp''s innate ability that only the Wisp Gods possessed, allowing him to travel through the realms. And this artifact was like a one-use item, meant to accelerate his speed of travel, allowing him to exit it instantly. "Damn it! DAMN IT!" The Mong Realm Spirit raged as it exited the Mong Realm and chased after Wally immediately. "I won''t allow you to escape!" It didn''t stop at that, directly informing the God King about what had happened. "So, that was your plan all along." The God King frowned, gazing at all the Champions. "It seems the Kun Realm fooled everyone." His sudden choice of words shocked everyone, causing them to pay attention to his words even while fighting him. "They''ve infiltrated my realm and stole their key. And only their key." He continued, "For that, they used the lot of you to hold my attention while they sneaked in to steal the key." "What the¡­?" The Champions were shocked, their moods souring in response to having been played by their supposed ''allies.'' "Is this true?" The Garg Realm Champion glared at Luvile and the others. Suddenly, all fighting stopped in the Rune Realm as everyone glared at the Gods from the Kun Realm. "We''re only taking back what was ours," Luvile stated plainly. "We haven''t broken our deal." ''Right, they did fulfill their end of the deal,'' the Garg Realm Champion thought. ''But the way they did it isn''t nice.'' "Why doesn''t the Kun Realm provide an explanation to us first?" The Lak Realm Champion frowned, stating in anger, "If you were planning to steal the keys, you should have taken all our keys. We would have paid a fortune to buy it from you. However, you only took yours. That pretty much sums up your stance, right?" "Well, you have a point." Luvile nodded, suddenly turning calm. "But you see, isn''t the Kun Realm the target following the Tilk Realm? In other words, we really need to guard ourselves, right?" "And before the Mong Realm fully targets us, we need to buy some time." He smiled and began to walk into the portal leading to the Kun Realm. Only now did the Champions and the various Gods notice a certain entity latched onto his thighs. Rune Realm Spirit! Held in its hands was the Rune Realm Core, shrunken down in size. It was apparent that the Kun Realm had planned to escape from the start. "Only if I allow you to escape." The God King snorted in response. "I''ll kill the lot of you and personally trample all the Gods of the Kun Realm." Saying so, he turned into a streak of light and slammed into the portal leading to the Kun Realm. But shockingly¡­ Boom! The God King was sent flying as he crashed into the walls of the Rune Realm that had already begun to collapse with its core being removed. He quickly recovered, noticing a drop of blood bleeding out of his nose, surprised as he gazed at the source of the attack that was capable of injuring even him, staring at a familiar face, muttering, "So, you''re finally taking action¡­" "Hishe." Chapter 1450 Kun Realm’s Brilliant Scheme Chapter 1450 Kun Realm¡¯s Brilliant Scheme¡¡¡¡The God King was injured! Upon seeing the sequence of events that had happened, there was pin-drop silence for a moment. The Garg Realm Champion was surprised. "There''s someone in the Kun Realm capable of injuring the God King? Do they actually have a third Champion?" He then heard the God King''s mutters, surprised as he stared into the portal, uttering, "Hishe? That''s Hishe? How come he''s this strong?" Of course, everyone here was aware of Hishe''s existence. After all, they all had planted their spies in the Kun Realm for ages. So, the information of every God, Primal Gods, and even geniuses were basic information they were aware of. Among the Gods of the Kun Realm, Hishe was the most noteworthy. After all, he was the one spreading knowledge about body cultivation through the God Realm while also working on reviving the dead Gods. He was also doing a lot of other things, so he fell into the radar of every single Champion. However, what none of them had ever expected was the fact that Hishe was actually this powerful, strong enough to send the God King flying and injuring him. Even though the God King recovered from the injury instantly, this was still a feat. After all, he wasn''t even injured while facing all the Champions till now. "I understand now," the God King spoke slowly, expressing his interest. "You''re¡­ different from every God. You''re not supposed to be possible. Being the personification of two Laws¡­frightening." "What?" The Champions were further shocked. This was because every God, no matter how powerful they were, only had one Law. This was the Law that turned them into Gods. With that in mind, becoming the God of two Laws was unprecedented. It went against all senses. This wasn''t just being a strong God. That wouldn''t have shocked them. After all, they were Champions. Their level of strength couldn''t even be fathomed by the other Gods. But being the representative of two Laws? Impossible! "No, it''s not as everyone thinks." The God King smiled suddenly, able to see through Hishe. "I don''t know how you''ve managed to obtain a second Law, but it seems you''ll destroy yourself the more you use that second law." "As expected of the God King. Nothing goes past you." Hishe smiled in response. "But so what? I''ll gladly sacrifice myself if it means giving you a crippling injury. Being able to injure the God King is an unprecedented honor. It''ll be a feat even the other Champions are incapable of." "I''ll be glad to do so." Hishe smiled, stating suddenly, "Besides, I don''t think you have the time to be worrying about the Kun Realm''s actions. You see, our Champion is pretty amazing. In order to prevent the Mong Realm from chasing after us, he let loose a certain something in your precious home." "Better eradicate the plague before it consumes your entire realm." Saying so, Hishe closed the portal as everyone from the Kun Realm had already left. Moreover, the Rune Realm had begun to collapse, unable to sustain itself as the spatial storms began to gush inside like a torrent. The Mong Realm Gods became aware of what was happening in the Mong Realm, flustered as they began to return in a hurry, intending to deal with the zombie issue that had already spread to a tenth of the population in their God Realm. As for the Gods from the other Realms, they scurried forth, entering the spatial tunnels that took them back to their respective Realms in a hurry while their Champions defended the portals against any attacks their enemies could have made. Instantly, the situation had changed completely. As for the God King, he stood in place, silent, hearing the flurry of activity around him, feeling horrible for the first time in his life. He slowly gazed at his hand, pinching his forehead before breaking out into laughter. "How long has it been since I faced such a loss?" "My most promising son was killed, the foundation of my Realm consumed to birth two God Seats, the death of four Gods, and now, the massacre of a tenth of my God Realm''s inhabitants. Good, very good." He snorted, glaring at all the Champions. "Hear this, from today onwards, I declare the Kun Realm as an enemy that would be eradicated on sight." "And anyone that helps the Kun Realm or interferes with our annexing of the Tilk Realm would be considered the Mong Realm''s mortal enemy." His declaration resounded in the ears of all the Champions, causing them to shudder in response. ''The Kun Realm really played us this time.'' The Garg Realm Champion thought, ''But, they should have given it a better thought. If all the Champions joined hands, we could have dealt with the God King somehow.'' He shook his head, feeling that it was a loss, intending to return to his home realm when suddenly, a message was transmitted to him through a secret Mental Energy transmission, causing his eyes to lit up as a subtle smile formed on his face. "Kun Realm¡­huh. How interesting." [The Mong Realm Core would collapse in 12,000 years. So, before that happens, they would try to attack a realm with full power. That''s the best chance to target them. After all, they wouldn''t be able to annex the Tilk Realm anymore.] This was the transmitted content. Now that he realized the Kun Realm had already done something to the Tilk Realm, the Garg Realm Champion smiled contently. His primary concern was that the Mong Realm would annex the Tilk Realm and grow even stronger. If the God King''s strength increased by thirty percent, he would be unstoppable. But until then, he wasn''t that overwhelming yet. After all, the Garg Realm Champion was aware that none of the Champions went all out while facing the God King. They were all preserving their trump cards. Even though the God King was the strongest, his power didn''t trump the Champions yet. In the previous fight, had both sides gone all out, there was a fair chance of killing the God King. However, that didn''t happen because none of the Champions wished to unleash their true strength and risk their enemies from figuring out their powers. They weren''t truly united. Hence, the Garg Realm Champion wasn''t angry. In fact, he was smiling. ''Since they were aware that none of us truly went all out, maintaining the Rune Realm only increased the risks of us ganging up on the weaker Realms. That would only increase their risks. With that in mind, they took the Rune Realm Spirit and Core with them. Interesting!'' Chapter 1451 Opportunity Even in Defeat Chapter 1451 Opportunity Even in Defeat¡¡¡¡The Rune Realm''s specialty, thanks to the intent behind its creation, allowed the Rune Realm Spirit to open portals connecting to the other realms. This was a tremendous power. Now that it was in the hands of the Kun Realm, they basically obtained an advantage, allowing them to seize the initiative and travel to any realm they pleased. The other realms wouldn''t like this... normally, that is. But, there was one thing that made them like such a development. The Kun Realm didn''t have a Realm Spirit yet. Without a Realm Spirit, it would be impossible for them to annex the Tilk Realm. Secondly, there were 12,000 years left for the Mong Realm to collapse. So, that meant that the Mong Realm would focus all its attention on saving itself. But if the Tilk Realm were to suddenly vanish, then the Mong Realm''s plans would be pushed back further. With their deadline approaching closely, they would attack another realm with full force. ''In that situation, I need to show up with the other Champions to hinder the God King. If we prolong the battle long enough, the Mong Realm would collapse, severely weakening the God King.'' Chuckling, the Garg Realm Champion entered the portal, vanishing as the Rune Realm collapsed completely. As all the Champions left, the God King was the only existence remaining there, staring at the chaotic storms in silence as he turned into a streak of light before flying straight towards the Tilk Realm. The spatial storms directly evaded him as a spatial tunnel formed for his travel. Soon, he arrived at the location where the Tilk Realm had existed for eons, frowning as there was a massive vacuum here, filler with super weak spatial storms that had only arrived recently to fill in the vacuum. "How did it vanish?" He frowned, unable to see where it had gone. Thinking of something, he condensed another spatial tunnel and headed straight towards the Kun Realm, surprised to see the raging Mong Realm Spirit soon after. "Those cunning bastards!" It bellowed in anger, clenching its stomach that continued to hurt. "What happened?" the God King asked in a hurry. "Why didn''t you stop them?" The Mong Realm Spirit screeched in rage. "Those bastards used the Rune Realm Spirit to connect the Kun Realm and the Tilk Realm so they could bring them closer to each other. Now, see what happened." It pointed towards a terrifying spatial storm, one that was capable of injuring even the God King. "Now that two major realms are side by side, they have begun to draw in an even more terrifying spatial storm. Now, this spatial storm formed a natural defense for them. This was their plan all along." "Only you''ll be able to endure this spatial storm. No other God is capable of passing through this without dying." It groaned. "It seems we''ve become complacent by the string of constant success." The God King sighed. "And that led to the current situation." "What will we do now? We were close to swallowing the Tilk Realm. You know we don''t have enough time, right?" the Mong Realm Spirit said in worry. "Fear not. I''ve already obtained some satellite realms." The God King said, taking out Realm Cores from who knows where, handing them to the Mong Realm Spirit. "With this, we won''t have to worry about time for now. There are plans underway to obtain even more satellite realms. So, we''ll never truly be in a predicament or in a desperate position." "Thank goodness." The Mong Realm Spirit sighed in relief before gazing at the terrifying spatial storm, "What will we do about the Kun Realm? Will you enter it right now and kill all their Gods to teach them a lesson?" "It''s not that simple." The God King sighed after hearing that. "I just came to know that Hishe controls two Laws. If he sacrifices himself, he''ll be able to inflict a mortal injury to me. If all their Gods throw themselves at me, even if I''m able to kill them all, I''ll be weakened significantly. It would become impossible for me to exit the Kun Realm after that." He then continued, "And even if I paid a sharper price to leave it, I don''t think I would come out alive. The Rune Realm can connect with the other Realms. There''s a fair chance the Kun Realm would seek help from the Garg Realm." He snorted as he added, "And those bastards would be happy to fight me even for free. With me dead, they''ll become the rulers of the Greater Universe." "The Rune Realm, the infection in our realm, the summoning of various Champions, reclaiming their key, and dragging the Tilk Realm towards them to increase the lethality of the spatial storms surrounding them." The Mong Realm Spirit sighed. "If I put it this way, things are terrifying." "What happened to the infection?" the God King asked next. "I¡­ had to kill all the infected," the Mong Realm Spirit said with a sour mood, "We''ve lost a lot of people thanks to Krune''s actions." "Most of the deaths consist of mortals, right?" The God King asked. "Yes, and a small fraction are at the Semi-God Realm and the God Trial Realm," The Mong Realm Spirit added. "Not to worry, then." The God King nodded casually, "We''ll recover the lost numbers within a couple of centuries. In fact, this is a good situation." "This is a good situation?" The Mong Realm Spirit was slightly perplexed. "Of course." The God King laughed. "A tenth of those in the God Realm had been affected by this. So, practically everyone would be seething to take revenge. This is the best chance for them to grow stronger. After all, revenge is the strongest motivation." He then said, "Open our treasury and distribute rewards to the talents that would emerge next as a result of this anger. We''ll conduct tournaments in every continent under my name." "Announce them that the winner of this tournament would become my disciple, the first and last in history," he said before returning to the Mong Realm. "Before I emerged, our Mong Realm was stupidly weak and was constantly harassed by the Garg Realm that maintained sovereignty at that time. And thanks to the endless conflicts from that time, I continued to grow nonstop to eventually become the God King of today." "So, only endless conflicts can promote another expert on my level." He smiled, "I''ll have to thank the Kun Realm for this. Thanks to their actions, my people would be fired up more than ever to destroy the other realms." Chapter 1452 Return of the Champions Chapter 1452 Return of the Champions¡¡¡¡"Phew, it''s finally done!" Krune exclaimed with a cheer, stopping before the Kun Realm''s spiral entrance. All the Gods were in the Kun Realm as the entrance only led there. Krune, Wally, Sterlena, and Gegrafikan were the only ones outside now. Turning around, Krune gazed at the Tilk Realm that was situated close by, with there being less than a thousand kilometers between both realms. Thanks to them being so close by, the energy they were absorbing drew in more spatial storms, causing the storms to congregate into a massive barrier around the two realms, forming their strongest defensive barrier. This was their true plan, even if they failed in grabbing the fourth key. After all, by being protected by such a powerful barrier, none of the foreign powers would be able to infiltrate either realm. Thanks to this, they obtained an era of peace and development. Unless the foreign powers did something to destroy the spatial storms, they would never have to face a threat. Then again, doing something about the spatial storms was easier said than done. After all, it was so strong that even powerful Gods would be casually killed. Only existences like the God King and a couple other Champions would be able to pass through this barrier and enter the Kun or Tilk Realm. And even they surely would have to pay a price. "The both of you have obtained your God Seals, Gegrafikan grew stronger by eating two Gods, we showed our hands to the other Champions, displayed our resources and cunning, and achieved a flawless victory by gaining the necessary time to develop in peace." Wally smiled. "It''s a resounding victory!" "Yaay!" Everyone cheered in response, happy for their success. "And," Wally continued, gazing at the fourth key. "Now that we have all the four keys, we''ll be able to enter and leave our realm easily." "Then again, Luvile has the Rune Realm Spirit and Realm Core." He laughed. "So, we have a second mode for travel." There wasn''t just the Kun Realm and the Tilk Realm within the massive bubble created by the spatial storm. There was also the Calamity Realm. The Calamity Realm Spirit¡ªLittle Cally¡ªwas overjoyed for finally being freed from the Mong Realm''s control after so long. It giggled while revolving around Krune and Sterlena like it was a firefly, expressing its joy. "Let''s first return and then work on the rest." Wally smiled, unleashing a mystical ability that activated the fourth key, allowing the quartet to enter the Kun Realm and appear in the Turia Supercontinent. Roar! The moment they arrived, they heard the roars of everyone from the Turia Supercontinent and further beyond. Of course, for such a major event, everyone in the Kun Realm was alerted of what was happening. After all, it was finally time to educate everyone about the dangers that the Kun Realm was facing. Of course, thanks to Krune''s clone in the Mountain Sect, the Gods were able to transmit everything he saw throughout the Mong Realm, making everyone aware of the terrifying opponents they had to face. The hearts of everyone pretty much leaped out of their throats when they saw the scene of all the Gods of the Kun Realm kneeling on the ground while defending against a casual wave from the God King. The Greater Universe was massive and seemed infinite. And among it, there existed countless powerful realms and the Champions that stood at the top of each such realm, representing their peak power. In comparison, the Kun Realm was indeed pretty weak. But despite that, they had achieved their objectives. "Hishe!" Luvile shouted nervously, his hands constantly trembling as he held the body of a certain God that flickered in and out of existence. "I''ll¡­ be fine¡­ after some rest," Hishe gasped for air, slowly muttering after a while. "Using my second Law to attract the Tilk Realm closer to us took a major toll on my body." "I''ll¡­ have to slumber for a while, Luvile. But I''ll be fine," he said, closing his eyes as his body dissipated, vanishing from view. "I''ll leave the job of reviving our remaining Gods to you and Soren." "Get some rest, old friend." Luvile''s eyes were red as he resisted the urge to cry. "You''ve worked too hard for us. Rest for the time being." Hishe wasn''t dead yet, as his Law was still ever-present in the God Realm. It was just that the backlash from using his second Law was too severe. So, he wouldn''t be able to condense his body or even speak for at least a few thousand years. "Great job out there, Wally." Luvile wiped his tears upon seeing Wally and the group arrive, wiping his tears as he said, "I''m glad that you''ve returned with our key in tow. That was terrific!" "It wouldn''t have been possible without the plans everyone made." Wally smiled in response. "This victory is thanks to the efforts of all of us." "But, I''m the MVP," Krune said all of a sudden. "Brat, your grandpa here did all the heavy lifting," Wally retorted. "No way in hell you''re the MVP." "Old man, get your eyes, ears, and nose checked. Just because you have a golden Wisp Core doesn''t mean you''re the MVP." Krune snorted in response. "You''re still not over that?" "Hahaha!" Luvile began to chuckle after seeing their usual banter. "Right, this is no time to be sad. Hishe is just asleep, that''s all. He isn''t dead." "This is a joyous occasion, so let''s celebrate," Luvile said before shouting with all his might. "Everyone, the team has returned with our key! They are our Champions!" "Champions!" Everyone that was watching the scene on their TV bellowed in response, unleashing victory cries. "Champions!" "Champions!" "Krune!" A figure slammed into him, enveloping him into a bear hug after the crash sent the two flying for a couple of kilometers, causing a deep trench into the ground. Ignoring that, Feifei screamed, "You''re safe!" "I was damn worried!" Tears streamed out of her eyes. "Especially when that God King stared at you, I almost fainted." In response to her heartfelt words, Krune smiled, wiping her tears as he spoke, "I''m hungry." "I''ll prepare you a good meal," Feifei responded, thinking that Krune missed her cooking when she realized that it was him that did all the cooking. "I''m hungry." Krune smiled, repeating the same line once again. Chapter 1453 Rebirth of the Rune Realm Chapter 1453 Rebirth of the Rune Realm¡¡¡¡"I''m hungry." "What?" Feifei was baffled, unable to understand what Krune was getting at. "Are you feeling hungry?" "No," Krune replied. "I''m hungry." "What the hell does that mean, you stupid wisp?" Feifei said in anger. "He''s hungry." Wally arrived to Krune''s rescue, stating with a tone of confidence. Feifei blinked before feeling she needed to hit her head somewhere because she was truly unable to understand just what they were getting at. "Uncle!" Kuttul shouted in joy, lunging into his hug before noticing Wally to the side, shouting in shock, "Ancestor uncle!" "Yes, yes, I''m your ancestor." Wally nodded, as a matter of fact. "Kuttul, can you translate what this idiot is saying all this time?" Feifei massaged her forehead, hoping to ask the more reasonable Kuttul for an answer. "I''m hungry." Krune smiled, repeating it again. "Seriously?" Kuttul was shocked before jumping up and down in excitement. "You''re hungry? Seriously? How did this happen?" "You didn''t see the video?" Krune smiled in response. "So, that was that, huh." Kuttul nodded in realization, barely able to control his excitement. "I have to tell this to Kulla immediately." "Wait, what the hell does he even mean by that?" Feifei caught hold of Kuttul, asking, irritated. "Krune meant that he''s hunger himself now. You know, his God Seat is created using the Hunger Law. So, he''s hunger," Kuttul explained. "I see¡­" Feifei nodded, her eyes lighting up in surprise. "So, it was the Hunger Law that you formed your God Seat with." Krune gently patted her head in response, saying, "It seems my adorable wife has lost some brain cells by being overworked." The nerves on her forehead protruded in anger at his statement that Feifei buried Krune within the ground. "Be hungry there for the next two days." She then snorted, returning to her sect, flying through the winding paths before entering her house. She had just entered her living room to see the figure of Krune casually seated there, nonchalantly. The moment he saw her, he was surprised, waving his hands at her. "Why are you late, Feifei? I almost died of old age while waiting for you." "Didn''t I tell you to remain there for two days?" Feifei raised an eyebrow. "I left a clone there." Krune flashed a wide grin. "It seems I need to teach you a lesson. You''ve become more shameless," Feifei said before suddenly dragging him with her. "Wait, where are you going?" Krune shouted in shock. "To the wrestling room." Feifei snapped back. Krune frowned, noticing the familiar surroundings as he said in a hurry, "Wait, isn''t this our bedroom?" "Exactly," Feifei said as she dragged him into the bedroom, slowly closing the door. "It has been a long time since we had a family bonding session." Krune''s face slowly paled in response as Feifei leaped onto him. Boom! The formation on the newly rebuilt Mountain Sect was activated at full swing, annihilating the intense vibrations that appeared all of a sudden, followed by the wails of a certain wisp. "That''s¡­ pretty intense," Wally commented from afar upon noticing the level of vibrations being negated by the Mountain Sect''s formations. "It makes me recall my second wife." Three months later, a certain wisp dragged itself out of its room, haggard, looking hundreds of times worse than the zombies it had let loose in the Mong Realm, seemingly trying to escape when suddenly, a whip of light wound around it. "No¡­ no more! I need to rest!" The certain wisp wailed in exhaustion, painting a horrific screech as it was dragged into the house once again, followed by intense vibrations once again as the Mountain Sect''s formation was activated in full swing. All the clones of the certain wisp continued to act like they were decorations on the wall. But if one looked closely, one would notice the constant trembling of all the clones. Three more months passed in such a fashion before Wally dragged Krune out of Feifei''s grasp, "Let the poor chap rest for a day." "Tch!" Feifei snorted before waving her hand away. "One day, alright?" "Hahaha!" Laughing in response, Wally dragged Krune away, reviving him as he knocked on his head. "Wally to Krune! Wally to Krune! You alive, brat?" "Old man¡­" Krune said in a daze. "Sex is frightening." "No, only your wife''s craziness towards you is frightening," Wally said before shaking him awake. "You had enough time to rest. We have more work to do now." "For the Rune Realm?" Krune asked, recovering back to his usual self. "Yes." Wally nodded, saying, "Luvile was helping the Rune Realm Spirit stabilize itself for the past six months. He had to do that since we brought it with us abruptly after its birth. And now that the process is completed, we have to rebuild the Rune Realm." Wally brought Krune with him to where all the Gods were waiting. Immediately, they brought out the four keys, activating them before flying into the spiral that was visible from anywhere on the God Realm, exiting the Kun Realm. "Let''s do it, Luvile," Soren said as Luvile slowly pushed forth the Rune Realm Core. "Rune Realm Spirit, it''s up to you now," Luvile said once he positioned the Rune Realm Core in a safe enough location. "Thank you," the Rune Realm Spirit said before activating the Realm Core, causing it to begin absorbing energy from the closest spatial storm, slowly building up power within itself. A couple of days passed in such a fashion before the Realm Core shone with a resplendent radiance, creating a barebones realm. Rune Realm! It only spanned a couple meters in size at the moment, but as the Rune Realm Core continued to absorb energy from the spatial storm, its size began to grow rapidly. Quickly, the size of the Rune Realm increased to a sizeable extent before it began to stabilize slowly. "It might take a century or two before we can begin using its power to enter the other realms," Wally said. "When that happens, we''ll enter the Tilk Realm and clean it of all the spies that had infiltrated it." "After that, we''ll also work on reviving its dead Gods. Hishe''s method takes time, but it would work." Chapter 1454 Loot! Pillage! Destroy! Chapter 1454 Loot! Pillage! Destroy!¡¡¡¡Three hundred years since the Rune Realm had been established. It had expanded to the maximum size supported by the Rune Realm Core, stabilizing itself. Only now was the Rune Realm Spirit able to harness its power as the Rune Realm had reached the required stage of development required to birth a Realm Spirit. The moment it finished forming, the Gods of the Kun Realm arrived within it, leading armies of their own. Around twenty Gods, thousands of Primal Gods, and hundreds of thousands of Elementary Gods. As for the remaining immortals, they numbered in the tens of millions. Such a massive army was necessary to annihilate all the spies as swiftly as they could. After all, they had been delayed by three hundred years. And in this time period, all the spies had pretty much free reign in the Tilk Realm, which no longer had any living Gods. "I hadn''t thought the Rune Realm would take so long to stabilize." Luvile frowned. "I''m sorry." The Rune Realm Spirit apologized. "Since I was just born and had to extract my Realm Core in a hurry, I suffered a lot of unforeseen damage. It took too long to repair it and stabilize the realm." "It''s not your fault." Luvile patted it, saying, "Such things happen. We cannot foresee everything or make perfect calculations for everything." The Rune Realm Spirit then opened a portal into the Tilk Realm as Luvile took charge, entering the Tilk Realm first. "Wha-what the hell happened here?" The moment he entered it, Luvile shouted in shock, for there were signs of battle everywhere but no trace of people anywhere. He instantly scanned throughout the entire supercontinent, failing to find a single trace of life. At a discrete location, grass grew. That''s all. "Dammit!" He grunted in anger, realizing just what might have happened. "Everyone! Prepare for battle!" Boom! Suddenly, there was a terrifying spike in power from somewhere far away in the Tilk Realm. The reason everyone felt this was due to the power reaching a Champion in fearsomeness. "Let''s go!" Luvile shouted, turning into a bolt of lightning as he vanished from view, carrying everyone with him as he was the fastest. The majority of the army was carried using a pocket dimension, so they traveled quickly. ¡­ "Damn you, bastards!" A Tilk Realm Primal God bellowed in fury as he was slain into two. Immediately after, his body vanished, turning into a crimson stream that was absorbed into a certain artifact. "How''s the progress?" A Mong Realm God arrived, asking in a hurry/ "We don''t have much time." "Has the formation been set up?" The Mong Realm God carrying the artifact asked. "That was the first thing I did when the Tilk Realm was closed from the outside," the other Mong Realm God replied. "It seems something happened that caused the Tilk Realm to move. Due to that, all of our channels have been blocked. Since our exit path has been blocked, I was working on creating one myself." "Don''t be that long-winded." The Mong Realm God with the artifact snorted. "I already know that. I just want to know if the formation is complete." "It was completed 250 years ago." The other Mong Realm God said. "I just sensed a disturbance in the Tilk Realm''s spatial laws. I feel like someone is invading. But it''s not from home." "Then, let''s pack up." The Mong Realm God with the artifact waved his hand, raising resounding screams as everyone from the supercontinent turned into crimson streaks that were absorbed by the artifact and turned into Blood Pills. Once he was done, he said, "We''ve already killed all the immortals and more than eighty percent of their population. Since the situation has changed, let''s return. How strong is the formation? Will it be strong enough to protect us through the spatial storms? There''s a lot of resources we''re carrying this time. So, it needs to be stable enough." "We''ve fuelled enough power from the Tilk Realm into it," the other Mong Realm God replied. "It has stored enough power to rival a Champion. We''ll smoothly reach the Mong realm." "In any case, our actions have crippled the Tilk Realm a little bit. If they don''t birth a God soon enough, it''ll start collapsing in due time." The Mong Realm God with the artifact laughed. "As expected of the richest realm in resources." Immediately after, everyone returned to a massive formation that had been erected by using more than ten continents and one supercontinent to act as the core of the formation. One of the Mong Realm Gods had been working on creating a Sub-Realm for the past two centuries just to store in all the resources that they have ransacked from the Tilk Realm. Its size was on the level of a satellite realm in and of itself. And now, everyone entered it as only one Mong Realm God was left behind. After the Mong Realm Champion killed all the Gods of the Tilk Realm, he had stationed fifteen Gods here stealthily. This was in preparations against any intruders from the other realms that might hinder their task. He had also left behind large armies that were all hiding in pocket dimensions, ready to move out and attack any foreign enemies. When the Kun Realm moved the Tilk Realm, they lost all contact with the Mong Realm. Hence, they decided to harvest the lives of everyone from here, turning them into Blood Pills. Most of the armies charged out and attacked every continent of the Tilk Realm, resulting in a devastating war that lasted two hundred years. Since no one else disturbed them during this time, the fifteen Mong Realm Gods continued with their task. Half of them worked on harvesting the Blood Pills while the rest worked on stealing the resources of the Tilk Realm, converting it into the Mong Realm''s power structure before storing it in the Sub-Realm created for bringing back to the Mong Realm. On top of that, they were also keeping watch, intending to flee at a moment''s notice the moment it seemed like a foreign force was invading. And the moment they noticed some clues, everyone bolted, entering the Sub-Realm as the sole remaining Mong Realm God activated the massive cross-continental formation, rapidly siphoning the Tilk Realm''s essence to create a gigantic beam that sent them out of the Tilk Realm. But, it was done forcefully, rapidly destabilizing the Tilk Realm, just like what had happened when the Kun Realm Gods tried to leave it. However, the situation here was even worse as the Mong Realm Gods truly didn''t plan to leave behind anything useful for the other forces. Chapter 1455 The Collapsing Tilk Realm! Chapter 1455 The Collapsing Tilk Realm!¡¡¡¡"Damn it!" Luvile screamed in anger, seeing the all too familiar scene as the Mong Realm God left through the beam, piercing through the Tilk Realm''s skies, shattering its laws in response, destabilizing the entire realm. "Dolnu-K-Malon!" Sterlena screamed with unbridled wrath, all too familiar with the figure that carried a Sub-Realm with him and left the Tilk Realm. He was the one in her memories, one that had been a Primal God back then and had been solely responsible for annihilating the True Spirit race through her. "The Tilk Realm would collapse at this rate!" Luvile shouted in alarm. "Everyone! Do your best to prevent this from happening. If the Tilk Realm collapses, the resulting chaos might cripple our Kun Realm as well. We''re too close by, after all." He then looked at Krune and Sterlena, telling them, "The both of you, try your best to funnel our realm''s power into the Tilk Realm. Use the Balance Laws to balance the Tilk Realm''s collapse." Luvile hurriedly faced Gegrafikan, holding his hand. "I''m sorry to ask this. But can you¡­?" "Leave it to me." Gegrafikan nodded. "We Spirit Aberrants exist for this reason." Roar! Gegrafikan took on his Spirit Aberrant form, turning into a Heavenly Aberrant as he rapidly unleashed his power, turning a small portion of the Tilk Realm into the Kun Realm. Krune and Sterlena arrived there, activating their Balance Laws to the limit, screaming in pain immediately as they tried to forcefully establish a connection with the Kun Realm despite being away from it. This was only possible for a Champion after they reached the God Realm in cultivation. Unless it was a special case like before where they created their God Seats, it wouldn''t be possible to harness the power of the Kun Realm. But now that the situation was dire, they had no other choice but to take the risk. Krune''s body began to crack slightly as he shouted, "Help me, Little Cally!" "I''m here!" Little Cally shouted as it arrived before the two of them, amplifying their power through its Calamity Laws, strengthening their connection to the Kun Realm. As it was a fragment of the Kun Realm, this was possible. Booom! The Kun Realm slowly responded to their call when suddenly, Krune and Sterlena shouted in surprise, "Turia?" "Uncle¡­ Aunt¡­ I''ll help you." Turia shouted from the Turia Supercontinent, connecting to them through the laws of the Turia Supercontinent, reducing the strain the two faced as Turia slowly influenced the Kun Realm to support them out of its own volition. Unfortunately, this was only a small fraction of the power it was supplying to them. Nevertheless, it was still enough to reduce their burden as Krune and Sterlena were able to endure it better. "Haap!" Wally shouted as he acted as the guide for the energy, pouring it into the cracks that formed in the Tilk Realm. In the meantime, Gegrafikan targeted the cracks that had formed in the Tilk Realm first, turning them into the Kun Realm. This way, Krune and Sterlena were able to repair it better. But, it was easier said than done to repair a cracking realm. It was to note that even after so long, the damage in the Kun Realm had yet to be fixed. Unless there were enough Gods in a realm, it was impossible to mend its damage. That was why Hishe led the other Gods to revive their fallen Gods as much as possible. After all, with the addition of every God, the Kun Realm would stabilize further and mend its cracks on its own. This was why the Tilk Realm took such a major hit. It was because there were no Gods in it. So, its laws were at their most vulnerable state. And in such a situation, the Mong Realm Gods wreaked havoc, plundering everything without any concern before finally escaping by breaking through it forcefully. And now, it was guaranteed to collapse unless they did something about it. Then again, even the Kun Realm Gods were helpless, having no guarantee of being able to save the Tilk Realm. Swoosh! Suddenly, the chaotic storms from beyond leaked into the Tilk Realm through a crack, instantly destroying a supercontinent. Thankfully, there was no life there. But, this was just the start as more and more of the chaotic storms began to leak into the Tilk Realm. If this continued to happen, then the Tilk Realm would shatter sooner or later. "Little Cally!" Krune shouted. "I''m at full power already." Little Cally shouted in response. "I cannot divert the spatial storms while supporting you." "Damn it, is this it?" A God shouted in despair before looking at Soren. "Let us abandon this and strengthen the Kun Realm''s defenses. We''ll endure the aftermath of the Tilk Realm''s collapse." "That''s useless!" Soren shouted in response. "Even if we endure the blast, the spatial storms protecting us would turn weaker. It would allow the Mong Realm to invade us with full force." "Then, is this where we''ll be annihilated?" A Kun Realm God screamed in despair. "Let me try something!" Hearing their shouts, Hazak shot towards the crack, taking on her Demon Nest form. "Idiot! That''s dangerous!" Krune shouted in alarm. "You''re only at the Elementary God Realm! Don''t!" "Serving you is my pleasure, Lord!" Hazak shouted as she slammed into the edge of the Tilk Realm, connecting with a crack as she began to rapidly siphon energy from it. "More!" "Stronger!" Boom! The energy from the spatial storms slowly flowed into her body as hundreds of Demons flew out of her body immediately, having been birthed just now. That didn''t stop, though, as Hazak rapidly absorbed the energy from the spatial storms in a frenzy, birthing thousands of demons, some of which were even Black Demons. "Aaargh!" She screamed in pain when the edges of her body began to vaporize instantly. Even though she was absorbing energy from the spatial storms, her rapid energy absorption drew faint wisps of the spatial storms, resulting in her body vaporizing immediately upon contact. "Hazak!" Krune shouted in a fluster, watching Hazak slowly sacrificing her life to slow down the spatial storms as much as possible. Chapter 1456 Everyone From the Kun Realm Take Action Chapter 1456 Everyone From the Kun Realm Take Action¡¡¡¡"Hieeeee!" Hazak shouted as part of her body was vaporized. However, that didn''t stop her as she rapidly consumed most of the energy she had absorbed, regenerating her body. She was also slowly releasing her miasma, creating a protective layer around her. "Protect her!" All the demons that she had birthed shouted as they acted as meat shields, protecting her from the spatial storms, allowing her to absorb energy better. Slowly, the region of miasma expanded while the demons were vaporized in large droves by the spatial storms that were slowly drawn towards Hazak. Crack! Suddenly, the crack expanded in length as spatial storms spilled out from right above her, causing her to scream in pain as the majority of her body was destroyed. She would have died if not for the timely assistance of the demons that sacrificed their bodies to protect her. But somehow, she survived and even managed to do a fair job of slowing down the rate of seepage of the spatial storms. Hazak''s body continued to be destroyed by the spatial storms before she absorbed the rampant energy and the miasma to regenerate. Both the process was instantaneous, resulting in the constant destruction and reconstruction of her body. And surprisingly, she was evolving. Her body changed from gold to black gold, shimmering with sparks resembling the spatial storms from time to time as the rate at which she continued to absorb the spatial storms continued to increase. Eventually, she wasn''t just absorbing the energy within the spatial storms but the spatial storms themselves. And the thing that supported her in achieving this was a certain beam of light seeping into her. Krune noticed it, trailing over the beam of energy as he noticed a haggard Hishe standing on the other side. He had woken up abruptly upon sensing the problem in the Tilk Realm, arriving here thanks to the Rune Realm Spirit immediately. "Hishe! Don''t strain yourself!" Luvile shouted in alarm. "It''s fine. I''ve recovered all my strength," Hishe said, activating his power as he absorbed the ambient Godly Energy in the Tilk Realm before refining it rapidly, causing a spike in his strength. "My second Law actually originates from the Tilk Realm. So, it''s fine. I''m actually able to activate it without much problems here." He then observed the sequence of events, muttering after a while, "It''s impossible to save the Tilk Realm anymore. It would continue to collapse." "Then, what do you propose we do here?" Wally snapped back. He was in the most danger, having to constantly move through the spatial storms while directing the energy into the cracks to mend the damage. So, he was sustaining a lot of injuries. Any other God in his place would have died tens of times by now. "There''s only one option," Hishe said. "We''ll have to break up the Tilk Realm into many satellite realms and connect them all to the Kun Realm," Hishe said. "This way, the surrounding spatial storm wouldn''t decrease in strength, allowing us to continue building up our power. Moreover, these satellite realms would also hasten the birth of our Kun Realm Spirit." "How do we do it?" Soren asked. "Let''s use the cracks themselves," Hishe replied. "We''ll just cause the cracks to propagate until they break off from the Tilk Realm." He then looked at Sterlena and asked, "Can you handle stabilizing the entire Tilk Realm throughout this process?" "I''ll try my utmost." Sterlena nodded. Hishe looked at Krune, telling him, "Station your clones in the broken chunks and keep them stable, please. In the meantime, Gegrafikan would convert them one after another into the Kun Realm''s laws." "Alright." Krune nodded, grunting at the exhaustion of his mental faculties as he brought out a million clones, causing Luvile to station them throughout the Tilk Realm. Soren worked his mind to the limit, making all the calculations and deductions necessary to make it succeed. In the meantime, Feifei unleashed a beam that caused thoughts to slam into his mind faster, allowing him to find the swiftest means to a solution. Thanks to this, he was able to come up with plans faster, allowing everyone to act accordingly, raising their collective efficiency. All the Spirit Aberrants arrived at the scene, ready to follow Gegrafikan through the broken chunks one after another. "A lot might die as a result since this is dangerous. But, follow me. We have to do this, no matter what," Gegrafikan shouted as all the Spirit Aberrants followed him with vigor, pretty excited to be part of such a historic feat. The beam of energy unleashed by the Kun Realm split into multiple beams, directed at the clones stationed on every continent. All of them directed part of the Kun Realm''s power, slowly seeping the effect into the land of the region, causing the Kun Realm to bear the load of the region. This way, it would be a bit more stable and wouldn''t crumble so fast. Slowly, more and more immortals from the Kun Realm were brought to the Tilk Realm to help with the process, no matter how little they were able to contribute. At present, every ounce of help was necessary. And since the fate of the Tilk Realm directly governed their fate, the immortals from the Kun Realm continued to pour in here as Soren transmitted the details of their tasks directly in their heads. And with that, everyone took up their respective positions, beginning to work accordingly. The core of this operation was Gegrafikan and Hazak. Gegrafikan was the only one who was able to convert the Tilk Realm into the Kun Realm. As for anyone else, unleashing their Land Incarnation might only cause the two different laws to clash with one another, exuberating the situation further. Only he was able to create a proper transformation. As for Hazak, she was actually a great help in slowing down the cracks, for she had latched herself next to the biggest crack. So, she was of tremendous help in stabilizing the situation to a certain extent. But suddenly, Hazak let go of her hold and made a cute leap. "Yonk!" And then, she¡­ directly jumped into the spatial storm. Chapter 1457 You Have Our Full Support Chapter 1457 You Have Our Full Support¡¡¡¡"Hazak!" Krune shouted in a fluster once again upon seeing her being reckless. "Lord Krune, I''m perfectly fine!" came her reply as, surprisingly, she was fine within the spatial storm. A condensed barrier protected her from the spatial storms, preventing her from being erased from existence. "I''m helping her," Hishe replied. "The Demon Nest has interesting traits. And I feel like this is a good opportunity to further them." "There are countless mysterious races in the Kun Realm," he smiled as he explained. "And I have been cultivating a lot of them in my Sub-Realm. There''s a reason the demon race was the sole race in an entire layer." The concentrated barrier he created allowed her to interact with the spatial storm without trouble as Hazak continued to absorb energy from the spatial storm, also beginning to absorb small fractions of the spatial storms itself. Her body continued to change and evolve, slowly turning more and more mysterious as the change began to be condensed in her body, birthing a brand-new law. One could say the chaotic storm was a sort of tribulation, only that it was wholly destructive in nature, unlike tribulation lightning that had a refinement nature. But since she didn''t die, her body continued to evolve rapidly. This wouldn''t have been possible thanks to Hishe''s barrier alone. After all, even Gods would be killed by the spatial storms. The only reason Hazak was alive was thanks to her innate trait, where she was absorbing the energy within the spatial storms and birthing demons nonstop. When she didn''t birth them, she unleashed a tremendous volume of miasma, raising her defensive strength. Boom! Suddenly, a tremendous volume of the spatial storm was rapidly sucked into her body as the mysterious law was wholly birthed in her, causing Hazak to begin pulling a majority of the spatial storms in her direction. The barrier protecting her slowly expanded in size, turning into a sphere as the shattering fragments of the Tilk Realm were directly pulled into it. Gegrafikan arrived close to her, unleashing his power as he rapidly conversed all the fragments of the Tilk Realm into the Kun Realm, allowing Hazak to absorb them readily. Slowly, the sphere grew in size before creating a synchronous pulse that reacted with the Kun Realm, causing it to unleash a massive beam that slammed into it, condensing a mysterious power in it. Realm Core! Most of the fragments broken out of the Tilk Realm were changed by Gegrafikan into the Kun Realm and absorbed into the forming Realm Core as it shone with dense miasma. And within this miasma was Hazak, actually fusing with the Realm Core itself. "What''s¡­ happening?" Krune was shocked as he asked Hishe. "The Demon Nest is able to absorb the essence from anything and birth the demons while also producing the miasma to create a terrain perfect for the demon race. The demon nests in my Sub-Realm were, unfortunately, unable to unleash their utmost potential," Hishe explained. "And now, thanks to the destructive spatial storms that acted as her tribulation, Hazak evolved and surpassed her limitation as a Demon Nest." "Instead of just influencing a terrain through the miasma, she''s now able to create terrain itself." He smiled. "She now has the same traits as the Realm Cores and can move through the spatial storms to grow her realm." "Since the Tilk Realm is fracturing as we speak, it''s time that we take control of the fragments and create satellite realms exclusive for various races." Hishe concluded, stating immediately after, "All except the True Spirits and the Wisps. You''re the blood of the Kun Realm. So, it would never allow you to set up station beyond it, even if they''re satellite realms under its control." "After all, the True Spirits are the Kun Realm''s daughters while the Wisps are its guards." Thanks to Hazak''s actions, the spatial storms leaking into the Tilk Realm stopped for the time being. After all, the cracks had only worsened in one place where the spatial storms were seeping in from. It was where the Mong Realm Gods had broken through. Since Hazak was stopping the spatial storms, it allowed the others to relax a little and execute their plans more stably. "Please, what''s happening to our realm?" A group of mortals approached one of Krune''s clones. This was a remote region whose immortals had been slain long ago. They were next on the chopping block on the Mong Realm''s to-be-made-into-blood-pills list. But they survived when the Mong Realm retreated in a hurry. And now that they saw Krune, they hurried towards him in a fluster upon sensing that he wasn''t from the Mong Realm. The Tilk Realm had suffered invasions numerous times. Hell, most of its history consisted of invasions. So, they obtained an innate sense, allowing them to perceive the place someone originated from. That was how they noticed that Krune wasn''t from the Mong Realm. And upon seeing cracks form on the Tilk Realm''s skies, they despaired. "I''m Krune, the Kun Realm''s Champion," the clone spoke. "We came to an agreement with the Tilk Realm representatives to ally. That''s why we moved the realms of both next to one another. Unfortunately, we hadn''t expected the Mong Realm to take such a drastic means." "Krune?" A Primal God arrived, kneeling before him in despair. "Just what¡­happened?" He was one of the Primal Gods that had committed suicide just to ensure news regarding Krune helping them wouldn''t be discovered by the Mong Realm. "The Mong Realm forcefully broke through the Tilk Realm to leave." The clone said in a hurry. "And since there aren''t any Gods to protect it, the Tilk Realm is collapsing as we speak." "Is this how it ends for us?" The Primal God despaired. He was just revived by the clone when he met with such news. The rest of the Primal Gods that had been hiding as Land Incarnations revived one after another, despairing equally. "Don''t give up yet!" The clone shouted in response. "Currently, all the Gods from our realm are trying their best to stabilize the Tilk Realm. We''re even converting the breaking fragments into satellite realms. But, as long as at least one of you become a God, the situation would improve." "It might take time, but we''ll eventually be able to stabilize the Tilk Realm." The clone continued. "So, please revive every single Primal God you know and force at least a few to become Gods. That''s the only way to save your world." "If the Tilk Realm collapses, our Kun Realm would also be devastated in the aftermath. So, you have our full support! No matter what, become a God!" Chapter 1458 Sacrifice Thyself Chapter 1458 Sacrifice Thyself¡¡¡¡"No matter what, become a God!" Krune shouted at them. "You have our full support." "But how?" The Primal Gods replied in dejection. "None of us have the potential necessary to become a God. Everyone with even the least bit of potential had already been killed by the Mong Realm with the utmost priority." "They did everything in their power to ensure we would never recover," a Primal God said before slumping to the ground. "Honestly, all of us are just tired of everything. Endless invasions. That has pretty much been our entire history." "Let this just be our end. We have neither the power nor the energy to fight against them anymore¡­" The Primal God said when suddenly, he was sent flying by Krune''s slap. Grabbing hold of his collar, Krune pointed at the mortals, saying, "Look at their faces, see their expressions. They''ve suffered as well." Krune shouted in anger, "They''ve slaughtered most of your God Realm''s population. But if you give up here, you''ll be the ones responsible for the deaths of the remaining." "Do you wish to be the final wave that results in your realm going extinct?" Grrr! The Primal God gritted his teeth, tearing up as he spoke, "B-But, what else can we do? All our Gods have died. And our realm is collapsing. There''s no hope anymore." "Even if we tried our best, it would take time to ensure a successful breakthrough to the God Realm," the Primal God said, asking Krune. "Do we have that kind of time with us now?" "No¡­" The clone grunted, realizing the situation at hand. Even if one of the Primal Gods before him had the potential to become a God, they would need time to prepare and engage with the final tribulation. Even Sterlena had prepared for thirty thousand years to begin her final tribulation. So for others, they would need even more time. Otherwise, they would just die within the first few lightning bolts. Based on the rate at which the Tilk Realm was collapsing, it would shatter into pieces within a century or even further before. So, anything they could do was pretty futile. "Then, breaking it into satellite realms is our only option." Krune sighed, stating, "We''ll try our best to preserve as big of a portion of the Tilk Realm as possible. That way, you''ll still have hope to regain everything in the future by re-absorbing the satellite realms." "Thank you," All the surviving immortals bowed in response, with the mortals following suit. Boom! Slowly, a large portion of the Tilk Realm branched off. But immediately after, Spirit Aberrants converged over the edges, having converted them into the Kun Realm''s already as Krune''s clones rushed into the detached part, siphoning the Kun Realm''s power into it. Slowly, they began to form a Realm Core, stabilizing it after some time passed as a barrier began to form over it. With the barrier forming over it, the satellite realms would be somewhat stable. It was still pretty unstable in the sense that it didn''t have a God to stabilize it. So, the moment a slightly stronger spatial storm came into contact with it, the satellite realm would be destroyed as its Realm Core wasn''t powerful enough to absorb the energy in the spatial storm fast enough. Moreover, its laws weren''t whole like the Tilk Realm''s. So, its Realm Core had considerable deficiencies. Honestly, it would be a miracle if it even birthed a God, for the laws themselves were incomplete, making cultivation all the more difficult. Hazak arrived at its core, hastening the formation of the Realm Core, also allowing the satellite realm to absorb more energy from the spatial storm. Her actions stabilized it to a great extent. Of course, it was because Hishe was using all his power to amplify her abilities, also performing a major role in stabilizing the satellite realm. After all, whether it was the laws of the Kun Realm or the Tilk Realm, he represented a Law from either side. And only thanks to his intervention did the Tilk Realm slow down in its rate of collapse. After all, there was still one God supporting it. But clearly, this was far from sufficient. Even with dozens of Gods, the Kun Realm was also collapsing, even though the process was super slow that it would take tens of millions of years. So, even if they were to find a way to increase the number of Gods on the Tilk Realm somehow, that would only serve to slow down the speed of its collapse. They hadn''t even finished stabilizing the first satellite realm when another large chunk of the Tilk Realm collapsed. All the Kun Realm Gods unleashed various abilities, ensuring the collapsed fragments wouldn''t crash into the Tilk Realm and create a chain explosion that would collapse everything. They managed things to keep it as stable as possible while the rest worked on turning the branching fragments into satellite realms. Unfortunately for them, the load was too much for them to bear as the cracks continued to gradually speed up while they were soon feeling short-staffed. "Krune!" Gegrafikan shouted. "You said you revived some of their Primal Gods, right? Can anyone of them become a God?" "No." Krune shook his head, sighing. "None of them have the potential. Even if they did, there''s not enough time to prepare for the final tribulation." "I understand." Gegrafikan nodded before looking at Luvile, saying, "Please send me to where those people are." "Are you sure about this?" Luvile asked. "We have no other choice." Gegrafikan nodded as a bolt of lightning carried him throughout the Tilk Realm, dropping him before the group of immortals. Gegrafikan looked at them, stating in a hurry, "I am what you call a Spirit Aberrant, a mysterious race that grows stronger by devouring the laws of everyone. My race is the progenitor of all Spiritual Incarnations." "And now, I need you to help me," he said, hesitating for a moment to ask them to sacrifice their lives. "Will this increase the chances of saving our realm?" The leading Primal God asked. "Yes." Gegrafikan nodded. "Then¡­" The Primal God made eye contact with everyone else before looking at Gegrafikan. "We''ll entrust our realm in your hands." Saying so, he flew into Gegrafikan''s mouth. Chapter 1459 First Annex in History Chapter 1459 First Annex in History¡¡¡¡Roar! Gegrafikan roared as the Primal Gods jumped into his mouth one after another, sacrificing their lives while allowing him to attain a deeper comprehension of the Tilk Realm''s laws and their power. Soon, all the surviving immortals were eaten by him as Luvile sent him back to the location where the Tilk Realm was fracturing. Roar! Followed by a powerful bellow, Gegrafikan unleashed his law projectiles, rapidly converting a broken fragment into the Kun Realm''s, even going to the extent of disassembling the laws of a smaller fragment, condensing it into a Realm Core before stuffing it into the broken fragment. This way, the resulting satellite realms were more stable, rapidly reducing the burden on everyone. "Kuek!" Krune grunted as he continued to funnel the Kun Realm''s power into the satellite realms through him. As the Kun Realm''s power flowed through him, his Hunger Law slowly spread through the satellite realms, etching itself in all of those. It was a natural process as part of the power carried the fragments that broke off his body thanks to the strain. And these fragments were what was etched in the various satellite realms, gradually causing the Hunger Law to grow in all of them. As the Hunger Law grew in response, Krune''s cultivation also grew accordingly. After all, his comprehension of the Hunger Law had already surpassed the Primal God Realm in comprehension. So, it meant that if he went all out, the quality of Hunger Law he could produce was at the God Realm in comprehension. Though, he would only be able to create a tiny fragment as he didn''t have enough Godly Energy/cultivation base to support a full activation. But, that still meant that he was able to unleash the Hunger Law on the level of a God if necessary. Meaning, he already had the required qualifications to reach that level. Only his cultivation was lacking. Since he already had a God Seat, it meant that his growth was intricately linked to the growth of the Hunger Law in both quantity and quality. Thanks to the Kun Realm''s power funneling through his body, he was slowly growing in strength. Though, it wasn''t just him alone that was experiencing this growth. Sterlena and Gegrafikan were the same. Sterlena was in the same state as him. So her growth was similar. But in the case of Gegrafikan, it was more like he was digesting various Laws that rapidly expanded his plethora of laws, allowing him to understand the same law in various power structures belonging to the Kun Realm, Mong Realm, and now the Tilk Realm. So, he was growing in that way, now able to convert the terrain even better. Also, as he was conversing massive amounts of fragments of the Tilk Realm nonstop, even though it was straining him to the limit, he was growing. After all, Wally used a mysterious technique to direct the power of the Kun Realm into the breaking fragments. But that wasn''t all. He was also funneling the same power into the bodies of everyone, giving them an almost infinite supply of Godly Energy. Thanks to that, all of them were able to unleash their abilities to the limit without any holding back. Of course, that wasn''t all. Since they were strained thanks to the task at hand, pretty much all of them had surpassed their limits. And every time they did this, the infinite supply of Godly Energy allowed them to break through to higher realms nonstop. The fate of an entire Realm rested in their hands. And protecting it was no simple matter. They had to be incredibly precise, not to mention expand their arsenal and senses to the limit, handling matters way beyond their capacity. It wasn''t just that. As the fragments of the Tilk Realm were converted into the Kun Realm, even though they only became satellite realms, it still meant a minor increase in the foundation of the Kun Realm. Meaning, their laws were getting strengthened. Even though it was by a minute sum, pretty much every immortal in the Kun Realm was able to sense this. And at this time, the Rune Realm Spirit contacted them, bringing more and more of them into the Tilk Realm to help with the situation. Even those living in secret Sub-Realm came to sense the changes, coming out when the Rune Realm contacted them, bringing them to the Tilk Realm. And the moment they arrived, Soren assigned them their respective tasks, instantly making them heed his commands. Initially, not many immortals had arrived. After all, the Kun Realm was vast. And unlike the Mong realm, the Gods here didn''t have a strong enough control over everyone. At most, they could influence the Supercontinents they originated from and the surrounding continents. But thanks to the changes, more and more expressed willingness. All the Land Spirits and Heavenly Spirits of the Kun Realm had already taken action, alerting everyone of the situation at hand, forcing the remainder of the immortals that were stubborn, causing them to arrive at the Tilk Realm as well. For the first time in history, the entirety of the immortals of a realm had arrived within another realm. With that, this was also the first annexing of realms in the Greater Universe''s history. And it was done by none other than the realm that was second in line to be annexed by the superpowers. This was irony! None of the Kun Realm Gods had the intention to annex the Tilk Realm, though, for it wasn''t in their nature. They weren''t like the Mong Realm. At present, they hadn''t even tapped into a fifth of the Kun Realm''s potential. So there was no way they lusted over another realm''s resources. It wasn''t necessary. But, the situation demanded that they take action, or else the Kun Realm would also suffer the aftermath of the Tilk Realm''s collapse. The spatial storms would swallow it and become so terrifying that they would devour the Kun Realm next. And this was stated by Little Cally, someone that had been through everywhere in the Greater Universe as the Mong Realm''s henchmen. Chapter 1460 A Sequence of Operations Chapter 1460 A Sequence of Operations¡¡¡¡Kaboom! There was an implosion within a spatial storm as the majority of its energy was absorbed by a growing Realm that stabilized soon after. The moment it stabilized, the Rune Realm connected a portal to it as countless immortals as a large number of Krune''s clones exited it, arriving within the Tilk Realm once again. They immediately set off to another breaking fragment. At present, the way they did things was different from before. The moment a massive fragment broke off, Hazak would first arrive next to it with her growing realm, absorbing all the surrounding energy storms, ensuring the fragment wasn''t devoured by the spatial storms. Around the same time, Wally would lead a beam of the Kun Realm''s energy into the broken fragment, beginning to stabilize it a little. Immediately after, Gegrafikan and his Spirit Aberrant family would latch onto this fragment, rapidly converting it into the Kun Realm''s. Krune''s clones would jump into the fragment, attracting a majority of the Kun Realm''s power before seeping it into the fragment. Gegrafikan would then convert another smaller broken fragment of the Tilk Realm, convert it into the Kun Realm, and disassemble it into the empirical laws that form it before compressing it into a sphere. Hazak would then take root within, causing the sphere to rapidly begin absorbing energy from the spatial storms, enacting an effect similar to a tribulation. Luvile would unleash his tribulation lightning into the sphere, helping in refining it, allowing Hazak to turn it into a Realm Core faster. Once the Realm Core was completed, it would be inserted into the broken fragment to turn it into its core. Hishe would begin to stitch the two into a singular entity while Krune''s clones ensured power from the Kun Realm flowed into both, keeping them stable enough. But, that alone wouldn''t be enough to stabilize and create a Realm. This was where the rest of the immortals came to play. Heavenly Incarnation! They unleashed their respective Heavenly Incarnations, creating bubbles of terrain everywhere in the fragment, turning it into a sphere. This was possible thanks to Soren, that dispatched them according to the makeup of laws of the fragment. In other words, the composition and strength of the immortals varied from fragment to fragment. Plus, they also positioned their Heavenly Incarnations in such a way that it conformed to the layout of the laws of the region originally. This meant that their Heavenly Incarnations only served to enrich the foundation of the fragment instead of interfering with its setup by altering the laws of the region according to their Spiritual Incarnations. This was achieved by Feifei, who computed the information of everyone, using Soren''s mind as an enormous supercomputer to process and analyze everything. Soren''s Mental Energy absorbed data regarding both the cultivators and the fragments, while Feifei created the necessary blueprint of Heavenly Incarnation establishment. Of course, that wasn''t all. When all the Heavenly Incarnations were set up, the Realm Core fully synchronized with the fragment, creating the Realm Wall that protected it against the spatial storms and also began to absorb energy from the spatial storms. Once this began to function properly, Wally led a massive population of demons birthed by Hazak into the birthed realm, sacrificing them immediately. He siphoned the entirety of their lifeforce and infused it into the Realm Core, thereby causing it to have more foundation as the satellite realm would eventually begin to produce its own indigenous races. This would ensure its stability as it develops more in the future. Hazak didn''t mind the demons being used this way, as that was her intention in the first place. She casually birthed thousands of demons every second by absorbing the spatial storms. This was how the Tilk Realm fragments were converted into satellite realms of all sizes and shapes. Hundred years, two hundred years, five hundred years¡­ Everyone kept working nonstop with little to no rest. However, the reason they were able to endure this was thanks to the fact that they were progressing in their cultivation the fastest. After all, they were gaining experience superior to hundreds of wars daily. They were working to create satellite realms, an experience very few even among the Greater Universe could experience. So, this experience allowed them to break through nonstop. It was also because Wally was siphoning the energy unleashed by the Kun Realm before funneling it into all the immortals that had arrived. The other Gods were also helping with the various process. Moreover, even they were growing stronger slowly. Boom! The power attracted from the Kun Realm suddenly expanded in size and concentration as Krune reached the Primal God Realm in cultivation. It was because his Hunger Law had pervaded many satellite realms, continuing to grow as the satellite realms themselves stabilized and began to gradually grow by absorbing the spatial storms. Little Cally absorbed the spatial storm barrier protecting the Kun Realm, the Tilk Realm, and the Satellite Realms, saying to Krune, "Even though it had weakened a bit at the start, that has stopped now and stabilized. In the future, it will become a bit stronger. So, we don''t have to worry about our enemies invading us for the time being." "They should very well be observing the state of the spatial storm barrier, but they cannot do anything." "That''s helpful." Krune nodded in response. "It also means we can continue to grow stronger in this fashion." "How are the mortals taking this?" he asked next, facing the Rune Realm Spirit. "A lot of them are working on becoming immortals. I''ve been sending the Semi-God and God Trial Realm immortals back to the Kun Realm for short durations of rest. And in this time, they interact with the mortals and convey how this is the best time to become and grow stronger quickly as immortals," the Rune Realm Spirit responded excitedly. "Thanks to that, everyone is working with greater enthusiasm. Every second, at least four immortals are birthed." "Damn, that''s terrifyingly high," Krune said in surprise. "Well, that''s also because Luvile announced that strong immortals would be able to set up stations within the various satellite realms that are forming. And in the future, if they become a God of that satellite realms, they would be rulers of their own domains," the Rune Realm Spirit said in response. "This has prompted all the Primal Gods to work harder. They''re the most enthusiastic among everyone now." Chapter 1461 God Realm Cultivation Chapter 1461 God Realm Cultivation¡¡¡¡Of course, everyone was excited, despite the circumstances. Thanks to the efforts of everyone, they were slowly managing the fracturing of the Tilk Realm. Even though the situation worsened countless times, they somehow pulled through. And now that everyone had grown a lot stronger compared to five hundred years ago, they were able to handle things better. In what seemed like the Tilk Realm had a century for a complete collapse, it had now been dragged forward thanks to the efforts of everyone. Thanks to that, they had more time to stabilize it while also creating more and more satellite realms. And now, the Primal Gods had a great chance. If they played their cards well, they could become Gods of the satellite realms. Unlike the massive Kun Realm, the satellite realms didn''t have a deep enough foundation to have many Gods. At most, it could support one to five Gods. This meant that they could become the king of a major group as long as they became the first God in a respective satellite realm. That would imply that they could eventually make their family the rulers of the satellite realm. This was different from owning a supercontinent. Even though a supercontinent was a God''s property, it could still be invaded by the other Gods. And they couldn''t perform actions that would draw the ire of the other Gods. At the end of the day, they wouldn''t have complete sovereignty. But things were different in a satellite realm. Here, they could invest time and effort to slowly terraform the satellite realm itself into a place perfect for their race, especially for demon beasts that didn''t have a home of their own. In other words, the demon beasts would be able to have a home exclusive to their own, allowing their population to boom unhindered where they could practice their exclusive culture to the limit, unhindered. This was what everyone was hopeful for, to obtain a place they could call their home and something that would become the birth home for their future generations. Plus, once the satellite realm birthed a Realm Spirit, it would mean that the satellite realm would become even more perfect for their race. This was unlike the Kun Realm, where every race could live, and no race had any home-ground advantage. Well, except for True Spirits, which to a certain extent could be considered as the rulers of the Kun Realm while the Wisps formed their royal guard. As every race wished to experience what it felt like to live similar to True Spirits, they were super enthusiastic. This led to the immortals calling forth everyone from their respective races to focus on a fragment with the intent to convert it into a realm perfect for themselves. The already existing Gods of the Kun Realm weren''t interested in this, though, for they only intended to remain within the Kun Realm. After all, it had already been established that the satellite realms would fall under their rule. So, even among the Gods, they would be a step higher. This was also true since their representative Laws were in the Kun Realm, while the Gods from the satellite realms only had their laws there. So obviously, the Gods from the Kun Realm would be many times stronger than Gods from the satellite realms. In short, they weren''t interested. But for those races that didn''t have any Gods in the Kun Realm, owning a satellite realm exclusive for themselves was terrifyingly lucrative, even if it meant they would be slightly weaker as Gods. Honestly, none of them even worried about something like that. After all, becoming a God meant practical invincibility. As long as their satellite realm wasn''t destroyed, they wouldn''t die. The Kun Realm Gods didn''t stop them but rather pushed this ideology forward. After all, if the satellite realm grew in strength, it meant there was more power the Kun Realm could harness in terms of wars, which they would have to participate more in the upcoming future. Years passed in such a fashion as centuries turned into millennia. From time to time, the Kun Realm Gods sensed those from the other Realms trying to break through the spatial storm barrier. Unfortunately for them, Little Cally swiftly took action in response, using its Calamity Laws to turn the spatial storms there fiercer, this way thwarting their attempts. However, upon noticing that the rate of their attacks was increasing, everyone understood that it was only a matter of time before those from the other realms created a method to break through the spatial storm shield. If nothing else worked, they could grit their losses and throw a satellite realm into the spatial storm shield, thereby breaking through forcefully. This way, they would be able to open a path forcefully, allowing them entry into the region of space where the Kun Realm, the Tilk Realm and the other satellite realms were. Even though the Tilk Realm continued to collapse at a faster pace, the growth of everyone was also proportional to it. Hence, it was always in their control. After all, more and more immortals were birthed in the Kun Realm that were brought to the Tilk Realm to participate in this feat. And those satellite realms that had already formed at the start had long since completely stabilized as a lot of people had already begun to live within. The first few centuries were indeed the most difficult for them to adapt but gradually, they terraformed the satellite realm to become more and more suitable for their living. And now, some of them had already begun preparations for their final tribulation. The moment they succeed and become Gods of their satellite realms, these satellite realms would become enormously stable and would enter their rapid development phase. With their help, the population of their race would explode as more and more powerhouses would emerge in their midst. In such a fashion, as Little Cally and many other Gods worked in ensuring the spatial storm barrier wasn''t breached, twenty-eight thousand years had passed. And with that, Krune had reached the God Realm in cultivation. Chapter 1462 Run Out of Time Chapter 1462 Run Out of Time¡¡¡¡It could be said that Krune was pretty much the fastest to ever become a God. After all, on average, it took a decade to break through every stage in the Semi-God Realm, a century per stage in the God Trial Realm, a millennium per stage in the Elementary God Realm, and ten thousand years per stage in the Primal God Realm. After this, one would begin preparations for their final breakthrough, which would take tens of thousands of years. Even on average, a cultivator needed at least two hundred thousand years before they became a God. On the other hand, Krune took only twenty-eight thousand years to do so. Honestly, no matter how talented he may be, this was an impossible feat. Nevertheless, it was only made possible thanks to the Tilk Realm''s breakdown. Because of that, his cultivation grew at a staggering pace, allowing him to attain this status in record time. Krune and Sterlena both reached the God Realm in cultivation. As for Gegrafikan, he had returned to the Kun Realm for a short duration to prepare for the eventual breakthrough to the God Realm. The Tilk Realm was less than a tenth of its original size now as its breakdown had slowed down to a considerable extent. It was still continuing to collapse, but as a majority of it had broken off, everyone was able to stabilize it to a certain extent. With that, all the survivors of the Tilk Realm had gathered here to survive. Unfortunately for them, they hadn''t been able to produce any Gods yet. Then again, there were some talents that had emerged among them that had become Primal Gods by now. However, they would still need a lot of time before they could become Gods. Feifei, Seamstress, Zamuria, Rumria, Guria, and a lot of talented cultivators had all reached the peak of the Primal God Realm. At this point, all of them were preparing for their final breakthrough. Of course, what best way to do that than by working to stabilize the Tilk Realm? This way, their power would be condensed more and more in them, allowing them to grow even stronger. Krune and Sterlena were working on stabilizing the Tilk Realm, for they had already become Gods. "Wheee!" One of Krune''s clones shouted, casually dropping from the God Realm to the Godly Path Realm like it was taking a dip in a pool. As he was the Kun Realm''s Champion, he was able to travel even faster than Wally. Though, that wasn''t all. He was able to do the same with his billion other clones. Billion! This was the limit to the number of clones he could create. At the peak, Little Cally was able to fragment itself a billion times. Plus, Krune had been working on raising the strength of his Cultivation Lotus all along, causing it to reach the Primal God Realm in quality. It only needed a small push to begin producing Godly Energy on par with a God. Having become a God, he now understood how the Cultivation Lotus functioned. It siphoned energy from the Kun Realm Core through a mysterious process, generating Godly Energy endlessly. It wasn''t all that useful for him now. After all, Krune was the Kun Realm''s Champion. He was capable of harnessing power directly from the Kun Realm no matter which part of the Greater Universe he was in. Well, he was also working on his godly ability that he gained inspiration from the Mong Realm. Thanks to Hazak''s evolution, he was able to perfect it, now capable of harnessing power from the environment itself, even if he wasn''t in the Kun Realm. He could harness the spatial storms to attack on his behalf. Even though this task strained him even now, it was powerful enough to be a trump card. He was also using that to gradually strengthen the defenses of the spatial storm barrier protecting them. The Kun Realm Cluster! Since there were thousands of satellite realms surrounding the Kun Realm, not to mention the Tilk Realm that continued to become smaller and smaller, being reduced to the status as a satellite realm, they decided to call this place the Kun Realm Cluster. It was a more appropriate term for everyone enclosed within the spatial storm barrier. After becoming a Wisp God, Krune gained the passage to travel through the Kun Realm freely. This also extended to the satellite realms as he was able to enter and leave them as he pleased, not to mention harnessing their power as well. After all, the satellite realms were also an extension of the Kun Realm. So, with him being the Champion, the moment he activated his Balance Laws, he would be able to harness power from the entire Kun Realm Cluster. Thanks to this, he could unleash strength beyond his power as a God. Even though he had become a God, Krune didn''t have the confidence to fight the Mong Realm Gods. He had just become a God, after all. There were plenty of areas he was still lacking in to compete with them, not to mention the Champions from the other realms. Thankfully, the Kun Realm didn''t have one Champion. It had two Champions, a Wisp and a True Spirit. Honestly, it was the strongest combo the Kun Realm could have. After all, these two races were the most basic of what the Kun Realm birthed, forming the core of its power. It was somewhat anticlimactic, but the moment Sterlena reached the God Realm in cultivation, through the Balance Laws, her power was rapidly absorbed by the Kun Realm, leaving her in a weakened state. But slowly, the Kun Realm began to recover, showing signs of birthing True Spirits already. Whether it was Wisps or True Spirits, the number of their births gradually accelerated. And a majority of them were birthed in the Turia Supercontinent, thanks to Turia, who was born similar to the Wisps and True Spirits. It had long since reached the status as a Heavenly Spirit and was now in the process of going beyond to become the Kun Realm Spirit. However, something was missing for it to reach that level, so everyone gathered together to discuss it. After all, they had run out of time. Chapter 1463 Just Enjoy The Show Chapter 1463 Just Enjoy The Show¡¡¡¡"Hurry up! Don''t delay!" "If we miss this major event, I will never forgive you." "Yeah, yeah, we still have time, you know." A middle-aged man rolled his eyes as they entered a chariot of sorts that rode the river in the sky, traveling at terrifying speeds thanks to the violent but streamlined currents. Within an hour, they arrived at a massive sea where so many people had gathered that there was no place for even sand to fit in. It was packed to the brim with people, cultivators from the Turia Supercontinent. Hovering in the air were the immortals, millions in number now. Honestly, with so much time, the Mountain Sect had made major waves, growing leaps and bounds to become one of the strongest sects of the Kun Realm. After all, Krune and Sterlena, the newly emerged Gods, were from here. On top of that, they were the only two Champions of the Kun Realm. So, the Mountain Sect would continue to grow even more powerful in the future. Even now, it had already begun to take on an administrative role as the other Gods and their respective forces showed signs of taking orders from it. It wasn''t set in stone yet, but the Gods were slowly practicing while drilling the matter in their hands. There was now a leader for the Gods as well. However, there were two Champions. So, that would mean that there might be a division of opinion in the future. With that, they wanted one to take on the role of the Kun Realm''s leader and representative. "I''ll take on the post as deputy leader," Krune said in all seriousness, conceding his chance to rule the Kun Realm, for that wasn''t in his nature. Instead, he pushed all the responsibilities to Sterlena, saying, "Big sis would be our leader. She''s also an experienced old lady¡­" Boom! Suddenly, he was sent flying by Sterlena, whose forehead was covered by twitching veins as she snorted. "Who''s an old lady? Gods don''t age." "Well¡­ you were a big shot when even Wally was a silly wisp." Krune arrived at his original location nonchalantly, saying, "And I call him an old man too¡­" "Ah!" He suddenly acted like he had realized it, bowing solemnly towards Sterlena. "So, you wanted me to address you as my ancestor? Indeed, you''re right about that. You predate history¡­" Boom! Her attack sent him flying all the way to the Godly Path Realm as Sterlena dusted her hands, watching Krune casually return to the Turia Continent, saying after a moment of glaring at him in exasperation, "I''ll be our representative then." "I''m fine with this." Wally and Luvile nodded instantly. After all, both of them had a connection to her. The former created the Myriad Energies Technique after receiving help from her, while the latter obtained tribulation lightning on her grave. And since they had interacted with her a lot over the past twenty-eight thousand years, they were rather happy to accept her as their leader. In this arrangement, Sterlena was their leader. And in her absence, Krune would take charge. Besides, as a True Spirit, she was pretty much the best Champion they could ask for. True Spirits were the Kun Realm''s sword, while Wisps were its shield. In fact, their abilities were also geared as such. Sterlena''s power was purely destructive in nature, while Krune''s fell more into scouting, healing, and infection, suitable to defend the Kun Realm on his own against any invasions. So, it was indeed the perfect arrangement that they could ask for. And the reason everyone had gathered here was due to a major event that would transpire in the Mountain Sect''s history. Zamura, Gegrafikan, and Feifei were attempting the final tribulation at the same time. Their sect had three Cultivation Lotuses in possession. After Feifei took Krune''s Cultivation Lotus, they decided to attempt the final tribulation at the same time, next to one another. Krune and Sterlena had obviously protested against this. After all, when they tried the same at their breakthrough to the God Trial Realm, they almost died and had to spend a lot of time as broken cores. Attempting the same for their final tribulation was a death wish. It wasn''t just two but three. That was pretty much spiking the difficulty even higher. However, the three were actually adamant, wishing to attempt the breakthrough at the same time. Had it been Zamuria, Rumria, and Guria that had stated this, then they could understand. After all, the three of them were like sisters in their power and abilities. Moreover, they were able to perfectly complement one another, combining their powers to become even stronger. "Leave it to me." Feifei smiled. "Don''t worry, I have long since planned for all possibilities. If we don''t do this, Gegrafikan wouldn''t make it out alive." Everyone was shocked as Gegrafikan smiled helplessly, saying, "Even the Kun Realm fears me. So, I won''t be facing tribulation lightning as my final tribulation, but the spatial storm itself. So, the two of them are helping me survive this." "Even surviving your own final tribulation is almost impossible. But you''re taking on an extra load?" Krune looked at Feifei in worry. "Man, don''t worry." Zamura smiled, patting his shoulder, telling him, "All of us will survive this. We''ve been preparing for it all this time." "It just hasn''t been long, though." Krune frowned, looking at Feifei and Zamura. "Even big sis spent almost thirty thousand years preparing for the final breakthrough. On the other hand, the both of you hadn''t even cultivated that long." "But, I cultivated the traditional way," Sterlena interjected. "On the other hand, they were involved with the Tilk Realm''s collapse. Don''t underestimate the growth they experienced as a result." "This is also a way for us to fully rectify the damage to the Kun Realm." Feifei smiled. "Once we succeed, the Kun Realm would be completely healed. We''ll be able to face our enemies after this." "There''s no time. So, we have to hurry," Feifei spoke. "Just¡­be careful," Krune said, hugging Feifei. "If it looks like you might fail, I''ll interfere, even if it means I''ll be crippled as a result." "Idiot, don''t be overdramatic." Feifei rolled her eyes in response. "I''ll be fine. Just enjoy the show." Chapter 1464 The Final Tribulation Chapter 1464 The Final Tribulation¡¡¡¡Feifei, Gegrafikan, and Zamura began to lay down all their preparations. Each of them was situated a kilometer away from one another, seated on their respective Cultivation Lotus. Piled around them, forming a formation, were materials suitable for their Spiritual Incarnation. They consisted of materials in the exact purity as the comprehension of their respective laws. On top of that, it was also arranged according to the layout of their Spiritual Incarnation. This allowed them to absorb the materials rapidly to heal the damage they would sustain from the tribulations next. Without such preparations, they wouldn''t be able to heal fast enough to survive the tribulation. The final tribulation was terrifyingly fast. Even though it seemed like a long process, to the eyes of the mortals, it would conclude in a matter of seconds. But to those undergoing the tribulation, they would feel as if they were fighting against it for years to even centuries. Such was the might condensed within those short few seconds. The materials they prepared were of terrifying quality and quantity. It was pretty much everything the Turia Continent had produced in the past twenty-eight thousand years. And that only formed half of what Zamura was using. Everything else was personally prepared by the Gods. If they had just waited for the Turia Continent to produce the resources required for all three of them, then they would have to wait at least a couple million years. This was why the Primal Gods took a long time to prepare everything. And, it wasn''t just Zamura, Feifei and Gegrafikan that had been preparing for their final breakthrough. Pretty much every peak power in all the continents and supercontinents had begun preparations. The case was also the same in the satellite realms, where a lot began their preparations, completing it even. However, they were all waiting for something, for the trio in the Mountain Sect to finish their breakthrough. Krune was clearly able to feel that pretty much every power was anticipating the trio''s breakthrough, surprised when he came to understand the full extent of their plan, "So that''s why." Now that he had a clear grasp of everything, Krune took a backseat, observing the preparations before him. "Huff!" Gegrafikan took in a deep breath as he smiled at the figure of Tina that waved at him from afar, making eye contact with Feifei and Zamura, saying after triple checking everything, "Let''s begin." "Yes." Feifei nodded, slowly riling up her Godly Energy as she began to absorb some from the Cultivation Lotus. She inhaled and exhaled Godly Energy, familiarising herself with the process while also scouring through the piled materials using her Divine Sense. She had to first get used to the place, making it seem like the back of her hand that she was able to control even while asleep. Zamura and Gegrafikan also did the same. One difference between Gegrafikan and the other two was the fact that he didn''t have a Spiritual Incarnation. A Spirit Aberrant was the source from which Spiritual Incarnations had been derived. They were a race capable of manipulating the Spiritual Incarnation of others. With that, even their final breakthrough would be different. They wouldn''t ever become the representative of a Law like the other Gods. After all, that wasn''t in their nature. From the Godly Fusion Realm to the Nascent God Realm, a Spirit Aberrant was known as the Land Aberrant when it assumed its demon beast form. It was called a Heavenly Aberrant from the Semi-God Realm onwards. Before Gegrafikan arrived, Heavenly Aberrants were skin to myths. After all, none of them were capable of becoming immortals without rectifying their race''s defect. It was just something that had been theorized and been relayed from one generation to another. But, with the emergence of Gegrafikan, things changed. He was the living proof that Spirit Aberrants turned into Heavenly Aberrants at the Semi-God Realm and above. This was only theorized because Spiritual Incarnations were derived from Spirit Aberrants. And since there was a connection between a Land Incarnation and a Land Aberrant, they had assumed there would be a Heavenly Aberrant as well because of the existence of the Heavenly Incarnation. Then, here came the question. At the conclusion of the final tribulation, the Spiritual Incarnation would melt and turn into the law that they become the representative of. In other words, Gods didn''t have a Spiritual Incarnation. Instead, they had their God Seats, which was pretty much a concentrated version of their representative law. Then, what about the Spirit Aberrant? What was its result upon becoming a God? Pretty much everyone was excited about this. Though, saying they were purely excited would be a lie. Within their shallow exterior of excitement was a bottomless feeling of dread and fear against the Spirit Aberrant. Gegrafikan was already terrifying after turning into a Heavenly Aberrant. After all, he ate and digested two Mong Realm Gods in the Rune Realm. This meant that irrespective of who they were, they could all be digested by him. This was a Spirit Aberrant''s nature. Feifei and Zamura were slowly synchronizing themselves with their surroundings while Gegrafikan gazed at the Realm Core before him. It was a fairly large fragment of the Tilk Realm that he had disassembled and reassembled into a sphere. It was pretty much a food source to heal him. And as it was a Realm Core, it was tremendously powerful, more than enough for his breakthrough needs. Plus, this was what he was depending on to survive the spatial storms that would act as his tribulation. After all, Realm Cores were capable of absorbing energy from the spatial storms. Gegrafikan slowly took form as a Heavenly Aberrant, using his tentacles to wrap around the Realm Core. On the other hand, Zamura assumed his Marble Giant form, flexing his body to complete his preparations. As for Feifei¡­ she was a human, so she didn''t have to do anything else. Now that they were ready, the trio looked at one another as their Godly Energy spiked. Slowly, tribulation clouds began to form in the sky as everyone watched with bated breaths. And after some passed in such a fashion, it began¡­ The final tribulation! Chapter 1465 Turia’s Breakthrough Chapter 1465 Turia¡¯s Breakthrough¡¡¡¡The tribulation clouds became more and more concentrated as even the Gods gulped in nervousness. After all, the power contained within was strong enough to wound them already. And that wasn''t all. The power continued to climb up when suddenly, space cracked. Drrr! The sound akin to fabric being torn resounded through the God Realm as everyone stared at the sky, or rather, at the spiral as cracks started to form around it. Soon, the spatial storm from beyond began to seep in through it. It was like goo, viscous and bubbling as it seeped inside. And from the gooey mass, a droplet fell out, heading straight towards Gegrafikan. "Look out!" Luvile shouted in alarm, for the power condensed within this bubble alone was strong enough to destroy Gegrafikan. "Hmph!" Zamura snorted, unleashing a green radiance as it morphed into a form perfect for retaliating against the spatial storm. The radiance slammed into the droplet, rapidly weakening it as it stopped in the air. At this time, Feifei unleashed her power, breaking its bonds as it scattered into a mist, the dispersion weakening it further. "Hah!" Gegrafikan bellowed as he rapidly used the Realm Core to absorb the spatial storm mist by turning it into Godly Energy. With that, the probing attack was perfectly nullified by them. However, that was just the beginning as the tribulation clouds slowly dissipated, now replaced by the spatial storm clouds that were full of destructive energy. Boom! A bolt of destructive lightning slammed into Gegrafikan as Feifei and Zamura used all their power to protect him. Despite that, the destructive lightning bolt destroyed their defenses and slammed into Gegrafikan, almost vaporizing him. Fortunately, the Realm Core absorbed some of the energy from the destructive lightning bolt, which was then supplied to a tentacle fragment hidden within it, allowing Gegrafikan to grow out from it instantly. The Realm Core was riddled with thousands of holes, each of which held a fragment of his body that he could use to regenerate from. Boom! A second bolt of destructive lightning arrived, this time targeting Feifei instead. Feifei hurriedly unleashed the entirety of her power to defend herself while Zamura and Gegrafikan took charge of defending against the bolt first. "Ahhh!" She grunted in pain, almost being vaporized from the attack as the small fragment of her body that survived rapidly absorbed the materials around her. In a fraction of a second, Feifei regenerated to an optimal state as she unleashed an attack straight away, targeting the destructive lightning bolt that was aimed at Zamura now. That wasn''t all. The spatial storm cloud even began to rain. On top of that, each droplet of the rain consisted of a terrifying power, enough to kill each of the three easily. The trio had to defend against such attacks, with a single lapse in judgment enough to kill all three. "This isn''t a tribulation anymore¡­" Krune clenched his hand into a fist, gritting his teeth in anger. "This is just aiming to kill them." "Yes, the spatial storm is trying to kill them," Luvile said in response. "Be ready. If it feels like they might fail, we''ll have to take action. It would be easier said than done since if we''re rash, then the Kun Realm itself might be damaged once again." This was because the spatial storm was forcing its way into the Kun Realm through the spiral, taking the form of its tribulation. And if this was interrupted, the spatial storm would change forms from targeting Gegrafikan for a tribulation to targeting the Kun Realm itself. That would rapidly widen the cracks and destabilize the Kun Realm to a certain extent. It would take them ages to recover from the damage. And if things escalated somehow, then the Kun Realm would have a repeat of the Tilk Realm''s case. So, a lot was riding on this breakthrough. After all, it wasn''t just a simple breakthrough to support Gegrafikan alone. Whether it was the Mong Realm or not was unsure. But there was a force beyond the Kun Realm Cluster that had been targeting them all this time, slowly succeeding in penetrating through the spatial storm barrier more and more. They could, at most, stall for a few more years before an outsider entered the Kun Realm Cluster. So, they truly didn''t have time anymore. Hence, they had to do the task that would raise their survival chances the highest and birth that certain entity. Kun Realm Spirit! Yes, the reason the trio were attempting a breakthrough at the same time was to birth the Kun Realm Spirit. It was definitely possible thanks to their characteristics, not to mention the fact that Feifei had long since analyzed and calculated the means to achieve this. Plus, this was also why those at the peak of the Primal God Realm had long since prepared for the final tribulation but were waiting for the signal that the trio would send. Boom! The chaotic storms rumbled as destructive lightning slammed into the trio while the destructive rain served to destroy the entire region. As the trio of Feifei, Zamura, and Gegrafikan worked their hardest to survive against the destruction, Turia slowly condensed herself in their center, gazing up as a drop of destructive rain fell right beside her. Turia extended her hand as the entire Turia Supercontinent brimmed with a mysterious power. It was a natural formation of sorts, with the trio acting as nodes to activate it. And the power to fuel it, of course, came from the destructive lightning that continued to slam into their bodies. Spirit Deity Spiritual Incarnation! Feifei unleashed her power, activating the mass formation that used the Turia Supercontinent as a base and the surrounding continents as nodes for the formation, one that began to harness the power of the Kun Realm itself. What was a realm''s tribulation if it had one? Spatial storms! With that, thanks to their action by using Gegrafikan as bait, they had successfully lured in enough spatial storms. With Turia entering the scene, it changed from their tribulation to Turia''s, rapidly changing the dynamics of the breakthrough. Chapter 1466 Feifei’s Success Chapter 1466 Feifei¡¯s Success¡¡¡¡The moment Turia entered the scene, the pressure on the trio of Feifei, Zamura, and Gegrafikan subsided to a great extent. But upon sensing this, the spatial storm became stronger as more and more of it seeped into the Kun Realm, creating rain and lightning that struck the four. Gegrafikan was almost vaporized countless times as he somehow relied upon the Realm Core to survive. Feifei and Zamura were the same, screaming in pain from time to time as the attacks were painful. Boom! "Feifei!" Krune screamed in shock upon seeing Feifei''s figure vanish. But a second later, she returned. Thankfully, her Land Incarnation wasn''t damaged from that attack, allowing her to reform her body very quickly. The problem with the final tribulation was the fact that if one failed, the attacks would seep through their laws, targeting all their revival methods until all the power within the final tribulation was consumed. And their power would continue to increase to such an extent that even Gods wouldn''t be able to interfere and protect the revival mechanisms. If they did, the heavens would be angered, resulting in the Gods being attacked by the tribulations. In short, if one failed the final tribulation, their only hope for survival was to pray that the tribulation ended before all their revival means were destroyed. Boom! Kaboom! A bolt of destructive lightning slammed into Turia, causing her to scream as this power directly served to annihilate her. What she was facing wasn''t a tribulation. It was pretty much an attack aimed to destroy her. However, this was what it had to face to become a Realm Spirit. After all, a realm was always exposed to the chaotic storms. So, realms should be powerful enough to absorb enough energy from the spatial storms beforehand to weaken them as much as possible. And after that, they must endure the rest without being damaged. With that in mind, a Realm Spirit must be capable of this at any time. Hence, the destructive attacks aimed at Turia were terrifyingly powerful. "We''ve arrived!" a Heavenly Spirit shouted, bringing with it pretty much all the Heavenly Spirits and Land Spirits in the Kun Realm. The Rune Realm Spirit helped in transporting all of them while Little Cally worked on contacting them. Even otherwise, everyone sensed what Turia was attempting. A Land Spirit leaped towards Turia when a drop of the destructive rainfall slammed into it, vaporizing its body. But immediately after, a mysterious energy wafted into Turia, strengthening her. She had absorbed the Land Spirit''s essence, growing stronger as her authority increased slightly. Land Spirits were like the representatives of the continents, working based on their instinct. Since only Turia had a sentience of her own, thanks to being born out of Krune''s Land Incarnation, she became the key that all the Land Spirits and Heavenly Spirits pushed forth to become the Realm Spirit. One after another, the Land Spirits rushed into the rain as their bodies were vaporized. Though, their essence absorbed energy from the destructive rain, getting used to the process as they swerved into Turia, strengthening her while also causing her to become acclimated to the destructive rain. Slowly, she began to absorb energy from the destructive rain, turning it into Godly Energy that churned in her body before being expended out as a torrent. As the Land Incarnations died one after another, her expertise in targeting the destructive rain increased. But that wasn''t all. Feifei took action, informing the Land Incarnations to enter from certain directions, giving position, angle, and time of arrival for everyone. A Land Spirit followed her orders when everyone sensed that Turia had a better time absorbing its essence after it was destroyed by the destructive rain. It meant that Feifei had grasped the best formula to make the most out of this situation. The tribulations continued to become stronger, but the trio faced them bravely, somehow managing to survive every single time. In the meantime, Turia continued to absorb the essence of the Land Spirits, slowly causing a mysterious aura to fill up within her as all the Land Spirits soon were absorbed by her. Immediately after that, a Heavenly Spirit jumped into the destructive rain, facing dozens of raindrops before it was slowly destroyed. Its essence formed a torrent that wasn''t destroyed by the raindrops, rather absorbing the energy in them at such a terrifying rate that they all vanished before even coming into contact. And this essence served into Turia, causing her to scream as her body began to disintegrate. An instant later, it regenerated before beginning to disintegrate once again, repeating the process. Within a single second, she was disintegrated and reformed tens of thousands of times. A couple of seconds later, she managed to stabilize herself when a second Heavenly Spirit jumped into the rain, repeating the same. "Gah!" Feifei grunted as her body began to melt. This was because all the laws forming her Spiritual Incarnation began to fuse with one another, showing signs of mixing up like various colors. Slowly, she was unable to use her abilities anymore as her body lost all form, turning into a puddle of laws that congregated into one another like maggots, forming a cluster that absorbed a terrifying level of energy. All the surrounding materials were also sucked into the law cluster that was destroyed by the destructive lightning before regrowing once again. This time, the cluster was stronger and more cohesive. Some of its laws had already fused with one another. Boom! Boom! Boom! Destructive lightning struck the law cluster as they surprisingly resembled tribulation lightning in that they actually refined the law cluster, causing them to fuse faster. That wasn''t the intention of the destructive lightning, though, but Feifei had influenced it through a variety of means, actually taking advantage of it as if it was tribulation lightning. And best of all, she obtained a better advantage than what she would get from the final tribulation, for her law cluster soon fused into a single law, stronger than what other Gods would form into after their successful breakthrough. Success! Chapter 1467 Chaotic Aberrant Chapter 1467 Chaotic Aberrant¡¡¡¡Every single Law Feifei had ever comprehended and formed as a part of her Spiritual Incarnation was now fused thanks to the final tribulation, creating a brand new Law. Unlike Krune, she didn''t have an exclusive Law of her own, nor did any of the laws that she comprehended were open in the God Realm to become a God of. So, all her laws fused to create a brand new law. This was how the Kun Realm developed. With the birth of every God, new laws would form in it, developing the realm itself over time as the law spread around and interacted with the other laws. The destructive lightning stopped slamming into Feifei once she completed her fusion and birthed the brand new Law, one that she became the representative of. God Realm! She had finally reached the apex of cultivation, becoming one of the Gods of the Kun Realm. Feifei was the first to finish her final tribulation. After all, her breakthrough consisted of fusing all her laws to birth a new Law. So, it was the fastest. In Zamura''s case, he had an exclusive Law, the Law of Counter. So in his breakthrough, he had to make the Law of Counter devour all the laws forming his Spiritual Incarnation, becoming the sole Law he wielded. And after that, he would have to die and be birthed from his Law, just like what Krune had done. So, he needed a bit more time. Thankfully for Zamura, he had Krune''s experiences to take references from, succeeding soon after as he, too, soon became a God. Zamura and Feifei didn''t immediately leave as they slowly began to form their bodies through their representative law, not to mention subtly affecting the Godly Energy of the place to support Gegrafikan and Turia. Roar! Gegrafikan roared as he opened his mouth and directly swallowed part of the spatial cloud that had been unleashing the destructive lightning and rain, shocking everyone. That wasn''t all. He took off into the skies and headed straight towards the spiral, causing his body to grow in size without any limits. 1 kilometer, 10 kilometers, 100 kilometers¡­ his body continued to expand in size as he devoured all the spatial storms that came his way, slowly becoming a behemoth that was bigger than the Turia Supercontinent. On top of that, he continued to grow stronger, slowly latching onto the spiral before opening his mouth. "What are you doing?" Luvile screamed in shock. "Damn it, you''ll destroy our realm''s balance!" Soren shouted. "No, he knows what he''s doing," Wally shouted. "Don''t interfere! Trust the poor guy for a bit more." Roar! Gegrafikan opened his colossal Spirit Aberrant mouth and took a bite of the sky, of the Kun Realm''s barrier, causing the Kun Realm itself to shake, for it became unstable. Cracks began to spread from the broken spiral, causing the faces of all the Gods to pale in despair. After all, this was how the Tilk Realm''s collapse had begun. But suddenly, Gegrafikan roared and unleashed a terrifying storm that rapidly turned into the spiral once again, making it seem as if the earlier destruction hadn''t happened. Moreover, the spiral seemed even more sturdy now while all the damage sustained by the Kun Realm in the past was completely healed. The massive Spirit Aberrant in the sky vanished as the figure of Gegrafikan arrived at the original location, above his Cultivation Lotus, taking on his human form, sporting a gentle smile. "I''ve succeeded." "I''m the Greater Universe''s first Chaos Aberrant!" "Chaos Aberrant¡­" Luvile muttered the name, feeling like Gegrafikan had suddenly become unfathomable. He hadn''t shown his Chaos Aberrant form. Even until he vanished, he remained in his Heavenly Aberrant form. "It''s too dangerous." Gegrafikan smiled wryly, saying, "Even my kids wouldn''t be able to endure seeing this form. So, I would rather only show it to my enemies." "Keuk!" Turia shouted as she finished absorbing the essence of the final Heavenly Spirit, immediately causing the entire Kun Realm to hum in response, unleashing a terrifying beam of light as pretty much the entirety of the Kun Realm''s energy converged into Turia. Boom! Godly Energy, Mental Energy, Body Energy, and even the unprocessed energy stored in the Kun Realm Core gushed into Turia as the spatial storms slammed into her, causing both forms to revolve in her, beginning to fuse with each other. Gong! A terrifying sound resounded in the minds of everyone as, all of a sudden, every single being living in the Kun Realm felt enlightened, suddenly able to grasp the truth to any answer that they had been worrying about throughout their lives. Those struggling with their cultivation rapidly achieved at least a minor breakthrough. And for those that were talented, they even attained a major breakthrough. That wasn''t all. For a fraction of a second, every single energy became one while the minds of every single living being in the Kun Realm became connected, including those in the Satellite Realms belonging to the Kun Realm. Turia vanished before appearing within the Realm Core, birthed from it, achieving the state that every God in the Kun Realm hoped to live through to see that day become a reality. Kun Realm Spirit! Turia succeeded in becoming the Kun Realm Spirit as the vitality of all living beings spiked as a result, causing their strength to also spike in response. All the laws seemed to come alive, able to actively help the immortals in harnessing their power instead of the passive relationship before. For the Gods, this effect was more pronounced as the Laws of each grew in quantity and quality, rapidly raising the Kun Realm''s foundation itself. "Eh?" Krune was surprised to see his vision turning blurry. He extended his index finger, touching his cheeks to see a warm stream of tears streaming through them. Without his awareness, he had begun crying. In any case, he wasn''t alone. Every God was in the same state as him, unable to control the overwhelming sense of happiness that brimmed through their bodies. After all, from today onwards, the Kun Realm would be safe. They had a Realm Spirit to protect them all. Chapter 1468 Birth of the Kun Realm Spirit Chapter 1468 Birth of the Kun Realm Spirit¡¡¡¡The moment Turia became the Kun Realm Spirit, for a moment, everyone became many times stronger. This was a temporary state that was achieved the moment the minds of every one were connected with each other while all the energies in the Kun Realm were in a state of perfect harmony. Taking advantage of this temporary state of being overpowered, everyone that had been waiting did the same thing. B-Boom! Countless Primal Gods, at the peak of their cultivation, began their final tribulation at the same time, almost placing a strain on the Kun Realm itself. It was to such an extent that the amount of energy it was absorbing from the surrounding spatial storms spiked, drawing in even more spatial storms from far away, abruptly raising the defensive strength of the spatial storm barrier protecting the Kun Realm Cluster. Just in the Mountain Sect Alone, dozens initiated their final tribulation: Zamuria, Rumria, Guria, Relena, Garguntil, Zeno, Zettena, Kulla, Kuttul, Alfa, and Azra. Hazak had initiated her final tribulation in the satellite realm that she had created on her own, a domain exclusive to the demon race. She and a couple other demons initiated their final tribulation. In every continent, there was at least one that initiated the final tribulation. And in the supercontinents, there were at least a few that initiated it. In the Supercontinents heavily supported by the Gods like the Turia Supercontinent, there were at least a dozen that had initiated the final tribulation. Normally, the success rate of becoming a God was too little. However, the moment the Kun Realm Spirit was birthed became the best time to initiate the final tribulation. This would allow them to take advantage of the energy unification, the connection with the minds of every living being in the Kun Realm, and the strengthening of their Laws thanks to the birth of the Realm Spirit. As this was only a temporary state, they had to take advantage of this time to birth as many Gods as possible. The case was the same in the Tilk Realm as well. After all, the Tilk Realm no longer followed its own power structure. As it had been collapsing nonstop, once they had shrunk its size as much as possible, Gegrafikan had already begun to modify it into the Kun Realm''s power structure. As there were no immortals in the Tilk Realm, it was easy for the modification to be conducted. The first few generations struggled to adapt due to the changes. But as the generations spanned past, they adapted, slowly becoming birthed with the modified laws following the Kun Realm''s power structure. Once that happened, the Tilk Realm stabilized a lot more, allowing cultivators to become immortals. Until then, the damage was so severe that cultivators had a hard time even becoming immortals. For no matter what they tried, a tribulation never arrived. The Tilk Realm was just that affected. But after Gegrafikan slowly converted it, immortals began to appear among the Tilk Realm, with a significant number already reaching the Primal God Realm. Two among them had been heavily supported by various Gods. After all, these two were descendants of the Tilk Realm Champion. So, they had the bloodline to be crowned the rulers of the Tilk Realm, especially since they had garnered its support for ages. So ever after the Tilk Realm''s power structure was converted into the Kun Realm''s, they were still the most suited to wield the Tilk Realm''s power. And now, these two Primal Gods that had been waiting all along initiated their final tribulation as well. Honestly, their preparation was lacking compared to the satellite realms, where quite a few had initiated their final tribulation. But at least it was better than others, considering how the Tilk Realm was still in a dangerous state. It was being supported by a lot of Gods, preventing its damage from worsening any further. Nevertheless, the laws were still tremendously damaged. Hence, only after a few Gods were birthed in it would the damage stop. As long as more Gods were birthed there in the future, the Tilk Realm would recover and probably return to its original height once again. Countless realms had planned for the downfall of the Tilk Realm. But the one that reaped all the benefits of their ages of hard work was the Kun Realm, an unexpected player that hadn''t even known of the existence of the other realms a few years prior to stealing the Tilk Realm. Such was politics; such was fate. And now, the entirety of the Tilk Realm had been converted into the Kun Realm''s. With the birth of the Kun Realm Spirit, the degrading of the Tilk Realm paused for a moment when the two immortals in it initiated their final tribulation, safely becoming Gods. Immediately, the Tilk Realm was somewhat stabilized. Boom! One after another, Gods were birthed in every satellite realm, rapidly causing the number of Gods in the Kun Realm Cluster to spike. The situation was even better in the Kun Realm, where dozens of Gods were birthed, with more than half of them emerging from the Mountain Sect itself. After all, as Turia became the Kun Realm Spirit, the Turia Supercontinent obtained the highest amplification, allowing everyone that attempted their final tribulation from here to safely become Gods. Though, one thing was different here. Among Zamura''s children, Zettena broke through in the Mountain Sect while Zeno broke through in their home satellite realm¡ªthe Marble Giant Realm. This way, they''ll improve their satellite realm while also having a home base in the Kun Realm. Similar to him, Feifei''s Monster Gecko race did the same. Alfa broke through from the Mountain Sect while Azra broke through from the Monster Gecko Realm. There were around 30 Gods in the Kun Realm before this. But now, the number crossed two hundred, rapidly strengthening both the Kun Realm and the Gods themselves. After all, with the emergence of so many Gods, the Kun Realm Cluster itself was strengthened tremendously. And this amplification directly stabilized the Tilk Realm, completely solving all their internal problems. Chapter 1469 Invasion Plans Chapter 1469 Invasion Plans¡¡¡¡"Hmm, something has indeed happened to the Kun Realm and the Tilk Realm." A God from the Garg Realm frowned, relaying the news to his realm immediately. After all, the spatial storm barrier before him weakened for a moment before growing stronger as the surrounding spatial storm was drawn into it. When the Kun Realm mysteriously pulled the Tilk Realm towards them, everyone was shocked. After all, none of them had the means to achieve this feat. After all, their laws only allowed them to influence their home realm. At most, they could attack an opponent realm. However, the Kun Realm had instead drawn the Tilk Realm closer to it. This was only possible thanks to Hishe, who represented a Law from both realms, using that to draw the two realms together. Secondly, it was because there was no other God in the Tilk Realm, not to mention a Realm Spirit. This meant that if he so desired, Hishe was able to influence the Tilk Realm. After all, he could be considered the sole remaining God of the Tilk Realm. And through that, he drew the two realms closer, condensing the spatial storm barrier. Immediately after that, every realm dispatched some powers to keep track of the Kun Realm Cluster''s situation. They even created some Sub-Realms and stationed them closer to the Kun Realm Cluster''s spatial storm barrier, observing the state of the barrier nonstop. At the start, when the spatial storm barrier began to reduce in strength, the Mong Realm Gods were happy. After all, those that had escaped from the Tilk Realm managed to return to the Mong Realm, submitting the insane amount of blood pills and various other resources pillaged from the Tilk Realm, including some Sub-Realms that were directly extracted. This level of resource was sufficient to fund at least a couple dozen Gods from scratch, allowing the Mong Realm to become even stronger than before. Besides, after they explained their actions, those from the Mong Realm were waiting for the Tilk Realm to collapse and destroy the Kun Realm in the process. Immediately after that, the Mong Realm would swoop in and devour all the shattered fragments, killing two birds with one stone. And with that, they would become so strong that no other realm would be able to face them ever again. Unfortunately for them, the spatial storm barrier began to grow stronger soon after that, maintaining that state for twenty-eight thousand years. This action was known by all the peak powers. None of them were idiots, after all. They became aware that the Kun Realm truly played as a wolf in sheep''s clothing, hiding their claws deep within their wool cover. Having realized that the Kun Realm was annexing the Tilk Realm, a lot of the realms became nervous, trying everything in their means to infiltrate the Kun Realm. Unfortunately for them, the spatial storm barrier proved to be more troublesome than expected, preventing their entry. Moreover, they noticed that whenever it seemed like they would succeed in opening a path through the barrier, the forces from within would hinder them. As the years spanned past, the number of forces interfering from within continued to increase, alerting everyone, making them understand that the Kun Realm was growing stronger. This caused a lot of the realms to set aside part of their power to keep watch on the Kun Realm''s affairs, having already erected countless Sub-Realms around the spatial storm barrier. The Mong Realm stationed plenty of Sub-Realms, creating a formation of sorts that alerted them the moment someone exited the Kun Realm. That wasn''t all. A team of Gods continued to experiment and understand the characteristics of the spatial storm barrier, wondering if they could erect something similar around their realm as well, not to mention finding the most efficient path to infiltrate the Kun Realm. It wasn''t as if the Mong Realm suffered a loss due to the absence of the Tilk Realm, though. It wasn''t as if the paws of the Mong Realm were only targeting one realm. With the disappearance of the Tilk Realm, they just transferred their attention to another realm. And having recalled all the powers stationed in the Tilk Realm and a few other realms, the Mong Realm attacked with full force. Realms without a Realm Spirit were too weak to defend against the Mong Realm''s onslaught as their Sub-Realms were annexed by the Mong Realm already. This was how they increased the Mong Realm''s lifespan. But, that didn''t mean they would just let the Kun Realm digest the fruits of their labor. After all, the Tilk Realm was a major realm, unlike the satellite realms the Mong Realm was annexing. Annexing satellite realms would only lead to an increase in the Mong Realm''s lifespan. Only by annexing a realm like the Tilk Realm would it truly become stronger than before. Hence, they were preparing an assault force, focusing first on stabilizing the footholds that they had established in other realms in recent times. The Kun Realm''s actions had indeed given them an idea as the Mong Realm first invaded the Sub-Realms of other realms, took control of them, and established them as their forts. After that, their forces would be deployed from these forts that would raid the realms nonstop to plunder resources. It only made their plans easier, always keeping the initiative in their hands. Unwilling to lose to the Mong Realm, the powerhouse realms like the Garg Realm and the Dolk Realm also invaded the weak Realms, establishing forts of their own that plundered the natives while hindering their competitors. Things became chaotic as all the realms raced to gather as many resources as possible so that they could annex the Tilk Realm first. After all, even though the Mong Realm was the strongest at the moment, whether it was the Garg Realm, the Dolk Realm, the Lak Realm or even the Fon Realm, the one that devoured the Tilk Realm would become the reigning powers. So, their competition had become severe as everyone was slowly accumulating an army in the Sub-Realms stationed near the Kun Realm Cluster. Moreover, using the resources stolen from other weaker realms, these Sub-Realms were upgraded into satellite realms to help prepare the army, becoming powerful forts that they could retreat in and out of in times of necessity. And at this moment, the Mong Realm took action, concentrating their attacks on the spatial storm barrier. Chapter 1472 Multi-Layered Schemes Chapter 1472 Multi-Layered Schemes "Alright," Krune said the same response simultaneously through his clone sent as a representative to every realm. Mong Realm! In a discrete Sub-Realm where only mortals flourished, a portal was manifested as Gegrafikan exited it all of a sudden. Immediately after arrival, he took on his Heavenly Aberrant form, unleashing a mysterious power that encompassed the entire Sub-Realm. "What the hell?" The Mong Realm Spirit had only managed to react when the Sub-Realm slipped out of its control, having been converted into the Garg Realm''s. Immediately after, Gegrafikan arrived within another weak Sub-Realm, turning it into the Garg Realm, repeating it twelve more times before focusing on the Dolk Realm''s quota of twelve Sub-Realms. As always, Gegrafikan converted the Sub-Realm in a fraction of a second, having only targeted the smallest of the Mong Realm''s Sub-Realms. So, just as the Mong Realm Spirit reacted, the process was already done. In the Garg Realm, Krune smiled, stating, "It''s done." "It''s¡­ done?" The Garg Realm Champion raised an eyebrow, sensing through the satellite realm to see that the twelve portals connected to the satellite realm had indeed been converted into the Garg Realm. ''So, this didn''t even take them much effort,'' he thought, eyeing Krune. ''To think he played me like this. This Krune isn''t simple as his appearance would suggest.'' Of course, Krune was one of the leading causes that damaged the Mong Realm before, not to mention the sequence of events transpiring the creation of the Rune Realm and the stealing of the Tilk Realm. And now, even though Krune behaved like they would suffer a major loss to convert the twelve Sub-Realms in the Mong Realm into the Garg Realm''s, in truth, he completed the task in a matter of seconds, displaying the fearsomeness of the Kun Realm. Honestly, only Gegrafikan, the master of countless laws, was capable of achieving this. This was why he could break through the Mong Realm''s senses time and again and complete his task so flawlessly. "Now, we''ve shown our sincerity." Krune smiled, extending his hand towards the Garg Realm Champion. ''It seems we must make plans to target the Kun Realm following the Mong Realm,'' the Garg Realm Champion thought as he smiled and shook hands with Krune. "Sure, we''ll invade the Mong Realm now." He didn''t just promise a statement and delay but directly spoke through his actions, snapping his fingers as rows upon rows of cultivators streamed under his order, entering the satellite realm before being deployed into their fort¡ªSub-Realm¡ªin the Mong Realm. "Will you be remaining here?" the Garg Realm Champion asked. "Yes." Krune nodded in response. "All my clones are connected. So, I''ll be able to relay information from the other realms to coordinate better." "Fair enough." The Garg Realm Champion nodded before snapping a finger, causing three Garg Realm Gods to land beside Krune. "Keep him safe and inform me of everything he says." Of course, it wasn''t just meant to protect Krune but also to prevent him from trying anything funny against the Garg Realm. The Garg Realm had been the peak power for ages, and hence, they had perfected their abilities. There was no way Krune would be able to do anything by bypassing their senses, which were by far the sharpest in all the realms. Before the Mong Realm eventually became the strongest, the Garg Realm had been the ruling power of the Greater Universe. And, unlike the Mong Realm, which had wholly focused on raising their strength, the Garg Realm had also focused on other aspects. So, infiltrating the Garg Realm was many times harder than the Mong Realm. It could be said that even though the Garg Realm was weaker than the Mong Realm, in truth, they were all rounded, lacking any weakness. This was also why they dared to go head-on against the Mong Realm whenever a chance presented itself. Of course, Krune had no intention to stir up the hornet''s nest. At present, the entirety of his attention was focused on stopping the Mong Realm''s invasion. And he was only doing everything in his power to tide through it. He didn''t wish to make any more enemies. Once Gegrafikan finished converting all the Sub-Realms meant for the various realms, the group stationed in the Kun Realm Cluster prepared themselves. It had only been a year since the wave of new Gods in the Kun Realm cluster. So, a lot of things were yet to be done. Though, it wasn''t as if they had the time to focus on that, not with the Mong Realm knocking on their doorsteps. "This will be our first battle as Gods. Are you nervous?" Sterlena asked, standing at the forefront of the over two hundred Gods, observing the patch of the spatial storm barrier before her continuing to weaken. This was where the Mong Realm had been targeting. They could gather together because, thanks to the Rune Realm, they were able to travel anywhere in the Kun Realm cluster to reinforce the attacked regions. And when someone attacked the spatial storm barrier, she and Krune were able to sense what was happening through their Calamity Laws. Plus, even for the Mong Realm, it took a year to break through the spatial storm barrier. So, even if the God King were to take action, it wouldn''t be instantaneous, giving them enough time to prepare and react. "I''ll be lying if I said I''m not nervous," Krune replied. "My clones are conversing with the other Champions. Honestly, the moment we display a hint of weakness, they would all invade us in full force to swallow everything." Luvile sighed, for this was indeed the truth. This was why they had planned things in such a way that the other realms would treat the Kun Realm with a hint of caution. As long as they harbored that level of caution, they wouldn''t dare invade them in full force. It was because they were unaware of the Kun Realm''s trump cards, unwilling to be the vanguard that tested the trump cards. This was also why Krune stated that they could convert the Sub-Realms into the respective realms, doing so in a matter of seconds, making their opponents cautious. This was what they depended on to prevent the realms from ganging up on the Kun Realm. Chapter 1473 Finally Attaining Trinity Chapter 1473 Finally Attaining Trinity The various Kun Realm Gods stared at the patch of the spatial storm that was being drilled through, sensing the terrifying power hidden within the Satellite Realm Cannon. "To think satellite realms could be used as weapons¡­" Sterlena muttered. "This level of forging has surpassed what I thought was the peak of the blacksmith path." Zamura frowned, feeling that he wouldn''t be able to create such a realm-sized weapon even if he were to immerse himself in the field for a hundred thousand years. "Well, we have Hazak," Krune said in response. "Thanks to her, we''ll increase the number of satellite realms orbiting the Kun Realm in the future and strengthen the spatial storm barrier more and more. Besides..." He laughed upon seeing the Rune Realm bring back Gegrafikan. "So what if the Mong Realm has a satellite realm as a weapon? We can just convert it into the Kun Realm''s through him." "Haha, right. We have the mighty Spirit Aberrant on our side." One of the Gods laughed as everyone became reassured. As for Krune, he calmly began to release the Thundercloud Whales that absorbed the spatial storms. Godly Technique¡ªCome Help Me! This was the technique he obtained inspiration from in the Mong Realm, continuing to develop it by drawing references from various races, including Hazak''s Demon Nest form and the Galki. With that, he completed it upon reaching the God Realm cultivation. The Thundercloud Whales each expanded to their maximum length of thirty meters, absorbing and storing the spatial storms in their bodies, beginning to compress them. That wasn''t all. The sounds of the ocean waves brimmed forth from him, followed by the rumbling of thunder and the mind-numbing sounds of thoughts clashing into one another. Cultivation, Body Cultivation, Soul Cultivation; the energies originating from all three were activated as Krune''s Deific Meridians began to alternate between the three. Godly Energy to Mental Energy to Body Energy and finally to Godly Energy, repeating the cycle. The first cycle took a couple of seconds, while the second cycle took only a second. The third cycle consumed half a second, and so on and so forth. Eventually, the morphing of the energies became so fast that there could no longer be a distinction between the three. And suddenly, the morphing stopped as all three energies existed at the same moment, fusing into one primordial energy form. Trinity! Krune had finally attained the ultimate form of his Deific Wisp Cultivation Technique, feeling the tremendous power brimming forth from within him, causing all the Gods to flinch in response at the strength he displayed. In response to him attaining Trinity, the Thundercloud Whales also spiked in power, compressing even more of the spatial storm in their bodies. Crack! The Satellite Realm Cannon''s fired beam finally broke through the last stretch of the spatial storm barrier, penetrating a hole into the Kun Realm Cluster. Of course, it didn''t stop there, for the Mong Realm Gods intended for the beam to at least wreak havoc among the Kun Realm''s troops. Of course, the Kun Realm wouldn''t leave it be, for that was why Krune had been accumulating power all along. Calamity Laws! Balance Laws! Krune activated his full power, drawing forth from the Kun Realm through the Balance Laws and, in extension, the Kun Realm Cluster itself since his Hunger Law resided in all of them, including the Calamity Laws and Balance Laws. Boom! Power seeped forth from all the satellite realms, flowing into Krune, causing his strength to climb to a whole new height, surpassing most of the Kun Realm Gods. Kun Realm Champion! The billion Thundercloud Whales congregated around himself, with all of them packed as closely as possible, facing in the same direction as Krune discharged all the power the moment the Satellite Realm Cannon beam pierced through the spatial storm barrier. Chaotic Needle! The power of the spatial storm had been condensed and concentrated to the limit within the billion Thundercloud Whales, whose power was amplified by him attaining the state of Trinity, not to mention the power amplification by the Kun Realm Cluster. Roar! The Chaotic Needles fused into a single entity as they rotated at terrifying speeds, forming a column of spatial storms that slammed into the Satellite Realm Cannon beam, causing an impasse as both the destructive energies slammed into each other. But immediately after, the Chaotic Needle began to drill through the canon beam, pushing forth into the spatial storm barrier, continuing forth nonstop before slamming into the Satellite Realm Canon itself, shocking all the powers stationed there. After all, the Satellite Realm''s defenses came undone, causing it to suffer major damage, preventing it from being used again for at least a few centuries. The Chaotic Needle then expended its power as all the Thundercloud Whales felt a bit weak as Krune deactivated his state of Trinity and stopped the power flowing into him from the Kun Realm Cluster. As a newly born God, he wasn''t able to handle such a frightening load of power yet. So, he could only maintain such an overpowered state for a short duration. He would need to grow stronger as the Hunger God to be able to handle his Champion power for longer durations. The case was the same for his Trinity as well. "Haah¡­" Krune gasped for air, retracting all the Thundercloud Whales as Feifei patted him, supporting him as he recovered his strength. "Rest for the time being." She told him. "We''ll continue the fight until then." Krune''s attack only stopped the Satellite Realm Cannon, damaging it. The stationed Mong Realm army was unaffected, for they had established stronger defenses. After all, such defenses were erected to withstand bombardment from even Champions for a short duration. A single attack from Krune wouldn''t destroy them. Boom! Suddenly, another satellite realm arrived before the drilled hole on the other side, unleashing a mystical beam that coursed through the bored hole, preventing it from closing up. "They are trying to stabilize this spatial tunnel!" Little Cally shouted in a hurry. "If they succeed, then it would be easy for them to infiltrate in the future." Chapter 1474 The God King’s Right-Hand Man Chapter 1474 The God King¡¯s Right-Hand Man Heavenly Destruction! Sterlena unleashed her signature ability, causing a destructive wave to course through the spatial tunnel, destroying the mysterious effect the Mong Realm''s satellite realm was creating. Fifteen Mong Realm Gods directly took the chance to speed through the spatial tunnel, shrouding themselves with a barrier that defended against Sterlena''s attacks. Soon after, they arrived at the Kun Realm Cluster, shocked upon seeing the countless satellite realms scattered everywhere. "Just¡­ what the fuck happened here in the past twenty-eight thousand years?" the one at the lead muttered in shock, for a moment pausing in response, not taking any action. "Humph!" Luvile snorted as he unleashed a flickering sphere of tribulation lightning that traveled towards them slowly, but the moment it neared them, it exploded, unleashing a fracturing wave of tribulation through which countless bolts of lightning squirmed about, wounding the Gods. "Charge!" the Mong Realm God at the lead shouted as he unleashed a mystical technique, causing a beam of light to slam into the group from beyond the spatial storm barrier, unleashed by the Key Opener Satellite Realm. The group turned into a beam of light and slammed into the Kun Realm, intending to infiltrate into it. Moreover, the Mong Realm God at the front was carrying a Sub-Realm with him, in which billions of immortals stood prepared, willing to destroy the Kun Realm. Bang! But right at this moment, a message was sent to them, one that showed the scenes of the various realms invading the Mong Realm. Of course, it was Krune that showed them that, grinning as he said, "What will you do? Fight to the death with us here? Or save your home? The choice is yours." "You''re seriously underestimating us, huh." The leading Mong Realm God snorted as the beam of lightning covering his group thickened, allowing them to enter the Kun Realm. The reason they weren''t in the least flustered was due to the fact that the God King remained behind in the Mong Realm. In other words, none of the invasive forces would be able to do shit against the Mong Realm. "Where¡­ is this place?" The moment the group entered the Kun Realm, the leading Mong Realm God muttered, looking around to see a vast desolate land, feeling something strange in the layout of the place. He then noticed something amiss, frowning with all seriousness. "This isn''t the Kun Realm." "What?" The rest accompanying him were shocked before unleashing their respective abilities, confirming that they indeed weren''t in the Kun Realm. "I see. It makes sense now." The leading Mong Realm God nodded after some thought, smiling as he looked at the figures of the Kun Realm Gods arriving one after another. "You''ve truly concealed yourselves." "To think the Kun Realm already has a Realm Spirit." With there being a Realm Spirit, it would be capable of mobilizing all its power to prevent anyone from infiltrating its Realm. It wasn''t omnipotent, but having a Realm Spirit guaranteed the stability and functionality of the Realm. That was also why the moment the Realm Spirit formed, the Kun Realm was no longer in a damaged state. And even if it were to get damaged in the future, the Kun Realm Spirit would be able to heal the damage. This was something only possible for the Realm Spirit. That wasn''t all. At present, the Kun Realm Spirit and the Rune Realm Spirit had joined hands, transporting the Mong Realm group into a satellite realm that was constructed just to serve as their battlefield. Even if it was destroyed, it was of no concern to the Kun Realm. This was why they had prepared such satellite realms. After all, fighting in their realms, even if they were stronger there, the disadvantages were also obvious. It was especially since the enemies could target the general populace or enact crippling maneuvers that would damage the very foundation of the Realm itself. Hence, these empty satellite realms proved useful. Not only could the Gods wield their true powers here, but they could also fight without worrying about the collateral damage. Around 60 Gods arrived within this satellite realm to face the 15 Mong Realm Gods. After all, this was the ratio of their strength. One Mong Realm God was capable of fighting at least four Kun Realm Gods. And this was against the Kun Realm Gods. As for the Gods originating from the satellite realms, they were even weaker. Obviously, it was impossible for the Kun Realm to bridge the gap between it and a major power like the Mong Realm within a mere twenty-eight thousand years. It was especially since all the Mong Realm did was invade and fight other realms. So, it was impossible to match their battle experience. Just to ensure they weren''t defeated soundly, Hishe and Soren took the lead within the satellite realm battlefield while Luvile and the others remained in the Kun Realm Cluster, working to destroy the spatial tunnel that was being constructed. "I''m Fen-Pu-Fira," The leading Mong Realm God introduced himself, still casual despite facing sixty Gods, laughing as he spoke, "The Kun Realm has truly surprised us time and time again. However, let''s see if you''re as strong as your schemes." Bang! Hishe''s eyes widened in shock as he hurriedly took on his Mental Energy form, turning into an ethereal gas when a blinding attack slammed into him. It was the Mong Realm''s signature mental attack that served to destroy the minds of the opponents. On top of that, the leading Mong Realm God had unleashed that right as he finished his statement. To defend against this attack, Soren spread out as a mist, rapidly soaking up the attack. After all, he was aware that the newly birthed Gods weren''t ready yet to face such attacks. So, he had to defend on their behalf. "So, you''ve been a God for a long enough time," Fen-Pu-Fira muttered. "That explains why you''re able to withstand my attack. Surprisingly, you''re strong for a Kun Realm God." "But since I''m here, you can forget about leaving this place alive," he said as his body morphed, turning into a giant as ten heads appeared on his shoulders. His arms increased, becoming five pairs that each held a weapon as the eye on his forehead glistened, preparing another mental attack. He then gazed at Hishe, saying, "And you¡­you dared to hit our God King before. As his right-hand man, I''ll assure you that your death would be the most horrible." Chapter 1475 The Infiltrator Chapter 1475 The Infiltrator "The God King''s right-hand man?" Hishe frowned in response, sensing the violent storm of Godly Energy circulating within Fen-Pu-Fira, shuddering as he thought, ''He''s strong, as strong as the Lak Realm Champion that hasn''t activated their Champion power.'' The fact that he was able to match a Champion itself was shocking. This meant that Hishe and the group would now have to face someone that was on the same level as the Champions. That alone was terrifying. "I have journeyed with him since his mortal days," Fen-Pu-Fira said. "Plus, I''ve been through all the battles he has faced, side by side." Fen-Pu-Fira was a legend in the Mong Realm for being one of the strongest Gods, not to mention the fact that he had killed a Champion on his own once. This was a feat that only three individuals could succeed in the Mong Realm. The first was the God King that had killed three Champions. Following that was Fen-Pu-Fira, having killed a Champion and acting as the God King''s right-hand man. The third was the God King''s left-hand man, having also killed a Champion. Even though these Champions weren''t on the level of those from major powers like the Garg Realm, they were still Champions at the end of the day. When they were getting killed, they were harnessing the power of their home realms. In other words, they were killed in their state as Champions, a factor more than sufficient to certify their terrifying strength. This was why the Mong Realm''s invasive force only consisted of 15 Gods. After all, Fen-Pu-Fira alone was equal to ten Gods, equal to ten Mong Realm Gods, in fact. ''We need reinforcements.'' Soren immediately communicated with the Rune Realm Spirit, causing more Gods to be on standby and ambush Fen-Pu-Fira when a chance presented itself. They couldn''t directly involve themselves in the battle because they were the reserve force, required to arrive at one of the two fronts based on the situation at hand. "Turia, please return to the Kun Realm. It''s too dangerous out here," Krune spoke in worry as he healed himself. "I can help you, uncle," Turia said, activating the Balance Laws that swerved into Krune, accelerating his healing, allowing him to recover to an optimal state immediately. After that, Turia vanished, returning to the Kun Realm. "Be safe, uncle. I''m sensing a terrifying strength from the invaders." "Yeah, I''ll be careful." Krune nodded as he sensed the state of things, noticing that Sterlena was able to somehow prevent the spatial tunnel from being stabilized. Though, the tunnel still functioned without problems, allowing those from the Mong Realm to continue to enter with their powers. In fact, one of them was even rowing a Satellite Realm Cannon through it. Of course, they didn''t have just one Satellite Realm Cannon. They had many, for that was their strategic strength. "Go!" He suddenly heard Hazak''s voice as a gigantic figure skittered through the void, absorbing energy from a spatial storm to rapidly birth tens of thousands of immortals, the majority of which were at the Elementary God Realm, followed by the peak powers at the Primal God Realm. They formed a massive tide of demons that entered the spatial tunnel and began to attack the entering army from the Mong Realm. Even though they fell like flies at the casual attacks from the Mong Realm Gods, their advance was indeed halted to a certain extent. Besides, Hazak could continue birthing them nonstop, also sending in the force that she had stored up for the past year. Like water, the demons were flushed through the spatial tunnel, crashing into the Mong Realm Gods. Even though they were killed easily, their numbers were staggering. Their goal was to distract and exhaust the Mong Realm Gods as much as possible until Sterlena destabilized the spatial tunnel further. Little Cally had also taken action, making the spatial storm barrier more turbulent, causing it to apply pressure on the spatial tunnel, forcing it to collapse more and more. That wasn''t all. The Kun Realm Gods had also congregated around the spatial tunnel''s exit, forcing attacks into it to rile up the spatial storm further and close the spatial tunnel on its own. Currently, the Gods stationed here were able to handle the situation somehow. It was the fight in the Satellite Realm battlefield that Krune was concerned about. After all, things were dangerous there with the arrival of Fen-Pu-Fira, a peak expert that has even killed a Champion before. "We''ll manage here," Sterlena transmitted the information to him. "Little Cally is also keeping track of things in the Kun Realm Cluster to see if anyone has infiltrated one of our satellite realms using this chaos. I want your clones to spread out with the help of the Rune Realm Spirit and look for traces of the infiltrators." "I can say with certainty that a few have managed to slip through our senses somehow," she added. "Find them quickly before they can jeopardize our entire mission." "I''ll do that," Krune said, releasing countless clones that the Rune Realm Spirit sent everywhere throughout the Kun Realm Cluster. The clones immediately began to look through the place for any signs of infiltrators. But even after some time had passed, there was no sign of anyone. Then again, he was able to sense the Calamity Laws in him ringing nonstop, gradually growing stronger, causing him to realize that something was definitely up. Otherwise, this sense of danger felt by the clones wouldn''t continue to increase over time. Besides, the Calamity Laws were only acting up in the clones of a certain region in the Kun Realm Cluster. The moment Krune figured out the direction of the place using his Soul Needle, he was shocked. ''This is at a location directly on the other side of the spatial tunnel formed by the Mong Realm. And¡­'' He was surprised. ''The Tilk Realm is closer to that place.'' Boom! Immediately, the clones in that region activated the Balance Laws, absorbing the power of the Kun Realm as their senses spread around vigorously, suddenly able to sense a silhouette rapidly approaching the Tilk Realm. "Oh no, you don''t!" The clone closest to the silhouette shouted, unleashing the Godly Technique of Godly Supression, causing the Godly Energy of the opponent to fluctuate as the technique they were using was forcefully dissipated, revealing the figure. The clone was shocked, its face paling in fear as it muttered, "G-G-God King?" Chapter 1476 Everyone Against the God King Chapter 1476 Everyone Against the God King "Sterlena! The God King was the one who infiltrated us!" Krune bellowed through the Balance Laws, transmitting the information to Sterlena. "What¡­ the hell?" Words failed to come out of her mouth for a moment as Sterlena was flabbergasted before hurriedly informing Hishe, Luvile and others about this. "Dammit, it''s not as if this Fen-Pu-Fira guy is an easy opponent either." Hishe grunted in annoyance when suddenly, a certain wisp landed next to him. "I''ll take care of him. You help Krune," Wally said, motioning for Soren to leave as well. "Are you sure?" Hishe asked nervously, "He''s strong." "I''m also strong," Wally retorted. "Don''t delay. I''ll take care of things here." "Be careful," Hishe said before vanishing from the satellite realm. Soren also followed him, quickly leaving the place. ''Did they notice the God King? Already?'' Fen-Pu-Fira was shocked before he unleashed his strength, unwilling to allow Hishe to leave. His task was to kill Hishe and find out his secrets to wield two Laws. If they were to succeed, the Mong Realm would become even stronger. However, right as his attack was about to land on Hishe and interrupt his escape, a potent ability slammed into the attack, negating it completely, shocking him as he glared at the source of the attack. "You¡­ bastard." "I''m already annoyed as is that you freaks have been trying to invade my home all this time." Wally slowly assumed his wisp form as his golden Wisp Core began to rotate at terrifying speeds, unleashing mystical Godly Energy fluctuations. Slowly, he began to fly towards Fen-Pu-Fira as Wally snorted. "I''ll be your opponent." Bang! Both sides clashed with one another immediately as Fen-Pu-Fira was shocked, for Wally was almost on par with him in terms of strength. "How¡­?" "This level of strength is impossible for someone from the Kun Realm that never fought," Fen-Pu-Fira said in disbelief. "As if!" Wally retorted. "I was the one that cleaned up every foreign God that had infiltrated the Kun Realm. This grandpa has been fighting for all his life." ''So, you were the one that had been killing my spies all this time.'' Fen-Pu-Fira nodded in understanding, no longer holding back as he erupted with all his strength. "Keuk!" Wally grunted as he defended against the attacks. His Wisp Core continued to spin faster and faster as soon after, his strength continued to build up. In contrast, Fen-Pu-Fira noticed that the fourteen other Mong Realm Gods were showing mild states of aging. There was also a minor drop in their strength, allowing the 59 Kun Realm Gods to fight them a bit better than before. Of course, that wasn''t all. These Gods were also growing stronger over time. And the cause of them all was Wally. Upon seeing that Wally was able to affect the entire battlefield even while fighting him, Fen-Pu-Fira erected his Heavenly Incarnation, trapping Wally within it. This way, Wally wouldn''t be able to affect the battlefield. If the Heavenly Incarnation was wholly established, it would place him at a major advantage. With that, Wally also unleashed his Heavenly Incarnation, causing both Heavenly Incarnations to clash with one another, creating a spiral of sorts similar to a yin-yang symbol. The two sides were surprisingly evenly matched as Fen-Pu-Fira commanded all the Primal Gods and Elementary Gods within the Sub-Realm to exit and wreak havoc. Even if there wasn''t anything to destroy in this satellite realm, they could at least join hands to hinder the Gods. The Kun Realm Gods were mostly newborns. So, they were pretty weak. As long as around a hundred Mong Realm Primal Gods joined hands, they could hinder and even kill a Kun Realm God. Well, there were millions of Primal Gods stationed within the Sub-Realm. In response to their actions, the Rune Realm Spirit brought in Primal Gods from the Kun Realm to charge at the opponents. "Let''s destroy all of them," Zela bellowed as she began to rain down punches on a couple of Mong Realm Primal Gods, actually pummelling them into piles of crushed flesh. She was at the peak of the Primal God Realm. She hadn''t attempted to become a God, for she was aware that she didn''t have the talent to become one yet. With that, she remained a Primal God, only focusing on strengthening herself as much as possible so that she would one day have the opportunity to become a God. Zualin also remained a Primal God. He was even weaker than Zela and didn''t have the confidence to succeed in the final tribulation. Among them, only Faunkill had become a God. Of course, as a Titled Primal God, he had more than enough qualifications to become a God. Currently, he had gone to fight against the God King, feeling that even weak, his ability would prove useful in their fight. Zamura also made his trip there, intending to work on defending against the God King''s attacks. His ability would prove useful in that case. Next to the spatial tunnel were Feifei, Hazak, Gegrafikan, and the others. Boom! The billion Thundercloud Whales unleashed their Lightning Needles, slamming them into the God King''s attacks, negating it. It was because he had already activated his state as a Champion. This was the only way he could face the God King. In contrast, the God King hadn''t even gone all out, having only unleashed a probing attack to sense Krune''s strength, muttering, "You''ve grown stronger compared to before. Too bad you don''t have enough time to become stronger." Boom! He punched forth, unleashing a beam of light possessing a suffocating aura that even destroyed the spatial storms along the way, heading towards Krune with terrifying power, enough to actually kill him. Godly Ability¡ªGodly Inhibition! Krune''s attack worked in sealing the Godly Energy within the God King''s attack. However, the amount he could seal wasn''t much in terms of the power within the entire attack. But immediately after that, a significant sum of Godly Energy within the attack was siphoned out as the attack itself began to dissipate into Godly Energy. A green barrier appeared in its path, shattering upon the impact. But in that short duration, it managed to counter part of the attack, causing this countered stream to hinder the beam, negating another fraction of it. After that, a shield of lightning appeared that defended against the brunt of the impact, barely managing to endure. Immediately after that, countless bolts of lightning, each the size of a Sub-Realm, slammed into the God King. The God King erected a barrier around himself, raising an eyebrow upon seeing cracks forming on it following every slam of the lightning bolts. Chapter 1477 Injuring the God King? Chapter 1477 Injuring the God King? Lightning Needle! Krune enveloped himself with tribulation lightning, skidding through the void as he constantly evaded behind the spatial storms, using them to defend against the God King''s attacks for a short duration before evading from the range of the attack. Immediately after moving past the spatial storm, he unleashed Lightning Needles at the God King, using the speed of his attacks to target the opponent. On top of that, he was slowly infusing his Hunger Law into the Lightning Needles, causing them to devour the laws forming the God King''s shield every time upon contact. This allowed his attacks to pierce through the shield. Unfortunately, the God King was just too fast, erecting another shield the moment his first shattered. He was damn experienced in doing so, having not once allowed an attack to hit him. Luvile turned into a bolt of lightning and seeped into Krune, amplifying his powers before making each of the Lightning Needles terrifying. This was how Krune became fast enough to dodge the God King and constantly target his back or other more vulnerable areas. In the meantime, Sterlena unleashed a mist that began to destroy everything that came into contact with it. Though, she quickly modified it to be effective only against the Mong Realm''s power structure, ensuring only the God King and his attacks were affected by this. Her Heavenly Destruction Law worked on destroying everything, whether it was a Law, energy, matter, and so on. In contrast, Krune''s Hunger Law devoured every Law upon contact, similar to a Spirit Aberrant in nature. On the other hand, a Spirit Aberrant digested anything it ate and turned it into its own power, His Hunger Law, on the other hand, didn''t have that capability. But, it turned those laws into tiny worms that worked in devouring the source of the laws they originated from. It was how the laws forming the God King''s barrier turned into worms that drilled through his other barriers, rapidly devouring them like they were a delicacy. In this way, they became bigger and stronger, intending to not stop until they devoured the God King himself. Moreover, while they were moving forth, they also influenced the rest of the laws forming the barrier, causing them to show signs of becoming worms as well. This was the essence of his Hunger Law. Krune had been trying his best to affect the God King with his Zombie Food, Hunger Wave ability. But as it wasn''t working, he changed tactics, targeting his defensive ability first. With that, the God King had to divert part of his attention into eliminating the worms that had infected his defensive barrier. This allowed everyone to attack him better, raining down attacks on him nonstop. Boom! "Keuk!" Suddenly, he grunted as his defensive barrier was shattered as he was sent flying for tens of kilometers. Arriving to a halt, he healed himself, regenerating his barrier before glaring at the opponent. "So, you''ve arrived, Hishe." Gong! Immediately after, the God King smiled, erupting with his strength, turning into a ten-headed giant with five pairs of arms, spanning a height of a hundred meters. His size wasn''t anything impressive, but the sheer strength erupting from him was terrifying. The Tilk Realm''s barrier began to fluctuate from the mere presence of his power, displaying the frightening extent of his strength. "Target his mind, Soren. I''ll face the rest," Hishe said as he turned into what resembled a slime, ethereal in nature, before morphing into a human baby. Immediately after, his form began to morph, ranging from the babies of various races nonstop as two wings formed behind him, with each conforming to his laws. One from the Kun Realm and the other from the Tilk Realm. The two laws weren''t actually harmonious with one another, beginning to devour each other immediately upon activation, causing Hishe to grunt in response as his body showed signs of collapse. Upon seeing this, the God King was mildly disappointed. "I thought you had discovered a new method to control two Laws. It turns out that your second law is just in a parasitic relationship with you. The more you use it, the weaker you become until your entire existence vanishes." "Now you know," Hishe said. "In any case, it still allows me to erupt with enough strength to face you." "It is interesting, though." The God King smiled in response. "I''ll draw out all your memories and create at least one or two Gods the same as you in the Mong Realm. That''ll make things easier for me in defeating the Garg Realm." The two figures turned silent after that as the void between them began to tremble for some reason, thanks to the sheer power erupting out from the two of them. Their senses were harnessed to the limit before the bodies of both flickered. Boom! In a fraction of a second, both the God King and Hishe clashed tens of thousands of times, the waves resulting from their clash sending all the Kun Realm Gods flying away. Soren turned ethereal, fully activating his Mental Energy Law as it slithered through the waves like a fish before slamming a mental attack at the God King, causing him to pause for a fraction of a second. This was a long enough time for Hishe to pummel him nonstop when Krune and Luvile poured in the entirety of their strength, fusing the Hunger Law and the Tribulation Lightning Law of each into a Lightning Needle that slammed into the God King, piercing through his barrier before slamming into his back. "Keuk!" The God King was surprised to see the Hunger Law converting part of his body into maggots that squirmed through his flesh, burrowing into him deeper. He activated his Law fully, killing all the maggots, noticing a minor drop in his power. Had it been in the Mong Realm, he would have been able to recover from this damage faster. But within the Kun Realm Cluster, he didn''t have the options to recover damage to his law itself. Taking this chance, Faunkill appeared behind the God King with the help of the Rune Realm, targeting his attack through the broken barrier, slamming it into the God King''s back before escaping through the Rune Realm. Chapter 1478 Developing Effects of Immortal Suppression Chapter 1478 Developing Effects of Immortal Suppression ''What was that?'' The God King frowned, sensing that there wasn''t anything amiss in his body. Though, he was aware that Faunkill had indeed unleashed something that burrowed into his body, ''The Kun Realm indeed has a lot of races. So, they have developed many troublesome abilities.'' In terms of brute strength, none of them proved a problem for the Mong Realm. Though, Krune was the best example, having destroyed a tenth of the Mong Realm''s¡ªits version of the God Realm¡ªpopulation while being a mere Elementary God. This was only possible because of the troublesome exotic races that were only birthed in the Kun Realm, a realm specialized for mysterious races. So, the God King didn''t dare to be careless about whatever had hit him. Honestly, if Faunkill had remained behind for a fraction of a second longer, the God King could have captured and pried out the details from his mind. Thankfully, Faunkill was aware of the fact that as a newly birthed God, he wasn''t on the level of making a difference on such a battlefield. Hence, he charged up the entirety of his power, used the Rune Realm to teleport before the God King, and unleashed his unique ability before escaping like his life depended on it. Godly Ability¡ªImmortal Suppression! This was also his law that he became a representation of after becoming a God. Faunkill quickly recovered his strength before jumping into the satellite realm to fight the Mong Realm army, hoping to use his trump card on Fen-Pu-Fira as well. Hunger Law¡ªChaotic Lightning Needle! Krune unleashed his trump card after entering the state of Trinity once again, causing the Thundercloud Whale to absorb and compress the spatial storm nearby while Luvile poured all his strength into it, raising its power to the limit while being supported by the Kun Realm in his Champion state. Boom! The God King activated his law, erecting a barrier when Hishe activated both his laws simultaneously, creating such a powerful rejection that the explosion alone shattered the God King''s multiple defensive barriers, also injuring his terrifyingly tough body, causing him to focus all of his senses on defending against the attack. At the same time, Soren unleashed the strongest mental attack that he had unleashed to date, almost turning into an idiot for a second due to the sheer strain it caused on him. So, the power it exuded was terrifying as the mental attack slammed into the God King''s mind, rapidly cutting through all the mental defenses he had erected, harshly grating through his Mental Energy reserves before rampaging through his memories with the intent to turn him into an idiot. Sterlena also took the chance to condense a sphere of Heavenly Destruction that she enveloped her body with, rapidly morphing into a force of pure destruction, slamming into the God King as she joined Hishe in punching him nonstop. Each of her attacks annihilated the contact area of flesh, blood, energy, Law, and so on. Though the area of destruction was only surface level, like peeling through a layer of skin with every attack, she was still making some damage against the God King. The Chaotic Lightning Needle slammed into the God King''s head, rapidly drilling through it as it began to penetrate through his body as the charred regions immediately squirmed, turning into maggots that drilled into the God King''s body and began to devour his Law. For a second, the God King was truly rendered helpless by the combination attack from the strongest of the Kun Realm. After all, Hishe, Soren, and Luvile were one of the most experienced and the strongest among the Kun Realm Gods, while Krune and Sterlena had already activated their Champion states. So they indeed formed the strongest group of the Kun Realm Gods, dealing a crippling wound to the God King. And in this state of weakness where the God King wasn''t able to react, a certain power hidden within him took the chance to explode, rapidly beginning to weaken his law. Immortal Suppression! Faunkill''s ability finally began to take effect, slowly causing the God King to become weaker and weaker. ¡­ "What the¡­fuck?" The Garg Realm Champion was shocked, sensing the God King within the Kun Realm Cluster. After all, the moment he revealed his presence, every force became aware of his actions, becoming flustered immediately. If the God King personally entered the Kun Realm Cluster, then both the Kun Realm and the Tilk Realm would fall under his control. That would mean the Mong Realm''s victory as it would slowly devour the Kun Realm Cluster and become a frightening force, something no other realm would ever be capable of facing in the future. But, a couple of seconds later, just when he planned to head towards the Kun Realm Cluster to fight the God King, the Garg Realm Champion was also flustered, this time sensing that the God King''s strength was¡­ waning? ''Did the Kun Realm unleash their trump card?'' he thought, wondering just what kind of sorcery they had used to actually weaken the God King, an unprecedented feat in the history of the Greater Universe. "Wait, this is the best chance." His eyes lit up in excitement as the Garg Realm Champion personally entered the Mong Realm, leaping onto the Mong Realm Gods that had stationed themselves nearby as a defensive force the moment the Sub-Realm turned became the Garg Realm''s. "It''s the Garg Realm Champion. Summon the Left Hand!" The Mong Realm Gods bellowed immediately upon seeing his arrival, somewhat flustered because he was an existence that was capable of fighting against the God King himself. Immediately, the God King''s Left Hand, and his sole wife, Dur-Te-Sara, arrived at the scene, glaring at the Garg Realm Champion. "You''re becoming bolder and bolder recently." "Well, I''ve also been growing stronger." The Garg Realm Champion smiled in response, slowly raising his hand before snapping his finger, immediately causing majestic planetary-sized spheres of chaotic gravitational fields to hover in the skies of the Mong Realm, causing the faces of all the Mong Realm Gods to pale in response. And slowly, the Garg Realm Champion brought his hand downward. "There''s a reason I fought the God King so many times and lived to date. Hmm¡­" He smiled as he continued, "If a husband loses his wife, will he too be called a widow?" Smiling in response, the Garg Realm unleashed his attack. "It''s time to find out." Chapter 1479 The Mong Realm’s Ultimate Secret Chapter 1479 The Mong Realm¡¯s Ultimate Secret "Hahaha, since the Garg Realm Champion took the lead, it wouldn''t be nice if I don''t follow suit, right?" The Dolk Realm Champion laughed before landing in the Mong Realm, laughing as he looked around. "So, this is the Mong Realm. I must say, at first glance, it looks poorer than the poorest of realms. But¡­" He trailed off, frowning while gazing at the sky, closing his eyes as he observed before shuddering for a moment, thinking, ''I see¡­truly marvelous. They''ve focused the entirety of their power on nurturing the laws of their realm. This is why the Mong Realm Gods are the strongest among the Gods from all the realms. However, how did they achieve this feat without permeating the resources throughout the realm?'' He was confused. That was because every realm took the same path. First, the realm would produce resources that cultivators would consume to eventually become Gods. When they became Gods, they would either reinforce existing laws or create new laws. The former option would strengthen the realm itself, allowing resources of that type to be produced in greater quantity. In the case of the latter, the realm would become more dynamic and complex, allowing for more complex resources and their derivatives to be produced. Both the options had to go hand in hand for the realm to grow strong and also become more complex. This process would continue to loop until the realm attained a state where its development had reached a level enough to birth a Realm Spirit. And after that, the Realm Spirit would actively manage the realm, balancing the Laws in it better, allowing for the resources to be produced more efficiently. With the rearrangement of the various Laws, the realm would become stronger and stabler, making it easier for the cultivators to cultivate and breakthrough to higher realms. As the Gods work on themselves and improve their strength, their representative Law would also grow stronger, making the realm strong as well. This was a slow process that had to be repeated in endless cycles. However, the concept of the cultivators growing was entirely neglected in the Mong Realm. All the cultivation and development were through external resources. This meant that there was no difference between whether the Mong Realm became strong or not. After all, it was no longer producing any resources. But despite that, the peak laws of the Mong Realm that were represented by Gods were significantly more developed than even the laws of the oldest major powers like the Garg Realm. Upon seeing this scene, the Dolk Realm Champion''s expression morphed, paling in response upon seeing more than fifty Mong Realm Gods appear before him, some of which were familiar faces. "Wait, didn''t I kill you before?" When a God was killed, all the development the God had brought to the law would vanish, causing the Law to enter a weakened state where it was incapable of influencing anything. Basically, its quality would drop below the Godly Fusion Realm. The moment this happened, it was as if the God had died. They would no longer be the representative of this Law. After all, even the comprehension associated with this law would fall below the Godly Fusion Realm. The moment a law''s development¡ªcomprehension¡ªdropped below the God Realm in any Realm, it was as if the God for that Law had died. This was the principal rule governing everything. Therefore, when the Dolk Realm Champion had killed those Mong Realm Gods, their representative laws should have regressed to the Primal God Realm in quality and would continue to drop in strength over time as it would be overtaken by the other Laws. Even a Realm Spirit can only delay this process and not stop it entirely. This was also why the Kun Realm was said to have been destabilizing before. It was because due to the death of a lot of Kun Realm Gods from the time they tried to leave the realm, their respective laws regressed to the Primal God Realm and continued to fall. Some of the Gods had brought out their God Seats, which was only possible to condense by extracting the entirety of their law from the Kun Realm. So in their cases, their entire law vanished from the Kun Realm, never to appear, permanently causing a major drop in its foundation. The case should have been the same in the Mong Realm as well. But for some reason, the Gods that had been killed in the past now appeared, brimming with the same power they had at their peak. Moreover, their representative laws functioned perfectly in the Mong Realm, as if they had never once dropped to the Primal God Realm. "How¡­?" The Dolk Realm Champion gazed in shock at the Mong Realm Gods that hovered before him. "That''s the Mong Realm''s secret. Do you really believe that we would divulge such information to you?" The leading Mong Realm God smirked. "Besides, even if you were to search our minds, you would never find it. This information would automatically vanish the moment a foreign God tries to search our minds. And it can never be leaked to our peers as well." ''Fuck!'' The Dolk Realm Champion cursed mentally, ''Does that mean all the Mong Realm Gods would continue to revive without any problems?'' It caused a sour feeling in his mouth as the Dolk Realm hesitated to attack the Mong Realm. It would only result in a fruitless endeavor where they would exhaust their strength. ''No, wait.'' The Dolk Realm Champion sighed before slowly letting out a smile. ''As if it''s easy to revive a God. They must be spending a tremendous amount of resources to do that. So, it''s not infinite. As long as I kill enough of them, it would cause a dent in the Mong Realm''s resources. And this is the best time to do so since everyone has arrived here while the God King is fighting in the Kun Realm.'' ''Plus, I can always attack the Mong Realm directly and destroy its foundations as much as possible. I should relay this information to everyone else.'' Thinking as such, he connected with his home realm, finding Krune to deliver the information to every other Champion instantly, only to stop suddenly upon noticing that the clone of Krune was¡­ Crying. Chapter 1480 The God King’s Champion State Chapter 1480 The God King¡¯s Champion State "Arrgh!" The God King shouted the moment he regained his bearings, noticing the stream of attacks landing on him nonstop, increasing his injuries. They were injuries done to his Law, one that might even cause a permanent drop in strength if accumulated to a certain level. On top of that, he noticed that his strength was gradually reducing. Plus, he wasn''t able to process things faster thanks to the mental attack unleashed by Soren, causing his thoughts to become sluggish. This made him unable to handle the entirety of his strength to fight against the tide of attacks nonstop. Bam! Hishe grunted, unleashing another attack with all his strength, shattering the God King''s right arm when Sterlena hacked into it, severing it. Immediately, Krune''s Hunger Law took control of it, causing the maggots to explode in number in it before soon, the entire arm turned into maggots. They then fell on the God King''s body like rain, drilling into his body from all sides. There were also the maggots drilling all over his head through the hole created by the Chaotic Lightning Needle. Soren continued to launch mental attacks nonstop, ensuring that the God King''s mind worked at a lower efficiency, preventing him from being able to face such attacks. Currently, their only goal was to stall for time. As long as they stalled and kept the God King occupied for a long enough time, Faunkill''s Immortal Severance would weaken him enough for them to do something. Though, it was easier said than done, especially since the rate at which the God King weakened was a lot slower than what they had assumed. So, they needed to hold on for long enough. Hishe was the primary attacker that was keeping the God King locked in combat. Without him, the God King would be able to kill everyone else in a matter of minutes. Therefore, they were running out of time as Hishe''s body was collapsing faster and faster. His two laws were fighting with each other more and more, building up too much destructive power. Even though this allowed him to wound the God King further, he was also running out of strength that fast. Besides, Hishe had already prepared for his death, only hoping to last long enough to weaken the God King enough. Though, that was easier said than done as the God King was slowly recovering. His injuries were healing slowly, despite everyone continuing to stack damage on him. The maggots of Hunger Law were still tearing up the God King''s body and eating while reproducing rapidly. But despite that, it was like the God King''s Law was incomparably vast, for there didn''t seem to be any end. Right at this moment, Faunkill arrived once again, having recovered his strength as he unleashed Immortal Severance again. But this time, it seemed the God King had been storing a part of his strength aside as he unleashed an attack the moment Faunkill arrived, sending him flying away, placing him on the verge of death. Soren had noticed it through the faint fluctuations in his mind, hence moving forward to hinder the attack, absorbing part of its power. This was why Faunkill was only on the verge of death. Had Soren been an instant late, then he would have died. As a newborn God, a casual flick of the God King''s finger was enough to kill him. Thankfully, his attack was successful as the God King''s strength began to drop a bit faster than before. The Rune Realm Spirit hurriedly picked up Faunkill and vanished before the God King could unleash a second attack. "You rats¡­ are annoying." The God King grunted when Sterlena punched his face, melting through it as her attacks were getting stronger. Her law was Heavenly Destruction. In this environment, where all attacks were purely destructive in nature, it acted as a tonic for her growth. The God King''s regeneration slowed down as his injuries began to increase once again thanks to her attacks. In the same vein, Krune worked better with Luvile, also amplifying their attacks further. For them, this wasn''t anything new but was just a trip to the past. And over time, their abilities synchronized better and better, causing their attacks to become more and more deadly. But suddenly, the God King stopped defending as he closed his eyes, ignoring the damage that rapidly piled up on his body as he took in a deep breath, harnessing enough of his mind to the task before opening his eyes. For a moment, the spatial storms turned still, trembling in response as it seemed as if the walls of a dam had broken as the sensation akin to the damn water gushing out reverberated in everyone. Boom! A beam of light pierced through the spatial storm barrier and slammed into the God King, sending Sterlena flying away from the impact as she was the closest to him. The impact was so powerful that she was on the verge of death, hurriedly collected by the Rune Realm Spirit before she cracked into the spatial storm barrier and died. "Keuk!" Hishe grunted, coming before Soren and Krune, defending against the resultant of the impact''s shockwaves. Their faces paled as everyone stared nervously at the God King. After all, the God King had finally activated his Champion state. His already terrifying power attained a new zenith, causing him to clench his hand into a fist, punching once, targeting Soren. The attack turned into a beam that passed through Hishe''s barrier and slammed into Soren, causing him to scream in pain as his body almost vaporized. Only a tinge of him was preserved somehow, thanks to Hishe''s timely assistance. Otherwise, he would have died. Bam! The God King waved his hand, destroying Hishe''s barrier completely, sending him and Krune flying away in different directions. "Krune!" Hishe shouted in alarm, for the God King focused on Krune first. "You''re a troublesome Champion. So, I''ll kill you first." The God King flashed before Krune, clenching his hand into a fist before punching it into Krune''s head, splattering it into nothing. Chapter 1481 Farewell, Luvile Chapter 1481 Farewell, Luvile "Krune!" Soren shouted as he lost consciousness. Hishe hurriedly sent Soren''s fragment flying away so that the Rune Realm Spirit could catch him from a safe distance and vanish. "This is my final stretch of power." Hishe slapped both of his laws together, instantly fusing them both into a single entity as his power spiked to its zenith, attaining strength vastly superior to before. "Luvile! No!" Krune shouted in alarm, for it was Luvile that defended against the God King''s attack in his place. Tribulation lightning constantly slammed into the God King, barely causing singeing marks. In his Champion state, the God King was just too overpowered that even his all-out attacks barely meant anything. "This is the first time I have witnessed a God of Tribulations. Impressive indeed." The God King smiled, grabbing hold of Luvile as his power slowly began to destroy his body. "Unfortunately, you just didn''t have enough time to surpass the strength of your weak realm." The God King used his Mental Energy to probe through Luvile''s mind and obtain his secret of wielding Tribulation Lightning, but the moment he connected to Luvile''s mind, he flinched, retracting his Mental Energy. ''His thoughts are also full of tribulation lightning. I don''t have a method to defend against that.'' Just as he planned to take Luvile with him back to the Mong Realm and study further, the hairs on his arms raised up, forming goosebumps as the God King sensed the insane aura emanating from Hishe, frowning as numerous thoughts clashed in his mind as he weighed his objectives, sighing. "Unfortunately, this is fate. I have to prioritize my realm first." "Kah¡­ gaaah!" Luvile screamed as his defenses came undone one after another as his body was destroyed more and more. "No! Stop! Bastard!" Krune bellowed, unleashing all his attacks. But none changed the situation. He just wasn''t strong enough to injure the God King anymore after his Champion state had been activated. All the maggots squirming through his body were instantly erased while the power from the Mong Realm rapidly regenerated the part of his law that the maggots had consumed. In mere moments, he had recovered his peak strength. Krune could only stare helplessly as the God King''s power constricted him to the spot as Luvile was slowly pried out of his body in the most forceful manner. To avoid Krune escaping, the God King was cautious, planning to kill Luvile first before destroying Krune. Or rather, he understood Luvile''s worth better, hence targeting him first. "Being the God of Tribulation gives your realm significant advantages. But the disadvantages are also evident." The God King smirked, staring at Luvile''s face. "That is, with your death, your realm would lose the Tribulation Lightning Law, losing its most fundamental law. And with that, no new immortal would ever be birthed in the Kun Realm." "Everything you have here would simply be up for grabs after that." He smirked, lips curling up as the energy emanating from his body spiked in response, rapidly vaporizing Luvile. "Nooo!" Krune screamed, tearing up in response to see his close friend being killed before his eyes. "Krune¡­ be brave." Luvile''s voice resounded through the Tribulation Lightning Law, their exclusive communication. "I have been preparing you for this possibility. I know you''ll protect our home. You''re the strongest wisp, and my closest friend that I''ve watched grow up." "Honestly, you''re like both a brother and a son to me. I''m sorry for making mistakes as a God and plunging our home into trouble. Now, I''ll pass everything to you." "Farewell, Krune." "Luvileeeeeeee!" Krune sobbed, noticing the final vestige of Luvile vanishing in response as the God King clenched his hand into a fist, annihilating Luvile, the God of Tribulations. "Bastardddd!" Hishe screamed as he slammed into the God King. "Haha, let me see your final moments, Hishe." The God King laughed. "Show me the strength you gained through your sacrifice." Boom! Hishe slammed into the God King. But this time, there wasn''t any impact or explosion, but his figure turned into a tiny revolving blob that became attached to the God King''s body, rapidly seeping into it, unable to be affected by even the God King in his Champion state. "¡­Shit!" The God King cursed when he sensed that all aura from the tiny blob had vanished before suddenly, a prehistoric flaming star manifested in the place, swallowing everything. It only spanned a kilometer in radius but contained enough power to destroy an entire realm. It was Hishe''s final attack, one created by fusing his two laws that originated from the Kun Realm and the Tilk Realm, respectively. The explosion enveloped Krune, but surprisingly, he was unaffected, for it seemed that only the target would experience the power of this attack, Hishe''s ultimate. "Krune¡­" Hishe''s voice resounded in the world of white that Krune found himself within. "Hishe!" Krune trembled as tears streamed out of his eyes, "Luvile¡­ that bastard¡­ he left¡­ he¡­ that¡­ I¡­" "Krune¡­" Hishe called out again as a tiny blob appeared before Krune, forcefully stabilizing himself before saying, "Luvile had only given you the Tribulation Lightning Spiritual Mark at first as a show of friendship. Practically, he was doting on you. But once we came to know about the other realms, his plans changed." "He realized that as the sole God of Tribulations in the Greater Universe, he could be killed at any time. Every single realm would try to pry out his secrets since information about him would have reached them ages ago," he continued. "And hence, Luvile had already begun preparing you as his back-up, as the second God of Tribulations." "¡­But, I can only possess one Law," Krune said, wiping his tears as he controlled himself, unwilling to waste the bare few moments Hishe had left to live in this all-encompassing explosion. "Not if you inherit my power," Hishe said, causing a mysterious power to seep into Krune. "Unlike me, your Little Krune allows you to inherit and wield my power better. And since you''ve been practically wielding the Tribulation Lightning Law for all your life, you can succeed in what I''ve failed to achieve for all my life¡­" "And become the first God to fully wield two Laws." Chapter 1482 Stealing the Tilk Realm Chapter 1482 Stealing the Tilk Realm Gong! A sonorous sound resounded as Hishe''s core essence seeped into Krune, fusing into his Wisp Core, becoming one with the connection between him and Little Krune. Krune was the sole individual with an entity like Little Krune. Until now, Little Krune was used as a clone of himself. But now, the moment Hishe''s power seeped into it, Little Krune became a whole new individual. After all, in the first place, Little Krune''s source was a demon beast baby in the Lawless Plains of Zamuria Continent. Things changed when he tried to save the baby, resulting in the birth of Little Krune. And now, that entity just gained individuality. In the end, it was still Krune, but now it had its own personality, though it was still connected to Krune''s mind. It was like a state of split personality, with each personality now having a body and entity. Nevertheless, they were still inherently one. This was Krune''s innate advantage thanks to his Myriad Wisps Spiritual Incarnation. Hishe didn''t have something like that. So, despite his talents, he wasn''t ever able to wholly make use of his two Laws. "I''m glad¡­" Hishe''s voice turned weak, vanishing soon after. "Thank you, Krune. You''ve succeeded in my lifelong wish. And now¡­" "I''ll leave our home''s fate in your hands." "Hishe¡­" Krune trembled, feeling weak upon losing another friend. Though, his body didn''t seem to align with his emotions as a mysterious power welled up within him. It seemed Luvile had left behind his inheritance in his body while they were joining hands to fight the God King. And now, this inheritance unraveled itself, suddenly causing enlightenment regarding Tribulation Lightning to seep into his mind, instantly raising his comprehension to the God Realm. Plus, the way Luvile had done this was by shaving his own comprehension of the Law. Therefore, the moment Krune obtained it, his comprehension of the Tribulation Lightning Law actually surpassed Luvile''s. Thanks to this, even after Luvile died, the Tribulation Lightning Law in the Kun Realm didn''t vanish. After all, it was considered as Luvile losing his qualifications to be the God of Tribulations anymore, as he was no longer the immortal with the highest comprehension regarding this law. ''You''ve thought through things this much.'' Krune grunted in pain, clutching his stomach as he screamed in anger, sensing Little Krune slowly become the God of Tribulations. And with it, he officially became the first God in the Grater Universe''s history to wield the power of two Laws. "Ahhhh! God King! I''ll kill you!" Two voices resounded from Krune. It was from him and Little Krune. Both were crying out at the same time. As they had been one all along, there was no difference in personality, character, or thought process between the two, even though they were two individuals in one entity now. The field of white slowly began to dissipate as Hishe''s final attack gradually lost power. Krune noticed the figure of the God King at the center of the attack, still alive. He was injured severely, losing large portions of his body while his Law had taken severe damage. However, he wasn''t dead yet, coughing before laughing aloud. "Great! So this is the extent of power you can wield with two laws, even though it''s not perfect! Amazing! Hishe!" "God King!" Krune bellowed and unleashed Lightning Needles immediately, causing a torrent of attacks. "Tch!" The God King clicked his tongue, feeling a deep sense of exhaustion stemming forth from within him, noting that he had been weakened severely. Not only had he expended most of his Champion state to defend against Hishe''s attack, but Faunkill''s power also constantly weakened him. This power increased in strength the weaker he got, as the process began to accelerate soon after. Boom! The God King riled up his Champion state to the limit, coughing out fragments of Law that had been corrupted from the various attacks as he headed straight towards the Tilk Realm, ignoring Krune. And this time, he did exactly what Krune had done before: hiding behind the spatial storms, using them to defend against his attacks. The mighty God King was no longer taking an invincible stance as he hurriedly clapped his hand. The beam of energy incident on him from the Mong Realm widened, extending further as its front expanded like a snake''s mouth, actually swallowing the Tilk Realm, activating a mystical spatial ability that rapidly began to shrink the Tilk Realm. "Assist me!" The God King grunted, snapping his fingers as immediately after, Fen-Pu-Fira and the fourteen Mong Realm Gods surrounded him while the rest of the army rushed into the Tilk Realm. Since there were two Gods in the Tilk Realm, four Mong Realm Gods entered it just to stabilize it by sealing the strength of the two Tilk Realm Gods. "My Lord!" Fen-Pu Fira shouted in alarm upon gazing at the God King''s pitiful state, something that he had never seen ever since he attained the title as the God King. "Ignore that. I''m losing power as we speak. Before I become weak, we have to bring this to the Mong Realm." The God King said in a hurry. "Protect me from all attacks while I bring this out." "Heuk!" The God King bellowed as the power arriving from the Mong Realm doubled in size, causing the Tilk Realm to move, followed by a spatial storm rumble. Immediately after, the Tilk Realm began to fly towards the spatial storm barrier at terrifying speeds. "Bastards! Don''t run!" Wally shouted as he was transported by the Rune Realm Spirit, unleashing a myriad of attacks instantly. "Oh no, you don''t!" Fen-Pu Fira shouted as he desperately defended against Wally''s attacks. Boom! Boom! Boom! Krune unleashed attacks nonstop onto the beam of light unleashed by the Mong Realm, causing it to shiver from time to time under the hail of attacks. But the Mong Realm Gods worked frantically to mend it while the God King focused entirely on bringing it out of the Kun Realm Cluster. Soon after, the Tilk Realm entered the spatial storm barrier. The beam from the Mong Realm had pierced through the spatial storm barrier. So, the God King was using this path itself to bring the Tilk Realm out. "Dammit! Attack!" Krune shouted, intending to unleash another Lightning Needle when the attack wasn''t unleashed. He stared in shock as he slowly lost power, fainting in response. Chapter 1483 Cutting Losses Chapter 1483 Cutting Losses "Krune!" Little Cally shouted, sensing something amiss through the Calamity Laws as it hurriedly caught him, noticing that he was exhausted beyond limit, having overdrafted his power. Of course, he was fighting against the God King. So Krune had gone all out from the start. Moreover, he was only a newly born God. He didn''t have enough experience in using his Champion state. A few minutes was his limit. But despite that, he remained in that state for prolonged durations. And now, he was unable to use his power anymore, falling unconscious as his body turned brittle. At present, a single attack from a Primal God was enough to kill him. His situation was that dangerous. Gegrafikan and the rest arrived at the scene, having successfully closed the spatial tunnel. It was because the army had retreated. And upon learning of the situation from the Rune Realm Spirit, they hurriedly rushed to reinforce here. All the Kun Realm Gods attacked the Mong Realm Champion beam in a frenzy, but despite everything, it held up well. And soon after, the Mong Realm army reinforced them from the other side, allowing the Tilk Realm to cross the spatial storm barrier, leaving the Kun Realm Cluster. Two Satellite Realm Cannons arrived at the scene, unleashing their beams respectively. "Keuk!" Wally took the lead as the senior God, defending against the two beams with all his strength while the others tied to attack past it. But no matter what, the Mong Realm''s situation improved as more and more Gods arrived to reinforce them. The Gods from other realms that had been stationed nearby were also attacking the Mong Realm Gods, but the situation didn''t improve. From time to time, the God King would accumulate enough energy to fire attacks everywhere, causing all the attacking parties to scramble to safety. Using this chance, the Mong Realm army would bring the Tilk Realm further away. Boom! Suddenly, the God King''s aura spiked as he unleashed all his power, rapidly compressing the Tilk Realm inside as the Satellite Realm Rapid Transport, another of the Mong Realm''s trump cards, arrived at the scene, swallowing the Tilk Realm. Everyone from the Mong Realm, including the God King, entered it as the Satellite Realm Rapid Transport began to fly at terrifying speeds. Four Satellite Realm Cannons orbited around it, having attached themselves to it. They acted as its defense, blasting Satellite Realm Cannon beams at the opposing armies, keeping them at bay. "Shit!" Wally grunted in indignation, unable to catch up with the escaping Satellite Realm Rapid Transport. It was just too fast, creating spatial tunnels nonstop to traverse massive distances. Boom! Each of his attacks were terrifying, capable of destroying Satellite Realms, shocking everyone from the other realms, wondering how the Kun Realm had managed to grow such an expert. All of them had obviously witnessed the God King''s pitiful state. The fact that he also hid inside the Satellite Realm Rapid Transport spoke volumes about his current state. So, they were shocked at the Kun Realm''s trump cards that were capable of reducing even the mighty God King to such a state. And now, there was Wally, displaying power on par with Fen-Pu-Fira, the infamous God King''s right hand that had killed a Champion on his own. But despite the strength of his attacks, Wally wasn''t able to do anything as Fen-Pu-Fira defended against all his attacks. The Satellite Realm Cannons targeted Wally first, keeping him at bay as the Satellite Realm Rapid Transport freed itself from the countless attacks, using the chance to create a spatial tunnel, rapidly raising the distance between the two parties. It continued to change spatial tunnels, traversing distance worth an entire realm through each spatial tunnel in a matter of seconds. Eventually, it managed to throw them off, rapidly forming a long spatial tunnel to head towards the Mong Realm, entering it soon after. The armies from the other realms were indeed attacking the Mong Realm nonstop, dealing a lot of damage, harming even the foundation of the Mong Realm itself. Even though the Mong Realm was the strongest, they weren''t able to fight against the alliance of major powers. "Cough!" The God King coughed out blood, gasping for air as he seemed to be losing power nonstop. He quickly inspected himself, sensing a mysterious power circulating in him that was constantly suppressing his strength. "Dammit!" ''I''ll have to fight the Garg Realm Champion next,'' he thought, worried. ''At my current state, I''m not his match.'' He then thought of his plans, commanding the Mong Realm Spirit, "Cut off the invaded parts!" "But, we''ll lose some power due to this." The Mong Realm Spirit spoke in a hurry. "Doesn''t matter." The God King said in response. "We have the Tilk Realm with us now. We''ll become stronger after this. Such minor losses wouldn''t affect us." "But, if we delay, I''ll have to fight the Garg Realm Champion," he said, expressing worry for the first time as he told him, "And in my present state, he''ll kill me. It seems I had underestimated Hishe too much." "What? Lord, you''ll lose to the Garg Realm Champion?" The Mong Realm Gods were unable to control themselves upon hearing his words, losing their composure. "Do it!" The God King didn''t offer them an explanation, urging the Mong Realm Spirit. "Fine!" The Mong Realm Spirit gritted its teeth before saying, snapping its fingers. "We''ll cut our losses here, then." Boom! In the Mong Realm, the Garg Realm Champion smirked, managing to kill a dozen Mong Realm Gods while forcing Dur-Te-Sara on the verge of death. But suddenly, everyone from the Mong Realm expressed shock before their figures were forcibly teleported out of the region. "What the¡­?" The Garg Realm Champion stared in shock as the space around him cracked. The entire region he had invaded was abruptly cut off from the Mong Realm, causing the spatial storms to gush in and begin devouring everything. "Their foundation would take a severe hit if they do this." "What''s the reason?" He frowned, intending to enter the Mong Realm through another route available in the Satellite Realm Krune had given him, when he noticed the portals in the Satellite Realm vanish. "What the fuck is happening now?" Even he was confused. He then gazed at Krune''s clone, noticing that it was crying with a blank expression. Chapter 1484 Information Extraction Chapter 1484 Information Extraction Bam! Wally smashed a floating rock in anger, having failed their task grandly. Because of it, they lost the Tilk Realm. Even though it was only a tenth of its original size, a loss was still a loss. It was especially so since in terms of Satellite Realms around the Kun Realm, the Tilk Realm was the largest and had the most robust foundation, for it was the core of the original Tilk Realm. And now, the Mong Realm had stolen that. More than that, they had killed Hishe and Luvile, two of their strongest senior Gods, ones that had given their all to mend their original screw up and were working everything they could to revive the dead Gods and better the Kun Realm. Hishe had created Sub-Realms throughout the Kun Realm as training grounds that gave the cultivators newfound abilities, also strengthening them through countless trials to produce stronger cultivators. So, pretty much every elite that had grown stronger felt grateful for Hishe''s selfless care for the Kun Realm. And then there was Luvile, using false tribulations to constantly strengthen the newly born Gods, making them at least strong enough to contend in the Greater Universe, saving them hundreds of thousands of years worth of painstaking development. If not for their constant service, the Kun Realm would have been a lot weaker. After all, it was a realm that hadn''t even known of the existence of other realms long ago. Of course, none of them were strong enough to face experts like the Mong Realm Gods that had spent their entire lives fighting enemies from other realms. Only through the restless endeavor of these two senior Gods were their strengths upgraded to an extent that they could protect their lives against the attacks of the Mong Realm Gods. Once the Mong Realm army retreated successfully, reality finally struck the Kun Realm army as their moods turned somber. The Tilk Realm was stolen, and they had lost two legends. Soren was so severely injured that it was unknown when he would recover. The case was the same for Sterlena, who was also cared for by Turia, expressing her worry. Similarly, Krune was in a similar state, unknown as to when he might wake up, in a fragile condition. The Kun Realm''s two Champions were out of commission while two of their strongest experts were dead, and the third was critically injured. Only Wally remained among the senior Gods, and of course, Solare, who was a revived God. But in terms of experts, there was only Wally remaining now. Had their opponent been a regular Champion, they wouldn''t have faced such a loss. However, the one they faced was the God King, the strongest God in the Greater Universe. Hence, their loss was disastrous. "What do we do now, Senior Wally?" Soren asked in concern, "Do we invade the Mong Realm?" "No, we return," Wally said with a serious gaze. "We don''t know the true depth of the Mong Realm. Invading them again would be a fool''s endeavor. Instead, we''ll fortify our defenses and strengthen ourselves better." "The next time, we''ll hit them back with greater force," Wally said, fuming in anger. "We''ll show these bastards the consequences of offending us time and again." He led everyone through the spatial storm barrier, closing it before returning to the Kun Realm Cluster. With that, all the Gods returned to their respective homes while Wally hovered in silence at the Kun Realm''s entrance. "What are you thinking about, grandpa?" Turia appeared beside him, asking in concern, teary-eyed. "Satellite Realm Cannon¡­" Wally muttered. "They turned Satellite Realms into siege weapons to fuel their invasion. And when they escaped, they used a Satellite Realm as their transport. It was because of these that they succeeded." "We already have the Rune Realm to serve as our transport," Wally said. "That means we''re only lacking a Realm to attack and defend with. What do you say about that?" "Will that protect us?" Turia wiped her tears, asking, "I can already feel the connection I shared with the Tilk Realm vanishing as we speak. The Mong Realm has already begun to devour it." "We can only try." Wally sighed after hearing that. "In the meantime, we''ll strengthen the spatial storm barrier." "How?" Turia asked. "I''ll refine Krune''s and Sterlena''s power into it. This way, through their power as Champions, the spatial storm barrier would become part of the Kun Realm Cluster. You''ll be able to control it after that. This way, we''ll be able to defend better." "I''ll try my best to heal them," Turia said in response. "They''ve used too much of their Champion state. But as long as they recover for a couple of years, they''ll be fine." "Where are they now?" Wally asked. "I''ve immersed their bodies in my core. They''ll obtain the best nourishment there. Plus, it''ll also help stabilize Krune''s state better," Turia replied. "After he obtained a second law, his condition became dangerous. So, until he stabilizes, it would be better to not use any power. So, I''m keeping him safe there." "I''ll make rounds here now," Wally said after that. "There doesn''t seem to be any spies here. But in the case someone slipped through our net, I''ll catch him." "Grandpa, don''t you need to rest? You''re also severely injured," Turia asked, worried. "A wisp doesn''t need rest." Wally smirked before flying away, "I''ve become used to healing my injuries while traveling." ¡­ "So, the Mong Realm cut off all the invaded parts without any concern about the blow it would cause to its foundation," the Garg Realm Champion muttered, watching Krune''s clone dissipate. He exited the Satellite Realm and returned to the Garg Realm with his army, sporting a smile as he held large fragments of the Mong Realm. The Garg Realm Spirit appeared before him, excitedly grabbing hold of all the Mong Realm fragments, saying gleefully, "I was waiting to devour a part of that realm since long ago. Even though this is a small fragment, it''ll give me an edge." "Can you extract all the information stored in these fragments about the Mong Realm?" The Garg Realm Champion asked. "Of course." The Garg Realm Spirit smirked jovially. "Leave it to me. Such an opportunity never comes easily. So, I''ll extract all the information." Chapter 1485 Realm Ability Chapter 1485 Realm Ability The Garg Realm was by far the most stably developed realm in the Greater Universe. After all, before the Mong Realm''s rise, the Garg Realm was the strongest. Even now, the Garg Realm was the only realm that directly dared to face the Mong Realm. Hence, the Garg Realm Champion had no qualms about stealing the Mong Realm''s wealth. Rather, he competed against the other realms to steal more of the Mong Realm fragments. The Garg Realm Spirit slowly began to consume the Mong Realm fragments, extracting all the information that was hidden within their law makeup. "I see¡­" The Garg Realm Spirit muttered after a while, having absorbed the foundation of the fragments. "The Mong Realm Spirit has developed its Realm Ability." "Realm Ability?" The Garg Realm Champion asked in confusion. "What''s that?" "It''s an ability exclusive to the use of the Realm Spirit." The Garg Realm Spirit explained. "This is one ability that can harness the power of the entire realm better than the Champion. Also, it''s an ability that can rapidly alter a Realm''s growth and power. The Mong Realm Spirit''s Realm Ability is to revive the Mong Realm Gods even after their death." "Do you have a Realm Ability?" The Garg Realm Champion asked. "Not yet." The Garg Realm Spirit told him. "The creation and condensation of the Realm Ability require as many resources as the entire realm. So, it''s damn expensive. I have been saving up for that all this time. Sure, I''m close, but I didn''t expect the Mong Realm to complete it first." "Does that mean the Mong Realm is the first realm to have a Realm Ability?" the Garg Realm Champion asked. "No, if they were, I wouldn''t have known about the Realm Ability in the first place." The Garg Realm Spirit replied. "Based on the history that I''m aware of, the Mong Realm is the fourth to have a Realm Ability." "What about the first three?" The Garg Realm Champion asked. "They went extinct." The Garg Realm Spirit explained. "These three realms waged war with each other and ended up annihilating one another due to the simultaneous activation of their respective Realm Abilities." "Our Realm was pretty tiny and insignificant back then." The Garg Realm Spirit continued. "We were a mere Satellite Realm under the rule of one of the three major powers. The Mong Realm, the Dolk Realm, and the Tilk Realm were Satellite Realms under the control of each of the three powers." "After the three Greater Realms annihilated one another, all of us absorbed the fragments and grew to become realms. Luckily, I obtained the majority of those fragments and developed the fastest." The Garg Realm Spirit concluded. "How long would it take to create your Realm Ability?" The Garg Realm Champion asked. "Around a couple millennia at most." The Garg Realm Spirit said after a moment of thought. "Fortunately, swallowing these Mong Realm fragments accelerated the process. Anyways..." Its tone suddenly became solemn, speaking after sensing that Krune''s clone had truly vanished. "We need to prepare our invasion force and invade a couple other realms." "Now?" The Garg Realm Champion asked in surprise. "Yes." The Garg Realm Spirit nodded. "The Kun Realm has devoured nine-tenths of the Tilk Realm, even if they had just been turned into Satellite Realms. As for the tenth fragment of the Tilk Realm, it is now being devoured by the Mong Realm." "This means that the Mong Realm would become stronger than it already is. As for the Kun Realm, even though they''re weak for the time being, they have the highest potential among all realms right now. Plus, you''ve also seen the state they''ve reduced the God King to." It said, "So, they would quickly become a major player in the upcoming years." "But what about us?" The Garg Realm Spirit added. "We haven''t swallowed anything major. So, our development, though the most stable and without flaws, cannot compare to theirs. The Mong Realm has already exceeded us in power. If nothing else is done, the Kun Realm would also reach our level." "Then, should I invade the Kun Realm? Strike where it hurts the most?" The Garg Realm Champion muttered. "No, don''t target the Kun Realm. Let them wear down the Mong Realm. They have developed considerable hatred toward each other. So, let them fight each other out," the Garg Realm Spirit said cunningly. "As for us, we''ll invade a weak Realm and annex it." "It''s the Realm third in line, following the Tilk Realm and the Kun Realm in the Mong Realm''s list of annexation." The Garg Realm Spirit told him. "The Mong Realm has pulled back its army stationed there for this war. And now, the God King is severely injured, and the Mong Realm is doing everything in its power to swallow and digest the Tilk Realm." "So, this is our best chance to invade the Zen Realm, break it into fragments and devour it before the other realms can do anything." It concluded. "That''s interesting." The Garg Realm Champion nodded, snapping his finger as information was transmitted to all the Gods, causing them to begin preparations for a large-scale invasion. "We''ll shorten the time needed to condense our Realm Ability." He smiled. "And after that, we''ll deal with the Mong Realm." "But first¡­" The Garg Realm Spirit said, waving its hand as the Satellite Realm gifted by Krune morphed rapidly, now displaying only one portal. "This leads directly into the Zen Realm. Krune really gave me valuable information through this Satellite Realm. I cannot create something like this, but I sure as hell can modify its current powers." "So, we''ll invade through this." The Garg Realm Champion smiled as he didn''t even bother to take a rest, directly charging out with an initial team of a couple dozen Gods. The rest of the army would arrive once they were ready. Until then, he would wreak havoc in the Zen Realm. He wasn''t afraid. After all, he was the second strongest God in existence. And unlike the Kun Realm, which experienced massive waves of change in recent times, the Zen Realm was the same. After all, it was struggling to survive under the Mong Realm''s forces until two years ago. Chapter 1486 For Peace, Become My Servant Chapter 1486 For Peace, Become My Servant Zen Realm. There were signs of war everywhere as the natives were trying their best to heal the damages and recover from signs of war. The Zen Realm was a tranquil place, one where the Laws were the clearest. The inhabitants of this realm had the least fighting spirit or nature to fight, so to speak. Thus, they were the most peaceful among the realms in the Greater Universe. Of course, that also meant their abilities weren''t attuned to battles. The majority of the Zen Realm Gods had abilities geared to healing and enlivening the region. Thanks to that, their realm also developed in this direction, becoming the abode for cultivation. This had been true until a Mong Realm scout discovered the Zen Realm three hundred thousand years ago. Upon seeing how this place would prove beneficial for them, the Mong Realm invaded en masse, sparking a long series of wars. The Zen Realm''s inhabitants, innately peaceful in nature, really abhorred war, unwilling to fight. But they were forced to do so, resulting in a lot of deaths. A land that was once filled with people calmly meditating to perceive the secrets of the Laws was now filled with rivers of blood, the region hollowed out with the plundering of all resources. The Zen Realm was truly turned upside down. They only had 15 Gods in the first place, a pitiful number. However, each one of them was damn strong. Shockingly, each of them was stronger than a Mong Realm God. Unfortunately for them, though, their numbers proved pitiful against the Mong Realm army. In terms of the number of Gods, the Mong Realm ranked first in the Greater Universe, having a whopping 686 Gods. Coming in second was the Garg Realm with 602 Gods. The Dolk Realm had 304 Gods, the Lak Realm had 298 Gods, and the Fon Realm had 243 Gods. As for the Kun Realm, they were at 221 Gods now. This was in sharp contrast to before Turia''s birth, where their numbers were less than thirty. Typically, when a Realm Spirit was birthed, a lot of Gods would come into being using that duration where breakthroughs were the easiest. After that, they would slowly accumulate their numbers. This was why the realms with a Realm Spirit had more than 200 Gods. But for the Realms without one, they had Gods ranging between ten and forty. So, it wasn''t surprising that the Zen Realm only had fifteen Gods. But despite that, they resisted the Mong Realm''s invasion. After all, the Mong Realm at that time was focusing most of its strength on the Tilk Realm. So, the invasive army at the Zen Realm wasn''t powerful enough to defeat them. The Mong Realm had dispatched themselves into various realms, after all. In the Zen Realm, they had occupied a corner of the realm, setting up a station despite the area being disadvantageous for them. After that, they constantly invaded deeper into the Zen Realm, raiding the cities one after another, pillaging all the resources of the place while turning the people into Blood Pills. Until two years ago, this had been the case. But in preparation to invade the Kun Realm, the Mong Realm retracted its entire force, wishing to obtain the Tilk Realm no matter the cost. Hence, after three hundred thousand years of nonstop war, there was finally peace in the Zen Realm for two years. Unfortunately, it was only a short-lived peace, though, as this time, the Garg Realm came charging in. Unlike the Mong Realm, they invaded in full force from the very beginning. The Mong Realm pillaged everything in their sight as it was in their nature. On the other hand, the Garg Realm was different in its actions. They didn''t just want the Zen Realm, but the people as well. The Garg Realm Champion appeared before the Zen Realm Gods, smiling as he looked at their exhausted appearance, "All of you are pretty strong. However, you won''t win against my Garg Realm." "I''ll give you a proposal." He smiled, stating, "Become my people, and I''ll ensure the Mong Realm can never threaten you ever again." "You want us to submit to your rule?" A Zen Realm God said in anger. "Yes." The Garg Realm Champion nodded in response. "But in return, the Garg Realm would protect you. Also, by asking for you to submit, I didn''t mean the Zen Realm." "What?" The Zen Realm Gods were shocked, unable to understand what he was getting at. "I only want you, the Zen Realm Gods, to submit to me." The Garg Realm Champion stated. "In extension, any future God your realm births would submit to our rule. In return, the rest of your populace would return to their lives from three hundred thousand years ago." "What do you say?" "Peace in exchange for our fealty¡­?" The leading Zen Realm God sighed, staring at the sky as he smiled wryly. "So this is what it all boils down to." "You can be assured of one thing, though." The Garg Realm Champion stated in confidence. "I won''t mistreat you." "But if we submit to you, does that mean we''ll have to also participate in your battles?" One of the Zen Realm Gods. "If you don''t wish to do so, then don''t." The Garg Realm Champion said in response. "But in return, since the Garg Realm would guarantee your safety, the Zen Realm should pay us with resources." "A tax¡­" The leading Zen Realm God muttered, gazing at the Garg Realm Champion as he asked, "And how much would this tax be?" "Forty percent of the resources your realm produces," the Garg Realm Champion said in all seriousness. It was like a rock was slammed into their minds as the Zen Realm Gods trembled at the price. If they paid a tax of forty percent, then there wouldn''t be much left for their realm''s development. It would mean that the Zen Realm would never be able to escape the Garg Realm''s grasp for eternity. ''In exchange for peace, we''ll have to enact servitude for all eternity.'' The leading Zen Realm God gritted his teeth. "Even when the Mong Realm invaded, the resources they stole didn''t even amount to a tenth of a percent of my realm''s production. And now, you''re asking for forty percent?" "Yep." The Garg Realm Champion only smiled in response. Chapter 1487 Genius Politician Chapter 1487 Genius Politician "This is just daylight robbery! You''re basically looting us dry." The leading Zen Realm God bellowed. "That''s the condition." The Garg Realm God stated calmly. "In return, the Zen Realm would avoid a fate of being annexed." "The situation is changing in the Greater Universe. The Mong Realm would make major moves after this. To keep up with it, the other strong realms would join hands to devour the weaker Realms," he continued. "So, your future is a series of invasions from all the major realms. Once the Mong Realm recovers, they might invade you once again, but with a stronger force this time." The leading Zen Realm God imagined that future, seeing visions of constant wars, of his people dying nonstop, with their livelihood disrupted, unable to seek their immortal path. It was akin to hell. No, it was a living hell. In contrast, the situation with the Garg Realm was better. Even though they would have to provide an exorbitant amount of resources, their lives would return to how it originally was. Sure, they''ll be a tad poorer, but unlike the major realms, the Zen Realm wasn''t even fully developed. So, a loss of forty percent of their produced resources every year wouldn''t even be noticed by anyone. After all, they were making use of less than ten percent of the Zen Realm''s resources. Any less developed realm without a Realm Spirit was pretty much the same. With that in mind, the Garg Realm Champion took advantage of this fact. He provided them protection while extracting an exorbitant sum which, in truth, didn''t make a difference whether it was there or not. Sure, there would eventually come a time when this lack of accumulation would be felt by the people, but it would also mean that they had developed enough to consume sixty percent of the Zen Realm''s resources. That would be so long into the future that even the Garg Realm Champion didn''t know if he would live that long. For this entire time, the Garg Realm would obtain a steady sum of resources that would greatly benefit them. This was his plan. Instead of invading the Zen Realm, he took advantage of it in the name of protection. They were weak anyway. But if he tried to destroy them, the gains wouldn''t amount to much. This had to be noted that it wasn''t easy to swallow a realm. Even the Mong Realm was taking great pains to devour a tenth of the Tilk Realm. It was also why the Kun Realm turned the rest of the Tilk Realm into the Kun Realm Cluster. Honestly, with their accumulation, if they tried to annex the Tilk Realm, it would have taken them fifty thousand years just to swallow and digest a mere Satellite Realm, not to mention the Tilk Realm itself. This was also why the Garg Realm Champion didn''t bother annexing the Zen Realm. Even his Garg Realm couldn''t afford to patiently wait and devour such a massive realm. So instead, they would make up for it with resources. In the meantime, just to raise their foundation, he could invade other realms and steal some Satellite Realms. Small, but they would gradually accumulate enough and raise the Garg Realm''s foundation step by step. Everything was politics. The Mong Realm had its way of doing things, and the Garg Realm had the same. Typically, the Garg Realm took advantage of its position as the second strongest force and being the sole one that openly confronted the Mong Realm. That was how he made an image of himself being the shield that would protect them from invasions. In truth, he was scaring them using the Mong Realm''s might but at the same time poking them with the fact that only the Garg Realm could protect them. It was also why he invaded with his full force, displaying the suffocating power under his disposal. It both intimidated the Zen Realm Gods while also reassuring them through his suggestion. As an old fox from the same generation as the God King, the Garg Realm Champion was well versed in taking advantage of everything in his favor. And as he had expected, he won the trade. After great consideration, the Zen Realm Gods bowed before the Garg Realm Champion. "We only need peace." "Rest assured." The Garg Realm Champion smiled, pointing at the portal he arrived from. "This would be open all the time. We''ll collect the resources here. I''ll also station twenty Gods as support. That should be more than enough to stall any army that might arrive long enough for us to reinforce your realm." "We are grateful." The Zen Realm Gods gritted their teeth before accepting everything. Five of them flew away, preparing the resources that they needed to present first as a show of submission. Upon seeing their actions, the Garg Realm Champion smiled. ''Success.'' ''They''ll be indignant the first few times. But upon seeing how their lives would return to the original, they would be glad to offer this protection fee after that. And if they ever dare think of rebelling, I can retract my army and pay the Dolk Realm to invade them a little,'' he thought, grinning internally. Of course, he had planned for all eventualities, smiling as the Zen Realm Gods began to bring in large bags full of storage rings full of resources. "Unload it in this," the Garg Realm Champion said, snapping his finger as a couple of Gods brought out a massive Sub-Realm that was large enough to almost be addressed as a Satellite Realm. "Use this to transport the goods." "Yes." The Zen Realm Gods nodded dispiritedly, seeing resources of their realm being sent away... by their own hands at that. The Sub-Realm made multiple trips back and forth until all the resources were deposited in the Garg Realm. After that, the Garg Realm King stationed twenty Garg Realm Gods in the Zen Realm, one of which he trusted the highest, having strength equal to a Champion. With him around, the Zen Realm would truly be safe. After all, his strength would be enough to solve any situation that might arise. Smiling, the Garg Realm Champion returned to the Garg Realm with his army. ''Now, for an actual invasion.'' ''There''s still a lot to do to bridge the gap between us and the Mong Realm.'' Chapter 1488 Greater Universe of Allies and Enemies Chapter 1488 Greater Universe of Allies and Enemies "I understand why you did that, but we''ll need something that would give us a clear edge over the Mong Realm." The Garg Realm Spirit said hesitantly. "Once the Mong Realm finishes devouring the Tilk Realm, they would set eyes on the Zen Realm." "They won''t." The Garg Realm Champion smiled in response. "They won''t have the leeway to fight an all-out war against us, especially with the Kun Realm biting onto its toes. If they show any weakness, the Kun Realm will target them." "This is a realm that infiltrated the Mong Realm and created an opportunity for all the realms to invade the Mong Realm twice. Also, the Rune Realm is something that''s stolen from the Mong Realm, right? It''s like a slap to their face," he continued. "Who had been able to steal from the Mong Realm in the past? The Kun Realm was the first to do so. Shockingly, they didn''t have any knowledge of the other realms not long before that." "On top of that, their two champions used the Mong Realm''s foundation to gather strength and create their God Seats." He laughed as he said that. "This is the Kun Realm''s character. So, the moment the Mong Realm fights us in full force, the Kun Realm would hit them where it hurts the most." "Besides, you''ve seen the emotion of Krune''s clone, right?" he asked, continuing after the Garg Realm Spirit nodded. "It means someone dear to him has been killed. Even before this, Krune annihilated a tenth of the Mong Realm''s population in their God Realm. And what is to say about next, now that someone closest to him has been killed?" "He''ll be preparing to annihilate the Mong Realm." "I see, that makes sense." The Garg Realm Spirit''s eyes widened in surprise. "So, the Zen Realm is basically a trap for the Mong Realm." "Yes, and this is a trap that would continue to support us." The Garg Realm Champion laughed. "It''s a win-win situation for us, especially since I''ve been fostering a neutral relationship with the Kun Realm." "Even though they have quite a lot of advantages, their development is severely lacking. Hence, every time they''re met with a disaster, they have no other choice but to request our help." He smiled. "Only that, Krune is aware of politics and presents us with benefits to move us. But in the end, he''s depending on us, and we''ve reciprocated it twice." "This means that the Kun Realm wouldn''t become our enemies." The Garg Realm Spirit nodded. "Nothing is permanent." The Garg Realm Champion smirked in response. "But, no realm can afford to offend us thanks to our strength and stance on various matters. As long as we remain firm in our strength, the Kun Realm would never become our enemy even after becoming a Major Realm." "So, you also feel that they have the potential to become a Major Realm." The Garg Realm Spirit sighed. "Yes." The Garg Realm Champion nodded. "They have gained control over nine-tenths of the Tilk Realm, leading to the formation of the Kun Realm Cluster. Unlike every realm, they have two Champions. So, I can say with guarantee that they would quickly create their Realm Ability and become one of the Greater Realms." With the creation of their Realm Ability, the Mong Realm had already attained status as a Greater Realm. However, they had been subtle about it all along, masking every detail regarding that. Had it been revealed, then all the Realm Spirits from competing realms would have sensed the changes, prompting their respective Champions to do everything in their power to go against the Mong Realm. If that happened, the Mong Realm would definitely have failed in its procurement of the Tilk Realm. This was why, until they rectified all the problems and stabilized the realm after devouring the Tilk Realm, they would digest their gains. Only after that would the Mong Realm reveal its fangs once again. This time around, they would display their ferocity. The Mong Realm Spirit''s Realm Ability was perfectly suited to their realm''s character, which was to constantly invade the other Realms. Hence, even if some Mong Realm Gods were to die, they would revive perfectly. Plus, this was an ability that couldn''t be prevented unless the Mong Realm Core was damaged, which was pretty much impossible. Basically, the Mong Realm Gods had attained true immortality. Thanks to this, they could fight without concern and constantly improve through battles and pillage from everywhere they please. Thanks to the Dolk Realm Champion''s astute observation, information regarding the Mong Realm''s Realm Ability was revealed. Unfortunately, as the Mong Realm Spirit had cut off all the invaded portions, it resulted in all the realms losing their means of entry into the Mong Realm. So, their only option was to brute force their way into the Mong Realm through its realm barrier. Then again, that was easier said than done. If it had been easy, there would have been no need to collect keys. And the Mong Realm had a key from all the realms except the Garg Realm and the Kun Realm. So, the only two opponents that could harness the power of their keys and do something were these two realms. Of course, the Garg Realm Champion was aware of that. Hence, he began preparations. "But first, we''ll invade the Yan Realm," he spoke. "Why the Yan Realm?" The Garg Realm Spirit was confused. "The Yan Realm is weak, but it''s located too far away. Even by using spatial tunnels, a single trip would take us around a century. It''s so far off that it''s cut off from the rest of the realms. Even the Mong Realm tried to invade it once and gave up after that because it just wasn''t worth the effort. Any resources they pillaged from there were useless as they consumed thrice the amount just to make a single trip." "They made major losses from that trip and never bothered with the Yan Realm ever again." It concluded. "Yes, but that''s what makes them the perfect target to invade." The Garg Realm champion smirked, saying, "I have an idea. It would also hasten our Realm Ability''s creation." Chapter 1489 Realm Ability: Moving Realms Chapter 1489 Realm Ability: Moving Realms Two thousand years of precarious peace transpired in the Greater Universe as every realm nervously kept an eye on the Mong Realm, able to sense the quantity of energy from the spatial storm being sucked into it steadily increasing over time. Originally, the Mong Realm was on the verge of its natural death. So, the amount of energy it absorbed from the spatial storms was a paltry sum. Even Satellite Realms absorbed more energy than that. This was also why the Mong Realm constantly invaded the other realms. But now, the quantity of energy being absorbed by the Mong Realm continued to increase, alarming the other realms. After all, this meant that the Mong Realm was steadily turning younger as it continued to digest the Tilk Realm. Moreover, its foundation was also being upgraded. This meant that the God King would become ever stronger as every single Law of the Mong Realm would become stronger. Just this thought alone caused the Champions to have restless days. As if to rile them up even further, the Zen Realm suddenly whirred into life, beginning to move. Such an action shocked everyone, for realms weren''t supposed to move in the first place. The only time this happened was with the Tilk Realm. And that was only possible thanks to Hishe, a God that had both the Laws and as he had activated them during a time when there were no other Gods in the Tilk Realm. But with the death of Hishe, such a phenomenon was thought to never happen again. But here it was, breaking their logic. The Zen Realm started to move slowly, soon picking up speed as it actually condensed a spatial tunnel to travel further, moving with tremendous velocity, way faster than what the Mong Realm''s Satellite Realm Rapid Transport could move at. And this was considering the fact that the Satellite Realm Rapid Transport was pretty much the fastest entity that could travel in the Greater Universe. And now, an entire realm was traveling at speeds way beyond that. By the time the other realms reacted, the Zen Realm had vanished, heading towards the corners of the Greater Universe at a terrifying pace. Surprisingly, it stopped after two decades, arriving before the Yan Realm. Slowly, the Garg Realm Champion exited it, grinning in excitement. "This is epic!" Realm Ability¡ªMoving Realms! It was an ability that allowed them to move any realm of their choosing. Realms with a stronger foundation than the Garg Realm would be able to resist this to a certain extent. But it would still move, albeit slowly. This was a terrifying weapon due to one reason. If they so desired, the Garg Realm could cause two realms to collide with one another. Of course, they would never do something like that. After all, if two Realms collided, they would collapse, causing their respective Realm Cores to fuse and create a singularity, resulting in a terrifying spatial storm that would devour every other realm. Even the Garg Realm would be enveloped in the ensuing chaos. So, such a mutually destructive action would only be taken as a last resort. It also made the Garg Realm Champion understand why the three Greater Realms of the ancient Greater Universe era had collapsed. Realm Abilities were just that overpowered. At present, they used their Realm Ability to move the Zen Realm next to the Yan Realm to prepare for the invasion. As the Zen Realm had submitted to them, this was used as their transport. It was easy since they had a portal entering the Zen Realm that they had reinforced and perfected over the past two millennia to allow for long-distance travel. This was in preparation to travel the long distance necessary to reach the Zen Realm after it was moved closer to the Yan Realm. They didn''t move the Garg Realm because it occupied a beneficial spot in the Greater Universe where one of the densest spatial storms occurred. So, it provided them an abundance of energy to absorb. The farther away they went, the weaker the spatial storms became. And eventually, there came the Yan Realm, existing in a part of the Greater Universe with immensely weak spatial storms. Even Gods could casually move through spatial storms of such caliber. Basically, it meant one thing: The Yan Realm was poor. As its resource production was less, there was plenty of internal conflict in the Yan Realm. Though, this did end up producing 39 Gods in total. However, they were already approaching their full capacity. At most, a couple more Gods could be birthed. The resource production of the realm wouldn''t be able to keep up beyond that as its foundation would exceed the surrounding spatial storm. This was a phenomenon of ballooning. There was a chance that the Godly Energy of the Yan Realm would leak into the spatial storm to fuel it due to the rapid difference in energy levels. If the Yan Realm didn''t wish for that to happen, it would have to exert all its power to rein in its absorbed energy. But without a Realm Spirit, such an action was impossible to execute. And now, the Garg Realm Champion had arrived before the Yan Realm, smiling as he brought out a Satellite Realm, one that had been reinforced to act as a battering ram that they would use to penetrate forcefully into the Yan Realm. Obviously, he had no interest in asking for tax from the Yan Realm. They hadn''t been invaded properly before. As they were poor, the Mong Realm retracted their forces soon after. So, it would be impossible to force them to submit like the Zen Realm. Hence, it was better to swallow the realm and raise the Garg Realm''s foundation. In comparison to the realms he usually invaded, the Yan Realm was pretty tiny, its foundation lacking. It was only better compared to the Tilk Realm fragment that the Mong Realm stole. This was also why he targeted it. As it was small enough, devouring it would be easier than a massive realm. And with that, he smiled, snapping his finger as he communicated through his laws. In response, the Garg Realm Spirit took action from the Garg Realm, unleashing its power through him, focusing it on the Satellite Realm, making it move. After a pause, the Satellite Realm slammed into the Yan Realm and began to drill through it. Chapter 1490 God Extraction Chapter 1490 God Extraction "What the¡­?" "What''s happening?" "Why is our realm rumbling?" "Quick, check it out!" "What do you mean check it out? Where should I look?" "How am I supposed to know?" "Then why are you complaining at me, retard?" "Screw you!" All the Gods of the Yan Realm clamored, breaking into a heated argument as they could feel their realm trembling. This trembling wasn''t felt by the common populace. But as Gods, with their bodies acting as pillars of the realm itself, they could feel this. It was a subtle fluctuation. Hence, they were alarmed, quickly seeping their Divine Sense through everything, arguing nonstop as they were unable to find the cause. Boom! Eventually, a month passed in such a fashion when a part of the Yan Realm''s boundary collapsed and in appeared a Satellite Realm, revolving at rapid speeds while condensing a mystical power on its surface. This power was the cause that drilled through the realm barrier in a month, a terrifying power. Besides, the fluctuations were subtle, barely felt by the Gods. And when it penetrated, there was no backlash in the realm, nor did it destabilize. This was the Garg Realm''s strategic trump cards, vastly superior to the Mong Realm''s invasion tactics. When the Mong Realm forcefully invaded a realm, they made a massive commotion. This was despite them using the power of the Keys to make their way. However, the Garg Realm, despite not employing the power of the Keys, could penetrate through a Realm barrier. This was a blatant show of their solid foundation, reigning at the top of the Greater Universe. "Invasion!" "Is it the Mong Realm?" "Didn''t they leave long ago and showed no signs of ever invading again?" There was no clear leader among the Gods of the Yan Realm. With that, there was a flurry of discussions, with each God having their own narrative. One of them brimmed with fighting spirit, stopping before the Satellite Realm that acted as a drill, noticing a well-built man hovering beside it, possessing a weak aura. Upon seeing that the other party was just a lone individual and someone weaker than them all, the Yan Realm Gods regained their composure as the God that had appeared before the Satellite Realm bellowed arrogantly, "How dare you invade our realm? Who the fuck are you?" "Your father!" The Garg Realm Champion smirked, snapping his fingers as a subtle fluctuation rippled out of him. Slowly, the Gods could feel the Yan Realm itself trembling, unable to handle the extent of power that was beyond what its foundation could endure. The Yan Realm Gods stared in shock as their faces paled in fright, noticing jet-black spheres forming before them each, one after another. Gong! Gong! Gong! The jet-black spheres sparked with a mysterious radiance that swirled around them like solar flares, containing a terrifying power within. Immediately after, a hand shot out of the jet-black sphere, grabbing hold of the neck of the closest Yan Realm God. Godly Ability¡ªGod Extraction! "Gah!" The God screamed in pain before bellowing in fear, "My connection! My Law! What''s happening?" God Extraction was one of the Garg Realm Champion''s signature abilities in that it extracts the God Seat of a God from the realm. Thereby, it was easier to kill the God. After all, without their body¡ªthe Law that they were the representative of¡ªremaining in their realm, they would lose a lot of power. Then again, theoretically speaking, once their God Seat was extracted from their realm, the respective God was actually a lot stronger since their power was fully concentrated now. However, during fights, this also meant that it would be impossible to revive them ever again. Normally, when Gods fought, just like the destructive ability unleashed by immortals to destroy the revival means of their opponents, the attacks of Gods also contained the same. This was how they countered and killed the Gods. However, this wasn''t a permanent death. After all, the very land itself of their home realm would contain information regarding this. And high-level soul techniques were capable of extracting such memories to gradually reform the mind of the God. Plus, advanced body cultivation techniques formed their body before eventually reviving the dead God. This was what Hishe had been doing to revive the dead Gods of the Kun Realm. This was because, once a cultivator became a God, their Law would affect the realm, subtly steering the direction of the realm''s growth accordingly to the new dynamic brought about by this new law. Thus, as new resources were produced thanks to this Law, all the relevant information was stored in the realm itself, acting as a complex database. This was why, once someone became a God, death was just a state of inactivity. It was possible to revive them eventually, though the methods were severely complex and required countless millennia of preparation and processing. But, once a God extracted his God Seat and was killed, there was zero chance for revival. And the Garg Realm Champion''s power did just that. Suddenly, his actions caused the God Seats of all 39 Gods to be extracted. And the process was executed with such expertise that the Yan Realm didn''t stabilize, even after losing all of its major pillars. "Hahh¡­huff¡­puff¡­" The Garg Realm Champion panted, feeling exhausted as even for him, using this ability on 39 Gods without the help of his Champion Stage was going overboard. But he wasn''t alone here, smiling as he took a step back. "I''ll let you guys handle the rest." "Yes, Champion!" The Garg Realm Gods grinned as they sauntered out of the Satellite Realm, numbering forty. Forty Garg Realm Gods against 39 Yan Realm Gods. It was overkill, to be absolutely frank. And especially since the God Seats of the Yan Realm Gods had been extracted, they could now be killed. "Don''t destroy the realm while fighting. Ensure there is no collateral damage." The Garg Realm Champion said before leaning on the Satellite Realm''s barrier, calmly watching everything. Immediately after that, the Garg Realm Gods pounced upon the Yan Realm Gods. Even though they held back, actually also protecting the common populace while fighting against the Yan Realm Gods, the Garg Realm Gods still had an advantage. After all, there was one extra Garg Realm God that went around, helping the others kill the Yan Realm Gods one after another. It wasn''t even a surprise after that. Chapter 1491 Devouring a Realm Chapter 1491 Devouring a Realm "No! Please! Spare us!" The last surviving Yan Realm God pleaded when his body disintegrated. The Garg Realm God that had killed him slowly massaged his shoulders. "This guy had some troublesome abilities. My body is aching all over now." "That''s because you''re too weak." A nearby Garg Realm God laughed in response. "You should train more." "Easy for you to say." This Garg Realm God continued to massage his shoulders, ignoring the jeers from his peers. "Now, let''s eradicate all the immortals. It would become easy to annex after that." One of them said as all forty Garg Realm Gods spread throughout the Yan Realm, engaging in a slaughter. Though, unlike the Mong Realm, the Garg Realm wasn''t interested in creating anything like the Blood Pills. Their clean-up was very swift, efficient even. A God arrived atop a city and unleashed an ability. In a fraction of a second, all the immortals in the city vanished mysteriously. They were disintegrated into nothing at that moment. In this way, the mortals were unaffected, ignorant of such things happening in their realm. In the same way, the Gods went from one city to another, wiping out all immortals while also destroying any and every revival means scattered throughout the Yan Realm. The clean-up operation lasted for less than a decade before they were done. With all the immortals gone now, the Yan Realm showed signs of destabilizing. But this also meant that it was completely vulnerable now as the Garg Realm Champion slowly seeped in his Divine Sense through it, slowly grasping it little by little. Eventually, his Divine Sense morphed into a hand that held the entire Yan Realm. After that, they used the Zen Realm Keys to open a wide entrance to the Zen Realm, slowly sending the Yan Realm through it. And from there, it was sent through the portal, eventually making it arrive at the Garg Realm. The Garg Realm Spirit grinned happily. "Success! And best of all, none of the other realms know what we had done." Everyone was only wondering how the Zen Realm could move like that but had never expected in their wildest dreams that the Garg Realm was behind everything. And now that the Yan Realm had appeared within the Garg Realm itself, their task was done. The Garg Realm Champion gazed at the Zen Realm Gods and said, "I''ll relocate the Zen Realm to a relatively safe location with plenty of spatial storms. This will be temporary until we stabilize things." "Keep up the good work." "Thank you, my Lord." The Zen Realm Gods bowed in response. Honestly speaking, the experience for the past two thousand years had caused them to wholly submit to the Garg Realm. After all, the Garg Realm Champion had indeed kept his word, causing the Zen Realm to become peaceful. And eventually, the residents returned to their original lives of cultivating in peace. And besides, the resources they were paying as tribute weren''t even necessary for them in the first place. So by submitting to the Garg Realm, they could enjoy their original lives. And best of all, only the Gods were privy to this secret. This led to the common populace truly returning to their roots. The twenty Garg Realm Gods in the Zen Realm continued to stay there while the rest from the Garg Realm returned home. The Garg Realm Champion smiled as he noticed the Garg Realm Spirit jumping around like an excited kid that just got their favorite toy. It spun around the Yan Realm, giggling nonstop. Upon seeing this scene, all the Garg Realm Gods felt a heart-warming feeling, breaking into smiles of their own. As for the slaughter they had committed, they had already forgotten it. "Okay! I''ll begin annexing it now!" The Garg Realm Spirit said jubilantly, using a power exclusive to it as the entire Garg Realm whirred in response, seeping in a strong power into the Yan Realm, causing everything within it to turn still immediately. All the resource production stopped as the people felt suffocated all of a sudden. The Godly Energy of the realm vanished, causing it to resemble a dead man''s land immediately as the mortals began to die one after another. Once they died, their souls entered the reincarnation cycle. But as the conditions to create births vanished, the souls remained in stasis in the Yan Realm''s Underworld Realm. The first to be pulled out were these souls that the Garg Realm clubbed into a sphere, removing all traces of memories, turning it into a cluster with a pure soul force. It then placed this cluster in its Underworld Realm, causing the place to assimilate the massive volume of pure souls, gradually causing them to become part of the Garg Realm''s reincarnation cycle, eventually making their way towards potential births in the Garg Realm. Once all signs of life vanished from the Yan Realm, it became a husk of its former self, beginning to collapse. But immediately after, the Garg Realm Spirit used the Garg Realm''s power to stop the collapse, maintaining it whole. After that, the Garg Realm Spirit approached the Yan Realm, opening its mouth before¡­ It took a small bite of the Yan Realm. "¡­" The Garg Realm Champion asked, exasperated, "What was that?" "I''m devouring the Yan Realm." The Garg Realm Spirit replied. "And how many eons would it take for you to eat it with such small mouthfuls?" The Garg Realm Champion felt like facepalming all of a sudden. "As if! You should know that I have to take it slow. Otherwise, if our realm becomes stronger in a short duration, it might seriously mess up our power dynamics." The Garg Realm Spirit retorted. "Besides, I should rearrange the new laws in beneficial locations throughout the Garg Realm so that we obtain the most efficient resource production and birth stronger cultivators." "If I hurry this up, it would only result in us growing weaker." It snorted in disdain. "There''s a reason our realm has the most stable foundation among all." "Fine, you win." The Garg Realm Champion sighed, raising his hands in defeat before asking, "Just curious, how long would it take for you to finish this?" "Around a couple hundred thousand years?" The Garg Realm Spirit tilted its head cutely in response. "It''s pretty quick." Chapter 1492 You’re Becoming a Primordial Beast Chapter 1492 You¡¯re Becoming a Primordial Beast Kun Realm! Turia observed the expression of Sterlena and Krune in worry, for they hadn''t gotten up even after two thousand years had passed. There was a burden of sorts evident in their bodies as Turia worked tirelessly to heal them by placing them in the Kun Realm''s core. Sterlena was the first to wake up after a long time, blinking as she groaned, feeling tipsy, gazing at Turia as she asked, "How long was I out?" "2300 years," Turia replied, tearing up. "I was afraid you would never get up." "When the God King activated his Champion state, the energy beam from the Mong Realm slammed into me. It messed up my Law a lot." Sterlena sighed, clenching her hand into a fist as she looked around in surprise, noticing that she was actually within the Kun Realm''s core, nodding in realization. "I see, so this was why I was cured so early." "How''s the status of our realm right now?" Sterlena got up and slowly exited the Realm Core, sighing upon seeing Krune''s condition as she wished to keep things safe in the Kun Realm until he was fully cured. "We haven''t suffered any invasions after that," Turia said in response. "Also, Wally has made continuous rounds through all the Satellite Realms and ensured that there aren''t any spies. After Senior Soren recovered, he joined hands with Wally and began to train all the Gods and Primal Gods with the potential to become Gods one day." "Also, Wally had proposed a plan that he wished to execute once both you and Krune had recovered," Turia said. "That''s great." She sighed before gritting her teeth upon recalling that Luvile and Hishe were now dead. Moreover, the Tilk Realm had been stolen. Even though those in the Tilk Realm were unfamiliar, they had become allies due to their shared fate and hence helped one another. Even though it was mostly the Kun Realm helping the other party, they still had good relations. These relations deepened once the Tilk Realm''s power structure was converted into the Kun Realm''s. So, when it was stolen by the Mong Realm, a great sense of loss pervaded everyone. ''Again and again, we have suffered losses.'' She gritted her teeth, slowly brought over to the God Realm by Turia as she returned to the Mountain Sect to gather her bearings and think of her next plan. "What will you do until Krune wakes up?" Turia asked her. "I''ll train," Sterlena replied. "I haven''t been able to maintain my Champion state for long. So, I''ll work on increasing the duration. This would automatically strengthen my base power. It''s the fastest way for me to grow stronger the fastest." "I''ll support you to the best of my ability," Turia said. ¡­ Floating amidst the chaotic storms of the Kun Realm Cluster was a giant creature with thousands of sprawling tentacles made from energy. It was a gigantic creature that was continuing to grow in size and power over the years, looking like it would eventually attain status as a Primordial Beast if it kept this up. This was Hazak! She had surpassed her status as a Demon Nest, becoming one that could produce Realm Cores by absorbing the spatial storms. And that was exactly what she did, constantly absorbing the spatial storm as she condensed the power within her body, slowly birthing a Satellite Realm Core. But, if she stopped at present, it would only result in a tiny Satellite Realm that was only a tad larger than a Sub-Realm. So, she had to nurture it within her body more and constantly raise its foundation. But, just that alone wasn''t enough to create a powerful Satellite Realm Core. All she did was create the foundation. The laws of the Satellite Realm Core were only limited to the laws that she had. Thus, this was where she obtained external help. Spirit Aberrant! Gegrafikan turned into a law and seeped into her body, camouflaging himself into her law. Through that, he parasitized her body, seeping his power through her body. In this manner, he supplied the necessary laws to form the foundation for the Satellite Realm Core. This way, the created Realm Core would have a more stable and developed foundation. In any case, it would save eons of development for the Satellite Realm. "Gegrafikan, do you know the origin of my race? Did Hishe say anything to you about us?" Hazak asked while in the process of creating the Realm Core. "Our Kun Realm was created by the Kun Peng. And what I know is that there are influences of quite a few Primordial Beasts in our Realm. Because, unlike most Realms, our Realm was created by the Primordial Beasts that have left a lot of traces. Quite a lot of our races are inferior offshoots of the Primordial Beasts," Gegrafikan explained. "Like the Phoenix race that are offshoots of the Primordial Phoenix." "Then, are us demons offshoots of one of these Primordial Beasts?" Hazak asked. "Maybe," Gegrafikan nodded. "I, too, am unsure as to what Hishe had intended to do with that Sub-Realm by gathering so many unique races there. Now that he died, there''s nothing that we can find out about it. Plus, he hadn''t left behind any inheritances too." He sighed, continuing, "We can only investigate into things that he might have left behind within the Sub-Realms he had erected throughout the Kun Realm. "This is what I''m confused about," Hazak said, frowning in response. "I feel like my growth wouldn''t stop at being a God alone. I think I would eventually become a Primordial Beast." "So, that wasn''t just an illusion." Gegrafikan nodded in realization. "Honestly, when I look at you these days, I feel like you''re becoming more and more like a Primordial Beast." "You feel somewhat restricted while traveling within the Kun Realm, right? And you feel more at ease out here in the spatial storms that can kill other Gods but are harmless to you, right?" He continued. "Yes, how did you know?" Hazak asked in surprise. "I think¡­" Gegrafikan said after a moment of thought, "You are becoming a Primordial Beast." Chapter 1493 Soren’s Regret and Despair Chapter 1493 Soren¡¯s Regret and Despair Both Hazak and Gegrafikan were curious about Hazak''s origins and Hishe''s intention for making the demon race the major race of Layer 2 of the Sub-Realm he had created. After all, it was apparent that things weren''t as simple as they seemed. It was also puzzling as to why only Hazak exhibited these changes while the rest of the demons remained normal cultivators. Was it because of what Krune did to Hazak back in the Sub-Realm? Or was there more to it? They couldn''t find out, for the source of all information, Hishe, was no more. After butting heads for a while, the two could only sigh at the futile development of their research. They then focused on the Satellite Realm Core. The reason they had been doing this was simply because it was a possibility. As long as the number of Satellite Realms increased, it would mean more resource production, leading to more Gods, also resulting in the strengthening of the Kun Realm''s laws. After all, the absence of the Tilk Realm caused the spatial storm barrier protecting the Kun Realm Cluster to become weak. So, they were working to their fullest to bridge that vacancy. It wasn''t easy to do so since they had to create large Satellite Realm Cores capable of condensing massive Satellite Realms. Only then would they be able to reap the maximum advantage. Otherwise, if the Satellite Realm Core proved to be lacking in foundation, cultivating there would prove lacking. There was a good chance the immortals there wouldn''t even reach the Primal God Realm, not to mention becoming a God. The greater its foundation, the greater the number of Gods it could birth. Even otherwise, they could just make the Kun Realm Spirit devour the Satellite Realm Core to strengthen itself further. So one way or another, this was a beneficial process. And that was why Hazak and Gegrafikan joined hands to create Satellite Realm Cores. Their abilities were perfectly suited to this endeavor. Moreover, their actions drew in more and more spatial storms, causing the strength of the spatial storm barrier to be maintained somewhat. In the meantime, Soren was experiencing trouble, failing in his experiment. Boom! "Master, it seems futile. Just don''t bother with me." A man that resembled a youth, possessing an ethereal figure, spoke, looking fragile for some reason. "No," Soren gasped for air, slowly regaining some strength as he got up, speaking as he seeped his Divine Sense into the fragile-looking youth, "Heavin, you''re the most talented in terms of soul cultivation. So, I''ll do everything in my power to create a physical body for you. That way, you can become a God and exercise your talents to their full potential." "Master, even if I can''t cultivate like normal or tread the path of body cultivation, I''ll still proceed through soul cultivation. I''ll reach its peak on my own," Heavin replied. "I have that guarantee." "Yes, you are definitely capable. I know that the best." Soren said as tears streamed from his eyes while his body trembled. "But, we don''t have the freedom of time on our hands. Even growing as a God requires significant time. And as for you, your path is even more precarious. Who knows how many millions of years it might require you to reach the peak of soul cultivation or even surpass its current heights?" Godly Energy gushed out of his body in torrents due to his emotional fluctuations as Soren was unable to control himself. "I¡­ am useless. I failed to save my friends. The least I can do is destroy my soul so that you can use my body¡­" "Soren, calm down." Wally appeared behind him, patting the raging Soren, stating after a while, "Don''t do something that you would come to regret." "I''m regretting every second of my life already." Soren trembled, stating, "First, we fell victim to a scheme and tried to break out of the Kun Realm. It resulted in most of the Gods dying, allowing the spies from other Realms to slaughter our geniuses one after another." "I''m the Soul God! Techniques related to the soul were what I was supposed to be an expert of." Soren grunted. "But what the fuck did I do? I didn''t even notice our enemies that were casually hidden in our midst. They were sneering at us while the Abolition Tower wreaked havoc wantonly for so long that it became the most feared terrorist organization." "I had failed as the Soul God the moment I failed to detect them. And now, I couldn''t even do much against the God King." He sobbed. "My attacks didn''t do much against the God King, even though I''ve lived for so long. And that resulted in Hishe''s and Luvile''s death." "So¡­ you tell me, Wally." Soren stared blankly at Wally as he asked, "What use does someone this incompetent possess?" "At least, if Heavin takes my everything, we''ll obtain a stronger ally, one vastly more useful than me." He concluded. "Before his death, Luvile already passed on his everything to Krune. Hishe did something similar as well." "It''s time I did the same." Soren took in a deep breath, saying with a resolute tone, "Heavin will inherit my mantle." "That and all is fine, but¡­" Wally stared at Heavin, asking him, "Do you think he would be able to develop further if the thought that he killed his master who he accompanied all his life?" "Will Heavin truly be able to exercise his full potential when he''s pressed down by guilt?" Wally snorted, glaring at Soren. "Don''t be this weak. If we lack time, then time is what we''ll fight for. We''ll give enough time for the next generation to mature. And until then, we''ll fight until the bitter end." "Isn''t that our task as seniors?" Wally said resolutely. "I¡­ am weak." Soren said, staring at Wally with a helpless gaze, "I failed to protect everyone." "Then, did you think I protected everyone successfully? Don''t kid yourself." Wally glared in anger. "For fuck''s sake, I failed multiple times as well. You think I don''t have regrets?" "My race was almost annihilated once, damn it!" Chapter 1494 Single-Use Glass Canon Chapter 1494 Single-Use Glass Canon "My race was almost annihilated once, damn it!" Hearing Wally''s words, Soren gradually calmed down. He recalled the plight faced by the wisps and how at one point in time, every God hated the wisp race. Wally had to shoulder all of that alone. This was despite wisps being the legitimate protectors of the Kun Realm. So indeed, even Wally had plenty of regrets. "Look, we''ve all had our fair share of blunders," Wally said in all seriousness. "However, committing suicide isn''t an option. We must clean up our mess and solve all of our problems. Isn''t that what Hishe was doing until his death?" "Yeah, you''re right." Soren nodded before gazing at Wally, stating after he had calmed down to a certain extent, "Then, what are we supposed to do now? I''m being serious in that Heavin would be able to contribute a lot more than me. So, objectively speaking, he''s a better choice to take up my mantle. In fact, the moment I shave off my comprehension a little, he would surpass my comprehension of the Mental Energy Law immediately." "You''re that close?" Wally was surprised as he looked at Heavin, asking, "You''re close enough to gatekeep his representative Law?" "He''s intentionally holding himself back for my sake," Soren replied, gritting his teeth. "Otherwise, he could have replaced me long ago." "So, you want him to inherit your power and replace you as the Soul God." Wally nodded. Mental God, Mind God, Soul God¡­Soren went by many names over the ages. He was a prominent figure in the Kun Realm, after all. After thinking for a moment, Wally voiced out his concern while looking at Heavin, asking him, "However¡­ you can only cultivate soul cultivation, right?" "Yes, and that makes me weaker than the rest of the Gods." Heavin sighed, stating sullenly. "My attacks would become singular and could be guarded against easily." His concerns weren''t unfounded, though. After all, whenever a God attacked, they would mix Godly Energy with Mental Energy and Body Energy at varying proportions to unleash complex attacks. And if an opponent developed a counter to it, they could vary the proportion of the three energies and unleash it like a different attack and breach through the counter. Moreover, they also had a lot of abilities to choose from in their arsenal. After all, they had three cultivation paths to harness power from. On the other hand, Heavin only had his soul cultivation and could only use Mental Energy to fuel his attacks. So, he lost that variety and complexity to his attacks. No matter how strong his abilities may be, they were only effective for the first time. After that, his enemies could develop counters for his abilities easily. This would render him useless. And this was his concern. Krune was able to perfectly fuse all three energies to rapidly spike his power. This, coupled with his Champion state, was how he was even able to face the God King. He could constantly vary the energy making up his attacks, always unleashing the same abilities with different properties. This way, it was tough to guard against them, a reason the God King was injured by his attacks. But even if Heavin ended up being stronger than Krune, his attacks wouldn''t have damaged the God King as much. Sure, the first attack would have dealt greater damage. But from the second attack onwards, his attacks would prove useless. Moreover, he also had a weak defense. Due to him lacking body cultivation, his body wasn''t tough. So, he had to constantly defend himself using his Mental Energy. With that, he would never become one of the strong. It was to be noted that the God King wasn''t even injured by most attacks simply thanks to his terrifying physique. This was the difference between having a strong body and not having one. "The most I would ever amount to be is a one-use glass cannon," Heavin concluded. "I''m not entirely sure about that." Suddenly, Feifei appeared before them, surprising everyone for her appearance was quite stealthy. "What¡­ do you mean?" Soren asked in confusion. "Senior Soren, it seems you''re mistaken about something basic here." Feifei smiled, saying, "There are definite advantages in Heavin being himself." Soren slowly focused on Feifei, curious as to what she had to say. "Did you come up with something, Feifei?" Wally asked, smiling as a result. Feifei had played a major role in the arrangement of the various Satellite Realms of the Kun Realm Cluster, thereby raising the strength of their spatial storm barrier to the peak. She had also hurriedly taken action after the disappearance of the Tilk Realm to fill up the gap through a rearrangement, creating a formation of sorts. Moreover, she was also the one helping Wally with his great plan. So, he had a great impression of the lady. "Yes, the answer lies here." Saying so, Feifei snapped her finger, causing a golden silhouette to manifest beside her. Upon seeing the figure, Wally frowned in thought before his eyes lit up, stating in surprise as he stared at the golden figure. "Aren''t you the Founding Ancestor of the Golden Gate Sect?" "I''m humbled that you know of me, senior." The golden silhouette bowed respectfully in response. "It''s thanks to Feifei that I''ve become able to communicate with you now." "I''ve been slowly gathering up all the data related to him from the Kun Realm," Feifei said after that. "Senior Hishe taught me the method since I seem to be the perfect wielder of it. Before the battle with the God King, he had already given me everything related to this ability. And now, I finished condensing Master''s soul, memory, and Law comprehension. I only need to forge him a body." "However, he''s only gaining something that he had lost. But, the situation isn''t the same with me, Feifei," Heavin could not help but say. "It''s not that." Feifei smiled, saying, "Senior Soren wished for you to fight on the frontlines as a God. But, your abilities are best suited to the rear, the same as Master." "I''m not grasping what you''re getting at here." Soren shook his head. "The Satellite Realm Cannon¡­" Feifei said solemnly, "And the other varieties that the Mong Realm used to breach us. I feel that Master and Heavin are the perfect people to take on the role required to create them." Chapter 1495 Spatial Storm Barrier Plan Chapter 1495 Spatial Storm Barrier Plan "You mean¡­" Heavin''s eyes slowly lit up in excitement as he gradually understood. "Yes." Feifei nodded. "The reason the Mong Realm has such a large advantage over us is thanks to those Satellite Realms that it uses as weapons. I''m sure the other developed realms have at least one or two of the same. So, we''ll need to create them in order to stand up to them in the future." "And the only way to do so is to have Gods exclusive to their production." She grinned, gazing at the golden silhouette and Heavin. "I feel the both of you are perfect for this task. One is an expert of Mental Energy, while the other had played with Divine Sense and Godly Energy to the limits in his golden days." "If we push the both of you accordingly, you''ll become what is necessary to condense our own Satellite Realm weapons," Feifei concluded. "Alright, I''m in," Heavin said without hesitation. "This is the best plan I have heard in a long time." "I need to make preparations for that accordingly," Feifei said before pointing at Wally, "And I only got this idea after hearing about Senior Wally''s plans." "I see¡­" Wally nodded. "So, the both of them are related." "They''ll prove of vital importance for our end goal," Feifei said to Wally, "So, we''ll have to focus first on turning them both into Gods. Hazak and Gegrafikan will take care of the remaining necessities." "Alright, tell me all the necessary things needed for this plan. I''ll do my best to fulfill them." Soren nodded, feeling glad that Heavin''s abilities could be put to full use. After all, he didn''t wish to be the block hindering his disciple''s growth. So, if there was an alternate path, he would be glad. After all, even if he felt that he was useless, he still served some use in the Kun Realm Cluster. Factually speaking, he was of more use alive than dead. "But, what is this great plan of yours, Wally?" Soren asked, finally tackling the question that had been boggling him all along. Wally had been stating about a grand plan of his that he and Turia had already begun the preparations of. But as to what this plan was about, no information was known about it. Until now, only four individuals were privy to it: Wally, Turia, Feifei, and Sterlena. So, he would be lying if he said he wasn''t curious, especially since it seemed to concern the Kun Realm Cluster''s fate. "Realm Ability," Wally replied. "It''s an ultimate trump card that only the Realm Spirit can use. The realm that has a Realm Ability would attain status as a Greater Realm, a superpower among other superpowers." The hierarchy of realms went like this: tiny dimensions that were latched onto a realm, termed as the Sub-Realms. They were the tiniest of dimensional spaces capable of sustaining life and generating Godly Energy. Above Sub-Realms were independent dimensional spaces, capable of being fully self-sustaining in the spatial storms. They were called the Satellite Realms. And unlike Sub-Realms, Satellite Realms had a Realm Core. Above them were realms like the Tilk Realm, gigantic dimensional spaces with near-infinite space in the eyes of the organisms living within. Realms were at the peak of independent existing dimensional spaces. However, there were two more levels above this. The first was a Realm with a Realm Spirit. These realms were capable of devouring Sub-Realms and Satellite Realms to increase their foundation, growing more powerful over time. And finally, at the peak were realms with a Realm Ability. They were hence termed Greater Realms, possessing infinite potential. It could also be said that a Greater Realm would never collapse naturally, unlike the precarious state the Mong Realm was in when Krune and the others infiltrated it. "Something like this exists?" Soren was shocked. "Yes." Wally nodded, saying, "I stole this information from the Mong Realm Core, so it''s accurate. They were still in the process of condensing their Realm Ability back then. But they should have completed it by now since they had annexed the Tilk Realm." Wally then said, "It would take them some time to swallow the Tilk Realm. So before this happens, we must condense our Realm Ability." "But, it''s easier said than done, right?" Soren asked. "If even old realms like the Mong Realm need so much time, then how will we complete it? Doesn''t it seem impossible?" "Not really," Wally replied. "It depends on the type of Realm Ability you wish to create. They needed so much time precisely because the Realm Ability that they were aiming for was tremendously difficult. However, the situation is different for us." "We already have something existing among us. We only need to bring it under our control and turn it into our Realm Ability," Wally said, gazing in a particular direction. The others followed suit, training after his line of sight to see the image of the spatial storm barrier. "You mean¡­?" Soren was shocked for a moment before asking with an incredulous gaze. "This is possible, right?" "Yes, it''s possible." Wally nodded. "Krune and Sterlena would play a pivotal role in this." He then looked at Feifei, asking her, "By the way, when are you planning to bring the rest of your family to the God Realm?" "My family¡­?" Feifei was surprised at the question before sighing in response. "It seems like Krune doesn''t wish to bring them here." "Why?" Wally asked, "If he wanted to, the trip would only take him a couple of hours." "He''s afraid, as simple as that," Feifei said, a bit sullen. "Since they''re his descendants, there''s a good chance our enemies would target them, just to constrict his ability to take action against them." "So, he doesn''t wish for them to come here just to be caught in the crossfire." She sighed once more. "Instead, them remaining in the Godly Path Realm is immensely safer. Krune has visited our family once without making his presence known. He only ensured that they can live comfortable lives before returning to the God Realm." "Hah!" Wally massaged his forehead after hearing that "This brat¡­" Sighing, Wally promised, "He wouldn''t have to worry about that once we succeed. You can reunite with your family soon after." Chapter 1496 TTT Chapter 1496 TTT "Finally! The realm has been breached!" The Dolk Realm Champion shouted in joy as he, the Lak Realm Champion, and the Fon Realm Champion rushed into the Geho Realm. The Geho Realm was a mysterious realm that solely focused on body cultivation, having integrated the regular cultivation into their bodies in mysterious ways. So, their way of cultivation was slightly different compared to everyone else. After all, their breakthroughs were different, same for their cultivation as well. Instead of the Godly Fusion Realm, God Foundation Realm, and so on, they had simplified it into what was called the Martial Realms. It was because their primary means of fighting were reliant on their bodies. Even the energy they used was a fusion of Godly Energy and Body Energy. This was only possible thanks to the unique nature of the Geho Realm. Plus, such a cultivation method was only possible here. The Mong Realm had closed off its borders after obtaining the Tilk Realm. They had stopped their millions of years of tyranny. And similarly, the Garg Realm was also silent in everything all of a sudden, as if they had no other desire anymore. As for the Kun Realm, it was veiled by a layer of mystery. After all, thanks to the spatial storm barrier, it was impossible to infiltrate the Kun Realm without alerting the inhabitants first. After all, they could only openly penetrate through the spatial storm barrier. There was no other way possible in this. Even though the Kun Realm was weak, they had injured the God King severely. This scene was evident in the eyes of everyone. This was not to mention Wally''s terrifying strength that was on par with the God King''s Right Hand, a terrifying individual that had killed a Champion once. Plus, if they fought without activating their Champion state, even the Dolk Realm Champion didn''t have the guarantee of winning without sustaining a life-threatening injury or even losing his life in the process. However, the Kun Realm behaved no different from a turtle cowering in its shell. This resulted in the actions of the greater overlords of the Greater Universe to vanish all of a sudden, leaving a lot of room. This also caused the other powers like the Dolk Realm to reveal their fangs. After all, this was the best time for them to develop, using the absence of the Mong Realm and the Garg Realm. Hence, in their vested interests, the Dolk Realm, Fon Realm, and Lak Realm formed an alliance, calling it the Triple-Threat-Tribulation, or TTT for short. The goal of this alliance was to accumulate more power in the three realms that had comparable strength. This was to ensure they wouldn''t become victims of either the Garg Realm or the Mong Realm in the future. After all, even they could feel a growing sense of tension. The tigers had retreated into their caves, allowing the wolves to prowl about while the hyenas awaited their chance from the bushes. However, this status quo only existed until the tigers returned. The overlords, at the end of the day, were still tigers. So, the moment the Garg Realm or the Mong Realm opened its borders, it would spark a long, terrifying war that would change the fate of the entire Greater Universe. The only way to overcome this was to become strong enough to protect themselves from everything that happened. With that, diplomats from every realm exited their home realm and visited their target realm to forge relations. One of these successful relations was the TTT. These three realms had involved themselves in skirmishes against the Mong Realm and the Garg Realm. They were stronger than the other realms with a Champion but weren''t as powerful as the Garg Realm and the Mong Realm. Hence, they became a trio that was excluded from the other diplomatic treaties being conducted by the other realms. Thanks to that, it also pushed them to join hands to form the TTT. Besides, unlike the other realms that just wished to survive the aftermath that would explode once the Garg and Mong Realm returned, the TTT wished to become a major player like the two. And this was indeed possible if they pooled their resources together to form a strong enough alliance. For that, they needed a key element. And that was the Geho Realm. The Geho Realm was pretty mysterious in that regular cultivation abilities weren''t effective here. This was why the Mong Realm failed in its invasion here, despite the Geho Realm only having 19 Gods. It was hard for the Mong Realm to infiltrate this realm due to the completely different power system at place here. So, in order for their efforts to be successful, they had to create a completely different plan of action using different abilities, different methods, etc. The cost far outweighed the benefits, so eventually, the Mong Realm pulled out. In any case, they had too many other options to invade that they had been successful at. Depending on the realm, they had to change their invasion tactics. Plus, depending on their feasibility and viability, they were done. This was also why the Mong Realm never invaded the Kun Realm with an army but had invaded the Tilk Realm multiple times with their army. It was because of a simple reason. There were too many exotic races in the Kun Realm. Sometimes, as some bloodlines mixed, new races were birthed. This led to too many complex abilities being produced here, which made things troublesome. If the Mong Realm were to invade in full force, that would cause all these races to band together and resist fiercely. This would force them to further strengthen their innate advantages, creating a far more troublesome opponent to face. This was why the Mong Realm used the tactic of killing their geniuses to reduce the quality of the Kun Realm over time. This way, there would eventually arrive a day when the Kun Realm''s number of elites shrunk to practically nothing, thereby making it the perfect candidate to invade with an army. In comparison, the Tilk Realm was just stupidly rich in resources. Hence, it was directly invaded by armies from multiple realms. Chapter 1497 The Dolk Realm Champion’s Insane Idea Chapter 1497 The Dolk Realm Champion¡¯s Insane Idea Thanks to this difference, every realm understood the need to tread carefully through the Kun Realm and silently reap benefits while killing the geniuses. So, for every realm, depending on the specialty of the realm, the invasion plans had to be changed. So, some realms like the Tilk Realm were the perfect target to invade. After all, thanks to its resource production capacity being the highest in the Greater Universe, a mere hundred thousand years was enough for it to heal from any extent of plundering or even surpass the previous quantity of produced resources. This was why it suffered constant invasions. Then, there were places like the Yan Realm, one located so far away from every other realm and was so poor that it wasn''t even worth making the trip in the first place. All the pillaged resources would simply be consumed to make the return trip. It was an effort of expending resources to obtain nothing in return. There were many realms like this that had survived disasters thanks to their troublesome characteristics. The Geho Realm was one such place, one of the most troublesome places, in fact. Even the God King refrained from entering this place. But now, this place was the TTT''s target. After all, it had a special property that they were gunning to obtain. Fusion! Yes, the Geho Realm''s property was the fusion of multiple energies. As there was no Mental Energy in this realm, the Godly Energy and Body Energy fused to become a brand new energy that was actuated through the body. After all, only one energy form was allowed to exist in this realm. Though, what if they connected the Dolk Realm to the Geho Realm? What would happen when the energies of the two realms collide? As long as the Dolk Realm Spirit suppressed itself, there was a good chance the Dolk Realm''s three energies might be fused into one under the influence of the Geho Realm. Their aim was exactly what Krune had attained: the stage of Trinity! However, unlike his Deific Meridians, they didn''t have a suitable form to will all three energies as one. Even if they couldn''t succeed with three energies, as long as they managed to combine their cultivation with body cultivation, they would become stronger than before and become competitors against the two superpowers. But first, they must defeat the existing Gods of the Geho Realm. After that, they would divide the Geho Realm Core into three equal parts and devour them respectively. This way, all three realms would be able to experience the effects that would result in them becoming stronger. Even if that doesn''t happen, just by devouring one-third of a Realm Core, they would become stronger as the foundation of their home realm would increase. "Hmph!" The Dolk Realm Champion grunted, unleashing a terrifying attack at a Geho Realm God. His powers were wholly suppressed here as only the cultivation form of the Geho Realm was effective here. But despite that, his attacks still proved terrifying. Moreover, they weren''t alone, as each realm had brought in over half their reserve forces. The Dolk Realm brought in around 150 Gods, the Lak Realm brought a similar number, and the Fon Realm brought around 120 Gods. Altogether, they had around 420 Gods, facing against the Geho Realm''s 9 Gods. This was a necessity because, despite their combined numbers, both sides were evenly matched. This was only thanks to the power mechanic of the Geho Realm. Had they fought outside, the Geho Realm Gods would end up amounting to nothing. A Dolk Realm God would easily be able to kill a Geho Realm God in a one-on-one match. After all, even though they had fused two energies into a superior version, they had also missed out on Mental Energy, one of the three pillars of cultivation. Boom! The Dolk Realm Champion continued to unfurl attacks at his opponent. He, the Lak Realm Champion and the Fon Realm Champion worked together, fighting against a Geho Realm God, slowly gaining an advantage. "Gah!" The Lak Realm Champion was sent flying as the Dolk Realm Champion successfully caught hold of her, shouting in reflex, "Careful!" "Thanks!" The Lak Realm Champion said when her eyes and the Dolk Realm Champion''s met, locked for a fraction of a second. They quickly parted ways, slamming attacks onto their opponent, forcing him into a corner. The Fon Realm Champion unleashed countless formations around her, morphing the terrain to her whims as she slowly began to build her advantage, suppressing the effect of the Geho Realm on her. But despite that, the home advantage faced by the Geho Realm Gods was just too much as they used their terrifying bodies to fight everyone, breaking through their attacks casually. Their physiques were immensely superior, too, allowing them to possess such an advantage. "That''s it!" The Dolk Realm Champion smiled as, thanks to his exceptional senses, he figured out a solution, suddenly grabbing hold of the hands of the Lak Realm Champion and the Fon Realm Champion, shouting, "Quick! Activate your Champion states!" Even though they weren''t sure as to what he was planning, as he was the stronger party, and due to their alliance, the two Champions reacted to the Dolk Realm Champion''s words, activating their Champion states automatically. Boom! Boom! Boom! Suddenly, three beams slammed into the Geho Realm, penetrating through the already formed gap as it was widened. The three beams were focused on their respective Champions. But suddenly, as it was an invader, and as it had broken through the realm''s boundary, the Geho Realm instinctively reacted to the three beams, activating the peak of its powers. After all, its nature only allowed a single type of energy. But, each beam was composed of three energies. Plus, each beam was a different variant of the three energies. Altogether, there were nine variations, vastly crossing the tolerance of the Geho Realm that suddenly focused the entirety of its power on the beams, expending a tremendous quantity of the energy stored in its realm. "This is insane!" The Lak Realm Champion shouted, hearing the Dolk Realm Champion''s raucous laughter. Guooong! Followed by a sonorous shout, the three Champion beams began to slowly¡­ fuse? Chapter 1498 Swapping Power Chapter 1498 Swapping Power "This is insane!" The Lak Realm Champion shouted, feeling regret. "Why did I listen to an idiot like you?" "Leave it be. He''s kinda cute when he does this. So, let him do his thing." The Fon Realm Champion laughed in response, seemingly enjoying the unique situation that she hadn''t experienced ever. This new sensation caused her to feel like she had returned to her childhood, during the times when she was an innocent little girl that frolicked in a vast open meadow without any sense of responsibility. "Ladies! Help me!" The Dolk Realm Champion began to grunt all of a sudden, feeling like he was being suffocated as the entirety of the burden from the three beams fell on him. "Alright!" The Fon Realm Champion and the Lak Realm Champion muttered simultaneously as they sat on either side of his shoulder, using his head as an armrest as they positioned themselves comfortably. "¡­" The Dolk Realm Champion didn''t know whether to laugh or cry. The two stoic ladies that had always maintained poker faces through countless battles were suddenly displaying their character towards him. Then again, honestly speaking, he would be lying if he said he wasn''t enjoying this. After all, who else would have the pleasure of sharing a pleasant situation with not one but two pearls, ones that stood at the peak of the Greater Universe itself? "Ehehe!" Before he realized it, the Dolk Realm Champion wore a sheepish grin. Even though their actions seemed childish for a moment, the trio were as serious as they could be, noticing that the beams unleashed by their home realms to harness their Champion states were synchronizing with one another. They weren''t actually fusing with one another like the signs showed at the start. After all, even though the Geho Realm had attempted that instinctively, the source of the three beams were the Dolk Realm, Lak Realm, and the Fon Realm, each many times bigger than the Geho Realm. So, it simply wasn''t able to do anything. Instead, its laws readjusted themselves, focusing on fusing their variabilities instead. What this caused was it allowed their energy signatures to become more and more similar as they began to synchronize. Thump! Thump! Thump! Suddenly, the Dolk Realm Champion was able to hear two other heartbeats. And when he focused on it, he sensed that they originated from the Lak Realm Champion and the Fon Realm Champion, respectively. Similarly, the two ladies were also able to hear three heartbeats. They were surprised at first before their eyes glimmered in excitement. The Fon Realm Champion flew out, noticing that the beam of energy falling on her had three streams. Each stream originated from the Dolk Realm, the Fon Realm, and the Lak Realm, respectively. She was the Champion of three realms now. As for the strength of the beams, they were a lot weaker than before, even combined. Honestly, in her new Champion state, she was slightly weaker than if she activated the state from her own realm. However, here came their true advantage. Swapping power! She waved her hand, condensing the Dolk Realm Champion''s power in her hands. She then snapped her finger, using the Lak Realm Champion''s power. And this also included their respective Laws. Basically, even though she became weaker in terms of brute strength, she was able to harness the power of three laws now. This would result in terrifying advantages in the future, especially since she felt she could grow stronger in this manner. The Lak Realm, the Fon Realm, and the Dolk Realm would continue to share their power, elevating each other to new heights. This would allow her to reach the same plane as the Garg Realm and the Mong Realm in the future. "Hahaha!" The Dolk Realm Champion bellowed in joy, hugging the Lak Realm Champion instinctively, shocking the other party. As if she had known beforehand, the Fon Realm Champion hugged the two as they were overjoyed. It was because they had attained their lifelong goal: To ensure safety for their realm and also become a major competitor to the Garg and Mong Realm. "However, this is still temporary," the Dolk Realm Champion said all of a sudden. "Only if we take control of this realm would we attain this permanently." "I have a great idea." The Lak Realm Champion smiled as she whispered in the ears of the other two, even though this wasn''t necessary as they could transmit all the necessary information through their Divine Sense in a fraction of a second. But she still did it anyway, feeling close with the other two. "We''ll sacrifice the Geho Realm Gods to the Realm Core and strengthen it. We''ll then insert our Champion power into it until this realm becomes ours. Since there''s three of us with unified powers, we can target it from three directions with perfect control. It''s a guarantee at this point." With that, reinforced by their Champion states, they slowly began to overwhelm the Geho Realm Gods, eventually sealing up everyone one by one. After that, they slowly began to kill the Gods while ensuring the foundation of the Geho Realm didn''t drop. Following that was them doing everything in their power to reinforce the Geho Realm Core, slowly seeping their unified energy into it. At the same time, the Dolk Realm, the Fon Realm, and the Lak Realm were experiencing changes, with the power structures of the three synchronizing. They were still different, their original power structures staying the same. It was just that they seemed¡­ compatible now to be used in conjunction with one another. It immediately caused all the Gods of the three realms to become a tad stronger thanks to this effect. After all, the synchronizing of the three Realms created a mysterious wave of energy that rearranged the various laws of the three realms due to how they influenced one another. This resulted in stronger law formations forming the foundation of their respective realms, resulting in a minor surge of power. As for the three Champions, they slowly began to refine the Geho Realm Core, making it the central hub of their alliance. It wasn''t only the three realms that were becoming close, though. The respective Champions were also becoming closer. Chapter 1499 I’m Hungry for Revenge Chapter 1499 I¡¯m Hungry for Revenge Boom! The energies from the three Champions slammed into the Geho Realm Core, causing it to radiate with a mysterious presence that flowed through their bodies, using their energy streams from the three realms to flow into the home realms. And from there, energy flowed through the Champion state''s channel, going through their bodies before flowing into the Geho Realm Core, completing a cycle. Every time this happened, there was a subtle change in the three realms as the three Champions were able to sense the two other Champions with greater clarity. It was like their minds were becoming connected, causing them to develop an instinct where they could have a clear guess of the other party''s intentions. Slowly, the Geho Realm began to fall under their control, causing the mysterious energy to flow through them better. Of course, this was a slow process, taking dozens of years. It felt like it would take centuries before it was done. Nevertheless, it was a grand concept, something that hadn''t ever happened before. Hence, the three Champions were patient. Moreover, they were simply in a state of euphoria, for they now had companions on par with them, someone they could call peers and trust. Until now, the Champions were lone wolves. After all, the rest of the Gods in their respective realms weren''t even close to their strength. So, in any serious fights, they only had themselves to rely upon. With that, despite being the pinnacle power in their respective realm, they were lonely existences. But now, they were a trio, all on par with each other in strength, age, demeanor, etc. Meaning, they could show their backs to one another as equals and treat each other as equals. This was a whole new emotion for them. After all, until now, they had been the umbrellas protecting their respective realms. So, they were under a state of constant pressure. After all, the moment this umbrella fell, their realm was doomed. And with the Mong Realm breathing down their necks, they were always in a state of edge while desperately fighting for resources in any opportunities they obtained in an effort to develop faster and now become far too outclassed by the Garg and Mong Realm. But now, there were three umbrellas. If one of them was damaged, the other two could provide support, giving enough time to rest and recover with a sense of safety and security. For the first time in their lives after becoming a God, they felt safe, glad to have a bright future. "This is amazing!" The Lak Realm Champion snickered. "I''ll take a couple centuries of rest. Protect my realm in the meantime, will you, sweeties?" "Heh!" The Dolk Realm snorted in response. "Haven''t you ever heard the term..." "Gentlemen first?" The two ladies twitched in response, understanding that the Dolk Realm Champion obviously wished to take a holiday first and laze around. Of course, there was no way they would allow that. The Fon Realm Champion thought a little before saying, "Yes, I have heard of that." "Then¡­" The Dolk Realm Champion smiled, screaming in joy internally. Unfortunately, his joy was cut short as the Fon Realm Champion let out a cunning smirk. "But, a gentleman always gives the opportunity to others first," she added. "Hence, I''ll take the first holiday. I don''t need too long of a vacation like you. Three centuries is enough." "¡­" "¡­" "¡­ehehe?" The three continued to banter. There was still a lot of time left for their work to be complete. After a certain point, the process became instinctual as they didn''t even need to put in any effort. The cycle of energy continued to function on its own. And this led to them arguing nonstop. But surprisingly, they were enjoying the arguing. After all, it wasn''t a contest of resources. It was just friendly nonsensical banter. Their current state was their holiday. It wasn''t as if they could let go of their responsibilities just due to the new situation. The Mong Realm was accumulating strength after all. So, they had to prepare strategies to protect themselves from the Mong Realm''s voracious paws. But until then, they acted like they were truly about to go on a break, indulging in their fantasies to the limit. And honestly, none of the Gods dared to interrupt them. All of them even left the Geho Realm, silently keeping an eye on things and ensuring everything proceeded safely. Slowly, things began to change as everyone began to notice it. The change was so obvious that even the other powers began to sense it. The Garg Realm Champion was the first to sense it, eyes lighting up in surprise as he muttered, "I''ve never thought something of this scale was possible. Truly, there''s surprise after surprise." He then sighed after that. "Though, this also brings a fourth player into the Greater Universe''s Greater Realms." "Shall we interrupt it?" The Garg Realm Spirit replied. "They''re currently at their most crucial point. If I use my Realm Ability, destroying them is easy." "Let''s not do that, shall we?" The Garg Realm Champion sighed, stating, "Currently, their three realms are forming a connection. And this connection has already formed a foundation. If we were to interrupt now, there''s a chance the damage would cause the foundation of a realm to flow into the other two." "And worse, the foundation of two Realms would flow into the final one." He sighed. "That would result in a power vastly more terrifying than the Mong Realm. It''s foolish to engage with them like this. Instead, even if they complete this successfully, they aren''t that much threatening as compared to the Mong Realm." "Besides¡­" He said seriously. "Don''t forget the Kun Realm. They''re a strange bunch. We truly cannot expect what they might do next. And to make things worse, they have two Champions." "Activating the Realm Ability consumes too much resources. So, let''s not waste it unnecessarily. Having a fourth player might be a good thing." He smiled. "At least, it would prevent two realms from ganging up on the third to force the third to result in a plan of mutual destruction." "You''re right about that." The Garg Realm Spirit nodded, continuing to eat the Yan Realm as it said, "I''m still curious about the state of the Kun Realm." At the same time, in the Kun Realm Core, the energy fluctuation from the TTT caused a certain Wisp to wake up and mutter slowly, "I''m¡­ hungry¡­" "For revenge." Chapter 1500 Precursor to the Grand Plan Chapter 1500 Precursor to the Grand Plan "Krune! You finally woke up!" Turia exclaimed in joy, leaping into his arms, relieved. Krune gently patted her head, silent as he was deep in thought. After all, everything that happened flashed in his mind. Seeing the memory of Luvile being extracted from his body and being killed by the God King, rage welled up within him. However, he controlled himself, understanding his current priorities. ''I have to first make the Kun Realm a safe place.'' This was also why he refrained from bringing Fie to the God Realm. It was harder to infiltrate the Godly Path Realm compared to the God Realm. And if they still infiltrated, they would have to seal their cultivation. This would only make them helpless against him and Wally, who were able to travel through the four realms without paying any price. So, the Godly Path Realm was the best place for Fie. Plus, he had visited her discreetly once to make sure she was fine. Wally had paid her a few visits already, solving all her problems and ensuring she could live for so long without much worry. Slowly, Krune got up, heaving a long breath, feeling a bit sullen as Turia brought him out of the Realm Core. He then assumed his wisp form and returned to the Mountain Sect, observing some changes to the place. With it becoming the core of the Kun Realm and the headquarters of the Kun Realm Cluster, it was brimming with grandeur, the scale tens of thousands of times greater than the humble sect from before. To think this was something established by five mortals was hard to believe, even for him. "You''ve returned." Zamura was the first to notice him, exiting the Mountain Sect immediately as he looked at Krune in concern. "I''m sorry for what happened." "It''s my fault for being weak." Krune smiled helplessly before asking, "What''s happening at present? Any other invasions?" "We haven''t been invaded after that." Zamura continued forth, hoping the series of news would help distract Krune from his self-wallowing despair. "Currently, Wally has riled up everyone to make a bunch of changes and strengthen everyone. He was waiting for you to wake up before beginning a grand plan." "A grand plan?" Krune''s eyes lit up as he turned into a flash and left the Kun Realm straight away by drawing on the power of the Balance Laws. The moment he exited the Kun Realm, sparks fluttered across his body before he turned into a bolt of lightning, disappearing from the place. A spatial tunnel formed before him as he quickly reached the place where Wally was, noticing Soren making a mental tally of all the resources they had procured from the various Satellite Realms. Standing beside him was Feifei, constantly thinking of something as she discussed things with the Golden Gate Sect''s Founding Ancestor and Heavin. She then noticed his approach, leaping into his hug immediately. "Thank goodness." "I''m fine." Krune let out a wry smile before asking, "What are you guys planning here?" "Satellite Realms similar to the Mong Realm''s Satellite Realm Cannon," Feifei replied. "Master and Heavin would be the key for that." "Master?" Krune raised an eyebrow before gazing at the golden figure nearby. "So, you must be the Golden Gate Sect''s Founding Ancestor. I apologize for treating your sect horribly." "It''s fine. They had it coming for them anyway." The Golden Gate Sect Founding Ancestor shook his head. "After my demise, they made some questionable decisions that had offended a lot of people. Even my death was caused by some of them." "Anyways, you can call me Yloka." The Golden Gate Sect''s Founding Ancestor added. "My sect is a ghost of the past after all." "Why was Wally looking for me?" he asked Feifei after that. "I''ll tell you that next," she said, bringing Krune with her as they traveled through a spatial tunnel and arrived before the spatial storm barrier protecting the Kun Realm Cluster. "This is what he''s planning." "This is¡­?" Krune frowned, seeing Sterlena injuring herself while touching the spatial storm barrier from time to time, taking notes as she discussed things with Wally. As for this legend from the wisp race, he was silent, nodding from time to time as he seemed to have become like a statue, solemn. "Wally?" Krune called out, feeling that Wally''s current behavior seemed strange. It didn''t feel like his usual self. "How are you feeling now?" Wally asked in return. "Crap," Krune replied. "As I expected." Wally sighed before stating, "If you want to cry, you can do so. My shoulders are free." "Later," Krune continued. "So, what''s the plan?" "It''s what is known as the Realm Ability¡­" Wally began to talk about everything that he had found out from the Mong Realm Core. This was information he had extracted after swallowing the resources it had barfed out, using the chance to extract some valuable information from the Realm Core itself. Once Krune learned everything, he remained silent for a minute before saying, "Alright, let''s begin." "It''s good that you''re enthusiastic about it." Wally nodded, seeing the firmness in Krune''s eyes about finishing this project of theirs as soon as possible, sighing as he thought, ''I hope he''s not too wounded with Luvile''s death.'' Of course, even he knew that this wasn''t the case. Krune was definitely wounded mentally after losing his best friend. When he tried to probe Krune in the usual manner, the response was completely different. Just that was enough for Wally to understand that Krune was only putting on a brave front to not make others worry. Hence, Wally didn''t show like he was aware of it, same as Feifei and the rest that had a good grasp of Krune''s character. They only hoped for him to heal over time. "How''re the preparations?" Wally asked Soren. "It''s done," Soren replied. "Heavin and Yloka are ready to break through now." "Alright." Wally nodded as the Rune Realm Spirit brought everyone to a location in the void amid spatial storms. This was where the two individuals would be facing their final tribulation. Chapter 1501 Heavin’s Preparations Chapter 1501 Heavin¡¯s Preparations Yloka and Heavin both had their respective platforms situated far from each other. They didn''t have any intention of breaking through together like what the trio of Gegrafikan, Feifei, and Zamura did. After he was ready, Yloka took in a deep breath, activating his final tribulation. Boom! Out of nowhere, a bolt of tribulation lightning slammed into him, causing him to scream in pain. Immediately after, the materials piled up around him lit up as they swerved into him, rapidly forming him a body. Basically, Yloka was using the final tribulation to forge a body for him. At the same time, using the tribulation as a medium, he was pulling forth all the information regarding himself that had been stored in the Kun Realm, rapidly growing in strength as a result. His accumulations became whole once again as he swiftly separated from Feifei, becoming an individual once again as his cultivation stabilized at the peak of the Primal God Realm before climbing upwards. Moreover, a dense stream of Divine Sense swirled around him like a spatial storm, fluctuating with a mysterious radiance as it formed a cocoon around him. The lightning bolts continued to slam into the cocoon as he was almost killed multiple times. But as always, Yloka pressed on, gradually accumulating more and more power as all the laws forming him melted to form a brand new law. And among these laws were those forming the pile, something that didn''t originally belong to him in the first place but was just infused with his Divine Sense. When these materials formed into his body, they became laws belonging to him. Basically, Yloka cheated to completely change the makeup of his Spiritual Incarnation by taking advantage of the final tribulation. It was done to ensure the law that would be created by fusing all these laws in their various comprehended states would be what they were gunning for all along. He, Feifei, and Soren combined their wits and power to calculate everything, ensuring Yloka would be able to change the makeup of his Spiritual Incarnation accordingly. Boom! All his laws melted and fused into a brand-new law, resulting in his death. A moment later, he revived through the law, becoming its representative and with it becoming his body. A couple of minutes later, the law turned into a human as Yloka opened his eyes, displaying a subtle smile. "It''s a success." Law¡ªDivine Deity! This was the name of his exclusive law, similar to Feifei''s Law of Spirit Deity. Yloka began to consolidate his power, intending to first gain a better understanding of everything he obtained now as a God. Only after his level of control exceeded the set standard would he be able to succeed in the upcoming plan. ''Give me a year," he said. "I''ll become useful by then." "Alright, take your time." Wally nodded as the Rune Realm Spirit picked up Yloka and transported him to the Kun Realm. As he broke through in the void, he became connected to the Kun Realm Cluster instead of the Kun Realm alone. There weren''t any advantages in doing this at the moment, but it had future advantages. "Alright, now it''s your turn." Soren gazed at Heavin, stating solemnly, "Be careful." "I will." Heavin nodded and took in deep breaths. Honestly, he was the most nervous. Because he only had his soul cultivation to rely upon. So, his breakthrough and final tribulation would be vastly different from the rest. Even though Feifei and Yloka had combined their powers and calculated many things beforehand, he still lacked confidence in being able to achieve success. After all, he had a special constitution¡­ if he could call it one. And hence, things were risky. More than that was his sense of doubt and a lack of confidence in himself. After all, he lacked two of the three cultivation paths, making him incredibly weak. Even though Feifei''s plan excited him, he wasn''t sure if he would be able to pull it off. After all, the requirements were somewhat on the steep side, requiring things beyond his regular capabilities. "You can do it." Feifei nodded in all seriousness. "Just believe in yourself." "You''re more talented than me. So, I''m sure you can pull it off," Soren said, slowly retreating as everyone allowed enough space for Heavin to initiate his final tribulation. "Don''t be too nervous," Wally said, pointing at Soren. "Think about what would happen when you succeed. This poor bloke would stop saying that he would commit suicide." Heavin became a bit nervous at Wally''s statement. He truly didn''t wish for Soren to sacrifice himself. In order to prevent that, he had to succeed now. Only that would change things. Moreover, through him, the Kun Realm Cluster would obtain another lifeline to protect themselves better. So, he slowly prepared himself, hoping to guarantee his success as much as possible. "You''ll succeed," Krune stated plainly, having the utmost confidence in Heavin. Following that, he also retreated far away. Now that Heavin was left alone on the stage that had been prepared for him, he felt nervous, looking at the spatial storm nearby, moving around the stage without coming into contact with it. His current location was like a safe zone in the spatial storms, a place that was typically avoided by the spatial storms. Such locations existed everywhere in the void of the Greater Universe. And these places were used as resting spots for the Gods from various realms that traveled for a variety of purposes. After all, even travel through spatial tunnels wasn''t safe as it was hard to maintain them. Even the God King dared not treat them lightly. Of course, with his strength, he was only afraid of the spatial storms congregating around the center of the Greater Universe. Heavin stopped his distracting thoughts, streamlining his focus as he slowly riled up his Mental Energy, seeping it through the materials as he caused them to converge into what appeared to be a cultivator''s body. The cultivator''s body had a cultivation at the peak of the Primal God Realm, with enough accumulation to attempt the final tribulation. But, everything was thanks to the materials used, with everything related to laws emerging from the Law Cores in them. And with that, he slowly began the process. Chapter 1502 Extreme Soul God Chapter 1502 Extreme Soul God As he didn''t have proper cultivation, it was impossible for Heavin to trigger his final tribulation. Hence, he prepared a fake body that was filled to the brim with his Mental Energy, causing it to behave like his body. It had set cultivation thanks to the materials used to forge it at this state. As for the various law comprehensions, it was attained using the Law Cores. Honestly, they had spent a lot of resources on the creation of this body, enough to fuel dozens of Primal Gods from scratch. Especially the Law Cores, each of them was at the Primal God Realm, the peak attainable by them. Each Law Core used in the creation of Heavin''s body was enough to make any cultivator obtain the foundation necessary to reach the peak of the Primal God Realm. Slowly, the fake body began to churn the Godly Energy within it, causing the dantian to brim in power before, eventually, tribulation clouds formed amidst the spatial storm, gradually thickening in size. Upon seeing this, everyone heaved a sigh in relief, glad that it was working. However, it had only been a second before their thoughts were forced to a halt by a bolt of lightning. B-Boom! The bolt of lightning was so powerful that it vaporized the entire body instantly, along with the rest of the prepared materials, leaving Heavin in a defenseless state. "Heavin!" Soren shouted in alarm, moving out to block the tribulation for Heavin. After all, with the prepared body gone, Heavin would be killed by the subsequent lightning bolts. After all, the tribulation didn''t have that nurturing effect but resembled the spatial storm more instead. "Stop!" Krune stopped Soren hurriedly. "Believe in him a bit." "Feifei''s plan went up in smoke. What else am I supposed to do?" Soren raged, "My disciple would die if it¡­" "No, it''s his choice," Feifei said all of a sudden, staring at Heavin. "I created a plan for him, but it seems like he has a better idea. That''s why he abandoned it and decided to risk his life with his new idea. Let''s wait and watch what he does." And as she had said that, it seemed Heavin truly had an idea now as the moment the bolt of tribulation lightning slammed into him, it was surprisingly absorbed by his ethereal form, condensed in him into mystical energy. "Gah!" Heavin groaned in pain as mysterious black smoke gushed out of his body nonstop. But at the same time, his body was becoming more and more clear. "He''s using the tribulation lightning to refine his soul and raise its purity." Yloka understood Heavin''s attempt, saying in surprise, "He''s intending to surpass the peak of a soul." Boom! Another bolt of tribulation lightning slammed into Heavin, this time fully absorbed as the black smoke ejecting out of him spiked in response. Heavin continued to circulate the energy, slowly causing his Mental Energy to gain a better form. But in the end, it was still Mental Energy, but stronger, purer. Suddenly, the tribulation clouds vanished as all the tribulation lightning in it fell out like rain, turning into a mist that revolved around him, going into his body as Heavin gradually condensed a mysterious Law within him, immediately dying in the process. A moment later, he revived, possessing an ethereal body that didn''t have any mass or substance. Plus, it could only be felt by Mental Energy. Any other form of energy would fail at detecting him. Moreover, even for Mental Energy, one must have comprehension of the Mental Energy Law in the God Realm to be able to detect him. Whoosh! He appeared like a phantom as Heavin succeeded in his breakthrough, becoming a brand new God¡­ Extreme Soul God! Everyone stared in shock at his figure, feeling difficulty in keeping track of him despite him remaining in the same place. They were all unable to stare at him long enough, feeling a searing pain in their minds if they stared for more than a few seconds. ''He has indeed opened a new path.'' Wally smirked as he said happily, "Congratulations, Heavin. You''ve surpassed the peak of soul cultivation." "I guess¡­" Heavin said slowly, taking a step forward when he noticed the looks of surprise on the faces of everyone else, for his figure vanished from their senses. This was even though he had only taken a single step. Heavin hurriedly controlled his power, limiting himself before observing that everyone was able to sense him once again. He then closed his eyes, sensing the type of power he had obtained now, stating with a smile, "I''m glad to have taken the risk. This is worth it." He then bowed towards Wally. "I''m sorry, senior, for wasting so many resources and disrupting your plans." "It''s fine," Wally said casually, "It wasn''t hinging on your success anyway. And I''m glad that you did what you felt was right. Now, I''m curious. Mind explaining about your Law?" "Yes." Heavin nodded in relief, beginning to speak, "It''s called the Extreme Soul Law. I have now become a pure soul entity. As I couldn''t wield anything other than Mental Energy, it was a disadvantage against opponents that could wield the other two forms of energy." "And hence, I thought of something," he continued. "Why should I use my weakness to fight the strengths of others? Can''t I turn their strengths into their weakness? And that''s when I decided to make the change." "Now¡­" He smiled, unleashing a tiny Heavenly Incarnation, pointing at the sphere hovering in his palms. "My powers ensure that only Mental Energy attacks are effective against me. Attacks using any other energy forms simply cannot touch me. So, the only way to defeat me is through Mental Energy, which is where my strength lies." He then gazed at Soren, bowing respectfully, "Did I fare well, master?" ''Only Mental Energy attacks can harm you while the rest cannot even touch or sense you. Even for me, I''m having a hard time sensing you, even though you''re just standing before me.'' Soren sighed as the smile on his wide became wide, filled with pride as he grinned. "You''ve done great!" Chapter 1503 Soul Trading Hub Chapter 1503 Soul Trading Hub "And master, I was thinking of something to take advantage of my power¡­" Heavin spoke, thinking for a couple of minutes before stating his thoughts, "I want to raise our economy." "Raise our economy?" Soren was confused. "What would that even mean?" "I meant the resources," he reiterated. "Currently, we possess nine-tenths of the Tilk Realm, a realm that''s the greatest in terms of resource production. So, we can take advantage of this." "Currently, we have a lot of resources, but some are deficient," he continued. "Just like the Blank Law Cores. If we have more of them at the Primal God Realm, we''ll be able to raise a lot of experts for the laws that don''t have a God yet." "There are countless other strategic resources that we require but don''t have enough of. But, there should be other realms that have resources we need but are facing a deficit of the resources we have in surplus." Heavin smiled. "So, through trade, we''ll be able to earn a lot." "It sounds pretty great, but we don''t have the strength to guarantee fair transactions with other realms." Soren sighed. "Even back then, when we traded with them through Krune, they quoted exorbitant prices. Unless our realm becomes the strongest in the Greater Realm, it''s impossible to do what you said." "No, there''s a way." Heavin smiled, gazing at Krune as he asked, "Is it possible to create a large enough Realm Core for me?" "Yes, it''ll take time, but it''s possible." Krune nodded. "What will you use it for, though?" "I''ll take control of it and develop it until it births a Satellite Realm Spirit," Heavin replied. "And since I would use my Heavenly Incarnation, this entire realm would be something only accessible through Mental Energy. So, others cannot invade it." "We''ll then distribute keys similar to our realm for this Satellite Realm. Each key would allow the God to send a portion of their soul into this Satellite Realm where a variety of resources would be posted for sale," he continued. "And since it''s a place only accessible by souls, I can ensure all transactions are transparent. Rather, the nature of my ability ensures that everything is transparent." "So, this platform can be used to trade resources." Krune nodded. "Yes, and it''ll be so that there would be a pillar of light accompanying each resource, displaying its value. So, goods can be exchanged according to similar pillars of light. This helps the transaction better. Moreover..." He said with a smile, "As only a part of the souls can arrive there and it''s only possible through the keys I release, the identities of everyone there would remain anonymous." "Alright, this will work." Wally nodded, gazing at Heavin. "But, we have to lay down a small tax so that it''s profitable for us in the long term." "Yes, that''s a given since this place would allow goods to be transferred from one realm to another almost instantaneously," Heavin said. "Since they''ll be transferred through what is similar to thoughts." "And, this is exclusive only to me. So, no one else would even be able to detect this." Heavin said with pride. Honestly, until now, he was feeling a tremendous sense of inferiority complex due to the fact that what he had once perceived to be his advantage ended up being a disadvantage once the Kun Realm opened up to the major players of the Greater Universe like the Garg and Mong Realm. Beyond the Kun Realm, every single cultivator cultivated all three cultivation paths and where Soul Cultivation was significantly developed, more so than the Kun Realm itself. So, when his sole advantage ended up amounting to nothing in front of his enemies that were superior in his own field, it was a hard blow for Heavin. Only now, after becoming a God and obtaining a strong enough advantage, did he begin to regain his confidence. And as he regained his confidence, so did the various abilities he had suppressed within himself, immediately thinking of a plan to make use of his advantages. "Alright, I''ll ask Gegrafikan and Hazak to begin preparations for it immediately." Krune nodded before gazing at Wally. "Let''s begin." "Alright." Wally nodded as all the Gods arrived before the spatial storm barrier, gazing at the shimmering destructive energy within, enough to destroy them all. When the Mong Realm invaded, it took then an entire year to breach through it. The God King ended up breaching it almost instantly, though, but that was a different case. Their plan now was to gain control of this celestial object that had somehow ended up forming around them. "What''s the plan?" Krune asked. "It''s rather simple," Wally said. "Activate your Champion state and seep in your two Laws into the spatial storm barrier." "Sterlena would do the same with her Heavenly Destruction Law." He then gazed at Turia. "And you''ll seep your senses through the Balance Laws and gradually refine the spatial storm barrier. It''s a simple process, to be frank." "Simple, but time-consuming." Krune nodded. "I can''t even estimate how long it might take to finish this." After all, the spatial storm barrier covered the entire Kun Realm Cluster. Even after becoming a God, traveling through the Kun Realm alone would take him thousands of years. It was just that vast. Every God used their law spread across the Kun Realm to manifest everywhere they wished to appear. None of them traveled through conventional means. But now, the spatial storm barrier wasn''t under their control. And hence, they had to refine it the conventional way. And that would take¡­ ages. "Yes, but you should know that you and Sterlena are only the gateways to the spatial storm barrier," Wally said. "The actual person that would be doing the refining would be Turia. As the two of you are our Champions, you and Turia share an empirical connection. And this is what we''ll take advantage of." "Alright," Krune nodded, facing his hand towards the spatial storm barrier as he used his Law of Hunger after activating his Champion state, seeping in power through the spatial storm barrier. He then became sad; his hands trembled as his mouth convulsed. Krune forcefully controlled himself, activating his second Law through Little Krune. Tribulation Lightning Law! Chapter 1504 The Primordial Wager Chapter 1504 The Primordial Wager Growl! In the absolute center of the Greater Universe existed a violent spatial storm, violent enough to casually destroy any realm that came close. This was a region determined as a dead man''s universe, for no life could ever hope to survive here. When even the regular spatial storms were capable of killing Gods, such a violent spatial storm was a death sentence, irrespective of the realm, and even for pinnacle beings like the God King, death was the only option. Though, it wouldn''t be right to say that no life lived here. No, the truth was vastly different. There didn''t exist any realms here, though, just endless spatial storms, one more violent than the other. Suddenly, a spatial storm pulsed, throbbing up and down as the storm churned violently, becoming stronger. Suddenly, a part of the storm moved away, revealing a gigantic eye that blinked violently, its every action affecting the spatial storms. Just the eye alone was as big as a Sub-Realm. And as to the entire body, it was on the level of a Satellite Realm, gigantic living beings. It was one of the creatures of myth¡­ Primordial Beast! Suddenly, a ginormous suffocating voice thundered across the void. "Zule, I sensed the aura of a Spirit Aberrant from your Kun Realm. You dare rear that race even after we''ve given command of their eradication?" "I''m not sure I get what you''re talking about." Hovering before the gigantic eye was the lean figure of a man, sporting a thin goatee that he stroked, smiling subtly as he said, "No realm can handle the weight of a Spirit Aberrant. As a Primordial Beast Chief, I''m sure you''re the most aware of this." "Yes, I know. And this is precisely why your clan was slaughtered." The gigantic eye snorted in response. "You dared to shield the Spirit Aberrants in the past. So, remember that none among the Kun Peng Race has a good view of you." "You don''t need to worry about it," Zule said in all seriousness. "There''s no Primordial Beast race being reared in my Kun Realm, especially the infamous Spirit Aberrant." "Well, since you seem to be so afraid of them, I might as well make a trip back to double-check things¡­" Zule just said when the spatial storm rumbled, emanating a lot of power, enough to vaporize Satellite Realms instantly. "You brat! Who the fuck is afraid of the Spirit Aberrants?" The gigantic eye roared. "I''m the Kun Peng Chief! I have killed the highest number of Spirit Aberrants! Do you think I''m afraid of that race?" ''Who the fuck are you kidding?'' Zule rolled his eyes in response. "Five Chiefs ganged up on the Spirit Aberrant Chief and barely managed to kill him. As the Kun Peng Chief, killing regular Spirit Aberrants isn''t anything worth boasting about. Rather, it''s like a full-grown adult using a sword to kill newborn babies." "You fucking brat!" The Kun Peng Chief gruntled in anger. "Don''t you dare anger me. I''ll destroy that tiny home you''ve built to play with!" "Is that the best you can do?" Suddenly, a suffocating fluctuation emanated from Zule, rapidly sending the entirety of the spatial storm flying away, even surprising the Kun Peng Chief. "Old fart! Your prized realm suicided itself ages ago. So, don''t be fucking salty at the success of my realm. If you want, why don''t you create another realm and compete with me? Do you dare?" "You don''t, right?" Zule snorted, beginning to fly away slowly as he spat out. "What''s a Kun Peng that doesn''t dare to create a realm? You''re just a relic of the past anyway. Just remain a figurative piece. The Age of Primordial Beasts would soon come to an end." "Hahahaha!" The Kun Peng Chief roared in laughter, "The Age of Primordial Beasts would come to an end? How laughable! You really think those mere Gods could do anything to us? A single snort from me can destroy their entire realms!" "You sure?" Zule smirked, raising his hand as he pointed at the Kun Peng Chief. "Do you wish to wager a bet with me then?" "A bet?" The Kun Peng Chief raised an eyebrow. "Interesting. Sure, I''ll humor your delusion." "The Mong Realm, the Garg Realm, the TTT, and my Kun Realm. All four of them would produce strong enough Champions to kill Primordial Beasts. They would use our flesh and blood to further strengthen their realms." Zule announced. "And over time, their accumulations would surpass even your strength." "Fine," The Kun Peng Chief snorted in response. "What will you bet for that?" "What else?" Zule spoke slowly. "If you win, you can swallow me and my Kun Realm. But if I win, I''ll swallow you. Brave enough to follow through with this deal?" ''This bastard is finally revealing his blade.'' The Kun Peng Chief thought before smirking. ''A mere increase in strength, and he thinks he can contend against me, how laughable.'' "This bet seems pretty interesting." Suddenly, another gigantic spatial storm approached them, surprising the two from the Kun Peng Race. "Old rat, you''re also interested in this?" The Kun Peng Chief said in surprise. "Zule is pretty young. And it''s normal for the young to be ambitious without being aware of the height of the heavens." The rigid voice of the new spatial storm resounded. "Humour the child, will you?" "Fine¡­" The Kun Peng Chief nodded before gazing at Zule. "But first, we''ll send a Primordial Beast to invade each of the four realms you''ve mentioned. Let''s see if they can withstand that or be annihilated in the process." "Sure," Zule smiled when he heard that. "You''ll come to know how much you''re underestimating these developing Greater Realms. And you''ll also come face to face with the truth that you''re not caught up with the times anymore." "Haha, we''ll see about that." Saying so, the two Primordial Beast Chiefs vanished, leaving Zule all alone. ''Alright, their intervention would grant more time for your development, Turia,'' Zule thought, massaging his forehead as he curbed the nervousness building up in him, muttering in exhaustion, "I never thought Hishe would be killed. I was hoping he would merge the Kun and Tilk Realms." Chapter 1505 Realm Ability: Spatial Storm Barrier Chapter 1505 Realm Ability: Spatial Storm Barrier "Hmm?" Turia frowned all of a sudden. "Did something happen?" Wally asked. "No¡­ it''s nothing," Turia said, deep in thought. ''I felt¡­ something just now. Has something happened to Zule?'' She then shook her head upon seeing that she wasn''t able to glean any other insight, returning to the task at hand, focusing on the Balance Laws that were steadily seeping into the spatial storm barrier. The spatial storm barrier had a destructive nature to it. So, the first to permeate through it was Sterlena''s Heavenly Destruction Law. Her energy was naturally permeable through it, like fish in water. Hence, she formed the first line of transformation. Following it was Krune''s Hunger Law, something capable of devouring every single law in existence and multiplying as a result. The Hunger Law latched onto the Heavenly Destruction Law like a parasite and spread through the spatial storm barrier. Following it was the Tribulation Lightning Law, one with the nurturing effect atop its capability to destroy every law in existence. This formed the transition phase between the Hunger Law and the Heavenly Destruction Law, creating a three-pronged Law that spread forth like roots. With that, the adhesive element was the Balance Laws that connected everything together into one, allowing Turia to manipulate them all. The Heavenly Destruction Law spread through the spatial storm barrier, slowly transforming it into her own power of destruction. And the remaining two Laws complemented the process, allowing these roots to multiply and seep further. The control for everything fell in the hands of Turia, which relied upon the power from the Kun Realm to gradually form a connection with the spatial storm barrier. However, it was easier said than done, especially since they wished to make this active. The original spatial storm barrier only contained destructive energy without any conscience of its own. Hence, the Mong Realm''s Satellite Realm Canon was able to easily bore a tunnel through it. After all, its power only tried to destroy the power of the Satellite Realm Canon. But now, Sterlena''s Heavenly Destruction would try to destroy anything targeted as enemies. The Tribulation Lightning would help detect and target all forms of attacks, as was its nature. Finally, the Hunger Law would eat the laws of the opponents to fuel itself, multiplying the strength in the barrier. Moreover, it could be controlled consciously by Turia, allowing it to become a lot more terrifying than before. Gradually, Turia began to obtain a small level of control over the spatial storm barrier, smiling as she announced, "It''s working." "That''s great." Wally was all smiles as he heard her announcement, bellowing in response, "Let''s keep up the pace. We''ll be the fourth realm to attain status as a Greater Realm after this. We''ll be the fourth and the last realm. So, let''s succeed before the other realms are able to take action once again." The Mong Realm''s Realm Ability allowed their Gods to revive endlessly. Even if they died, their respective law in the Mong Realm wouldn''t suffer any damage. The Garg Realm''s Realm Ability was able to move entire realms, making it impossible to target them through spatial tunnels, giving them the advantage of attacking and retreating as they please. Moreover, they could use Satellite Realms as cannons to bombard other realms. The TTT''s Realm Ability allowed the Gods to share their representative Laws with those from the other two realms, the same as the Champions. This allowed every God from the TTT to wield three Laws at the same time. This wasn''t as powerful as Krune using two Laws, though, as these two Laws were his while those from TTT were borrowing the power. So, if the borrowing source was already using their power, it would make it impossible to borrow anymore. At the final of the list was the Kun Realm, whose Realm Ability was the spatial storm barrier, capable of manipulating it and also creating more spatial storm barriers. After all, its fuel was spatial storms, which were of an infinite supply in the Greater Universe. The Hunger Law multiplied rapidly in exponential terms, causing the Kun Realm''s acquisition of the spatial storm barrier to become faster and faster. The process was happening at speeds beyond what they had imagined. This led to them completing the process in a mere century, allowing Turia to roar as she activated the Balance Laws to the limit, causing the Kun Realm to shine with a resplendent light that slammed into the spatial storm barrier. Slowly, the Balance Laws now spread within the spatial storm barrier and formed an actual connection with it, fusing into one as the essence of the spatial storm barrier flowed through the pillar of light formed by the Balance Laws, entering the Kun Realm Core. Gradually, a mystical concept formed there, one allowing Turia to attain a Realm Ability, the symbol of them becoming a Greater Realm. Slowly, the pillar of light died down as Turia smiled, announcing, "From henceforth, we, the Kun Realm, have attained the status as a Greater Realm. With the spatial storm barrier as our Realm Ability, our defensive strength is the greatest in the Greater Universe." "And with that, we can develop without much concern." She smiled, transmitting her voice to every single individual part of the Kun Realm Cluster. "I signal the start of our development!" "Finally¡­" Krune smiled as his eyes reddened, his body trembling as he felt unspeakable joy and a sense of relief as if the mountain of worries on his shoulders had become lighter now. "This doesn''t solve the root cause of our troubles, but we now have the standing to defend ourselves and protect our interests," Wally said, patting his shoulder. "This is the first step to our stability." "Yes, this is just the first step." Krune nodded. "We''ll achieve more in the future," Feifei said. "We''ll become so strong that no other realm would dare invade us." "That''s a given." Gegrafikan said, "Even if the Kun Realm Cluster becomes boring due to a lack of fights, it''s infinitely better as compared to now where we have to remain guarded all the time against the Mong Realm." "I''ll make more Realm Cores!" Hazak announced chirpily, causing others to smile. Chapter 1506 Soulura Chapter 1506 Soulura "Finally, its foundation reached the level of a Satellite Realm." Hazak heaved a sigh in relief, completing a Satellite Realm Core. Then, it was only barely at the level of a Satellite Realm Core. It wasn''t easy to condense a Satellite Realm Core, even if the two of them were working together on it. Just the scale of time required to do so was enormous. With that, this was what they could create until now. Their original plan was something different. But now, thanks to Heavin''s request, they had to make changes immediately, dropping their original plan as they worked on altering the Satellite Realm Core. And through that, they made it suitable for Heavin, trying their best to transform all the materials into products of Mental Energy. "It''s done," Gegrafikan said in the end, heaving a sigh of relief, exhausted as he had been working nonstop with Hazak all along. "Thank you." Heavin expressed his gratitude before grabbing hold of the Satellite Realm Core, slowly seeping in his exclusive Law¡ªExtreme Soul Law! Even though he didn''t have Godly Energy, thanks to the changes he obtained, Heavin was able to unleash a Heavenly Incarnation. Though, it was vastly different from every other Heavenly Incarnation. The Heavenly Incarnation wrapped around the Satellite Realm Core, rapidly modifying the laws in it, converting their structure gradually before turning them into products of his Extreme Soul Law. Slowly, he was refining it into a product of his exclusive Law, eventually finishing the process. In the meantime, Hazak and Gegrafikan worked together to create a similar Sub-Realm that Heavin took control of later, also turning it into his Heavenly Incarnation. "I''ve made the modifications!" He commented after a while. "I''ll call this Satellite Realm the Soul Trading Hub. I''ve installed a mechanism in which the resources obtained here as tax would flow into the Sub-Realm, which I''ve named the Kun Realm Soul Trading Hub." The Soul Trading Hub would be a place where Gods from every realm could transact resources to further their agendas. However, there would be a small tax applied to the place. And this tax, taken as resources, would be stored in the Soul Trading Hub. For every regular duration, of say, ten years, these collected resources would then be transferred to the Kun Realm Soul Trading Hub. The Kun Realm Soul Trading Hub was connected to the Kun Realm and all its various Satellite Realms. Trading between wasn''t that easy, especially considering the distance involved. They typically had to rely upon the Rune Realm to transport the goods. Though, that was only in terms of large-scale transport. Heavin planned to open the Kun Realm Soul Trading Hub to every single immortal of the Kun Realm Cluster. This would rapidly cause the immortals to obtain the resources they require at an alarming pace, allowing them to develop rapidly. This was his true motive, one that allowed the Kun Realm Cluster to develop the fastest. No other realm would have such an advantage. After all, only their Gods obtained keys allowing access to the Soul Trading Hub. There was no tax in the Kun Realm Soul Trading Hub, so it would become the most sought-after place for resource transactions. Moreover, the resource that would arrive from the Soul Trading Hub every ten years would be put up for auction for everyone to buy. As for the obtained money, Heavin had already made preparations to use them to strengthen the foundation of the Kun Realm Soul Trading Hub. After all, the Soul Trading Hub would be in the Kun Ream Cluster, where it would absorb energy from the spatial storms to gradually grow. Though, the Kun Realm Soul Trading Hub would be situated within the Kun Realm, hence making its natural development zero. With that, the auction money would be used to further its development. ''But in the future, everyone would try to aim for the Soul Trading Hub,'' Heavin thought, having already made preparations to send it somewhere deep into the Greater Universe, away from the sight of anyone. This way, none would be able to ever find it. This would serve to reduce the target painted at the back of the Kun Realm. Moreover, thanks to its nature, even if someone used a Mental Energy scan, they wouldn''t detect it. As it continued to develop, it would only become harder to detect it even if it was before a God, not to mention it being hidden in some corner of the Greater Universe. The Satellite Realm Core began to absorb energy from the spatial storm as it gradually created a Satellite Realm, materializing the Soul Trading Hub. After that, it took them a few decades before the Soul Trading Hub stabilized. Heavin then entered it, inspecting everything before nodding in response. "Everything''s working perfectly." Hazak condensed the spatial storm into resources while Gegrafikan converted them into Mental Energy resources. Heavin then used his exclusive Law to turn them into resources suitable for the Soul Trading Hub, elevating its foundation. It was barely a Satellite Realm. Hence, it didn''t require much resources before it attained enough foundation to birth a Satellite Realm Spirit. And with that, his work was done as the Kun Realm Satellite Realm Hub was managed by Turia itself. "Now¡­ go!" Heavin said, nodding resolutely as he gazed at the Satellite Realm Spirit that had been birthed just recently in the Soul Trading Hub. "We''ll rely on you, Soulura." "Yes." The Satellite Realm Spirit, named Soulura by Heavin, nodded in response, causing the Soul Trading Hub to gradually begin floating through the spatial storms as it vanished from view for every single God. "Even I can''t detect it," Wally said in surprise. Soon after, the Soul Trading Hub left the Kun Realm Cluster, moving into the Greater Universe as it seemed intent to vanish from the detection of everyone, heading towards one corner. And that is where it would stay for eternity, becoming the most bustling trade network in the future. And while it flew away, the Soul Trading Hub gently ejected dozens of keys that landed in the hands of the Kun Realm Gods. Its goal was to traverse next to the various realms and eject such keys there as well. This way, every realm would only treat the Soul Trading Hub as a mysterious work of nature and not something that the Kun Realm had created. This was the secret that would secretly make them the wealthiest realm. Chapter 1507 First Trading Network of the Greater Universe Chapter 1507 First Trading Network of the Greater Universe All this was happening during the time Krune and the rest were working on condensing the Realm Ability. Once Heavin sent the Soul Trading Hub away, he collected all the keys it had ejected and began distributing them to the various Gods of the Kun Realm Cluster. Once all the realms obtained at least one Key, Soulura would be able to give them more keys through that channel whenever more Gods were birthed in their world. Moreover, if a God were to die, she was also capable of rendering the respective key useless in an instant. This ensured the Soul Trading Hub would never be abused. And as the identities of everyone in the Soul Trading Hub were protected, this layer of anonymity would make anyone wishing to invade other realms hesitate. After all, the number of anonymous entities in the Soul Trading Hub was a direct indicator of the number of Gods present in the Greater Universe. Upon seeing their sheer numbers, even the Mong Realm might not be so daring anymore. After all, there was now the means to allow even weaker realms to grow strong at a faster pace. As long as they played their cards right, even weaker realms would quickly become strong. "What¡­ is this?" A God that was traveling through the void muttered in suspicion upon seeing a key floating towards him. He used his Divine Sense to probe it, frowning upon seeing that his Divine Sense couldn''t even sense it. He then thought for a moment, using his Mental Energy to see that he was able to make contact with the key. Immediately after, the key shone with a mild radiance, splitting a part of his soul, resulting in the split soul arriving in a mysterious space. "Where¡­ is this place?" The God grunted in pain upon his soul getting split like this. But, when he wished to exit, the split soul re-joined with the rest, leaving behind no traces or side effects. After some thought, he entered the mysterious space once again, looking around to see a vast stretch of emptiness. He also noticed that he wasn''t able to use any abilities here, only remaining in his soul form. After a couple of seconds, he suddenly noticed a stream of information gushing into him through the split soul, allowing him to understand the nature of the place. "The¡­ Soul Trading Hub?" As he pondered about the information, another split soul arrived. He noticed how he was unable to determine the gender, size, character, voice, or anything else regarding the other party. It resembled a hazy mist that was somewhat condensed into a humanoid. Thanks to this, the identities of everyone remained anonymous. He approached the other party, asking, "Do you¡­ have a God Stone?" "I¡­ do." As this was the first time for the other party, they were just cautious and unaware of everything, thinking of taking out a God Stone when a God Stone disappeared from their spatial ring in reality and hovered before them in the Soul Trading Hub. It was a Rank 1 God Stone, and the moment it appeared, it glimmered with weak light. Similarly, he also brought out a Rank 1 God Stone, noticing that the glimmering light between the both was more or less the same. And with that, he brought out a hundred Rank 1 God Stones, exchanging with the hundred Rank 1 God Stones of the other party, signaling the end of the Soul Trading Hub''s first transaction. When he arrived at reality, he only had 99 Rank 1 God Stones with him, realizing that this was the tax imposed upon the goods transacted here. However, he could feel that the power structure of these God Stones was different from his own, understanding that he had indeed transacted with a foreign Realm that who knows where it was situated. After all, he was unable to recognize this power system. Gradually, the number of figures in the Soul Trading Hub began to increase one after another as discussions gradually sparked. One of the figures began to peddle some goods immediately, and eventually, the market bustled. After all, it was a whole new place that had a legitimate advantage in transmitting resources through insane distance in an instant. And best of all, the tax of one percent was nothing compared to the travel costs that were incurred by the realms to transport the resources they had pillaged. Typically, it was called a successful invasion if they had a profit margin of forty percent. Anything more, and it was known as a lucrative effort. And only invading the Tilk Realm guaranteed such high returns. This was why it was invaded throughout history by multiple realms. The Gods traveling through the Greater Universe for a variety of factors were the first to appear in the Soul Trading Hub. And through them, keys were transmitted to the Gods from their home realm. Of course, it was all perfectly managed by Soulura. Gradually, the keys made their way to multiple realms, continuing to spread across the Greater Universe like wildfire. Eventually, the Garg Realm Champion also obtained it when one of his Gods traveling through the Greater Universe as a scout obtained the key. And with that, he too arrived at the Soul Trading Hub, looking around as he thought, ''This changes things a lot. Did the Greater Universe conceive this to keep up with the times?'' ''After all, this might probably be the first time four Greater Realms have made an appearance. In the era before this, there only existed three Greater Realms after all,'' he thought, looking around curiously as he probed through the place, surprised to see that his split soul didn''t experience any changes even though his figure in reality had activated his Champion state. ''So, this is indeed a safe haven for the transaction of goods.'' He nodded, feeling mildly worried. ''This might bridge the gap between us and the weaker realms a little.'' But immediately after that, he smiled, ''But, we have the greatest resources at the moment. So, we can use that to transact with exotic resources available in realms that are too far away to invade while keeping profit into account.'' ''This means¡­'' He smiled. ''My realm would become even stronger as long as we take advantage of this place.'' Chapter 1508 Soul Slaps Chapter 1508 Soul Slaps Currently, for the Garg Realm, the greatest quantity of resources they obtained originated from the Zen Realm. And every year, they had to spend a lot of energy to open a portal to the Zen Realm and transport all the goods. But with the appearance of the Soul Trading Hub, the Garg Realm Champion thought otherwise, feeling that the efficiency was slightly higher by transporting through the Soul Trading Hub. But immediately after, he decided against using it for the transaction with the Zen Realm. ''After all, this transaction would happen every year. And if they notice the massive volume of resources being transferred every year, even through their veil of anonymity, they would determine that the Garg Realm is behind this.'' ''Adding onto how the Zen Realm moved all of a sudden, they could easily piece together the puzzle,'' he thought. ''So, it''s not wise to reveal our cards. Only transacting the required resources through the Soul Trading Hub should transpire. For everything else, the conventional means are still better. At least, it would be harder to sense and keep track of.'' Even though everything in the Soul Trading Hub was anonymous, the goods themselves had the signature of the origin realm. And hence, it wasn''t hard to picture the source realm of the resources and eventually even derive the identity of the Gods that were transacting it. It would be hard at the moment. But in the future, as the Gods transacted more and more, a pattern would emerge, allowing them to determine the identities of at least a few Gods. But these were only minor problems. For the majority, the Soul Trading Hub gave a lot of realms a tremendous advantage. Immediately, the smaller realms began to transact resources in a frenzy in an effort to accumulate as much advantage as possible. Among the resources, information was also being sold. One of this information was released by the Garg Realm Champion. And it stated the means to birth the Realm Spirit faster. Considering the advantages of the information, the pillar of light it emitted became the tallest, garnering the attention of everyone. Immediately after that, countless realms raced to get their hands on this information, resulting in a furious bidding spree. Of course, since he decided to take advantage of the place, the Garg Realm Champion went all out, peddling everything that served no use for him. Moreover, he was glad to elevate the strength of the weak realms to a certain extent. That level of development would fatten them up, ripe for the taking. Plus, since the Mong Realm had an invasive nature, it would have to exert more strength to deal with these realms than before. That meant that they couldn''t just casually invade any realm like before. If they did, it only gave the Garg Realm a better chance to invade them in return. But soon after, another pillar of light emerged, one that was even taller than the Garg Realm Champion''s. ''So, he''s also here,'' The Garg Realm Champion thought, gazing at the anonymous individual standing next to the current tallest pillar of light. Of course, who else could it be but the God King? As for the information that was being sold? It was a page-by-page analysis of the Garg Realm, its involvement in various realm affairs, its defensive structure, the ways to invade it better, the strength of its Realm Spirit, etc. Even their Realm Ability was mentioned. The level of information was too detailed that the pillar of light was the tallest. Though, none bought this information. After all, none of them had the intention to invade the Garg Realm. Even if they knew all the Garg Realm''s weaknesses, they didn''t have a death wish. Also, it was apparent that only the Mong Realm dared to slap the face of the Garg Realm, thanks to the deep-seated conflict between the two Realms. Even though no one bought the information, the God King still took it out, even though he knew no one would buy it. The reason he had done so was to announce a simple message¡­ "Look, I know a lot about your realm. My spies had extracted a lot of information. Tuck your tail and act cute. Otherwise, I''ll annihilate you." Of course, after being provoked by the God King, why would the Garg Realm Champion be silent? He wasn''t afraid of the God King, after all. Immediately, an even bigger pillar of light emerged. But surprisingly, it wasn''t information but a resource. Sub-Realm of the Mong Realm! The Garg Realm Champion hadn''t devoured all the Sub-Realms of the Mong Realm that he had annexed. They still needed time to finish devouring them all. But now that the God King had provoked him, the Garg Realm Champion went a step ahead, directly putting up a Sub-Realm of the Mong Realm for sale. Moreover, he went another step ahead, announcing plainly, "This is just some trash that I picked up on the side of the street. As it was cluttering up my place''s beauty, I''ll be putting it up for sale. The price is one Rank 1 God Stone." Clap! Even though nothing physical happened, the various Gods could sense a vicious slap sent by the Garg Realm Champion to the God King. After all, he blatantly sold the Mong Realm''s property at a mere price of one Rank 1 God Stone. It was apparent that he wished to humiliate them more. He didn''t stop at that as the Garg Realm put up a video. "Also, I''ll attach this clown''s antics for free if you buy this trash." If was the beaten-up figure of the God King escaping from the Kun Realm Cluster. Upon seeing this scene, waves transpired through the hearts of everyone watching the scene, aware that the powder keg had been lit up already. What would transpire next, in reality, would be an invasion by the Mong Realm of anyone that dared to buy the Mong Realm''s Sub-Realm. After all, only the Garg Realm could openly oppose the Mong Realm. But surprisingly, a voice resounded from the crowd. "Bro, that''s too expensive for a piece of trash." "Give me a discount, will you?" Chapter 1509 One Minute In Exchange for a Millennium Chapter 1509 One Minute In Exchange for a Millennium "Bro, there''s a one percent tax. Plus, a Rank 1 God Stone is the least something can be sold for," The Garg Realm Champion said helplessly. "So, I can''t go any lower." "But sir, look at the state of the product you''re selling. It''s from a run-down place. You''re ripping off honest customers with this exorbitant price," the customer replied. He was Krune, having come here with a certain intention. He was only looking around at the start for anything interesting to buy. But the moment the Garg Realm Champion began to insult the God King, he jumped on the train. The moment he thought of the God King, intense hatred welled up from deep within him. So, there was no way he would be gentle against an opponent he was raging to kill. "I''ll be honest with you, kind sir," Krune said soon after. "I''ve been to the Mong Realm twice. There''s practically nothing there. Not even grass grows there. With a Rank 1 God Stone, you can buy an entire supercontinent of theirs." Waves of shock spread throughout the crowd as they finally understood the identity of the figure that so blatantly joined mocking the God King. There was just one individual who had done so, having infiltrated the Mong Realm twice, dealing it crippling damage each time, also stealing their realm''s key in the process. The Kun Realm Champion¡ªHunger God, Krune! The first time he infiltrated the Mong Realm, his cultivation was only at the First Stage Elementary God Realm. And with that, he crippled a tenth of the Mong Realm''s God Realm population, using that foundation to create his God Seat. The second time he infiltrated the Mong Realm was when he had become a God, creating portals for every major realm to invade the Mong Realm, displaying the extent of viciousness he could stoop to. As a lot of realms had been camping around the Kun Realm Cluster at that time, they had all obtained information regarding how the God King had killed Krune''s closest friend. Moreover, it was a known fact that the wisp race was almost eradicated thanks to the Mong Realm''s actions. When it was revealed that the wisp race were the guardians of the Kun Realm, the Gods from the weaker realms obtained a complete understanding of things. Thereby, they understood the myriad of schemes that had transpired in the Kun Realm. But despite that, they raised not one but two Champions. Little Cally, the Mong Realm''s dog, one that created the means for the Mong Realm to easily invade the other realms, was from the Kun Realm. And the moment the Kun Realm took action, they eradicated the Gods stationed in the Calamity Realm, due to which Little Cally was no longer in a blackmailed state, quickly reverting to the Kun Realm''s side openly. Before their Realm Spirit''s birth, the Kun Realm barely had thirty Gods. But despite that, they dared to retaliate against their enemies. This showed that even though the Kun Realm didn''t have an invasive nature, when hit, they would hit back even more viciously. "Fine!" The Garg Realm sighed. "I can give it to you for free. But, you must give me something in return." "Sure," Krune replied, bringing out a video that consisted of the God Kin screaming as countless maggots tore into his body. This was a reveal into the fight that happened in the Kun Realm Cluster, a piece of information unknown to everyone else. The moment it appeared, even though the other Gods were afraid and had to act like they weren''t interested, they had silently used their Mental Energy scans to contact the Garg Realm Champion, asking for a copy of the information. After buying the video from Krune, the Garg Realm Champion made multiple copies and secretly distributed them to everyone. He then turned around, noticing the God King had disappeared, grinning once before he also vanished. A second later, he reappeared. As everything was anonymous, no one could relate him to the Garg Realm Champion anymore. And after that, he began to peddle the goods, well aware that the God King was also doing the same. If he was offended by a bit of insult, he wouldn''t have become the God King. As an entity that always looked at long-term benefits, the Garg Realm Champion was aware that it wasn''t easy to force the God King''s hands. But he was still all smiles. ''This confirms the Kun Realm''s stance on the matter. They dare to openly go against the Mong Realm.'' ''I should work on bettering our relationship further,'' he thought, frowning soon after. ''Though, it seems the TTT has an unfavorable stance on the matter. They''re somewhat leaning towards the Mong Realm''s side.'' Such was politics. While the Garg Realm had extended a hand towards the Kun Realm to erect a relationship, it seemed the Mong Realm had done the same to the TTT. As the TTT and the Kun Realm attained status as a Greater Realm, every action of theirs would now affect the rest of the Greater Universe. "Here, I got this for free," Krune said after returning to reality, giving the Sub-Realm to Gegrafikan. It might not amount to much on their scale, but a Sub-Realm was still a Sub-Realm. It took Hazak and Gegrafikan almost a millennium to create a strong enough Sub-Realm. And now, thanks to Krune''s actions, he saved them a millennium of work. He wasn''t just acting aggressively out of emotions, though. Sure, he was incredibly pissed. However, that didn''t mean he wouldn''t set aside anything that was beneficial for his realm''s development. After all, he wasn''t just Krune now, but the Kun Realm''s Champion. So, he was responsible for their realm''s development. "Awesome!" Gegrafikan muttered before converting the Sub-Realm into the Kun Realm''s power structure, dismantling it as they used the foundation into another of their creation, saving a lot of time. "What''s our plan now?" Wally asked, hovering beside him as he watched Yloka giving a myriad of instructions to Gegrafikan and Hazak. "We need battle experience." Krune said, "And, we also need to develop on a lot of fronts. Yloka and Feifei would work on strategic weapons while we''ll focus on the individual power of our various Gods." "It''s time I picked up the hammer again and forged things." Chapter 1510 If Not Internal, Then External Is the Way Chapter 1510 If Not Internal, Then External Is the Way "Gah!" "Geh!" "Huuu!" The various Gods of the Kun Realm Cluster shrieked from time to time as their Godly Energy was sealed, preventing them from relying upon their innate strength. As most of their Laws had to do with standard cultivation, with Godly Energy rendered useless, they too were the same, unable to use their respective laws. It left them with no other choice but to rely upon their Soul Cultivation and Body Cultivation. Though, that was easier said than done, especially against the enemy they had to face. Boom! Krune''s wisp form flashed past, slamming the Gods into the ground like a truck moving through a pile of cans. He, too, was only relying on his Body Cultivation and Soul Cultivation to fight. But despite that, the difference was huge. "Keuk!" Faunkill grunted as he was sent flying from a hit, crashing into the ground before creating a long trench. "That''s not enough!" Krune shouted, raising his speed as the Sub-Realm they were fighting within continued to change. Slowly, it wasn''t just their Godly Energy that was sealed, but their Mental Energy also followed suit. Eventually, even their Body Energy was sealed, rendering them helpless, with no other choice but to rely upon their physical bodies to fight. And here, it was a matter of skill. Surprisingly, Krune was a lot more experienced in comparison to the Kun Realm Gods, some of which were a lot older than him. This resulted from the experience Krune obtained during his stay in the Mong Realm. The fights he had there caused him to grow leaps and bounds in terms of experience. Even though these experiences were transmitted to the rest in the Kun Realm using Mental Energy, it wasn''t enough to raise their strength by too much. After all, the experiences were Krune''s. This meant that the thought process, the method of dealing with stuff, and the fighting nature were all Krune''s. As everyone had their respective styles, it was impossible to use his experience as theirs wholly. Only if they were in that tense state would they better themselves. With that, Krune created that. A battlefield where all the Gods could fight nonstop in severely horrible conditions. This would cause them to think of more and more ways to better themselves. And as they said in the golden ages¡­ Desperation is the mother of inspiration! When you''re desperate enough, you''ll find a way somehow to survive. And this was precisely Krune''s intention. Though, it wasn''t just him training the other Gods. He also needed to become stronger. And hence¡­ Bang! As he continued to ram through his opponents, Krune was suddenly sent flying away as a bigger wisp arrived, flashing its golden Wisp Core. Upon seeing the golden Wisp Core, Krune snorted, getting up hurriedly, "Why is only yours golden?" "I''m the Wisp God, after all," Wally smirked in response. "As the first of our kind, I''m like the king of wisps." "Yeah, yeah, yeah." Rolling his eyes in response, Krune''s figure flashed past, slamming into Wally as the two exchanged a myriad of punches. Of course, Krune was mostly on the receiving end. After all, Wally had been fighting all his life, protecting the Kun Realm from foreign invaders. So, his wealth of experience was unmatchable. "Keuk!" Krune spat out blood, slumping to the ground, exhausted as he too had suppressed his powers to force him further into the state of desperation. Following that, the two wisps went head-on at each other, going around the battlefield as they bashed anyone that they came across. Except for six Gods, everyone else was fighting here. Hazak and Gegrafikan were working on creating Realm Cores. Feifei and Soren were working on a joint venture with Heavin and Yloka. So they, too, couldn''t participate. In any case, everyone else was free real estate to pick a fight with. After fighting for a couple of months nonstop, Krune took a break, exiting the Sub-Realm as he regained his strength, sighing as his injuries healed instantly. Wally followed him soon after, frowning as he said, "I can see some improvements in our strength this way, but¡­" "It''s not efficient enough, right?" Krune sighed as he replied. "I''m thinking of other means, but it''s not as effective as I imagined, even after I''m employing my Tribulation Lightning." "Our growth as a God is a slow, time-consuming process as we gradually raise the quality of our Law itself. After all, from this point, it''s our job to develop our representative laws," Wally said. "And it''s not easy to do that. Inspiration can only cover a short distance. Everything else depends on gradual accumulation." "And it takes time." "I know¡­" Krune sighed. Until the Primal God Realm, there were multiple ways to hasten one''s growth. The Blank Law Cores were one of the simplest methods that reduced their cultivation difficulties. But in the God Realm cultivation, things were no longer the same. After all, they already represented the peak of their respective Law. So any growth would mean a growth in the Law itself. It was like laying down a pavement in the depths of darkness without any footing. It couldn''t be rushed and had to be a process of gradual accumulation. So, despite his wishes, they couldn''t grow as quickly. However, that didn''t mean that Krune was out of options. "If the internal growth takes time, then I''ll supplement it with external growth." Saying so, Krune condensed a spatial tunnel and vanished, appearing before Hazak. "Hazak, I need your help." "My Lord, it''ll be my utmost of pleasures." Hazak grinned happily, dancing around as she snuggled into his hold. It was weird to see since she almost resembled a supercontinent in size now while he was still the same, good old wisp inside. So, if Hazak were to be distracted, she would miss him. She quickly transformed into her human form, asking chirpily, "What do you need me to do?" "A Satellite Realm," Krune muttered. "The weakest of its kind. It doesn''t need to have much in terms of size, but its functionality should resemble a Satellite Realm." "Primarily, you mean its ability to absorb spatial storms and produce Godly Energy, right?" Hazak said, eyes lighting up as she watched Krune nod. "Okay! I''ll try!" Chapter 1511 Satellite Pestlor Chapter 1511 Satellite Pestlor "Here!" A century later, Hazak presented a Satellite Realm Core to Krune, stating, "Its foundation is lacking as compared to a Sub-Realm, but it has all the traits of a Satellite Realm." "Great." Krune nodded, surprised that she was able to complete it in a century. Although the workload was less, it was still something she was trying for the first time. "What will you use it for?" Hazak asked, curious. "See it for yourself," Krune smirked, holding the miniature Satellite Realm Core in his hands, causing his fingers to spark with tribulation lightning. The lightning bolts sparked all across the surface of the miniature Satellite Realm Core before digging into it, slowly refining it, tempering it similar to a lightning tribulation. Gradually, the strength of the lightning bolts increased as the tempering effect became stronger and stronger. Moreover, the miniature Satellite Realm Core became stronger and more stable. Tribulation lightning not only refined the bodies of the cultivators and strengthened them but also did the same to the world as well. And here, it was the same as Krune was using the strongest power of the Greater Universe in terms of refinement to refine the miniature Satellite Realm Core, making it stronger. Slowly, the miniature Satellite Realm Core began to rotate as the energy it was absorbing from the nearby spatial storm continued to steadily increase in size. Moreover, through his Divine Sense, Krune discovered that the quality of Godly Energy produced within the miniature Satellite Realm Core became purer. Its efficiency in the process continued to increase as its withholding capacity for Godly Energy also expanded. Gradually, as it continued to become more and more stable, its foundation expanded as Krune began to pour in his Tribulation Lightning Law and Hunger Law into it, gradually turning it into his property, under his control as only his representative laws were in there. Boom! Suddenly, the miniature Satellite Realm Core sparked with Godly Energy, causing some spatial storm to whirr around it before being sucked into it, forming a thin filament over it. It had begun to create a Satellite Realm. Though, as this wasn''t Krune''s intention, he stopped the formation of a Satellite Realm, taking out Pestlor as he muttered to it, "It might hurt. Hold on." "I''ll be fine, Krune." The Pestlor''s weapon spirit replied in response as Krune gradually brought it towards the miniature Satellite Realm Core. Lightning bolts covered the Pestlor, dancing across its surface as the lightning bolts on the two devices began to interlock with one another, gradually pulling each other closer. "Keuk!" The Pestlor''s item spirit grunted in pain as Krune separated the pestle and mortar pieces separately, almost breaking his signature weapon into two. The pestle was used to ground items into powder within the hole in the mortar. So, these two would perfectly join together when clamped. And now, after separating it, Krune caused the miniature Satellite Realm Core to gradually enter the hole in the mortar before settling there. Slowly after that, the pestle gently began to enter the mortar hole, touching the miniature Satellite Realm Core as the three entities began to fuse into one. The tribulation lightning danced across the three, refining them all into one unified whole. On top of that, Krune continued to seep his two representative laws through them, turning them wholly into an item made out of the Tribulation Lightning Law and the Hunger Law. Hazak watched with bated breath as Krune was doing something inconceivable once again. Pestlor''s item spirit continued to roar in pain as the lightning danced across it, melting its body, changing its inherent makeup at an alarming pace. Slowly, its aura was turning grand, vast, with its prior cultivation being nullified as a mysterious power began to swell through it. As a result, its appearance had also begun to change. Suddenly, a mysterious suction force emanated from the miniature Satellite Realm Core, pulling it into its core, rapidly fusing into it as the item spirit continued to holler incoherently. But gradually, it and the miniature Satellite Realm Core were becoming one. And¡­ it was gradually turning into a Satellite Realm Spirit instead of a mere item spirit. Item spirits had their respective cultivation levels, with most stopping at the Primal God Realm. Only a seldom few in the Kun Realm''s history surpassed that and became Divine Spirits. However, they were lost during the Kun Realm Gods'' attempt to exit the Four Realms. Though, even Divine Spirits were like Gods, having to guard against spatial storms by expending their power to do so. In contrast, a Satellite Realm Spirit was superior in that it could siphon energy from the spatial storms to empower itself and grow stronger. And this was Krune''s intention all along. On the level of Gods, as displayed by the Mong Realm, any strategic items should be composed of Realm Cores. Krune continued to refine it for many decades, gradually fusing everything into a unified whole, creating an item that was akin to a Satellite Realm in nature. He smiled, watching the brand new item hover before him as it slowly began to absorb energy from the surrounding spatial storms to empower itself. It now grew in quality over time thanks to the inherent material used in Pestlor''s creation¡ªwhich also comprised his Spiritual Incarnation. But now that it was also composed of his Hunger Law and Tribulation Lightning Law, it was constantly refining itself by absorbing more and more energy from the spatial storms. What Krune had created was a Divine Weapon that would last for the ends of time, only growing stronger as time passed. After all, it was a living, breathing item, a Satellite Realm that could be wielded as a weapon. As for the original item spirit, it had transformed into a Satellite Realm Spirit. And shockingly, for its appearance, it resembled a wisp. After all, the one that had conceived it in the first place was his Myriad Wisps Spiritual Incarnation. And now, that had only become its identity, turning it into a wisp in terms of appearance. Krune held the item in his hands. "Now, I have a weapon to bash up my enemies better. And since you''re akin to a Satellite Realm, I''ll name you¡­" "Satellite Pestlor!" Chapter 1512 What Must I Do? Chapter 1512 What Must I Do? Krune held the Satellite Pestlor in his hands, feeling the sense of power emanating from it. On top of that, as he activated his Tribulation Lightning Law, the Satellite Pestlor absorbed and amplified it. After all, it was a Satellite Realm created out of his two laws, rapidly absorbing energy from the spatial storms to empower his attacks. Krune lashed out with the Satellite Pestlor, unleashing a terrifying lightning attack that was strong enough to destroy a Sub-Realm in a single attack. And this was in his base state. If he entered his state of Trinity and also activated his Champion state atop that, his power would reach even higher levels. His weapon now truly complemented his power and also amplified it. "A Satellite Realm weapon¡­?" Hazak stared, flabbergasted, before jumping up and down in excitement. "As expected of Lord Krune! You''re the best!" "Make one for me too!" She chirped happily. "Alright." Krune nodded in response. "Begin creating more Satellite Realm Cores. Give them as low of a foundation as possible. We need to create as many weapons as possible to save time." "Alright, I''ll get to work on it immediately," she said, beginning preparations. Right as Hazak vanished through a spatial tunnel, another opened as Feifei exited it, sighing as she took out her Soul Lamp, showing it to Krune. "It''s still not working." "I see¡­" Krune nodded, saddened as he stared at the Soul Lamp. It was their most prized revival mechanism that they relied upon. Once Feifei became a God, it obtained enough capacity to hold fragmented souls of multiple Gods. Of course, Luvile''s soul was one of them, as he was the one that had asked her first. But, when the God King killed Luvile, his attacks coursed through Luvile''s tribulation lightning, destroying it everywhere through the Kun Realm Cluster. Unfortunately, it also flowed into Feifei''s Soul Lamp, shattering it. No level of defensive means could block the God King''s attack. Until now, the combined defensive barrier erected by multiple Gods ensured that Feifei remained safe. As long as she was safe, then their fragments kept in her Soul Lamp would be safe as well. This would allow them to revive in the future. When the Mountain Sect was invaded by the Mist Sect, they had done the same thing. However, that was an entirely different field in comparison to the God King, a peak power that none could stand up against. Plus, each of his attacks also targeted the revival mechanisms that Gods relied upon. As his goal was to cripple the Kun Realm''s growth, he had intended to truly destroy the Tribulation Lightning Law. And in that attack, her Soul Lamp had shattered. If it wasn''t for Luvile shaving his comprehension of the law right on time to transfer it to Krune, losing his status as the God of Tribulations, his death would have also destroyed the Kun Realm''s Tribulation Lightning Law. After that, Feifei had tried everything in her power to repair the Soul Lamp, but it was of no use. She then approached the four Gods that followed Hishe all this time, requesting their help as it was them that had created the Soul Lamp in the first place. After all, whether it was Krune''s Soul Needle or her Soul Lamp, both were obtained from the Sub-Realm that Hishe and the other four Gods managed. But to her shock, the four Gods were unaware of the secrets regarding these items, saying that they were something Hishe brought forth on his own. As one of the oldest surviving Gods, Hishe seemed to have been involved in many things. But throughout history, he was mostly hidden behind a veil. Only after the Kun Realm Gods'' failed attempt to leave the Four Realm did Hishe reveal himself. After that, he actively worked on a variety of things to stabilize the Kun Realm and worked on reviving the dead Gods through any means. And now that she had inherited the means to revive dead Gods from Hishe, Feifei, of course, scoured through the Kun Realm, hoping to find any traces of Luvile. But unfortunately for her, there was none. The God King was experienced in such matters. After all, he had killed countless Gods. So, he had long since perfected the techniques to ensure the Gods that he killed stayed dead with no hope for revival. "There''s¡­ no use." She sighed, disappointed in herself. ''I¡­ don''t blame you." Krune sighed, closing his eyes as he controlled his tears. "Now that I''m the God of Tribulation Lightning, I can access everything related to it. And¡­" He choked for a moment as he continued, "I can''t feel any traces of Luvile at all. It''s as if I''m the first God of Tribulations." "I''m sorry," Feifei said, turning around as she began to leave through a spatial tunnel. "I won''t give up this easily. I''ll try something¡­" "Yes," Krune nodded, watching the spatial tunnel vanish as he continued to stare in its direction. He then felt the Satellite Pestlor in his hands, feeling the tribulation lightning sparking through it from time to time as it continued to absorb energy from the spatial storms. "Haah!" He let out a turbid breath, continuing to seep his two laws into his weapon, gradually strengthening it as he familiarised himself with its usage. After all, the next time he met the God King, he was planning to slam the other party''s face with the Satellite Pestlor so many times that even his mother wouldn''t recognize him. And only after that would he kill the God King. As he continued to stare at the Satellite Pestlor, it trembled violently as Krune''s hands shook in rage, wishing to just use the Rune Realm Spirit to enter the Mong Realm and wreak havoc. However, even he knew that such an action was foolish. He had done it twice already. If the Mong Realm Spirit still hadn''t prepared any countermeasures, then the Mong Realm would have been annexed by another Realm ages ago. Sighing, Krune muttered, "You''ve been with me all my life. Now, what must I do¡­?" "Luvile." Chapter 1513 Divine Deity Chapter 1513 Divine Deity Boom! Gegrafikan stared with a smile at the Satellite Realm that they had completed just now. The Mong Realm''s Sub-Realm that Krune had brought saved them a lot of time, allowing them to complete their project in advance. The Satellite Realm had a fairly decent foundation in comparison to other Satellite Realms. Though, there wasn''t anything in it at the moment. Only the various laws forming it had been devised in such a way that they conformed to Yloka''s Spiritual Incarnation, including the quality and distribution of the various laws that conformed to the same. "Please critique me." Yloka bowed before the various Kun Realm Gods that had appeared to witness the scene before entering the Satellite Realm. He soon approached its center, standing before the Satellite Realm Core as his Godly Energy whirred in response, expanding out of his body violently as his representative law was activated to its limit. Heavenly Incarnation¡ªDivine Deity! His Divine Deity Spiritual Incarnation that had become the Divine Deity Law spread through the Heavenly Incarnation, one that fully covered the entirety of the Satellite Realm, rapidly changing the terrain, bringing everything under his control. But as the laws had already been arranged according to his Divine Deity Law, there wasn''t even any usage of power as the entire Satellite Realm instantly fell under his control. It could be said that the heaven and earth of this Satellite Realm would change according to each and every single thought of his. If he so willed it, it would happen here. The moment he brought the Satellite Realm under his control, Yloka retracted his power, exiting it as he approached the Gods, bowing before them. "It''s done." Boom! Right after he said so, the nearby spatial storm exploded, rapidly spreading throughout as it swerved around the Satellite Realm, rapidly condensing around it. Unlike normally when its energy would be absorbed by the Satellite Realm, the spatial storm itself was drawn over this time. Moreover, it didn''t destroy the Satellite Storm but began to fuse atop it, becoming increasingly solid. The spatial storm whirred in response as Wally stared at the scene, flinching for a moment upon seeing a gigantic eye open before him. It was a construct created by the spatial storm that was gradually taking on a humanoid form, with the Satellite Realm as the center¡ªcore. Starting from the head where the Satellite Realm was situated, the spatial storm transformed into a giant humanoid entity, condensing a pair of arms and legs soon after. There wasn''t a body, just a head that served as a body, attached with a pair of arms and legs. Or rather, there wasn''t any difference between the arms and legs. They were more or less the same in terms of functionality. The arms slowly moved, cupping its fists before the Gods before stopping in response as the spatial storm continued to flow into it, making its body gradually stronger. Yloka then gazed at Zamura and said, "If you can do the honors." "With pleasure." Zamura nodded, instantly erupting with all his strength that he infused into the spatial storm giant, seeping it into the Satellite Realm within, beginning to condense a mysterious power. Gradually, a Satellite Realm Spirit began to form. It was another of his power that he had elevated. At first, Zamura was only able to take control or create Spirits of items. But after becoming a God, he also began to work on improving his abilities, now reaching a point where he could condense a Satellite Realm Spirit in a Satellite Realm. As for turning a foreign Satellite Realm Spirit into theirs, he was still working on that ability. Time passed in such a fashion as days turned into months, months into years, and over time, a couple centuries passed before the Satellite Realm Spirit was successfully birthed. "It''s¡­ done!" Zamura panted in response, gasping in exhaustion as he watched the spatial storm giant begin to move, now controlled by the Satellite Realm Spirit. "Divine Deity¡­" Yloka announced with excitement. "They are our trump cards!" "They''re both our sword and shield, protecting the Kun Realm Cluster from all threats." He smiled soon after. "And this is what my power can accomplish." "Amazing!" Wally clapped in response, all smiles as this was another addition to their power. With this, they would be able to defend themselves better. It was faster to create a Divine Deity than a God. Since the Divine Deity was basically a spatial storm, they were the best weapons to fight or defend with beyond the realms. The Kun Realm was vastly lacking as compared to the developed realms. With that, they had to rely upon everything they could to strengthen themselves. Right as the first Divine Deity was completed, Krune announced his creation of the Satellite Pestlor, a weapon powerful enough to amplify his abilities to a whole new level. It excited everyone as they obtained two modes of power to protect and strengthen themselves. "But at present, we''re heavily reliant on Hazak and Gegrafikan for both. None of the remaining Black Demons and Spirit Aberrants are capable of the same." Wally frowned, dousing their excitement. "That''s because¡­" Gegrafikan stared at Hazak, hesitating whether or not to say before he announced, "They are only beings confined to a realm. On the other hand¡­ me and Hazak are different." "Different?" Wally raised an eyebrow. "Primordial Beats!" Gegrafikan announced solemnly. "That''s basically what we are. Spirit Aberrants are originally Primordial Beasts. That''s why the Kun Realm couldn''t handle us and had to split our power." "As for Hazak, it''s not entirely clear. But she has the bloodline of the Kun Peng and a couple of Primordial Beast races in her," Gegrafikan said. "The cause is still unclear. But through the variety of factors that might have played, she''s gradually evolving into a Primordial Beast as well." "So, only the two of us can do what we''re capable of," he concluded. "Primordial Beasts¡­" Wally frowned, asking after a minute of thought. "Can you enter the Kun Realm?" "¡­Yes." Gegrafikan nodded as he hesitantly entered the Kun Realm, noticing the expression of strain on Turia''s face immediately after as he said, "I''m still a baby in terms of a Primordial Beast. So, I can still enter the Kun Realm." "But in the future, that won''t be possible. Just like Zule, I eventually won''t be able to enter the Kun Realm." Gegrafikan sighed. Chapter 1514 Who’s Your Ally? Chapter 1514 Who¡¯s Your Ally? "You''re¡­ just a baby in terms of Primordial Beasts?" Wally was surprised as he observed the level of strain Turia was experiencing. ''Even if the God King were to enter the Kun Realm, Turia wouldn''t even feel any strain.'' He then looked at Turia, asking, "What''s the reason you''re feeling this strain?" "It''s more like stuffing a bunch of Satellite Realms into myself," Turia replied. "That would indeed cause discomfort for me. Plus, the bigger the Satellite Realm, the harder it is for me to endure. In that vein, a Primordial Beast is similar to a Satellite Realm. With that being said, stronger Primordial Beasts are equivalent to a realm itself." "That''s why it would be impossible for me to contain Zule," she continued. "It was also why Zule left long ago after waking up." "So, Primordial Beasts are akin to Satellite Realms?" Wally muttered. "And the older a Primordial Beast is, the more they approach a realm in terms of presence." Gegrafikan nodded. After some discussion, they returned to their respective tasks as Gegrafikan commented, "Only Hazak can create a Realm Core from scratch. The most I can do is change the laws and its makeup in the Realm Cores. If we can get some Sub-Realms or even Satellite Realms, then our work would hasten." "Hmm¡­" Wally frowned as he then saw Krune arriving at the scene. "What do you say about this?" "All the Satellite Realms in our cluster have already been occupied. So, we cannot use any of them," Krune said. "Though, we can consider selling some of our resources to buy Sub-Realms. We''re using less than ten percent of our resource production, after all. So, we have plenty to spare at the moment." "That''s a good idea." Wally nodded in agreement. "There are some unique resources that only the Tilk Realm can produce. We have that in excess. I''ll work on procuring as many Sub-Realms as possible." "I''ll refine our Satellite Realms in the meantime," Krune said, showing his Satellite Pestlor. "Thanks to refining this, I can now strengthen Satellite Realms as well. It would hasten our growth for the short term." ¡­ "Haaah¡­haah¡­" The Dolk Realm Champion panted in response, having just unleashed countless attacks using the Fon Realm Champion''s representative law, followed by the Law Realm Champion''s. "It''s a bit difficult to get used to," the Dolk Realm Champion commented, "But I''m stronger than before while using two other laws." "We only have to make sure that only one of us is fighting at a time," the Lak Realm Champion said in response. "That way, our advantage is the highest. If all three of us are fighting at the same time, we won''t be able to harness the powers of the others." "Yeah, that''s one drawback." The Fon Realm Champion nodded. "So, we''ll have to take measures to ensure this doesn''t happen. Our enemies would gladly hit us at multiple fronts just to exhaust us and prevent us from using our strengths." She then looked at the Dolk Realm Champion and asked, "What are you thinking about the plan proposed by the Mong Realm?" "I''m honestly still thinking about it," the Dolk Realm Champion replied. "I neither want to offend the Mong Realm nor do I want to get between it and the Garg Realm. Plus, if we really side with the Mong Realm, we''ll be making enemies of the Garg Realm and Kun Realm." "And that¡­ is also terrifying," he said, recalling Krune''s nature. "The Kun Realm has by far the highest number of exotic races with mysterious abilities. So, guarding against them is the most troublesome, even if they are the weakest at the moment among the Greater Realms." "But, you also have to consider this." The Lak Realm Champion sighed as she said, "If we continue to stay on the fence, we''ll be destroyed by one of the powers eventually." "Yes, that''s only in the case the Kun Realm allies with the Garg Realm completely," the Dolk Realm Champion replied. "However, I feel like they aren''t that simple. In the past two interactions, the Kun Realm gave us benefits to force our hand for their benefit. So, unless it concerns themselves, the Kun Realm wouldn''t move alongside the Garg Realm. They have different objectives." "Until now, the Kun Realm hadn''t invaded any realm. And based on their actions in the past, they don''t have an invasive nature. They simply wish to defend their home." The Dolk Realm Champion sighed after that. "And after they obtained nine-tenths of the Tilk Realm, they never have to worry about resources. It''s also reflected in their Realm Ability that''s entirely defense-oriented." "In comparison, the Mong Realm''s Realm Ability allows endless revival of their Gods. This is perfectly in tune with their invasive nature as they''re always short of resources." He continued, "So, they would continue to attack every realm. That''s their stance on matters." "As for the Garg Realm, they wish to become the overlord of the Greater Universe once again. So, their goal is to oppose and destroy the Mong Realm while ensuring they become the strongest," he concluded. "This is the stance of the three Greater Realms. So, allying with either party isn''t feasible." "If we ally with the Kun Realm, only when their peace is threatened would they take action. So, they are useless in terms of allies," he told them. "Allying with the Garg Realm is dangerous because it would mean that we''ll have to face the Mong Realm head-on, which would result in a lot of casualties on our side." "And finally, there''s the dragon in the room, the Mong Realm." He sighed, stating solemnly, "Allying with them would mean that we would have to aggressively invade the other realms. That would simply increase our enemies. We aren''t the Mong Realm that can revive its Gods endlessly using stolen resources. Every God we lose is a blow to our foundation." "You''re right about that." The Fon Realm Champion sighed in worry before thinking of something. "I''m just saying this, but¡­" She took a deep breath before suggesting, "But what if we begin preparations to develop and eventually migrate to the Geho Realm?" Chapter 1515 Trade Alliance Chapter 1515 Trade Alliance "Migrate to the Geho Realm?" The Dolk Realm Champion was surprised to hear that. "Continue." "It''s like this." The Fon Realm Champion thought for a minute, laying down her plans. "The Geho Realm doesn''t have a strong enough foundation. However, we can accelerate the awakening of its Realm Spirit. After that, we can make it annex bits and pieces of our realm." "Eventually, its foundation would surpass the foundation of our individual realms," she continued. "I''m not sure how long it might take. But, even though our Realm Ability is strong, it''s due to the Geho Realm that we can use it. So, it translates into the Geho Realm being our headquarters." "In other words, at the moment, this is both our strength and vulnerability." She took in a deep breath, saying as she watched the other two Champions stare in focus. "But, we can capitalize on this. Once the Geho Realm swallows our three realms, our foundation would explode to greater heights. At that time, even if two of us lose our qualification as Champions, we''ll still be stronger than the Mong Realm." "You make a fair point." The Dolk Realm Champion nodded in response. "Losing the advantages of our individual realms is worth the effort if we can capitalize on the Geho Realm. It has a greater potential just for the fact that it can fuse all three energies into a whole. That''s the same as Krune''s ultimate state." "I''m surprised that Krune can actually achieve what countless Gods have failed in the past," the Lak Realm Champion said in shock. "That really makes the Kun Realm scary in some cases." "Indeed," The Dolk Realm Champion nodded in agreement. "So, what the Fon Realm Champion says makes sense. If we transfer our foundation into the Geho Realm, we''ll become a lot stronger. Sure, our number of Gods would reduce as similar laws would fuse into one, but our potential and foundation would improve leaps and bounds." "The only problem being¡­" "The other realms might interfere with such an obvious plan." The Fon Realm Champion sighed. "Wait¡­" Suddenly, the Lak Realm Champion frowned as she connected to the Soul Trading Hub, stating after some time had passed. "There''s an opportunity." "Opportunity?" Both the Dolk Realm Champion and the Fon Realm Champion raised an eyebrow in surprise. "We''ll¡­ ally with the Kun Realm. Or rather, form a partnership," she said, detailing her plans. "I can say with assurance that the realm requesting to buy Sub-Realms is the Kun Realm. I don''t know the reason, but if the Kun Realm wants Sub-Realms, we can provide them that." "You mean¡­" The Dolk Realm Champion''s eyes fluttered as his expression trembled for a moment. But soon after, he considered the various pros and cons of the issue. "Indeed, they have the Rune Realm. So, transportation would become simpler. We can sell them Sub-Realms while using their services to transport fragments of our three Realms into the Geho Realm. Moreover..." The Lak Realm Champion continued his sentence, "They can help awaken our Realm Spirit faster." "But, there are risks involved with this, right?" The Fon Realm Champion muttered. "It might not be wise to rely on them to awaken our Realm Spirit." "It''s a trade alliance," the Dolk Realm Champion said. "And since they''re also in a hurry to gain strength to contest against the Garg Realm and the Mong Realm, they would accept our proposal." "We''ll be losing some of our Sub-Realms and land to the Kun Realm, but the price is negligible when comparing the risks and transportation costs involved with our traditional approach," he concluded. "Alright, I''ll contact them." The Lak Realm Champion said, connecting to the Soul Trading Hub as she contacted the anonymous entity asking to buy Sub-Realms. Within a couple of minutes, a portal formed before the Geho Realm as Krune and Wally exited it. It was surprising that the Kun Realm had only sent two individuals to the negotiation at hand. But, upon seeing the two infamous wisps, the TTT could feel the level of confidence exuded by the two. The Dolk Realm Champion, the Fon Realm Champion, and the Lak Realm Champion exited the Geho Realm, meeting up with the two Wisp Gods. "You were saying¡­?" Wally asked, facing the Lak Realm Champion. "We''ll provide you with the necessary Sub-Realms. In response, transport our realm fragments to the Geho Realm," she said, pointing at the Geho Realm behind her. "So, the price for our services are the Sub-Realms¡­" Wally nodded before stating, "But, awakening the Geho Realm Spirit will come with certain conditions." "What are they?" The Dolk Realm Champion stated. "First of them is confidentiality," Wally stated. "From the start to the end, we don''t want anyone else to be in the Geho Realm." "Impossible!" The Fon Realm Champion stated immediately, feeling that it was too risky. "You can keep me in captivity until then," Krune stated plainly. "That way, you''ll be able to trust us with the transaction. We have no reason to reveal our cards, after all." "Hmm¡­" The Dolk Realm Champion considered everything, outweighing the pros and cons. ''No matter, if they try anything, we can easily kill Krune. The Kun Realm wouldn''t dare lose Krune, even if they have a second Champion.'' "Alright, we''re fine with the first condition." He nodded readily. This level of risk was nothing in comparison to the Garg Realm or the Mong Realm directly attacking them during the transfer to steal everything. At least, the Kun Realm didn''t have the foundation to do that. Currently, their weakness was the reason they could be trusted upon. "Second is the price¡­" Wally said, raising five fingers. "We''ll need five Satellite Realms as the price." "Five!" Even the Dolk Realm Champion was unable to maintain his cool at the exorbitant price proposed by Wally. "You might as well rob us dry!" "It''s a simple cost and time effect," Wally said calmly. "Without our help, it would take you tens of thousands of years to awaken the Geho Realm Spirit." "And following that, you''ll need even more time to fragment your three realms and transport them into the Geho Realm. But the moment you begin this, the Garg Realm and the Mong Realm would detect your actions and move to hinder you. In comparison, by working with us, we''ll be doing the actual work while you''ll only have to defend your borders." Krune said. Chapter 1516 Legal Rip-off Chapter 1516 Legal Rip-off ''They''re ripping us off!'' The Dolk Realm Champion thought before sighing at how calm Krune and Wally were, despite facing against three Champions. He then understood that their prices were perfectly at the limit of what he would have accepted, alarmed when the thought struck him. After all, it meant that Krune and Wally had a good grasp of their nature, despite them only having brief contact. ''No, it''s not us that they understand. Instead, it''s the Greater Universe''s situation at hand that they have a good grasp of. At this moment, the price they said makes sense. If this were during the peaceful times, I could have only paid one large Satellite Realm and one small Satellite Realm for this transaction.'' It was apparent that the Garg Realm and the Mong Realm were about to take action soon enough. So, before that happened, they had to fully gear up. Otherwise, they would be gobbled up sooner or later. Until now, no realm had annexed another realm, as they were all developing and had yet to attain their full capacity. But now that the Mong Realm created a precedent, having reached full development and also annexing one-tenth of the Tilk Realm, the other realms began to follow suit. Even though they didn''t have the capacity to annex another realm, they were gunning to reach that point eventually. Therefore, the moment these two Greater Realms took action, the Greater Universe would enter a chaotic era of war and annexing that would cause the realm size of the victors to increase without limit. And the bigger they grew, the stronger they became, making it easier for them to annex other realms. After thinking through everything, the Dolk Realm Champion made eye contact with the other two Champions before gazing at Krune and Wally, nodding in response. "Alright, we accept the conditions." "We''ll ask for one Satellite Realm in advance," Wally said. "And after every one-fifth of the task is completed, we''ll ask for a Satellite Realm." "I''m fine with that." The Dolk Realm Champion nodded in response, saying, "Give us a month to prepare the first Satellite Realm to gift." "Sure," Wally nodded in response. "We''ll also prepare the things required to awaken the Realm Spirit of the Geho Realm." "Here''s to our cooperation." The Dolk Realm Champion smiled as he shook hands with Wally and Krune. The Fon Realm Champion and the Lak Realm Champion also did the same before the two wisps left through the Rune Realm''s portal. Once they left, the three Champions began discussing, making the required preparations. "The Satellite Realm we''ll be selling shouldn''t be that special," the Dolk Realm Champion stated. "The Kun Realm only specified the level of foundation required in the Satellite Realm but not the laws. So, we''ll shave away areas with laws that none of us use." "Yeah, that''s the plan." The Fon Realm Champion nodded in response. "But, it''s not like we only need to use our Satellite Realms, right?" The Lak Realm Champion said all of a sudden. "I''ve thought of that as well. But any action we take might alert the other powers." The Dolk Realm Champion sighed in response. "So what?" The Lak Realm Champion snorted. "If we hold ourselves back, we''ll never become a major power even after become a Major Realm. We need to take some risks. Besides..." She said assuringly, "The Mong Realm is still in the process of digesting their gains while the Garg Realm seems to be doing something similar. As the Kun Realm is helping us, it means there aren''t any powers that could realistically face us." "You make a point there." The Dolk Realm Champion''s eyes lit up in surprise. After all, even though there were quite a few realms with a Realm Spirit, none of them were strong, not strong enough to face either of their realms freely, not to mention face the TTT. Moreover, the position of their realm wasn''t that good, leading to a poorer production of resources. So, even with a Realm Spirit, the total number of Gods in such realms only numbered in the hundreds. This was in sharp contrast to the Kun Realm that crossed two hundred in number the moment their Realm Spirit came into being. This was because they were positioned in an advantageous location with plenty of spatial storms approaching them nonstop. But most of all, these spatial storms were at a level of power that the Kun Realm could handle the energy absorption of. In contrast, the realms with a Realm Spirit they were speaking about were located in more dangerous locations where the realms had to expend most of their power to guard themselves against the spatial storms'' destructive ability. This meant very less resource production. Some realms were located in locations with sparse spatial storms, resulting in a lack of energy absorption. And this was considering realms with a Realm Spirit. As for other normal realms, they weren''t even a concern. If not for the significant travel distance involved, raiding them would have been damn easy. The Mong Realm would have devoured them all by now if they had been situated closer to it. "Do you have a realm in mind?" The Dolk Realm Champion asked, expressing his doubt. "Still, the task would be mountainous." "No, that''s where you''re wrong." The Lak Realm Champion smirked in response. "We won''t target any Satellite Realms themselves, for they''re very rare and situated too far away. Even the travel costs would surpass the worth of these Satellite Realms. Instead, I have a better idea." As the eyes of the other two Champions lit up in response, the Lak Realm Champion continued speaking, "We''ll target the Sub-Realms of the weak realms and then make our Realm Spirits devour them. We''ll make them a part of our respective realms before breaking them off to form a Satellite Realm. This is a faster process, and with three Realm Spirits, we can multitask at a terrifying pace." "Haha, that''s a sound plan." The eyes of the Dolk Realm Champion glinted with a cunning light. "This way, we won''t be using up our foundation while also gaining experience in fragmenting our realms." "And thanks to the Geho Realm''s power, attaching the broken fragments would be pretty simple. We won''t lose much." Chapter 1517 The Realm Beyond Gods Chapter 1517 The Realm Beyond Gods "Will they go through their end of the deal?" Krune asked once they arrived at the Rune Realm, remaining there as they thought of discussing things first. "They will." Wally nodded in response. "The core of the TTT is the Geho Realm, a weak realm without even a single God. So, the moment a war erupts, any God can casually damage its foundation, causing the TTT to dissolve on its own. They too know of this weakness, so they''ll do anything to rectify it." "No realm has the power to help them, though. Among the Greater Realms that have the power, the Mong and Garg Realm would obviously take advantage of them and reap all benefits," Wally said. "So, since we''re a lot weaker than them, we won''t be able to do anything." Krune nodded after hearing that. "So, that makes it safer to transact with us." "Yes, our lack of strength gave us this significant advantage now." Wally nodded. "We''ll produce more Divine Deities this way and also equip all the strong Gods with a Satellite Realm Weapon. This will ensure that we have enough strength to protect ourselves." "The resources the TTT will accumulate and send us will accelerate our strengthening by a lot." Krune nodded, understanding that even though it wouldn''t mean much to them in the grand scheme of things, the TTT would definitely try to steal resources from other realms to pay the Kun Realm. He didn''t care about that, though, not having the strength to interfere with such matters. "It seems that only after we become strong enough can we protect our interests." "That''s natural once the scale of anything becomes as big as an entire realm or, in our case, the entire Kun Realm Cluster," Wally said. Thanks to the Kun Realm Cluster, they had a tremendous foundation. It wasn''t just the resource production and the various worlds unique to the various races of the Kun Realm. But it was also the fact that given enough time, these Satellite Realms would eventually grow to become realms themselves. Their current foundation didn''t allow that. But with the duo of Hazak and Gegrafikan, they could continue to insert more laws into the various Satellite Realm Cores. It would be a slow but steady accumulation that would result in a future where all the Satellite Realms of the Kun Realm Cluster would become so big that they could be considered small realms. Moreover, as the Kun Realm Cluster was a combined front of two realms, the Kun Realm and the Tilk Realm, their foundation resulted in a subtle oscillation of the laws. This oscillation was the reason why the Kun Realm Cluster could stably support two Champions. Otherwise, either Krune or Sterlena would gradually lose their Champion status as the realm wouldn''t be able to handle such overexertion. Moreover, there was the fact that Hishe was the representative God of two Laws, one hailing from the Kun Realm and the other from the Tilk Realm. It was unknown as to what else had happened to the two realms in their history, but all these various factors combined to result in Krune and Sterlena being stably maintained as Champions. As the representative God of two Laws, Krune was slowly comprehending some knowledge into the trust of these two realms and their one shared relationship, if it ever existed. It was also the fact that Gegrafikan and Hazak were steadily becoming Primordial Beasts. Hazak mostly originated from the Kun Peng bloodline, but there were some other bloodlines mixed homogenously in her that resulted in the changed Primordial Beast race. As for Gegrafikan, this was where shocking truths lay. After all, it was a known fact that the Spirit Incarnations were derived from the Spirit Aberrants. This was common knowledge in the Kun Realm. However, how come the cultivators from other realms also possessed a Spiritual Incarnation? And this was despite them having next to no knowledge regarding the Spirit Aberrant race. This caused Krune to recall the fact that when the Kun Realm was created by Zule, some Primordial Beasts had lived there for some time. The time he met Zule was long ago when he was only in the Godly Path Realm. At that time, he wasn''t qualified to know about matters pertaining to the Kun Realm''s history, its fate, etc. ''But now, as the Champion, I have the qualification,'' he muttered, staring at Wally. "I wish to meet with Zule and confirm something." "What will you confirm?" Wally asked. "Also, how will you meet him?" "The status of the Spirit Aberrant as a Primordial Beast," Krune replied. "I feel like there''s incomparable danger involved with this. And if it were ever to be revealed, I''m afraid the Mong Realm would become the least of our concerns." "Hmm, politics related to the Primordial Beasts?" Wally muttered. "Exactly," Krune nodded. "Zule is a Primordial Beast, but for a long time, his body was in the Kun Realm. Though, for some reason, the Kun Realm itself was afraid of the Spirit Aberrant race and had divided their powers, preventing them from retaining their sanity when transforming to their demon beast form." "Indeed, that makes sense." Wally nodded. "Other Primordial Beasts have been to the Kun Realm ages ago. But none of them were acted upon by the Kun Realm. There should be a deeper reason as to why the Spirit Aberrants were an exception. There''s also the innate fear every race feels towards a Spirit Aberrant." "Yeah¡­" Krune nodded, saying, "Even though it wasn''t apparent to me before, and I even thought it was comical when the various Primal Gods lost control upon seeing Gegrafikan, recently, even I cannot help but feel a mild sense of fear tremoring in my Wisp Core when gazing at Gegrafikan." "So, there''s more to him than meets the eye." Wally sighed, "Unfortunately, we''re relying heavily on his abilities. So, making him hide isn''t an option. We''ll never grow without him." "And this is where the problem lies," Krune said, feeling troubled. "If there truly is a reason for conflict between the Spirit Aberrants and other Primordial Beasts, we''ll be doomed." "I still remember what Zule said before clearly," Krune stated solemnly. "The Primordial Beasts exist in a realm beyond the Gods." Chapter 1518 Absolute Pressure Chapter 1518 Absolute Pressure The realm beyond Gods! When Krune first heard this statement from Zule, he didn''t pay much heed to it. After all, at that point in time, even the Nascent God Realm was too far for him, not to mention becoming a God. But now, not only was he a God, but he was also a Champion, the peak one could reach through power. So from this vantage point, recalling about there being a realm beyond the Gods rattled him. After all, even a God, especially a Champion like him, was capable of destroying an entire realm if given enough time. So what about those entities above him? What would happen if those entities were to lay a hand on his Kun Realm? How would he face them? Their combined strength wasn''t even able to kill the God King. So it wouldn''t even make a dent against a Primordial Beast, those on the level of Zule or even above. "This is¡­" Words failed to come out of his mouth as Krune sighed, feeling immense pressure. After all, all his life, up till now, there was a heaven above him, and he was just a wisp trying to survive. But now, he was the heavens itself. In other words, if he were to fall, his realm would follow suit, unable to resist their enemies. "Let''s train," Krune said as he took on his wisp form, slamming into Wally as the two sparked into a battle immediately after, exchanging countless attacks in a matter of seconds, causing violent Godly Energy fluctuations. Gradually, the density of the fluctuations continued to increase as they expanded, gradually resembling a spatial storm in the intensity of their destructive power. The laws of life and death blasted out of Wally, whose Law represented this domain. Unlike all the other Gods, there was a reason Wally was special. His Law wasn''t a fixed law but one that evolved. As the first Guardian of the Kun Realm, when he became a God, Wally obtained some special privileges, obtaining powers that allowed him to protect his home better. And one of them was the empirical connection that he shared with the Kun Realm. It was to the point that if Turia were to call him Dad, it wouldn''t be odd. His Law gradually evolved through adversities, allowing him to subtly change and upgrade the makeup of his own Law. And here was where things got interesting. Every variation of his Law would be inscribed onto the Kun Realm as if they were different laws, thereby causing the Kun Realm''s defensive foundation to improve as he became stronger. After all, with multiple closely-knit variations of the same law, the Kun Realm''s defensive prospects improved, allowing it to defend against invasions better. It was such accumulations that gradually allowed the Kun Realm to develop enough so that when their strength bloomed, they had enough foundation to draw upon and take action. Each hit from Wally allowed Krune to understand just how much this lone God of his race had shouldered. And the time when the wisps were actively hunted was the most horrible phase in his life. He had done everything to gradually appease the various ignorant Kun Realm Gods while also facing enemies from the other realms that were infiltrating the Kun Realm constantly. Torn between two battlefields, he was helpless, watching his race be slaughtered nonstop until their population shrunk to alarming levels. If not for Krune, the wisp race would have been wiped out sooner or later, leading to the Kun Realm losing its shield. And if the pitiful True Spirits scattered throughout the Kun Realm''s Four Realms were also killed, it would permanently cripple the Kun Realm, having lost both its sword and shield. Boom! Wally flew for a dozen kilometers, stopping as his eyes fluttered around, barely able to keep track of Krune''s figure that traveled as a lightning bolt, with speeds impossible to chase after. Only by predicting his moves in advance was Wally able to counter the other party. However, the Tribulation Lightning Law and Hunger Law were truly harmonious with one another. One was capable of melting through all laws, while the other treated all laws as food. Even though Wally''s strength vastly outclassed Krune, thanks to the nature of his abilities, Krune wasn''t at a disadvantage. After all, he had two laws to wield. And it was then¡­ Champion State¡ªTrinity! Boom! His strength exploded to grand heights as Krune''s Godly Energy, Mental Energy, and Body Energy fused into one, the most superior energy in existence, allowing him to draw out the power of the Kun Realm better. Clenching his hand into a fist, Krune reeled it backward before slamming forth, unleashing a violent blast of energy that slammed into Wally, sending him flying for hundreds of kilometers. But immediately after, a jet-black violent energy cloud swerved around Wally, instantly mending all his injuries as if cause and effect had been reversed. And surprisingly, part of Krune''s attack recoiled onto him, slamming him dozens of kilometers away. "Hah¡­ haaah¡­ ha!" Krune panted, feeling strain in his body as he hurriedly deactivated his Trinity and Champion state, gasping for breaths as he took out some God Stones to recover his expended energy reserves. As for his Cultivation Lotus, it was currently kept in the home region of the wisp race, situated on the Turia Continent. This was to ensure an increased birth in the number of wisps. It wasn''t just for the betterment of his race, but Krune hoped for more Gods to be birthed among the wisps so that they would have enough protectors. Currently, there were four Wisp Gods and two True Spirit Gods. This definitely wasn''t enough to protect their home from their foes. After all, once a wisp became a God, they were mildly stronger than other Gods. And True Spirits were even stronger. They formed the actual elite of the Kun Realm, its most prized race. So only by having more Wisp and True Spirit Gods would the Kun Realm be able to prosper and protect itself. Chapter 1519 Leaving to Meet Zule Chapter 1519 Leaving to Meet Zule "Let''s stop here," Wally said, focusing on recovering his injuries. "Yeah." Krune nodded as he, too, focused on his injuries. "We need to train in the recovery department too. Once the war erupts, we won''t have enough time to heal ourselves." "Our realm is still lacking in a lot of things." "You shouldn''t stress about them too much," Wally chided him all of a sudden. "If you focus on one issue way too much, you''ll lose sight of everything else, especially considering the fact that you have an entire realm under your control." "Yeah, I understand." Krune nodded, his expression a bit dull. Staring at how Krune seemed to have lost most of his cheerful character following the death of Luvile, Wally sighed, patting his shoulder as he said, "You should take a plunge in our home''s water slides. They''ll heal you." "I''ll pass¡­" Krune surprisingly refused. "I¡­ don''t wish to distract myself at the moment." He exhaled a long breath, staring into space as he said, "Maybe the day when I can say with assurance that the Kun Realm is free from all threats is when I can shed my identity as the Champion and return to being a normal wisp." "If that day ever comes, I''ll happily ride our water slides." Saying so, he opened a spatial tunnel and vanished. Staring at his disappearing back, Wally sighed. "This child¡­" He then shook his head, connecting with the Soul Trading Hub to search for anything useful that might strengthen them better. It had become his habit to check the Soul Trading Hub every moment he was free. Plenty of expensive materials were being bought and sold in massive volumes. Even the most minimal volumes of goods being transacted were enough to fill a Sub-Realm. Using the Soul-Trading Hub, countless small realms used the chance to ally with one another and buy and sell goods to empower each other. This caused their strengths to increase rapidly, allowing for the transactions to spike in frenzy. It wasn''t just the small realms that were doing this. Even the Major Realms were the same, doing everything in their power to get their hands on the various resources they wanted. After all, with only a single percent in tax, transaction through the Soul Trading Hub was efficient and hardly consumed any time. Moreover, there were no risks of losses involved. So, why would these realms let go of such an opportunity? After all, with its arrival, the Greater Universe skipped evolution from a pillaging era to an economic era. And this resulted in the arrival of new players into the waters of the Greater Realm, making it hard to predict just what anyone was planning anymore. After all, the realms that had only sat by the fence helplessly until now obtained the chance to become a player themselves. So, they grabbed the reins and sparked their respective rise to power. Wally then exited the Soul Trading Hub, connecting to the Kun Realm Soul Trading Hub. The number of transactions here was infinitely greater than the Soul Trading Hub, as every single immortal in the Kun Realm Cluster had access to this. However, the volume of goods transacted wasn''t even a thousandth of what was transacted in the Soul Trading Hub. After all, it wasn''t just transactions happening in the Soul Trading Hub but pillaging as well. And one such instance was definitely the Mong Realm that had stealthily invaded a weak Realm, pillaging as many resources as they could. After that, they connected to the Soul Trading Hub and transported all the pillaged resources directly to the Mong Realm itself. The Kun Realm had released the Soul Trading Hub in an effort to develop the weaker Realms as well so that the Greater Realms wouldn''t go overboard. Though, the Greater Realms weren''t fools. They quickly figured out a way to take advantage of this. This was how they had reached their current heights in the first place. Then again, there also existed a hidden, greater advantage to the Soul Trading Hub. "Hahaha! This is sheer genius in action." Wally began to smirk, staring at the insane volume of goods arriving at the Kun Realm Soul Trading Hub. This was the one percent tax levied on the Soul Trading Hub. And all this tax was for the Kun Realm Cluster to consume and strengthen themselves. One percent! This was one percent of the Greater Universe''s volume of goods that were being transacted. This amount was beyond what anyone could ever hope to gain through pillaging alone. The Soul Trading Hub was a peerless scheme that would ensure the Kun Realm Cluster became the greatest among the Greater Realms in the future. "This is mostly thanks to Heavin." Wally smiled in response. After the Soul Trading Hub was created, Heavin didn''t have any other task at hand to accomplish. And hence, Krune gave him the important mission of finding Zule. With his unique nature, Heavin would be able to travel unhindered through the Greater Universe without anyone managing to detect his presence. And, of course, to help him, Krune granted Heavin his Satellite Pestlor. His laws were in it. And this would allow Zule to recognize Krune. Through the laws in Satellite Pestlor, Krune would be able to form a body to converse with Zule. And Heavin was the messenger that would make this possible. Grabbing hold of the Satellite Pestlor, Heavin left the Kun Realm Cluster. He also had a Satellite Realm Weapon of his own, the second weapon of this kind that Krune manufactured in a hurry just for this. As for the materials, the TTT provided them in their first batch. With that, Heavin would be able to use the spatial storms to generate Mental Energy in his Satellite Realm Weapon and recover his expenditure. This way, he would be able to travel unabated for long distances. Satellite Soul Hub! It was the name of his Satellite Realm Weapon as Heavin bode farewell and made his way forward, disappearing deep into the spatial storms that covered the majority of the Greater Universe. As to how he would find Zule? That was where the Satellite Soul Hub would come into effect, capable of tracing Zule''s soul signature through the Greater Universe. After all, when leaving the Kun Realm, he had definitely left some. And Heavin followed these traces, intending to meet with the creator of their home. Chapter 1520 Awakening the Geho Realm Spirit Chapter 1520 Awakening the Geho Realm Spirit The Dolk Realm Champion stared with mild nervousness as a portal opened before them. Exiting from it were Krune and Wally, the same as usual. "I need to double-check," Krune said, entering the Geho Realm the moment the three Champions of TTT gave their permission. Upon entering the Geho Realm, he spent a year looking for any traces that were used by the TTT to probe for their means. He didn''t wish to risk things. And it seemed the TTT didn''t wish to break their trust, at least for the time being, as they truly hadn''t tampered anything with the Geho Realm. Currently, it was devoid of any life and hence safe for the Kun Realm to work their magic. After double-checking everything, Krune communicated to Turia through the Balance Laws, who then informed the Rune Realm Spirit. A portal formed beside him as Zamura exited it, nodding at Krune. "Wally will take you to the Geho Realm Core." Saying so, Krune exited the Geho Realm, nodding at Wally. "All preparations are in place." "Alright." Wally entered the Geho Realm as Krune stopped before the three Champions of TTT, closing his eyes as he hovered in the void, seated cross-legged. The Fon Realm Champion and the Lak Realm Champion each stood on both sides, alert to ensure the Kun Realm didn''t do anything funny. In the meantime, the Dolk Realm Champion focused all his senses on the Geho Realm, observing its changes. As he couldn''t pry into the actual process, he could only estimate the status of the operation based on its external changes. ''This is that Krune?" The Fon Realm Champion frowned. ''He doesn''t look like the person that had used a tenth of the Mong Realm''s God Realm population to form his God Seat.'' ''He¡­ doesn''t have that tyrant''s aura in him.'' She concluded, realizing something. ''Wait, Wally was also the same. Is this the Kun Realm''s true nature?'' ''They''re a self-contained species that doesn''t have an invasive nature. But once provoked, they would retaliate viciously.'' Arriving at this line of thought, the Fon Realm Champion smiled. ''This means that as long as we don''t attack them, the Kun Realm wouldn''t target us either. We can use them this way and deepen our relationship.'' The Lak Realm Champion''s thoughts were also in the same vein as she probed Krune, asking after a while of observation, "What does the Kun Realm plan to do next?" "Nothing." Krune''s eyes shot open as he said plainly, "The Kun Realm won''t participate in any war." "Then, what if the Mong Realm were to invade again?" She asked next, blinking in confusion after a second as Krune remained silent, his expression calm, lacking any ripples. "They won''t be exiting our realm." After a minute passed in response, Krune stated, his tone still calm. But when they stared at him, the two ladies understood something. If the Mong Realm were to invade the Kun Realm again, they would pay a severe price. As it was apparent that even at the cost of his own life, Krune would ensure they were dealt a crippling blow, one they wouldn''t ever recover from. In the meantime, Wally brought Zamura before the Geho Realm Core, staring at the massive core that churned a dense stream of Godly Energy. This was his first time staring at a Realm Core, so Zamura was nervous. On the other hand, Wally was calm. After all, to someone that had witnessed the Mong Realm''s fully developed Realm Core, the one before him was nothing to comment about. "Do I need to¡­ make any backdoors?" Zamura asked. "I can¡­bring the awakened Realm Spirit under our control." "That''s unnecessary," Wally said, "Let the TTT fully develop. They''ll be our shield against the Garg and Mong Realms. Besides, they''re currently our blades that would bring us more and more Satellite Realms." "As long as we surpass the initial stage of development, our realm''s defenses are enough to protect us for all eternity, allowing us more than enough time to gradually build up our strength to a terrifying extent," he spoke. "That makes sense." Zamura nodded, stretching his arms as he relaxed, slowly pointing his hand towards the Geho Realm Core as his Godly Energy was riled up in full swing, unleashing a beam into it. Boom! A subtle fluctuation emanated from the Geho Realm, causing the eyes of the three Champions from TTT to flutter in shock, observing the rapid rate at which a Realm Spirit seemed to be forming in the Geho Realm. Tribulation clouds were initiated in response as the Geho Realm itself churned, gradually condensing a mystical power within itself, a core of control that was sentient. After a mere century, Zamura was done, gazing at the Geho Realm Spirit that had formed. He grunted weakly in exhaustion as the Rune Realm Spirit transported him back to the Kun Realm Cluster. Wally then exited the Geho Realm, gazing at the trio of Champions from the TTT. "IT''s done. You can check the Realm Spirit''s state now." The moment he said so, the Dolk Realm Champion entered the Geho Realm, inspecting the Geho Realm Spirit before cackling in joy. After he thoroughly inspected every nook and cranny of the Geho Realm, understanding that the Kun Realm stayed true to their words, he exited, nodding at the two ladies with a wide smile. He then cupped his fists towards Krune. "Thank you for being in our care all this time, Kun Realm Champion!" "It was my pleasure." Krune cupped his fists in response. They had already been paid with the five Satellite Realms. And the size and foundation of these Satellite Realms pleased them. With that, it marked the end of their first transaction. Though, Krune and Wally didn''t leave, smiling as they stared at the TTT, expressing mild excitement. After all, the majority of the work would begin from here on out. The Dolk Realm, the Fon Realm, and the Lak Realm would have to be transported to the Dolk Realm. "How do you want us to transport everything?" Wally asked. "Like puzzles," The Dolk Realm Champion replied. "The three realms would attach themselves to the Geho Realm as peripheries. And then, we''ll transport the realms as multiple fragments, something like a puzzle." "And we''ll fit the puzzle pieces around the Geho Realm." Chapter 1521 108 Divine Deities Chapter 1521 108 Divine Deities Bang! Cracks formed in the land of the Dolk Realm as the people stared nervously. The cracks continued past the land and even spread into the sky. Gradually, the entire Dolk Realm had been fragmented into a million pieces. Thanks to the Dolk Realm Spirit, this was possible while ensuring the realm didn''t stabilize and collapse inward. "This is the first piece of the puzzle," The Dolk Realm Champion said, pointing at a part of the Dolk Realm that had been fragmented. "Alright." Krune nodded, snapping his finger as the Rune Realm Spirit carried it through the Rune Realm, bringing it to the Geho Realm almost immediately. The Dolk Realm Champion followed suit, unleashing his power as he used the Geho Realm''s unique nature to stitch the Dolk Realm Fragment to one side of the Geho Realm. Following that, he brought in more fragments, stitching them in chronological order. Basically, he was arranging the Dolk Realm around the Geho Realm on one side. The Fon and Lak Realm Champions were also doing the same, having split the surface area of the Geho Realm into three parts. They had already planned the layout for everything. They still wished to retain their advantage and nature as the TTT. Hence, instead of making the Geho Realm swallow their three realms, which they understood was impossible by now, they were simply rearranging things first. After all, even the Mong Realm was yet to finish devouring one-tenth of the Tilk Realm. So, making an inferiorly developed Geho Realm devour three realms, each of which was significantly more developed than it was, an impossibility. With that, they planned to turn the Geho Realm into their core of operations, securing it in the center while being surrounded by the three realms on all sides. This way, it was impossible to attack the Geho Realm unless they went through either the Dolk Realm, Lak Realm, or the Fon Realm entirely. In the future, they could gradually develop the Geho Realm by increasing the number of Gods there. This was a feasible plan. And since all three realms were now joined, they had the foundation to attempt whatever they wanted without any drawbacks. With a base created, they would have enough time to work on the rest. In such a fashion, the Dolk Realm, the Fon Realm, and the Lak Realm fragmented themselves before rearranging the fragments around the Geho Realm, gradually increasing its size. The Geho Realm Spirit worked tirelessly to ensure everything connected seamlessly. "Wouldn''t this strengthen them too much?" Zamura frowned, staring at Krune as he asked. "It will," Krune nodded in response. "With the power of three realms combined and their Realm Ability to draw the power of the other two realms, the TTT would become a formidable foe." "Then¡­" Zamura frowned, about to retort when he noticed Krune smile in response. Krune explained, "However, this growth would only bring them on par with the Garg Realm and the Mong Realm. You have to consider their sharp difference in foundation. The Garg Realm and the Mong Realm have both devoured a pretty massive Satellite Realm, judging by the strengthening of their laws." "This would elevate the power of the TTT to the same stage as the Garg Realm and the Mong Realm." "But, this would only leave us behind¡­" Zamura sighed. "All this is yours." The Dolk Realm Champion arrived before them, pointing at a large cluster of fragments of the Dolk Realm. "That''s great." Krune nodded, calculating that the price was exactly as discussed. Using the Rune Realm, they transferred all the remaining Dolk Realm Fragments into the Kun Realm Cluster for Gegrafikan to dismantle, convert, and rearrange them into Satellite Realm Cores. Following the Dolk Realm was the Fon Realm. And at the end was the Lak Realm, all giving them their price for transporting the majority of their realm to the Geho Realm. A large chunk of Realm Fragments arrived at the Kun Realm Cluster, shocking the various Gods that hadn''t fathomed the sheer scale of this transaction. The TTT lost a bit of their land, but it didn''t matter to them in the end. After all, they could easily recover this from annexing other realms in the future. They had dumped such a massive reserve of Realm Fragments because the Geho Realm had hit its limit of management. It wasn''t able to piece together any more Realm Fragments. So, they had to cut their losses, resulting in better pay to the Kun Realm. The Kun Realm paid the difference using God Stones, resulting in both transacting parties being pretty satisfied. This opened doors for further economic cooperation between the two Greater Realms in the future. It had taken them almost four hundred years to finish the transfer. Surprisingly, none of the realms tried to interfere with them. Or better yet, they couldn''t afford to do so as the moment anyone tried anything, Gods from at least two realms of the TTT arrived at the scene, thrashing them brutally. And as it was a sensitive time, even the Major Realms didn''t bother to do anything. After all, it became apparent that the Kun Realm and the TTT had struck a trade deal. Taking action now would only push these two Greater Realms closer, causing them to band together against the aggressor. And even the Mong Realm didn''t wish to face two Greater Realms on its own, at least not at the moment when its plans had yet to fruition. "What the¡­ ?" The moment Zamura returned to the Kun Realm Cluster, he was flabbergasted to see a gigantic entity staring at him, exerting tremendous pressure. Divine Deity! ''This is stronger than me!'' He was shocked, for the Divine Deity before him was stronger than the Divine Deity that they had first created. "We''re still upgrading them," Gegrafikan smirked in response upon seeing Zamura''s shock. "Their cores are Satellite Realms, after all. So, as long as we develop them stably, they would continue to grow until attaining the status as a realm." And¡­ slowly emerging from the spatial storms were such majestic entities, one after another. One, two, three¡­ the number continued to climb up as it wasn''t just Zamura but every God of the Kun Realm Cluster that stared at the scene in absolute shock. "We too have caught up to the other Greater Realms through this." Krune appeared beside Zamura, stating in confidence. After all, hovering in the void before them were¡­ 108 Divine Deities! Chapter 1522 Divine Deity King Chapter 1522 Divine Deity King "That''s not all," Krune spoke all of a sudden, staring at the shocked faces of every God, smiling as he pointed at a massive spatial storm cloud before them. "There''s one more." "One more¡­?" Zamura stared in confusion, noticing spatial storm smoke out from time to time, unable to see the structure of any Divine Deity inside. But slowly, a pair of eyes became highlighted, causing everyone to tremble in response. After all, these eyes were dozens of times bigger than the eyes of the other Divine Deities. After a moment, though, the pair of eyes retreated deeper into the spatial storm cloud. Zamura hesitated before muttering, "What¡­is that?" "The Divine Deity King." Yloka took the opportunity to explain. "The Satellite Realm Core in it is one of the most developed. And its basic foundation alone gives it the potential to automatically become a realm far into the future." "It has such a stable foundation?" Zamura was shocked to hear that. It wasn''t easy for a Satellite Realm to develop to the level of a realm. With a lacking foundation, it would hit its limit soon after. Only if the Gods raised there gave it complementary advantages would the Satellite Realm gradually mend its defects and accumulate enough foundation to gradually attain the potential to become a realm. Even after that, becoming a realm was a time-consuming process. Without a Realm Spirit, this process might take even longer than the Satellite Realm''s lifespan itself. "We need a true trump card, after all," Wally said soon after. "All 108 Divine Deities are only able to fight against the regular Gods. We need an entity strong enough to face the Champions. And so, the Divine Deity King was created just for this purpose." "Besides," Hazak interjected. "I''ve filled all these Satellite Realms to the brim with demons. They''ll gradually strengthen its foundation from within. As they don''t have a Spiritual Incarnation, they won''t be able to mess with the natural laws of the place or make any changes to it. However, they''ll be wielding the existing powers there and, over time, contribute to faster development of the Satellite Realm." Just having a naked Satellite Realm Core in the Divine Deity was too dangerous. After all, a strong Champion would be able to breach its defenses and steal the Satellite Realm Core. For them, it would be akin to a free meal. Hence, once the Divine Deity was created, their respective Satellite Realm Cores began to form a Satellite Realm each. This way, they would be protected by a natural barrier that was really hard to breach in, even for a Champion. And any special methods could be dealt with by the Divine Deity itself. Moreover, the formation of the Satellite Realm created a place of dwelling where a lot of Godly Energy could be stored upon. When necessary, this Godly Energy could be called upon to fuel the Divine Deity in its attacks. Basically, Divine Deities were like cultivators but had a Satellite Realm as their dantians. This was their true potential. Plus, the longer the Kun Realm bought time, the faster their growth. After all, whether it was the Mong Realm, the Garg Realm, or even the TTT, they focused on gaining immediate strength the most while giving the leftover consideration to developing their potential. As realms that were almost operating at their full capacity, there wasn''t much potential to work with for the future. Hence, their mindset was different. On the other hand, the Kun Realm was different. As a young realm, one that had barely used ten percent of its potential, it had a lot more room for growth. But this was where their mindset differed from those in the developed realms. Since they were bound to grow in the future, they might as well increase their potential as much as possible. This was why they focused upon their Realm Ability, making it the Spatial Storm Barrier. This way, they attained defensive advantages, allowing them to buy time to fuel their growth. And the longer they bought time for, the stronger they became on all fronts. Currently, the multitude of races living in the Kun Realm obtained their own realms, created exclusively for their race. This created a terrain hundred percent suitable for them, allowing them to maximize their benefits. And as they continued to live and propagate in these Satellite Realms, producing more and more immortals, there would arrive a time when more Gods were birthed. This would result in a rapid spike in the Satellite Realms'' strength, causing its development to accelerate in response, creating a beneficial cycle. Taking advantage of this, more of their race would grow stronger and develop their race''s exclusive abilities further. And that wasn''t all. The various Gods in the Kun Realm Cluster were still young Gods. There was a lot of growth that they had yet to tap into. All in all, as the years span past, the Kun Realm''s growth would be the fastest. The growth of the Gods, the various races that developed and propagated in their respective realms, the production of various exotic resources from the Satellite Realms, the advantages of the Kun Realm Soul Trading Hub, the endless resources obtained from the tax in the Soul Trading Hub, the presence of two Primordial Beasts that could work in strengthening the Satellite Realms, and finally, the Divine Deities. This was the Kun Realm''s true potential, one that would make them a terrifying foe in the future. And above this was one entity, the first of his kind, capable of fusing all three dominant energies into a singular, stronger entity. And that wasn''t all. This entity was also the first of his kind, a God that wielded two Laws, two complementary laws at that, with one of them being the infamous Tribulation Lightning Law. He was the Kun Realm''s Champion¡ªKrune! However, developing required time as growth on the level they were expecting would take time. Hence, the Kun Realm planned to buy as much time as possible while reaping benefits nonstop from the Soul Trading Hub. "And that''s our plan," Krune spoke, concluding as everyone thumped their chests in response. Chapter 1523 Provoking Each Other Chapter 1523 Provoking Each Other "Keuk!" The God King flinched, using a pure Godly Energy blade to dig into his flesh before pulling out a tiny maggot, throwing it into a big created purely using Divine Sense. This was the only container capable of keeping them trapped. The maggot fell into the container, mixing among the more than million maggots that constantly squirmed around, intending to escape the container and burrow into the God King''s body once again. "Fucking maggots!" The God King gasped for breath, watching his injuries heal as he inspected himself, unable to detect any more maggots. Though, he didn''t relax, for the same thing had happened many times. Just as he thought he had gotten rid of all the maggots, a new one would be birthed from his own Law. Normally, any ability could be countered, given enough time. However, a strange coincidence turned this incredibly tricky. The maggots, of course, originated from Krune''s Hunger Law. Normally, they wouldn''t have survived for so long as they weren''t invincible. They could still be eradicated. The God King had the means to do that. But, here came another troublesome ability that complicated everything. Immortal Severance Law! This power caused him to drop down in power. Even though it was a terrifying power, Faunkill was a newly birthed God, so his control over the ability wasn''t potent enough. It had only taken effect because the God King had been fighting all out against his foes, not able to split enough attention to this matter. Of course, if he were free, he could casually destroy the ability. But, as if he had expected it, Krune''s Hunger Law took action first, devouring Faunkill''s ability as the maggots spread around, planting seeds all throughout the God King''s law. These seeds were hard to detect as they were masked to camouflage themselves into the law they were placed upon. Hence, no probing methods could deal with them. And only when they hatched were they detectable. Therefore, even though he had already recovered to his peak strength by now, the God King wasn''t able to take action. After all, every time he riled up his Godly Energy, maggots filled his body in droves, laying down their eggs in the short duration of their stay before the God King got rid of them. This resulted in the God King being unable to do anything else, having to deal with the maggots that constantly formed in his body. Some formed when he used his abilities, while others formed at random times with random numbers. Sometimes, there was just one that appeared, but at times, hundreds of thousands appeared all of a sudden. And this happened whenever the God King discussed important matters with the Mong Realm Gods. Of course, as the maggots were products of Krune''s representative law, he would be able to spy on them through this. Therefore, the moment the maggots appeared, getting rid of them took priority. And gradually, this began to affect the Mong Realm''s affairs, causing them to slow down on various tasks. Moreover, the God King himself got into the habit of killing the maggots right as they appeared. Staring at the Divine Sense container, the God King frowned, gazing at the number of maggots, thinking for a moment before speaking, "I know you can hear me." Immediately after, the maggots wriggled, rapidly fusing into a bigger maggot that stared at the God King, smirking as Krune''s voice resounded from it. "So what?" "I''m warning you. Remove all traces of your power on me. Otherwise, the Kun Realm would face my wrath." The God King spoke coldly. "Heh, if you invade, my power would consume a good portion of your attention." The maggot screeched in response. "You think you can destroy my realm without being at your full strength?" "I can," came a confident reply from the God King. "So, I''m warning you now. Don''t anger me any further." "Luvile won''t be the first after that." The maggot turned silent after that. Its body trembled as its anger could be felt throughout the place. But strangely after, it condensed a mouth that revealed a grin twice the girth of its body. "Nice try!" "Did you forget Mon-Du-Badak?" soon came a mocking reply. Mon-Du-Badak was the God King''s son, one that showed the greatest promise to take his mantle as the God King in the future. But before he could truly mature, Krune killed him. Even though both of them were at the same cultivation base back then, Mon-Du-Badak lacked experience. After all, he had only been cultivating for twenty years at that point. He was a terrifying prodigy that was born at the peak of the Nascent God Realm, his birth alone shocking everyone. And at the young age of twenty, thanks to the sheer volume of resources available to him, he actually reached the Elementary God Realm, a level of cultivation that typically took more than a millennium to achieve. As he had grown too fast by cultivating in the best of cultivation environment, one time even cultivating for a year in the Mong Realm Core, the God King had sent him out to gain experience, hoping that by getting killed multiple times by his enemies, Mon-Du-Badak would gain valuable experience. Since his revival means were protected by the God King himself, there was no harm to him. However, what even the God King hadn''t expected in his wildest dreams was the fact that the one he thought to be an unknown God was actually Krune, one that had planted the Heavenly Spark in Mon-Du-Badak''s mind. This was an oversight on his part, as after becoming the God King, even though his children were killed from time to time, they weren''t truly killed. None dared to go to that extent, fearing retaliation from the absolute existence. With that being said, Krune was never afraid, hitting right where it hurt the moment he took action. The maggot''s words resounded as the place turned silent. The various Mong Realm Gods gulped in tension before shuddering in response upon staring at the God King, or rather, at his face that, for the first time in their memories, was exhibiting a vivid expression. The God King gnashed his teeth, furrowing his brows as he glared at the maggot, unleashing his terrifying killing intent. Well, to cut things short, he was damn angry. Chapter 1524 Greater Universe Law World Chapter 1524 Greater Universe Law World Boom! "Bastard!" The God King''s rage-filled voice boomed throughout the place, destroying everything in the vicinity as a terrifying power slammed into the maggots. But immediately in response, the maggots devoured the various laws from the attack, rapidly exploding in number despite most of them being killed by the attack. As long as even one of them survived a law-based attack, they could devour it and rapidly increase their numbers, which was exactly what had happened here. The maggots rode the explosion, slamming into the various other Mong Realm Gods, intending to burrow into them when suddenly, all of them paused in the air before being retracted through a formless force. It was the God King that had captured them using his Divine Sense, sealing them up in the Divine Sense container once again. His Divine Sense then transformed into a tiny blade that began to dice up the maggots into pieces down to the atomic level before they lost all structural composition, breaking down into pure Godly Energy. He spent an hour doing the same before grunting in anger, staring down at his body where countless tiny projections protruded out, wriggling nonstop. Maggots! "Arrrghhh!" The God King screamed in anger, hurriedly extracting all the maggots as he attacked his own body, wounding it in self-harm, killing all the maggots before gasping for air, slumping on the ground as he felt a bit exhausted. "You know¡­" Suddenly, a maggot exited his neck and crawled towards his ear, whispering with a snickering voice. "I''ll keep doing this to you until you return my Tilk Realm back. Let''s see how long you can last." "Don''t worry, though. I''ll absolutely make you suffer more," the maggot said before exploding on its own. "Mark my words." "You''ve triggered me enough." "I understand." The God King muttered slowly as his injuries healed. His eyes slowly focused, hardening in response as he muttered, "It seems I must commit mass genocide." "What?" The Mong Realm Gods were shocked, unable to understand what the God King was getting at. "Why are you acting like this is new to us?" The God King raised an eyebrow, causing everyone to shut up in fear as he said, "We''ll just do what we do the best." "Pillage and kill." "But this time, our enemies can fight back," he added. "Nothing else has changed apart from that." "Dad, it won''t matter in the end. We''ll be the victors." Suddenly, a feminine voice resounded as a young God walked into the place, practically sauntering there like she owned it. Upon seeing her, the God King actually broke into a smile. "You''ve come, Mon-Tu-Casha. How did it go?" "See it for yourself, dad." Mon-Tu-Casha smiled in response, extending her hand before condensing a mystical power, causing every God to stare in absolute shock. "I''ve succeeded." "Hahahaha!" The God King bellowed in laughter after that. "As expected of my daughter!" "You''re even more talented than Mon-Du-Badak!" Mon-Tu-Casha was a child his wife, Dur-Te-Sara, had given birth to following the death of Mon-Du-Badak. Learning from the mistakes in raising him, Mon-Tu-Casha was given better care. Moreover, unlike just pampering her with resources, the God King took her with him everywhere, visiting various realms in stealth as he showed her firsthand the Mong Realm''s cruelty, getting her used to everything. "In the future, you''ll take my seat and rule this Greater Universe," he spoke. "But Dad, aren''t you the strongest? Why would you die?" The somewhat matured Mon-Tu-Casha had asked back then. "Who can even kill you?" "If it was that easy, we would have become the rulers already." The God King sighed in response. "In their respective realms, the Champions can exhibit stronger powers. And in some cases, even the Realm Spirit might join the battle. In those situations, even I can''t win against them. After all, it''s not just winning." "It''s to win while remaining the strongest." Upon seeing that his daughter wasn''t getting the entire picture, he said, "It''s to prevent other Champions from sneaking up on me at the end of a hard victory. As the God King, my every move is watched by countless powers. And the moment I show any signs of weakness, they''ll pounce upon me like hyenas." "So, in every battle, I have to ensure that my remaining strength is still strong enough to take care of these hyenas," he continued. "The biggest hyena among this is the Garg Realm Champion. The moment I fight anywhere, he''ll definitely come to hinder me. He''s one of the reasons I''ve been unable to take over the Greater Universe. If not him, then the Dolk Realm Champion would follow suit. There''s also the other Champions who would also take action without hesitation if I show any weakness." "In the future, a massive war would erupt, the likes of which has never been witnessed by the Greater Universe. There''s a chance I would die. And hence..." He smiled, making eye contact as he patted her shoulder. "I want to ensure that there''s a strong umbrella shielding my home even after my passing. Would you be able to do that, Mon-Tu-Casha?" "Yes, dad." Mon-Tu-Casha nodded in response. "You can count on me." Mon-Tu-Casha recalled the conversation that she had with her father in her childhood, her eyes full of resolve as she looked at the God King. "Dad, I''m ready now. When shall we begin?" "Here''s your first test." The God King raised his arms wide and told her, "There''s a maggot in me. Destroy it first." "Sure!" Mon-Tu-Casha smiled as her eyes turned ethereal in an instant, causing all the Gods to cover themselves. For some reason, they felt naked before her. In an instant, her figure turned ethereal before disappearing into the God King''s body, arriving within a vast world, one that was bright golden in color. This was a place inaccessible to any other God, but it definitely existed, like the Realm Core in a realm. Greater Universe Law World! It was a mystical place where every Law in existence was preserved, the ultimate netherworld of the Gods, one where everyone''s data was preserved from the beginning of time. And here, she had entered the God King''s Law World, observing countless eggs laid everywhere, snorting as she shouted, "Damned maggot!" "Die!" Chapter 1525 God of Keys Chapter 1525 God of Keys "Die!" Followed by her shout, Mon-Tu-Casha unleashed a terrifying beam, disintegrating the maggot before her. She then noticed another drilled out of the ground, destroying it as well. "You dare eat away my dad''s Law?" "Just die!" A beam of energy rippled out, disintegrating all the eggs in the area as Mon-Tu-Casha tried to fly towards another location when she noticed that she was unable to do so. "Is flying not possible here?" She frowned, noticing that even though she retained the same strength as before, everything in place was strangely more resistant to her abilities. "Is it because this is the world representing Dad''s law?" She muttered before feeling like that wasn''t entirely the case. It was her first visit to the Greater Universe Law World, so she wasn''t aware of a lot of things. As to where exactly this existed in the Greater Universe, she wasn''t sure. Or rather, none managed to discover it to date. The Greater Universe could be said to be¡­ infinite? It was just that massive, impossible to travel despite the use of spatial storms. The more one traveled, the more they saw just how endless it seemed. And there were obviously plenty of areas that were undiscovered. Even the realms were only those discovered by traveling Gods that were curious about the Greater Universe. And through their travels from the beginning of time, certain routes had been mapped out, which was what was being used by Gods for various purposes. It was just like the sea routes on Earth. From the old times to the modern-day, most ships traveled through a designated sea route because it was the most efficient and safe to travel through this path. Similarly, travel through the Greater Universe was the same. Routes through the spatial storms were fixed between the realms, with at least one safe zone existing along the way where they could stop to stock up, rest, and recover. These safe zones were bereft of any spatial storms and were havens to be at while traveling. So, it could be said that most of the Greater Universe was largely unexplored. After all, just to mark the routes between the various realms, countless Gods had lost their lives. Mon-Tu-Casha sprinted through the place, punching through an egg to disintegrate it, spitting out in anger. She continued to roam through the vast Law World, gradually exterminating the maggots and eggs one after another. As every realm was developing, as the one with the most advantage, why would the Mong Realm hold back? Aware that most of their methods had been observed by the enemy, the Mong Realm began to work on new methods to give them an advantage. They didn''t change anything that formed their foundation; instead just focused on one person¡ªMon-Tu-Casha. Unlike every cultivator, Mon-Tu-Casha was rather special in that she had access to every resource due to being the precious child of the God King. But that wasn''t all. Only the God King had access to this wealth that no other realm or Greater Realm had for the matter. Keys! What were the Keys? Why did they come into existence? How did they come into existence? Most realms tried to look into it, only to give up in the end. After all, their Keys were precious, something that couldn''t be traded or experimented upon. However, the Mong Realm was different, having stolen multiple keys from various realms. And all of them had been stored next to the Mong Realm Core. Every realm had four Keys, including weak realms. Only Satellite Realms didn''t have one. The presence of the key differentiated a realm from a Satellite Realm. As the Mong Realm had stolen many keys, they could experiment and find out more about them. And with that, they began their most ambitious project to date. Revival! The first phase of this was their Realm Ability¡ªRevival of Gods! With that, the Mong Realm Gods were basically immortal as long as the Mong Realm itself was standing. Though, their ambitions didn''t end here. They wanted to bring back every single Mong Realm God from existence. Basically, they wanted to bring back every God that they had lost over the years, including from the times when the Mong Realm was an insignificant Realm under the control of the Garg Realm. If they succeed in that, then their strength would skyrocket to the extent they would become capable of facing all the other three Greater Realms on their own, truly becoming the rulers of the Greater Universe. Hence, everyone pooled their strength as the God King racked his brains to gradually use up all their spare keys, turning them into a God Seat. With that, Mon-Tu-Casha inherited it, becoming the God of Keys. Thanks to that, she attained the ability to arrive at the Law World from anywhere in the Greater Universe. Of course, she needed a connection. In this case, the connection was the God King''s Law. And so, she arrived at his Law World. The Greater Universe Law World was a mysterious place that contained the Law Worlds of every single God in existence, whether dead or alive, truly containing the entire history of the Greater Universe. Plus, it was through Mon-Tu-Casha that the Mong Realm planned to revive their dead Gods. Of course, that wasn''t all. She could also invade the Law Worlds of Gods from other realms to steal their secrets. The Law Worlds of living Gods were empty, just like the God King''s. However, a dead God''s Law World contained their everything. It was basically a treasure trove of information, secret techniques, etc. That was all just lying out there, ready to be exploited. The Kun Realm focused on building their advantage, as their innate nature dictated. But as an invasive species, the Mong Realm never had the intention to build up their own power. From the start of their rise to their current hegemony, the Mong Realm had always done the same. And that was to plunder everything from others. They never intended to change that about themselves, planning to do the same in the Greater Universe Law World as well. With that being said, Mon-Tu-Casha was an existence that was the culmination of all that, one that would become the future God King thanks to her supreme advantage. Chapter 1526 Open and Hidden Politics Chapter 1526 Open and Hidden Politics "Hiya!" Followed by an explosive shout, Mon-Tu-Casha eradicated the last of the maggots infesting the Law World of her father, sighing in exhaustion. "This will give me nightmares in the future." Following that, she turned into a stream of light and arrived within the Mong Realm, gazing at the figure of her father that was now hale and hearty. "Dad, I''m done." "Impressive speed." The God King nodded in praise, churning his Godly Energy as he failed to see any maggots streaming out of his body anymore, relieved to not be plagued by them any longer. He then looked at his daughter and asked, "What about reviving the dead Gods? How confident are you in doing that?" "I''m not¡­ sure?" Mon-Tu-Casha tilted her head in response. "I still need some experience and preparation. This was my first visit there, after all. So I hadn''t been able to explore much. Besides¡­" She pouted as she continued, "Your Law World was just too big, dad. I was exhausted by the time I explored it entirely." "No worries. We can take our time with this." The God King smiled, telling her, "There''s still ten thousand years before the eventual war erupts." "We still have that much time?" Mon-Tu-Casha was surprised to hear that. "Why is it like that, dad?" "That''s when the Garg Realm would take action." The God King smiled as he replied. "And when they take action is when we too would do the same." "What will we take action against first?" She asked, curious. "That depends on what the TTT and the Kun Realm do." The God King smiled. "With four players playing this game of war, the initiative is no longer with us alone." "But¡­" He then let out a cunning smile. "I''ll force them to take action by then. We have a lot of expendable Gods, after all." He gazed at the Mong Realm Gods, causing them to shudder in response. "They can''t even be killed from now on. So, we might as well put them to good use." "But, we''ll be wasting a lot of resources to revive them every time." Mon-Tu-Casha frowned in response. "Wouldn''t that put a dent in our finances? It''s not like we have an endless amount of resources to make use of." "That may be true, but we can always pillage them from the others out there." The God King replied. "We''ve been working on improving the Satellite Realm Rapid Transport all this time. It''s bigger and faster now. And if Yu-Ka-Ta himself takes the helm, it would be even more useful." At his words, The Mong Realm God, Yu-Ka-Ta, came forward and kneeled in response, "I''m ready, God King." He was one of the Mong Realm''s four special Gods, nurtured just to create the Satellite Realm Rapid Transport. In recent times, his strength had increased, allowing the Rapid Transport to become better. But until now, as he was a precious, strategic resource, he was always protected in the Mong Realm, never involved in any wars. After all, if he died, the Mong Realm would lose a valuable resource. It would take them forever to create another him. But now, after their Realm Ability had been completed, it didn''t matter. After all, he could be casually revived. This meant that he could also participate in battles. Even though his fighting ability was lackluster, weaker than the weakest of Gods from other realms, he would control the Satellite Realm Rapid Transport, allowing it to exhibit powers greater than usual. This would allow the Mong Realm to advance and retreat at will. After all, to date, the Satellite Realm Rapid Transport was the fastest entity in the Greater Universe. Though, the Garg Realm''s Realm Ability was another matter altogether. If they were to take action, the Satellite Realm Rapid Transport could be rendered useless to a certain extent. As Mon-Tu-Casha conversed with the God King, she gradually came to terms with the current situation of the Greater Universe, understanding the various open and hidden conflicts that continued to happen. And among the hidden conflicts, the Kun Realm and the Garg Realm were pretty active, moving against the Mong Realm. The Mong Realm had dispatched envoys to the smaller realms, telling them to pay taxes or suffer an invasion. And immediately in response, the Garg Realm contacted them through the Soul Trading Hub, informing them that in the likelihood of the Mong Realm''s invasion, the Garg Realm would protect them. But in response, the taxes they asked for was only a tenth of the Mong Realm''s, making it seem like they were the better option by a lot. Normally, things would have ended at this point. After all, only the Garg Realm dared make an offer against the Mong Realm. But now that the Kun Realm joined the picture, things became different. They declared counteroffers against the two Realms, extending an offer for joint drills in order to strengthen the realm itself and even nurture more Gods on their side. Though, that wasn''t all. The Kun Realm even offered military aid and a spatial storm shield to protect them from harm, allowing them time to develop. Their intention for approach was entirely different from the other two Greater Realms that only sought profits. The Kun Realm was ready to take a loss rather than allow the Garg or Mong Realm to develop. And in truth, it was impossible for them to suffer a loss, not when they were barely using a tenth of their produced resources. Having perfected their defenses thanks to the Divine Deities and the Rune Realm that could transport them everywhere, not to mention the overall defense provided by the spatial storm barrier, the Kun Realm was like a fortress. And that wasn''t all. When the TTT began to draw in a lot of spatial storms due to the three realms being congregated next to one another, the Kun Realm took action to prevent a spatial storm barrier from forming there. This way, the TTT wouldn''t have a natural defense. And if they wished for one, they would have to pay the Kun Realm an enormous sum. Moreover, such an action was basically leaving their defense to the Kun Realm. After all, no matter where in the Greater Universe, all the spatial storm barriers created by the Kun Realm were in their control. The spatial storm barrier was just one facet of the hidden politics played by the Kun Realm. Chapter 1527 Krune’s Gigantic Flex Chapter 1527 Krune¡¯s Gigantic Flex "Think of our offer," an anonymous entity in the Soul Trading Hub said. "Yes¡­" The other party nodded in response, watching the anonymous entity leave. Cutting off the connection, the entity''s soul returned to reality, revealing a middle-aged man with a rust-colored complexion, one that sighed in worry. "Both the Mong Realm and Garg Realm after the same thing." He sighed in worry. His worries included paying an exorbitant tax to the Mong Realm or paying a tenth of the taxes to the Garg Realm but offending the Mong Realm in response. Both were horrible options with similar damage dealt to their realm. "It''s only because our Bolg Realm is weak." He sighed, feeling powerless. The Bolg Realm was situated in a rather prime location, allowing it to develop well. However, it was a young realm that didn''t even know of the existence of the other realms until recently. Only through the Soul Trading Hub did they become aware of that. Even though they were a young realm, they still had 20 Gods. Though, their strength was largely lacking. After all, they hadn''t even developed into Body and Soul Cultivation. And only after connecting to the Soul Trading Hub did they even realize the existence of these two paths of cultivation. Currently, the one that conversed with the Mong and Garg Realm was named Borgunel, the strongest of their realm. Then again, his strength meant naught in the grand scale of things. After all, any random Mong Realm God could wipe out the floor with him. It was because of a simple reason. One that cultivated Mental Energy could casually destroy the mind of one without it. It was how until the Kun Realm began to wholly develop Soul Cultivation, they couldn''t even detect the foreigners amongst them. The situation was the same in Bolg Realm, with them grasping for straws to gain any method to cultivate the Body and Soul. For the Kun Realm, even though they were unaware, Hishe had embarked on Body Cultivation while Soren did the same for Soul Cultivation. Once they obtained the related information, they quickly adapted to the intelligence gained from the invaders, creating the means to detect, adapt, and even counter them. That''s how they rapidly deconstructed the Spark and created their own version, the Heavenly Spark. With that, Krune even publicized the Laughing Tower before the God King himself by killing his son through it. It was because they already had the necessary foundation all along. And once the spark was ignited, they quickly exploded in growth. But unfortunately, the Bolg Realm didn''t have anything of the sort. Hence, Borgunel was in low spirits. Even though he tried to buy information related to Soul Cultivation and Body Cultivation, the best techniques were all in the hands of the Greater Realms that didn''t wish to sell them that. Or even if they did, they asked for sky-high prices that the Bolg Realm just couldn''t afford. And this created an impasse, leading to no transactions occurring between the various parties. Of course, now that the Mong Realm and the Garg Realm had made an offer, why would the Kun Realm refuse to take action? The TTT was currently focusing all their attention and resources on developing themselves to fully take advantage of their recent relocation. So, they couldn''t yet afford to interfere in the affairs of the other Greater Realms. Suddenly, there was a spark of energy before a portal manifested before Borgunel, startling him and the other Gods that were nearby. All of them materialized before the portal, watching a tiny entity exit it, ethereal in nature. Those from the Bolg Realm had naturally gigantic bodies, mountainous in size. In comparison, the wisp before them seemed like it would dissipate with just a breath from them. However, none of the Bolg Realm Gods dared to even breathe before this tiny entity, sensing the suffocating pressure emanating from it, feeling as if the very sky itself was pressing down on them. Recently, a lot of rumors regarding this entity were being circulated between the weaker realms without a Realm Spirit. Kun Realm Champion¡ªHunger God Krune! "Hunger God¡­?" Borgunel asked in hesitation. "Yeah, that''s me." Krune stated calmly, hovering in the air as he arrived before Borgunel''s gigantic face, stating plainly, "It seems the Mong Realm and the Garg Realm have already extended their pillaging offers to you?" "Y-Yes, they did." Borgunel nodded, flinching upon making eye contact with Krune. The Mong Realm had sent an envoy, while the Garg Realm only contacted them through the Soul Trading Hub. But shockingly, the Kun Realm sent their Champion himself, directly into their realm at that. It was a massive flex of their power, showing the Kun Realm''s stance on the matter. "Where''s the Mong Realm envoy?" Krune asked. "We''ve currently seated him in a nearby Sub-Realm. A couple of us are taking care of servicing him at the moment." Borgunel nodded in response. "Alright." Krune nodded, extending his Divine Sense around to ensure that the Mong Realm envoy hadn''t planted any spying traps around them, smiling as he said, "Then, the Kun Realm would present you with a better offer." "We''ll teach you everything there is to know about Body and Soul Cultivation. And..." He continued, "We''ll send our experts here to conduct joint training sessions. With that, you''ll be able to train and increase your experience in combat." "How much¡­ should we pay?" Borgunel asked hesitantly. "Pay?" Krune snorted derisively. "Nine-tenths of the Tilk Realm is part of us. No amount of resources you send can amount to what we can produce on our own. I don''t need any of your resources." "Your payment would be to never join hands with any of the Greater Realms," Krune stated in all seriousness. "If you were to have such an idea, the Kun Realm is the sole entity that you can ally yourself with." "Of course, in that case, we''ll protect you from harm," Krune stated, pointing at the portal behind him. "Just send a distress signal to us through the Soul Trading Hub, and we''ll appear here a second later." "That''s what the Kun Realm is capable of." Chapter 1528 Weight of Krune’s Words Chapter 1528 Weight of Krune¡¯s Words The Kun Realm was the sole entity in control of the Rune Realm, a realm whose power allowed it to condense portals to anywhere in the Greater Universe. It wasn''t actually possible to arrive anywhere they pleased. It actually functioned by drawing information from the Mong Realm. After all, it had once been an important location of the Mong Realm. So, anywhere that the Gods of the Mong Realm had been was recorded in the Mong Realm itself. With that being said, this information also existed in the part of the realm that had branched out to become the Rune Realm. As there were countless locations installed in it, to a certain extent, it could be considered as the Rune Realm being able to condense portals to anywhere in the Greater Universe. And a few of these portals led into the Bolg Realm. Of course, the Mong Realm had infiltrated it in the past to scout for information, treating it as a potential target to invade in the future. They also assassinated any potential geniuses of the Bolg Realm that they came across, as usual. This was also one of the reasons the Bolg Realm didn''t develop beyond a certain level. And now, here they were, faced with the Kun Realm Champion, an infamous entity that had slaughtered too many people to count just to create his God Seat. Krune''s flex was rather straightforward and could be interpreted in two ways. The first was a positive approach. It was the fact that through the Rune Realm, the Kun Realm could send reinforcements to the Bolg Realm in a matter of seconds after their request for help. This allowed them to have more than enough time to set up defenses against any invaders. So, allying with the Kun Realm was the best choice. After all, no other realm was able to reinforce them in such a rapid fashion. However, when considering the same in a negative approach, Borgunel almost despaired. After all, it meant that in a matter of seconds, the Kun Realm could descend with their entire army of hundreds of Gods and tens of thousands of Primal Gods to devastate the Bolg Realm in a matter of days, torching it to the ground, leaving none alive. By the time the other realms even noticed anything amiss, the Bolg Realm would have long been annihilated by then. Krune''s simple statement had a terrifying power attached to it, the Kun Realm''s power and authority as a Greater Realm. The Mong Realm used their show of strength to intimidate the Bolg Realm to surrender to them and pay taxes in order to not be destroyed. The Garg Realm approached in the name of protecting them to ask for taxes as well. On the other hand, the Kun Realm didn''t even ask for any taxes. Their condition was by far the most lucrative and also posed the greatest threat to them. ''We''ll help you, but you''ll have to ally with us. Otherwise, you''ll have to live in fear for the rest of your lives of our potential invasion.'' Even though Krune hadn''t threatened them once, Borgunel was aware of the consequences of offending Krune. After all, the other party was the first in history to slap the faces of the Mong Realm not once but twice. The first time, he eradicated a tenth of the Mong Realm''s God Realm. And the second time, he stole one of their most protected Sub-Realms, converting it into a transportation hub through which he allowed the other Realms to invade the Mong Realm. If he dared to even slap the Mong Realm, it wasn''t even a question as to what he would do to puny realms like the Bolg Realm once they offended him. After all, whether or not they took his help was a different matter. The point Krune stressed was for the Bolg Realm to never ally with any other Greater Realm. That was his bottom line. And the day the Bolg Realm extended its hands towards either the Mong Realm, Garg Realm, or TTT was when it would face the Kun Realm''s wrath. His mind worked in overdrive at the end of which Borgunel cupped his fists, bowing his head as a show of submission. "My Bolg Realm would become a vassal realm of the Kun Realm." "Good choice," Krune said as he snapped his finger. Through the Balance Laws, he informed Turia, who then sent a group of people through the Rune Realm. Immediately after, dozens of Kun Realm Gods poured into the Bolg Realm, causing the natives to be terrified. Leading at the front was Feifei, who casually inspected Borgunel before nodding. "Alright, there are no problems with the Bolg Realm. They can definitely cultivate their Body and Soul as well." "I''ll create cultivation methods for your realm," she said, hitting her fists with one another, excited. This was the Kun Realm''s actual objective. After all, once Wally and Krune discussed this issue, they determined that they had the fastest growth when the original Tilk Realm was fracturing. It was through that that Krune reached the God Realm in cultivation, also resulting in a rapid elevation in strength for all their immortals. Self-cultivation had limits and required a lot of time. But in contrast, if they were to work in various realms to deal with the problems there and create solutions, their horizons would broaden a lot. Also, depending on the insane task at hand that they worked on, their growth would be the fastest. Moreover, once they developed the Bolg Realm, they would have more training partners, allowing both sides to profit. What the Kun Realm was currently lacking was experience. So, to the Kun Realm, experience was the most valuable resource. And this was what they were looking for. As for any material resource, the Soul Trading Hub alone was providing them with an insane amount, not to mention what the Satellite Realms were producing. The Divine Deities were also producing exotic resources. The same could also be said for the Satellite Realm Weapons. Therefore, the Kun Realm wasn''t lacking resources in the least. Their resource consumption actually fell below ten percent of production as their rate of production was just that high. Their concern was something the other Greater Realms could never hope to have. Chapter 1529 Vassal Realms Chapter 1529 Vassal Realms The Bolg Realm was indeed lacking in a lot of areas. In response, the Kun Realm planned to fill them all up and then help birth more Gods, thereby elevating its foundation higher. Feifei''s task was to create cultivation techniques for the Bolg Realm immortals, allowing them to cultivate all three paths. Basically, her task was to establish Soul and Body Cultivation in the Bolg Realm. Her helpers were Soren and Wally. In the meantime, Zamura worked on upgrading their weapons using the latest techniques researched by the Kun Realm after transactions regarding the various techniques with countless other realms. This was what the Kun Realm was doing the most. They were buying information, techniques, Godly Abilities, etc., from every single realm, researching upon the ingenuity of the various realms to adapt them to their own. As for the payment? Heh! Gegrafikan converted the resources obtained from the Soul Trading Hub''s tax into the power structure of other realms, using that to transact. This meant that even when someone investigated, they would never realize that one of the major transactors using the Soul Trading Hub was the Kun Realm. But through this conversion, every time they transacted, they posed as Gods from other realms. It was a solid plan that allowed them to remain concealed while the actions of others could be discovered to a certain extent based on the resources they sold. After all, either through the power system or the type of unique resource they sold, the source realm could be easily identified. The Kun Realm was the only one with the advantage here, thanks to Gegrafikan. With that, all the purchased information ended up with Feifei, the Spirit Deity that worked on improving their abilities as a whole. Any idea they obtained, they approached her to develop that idea further, rapidly skipping centuries of research. The more she used her abilities in various forms and factors, the greater her growth. So, what would happen if she did the same for others as well? Her growth would be faster. In this manner, every God of the Kun Realm had their respective advantage. And to use that, they had to ''help'' other realms. The Bolg Realm was the first in line to experience this. Well, now that they had pledged their loyalty to the Kun Realm, things could be kicked up a notch. Their plans transpired like this: First, they would develop the Bolg Realm''s Body and Soul Cultivation, strengthening them as a whole. Second, they would train the immortals to bring more Primal Gods to the peak. Third, Zamura would take action on their Realm Core to gradually birth a Realm Spirit, no matter how weak it was. Taking advantage of its birth, the Primal Gods at the peak would initiate their final tribulation to become Gods en masse, rapidly raising the Bolg Realm''s foundation. Following that, they would become training partners for the Kun Realm. And here was where something intricate lay. The Kun Realm had attained the status as a Greater Realm. Meaning, they could actually take in Vassal Realms. In other words, once the Bolg Realm declared their loyalty, they would be considered a Vassal Realm to the Kun Realm. Basically, even though they still exercised their sovereignty, they had to follow orders from the Kun Realm to a certain extent. And this was established between their Realm Spirits themselves. So, even if the Bolg Realm Gods wished to break free in the future, it wouldn''t be possible as their Realm Spirit itself obeyed orders from Turia. There was one major tangible benefit to this: a show of authority. And this show of authority was only effective for Greater Realms. The greater the number of Vassal Realms under them, the greater their authority in the politics of the Greater Universe. On an internal scale, the laws of the Kun Realm itself would be mildly strengthened as a result. In other words, the greater the number of Vassal Realms under them, the greater the strengthening of their own laws. For example, there was a Fire God in the Bolg Realm. After they became a Vassal Realm, the God''s Fire Law would mildly reinforce the Kun Realm''s Fire Law. Thus, the Kun Realm''s Fire God would become stronger. In any case, the one that obtained the greatest reinforcement through the Vassal Realm was Krune. After all, tribulation lightning was the principal foundation present in every single realm and one of their greatest and most innate Laws. So, it was a direct boost to his strength. And it was in this manner that Krune wished to grow stronger as a Champion, enough to face the Champions of other Greater Realms on his own. Such was politics. With that being said, Krune''s intelligence, under constant pressure, gradually began to shine more and more as he let go of any and all inhibitions. All the Greater Realms had begun their hunt for Vassal Realms, but the one that quickly gained success in this endeavor the most was the Kun Realm. The conditions they proposed, the formless threat that they possessed but never had to use, and the way they had initiated diplomatic talks, with also the promise of protection using a Spatial Storm Barrier, it was odd if the approached realms wouldn''t give in. It was like the situation on Earth where the countries with nuclear arms were waging war. The country similar to Kun Realm would approach a weak country that wasn''t able to protect its borders, giving them funds to develop, technology to do so, and the necessary knowledge and skilled workers to achieve it. Not only that, but they were also given a country-wide barrier that would shield them from nukes. So, why would the weaker countries refuse such an offer? Especially when aware that if they offended this country, they might suddenly see a nuke appear mysteriously in the middle of their capital? The Kun Realm''s policies were the exact reflection of that, a reason they managed to obtain five Vassal Realms in the span of three thousand years. Starting with the Bolg Realm, their Vassal Realms included the Ketu Realm, the Wald Realm, the Stupha Realm, and the Kulti Realm. Five Vassal Realms in the span of three thousand years was a terrifying feat, given how the second place was taken by the Garg Realm, having obtained three Vassal Realms, with the first among them being the Zen Realm, a realm they had obtained the loyalty of a long time ago. The Mong Realm had only obtained one Vassal Realm to date, while the TTT had yet to get one. Chapter 1530 Manufacturing a Win-Win Situation Chapter 1530 Manufacturing a Win-Win Situation After obtaining five Vassal Realms, the Kun Realm stopped all efforts to procure more Vassal Realms. This was in sharp contrast to the other Greater Realms that had begun to wholeheartedly give their efforts. It was because of a simple thing¡ªtheir abilities. Typically, a realm with a Realm Spirit had at least a hundred Gods. This meant that making them submit was a lot harder than a regular realm. With that being said, negotiations were slow. On top of that, having a weak Vassal Realm was pretty much of no use. After all, such Vassal Realms had at most a couple dozen Gods. In other words, only around twelve significantly developed Laws. The advantages weren''t much. Moreover, there was a good chance such Laws weren''t even useful for the Gods from the Greater Realms. Thus, they all focused on procuring the realms that had a Realm Spirit. This way, their advantage would be the highest. This was also why despite obtaining only one Vassal Realm, the Mong Realm wasn''t even in the least bothered by the actions of the other realms. After all, its Vassal Realm had around 120 Gods, a significantly developed realm. One of the Vassal Realms under the Garg Realm was considerably developed. Even though they didn''t have a Realm Spirit, they had around sixty Gods. The TTT had only recently begun to move, so they were somewhat lagging behind. This was where the natures of the various realms came into effect. The Kun Realm had only chosen weak realms to make into a Vassal Realm. Among its five Vassal Realms, the strongest was the Wald Realm at 31 Gods, followed by the Stupha and the Bolg Realm at 28 Gods and 20 Gods, respectively. Then, there was the Ketu Realm with 13 Gods and the Kulti Realm with 9 Gods. All of them were weak realms that didn''t have much to offer. Even the Laws of their Gods were weakly developed, so the reinforcement in strength to the Kun Realm wasn''t anything worth commenting about. But, this was Krune''s intention as well, smiling as he nodded at Zamura. "Do it, bro." "Alright!" Zamura laughed excitedly as he placed his hand on the Bolg Realm''s Realm Core, pouring in all his power, gradually causing its Realm Spirit to awaken. In the meantime, the Primal Gods of the Bolg Realm were ready, having been preparing for their final breakthrough all this time. Feifei had personally made preparations for all of them, raising their chances to the limit. Actually, the Kun Realm used their resources, investing in the development of the Primal Gods of all five Vassal Realms. Their actions wholeheartedly caused the immortals of these Vassal Realms to submit to the rule of the Kun Realm. Instead of ruling through fear and force, the Kun Realm established a strong rapport with their Vassal Realms. And now, all the immortals looked up to the Kun Realm as a leader. Moreover, news regarding this was transmitted to other weak realms as well, causing them to gradually lean towards the Kun Realm to gain a share of those benefits and obtain protection from such a powerful force. In the span of a few centuries, Zamura awakened the Realm Spirit, causing the Godly Energy of the Bolg Realm to erupt as a mysterious power welled up in the bodies of all its people. "Now!" Feifei shouted as all the Primal Gods that she had instructed initiated their final tribulation simultaneously, for a moment covering the skies of the Bolg Realm with thunderclouds. More than a hundred thousand Primal Gods, the majority of their force, had initiated this breakthrough, ignoring dangers to their lives. After all, this was the biggest opportunity they could ever get to become a God. The Kun Realm also used the chance of their Realm Spirit''s birth to create more than two hundred Gods. "They''re faring pretty well," Feifei commented, watching a Primal God before her being vaporized with the first bolt itself. He wasn''t alone as dozens of Primal Gods were reduced to nothing from the first lightning bolt. But despite that, Feifei commented that they were faring well. After all, it wasn''t easy to become a God. The chances of success were just too slim. She observed their actions, watching a couple of Primal Gods gradually surviving the lightning bolts one after another, despite approaching closer to death every time. They hurriedly absorbed all the materials arranged in a formation around them, healing their Spiritual Incarnation before facing another bolt of lightning, tethering around death as they resumed their healing, repeating the process. Gradually, a mystical power erupted as one of the Primal Gods succeeded, gradually condensing his own Law, a unique creation, dying before being born through it. Directly in relation, the foundation of the Bolg Realm improved, becoming more stable. The introduction of the new law caused some changes to happen to the various continents and supercontinents in the Bolg Realm. The common populace looked around in shock, observing the various changes happening to their world, able to spot tribulation lightning bolts in every direction they turned their head towards. Eventually, the first Primal God succeeded, becoming a God. Following him was a second, a third, and so on and so forth. The mysterious spike in power throughout the Bolg Realm vanished as the tribulation lightning clouds vanished gradually as soon after, all the final tribulations ended. Feifei spread out her Divine Sense, counting all the Gods that had been birthed. "A total of 142 Gods. That''s pretty impressive." Adding onto the original twenty Gods, there were now 162 Gods in the Bolg Realm, rapidly strengthening it to greater heights. Immediately after, the Kun Realm Gods could feel their strength improving as a result. Even though it wasn''t explicitly stated out loud, Feifei focused on nurturing some Primal Gods more than others. It was because she predicted that these Primal Gods would either take control of an existing Law or create a brand-new Law, all of which would benefit the Kun Realm''s Gods. So, such Primal Gods were supported the most. Also, the majority of the successful Gods were such people. This way, the benefits received by the Kun Realm were the highest. To the Bolg Realm, their number of Gods increased by seven times. And to the Kun Realm, a lot of their Gods were strengthened by this mission, creating a win-win situation. This was the Kun Realm''s true goal, which was to manufacture a win-win situation. Chapter 1531 The Captured Mong Realm Envoy Chapter 1531 The Captured Mong Realm Envoy It''s hard finding the perfect Vassal Realm that would give them the greatest benefits. Since that wasn''t possible, Krune had a simpler thought process. Why not develop one themselves? There was Zamura to awaken Realm Spirits, there was Hazak to create or strengthen existing Realm Cores, and there was Gegrafikan, who could basically do anything he pleased with laws. And finally, there was Krune, who could refine everything to strengthen faster. With such a combo, they had the qualification to grow a realm in the direction they wished for it to grow. Hence, they found weak realms to nurture, with the first of them being the Bolg Realm. In any case, the Bolg Realm was rather happy with this arrangement. After all, it was a simple calculation. Before, they had twenty Gods, but now, thanks to the Kun Realm''s support, they had 162 Gods. More than that, they had a Realm Spirit to protect their home from now on and also manage their realm''s development, allowing for faster growth. They also had embarked on Body and Soul Cultivation, growing in strength by leaps and bounds. Borgunel bowed before Feifei, grabbing her hands as he shed tears, looking at her with the utmost respect. "Thank you for developing my realm." "As the Kun Realm''s Vassal Realm, you cannot be weak. Hence, we helped you." Feifei smiled in response. "Now, work hard in growing strong." "Yes!" Borgunel prostrated on the ground, treating her words as heaven''s decree. At least, he was still somewhat normal. But the newly birthed Gods were almost like fanatics. That was because most of them never had the confidence to ever become Gods. And it was only thanks to Feifei that they managed to attain the peak of cultivation. Thus, they were grateful to the Kun Realm, especially to Feifei. Honestly, if Feifei were to give a command, they would charge towards their deaths readily, aware that their sacrifices would amount to the betterment of their realm. After all, Feifei had raised them into Gods, so she could definitely create more of them in the future. Fanaticism! First was the Bolg Realm, which was successfully developed. After this, the Gods of the Bolg Realm would constantly battle the Kun Realm''s Gods in a joint venture. Thereby, both sides would gain a lot of combat experience and grow stronger. "All hail Lady Feifei!" The Bolg Realm Gods began to chant as all the other immortals began to echo it soon after, eventually causing the Bolg Realm itself to resonate with the words as even the Bolg Realm Spirit repeated the same. After all, if not for her meticulous arrangement, it wouldn''t have been possible for the Bolg Realm''s growth to warrant the birth of a Realm Spirit. While everyone was praising her to the high heavens, Feifei turned around, noticing the figure of Krune hovering high up in the air, gazing at the boundary of the Bolg Realm, disconnected from reality, deep in thought. She approached him gently, locking her hand into his, asking after a moment of thought, "What¡­ happened?" "Nothing," Krune said curtly. "I''m just¡­ thinking of our next move." "Let me take care of the strategizing," Feifei replied. "Get some rest. You haven''t even slept for the past three thousand years." "Gods don''t require sleep, Feifei," Krune said in response. "And with the threat looming on us, how can you expect me to sleep peacefully?" "You can at least rest your mind a little," Feifei said, frowning in response as even though Krune''s strength was climbing up at an alarming pace, she was able to sense fear budding deep within him churning constantly. "I will get some rest." Krune stared at her, smiling wryly. "When this is all over." ''Why? What''s making you this afraid?'' Feifei clenched her hand into a fist, asking him, "When was the last time you visited the Turia Supercontinent?" "Only once after becoming a God," Krune said, gradually extricating himself from her hold. "Let''s go to the Wald Realm next, Feifei." "Before the Mong Realm strikes us, we need to develop all five Vassal Realms." Saying so, he turned into a bolt of lightning and vanished from view. Feifei stared into the sky for a good few hours before shaking her head, clenching her hand into a fist as she firmed her resolve. "I won''t allow you to bear all the burden alone." Honestly, even though the Kun Realm was developing at an alarming pace, the other Greater Realms were also doing the same. Moreover, they were developed realms even before this, already having a terrifying foundation. And in war, even the Mong Realm had no guarantee of surviving against three Greater Realms. So, Krune was afraid that his home would be destroyed. To prevent that, he had to develop them as much as possible while also ensuring his own strength was great enough to form the umbrella protecting the Kun Realm. After all, that was the job of wisps, to protect the Kun Realm. Exiting the Rune Realm were droves of Kun Realm Gods that began to conduct joint training sessions with the Bolg Realm Gods. Soren and Wally took the lead in carrying out the training in an effort to strengthen them further. In the meantime, everyone else involved in the development of the Bolg Realm arrived at the Wald Realm, beginning to work on it immediately. They were already making preparations for all five Vassal Realms simultaneously. However, the awakening of the Realm Spirit could only be done one after another. In the meantime, following a flicker of lightning, Krune arrived at a safe zone hidden within a spatial storm, entering the Sub-Realm floating there awkwardly. He entered it, staring at a mountainous entity before him, one resembling a tower but riddled with maggots. "Please! Release me! I beg of you!" A fear-stricken voice resounded from the tower. It was the envoy from the Mong Realm. Of course, Krune had directly brought out the Sub-Realm where this envoy had been resting in the Bolg Realm. He placed it in this safe zone, attacking the Mong Realm God immediately, causing the other party to fall victim to his Hunger Law. After that, the Mong Realm envoy wasn''t even able to use his Godly Energy as the maggots would drill out of his body in the millions every time he did that. On top of that, his Law was being used as food for the maggots to propagate. Krune only stared at the Mong Realm envoy with killing intent. Chapter 1532 Never…I mean, Never Offend an Angry Wisp Chapter 1532 Never¡­I mean, Never Offend an Angry Wisp "Gaahhh!" The Mong Realm envoy screamed in fear as he sensed the number of maggots on his body increase, continuing to drill deeper and deeper into his being. "Hmm..." Krune frowned subtly, placing his hand at the face that had appeared on the tower, seeping in more of his Hunger Law into the opponent, causing his screams to turn harsher as a result. "It doesn''t feel like I''ll be able to affect your Law that''s in the Mong Realm. Your Realm Ability is definitely solid." "However¡­" He continued, displaying mild killing intent, "It''s not impossible, right? As long as I continue experimenting, I''ll be able to find a way to affect your world." "Even otherwise, your Law would develop strong maggots of my power. I can use them against the other Mong Realm Gods with greater effectiveness," Krune stated. "Especially against the God King." "You bastard!" The Mong Realm envoy exclaimed out of hatred. "Don''t you dare disrespect the God King. He''s not an existence dirt rats like you can talk about." "Oh yeah?" Krune lowered his head, staring at the face that had formed on the tower. "I''ll do it. And what will you do about it?" "Your Champion will pay the price for killing my friend." Krune unleashed the brunt of his killing intent, almost shattering the Sub-Realm in response before he reined in his power. "Naturally, it wouldn''t be pretty." Immediately, two auras blasted out of him, revealing the two Laws that he represented, terrifying the Mong Realm envoy for it was something unexpected. After all, even Hishe could only use two laws in a parasitic form where he would weaken the longer he used it, even going so far as to die. But in the case of Krune, it wasn''t like that, as both the powers seemed entirely his. ''T-This power!'' The Mong Realm envoy was shocked, staring at the sheer level of strength exhibited by Krune. ''How is he so strong already? What''s his secret? He''s already reaching a strength on par with the Fon Realm Champion!'' Of course, there was a reason. First of all, the development of the five Vassal Realms meant that their foundation was strengthened a lot. And as the law that formed its core, the Tribulation Lightning Law in each realm grew by a lot. And they, in turn, reinforced his Tribulation Lightning Law. Moreover, what''s the innate nature of Tribulation Lightning? Refinement through destruction! When Luvile was the God of Tribulations, he only had his representative Law. However, the Tribulation Lightning Law wasn''t effective on itself. Hence, he couldn''t abuse it to grow stronger. On the other hand, Krune had a way around it, being the representative of two laws. Through that, he used his Tribulation Lightning Law to gradually refine his Hunger Law, causing it to steadily grow stronger. With that, his growth was consistent but fast. Also, adding on the strength reinforcement by the Vassal Realms, his growth speed was alarming. It also had to be noted that Krune''s Deific Meridians allowed him to casually shift from one energy to another, giving him a terrifying advantage in that all his energy sources and mode of usage had become one. And this centralized use caused his Wisp Core to develop by leaps and bounds, able to store energy superior to all other Gods. Not to mention Little Krune. This was the secret to Krune''s growth. ''This is bad! I have to inform the God King about his terrifying growth. If we delay any further, he would become terrifying.'' The Mong Realm envoy thought, churning up his representative Law in an effort to communicate with the Mong Realm Spirit. But the moment he tried to do so, he coughed up a bunch of maggots, staring in shock as Krune''s two auras vanished, watching a cunning smile form on his face, shouting in anger, "Bastard! You manipulated me!" "I learned this from you," Krune stated calmly. "Isn''t that how you slaughtered the Kun Realm geniuses for tens of thousands of years?" The moment the Mong Realm envoy tried to communicate with the Mong Realm Spirit through his exclusive Law, it opened a branch pathway, establishing a connection to his Law in the Mong Realm. And it was this that Krune had been waiting for all this time, the reason he had revealed his two Laws in the first place. Such an action was bound to shock the envoy, rattling his mind to great terror that he would try to relay this information to the Mong Realm irrespective of his life and death. And this was the path his maggots that had already infested his Law traveled through, pouring into the Mong Realm en masse. That wasn''t all. The maggots continued to eat up the Law forming this connection, rapidly increasing in numbers as they reinforced it, strengthening the tunnel enough for more of them to pour into the Mong Realm, preventing the envoy from closing it. "B-Bastarddddd!" The envoy shouted as he was used as a gateway for Krune to safely channel his Hunger Law into the Mong Realm. And best of all, it wasn''t possible for the Mong Realm to retaliate against him. Boom! "What the fuck?" The Mong Realm Spirit screamed in alarm, sensing the familiar, detestable energy wavelength, shouting at the top of its power, causing its voice to resound throughout the Mong Realm. "Damn you! Kruuuunne!" The Mong Realm Spirit hurriedly cut off the communication, grunting in anger as the damage had already been done. The maggots created using the Hunger Law had already poured into the Mong Realm, spreading out rapidly through the Law of the envoy, eating through it. If left as is, they wouldn''t vanish until the entire law was completely eaten up from the Mong Realm, permanently dropping the Mong Realm''s foundation by a level. Plus, even Krune wasn''t sure as to how this action would affect the Mong Realm''s Realm Ability. After all, their Realm Ability ensured the Laws of the Gods wouldn''t vanish. With that said, his Hunger Law would continue to propagate by eating through the law until it was fully consumed. Two powers on opposite ends now coming into a confrontation. Realizing this, the Mong Realm Spirit trembled in anger, raging while cursing at Krune nonstop. This was the third time he was directly slapping its face. Chapter 1533 Hunger Vs Keys Chapter 1533 Hunger Vs Keys "Kruuunnneee!" The Mong Realm Spirit shouted in anger, flustered as the maggots that had infiltrated the Mong Realm had begun to vanish mysteriously, camouflaging themselves into the Law that they gorged upon. At present, they only traveled through the envoy''s Law, as it wasn''t that easy for them to invade the other Laws. There was just too much risk at the moment, at least until their numbers were still few. But once they finished devouring the entirety of the envoy''s Law, it was fair game. "That''s it!" The God King''s angry shout resounded as a heavenly decree resounded throughout the Mong Realm. "All soldiers, take heed. This is my command!" "Henceforth, charge into the Kun Realm''s annihilation!" "Charge into the Kun Realm''s annihilation!" The citizens began to echo the statement one after another. The God King began to prepare their enemy while Mon-Tu-Casha arrived before the Mong Realm Spirit, shouting as she said, "Point me into the infected Law! I''ll deal with this threat!" "Okay!" The Mong Realm Spirit nodded before slamming a beam of energy into her, turning her into a ray of light before sending her into the Law of the envoy itself. Boom! Krune continued to pour more of his power into the envoy, intending to reconnect with the Mong Realm, constantly tussling with the Mong Realm Spirit, when suddenly, a mysterious power slammed into him, sending him flying away. "You maggot bastard!" Mon-Tu-Casha bellowed in anger, exiting the envoy''s body as she turned around, watching his body crumble into a wave of maggots that squirmed towards her in an effort to infect her. "Die!" she shouted, unleashing a terrifying wave of energy that began to destroy them en masse when suddenly, Krune''s palm planted into her face, gripping tightly as her face deformed unnaturally before she was sent flying. "Keuk!" Mon-Tu-Casha grunted as she riled up her Godly Energy, unleashing a blast behind her to stop herself, gradually regaining her balance to stare at Krune, trembling as she thought, ''This bastard has become terrifyingly strong! How is this possible? This speed of growth doesn''t make sense.'' She barely had time to think when she noticed that she was facing the sky now, being sent flying by Krune before she could even react, struggling to even move. The maggots drilled into her body, intending to eat her up, when a mysterious power obliterated them all. ''This power?'' Krune was surprised before getting serious. ''I can feel the power of the Keys originating from various realms.'' ''What the hell is she? She feels even more dangerous than the God King himself.'' Similar to his thoughts, Mon-Tu-Casha also felt the same while staring at Krune. ''Two Laws? And they''re completely under his control. How is this even possible? It doesn''t make any sense.'' ''If I don''t kill him, he''ll eventually grow to threaten dad in the future.'' Instantly, both entities assessed the danger of the other party, vowing to kill them to ensure this threat would be nipped in the bud. "I''ll help you later. Rest for now," Mon-Tu-Casha said as she waved her hand, plunging it into the envoy''s body to rip out a piece of his body that was still intact, causing her power to seep into it as all the maggots infesting it were killed. Her injuries mysteriously vanished as Krune was suddenly alarmed, his figure flickering away as the region he was upon was destroyed. ''What the hell was that?'' He turned around, staring at the land, to see a giant ethereal figure squirming, resembling his maggots in action, flickering with tribulation lightning. They existed for a fraction of a second before vanishing. "So, that''s the power of the keys," he muttered, glaring at Mon-Tu-Casha. The injuries he inflicted on her were somehow transported to the Greater Universe Law World and then brought back in a different form to injure him. He wasn''t aware of the Greater Universe Law World, but his Calamity and Balance Laws triggered his danger sense. Using the short delay before her counterattack took effect, he turned into a lightning bolt to vanish. If he wasn''t the Tribulation God, it wouldn''t have been possible to evade her blow. "Heup!" Shouting in response, Mon-Tu-Casha condensed a light arrow, shooting it towards Krune. In response, Krune retaliated with a lightning arrow, one that transformed into a maggot and swallowed the light arrow, exploding in response, unable to handle the energy broiling within. Krune then brought out his Thundercloud Whale, holding it in his hand like a knife. His figure then flickered towards Mon-Tu-Casha as instantly, hundreds of holes appeared all over her body, spilling out the Frozen Blood he had injected. They began to turn her sluggish when suddenly, all the wounds vanished. His figure vanished as all the damage splattered onto the location he had been standing upon just now. Arriving behind her, he continued to thrust the Thundercloud Whale into her back, constantly being on the offensive, when suddenly, he took a stance, causing the Thundercloud Whale to expand to its maximum length of thirty meters before shrinking into its palm-sized self immediately after. After that, he pointed it at the back of her head, unleashing the sharpest penetrating ability he could unleash. Lightning Needle! "Gah!" For a moment, Mon-Tu-Casha blanked out as the tribulation lightning directly pierced through her defenses, wreaking havoc throughout her body, also causing her Law to melt slowly. Though, the melting was slow, if not minute. After all, it wasn''t easy to destroy the Keys who surpassed a God in terms of power level. So, her sustained injuries were actually minimal. But until now, Krune was yet to inflict a single scratch. Moreover, he was probing for her methods, gradually understanding her abilities. That''s why he switched to more energy-conservative methods like using his Thundercloud Whale. B-Boom! In the short instance when she was out of focus, Krune stabbed forth almost a million times into her body, turning her into a sponge due to the number of holes riddling her body now. But suddenly, the entire Sub-Realm trembled before a vast, overwhelming wave of energy washed over, vaporizing it instantly, including everything in it. And shining from within the massive spatial storm nearby were the eyes of a Primordial Beast. Chapter 1536 Taotie Vs. God King Chapter 1536 Taotie Vs. God King "Primordial Beast?" The God King frowned before recalling bits and pieces of information regarding that. It was something the Mong Realm Spirit had said in passing ages ago, as it too wasn''t aware of anything regarding Primordial Beasts. The Mong Realm had been a Satellite Realm under the control of a Major Realm that grew after absorbing the foundation through the fragments of the three Greater Realms. Only after that did it begin to grow. And since the Primordial Beasts hadn''t ever made an appearance, news about them wasn''t known to the other realms. Only the Kun Realm was an exception as it was created by Primordial Beasts and even lived there for a short duration. So, records about them were maintained clearly in Turia''s mind, not to mention Zule personally making an appearance while leaving the Kun Realm. A being beyond the Gods! As the God King stared at the entity, mysterious information streamed into his mind. It was from the Taotie that didn''t wish to fight an ignorant opponent. Hence, it helped the God King learn some information regarding the Primordial Beasts. Once he became aware of Primordial Beasts, the God King sighed for a moment before saying, "The Greater Universe is indeed vast." He then slowly focused on his opponent and asked, "You plan to kill me?" "Of course!" The Taotie grinned in response. "You''re by far the strongest God to have ever existed in the Greater Universe. Of course, I have to gobble you up. You''re the rarest of delicacies." "Let''s suppose I kill you," the God King said, sensing anger from his opponent at his words as he continued. "Will the Taotie race exact revenge on my Mong Realm?" "Revenge? Hahaha!" The Taotie bellowed in laughter. "Don''t worry, we Primordial Beasts all operate alone. Besides, what you fear would never come to pass. After all, it''s impossible for you to kill me anyway." "Well, I''ll still be the judge." The Taotie grinned, flicking its tail once to unleash a blast of energy that slammed into the Sub-Realm all of a sudden. "Let''s clear up the place first, shall we? I don''t like interruptions!" "No!" The God King shouted in alarm, unable to react on time as the defensive sphere he erected formed an instant later than the beam, causing him to watch the Sub-Realm disintegrate into nothing instantly. He hurriedly contacted the Mong Realm Spirit, practically shouting through their connection, "Is my daughter alive?" "Yes!" The Mong Realm Spirit replied hurriedly. "She''s already dealing with the maggots infesting the envoy''s law." ''Thank goodness.'' The God King sighed in relief before glaring at the Taotie. "Is this how all Primordial Beasts behave?" "What? I was just clearing up some abandoned land." The Taotie snorted in response. "The two Gods within have escaped on time. They aren''t simple entities at all, you know. Well, I''m sure you know that better." ''So, Krune also managed to escape.'' The God King nodded before introducing himself, riling up his strength in response. "I''m Mon-Ra-Garak, Champion of the Mong Realm, and the strongest God of the Greater Universe, titled the God King." "So, you''re the God King. Some of the Primordial Beasts mentioned you some time ago." The Taotie nodded before introducing itself, suddenly assuming a human form. "I''m Tallo, part of the Taotie race''s younger generation." ''Younger generation?'' The God King was flabbergasted at this information. ''This level of power is present in a younger generation of the Primordial Beasts?'' After all, in the information he received, it stated that any Primordial Beast that hadn''t attained a certain level of strength was still part of the younger generation, for they all grew while they aged. Child, younger generation, adult, older generation, and Chief, with the strongest of each race titled the Chief. This was how they were divided. And to think the opponent before him was merely from the Younger Generation sent shivers down his spine. But after a moment, the God King became excited once again. ''And here I thought I had already reached the peak long ago. But this means that there''s still plenty of room to grow. The Mong Realm can still devour other realms and grow without limits.'' He slowly revealed a wide smile as he muttered inwardly, ''If we devour all the Greater Realms¡­'' Upon seeing his smile filled with greed, Tallo also grinned in response. "Interesting. You''re one avaricious individual." "Your corpse would become great fuel to extend the lifespan and foundation of my realm," the God King said. "Well, it''ll ensure your realm could exist for all eternity without dying of old age. But that''s about it. Your foundation won''t increase by using a Primordial Beast corpse, not that you''ll ever chance upon one," Tallo said casually. "Unless it''s the corpse of the Kun Peng." "The Kun¡­ Peng?" The God King frowned. "Every realm in existence was created by the Kun Peng. They''re the sole Primordial Beast race with the ability to create realms. If their corpse was fused into your realm, it would raise the talent, quality, and a variety of other factors in your realm," Tallo smirked as he explained. "But, you can forget about that ever happening. The Kun Peng race is the strongest among the eight Primordial Beast races. Plus, they would take revenge if the body of one of their own is used to fuel a realm." "Anyway, enough of the boring chatter," Tallo said, sensing Zule approaching it at an alarming pace. ''I should devour this God King before Zule arrives. I''ll get an upset stomach just by seeing him.'' It suddenly opened its mouth and blasted a terrifying energy bolt, casing the God King to defend in a hurry, being sent flying into the nearby spatial storm. They were currently in a safe zone that was surrounded by spatial storms on all sides. An instant later, the God King exited the spatial storm as his injuries healed instantly, causing Tallo to whistle in response. "You''re indeed worthy of being called the God King¡­" Boom! It hadn''t even finished talking when the God King condensed a gigantic fist, slamming forth into the Taotie''s face, sending it reeling away. The power he displayed was enough to destroy a Satellite Realm. "I''m the God King for a reason," he muttered, gazing at the Taotie exit the spatial storm while healing its injuries, glaring at him as it became angry. Chapter 1537 The God King’s Desperate Cry Chapter 1537 The God King¡¯s Desperate Cry "I was going to gobble you up for funsies, but I''ll give you some pain before doing that now." Tallo, now in human form, said soon after, having turned into a man whose cheeks were swollen. A stream of the chaotic storm gently touched his swollen cheeks, instantly healing them back to normal. Such an action was shocking to the God King, for he had never thought the spatial storm could heal others. "The spatial storm is destructive energy in its purest form. But for Primordial Beasts, it''s akin to air that we breathe. So, it''s just the energy that we wield," Tallo said, his figure flickering before the God King, slamming a punch into his face, sending him flying away for a couple of meters, shocked at the barely negligible distance he moved the God King. "What? Did you think I was giving it my all?" The God King slowly flexed his muscles, causing them to tighten as his representative Law gradually riled up, piling up more and more power as even Tallo gulped in response. The God King''s strength continued to climb up without rest as he slowly spoke, "After suffering the beating the previous time, I''ve been cultivating bitterly to become stronger, especially thanks to the enlightenment I gained from killing Hishe and Luvile." Law¡ªPower Storm! This was his representative Law, a unique Law that he had created back when the Mong Realm was under the Garg Realm''s rule, created with the sole goal of overpowering any and all opponents that he faced, geared towards attacks and attacks only. Boom! He condensed the power in his fist and slammed forth a punch that rattled Tallo''s insides, sending his figure weighing a dozen Satellite Realms flying for hundreds of kilometers. It didn''t stop there as the God King''s figure flickered this time, tailing Tallo''s flight to constantly rain down attacks that exploded onto his opponent. Power Storm''s nature was akin to a calamity that consumed everything in its path to fuel its destruction. So, once ignited, it began to consume his Godly Energy reserves in torrents to slam forth attacks with devastating might, each enough to destroy even the biggest of Satellite Realms. In response, Tallo suddenly condensed the spatial storm on his hands, attacking the God King as each of his attacks were swallowed up by the spatial storm. Gradually, a barrier of the spatial storm covered his body, turning into a tough armor that couldn''t be broken through. It also reinforced his attacks, causing the God King to bleed in response. "You''re running out of steam already?" Tallo grinned after a couple of minutes spanned past, healing his injuries as he gazed at the mild panting figure of the God King, noticing that his injuries were healing at a slower pace. But suddenly, the God King grinned, clenching his hand into a fist when suddenly, Tallo''s right arm shattered in response, turning into pulp to dangle limply. "Heh!" The God King smirked as he inhaled a deep breath, slowly stabilizing his riled-up energies, gradually calming them down as his figure began to expand, turning into a giant with ten heads and ten pairs of arms. Only now did he even initiate the Mong Realm''s signature fighting style, starting with a mental attack, causing Tallo to feel confused for a moment. "Keuk, what a monster!" The God King grunted, suffering the knockback on using the mental attack on such a tough opponent that caused part of his attack to rebound, injuring the caster. Though, he ignored the damage to his mind for the time being, using Tallo''s momentary state of confusion to condense a sword out of his representative Law that he plunged through the spatial storm armor, piercing through the opponent''s chest. His representative Law infiltrated Tallo''s body, gradually spreading around to consume the energy within and wreak havoc. But, the moment it began to do so, the spatial storm within Tallo''s body expanded like a torrent, spilling out of his body as it rippled out, sending the God King flying as all his defenses were shattered and his skin was vaporized, with the damage spreading to his muscles next. All the injuries to him vanished as the God King''s Law that had invaded his body also disappeared, destroyed by the spatial storm. The expanding spatial storm retracted into his body as Tallo gazed at the floating figure of the God King, one that was unmoving. Only the bones remained behind, with a good half of them gone, so much so that he wondered if the God King was killed by mistake. But a moment later, Tallo sighed in relief. "Thankfully, a sliver of his lifeforce still remains. He''s not dead yet. I don''t want this fight to be over so soon." He then waited patiently, seeing that the God King''s body still remained unmoving, with the injuries exuberating as the remainder of his bones also began to crack. But suddenly, his jaw shattered as a mystical presence covered him, rapidly causing the cracks to heal as a layer of flesh formed. The God King opened his mouth immediately after his throat recovered, bellowing a primal rage at the top of his lungs. "Aarghhhhhhh!" "Gaaahhhhh!" The God King''s screams resounded, traveling with a terrifying energy fluctuation as it coursed through the spatial storm, sensed by the Gods in the Bolg Realm, for that was the closest realm. Everyone shuddered, recognizing the God King''s voice, sensing the desperate cry teeming within, a tone they would have never expected from the God King, King of the Gods, the pinnacle existence in the Greater Universe. Not once had he ever lost his cool like this, even during his days as an immortal that had been active in their rebellion against the Garg Realm, having witnessed the deaths of countless dear comrades. The shout resounded, echoing in the depths of their mind, rattling their souls as all the Gods kneeled to the ground instinctively, unable to bear the brunt of the emotion behind it. "This is¡­?" Tallo stared in amazement, touching the side of his head to see that it was moist, realizing that he had broken into a cold sweat, staring at the God King''s body that rapidly reformed, being molded into a stronger version as a terrifyingly thick beam of energy so vast that it penetrated through the spatial storm, slammed into him. And with that, the God King''s injuries recovered, causing him to slowly stare at Tallo as the mere action unleashed a terrifying energy fluctuation, sending Tallo back by dozens of meters in response. Finally, he had activated his Champion state. Chapter 1538 Arriving at the Envoy’s Law World Chapter 1538 Arriving at the Envoy¡¯s Law World "You''re¡­the God King''s daughter, right?" Krune stopped his attacks, asking as he held a Thundercloud Whale in his hands. "Yes¡­" Mon-Tu-Casha nodded, panting a little as her Godly Energy flow was somewhat disorganized due to all the attacks. All the injuries riddling her vanished as she glared at Krune. "You''re¡­ Krune, the Maggot God that killed my older brother." "I only needed the confirmation." Krune snorted in response before asking solemnly, "Your dad¡­ will he be sad upon your death?" "What will you do upon finding that?" Mon-Tu-Casha glared at her opponent, tensing up in response. "I guess I''ll find out after this," Krune said, his figure flickering towards her in an effort to kill her when suddenly, a terrifying power washed over the Sub-Realm, disintegrating it into nothing. "Keuk!" Mon-Tu-Casha had reacted in advance, already sensing the terrifying entity that was approaching them. "What the fuck?" She instantly clenched the piece of flesh in her hand, one that belonged to the envoy, seeping her power into it. Using that, she created a medium to enter the envoy''s Law World to instantly escape the brutal power. But right at this moment, followed by a bolt of lightning, Krune turned into a maggot and burrowed into her body in order to escape, being carried by her to the envoy''s Law World. "Get lost!" Mon-Tu-Casha screamed, riling up her power to send the maggot flying out of her body, riddling it with injuries. The maggot reverted back into Krune, whose injuries slowly healed as he crashed into the ground, getting up after a moment as he looked around in surprise. "Where is this place?" ''This bastard actually managed to latch onto me in that short window of an instant.'' Mon-Tu-Casha was shocked, now nervous about the fact that the secret of the Law World''s existence was revealed to him. ''No, I can kill him here,'' she thought to herself. ''And then, I''ll enter his Law World and ensure he would never revive.'' "This place is pretty mystical," Krune muttered, looking around when he saw a couple of maggots drilling out of what seemed to be the sky. They were familiar maggots under his control. "I see," Krune nodded after mulling over it for a bit. "So, this is that envoy''s Law. We''re inside it for some reason." He then gazed at Mon-Tu-Casha before continuing, "So, that''s how you cured the God King. It did feel strange that my power on him was destroyed pretty quickly. Is this what the power of the Keys entails when turned into the God Seat of a God?" Upon seeing that Mon-Tu-Casha didn''t reply, silently glaring at him, Krune let out a smirk. "It seems I''ve hit the nail right on its head. So, the Mong Realm had been experimenting on all the Keys that they had stolen." Boom! He was just about to fly towards Mon-Tu-Casha when he realized that he couldn''t fly anymore. Taking advantage of his momentary confusion, Mon-Tu-Casha reflected all the injuries that she had sustained until now onto him, riddling his body full of wounds. "Guh!" Krune grunted in pain, for the wounds hurt more than before. Even though his power was still the same, it was as if the foundation of the place itself was superior, the difference akin to what someone at the Godly Fusion Realm would experience in the Godly Path Realm and the God Realm. Even though they contained the same power, they weren''t that terrifying in this place. "Hmph! Die!" Mon-Tu-Casha bellowed as she sprinted through the place, slamming a punch into Krune, surprised to see him evade it easily. "I''ve fought with my body longer than you," Krune said, wielding the Thundercloud Whale like a knife that he plunged into the outstretched hand of Mon-Tu-Casha, injecting the Frozen Blood into her. The Frozen Blood stilled her movements, making her prone to his attacks as a layer of frost began to cover her hand. But an instant later, all her injuries vanished while their surroundings were covered by a layer of frost. And surprisingly, this layer of frost was effective even on Krune. "I see¡­" Krune muttered, gazing at the frost that had the envoy''s aura in it. "So, you''re converting all the abilities targeting into the law where you send it, using that to attack the caster itself." ''Damn it!'' Mon-Tu-Casha grunted in anger, wondering how Krune was able to see through her abilities with a single glance, alarmed at his sheer intelligence and experience. Indeed, that was how she fought. The Keys were originally created to create a doorway to enter and exit a Realm. And, the Mong Realm had used the Keys stolen from weaker Realms to open a doorway into stronger Realms, making their invasions easier this way. And now, with them turned into her God Seat, Mon-Tu-Casha was able to travel to the Greater Universe Law World casually, treating it as her home. And when inflicted with an injury, she first sent the attack to her Law World. As the bodies of the Gods were created using their representative Law, it meant that any attack on her would be shown in her Law World. Her power then transferred this attack onto the Law World of another Mong Realm God. During this transfer, the attack would gradually lose its power and be assimilated into the respective Law World. After all, this was the trait of the Law Worlds. Only things related to them can be in the Law Worlds. Anything external would be assimilated into it. So, Mon-Tu-Casha typically dispersed the attacks through various Law Worlds, instantly causing these Law Worlds to assimilate the attacks into them. She then transferred them back to her world, instantly assimilating the dispersed attacks into hers before bringing them back to reality, sending them onto their attackers. Within a certain range, she was somehow able to connect with their Law World, even though she couldn''t enter them without making physical contact properly. Though, she still used them to target her attacks at speeds beyond what they could react to. Unfortunately, her opponent was Krune, wielding the Tribulation Lightning Law, able to move at terrifying speeds. That''s how he managed to evade all her attacks until now. And now, he smiled, having grasped the situation at hand. "If I destroy this place, wouldn''t the Mong Realm lose this Law permanently?" Chapter 1539 The Special Law World Chapter 1539 The Special Law World Tribulation Lightning! Hunger Law! Lightning bolts arched out of Krune, digging into the ground to vaporize it as immediately after, hundreds of maggots appeared in the charred regions, drilling through the place as they rapidly expanded in numbers. "Shit!" Mon-Tu-Casha was alarmed as she unleashed her power, rapidly destroying all the maggots infesting her surroundings, clearing up the place as she noticed Krune''s figure vanished by a flicker. He no longer bothered about fighting her and instead planned to destroy this Law World first. He was aware that Mon-Tu-Casha wouldn''t dare leave him in this place, for that would mean danger to all the Law Worlds nearby the envoy''s, which were all from the Mong Realm. The Law Worlds from the same realm were placed next to one another. Therefore, if Krune escaped from this Law World, he might stumble into another Mong Realm God''s Law World. Considering the risks involved, Mon-Tu-Casha had to ensure that she brought Krune out of this place. Knowing this, Krune used his superior speed to vanish from her view, planting a couple of maggots in any places he stopped at. That was enough as the maggots would consume the law and propagate in large numbers. With that said and done, Krune''s figure eventually vanished as Mon-Tu-Casha was unable to find him anymore. Each Law World was pretty big, and in this location, Divine Sense was almost rendered useless, barely able to scout a hundred meters. Due to that, detecting Krune was hard as long as he used Mental Energy to cover himself. Only when his figure came within the range of her Mental Energy scan would she be able to detect him. Of course, he never planned to do that, constantly running around to plant maggots everywhere, allowing them to spread in all directions. After a while, Mon-Tu-Casha was unable to take action, for the maggots were everywhere. Krune had already infected the envoy from the start, so the Law World was already teeming with maggots. Mon-Tu-Casha hadn''t managed to kill them all while facing Krune. And now that he was also planning more maggots, the Law World soon was on the verge of collapse as holes began to appear throughout it. The maggots consumed them and increased their numbers, transforming into an army that devoured everything in its path. And best of all, they were the perfect place for Krune to hide in. After all, it was like finding a needle in a haystack. All the maggots were part of his Hunger Law. And with enough maggots, he could consolidate a large enough Hunger Law fragment. Plus, he could bring it back with him and dump it into the Kun Realm, allowing Turia to absorb it. This way, the quantity of the Hunger Law in the Kun Realm would experience an increase. Since he had the opportunity to do this and grow stronger faster, Krune would obviously do that, especially since his actions would also weaken the Mong Realm. Moreover, once he created a large enough army of maggots, facing Mon-Tu-Casha would be easier. Even though her abilities were tricky, she wasn''t strong enough yet. Only when she matured would she become more terrifying than the God King. Naturally, Krune had no plans to allow that, especially towards the Mong Realm that had been responsible for countless horrors that had been committed in the Kun Realm. Sterlena still reeled from the trauma of her being used as the node to slaughter the True Spirit race. Wally''s regrets had festered in him for being unable to protect the Wisp race and even the Kun Realm, the reason wisps were created in the first place. Countless people had lost their loved ones to the Abolition Tower, and the spark that resulted in many conflicts was actually thanks to the Mong Realm. The other realms like the Garg Realm had also played an active role in this, but the Mong Realm was one of the major players. And most of all, Hishe and Luvile were killed by the God King. That alone was enough for Krune to slaughter the entire Realm. He didn''t plan on stopping himself, no matter what happened. And hence¡­ Boom! "Noo!" Mon-Tu-Casha screamed in shock, watching a large fragment of the envoy''s Law World collapse as it crumbled into millions of maggots that crawled across the ground. And in the sky from where the fragment fell, an endless void was displayed. But, unlike the void filled with spatial storms as seen beyond the realms, this void was pretty tame as a gentle stream of energy circulated around, creating rivers across the void. There were streams of Godly Energy, Mental Energy, and even Body Energy, each separate, connecting various Law Worlds that littered the place. Each Law World was as big as a Satellite Realm, if not bigger, depending on the foundation of the respective God. Krune appeared near the hole, staring out as he observed the various Law Worlds belonging to the Mong Realm Gods. Strangely, he was calm, unfazed while staring at them. After all, wanton destruction wasn''t in his nature. Plus, this place was something that had been preserved since the beginning of time, containing the records of everything that happened in the Greater Universe. The fact that the Mong Realm planned to take advantage of such a precious place itself was wrong. But more than that, he didn''t wish to do the same. That would mean there would be no difference between him and the Mong Realm bastards. However, he also couldn''t just leave this place as is. That would be the epitome of foolishness. So, he had to do something that protected this place, preventing the Mong Realm from taking advantage of it. But just as he thought as such, his Tribulation Lightning Law blinked, informing him something as Krune''s eyes shot up, staring at a location far away, so far away that it was impossible to see it. But, he could feel it, for, in that direction, there existed a Law World, the only one of its kind, the only other existence apart from him to wield the power of Tribulation Lightning. The moment this thought resounded in his mind, Krune teared up as his figure flickered into a bolt of lightning, rapidly racing in the direction. "Luvile!" Chapter 1540 I Should Kill You First Chapter 1540 I Should Kill You First "Damn it! He''s escaping!" Mon-Tu-Casha despaired as she was aware of Krune''s speed, knowing very well that it was impossible for her to catch up to him when it came to speed. She was the only one with the means to enter and leave the Greater Universe Law World. So, even if Krune was trapped here forever, that was even more dangerous. After all, he could take his time infecting all the Law Worlds with his Hunger Law, crippling the Mong Realm eventually. And, as long as he escaped on time upon her arrival, he would be invincible. So, no matter what, she had to bring him out of this place. Thinking as such, she closed her eyes, focusing as she expanded her senses, causing her power of Keys to activate as all the Law Worlds under the Mong Realm blinked in her mind. Moreover, she was also able to sense all the maggots infesting the envoy''s Law World in this manner, unleashing a ripple that seeped into the Law World before arriving in the hands of the Mong Realm Spirit, who in turn amplified the power before sending it back. The beam of energy seeped into her body, instantly elevating her strength as a wave of energy rippled out of her body, spreading throughout the envoy''s Law World thanks to the Mong Realm Spirit''s amplification, annihilating all the maggots. Immediately after that, the Law World began to heal itself thanks to the Mong Realm''s Realm Ability. She then arrived at the crack that was healing rapidly, closing her eyes again as she predicted Krune''s path based on the direction he gazed upon while shedding tears. Her figure vanished, reappearing in the Mong Realm before vanishing once again after activating her power. This time, she appeared in the Law World of a Mong Realm God that was situated at the edge of the Law World cluster belonging to the Mong Realm. Boom! The moment she arrived, Mon-Tu-Casha condensed a rapid energy barrier, watching a bolt of lightning slam into it and arrive at a stop. "What the¡­?" Krune was shocked to see Mon-Tu-Casha before him. "How the hell did you get here so quickly?" "You''re by far the fastest God I''ve seen, but I can hop through countless worlds in an instant here," Mon-Tu-Casha said, condensing a mystical power in her hands as she slammed an attack into Krune. "I won''t allow you to leave here alive." "Move!" Krune shouted, able to feel Luvile''s Law World was getting closer. He hoped that by entering Luvile''s Law World, he could do something to revive him. After all, based on what Mon-Tu-Casha had revealed while they were fighting, it was apparent that she had some power that could revive the Gods. Otherwise, why would the Mong Realm spend so much to create her? Considering how their Realm Ability granted invincibility to the Gods for as long as the Mong Realm stood, it was only the next step in the process that they would try to revive their dead Gods as well. After all, even the Kun Realm had killed more than five Gods. And considering the invasive nature of the Mong Realm, a lot of their Gods should have died until now. So, Krune hoped to find a way to revive Luvile. If there was a way, he could capture Mon-Tu-Casha and extract all information from her. Moreover, if he manages to bring her back to the Kun Realm, Hazak and Gegrafikan could do something about her and, if possible, even extract her God Seat and convert it into the Kun Realm''s. After that, they only had to make a suitable immortal inherit it like they did for Solare. Once they obtained that power, they would indeed be able to revive Luvile, Hishe, and all other Kun Realm Gods that had died. But first, he wished to check Luvile''s Law World. After all, he was Krune''s best friend, someone that had lived in his soul for a good part of his initial journey, guiding him through everything. Luvile had a special place in his heart. And if needed, he was ready to sacrifice Little Krune just to revive Luvile. There was no room for hesitation in this. Of course, based on how he acted, losing his cool like this when until now, he was calm in the face of everything, Mon-Tu-Casha realized that Krune had probably detected Luvile''s Law World, ''Indeed, the Tribulation Lightning Law is one of a kind.'' She made a mental note of the direction Krune had been looking at before unleashing attacks nonstop onto Krune, having no plans of allowing him to reach Luvile''s Law World. Maybe he might find another way to revive Luvile. The possibility existed. After all, even Mon-Tu-Casha barely scratched the surface in her understanding of the Greater Universe Law World. So, she dared not take any chances, aware of the threat Luvile and Hishe posed. Both were one of, if not the most unique Gods in the Greater Universe. ''And, all their accumulations have been poured into Krune.'' She thought, understanding fully well of the monster those two Kun Realm Gods had raised Krune to be. ''And, he has indeed hidden himself fully well. If not for this encounter, no one would know that Krune can freely wield two Laws, with one of them being the Tribulation Lightning Law.'' Of course, in the short instant she had arrived at the Mong Realm, Mon-Tu-Casha had sent a Mental Energy pulse, informing the Mong Realm Spirit of what she had witnessed from Krune. This way, in any unforeseen circumstance, if Krune managed to kill her, at least the Mong Realm wouldn''t be caught unawares. After all, she truly didn''t have any guarantees of being able to kill him, for he was just too tricky. But the same could also be said for her as her body alone was as strong as the strongest of Gods, only inferior to the Champions that had activated their Champion State. And this was due to the fact that she was made from the Keys, possessing the innate stability on par with a realm. "You know¡­" Krune''s hatred-filled voice resounded in her mind, causing her to flinch as her back was covered by cold sweat. "I should kill you first." "I can meet Luvile after that." Chapter 1541 Triggering an Ancient Chapter 1541 Triggering an Ancient "You know¡­I should kill you first." Krune stated with a hatred-induced voice, calming himself as he gathered his bearings, controlling his Godly Energy circulation as he suppressed his volatile mental state. He then took out the Soul Needle, causing it to hover above his hand as it began to rotate in response, gradually facing Mon-Tu-Casha as he muttered, "Go." Swoosh! The Soul Needle vanished as the Thundercloud Whale appeared around it, with it stationed perfectly in its horn, flickering with a flash of lightning before slamming into Mon-Tu-Casha, piercing her shoulder. "Gah!" Suddenly, Mon-Tu-Casha let out a guttural sound as her Godly Energy went out of control, as if her meridians had been jammed. Even though a God didn''t have any meridians, for their entire body itself was created by a Law, there existed pathways for the transfer of energy that worked similar to meridians. And it was these pathways that ruptured now, causing the Godly Energy to explode like bombs after the pressure in them increased too much. Godly Technique¡ªGodly Inhibition! Her Godly Energy was wholly suppressed, sealed soon after as the Soul Needle continued to directly inject the power into her body, continuing to compress her Godly Energy while suppressed in an effort to detonate an even bigger explosion. Even though it wouldn''t kill her, it would destroy her body or at least wound it severely. And before she managed to reform herself, she would become a sound target for his Hunger Law to feast upon. But an instant later, her figure disappeared as suddenly, a beam of fire slammed into Krune. It was unleashed by a Law World nearby, harnessed by Mon-Tu-Casha that quickly healed herself, transferring all her damage to Krune while he was busy defending against the beam of fire. "Hmph!" Snorting in response, Krune grinned, ignoring the damage dealt to him as his hand clenched, activating his Hunger Law in full strength. Immediately, the beam of fire collapsed into a stream of maggots that swerved into his body, reinforcing him as all his injuries were automatically healed. Moreover, the energy within the beam of fire was converted into his reserve, replenishing the energy that he had consumed until now. "Tricky bastard!" Mon-Tu-Casha snorted, watching how Krune turned danger into an opportunity. "I could say the same about you," Krune said, snapping his finger as hundreds of Cloud Whales appeared behind him, each of them thirty meters in length, unleashing Lightning Needles on her in succession. "Gah!" Mon-Tu-Casha grunted in pain, unable to transfer all the attacks onto him on time due to their successive nature, landing hits right after she had begun the transfer each time. So, some attacks managed to get past that and deal her damage as the tribulation lightning began to vaporize part of her body, causing her power to plummet, albeit slightly. But at the same time, a mysterious spatial force slammed into Krune, impossible to guard against, as he was sent flying. "What the hell?" Krune was shocked, for he truly couldn''t detect this. His Calamity Laws had indeed warned him of the danger, but the danger just came from everywhere. And no matter where he went, it experienced no change. The spatial power directly locked onto him and targeted him. ''This is my mother''s power.'' Mon-Tu-Casha smirked, using her ability to draw out power from Dur-Te-Sara, commonly referred to as the God King''s Left Hand. Boom! A powerful stream of light landed on him next, also carried by the spatial power, wounding him further. Krune recovered quickly, converting the various Laws lacerated onto his body in the form of wounds into maggots, assimilating them into himself. Any attack using a Law that wasn''t strong enough to kill him would then be devoured into his own strength. This was the essence of the Hunger Law, to eat everything without any limits. Lighting Needle! The number of Thundercloud Whales increased in number as the attacks on Mon-Tu-Casha became more and more intense. And from time to time, the Soul Needle unleashed the effect of Godly Inhibition onto her, disrupting her attacks. In the meantime, Mon-Tu-Casha siphoned power from the various Law Worlds around her to attack Krune while also transferring most of the damage she sustained onto him, forcing him to focus on multiple areas, resulting in the damage he sustained becoming greater than hers. After all, when his maggots infested the Laws in the various attacks, her power destroyed them, preventing him from healing himself as quickly. Krune fell into a mild disadvantage, but he wasn''t concerned, still having enough reserve strength to rapidly change the tide of the situation. Boom! Boom! Boom! Their fights gradually grew more and more intense as their fluctuations began to flow towards various other Law Worlds, some of which were those whose Gods had died long ago. And, the moment these energy ripples slammed into the Law World of a dead God, something erupted, mysterious in nature. "Gah!" Immediately, both Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha screamed in pain, for a mysterious pair of hands had arrived at the place, clutching them both while possessing enough power to crush them into nothing. "As if I''ll die in this place!" Krune bellowed, erupting with the strongest of his power, causing the region to be filled with lightning bolts that had enough power to ravage everything. At the same time, Mon-Tu-Casha also erupted with all her power, causing a mysterious white radiance to fill the place as both their attacks clashed with each other, reacting in mysterious ways as they began to distort the pair of hands holding them. The space itself turned distorted in the region for a moment as immediately after, the pair of hands relaxed, clenching and relaxing in confusion, for the two captured entities had vanished. "Strange¡­" An ancient voice resounded as a gigantic figure, tens of thousands of times bigger than the Law Worlds appeared, possessing millions of hands. It slowly stared at the two empty hands, muttering in surprise, "It seems Zule had indeed been onto something." It then vanished while staring at the two hands, noticing that the skin on one had been peeled off while the skin on the other had been charred black. "Interesting." Chapter 1542 Graveyard of Gods Chapter 1542 Graveyard of Gods "Yo bro, you okay?" A gentle voice resounded, filled with concern as Krune could feel a mysterious energy seeping into him, gradually healing him. Hiss! Krune winced in pain as he didn''t even know what had happened, unable to see anything for the extent of injury plaguing him was just too strong, beyond what he could recover from. He tried to use his Hunger Law to eat through the damage but noticed that the quality of the law plaguing him was too strong for his maggots to eat or digest. "Relax, I''ve healed countless Gods in the past. Your injuries aren''t the worst that I''ve treated." The gentle voice stated, and with authority this time, forcing Krune to obey beyond his wishes. ''She''s strong!'' Krune was shocked at the level of strength displayed by the other party, unable to understand just how this was possible. A casual touch from her contained enough power to obliterate him. Though, she was gently controlling that power to ease up his wounds while patching him up gradually, neutralizing the various Laws on his body and shockingly turning it into the Hunger Law itself. "Tribulation Lightning Law, huh," she muttered, continuing to treat him as Krune noticed his vision gradually returning to him. He opened his eyes, staring at the figure of a lady that seemed old at first glance but suddenly resembled a lady in her prime. Her emerald eyes contained a mystical power capable of sucking in the souls of everyone as her olive hair was tied up into a bun. She was in her human form, judging by her terrifying demon beast aura. Sported on her face was a smile, her lips curling up further as she said, "Of course, I''m strong." "I''m stronger than anyone you would''ve ever met," she said casually, patting him as she propped him to a sitting position, hitting his back lightly. "Go on, I''ve patched you up fully." "What''s¡­ this place?" Krune was shocked to see that he was in what seemed to be a stone house. There was hardly anything of not nothing in the house, just walls and large holes in the place of windows. There wasn''t even any decoration or anything to the place, just large rocks carved into a place to take shelter within. "Old habits die hard¡­" she muttered after noticing that he was observing the house. "I had been living in a house for so long that I had to make one even after coming here. But as you can see, after so many years, I lost interest in such a thing as well. Now, it just exists for namesake." "You!" Suddenly, he gritted his teeth, noticing Mon-Tu-Casha seated on a bed nearby, sipping on what seemed to be orange juice. Upon seeing him, even though she expressed hatred, she seemed afraid to even move, displaying her anger and urge to take action by biting her straw harder. "Now, don''t make a mess here. I don''t like loud noises," the lady with olive hair said casually, gently tapping Krune''s shoulder. "Keuk!" It was as if the weight of an entire realm was placed on his shoulder as Krune wasn''t even able to move. ''Strong! Too strong!'' ''She''s many times stronger than the God King!'' Krune almost lost his mind at the revelation, unable to digest this fact. Even the God King''s strength was terrifying beyond common sense. But the lady before him was something else entirely. "Well¡­ it''s embarrassing if you were to compare our strengths directly like that." The lady with olive hair smiled wryly. "I don''t wish to be compared to a budding junior." ''She can read my thoughts?'' Krune looked at her in shock, only now realizing that she had been replying to his thoughts all along. "Well yeah, your thoughts are so loud that you might as well shout them in my ears." The lady with the olive hair sighed, massaging her eyebrows before saying, "Now that you''re here, just let go of your past and live the rest of your infinite lives in futility." "Wait? What does that mean?" Krune asked in a hurry. "Where is this place? And what are you?" "Senior, how come you''re stronger than my dad?" Mon-Tu-Casha also voiced her disbelief. She had only been awake for a couple of minutes more than Krune. So, she was also as confused as him. After all, the lady before them had enough power to casually destroy their realm. It was incredibly terrifying. But more than that was the variety of techniques she had displayed. They were incomprehensible to both of them, despite them staring at the same all along. Honestly, it could be said that Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha were one of the most talented individuals in the Greater Universe. But, they couldn''t even understand anything of what the lady with the olive hair had done casually. It wasn''t just that. Krune noticed that the bed he was seated upon seemed like an indestructible object. What was even more absurd was the blanket covering him. He touched in disbelief, for this thin fabric was many times stronger than the Kun Realm''s Spatial Storm Barrier. Absurdity was an understatement to this place, for nothing made sense. "How¡­ just what¡­ why¡­?" Krune was unable to articulate his thoughts, overwhelmed by everything he observed. The lady with the olive hair only smiled in response, stating casually, "You shouldn''t judge things here with the scope of the Greater Universe." "What¡­ do you mean by that?" Krune asked, feeling that with the passing of every second, things were getting more and more absurd here. "The absurdity you''re perceiving here stems from the fact that everything here is indestructible, and that includes you, me, the blanket on you, and even the air we breathe here." The lady with the olive hair smiled, continuing, "Everything here is indestructible. So, it gives you the sensation of them being many times stronger than what they actually are." "Senior¡­" Krune cupped his fists in exhaustion. "I can''t take it anymore. Please tell me. What the hell is this place?" "Oh, didn''t I mention it before?" The lady with the olive hair raised an eye at him before laughing casually, noticing that Mon-Tu-Casha, too, was the same. "Silly fools." "This is the Graveyard of Gods." Chapter 1543 My Daughter Will Handle the Rest Chapter 1543 My Daughter Will Handle the Rest Boom! A dense stream of energy was unleashed from the Mong Realm in the form of a beam, landing on the God King that had activated his Champion State. Immediately after, his representative Law became stronger, greedily consuming the almost infinite energy source thirstily, burning up everything as his strength continued to climb up at alarming rates. The Power Storm Law was the number one in terms of energy consumption per activation, with the difference between it and the Tribulation Lightning Law in second place being heaven and earth. A couple of seconds of usage consumed as much as a Satellite Realm''s entire worth of energy reserve. So, even for the God King, despite his vast Godly Energy reserves, he couldn''t use his representative Law for more than a few minutes. And even then, he couldn''t go all out and truly unleash his power to the limit. He would burn through his energy reserves even faster. However, things were different once he activated his Champion state. With the endless energy sent by the Mong Realm, he could indeed use his power unsparingly. His power was one that was perfect for a Champion, the reason he had been uncontested as the God King for so long. Now that he had activated his Champion state, he was brimming with strength that was high enough for Tallo to become worried. "You''re indeed damn strong." Tallo smirked, sighing as he said, "It seems I cannot fight you in my human form any longer. It''s too weak to face you as the opponent." Saying so, Tallo resumed his Primordial Beast form, turning into the legendary Taotie, one called the devourer of realms in the records of Primordial Beasts. This was the information sent to the God King by Tallo himself. And now, the two entities stared at each other, gradually condensing power in themselves before their figures flickered, crashing into each other, resulting in a terrifying spatial storm as the body of Tallo mildly caved in from the impact. The spatial storm spilled out of his nostrils, ejected out as a result of the impact. But in response, the Taotie''s claws swiped forth, severing the God King''s left arm, causing him to grunt, for it wasn''t regenerating. "What? Did you think your Realm Ability is enough to survive?" Tallo snorted derisively. "A Realm Ability is only at the peak of the God Realm. On the other hand, we Primordial Beasts are beyond that. We Taotie can devour anything." "Just consider that any injury you sustain from this form of mine is permanent. If you were to lose your life, you''d die. And your Law would simply vanish from the Mong Realm." "That makes sense." The God King nodded, watching his severed left arm vanish mysteriously. He became aware that from now on, he had lost it permanently. ''So, this is the price to face a Primordial Beast.'' Honestly, he didn''t wish to fight Tallo upon coming to know this fact. After all, him becoming injured was a loss to the Mong Realm''s strength. But, a mere glance at Tallo was enough for him to know that if he didn''t kill him here, then Tallo would exact revenge on his Mong Realm. If he were to fight at that time, the losses would be disastrous. Moreover, what if Tallo only arrived there after making a full recovery? In contrast, the God King wouldn''t be able to recover from the injuries sustained in his battle against Tallo. So if that were to happen, he wouldn''t be able to fight Tallo in his injured state and would only be killed, resulting in his Mong Realm sharing the same fate. Therefore, he had to kill Tallo right now, no matter what. Honestly, this was how fate screwed someone over. Tallo had originally planned to fight Krune and then head over to the Kun Realm to snack upon some of the Gods there. But when he approached the Sub-Realm where Krune was torturing the Mong Realm envoy, he chanced upon the God King that had been stationed there as a form of protection for his daughter that had entered the Sub-Realm to fight Krune. If he hadn''t been there, then Tallo would have targeted Krune, ridding him of a troublesome enemy. But now, he had become Krune''s guard, having to fight Krune''s opponent while risking his life. ''It seems this is where the God King meets his end.'' He sighed, already predicting the sequence of events that would transpire next, informing the Mong Realm Spirit, "Dispatch the Satellite Realm Rapid Transport. Put four hundred Gods in it and also make arrangements for it to store and transport the Taotie''s corpse. This will be my final contribution to our home." "No! Don''t do it!" The Mong Realm Spirit screamed mournfully. "The Mong Realm still needs you!" "Unfortunately, we hadn''t accounted for the presence of a creature like the Primordial Beast." The God King''s voice resounded, followed by a sigh. "If I don''t kill Tallo here, our realm is doomed. The Primordial Beast Race of Taotie are infamous as realm devourers. But, don''t worry, I''ll kill him." "And when I do, ensure that his corpse is transported to our realm safely." He said, sending all the information related to Primordial Beasts that he got from Tallo to the Mong Realm Spirit. "When you devour his corpse, our realm''s problem with age would vanish." "And thankfully, I''ve already prepared Mon-Tu-Casha," he said, smiling while speaking, while in reality, he was exchanging a flurry of attacks with Tallo, dealing more injuries than he sustained. "With her powers, she''ll become a stronger Champion than me and become the most terrifying God King that this Greater Universe has ever witnessed." "No, Krune''s equally dangerous!" The Mong Realm Spirit was finally unable to hold back, shouting in response, "It seems Hishe perfected his power. Krune now wields two laws, and one of them is Luvile''s Tribulation Lightning." "I see," The God King said, cutting off communication with the Mong Realm Spirit. "I''ve trained my daughter well. She''ll know what to do." With that, his body began to vaporize little by little as his Law began to consume itself, burning with greater power as the God King bellowed with a maniacal roar and charged into Tallo, smacking the other party nonstop. Chapter 1544 Are You Sure? Chapter 1544 Are You Sure? Boom! Krraghh! Gutom! A flurry of attacks was exchanged between the two parties as the figure of the God King gradually expanded in size as he was consuming more and more Godly Energy supplied by the Mong Realm Spirit. And by burning through them all, his power continued to increase. In response, Tallo''s Taotie form was sucking in the spatial storm from the surroundings, using it to defend himself as much as possible. After all, as they fought, Tallo was gradually being overwhelmed by the God King, shocking him tremendously as he stared at the bleeding figure before him, one that wasn''t even a Primordial Beast but a mere God. ''He''s more terrifying than I had thought. To think such a God could exist, who would have thought.'' ''Hah!'' Tallo sighed after that, thinking to himself, ''It seems I''ll become the first Primordial Beast in history to be killed by something that''s not a Primordial Beast.'' Tallo was aware that his death was assured in this fight, noticing how the God King''s power continued to climb higher and higher. The God King had already lost all limbs, and among his ten heads, seven had been destroyed already. He was teetering on the edge of death already, but without any hesitation, he continued to unleash stronger attacks, tearing up the body of Tallo before grinding them into dust. "Hahaha! Interesting! Interesting!" Tallo roared in laughter, unafraid in the least. "When Zule proclaimed that the Gods would catch up to us in terms of strength, none believed him. But I can see that he''s been right all along." "You, the God King!" Tallo exclaimed. "I proclaim you, in the over eighty Greater Universe Cycles, no God has ever attained your heights. You!" "Are the strongest!" He proclaimed as the entirety of his left was vaporized by the God King. "Haah¡­ hah¡­ gah!" The God King gasped in exhaustion as, by now, his injuries had exuberated to dangerous levels. He wasn''t even able to control his Godly Energy anymore as most of the energy supplied by the Mong Realm simply leaked out of his body. His mind was weak while his soul had almost dissipated. His body was in tatters, in a condition that would never recover. Currently, the God King had already become a cripple. The moment he deactivated his Champion state was when he would lose his life. And honestly, he was already overstraining his power, having remained in his Champion state for durations beyond his peak already. "I''ll¡­ conclude this," the God King said, grunting as his three heads created a blanket of Mental Energy, one that resembled a funnel that sucked in all the Godly Energy escaping out of his body, spinning it as a large fragment of his representative Law exited his body and seeped into the forming twister. He was aware that after this point, his Law, the Power Storm Law, would disappear permanently, all records of it erased from the Mong Realm. This was because of the power the Taotie possessed, capable of devouring everything. And from the start, Tallo was devouring his law, having already extracted his God Seat from the Mong Realm. The Mong Realm lost a tremendous volume of its foundation, or rather its strongest foundation to date. And aware of its destruction following this fight, the God King didn''t hold back, combusting his Law itself. A large fragment broke off from his God Seat and fused into the power storm that he condensed, glaring at Tallo as he said, "You''ll die here. And that''s a guarantee." "Hahaha! You''re an interesting God. I''ll give you that." Tallo laughed, turning excited upon seeing the sheer power condensed within the attack. "But too bad, there are no other Gods that would ever reach your level in the future." "You sure about that?" The God King smirked all of a sudden as the power storm blasted out into a terrifying twister, piledriving into Tallo''s body, wrecking it apart entirely, shredding him into pieces. "What the¡­? What is happening?" Heavin expressed his shock upon arriving at the scene, carried by Zule, as he observed the sheer volume of energy condensed in the God King''s attack. "This¡­ is from a mere God?" Even Zule was unable to believe it, staring at the level of power capable of destroying dozens of Satellite Realms in a matter of seconds, leaving behind nothing. The power was so strong that even the spatial storm was annihilated in response, drowning Tallo in it as the gigantic Taotie body was being rapidly destroyed. Even though Zule had advocated the strength of the Gods that was growing in recent times, even he hadn''t fathomed the sheer extent of power the God King had reached. "So, this is the King of the Gods," Zule spoke with a solemn tone, flicking his hand as he recorded everything, watching the God King''s God Seat continue to crumble down as the energy storm became stronger and stronger, killing Tallo in the end as his massive head was vaporized. "Heavin¡­" Zule spoke all of a sudden, waking Heavin from his reverie, handing him a sphere of Mental Energy. "Broadcast it on the Soul Trading Hub. Everyone must know about this." "B-But, this would raise the Mong Realm''s publicity¡­" Heavin refuted before shuddering in response upon being glared at by Zule. "This is a historical feat, the first time a Primordial Beast has been killed by a God. Put it there," Zule stated with an overbearing tone. ''Is Zule not on the side of the Kun Realm?'' Heavin frowned, understanding that even though Zule favored the Kun Realm, in the end, he was a Primordial Beast, focusing on what was happening among the Primordial Beasts more. Therefore, he couldn''t be counted on to take action against any other realm, for a Kun Peng never destroyed realms. It was in their nature to create realms in the first place. ''I at least hope Krune can obtain some benefit from Zule. He''s the closest to Zule.'' Sighing in disappointment, Heavin broadcasted the contents recorded by Zule onto the Soul Trading Hub, instantly causing the place to turn chaotic as news spread like lightning through all the Gods in the Greater Universe as everyone began to pop in large numbers. And they stared, rooted to the spot, stupefied at the peak strength unleashed by the God King and his¡­ death. Chapter 1545 Stand Off Chapter 1545 Stand Off "T-This bastard¡­!" The Garg Realm Champion stared at the scene, tearing up for some reason as his emotions were complex. There was rage, indignation, humiliation, and a sense of loss. After all, the sky that they had all been aiming for was no more. Or rather, the existence of Primordial Beasts became public, making them aware that even the God King could only barely kill a Primordial Beast. But soon after, a God exclaimed, "The God King is on the verge of death, but he hadn''t died yet. Besides, the corpse of the Primordial Beast Taotie is still there¡­" Immediately after, the sheer shock they felt at the God King''s strength vanished as greed began to fill up their minds. Only the Garg Realm Champion was still reeling from the effects. After all, he had fought the God King the most, thinking that he had grasped the depth of the other party''s strength. "But, when you put your life on the line, this is the level of strength that you can exhibit." The Garg Realm Champion closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath as he slowly bowed. "You''re strong, too strong that I can never hope to reach your height." His eyes then spilled out killing intent. "But now that you''re on the verge of death, as the current strongest God, I''ll give you an honorable death." "I won''t allow anyone else to lay their hand on you." Saying so, he exited the Soul Trading Hub, entering a Satellite Realm with two hundred Gods as the Garg Realm Spirit activated their Realm Ability, causing the Satellite Realm to blaze through the Greater Universe at terrifying speeds, rapidly approaching the place. They didn''t hold back on any expense, burning through their stored reserves. They had reserves in excess these days due to the tax they were getting and hence, could afford to splurge. The Garg Realm Spirit increased their Realm Ability to the limit, causing the Satellite Realm to rapidly approach the location where the God King was. Heavin flowed like a specter, intending to sneak up on the God King, when suddenly, Zule grabbed hold of him, pulling him back. "What are you doing?" "What else? I''m dealing him the finishing blow!" Heavin said. "What''s the nature of the Soul Trading Hub?" Zule asked all of a sudden. "It''s a place to transact for the Gods in the various realms," Heavin replied subconsciously. "Then, shouldn''t you be impartial?" Zule raised an eyebrow in response. "No, that was just to get an advantage for the Kun Realm¡­" Heavin said in a hurry, sensing a tinge of fear budding in his heart. "I''m not talking about that. The tax imposed on the Soul Trading Hub and its creation is the Kun Realm''s brilliance." Zule said before staring at Heavin. "But, as the source of the Soul Trading Hub, what do you think would happen when you kill the God King now?" "The Kun Realm would be saved from a terrifying opponent!" Heavin said. "Sure, there''s that. However, you''re not the one who should be doing that." Zule said in response. "Your power will allow the realms to develop the fastest. But once you take a life in this state, the Soul Trading Hub itself would become polluted. Such is the nature of your unique power." "The moment you kill someone, your soul would become tainted, which would diminish the Soul Trading Hub''s value. Moreover, the killing intent and memories of the God King''s death would also seep into everyone that connect to the Soul Trading Hub." Zule iterated gradually. "Wait, why would that happen?" Heavin retorted. "It''s my power. Only I know how it works." "You don''t. Your power has already surpassed the Greater Universe," Zule stated in all seriousness. "You are already treading onto uncharted territory." Suddenly, a mysterious power grabbed hold of Heavin, constricting him as Zule''s cold voice resounded. "If you continue to grow at this rate, you might cause problems for the Greater Universe. So, in order for the foundational laws of the Greater Universe to catch up to you and assimilate your power into it¡­" "You need to be sealed for some time," Zule said, causing Heavin''s body to vanish. "Stop! No! I came to request your help! Why are you doing this?" Heavin shouted in alarm, screaming in the end as he saw his body vanishing gradually from the feet up. "I''m from the Kun Realm! The realm you created!" "I know, Heavin," Zule replied. "You might not understand it, but this is for the stability of the Greater Universe. The current you is dangerous." "Because whatever you do becomes the norm of Soul Cultivation after this," Zule said solemnly, watching Heavin''s expression freeze up. Nodding in response, Zule continued, "If you were to take a life now, that becomes the norm for all Soul Cultivators. Maybe even newborn souls would inherit this killing intent. There are many other factors that you might affect in Soul Cultivation itself." "After all, you not only took the lead in Soul Cultivation but surpassed it. And at present, Soul Cultivation itself is following your footsteps." Zule sighed, watching Heavin''s figure vanish. He sent Heavin into the core of the Soul Trading Hub, sealing him there for all eternity. Only after the Soul Cultivation path surpassed Heavin would the seal come undone. Until then, Heavin would be trapped there for all eternity, a horrible fate for anyone to endure. After he sealed up Heavin in the Soul Trading Hub, Zule watched a couple of Primordial Beasts arrive, all concealed in their human forms, undetectable to any God that might arrive. Staring at them, he spoke, "I believe I have proved myself." He then glared at the figure of the Kun Peng Chief that had arrived. "I believe you should keep up your end of the deal." "Are you sure?" Suddenly, the Kun Peng Chief smirked as, one after another, the various Primordial Beast Chiefs appeared, surrounding Zule. "The deal was in the case you were being wholly truthful." "But why do I sense the aura of the Spirit Aberrant in your Kun Realm now? It has been growing pretty quickly these days." Chapter 1546 Law: Wager Chapter 1546 Law: Wager "Do you mean us?" Suddenly, the Rune Realm condensed a portal as Garguntil walked out of it, arriving beside Zule as he said, "I am what you call the Spirit Aberrant." "This aura!" The Kun Peng Chief became serious for a moment before his gaze turned incredulous, bursting into laughter upon sensing Garguntil. "This is a Spirit Aberrant? Hahaha!" "You mean this?" The Kun Peng Chief¡ªin his human form¡ªrolled around, slapping away a couple of spatial storms as he laughed nonstop. "This?" The other Primordial Beast Chiefs were also the same, unable to hold back their laughter. After a while, the Kun Peng Chief noticed that he had lost his demeanor, coughing as he propped himself up and was just about to speak when he looked at Garguntil, bursting into laughter. "He called himself a Spirit Aberrant!" "How the hell is this egg a Spirit Aberrant? No, it''s not even an egg. It''s merely a chopped omelet." The Vermillion Bird Chief clutched his head, barely managing to control his laughter as he spoke. "But still¡­ a Spirit Aberrant¡­ he said¡­" "Hahaha!" "You!" Garguntil''s face reddened in anger as he wished to attack them, but Zule stopped them, warning him, "They are the Primordial Beast Chiefs. A single fart from them can destroy the Kun Realm. So, control your anger." "Yes¡­!" Garguntil nodded, clenching his hand into a fist, indignant. Upon staring at Garguntil, the Kun Peng Chief gradually began to speak, sensing the dense stream of the Primordial Beast aura of the Spirit Aberrant on Garguntil, but the essence of their race was missing. It was like staring at egg shells while the egg yolk had gone missing. "How many of you are there in the Kun Realm?" The Kun Peng Chief stared at Garguntil, asking. "A Satellite Realm''s worth." Garguntil snorted in response. "Well¡­ it doesn''t matter then." The Kun Peng Chief said, yawning as he turned around. "So, this is where the Spirit Aberrant aura was coming from." He then gazed at Garguntil calmly and said, "Call yourself Inferior Aberrants from now onwards. You''re not fit to bear the name of the Spirit Aberrant." Garguntil wished to retort, but even though the Kun Peng Chief didn''t even exert any strength, the mental suffocation he emanated made Garguntil unable to even breathe. Not even an instant later, all the Godly Energy, Mental Energy, and Body Energy in his body escaped in a flurry as he lost consciousness. "Are you seriously intimidating a mere God?" Zule snorted in response, glaring at the Kun Peng Chief, shouting, "Also, don''t go back on your word." "Don''t be in a hurry, Zule." The Kun Peng Chief''s figure vanished as he replied, "The test has yet to begin. Tallo''s actions are unrelated to our deal. Each Primordial Beast race will send one Primordial Beast from the Younger Generation." His laughter echoed in the place as he continued, "If all eight of them are killed, then you''ve won. I''ll allow you to devour me." "But if even one of those eight survives, then it means I''ve won. And I''ll devour your Kun Realm and all the other realms and reset the Greater Universe''s cycle once again." "Bastard!" Zule cursed in response, watching the smiles full of ridicule flashed by each of the eight Primordial Beast Chiefs as they began to vanish one after another. They treated the God King''s efforts as meaningless. Having fought Tallo, the God King was on the verge of death. A tinge of the spatial storms was enough to kill him now. The strongest God was no more. This meant that the remaining Gods wouldn''t be able to face the eight Primordial Beasts that would appear next to face the Gods. It was a cunning scheme by the Chiefs as Zule gritted his teeth, transmitting his voice to their departing figures, "Even with that much strength, it seems the eight Chiefs are mere cowards. I''m sure you''ll go back on your words once again. You''ve already done it once. What else other¡­" Boom! Suddenly, a suffocating presence enveloped Zule, causing him to gasp for breath. It was a pinpoint suppression, done with such precision that even Garguntil, that was hovering next to Zule, was unaffected. "As the Kun Peng Chief, I declare my words as the law!" "As the Tiangou Chief, I declare my words as the law!" "As the Qilin Chief, I declare my words as the law!" "As the Four Direction Chiefs, we declare our words as the law!" There was a pause, following which a smug voice, one with the tone where it could devour everything resounded, causing Zule to tremble in response. "As the Taotie Chief, I declare my word as the law!" Boom! Immediately, eight laws formed in the Greater Universe, manifested by the Chiefs that enacted what they had promised just now. This meant that if the Gods were to win, Zule would be able to devour the Kun Peng Chief. But if they were defeated, the Kun Peng Chief would destroy all realms and rebuild everything from scratch once again. This became a rule that was inscribed into the Greater Universe, for it was accepted by all the eight Primordial Beast Chiefs, the rulers of the Greater Universe. As all eight accepted it, the bet between Zule and the Kun Peng Chief became a law itself. This was the sheer might of the Primordial Beast Chiefs, the creators and rulers of the Greater Universe. Their word was the law! Once they said their piece, all eight chiefs vanished as Zule was finally able to gasp for air, panting in response. Standing nearby, Garguntil shuddered, pale-faced as he stared at Zule with an expression of being betrayed. "I acted as you had told. But what is this?" "What''s with this bet? The lives of everyone are at stake! Why the fuck did you wager something like this?" Garguntil screamed by the end. "What does it matter now?" Zule stood up, staring at Garguntil coldly. "The law has already been created. It''s a do-or-die situation for all you Realm Dwellers. If you fail to win the fight, you''re annihilated." "Zule¡­" Turia exited the portal created by the Rune Realm, staring at Zule in disappointment. "Please don''t tell me you did this." "Did you really wager the fate of the entire Greater Universe just to fuel your revenge?" Her face trembled in uncontrollable rage, disbelief, and unbelievable disappointment. In contrast to her billowing emotions, Zule was calm, stating a single word¡­ "Yes." Chapter 1547: Meeting Luvile Again Chapter 1547: Meeting Luvile Again "Let''s ally until we leave this place." Hearing Krune''s words, Mon-Tu-Casha noticed Krune''s face twist violently in response, understanding how he was enduring all humiliation to say this, prioritizing the safety of his realm over his personal emotions. Then again, she wasn''t any different, as her face twisted up violently as well, controlling her urge to shred apart the other party as she replied, "Only until we leave this place." "Don''t worry, I''ll kill you immediately after that," Krune said. "Yeah, only in your dreams." Mon-Tu-Casha retorted. Zoitan-Kutang didn''t comment on their relationship, aware of how high tensions were between the various realms. ''Only after we arrived here did they vanish.'' She sighed. When a God arrived at the Graveyard of Gods and noticed an enemy, they fought violently, unleashing all their hatred. The battles would rage on for decades before both sides would become exhausted. After all, death wasn''t possible here. How could someone already dead die again? And over time, things would stabilize as all the dead Gods just sat and did nothing for all eternity. Only when a new God appeared here would some excitement happen as news from the outside would reach them. But after that, things would become stale once again. It could even be said that the Gods here hoped for more Gods to die in the Greater Universe just so that they could be entertained more. And, there was indeed some excitement in recent times as the God King personally killed dozens of Gods, followed by the Garg Realm Champion and others. Bang! Suddenly, a figure slammed open the door, shouting in a hurry, "I heard someone from the Kun Realm died and arrived here!" The man then gazed into the room, ignoring the figure of Zoitan-Kutang, looking at the other two individuals seated on their respective berths, his gaze falling onto Krune before his expression morphed into absolute despair, "Why¡­ Krune¡­ why?" "Why are you here?" "No, how is it possible?" "Impossible! You''re not Krune!" "You should have been alive!" "Alive!" "No, this is a dream. Yeah, it''s just a nightmare!" The man collapsed to the ground, uttering like a broken record as suddenly, intense lightning bolts exploded out of his body, damaging the surroundings as everyone took a step back, including Zoitan-Kutang, who frowned, watching the sparks actually injure her skin. ''As expected of the first God of Tribulations!'' She thought, observing silently as the other party that was mentally collapsing. "Luvile!" Krune shouted as he jumped into the exploding lightning bolts, uninjured as he embraced the other party, breaking into tears. "I missed youuuu!" "Damn Krune! I never wanted to meet you!" Luvile grunted in pain, gently touching Krune''s back as his tears streamed out faster. "Why did you have to die? Why? Why? Why?" "I''m not dead yet!" Krune said in a hurry, consoling Luvile as he hurriedly exhibited his life aura. "See? I''m not dead. I just stumbled into this place while fighting, that''s all." "You''re¡­ not dead yet?" Luvile''s screams stopped as his lightning was retracted. He stared at Krune, sensing the dense life aura in Krune''s body, only now sensing the terrifying level of strength Krune had attained, his expression instantly morphing into one of pride and arrogance. "Of course! You can''t die!" "I was just testing you, haha!" Luvile instantly behaved like he hadn''t lost his cool just now, slapping Krune''s back as he grinned. "How was my acting? Damn realistic, right? I''ve been practicing it to curb my boredom for all these years." "I now understand that one can become an expert in any field as long as you spend a hundred thousand years into it," he muttered. "It''s good to see you again, Luvile." Krune let out a chirpy smile, saying after a while, "Even though we''ve just met, time is running out. I have to return to the Greater Universe quickly." "I know what''s up." Luvile nodded, sighing as he said, "At first, I couldn''t even believe it to be the case. But after seeing the seven generations of God Kings here and hearing the recounts from countless Gods spread through multiple generations, I realized what was up." "But, fret not, Krune," Luvile said suddenly. "There''s one thing that''s different between our generation and all the predecessors." "And that''s Zule." "Zule?" Krune raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Yeah." Luvile nodded. "Only in our generation did a clan of Primordial Beasts ever get slaughtered. Plus, they were used as fuel to build our Kun Realm. This was Zule''s Clan, his family, his everything." "He''s definitely aware of the secrets that the Primordial Beast Chiefs had been hiding all this time. And he''ll definitely exact revenge upon them." Luvile stated in confidence. "For that, he had been making preparations all this while." "Gegrafikan, Tina, Hishe, me, Heavin, Hazak, and many others. Zule had planted a lot of secrets in our realm just so that we''ll one day be able to go against the Primordial Beasts in whatever scheme he had hatched to prevent our generation from getting wiped out," Luvile spoke. ''So, this is what I was sensing all along.'' Krune nodded. ''So, Hazak''s evolution into a Primordial Beast should have some relation to Zule. Maybe I was the key to sparking this evolution.'' Thinking as such, Krune then asked, "Luvile, do you know of a way to escape this place?" "There is definitely a way, but it''s impossible for dead Gods to even near that place. But..." Luvile grinned, patting Krune''s shoulder as he said, "Yo u should be able to make it through there." "But first, we must train you." "Train me?" Krune was surprised. "Of course," Luvile said. "Remember that one year outside is ten thousand years here. This means that you can take advantage of this fact to train and grow stronger by a lot." "Besides." Luvile flexed his strength, shocking Krune. "The Laws here are by far the deepest. So, you can grow a lot faster here than outside." "Take advantage of this to become as strong as the God King before you leave this place." Luvile grinned cunningly. "That way, our Kun Realm will survive all odds." Chapter 1548: Bipolar Greater Universe Chapter 1548: Bipolar Greater Universe "Just a heads up," Zoitan-Kutang interjected, gazing at Luvile as she said, "I won''t be training Krune." "But, isn''t it fun?" Luvile said in response, urging the other party. "You''ll have plenty of fun training Krune. I can guarantee that." "I''m a relic of the past, Luvile." Zoitan-Kutang shook her head, telling him, "So, it won''t be fair to Mon-Tu-Casha if I were to train Krune." "Mon-Tu-Casha?" Only now did Luvile notice the lady on a nearby bed, one that had been listening to their conversation all along, getting a better understanding of the Kun Realm''s secrets. "Who''s she?" Luvile asked, gazing at Krune while pointing at her. "She''s the spawn of the bastard," Krune replied. "Which bastard?" Luvile tilted his head in confusion. "The Mong Realm bastard," Krune replied. "The Mong Realm has hundreds of bastards. Which one are you talking about?" "The granddaddy of bastards," Krune said in all seriousness. "Ahh, the God King bastard." Luvile nodded in realization. "That makes sense now." He then whispered to Krune, "Make sure you kill her. I can sense that she''s damn dangerous. She might become our worst opponent if she grows any further." "Yeah, that''s what I was trying to do before. But our fight was what brought us here," Krune replied. "A Primordial Beast suddenly attacked us as we fought in a place with a lot of Law Worlds. When we tried to escape its grasp, we arrived here." "Fuck you!" Mon-Tu-Casha bellowed in anger. "Don''t you maggot freaks dare insult my dad." "We weren''t insulting him, though. Don''t misunderstand us." Luvile retorted instantly, sporting a serious tone. "We were just stating the facts." "Yeah, the God King being the granddaddy of bastards is a fact." Krune nodded in all seriousness. "Maggot bastard!" Mon-Tu-Casha roared as she pounced upon Krune, unleashing a hail of attacks when suddenly, a barrier formed around the attacks, annihilating them instantly. Zoitan-Kutang snorted in anger. "Don''t fight here. Take it outside." "Come out if you dare." Mon-Tu-Casha snorted as she kicked open the door, or at least, that was what she tried, embarrassed to see the door only opening partway. Things at the Graveyard of Gods were on a whole other level. So, even her kick that could shatter Sub-Realms outside barely opened a door here. She kicked in anger a second time and sauntered out. "Let''s go," Luvile said in seriousness. "I''m also curious about her strength since she survived despite facing the current you." "Also..." he said solemnly. "She would also make it out while we''re trying to help you. So, you''ll have to be careful." "Yeah, I understand." Krune nodded. After all, the number of dead Kun Realm Gods was just a few. In contrast, there were more than a hundred dead Gods from the Mong Realm. Just like how Luvile and the other Kun Realm Gods would naturally help Krune, the M ong Realm Gods would do the same for Mon-Tu-Casha. After all, the one that left the Graveyard of Gods would practically have enough strength to guarantee the safety of their Realm. Right as Luvile and Krune exited the house, Zoitan-Kutang also followed suit, bringing a chair with her that she sat on. Upon sensing Luvile''s surprise, she shrugged her shoulders. "Why would I pass up on this free entertainment opportunity? I only won''t interfere in your affairs." She then said after a smile, staring at both Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha. "As for making the two of you leave this place, all seven God Kings would help you." She then raised her hand, waving it once. "Now, fight!" Immediately, Luvile felt a mystical power constrict him as his figure was dragged to her side, preventing him from interfering with the fight. There was an open ground before her house, spanning large enough to build thirty houses. Such a place was too small for a God to fight in, as each of their attacks could affect Sub-Realms. But in this place, such a thing didn''t matter. After all, even if their attacks could cover an area worth a Sub-Realm, it wouldn''t even damage the objects of the Graveyard of Gods. Moreover, their explosive attacks outside were too weak here. So, to make them potent, they had to be as concentrated as possible. Therefore, the attacks between the two wouldn''t even reach the borders of the ground. As Zoitan-Kutang was aware of the same, she had brought her chair, taking a comfortable seat. In a matter of seconds, all the dead Gods of the Kun Realm and the Mong Realm arrived at the place, spreading out along the perimeter of the ground. And, of course, the Gods from other places also arrived, setting up seats in the air as they stared at the fight. Swoosh! Suddenly, six streaks of light appeared, landing in the middle of the ground, revealing figures with imposing auras, all on the same level as Zoitan-Kutang. They had attained the peak strength possible in the Graveyard of Gods, the limit of strength that the Greater Universe itself could handle, on par with the Primordial Beast Chiefs. All six of them stared at Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha, exclaiming in surprise simultaneously, "Life aura?" One of them looked at Zoitan-Kutang and asked, "What''s happening here? How come two alive Gods arrived here?" "A Primordial Beast attacked these two. Due to the unique nature of their power, the energy clash of when they tried to escape the Primordial Beasts hold brought them here," Zoitan-Kutang replied. She then pointed at Krune, saying, "He''s Krune, the Kun Realm''s Champion, the first God in history to wield two Laws, one of them being the Tribulation Lightning Law." She then pointed at Mon-Tu-Casha. "And she''s the successor to the 8th Generation''s God King, the first God that holds the power of the Keys. Her power allows her to naturally enter the Law Worlds of any God." The eyes of the six Gods lit up in surprise at her words as they scanned through the strength of both Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha. "Both are exceptionally unique," one of them muttered in interest. The various Gods exclaimed in shock at Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha while the Gods of the Kun Realm and Mong Realm stared at each other in all seriousness, ready to protect their side''s God from being killed. After all, unlike them, Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha could be killed. It was then that the place turned silent as the 1st Generation God King smiled. "Once they leave, the 8th Generation''s Greater Universe would become a bipolar Greater Universe with the presence of two God Kings." Chapter 1549 Choose, Krune, Choose Chapter 1549 Choose, Krune, Choose "A bipolar Greater Universe?" Luvile muttered, frowning in confusion as he gazed at Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha, muttering, "But, aren''t there two of them here?" "Yes, these two would become God Kings in the future." The 1st Generation God King nodded. "But, my dad is already the God King," Mon-Tu-Casha replied. "Not anymore." The 1st Generation God King said, shocking the Gods from the Kun Realm and the Mong Realm, including the Gods that were part of the 8th Generation. "Impossible! Dad''s the strongest!" Mon-Tu-Casha retorted. "Yeah, among all the generations, your dad is the strongest God King to date. That''s an irrefutable fact." The 1st Generation God King nodded. "However, the one he was fighting against was a Younger Generation Taotie." "And, it seems he fought while having no knowledge regarding their power. So, he suffered a lot of serious injuries at the start itself," he continued. "And now, he''s the God King no more. He has yet to die, but he''s already lost his strength as the God King." "Killing a Taotie?" Zoitan-Kutang said in shock, staring at the 1st Generation God King. "H-How is this possible?" Even though her current strength was on par with a Primordial Beast Chief, that was only after she had arrived at the Graveyard of Gods. The strength she had at the Greater Universe was only enough to tie with a Younger Generation Primordial Beast, and that too was with a weaker race, not a Taotie. In terms of strength alone, the Kun Peng was the strongest among the Primordial Beast races, but their powers were more inclined towards building realms. Plus, their attacks didn''t make it impossible for the Gods to recover from. If killed by a Kun Peng, they wouldn''t revive, but as long as they weren''t killed, they could recover. This was the same against all Primordial Beasts, except the Taotie. Against a Taotie, even the slightest injury was permanent, impossible to recover from. So, with their recovery means rendered useless, the Gods fighting a Taotie were constantly losing strength, making Taotie the worst opponent for a God to face. However, the God King didn''t just fight a Taotie but also managed to kill it? "Insane!" All the God Kings exclaimed in shock as they gazed at the 1st Generation God King. "Where did you learn about this?" Mon-Tu-Casha glared at the 1st Generation God King in anger. "My dad wouldn''t die from something like a mere Primordial Beast." "Why don''t you ask him yourself?" The 1st Generation God King said, snapping his finger as everyone watched a mystical light descend from the skies, possessing a baleful aura of death, one that terrified everyone. Even the God Kings shuddered, sensing the strength of the God King--Mon-Ra-Garak--continue to grow in strength. After fighting against the Taotie, the God King had obtained so much experience that his strength exploded once again. Unfortunately, his injuries exuberated, resulting in his eventual death, preventing his growth from being displayed while he was out. "Dad!" Mon-Tu-Casha roared in sadness, kneeling to the ground upon seeing the injured figure of her dad appear in the skies, unable to be healed. "You''re here." The 8th Generation God King sighed as he stared at Mon-Tu-Casha. "I''m sorry that I lost my life." "Please, heal him!" Mon-Tu-Casha looked at Zoitan-Kutang, requesting her help. "You managed to heal Krune and me. Please heal my dad as well." "Impossible..." Zoitan-Kutang shook her head, smiling in helplessness. "Even though this is a secluded place, the Graveyard of Gods is still part of the Greater Universe. And, we are under the absolute rule of the Primordial Beast Chiefs." "The injuries created by a Taotie are permanent. And that applies here as well," she continued. "Any injuries by a God are easy to treat for me. But a Taotie''s... is impossible, even if it''s a Child." "T-Then..." Mon-Tu-Casha teared up, gazing at her dad. "It doesn''t matter." Her dad, the 8th Generation God King, smiled as he said, "Whether a dead man has strength or not is of no use. After all, it''s not like there''s anything to do in here." "That''s true." The 1st Generation God King nodded in response. "None of us have anything to do here. So, whether we''re strong or not doesn''t matter. It has no use anyway." "We have and will continue to remain idle for eternity." The 8th Generation God King suddenly looked at Krune before saying, "I brought a message from Zule." "What is it?" Krune gazed in anger, clenching his hand into a fist, controlling himself from killing the other party already. With his current strength, the 8th Generation God King would die in a hit from him. Though death wasn''t possible here, injuries would remain until they were healed. In other words, he could dice up the 8th Generation God King into a billion pieces and scatter it everywhere. Ignoring the multitude of emotions Krune was expressing, the eighth-generation God King stated calmly, "Let go of your hatred and become Mon-Ra-Garak''s disciple." "What the fuck?" Whether it was Krune, Luvile, Mon-Tu-Casha, or the Gods from the Kun Realm and the Mong Realm, everyone muttered in shock, in disbelief, considering if their ears were playing tricks on them. "I see..." Zoitan-Kutan''s eyes lit up in interest as she stared at the 8th Generation God King, saluting him mentally. "It seems even though you''re called the worst murderer in our entire eight generations'' worth of history, you still care about your home." "Of course." The 8th Generation God King nodded. "In my life, I improved the standing of the Mong Realm from a mere enslaved world to a sovereign. And, I''ll ensure that the Mong Realm would never fall and remain supreme." "Now, the bet between Zule and the eight Primordial Beast Chiefs is what would destroy if my world lives or not," the 8th Generation God King said. "Only Krune and my dear daughter have the potential to kill the eight Younger Generation Primordial Beasts that would represent them." "And, before my death, I formed a deal with Zule," he continued, staring at Krune to ask, "So, what is your answer?" "Will you become my disciple and ensure the survival of your world?" "Or will you let the Greater Universe be reset once again by the Chiefs?" Chapter 1550 I Can’t Bear This! Chapter 1550 I Can¡¯t Bear This! The God King''s statement was simple. If Krune became his disciple, he would train him to become a God King, as simple as that. Even in the Graveyard of Gods, where there were seven other God Kings, the 8th Generation God King was on a whole other level, being the sole God to have killed a Younger Generation Taotie. And with the sole individual having the experience of killing such a powerful Taotie, he would be able to use that experience to guide Krune better into a killing machine that can destroy the Primordial Beasts. After all, who in the greater universe was the best at killing others? Mon-Ra-Garak! By far, he had taken the most number of lives in all eight generations of the Greater Universe, whether in terms of the sheer number of lives or in the number of God Kings or in the number of Younger Generation Primordial Beasts. There were other Gods specializing in various fields. But in the field of killing opponents both strong and weak, the 8th Generation God King was the peak beyond the peak. And, despite the hatred between them, in order to protect the greater universe where his Mong Realm existed, the 8th Generation God King suppressed all emotions and wished to wholeheartedly nurture Krune. This showed that in the face of his realm''s safety, his personal emotions meant nothing to him. He would even take Krune¡ªthe worst murderer to have killed the greatest number of Mong Realm people¡ªas his disciple. Mon-Tu-Casha was flabbergasted at the start, for she was aware that if trained by her dad, Krune would become the most dangerous existence in the Greater Universe. However, she quickly understood the reason for her dad''s actions. After all, she was one individual. Even if she were to take advantage of the time dilation of the Graveyard of Gods to train and reach the level of her dad, she was just one person. And against eight Primordial Beasts, she would die. If they just attacked one by one, she could somehow fend them off, given the Taotie was the final opponent. But that would definitely not be the case. In such a situation, every other realm would collapse one after another at an alarming pace. And even her Mong Realm might not last long. On the other hand, by adding Krune to the mix with strength on par with her dad, it gave them more room to breathe and deal with their opponents. And during this time, the other Champions could at least hold back the other Primordial Beasts long enough for Krune or her to join the fight. It took less than a second for Krune to process everything as well. His face was one of humiliation, unwilling to bow down to someone that had been the cause behind countless tragedies that happened in the Kun Realm and other realms. The God King has practically killed all life on the Tilk Realm. And as nine-tenths of the Tilk Realm had become part of the Kun Realm, every time he activated his Champion state, Krune was able to partially access records of the Tilk Realm. And every time this happened, he had to shoulder the pain expressed by the former Tilk Realm that had been invaded and destroyed brutally again and again throughout history just to loot its vast resources. He had the confidence to grow strong on his own. After all, by remaining in the Graveyard of Gods, Luvile had grown exponentially as well. So, he could teach him¡­ ''No, these are just excuses.'' He sighed in the end, recalling the concerned figure of Feifei, one that hadn''t smiled once in the past few thousand years. The Kun Realm had been shouldering a lot of burdens. Just the war between the various realms was pressing enough. But now, they had to face eight opponents that were so strong, it seemed nigh impossible. And with Krune''s disappearance, Feifei would have been terrified, worried sick by now, as her burdens would only increase. ''Does my pride matter here?'' Krune thought for a moment, his eyes reddening as he closed his eyes, inhaling a deep breath as he clenched his hand into a fist before gradually relaxing it. ''No, it does not. The Kun Realm''s safety and security matter the most. Feifei, Fie, big sis Sterlena, Kulla, Kuttul, Relena, Hazak, and every else should live happy lives.'' ''And for that, paying the price of my pride is nothing.'' Krune concluded his thoughts as his knees slowly buckled. "Krune¡­" Luvile stared at Krune''s actions, feeling suffocated as his body trembled, unable to watch the scene as he covered his eyes. His cheeks were washed by the warm tears his eyes shed, while the Kun Realm Gods turned heads, unable to endure staring at the scene. Had it only been a Kun Realm God, it would have been humiliating. But the one that did this was Krune, their Champion, signaling their defeat, even though there was no way the current Kun Realm could be defeated by the Mong Realm. It was because things had changed. And hence, Krune had to do it. "T-This¡­!" Mon-Tu-Casha stared at Krune''s kneeling figure, for some reason feeling sad. The fact that Krune kneeled on the ground to accept becoming the God King''s disciple just went on to show the terrifying nature of the Primordial Beasts. It had to be noted that she was birthed three years after Krune killed her brother. So, for all her life, she grew up building hatred towards Krune, the enemy that had taken the most lives of the people in her Mong Realm. He was her fated enemy, the one whose head she would sever in the future to obtain a flawless victory. But suddenly, the target of her hatred swallowed his and bowed. It was something she was unable to digest, ''He could have just been the enemy!'' She gritted her teeth, announcing aloud, "I''ll kill all the eight Primordial Beasts. And once I do¡­" She pointed at Krune, bellowing while expressing all her piled-up hatred, "I''ll kill you, Krune!" "Just you wait!" Chapter 1551 Krune Vs Mon-Tu-Casha Chapter 1551 Krune Vs Mon-Tu-Casha "That''s impossible. Forget it." Krune shook his head, ignoring Mon-Tu-Casha as he completed his bow before staring at the 8th Generation God King with calm, almost dead eyes, "Do I need to address you as¡­" "That''s unnecessary." The 8th Generation God King interjected. "I''m only helping you because of the circumstances. I''ll do everything in my power to strengthen you. However, that''s all. I''ll never address you as my disciple. Even I''m not capable of setting aside my hatred to this extent." "Alright, let''s start training immediately," Krune said, getting up, unwilling to waste his time. "But first, the two of them must fight," Zoitan-Kutang said all of a sudden, sporting a gentle smile, her eyes alternating between Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha. "Show us your abilities. With that, if we think of any good idea, we too can pitch in." "Honestly, all of us wish to see how far the eighth generation could go in this fight." The six God Kings that were standing in the middle of the ground moved towards the side as the 8th Generation God King didn''t say much other than nod his head at Mon-Tu-Casha. It was a simple implication for her to win this fight. Everyone retreated to the side as only Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha remained in the center. Mon-Tu-Casha stared at Krune, warning him, "I''m way stronger here than outside." "It won''t make much of a difference," Krune muttered as he extended his hand, clutching hold of the palm-sized Thundercloud Whale that appeared. And suddenly, the ground they were upon began to squirm as thousands of maggots drilled out before merging into the ground itself, acting as if nothing happened there. A beam of energy wafted out of Mon-Tu-Casha, coiling on the ground around her as all maggots in the region were destroyed. The power slowly broiled as immediately, the various Mong Realm Gods kneeled on the ground, exhausted. Bang! Krune''s figure was sent flying as a terrifying power burst out of Mon-Tu-Casha. "Hahahaha!" The 8th Generation God King began to bellow in laughter immediately after, proud at the scene. After all, the power Mon-Tu-Casha was wielding currently was his signature Power Storm Law. In the Graveyard of Gods, Mon-Tu-Casha was unable to use the power of the Law Worlds. However, that didn''t mean that her power was useless. Instead, she was able to use all the dead Mong Realm Gods. After all, they were pretty much their Law Worlds that she could draw upon. And the first power she siphoned was her dad''s. Even though the Power Storm Law was only a fragment of its former self, its power worked on combusting any energy or the law itself to gain power. Here, Mon-Tu-Casha substituted the fuel needs with the Laws of the other Mong Realm Gods that were nearby, resulting in a terrifying attack. Krune''s figure flickered through the air before crashing into the house at the edge of the ground, mildly cracking the wall. There was a large depression on his chest due to the attack as he coughed out blood. But a second later, his angry expression was replaced by a smile as a group of maggots exited the ground and drilled into his body, rapidly healing his injuries. And slowly, more and more maggots drilled out of the ground, raising their numbers by devouring the terrifyingly powerful laws that formed the place. "T-This is?" Zoitan-Kutang was shocked to see the true power of Krune''s Hunger Law, having never expected it to be of such a nature, thinking, ''If there''s no one to stop him, his power could gradually consume everything.'' She then gazed at Mon-Tu-Casha, watching her power casually destroy the maggots. ''I see, so this is how a balance is attained.'' Mon-Tu-Casha was capable of infiltrating the Law Worlds and performing a variety of operations there. If left unchecked, there would come a day where she could even infiltrate the Graveyard of Gods to reap all the wealth and resources from here. However, Krune''s power hindered her. After all, his maggots were capable of devouring any Law to grow in numbers exponentially. This meant that all the Law Worlds were fair game for him. Even if Mon-Tu-Casha were to escape into a Law World, Krune could infect the Law World with his maggots, either that itself or a nearby Law World. Anyway, to protect the Law Worlds that her power was based upon, Mon-Tu-Casha would have no other choice but to destroy all the maggots. Similarly, if Krune infected a realm with his Hunger Law, the maggots would eventually eat through the entire realm, strengthening him further. However, Mon-Tu-Casha was able to instantly enter the related Law Worlds and erase the maggots infesting there. Moreover, as all she did was kill the maggots, the Law Worlds digested the remains, a trait all Law Worlds had. Anything in a Law World was gradually assimilated into it. This meant that she was even able to shave off Krune''s strength to reinforce other Law Worlds. The powers of the two were as unique as they could get but contradicted and controlled each other. This was how a balance had been reached that prevented either side from controlling the God Realm. After all, unlike the 8th Generation God King, whose power was the strongest offensive, the powers of both Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha were strategic in nature. They were both accumulation based. Krune dusted off his clothes before his figure flickered, appearing behind Mon-Tu-Casha as he thrust forth with the Cloud Whale, riddling her body with holes as the Power Storm Law sent him flying once again. Her injuries swiftly healed as Mon-Tu-Casha condensed a blazing sphere that she threw onto the ground, turning all the maggots into ash before piling the ash into a sphere that she condensed. Her power seeped into it as suddenly, a maggot wriggled in its center, the sole maggot that she had deliberately excluded from killing. Her hand then emitted a chilling, corrosive power as she plunged her hand into the maggot, channeling her power through it and into Krune in an effort to destroy him. "Keuk!" Krune collapsed to the ground in response as a whitish radiance began to damage him. But immediately in response, the sphere in Mon-Tu-Casha''s hand exploded as a storm of lightning drowned her. Chapter 1552 Krune Strikes Fear In Everyone Chapter 1552 Krune Strikes Fear In Everyone Boom! The figures of Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha flew away, both injured by their respective attacks. But before his figure touched down, Krune turned into a bolt of lightning and passed by Mon-Tu-Casha, not touching her. All of a sudden, Mon-Tu-Casha grunted in pain, collapsing to the ground as her body wriggled, for all her Godly Energy clotted in her body, obstructing her Mental Energy and Body Energy flow. Godly Inhibition! After sealing up Godly Energy, Krune condensed a large hammer of ice, using it to slam into the head of Mon-Tu-Casha, sending her reeling into the ground, kicking up dust. The Thundercloud Whale took off to the sky, rapidly absorbing the air as it split into thousands of Thundercloud Whales, all doing the same, causing a vacuum as all the air was funneled into them before soon¡­ Air Needle! Boom! Thousands of Air Needles slammed into Mon-Tu-Casha, drilling into her body nonstop, little by little going through her defenses. Moreover, the number of Thundercloud Whales in the air continued to increase, gradually spreading apart as all their attacks were concentrated on Mon-Tu-Casha. It would take her at least a couple of seconds to acclimate to the changes and rely only on Mental Energy and Body Energy to fight. But before then, he planned to attack her as much as possible. And best of all, unleashing the Air Needles didn''t even consume any energy. He could practically shoot them for an eternity, for all they did was compress the surrounding air and unleash it. The Body Energy consumed in the process was a negligible sum. Swoosh! As another stream of Air Needles landed on her, the air suddenly fluctuated as the presence exhibited by Mon-Tu-Casha changed, forcing all the Air Needles to curve sideways, ignoring her. Moreover, the air itself curved around her in a defensive posture before healing her slowly. "This power¡­" A certain God among the crowd frowned, shuddering for a moment while recalling memories of the past. He was from the Garg Realm, the Garg Realm Champion of the past. At that time, the Mong Realm was under the Garg Realm''s rule. Before the 8th Generation God King''s rise, there was another key figure that later went on to become the God King''s mentor. He was the first God of the Mong Realm, a legend that managed to become a God despite the Garg Realm''s suppression. And it was through his efforts that the God King managed to safely ascend to become a God. Eventually, he sacrificed his life while killing the Garg Realm Champion. Following that, the Mong Realm obtained independence. Under the leadership of the 8th Generation God King, they grew to become stronger. With the loss of their Champion, the Garg Realm was locked in internal strife for a couple dozen thousand years, during which things changed a lot. It was only later in history did Mon-Ra-Garak go on to attain the title of the God King. To be called a God King, one not only needed to be the strongest among all the Champions, but his strength had to be overwhelmingly superior to the extent it overshadowed everyone else. And now, Mon-Tu-Casha had taken hold of the power wielded by the 8th Generation God King''s mentor, Yab-Ku-Balam. His power controlled the wind, the water, and basically anything that flowed. Moreover, it was done passively as everything that flowed naturally aided him. The moment Mon-Tu-Casha activated it, all the Air Needles came under her control before turning around to impact the Thundercloud Whales, destroying most of them. Unwilling to lose them at this stage, Krune retracted the rest, frowning as he observed that Mon-Tu-Casha was getting accustomed to fighting even without Godly Energy. Boom! He had just thought of such when a terrifying power slammed into him, sending him flying into the sky. Mon-Tu-Casha had begun to use her dad''s power once again. "I told you I''m stronger here. As long as I can use my dad''s power, you can never defeat me," Mon-Tu-Casha said with pride. "Is that¡­ so?" Krune''s almost calm voice resounded as suddenly, his hands clapped together, resounding a loud sound. "You seem to think only you can borrow strength, huh?" Godly Ability¡ªI''m Hungry, Gimme Your Power! Originally, Krune had to rely upon the race of Galki living in his subspace to pray to unleash this ability. But once his Hunger Law formed, the power of the Galki race fell under the domain of his control, allowing him to unleash the power multiple times stronger. This was the true strength of the Hunger Law, a reason Krune prioritized this over everything else. "Gah!" Suddenly, Mon-Tu-Casha felt like a portion of her strength had been shaved off, or rather, stolen from her. "Hishe¡­" Krune muttered while he was still flying in the air. Immediately, Luvile''s eyes lit up as he stared at the figure of Hishe that slowly joined the crowd, sporting a proud expression. Boom! Suddenly, the ground actually cracked, shocking all the God Kings as Mon-Tu-Casha was buried into it, almost unable to exit it as her figure began to bleed profusely, unable to recover for the time being. "Let''s stop here!" Zoitan-Kutang hurriedly interfered, heading to Mon-Tu-Casha''s rescue as she was healed immediately. A couple of seconds later, Krune''s figure slammed into the wall of a house, actually shattering the walls. He lay there, limp, exhausted of his strength. But, he was less injured in comparison to Mon-Tu-Casha, his face sporting a mild smirk. After all, he had won. "What¡­ the hell was that in the end¡­?" Zoitan-Kutang asked in shock, helping Mon-Tu-Casha up before she arrived before Krune, staring at him while she healed his injuries. "He¡­ stole my power." Mon-Tu-Casha frowned in disbelief, flinching when her stolen strength returned to her, gazing at Krune in alarm. "It''s my¡­ trump card," Krune said, gasping for breath as exhaustion brimmed from deep within him. Using this ability even with the help of the Galki race was strenuous enough, but now, he used it to steal Mon-Tu-Casha''s power, a unique God''s terrifying power. So, the level of exertion was insurmountable. Therefore, the moment the ability ended, he was unable to move for the time being. "Using her power, I borrowed Hishe''s power," Krune said, observing the shock on the faces of all the Gods, seeing their expression of terror. After all, for that one moment, Krune was actually wielding the power of five Laws. Chapter 1553 Is That A… Chapter 1553 Is That A¡­ ''What an absolute monster,'' Zoitan-Kutang thought, healing Krune back to full health as she announced, "With this, it''s Krune''s win." "Way to go, Krune!" Luvile was the first to explode into a cheer, happy that the Kun Realm Champion reigned supreme against the Mong Realm''s trump card. "This is¡­ insane!" A God that observed the fight muttered. Even though he was many times stronger than Krune, that was only the current difference. This had to be noted that he was someone that was able to observe the lifespan of other Gods, muttering in shock as his gaze alternated between Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha. "The two of them are not even thirty thousand years old." His words slammed into the minds of all the Gods like a thunderclap. After all, who were the Gods? They represented the pinnacle of cultivation. But, just to reach such a level took them thirty thousand years, not to mention the careful preparation that they had to make to successfully survive the final tribulation. But, whether it was Krune or Mon-Tu-Casha, both of them were not only Gods when similarly aged cultivators tethered at the Primal God Realm. They both were terrifyingly strong. This made them think of how strong the two would get if they were given a million years to develop. Just the notion alone caused them to shudder. "It seems the eighth generation has the potential to surpass all the seven generations before it," the 1st Generation God King announced solemnly. Even though Krune won this bout, it was a close victory. And just as how Mon-Tu-Casha wouldn''t be able to use her dad''s power beyond the Graveyard of Gods, Krune also wouldn''t be able to get Luvile''s or Hishe''s help. So, things might be different if they fought beyond the Graveyard of Gods. After all, Mon-Tu-Casha would regain her mobility there, able to transfer Krune''s attacks onto him while she could retreat in and out of the Law Worlds to survive all attacks. "You did well, Krune," Luvile said, patting Krune''s shoulder. "After my death, I had thought my days here would be bland. But your arrival made it brighter. Thank you." "Luvile, since all the dead Gods arrive here, there must be a way to find the whereabouts of your son¡­" Krune began to speak, thinking of obtaining a hint here that would allow him to revive Luvile''s son later. But suddenly, Luvile raised his hand, motioning for Krune to stop in all seriousness, stating in mild anger, "Krune, stop." "The matter about my son¡­ leave it." "But¡­" Krune was just about to speak when Luvile glared at him, causing him to shut up. "Way bigger things are at stake here. You just focus on that," Luvile said. "You''re our Greater Universe''s hope for survival. So, just focus on growing stronger. Don''t take on too many burdens. It would just suffocate you further." Upon seeing Krune becoming a bit downcast at his words, Luvile sighed as he gently patted Krune, saying, "My wife, Heavin, Iem, and others are already on it. Even Wally expressed his help. So, you needn''t worry. Let them take care of this. Besides..." He looked at Hishe, saying, "Hishe has passed on his enlightenment to Feifei about extracting information from the Kun Realm''s records. She''ll find a solution to everything. Let them take care of everything. You only focus on defeating the Primordial Beasts, alright?" "Okay." Krune nodded in response, taking in a deep breath as he began to walk towards the 8th Generation God King, stopping a couple of meters before him. Mon-Tu-Casha reflexively stood against him, taking on a protective stance before her father, preventing Krune from attacking her dad. "Shall we begin the training?" Krune said calmly, showing no signs of anger or humiliation that he had been feeling before. Upon seeing his stance, Mon-Tu-Casha gradually relaxed, turning around to face her dad, ready to undergo training. "Alright." The 8th Generation God King nodded as he looked at the two before focusing on Krune. "You have a couple more abilities, right?" "Yeah." Krune nodded. "Show them to me," the 8th Generation God King said calmly. "This is the Soul Needle," Krune said, causing the Soul Needle to hover above his palm, watching it point in a certain direction. "It can point at a treasure or any target that I wish to locate. The ability I used to block Mon-Tu-Casha''s Godly Energy was also through this." "Ooh, that makes sense now as to how you managed to locate your realm''s Key in my realm." The 8th Generation God King nodded. With that, Mon-Tu-Casha finally understood how Krune always seemed to attack at the right time and in the right places. It was thanks to the Soul Needle that he was able to locate his target precisely before using the Rune Realm to appear. "The second is this¡­" Krune said as suddenly as his aura exploded forth rapidly, alarming the other Gods as he became terrifyingly strong. But a second later, the vast aura vanished as he almost collapsed to the ground, panting in exhaustion, looking somewhat weaker. "So, this is what you used while fighting me before. No wonder you managed to injure me." The 8th Generation God King nodded, asking, "What is this state?" "Trinity," Krune replied. "It''s when my Godly Energy, Mental Energy, and Body Energy fuse into one." "This is the state every God wished to attain but failed." Zoitan-Kutang exclaimed in surprise, gazing at Krune to ask, "How come you have so many powers? What race are you from?" "You can''t see through my human form?" It was Krune''s turn to be surprised now as he looked at Zoitan-Kutang. "Weren''t you able to read my mind?" "For some reason, I can''t see through your human form. There''s some mystical shield protecting you. It''s pretty strange." Zoitan-Kutang frowned before her eyes lit up, suddenly causing her to stare at the 1st Generation God King, thinking of something as she asked Krune, "Can you show me your demon beast form?" "Sure." Krune nodded as his human form collapsed, turning ethereal as he slowly floated in the air, causing the dark blue core in him to flicker from time to time, now suffused with a purple radiance. Upon seeing his demon beast form, Zoitan-Kutang''s gaze immediately fell on the 1st Generation God King, watching him lose his cool. With an incredulous gaze, the 1st Generation God King teared up, muttering with mixed feelings, "Is¡­ is that a¡­" "Wisp?" Chapter 1554 Secret of the Spirit Aberrants Chapter 1554 Secret of the Spirit Aberrants "Is¡­ is that a¡­" "Wisp?" Upon the 1st Generation God King''s words, the eyes of all Gods from the first generation fell on Krune, expressing mixed feelings. "Were there Wisps in the first generation?" Krune asked in surprise upon sensing their gazes. "Of course¡­" Letting out a sigh, the 1st Generation God King''s human form collapsed gradually, turning into an ethereal figure that hovered on the ground, looking somewhat similar to Krune but also different at the same time. True Spirit! The 1st Generation God King was a True Spirit. A moment later, hundreds of Gods converged upon Krune, turning into wisps one after another, shocking him. "So¡­many wisps?" Krune was shocked, seeing that the gazes directed at him by the Wisp Gods were full of nostalgia. "We were part of what was called the True Realm." The 1st Generation God King began to recount his past. "Only two races existed there, the True Spirits and the Wisps. It was by far the most peaceful realm, as you know. Both True Spirits and Wisps are kinda¡­ blessed." "Blessed?" Krune frowned at the words. After all, it could be said that True Spirits were blessed. But wisps? Not so. After all, without attaining a certain cultivation base, the lifespan of a Wisp was only ten years. "Yeah, wisps only lived for ten years normally." The 1st Generation God King nodded in agreement. "But, our realm was so rich that even by just playing around, the cultivation of wisps reached a high enough level to not worry about dying anytime soon." "However, things were too peaceful back then as we had taken our peace for granted." He sighed before saying, "Everything changed once a place called the Battlefield Realm appeared." "Battlefield Realm?" Krune muttered, noticing the expression of all the Wisp Gods change at the word, becoming one of sadness. "It was a place created by the Primordial Beasts because they wanted entertainment from the place that they had created. Plus, the goal of the Battlefield Realm was to challenge the strongest realm of the time," the 1st Generation God King said calmly, staring at Krune¡­ "And that was us, the True Realm, one with 1378 Gods." "1378 Gods?" Krune was shocked at the number, for it was terrifyingly high. It had to be noted that even the Mong Realm, the realm with the most number of Gods in their generation, only had 685 Gods, and even that was a terrifying number. "That number came to bite back at us because of the Primordial Beast Chiefs." Sighing, the 1st Generation God King continued, "Immortals and Gods from all the realms poured into the True Realm using the Battlefield Realm as the gateway. We managed to push back the first wave of invaders out of the True Realm. Following that, the two sides fought in the Battlefield Realm." "Three million years¡­ the war went on for a goddamn three million years." The 1st Generation God King sighed in exhaustion. "At the end of it, the True Realm was no more. Our Realm was crippled and was unable to birth even a single wisp or True Spirit." "Then¡­" Krune stared at the 1st Generation God King, wondering how they were defeated. After all, if he had the title as the God King, his strength should have been enough to do anything he pleased. "I wasn''t a God King back then. I was only a Primal God back then," the 1st Generation God King said. Krune stared at the Wisp Gods before him in surprise. "Then these Gods are¡­?" "They are all my seniors," The 1st Generation God King replied. "In the first generation, I was the last True Spirit God. And when I became one, I was the sole God among True Spirits." "And¡­" He almost choked for a moment before suppressing his emotions. "Before our True Realm crumbled due to the damage it sustained, three Wisp Gods were alive. However, they were crippled by then. They made arrangements for my ascension and turned the True Realm Core into my God Seat, sacrificing themselves for the cause." "Following that, I became a God and the sole survivor of the True Realm." He continued calmly after that. "I then charged into the Battlefield Realm and fought for the next million years, killing every single God in existence and continued to do so even after that." Krune noticed countless Gods shuddering at his words. It was apparent that after he arrived at the Graveyard of Gods, the 1st Generation God King had tried to kill these Gods again, but upon seeing that they wouldn''t die, he continued to beat them up for ages to appease his anger. "Eventually, my strength grew to become on par with a Younger Generation Primordial Beast. It was when the Nine Chiefs joined hands to reset everything," he said. "After that, in the successive generations, word of either a True Spirit or a wisp never came. So, I feared that we were never created after that." "Nine Chiefs?" Krune was shocked. "Yes." The first-generation God King nodded, elaborating, "Kun Peng, Taotie, Tiangou, Qilin, Azure Dragon, Vermillion Bird, White Tiger, Black Turtle, and the Spirit Aberrant." "Spirit Aberrant?" Krune''s eyes lit up as he gradually understood things that puzzled him before. He then thought of something, asking the 1st Generation God King, "Do you know about the Spirit Aberrants?" "A little, yeah." The 1st Generation God King nodded. "Is it true that the Spirit Aberrants can access the memories of everyone from their past?" Krune asked. "How do you know about that?" The 1st Generation God King was shocked before he nodded. "Yes, they can access the memories. The stronger they become, the greater the memories they can access." "Why are they feared, though?" Krune asked something that puzzled him. After all, he could sense that it wasn''t just the myriad races that feared the Spirit Aberrants, but it extended to the Primordial Beasts as well. "It''s because the Primordial Beasts don''t just access memories of their ancestors," the 1st Generation God King stated calmly. "But, they also access the knowledge of comprehension that their ancestors had regarding the various laws." Upon seeing Krune''s shock, the 1st Generation God King nodded. "Yes, unlike the other Primordial Beast races, every single Spirit Aberrant had the guarantee of growing to the level of a Chief. And the Spirit Aberrant Chief was able to casually alter the structure of the Greater Universe as he pleased. With that said, he was as strong as three other Chiefs." "Imagine there being hundreds of Chiefs¡­" The 1st Generation God King shuddered in response. "This was why the Primordial Beast Chiefs all ganged up on the Spirit Aberrants and annihilated them. But in doing so, they paid a sharp price." "That''s why the number of Primordial Beasts is only a few in the eighth generation. In the first generation, there were a million of them in total." Chapter 1555 Scheme of the Tiangou Chapter 1555 Scheme of the Tiangou ''Does that mean Gegrafikan would one day be able to access everything of the past?'' Krune thought, shuddering in response. ''If he decides to go rogue, then things would become bad. The Chiefs might destroy the Kun Realm.'' ''Gegrafikan? There''s a Spirit Aberrant in the Kun Realm?'' Zoitan-Kutang read Krune''s thoughts, shocked to learn of this information. But immediately after, her gaze landed on the 1st Generation God King, alarmed upon seeing the other party''s subtle smile. And as she expected, the 1st Generation God King then created a channel exclusive for him and Krune to speak. Only Zoitan-Kutang was able to listen in on this conversation. Upon knowing that he wasn''t able to stop her, the 1st Generation God King didn''t bother to exclude her from the exclusive conversation as he addressed Krune. "There is something else that you must know." "What is it?" Krune asked, turning serious upon noticing that they were conversing in an exclusive channel of Mental Energy, blocked from the senses of all the other Gods. Even though they were in the Graveyard of Gods, the 1st Generation God King was still being careful, causing Krune to become alarmed. "The Graveyard of Gods is managed by the Tiangou. Don''t be fooled by the strength we wield here. It''s of no use as the Tiangou can casually consume the death aura in our bodies," the 1st Generation God King said. "To them, we are mere snacks. That was why I enveloped your bodies with death aura the moment the two of you faced that Tiangou." "It was you?" Krune was surprised. "Yeah, when your power clashed with Mon-Tu-Casha, I was able to sense you. You must know that my God Seat is the core of the realm that created the Wisps and True Spirits. And through that connection, I sensed you. However, had you arrived here just like that, your life aura would have been detected by all the Tiangou managing this place. They would kill you," the 1st Generation God King spoke. "To avoid that, you layered us with death aura to fool their senses." Krune nodded. "Yes." The 1st Generation God King smirked in response. "I haven''t been wasting my time here idling away. Having been contact with death aura for so long, I''m able to do certain things with it. But most of all, you must understand one thing." "When you fight the Primordial Beasts later, watch out for the Tiangou," the 1st Generation God King said in all seriousness. "Once a Tiangou consumes us, it would be able to wield our powers, or rather, all the power that we have here." "What?" Krune was shocked. In response, Zoitan-Kutang was also the same. After all, currently resting in the Graveyard of Gods were eight God Kings. Among them, seven had attained strength on par with Chiefs. "Yes, that is why they have never interfered with the Graveyard of Gods until now. The greater the number of Gods that die, the more variety of strength the Tiangou can call upon in the future." The 1st Generation God King said. "But until now, they didn''t showcase this power, even while facing the Spirit Aberrants. And I managed to understand the reason only now." "They had been waiting for an opportunity. And that''s your Kun Realm, Krune," he spoke. "My Kun Realm?" Krune was shocked. "I''ve been talking with Hishe about a lot of things. And from what I''ve come to know, Gegrafikan is from the Spirit Aberrant race. But, he''s still a God of the Kun Realm, right?" the 1st Generation God King said in all seriousness. "Y-You mean?" Once he thought of the possibility, Krune''s face turned ashen. "Yes." The 1st Generation God King nodded. "If a Primordial Beast is killed, it dies. Simple. If a God dies, they arrive at the Graveyard of Gods. And now, what could never be a possibility before is possible. If Gegrafikan is killed, the Tiangou would have access to the power of a Spirit Aberrant." "The Tiangou Chief would gobble Gegrafikan the moment he arrives at the Graveyard of Gods, attaining the power of the Spirit Aberrants at his disposal." He sighed, continuing, "But that isn''t all. There''s also Hazak, right? The bloodline of the Kun Peng majorly runs through her. But that isn''t all." "There''s a tiny amount of all nine Primordial Beast races forming her bloodline," he said, sighing. "Gobbling her up would allow the Tiangou Chief to obtain the power of all the Primordial Beasts. Unlike Hazak, he could fully tap into all the bloodlines and become the strongest Chief." "This is the plan of the Tiangou and the secret behind the Graveyard of Gods." "But how did they know about Gegrafikan''s and Hazak''s existence?" Krune frowned. "We''ve kept that under wraps from everyone." "They probably don''t know for sure, but what they know is the fact that Zule would have definitely created something like that," the 1st Generation God King said in all seriousness. "Zule is a terrifying individual to go against the authority of the Chiefs on his own. However, the Tiangou Chief is a cunning one as well, for he was the one that instigated the slaughter of the Spirit Aberrants and also planned for Zule''s clan to get slaughtered, all to force Zule to tread down his current path and develop the Kun Realm accordingly." "So, in the upcoming fight, you''ll have to be on guard against the Tiangou. The other Primordial Beasts might aim for any realm as they please. However, the Tiangou would definitely hit the Kun Realm to kill these two." He concluded. Krune closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath as his body continued to tremble in fear before soon, his trembling stopped. The three energies gradually whirled in him, calmly fusing into one as he entered his state of Trinity, but this time, it was more stable, even without aid from his Champion State. His eyes shot up as he looked at the 1st Generation God King. "Tell me regarding the powers of all the Primordial Beast races. I''ll develop countermeasures against all of them." "Yes, but first..." The first-generation God King asked, "Sterlena is also the Kun Realm''s Champion, right?" "Yes." Krune nodded, thinking that Hishe must have informed him of this information. "Great." The 1st Generation God King nodded as suddenly, a mystical light full of Mental Energy slammed into Krune''s mind before vanishing. "When you see her, this light would enter her on its own and allow her to wield the full extent of a True Spirit''s power." "As for you..." He stared at Krune, pointing at the hundreds of Wisp Gods silently staring at Krune/ "Learn everything regarding wisps from them." "Become the strongest wisp to ever exist." Chapter 1556 Join Us Chapter 1556 Join Us "Aaargh!" The Garg Realm Champion roared with mixed feelings, having been the one to dispatch the dying God King to the afterlife. A major war had erupted here as the Mong Realm Gods managed to secure the body of Tallo, the Taotie and were now on their way to the Mong Realm. They had brought the greatest number of Gods for the fight, ending up being the victors in the end. The Garg Realm was mostly focused on dealing the killing blow to the God King and managed to do that in the end. The Kun Realm and the other realms pulled out after seeing that the situation was futile, giving them no benefits. With that, a violent war that had erupted with the death of the God King ending as abruptly. Following that, things became awkward as the Mong Realm lost its influence. With the absence of the God King, they were no longer the strongest realm around. The peak power was now the Garg Realm Champion. But of course, he wasn''t at the level enough to be called the God King yet. Moreover, he himself never allowed anyone to use that name for him. After all, in his mind, only the late God King was worthy of the title of the King of Gods. The Garg Realm Champion was able to grasp the extent of strength the God King had unleashed in the end against Tallo. It was something he would never be able to reciprocate. Hence, he never advocated the rise of another God King. But even with the death of the God King, the Mong Realm remained strong. After all, thanks to their Realm Ability, none of the Mong Realm Gods could be killed. This meant that they could fight against other Gods with reckless abandon without caring about any losses. This was why no other revenge-seeking realm dared to target the Mong Realm. At least, not at the moment. But right as more plans were underway as various players began to take part in the Greater Universe''s politics, a mystical voice resounded in the minds of every single God in existence. [Hear me, Gods of the Greater Universe.] "What the...?" The Garg Realm Champion was alarmed at the voice, extending his senses as he was unable to detect the source, thinking, ''Is it a Primordial Beast?'' "So, it has begun." The Mong Realm Spirit sighed, massaging itself as it spoke, "Please return soon, Mon-Tu-Casha. The Mong Realm needs you." Before his death, the God King had transmitted everything he came to know about to the Mong Realm Spirit, allowing it to make plans for the future. So, the bet between Zule and the Primordial Beast Chiefs, the eight Primordial Beasts that they would have to fight, the fate of the Greater Universe, everything was conveyed to it. And following that, the Mong Realm Spirit informed all the Mong Realm Gods about the same, beginning to make preparations accordingly. As Gods from the various realms stared in a daze, recalling the contents regarding the Primordial Beasts that had been put up in the Soul Trading Hub, the voice in their minds continued to speak. [I''m the Kun Peng Chief, here to represent our bet with Zule, creator of the Kun Realm.] [Each Primordial Beast race would send one of our Younger Generation after a hundred years. They''ll try to destroy all your homes. Try your best to survive. If the Gods fail to kill our eight representatives, we Chiefs would destroy the Greater Universe as we''ve done in the past. The choice is yours.] [Fight to live or be annihilated either way.] The speech was curt but caused the blood of everyone to boil as Wally gritted his teeth, announcing in the Soul Trading Hub, "Those fuckers would pay dearly." He immediately said, "The Kun Realm would recruit anyone willing to join us as a Vassal Realm. And against the threat, we''ll be the ones to face the brunt of the damage." "You should know by now that the Kun Realm had been created by Zule just for this day. Moreover, all Vassal Realms would be protected by a spatial storm barrier," he concluded. "However, the spatial storms are just like air for the Primordial Beasts," one of the Gods commented, having seen Tallo''s actions. "Our spatial storm barrier actually contains the powers of our two Champions," Wally replied. "And they''ll eat up any opponent, including a Primordial Beast." "The Garg Realm will help in relocating your realms," the Garg Realm Champion announced immediately after. "Those that join us as Vassal Realms would be moved closer to the Garg Realm. As grouped up, we''ll be fighting our enemies together as one." "The TTT will help strengthen all the Gods by fusing your Body Energy and Godly Energy together. Just this alone would cause your strength to skyrocket." The Dolk Realm Champion announced immediately after. And finally came the largest competitor, the God King''s Left Hand, Mon-Tu-Casha''s mother, Dur-Te-Sara. But in contrast to the offers of the other three Greater Realms, her words shocked everyone. "Become our Vassal Realms and support us with your resources. The Mong Realm will continue doing what it does best. We''ll kill the Primordial Beasts." It was an arrogant statement but stayed true to their nature. Had they promised to protect others, none would accept it. However, the Mong Realm had directly stated their condition. Support them with enough resources while they kill the Primordial Beasts. After all, in terms of slaughter, the Mong Realm was the best of the best in the Greater Universe. And even now, they would continue doing the same. Moreover, they were the sole realm to have killed a Primordial Beast until now as Dur-Te-Sara continued after a moment, shocking the crowd of Gods further, "Before his death, the God King transferred his inheritance to the Mong Realm Spirit. And in that was a weapon that he devised to kill the Primordial Beast better. Using this, all the Mong Realm Gods would attack the Primordial Beasts. We have a guarantee of killing at least three of the eight." "So, join us." Chapter 1557 The Eight Representatives Emerge Chapter 1557 The Eight Representatives Emerge "So, join us." The majority of Gods hesitated at her words, unable to decide who they should join. Everyone was aware that their strength was lacking to face a Primordial Beast. Even those realms with a Champion weren''t even confident in scratching a Primordial Beast. So, only the Champions of the Greater Realms had that possibility. And the only way to strengthen them further was to have more Vassal Realms. This was the only way in which they could strengthen themselves the fastest. Moreover, this was the only way the weaker realms would have hope for survival. A Primordial Beast was indeed capable of destroying a realm. The Kun Peng might not do it, but a Taotie would definitely devour it, for that was what it was known for. And considering that it was a war for their survival, each of the eight representatives would come in for the kill from the get-go. After some hesitation, the various realms began to ally themselves with the Greater Realm of their choice. There were 84 Realms in total in the Greater Universe. And among them, only 19 Realms had a Realm Spirit. So, the number of Champions they had was only 22, considering the Kun Realm had two and the TTT had three. A mere twenty Champions were all they had that could face a Primordial Beast. Among them, only the Champions of the Greater Realms were strong enough to actually injure the Primordial Beasts. The remainder of the Champions would only be useful in defending the perimeter to ensure the people aren''t destroyed by the shockwaves of the fight. Soon after, things took a surprising turn once the various Realms expressed willingness to become the Vassal Realms of the four Greater Realms. The one that gained the most Vassal Realms was the Kun Realm, standing at a sheer value of 27. This was because of a simple yet valuable reason. Among the 19 Realms with a Realm Spirit were five Vassal Realms of the Kun Realm, originally weak realms. It was the Kun Realm that awakened the Realm Spirit for each of them, causing a sharp increase in their number of Gods. So, considering the Kun Realm''s capability, not to mention it being able to shield them with the spatial storm barrier and able to reinforce them within a second thanks to the Rune Realm, the Kun Realm gained the maximum support. However, this was where things took a strange turn because of the Mong Realm. Despite being the most hated realm, the one with the worst reputation for having taken the most number of lives, and despite losing the God King, their pillar of support, the Mong Realm had also gained 27 Vassal Realms. The reasoning was even simpler: The Mong Realm Gods were the strongest. An elite Mong Realm God was stronger than the Champions of weaker Realms. It was a fact everyone had witnessed. Moreover, there existed two other Gods in the Mong Realm apart from the God King, having killed Champions on their own. The Mong Realm could never be trusted, but there was one thing they could be trusted upon. And that was their ability to kill. Since all the Mong Realm promised was to kill the Primordial Beasts, the realms that had experienced the sheer might of the Mong Realm directly submitted to its rule. Following them was the Garg Realm at 19 Vassal Realms, and the worst affected was the TTT, barely managing to get 11 Vassal Realms. This was somewhat their fault, though, as they had been wholly focused on stabilizing their realm and didn''t focus on recruiting other realms. They hadn''t even dispatched envoys to engage in talks with the other realms. But what was done was done as it was every Realm for itself. With that, all preparations were in effect as each of the four Greater Realms used all the means at their disposal to help the Vassal Realms join their ranks. The Gods of the four Greater Realms experienced a sharp rise in their strength as their laws were amplified by the similar laws from the Vassal Realms. Joint training sessions were conducted between the Greater Realm and their fellow Vassal Realms to raise their strength as much as possible while all their focus was on becoming as strong as possible. Intelligence was exchanged between the four Greater Realms, including weapons and the likes. The Kun Realm even sold a Satellite Realm weapon to each of the three Greater Realms. Among the TTT, the strongest, the Dolk Realm Champion, obtained the Satellite Realm weapon. Krune had created a few extra Satellite Realm weapons with the help of little Krune that was multitasking. Gegrafikan then changed the laws in it to suit the target of purchase. The Garg Realm Champion also got one, and in the Mong Realm, the Satellite Realm weapon was requested to be wielded by Mon-Tu-Casha. But unfortunately, Gegrafikan wasn''t able to do that as he had no clue regarding her power. So, that was put on hold for the time being. Hundred years wasn''t a long time for the Gods, especially since the preparations required were of a ginormous scale. The various Greater Realms hadn''t even finished their preparations as time was up, for eight entities emerged out from the densest spatial storm that existed at the center of the Greater Universe, each the size of a small Satellite Realm. But what was terrifying was their strength, which was slightly superior to Tallo. They were by far the strongest among the Younger Generation of the Primordial Beasts. And now, the eight representatives, each as terrifying as the other, all stronger than the Taotie that claimed the God King''s life. Emerging from the densest spatial storm, they each gazed at one another as the Kun Peng representative spoke, "There are four targets in total. All the Realms have congregated around the Greater Realms now. And they are all protected by shells." "We''ll split ourselves into teams of two." The Kun Peng representative looked at the others, asking, "Now, who are all willing to go to the Mong Realm?" "Definitely me." The Taotie representative stepped up, emitting a baleful chuckle. "Their Champion dared to kill one of us. So, it only makes sense that I devour their realm, right?" "Besides, it''s by far the juiciest among all the Greater Realms." Chapter 1558 The Primordial War Begins Chapter 1558 The Primordial War Begins "So, Gautikh will head to the Mong Realm," the Kun Peng said while gazing at the Taotie before facing the others. "Who else?" "I''ll head there," Jagira, the Qilin said, stepping forward. "The God King''s daughter is pretty interesting. So, I''ll face the Mong Realm as well." "Great, next up is the Garg Realm," the Kun Peng said, noticing Arakel the Azure Dragon and Borgan the Black Turtle step forward, expressing their willingness. And surprisingly, Turmul the Tiangou expressed willingness to head to the TTT instead of the Kun Realm. Warakh the White Tiger also followed suit, intending to target the TTT. "This only leaves the two of us for the Kun Realm." Zeit, the Kun Peng nodded as he gazed at Feura the Vermillion Bird. The Kun Realm was special in that it was the first realm in the eight cycles of the Greater Universe to be created by slaughtering and using the bodies of the Kun Peng. Every other realm was just normally created by the Kun Peng. As for the Vermillion Bird, they were interested in the Kun Realm because, at one point in time, some of them had lived in the Kun Realm itself. Even though all of them were only Child Vermillion Birds, it still meant that the Kun Realm was special. All eight Primordial Beast representatives had now picked their respective Greater Realm to target. Following that, the only thing needed was to attack them. If the Primordial Beasts were to target these realms alone, there might be a chance they could kill them. After all, when combined, there were Champions whose combined power could rival the God King. Therefore, there was a chance they could be killed, even though they were stronger than Tallo. That was why they were sent as teams of two. This way, the possibility of their deaths was reduced to zero. Moreover, they had been personally instructed by the Chiefs on the ins and outs of the power of the Gods and the fighting style of the various realms. This was in preparations to ensure they killed their opponents in the shortest time. After all, victory in a single battle would spiral into victory for the entire war. If the Gods won a battle, it meant a Primordial Beast was lost. And there was a good chance their corpses would be devoured by the victor realms to strengthen themselves. Even though devouring a Primordial Beast''s corpse wouldn''t change the condition of a realm other than raising its lifespan to almost infinity, it would still result in one change. And that was in the Realm Spirit itself. It would cause the Realm Spirit to grow stronger, leading to an evolution of their Realm Ability, causing its power to gradually surpass the Gods and attain the level of Primordial Beasts. So, they had to be careful. In the same vein, if a Greater Realm were to fall, it meant that the remaining three Greater Realms would have to handle two more Primordial Beasts at the same time. So, depending on how it played out, things might go bonkers for either side. This was especially since both sides had prepared their respective trump cards. Despite everything, Zeit, the Kun Peng, addressed everyone, "Be extra careful. Don''t underestimate our enemies. There''s a reason Zule dared to make such a bet with the eight Chiefs. So, unless we determine the reason for his confidence, play to your strengths and gradually weaken your opponents." "We know." Gautikh, the Taotie, rolled his eyes in response. "No one would be careless after Tallo''s death." "Yeah, that''s what we need to remind ourselves. The Gods of this generation are different from the past." Zeit nodded. "They are prepared and are constantly evolving to face the changing situation." Zeit then focused on Gautikh and Jagira, telling them, "The two of you will be fighting the Mong Realm, the strongest among the Greater Realms. Don''t be careless. If anything, your lives are at the most risk." Zeit then faced the others after that. "If you emerge victorious, reinforce where you''re needed the most." He then spoke in all seriousness, "And, if there''s a chance any of you feel like you''re on the verge of death, don''t feel embarrassed to signal us. At least I''ll come running to save you." "The fate of the Greater Universe depends on this battle. So, do your best," Zeit said, turning into the Kun Peng as he began to fly towards the Kun Realm. "Let''s go!" "Haha, this''ll be fun." "Don''t lose your life while playing around with the Gods." "You needn''t say it. Instead, try your best not to die. Mon-Tu-Casha is strong." "The TTT might be weak, but they''re tricky. Don''t be fooled." The various Primordial Beast representatives commented at each other before making their way toward the four Greater Realms in pairs. The Kun Peng Zeit and the Vermillion Bird Feura made their way toward the Kun Realm, their expression serious. Feura said all of a sudden, "The Kun Realm is hiding some secrets. The brats that lived there said as such." "Yeah, I know that," Zeit said. "I always looked up to Zule since young. He''s by far the most daring among the Kun Peng. Since his clan was sacrificed, he must have planned something huge." "I know that for sure." As they moved past, a tiny Satellite Realm revealed itself from a nearby spatial storm, resembling the Soul Trading Hub in terms of appearance but was many times smaller. Its Realm Spirit silently gazed at the figures of Zeit and Feura as it blinked, transmitting the information to the Soul Trading Hub. ¡­ "It''s time," Wally announced in the Soul Trading Hub as every single God in the Greater Universe had gathered. "The whereabouts of Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha are still unknown. However, we''ll do our best to fight until their return." "I''m feeling somewhat more confident thanks to this." The Garg Realm Champion said, wielding his Satellite Realm weapon in reality. "It does amplify your power, but that''s all it does. Against our opponents, it''s not enough," Wally advised the Garg Realm Champion before facing the rest. "The eight representatives have already emerged. Based on their current course, the White Tiger and the Turmul would reach the TTT first. There''s at least a couple of weeks before the second group reaches the other Greater Realms." "So¡­" Taking in a deep breath, Wally said with conviction, "Let''s go." "We''ll overwhelm our opponents." Chapter 1559 Leaving the Graveyard of Gods Chapter 1559 Leaving the Graveyard of Gods "Huff¡­ puff!" Krune gasped for breath as lightning sparked all across his body. Standing alongside him was Mon-Tu-Casha, similarly exhausted but full of vigor. The two suddenly held hands as a mystical power resonated between the two, unleashing a white bolt of lightning that devoured everything in its path, slamming into the figure of the 1st Generation God King, slamming him into the ground, causing him to cough out blood before turning immobile, unable to get up. If not for the fact that he couldn''t die, he would have died a dozen times by now, gasping for breath as he looked at the duo in pride. "The two of you have grown tremendously." "Krune! You okay?" Immediately, hundreds of Wisp Gods congregated around the weak Krune, quickly healing him back to full health while nursing him. The Wisp Gods had been the ones taking care of Krune. After all, in their eyes, he was akin to their cute grandson, for it had been six whole generations before a Wisp God had emerged before them. So, they treated him as if he was the most precious in the greater universe. Following them were the True Spirit Gods, who treated him as their long-lost grandson, practically spoiling him rotten with the care they gave him. Not only had they been teaching him everything they knew about the wisps and their racial techniques, but they were also imparting their knowledge of fighting, politics, powers of Primordial Beasts, and so on. Everything they knew about was drilled into Krune. As they were the first generation of Gods in the Graveyard of Gods, they had been here the longest, having talked with every other God that had followed into the place after them. With that, all the information they had been collecting until now was poured into Krune, beaten into him until he made these experiences his own. These Gods had reached a whole new height in terms of wielding Mental Energy, able to impart Krune with experiences and the likes, things that a wisp needed the most to grow, causing his growth to experience a spike in response. As for Mon-Tu-Casha, every Champion pampered her. After all, her power was something even beyond the Champion State unleashed by everyone but was still somewhat similar. So, the Champions trained her in everything. All these were only supplementary as the 8th Generation God King was the one that wholeheartedly taught the two, causing their strength to improve by leaps and bounds. As to what direction they grew? It was to kill! And to kill whom? The Primordial Beasts! As the greatest killer to date in the eight generations of the Greater Universe, the eighth-generation God King solely taught them the methods to use their abilities and kill the fastest and most efficiently. Following that, the other seven God Kings acted as their training partners. At first, they casually destroyed Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha. But as the duo trained, soaking up the experiences from Gods of eight generations, their growth was alarming, especially since they weren''t dead and were still hatchlings in terms of Gods. So, they grew tremendously. Moreover, the act of the various realms becoming Vassal Realms to the Kun and Mong Realms further reinforced them. The power of the Keys in the various Vassal Realms reinforced Mon-Tu-Casha. As for Krune, the Tribulation Lightning in the Vassal Realms reinforced him. This resulted in their base strength growing at a monstrous pace. Using that chance, as they soaked up various experiences and trained nonstop, their growth rose exponentially. Eventually, by combining their power, the two were even able to defeat the 1st Generation God King. "Unfortunately, our time has run out," the 8th Generation God King said. "So, you''ll have to leave this place and return to the Greater Universe." "How''re the preparations regarding that?" He then faced Zoitan-Kutang, asking her. "It''s ready," Zoitan-Kutang said, patting Luvile on the shoulder. "Thankfully, his existence makes everything easier. We can make them leave without alerting the Tiangou Chief that''s guarding this place." "I''ll come back for you, Luvile," Krune said in all seriousness, gazing at Luvile. "Please wait a little longer. I''ll revive you." "You needn''t wait that long." Mon-Tu-Casha snorted in disdain as she looked at Luvile. "I''ll bring the lot of you outside before Krune even has a chance to fart. Then again, that''s all he ever does." "Nah. If you weren''t that useless, I wouldn''t need to fart in the first place." Krune retorted. ''You''ve come a long way to seal your hatred, Krune.'' Luvile looked at Krune in pride, watching him argue with Mon-Tu-Casha as if they were mere rivals, gently patting him on the head. "Be careful." "I''m confident in your strength," Luvile said as he looked at the two individuals before him. "Reign victorious, you two. Protect our Greater Universe." "We will," Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha replied simultaneously. "Let''s begin." Zoitan-Kutang nodded at Luvile as she gradually dispersed her Godly Energy, erecting a formation that dug into Luvile''s body, gradually causing him to collapse into the purest form of the Tribulation Lightning Law. Since Krune inherited his power from Luvile, including his comprehension of the Tribulation Lightning Law, not to mention them living as one for a long time, Zoitan-Kutang intended to use Luvile to harness the power of Mon-Tu-Casha''s Keys and transfer it through Krune''s Tribulation Lightning once he stole a bit of her power. Following that, she would transport them into Luvile''s Law World, which was situated in the Greater Universe Law World, from which it was easy to leave through Mon-Tu-Casha''s power. Boom! Suddenly, the space in the region began to crack as Zoitan-Kutang said in a hurry, "Quick! Leave! It seems the Tiangou Chief has noticed our actions, that cunning bastard." "Leave it to me," the 1st Generation God King said as he flew into the crack, grunting as he used his power to actually close the crack shut, watching the large eye gazing at him from the other side. It was the Tiangou Chief glaring at him, having detected his little scheme. In response, the 1st Generation God King only smiled. "Too late, fucker. Even if you consume me now, you won''t obtain my pinnacle abilities." "I''ve already dispatched them with Krune." Chapter 1560 Tiangou Turmul Chapter 1560 Tiangou Turmul "Warakh, something feels strange." Turmul the Tiangou spoke all of a sudden, gazing at the gigantic spatial storm barrier that surrounded the TTT in a protective embrace. But, unlike the spatial storms that he could casually drink like water, the spatial storm barrier was dangerous even to him. After all, as he focused his senses, he was able to notice billions upon billions of maggots squirming around through the spatial storm barrier, traveling at terrifying speeds by turning into lightning bolts from time to time. Moreover, the spatial storm energy itself seemed different. It still possessed the same destructive power, but the form was different compared to what they were used to. This was a destructive energy that wasn''t beneficial to them but might even harm them. ''So, this is a Realm Ability.'' Turmul frowned in thought, observing that even though the spatial storm barrier was a weak filament before him, it was troublesome in that it could absorb the spatial storm from the void and regenerate nonstop. Moreover, it was autonomous in nature. "Look out!" Just as he planned to continue observing, Warakh the White Tiger shouted in alarm as her figure flickered, leaping far away when a sphere containing a dense power slammed into Turmul, sending him crashing into the spatial storm barrier surrounding the TTT. "What the¡­?" She turned around, looking at the figure of the Garg Realm Champion standing a fair distance away. Her face began to sweat a little, noticing a small dent on Turmul''s body. ''He''s able to dent Turmul? Already?'' Even though Turmul was in his human form, such an action was shocking, especially since the Garg Realm Champion hadn''t entered his Champion State yet. "Hahaha! This is interesting!" Turmul laughed as he extricated himself from the spatial storm barrier, dusting his clothes as he had barely been injured. As for the dent on his body? It had vanished. He gazed at the Garg Realm Champion, saying, "So, you''re the Garg Realm Champion, the only one that dared face the King of Gods head on." "You''re strong, as expected. But..." His face tilted as his figure vanished, appearing before the Garg Realm Champion to send in a punch. "Even the God King is nothing before me." Gong! A thunderous sound resounded as the Garg Realm Champion remained in the same place. Instead, in the place he was punched at, there existed a sphere, his Satellite Realm weapon. It had blocked the punch in its entirety. Turmul noticed that his punch was still traveling towards the Garg Realm Champion, just that the space had been extended to the extent it would take him ages to reach his target. Moreover, the closer his hand was to the Garg Realm Champion, the heavier his body felt. "Interesting," Turmul said as he suddenly relaxed his hand, flicking his finger when the Garg Realm Champion''s expression morphed, watching the space he created be ripped apart forcefully before he was sent flying. ''So soon?'' He was shocked, noticing cracks forming on his Satellite Realm weapon. ''How the hell did the God King face such a monster on his own?'' "Are you done already?" Turmul smirked as he flickered before the Garg Realm Champion when a tinge of his lifeforce leaked out of his body, absorbed into the entity that had appeared all of a sudden. Immediately after, the absorbed lifeforce swerved into the Garg Realm Champion''s Satellite Realm weapon, healing its cracks instantly. "Thanks, Wally." The Garg Realm Champion nodded in relief before extending his hand, erupting with power as a beam of energy slammed into him, making him enter his Champion State. "What the¡­?" Warakh shouted in surprise when suddenly, a pair of mouths formed over the spatial storm barrier and swallowed her, transporting her inside the spatial storm barrier. "So, you want to separate us." Turmul nodded in response, unaffected as he said, "Are you really underestimating her?" His eyes turned dangerous as he glared at the two. "Or are you underestimating me?" "Depending on which of the two it is, the fate of all your realms would be decided." "Tch!" Wally clicked his tongue, communicating with the Garg Realm Champion. "The most we can do is stall him. And even that might be tough considering his powers. He seems stronger than Tallo." "I can sense that clearly. There''s no hope of us being able to kill him even if we sacrifice ourselves ten times." The Garg Realm Champion sighed in response. ''Even after having 19 Vassal Realms and getting my Law strengthened a lot as compared to before, as expected, I''ve yet to reach the God King''s level.'' "But no matter, this was why I''ve prepared for an offensive Realm Ability," he muttered as immediately after, Wally unleashed a pulse of Godly Energy as a portal appeared before him, created by the Rune Realm Spirit. A dozen Satellite Realms flew out of the portal, revolving around the Garg Realm Champion as the Garg Realm Spirit was controlling them all through its Realm Ability. As for their mode of communication, it was instantaneous thanks to his Champion State, allowing it to wield it the best. Whoosh! A Satellite Realm flew forth, shrinking itself to the limit as it slammed into the side of Turmul, causing him to grunt as he was sent flying. A small dent formed on his body while cracks appeared on the Satellite Realm due to the impact. Wally extended his hands, stealing some of Turmul''s lifeforce before seeping it into the Satellite Realm, watching it heal rapidly in response. ''As expected of a Primordial Beast. Not only is its lifespan almost infinite, but its quality is also potent enough to have a nurturing effect on Realms itself.'' Wally thought, a reason he had joined the battle. The Garg Realm Champion attacked Turmul while relying upon the Satellite Realms to damage the opponent while Wally hid behind him, stealing a tinge of Turmul''s lifeforce regularly to heal the damage sustained by both the Garg Realm and the Satellite Realms he wielded. "So, the two of you are stalling¡­" Turmul frowned, shuddering when suddenly, Warakh''s scream resounded from within the spatial storm barrier surrounding the TTT, startling him. "What the¡­?" Chapter 1561 The Spark Returns Chapter 1561 The Spark Returns "Shit!" Warakh the White Tiger screamed in shock when the spatial storm swallowed her, separating her from Turmul. Even though she wasn''t scared, she couldn''t afford to be careless either. After all, Zeit, the Kun Peng, purposefully warned them all to be on the top of their senses, for their enemies weren''t as weak as the previous generations. Unfortunately, there was still a tinge of arrogance in her heart, having been a Primordial Beast that never had to worry about Gods all her life. So, she indeed looked down on them. But the moment she entered the TTT, Warakh was shocked, staring at the vast network of realms that had been established here. There were 11 realms in total, each almost infinite to the residents within, occupying a large enough space while absorbing a terrifying extent of the spatial storm. As for the spatial storm, it was being supplied by a Satellite Realm resembling the Rune Realm. One entrance of it was in the void within the barrier covering TTT, while the other was situated within a spatial storm in one of the densest regions of the Greater Universe. This way, the spatial storm from there would be absorbed by the realms, thereby ensuring the Primordial Beasts wouldn''t be able to determine their foundation based on the rate of spatial storm absorption. After all, all the realms had long since stopped absorbing energy from the spatial storm nearby, preventing any activity from happening beyond their spatial storm barrier. This way, any invading Primordial Beast would be caught unaware, just like Warakh, that stared at the realms, stupefied. In the center of the circle of 11 realms was a cluster formed by four realms, with the Geho Realm taking the center, forming the core of the TTT. "Vassal Realms!" Warakh muttered in shock. Initially, she and everyone else had only thought that the Greater Realms had only piled up the other realms next to one another to fight together. What they hadn''t predicted was everyone becoming Vassal Realms so easily. Even in the previous generations, this never happened, for no realm would simply submit. However, things were different in this generation, thanks to the existence of the God King that had killed the Primordial Beast, Tallo. It meant that if their Champions reached his level, they would be able to kill the Primordial Beasts, thereby causing everyone to submit to the Greater Realms. Had the God King failed to kill Tallo, none would be confident in their chances of killing a Primordial Beast, thereby focusing on secluding themselves as much as possible while hoping that the Primordial Beasts don''t chance upon them. "Attack!" Feifei bellowed as immediately after, her master Yloka erupted with all his strength, causing the 108 Divine Deities to appear from portals that the Rune Realm condensed, surrounding Warakh. "Dammit!" Warakh just reacted when suddenly, her senses rang out in a hurry, causing her to flinch as she noticed a gigantic figure appear behind her, preventing her from escaping by puncturing the spatial storm barrier. With a spherical body made from the spatial storm, it hulked above the rest of its kind, possessing six pairs of arms as its eyes glinted with a dangerous hue. Moreover, the spatial storm wasn''t the type that the Primordial Beasts could use but rather was full of Sterlena''s Heavenly Destruction Law. This way, they were still the spatial storm, but something the Primordial Beasts couldn''t consume, for it would eat them up from the inside. And, among all the entities, the one behind her was the most menacing, the strongest out of them all, Kun Realm''s trump card. Divine Deity King! Of course, once the war declaration had been done, every God began to discuss a plan of action. With that, Wally had expressed a simple but straightforward plan. "The four Greater Realms are insanely far from each other. This means that the Primordial Beasts would take time to reach each location. And considering how there are eight of them and four Greater Realms, due to their pride, they would only move in teams of two, not more," Wally proposed, drawing up a sketch of the Rune Realm''s portals. "So, we''ll calculate the realm that will be hit first and concentrate all our forces there. We''ll stall one of them while the rest gang up on the second Primordial Beast and kill it as quickly as possible. We''ll then target the second Primordial Beast." "If things work out as planned, we''ll be able to at least reduce our enemies by two." And to sense the movements of the Primordial Beasts, the miniature Soul Trading Hubs created by Heavin before he was sealed were placed in all the known safe zones in the void. Even the Primordial Beasts would use the already mapped routes to travel towards the Greater Realms, for that was the fastest. Hence, the miniature Soul Trading Hubs there would detect their movements and transmit the information to the Kun Realm Soul Trading Hub. Following that, Wally would make the decision as everyone would use the Rune Realm to arrive at the designated Greater Realm to ambush their opponents. And to ensure that it was able to handle such transportation, the Kun Realm piled up all its produced resources for a century as Gegrafikan and Hazak worked tirelessly to upgrade the Rune Realm as much as possible, making its foundation reach the peak levels of a Satellite Realm. Boom! The Divine Deity King punched forth, sending Warakh reeling further away from the spatial storm barrier, causing her to scream in pain as she transformed into her Primordial Beast form, screaming. But the moment she began to scream, a dozen Mong Realm Gods used the Rune Realm to jump through a portal that formed before her mouth as immediately after, their bodies began to crack, erupting with their strongest attack. This was something that had once been used against the Kun Realm and various other realms to target their geniuses. But now, it was used against opponents that planned to destroy their Greater Universe. "Hashaha!" The Mong Realm Gods laughed aloud, roaring as they stared at the stupefied expression of Warakh. "Don''t underestimate the Mong Realm Gods!" "We''re the strongest among the battle Gods!" Their entire foundation was consumed as within a fraction of a second, time seemed to have paused as multiple masses of destructive energies blasted forth. Godly Ability¡ªSpark! Chapter 1562 Four Trump Cards Chapter 1562 Four Trump Cards The Spark was a purely destructive ability that converted a cultivator''s entire foundation into a destructive force that annihilated everything in its immediate vicinity. Even the explosion resulting from a Godly Fusion Realm cultivator was strong enough to injure a Nascent God Realm cultivator. It was a destructive strength capable of skipping three cultivation realms. And the stronger one''s foundation, the greater the destructive strength unleashed. So, what of the Mong Realm Gods with the greatest of foundation? As the Mong Realm''s Realm Ability was to revive the Gods, it allowed them to abuse the power of the Spark and turn into suicidal bombs, delivering all their power instantly to unleash the greatest damage. Moreover, they could easily revive. After all, they themselves had been the cause of their deaths and not the Primordial Beasts. In short, their Realm Ability was still functional. This was one of the major reasons the Mong Realm was confident in killing the Primordial Beasts. Even if their strength proved lacking, they could carpet bomb the Primordial Beasts into annihilation. And now, the strength of the entire Greater Universe was concentrated on Warakh, the White Tiger, as the dozen Mong Realm Gods exploded in her mouth, resulting in a catastrophic explosion that actually vaporized a good fraction of her mouth. "Ga¡­ hh¡­ ah!" Warakh failed to even let out a complete scream, for her throat had been damaged from the attack. "It''s working!" Dur-Te-Sara said, clenching her hand into a fist as her eyes shone viciously. "For daring to kill my husband, you''ll pay dearly." "More! Rush into her! Annihilate her!" "Yes!" The Mong Realm Gods roared in response as they jumped into the Rune Realm, appearing out of the portals that manifested throughout Warakh''s body as they exploded one after another. "Kieeee!" Warakh wasn''t able to use her terrifying speed to escape, constricted by the Divine Deities. As her body was tremendously huge, the Divine Deities were able to hold her back without becoming collateral damage under the suicidal attacks of the Mong Realm Gods. And that wasn''t all. Standing at the very front of Warakh was the Dolk Realm Champion, having already activated his Champion state. Moreover, he had also wholly borrowed the power of the Lak Realm and the Fon Realm Champion, using their representative laws to unleash terrifying attacks that hindered her from escaping. Mental Attack! All the weaker Gods that couldn''t participate in the fight supported with Mental Energy attacks, targeting her mind to delay her actions as much as possible. "She''s not suffering as much damage!" Dur-Te-Sara grunted in annoyance, for Warakh''s body was just too huge. Even with a few dozen Mong Realm Gods exploding on her body, the damage sustained still wasn''t enough to critically injure her. A moment''s delay would allow her to break free of the encirclement and escape outside, allowing her to come in contact with the spatial storm that would regenerate her body rapidly. At least here, any spatial storm that she attracted was absorbed by the Divine Deities and converted into power that constricted her further. Boom! The Mong Realm''s infamous Satellite Realm Cannons aimed and shot terrifying beams at her face, riddling her with further injuries. Rawr! Warakh slashed forth with her paws, unleashing a terrifying energy swipe that was strong enough to destroy entire Satellite Realms, aiming at the Satellite Realm Cannons. But suddenly, a spatial storm barrier formed around the Satellite Realm Cannons, bursting from the attack but managing to protect them from harm. Of course, all four Greater Realms were in on this, having pooled their resources to strengthen their collective might in total. The Mong Realm would cause their Gods to unleash suicidal attacks to wound their opponents as quickly as possible. The Kun Realm was in charge of the defense, creating a spatial storm barrier as and when necessary to protect their strategic weapons. The Garg Realm was in charge of moving the Divine Deities and all other Satellite Realm weapons the fastest, thereby allowing them to move at speeds on par with the White Tiger. And finally, the TTT worked on the energy balance of the various realms, preventing Warakh from getting a reading on their Godly Energy to perform a counter. With four Realm Abilities in place, their combined strength was on a whole other level. Of course, this also revealed their glaring weakness. Realm Ability, Divine Deities, Satellite Realm Weapons, and the Champions. These were all the trump cards of the four Greater Realms. They didn''t have anything beyond that to rely upon. Of course, Warakh caught on quickly, enduring the attacks as her eyes gleamed cunningly, watching the extent of attacks unleashed by the various Mong Realm Gods'' suicidal charges. ''If this is the level of the strongest Gods, then there''s nothing to worry about. It''s impossible for them to win.'' ''Indeed, the God King was an exception,'' she thought, unleashing a mystical energy wavelength to communicate with Turmul, "How''s the situation on your side?" "I''m facing two troublesome flies, but give me an hour. That should be more than enough to deal with them. They''re strong but nowhere near Tallo''s level," Turmul the Tiangou replied, asking, "I heard your scream, though. Are you alright?" "I''m severely beaten up, but it''s fine. I should last for a couple more hours before the damage becomes critical." Warakh replied. "Considering the extent of resources and energy they are burning up to fight, they don''t wish to use up everything to kill me since they are also gunning to kill you next." "So, help me once you deal with those flies." "Alright, just hang in there," Turmul said in concern. "Tell me if it gets dangerous. I''m still uninjured. I don''t mind suffering a few injuries to break you out of there." "What the¡­ are you flirting with me now?" Warakh asked in surprise. "Of course not! I''m just acting in line with Zeit''s orders. He''s the strongest out of us all, you know." Ignorant of their conversation, countless Gods threw everything they had at Warakh, intending to contribute something, even at least a little. Unfortunately, the attacks of anyone not a Champion or on the level of Wally and the Mong Realm''s left and right hands failed to even scratch Warakh. Staring at the scene, Dur-Te-Sara was nervous, transmitting a Mental Energy stream, "Feifei, how''s it coming along? Is she trapped yet?" Chapter 1563 Representative Leader Chapter 1563 Representative Leader "We''ll still need around ten minutes to finish laying down the formation," Feifei responded immediately. "Ten minutes¡­" Dur-Te-Sara muttered, falling silent for a moment before sighing as she stared at the explosions from the Mong Realm Gods that used the power of the Spark. "I hope we have enough Gods to last that long." "The resource reserve in the Mong Realm is holding up enough," Feifei replied, calculating everything that was happening throughout the entire alliance, forming the brains of the operation. She, Soren, Yloka, and Heavin formed the strategic headquarters that calculated everything. Of course, even though he was sealed, Heavin was able to communicate with them through the Kun Realm Soul Trading Hub. After all, that was part of his body as well. Plus, his Extreme Soul capabilities allowed them to devise the means to constrict Warakh in place so that they could take their time in killing her later. The first part of the plan was the Mong Realm Gods. By exploding, they were also injecting the power of the Spark into Warakh''s body. Every time a Mental Attack was unleashed on her, these Sparks would travel using the gaps they created to spill into her mind, little by little. Eventually, the Spark would take root in her mind, turning her into a trump card strong enough to take down another Primordial Beast with her. But of course, the mind of a Primordial Beast was on a whole other level of structural stability. Even after injecting dozens of full-powered Sparks into her mind, nothing was happening. This was why they needed so long to finish the process. The entirety of the Mong Realm Gods would have to die at least a couple of times before they amassed enough Sparks in her mind. Unfortunately, it was easier said than done as Warakh roared, unleashing a beam that vaporized dozens of Gods. Some were from the Mong Realm, while the rest were from the other realms. And these Mong Realm Gods that were killed by her beam wouldn''t revive anymore. "Kyaaa!" The Mong Realm Spirit screamed in shock before tearing up with a vengeful look, sensing its foundation fall as four of its representative Laws vanished for good, never to return. The greater the number of Gods that died, the greater the damage to its foundation. And if enough were to die before the laws of the Mong Realm adjusted itself, it might even collapse due to the structural instability. The Mong Realm might begin to collapse like the Tilk Realm. And worst of all, due to the 27 Vassal Realms surrounding it, if the Mong Realm were to go down, they too would be caught up in the resulting chaos. After all, a Greater Realm''s destruction would be stronger than a realm''s destruction, the resulting spatial storm being enough to wipe out all Vassal Realms. Boom! "Keuk!" The Dolk Realm Champion grunted in pain, being sent flying away by Warakh''s attacks, muttering in shock, "E-Even after being assisted by two other Laws, I''m still not her match?" "Even if you were to wield a dozen laws, you wouldn''t be my match." Warakh grinned as her throat had already healed by now. To buy more time, she expended the energy in her to heal herself, recovering faster than the damage being dealt to her. She unleashed a shockwave, sending most of the nearby Gods flying, clicking her tongue when a spatial storm barrier appeared to protect them from harm, snickering as she gazed at the Dolk Realm Champion."You''ve lost the moment your God King died. None of you are even close to his level." "The Garg Realm Champion is somewhat decent, but he''s no match for my companion. Your death is assured." Her voice thundered all across the TTT as even the mortals, including the newborn, could hear her thundering voice, shuddering in response. "Your fate is one of demise." "Give up and be assimilated into the storm." "As if!" A loud roar resounded as Dur-Te-Sara personally took action, having noticed Warakh healing faster than she was sustaining wounds, no longer having any intention to command the troops, aware of what needed to be done. Her figure vanished before reappearing above Warakh, punching forth once as, surprisingly, her attack grandly dented Warakh, surprising her. "So, you''re the God King''s wife. No wonder." Warakh just muttered when suddenly, a mighty blow toppled her, breaking a couple of her bones as Dur-Te-Sara''s might erupted in its entirety before suddenly turning her body ethereal. Her representative law turned into meridians that highlighted her transparent body as they flowed in reverse, congregating into one place as Dur-Te-Sara transformed into an arrow and flew into Warakh''s destroyed mouth, sensing mild fear creep up in the body language of the other party. "You were cocky earlier?" "Dammit¡­!" Warakh was shocked before unleashing an energy pulse, desperately calling for help as immediately after, Turmul rushed in, puncturing a hole. Dur-Te-Sara had just activated her power of the Spark, grinning as her body exploded into a terrifying maelstrom when suddenly, every God was slack-jawed, staring in shock at what had just happened. "W-What?" This was her final thought before Dur-Te-Sara s'' consciousness vanished. She stared incredulously at the pair of claws that had appeared mysteriously, grasping the explosion she had resulted in, the strongest the Mong Realm could throw with the power of the Spark. And this entity was casually clutching it with his claws, containing the explosion while barely suffering mild scratches before soon, it clenched them, snuffing out the mighty explosion that would have critically injured Warakh. With the explosion snuffed out was also the hope harbored by the Gods that they had a chance at winning this war against the Primordial Beasts. "I told you to be careful, right?" A heavenly voice resounded through the place, unleashing a terrifying pressure on all the Gods. Some of the weaker Gods directly burst, unable to handle the pressure he emitted. "H-How is this a Primordial Beast of the younger generation?" The Dolk Realm Champion muttered, pale-faced as he stared at the entity that was at least twice the size of Warakh. "He''s an Adult Primordial Beast at the very least." His words rang in the ears of everyone, causing them to lose all hope, for this was the opponent that they wished to fight against the last. After they had taken care of every other Primordial Beast, the strongest Primordial Beast dispatched to ensure the Gods lost the war, leader of the Primordial Beast representatives¡­ Kun Peng¡ªZeit! Chapter 1564 Primordial Heavenly Spark Chapter 1564 Primordial Heavenly Spark "Kun Peng¡­" The emotions of those from the Kun Realm were complex. After all, they had been created by Zeit, a Kun Peng. Moreover, the official name of their realm was the Kun Realm, named in favor of their race. And now, it was a Kun Peng that had arrived to signal their doom. "Why¡­why are you attacking us? What did we ever do to you? Weren''t the Kun Peng supposed to protect us since we''re your creation?" One of the Kun Realm Gods lost his mind, shouting deliriously, grasping at straws at this point, drowned by despair. "Ahh, you''re from the Kun Realm, Zule''s creation." Zeit nodded in understanding as the suffocating pressure vanished on all the Gods as his voice resounded throughout the place. "I''ve always looked up to Zule. He''s the fastest to ever become part of the Older Generation among the Kun Peng, already daring to challenge our Chief." The hierarchy of the Primordial Beasts went like this: Child, Younger Generation, Adult, Older Generation, and Chief. The natural growth in strength of any Primordial Beast stopped at the Adult stage, preventing them from growing stronger. This was the power level where the majority of Primordial Beasts that had lived for long existed at. This was also the natural limitation of the strength of a Primordial Beast, as dictated by the Universe itself. Only those talented, geniuses among geniuses among the Primordial Beasts that innovated their powers would be able to breach past this threshold and reach the Older Generation stage. They could be counted on a single hand despite this being the eighth generation. They were so rare. Even among the Kun Peng, the strongest Primordial Beast race, the number of Older Generation Kun Peng had yet to reach the double digits, even before the war with the Spirit Aberrants. Currently, only two Older Generation Kun Peng were alive, with Zule becoming the third just recently. Therefore, it was apparent that Zule had the talents, means, and power, a reason he dared to challenge the peak that controlled the Greater Universe itself¡ªthe seat of the Chief. After all, as the Kun Peng Chief, it wasn''t an understatement to say that he would be the ruler of the Greater Universe, for all the other seven Chiefs consulted the Kun Peng Chief before doing anything. Moreover, only the Kun Peng had the power of creation. So, this made all the other Chiefs somewhat reliant on the Kun Peng Chief to sustain their race. This was why when Zule wagered the Kun Peng Chief''s life, every other Chief took action spontaneously, supporting the Kun Peng Chief. "Zule is an ambitious individual, but I feel like he had made a bit of a miscalculation," Zeit said, his eyes glancing over all the Gods that had gathered here. "I feel like he overestimated the capability of the lot of you." "Especially considering how helpless you are before me." He laughed all of a sudden. "It was a wise decision to focus all your strength on Warakh first. You had a decent chance of killing her. And as long as you played your cards right, you would have been able to kill seven of us." "Only seven," he said as the pressure returned once again, this time preventing the Gods from even blinking as his voice resounded with a tinge of pride as if his words were law. "You see, I''m on a whole other level. I''ve already become an Adult Kun Peng. I could casually kill even your God King, not to mention the rest of you." "But before I do that." He waved his hand, injecting a rapid amount of the spatial storm into Warakh, quickly healing her back to full health, watching the Gods despair further in response, "Too bad. You were close to killing her, but it is what it is." "You weren''t fast enough in killing her¡­." "Are you sure?" Suddenly, Feifei''s voice resounded, echoing throughout the place as Soren hid in her Soul, protecting her, while Yloka mimicked her representative law due to the similarities he shared with hers. Moreover, Heavin veiled her with his power, all combined to ensure that she was fine, able to stand up and move despite the power. "Interesting," Zeit muttered when in truth, his eyes only narrowed, sensing the strong aura of Zule on her. This was why he hadn''t attacked yet, aware that those especially nurtured by Zule hadn''t made an appearance yet. But now that Feifei had arrived, he turned serious, sensing four auras from Feifei, three of which contained Zule''s aura. Whether it was Feifei, Yloka, or Heavin, they were born with special constitutions or capabilities that weren''t ever seen again. Of course, it was a master plan from Zule. As Zeit stared at her, all Feifei did in response was strike a cute pose and stick out her tongue. "Just kidding." Her tone strangely turned hoarse as she snapped her finger. "What are you doing? Shouldn''t you advertise it among the Primordial Beasts too?" "Of my Laughing Tower?" "Hahaha!" Suddenly, Warakh began to roar in laughter, feeling like she had heard the funniest joke of the millennium before suddenly, a spatial storm burst out of her in torrents as she lunged at her nearest target¡ªZeit. Alarmed at her strangeness, Zeit vanished, reappearing far away. As her target had vanished, she changed targets, pouncing upon Turmul as the two punctured the spatial storm barrier once again, flying out at terrifying speeds as if Warakh was combusting all her power to do so. "Turmul! Evade it!" His senses rang as Zeit shouted in alarm, unleashing a beam of energy in an effort to protect Turmul. Unfortunately, it was too late as suddenly, Warakh''s body turned transparent as all her power was condensed in her center. "Well, I''ll be damned¡­" Turmul smiled wryly as he was immediately drowned out by an explosive energy, one that caused the entire region to turn static as a violent self-fuelling force of nature formed a gigantic revolving sphere, consuming everything within its sphere of influence. "Now!" The Garg Realm Champion shouted as the Garg Realm Spirit expended more than half its stored reserves, moving the entire TTT away from the blast radius of the explosion. "Hahaha¡­ how was it?" Feifei laughed, falling unconscious immediately, having attacked the mind of a Primordial Beast on her own, completing the final steps of the process herself to make Warakh a member of her Laughing Tower. "That''s my Primordial Heavenly Spark, the first in the history of the Greater Universe¡­haah¡­ha¡­" Feifei lost consciousness as Heavin sent her away to safety using the Rune Realm. Chapter 1565 The Actual Trump Card of the GODS Chapter 1565 The Actual Trump Card of the GODS An explosion created by a Primordial Beast was unnaturally terrifying, enveloping Turmul in his entirety, vaporizing his body. "Dammit¡­" Zeit stared at the scene from far away, frowning as he noticed that Warakh''s life signature disappeared in a flash. "One of us died already?" "Shit!" He then noticed Turmul''s life signature collapse to alarming levels, rushing towards the terrifying destructive sphere. "He''s not dead yet." Boom! Zeit unleashed a beam of energy into the sphere of revolving destructive force, penetrating a path before grabbing hold of a tiny body part of Turmul as hiding within was Turmul in his human form, barely alive, currently unconscious. "Feura!" Zeit shouted as suddenly, followed by the flapping of wings, a gigantic Vermillion Bird arrived at the scene, grabbing hold of Turmul as she unleashed a gentle beam of energy, injecting life force into him to rapidly begin his healing session. "Don''t allow them to heal the Tiangou!" Wally shouted as he roared in power, pulling the lifeforce the Vermillion Bird was injecting into Turmul, swallowing it instead as his power level grew enormously, having swallowed a Primordial Beast''s lifeforce. "Hmph!" Zeit snorted upon seeing Wally''s plan, swiping his claws to unleash a horizontal slash that traveled at terrifying speeds, enough to annihilate everyone. Boom! The Satellite Realm Cannons took this chance to unleash their beam attacks onto the slash, stalling it enough as multiple spatial storm barriers appeared between the two, tanking the attack as Wally continued to steal life force from both the Vermillion Bird and Turmul, preventing Turmul from healing up. Bam! A Satellite Realm flashed out of the Rune Realm and crashed into the head of Feura the Vermillion Bird, sending her flying from the impact, causing Turmul to slip out of her hold. "Kill him!" The Garg Realm Champion bellowed as he charged in his Champion state, chucking out gigantic gravity spheres at Turmul, intending to end his life. "Charge!" The Dolk Realm Champion followed suit, erupting with his strongest attack while the Mong Realm Gods appeared before Zeit, exploding in droves as more than a hundred unleashed the power of the Spark simultaneously. This was to prevent Zeit from interfering with their attacks so that they could kill Turmul. As long as they killed another Primordial Beast, they would have an easier time. They had already suffered disastrous losses as quite a few Gods had already died permanently. "Damn you¡­!" Whenever Zeit planned an attack, dozens of spatial storm barriers appeared, tanking the majority of its power before Sterlena, the Garg Realm Champion, and the Dolk Realm Champion attacked him nonstop. As the three strongest Champions, their attacks hurt him the most. Of course, Sterlena wasn''t blindly attacking as she flew towards the violent sphere of destructive energy created by Warakh, stopping as she took a deep breath. "I''ll leave the rest to you, Turia." "Big aunty! Do it!" Turia shouted from the Kun Realm, confident in her as this was the scheme Feifei had concocted to fight against their enemies, their true trump card. What was the Spark about? It was an ability of the mind that caused one to condense the entirety of their self into their center to such a pressurized extent that they lost all control and resulted in a terrifying explosion. And what was the energy makeup of this explosion? It had been and would always be the same¡­ Godly Energy! The destructive attack was Godly Energy in its most violent, untamed form, the reason it had worked the best in destroying things. After all, Godly Energy was the energy used to unleash any power through the Laws. It was the medium connecting cultivators and Laws. The same was true for the laws and the world they made up. The Mong Realm had created the Spark not only to destroy the geniuses of the Kun Realm but to also weaken their foundation. It had to be noted that when Sterlena attempted her final tribulation for the first time, her daughter became a member of the Abolition Tower, resulting in a terrifying explosion that resulted in the foundation of the continent itself taking damage. The laws there were so messed up that there was no Godly Energy there, preventing any life from sustaining themselves. Though, this damage to the laws became Luvile''s opportunity as he took the chance to tap into the damaged Tribulation Lightning Law there, eventually gaining comprehension of it. And as the laws of the place were damaged, the power of the realm itself that prevented cultivators from comprehending the Tribulation Lightning Law didn''t take effect, allowing Luvile to become the God of Tribulations. And now, Sterlena stared at the gigantic swirling sphere of destructive energy capable enough to destroy an entire realm. "This is my cue, huh." She extended her hand, grunting in exertion as a tendril slithered out of the sphere and gently coiled around her hand, causing her to flinch at the contact. "Urgh, it''s too destructive." "But, this is my responsibility as the Champion!" She bellowed in response, pulling out countless tendrils that gradually began to revolve around her. What was the innate ability wielded by the race blessed with everything, typically called the daughter of heavens? Godly Energy Domination! True Spirits were capable of controlling Godly Energy. And as a True Spirit God, not to mention being the Champion of the Kun Realm, Sterlena was capable of taking this ability to the extreme. And hence, Feifei had come up with a scheme. First was to use the capability of the Mong Realm Gods to suicide with the power of the Spark. As they had been injecting and wielding the Spark for so long, they were the most experienced in controlling it. Meaning, they could use it to affect even a Primordial Beast, which they pulled off somehow, even though Feifei had to execute the last run through the Divine Deities that had latched onto Warakh. Optimally, once Warakh became a member of the Laughing Tower, she would commit suicide and take down another Primordial Beast with her. Even otherwise, they weren''t entirely counting on it but instead on the resultant explosive sphere of energy that Warakh would be creating. After all, this energy was what Sterlena could wield, for it was capable of injuring Primordial Beasts, as evidenced by Turmul''s current unconscious state. As the brains of the alliance, Feifei had truly planned it deep. This was their true trump card. Chapter 1566 I’ll Buy Time, Little Bro Chapter 1566 I¡¯ll Buy Time, Little Bro "Haah... hah... haaah... gah!" Sterlena''s pants resounded as the violent Godly Energy circulated around her. She noticed that her body was gradually vaporizing, unable to handle such a strain. ''However, I have to do it, no matter what!'' She gritted her teeth, clenching her hand into a fist as she began to condense the violent Godly Energy, transforming them into fluttering butterflies that warped large distances before targeting Turmul. Unfortunately, right before they slammed into Turmul, Feura condensed a sea of flames that blocked them. The butterflies crashed into the sea of flames and destroyed each other equally. Or rather, a larger portion of the sea of flames was destroyed. Feura became solemn at the scene, whispering to Zeit, "Things just became troublesome. Do we evade for the time being?" "No..." Zeit stared at Sterlena, frowning as he said, "The longer we give her, the more she''ll weaponize this energy. Even if she dies, another True Spirit will take the helm. Even if their control of it is lacking, they can still use it to wound us the best." "So, before she weaponizes that energy completely, take her down!" He immediately unleashed a mystical energy fluctuation as immediately Wally''s face paled, connected to the Kun Realm Soul Trading Hub, being informed by Heavin of the happenings. Among the groups heading towards the Garg Realm and the Mong Realm, one Primordial Beast from each had turned around, heading their way instead. This made things worse for them, especially since they already had two Primordial Beasts to worry about, not to mention the healing Turmul. If two more were to be added into the mix, their annihilation was guaranteed. Even now, they were helpless against Zeit alone, barely able to resist by burning up more of their resources faster. Among the Azure Dragon and the Black Turtle heading towards the Garg Realm, the Azure Dragon had turned around, speeding towards the TTT. Moreover, the Black Turtle suddenly burst out at its top speed, rapidly closing in on the Garg Realm, turning the situation dangerous. After all, whether it was the Garg Realm or the Mong Realm, both were defenseless as all combatants had been dispatched to the TTT. Even though they could return in a second thanks to the Rune Realm, it would result in their forces being split up. And when split up, they would amount to nothing. Had this been earlier, then the alliance could simply switch over to the Garg Realm and ganged up on the lone Black Turtle. Unfortunately, they were relying upon the destructive Godly Energy to attack their enemies. And, there was no guarantee Sterlena would be able to repeat it a second time, considering how her body was constantly vaporizing as a result of wielding the destructive Godly Energy. Simply switching over battlefields would cause her to burn through the rest of her Law, resulting in a faster death without achieving much. Moreover, they couldn''t just abandon the TTT. That would be akin to losing one-fourth of their power, especially since the Dolk Realm Champion was the only one other than the Garg Realm Champion that had the power to injure a Primordial Beast. But the reason Wally became ashen-faced was because of the second news. Among the Primordial Beasts heading towards the Mong Realm, the Qilin was still on course, expending greater energies to approach the Mong Realm faster. As for the Taotie, it had turned around upon Zeit''s call, returning to the TTT. Every other Primordial Beast could be handled to a certain extent, but not the Taotie. After all, every injury sustained against it was permanent. This meant that even their trump cards could be reduced to unusable after a single round against the Taotie. If they were fighting the Taotie, they had to finish it in one battle. Otherwise, their losses would become disastrous. This was the major reason why Wally was frightened. Among the Primordial Beasts, there was a clear hierarchy in terms of their strength. At the top stood the Kun Peng, following closely at the second was the Taotie, the third was the Qilin, and the fourth was the Tiangou. Fifth to eighth was taken up by the four directions, the weakest among the Primordial Beasts. The Primordial Beasts were split into the upper and lower halves accordingly, a classification established after the annihilation of the Spirit Aberrant race. In that line, they only managed to kill Warakh, the White Tiger, a Primordial Beast among the lower halves. Had they at least managed to kill Turmul, their situation would have been better. "The Azure Dragon and the Taotie will be here soon. They''re approaching at terrifying speeds," Wally shouted, conveying the information to every God through the Soul Trading Hub. This was their communication hub, allowing everyone to coordinate with each other in real-time. "It doesn''t matter," Sterlena said astutely. "As long as we kill Zeit, our chances of victory would be higher. We''ll worry about the Taotie later.'' ''Krune would do something about it,'' she thought, not stating it out loud. Unlike the rest of the Gods, as the Kun Realm Champion, she had the deepest bond with Turia and the Kun Realm. And through that, she was able to feel the laws of Tribulation Lightning and Hunger turning stronger with the passing of every second, at alarming levels, in fact, stupefying her. This was what assured her enough to go all out without caring about her death. For she knew that as long as she bought enough time until Krune''s return, things would turn out for the best when he arrived. After all, she was able to feel the ginormous two Laws that were now propping up the entire Kun Realm''s foundation, and both of them originated from Krune. In comparison, her own Law felt puny, like an ant being compared to a human. That was how vast Krune''s growth had become. ''So, I''ll only need to injure them all enough until he comes to take care of them all." Thinking as such, Sterlena began to conjure more and more butterflies that she scattered throughout the battlefield, targeting both Zeit and Feura, causing them to place most of their focus on her. ''I''ll buy time until you return, little bro.'' Chapter 1567 Increased Danger Chapter 1567 Increased Danger "Attack!" Dur-Te-Sara revived as she rushed out of the portal created by the Rune Realm, evading attacks by Feura as she latched onto the latter, exploding into a terrifying vortex of energy once again, injuring the opponent severely. But no matter how she was attacked, Feura constantly protected Turmul, keeping him in her beak as she unleashed violent flames capable of destroying everything in their path, burning up countless Gods that failed to evade on time. Boom! Suddenly, one of the Vassal Realms under the TTT showed signs of cracking, beginning to crumble soon enough as all its Gods had died. With that, it no longer had enough foundation to sustain itself, fracturing due to the highly intensive spatial storms unleashed by the two Primordial Beasts. Zeit wasn''t just attacking the Gods but also unleashing spatial storms at the Vassal Realms, causing them to suffer extensive damage. At least, the Vassal Realms with more Gods were able to hold on somehow. But for Vassal Realms with less than ten Gods, the moment a few of them died while protecting their realm from the attacks, their realm lost its foundation following their deaths. And with that, the first of the Vassal Realms began to crumble. "Dammit!" The Dolk Realm Champion paled in response, struggling to fight as he made eye contact with Zeit. He had been attacking with all his strength from the start but hadn''t been able to do much other than thwart Zeit''s attacks. He wasn''t able to injure the other party yet. "Argh!" Sterlena unleashed a bellow as she condensed the destructive Godly Energy into a sphere, aiming it at Feura to unleash a beam, targeting her beak. She wished to breach through the beak and kill the healing Turmul inside. Only then could she relax a little. "Our reserves have already fallen to fifty percent¡­" Dur-Te-Sara frowned in response, sensing that the damage inflicted on her opponents wasn''t much. Unfortunately, the opponents had too much spatial storm in reserve to heal, preventing any injury they sustained from becoming dangerous. All injuries healed in a matter of seconds. And there was an endless reserve of the spatial storm for them to rely on. In contrast, the energy and resources stored in the realms were dwindling sharply, especially in the case of the Mong Realm, where its Gods were reviving endlessly. It had to be noted that a Primal God alone was capable of consuming a continent''s worth of resources. At most, three Primal Gods could sustain themselves through a continent''s resource production. The continents in Greater Realms produced more thanks to their stronger foundation, but the number only increased from three to five. A supercontinent was barely able to meet a God''s needs. And this was only to sustain their cultivation. But what about revival? The resources needed should be of the same law as their representative law and should have enough quality that their law within could reform their bodies. Such high-quality resources were rare. Using lower quality resources for revival would mean a longer revival time, as their bodies would have to gradually extract the lower quality laws in the resources, then refine them to a high extent before merging them to form their body. Moreover, the Greater Realms had all been busy waging wars until a century ago, trying their everything to grow stronger. Hence, their resource storage wasn''t high in the first place. Even after the arrival of the Vassal Realms, they had less than a century to prepare. This meant that they didn''t have enough time to extract enough resources from the Vassal Realms to store in their treasury. Had there been around ten thousand years to prepare, the Greater Realms would have been ready to face the Primordial Beasts, especially since all forces had joined hands, pooling their abilities together. Unfortunately, things progressed at times beyond one''s control. So, they did everything they could in the century of preparation time they were given. Boom! The beam of destructive Godly Energy slammed into Feura, scraping past a layer of her flesh, causing her to scream in response as even the layer of fire covering her was destroyed as a result. Boom! Another beam of destructive Godly Energy turned into a whip and smacked her, transforming into a thorny whip whose thorns pierced through her body. "Get wrecked!" Sterlena bellowed as she pulled back the thorny whip, lacerating a good portion of Feura''s legs. "Argh!" The Dolk Realm Champion flinched in shock when Zeit attacked him, sighing in relief when dozens of spatial storm barriers protected him. If not for these barriers, Zeit''s rampages would have killed them all by now. "Attack!" The Garg Realm Champions shouted in a hurry, unleashing all his power onto Zeit while Wally tailed him from behind, constantly siphoning lifeforce from the Primordial Beasts to fuel into the Satellite Realms that slammed into Zeit. The Garg Realm Spirit was controlling the various Satellite Realms to attack Zeit. And when damaged, Wally healed them. "Gah!" Suddenly, Wally shouted in shock, noticing a crack forming in his Wisp Core, turning around in a hurry to see a humanoid entity standing a fair distance away from him. "T-T-Taotie?" Wally muttered in shock as he was sent flying by the newcomer. "Was I late, Zeit?" Gautikh the Taotie asked as he looked around, observing the state of the battlefield, noticing the rate of exhaustion on the faces of most Gods, muttering in surprise, "It seems I wasn''t even needed. You would have been able to take care of it on your own, Zeit." "Maybe after a day, yes. But, I feel like they''re still hiding a couple of trump cards," Zeit said, pointing at Sterlena. "There''s a True Spirit Champion there." "A True Spirit?" Gautikh was surprised, exclaiming in surprise, "They''re worthy of being considered trump cards of their own." "But..." He smiled. "She''s too young to be a threat to us. Maybe if she had reached their God King''s level, she would be threatening. Unfortunately¡­" He said, observing Sterlena''s body dissipating steadily while she wielded the destructive Godly Energy. "That doesn''t seem to be the case." Chapter 1568 Zule’s Champion Chapter 1568 Zule¡¯s Champion Cough! Sterlena coughed out blood that vaporized immediately after, feeling the strain of going beyond what she was capable of. She riled up her innate ability, unleashing countless chains of the destructing Godly Energy to wrap around Gautikh, the newly arrived Taotie, trying her best to keep him at bay. After all, he alone was able to severely wound everyone and drop their fighting strength. "Hahaha! How long can you last, True Spirit?" Gautikh only laughed in response, riling up his spatial storm to constantly pressure the destructive Godly Energy, forcing Sterlena to focus all her attention on him. This way, Zeit and Feura were able to move freely as their wounds began to heal up rapidly. Sterlena had been wounding them the most. And now that she was constricted by Gautikh, Zeit was able to attack easily as dozens of spatial storm barriers were punctured easily, unable to stop him any longer. Boom! A Divine Deity crumbled as Zeit punched through it, causing the Kun Realm Gods to pale in response. The Satellite Realm Spirit within the Divine Deity didn''t even manage to scream before dying in response. The Divine Deities began to collapse one after another, unable to handle Zeit''s strength. The Divine Deity King condensed a long sword that it slashed forth, making a gash on Zeit''s body as it grunted in response, absorbing a large stream of the spatial storm oozing out from Zeit''s wounds, using them to condense a shield. "You''re pretty troublesome," Zeit muttered in response, launching attacks onto the Divine Deity King rapidly, forcing the other party into a passive. "Shit!" The Garg Realm Champion shouted in alarm, being sent flying by Zeit as he coughed out blood, sensing his representative Law fracturing in response. He hurriedly consumed the energy beam from his Champion state, healing himself before jumping straight into the fight. "Dammit, Wally! Help me!" he shouted, watching the Satellite Realms he controlled shatter one after another. Without Wally to heal them, the damage piled up in a matter of minutes, causing his power to drop rapidly without the Satellite Realms to help him. Rawr! Suddenly, Gautikh grinned in response, taking on his Primordial Beast form, erupting into a gigantic Taotie that sent fear streaming down the spines of all the Gods. He opened his mouth, condensing a violent sphere of spatial storms that was compressed to its limit before being launched onto Sterlena in the form of a beam. "Kyaaa!" Sterlena screamed in response, expending more than half the destructive Godly Energy to defend against the beam attack, staring in shock at her opponent. "How are you this strong?" "I believe I''ve proclaimed to be a lot stronger than Tallo." Gautikh smiled casually as his aura gradually climbed up, reaching the pinnacle of the Younger Generation stage before slowly tipping into the Adult stage, frightening everyone. "Thank you, Zeit." Gautikh smiled while looking at the Kun Peng. "I wouldn''t have been able to become an Adult without your help. A Kun Peng is truly on a whole other level." He then stared at Sterlena after that. "Now, let''s take care of you. Without this energy that you''re relying on, you wouldn''t last long." Roar! He opened his mouth, unleashing a terrifying suction force as suddenly, the chains of the destructive Godly Energy swerved into his mouth, rapidly digested by him. "W-What? H-How is this possible?" Sterlena stared in despair as their trump card was casually being eaten up by their opponent. "My God¡­" Dur-Te-Sara lost all fighting spirit, no longer having any hope of victory. Zeit alone was already terrifying enough that more than a hundred Gods popped up like a balloon, unable to endure the sheer oppressive force he exuded. But now, the Taotie proved a lot more dangerous than he already was, capable of devouring the destructive Godly Energy like it was nothing. If the Kun Peng were the creators, the Taotie were the consumers. And indeed, the destructive Godly Energy was nothing more than a harmful snack to Gautikh. The mild amount of injuries he sustained in the process were healed by consuming a bit of his spatial storm reserves as a few seconds later, he closed his mouth, burping in response, having consumed all the destructive Godly Energy. "Ha¡­ haha¡­ hahaha¡­ is this our end?" Sterlena laughed helplessly, not having the strength to even move her finger, staring at the figure of the Taotie that slowly crept upon her. "Wally! Get up!" The Garg Realm Champion continued to holler in response, staring at the floating figure of Wally that was gravely injured. Godly Energy continued to leak out of his broken Wisp Core, having suffered two direct attacks from Gautikh, unable to recover from this injury. "Dammit!" The Garg Realm Champion shed tears, indignant. "Why did you have to die, God King? If you were still alive, this wouldn''t be happening!" "Keuk!" His Satellite Realm Weapon shattered as the claws of Zeit grabbed hold of him, tightening his hold as the Garg Realm Champion struggled, unable to escape as he was slowly getting crushed under the strength in the claws. "No!" The Garg Realm Spirit bellowed in loss, spiking the beam it unleashed onto the Garg Realm Champion, strengthening him to the limit. But, it didn''t make a difference. The remaining Satellite Realms were too injured to damage Zeit as even when they slammed into him, Zeit casually shrugged them off. Zeit''s other claw held the Divine Deity King at bay while Feura handled the remaining Divine Deities, roaring a sea of flames at the Dolk Realm Champion, vaporizing a good fraction of his representative law. They were all on the verge of death. "No, this is impossible!" Feifei barely managed to wake up as she arrived at the battlefield, staring at the Taotie slowly opening its mouth in an effort to gobble up Sterlena. "Don''t kill her! No!" Tears streamed out of her eyes as Feifei understood what was happening. Their peak experts had either been defeated, captured, or on the verge of being eaten while their trump cards were all used up. They had lost this war. "No! We didn''t!" Godly Energy streamed out of her as Feifei burned her soul, unleashing a fluctuation that spread throughout the space, shouting while harnessing all her emotions, "Where are you¡­" "Krune?" Crackle! Space cracked in response as the violent sounds of thunder resounded. From far off in space, a needle of lightning flashed past, piercing through Gautikh''s mouth as it curved around, piercing Zeit''s arms before slamming into Feura, sending her flying away. The entire space lit up as thunderous bolts spread out in millions, emerging from a tiny blob-like entity that exuded terrifying killing intent on par with Zeit. "You''re finally here¡­" Zeit muttered solemnly, watching his hands be severed by the lightning needle as he muttered, "Zule''s champion." Chapter 1569 Turmul’s Execution of the Tiangou Plan Chapter 1569 Turmul¡¯s Execution of the Tiangou Plan "Is that...?" "Is that a..." Th various Gods muttered in shock, staring at the terrifyingly vast entity that had appeared, feeling as if hope was renewed. "Is that Krune?" Gautikh frowned, feeling a piercing pain as the front portion of his mouth had been destroyed by the penetrating lightning. Only then did he notice flickering sparks before him. As for Sterlena''s figure, it had vanished. Swoosh! Crackle! A lightning bolt flashed throughout the battlefield, grabbing hold of all the injured and fighting before bringing them to one side. "Thank you..." Sterlena said, gazing at the Thundercloud Whale that had saved her. Standing near her were the Dolk and Garg Realm Champions, also saved by it. "Wally..." Krune stared at the injured figure of Wally, now unconscious, focusing on Wally''s signature golden Wisp Core that was now in pieces. Wally wasn''t dead, but he would never be able to wield his strength after this. His life as the Wisp God was now over. But strangely, Krune was calm as he brought Wally to one side, placing him in Feifei''s hands. "Take care of him for me, will you?" "He''s fought hard." Saying so, Krune turned around, staring at the three Primordial Beasts before him. "Leave the rest to me." Saying so, his figure flashed as the Thundercloud Whale vanished, causing Krune''s body to be enveloped into lightning once again as his speed spiked, allowing him to appear behind Feura as he poked with his hand, unleashing a Lightning Needle that pierced a hole through her Primordial Beast hide. "Keuk! He''s strong!" Feura exclaimed in shock. "He''s on the same level as an Adult!" "I can see that," Zeit muttered solemnly, wondering, ''How did he become so strong in such a short time?'' He then sensed a tinge of death aura on Krune''s body that dissipated shortly after, eyes lighting up as he communicated with Feura, "Where''s Turmul? I need to ask him something." "Turmul?" Feura was confused for a second, failing to find him in her beak. "He''s not here!" ''Did Krune get him when his attack targeted her beak?'' Zeit thought before noticing that Turmul was indeed alive. He had escaped from the battlefield, having teleported to the Kun Realm. ''Since when was he able to teleport like this?'' ''Strange, I sensed the aura of four Primordial Beasts when I arrived here. But, there''s only three now.'' Krune frowned, staring at Feura. He had attacked her beak because he sensed another Primordial Beast aura from within, but now, that aura had vanished. As it had been too weak, he wasn''t able to determine who that was as Krune flashed around, evading Feura''s attacks as he transformed into a lightning giant that slammed into Zeit, punching him away. And when Gautikh intended to attack him, he flashed away, unwilling to fight the Taotie. "If that''s the case, then..." Gautikh stared at the group of Gods standing farther away, grinning as he exploded in speed, rapidly approaching them. But suddenly, the space before him exploded, stopping his approach as a pale white light swirled around, condensing a fist that smacked him in the face. "Ahhh!" At the sight of the white light, all the Mong Realm Gods kneeled in joy, roaring in response. "Finally! You''re here!" Dur-Te-Sara sighed in relief, watching the figure of Mon-Tu-Casha walk out of her body, having arrived here using her Law World. "Haah... ha! Dammit!" Mon-Tu-Casha gasped in exhaustion. "I made it in time." ... "What the?" The Qilin that approached the Mong Realm stared in shock after breaking through its spatial storm barrier, noticing that it was empty within. There wasn''t even a speck of the spatial storm within, a region of void and nothing else. The Qilin stared agape for a good few seconds before understanding what had happened, gritting in anger. "They''ve escaped!" Indeed, upon seeing the state of battle at TTT, the Mong Realm and Garg Realm Spirits talked with each other already, causing both to escape using the Garg Realm''s Realm Ability. They began to head towards the Kun Realm, the safest location at the moment. After all, the closer they were to the Kun Realm, the stronger and faster it could create the spatial storm barrier to protect them. "We should have done this from the start!" The Mong Realm Spirit muttered. "But, there''s not enough spatial storm near the Kun Realm to support us all," the Garg Realm Spirit replied. "Doing that would cause us to burn through our reserves faster." This was why they refrained from moving before. Even if they could subsist with the portals created by the Rune Realm, that was only a substitute. It couldn''t compare to the enormous volume of spatial storms a realm absorbed every second. So, moving somewhere was indeed a disadvantage. But left with no other choice, they chose to escape, bringing all the Vassal Realms with them as they approached the Kun Realm, having talked with the Kun Realm Spirit beforehand. This bought them valuable time as the Qilin and Black Turtle were in the original locations of the Mong and Garg Realms respectively. It would take them at least a week or two before they arrived at the TTT and even longer to reach the Kun Realm. With this, the two realms were safe for the time being while Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha had arrived at the TTT to helm the battle. However, the Gods had barely regained hope when news of despair hit them again. And this time, it was from the Kun Realm. "Kyak!" Hazak''s eyes slowly lost their light as Turmul munched on her body, devouring her, having ambushed them when they had been the most unguarded, having been working on producing more Satellite Realms for the war. "Dammit!" Gegrafikan stared in alarm as more than half his body had been devoured by the opponent. "A Spirit Aberrant Child..." Turmul grinned in excitement, having already recovered back to full strength, swallowing Hazak as his body brimmed with power, ballooning up massively. After all, he went against the arrangements of the Tiangou Chief, swallowing Hazak the moment she appeared in the Graveyard of Gods, obtaining her power as he became an Adult Primordial Beast. He then opened his mouth, unleashing abilities of all eight Primordial Beast races that he unearthed from Hazak''s power, constricting Gegrafikan as he grinned in response, swallowing Gegrafikan. "Thank you for the food, Zule." Chomp! Chapter 1570 Aahhh! Chapter 1570 Aahhh! Turmul had never planned to cooperate with others from the start. After all, he had plans of his own, intending to become the Tiangou Chief after this. The only way to gain the power of all the Primordial Beasts was by devouring Hazak once she appeared at the Graveyard of Gods. After all, the Tiangou''s power allowed them to gain the power of anyone that they devoured in the Graveyard of Gods. The Tiangou Chief was carefully nurturing the God Kings of various generations, intending to devour them once he obtained the powers of a Spirit Aberrant. That way, he would become the strongest Chief, one that ruled over all. But of course, as only Turmul had the capability to act thanks to the rule set by the eight Primordial Beast Chiefs, he had every opportunity to become strong. With that, he took it, devouring Hazak first, followed by Gegrafikan. Hazak was still in the process of figuring out her powers, barely reaching the status as a Child Primordial Beast. As for Gegrafikan, even though he had inherited a lot of memories of the Spirit Aberrants, he had yet to attain the true power of a Chaotic Aberrant. Moreover, even he was only a Child Primordial Beast. Against Turmul, that had become an Adult Primordial Beast, there was little they could do. After all, just to capture them, Turmul had devoured Hishe and a couple of Kun Realm Gods that were experts in offense, capture, and spatial transfer. Moreover, he also ate the Rune Realm God that died under Zeit''s hands. Through that, he obtained the means to travel anywhere he pleased, making use of all the coordinates that the Rune Realm Spirit had established throughout the Greater Universe. It didn''t even take him a minute to digest the powers of the two, grinning as he sensed the powers of all nine Primordial Beast races swirling in his body, causing him to gradually reach the peak as an Adult. Following that, he naturally surpassed the restriction, reaching the Older Generation stage, standing on the same power level as Zule. "I see. This is what true power feels like." Saying so, he vanished, heading elsewhere to gain more insight into his powers, especially that of the Spirit Aberrant, the infamously overpowered Primordial Beast race that had now truly gone extinct. Boom! Followed by a flicker of lightning, Krune appeared in the Kun Realm Cluster, looking around in a fluster as he sensed the fading energy signatures of Hazak and Gegrafikan, his face convulsing as he muttered, "I was¡­ late?" The moment he learned that the Primordial Beast hiding in Feura''s beak was the Tiangou Turmul, he used the Rune Realm to arrive at the Kun Realm Cluster. Unfortunately, it was already too late as the deed was done. They lost their two trump cards that would pretty much seal their fate. ¡­ "My Lord, give me power!" "Lord Krune, here!" "God Krune!" "Master, why are these enemies so damn weak?" "Teacher, I''ll give birth to more demons, enough to fill all the vacant Realms. Even if they can''t contribute much, they''ll reinforce its lifeforce circulation." "Boss, train me. I want to become strong!" ¡­ "A wisp?" "I see. Even though I haven''t met him personally, I have memories of my race meeting Wally." "Yes, I feel there''s some conspiracy involved in the annihilation of the True Spirits and the slaughter order on the wisps." "No, I won''t¡­ show my true form to them. They''ll fear me more than they already do." "Spirit Aberrants are scary¡­ for a reason." ¡­ "Lord! I can condense Satellite Realms now!" "Hehe, who''s the best? Me, Hazak!" "Boss Krune, I respect you the most." "Hwait, I like him, but he''s too weak. That''s why my children are somewhat lacking in talent compared to Sect Master''s." ¡­ "I stopped making Tina pregnant long ago. The Spirit Aberrant population has crossed four digits now. My children would do the rest of the work." "No, Tina still makes me sleep on the couch, not that I need to sleep." "Krune¡­ I miss my home now. As my presence is growing stronger, I cannot even enter the Kun Realm, not to mention the Satellite Realms." "I feel like¡­ my Spirit Aberrant race is too pitiful. We are terrifying, yes, but in all my memories, all I saw were pitiful souls that weren''t able to overcome their racial defects." ¡­ "Boss! How''s your weapon?" "I made the Satellite Realm for it!" "Amazing, right?" ¡­ "Thanks, Krune. You''re truly the Champion we need." "You''ve done a lot for us." ¡­ "Keuk!" Memories related to the two individuals swirled in his mind, alternating as they became increasingly sound. Hazak had journeyed alongside him from when he was in the God Foundation Realm, the most loyal and most devoted to him. Plus, she had a chirpy personality to boot ever since attaining a human form after arriving at the God Realm. She was somewhat like a daughter figure to him, for he had basically watched her grow from scratch. On the other hand, Gegrafikan was the more mature individual that he sought advice from, a knowledgeable individual that had contributed immensely to growing the Mountain Sect. Even though he was innately terrifying, he never complained and spent all his time in the Mountain Sect working for others tirelessly. And ever since he became a Chaotic Aberrant, he refined the Satellite Realms nonstop, rearranging the laws of all the places better to make them a better cohesive unit. Even while the war was ongoing, he and Hazak had been working tirelessly to create more Satellite Realms to wield against the Primordial Beasts. Unfortunately, their lives were snuffed out so easily, not even leaving any traces behind. "Even though I had expected losses in war, this is¡­ this is hell." Tears streamed out of Krune''s eyes as his hands shivered, recalling Wally''s unconscious state where he had lost all his power and Sterlena''s dissipating figure that was barely alive. Countless Gods from the Kun Realm had lost their lives under the attacks, and the Primordial War had only just begun. His hands shook as he recalled Hazak''s figure, roaring in sadness. "Aahhhh!" Chapter 1571 Universe Realm Chapter 1571 Universe Realm Boom! Gautikh''s attack was surprisingly restructured and sent back at him, causing a large gash to form on his stomach. "Gah!" He immediately absorbed some spatial storm from nearby, intending to heal the gash, when he stared in disbelief, realizing that he wasn''t able to heal it anymore. Only then did he understand that it was his own power that was being used on him. And since its nature was changed to the laws of the Mong Realm, the attack couldn''t be nullified. After all, on a direct comparison, Mon-Tu-Casha was stronger than him. So, she was overwhelming him easily. When Mon-Tu-Casha and Krune combined, they were even able to take on the first-generation God King. So, it was impossible for a Younger Generation Primordial Beast to face her head-on. B-Boom! Suddenly, a needle of lightning pierced through Gautikh''s head, poking a hole from the head to the tail as lightning arcs flickered all over his body. And immediately after¡­ "Aieeeee!" Gautikh screamed in pain as millions of maggots crawled all across his body, gobbling it up. Even when he killed as many as possible, after a minor pause, their population spiked as they spread around more on his body. "Insane!" Feura screamed, only now realizing that she had also been affected, noticing maggots appear all over her body, wherever Krune''s lightning had hit her before. And they were especially dense in her beak where the lightning needle had pierced through. Kieee! She unleashed a torrent of fire, vaporizing all the maggots in her beak. Her entire body then turned into literal flames, killing the other maggots as well. Unfortunately, thousands of lightning needles slammed into her when suddenly, they transformed, turning into rippling spheres of ice that absorbed her fire and used it to fuel the ice. Mon-Tu-Casha and Krune had long since learned to align their powers and coordinate. Moreover, Krune gave her access to his Law World, allowing Mon-Tu-Casha to target attack from there itself. As for him, he used his Hunger Law to steal part of her power. With that, both were able to unleash attacks through the powers of each other, capable of executing a variety of attacks. Boom! Zeit unleashed a beam, barely saving Feura as he panted, staring at Krune in shock. "You''re a great schemer, Zule." "Too bad, there seems to be a greater schemer." He sighed. ¡­ The Qilin was chasing after the fleeing Mong and Garg Realm at her topmost speed when suddenly, Turmul appeared behind her, latching onto her as his figure suddenly seeped into her body. "Kyak!" Jagira screamed in shock, retaliating when her powers failed to stop her opponent, who was many times stronger. She was a Younger Generation, while Turmul had surpassed an Adult and had become part of the Older Generation. There was too wide a power gap between the two as within a matter of minutes, Jagira was eaten up from within. Burp! Turmul patted his belly, using Jagira''s power to consolidate his growing power, stabilizing it better. ''I must devour the corpses of the rest of the Primordial Beasts to fully stabilize myself.'' Thinking of the Black Turtle that too was operating alone, Turmul licked his lips, vanishing in response. ¡­ "We surrender." Zeit reverted to his human form, raising his hands in defeat as Feura, Gautikh, and the newly arrived Arakel the Azure Dragon stared at him in shock. "Things have changed," Zeit said in all seriousness, watching two blobs¡ªwhite and purple respectively¡ªarrive at a halt before him, reverting into Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha. "What¡­ do you mean?" Krune wiped his tears, not even having the time to mourn the deaths of ones close to him, asking while remaining alert. "Losing this war isn''t of a grave consequence to us," Zeit said. "At most, the Kun Peng Chief would change to Zule." "However, something worse has happened now." He said solemnly, staring at Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha as he told them, "It seems the two of you are already aware of the issue." "Turmul, right?" Krune nodded, gritting his teeth. "So, we''ll propose something," Zeit said, extending his hand towards Krune. "I''ll offer up my body to the Kun Realm. Use me to strengthen the foundation of your realm better and kill Turmul." "He''s already become an Older Generation Tiangou. He''ll come and kill us next to stabilize his powers," Zeit said, sighing in the end. "None of us have the strength to go against him. So, instead of becoming his fuel, we''re better off helping you instead." He stared at the two individuals that were stronger than him, reeling in his shock at the heights thought impossible for a God to ever reach. "If it''s the two of you, then it''s possible to face him." "If that''s the case, become the fuel of our Mong Realm. We''ve already devoured Tallo, not to mention our innately high foundation. My Mong Realm has the greatest foundation of all," Mon-Tu-Casha said. "No." Zeit shook his head. "Only the Kun Realm can devour all of us. I''ve looked up to Zule from young and I can understand his plans. He''s done something to the Kun Realm that would allow it¡­" "To become the Universal Realm that was thought impossible." "Universal Realm?" Krune''s eyes widened in shock. "Yes, just one realm in the Greater Universe where every life apart from the Primordial Beasts exists," Zeit said. "Remember that the Kun Realm was killed by slaughtering Zule''s entire clan. Among them, his clan head was part of the Older Generation, second only to the Chief. So, that''s the foundation innately present in the Kun Realm." "This is why it''s able to grow and nurture so many races." "I see¡­ so everything was for this." Krune sighed, lifting his head to ask Zeit calmly, "So, what will happen to the rest of the Greater Realms if we go with this?" "They''ll be integrated into the Kun Realm seamlessly," Zeit said. "I have the ability to do it since I''ve followed Zule for some time in the past when his clan was laying down the foundation for the creation of the Kun Realm." "And," Zeit looked at Mon-Tu-Casha. "With that, you''ll be able to access all the Law Worlds." "At least, I hope you become strong enough to face Turmul after this." Zeit bowed in response. "If left unchecked, his avarice would destroy the foundations of the Greater Universe itself. There''s a reason the control over the Greater Universe must be split into eight." "However, he might tumble everything." Chapter 1572 Universe Realm Champions Chapter 1572 Universe Realm Champions "Guess we have no other choice." Feura assumed her human form, sighing as she scratched the back of her head. She didn''t complain because if Zeit hadn''t stopped to surrender, she would have died anyway. "Man, this isn''t cool." Gautikh sighed, staring at the gash on his stomach as he became a human, slumped as he murmured, "It seems even Tallo was cooler than me. At least, he went out with a bang by taking the God King with him." "I don''t accept this!" Arakel protested as he glared at Zeit. "I''ve done nothing. All I''ve done was travel endlessly from one place to another. I haven''t even thrown a single punch." "Then, you could hit me once and be done with it." Mon-Tu-Casha snapped at him, tapping her cheek. "Come on, hurry. Turmul is able to teleport now. Before he kills and devours the Black Turtle, we must finish our work." "Alright, here goes nothing!" Arakel grinned as he slammed a straight right into Mon-Tu-Casha''s face with all his strength, sending her flying for a dozen meters as her cheeks only dented slightly. "Wait¡­ that''s it?" Arakel was shocked as Mon-Tu-Casha shrugged off the attack like it wasn''t even on the level of a mosquito bite, causing him to protest. "Hey, I''m about to die. Can''t you at least act like you were gravely wounded by that attack?" "Sorry, you''re too weak." Mon-Tu-Casha shook her head, telling him, "You''re not as strong as Zeit to harm me." "Dammit!" Arakel groaned as the Rune Realm opened a portal before them, allowing them to enter it. "I''ll take charge from here," Zeit said as his figure appeared before the Rune Realm Core, placing a hand on it as his power erupted. Suddenly, the moving Garg Realm vanished, appearing next to the Kun Realm, followed by the Mong Realm, TTT, and all the Vassal Realms, causing the place to become crowded as all the spatial storm in the area was entirely used up, sucked in by the countless realms. The space in the region suddenly felt weak, unable to handle the strain of all the realms of the Greater Universe congregating at just one spot. The Rune Realm Spirit slumped weakly to the ground as it asked, "W-What will happen to Satellite Realm Spirits like us now?" "You''ll all be fine," Zeit said as his figure appeared in the Kun Realm. Krune didn''t say anything, taking him to the core directly as Turia appeared beside them, looking at everything in concern. "Krune, this is his best chance to cripple us. He has the necessary strength to damage the core." Turia communicated with Krune through their Champion bond. "You don''t have to worry," Krune said in confidence. "If he tries to harm us, I''m confident in reacting fast enough to stop him. But that won''t come to pass. He knows what''s at stake here. Turmul''s actions would cause him to reach the level of the Chiefs soon enough. And if he kills them and absorbs their power, then the Greater Universe might collapse." "We cannot predict what might happen next. So, the Primordial Beasts would indeed wish to stop that." "I see." Turia nodded, closing her eyes as the figures of Feura, Gautikh, and Arakel appeared beside her. "Thank you for your cooperation," Zeit said as he waved his hand, extracting all their powers that he infused into the Kun Realm Core, causing it to hum with a terrifying energy wave that enveloped all the Realms and Satellite Realms. The energy was strong enough to even vaporize Krune''s body, but surprisingly, Krune was unaffected. Moreover, even the weakest of living creatures on the Kun Realm, the Satellite Realms and other realms remained unaffected. "Please win," Zeit said. "Don''t misunderstand us. We reset the Greater Universe to prevent anyone from becoming strong enough to shake the foundation of the Greater Universe. That''s pretty much the only reason." "And¡­ you''ll reach that level," Zeit warned them. "So, take care to not cause the collapse of everything." "I understand." Krune nodded solemnly. "When it''s over, I''ll proceed with what needs to be done." "Thank you." Saying so, Zeit walked into the Kun Realm Core as his figure melted into it, causing it to hum with an even greater wave of Godly Energy as suddenly, the Garg Realm, the Mong Realm, and the TTT Realm''s Core appeared next to it, rapidly merging into it. Following that, the cores of all the Realms and Satellite Realms also arrived, fusing into it. In the outside world, like puzzles fitting into a bigger picture, the borders of all the realms vanished as they became connected, slowly fitting with each other into a seamless picture. Normally, due to the varying distribution of laws, foundations, etc., terrifying Godly Energy storms should arise throughout the landmass that would rend all life, creating a total wipeout before new life was produced. But Zeit had prepared beforehand as part of the power was consumed to shield all the people with a barrier of light that protected them against this Godly Energy storm. The same also happened to the buildings, landscapes, etc., as only the internal makeup of the laws changed while maintaining the external makeup as much as possible. Krune''s and Mon-Tu-Casha''s laws formed the three great pillars that ran throughout the formed landmass, keeping everything stable as the rest of the laws branched out, stabilizing everything in a matter of seconds. "It seems my days as a Champion ends here." The Garg Realm Champion sighed, noticing the power he always possessed leave him now. The same happened to the rest of the Champions, including Sterlena, for they lacked the qualifications to be one anymore. A beam of light then landed on Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha, injecting a terrifying extent of power into them as the laws of the landmass morphed accordingly. All the scattered laws of Tribulation Lightning fused into the gigantic pillar formed by Krune, rapidly strengthening him. The same thing happened to Mon-Tu-Casha as they now became Champions, attaining a height unattained by Gods throughout history¡­ Becoming Champions of the first Universe Realm in history. Chapter 1573 Absolute Foundation Chapter 1573 Absolute Foundation "Champion of the Universe Realm¡­" Krune muttered, only feeling the pressure on him had increased instead. After all, it meant that now, only he and Mon-Tu-Casha were strong enough to face their foes. And if the both of them were to die, it meant the end of their Universe Realm. Internal politics of the Universe Realm was a mess as too many races from too many realms now had shared borders. A good fraction of them had warred in the past. This meant that if they didn''t take care of it, things would blow up in the future into a war worse than what would have happened if the four Greater Realms had fought before. After all, they were all living in the same world now, making it easy to attack and defend. Things just became ginormously complex. Of course, they didn''t have the time to solve that as Turia''s voice resounded, appearing next to Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha. "You should know something¡­" After a moment''s hesitation, Turia said, "We''ve lost all four Realm Abilities that each of us had developed. It''s because our composition changed entirely, causing them to fall apart." "This also means that we can no longer use the Sparks like we did against Warakh, nor will the two of you revive upon death." "But, we can still create a Realm Ability, right?" Krune spoke calmly, eyeing Mon-Tu-Casha as he nodded in all seriousness. "Yes, we can." Turia nodded. "However, that might take hundreds of thousands of years. The resources, time, and effort required to create a Universe Realm Ability is thousands of times greater than a Realm Ability." "After all, the Universe Realm Ability would be on par with a Chief''s power," Mon-Tu-Casha concluded, watching Turia nod in response. She then eyed behind Turia, watching the Mong Realm Spirit, the Garg Realm Spirit, and the rest of the Realm Spirits appear behind her. Following them were the Heavenly Spirits and Land Spirits that were scattered throughout the Universe Realm. All congregated now, their numbers enough to spill out of a supercontinent. Mon-Tu-Casha stared at them as she said, "But, the talents and resources of the entire Greater Universe are here now. So, I''m sure we can achieve it, even if not now, at least at some point in time. Better to begin preparations right away¡­" She hadn''t even finished speaking when goosebumps formed on her hand, sensing a mystical energy fluctuation as she stared at Krune, watching killing intent burst out of him as he tensed up. Anger clouded his eyes before he forcefully calmed himself, muttering coldly, "He''s here." Boom! Turmul had already finished devouring the Black Turtle and stabilized his powers, having digested his gains already. And now, he was ready to fight. Though honestly, he wanted at least a century to finish digesting all his gains. Unfortunately, he had underestimated Zeit''s ruthlessness to sacrifice himself and the surviving Primordial Beast representatives to create the Universe Realm. This meant that the already strong Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha would become even stronger. Moreover, if they started to crack down on him, he would have to constantly be on the run without being able to digest his gains. In the meantime, as their foundation had exploded drastically, various Gods would begin growing naturally, surpassing their prior limits. And using the chance, Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha could take turns to hinder his growth while they continued to grow. Over time, it would result in them growing stronger than him. Hence, he had to take action before they grew accustomed to the changes resulting from the Universe Realm. "Turia¡­" Krune said, sending in a stream of information through his Mental Energy, causing Turia to stare at him in shock as he said, "Immunity." "That''s the Universe Realm Ability we should strive for. Begin preparations already. I''ve already given you everything you need. We have insiders working there, plus¡­" He stared at Mon-Tu-Casha. "This annoying brat''s perfect for the task." "We won''t be creating a Universe Realm Ability but steal an existing setup and make it ours." "We''ll leave it to you," Mon-Tu-Casha said, staring at the various Realm Spirits before she extended her hand, grabbing hold of the Satellite Realm Weapon meant for her as she condensed a portal, exiting the Universe Realm. "Krune¡­ you¡­" Turia stared at the back of Krune''s figure that didn''t speak anything and silently flew out of the portal, understanding his intentions clearly. However, she didn''t have time to dwell on such things. As the Universe Realm Spirit, she had a lot of work to do as Turia looked at the rest of the Realm Spirits, nodding as she commanded them, "Let''s go. We have a lot to do." "We''re racing against time here. The Tiangou is too dangerous." ¡­ Turmul arrived before the Universe Realm, frowning as he was unable to notice any spatial storm in its vicinity. Anything that arrived was instantly sucked into it. Even he wasn''t able to redirect the spatial storm, for the suction force from the Universe Realm was just that powerful. "You really went and committed the taboo, Zeit." Turmul gritted his teeth. "The ultimate taboo of the Kun Peng." Of course, as the race that created all the realms, the Kun Peng was able to make Sub-Realms, Satellite Realms, and Major Realms. When the development of a realm reached its peak, it created its Realm Ability to become a Greater Realm. But of course, there was the ultimate point above all this, something decreed by the Kun Peng Chief as forbidden. And that was the creation of the Universe Realm. Of course, creating something of such a scale was impossible for even the Kun Peng Chief, for the scale was just that vast. However, that was only the case if he tried to create it from scratch. All Zeit did was simply fuse together the existing setup to result in the Universe Realm. After all, what was the Kun Realm''s past? It had been created by sacrificing Zule''s entire clan. An entire clan of Kun Peng, with one of them being part of the Older Generation. Now that Turmul had gained access to the memory reserves of the Spirit Aberrants, he understood that this was the true goal of Zule all along. After all, with the creation of the Universe Realm, the Gods gained the foundation to challenge the Primordial Beasts. And its Champions¡­ now had the potential to challenge the absolute peak of the Greater Universe¡­ The Chiefs! Chapter 1574 Champion Versus Representative Chapter 1574 Champion Versus Representative And this potential wasn''t just mere potential, for the strength of Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha had already reached a terrifying level, enough to challenge Turmul, someone that had reached the Older Generation. It had to be noted that Turmul wasn''t just an Older Generation Primordial Beast now but an Older Generation Primordial Beast wielding the powers of all nine Primordial Beast races. And that already put him on the level of a Chief. The only thing Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha lacked was the authority possessed by the Chiefs. And that too would change once they created their Universe Realm Ability. That would be the driving factor as more and more Gods would grow strong enough to challenge the Primordial Beasts. If not for the existence of the Universe Realm, even if they trained for an eternity, Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha would never be able to attain such a level of strength. "Isn''t that right?" Turmul stared at the two Champions before him. "It seems you''ve achieved the impossible." "But, are you strong enough to face me, though?" Turmul grinned as intense flames billowed out of his body, turning into a majestic fire bird that raced towards the Universe Realm''s natural barrier, intending to pierce through and annihilate all life inside. At least a realm''s worth of people would die from the attack. Mon-Tu-Casha rushed into the fire bird, screaming as her body was being burned up rapidly in response. But suddenly, the fire bird turned while as it turned around and rushed at Turmul instead. As for Mon-Tu-Casha, she was uninjured. The power of the fire bird damaged her when the damage was transported into the Law Worlds of over ten thousand Gods, assimilated into them before she harnessed it out to target Turmul. "Shit!" Turmul was surprised when suddenly, he broke into a smile. "Just kidding." Four Directions! Suddenly, the powers of the Vermillion Bird, White Tiger, Azure Dragon, and the Black Turtle oozed out of him as the white fire bird dissipated. Space itself seemed to curve out of order as the fire bird was stretched in space to a billion times its side, making it weak enough to negate the attack with an ice attack. This was the ultimate move by the Four Directions as they were the ones working on expanding the space of the Greater Universe. The fire bird was suppressed. But it was originally his attack that was directed at him. So, he had expended part of his power for no reason. Moreover, there was no spatial storm in the nearby region for him to call upon. So, he didn''t have any extra reserves of energy to rely upon. ''Though, the case is the same for them as well.'' Turmul thought while looking at the two Champions that had yet to use their Champion state. ''Their resources were already running dry before this, and the great fusion consumed anything extra they had.'' He looked around, smiling in response. ''This is not to mention that there isn''t any spatial storm here for them to replenish their energy reserves. Only the center of the Greater Universe is capable enough to satisfy the Universe Realm''s voracious appetite, but that''s the home of the Chiefs.'' "So, we''re pretty much on even grounds." Turmul grinned as he suddenly condensed a Satellite Realm, filling it to the brim with power before chucking it towards the Universe Realm with all his might. "Damage to your realm implies weakening you faster." "What the¡­?" Krune was alarmed, watching the Satellite Realm grow in strength to become as its foundation reached a realm. However, there was nothing inside it, just a foundation of Laws that targeted to crack the Universe Realm. But, Turmul soon realized his mistake, watching the Realm burst into a sea of maggots that squirmed towards Krune, falling under his control. But suddenly, one of the maggots expanded in size to turn into a voracious monster that intended to swallow all, transforming into a ray of energy that intended to burrow into Krune and eat up his law from within. Spirit Aberrant! Turmul didn''t hold back from the start, unleashing Gegrafikan''s powers already. Upon staring at the terrifying creature intending to swallow him, Krune sighed, wiping his tears as his figure vanished. Every realm had a dense amount of Tribulation Lightning Law. And all that had now become Krune''s body. So, due to his tremendous foundation, when he assumed the form of a bolt of lightning, his evasion speed was on a whole new realm. The moment the voracious beast missed Krune, it jumped at the Universe Realm, intending to burrow into it and devour everything. It was currently their weakness, and Turmul planned to entirely take advantage of that to win this fight. However, just as it was about to reach the Universe Realm, its body slowed down unnaturally before being encased in a world of ice. Krune was using his body skills to counter the voracious creature since it was only effective against Law attacks. ''But even the Spirit Aberrant Chief had been killed. There''s a reason for that,'' Krune thought, recalling everything he had learned in the Graveyard of Gods from the Gods that had witnessed this fight. Even though they died from the shockwaves resulting from the attacks, they still obtained valuable intel that had been researched by the bored Gods completely. And the answer to that was simple: Body and Soul Cultivation! Spirit Aberrants were capable of harnessing the laws of the Greater Universe itself to attack. However, they still took some damage from Body and Soul Cultivation. Of course, they only took damage from it and weren''t actually weak against them. This was why it took three Chiefs to barely hinder the Spirit Aberrant Chief while the rest of the Chiefs worked their best on killing him. And, of course, Krune had an even better plan as he stared at the voracious beast, slowly cupping his hands in a prayer position. Hunger Law¡ªI''m Hungry, Gimme Power! Aieeee! The voracious beast screamed in pain as the entirety of its power was stolen by Krune, who then used the same to devour the voracious beast, resulting in his foundation strengthening up a little. "Now, it''s my turn." He burped in response, extending his hand as his Satellite Pestlor appeared in his hand, appearing incredibly weak, unable to even handle his aura. Hmph! Followed by a snort, all the maggots that he obtained from devouring the voracious beast were transformed into Tribulation Lightning Law that poured into the Satellite Pestlor, rapidly elevating its status to a Realm Pestlor. And with that, he expanded its side and whacked Turmul in the face, caving it. Chapter ?1575 Tear into Them Chapter ?1575 Tear into Them "Gah!" Turmul screamed as tribulation lightning ravaged all across his body, vaporizing him little by little when he suddenly lashed out, scratching the Tribulation Lightning Law, causing Krune to grunt in response. The wound he sustained became permanent, the damage engraved into his Law itself. Taotie! The troublesome abilities of the various Primordial Beasts appeared one after another, as even though Turmul sustained damage from the attacks, he was also injuring his opponents. Mon-Tu-Casha harnessed the Laws of multiple Gods, creating a torrent of energy that she condensed to the limit before slamming into her opponent by appearing behind him abruptly. But right as the ability was about to make contact, a terrifying beast emerged out of Turmul''s back, intending to swallow all the laws forming its makeup, the power of a Spirit Aberrant. Just when it seemed like her attack would turn into her opponent''s tonic, Krune stole the beast, digesting them into his gains as from his Law World. Mon-Tu-Casha harnessed that power as well, fusing it into the energy cluster that she slammed into Turmul, causing him to scream in pain as a good portion of his body was corroded in response. "Are you alright?" Krune asked Mon-Tu-Casha as he flashed next to her. "Don''t take such risks so soon. I can''t fire of my stealing ability in quick succession." "I''m fine for the time being." Mon-Tu-Casha patted her chest, calming her thumping heart for just avoiding a dangerous situation as she frowned. "We''re not damaging him enough." "He''s mildly stronger than us thanks to Gegrafikan''s power. As long as he uses that, I''ll have to play defensively. Otherwise, once we''re hit by it, he''ll live in our Laws and eat us from within. Even my Hunger Law wouldn''t be able to eliminate him quick enough," Krune stated solemnly. "Fight within the range of my power." "I''ll keep that in mind." Mon-Tu-Casha nodded as her figure gradually turned ethereal, arriving at Krune''s Law World as she gradually riled up his power, amplifying it to the limit before exiting it, appearing behind Turmul as her weapon transformed into a blade, forming large gashes on his body. Her Satellite Realm Weapon hadn''t been completed by Gegrafikan as he didn''t have any idea about her Law. So, it had been left empty, only retaining its foundation. Once she arrived, Mon-Tu-Casha injected her Law into it, turning it into her Satellite Realm Weapon. And now, she grew it to the level of a Realm weapon, calling it ''Monger.'' By harnessing Krune''s power, she turned her weapon into a lightning blade, hacking Turmul while Krune split into a billion Thundercloud Whales, charging up an attack as suddenly, the void brightened. Lightning Needle! Turmul''s screams resounded in the void as the Lightning Needles drowned him from top to bottom, riddling him with numerous holes where lightning flashed, vaporizing his body little by little. Millions of maggots jumped out of the sparks, drilling into the flesh as they rapidly expanded in numbers. But strangely, the maggots died one after another as a mysterious presence grew from within them. Spirit Aberrant! Honestly, Turmul was employing Gegrafikan''s abilities to a terrifying extent, causing all Laws to become useless before him as he could hide in them. But, the only disadvantage he had was that whether it was Krune''s Hunger Law, Tribulation Lightning Law, or Mon-Tu-Casha''s Law of Keys, he wasn''t aware of them, having zero comprehension of all three. The moment a God tried to comprehend Tribulation Lightning, their body and mind would vaporize. This was a natural law of the greater universe itself. And that extended to the Primordial Beasts as well. So, comprehending Tribulation Lightning Law was impossible for Turmul. As for the Hunger Law, the moment someone tried to comprehend it, they would feel insatiable hunger that would cause their body cells to devour one another, resulting in them being assimilated into the Hunger Law itself. And when someone tried to comprehend the Law of Keys, their body would rupture from within and turn into mere Godly Energy. Therefore, even by using a Spirit Aberrant''s power, Turmul wasn''t able to take advantage and latch onto their Laws due to their unique nature. That was why the most he could do was simply hide within the Laws in the attacks, and that too, only temporarily. After all, smaller fragments of Turmul''s body were targeted by Mon-Tu-Casha and sent into the various Law Worlds, where they were assimilated into the worlds. This meant that his foundation was steadily being chipped away to strengthen the Gods. This was the terrifying nature of Mon-Tu-Casha''s power, the reason the Mong Realm invested everything in her. Even if she couldn''t bring back the dead Gods, she was able to steal the laws of the other Gods and place the stolen fragments into the Law Worlds of the Mong Realm Gods. As every Law World had the property of assimilating all foreign matter in it, these Law Worlds would absorb these fragments and grow in foundation. Just with that, the Mong Realm would be able to raise the overall strength of the Mong Realm Gods to Champion level. This was their end game plan. But with the emergence of the Universe Realm, all the Gods were on her side now. This meant that she could use the Primordial Beasts as fuel to grow the Laws of all Gods now. From the start, Mon-Tu-Casha harnessed Krune''s power, joining hands with him to attack Turmul using the Tribulation Lightning Law and the Hunger Law. This way, they could synchronize their attacks better. "Hiyah!" Her figure flashed as a bolt of lightning, forming a massive gash over Turmul''s legs, causing them to bleed profusely with no sign of healing. After all, she had stolen parts of Turmul''s body that contained a Taotie''s power. With the Hunger Law, assimilating this power was easier, allowing her to retaliate. In response, Krune appeared before Turmul''s face, burning up as he exploded into a sea of lightning, expanding the Realm Pestlor to the limit to smack Turmul in the face, gouging out his eyes in the end, "You¡­ dare¡­ kill¡­ Hazak?" Boom! A sea of flames landed on Krune like a laser that he endured to continue attacking his opponent''s face. Turmul retaliated with his own attacks as both sides tore into each other nonstop. Chapter 1576 The Price of Hesitation Chapter 1576 The Price of Hesitation Roar! Turmul roared as he opened his mouth and began to suck in everything, including the energies resultant from their attacks, devouring everything as the power of a Qilin was used to convert them into a spatial storm, thereby recovering his expended reserves quickly. "How long can you activate it?" Krune asked Mon-Tu-Casha. "For half a second," Mon-Tu-Casha replied. "This will be the first time I''m entering my Champion state as Champion of the Universe Realm. So, even half a second is pretty high." "Save it up then," Krune said all of a sudden, sensing a mysterious power building up within Turmul. "We won''t be able to kill him without taking risks. Turia is done with the initial preparations, so go and join her now." "It has been a¡­ different experience meeting you, Mon-Tu-Casha," Krune stated, acknowledging this enemy of his that he had allied with now due to circumstances, forced to fight on the same side. In response to his heartfelt words of acknowledgment, Mon-Tu-Casha sighed a little, eyes turning moist a bit as she said, "I wanted to kill you the most. But, I request you one thing now, Krune." "Please protect our world in my absence," Mon-Tu-Casha said earnestly, sensing a familiar aura from Turmul as suddenly, both she and Krune were sent flying. Law¡ªPower Storm! The signature power of the God King now made its appearance in the hands of Turmul, for he had also devoured the God King, gaining his strength. Grinning, Turmul unleashed violent explosive attacks that sent his opponents flying before his eyes targeted the Universe Realm, intending to destroy and devour it. Using the powers of a Taotie, by devouring the Universe Realm Core, he would surpass all the Chiefs in strength. "Dad¡­" Mon-Tu-Casha became emotional, knowing that her dad no longer existed in the Graveyard of Gods, eaten and absorbed by Turmul. As they were fighting, Turmul was assimilating into his strength better. And now that he swallowed the eighth-generation God King, he would soon adjust to his power enough to swallow the remaining seven God Kings. If he managed to do that, then it would be impossible to face him anymore. He alone would become strong enough to take on all the Chiefs. And thanks to the Law that the Chiefs had created to restrain Zule, they too couldn''t interfere with Turmul, for he was a representative of this war. This was what Turmul took advantage of to do everything boldly. "Farewell, Krune," Mon-Tu-Casha stated as she controlled her tears, staring resolutely as she entered the Universe Realm, enduring the damage sustained from Turmul''s attacks using her father''s power. She arrived before Turia, staring at her resolutely, "Do we have enough resources?" "Barely." Turia nodded in response. "But if we do this, Krune wouldn''t be able to rely on us to fight." "If we don''t do this, Turmul will continue to grow stronger. Besides, the Universe Realm is still unstable," Mon-Tu-Casha replied. "We need to do this whether to stop Turmul in his tracks or to protect ourselves in the future." Turia teared up as she bowed to her. "We''ve only known each other for a short duration, but I thank you for your sacrifice, Mon-Tu-Casha." "This is also my home now," Mon-Tu-Casha replied as her body began to dissipate, directly seeping into Turia. Turia absorbed the entirety of her Law of Keys, causing the Universe Realm to become unstable as one of its three greatest pillars vanished all of a sudden. Just as cracks began to form in its framework, the various Realm Spirits rushed towards the damaged locations, using all their powers to keep everything intact. The resources procured from all over the Universe Realm flew into Turia as she used Mon-Tu-Casha''s power to connect with the Greater Universe Law World. ¡­ "It''s here," Zoitan-Kutang smirked as she stared at a heavenly power that slammed into the Graveyard of Gods, alerting all the Tiangou. The Tiangou Chief riled up in response, intending to stop the beam, when a mysterious power stopped him in his tracks. It was the seal created by all the Chiefs that prevented any Primordial Beast apart from the eight representatives from attacking the Gods. And as this was a method from the Gods, the Tiangou Chief couldn''t interfere, flustered at the fact as he hurriedly contacted the Chiefs. "This is bad!" "The Gods are taking control of the Graveyard of Gods." "Dammit, first Turmul and now this. What the hell were you doing, Tiangou Chief?" The Kun Peng Chief''s angry voice resounded. "Let''s reverse the Law we enacted first," the Taotie Chief said in a hurry. "We have to eliminate Turmul before he grows any stronger. He''s already on our level. If he''s given more time to digest his gains, he''ll grow even stronger." "Dammit, Zule fooled us entirely. To think he hid not one but two Primordial Beasts in the Kun Realm," the Vermillion Bird Chief stated in anger. "We have to reverse the seal." All eight Primordial Beast Chiefs have to vote in favor, as only their joint action would reverse the law that had been created. Otherwise, it was impossible for any one Chief to go against it. This was why everyone was stressing about revoking the Law. As they had created a law, they could destroy it anytime. The only factor was that all eight of them had to be on board, whether to create or destroy a law. ''Is this what Zule was thinking?'' The Kun Peng Chief was worried for a moment, feeling that they were playing into Zule''s scheme. Besides, he now understood what the Tiangou Chief had been planning all along with the Graveyard of Gods, understanding its true purpose. The Tiangou''s power to devour and gain the power of Gods from the Graveyard of Gods was something all Chiefs knew about. But, that never became a problem because irrespective of how many God Kings the Tiangou Chief devoured, he could never become stronger than the Kun Peng Chief or the Taotie Chief. At most, the Qilin Chief would be overtaken. But, if they had known of Gegrafikan and Hazak''s existence, Primordial Beasts that were Gods of the Kun Realm, the Chiefs would have done something about the Graveyard of Gods beforehand. It was already too late, though, as the Tiangou Chief was betrayed by Turmul, who took the powers for himself. And hence, the Kun Peng Chief hesitated, wondering if Zule planted another means to steal Turmul''s power or control him, for Hazak and Gegrafikan¡ªwhose power Turmul was banking upon¡ªoriginated from the Kun Realm that Zule had created. His hesitation delayed their action as before the Chiefs revoked the law, the Graveyard of Gods vanished, stolen by the Universe Realm. Chapter ?1577 This is My Revenge Chapter ?1577 This is My Revenge Boom! The Graveyard of Gods appeared within the Universe Realm, shrinking in size as it appeared in the void that formed the centermost region of the Universe Realm, a place where its core existed. And the moment it appeared, the Universe Realm Core actually moved into it under Turia''s manipulation, settling within the innermost region of the Graveyard of Gods. With that, the Universe Realm Core was the most protected existence in the world, for there were seven God Kings and more than a hundred thousand Gods protecting it. And with this, any God that died in the future would arrive at the Graveyard of Gods, forming the strongest defensive line to protect their Universe Realm from being damaged. Moreover, the Graveyard of Gods had the strongest foundation in the Greater Universe. Now that the Universe Realm Core entered its core, it began to absorb the foundation, creating a life and death cycle as the entirety of the Graveyard of Gods'' foundation was assimilated into the Universe Realm. Immediately after, the barrier protecting the Universe Realm became terrifyingly tough, not to mention that its foundation was now enormously massive as compared to before. After all, before this, there were three major Laws that acted as its primary pillars while other laws acted as its secondary pillars. The three primary pillars originated from Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha. But now, there were ten primary pillars. Two originated from Krune, seven from the God Kings of the first to seventh generation, and finally, the dead Mon-Tu-Casha. Following her death, she appeared in the Graveyard of Gods, thereby still remaining as the Universe Realm''s foundation. And with this, and not to mention the over hundred thousand Gods whose representative Laws further reinforced its foundation, the development reached such a level that¡­ Boom! "T-This is¡­?" Feifei stared in surprise as she saw Godly Energy gushing out of the land, the skies, everywhere. The Universe Realm was automatically producing Godly Energy. And this was unlike the case before, where the realms produced resources and Godly Energy by absorbing the spatial storms. No, the Universe Realm was actually producing Godly Energy on its own. Right at this moment, the eight Chiefs combined hands to revoke the rule that they had passed recently. In the vast swathes of the void, locked in a safe zone bereft of the spatial storm, was Zule, bound by mystical chains that constricted his power. His eyes were currently closed, in a state of unconsciousness as the Kun Peng Chief had forced him into this state, feeling threatened by him. The moment the eight Chiefs revoked the law that they had passed, the chains trembled violently, for they were connected to the law. As the situation was urgent, the eight Chiefs didn''t have enough time to think and plan a countermeasure for whatever Zule might do next. Bang! His eyes shot open as he riled up his power, shattering the chains as his figure vanished, disappearing from the location. ¡­ Swoosh! The Kun Peng Chief looked around in alarm, "Oh no! Zule escaped from his prison!" ¡­ "Hahaha! No matter what you do to your realm, I''ll devour everything. Without that annoying lady, you''re not strong enough to face me," Turmul said, crushing the Realm Pestlor into pieces when it blocked his path. But, that moment when he was paused was enough for a bolt of lightning to arrive between him and the Universe Realm as Krune glared at him, communicating with his law, "Turia, how''s the situation?" "We''ve obtained the Graveyard of Gods as our Universe Realm Ability. This is our authority now, Krune!" Turia stated excitedly. "Try to hold on for as long as possible. The Universe Realm has begun producing Godly Energy on its own now. So, the longer you hold on, the greater the energy I can store up. It''ll allow you to be in your Champion state for longer." "I believe I don''t have the freedom of time right now," Krune replied, unleashing a billion Lightning Needles that sent Turmul flying. However, the damage wasn''t strong enough this time as Turmul simply devoured the majority of the power and energy within the Lightning Needles. He then used them to heal his injuries, ending up gaining a bit of energy instead. Just Krune alone wasn''t strong enough to face him head-on. Plus, he had only one option to win this battle, and that was to activate his Champion State. The Champion state of the Universe Realm would be terrifyingly powerful. He would be wielding the authority of the Universe Realm. And his power would surpass the Chiefs for an instant. However, that was also the problem. It was too powerful that even he would only be able to handle that surge of power for an instant before dying. So, he had to make use of that instant to end everything. Failure meant his death and the lack of an opponent to stop Turmul. It just meant one conclusion: the destruction of everything. So, that one instant would decide everything. That was why Krune was careful, constantly using long-ranged attacks to keep Turmul at bay, buying as much time as possible. Roar! Turmul unleashed a beam of energy at Krune, sending him flying into the Universe Realm, causing him to slam hard into its barrier, enough to cause a large portion of it to shatter in response. "Gah!" Krune grunted, staring at the large wound on his chest, one that wouldn''t heal. His senses scanned around, scowling in response as billions of people had died due to him crashing into the region. And this was just the result of a single attack. So, if Turmul were to barge in, everything would fall apart and be devoured by him. "I won''t allow that!" Bellowing in anger, Krune blasted out, unleashing various attacks onto Turmul, devouring his attacks using his Hunger Law while injuring him as much as possible. He began to expend more of his energy reserves to wound his opponent more, burning up in the process. Suddenly, Zule''s figure appeared behind Krune, shocking him as the other party was no longer concealing his strength, erupting with all his power, almost reaching the level of a Chief. "You''ve truly concealed yourself, Zule," Krune stated as Zule''s hand pierced through his body, reaching his Wisp Core. Krune stared with an exhausted gaze. "Is this your way of taking revenge?" "Yes." Zule nodded, clenching his hand into a fist, shattering Krune''s Wisp Core. Chapter 1578 True Wisp God Chapter 1578 True Wisp God Time seemed to slow down for a moment as Turmul was still in the process of negating all the devastating attacks launched at him. Krune''s eyes widened as he watched Zule''s hand pierce through his body and head straight for his Wisp Core. Considering his strength, not to mention the existence of Little Krune, if he wished to, he could have dodged it. However, Krune decided against it, staring at Zule in exhaustion. "Is this your way of exacting revenge?" "I thought you weren''t so foolish, Zule." "Hahaha!" Zule laughed as his hands clenched Krune''s Wisp Core. "I''m fully driven by revenge, but at the end of the day, I''m still a Kun Peng. So, my way of things will only be that of a Kun Peng''s. So¡­ Krune." He made eye contact as he asked, "You ready?" "Yeah." Krune nodded, watching his Wisp Core shatter into a billion pieces, becoming no different from dust. ¡­ "Haah!" Wally regained consciousness as he looked at his battered body, crippled, feeling no trace of Godly Energy in his body anymore. He looked at his Wisp Body, staring at the golden fragments covering his body. They were the result of his Wisp Core shattering. Suddenly, the golden fragments twinkled before a mystical power exited them, forming a stream as they flowed towards the sky, leaving the Universe Realm. Wally noticed that the golden fragments had now turned a shade of blue, similar to the rest of the wisps. He was already weak, and now that this had happened, he couldn''t maintain his consciousness, falling unconscious once again. Kulla rushed to his help, trying her best to ensure he was safe. The golden stream flowed into Zule''s body, who then infused it into the powder formed by Krune''s Wisp Core, turning it into golden sand that rapidly re-joined, transforming into a golden Wisp Core. But an instant later, the golden color turned white as Zule inserted his power into it, saying, "Do you know¡­ it was my grandfather that created the races of True Spirits and Wisps? The perfect sword and shield concept. Unfortunately..." He sighed. "Unlike the sword, the shield became too unbalanced as the majority of its intended power was concentrated into just one entity. And until that entity appeared, the wisp race wouldn''t amount to much." "This was the wisp''s defect, a reason why their natural lifespan is a mere decade," Zule said. "My grandfather initially wished to correct them, but when he noticed the Kun Peng Chief''s plan to reset the first generation, he decided against that and made a gamble." "The truth regarding wisps is something even the Kun Peng Chief doesn''t know. And among those alive in the Kun Peng, only I am aware, as it was the last thing my grandfather entrusted to me before he was killed." Zule gritted his teeth, continuing, "Initially, I was happy when Wally''s Wisp Core turned golden, but he wasn''t able to unlock the entirety of the Wisp Race''s true power because he wasn''t strong enough." "But you¡­" He stared at Krune, telling him, "You''re on the level of a Chief now. So, you''ve gained the qualification." "My grandfather''s gamble succeeded," Zule said as his power finished flowing into the golden Wisp Core, turning it fully white before it suddenly branched out into seven vibrant colors. "This¡­" Upon seeing it, Krune smiled wryly. "This bugger sticks to me until the end, huh." He then stared at Zule''s crumbling body, sighing as he said, "Is this truly your way to seek revenge?" "Of course." Zule grinned. "I''ve laid out all the pieces and now ended up creating the Universe Realm, the greatest thing a Kun Peng could ever create. And¡­" His figure dissipated as the remainder of his power flowed to further strengthen the Universe Realm. "Once the final piece falls into place, I would have won. Can you fulfill my final wish, my child?" "You needn''t worry, Zule." Krune stared as he turned around, glaring at Turmul with killing intent as intense Godly Energy burst out of his body. "I intend to do it." Gong! Gong! Gong! Rumbling sounds resounded throughout the greater universe as the Universe Realm pulsated with energy, alerting all the Primordial Beasts, for this was the first time it was being activated. All the Chiefs rushed towards the scene, but it was already too late as Krune flashed before Turmul when a beam of energy blasted out of the Universe Realm, so blinding, even its aftershocks were enough to annihilate entire realms. Even the Chiefs were blinded for a moment, unable to sense anything as all their senses were overwhelmed by the intense beam of energy. Universe Realm¡ªChampion State! His human form collapsed as Krune transformed into his Wisp Form as rainbow colors blasted out of him in violent arcs, transforming his body as it grew to become bigger than a realm. True Wisp God! The ultimate form of the shield that had been created during the first generation of the Greater Universe in its infancy stages. And now, powered by the greatest of all realms, possessing the foundations of all eight generations of the Greater Universe and a Champion that was fueled by it. Hunger Law¡ªI''m Hungry, Gimme Power! Krune unleashed his signature ability, but this time, it was aimed at the Universe Realm instead, stealing the powers of all the Gods, immortals, mortals, Universe Realm Spirit, Realm Spirit, Satellite Realm Spirit, Heavenly Spirit, Land Spirit, and finally, the Universe Realm Ability. His Hunger Law devoured everything as his attack turned into an authority, causing his body to crack up before revealing a gigantic mouth, swallowing Turmul that seemed helpless before him. "As if I''ll go down like this!" Turmul bellowed as he unleashed all his might, devouring Krune from within, including his energy, laws, everything. "Krune! Why?" Little Krune shouted in shock when he was suddenly sent out. Staring at the Thundercloud Whale, Krune smiled. "You''re still needed. If even Tribulation Lightning enters the Graveyard of Gods, none among the living would be able to grow stronger. Besides..." He said, "I alone am enough to end this. Don''t sacrifice yourself as well. Even though you''re me, you''re still another version of me. So, stop living as my shadow and venture into the open as yourself¡­" "As Little Krune." Chapter ?1579 Farewell Krune Chapter ?1579 Farewell Krune "I''ll eat you! Krunnnnneeee!" Turmul bellowed as he began to eat up Krune from within when tens of thousands of abilities slammed into him, injuring him at rates beyond what his Spirit Aberrant powers could negate. When Turmul used the Qilin''s power to devour his energy, Krune relied upon the authority of the True Spirits to negate it. His Hunger Law devoured everything like crazy, beginning to assimilate everything into it. Turmul also devoured Krune in a similar fashion, assimilating everything into his. In this manner, within Krune''s realm-sized wisp body, a war raged forth as both the entities fought to devour the other party. Blazing fire erupted when it was frozen by multiple variations of ice. Space was expanded to shred Krune''s body from within when spatial laws expanded the space there, maintaining itself. Boom! Turmul condensed a Satellite Realm, causing it to self-destruct to create a terrifying storm that seemed intent on destroying everything in its path. But suddenly, from within the collapsing Satellite Realm, a Realm Spirit was birthed that took control of its collapse, turning it into a stream of Godly Energy instead that reinforced Krune. It was Zamura''s power. And in Krune''s hands, it attained a whole new meaning. And with that, whenever Turmul used a Kun Peng''s power, Krune retaliated by gaining control over the created celestial objects. As for the Realm Spirits, they leaped into the broken Realm Pestlor, devoured by the Hunger Law within as it quickly healed itself back to full power. "Gah!" Krune grunted in pain as his insides were wrecked by the Taotie''s power, not to mention the violent Power Storm of the eighth-generation God King that destroyed everything in its path. Turmul was retaliating with everything he got, gradually gaining an advantage when Krune grunted. Boom! Hunger Law¡ªI''m Hungry, Gimme Power! This time, he stole Turmul''s powers, causing his body to begin cracking as he strained himself too much. He had already stolen the power of everything in the Universe Realm through his Champion state. Stealing Turmul''s power beyond it was simply pushing himself over the edge, especially since his body was already breaking down, unable to handle the sheer might of the Champion state. Roar! Turmul screamed in pain as a billion Lightning Needles stabbed through him using a Taotie''s power, making all the injuries permanent, instantly pushing him over a critical stage. After all, with his power stolen, he was weak while Krune grew stronger, raising the gap between them. Moreover, he kicked things up a notch by further increasing the Champion state''s beam of energy, forcing his body to crumble faster. But in exchange, his power rose up even further. "You damn¡­ suicidal bastard!" Turmul screamed in shock as fear set in his heart, realizing that he wasn''t able to win. ''If only I have enough time to digest all my gains!'' He thought in regret, turning his tail to run away. Unfortunately, he was already within Krune''s body. Boom! Turmul slammed into the inner walls of Krune''s body, cracking it up as he broke out time and again. However, mysterious chains streamed out of his body and wrapped around Turmul, dragging him back into Krune''s body. Every time this happened, Krune lost a portion of himself. Body, mind, soul, memories, a part of himself died every time Turmul strove to break free. After all, his attacks targeted everything in existence, killing Krune little by little every time. But, Krune didn''t let up, continuing to persist in the attacks as he devoured Turmul, not wasting any chance. Initially, he was a silly wisp that only wished to survive, later gaining friends, family, and people to protect, people who relied on him. Eventually, it expanded to a continent, followed by a supercontinent, realm, realm cluster, and now, the fate of everything rested in his hands. The weight was overwhelming, enough to crush him multiple times under the load. But, his tiny frame held it as firmly as possible, not because he was strong, but because he had no other choice but to take the helm and see it through to the end. "Turia, connect me to Feifei," Krune said all of a sudden, contacting the Universe Realm through their connection as a Champion. Turia did as told, transmitting the contents to Feifei through a Mental Energy stream as his voice resounded in her mind. "I''ve been afraid, Feifei, afraid that I would lose you and everyone else. I haven''t even talked much with you in the last ten thousand years. I was just¡­ scared." His voice resounded as tears streamed out of Feifei, "I''m sorry for not being with you longer. But, even if I''m not with you, I''m sure you''ll remain strong. Remember when in the Mountain Sect you wanted to bring our family to the God Realm?" "I''ve made arrangements through Kulla already. She''ll bring them all the moment you give the order. They''ll accompany you for the rest of your life." His tone turned sad before chuckling after a moment. "Even though I won''t be there with you, I''ll be watching over you from the Graveyard of Gods. So¡­" "Don''t become cranky, alright?" "Bastard¡­!" Feifei trembled in sadness, tears streaming out of her eyes as she gazed through Turia, of Krune''s final moments, muttering with clenched fists, "I''m alone¡­ Krune." "Don''t leave me." "Keuk!" Krune was unable to control his tears any longer, but no more. He steeled himself, pulling Turmul into his body once again as suddenly, a rainbow-colored Wisp Core appeared before Turmul, pulsating with a strangely calm energy. "You know¡­ only now do I understand why wisps are like this. Sadly, my race''s pinnacle moments are short-lived." Krune''s voice resounded from the rainbow-colored Wisp Core. "The best shield is one that devours the attacks directed at it and turns it into an elixir to further its growth." "W-What? What do you mean? It doesn''t make sense." Turmul stammered, feeling a terrifying sense of foreboding as suddenly, his entire body began to be sucked into the Wisp Core. He gritted his teeth. "I won''t be eaten up by you, dammit. If I cannot win, I''ll destroy everything!" Immediately after, his entire body shrunk into a rice-sized grain, exploding into a storm capable of consuming the Greater Universe itself. Spark! Through Gegrafikan, Turmul obtained this as well. But in response, the realm-sized wisp only sighed as the rainbow Wisp Core pulsed, and the entire ethereal body vanished. A crack formed on the Wisp Core that revealed a mouth that clamped upon the rice-sized grain as a terrifying explosion resounded within. The resulting shockwaves alone cracked the Universe Realm''s barrier, even though the entirety of the energy was contained within the Wisp Core. The Kun Peng Chief arrived at the scene, staring at the rainbow Wisp Core losing all signs of life but rapidly consuming Turmul''s entire existence, refining it into a power suitable for the Universe Realm to consume and grow even further. He stared in shock, recalling the face made by Zule''s grandfather moments before his death, a maniacal calmness of a gambler that put everything on a minuscule chance. His voice strangely trembled as he uttered, staring at the mystical entity before that that, for the first time in his infinitely long life, he was unsure about, feeling fear. "I-Is¡­ I-Is that a¡­" "Wisp?" Chapter 1580 The End Chapter 1580 The End Turmul was entirely devoured. Krune was dead as well. And now, hovering in the void, was a tiny object, one that was once a Wisp Core. Now, it was just an essence, one concentrated with all the powers Turmul obtained, possessed, and wielded. Now, they had been refined into an elixir that, upon consumption, would allow the Universe Realm to grow more and even surpass the authority of the Eight Chiefs. Upon realizing that, the Kun Peng Chief broke out of his stupor, bellowing as his figure rushed forth. "Don''t allow that Wisp Core to fall in the hands of the Gods!" At his words, all eight Chiefs rushed at the Wisp Core as a flash of lightning blazed past, accompanied by a beaming trail of energy supported by the Universe Realm. It resembled a fish, sporting feathers all over its body in place of skin, streamlined, expressing an aura of peace. On its front was a long bone shaped like a needle. It was the Thundercloud Whale, Little Krune''s physical form. For a moment, the killing intent of the eight Chiefs subsided as a semblance of peace funneled its way into their minds. Using this chance, Little Krune appeared before the Wisp Core and gobbled it up. "I won''t waste your sacrifice, Krune." "Catch him!" The Kun Peng Chief roared, condensing a realm to trap Little Krune within, intending to create a large enough space that would contain him for a couple of seconds, enough for the other Chiefs to gang up on him. Lightning Needle! Right as the realm formed, the Lightning Needle pierced through the Realm Core, poking a hole through the realm''s defenses through which Little Krune slipped out, escaping away. But suddenly, he felt his movements had turned alarmingly slow, noticing the four Directions taking action, rapidly expanding the space he was at. ''Dammit!'' Little Krune swerved around, traveling at his fastest speed, tensed to see the three other Chiefs gradually beginning to encircle him. In the meantime, the Taotie Chief grinned as he appeared before the Universe Realm, staring at a location where it had cracked due to the exchange between Krune and Turmul. He opened his mouth and unleashed a breath attack, piercing through the barrier to slam it into the God Realm, killing billions upon billions of cultivators. Swoosh! The Tiangou Chief opened his mouth, rapidly absorbing the life force and souls of all the cultivators that died just now. While moving to trap Little Krune, the Qilin Chief began to siphon all the Godly Energy being generated in the Universe Realm, causing the beam of energy to fuel Little Krune''s Champion state to rapidly thin out. ''There''s only one option left now.'' Little Krune thought, taking in a deep breath as the Soul Needle flashed into life as the power of Godly Inhibition took effect within it. Originally, when Krune became a God, he was able to create all nine towers of the Godly Inhibition Tower. But now, after becoming the True Wisp God, his power was upgraded. Little Krune was just another Krune in the shape of the Thundercloud Whale. After a moment of thought, he sacrificed the Soul Needle, grunting in pain as his soul was ripped apart in shreds, for he was truly sacrificing it this time to unleash its strongest form, the tenth floor. Soul Needle¡ªGodly Inhibition Tower! Boom! A mystical tower appeared in the endless void, sporting ten floors as each floor split, appearing around a Chief each before they rearranged into a tower. For a moment, all their energies were inhibited, preventing the Chiefs from taking action. And using the chance, Little Krune exploded with all his strength, making a beeline towards the Universe Realm. Roar! The Kun Peng Chief burst out of the Godly Inhibition Tower, giving chase as he was faster than the injured Little Krune. A million kilometers¡­ ten thousand kilometers¡­ one kilometer¡­! Little Krune fainted as he exploded with all his strength, exhausting himself as he rushed through the hole created by the Taotie Chief, barely slipping through the Kun Peng Chief''s grasp. Turia hurriedly extracted the Wisp Core from Little Krune and swallowed it. The Kun Peng Chief rushed into the Universe Realm when suddenly, an ethereal fist slammed into him, sending him flying out. The other Chiefs managed to break free by now as they arrived beside the Kun Peng Chief, staring in shock as nine Gods appeared before the injured Little Krune that woke up with a start. They weren''t there physically but had cast their projections. "If the Chiefs dare, come fight me. I''ve been waiting for this day since the first generation," The 1st Generation God King stated coldly, having been the one to punch the Kun Peng Chief. The dent on the Kun Peng Chief''s face had yet to heal as he stared at the God Kings from the first to seventh generation, all standing side by side, possessing power on par with the Chiefs. This was not to mention the figures of Krune and Mon-Tu-Casha, that had died recently. Now, after Turia devoured the Wisp Core, these God Kings were able to transmit their power from the Graveyard of Gods to protect the Universe Realm from harm. There were eight Chiefs, but in contrast, there were nine God Kings, not to mention the injured Little Krune, whose injuries were surprisingly starting to heal, shocking the Taotie Chief. "Your laws are no longer absolute," Krune stated as his figure vanished. "From today onwards, the Universe Realm is an autonomous entity, independent of the Chiefs'' influence." Mon-Tu-Casha waved her hand, healing the destroyed barrier of the Universe Realm as the projections of all the God Kings disappeared one after another, unable to maintain themselves any longer. They didn''t have enough energy to project themselves and hence had to put on a strong front. Otherwise, they would have ganged up on the Chiefs. However, unaware of this fact, the eight Chiefs sensed a terrifying energy looming within the Universe Realm that was constantly growing in intensity. They were all silent, feeling like they had been slapped by Zule nonstop. "He attained what he wanted in the end." The Kun Peng Chief sighed before flying away. "I''m exhausted. I''ll be leaving¡­" He had yet to finish his sentence when suddenly, the entirety of the spatial storm of the Greater Universe flashed past him, shocking him as it seeped into the Universe Realm. And now, the Greater Universe was a barren void, left without a speck of energy as the eight Chiefs stared at the Universe Realm that had become incomparably stronger. "It''s no longer the era of the Primordial Beasts." Zule''s statement echoed in their minds as the eight Chiefs felt another vicious slap on their faces. And now, even if they wished to do something, they had lost the initiative already. The enemy had surpassed them already! Defeated, the Primordial Beasts moved to one of the far corners of the Greater Universe, no longer daring to approach the Universe Realm. ¡­ "It''s¡­ over?" Little Krune teared up, crying a river as he slumped in exhaustion. There was no joy on the faces of anyone, for the losses were just too many. Large swathes of the God Realm were full of void, the region destroyed by the Taotie''s attacks. It would take them a long time before the damage was entirely healed. Until then, he still had his work cut out for him. "But first¡­" Little Krune arrived at the Turia Continent, shedding his Thundercloud Whale form as he took on a wisp form, flying over the home region of the wisps, staring at the water slides with a look of nostalgia before his figure gently landed on them. "¡­" "¡­" He closed his eyes, crying in relief for protecting his home successfully. And with that, his shoulders finally felt freedom from the burden that he had been shouldering all along. And a year later¡­ "Wheeeee!" The End!